Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lack of long-term effects of in utero exposure to zidovudine among uninfected children born to HIV-infected women. Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group Protocol 219/076 Teams.

CONTEXT With the success of zidovudine chemoprophylaxis for prevention of perinatal transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), an increasing number of HIV-exposed but uninfected children will have in utero exposure to zidovudine and other antiretroviral drugs. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term effects of in utero exposure to zidovudine vs placebo among a randomized cohort of uninfected children. DESIGN Prospective cohort study based on data collected during Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group Protocol 076, a perinatal zidovudine HIV prevention trial, and Protocol 219, a long-term observational protocol. SETTING Pediatric research clinics in the United States. PATIENTS Two hundred thirty-four uninfected children born to 230 HIV-infected women enrolled in Protocol 076 and followed up through February 28, 1997, in Protocol 219 (122 in the zidovudine group and 112 in the placebo group). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Physical growth measurements, immunologic parameters, cognitive/developmental function, occurrence of neoplasms, and mortality data assessed every 6 months for children younger than 24 months and yearly thereafter or as clinically indicated. Baseline echocardiogram and funduscopic evaluations were collected before 36 months of age. RESULTS Median age of children at time of last follow-up visit was 4.2 years (range, 3.2-5.6 years). There were no significant differences between children exposed to zidovudine and those who received placebo in terms of sequential data on lymphocyte subsets; weight, height, and head circumference z scores; and cognitive/developmental function. No deaths or malignancies occurred. Two children (both exposed to zidovudine) are being followed up for abnormal, unexplained ophthalmic findings. One child exposed to zidovudine had a mild cardiomyopathy on echocardiogram at the age of 48 months; the child is clinically asymptomatic. CONCLUSIONS No adverse effects were observed in HIV-uninfected children with in utero and neonatal exposure to zidovudine followed up for as long as 5.6 years. Continued prospective evaluations of children born to HIV-infected women who are exposed to antiretroviral or immunotherapeutic agents are critical to assess the long-term safety of interventions that prevent perinatal HIV transmission.
S1P Lyase Regulation of Thymic Egress and Oncogenic Inflammatory Signaling

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a potent lipid signaling molecule that regulates pleiotropic biological functions including cell migration, survival, angiogenesis, immune cell trafficking, inflammation, and carcinogenesis. It acts as a ligand for a family of cell surface receptors. S1P concentrations are high in blood and lymph but low in tissues, especially the thymus and lymphoid organs. S1P chemotactic gradients are essential for lymphocyte egress and other aspects of physiological cell trafficking. S1P is irreversibly degraded by S1P lyase (SPL). SPL regulates lymphocyte trafficking, inflammation and other physiological and pathological processes. For example, SPL located in thymic dendritic cells acts as a metabolic gatekeeper that controls the normal egress of mature T lymphocytes from the thymus into the circulation, whereas SPL deficiency in gut epithelial cells promotes colitis and colitis-associated carcinogenesis (CAC). Recently, we identified a complex syndrome comprised of nephrosis, adrenal insufficiency, and immunological defects caused by inherited mutations in human SGPL1, the gene encoding SPL. In the present article, we review current evidence supporting the role of SPL in thymic egress, inflammation, and cancer. Lastly, we summarize recent progress in understanding other SPL functions, its role in inherited disease, and SPL targeting for therapeutic purposes.
Using Modified Clavien-Dindo's Classification System for Reporting Postoperative Complications of Transvesical Prostatectomy at Souro Sanou University Teaching Hospital of Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina-Faso)

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the postoperative complications using a standardized classification; modified Clavien’s classification. Patients and methods: We have included all patients aged at least 50-years-old on the day of surgery between the 1st June 2015 and 31st May 2017 at the urology division of Souro Sanou University Teaching Hospital of Bobo-Dioulasso. Complications reports were performed according to the modified Clavien-Dindo system. Results: Hundred patients (100) presenting a complication after BPH surgery were included in this study in a total of 312 open prostatectomies performed. The postoperative complication rate was 32%. Seventy percent of the patients had at least one complication. Grade I and Grade II complications according to the modified Clavien’s classification system were the most represented (87%). Two patients (2) died in the immediate postoperative period (Grade V). The presence of urethral catheter before surgery was identified as a risk factor for complication. A statistically significant difference was found in the group ICC ˃ 2 (Charlson Index of Comorbidity) for age parameter in the occurrence of complication. Conclusions: Open prostatectomy is associated with high morbidity in subjects with urinary catheters prior to surgery. Grade I and Grade II according to the modified Clavien’s classification system were the most reported.
The middle class in less developed american nations

