Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How physiotherapists perceive, interpret, and respond to the ethical dimensions of practice: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT The profile and reach of physiotherapy has expanded in areas of extended scope of practice, and broader engagement with population needs beyond the individual treatment encounter. These changes raise increasingly complex ethical challenges evidenced by growth in physiotherapy-based ethics studies and discussions. This paper examines how a broad cross section of Australian physiotherapists perceive, interpret, and respond to ethical challenges in their work contexts and how professional codes of conduct are used in their practice. Using an interpretive qualitative methodology, purposive sampling of 88 members of national clinical special interest groups were recruited for focus group discussions. Narrative-based and thematic data analysis identified ethical challenges as emerging from specific clinical contexts, and influenced by health organizations, funding policies, workplace relationships, and individually held perspectives. Five themes were developed to represent these findings: (1) the working environment, (2) balancing diverse needs and expectation, (3) defining ethics, (4) striving to act ethically, and (5) talking about ethics. The results portray a diverse and complex ethical landscape where therapists encounter and grapple with ethical questions emerging from the impact of funding models and policies affecting clinical work, expanding boundaries and scope of practice and changing professional roles and relationships. Codes of conduct were described as foundational ethical knowledge but not always helpful for “in the moment” ethical decision-making. Based on this research, we suggest how codes of conduct, educators, and professional associations could cultivate and nurture ethics capability in physiotherapy practitioners for these contemporary challenges.
An Efficient Method to Transform SAT problems to Binary Integer Linear Programming Problem

In computational complexity theory, a decision problem is NP-complete when it is both in NP and NP-hard. Although a solution to a NP-complete can be verified quickly, there is no known algorithm to solve it in polynomial time. There exists a method to reduce a SAT (Satifiability) problem to Subset Sum Problem (SSP) in the literature, however, it can only be applied to small or medium size problems. Our study is to find an efficient method to transform a SAT problem to a mixed integer linear programming problem in larger size. Observing the feature of variable-clauses constraints in SAT, we apply linear inequality model (LIM) to the problem and propose a method called LIMSAT. The new method can work efficiently for very large size problem with thousands of variables and clauses in SAT tested using up-to-date benchmarks.
Randomized open-label trial of baclofen for relapse prevention in alcohol dependence

ABSTRACT Background: Alcohol dependence is a progressive chronic disorder characterized by narrowing of the drinking repertoire, salience of drinking, tolerance and withdrawal phenomenon, compulsion to drink, and frequent relapses. Baclofen has been shown to promote abstinence, to reduce craving, and to reduce anxiety in alcohol-dependent individuals, and it promises to be a useful agent, although clinical data are limited at present. Objective: The current study aimed to test the utility of baclofen, a GABA agonist, in improving the relapse rates in alcohol-dependent subjects. Methods: A total of 122 alcohol-dependent subjects were randomized into two groups. Groups were administered baclofen (30 mg/day) or benfothiamine (a nutritional supplement) using an open label design. Both groups received brief motivational intervention. Subjects were assessed at 0, 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks for the primary outcome measures: time to first relapse, heavy drinking days, cumulative abstinence duration, and craving (measured by the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS)). Results: Seventy-two participants received baclofen, and 50 received benfothiamine. Participants receiving baclofen remained abstinent for significantly more days than the benfothiamine group (p < 0.05). The percentage of heavy drinking days was significantly lower in the baclofen group (p = 0.001). Craving and anxiety scores (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale) were also significantly decreased in the baclofen group relative to the control group (p = 0.001). Time to first relapse was similar in both groups. Conclusion: In this open-label trial, alcohol-dependent participants receiving baclofen showed significant improvements in drinking outcomes compared with participants receiving benfothiamine. This study provides further evidence that baclofen is useful for the treatment of alcohol dependence.
Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Using Azadirachta indica Leaf Extract and their Anti-Fungal Activity against Malassezia species

