Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of renal denervation on resistant hypertension: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials

ABSTRACT Background: This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of renal denervation (RDN) on resistant hypertension. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central database were searched for eligible randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Changes from the baseline of the office blood pressure and the 24-h ambulatory blood pressure were extracted. Results: Nine RCTs were included. RDN reduced the mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by −8.23 mm Hg (95%CI: −16.86, 0.39) and −3.77 mm Hg (95%CI: −7.21, −0.32), respectively, compared with the control. In the population with a baseline SBP more than 170 mm Hg, the RDN reduced SBP by −17.77 mm Hg (95%CI: −33.73, −1.82) and DBP by −7.51 mm Hg (95%CI: −12.58, −2.44). In the subgroup with no medication adjustment, the RDN reduced SBP by −15.56 mm Hg (95%CI: −26.33, −4.80) and DBP by −6.89 mm Hg (95%CI: −9.99, −3.79). The proportion of patients with SBP decrease of 10 mm Hg or more and the controlled office BP were not different between two groups. RDN reduced 24-h mean SBP and DBP by −3.34 mm Hg (95%CI: −5.30, −1.38) and −1.56 mm Hg (95%CI: −2.71, −0.41), respectively. The SBPs in the subgroups with higher baseline SBP and with no medication adjustment were significantly decreased after the HTN-3 was omitted. Conclusion: Radiofrequency RDN in a randomized manner did not have superiority compared with medical treatment at 6-month follow-up in general population. Current evidence provides insufficient evidence to support the use of such RDN strategy in the treatment of resistant hypertension. The result could not be used to extrapolate other strategies’ effect.
Experimental Investigation on Durability of Reinforced Concrete Beams in A Simulated Marine Environment

This paper presents some results from a comprehensive experimental program designed to determine the interaction between mechanical loading and corrosion of reinforcing steel, as well as their combined effect on serviceability and residual load- bearing capacity of reinforced concrete beams. Beam specimens with the size of 120mm×200mm×1700mm were subjected to four-point bending at various sustained loading levels (0%, 25%, 45%, and 65% of the ultimate load) during the corrosion test process. The marine tidal zone was simulated by alternating spraying and draining of 3.5% NaCl solution. An external direct current technique was used to accelerate the corrosion of the reinforcement. Residual flexural load-bearing capacity of the beams was evaluated at the end of the experiment. The results indicate that the loading has a significant effect on corrosion. Under simultaneous loading and accelerated corrosion conditions, the time-dependent deflection of the beams increases with the progressive corrosion of the reinforcement. The beams under high-level loading deteriorate more rapidly than those under low-level loading and without loading. As a result, the residual flexural capacity of the beams subjected to higher level loading was much lower than that of the beams subjected to lower level loading and in the absence of loading. The results suggest that, for a rational service-life prediction of reinforced concrete structures, the influence of the service load on the structural performance should be considered in combination with environmental conditions.
A Theory of Private Research Funding

Research can be carried out in academia, or in the private sector, or as a mixture, for example as privately funded academic research. We develop a theoretical framework in which private research funding (PRF) transfers information about the value of a research project from the private sector into academia, in an incentive compatible way. PRF dominates neither pure academia nor private research. We derive predictions about the optimal sequence of research designs, and about the optimal duration of a project within different designs. For example, PRF is never optimal if not preceded by pure academical research. We compare our results with stylized facts.
Effects of Rice Straw Application and Green Manuring on Selected Soil Physical Properties and Microbial Biomass Carbon in No-Till Paddy Field

Applications of plant residues and green manures generally improve the properties of soil under conventional farming system. Therefore, we investigated the improvement of selected soil physical properties, bulk density, porosity, and water content, soil penetration resistance, and soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC) content as affected by different management practices: 1) conventional tillage without rice straw or green manure crop treatment (TNT, check plot), 2) no-tillage amended with rice straw (NTRS), 3) no-tillage amended with rye (NTR), 4) no-tillage amended with Chinese milk vetch (NTCMV), 5) no-tillage without rice straw or green manure crop treatment (NTNT), The values of bulk density, porosity, and water content ranged from 1.22 to 1.37 Mg ㎥, from 48.3 to 54.0%, and from 35.0 to 40.2%, respectively. The management practices might positively influence the changes in the selected soil properties, especially in the second experimental year. The soil penetration resistance and SMBC content were also improved after applying rice straw and green manure crops as comparing with TNT. Therefore, applications of the rice straw and green manure crop management practices under no-tillage system positively influenced soil physical properties and soil microbial activities in paddy field.
Two novel colorectal cancer risk loci in the region on chromosome 9q22.32

