Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bowel ischaemia in COVID-19 infection: a scoping review protocol

Introduction COVID-19 disease was declared as a pandemic by WHO since March 2020 and can have a myriad of clinical presentations affecting various organ systems. Patients with COVID-19 are known to have an increased risk of thromboembolism, including cardiovascular, pulmonary and cerebral ischaemic events. However, an increasing number of case studies have reported that COVID-19 infection is also associated with gastrointestinal ischaemia. This scoping review aims to collate the current evidence of COVID-19-related gastrointestinal ischaemia and raise awareness among healthcare professionals of this lesser known, but serious, non-pulmonary complication of COVID-19 infection. Methods The proposed scoping review will be conducted as per the Arksey and O’Malley methodological framework (2005) the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. A systematic search will be undertaken on different databases including EMBASE, PubMed and MEDLINE. Two independent reviewers will screen titles, abstracts and full-text articles according to the inclusion criteria and extract relevant data from the included articles. Results will be presented in a tabular form with a narrative discussion. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval will not be required for this scoping review. This scoping review will provide an extensive overview of the association between COVID-19 infection and bowel ischaemia. Further ethical and methodological challenges will also be discussed in our findings to define a new research agenda. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at both national and international conferences.
The invisible and the non-routine: a meta-ethnography of intersectoral work in schools from the perspective of speech and language therapists and occupational therapists

ABSTRACT Effective intersectoral collaboration across health and education has been a policy priority for decades as a means of meeting the needs of children with neurodevelopmental disorders in school yet remains rare in practice. A meta-ethnography was undertaken to explore the experiences of occupational therapists (OTs) and speech and language therapists (SLTs) with the aim of contributing new insights into the nature of their collaborative work in schools, and how it may best be facilitated. Electronic and manual searches were conducted. Papers were double-screened and critically appraised. A line of argument analysis was undertaken. Fourteen papers were analyzed, reporting the experiences of 369 practitioners from schools across six countries. Five concepts were identified: (a) negotiating liminal professional spaces; (b) gaining entry; (c) collaborative endeavor; (d) collaborative inertia; and (e) collaborative conviction. We describe the complex, effortful, and relational nature of intersectoral collaboration. We propose a conceptualization of SLT and OT collaborative practice in schools as articulation work, with elements of boundary work, much of which is invisible and non-routine. We argue the need for collaborative leadership to promote knowledge and awareness of the role of SLTs and OTs in school, and to support the contextual integration of their relational work in this setting.
Molecular basis for thermal stability and affinity in a VHH: Contribution of the framework region and its influence in the conformation of the CDR3

The camelid single domain antibody, referred to VHH or Nanobody, is considered a versatile tool for various biotechnological and clinical applications because of its favorable biophysical properties. To take advantage of these characteristics and for its application in biotechnology and therapy, research on VHH engineering is currently vigorously conducted. To humanize a camelid VHH, we performed complementarity determining region (CDR) grafting using a humanized VHH currently in clinical trials, and investigated the effects of these changes on the biophysical properties of the resulting VHH. The chimeric VHH exhibited a significant decrease in affinity and thermal stability and a large conformational change in the CDR3. To elucidate the molecular basis for these changes, we performed mutational analyses on the framework regions revealing the contribution of individual residues within the framework region. It is demonstrated that the mutations resulted in the loss of affinity and lower thermal stability, revealing the significance of bulky residues in the vicinity of the CDR3, and the importance of intramolecular interactions between the CDR3 and the framework‐2 region. Subsequently, we performed back‐mutational analyses on the chimeric VHH. Back‐mutations resulted in an increase of the thermal stability and affinity. These data suggested that back‐mutations restored the intramolecular interactions, and proper positioning and/or dynamics of the CDR3, resulting in the gain of thermal stability and affinity. These observations revealed the molecular contribution of the framework region on VHHs and further designability of the framework region of VHHs without modifying the CDRs.
An Application of the Extended Cutting Angle Method in Radiation Therapy

Global optimization of continuous, non-linear functions are very hard problems, especially when the functions are multivariate and when analytical information is not available. Heuristic methods like simulated annealing provide good results. However, if time is a critical factor, those methods may deliver suboptimal solutions and give little information about the quality of the solutions. Methods of Lipschitz optimization allow one to find and confirm the global minimum of multivariate Lipschitz functions using a finite number of function evaluations. The Extended Cutting Angle Method (ECAM), proposed by Gleb Beliakov, is a fast method to optimize a Lipschitz function over multiple dimensions. The first objective was to fully implement the proposed algorithm and to test it on a family of classic global optimization problems. A second objective was to apply the algorithm to the problem of optimizing the radiation treatment for cancer patients. In radiotherapy, several x-ray beams are delivered to the tumor from different angles around the patient. The ECAM was tested against a simulated annealing algorithm to find the optimal angles of the beams in order to deliver the prescribed radiation dose to the tumor and to minimize the damage to healthy tissue.
MediCoSpace: Visual Decision-Support for Doctor-Patient Consultations using Medical Concept Spaces from EHRs

