Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-technical health care quality and health system responsiveness in middle-income countries: a cross-sectional study in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa

Background While there is increasing recognition that the non-technical aspects of health care quality – particularly the inter-personal dimensions of care – are important components of health system performance, evidence from population-based studies on these outcomes in low- and middle-income countries is sparse. This study assesses these non-technical aspects of care using two measures: health system responsiveness (HSR), which quantifies the degree to which the health system meets the expectations of the population, and non-technical health care quality (QoC), for which we ‘filtered out’ these expectations. Pooling data from six large middle-income countries, this study therefore aimed to determine how HSR and QoC vary between countries and by individuals’ sociodemographic characteristics within countries. Methods We pooled individual-level data, collected between 2007 and 2010, from nationally representative household surveys of (primarily) adults aged 50 years and older in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. The outcome measure was a binary indicator for a ‘bad’ rating (HSR: “very bad” or “bad” on a five-point Likert scale; QoC: a worse rating of one’s own visit than that of the character in an anchoring vignette) on at least one of seven dimensions for the most recent primary care visit. Results 23 749 adults who reported to have sought primary care during the preceding 12 months were includedin the analysis. The proportion of participants who gave a bad rating for their last primary care visit on at least one of seven dimensions varied from 4.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.8-6.7) in China to 33.1% (95% CI = 23.6-44.2) in South Africa for HSR, and from 17.0% (95% CI = 11.4-24.5) in Russia to 50.8% (95% CI = 46.0-55.6) in Ghana for QoC. There was a strong negative association between increasing household wealth and both bad HSR and QoC in India and South Africa. Conclusions Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) with good-quality health services (“effective UHC”) will require efforts to improve HSR and QoC across the population in Ghana and South Africa. Additionally, a particular focus on raising HSR and QoC for the poorest population groups is needed in India and South Africa.
Evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on everyday memory in multiple sclerosis patients

ABSTRACT The aim was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation for everyday memory function in patients with multiple sclerosis. A total of 60 multiple sclerosis patients with cognitive impairment were randomly assigned to three groups, experimental, placebo and control. The groups were well matched in baseline characteristics. Everyday memory was assessed at baseline immediately post-intervention (8 weeks) and five weeks post-intervention. The experimental group received cognitive rehabilitation programme in 1-hour sessions on a weekly basis for 8 weeks. The placebo group received relaxation techniques on a weekly basis for eight weeks and the control group received no intervention. The results indicated that a cognitive rehabilitation programme had a positive effect on the everyday memory of patients in the experimental group post-intervention. However, there was no significant effect of intervention 5 weeks post-intervention. The present study demonstrated that cognitive rehabilitation had a positive effect on the everyday function of the multiple sclerosis patients. However, the effect did not last and that everyday memory function returned to its pre-intervention level.
Beyond blunts: reasons for cigarette and cigar use among African American young adult dual users

Abstract Background: African American young adults are at high risk for dual use of cigarettes and cigars. Limited work has explored and characterized the reasons for use in this population and their relative importance for initiation and current smoking of these products. Method: Reasons for cigarette and cigar use were systematically explored and categorized using a mixed methods participatory approach called concept mapping. A series of in-person group sessions were held with 30 African American young adult (ages 18–29) current smokers of both cigarettes and cigars in Prince George’s County, MD and Washington, DC. Participants brainstormed, sorted, rated, and interpreted their reasons for initiation and past 30-day use of cigarettes and cigars. A cluster map was generated using multi-dimensional scaling, and t-tests were used to explore differences in ratings by background characteristics. Results: Participants generated 64 reasons for smoking cigarettes and cigars, and categorized these reasons into six groups: emotions, urges, access, product characteristics, lifestyle, and outside pressure. Emotions and urges were the most important motivations for initiation and current smoking of both products. Product characteristics were significantly more important for cigar initiation and smoking than for cigarettes, and outside pressure was more important for current smoking of cigars than cigarettes. Ratings differed by gender, socioeconomic status, and smoking characteristics. Conclusions: Cigarette and cigar smoking have several overlapping motivations, but key differences were also found, most notably for product characteristics. The FDA’s regulation of cigars and cigarettes should focus on addressing key characteristics appealing to young adults to curb dual use.
Quantitative Real-Time Imaging of Glutathione with Sub-Cellular Resolution

Quantitative imaging of glutathione with high spatial and temporal resolution is essential for studying the roles of glutathione in redox biology. We developed a fluorescent glutathione probe—HaloRT—that targets organelles of interest through expressing organelle-specific HaloTag proteins. Using HaloRT, we quantitatively measure the glutathione concentrations in the nucleus and the cytosol and find no appreciable concentration gradient between these two organelles, challenging the view of nuclear compartmentalization of glutathione.
Ca2+ binding induced sequential allosteric activation of sortase A: An example for ion-triggered conformational selection

