Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic Value of Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index in Esophageal Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Malnutrition often leads to poor prognosis of patients with EC. Geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) was reported as an objective nutrition-related risk index. We intend to comprehensively review evidence of GNRI in predicting EC prognosis. To explore the influence of GNRI on the long-term survival outcome of patients with EC, a meta-analysis was needed. We searched the Web of Science, Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases. The association between prognosis of patients with EC and GNRI was evaluated by pooling hazard ratios (HRs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The fixed model or random model method was chosen according to the heterogeneity among the studies. Totally, 11 studies with 1785 patients who met the inclusion criteria were eventually included in our meta-analysis. Comparing the lower level GNRI group and the higher level GNRI group, the pooled results showed that lower GNRI had a negative impact on overall survival (OS) (HR: 1.75, 95% CI: 1.45–2.10, P < 0.01) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) (HR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.19–2.62, P < 0.01), indicating that lower GNRI significantly predicted poor OS. In conclusion, lower GNRI could predict the poor prognosis of patients with EC. Meanwhile, more well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are needed to confirm the findings.
Role of Efflux in Antibiotic Resistance of Achromobacter xylosoxidans and Achromobacter insuavis Isolates From Patients With Cystic Fibrosis

Achromobacter genus (including Achromobacter xylosoxidans, the most prevalent Achromobacter species in patients with cystic fibrosis) is poorly susceptible to most conventional antibiotics. Contribution of efflux by AxyABM, AxyXY-OprZ, and AxyEF-OprN and of target mutations were studied in clinical isolates of A. xylosoxidans and Achromobacter insuavis. Forty-one isolates longitudinally collected from 21 patients with CF were studied by whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-typing, determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of β-lactams, aminoglycosides, colistin, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, and doxycycline, and expression (quantitative RT-PCR) and function (measure of the uptake of a fluorescent substrate) of efflux pumps. WGS-based typing resulted in 10 clusters comprising 2 or 3 isolates and 20 singletons. The efflux activity was high in strains with elevated MICs for amikacin or azithromycin. This work sheds a new light on the impact of efflux and target mutations in resistance of Achromobacter to several drugs.
How to Facilitate Adherence to Cardiac Rehabilitation in Primary Health Settings for Ischaemic Heart Disease Patients. The Perspectives of Health Professionals

Background Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a class 1A recommendation and an integrated part of standard treatment for patients with cardiac disease. In Denmark, CR adheres to European guidelines, it is group-based and partly conducted in primary health settings. Despite high evidence for the benefits of CR, it remains underutilized. How to facilitate CR adherence in primary health settings is poorly understood. Aim This study explores health professional's perspectives on how to facilitate CR adherence for patients with ischaemic heart disease in primary health settings. Methods Data were collected through focus group discussions. Respondents were health professionals specialized in and working with CR in primary health settings. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Eleven health professionals participated in two focus group discussions. Five themes emerged as facilitators of CR; (1) placing the person at the center, (2) coherent programme, (3) flow of information, (4) contextual factors, and (5) feeling of belonging. Conclusion This study illuminates the complexity of facilitating adherence to CR in primary health settings and provides ways in which health professionals may facilitate adherence. Placing the person at the center is pivotal and may be done by adapting CR offers to patients' social context, culture and life circumstances and ensuring a feeling of belonging. The rhetoric related to CR should be positive and throughout the entire course of treatment health professionals should possess a generic and collective approach to and view of CR. Perceiving these elements as potential facilitators is of vital importance and addressing them may facilitate adherence.
What Influences Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Innovative Products: Evidence From China

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we investigate the legitimacy of platform governance and whether consumers with greater ranges of risk propensity are more likely to purchase innovative products. This study develops a moderated mediation model involving risk propensity, cognitive legitimacy, purchase intention and perceived benefit. To examine our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of 315 consumers from Shanghai, China. The results reveal that risk propensity is positively related to consumers’ purchase intentions, in which cognitive legitimacy plays a mediating role. Furthermore, the interaction suggests that perceived benefit moderates the relationship between risk propensity and cognitive legitimacy.
Howsafe: A Microcomputer-Based Expert System to Evaluate the Safety of a Construction Firm

This paper discusses the development of the Howsafe expert system as a case history in knowledge engineering on microcomputers. The focus is on issues of knowledge representation, reasoning and explanation which arose in the development of Howsafe rather than on the domain knowledge of construction safety management. In particular, the paper addresses the issue of knowledge engineering when the expert system developer or 'knowledge engineer' is also the expert. We conclude that microcomputer expert system development tools like The Deciding Factor can help to resolve the current knowledge engineering bottleneck by permitting experts to carry out much of their own knowledge engineering.
Durable Expansion of TCR-δ Meta-Clonotypes After BCG Revaccination in Humans

Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has been used for 100 years and prevents disseminated tuberculosis and death in young children. However, it shows only partial efficacy against pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in adults, so new vaccines are urgently needed. The protective efficacy of BCG depends on T cells, which are typically activated by pathogen-derived protein antigens that bind to highly polymorphic major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. Some T cells recognize non-protein antigens via antigen presenting systems that are independent of genetic background, leading to their designation as donor-unrestricted T (DURT) cells. Whether live whole cell vaccines, like BCG, can induce durable expansions of DURT cells in humans is not known. We used combinatorial tetramer staining, multi-parameter flow cytometry, and immunosequencing to comprehensively characterize the effect of BCG on activation and expansion of DURT cell subsets. We examined peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) derived from a Phase I study of South African adults in which samples were archived at baseline, 3 weeks, and 52 weeks post-BCG revaccination. We did not observe a change in the frequency of total mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, germline encoded mycolyl-reactive (GEM) T cells, or γδ T cells at 52 weeks post-BCG. However, immunosequencing revealed a set of TCR-δ clonotypes that were expanded at 52 weeks post-BCG revaccination. These expanded clones expressed the Vδ2 gene segment and could be further defined on the basis of biochemical similarity into several ‘meta-clonotypes’ that likely recognize similar epitopes. Our data reveal that BCG vaccination leads to durable expansion of DURT cell clonotypes despite a limited effect on total circulating frequencies in the blood and have implications for defining the immunogenicity of candidate whole cell TB vaccines.
A Novel Approach for Estimation of Sediment Load in Dam Reservoir With Hybrid Intelligent Algorithms

Predicting the amount of sediment in water resource projects is one of the most important measures to be taken, while sediments have an unknown nature in their behavior. In this research, using the data recorded at the Mazrae station between 2002 and 2013, the amount of sediment in the catchment area of Maku Dam has been predicted using different models of intelligent algorithms. Recorded data including river flow (m3/s), sediment concentration (mg/L), and temperature (°C) were considered input data, and sediment load (ton/day) was considered output data. Initially, using the correlation test, the relationship between each input data with output data was considered. The results show high correlation of sediment concentration data and river flow with sediment load and low correlation of temperature data with these data. In order to find the best combination of data for prediction, the combination of single, binary, and triple data was considered in sensitivity analysis. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, first with the classical adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), the amount of sediment load was predicted, and then using evolutionary algorithms in ANFIS training, their performance was examined. The intelligent algorithms used in this study were ant colony optimization extended to continuous domain, particle swarm optimization, differential evolution, and genetic algorithm. The results showed that adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system–ant colony optimization extended to continuous domain, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system–particle swarm optimization, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system–genetic algorithm, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system–differential evolution, and classical ANFIS had the best performance in predicting the amount of sediment load. In the meantime, it was observed that the coefficient of determination, root mean square error, and scatter index in the test mode for the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system–ant colony optimization extended to continuous domain algorithm with the best prediction dataset (sediment concentration + river flow) are equal to 0.991, 13.001, and (ton/day), 0.112, and those for the ANFIS with the weakest prediction (temperature + river flow) are equal to 0.490, 107.383 (ton/day), and 0.929, respectively. The present study showed that the use of intelligent algorithms in ANFIS training has been able to improve its performance in predicting the amount of sediment load in the catchment area of Maku Dam.
Associations of Ready-to-Eat Cereal Consumption and Income With Dietary Outcomes: Results From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015–2018

Background Ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal has been associated with higher diet quality but it is not known if this association differs by income. Objective To investigate the association of RTE cereal with dietary outcomes in a US population stratified by income [measured using the poverty-to-income ratio (PIR)]. Methods Data from children 2–18 years (n = 5,028) and adults 19 years and older (n = 9,813) with 24-h dietary recalls from the cross-sectional, US nationally-representative 2015–2016 and 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) were used in a multivariable linear model that included cereal eating status (based on day 1 24 h dietary recall), PIR category (Low-PIR <1.85; Mid-PIR 1.85–3.50; High-PIR >3.50) and their interaction. PIR is based on the ratio of the family household income to the poverty level set by the US Department of Health and Human Services and higher PIR values indicate higher household income. Results For children, there were positive associations between RTE cereal consumption and nutrient (e.g., iron, calcium, fiber, potassium and vitamin D, p < 0.001) and food group (e.g., whole grain and dairy, p < 0.001) intake and 2015-HEI (p < 0.0001) but no association with PIR or RTE cereal-PIR interaction. For adults, PIR category was positively associated with the intake of nutrients (e.g., fiber, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin C, p < 0.001) as was RTE cereal consumption (e.g., fiber, calcium, vitamin D, potassium, vitamin B12, among others, p < 0.001). Both PIR and RTE cereal were positively associated with whole grain, dairy, and fruit (p < 0.001) and 2015-HEI (p < 0.0001) for adults. We also found a significant interaction between PIR and RTE cereal for adults for iron, phosphorus, B vitamins, and dairy (p < 0.001). RTE cereal contributed to one quarter or more of daily intake, across all age and PIR groups, for several B vitamins, iron, zinc, and whole grains. Added sugar intake was not associated with RTE cereal consumption in either children or adults. Conclusion RTE cereal was associated with improved dietary outcomes, including increased intake of under-consumed nutrients, increased intake of recommended food groups, and higher diet quality, at all income levels. This work can help inform future dietary recommendations.
Integrating Pharmacy and Registry Data Strengthens Clinical Assessments of Patient Adherence

