Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Low-Moderate Arsenic Exposure and Arsenic Metabolism with Incident Diabetes and Insulin Resistance in the Strong Heart Family Study

Background: High arsenic exposure has been related to diabetes, but at low-moderate levels the evidence is mixed. Arsenic metabolism, which is partly genetically controlled and may rely on certain B vitamins, plays a role in arsenic toxicity. Objective: We evaluated the prospective association of arsenic exposure and metabolism with type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Methods: We included 1,838 American Indian men and women free of diabetes (median age, 36 y). Arsenic exposure was assessed as the sum of inorganic arsenic (iAs), monomethylarsonate (MMA), and dimethylarsinate (DMA) urine concentrations (ΣAs). Arsenic metabolism was evaluated by the proportions of iAs, MMA, and DMA over their sum (iAs%, MMA%, and DMA%). Homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA2-IR) was measured at baseline and follow-up visits. Incident diabetes was evaluated at follow-up. Results: Median ΣAs, iAs%, MMA%, and DMA% was 4. 4μg/g creatinine, 9.5%, 14.4%, and 75.6%, respectively. Over 10,327 person-years of follow-up, 252 participants developed diabetes. Median HOMA2-IR at baseline was 1.5. The fully adjusted hazard ratio [95% confidence interval (CI)] for incident diabetes per an interquartile range increase in ΣAs was 1.57 (95% CI: 1.18, 2.08) in participants without prediabetes at baseline. Arsenic metabolism was not associated with incident diabetes. ΣAs was positively associated with HOMA2-IR at baseline but negatively with HOMA2-IR at follow-up. Increased MMA% was associated with lower HOMA2-IR when either iAs% or DMA% decreased. The association of arsenic metabolism with HOMA2-IR differed by B-vitamin intake and AS3MT genetics variants. Conclusions: Among participants without baseline prediabetes, arsenic exposure was associated with incident diabetes. Low MMA% was cross-sectional and prospectively associated with higher HOMA2-IR. Research is needed to confirm possible interactions of arsenic metabolism with B vitamins and AS3MT variants on diabetes risk. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2566
Study on Improving the Thermal-Wet Comfort of Clothing during Exercise with an Assembly of Fabrics

The thermal and moisture sensations are widely recognised as the most important factors contributing to the discomfort of subjects during exercise. The aim of this work is to find a new method of assembling different kinds of fabrics in clothing to achieve maximum thermal-wet comfort during exercise. The thermal-wet comfort of ten T-shirts made of ten kinds of hygroscopic fibres, such as cotton, wool, lyocell, model, soybean, bamboo and their blends, was investigated in wear trials in a standard environmental chamber. The experimental results show that the thermal-wet comfort of the ten kinds of T-shirt is varied due to the fibre types, which mainly influence the heat and moisture transfer during exercise. The temperature and humidity distribution of different sections of the human body are significantly different, resulting in different requirements for thermal-wet comfort during exercise. Based on the experimental results, a new method of assembling optimal fabrics with a certain thermal-wet comfort to match different sections of the human body to improve the thermal-wet comfort of the clothing system during exercise is given and validated in comparison wear trials.
Community and International Nutrition Serum Thyroglobulin and Urinary Iodine Concentration Are the Most Appropriate Indicators of Iodine Status and Thyroid Function under Conditions of Increasing Iodine Supply in Schoolchildren in Benin

Iodine deficiency control programs have greatly reduced iodine deficiency disorders worldwide. For monitoring changes in iodine status, different indicators may be used. The aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of indicators of iodine status and thyroid function, thyroglobulin (Tg), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) in serum, thyroid volume and urinary iodine concentration, in iodine-deficient schoolchildren under conditions of increasing iodine supply. The study was established as a double-blind, placebocontrolled oral administration of a single dose of iodized oil to schoolchildren (7–10 y old), living in an iodinedeficient area of Benin, with an observation period of 10 mo. However, 3–4 mo after supplementation, iodized salt became available in the area. The study population therefore comprised an iodized oil–supplemented group and a nonsupplemented group, both of which had variable, uncontrolled intakes of iodized salt during the last 6 mo of the study. Initial mean serum concentrations of TSH and FT4 were within the normal range, whereas serum Tg concentration, urinary iodine concentration and thyroid volume were indicative of moderate-to-severe iodine deficiency. At the end of the study, all indicators had improved significantly, except thyroid volume, which had decreased only in the supplemented group. The supplemented group also still had significantly lower serum Tg and higher urinary iodine concentrations than the nonsupplemented group. Serum Tg and urinary iodine concentrations are the indicators most influenced by a changing iodine supply. Current normal reference ranges of serum concentrations of TSH and FT4 are too wide for detecting iodine deficiency in this age group. J. Nutr. 131:
RHEOMETRIC STUDIES ON AGAROSE GEL- A BRAIN MIMIC MATERIAL