The allosteric activation of the intrinsically disordered enzyme Staphylococcus aureus sortase A is initiated via binding of a Ca2+ ion. Although Ca2+ binding was shown to initiate structural changes inducing disorder-to-order transitions, the details of the allosteric activation mechanism remain elusive. We performed long-term molecular dynamics simulations of sortase A without (3 simulations of 1.6 μs) and with bound Ca2+ (simulations of 1.6 μs, 1.8 μs, and 2.5 μs). Our results show that Ca2+ binding causes not only ordering of the disordered β6/β7 loop of the protein, but also modulates hinge motions in the dynamic β7/β8 loop, which is important for the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Cation binding triggers signal transmission from the Ca2+ binding site to the dynamic β7/β8 loop via the repetitive folding/unfolding of short helical stretches of the disordered β6/β7 loop. These correlated structural rearrangements lead to several distinct conformational states of the binding groove, which show optimal binding features for the sorting signal motif and feature binding energies up to 20 kcal/mol more favorable than observed for the sortase A without Ca2+. The presented results indicate a highly correlated, conformational selection-based activation mechanism of the enzyme triggered by cation binding. They also demonstrate the importance of the dynamics of intrinsically disordered regions for allosteric regulation.
Functional testing of a human PBX3 variant in zebrafish reveals a potential modifier role in congenital heart defects

ABSTRACT Whole-genome and exome sequencing efforts are increasingly identifying candidate genetic variants associated with human disease. However, predicting and testing the pathogenicity of a genetic variant remains challenging. Genome editing allows for the rigorous functional testing of human genetic variants in animal models. Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are a prominent example of a human disorder with complex genetics. An inherited sequence variant in the human PBX3 gene (PBX3 p.A136V) has previously been shown to be enriched in a CHD patient cohort, indicating that the PBX3 p.A136V variant could be a modifier allele for CHDs. Pbx genes encode three-amino-acid loop extension (TALE)-class homeodomain-containing DNA-binding proteins with diverse roles in development and disease, and are required for heart development in mouse and zebrafish. Here, we used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to directly test whether this Pbx gene variant acts as a genetic modifier in zebrafish heart development. We used a single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotide to precisely introduce the human PBX3 p.A136V variant in the homologous zebrafish pbx4 gene (pbx4 p.A131V). We observed that zebrafish that are homozygous for pbx4 p.A131V are viable as adults. However, the pbx4 p.A131V variant enhances the embryonic cardiac morphogenesis phenotype caused by loss of the known cardiac specification factor, Hand2. Our study is the first example of using precision genome editing in zebrafish to demonstrate a function for a human disease-associated single nucleotide variant of unknown significance. Our work underscores the importance of testing the roles of inherited variants, not just de novo variants, as genetic modifiers of CHDs. Our study provides a novel approach toward advancing our understanding of the complex genetics of CHDs. Summary: This study uses genome editing in zebrafish to demonstrate that a human DNA sequence variant of unknown significance might contribute to the complex genetics of congenital heart defects.
Human-like Autonomous Vehicle Speed Control by Deep Reinforcement Learning with Double Q-Learning

Autonomous driving has become a popular research project. How to control vehicle speed is a core problem in autonomous driving. Automatic decision-making approaches, such as reinforcement learning (RL), have been applied to control the vehicle speed. However, the popular Q-learning algorithm is unstable in some games in the Atari 2600 domain. In this paper, a reinforcement learning approach called Double Q-learning is used to control a vehicle’s speed based on the environment constructed by naturalistic driving data. Depending on the concept of the direct perception approach, we propose a new method called integrated perception approach to construct the environment. The input of the model is made up of high dimensional data including road information processed from the video data and the low dimensional data processed from the sensors. During experiment, compared with deep Q-learning algorithm, double deep Q-learning has improvements both in terms of value accuracy and policy quality. Our model’s score is 271.73% times that of deep Q-learning.
Stability Analysis of Anthocyanins Using Alcoholic Extracts from Black Carrot (Daucus Carota ssp. Sativus Var. Atrorubens Alef.)

