Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Small-area variation of cardiovascular diseases and select risk factors and their association to household and area poverty in South Africa: Capturing emerging trends in South Africa to better target local level interventions

Background Of the total 56 million deaths worldwide during 2012, 38 million (68%) were due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), particularly cardiovascular diseases (17.5 million deaths) cancers (8.2 million) which represents46.2% and 21.7% of NCD deaths, respectively). Nearly 80 percent of the global CVD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Some of the major CVDs such as ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke and CVD risk conditions, namely, hypertension and dyslipidaemia share common modifiable risk factors including smoking, unhealthy diets, harmful use of alcohol and physical inactivity. The CVDs are now putting a heavy strain of the health systems at both national and local levels, which have previously largely focused on infectious diseases and appalling maternal and child health. We set out to estimate district-level co-occurrence of two cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), namely, ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke; and two major risk conditions for CVD, namely, hypertension and dyslipidaemia in South Africa. Method The analyses were based on adults health collected as part of the 2012 South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES). We used joint disease mapping models to estimate and map the spatial distributions of risks of hypertension, self-report of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), stroke and dyslipidaemia at the district level in South Africa. The analyses were adjusted for known individual social demographic and lifestyle factors, household and district level poverty measurements using binary spatial models. Results The estimated prevalence of IHD, stroke, hypertension and dyslipidaemia revealed high inequality at the district level (median value (range): 5.4 (0–17.8%); 1.7 (0–18.2%); 32.0 (12.5–48.2%) and 52.2 (0–71.7%), respectively). The adjusted risks of stroke, hypertension and IHD were mostly high in districts in the South-Eastern parts of the country, while that of dyslipidaemia, was high in Central and top North-Eastern corridor of the country. Conclusions The study has confirmed common modifiable risk factors of two cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), namely, ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke; and two major risk conditions for CVD, namely, hypertension and dyslipidaemia. Accordingly, an integrated intervention approach addressing cardiovascular diseases and associated risk factors and conditions would be more cost effective and provide stronger impacts than individual tailored interventions only. Findings of excess district-level variations in the CVDs and their risk factor profiles might be useful for developing effective public health policies and interventions aimed at reducing behavioural risk factors including harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity and high salt intake.
Study the Effects of Vernakalant on Ischemic-Reperfusion Dysrhythmias in Experimental Animals in Comparison with Amiodarone

Article by Aljoufi FA, Hendawy OM, Della Grace Thomas Parambi, Fadwa A. Elroby Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Saudi Arabia Lecturer of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Saudi Arabia Lecturer of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt E-mail: faaljoufi@ju.edu. sa, omnia_mmh@yahoo.com, dellajesto@gmail.com, dr_fido_311@yahoo.com
French Translation and Validation of the Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment for Gluteal Tendinopathy Questionnaire

Developed in 2015, the Victorian Institute for Sport Assessment for Gluteal Tendinopathy (VISA‐G) is the first patient‐reported outcome measure tool specifically designed to measure the severity of disability associated with greater trochanteric pain syndrome. There is currently no French version of the VISA‐G questionnaire.
Low frequency activation of the sphenopalatine ganglion does not induce migraine-like attacks in migraine patients

Introduction Cephalic autonomic symptoms occur in 27‒73% of migraine patients during attacks. The role of parasympathetic activation in migraine attack initiation remains elusive. Low frequency stimulation of the sphenopalatine ganglion increases parasympathetic outflow. In this study, we hypothesized that low frequency stimulation of the sphenopalatine ganglion would provoke migraine-like attacks in migraine patients. Methods In a double-blind randomized sham-controlled crossover study, 12 migraine patients with a sphenopalatine ganglion neurostimulator received low frequency or sham stimulation for 30 min on two separate days. We recorded headache characteristics, cephalic autonomic symptoms, ipsilateral mechanical perception and pain thresholds, mean blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery (VMCA) and diameter of the superficial temporal artery during and after stimulation. Results Five patients (42%) reported a migraine-like attack after low frequency stimulation compared to six patients (50%) after sham (p = 1.000). We found a significant increase in mechanical detection thresholds during low frequency stimulation compared to baseline (p = 0.007). Occurrence of cephalic autonomic symptoms and changes in mechanical perception thresholds, VMCA and diameter of the superficial temporal artery showed no difference between low frequency stimulation compared to sham (p = 0.533). Conclusion Low frequency stimulation of the sphenopalatine ganglion did not induce migraine-like attacks or autonomic symptoms in migraine patients. These data suggest that increased parasympathetic outflow by the sphenopalatine ganglion neurostimulator does not initiate migraine-like attacks. Study protocol: ClinicalTrials.gov registration number NCT02510742
The updated cancer paradigm of PAH - recognizing complexity.

