Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Individual and combined effects of the GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1 polymorphisms on type 2 diabetes mellitus risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Backgrounds: Compared with previously published meta-analyses, this is the first study to investigate the combined effects of glutathione-S-transferase polymorphisms (GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1 IIe105Val) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk; moreover, the credibility of statistically significant associations was assessed; furthermore, many new original studies were published. Objectives: To determine the relationship between GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1 polymorphisms with T2DM risk. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure Databases were searched. We quantify the relationship using crude odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals Moreover, the Venice criteria, false-positive report probability (FPRP), and Bayesian false discovery probability (BFDP) were used to validate the significance of the results. Results: Overall, significantly increased T2DM risk was found between individual and combined effects of GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1 polymorphisms on T2DM risk, but, combined effects of the GSTT1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms was not statistically significant. GSTT1 gene polymorphism significantly increases the risk of T2DM complications, while GSTM1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms had no statistical significance. The GSTM1 null genotype was linked to a particularly increased risk of T2DM in Caucasians; the GSTT1 null genotype was connected to a significantly higher risk of T2DM in Asians and Indians; and the GSTP1 IIe105Val polymorphism was related to a substantially increased T2DM risk in Indians. Moreover, the GSTM1 and GSTT1 double null genotype was associated with substantially increased T2DM risk in Caucasians and Indians; the combined effects of GSTM1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms was associated with higher T2DM risk in Caucasians. However, all significant results were false when the Venice criteria, FPRP, and BFDP test were used (any FPRP >0.2 and BFDP value >0.8). Conclusion: The current analysis strongly suggests that the individual and combined effects of GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms might not be connected with elevated T2DM risk.
Title of thesis : Europe ’ s stock return predictability Name of student : Jason de Gier Student

In this paper we look into the lead-lag relationships between different stock markets. For this we investigate the effect that the lagged excess returns of one country has on the excess returns of another country using different model specifications. First we follow Rapach et al. (2013) and we find similar results, namely that Sweden shows a leading role in-sample, whereas the U.S. shows a leading role both in-sample and out-of-sample. Furthermore, we extend this research by looking more in-depth into Europe. For this we add seven European countries into the analysis. We find that the lagged excess returns of the U.S. have a predictive ability in the Pairwise Granger causality tests, where we only include the lagged excess returns of the country itself. However, U.S.’ lagged excess returns have no predictive ability in the general model specification, where we include the lagged excess returns of all countries. So it seems that the U.S. lost its leading role. Besides that, we find that Finland shows a leading role both in-sample in all the specifications and out-of-sample. However, we find that the U.S. has better out-of-sample predictive performance than Finland. This, in combination with the result that the U.S. does show a predictive ability in the Pairwise Granger tests, indicates that the U.S. still has a leading role in the international stock market.
Crop diversity and storage structures in the settlement of Crastoeiro ( Northwest Iberia ) : new approaches *

The Iron Age site of Crastoeiro (Mondim de Basto, Vila Real, North Portugal) revealed an interesting set of pits opened in the bedrock. Soil samples were collected from these and a carpological study was carried out in order to obtain information about crop diversity and characterize the storage structures. Nineteen samples from 4 pits yielded important results for the understanding of agriculture and storage practices in Crasto eiro. Spelt wheat (Triticum spelta) was the predominant crop in the studied pits. The presence of spikelets suggests grain was stored partially processed, which might have been a strategy to allow long-term storage. Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare), rye (Secale cereale) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were also found. Radiocarbon dates on rye grains are the oldest in the Iberian Peninsula, suggesting rye was introduced in the region in the end of the Iron Age, at the time of early Roman contacts. In a regional perspective the results from Crastoeiro highlight the use of undemanding crops well adapted to harsh environments, including cold climate and poor soils.
Subjective socioeconomic status is associated with risk aversion in a community-based cohort of older adults without dementia

