Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross-cultural adaptation and analysis of the psychometric properties of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test and MiniBESTest in the elderly and individuals with Parkinson's disease: application of the Rasch model.

BACKGROUND Older adults and individuals with neurological problems such as Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit balance deficits that might impair their mobility and independence. The assessment of balance must be useful in identifying the presence of instability and orient interventions. OBJECTIVE To translate and perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest) and MiniBESTest to Brazilian Portuguese and analyze its psychometric properties. METHOD The tests were translated and adapted to Portuguese according to a standard method and then subjected to a test-retest reliability assessment (10 older adults; 10 individuals with PD). The psychometric properties were assessed by the Rasch model (35 older adults; 35 individuals with PD). RESULTS The reliability coefficient of the tests relative to the items and subjects varied from 0.91 and 0.98, which is indicative of the stability and reproducibility of the measures. In the BESTest, the person (4.19) and item (5.36) separation index established six balance ability levels and seven levels of difficulty, respectively. In the MiniBESTest, the person (3.16) and item (6.41) separation index established four balance ability levels and nine levels of difficulty, respectively. Two items in the BESTest did not fit with the model expectations, but the construct validity was not compromised. No item in the MiniBESTest was erratic. CONCLUSIONS The results corroborate the diagnostic and screening functions of the BESTest and MiniBESTest, respectively, and indicate that the Brazilian versions exhibit adequate reliability, construct validity, response stability, and capacity to distinguish among various balance ability levels in older adults and individuals with PD.
Diet-induced effects on neuronal and glial elements in the middle-aged rat hippocampus

Abstract Consumption of a high-fat and/or high-cholesterol diet can have detrimental effects on the brain. In the present study, dietary treatment with saturated fats, trans fats, or cholesterol to middle-aged Fischer 344 rats resulted in alterations to serum triglyceride and cholesterol levels, organ weights, and hippocampal morphology. Previously, we demonstrated that a 10% hydrogenated coconut oil and 2% cholesterol diet resulted in worse performance on the 12-day water radial arm maze, increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and decreased dendritic microtubule associated protein 2 (MAP2) staining in the hippocampus. The diets administered herein were used to examine components from the previous diet and further examine their effects on hippocampal morphology. Specifically, neuronal morphology, dendritic integrity, fatty acid metabolism, microgliosis, and blood vessel structure in the hippocampus and/or adjacent structures were explored. Our results indicate alterations to peripheral and neural systems following each of the diets.
Peroperative microbial contamination of anterior chamber aspirates during extracapsular cataract extraction and phacoemulsification

BACKGROUND The normal conjunctival flora is one of the main sources of intraocular contamination during cataract surgery. The theory that the positive anterior chamber (AC) pressure during phacoemulsification (phaco), and the smaller wound utilised, might reduce the rate of contamination was studied. METHODS The peroperative AC aspirates of 210 consecutive patients undergoing cataract surgery were assessed. In group 1, 100 patients underwent a standard extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE). In group 2, 110 patients underwent phacoemulsification of the crystalline lens through a scleral tunnel. AC aspirates from the Simcoe irrigation/aspiration cannula (group 1) and phaco probe (group 2) were collected and microbiological studies performed after direct and enrichment cultures. RESULTS There were 29 (29%) positives in the ECCE group compared with 22 (20%) positive cultures from AC aspirates in the phaco group. Coagulase negative staphylococcus (CNS) was the commonest contaminant in both groups. CONCLUSION Although there was a higher rate of AC contamination during ECCE, the difference was not statistically significant (p> 0.10, χ2=2.31).
Metal–Arene Complexes with Indolo[3,2-c]-quinolines: Effects of Ruthenium vs Osmium and Modifications of the Lactam Unit on Intermolecular Interactions, Anticancer Activity, Cell Cycle, and Cellular Accumulation

Six novel ruthenium(II)– and osmium(II)–arene complexes with three modified indolo[3,2-c]quinolines have been synthesized in situ starting from 2-aminoindoloquinolines and 2-pyridinecarboxaldehyde in the presence of [M(p-cymene)Cl2]2 (M = Ru, Os) in ethanol. All complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic techniques (1H, 13C NMR, IR, UV–vis), and ESI mass spectrometry, while four complexes were investigated by X-ray diffraction. The complexes have been tested for antiproliferative activity in vitro in A549 (non-small cell lung), SW480 (colon), and CH1 (ovarian) human cancer cell lines and showed IC50 values between 1.3 and >80 μM. The effects of Ru vs Os and modifications of the lactam unit on intermolecular interactions, antiproliferative activity, and cell cycle are reported. One ruthenium complex and its osmium analogue have been studied for anticancer activity in vivo applied both intraperitoneally and orally against the murine colon carcinoma model CT-26. Interestingly, the osmium(II) complex displayed significant growth-inhibitory activity in contrast to its ruthenium counterpart, providing stimuli for further investigation of this class of compounds as potential antitumor drugs.
Cellular Chemo-Resistance and Radiosensitivity of Parental and Adriamycin-Selective Human Small-Cell Lung Cancer Cell Lines

