Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Illness Perceptions, Self-efficacy, and Self-reported Medication Adherence in Persons Aged 50 and Older With Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND Illness perceptions, patients' beliefs about their health condition, may affect medication adherence as well as self-efficacy for managing the condition in type 2 diabetes (T2DM). OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to investigate the associations between illness perceptions, self-efficacy, and self-reported medication adherence among persons (≥50 years of age) with T2DM and explore whether the number of comorbid conditions moderates these associations. METHODS This secondary analysis of cross-sectional data used baseline data from persons with T2DM. Self-administered questionnaires, including the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Self-efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease, and the 4-item Morisky-Green-Levine Medication Adherence Scale, were used. We performed hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS Participants (N = 146) were 57.5% female, 67.1% white, and on average 64 years old. Six dimensions of illness perceptions (ie, consequences, personal control, treatment control, identity, concerns, and emotional representations) were associated with self-efficacy for managing T2DM. Five dimensions (ie, timeline, personal control, treatment control, coherence, and emotional representations) were significant predictors of self-reported medication adherence. Whereas the number of comorbid conditions was significantly associated with self-efficacy for managing T2DM in all models (P values < .001), the number of comorbid conditions was not associated with self-reported medication adherence. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that illness perceptions and comorbid conditions may play a critical role in either self-efficacy or self-reported medication adherence in persons (≥50 years of age) with T2DM. Future research should incorporate an individual's illness perceptions and comorbid conditions into the development of interventions that may improve both self-efficacy and medication adherence in T2DM.
Children with Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Show an Altered Eye Movement Pattern during Reading

SIGNIFICANCE Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by oculomotor abnormalities. However, the eye movement pattern of children with ADHD during reading has yet to be fully determined. This investigation provides novel insights into the altered eye movement pattern during oral reading of nonmedicated children with pure ADHD in comparison with age-matched controls. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to objectively compare the eye movement pattern during oral reading in a group of nonmedicated children with pure ADHD and an age-matched control group. METHODS Forty-one children, 21 children with pure ADHD (9.3 ± 2.2 years, 15 boys) and 20 control children (9.3 ± 2.5 years, 10 boys), orally read a standardized text according to their age while the eye movement pattern was objectively recorded using the Visagraph Eye Movement recording system. RESULTS The Bayesian statistical analyses revealed that children with ADHD exhibited a significantly higher number of fixations (Bayes factor 10 [BF10] = 3.39), regressions (BF10 = 9.97), saccades in return sweeps (BF10 = 4.63), and anomalies of fixations and regressions (BF10 = 3.66) compared with controls. In addition, children with ADHD significantly showed longer reading times (BF10 = 31.29), as well as lower reading rate (BF10 = 156.74) and grade-level equivalent (BF10 = 168.24) in comparison with controls. CONCLUSIONS Our data showed that the nonmedicated children with pure ADHD have an altered eye movement pattern during oral reading when compared with controls, which cannot be attributable to any comorbid condition. The present outcomes may help to understand the link between ADHD and reading performance and design the most pertinent strategies to enhance the reading skills of this population.
Current status of normothermic ex-vivo perfusion of cardiac allografts.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Ex-vivo perfusion has emerged in recent years as an alternative to cold static preservation of organs harvested for transplant. Normothermic ex-vivo perfusion, the subject of this review, maintains the donor heart in a near physiologic state, and allows the transplant team to monitor and control perfusion to the organ prior to implantation. A growing body of evidence has established the safety and viability of this technique, which may improve on current standards of donor management. RECENT FINDINGS Following initial single-arm studies over a decade ago, ex-vivo perfusion has been studied in a prospective, randomized fashion in standard donor hearts (PROCEED II trial). The short and intermediate-term results demonstrated similar outcomes compared with cold storage with significantly shorter cold ischemic time. Since then, ex-vivo perfusion has been studied in extended-criteria donor hearts, first in observational studies, and currently in randomized, prospective fashion in the recently completed EXPAND-Heart trial, which is anticipated to be reported in 2020. SUMMARY Normothermic ex-vivo perfusion has an established literature base and holds promise for changing current practices of heart preservation. Results of forthcoming pivotal studies will help determine its role in more widespread clinical adoption.
Surface profiles of new generation intraocular lenses with improved intermediate vision.

