Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased Density of Demodex folliculorum Mites in Pregnancies with Gestational Diabetes

Objective: To investigate the presence of Demodex in patients with gestational diabetes and the impact of glucose regulation on Demodex density in gestational diabetes. Subjects and Methods: The study population consisted of 33 patients with gestational diabetes and 30 pregnant women without gestational diabetes (control group). The age, parity, gestational age, and BMI of the study group were recorded and the patients were divided into 2 groups, i.e. those with regulated and unregulated glucose levels, according to their postprandial 1st- and 2nd-hour glucose values. A standardized skin surface biopsy method was used to determine if patients had Demodex folliculorum infestation (>5 mites/cm2 of skin). Results: Patients with gestational diabetes had a statistically significantly higher Demodex density compared to the control group (24.2 vs. 3.3%; p < 0.001). Furthermore, a significantly higher proportion of gestational diabetes patients with unregulated glucose levels had a higher Demodex density compared to those in the regulated subgroup (6/19 vs. 2/14; p = 0.001). Conclusion: Our study revealed that the Demodex density was increased in gestational diabetes patients. Further, poor glucose regulation could be the mechanism responsible for the increased Demodex density in gestational diabetes patients with unregulated glucose levels compared to those with regulated glucose levels.
Distribution of Endogenous NO Regulates Early Gravitropic Response and PIN2 Localization in Arabidopsis Roots

High-resolution and automated image analysis of individual roots demonstrated that endogenous nitric oxide (NO) contribute significantly to gravitropism of Arabidopsis roots. Lowering of endogenous NO concentrations strongly reduced and even reversed gravitropism, resulting in upward bending, without affecting root growth rate. Notably, the asymmetric accumulation of NO along the upper and lower sides of roots correlated with a positive gravitropic response. Detection of NO by the specific DAF-FM DA fluorescent probe revealed that NO was higher at the lower side of horizontally-oriented roots returning to initial values 2 h after the onset of gravistimulation. We demonstrate that NO promotes plasma membrane re-localization of PIN2 in epidermal cells, which is required during the early root gravitropic response. The dynamic and asymmetric localization of both auxin and NO is critical to regulate auxin polar transport during gravitropism. Our results collectively suggest that, although auxin and NO crosstalk occurs at different levels of regulation, they converge in the regulation of PIN2 membrane trafficking in gravistimulated roots, supporting the notion that a temporally and spatially coordinated network of signal molecules could participate in the early phases of auxin polar transport during gravitropism.
Diabetes Self-Management: A Key to Better Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Diabetes

Objective: The aims of this study were to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among adult patients with diabetes attending primary health care diabetes clinics in Kuwait and to examine the factors associated with the HRQOL of patients with diabetes. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 503 patients with diabetes attending 26 primary health care diabetes clinics in Kuwait. A self- administered questionnaire on participants’ socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, in addition to the Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire (DSMQ) to assess patients’ diabetes self-management (DSM), was used. The SF-12 was employed to assess the HRQOL, producing the following 2 outcomes: physical health composite (PHC) and mental health composite (MHC). Results: The mean age of participants was 52 ± 0.8 years, and 53.1% were males and 49.0% were Kuwaitis. The median DSM sum score was 6.5. Male patients with diabetes showed a significantly better median DSM sum score than female patients with diabetes. The overall median score of HRQOL was 61.7/100, with a better median PHC versus MHC score of quality of life (66.7/100 and 56.7/100, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed a significant direct association between DSM and better primary health composite and MHC scores. It also showed that female gender and reporting 2 or more diabetic complications were significantly associated with a poor PHC. Conclusions: Kuwaiti patients with diabetes showed a modest level of HRQOL. Patients’ DSM, gender, and diabetes complications were significant independent correlates to HRQOL. Appraisal of the HRQOL of patients with diabetes as an essential component of diabetes management in clinical settings is suggested. Further studies to examine the impact of good DSM on HRQOL improvement are needed.
Improving Quality of Care for Maternal and Newborn Health: Prospective Pilot Study of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist Program

