Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regular Intake of a Usual Serving Size of Flavanol-Rich Cocoa Powder Does Not Affect Cardiometabolic Parameters in Stably Treated Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension—A Double-Blinded, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Regular cocoa consumption has been shown to improve blood pressure (BP), insulin sensitivity, and lipid levels in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), using up to 100 g of chocolate or 54 g of cocoa. These effects, attributed to cocoa flavanols, would be beneficial for patients with T2D if they could be achieved by a usual serving size of flavanol-rich cocoa. Forty-two hypertensive patients with T2D (stable pharmacological treatment, with good adjustment for glucose metabolism, lipids, and BP) ingested capsules with 2.5 g/day of a flavanol-rich cocoa or cocoa-free capsules for 12 weeks in a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled study with parallel group design. Participants had to maintain diet, lifestyle, and medication. Before and after intervention, fasting blood samples were collected; BP and nutritional status were investigated. Cocoa treatment did not affect BP, nor glucose metabolism (glucose, HbA1c, insulin, HOMA-IR) and lipids (triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol). Body weight, fat mass, and nutrient supply remained unchanged. Changes in the placebo group did not occur. Regular intake of a usual serving size of flavanol-rich cocoa does not improve cardiometabolic parameters in stably treated patients with T2D and hypertension. As the medication modulates partly the same targets as cocoa flavanols, future studies should focus on the preventive effect of cocoa against diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases in individuals with preexisting abnormalities that do not require any pharmacological treatment.
BMI Trajectories in Adulthood: The Intersection of Skin Color, Gender, and Age among African Americans

This study addresses three research questions critical to understanding if and how skin color shapes health among African Americans: (1) Does skin color predict trajectories of body mass index (BMI) among African Americans across ages 32 to 55? (2) To what extent is this relationship contingent on gender? (3) Do sociodemographic, psychosocial, and behavioral factors explain the skin color–BMI relationship? Using data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study and growth curve models, results indicate that dark-skinned women have the highest BMI across adulthood compared to all other skin color–gender groups. BMI differences between dark- and lighter-skinned women remain stable from ages 32 to 55. Among men, a BMI disadvantage emerges and widens between light- and dark-skinned men and their medium-skinned counterparts. Observed sociodemographic characteristics, stressors, and health behaviors do not explain these associations. Overall, findings suggest that skin color– and gender-specific experiences likely play an important role in generating BMI inequality.
A Fast, Compact, Accurate Model for Language Identification of Codemixed Text

We address fine-grained multilingual language identification: providing a language code for every token in a sentence, including codemixed text containing multiple languages. Such text is prevalent online, in documents, social media, and message boards. We show that a feed-forward network with a simple globally constrained decoder can accurately and rapidly label both codemixed and monolingual text in 100 languages and 100 language pairs. This model outperforms previously published multilingual approaches in terms of both accuracy and speed, yielding an 800x speed-up and a 19.5% averaged absolute gain on three codemixed datasets. It furthermore outperforms several benchmark systems on monolingual language identification.
Drawing as an Encoding Tool: Memorial Benefits in Younger and Older Adults

ABSTRACT Background/Study Context. In a recent study, drawing pictures relative to writing words at encoding has been shown to benefit later memory performance in young adults. In the current study, we sought to test whether older adults’ memory might also benefit from drawing as an encoding strategy. Our prediction was that drawing would serve as a particularly effective form of environmental support at encoding as it encourages a more detailed perceptual representation. Methods. Participants were presented 30 nouns, one at a time, and asked to either draw a picture or repeatedly write out the word, which was followed by a free recall test for all words (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we added an elaborative processing task in which we asked participants to list physical characteristics of the objects. In Experiment 3, we probed recognition memory for the words. Results. Of the words recalled in Experiment 1, a larger proportion had been drawn than written at encoding, and this effect was larger in older relative to younger adults. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that drawing improves memory in both younger and older adults more than does an elaborative encoding task consisting of listing descriptive characteristics of the target nouns. In Experiment 3, older and younger adults drew or wrote out words at encoding, and subsequently provided Remember-Know-New recognition memory decisions. We showed that drawing reduced age-related differences in Remember responses. Conclusions. We suggest that incorporating visuo-perceptual information into the memory trace, by drawing pictures at study, increases reliance of the memory trace on visual sensory regions, which are relatively intact in normal aging, relative to simply writing out or elaborately encoding words. Overall, results indicate that drawing is a highly valuable form of environmental support that can significantly enhance memory performance in older adults.
Impact of decision aids used during clinical encounters on clinician outcomes and consultation length: a systematic review

