Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Short Message Services (SMS) for the Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives. The primary objective is to determine if 3 times a week SMS will improve adherence to diet and exercise. The secondary objective is to determine the mean change in body weight, body mass index and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Methodology. This is an open-randomized controlled trial conducted for 6 months which included 104 subjects. Z test of two proportions was used to determine difference in dietary and exercise adherence. Mean change in body weight, BMI and HbA1c were also determined. After 3 months, significant difference is observed in mean HbA1c (SMS= 7.13 + 0.99, control= 7.53 + 0.91, p= 0.034). At 6 months, significant difference is seen in mean number of meals/day (SMS=2.61 + 0.63, control= 2.29 + 0.72, p= 0.018), mean number of minutes/exercise (SMS= 37.40 + 14.87, control=31.44 + 10.82, p= 0.021) and mean HbA1c (SMS=6.99 + 0.86, control= 7.34 + 0.90, p= 0.0452). Conclusion. The use of SMS as an adjunct to the standard of DM care improved adherence to diet after 6 months in terms of mean number of meals, improved adherence to exercise after 6 months in terms of mean number of minutes/exercise and significant reduction in HbA1c levels after 3 and 6 months.
Symbolic simulation heuristics for high-level design descriptions with uninterpreted functions

This paper handles symbolic simulation for high-level design descriptions including uninterpreted functions. Two new heuristics are introduced, which are named "symbolic function table" and "synchronization". In the experiment, the equivalence of a hardware/software codesign was checked up to a given finite number of cycles, which is composed of a behavioral design, that is, a small DSP program written in C, and its register-transfer-level implementation, a VLIW architecture with an assembly program. Our prototype symbolic simulator succeeded in checking the equivalence of the two descriptions which were not tractable without the heuristics, up to tens of thousands of cycles.
Adolescents Living with Cancer

The present study sought to explore the types of social support being provided to adolescents with cancer accessing a computer-mediated support group. Three hundred and ninety-three messages posted to a computer-mediated support group aimed at adolescents with cancer were coded for instances of informational and emotional support and then subjected to thematic analysis. Analysis revealed frequent instances of both informational and emotional support provision and sub-themes included ‘treatment concerns’, ‘losing friends’ and ‘struggling with school’. Adolescents were also found to be frequently accessing the group to make requests for social support. It is concluded that health professionals need to tailor the services they provide to adolescent patients more appropriately.
Pharmacological Assessment Defines Leishmania donovani Casein Kinase 1 as a Drug Target and Reveals Important Functions in Parasite Viability and Intracellular Infection

ABSTRACT Protein kinase inhibitors have emerged as new drugs in various therapeutic areas, including leishmaniasis, an important parasitic disease. Members of the Leishmania casein kinase 1 (CK1) family represent promising therapeutic targets. Leishmania casein kinase 1 isoform 2 (CK1.2) has been identified as an exokinase capable of phosphorylating host proteins, thus exerting a potential immune-suppressive action on infected host cells. Moreover, its inhibition reduces promastigote growth. Despite these important properties, its requirement for intracellular infection and its chemical validation as a therapeutic target in the disease-relevant amastigote stage remain to be established. In this study, we used a multidisciplinary approach combining bioinformatics, biochemical, and pharmacological analyses with a macrophage infection assay to characterize and define Leishmania CK1.2 as a valid drug target. We show that recombinant and transgenic Leishmania CK1.2 (i) can phosphorylate CK1-specific substrates, (ii) is sensitive to temperature, and (iii) is susceptible to CK1-specific inhibitors. CK1.2 is constitutively expressed at both the promastigote insect stage and the vertebrate amastigote stage. We further demonstrated that reduction of CK1 activity by specific inhibitors, such as D4476, blocks promastigote growth, strongly compromises axenic amastigote viability, and decreases the number of intracellular Leishmania donovani and L. amazonensis amastigotes in infected macrophages. These results underline the potential role of CK1 kinases in intracellular survival. The identification of differences in structure and inhibition profiles compared to those of mammalian CK1 kinases opens new opportunities for Leishmania CK1.2 antileishmanial drug development. Our report provides the first chemical validation of Leishmania CK1 protein kinases, required for amastigote intracellular survival, as therapeutic targets.
Formal model construction using HDL simulation semantics

