Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Young Men's Condom Use Resistance Tactics: A Latent Profile Analysis

Research suggests that many men have used a variety of tactics to avoid using condoms when having sex with women. Guided by previous work demonstrating that men's use of coercive condom resistance tactics was predicted by negative attitudes toward women, inconsistent condom use, multiple partners, and sexual sensation seeking, the current study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to determine whether similar constructs were associated with a variety of resistance tactics. A community sample of 313 moderate-drinking men participated, of whom 80% reported employing at least one condom use resistance tactic since adolescence. The LPA revealed three classes of men. In general, men with the least negative beliefs about women, low levels of sexual sensation seeking and impulsivity, and positive beliefs about condoms (Condom Positive/Low Hostility) reported less use of resistance tactics than men with moderate sexual sensation seeking and impulsivity, negative beliefs about condoms, and moderate (Condom Negative/Moderate Hostility) or high (Condom Negative/High Hostility) negative attitudes about women. The classes also differed in terms of their sexual behaviors. This study demonstrated that sexual risk behavior interventions should not only address the tactics through which men resist using condoms but also tailor these efforts to men's individual characteristics.
European Respiratory Society guidelines for the management of adult bronchiectasis

Bronchiectasis in adults is a chronic disorder associated with poor quality of life and frequent exacerbations in many patients. There have been no previous international guidelines. The European Respiratory Society guidelines for the management of adult bronchiectasis describe the appropriate investigation and treatment strategies determined by a systematic review of the literature. A multidisciplinary group representing respiratory medicine, microbiology, physiotherapy, thoracic surgery, primary care, methodology and patients considered the most relevant clinical questions (for both clinicians and patients) related to management of bronchiectasis. Nine key clinical questions were generated and a systematic review was conducted to identify published systematic reviews, randomised clinical trials and observational studies that answered these questions. We used the GRADE approach to define the quality of the evidence and the level of recommendations. The resulting guideline addresses the investigation of underlying causes of bronchiectasis, treatment of exacerbations, pathogen eradication, long term antibiotic treatment, anti-inflammatories, mucoactive drugs, bronchodilators, surgical treatment and respiratory physiotherapy. These recommendations can be used to benchmark quality of care for people with bronchiectasis across Europe and to improve outcomes. The publication of the first ERS guidelines for bronchiectasis http://ow.ly/wQSO30dU0nE
Predictors and Outcomes of Acute Coronary Syndrome in Patients with Insignificant Coronary Artery Disease

Background We aimed to investigate the predictors, in-hospital and 3-months outcomes of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients with insignificant stenosis on a coronary angiogram. Methods We conducted a prospective study of 200 consecutive patients admitted to the coronary care unit with a diagnosis of ACS. All patients underwent cardiac catheterization and were classified into two groups: group I (insignificant coronary artery disease (CAD): lumen diameter 70% diameter stenosis). Results Patients with insignificant CAD were younger (P<0.001), more likely to be female (P=0.006), less likely to smoke (P=0.006), have diabetes mellitus (p<0.001), with a history of CAD (P=0.042) or coronary interventions (P=0.037). These patients were also less likely to have ischemic ST-segment changes on presentation (P<0.001) and lower elevations in peak troponin I (P<0.001) and CK-MB levels (P<0.001). Patients with insignificant CAD had lower rates of in-hospital adverse clinical outcome (recurrent angina: P=0.029) and cardiogenic shock (P=0.029), with similar rates of in-hospital mortality between both groups. Regarding the 3-month outcomes, these patients had lower rates of readmission for ACS (P=0.009), and need for revascularization (p=0.035), with similar rates of 90-day mortality between both groups. Conclusion Among patients with ACS, female sex, younger age, the absence of diabetes, less smoking, less ST-segment changes and lower troponin I and CK-MB levels, were all associated showing insignificant stenosis on coronary angiography. The outcomes of these patients were better than those with significant disease in spite of similar baseline clinical presentation. Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; Coronary artery disease; Coronary angiography; Outcomes
Role of blood AFP mRNA and tumor grade in the preoperative prognostic evaluation of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIM To explore the potential prognostic role of preoperative tumor grade and blood AFP mRNA in a cohort of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) eligible for radical therapies according to a well-defined treatment algorithm not including nodule size and number as absolute selection criteria. METHODS Fifty patients with a diagnosis of HCC were prospectively enrolled in the study. Inclusion criteria were: (1) histological assessment of tumor grade by means of percutaneous biopsies; (2) determination of AFP mRNA status in the blood; (3) patient's eligibility for radical therapies. RESULTS At preoperative evaluation, 54% of the study group had a well-differentiated HCC, 42% had AFP mRNA in the blood, 40% had a tumor larger than 5 cm and 56% had more than one nodule. Surgery (resection or liver transplantation) was performed in 29 patients, while 21 had percutaneous ablation procedures. After a median follow-up of 28 mo, 12-, 24-, and 36-mo survival rates were 78%, 58%, and 51%, respectively. Surgical therapy, performance status and three tumor-related variables (AFP mRNA, HCC grade and gross vascular invasion) resulted as significant survival predictors at univariate analysis. Nodule size and number did not perform as significant prognosticators. Multivariate study selected only surgical therapy and a biologically early HCC profile (AFP mRNA negative and well-differentiated tumor without gross vascular invasion) as independent survival variables. CONCLUSION The preoperative determination of tumor grade and blood AFP mRNA status may potentially refine the prognostic evaluation of HCC patients and improve the selection process for radical therapies.
Airway function, inflammation and regulatory T cell function in subjects in asthma remission.