Attitudes towards risk impact financial decisions that are critical in older adulthood. Socioeconomic status (SES) influences an individual’s level of risk aversion; however, the association of subjective SES (i.e., social standing relative to others) with risk aversion has not been explored. We examined whether subjective SES is associated with risk aversion independent of objective SES (i.e., income, education). Participants were 933 older adults without dementia from the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP) or Minority Aging Research Study (MARS), two longitudinal epidemiologic studies of aging. Participants completed assessments of risk aversion, subjective SES, and cognition. We examined associations of subjective SES with risk aversion using mixed models adjusting for participant characteristics, objective markers of SES and global cognition. In bivariate analyses, lower global cognitive functioning, lower income, female sex, Black race, and lower subjective SES were associated with greater risk aversion. Results of the nonlinear mixed effects model revealed that higher subjective SES was associated with less risk aversion (Estimate = −0.238, SE = 0.083, p = 0.004), after controlling for covariates. Age, sex, race, and global cognition were also associated with risk aversion in the mixed effects model (ps ≤ 0.03), although income and education were not (ps ≥ 0.27) The relationship between subjective SES and risk aversion did not differ by sex or race (ps ≥ 0.31). Findings suggest that subjective SES contributes to risk aversion regardless of sex or race. Findings support the importance of considering subjective indicators of SES as they may impact an older adult’s economic preferences.
ROS Photobiomodulation : Newly Discovered Actions in Resistance Exercise

| Many of the studies, that have evaluated the role of photobiomodulation (PBM) in alleviating excessive oxidative stress induced by exercise, were carried out in the setting of aerobic activities. In line with this notion, the aim of this Research Highlights article was to summarize the new role of PBM in the oxidative stress resulting from anaerobic exercise. Thus, this Research Highlights article briefly summarizes the findings reported in a recent article published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (February 18, 2018; doi: 10.1155/2018/5763256) by de Oliveira et al., which reported that low-level laser therapy (LLLT) can protect skeletal muscles from oxidative stress induced by acute resistance exercise (RE). In fact, rats that underwent laser irradiation in the gastrocnemius muscle prior to RE bout showed a similar lipoperoxidation level to that of non-exercised rats. Animals in the LLLT group were also protected from attack by reactive oxygen species on their amino acids, as was revealed by the changes in the oxidized protein content. This study by de Oliveira et al. provides novel insights into the PBM process, which acts as a suppressor of the excessive oxidative stress evoked by RE.
TO THE EQUILIBRIUM FOR THE FOKKER-PLANCK SYSTEM WITH A STRONG EXTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELD

We consider the Fokker-Planck equation with a strong external magnetic field. Global-in-time solutions are built near the Maxwellian, the global equilibrium state for the system. Moreover, we prove the convergence to equilibrium at exponential rate. The results are first obtained on spaces with an exponential weight. Then they are extended to larger functional spaces, like the Lebesgue space and the Sobolev space with polynomial weight, by the method of factorization and enlargement of the functional space developed in [Gualdani, Mischler, Mouhot, 2017].
Validation of newly developed tasks for the assessment of generic Critical Online Reasoning (COR) of university students and graduates

In recent decades, the acquisition of information has evolved substantially and fundamentally affects students’ use of information, so that the Internet has become one of the most important sources of information for learning. However, learning with freely accessible online resources also poses challenges, such as vast amounts of partially unstructured, untrustworthy, or biased information. To successfully learn by using the Internet, students therefore require specific skills for selecting, processing, and evaluating the online information, e.g., to distinguish trustworthy from distorted or biased information and for judging its relevance with regard to the topic and task at hand. Despite the central importance of these skills, their assessment in higher education is still an emerging field. In this paper, we present the newly defined theoretical-conceptual framework Critical Online Reasoning (COR). Based on this framework, a corresponding performance assessment, Critical Online Reasoning Assessment (CORA), was newly developed and underwent first steps of validation in accordance with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. We first provide an overview of the previous validation results and then expand them by including further analyses of the validity aspects “internal test structure” and “relations with other variables”. To investigate the internal test structure, we conducted variance component analyses based on the generalizability theory with a sample of 125 students and investigated the relations with other variables by means of correlation analyses. The results show correlations with external criteria as expected and confirm that the CORA scores reflect the different test performances of the participants and are not significantly biased by modalities of the assessment. With these new analyses, this study substantially contributes to previous research by providing comprehensive evidence for the validity of this new performance assessment that validly assesses the complex multifaceted construct of critical online reasoning among university students and graduates. CORA results provide unique insights into the interplay between features of online information acquisition and processing, learning environments, and the cognitive and metacognitive requirements for critically reasoning from online information in university students and young professionals.
Knowledge , attitude and perception ( KAP ) towards tuberculosis in Bangladesh : A cross-sectional mixed-methods study

