Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experiences of living with leprosy: A systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis

Objective The objective of the review was to identify, appraise, and synthesise qualitative studies on the lived experience of individuals diagnosed with leprosy, the impact of the disease, and how they coped with the disease burden. Introduction Leprosy is a chronic disease with long-term biopsychosocial impact and is a leading cause of preventable disabilities. It traps the individuals with leprosy in a vicious circle of disease, stigma, and poverty. The efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination and improve their quality of life have not kept pace with the success of the multidrug treatment. Inclusion criteria This review considered published literature on the lived experience of individuals diagnosed with leprosy. There were no limitations on gender, background, or country. All qualitative or mixed-methods studies were accepted. Methods The review followed the JBI meta-aggregation approach for qualitative systematic reviews. A structured literature search was undertaken using multiple electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Results The search identified 723 publications, and there were 446 articles after deduplication. Forty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The final 173 findings were synthesised into ten categories and aggregated into four synthesised findings: biophysical impact, social impact, economic impact, and mental and emotional impact. These synthesised findings were consistent across the included studies from a patient’s perspective. The way people coped with leprosy depended on their interpretation of the disease and its treatment. It affected their help-seeking behaviour and their adherence to treatment and self-care. The review has identified a multi-domain effect on the affected individuals, which goes beyond the biological and physical effects, looking at the social issues, specific difficulties, emotions, and economic hardships. Conclusions The researchers, health professionals, and policymakers could use the synthesised findings to address the concerns and needs of the leprosy-affected individuals and offer appropriate support to manage their lives. Systematic review registration number PROSPERO Registration number: CRD42021243223
iEngage: A digital health education program designed to enhance physical activity in young adolescents

iEngage is a modular health education and behavioural change program designed to help adolescents increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The program is delivered through the iEngage app which integrates activity trackers data (Misfit Ray©) within 10 interactive learning modules. Key features include guidance to set goals, self-monitor and assess achievements, and experiential learning via the connected activity trackers which allows for continuous steps recording during the program. iEngage was implemented in two schools over 5 weeks with 10–12 years old adolescents (n = 57) and PA outcomes compared to control group (n = 26). Results show that adolescents successfully set goals and self-assessed achievements during the program, progressing toward higher physical activity (PA) levels as shown by the 30% increase in daily steps through the program (+ 2647 steps/day, P < .001) with boys increasing goals and achievements faster than girls. The consistency in days totalling at least 11,000 steps/day increased from 35% at the start to 48% at the end of the program. The increase in PA is confirmed through the assessment of MVPA during schooldays pre- and post- program via research grade wrist accelerometers in both iEngage and control participants. Contrasting with the control group, MVPA was increased in the week following the program (~+5 min/day, P = .023) in short bouts, particularly during lunch time, recess and after school. This study shows that a digital program integrating activity trackers data, health education, goals setting and self-monitoring of PA, helped young adolescents enhance PA goals, improve achievements and increase MVPA.
Anisotropic flow of charged particles at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector

Measurements of anisotropic flow in heavy-ion collisions provide evidence for the creation of strongly interacting matter which appears to behave as an almost ideal fluid. Anisotropic flow signals the presence of multiple interactions and is very sensitive to the initial spatial anisotropy of the overlap region in non-central heavy-ion collisions. In this paper, we report measurements of elliptic v2, triangular v3, quadrangular v4 and pentagonal v5 flow. These measurements have been performed with 2- and multi-particle correlation techniques.
Pinning quantum phase transition of photons in a hollow-core fiber

We show that a pinning quantum phase transition for photons could be observed in a hollow-core one-dimensional fiber loaded with a cold atomic gas. Utilizing the strong light confinement in the fiber, a range of different strongly correlated polaritonic and photonic states, corresponding to both strong and weak interactions can be created and probed. The key ingredient is the creation of a tunable effective lattice potential acting on the interacting polaritonic gas which is possible by slightly modulating the atomic density. We analyze the relevant phase diagram corresponding to the realizable Bose-Hubbard (weak) and sine-Gordon (strong) interacting regimes and conclude by describing the measurement process. The latter consists of mapping the stationary excitations to propagating light pulses whose correlations can be efficiently probed once they exit the fiber using available optical technologies
Constraining short-range spin-dependent forces with polarized $^3$He

