Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Metabolic Syndrome on the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in Mainland China

Background: The association between metabolic syndrome (MS), both in terms of its components and as a whole, and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in subjects with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains unclear, especially in mainland China. Methods: We prospectively included 6,564 individuals with HBV infection from an initial cohort of 105,397 civil servants. The multivariate-adjusted HR and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards models to explore the potential connection between HCC risk and MS. Cumulative incidences were plotted using Kaplan–Meier curves. Results: After a 45,668.0 person-year follow-up (76.0 ± 30.8 months) of 6,564 subjects who were seropositive for hepatitis B surface antigen, 89 incident HCC cases were identified. MS as a whole was independently associated with a 2-fold increased HCC risk (HR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.41–3.60) after adjusting for age (in 1-year increments), gender, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, liver cirrhosis, and elevated aspartate aminotransferase levels (≥40 U/L). Subjects with three or more factors and those with one or two factors had adjusted increased HCC risks of 2.12-fold (95% CI, 1.16–3.89) and 1.28-fold (95% CI, 0.74–2.22), respectively, in comparison with those without any metabolic factors. Central obesity and type 2 diabetes were associated with significantly increased HCC risk, whereas this association was not observed in obese subjects (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2; 95% CI, 0.73–3.44). Conclusions: MS as a whole, central obesity, and type 2 diabetes were independently associated with increased HCC risk in a population with HBV infection in mainland China. Impact: MS may be a risk factor for HCC.
The effect of mild heat stress of different frequencies on the adaptability of Drosophila melanogaster females.

In natural populations, insects regularly face an adverse impact of different natures: harsh weather swings, lack of food resources, the insecticidal treatment. We studied the effect of repeated episodes of mild heat stress of different frequencies on stress resistance of Drosophila melanogaster females. We found out that the mild heat stress (38°С, 1 hr) repeated daily within 2 weeks resulted in (a) an increased activity of the dopamine (DA) metabolism enzymes, DA-dependent arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase and alkaline phosphatase, which suggested a decrease in DA level, and (b) an increased survival rate under acute heat stress (38°С, 4 hr). The same mild heat stress repeated weekly had no effect on these parameters.
Single crowns in the resorbed posterior maxilla supported by either 11-mm implants combined with sinus floor elevation or 6-mm implants:A 5-year randomised controlled trial.

PURPOSE To assess the clinical performance of single crowns in the posterior maxilla supported by either 11-mm-long implants combined with maxillary sinus floor elevation surgery or 6-mm-long implants during a 5-year follow-up period. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 38 consecutive patients, missing a premolar or a molar in the posterior maxilla and residual bone height underneath the maxillary sinus between 6 to 8 mm, were included. Subjects were randomly allocated to receive one 11-mm-long implant in combination with maxillary sinus floor augmentation or to receive one 6-mm-long implant without any grafting. A total of 41 implants (21 implants in 20 patients in the 6-mm group, and 20 implants in 18 patients in the 11-mm group) were placed and subsequently restored after 3 months with custom-made titanium abutments and cemented zirconia-based porcelain crowns. Both groups were followed by clinical (implant survival, restoration survival, complications, pocket probing depth and presence of plaque, calculus, bleeding and peri-implant inflammation) and radiographic examinations up to 5 years. The patient satisfaction was scored before treatment, and 12 and 60 months after functional implant restoration. RESULTS One patient (11-mm group) died before the 12-month evaluation and one patient (6-mm group) moved away. In addition, one patient in the 6-mm group lost one implant and no implants were lost in the 11-mm group. Two patients lost three restorations in the 6-mm group and no restorations were lost in the 11-mm group. From loading until the 60-month assessment, the mean marginal bone loss in the 6-mm group and the 11-mm group was 0.12 ± 0.36 mm and 0.14 ± 0.63 mm, respectively, without a significant difference (mean difference 0.02 mm; 95% CI -0.32 to 0.37; P = 0.884). Implant loss, restoration loss, screw loosening and porcelain chipping were defined as complications. Four patients in the 6-mm group and one patient in the 11-mm group had one or more complications, without a significant difference between the groups (95% CI 0.019 to 0.244; P = 0.198). The patient satisfaction was high in both groups (mean overall satisfaction in the 6-mm and the 11-mm groups was 9.4 ± 0.8 and 9.2 ± 0.8, respectively; mean difference 0.2; 95% CI -0.33 to 0.76; P = 0.434). CONCLUSIONS Reconstructions performed using an 11-mm implant combined with maxillary sinus floor augmentation or a 6-mm implant in the resorbed posterior maxilla are equally successful in supporting a single restoration over 5 years.
Pseudo-Bayesian Model-Based Noninvasive Intracranial Pressure Estimation and Tracking

