Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is food insecurity related to health-care use, access and absenteeism?

Abstract Objective: Food insecurity (FI) is defined as uncertain access to healthy food in quantity and quality. We hypothesize that FI may be associated with greater health-care use and absenteeism because it may amplify the effect of diseases; also, FI may be associated with reduced health-care access because it reflects economic vulnerability. The present study estimates the association between FI and health-care use and access, and absenteeism. Design: Cross-sectional data collected in 2015–2016. Health-care use was measured as the number of consultations, taking any drug and having been hospitalized in the past year. Health-care access was measured by the suspension of medication and having fewer consultations due to financial constraints. Absenteeism was measured by the weeks of sickness leave. Binary variables were modelled as a function of FI using logistic regressions; continuous variables were modelled as a function of FI using negative binomial and zero-inflated negative binomial regressions. Covariates were included sequentially. Setting: Portugal. Participants: Non-institutionalized adults from the EpiDoc3 cohort (n 5648). Results: FI was significantly associated with health-care use before controlling for socio-economic conditions and quality of life. Moderate/severe FI was positively related to the suspension of medicines (adjusted OR = 4·68; 95 % CI 3·11, 6·82) and to having fewer consultations (adjusted OR = 3·98; 95 % CI 2·42, 6·37). FI and absenteeism were not significantly associated. Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that FI reflects precariousness, which hinders access to health care. The greater use of health care among food-insecure people is explained by their worse quality of life and lower socio-economic condition, so that the specific role of poor nutrition is unclear.
Blood eosinophil count as a predictor of hospital length of stay in COPD exacerbations

Airway inflammation accompanying exacerbations varies among individuals with some having neutrophilic, while others showing eosinophilic inflammation. This study assessed the cut‐off values of blood eosinophil count for identifying subjects with longer hospital length of stay (LOS) with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD).
Health system strengthening-Reflections on its meaning, assessment, and our state of knowledge.

Comprehensive reviews of health system strengthening (HSS) interventions are rare, partly because of lack of clarity on definitions of the term but also the potentially huge scale of the evidence. We reflect on the process of undertaking such an evidence review recently, drawing out suggestions on definitions of HSS and approaches to assessment, as well as summarising some key conclusions from the current evidence base. The key elements of a clear definition include, in our view, consideration of scope (with effects cutting across building blocks in practice, even if not in intervention design, and also tackling more than one disease), scale (having national reach and cutting across levels of the system), sustainability (effects being sustained over time and addressing systemic blockages), and effects (impacting on health outcomes, equity, financial risk protection, and responsiveness). We also argue that agreeing a framework for design and evaluation of HSS is urgent. Most HSS interventions have theories of change relating to specific system blocks, but more work is needed on capturing their spillover effects and their contribution to meeting overarching health system process goals. We make some initial suggestions about such goals, to reflect the features that characterise a "strong health system. " We highlight that current findings on "what works" are just indicative, given the limitations and biases in what has been studied and how, and argue that there is need to rethink evaluation methods for HSS beyond finite interventions and narrow outcomes. Clearer concepts, frameworks, and methods can support more coherent HSS investment.
Multivitamins and Nutritional Adequacy in Middle-Aged to Older Americans by Obesity Status

