Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

Background: Health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) is a relevant and quantifiable outcome of care. We implemented HR-QOL assessment at all primary care visits at UCSD Owen Clinic using EQ-5D. The study aim was to estimate the prognostic value of EQ-5D for survival, hospitalization, and emergency department (ED) utilization after controlling for CD4 and HIV plasma viral load (pVL). Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of HIV clinic based cohort (1996–2000). The EQ-5D includes single item measures of: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Each item is coded using 3-levels (1 = no problems; 2 = some problems; 3 = severe problems). The instrument includes a global rating of current health using a visual analog scale (VAS) ranging from 0 (worst imaginable) to 100 (best imaginable). An additional single item measure of health change (better, much the same, worse) was included. A predicted VAS (pVAS) was estimated by regressing the 5 EQ-5D health states on VAS using reference cell coding of health states and random effects linear models. Survival models were fit using Cox modelling. Hospitalization and ED rate models were estimated using population-averaged Poisson models. Results: 965 patients met eligibility criteria. 12% were female; 42% were non-white. Median timeat-risk was 1.2 years. Median CD4 was 233. Median log10(pVL) was 4.6. 47 deaths occurred. In two Cox models controlling for CD4 and pVL, the adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for VAS and pVAS as time-varying covariates were 0.73 (95% CI: 0.63–0.83) and 0.66 (95% CI: 0.56–0.77) respectively, for every 10 point increase in (p)VAS rating. In Poisson regression models predicting ED visit rates and hospital discharge rates controlling for current CD4 and pVL, each of the EQ-5D health dimensions, VAS, and health change items were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the outcomes. For ED visit rates, the adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) were 0.86 (0.83–0.89) and 0.79 (0.75–0.82) for VAS and pVAS, respectively. For hospital discharge rates, the aIRR's were 0.85 (0.82–0.88) and 0.79 (0.75–0.82) for VAS and pVAS, respectively. Conclusion: EQ-5D is a brief and prognostically useful predictor of mortality, hospitalization, and ED utilization among adults under care for HIV infection, even after adjusting for CD4 and HIV plasma viral load. Published: 25 January 2007 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2007, 5:5 doi:10.1186/1477-7525-5-5 Received: 7 November 2006 Accepted: 25 January 2007 This article is available from: http://www.hqlo. com/content/5/1/5 © 2007 Mathews and May; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Effect of driving training on car crashes and driving skills in older people: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

The primary aim of this systematic review was to examine the efficacy of driving interventions with regard to a reduction in motor vehicle crashes and improvements in driving skills among older people. The secondary aim was to identify the optimal type (on‐road or off‐road) and dosage (period, sessions, and duration) of driving interventions for improving driving skills in older people. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Scopus of Systematic Reviews for papers published from their inception to December 1, 2020, as well as the reference lists of the included papers. The selected studies were randomized controlled trials examining the effects of driving interventions among community‐dwelling older drivers aged 65 years and over. A meta‐analysis of two studies (n = 960) showed that driving interventions significantly reduced the number of motor vehicle crashes per person‐years. Ten studies (n = 575) were included in the meta‐analysis showing that the interventions significantly improved the driving skill scores. Driving skill scores significantly improved after on‐road training, and in interventions of at least 3 h, 3 sessions, and 3 weeks. Driving interventions significantly improve driving skills and reduce motor vehicle crashes among older drivers aged 65 years and over. On‐road training is more efficacious than off‐road training and driving interventions of at least 3 h taking place in 3 sessions over a period of 3 weeks may be required to improve driving skills in older drivers. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2023; 23: 771–778.
Recommendations for Landslide Hazard and Risk Mapping in Croatia

The preparation of landslide hazard and risk maps is required as a base for rational land use planning and decision-making, in landslide prone areas. In this paper, an inventory was made of the currently available methods for landslide hazard and risk zonation, in order to produce recommendations for the use of specific methods in relation to the scale of analysis. A hierarchical set of activities aimed at obtaining landslide-related information for all levels of land use planning in the Republic of Croatia is constructed. This set encompasses: the establishment of a national landslide inventory on a regional scale ( 1:5000).
Dexmedetomidine alleviates cognitive impairment by promoting hippocampal neurogenesis via BDNF/TrkB/CREB signaling pathway in hypoxic–ischemic neonatal rats

