Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Defective monocyte oxidative burst predicts infection in alcoholic hepatitis and is associated with reduced expression of NADPH oxidase

Objective In order to explain the increased susceptibility to serious infection in alcoholic hepatitis, we evaluated monocyte phagocytosis, aberrations of associated signalling pathways and their reversibility, and whether phagocytic defects could predict subsequent infection. Design Monocytes were identified from blood samples of 42 patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis using monoclonal antibody to CD14. Phagocytosis and monocyte oxidative burst (MOB) were measured ex vivo using flow cytometry, luminometry and bacterial killing assays. Defects were related to the subsequent development of infection. Intracellular signalling pathways were investigated using western blotting and PCR. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) was evaluated for its therapeutic potential in reversing phagocytic defects. Paired longitudinal samples were used to evaluate the effect of in vivo prednisolone therapy. Results MOB, production of superoxide and bacterial killing in response to Escherichia coli were markedly impaired in patients with alcoholic hepatitis. Pretreatment MOB predicted development of infection within two weeks with sensitivity and specificity that were superior to available clinical markers. Accordingly, defective MOB was associated with death at 28 and 90 days. Expression of the gp91phox subunit of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase was reduced in patients with alcoholic hepatitis demonstrating defective MOB. Monocytes were refractory to IFN-γ stimulation and showed high levels of a negative regulator of cytokine signalling, suppressor of cytokine signalling-1. MOB was unaffected by 7 days in vivo prednisolone therapy. Conclusions Monocyte oxidative burst and bacterial killing is impaired in alcoholic hepatitis while bacterial uptake by phagocytosis is preserved. Defective MOB is associated with reduced expression of NADPH oxidase in these patients and predicts the development of infection and death.
The evolutionary stability of attenuators that mask information about animals that social partners can exploit

Signals and cues are fundamental to social interactions. A well‐established concept in the study of animal communication is an amplifier, defined as a trait that does not add extra information to that already present in the original cue or signal, but rather enhances the fidelity with which variation in the original cue or signal is correctly perceived. Attenuators as the logical compliment of amplifiers: attenuators act to reduce the fidelity with which variation in a signal or cue can be reliably evaluated by the perceivers. Where amplifiers reduce the effect of noise on the perception of variation, attenuators add noise. Attenuators have been subject to much less consideration than amplifiers; however, they will be the focus of our theoretical study. We utilize an extension of a well‐established model incorporated signal or cue inaccuracy and costly investments by emitter and perceiver in sending and attending to the signal or cue. We present broad conditions involving some conflict of interest between emitter and perceiver where it may be advantageous for emitters to invest in costly attenuators to mask cues from potential perceivers, and a subset of these conditions where the perceiver may be willing to invest in costly anti‐attenuators to mitigate the loss of information to them. We demonstrate that attenuators can be evolutionary stable even if they are costly, even if they are sometimes disadvantageous and even if a perceiver can mount counter‐measures to them. As such, we feel that attenuators of cues may be deserving of much more research attention.
Positron emission tomography metabolic correlates of apathy in Alzheimer disease.

BACKGROUND Apathy is the most common neuropsychiatric manifestation in Alzheimer disease (AD). Clinical, single-photon emission computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and pathologic studies of apathy in AD have suggested an association with frontal dysfunction, most supportive of anterior cingulate abnormalities, but without a definitive localization. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between apathy and cortical metabolic rate on positron emission tomography in AD. DESIGN Forty-one subjects with probable AD underwent [(18)F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography imaging and neuropsychiatric and cognitive assessments. Global subscale scores from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms in Alzheimer Disease were used to designate the absence or presence of clinically meaningful apathy. Whole-brain voxel-based analyses were performed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM2; Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, London, England), which yielded significance maps comparing the 2 groups. RESULTS Twenty-seven (66%) subjects did not have apathy, whereas 14 (34%) had apathy. Statistical parametric mapping analysis revealed significant reduced activity in the bilateral anterior cingulate region extending inferiorly to the medial orbitofrontal region (P < .001) and the bilateral medial thalamus (P = .04) in subjects with apathy. The results of the statistical parametric mapping analysis remained the same after individually covarying for the effects of global cognitive impairment, depressed mood, and education. CONCLUSIONS Apathy in AD is associated with reduced metabolic activity in the bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus and medial orbitofrontal cortex and may be associated with reduced activity in the medial thalamus. These results reinforce the confluence of evidence from other investigational modalities in implicating medial frontal dysfunction and related neuronal circuits in the neurobiology of apathy in AD and other neuropsychiatric diseases.
Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA): usefulness of anti-GAD antibody titers and benefit of early insulinization.

OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical and laboratory parameters and the progression to insulin requirement in two groups of LADA patients separated according to GADA titers, and to evaluate the benefit of early insulinization in patients at high risk of premature beta-cell failure (high GADA titers). METHODS Among the diabetic adults seen at our service and screened for GADA at diagnosis, 54 were diagnosed with LADA and classified as having low (> 1 U/ml and < 17.2 U/ml) or high (> 17.2 U/ml) GADA titers. Fifty-four patients with type 2 diabetes (GADA-) were selected for comparison. In addition, 24 patients who had GADA titers > 20 U/ml and who were not initially insulinized were compared to 16 patients who were insulinized at diagnosis. RESULTS Insulin resistance was higher in the GADA- group, followed by patients with low GADA titers. BMI and the frequency of arterial hypertension, elevated triglycerides and reduced HDL cholesterol were lower in the high GADA+ group, with no difference between the GADA- or low GADA+ groups. The high GADA+ group showed a greater reduction and lower levels of C-peptide and required insulin earlier during follow-up. Patients with GADA titers > 20 U/ml and insulinized early presented no significant variation in C-peptide levels, had better glycemic control and required a lower insulin dose than patients who were insulinized later. CONCLUSION We agree that patients with LADA should be differentiated on the basis of GADA titers and that patients with GADA titers > 20 U/ml benefit from early insulinization.
Air Pollution Monitoring Design for Epidemiological Application in a Densely Populated City

Introduction: Many studies have reported the association between air pollution and human health based on regulatory air pollution monitoring data. However, because regulatory monitoring networks were not designed for epidemiological studies, the collected data may not provide sufficient spatial contrasts for assessing such associations. Our goal was to develop a monitoring design supplementary to the regulatory monitoring network in Seoul, Korea. This design focused on the selection of 20 new monitoring sites to represent the variability in PM2.5 across people’s residences for cohort studies. Methods: We obtained hourly measurements of PM2.5 at 37 regulatory monitoring sites in 2010 in Seoul, and computed the annual average at each site. We also computed 313 geographic variables representing various pollution sources at the regulatory monitoring sites, 31,097 children’s homes from the Atopy Free School survey, and 412 community service centers in Seoul. These three types of locations represented current, subject, and candidate locations. Using the regulatory monitoring data, we performed forward variable selection and chose five variables most related to PM2.5. Then, k-means clustering was applied to categorize all locations into several groups representing a diversity in the spatial variability of the five selected variables. Finally, we computed the proportion of current to subject location in each cluster, and randomly selected new monitoring sites from candidate sites in the cluster with the minimum proportion until 20 sites were selected. Results: The five selected geographic variables were related to traffic or urbanicity with a cross-validated R2 value of 0.69. Clustering analysis categorized all locations into nine clusters. Finally, one to eight new monitoring sites were selected from five clusters. Discussion: The proposed monitoring design will help future studies determine the locations of new monitoring sites representing spatial variability across residences for epidemiological analyses.
Association of compliance of ventilator bundle with incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia and ventilator utilization among critical patients over 4 years

BACKGROUND: Several studies showed that the implementation of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) ventilator bundle alone or with other preventive measures are associated with reducing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) rates. However, the association with ventilator utilization was rarely examined and the findings were conflicting. The objectives were to validate the bundle association with VAP rate in a traditionally high VAP environment and to examine its association with ventilator utilization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted at the adult medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU) at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Saudi Arabia, between 2010 and 2013. VAP data were collected by a prospective targeted surveillance as per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) methodology while bundle data were collected by a cross-sectional design as per IHI methodology. RESULTS: Ventilator bundle compliance significantly increased from 90% in 2010 to 97% in 2013 (P for trend < 0.001). On the other hand, VAP rate decreased from 3.6 (per 1000 ventilator days) in 2010 to 1.0 in 2013 (P for trend = 0.054) and ventilator utilization ratio decreased from 0.73 in 2010 to 0.59 in 2013 (P for trend < 0.001). There were negative significant correlations between the trends of ventilator bundle compliance and VAP rate (cross-correlation coefficients −0.63 to 0.07) and ventilator utilization (cross-correlation coefficients −0.18 to −0.63). CONCLUSION: More than 70% improvement of VAP rates and approximately 20% improvement of ventilator utilization were observed during IHI ventilator bundle implementation among adult critical patients in a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia. Replicating the current finding in multicenter randomized trials is required before establishing any causal link.
Exploring Writing Anxiety and Self-Efficacy among EFL Graduate Students in Taiwan

