Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salt, salted food intake, and risk of gastric cancer: Epidemiologic evidence

Because gastric cancer is still the most common cancer, its prevention is one of the most important aspects of Japan's cancer control strategy. Observations among Japanese immigrants in the USA and Brazil based on the geographic differences, the trend in cancer incidence with time, and the change in incidence patterns indicate that gastric cancer is closely associated with dietary factors, such as the intake of salt and salted food. In international and intra‐Japanese ecological studies, the average salt excretion level, estimated using randomly selected 24‐h urine samples in each population, was closely correlated with gastric cancer mortality. Several case–control and cohort studies, including the author's recent works, have shown that a higher intake of some traditional salt‐preserved food and salt per se, which was estimated using a validated food‐frequency questionnaire, was associated with a risk of gastric cancer. While salted food intake may increase the risk of Helicobacter pylori infection, it can also act synergistically to promote the development of gastric cancer. Based on substantial evidence about the association between salt and salted food intake and the risk of gastric cancer from ecological, case–control, and cohort studies conducted in Japan and other countries, as well as mechanistic plausibility, dietary modification involving less salt and salted food intake is a practical strategy with which to prevent gastric cancer. (Cancer Sci 2005; 96: 1–6)
Teacher Effects and Teacher-Related Policies

The emergence of large longitudinal data sets linking students to teachers has led to rapid growth in the study of teacher effects on student outcomes by economists over the past decade. One large literature has documented wide variation in teacher effectiveness that is not well explained by observable student or teacher characteristics. A second literature has investigated how educational outcomes might be improved by leveraging teacher effectiveness through processes of recruitment, assignment, compensation, evaluation, promotion, and retention. These two lines of inquiry are closely tied; the first tells us about the importance of individual teachers, and the second tells us how this information can be used in policy and practice. We review the most recent findings in economics on the importance of teachers and on teacher-related policies aimed at improving educational production.
Tantalum carbide coating on Ti‐6Al‐4V by electron beam physical vapor deposition method: Study of corrosion and biocompatibility behavior

This study aimed to improve the corrosion resistance and biocompatibility of titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) by tantalum carbide (TaC) deposition through electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) method. The physical and chemical characteristics of the coated surface are comprehensively evaluated. The corrosion resistance and ion release are assessed. Cytocompatibility assay and cell morphology observation are performed to assess toxicity and cell interaction, respectively. The TaC-coated Ti-6Al-4V exhibits more resistance to corrosion and ion release. It provides a surface, which is appropriate for cell adhesion, an expansion as well as better biocompatible performance. So, it could improve osseointegration Ti-alloy implants in clinical applications.
Coordination of plant mitochondrial biogenesis: keeping pace with cellular requirements

Plant mitochondria are complex organelles that carry out numerous metabolic processes related with the generation of energy for cellular functions and the synthesis and degradation of several compounds. Mitochondria are semiautonomous and dynamic organelles changing in shape, number, and composition depending on tissue or developmental stage. The biogenesis of functional mitochondria requires the coordination of genes present both in the nucleus and the organelle. In addition, due to their central role, all processes held inside mitochondria must be finely coordinated with those in other organelles according to cellular demands. Coordination is achieved by transcriptional control of nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins by specific transcription factors that recognize conserved elements in their promoter regions. In turn, the expression of most of these transcription factors is linked to developmental and environmental cues, according to the availability of nutrients, light–dark cycles, and warning signals generated in response to stress conditions. Among the signals impacting in the expression of nuclear genes, retrograde signals that originate inside mitochondria help to adjust mitochondrial biogenesis to organelle demands. Adding more complexity, several nuclear encoded proteins are dual localized to mitochondria and either chloroplasts or the nucleus. Dual targeting might establish a crosstalk between the nucleus and cell organelles to ensure a fine coordination of cellular activities. In this article, we discuss how the different levels of coordination of mitochondrial biogenesis interconnect to optimize the function of the organelle according to both internal and external demands.
Dietary Patterns and Metabolic Syndrome among Type 2 Diabetes Patients in Gaza Strip, Palestine