Abstract Aims Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been reported to alleviate hypoxic–ischemic brain damage (HIBD) in neonates. This study aimed to investigate whether DEX improves cognitive impairment by promoting hippocampal neurogenesis via the BDNF/TrkB/CREB signaling pathway in neonatal rats with HIBD. Methods HIBD was induced in postnatal day 7 rats using the Rice‐Vannucci method, and DEX (25 μg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally immediately after the HIBD induction. The BDNF/TrkB/CREB pathway was regulated by administering the TrkB receptor antagonist ANA‐12 through intraperitoneal injection or by delivering adeno‐associated virus (AAV)‐shRNA‐BDNF via intrahippocampal injection. Western blot was performed to measure the levels of BDNF, TrkB, and CREB. Immunofluorescence staining was utilized to identify the polarization of astrocytes and evaluate the levels of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Nissl and TTC staining were performed to evaluate the extent of neuronal damage. The MWM test was conducted to evaluate spatial learning and memory ability. Results The levels of BDNF and neurogenesis exhibited a notable decrease in the hippocampus of neonatal rats after HIBD, as determined by RNA‐sequencing technology. Our results demonstrated that treatment with DEX effectively increased the protein expression of BDNF and the phosphorylation of TrkB and CREB, promoting neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in neonatal rats with HIBD. Specifically, DEX treatment significantly augmented the expression of BDNF in hippocampal astrocytes, while decreasing the proportion of detrimental A1 astrocytes and increasing the proportion of beneficial A2 astrocytes in neonatal rats with HIBD. Furthermore, inhibiting the BDNF/TrkB/CREB pathway using either ANA‐12 or AAV‐shRNA‐BDNF significantly counteracted the advantageous outcomes of DEX on hippocampal neurogenesis, neuronal survival, and cognitive improvement. Conclusions DEX promoted neurogenesis in the hippocampus by activating the BDNF/TrkB/CREB pathway through the induction of polarization of A1 astrocytes toward A2 astrocytes, subsequently mitigating neuronal damage and cognitive impairment in neonates with HIBD.
Discriminação de áreas de espesso regolito do leste do Estado do Amazonas usando estatística multivariada, algoritmo hiperespectral e modelagem de dados espaciais

Areas with deep regolith profiles are widely distributed in the Amazonian region. Research on regolith geology in Brazil has concentrated, mainly, in geochemical and mineralogical aspects and where possible utilizing these in exploration. Although airborne geophysics and spatial data integration methods are being used increasingly for mineral resource assessments, the application in regolith-dominated terrains is new. The objective of this paper is to show the potential of a systematic approach, including the use of regional gamma-ray spectrometry, digital elevation model and image digital processing techniques for the identification of deep regolith areas characterized by potential economic interest in less well explored region of the eastern portion of Amazonas State. The application of multivariate statistics techniques (Principal Components Analysis and K-means) in airborne gamma-ray data allows the individualization of regoliths in comparison to the geologic units of this region. How exploratory guide, the following patterns were observed: low values of K (easily lixivied during the weathering) and K/eU ratio; high values of eTh, eTh/K ration and medium values of eU, besides the higher altitude (plateau). Based on these images, the hyperspectral algorithm named Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) and the boolean and fuzzy logic spatial modeling techniques were applied to produce regolith potential maps that were compared with previous geological data in 1:250.000 scale. The quantitative relationships between geophysical and altimetric datasets have shown great capability for linking geological and geophysical interpretations, indicating potential areas that can direct new ways for mineral prospecting at the study area.
Enhancing empathy among humanitarian workers through Project MIRACLE: Development and initial validation of the Helpful Responses to Refugees Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND Empathy is an important tool needed for service providers working with people who have experienced trauma, such as refugees and torture survivors. However, the high caseloads, rigorous deadlines, and overwhelming circumstances under which humanitarian workers typically operate often make it challenging to employ empathy. The Helpful Responses to Refugees Questionnaire (HRRQ) was developed to measure empathetic responsiveness, a core skill of Motivational Interviewing, among service providers working with refugees, including torture survivors. METHODS The HRRQ was adapted specifically for measuring empathy in refugee contexts, including among asylum-seekers and torture survivors. Face validity and content validity were established by a panel of refugee resettlement experts prior to administration. The instrument was then administered via an online survey to a national sample of refugee service providers (valid N=90). FINDINGS The HRRQ demonstrated good psychometric properties. INTERPRETATION The HRRQ has several potential applications for work with refugees, including torture survivors. It could be used as a supervisory tool to assess service providers' skills in this area and provide feedback for improvement, if needed. It could also be used as a screening tool for hiring new staff as part of a comprehensive screening and selection process. Finally, it may be used as a pretest-posttest to evaluate the impact of staff training in motivational interviewing. Limitations of this study and implications for future research are discussed.
Rafts, Nanoparticles and Neural Disease

This review examines the role of membrane rafts in neural disease as a rationale for drug targeting utilizing lipid-based nanoparticles. The article begins with an overview of methodological issues involving the existence, sizes, and lifetimes of rafts, and then examines raft function in the etiologies of three major neural diseases—epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease—selected as promising candidates for raft-based therapeutics. Raft-targeting drug delivery systems involving liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles are then examined in detail.
Flexibility of neuronal codes:adaptation to stimulus statistics in a mechanosensorial neuron firing in bursts