Background Clinicians’ satisfaction with encounter decision aids is an important component in facilitating implementation of these tools. We aimed to determine the impact of decision aids supporting shared decision making (SDM) during the clinical encounter on clinician outcomes. Methods We searched nine databases from inception to June 2017. Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of decision aids used during clinical encounters with an unaided control group were eligible for inclusion. Due to heterogeneity among included studies, we used a narrative evidence synthesis approach. Results Twenty-five papers met inclusion criteria including 22 RCTs and 3 qualitative or mixed-methods studies nested in an RCT, together representing 23 unique trials. These trials evaluated healthcare decisions for cardiovascular prevention and treatment (n=8), treatment of diabetes mellitus (n=3), treatment of osteoporosis (n=2), treatment of depression (n=2), antibiotics to treat acute respiratory infections (n=3), cancer prevention and treatment (n=4) and prenatal diagnosis (n=1). Clinician outcomes were measured in only a minority of studies. Clinicians’ satisfaction with decision making was assessed in only 8 (and only 2 of them showed statistically significantly greater satisfaction with the decision aid); only three trials asked if clinicians would recommend the decision aid to colleagues and only five asked if clinicians would use decision aids in the future. Outpatient consultations were not prolonged when a decision aid was used in 9 out of 13 trials. The overall strength of the evidence was low, with the major risk of bias related to lack of blinding of participants and/or outcome assessors. Conclusion Decision aids can improve clinicians’ satisfaction with medical decision making and provide helpful information without affecting length of consultation time. Most SDM trials, however, omit outcomes related to clinicians’ perspective on the decision making process or the likelihood of using a decision aid in the future.
Potential Mood Variation Following a Behavioral Analogue of Self-Injurious Behavior

Despite increased use of behavioral analogues to identify casual mechanisms of self-injurious behavior (e.g., suicide attempts; non-suicidal self-injury), little is known about the impact on participants. The current study examined the impact of a specific behavior analogue, Self-Aggressive Paradigm (SAP), on participant affect. Community participants (n = 507) reported several affective ratings before and after completing SAP task procedures. Following the SAP, participants reported reductions in nervousness and fear and increases in calmness and anger (d = .21). Participants with a current anxiety disorder reported greater increases in happiness; those with a suicide attempt history reported greater increases in sadness. Findings demonstrate the SAP has no adverse mood effects, supporting its use in experimental research.
Effect of different bleaching protocols on whitening efficiency and enamel superficial microhardness

Background Tooth bleaching is a popular aesthetic treatment to modify the color of teeth. Despite the extensive literature concerning the subject, there is still no consensus regarding the application mode of the different bleaching agents and their effect on enamel. Therefore, this study evaluated the influence of different bleaching protocols on whitening efficiency and enamel superficial hardness. Material and Methods Bovine enamel fragments were embedded in acrylic resin and wet-sanded to obtain a flat buccal surface. The specimens were then randomly divided into 6 groups (n=10), based on the bleaching material [HP Maxx 35% (35% hydrogen peroxide), HP Blue 35% (35% hydrogen peroxide + Ca) and Whiteness Perfect 10% (10% carbamide peroxide)] and application mode (3 applications of 15 min, 1 application of 45 min, 1 application of 1h30 or 1 application of 3h30). The color and superficial hardness were assessed before and after bleaching. The color was assessed by means of a digital spectrophotometer, using CIELab parameters. Vickers hardness was determined using a load of 200g for 10s. Data were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA with repeated measures and Tukey’s test (α = 0.05). Results Concerning the color alteration, the groups were similar to each other, except for at-home bleaching protocols, which were statistically different from each other. Similarly, there was a reduction in hardness values comparing the initial and final periods, with lowest final hardness for the at-home bleaching protocol group applied for 3h30. Conclusions It can be concluded that the bleaching protocols influenced the final color and enamel surface hardness, evidencing that lower gel concentrations applied for longer periods promoted greater variation in color and lower final hardness. Key words:Tooth bleaching, roughness, microhardness, in-office, at-home bleaching.
Circulating C1q/TNF‐related protein isoform 15 is a marker for the presence of metabolic syndrome