Anthocyanins are used for food coloring due their low toxicity and health benefits. They are extracted from different sources, but black carrot has higher anthocyanin content compared with common fruits and vegetables. Here, we study alcoholic anthocyanin extracts from black carrot to enhance their stability. The objective of our research is to determine if microencapsulation with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) is a feasible option for preventing black carrot anthocyanin degradation. Extraction solvents were solutions of (1) ethanol/acetic acid and (2) ethanol/citric acid. Samples were purified through a resin column and microencapsulated using TEOS. Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra of samples were obtained, and degradation studies were performed under different conditions of UV radiation, pH and temperature. Antioxidant activity was evaluated with radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging and electrochemical cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC). Color evaluation on food models were performed with CIE Lab at the beginning of experiments and after 25 days of storage. Results indicate that the more stable extracts against pH media changes are samples obtained with ethanol/acetic acid solution as extraction solvent. Extract purification through resin and TEOS microencapsulation had no significant effect on extract stability. In conclusion, although TEOS microencapsulation has proven to be effective for some dried materials from natural extracts in our previous research, we do not recommend its use for black carrot extracts considering our results in this particular case.
What is the real impact of upper limb cast immobilisation on activity-related energy expenditure in children?

Background Upper limb fractures and subsequent cast immobilisation constitute a potential cause of reduction in childhood levels of physical activity (PA), with subsequent decrease of energy consumption. The main objective of this study was thus to quantify the decrease of activity-related energy expenditure (AEE) due to upper limb cast immobilisation . Methods We conducted a longitudinal matched case-control study that included 35 children and teenagers with a first episode of upper limb fracture and 35 healthy cases. PA was assessed during cast immobilisation by accelerometer. AEE was the calculated using an equation based on the total counts per day measured by accelerometers. Results AEE in children and teenagers with upper limb fractures was estimated to be 7.4 % lower than healthy controls. The mean difference corresponded to 1.35 kcal/kg per mean valid recorded time (750 min), that is, the waking hours. When converted in kcal per mean subjects’ weight, the difference in AEE amounted 63.5 kcal/day, which corresponds approximately to 26 min of walking at a speed of 4 km/hours. In comparison with the mean AEE in healthy controls (18.2 kcal/kg), the noted decrease (1.35 kcal/kg) represents only 7.4 % of AEE. Conclusion Reduction of AEE in children and teenagers with upper limb fractures may lead to a slight positive energy balance, as there is usually no compensatory reduction of energy intake. An increase of light PA has to be counselled in this situation or patients should be advised to reduce their energy intake during the immobilisation period. Level of evidence Level I: high-quality prospective study (all patients were enrolled at the same point in their disease with ≥80 % follow-up of enrolled patients).
Lower Bounds for Oblivious Data Structures

An oblivious data structure is a data structure where the memory access patterns reveals no information about the operations performed on it. Such data structures were introduced by Wang et al. [ACM SIGSAC'14] and are intended for situations where one wishes to store the data structure at an untrusted server. One way to obtain an oblivious data structure is simply to run a classic data structure on an oblivious RAM (ORAM). Until very recently, this resulted in an overhead of $\omega(\lg n)$ for the most natural setting of parameters. Moreover, a recent lower bound for ORAMs by Larsen and Nielsen [CRYPTO'18] show that they always incur an overhead of at least $\Omega(\lg n)$ if used in a black box manner. To circumvent the $\omega(\lg n)$ overhead, researchers have instead studied classic data structure problems more directly and have obtained efficient solutions for many such problems such as stacks, queues, deques, priority queues and search trees. However, none of these data structures process operations faster than $\Theta(\lg n)$, leaving open the question of whether even faster solutions exist. In this paper, we rule out this possibility by proving $\Omega(\lg n)$ lower bounds for oblivious stacks, queues, deques, priority queues and search trees.
Situations accidentogènes dans les générateurs de trafic routier

Avec l'avenement du vehicule autonome et la mutation que va connaitre le secteur automobile dans les dix prochaines annees, la simulation de trafic routier a pris un nouvel essor. C'est notamment l'un des rares moyens pour tester un vehicule autonome in silico [7]. Pour y parvenir, les generateurs actuels doivent augmenter leur realisme. Nous soutenons ici que l'un des points majeurs de ce realisme concerne la capacite des generateurs a produire des accidents dans l'environnement du vehicule teste. A notre connaissance, aucun des generateurs existants ne prend en compte cette consideration necessitant une description plus fine que celle habituellement utilisee pour decrire le comporte-ment de conduite. Nous decrivons dans cet article un modele de comportement parametrique permettant une telle performance, et montrons qu'il repond aux faits stylises reconnus en accidentologie.
Prevention of musculoskeletal injuries in recreational field hockey: the systematic development of an intervention and its feasibility