Drug delivery in post operative brain tumor therapy is a challenge to medical fraternity as the blood brain barrier prevents the drugs to reach the required site at the required rate. New techniques of drug delivery are being proposed by many research workers and are being tried as in-vitro experiments in the laboratory. These experiments require brain tissues. Most of the initial experiments are done with animal brain tissues (mostly porcine) or artificial brain tissue mimicking materials. The most commonly used brain tissue mimicking material is the agarose gel. The aim of the present study is to standardize the preparation of brain mimic material using the commercially available agarose gel powder. Agarose gel samples of different concentrations in water are prepared and their mechanical parameters, (storage shear modulus, loss shear modulus and complex shear modulus) are studied using Rotational Rheometer. The mechanical parameters are compared with those reported in the literature for porcine brain tissue and human brain tissue.
HIV and other predictors of serum folate, serum ferritin, and hemoglobin in pregnancy: a cross-sectional study in Zimbabwe.

BACKGROUND Folate and iron status and hemoglobin concentrations are important to maternal and infant health. OBJECTIVE Our goal was to identify predictors of serum folate, serum ferritin, and hemoglobin. DESIGN This was a cross-sectional study of 1669 pregnant women (22-35 wk of gestation) in Harare, Zimbabwe, who were receiving prenatal care. The statistical effects of age, season, gestational age, gravidity, HIV-1 infection, malaria parasitemia, and serum alpha1-antichymotrypsin (ACT) on serum folate, serum ferritin (log10 transformed), and hemoglobin were estimated by using multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS Serum folate (x: 11.4 micromol/L) was 0.52-nmol/L (95% CI: 0.04, 1.0) lower in HIV-infected women than in uninfected women and 0.65-nmol/L (0.014, 1.28) lower in weeks 25-35 than in weeks 22-25. Serum ferritin (geometric x: 11.6 microg/L) was 0.93 times (0.86, 0.99) lower in HIV-infected women and 2.25 times (1.41, 3.61) higher in women with malaria parasitemia than in uninfected women. Similarly, serum ferritin was 0.71 times (0.63, 0.79) higher in weeks 32-35 than in weeks 22-25 and 1.21 times (1.12, 1.29) higher in gravida > or =3 than in gravida 1. Elevated serum ACT was a strong predictor of serum folate, serum ferritin, and hemoglobin. HIV infection was associated with a 12.9-g/L (8.9, 16.8) lower hemoglobin concentration in women with nondepleted iron stores but low serum retinol and a 7-8-g/L lower hemoglobin concentration in women with other combinations of serum ferritin and retinol (P for interaction = 0.038). Season, age, gestational age, and gravidity were not significant predictors of hemoglobin. Low serum folate, ferritin, and retinol were associated with low hemoglobin. CONCLUSIONS HIV was associated with lower serum folate, serum ferritin, and hemoglobin. HIV infection was also associated with lower hemoglobin, particularly in women with stored iron and low serum retinol. Low serum folate, ferritin, and retinol were associated with low hemoglobin.
The effect of electrode composition on rf magnetron sputtering deposition of Pb[(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0.7Ti_0.3]O_3 films

Ferroelectric Pb[(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)_0. 7Ti_0. 3]O_3 (abbreviated PMNT) thin films were prepared on silicon substrates by rf magnetron sputtering deposition with PbO-enriched PMNT targets. The effects of electrode composition and thin film growth conditions were investigated with grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The dielectric property of perovskite films was also measured. The usage of a Pt/Ti electrode was observed to enhance the formation of perovskite PMNT films; in addition, the TiO_2 rutile phase was formed at the interface between the PMNT film and Pt electrode due to the oxidation of out-diffused Ti atoms from the inner Ti electrode. It was then noticed that if a target containing a larger excess of PbO was used, a higher consumption of TiO_2 occurred and more perovskite phase would be formed in the deposited films. Consequently, perovskite PMNT films having a uniform microstructure and satisfactory dielectric property close to the bulk value were obtained by rf magnetron sputtering deposition on the Pt/Ti/SiO_2/Si substrate at 640 °C under appropriate working conditions.
Alignment of the UMLS semantic network with BioTop: methodology and assessment

