Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Instrument Development: Cardiac Diet and Exercise Self‐Efficacy

Self-efficacy has been documented as a strong predictor of health behaviors. Unfortunately, availability of reliable and valid measures of self-efficacy for a range of health behaviors is still limited. This study validated two measures of cardiac risk factor self-efficacy; the Cardiac Diet Self-Efficacy Instrument (CDSEI) and the Cardiac Exercise Self-Efficacy Instrument (CESEI). A sample of 370 cardiac rehabilitation participants provided data for principal factor analyses showing the unidimensionality of each instrument. Known groups construct validity was supported by a comparison of CDSEI and CESEI scores for cardiac rehabilitation participants and marathon runners. The value of CDSEI and CESEI scores in predicting subsequent exercise and diet performance was demonstrated with a third group of cardiac rehabilitation participants. Stability and internal consistency estimates in the . 80s and . 90s, respectively, support the scales' reliabilities.
Mry, a trans-acting positive regulator of the M protein gene of Streptococcus pyogenes with similarity to the receptor proteins of two-component regulatory systems

In the Streptococcus pyogenes M6 strain D471, an insertion of the conjugative transposon Tn916 into a region 2 kb upstream of the promoter of emm6 (the structural gene for the M protein) rendered the strain M negative (M. G. Caparon and J. R. Scott, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84:8677-8681, 1987). In the present work, we show that this insertion mutation, mry-1, is 244 bp upstream of an open reading frame encoding a protein we call Mry. This protein is visible on a gel after transcription and translation in vitro. We have developed a technique for complementation analysis in S. pyogenes and have used it to show that the wild-type mry gene is dominant to two mutant alleles. This dominance indicates that Mry acts in trans as a positive regulator of the emm6 gene. The translated DNA sequence of mry has two regions of similarity to the motif common to the receptor protein of two-component regulatory systems. In addition, the N terminus of Mry has two regions resembling a helix-turn-helix motif. Mry does not appear to be a global regulator of virulence determinants in the group A streptococcus because there is no effect of the mry-1 mutation on production of the hyaluronic acid capsule or streptokinase.
Personality subtypes among driving-while-intoxicated offenders: follow-up of subsequent driving records.

Utilite predictive de definir des sous-types de personnalite chez les hommes arretes pour conduite en etat d'ivresse, en ce qui concerne la suite de leur carriere de conducteur, Cinq sous-groupes ont ete empiriquement subsumes d'apres des mesures de l'hostilite, du fonctionnement de la personnalite et des attitudes a l'egard de la conduite automobile
Screening of a Leptospira biflexa Mutant Library To Identify Genes Involved in Ethidium Bromide Tolerance

ABSTRACT Leptospira spp. are spirochete bacteria comprising both pathogenic and free-living species. The saprophyte L. biflexa is a model bacterium for studying leptospiral biology due to relative ease of culturing and genetic manipulation. In this study, we constructed a library of 4,996 random transposon mutants in L. biflexa. We screened the library for increased susceptibility to the DNA intercalating agent, ethidium bromide (EtBr), in order to identify genetic determinants that reduce L. biflexa susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. By phenotypic screening, using subinhibitory EtBr concentrations, we identified 29 genes that, when disrupted via transposon insertion, led to increased sensitivity of the bacteria to EtBr. At the functional level, these genes could be categorized by function as follows: regulation and signaling (n = 11), transport (n = 6), membrane structure (n = 5), stress response (n = 2), DNA damage repair (n = 1), and other processes (n = 3), while 1 gene had no predicted function. Genes involved in transport (including efflux pumps) and regulation (two-component systems, anti-sigma factor antagonists, etc.) were overrepresented, demonstrating that these genes are major contributors to EtBr tolerance. This finding suggests that transport genes which would prevent EtBr to enter the cell cytoplasm are critical for EtBr resistance. We identified genes required for the growth of L. biflexa in the presence of sublethal EtBr concentration and characterized their potential as antibiotic resistance determinants. This study will help to delineate mechanisms of adaptation to toxic compounds, as well as potential mechanisms of antibiotic resistance development in pathogenic L. interrogans.
Sevoflurane and isoflurane genotoxicity in kidney cells of mice