Background The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is raising worldwide; however, the role of diet in the origin of metabolic syndrome is not understood well. This study identifies major dietary patterns among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with and without metabolic syndrome; and its association with metabolic syndrome components in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Methods This cross sectional study was conducted among 1200 previously diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (both genders, aged 20 – 64 years) patients receiving care in primary healthcare centers in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Metabolic syndrome was defined based on the International Diabetes Federation criteria; dietary patterns were evaluated using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Results Two major dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis: Asian-like pattern and sweet-soft drinks-snacks pattern. After adjustment for confounding variables, patients in the highest tertile of the Asian-like pattern characterized by a high intake of whole grains, potatoes, beans, legumes, vegetables, tomatoes and fruithad a lower odds for (Metabolic syndrome, central obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high blood pressure), (OR 0.766 CI 95% (.642–.914)), (OR 0.797 CI 95% (.652–.974)), (OR 0.791 CI 95% (.687–.911)), (OR 0.853 CI 95% (.743–.978)) and (OR 0.815 CI 95% (.682–.973)) respectively, (P value < 0.05 for all). No significant association was found between the sweet-soft drinks-snacks pattern with metabolic syndrome and its components. Conclusion The Asian-like pattern may be associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components among type 2 diabetes patients.
Live-cell fluorescence imaging reveals high stoichiometry of Grb2 binding to the EGF receptor sustained during endocytosis

ABSTRACT Activation of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) leads to its interaction with Grb2, a dual-function adapter mediating both signaling through Ras and receptor endocytosis. We used time-lapse three-dimensional imaging by spinning disk confocal microscopy to analyze trafficking of EGFR and Grb2 in living HeLa cells stimulated with low, physiological concentrations of EGFR ligands. Endogenous Grb2 was replaced in these cells by Grb2 fused to yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). After transient residence in the plasma membrane, Rhodamine-conjugated EGF (EGF–Rh) and Grb2–YFP were rapidly internalized and accumulated in endosomes. Quantitative image analysis revealed that on average two Grb2–YFP molecules were colocalized with one EGF–Rh in cells stimulated with 2 ng/ml EGF–Rh, and the excess of Grb2–YFP over EGF–Rh was even higher when a receptor-saturating concentration of EGF–Rh was used. Therefore, we hypothesize that a single EGFR molecule can be simultaneously associated with functionally distinct Grb2 interaction partners during and after endocytosis. Continuous presence of Grb2–YFP in endosomes was also observed when EGFR was activated by transforming growth factor-&agr; and amphiregulin, suggesting that endosomal EGFRs remain ligand occupied and signaling competent, despite the fact that these growth factors are thought to dissociate from the receptor at acidic pH. The prolonged localization and activity of EGFR–Grb2 complexes in endosomes correlated with the sustained activation of extracellular stimulus-regulated kinase 1/2, suggesting that endosomal EGFRs contribute significantly to this signaling pathway. We propose that endosomal EGFRs function to extend signaling in time and space to compensate for rapid downregulation of surface EGFRs in cells with low receptor expression levels.
The confining effectiveness of NiTiNb and NiTi SMA wire jackets for concrete

The purpose of this study is to assess the confining effectiveness of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire jackets for concrete. The performance of SMA wire jackets was compared to that of steel jackets. A prestrained martensitic SMA wire was wrapped around a concrete cylinder and then heated by a heating jacket. In the process, a confining stress around the cylinder was developed in the SMA wire due to the shape memory effect; this jacketing method can increase the strength and ductility of the cylinder under an axial compressive load. In this study, NiTi and NiTiNb SMA wires of 1.0 mm in diameter were used for the confinement. Recovery tests were conducted on the wires to assess their recovery and residual stress. The confinement by SMA wire jackets increased the strength slightly and greatly increased the ductility compared to the strength and ductility of plain concrete cylinders. The NiTiNb SMA wire jacket showed better performance than that of the NiTi SMA wire jacket. The confining effectiveness of the SMA wire jackets of this study was estimated to be similar to that of the steel jackets. This study showed the potential of the SMA wire jacketing method to retrofit reinforced concrete columns and protect them from seismic risks.
Building a traceable climate model hierarchy with multi-level emulators

