Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Should or could? Testing the use of autonomy-supportive language and the provision of choice in online computer-tailored alcohol reduction communication

Individuals can feel more motivated to change health behaviour when perceiving autonomy-support, as induced through non-pressuring message phrasing and the provision of choice: autonomy-supportive message framing. Additionally, controlling message phrasing – commands that do not provide choice – can thwart autonomy and lead to reactance, which is detrimental to the persuasiveness of health messages. Many health messages have not been formulated in an autonomy-supportive manner and therefore could arouse reactance, resulting in reduced intervention effectiveness. We aimed to test the effects of autonomy-supportive vs. controlling alcohol reduction message frames on individuals’ perceived autonomy-support from these messages; and their reactance towards the message while considering the individual need for autonomy in the context of an online computer-tailored alcohol reduction intervention. A 2 (autonomy-supportive language vs. controlling language) × 2 (choice vs. no choice) between-subjects experiment (N = 521) was conducted using an online computer-tailored alcohol reduction intervention. Outcome measures were perceived autonomy-support and reactance and we investigated whether an individual’s need for autonomy moderated the effect of autonomy-supportive and controlling message frames on those outcome variables. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that neither autonomy-supportive nor controlling message frames had significant effects on perceived autonomy-support or reactance, and there was no moderation from the need for autonomy. Overall, participants evaluated the intervention as positive and perceived high levels of autonomy-support, regardless of the message frame used. Future research needs to test whether the positive intervention evaluation is due to content tailoring, and whether more distinguishable manipulations of message frames could be effective.
An improved air mass factor calculation for NO2 measurements from GOME-2

Abstract. An improved tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) retrieval algorithm from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instrument based on air mass factor (AMF) calculations performed with more realistic model parameters is presented. The viewing angle-dependency of surface albedo is taken into account by improving the GOME-2 Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (LER) climatology with a directionally dependent LER (DLER) dataset over land and an ocean surface albedo parametrization over water. A priori NO2 profiles with higher spatial and temporal resolutions are obtained from the IFS(CB05BASCOE) chemistry transport model based on recent emission inventories. A more realistic cloud treatment is provided by a Cloud-As-Layers (CAL) approach, which treats the clouds as uniform layers of water droplets, instead of the current Clouds-as-Reflecting-Boundaries (CRB) model, which assumes the clouds as Lambertian reflectors. Improvements in the AMF calculation affect the tropospheric NO2 columns on average within ±15 % in winter and ±5 % in summer over largely polluted regions. In addition, the impact of aerosols on our tropospheric NO2 retrieval is investigated by comparing the concurrent retrievals based on ground-based aerosol measurements (explicit aerosol correction) and aerosol-induced cloud parameters (implicit aerosol correction). Compared to the implicit aerosol correction through the CRB cloud parameters, the use of CAL reduces the AMF errors by more than 10 %. Finally, to evaluate the improved GOME-2 tropospheric NO2 columns, a validation is performed using ground-based Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAXDOAS) measurements at the BIRA-IASB Xianghe station. The improved tropospheric NO2 dataset shows good agreement with coincident ground-based measurements with a correlation coefficient of 0.94 and a relative difference of −9.9 % on average.
Emerging options in immune‐mediated hearing loss

AIED (autoimmune inner ear disease) is an autoimmune process that leads to the dysfunction of the inner ear, resulting in fluctuating, audiovestibular symptoms. Although the pathogenesis is likely heterogeneous, immune processes within the inner ear ultimately lead to histopathologic changes and sensorineural hearing loss. This review will discuss the latest evidence on treatment options.
Potential antidiabetic effect of ethanolic and aqueous-ethanolic extracts of Ricinus communis leaves on streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats

Recently, herbal drugs and their bioactive compounds have gained popularity in the management of diabetes mellitus (DM), which has become an epidemic disease all over the world and is especially prevalent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study aimed to investigate the antidiabetic effect of ethanolic and aqueous-ethanolic extracts of wild Ricinus communis (R. communis) leaves in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. Diabetic rats were administered orally with the mentioned extracts at doses of 300 and 600 mg/kg/BW for 14 days, and the obtained results of different biochemical parameters were compared with normal control, diabetic control and standard drug glibenclamide (5 mg/kg/BW). The obtained results revealed a remarkable and significantly (P < 0.05) reverse effect of the body weight loss, observed when diabetic rats were treated with ethanol and aqueous-ethanol extracts at 300 mg/kg/BW. Administration of the ethanol extract at 600 mg/kg/BW significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the blood glucose level. A significant increase in the AST, ALT and ALP levels (P < 0.05) was observed in the diabetic control and in the experimental groups with glibenclamide which was also significantly (P < 0.05) lowered after treatment with extracts at special doses. Total proteins, albumin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, creatinine and urea were also investigated and compared to the corresponding controls. We showed that administration of R. communis extract generally significantly (P < 0.05) ameliorated the biochemical parameters of diabetic rats. Also, the changes in serum electrolyte profile were assessed and the results demonstrate that administration of extracts at concentration of 600 mg/kg/BW generally inhibits the alteration maintain their levels. The obtained data imply the hypoglycemic effects of this plant, which may be used as a good alternative for managing DM and therefore validating its traditional usage in KSA.
Experiences of Transforming a Complex Nephrologic Care and Research Database into i2b2 Using the IDRT Tools