Highly penetrant cancer syndromes account for less than 5% of all cases with familial colorectal cancer (CRC), and other genetic contribution explains the majority of the genetic contribution to CRC. A CRC susceptibility locus on chromosome 9q has been suggested. In this study, families where risk of CRC was linked to the region, were used to search for predisposing mutations in all genes in the region. No disease-causing mutation was found. Next, haplotype association studies were performed in the region, comparing Swedish CRC cases (2664) and controls (4782). Two overlapping haplotypes were suggested. One 10-SNP haplotype was indicated in familial CRC (OR 1.4, p = 0.00005) and one 25-SNP haplotype was indicated in sporadic CRC (OR 2.2, p = 0.0000012). The allele frequencies of the 10-SNP and the 25-SNP haplotypes were 13.7% and 2.5% respectively and both included one RNA, RP11-332M4.1 and RP11-l80l4.2, in the non-overlapping regions. The sporadic 25-SNP haplotype could not be studied further, but the familial 10-SNP haplotype was analyzed in 61 additional CRC families, and 6 of them were informative for all markers and had the risk haplotype. Targeted sequencing of the 10-SNP region in the linked families identified one variant in RP11-332M4.1, suggestive to confer the increased CRC risk on this haplotype. Our results support the presence of two loci at 9q22.32, each with one RNA as the putative cause of increased CRC risk. These RNAs could exert their effect through the same, or different, genes/pathways, possibly through the regulation of neighboring genes, such as PTCH1, FANCC, DKFZP434H0512, ERCC6L2 or the processed transcript LINC00046.
' s personal copy Misperception of exocentric directions in auditory space

Previous studies have demonstrated large errors (over 30 ) in visually perceived exocentric directions (the direction between two objects that are both displaced from the observer’s location; e.g., Philbeck et al. [Philbeck, J. W., Sargent, J., Arthur, J. C., & Dopkins, S. (2008). Large manual pointing errors, but accurate verbal reports, for indications of target azimuth. Perception, 37, 511–534]). Here, we investigated whether a similar pattern occurs in auditory space. Blindfolded participants either attempted to aim a pointer at auditory targets (an exocentric task) or gave a verbal estimate of the egocentric target azimuth. Targets were located at 20–160 azimuth in the right hemispace. For comparison, we also collected pointing and verbal judgments for visual targets. We found that exocentric pointing responses exhibited sizeable undershooting errors, for both auditory and visual targets, that tended to become more strongly negative as azimuth increased (up to 19 for visual targets at 160 ). Verbal estimates of the auditory and visual target azimuths, however, showed a dramatically different pattern, with relatively small overestimations of azimuths in the rear hemispace. At least some of the differences between verbal and pointing responses appear to be due to the frames of reference underlying the responses; when participants used the pointer to reproduce the egocentric target azimuth rather than the exocentric target direction relative to the pointer, the pattern of pointing errors more closely resembled that seen in verbal reports. These results show that there are similar distortions in perceiving exocentric directions in visual and auditory
Supraglottoplasty in neonates and infants

Background: Supraglottoplasty is the mainstay of surgical treatment for laryngomalacia. A novel supraglottoplasty surgical technique is needed to achieve better efficacy. The purpose of this study was to introduce modified microscopic radiofrequency ablation supraglottoplasty (MMRAS) for the treatment of congenital laryngomalacia and to evaluate the outcome and effectiveness of this novel approach. Methods: Seventeen children with severe laryngomalacia who underwent MMRAS were studied retrospectively. Supraglottoplasty of type III laryngomalacia was different from classical method. All the patients were kept intubated for 5 days after surgery to achieve a better epiglottal position and to avoid reconglutination of aryepiglottic folds. The patients’ demographic information, symptoms, comorbidities, type of laryngomalacia, synchronous airway lesions and final outcomes were examined. Results: The median age at the time of surgery was 3.36 months (3 months 10 days). Operative indications included feeding difficulties, noisy breathing or respiratory distress (or both), and sleep-related symptoms. The MMRAS success rate was 82.4%. Most patients were extubated successfully on postoperative day 5. The major postoperative complication was pulmonary infection which occurred in 3 cases (17.6%) and required anti-infective therapy. No perioperative deaths and no long-term complications occurred. Failures were observed in 3 (17.6%) of 17 cases, 2 patients presented with a neurological disease and required tracheostomy, 1 patient relapsed because of postoperative adhesions and later underwent revision supraglottoplasty. Conclusions: From these results, we conclude that MMRAS is an effective and safe treatment for symptomatic laryngomalacia and has the potential to provide better breathing, feeding, and sleeping outcomes in children with severe laryngomalacia. Postoperative intubation for 5 days may result in better therapeutic outcomes. Multicenter cooperative studies of comparison between MMRAS and conventional approaches would lend further evidence-based support for this surgical method.
Continuous Delivery: Building Trust in a Large-Scale, Complex Government Organization

