Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of productivity and stability of synthetic microbial communities

Bioreactors that employ a synthetic microbial community hold potential to overcome limitations of those based on a single species, which embrace a higher level of complexity due to the inter-species interactions. In this work, a number of generic system structures involving two cross-feeding species and various types of inhibition have been studied, together with two three-species cases where a third species is introduced to fulfil a specific function. These cases are represented by mathematical models and inspected through bifurcation analysis and numerical simulation to reveal how the system structure and parametrization affect stability and productivity of the bioreactor. The results show that inhibitions generally lead to reduction in both productivity and stability, and that the presence of a negative feedback loop and a positive feedback loop may give rise to oscillation and bi-stability, respectively, depending on the strength of the inhibitions involved. The intended gains by the introduction of a third species may be achieved when its negative side-effect is sufficiently moderate, and at the cost of reduced stability. As observed in several cases, the changes in stability and productivity do not always follow the same trend, implying trade-off between the two objectives in the engineering of such bioreactors.
Genome-wide association studies on endometriosis and endometriosis-related infertility

Endometriosis affects ∼10% of women of reproductive age. It is characterized by the growth of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus and is frequently associated with severe pain and infertility. We performed the largest endometriosis genome-wide association study (GWAS) to date, with 37,183 cases and 251,258 controls. All women were of European ancestry. We also performed the first GWAS of endometriosis-related infertility, including 2,969 cases and 3,770 controls. Our endometriosis GWAS study replicated, at genome-wide significance, seven loci identified in previous endometriosis GWASs (CELA3A-CDC42, SYNE1, KDR, FSHB-ARL14EP, GREB1, ID4, and CEP112) and identified seven new candidate loci with genome-wide significance (NGF, ATP1B1-F5, CD109, HEY2, OSR2-VPS13B, WT1, and TEX11-SLC7A3). No loci demonstrated genome-wide significance for endometriosis-related infertility, however, the three most strongly associated loci (MCTP1, EPS8L3-CSF1, and LPIN1) were in or near genes associated with female fertility or embryonic lethality in model organisms. These results reveal new candidate genes with potential involvement in the pathophysiology of endometriosis and endometriosis-related infertility.
Perspectives on Delivering Long-Term Services and Supports in RuralWashington State.

This study explores stakeholders? perceptions regarding factors that promote or impede progress on a sustainable solution for delivering Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) in rural Washington State. Our examination may signal to Community-based Long-term Care Network (CBLTCN) members and policy makers which LTSS priorities should drive future reform efforts. Using Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) eligibility criteria, we identified ten CBLTCN-member Public Health Districts (PHDs) classified as Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), three regional representatives from Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), and three additional state government informants for participation in this study (n=16 representing a total population of about 213,000 Washington residents). The resulting geographic distribution represented variations in the State? s rural populations. Drawing from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Comprehensive Gaps Analysis of Behavioral Health Services (2013), we then employed a semi-structured interview instrument. Results of this study uncovered perceived gaps and strengths among the CBLTCN members. Associated interviews supported key assumptions from the literature about barriers to access and challenges facing rural health systems. Identified also were emerging themes, which differed by stakeholder level, local, regional, and state, and required further examination. Thematically, select results pointed to a lack of transportation options and the need for behavioral health providers, workforce challenges and budget limitations, and requirements for increased cultural competence and organizational efficiency. Our findings indicate no two CBLTCN members are identical but the struggles they face are almost universal, thus the environment has prompted efforts to develop creative solutions for immediate problems. Most PHDs believe that they can meet LTSS needs, yet resource shortages pose ongoing challenges. Future initiatives should include integration between rural PHDs and Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) to capitalize on existing structures and resources to stabilize Washington? s rural hospitals.
Wohlfahrtiosis in Italy: a case in a puppy and overview of geographical distribution