Abstract. To study climate change on multi-millennial timescales or to explore a model's parameter space, efficient models with simplified and parameterised processes are required. However, the reduction in explicitly modelled processes can lead to underestimation of some atmospheric responses that are essential to the understanding of the climate system. While more complex general circulations are available and capable of simulating a more realistic climate, they are too computationally intensive for these purposes. In this work, we propose a multi-level Gaussian emulation technique to efficiently estimate the outputs of steady-state simulations of an expensive atmospheric model in response to changes in boundary forcing. The link between a computationally expensive atmospheric model, PLASIM (Planet Simulator), and a cheaper model, EMBM (energy–moisture balance model), is established through the common boundary condition specified by an ocean model, allowing for information to be propagated from one to the other. This technique allows PLASIM emulators to be built at a low cost. The method is first demonstrated by emulating a scalar summary quantity, the global mean surface air temperature. It is then employed to emulate the dimensionally reduced 2-D surface air temperature field. Even though the two atmospheric models chosen are structurally unrelated, Gaussian process emulators of PLASIM atmospheric variables are successfully constructed using EMBM as a fast approximation. With the extra information gained from the cheap model, the multi-level emulator of PLASIM's 2-D surface air temperature field is built using only one-third the amount of expensive data required by the normal single-level technique. The constructed emulator is shown to capture 93.2 % of the variance across the validation ensemble, with the averaged RMSE of 1.33 °C. Using the method proposed, quantities from PLASIM can be constructed and used to study the effects introduced by PLASIM's atmosphere.
Identification and Functional Characterization of Arabidopsis PEROXIN4 and the Interacting Protein PEROXIN22[W]

Peroxins are genetically defined as proteins necessary for peroxisome biogenesis. By screening for reduced response to indole-3-butyric acid, which is metabolized to active auxin in peroxisomes, we isolated an Arabidopsis thaliana peroxin4 (pex4) mutant. This mutant displays sucrose-dependent seedling development and reduced lateral root production, characteristics of plant peroxisome malfunction. We used yeast two-hybrid analysis to determine that PEX4, an apparent ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, interacts with a previously unidentified Arabidopsis protein, PEX22. A pex4 pex22 double mutant enhanced pex4 defects, confirming that PEX22 is a peroxin. Expression of both Arabidopsis genes together complemented yeast pex4 or pex22 mutant defects, whereas expression of either gene individually failed to rescue the corresponding yeast mutant. Therefore, it is likely that the Arabidopsis proteins can function similarly to the yeast PEX4–PEX22 complex, with PEX4 ubiquitinating substrates and PEX22 tethering PEX4 to the peroxisome. However, the severe sucrose dependence of the pex4 pex22 mutant is not accompanied by correspondingly strong defects in peroxisomal matrix protein import, suggesting that this peroxin pair may have novel plant targets in addition to those important in fungi. Isocitrate lyase is stabilized in pex4 pex22, indicating that PEX4 and PEX22 may be important during the remodeling of peroxisome matrix contents as glyoxysomes transition to leaf peroxisomes.
Role of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha in Gnotobiotic Mice Infected with an Escherichia coli O157:H7 Strain

