The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Disease Perception and Adherence to Treatment AmongPatients with Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction:Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on illness perception and adherence to treatment among patients with multiple sclerosis.Method:The present study was a quasi-experimental with pretest and posttest design. The statistical population of this study were all patients with multiple sclerosis under the auspices of the MS Society of Tehran in 2019. Forty-five women with multiple sclerosis were purposefully selected and randomly divided into two groups: acceptance and commitment therapy (n=15) and control group (n=15). Data were obtained with the revised illness perception questionnaire (IPQ-R) and the multiple sclerosis treatment adherence questionnaire (MS-TAQ). The repeated measurement analysis of variance and SPSS.22 software were used to analyze data.Result: The results showed that the acceptance and commitment therapy was effective on illness perceptions (p<0.001) and adherence to treatment (p<0.001). Conclusion: It can be concluded that effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy focus more on the outcome of the thought or how the person relates to their thoughts rather than on the content of the thought or attempt to eliminate it.Declaration of Interest: Non

Retrieval for Extremely Long Queries and Documents with RPRS: a Highly Efficient and Effective Transformer-based Re-Ranker

Retrieval with extremely long queries and documents is a well-known and challenging task in information retrieval and is commonly known as Query-by-Document (QBD) retrieval. Specifically designed Transformer models that can handle long input sequences have not shown high effectiveness in QBD tasks in previous work. We propose a Re-Ranker based on the novel Proportional Relevance Score (RPRS) to compute the relevance score between a query and the top-k candidate documents. Our extensive evaluation shows RPRS obtains significantly better results than the state-of-the-art models on five different datasets. Furthermore, RPRS is highly efficient since all documents can be pre-processed, embedded, and indexed before query time which gives our re-ranker the advantage of having a complexity of O(N) where N is the total number of sentences in the query and candidate documents. Furthermore, our method solves the problem of the low-resource training in QBD retrieval tasks as it does not need large amounts of training data, and has only three parameters with a limited range that can be optimized with a grid search even if a small amount of labeled data is available. Our detailed analysis shows that RPRS benefits from covering the full length of candidate documents and queries.Comment: Accepted at ACM Transactions on Information Systems (ACM TOIS journal

Measuring Bias in a Ranked List using Term-based Representations

In most recent studies, gender bias in document ranking is evaluated with the NFaiRR metric, which measures bias in a ranked list based on an aggregation over the unbiasedness scores of each ranked document. This perspective in measuring the bias of a ranked list has a key limitation: individual documents of a ranked list might be biased while the ranked list as a whole balances the groups' representations. To address this issue, we propose a novel metric called TExFAIR (term exposure-based fairness), which is based on two new extensions to a generic fairness evaluation framework, attention-weighted ranking fairness (AWRF). TExFAIR assesses fairness based on the term-based representation of groups in a ranked list: (i) an explicit definition of associating documents to groups based on probabilistic term-level associations, and (ii) a rank-biased discounting factor (RBDF) for counting non-representative documents towards the measurement of the fairness of a ranked list. We assess TExFAIR on the task of measuring gender bias in passage ranking, and study the relationship between TExFAIR and NFaiRR. Our experiments show that there is no strong correlation between TExFAIR and NFaiRR, which indicates that TExFAIR measures a different dimension of fairness than NFaiRR. With TExFAIR, we extend the AWRF framework to allow for the evaluation of fairness in settings with term-based representations of groups in documents in a ranked list.Comment: Accepted at the 46th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2024

Improving BERT-based query-by-document retrieval with multi-task optimization

Query-by-document (QBD) retrieval is an Information Retrieval task in which a seed document acts as the query and the goal is to retrieve related documents – it is particular common in professional search tasks. In this work we improve the retrieval effectiveness of the BERT re-ranker, proposing an extension to its fine-tuning step to better exploit the context of queries. To this end, we use an additional document-level representation learning objective besides the ranking objective when fine-tuning the BERT re-ranker. Our experiments on two QBD retrieval benchmarks show that the proposed multi-task optimization significantly improves the ranking effectiveness without changing the BERT re-ranker or using additional training samples. In future work, the generalizability of our approach to other retrieval tasks should be further investigated

Biodegradable Poly (Lactic Acid)/ Poly (ethylene glycol) Reinforced Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposite Fabrication, Characterization, Properties, and Applications

