Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peak Expiratory Flow Predicts Incident Dementia in a Representative Sample of U.S. Older Adults: The National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS).

BACKGROUND Dementia is an increasingly important public health problem with various risk factors. Respiratory function, measured via peak expiratory flow (PEF), may be a modifiable dementia risk factor. METHODS We investigated the association between PEF and incident dementia in 5935 older adults from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) from 2011-2014. Baseline PEF, expressed as a standardized residual (SR) percentile, was analyzed as a predictor of incident dementia using discrete-time proportional hazards models, while controlling for several health and sociodemographic covariates. RESULTS After 14,332 person-years of follow-up, 9.0% (N=536) had incident cases of dementia. Compared to the lowest PEF category (SR-percentile <10%), the highest PEF category (SR-percentile ≥80%) had 49% lower risk of incident dementia (HR = 0.51; 95% CI [0.37, 0.71]), and the second highest PEF category (SR percentile 50-80%) had 25% lower risk of incident dementia (HR = 0.75; 95% CI [0.56, 1.00]). A sensitivity analysis using multiple imputation to account for missing PEF measurements yielded similar associations with incident dementia. DISCUSSION These associations suggest a dose-dependent relationship such that higher PEF categories were more protective against incident dementia. PEF may be considered as an easily administered, low-cost measure of respiratory function and a potentially modifiable dementia risk factor. Improving PEF may reduce dementia risk through vascular mechanisms, such as increased brain oxygenation. Future research should explore potential causal pathways between PEF and dementia.
Burnout in Pharmacy professionals during COVID-19 outbreak

Background and aim: COVID-19 pandemic has had a major global impact on the economic, social, and public health sectors. The most serious consequences were felt firsthand in health systems and by their professionals, exposing them to greater physical and mental health risks, which need to be properly evaluated. This study aims to assess burnout levels in pharmacy professionals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We collected data (N = 250), in pharmacy professionals (mean age of 34.24 years) (SD=8.99) who working in different areas during the pandemic period using the Burnout Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). Results: There was an increase in the number of weekly working hours after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a decrease in the number of rest days per month. Most participants believe that their health status after the start of the pandemic is a little worse (44.4%). According to the CBI, the dimension with the highest average value of the Burnout subscale is related to the customer/user dimension (53.07), followed by the Work (44.60) and Personal (44.22) dimension. Conclusions: The levels of Burnout of pharmacy professionals are more accentuated in the Burnout dimension related to the client/user and that the average values of the various Burnout subscales are higher in Pharmacy Technicians than in Pharmacists. (www.actabiomedica.it)
The structure of vortex tube segments in fluid turbulence

Geometrical description of the flow fields is an important direction to understand the physics of turbulence. Recently several new analysis approaches addressing the entire field properties have been developed, such as dissipation element analysis for the scalar fields and streamtube segment analysis (J. Fluid Mech. 2010, 648: 183-203) for the velocity vector field. By decomposing into a fundamental structure, i.e. stream-tube segments, the velocity field can be understood from the statistics of these relative simple units. Similar idea can be adopted to analyze the vorticity field. The classic concept of vortex tube has been remaining as a topic of essential importance in many aspects. However, the vortex tube structure is not complete to represent the entire turbulent fields, because of its ambiguous definition and small volume portion. This work presents tentatively the vorticitytube segment structure to overcome the existing deficiency. Vorticitytube segments reveal an inherent topology of turbulence vorticity fields. Based on statistics conditioned on different vorticitytube segments, some problems can be newly understood, such as the enstrophy production. Results hereof may also serve for turbulence modeling.
Correction of axial optical aberrations in hyperspectral imaging systems