C1q/TNF‐related protein isoform 15 (CTRP15) has been reported to be related to glucose and lipid metabolism, but the results are inconsistent. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of metabolic disorders. The aim of this study is to determine circulating CTRP15 levels in individuals with MetS and investigate the association among circulating CTRP15 and markers for MetS as well as insulin resistance.
Clinical Utility of Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Screening for Antimicrobial Stewardship: A Review of Current Literature

Significant clinical and financial consequences are associated with both inadequate and unnecessary exposure to broad‐spectrum antibiotics. As such, antimicrobial stewardship programs seek objective, reliable, and cost‐effective tests to identify patients at highest or lowest risk for drug‐resistant organisms to guide empirical antimicrobial selection. Use of methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nasal screening to rule out MRSA in lower respiratory tract infections has led to significant reductions in duration of vancomycin therapy. The clinical utility of MRSA nasal screening in other types of infection remains less clear. This review describes the performance of MRSA nasal screening in predicting MRSA infection, highlights practical considerations for use of MRSA nasal screening, and provides guidance for incorporating MRSA nasal screening into clinical practice. With a high negative predictive value when the prevalence of MRSA is low, MRSA nasal screening is a valuable antimicrobial stewardship tool with potential applications beyond lower respiratory tract infections. In appropriately selected patients, negative MRSA nasal screening can prevent initiation or guide discontinuation of anti‐MRSA therapy. Antimicrobial stewardship programs should develop institutional guidelines to promote proper use of MRSA nasal screening. Pharmacists are well positioned to assist with education, interpretation, and application of MRSA nasal screening results.
Potassium channels in the sinoatrial node and their role in heart rate control

ABSTRACT Potassium currents determine the resting membrane potential and govern repolarisation in cardiac myocytes. Here, we review the various currents in the sinoatrial node focussing on their molecular and cellular properties and their role in pacemaking and heart rate control. We also describe how our recent finding of a novel ATP-sensitive potassium channel population in these cells fits into this picture.
Association between fine particulate matter and oral cancer among Taiwanese men

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between fine particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and oral cancer among Taiwanese men. Four linked data sources including the Taiwan Cancer Registry, Adult Preventive Medical Services Database, National Health Insurance Research Database, and Air Quality Monitoring Database were used. Concentrations of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, NOx (nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide), coarse particulate matter (PM10-2.5) and PM2.5 in 2009 were assessed in quartiles. A total of 482 659 men aged 40 years and above were included in the analysis. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between PM2.5 and oral cancer diagnosed from 2012 to 2013. After adjusting for potential confounders, the ORs of oral cancer were 0.91 (95% CI 0.75 to 1.11) for 26.74≤PM2.5<32.37, 1.01 (95% CI 0.84 to 1.20) for 32.37≤PM2.5<40.37 µg/m3 and 1.43 (95% CI 1.17 to 1.74) for PM2.5≥40.37 µg/m3 compared with PM2.5<26.74 µg/m3. In this study, there was an increased risk of oral cancer among Taiwanese men who were exposed to higher concentrations of PM2.5.
Ipsilesional Motor Cortex Plasticity Participates in Spontaneous Hindlimb Recovery after Lateral Hemisection of the Thoracic Spinal Cord in the Rat

