Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association Between Hyponatremia, Osteoporosis, and Fracture: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

CONTEXT Hyponatremia is the most common electrolyte disorder. Recent research shows that it may associate with osteoporosis and fracture. However, whether it directly associates or is a surrogate marker of other causes is still unclear. OBJECTIVES To explore the hypothesis of an association of osteoporosis or fracture with hyponatremia. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE and EMBASE databases from inception to October 2015. STUDY SELECTION The inclusion criteria were published studies evaluating bone mineral density, risk or prevalence of osteoporosis or fracture in patients with hyponatremia. DATA EXTRACTION Both authors independently reviewed titles and abstracts of all citations that were identified. DATA SYNTHESIS A meta-analysis using a random-effects model comparing between hyponatremia and normal serum sodium groups was performed. We calculated pooled mean difference in bone mineral density, pooled hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) of fracture and osteoporosis. Factors that may predict these associations were evaluated in subgroup analysis and meta-regression. From 29 full-text articles, 15 observational studies involving 212 889 participants met our inclusion criteria. Twelve studies were included in the meta-analysis. There was a significant association with fracture and osteoporosis in patients with hyponatremia with OR of fracture = 1.99 (95% confidence interval, 1.50–2.63; p < .001) for studies that reported OR, and increase risk of fracture with HR = 1.62 (95% confidence interval, 1.28–2.05; P < .001) for studies that reported HR. CONCLUSIONS Hyponatremia significantly associates with osteoporosis and fracture. More prospective studies evaluating osteoporosis and fracture risk reduction after hyponatremia correction should be performed.
A state bounding observer based on zonotopes

The proposed observer computes an outer approximation of the set of states which are consistent with a given uncertain state space model and some measurements. The uncertainties are modeled by unknown but bounded inputs. A representation of domains by zonotopes (particular polytopes) is used to reduce the computation of state bounds to rather simple matrix operations and to control the wrapping effect.
Epoxy resin nanosuspensions and reinforced nanocomposites from polyaniline stabilized multi-walled carbon nanotubes

The high performance multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) reinforced epoxy polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) have been synthesized at different MWNT loading levels. The surface functionalization of MWNTs with conductive PANI was achieved by using a facile surface initiated polymerization method with the aid of the oxidations of CNTs and subsequent anilines by hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) oxidant. The effects of MWNT loading, surface functionalization and temperature on the rheological behaviors of liquid epoxy resin nanosuspensions and on the physicochemical properties of cured solid PNCs were systematically investigated. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the cured epoxy PNCs filled with functionalized MWNTs obtained from the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) test was increased about 6–25 °C than that of cured pure epoxy. The PNCs reinforced with functionalized MWNTs demonstrated an enhanced tensile strength than either cured pure epoxy or its PNCs filled with the as-received MWNTs. The electrical conductivity of cured epoxy PNCs with functionalized MWNTs was improved by 5.5 orders of magnitude compared with cured pure epoxy. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed an enhanced thermo-stability in the cured epoxy PNCs filled with functionalized MWNTs than that of cured pure epoxy and its PNCs filled with the as-received MWNTs. The observed strong interfacial interaction between MWNTs and the epoxy resin matrix was responsible for the enhanced mechanical tensile strength. The nanocomposite formation mechanism is proposed based on the analysis from Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests.
Adsorption of S—S Containing Proteins on a Colloidal Silver Surface Studied by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

We present a Raman and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) study of the following proteins containing S–S group(s): α-chymotrypsin (α-CHT), insulin, lysozyme, oxytocin (OXT), Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitor (SSI), and trypsin inhibitor (STI). The SERS study is performed in order to understand the adsorption mechanism of the above-mentioned proteins on a colloidal silver surface. The SERS spectra presented here show bands associated mainly with aromatic amino acid vibrations. In addition, two distinct vibrations of the –C–S–S–C– fragment are observed in the Raman and SERS spectra, i.e., v(SS) and v(CS). The enhancement of the v(SS) vibration in the SERS spectra yields evidence that the intact disulfide bridge(s) is (are) located near the silver surface. This finding is supported by the presence of the v(CS) mode(s). The presence of vs(COO−) and v(C–COO−) in the SERS spectra in the 1384–1399 cm−1 and 909–939 cm−1 regions, respectively, indicate that the negatively charged COO− groups (aspartic and glutamic acids) assist in the binding on the positively charged silver surface. The Raman amide I and III bands observed in the 1621–1633 and 1261–1289 cm−1 ranges, respectively, indicate that the α-helical conformation is favored for binding to the surface over the random coil or β-sheet conformations. In addition, the presence of the imino group of Trp and/or His indicates that these amino acid residues may also bind to the silver sol.
The macrophage scavenger receptor type A directs modified proteins to antigen presentation

