Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IntelliCare: An Eclectic, Skills-Based App Suite for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety

Background Digital mental health tools have tended to use psychoeducational strategies based on treatment orientations developed and validated outside of digital health. These features do not map well to the brief but frequent ways that people use mobile phones and mobile phone apps today. To address these challenges, we developed a suite of apps for depression and anxiety called IntelliCare, each developed with a focused goal and interactional style. IntelliCare apps prioritize interactive skills training over education and are designed for frequent but short interactions. Objective The overall objective of this study was to pilot a coach-assisted version of IntelliCare and evaluate its use and efficacy at reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Methods Participants, recruited through a health care system, Web-based and community advertising, and clinical research registries, were included in this single-arm trial if they had elevated symptoms of depression or anxiety. Participants had access to the 14 IntelliCare apps from Google Play and received 8 weeks of coaching on the use of IntelliCare. Coaching included an initial phone call plus 2 or more texts per week over the 8 weeks, with some participants receiving an additional brief phone call. Primary outcomes included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) for anxiety. Participants were compensated up to US $90 for completing all assessments; compensation was not for app use or treatment engagement. Results Of the 99 participants who initiated treatment, 90.1% (90/99) completed 8 weeks. Participants showed substantial reductions in the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 (P<.001). Participants used the apps an average of 195.4 (SD 141) times over the 8 weeks. The average length of use was 1.1 (SD 2.1) minutes, and 95% of participants downloaded 5 or more of the IntelliCare apps. Conclusions This study supports the IntelliCare framework of providing a suite of skills-focused apps that can be used frequently and briefly to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. The IntelliCare system is elemental, allowing individual apps to be used or not used based on their effectiveness and utility, and it is eclectic, viewing treatment strategies as elements that can be applied as needed rather than adhering to a singular, overarching, theoretical model. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02176226; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02176226 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation/6mQZuBGk1)
A Histological Study of Fulminant Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Related to Human Cytomegalovirus Reactivation

Context Fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is thought to be partly caused by virus infection. Objective This study investigated the mechanism of β cell destruction in fulminant T1DM after drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome (DIHS). Methods We determined the localization of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the expression of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and viral receptors of Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1) and retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I), together with inflammatory cells, by immunohistochemistry of the autopsy pancreas of a patient with fulminant T1DM with DIHS and in seven subjects with normal glucose tolerance who underwent pancreatectomy. Results HCMV-positive cells were detected in islets and exocrine areas in the patient with fulminant T1DM. Greater numbers of macrophages and CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes had infiltrated into HCMV-positive islets than into HCMV-negative islets, and 52.6% of HCMV-positive cells were also positive for IRF3. α Cells expressed IRF3, ZBP1, or RIG-I. No HCMV-positive cells were detected in the control subjects. HHV-6-positive, but not EBV-positive, cells were present in the patient and the control subjects. Conclusions These findings indicate that the immunoresponse caused by HCMV infection was associated with β cell injury.
Multi-Band Radar Receiver Design Approach for Minimum Bandpass Sampling

Multi-frequency radars, which are employed in a plurality of emerging applications, exploit the echoes for different bands that come from illuminated targets. A compact multi-function architecture that makes use of direct sampling could be a preferable choice for these new-generation radar systems, with RF front-end design a first step in their development. Here, within the framework of multi-frequency radars, an analytical tool for simultaneously acquiring the signal bands by using the minimum sub-Nyquist sampling frequency is addressed. Although the dual-band radar scenario is exhaustively analyzed, keys to understand the acquisition of more-than-two-band systems are also provided. Moreover, as the core of the associated RF architecture to carry out arbitrary multi-band signal pre-selections, a new class of microwave planar multi-passband filters based on stepped-impedance-line signal-interference concepts is reported. Also, for validation, the construction and testing of a microstrip spectrally-asymmetrical dual-passband filter prototype for a specific example of minimum-sampling dual-frequency radar RF front-end are shown.
Factors controlling sperm migration through the oviduct revealed by gene-modified mouse models

Mammalian fertilization is comprised of many steps including sperm survival in the uterus, sperm migration in the female reproductive tract, physiological and morphological changes to the spermatozoa, and sperm-egg interaction in the oviduct. In vitro studies have revealed essential factors for these fertilization steps for over half a century. However, the molecular mechanism of fertilization has recently been revised by the emergence of genetically modified animals. Here, we focus on essential factors for sperm fertilizing ability and describe recent advances in our knowledge of the mechanisms of mammalian fertilization, especially of sperm migration from the uterus into the oviduct.
Latent TB infection and pulmonary TB disease among patients with diabetes mellitus in Bandung, Indonesia

