Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of multiple chronic conditions by U.S. state and territory, 2017

Having multiple (two or more) chronic conditions (MCC) is associated with an increased risk of mortality and functional decline, health resource utilization, and healthcare expenditures. As a result, understanding the prevalence of MCC is increasingly being recognized as a public health imperative. This research describes the prevalence and distribution of adults with MCC across the United States using 2017 data from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS). Prevalence of MCC was calculated for each U.S. state and territory overall, by sex and by age. Additionally, the most common condition dyads (two condition combinations) and triads (three condition combinations) were assessed for each state. Prevalence of MCC ranged from 37.9% in the District of Columbia to 64.4% in West Virginia. Females had a higher prevalence than males in 47 of 53 states and territories, and MCC prevalence increased with age in every state and territory. Overall prevalence estimates were higher than estimates using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), especially in the younger population (aged 18–44), due partly to the inclusion of high cholesterol, obesity, and depression as chronic conditions. Analysis of the most prevalent dyads and triads revealed the greatest state-by-state variability in the 18-44-year-old population. Multiple states’ most prevalent dyads and triads for this population included obesity and depression. These findings build an accurate picture of the prevalence of multiple chronic conditions across the United States and will aid public health officials in creating programs targeted to their region.
Effects of pain neuroscience education and dry needling for the management of patients with chronic myofascial neck pain: a randomized clinical trial

Objectives The aim of this study was to observe the medium-term effects on pain, disability, and psychological factors of a combination of myofascial trigger point (MTrP) dry needling (DN) with pain neuroscience education (PNE) versus DN alone versus control care as usual (CUC) in patients with chronic neck pain. Methods A total of 60 patients were randomly selected in a Spanish National Health Service Public Hospital and divided into three groups: 6 sessions of DN with 3 sessions of PNE (TrPDN + PNE group, n = 21), 6 sessions of DN alone (TrPDN group, n = 20), or 10 sessions of usual care (CUC group, n = 19). The primary outcome was neck pain intensity, while neck disability, medication intake, and psychological factors were secondary outcomes. These variables were measured at baseline, post-treatment, and at 1 month and 3 months after treatment. Results TrPDN + PNE and DN alone were associated with greater reductions in pain intensity and disability compared to CUC (p < 0.01). TrPDN + PNE resulted in greater improvements in kinesiophobia, pain anxiety, and pain-related beliefs than DN alone and CUC (p < 0.01). No differences between groups were observed in medication intake, quality of life, catastrophizing, depression, or fear of pain (p > 0.05). Discussion Provision of PNE and DN in the management of chronic neck pain in a Spanish National Health Service Public Hospital was associated with greater improvements in psychological factors than DN therapy only. Conclusion DN alone was more effective at reducing chronic non-specific neck pain and disability than CUC at 3-month follow-up. However, the inclusion of PNE combined with DN resulted in greater improvements in kinesiophobia, pain anxiety, and pain-related beliefs. Trial registration number NCT03095365 (ClinicalTrials.gov).
"Big Data" Fast Chemoinformatics Model to Predict Generalized Born Radius and Solvent Accessibility as a Function of Geometry

The Generalized Born (GB) solvent model is offering the best accuracy/computing effort ratio and yet requires drastic simplifications to estimate of the Effective Born Radii (EBR), in bypassing a too expensive volume integration step. EBR are a measure of the degree of burial of an atom, and not very sensitive to small changes of geometry. In molecular dynamics (MD), many time steps may elapse before EBR values start to significantly drift away, hence the costly EBR update procedure is not mandatory at every step. This work however aims at implementing a GB model into the S4MPLE evolutionary algorithm, with mandatory EBR updates at each step triggering arbitrarily large geometric changes. Therefore, a Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) has been developed in order to express the EBRs as a linear (computer-effective) function of both topological neighborhood and the geometric occupancy of the space around atoms. A training set of 810 molecular systems, starting from fragment-like, to drug-like compounds, small proteins, host-guest systems and ligand-protein complexes has been compiled. For each species, S4MPLE generated several hundreds of random conformers. For each atom in each geometry of each species, its "standard" EBR was calculated by numeric integration and associated to topological and geometric descriptors of the atom neighborhood. This training set (EBR, atom descriptors) involving >5M entries was subjected to a boot-strapping multilinear regression process with descriptor selection. In parallel, the strategy was repurposed to also learn atomic solvent-accessible areas (SA), based on the same descriptors. Resulting linear equations were challenged to predict EBR and SA values, respectively, for a similarly compiled external set of >2,000 new molecular systems. Solvation energies calculated with estimated EBR and SA match "standard" energies within the typical error of a force-field based approach (a few kcal/mol). Given the extreme diversity of molecular systems covered by the model, this simple EBR/SA estimator covers a vast applicability domain.
Workplace Aggression and Burnout in Nursing—The Moderating Role of Follow-Up Counseling