Fungal skin infections are caused by different types of fungi among these Malassezia species is the common cause of the dermatitis in human and animals. In the present study, the skin scraping samples were collected from human and dog. The samples were inoculated into Saboraud and potato dextrose broth to achieve the fungal growth. The fungal species were isolated and characterized by colony morphology, potassium hydroxide (KOH) and lacto phenol cotton blue staining. Genomic DNA was isolated and the 28S rRNA was amplified from fungal species using the universal primers and the amplified PCR products were subjected to sequencing. The sequence analysis of 28S rRNA reveals that two sequences were similar to Malassezia globosa and one sequence is similar to Malassezia pachydermatis which causes dermatitis in human and dog, respectively. Further study was carried out to assess the antifungal activity of the silver nanoparticles synthesized through green synthesis using Azadirachta indica leaf extract and characterized by UV-Visible spectrophotometer, Transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-Ray diffraction spectrophotometer (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). The characterized silver nanoparticles inhibit the growth of Malassezia species by forming zone of clearance. This study suggests that the silver nanoparticles could be an alternative to treat the fungal infections.
Crystal structure and dynamics of a lipid-induced potential desensitized-state of a pentameric ligand-gated channel

Desensitization in pentameric ligand-gated ion channels plays an important role in regulating neuronal excitability. Here, we show that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a key ω−3 polyunsaturated fatty acid in synaptic membranes, enhances the agonist-induced transition to the desensitized state in the prokaryotic channel GLIC. We determined a 3.25 Å crystal structure of the GLIC-DHA complex in a potentially desensitized conformation. The DHA molecule is bound at the channel-periphery near the M4 helix and exerts a long-range allosteric effect on the pore across domain-interfaces. In this previously unobserved conformation, the extracellular-half of the pore-lining M2 is splayed open, reminiscent of the open conformation, while the intracellular-half is constricted, leading to a loss of both water and permeant ions. These findings, in combination with spin-labeling/EPR spectroscopic measurements in reconstituted-membranes, provide novel mechanistic details of desensitization in pentameric channels. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.23886. 001
The Cross-Cultural Dementia Screening (CCD): A new neuropsychological screening instrument for dementia in elderly immigrants

ABSTRACT Objective: Currently, approximately 3.9% of the European population are non-EU citizens, and a large part of these people are from “non-Western” societies, such as Turkey and Morocco. For various reasons, the incidence of dementia in this group is expected to increase. However, cognitive testing is challenging due to language barriers and low education and/or illiteracy. The newly developed Cross-Cultural Dementia Screening (CCD) can be administered without an interpreter. It contains three subtests that assess memory, mental speed, and executive function. We hypothesized the CCD to be a culture-fair test that could discriminate between demented patients and cognitively healthy controls. Method: To test this hypothesis, 54 patients who had probable dementia were recruited via memory clinics. Controls (N = 1625) were recruited via their general practitioners. All patients and controls were aged 55 years and older and of six different self-defined ethnicities (Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan-Arabic, Moroccan-Berber, Surinamese-Creole, and Surinamese-Hindustani). Exclusion criteria included current or previous conditions that affect cognitive functioning. Results: There were performance differences between the ethnic groups, but these disappeared after correcting for age and education differences between the groups, which supports our central hypothesis that the CCD is a culture-fair test. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) and logistic regression analyses showed that the CCD has high predictive validity for dementia (sensitivity: 85%; specificity: 89%). Discussion: The CCD is a sensitive and culture-fair neuropsychological instrument for dementia screening in low-educated immigrant populations.
Adult enteric nervous system in health is maintained by a dynamic balance between neuronal apoptosis and neurogenesis