Background Screening and treatment of latent TB infection (LTBI) and TB disease could reduce diabetes mellitus (DM)-associated TB. We aimed to describe the prevalence of LTBI and pulmonary TB among patients with DM in a TB-endemic setting. Methods Patients with DM attending a hospital and community centres in Bandung, Indonesia, underwent LTBI screening using interferon gamma release assay (IGRA). TB was investigated by sputum smear, culture and x-ray. TB contacts from a parallel study were age- and sex-matched to patients with DM to compare LTBI and TB disease prevalence. Results Of 682 patients with DM screened, 651 (95.5%) were eligible. Among 'TB disease-free' patients, LTBI prevalence was 38.9% (206/530; 95% CI 34.7-43.2). Patients with DM were less likely to be IGRA positive than TB contacts (38.6%, 54/140; 95% CI 30.5-46.6 vs 68.6%, 96/140; 95% CI 60.9-72.3: p<0.001); but had a higher disease prevalence (4.9%, 8/164; 95% CI 1.6-8.2 vs 1.2%, 2/164; 95% CI -0.5 to 2.9: p=0.054). Patients with DM in crowded households had increased risk of LTBI (AOR 1.71; 95% CI 1.19-2.45). Conclusions LTBI prevalence in patients with DM was lower than in household contacts, but patients with DM were more likely to have TB disease. Further studies should explore possible benefits of LTBI screening and preventive therapy in patients with DM in TB-endemic settings.
Meaningful Activity for Long-Term Care Residents With Dementia: A Comparison of Activities and Raters

Purpose of the Study Engagement in meaningful activities is associated with positive outcomes for persons with dementia, yet studies demonstrating quantitative evidence for which activities can be considered meaningful are lacking. We investigated MemPics™, a program designed to promote meaningful activity for individuals with dementia through engagement and cognitive stimulation. It was compared with other recreation activities offered in U.S. long-term care facilities to determine whether MemPics™ was rated as having more meaningful activity from both the perspectives of participants and recreation staff. Design and Methods Long-term care residents with mild to moderate dementia that met eligibility criteria were randomly assigned to an activity group (treatment, control). Participants completed 2 sessions of either the experimental or control group activity with facility recreation staff. Both participants and staff rated each activity in terms of meaningfulness following each session. Results Of the enrolled participants (N = 126), study analyses were based on the 94 participants (n = 48 treatment and n = 46 control; M age = 82.98±9.63) who completed the activity sessions. Compared to the control group activities, MemPics™ had significantly higher participant and staff ratings of meaningfulness. Scores between the 2 rater types were significantly different, with staff reporting higher meaningful activity than participants. Further support for MemPics™ was found in exit survey responses from participating staff. Implications We discuss the merits and shortcoming of this study, the utility of MemPics™ for providing meaningful engagement in long-term care residents with mild to moderate dementia, and ideas for future research.
Sensory Impairments and Cognitive Function in Middle-Aged Adults

Background Hearing, visual, and olfactory impairments have been associated with cognitive impairment in older adults but less is known about associations with cognitive function in middle-aged adults. Methods Sensory and cognitive functions were measured on participants in the baseline examination (2005-2008) of the Beaver Dam Offspring Study. Cognitive function was measured with the Trail Making tests A (TMTA) and B (TMTB) and the Grooved Peg Board test. Pure-tone audiometry, Pelli-Robson letter charts, and the San Diego Odor Identification test were used to measure hearing, contrast sensitivity, and olfaction, respectively. Results There were 2,836 participants aged 21-84 years with measures of hearing, visual, olfactory, and cognitive function at the baseline examination. Nineteen percent of the cohort had one sensory impairment and 3% had multiple sensory impairments. In multivariable adjusted linear regression models that included all three sensory impairments, hearing impairment, visual impairment, and olfactory impairment were each independently associated with poorer performance on the TMTA, TMTB, and Grooved Peg Board (p < .05 for all sensory impairments in all models). Participants with a sensory impairment took on average from 2 to 10 seconds longer than participants without the corresponding sensory impairment to complete these tests. Results were similar in models that included adjustment for hearing aid use. Conclusion Hearing, visual and olfactory impairment were associated with poorer performance on cognitive function tests independent of the other sensory impairments and factors associated with cognition. Sensory impairments in midlife are associated with subtle deficits in cognitive function which may be indicative of early brain aging.
Peptides and proteins used to enhance gold nanoparticle delivery to the brain: preclinical approaches