Healthcare systems are under pressure from an aging population, rising costs, and increasingly complex conditions and treatments. Although data are determined to play a bigger role in how doctors diagnose and prescribe treatments, they struggle due to a lack of time and an abundance of structured and unstructured information. To address this challenge, we introduce MediCoSpace, a visual decision-support tool for more efficient doctor-patient consultations. The tool links patient reports to past and present diagnoses, diseases, drugs, and treatments, both for the current patient and other patients in comparable situations. MediCoSpace uses textual medical data, deep-learning supported text analysis and concept spaces to facilitate a visual discovery process. The tool is evaluated by five medical doctors. The results show that MediCoSpace facilitates a promising, yet complex way to discover unlikely relations and thus suggests a path toward the development of interactive visual tools to provide physicians with more holistic diagnoses and personalized, dynamic treatments for patients.
Features of the proportionality coefficient in the relationship between visibility and liquid water content in haze and fog

Abstract A wide set of size‐distribution models of haze and fog droplets expressed in terms of the modified gamma distribution function have been used for evaluating the proportionality coefficient b in the empirical relationship between visibility V and liquid water content LWC, that is V=b (LWC)‐ 2/3, as proposed by Eldridge (1966). The evaluations of b turn out to be consistent with the values proposed in the literature and give evidence for its close dependence on the shape‐parameters of the droplet size distribution, especially as regards the mode radius and the width of the larger‐droplet wing. Three average relationship curves are proposed respectively for dense haze, “dry and cold” fog and “wet and warm” fog. Corresponding to these cases, three correlation lines are presented between b and the ratio of the volume extinction coefficient at 3.70 μm wavelength to that at 0.55 μm, evaluated for the same uniform path in hazy and foggy atmospheres. Applied to measurements of infrared and visible transmi.
Robust Statistics: Theory and Methods

Classical statistical techniques fail to cope well with deviations from a standard distribution. Robust statistical methods take into account these deviations while estimating the parameters of parametric models, thus increasing the accuracy of the inference. Research into robust methods is flourishing, with new methods being developed and different applications considered. Robust Statistics sets out to explain the use of robust methods and their theoretical justification. It provides an up-to-date overview of the theory and practical application of the robust statistical methods in regression, multivariate analysis, generalized linear models and time series. This unique book: Enables the reader to select and use the most appropriate robust method for their particular statistical model. Features computational algorithms for the core methods. Covers regression methods for data mining applications. Includes examples with real data and applications using the S-Plus robust statistics library. Describes the theoretical and operational aspects of robust methods separately, so the reader can choose to focus on one or the other. Supported by a supplementary website featuring time-limited S-Plus download, along with datasets and S-Plus code to allow the reader to reproduce the examples given in the book. Robust Statistics aims to stimulate the use of robust methods as a powerful tool to increase the reliability and accuracy of statistical modelling and data analysis. It is ideal for researchers, practitioners and graduate students of statistics, electrical, chemical and biochemical engineering, and computer vision. There is also much to benefit researchers from other sciences, such as biotechnology, who need to use robust statistical methods in their work.
Phonetic typology and articulatory constraints: The realization of secondary articulations in Scottish Gaelic rhotics

Abstract:Much progress has been made in the last 200 years with regard to understanding the origins and mechanisms of sound change. It is hypothesized that many sound changes originate in biomechanical constraints on speech production or in the misperception of sounds. These production and perception pressures explain a wide range of sound changes across the world’s languages, yet we also know that sound change is not inevitable. For example, similar phonological structures have undergone change in many languages yet remained stable in others. In this study, we examine how typologically unusual contrasts are maintained in the face of intense pressures, in order to uncover the potential biomechanical, perceptual, and sociolinguistic factors that facilitate the maintenance of typologically unusual contrasts. We focus on secondary articulation contrasts in Scottish Gaelic rhotics, triangulating auditory, acoustic, and articulatory data in order to better understand the maintenance of contrast in the face of multidimensional typological challenges. Here, individual-level articulatory strategies are combined with contextual prosodic information in order to maintain acoustic and auditory distinctiveness across three rhotic phonemes. We highlight the need to more comprehensively consider typologically unusual and minority languages in order to test the limits of generalizations about crosslinguistic phonetic typology.
Bagay: A Structural-Phenomenological Discussion of a Movement