We have searched for a short-range spin-dependent interaction using the spin relaxation of hyperpolarized $^3$He. Such a new interaction would be mediated by a hypothetical light scalar boson with \CP-violating couplings to the neutron. The walls of the $^3$He cell would generate a pseudomagnetic field and induce an extra depolarization channel. We did not see any anomalous spin relaxation and we report the limit for interaction ranges $\lambda$ between $1$ and $100~\rm{\mu m}$: $g_sg_p \lambda ^2 \leq 2.6\times 10^{-28}~\mathrm{m^2}\, ( 95~\%\, \mathrm{C.L.})$, where $g_s$($g_p$) are the (pseudo)scalar coupling constant, improving the previous best limit by 1 order of magnitude.
Migraine as an inflammatory disorder with microglial activation as a prime candidate

ABSTRACT Background The lower threshold of neuronal hyperexcitability has been correlated with migraines for decades but as technology has progressed, it has now become conceivable to learn more about the migraine disease. Apart from the “cortical spreading depression” and “activation of the trigeminovascular system”, inflammation has been increasingly recognized as a possible pathogenic process that may have the possibility to regulate the disease severity. Microglial cells, the prime candidate of the innate immune cells of central nervous tissue, has been associated with numerous diseases; including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and inflammatory disorders. Aim In this review, we have attempted to link the dot of various microglial activation signaling pathways to enlighten the correlation between microglial involvement and the progression of migraine conditions. Method A structured survey of research articles and review of the literature was done in the electronic databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, Springer, and Elsevier until 31 December 2021. Result & Conclusion Of 1136 articles found initially and screening of 1047 records, 47 studies were included for the final review. This review concluded that inflammation and microglial overexpression as the prime candidate, plays an important role in the modulation of migraine and are responsible for the progression toward chronification. Therefore, this increases the possibility of preventing migraine development and chronification by blocking microglia overexpression.
Incidence of cancer among Nordic police officers

Police work may expose officers to various circumstances that have potential for increasing their risk of cancer, including traffic‐related air pollution, night shift work and radiation from radars. In this study, we examined the incidence of cancer among Nordic male and female police officers. We utilize data from the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) project, which linked census data on occupations from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to national cancer registries for the period 1961 to 2005. We report standardized incidence ratios (SIR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of selected cancers for each country by sex, age and calendar period. The cohort included 38 523 male and 1998 female police officers. As compared with the general population, male police officers had a 7% (95% CI: 4‐9%) excess cancer risk, with elevated SIRs for various cancer sites, including prostate (SIR 1.19, 1.14‐1.25), breast (SIR 1.77, 1.05‐2.80), colon (SIR 1.22, 1.12‐1.32) and skin melanoma (SIR 1.44, 1.28‐1.60). Conversely, male police officers had a lower risk of lung cancer than the general population (SIR 0.72, 0.66‐0.77). In female police officers, the SIR for cancer overall was 1.15 (0.98‐1.34), and there was a slight excess of cancers of the breast (SIR 1.25, 0.97‐1.59) and colon (SIR 1.21, 0.55‐2.30). In conclusion, cancer incidence among the police officers was slightly higher than in the general population. Notably, SIRs were elevated for cancer sites potentially related to night shift work, namely colon, breast and prostate cancer.
The impact of massive neutrinos on the abundance of massive clusters

We study the spherical, top-hat collapse model for a mixed dark matter model including cold dark matter (CDM) and massive neutrinos of mass scales ranging from m_nu= 0.05 to a few 0.1eV, the range of lower- and upper-bounds implied from the neutrino oscillation experiments and the cosmological constraints. To develop this model, we properly take into account relative differences between the density perturbation amplitudes of different components (radiation, baryon, CDM and neutrinos) around the top-hat CDM overdensity region assuming the adiabatic initial conditions. Furthermore, we solve the linearized Boltzmann hierarchy equations to obtain time evolution of the lineariezed neutrino perturbations, yet including the effect of nonlinear gravitational potential due to the nonlinear CDM and baryon overdensities in the late stage. We find that the presence of massive neutrinos slows down the collapse of CDM (plus baryon) overdensity, however, that the neutrinos cannot fully catch up with the the nonlinear CDM perturbation due to its large free-streaming velocity for the ranges of neutrino masses and halo masses we consider. We find that, just like CDM models, the collapse time of CDM overdensity is well monitored by the linear-theory extrapolated overdensity of CDM plus baryon perturbation, smoothed with a given halo mass scale, if taking into account the suppression effect of the massive neutrinos on the linear growth rate. Using these findings, we argue that the presence of massive neutrinos of mass scales 0.05 or 0.1eV may cause a significant decrease in the abundance of massive halos compared to the model without the massive neutrinos; e.g., by 25% or factor 2, respectively, for halos with 10^15Ms and at z=1.
Open strings on D-branes and Hagedorn regime in string gas cosmology