PURPOSE To evaluate the surface profile of different new generation intraocular lenses (IOLs) designed to improve intermediate vision. SETTING Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. DESIGN Prospective experimental laboratory study. METHODS One higher-order asphericity monofocal IOL (Tecnis Eyhance ICB00) and 2 extended depth-of-focus (EDOF) IOLs (Tecnis Symphony ZXR00, Mini Well Ready) were examined and compared to monofocal IOLs with the same platform (Sensar AAB00, Tecnis ZCB00, Mini 4 Ready) using contact profilometry. Raw profiles were obtained and compared. The best fit circle was then subtracted from each raw profile to highlight differences. RESULTS The new higher-order aspheric IOL presented a peculiar profile, which appeared similar to the conventional monofocal IOL based on the same platform, with just minimal differences in the central design. One of the EDOF showed a diffractive design. The EDOF based on spherical aberration presented a central steepening surrounded by a symmetric lateral change in depths. CONCLUSIONS Improved intermediate vision can be achieved by means of different optic designs. Unlike the traditional EDOF and multifocal IOLs based on a diffractive design, the profiles of new generation IOLs are characterized by smooth and progressive changes of the superficial geometry.
Magnesium and Bladder Discomfort after Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study.

BACKGROUND Catheter-related bladder discomfort occurs because of involuntary contractions of the bladder smooth muscle after urinary catheterization. Magnesium is associated with smooth muscle relaxation. This study hypothesized that among patients having transurethral resection of bladder tumor, magnesium will reduce the incidence of postoperative moderate-to-severe catheter-related bladder discomfort. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized study, patients were randomly allocated to the magnesium group (n = 60) or the control group (n = 60). In magnesium group, a 50 mg/kg loading dose of intravenous magnesium sulfate was administered for 15 min, followed by an intravenous infusion of 15 mg · kg · h during the intraoperative period. Patients in the control group similarly received normal saline. The primary outcome was the incidence of catheter-related bladder discomfort above a moderate grade at 0 h postoperatively. None, mild, moderate, and severe catheter-related bladder discomfort at 1, 2, and 6 h postoperatively, patient satisfaction, and magnesium-related adverse effects were also assessed. RESULTS The incidence of catheter-related bladder discomfort above a moderate grade at 0 h postoperatively was significantly lower in the magnesium group than in the control group (13 [22%] vs. 46 [77%]; P < 0.001; relative risk = 0.283; 95% CI, 0.171 to 0.467; absolute risk reduction = 0.55; number needed to treat = 2); similar results were observed for catheter-related bladder discomfort above a moderate grade at 1 and 2 h postoperatively (5 [8%] vs. 17 [28%]; P = 0.005; relative risk = 0.294; 95% CI, 0.116 to 0.746; and 1 [2%] vs. 14 [23%]; P < 0.001; relative risk = 0.071; 95% CI, 0.010 to 0.526, respectively). Patient satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 7 was significantly higher in the magnesium group than in the control group (5.1 ± 0.8 vs. 3.5 ± 1.0; P < 0.001; 95% CI, 1.281 to 1.919). Magnesium-related adverse effects were not significantly different between groups. CONCLUSIONS Magnesium reduced the incidence of catheter-related bladder discomfort above a moderate grade and increased patient satisfaction among patients having transurethral resection of bladder tumor. : WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THIS TOPIC: Catheter-related bladder discomfort results from involuntary muscle contractionMagnesium relaxes smooth muscle and may therefore relieve bladder discomfort WHAT THIS ARTICLE TELLS US THAT IS NEW: In a randomized trial of 120 patients recovering from transurethral resection of bladder tumor, intravenous magnesium substantially reduced discomfort with a number needed to treat of only 2Intravenous magnesium is a simple and inexpensive way to reduce bladder discomfort.
Ethanol inhibits mesenchymal stem cell osteochondral lineage differentiation due in part to an activation of FoxO-specific signaling.

BACKGROUND During bone fracture repair, resident mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into chondrocytes, to form a cartilaginous fracture callus, and osteoblasts, to ossify the collagen matrix. Our laboratory previously reported that alcohol administration led to decreased cartilage formation within the fracture callus of rodents and this effect was mitigated by post-fracture antioxidant treatment. FoxO transcription factors are activated in response to intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), and alcohol has been shown to increase ROS. Activation of FoxOs has also been shown to inhibit canonical Wnt signaling, a necessary pathway for MSC differentiation. These findings have led to our hypothesis that alcohol exposure decreases osteochondrogenic differentiation of MSCs through the activation of FoxOs. METHODS Primary rat MSCs were treated with ethanol and assayed for FoxO expression, FoxO activation and downstream target expression. Next, MSCs were differentiated towards osteogenic or chondrogenic lineages in the presence of 50mM ethanol and alterations in osteochondral lineage marker expression was determined. Lastly, osteochondral differentiation experiments were repeated with FoxO1/3 knockdown or with FoxO1/3 inhibitor AS1842856 and osteochondral lineage marker expression was determined. RESULTS Ethanol increased the expression of FoxO3a at mRNA and protein levels in primary cultured MSCs. This was accompanied by an increase in FoxO1 nuclear localization, FoxO1 activation, and downstream catalase expression. Moreover, ethanol exposure decreased expression of osteogenic and chondrogenic lineage markers. FoxO1/3 knockdown restored pro-osteogenic and pro-chondrogenic lineage marker expression in the presence of 50mM ethanol. However, FoxO1/3 inhibitor only restored pro-osteogenic lineage marker expression. CONCLUSIONS These data show that ethanol has the ability to inhibit MSC differentiation, and this ability may rely, at least partially, on the activation of FoxO transcription factors.
Business Training and Attitudinal Changes: Inculcating Entrepreneurial Culture among Kenyan Pastoralists GuyoSarrHuka