All formal hardware verification tools in the market today interpret hardware description languages (HDLs) based on their synthesis semantics. This limits formal verification to synthesizable designs. The result, either a proof or a counterexample, produced by a formal tool can be inconsistent with simulation due to synthesis and simulation mismatches. And finally, conversion from a synthesized gate-level circuit to a formal model such as a Kripke structure or a Mealy machine is complex for designs containing gated clocks or latches. Existing solutions are often based on heuristics rather than language semantics. In this paper, we propose a new approach that constructs formal models based on simulation semantics. We symbolically simulate HDL designs using non-canonical word-level expressions to represent the values of design signals. We show that the formal model is consistent with simulation at specified sample points, which can be chosen to represent a clock cycle or a transaction. Our approach has been implemented in a tool called Simon. Experimental results show that Simon can efficiently construct formal models for large industrial designs.
Verification of real-time properties for Hardware-dependent Software

Seamless HW/SW codesign flows support early verification of hardware and Hardware-dependent Software (HdS) like drivers, operating systems, and firmware. For early estimation and verification, the application of SystemC in combination with Instruction Set Simulators and Software Emulators like QEMU is widely accepted. In this article, we present an advanced design flow for HW, (RT)OS and HdS refinement and verification with focus on the transition from abstract RTOS verification to full system RTOS/HdS emulation. In the context of assertion-based verification, we introduce a set of generic real-time properties which can be reused and verified at different abstraction levels and discuss their application. The properties are presented by the means of IEEE standard PSL assertions which are applied for mixed SystemC/HdS models.
Population Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Piperacillin in Burn Patients

ABSTRACT Piperacillin in combination with tazobactam, a β-lactamase inhibitor, is a commonly used intravenous antibiotic for the empirical treatment of infection in intensive care patients, including burn patients. The purpose of this study was to develop a population pharmacokinetic (PK) model for piperacillin in burn patients and to predict the probability of target attainment (PTA) using MICs and concentrations simulated from the PK model. Fifty burn patients treated with piperacillin-tazobactam were enrolled. Piperacillin-tazobactam was administered via infusion for approximately 30 min at a dose of 4.5 g (4 g piperacillin and 0.5 g tazobactam) every 8 h. Blood samples were collected just prior to and at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 h after the end of the infusion at steady state. The population PK model of piperacillin was developed using NONMEM. A two-compartment first-order elimination PK model was finally chosen. The covariates included were creatinine clearance (CLCR), day after burn injury (DAI), and sepsis. The final PK parameters were clearance (liters/h) (equal to 16.6 × [CLCR/132] + DAI × [−0.0874]), central volume (liters) (equal to 25.3 + 14.8 × sepsis [0 for the absence or 1 for the presence of sepsis]), peripheral volume (liters) (equal to 16.1), and intercompartmental clearance (liters/h) (equal to 0.636). The clearance and volume of piperacillin were higher than those reported in patients without burns, and the terminal half-life and PTA decreased with the increased CLCR. Our PK model suggests that higher daily doses or longer durations of infusion of piperacillin should be considered, especially for burn patients with a CLCR of ≥160 ml/min.
Exposing Postprocessed Copy–Paste Forgeries Through Transform-Invariant Features

