Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Faculty Attitudes About Caring for People Living With HIV/AIDS: A Comparative Study.

BACKGROUND People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) experience stigma and discrimination. Negative attitudes of nursing faculty about caring for PLHIV can adversely affect student perceptions and their nursing care. The study purpose was to describe nursing faculty attitudes and beliefs about caring for PLHIV. METHOD The HPASS (Healthcare Provider HIV/AIDS Stigma Scale), Spanish version, was delivered to nursing faculty in Colombia and Peru. RESULTS The HPASS was completed by 98 nursing faculty. The overall mean score was 2.41 (SD = 0.69), with subscale scores: stereotypes, 2.55 (SD = 0.84); discrimination, 2.28 (SD = 0.74); and prejudices, 2.41 (SD = 0.63). Peruvian faculty had the highest scores, statistically correlated with the importance of religion, whereas Colombia had the lowest. CONCLUSION Nursing faculty attitudes toward PLHIV were slightly positive in Colombia to slightly negative in Peru; however, both countries had negative stereotypes. Knowledge deficiencies about HIV persist and attitudes appear to be influenced by culture and religion. [J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(12):712-717. ].
Combination stiffness gradient with chemical stimulation directs glioma cells migration on microfluidic chip.

Tumor cells response actively to the extracellular microenvironment via biomechanical and biochemical stimulation. Micro-chip provides a flexible platform to integrate multifactors for cell research. In this work, we developed a subtle microfluidic chip that can generate controllable stiffness gradient and orthogonal chemical stimulation to study the behaviors of glioma cells. Fibronectin-conjugated polyacrylamide (PAA) hydrogel with longitudinal stiffness gradient ranging from about 1kPa to 40 kPa is integrated within the cell culture chamber while the lateral diffusion-based chemical stimulation is generated through the circumambient microchannel arrays. The synergistic effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation and hydrogel stiffness gradient on U87-MG cells migration was studied. By tracing cells migration, we discovered that the hydro-gel stiffness can promote cell chemotaxis, while EGF gradient can accelerate the cell migration. In addition, the cell mor-phology showed typical cell spreading, increased aspect ratios and decreased circularity in response to stiffer substrate and plateaued at a certain stiffness level. Meanwhile, the content of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) on the hydrogel soft end enhances by approximately 2 fold than that on the hydrogel stiff end. The enhancement of substrate stiffness on cells chemotaxis is very significant for in vitro model simulation and tissue engineering.
Programing AAC just-in-time for beginning communicators: the process

Abstract Individuals who have limited or no speech as a result of intellectual and developmental disabilities and who are beginning communicators (i.e., are learning early linguistic skills such as first words and early semantic relations) require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to build both their expressive communication and their internal language structures. Programing AAC just-in-time is a promising clinical approach to intervention for beginning communicators because of its alignment with early language development theory. Early research efforts also provide emerging evidence to support its theoretical benefits. This paper describes a six-step process for programing AAC content just-in-time for beginning communicators. It highlights clinical challenges and considerations for each step, provides case examples of using the process with beginning communicators, and highlights potential limitations and future research directions related to the just-in-time programing of AAC for beginning communicators.
Ceramide subclasses identified as novel lipid biomarker elevated in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a pilot study employing shotgun lipidomics

Abstract This study aimed to identify potential lipid biomarkers in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and determine their predictive value for PCOS. Eighteen women with PCOS and 17 healthy controls were enrolled. A multi-dimensional mass spectrometry-based shotgun lipidomics approach was employed to analyze serum lipid profiles. Shotgun lipidomics revealed that the concentrations of ceramide (Cer) and phosphatidylcholine (PC) were higher (PC: 831.6 ± 217.4 vs. 605.2 ± 164.2 μmol/l; Cer: 3,387.6 ± 829.9 vs. 2,552.2 ± 679.4 nmol/l, respectively), whereas that of lysophosphatidylcholine was lower, in PCOS women than in healthy controls (82.02 ± 39.49 vs. 133.62 ± 65.36 μmol/l, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the combination of Cer (OH_N16:0/N18:0) and Cer (N22:0) had the greatest discriminatory power to differentiate between women with and without PCOS (area under the curve: 0.889, 95% confidence interval: 0.784–0.994). These results indicate that the combination of Cer (OH_N16:0/N18:0) and Cer (N22:0) may represent a novel lipid predictor of PCOS.
Development of Korean Neuropathic Pain Questionnaire for Neuropathic Pain Screening and Grading: A Pilot Study