Background Most maternal deaths, intrapartum-related stillbirths, and newborn deaths in low income countries are preventable but simple, effective methods for improving safety in institutional births have not been devised. Checklist-based interventions aid management of complex or neglected tasks and have been shown to reduce harm in healthcare. We hypothesized that implementation of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist program, a novel childbirth safety program for institutional births incorporating a 29-item checklist, would increase delivery of essential childbirth practices linked with improved maternal and perinatal health outcomes. Methods and Findings A pilot, pre-post-intervention study was conducted in a sub-district level birth center in Karnataka, India between July and December 2010. We prospectively observed health workers that attended to women and newborns during 499 consecutively enrolled birth events and compared these with observed practices during 795 consecutively enrolled birth events after the introduction of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist program. Twenty-nine essential practices that target the major causes of childbirth-related mortality, such as hand hygiene and uterotonic administration, were evaluated. The primary end point was the average rate of successful delivery of essential childbirth practices by health workers. Delivery of essential childbirth-related care practices at each birth event increased from an average of 10 of 29 practices at baseline (95%CI 9.4, 10.1) to an average of 25 of 29 practices afterwards (95%CI 24.6, 25.3; p<0.001). There was significant improvement in the delivery of 28 out of 29 individual practices. No adverse outcomes relating to the intervention occurred. Study limitations are the pre-post design, potential Hawthorne effect, and focus on processes of care versus health outcomes. Conclusions Introduction of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist program markedly improved delivery of essential safety practices by health workers. Future study will determine if this program can be implemented at scale and improve health outcomes.
Privacy versus autonomy: A tradeoff model for smart home monitoring technologies

Smart homes are proposed as a new location for the delivery of healthcare services. They provide healthcare monitoring and communication services, by using integrated sensor network technologies. We validate a hypothesis regarding older adults' adoption of home monitoring technologies by conducting a literature review of articles studying older adults' attitudes and perceptions of sensor technologies. Using current literature to support the hypothesis, this paper applies the tradeoff model to decisions about sensor acceptance. Older adults are willing to trade privacy (by accepting a monitoring technology), for autonomy. As the information captured by the sensor becomes more intrusive and the infringement on privacy increases, sensors are accepted if the loss in privacy is traded for autonomy. Even video cameras, the most intrusive sensor type were accepted in exchange for the height of autonomy which is to remain in the home.
Insulin and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Receptors Act as Ligand-specific Amplitude Modulators of a Common Pathway Regulating Gene Transcription*

Insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) act on highly homologous receptors, yet in vivo elicit distinct effects on metabolism and growth. To investigate how the insulin and IGF-1 receptors exert specificity in their biological responses, we assessed their role in the regulation of gene expression using three experimental paradigms: 1) preadipocytes before and after differentiation into adipocytes that express both receptors, but at different ratios; 2) insulin receptor (IR) or IGF1R knock-out preadipocytes that only express the complimentary receptor; and 3) IR/IGF1R double knock-out (DKO) cells reconstituted with the IR, IGF1R, or both. In wild-type preadipocytes, which express predominantly IGF1R, microarray analysis revealed ∼500 IGF-1 regulated genes (p < 0.05). The largest of these were confirmed by quantitative PCR, which also revealed that insulin produced a similar effect, but with a smaller magnitude of response. After differentiation, when IR levels increase and IGF1R decrease, insulin became the dominant regulator of each of these genes. Measurement of the 50 most highly regulated genes by quantitative PCR did not reveal a single gene regulated uniquely via the IR or IGF1R using cells expressing exclusively IGF-1 or insulin receptors. Insulin and IGF-1 dose responses from 1 to 100 nm in WT, IRKO, IGFRKO, and DKO cells re-expressing IR, IGF1R, or both showed that insulin and IGF-1 produced effects in proportion to the concentration of ligand and the specific receptor on which they act. Thus, IR and IGF1R act as identical portals to the regulation of gene expression, with differences between insulin and IGF-1 effects due to a modulation of the amplitude of the signal created by the specific ligand-receptor interaction.
Post-glacial acidification of two alpine lakes (Sudetes Mts., SW Poland), as inferred from diatom analyses