In Bangladesh, Tuberculosis (TB) is a key public health concern. In this study we assessed knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) towards TB among the general population. A crosssectional mixed-methods study was conducted between March and August 2014, where a total of 400 adults were interviewed at Dhaka city in Bangladesh. The overall knowledge of TB was very limited despite 99.5% of the study respondents having heard of TB. About 99.0% stated correctly that cough was one of the major signs and symptoms of TB. About 39.0% mentioned that through airborne disease someone could get TB. With regard to curability of TB, 362 people replied that TB can be cured. About 77.0% informed that TB could be cured by taking medicines such as antibiotics or others. Sixty five percent of respondents knew someone who had have TB. The mean summary score for TB knowledge was 40 out of 100 (SD 0.5). Regression analysis shows that people with tertiary level of education were connected with higher TB knowledge and people having no income were related with lower TB knowledge. A lack of awareness was associated to delay in seeking treatment because people did not recognize the symptoms of tuberculosis. To improve knowledge of TB among people having no income or even lower income group more emphasis should be given and also more awareness is required to develop the individual’s perception amongst their neighbors in the study area. The alertness campaigns for TB knowledge should be a major concern countrywide in Bangladesh.
New properties of the attenuated V-line transform for breast cancer detection with Compton cameras

In the recent past, Compton camera became an attractive alternative to the Anger camera in scintimammography, known as nuclear medicine breast imaging or molecular breast imaging. This novel imaging modality leads to the use of the V-line transform, which integrates a function along coupled rays with a common vertex. In previous works the attenuation phenomena was mostly neglected. However, in scintimammography ignoring the effect of the attenuation of photon can significantly degrade the quality of the reconstruction image. In this paper, we introduce the attenuated V-line transform and establish a new integral relation between the attenuated V-line transform and the exponential Radon transform. The results are not only interesting as original mathematical discoveries, but also can be useful in challenging applications e.g., in breast imaging for tumor detection close to the chest wall. Keywords-V-line transform; attenuated V-line transform; imaging of breast cancer; breast cancer detection; Compton camera.
Differences in the spatial fidelity of evoked and spontaneous signals in the degenerating retina

Vision restoration strategies aim to reestablish vision by replacing the function of lost photoreceptors with optoelectronic hardware or through gene therapy. One complication to these approaches is that retinal circuitry undergoes remodeling after photoreceptor loss. Circuit remodeling following perturbation is ubiquitous in the nervous system and understanding these changes is crucial for treating neurodegeneration. Spontaneous oscillations that arise during retinal degeneration have been well-studied, however, other changes in the spatiotemporal processing of evoked and spontaneous activity have received less attention. Here we use subretinal electrical stimulation to measure the spatial and temporal spread of both spontaneous and evoked activity during retinal degeneration. We found that electrical stimulation synchronizes spontaneous oscillatory activity, over space and through time, thus leading to increased correlations in ganglion cell activity. Intriguingly, we found that spatial selectivity was maintained in rd10 retina for evoked responses, with spatial receptive fields comparable to wt retina. These findings indicate that different biophysical mechanisms are involved in mediating feed forward excitation, and the lateral spread of spontaneous activity in the rd10 retina, lending support toward the possibility of high-resolution vision restoration.
Comparing the Social Preferences of Therapeutic Community Participants to General Population Controls

This thesis tests the hypothesis that individuals of the general population are more prosocial than criminal offenders housed in Greene Leaf Therapeutic Community, Xenia, Ohio. The results, however, fail to support the hypothesis and we find that the therapeutic community members are in fact more fair, altruistic, and trustworthy. We use the dictator game, ultimatum game, and trust game in order to elicit their prosocial preferences. Tobit regressions are performed to test for the differences between the proposers in the three games. According to the Tobit regressions, treatment subjects are willing to share more with strangers. Given the nature of the data of the responders, multinomial logit regressions are utilized to study the patterns exhibited by the subjects. According to the logit regressions, members in the self-selected treatment group tend to be more hyper-fair and confused.
The maximum oxygen consumption and body structure component of women at the first period of mature age with a different somatotypes

Purpose: the identification of features of the maximum oxygen consumption of women in the first period of mature age and connection with body structure component. Material: 22-35 years old women (n=210) have participated in a research. Results: It was determined that women with endomorphic and mesomorphic somatotype prevail according to the absolute measure VO2 max. They have large body weight and higher percentage content of the muscular component. The women with low body weight and low values of fat component prevail according to a relative measure VO2 max. Large body weight in women of endomorphic, endomorphic and mesomorphic somatotype stipulates low values of a relative measure VO2 max. It is indicated by the high degree of the return correlation between a relative measure VO2 max and body weight. Conclusions: The relative measure VO2 max is considered more informative as its dependence on body weight is leveled. The obtained data indicate the advantage according to a relative measure VO2 max of women with low body weight somatotype (ectomorphic and balanced). Such feature is explained by authentically low percentage content of the fat component in women.
pharaonis ( Fischer P . , 1870 ) in Malta