Image manipulation has become commonplace with growing easy access to powerful computing abilities. One of the most common types of image forgeries is the copy-paste forgery, wherein a region from an image is replaced with another region from the same image. Most prior approaches to finding identical regions suffer from their inability to detect the cloned region when it has been subjected to a geometric transformation. In this paper, we propose a novel technique based on transform-invariant features. These are obtained by using the features from the MPEG-7 image signature tools. Results are provided which show the efficacy of this technique in detecting copy-paste forgeries, with translation, scaling, rotation, flipping, lossy compression, noise addition and blurring. We obtain a feature matching accuracy in excess of 90% across postprocessing operations and are able to detect the cloned regions with a high true positive rate and lower false positive rate than the state of the art.
Ciprofloxacin-Mediated Mutagenesis Is Suppressed by Subinhibitory Concentrations of Amikacin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT Resistance to antibiotics is a global health problem. Activation of the SOS response, and the subsequent elevation in mutagenesis, contributes to the appearance of resistance mutations. Among currently used drugs, quinolones are the most potent inducers of the SOS response. In the present study, we show that amikacin inhibits ciprofloxacin-mediated SOS induction and mutagenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
UltraScale+ MPSoC and FPGA families

This article consists of a collection of slides from the authors' conference presentation. Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC: 2nd Generation SoC from Xilinx - Applications processing, Real-time, Graphics, Video, Serial connectivity - Power management, Safety, Security - SDSoC: Full system optimizing compiler; More than Moore: Architectural innovation - 3x CPU performance and 4.5x memory bandwidth (SoC) -UltraScale+ fabric: 60% higher performance, 2.5x performance/watt (FPGA) - 3rd generation of silicon interposer technology (3D IC); Taped out in Jun 2015 on TSMC 16FF+ - Significant power and performance benefits with 3D FinFet transistors - Diverse SW and systems running on multiple platforms today.
Analysis and Improvement of a PIN-Entry Method Resilient to Shoulder-Surfing and Recording Attacks

Devising a user authentication scheme based on personal identification numbers (PINs) that is both secure and practically usable is a challenging problem. The greatest difficulty lies with the susceptibility of the PIN entry process to direct observational attacks, such as human shoulder-surfing and camera-based recording. This paper starts with an examination of a previous attempt at solving the PIN entry problem, which was based on an elegant adaptive black-and-white coloring of the 10-digit keypad in the standard layout. Even though the method required uncomfortably many user inputs, it had the merit of being easy to understand and use. Our analysis that takes both the experimental and theoretical approaches reveals multiple serious shortcomings of the previous method, including round redundancy, unbalanced key presses, highly frequent system errors, and insufficient resilience to recording attacks. The lessons learned through our analysis are then used to improve the black-and-white PIN entry scheme. The new scheme has the remarkable property of resisting camera-based recording attacks over an unlimited number of authentication sessions without leaking any of the PIN digits.
Psychological well-being in persons affected by Huntington’s disease: A comparison of at-risk, prodromal, and symptomatic groups

In order to broaden knowledge of psychological functioning in Huntington’s disease (HD), participants at-risk, prodromal, and symptomatic for HD reported on stress, negative affect, and depressive symptoms as well as life satisfaction, positive affect, and quality of life. Persons with symptomatic HD reported fewer psychological assets and greater stress, depressive symptoms, and negative affect than other groups. Positive affect in symptomatic persons did not significantly differ from other groups, and was higher in persons at-risk for HD than in controls. Greater attention to psychological assets in HD is warranted, particularly positive affect which may not decline early in the disease.
Employees’ perceptions of the impact of work on health behaviours

Research examining the impact of work on health behaviours has rarely provided a complete picture of the impact across health behaviours. Twenty-four employees were interviewed about their smoking, drinking, exercise and eating. Themes included the impact of the work environment, including policy, convenience and workplace cultural norms; business events effecting one’s routine and again convenience and workplace cultural norms; being busy at work effecting time and energy for healthy behaviour; and work stress leading to health behaviours being used as coping responses on bad and good days. The impact of work is similar across health behaviours and is primarily detrimental.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Oligoribonuclease Contributes to Tolerance to Ciprofloxacin by Regulating Pyocin Biosynthesis