BACKGROUND Factors associated with asthma remission need to be determined, particularly when remission occurs in adulthood. OBJECTIVE To evaluate airway responsiveness and inflammation in adult patients in asthma remission compared with adults with mild, persistent symptomatic asthma. METHODS Adenosine monophosphate and methacholine responsiveness were evaluated in 26 patients in complete remission of asthma, 16 patients in symptomatic remission of asthma, 29 mild asthmatic patients and 15 healthy controls. Blood sampling and induced sputum were also obtained to measure inflammatory parameters. RESULTS Perception of breathlessness at 20% fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 s was similar among groups. In subjects with symptomatic remission of asthma, responsiveness to adenosine monophosphate and methacholine was intermediate between mild asthma and complete asthma remission, with the latter group similar to controls. Asthma remission was associated with a shorter duration of disease. Blood immunoglobulin E levels were significantly increased in the asthma group, and blood eosinophils were significantly elevated in the complete asthma remission, symptomatic remission and asthma groups compared with controls. The suppressive function of regulatory T cells was lower in asthma and remission groups compared with controls. CONCLUSION A continuum of asthma remission was observed, with patients in complete asthma remission presenting features similar to controls, while patients in symptomatic asthma remission appeared to be in an intermediate state between complete asthma remission and symptomatic asthma. Remission was associated with a shorter disease duration. Despite remission of asthma, a decreased suppressor function of regulatory T cells was observed, which may predispose patients to future recurrence of the disease.
Five-year follow-up of patients receiving imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND The cause of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a constitutively active BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase. Imatinib inhibits this kinase, and in a short-term study was superior to interferon alfa plus cytarabine for newly diagnosed CML in the chronic phase. For 5 years, we followed patients with CML who received imatinib as initial therapy. METHODS We randomly assigned 553 patients to receive imatinib and 553 to receive interferon alfa plus cytarabine and then evaluated them for overall and event-free survival; progression to accelerated-phase CML or blast crisis; hematologic, cytogenetic, and molecular responses; and adverse events. RESULTS The median follow-up was 60 months. Kaplan-Meier estimates of cumulative best rates of complete cytogenetic response among patients receiving imatinib were 69% by 12 months and 87% by 60 months. An estimated 7% of patients progressed to accelerated-phase CML or blast crisis, and the estimated overall survival of patients who received imatinib as initial therapy was 89% at 60 months. Patients who had a complete cytogenetic response or in whom levels of BCR-ABL transcripts had fallen by at least 3 log had a significantly lower risk of disease progression than did patients without a complete cytogenetic response (P<0.001). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events diminished over time, and there was no clinically significant change in the profile of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS After 5 years of follow-up, continuous treatment of chronic-phase CML with imatinib as initial therapy was found to induce durable responses in a high proportion of patients. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00006343 [ClinicalTrials.gov].)
Collaborative Digital Games as Mediation Tool to Foster Intercultural Integration in Primary Dutch Schools

In the Netherlands, the growing presence of immigrant children in schools has fueled scholarly interest in and concerns for examining the process of integration in school environments. The use of digital games has found to be an effective tool to reinforce teaching/learning practices. Several studies have already shown the benefits of the use of digital games in educational contexts. However, most of these studies are focused on how digital games can be used as a mediation tool in the process of knowledge acquisition. The present research proposes a new approach for the study of digital games in the field of education. Drawing from collaborative learning methods, we explore the potential of digital entertaining collaborative games to become a mediation tool in the process of integration of immigrant children with different cultural backgrounds in Dutch schools. This paper1 reports the preliminary results of an exploratory study that sets out to evaluate the potential of digital games as a mediation tool to foster intercultural integration in educational environments.
Waiting time on dialysis as the strongest modifiable risk factor for renal transplant outcomes: A Paired Donor Kidney Analysis1