Scavenger receptors constitute a family of cell surface receptors that internalize endotoxins, oxidized low‐density lipoproteins (oxLDL) and other proteins with clustered negative charges for degradation in macrophages. They were recently proposed to play a role in antigen presentation but the type of scavenger receptor involved in this process has not been known. In this report, we have examined the cellular immune responses to modified proteins in mice lacking the SR‐A scavenger receptor (SRAKO) and their wild‐type (ICR) controls. While spleen cells of ICR mice immunized with maleylated murine serum albumin (Mal‐MSA) exhibit strong proliferative responses to the antigen, no such responses were found in SRAKO mice. However, addition of SR‐A+ antigen‐presenting cells from ICR mice unmasked proliferative responses to Mal‐MSA in spleen cultures of immunized SRAKO mice. Similarly, addition of SR‐A+ antigen‐presenting cells was necessary to detect T cell responses in spleen cultures of oxLDL‐immunized SRAKO mice. This indicates that SR‐A can mediate uptake of modified antigens for presentation to antigen‐specific T cells. The fact that cellular immunity developed in SRAKO mice implies that other scavenger receptor(s) also internalize modified antigens for presentation in vivo. These observations show that scavenger receptors participate in immune recognition of oxidized protein antigens; this system may be important for recognition of damaged macromolecules but could also play a role in autoimmunity.
Apical periodontitis and incident cardiovascular events in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

AIM To evaluate whether the presence of apical periodontitis (AP), root canal treatment (RCT) and endodontic burden (EB) - as the sum of AP and RCT sites - were associated with long-term risk of incident cardiovascular events (CVE), including cardiovascular-related mortality, using data on participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing (BLSA). METHODOLOGY This retrospective cohort included 278 dentate participants in the BLSA with complete medical and dental examinations. Periodontal disease (PD) and missing teeth were recorded. The total number of AP and RCT sites was determined from panoramic radiographs. EB was calculated as the sum of AP and RCT sites. Oral inflammatory burden (OIB) was calculated combining PD and EB. The main outcome was incident CVE including angina, myocardial infarction and cardiovascular-related death. Participants were monitored for up to 44 years (mean = 17.4± 11.1 years) following dental examination. Relative risks (RRs) were calculated through Poisson regression models, estimating the relationship between AP, RCT, EB, PD, OIB and incident CVE. RESULTS Mean age at baseline was 55.0 ±16.8 years and 51.4% were men. Sixty-two participants (22.3%) developed CVE. Bivariate analysis showed that PD, EB, number of teeth and OIB were associated with incident CVE. Multivariate models, adjusted for socio-demographic and medical variables, showed that age ≥60 years (RR = 3.07, 95% CI =1.68-5.62), hypertension (RR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.16-3.46) and EB ≥3 (RR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.04-3.02) were independently associated with incident CVE. The association between OIB and incident CVE was reduced to nonsignificance after adjustments (RR = 1.97, 95% CI = 0.83-4.70). CONCLUSIONS EB in midlife was an independent predictor of CVE amongst community-dwelling participants in the BLSA. Prospective studies are required to evaluate cardiovascular risk reduction with the treatment of AP.
Assessing the News Landscape: A Multi-Module Toolkit for Evaluating the Credibility of News

Today, journalist, information analyst, and everyday news consumers are tasked with discerning and fact-checking the news. This task has became complex due to the ever-growing number of news sources and the mixed tactics of maliciously false sources. To mitigate these problems, we introduce the The News Landscape (NELA) Toolkit: an open source toolkit for the systematic exploration of the news landscape. NELA allows users to explore the credibility of news articles using well-studied content-based markers of reliability and bias, as well as, filter and sort through article predictions based on the user's own needs. In addition, NELA allows users to visualize the media landscape at different time slices using a variety of features computed at the source level. NELA is built with a modular, pipeline design, to allow researchers to add new tools to the toolkit with ease. Our demo is an early transition of automated news credibility research to assist human fact-checking efforts and increase the understanding of the news ecosystem as a whole.
Analyzing and Predicting Emoji Usages in Social Media

Emojis can be regarded as a language for graphical expression of emotions, and have been widely used in social media. They can express more delicate feelings beyond textual information and improve the effectiveness of computer-mediated communication. Recent advances in machine learning make it possible to automatic compose text messages with emojis. However, the usages of emojis can be complicated and subtle so that analyzing and predicting emojis is a challenging problem. In this paper, we first construct a benchmark dataset of emojis with tweets and systematically investigate emoji usages in terms of tweet content, tweet structure and user demographics. Inspired by the investigation results, we further propose a multitask multimodality gated recurrent unit (mmGRU) model to predict the categories and positions of emojis. The model leverages not only multimodality information such as text, image and user demographics, but also the strong correlations between emoji categories and their positions. Our experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the accuracy for predicting emojis for tweets (+9.0% in F1-value for category and +4.6% in F1-value for position). Based on the experimental results, we further conduct a series of case studies to unveil how emojis are used in social media.
Annihilation Data Near 4170 MeV