Abstract Multivitamins are the most commonly consumed dietary supplement in the United States and worldwide. Micronutrient insufficiency and clinical deficiency are more common in middle-aged to older adults, and multivitamin use has been shown to improve status in this population. This analysis aimed to assess contributions of sporadic and consistent multivitamin use to total usual micronutrient intakes and associated nutritional biomarkers among middle-aged to older US adults age ≥51 years, stratified by obesity status. Self-reported dietary intake and laboratory measures from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used in these analyses. The National Cancer Institute method was used to assess usual intakes of 18 micronutrients. Compared with food alone, multivitamin use was associated with a lower prevalence of inadequacies and improved nutritional biomarker status for folate, iodine, selenium, and vitamins B6, B12, and D. Consistent use decreased the prevalence of inadequacy for most micronutrients assessed, except for those micronutrients typically not found (or in miniscule amounts) in standard multivitamin products. In addition to a lower prevalence of inadequacy for many micronutrients associated with consistent use of multivitamins, sporadic use decreased the prevalence of inadequacy for a greater number of micronutrients in obese versus nonobese individuals. Multivitamin use (sporadic and consistent) also increased the proportion of individuals who exceeded the tolerable upper intake level for folic acid to 8%–10%. Nutritional biomarker data indicate that obese individuals may be at greater risk of clinical deficiency in vitamins B6 and D. Use of gender- and age-specific multivitamins may serve as a practical means to increase micronutrient status and decrease prevalences of clinical deficiency in the middle-aged to older population, particularly in those who are obese.
Simple Method to Improve Electrical Conductivity of Films Made from Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Despite the widespread use of sonication for individualization of nanomaterials, its destructive nature is rarely acknowledged. In this study, we demonstrated how exposure of the material to a hostile sound wave environment can be limited by the application of another preprocessing step. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were initially ground in a household coffee grinder, which enabled facile deagglomeration thereof. Such a simple approach enabled us to obtain high-quality CNT dispersion at reduced sonication time. Most importantly, electrical conductivity of free-standing films prepared from these dispersion was improved almost fourfold as compared with unground material eventually reaching 1067 ± 34 S/cm. This work presents a new approach as to how electrical properties of nanocarbon ensembles may be enhanced without the application of doping agents, the presence of which is often ephemeral.
Therapeutic Effect of Ecdysterone Combine Paeonol Oral Cavity Direct Administered on Radiation-Induced Oral Mucositis in Rats

Radiation-induced oral mucositis represents an influential factor in cancer patients’ accepted radiation therapy, especially in head and neck cancer. This research investigates the treatment effect of Ecdysterone (a steroid derived from the dry root of Achyranthes bidentate) and Paeonol (a compound derived from Cortex Moutan) on radiation-induced oral mucositis and possible underlying mechanisms. Concisely, 20 Gy of X-rays (single-dose) irradiated the cranial localization in rats for the modeling of oral mucositis. The therapeutic effects of Ecdysterone-Paeonol oral cavity directly administered on radiation-induced oral mucositis were investigated by weight changes, direct observations, visual scoring methods, ulcer area/total area, and basic recovery days. Assessments of tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin-6 were performed to evaluate the inflammatory cytokines secretion in the damaged areas of tongues harvested post-treatment, and changes in signaling pathways were investigated by Western blotting. System Drug Target (SysDT) methods revealed the targets of Ecdysterone-Paeonol in order to support compound-target network construction. Four representative targets with different functions were chosen. The binding interactions between the compound and receptor were evaluated by molecular docking to investigate the binding affinity of the ligand to their protein targets. Ecdysterone-Paeonol, administered orally, effectively improved radiation-induced oral mucositis in rats, and the therapeutic effect was better than Ecdysterone administered orally on its own. In this study, calculational chemistry revealed that Ecdysterone-Paeonol affected 19 function targets associated with radiation-induced oral mucositis, including apoptosis, proliferation, inflammation, and wound healing. These findings position Ecdysterone-Paeonol as a potential treatment candidate for oral mucositis acting on multiple targets in the clinic.
miR‐140‐5p is negatively correlated with proliferation, invasion, and tumorigenesis in malignant melanoma by targeting SOX4 via the Wnt/β‐catenin and NF‐κB cascades