Background. Waiting time on dialysis has been shown to be associated with worse outcomes after living and cadaveric transplantation. To validate and quantify end-stage renal disease (ESRD) time as an independent risk factor for kidney transplantation, we compared the outcome of paired donor kidneys, destined to patients who had ESRD more than 2 years compared to patients who had ESRD less than 6 months. Methods. We analyzed data available from the U.S. Renal Data System database between 1988 and 1998 by Kaplan-Meier estimates and Cox proportional hazards models to quantify the effect of ESRD time on paired cadaveric kidneys and on all cadaveric kidneys compared to living-donated kidneys. Results. Five- and 10-year unadjusted graft survival rates were significantly worse in paired kidney recipients who had undergone more than 24 months of dialysis (58% and 29%, respectively) compared to paired kidney recipients who had undergone less than 6 months of dialysis (78% and 63%, respectively;P <0.001 each). Ten-year overall adjusted graft survival for cadaveric transplants was 69% for preemptive transplants versus 39% for transplants after 24 months on dialysis. For living transplants, 10-year overall adjusted graft survival was 75% for preemptive transplants versus 49% for transplants after 24 month on dialysis. Conclusions. ESRD time is arguably the strongest independent modifiable risk factor for renal transplant outcomes. Part of the advantage of living-donor versus cadaveric-donor transplantation may be explained by waiting time. This effect is dominant enough that a cadaveric renal transplant recipient with an ESRD time less than 6 months has the equivalent graft survival of living donor transplant recipients who wait on dialysis for more than 2 years.
Improving Defense Acquisition Management and Policy Through a Life-Cycle Affordability Framework

Abstract : This research, under the direction of the principal investigators from the University of North Texas and with support from the Naval Postgraduate School achieved its overarching goal of developing life-cycle affordability models that enhance defense acquisition management and policies. We develop models that provide acquisition decision-makers with an affordability trade-off space that considers design and life-cycle cost. Not only do these models consider life-cycle cost to provide acquisition decision-makers with an affordability trade-off space, but they also embrace both the performance and the risk that are associated with public-private partnership contract strategies. Our studies were conducted using a mixed methodological approach. We used qualitative research methods (interviews surveys, grounded theory, and case studies) to uncover key characteristics and metrics defining affordability. In addition, we incorporated these key characteristics and metrics and developed analytical models to make informed business decisions on defense acquisition management and policy, using econometric, mathematical and statistical, and operations research model techniques.
Advancing rights protection in the United States: an internationalized advocacy strategy.

This essay explores the possibility that US rights activists may choose to strengthen their efforts by invoking international human rights law in response to an increasingly hostile US domestic political and legal environment that challenges efforts to combat racial and gender discrimination retain affirmative action and ensure economic security. The essay opens by debating the entrenched perception among domestic rights advocates that the US Constitution contains sufficient rights protections and that domestic politics will not yield to international pressure. This discussion reviews the application of international human rights norms by US civil rights groups 50 years ago and how this led to contradictory results with the US refusing to participate in the UN human rights treaty system for about 30 years while official domestic efforts to end racial discrimination increased. After noting that Malcolm X also called for internationalization of the problem of racial discrimination in the US the essay points out that the need for this approach has grown in the ensuing 30 years but that domestic rights groups have failed to adopt an internationalized advocacy approach. This failure is then attributed to US government efforts to insulate the legal system from international law by adopting international treaties only recently and with important reservations. After detailing ways the US Supreme Court ignores international law the essay promotes the notion of internationalization by delineating its potential impact.
Convolutional Neural Networks for Medical Diagnosis from Admission Notes

$\textbf{Objective}$ Develop an automatic diagnostic system which only uses textual admission information from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and assist clinicians with a timely and statistically proved decision tool. The hope is that the tool can be used to reduce mis-diagnosis. $\textbf{Materials and Methods}$ We use the real-world clinical notes from MIMIC-III, a freely available dataset consisting of clinical data of more than forty thousand patients who stayed in intensive care units of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center between 2001 and 2012. We proposed a Convolutional Neural Network model to learn semantic features from unstructured textual input and automatically predict primary discharge diagnosis. $\textbf{Results}$ The proposed model achieved an overall 96.11% accuracy and 80.48% weighted F1 score values on 10 most frequent disease classes, significantly outperforming four strong baseline models by at least 12.7% in weighted F1 score. $\textbf{Discussion}$ Experimental results imply that the CNN model is suitable for supporting diagnosis decision making in the presence of complex, noisy and unstructured clinical data while at the same time using fewer layers and parameters that other traditional Deep Network models. $\textbf{Conclusion}$ Our model demonstrated capability of representing complex medical meaningful features from unstructured clinical notes and prediction power for commonly misdiagnosed frequent diseases. It can use easily adopted in clinical setting to provide timely and statistically proved decision support. $\textbf{Keywords}$ Convolutional neural network, text classification, discharge diagnosis prediction, admission information from EHRs.
ELEVATED SERUM ANGIOPOIETIN 2 LEVELS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED MORTALITY IN SEPSIS