The report describes a case of urogenital myiasis in a puppy, Canis lupus familiaris (Carnivora: Canidae) caused by Wohlfahrtia magnifica (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) in Calabria, southern Italy. This species is an obligatory agent of myiasis in human and other warm-blooded vertebrates. The puppy was healthy and was not living near farm animals, usual hosts of this flesh fly. An overview of cases of human and animal myiasis caused by W. magnifica in Italy and of data and specimens documented in entomology museum collections is also reported. Canine, urogenital myiasis, Wohlfahrtia magnifica Myiasis is an important parasitic disease caused by larvae of Diptera infesting vertebrates actively feeding on host tissues (Zumpt 1965). The term “wohlfahrtiosis” refers to myiasis caused by Wohlfahrtia magnifica (Schiner, 1862) (Insecta: Diptera: Sarcophagidae). Among the types of myiasis, wohlfahrtiosis is especially important not only because it may affect humans, but also because it usually induces serious damage due to the high number of deposited larvae and to their rapid growth. When attacking livestock, the parasite may cause heavy economic damages through loss of production and death (Hall and Farkas 2000). In Europe wohlfahrtiosis is an infestation reported in humans and domestic animals in several countries, especially in southern and eastern areas. Among domestic animals, those more frequently affected by wohlfahrtiosis are sheep and goats (Hall and Farkas 2000; Sotiraki and Hall 2012; Hall et al. 2016). This report describes a case of urogenital myiasis in a puppy that occurred in 2017 in Calabria, southern Italy, together with an overview of the documented cases of human and animal myiasis caused by W. magnifica reported in Italy, and of the catalogued data and specimens concerning this species in entomology museum collections.
Supported cognitive-behavioural therapy self-help versus treatment-as-usual for depressed informal caregivers of stroke survivors (CEDArS): feasibility randomised controlled trial

Abstract Demands placed on informal caregivers can result in an increased likelihood of experiencing common mental health difficulties that may affect their ability to undertake the caring role. Currently, however, few evidence-based interventions have been specifically developed for informal caregivers and available interventions are difficult to access. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme aims to improve access to evidence-based psychological therapies for all groups and may therefore present an opportunity to meet informal caregiver needs. Located within the MRC Complex Intervention Framework, a Phase II feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT) examines key methodological, procedural and clinical uncertainties associated with running a definitive Phase III RCT of an adapted written cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) self-help intervention for informal caregivers of stroke survivors. Recruitment was low despite different recruitment strategies being adopted, highlighting significant challenges moving towards a Phase III RCT until resolved. Difficulties with study recruitment may reflect wider challenges engaging informal caregivers in psychological interventions and may have implications for IAPT services seeking to improve access for this group. Further attempts to develop a successful recruitment protocol to progress to a Phase III RCT examining effectiveness of the adapted CBT self-help intervention should be encouraged. Key learning aims After reading this article, readers should be able to: (1) Consider key feasibility issues with regard to recruitment and attrition when running a randomised controlled trial of an adapted written cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) self-help intervention for informal caregivers of stroke survivors. (2) Understand potential barriers experienced by an informal caregiving population to accessing psychological interventions. (3) Appreciate implications for clinical practice to enhance access to IAPT services and low-intensity CBT working with an informal caregiver population.
Experiences in Physical Education and Sport: The Intersection of Identifying as a Female, an Athlete, and Visually Impaired

EXPERIENCES IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT: THE INTERSECTION OF IDENTIFYING AS A FEMALE, AN ATHLETE, AND VISUALLLY IMPAIRED Maggi Buckley Old Dominion University, 2020 Director: Dr. Justin A. Haegele Abstract Introduction. Individuals with visual impairments, females, and athletes encounter differentIntroduction. Individuals with visual impairments, females, and athletes encounter different challenges during physical education. However, little is known about how the challenges connected with each of these identities intersect and if that intersection impacts experiences differently. The purpose of this study was to take an explicitly intersectional approach to understand how identifying as an individual with a visual impairment, a female, and an athlete intersect to influence physical education and sport experiences. Methods. To describe the participants’ intersectional experiences as female athletes with a visual impairment, an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) research approach was implemented. Four female athletes with visual impairments aged 23-28-years old, participated in this study. The study utilized two sources of data: semi-structured, audio-taped, telephone/video call interviews and reflective interview notes. Data were analyzed thematically using a three-step process guided by IPA. Results. From the data collected and analyzed, two connected, major themes were constructed (a) Physical education was ‘just a credit’ and (b) ‘If you enjoy this, we will drive you’. Discussion. The results of this study aligned with prior research (Fitzgerald, 2005; Haegele & Zhu, 2017), by demonstrating the participants did not have meaningful physical education experiences. Interestingly, however, the participants noted that these poor experiences were not critical to them, as they had developed a sense of athletic identity in other, outside of school physical activity opportunities supported by family.
Comparison of Effectiveness of Germania Honey Compared to Manuka Honey in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Killing