This study uses the Luxembourg Income Study to examine the size of the middle class across several less developed American nations. One main finding is that in the mid 2000s the size of the middle class in Latin America does not seem to depend on demographic factors. A second finding is that, in contrast to most developed nations, government tax and spending policies do little to increase the size of the middle class in less developed America. Finally, as in the developed world, labor market factors do not have much impact the size of the middle class in Latin America. The main exceptions here seem to be Brazil and Mexico, where employment appears to increase the size of the middle class.
Injurious or Noninjurious Defect Identification From MFL Images in Pipeline Inspection Using Convolutional Neural Network

This paper proposes an injurious or noninjurious defect identification method from magnetic flux leakage (MFL) images based on convolutional neural network. Different from previous approaches, this method is fed by the MFL images instead of the features of the MFL measurements, and thus it can skip the procedure of feature extraction. Moreover, for convenience, a normalization layer is added to the front of model. In the convolution layers, the rectified linear units are employed as the activation functions to shorten the training period and improve the performance. In addition, two local response normalization layers are also embedded into the proposed structure. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed model using real MFL data collected from experimental pipelines. Benefited from the special structure of the proposed model, this method is robust for shift, scale, and distortion variances of input MFL images. We also present a comparative result of the proposed model and other methods. The results prove that the proposed method can achieve higher accuracy than the traditional approaches.
Docosahexaenoic acid enhances the antioxidant response of human fibroblasts by upregulating γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl ligase and glutathione reductase

The chemopreventive effects of dietary n-3 PUFA in various pathologies has so far remained controversial, and we were interested in studying their potential influence on cell redox status. DHA (22:6n-3), a typical highly unsaturated n-3 PUFA, was used at 30µmol/l in a model of human fibroblast cell culture. A dose–response effect, roughly linear, was checked for DHA between 0 and 60µmol/l, and was accompanied by a large increase in intracellular GSH content. A time course study of this effect shows that, after a short fall, as soon as 4h after the beginning of the experiment, the large increase in the GSH content was associated with elevated catalytic activities of γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl ligase, glutathione reductase and glutathione S-transferase. This coordinated response is characteristic of an antioxidant response and was confirmed by the induction of expression of mRNA for γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl ligase, glutathione reductase and haem-oxygenase. This large increase in the GSH content contributes to decreasing the reactive oxygen species level, as assessed by the decreased accumulation of dichlorofluorescein inside cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report on a specific and potent effect of DHA for decreasing the oxidative stress of human fibroblasts.
Cluster Synchronization of Predator Prey Robots

Bio-inspired robotics is an emerging field of cognitive intelligence which is based on the fundamental assumption that the biological systems are capable of self organization, better capable to adapt themselves to their changing environment for survival. Based on these features, behaviours observed in the biological world can be transferred to robots which may mimic the underlying behavior of their natural counterparts for efficient collaboration and coordination. The focus of this study is the application of identical unidirectionally coupled chaotic food webs in a robot foraging task. The phase coupled system is used to drive multi-robots arranged in a star network topology. The efficiency of the synchronization of the high dimensional system which is used to create a biologically inspired robot is examined using symbolic dynamics. In this work, the bio-inspired two wheeled mobile robots arranged in a topological network are assigned a set of targets or fixed obstacles distributed arbitrarily in the same workspace. The coverage is completed when a specified portion of the workspace is covered by the multi-robot system. Simulation results for coverage demonstrate the merit of the proposed system in the application of cooperative task assignment and obstacle avoidance.
Using Optimal Control Principles to Adapt Evolution Strategies

It has long been known that adapting the strategy parameters in an evolution strategy during a run improves the quality of the search. Several adaption schemes have been proposed in the past. In this paper we present a new adaption scheme based on optimal control principles. Our preliminary results indicate this new method is quite effective. Results are included to show how the adaption scheme works on a multidimensional sphere model and an Ackley's function fitness landscape.
A reliable index for the prognostic significance of blood pressure variability

Objectives This study presents a reliable index inspired by the total variability concept of real analysis in mathematics, called average real variability (ARV), for the prognostic significance of blood pressure variability (BPV) overcoming the pitfalls of the commonly used standard deviation (SD). Background Recent studies have suggested that an increase in BPV is associated with an increase in subsequent cardiovascular events/complications. However, there are other studies where the cited association was not found or was lost in the presence of other well-known risk factors. An explanation for these apparently contradictory results may be the selection of the variability index used (SD). Methods Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in 312 subjects aged ≥ 55 years. Logistic regression models and survival methods were used to establish the prognostic significance of awake systolic BPV: in particular, (i) the performance of ARV versus SD, and (ii) the value of BPV relative to other well-known risk factors. Results The analyses using the ARV index show a statistically significant relative risk equal to 4.548 (P = 0.006) for the group with high BPV with respect to the low BPV group (reference level); in contrast, the corresponding relative risk associated to the SD index was not statistically significant. Furthermore, ARV exhibited a similar predictive value to systolic blood pressure. Conclusions The proposed ARV index is a more reliable representation of time series variability than SD and may be less sensitive to the relative low sampling frequency of the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices. The results suggest that ARV adds prognostic value to the ABPM and could prompt the use of therapeutic measures to control BPV.
Adherence to Technology-Mediated Insomnia Treatment: A Meta-Analysis, Interviews, and Focus Groups

