Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Canine sexing and species number in the Paşalar large hominid sample.

Dans cet article les AA traitent de la determination du sexe chez les hominiens. Apres avoir presente deux methodes actuellement utilisees et appliquees sur un echantillon de canines de Palasar, en Turquie, ils tentent de demontrer les failles de ces deux methodes puis presentent une nouvelle analyse de determination du sexe.
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 Contributes to Sex Differences in the Development of Obesity Hypertension in C57BL/6 Mice

Objectives—Obesity promotes hypertension, but it is unclear if sex differences exist in obesity-related hypertension. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) converts angiotensin II (AngII) to angiotensin-(1–7) (Ang-[1–7]), controlling peptide balance. We hypothesized that tissue-specific regulation of ACE2 by high-fat (HF) feeding and sex hormones contributes to sex differences in obesity-hypertension. Methods and Results—HF-fed females gained more body weight and fat mass than males. HF-fed males exhibiting reduced kidney ACE2 activity had increased plasma angiotensin II levels and decreased plasma Ang-(1–7) levels. In contrast, HF-fed females exhibiting elevated adipose ACE2 activity had increased plasma Ang-(1–7) levels. HF-fed males had elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressure that were abolished by losartan. In contrast, HF-fed females did not exhibit increased systolic blood pressure until females were administered the Ang-(1–7) receptor antagonist, D-Ala-Ang-(1–7). Deficiency of ACE2 increased systolic blood pressure in HF-fed males and females, which was abolished by losartan. Ovariectomy of HF-fed female mice reduced adipose ACE2 activity and plasma Ang-(1–7) levels, and promoted obesity-hypertension. Finally, estrogen, but not other sex hormones, increased adipocyte ACE2 mRNA abundance. Conclusions—These results demonstrate that tissue-specific regulation of ACE2 by diet and sex hormones contributes to sex differences in obesity-hypertension.
The effect of overwing hatch placement on evacuation from smaller transport aircraft

Overwing exits are installed on a number of smaller transport aircraft. With a traditional overwing exit, once released, the hatch is not attached to the fuselage and will fall into the cabin. To operate, the hatch has to be brought inwards, manoeuvred and placed in a location where it does not obstruct egress. Accidents and experimental studies have shown that the hatch is not always disposed of into an appropriate location. Evacuation trials from a smaller transport aircraft cabin were conducted. The placement of the exit hatch was manipulated. The results indicated that hatch placement had a significant effect on passenger evacuation rates from a smaller transport aircraft, with the internal placement tested resulting in slower evacuation rates. The study has highlighted the importance of operators disposing of the hatch into a location whereby it does not impede egress. One way to ensure this would be the installation of an automatically disposed hatch.
MR imaging prediction of local control of nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVE To retrospectively evaluate the association of MRI findings with local control of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy (chemoradiotherapy). METHODS Pre-treatment MRIs of 101 patients (78 males and 23 females, 23-79 years of age) who had NPC treated with chemoradiotherapy were retrospectively reviewed to evaluate tumour involvement of nasopharyngeal anatomic subsites, tumour volume and MRI appearance. Local control rates were evaluated with respect to these MRI findings. RESULTS Univariate analysis (using the Kaplan-Meier method) showed that invasion of the skull base as determined by MRI was a significant predictor of local control. In terms of clinical characteristics, T stage and pathological subtype were significant predictors of local control. Multivariate analysis (Cox regression model) of the radiologic findings and clinical characteristics revealed that invasion of the skull base (p = 0.003) and pathological subtype (p < 0.001) were independent prognostic factors for local control. CONCLUSION Invasion of the skull base as determined by MRI predicts the likelihood of local failure and may be helpful in identifying a subset of patients with tumours at risk of local recurrence within 3 years after primary chemoradiotherapy. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE It has now become common practice to use MRI for pre-treatment evaluation of patients with NPC. The potential role for MRI findings in predicting local control and prognosis in patients with NPC has implications for treatment planning.
A creatine-protein-carbohydrate supplement enhances responses to resistance training.

