Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemic obesity in the United States: are fast foods and television viewing contributing?

OBJECTIVES This study examined the association between TV viewing, fast food eating, and body mass index. METHODS Associations between hours of TV viewing, frequency of eating at fast food restaurants, body mass index, and behaviors were assessed cross sectionally and longitudinally over 1 year in 1059 men and women. RESULTS Fast food meals and TV viewing hours were positively associated with energy intake and body mass index in women but not in men. TV viewing predicted weight gain in high-income women. CONCLUSIONS Secular increases in fast food availability and access to televised entertainment may contribute to increasing obesity rates in the United States.
The concept of perceived value: a systematic review of the research

The purpose of this article is to present a systematic review of the extensive research that has been conducted on the conceptualization of perceived value. The major conclusions of the present study are: (i) that both uni-dimensional and multi-dimensional models of value have their roles to play in providing simplified (uni-dimensional) and complex (multi-dimensional) understandings of the concept; (ii) that the nature of perceived value is complex and multi-dimensional; (iii) that the concept of perceived value implies an interaction between a consumer and a product; (iv) that value is relative by virtue of its comparative, personal, and situational nature; and (v) that value is preferential, perceptual, and cognitive-affective in nature. By organizing and synthesizing the major research streams and the individual studies within them, the present study thus provides a comprehensive framework for future studies of the dimensionality of perceived value.
An integrative approach to understanding microbial diversity: from intracellular mechanisms to community structure

Trade-offs have been put forward as essential to the generation and maintenance of diversity. However, variation in trade-offs is often determined at the molecular level, outside the scope of conventional ecological inquiry. In this study, we propose that understanding the intracellular basis for trade-offs in microbial systems can aid in predicting and interpreting patterns of diversity. First, we show how laboratory experiments and mathematical models have unveiled the hidden intracellular mechanisms underlying trade-offs key to microbial diversity: (i) metabolic and regulatory trade-offs in bacteria and yeast; (ii) life-history trade-offs in bacterial viruses. Next, we examine recent studies of marine microbes that have taken steps toward reconciling the molecular and the ecological views of trade-offs, despite the challenges in doing so in natural settings. Finally, we suggest avenues for research where mathematical modelling, experiments and studies of natural microbial communities provide a unique opportunity to integrate studies of diversity across multiple scales.
Determination of Twin Zygosity: A Comparison of DNA with Various Questionnaire Indices

Abstract This study examined cross-validation and test-retest reliability of questions and questionnaire indices commonly used for twin zygosity classification. Mothers of 58 monozygotic (MZ) and 52 dizygotic (DZ) same sex twin pairs were interviewed by telephone to answer questions regarding the similarity of their twins (mean age = 14.6 ± 2.8 years). A logistic regression equation correctly classified 91% of both MZ and DZ twin pairs in our sample using 7 of the 12 zygosity questions. The internal consistency for the total questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.88. The median two month temporal stability estimate for the individual questions was r = . 56 and r = . 79 for the test total. For the cross-validation, zygosity classification indices taken from 9 previous studies were applied to our sample and compared to classification according to DNA microsatellite analyses (agreement range = 44 to 100%). The accuracy of the classification indices was significantly lower than the original studies for 62% of the comparisons. If zygosity determination with DNA markers or blood group typing for all subjects is not feasible, rather than using classification indices based on other studies, an optimal classification scheme can be achieved by using a zygosity questionnaire of which the reliability and validity of the questions is established in a random subsample of the same twin cohort.
Low Levels of IgG Recognizing the α-1-Antitrypsin Peptide and Its Association with Taiwanese Women with Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome

The aim of this study was to examine oxidative stress and low level of α-1-antitrypsin (A1AT) in primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS), and evaluate the associated autoreactivity against unmodified and their 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE)-modified peptides with pSS. Two differentially expressed proteins, α-1-acid glycoprotein 1 (A1AG1) and A1AT, exhibited 2-fold differences, and their HNE modifications were identified by depleted-albumin and immunoglobulin G (IgG) serum protein, in-solution digestion, in-gel digestion, and nano-liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (nano-LC-MS/MS) from pSS patients and age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Furthermore, levels of proteins, confirmation of HNE modifications, HNE-protein adducts and autoreactivity against unmodified and their HNE-modified peptides were further validated. Levels of the HNE-protein adduct and A1AG1 were significantly higher in pSS patients than HCs, but levels of A1AT were significantly lower in pSS patients compared to HCs. Only the HNE modification of A1AT was confirmed. Our study suggests that elevated HNE-protein adduct, oxidative stress, level (odds ratio (OR) 4.877, p = 0.003), lowered A1AT level (OR 3.910, p = 0.010) and a decreased level of anti-A1AT50–63 IgG (OR 3.360, p = 0.010) showed an increased risk in pSS patients compared to HCs, respectively.
Atypical Antipsychotics in the Treatment of Depressive and Psychotic Symptoms in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia: A Naturalistic Study