Uwezo Fund has been providing some business training to the fund beneficiaries namely, youths, women and persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in Isiolo County in order to enhance their business competencies. Despite of the Uwezo Fund beneficiaries having received business training input, the County experienced low loan utilization, poor enterprise performances and low repayment of loans. Therefore, effect of business training inputs on business attitudes of Uwezo Fund beneficiaries in Isiolo County was investigate. The study adopted descriptive survey design with purposive sampling. Census techniques was used to cover all the beneficiary trainees of Uwezo Fund. Using structured questionnaires, the researcher gathered primary data from all the 255 beneficiary trainees who have received some business training during the course of the loan acquisition while secondary data wascollected from Uwezo Fund Isiolo County Office. The study established that the business training inputs had significant effects on the positive attitudinal changes towards business culture. Factor analysis showed that people management, financial management and marketing management was key to enhancing attitudinal changes of the business trainees among other factors.
Integrating cultivar resistance into a disease model for controlling early blight (Alternaria solani)

Field experiments were conducted to integrate cultivar resistance to an early blight-forecasting model (TOMCAST). Three cultivars (cvs. Agata, Sava, and Kuras) that differed for their level of resistance to early blight were either sprayed at every 14 days (standard treatment) or according three different TOMCAST threshold (15, 20 and 25) with Signum WG (Pyraclostrobin + Boscalid). Untreated plots were also included to serve as a check of the disease progression during the season. Results obtained from this study showed that TOMCAST-15 is the best TOMCAST threshold for Sava and Agata. However, for Kuras sufficient control of early blight comparable to the standard treatment was obtained for all TOMCAST thresholds. In conclusion, this study found that fungicide application or model thresholds for recommending fungicide applications could be adjusted according to host resistance to control early blight with fewer numbers of fungicides.
Mechanochemical control of stem cell biology in development and disease: Experimental and theoretical models

Whether a stem cell remains or egresses away from its physiological niche is a function of mechanical and soluble factors in a time-dependent manner, which implicates a `memory' of prior mechanochemical conditioning. Virtually every organ in the body contains resident stem or progenitor cells that contribute to organ homeostasis or repair. The wound healing process in higher vertebrate animals is spatiotemporally complex and usually leads to scarring. Limitations for the use of stem cells as regenerative therapy include the lack of expansion capabilities in vitro as well as materials issues that complicate traditional biochemical protocols. A minimal `scar in a dish' model is developed to clarify the kinetics of tension-sensitive proteins in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which possess plasticity to mechanochemical changes of the microenvironment that are typical of scars. The organization and expression of such proteins implicates transcription factors that ultimately steer cell fate. In contrast to classic mechano-transducers of matrix mechanics such as actin assembly-dependent serum response factor (SRF) signaling, a novel mechanorepressive role of NKX2.5 is implicated in maintaining intracellular tension in long-term stem cell cultures on stiff matrices via nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling — ultimately setting up a 'mechanical memory'. Core gene circuits with known roles in stem cell mechanobiology are modeled based on the 'use it or lose it' concept: tension inhibits turnover of structural proteins such as extracellular collagens, cytoskeletal myosins and nucleoskeletal lamins. This theoretical approach is tested in a variety of processes in vitro and in vivo that involve forces including cardiac development, osteogenic commitment of MSCs, and fibrosis therapy. With the sophistication of the science and technology of biomaterials relevant to stem cell biology and medicine, matrix mechanics can thus be rigorously combined with biochemical instructions in order to maximize therapeutic utility of stem cells. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering First Advisor Dennis E. Discher
Contour Generalization Based Nearest Neighbor Approximation for Mining Uncertain Data

