Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal and perinatal outcomes among women with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy in Kumasi, Ghana

Background Data pertaining to maternal and perinatal outcomes associated with the complete spectrum of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDPs) is sparse in low resource settings. This study aimed to determine adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes among women admitted with HDPs in a tertiary hospital in Ghana, and directly compare these outcomes among women with pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and those with chronic/gestational hypertension. Methods An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among women who were admitted with HDPs to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital from July 1, 2014 to September 30, 2014. Data was collected on their socio-demographic and reproductive characteristics using a pretested structured questionnaire and review of their antenatal records. Crude and adjusted relative risks (RRs), with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), associated with adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes were compared using multivariable binomial regression. P ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 451 women with HDPs were studied: 5.3%, 32.4%, 48.8% and 13.5% had chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia respectively. Over 80% were either referrals or “self-referred” from other facilities. Overall, 87% had adverse maternal or perinatal outcomes. Women with pre-eclampsia/eclampsia were at increased risks of caesarean section (adjusted RR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.01–1.87), preterm delivery at <34 weeks’ gestation (adjusted RR, 2.74; 95% CI, 1.40–5.36) and preterm delivery at <37 weeks’ gestation (adjusted RR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.25–2.85), compared to women with chronic/gestational hypertension. Conclusion Women with pre-eclampsia/eclampsia were at higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcome compared to those with chronic/gestational hypertension. Strategies for prevention and management of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia to improve pregnancy outcomes are required in this major maternity care centre.
Effects of Chair Support on Biomechanical Exposures on the Neck During Mobile Phone Use

The goal of this study was to evaluate how chair support (armrest and back support) affect the head/neck kinematics and muscle activity as compared to no chair support among four different phone positions (eye, chest, lap, and self-selected level). In a repeated-measures laboratory experiment with 20 subjects (10 males and 10 females), we measured head/neck flexion angle, gravitational moment and muscle activity in upper trapezius (TRAP) and splenius capitis (SPL). The results showed that chair support significantly reduced the head/neck flexion (p’s < 0.001), gravitational moment (p < 0.001), and muscle activity in TRAP and SPL (p’s < 0.001). With chair support, holding a phone at self-selected levels resulted in the largest reduction in head/neck flexion angle and gravitational moment while the eye-level location showed the lowest neck/shoulder muscle activity. The study findings indicate that the mobile phone use with adequate chair support may significantly reduce the physical stress in the neck and shoulder regions as compared to no chair support.
Prognostic factors in ovarian cancer.

: There is obvious merit in being able to accurately predict outcome and tailor treatment according to individual risk and potential for benefit. Epithelial ovarian cancers are characterized by a broad spectrum of biological behavior ranging from tumors that have an excellent prognosis and high likelihood of cure to those that progress rapidly and have a very poor prognosis. This wide clinical spectrum is partly reflected by a number of clinicopathological prognostic variables which include International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, histologic subtype and grade, volume of residual tumor remaining after surgical resection, performance status, and age. There has been increasing interest by many groups to incorporate the independent prognostic variables into multivariate models that could better predict outcome. This approach does appear to allow the identification of different prognostic subsets and requires confirmation in prospective studies. There has been, and there continues to be a lot of effort in identifying new prognostic factors that have a biologic rationale and these will be discussed. Most of these new prognostic factors have not been subjected to rigorous testing and this will be clearly necessary before they find clinical application. This is an area that is rapidly evolving with the increased understanding of the molecular basis for ovarian carcinogenesis and progression coupled with technological advances such as DNA arrays and automated polymerase chain reaction. We are at the threshold of developing a new and more objective as well as rational approach to predict prognosis and response to therapy.
A comparison between unfocused and focused transmit strategies in cardiac strain imaging

Unfocused ultrasound imaging, particularly coherent compounding with diverging waves, is a commonly employed high-frame rate transmit strategy in cardiac strain imaging. However, the accuracy and precision of diverging wave imaging compared to focused-beam transmit approaches in human subjects is unknown. Three transmit strategies—coherent compounding imaging, composite focused imaging with ECG gating and narrow-beams, and focused imaging with wide-beams—were compared in simulation and in transthoracic imaging of healthy human subjects (n = 7). The focused narrow-beam sequence estimated radial end-systolic cumulative strains of a simulated left ventricular deformation with 26% ± 1.5% and 34% ± 1.5% greater accuracy compared with compounding and wide-beam imaging, respectively. Strain estimation precision in transthoracic imaging was then assessed with the Strain Filter on cumulative end-systolic radial strains. Within the strain values where statistically significant differences in precision (E(SNRe|ε)) were found between transmit strategies, the narrow-beam sequence estimated radial strain 13% ± 0.71% and 34% ± 8.9% more precisely on average compared to compounding or wide-beam imaging, respectively.
Complex Oxidation of Apocytochromes c during Bacterial Cytochrome c Maturation

