Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assimilative and accommodative coping in older adults with and without sensory impairment: four-year change and prospective relations with affective well-being

Abstract Objectives: Sensory impaired older adults may be particularly dependent on coping strategies such as assimilation (or tenacious goal pursuit [TGP]) and accommodation (or flexible goal adjustment [FGA]) to secure high levels of well-being. We investigated if late-life changes in these coping strategies and prospective associations of TGP and FGA with affective well-being vary according to sensory impairment status. Method: Our study sample consisted of 387 adults aged 72–95 years (M = 82.50 years, SD =4.71 years) who were either visually impaired (VI; n = 121), hearing impaired (HI; n = 116), or sensory unimpaired (UI; n = 150). One hundred sixty-eight individuals were reassessed after approximately 4 years. Results: Both VI and HI revealed a decrease in TGP, whereas TGP remained stable in UI. For FGA, a significant increase in HI was observed, whereas a significant decline emerged in UI. Controlling for age, gender, and cognitive abilities, higher TGP at baseline was significantly associated with higher negative affect 4 years later in VI. Moreover, the positive association between baseline FGA and subsequent positive affect was stronger in HI than in UI older adults. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that older adults with sensory impairments reveal trajectories of assimilative and accommodative coping and associations of TGP and FGA with affective well-being that are different from sensory unimpaired individuals.
α-Mangostin Alleviated Lipopolysaccharide Induced Acute Lung Injury in Rats by Suppressing NAMPT/NAD Controlled Inflammatory Reactions

α-Mangostin (MAN) is a bioactive xanthone isolated from mangosteen. This study was designed to investigate its therapeutic effects on acute lung injury (ALI) and explore the underlying mechanisms of action. Rats from treatment groups were subject to oral administration of MAN for 3 consecutive days beforehand, and then ALI was induced in all the rats except for normal controls via an intraperitoneal injection with lipopolysaccharide. The severity of disease was evaluated by histological examination and hematological analysis. Protein expressions in tissues and cells were examined with immunohistochemical and immunoblotting methods, respectively. The levels of cytokines and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) were determined using ELISA and colorimetric kits, respectively. It was found that MAN treatment significantly improved histological conditions, reduced leucocytes counts, relieved oxidative stress, and declined TNF-α levels in ALI rats. Meanwhile, MAN treatment decreased expressions of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) and Sirt1 both in vivo and in vitro, which was accompanied with a synchronized decline of NAD and TNF-α. Immunoblotting assay further showed that MAN downregulated HMGB1, TLR4, and p-p65 in RAW 264.7 cells. MAN induced declines of both HMGB1/TLR4/p-p65 and TNF-α were substantially reversed by cotreatment with nicotinamide mononucleotide or NAD. These results suggest that downregulation of NAMPT/NAD by MAN treatments contributes to the alleviation of TLR4/NF-κB-mediated inflammations in macrophage, which is essential for amelioration of ALI in rats.
Distal Dendritic Enrichment of HCN1 Channels in Hippocampal CA1 Is Promoted by Estrogen, but Does Not Require Reelin

Abstract HCN1 compartmentalization in CA1 pyramidal cells, essential for hippocampal information processing, is believed to be controlled by the extracellular matrix protein Reelin. Expression of Reelin, in turn, is stimulated by 17β-estradiol (E2). In this study, we therefore tested whether E2 regulates the compartmentalization of HCN1 in CA1 via Reelin. In organotypic entorhino-hippocampal cultures, we found that E2 promotes HCN1 distal dendritic enrichment via the G protein–coupled estrogen receptor GPER1, but apparently independent of Reelin, because GST-RAP, known to reduce Reelin signaling, did not prevent E2-induced HCN1 enrichment in distal CA1. We therefore re-examined the role of Reelin for the regulation of HCN1 compartmentalization and could not detect effects of reduced Reelin signaling on HCN1 distribution in CA1, either in the (developmental) slice culture model or in tamoxifen-inducible conditional reelin knockout mice during adulthood. We conclude that for HCN1 channel compartmentalization in CA1 pyramidal cells, Reelin is not as essential as previously proposed, and E2 effects on HCN1 distribution in CA1 are mediated by mechanisms that do not involve Reelin. Because HCN1 localization was not altered at different phases of the estrous cycle, gonadally derived estradiol is unlikely to regulate HCN1 channel compartmentalization, while the pattern of immunoreactivity of aromatase, the final enzyme of estradiol synthesis, argues for a role of local hippocampal E2 synthesis.
CD8+ T cells: mechanistic target of rapamycin and eukaryotic initiation factor 2 in elite HIV-1 control.

