Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control rates over 20 years in National Capital Region of India: results from a repeat cross-sectional study

Background and objectives Despite being one of the leading risk factors of cardiovascular mortality, there are limited data on changes in hypertension burden and management from India. This study evaluates trend in the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in the urban and rural areas of India’s National Capital Region (NCR). Design and setting Two representative cross-sectional surveys were conducted in urban and rural areas (survey 1 (1991–1994); survey 2 (2010–2012)) of NCR using similar methodologies. Participants A total of 3048 (mean age: 46.8±9.0 years; 52.3% women) and 2052 (mean age: 46.5±8.4 years; 54.2% women) subjects of urban areas and 2487 (mean age: 46.6±8.8 years; 57.0% women) and 1917 (mean age: 46.5±8.5 years; 51.3% women) subjects of rural areas were included in survey 1 and survey 2, respectively. Primary and secondary outcome measures Hypertension was defined as per Joint National Committee VII guidelines. Structured questionnaire was used to measure the awareness and treatment status of hypertension. A mean systolic blood pressure <140 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg was defined as control of hypertension among the participants with hypertension. Results The age and sex standardised prevalence of hypertension increased from 23.0% to 42.2% (p<0.001) and 11.2% to 28.9% (p<0.001) in urban and rural NCR, respectively. In both surveys, those with high education, alcohol use, obesity and high fasting blood glucose were at a higher risk for hypertension. However, the change in hypertension prevalence between the surveys was independent of these risk factors (adjusted OR (95% CI): urban (2.3 (2.0 to 2.7)) rural (3.1 (2.4 to 4.0))). Overall, there was no improvement in awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertension in the population. Conclusion There was marked increase in prevalence of hypertension over two decades with no improvement in management.
Endothelial Snail Regulates Capillary Branching Morphogenesis via Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 3 Expression

Vascular branching morphogenesis is activated and maintained by several signaling pathways. Among them, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) signaling is largely presented in arteries, and VEGFR3 signaling is in veins and capillaries. Recent reports have documented that Snail, a well-known epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition protein, is expressed in endothelial cells, where it regulates sprouting angiogenesis and embryonic vascular development. Here, we identified Snail as a regulator of VEGFR3 expression during capillary branching morphogenesis. Snail was dramatically upregulated in sprouting vessels in the developing retinal vasculature, including the leading-edged vessels and vertical sprouting vessels for capillary extension toward the deep retina. Results from in vitro functional studies demonstrate that Snail expression colocalized with VEGFR3 and upregulated VEGFR3 mRNA by directly binding to the VEGFR3 promoter via cooperating with early growth response protein-1. Snail knockdown in postnatal mice attenuated the formation of the deep capillary plexus, not only by impairing vertical sprouting vessels but also by downregulating VEGFR3 expression. Collectively, these data suggest that the Snail-VEGFR3 axis controls capillary extension, especially in vessels expressing VEGFR2 at low levels.
Fewer ligament injuries but no preventive effect on muscle injuries and severe injuries: an 11-year follow-up of the UEFA Champions League injury study

Background Limited information is available on the variation in injury rates over multiple seasons of professional football. Aim To analyse time-trends in injury characteristics of male professional football players over 11 consecutive seasons. Methods A total of 1743 players comprising 27 teams from 10 countries were followed prospectively between 2001 and 2012. Team medical staff recorded individual player exposure and time loss injuries. Results A total of 8029 time loss injuries were recorded. The match unavailability due to injury was 14% and constant over the study period. On average, a player sustained two injuries per season, resulting in approximately 50 injuries per team and season. The ligament injury rate decreased during the study period (R2=0.608, b=−0.040, 95% CI −0.065 to −0.016, p=0.005), whereas the rate of muscle injury (R2=0.228, b=−0.013, 95% CI −0.032 to 0.005, p=0.138) and severe injury (R2=0.141, b=0.015, 95% CI −0.013 to 0.043, p=0.255) did not change over the study period. In addition, no changes in injury rates over the 11-year period were found for either training (R2=0.000, b=0.000, 95% CI −0.035 to 0.034, p=0.988) or match play (R2=0.282, b=−0.015, 95% CI −0.032 to 0.003, p=0.093). Conclusions The injury rate has decreased for ligament injuries over the last 11 years, but overall training, match injury rates and the rates of muscle injury and severe injury remain high.
Time-varying optimal disturbance rejection in presence of plant uncertainty

The optimal robust disturbance rejection problem plays an important role in feedback control theory. Here its time-varying version is solved explicitly in terms of duality and operator theory. In particular, the optimum is shown to satisfy a time-varying all-pass property. Moreover, optimal performance is given in terms of the norm of a bilinear form. The latter depends on a lower triangular projection and a multiplication operator defined on special versions of spaces of compact operators.
An architecture-independent instruction shuffler to protect against side-channel attacks

Embedded cryptographic systems, such as smart cards, require secure implementations that are robust to a variety of low-level attacks. Side-Channel Attacks (SCA) exploit the information such as power consumption, electromagnetic radiation and acoustic leaking through the device to uncover the secret information. Attackers can mount successful attacks with very modest resources in a short time period. Therefore, many methods have been proposed to increase the security against SCA. Randomizing the execution order of the instructions that are independent, i.e., random shuffling, is one of the most popular among them. Implementing instruction shuffling in software is either implementation specific or has a significant performance or code size overhead. To overcome these problems, we propose in this work a generic custom hardware unit to implement random instruction shuffling as an extension to existing processors. The unit operates between the CPU and the instruction cache (or memory, if no cache exists), without any modification to these components. Both true and pseudo random number generators are used to dynamically and locally provide the shuffling sequence. The unit is mainly designed for in-order processors, since the embedded devices subject to these kind of attacks use simple in-order processors. More advanced processors (e.g., superscalar, VLIW or EPIC processors) are already more resistant to these attacks because of their built-in ILP and wide word size. Our experiments on two different soft in-order processor cores, i.e., OpenRISC and MicroBlaze, implemented on FPGA show that the proposed unit could increase the security drastically with very modest resource overhead. With around 2% area, 1.5% power and no performance overhead, the shuffler increases the effort to mount a successful power analysis attack on AES software implementation over 360 times.
Estimating the Prevalence and Awareness Rates of Hypertension in Africa: A Systematic Analysis

Background The burden of hypertension is high in Africa, and due to rapid population growth and ageing, the exact burden on the continent is still far from being known. We aimed to estimate the prevalence and awareness rates of hypertension in Africa based on the cut off “≥140/90 mm Hg”. Methods We conducted a systematic search of Medline, EMBASE and Global Health. Search date was set from January 1980 to December 2013. We included population-based studies on hypertension, conducted among people aged ≥15 years and providing numerical estimates on the prevalence of hypertension in Africa. Overall pooled prevalence of hypertension in mixed, rural and urban settings in Africa were estimated from reported crude prevalence rates. A meta-regression epidemiological modelling, using United Nations population demographics for the years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2030, was applied to determine the prevalence rates and number of cases of hypertension in Africa separately for these four years. Results Our search returned 7680 publications, 92 of which met the selection criteria. The overall pooled prevalence of hypertension in Africa was 19.7% in 1990, 27.4% in 2000 and 30.8% in 2010, each with a pooled awareness rate (expressed as percentage of hypertensive cases) of 16.9%, 29.2% and 33.7%, respectively. From the modelling, over 54.6 million cases of hypertension were estimated in 1990, 92.3 million cases in 2000, 130.2 million cases in 2010, and a projected increase to 216.8 million cases of hypertension by 2030; each with an age-adjusted prevalence of 19.1% (13.9, 25.5), 24.3% (23.3, 31.6), 25.9% (23.5, 34.0), and 25.3% (24.3, 39.7), respectively. Conclusion Our findings suggest the prevalence of hypertension is increasing in Africa, and many hypertensive individuals are not aware of their condition. We hope this research will prompt appropriate policy response towards improving the awareness, control and overall management of hypertension in Africa.
Injection-moulded biocomposites from polylactic acid (PLA) and recycled carbon fibre