We consider early time cosmic evolution in string gas cosmology dominated by open strings attached to D-branes. After reviewing statistical properties of open strings in D-brane backgrounds, we use dilaton-gravity equations to determine the string frame fields. Although, there are distinctions in the Hagedorn regime thermodynamics and dilaton coupling as compared to closed strings, it seems difficult to avoid Jeans instability and assume thermal equilibrium simultaneously, which is already a known problem for closed strings. We also examine characteristics of a possible subsequent large radius regime in this setup.
High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy for admitted COPD-patients. A retrospective cohort study

Background The use of High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) is increasing in admitted COPD-patients and could provide a step in between non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and standard oxygen supply. Recent studies demonstrated that HFNC is capable of facilitating secretion removal and reduce the work of breathing. Therefore, it might be of advantage in the treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD). No randomized trials have assessed this for admitted COPD-patients on a regular ward and only limited data from non-randomized studies is available. Objectives The aim of our study was to identify the reasons to initiate treatment with HFNC in a group of COPD-patients during an exacerbation, further identify those most likely to benefit from HFNC treatment and to find factors associated with treatment success on the pulmonary ward. Material and methods This retrospective study included COPD-patients admitted to the pulmonary ward and treated with HFNC from April 2016 until April 2019. Only patients admitted with severe acute exacerbations were included. Patients who had an indication for NIV-treatment where treated with NIV and were included only if they subsequently needed HFNC, e.g. when they did not tolerate NIV. Known asthma patients were excluded. Results A total of 173 patients were included. Stasis of sputum was the indication most reported to initiate HFNC-treatment. Treatment was well tolerated in 83% of the patients. Cardiac and vascular co-morbidities were significantly associated with a smaller chance of successful treatment (Respectively OR = 0.435; p = 0.013 and OR = 0.493;p = 0.035). Clinical assessment judged HFNC-treatment to be successful in 61% of the patients. Furthermore, in-hospital treatment with NIV was associated with a higher chance of HFNC failure afterwards (OR = 0.439; p = 0.045). Conclusion This large retrospective study showed that HFNC-treatment in patients with an AECOPD was initiated most often for sputum stasis as primary reason. Factors associated with improved outcomes of HFNC-treatment was the absence of vascular and/or cardiac co-morbidities and no need for in-hospital NIV-treatment.
COVID-19 and the malaria elimination agenda in Africa: Re-shifting the focus

ABSTRACT The global Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in public health, political, scientific and private sector response at an unprecedented scale. However, this shift in focus has caused widespread disruption to global health services and has the potential to reverse gains made in efforts to control malaria. If health systems are not able to maintain malaria control interventions while managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, malaria cases will increase, thereby placing even more strain on already overtaxed systems. Using a Narrative Review Approach, this commentary explores the impact of COVID-19 on progress made with malaria control and prevention strategies in Africa; and discusses possible mitigation steps to aid community resilience building, through proactive planning and implementation of integrated, inclusive and sustainable strategies to re-shift the focus to attain the malaria elimination goals. We propose strengthening community partnerships, where academia and communities should collaborate and these knowledge-sharing strategies be implemented in order for awareness and interventions to become more networked, inclusive, resilient and effective. Communities should be viewed as ‘thought partners’, who challenge conventional strategies and aid in developing innovative approaches to community resilience building.
Implications of the stability and triviality bounds on the standard model with three and four chiral generations

We revisit the stability and triviality bounds on the Higgs boson mass in the context of the standard model with three and four generations (SM3 and SM4, respectively). In light of the recent results from LHC, the triviality bound in the SM3 has now become obsolete, and the stability bound implies for a Higgs mass of e.g. m{sub H}=115 GeV the onset of new physics before {Lambda}=650 TeV, whereas there are no limits for m{sub H}{>=}133 GeV. For the SM4, the stability and triviality curves intersect and bound a finite region. As a consequence, the fourth generation fermions place stringent theoretical limits on the Higgs mass, and there is a maximal scale beyond which the theory cannot be perturbatively valid. We find that the Higgs mass cannot exceed 700 GeV for any values of the fourth generation fermion masses. Turning the argument around, the absence of a Higgs signal for m{sub H}{<=}600 GeV excludes a fourth generation with quark masses below 300 GeV and lepton masses below 350 GeV. In particular, the quark bounds also hold for the small mixing scenarios for which the direct limits from Tevatron and LHC are not applicable, and the lepton bounds we obtain aremore » stronger than the collider limits. If a Higgs boson lighter than 700 GeV is not observed, a fourth generation of chiral fermions with perturbative Yukawa couplings will be conclusively excluded for the full range of parameters. « less
Collective excitations in a two-dimensional antiferromagnet in a strong magnetic field