The study of protective immunity in HIV-1-infected individuals who naturally control virus replication can provide a roadmap for the induction of protective anti-HIV immunity. Elite controllers are a rare subset of HIV-1-infected individuals with an exquisite natural ability to control virus replication in the absence of therapy. A number of factors such as host genetics, virus fitness, intrinsic antiviral factors, host innate and adaptive immune responses are associated with virus control in elite controllers [1–7]. Among these factors are CD8þ T-cell responses known to be critical for the control of viremia in acute infection, the observed low virus load set point, delayed AIDS progression [7–12], and control of virus replication postvaccination in nonhuman primates [13,14].
Evaluation of microvascular changes in the macular area of eyes with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment without macular involvement using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography

Purpose To evaluate microvascular changes in the macular area of eyes with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) without macular involvement (macula-on RRD) using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA). Patients and methods Five patients with macula-on RRD were eligible for analysis. All patients underwent SS-OCTA examination (Triton) for the macular area. The healthy fellow eyes were included as controls. The vessel density (VD) was calculated using binarization, and the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) was measured. The VD and FAZ area were compared between the eyes with RRD and the fellow eyes using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results The patients’ clinical characteristics were as follows: age, 49.0 years (21.0, 54.0) (median [25, 75th percentile]); preoperative best-corrected visual acuity, −0.08 (−0.08, 0.11) for RRD and −0.08 (−0.08, −0.03) for the fellow eye (P=0.50); and axial length, 27.0 (25.1, 28.7) mm for RRD and 27.4 (25.6, 28.5) mm for the fellow eye (P=0.31). The parafoveal VD was not significantly different between the eyes with RRD and the fellow eyes (P=1.00 for the superficial retina and P=0.44 for the whole retina). The FAZ area was also similar for the eyes with RRD and the fellow eyes (P=0.31 for the superficial retina and P=0.13 for the whole retina). Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that the macular microvasculature remains intact in eyes with macula-on RRD.
Imbalanced expression pattern of steroid receptor coactivator-1 and −3 in liver cancer compared with normal liver: An immunohistochemical study with tissue microarray

Steroids affect normal and pathological functions of the liver through receptors, which require coactivators for their transcriptional activation. Steroid receptor coactivator (SRC)-1 and SRC-3 have been demonstrated to be regulated in numerous cancers; however, their expression profiles in liver cancer including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC) remain unclear. Using tissue microarray immunohistochemistry, normal liver tissue and HCC tissue exhibited immunoreactivity of SRC-1, which were predominantly localized within extranuclear components; in CCC, they were detected within the cell nuclei; SRC-3 was also detected in the cell nuclei. Furthermore, no altered expression of SRC-1 and SRC-3 was observed in liver cancer compared with normal liver tissue; however, in CCC, the expression of SRC-3 was significantly increased compared with that detected in HCC. Importantly, although expression of SRC-1 and SRC-3 did not reveal any significant differences (30 vs. 40%) in normal liver tissue, HCC and CCC expression of SRC-1 was significantly decreased compared with that of SRC-3 (9.3 vs. 36%, and 6.7 vs. 67.7% for HCC and CCC, respectively). Further comparative analysis revealed that this discrepancy was detected in males with liver cancer, across all ages of HCC cases, younger CCC cases and all stages of liver cancer. The results suggested the presence of an imbalanced expression pattern of SRC-1 and SRC-3 from normal liver tissue to liver cancer (decreased SRC-1 and increased SRC-3), which may affect hepatic function and therefore promote liver carcinogenesis.
Effect of fisetin and probiotic supplementation on erythrocyte osmotic fragility, malondialdehyde concentration and superoxide dismutase activity in broiler chickens exposed to heat stress