This study investigates research writing anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs among English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) graduate students in engineering-related fields. The relationship between the two writing affective constructs was examined and students’ perspectives on research writing anxiety were also explored. A total of 218 survey responses from engineering graduate students at Taiwanese universities were analyzed, along with qualitative data from open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that while master’s and doctoral students felt a similar moderate level of writing anxiety, senior doctoral students were more self-efficacious about writing research papers in English than their junior counterparts. Overall, students with higher writing self-efficacy felt less apprehensive. Additionally, among the individual variables, experience in writing for publication better predicted writing anxiety and self-efficacy than students’ self-reported English proficiency and the number of writing courses taken. The qualitative findings indicated various sources of graduate-level writing anxiety, including insufficient writing skills in English, time constraints, and fear of negative comments. Furthermore, composing different sections of a research paper provoked different levels of anxiety due to the variations in the rhetorical purposes and discourse structures of particular sections. Implications on dealing with research writing anxiety are also discussed.
The Centre for Market and Public Organisation the Retirement-consumption Puzzle and Involuntary Early Retirement: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey the Retirement-consumption Puzzle and Involuntary Early Retirement: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

The principal aim of the CMPO is to develop understanding of the design of activities within the public sector, on the boundary of the state and within recently privatised entities with the objective of developing research in, and assessing and informing policy toward, these activities. Abstract This paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to shed further light on the fall in consumption at retirement (the " retirement-consumption puzzle "). Comparing food spending of men retiring involuntarily early (through ill health or redundancy) with spending of men who retire voluntarily, it finds a significant fall in spending only for those who retire involuntarily. This is consistent with the observed fall in spending being linked to a negative wealth shock for some retirees.
Clinical Predictive Value of Cystatin C in Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease: A Marker of Disease Severity and Subclinical Cardiovascular Dysfunction

Background: Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at high risk of renal dysfunction and cardiovascular morbidity. The association between cystatin C and renal function is well known, however, cystatin C has recently emerged as a strong predictor of cardiovascular events and adverse outcomes in patients with and without kidney disease, mostly related to both inflammation and atherosclerosis. Aim: To determine cystatin C levels in 53 children and adolescents with SCD compared to 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls and assess its relation to markers of hemolysis, iron overload, sickle vasculopathy, and carotid intima–media thickness (CIMT). Methods: Patients with SCD in steady state were studied, focusing on hydroxyurea therapy, hematological profile, serum ferritin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), urinary albumin–creatinine ratio (UACR), and serum cystatin C. Echocardiography and CIMT were assessed using high-resolution ultrasound. Heart disease was defined by systolic left ventricle dysfunction (shortening fraction <30% or ejection fraction <55%). Results: Carotid IMT was significantly higher in patients with SCD compared to controls (P < .001). Patients with SCD having nephropathy, heart disease, or history of frequent sickling crisis (≥3 attacks/y) had significantly higher cystatin C levels than those without (P < .05). Patients with SCD treated with hydroxyurea had lower cystatin C levels than untreated patients (P = .039). High-sensitivity C-reactive protein, UACR, ejection fraction, and CIMT were independently related to cystatin C in multiple regression analysis. The cutoff values of cystatin C for detection of renal or cardiovascular complications were determined. Conclusion: Cystatin C may be considered a biological marker for vascular dysfunction and subclinical atherosclerosis in SCD.
Intermittent availability of ethanol does not always lead to elevated drinking in mice.

AIMS Intermittent access (IA) to an alcohol (ethanol) solution can lead rats to higher ethanol intakes than continuous access, and a recent report showed increased drinking in C57BL/6J mice offered 20% ethanol vs. water 3X/week (Prior studies have offered ethanol during 24 h periods, either continuously or intermittently.). METHODS We tested the high-preference C57BL/6J inbred mice: we also studied High Drinking in the Dark (HDID) mice, a line we have selectively bred to reach intoxicating blood ethanol levels after a short period of access to a single bottle of 20% ethanol. RESULTS Neither HDID or C57BL/6J male mice offered ethanol every other day during only a 4-h access period showed greater daily intake than mice offered ethanol daily for 4 h. There was a small increase in drinking with 24 h IA in C57BL/6J mice. An experiment with HDID mice and their control heterogeneous stock stock modeled closely after a published study with C57BL/6J mice (Hwa, Chu, Levinson SA et al. Persistent escalation of alcohol drinking in C57BL/6J mice with intermittent access to 20% ethanol. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2011;35:1938-1947) showed no significant elevation with 24 h IA exposure in either sex of any genotype. Finally, a near replication of the Hwa et al. study showed modestly greater intake in C57BL/6J mice, confirming the efficacy of 24 h IA. CONCLUSION We conclude that 4 h of IA is likely insufficient to elevate drinking in mice. The lack of effect in HDID mice and their controls further suggests that not all genotypes respond to intermittency.
Test of Void-Filled SHS Beams Under Cyclic Loading