Objectives. The aim of this naturalistic study was to investigate whether treatment with clozapine and other atypical antipsychotics for at least 2 years was associated with a reduction in psychotic and depressive symptoms and an improvement in chronic schizophrenia patients' awareness of their illness. Methods. Twenty-three adult outpatients (15 men and 8 women) treated with clozapine and 23 patients (16 men and 7 women) treated with other atypical antipsychotics were included in the study. Psychotic symptoms were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), depressive symptoms were assessed with the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), and insight was assessed with the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD). Results. The sample as a whole had a significant reduction in positive, negative, and general symptoms, whereas the reduction in depression was significant only for patients with CDSS scores of 5 and higher at the baseline. At the follow-up, patients treated with other atypical antipsychotics reported a greater reduction in depression than patients treated with clozapine, but not when limiting the analyses to those with clinically relevant depression. Conclusions. Atypical antipsychotics may be effective in reducing psychotic and depressive symptoms and in improving insight in patients with chronic schizophrenia, with no differences in the profiles of efficacy between compounds.
Student QSEN Participation During an Adult Medical-Surgical Rotation

AbstractWith the six QSEN competencies woven throughout the baccalaureate nursing curriculum, which includes high-fidelity simulation, the aim of this research was to uncover deficits in QSEN-related clinical opportunities. Pre-licensure BSN nursing students enrolled in a sophomore-level medical-surgical rotation augmented with 25 percent simulation were observed directly, with time-on-task for each QSEN competency recorded and tabulated. The students were found to spend little time addressing several of the six competency areas in both clinical and simulation settings. Fully integrated classroom, simulation, and clinical experiences need to be considered in an effort to offer a full spectrum of QSEN-based knowledge and skill theory and practice for pre-licensure nursing students.
Treatment delay affects clinical severity of tuberculosis: a longitudinal cohort study

Objectives To describe the risk factors for treatment delay and the effect of delay on the severity of tuberculosis (TB) in a prospectively followed TB cohort at the Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau. Background Treatment delay in patients with TB is associated with increased mortality and transmission of disease. However, it is not well described whether delay influences clinical severity at diagnosis. Previously reported risk factors for treatment delay vary in different geographical and cultural settings. Such information has never been investigated in our setting. Change in delay over time is rarely reported and our prospectively followed TB cohort gives an opportunity to present such data. Participants Patients were included at the time of diagnosis at three local TB clinics and the national TB reference hospital. Inclusion criteria were age >15 years and diagnosis of TB by either sputum examination or by the WHO clinical criteria. Patients with extrapulmonary TB were excluded. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was treatment delay. Delay was assessed by patient questionnaires. The secondary outcome was Bandim TBscore as a measure of TB morbidity and all-cause mortality. Results A total of 1424 persons were diagnosed with TB in the study area between 2003 and 2010. We included 973 patients with TB in the study. The median treatment delay was 12.1 weeks. Risk factors for delay were low educational level, HIV-1+HIV-2 dual infection and negative sputum smear. TB treatment delay decreased by 10.3% (7.9–12.6%) per year during the study period. Delay was significantly associated with clinical severity at presentation with 20.8% severe TB cases in the low delay quartile compared with 33.9% if delay was over the median of 12.1 weeks. Conclusions Long treatment delay was associated with more severe clinical presentation. Treatment delay in TB cases is decreasing in Guinea-Bissau.
Molecular epidemiology and subgroup analysis of bovine group A rotaviruses associated with diarrhea in South African calves

Rotavirus-positive specimens were recovered from 143 Afrikander calves on two farms in the northeastern Cape of South Africa during late 1988 and 1989. The rotavirus strains were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the RNA genome, and four rotavirus RNA electrophoretypes, each with a long profile, were identified. A distinct RNA profile was identified on the farms during 1988, but by early 1989, two patterns existed, one unique to each farm. Over the next 8 months a new electrophoretic pattern emerged on one farm, whereas the pattern on the other farm remained unchanged. The rotavirus subgroup I antigen was detected in all specimens examined with subgroup-specific monoclonal antibodies. Non-group A rotaviruses were not identified by RNA genome analysis of 82 specimens from calves with diarrhea negative for group A rotaviruses by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Using artificial life techniques to generate test cases for combinatorial testing