Significance The demonstration of a robust neurogenesis program in the adult gut and the existence of an enteric neural precursor cell (ENPC) responsible for the same has profound biological and clinical implications. This demonstrates the presence of robust adult neurogenesis outside of the CNS, and indicates the vulnerability of the enteric nervous system to exogenous influences, even in adults. As an example, it is possible that acquired diseases of the enteric nervous system, such as achalasia, may result from a loss of ENPC, analogous to congenital disorders, such as Hirschsprung’s. The ability to identify the adult ENPC will therefore enable a new understanding of the pathogenesis of enteric neuromuscular diseases as well as the development of novel regenerative therapies. According to current dogma, there is little or no ongoing neurogenesis in the fully developed adult enteric nervous system. This lack of neurogenesis leaves unanswered the question of how enteric neuronal populations are maintained in adult guts, given previous reports of ongoing neuronal death. Here, we confirm that despite ongoing neuronal cell loss because of apoptosis in the myenteric ganglia of the adult small intestine, total myenteric neuronal numbers remain constant. This observed neuronal homeostasis is maintained by new neurons formed in vivo from dividing precursor cells that are located within myenteric ganglia and express both Nestin and p75NTR, but not the pan-glial marker Sox10. Mutation of the phosphatase and tensin homolog gene in this pool of adult precursors leads to an increase in enteric neuronal number, resulting in ganglioneuromatosis, modeling the corresponding disorder in humans. Taken together, our results show significant turnover and neurogenesis of adult enteric neurons and provide a paradigm for understanding the enteric nervous system in health and disease.
Assessment of P-Glycoprotein Transport Activity at the Human Blood–Retina Barrier with (R)‐11C-Verapamil PET

P-glycoprotein (ABCB1) is expressed at the blood–retina barrier (BRB), where it may control distribution of drugs from blood to the retina and thereby influence drug efficacy and toxicity. Methods: We performed PET scans with the ABCB1 substrate (R)-11C-verapamil on 5 healthy male volunteers without and with concurrent infusion of the ABCB1 inhibitor tariquidar. We estimated the rate constants for radiotracer transfer across the BRB (K1, k2) and total retinal distribution volume VT. Results: During ABCB1 inhibition, retinal VT and influx rate constant K1 were significantly, by 1.4 ± 0.5-fold and 1.5 ± 0.3-fold, increased compared with baseline. Retinal efflux rate constant k2 was significantly decreased by 2.8 ± 1.0-fold. Conclusion: We found a significant increase in (R)-11C-verapamil distribution to the retina during ABCB1 inhibition, which provides first in vivo evidence for ABCB1 transport activity at the human BRB. The increase in retinal distribution was approximately 2.5-fold less pronounced than previously reported for the blood–brain barrier.
Pure Strategies in Imperfect Information Stochastic Games

We consider imperfect information stochastic games where we require the players to use pure (i.e. non randomised) strategies. We consider reachability, safety, B\"uchi and co-B\"uchi objectives, and investigate the existence of almost-sure/positively winning strategies for the first player when the second player is perfectly informed or more informed than the first player. We obtain decidability results for positive reachability and almost-sure B\"uchi with optimal algorithms to decide existence of a pure winning strategy and to compute one if exists. We complete the picture by showing that positive safety is undecidable when restricting to pure strategies even if the second player is perfectly informed.
Featured Article: The ABCDs of Pain Management A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Impact of a Brief Educational Video on Infants’ and Toddlers’ Pain Scores and Parent Soothing Behavior

Objectives To test the efficacy of a brief behavioral pain management strategy (The ABCDs of Needle Pain Management), delivered via video, on infants' and toddlers' pain scores and on parental soothing behavior. Methods This was a double-blind, parallel trial design. Parent-child dyads (N = 128) were recruited before their child's 6-month (infant) or 18-month (toddler) vaccination in a pediatric clinic and randomly assigned to watch a 5-min treatment video or a placebo video. The primary outcome was the Modified Behavior Pain Scale (Taddio et al., Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 10, pp. 456-463, 1995), coded during four epochs (Pain Reactivity, Pain Regulation 1 min, Pain Regulation 2 min, and Pain Regulation 3 min) after the last vaccination needle. Secondary analyses examined parental use of distraction, rocking, and physical comforting over this same time period. Results Results demonstrated a treatment effect for toddlers (18-month-olds) for the Pain Regulation 1 (d = 0.84) and Pain Regulation 2 (d = 0.76) postvaccination scores. Secondary analyses found differences in parental rocking and physical comforting between treatment conditions and between age-groups (d's = 0.37-0.54). Conclusions The ABCD pain management strategy delivered via video was an effective way to reduce toddler pain after vaccination and increase parental use of rocking and physical comforting. The treatment effect was not demonstrated with infants.
Evolutionary Branching and Sympatric Speciation Caused by Different Types of Ecological Interactions

