Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmokers nationally and in New York City.

INTRODUCTION We describe smoking prevalence and secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among adult nonsmokers in New York City (NYC) across key demographic strata and compare exposure estimates with those found nationally. METHODS We used serum cotinine data from the 2004 NYC Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 1,767 adults aged 20 years or older) and the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 4,476 adults aged 20 years or older) to assess and compare smoking prevalence and the prevalence of elevated cotinine levels (> or =0.05 ng/ml) among nonsmokers. We conducted multivariate logistic regression to assess independent predictors of elevated cotinine levels in NYC. RESULTS Although the smoking prevalence in NYC was lower than that found nationally (23.3% vs. 29.7%, p < .05), the proportion of nonsmoking adults in NYC with elevated cotinine levels was greater than the national average overall (56.7% vs. 44.9%, p < .05) and was higher for most demographic subgroups. In NYC, the highest cotinine levels among nonsmokers were among adults aged 20-39 years, males, and Asians. DISCUSSION Although NYC enacted comprehensive smoke-free workplace legislation in 2003, findings suggest that exposure to SHS remains a significant public health issue, especially among certain subgroups. The finding of a higher prevalence of SHS exposure in NYC despite lower smoking rates is puzzling but suggests that SHS exposure in dense, urban settings may pose a particular challenge.
Mortes infantis evitáveis por intervenções do Sistema Único de Saúde: comparação de duas coortes de nascimentos

Avoidable infant mortality was compared in the cohorts of live births in 2000/20001 and 2007/2008 in Londrina in the state of Parana. Data on live births and infant deaths were matched in a single database and the underlying causes of death were classified according to the Brazilian List of Avoidable Causes of Mortality of the Brazilian Unified Health System. The proportional variations of death rates were calculated and the technique of correspondence analysis was used. The proportions of avoidable deaths were 71.6% in 2000/2001 and 65.5% in 2007/2008. Avoidable mortality rate due to "care of the woman during pregnancy" was the most frequent in the two biennials with an increase of 16.7%. There was a decline in avoidable mortality rates due to other causes. In 2000/2001, correspondence analysis revealed a profile of deaths characterized mainly by causes avoidable by "care of the woman during labor" and "health promotion/care" while, in 2007/2008, by causes avoidable by "care of the woman during pregnancy," particularly among low birth weight newborns and "not clearly avoidable," among those with adequate weight. Despite a reduction in some avoidable causes of deaths, improvements in prenatal care are required.
Employment and social "determinants" of smoking in urbanizing China: a representative survey.

INTRODUCTION This study explored social determinants of smoking among a sample of male Chinese adults in Changqiao, a community representing the transition from traditional to a "mobile" urban culture in China. New commercial systems have introduced high profits but also layoffs in the absence of government security systems. METHODS In-person interviews were conducted by trained interviewers with 123 male participants selected at random. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were computed based on the Behavioral Ecological Model (BEM). About 61% of male participants were ever-smokers and 48% were current smokers. RESULTS Current smoking was associated with involuntary unemployment (odds ratio [OR] = 6.52), the absence of home smoking restrictions (OR = 0.34), and social reinforcement such as friends' smoking (OR = 4.02) and receiving smoking-related gifts (OR = 6.39). DISCUSSION Findings support the BEM. It is especially important to verify the relationship between unemployment and smoking, given the recent rise in involuntary job loss due to the transitional economy in China.
Smoking status and body mass index: a longitudinal study.

INTRODUCTION The general consensus is that smoking cessation leads to some degree of weight gain, although considerable disagreement remains regarding the magnitude and duration of this gain. METHODS We investigated the relationship between smoking status and change in body mass index (BMI) over time in a cohort of male participants recruited for a study of cardiovascular risk factors and assessed at multiple timepoints. We further investigated whether calorie consumption, recorded using food frequency questionnaires, mediated any effect of smoking cessation on change in BMI. RESULTS Our results indicate that never-smokers and ex-smokers differ in BMI from current smokers by an average of 1.6 kg/m2, based on a comparison at baseline. Moreover, smoking cessation between timepoints is associated with a corresponding average increase in BMI of 1.6 kg/m2. DISCUSSION These results suggest that when cigarette smokers achieve long-term abstinence, they revert to a mean BMI roughly equivalent to that of never-smokers. Perhaps surprisingly, this difference in BMI was not substantially attenuated following adjustment for calorie and alcohol consumption, suggesting that the effects of smoking cessation on BMI are not mediated entirely by changes in dietary or alcohol consumption behavior.
Human neuronal acetylcholine receptor A5-A3-B4 haplotypes are associated with multiple nicotine dependence phenotypes.