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the DNA damage and repair in kidney cells of Swiss albino mice after repeated exposure to sevoflurane and isoflurane and compare their detrimental effects. We used the alkaline comet assay to establish the genetic damage and measured three parameters: tail length, tail moment, and tail intensity of comets. These parameters were measured immediately after exposure to the above mentioned inhalation anaesthetics, two hours, six hours, and 24 hours later and were compared with the control group. Mean values of all three parameters were significantly higher in experimental groups compared to the control group. DNA damage in kidney cells of mice exposed to sevoflurane increased continuously before it reached its peak 24 hours after exposure. Isoflurane induced the highest DNA damage two hours after exposure. Levels of DNA damage recorded 24 h after cessation of exposure to both tested compounds suggest that sevoflurane was slightly more genotoxic than isoflurane to kidney cells of mice. According to these results, the currently used volatile anaesthetics sevoflurane and isoflurane are able to damage DNA in kidney cells of mice. Such findings suggest a possibility for similar outcomes in humans and that fact must be taken into account in everyday clinical practice.
Inverse Dynamics of a Redundantly Actuated Four-Bar Mechanism Using an Optimal Control Formulation

Closed kinematic chain mechanisms are extensively used in s everal applications, from machine tools to biomechanical models. A few works however address the mechanics o f these systems with redundant actuation, i.e., with more actuators than degrees of freedom. The inverse dynamics ana lysis of this kind of system does not possess an unique solution, and therefore optimization procedures should be appl ied to estimate net joint torques when a kinematics is previo usly imposed. Literature presents some methods to solve this und etermined problem, based on multi-body system dynamics approach. In this paper the inverse dynamics problem is form ulated as an Optimal Control Problem (OCP): to find a set of controls that minimizes an integral state and control var iables cost function, subjected to endpoint, trajectory, a nd control constraints, both equality and inequality. Some possi ble sets of constraints are explored to force a 3-link open ch ain system dynamics behave like a four bar mechanism with a crank rotating at a constant velocity. The controls calculated by OCP are assumed to be the input joint torques. The regular c ase with one torque actuator is solved and compared to the two and three actuators case.
The Cytoplasmic Tail of the Influenza A Virus M2 Protein Plays a Role in Viral Assembly

ABSTRACT The viral replication cycle concludes with the assembly of viral components to form progeny virions. For influenza A viruses, the matrix M1 protein and two membrane integral glycoproteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, function cooperatively in this process. Here, we asked whether another membrane protein, the M2 protein, plays a role in virus assembly. The M2 protein, comprising 97 amino acids, possesses the longest cytoplasmic tail (54 residues) of the three transmembrane proteins of influenza A viruses. We therefore generated a series of deletion mutants of the M2 cytoplasmic tail by reverse genetics. We found that mutants in which more than 22 amino acids were deleted from the carboxyl terminus of the M2 tail were viable but grew less efficiently than did the wild-type virus. An analysis of the virions suggested that viruses with M2 tail deletions of more than 22 carboxy-terminal residues apparently contained less viral ribonucleoprotein complex than did the wild-type virus. These M2 tail mutants also differ from the wild-type virus in their morphology: while the wild-type virus is spherical, some of the mutants were filamentous. Alanine-scanning experiments further indicated that amino acids at positions 74 to 79 of the M2 tail play a role in virion morphogenesis and affect viral infectivity. We conclude that the M2 cytoplasmic domain of influenza A viruses plays an important role in viral assembly and morphogenesis.
Values Important to Terminally Ill African American Older Adults in Receiving Hospice Care