In hyper-spectral imaging systems with a wide spectral range, axial optical aberrations may lead to a significant blurring of image intensities in certain parts of the spectral range. Axial optical aberrations arise from the indexof- refraction variations that is dependent on the wavelength of incident light. To correct axial optical aberrations the point-spread function (PSF) of the image acquisition system needs to be identified. We proposed a multiframe joint blur identification and image restoration method that maximizes the likelihood of local image energy distributions between spectral images. Gaussian mixture model based density estimate provides a link between corresponding spatial information shared among spectral images so as to find and restore the image edges via a PSF update. Model of the PSF was assumed to be a linear combination of Gaussian functions, therefore the blur identification process had to find only the corresponding scalar weights of each Gaussian function. Using the identified PSF, image restoration was performed by the iterative Richardson-Lucy algorithm. Experiments were conducted on four different biological samples using a hyper-spectral imaging system based on acousto-optic tunable filter in the visible spectral range (0.55 - 1.0 μm). By running the proposed method, the quality of raw spectral images was substantially improved. Image quality improvements were quantified by a measure of contrast and demonstrate the potential of the proposed method for the correction of axial optical aberrations.
1120nm highly brilliant laser sources for SHG-modules in bio-analytics and spectroscopy

Highly brilliant diode lasers at 1120nm with a high optical output power, nearly diffraction limited beam and narrow spectral line width are increasingly important for non-linear frequency conversion to 560 nm. We present experimental results about edge-emitting distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) tapered diode lasers emitting at 1120 nm. The investigated lasers show an output power of up to 8W with a conversion efficiency of about 40%, and a lifetime of more than 5000 h at 5 W. The lasers also exhibit a small vertical divergence <15° full width at half maximum (FWHM), a nearly diffraction limited beam quality, and a narrow spectral line width with FWHM smaller than 10pm. These properties allow the lasers to be used for future second harmonic (SH) generation.
Negative Magnetoresistance in the Anderson Localized States

It is shown that the mechanism of the electronic conduction due to variable-range hopping in the Anderson localized states gives rise to a large negative magnetoresistance, particularly in the vicinity of the metal-nonmetal transition. This result is mainly caused by an exponential dependence of the hopping rate on the highest occupied energy levels. The same mechanism also leads to a strong electric field-dependence of the conductivity.
Polarization around an ion in a dielectric continuum with truncated electrostatic interactions

In order to reduce computational effort and to allow for the use of periodic boundary conditions, electrostatic interactions in explicit solvent simulations of molecular systems do not obey Coulomb’s law. Instead, a number of “effective potentials” have been proposed, including truncated Coulomb, shifted, switched, reaction-field corrected, or Ewald potentials. The present study compares the performance of these schemes in the context of ionic solvation. To this purpose, a generalized form of the Born continuum model for ion solvation is developed, where ion–solvent and solvent–solvent interactions are determined by these effective potentials instead of Coulomb’s law. An integral equation is formulated for calculating the polarization around a spherical ion from which the solvation free energy can be extracted. Comparison of the polarizations and free energies calculated for specific effective potentials and the exact Born result permits an assessment of the accuracy of these different schemes. Additional.
Laser hemorrhoidoplasty versus conventional hemorrhoidectomy for grade II/III hemorrhoids: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose This study compared the short- and long-term clinical outcomes of laser hemorrhoidoplasty (LH) vs. conventional hemorrhoidectomy (CH) in patients with grade II/III hemorrhoids. Methods PubMed/Medline and the Cochrane Library were searched for randomized and nonrandomized studies comparing LH against CH in grade II/III hemorrhoids. The primary outcomes included postoperative use of analgesia, postoperative morbidity (bleeding, urinary retention, pain, thrombosis), and time of return to work/daily activities. Results Nine studies totaling 661 patients (LH, 336 and CH, 325) were included. The LH group had shorter operative time (P<0.001) and less intraoperative blood loss (P<0.001). Postoperative pain was lower in the LH group, with lower postoperative day 1 (mean difference [MD], –2.09; 95% confidence interval [CI], –3.44 to –0.75; P=0.002) and postoperative day 7 (MD, –3.94; 95% CI, –6.36 to –1.52; P=0.001) visual analogue scores and use of analgesia (risk ratio [RR], 0.59; 95% CI, 0.42–0.81; P=0.001). The risk of postoperative bleeding was also lower in the LH group (RR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.12– 0.28; P<0.001), with a quicker return to work or daily activities (P=0.002). The 12-month risks of bleeding (P>0.999) and prolapse (P=0.240), and the likelihood of complete resolution at 12 months, were similar (P=0.240). Conclusion LH offers more favorable short-term clinical outcomes than CH, with reduced morbidity and pain and earlier return to work or daily activities. Medium-term symptom recurrence at 12 months was similar. Our results should be verified in future well-designed trials with larger samples.
Multinucleation resets human macrophages for specialized functions at the expense of their identity