This paper presents the electromagnetic interference properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as a novel nano-reinforcement filler in poly (lactic acid) (PLA)/poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) polymer matrix that was prepared via melt blending mode. Plasticization of PLA was first carried out by PEG, which overcomes its brittleness problem, in order to enhance its flexibility. A waveguide adapter technique was used to measure the dielectric properties εr , and S-parameters reflection (S11) and transmission (S21) coefficients. The dielectric properties, microwave attenuation performances, and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMISE) for all the material under test have been calculated over the full X-Band (8–12 GHz) due to its importance for military and commercial applications. The prepared samples were studied while using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), mechanical properties measurements, as well as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results showed that the dielectric properties increased with increased multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) filler, as well as the shielding effectiveness of the MWCNT/PLA/PEG nanocomposites increased with the increasing of MWCNTs. The highest SE total value was found to be 42.07 dB at 12 GHz for 4 wt.% filler content. It is also observed that the attenuation values of the nanocomposites increased with an increase in MWCNTs loading, as well as the power loss values for all of the samples increased with the increase in MWCNTs loading, except the amount of the transmitted wave through the nanocomposites

CONSUMER’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE DEMAND FOR IRRADIATED FOOD IN CAIRO GOVERNORATE

Currently, the international community focus on the problem of food security and nutrition to achieve the goals in the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Plan, in particular the second objective of sustainable development, which concern eradication  of hunger, saving food security and be improved nutrition, as well promotion of sustainable agriculture (The official website of the United Nations). The field study aims to provide an indication of the expected volume of demand for irradiated food in the Egyptian market and estimate degree of approval, due to measuring of consumer’s attitudes. The process of food irradiation gives a competitive advantage in the markets, through achievement of important role in preserving food and agricultural products, an addition protect them from spoilage. The felid Study was based on consumer demand for irradiated food in Cairo Governorate, as the largest governorate in terms of population intensity, representing about 10.06% of the total population of the Republic (Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, 2017). A survey was conducted on consumers who frequented the hypermarket between two areas, one located in a high income area (1st Settlement) and the other located in a low income area (Shoubra). The results of the survey showed that the percentage of those who approved the purchase of irradiated food amounted to about 67%, while the percentage of those who undecided and rejected was estimated at about 12% 21% respectively. The highest percentage of  weighted average value was approved for the axis of the nutritional value of food and quality, which amounted to about 81.33%, while the approval rate for the axis of environmental specifications has reached 74.66% only. The results indicate that the factors affecting on consumers behavior for the purchase of irradiated food are not mainly due to the price specifications of the commodity but to the nutritional value and quality, health and marketing specifications. In addition, the results showed that relationship wasn’t statistically significant between the variables of the age group, gender, social status and all the axes of the irradiated food specification, but relationship was found statistically significant between the variable of the region (high income and low income) and the total specifications. The study suggests which explains the importance of directing marketing strategies appropriate to the consumer groups with a relatively low level of education and low incomes, because increasing the awareness of the benefits of radiation Processed of food, will increase the total economic benefit for them, it’s most important of maintain quality and safety of food for long shelf life. The results also showed the relative importance of information, that effect on demand for irradiated food in the Egyptian market, it’s considered high relatively where was estimated at 87%. Furthermore, the results explained an important role of the major media as television, which has most Watched by consumers by 69%, followed it the Internet by 29%. The dry foods may be provided when the commercial application and marketing of irradiated products in the Egyptian market would be started, This is due to agree with most consumer’s attitude, which selected by 62% of the study sample. Based on the above, the important role becomes clear of felid studies and marketing research in the Egyptian market, to identify the actual wants of consumer, which represented to obtain safe, healthy and high quality of food, how optimization using of food irradiation technology could be met consumer's demand on Specification of food products required in the Egyptian commercial markets. The study recommends of put a marketing strategy for irradiated food, which mainly dependent on providing specifications of these foods, such as nutritional value, quality, health and marketing specifications, which are important economic axes, it had highly compatible with the preference and consumer’s behavior  towards purchasing. This is one of the most important factors affecting on demand according to economic theory. This ensures the marketing process’s effectiveness for these foods before supplied to the market. In addition to achieve the expected economic returns at the national level by saved food security or at the individual level by satisfying the consumer's wants to obtain safe food with high quality and comparatively long shelf life

Effects of Sorafenib and Quercetin Alone or in Combination in Treating Hepatocellular Carcinoma: In Vitro and In Vivo Approaches

Sorafenib is the first drug approved to treat advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and continues as the gold-standard therapy against HCC. However, acquired drug resistance represents a main concern about sorafenib therapy. The flavanol quercetin found in plants has shown great anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. In this work, quercetin was used as a therapeutic agent alone or in combination with a sorafenib chemotherapy drug to improve the routine HCC treatment with sorafenib. The in vitro and in vivo results presented here confirm that quercetin alone or in combination with sorafenib significantly inhibited HCC growth, induced cell cycle arrest and induced apoptosis and necrosis. Further molecular data shown in this report demonstrate that quercetin alone or combined with sorafenib downregulated key inflammatory, proliferative and angiogenesis-related genes (TNF-α, VEGF, P53 and NF-κB). Combined quercetin/sorafenib treatment markedly improved the morphology of the induced liver damage and showed significant antioxidant and anti-tumor effects. The advantage of combined treatment efficacy reported here can be attributed to quercetin’s prominent effects in modulating cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, oxidative stress and inflammation

