Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“It’s about my life”: facilitators of and barriers to isoniazid preventive therapy completion among people living with HIV in rural South Africa

ABSTRACT Despite the recent rollout of Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) to prevent TB in people living with HIV in South Africa, adherence and completion rates are low. To explore barriers to IPT completion in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews among 30 HIV patients who had completed or defaulted IPT. Interview transcripts were analyzed according to the framework method of qualitative analysis. Facilitators of IPT completion included knowledge of TB and IPT, accepting one’s HIV diagnosis, viewing IPT as similar to antiretroviral therapy, having social support in the community and the clinic, trust in the healthcare system, and desire for health preservation. Barriers included misunderstanding of IPT’s preventive role in the absence of symptoms, inefficient health service delivery, ineffective communication with healthcare workers, financial burden of transport to clinic and lost wages, and competing priorities. HIV-related stigma was not identified as a significant barrier to IPT completion, and participants felt confident in their ability to manage stigma, for example by pretending their medications were for unrelated conditions. Completers were more comfortable communicating with health care workers than were defaulters. Efforts to facilitate successful IPT completion must include appropriate counseling and education for individual patients and addressing inefficiencies within the health care system in order to minimize patients’ financial and logistical burden. These patient-level and structural changes are necessary for IPT to successfully reduce TB incidence in this resource-limited setting.
Prevalence of risk factors for noncommunicable diseases in an indigenous community in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala

ABSTRACT Objective. To describe the prevalence of noncommunicable disease (NCD) risk factors and assess knowledge of those risk factors in the indigenous community of Santiago Atitlán in Guatemala, a lower-middle income country. Methods. A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted using a modified version of the World Health Organization’s STEPS protocol. Adults aged 20–65 years were surveyed regarding demographics and NCD risk factors, and the survey was followed by anthropometric and biochemical measurements. Results. Out of 501 screened individuals, 350 respondents were enrolled. The mean age was 36.7 years, and 72.3% were women. Over 90% reported earning less than US$ 65 per month. Almost 80% were stunted. Among women, 37.3% were obese and over three-quarters had central obesity. Over three-quarters of the entire group had dyslipidemia and 18.3% had hypertension, but only 3.0% had diabetes. Overall, 36.0% of participants met criteria for metabolic syndrome. There was no significant association between participants’ education and NCD risk factors except for an inverse association with obesity by percent body fat. Conclusions. Santiago Atitlán is a rural, indigenous Guatemalan community with high rates of poverty and stunting coexisting alongside high rates of obesity, particularly among women. Additionally, high rates of hypertension and dyslipidemia were found, but a low rate of diabetes mellitus. Knowledge of NCDs and their risk factors was low, suggesting that educational interventions may be a high-yield, low-cost approach to combating NCDs in this community.
Ignoring theory and misinterpreting evidence: the false belief in fear appeals

ABSTRACT Use of fear appeals assumes that when people are emotionally confronted with the negative effects of their behaviour they will change that behaviour. That reasoning is simple and intuitive, but only true under specific, rare circumstances. Risk perception theories predict that if people will experience a threat, they want to counter that threat. However, how they do so is determined by their coping efficacy level: if efficacy is high, they may change their behaviour in the suggested direction; if efficacy is low, they react defensively. Research on fear appeals should be methodologically sound, comparing a threatening to a non-threatening intervention under high and low efficacy levels, random assignment and measuring behaviour as outcome. We critically review extant empirical evidence and conclude that it does not support positive effects of fear appeals. Nonetheless, their use persists and is even promoted by health psychology researchers, causing scientific insights to be ignored or misinterpreted.
Airway Management in Athletes Wearing Lacrosse Equipment.