While racial disparity in the use of hospice care by older African Americans is widely acknowledged, little is known about the values that they consider as important in receiving health care services along with direct experiences with having these values respected by hospice care providers. Using individual, face-to-face interviews, data were collected directly from 28 African American hospice patients about their experiences in hospice care. Content analysis was used to identify and categorize themes from multiple readings of the qualitative data. Resulting themes included: dying at home, open communications, independent decision-making, autonomy in daily life, unwillingness to be a burden, and relationships. Through the initial assessment, value preferences can be explored and then shared with hospice team members to ensure that services are provided in such a way that their values and preferences are respected.
Effect of ephedrine and phenylephrine on brain oxygenation and microcirculation in anaesthetised patients with cerebral tumours: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Introduction During brain tumour surgery, vasopressor drugs are commonly administered to increase mean arterial blood pressure with the aim of maintaining sufficient cerebral perfusion pressure. Studies of the commonly used vasopressors show that brain oxygen saturation is reduced after phenylephrine administration, but unaltered by ephedrine administration. These findings may be explained by different effects of phenylephrine and ephedrine on the cerebral microcirculation, in particular the capillary transit-time heterogeneity, which determines oxygen extraction efficacy. We hypothesised that phenylephrine is associated with an increase in capillary transit-time heterogeneity and a reduction in cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen compared with ephedrine. Using MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) as measurements in anaesthetised patients with brain tumours, this study will examine whether phenylephrine administration elevates capillary transit-time heterogeneity more than ephedrine, thereby reducing brain oxygenation. Methods and analysis This is a double-blind, randomised clinical trial including 48 patients scheduled for surgical brain tumour removal. Prior to imaging and surgery, anaesthetised patients will be randomised to receive either phenylephrine or ephedrine infusion until mean arterial blood pressure increases to above 60 mm Hg or 20% above baseline. Twenty-four patients were allocated to MRI and another 24 patients to PET examination. MRI measurements include cerebral blood flow, capillary transit-time heterogeneity, cerebral blood volume, blood mean transit time, and calculated oxygen extraction fraction and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen for negligible tissue oxygen extraction. PET measurements include cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen, cerebral blood flow and oxygen extraction fraction. Surgery is initiated after MRI/PET measurements and subdural intracranial pressure is measured. Ethics and dissemination This study was approved by the Central Denmark Region Committee on Health Research Ethics (12 June 2015; 1-10-72-116-15). Results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publication and presentation at international conferences. Trial registration number NCT02713087; Pre-results. 2015-001359-60; Pre-results.
Drop-Casted Self-Assembled Topological Insulator Membrane as an Effective Saturable Absorber for Ultrafast Laser Photonics

Through employing a cost-effective solvothermal method, ultrathin topological insulator (TI) bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) nanosheets with uniform hexagonal nanostructures had been synthesized. Thanks to the uniformity of few-layer TI dispersion, we are able to adopt the drop-casting approach in order to directly transfer few-layer TI and, therefore, form a self-assembled uniform volatile TI membrane that is suitably deposited onto the end facet of an optical fiber as an effective optical saturable absorber. Its saturable absorption parameters could be deliberately tailored by thinning its thickness by mechanical exfoliation. The incorporation of the as-fabricated saturable absorber inside the fiber laser cavity allows for the operation of either a microsecond or a femtosecond pulse because different saturable absorption parameters can decide whether the fiber laser operates in the mode-locking or Q-switching state. Our work provides a convenient way of fabricating a high-quality TI membrane-based saturable absorber with promising applications for laser operation.
Imaging of hemorrhagic stroke in magnetic induction tomography: An in vitro study