INTRODUCTION Previous research revealed significant associations between haplotypes in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 subunit cluster and scores on the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence among individuals reporting daily smoking by age 17. The present study used subsamples of participants from that study to investigate associations between the CHRNA5-A3-B4 haplotypes and an array of phenotypes not analyzed previously (i.e., withdrawal severity, ability to stop smoking, and specific scales on the Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (WISDM-68) that reflect loss of control, strong craving, and heavy smoking. METHODS Two cohorts of current or former smokers (N = 886) provided both self-report data and DNA samples. One sample (Wisconsin) comprised smokers making a quit smoking attempt, which permitted the assessment of withdrawal and relapse during the attempt. The other sample (Utah) comprised participants studied for risk factors for nicotine dependence and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and included individuals originally recruited in the Lung Health Study. RESULTS The CHRNA5-A3-B4 haplotypes were significantly associated with the targeted WISDM-68 scales (Tolerance, Craving, Loss of Control) in both samples of participants but only among individuals who began smoking early in life. The haplotypes were significantly associated with relapse likelihood and withdrawal severity, but these associations showed no evidence of an interaction with age at daily smoking. DISCUSSION The CHRNA5-A3-B4 haplotypes are associated with a broad range of nicotine dependence phenotypes, but these associations are not consistently moderated by age at initial smoking.
Tough Supramolecular Polymer Networks with Extreme Stretchability and Fast Room‐Temperature Self‐Healing

Recent progress on highly tough and stretchable polymer networks has highlighted the potential of wearable electronic devices and structural biomaterials such as cartilage. For some given applications, a combination of desirable mechanical properties including stiffness, strength, toughness, damping, fatigue resistance, and self‐healing ability is required. However, integrating such a rigorous set of requirements imposes substantial complexity and difficulty in the design and fabrication of these polymer networks, and has rarely been realized. Here, we describe the construction of supramolecular polymer networks through an in situ copolymerization of acrylamide and functional monomers, which are dynamically complexed with the host molecule cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]). High molecular weight, thus sufficient chain entanglement, combined with a small‐amount dynamic CB[8]‐mediated non‐covalent crosslinking (2.5 mol%), yields extremely stretchable and tough supramolecular polymer networks, exhibiting remarkable self‐healing capability at room temperature. These supramolecular polymer networks can be stretched more than 100× their original length and are able to lift objects 2000× their weight. The reversible association/dissociation of the host–guest complexes bestows the networks with remarkable energy dissipation capability, but also facile complete self‐healing at room temperature. In addition to their outstanding mechanical properties, the networks are ionically conductive and transparent. The CB[8]‐based supramolecular networks are synthetically accessible in large scale and exhibit outstanding mechanical properties. They could readily lead to the promising use as wearable and self‐healable electronic devices, sensors and structural biomaterials.
Early cognitive function tests predict early progression in glioblastoma.

Background Early progression of glioblastoma prevents patients from completing the standard chemoradiation protocol. Given that cognitive function is associated with prognosis in glioblastoma, we investigated the usefulness of preoperative cognitive function tests for predicting the early progression of glioblastoma. Methods Consecutive patients who underwent glioma surgery were preoperatively evaluated with cognitive function tests including the Mini Mental State Examination, digit span tests, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, the Trail Making Tests (TMT, parts A, B, and C), and the Stroop test. Glioblastomas were treated with a standard protocol using radiation and temozolomide, and 6-month progression-free survival (PFS-6) was analyzed retrospectively. Results Among 126 patients who underwent glioma surgery, 55 patients were diagnosed with glioblastoma, and 50 patients were eligible for the PFS-6 analysis. Thirty-four patients (68%) achieved PFS-6. No significant differences were observed in demographics or tumor characteristics between patients without progression (PFS-6) or patients with progression (no-PFS-6). In the cognitive function tests, the PFS-6 patients exhibited better performance in TMT-A and TMT-B. In a multivariate logistic regression, TMT-B was the only independent predictor for PFS-6, whereas age, years of education, gross total or near total resection, concomitant chemoradiation, and TMT-A were not predictors. Patients with good TMT-B performance exhibited better early prognosis in the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and had better recursive partitioning analysis classes. Conclusions Our results indicated that preoperative TMTs can be useful for rapid evaluation of early prognosis in patients with glioblastoma.
Characteristics of subjects experiencing hypersensitivity to non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs: patterns of response

Background Non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are one of the most frequently involved groups of medicines in hypersensitivity drug reactions. Two mechanisms can induce the reaction: immunological (sensitization) due to a specific IgE or T cell response and pharmacological (cyclooxygenase inhibition). The contribution of each of these mechanisms to the reactions is not well known.
Nicastrin functions to sterically hinder γ-secretase–substrate interactions driven by substrate transmembrane domain

