Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Invasive and Minimally Invasive Treatment Modalities for Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms: What Are the Relevant Differences in Randomised Controlled Trials?

Objectives: This manuscript reviews the outcomes of invasive and minimally-invasive treatments of lower urinary tract symptoms due to prostatic enlargement. Methods: The MEDLINE database was searched for Medical Subject headings and text words including prostatic hyperplasia, treatment, surgery, thermal treatments, thermotherapy, laser, TUNA and vaportrode. Data from both randomised and non-randomised controlled trials were considered. Results: All invasive treatments produce significant changes of all subjective and objective outcome parameters. The best clinical outcome has been reported for open prostatectomy followed by transurethral resection of the prostate. Complications of the different invasive techniques were difficult to analyse because of the heterogeneity of categories among different papers and lack of standard criteria. The major attraction of all minimally invasive treatment options is the low risk of bleeding requiring blood transfusions. Retrograde ejaculation was one of the most frequently reported complications for all invasive techniques. Some of the so-called less invasive treatment options appeared to be associated with a rather high incidence of minor complications somehow contradicting their minimally invasiveness. Re-treatment rate observed in patients receiving various minimally invasive treatments was always higher than following standard treatment options such as transurethral resection. Conclusions: Open prostatectomy and transurethral resection of the prostate outperform all minimally invasive treatment modalities as regards efficacy and durability of outcome. The lack of standard criteria to evaluate complications and side effects makes treatment comparisons difficult. Endorsement of the clinical research criteria proposed by the last WHO-sponsored International Consultation on BPH is strongly recommended to improve the clinical value of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials. More information is needed on long-term complications and cost-effectiveness of minimally invasive treatment modalities.
Infant deaths from congenital anomalies: novel use of Child Death Overview Panel data

Objective We aimed to assess Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) data validity, and cause of death classification, by comparison with information from a local birth cohort study (Born in Bradford, BiB), and another cause of death coding system (causes of death and associated conditions—CODAC). We then aimed to use CDOP data to calculate ethnic-specific infant mortality rates (IMRs), and compare characteristics of infants who died of congenital anomalies (CA) with those who died from other causes (non-CA). Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Bradford Metropolitan District. Patients All infant deaths, 2008 to 2013. Main outcome measures Infant mortality rates from CA and non-CA causes. Results 315 infant deaths were included, 56 of whom were BiB recruits. Agreement between CDOP and BiB was moderate to perfect for all characteristics except ethnicity, which showed weak agreement (kappa=0.58). The same deaths (27/56) were classified as CA by CDOP and CODAC. IMRs (per 1000 live births, 2009–2013) were highest in Pakistani infants (all causes 9.8, CA cause 5.5) compared with white British (all causes 4.3, CA cause 1.3) and other infants (all causes 5.1, CA cause 1.4). In multivariate analysis, infants who died of CA cause were more likely to have been born at term (OR 3.18) and to consanguineous parents (OR 3.28) than infants who died of non-CA cause. Conclusions Excess Pakistani mortality appears to be partly explained by an excess of deaths from CA, which in this population appears associated with a greater prevalence of consanguinity.
Autocrine Production and Synergistic Growth-Promoting Activity of Interleukin-6 and Oncostatin M in a New Human Myeloma Cell Line TU-1

Human myeloma cell lines are difficult to establish, and they usually originate from patients with extramedullary disease. We describe a new human myeloma cell line, TU-1, which was established from the bone marrow of a patient without extramedullary myeloma. The myeloma cells were initially maintained in a conditioned medium derived from another well-known myeloma cell line U-266. This conditioned medium contained interleukin-6 (IL-6) and oncostatin M (OSM), and possibly other unknown growth factors as well. In 3 months the TU-1 cell line proliferated autonomously and secreted IL-6 and OSM with a synergistic growth response. As we have previously shown the cell line acquired a p53 mutation in vitro, which may be an important factor causing autonomous proliferation. In patients with multiple myeloma OSM is frequently found in the serum and OSM has been associated with serum IL-6 and progressive disease. Our study demonstrates the close relationship of OSM and IL-6 also in vitro.
Consideraciones éticas en la publicación de investigaciones científicas

En este trabajo se explican de manera amplia las violaciones eticas que se cometen con mayor frecuencia al momento de publicar articulos cientificos ya sea porque no se tiene el conocimiento necesario o porque se “cree” necesario realizarlas. Se hace referencia al proceso editorial y la parte etica que este conlleva, el concepto de autoria y los criterios existentes para denominar a una persona “autora” de un articulo, ademas de explicar el proceso de revision por pares por el cual pasan todas las investigaciones para su validacion antes de ser publicadas. Tambien se analizan las violaciones eticas mas comunes y faciles de cometer si no se tiene el conocimiento, como son el plagio y la publicacion duplicada, y se adjuntan guias practicas para evitar cometerlas. Por ultimo hablamos de consideraciones finales que se deben tener en cuenta antes de publicar articulos, tales como los conflictos de interes y el consentimiento informado, los cuales son muy importantes al momento de validar la informacion que se presente en el articulo en cuestion
Use of bacteriophage to prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination and fouling in Jet A aviation fuel