In the present thesis we have described a sensory code in a spike-bursting mechanoreceptor in the leech Hirudo medicinalis. We have stimulated the neuron using naturalistic tactile stimuli with dIfferent statistical distributions while intracellularly recorded the cell bursting activity. Analyzing the input/output relationship, we found that this sensory code is based on the number of spikes per burst (burst size): Larger number of spikes per burst codes for larger velocity values of an object indenting the skin of the animal. We also found that the burst rate codes for velocity values of the stimulus
Tectono-stratigraphic terranes and the metamorphic history of the northeastern part of the crystalline core of the North Cascades: evidence from the Twisp Valley Schist

The Twisp Valley Schist (TVS) is important for both the correlation of terranes in the Cascades crystalline core and for the determination of the metamorphic pressure–temperature–time history of the northeastern part of the core. The TVS is a chaotically mixed unit of mainly siliceous schist (metachert) with significant amounts of metabasite, calc-silicate rock, and marble, and minor ultramafite and metapsammite. Geochemical analyses of metabasites indicate that the TVS contains both ocean-island basalts (OIB) and mid-ocean-ridge basalts (MORB). The TVS is lithologically similar to the Napeequa unit of the Chelan Mountains terrane in the Cascades core and is broadly correlative with units outside of the core, including the Mississippian–Jurassic Bridge River – Hozameen terrane of the eastern Coast belt, and coeval OIB-bearing terranes in the Northwest Cascades thrust system. Much of the northeastern Cascades core thus consists of oceanic rocks that probably originally lay between the Insular and the Inter.
Holocene changes of Andean alder (Alnus acuminata) in highland Ecuador and Peru

Fossil pollen records from the high Andes of Ecuador and northern Peru show that Alnus increased in abundance at most sites following warming associated with the onset of the Holocene. The peak of Alnus pollen abundance occurred between ∼9000 and 5000 yr BP. However, between 6500 and 4500 yr BP, the abundance of Alnus pollen declined markedly in all of the available records, including sites both within and above its modern distribution range. Even though the beginning of this decline may have been time‐transgressive, the greatest reduction of Alnus abundance is consistent between sites, occurring at ca. 4500 yr BP. This synchrony suggests that one or more factors affected Alnus populations across the whole region. A cooler climate, droughts and anthropogenic activity are discussed as possible causes on such a large spatial scale. A scenario is suggested in which the early–mid Holocene increase in Alnus populations was curtailed by droughts, and then further impacted by major regional cooling from ca. 5000 yr BP onwards. Human agricultural activities in this wetter interval may also have delayed Alnus recovery. A resurgence of Alnus populations at 2000–1000 yr BP may have been a response to regional warming coupled with human land management practices. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fluvial deposition during transition from flexural to dynamic subsidence in the Cordilleran foreland basin: Ericson Formation, Western Wyoming, USA

The Ericson Formation was deposited in the distal foredeep of the Cordilleran foreland basin during Campanian time. Isopach data show that it records early dynamic subsidence and the onset of basin partitioning by Laramide uplifts. The Ericson Formation is well exposed around the Rock Springs uplift, a Laramide structural dome in southwestern Wyoming; the formation is thin, regionally extensive, and does not display the wedge‐shaped geometry typical of foredeep deposits. Sedimentation in this area was controlled both by activity in the thrust belt and by intraforeland tectonics. The Ericson Formation is ideally situated both spatially and temporally to study the transition from Sevier to Laramide (thin‐ to thick‐skinned) deformation which corresponded to the shift from flexural to dynamic subsidence and the demise of the Cretaceous foreland basin system. We establish the depositional age of the Ericson Formation as ca. 74 Ma through detrital zircon U–Pb analysis. Palaeocurrent data show a generally southeastward transport direction, but northward indicators near Flaming Gorge Reservoir suggest that the intraforeland Uinta uplift was rising and shedding sediment northward by late Campanian time. Petrographic data and detrital zircon U–Pb ages indicate that Ericson sediment was derived from erosion of Proterozoic quartzites and Palaeozoic and Mesozoic quartzose sandstones in the Sevier thrust belt to the west. The new data place temporal and geographic constraints on attempts to produce geodynamic models linking flat‐slab subduction of the oceanic Farallon plate to the onset of the Laramide orogenic event.
Upper ocean bubble measurements from the NE Pacific and estimates of their role in air‐sea gas transfer of the weakly soluble gases nitrogen and oxygen