After an incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) spontaneous motor recovery can occur in mammals, but the underlying neural substrates remain poorly understood. The motor cortex is crucial for skilled motor learning and the voluntary control of movement and is known to reorganize after cortical injury to promote recovery. Motor cortex plasticity has also been shown to parallel the recovery of forelimb function after cervical SCI, but whether cortical plasticity participates in hindlimb recovery after SCI remains unresolved. Using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) mapping, behavioral and cortical inactivation techniques in the female Long–Evans rat, we evaluated the spontaneous cortical mechanisms of hindlimb motor recovery 1–5 weeks after lateral hemisection of the thoracic (T8) spinal cord that ablated the crossed corticospinal tract (CST) from the contralesional motor cortex while sparing the majority of the CST from the ipsilesional motor cortex. Hemisection initially impaired hindlimb motor function bilaterally but significant recovery occurred during the first 3 weeks. ICMS revealed time-dependent changes in motor cortex organization, characterized by a chronic abolishment of hindlimb motor representation in the contralesional motor cortex and the development of transient bilateral hindlimb representation in the ipsilesional motor cortex 3 weeks after hemisection, when significant behavioral recovery occurred. Consistently, reversible inactivation of the ipsilesional, but not the contralesional motor cortex, during skilled ladder walking 3 weeks after hemisection reinstated deficits in both hindlimbs. These findings indicate that the ipsilesional motor cortex transiently reorganizes after lateral hemisection of the thoracic spinal cord to support recovery of hindlimb motor function. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Partial motor recovery can occur after an incomplete spinal cord injury and is hypothesized to result from the reorganization of spared descending motor pathways. The motor cortex is crucial for the control of voluntary movement and contains topographical movement representations (motor maps) that are highly plastic. We examined the organization of hindlimb motor maps bilaterally after a lateral hemisection of the spinal cord to show that while motor maps are abolished in the deefferented cortex, the spared ipsilesional cortex transiently reorganizes to gain a representation of the affected hindlimb after injury that relates to recovery. This finding demonstrates that plasticity in the ipsilesional motor cortex at early time points after spinal cord hemisection is initially important to support motor recovery.
Correlation between alteration of enamel roughness and tooth color

Background To establish the correlation between enamel roughness and color change of tooth. Material and Methods Enamel/dentin blocks (5 x 5 x 3.2 mm) were serially ground with the following abrasive paper: 1200-grit, 800-grit, and 600-grit SiC papers. In the paired model, the analyses of color (L*, a*, b*, ΔE) and roughness (Ra) were performed among the sandpaper exposure. The data were subjected to ANOVA using models for repeated measures followed by the Tukey test. The Pearson correlation test was used to determine whether there was a relationship between Ra values and color results (α = 0.05). Results The L* values decreased in accordance with the increase of Ra, with statistical difference between all the times (p<0.05). A correlation was found between the Ra vs. the L* values (r = -0.67; p<0.0001) and ∆Ra vs. ∆a* values (r = 0.29; p = 0.05); besides that, there was no significant correlation with b* values or significant alteration in the ∆E values (p>0.05). Conclusions The alteration of enamel roughness acted on the lightness and the green-red axis of tooth color. However, there was no significant correlation between the alteration of roughness of enamel and general color change of tooth. Key words:Surface properties, tooth discoloration, color.
Limitations of adversarial robustness: strong No Free Lunch Theorem

This manuscript presents some new impossibility results on adversarial robustness in machine learning, a very important yet largely open problem. We show that if conditioned on a class label the data distribution satisfies the $W_2$ Talagrand transportation-cost inequality (for example, this condition is satisfied if the conditional distribution has density which is log-concave; is the uniform measure on a compact Riemannian manifold with positive Ricci curvature, any classifier can be adversarially fooled with high probability once the perturbations are slightly greater than the natural noise level in the problem. We call this result The Strong "No Free Lunch" Theorem as some recent results (Tsipras et al. 2018, Fawzi et al. 2018, etc.) on the subject can be immediately recovered as very particular cases. Our theoretical bounds are demonstrated on both simulated and real data (MNIST). We conclude the manuscript with some speculation on possible future research directions.
Passive Sampling of Gaseous Elemental Mercury Based on a Composite TiO2NP/AuNP Layer