ABSTRACT Gnotobiotic mice inoculated with an enterohemorrhagicEscherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 strain developed a flaccid paresis, usually culminating in death. The bacteria colonized feces at 109 to 1010 CFU per g (inoculum size: 2.0 × 109 CFU/mouse), and Shiga-like toxins (SLTs) were detected in the feces. A microscopic examination of colons showed mild inflammatory cell infiltration, thinning of the intestinal wall, or necrotic foci. Necrosis of tubular cells was noted in these symptomatic mice. Microhemorrhage, thrombosis, and edematous changes of the brain were also seen. Inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 1α (IL-1α), and IL-6, were detected in the kidney after EHEC infection, but not in the serum. In the brain, only TNF-α was detected. When 2.0 × 102 CFU of EHEC O157:H7 was fed to germ-free mice, the number of bacteria began to rise rapidly on day 1 and was maintained at 108 to 109 CFU/g of feces. SLTs were detected in the feces of the mice. However, the mice showed no histological changes and no cytokine responses, similar to what was found for controls. Treatment with TNF-α modified the clinical neural signs, histopathological changes, and cytokine responses; mice treated with TNF-α developed severe neurotoxic symptoms and had higher frequencies of systemic symptoms and glomerular pathology. Strong cytokine responses were seen in the kidney and brain. Serum cytokines were also detected in this group. In contrast, a TNF-α inhibitor (protease inhibitor) inhibited these responses, especially in the brain. However, local synthesis of the cytokines was observed in the kidney. Thus, TNF-α and the other proinflammatory cytokines could be important in modifying the disease caused by EHEC.
A preliminary study for quantitative assessment of upper limb proprioception

Proprioception, or sense of position and movement of the body, strongly correlates with motor recovery of the hemiplegic arm. The evaluation of the awareness of the location of joints in space involves measuring the accuracy of joint-angle replication. Robotic devices allow an accurate manipulation of joint movements necessary to assess proprioceptive status. This study evaluated the proprioceptive performance of healthy subjects by mean of the H-Man, a planar robot designed for upper-limb rehabilitation to gather preliminary normative data for neurorehabilitation applications. Twelve participants were equally divided into Aged and Young groups and were asked to indicate when their dominant hand position matched a predefined target in the contralateral, sagittal and ipsilateral direction. Results indicated a better performance for movements towards the contralateral target in terms of both absolute and signed error while there was not a significant effect of age group. Error variability was not affected by the target location and participants' age. The present study established preliminary proprioceptive metrics that could assist in providing information about the normal range of proprioceptive acuity of healthy subjects of different age.
Natural gradients for deformable registration

We apply the concept of natural gradients to deformable registration. The motivation stems from the lack of physical interpretation for gradients of image-based difference measures. The main idea is to endow the space of deformations with a distance metric which reflects the variation of the difference measure between two deformations. This is in contrast to standard approaches which assume the Euclidean frame. The modification of the distance metric is realized by treating the deformations as a Riemannian manifold. In our case, the manifold is induced by the Riemannian metric tensor based on the approximation of the Fisher Information matrix, which takes into account the information about the chosen difference measure and the input images. Thus, the resulting natural gradient defined on this manifold inherently takes into account this information. The practical advantages of the proposed approach are the improvement of registration error and faster convergence for low-gradient regions. The proposed scheme is applicable to arbitrary difference measures and can be readily integrated into standard variational deformable registration methods with practically no computational overhead.
Perturbation of B Cell Gene Expression Persists in HIV-Infected Children Despite Effective Antiretroviral Therapy and Predicts H1N1 Response

Despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-infected individuals with apparently similar clinical and immunological characteristics can vary in responsiveness to vaccinations. However, molecular mechanisms responsible for such impairment, as well as biomarkers able to predict vaccine responsiveness in HIV-infected children, remain unknown. Following the hypothesis that a B cell qualitative impairment persists in HIV-infected children (HIV) despite effective ART and phenotypic B cell immune reconstitution, the aim of the current study was to investigate B cell gene expression of HIV compared to age-matched healthy controls (HCs) and to determine whether distinct gene expression patterns could predict the ability to respond to influenza vaccine. To do so, we analyzed prevaccination transcriptional levels of a 96-gene panel in equal numbers of sort-purified B cell subsets (SPBS) isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells using multiplexed RT-PCR. Immune responses to H1N1 antigen were determined by hemaglutination inhibition and memory B cell ELISpot assays following trivalent-inactivated influenza vaccination (TIV) for all study participants. Although there were no differences in terms of cell frequencies of SPBS between HIV and HC, the groups were distinguishable based upon gene expression analyses. Indeed, a 28-gene signature, characterized by higher expression of genes involved in the inflammatory response and immune activation was observed in activated memory B cells (CD27+CD21−) from HIV when compared to HC despite long-term viral control (>24 months). Further analysis, taking into account H1N1 responses after TIV in HIV participants, revealed that a 25-gene signature in resting memory (RM) B cells (CD27+CD21+) was able to distinguish vaccine responders from non-responders (NR). In fact, prevaccination RM B cells of responders showed a higher expression of gene sets involved in B cell adaptive immune responses (APRIL, BTK, BLIMP1) and BCR signaling (MTOR, FYN, CD86) when compared to NR. Overall, these data suggest that a perturbation at a transcriptional level in the B cell compartment persists despite stable virus control achieved through ART in HIV-infected children. Additionally, the present study demonstrates the potential utility of transcriptional evaluation of RM B cells before vaccination for identifying predictive correlates of vaccine responses in this population.
Cu‐Doped Carbon Dots with Highly Ordered Alignment in Anisotropic Nano‐Space for Improving the Photocatalytic Performance

Extensive research is directed to further prolong the lifetime of charge carriers and to increase the rate of electron transfer for nano-photoactive catalysts. Especially, spin-dependent electron-hole recombination process has gained much attention. However, the direct effect of spin degree on photo-catalysis performance is largely unexplored, which hinders the advancement of nano-catalyst design. Here, a model catalyst system is constructed by combing Cu2+, carbon dots (CDs), and layered double hydroxides (LDHs) in order to address the above problems. The results from experimental and theoretical calculations show that: 1) the confined nano-interlayer of anisotropic LDHs provides Cu-CDs with highly aligned dipoles and enhanced spin-orbit coupling, which leads to the forbidden radiative recombination and prolonged exciton lifetime; 2) LDHs as nano-reactors provide a confined microenvironment for catalysis reaction, which shortens the electron transfer pathway and reduces the exciton loss. Based on these improved properties, the photocatalytic efficiency of Cu-CDs-LDHs in photo-oxidation reaction of 1,4-dihydro-2,6-dimethylpyridine-3,5-dicarboxylateis (1,4-DHP) is 1.54 times higher than pure CDs.
Impaired visceral sensitivity to acid reflux in patients with Barrett's esophagus. the role of esophageal motility.

Patients with Barrett's esophagus have been reported to have impaired visceral sensitivity to acid perfusion and distension compared with non-Barrett's refluxers, but the mechanism is poorly understood. Esophageal motility and clearance mechanisms may be important, and this study explored the relationship of motility with symptoms. Seventy-four patients with Barrett's esophagus were compared with 216 patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) with abnormal acid reflux scores, and 50 symptomatic patients who had normal acid exposure. All patients had esophageal manometry and 24-h pH monitoring. Thirty-six Barrett's patients also had 24-h bile reflux monitoring. Symptoms were assessed by Symptom Index (SI) during 24-h pH monitoring. Barrett's patients with normal motility had a significantly lower SI than GERD patients for similar acid exposure (P < 0.001). Barrett's patients with abnormal motility had higher acid exposure than those with normal motility (P < 0.05), but the SI values for this group was not significantly different from the GERD patients. SI and Bile reflux in Barrett's esophagus was not significantly different in patients with normal or abnormal motility. Barrett's patients had less sensitivity than GERD patients for similar acid exposure. Normal motility in Barrett's esophagus is associated with the poorest sensitivity and the presence of increased acid exposure is required in order to achieve sensitivity levels comparable with GERD patients.