The aim of the study was to evaluate effects of fisetin and probiotic on erythrocyte osmotic fragility (EOF), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in broiler chickens exposed to heat stress. Sixty day-old broilers were divided into: Group I (control) given distilled water; Group II, fisetin (5 mg/kg); Group III, probiotic Saccharomyces cerevisiae (4.125 × 106 cfu/100 ml); and Group IV, fisetin (5 mg/kg) + probiotic (4.125 × 106 cfu/100 ml) orally for 7 days. Blood samples collected from 42-day-old birds were evaluated for EOF, serum MDA concentration and SOD activity. Percentage EOF at 0.5% NaCl was lower (P<0.05) in fisetin, probiotic and fisetin + probiotic groups (34.26 ± 0.98%, 35.65 ± 0.81% and 34.25 ± 1.98%, respectively) than in controls (48.42 ± 0.40%). The MDA concentrations in broiler chickens administered with fisetin (14.37 ± 1.15 nmol/l), probiotic (5.66 ± 1.06 nmol/l) and fisetin + probiotic (4.136 ± 0.58 nmol/l) were lower (P<0.05) than in controls (22.64 ± 2.95 nmol/l). Activities of SOD were higher (P<0.05) in fisetin, probiotic and fisetin + probiotic broiler chickens (6.34 ± 0.24 IU/l, 5.67 ± 0.09 IU/l and 5.93 ± 0.13 IU/l, respectively) than in controls (5.37 ± 0.09 IU/l). Fisetin + probiotic ameliorated oxidative stress changes in broiler chickens better than fisetin or probiotic alone. In conclusion, administration of fisetin or probiotic and, especially their combination, decreased EOF, lipoperoxidation and increased superoxide dismutase activity in broiler chickens exposed to heat stress.
A DNA Methylation-Based Test for Breast Cancer Detection in Circulating Cell-Free DNA

Background: Breast cancer (BrC) is the most frequent neoplasm in women. New biomarkers, including aberrant DNA methylation, may improve BrC management. Herein, we evaluated the detection and prognostic performance of seven genes’ promoter methylation (APC, BRCA1, CCND2, FOXA1, PSAT1, RASSF1A and SCGB3A1). Methods: Methylation levels were assessed in primary BrC tissues by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (QMSP) and in circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) by multiplex QMSP from two independent cohorts of patients (Cohort #1, n = 137; and Cohort #2, n = 44). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed, and log-rank test and Cox regression were performed to assess the prognostic value of genes’ methylation levels. Results: The gene-panel APC, FOXA1, RASSF1A, SCGB3A1 discriminated normal from cancerous tissue with high accuracy (95.55%). In multivariable analysis, high PSAT1-methylation levels [>percentile 75 (P75)] associated with longer disease-free survival, whereas higher FOXA1-methylation levels (>P75) associated with shorter disease-specific survival. The best performing panel in ccfDNA (APC, FOXA1 and RASSF1A) disclosed a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy over 70%. Conclusions: This approach enables BrC accurate diagnosis and prognostic stratification in tissue samples, and allows for early detection in liquid biopsies, thus suggesting a putative value for patient management.
Multichannel Long-Range Surface Plasmon Waveguides for Parallel Biosensing

Two multichannel long-range surface plasmon waveguide structures are presented for parallel biosensing applications. The required ancillary passive optical elements are modeled and validated via comparisons with measurements to find good designs for the multichannel structures. The structures were fabricated as gold stripes embedded in CYTOP claddings with the fluidic channels defined via etching. The two multichannel structures are enabled using either a triple coupler or a corporate feed in cascade with an array of sensing waveguides. We demonstrate bulk and protein sensing for each channel comparable in performance to a single straight waveguide biosensor. Multiple channels are useful for parallel sensing, referencing, and common noise rejection.
Ecological patterns in anchialine caves

Anchialine caves are characterized by high levels of endemism and extreme conditions. However, few ecological studies have been conducted in these ecosystems. This study integrates biotic and abiotic parameters of two sets of cave systems with contrasting high and low species richness. Seven ecological patterns are used to explain the expected species richness and density in an anchialine cave. In addition, the population size for conspicuous macrofauna was estimated. The high impact that single-events have on anchialine fauna are also reported. These findings reinforce the conclusions of previous studies of the high extinction risk of anchialine cave fauna, and substantiate the necessity of ad hoc conservation strategies for anchialine caves.
Psychometric properties of the Danish Parental Stress Scale: Rasch analysis in a sample of mothers with infants