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been validated as critical regulators in the development of melanoma. miR‐140 was abnormally downregulated in uveal melanoma samples. However, the expression level and roles of miR‐140‐5p remain unclear in melanoma for now. We speculate that miR‐140‐5p is abnormally expressed and may play an important role in melanoma. The expressions of miR‐140‐5p and SOX4 messenger RNA were determined by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction assays. Western blot assays were employed to detect the expression levels of SOX4, Ki67, MMP‐2, MMP‐7, p‐β‐catenin, c‐Myc, cyclin D1, p65, and IκBα. Luciferase reporter assays were employed to elucidate the interaction between SOX4 and miR‐140‐5p. MTT (3‐(4,5‐dimethyl‐2‐thiazolyl)‐2,5‐diphenyl‐2H‐tetrazolium bromide) and transwell invasion assays were applied to evaluate capabilities of cell proliferation and invasion, respectively. Xenograft models of melanoma were established to verify the role and molecular basis of miR‐140‐5p. Immunohistochemical (IHC) assays were employed to measure the Ki67 and SOX4 at the protein level in xenografted melanoma tissues. Herein, these observations showed that, miR‐140‐5p was abnormally downregulated in melanoma tissues and cells, while SOX4 was upregulated. miR‐140‐5p directly targeted SOX4 and inhibited its expression in melanoma cells. miR‐140‐5p overexpression repressed melanoma cell proliferation and invasion and its effects were partially restored SOX4 overexpression. Moreover, miR‐140‐5p hindered melanoma growth in vivo by downregulating SOX4. Mechanistically, miR‐140‐5p suppressed activation of the Wnt/β‐catenin and NF‐κB pathways by targeting SOX4. Our study concluded that miR‐140‐5p hindered cell proliferation, invasion, and tumorigenesis by targeting SOX4 via inactivation of the Wnt/β‐catenin and NF‐κB signaling pathways in malignant melanoma, which provides an underlying molecular mechanism for the treatment for melanoma with miRNAs.
The causal role of α-oscillations in feature binding

Significance Integrating visual features into a coherent scene is a challenge for the visual system known as the binding problem. Brain oscillations in the γ-band have been suggested to be a neural substrate of feature binding. Using electroencephalogram, we showed that feature binding was closely associated with α-oscillations. Through the entrainment of α-oscillations by transcranial alternating current stimulation, selectively changing α-oscillations could shape feature binding. Our study demonstrates the causal role of α-oscillations in feature binding and reveals a function of α-oscillations in human cognition. The binding problem—how to integrate features into objects—poses a fundamental challenge for the brain. Neural oscillations, especially γ-oscillations, have been proposed as a potential mechanism to solve this problem. However, since γ-oscillations usually reflect local neural activity, how to implement feature binding involving a large-scale brain network remains largely unknown. Here, combining electroencephalogram (EEG) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), we employed a bistable color-motion binding stimulus to probe the role of neural oscillations in feature binding. Subjects’ perception of the stimulus switched between its physical binding and its illusory (active) binding. The active binding has been shown to involve a large-scale network consisting of spatially distant brain areas. α-Oscillations presumably reflect the dynamics of such large-scale networks, especially due to volume conduction effects in EEG. We found that, relative to the physical binding, the α-power decreased during the active binding. Additionally, individual α-power was negatively correlated with the time proportion of the active binding. Subjects’ perceptual switch rate between the 2 bindings was positively correlated with their individual α-frequency. Furthermore, applying tACS at individual α-frequency decreased the time proportion of the active binding. Moreover, delivering tACS at different temporal frequencies in the α-band changed subjects’ perceptual switch rate through affecting the active binding process. Our findings provide converging evidence for the causal role of α-oscillations in feature binding, especially in active feature binding, thereby uncovering a function of α-oscillations in human cognition.
Pre-, Intra-, and Post-Operative Factors for Kidney Injury of Patients Underwent Cardiac Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background Kidney injury is common in patients who have undergone cardiac surgery, and it has high morbidity and mortality. The objective of the study was to identify pre-, intra-, and post-operative risk factors responsible for kidney injury among patients who had undergone cardiac surgery. Material/Methods Patients (n=1468) who had undergone cardiac surgery were stratified into those with kidney injury (n=488) and those without kidney injury (n=980) using the KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) criteria. Data of pre-, intra- and post-operative variables were collected and analyzed. Results Acute kidney injury occurred in 33.2% of study patients. Patients with post-operative acute kidney injury had older age, comorbidities, higher preoperative serum creatinine, coronary artery bypass grafting, longer operation time, high cardiopulmonary bypass and cross-clamping time, low central venous pressure, and prolonged mechanical ventilation as compared to patients without kidney injury (P<0.05 for all). Age >65 years (OR 1.4), preoperative hypertension (OR 2.0), preoperative anemia (OR 2.3), preoperative low ejection fraction (OR 3.7), Charlson comorbidity index >2 (OR 2.5), longer cardiopulmonary bypass time (OR 4.0), blood transfusions (OR 2.1), postoperative hypotension (OR 5.2), and low central venous pressure (OR 8.1) were responsible for kidney injury. Mortality of patients with kidney injury was significantly higher than those without acute kidney injury (52 versus 1, P<0.001). Conclusions Appropriate and effective control of pre-, intra-, and post-operative variables can reduce the risk of kidney injury development in patients following cardiac surgeries.
Development of a Biocontrol Method Applying Bacteriophage-Containing Aerosol against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Using the Bacteriophage BTCU-1 and M. smegmatis as Models