[1] Simultaneous observations of upper-ocean bubble clouds, and dissolved gaseous nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2) from three winter storms are presented and analyzed. The data were collected on the Canadian Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (C-SOLAS) mooring located near Ocean Station Papa (OSP) at 50°N, 145°W in the NE Pacific during winter of 2003/2004. The bubble field was measured using an upward looking 200 kHz echosounder. Direct estimates of bubble mediated gas fluxes were made using assumed bubble size spectra and the upward looking echosounder data. A one-dimensional biogeochemical model was used to help compare data and various existing models of bubble mediated air-sea gas exchange. The direct bubble flux calculations show an approximate quadratic/cubic dependence on mean bubble penetration depth. After scaling from N2/O2 to carbon dioxide, near surface, nonsupersaturating, air-sea transfer rates, KT, for U10 > 12 m s−1 fall between quadratic and cubic relationships. Estimates of the subsurface bubble induced air injection flux, VT, show an approximate quadratic/cubic dependence on mean bubble penetration depth. Both KT and VT are much higher than those measured during Hurricane Frances over the wind speed range 12 < U10 < 23 m s−1. This result implies that over the open ocean and this wind speed range, older and more developed seas which occur during winter storms are more effective in exchanging gases between the atmosphere and ocean than younger less developed seas which occur during the rapid passage of a hurricane.
Comparison of Temperature Increases with Urban Surface Cover for Different Geographical Conditions in Japan

In order to reveal the relationships between physical-geographical conditions and temperature rises in cities, the dependence of the rate of surface air temperature rise on urban surface cover was compared for different physical-geographical conditions for cities in Japan. The monthly mean temperatures observed in 74 sites selected to fulfill specific criteria from 1964 to 2011 and land use data categorized into 11 types, at 100 m spatial resolution, including buildings and roads, were used. The rate of the monthly mean of the daily mean temperature rise for the coastal sites has a positive correlation with the distance from the coastline. The rate of temperature rise was found to be positively correlated with an urban cover index for the coastal observation sites within 7 km from the coastline, and for the sites including the coastal sites more than 7 km away from the coastline and the inland sites. The change in the rate of temperature rise with respect to the urban cover index is higher for the inland sites than for the coastal sites within 7 km of the coast. The largest difference in the rates is shown in winter. The rate of temperature rise at sites more than 7 km away from the coast is similar to those at inland sites. The study has implications for predicting future changes in cities and the greater vulnerability of inland cities to enhanced warming.
Size‐resolved adjoint inversion of Asian dust

We expanded the variational assimilation system of a regional dust model by using size‐resolved inversion. Dust emissions and particle‐size distributions of a severe dust and sandstorm (DSS) in April 2005 were inversely optimized with optical measurements by the National Institute for Environmental Studies lidar network. The inversion results successfully compensated underestimates by the original model and increased the Ångström exponent around the DSS core by 13–17%, shifting the particle‐size distribution to finer. The a posteriori size distribution was distinctly different between eastern and western source regions. In the western regions, dust emissions in the 3.19 and 5.06μm size bins increased considerably, and the peak size shifted from 5.06 to 3.19 μm, whereas in the eastern regions, emissions of finer particles (bins 0.82–2.01 μm) increased. Differences in vegetation and soil type and moisture between eastern and western regions might explain the characteristics of the inverted size distribution.
An Sp1/Sp3 Binding Polymorphism Confers Methylation Protection

Hundreds of genes show aberrant DNA hypermethylation in cancer, yet little is known about the causes of this hypermethylation. We identified RIL as a frequent methylation target in cancer. In search for factors that influence RIL hypermethylation, we found a 12-bp polymorphic sequence around its transcription start site that creates a long allele. Pyrosequencing of homozygous tumors revealed a 2.1-fold higher methylation for the short alleles (P<0.001). Bisulfite sequencing of cancers heterozygous for RIL showed that the short alleles are 3.1-fold more methylated than the long (P<0.001). The comparison of expression levels between unmethylated long and short EBV-transformed cell lines showed no difference in expression in vivo. Electrophorectic mobility shift assay showed that the inserted region of the long allele binds Sp1 and Sp3 transcription factors, a binding that is absent in the short allele. Transient transfection of RIL allele-specific transgenes showed no effects of the additional Sp1 site on transcription early on. However, stable transfection of methylation-seeded constructs showed gradually decreasing transcription levels from the short allele with eventual spreading of de novo methylation. In contrast, the long allele showed stable levels of expression over time as measured by luciferase and ∼2–3-fold lower levels of methylation by bisulfite sequencing (P<0.001), suggesting that the polymorphic Sp1 site protects against time-dependent silencing. Our finding demonstrates that, in some genes, hypermethylation in cancer is dictated by protein-DNA interactions at the promoters and provides a novel mechanism by which genetic polymorphisms can influence an epigenetic state.
Trajectories of parent well‐being in children with drug‐resistant epilepsy

This longitudinal cohort study aimed to identify trajectories of parent well‐being over the first 2 years after their child's evaluation for candidacy for epilepsy surgery, and to identify the baseline clinical and demographic characteristics associated with these trajectories. Parent well‐being was based on parent depressive and anxiety symptoms and family resources (i.e., family mastery and social support).