Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Trouble With Condoms: Norms and Meanings of Sexuality and Condom Use Among School-Going Youth in Kenya

ABSTRACT Despite knowledge of the effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV transmission, condoms continue to be reported in only a minority of sexual encounters even with nonpermanent partners. This study used focus-group discussions with youth and interviews with community leaders from 22 communities in the Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces, Kenya, to examine the sociocultural influences on condom use among school-going youth. Three overarching themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the data. Condoms did not fit with the purposes, meanings, and understandings of sexuality; in fact, condom use violated most of these. Condoms were also thought to be dangerous for girls and women, to contribute to the spread of HIV, and to be unnecessary for protection against HIV. Finally, given the hardships of life and multiple diseases and circumstances that threatened life, HIV was seen as just another trouble of living. Sex without a condom, within this context, was described as one of the pleasures of a short life. The complexities of sexuality evidenced in the discussions of these youth and adults challenge the viability of the ABC (abstain, be faithful, use a condom) message as a preventive measure against HIV transmission.
Models of Change in the Psychotherapy of Borderline Personality Disorders

Patients suffering from borderline personality disorders are often difficult to treat, and require specific psychotherapeutic techniques. In current neurobiological models of borderline personality disorder, temperamental factors such as increased emotional reactivity and diminished attentional control figure prominently and account for the psychopathology of this disorder. Here, we follow a different approach and ask the question of how a model of this disorder may account for the modifications of psychotherapy technique that have proven effective in this class of patients. The psychotherapy of this disorder emphasizes work on enriching the semantic repertoire of patients in interpreting their own emotion and other people’s motivation for their actions. Based on current psychometric research on distinct factors contributing to individual effectiveness in attentional control (working memory capacity), we propose that the organization of semantic memory may constitute an important and neglected aspect of a neurobiological model of this disorder. Impulsivity and emotional dysregulation resemble the long-term developmental effects of habitual strategies to determine response, which cognitive studies have characterized in terms of the interplay of attentional control capacity, cognitive and emotional load, and semantic organization. Rather than attributing an exclusive causal role to either increased emotional reactivity or diminished attentional control, we propose an account of this disorder as emerging from a self-reinforcing developmental history in which both these factors are intertwined. After mapping these notions onto specific psychotherapeutic interventions, we propose a model through which specific technical strategies result, in the long term, in structural change.
FastPval: a fast and memory efficient program to calculate very low P-values from empirical distribution

Motivation: Resampling methods, such as permutation and bootstrap, have been widely used to generate an empirical distribution for assessing the statistical significance of a measurement. However, to obtain a very low P-value, a large size of resampling is required, where computing speed, memory and storage consumption become bottlenecks, and sometimes become impossible, even on a computer cluster. Results: We have developed a multiple stage P-value calculating program called FastPval that can efficiently calculate very low (up to 10−9) P-values from a large number of resampled measurements. With only two input files and a few parameter settings from the users, the program can compute P-values from empirical distribution very efficiently, even on a personal computer. When tested on the order of 109 resampled data, our method only uses 52.94% the time used by the conventional method, implemented by standard quicksort and binary search algorithms, and consumes only 0.11% of the memory and storage. Furthermore, our method can be applied to extra large datasets that the conventional method fails to calculate. The accuracy of the method was tested on data generated from Normal, Poison and Gumbel distributions and was found to be no different from the exact ranking approach. Availability: The FastPval executable file, the java GUI and source code, and the java web start server with example data and introduction, are available at http://wanglab.hku.hk/pvalue Contact: junwen@hku.hk Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online and http://wanglab.hku.hk/pvalue/.
Serum myeloperoxidase and adenosine deaminase activities in polycystic ovary syndrome

Objective: To evaluate serum myeloperoxidase (MPO) and adenosine deaminase activities and to investigate whether there was a correlation between these and sex hormones, and lipids in polycystic ovary syndrome. Design and methods: Forty-five women with polycystic ovary syndrome and 40 healthy controls were included in this study. Leukocyte counts, serum MPO and adenosine deaminase activities, and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), sex hormone and lipid levels were assessed. Results: Leukocyte counts and serum MPO activities were higher (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively) and there was a significant correlation between serum adenosine deaminase and hs-CRP level in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (r = 0.853, p < 0.01). Serum MPO and adenosine deaminase levels did not correlate with sex hormones or lipid profiles in these patients. Conclusion: Polycystic ovary syndrome may involve an inflammatory process by increasing serum MPO activity independent of sex hormones, body mass index and lipid profiles.
trans-Dichloridobis{tris[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]phosphane-κP}palladium(II) dichloromethane monosolvate