Therapeutic Effects of Crocin Alone or in Combination with Sorafenib against Hepatocellular Carcinoma: In Vivo & In Vitro Insights

This study investigated the therapeutic effects of the phytochemical crocin alone or in combination with sorafenib both in rats chemically induced with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and in human liver cancer cell line (HepG2). Male rats were randomly divided into five groups, namely, control group, HCC induced group, and groups treated with sorafenib, crocin or both crocin and sorafenib. HCC was induced in rats with a single intraperitoneal injection of diethylnitrosamine (DEN), then 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF). The HCC-induced rats showed a significant decrease in body weight compared to animals treated with either or both examined drugs. Serum inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein (CRP); interleukin-6 (IL-6); lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and oxidative stress markers were significantly increased in the HCC group and were restored upon treatment with either or both of therapeutic molecules. Morphologically, the HCC-induced rats manifested most histopathological features of liver cancer. Treatment with either or both of crocin and sorafenib successfully restored normal liver architecture. The expression of key genes involved in carcinogenesis (TNFα, p53, VEGF and NF-κB) was highly augmented upon HCC induction and was attenuated post-treatment with either or both examined drugs. Treatment with both crocin and sorafenib improved the histopathological and inflammation parameters as compared to single treatments. The in vivo anti-cancer effects of crocin and/or sorafenib were supported by their respective cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells. Crocin and sorafenib displayed an anti-tumor synergetic effect on HepG2 cells. The present findings demonstrated that a treatment regimen with crocin and sorafenib reduced liver toxicity, impeded HCC development, and improved the liver functions

Evaluation of serum soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor as a marker for steroid-responsiveness in children with primary nephrotic syndrome

Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is the most common primary glomerular disease among children. It runs a relapsing course involving prolonged periods of treatment with corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive medications. Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) has been regarded as an inflammatory as well as a permeability factor. The aim of our study was to evaluate serum suPAR levels in children with NS and its relation to steroid responsiveness. Our study was carried out on 75 children who were already diagnosed as having NS; they were classified into three groups (steroid sensitive, steroid dependent, and steroid resistant). Furthermore, 40 apparently healthy children, age and sex matched with the NS patients, were enrolled as controls. All children had undergone assessment of serum suPAR, renal function tests (urea and creatinine), serum albumin, C-reactive protein, and 24-h protein in urine. The study found that suPAR level was significantly different between the studied groups (P <0.05), being highest in steroid-resistant NS (66.52 ± 9.7 ng/mL), followed by steroid dependent (56.82 ± 11.09 ng/mL), and steroid-sensitive patients (26.22 ± 3.86 ng/mL), and lowest in the control group (20.29 ± 0.69 ng/mL). When receiver operating characteristics curves were plotted, suPAR had high sensitivities and specificities in predicting steroid responsiveness, [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.911–1.000, P <0.001], steroid dependence (AUC = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.929–1.000, P <0.001), and predicting steroid resistance. Our study indicates that suPAR is significantly higher in children with primary NS and varies according to their response to steroid therapy. It may act as a marker for steroid responsiveness in these children

Effect of Alkali-Acid-Heat Chemical Surface Treatment on Electron Beam Melted Porous Titanium and Its Apatite Forming Ability

Advanced additive manufacturing techniques such as electron beam melting (EBM), can produce highly porous structures that resemble the mechanical properties and structure of native bone. However, for orthopaedic applications, such as joint prostheses or bone substitution, the surface must also be bio-functionalized to promote bone growth. In the current work, EBM porous Ti6Al4V alloy was exposed to an alkali acid heat (AlAcH) treatment to bio-functionalize the surface of the porous structure. Various molar concentrations (3, 5, 10M) and immersion times (6, 24 h) of the alkali treatment were used to determine optimal parameters. The apatite forming ability of the samples was evaluated using simulated body fluid (SBF) immersion testing. The micro-topography and surface chemistry of AlAcH treated samples were evaluated before and after SBF testing using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The AlAcH treatment successfully modified the topographical and chemical characteristics of EBM porous titanium surface creating nano-topographical features ranging from 200–300 nm in size with a titania layer ideal for apatite formation. After 1 and 3 week immersion in SBF, there was no Ca or P present on the surface of as manufactured porous titanium while both elements were present on all AlAcH treated samples except those exposed to 3M, 6 h alkali treatment. An increase in molar concentration and/or immersion time of alkali treatment resulted in an increase in the number of nano-topographical features per unit area as well as the amount of titania on the surface