Magnetic Induction Tomography (MIT) has the potential of providing an inexpensive medical device for regular screening and monitoring of patients. MIT could be used to detect hemorrhagic stroke, if high measurement accuracy and spatial resolution can be reached to allow significant contrast between normal brain tissues and hemorrhaged areas. However, this can be challenging because spatial resolution in MIT is limited due to the small number of independent measurements, the inverse problems are severely ill‐posed, and erroneous data cause large artefacts in reconstructed images and lower the detectability threshold of bleeding. The noise components degrading signal and image quality may be caused by thermal drift and noise from acquisition systems, environment or by body movements. The objective of the article is to empirically investigate hemorrhagic stroke in MIT based on in vitro study and to improve stroke detectability and visibility to help monitoring stroke patients. The following approaches were evaluated: (i) level setting, (ii) improved spatial filtering, (iii) averaging of multiple measurements, (iv) the combinations of these three approaches, and (v) wavelet denoising. They were evaluated with an in vitro phantom resembling a cerebral stroke in a pig brain. The results showed that these approaches enhanced stroke visibility, lowered stroke detectability threshold from 15 ml to 5 ml, and improved the localization of phantom hemorrhages such that their combination produced the best results. These methods may make it easy to the estimation of actual stroke volume, and clinical interpretation, and it can be used to long‐term monitoring of stroke progression. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 24, 161–166, 2014
Line-Integral Approach to Computing Impedance Matrix Elements

We present a line-integral approach for computing the impedance-matrix elements in the traditional Rao-Wilton-Glisson formulation of the moment method for electromagnetic problems. The line integral extends over the perimeter of a triangle and can be computed numerically using a Gauss-Legendre quadrature. We present the conversion of the surface integral to a line integral, and we perform calculations where we compare the present method to a surface quadrature approach.
Some biological and physical properties of molluscum contagiosum virus propagated in cell culture

Molluscum contagiosum virus propagated in FL cells of human amnion origin has a one-step growth cycle time of 12 to 14 h. The appearance and exponential increase of intracellular virus preceded the release of extracellular virus by approximately 2 h. Demonstration of comparable titers of extracellular and intracellular virus at the end of the replication cycle indicated that a substantial amount of virus remained associated with cells exhibiting cytopathogenic changes. Mean buoyant density values of virus in sucrose ranged from 1.275 to 1.278 g/cm3, but in CsCl the virus banded at densities at 1.325 to 1.340 and 1.261 to 1.281 g/cm3. Although virus infectivity was not affected by high concentrations of CsCl, it was found by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis that the salt removed several nonglycosylated polypeptides with estimated molecular weights of 15,000 to 60,000. This suggested that the high-density band (1.325 to 1.340) may reflect the loss of these structural components. The half-life of virus infectivity was approximately 26.5 h at 26 degrees C and 11.2 h at 37 degrees C. Although the virus was rapidly inactivated at 50 degrees C, it could be stabilized at this temperature by the presence of 1.0 M MgCl2. Virus did not agglutinate newborn chick, adult chicken, or type "0" human erythrocytes. Virus infectivity was found to be sensitive to acid pH but resistant to treatment with diethyl ether or chloroform. The replication of molluscum virus in FL cells was not inhibited by 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine, 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine, or cytosine arabinonucleoside in noncytotoxic concentrations of 200 to 400 mug/ml, but greater than 99% reduction in the yield of herpes simplex virus or vaccinia virus in FL cells was obtained with 200 mug of these compounds per ml. Guanidinium chloride in concentrations of 100 to 200 mug/ml reduced molluscum virus yields by more than 99.9%.
The multifactorial model for the inheritance of liability to disease and its implications for relatives at risk.

The multifactorial model for the inheritance of disease liability (Falconer [1965]) is discussed. In this model, the probability that an individual has the disease depends on the value of some underlying continuous quantity x. The quantity x is assumed to have a genetic component leading to correlations between relatives. For certain family groups, the probabilities of all possible patterns of disease occurrence are shown to be calculable from single integrals involving only univariate Normal density and cumulative distribution functions. Using these probabilities, the recurrence risk for an individual can be calculated from a knowledge of the occurrence of the disease in the family. Relative recurrence risks are tabulated for individuals belonging to families in which there is information on one or both parents, or on two or three full-sibs (or, equivalently, one parent and one or two fullsibs). Recurrence risks in families containing a pair of monozygous twins are also given.
Sweat rate and fluid intake in young elite basketball players on the FIBA Europe U20 Championship.