Background: Accurate clinical assessment of patient adherence using reliable and valid measures is essential in establishing the presence of adherence issues and support practices for pharmacists. Objective: This investigation aims to conduct a novel assessment of patient adherence to asthma controller therapy by combining 1) patient-specific dosage data found in pharmacy dispensing data with 2) centrally collected administrative claims records, to determine the added value of using both sources of data. Methods: A total of 381 clinically uncontrolled asthma patients, from 95 community pharmacies across three Australian States were recruited and provided consent for the retrieval of their claims records and pharmacy dispensing data. Patients were stratified as multiple or single pharmacy users and adherence scores were calculated via the proportion of days covered (PDC) method using 1) patient claims records, 2) patient pharmacy dispensing data, and 3) combined claims records and pharmacy dispensing data. Cohort and subgroup adherence estimates were then compared. Results: Low levels of adherence were evident amongst the cohort irrespective of the data source used. PDC estimates based on claims records alone or combined claims records and pharmacy dispensing data were significantly higher than estimates based on pharmacy dispensing data for the total cohort (56%, 52%, 42% respectively, p < 0.001) and more noticeably for multiple pharmacy users (67%, 64%, 35% respectively, p < 0.001). PDC estimates based on combined claims records and pharmacy dispensing data were significantly lower than estimates based on claims records alone, indicating that perhaps standard daily dose is not a robust proxy for prescribed dosage to inhaled respiratory devices in adherence approximations. Poorer adherence was found amongst single pharmacy users than multiple pharmacy users when combined claims records and pharmacy dispensing data (46% compared to 64% respectively, p < 0.001) or claims records alone (51% compared to 67% respectively, p < 0.001) were compared. Conclusion: Access to routine collected data increases clinical acuity over patient adherence to asthma controller medications and is a valuable resource for health care professionals. A policy of secure accessibility of such data at the patient-pharmacist or patient-GP interface may allow real-time intervention and assist in decision making across numerous therapeutic areas.
Methanethiol Consumption and Hydrogen Sulfide Production by the Thermoacidophilic Methanotroph Methylacidiphilum fumariolicum SolV

Methanotrophs aerobically oxidize methane to carbon dioxide to make a living and are known to degrade various other short chain carbon compounds as well. Volatile organic sulfur compounds such as methanethiol (CH3SH) are important intermediates in the sulfur cycle. Although volatile organic sulfur compounds co-occur with methane in various environments, little is known about how these compounds affect methanotrophy. The enzyme methanethiol oxidase catalyzing the oxidation of methanethiol has been known for decades, but only recently the mtoX gene encoding this enzyme was identified in a methylotrophic bacterium. The presence of a homologous gene in verrucomicrobial methanotrophs prompted us to examine how methanotrophs cope with methanethiol. Here, we show that the verrucomicrobial methanotroph Methylacidiphilum fumariolicum SolV consumes methanethiol and produces H2S, which is concurrently oxidized. Consumption of methanethiol is required since methanethiol inhibits methane oxidation. Cells incubated with ∼15 μM methanethiol from the start clearly showed inhibition of growth. After depletion of methanethiol, growth resumed within 1 day. Genes encoding a putative methanethiol oxidase were found in a variety of methanotrophs. Therefore, we hypothesize that methanethiol degradation is a widespread detoxification mechanism in methanotrophs in a range of environments.
The Effect of High-Altitude Acclimatisation on Ultra-Short Heart Rate Variability