We discuss spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ two-dimensional (2D) Heisenberg antiferromagnet (AF) on a square lattice at $T=0$ in strong magnetic field $H$ near its saturation value ${H}_{c}$. A perturbation approach is proposed to obtain spectrum of magnons with momenta not very close to AF vector in the leading order in small parameter $({H}_{c}\ensuremath{-}H)/{H}_{c}$. We find that magnons are well-defined quasiparticles at $Hg0.9{H}_{c}$ although the damping is quite large near the zone boundary. A characteristic rotonlike local minimum in the spectrum is observed at $\mathbf{k}=(\ensuremath{\pi},0)$, accompanied by a decrease in the damping near $(\ensuremath{\pi},0)$. The suggested approach can be used in discussion of short-wavelength excitations in other 2D Bose gases of particles or quasiparticles.
THE DIAGONAL FLIPS OF TRIANGULATIONS ON THE SPHERE

It will be shown that any two triangulations with $n$ vertices on the sphere can be transformed into each other by at most $8n-54$ diagonal ﬂips if $n\geq 13$ and $8n-48$ if $n\geq 7$ .
Dark Matter Superfluidity

In these lectures I describe a theory of dark matter superfluidity developed in the last few years. The dark matter particles are axion-like, with masses of order eV. They Bose-Einstein condense into a superfluid phase in the central regions of galaxy halos. The superfluid phonon excitations in turn couple to baryons and mediate a long-range force (beyond Newtonian gravity). For a suitable choice of the superfluid equation of state, this force reproduces the various galactic scaling relations embodied in Milgrom's law. Thus the dark matter and modified gravity phenomena represent different phases of a single underlying substance, unified through the rich and well-studied physics of superfluidity.
Generative processing and emotional false memories: a generation “cost” for negative false memory formation but only after delay

ABSTRACT Previous research shows that manipulations (e.g. levels-of-processing) that facilitate true memory often increase susceptibility to false memory. An exception is the generation effect. Using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, Soraci et al. found that generating rather than reading list items led to an increase in true but not false memories. They argued that generation led to enhanced item-distinctiveness that drove down false memory production. In the current study, we investigated the effects of generative processing on valenced stimuli and after a delayed retention interval to examine factors that may lead to a generation effect that increases false memories. At the immediate test, false recognition rates for both negative and neutral valanced critical lures were similar across read and generate conditions. However, after a one-week delay, we saw a valence differentiation, with a generation effect for false recognition but only for negative stimuli. The roles of item-specific and relational processing during encoding and their interaction with long-term retention are discussed.
How to design a reliable and practical biomarker: the electrophysiologic coefficient of depressiveness - δEPCD

This letter to editor contains an overview of commentary article in which the authors explain how they designed the novel biomarker. The Electrophysiologic Coefficient of Depressiveness - δEPCD detects the presence of a depressive disorder while being able to quantify its severity. This biomarker follows vital function - high frequency heart rate variability in relation with neuroactive metabolic components - concentration ratio between quinolinic acid, and kynurenine acid and it is both sensitive and specific in regard to depressive disorders. Diagnostics of depressive disorders could be improved by checking this novel biomarker and/or re-assessment of individuals who might have depression as well as in rising the awareness about the depressive disorders' prevalence and treatment. So far biomarkers have been classified as dynamic (descriptive) or static (prognostic). With this new complex biomarker, that comprises potentials of both categories, we might be able to introduce a new category - a physiological biomarker. Physiological biomarkers should not have exclusive application within the depressive disorder, but the future research should identify more physiological biomarkers related to other diseases.However, the findings need further evidence procuring new information regarding diagnostics of depressive disorders. Though it presents a novel methodology which would add to a biomarkers research, more specifically type-classification, lack of clear and concise protocol regarding clinical interpretation and a consistent administrative structure and/or logistics to perform the measurements are present. For this reason, further research in different settings and on a larger sample size are necessary.
The immune system in multiple myeloma and precursor states: Lessons and implications for immunotherapy and interception

Multiple myeloma (MM) and its precursor monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) are distinct disorders that likely originate in the setting of chronic immune activation. Evolution of these lesions is impacted by cross‐talk with both innate and adaptive immune systems of the host. Harnessing the immune system may, therefore, be an attractive strategy to prevent clinical malignancy. While clinical MM is characterized by both regional and systemic immune suppression and paresis, immune‐based approaches, particularly redirecting T cells have shown remarkable efficacy in MM patients. Optimal application and sequencing of these new immune therapies and their integration into clinical MM management may depend on the underlying immune status, in turn impacted by host, tumor, and environmental features. Immune therapies carry the potential to achieve durable unmaintained responses and cures in MM.