PURPOSE Studies attributing gains in strength and lean body mass (LBM) to creatine monohydrate (CrM) during resistance exercise (RE) training have not assessed these changes alongside cellular and subcellular adaptations. Additionally, CrM-treated groups have seldom been compared with a group receiving a placebo similar in nitrogen and energy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a CrM-containing protein-carbohydrate (PRO-CHO) supplement in comparison with a supplement containing a similar amount of nitrogen and energy on body composition, muscle strength, fiber-specific hypertrophy, and contractile protein accrual during RE training. METHODS In a double-blind, randomized protocol, resistance-trained males were matched for strength and placed into one of three groups: protein (PRO), PRO-CHO, or the same PRO-CHO supplement (1.5 g x kg(-1) body weight x d(-1)) containing CrM (Cr-PRO-CHO) (0.1 g x kg(-1) body weight x d(-1)). Assessments were completed the week before and after a 10-wk structured, supervised RE program: strength (1RM, three exercises), body composition (DEXA), and vastus lateralis muscle biopsies for determination of muscle fiber type (I, IIa, IIx), cross-sectional area (CSA), contractile protein, and creatine content. RESULTS Cr-PRO-CHO provided greater improvements in 1RM strength. At least 40% of the strength improvements could be attributed to hypertrophy of muscle involved in this exercise. Cr-PRO-CHO also resulted in greater increases in LBM, fiber CSA, and contractile protein compared with PRO and PRO-CHO. CONCLUSIONS In RE-trained participants, supplementation with Cr-PRO-CHO provided greater muscle hypertrophy than an equivalent dose of PRO-CHO, and this response was apparent at three levels of physiology (LBM, fiber CSA, and contractile protein content).
Iron status in pregnant women in the Republic of Seychelles

Abstract Objective To establish the Fe status of pregnant women and their neonates in the Republic of Seychelles. Design A prospective study. Setting Republic of Seychelles. Subjects Pregnant women were recruited and blood samples taken at enrolment and post-delivery along with cord blood samples. Ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) were measured in maternal (n 220) and cord blood (n 123) samples. Results Maternal Fe deficiency (ferritin < 15 ng/ml, sTfR > 28 nmol/l) was present in 6 % of subjects at enrolment and in 20 % at delivery. There was no significant decrease in maternal ferritin. A significant increase in sTfR was observed between enrolment and delivery (P < 0·001). Maternal BMI and use of Fe supplements at 28 weeks’ gestation were associated with improved maternal Fe status at delivery, whereas parity had a negative effect on sTfR and ferritin at delivery. Conclusions Fe status of pregnant Seychellois women was, on average, within normal ranges. The incidence of Fe deficiency throughout pregnancy in this population was similar to that in a Westernised population. Increased awareness of the importance of adequate Fe intake during pregnancy, particularly in multiparous women, is warranted.
Transient activation of RAF-1, MEK, and ERK2 coincides kinetically with ternary complex factor phosphorylation and immediate-early gene promoter activity in vivo

We have investigated the early in vivo signaling events triggered by serum that lead to activation of the c-fos proto-oncogene in HeLa cells. Both RAF-1 and MEK kinase activities are fully induced within 3 min of serum treatment and quickly decrease thereafter, slightly preceding the activation and inactivation of p42MAPK/ERK2. ERK2 activity correlates tightly with a transient phosphatase-sensitive modification of ternary complex factor (TCF), manifested by the slower electrophoretic mobility of TCF-containing protein-DNA complexes. These induced complexes in turn correlate with the activity of the c-fos, egr-1, and junB promoters. Phorbol ester treatment induces the same events but with slower and prolonged kinetics. Inhibition of serine/threonine phosphatase activities by okadaic acid treatment reverses the repression of the c-fos promoter either after induction or without induction. This corresponds to the presence of the induced complexes and of ERK2 activity, as well as to the activation of a number of other kinases. Inhibition of tyrosine phosphatase activities by sodium vanadate treatment delays but does not block ERK2 inactivation, TCF dephosphorylation, and c-fos repression. The tight linkage in vivo between the activity of MAP kinase, TCF phosphorylation, and immediate-early gene promoter activity is consistent with the notion that a stable ternary complex over the serum response element is a direct target for the MAP kinase signaling cascade. Furthermore, serine/threonine phosphatases are implicated in regulating the kinase cascade, as well as the state of TCF modification and c-fos promoter activity, in vivo.
Protective effect of Juglans nigra on sodium arsenite-induced toxicity in rats

Background: Consumption of arsenic contaminated water has been implicated in metalloid-induced carcinogenesis. Dietary intake of certain plant products with chemoprotective properties may protect against the onset of diseases and promote maintenance of health. Objectives: We investigated the outcome of black walnut Juglans nigra (JN) consumption on sodium arsenite (SA)-induced toxicity in rats. Materials and Methods: Wister albino rats were treated as follows: Control, SA only (positive control) (2.5 mg/kg body weight), JN only (100 mg/kg weight), and JN+SA coadministered. After 5 weeks animals were sacrificed whole blood, femur, liver and testis harvested were assessed for hepatic transaminases and clastogenicity. Histology of the liver, sperm morphology and quality were also assessed. Data were analyzed (ANOVA) and expressed as means ±SD. Results: SA treatment elevated hepatic transaminases level in serum (P < 0.05), induced histological changes in liver: fibroplasia and periportal hepatocytes infiltration by mononuclear cells. These changes were ameliorated by JN (P < 0.05) coadministration. SA induced micronuclei formation (P < 0.05). Again JN decreased (P < 0.05) micronuclei formation by 50%. Sperm count and motility decreased (P < 0.05) in all groups compared to control. Conclusion: JN showed no protection against arsenite effect on sperm quality. Hepatoprotective and anticlastogenic effects were apparent suggesting a chemopreventive potential active against arsenite genotoxicity and chromosomal instability which have implication for metalloid-induced carcinogenesis.
HAEMOGLOBIN AIc PREDICTS THE PERINATAL OUTCOME IN INSULIN‐DEPENDENT DIABETIC PREGNANCIES