Macrophages undergo plasma membrane fusion and cell multinucleation to form multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) such as osteoclasts in bone, Langhans giant cells (LGCs) as part of granulomas or foreign‐body giant cells (FBGCs) in reaction to exogenous material. How multinucleation per se contributes to functional specialization of mature mononuclear macrophages remains poorly understood in humans. Here, we integrate comparative transcriptomics with functional assays in purified mature mononuclear and multinucleated human osteoclasts, LGCs and FBGCs. Strikingly, in all three types of MGCs, multinucleation causes a pronounced downregulation of macrophage identity. We show enhanced lysosome‐mediated intracellular iron homeostasis promoting MGC formation. The transition from mononuclear to multinuclear state is accompanied by cell specialization specific to each polykaryon. Enhanced phagocytic and mitochondrial function associate with FBGCs and osteoclasts, respectively. Moreover, human LGCs preferentially express B7‐H3 (CD276) and can form granuloma‐like clusters in vitro, suggesting that their multinucleation potentiates T cell activation. These findings demonstrate how cell–cell fusion and multinucleation reset human macrophage identity as part of an advanced maturation step that confers MGC‐specific functionality.
Human TrkAR649W mutation impairs nociception, sweating and cognitive abilities: a mouse model of HSAN IV

Abstract A functional nerve growth factor NGF–Tropomyosin Receptor kinase A (TrkA) system is an essential requisite for the generation and maintenance of long-lasting thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia in adult mammals. Indeed, mutations in the gene encoding for TrkA are responsible for a rare condition, named Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy type IV (HSAN IV), characterized by the loss of response to noxious stimuli, anhidrosis and cognitive impairment. However, to date, there is no available mouse model to properly understand how the NGF–TrkA system can lead to pathological phenotypes that are distinctive of HSAN IV. Here, we report the generation of a knock-in mouse line carrying the HSAN IV TrkAR649W mutation. First, by in vitro biochemical and biophysical analyses, we show that the pathological R649W mutation leads to kinase-inactive TrkA also affecting its membrane dynamics and trafficking. In agreement with the HSAN IV human phenotype, TrkAR649W/m mice display a lower response to thermal and chemical noxious stimuli, correlating with reduced skin innervation, in addition to decreased sweating in comparison to TrkAh/m controls. Moreover, the R649W mutation decreases anxiety-like behavior and compromises cognitive abilities, by impairing spatial-working and social memory. Our results further uncover unexplored roles of TrkA in thermoregulation and sociability. In addition to accurately recapitulating the clinical manifestations of HSAN IV patients, our findings contribute to clarifying the involvement of the NGF–TrkA system in pain sensation.
Experimental flutter boundaries with unsteady pressure distributions for the NACA 0012 Benchmark Model

The Structural Dynamics Division at NASA Langley Research Center has started a wind tunnel activity referred to as the Benchmark Models Program. The primary objective of the program is to acquire test data that will be useful for developing and evaluating aeroelastic type CFD codes currently in use of under development. This paper describes the progress achieved in testing the first model in the Benchmark Models Program. Experimental flutter boundaries are presented for a rigid semispan model (NACA 0012 airfoil section) mounted on a flexible mount system. Also, steady and unsteady pressure measurements taken at the flutter condition are presented. The pressure data were acquired over the entire model chord located at the 60 percent span station.
Elevated Soot Layer in Polluted Urban Atmosphere: A Case Study in Beijing