Abstract:This article discusses the Bagay movement using critical discourse analysis, a structural approach, and the concept of loob or inner life through a phenomenological approach in the context of the Ateneo de Manila in the 1960s, when the university underwent Filipinization. While literature on social movements is useful in understanding Bagay, concepts from the humanities may further enrich it. Starting as a literary movement that forwarded a poetic style characterized by its novel use of imagery and language, Bagay grew into a social movement that influenced changes within the academic landscape of the Ateneo and various aspects of Philippine culture.
Electroencephalogram Data Collection for Student Engagement Analysis with Audio-Visual Content

Recognizing and monitoring students’ attention during learning is crucial to successful knowledge acquisition since it influences cognitive function. As a result, gaining a precise picture of a learner’s mental state may enable interactive learning systems to alter tutoring content, devise effective help tactics, and improve learning outcomes. In computer-based learning environments, keeping track of students’ mental states is vital. Investigating the feasibility of utilizing active learning in enhancing student engagement index when exposed to various visual stimuli is the genesis of this work. The research includes collecting EEG data from 20 participants (ten males, ten females) while resting and being subjected to various virtual infotainment/educational content. The EEG data were collected using the Allengers Neuro PLOT, a 40-channel wet electrode system. The work includes raw and pre-processed EEG data under quiescent and audio-visual continuous cues. The recorded data is accommodated by a sophisticated EEG data pre-processing pipeline and will be available to the research community for usage. Specifications Table
Gradual relation between perceptual awareness, recognition and pupillary responses to social threat

There is substantial evidence about affective stimulus processing outside awareness in healthy participants and brain-damaged patients. However, there are still methodological concerns mainly relating to the methods used to assess awareness. In two experiments, we investigated the processing of social threat in healthy participants by combining the continuous flash suppression paradigm and the perceptual awareness scale, a finer measure of perceptual awareness than dichotomous (seen/unseen) responses. Our behavioral results show a gradual relationship between emotional recognition and perceptual awareness. Recognition sensitivity was also higher for fearful than angry bodies for all visual awareness levels except for the perceptual unawareness condition where performance was at chance level. Interestingly, angry body expressions were suppressed for a shorter duration than neutral and fearful ones. Pupil dilation was a function of affective expression, the duration of suppression and the level of perceptual awareness. In conclusion, behavioral as well as pupillary responses showed a gradual relationship with perceptual awareness, and this relationship was influenced by the specific stimulus category.
VASH1/2 inhibition accelerates functional recovery of injured nerves

Treatments accelerating axon regeneration in the nervous system are still unavailable in the clinic. However, in culture, parthenolide markedly promotes adult sensory neurons’ axon growth by inhibiting microtubule detyrosination. Here, we show that overexpression of vasohibins increases microtubule detyrosination in growth cones and compromises growth in culture and in vivo. Moreover, overexpression of these proteins increases the required parthenolide concentrations to promote axon regeneration, while the knockdown of vasohibins or their enhancer SVBP abolishes parthenolide’s effects, verifying them as pharmacological targets for promoting axon growth. In vivo, repeated intravenous application of parthenolide or its prodrug di-methyl-amino-parthenolide (DMAPT) markedly facilitates regeneration of sensory, motor, and sympathetic axons in injured murine and rat nerves and accelerates functional re-covery. Moreover, orally applied DMAPT was similarly effective in promoting nerve regeneration. Thus, pharmacological inhibition of vasohibins facilitates axon regeneration in different species and nerves, making parthenolide and DMAPT promising drugs for curing nerve injury.
To start or to discontinue the pill – changes in progestogens reflected by resting-state connectivity and positive mood

Oral contraceptive (OC) intake has been associated with alterations in functional brain architecture and socio-affective processes. However, most previous studies have been limited by cross-sectional designs and/or did not account for synthetic sex hormone concentrations. The aim of this longitudinal study was to determine the effects of starting vs discontinuing OCs on socio-affective functions such as mood and emotion cognition, and to identify their possible neuroendocrinological substrates. To this end, 88 young healthy women performed the behavioral and fMRI measures twice, three to eight months apart: 26 natural cycling women twice during menstruation, 26 OC users twice during OC intake, 25 OC discontinuers and 11 OC starters before and after discontinuation or start, respectively. In addition to mean-based analyses, we used intersubject representational similarity analyses to determine relationships between interindividual variability in within-subject changes of hormone profiles, including concentrations of endogenous and synthetic hormones, region-specific resting state functional connectivity (parcelwise RSFC) and socio-affective measures. Across the whole sample, interindividual patterns of changes in RSFC of fronto-parietal regions, parts of the left hippocampus and the right cerebellum reflected change patterns of progestogen levels. For the right superior orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG), a trinity of idiosyncratic patterns was found in changes of progestogens, RSFC and positive mood. Active OC intake was associated with higher self-reported depressive symptoms in OC discontinuers (and starters). Emotion recognition performance was not associated with changes in hormone profiles or RSFC. Overall, progestogens rather than estrogens appear to be associated with functional brain architecture of the frontal and subcortical/cerebellar regions and positive mood. The right superior OFG represents a possible neural substrate for progestogen-induced changes in positive mood. This study indicates the importance of a multidimensional, longitudinal approach when being interested in effects of hormonal contraception on women’s brain and behavior.
Wound healing and anti-inflammatory potential of Ajuga bracteosa-conjugated silver nanoparticles in Balb/c mice