Haemoglobin AIc (Hb AIc) was measured in 112 insulin‐dependent diabetic pregnancies on an average 4.7 times. Hb AIc was high in early pregnancy in all three patients with severe fetal malformations. There were six pregnancies with a perinatal death. The maximum Hb AIc values were significantly higher in the second trimester (p <0.001) in these pregnancies than in the other diabetic pregnancies. When neonatal hypoglycaemia was present, the mean maternal Hb AIc was significantly higher in the second (p <0.005) and third (p <0.02) trimesters of pregnancy than in the group without neonatal hypoglycaemia. In the group with neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia the mean maternal Hb AIc was significantly higher in the third trimester (p <0.02) than in the group with no neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia. The results suggest that poor metabolic control of maternal diabetes during the second trimester is associated with a clearly increased risk of perinatal death and during the second and third trimesters with metabolic derangements in the neonatal period. The results also indicate that Hb AIc could be used to detect the pregnant diabetics at special risk.
RETRANSPLANTATION OF THE LIVER—A SEVEN‐YEAR EXPERIENCE

Three hundred and four patients underwent 362 liver transplants between July 1984 and April 1992. Fifty-eight retransplants were performed in 44 patients (14.5%). Thirty-four patients underwent two (77.3%), seven patients three (15.9%), two patients four (4.5%), and one patient five (2.3%) transplants. Poor function accounted for 23 retransplants (6.4%), technical problems for 19 retransplants (5.2%), and rejection for 15 retransplants (4.1%). One-month patient survivals after retransplantation for poor function, technical problems, or rejection were similar (79.0%, 73.4%, and 80.0%, respectively). No difference in retransplantation rates were seen between adults and children receiving whole liver transplants (WLT) (11.6% versus 19.1%). However, retransplantation for poor function was more common in pediatric recipients receiving reduced-size liver transplants (RLT) (20.0% versus 0.0%, P<0.01), while retransplantation for hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT) was more common in pediatric recipients receiving WLT (16.7% versus 2.8%, P<0.05). The presence of multiorgan system failure of greater than four was associated with a high mortality (90%), whereas patients undergoing emergent retransplantation who had less than four systems fail had a survival of 73.9% and patients who underwent elective retransplantation had a survival rate of 81.8%. Length of stay and cost of liver transplantation was higher in patients undergoing retransplantation when compared with primary transplants (29.7±14.9 days versus 58.4±38.9 days and ±122,358± 59,782 versus ±289, 302±126, 907, P<0.01). The overall actuarial one-year patient survival in primary transplants was 86.6% and in retransplants 74.8%, and at five years these were 71.4% versus 62.5%, respectively (P<0.05). Our results support continued retransplantation of the liver unless the patient's medical condition dictates otherwise.
[Association of genetic polymorphisms in plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 gene and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene with recurrent early spontaneous abortion].

OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene-675 4G/5G and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase(MTHFR) gene C677T polymorphisms to recurrent early spontaneous abortion(RESA). METHODS One hundred and twenty-seven currently non-pregnant women with at least 3 unexplained spontaneous abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy (patient group). Normal control group consisted of 117 currently non-pregnant women with at least 1 pregnancy and without a history of prematurity, miscarriage, stillbirth, eclampsia and other pregnancy complications. The genotypes of PAI-1 gene and MTHFR gene were assessed by polymerase chain reaction-restrictive fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS The frequencies of 4G/4G genotype and 4G allele of PAI-1 were higher in patient group (45.7% and 66.1%) than in normal controls (17.1% and 46.6%) (P < 0.01). The PAI-1 4G/4G genotype was significantly associated with RESA (OR = 4.8, 95% CI: 2.23 - 10.35). Besides, MTHFR gene T/T genotype and T allele frequencies were increased in RESA patients (43.3% and 66.5%) versus normal controls (21.4% and 52.6%) (P < 0.01). The patients carrying T/T genotype had a high risk of early spontaneous abortion (OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.40 - 7.30). In additionìthe presence of the PAI-1 gene 4G/4G genotype together with the T/T genotype of the MTHFR gene was found to be a risk factor (OR = 6.20, 95% CI: 2.62 - 14.67) for RESA greater than the 4G/4G genotype or the T/T genotype alone. CONCLUSION The above findings suggest that genetic polymorphisms of PAI-1 4G/5G and MTHFR C677T were associated with RESA. They may have synergetic impact and present gene dosage effect on the susceptibility to the development of early spontaneous abortion.
"Our Privacy Needs to be Protected at All Costs"

Crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) are widely used by organizations, researchers, and individuals to outsource a broad range of tasks to crowd workers. Prior research has shown that crowdsourcing can pose privacy risks (e.g., de-anonymization) to crowd workers. However, little is known about the specific privacy issues crowd workers have experienced and how they perceive the state of privacy in crowdsourcing. In this paper, we present results from an online survey of 435 MTurk crowd workers from the US, India, and other countries and areas. Our respondents reported different types of privacy concerns (e.g., data aggregation, profiling, scams), experiences of privacy losses (e.g., phishing, malware, stalking, targeted ads), and privacy expectations on MTurk (e.g., screening tasks). Respondents from multiple countries and areas reported experiences with the same privacy issues, suggesting that these problems may be endemic to the whole MTurk platform. We discuss challenges, high-level principles and concrete suggestions in protecting crowd workers'; privacy on MTurk and in crowdsourcing more broadly.
Human runners exhibit a least variable gait speed

ABSTRACT This study characterises the relationship between gait variability and speed in runners using data from trunk accelerations in each axis. Twelve participants of varying fitness ran on the treadmill with three sessions of six randomly ordered self-selected speeds. A VO2max test was conducted on the fourth session. Running gait was tracked with inertial sensors. The occurrence of a mid-range speed was analysed for the anterior–posterior, vertical and lateral directional coefficient of variation (CV) of root mean square (RMS) acceleration data. One participant with noisy gait signals was omitted. The results show all remaining participants consistently showed significant quadratic U-shaped relationships between vertical RMS CV acceleration and speed. Neither anterior–posterior nor lateral RMS CV acceleration were clearly related to speed. These least variable gait speeds were similar to estimates of optimal speed derived from minimum cost of transport with speed. In conclusion, there exists a mid-range speed for each runner with the least variable gait in the vertical direction, and this occurred significantly more often than would be expected by chance (P < 0.05). However, there are no prominent patterns for the anterior–posterior and lateral directions. This finding supports anecdotal evidence from runners and coaches concerning gait consistency.
A few remarks on variational models for denoising

Variational models for image and signal denoising are based on the minimization of energy functionals consisting of a fidelity term together with higher-order regularization. In addition to the choices of function spaces to measure fidelity and impose regularization, different scaling exponents appear. In this note we present a few simple, yet novel, remarks on (i) the stability with respect to deterministic noise perturbations, captured via oscillatory sequences converging weakly to zero, and (ii) exact reconstruction.
The 10-Item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale

BACKGROUND: The 10-item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) has demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties as a measure of resilience in all the previous studies conducted in developed countries. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the psychometric characteristics of the 10-item CD-RISC among students nurses in southwestern Nigeria. DESIGN: This descriptive cross-sectional study involved a total of 449 student nurses who completed the 10-item CD-RISC in addition to measures of self-esteem, depression, religiosity, and psychological distress. RESULTS: The scale demonstrated adequate reliability (Cronbach’s α = .81) and satisfactory validity with significant correlations with the measures of self-esteem, depression, religiosity, and psychological distress. Factor analyses revealed that resilience was best explained by a two-factor construct. CONCLUSIONS: The scale is a valid measure of resilience among Nigerian student nurses.
The high-pathogenicity island (HPI) promotes flagellum-mediated motility in extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli

The key of success of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) to colonize niches outside the intestinal tract and to establish infection is the coordinated action of numerous virulence and fitness factors. The so-called high-pathogenicity island (HPI), responsible for synthesis, secretion and uptake of the siderophore yersiniabactin, proved to be an important virulence determinant. In this study we investigated the interaction of the flagellum-mediated motility and the HPI. The impairment of yersiniabactin production by deletion of irp2 or ybtA affected significantly motility. The gain of yersiniabactin production improved motility in both pathogenic and non-pathogenic E. coli strains. The loss of flagella expression had no adverse effect on the HPI. Strikingly, external iron abundance was not able to suppress activation of the HPI during motility. The HPI activity of swarming bacteria was comparable to iron deplete conditions, and could even be maximized by supplementing excessive iron. This fact is the first description of a regulatory mechanism, which does not follow the known hierarchical regulation of siderophore systems. Transcriptional reporter fusions of the ybtA promoter demonstrated that the entire promoter region with all YbtA binding sites is necessary for complete induction in both HPI-positive and HPI-negative strains. Altogether, these results suggest that the HPI is part of a complex regulatory network, which orchestrates various virulence mechanisms to optimize the overall fitness of ExPEC.