No mussel beds were known to occur in the Maltese Islands previous to 2009, when a single bed of the Lessepsian immigrant Brachidontes pharaonis, first recorded from the islands in 1970, was discovered in Birzebbugia Bay. The population structure of B. pharaonis was investigated to assess its potential to spread and colonise new shores, while the biotic community at the mussel bed was compared to that present on uncolonised substratum to determine the effects of mussel bed establishment on the associated biota. Results indicate a lower species richness and slightly different community structure with greater small-scale heterogeneity at the mussel bed site compared to the adjacent rocky shore where mussels are present but where there is no bed formation. The B. pharaonis population had a peak density of 16550 ± 2051 ind.m-2 within the mussel bed and included recent recruits. These data suggest that the B. pharaonis population has the potential to expand. Establishment of extensive beds by this invasive mussel could change the structure of native rocky shore assemblages around the Maltese Islands and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
Title : Analysis of passengers ’ experiences and travel time use onboard urban buses . The case of Brescia

Providing users of the public transport with a satisfactory service is necessary to discourage the use of private transport modes. In addition to ensuring high performance in terms of accessibility, usability and availability of the service, in recent years the concept of travel experience has been deepened, to consider how travel time can constitute a further quality factor instead of being conceived as wasted. The article studies the travel experience of a sample of 554 urban bus system users in the city of Brescia, where the bus service already achieves high levels of passenger satisfaction. Through in-depth analysis, factors which particularly influence travel time and some critical aspects of the service are identified, related to three main topics: perception of the onboard experience, possibility and comfort in time engagement and interaction with other passengers. The analysis made it possible to pinpoint where it would be appropriate to intervene to make the travel experience more satisfying.
Liver and serum lipids in Wistar rats fed a novel structured lipid containing conjugated linoleic acid and conjugated linolenic acid

M. Shagholian, S.A. H. Goli, A. Shirvani, M.R. Agha-Ghazvini and S. Asgary Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156 83111, Iran. Isfahan Center of Health Research, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Isfahan University of medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. Corresponding author: amirgoli@cc.iut. ac.ir
Carcass characteristics and tissue composition of the meat of feedlot lambs fed high-grain diets

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of using different high-grain diets on the carcass characteristics and tissue composition of the meat of feedlot-finished lambs. Thirty-two male castrated Texel lambs born from single births and weaned at approximately 50 days of age were allotted to treatments that consisted of different unprocessed grains, as follows: corn grain, white oat grain, black oat grain, or grain of rice in the husk. The animals were slaughtered upon reaching the pre-established slaughter weight of 32 kg, which corresponds to 60% of the mature weight of their mothers. Lambs fed the high-corn grain diet had higher weights and yields of hot and cold carcass and larger loin-eye areas than those finished in the feedlot receiving high-grain diets based on white oat, black oat, or rice in the husk. Additionally, they had a higher degree of fatness and a thicker subcutaneous fat layer at slaughter, which lead to decreased cooler shrink loss. The neck, shoulder, ribs, and leg cuts were heavier in lambs fed the high-corn grain diet. By contrast, these lambs had a lower proportion of leg, more rib, and higher meat fat content, which may be undesirable for the consumer market. The use of high-corn grain diets, in comparison with high-grain diets based on black oat, white oat, and rice in the husk, may be recommended for finishing lambs in the feedlot when they are slaughtered at similar weights.
Poverty, Domestic Violence, and Intimiate Partner Homicide in the United States

I investigated quantitative changes in reported domestic violence incidents, poverty, and intimate partner homicides over time in the United States. I hypothesized that the number of reported incidents of domestic violence in the United States would correlate with the rise and fall of national poverty between the years 1997 to 2011. A secondary hypothesis was that a relationship between intimate partner homicides and poverty would be evident as well. I expected that the years that demonstrated the lowest number of reported incidents of domestic violence would be concomitant with the years that demonstrated lower poverty. This research also indicated that the years with the highest reported number of domestic violence incidents was concomitant with the years that demonstrated the highest poverty and the highest number of intimate partner homicides. Theories such as Social Exchange Theory and Bargaining Theory were identified as factors that could be related to this prevalent social issue.
Permafrost Creep and Rock Glacier Dynamics z

1 Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 2 Quaternary Research Center and Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA 3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 4 1734 Bannister Road, Anchorage, Alaska, USA 5 Institute of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 6 Institute of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria 7 Northern Engineering Center (CINEP), Ecole Polytechnique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada 8 Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan 9 ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 10 University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland