Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chitinase 3-like-1 regulates both visceral fat accumulation and asthma-like Th2 inflammation.

RATIONALE Obesity, especially truncal obesity, is a risk factor for asthma incidence, prevalence, and severity. Chitinase 3-like-1 (Chi3l1) is an evolutionarily conserved moiety that plays a critical role in antipathogen and Th2 responses. However, the mechanisms that underlie the association between asthma and obesity and the role(s) of Chi3l1 in fat accumulation have not been defined. OBJECTIVES To determine whether Chi3l1 is regulated by a high-fat diet (HFD) and simultaneously plays an important role(s) in the pathogenesis of asthma and obesity. METHODS We evaluated the regulation of Chi3l1 by an HFD and Th2 inflammation. We also used genetically modified mice to define the roles of Chi3l1 in white adipose tissue (WAT) accumulation and Th2 inflammation and blockers of sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) to define its roles in these responses. Finally, the human relevance of these findings was assessed with a case-control study involving obese and lean control subjects and those with asthma. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS These studies demonstrate that an HFD and aeroallergen challenge augment the expression of WAT and pulmonary Chi3l1. Chi3l1 also played a critical role in WAT accumulation and lung Th2 inflammation. In addition, Chi3l1 inhibited Sirt1 expression, and the deficient visceral fat and Th2 responses in Chi3l1 null mice were reversed by Sirt1 inhibition. Finally, serum and sputum Chi3l1 were positively associated with truncal adiposity, and serum Chi3l1 was associated with persistent asthma and low lung function in obese subjects with asthma. CONCLUSIONS Chi3l1 is induced by an HFD and Th2 inflammation, and simultaneously contributes to the genesis of obesity and asthma.
Point-of-care ultrasonography as a training milestone for internal medicine residents: the time is now

Point-of-care (POC) ultrasonography is considered fundamental in emergency medicine training and recently has become a milestone in critical care fellowship programs as well. Currently, there is no such standard requirement for internal medicine residency programs in the United States. We present a new case and briefly review another case at our institution – a community hospital – in which internal medicine house staff trained in ultrasonography were able to uncover unexpected and critical diagnoses that significantly changed patient care and outcomes. We also review the growing evidence of the application of ultrasound in the diagnosis of a myriad of conditions encountered in general internal medicine as well as the mounting data on the ability of internal medicine residents to apply this technology accurately at the bedside. We advocate that the literature has sufficiently established the role of POC ultrasonography in general internal medicine that there should no longer be any delay in giving this an official place in the development of internal medicine trainees. This may be particularly useful in the community hospital setting where 24-h echocardiography or other sonography may not be readily available.
#bias: Measuring the Tweeting Behavior of Propagandists

Twitter is an efficient conduit of information for millions of usersaround the world. Its ability to quickly spread information to a largenumber of people makes it an efficient way to shape information and,hence, shape public opinion. We study the tweeting behavior of Twitter propagandists, users who consistently expressthe same opinion or ideology, focusing on two online communities: the2010 Nevada senate race and the 2011 debt-ceiling debate. We identify several extreme tweeting patterns thatcould characterize users who spread propaganda: (1) sending high volumesof tweets over short periods of time, (2) retweeting whilepublishing little original content, (3) quickly retweeting, and (4) colluding with other, seeminglyunrelated, users to send duplicate or near-duplicate messages on thesame topic simultaneously. These four features appear to distinguishtweeters who spread propaganda from other more neutral users and could serve asstarting point for developing behavioral-based propaganda detection techniquesfor Twitter.
A retrospective analysis of the effect of discussion in teleconference and face-to-face scientific peer-review panels

Objective With the use of teleconferencing for grant peer-review panels increasing, further studies are necessary to determine the efficacy of the teleconference setting compared to the traditional onsite/face-to-face setting. The objective of this analysis was to examine the effects of discussion, namely changes in application scoring premeeting and postdiscussion, in these settings. We also investigated other parameters, including the magnitude of score shifts and application discussion time in face-to-face and teleconference review settings. Design The investigation involved a retrospective, quantitative analysis of premeeting and postdiscussion scores and discussion times for teleconference and face-to-face review panels. The analysis included 260 and 212 application score data points and 212 and 171 discussion time data points for the face-to-face and teleconference settings, respectively. Results The effect of discussion was found to be small, on average, in both settings. However, discussion was found to be important for at least 10% of applications, regardless of setting, with these applications moving over a potential funding line in either direction (fundable to unfundable or vice versa). Small differences were uncovered relating to the effect of discussion between settings, including a decrease in the magnitude of the effect in the teleconference panels as compared to face-to-face. Discussion time (despite teleconferences having shorter discussions) was observed to have little influence on the magnitude of the effect of discussion. Additionally, panel discussion was found to often result in a poorer score (as opposed to an improvement) when compared to reviewer premeeting scores. This was true regardless of setting or assigned reviewer type (primary or secondary reviewer). Conclusions Subtle differences were observed between settings, potentially due to reduced engagement in teleconferences. Overall, further research is required on the psychology of decision-making, team performance and persuasion to better elucidate the group dynamics of telephonic and virtual ad-hoc peer-review panels.
Association between vitamin D and hepatitis C virus infection: a meta-analysis.

AIM To evaluate the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and sustained virological response (SVR) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected individuals. METHODS Relevant studies were identified by systematically searching MEDLINE databases up to March 2012 and abstracts of the European and American Congress of Hepatology conducted in 2011. Studies must provide information on SVR and the levels of 25(OH)D₃ and/or 25(OH)D₂ [henceforth referred to as 25(OH)D] in sera samples from HCV infected individuals. The inclusion criteria were: clinical studies that included HCV infected patients aged older than 18 years regardless of HCV genotype or ethnic group; provided information on SVR rates; and were reported in the English language as full papers. Due to the heterogeneity of studies in categorizing serum vitamin D levels, a cut-off value of 30 ng/mL of serum 25(OH)D was used. Heterogeneity was assessed using I² statistics. The summary odds ratios with their corresponding 95%CI were calculated based on a random-effects model. RESULTS Overall, 11 studies (8 observational and 3 interventional) involving 1575 individuals were included and 1117 HCV infected individuals (71%) showed low vitamin D levels. Most of the studies included mono-infected HCV individuals with the mean age ranging from 38 to 56 years. Four studies were conducted in human immunodeficiency virus/HCV infected individuals. Regarding vitamin D measurement, most of the studies employed radioimmunoassays (n = 5) followed by chemiluminescence (n = 4) and just one study employed high performance/pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Basal vitamin D levels varied from 17 to 43 ng/mL in the studies selected, and most of the HCV infected individuals had genotype 1 (1068/1575) with mean viral load varying from log 4.5-5.9 UI/mL. With regard to HCV treatment, most of the studies (n = 8) included HCV individuals without previous treatment, where the pooled SVR rate was 46.4%. High rates of SVR were observed in HCV individuals with vitamin D levels above 30 ng/mL (OR = 1.57; 95%CI: 1.12-2.2) and those supplemented with vitamin D (OR = 4.59; 95%CI: 1.67-12.63) regardless of genotype. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrated high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and high SVR in individuals with higher serum vitamin D levels or receiving vitamin D supplementation.
Response Surface Optimized Ultrasonic-Assisted Extraction of Flavonoids from Sparganii Rhizoma and Evaluation of Their in Vitro Antioxidant Activities

