Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beneficial Effects of Small-Sided Games as a Conclusive Part of Warm-up Routines in Young Elite Handball Players

Abstract Iacono, AD, Vigotsky, AD, Laver, L, and Halperin, I. Beneficial effects of small-sided games as a conclusive part of warm-up routines in young elite handball players. J Strength Cond Res 35(6): 1724–1731, 2021—The aim of this study was to compare the effects of small-sided games (SSGs) and traditional warm-up strategies on the mechanical, physiological, and perceptional responses of handball players. Using a randomized and counterbalanced design, 12 elite male handball players completed a general 8-minute warm-up, which was concluded with an 8-minute section of either specific handball shooting drills or 3 × 2 minutes of 3 vs. 3 SSG with a passive recovery of 1 minute between bouts. Countermovement jumps (CMJs) and plyometric press-ups (PPs) were assessed before and immediately after the warm-up regimens using a force plate. Heart rate (HR) was assessed during the warm-up regimens, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was assessed after the regimens. Meaningful differences favoring SSG were observed in most of the kinetic variables in the CMJs and PPs (|Hedges g| = 0.26–1.42). Conversely, no meaningful differences were found between warm-up regimens in RPE or HR responses (z-scores = 0.45 and 1.88, respectively). These results indicate that concluding warm-ups with SSGs offer greater benefits compared with a more traditional warm-up routine, despite similar HR and RPE responses even when matched for duration among elite-level handball players.
How Difficult Doctor‒Patient Relationships Impair Physicians’ Work Engagement: The Roles of Prosocial Motivation and Problem-Solving Pondering

Difficult doctor‒patient relationships are a common reality in many health-care organizations. Its harmful impacts have been mainly discussed from the perspectives of patients. However, understanding of its negative effects on physicians is limited. Drawing on the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory, we hypothesize that difficult relationships with patients negatively predict physicians’ work engagement, mediated by physicians’ personal resources (e.g. prosocial motivation and problem-solving pondering). A sample of 588 physicians from 24 Chinese hospitals completed questionnaires in a two-wave survey. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap estimation results provide support for the hypothesized relationships. Difficult doctor‒patient relationships have a direct and negative effect on physicians’ work engagement. Specifically, there is a sequence in which the difficult doctor‒patient relationship first impedes physicians’ prosocial motivation, leading to decreased problem-solving pondering, which subsequently impairs physicians’ work engagement. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Basic computer skills and computer preferences of inner-city hospitalized medical patients: implications for web-based alcohol screening and brief intervention

ABSTRACT Health care delivery is being transformed by the use of computer technology, and integrated physical health with mental and behavioral health care are national priorities. This study examined the basic computer skills and computer preferences of inner-city hospitalized medical patients in a design study of a web-based alcohol screening and brief intervention program prototype. Participants were 26 patients observed going through the program prototype using both a laptop computer and mouse, and an iPad. The majority of patients were able to do all the basic laptop and basic iPad skills to complete the program prototype, including older patients (aged 50 years or older) and patients with a high school degree or less. Patient computer preference was 3:1 for the use of an iPad versus a laptop computer, and the majority of patients preferred to complete a web-based versus an in-person brief intervention health program. Inner-city hospitalized medical patients appear able to complete and may be receptive to web-based alcohol screening and brief intervention programs.
The Turner syndrome research registry: Creating equipoise between investigators and participants

To address knowledge gaps about Turner syndrome (TS) associated disease mechanisms, the Turner Syndrome Society of the United States created the Turner Syndrome Research Registry (TSRR), a patient‐powered registry for girls and women with TS. More than 600 participants, parents or guardians completed a 33‐item foundational survey that included questions about demographics, medical conditions, psychological conditions, sexuality, hormonal therapy, patient and provider knowledge about TS, and patient satisfaction. The TSRR platform is engineered to allow individuals living with rare conditions and investigators to work side‐by‐side. The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept, architecture, and currently available content of the TSRR, in anticipation of inviting proposals to utilize registry resources.
Neural predictors and effects of cognitive behavioral therapy for depression: the role of emotional reactivity and regulation