The radiosensitivity of two small-cell, lung cancer cell lines comprising the adriamycin-selective cell line (GLC4/Adr) and its parental counter cell line (GLC4) was investigated in an aqueous soluble system. A simplified resazurin assay was optimized and used in the cell viability investigation. Cell survival was evaluated after being exposed to cytotoxic agents, deduced from the resazurin reduction using the optical density of a spectrophotometer instead of a fluorescent signal. Compared with their parental counterparts, the GLC4/Adr cells displayed a high resistance capability to doxorubicin with a resistant factor of about 320. No significant resistance to gamma radiation was demonstrated after exposure to gamma radiation from a Cs-137 source. The GLC4/Adr cell line responded to radiation in the same manner as its parental counterpart. This finding suggested that a drug resistance phenotype occurred in the GLC4/Adr cells (plausibly acquired after being cultured in the presence of oxidative stress produced by the step-wise concentration of adriamycin) and it is not responsible for the radioresistance of the cells.
Polar Bears Exhibit Genome-Wide Signatures of Bioenergetic Adaptation to Life in the Arctic Environment

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) face extremely cold temperatures and periods of fasting, which might result in more severe energetic challenges than those experienced by their sister species, the brown bear (U. arctos). We have examined the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes of polar and brown bears to investigate whether polar bears demonstrate lineage-specific signals of molecular adaptation in genes associated with cellular respiration/energy production. We observed increased evolutionary rates in the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene in polar but not brown bears. An amino acid substitution occurred near the interaction site with a nuclear-encoded subunit of the cytochrome c oxidase complex and was predicted to lead to a functional change, although the significance of this remains unclear. The nuclear genomes of brown and polar bears demonstrate different adaptations related to cellular respiration. Analyses of the genomes of brown bears exhibited substitutions that may alter the function of proteins that regulate glucose uptake, which could be beneficial when feeding on carbohydrate-dominated diets during hyperphagia, followed by fasting during hibernation. In polar bears, genes demonstrating signatures of functional divergence and those potentially under positive selection were enriched in functions related to production of nitric oxide (NO), which can regulate energy production in several different ways. This suggests that polar bears may be able to fine-tune intracellular levels of NO as an adaptive response to control trade-offs between energy production in the form of adenosine triphosphate versus generation of heat (thermogenesis).
TS Gene Polymorphisms Correlate with Susceptibility to Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in Children

Background Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in children is a clonal disease of bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells. This study aimed to explore the associations between MTHFR or TS genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in children. Material/Methods This case-control study included 79 ALL patients (case group) and 102 non-ALL patients (control group). Post-PCR genomic DNA sequencing revealed MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1298C genotypes and TS polymorphisms. The χ2 test was used to compare differences in MTHFR and TS polymorphisms (including genotypic and allelic distributions) between groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine genetic polymorphisms and ALL risk associations. Results The results indicated that TS 3R allele frequency was significantly higher in the case group than in the control group (χ2=7.45, P<0.05). The MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1298C polymorphisms were not associated with ALL risk. Compared to the TS 2R/2R genotype, subjects carrying TS 2R/3R were twice as likely to develop ALL, and the TS 3R/3R+3R/4R genotype carried a 4-fold higher risk of developing ALL (OR=1.96, CI: 1.14–3.36). Conclusions The TS genetic polymorphisms increase the ALL risk. The TS 3R allele was a risk factor for ALL. There were no associations between MTHFR C677T or MTHFR A1298C polymorphisms and ALL susceptibility.
The impact of submersed aquatic vegetation on the development of river mouth bars

This work is inspired by the sudden resurgence of the submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) bed in the Chesapeake Bay (USA). Because the SAV bed occurs at the mouth of the Bay's main tributary (Susquehanna River), it plays a significant role in modulating sediment and nutrient inputs from the Susquehanna to the Bay. Previous model studies on the impact of submersed aquatic vegetation on the development of river mouth bars lacked a complete mechanistic understanding. This study takes advantage of new advances in 3D computational models that include explicit physical‐sedimentological feedbacks to obtain this understanding. Specifically, we used Delft3D, a state‐of‐the‐art hydrodynamic model that provides fine‐scale computations of three‐dimensional flow velocity and bed shear stress, which can be linked to sediment deposition and erosion. Vegetation is modeled using a parameterization of hydraulic roughness that depends on vegetation height, stem density, diameter, and drag coefficient. We evaluate the hydrodynamics, bed shear stresses, and sediment dynamics for different vegetation scenarios under conditions of low and high river discharge. Model runs vary the vegetation height, density, river discharge, and suspended‐sediment concentration. Numerical results from the idealized model show that dense SAV on river mouth bars substantially diverts river discharge into adjacent channels and promotes sediment deposition at ridge margins, as well as upstream bar migration. Increasing vegetation height and density forms sandier bars closer to the river mouth and alteration of the bar shape. Thus, this study highlights the important role of SAV in shaping estuarine geomorphology, which is especially relevant for coastal management. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of Sodium Loading/Depletion on Renal Oxygenation in Young Normotensive and Hypertensive Men