An efficient ultrasound-assisted extraction technique was employed to extract total flavonoids from Sparganii rhizoma. The optimum extraction conditions for the highest yield of total flavonoids were ethanol concentration 53.62%, ultrasonication time 29.41 min and ultrasound power 300 W, which were determined using response surface methodology. The extraction yields of the optimal ultrasound-assisted extraction were higher than using conventional extraction. The crude extract was then purified on a polyamide resin, whereby the flavonoids content in the purified extract increased to 94.62%. The antioxidant activities of the purified flavonoids including DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS+ radical scavenging activity, reducing power, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and superoxide anion scavenging activity, were evaluated in vitro, which suggested that the flavonoids showed significant antioxidant activities. Rutin, kaempferol and formononetin were identified in the extract by comparing relative retention times and UV-Vis spectra with those of reference standards.
Electronic Supporting Information ( ESI ) Peroxy radical isomerization in the oxidation of isoprene

We estimate the CIMS sensitivity for the hydroxyhydroperoxides (ISOPOOH) and hydroperoxyaldehydes (HPALD) from the ion-molecule collision rate, calculated using the parameterization of Su and Chesnavich [1]. This requires knowledge of the average dipole moment and polarizibility of the neutral species. We obtain these parameters for the species of interest from ab initio calulations. For accurate results, all conformers with significant populations at the temperature of interest must be considered. We calculate conformerspecific dipoles for all conformers with a relative population of >1% at T=298K, as estimated from a Boltzman weighting to the conformer energies. The conformer-specific dipoles, weighted by their relative population, are averaged to yield the overall dipole moment for the species of interest. This methodology has been described in more detail by Garden et al. [2]. Table S1 lists the isomer-specific average dipole moments and polarizibilities for the four important ISOPOOH isomers and both
A Plasma Long‐Chain Acylcarnitine Predicts Cardiovascular Mortality in Incident Dialysis Patients

Background The marked excess in cardiovascular mortality that results from uremia remains poorly understood. Methods and Results In 2 independent, nested case‐control studies, we applied liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry‐based metabolite profiling to plasma obtained from participants of a large cohort of incident hemodialysis patients. First, 100 individuals who died of a cardiovascular cause within 1 year of initiating hemodialysis (cases) were randomly selected along with 100 individuals who survived for at least 1 year (controls), matched for age, sex, and race. Four highly intercorrelated long‐chain acylcarnitines achieved the significance threshold adjusted for multiple testing (P<0.0003). Oleoylcarnitine, the long‐chain acylcarnitine with the strongest association with cardiovascular mortality in unadjusted analysis, remained associated with 1‐year cardiovascular death after multivariable adjustment (odds ratio per SD 2.3 [95% confidence interval, 1.4 to 3.8]; P=0.001). The association between oleoylcarnitine and 1‐year cardiovascular death was then replicated in an independent sample (n=300, odds ratio per SD 1.4 [95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 1.9]; P=0.008). Addition of oleoylcarnitine to clinical variables improved cardiovascular risk prediction using net reclassification (NRI, 0.38 [95% confidence interval, 0.20 to 0.56]; P<0.0001). In physiologic profiling studies, we demonstrate that the fold change in plasma acylcarnitine levels from the aorta to renal vein and from pre‐ to post hemodialysis samples exclude renal or dialytic clearance of long‐chain acylcarnitines as confounders in our analysis. Conclusions Our data highlight clinically meaningful alterations in acylcarnitine homeostasis at the time of dialysis initiation, which may represent an early marker, effector, or both of uremic cardiovascular risk.
Microcellular injection molding of recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) blends with chain extenders and nanoclay

Abstract Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) resin is one of the most widely used thermoplastics, especially in packaging. Due to thermal and hydrolytic degradations, recycled PET (RPET) exhibits poor mechanical properties and lacks moldability. The effects of adding chain extender (CE) and nanoclay to RPET were investigated. Melt blending of RPET with CE was performed in a thermokinetic mixer (K-mixer). The blended materials were then prepared via solid and microcellular injection molding processes. The effects of CE loading levels and the simultaneous addition of nanoclay on the thermal and mechanical properties and cell morphology of the microcellular components were noted. The addition of 1.3% CE enhanced the tensile properties and viscosity of RPET. The higher amount of CE (at 3%) enhanced the viscosity, but the margin of improvement in mechanical properties diminished. While the solid RPET and CE blends were fairly ductile, the samples with nanoclay and all microcellular specimens showed brittle fractural behavior. Finally, nanoclay and the increase of CE content decreased the average cell size and enlarged the cell density of the microcellular samples.
Smart home care network using sensor fusion and distributed vision-based reasoning