Objective This article describes the systematic development of an intervention for the prevention of lower extremity injuries in field hockey and the assessment of its feasibility. Methods The intervention was developed according to the first four steps of the intervention mapping and knowledge transfer scheme processes, mostly based on focus group interviews with experts in field hockey and injury prevention (needs assessment; objective and target groups; content selection; development). Subsequently, a quasi-experimental research (one-group post-test design) was conducted among 35 young field hockey players and 7 coaches. Participants were asked to use the intervention for 3 weeks, and the degrees of relevancy, suitability, satisfaction and usability of the intervention were assessed by means of a questionnaire and a group interview. Results First, the needs assessment conducted among the main actors within recreational field hockey revealed that an injury prevention intervention was needed, ideally delivered through videos via an application for smartphone/tablet or website. Second, the objective and target groups of the intervention were defined, namely to prevent or reduce the occurrence of lower extremity injuries among both young and adult recreational field hockey players. Third, warming-up exercises were selected as preventive measures and strategies (eg, core stability, strength, coordination). Last, the ‘Warming-Up Hockey’ intervention was developed, consisting of a warm-up programme (delivered by coaches including more than 50 unique exercises). The relevancy, satisfaction and usability of ‘Warming-Up Hockey’ were positively evaluated, but two main alterations were made: the duration of the ‘Warming-up Hockey’ was reduced from 16 to 12 min and a match-specific warm-up was added. Conclusion The feasibility of ‘Warming-Up Hockey’ was positively assessed by players and coaches. Prior to its nationwide implementation, the effectiveness of the intervention on injury reduction among field hockey players should be conducted.
Ranking noncanonical 5′ splice site usage by genome-wide RNA-seq analysis and splicing reporter assays

Most human pathogenic mutations in 5′ splice sites affect the canonical GT in positions +1 and +2, leading to noncanonical dinucleotides. On the other hand, noncanonical dinucleotides are observed under physiological conditions in ∼1% of all human 5′ss. It is therefore a challenging task to understand the pathogenic mutation mechanisms underlying the conditions under which noncanonical 5′ss are used. In this work, we systematically examined noncanonical 5′ splice site selection, both experimentally using splicing competition reporters and by analyzing a large RNA-seq data set of 54 fibroblast samples from 27 subjects containing a total of 2.4 billion gapped reads covering 269,375 exon junctions. From both approaches, we consistently derived a noncanonical 5′ss usage ranking GC > TT > AT > GA > GG > CT. In our competition splicing reporter assay, noncanonical splicing was strictly dependent on the presence of upstream or downstream splicing regulatory elements (SREs), and changes in SREs could be compensated by variation of U1 snRNA complementarity in the competing 5′ss. In particular, we could confirm splicing at different positions (i.e., −1, +1, +5) of a splice site for all noncanonical dinucleotides “weaker” than GC. In our comprehensive RNA-seq data set analysis, noncanonical 5′ss were preferentially detected in weakly used exon junctions of highly expressed genes. Among high-confidence splice sites, they were 10-fold overrepresented in clusters with a neighboring, more frequently used 5′ss. Conversely, these more frequently used neighbors contained only the dinucleotides GT, GC, and TT, in accordance with the above ranking.
Continual Classification Learning Using Generative Models

Continual learning is the ability to sequentially learn over time by accommodating knowledge while retaining previously learned experiences. Neural networks can learn multiple tasks when trained on them jointly, but cannot maintain performance on previously learned tasks when tasks are presented one at a time. This problem is called catastrophic forgetting. In this work, we propose a classification model that learns continuously from sequentially observed tasks, while preventing catastrophic forgetting. We build on the lifelong generative capabilities of [10] and extend it to the classification setting by deriving a new variational bound on the joint log likelihood, $\log p(x; y)$.
GS1 Connected Car: An Integrated Vehicle Information Platform and Its Ecosystem for Connected Car Services based on GS1 Standards

In recent years, the connected automotive industry has grown explosively. Various connected car services are emerging, such as remote vehicle diagnostics, driver’s health monitoring, infotainment, and vehicle safety management. As a result, the number and type of vehicle data are increasing tremendously day by day. However, existing connected automotive solutions have a limitation in that each company manages its own closed data silos. This restricts connected car services from using data sources in various domains. Hence, we propose the GS1 Connected Car, an integrated vehicle information platform, and its ecosystem. We suggest GS1-based automotive data standards for not only in-vehicle data but also all the automotive-related data generated during the lifecycle of vehicles. We provide standardized data collection to EPCIS, the discovery of global automotive services using ONS, IoT Mash-up service between an in-car dashboard platform and IoT devices, video infotainment called GS1 video, and automotive lifecycle management application. We have implemented our platform in a real car by developing an Android-based vehicle dashboard, including service discovery, Mash-up services, and GS1 Video. Also, a mobile application for lifecycle management and Amazon skills for collecting driver’s information are developed. Our demonstration and case study show the feasibility of the proposed platform, widening the scope of future connected car services.