CONTEXT Patient ventilation volume and rate have been found to be compromised due to the inability to seal a pocket mask over the chinstrap of football helmets. The effects of supraglottic airway devices such as the King LT and of lacrosse helmets on these measures have not been studied. OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of different airway management devices and helmet conditions on producing quality ventilations while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on simulation manikins. DESIGN Crossover study. SETTING Simulation laboratory. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Thirty-six athletic trainers (12 men, 24 women) completed this study. INTERVENTION(S) Airway-management device (pocket mask, oral pharyngeal airway, King LT airway [KA]) and helmet condition (no helmet, Cascade helmet, Schutt helmet, Warrior helmet) served as the independent variables. Participant pairs performed 2 minutes of 2-rescuer cardiopulmonary resuscitation under 12 trial conditions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Ventilation volume (mL), ventilation rate (ventilations/min), rating of perceived difficulty (RPD), and percentage of quality ventilations were the dependent variables. RESULTS A significant interaction was found between type of airway-management device and helmet condition on ventilation volume and rate ( F12,408 = 2.902, P < .0001). In addition, a significant interaction was noted between airway-management device and helmet condition on RPD scores ( F6,204 = 3.366, P = .003). The no-helmet condition produced a higher percentage of quality ventilations compared with the helmet conditions ( P ≤ .003). Also, the percentage of quality ventilations differed, and the KA outperformed each of the other devices ( P ≤ .029). CONCLUSIONS The helmet chinstrap inhibited quality ventilation (rate and volume) in airway procedures that required the mask to be sealed on the face. However, the KA allowed quality ventilation in patients wearing a helmet with the chinstrap fastened. If a KA is not available, the helmet may need to be removed to provide quality ventilations.
Health Reform and Retirement

Objective To analyze whether there was an increase in retirement or in part-time work among older workers after January 2014, when new health insurance coverage options became available because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Method We analyze trends in retirement and part-time work for individuals aged 50-64 years in the basic monthly Current Population Survey from January 2008 through June 2016. We test for a break in trend in January 2014. We also test for differences in trends, both before and after 2014, in states that expanded their Medicaid programs in January 2014 under the ACA compared with those that did not. Results We find that there was no change in the probability of retirement or part-time work among older workers in 2014 and later, either overall or in Medicaid expansion states relative to nonexpansion states. Discussion Although many observers had predicted that an unintended consequence of health reform would be reduced labor supply, we find no evidence of this for older workers in the first 2.5 years after the law's major coverage provisions took effect.
Realisation of Navigation Concepts for the Multi-agent Flood Algorithm for Search & Rescue Scenarios Using RFID Tags

In this paper we use a new version of our simulator to enhance the Multi-Agent Flood algorithm and make it more applicable to "real" world scenarios. The new simulator is dispensing the use of the grid for movement and instead is sing the Polar coordinate system to let the agents move round more freely. This allows the movement by using directional vectors and an angle of rotation, instead of using only the coordinates of the Moore neighborhood in the grid. As a consequence the Multi-Agent Flood algorithm had to be adapted as it could not simply mark cells in the grid anymore. To change this further we introduced the use of RFID tags as a means to allow the indirect communication between the different agents. By removing this abstraction it should be feasible to implement the algorithm using real robots.
Feline Infectious Peritonitis: Immunohistochemical Features of Ocular Inflammation and the Distribution of Viral Antigens in Structures of the Eye

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a serious, widely distributed systemic disease caused by feline coronavirus (FCoV), in which ocular disease is common. However, questions remain about the patterns of ocular inflammation and the distribution of viral antigen in the eyes of cats with FIP. This study characterized the ocular lesions of FIP including the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and proliferating cell nuclear antigen by Müller cells in the retina in cases of FIP and to what extent macrophages are involved in ocular inflammation in FIP. Immunohistochemistry for FCoV, CD3, CD79a, glial fibrillary acidic protein, calprotectin, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen was performed on paraffin sections from 15 naturally occurring cases of FIP and from controls. Glial fibrillary acidic protein expression was increased in the retina in cases of FIP. Müller cell proliferation was present within lesions of retinal detachment. Macrophages were present in FIP-associated ocular lesions, but they were the most numerous inflammatory cells only within granulomas (2/15 cats, 13%). In cases of severe inflammation of the ciliary body with damage to blood vessel walls and ciliary epithelium (3/15, 20%), some macrophages expressed FCoV antigens, and immunolabeling for calprotectin on consecutive sections suggested that these FCoV-positive macrophages were likely to be recently derived from blood. In cases of severe and massive inflammation of most ocular structures (4/15, 26%), B cells and plasma cells predominated over T cells and macrophages. These results indicate that gliosis can be present in FIP-affected retinas and suggest that breakdown of the blood–ocular barrier can allow FCoV-bearing macrophages to access the eye.
Physiological Preparation of Hair Cells from the Sacculus of the American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)

