Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shellfish tissues evaluated for Perkinsus spp. using the Ray's fluid thioglycollate medium culture assay can be used for downstream molecular assays.

Ray's fluid thioglycollate medium (RFTM) culture assay is the standard, recommended method for surveillance of Perkinsus spp. infections in marine molluscs. In this assay, shellfish tissues are incubated in RFTM, stained with Lugol's iodine solution to render Perkinsus spp. cells blue-black, and evaluated microscopically to rate infection intensities. A limitation of this assay, however, is the lack of pathogen species specificity. Generally, identification of Perkinsus spp. requires DNA sequence analysis of parallel or additional samples since the exposure to iodine is believed to hamper DNA amplification from samples processed by the RFTM assay. However, we show that P. marinus DNA can be successfully amplified by PCR from Crassostrea virginica tissues cultured in RFTM and stained with Lugol's iodine. The beneficial consequence is that, where necessary, DNA sequence data may be obtained from RFTM-cultured tissues, allowing the identification of the Perkinsus sp. responsible for an observed infection. This would obviate further sampling, representing gain of time and reduction in cost, where a Perkinsus sp. is unexpectedly observed in new host(s) or location(s) but where parallel samples are not available for molecular diagnostics. Laboratories without molecular diagnostic tools for Perkinsus spp. may fix presumptive Perkinsus sp. -positive culture material in 95% ethanol for transport to, and subsequent analysis by, a laboratory that does have this capacity.
Eosinophilic and Noneosinophilic Asthma

The term “eosinophilic” asthma (EA) generally refers to the clinical inflammatory phenotype of asthma wherein a significant number of sputum, airway, and/or blood eosinophils are present. Conversely, individuals with “noneosinophilic” asthma (NEA) may still demonstrate low numbers of eosinophils, but the dominant inflammatory cell type may include neutrophils, mixed granulocyte inflammatory cells, or very few inflammatory cells, termed paucigranulocytic inflammation. Although the mechanisms driving EA are becoming clearer, by contrast much less attention has been given to the underlying mechanisms that drive NEA, leading to a lack of available therapies for this patient population. Although “phenotype” refers to the observable characteristics of disease in an individual, by “endotypes” we mean the specific biological mechanism that causes those observed properties of any given phenotype. Understanding the manifold mechanisms or endotypes contributing to EA and NEA and the resulting clinical phenotypes derived from these endotypes will lead to novel treatment options and provide an opportunity for more precise and tailored treatments. This review highlights the mechanisms currently believed to underlie the recognized subphenotypes of EA and NEA and briefly discusses their clinical presentations as well as implications for treatment. Definition of Eosinophilic and Noneosinophilic Asthma
The use of TNF-α blocking agents in rheumatoid arthritis: an update

TNF-α has been found to play a pivotal role in the pathogenic mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Drugs targeting TNF-α have been developed to neutralise the deleterious effects of this inflammatory cytokine. There are, at present, three drugs available for the treatment of RA patients with active disease who are refractory to conventional treatments including methotrexate: 2 monoclonal antibodies, infliximab and adalimumab, and a fusion protein with p75 receptors, etanercept. These three agents have proved to be effective and safe in large placebo-controlled trials enrolling patients with established or early disease and showed effectiveness in controlling signs and symptoms of the disease, improving quality of life and in slowing and even arresting the progression of radiographic damage. With the long-term surveillance of these drugs were described serious adverse events, particularly infections such as tuberculosis, especially with infliximab. The risk for malignancies under TNF-α antagonists, especially lymphoma, remains controversial. Specific recommendations are given by international experts for selecting and monitoring RA patients with TNF-α antagonists. Other drugs targeting TNF-α such as PEGylated molecules (CDP870 or certolizumab) are in development. These new biological therapies blocking TNF-α undoubtedly constitute a considerable advancement in the management of RA, but careful evaluation at the initiation of the treatment and long-term surveillance of the patients receiving such drugs remains necessary.
Microsatellite primers in the white proteas (Protea section Exsertae, Proteaceae), a rapidly radiating lineage.

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Microsatellite primers were developed in the South African sclerophyllous shrub Protea punctata to investigate the degree of population differentiation within and between P. punctata and closely related species. • METHODS AND RESULTS 10 primer pairs were identified from three individuals of Protea punctata. The primers amplified di- and tri-nucleotide repeats. Across all P. punctata samples, the loci have 8-49 alleles. All primers also amplified in Protea section Exsertae (P. aurea, P. aurea subsp. potbergensis, P. mundii, P. venusta, P. lacticolor, and P. subvestita). The loci had 14-69 alleles across the subgenus. • CONCLUSIONS These results show the broad utility of microsatellite loci for future studies of population genetics in the white proteas and their potential utility across the entire genus.
Improving recognition of anxiety and depression in rheumatoid arthritis: a qualitative study in a community clinic.