Passive sampling systems (PASs) are a low cost strategy to quantify Hg levels in air over both different environmental locations and time periods of few hours to weeks/months. For this reason, novel nanostructured materials have been designed and developed. They consist of an adsorbent layer made of titania nanoparticles (TiO2NPs, ≤25 nm diameter) finely decorated with gold nanoparticles. The TiO2NPs functionalization occurred for the photocatalytic properties of titania-anatase when UV-irradiated in an aqueous solution containing HAuCl4. The resulting nanostructured suspension was deposited by drop-casting on a thin quartz slices, dried and then incorporated into a common axial sampler to be investigated as a potential PAS device. The morphological characteristics of the sample were studied by High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, and Optical Microscopy. UV-Vis spectra showed a blue shift of the membrane when exposed to Hg0 vapors. The adsorbed mercury was thermally desorbed for a few minutes, and then quantified by a mercury vapor analyzer. Such a sampling system reported an efficiency of adsorption that was equal to ≈95%. Temperature and relative humidity only mildly affected the membrane performances. These structures seem to be promising candidates for mercury samplers, due to both the strong affinity of gold with Hg, and the wide adsorbing surface.
Discovering General-Purpose Active Learning Strategies

We propose a general-purpose approach to discovering active learning (AL) strategies from data. These strategies are transferable from one domain to another and can be used in conjunction with many machine learning models. To this end, we formalize the annotation process as a Markov decision process, design universal state and action spaces and introduce a new reward function that precisely model the AL objective of minimizing the annotation cost. We seek to find an optimal (non-myopic) AL strategy using reinforcement learning. We evaluate the learned strategies on multiple unrelated domains and show that they consistently outperform state-of-the-art baselines.
Protein shape modulates crowding effects

Significance Macromolecular crowding influences protein−protein interactions via hard-core repulsions and chemical interactions. Scaled particle theory predicts that the effect of hard-core repulsions depends on the shape of the protein complex, and simple ideas about chemical interactions predict a dominant role for the chemical qualities of the protein surface. The theory predicts that a collapsed, ellipsoidal, dimer will be stabilized by hard-core repulsions, whereas a less collapsed, side-by-side, dimer will not. We applied scaled particle theory to two dimers with nearly identical surfaces but different shapes. Our results support the predictions; crowders that interact primarily through hard-core repulsions stabilize the ellipsoidal domain-swapped dimer more than the side-by-side dimer, whereas crowders that interact via chemical interactions have the same effect on both dimers. Protein−protein interactions are usually studied in dilute buffered solutions with macromolecule concentrations of <10 g/L. In cells, however, the macromolecule concentration can exceed 300 g/L, resulting in nonspecific interactions between macromolecules. These interactions can be divided into hard-core steric repulsions and “soft” chemical interactions. Here, we test a hypothesis from scaled particle theory; the influence of hard-core repulsions on a protein dimer depends on its shape. We tested the idea using a side-by-side dumbbell-shaped dimer and a domain-swapped ellipsoidal dimer. Both dimers are variants of the B1 domain of protein G and differ by only three residues. The results from the relatively inert synthetic polymer crowding molecules, Ficoll and PEG, support the hypothesis, indicating that the domain-swapped dimer is stabilized by hard-core repulsions while the side-by-side dimer shows little to no stabilization. We also show that protein cosolutes, which interact primarily through nonspecific chemical interactions, have the same small effect on both dimers. Our results suggest that the shape of the protein dimer determines the influence of hard-core repulsions, providing cells with a mechanism for regulating protein−protein interactions.