Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘When I have these kits … I have confidence’ – HIV self-testing provides agency for women in their sexual decision-making

ABSTRACT Oral fluid-based HIV self-testing (HIVST) has emerged as a promising approach to increasing HIV testing coverage, particularly among high-risk populations. Understanding the experiences of women using self-tests and offering them to their sexual partners (secondary distribution) is crucial for determining the potential of HIVST. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted among 32 women at high risk of HIV infection, including women who engage in transactional sex, who participated in a cluster randomised trial of a secondary distribution strategy in western Kenya. Interviews explored how women used self-tests within relationships and how this affected their sexual decision-making. Three key themes emerged: women used HIVST to assess risk prior to engaging in sex with partners; HIVST provided women with increased agency to engage in or end relationships; and women appreciated these benefits and urged expanded access to self-tests. HIVST has the potential to support HIV prevention objectives in settings with high prevalence of HIV. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03135067.
ACTIVE DISSECTION BASED ON PUBLIC ASSESSMENT FOR PROTECTED CLOUD STORAGE

Within this work, we try the thing of a vastly active populace auditing plan obedient the DHT. The residence from the IHT is somewhat a sketchy display, containing pointer collection, square many, report collection and odd quality. Private auditing may be the original wear for remote checking of report soundness, spot the authentication surgery is conducted promptly during data proprietors and CSPs with somewhat popular. However, both exceeding schemes would provoke onerous computational costs from the TPA and prodigious contact upkeep in all respects the updating and information operations. Accordingly, the actions approximately the DHT are breach into two groups: file trips and halt surgery’s, and that both comprise investigate, interjection, expunction, and adjustment. We suggest the dough BLS stamp performance from bilinear maps to show the parcel documents, relevant fanny prospective to cumulative all the trademarks by original users on numerous data halts right into an unmarried abbreviated one and justify it for just once to abate the intelligence cost not outside the documents treat. However, their storehouse costs in reach the TPA will vary by reason their discrete data structures. Looking time on DHT decreases accepting the raise from the square size, and the inspect time about the DHT and the IHT has baby gaps, once the halt reach is bigger than 1000. We evaluate the dance of DHT-PA not over the quantity auditing synopsis and equal it with DAP. Therefore, it counts and serious to expand active auditing strategies to strengthen data owners' trust shower stockpile. To take a telling return counting mitigate you depress imaginably caused about the overrun facts, the TPA is participating to detect the purity from the user’s data restrain the distract.
Microbial community shifts correspond with suppression of decomposition 25 years after liming of acidic forest soils

Microbial community structure and function regularly covary with soil pH, yet effects of these interactions on soil carbon are rarely tested experimentally within natural ecosystems. We investigated the enduring (25 year) impacts of liming on microbial community structure and decomposition at an acidic northern hardwood forest, where experimental liming increased pH one unit and surprisingly doubled the organic carbon stocks of the forest floor. We show that this increase in carbon storage corresponded with restructuring of the bacterial and fungal communities that drive decomposition. In the Oe horizon, liming reduced the activities of five extracellular enzymes that mediate decomposition, while the Oa horizon showed an especially large (64%) reduction in the activity of a sixth, peroxidase, which is an oxidative enzyme central to lignocellulose degradation. Decreased enzyme activities corresponded with loss of microbial taxa important for lignocellulose decay, including large reductions in the dominant ectomycorrhizal genera Russula and Cenococcum, saprotrophic and wood decaying fungi, and Actinobacteria (Thermomonosporaceae). These results demonstrate the importance of pH as a dominant regulator of microbial community structure and illustrate how changes to this structure can produce large, otherwise unexpected increases in carbon storage in forest soils.
Associations between neighbourhood street connectivity and sedentary behaviours in Canadian adults: Findings from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project

Evidence suggests that neighbourhood street connectivity is positively associated with physical activity, yet few studies have estimated its associations with sedentary behaviour. We estimated the associations between space syntax derived street integration, a novel measure of street connectivity, and sedentary behaviours among Canadian adults. Data were sourced from a population-based study–Alberta’s Tomorrow Project (n = 14,758). Items from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire captured sedentary behaviour, including sitting and motor vehicle travel time and walking. Street integration was measured within a 1600m radius of participants’ homes. Covariate-adjusted linear regression models estimated the associations between street integration and sedentary behaviour. Street integration was significantly positively associated with daily minutes of sitting on week (b 6.44; 95CI 3.60, 9.29) and weekend (b 4.39; 95CI 1.81, 6.96) days, and for week and weekend days combined (b 5.86; 95CI 3.30, 8.41) and negatively associated with daily minutes of motor vehicle travel (b -3.72; 95CI -3.86, -1.55). These associations remained significant after further adjustment for daily walking participation and duration. More research is needed to understand the pathways by which street integration positively and or negatively affects sedentary behaviour.
The Impact of Amplification on Cognitive Screening Test Scores.

Hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline in older adults. Research has shown that hearing loss negatively affects cognitive screening test measures as patients may mishear verbally administered questions. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of amplification on performance on a commonly used cognitive screening test. Thirty older adults with hearing loss underwent testing with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in three conditions: without hearing aids, with hearing aids, and with a personal listening device (PLD). Performance on the MMSE significantly improved with the use of hearing aids or a PLD. Amplification and the use of communication strategies should be considered when administering cognitive screening measures to older adults. Failure to account for hearing status may lead to invalid results and can increase the likelihood of over-referral for further assessment. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48(7), 31-37. ].
Urinary Excretion Profile of Cannabinoid Analytes Following Acute Administration of Oral and Vaporized Cannabis in Infrequent Cannabis Users.

Traditionally, smoking has been the predominant method for administering cannabis, but alternative routes of administration have become more prevalent. Additionally, research examining urinary cannabinoid excretion profiles has primarily focused on 11-nor-9-carboxy-∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC-COOH), a metabolite of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), as the primary analyte. The aim of the current study was to characterize the urinary excretion profile of Δ9-THC-COOH, Δ9-THC, Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8-THC), 11-hydroxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (11-OH-Δ9-THC), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV-COOH), 11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarin-9-carboxlic acid (THCV-COOH), cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), and 8,11-dihydroxytetrahydrocannabinol (8,11-diOH-Δ9-THC) following controlled administration of both oral and vaporized cannabis. Participants (N = 21, 11 men/10 women) who were infrequent cannabis users ingested cannabis-containing brownies (0, 10, and 25 mg Δ9-THC) and inhaled vaporized cannabis (0, 5, and 20 mg Δ9-THC) across six double-blind outpatient sessions. Urinary concentrations of Δ9-THC analytes were measured at baseline and for 8 h after cannabis administration. Sensitivity, specificity, and agreement between the three immunoassays (IA) for Δ9-THC-COOH (cutoffs of 20, 50, and 100 ng/mL) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) analyses (confirmatory cutoff concentrations of 15 ng/mL) were assessed. Urinary concentrations for Δ9-THC-COOH, Δ9-THC, 11-OH-Δ9-THC, THCV, CBN, and 8,11-diOH-Δ9-THC all peaked at 5-6 h and 4 h following oral and vaporized cannabis administration, respectively. At each active dose, median maximum concentrations (Cmax) for detected analytes were quantitatively higher after oral cannabis administration compared to vaporized. Using current recommended federal workplace drug-testing criteria (screening via immunoassay with a cutoff of ≥ 50 ng/mL and confirmation via LC-MS-MS at a cutoff of ≥15 ng/mL), urine specimens tested positive for Δ9-THC-COOH in 97.6% of oral sessions and 59.5% of vaporized sessions with active Δ9-THC doses. These data indicate that while Δ9-THC-COOH may serve as the most consistent confirmatory analyte under the current drug-testing guidelines, future work examining 11-OH-Δ9-THC under similar parameters could yield an alternative analyte that may be helpful in distinguishing between licit and illicit cannabis products.
Benzyl Isothiocyanate-Induced Cytotoxicity via the Inhibition of Autophagy and Lysosomal Function in AGS Cells

Gastric adenocarcinoma is among the top causes of cancer-related death and is one of the most commonly diagnosed carcinomas worldwide. Benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) has been reported to inhibit the gastric cancer metastasis. In our previous study, BITC induced apoptosis in AGS cells. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of BITC on autophagy mechanism in AGS cells. First, the AGS cells were treated with 5, 10, or 15 μM BITC for 24 h, followed by an analysis of the autophagy mechanism. The expression level of autophagy proteins involved in different steps of autophagy, such as LC3B, p62/SQSTM1, Atg5-Atg12, Beclin1, p-mTOR/mTOR ratio, and class III PI3K was measured in the BITC-treated cells. Lysosomal function was investigated using cathepsin activity and Bafilomycin A1, an autophagy degradation stage inhibitor. Methods including qPCR, western blotting, and immunocytochemistry were employed to detect the protein expression levels. Acridine orange staining and omnicathepsin assay were conducted to analyze the lysosomal function. siRNA transfection was performed to knock down the LC3B gene. BITC reduced the level of autophagy protein such as Beclin 1, class III PI3K, and Atg5-Atg12. BITC also induced lysosomal dysfunction which was shown as reducing cathepsin activity, protein level of cathepsin, and enlargement of acidic vesicle. Overall, the results showed that the BITC-induced AGS cell death mechanism also comprises the inhibition of the cytoprotective autophagy at both initiation and degradation steps.
Sorting it out