The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of sodium intake on renal tissue oxygenation in humans. To this purpose, we measured renal hemodynamics, renal sodium handling, and renal oxygenation in normotensive (NT) and hypertensive (HT) subjects after 1 week of a high-sodium and 1 week of a low-sodium diet. Renal oxygenation was measured using blood oxygen level–dependent magnetic resonance. Tissue oxygenation was determined by the measurement of R2* maps on 4 coronal slices covering both kidneys. The mean R2* values in the medulla and cortex were calculated, with a low R2* indicating a high tissue oxygenation. Ten male NT (mean age: 26.5±7.4 years) and 8 matched HT subjects (mean age: 28.8±5.7 years) were studied. Cortical R2* was not different under the 2 conditions of salt intake. Medullary R2* was significantly lower under low sodium than high sodium in both NT and HT subjects (28.1±0.8 versus 31.3±0.6 s−1; P<0.05 in NT; and 27.9±1.5 versus 30.3±0.8 s−1; P<0.05, in HT), indicating higher medullary oxygenation under low-sodium conditions. In NT subjects, medullary oxygenation was positively correlated with proximal reabsorption of sodium and negatively with absolute distal sodium reabsorption, but not with renal plasma flow. In HT subjects, medullary oxygenation correlated with the 24-hour sodium excretion but not with proximal or with the distal handling of sodium. These data demonstrate that dietary sodium intake influences renal tissue oxygenation, low sodium intake leading to an increased renal medullary oxygenation both in normotensive and young hypertensive subjects.
Rheumatic Complaints in Dockyard Workers

Studies of the prevalence of rheumatic symptoms in coalminers over the age of 15 years have been carried out by Kellgren, Lawrence, and Aitken-Swan (1953), and Anderson, Duthie, and Moody (1962). The prevalence rates recorded in these two studies were not the same and it was suggested that the difference might have arisen from differences in technique. The former workers indicated that there was no significant difference between the complaint rates for coalminers and for other indus- trial workers.
Report of the second joint meeting of ESOT and AST: current pipelines in biotech and pharma

Following the first joint meeting organized by the European (ESOT) and American (AST) Societies of Transplantation in 2010, a second joint meeting was held in Nice, France, on October 12–14, 2012 at the Palais de la Mediterannee. Co‐chairs of the scientific advisory committee were Dr. Flavio Vincenti (AST) and Dr. Teun Van Gelder (ESOT). The goal was to discuss the key unmet needs in solid organ transplantation with the opportunity to interrelate current basic research efforts with clinical translation. Thus, the topic of this second meeting “Transformational therapies and diagnostics in transplantation” was devised and a summary of this meeting follows.
Disease Dynamics in a Specialized Parasite of Ant Societies

Coevolution between ant colonies and their rare specialized parasites are intriguing, because lethal infections of workers may correspond to tolerable chronic diseases of colonies, but the parasite adaptations that allow stable coexistence with ants are virtually unknown. We explore the trade-offs experienced by Ophiocordyceps parasites manipulating ants into dying in nearby graveyards. We used field data from Brazil and Thailand to parameterize and fit a model for the growth rate of graveyards. We show that parasite pressure is much lower than the abundance of ant cadavers suggests and that hyperparasites often castrate Ophiocordyceps. However, once fruiting bodies become sexually mature they appear robust. Such parasite life-history traits are consistent with iteroparity– a reproductive strategy rarely considered in fungi. We discuss how tropical habitats with high biodiversity of hyperparasites and high spore mortality has likely been crucial for the evolution and maintenance of iteroparity in parasites with low dispersal potential.
On the weak impact of the 26 December Indian Ocean tsunami on the Bangladesh coast

Abstract. The 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami damaged severely most of the Gulf of Bengal's coastal areas, but the coast of Bangladesh which stands at the edge of an extraordinarily extended continental shelf. This latter feature has been built through huge discharges of river sediments along the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers. As a result of this enormous discharge, another interesting feature of the area is the deep underwater Canyon, connected with the estuaries, running NE-SW from 25 km off the coast towards the continental slope. We investigate here how these two geological features may have modified/perturbed the Indian ocean tsunami propagation and impact on the Coast of Bangladesh. For that purpose we have realized an ensemble of numerical simulations based on Funwave Boussinesq numerical model and a validated coseismic source. It is found, at first order, that the extended shallow bathymetric profile of the continental shelf plays a key role in flattening the waveform through a defocussing process while the Canyon delays the process. The wave evolution seems to be related at first order to the bathymetric profile rather than to dynamical processes like nonlinearity, dispersion or bottom friction.
Stimulation of oral fibroblast chemokine receptors identifies CCR3 and CCR4 as potential wound healing targets