We examine e+e− → D− s D∗+ s and D∗− s D+ s interactions at 4170 MeV using the CLEO-c detector in order to measure the decay constant fD+ s with good precision. Previously our measurements were substantially higher than the most precise lattice based QCD calculation of (241±3) MeV. Here we use the D+ s → `+ν channel, where the `+ designates either a μ+ or a τ+, when the τ+ → π+ν. Analyzing both modes independently, we determine B(D+ s → μ+ν) = (0.565±0.045±0.017)%, and B(D+ s → τ+ν) = (6.42 ± 0.81 ± 0.18)%. We also analyze them simultaneously to find an effective value of Beff(D+ s → μ+ν) = (0.591±0.037±0.018)% and fD+ s = (263.3±8.2±3.9) MeV. Combining with the CLEO-c value determined independently using D+ s → τ+ν, τ+ → e+νν̄ decays, we extract fD+ s = (259.5± 6.6± 3.1) MeV. Combining with our previous determination of B(D+ → μ+ν), we extract the ratio fD+ s /fD+ = 1.26± 0.06± 0.02. No evidence is found for a CP asymmetry between Γ(D+ s → μ+ν) and Γ(D− s → μ−ν); specifically the fractional difference in rates is measured to be (4.8±6.1)%. Finally, we find B(D+ s → e+ν) < 1.2× 10−4 at 90% confidence level.
Is President Obama’s Race Chronically Accessible? Racial Priming in the 2012 Presidential Election

A vast literature indicates that racial animosity has a pervasive influence on the public’s evaluations of U.S. President Barack Obama. Can political communications enhance and/or defuse the link between White Americans’ racial attitudes and evaluations of Barack Obama? In this article, we report the results of an experiment conducted in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign which examines the effect of political rhetoric on the extent to which evaluations of Barack Obama are racialized. Drawing from research on attitude strength and pretreatment effects in experimental studies, we argue that the use of racial appeals in the pretreatment environment and the strength of citizens’ preexisting attitudes toward the incumbent president may produce a downward bias in average estimates of racial priming effects toward President Obama. After accounting for individual differences in the propensity to form strong attitudes with need to evaluate, we observe substantial effects of campaign rhetoric in priming racial attitudes toward President Obama, especially among individuals who are low in the need to evaluate and who tend to have more malleable political attitudes. We conclude by discussing implications for research on racial priming and the politics of racial intolerance in evaluations of Barack Obama.
Building the posterior lateral line system in zebrafish

The posterior lateral line (pLL) in zebrafish has emerged as an excellent system to study how a sensory organ system develops. Here we review recent studies that illustrate how interactions between multiple signaling pathways coordinate cell fate, morphogenesis, and collective migration of cells in the posterior lateral line primordium. These studies also illustrate how the pLL system is contributing much more broadly to our understanding of mechanisms operating during the growth, regeneration, and self‐organization of other organ systems during development and disease. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 72: 234–255, 2012
The Greek Debt Crisis: Likely Causes, Mechanics and Outcomes

We use insights from the literature on currency crises to offer an analytical treatment of the crisis in the market for Greek government bonds. We argue that the crisis itself and its escalating nature are very likely to be the result of: (i) steady deterioration of Greek macroeconomic fundamentals over 2001–09 to levels inconsistent with long-term EMU participation; and (ii) a double shift in markets’ expectations, from a regime of credible commitment to future EMU participation under an implicit EMU/German guarantee of Greek fiscal liabilities, to a regime of non-credible EMU commitment without fiscal guarantees, respectively occurring in November 2009 and February/March 2010. We argue that the risk of contagion to other periphery EMU countries is significant; and that without extensive structural reforms, the sustainability of the EMU is in question.
Quality of Life Assessment across the Cancer Continuum: Understanding the Role of an Exercise Rehabilitation Programme