The application of bacteriophages for biocontrol has attracted increasing attention. Here, we applied ϕBTCU-1 as a model phage to develop a method for controlling Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by using a bacteriophage-containing aerosol in a chamber study. The soil-isolated ϕBTCU-1 can infect both MTB and Mycobacterium smegmatis. Our study used M. smegmatis as an MTB surrogate for safety reasons. Among all the evaluated air samplers, the Andersen impactor was chosen to evaluate the bactericidal efficiency of ϕBTCU-1 against M. smegmatis since the recovery rates of the Andersen impactor were 1.5 to 10.6 times higher than those of sampling filters. When airborne ϕBTCU-1 with the highest concentration of 109 PFU/m3 challenged M. smegmatis (105 CFU/m3) for 10 s, no M. smegmatis colony was recovered from the culture medium. For surface decontamination, no colony of M. smegmatis, which started at 1000 CFU/plate (63.6 cm2), was recovered when exposed to higher ϕBTCU-1 concentrations (>109 PFU/m3) for 60 min. Bacteriophages may be useful for reducing MTB contamination in the air or on hard surfaces. The method we have established suggests that the biocontrol method may be an alternative approach or may be combined with other disinfection methods to prevent MTB infection.
Tightly Coupled Secret Sharing and Its Application to Group Authentication

Group oriented applications are getting more and more popular in today's mobile Internet and call for secure and efficient (t,n) threshold secret sharing scheme (or (t,n)-SS) to meet their requirements. A (t,n)-SS divides a secret into $n$ shares such that any $t$ or more than $t$ shares can recover the secret while less than $t$ shares cannot. However, an adversary, even without a valid share, may obtain the secret by mounting Illegal Participant (IP) attack or Half Threshold Channel Cracking (HTCC) attack. Therefore, 1) the paper presents the notion and generic framework of (t,m,n)-Tightly Coupled Secret Sharing ((t,m,n)-TCSS). Prior to recovering the secret, it requires $m$ ($m \ge t$) participants to form a tightly coupled group by each independently constructing a component with the share. All $m$ components have to be used to recover the secret and thus both attacks can be thwarted more directly and simply. Furthermore, following the framework, threshold changeable secret sharing can also be easily constructed. 2) As an implementation of the framework, a linear code based (t,m,n)-TCSS scheme is proposed. Analyses show that the scheme can prevent IP, HTCC and $(t-1)$-Insider conspiring attacks with asymptotically perfect security. Moreover, it doesn't depend on any computational assumption and is more secure and efficient in storage, communication and computation when compared with related schemes. 3) Based on (t,m,n)-TCSS, a group authentication scheme is constructed, which allows a group user to authenticate whether all users are legal group members at once and thus provides efficient and flexible m-to-m authentication for group oriented applications.
Components of the diffuse ultraviolet radiation at high latitudes

