Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stress in farmers: a survey of farmers in England and Wales.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate potential sources of stress for farmers in England and Wales METHOD: A postal questionnaire was sent to a randomly selected group of 800 members of the National Farmers' Union and 200 members of the Farmers' Union of Wales. RESULTS: 500 questionnaires (51%) were returned completed between October 1995 and March 1996. Farmers had problems with record keeping and paperwork (62%), difficulty understanding forms (56%), and problems arising from the effects of new legislation and regulations (49%). Nearly a quarter (23%) reported financial problems and most worried about money (79%). Very few were socially isolated, with over 90% having at least one confidant. 70% worked > 10 hours a day, and 31% had health problems which interfered with their work, including more than a quarter of those < 50. 16% of the sheep farmers reported symptoms which they attributed to organophosphate poisoning. The farmers most vulnerable to financial and other problems were those with small farms and mixed farming operations. Farmers in Wales also seemed more vulnerable than those in England, but a lower response rate from members of the Farmers' Union of Wales means this difference should be interpreted cautiously. CONCLUSION: The survey confirms findings from several regional studies that many farmers are experiencing considerable stress from various causes. Local and national initiatives to assist farmers, including outreach programmes, should be encouraged. Policy makers should be aware of the potential impact of legislation, particularly on the more vulnerable groups.
Evidence for widespread epistatic interactions influencing Marek’s disease virus viremia levels in chicken

Marek’s disease (MD), a T cell lymphoma induced by the Marek’s disease virus (MDV), is the main chronic infectious disease concern threatening the poultry industry. Enhancing genetic resistance to MD in commercial poultry is an attractive method to augment MD vaccines, which is currently the control method of choice. In order to implement this control strategy through marker-assisted selection (MAS), it is necessary to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) or genes that influence MD incidence. Previous studies have demonstrated that it is possible to identify QTL that confer MD resistance in both experimental and commercial chickens. With the advent of the chicken genome sequence and new genomic tools, and evidence that interactions are important in understanding complex traits, the line 6 × 7 F2 experimental resource population was re-evaluated with finer resolution for epistatic interactions. The F2 population, consisting of 272 individuals and previously genotyped with 133 genetic markers, was combined along with 576 additional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped on 80 individuals in each of the distribution tails for MD and other associated traits, and tested for the presence of main effects and two-way epistatic interactions accounting for MD incidence, viremia titers, and length of survival. Main effects were generally not significant but a large number of highly significant interactions, involving loci located throughout the genome, were identified that account for MDV viremia titers in infected birds. These results suggest that resistance to MD is highly complex and will require the incorporation of epistatic interaction analyses and functional genomic approaches to reveal the underlying genetic basis.
Relationship of age to mammography compliance

Mammography use varies by age, with older women showing decreased use. The purpose of this research was to identify variables that affect screening use within two different age groups of women, those younger than 50 and those 50 and older. Predictor variables were identified using the Health Belief Model and Theory of Reasoned Action and included susceptibility, seriousness, benefits, barriers, health motivation, control, social influence, and experiential/demographic variables. A probability sample of 581 women aged 35 and older was included for analyses. Two measures of mammography compliance were tested: compliance with American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines for the 5 years before the study and compliance with the ACS guidelines for the year before the study. An in‐home interview was conducted by graduate research assistants. Compliance rates were significantly lower for women 50 and older than they were for younger women for both the 5‐year compliance and the single year of compliance. Barriers were more significant for older women. Having a mammography suggested by a health care professional was most important in the older group, indicating that less weight may be given to personal decision making by this population. Higher socioeconomic status was significant with older but not younger women. For older women, interventions need to be directed toward both the physician and the individual woman. Programs that provide knowledge and address cost issues may be the most important primary components for younger women.
Practice effects in three‐dimensional sequential rapid aiming in Parkinson's disease

One hypothesized role of the basal ganglia, based largely on findings in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, is the control of movement sequences. We examined changes in performance with practice of a movement sequence in PD patients and age‐matched controls (n = 8 per group). Subjects practiced a complex three‐dimensional sequential aiming task over 2 days, completing 180 trials, with the goal to minimize response time within specified accuracy limits. The results indicated that both groups became faster in planning the movement, and both groups moved more quickly through the sequence with practice. The PD group's decrease in movement time occurred primarily within the first 45 trials, whereas the control group continued to improve through the first 150 trials. Flight time (time between targets) to a small target decreased with practice in both groups, but flight time to a large target decreased only in the control group. This finding indicates that error corrective processes are more amenable to practice than ballistic processes in people with PD. There was little evidence that either group improved their performance by planning shorter (lower) trajectories, but rather increased mean velocity. Contact time (time on target) decreased with practice in both groups, and there were no group differences. These data indicate that practice can improve performance, both in planning and in specific execution processes. © 2002 Movement Disorder Society
Increasing prevalence of Addison's disease in German females: health insurance data 2008-2012.