Evolutionary branching occurs when frequency‐dependent selection splits a phenotypically monomorphic population into two distinct phenotypic clusters. A prerequisite for evolutionary branching is that directional selection drives the population toward a fitness minimum in phenotype space. This article demonstrates that selection regimes leading to evolutionary branching readily arise from a wide variety of different ecological interactions within and between species. We use classical ecological models for symmetric and asymmetric competition, for mutualism, and for predator‐prey interactions to describe evolving populations with continuously varying characters. For these models, we investigate the ecological and evolutionary conditions that allow for evolutionary branching and establish that branching is a generic and robust phenomenon. Evolutionary branching becomes a model for sympatric speciation when population genetics and mating mechanisms are incorporated into ecological models. In sexual populations with random mating, the continual production of intermediate phenotypes from two incipient branches prevents evolutionary branching. In contrast, when mating is assortative for the ecological characters under study, evolutionary branching is possible in sexual populations and can lead to speciation. Therefore, we also study the evolution of assortative mating as a quantitative character. We show that evolution under branching conditions selects for assortativeness and thus allows sexual populations to escape from fitness minima. We conclude that evolutionary branching offers a general basis for understanding adaptive speciation and radiation under a wide range of different ecological conditions.
Isolation and characterization of the lower portion of the thin limb of Henle in primary culture.

To further characterize cells of the lower portion of the thin limb of Henle (TLHlp) under defined conditions in vitro, we developed a technique to enrich this cell population in suspension. TLHlp cells were isolated by enzymatic digestion of rat inner medulla, elimination of collecting ducts by lectin-coated beads, and differential centrifugation. Immunohistochemical staining of primary cultures of TLHlp cells with various markers revealed the preparations to be >90% pure. The hormonal stimulation pattern of PGE2 and cAMP production by arginine vasopressin, angiotensin II, and dopamine in the isolated cells also argued against significant contamination by other cell types. Staining with an antibody against the aquaporin-1 water channel showed the distribution of cells from the ascending and descending limbs to be approximately equal in the isolated population. This technique allows the enrichment of cells from the lower portion of the thin limb of Henle in suspension to a very high degree of purity with the option to start primary cultures. Because these segments of the tubular system in particular are relatively inaccessible for microdissection, the presented method renders the possibility of addressing new questions regarding these tubular segments under defined conditions in vitro.
Boosting-based transfer learning for multi-view head-pose classification from surveillance videos

This work proposes a boosting-based transfer learning approach for head-pose classification from multiple, low-resolution views. Head-pose classification performance is adversely affected when the source (training) and target (test) data arise from different distributions (due to change in face appearance, lighting, etc). Under such conditions, we employ Xferboost, a Logitboost-based transfer learning framework that integrates knowledge from a few labeled target samples with the source model to effectively minimize misclassifications on the target data. Experiments confirm that the Xferboost framework can improve classification performance by up to 6%, when knowledge is transferred between the CLEAR and FBK four-view headpose datasets.
Regulation of cGMP by soluble and particulate guanylyl cyclases in cultured human airway smooth muscle