Objective: A noninvasive intracranial pressure (ICP) estimation method is proposed that incorporates a model-based approach within a probabilistic framework to mitigate the effects of data and modeling uncertainties. Methods: A first-order model of the cerebral vasculature relates measured arterial blood pressure (ABP) and cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) to ICP. The model is driven by the ABP waveform and is solved for a range of mean ICP values to predict the CBFV waveform. The resulting errors between measured and predicted CBFV are transformed into likelihoods for each candidate ICP in two steps. First, a baseline ICP estimate is established over five data windows of 20 beats by combining the likelihoods with a prior distribution of the ICP to yield an a posteriori distribution whose median is taken as the baseline ICP estimate. A single-state model of cerebral autoregulatory dynamics is then employed in subsequent data windows to track changes in the baseline by combining ICP estimates obtained with a uniform prior belief and model-predicted ICP. For each data window, the estimated model parameters are also used to determine the ICP pulse pressure. Results: On a dataset of thirteen pediatric patients with a variety of pathological conditions requiring invasive ICP monitoring, the method yielded for mean ICP estimation a bias (mean error) of 0.6 mmHg and a root-mean-squared error of 3.7 mmHg. Conclusion: These performance characteristics are well within the acceptable range for clinical decision making. Significance: The method proposed here constitutes a significant step towards robust, continuous, patient-specific noninvasive ICP determination.
Punish or Protect? How Close Relationships Shape Responses to Moral Violations

People have fundamental tendencies to punish immoral actors and treat close others altruistically. What happens when these tendencies collide—do people punish or protect close others who behave immorally? Across 10 studies (N = 2,847), we show that people consistently anticipate protecting close others who commit moral infractions, particularly highly severe acts of theft and sexual harassment. This tendency emerged regardless of gender, political orientation, moral foundations, and disgust sensitivity and was driven by concerns about self-interest, loyalty, and harm. We further find that people justify this tendency by planning to discipline close others on their own. We also identify a psychological mechanism that mitigates the tendency to protect close others who have committed severe (but not mild) moral infractions: self-distancing. These findings highlight the role that relational closeness plays in shaping people’s responses to moral violations, underscoring the need to consider relational closeness in future moral psychology work.
Experimental Investigation on the Relationship Between COD Degradation and Hydrodynamic Conditions in Urban Rivers

Due to extensive pollution and the relatively weak flow replacement in urban rivers, determining how to fully utilize the self-purification abilities of water bodies for water quality protection has been a complex and popular topic of research and social concern. Organic pollution is an important type of urban river pollution, and COD (chemical oxygen demand) is one of the key pollution factors. Currently, there is a lack of research on the relationship between COD degradation and the flow characteristics of urban rivers. In this paper, COD degradation experiments were conducted in an annular flume with Jinjiang River water at controlled flow velocities and the COD degradation coefficients under different hydraulic conditions were analyzed. A good correlation was observed between the degradation coefficient and hydraulic conditions. According to dimensional analysis, the relationship between the COD degradation coefficient and hydraulic conditions such as the flow velocity, water depth, Reynolds number (Re), and Froude number (Fr) was established as KCOD=86400uhFr0.8415Re−1.2719+0.258. The COD degradation coefficients of the Chishui River in Guizhou Province ranged from 0.175–0.373 1/d based on this formula, and the field-measured values varied from 0.234–0.463 1/d. The error in the formula ranged from 5.4–25.3%. This study provides a scientific basis for the prediction of the COD degradation coefficients of urban rivers.
A Wearable In-Ear EEG Device for Emotion Monitoring