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to investigate the epidemiology of autoimmune Addison's disease (AD) in Germany. DESIGN Routine data were analyzed from the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) database of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) for an observation period from 01/01/2008 to 31/12/2012. The TK is one of the largest German health care insurance providers covering more than 10% of the German population. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Between 2008 and 2012, a total of 2477 diagnoses of primary adrenal failure were recorded in the SHI database. After exclusion of secondary, iatrogenic or other non-idiopathic forms and after adjustment for incomplete data sets, 1364 diagnoses of autoimmune-mediated AD remained. RESULTS The prevalence of AD in our cohort showed a steady increase from 82 per million in 2008 to 87 per million in 2012. On average, the prevalence rose about 1.8% per year, and due to a pronounced increase (2.7%) in females. The prevalence was lower in men (63-68 per million) than in women (96-108 per million). Autoimmune comorbidities were found in 46.5% of AD patients. Adrenal crises were documented with a frequency of 14-17/100 patient years. CONCLUSIONS These data provide a first epidemiological profile of this rare and perilous endocrine disease in Germany. Although the prevalence of AD appears lower than in the Scandinavian countries, the increasing figures in females over the last 5 years warrant further investigations. Furthermore, adrenal crises pose a considerable burden. Hereby, we can show that health insurance data provide a valuable tool for epidemiological studies in the absence of national registries.
When You Do Not Get the Whole Picture: Scene Perception After Occipital Cortex Lesions

Background: Occipital cortex lesions (OCLs) typically result in visual field defects (VFDs) contralateral to the damage. VFDs are usually mapped with perimetry involving the detection of point targets. This, however, ignores the important role of integration of visual information across locations in many tasks of everyday life. Here, we ask whether standard perimetry can fully characterize the consequences of OCLs. We compare performance on a rapid scene discrimination task of OCL participants and healthy observers with simulated VFDs. While the healthy observers will only suffer the loss of part of the visual scene, the damage in the OCL participants may further compromise global visual processing. Methods: VFDs were mapped with Humphrey perimetry, and participants performed two rapid scene discrimination tasks. In healthy participants, the VFDs were simulated with hemi- and quadrant occlusions. Additionally, the GIST model, a computational model of scene recognition, was used to make individual predictions based on the VFDs. Results: The GIST model was able to predict the performance of controls regarding the effects of the local occlusion. Using the individual predictions of the GIST model, we can determine that the variability between the OCL participants is much larger than the extent of the VFD could account for. The OCL participants can further be categorized as performing worse, the same, or better as their VFD would predict. Conclusions: While in healthy observers the extent of the simulated occlusion accounts for their performance loss, the OCL participants’ performance is not fully determined by the extent or shape of their VFD as measured with Humphrey perimetry. While some OCL participants are indeed only limited by the local occlusion of the scene, for others, the lesions compromised the visual network in a more global and disruptive way. Yet one outperformed a healthy observer, suggesting a possible adaptation to the VFD. Preliminary analysis of neuroimaging data suggests that damage to the lateral geniculate nucleus and corpus callosum might be associated with the larger disruption of rapid scene discrimination. We believe our approach offers a useful behavioral tool for investigating why similar VFDs can produce widely differing limitations in everyday life.
Sperm-associated Antigens as Targets for Cancer Immunotherapy: Expression Pattern and Humoral Immune Response in Cancer Patients

The identification of novel cancer-related and immunogenic proteins is still a challenge to be faced to improve antigen-specific tumor immunotherapy. The category of so-called cancer-testis (CT) antigens is one of the most perspective groups of proteins for anticancer immune response activation as normally they are expressed in immunoprivileged tissues and are immunogenic if aberrantly generated in tumors. The heterogeneous group of proteins called sperm-associated antigens (SPAG) might encompass novel CT antigens owing to their common expression in male germ cells, their ability to elicit immune response underlying infertility, and lately proposed oncogenic properties. We carried out a comprehensive analysis of the expression pattern in various normal and cancerous tissues and assessed the frequency of spontaneous humoral immune response against members of the SPAG group in cancer patients using phage-displayed antigen microarrays. Our results show that out of 15 analyzed SPAG genes only SPAG1, SPAG6, SPAG8, SPAG15, and SPAG17 are predominantly expressed in testis, whereas the others are ubiquitously expressed with only a testis-associated alternative splice variant of SPAG16. mRNA expression of SPAG1, SPAG6, and alternative splice variants of SPAG8, SPAG16, and SPAG17 was elevated in various tumors with frequencies ranging from approximately 10% to 70%. The upregulation of SPAG6 in lung and breast cancer was confirmed by immunohistochemical analysis of tumor and normal tissue microarrays. Cancer-associated spontaneous humoral immune response was detected against SPAG1, SPAG6, SPAG8, and a novel testis-specific splice variant of SPAG17 and ascribe these as novel CT antigens that potentially are applicable as immunotherapeutic targets and serologic biomarkers.
Great Lakes Basin Heat Waves: An Analysis of Their Increasing Probability of Occurrence Under Global Warming