ABSTRACT Bacterial oligoribonuclease (Orn) is a conserved 3′-to-5′ exonuclease. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it has been demonstrated that Orn plays a major role in the hydrolysis of pGpG, which is required for cyclic-di-GMP homeostasis. Meanwhile, Orn is involved in the degradation of nanoRNAs, which can alter global gene expression by serving as transcription initiation primers. Previously, we found that Orn is required for the type III secretion system and pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa, indicating a role of Orn in the bacterial response to environmental stimuli. Here we report that Orn is required for the tolerance of P. aeruginosa to ciprofloxacin. Transcriptome analysis of an orn mutant revealed the upregulation of pyocin biosynthesis genes. Mutation of genes involved in pyocin biosynthesis in the background of an orn mutant restored bacterial tolerance to ciprofloxacin. We further demonstrate that the upregulation of pyocin biosynthesis genes is due to RecA-mediated autoproteolysis of PrtR, which is the major negative regulator of pyocin biosynthesis genes. In addition, the SOS response genes were upregulated in the orn mutant, indicating a DNA damage stress. Therefore, our results revealed a novel role of Orn in bacterial tolerance to ciprofloxacin.
Detection of GES-5 Carbapenemase in Klebsiella pneumoniae, a Newcomer in France

Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPKp) are increasingly reported worldwide and represent a major health threat ([1][1]). Carbapenemases frequently encountered in CPKp belong to Ambler's class A (KPC enzymes), class B (NDM, VIM, and IMP enzymes), and class D (OXA-48-like enzymes) ([1][1
Binary phenomenon of hope: Perceptions of traumatized veterans

This is the second article in a phenomenological study of hope among 10 Israeli reserve soldiers with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. The aim of the second analysis was to learn about the veterans’ conceptualization of hope. The picture of hope that emerges from the analysis of their interviews is of a binary phenomenon in which hope develops but may also be arrested, is conscious but also unconscious, and strengthens the individual but may also weaken one. These findings show the binary phenomenon of hope and how it contributes to coping with traumatic events and therefore can assist professional workers who treat individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
Using the theory of planned behavior to predict self-medication with over-the-counter analgesics

Millions of people worldwide use over-the-counter analgesics on a regular basis; yet little is known about how decisions to self-medicate are made. This study used the theory of planned behavior to explore the influence of beliefs about medicines (Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire) and individual pain experience as predictors of intent to self-medicate. Both emerged as significant predictors of intent to self-medicate. Furthermore, intent to self-medicate significantly predicted reported use of analgesics. These findings indicate that use of over-the-counter pain medication is more likely when the value of the pain relief is greater than concerns about harm.
Body Fat Percentage Extracted from 3-D Scans for Sports & Medical Science

Body scanning technologies are used in many applications, from anthropometric research to garment technology to biomechanics. While capturing a subject’s body shape and measurements is often the primary objective, 3-D body scan systems can potentially add more value in some applications by determining additional body characteristics. In sports and medical science those are body mass, body surface, or overall body fat percentage. To develop algorithms capable of calculating such values, an extensive survey was conducted in which subjects were scanned in various positions to develop a stable and practicable process that considers process-inherent perturbations. Also, additional values were collected and interviews conducted to correlate subjects’ diet and activity with body characteristics. As a result, a new method was developed that allows estimating overall body fat percentage based on 3-D scans. The new method was evaluated against widely used methodologies such as infrared interactance, skin fold measurements, and body impedance.
First Report of Macrolide Resistance in a Mycoplasma pneumoniae Isolate Causing Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Spain

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common cause of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) ([1][1]). Macrolides are first-choice agents, but resistance is possible by point mutations in domain V of the 23S rRNA gene ([1][1], [2][2]). Asiatic countries have the highest proportion of macrolide resistance, but in
Barriers and facilitators to effective type 2 diabetes management in a rural context: A qualitative study with diabetic patients and health professionals