For future healthcare applications, which are increasingly moving towards out-of-hospital or home-based caring models, the ability to remotely and continuously monitor patients’ conditions effectively are imperative. Among others, emotional state is one of the conditions that could be of interest to doctors or caregivers. This paper discusses a preliminary study to develop a wearable device that is a low cost, single channel, dry contact, in-ear EEG suitable for non-intrusive monitoring. All aspects of the designs, engineering, and experimenting by applying machine learning for emotion classification, are covered. Based on the valence and arousal emotion model, the device is able to classify basic emotion with 71.07% accuracy (valence), 72.89% accuracy (arousal), and 53.72% (all four emotions). The results are comparable to those measured from the more conventional EEG headsets at T7 and T8 scalp positions. These results, together with its earphone-like wearability, suggest its potential usage especially for future healthcare applications, such as home-based or tele-monitoring systems as intended.
An Open-Source, Automated Home-Cage Sipper Device for Monitoring Liquid Ingestive Behavior in Rodents

Visual Abstract Measuring ingestive behavior of liquids in rodents is commonly used in studies of reward, metabolism, and circadian biology. Common approaches for measuring liquid intake in real time include computer-tethered lickometers or video-based systems. Additionally, liquids can be measured or weighed to determine the amount consumed without real-time sensing. Here, we built a photobeam-based sipper device that has the following advantages over traditional methods: (1) it is battery powered and fits in vivarium caging to allow home-cage measurements; (2) it quantifies the intake of two different liquids simultaneously for preference studies; (3) it is low cost and easily constructed, enabling high-throughput experiments; and (4) it is open source so that others can modify it to fit their experimental needs. We validated the performance of this device in three experiments. First, we calibrated our device using time-lapse video-based measurements of liquid intake and correlated sipper interactions with liquid intake. Second, we used the sipper device to measure preference for water versus chocolate milk, demonstrating its utility for two-bottle choice tasks. Third, we integrated the device with fiber photometry, establishing its utility for measuring neural activity in studies of ingestive behavior. This device requires no special equipment or caging, and is small, battery powered, and wireless, allowing it to be placed directly in rodent home cages. The total cost of fabrication is less than $100, and all design files and code are open source. Together, these factors greatly increase scalability and utility for a variety of behavioral neuroscience applications.
Transcriptomic Profiling Identifies a DNA Repair–Related Signature as a Novel Prognostic Marker in Lower Grade Gliomas

Background: Gliomas are the most common and malignant intracranial tumors. The standard therapy is surgical resection combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, the emergence of radioresistance and chemoresistance, which is largely due to DNA damage repair, limits the therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, we identified a high-efficiency DNA damage repair–related risk signature as a predictor for prognosis in lower grade glioma. Methods: The signature was developed and validated in two independent datasets of the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (172 samples) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (451 samples). The time-dependent ROC curve, Cox regression, Nomogram, and Kaplan–Meier analyses were performed to evaluate the prognostic performance of the risk signature. The Metascape and IHC staining were performed to reveal the potential biological mechanism. GraphPad prism, SPSS, and R language were used for statistical analysis and graphical work. Results: This signature could distinguish the prognosis of patients, and patients with high-risk scores exhibited short survival time. The time-dependent ROC curve, Cox regression, and Nomogram model indicated the independent prognostic performance and high prognostic accuracy of the signature for survival. Combined with the IDH mutation status, this risk signature could further subdivide patients with distinct survival. Functional analysis of associated genes revealed signature-related biological process of cell cycle and DNA repair. These mechanisms were confirmed in patient samples. Conclusions: The DNA damage repair–related signature was an independent and powerful prognostic biomarker in lower grade glioma. Impact: The signature may potentially improve risk stratification of patients and provide a more accurate assessment of personalized treatment in clinic.
Health Status and Health Seeking Behaviour of Rural Geriatric Population of Varanasi District, India -