BACKGROUND Comorbid anxiety and depression are common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but are often under-recognised and treated, contributing to worse outcomes. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that patients with RA should be offered a holistic annual review, including an assessment of mood. AIM To explore patients' perspectives of anxiety and depression in RA and preferences for disclosure and management of mood problems. DESIGN AND SETTING Qualitative interview study with patients recruited from a nurse-led RA annual review clinic in the Midlands, England. METHOD Patients attending the clinic who scored ≥3 on the case-finding questions (PHQ-2 and GAD-2) were invited for interview. Data were analysed thematically using principles of constant comparison. RESULTS Participants recognised a connection between their RA and mood, though this was perceived variably. Some lacked candidacy for care, normalising their mood problems. Fear of stigmatisation, a lack of time, and the perception that clinicians prioritise physical over mental health problems recursively affected help-seeking. Good communication and continuity of care were perceived to be integral to disclosure of mood problems. Participants expressed a preference for psychological therapies, though they reported problems accessing care. Some perceived medication to be offered as a 'quick fix' and feared potential drug interactions. CONCLUSION Prior experiences can lead patients with RA and comorbid anxiety and depression to feel they lack candidacy for care. Provision of equal priority to mental and physical health problems by GPs and improved continuity of care could help disclosure of mood concerns. Facilitation of access to psychological therapies could improve outcomes for both mental and physical health problems.
Development of a steerable, wheel-type, in-pipe robot and its path planning

This paper presents the development of a steerable, wheel-type, in-pipe robot and its path planning. First, we show the construction of the robot and demonstrate its locomotion inside a pipe. The robot is composed of two wheel frames and an extendable arm which links the centers of the two wheel frames. The arm presses the frames against the interior wall of a pipe to support the robot. The wheels of the frames are steered independently so that the robot can turn within a small radius of rotation. Experimental results of the locomotion show that the steering control is effective for autonomous navigation to avoid obstacles and to enter the joint spaces of L- and T-shaped pipes. Generally, autonomous navigation is difficult for wheel-type robots because the steering angles required to travel along a desired path are not easily determined. In our previous work, the relationship between the steering angles and locomotion trajectories in a pipe has already been analyzed. Using this analysis, we propose the path planning in pipes.
Knowledge-aware Attentive Neural Network for Ranking Question Answer Pairs

Ranking question answer pairs has attracted increasing attention recently due to its broad applications such as information retrieval and question answering (QA). Significant progresses have been made by deep neural networks. However, background information and hidden relations beyond the context, which play crucial roles in human text comprehension, have received little attention in recent deep neural networks that achieve the state of the art in ranking QA pairs. In the paper, we propose KABLSTM, a Knowledge-aware Attentive Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory, which leverages external knowledge from knowledge graphs (KG) to enrich the representational learning of QA sentences. Specifically, we develop a context-knowledge interactive learning architecture, in which a context-guided attentive convolutional neural network (CNN) is designed to integrate knowledge embeddings into sentence representations. Besides, a knowledge-aware attention mechanism is presented to attend interrelations between each segments of QA pairs. KABLSTM is evaluated on two widely-used benchmark QA datasets: WikiQA and TREC QA. Experiment results demonstrate that KABLSTM has robust superiority over competitors and sets state-of-the-art.
A potent mix: older people, transitions, practice development and research

The discussion to follow reflects on aspects of findings from research spanning more than a decade focusing on the substantive area of transitions in the care and support needs of older people. Rather than being a report of any of the individual research projects per se, some key issues that have emerged in these studies, and what they might mean for aspects of clinical practice development, are discussed. The aim is to encourage us to take time out to think about what otherwise may be assumed or unexplored understandings of aspects of both clinical practice itself, and how to develop that clinical practice with respect to older people and the transitions they undergo. Three areas of reflection form the focus of the paper. They are around creating a dynamic, contextualised and active research programme able to assist clinical development and practice; capturing and working with the complexity that is a transition; and questioning how independent some of the older people living in the community who participated in the research actually are. Implications for how services and supports are thought about and configured are highlighted throughout. Reflecting on research in this way is an essential part of taking time to care, and can assist in the development of thoughtful and optimal clinical practice.
Effects of Angular Dependency of Particulate Light Scattering Intensity on Determination of Samples with Bimodal Size Distributions Using Dynamic Light Scattering Methods