DsbA is a powerful oxidase that functions in the bacterial periplasm to introduce disulfide bonds in many proteins, including apocytochromes c. It has been well established that although DsbA is not essential, it plays a primary role in cytochrome c maturation, based on studies in bacteria hosting several cyts c. Here, with cyt c-rich S. oneidensis as a research model, we show that this is not always the case. Moreover, we demonstrate that DsbB is also not essential for cytochrome c maturation. These results underscore the need to identify oxidants other than DsbA/DsbB that are crucial in the oxidation of apocyts c in bacteria. ABSTRACT c-Type cytochromes (cyts c) are proteins that contain covalently bound heme and that thus require posttranslational modification for activity, a process carried out by the cytochrome c (cyt c) maturation system (referred to as the Ccm system) in many Gram-negative bacteria. It has been established that during cyt c maturation (CCM), two cysteine thiols of the heme binding motif (CXXCH) within apocytochromes c (apocyts c) are first oxidized largely by DsbA to form a disulfide bond, which is later reduced through a thio-reductive pathway involving DsbD. However, the physiological impacts of DsbA proteins on CCM in fact vary significantly among bacteria. In this work, we used the cyt c-rich Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella oneidensis as the research model to clarify the roles of DsbA proteins in CCM. We show that in terms of the oxidation of apocyts c, DsbA proteins are an important but not critical factor, and, strikingly, oxygen is not either. By exploiting the DsbD-independent pathway, we identify DsbA1, DsbA2, and DsbA3 as oxidants contributing to the oxidation of apocyts c and reductants, such as cysteine, to be an effective antagonist against DsbA-independent oxidation. We further show that DsbB proteins are partially responsible for the reoxidization of reduced DsbA proteins. Overall, our results indicate that the DsbA-DsbB redox pair has a limited role in CCM, challenging the established notion that it is the main oxidant for apocyts c. IMPORTANCE DsbA is a powerful oxidase that functions in the bacterial periplasm to introduce disulfide bonds in many proteins, including apocytochromes c. It has been well established that although DsbA is not essential, it plays a primary role in cytochrome c maturation, based on studies in bacteria hosting several cyts c. Here, with cyt c-rich S. oneidensis as a research model, we show that this is not always the case. Moreover, we demonstrate that DsbB is also not essential for cytochrome c maturation. These results underscore the need to identify oxidants other than DsbA/DsbB that are crucial in the oxidation of apocyts c in bacteria.
Scandcleft randomized trials of primary surgery for unilateral cleft lip and palate: maxillary growth at eight years of age.

OBJECTIVES To assess differences in craniofacial growth at 8 years of age according to the different protocols for primary cleft surgery in the Scandcleft project. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial (RCT) involving 10 centres, including non-syndromic Caucasians with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). In Trial 1, a common surgical method (1a) with soft palate closure at 3-4 months of age and hard palate closure at 12 months of age was tested against similar surgery but with hard palate repair at 36 months (delayed hard palate closure) (1b). In Trial 2, the common method (2a) was tested against simultaneous closure of both hard and soft palate at 1 year (2c). In Trial 3, the common method (3a) was tested against hard palate closure together with lip closure at 3 months of age and soft palate closure at 1 year of age (3d). Participants were randomly allocated by use of a dice. Operator blinding was not possible but all raters of all outcomes were blinded. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The total number of participating patients at 8 years of age was 429. Lateral cephalograms (n = 408) were analysed. The cephalometric angles SNA and ANB were chosen for assessing maxillary growth for this part of the presentation. RESULTS Within each trial (Trial 1a/1b, Trial 2a/2c, and Trial 3a/3d), there was no difference in cephalometric values between the common and the local arm. There were no statistically significant differences in the SNA and ANB angles between the common arm in Trial 1a (mean SNA 77.8, mean ANB 2.6) and Trial 2a (mean SNA 79.8, mean ANB 3.6) and no difference between Trial 1a and Trial 3a, but a statistical difference could be seen between Trial 2a and Trial 3a (mean SNA 76.9, mean ANB 1.7). However, the confidence interval was rather large. Intra- and inter-rater reliability were within acceptable range. CONCLUSIONS The timing and the surgical method is not of major importance as far as growth outcomes (SNA and ANB) in UCLP are concerned. REGISTRATION ISRCTN29932826. PROTOCOL The protocol was not published before trial commencement.
Positional effects of premature termination codons on the biochemical and biophysical properties of CFTR