Abstract Past environmental changes in mountain lakes can be reconstructed with the use of subfossil diatoms from post-glacial sediments. This study applied such an analysis to two mountain lakes in the Sudetes Mts. in Poland: Mały Staw (MS) and Wielki Staw (WS). Cores 882 cm long (MS) and 1100 cm long (WS) taken from the centre of each lake in 1982 were used to study the long-term acidification history of these lakes. Changes in vegetation indicate that the initial phase of MS started at the end of the Pleistocene. WS sediments began to accumulate shortly after that, at the beginning of the Holocene. The majority of the diatom assemblages are typical of oligotrophic acidic lakes located in alpine and arctic regions. A pH reconstruction based on diatoms (DI-pH) showed long-term acidification dating to almost the beginning of the lakes’ existence. Natural acidification began after the deglaciation, and the most intensive acidification continued to the end of the mid-Holocene. Through the whole period studied, pH decreased by 1.4 in MS and 0.9 in WS. After a period of relatively stable lake water pH, it decreased rapidly during the last few decades of the 20th century, due to anthropogenic pollution: pH declined by 0.7 in MS and 0.3 in WS. Mały Staw, being shallower, smaller, and with a larger drainage basin than Wielki Staw, is more sensitive to acid deposition; this accounts for the difference in pH.
Robust Inventory Management: An Optimal Control Approach

We formulate and solve static and dynamic models of inventory management that lie at the intersection of robust optimization and optimal control theory. Our objective is to minimize cumulative ordering, holding, and shortage costs over a horizon [0, T], where the variable is a nonnegative ordering rate function q(t) ∈ ℒ2[0, T]. The demand rate function d(t) is unknown and is only assumed to belong to an uncertainty set Ω={d(t)∈L2[0,T]:μa≤(1/T)∫0Td(t)dt≤μb,a≤d(t)≤b,∀t∈[0,T]}; this set is motivated by the strong law of large numbers for stochastic processes limT→∞(1/T)∫0Td(t)dt=μ, where μ is the mean drift. We analyze a static model, where the ordering rate function must be fully specified at time zero, and three dynamic variants, where re-optimizations are allowed during the planning horizon [0, T] at prespecified review epochs. In the dynamic models, at review epoch τ ∈ [0, T], the past demand on [0, τ) is observable. In the first dynamic model, we ignore this information, and define a variant of Ω that i.
The Effect of Cigarette Smoking on the Therapeutic Success of Dental Implants