Extreme heat events in the Great Lakes Basin (GLB) region of eastern North America are expected to increase in concert with greenhouse gas (GHG) induced global warming. The extent of this regional increase is also influenced by the direct effects of the Great Lakes themselves. This paper describes results from an ensemble of dynamically downscaled global warming projection using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) regional climate model coupled to the Freshwater Lake (FLake) model over the Great Lakes region. In our downscaling pipeline, we explore two sets of WRF physics configurations, with the initial and boundary conditions provided by four different fully coupled Global Climate Models (GCMs). Three time periods are investigated, namely an instrumental period (1979–1989) that is employed for validation, and a mid-century (2050–2060) and an end-century (2085–2100) periods that are used to understand the future impacts of global warming. Results from the instrumental period are characterized by large variations in climate states between the ensemble members, which is attributed to differences in both GCM forcing and WRF physics configuration. Results for the future periods, however, are such that the regional model results have good agreement with GCM results insofar as the rise of average temperature with GHG is concerned. Analysis of extreme heat events suggests that the occurrence rate of such events increase steadily with rising temperature, and that the Great Lakes exert strong lake effect influence on extreme heat events in this region.
Cross‐talk between tuberin, calmodulin, and estrogen signaling pathways

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare disease that occurs primarily in women and has been linked to both estrogen‐mediated signaling events and mutations associated with the tuberous sclerosis complex 2 gene product tuberin. These two observations fostered the hypothesis that tuberin's impact on estrogen‐mediated signaling might be through a direct interaction with the intracellular receptor for estrogen, estrogen receptor α (ERα). In the study presented here, tuberin was shown to co‐immunoprecipitate and directly bind ERα through a domain localized within the carboxyl 73 amino acids of tuberin. This domain had previously been shown to serve as a binding domain for the intracellular calcium signaling molecule calmodulin (CaM). Competition binding studies identified a potential competitive relationship for binding of tuberin by ERα and CaM. Additionally, tuberin‐ERα interactions were found to be modulated by the presence of tuberin's predominant intracellular binding partner hamartin, suggesting that tuberin‐hamartin interactions negatively impact the ability of tuberin to modulate ERα‐mediated gene transcription events. Cumulatively, data presented here support the hypothesis that interactions between tuberin, ERα, and CaM may play a critical role in the pathology of LAM disease.
Review: Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease: Role of the Renin-Angiotensin System in Raised Blood Pressure in Progression of Renal and Cardiovascular Disease

Raised blood pressure (BP) is extremely common in individuals with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and is almost invariably raised once they develop renal failure. The underlying mechanisms for the rise in BP in individuals with ADPKD are unclear. The progressive number and enlargement of renal cysts, causing structural damage to the kidneys and, thereby, affecting tubular function as well as causing distortion of the glomeruli and renal ischaemia, is likely to be of primary importance.There is some evidence from animal models that there may be over-activity of the intra-renal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) that could account for the rise in BP. Studies in man have shown conflicting results, but a recent more carefully controlled study using both measurements of activity and pharmacological blockade of the RAS clearly demonstrated no evidence of over-activity of the circulating RAS in ADPKD compared to matched individuals with essential hypertension. A more likely explanation for the rise in BP that occurs in ADPKD is retention of sodium and water due to tubular damage. Disappointingly, in spite of good evidence that RAS blocking drugs slow the progression of other renal, particularly glomerular, diseases, there is little evidence to suggest this is true for patients with ADPKD. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that lowering BP in ADPKD is just as important, if not more important, as in essential hypertension to prevent cardiovascular disease and strokes, with a recommended BP target of < 120/80 mmHg.
New Coupled-Particle Light-Scattering Assay for Detection of Ro/SSA (52 and 60 Kilodaltons) and La/SSB Autoantibodies in Connective Tissue Diseases