Biochemical and biophysical characterizations of three nonsense mutations of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) associated with a severe form of cystic fibrosis (CF) reveal the importance and heterogenous effects of the position of the premature termination codon (PTC) on the CFTR protein function. Electrophysiological studies of W1282X‐CFTR, whose PTC is closer to the C‐terminus of CFTR, suggest the presence of both C‐terminus truncated CFTR proteins that are poorly functional and read‐through, full‐length products. For G542X‐ and E60X‐CFTR, the only mechanism capable of generating functional proteins is the read‐through, but the outcome of read‐through products is highly variable depending on the interplay between the missense mutation caused by the read‐through and the structural context of the protein. Pharmacological studies of these three PTCs with various CFTR modulators suggest position‐dependent therapeutic strategies for these disease‐inflicting mutations.
Absence of HIF1A leads to glycogen accumulation and an inflammatory response that enables pancreatic tumor growth.

Cancer cells respond to hypoxia by upregulating the hypoxia-inducible factor 1α HIF1A) transcription factor, which drives survival mechanisms that include metabolic adaptation and induction of angiogenesis by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Pancreatic tumors are poorly vascularized and severely hypoxic. To study the angiogenic role of HIF1A, and specifically probe whether tumors are able to use alternative pathways in its absence, we created a xenograft mouse tumor model of pancreatic cancer lacking HIF1A. After an initial delay of about 30 days the HIF1A-deficient tumors grew as rapidly as the wild type tumors and had similar vascularization. These changes were maintained in subsequent passages of tumor xenografts in vivo and in cell lines ex vivo. There were many cancer cells with a "clear cell" phenotype in the HIF1A-deficient tumors; this was the result of accumulation of glycogen. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) of the tumors identified hypoxic cancer cells with inhibited glycogen breakdown which promoted glycogen accumulation, and the secretion of inflammatory cytokines including interleukins 1β (IL-1B) and 8 (IL-8). scRNAseq of the mouse tumor stroma showed enrichment of 2 subsets of myeloid dendritic cells (cDC), cDC1 and cDC2, that secreted pro-angiogenic cytokines. These results suggest that glycogen accumulation associated with a clear cell phenotype in hypoxic cancer cells lacking HIF1A can initiate an alternate pathway of cytokine and DC-driven angiogenesis. Inhibiting glycogen accumulation may provide a treatment for cancers with the clear cell phenotype.
Low latency modeling of temporal contexts for speech recognition

This thesis focuses on the development of neural network acoustic models for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) to satisfy the design goals of low latency and low computational complexity. Low latency enables online speech recognition; and low computational complexity helps reduce the computational cost both during training and inference. Long span sequential dependencies and sequential distortions in the input vector sequence are a major challenge in acoustic modeling. Recurrent neural networks have been shown to effectively model these dependencies. Specifically, bidirectional long short term memory (BLSTM) networks, provide state-of-the-art performance across several LVCSR tasks. However the deployment of bidirectional models for online LVCSR is non-trivial due to their large latency; and unidirectional LSTM models are typically preferred. In this thesis we explore the use of hierarchical temporal convolution to model long span temporal dependencies. We propose a sub-sampled variant of these temporal convolution neural networks, termed time-delay neural networks (TDNNs). These sub-sampled TDNNs reduce the computation complexity by ∼ 5x, compared to TDNNs, during frame ii
The association between disordered eating and health-related quality of life among children and adolescents: A systematic review of population-based studies

Background Previous studies have documented that disordered eating is associated with a wide range of impaired physical and mental health conditions among children and adolescents. The relationship between disordered eating and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been predominantly examined in children and adolescents who are overweight or obese or suffer from chronic illnesses. In the last decade, several studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between disordered eating and HRQOL among school and community children and adolescents. No systematic review or meta-analysis has synthesized the findings from these population-based studies. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to synthesize the relationship between disordered eating and HRQOL among the general population of children and adolescents. Methods We performed a computer search for the English language literature using the databases PUBMED, EMBASE and PSYCINFO to retrieve eligible studies published between 1946 and August 9, 2018. We also searched the relevant articles using PubMed related article search features and manually examined the reference lists of the retrieved full text articles selected from the database search. The association between disordered eating and HRQOL was synthesized using both a qualitative method and a meta-analysis. The review was conducted adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Results We identified eight studies that met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final synthesis. The studies included six cross-sectional studies and two longitudinal studies. The systematic review found that disordered eating attitudes and behaviors were associated with lower HRQOL among children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), purging disorder (PD) and other eating disorder symptoms had poorer HRQOL than their healthy peers without the eating disorder conditions. The meta-analysis using four out of the eight studies showed that disordered eating was significantly associated with poor psychosocial health and lower overall HRQOL among children and adolescents. Conclusion The present review reveals that disordered eating behaviors and eating disorders are associated with decreased HRQOL in children and adolescents. More prospective studies are needed to ascertain the directions in the relationship between disordered eating and HRQOL among children and adolescents. The findings of this review suggest that health programs for promoting healthy eating and reducing disordered eating behaviors among school children and adolescents may help to enhance the HRQOL and overall health status of these individuals.
Long-term results for total lumbar facet joint replacement in the management of lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis.