Abstract Background Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for many patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD), but predictors of treatment outcome are lacking, and little is known about its neural mechanisms. We recently identified longitudinal changes in neural correlates of conscious emotion regulation that scaled with clinical responses to CBT for MDD, using a negative autobiographical memory-based task. Methods We now examine the neural correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation during viewing of emotionally salient images as predictors of treatment outcome with CBT for MDD, and the relationship between longitudinal change in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses and clinical outcomes. Thirty-two participants with current MDD underwent baseline MRI scanning followed by 14 sessions of CBT. The fMRI task measured emotional reactivity and emotion regulation on separate trials using standardized images from the International Affective Pictures System. Twenty-one participants completed post-treatment scanning. Last observation carried forward was used to estimate clinical outcome for non-completers. Results Pre-treatment emotional reactivity Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal within hippocampus including CA1 predicted worse treatment outcome. In contrast, better treatment outcome was associated with increased down-regulation of BOLD activity during emotion regulation from time 1 to time 2 in precuneus, occipital cortex, and middle frontal gyrus. Conclusions CBT may modulate the neural circuitry of emotion regulation. The neural correlates of emotional reactivity may be more strongly predictive of CBT outcome. The finding that treatment outcome was predicted by BOLD signal in CA1 may suggest overgeneralized memory as a negative prognostic factor in CBT outcome.
Mucosa-Associated Microbiota in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Healthy Japanese Subjects

Background: The importance of microbiota infiltrating the gut mucus layer has been reported in the pathogenesis of various gastrointestinal and systemic diseases. However, little is known about the mucosa-associated microbiota (MAM) in healthy subjects. The present study aimed to clarify the characteristics of the gastrointestinal MAM from the oral cavity to the rectum in healthy Japanese subjects. Methods: Seventeen healthy subjects were enrolled. In this study, 5 mucosa samples from the upper gut (intraoral, mid-esophagus, gastric corpus, gastric antrum, and duodenum) and 7 from the lower gut (ileum, cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon, and rectum) were collected with a brush under endoscopic examination. MAM profiles of each sample were analyzed by 16S-rRNA V3-V4 gene sequences. Results: Collecting mucosa samples by brushing provided sufficient material for MAM profiling without causing adverse effects. The upper and lower gut MAM profiles differed significantly (p < 0.0001). In the upper and lower gut, the intra- and inter-individual MAM profiles were significantly different (p = 0.0008 and p < 0.0001 respectively). Conclusions: The MAM profiles of the upper and lower gut were significantly different. The inter-individual differences in MAM were remarkable compared to the intra-individual differences.
An Analysis of Dentigerous Cysts Developed around a Mandibular Third Molar by Panoramic Radiographs

Dentigerous cysts are one of the most prevalent types of odontogenic cysts and are associated with the crown of an unerupted tooth, especially of the mandibular third molar. In this study, the characteristics of a dentigerous cyst developed around a mandibular third molar on panoramic radiographs were investigated. The panoramic images of 257 consecutive dentigerous cyst cases associated with a mandibular third molar were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 45.9 ± 13.3 years. The size of the cyst did not significantly correlate to the age of the patient. The unilocular type (89.1%) and the crown side type (68.5%) were significant. The associated mandibular third molars had a high frequency of class III (64.6%) and position B (48.3%) in Pell and Gregory classification and of horizontal position (36.3%) in angulation. Dentigerous cysts were thought to originate and grow commonly around deeply impacted third molars. The associated third molar with dentigerous cyst tends to have a mesial inclination. Dentigerous cysts do not appear to develop gradually after the crown formation has finished, but arise at various periods randomly.
Effects of APOE on Cognitive Aging in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Objective: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is an established risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, with elevated risk for &egr;4-carriers and reduced risk for &egr;2-carriers. However, it is unclear whether APOE modifies risk for cognitive decline in normal aging. The objective of this study was to determine whether &egr;2 and &egr;4 are associated with rates of normal cognitive aging, and whether associations of &egr;4 with cognitive decline are modified by sex, education or health behaviors (exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking). Method: A community-based sample of 1,393 older adults were genotyped for APOE and underwent cognitive assessment up to seven times over a maximum of period of 27 years. Results: &egr;2-carriers showed slower executive function decline with age relative to &egr;3 homozygotes or &egr;4-carriers, whereas &egr;4-carriers demonstrated more rapid executive function and verbal fluency decline. Accelerated executive function decline was particularly pronounced in &egr;4-carriers with lower education. After excluding individuals with cognitive impairment, faster executive function decline was still apparent in &egr;4-carriers, and the effect of &egr;4 on episodic memory interacted with alcohol consumption, such that only &egr;4-carriers who did not drink showed more rapid memory decline than &egr;4 noncarriers. The influence of &egr;4 on cognitive aging did not differ by sex, nor was it modified by smoking or exercise. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the &egr;2 and &egr;4 alleles have differential effects on cognitive aging, and that negative effects of &egr;4 may be partly mitigated by behavioral choices.
EuroCity Persons: A Novel Benchmark for Person Detection in Traffic Scenes