Hamad, Ahmed M. , Simon Range, Elaine Holland, and Alan J. Knox. Regulation of cGMP by soluble and particulate guanylyl cyclases in cultured human airway smooth muscle. Am. J. Physiol. 273 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 17): L807–L813, 1997. —Although guanosine 38,58-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) acts as a relaxant second messenger, the regulation of intracellular cGMP has not been comprehensively studied in human airway smooth muscle. We studied the production of cGMP by cultured human airway smooth muscle cells (HASMC) after stimulation with activators of soluble guanylyl cyclase [sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP)] and particulate guanylyl cyclase [atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), and Escherichia coli heat stable enterotoxin (STa)]. cGMP was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Both SNP (1026 to 1023 M) and SNAP (1026 to 1023 M) caused concentration-dependent elevation of cGMP in the presence of the nonselective phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1methylxanthine (1023 M), with cGMP increasing 6and 15-fold in response to SNP and SNAP, respectively, at the highest concentration tested (1023 M). The increases in cGMP in response to SNP (5 3 1025 M) and SNAP (1025 M) were inhibited by hemoglobin (Hb; 5 3 1025 M), a nitric oxide scavenger, and methylene blue (MB; 5 3 1024 M), an inhibitor of guanylyl cyclase. cGMP accumulation after SNAP was abolished by both Hb and MB. The response to SNP was inhibited by 79% with Hb and was abolished with MB. ANP, BNP, and CNP (1029 to 1025 M) 1 phosphoramidon (1026 M) caused a concentration-dependent elevation in cGMP with an order of potency ANP . BNP . CNP. cGMP formation in the presence of the highest concentration of the most potent natriuretic peptide (1025 M ANP) was twoto threefold greater than with the highest concentration of SNAP. The increase in cGMP seen with natriuretic peptides was similar in the presence or absence of phosphoramidon, a neutral endopeptidase (NEP) inhibitor, suggesting that NEP is not playing a role in modulating the effect of natriuretic peptides in HASMC. STa (400 IU/ml) had no effect on cGMP levels. SNAPand ANP-induced cGMP accumulation was increased by the selective type V PDE inhibitors SKF-96231 and zaprinast, suggesting that type V PDE is responsible for cGMP breakdown in HASMC. These results suggest that cultured HASMC contain both soluble and particulate guanylyl cyclases. The order of potency of the natriuretic peptides ANP . BNP . CNP suggests that type A particulate membrane-bound guanylate cyclase predominates.
Design of memory efficient FIFO-based merge sorter

Sorting is an important operation used in various applications including image processing and databases. It represents a large portion of the total execution time of these applications. To improve the performance of sort operations, a dedicated hardware sorter can be used. When implemented in hardware, a FIFO-based merge sorters often shows excellent hardware resource utilization efficiency but requires high buffer memory usage. In this paper, we presents a cost-effective hardware architecture of a FIFO-based merge sorter. Our proposed architecture minimizes buffer memory requirement. We evaluate the design by implementing the architecture on an FPGA platform. FPGA synthesis results show that the proposed approach reduces the average flip-flop and LUT-RAM by 5% and 14%, respectively.
RGD‐mimic polyamidoamine–montmorillonite composites with tunable stiffness as scaffolds for bone tissue‐engineering applications

This paper reports on the development of montmorillonite (MMT)‐reinforced hydrogels, based on a peptidomimetic polyamidoamine carrying guanidine pendants (AGMA1), as substrates for the osteo‐induction of osteoblast precursor cells. AGMA1 hydrogels of various degrees of crosslinking responded favourably to MMT reinforcement, giving rise to composite hydrogels with shear storage modulus G′, when fully swollen in water, up to 200 kPa, i.e. 20 times higher than the virgin hydrogels and of the same order or higher than other hydrogel‐based composites proposed for orthopaedic applications. This significant improvement was ascribed to the effective interpenetration between the polymer matrix and the inorganic filler. AGMA1–MMT hydrogels, when evaluated as scaffolds for the osteogenic differentiation of mouse calvaria‐derived pre‐osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells, proved able to support cell adhesion and proliferation and clearly induced differentiation towards the osteoblastic phenotype, as indicated by different markers. In addition, AGMA1–MMT hydrogels proved completely degradable in aqueous media at pH 7.4 and did not provide any evidence of cytotoxicity. The experimental evidence suggests that AGMA1–MMT composites definitely warrant potential as scaffolds for osteoblast culture and bone grafts. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.