OBJECTIVE The authors evaluated the long-term clinical outcome of a total posterior arthroplasty system in the surgical treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis with degenerative spondylolisthesis. METHODS Between June 2006 and July 2007, 10 patients with neurogenic claudication due to spinal stenosis and single-level degenerative spondylolisthesis were enrolled in a nonrandomized prospective clinical study. The patients were evaluated with radiographs and MRI scans, the visual analog scale (VAS) for back and leg pain, the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and the SF-36 health survey preoperatively and at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 7 years, and 11 years postoperatively. RESULTS The mean VAS score for leg pain dropped from 83.5 before surgery to 13 at 6 weeks and 17 at 11 years after surgery. The mean VAS score for back pain dropped from 56.2 preoperatively to 12.5 at 6 weeks and 14 at 11 years after surgery. The mean ODI score decreased from 49.1 preoperatively to 13.5 at 6 weeks and 16 at 11 years after surgery. MRI at 11 years demonstrated stenosis adjacent to the stabilized segment in one patient. This patient was not symptomatic. The authors did not find evidence of progression of the spondylolisthesis in any of the cases. In one patient, conversion to posterolateral fusion was performed due to an early device malfunction. CONCLUSIONS The results of this 11-year follow-up study demonstrate that, in patients with spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis, decompression and posterior arthroplasty maintain clinical improvement and radiological stability.
Tumor stromal type is associated with stromal PD-L1 expression and predicts outcomes in breast cancer

Background/Aim The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between stromal types, PD-L1 status and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with different molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Materials and methods Protein expression levels of PD-L1 were determined by immunohistochemistry assay. Stromal type was classified based on the maturity of the tumor stroma. Results Different subtypes of breast cancer had distinct stromal types. Tumors from patients with mature stroma had lower pathological N stage and AJCC stage, more frequent high p53 expression and positive stromal PD-L1 staining. Hormone receptor negative patients had higher frequency of positive stromal PD-L1 staining. Stromal PD-L1 status was also associated with different breast cancer subtypes and EGFR expression level. Importantly, our data revealed that stromal types and stromal PD-L1 status were independent prognostic factors. Conclusion This study highlighted the importance of stromal types and stromal PD-L1 status in determining clinical outcomes in patients with breast cancer, and suggested that stromal type classification might be readily incorporated into routine clinical risk assessment following curative resection or optimal therapeutic design.
Histone deposition promotes recombination-dependent replication at arrested forks

Replication stress poses a serious threat to genome stability. Recombination-Dependent-Replication (RDR) promotes DNA synthesis resumption from arrested forks. Despite the identification of chromatin restoration pathways after DNA repair, crosstalk coupling RDR and chromatin assembly is largely unexplored. The fission yeast Chromatin Assembly Factor-1, CAF-1, is known to promote RDR. Here, we addressed the contribution of histone deposition to RDR. We expressed a mutated histone, H3-H113D, to genetically alter replication-dependent chromatin assembly by destabilizing (H3-H4)2 tetramer. We established that DNA synthesis-dependent histone deposition, by CAF-1 and Asf1, promotes RDR by preventing Rqh1-mediated disassembly of joint-molecules. The recombination factor Rad52 promotes CAF-1 binding to sites of recombination-dependent DNA synthesis, indicating that histone deposition occurs downstream Rad52. Histone deposition and Rqh1 activity act synergistically to promote cell resistance to camptothecin, a topoisomerase I inhibitor that induces replication stress. Moreover, histone deposition favors non conservative recombination events occurring spontaneously in the absence of Rqh1, indicating that the stabilization of joint-molecules by histone deposition also occurs independently of Rqh1 activity. These results indicate that histone deposition plays an active role in promoting RDR, a benefit counterbalanced by stabilizing at-risk joint-molecules for genome stability.