The aim of this study is to obtain a better understanding of the association between the frequency of nurses’ exposure to workplace aggression from patients and their levels of burnout. In particular, we seek to shed light on the role of the availability of follow-up counseling in organizations after critical incidents in mitigating the adverse relationships between physical and verbal aggression and nurses’ burnout. A total of 582 nurses reported how frequently they had experienced physical and verbal aggression from patients in the last 12 months and whether they had the opportunity to receive follow-up counseling in their organization. In addition, nurses rated the extent to which they experienced each of the three dimensions of burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment). The results showed that both physical and verbal aggression were substantially related to the burnout dimensions. Furthermore, we found that the availability of follow-up counseling in organizations attenuated the relationships between physical aggression and all three burnout dimensions. While we found that the availability of follow-up counseling moderated the relationship between verbal aggression depersonalization, the moderating effects were not significant for emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. The findings indicate that the availability of follow-up counseling might help minimize the adverse impact of exposure to aggression from patients on nurses’ mental health.
Vegetation Cover Change Detection by Satellite Imagery on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA: Does it Have Potential for Hiking Trail Management?

ABSTRACT: The primary objective of this study was to detect fractional vegetation cover changes associated with off-trail hiking or trampling using three vegetation indices (NDVI, SAVI and TVI) on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA. The study area was divided into two different zones on the basis of proximity to the trail network (Zone I: within 100 m from the trail network, and Zone 2: 100 m to 400 m from the trail network), with the expectation of much higher impact and lower recovery in closer proximity to the trail network. Spatial interactions between the trail network and the decreased vegetation areas were tested using Cross K-functions to assess whether or not the existing trail network attracted more vegetation impact in a spatial context. The results showed no statistically significant differences between the two zones in terms of the amounts of recovery and impact (all p values >0.05), indicating that the magnitudes of impact and recovery were similar regardless of the proximity to the trail. Nonetheless, the applied methods based on zoning and spatial interaction analyses were useful for identifying spatially explicit patterns of vegetation impact related to the hiking trail network.
Soybean Development and Yield Are Influenced by Planting Date and Environmental Conditions in the Southeastern Coastal Plain, United States

Variation of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] growth and yield with planting date may be a response to changes in the plant, the environment, or a combination of both. This 2-yr experiment studied the effects of planting date on durations of vegetative and reproductive stages, and duration, temperature, and precipitation on yield of five soybean cultivars each representing a maturity group (MG IV-VIII) under dryland conditions. Planting dates were scheduled for 14-d intervals from late April to mid-July, 2008 and 2009. Length of growing season shortened with later planting dates, and the shortening was greater for vegetative stages compared with reproductive stages, especially for later MGs. Duration of flowering decreased with later planting date more rapidly for MG V through VIII (-0.60 to 1.18 d per planting date delay) than MG IV (insignificant). Pod-set duration declined with later planting date slowly for all MGs and insignificantly for MG IV and V in 2008. There was no conclusive relationship between seed-fill duration and later planting date. Duration of vegetative stage was positively correlated with yield of each MG. At flowering stage, yield ofMG IV was positively correlated with temperature, while yields ofMG V to VIII were positively correlated with duration, temperature, and precipitation. Precipitation during pod-set was the main factor in determining yields of all MGs. Temperature during seed-fill was positively correlated with yields of all MGs. These results suggest that May planting dates would achieve greater yield potential for all MGs by extending duration of development stages and avoiding cooler temperature during seed-fill.
Comparison of MCNPX and MIRDcell in assessing self-dose and cross-dose delivered to cell nuclei and the development of a realistic geometric model

Abstract Purpose: This study aims to provide a comparison between MCNPX and MIRDcell calculations for self-dose and cross-dose for three therapeutic isotopes used in internal radiotherapy (Lu-177, I-131 and Y-90) and to develop a multi-cellular geometric model to simulate an in vitro scenario. Materials and Methods: The self- and cross-dose to individual cell nuclei were assessed by Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX). A close-packed cubic cell arrangement was assumed with the same amount of radioactivity per cell. Various cell sizes and subcellular distributions of radioactivity (nucleus, cytoplasm and cell membrane) were simulated. S values were obtained by MIRDcell for comparison. A Python 3.4 program was used to generate random cell coordinates in order to build a complex model that takes certain real conditions (cell size and cluster size) into account. Results: The relative differences of MCNPX versus MIRD S values (Sself) ranged from 2.88 to 10.10% for Lu-177; from 0 to 8.41% for I-131 and from 2.80 to 9.58% for Y-90. The relative differences of MCNPX versus MIRDcell cross-dose S values were 3.6%−15.7% for a sphere. The ratio of Scross max to Sself decreased for Lu-177 and I-131 with increasing cell size. The source localization within the cells had no significant impact on the cross-dosing. For single cells, the subcellular location of the source had an effect on Sself. Conclusions: MCNPX and MIRD cell-calculated S values showed good agreement. The model provided could be used to predict the biological effect caused by emitted radiation from therapeutic radionuclides at the cellular level.
Size Variability in the Worker Caste of a Social Insect (Veromessor pergandei Mayr) as a Function of the Competitive Environment