Big data has had a great share in the success of deep learning in computer vision. Recent works suggest that there is significant further potential to increase object detection performance by utilizing even bigger datasets. In this paper, we introduce the EuroCity Persons dataset, which provides a large number of highly diverse, accurate and detailed annotations of pedestrians, cyclists and other riders in urban traffic scenes. The images for this dataset were collected on-board a moving vehicle in 31 cities of 12 European countries. With over 238,200 person instances manually labeled in over 47,300 images, EuroCity Persons is nearly one order of magnitude larger than datasets used previously for person detection in traffic scenes. The dataset furthermore contains a large number of person orientation annotations (over 211,200). We optimize four state-of-the-art deep learning approaches (Faster R-CNN, R-FCN, SSD and YOLOv3) to serve as baselines for the new object detection benchmark. In experiments with previous datasets we analyze the generalization capabilities of these detectors when trained with the new dataset. We furthermore study the effect of the training set size, the dataset diversity (day- versus night-time, geographical region), the dataset detail (i.e., availability of object orientation information) and the annotation quality on the detector performance. Finally, we analyze error sources and discuss the road ahead.
Persistent problems 1 year after mild traumatic brain injury: a longitudinal population study in New Zealand.

BACKGROUND Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common problem in general practice settings, yet previous research does not take into account those who do not attend hospital after injury. This is important as there is evidence that effects may be far from mild. AIM To determine whether people sustain any persistent effects 1 year after mTBI, and to identify the predictors of health outcomes. DESIGN AND SETTING A community-based, longitudinal population study of an mTBI incidence cohort (n = 341) from a mixed urban and rural region (Hamilton and Waikato Districts) of the North Island of New Zealand (NZ). METHOD Adults (>16 years) completed assessments of cognitive functioning, global functioning, post-concussion symptoms, mood, and quality of life over the year after injury. RESULTS Nearly half of participants (47.9%) reported experiencing four or more post-concussion symptoms 1 year post-injury. Additionally, 10.9% of participants revealed very low cognitive functioning. Levels of anxiety, depression, or reduced quality of life were comparable with the general population. Having at least one comorbidity, history of brain injury, living alone, non-white ethnic group, alcohol and medication use, and being female were significant predictors of poorer outcomes at 12 months. CONCLUSION Although some people make a spontaneous recovery after mTBI, nearly half continue to experience persistent symptoms linked to their injury. Monitoring of recovery from mTBI may be needed and interventions provided for those experiencing persistent difficulties. Demographic factors and medical history should be taken into account in treatment planning.
The ROMP: A Powerful Approach to Synthesize Novel pH-Sensitive Nanoparticles for Tumor Therapy

Fast clearance, metabolism, and systemic toxicity are major limits for the clinical use of anti-cancer drugs. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) present these defects, despite displaying promising anti-tumor properties on tumor cells in vitro and in in vivo models of cancer. The specific delivery of anti-cancer drugs into the tumor should improve their clinical benefit by limiting systemic toxicity and by increasing the anti-tumor effect. This paper deals with the synthesis of the polymeric nanoparticle platform, which was produced by Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP), able to release anti-cancer drugs in dispersion, such as histone deacetylase inhibitors, into mesothelioma tumors. The core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) have stealth properties due to their poly(ethylene oxide) shell and can be viewed as universal nano-carriers on which any alkyne-modified anti-cancer molecule can be grafted by click chemistry. A cleavage reaction of the chemical bond between NPs and drugs through the contact of NPs with a medium presenting an acidic pH, which is typically a cancer tumor environment or an acidic intracellular compartment, induces a controlled release of the bioactive molecule in its native form. In our in vivo syngeneic model of mesothelioma, a highly selective accumulation of the particles in the tumor was obtained. The release of the drugs led to an 80% reduction of tumor weight for the best compound without toxicity. Our work demonstrates that the use of theranostic nanovectors leads to an optimized delivery of epigenetic inhibitors in tumors, which improves their anti-tumor properties in vivo.
Optimized DNA extraction and library preparation for minute arthropods: Application to target enrichment in chalcid wasps used for biocontrol

Target enrichment is increasingly used for genotyping of plant and animal species or to better understand the evolutionary history of important lineages through the inference of statistically robust phylogenies. Limitations to routine target enrichment are both the complexity of current protocols and low input DNA quantity. Thus, working with tiny organisms such as microarthropods can be challenging. Here, we propose easy to set up optimizations for DNA extraction and library preparation prior to target enrichment. Prepared libraries were used to capture 1,432 ultraconserved elements (UCEs) from microhymenoptera (Chalcidoidea), which are among the tiniest insects on Earth and the most commercialized worldwide for biological control purposes. Results show no correlation between input DNA quantities (1.8–250 ng, 0.4 ng with an extra whole genome amplification step) and the number of sequenced UCEs on an Illumina MiSeq. Phylogenetic inferences highlight the potential of UCEs to solve relationships within the families of chalcid wasps, which has not been achieved so far. The protocol (library preparation + target enrichment) allows processing 96 specimens in five working days, by a single person, without requiring the use of expensive robotic molecular biology platforms, which could help to generalize the use of target enrichment for minute specimens.
Spatial distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions in the cervical spinal cord