Combinatorial testing is a specification-based testing criterion, which requires that for each t-way combination of input parameters of a system, every combination of valid values of these t parameters be covered by at least one test case. This approach is motivated by the observation that in many applications a significant number of faults are caused by interactions of a smaller number of parameters. In this paper, we propose new test generation algorithms for combinatorial testing based on two artificial life techniques: a genetic algorithm (GA) and an ant colony algorithm (ACA). The usefulness of these algorithms is demonstrated through experiments. In the case t = 3 in particular, our algorithms exhibited impressive results
Anchor Node Based Virtual Modeling of Holes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Geographic routing has been addressed in many literatures of ad hoc sensor networks due to its efficiency and scalability. Void areas (holes) bring geographic routing several problems such as excessive energy consumption and data congestion of hole boundary nodes. Holes are hardly avoided in wireless sensor networks because of various actual geographical environments, e.g., puddles, buildings or obstacles, or uneven energy consumption, even physical destruction. To bypass holes, most existing geographic routing protocols tend to route data packets along the boundaries of holes by perimeter routing scheme. This scheme consumes more energy of the nodes on the boundaries of holes, thus possibly enlarging the holes, we call this hole diffusion problem. In this paper, we propose anchor node based virtual modeling of holes in wireless sensor networks to solve the hole problems faced by geographic routing in wireless sensor networks. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol is superior to other protocols in terms of packet deliver ratio, control overhead, average delivery delay, and energy consumption.
RNA Viruses and RNAi: Quasispecies Implications for Viral Escape

Due to high mutation rates, populations of RNA viruses exist as a collection of closely related mutants known as a quasispecies. A consequence of error-prone replication is the potential for rapid adaptation of RNA viruses when a selective pressure is applied, including host immune systems and antiviral drugs. RNA interference (RNAi) acts to inhibit protein synthesis by targeting specific mRNAs for degradation and this process has been developed to target RNA viruses, exhibiting their potential as a therapeutic against infections. However, viruses containing mutations conferring resistance to RNAi were isolated in nearly all cases, underlining the problems of rapid viral evolution. Thus, while promising, the use of RNAi in treating or preventing viral diseases remains fraught with the typical complications that result from high specificity of the target, as seen in other antiviral regimens.
Varied Human Tolerance to the Combined Conditions of Low Contrast and Diminished Luminance: A Quasi-Meta Analysis

Abstract : Human physiological tolerance to performance-based stressors or obstacles is an important issue common to every cellular and neurologic bodily system. Visual performance assessments are on a sliding scale, subject to known determinate factors, which control the final level of actual performance. There logically are also a number of unknown determinants or controlling factors that must be understood, as well. Over the years a host of visual performance studies have separately evaluated the effects of varied illuminance on acuity, as well as the effects of varied target contrast on acuity. However, few have looked at the combined challenge of altered contrast, while subject to decreased retinal illuminance. It wasnt until approximately 2002, when a great many refractive surgery post-operative evaluations began assessing visual performance under varied luminance and contrast levels. This research effort will review any and all studies on visual performance under either, or both of these two conditional variables (i.e., decreased target contrast in conjunction with conditions of decreased luminance, as well as each individual condition).
Prototype-driven software development process for augmentative and alternative communication applications

The paper presents software development model for implementation of communication and education applications based on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Target user group of these applications are people with disabilities, specifically people with complex communication needs. Development process of such applications should follow specific principles to successfully implement all functional and accessible features that applications should contain in order to be accessible and highly usable. Furthermore, development process should be enriched with specific methodologies and approaches in its particular phases in order to fully exploit a necessary synergy of multidisciplinary team consisting of experts from information and communication technology, rehabilitation and education, psychology and graphic design. The presented model was defined during extensive developmental activities over two years period and evaluated on the number of publicly available case-study web and mobile AAC applications.
Cooperation between Molecular Targets of Costimulation in Promoting T Cell Persistence and Tumor Regression1