Manuka honey is currently used in medical-grade sterile wound treatment products and has been shown to be effective in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) killing in vitro and in wound healing in a number of case studies and series. Locally produced honey in Pakistan and Chile have been proposed to be as effective as Manuka honey in bacterial killing in vitro, presenting potentially more accessible and affordable alternatives. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of a local Germania honey from Saudi Arabia to Manuka honey MGO 550 for in vitro killing of MRSA. Overnight Muller Hinton broth cultures of 50 wound culture isolates of MRSA from 50 patients were incubated with a series of dilutions of Manuka honey MGO 550 and corresponding Germania honey dilutions for 24 h. Turbidity was assessed to determine whether bacterial growth had occurred, and no growth was confirmed by a further 24 h sub-culture on blood agar. Manuka honey MGO 550 was significantly more effective than Germania honey at MRSA killing at 100% v/v, 50% v/v and 25% v/v (p=0.025, 0.000265, and 0.000112 respectively) Manuka honey MGO 550 is significantly more effective in killing MRSA in vitro than Germania honey. Germania honey does not appear to be a promising locally produced alternative to Manuka honey for the development of honey-based wound dressings. Further experiments could determine if Germania honey is effective against other bacterial species.
Fish Assemblage Response to Altered Dendritic Connectivity in the Red River Basin, Central Louisiana

ABSTRACT. Louisiana's streams provide habitat for a diversity of ecologically and economically important fish species. However, most stream systems in the state have been subject to substantial anthropogenic alterations related to municipal, agricultural, and forest resource development. Extensive reservoir construction has also resulted in altered dendritic connectivity in many drainages, which has been shown to significantly alter the function and biodiversity of streams throughout the U.S. This study explored interactions among stream connectivity, watershed characteristics, stream physicochemistry, and fish assemblage composition and abundance in 21 headwater streams within the Red River basin of Louisiana, with half flowing directly into a reservoir. In 2014 and 2015, fish were sampled by electrofishing and seining, and habitats and physicochemistry were characterized. Six fish species were exclusively found in reservoir streams, three fish species were only found in river tributaries, seven fish species were more abundant in river tributaries, and all richness metrics (total, stream specialist, and generalist) calculated for seined fishes were higher in river tributaries. Notably, Grass Pickerel (Esox americanus) was more abundant in river tributaries. Because of its potential role as an obligate glochidial host for the Louisiana Pearlshell Mussel (Margaritifera hembeli), the influence of stream fragmentation on Grass Pickerel may have significant implications regarding conservation of this endangered mussel. Our results parallel trends observed in similar studies indicating decreased species richness and abundance in streams truncated by reservoirs.
A prospective randomized controlled study to assess the efficacy of fentanyl and dexmedetomidine for conscious sedation in awake fiberoptic intubation

Background: Awake fiberoptic intubation (AFOI) is usually the primary method for airway management in patients with anticipated difficult airway. To achieve optimal conditions for AFOI, the pharmacological agents chosen for sedation should be short acting and have little suppression of spontaneous ventilation. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy between dexmedetomidine and fentanyl for conscious sedation in AFOI. The objectives were to assess the intubating conditions, intubation attempts, and the hemodynamic responses between the groups receiving the two drugs. Materials and Methods: This prospective randomized double-blind study was done in 40 patients of the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical statuses I, II, and III, aged between 20 and 65 years. One group received fentanyl 2 mcg/kg infusion over 10 min. The other group received dexmedetomidine 1 mcg/kg infusion over 10 min. AFOI was done in both groups when patients achieved Ramsay sedation score of three. Time to sedation and time to intubation were noted. Intubating conditions were assessed with cough score. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, and oxygen saturation were also monitored for 30 min with 3 min interval after starting the drug infusion. The number of intubation attempts was also noted. Results: We found that the time to sedation and the time to intubation were shorter with dexmedetomidine than with fentanyl. There were no significant differences in cough score, number of intubation attempts, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, and oxygen saturation between the groups. Conclusion: Both dexmedetomidine and fentanyl can be used to achieve adequate sedation for AFOI along with regional block and topical anesthesia. However, dexmedetomidine achieved target sedation faster compared to fentanyl enabling early intubation.
New-Onset Radiculopathy on Unaffected Side Post Spine Surgery-S1 Screw Irritating L5 Nerve Root: A Case Report

Acute onset of neuropathic pain after lumbosacral fusion spine surgery can be due to multiple causes including a laterally directed bicortical S1 pedicle screw. We here are reporting a case where a laterally directed S1 pedicle screw irritating the L5 nerve root and producing a postoperative acute onset radicular pain on an unaffected side. After the failure of 1-month conservative treatment, the patient was operated and s1 screw was revised. While placing bicortical sacral screw, surgeons should stick to safe window described on cadaveric studies and MRI is a non-invasive and reliable method to identify and nerve root irritation by bicortical sacral screws.
Known by Who We Follow: A Biclustering Application to Community Detection