The secondary use of data from electronic medical records has become an important factor to determine and to identify various causes of disease. For this reason, applications like informatics for integrating biology and the bedside (i2b2) offer a GUI-based front end to select patient cohorts. To make use of those tools, however, clinical data need to be extracted from the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system and integrated into the data schema of i2b2. We used TBase, a documentation system for nephrologic transplantations, as a source system and applied the Integrated Data Repository Toolkit (IDRT) for the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process to load the data into i2b2. Since i2b2 uses an entity-attribute-value (EAV) schema, which is a fundamentally different way of modeling data in comparison to a standard relational schema in TBase, we evaluated if (a) the data relationship of the source system entities can still be represented in the i2b2 schema and if (b) the IDRT is a suitable solution for loading the data of a comprehensive data schema like TBase into i2b2. For that reason, we identified entities in the TBase data schema which were relevant for answering questions on cohort identification. By doing so, we found out that the entities had different structures that needed to be handled differently for the ETL process. Furthermore, the use of IDRT revealed shortcomings with regard to large input data and specific data structures that are part of most modern EHR systems. However, this project also showed that our way of modeling the TBase data in i2b2 has been proven to be successful in terms of answering the most common questions of clinicians on cohort identification.
Does an attentionally suppressed distractor modulate serial dependence

Serial dependence may bias current perception towards or away from previous visual input. A relative consensus seems to be about attractive biases arising at a post-perceptual decisional stage and repulsive biases happening at low-level perceptual stage. Attention affects serial dependence, non-attended locations do for example not induce serial dependence. In this paper, the serial dependence produced by an attentionally suppressed distractor on subsequent perception was investigated for the first time. Using a perceptual equality judgment task, 24 participants over two experiments had to answer whether two gabor patches, a target and its comparator, had the same orientation. In half of the preceding trials a salient distractor, a gabor patch with similar orientation to the target and which had to be attentionally suppressed, was flashed. The hypothesis was that this distractor would induce repulsive effects upon subsequent target, i.e. negative serial dependence would be found. The results did not support the hypothesis, there was no indication of any serial dependence being evoked by the distractor.
Perioperative management of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraoperative thoraco-abdominal chemotherapy (HITAC) for pseudomyxoma peritonei

Peritoneal carcinomatosis is intraperitoneal spread of gastrointestinal and gynaecological cancers. Cytoreductive surgeries and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy offers survival benefits in these cases. Spread of peritoneal carcinomatosis to thorax pose challenges to surgeon and anaesthesiologist. Haemodynamic, temperature and coagulopathy monitoring as well as intraoperative airway pressure, pre- and postoperative pulmonary function test monitoring is required in these cases where diaphragm excision is done and intraoperative intra peritoneal as well as pleural chemotherapy is given. We are reporting a case of pseudomyxoma peritonei involving the abdomen and left side of pleura and lung, posted for cytoreductive surgery and hyperthemic chemotherapy to abdomen and thorax, i.e., hyperthemic intraoperative thoraco-abdominal chemotherapy.
Biochemical Markers for Prediction of Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy

Summary Background: Gestational hypertension (GH) and pre eclampsia (PE) are the most common gestational complications. Several placental biochemical markers are used to predict GH/PE, but with conflicting results. Methods: The study aim was to estimate the biochemical markers’ ability to predict hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. On the first ultrasonographic examination, 104 healthy pregnant women were recruited. At the regular pregnancy check-ups, BMI, blood pressure, occurrence of gestational hypertension (early or late onset), preeclampsia, eclampsia and other complications were recorded. Serum concentrations (in multiples of median – MoM) of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and pregnancyassociated plasma protein A (PAPPA) were measured from the 11th to 14th gestational week, while HCG, alpha feto protein (AFP), estriol and inhibin were determined between the 16th and 19th gestational week. Results: Hypertensive disorders throughout pregnancy were diagnosed in 20.2% women. Early-onset GH was registered in 7 and PE in 6 patients, while 14 had late-onset GH and 10 additional women PE. There were no significant differences (p≥0.05) in biochemical markers concentrations between women with and without GH/PE. PAPPA levels in the first and HCG in the second trimester correlated with early and late GH/PE. Moreover, higher AFP concentrations were registered in women with preeclampsia signs/symptoms. According to ROC analysis, AFP>1.05 MoM properly identified 80% of GH/PE cases. Obtained models imply that HCG, PAPPA and AFP should be used for GH/PE prediction. Conclusions: Biochemical markers HCG, PAPPA and AFP could be useful in predicting gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. However, different markers should be used for early and late onset GH/PE.
Effect of pretreatment medication on postendodontic pain: A double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Background: Posttreatment endodontic pain has been reported in 25%–40% of all endodontic patients. Effective management of endodontic pain represents a continuing challenge. Aim: To evaluate and compare the efficacy of preoperative single dose of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, piroxicam (20 mg), with two types of corticosteroid drugs – dexamethasone (4 mg) or deflazacort (30 mg) – for the prevention and control of postendodontic pain. Materials and Methods: A total of 132 volunteers selected for nonsurgical root canal therapy were randomly divided into the following four groups (n = 30 each) according to preoperative medication given: Group 1, piroxicam (20 mg); Group 2, dexamethasone (4 mg); Group 3, deflazacort (30 mg); and Group 4, placebo. The preoperative medications were administrated 1 h before the start of standard endodontic treatment. Patients were instructed to complete a pain diary using Visual Analog Scale preoperatively and at 6-, 12-, 24-, 48-, and 72-h intervals after root canal instrumentation. Statistical Analysis: The correlation between preoperative endodontic pain to postoperative pain and pair-wise comparison of four groups was evaluated by Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance test followed by Mann–Whitney U-test. Results: Compared to the placebo group, piroxicam, dexamethasone, and deflazacort resulted in a statistically significant reduction in postendodontic pain at 6, 12, and 24 h (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Preoperative single oral dose of piroxicam or dexamethasone or deflazacort is equally effective in controlling postendodontic pain.
Efficacy of Mycophenolate Mofetil as a Remission Maintaining Agent in Idiopathic Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome

Of all cases of idiopathic steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (NS) in children, 40%–75% cases need long-term continuous steroids and/or other immunosuppressants to maintain remission, the effects of which on growth and renal function remain an issue of concern. The study aimed at exploring the safety and efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as a remission-maintaining agent in children with a diagnosis of frequent relapsing or steroid-dependent NS (FRNS/SDNS) requiring continuous medication for at least 1 year. Thirty-two children thus included received MMF (1000–1200 mg/m2/day) for 7 months along with tapering doses of oral prednisolone if it was being given from before with an attempt at tapering at 0.25 mg/kg/month ultimately stopping it altogether. Individuals were followed up for at least 5 more months after stopping MMF. Out of 32 children, 26 had SDNS and 6 had FRNS with male:female ratio being 2.2:1. The mean standard deviation (± SD) age of onset of disease was 2.72 ± 1.3 years and that entry to the study was 7.17 ± 2.2 years. Significant fall in number of relapses was observed following the introduction of MMF (110 in pre-MMF12 month period vs. 52 in post-MMF 12 months [p = 0.002]). The mean relapse rate/year/patient also decreased from 3.43 ± 1.26 to 1.62 ± 1.14 after entry in the study. Significant reduction of the cumulative dose of steroid regarding mean ± SD of mg/kg/year was also found following the introduction of MMF (190.9 ± 47.81 vs. 119.09 ± 60.09 [p = 0.001]). MMF is an efficacious agent in maintaining remission and reducing steroid requirement in children with FRNS and SDNS.
Physical activity for healthy pregnancy among Iranian women: Perception of facilities versus perceived barriers