Significance γ-Secretase is a conserved and ubiquitous intramembrane-cleaving protease (I-CLiP). Its normal function is required for proper notch signaling, and its processing of amyloid precursor protein is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Although γ-secretase has over 90 reported substrates, little is known about the mechanism by which γ-secretase recruits its substrates while at the same time distinguishing substrate from nonsubstrate within the protein-crowded environment of cellular membranes. In contrast to previous studies, our data demonstrate that substrate transmembrane domain drives its interaction with γ-secretase. We find that the γ-secretase component nicastrin acts to sterically block substrates with large ectodomains from interacting with γ-secretase, providing the mechanism by which γ-secretase selectively recruits ectodomain-shed substrates while also preventing cleavage of nonsubstrates. γ-Secretase is an intramembrane-cleaving protease that processes many type-I integral membrane proteins within the lipid bilayer, an event preceded by shedding of most of the substrate’s ectodomain by α- or β-secretases. The mechanism by which γ-secretase selectively recognizes and recruits ectodomain-shed substrates for catalysis remains unclear. In contrast to previous reports that substrate is actively recruited for catalysis when its remaining short ectodomain interacts with the nicastrin component of γ-secretase, we find that substrate ectodomain is entirely dispensable for cleavage. Instead, γ-secretase–substrate binding is driven by an apparent tight-binding interaction derived from substrate transmembrane domain, a mechanism in stark contrast to rhomboid—another family of intramembrane-cleaving proteases. Disruption of the nicastrin fold allows for more efficient cleavage of substrates retaining longer ectodomains, indicating that nicastrin actively excludes larger substrates through steric hindrance, thus serving as a molecular gatekeeper for substrate binding and catalysis.
Improved signaling as a result of randomness in synaptic vesicle release

Significance Noise is not only a source of disturbance, but it also can be beneficial for neuronal information processing. The release of neurotransmitter vesicles in synapses is an unreliable process, especially in the central nervous system. Here we show that the probabilistic nature of neurotransmitter release directly influences the functional role of a synapse, and that a small probability of release per docked vesicle helps reduce the error in the reconstruction of desired signals from the time series of vesicle release events. The probabilistic nature of neurotransmitter release in synapses is believed to be one of the most significant sources of noise in the central nervous system. We show how p0, the probability of release per docked vesicle when an action potential arrives, affects the dynamics of the rate of vesicle release in response to changes in the rate of arrival of action potentials. Furthermore, we examine the theoretical capability of a synapse in the estimation of desired signals using information from the stochastic vesicle release events under the framework of optimal linear filter theory. We find that a small p0, such as 0.1, reduces the error in the reconstruction of the input, or in the reconstruction of the time derivative of the input, from the time series of vesicle release events. Our results imply that the probabilistic nature of synaptic vesicle release plays a direct functional role in synaptic transmission.
Producing desired ice faces

Significance The molecular-level structure of ice––bonding patterns, binding sites, and molecular mobility––is difficult to probe experimentally due to challenges preparing faces of neat ice. One approach is to grow ice on a substrate. However, ice is held together by hydrogen bonds; a substrate perturbs the connections and radically alters the surface properties. This work shows how to quantitatively specify orientation of the ice lattice with respect to a surface. More importantly, based on recent success growing large single crystals, it shows how to prepare any desired face from the initial crystal surface orientation. A general procedure for preparing any arbitrary face is described. The procedure is used to prepare all three major faces from various initial orientations. The ability to prepare single-crystal faces has become central to developing and testing models for chemistry at interfaces, spectacularly demonstrated by heterogeneous catalysis and nanoscience. This ability has been hampered for hexagonal ice, Ih––a fundamental hydrogen-bonded surface––due to two characteristics of ice: ice does not readily cleave along a crystal lattice plane and properties of ice grown on a substrate can differ significantly from those of neat ice. This work describes laboratory-based methods both to determine the Ih crystal lattice orientation relative to a surface and to use that orientation to prepare any desired face. The work builds on previous results attaining nearly 100% yield of high-quality, single-crystal boules. With these methods, researchers can prepare authentic, single-crystal ice surfaces for numerous studies including uptake measurements, surface reactivity, and catalytic activity of this ubiquitous, fundamental solid.
Differences in cigarette and smokeless tobacco use among American Indian and Alaska Native people living in Alaska and the Southwest United States.