Dear Editor-in-ChiefThe success of the treatment of missing teeth with dental implants is the complete integration of an implant with the bone and the correct functioning of implant-based prosthetic restoration for many years. Factors that may affect therapeutic failure are the patient's age, general diseases including osteoporosis, diabetes, and hypertension, as well as dental and medical factors. The simultaneous presence of several factors is also significant. Tobacco smoking is one of the essential factors that may affect the success of implant treatment of missing teeth (1). We evaluated the influence of cigarette smoking on the degree of bone loss and the success rate of the implantation. The study covered 101 patients (71 females and 30 males) that received dental implant treatment between 2009 and 2012. The group included 32 addicted cigarette smokers and 69 non-smokers. The mean age of women was 44.8 yr (21-67 ±13.5), whereas that of men was 44.3 yr (26-64 ±12.4). The extent of bone loss was estimated by comparing the post-implantation radiographs to the post-loading ones using a millimeter scale template. The therapy was entirely successful when bone loss was smaller than 25% and partially successful when bone loss was greater than 25%; the treatment was considered a failure when implants were totally rejected.The analysis of cigarette smoking on the level of peri-implant bone loss showed that in the group of smokers the bone loss median was 20% (10%-40% range), being significantly higher that the peri-implant bone loss median in non-smokers that reached 10% (10%-20% range) (Z=-2.03, P=0.04). The comparison of the number of smokers and non-smokers with absent, total or partial bone loss showed no statistically significant correlations between the studied variables (Chi2=2.06; P=0.35). Implant treatment of missing teeth was entirely successful in 81 patients, which constitutes of 80.2% of the total number of treated patients, partial success was achieved in 6 patients (5.9%), and failure - in 14 patients (13.9%). Analyzing the influence of bone loss on the treatment success in all the patients, regardless of their smoking or non-smoking tobacco, a statistically significant correlation between the studied variables was found (Chi2=91.9; PThe present study showed that although greater bone loss around dental implants (P=0.04) was related to cigarette smoking, the latter did not exert a significant influence on the success of implant treatment (P=0.2). Our results partially overlap with those obtained in active smokers (over 20 cigarettes/day), in comparison to non-smokers, the implant therapy failure index increases with an increase in the numbered of cigarettes smoked daily (2). …
Effects of Probiotic Supplementation on Hormonal Profiles, Biomarkers of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND To the best of our knowledge, data on effects of probiotic administration on hormonal profiles, biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are scarce. This investigation was conducted to assess the effects of probiotic supplementation on hormonal profiles, biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress in women with PCOS. METHODS This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 60 women with PCOS, aged 18-40 years old. Subjects were randomly assigned into 2 groups to receive either probiotics or placebo (n = 30 each group) for 12 weeks. Metabolic profiles were quantified at baseline and after a 12-week intervention. RESULTS After the 12-week intervention, compared with placebo, probiotic supplementation significantly increased serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) (+25.9 ± 32.5 vs. +0.5 ± 15.6 nmol/L, P < 0.001) and plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (+8.8 ± 120.5 vs. -98.3 ± 246.4 mmol/L, P = 0.04), and significantly decreased serum total testosterone (-0.2 ± 0.7 vs. +0.2 ± 0.6 ng/mL, P = 0.03), modified Ferriman-Gallwey (mF-G) scores (-1.7 ± 1.5 vs. -0.2 ± 1.0, P < 0.001), serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) (-1150.0 ± 1295.2 vs. +202.5 ± 1426.3 ng/mL, P < 0.001) and plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations (-0.2 ± 0.6 vs. +0.9 ± 1.3 µmol/L, P < 0.001). We did not observe any detrimental effect of probiotic supplementation on other metabolic profiles. CONCLUSION Overall, probiotic supplementation of PCOS women for 12 weeks had beneficial effects on total testosterone, SHBG, mFG scores, hs-CRP, TAC and MDA levels but did not affect other metabolic profiles.
The Effects of Nutritional Status on Educational Performance of Primary School Children in the Plantation Sector in Nuwara Eliya Educational Zone

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of nutritional status on educational performance of the primary school children in the plantation sector in Nuwara Eliya educational zone. A cross-sectional study involving 802 Grade-4 children was conducted on a randomly selected 21 plantation schools in Nuwara Eliya zone. By measuring height and weight using standard methods, indicators such as height-for-age, weight-for-age and body mass index-for-age were computed and used to define stunting, underweight and thinness to indicate nutritional status. The educational performance of children was assessed by using end-term examination marks obtained for Tamil and Mathematics subjects and for the overall subject average. The prevalence of stunting, underweight and thinness in the study group was 32%,50% and 34%, respectively. All indicators were significantly higher (p Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 24 (3): 203-214 (2013)
The Exposure to Different Photoperiods Strongly Modulates the Glucose and Lipid Metabolisms of Normoweight Fischer 344 Rats