The updated cancer paradigm of PAH – recognizing complexity 1 2 Robert Szulcek, Jana Grune, Wolfgang M. Kuebler 3 Institute of Physiology, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany 4 German Heart Center Berlin, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany 5 German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK partner site Berlin), Berlin, Germany 6 Departments of Surgery and Physiology, University of Toronto and Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical 7 Science of St. Michael ́s, Toronto, Canada 8 9 Words: 2009 10 11 *corresponding author 12 Wolfgang M. Kuebler, MD Dr.med. Email: wolfgang.kuebler@charite.de 13 Institute of Physiology Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin 14 Charitéplatz 1 10117 Berlin, Germany 15 Phone: +49 (0)30 450 528 501 Fax: +49 (0)30 450 528 920 16 17
Effectiveness and safety of biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis: real-world data from the KOBIO Registry.

OBJECTIVES We aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes and safety of biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs) and to identify predictors of treatment responses to b/tsDMARDs in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS Data from the nationwide cohort of elderly (≥ 65 years) patients enrolled in the KOBIO Registry were analysed. Clinical outcomes were assessed, including changes in the Simplified Disease Activity Index, after treatment. Adverse events and reasons for drug discontinuation were assessed. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine which baseline variables affected treatment responses and adverse events (AE). RESULTS Elderly patients treated with b/tsDMARDs (n=355) or conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) (n=104) were included. The median age was 70 years and 77% were female. After 1 year, 63% of patients in the b/tsDMARD group and 68% in the csDMARD group achieved remission or low disease activity (LDA). Overall, 27% of patients in the b/tsDMARDs group and 24% in the csDMARDs group experienced AE. A total of 43.4% of patients on b/tsDMARDs discontinued therapy due to lack of effectiveness (27%), AE (34%), or other reasons (35%). The estimated median retention of b/tsDMARDs was 2.5 years. Male sex and non-exposure to tobacco at baseline were independent factors associated with achieving remission or LDA after 1 year. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) was the most prominent comorbidity associated with AE. CONCLUSIONS Treatment with b/tsDMARDs is effective and well tolerated in elderly patients with RA; nonetheless, ILD is a key comorbidity that should be monitored carefully.
Temporal and spatial temperature modelling for understanding pulsed laser induced solution based nanomanufacturing

Recently, pulsed lasers have demonstrated great potential in targeted synthesis in solution based nanomanufacturing, realizing high precision and accuracy in space, time and energy input. The unique temperature history induced by pulsed lasers is indispensable to understand the related fundamentals and to realize the precision control of deposition. In this study a heat transfer model was developed and applied to predict the temporal evolution and the spatial distribution of pulsed laser induced temperature change across the reaction sites. Chemically deposited ZnO crystals were studied as an example, showing the relationships among laser parameters and heating conditions, and deposited crystal characteristics. Peak temperature and heat accumulation induced by pulsed laser were found to affect deposited crystal number density and size. The nucleation number density distribution was found to be correlated with the spatial temperature distribution and inversely proportional to the crystal size. The presented heat transfer model is a crucial tool to understand crystallization fundamentals and it is essential for facilitating pulsed laser as a new tool for research, design, manufacturing and control.
Cyrtodactylus erythrops (Squamata: Gekkonidae), a new cave-dwelling gecko from Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand

A new cave-dwelling species of Cyrtodactylus Gray is described from Mae Hong Son Province in northern Thailand. The new species, C. erythrops sp. nov., is characterized by its moderate size (snout-vent length to at least 78 mm), relatively large, closely-spaced, flattened tubercles in 18–20 irregular rows at midbody, low number of ventral scales across midbody (28), absence of precloacal groove, presence of precloacal and femoral pores separated by a diastema, broad subcaudal plates, and dorsal pattern of dark spots and blotches. It is the fifth species of cave-dwelling Cyrtodactylus recorded from Thailand and its discovery adds to the mounting evidence that this genus exhibits unprecedented levels of localized endemism throughout tropical Southeast Asia.
Differential expression of the long and truncated Hv1 isoforms in breast‐cancer cells

Metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells results in a high production of acidic substances that must be extruded to maintain tumor‐cell viability. The voltage‐gated proton channel (Hv1) mediates highly selective effluxes of hydronium‐ion (H+) that prevent deleterious cytoplasmic acidification. In the work described here, we demonstrated for the first time that the amino‐terminal–truncated isoform of Hv1 is more highly expressed in tumorigenic breast‐cancer‐cell lines than in nontumorigenic breast cells. With respect to Hv1 function, we observed that pharmacologic inhibition of that channel, mediated by the specific blocker 5‐chloro‐2‐guanidinobenzimidazole, produced a drop in intracellular pH and a decrease in cell viability, both in monolayer and in three‐dimensional cultures, and adversely affected the cell‐cycle in tumorigenic breast cells without altering the cycling of nontumorigenic cells. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that the Hv1 channel could be a potential tool both as a biomarker and as a therapeutic target in breast‐cancer disease.
R-spondin signalling is essential for the maintenance and differentiation of mouse nephron progenitors