Costimulation regulates multiple cellular processes of T cells inducing proliferation, expansion, and survival. The molecular targets of costimulation might then be useful to augment T cell activities. Two defined targets of costimulatory signals in primary T cells are the anti-apoptotic bcl-2 family molecule Bcl-xL, and survivin, an inhibitor of apoptosis family member that might regulate both cell division and survival. However, the relative importance of, and relationship between, these molecules in primary T cells is not clear. To understand whether they have overlapping or cooperative functions, we used retrovirus-mediated transduction to introduce Bcl-xL and survivin separately, or together linked by a 2A picornavirus self-cleaving peptide, into Ag-responding CD8+ T cells. We found that CD8+ effector T cells expressing both Bcl-xL and survivin strongly expanded at an early stage and had a long-term survival advantage over cells transduced with either molecule alone. In vivo, with response to tumor-expressed Ag following adoptive T cell transfer, Ag-reactive CD8+ T cells expressing both Bcl-xL and survivin displayed greatly enhanced tumor protective activity compared with CD8+ T cells expressing either molecule introduced separately. These results indicate that Bcl-xL and survivin can critically contribute in a cooperative, nonredundant manner to augment the accumulation and persistence of CD8+ T cells following encounter with Ag. The data provide new insights into why costimulatory signals might need to be sustained over time and suggest a potential novel approach to augment cellular immunotherapy for cancer.
Functional analysis of influenza-specific helper T cell clones in vivo. T cells specific for internal viral proteins provide cognate help for B cell responses to hemagglutinin

We compared the effects of adoptively transferred Th cell clones specific for the influenza hemagglutinin (HA), matrix (M), or nucleoprotein (NP) on the antibody response of nude mice infected with A/PR/8/34 influenza virus. We show that the production of antibodies to the HA absolutely requires the presence of virus-specific Th cells. Further, transfer of a Th clone specific for the internal proteins, M or NP, was as effective as was transfer of an HA-specific clone in supporting an antibody response to the HA. With each of the clones, the kinetics of the response were accelerated by approximately 3 d compared with the antibody response of normal BALB/c mice. The HA- and M- specific clones supported an isotype switch from IgM to IgG and IgA similar to that which occurs during a normal antibody response. Finally, as shown by coinfection experiments, the response required a cognate T-B interaction whether the determinants recognized by the Th and B cell are located on the same viral protein or on different viral proteins within the same virus particle. The implications of these findings for understanding the T-B interactions that occur during an effective antiviral antibody response are discussed.
Near-Optimal Decoding of Transient Stimuli from Coupled Neuronal Subpopulations

Coupling between sensory neurons impacts their tuning properties and correlations in their responses. How such coupling affects sensory representations and ultimately behavior remains unclear. We investigated the role of neuronal coupling during visual processing using a realistic biophysical model of the vertical system (VS) cell network in the blow fly. These neurons are thought to encode the horizontal rotation axis during rapid free-flight maneuvers. Experimental findings suggest that neurons of the VS are strongly electrically coupled, and that several downstream neurons driving motor responses to ego-rotation receive inputs primarily from a small subset of VS cells. These downstream neurons must decode information about the axis of rotation from a partial readout of the VS population response. To investigate the role of coupling, we simulated the VS response to a variety of rotating visual scenes and computed optimal Bayesian estimates from the relevant subset of VS cells. Our analysis shows that coupling leads to near-optimal estimates from a subpopulation readout. In contrast, coupling between VS cells has no impact on the quality of encoding in the response of the full population. We conclude that coupling at one level of the fly visual system allows for near-optimal decoding from partial information at the subsequent, premotor level. Thus, electrical coupling may provide a general mechanism to achieve near-optimal information transfer from neuronal subpopulations across organisms and modalities.
Size of the Ovulatory Follicle Dictates Spatial Differences in the Oviductal Transcriptome in Cattle

In cattle, molecular control of oviduct receptivity to the embryo is poorly understood. Here, we used a bovine model for receptivity based on size of the pre-ovulatory follicle to compare oviductal global and candidate gene transcript abundance on day 4 of the estrous cycle. Growth of the pre-ovulatory follicle (POF) of Nelore (Bos indicus) cows was manipulated to produce two groups: large POF large corpus luteum (CL) group (LF-LCL; greater receptivity) and small POF-small CL group (SF-SCL). Oviductal samples were collected four days after GnRH-induced ovulation. Ampulla and isthmus transcriptome was obtained by RNA-seq, regional gene expression was assessed by qPCR, and PGR and ERa protein distribution was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. There was a greater abundance of PGR and ERa in the oviduct of LF-LCL animals thus indicating a greater availability of receptors and possibly sex steroids stimulated signaling in both regions. Transcriptomic profiles indicated a series of genes associated with functional characteristics of the oviduct that are regulated by the periovulatory sex steroid milieu and that potentially affect oviductal receptivity and early embryo development. They include tissue morphology changes (extra cellular matrix remodeling), cellular changes (proliferation), and secretion changes (growth factors, ions and metal transporters), and were enriched for the genes with increased expression in the LF-LCL group. In conclusion, differences in the periovulatory sex steroid milieu lead to different oviductal gene expression profiles that could modify the oviductal environment to affect embryo survival and development.