Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An iterative method to improve the results of ant-tree algorithm applied to colour quantisation

Colour quantisation methods attempt to represent a colour image by a palette with fewer colours than the original one. This paper presents a method of this type, based on a previous algorithm called ant-tree for colour quantisation (ATCQ), which applies artificial ants for colour reduction. An important advantage of the new algorithm is that it does not require sorting the input data. Moreover, it applies an iterative process to increase the quality of the quantised image as iterations proceed. The proposed algorithm gives better results than the original one, and it is competitive with other well-known colour quantisation methods, such as Median-cut, Octree, Neuquant, variance-based, binary splitting or Wu's methods.
The Impact of Probiotic Supplements on Cognitive Parameters in Euthymic Individuals with Bipolar Disorder: A Pilot Study

Introduction: Cognitive dysfunction is prevalent in depressive as well as manic episodes in individuals with Bipolar Disorder (BD). Even more, after symptom remission, many individuals with BD experience persisting cognitive impairment also in euthymic periods, leading to high illness burden and low quality of life. According to a recent research in animals and healthy humans, microbiota may influence cognitive processes via the brain-gut axis. A strategy to examine the role of the microbiota in different diseases is the intake of supplements that modulate the gut microbiome. The aim of this pilot study was to analyze the impact of probiotic supplements on cognitive parameters in a cohort of euthymic individuals with BD, receiving daily probiotic treatment over a time period of 3 months. Methods: A total of 20 euthymic individuals with BD received probiotic supplement over a time period of 3 months and completed a cognitive test battery at 3 time points (t1 at time of inclusion, t2 after one month and t3 after 3 months of probiotic intake). Results: We found a significant improvement of performance concerning attention and psychomotor processing speed measured with the Digit Symbol Test after one (t2) as well as after 3 months (t3) of treatment (F = 8.60; η2 = 0.49, p < 0.01). Furthermore, executive function measured with the TMT-B, increased significantly over 3 months (F = 3.68; η2 = 0.29, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results confirm the hypotheses that probiotic supplement might help stable individuals with BD to improve the cognitive function, which in turn might lead to better psychosocial, occupational, work and financial functioning. Nevertheless, the idea of this potential new treatment is challenging because of the variety of the human’s gut microbiota.
Experimentally Validated Pharmacoinformatics Approach to Predict hERG Inhibition Potential of New Chemical Entities

The hERG (human ether-a-go-go-related gene) encoded potassium ion (K+) channel plays a major role in cardiac repolarization. Drug-induced blockade of hERG has been a major cause of potentially lethal ventricular tachycardia termed Torsades de Pointes (TdPs). Therefore, we presented a pharmacoinformatics strategy using combined ligand and structure based models for the prediction of hERG inhibition potential (IC50) of new chemical entities (NCEs) during early stages of drug design and development. Integrated GRid-INdependent Descriptor (GRIND) models, and lipophilic efficiency (LipE), ligand efficiency (LE) guided template selection for the structure based pharmacophore models have been used for virtual screening and subsequent hERG activity (pIC50) prediction of identified hits. Finally selected two hits were experimentally evaluated for hERG inhibition potential (pIC50) using whole cell patch clamp assay. Overall, our results demonstrate a difference of less than ±1.6 log unit between experimentally determined and predicted hERG inhibition potential (IC50) of the selected hits. This revealed predictive ability and robustness of our models and could help in correctly rank the potency order (lower μM to higher nM range) against hERG.
Enhanced 3DTV Regularization and Its Applications on Hyper-spectral Image Denoising and Compressed Sensing