The title compound, [PdCl2(C21H12F9P)2]·CH2Cl2, crystallizes with two independent complex molecules (each having the PdII atom situated on an inversion centre) and a dichloromethane molecule in the asymmetric unit. The independent PdII atoms are in perfectly linear orientations of the ligands in mutually trans positions, but distortions of the Cl—Pd—P angles ranging from 86.151 (19) to 93.849 (19)° are evident. The effective cone angles for the tris[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]phosphane ligand were calculated to be 159 and 161°. In the crystal, weak C—H⋯Cl/F interactions create a three-dimensional supramolecular network. Loose packing at two of the –CF3 groups resulted in large thermal vibrations which were treated as two-component disorders [occupancy ratios 0.50:0.50 and 0.628 (15):0.372 (15)].
Colorectal Papillomavirus Infection in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Purpose: Infection with human papillomaviruses (HPV) is associated with the development of cervical cancer, but whether HPVs have a role in colorectal cancer remains controversial. Experimental Designs: To determine the relationship between HPV and colorectal cancer, we did a retrospective, controlled study using tumor and tumor-adjacent colorectal tissues dissected from patients with colorectal cancer, as well as colorectal tissues from control individuals with no cancer. The samples were processed in a blinded fashion for nested PCR and in situ PCR detection of HPV DNAs. The PCR products were gel-purified and sequenced for HPV genotyping. Results: We found that colorectal tissues from 28 of 55 (51%) patients with colorectal cancer were positive for HPV DNA. Colorectal tissues from all 10 control individuals were negative for HPV DNA (P = 0.0034). Of the 107 usable (GAPDH+) samples collected as paired colorectal tissues (tumor and tumor-adjacent tissues) from the patients, 38 (36%) had HPV16 (n = 31), HPV18 (n = 5), or HPV45 (n = 2), with HPV DNA in both tumor and tumor-adjacent tissues of 10 paired samples, 13 in only the tumor, and 5 in only tumor-adjacent tissues. In situ PCR detection of the tumor tissues confirmed the presence of HPV DNA in tumor cells. Conclusion: Our results suggest that colorectal HPV infection is common in patients with colorectal cancer, albeit at a low DNA copy number, with HPV16 being the most prevalent type. HPV infection may play a role in colorectal carcinogenesis.
Ephemeral Interaction Using Everyday Objects

The ability for Tangible User Interfaces to enable the intuitive control of existing systems and adapt to individual users' usage scenarios remains an area of development. Previous research in customizable tangible interfaces has focused primarily on the offline creation by the original system developer, instead of offering extensibility to the end user. This paper presents our system to support the ad-hoc creation of 'disposable' UIs using both projected controls and physical objects. To support these controls, a software based patch panel enables data to be mapped to external systems, and from external systems back to the system itself. Using a projector, depth camera and 6DOF tracking system, users can create and map tangible/touch-based ad-hoc user controls to existing system functionality. This allows users to both quickly create new inputs for existing functionality, as well as create new arbitrary input devices from completely passive components.
Engineering and Sociology in a Military Aircraft Project: A Network Analysis of Technological Change

In this paper, we analyze the TSR 2 British military aircraft project, beginnning with its conceptualization in the late 1950s and ending in 1965 with its cancellation. Using the notion of network we detail the fundamentally interconnected character of the social and the technical. We trace how the TSR 2 was conceived, designed, and developed, then consider difficulties encountered and the process that led to its cancellation. Our aim is to recommend and illustrate a method of social analysis that takes the technical aspects of the engineer's work to be profoundly social. By carefully following technologists, we see the kinds of social worlds, institutions, and roles contained in the machines they create. We also see the diverse objects mobilized to fit these conceptions. The technical thus is social.
Solitary Peutz‐Jeghers polyp mimicking invasive cancer

A 46-year-old man was referred to our endoscopy unit for treatment of a 3-cm pedunculated polyp in the sigmoid colon (Fig. 1). There was a submucosal tumor-like bulging nodule on the stalk, suggesting the possibility of tumor submucosal invasion. Magnified endoscopy revealed that a part of the polyp head had a large tubular (type IIIL) or gyrus-like (type IV) pit pattern and another part showed round to oval (type I) pit pattern. Because there were no type V pits that indicated carcinoma, we made the diagnosis that the polyp was an advanced adenoma and carried out endoscopic mucosal resection. Histological examination showed the upper portion of the polyp consisted of components of arborizing muscular bundles originating from the muscularis mucosae covered with hyperplastic epithelia and tubulovillous adenoma with moderate atypia. The submucosal tumor-like nodule represented mucin-filled retention cysts, some of which were lined with focal aggregations of adenomatous glands (Fig. 2). These findings were compatible with pseudoinvasion of tubulovillous adenoma that arose from a Peutz-Jeghers (P-J)-type hamartomatous polyp.
Early-onset breast cancer patients in the South and Southeast of Brazil should be tested for the TP53 p.R337H mutation