ABSTRACT The diagnostic and analytical performance of the coupled-particle light-scattering assay in detecting anti-Ro/SSA autoantibodies (the 60-kDa [Ro60] and the 52-kDa [Ro52] antibodies) and anti-La/SSB autoantibodies was evaluated. The antigens were obtained by recombinant DNA procedures to include the most immunogenic epitopes for each protein by using a prokaryotic expression system. Serum samples from 151 patients with connective tissue diseases and 52 control subjects (including patients with viral infections, patients with Lyme disease, and healthy subjects) were studied. Sensitivities for detection of anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSB were 88.2 and 95.2%, respectively; specificities were 97.6 and 98.1%, respectively. The intra-assay coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 4.3 to 10.9% for anti-Ro/SSA and from 2.8 to 12.5% for anti-La/SSB; interassay CVs ranged from 6.5 to 13.2% and from 8.2 to 14.5%, respectively. Among the anti-Ro/SSA-positive samples, Ro60 was recognized by 66% of the test sera and Ro52 was recognized by 95% of the test sera. Thirty-four percent of the Ro/SSA-positive sera were reactive only with the Ro52 antigen, indicating that anti-Ro52 is the most common antibody specificity recognized by anti-Ro/SSA autoantibodies. No differences were found between the prevalences of anti-Ro60 and anti-Ro52 in relation to systemic lupus erythematosus or Sjögren's syndrome. The results of the present study indicate that this new immunoassay is an efficient diagnostic tool for the detection of anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSB antibodies in patients with autoimmune disorders.
Filipino older adults' beliefs about exercise activity.

PURPOSE This study explored how the older traditional Filipino adults 65 years old and above living in Honolulu, Hawaii, describe their beliefs regarding exercise activity. The location of this research setting is unique because a blending of traditional Filipino culture exists within an acculturated social setting. The Filipino older adults who have relocated to this U.S. location may have also stayed close to their own cultural traditions. METHODOLOGIES A perception of exercise activity was generated through the lens of 47 participants using qualitative methodology. FINDINGS While focusing on the older adults' beliefs about exercise activity, it became evident that exercise may have been seen as a proxy measure of physical activity. The study revealed four main domains: balancing barriers against benefits; engaging capabilities; intervening factors; and defining exercise. The data suggest that the four themes are juxtaposed among each other, with overarching social obligations to the kin group governing the older adults' engagement in what constitutes structured exercise by Western definition. IMPLICATIONS Further investigation is needed to conceptualize what types of physical activities traditional Filipino elders perceive as exercise, and whether these activities fall into the Western definition of exercise.
Socio-economic differences in outdoor food advertising in a city in Northern England

Abstract Objective To explore differences in the prevalence of outdoor food advertising, and the type and nutritional content of advertised foods, according to an area-based marker of socio-economic position (SEP) in a city in Northern England. Design All outdoor advertisements in the city were identified during October–December 2009, their size (in m2) estimated and their location determined using a global positioning system device. Advertisements were classified as food or non-food. Food advertisements were classified into one of six food categories. Information on the nutritional content of advertised foods was obtained from packaging and manufacturer's websites. An area-based marker of SEP was assigned using the location of each advertisement, grouped into three affluence tertiles for analysis. Setting A city in Northern England. Subjects None. Results In all, 1371 advertisements were identified; 211 (15 %) of these were for food. The advertisements covered 6765 m2, of which 1326 m2 (20 %) was for food. Total advertising and food advertising space was largest in the least affluent tertile. There was little evidence of socio-economic trends in the type or nutritional content of advertised foods. Conclusions Despite an absence of socio-economic differences in the type and nutritional content of advertised foods, there were socio-economic differences in food advertising space. There may also be socio-economic differences in exposure to outdoor food advertising.
HDL cholesterol subfractions and risk of developing type 2 diabetes among Pima Indians.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationships between HDL cholesterol subfractions and the incidence of type 2 diabetes and to evaluate potential sex differences in these relationships. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Proportional hazards analyses were performed to examine the relationships between HDL subfractions and the development of type 2 diabetes in Pima Indian women and men. Results were controlled for age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, and 2-h glucose. RESULTS Some 54 of 123 women and 25 of 50 men developed type 2 diabetes during a mean follow-up of 10 (2-19) years. For women, in separate models, high levels of total HDL, HDL2a, and HDL3 were negatively associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes; results were unchanged in models further controlled for fasting insulin level or alcohol consumption. For men, the results were inconsistent and associated with wide confidence intervals; high total HDL and HDL3 were positively associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes in models further controlled for fasting insulin level, but the risk estimates were attenuated in models further controlled for alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS High levels of total HDL, HDL2a, and HDL3 were potential protective factors against type 2 diabetes in women after accounting for alcohol consumption and insulin resistance. High levels of total HDL and HDL3 were predictive of type 2 diabetes in men; the relationship in men appeared to be due to an association with alcohol consumption. The sex differences in the effects of HDL cholesterol may be related to the effects of sex hormones or lipoproteins.