We have used data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer to study the different components of the diffuse ultraviolet background in the region between the Galactic latitudes 70°–80°. We find an offset at zero dust column density (E(B − V) = 0) of 240 ± 18 photon units in the FUV (1539 Å) and 394 ± 37 photon units in the NUV (2316 Å). This is approximately half of the total observed radiation with the remainder divided between an extragalactic component of 114 ± 18 photon units in the FUV and 194 ± 37 photon units in the NUV and starlight scattered by Galactic dust at high latitudes. The optical constants of the dust grains were found to be a = 0.4 ± 0.1 and g = 0.8 ± 0.1 (FUV) and a = 0.4 ± 0.1 and g = 0.5 ± 0.1 (NUV). We cannot differentiate between a Galactic or extragalactic origin for the zero-offset but can affirm that it is not from any known source.
Fast Fourier Color Constancy and Grayness Index for ISPA Illumination Estimation Challenge

We briefly introduce two submissions to the Illumination Estimation Challenge, in the Int'l Workshop on Color Vision, affiliated to the 11th Int'l Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis. The fourier-transform-based submission is ranked 3rd, and the statistical Gray-pixel-based one ranked 6th.
Koopman Representations of Dynamic Systems with Control

The design and analysis of optimal control policies for dynamical systems can be complicated by nonlinear dependence in the state variables. Koopman operators have been used to simplify the analysis of dynamical systems by mapping the flow of the system onto a space of observables where the dynamics are linear (and possibly infinte). This paper focuses on the development of consistent Koopman representations for controlled dynamical system. We introduce the concept of dynamical consistency for Koopman representations and analyze several existing and proposed representations deriving necessary constraints on the dynamical system, observables, and Koopman operators. Our main result is a hybrid formulation which independently and jointly observes the state and control inputs. This formulation admits a relatively large space of dynamical systems compared to earlier formulations while keeping the Koopman operator independent of the state and control inputs. More generally, this work provides an analysis framework to evaluate and rank proposed simplifications to the general Koopman representation for controlled dynamical systems.
Biases in retrieving planetary signals in the presence of quasi-periodic stellar activity

Gaussian process regression is a widespread tool used to mitigate stellar correlated noise in radial velocity (RV) time series. It is particularly useful to search for and determine the properties of signals induced by small-sized low-mass planets (Rp < 4 R⊕, mp < 10 M⊕). By using extensive simulations based on a quasi-periodic representation of the stellar activity component, we investigate the ability in retrieving the planetary parameters in 16 different realistic scenarios. We analyse systems composed by one planet and host stars having different levels of activity, focusing on the challenging case represented by low-mass planets, with Doppler semi-amplitudes in the range 1–3 $\rm{\,m\,s^{-1}}$. We consider many different configurations for the quasi-periodic stellar activity component, as well as different combinations of the observing epochs. We use commonly employed analysis tools to search for and characterize the planetary signals in the data sets. The goal of our injection-recovery statistical analysis is twofold. First, we focus on the problem of planet mass determination. Then, we analyse in a statistical way periodograms obtained with three different algorithms, in order to explore some of their general properties, as the completeness and reliability in retrieving the injected planetary and stellar activity signals with low false alarm probabilities. This work is intended to provide some understanding of the biases introduced in the planet parameters inferred from the analysis of RV time series that contain correlated signals due to stellar activity. It also aims to motivate the use and encourage the improvement of extensive simulations for planning spectroscopic follow-up observations.
Data Protection Authorities and Information Technology

Abstract The ability of data protection authorities (DPAs) to gain and deploy sufficient knowledge of new technological developments in their regulation of personal-information practices is an important consideration now and for the future. However, DPAs' capacity to keep abreast of these developments has been questionable, and improvements in this are a matter of concern, especially given DPAs' task requirements under the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This article reports the findings of a recent survey of EU DPAs that explore the problems they have in comprehending new technologies and how they are dealing with them.