A wireless sensor network employing multiple sensing and event detection modalities and distributed processing is proposed for smart home monitoring applications. Image sensing and vision-based reasoning are employed to verify and further analyze events reported by other sensors. The system has been developed to address the growing application domain in caregiving to the elderly and persons in need of monitored living, who care to live independently while enjoying the assurance of timely access to caregivers when needed. An example of sensed events is the accidental fall of the person under care. A wireless badge node acts as a bridge between the user and the network. The badge node provides user-centric event sensing functions such as detecting falls, and also provides a voice communication channel between the user and the caregiving center when the system detects an alert and dials the center. The voice connection is carried over an IEEE 802.15. 4 radio link between the user badge and another node in the network that acts as a modem. Using signal strength measurements, the network nodes keep track of the approximate location of the user in the monitoring environment.The network also includes wall-mounted image sensor nodes, which are triggered upon detection of a fall to analyze their field-of-view and provide the caregiving center with further information about the user 's status. A description of the developed network and several examples of the vision-based reasoning algorithm are presented in the paper.
Intratympanic Steroids in Severe to Profound Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss as Salvage Treatment

OBJECTIVES Intratympanic steroids are being increasingly used in the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) after the failure of systemic therapy. This study evaluated the efficacy of administering intratympanic dexamethasone (ITD) as a salvage treatment for severe to profound SSNHL. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of patients who presented with severe to profound SSNHL between January 2007 and December 2009. ITD was given about 14 days after the initial systemic treatment. Successful recovery was defined as complete or partial recovery using Sigel's criteria. We compared the results of treatment between the severe SSNHL (S-SSNHL) and profound SSNHL (P-SSNHL) groups. RESULTS All the patients in the S-SSNHL group showed significant improvement, as compared to the P-SSNHL group (P=0.017). The recovery rate after the initial systemic treatment was 36% (9/25) in the S-SSNHL group and 18.1% (4/22) in the P-SSNHL group (P=0.207). In comparison, the recovery rate of ITD as a salvage treatment was 37.5% (6/16) in the S-SSNHL group and 5.5% (1/18) in the P-SSNHL group (P=0.03). CONCLUSION Our comparative study dose not support the efficacy of ITD as salvage treatment for patients with P-SSNHL as compared with that for S-SSNHL. We recommend that patients with P-SSNHL be informed about the low efficacy of ITD as a salvage treatment.
Effects of Paternal Occupation Exposure to Formaldehyde on Reproductive Outcomes

Objective: To investigate whether paternal occupational exposure to formaldehyde (FA) affects the reproductive outcomes. Methods: Data were collected from 302 male workers occupationally exposed to FA and 305 referent controls through interview questionnaires. Formaldehyde exposure level was measured and calculated for every subject. Different reproductive outcomes were compared for two groups by logistic regression analyses. Results: A significant increased risk of prolonged time to pregnancy (P = 0.034; odds ratio, 2.828; 95% confidence interval, 1.081 to 7.406) and significant elevated risk of spontaneous abortion (P = 0.021; odds ratio, 1.916; 95% confidence interval, 1.103 to 3.329) were observed in wives of male workers occupationally exposed to FA after correction for confounding factors. Moreover, reproductive toxicity due to FA exposure is dose dependent. Conclusions: This epidemiological study adds some evidence for the hypothesis that paternal FA occupation exposure has adverse effects on reproductive outcomes.
Taste, olfactory and food texture reward processing in the brain and the control of appetite