Background: The pain-screening questionnaire is a self-reported description of the intensity and nature of pain. This study aimed to develop the Korean Neuropathic Pain Questionnaire (KNPQ) and to assess its reliability and validity regarding the diagnosis of neuropathic pain. Methods: Four screening tools and two rating scales were translated and modified to develop the preliminary KNPQ. Following a development phase and a pilot study, we generated the final 25-item version of the KNPQ. Each item was rated on a numerical scale of 0-10. The validation procedure was performed in 62 patients with neuropathic pain (21 with central pain and 41 with peripheral pain) and in 34 patients with nonneuropathic pain. The internal consistency between items was assessed to determine the reliability of the KNPQ, and its concurrent validity was determined by evaluating the relationship between the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and KNPQ scores. Results: The KNPQ was not influenced by age, sex, or pain duration. The 25-item questionnaire demonstrated high internal consistency. The total score of the KNPQ was correlated with the global pain intensity on a VAS. These items were able to differentiate neuropathic pain from nonneuropathic pain with a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 44% (when using a cut-off point of 46). Conclusions: The newly developed KNPQ may be used for the initial screening of neuropathic pain patients. However, it cannot be used to differentiate central neuropathic pain from peripheral neuropathic pain. J Korean Neurol Assoc 30(1):15-25, 2012
Therapeutic and preventive properties of honey and its bioactive compounds in cancer: an evidence-based review

Abstract Despite the much improved therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment that have been developed over the past 50 years, cancer remains a major cause of mortality globally. Considerable epidemiological and experimental evidence has demonstrated an association between ingestion of food and nutrients with either an increased risk for cancer or its prevention. There is rising interest in exploring agents derived from natural products for chemoprevention or for therapeutic purposes. Honey is rich in nutritional and non-nutritional bioactive compounds, as well as in natural antioxidants, and its potential beneficial function in human health is becoming more evident. A large number of studies have addressed the anti-cancer effects of different types of honey and their phenolic compounds using in vitro and in vivo cancer models. The reported findings affirm that honey is an agent able to modulate oxidative stress and has anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulatory and anti-metastatic properties. However, despite its reported anti-cancer activities, very few clinical studies have been undertaken. In the present review, we summarise the findings from different experimental approaches, including in vitro cell cultures, preclinical animal models and clinical studies, and provide an overview of the bioactive profile and bioavailability of the most commonly studied honey types, with special emphasis on the chemopreventive and therapeutic properties of honey and its major phenolic compounds in cancer. The implications of these findings as well as the future prospects of utilising honey to fight cancer will be discussed.
The effectiveness of acupuncture for pain reduction in delayed-onset muscle soreness: a systematic review

Objective: The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature on acupuncture for delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and report upon study quality and treatment outcomes. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Searches were conducted in the following electronic databases from their inception to 31 March 2018: CINAHL, MEDLINE, Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED) and SPORTDiscus. Reference lists of all included studies and relevant reviews were hand-searched for additional studies. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture in DOMS in adults measuring the pre-specified primary outcome (pain) were included. Data collection and analysis: Data were extracted using pre-defined extraction forms and the Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) checklist. Quality of studies was evaluated based on the Cochrane risk of bias assessment. Results: Five RCTs investigating laboratory-induced DOMS in the upper limbs with a total sample size of 182 healthy participants were included. Of the included studies, three reported superiority of acupuncture over no treatment in DOMS pain reduction as measured by visual analogue scale, pressure pain threshold or electrical pain threshold, while two studies yielded non-significant results. All studies demonstrated risk of bias in one or more areas, commonly lack of blinding of participants and personnel. Summary/conclusion: There is conflicting to limited evidence to support the effects of acupuncture on the relief of pain associated with DOMS. The findings were confounded by methodological limitations and reporting insufficiency. More rigorous, high-quality, and well-reported RCTs are required to further evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture for DOMS.
Effectiveness of anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy in patients with tuberculosis relapse compared with newly diagnosed patients