Background Several technologies have been proposed to support the reduction of insomnia complaints. A user-centered assessment of these technologies could provide insight into underlying factors related to treatment adherence. Objective Gaining insight into adherence to technology-mediated insomnia treatment as a solid base for improving those adherence rates by applying adherence-enhancing strategies. Methods Adherence to technology-mediated sleep products was studied in three ways. First, a meta-analysis was performed to investigate adherence rates in technology-mediated insomnia therapy. Several databases were queried for technology-mediated insomnia treatments. After inclusion and exclusion steps, data from 18 studies were retrieved and aggregated to find an average adherence rate. Next, 15 semistructured interviews about sleep-support technologies were conducted to investigate perceived adherence. Lastly, several scenarios were written about the usage of a virtual sleep coach that could support adherence rates. The scenarios were discussed in six different focus groups consisting of potential users (n=15), sleep experts (n=7), and coaches (n=9). Results From the meta-analysis, average treatment adherence appeared to be approximately 52% (95% CI 43%-61%) for technology-mediated insomnia treatments. This means that, on average, half of the treatment exercises were not executed, suggesting there is a substantial need for adherence and room for improvement in this area. However, the users in the interviews believed they adhered quite well to their sleep products. Users mentioned relying on personal commitment (ie, willpower) for therapy adherence. Participants of the focus groups reconfirmed their belief in the effectiveness of personal commitment, which they regarded as more effective than adherence-enhancing strategies. Conclusions Although adherence rates for insomnia interventions indicate extensive room for improvement, users might not consider adherence to be a problem; they believe willpower to be an effective adherence strategy. A virtual coach should be able to cope with this “adherence bias” and persuade users to accept adherence-enhancing strategies, such as reminders, compliments, and community building.
C onversion to multiple sclerosis after a clinically isolated syndrome of the brainstem: cranial magnetic resonance imaging, cerebrospinal fl uid and neurophysiological findings

B ackground and aim: C onversion to multiple sclerosis (MS) after optic neuritis and myelitis has been thoroughly studied; however, limited data are available regarding conversion to MS after a clinically isolated syndrome of the brainstem (CISB). The aim of this study was to investigate conversion to MS in patients with C ISB. Methods: Fifty-one patients with C ISB were prospectively studied. C ranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), determination of oligoclonal bands (OBs) in the cerebrospinal fluid (C SF) and evoked potentials (EPs) were performed. Based on conversion to MS at follow-up, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and positive and negative predictive values of these tests were calculated. Results: C linically definite MS developed in 18 (35%) patients after a mean follow-up of 37 months. Paty’s MRI criteria showed a sensitivity of 89%, a specificity of 52% and an accuracy of 65%; Fazekas’ criteria showed a sensitivity of 89%, a specificity of 48% and an accuracy of 63%; Barkhof’s criteria showed a sensitivity of 78%, a specificity of 61% and an accuracy of 67%. The presence of O Bs in the C SF showed a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 42% and an accuracy of 63%. No differences for neurophysiological parameters were found between patients who did and those who did not convert to MS. C onclusion: Fulfilling Paty’s, Fazekas’ or Barkhof’s MRI criteria and the presence of O Bs in the C SF are associated with a higher risk of conversion to MS in patients with C ISB. Determinatio n of O Bs in the C SF has the greatest sensitivity of all tests. Barkhof’s MRI criteria have greater specificity (although less than previously published for mixed cohorts of clinically isolated syndromes) in predicting conversion to MS for C ISB than either Paty’s or Fazekas’ criteria.
Sophorolipids block lethal effects of septic shock in rats in a cecal ligation and puncture model of experimental sepsis*