Abstract In the present study, the use of bacteriophages to prevent growth and/or biofouling by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 was investigated in microcosms containing Jet A aviation fuel as the carbon source. Bacteriophages were found to be effective at preventing biofilm formation but did not always prevent planktonic growth in the microcosms. This result was at odds with experiments conducted in nutrient-rich medium, demonstrating the necessity to test antimicrobial and antifouling strategies under conditions as near as possible to the ‘real world’. The success of the bacteriophages at preventing biofilm formation makes them potential candidates as antifouling agents for fuel systems.
School‐based physical activity programs for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18

In 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 2.6 million deaths were caused by individuals being overweight or obese. Physical inactivity is a key risk factor in the development of most chronic diseases and cancers, and the burden of these diseases has increased rapidly over recent decades. Management and prevention of chronic disease is a significant component of current nursing practice. Exercise helps to lower risk of disease in younger age groups. International studies have consistently demonstrated the positive health effects of exercise, yet fewer than 50% of boys and girls are active enough to gain benefit from exercise. The school setting is an ideal environment to implement physical activity interventions as it greatly influences the first 2 decades of life and ensures a large number of children are involved in and maintain these interventions. The aim of school‐based physical interventions is to increase the overall percentage of children and adolescents engaged in daily physical activity and, more specifically, weekly levels of moderate and vigorous activity. Data have shown that for each weekday that normal weight adolescents participate in physical education (PE), the odds of becoming overweight in adulthood decreased by 5%. There are also other methods of incorporating interventions throughout the school day such as discussing the benefits of healthy eating within the classroom environment. A number of previous reviews have considered the impact of interventions on preventing obesity in children; however, none have specifically considered the impact of school‐based strategies. Similarly, it has been difficult to ascertain what is the contribution of the school setting to the effectiveness of the intervention.
Type Theories and Lexical Networks: using Serious Games as the basis for Multi-Sorted Typed Systems

In this paper, we show how a rich lexico-semantic network which has been built using serious games, JeuxDeMots, can help us in grounding our semantic ontologies as well as different sorts of information in doing formal semantics using rich or modern type theories (type theories within the tradition of Martin Lof). We discuss the domain of base types, adjectival and verbal types, hyperonymy/hyponymy relations as well as more advanced issues like homophony and polysemy. We show how one can take advantage of this wealth in a formal compositional semantics framework. This is a way to sidestep the problem of deciding how your type ontology should look like once you have made a move to a many sorted type system. Furthermore, we show how this kind of information can be extracted from JeuxdeMots and inserted into a proof-assistant like Coq in order to perform reasoning tasks using modern type theoretic semantics.
A Toxicological Assessment of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Found in the BMW (Border, Midland and Western) Region of Ireland

A battery of tests was established to determine the oestrogenic, mutagenic and genotoxic potential of two categories of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), phthalates and alkylphenols. Diisononylphthalate (DINP), diethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), dibutylphthalate (DBP), diisododecylphthalate (DIDP) and 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) were oestrogenic in the yeast estrogen screen (YES) assay and potently oestrogenic in the MVLN and E-SCREEN assays at environmentally relevant concentrations. DINP and 4-NP were mutagenic in the Ames assay and also induced significant levels of unscheduled DNA synthesis and DNA strand breakage. Significant induction in the percentage of cells containing micronuclei was observed after treatment with DINP, DEHP and 4-NP. In addition, sewage effluents from sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region of Ireland were significantly oestrogenic in the YES assay. Moreover, analysis of levels of phthalates and alkylphenol identified in Irish rivers receiving treated effluent showed potent oestrogenicity in the YES assay. The proliferative and genotoxic ability of the phthalates and alkylphenol, and the oestrogenicity of the treated effluents reported here, is significant as these EDCs and EDCs within the effluent may play a role in the etiology of human abnormalities.
Environmental Influences on Infant Cortical Thickness and Surface Area