Background: Population aging is a worldwide phenomenon. In India, according to the 2001 Census, the elderly population (60+ years) accounted for 77 million; however, the elderly population has crossed the 100 million mark according to the Census 2011. Aging results in a generalized deterioration of the most vital organs and systems, thereby leading to a lesser effectiveness in physiological functions and an increase in risk factors that leads to various diseases. Objective: To assess the morbidity pattern and study the health-seeking behavior of rural geriatric population of Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Materials and Methods: A total of 402 elderly people aged 60 years and older were selected from Chiraigaon block of Varanasi district by simple random sampling. Data analysis was done by using SPSS, trial version 17. Result: Of the 402 study subjects, around 85% experienced at least one health problem. The most frequent health problem was musculoskeletal problem (56%), followed by hypertension (34.1%) and cataract (25.4%). Majority of them preferred allopathic medicine (57.6%), followed by ayurvedic medicines (10.2%) and homeopathic medicine (6.1%) for their health problems, while 26% were not taking any medical help for their health problem. Conclusion: This study revealed the elevated morbidity load among elderly population, which pressurizes for efforts to assist them with specialized healthcare. The study showed that, although most of the elderly people received treatment services from government hospital, there is a major group either receiving it from private sector or not receiving the treatment. On the basis of these findings, it can be recommended that there is a need to develop geriatric health-care services.
Preliminary evaluation of West Indian Hot Pepper ( Capsicum chinense Jacq . ) landraces and improved selections

Eight accessions of West Indian hot peppers (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) landraces and improved selections were characterized and evaluated under field conditions at the Pepper Breeding Centre of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) in Graeme Hall, Christ Church, Barbados during the first cropping season of 2004. There were considerable observed differences in plant growth characteristics, fruit attributes and yield among the accessions. The accession with the highest yield was the control West Indies Red. The influence of insects and virus infections appeared to be largely responsible for reducing the yield potential of some landraces. The variation observed in fruit characters: pericarp thickness, number of fruits per plant, weight, length, width, pungency, shape, color – plus plant height and canopy width provides the plant breeder with hot pepper germplasm showing outstanding attributes of parent material. Some accessions also showed a potential to recover quickly from thrips damage and also tolerate virus attack that would also provide the breeder with further parental choices. Additionally, with refined integrated pest management strategies, there is potential among the accessions to justify further evaluation using appropriate husbandry practices to realize their true yield potential.
Pregnancy induced iron deficiency and the evaluation and comparison of the efficacy and safety of ferrous fumarate and carbonyl iron in its treatment-PERFECT trial

Iron deficiency anemia is the commonest medical disorder to occur in pregnant women affecting around 80% of the pregnant females , its incidence being particularly high in many underdeveloped tropical countries where it remains a major contributing factor to maternal morbidity and mortality and also high perinatal mortality . The requirements of iron increase during pregnancy, as in the third trimester, a pregnant woman needs six times more iron than a nonpregnant woman . World Health Organization recommends a hemoglobin concentration value of a minimum 11.0 gm% during pregnancy .
EFFECT OF NATURAL SUBSTANCES AS A POTENTIAL SUBSTITUTE FOR ANTIBIOTICS IN BOAR SEMEN EXTENDER ON SEMEN SURVIVAL