An exciting and emerging field in nanomedicine involves the use of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the preclinical development of new strategies for the treatment and diagnosis of brain-related diseases such as neurodegeneration and cerebral tumors. The treatment of many brain-related disorders with AuNPs, which possess useful physical properties, is limited by the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The BBB highly regulates the substances that can permeate into the brain. Peptides and proteins may represent promising tools to improve the delivery of AuNPs to the central nervous system (CNS). In this review, we summarize the potential applications of AuNPs to CNS disorders, discuss different strategies based on the use of peptides or proteins to improve the delivery of AuNPs to the brain, and examine the intranasal administration route, which bypasses the BBB. We also analyze the potential neurotoxicity of AuNPs and the perspectives and new challenges concerning the use of peptides and proteins to enhance the delivery of AuNPs to the brain. The majority of the work described in this review is in a preclinical stage of experimentation, or in select cases, in clinical trials in humans. We note that the use of AuNPs still requires substantial study before being translated into human applications. However, for further clinical research, the issues related to the potential use of AuNPs must be analyzed.
Can Recurrence After an Acute Episode of Low Back Pain Be Predicted?

Background Although recurrence is common after an acute episode of low back pain, estimates of recurrence rates vary widely and predictors of recurrence remain largely unknown. Objective The purposes of the study were to determine the 1-year incidence of recurrence in participants who recovered from an acute episode of low back pain and to identify predictors of recurrence. Design The design was an inception cohort study nested in a case-crossover study. Methods For 12 months, 832 of the 999 participants who initially presented to primary care within the first 7 days of an episode of low back pain were followed. Of these participants, 469 recovered (1 month pain free) from the index episode within 6 weeks and were included in this study. Recurrence was defined as a new episode lasting more than 1 day, or as an episode of care seeking. Putative predictors were assessed at baseline and chosen a priori. Multivariable regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results The 1-year incidence of recurrence of low back pain was 33%, and the 1-year incidence of recurrence of low back pain with care seeking was 18%. Participants reporting more than 2 previous episodes of low back pain had increased odds of future recurrences (OR = 3.18, CI = 2.11-4.78). This factor was also associated with recurrent episodes that led to care seeking (OR = 2.87, CI = 1.73-4.78). No other factors were associated with recurrences. Limitations There are limitations inherent in reliance on recall. Conclusions After an acute episode of low back pain, one-third of patients will experience a recurrent episode, and approximately half of those will seek care. Experiencing more than 2 previous episodes of low back pain triples the odds of a recurrence within 1 year.
Triple Space Computing Middleware for Semantic Web Services

Triple Space Computing is a communication and coordination paradigm based on the convergence of space-based computing and the Semantic Web. It acts as a global space like middleware to enable communication and coordination based on the principle of publish and read of semantic data. This paper presents overall architecture and its components description to realize the Triple Space Computing. It then presents that how the architecture can act as a middleware to be used by Semantic Web Services as communication paradigm to improve the communication.
DNA sequence+shape kernel enables alignment-free modeling of transcription factor binding

Motivation Transcription factors (TFs) bind to specific DNA sequence motifs. Several lines of evidence suggest that TF-DNA binding is mediated in part by properties of the local DNA shape: the width of the minor groove, the relative orientations of adjacent base pairs, etc. Several methods have been developed to jointly account for DNA sequence and shape properties in predicting TF binding affinity. However, a limitation of these methods is that they typically require a training set of aligned TF binding sites. Results We describe a sequence+shape kernel that leverages DNA sequence and shape information to better understand protein-DNA binding preference and affinity. This kernel extends an existing class of k-mer based sequence kernels, based on the recently described di-mismatch kernel. Using three in vitro benchmark datasets, derived from universal protein binding microarrays (uPBMs), genomic context PBMs (gcPBMs) and SELEX-seq data, we demonstrate that incorporating DNA shape information improves our ability to predict protein-DNA binding affinity. In particular, we observe that (1) the k-spectrum+shape model performs better than the classical k-spectrum kernel, particularly for small k values; (2) the di-mismatch kernel performs better than the k-mer kernel, for larger k; and (3) the di-mismatch+shape kernel performs better than the di-mismatch kernel for intermediate k values. Availability The software is available at https://bitbucket.org/wenxiu/sequence-shape.git Contact rohs@usc.edu, william-noble@uw.edu Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Paracetamol use during pregnancy and attention and executive function in offspring at age 5 years.