The properties of injection-moulded polylactic acid (PLA) and recycled carbon fibre composites are examined in this study. Measurement of tensile, flexural, and impact resistance properties quantify the mechanical properties of the composites with increased fibre loading. Tensile strength and modulus of PLA and 30 wt% carbon fibre composite were found to increase by 73% and 438%, while flexural strength and modulus of carbon fibre composite increased by 53% and 400% compared to neat PLA. Consequently, storage modulus measured by dynamic mechanical analysis also improved with the addition of carbon fibre. Mechanical properties were correlated with the Hirsch model. Composite morphological study through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed pullout and partial wetting of fibre by matrix along with agglomeration. Differential scanning calorimetry study of the composites showed minor increase in relative crystallinity and crystallization temperature, while melting and cold crystallization temperatures were found to decrease due to the high-thermal conductivity of carbon fibre.
Trajectory Planning for Abdominal Fine Needle Insertion Based on Insertion Angles

Fine needles can easily be deflected, making accurate needle insertion into a tumor difficult. In particular, it is difficult to insert the needle into a tumor in the lower abdomen because the needle has to pass through various tissues. Therefore, for lower abdominal needle insertion, we intend to develop a planning method for the optimal insertion path to minimize the deflection based on computed tomography images. In this letter, we analyze the deflection while performing needle insertion with axial rotation under conditions of various insertion angles into individual tissues composing the lower abdomen (pork loin and porcine small bowel) and develop a basic planning procedure to determine the optimal insertion path based on the analysis. From the results, we confirmed that the insertion angle should be minimized as much as possible. We then develop a planning method based on insertion angles into individual tissues the needle needs to pass through. We assumed that it is possible to determine the optimal insertion path by providing a weighting factor to the effect of the insertion angle depending on the depth of insertion, considering that the effect of the insertion angle on deflection in deep places of the body is smaller than the effect around the body surface. To verify the concept of the proposed planning procedure, we perform experiments with a simple model composed of two tissues. From the results, we show that the optimal insertion path can be planned by setting the optimal ratio of individual weighting factors.
The Rpb4 Subunit of RNA Polymerase II Contributes to Cotranscriptional Recruitment of 3′ Processing Factors

ABSTRACT The RNA polymerase II enzyme from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a complex of 12 subunits, Rpb1 to Rpb12. Crystal structures of the full complex show that the polymerase consists of two separable components, a 10-subunit core including the catalytic active site and a heterodimer of the Rpb4 and Rpb7 subunits. To characterize the role of the Rpb4/7 heterodimer during transcription in vivo, chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to examine an rpb4Δ strain for effects on the behavior of the core polymerase as well as recruitment of other protein factors involved in transcription. Rpb4/7 cross-links throughout transcribed regions. Loss of Rpb4 results in a reduction of RNA polymerase II levels near 3′ ends of multiple mRNA genes as well as a decreased association of 3′-end processing factors. Furthermore, loss of Rpb4 results in altered polyadenylation site usage at the RNA14 gene. Together, these results indicate that Rpb4 contributes to proper cotranscriptional 3′-end processing in vivo.
Dolutegravir in Antiretroviral-Experienced Patients With Raltegravir- and/or Elvitegravir-Resistant HIV-1: 24-Week Results of the Phase III VIKING-3 Study