Motivation: For many years, the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) semantic network (SN) has been used as an upper-level semantic framework for the categorization of terms from terminological resources in biomedicine. BioTop has recently been developed as an upper-level ontology for the biomedical domain. In contrast to the SN, it is founded upon strict ontological principles, using OWL DL as a formal representation language, which has become standard in the semantic Web. In order to make logic-based reasoning available for the resources annotated or categorized with the SN, a mapping ontology was developed aligning the SN with BioTop. Methods: The theoretical foundations and the practical realization of the alignment are being described, with a focus on the design decisions taken, the problems encountered and the adaptations of BioTop that became necessary. For evaluation purposes, UMLS concept pairs obtained from MEDLINE abstracts by a named entity recognition system were tested for possible semantic relationships. Furthermore, all semantic-type combinations that occur in the UMLS Metathesaurus were checked for satisfiability. Results: The effort-intensive alignment process required major design changes and enhancements of BioTop and brought up several design errors that could be fixed. A comparison between a human curator and the ontology yielded only a low agreement. Ontology reasoning was also used to successfully identify 133 inconsistent semantic-type combinations. Availability: BioTop, the OWL DL representation of the UMLS SN, and the mapping ontology are available at http://www.purl. org/biotop/. Contact: stschulz@uni-freiburg.de
Automated analysis of nocturnal oximetry as screening tool for childhood obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome

Childhood obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is a highly prevalent condition that negatively affects health, performance and quality of life of infants and young children. Early detection and treatment improves neuropsychological and cognitive deficits linked with the disease. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of automated analysis of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) recordings as a screening tool for OSAHS. As an initial step, statistical, spectral and nonlinear features were estimated to compose an initial feature set. Then, fast correlation-based filter (FCBF) was applied to search for the optimum subset. Finally, the discrimination power (OSAHS negative vs. OSAHS positive) of three pattern recognition algorithms was assessed: linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) and logistic regression (LR). Three clinical cutoff points commonly used in the literature for positive diagnosis of the disease were applied: apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 1, 3 and 5 events per hour (e/h). Our methodology reached 88.6% accuracy (71.4% sensitivity and 100.0% specificity, 100.0% positive predictive value, and 84.0% negative predictive value) in an independent test set using QDA for a clinical cut-off point of 5 e/h. These results suggest that SpO2 nocturnal recordings may be used to develop a reliable and efficient screening tool for childhood OSAHS.
Early risk factors for increased adiposity: a cohort study of African American subjects followed from birth to young adulthood.

BACKGROUND Obesity is an increasing concern in the United States. Effective prevention of obesity requires the risk factors to be well defined. African Americans have a high risk of obesity. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to identify risk factors, present at birth, for increased adiposity in adulthood in an African American population. DESIGN In this retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort study, anthropometric and socioeconomic variables were collected at birth. A representative sample of 447 African American subjects was followed up until young adulthood, when skinfold thickness was measured. Associations between the independent variables and increased adiposity (skinfold thickness above the 85th percentile) were explored by using unadjusted and adjusted analyses. RESULTS Three variables measured at birth were independently associated with adiposity in young adulthood, explaining 12% of the variance. The odds ratios (with 95% CIs) of these variables for increased adiposity were 2.7 (1.2, 6.2) for female sex, 4.0 (1.4, 11. 2) for first-born status, and 1.15 (1.06, 1.25) for each unit increment in maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)). After adjustment for these variables, birth weight for gestational age and socioeconomic variables were not associated with adiposity. CONCLUSIONS This cohort study of African American subjects was the first to identify first-born status as an independent risk factor for increased adiposity in adulthood in a US population. The results of the study strengthen previous reports of the effect of female sex and maternal BMI on adulthood obesity. Identification of risk factors early in life may help target prevention toward high-risk children and allow healthy lifestyles to be established before the onset of obesity.
Supplementing lactating women with flaxseed oil does not increase docosahexaenoic acid in their milk.

BACKGROUND Flaxseed oil is a rich source of 18:3n-3 (alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA), which is ultimately converted to 22:6n-3 (docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA), a fatty acid important for the development of the infant brain and retina. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine the effect of flaxseed oil supplementation on the breast-milk, plasma, and erythrocyte contents of DHA and other n-3 fatty acids in lactating women. DESIGN Seven women took 20 g flaxseed oil (10.7 g ALA) daily for 4 wk. Breast-milk and blood samples were collected weekly before, during, and after supplementation and were analyzed for fatty acid composition. RESULTS Breast milk, plasma, and erythrocyte ALA increased significantly over time (P < 0.001) and after 2 and 4 wk of supplementation (P < 0.05). Over time, 20:5n-3 (eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA) increased significantly in breast milk (P = 0.004) and in plasma (P < 0.001). In addition, plasma EPA increased significantly (P < 0.05) after 2 and 4 wk of supplementation. There were significant increases over time in breast-milk 22:5n-3 (docosapentaenoic acid, or DPA) (P < 0.02), plasma DPA (P < 0.001), and erythrocyte DPA (P < 0.01). No significant changes were observed in breast-milk, plasma, or erythrocyte DHA contents after flaxseed oil supplementation. CONCLUSIONS Dietary flaxseed oil increased the breast-milk, plasma, and erythrocyte contents of the n-3 fatty acids ALA, EPA, and DPA but had no effect on breast-milk, plasma, or erythrocyte DHA contents.
Providing Palliative Care in a Swedish Support Home for People Who Are Homeless