Background: To study the effectiveness of antituberculosis chemotherapy in patients with relapse pulmonary tuberculosis (RTB) compared with patients with the newly diagnosed process. Methods: We examined 285 TB patients, including 126 individuals with RTB (Group 1) and 159 patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis (NDPTB) (Group 2). All patients were diagnosed with infiltrative PTB. Effectiveness of the basic course of antimycobacterial treatment was assessed in accordance with the following data: time required for the normalization of clinical manifestations, smear conversion, cavity healing, disappearance of infiltrative and focal changes in the pulmonary tissue, as well as the final clinical effectiveness of therapy. Results: Disappearance of clinical symptoms was statistically significantly faster in Group 2 compared with RTB patients in 2.25 ± 0.11 and 3.40 ± 0.15 months, respectively (P < 0.001). Sputum culture conversion was observed after 6 months of treatment in 138 (86.79%) patients with NDPTB and 89 (72.22%) patients from Group 1 (P = 0.0023). Closure of cavities and disappearance of infiltrative and focal changes in the lungs occurred within 6 months of chemotherapy only in 55 (43.65%) patients with RTB and 93 (58.49%) patients with NDPTB (P = 0.0133). Conclusions: Standard treatment for patients with NDPTB is considered successful in case of faster health improvement and stabilization, less pronounced rates of toxic adverse reactions to antiTB drugs, faster sputum smear and culture conversion and cavity healing, signs of clinical and radiological convalescence, and the reduced number of large residual changes after the treatment compared with RTB.
Socioeconomic Determinants of Health: An Adult Population Based Study in Shiraz, Southern Iran

Background: Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now the most important causes of mortality and morbidity in Iran. Objectives: Therefore, knowing about NCDs status and its socioeconomic determinants are the cornerstone for the interventions that policymakers and health providers apply to improve the health of community. This research includes a full exploration of the relevant data. Patients and Methods: This was a population-based cluster randomized sampling carried out in Shiraz, Iran. In this regard, demographic, socioeconomic status, and medical history of adult participants (at least 18 year old) were collected. In the next step, physical examination and anthropometric data were taken. Finally, fasting blood glucose (FBS), lipid profile, and complete blood count (CBC) measurement were done. Results: Overall, 777 participants, mean age of 42.6 ± 13.8 (ranging from 18 to 88) year, were included in this study while female (451; 58%), middle-aged (203; 26.1%), married (653; 84%), and those with up to 12 years of education (470; 60.5%) were the majorities. Among the participants, 453 (58.3%) were among overweight to severely obese groups, 441 (56.7%) did not have physical activity, 148 (19.3%) were smokers, 280 (36%) had hypercholesterolemia, 239 (30.8%) had hypertriglyceridemia, 54 (6.9%) had high LDL, 93 (11.9%) had low HDL, and 49 (6.3%) were anemic. Women had significantly lower height (P < 0.001), weight (P < 0.001), and waist circumference (P < 0.001), but higher BMI (P < 0.001) compared to those parameters in men. Of total participants, 240 (30.9%) had prehypertension, 62 (8.0%) had stage I hypertension, and 16 (2.1%) had stage II hypertension. Overall, 76 (9.8%) subjects had hypertension, while most of them (57; 75%) were aware of their disease and consumed antihypertensive drugs. Of 777 participants, 148 (19.1%) had impaired glucose tolerance test and 51 (6.5%) were diabetic. However, 46 (5.9%) were aware of their disease and only 35 (4.5%) consumed glucose lowering agents to control plasma glucose. Those with fewer years of education had significantly higher prevalence of obesity (P = 0.001), hypertension (P < 0.001), and DM (P = 0.02). Conclusions: At least 1 out of 2 adult people in Shiraz does not have physical activity and has high BMI, while 1 out of 3 has at least one abnormal components in their lipid profile. Prediabetes, hypertensive, and diabetic groups comprised a significant portion of population. Among different groups, women and less educated people belonged to the high risk groups. Therefore a multidisciplinary approach is needed to control this event, especially in high risk population.
Multiuser-MIMO systems employing a broadcasting protocol under equally correlated generalised-Rician fading for even degrees of freedom