Background. The pilot phase IIb VIKING study suggested that dolutegravir (DTG), a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) integrase inhibitor (INI), would be efficacious in INI-resistant patients at the 50 mg twice daily (BID) dose. Methods. VIKING-3 is a single-arm, open-label phase III study in which therapy-experienced adults with INI-resistant virus received DTG 50 mg BID while continuing their failing regimen (without raltegravir or elvitegravir) through day 7, after which the regimen was optimized with ≥1 fully active drug and DTG continued. The primary efficacy endpoints were the mean change from baseline in plasma HIV-1 RNA at day 8 and the proportion of subjects with HIV-1 RNA <50 c/mL at week 24. Results. Mean change in HIV-1 RNA at day 8 was −1.43 log10 c/mL, and 69% of subjects achieved <50 c/mL at week 24. Multivariate analyses demonstrated a strong association between baseline DTG susceptibility and response. Response was most reduced in subjects with Q148 + ≥2 resistance-associated mutations. DTG 50 mg BID had a low (3%) discontinuation rate due to adverse events, similar to INI-naive subjects receiving DTG 50 mg once daily. Conclusions. DTG 50 mg BID–based therapy was effective in this highly treatment-experienced population with INI-resistant virus. Clinical Trials Registration. www.clinicaltrials. gov (NCT01328041) and http://www.gsk-clinicalstudywww.gsk-clinicalstudyregister.com (112574).
Morphine-Induced Analgesic Tolerance Effect on Gene Expression of the NMDA Receptor Subunit 1 in Rat Striatum and Prefrontal Cortex

Introduction: Morphine is a potent analgesic but its continual use results in analgesic tolerance. Mechanisms of this tolerance remain to be clarified. However, changes in the functions of μ-opioid and N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors have been proposed in morphine tolerance. We examined changes in gene expression of the NMDA receptor subunit 1 (NR1) at mRNA levels in rat striatum and prefrontal cortex (PFC) after induction of morphine tolerance. Methods: Morphine (10 mg/kg, IP) was injected in male Wistar rats for 7 consecutive days (intervention group), but control rats received just normal saline (1 mL/kg, IP). We used a hotplate test of analgesia to assess induction of tolerance to analgesic effects of morphine on days 1 and 8 of injections. Later, two groups of rats were sacrificed one day after 7 days of injections, their whole brains removed, and the striatum and PFC immediately dissected. Then, the NR1 gene expression was examined with a semi-quantitative RT-PCR method. Results: The results showed that long-term morphine a administration induces tolerance to analgesic effect of the opioid, as revealed by a significant decrease in morphine-induced analgesia on day 8 compared to day 1 of the injections (P<0.001). The results also showed that the NR1 gene expression at mRNA level in rats tolerant to morphine was significantly increased in the striatum (P<0.01) but decreased in the PFC (P<0.001). Conclusion: Therefore, changes in the NR1 gene expression in rat striatum and PFC have a region-specific association with morphine-induced analgesic tolerance.
Host Plant Flowering Increases Both Adult Oviposition Preference and Larval Performance of a Generalist Herbivore

ABSTRACT Most adult Lepidoptera feed on nectar, whereas caterpillars consume mainly structural tissue such as leaves, stems, flowers, and/or fruits. This may result in behavioral trade-offs in which search time for high-quality oviposition sites suitable for larval food is restricted by adult foraging needs. Here we report on the preference for and performance on flowering and nonflowering host plants of the generalist herbivore Helicoverpa armigera to explore whether there are such behavioral trade-offs between moth and their caterpillars offpsring. We found that the adult moths have a strong oviposition preference for flowering tobacco and sunflower plants. Young caterpillars preferred to feed on the inflorescences. Adult-realized fecundity was almost 10 times higher when ovipositing on flowering plants. Weight at pupation, which is correlated with potential future fecundity of the caterpillars, was also higher when feeding on flowers. We found no evidence for a behavioral trade-off and conclude that a general preference for flowers by Helicoverpa armigera is highly beneficial from a nutritional perspective for both adults and larvae. The results suggest that the manipulation of flowering plants for the attraction of oviposition is relevant to pest control of this polyphagous species.
Investigating the effect of F0 and vocal intensity on harmonic magnitudes: data from high-speed laryngeal videoendoscopy