Complementary neuronal recordings and functional neuroimaging in human subjects show that the primary taste cortex in the anterior insula provides separate and combined representations of the taste, temperature and texture (including fat texture) of food in the mouth independently of hunger and thus of reward value and pleasantness. One synapse on, in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), these sensory inputs are for some neurons combined by learning with olfactory and visual inputs, and these neurons encode food reward in that they only respond to food when hungry, and in that activations correlate with subjective pleasantness. Cognitive factors, including word-level descriptions, and attention modulate the representation of the reward value of food in the OFC and a region to which it projects, the anterior cingulate cortex. Further, there are individual differences in the representation of the reward value of food in the OFC. It is argued that over-eating and obesity are related in many cases to an increased reward value of the sensory inputs produced by foods, and their modulation by cognition and attention that over-ride existing satiety signals. It is proposed that control of all rather than one or several of these factors that influence food reward and eating may be important in the prevention and treatment of overeating and obesity.
Mechanistic analysis of the search behaviour of Caenorhabditis elegans

A central question in movement research is how animals use information and movement to promote encounter success. Current random search theory identifies reorientation patterns as key to the compromise between optimizing encounters for both nearby and faraway targets, but how the balance between intrinsic motor programmes and previous environmental experience determines the occurrence of these reorientation behaviours remains unknown. We used high-resolution tracking and imaging data to describe the complete motor behaviour of Caenorhabditis elegans when placed in a novel environment (one in which food is absent). Movement in C. elegans is structured around different reorientation behaviours, and we measured how these contributed to changing search strategies as worms became familiar with their new environment. This behavioural transition shows that different reorientation behaviours are governed by two processes: (i) an environmentally informed ‘extrinsic’ strategy that is influenced by recent experience and that controls for area-restricted search behaviour, and (ii) a time-independent, ‘intrinsic’ strategy that reduces spatial oversampling and improves random encounter success. Our results show how movement strategies arise from a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms, that search behaviour in C. elegans is initially determined by expectations developed from previous environmental experiences, and which reorientation behaviours are modified as information is acquired from new environments.
High Levels of Remnant Lipoprotein Cholesterol Is a Risk Factor for Large Artery Atherosclerotic Stroke

Background and Purpose Remnant lipoproteins (RLPs) are products of partially catabolized chylomicrons and very-low-density lipoprotein, from which some triglycerides have been removed. These particles are smaller and denser than the parent particles and are believed to be strongly atherogenic. We explored the association between RLP cholesterol (RLP-C) and ischemic stroke, including stroke subtypes. Methods A cohort of 142 ischemic stroke patients (90 men and 52 women; age, 65.2±12.8 years, mean±SD) was enrolled; all had acute infarcts confirmed by diffusion-weighted MRI, and had fasting lipograms. A full stroke-related evaluation was conducted on each patient. An outpatient population of 88 subjects without a history of cerebrovascular or cardiovascular disease served as a control group. Serum RLP fractions were isolated using an immunoaffinity gel containing specific antiapolipoprotein (anti-apo)B-100 and anti-apoA-I antibodies. RLP-C values were considered to be high when they were in the highest quartile of all values in the study. Results High RLP-C values were more common in stroke patients than in control patients (31.0% vs. 14.8%, p=0.01), when 5.6 mg/dL (>75th percentile) was used as the cutoff value. Multivariable analyses indicated that RLP-C was a risk factor for stroke, with an odds ratio of 2.54 (p=0.045). The RLP-C level was higher in the large artery atherosclerosis subgroup (5.7±3.9 mg/dL) than in any other stroke subgroup (small vessel occlusion, 4.9±5.9 mg/dL; cardioembolism, 1.8±2.3 mg/dL; stroke of undetermined etiology, 3.1±2.9 mg/dL). Conclusions We have found an association between high RLP-C levels and ischemic stroke, and in particular large artery atherosclerotic stroke.