During kidney development, WNT/β-catenin signalling has to be tightly controlled to ensure proliferation and differentiation of nephron progenitor cells. Here, we show in mice that the signalling molecules RSPO1 and RSPO3 act in a functionally redundant manner to permit WNT/β-catenin signalling and their genetic deletion leads to a rapid decline of nephron progenitors. By contrast, tissue specific deletion in cap mesenchymal cells abolishes mesenchyme to epithelial transition (MET) that is linked to a loss of Bmp7 expression, absence of SMAD1/5 phosphorylation and a concomitant failure to activate Lef1, Fgf8 and Wnt4, thus explaining the observed phenotype on a molecular level. Surprisingly, the full knockout of LGR4/5/6, the cognate receptors of R-spondins, only mildly affects progenitor numbers, but does not interfere with MET. Taken together our data demonstrate key roles for R-spondins in permitting stem cell maintenance and differentiation and reveal Lgr-dependent and independent functions for these ligands during kidney formation.
Robust Larval Zebraﬁsh Behavior Classiﬁcation using Deep Classiﬁers

Zebraﬁsh larvae as young as ﬁve days post-fertilization already exhibit a rich repertoire of innate behaviors enable them to explore the world, maintain their position in a changing environment, hunt, escape from threatening stimuli, and more making them attractive models to study behavior in the lab. Current state-of-the-art zebraﬁsh behavior classiﬁcation techniques depend on identifying complex kinematic features in order to classify the data, and thus cannot be applying in experiments where such features cannot be calculated. Taking advantage of an existing large dataset of millions of zebraﬁsh movements across a wide range of stimuli, this project focuses on studying how deep learning techniques can be used to improve current state-of-the-art zebraﬁsh behavior analysis meth-ods. Here we created a set of behavior classiﬁers that achieve robust classiﬁcation of the zebraﬁsh locomotor repertoire using only some of the tracking data without the need for kinematic feature calculation. Based on diﬀerent types of input information, several deep classiﬁcation networks are proposed. The proposed networks are optimized evaluating their capacity for achieving a robust featureless behavior classiﬁcation across diﬀerent input types, architectures and activation functions. Results show that it possible to achieve robust featureless behavior classiﬁcation of zebraﬁsh movements using all the diﬀerent input types. In addition, results reveal that in this context using more complex network architectures does not increase the classiﬁcation performance but combining diﬀerent information sources helps improve the classiﬁcation accuracy though slightly.
A Machine Learning Method for Resolving Temporal References in Text

This paper presents a machine learning method for resolving temporal references in text, i.e. linking particular character strings in documents to the corresponding time instances and intervals. This is a fundamental task for Temporal Information Retrieval, supporting the access through time to large document collections. The proposed method is an instance of stacked learning, in which a ﬁrst learner based on Conditional Random Fields is used to tag temporal references in the text, and then a second learner based on SVM regression is used to rank and choose from a set of possible candidate disambiguations for the temporal references that were initially tagged. The proposed method was evaluated through English corpora containing TIMEX2 and TimeML annotations for the temporal references. The results show that the proposed method compares well against previously proposed approaches.
Genetic Methods for Detecting Astrocytes, Neurons and Neurogenesis

Abstract Two sets of reactants for modelling neurogenesis (SRMN) were developed based on the designed and tested genetic structures of lentiviral vectors. SRMN-1 contains the genetic construct LVV-GFAP-GCaMP3 and is intended for cellspecific transduction in astroglia cells. SRMN-2 contains the genetic construct LVV-PRSx8-TN-XXL and is intended for the phenotype-specific transduction in neurons. The present study examined SRMN-1 and SRMN-2 samples and assessed their efficiency in vitro and in vivo in Norvegicus rats. Specificity to particular cell types for all SRMN samples exceeded 97%. The number of induced signalling cascades was determined via activation of intracellular ingsignalling cascades in neurons and astrocytes (purinergic receptors and β-adrenoceptors). The results demonstrated dynamic recording of fluorescent signals and a two-fold increase in intensity after addition of the activator in all samples. The experimental SRMN samples revealed successful and stable transfection of catecholaminergic neurons and astrocytes, data on transfection efficiency, specificity of the developed genetic structures of SRMN, and calcium dynamics in transfected neurons and astrocytes. These results confirm the crucial role of astrocytes in ensuring neurogenesis. The results in pure cell culture (in vitro) were identical to the in vivo results in animals.
Psychometric testing of the therapeutic self-care scale in home health care