BACKGROUND: Regular physical activity during preconception period has beneficial effects on the health of women during conception and the identification of factors associated with it is an effective factor for improving the behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the physical activity and health belief model (HBM) constructs (perceived susceptibility/severity, barriers, and self-efficacy) as intrapersonal factors among women undergoing preconception care. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 110 women who were undergoing preconception care were carried out. Moreover, health belief constructs and attitude toward physical activity were assessed through the use of researcher-made questionnaire. In addition, the duration of physical activity with moderate/vigorous intensity was evaluated utilizing a long form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. RESULTS: The results showed that although there was a relationship between the all health belief constructs and attitude toward physical activity and the duration of leisure physical activities carried out during (P < 0.05), but using the linear regression test showed that only perceived barriers, independent from other variables, had a significant inverse correlation with this type of activities (β = −0.27, P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study showed that among the constructs of theHBM, perceived barriers are the most important predictor of physical activity in women during the preconception period and emphasize the need to design possible means to promote physical activity to remove barriers to effective physical activity.
Emotion Recognition in Low-Spatial Frequencies Is Partly Preserved following Traumatic Brain Injury

After a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), emotion recognition is typically impaired. This is commonly attributed to widespread multifocal damage in cortical areas involved in emotion processing as well as to Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI). However, current models suggest that emotional recognition is subserved by a distributed network cantered on the amygdala, which involves both cortical and subcortical structures. While the cortical system is preferentially tuned to process high spatial frequencies, the subcortical networks are more sensitive to low-spatial frequencies. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether emotion perception from low-spatial frequencies underpinning the subcortical system is relatively preserved in TBI patients. We tested a group of 14 subjects with severe TBI and 20 matched healthy controls. Each participant was asked to recognize the emotion expressed by each stimulus that consisted of happy and fearful faces, filtered for their low and high spatial frequencies components. Results in TBI patients' performances showed that low-spatial frequency expressions were recognized with higher accuracy and faster reaction times when compared to high spatial frequency stimuli. On the contrary, healthy controls did not show any effect in the two conditions, neither for response accuracy nor for reaction times. The outcomes of this study indicate that emotion perception from low-spatial frequencies is relatively preserved in TBI, thereby suggesting spare of functioning in the subcortical system in mediating emotion recognition.
Perception of smile attractiveness among orthodontists, restorative dentists, and laypersons in Saudi Arabia

Background: A smile is defined as a universal welcome. The perception of smile attractiveness is affected by the persons' social background and their own experiences. The existing literature states that orthodontists, restorative dentists, and laypersons have different opinions. Aims: The aim of this study is to compare the perception of orthodontists, restorative dentists, and laypersons regarding smile esthetics. Materials and Methods: A survey-based study was conducted. The target population was orthodontists, restorative dentists, and laypersons in Saudi Arabia. An electronic survey that included digitally altered photographs representing different smile parameters was designed by an Adobe Photoshop Certified Expert. Participants were asked to choose the most attractive smile in each question. Results: Unilateral changes in the width or length of the central incisors were the least attractive among the three groups. About 38%, 48%, and 41% of the participating orthodontics, restorative dentists, and laypersons, respectively, found that wider buccal corridors were more attractive. Moreover, 27% of the laypersons found the reversed smile arc to be attractive. Conclusion: The tolerance level in evaluating the asymmetry and the width of the buccal corridors was similar for the three groups. Laypersons were less sensitive to the deviations from the ideal in the smile arc and the amount of lower lip coverage of the incisors. Clinical Significance: Understanding the differences in the perception of smile attractiveness among orthodontists, restorative dentists and laypersons will undoubtedly be beneficial in diagnosis, setting treatment objectives and treatment planning.
Natural antibodies – facts known and unknown

In contrast to adaptive antibodies, natural antibodies are present in a non-immunised organism from birth, and they do not include anti-Gal antibodies and/or anti-Gal natural antibodies, which are developed as a result of the effect of the α-Gal epitope and physiological flora. Natural antibodies are the first line of the organism’s defence before the formation of the immunity created via the stimulation of elements that determine specific and non-specific immunity. This is especially important in the case of infants. Despite the fact that natural antibodies differ in their function from adaptive antibodies, they are polyreactive and they detect autoantigens and new antigenic determinants. Natural antibodies are formed from the subpopulation of B lymphocytes, mainly B1 lymphocytes and B lymphocytes of the marginal zone. This phenomenon is supported by the fact that when the quantity of these cells in the organism decreases, which happens with age, the level of natural antibodies also decreases and the risk of illnesses of old age becomes higher. During ontogenesis, these antibodies participate in many physiological processes, including the “support” of the immune system and homeostasis, the prevention of inflammation, infections and other pathological states, such as autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases, or the process of carcinogenesis. The best known natural antibody is IgM, but the role of IgGs and IgAs is also considered important. Nowadays, many researchers also mention intravenous immunoglobulins, which are used in the treatment of numerous illnesses, and there are discussions on the possibility of increasing their potential if they were based on natural antibodies.