A layered structure of aerosol particles from surface to 1080 m was observed in Beijing on 8 December 2007. Below 700 m, the particles were well mixed vertically. From 700 to 1000 m was an elevated aerosol layer (EAL), in which the aerosol concentration was remarkably higher than in the lower and upper layers. Electron microscopic analyses of particles in the size range of 0.2–1.3 m m at different altitudes revealed that soot particles were the majority in all layers. There were fresh, young and aged soot particles in the lower layer. In contrast, soot particles in the EAL were well aged, showing the structure of shrunken soot inclusions coated with weakly absorbing materials. The geometric mean equivalent diameter of the soot particles in the EAL was 0.4–0.6 m m while that of their inclusions was about 0.1 m m. The EAL coincided with the remaining nocturnal layer aloft, which was the residual left by the daytime upward convective mixing. These results suggest that the fate of soot particles was closely dependent on the evolution of the boundary layer. While particles emitted from the surface were efﬁciently mixed upward in daytime, the residual nocturnal layer acted
Effects of negative pressure wound therapy with instillation and dwell time (NPWTi‐d) versus NPWT or standard of care in orthoplastic surgery: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a wound‐dressing system that applies sub‐atmospheric pressure on the surface of a wound to promote healing. An evolution of this technology, NPWT with solution instillation and dwell time (NPWTi‐d), is increasingly being used to maximise wound closure and reduce failure rates. However, there is still a lack of evidence concerning its use in orthoplastic surgery. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare NPWTi‐d with NPWT and standard of care for wound management in orthoplastic surgery. A comprehensive literature search using PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases up to 15 March 2022 was performed, including studies describing the outcomes of NPWTi‐d for traumatic/orthopaedic injuries. A meta‐analysis on the number of surgical debridements, as well as the rate of complete wound closure and complications was carried out, although for other outcomes, a descriptive statistic was applied. Risk of bias and quality of evidence were assessed using the Downs& Black's Checklist for Measuring Quality. Thirteen studies with a total number of 871 patients were included, in which NPWTi‐d demonstrated significantly higher primary wound closure and lower complication rates (P < .05). No difference in the number of surgical procedures required for final wound healing was observed. Moreover, five out of six studies showed better results for NPWTi‐d when the change of the bioburden and bacterial count of the wound were analysed. A singular study investigating the length of the hospital stay of patients treated with NPWTi‐d showed a reduction in the latter. The present meta‐analysis proves that NPWTi‐d is superior to NPTW or conventional dressings in orthoplastic wound care management, in terms of complete wound closure rate and the reduced number of complications. Still, the limited quality of the studies analysed shows that future randomised studies are needed to confirm the benefits and to identify the most appropriate recommendations for using NPWTi‐d in orthoplastic surgery, as well as to investigate the cost‐effectiveness of this wound‐dressing system.
Dual high‐gain‐based adaptive output‐feedback control for a class of nonlinear systems

We propose an adaptive output‐feedback controller for a general class of nonlinear triangular (strict‐feedback‐like) systems. The design is based on our recent results on a new high‐gain control design approach utilizing a dual high‐gain observer and controller architecture with a dynamic scaling. The technique provides strong robustness properties and allows the system class to contain unknown functions dependent on all states and involving unknown parameters (with no magnitude bounds required). Unlike our earlier result on this problem where a time‐varying design of the high‐gain scaling parameter was utilized, the technique proposed here achieves an autonomous dynamic controller by introducing a novel design of the observer, the scaling parameter, and the adaptation parameter. This provides a time‐invariant dynamic output‐feedback globally asymptotically stabilizing solution for the benchmark open problem proposed in our earlier work with no magnitude bounds or sign information on the unknown parameter being necessary. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Curcumin/H2O2 photodynamically activated: an antimicrobial time-response assessment against an MDR strain of Candida albicans.