Medicare-certified home health agencies (HHAs) receive reports on a number of quality indicators with national comparisons, based on Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) data. Currently-available measures for U.S. home health care (HHC) services do not fully evaluate HHA performance on improving a patient’s ability to manage his/her health condition at home. The Therapeutic Self-care Scale (TSCS) addresses aspects of self-management that are highly relevant to the goals of HHC educational and other interventions. The purpose of this project was to conduct psychometric analyses of the TSCS in an adult HHC population, a first step in the evaluation of its potential use as a generic self-management outcome measure for HHC services. A descriptive design was used to assess reliability, validity and responsiveness of the TSCS. Fifty-nine patients were recruited from two HHAs in Colorado. Test-retest reliability was assessed through a comparison of TSCS responses from the admission visit to those from a telephone interview three days later. Convergent validity was tested by correlating the TSCS with data from OASIS and the General Symptom Distress Scale (GSDS). An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to assess underlying dimensions. To evaluate responsiveness, TSCS change scores were calculated and correlated with a patient global rating of perception of change in self-management over the course of the HHC episode.
Arthroplasty for Proximal Femur Fracture

With an increasing global incidence of hip fractures, designing appropriate treatment strategies for hip fractures is fundamentally important to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and payers of healthcare services. We will evaluate the role of total hip replacement (THR) in the setting of trauma for the acute treatment of hip fractures. In this chapter, we will compare hemiarthroplasty and total hip replacement in the acute setting while also examining the role of arthroplasty in the setting of failed internal fixa tion, as well as in pathologic fractures. We will describe the pearls and pitfalls of surgical technique in these scenarios, highlighted with case examples.
Productivity Growth and the Exchange Rate Regime: The Role of Financial Development1

This paper o¤ers empirical evidence that a countrys choice of exchange rate regime can have a signi cant impact on its long-term rate of productivity growth. Moreover, the impact depends critically on the countrys level of nancial development, its distance from the global technology frontier, and its degree of market regulation. We illustrate how each of these channels may operate in a simple stylized growth model in which real exchange rate uncertainty exacerbates the negative investment e¤ects of domestic credit market constraints. The empirical analysis is based on an 83 country data set spanning the years 1960-2000. Our approach delivers results that are in striking contrast to the vast existing empirical exchange rate literature, which largely nds the e¤ects of exchange rate volatility on real activity to be relatively small and insigni cant.
Medicine.Ask: an extraction and search system for medicine information

Health personnel deal with medicines in a daily basis. They need to have access to comprehensive information about medicines as fast as possible. Several books and web sites are at their disposal, as well as independent software packages with extra search capabilities that can be used in Pocket PCs or mobiles. The public, in general, is also interested in having quick access to information about medicines. Despite all the electronic possibilities available nowadays, the search functionalities provided are usually based in keywords or are class-oriented (allowing, for instance, a search by laboratory or by ATC classi(cid:12)cation). Our proposal is to build a system that could be used not only by medical sta(cid:11), but also by common users, with small medical knowledge. For this, we propose a facility to search for information about medicines through a (controlled) set of questions posed in Natural Language. An example of such a question is: \ Which are the medicines for in(cid:13)uenza that can be used during pregnancy? ". In this paper, we present Medicine.Ask which is a question-answering system about medicines that couples state of the art techniques in Information Extraction and Natural Language Processing. We present the architecture of the system and the main techniques used. Furthermore, we report the experiments that were carried on to validate the modules of the system. The results obtained show that we have achieved our goal of making a system easy enough to use, not only by medical sta(cid:11) but also by common users, with small medical knowledge.
Geocast Routing in Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks

—Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks (VDTN) are networks of vehicles that communicate wirelessly, where there are no permanent end-to-end connections. VDTNs have a highly variable topology, with frequent partitions, and possibly low node density. Thus, delay-tolerant routing adopts a store-carry-and-forward message transfer paradigm, where messages have a useful Time-to-Live (TTL) and are stored until a good contact opportunity arises. Multiple message replicas can be generated to improve delivery probability at the cost of increasing network congestion. Nevertheless, applications may have different requirements in what regards the delivery range, the temporal range and the user interest. In this sense, this article focuses on the evaluation and implementation of geocast algorithms that exploit dynamic network information to route messages to interested users located within speciﬁc Regions of Interest (ROI) during a meaningful TTL. The proposed protocol was denominated V-GRADIENT and, in order to control the network congestion and manage the degree of cooperation between nodes, instates mechanisms to monitor the density of vehicles, the nodes buffers occupancy and the penetration rate of interested users in a particular message. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can adapt to varying network density conditions and to distinct application requirements whilst yielding considerably better delivery ratio results than comparable geocast routing strategies.