SHORT ABSTRACT The American bullfrog’s sacculus permits direct examination of hair-cell physiology. Here we describe the dissection and preparation of the bullfrog’s sacculus for biophysical studies. We show representative experiments from these hair cells, including the calculation of a bundle’s force-displacement relation and measurement of its spontaneous motion. LONG ABSTRACT The study of hearing and balance rests upon insights drawn from biophysical studies of model systems. One such model, the sacculus of the American bullfrog, has become a mainstay of auditory and vestibular research. Studies of this organ have revealed how sensory cells—hair cells—can actively detect signals from the environment. Because of these studies, we now better understand the mechanical gating and localization of a hair cell’s transduction channels, calcium’s role in mechanical adaptation, and the identity of hair-cell currents. This highly accessible organ continues to provide insight into the workings of hair cells. Here we describe the preparation of the bullfrog’s sacculus for biophysical studies on its hair cells. We include the complete dissection procedure and provide specific protocols for the preparation of the sacculus in specific contexts. We additionally include representative results using this preparation, including the calculation of a hair bundle’s force-displacement relation and measurement of a bundle’s spontaneous motion.
RESEARCH ARTICLE G Protein-Coupled Receptor Signaling in Metabolic Disease Altered expression of hepatic (cid:2) -adrenergic receptors in aging rats: implications for age-related metabolic dysfunction in liver

Altered expression of hepatic (cid:2) -adrenergic receptors in aging rats: implications for age-related metabolic dysfunction in liver. Am Physiol Physiol 314: R574–R583, 00372.2017. —Increased (cid:2) -adrenergic receptor ( (cid:2) -AR)-mediated activation of adenylyl cyclase (AC) in rat liver during aging has been linked to age-related increases in hepatic glucose output and hepatosteatosis. In this study, we investigated the expression of (cid:2) -ARs, individual receptor subtypes, and G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) regulatory proteins in livers from aging rats. Radioli-gand-binding studies demonstrated that (cid:2) -AR density increased by greater than threefold in hepatocyte membranes from senescent (24-mo-old) compared with young adult (7-mo-old) rats and that this phenomenon was blocked by food restriction, which is known to retard aging processes in rodents. Competition-binding studies revealed a mixed population of (cid:2) 1 - and (cid:2) 2 -AR subtypes in liver membranes over the adult life span, with a trend for greater (cid:2) 2 -AR density with age. Expression of both (cid:2) -AR subtype mRNAs in rat liver increased with age, whereas (cid:2) 2 - but not (cid:2) 1 -AR protein levels declined in livers of old animals. Immunoreactive (cid:2) 2 - but not (cid:2) 1 -ARs were preferentially distributed in pericentral hepatic regions. Levels of GRK2/3 and (cid:2) -arrestin 2 proteins, which are involved in downregulation of agonist-activated GPCRs, including (cid:2) -ARs, increased during aging. Insofar as sympathetic tone increases with age, our ﬁndings suggest that, despite enhanced agonist-mediated downregulation of hepatic (cid:2) -ARs preferentially affecting the (cid:2) 2 -AR subtype, increased generation of both receptor subtypes during aging augments the pool of plasma membrane-bound (cid:2) -ARs coupled to AC in hepatocytes. This study thus identiﬁes one or both (cid:2) -AR subtypes as possible therapeutic targets involved in aberrant hepatic processes of glucose and lipid metabolism during aging.
Study of Shiny Film Coating on Multi-Fluid Flows of a Rotating Disk Suspended with Nano-Sized Silver and Gold Particles: A Comparative Analysis

The current effort is devoted to investigate the shiny thin film with a metallic tactile covering of nanoparticles over the surface of a rotating disk. To decorate, glowing silver and gold particles were chosen. Four illustrative base liquids, namely (i) ethanol, (ii) methanol, (iii) ethylene-glycol, and (iv) water were considered with different geometries, which have great importance in industrial usage. An emphasis on comparative multi nanofluid analysis was used to make a sound judgment on which one of the fluids best suited the metallic glittering process of spin coating. The film thickness process highly depends on the process of evaporation, which takes some time to settle on the disk’s surface. It was found that of the base fluids, the best choices were ethanol alloys with silver. Hence, one can conclude that from an experimental point of view, if silver alloy is used for coating, then only those liquids can be considered that exhibit ethanol-like properties. The impact of pertinent parameters with different aspects are graphically illustrated in each case.
Boosting simple projections for multi-class dimensionality reduction

This paper presents a novel method for dimensionality reduction and for multi-class classification tasks. This method iteratively selects a series of simple but effective 1D subspaces, and then combines the corresponding 1D projections by Adaboost.M2. Its major advantages are: (1) it does not impose specific assumptions on data distribution; (2) it minimizes Bayes error estimation in low-dimensional space; (3) it simplifies existing subspace-based methods to eigenvalue decomposition problem; and (4) each of the 1D subspaces (with associated nearest neighbor classifier) has different emphasis - measured by weighted training error. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Vessel perforation during stent retriever thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke: technical details and clinical outcomes

Background Vessel perforation during stent retriever thrombectomy is a rare complication; typically only single instances have been reported. Objective To report on a series of patients whose stent retriever thrombectomy was complicated by intraprocedural vessel perforation and discuss its potential mechanisms, rescue treatment strategies, and clinical significance. Methods Cases with intraprocedural vessel perforation, where a stent retriever was used either as a primary treatment approach or as a part of a direct aspiration first pass technique (ADAPT), were included in the final analysis. Clinical data, procedural details, radiographic and clinical outcomes were collected from nine participating centers. Results Intraprocedural vessel perforation during stent retriever thrombectomy occurred in 16 (1.0%) of 1599 cases. 63% of intraprocedural perforations occurred at distal locations. Endovascular rescue techniques (most commonly, intracranial balloon occlusion for tamponade) were attempted in 50% of cases. Procedure was aborted without any rescue attempts in 44% of cases. Mortality during hospitalization and at 3 months was 56% and 63%, respectively. 25% of patients achieved good functional outcome at 3 months after the procedure. Conclusions Intraprocedural perforations during stent retriever thrombectomy were rare, but when they occurred were associated with high mortality. Perforations most commonly occurred at distal occlusion sites and were often characterized by difficulty traversing the occlusion with a microcatheter or microwire, or while withdrawing the stent retriever. Nevertheless, 25% of patients had a favorable functional outcome, suggesting that in some patients with this complication good neurological recovery is achievable.
Spending On Care After Surgery Driven By Choice Of Care Settings Instead Of Intensity Of Services.

The rising popularity of episode-based payment models for surgery underscores the need to better understand the drivers of variability in spending on postacute care. Examining postacute care spending for fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries after three common surgical procedures in the period 2009-12, we found that it varied widely between hospitals in the lowest versus highest spending quintiles for postacute care, with differences of 129 percent for total hip replacement, 103 percent for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and 82 percent for colectomy. Wide variation persisted after we adjusted for the intensity of postacute care. However, the variation diminished considerably after we adjusted instead for postacute care setting (home health care, outpatient rehabilitation, skilled nursing facility, or inpatient rehabilitation facility): It decreased to 16 percent for hip replacement, 4 percent for CABG, and 21 percent for colectomy. Health systems seeking to improve surgical episode efficiency should collaborate with patients to choose the highest-value postacute care setting.
An Open and Shut Case: The Interaction of Magnesium with MST Enzymes

The shikimate pathway of bacteria, fungi, and plants generates chorismate, which is drawn into biosynthetic pathways that form aromatic amino acids and other important metabolites, including folates, menaquinone, and siderophores. Many of the pathways initiated at this branch point transform chorismate using an MST enzyme. The MST enzymes (menaquinone, siderophore, and tryptophan biosynthetic enzymes) are structurally homologous and magnesium-dependent, and all perform similar chemical permutations to chorismate by nucleophilic addition (hydroxyl or amine) at the 2-position of the ring, inducing displacement of the 4-hydroxyl. The isomerase enzymes release isochorismate or aminodeoxychorismate as the product, while the synthase enzymes also have lyase activity that displaces pyruvate to form either salicylate or anthranilate. This has led to the hypothesis that the isomerase and lyase activities performed by the MST enzymes are functionally conserved. Here we have developed tailored pre-steady-state approaches to establish the kinetic mechanisms of the isochorismate and salicylate synthase enzymes of siderophore biosynthesis. Our data are centered on the role of magnesium ions, which inhibit the isochorismate synthase enzymes but not the salicylate synthase enzymes. Prior structural data have suggested that binding of the metal ion occludes access or egress of substrates. Our kinetic data indicate that for the production of isochorismate, a high magnesium ion concentration suppresses the rate of release of product, accounting for the observed inhibition and establishing the basis of the ordered-addition kinetic mechanism. Moreover, we show that isochorismate is channeled through the synthase reaction as an intermediate that is retained in the active site by the magnesium ion. Indeed, the lyase-active enzyme has 3 orders of magnitude higher affinity for the isochorismate complex relative to the chorismate complex. Apparent negative-feedback inhibition by ferrous ions is documented at nanomolar concentrations, which is a potentially physiologically relevant mode of regulation for siderophore biosynthesis in vivo.
Spike‐Timing‐Dependent Plasticity in Memristors

The spike‐timing‐dependent plasticity (STDP) characteristic of the memristor plays an important role in the development of neuromorphic network computing in the future. The STDP characteristics were observed in different memristors based on different kinds of materials. The investigation regarding the influences of device hysteresis character ‐ istic, the initial conductance of the memristors, and the waveform of the voltage pulses applied to the memristor as preneuron voltage spike and postneuron voltage spike on the STDP behavior of memristors are reviewed.
Temperature controlling and data logging using embedded system

The goal is to read the analogue signals from temperature sensors and convert it into a digital form and which is available on board as a real time signals. Also this signal can be store in the on chip memory of Micro controller along with the time stamp for further use. This can be achieve with, real time clock, voltage converter to transfer this data to pc or through serial port In second part software is running on PC side which can request this temperature value in periodic basis and can store the different values with respect to time in PC. We are proposing RS232 serial interface to connect the PC with microcontroller
Orbital controlled band gap engineering of tetragonal BiFeO3 for optoelectronic applications

Bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 (BFO) is an important ferroelectric material for thin-film optoelectronic sensing and potential photovoltaic applications. Its relatively large band gap, however, limits the conversion efficiency of BFO absorber-based PV devices. In this study, based on density functional theory calculations we demonstrate that with well-designed Fe-site elemental substitution, tetragonal BFO can exhibit a much lower fundamental band gap than that of conventional rhombohedral BFO without forming in-gap electronic states and unravelling the underlying mechanisms. Cation atomic size, electronegativity, and crystallographic symmetry are evidenced as critical parameters to tailor the metal 3d–oxygen 2p orbital interactions and thus intrinsically modify the electronic structure, particularly, the shape and character of the valence and conduction band edges. With the reduced band gap, improved mobility, and uncompromised ferroelectric and magnetic ground states, the present results provide a new strategy of designing high symmetry BFO for efficient optoelectronic applications.