Objective:Sophorolipids, a family of natural and easily chemoenzymatically modified microbial glycolipids, are promising modulators of the immune response. The potential of the therapeutic effect of sophorolipids was investigated in vivo in a rat model of sepsis and in vitro by analysis of nitric oxide and cytokine production. Design:Prospective, randomized animal study. Setting:Experimental laboratory. Subjects:Male Sprague-Dawley rats, 200–240 g. Interventions:Intra-abdominal sepsis was induced in vivo in 166 rats via cecal ligation and puncture (CLP); 60 rats were used to characterize the model. The remaining rats were treated with sophorolipids or vehicle (dimethylsulfoxide [DMSO]/physiologic saline) by intravenous (iv) tail vein or intraperitoneal (IP) injection immediately post-CLP (25/group). Survival rates were compared at 36 hrs after surgery. In vitro, macrophages were cultured in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) ± sophorolipid and assayed for nitric oxide (NO) production and gene expression profiles of inflammatory cytokines. In addition, splenic lymphocytes isolated from CLP rats ± sophorolipid treatment (three per group) were analyzed for cytokine production by RNase protection assay. Measurements and Main Results:CLP with 16-gauge needles optimized sepsis induction and resultant mortality. Sophorolipid treatment improved rat survival by 34% (iv) and 14% (IP) in comparison with vehicle controls (p < .05 for iv treatment). Sophorolipids decreased LPS-induced macrophage NO production by 28% (p < .05). mRNA expression of interleukin (IL)-1β was downregulated by 42.5 ± 4.7% (p < .05) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 was upregulated by 11.7 ± 1.5% (p < .05) in splenocytes obtained 6 hrs postsophorolipid treatment. LPS-treated macrophages cultured 36 hrs with sophorolipids showed increases in mRNA expression of IL-1α (51.7%), IL-1β (31.3%), and IL-6 (66.8%) (p < .05). Conclusions:Administration of sophorolipids after induction of intra-abdominal sepsis significantly decreases mortality in this model. This may be mediated in part by decreased macrophage NO production and modulation of inflammatory responses.
Tenured/tenure-track Faculty Diversity: Does Search Committee Training Make a Difference?

Diversity impacts organizations, both internally and externally. Responses to changes in demographics come from legal and moral imperatives. As a reflection of the changes in the population demographics in the United States, universities have seen and sought increased diversity in their student enrollment. Many institutions have purposeful plans to increase representation of under-represented groups as well as those students from low-income families. Some schools also recognize the importance of having diversity represented within their staff and faculty positions as a way of creating a supportive environment that also promotes diversity of thought. As schools increase the diversity of their student population, at what level are they increasing diversity among their tenured and tenure-track faculty? The purpose of this study is to examine the impact on full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty diversity compared to enrolled student diversity at institutions that promote, require, or provide access to training for faculty search committees, including diversity/cultural awareness, legal compliance, and process training, and those institutions that do not appear to have any training requirement as documented on their websites. Only tenured/tenure-track faculty were considered as they are the permanent teaching/research positions and generally represent the core faculty of every department at a university.
Roles of drinking pattern and type of alcohol consumed in coronary heart disease in men.

BACKGROUND Although moderate drinking confers a decreased risk of myocardial infarction, the roles of the drinking pattern and type of beverage remain unclear. METHODS We studied the association of alcohol consumption with the risk of myocardial infarction among 38,077 male health professionals who were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at base line. We assessed the consumption of beer, red wine, white wine, and liquor individually every four years using validated food-frequency questionnaires. We documented cases of nonfatal myocardial infarction and fatal coronary heart disease from 1986 to 1998. RESULTS During 12 years of follow-up, there were 1418 cases of myocardial infarction. As compared with men who consumed alcohol less than once per week, men who consumed alcohol three to four or five to seven days per week had decreased risks of myocardial infarction (multivariate relative risk, 0.68 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.55 to 0.84] and 0.63 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.54 to 0.74], respectively). The risk was similar among men who consumed less than 10 g of alcohol per drinking day and those who consumed 30 g or more. No single type of beverage conferred additional benefit, nor did consumption with meals. A 12.5-g increase in daily alcohol consumption over a four-year follow-up period was associated with a relative risk of myocardial infarction of 0.78 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.62 to 0.99). CONCLUSIONS Among men, consumption of alcohol at least three to four days per week was inversely associated with the risk of myocardial infarction. Neither the type of beverage nor the proportion consumed with meals substantially altered this association. Men who increased their alcohol consumption by a moderate amount during follow-up had a decreased risk of myocardial infarction.
Antibody‐Mediated Microcirculation Injury Is the Major Cause of Late Kidney Transplant Failure

In this study, the authors show that antibody-related microcirculation inflammation accounts in substantial part for renal transplant failure and importantly, regardless of the C4d status. This paper underlines the clinical relevance of donor specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSA)-related microcirculation changes in biopsies for cause that are C4d-negative. This situation is not subsumed under the Banff diagnostic criteria (2), suggesting that the current definition of antibodymediated rejection (ABMR) emphasizing C4d staining may not be sufficiently sensitive.