OBJECTIVE Human candidiasis is typically treated with antifungal drugs, but the rise of drug-resistant strains of Candida spp. poses a serious problem, making treatment difficult. At the same time, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has drawn increasing attention from researchers for its potential to effectively inhibit multidrug-resistant pathogenic fungi and for its low tendency to induce drug resistance. This study's goal was to examine how a multidrug-resistant oral isolate of Candida albicans responded to a PDT that used a curcumin/H202 formulation as a photosensitizer and was exposed to various light sources. MATERIALS AND METHODS A commercial product containing curcumin/H2O2 3% was used as a photosensitizer and evaluated in a PDT treatment that can use two different light sources: traditional irradiation with 7 W light at λ = 460 nm or a new, never evaluated, polarized light source of 25 W with a wavelength range of λ = 380-3,400 nm. The antimicrobial activity of these procedures was assessed on a clinical oral isolate of Candida albicans, in terms of agar susceptibility test, growth curve behavior, and biofilm inhibition. RESULTS Both light sources were able to activate the photosensitizer formulation, suggesting a fungistatic activity vs. this C. albicans MDR strain. An interesting difference was observed in the cell-generation-time (CGTOD) after PDT treatment, where the polarized light was more active compared to the source of 460 nm. In fact, CGTOD was 16 and 8 hours, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The PDT evaluated here presented an inhibition window time, a crucial point for clinicians, who could activate an additional prophylactic treatment to resolve the clinical management of Candida infections in the oral cavity.
Work ability psychological variables in workers of the pharmaceutical industry, and the importance of internal marketing

Background and aim: Internal Marketing is also positively related to job satisfaction. However, there is a gap in the literature on the influence of Internal Marketing (IM) on Work Ability (WA) in the workers of the Pharmaceutical Industry. The aim of our study is to assess this interaction, demonstrating evidence that the Internal Marketing’s five dimensions affect, positively or negatively the WA in workers of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Methods: We collected data (N = 150) from workers of Pharmaceutical Industry mean age of 37.86 years (SD=10.788), through internal advertisements at the university posted on information dissemination panels, e-mail databases and through the social LinkedIn network. The Statistical Package R-Studio program was used for statistical analysis. Results: We verified that the group with Poor WA had a lower average value of Perceived IM than the group with Good WA. Conclusions: This study seems to indicate that promoting IM protocols helps increase WA among pharmaceutical industry workers. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Development and multicenter validation of a novel radiomics-based model for identifying eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.

BACKGROUND Reliable noninvasive methods are needed to identify endotypes of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) to facilitate personalized therapy. Previous computed tomography (CT) scoring system has limited and inconsistent performance in identifying eosinophilic CRSwNP. We aimed to develop and validate a radiomics-based model to identify eosinophilic CRSwNP. METHODS Surgical patients with CRSwNP were recruited from Tongji Hospital and randomly divided into training (n = 232) and internal validation cohort (n = 61). Patients from two additional hospitals served as external validation cohort-1 (n = 84) and cohort-2 (n = 54), respectively. Data were collected from October 2013 to May 2021. Eosinophilic CRSwNP was determined by histological criterion. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and the logistic regression (LR) algorithm were used to develop a radiomics model. Univariate and multivariate LR were employed to build models based on CT scores, clinical characteristics, and the combination of radiological and clinical characteristics. Model performance was evaluated by assessing discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility. RESULTS The radiomics model based on 10 radiomic features achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.815 in the training cohort, significantly better than the CT score model based on ethmoid-to-maxillary sinus score ratio with an AUC of 0.655. The combination of radiomic features and blood eosinophil count had a further improved performance, achieving an AUC of 0.903. The performance of these models was confirmed in all validation cohorts with satisfying predictive calibration and clinical application value. CONCLUSIONS A CT radiomics-based model is promising to identify eosinophilic CRSwNP. This radiomics-based method may provide novel insights in solving other clinical concerns, such as guiding personalized treatment and predicting prognosis in patients with CRSwNP.