Seasonal variations in day length trigger clear changes in the behavior, growth, food intake, and reproductive status of photoperiod-sensitive animals, such as Fischer 344 rats. However, there is little information about the effects of seasonal fluctuations in day length on glucose and lipid metabolisms and their underlying mechanisms in this model. To gain knowledge on these issues, three groups of male Fischer 344 rats were fed with a standard diet and exposed to different photoperiods for 14 weeks: normal photoperiod (L12, 12 h light/day), long photoperiod (L18, 18 h light/day), and short photoperiod (L6, 6 h light/day). A multivariate analysis carried out with 239 biometric, serum, hepatic and skeletal muscle parameters revealed a clear separation among the three groups. Compared with L12 rats, L6 animals displayed a marked alteration of glucose homeostasis and fatty acid uptake and oxidation, which were evidenced by the following observations: (1) increased circulating levels of glucose and non-esterified fatty acids; (2) a sharp down-regulation of the phosphorylated Akt2 levels, a downstream post-receptor target of insulin, in both the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles; (3) decreased expression in the soleus muscle of the glucose metabolism-related microRNA-194 and lower mRNA levels of the genes involved in glucose metabolism (Irs1, soleus, and Glut2, liver), β-oxidation (Had and Cpt1β, soleus) and fatty acid transport (Cd36, soleus, and liver). L18 animals also displayed higher blood glucose levels than L12 rats and profound changes in other glucose and lipid metabolism-related parameters in the blood, liver, and skeletal muscles. However, the mechanisms that account for the observed effects were less evident than those reported in L6 animals. In conclusion, exposure to different photoperiods strongly modulated glucose and lipid metabolisms in normoweight rats. These findings emphasize the relevance of circannual rhythms in metabolic homeostasis regulation and suggest that Fischer 344 rats are a promising animal model with which to study glucose- and lipid-related pathologies that are influenced by seasonal variations, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and seasonal affective disorder.
Learning Deep Descriptors with Scale-Aware Triplet Networks

Research on learning suitable feature descriptors for Computer Vision has recently shifted to deep learning where the biggest challenge lies with the formulation of appropriate loss functions, especially since the descriptors to be learned are not known at training time. While approaches such as Siamese and triplet losses have been applied with success, it is still not well understood what makes a good loss function. In this spirit, this work demonstrates that many commonly used losses suffer from a range of problems. Based on this analysis, we introduce mixed-context losses and scale-aware sampling, two methods that when combined enable networks to learn consistently scaled descriptors for the first time.
Automated Testing of WS-BPEL Service Compositions: A Scenario-Oriented Approach

Nowadays, service oriented architecture (SOA) has become one mainstream paradigm for developing distributed applications. As the basic unit in SOA, web services can be composed to construct complex applications. The quality of web services and their compositions is critical to the success of SOA applications. Testing, as a major quality assurance technique, is confronted with new challenges in the context of service compositions. In this paper, we propose a scenario-oriented testing approach that can automatically generate test cases for service compositions. Our approach is particularly focused on the service compositions specified by Business Process Execution Language for web services (WS-BPEL), a widely recognized executable service composition language. In the approach, a WS-BPEL service composition is first abstracted into a graph model; test scenarios are then derived from the model; finally, test cases are generated according to different scenarios. We also developed a prototype tool implementing the proposed approach, and an empirical study was conducted to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of our approach. The experimental results show that the automatic scenario-oriented testing approach is effective in detecting many types of faults seeded in the service compositions.
Enhanced electrical conductivity and photoconductive properties of Sn-doped Sb2Se3 crystals

Sb2Se3 is a highly interesting semiconductor with high absorption coefficient in the visible range and is composed of non-toxic and earth-abundant elements. To overcome the challenge of intrinsic low electrical conductivity of Sb2Se3 crystals, tin-doped (SnxSb1−x)2Se3 semiconductors (x = 0.00, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07 and 0.10) have been synthesized by a conventional melt-quenching method in a vacuum sealed silica tube. With increasing Sn doping concentration, the (SnxSb1−x)2Se3 crystals exhibited a great improvement in electrical conductivity by several orders of magnitude thanks to the great increase of carrier concentration reaching almost 2 × 1016 cm−3. Compared to undoped Sb2Se3, the dark current density of a representative (Sn0.10Sb0.90)2Se3 increased by approximately 10 times and the photocurrent density with essentially visible illumination increased by approximately 14 times. In addition, the doped sample showed a faster, reversible and stable photoresponse. These excellent performances combined with a simple and easily scalable synthesis method pave the way for using this semiconductor for highly efficient photoelectric devices.