Introduction High-altitude (HA) exposure affects heart rate variability (HRV) and has been inconsistently linked to acute mountain sickness (AMS). The influence of increasing HA exposure on ultra-short HRV and its relationship to gold standard HRV measures at HA has not been examined. Methods This was a prospective observational study of adults aged ≥ 18 years undertaking a HA trek in the Dhaulagiri region of the Himalayas. Cardiac inter-beat-intervals were obtained from a 10-s recording of supra-systolic blood pressure (Uscom BP+ device) immediately followed by 300 s single lead ECG recording (CheckMyHeart device). HRV was measured using the RMSSD (root mean square of successive differences of NN intervals) at sea level (SL) in the United Kingdom and at 3,619, 4,600, and 5,140 m at HA. Oxygen saturations (SpO2) were measured using finger-based pulse oximetry. The level of agreement between the 10 and 300 s RMSSD values were examined using a modified Bland–Altman relative-difference analysis. Results Overall, 89 participants aged 32.2 ± 8.8 years (range 18–56) were included of which 70.8% were men. HA exposure (SL vs. 3,619 m) was associated with an initial increase in both 10 s (45.0 [31.0–82.0]) vs. 58.0 [33.0–119.0] ms) and 300 s (45.67 [33.24–70.32] vs. 56.48 [36.98–102.0] ms) in RMSSD. Thereafter at 4,600 and 5,140 m both 10 and 300 s RMSSD values were significantly lower than SL. From a total of 317 paired HRV measures the 10 and 300 s RMSSD measures were moderately correlated (Spearman r = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.59–0.72; p < 0.0001). The median difference (bias) in RMSSD values (300 s − 10 s) was −2.3 ms with a lower and upper limit of agreement of −107.5 and 88.61 ms, respectively with no differences with altitude. Overall, 293/317 (92.4%) of all paired HRV values fell within the 95% CI limits of agreement. Neither HRV method was predictive of AMS. Conclusion Increasing HA affects ultra-short HRV in a similar manner to gold-standard 300 s. Ultra-short HRV has a moderate agreement with 300 s measurements. HRV did not predict AMS.
InfersentPPI: Prediction of Protein-Protein Interaction Using Protein Sentence Embedding With Gene Ontology Information

Protein-protein interaction (PPI) prediction is meaningful work for deciphering cellular behaviors. Although many kinds of data and machine learning algorithms have been used in PPI prediction, the performance still needs to be improved. In this paper, we propose InferSentPPI, a sentence embedding based text mining method with gene ontology (GO) information for PPI prediction. First, we design a novel weighting GO term-based protein sentence representation method to generate protein sentences including multi-semantic information in the preprocessing. Gene ontology annotation (GOA) provides the reliability of relationships between proteins and GO terms for PPI prediction. Thus, GO term-based protein sentence can help to improve the prediction performance. Then we also propose an InferSent_PN algorithm based on the protein sentences and InferSent algorithm to extract relations between proteins. In the experiments, we evaluate the effectiveness of InferSentPPI with several benchmarking datasets. The result shows our proposed method has performed better than the state-of-the-art methods for a large PPI dataset.
Complexities and Context of Scaling Up: A Qualitative Study of Stakeholder Perspectives of Scaling Physical Activity and Nutrition Interventions in Australia

Background Scaling up population health interventions is a context-orientated, dynamic and multi-stakeholder process; understanding its influences is essential to enhance future scaling efforts. Using physical activity and nutrition interventions in Australia as case examples, the aim of this paper is to identify core influences involved in scaling up physical activity and nutrition interventions, and how these may differ by context and stakeholder. Methods A qualitative study involving semi-structured telephone interviews with individuals representing academic, government and non-government organizations with involvement in scaling up state and national physical activity and nutrition interventions. Interview questions were derived from the WHO report “20 Questions for Developing a Scaling up Case Study”, and mapped against four key principles and five core areas in the WHO ExpandNet framework for scaling up: (1) The innovation; (2) User organization; (3) Environment; (4) Resource team and; (5) Scale up strategy. Data were analyzed thematically. Results Nineteen interviews were conducted (government = 3; non-government = 5; and academic = 11 sectors) involving eight scaled up interventions, targeting nutrition (n = 2), physical activity (n = 1) or a combination (n = 5). Most themes aligned to the “Environment”, including: (i) political (e.g., personal agendas); (ii) social (e.g., lack of urgency); and (iii) sector/workforce (e.g., scale up accountability) factors. Themes relating to “Scale up strategy” (e.g., flexibility and evaluation transparency) were next most commonly occurring. Whilst themes were broadly consistent across participants, government participants had a more policy-oriented perspective on the scale up process. Academics discussed a tension between the generation and use of evidence, and the influence of political climates/interest on scale up decisions. Conclusion Attributes of the “Environment” and “Scale up strategy” consistently featured as major influences on successful outcomes, while the role of evidence differed greatly between participant groups. A multisector scale up strategy for future interventions may enable the complexities of environmental and political contexts to be incorporated into scale up planning.