Background Wound therapy is complicated, uncomfortable for the patient, and costly for the health-care system. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) have antibacterial characteristics that can prevent bacterial infection in wounds and speed up wound healing Objective The aim of current research was to investigate the wound healing and anti-inflammatory potential of biogenic synthesized silver nanoparticles (ABAgNP) using Ajuga bracteosa (ABaqu) in Swiss albino mice. Methods In vivo wound healing and anti-inflammatory activities were carried out using Bala/c mice. For in vivo screening of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg of both ABAgNPs and ABaqu were used. Liver and kidney functional markers, hematology, and histopathological studies were carried out after 14 days of administration. Results The obtained biogenic nanoparticles were characterized, dermal toxicity, wound excision repairing, and formalin-induced paw edema assays were performed in Swiss albino mice. Dermal toxicity showed that tested concentrations of ABaqu and ABAgNPs were safe. No adverse effects, changes, and alteration in the skin of treatment groups as well as the control vehicle group (petroleum jelly) were recorded. Results revealed that the enhanced wound contraction was observed in ABaqu, ABAgNP, and the Nitrofuranose treated groups from 7th to 11thdays. The anti-inflammatory activity in formalin-induced paw edema model illustrated the potential use of silver nanoparticles ABAgNPs and ABaqu as a reducing or inflammation inhibiting agents due to the release of acute inflammatory mediators. Conclusion Therefore, it was concluded that both silver nanoparticles (ABAgNP) and Ajuga bracteosa (ABaqu) extracts could be used as a wound healing and anti-inflammatory agents.
Fibroblast activation during decidualization: Embryo-derived TNFα induction of PGI2-PPARδ-ACTIVIN A pathway through luminal epithelium

Objectives Human endometrium undergoes cyclical shedding and bleeding, scar-free repair and regeneration in subsequent cycles. Fibroblast activation has been shown to play a key role during normal tissue repair and scar formation. Abnormal fibroblast activation leads to fibrosis. Fibrosis is the main cause of intrauterine adhesion, uterine scaring, and thin endometrium. Endometrial decidualization is a critical step during early pregnancy. There are 75% of pregnancy failures pointed to decidualization defects. Because fibroblast activation and decidualization share similar markers, we assumed that fibroblast activation should be involved in decidualization. Materials and Methods Both pregnant and pseudopregnant ICR mice were used in this study. Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry were applied to examine fibroblast activation-related markers in mouse uteri. Western blotting was used to identify the impact on decidualization. Western blot and RT were used to show how arachidonic acid and its downstream product prostaglandin activate fibroblasts. Additionally, embryo-derived TNFα was shown to stimulate the secretion of arachidonic acid by immunofluorescence, western blot, and ELASA. The aborted decidual tissues with fetal trisomy 16 were compared with control tissues. GraphPad Prism5.0 Student’s t test was used to compare differences between control and treatment groups Results Fibroblast activation-related markers are obviously detected in pregnant decidua and under in vitro decidualization. ACTIVIN A secreted under fibroblast activation promotes in vitro decidualization. We showed that arachidonic acid released from uterine luminal epithelium can induce fibroblast activation and decidualization through PGI2 and its nuclear receptor PPAR-δ. Based on the significant difference of fibroblast activation-related markers between pregnant and pseudopregnant mice, we found that embryo-derived TNFα promotes cPLA2α phosphorylation and arachidonic acid release from luminal epithelium. Fibroblast activation is also detected under human in vitro decidualization. Similar arachidonic acid-PGI2-PPARδ-ACTIVIN A pathway is conserved in human endometrium. Compared to controls, fibroblast activation is obviously compromised in human decidual tissues with fetal trisomy 16. Conclusions Embryo-derived TNFα promotes cPLA2α phosphorylation and arachidonic acid release from luminal epithelium to induce fibroblast activation and decidualization. Graphic abstract