The objective of the experiment was to determine the effect of natural substances as a potential substitute for antibiotics in the boar extender on the semen survival time. Thirteen natural substances were tested. Natural substances were dissolved in 4% DMSO with a minimum bactericidal effective concentration of between 300 and 4,800 μg/ml. The control sample was diluted with a semen dilution ratio of 1:1 in a BTS extender without antibiotics. Sperm motility was evaluated at 0h, 1h and 24h after semen dilution. The best sperm motility was only recorded at thymol 25 % and carvacrol 40 % after 24h storage time. Other tested natural substances had sperm motility between 0 and 5 %. The sperm motility was significantly decreased over the storage time for all the tested natural substances (P < 0.01). Results of the present study indicate a negative effect of the concentrations of tested natural substances on boar semen survival time. At present, practical utilization of the natural substances we tested as a potential substitute for antibiotics in boar semen extenders is not possible owing to its reduced sperm motility.
Integration of Video in Teaching Grammar to EFL Arab Learners

Due to insufficient input and exposure to English in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, the current study used videos posted by the instructor in a blog to supplement classroom grammar instruction. The study was conducted among 60 undergraduates at one Saudi Arabian university. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The students in the experimental group were taught grammar through regular lectures and online videos, while the control group was taught grammar through regular lectures only. The study used grammar pre and posttests, online commentary exchanges, and follow-up interviews. The results showed that using videos is effective for grammar instruction. The content analysis of the experimental group’s online commentary exchanges showed that videos engaged the EFL learners in the topics of the grammar course. The thematic analysis of the follow-up interviews illustrated that learners had a positive perception of videos in supplementing grammar instruction though they were challenged by the net connection and an overload of peer comments. The findings underlie useful implications for teaching and learning grammar in the EFL context.
Why Graduate Students Reject the Fast Track.

We recently completed an unparalleled survey, with more than eight thousand doctoral student respondents across the University of California system, and what we heard is worrisome: major research universities may be losing some of the most talented tenure-track academics before they even arrive. In the eyes of many doctoral students, the academic fast track has a bad reputation—one of unrelenting work hours that allow little or no room for a satisfying family life. If this sentiment is broadly shared among current and future student cohorts, the future life-blood of academia may be at stake, as promising young scholars seek alternative career paths with better work-life balance. Today’s doctoral students are different in many ways from those of just thirty or forty years ago. Academia was once composed largely of men who, for most of their careers, were in traditional single-earner families. Today, men and women fill the doctoral student ranks in nearly equal numbers, and most will experience both the benefits and challenges of living in dual-earner households during their careers. This generation of doctoral students also has different expectations and values from previous ones, primary among them the desire for flexibility and balance between career and other life goals. But changes to the structure and culture of academia have not kept pace with these major shifts; assumptions about the notion of the “ideal worker” prevail, including a de facto requirement for inflexible, full-time devotion to education and employment and a linear, lockstep career trajectory.
Measuring Tools for Analyzing Factors Influencing Users ’ Continuance Intention Toward a Learning Platform in Bandung Indonesia

The increasing of internet users over the years encourages government of Bandung city to initiate Smart City since 2014, as a concept of utilizing information and communication technology (ICT) on a variety of smart city dimentions effectively. Smart Education, as a dimention of Smart City concept has been seen to be a good prospect in Asia especially in Indonesia, the market outlook of it will reach over USD 600 million by 2018. One of the most popular learning platforms in Indonesia is Edmodo. Edmodo was introduced in Bandung Indonesia by the government on their program called Digital Smart Jabar. Compared with local players, Edmodo has succeeded to gain at least 10 M downloaders on Play Store. This study proposes a measurement tool that can be used to find out factors that influence the customers in adopting Edmodo. The measurement tool was adapted from the Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 Model by Venkatesh et al. (2012). The modification of models has been done by adding Trust variable and changing Price Value variable with Learning Value. The variables in the proposed model has been tested through pilot test of 30 respondents, the result revealed that the 9 variables with 45 items are reliable and valid, hence the measurement tool can be used for further study, collecting main data.