The Quality of Life (QoL) paradigm is multidimensional, dynamic and modular and its definition differs across the cancer continuum. The challenge in the interpretation of QoL data in clinical research is that QoL is influenced by psychological phenomena such as adaptation to illness. This research aims to obtain a valid and sensitive assessment of QoL change over the continuum disease, and to evaluate a rehabilitation programme aimed at inverting the observed decrease in QoL when patients return to daily living activities. The sample comprised 66 men. Patients were first assessed to establish a baseline (P1-diagnosis). This was followed by a post-test (P2-discharge) and a then-test measurement (P3-retrospective evaluation) and after returning home patients were randomized in experimental and control groups. The experimental group attended a rehabilitation programme over 24 weeks (P4). Results show that from baseline to post-test, QoL decreased significantly. The recalibration then-test confirmed a low QoL in all periods evaluated. Significant differences between the experimental and control groups prove the positive effect of the Exercise Rehabilitation Programme (ERP) on QoL. Understanding the real dynamic of QoL over time would help to adapt rehabilitation programmes by improving sensitivity and efficacy and provide professionals with a more accurate perception of the impact of treatment and side effects on patients’ QoL. Our results underline the importance of changing the approach adopted by health professionals towards one of watchful waiting on patients’ QoL until their complete recovery in daily life. Keywords—Prostate cancer, quality of life, rehabilitation programme, response shift.
Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Czech Shelters

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to describe the numbers and characteristics of cats entering Czech shelters. Records of sheltered cats were collected from three cat shelters situated in different regions of the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2015. A total of 2170 cat admissions were analyzed in this study. Significantly (p < .001) greater numbers of females (56%) were admitted. Most cats (60%) were admitted when they were aged younger than six months. Cats with dark coat colors prevailed (73%), cats with medium-shade colors followed (20%), and light-colored cats were the rarest (7%). The greatest numbers of cats were admitted in summer (36%), followed by autumn (33%). The fewest cats were admitted in winter (14%). Adoption was the most common outcome for admitted cats (65%), followed by unassisted death (22%) and euthanasia (11%) due to health reasons. Only 2% of cats were reclaimed from the shelters by their original caretakers. The length of stay ranged from 0 days to 1736 days with a median of 45 days. These findings may help shelter operators define optimal strategies and operational plans.
Gastrointestinal Parasitism in Hair Sheep and Meat Goat Breeds Grazing Naturally Infected Pasture 1

Summary Differences in indicators of gastrointestinal parasitism between species, breeds within species, and two grazing systems (goats only) were evaluated in a total of 66 does and 22 ewes (11 animals/breed/management system), representing four goat and two sheep breeds. Animals were either grazed continuously (does and ewes, n=66), or rotationally on 0.4 ha of pre-dominantly fescue pastures (does only, n=22). Fecal and blood samples were collected in 14-day intervals from mid-May until October. Animals were dewormed (ivermectin, sc, 0.3 mg/kg) by breed group when breed composites (five animals/breed) exceeded 1000 eggs/g. Data were analyzed in subsets for species, breed, and grazing management comparisons. Hair sheep had lower mean FEC (376 vs. 669 eggs/g; P < 0.01) and higher mean PCV (31.9 percent vs. 26.5 percent; P < 0.001) than the goats. Within hair sheep, Katahdin had lower FEC (242 vs. 518 eggs/g; P < 0.01) and were dewormed less frequently (2 vs 7) than the Barbados Blackbelly. In goats, Nubian and Spanish (1035 and 865 eggs/g, respectively) had higher (P < 0.01) mean FEC than Myotonic and Pygmy (413 and 359 eggs/g, respectively), and were dewormed five, four, three, and three times, respectively, during the experimental period. Fecal egg counts were similar in goats under rotational, compared to continuous grazing. Hair sheep appeared to be more resistant to parasites than goats, however, differences may have been masked by considerable breed variation within species. The anthelmintic treatment protocol may have prevented breeds from expressing their ability to tolerate gastrointestinal parasites.
Seasonal, Age & Gender Variation of Guillain Barre Syndrome in a Tertiary Referral Center in India

Background: Seasonal variation & gender preponderance have not been adequately studied in Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). University of Health Sciences, Rohtak is the tertiary referral facility for a large part of North West India. We conducted a prospective study to investigate differences in GBS incidence between males and females & across different seasons of the year. Methods:65 clinically diagnosed GBS patients, aged 5 - 70 years, referred for nerve conduction, Fwave & EMG studies for 3 years. Results: 64.61% were males while 35.38% were females. Maximum patients were in the age group 5 - 20 years (46.15%). The highest incidence of GBS (41.53%) were seen in the summer months; 19 (29.23%) in the spring season, 11 (16.92%) in winter season and 8 (12.30%) in rainy season. 5 patients had diarrhoea while 12 patients had flu like syndrome 1 - 2 weeks before the onset of GBS. Conclusion: The peak seasonal clustering noted by us in the summer months was consistent significantly with other Asian studies. The age and sex distribution of GBS in our series, which showed children & minor preponderance with peak incidence in 5 - 20 years age followed by another in the age group 21 - 40 years, is different from most studies which report a second peak after 50 years of age.