Worker size polymorphism in colonies of Veromessor pergandei, a granivorous desert ant, is inversely related to the intensity of interspecific competition in the habitat for seven ant communities in the deserts of southern California and southern Arizona. Seed size preferences are positively correlated with worker body sizes, and diet breadth relative to seed size is probably enhanced by colony polymorphism. Niche shifts within colonies of these social insects may permit unusually fine adaptation to the resource environment. In contrast to solitary organisms, for which generalization of the diet may imply significant trade-offs, these ants may expand their utilization of resources where competitors are absent while retaining an efficient size match to the distribution of available resources.
AGS Position Statement: Resource Allocation Strategies and Age‐Related Considerations in the COVID‐19 Era and Beyond

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) continues to impact older adults disproportionately, from severe illness and hospitalization to increased mortality risk. Concurrently, concerns about potential shortages of healthcare professionals and health supplies to address these needs have focused attention on how resources are ultimately allocated and used. Some strategies misguidedly use age as an arbitrary criterion, inappropriately disfavoring older adults. This statement represents the official policy position of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). It is intended to inform stakeholders including hospitals, health systems, and policymakers about ethical considerations to consider when developing strategies for allocating scarce resources during an emergency involving older adults. Members of the AGS Ethics Committee collaborated with interprofessional experts in ethics, law, nursing, and medicine (including geriatrics, palliative care, emergency medicine, and pulmonology/critical care) to conduct a structured literature review and examine relevant reports. The resulting recommendations defend a particular view of distributive justice that maximizes relevant clinical factors and deemphasizes or eliminates factors placing arbitrary, disproportionate weight on advanced age. The AGS positions include (1) avoiding age per se as a means for excluding anyone from care; (2) assessing comorbidities and considering the disparate impact of social determinants of health; (3) encouraging decision makers to focus primarily on potential short‐term (not long‐term) outcomes; (4) avoiding ancillary criteria such as “life‐years saved” and “long‐term predicted life expectancy” that might disadvantage older people; (5) forming and staffing triage committees tasked with allocating scarce resources; (6) developing institutional resource allocation strategies that are transparent and applied uniformly; and (7) facilitating appropriate advance care planning. The statement includes recommendations that should be immediately implemented to address resource allocation strategies during COVID‐19, aligning with AGS positions. The statement also includes recommendations for post‐pandemic review. Such review would support revised strategies to ensure that governments and institutions have equitable emergency resource allocation strategies, avoid future discriminatory language and practice, and have appropriate guidance to develop national frameworks for emergent resource allocation decisions. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1136–1142, 2020.
Rapid molecular technique for identification of a biological control agent Rhodosporidium diobovatum

Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop a rapid molecular technique for identification of the biological control agent, Rhodosporidium diobovatum. DNA from all yeast cultures described below was extracted, amplified by PCR using primers specific to septate fungi, and fixed to nylon membranes. Using sequence information obtained from the GenBank database, Rhodosporidium diobovatum-specific oligonucleotides were designed and, after labeling with digoxigenin-d-UTP, were used as probes in a dot-blot hybridization assay. After preliminary testing, two probes were selected for further study. For probe RD3, a positive reaction was obtained at 38, 42 and 48°C with R. diobovatum in pure culture. Other yeast isolates such as Rhodosporidium toruloides, R. fluviale, R. babjevae, R. sphaerocarpum, R. kratochvilovae, R. azoricum, Pichia anomala, and some common greenhouse pathogens tested gave a negative result. The other probe (RD1) reacted with two species, R. diobovatum and R. babjevae at 42°C. The present dot-blot assay can be used reliably to identify the biocontrol agent, Rhodosporidium diobovatum, from pure culture and plant tissue.
The Interaction of lncRNA XLOC-2222497, AKR1C1, and Progesterone in Porcine Endometrium and Pregnancy