INTRODUCTION This study analyzed self-reported tobacco use among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people enrolled in the Education and Research Towards Health Study in Alaska (n = 3,821) and the Southwest United States (n = 7,505) from 2004 to 2006. METHODS Participants (7,060 women and 4,266 men) completed a computer-assisted self-administered questionnaire on cigarette and smokeless tobacco (ST) use. RESULTS Current use of cigarettes was considerably higher in Alaska than in the Southwest United States (32% vs. 8%). Current ST use was also more common in Alaska than in the Southwest United States (18% vs. 8%). Additionally, smoking was more common among men, younger age, those who were not married, and who only spoke English at home, while ST use was more common among men, those with lower educational attainment and those who spoke an AI/AN language at home (p < .01). Compared with the U.S. general population, AI/AN people living in Alaska were more likely and those living in the Southwest United States were less likely to be current smokers. Rates of ST use, including homemade ST, in both regions were much higher than the U.S. general population. DISCUSSION Tobacco use among AI/AN people in the Southwest United States, who have a tradition of ceremonial tobacco use, was far lower than among Alaska Native people, who do not have a tribal tradition. Tobacco use is a key risk factor for multiple diseases. Reduction of tobacco use is a critical prevention measure to improve the health of AI/AN people.
Palmitoylation controls DLK localization, interactions and activity to ensure effective axonal injury signaling

Significance Dual leucine-zipper kinase (DLK) is essential for responses to nerve injury and subsequent neural regeneration by controlling transfer of signals from damaged distal axons to neuronal cell bodies. However, DLK is predicted to be freely diffusible, raising the question of how it conveys long-distance, directional signals. Here we report that direct modification of DLK with the lipid palmitate, a process called palmitoylation, is critical for retrograde injury signaling. At the molecular level, palmitoylation targets DLK to retrograde trafficking vesicles, assembles DLK-dependent signaling complexes, and is also essential for DLK kinase activity. This “multifunctional” palmitoylation explains how DLK mediates injury responses and may be a previously unappreciated mechanism that ensures the specificity of enzymatic signaling in diverse cell types. Dual leucine-zipper kinase (DLK) is critical for axon-to-soma retrograde signaling following nerve injury. However, it is unknown how DLK, a predicted soluble kinase, conveys long-distance signals and why homologous kinases cannot compensate for loss of DLK. Here, we report that DLK, but not homologous kinases, is palmitoylated at a conserved site adjacent to its kinase domain. Using short-hairpin RNA knockdown/rescue, we find that palmitoylation is critical for DLK-dependent retrograde signaling in sensory axons. This functional importance is because of three novel cellular and molecular roles of palmitoylation, which targets DLK to trafficking vesicles, is required to assemble DLK signaling complexes and, unexpectedly, is essential for DLK’s kinase activity. By simultaneously controlling DLK localization, interactions, and activity, palmitoylation ensures that only vesicle-bound DLK is active in neurons. These findings explain how DLK specifically mediates nerve injury responses and reveal a novel cellular mechanism that ensures the specificity of neuronal kinase signaling.
Assessment of fight outcome is needed to activate socially driven transcriptional changes in the zebrafish brain

Significance Within social groups, there are animals of different social status that express different behavioral profiles that are paralleled by different patterns of gene expression in the brain. However, social status is not fixed, but rather depends on social interactions; hence, group living animals must be able to switch between different status-dependent behavior and brain gene expression profiles. Here we show for the first time, to our knowledge, that what triggers a genomic response to a social interaction in zebrafish is the subjects’ assessment of the interaction rather than a fixed response to a releaser cue in the environment. The occurrence of fighting assessment in zebrafish suggests that a cognitive ability classically considered complex is also present in a simple-minded vertebrate. Group living animals must be able to express different behavior profiles depending on their social status. Therefore, the same genotype may translate into different behavioral phenotypes through socially driven differential gene expression. However, how social information is translated into a neurogenomic response and what are the specific cues in a social interaction that signal a change in social status are questions that have remained unanswered. Here, we show for the first time, to our knowledge, that the switch between status-specific neurogenomic states relies on the assessment of fight outcome rather than just on self- or opponent-only assessment of fighting ability. For this purpose, we manipulated the perception of fight outcome in male zebrafish and measured its impact on the brain transcriptome using a zebrafish whole genome gene chip. Males fought either a real opponent, and a winner and a loser were identified, or their own image on a mirror, in which case, despite expressing aggressive behavior, males did not experience either a victory or a defeat. Massive changes in the brain transcriptome were observed in real opponent fighters, with losers displaying both a higher number of differentially expressed genes and of coexpressed gene modules than winners. In contrast, mirror fighters expressed a neurogenomic state similar to that of noninteracting fish. The genes that responded to fight outcome included immediate early genes and genes involved in neuroplasticity and epigenetic modifications. These results indicate that, even in cognitively simple organisms such as zebrafish, neurogenomic responses underlying changes in social status rely on mutual assessment of fighting ability.