Methods We studied 1491 mothers and children enrolled in the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC; 1996-2002). Prenatal paracetamol use was prospectively recorded in three telephone interviews. Trained psychologists assessed child's attention function using the Test of Everyday Attention for Children at Five (TEACh-5). Parents and preschool teachers completed Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) to assess executive functions. We estimated the differences of composite mean outcome scores, and odds ratios (OR) for subnormal attention or executive function (defined as 1 standard deviation below the mean), adjusting for maternal IQ, maternal mental health, indications for paracetamol use and other potential confounders. Results First trimester use of paracetamol was associated with poorer attention scores in childhood [mean difference -0.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.63, -0.05 for overall attention, and -0.25, 95% CI -0.50, 0.01 for selective attention]. Children prenatally exposed to paracetamol were also at a higher risk for subnormal overall attention (OR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.0, 2.5), selective attention difficulties (OR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.0, 2.4), and parent-rated subnormal executive function (metacognition index, OR = 1.5, 95% CI 0.9, 2.3). The risks for subnormal overall attention or executive function were elevated with longer duration of paracetamol use in pregnancy. Conclusions We found some evidence that maternal paracetamol use during pregnancy was associated with poorer attention and executive function in 5-year-olds.
Security and Privacy Measurements in Social Networks: Experiences and Lessons Learned

We describe our experience gained while exploring practical security and privacy problems in a real-world, large- scale social network (i.e., Facebook), and summarize our conclusions in a series of "lessons learned". We first conclude that it is better to adequately describe the potential ethical concerns from the very beginning and plan ahead the institutional review board (IRB) request. Even though sometimes optional, the IRB approval is a valuable point from the reviewer's perspective. Another aspect that needs planning is getting in touch with the online social network security team, which takes a substantial amount of time. With their support, "bending the rules" (e.g., using scrapers) when the experimental goals require so, is easier. Clearly, in cases where critical technical vulnerabilities are found during the research, the general recommendations for responsible disclosure should be followed. Gaining the audience's engagement and trust was essential to the success of our user study. Participants felt more comfortable when subscribing to our experiments, and also responsibly reported bugs and glitches. We did not observe the same behavior in crowd-sourcing workers, who were instead more interested in obtaining their rewards. On a related point, our experience suggests that crowd sourcing should not be used alone: Setting up tasks is more time consuming than it seems, and researchers must insert some sentinel checks to ensure that workers are not submitting random answers.From a logistics point of view, we learned that having at least a high-level plan of the experiments pays back, especially when the IRB requires a detailed description of the work and the data to be collected. However, over planning can be dangerous because the measurement goals can change dynamically. From a technical point of view, partially connected to the logistics remarks, having a complex and large data-gathering and analysis framework may be counterproductive in terms of set-up and management overhead. From our experience we suggest to choose simple technologies that scale up if needed but, more importantly, can scale down. For example, launching a quick query should be straightforward, and the frameworks should not impose too much overhead for formulating it. We conclude with a series of practical recommendations on how to successfully collect data from online social networks (e.g., using techniques for network multipresence, mimicking user behavior, and other crawling "tricks"') and avoid abusing the online service, while gathering the data required by the experiments.
Nephrologists' Perspectives on Defining and Applying Patient-Centered Outcomes in Hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Patient centeredness is widely advocated as a cornerstone of health care, but it is yet to be fully realized, including in nephrology. Our study aims to describe nephrologists' perspectives on defining and implementing patient-centered outcomes in hemodialysis. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Face-to-face, semistructured interviews were conducted with 58 nephrologists from 27 dialysis units across nine countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Singapore, and New Zealand. Transcripts were thematically analyzed. RESULTS We identified five themes on defining and implementing patient-centered outcomes in hemodialysis: explicitly prioritized by patients (articulated preferences and goals, ascertaining treatment burden, defining hemodialysis success, distinguishing a physician-patient dichotomy, and supporting shared decision making), optimizing wellbeing (respecting patient choice, focusing on symptomology, perceptible and tangible, and judging relevance and consequence), comprehending extensive heterogeneity of clinical and quality of life outcomes (distilling diverse priorities, highly individualized, attempting to specify outcomes, and broadening context), clinically hamstrung (professional deficiency, uncertainty and complexity in measurement, beyond medical purview, specificity of care, mechanistic mindset [focused on biochemical targets and comorbidities], avoiding alarm, and paradoxical dilemma), and undermined by system pressures (adhering to overarching policies, misalignment with mandates, and resource constraints). CONCLUSIONS Improving patient-centered outcomes is regarded by nephrologists to encompass strategies that address patient goals and improve wellbeing and treatment burden in patients on hemodialysis. However, efforts are hampered by ambiguities about how to prioritize, measure, and manage the plethora of critical comorbidities and broader quality of life outcomes in a care setting that is technically demanding and driven by biochemical targets. Identifying critical patient-important outcomes and mechanisms for integrating them into practice may help to deliver patient-centered care in hemodialysis and other chronic disease settings.