Abstract Germline TP53 mutations are associated with Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), a disease that predisposes carriers to a wide variety of early onset tumors. In southern and southeastern Brazil, a high frequency of a germline TP53 mutation, p.R337H, was diagnosed in 0,3% of the population due to a founder effect. Carriers are at risk for developing cancer but the penetrance is lower than in typical DNA binding domain mutations. To date, only a few families were detected and diagnosis of carriers remains a challenge. Therefore, the inclusion of additional criteria to detect p.R337H carriers is necessary for the Brazilian population. We assessed the A.C. Camargo Cancer Center Oncogenetics Department database in search of common characteristics associated with p.R337H families that did not fulfill LFS/LFL clinical criteria. Among 42 p.R337H families, three did not meet any LFS/LFL criteria. All cases were young female patients with breast cancer diagnosed before age 45 and with no family history of LFS linked-cancers. Our results suggest that screening for the germline TP53 p.R337H mutation should be indicated, along with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing, for this group of patients, especially in the South and Southeast of Brazil.
Information Mining from Heterogeneous Data Sources: A Case Study on Drought Predictions

The objective of this study was to develop information mining methodology for drought modeling and predictions using historical records of climate, satellite, environmental, and oceanic data. The classification and regression tree (CART) approach was used for extracting drought episodes at different time-lag prediction intervals. Using the CART approach, a number of successful model trees were constructed, which can easily be interpreted and used by decision makers in their drought management decisions. The regression rules produced by CART were found to have correlation coefficients from 0.71–0.95 in rules-alone modeling. The accuracies of the models were found to be higher in the instance and rules model (0.77–0.96) compared to the rules-alone model. From the experimental analysis, it was concluded that different combinations of the nearest neighbor and committee models significantly increase the performances of CART drought models. For more robust results from the developed methodology, it is recommended that future research focus on selecting relevant attributes for slow-onset drought episode identification and prediction.
Myosin VIIa Participates in Opsin Transport through The Photoreceptor Cilium

Two types of Usher syndrome, a blindness–deafness disorder, result from mutations in the myosin VIIa gene. As for most other unconventional myosins, little is known about the function or functions of myosin VIIa. Here, we studied the photoreceptor cells of mice with mutant myosin VIIa by electron immunomicroscopy and microscopic autoradiography. We found evidence that myosin VIIa functions in the connecting cilium of each photoreceptor cell and participates in the transport of opsin through this structure. These findings provide the first direct evidence that opsin travels along the connecting cilium en route to the outer segment. They demonstrate that a myosin may function in a cilium and suggest that abnormal opsin transport might contribute to blindness in Usher syndrome.
Effect of serum gamma-glutamyltransferase and obesity on the risk of dyslipidemia and poor glycemic control in type 2 diabetic patients: cross-sectional findings from the Verona Diabetes Study.

We read with interest the article by Lim et al. (1) regarding a strong interaction between serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity and body mass index (BMI) and their effect on the risk of prevalent diabetes. The authors found that BMI is associated with prevalent diabetes only among individuals with high-normal GGT, suggesting that GGT determination can be useful in clinical settings for identifying individuals at high risk for diabetes. Given the scientific and clinical importance of an interaction between obesity and GGT in predicting diabetes, we investigated possible interactions between BMI and GGT in predicting poor glycemic control and common comorbidities of diabetes. Therefore, we assessed whether the association of BMI with hypertension, dyslipidemia, and poor glycemic control differed according to serum GGT activities in a type 2 diabetic population. Study participants were enrolled in the Verona Diabetes Study, a prospective observational study designed primarily to evaluate associations between type 2 diabetes and incidence of cardiovascular complications (2). In this analysis, we included …
Tuning the carrier sensing range of IEEE 802.11 MAC

We investigate the effects of the carrier sensing range of the IEEE 802.11 multiple access control (MAC) scheme in this paper. Contrary to the simple and inaccurate cut-off circular collision model that is commonly used, we employ a more accurate collision model to realistically simulate MAC schemes in ad hoc networks. We argue that the carrier sensing range is a tunable parameter that can significantly affect the MAC performance in multihop ad hoc networks. An optimal carrier sensing range should balance the trade-off between the amount of spatial frequency reuse and the possibility of packet collisions. A reward formulation for the optimization of the carrier sensing range is presented. Extensive simulation results are provided to substantiate our study.
A multiple FCMs data association based algorithm for multi-target tracking