Using an opportunistic transmission protocol in which users contend for transmission to a base station under equal-correlated generalised-Rician fading, new single-integral selection combiner output cumulative distribution functions (cdfs) of multivariate equal-correlated generalised-Rician fading for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output systems, and even degrees of freedom with multiple transmit and receive antennas per user are obtained in this study. Corresponding infinite-summation cdfs of multivariate equal-correlated generalised-Rician fading are obtained. Cross-verification is mathematically performed to validate the proposed findings. The new findings provide a useful mathematical framework to assess performance of wireless networks under equal-correlated generalised-Rician fading environments. The effectiveness of the new findings is exemplified by computing average bit error rates for the binary phase-shift keying scheme under equal-correlated generalised-Rician fading, and plotted against (i) a common average branch normalised signal-to-noise ratio, (ii) line-of-sight power, (iii) an even number of independently and identically distributed underlying Gaussian random variables, (iv) a total number of transmit antennas, and (v) a total number of receive antennas. Simulation results are shown to exactly match numerical simulation. Detailed discussions are given.
Water movement through lipid bilayers, pores, and plasma membranes : theory and reality

THEORY: Osmotic Equilibrium Osmotic Transport (Osmosis) Induced by an Impermeant Solute Tracer Diffusion of Water Single-file Transport Osmotic Transport (Osmosis) LIPID BILAYER MEMBRANES: The Unmodified Membrane Nystatin an Amphotericin B. Gramicidin A PLASMA MEMBRANES: General Considerations The Red Cell Membrane Epithelia: Antidiuretic Hormone (ADH)-Induced Water Permeability Index.
Normalized Vowel Duration Enhanced RNN Prosodic Phrase Detection Model

The automatic detection of intonation phrases is an important part of the study of prosody. Features for the detection of prosodic phrases are often extracted at word-level that ignore the internal structure of the word, resulting in low detection accuracy. The present paper describes a recurrent neural network (RNN) prosodic phrase detection model developed with the purpose of exploring the influence of the normalized vowel duration on the performance of detection model, and introduces a scale factor for compensating the normalized duration to account for variations in speaking rate. Experimental results show that the difference in the average normalized vowel duration of different levels of prosodic phrases is evident, and the F-scores of detection results of intonational phrases and intermediate phrases based on RNN are increased by 2.8% and 4.9% respectively after adding the feature of normalized vowel duration.
Face recognition and memory in congenital amusia

Congenital amusia, commonly known as tone deafness, is a lifelong impairment of music perception and production. It remains a question of debate whether the impairments in musical domain observed in congenital amusia are paralleled in other non-musical perceptual abilities. Using behavioral measures in two experiments, the current study explored face perception and memory in congenital amusics. Both congenital amusics and matched controls performed a face perception task (Experiment 1) and an old/novel object memory task (for both faces and houses, Experiment 2). The results showed that the congenital amusic group had significantly slower reaction times than that in matched control group when identifying whether two faces presented together were the same or different. For different face-pairs, the deficit was greater for upright faces compared with inverted faces. For object memory task, the congenital amusic group also showed worse memory performance than the control group. The results of the present study suggest that the impairment attributed to congenital amusia is not only limited to music, but also extends to visual perception and visual memory domain.
Endovascular Treatment of the Ascending Aorta: is this the Last Frontier in Aortic Surgery?