For many software development teams, the first aspects that come to mind regarding continuous delivery (CD) are the operational challenges and competitive benefits. In the authors’ experience, CD was much more: it was a survival technique. This article presents how and why they applied CD in a large governmental project for the development of a collaborative development environment. They share the challenges they faced and the strategies they used to overcome them. The article concludes with a set of lessons learned that can be valuable for readers in a variety of situations. This article is part of a special issue on release engineering.
Role of newer and re-emerging older agents in the treatment of infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial resistance has been identified by the World Health Organization as “one of the three greatest threats to human health. ” Gram negative bacteria in particular drive this alarming trend. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterobacter species are of particular importance as they are associated with poor clinical outcomes and are common causes for a variety of infections including bacteremia, urinary tract infection, intra-abdominal infections and pneumonia. CRE are difficult to treat as carbapenem resistance is often accompanied by resistance to additional drug classes. For example, CRE may be extensively drug resistant or even pandrug resistant. Unfortunately, CRE infections have increased over the past 15 y while new and effective antibiotics have not kept pace. Recently, however, new agents have become available to help treat CRE infection, and several more are under development. This article reviews the efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetic issues around 4 emerging agents to treat CRE – ceftazidime-avibactam, fosfomycin, tigecycline, and minocycline. In addition, an overview of agents in the antibiotic pipeline – meropenem-vaborbactam, imipenem-relebactam, plazomicin, and eravacycline is provided. More established agents, such as those in the polymyxin class and aminoglycoside class (other than the pipeline agent plazomicin), are not addressed here.
Complete mitochondrial genome of the sandfish Holothuria scabra (Holothuroidea, Holothuriidae)

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence of Holothuria scabra, an economically and ecologically important tropical sea cucumber, was first sequenced and annotated. The mitochondrial DNA is 15,779 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a 456 bp putative control region, of which gene order is identical to the echinoderm ground pattern. Comparative analyses between H. scabra and other holothurians revealed three new findings: (1) the mitogenome of H. scabra is highly compact having five regions with overlapping genes and least intergenic nucleotides among the sequenced holothurians, only accounting for 3.58% of its mitogenome; (2) the genus Holothuria mitogenomes show a pattern of high interspecies divergence at the 13 PCGs, and the genetic p-distance reaches 25.68% between H. scabra and H. forskali; (3) the incomplete stop codon T of cox2 shared with H. forskali may be a common feature in the genus Holothuria.
Inhibition of Acid Sphingomyelinase Depletes Cellular Phosphatidylserine and Mislocalizes K-Ras from the Plasma Membrane

ABSTRACT K-Ras must localize to the plasma membrane for biological activity; thus, preventing plasma membrane interaction blocks K-Ras signal output. Here we show that inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) mislocalizes both the K-Ras isoforms K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B from the plasma membrane to the endomembrane and inhibits their nanoclustering. We found that fendiline, a potent ASM inhibitor, reduces the phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) and cholesterol content of the inner plasma membrane. These lipid changes are causative because supplementation of fendiline-treated cells with exogenous PtdSer rapidly restores K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B plasma membrane binding, nanoclustering, and signal output. Conversely, supplementation with exogenous cholesterol restores K-Ras4A but not K-Ras4B nanoclustering. These experiments reveal different operational pools of PtdSer on the plasma membrane. Inhibition of ASM elevates cellular sphingomyelin and reduces cellular ceramide levels. Concordantly, delivery of recombinant ASM or exogenous ceramide to fendiline-treated cells rapidly relocalizes K-Ras4B and PtdSer to the plasma membrane. K-Ras4B mislocalization is also recapitulated in ASM-deficient Neimann-Pick type A and B fibroblasts. This study identifies sphingomyelin metabolism as an indirect regulator of K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B signaling through the control of PtdSer plasma membrane content. It also demonstrates the critical and selective importance of PtdSer to K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B plasma membrane binding and nanoscale spatial organization.
Climate change and the population collapse during the “Great Famine” in pre-industrial Europe

Population dynamics, economy, and human demography started with Malthus, the idea that population growth is limited by resources and “positive checks” occur when population growth overshoots the available resources. In fact, historical evidence indicates that long-term climate changes have destabilized civilizations and caused population collapses via food shortages, diseases, and wars. One of the worst population collapses of human societies occurred during the early fourteenth century in northern Europe; the “Great Famine” was the consequence of the dramatic effects of climate deterioration on human population growth. Thus, part of my motivation was to demonstrate that simple theoretical-based models can be helpful in understanding the causes of population change in preindustrial societies. Here, the results suggest that a logistic model with temperature as a “lateral” perturbation effect is the key element for explaining the population collapse exhibited by the European population during the “Great Famine”.
Pre- and postsynaptic changes in the neuromuscular junction in dystrophic mice