Although effective type 2 diabetes management is essential for the prevention of complications, it is rarely carried out. Type 2 diabetes deaths in rural areas are higher than in metropolitan areas. A focus group (n = 8) and telephone interviews with patients (n = 10), and telephone interviews with health professionals (n = 18) in rural areas were conducted to examine this issue in a rural context. Inductive thematic analysis was used to generate 13 themes of barriers and facilitators to type 2 diabetes management at intrapersonal (denial of the illness, motivation, knowledge and skills and lack of time), interpersonal (stress and relationships), organisational (access to recommended foods, transport, health professionals, and exercise options) and societal (engagement and societal attitudes) levels of influence. Across all themes, participants highlighted the difficulty of maintaining management behaviours.
Attribute-Based Data Sharing Scheme Revisited in Cloud Computing

Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is a very promising encryption technique for secure data sharing in the context of cloud computing. Data owner is allowed to fully control the access policy associated with his data which to be shared. However, CP-ABE is limited to a potential security risk that is known as key escrow problem, whereby the secret keys of users have to be issued by a trusted key authority. Besides, most of the existing CP-ABE schemes cannot support attribute with arbitrary state. In this paper, we revisit attribute-based data sharing scheme in order to solve the key escrow issue but also improve the expressiveness of attribute, so that the resulting scheme is more friendly to cloud computing applications. We propose an improved two-party key issuing protocol that can guarantee that neither key authority nor cloud service provider can compromise the whole secret key of a user individually. Moreover, we introduce the concept of attribute with weight, being provided to enhance the expression of attribute, which can not only extend the expression from binary to arbitrary state, but also lighten the complexity of access policy. Therefore, both storage cost and encryption complexity for a ciphertext are relieved. The performance analysis and the security proof show that the proposed scheme is able to achieve efficient and secure data sharing in cloud computing.
Liposomal Amphotericin B Displays Rapid Dose-Dependent Activity against Candida albicans Biofilms

ABSTRACT Biofilms formed by Candida albicans bloodstream isolates on catheters are an important clinical problem. Devising chemotherapeutic strategies to treat these in situ is an attractive option. We report here that liposomal amphotericin effectively kills C. albicans biofilms rapidly (12 h) and effectively (>90%) in a dose-dependent manner, whereas caspofungin displays an inverse concentration-dependent effect. This study has implications for considering the effective doses of antifungal agents used for catheter lock therapy.
Data retention in MLC NAND flash memory: Characterization, optimization, and recovery

Retention errors, caused by charge leakage over time, are the dominant source of flash memory errors. Understanding, characterizing, and reducing retention errors can significantly improve NAND flash memory reliability and endurance. In this paper, we first characterize, with real 2y-nm MLC NAND flash chips, how the threshold voltage distribution of flash memory changes with different retention age - the length of time since a flash cell was programmed. We observe from our characterization results that 1) the optimal read reference voltage of a flash cell, using which the data can be read with the lowest raw bit error rate (RBER), systematically changes with its retention age, and 2) different regions of flash memory can have different retention ages, and hence different optimal read reference voltages. Based on our findings, we propose two new techniques. First, Retention Optimized Reading (ROR) adaptively learns and applies the optimal read reference voltage for each flash memory block online. The key idea of ROR is to periodically learn a tight upper bound, and from there approach the optimal read reference voltage. Our evaluations show that ROR can extend flash memory lifetime by 64% and reduce average error correction latency by 10.1%, with only 768 KB storage overhead in flash memory for a 512 GB flash-based SSD. Second, Retention Failure Recovery (RFR) recovers data with uncorrectable errors offline by identifying and probabilistically correcting flash cells with retention errors. Our evaluation shows that RFR reduces RBER by 50%, which essentially doubles the error correction capability, and thus can effectively recover data from otherwise uncorrectable flash errors.