The angular dependency of light scattering intensity from differently sized particles strongly influences the apparent particle size distribution, as determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS) methods. Manufactured nanomaterials have size distributions more or less; therefore, the effect of detecting the angular dependency of the apparent size distribution by DLS is crucial. Commercial DLS instruments typically have two different types of detector angular position. The first is a detector angled at 90°, and the other is a backscattering angle detector. We therefore investigated the coverage and angular dependency when determining the relative concentrations of nanoparticles in polystyrene latex samples with a bimodal size distribution, using DLS methods both experimentally and theoretically. We used five differently sized polystyrene latex particles (one was a 70-nm nanoparticle and the others were various submicron-sized particles) in a variety of mixtures (the ratio of the difference of particle sizes ranged from approximately 2 to 7) to investigate the coverage and angular dependency of the recognition of the relative concentration ratio. In the case of size difference of approximately a factor of 2 or 3 between the two mixed particles (one was fixed at 70 nm), for DLS measurements at light scattering detector angles ranging from 60° to 150°, the homodyne photon correlation functions were approximately straight lines for mixtures of two differently sized polystyrene latex particles. The straight homodyne photon correlation functions were caused by the relatively strong light scattering from larger submicron particles masking the weaker light scattering from the smaller nanoparticles. As a result, DLS analysis could not recognize the relative concentration of nanoparticles in the mixture. In contrast to these samples, for mixtures of two differently sized polystyrene latex particles (one was 70 nm in size) with a size difference of a factor of 5, the homodyne correlation functions displayed an obvious curve for angles larger than 120°. This curve reflected an appropriate relative concentration ratio for the two differently sized polystyrene latex particles. Furthermore, for a mixture of two differently sized particles (one was again 70 nm) with size differences of a factor of 7, the homodyne correlation functions showed a clearly curved shape for detector angles larger than 90°, and yielded appropriate relative concentration ratios for the two different sizes of polystyrene latex particles. These observations were supported by theoretical investigation using Mie theory and asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation measurements with a multi-angle light scattering detector. Our investigation is crucial for achieving some degree of concordance on the determination of the size distribution of particles using DLS methods in industrial and academic fields.
Attitude of counsellors towards undergoing HIV voluntary counselling and testing in Ado-Odo/Ota, Nigeria

This study was an investigation into the attitude of counsellors who offer HIV pre and post counselling. Sixteen counsellors who offer HIV pre-post-test counselling were identified from the preliminary field work, of these, 9 counsellors who reported they had not presented for HIV/AIDS testing were identified and 7 eventually participated in the study. The participants were active counsellors, 27 through 46 years of age, who provided HIV pre-post-test counselling services. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select the participants. The non-scheduled structured interview was employed for data collection while the cross case method was used to analyze the data. The study found that the participants possessed negative attitude towards undergoing voluntary HIV/AIDS testing though they acknowledged the importance of HIV/AIDS test. The participants identified fear of being HIV/AIDS positive, lack of confidentiality and knowledge of HIV/AIDS as barriers to their undergoing HIV/AIDS test. Being counselled by a professional counsellor/ psychologist or someone living with HIV/AIDS, feeling too sick or being pregnant were highlighted as factors that may facilitate their undergoing HIV/AIDS test. It was also found that HIV/AIDS counsellors are as vulnerable to HIV/AIDS as the general population. Counsellors who by their training or job schedule encourage others to undergo HIV test were themselves unwilling to test for HIV. In conclusion, counsellors are advised to undergo voluntary HIV/AIDS test.
Correlations among Satisfaction with Educational Training, Job Performance, Job Characteristics, and Person-Job Fit

Abstract In face of the environmental change with capital, talent, and technology flight, tourist hotel enterprises need to accumulate high-quality human capital with systematic investment, development, and continuous learning and development for finding out the competitive strengths through the cultivation of human capital. Transforming knowledge staff into the organizational assets becomes the primary issue for managers. By practicing effective educational trainings of employees, tourist hotel enterprises could enhance the managerial knowledge and professional skills of the employees and change the work attitudes to promote the entire organizational performance. Aiming at satisfaction with educational training in tourist hotel industry, the effects of job chara cteristics and person-job fit on job performance are discussed in this study. The staffs in tourist hotel enterprises who have received educational trainings are distributed quesitonnaires, and total 343 valid samples are acquired.The research results show that higher satisfaction with educational training, job characteristics, and person-job fit would enhance job performance of employees. Moreover, both job characteristics and person-job fit present moderating effects on the correlations between satisfaction with educational training and job performance. Suggestions are further provided accoridng to the research results for the reference of managers in tourist hotel industry and the follow-up researchers.
Laser treatment for liver metastases : thermal and photodynamic therapy