This paper describes a series of tests to failure of concrete filled (composite) tubular beams subjected to cyclic loading. The beams made from steel grade of Yst310 at 345 MPa nominal yield stress, square hollow sections (SHS), depth-to-thickness ratios in the range of 20.5 were tested. The effects of these loading protocols on the elastic hysteretic behavior of the SHS beams were examined. The SHS beams exhibited stable hysteretic behavior up to local buckling, and then showed considerable degradation in strength and ductility depending on d/t ratios. First-cycle yield load moments predicted in tested composite beam specimens were compared with standard CIDECT moments. The effect of strength, ductility, and energy absorption capacity of the beams were examined.
In modelling effects of global warming, invalid assumptions lead to unrealistic projections

In their recent Opinion, Pauly and Cheung () provide new projections of future maximum fish weight (W∞ ). Based on criticism by Lefevre et al. (2017) they changed the scaling exponent for anabolism, dG . Here we find that changing both dG and the scaling exponent for catabolism, b, leads to the projection that fish may even become 98% smaller with a 1°C increase in temperature. This unrealistic outcome indicates that the current W∞ is unlikely to be explained by the Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT) and, therefore, GOLT cannot be used as a mechanistic basis for model projections about fish size in a warmer world.
The Mineral Contents of Some Wild Edible Mushrooms

The aim of this study was to determine and evaluate the amounts of major elements (Ca, Mg, K) and trace elements (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Pb, Ni and Cd) found in forty five species of wild-grown common edible mushrooms growing in the Bingol and Selim (Kars) provinces of Turkey. The minimum and maximum values of the mineral elements concentrations varied for Ca (40-5700), Mg (180-1900), K (5900-29000), Fe (5-1930), Zn (15-450), Cu (5-83), Mn (0.20-80), Pb (<0.010-2.3), Ni (0.15-4.4), and Cd (<0.032-19.1) mg/kg dry weight. The potassium concentrations were found to be greater than those of the other mineral constituents in all the species. The K, Zn, Cu, and Ni concentrations were the greatest in Leucoagaricus
Shifting gears: Coping flexibility in children with and without ADHD

This study examined developmental differences in, and cognitive bases of, coping flexibility in children with and without ADHD. Younger (age 7 to 8) and older (age 10 to 11) children with and without ADHD (N = 80) responded to hypothetical vignettes about problematic interactions with peers that shifted from controllable to uncontrollable over time. We assessed children’s coping strategies, perceptions of controllability, coping repertoire size, and executive function. Coping flexibility was defined as reporting more strategies directed toward adjusting to, rather than changing, situations as they became uncontrollable. Older children without ADHD demonstrated greater coping flexibility than did younger children without ADHD or either age group with ADHD. The age difference in coping flexibility was mediated by older children’s greater accuracy in perceiving decreases in controllability. Children with ADHD (both younger and older) reported more anti social strategies than did children without ADHD, a difference that was accounted for by their smaller repertoire of coping strategies. Programs directed toward enhancing coping flexibility may need to target different cognitive skills for children with and without ADHD.
Identifying the Genes Regulated by AtWRKY6 Using Comparative Transcript and Proteomic Analysis under Phosphorus Deficiency

Phosphorus (P) is an important mineral nutrient for plant growth and development. Overexpressing AtWRKY6 (35S:WRKY6-9) was more sensitive and wrky6 (wrky6-1) was more resistant under low Pi conditions. To better understand the function of AtWRKY6 under low phosphate stress conditions, we applied two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) to analyse differentially expressed proteins in the shoots and roots between wild type, 35S:WRKY6-9 and wrky6-1 after phosphorus deficiency treatment for three days. The results showed 88 differentially abundant protein spots, which were identified between the shoots and roots of 35S:WRKY6-9 and wrky6-1 plants. In addition, 59 differentially expressed proteins were identified in the leaves and roots of 35S:WRKY6-9 plants. After analysis, 9 genes with W-box elements in their promoter sequences were identified in the leaves, while 6 genes with W-box elements in their promoter sequences were identified in the roots. A total of 8 genes were identified as potential target genes according to the quantitative PCR (QPCR) and two dimension difference gel electrophoresis, (2D-DIGE) results, including ATP synthase, gln synthetase, nitrilase, 14-3-3 protein, carbonic anhydrases 2, and tryptophan synthase. These results provide important information concerning the AtWRKY6 regulation network and reveal potential vital target genes of AtWRKY6 under low phosphorus stress. two dimension difference gel electrophoresis, 2D-DIGE