Spinal cord lesions detected on MRI hold important diagnostic and prognostic value for multiple sclerosis. Previous attempts to correlate lesion burden with clinical status have had limited success, however, suggesting that lesion location may be a contributor. Our aim was to explore the spatial distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions in the cervical spinal cord, with respect to clinical status. We included 642 suspected or confirmed multiple sclerosis patients (31 clinically isolated syndrome, and 416 relapsing-remitting, 84 secondary progressive, and 73 primary progressive multiple sclerosis) from 13 clinical sites. Cervical spine lesions were manually delineated on T2- and T2*-weighted axial and sagittal MRI scans acquired at 3 or 7 T. With an automatic publicly-available analysis pipeline we produced voxelwise lesion frequency maps to identify predilection sites in various patient groups characterized by clinical subtype, Expanded Disability Status Scale score and disease duration. We also measured absolute and normalized lesion volumes in several regions of interest using an atlas-based approach, and evaluated differences within and between groups. The lateral funiculi were more frequently affected by lesions in progressive subtypes than in relapsing in voxelwise analysis (P < 0.001), which was further confirmed by absolute and normalized lesion volumes (P < 0.01). The central cord area was more often affected by lesions in primary progressive than relapse-remitting patients (P < 0.001). Between white and grey matter, the absolute lesion volume in the white matter was greater than in the grey matter in all phenotypes (P < 0.001); however when normalizing by each region, normalized lesion volumes were comparable between white and grey matter in primary progressive patients. Lesions appearing in the lateral funiculi and central cord area were significantly correlated with Expanded Disability Status Scale score (P < 0.001). High lesion frequencies were observed in patients with a more aggressive disease course, rather than long disease duration. Lesions located in the lateral funiculi and central cord area of the cervical spine may influence clinical status in multiple sclerosis. This work shows the added value of cervical spine lesions, and provides an avenue for evaluating the distribution of spinal cord lesions in various patient groups.
Sex differences in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: new insights

Purpose of review Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic cardiomyopathy, diagnosed by left ventricular hypertrophy of at least 15 mm maximal wall thickness (MWT). Recent studies reported a sex difference in clinical presentation, progression and outcome of HCM. This review provides an overview of recent studies into sex differences in HCM. Recent findings A higher number of men (55–65% of total HCM patient group) with manifest HCM has been observed, whereas female patients are older at first evaluation and diagnosis, present more frequently with symptoms, and have worse survival. Additionally, women have relatively smaller hearts even when corrected for body surface area (BSA), but female HCM patients have a higher interventricular septum thickness after correction for BSA. Summary Female HCM patients are possibly in a more advanced stage of disease at time of diagnosis because they require relatively more hypertrophy to reach the diagnostic threshold of at least 15 mm MWT. Additional studies are warranted to explore sex-specific diagnostic criteria for HCM.
Cerebral Perfusion and the Risk of Dementia: A Population-Based Study

Background: Cerebral hypoperfusion has previously been associated with mild cognitive impairment and dementia in various cross-sectional studies, but whether hypoperfusion precedes neurodegeneration is unknown. We prospectively determined the association of cerebral perfusion with subsequent cognitive decline and development of dementia. Methods: Between 2005 and 2012, we measured cerebral blood flow by 2-dimensional phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging in participants of the population-based Rotterdam Study without dementia. We determined the association of cerebral perfusion (mL/100mL/min) with risk of dementia (until 2015) using a Cox model, adjusting for age, sex, demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, and apolipoprotein E genotype. We repeated analyses for Alzheimer disease and accounting for stroke. We used linear regression to determine change in cognitive performance during 2 consecutive examination rounds in relation to perfusion. Finally, we investigated whether associations were modified by baseline severity of white matter hyperintensities. Results: Of 4759 participants (median age 61.3 years, 55.2% women) with a median follow-up of 6.9 years, 123 participants developed dementia (97 Alzheimer disease). Lower cerebral perfusion was associated with higher risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.31; 95% confidence interval per standard deviation decrease, 1.07–1.61), similar for Alzheimer disease only, and unaltered by accounting for stroke. Risk of dementia with hypoperfusion was higher with increasing severity of white matter hyperintensities (with severe white matter hyperintensities; hazard ratio, 1.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.11–2.14). At cognitive reexamination after on average 5.7 years, lower baseline perfusion was associated with accelerated decline in cognition (global cognition: &bgr;=−0.029, P=0.003), which was similar after excluding those with incident dementia, and again most profound in individuals with higher volume of white matter hyperintensities (P value for interaction=0.019). Conclusions: Cerebral hypoperfusion is associated with accelerated cognitive decline and an increased risk of dementia in the general population.