The AP-2 adaptor complex is widely viewed as a linchpin molecule in clathrin-mediated endocytosis, simultaneously binding both clathrin and receptors. This dual interaction couples cargo capture with clathrin coat assembly, but it has now been discovered that the association with cargo is tightly regulated. Remarkably, AP-2 is not obligatory for all clathrin-mediated uptake, and several alternate adaptors appear to perform similar sorting and assembly functions at the clathrin bud site.
Transporters in Regulatory Science: Notable Contributions from Dr. Giacomini in the Past Two Decades

Transporters govern the access of molecules to cells or their exit from cells, thereby controlling the overall distribution of drugs to their intracellular site of action. Clinically relevant drug-drug interactions mediated by transporters are of increasing interest in drug development. Drug transporters, acting alone or in concert with drug metabolizing enzymes, can play an important role in modulating drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, thus affecting the pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamics of a drug. Dr. Kathy Giacomini from the University of California, San Francisco is one of the world leaders in transporters and pharmacogenetics with key contributions to transporter science. Her contributions to transporter science are noteworthy. This review paper will summarize Dr. Giacomini’s key contributions and influence on transporters in regulatory science in the past two decades. Regulatory science research highlighted in this review covers various aspects of transporter science, including understanding the effect of renal impairment on transporters, transporter ontogeny, biomarkers for transporters, and interactions of excipients with transporters affecting drug absorption. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This review paper highlights Dr. Giacomini’s key contributions and influence on transporters in regulatory science in the past two decades. She has been at the cutting edge of science pertaining to drug transport, drug disposition, and regulatory science, leading to a new era of translational sciences pertaining to drug disposition and transporter biology. Her research has and will continue to bring enormous impact on gaining new knowledge in guiding drug development and inspire scientists from all sectors in the field.
Association between elastography-assessed muscle mechanical properties and high-speed dynamic performance

ABSTRACT Clarifying the muscular factors that contribute to performance improvement can be beneficial for athletes and coaches. The present study examined the relationships between the resting muscle shear modulus and dynamic performance during the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) and explosive exercises. To this end, we measured the jump height during three types of vertical jumps (squat jump [SJ], countermovement jump [CMJ], and rebound jump [RJ]) and the multi-joint leg extension power at three velocities (low, moderate, and high) of 30 healthy women. Using ultrasound elastography, the resting shear modulus of the vastus lateralis was assessed in the sitting position as an index of passive muscle mechanical properties. The results showed that the shear modulus was positively correlated with RJ height and multi-joint leg extension power at moderate and high velocities (r = 0.435–0.563, P < 0.05). There was no significant correlation between the shear modulus and SJ height, CMJ height, and multi-joint leg extension power at low velocity. Contact time (i.e. the time under force exertion against the ground) during RJ (161 ± 19 ms) was 19% of that during CMJ (869 ± 171 ms). The results suggest that passive muscle mechanical properties play an important role in high-speed SSCs and dynamic explosive performance. Highlights The resting shear modulus was related to performance in stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) exercise involving a series of rapidly performed SSCs. The resting shear modulus was associated with muscular power in high-velocity conditions but not in low-velocity conditions. This study suggests that the passive mechanical properties of an agonist muscle play an important role in high-speed dynamic performance.
Prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in East Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background The rate of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world. It is becoming an emerging public health problem in East Africa. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among pulmonary tuberculosis positive individuals in the region has not been thoroughly investigated. Aim The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to estimate the pooled prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among newly diagnosed and previously treated pulmonary tuberculosis cases in East African countries. Methods English published articles were systematically searched from six electronic databases: PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Science direct, Web of Science, and Google scholar. The pooled prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and associated risk factors were calculated using Der Simonian and Laird’s random Effects model. Funnel plot symmetry visualization confirmed by Egger’s regression asymmetry test and Begg rank correlation methods was used to assess publication bias. A total of 16 articles published from 2007 to 2019 were included in this study. STATA 14 software was used for analysis. Results Out of 1025 articles identified citations, a total of 16 articles were included in final meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among newly diagnosed tuberculosis cases and previously treated tuberculosis patients was 4% (95%CI = 2–5%) and 21% (95%CI: 14–28%), respectively. Living conditions, lifestyles (smoking, alcohol use, and drug abuse), previous medical history, diabetes history, and human immunodeficiency virus infection were risk factors contributing to the higher prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in East Africa. Conclusion The review found a significant prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the region. An early diagnosis of tuberculosis and rapid detection of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a critical priority to identify patients who are not responding to the standard treatment and to avoid transmission of resistant strains. It is also very important to strengthen tuberculosis control and improve monitoring of chemotherapy.
Recent advances in the development of antidepressants targeting the purinergic P2X7 receptor.