The focus of this study was to determine which chemokine receptors are present on oral fibroblasts and whether these receptors influence proliferation, migration, and/or the release of wound healing mediators. This information may provide insight into the superior wound healing characteristics of the oral mucosa. The gingiva fibroblasts expressed 12 different chemokine receptors (CCR3, CCR4, CCR6, CCR9, CCR10, CXCR1, CXCR2, CXCR4, CXCR5, CXCR7, CX3CR1, and XCR1), as analyzed by flow cytometry. Fourteen corresponding chemokines (CCL5, CCL15, CCL20, CCL22, CCL25, CCL27, CCL28, CXCL1, CXCL8, CXCL11, CXCL12, CXCL13, CX3CL1, and XCL1) were used to study the activation of these receptors on gingiva fibroblasts. Twelve of these fourteen chemokines stimulated gingiva fibroblast migration (all except for CXCL8 and CXCL12). Five of the chemokines stimulated proliferation (CCL5/CCR3, CCL15/CCR3, CCL22/CCR4, CCL28/CCR3/CCR10, and XCL1/XCR1). Furthermore, CCL28/CCR3/CCR10 and CCL22/CCR4 stimulation increased IL‐6 secretion and CCL28/CCR3/CCR10 together with CCL27/CCR10 upregulated HGF secretion. Moreover, TIMP‐1 secretion was reduced by CCL15/CCR3. In conclusion, this in‐vitro study identifies chemokine receptor‐ligand pairs which may be used in future targeted wound healing strategies. In particular, we identified the chemokine receptors CCR3 and CCR4, and the mucosa specific chemokine CCL28, as having an predominant role in oral wound healing by increasing human gingiva fibroblast proliferation, migration, and the secretion of IL‐6 and HGF and reducing the secretion of TIMP‐1.
Poster: Towards Encrypted Query Processing for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned to digitize the physical world, resulting in a digital representation of our proximate living space. The possibility of inferring privacy violating information from IoT data necessitates adequate security measures regarding data storage and communication. To address these privacy and security concerns, we introduce our system that stores IoT data securely in the Cloud database while still allowing query processing over the encrypted data. We enable this by encrypting IoT data with a set of cryptographic schemes such as order-preserving and partially homomorphic encryptions. To achieve this on resource-limited devices, our system relies on optimized algorithms that accelerate partial homomorphic and order-preserving encryptions by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. Our early results show the feasibility of our system on low-power devices. We envision our system as an enabler of secure IoT applications.
From staples theory to new regionalism: managing drinking water for regional resilience in rural British Columbia

The Canadian infrastructure deficit presents challenges and opportunities, but also raises questions. Perhaps the most salient of these questions is not only how can we address these challenges, but how will what we do impact the future? Using a case study of drinking water systems in rural British Columbia, this research explores three unique aspects of the infrastructure deficit and the potential regionalism may hold for enhancing rural development.
Regulation of ADRP expression by long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in BeWo cells, a human placental choriocarcinoma cell line Published, JLR Papers in Press, January 3, 2006.

Transplacental transfer of maternal fatty acids is critical for fetal growth and development. In the placenta, a preferential uptake of fatty acids toward long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs) has been demonstrated. Adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP) is a lipid droplet-associated protein that has been ascribed a role in cellular fatty acid uptake and storage. However, its role in placenta is not known. We demonstrate that ADRP mRNA and protein are regulated by fatty acids in a human placental choriocarcinoma cell line (BeWo) and in primary human trophoblasts. LCPUFAs of the n-3 and n-6 series [arachidonic acid (20:4n-6), docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3), and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3)] were more efficient than shorter fatty acids at stimulating ADRP mRNA expression. The fatty acid-mediated increase in ADRP mRNA expression was not related to the differentiation state of the cells. Synthetic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor and retinoic X receptor agonists increased ADRP mRNA level but had no effect on ADRP protein level in undifferentiated BeWo cells. Furthermore, we show that incubation of BeWo cells with LCPUFAs, but not synthetic agonists, increased the cellular content of radiolabeled oleic acid, coinciding with the increase in ADRP mRNA and protein level. These studies provide new information on the regulation of ADRP in placental trophoblasts and suggest that LCPUFA-dependent regulation of ADRP could be involved in the metabolism of lipids in the placenta.