The relative magnitude of the first two harmonics of the voice source (H1*-H2*) is an important measure and is assumed to be one exponent of changes in vocal quality along a breathyto-pressed continuum. H1*-H2* is often associated with glottal open quotient (OQ) and glottal pulse skewness (as quantified by speed quotient, SQ), but may also covary with fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal intensity. We examined the relationship between H1*-H2*, F0, and vocal intensity using phonations in which vocal qualities varied continuously in F0 and intensity. Glottal area measures (OQ and SQ) and acoustic measures (F0, intensity, and H1*-H2*) were studied using simultaneously-collected laryngeal high-speed videoendoscopy and audio recordings from 9 subjects. Analyses of individual speakers showed that H1*-H2* may sometimes vary as a function of F0 alone, with OQ and SQ remaining rather constant, hypothetically when nonlinear source-filter interaction is strong. Although conventionally H1*-H2* is assumed to decrease with increasing vocal intensity due to a decrease in OQ, results showed examples where H1*-H2* increased with increasing vocal intensity, hypothetically when the effect of decreasing pulse skewness exceeds the effect of decreasing OQ. In some phonatory modes, the relationship between SQ and H1*H2* may not be as monotonic as previously assumed.
The chromatin modifier Satb1 regulates cell fate through Fgf signalling in the early mouse embryo

The separation of embryonic from extra-embryonic tissues within the inner cell mass to generate the epiblast (EPI), which will form the new organism, from the primitive endoderm (PE), which will form the yolk sac, is a crucial developmental decision. Here, we identify a chromatin modifier, Satb1, with a distinct role in this decision. Satb1 is differentially expressed within 16-cell-stage embryos, with higher expression levels in the inner cell mass progenitor cells. Depleting Satb1 increases the number of EPI cells at the expense of PE. This phenotype can be rescued by simultaneous depletion of both Satb1 and Satb2, owing to their antagonistic effect on the pluripotency regulator Nanog. Consequently, increasing Satb1 expression leads to differentiation into PE and a decrease in EPI, as a result of the modulation of expression of several pluripotency- and differentiation-related genes by Satb1. Finally, we show that Satb1 is a downstream target of the Fgf signalling pathway, linking chromatin modification and Fgf signalling. Together, these results identify a role for Satb1 in the lineage choice between pluripotency and differentiation and further our understanding of early embryonic lineage segregation. Summary: Satb1 regulates the cell fate choice between pluripotency and differentiation in the early mouse embryo and is a downstream target of the Fgf signalling pathway.
Indirect assessment of an interpretation bias in humans: neurophysiological and behavioral correlates

Affective state can influence cognition leading to biased information processing, interpretation, attention, and memory. Such bias has been reported to be essential for the onset and maintenance of different psychopathologies, particularly affective disorders. However, empirical evidence has been very heterogeneous and little is known about the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive bias and its time-course. We therefore investigated the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli as indicators of biased information processing with an ambiguous cue-conditioning paradigm. In an acquisition phase, participants learned to discriminate two tones of different frequency, which acquired emotional and motivational value due to subsequent feedback (monetary gain or avoidance of monetary loss). In the test phase, three additional tones of intermediate frequencies were presented, whose interpretation as positive (approach of reward) or negative (avoidance of punishment), indicated by a button press, was used as an indicator of the bias. Twenty healthy volunteers participated in this paradigm while a 64-channel electroencephalogram was recorded. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing individual differences in depression and rumination. Overall, we found a small positive bias, which correlated negatively with reflective pondering, a type of rumination. As expected, reaction times were increased for intermediate tones. ERP amplitudes between 300 and 700 ms post-stimulus differed depending on the interpretation of the intermediate tones. A negative compared to a positive interpretation led to an amplitude increase over frontal electrodes. Our study provides evidence that in humans, as in animal research, the ambiguous cue-conditioning paradigm is a valid procedure for indirectly assessing ambiguous cue interpretation and a potential interpretation bias, which is sensitive to individual differences in affect-related traits.