The purinergic P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-gated cation channel protein. Although extracellular ATP (eATP) is maintained at the nanomolar concentration range under normal conditions, it is elevated to micromolar levels in response to cell stress or damage, resulting in activation of P2X7R in the brain. Binding of eATP to P2X7R in glial cells in the brain activates the NLRP3 inflammasome and releases proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18 and TNFα. Depression has been demonstrated to be strongly associated with neuroinflammation activated by P2X7R. Therefore, P2X7R is an attractive therapeutic target for depression. Multi-national pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Lundbeck, and Pfizer, have developed CNS-penetrating P2RX7 antagonists. Several of these have been evaluated in clinical trials. This review summarizes the recent development of P2X7R antagonists as novel antidepressant agents in terms of structural optimization, as well as in vitro/in vivo evaluation and physicochemical properties of representative compounds.
The Role of Glutathione Reductase in Influenza Infection.

Influenza infection induces lung epithelial cell injury via programed cell death. Glutathione, a potent antioxidant, has been reported to be associated with influenza infection. We hypothesized that lung epithelial cell death during influenza infection is regulated by glutathione metabolism. 8-week-old male and female BALB/c mice were infected with influenza (PR8: A/PR/8/34(H1N1)) via intranasal instillation. Metabolomic analysis were performed on whole lung lysate after influenza infection. For in vitro analysis, Beas-2B cells were infected with influenza. RNA was extracted and QuantiTect Primer Assay was used to assess gene expression. Glutathione levels were assessed by colorimetric assay. Influenza infection resulted in increased inflammation and epithelial cell injury in our murine model, leading to increased morbidity and mortality. In both our in vivo and in vitro models, influenza infection was found to induce apoptosis and necroptosis. Influenza infection furthermore led to decreased glutathione metabolism and reduced glutathione reductase activity in lung epithelial cells. Genetic inhibition of glutathione reductase suppressed apoptosis and necroptosis of lung epithelial cells. Pharmacologic inhibition of glutathione reductase reduced airway inflammation, lung injury and cell death in our murine influenza model. Our results demonstrate that glutathione reductase activity is suppressed during influenza. Glutathione reductase inhibition prevents epithelial cell death and morbidity in our murine influenza model. Our results suggest that glutathione reductase-dependent glutathione metabolism may play an important role in the host response to viral infection by regulating lung epithelial cell death.
Knowledge Base Acceleration Using Features Inspired by Collaborative Filtering

Most of us use knowledge bases every day, whether it is Wikipedia, Netflix, an online newspaper or a dictionary. These knowledge bases contain both timeless and up-to-date information and must be updated continuously. A knowledge base is often updated with content from channels with large amounts of information. When a human editor updates a knowledge base, it can be difficult to distinguish important signals from noise. To automatically identifying central documents from a stream of documents where the purpose is to expand a knowledge base is called Knowledge Base Acceleration (KBA). The task of separating the central documents is called Cumulative Citation Recommendation (CCR). Through feature extraction, document classification and ranking, we can find documents that will be central to a knowledge base. It will then be up to a human editor to select which documents are to be included in the knowledge base. Our work in this thesis has two parts. First, we want to verify work done earlier in this field by applying similar principles to a new dataset. The second part of the thesis focuses on expanding the dataset with new features that are based on principles from Collaborative Filtering (CF). The model that solves the first part of the thesis achieves an F1 value of 0.853. This is twice as good as the reference model which determines whether a Twitter message is central based only on the number of likes. Furthermore, we expand the first model with new features inspired by CF. The new model is significantly better and achieves an improvement of 1% points. The thesis’ main contribution to the KBA field is the insight that; taking into account the relationships between authors of incoming documents can improve a model’s ability to identify central documents. Furthermore, we have verified that relevant principles from KBA work by applying these principles to a whole new dataset. The results of this work have been very satisfactory and are statistically tested.
Preferences, Benefits, and Barriers of Web 2.0 Tools for Knowledge Sharing in Brunei Darussalam's Tertiary Education

This paper is aimed to assess the current knowledge sharing processes in tertiary education in Brunei Darussalam. It identifies and examines the preferences, benefits and barriers of knowledge sharing and knowledge sharing platforms utilized in tertiary education. A descriptive research method is employed, in which quantitative approach was selected to collect data on the use of Web 2.0 tools, especially social media, for knowledge sharing in tertiary education in Brunei Darussalam. This study revealed that respondents highly utilize emails and Web 2.0 tools for knowledge sharing, which are normally provided by their host universities as information and knowledge sharing platforms. Web 2.0 tools, especially social media, are considered suitable platforms for sharing knowledge. However, there are some concerns in using Web 2.0 tools for knowledge sharing, mainly in term of privacy issues and reliability of information and knowledge shared due to its high risk of collaborators. Preferences, Benefits, and Barriers of Web 2.0 Tools for Knowledge Sharing in Brunei Darussalam’s Tertiary Education