The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was developed as a short measure of perceived stress resulting from being a parent. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Danish version in a sample of 1110 mothers of children aged 0 to 12 months using Rasch models. Emphasis was placed on the issues of uni-dimensionality and absence of differential item functioning relative to the age and educational level of the mothers. Results showed that no adequate fit could be established for the full PSS scale with 18 dichotomized items. Further analyses showed that items 2 and 11 had to be eliminated from the scale, and that the remaining items did not make up a unidimensional PSS scale, but two subscales measuring different aspect of parental stress: a 9-item scale measuring parental stress and a 7-item scale measuring lack of parental satisfaction. Fit to the Rasch model could not be established for any of the two subscales. For the parental stress subscale, we found evidence of local dependence for four item pairs (3 and 4, 9 and 10, 10 and 16, 12 and 16), as well as evidence of two items functioning differentially: item 16 relative to level of education, and item 3 relative to both age and educational level. For the lack of parental satisfaction subscale, we found evidence of local dependence between some two pairs (1 and 17, 17 and 18), but no evidence of differential item functioning. Both subscales fit graphical loglinear Rasch models adjusting for local dependence and differential item functioning. Plotting the adjusted subscale scores against one another showed that the two-scale solution provides additional information, as some mothers are stressed but not lacking in parental satisfaction.
GradiVeQ: Vector Quantization for Bandwidth-Efficient Gradient Aggregation in Distributed CNN Training

Data parallelism can boost the training speed of convolutional neural networks (CNN), but could suffer from significant communication costs caused by gradient aggregation. To alleviate this problem, several scalar quantization techniques have been developed to compress the gradients. But these techniques could perform poorly when used together with decentralized aggregation protocols like ring all-reduce (RAR), mainly due to their inability to directly aggregate compressed gradients. In this paper, we empirically demonstrate the strong linear correlations between CNN gradients, and propose a gradient vector quantization technique, named GradiVeQ, to exploit these correlations through principal component analysis (PCA) for substantial gradient dimension reduction. GradiVeQ enables direct aggregation of compressed gradients, hence allows us to build a distributed learning system that parallelizes GradiVeQ gradient compression and RAR communications. Extensive experiments on popular CNNs demonstrate that applying GradiVeQ slashes the wall-clock gradient aggregation time of the original RAR by more than 5X without noticeable accuracy loss, and reduces the end-to-end training time by almost 50%. The results also show that GradiVeQ is compatible with scalar quantization techniques such as QSGD (Quantized SGD), and achieves a much higher speed-up gain under the same compression ratio.
Design and Characterization of Ring-Assisted Few-Mode Fibers for Weakly Coupled Mode-Division Multiplexing Transmission

We report on the design and characterization of ring-assisted (RA) few-mode fibers with improved minimum mode effective index difference MinΔ<italic>n</italic><sub>eff</sub>. By introducing a high-index RA structure whose position coincides with the trough of mode power distribution of LP<sub>02</sub> mode, the effective index of the LP <sub>21</sub> mode can be largely elevated while that of LP<sub>02</sub> mode remains almost unaffected. The dependences of both Δ<italic>n</italic><sub>eff</sub> and effective mode area <italic>A</italic><sub>eff</sub> on different ring parameters have been investigated. We fabricated RA 4-mode fibers with a minimum Δ<italic>n </italic><sub>eff</sub> (1.8 × 10<sup>−3</sup>) which is 2.2 times larger than that of step-index (SI) 4-mode fiber (0.8 × 10<sup>−3</sup>) without obvious degradation on other characteristics. The fabricated RA 4-mode fiber has a low mode-average loss and a low mode dependent loss of 0.23 and 0.02 dB/km at 1550-nm wavelength, respectively, which are comparable with that of an SI 4-mode fiber fabricated for reference purposes. The distributed inter-mode crosstalk of the fibers has been measured using swept-wavelength interferometry with a winding tension of 0.5 N. We observed similar distributed inter-mode crosstalk between the RA-FMF and the SI-FMF with low tension and the results show that no additional deformation was introduced by the high-index ring. As a result, the fabricated RA-FMF with a larger MinΔ<italic>n</italic><sub>eff</sub> is expected to be more robust than SI-FMF in real applications. Moreover, we adopted this method for the design of 7-mode fibers and successfully obtained a minimum Δ<italic>n</italic><sub>eff</sub> as high as 1.7 × 10<sup>−3</sup> and an effective area larger than 100 <italic>μ</italic>m<sup>2</sup>.
Through-Fiber Drawing of Microwires: An Online Photonic Bridge

Herein, we introduce a convenient and efficient drawing approach to fabricate and assemble functional polymeric fiber wires as a photonic bridge between waveguides for rapid and flexible splicing. We demonstrate that, by a simple one-step through-fiber drawing process, the photocurable polymeric wires with micron-diameter can be created. Experimental results reveal that the seamlessly integrated coupling construction between conventional single-mode fiber and microfiber can be realized by using the through-fiber drawing microwires, significantly, the through-fiber drawing microwires simultaneously function as waveguides and adhesives. Consequently, the easy construction and assembly of functional microfiber wires shown here has the potential to provide rapid, flexible, and long-lasting connection like coupling between photon-chip and conventional waveguide (such as fiber) in on-chip photonic devices, or with this approach, an optical circuit will be directly scribbled on the substrate.
Contemporary management of renal trauma in Canada: A 10-year experience at a level 1 trauma centre.

INTRODUCTION Contemporary Canadian renal trauma data is lacking. Our objective is to describe 10-year outcomes of renal trauma at a Canadian level 1 trauma centre using a conservative approach. METHODS The Alberta Trauma Registry at the University of Alberta was used to identify renal trauma patients from October 2004 to December 2014. Hospital records and imaging were reviewed to identify clinic-radiographical factors, including patient age, gender, Injury Severity Score (ISS), American Association of the Surgery for Trauma (AAST) grade, computerized tomography (CT) findings, urological interventions, length of stay, transfusion and death rates. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and t-tests were used when appropriate. RESULTS A total of 368 renal trauma patients were identified. Mechanism of injury was blunt trauma in 89.1% of cases, mean age was 36.2 years, and mean ISS was 30.8 (±13.6). AAST grade distribution was 16.6% (Grade 1), 22.8% (Grade 2), 36.4% (Grade 3), 20.9% (Grade 4), and 3.3% (Grade 5). Overall, 9.5% (35) of patients required urological intervention for a total of 40 treatments, including ureteral stenting (3.0%), angioembolization (3.3%), percutaneous drainage (0.3%), or open intervention including nephrectomy (2.4%) and renorrhaphy (0.5%). No Grade 1 or 2 injuries required intervention, while 1.5%, 31.2%, and 75.0% of Grade 3, 4, and 5 injuries did, respectively. The overall renal salvage rate was 97.6%, which did not differ by mechanism of injury (p=0.25). Patients with penetrating trauma were more likely to require urological intervention (20.0% vs. 8.2%; p=0.04). Of the high-grade (III-V) renal injuries identified, 15.7% (35/223) required urological intervention, 4.9% (11) required open surgical intervention, and only 4.0% (9) of patients with high-grade renal injury required nephrectomy. CONCLUSIONS The trend towards conservative treatment of renal trauma in Canada appears well-supported even in a severely injured patient population, as over 90% of patients avoid urological intervention and only 3% require operative intervention resulting in renal salvage rates of 97.6%.
Novel Method of Total Spectral Radiant Flux Standard Realization

Modern metrology of SSL sources requires a modified approach to future realization of reference standards. This is caused by the fact that traditional broad band and omnidirectional light sources used are being replaced by high intensity sources with a specific directional light intensity distribution. At the same time the importance of LED lighting quality assurance is increasing as this new type of lighting is currently replacing traditional light sources in many applications. The specifics of an integrating sphere-spectroradiometer measurement system require the calibration with the use of a reference standard with known Spectral Radiant Flux Distribution, Luminous flux as well as the Luminous Intensity Distribution (LID) to compensate for the sphere system nonuniform reflectance properties. This way the accuracy of the sphere system calibration will allow to measure various types of LED products in conformance with the EN 13032-4:2015, LED lamps, modules and luminaires modules, lamps regardless of their spatial distribution properties. This paper will cover basic concepts and details of a novel method of Total Spectral Radiant Flux (TSRF) realization and description of a TSRF standard facility developed for the Russian National Metrology Institute - VNIIOFI, Moscow. The method (and the developed facility) is based on a goniospectroradiometer system traceable to a standard Black Body and allowing the calibration of a light source in terms of TSRF and additionally providing LID data of the source.