BACKGROUND/AIM Previous investigations in many sports indicated that continued exercise, especially in hot environments, can cause high sweat rate and huge water and electrolyte losses, thus impairing the performance of athletes. Most these studies were conducted during training sessions, but rarely during an official competition. Therefore, the aim of our study was to determine pre- and post-competition hydration, fluid intake and sweat loss of young elite basketball players during the FIBA Europe U20 Championship. METHODS The study included 96 basketball male players, (19 ± 0.79 years) of eight national teams. Ambient temperature was 30 ± 2°C, humidity 55 ± 4% and the mean playing time in game 18.8 ± 10.5 min. The following parameters related to hydration status were measured: fluid intake, urine output, sweat rate, percent of dehydration, urine parameters (specific gravity, color and osmolarity), body mass and body surface area. RESULTS We found that the mean fluid intake was 1.79 ± 0.8 L/h, sweat rate 2.7 ± 0.9 L/h, urine output 55 ± 61 mL and the percentage of dehydration 0.99 ± 0.7%. According to urine osmolarity more than 75% of players were dehydrated before the game and the process continued during the game. The difference in body mass (0.9 ± 0.7 kg) before and after the game was statistically significant. There were statistically significant correlations between the sweat rate and fluid intake, urine osmolarity, body mass loss, body surface area and percentage of dehydration. Fluid intake correlated with the percentage of dehydration, body mass loss, urine specific gravity and urine color. The sweat rate, which varied between the teams, was the highest for centers when this parameter was calculated on the effective time in game. CONCLUSION Most of the athletes start competition dehydrated, fail to compensate sweat loss during the game and continue to be dehydrated, regardless what kind of drink was used. These results suggest that hydration strategies must be carefully taken into account, not only by the players, but also by the coaches and the team doctors.
Low-complexity lattice-based low-PAR transmission for DSL channels

The paper presents a new multicarrier modulation (MCM) technique based on lattices which achieves a peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) as low as 3. The scheme can be viewed as a 'drop in' replacement for the discrete multitone (DMT) modulation of an ADSL modem. Performance is up to 8.5 dB better than standard DMT in amplifier-clipped conditions. Moreover, the new technique has a lower implementation complexity, O(N), compared with DMT which requires O(N log N) operations. Simulation studies confirm that the performance of the lattice-MCM is superior even compared to recent techniques for PAR-reduction in DMT.
A Comparative Analysis of Internal-External Locus of Control among Hospital Personnel in Turkey and its Managerial Implications on Health Sector

Rotter's concept of "internal-external locus of control" has its foundation in "social learning theory" which is currently one of the most studied variables in psychology and the other social sciences. Locus of control (LOC) is a well-known cognitive-behavioral psychological dimension used to describe a person's characteristic way of perceiving the world. LOC is typically measured on an internal-external continuum. To the degree that a person's LOC is external, he or she will tend to perceive reinforcements as being the result of other people, luck, and circumstances beyond personal control. To the extent that a person's LOC is internal, he or she will report more control over life circumstances, and claim more personal responsibility for outcomes. Put another way, people with a more external LOC tend to believe that life experiences happen from the "outside-in," while those with a more internal LOC have an "inside-out" psychology. In this research, internal-external locus of control of hospital personnel in Istanbul-Turk ey was comparatively analyzed. On the terms of internal-external LOC, statistically no meaningful differentiation was found among the health sector personnel at University, Ministry of Health and Private hospitals on the institutional base. It was found that there was not statistically meaningful difference on internal-external LOC for doctors when compared with managers and nurses. When the issue comes to nurses vs. managers, it was found that nurses were more externally controlled than the managers. Surprisingly, there was no positiv e meaningful correlation among the LOC scores with "educational level" and also "marital status". The variables that seemed to affect the scores of internal-external LOC were "age" and "work experience". With the increase in "age" and "work experience" of the participants, it was determined that they tended to behave more likely internally controlled.