&NA; Cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) vary widely between individuals and are associated with intellectual ability and risk for various psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Factors influencing this variability remain poorly understood, but the radial unit hypothesis, as well as the more recent supragranular cortex expansion hypothesis, suggests that prenatal and perinatal influences may be particularly important. In this report, we examine the impact of 17 major demographic and obstetric history variables on interindividual variation in CT and SA in a unique sample of 805 neonates who received MRI scans of the brain around 2 weeks of age. Birth weight, postnatal age at MRI, gestational age at birth, and sex emerged as important predictors of SA. Postnatal age at MRI, paternal education, and maternal ethnicity emerged as important predictors of CT. These findings suggest that individual variation in infant CT and SA is explained by different sets of environmental factors with neonatal SA more strongly influenced by sex and obstetric history and CT more strongly influenced by socioeconomic and ethnic disparities. Findings raise the possibility that interventions aimed at reducing disparities and improving obstetric outcomes may alter prenatal/perinatal cortical development.
Anger, Hostility, and Hospitalizations in Patients With Heart Failure

Objective: Heart failure patients have a high hospitalization rate, and anger and hostility are associated with coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality. Using structural equation modeling, this prospective study assessed the predictive validity of anger and hostility traits for cardiovascular and all-cause rehospitalizations in patients with heart failure. Method: 146 heart failure patients were administered the STAXI and Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory to measure anger, hostility, and their component traits. Hospitalizations were recorded for up to 3 years following baseline. Causes of hospitalizations were categorized as heart failure, total cardiac, noncardiac, and all-cause (sum of cardiac and noncardiac). Results: Measurement models were separately fit for Anger and Hostility, followed by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis to estimate the relationship between the Anger and Hostility constructs. An Anger model consisted of State Anger, Trait Anger, Anger Expression Out, and Anger Expression In, and a Hostility model included Cynicism, Hostile Affect, Aggressive Responding, and Hostile Attribution. The latent construct of Anger did not predict any of the hospitalization outcomes, but Hostility significantly predicted all-cause hospitalizations. Analyses of individual trait components of each of the 2 models indicated that Anger Expression Out predicted all-cause and noncardiac hospitalizations, and Trait Anger predicted noncardiac hospitalizations. None of the individual components of Hostility were related to rehospitalizations or death. Conclusion: The construct of Hostility and several components of Anger are predictive of hospitalizations that were not specific to cardiac causes. Mechanisms common to a variety of health problems, such as self-care and risky health behaviors, may be involved in these associations.
Deciphering the origin of mito‐nuclear discordance in two sibling caddisfly species

An increasing number of phylogenetic studies have reported discordances among nuclear and mitochondrial markers. These discrepancies are highly relevant to widely used biodiversity assessment approaches, such as DNA barcoding, that rely almost exclusively on mitochondrial markers. Although the theoretical causes of mito‐nuclear discordances are well understood, it is often extremely challenging to determine the principal underlying factor in a given study system. In this study, we uncovered significant mito‐nuclear discordances in a pair of sibling caddisfly species. Application of genome sequencing, ddRAD and DNA barcoding revealed ongoing hybridization, as well as historical hybridization in Pleistocene refugia, leading us to identify introgression as the ultimate cause of the observed discordance pattern. Our novel genomic data, the discovery of a European‐wide hybrid zone and the availability of established techniques for laboratory breeding make this species pair an ideal model system for studying species boundaries with ongoing gene flow.
Correlation of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Cerebral Blood Flow Estimations and Microsphere Quantitations in Newborn Piglets

We compared cerebral blood flow (CBF) estimated using transmission mode near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and a modification of the Fick principle with CBF quantitations by radioactive microspheres (MSs) in newborn piglets. Thirteen piglets were studied during steady state, ischemia, and during two reflow periods. NIRS and MS flows were not significantly different during any measurement period. NIRS flows were compared to total brain blood flows and to regional brain blood flows quantitated with MSs and correlated best with temporal cortical flows. Linear regression analysis of the NIRS flows plotted against MS-quantitated temporal cortical flows showed r = 0.71. Thus, CBFs obtained with NIRS were not significantly different from, showed the same directional changes, and correlated acceptably with flows quantitated by MSs.
Application of appropriate similarity measures into machine learning

Learning using similarity is a common strategy for both human learning and machine learning. Psychologists and statisticians have proposed various kinds of similarity measures for both kinds of learning such as probability and distance representation. However, how similarity should be used for learning appropriately remains a controversial topic. According to some researchers such as Heit and Rubinstein, one should not make use of a single fixed similarity measure for different kind of property as concern of human learning. In this paper, we aim to support this proposal in machine learning framework and explain why different similarity measures should be used when accounting for different properties by finding suitable and reasonable similarity measures for a specific human voice recognition task. Based on the experiment results, it is concluded that appropriate similarity measures should be chosen for different kinds of properties according to the real application environment and requirement.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Baikalian amphipoda Eulimnogammarus vittatus Dybowsky, 1874