Regardless the successful treatment of the descending aorta with endovascular prosthesis, for the ascending aorta segment, because of several anatomic and physiologic issues, this technique has been considered an alternative only for high-risk or inoperable patients. Despite restricted indications, hundreds of treatments have been performed worldwide, demonstrating its safety and reproducibility if it is done in high-quality centers. Therefore, understanding patients’ selection criteria and technique limitations are critical to its application.
A Benchmark Study of Ground State Raman Spectra in Conjugated Molecules.

In this work, we compare calculated and experimental off-resonance Raman spectra for a series of substituted benzene and thiophene derivatives in the ground state. We benchmark a variety of approximate density functionals following the "Jacob's Ladder" hierarchy of chemical accuracy, as well as second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory. The Raman calculations at all levels of theory consistently overestimate the intensities of high-frequency vibrations relative to the lower frequency region of the spectrum. Although all methods provide comparable estimates of relative intensities for all compounds, the hybrid B3LYP and TPSSh functionals perform 5-19% better than the other methods in terms of mean unsigned error, and 2-24% better in the standard deviation of the error. Both functionals also give band positions accurate to within about ±10 cm-1 of the experimental frequencies.
Nanocrystal segmentation in scanning precession electron diffraction data.

Scanning precession electron diffraction (SPED) enables the local crystallography of materials to be probed on the nanoscale by recording a two-dimensional PED pattern at every probe position as a dynamically rocking electron beam is scanned across the specimen. SPED data from nanocrystalline materials commonly contain some PED patterns in which diffraction is measured from multiple crystals. To analyse such data, it is important to perform nanocrystal segmentation to isolate both the location of each crystal and a corresponding representative diffraction signal. This also reduces data dimensionality significantly. Here, two approaches to nanocrystal segmentation are presented, the first based on virtual dark-field imaging and the second on non-negative matrix factorisation. Relative merits and limitations are compared in application to SPED data obtained from partly overlapping nanoparticles, and particular challenges are highlighted associated with crystals exciting the same diffraction conditions. It is demonstrated that both strategies can be used for nanocrystal segmentation without prior knowledge of the crystal structures present, but also that segmentation artefacts can arise and must be considered carefully. The analysis workflows associated with this work are provided open-source. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Inhibiting Fungal Echinocandin Resistance by Small-Molecule Disruption of Geranylgeranyltransferase Type I Activity

Echinocandin resistance in Candida is a great concern, as the echinocandin drugs are recommended as first-line therapy for patients with invasive candidiasis. However, therapeutic efforts to thwart echinocandin resistance have been hampered by a lack of fungal specific drug targets. ABSTRACT Echinocandin resistance in Candida is a great concern, as the echinocandin drugs are recommended as first-line therapy for patients with invasive candidiasis. However, therapeutic efforts to thwart echinocandin resistance have been hampered by a lack of fungal specific drug targets. Here, we show that deleting CDC43, the β subunit of geranylgeranyltransferase type I (GGTase I), confers hypersensitivity to echinocandins, which renders GGTase I a tractable target in combatting echinocandin resistance. The membrane localization of Rho1, which is critical for (1,3)-β-d-glucan synthase Fks1 activation, is disrupted in the cdc43 mutant, resulting in decreased amounts of glucans in the cell wall, thereby exacerbating the cell wall stress upon caspofungin addition. Guided by this insight, we found that selective chemical inhibition of GGTase I by L-269289 potentiates echinocandin activity and renders echinocandin-resistant Candida albicans responsive to treatment in vitro and in animal models for disseminated infection. Furthermore, L-269289 and echinocandins also act in a synergistic manner for the treatment of Candida tropicalis and Candida parapsilosis. Importantly, deletion of CDC43 is lethal in Candida glabrata. L-269289 is active on its own to kill C. glabrata, and its fungicidal activity is enhanced when combined with caspofungin. Thus, targeting GGTase I has therapeutic potential to address the clinical challenge of echinocandin-resistant candidiasis.