Multi-target tracking is a key problem in the field of multi-sensor data fusion. A novel algorithm of multip-target tracking based on multiple FCMs data association is proposed for the multi-sensor multi-target (MSMT) tracking system. The algorithm can make full use of the information embedded in the measurements of sensors, make the minimization of the variance of the measurement fusion value through a linear weighting, and with a great reduction of the tracking errors caused by the association errors. Then the flow diagram is presented. In a scenario having five sensors, and five targets, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has the advantages over the existing ones of simplicity and efficiency.
Biofilm formation increases treatment failure in Staphylococcus epidermidis device‐related osteomyelitis of the lower extremity in human patients

The ability to form biofilm on the surface of implanted devices is often considered the most critical virulence factor possessed by Staphylococcus epidermidis in its role as an opportunistic pathogen in orthopaedic device‐related infection (ODRI). Despite this recognition, there is a lack of clinical evidence linking outcome with biofilm forming ability for S. epidermidis ODRIs. We prospectively collected S. epidermidis isolates cultured from patients presenting with ODRI. Antibiotic resistance patterns and biofilm‐forming ability was assessed. Patient information was collected and treatment outcome measures were determined after a mean follow‐up period of 26 months. The primary outcome measure was cure at follow‐up. Univariate logistic regression models were used to determine the influence of biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance on treatment outcome. A total of 124 patients were included in the study, a majority of whom (n = 90) involved infections of the lower extremity. A clear trend emerged in the lower extremity cohort whereby cure rates decreased as the biofilm‐forming ability of the isolates increased (84% cure rate for infections caused by non‐biofilm formers, 76% cure rate for weak biofilm‐formers, and 60% cure rate for the most marked biofilm formers, p = 0.076). Antibiotic resistance did not influence treatment cure rate. Chronic immunosuppression was associated with a statistically significant decrease in cure rate (p = 0.044). Clinical significance: The trend of increasing biofilm‐forming ability resulting in lower cure rates for S. epidermidis ODRI indicates biofilm‐forming ability of infecting pathogens does influence treatment outcome of infections of the lower extremity. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:1905–1913, 2016.
Brain State Control by Closed-Loop Environmental Feedback

Brain state regulates sensory processing and motor control for adaptive behavior. Internal mechanisms of brain state control are well studied, but the role of external modulation from the environment is not well understood. Here, we examined the role of closed-loop environmental (CLE) feedback, in comparison to open-loop sensory input, on brain state and behavior in diverse vertebrate systems. In fictively swimming zebrafish, CLE feedback for optomotor stability controlled brain state by reducing coherent neuronal activity. The role of CLE feedback in brain state was also shown in a model of rodent active whisking, where brief interruptions in this feedback enhanced signal-to-noise ratio for detecting touch. Finally, in monkey visual fixation, artificial CLE feedback suppressed stimulus-specific neuronal activity and improved behavioral performance. Our findings show that the environment mediates continuous closed-loop feedback that controls neuronal gain, regulating brain state, and that brain function is an emergent property of brain-environment interactions.
Duration of cognitive dysfunction after concussion, and cognitive dysfunction as a risk factor: a population study of young men

Abstract Objectives: To establish how long cognitive dysfunction lasts after concussion, and the extent to which it may be a predisposing risk factor for concussion, by examining the prevalence of cognitive dysfunction among young men who have sustained concussion. Design: Observational study. Setting: Denmark. Subjects: 1220 young men who had been admitted to hospital for concussion between the ages of 16 and 24 (identified in a national register of admissions) and who had also been cognitively tested by the Danish conscription draft board. Main outcome measure: Score on the draft board's cognitive screening test, dichotomised as dysfunctional or non-dysfunctional (20.4% of the general population of Danish men appearing before the draft board had a dysfunctional score). Results: 700 of the 1220 men had been tested after sustaining concussion; 520 had been tested before concussion. Four (50%) of the eight men who were tested less than seven days after the injury had a dysfunctional score. Among groups of the remaining 692 men who were tested at later time points after injury, the rates were only marginally raised (range 21.4% to 26.5%) above the population level. Among men tested before injury, the rate of dysfunctional scores was higher (30.4% (158/520)). Apart from suggesting cognitive dysfunction as a risk factor for concussion, this higher proportion seems to relate to the fact that they were typically injured as young adults, whereas those men who were tested after concussion had more often been injured as adolescents. The relative risk for concussion in the presence of cognitive dysfunction is estimated to be 1.57 (95% confidence interval 1.32 to 1.86). Conclusions: Cognitive dysfunction is not only a short term consequence of concussion but also a predisposing risk factor for concussion, more so for young adults than for adolescents. Key messages How should academic medicine look in the 21st century Cognitive dysfunction is also a risk factor for sustaining concussion The risk factor is greater among young adults than among adolescents