-Recently, data uncertainty has developed into an accepted topic in database and data mining area due to the enormous amount of uncertainty involved. The previous methods extend traditional spatiotemporal tolerance for coping with data uncertainty. The methods used Continuous Range Queries and Superseding Nearest Neighbor search, thus rely on conventional multidimensional index. Such methods cannot handle uncertain objects to NN classifier based continuous queries. At the same time, Nearest Neighbor, which is essential characteristics of uncertain objects, has not been considered in measuring contour segments in uncertain data. In this paper, a Contour Generalization based NN approximation (CG-NN Approximation) technique is developed, with the objective of solving spatiotemporal tolerance problem. Contour Generalization technique reduces the overhead count on analyzing the NN based continuous queries and uses a distance function to produce high dimensionality on spatiotemporal queries. An optimal Contour Generalization algorithm produces an optimal Contour Generalization for every input query points.CG-NN Approximation considers various types of queries on uncertain database, determines the query type, and distance function to provide solution for queries on uncertain data. Contour Generalization approximates a polygonal contour, so that it is sufficiently close (i.e.,) nearest neighbor and has less contour segments. The lesser contour segments takes less storage-space and thus minimizing the computational overhead. Experimental evaluation is measured in terms of computation overhead, spatiotemporal tolerance, storage space and query processing efficiency. Experimental analysis shows that CG-NNA technique is able to reduce the computation overhead for continuous queries on uncertain data by 19.35% and reduce the average operation cost by21.24% compared to the state-of-the-art works.
Historical and future learning about climate sensitivity

Equilibrium climate sensitivity measures the long‐term response of surface temperature to changes in atmospheric CO2. The range of climate sensitivities in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report is unchanged from that published almost 30 years earlier in the Charney Report. We conduct perfect model experiments using an energy balance model to study the rate at which uncertainties might be reduced by observation of global temperature and ocean heat uptake. We find that a climate sensitivity of 1.5°C can be statistically distinguished from 3°C by 2030, 3°C from 4.5°C by 2040, and 4.5°C from 6°C by 2065. Learning rates are slowest in the scenarios of greatest concern (high sensitivities), due to a longer ocean response time, which may have bearing on wait‐and‐see versus precautionary mitigation policies. Learning rates are optimistic in presuming the availability of whole ocean heat data but pessimistic by using simple aggregated metrics and model physics.
Molecular regulation of universal stress proteins in environmentally mediated schistosomiasis parasites

Human schistosomiasis popularly known as bilharzias in many regions of Africa is a freshwater snail-transmitted disease caused by parasitic flatworms known as schistosomes. The growth and development of schistosomes typically requires developmental stages in multiple hosts and transmission stages in freshwater. These life cycle environments present a plethora of stressors. Certain gene families including heat shock proteins (HSPs/Hsps) and universal stress proteins (USPs) help schistosomes to respond to unfavourable conditions.
On Optimizing Neutrosophic Complex Programming Using Lexicographic Order

: Neutrosophic sets are a generalization of the crisp set, fuzzy set, and intuitionistic fuzzy set for representing the uncertainty, inconsistency, and incomplete knowledge about the real world problems. This paper aims to characterize the solution of complex programming (CP) problem with imprecise data instead of its prices information. The neutrosophic complex programming (NCP) problem is considered by incorporating single valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers in all the parameters of objective function and constraints. The score function corresponding to the neutrosophic number is used to transform the problem into the corresponding crisp CP. Here, Lexicographic order is applied for the comparison between any two complex numbers. The comparison is developed between the real and imaginary parts separately. Through this manner, the CP problem is divided into two real sub-problems. In the last, a numerical example is solved for the illustration that shows the applicability of the proposed approach. The advantage of this approach is more flexible and makes a real-world situation more realistic.
How to (Not) Lose Your Data

Increasingly, Linux is the platform that major vendors use to implement everything from consumer grade NAS devices that you can buy at your local electronics store up to expensive, enterprise grade storage systems. This paper aims to present a high level overview of how some of these systems are put together, how to tune Linux for storage applications and what functionality is either on the horizon or yet to be started in the open source space that will enhance Linux as a storage system. The techniques presented are are also applicable to normal home users who would like to enhance data integrity.
L EARNING AN OFF - POLICY PREDICTIVE STATE REP - RESENTATION FOR DEEP REINFORCEMENT LEARNING FOR VISION - BASED STEERING IN AUTONOMOUS DRIV - ING

An algorithm is introduced for learning a predictive state representation with off-policy temporal difference (TD) learning that is then used to learn to steer a vehicle with reinforcement learning. There are three components being learned simultaneously: (1) the off-policy predictions as a compact representation of state, (2) the behavior policy distribution for estimating the off-policy predictions, and (3) the deterministic policy gradient for learning to act. A behavior policy discriminator is learned and used for estimating the important sampling ratios needed to learn the predictive representation off-policy with general value functions (GVFs). A linear deterministic policy gradient method is used to train the agent with only the predictive representations while the predictions are being learned. All three components are combined, demonstrated and evaluated on the problem of steering the vehicle from images in the TORCS racing simulator environment. Steering from only images is a challenging problem where evaluation is completed on a held-out set of tracks that were never seen during training in order to measure the generalization of the predictions and controller. Experiments show the proposed method is able to steer smoothly and navigate many but not all of the tracks available in TORCS with performance that exceeds DDPG using only images as input and approaches the performance of an ideal non-vision based kinematics model.