textabstractMedical laser applications are one of the points of interest of the Department of Surgery of the Erasmus University Rotterda. _"Il. In 1988. experiments were conducted at the Laboratory for Experimental Surgery to investigate the use of laser in destroying liver metastases. These studies led to the research program "Laser treatment of experimental liver metastases", that was supported by the Netherlands Digestive Disease Foundation from beginning 1990 to the middle of 1992. Within this project, studies were carried out in close collaboration with the Departments of Pathology, Internal Medicine II, and Radiology of the Erasmus University. Joint studies were performed with the groups of the Department of Physics of the Dr. Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center and the Laser Center of the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam. This thesis describes the results of the studies mentioned above. The General Introduction gives an outline of the problem of hepatic metastases, the aims of the study, and the tumor model applied. The following parts on thermal and photodynamic therapy start with an introduction of the fundamentals of these laser applications. The second last part presents initial studies on the complex matter oflaser-tissue interaction. Finally, general considerations are given for possible clinical use.
A survey of adult power wheelchair and scooter users

Purpose. Power wheelchairs and scooters have the potential to increase community participation for people with mobility limitations. However, there are also challenges associated with use. The aims of this study were to investigate the characteristics of adults who use power wheelchairs and scooters, explore the process of power-mobility provision and examine the benefits and challenges of use. Methods. A cross-sectional survey design was used to recruit power wheelchair or scooter users, aged over 18 years, or their carer, living in New South Wales, Australia. The survey was distributed by mail and e-mail. Results. Two hundred and two usable surveys were returned, 25% were power wheelchair users (median age: 57 years, IQR: 40–69) and 74% were scooter users (mean age: 81 years, IQR: 72–85). Only one-third of users (33%) consulted a health professional prior to purchasing their device. Benefits included increased independence and quality of life. Challenges included environmental barriers and accidents. A sizeable proportion of respondents (21%) reported accidents in the previous year, often resulting in personal injury and damage to their device. Conclusion. Power-mobility devices have many benefits for users, but can also have negative outcomes, like accidents resulting in injuries. Further high quality studies need to be conducted to determine whether the positive benefits outweigh the negative outcomes such as accidents and injuries.
Establishing a core set of national, sustainable mental health indicators for children and young people in Scotland: final report

NHS Health Scotland launched a new set of indicators that will be used to paint a unique national picture of the mental health of children and young people in Scotland in November 2011. These provide a means of assessing and monitoring the mental health (mental wellbeing and mental health problems) of Scotland's children and young people and the contextual factors that can impact on, or are affected by, a child or young person's mental health (at an individual, family, learning environment, community and societal level) over time and will enable the development of the first national profile.
Aldoxorubicin for the treatment of advanced soft tissue sarcoma

Introduction: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) comprise a group of uncommon mesenchymal tumors of heterogeneous differentiation. For advanced STS, single-agent doxorubicin or doxorubicin-based combinations are commonly used, but at serious risk of cumulative cardiotoxicity. In addition, doxorubicin is the sheet anchor drug for many malignancies, both solid and hematologic. Areas covered: Aldoxorubicin, a doxorubicin prodrug currently in development, was designed to bind covalently to serum albumin and remains conjugated until transported to an acidic environment, such as the tumor site. We review the novel mechanism of action and the published pharmacokinetic, safety and efficacy data from Phase I, Ib/II and II clinical studies of aldoxorubicin in patients with advanced solid tumors, including advanced STS. Expert opinion: Chemical modification of doxorubicin, an effective but cardiotoxic chemotherapy drug, to aldoxorubicin has yielded a notable improvement in patient outcomes. This small step in drug chemistry may provide a giant leap in the future of cancer treatment. With its improved efficacy and low incidence of acute cardiotoxicity, aldoxorubicin may supersede doxorubicin as the treatment of choice for STS and other malignancies.
Distributed Face Recognition Using Multiple Kernel Discriminant Analysis in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a module based distributed wireless face recognition system by integrating multiple kernel discriminant analysis with face recognition in wireless sensor networks. By maximizing the margin maximization criterion (MMC), we separately perform an iterative scheme for kernel parameter optimization for each module. The simulation on the FERET and CMU PIE face databases shows that our multiple kernel framework and the optimization procedure achieve high recognition performance, compared with single-kernel-based KDDA.