Abstract A complete mitochondrial genome sequence of amphipoda Eulimnogammarus vittatus Dybowsky, 1874 from Lake Baikal was obtained using next-generation sequencing approach. Mitochondrial DNA with the length of 15,534 bp contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA, 23 transfer RNA and non-coding sequences: a putative control region and 7 intergenic spacers. A brief comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes of E. vittatus and its sister species Eulimnogammarus verrucosus was performed.
Murraya paniculata (L.) (Orange Jasmine): Potential Nutraceuticals with Ameliorative Effect in Alloxan‐Induced Diabetic Rats

Orange jasmine, Murraya paniculata (Rutaceae), is a plant from India widely used in folk medicine as antinociceptive, antiinflammatory, and antioxidant. Although oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin are the mainstays of treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM), there is a significant demand for new natural products to reduce the development of diabetic complications. Alloxan‐induced diabetic rats were treated for 60 days with a hydroalcoholic extract of M. paniculata (MPE), at doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg. MPE decreased glycemia and also cholesterol and triglyceride levels, starting 1 week after treatments, as compared with the same group before treatments. Glucose values were reduced toward normality after 1 week of treatment. MPE hypoglycemic effects were potentiated by glibenclamide and metformin. MPE also decreased fructosamine and glycated hemoglobin values. MPE reduced diabetes‐induced morphological alterations of the kidney, pancreas, and liver. MPE acts similarly to glibenclamide and metformin, and its glucose‐lowering action is partly a consequence of ATP‐sensitive K+ channel inhibition. MPE may be a potential therapeutic alternative for the treatment of diabetes and its complications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reduction of gesture feature dimension for improving the hand gesture recognition performance of numerical sign language

A major form of non-touch human-computer interaction (HCI) is hand gesture recognition. This is one of the appealing ways to interact with computers and a natural part of how we communicate. However, as a part of HCI, human hand gesture recognition is a challenging issue. From this point of view, this paper presents an effective hand gesture recognition system with hand feature selection for low cost video acquisition device. In this proposed model, hand features are extracted from video frame using discrete wavelet transformation and singular value decomposition. A genetic algorithm with effective fitness function is used to select optimal hand features by eliminating redundant and irrelevant features for improving the recognition performance. Finally, support vector machine is used to recognize the hand gestures for numerical hand gesture accuracy of American Sign Language. The proposed model is validated using a constructed hand gesture dataset. The proposed model is compared with non-feature selection based models, where the feature selection-embedded model outperforms the traditional hand recognition process.
Overview and an approach for QR-code based messaging and file sharing on android platform in view of security

The demands of android smart phones and its use has increased rapidly. As a result, the need for competent message and file sharing techniques for android phones has increased. Messaging has emerged as one of the most important feature and applications in mobiles. The existing messaging techniques incorporate the use of the internet and SMS service. Various techniques of message passing and file sharing by using Wi-Fi/Internet through QR code for hiding purpose and maintaining its integrity are developed. This paper presents an overview of the existing techniques of secure message passing and file sharing in android phones. The overview is followed by our suggested approach which incorporates the RSA algorithm which can be used to encrypt and decrypt the message and MD5 algorithm can be used to check its integrity. The suggested approach ratifies the concept to reduce the use of mobile data while sharing of text or other file over the internet.
Social interactions and activity patterns of old Barbary macaques: Further insights into the foundations of social selectivity

Human aging is accompanied by a decrease in social activity and a narrowing in social networks. Studies in nonhuman primates may provide valuable comparative insights in which way aging impacts social life, in the absence of cultural conventions and an awareness of a limited lifetime. For female Barbary macaques at “La Forêt des Singes” in Rocamadour, France, we previously reported an age‐associated decrease in active grooming time and network size. Here, we aimed to extend these findings by investigating in which way physical decline, spatial proximity, and aggression vary with age in female Barbary macaques. We analyzed >1,200 hr of focal observations for 46 females aged 5–29 years. As expected, older females engaged less frequently in challenging locomotor activity, such as climbing or running, than younger ones. The previously reported decrease in grooming time was not due to shorter grooming bout duration. Instead, active grooming bouts lasted even longer, which discounts the idea that manual fatigue explains the shift in grooming pattern. We found that older females tended to be spatially reclusive and that they were less frequently the targets of aggression. Although older females showed aggressive behaviors at similar rates as younger females, the proportion of low‐level aggression (i.e., threats) increased with age. We suggest that these threats are not simply a signal of dominance, but also function to deter approaches by others. Overall, these findings are in line with the idea that older females aim to avoid potentially negative interactions, specifically if these are costly. In sum, these findings support the idea that shifts in female Barbary macaques' grooming activity, do not simply result from physical deterioration, but are instead due to a higher selectivity in the choice of social partners.