Despite high frequencies of multiple, life-limiting conditions relating to palliative care needs, people who are homeless are one of the most underserved and rarely encountered groups in palliative care settings. Instead, they often die in care places where palliative competence is not available. In this qualitative single-case study, we explored the conditions and practices of palliative care from the perspective of staff at a Swedish support home for homeless people. Interpretive description guided the research process, and data were generated from repeated reflective conversations with staff in groups, individually, and in pairs. The findings disclose a person-centered approach to palliative care, grounded in the understanding of the person’s health/illness and health literacy, and how this is related to and determinant on life as a homeless individual. Four patterns shape this approach: building trustful and family-like relationships, re-dignifying the person, re-considering communication about illness and dying, and re-defining flexible and pragmatic care solutions.
iPSCs and fibroblast subclones from the same fibroblast population contain comparable levels of sequence variations

Significance One important unsolved question in the stem cell field is, do induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have more mutations than other cultured somatic cells because of the reprogramming process? In this work, we took a novel approach to interrogate the genome integrity of iPSCs by comparing mutational load of clonal fibroblast lines and iPSC lines derived from the same fibroblast parental cells. Whole exome sequencing demonstrates that iPSCs and clonal fibroblasts have comparable numbers of new mutations, as compared with their parental fibroblasts. Deep, targeted resequencing also shows that greater than 90% of these mutations are random, preexisting sequence variants in small subsets of the parental fibroblast population. Our data strongly suggest that reprogramming process is not mutagenic. Genome integrity of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has been extensively studied in recent years, but it is still unclear whether iPSCs contain more genomic variations than cultured somatic cells. One important question is the origin of genomic variations detected in iPSCs–whether iPSC reprogramming induces such variations. Here, we undertook a unique approach by deriving fibroblast subclones and clonal iPSC lines from the same fibroblast population and applied next-generation sequencing to compare genomic variations in these lines. Targeted deep sequencing of parental fibroblasts revealed that most variants detected in clonal iPSCs and fibroblast subclones were rare variants inherited from the parental fibroblasts. Only a small number of variants remained undetectable in the parental fibroblasts, which were thus likely to be de novo. Importantly, the clonal iPSCs and fibroblast subclones contained comparable numbers of de novo variants. Collectively, our data suggest that iPSC reprogramming is not mutagenic.
Disorders of sex development (DSD): Clinical service delivery in the United States

Following the principles of care recommended in the 2006 Consensus Statement on Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), along with input from representatives of peer support and advocacy groups, this study surveyed DSD clinical management practices at healthcare facilities in the United States. DSD are congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomic sex is atypical. Facilities providing care for patients with DSD were targeted for participation. Specialty providers completed a survey with questions in six broad categories: Institution Information, Nomenclature and Care Guidelines, Interdisciplinary Services, Staff and Community Education, DSD Management, and Research. Twenty‐two of 36 targeted sites (61%) participated. Differences were observed between sites with regard to what conditions were considered to be DSD. All sites reported some degree of involvement of pediatric urology and/or surgery and pediatric endocrinology in the care of DSD patients. Gynecology and neonatology were most frequently not represented. Wide variation was observed across sites in continuing education standards, obtaining informed consent for clinical procedures, and in specific clinical management practices. This survey is the first to assess DSD clinical management practices in the United States. The findings establish a baseline of current practices against which providers delivering care to these patients and their families can benchmark their efforts. Such surveys also provide a practical framework for collaboration in identifying opportunities for change that enhance health and quality of life outcomes for patients and families affected by DSD.
Fly ash–limestone ternary cements: effect of component fineness

Composite cements in which the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is partly replaced by limestone powder and/or siliceous fly ash (FA) at levels up to 35% were studied using three different finenesses for each material. The aim was to evaluate the influence of fineness and replacement level on the development of the compressive strength, the amount of bound water and calcium hydroxide and the heat of hydration of the composite cements. Replacing up to 10% of the fine OPC by fine limestone powder did not impair the compressive strength. Using 5% fine limestone powder instead of 5% fine FA in a cement containing 35% FA resulted, on the other hand, in a considerable strength increase of 13% at 28 days, indicating a synergetic effect between limestone powder and fly ash. The OPC fineness was the major parameter regarding the early hydration. At 28 days the fineness of the fly ash also played an important role due to its contribution to the pozzolanic reaction. Indeed, intensive grinding of the fly ash appeared to.