The endometrium is an important tissue for pregnancy and plays an important role in reproduction. In this study, high-throughput transcriptome sequencing was performed in endometrium samples of Meishan and Yorkshire pigs on days 18 and 32 of pregnancy. Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member C1 (AKR1C1) was found to be a differentially expressed gene, and was identified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot. Immunohistochemistry results revealed the cellular localization of the AKR1C1 protein in the endometrium. Luciferase activity assay demonstrated that the AKR1C1 core promoter region was located in the region from −706 to −564, containing two nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) binding sites (antioxidant response elements, AREs). XLOC-2222497 was identified as a nuclear long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) highly expressed in the endometrium. XLOC-2222497 overexpression and knockdown have an effect on the expression of AKR1C1. Endocrinologic measurement showed the difference in progesterone levels between Meishan and Yorkshire pigs. Progesterone treatment upregulated AKR1C1 and XLOC-2222497 expression in porcine endometrial epithelial cells. In conclusion, transcriptome analysis revealed differentially expressed transcripts during the early pregnancy process. Further experiments demonstrated the interaction of XLOC-2222497/AKR1C1/progesterone in the endometrium and provided new potential targets for pregnancy maintenance and its control.
Spoken words as biomarkers: using machine learning to gain insight into communication as a predictor of anxiety

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to explore whether features of recorded and transcribed audio communication data extracted by machine learning algorithms can be used to train a classifier for anxiety. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used a secondary data set generated by a clinical trial examining problem-solving therapy for hospice caregivers consisting of 140 transcripts of multiple, sequential conversations between an interviewer and a family caregiver along with standardized assessments of anxiety prior to each session; 98 of these transcripts (70%) served as the training set, holding the remaining 30% of the data for evaluation. RESULTS A classifier for anxiety was developed relying on language-based features. An 86% precision, 78% recall, 81% accuracy, and 84% specificity were achieved with the use of the trained classifiers. High anxiety inflections were found among recently bereaved caregivers and were usually connected to issues related to transitioning out of the caregiving role. This analysis highlighted the impact of lowering anxiety by increasing reciprocity between interviewers and caregivers. CONCLUSION Verbal communication can provide a platform for machine learning tools to highlight and predict behavioral health indicators and trends.
Radioactive Labelling of Brome Mosaic Virus

Summary Brome mosaic virus (BMV) can be radioactively labelled by allowing virus synthesis to take place in barley leaves whose cut ends are placed in solutions of radioactive precursors of BMV. When barley plants are infected by inoculation of the first emerging leaf, the rate of incorporation of both [14C]-leucine and [32P]-orthophosphate into virus particles was found to be maximal in the second leaf, cut and labelled 4 to 5 days after inoculation. The rate of incorporation declined when the labelling or the cutting and labelling were delayed, even though assembly of particles still took place from pre-formed components. An exposure of 72 h to an appropriate amount of 32P yielded highly radioactive BMV RNA for possible sequencing studies. A specific radioactivity (32P) of the order of 1 mCi/mg RNA can be obtained readily.
The effect of green tea supplementation on obesity: A systematic review and dose–response meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

The effects of green tea (GT) in obese subjects have been evaluated in different studies, but no consensus has been obtained due to the heterogeneity of the results. The dosage, the type of extract, and the duration of the intervention are the main contributors to the heterogeneity of the results. Therefore, the present systematic review and meta‐analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy and dose–response relationship of GT. Several databases were searched from inception to September 2019 to identify clinical trials that examined the influence of GT supplements on obesity indices in humans. Combined results using the random‐effects model indicated that body weight (WMD: −1.78 kg, 95% CI: −2.80, −0.75, p = .001) and body mass index (BMI) (WMD: −0.65 kg/m2, 95% CI: −1.04, −0.25, p = .001) did change significantly following GT administration. The reduction in waist circumference (WC) after GT consumption was significant in subjects in trials employing GT ≥800 mg/day (WMD: −2.06 cm) and with a treatment duration <12 weeks (WMD: −2.39 cm). Following the dose–response evaluation, GT intake did alter body weight, with a more important reduction when the GT dosage was <500 mg/day and the treatment duration was of 12 weeks. The results of present meta‐analysis study support the use of GT for the improvement of obesity indices. Thus, we suggest that the use of GT can be combined with a balanced and healthy diet and regular physical exercise in the management of obese patients.
FEEDING PERIOD, GROWTH, AND PUPATION IN LARVAE OFDROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Food uptake of Drosophila melanogaster larvae was limited by removing larvae from the food after different periods. Some of these larvae were transferred to culture jars ‐without food to study further development. The minimal feeding period necessary to complete development was 48 hours at 25°C; the larvae must have reached the third instar. Mortality of larvae with feeding periods of 40 hours or more was low. Pupa***rium formation was retarded only in larvae with a feeding period of 48 hours. Sex ratio of emerging adults was not influenced by underfeeding. Weight of adults was taken twice: alive and dried. Females were always somewhat heavier than males. Underfeeding may produce adults with weights only 1/4 to 1/5 of the normal weight.