The detection of communities in social networks is a task with multiple applications both in research and in sectors such as marketing and politics among others. In this paper, we address the task of detecting on-line communities of Twitter users for a given domain. Our main contribution consists in modelling the community detection problem as a biclustering task. We have performed the experimentation with data from the political domain, a very dynamic area with a large number of interested users and a high availability of tweets. We have evaluated our proposal using both extrinsic and intrinsic methods, reaching very good results in both cases. We use the silhouette coefficient as intrinsic metric for clustering evaluation, and a classification task of political leanings of Twitter users as extrinsic evaluation. One of the most interesting conclusions of our experiments is the quality, from the point of view of predictive capacity in the classification task, of the communities identified with the proposed method. The information provided by communities detected through “follow” relationships has a predictive capacity comparable to that of the contents of tweets written by users. The results also show how detected communities can give insights about future events related to these communities that arise around social networks.
Mechanistic Study of p23-Mediated Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Expression

by Beverly M. Pappas University of the Pacific 2018 The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a ligand-activated signaling molecule which is involved in diverse biological functions ranging from cancer metastasis to immune regulation. This receptor forms a cytoplasmic complex with Hsp90, p23, and XAP2. We have previously reported that down-regulation of p23 triggers degradation of the AHR protein, uncovering a potentially dynamic event which controls the cellular AHR levels without ligand treatment. Here we investigate the underlying mechanisms for this p23 effect using wild-type HeLa and the p23 knockdown HeLa cells. Reduction of the Hsp90 and XAP2 contents, however, did not affect the AHR protein levels, implying that this p23 effect on AHR is more than just alteration of the cytoplasmic complex dynamics. Association of p23 with Hsp90 is not important for the modulation of the AHR levels since exogenous expression of p23 mutants with modest Hsp90-binding affinity effectively restored the AHR message and protein levels. The protein folding property of
Effect of liquid metal microstructure on properties and performance of soft composites

vii CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Background and Motivation . 2 1.1.1 LM Droplet Size . 2 1.1.2 LM Droplet Shape . 5 1.1.3 LM Network Architecture . 6 1.2 Hypothesis . 8 1.3 Objectives and Thesis Overview . 8 CHAPTER 2. LIQUID METAL-ELASTOMER SOFT COMPOSITES WITH INDEPENDENTLY CONTROLLABLE AND HIGHLY TUNABLE DROPLET SIZE AND VOLUME LOADING . 10 2.1 Abstract . 10 2.2 Introduction . 11 2.3 Results and Discussion . 14 2.3.1 Soft Composite Fabrication . 14 2.3.2 Particle Size Analysis . 18 2.3.3 Dielectric Spectroscopy . 20 2.3. 4 Temperature Transitions and Thermal Stability . 23 2.4 All-Soft-Matter Wearable Capacitive Sensor . 26 2.5 Conclusions . 28 2.6 References . 29 2.7 Appendix: Supplemental Procedure Description . 36 2.7. 1 Experimental Section . 42 CHAPTER 3. MECHANICAL AND FUNCTIONAL TRADE-OFFS IN MULTIPHASE LIQUID METAL, SOLID PARTICLE SOFT COMPOSITES . 45 3.1 Abstract . 45 3.2 Introduction . 46 3.3 Results and Discussion . 48 3.3.1 Soft, Multifunctional Composites . 48 3.3.2 Liquid Metal as the Majority Filler Phase (LMM) . 52 3.3.3 LM/Particle Distribution and Alloying . 55 3.3. 4 Thermal-Mechanical Coupling . 59 3.3. 5 Composite Design Maps . 65
Efficacy of the Tent-Pole Technique in Horizontal Ridge Augmentation

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of the technique for ridge augmentation prior to implant placement. Material and Methods: Six patients with nine sites presenting an initial ridge width of smaller than 4 mm were included in this study. The tent-pole technique (combination of osteosynthesis screws measuring 1.5 mm in diameter, ABBM, and resorbable collagen membrane) was applied at defect sites. After eight months of healing time, implants were placed in the treated sites. The primary outcomes (radiographic initial ridge width, re-entry ridge width, ridge width gain) were measured by cone-beam computed tomography in reference buccopalatal cross-sections and the secondary outcomes (clinical parameters) were recorded by a digital caliper at the first and second stages. Results: After grafting, the radiographic ridge width increased by 3.02 ± 1.11 mm (1.57-4.75 mm) at 2 mm below the crest and 3.32 ± 1.70 mm (0.23-5.66 mm) at 6 mm below the crest significantly (p< 0.05). For clinical results, the mean horizontal dimension gain was 3.21 ± 1.04 mm (1.83-4.57 mm), while the mean reduction in dimension was 0.38 ± 0.33 mm. These results were statistically significant (p<0.05). Uneventful healing and no infections or membrane exposure were recorded at all sites during the study process. Three of nine (33.33%) defect sites required additional bone grafting. Conclusion: The tent-pole technique is an effective method for increasing the horizontal ridge dimension, minimizing postoperative complications, and facilitating subsequent implant placement.