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a devastating neuromuscular disease in which weakness, increased susceptibility to muscle injury, and inadequate repair appear to underlie the pathology. While most attention has focused within the muscle fiber, we recently demonstrated in mdx mice (murine model for DMD) significant morphologic alterations at the motor endplate of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) and corresponding NMJ transmission failure after injury. Here we extend these initial observations at the motor endplate to gain insight into the pre- vs. postsynaptic morphology, as well as the subsynaptic nuclei in healthy (WT) vs. mdx mice. We quantified the discontinuity and branching of the terminal nerve in adult mice. We report mdx- and age-dependent changes for discontinuity and an increase in branching when compared to WT. To examine mdx- and age-dependent changes in the relative localization of pre- and postsynaptic structures, we calculated NMJ occupancy, defined as the ratio of the footprint occupied by presynaptic vesicles vs. that of the underlying motor endplate. The normally congruent coupling between presynaptic and postsynaptic morphology was altered in mdx mice, independent of age. Finally we found an almost two-fold increase in the number of nuclei and an increase in density (nuclei/area) underlying the NMJ. These outcomes suggest substantial remodeling of the NMJ during dystrophic progression. This remodeling reflects plasticity in both pre- and postsynaptic contributors to NMJ structure, and thus perhaps also NM transmission and muscle function.
In a Heartbeat: Light and Cardiovascular Physiology

Light impinging on the retina fulfils a dual function: it serves for vision and it is required for proper entrainment of the endogenous circadian timing system to the 24-h day, thus influencing behaviors that promote health and optimal quality of life but are independent of image formation. The circadian pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei modulates the cardiovascular system with an intrinsic ability to anticipate morning solar time and with a circadian nature of adverse cardiovascular events. Here, we infer that light exposure might affect cardiovascular function and provide evidence from existing research. Findings show a time-of-day dependent increase in relative sympathetic tone associated with bright light in the morning but not in the evening hours. Furthermore, dynamic light in the early morning hours can reduce the deleterious sleep-to-wake evoked transition on cardiac modulation. On the contrary, effects of numerous light parameters, such as illuminance level and wavelength of monochromatic light, on cardiac function are mixed. Therefore, in future research studies, light modalities, such as timing, duration, and its wavelength composition, should be taken in to account when testing the potential of light as a non-invasive countermeasure for adverse cardiovascular events.
Prospective Cohort Study of Work Functioning Impairment and Subsequent Absenteeism Among Japanese Workers

Objective: This study examined the association of work functioning impairment as measured by work functioning impairment scale (WFun) and subsequent sick leave. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at a manufacturer in Japan, and 1263 employees participated. Information on sick leave was gathered during an 18-month follow-up period. Results: The hazard ratios (HRs) of long-term sick leave were substantially increased for those with a WFun score greater than 25 (HR = 3.99, P = 0.003). The incidence rate ratios (IRRs) of days of short-term absence gradually increased as scores of WFun increased (IRR = 1.18, P < 0.001 in the subjects with WFun of over 25 comparing with those with WFun of 14 or less). Conclusions: Assessing work functioning impairment is a useful way of classifying risk for future sick leave among employees.
Molecular Systematics of the Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Endemic Brachyuran Family Bythograeidae: A Comparison of Three Bayesian Species Tree Methods

Brachyuran crabs of the family Bythograeidae are endemic to deep-sea hydrothermal vents and represent one of the most successful groups of macroinvertebrates that have colonized this extreme environment. Occurring worldwide, the family includes six genera (Allograea, Austinograea, Bythograea, Cyanagraea, Gandalfus, and Segonzacia) and fourteen formally described species. To investigate their evolutionary relationships, we conducted Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian molecular phylogenetic analyses, based on DNA sequences from fragments of three mitochondrial genes (16S rDNA, Cytochrome oxidase I, and Cytochrome b) and three nuclear genes (28S rDNA, the sodium–potassium ATPase a-subunit ‘NaK’, and Histone H3A). We employed traditional concatenated (i.e., supermatrix) phylogenetic methods, as well as three recently developed Bayesian multilocus methods aimed at inferring species trees from potentially discordant gene trees. We found strong support for two main clades within Bythograeidae: one comprising the members of the genus Bythograea; and the other comprising the remaining genera. Relationships within each of these two clades were partially resolved. We compare our results with an earlier hypothesis on the phylogenetic relationships among bythograeid genera based on morphology. We also discuss the biogeography of the family in the light of our results. Our species tree analyses reveal differences in how each of the three methods weighs conflicting phylogenetic signal from different gene partitions and how limits on the number of outgroup taxa may affect the results.