The vascular growth factor angiopoietin 2 (Ang-2) is known to promote inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, but its prognostic capacity and relationship to outcomes in human sepsis are unknown. This is a prospective observational cohort study of 66 patients newly admitted to a tertiary care medical intensive care unit (ICU), which included ICU patients with no sepsis (n = 20) as well as those with sepsis (n = 10), severe sepsis (n = 12), and septic shock (n = 24). Clinical data were collected until hospital discharge, and Ang-2 and IL-6 levels were determined on specimens obtained after ICU admission. Serum Ang-2 correlated with IL-6 and severity-of-illness scores. In the septic cohort, circulating Ang-2 levels were significantly higher (P = 0.01) in those who died (24.9 ng/mL; interquartile range, 21.5-38.0 ng/mL) compared with those who survived (13.5 ng/mL; interquartile range, 8.1-21.6 ng/mL). Elevated circulating serum Ang-2 levels are associated with increased hospital mortality in patients with sepsis.
Selective Modulation of Protein Kinase A and Protein Kinase C Activities in Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF)-Stimulated MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells

In human MCF-7 breast cancer cells, both protein kinase A (PKA) and different members of the protein kinase C (PKC) family are stimulated upon binding of epidermal growth factor (EGF) to cell surface receptors. Selective stimulation of calcium-dependent PKCs with 10(-6) to 10(-9) M Thymeleatoxin significantly increased the proliferation rate of MCF-7 cells over 5 days in culture. This stimulation was blocked by the PKC antagonist Chelerythrine. In contrast, selective activation of PKA by addition of 1 mM dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dBcAMP) did not affect the proliferation rate of MCF-7 cells. Similarly, activation of the adenylate cyclase by 1 microM Forskolin and inhibition of PKA by the cyclic AMP analogue Rp-cAMPS did not modulate the proliferation rate of these cells. Activation of PKC stimulated the expression of the immediate early gene c-fos but c-myc expression was not significantly enhanced. On the other hand, PKA activation increased both c-myc and c-fos expression in MCF-7 cells. These results suggest that PKA activation and c-myc expression are not obligatory for proliferation of MCF-7 cells.
Connections of the auditory midbrain in a teleost fish, Cyprinus carpio

Central auditory pathways were traced in Japanese carp, Cyprinus carpio, using electrophysiological mapping and HRP tract‐tracing methods. Multiunit recordings made from the carp torus semicircularis, the major midbrain area for processing octavolateralis information, revealed a mediolateral segregation of auditory and lateral line sensory modalities. Iontophoretic injections of HRP were made into the medial torus to trace afferent and efferent projections of the carp auditory midbrain.
Evolution of equal division among unequal partners

One of the hallmarks of human fairness is its insensitivity to power: although strong individuals are often in a position to coerce weak individuals, fairness requires them to share the benefits of cooperation equally. The existence of such egalitarianism is poorly explained by current evolutionary models. We present a model based on cooperation and partner choice that can account for the emergence of a psychological disposition toward fairness, whatever the balance of power between the cooperative partners. We model the evolution of the division of a benefit in an interaction similar to an ultimatum game, in a population made up of individuals of variable strength. The model shows that strong individuals will not receive any advantage from their strength, instead having to share the benefits of cooperation equally with weak individuals at the evolutionary equilibrium, a result that is robust to variations in population size and the proportion of weak individuals. We discuss how this model suggests an explanation for why egalitarian behaviors toward everyone, including the weak, should be more likely to evolve in humans than in any other species.
EMG motion pattern classification through design and optimization of Neural Network

This paper illustrates the classification of EMG signals through design and optimization of Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Different types of ANN models are basically structured with many interconnected network elements which can develop pattern classification strategies based on a set of input/training data. The ANN models work in parallel thus providing higher computational performance than traditional classifiers which function sequentially. The EMG signals obtained for different kinds of hand motions, which further denoised and processed to extract the features. Extracted time and time-frequency based feature sets are used to train the neural network. A back-propagation neural network with Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm has been utilized for the classification of EMG signals. The results show that the designed network is optimized for 10 hidden neurons with 7 input features and able to efficiently classify single channel EMG signals with an average success rate of 88.4%.