The 3-D total variation (3DTV) is a powerful regularization term, which encodes the local smoothness prior structure underlying a hyper-spectral image (HSI), for general HSI processing tasks. This term is calculated by assuming identical and independent sparsity structures on all bands of gradient maps calculated along spatial and spectral HSI modes. This, however, is always largely deviated from the real cases, where the gradient maps are generally with different while correlated sparsity structures across all their bands. Such deviation tends to hamper the performance of the related method by adopting such prior term. To this is- sue, this paper proposes an enhanced 3DTV (E-3DTV) regularization term beyond conventional 3DTV. Instead of imposing sparsity on gradient maps themselves, the new term calculated sparsity on the subspace bases on the gradient maps along their bands, which naturally encode the correlation and difference across these bands, and more faithfully reflect the insightful configurations of an HSI. The E-3DTV term can easily replace the previous 3DTV term and be em- bedded into an HSI processing model to ameliorate its performance. The superiority of the proposed methods is substantiated by extensive experiments on two typical related tasks: HSI denoising and compressed sensing, as compared with state-of-the-arts designed for both tasks.
Napping on night‐shifts among nursing staff as per pdf: A mixed‐methods systematic review as per pdf

AIMS To synthesize research on the influence of night-shift napping on nurses. BACKGROUND Shift work is common for hospital nurses. Various studies corroborate that shift work causes adverse health consequences for nurses. Night-shift napping is a countermeasure to address the adverse outcomes of shift work. DESIGN A mixed-methods systematic review. DATA SOURCES The literature search included the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO and Cochrane Library electronic databases from inception to December 2017. Reference lists were hand searched. Only English articles were chosen. REVIEW METHODS A sequential explanatory design and Cochrane's methods for integrating qualitative and implementation evidence in intervention effectiveness reviews. The Mixed Methods Assessment Tool and Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool were applied to assess the methodological quality of included studies. RESULTS Twenty-two studies met our inclusion criteria. Many nurses experienced napping during their night-shift although no clear policy emerged. Napping is beneficial to the well-being of nurses and could improve their psychomotor vigilance and performance. However, the related studies are limited. The evidence on reducing sleepiness and fatigue was also insufficient and napping in nursing still faces challenges. CONCLUSION Although research on this topic has just started, napping during night-shift is beneficial to nurses' health and performance. Research should further explore the long-term impact on of night-shift napping on nurses, people and organization using sound methodological designs. Managers should actively develop strategies to address night-shift napping barriers.
Characterization of Fructan Metabolism During Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) Germination

The inulin-type fructans in Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) tubers exhibit different degrees of polymerization and are critical for germination. We aimed to characterize the sugar metabolism dynamics in the tubers without bud eyes or shoots (T) and BE/S of indoor- and field-grown Jerusalem artichokes during germination. Ht1-FEH II and Ht1-FEH III (1-fructan exohydrolases II and III, inulin-degrading enzymes) expression increased 5 days after planting indoors, whereas Ht1-FEH II expression increased 72 days after planting in the field in T and BE/S. Ht1-SST (sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyl transferase, inulin synthesis initiator), and Ht1-FFT (fructan:fructan 1-fructosyl transferase, inulin elongator) expression generally decreased in indoor-grown T. The enzyme activities of 1-FEH and 1-FFT were unchanged during germination in both indoor- and field-grown T and BE/S, whereas 1-SST activity decreased in indoor-grown T, while 1-FEH and 1-FFT activities increased as a function of germination time in BE/S of both indoor- and field-grown tubers. The total soluble sugar content gradually decreased in T after germination indoors or in the field, while at the end of germination, the sucrose and fructan contents decreased, and fructose content increased in the field. The enzyme activities of soluble vacuolar (VI) or neutral invertase (NI) did not change significantly, except at the late germination stage. Sucrose synthase (SS) and sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) activities were not significantly changed in T and BE/S in indoor-grown artichokes, while SS activity gradually increased, and SPS activity gradually decreased in field-grown artichokes, alongside sucrose degradation. Compared to T, BE/S generally had higher enzyme activities of 1-FEH and 1-FFT, promoting inulin hydrolysis. This work shows that the process of tuber germination is similar indoors and in the field, and germination studies can therefore be conducted in either environment.
Mortality and Health Outcomes in North Carolina Communities Located in Close Proximity to Hog Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

BACKGROUND Life expectancy in southeastern North Carolina communities located in an area with multiple concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) after adjusting for socioeconomic factors remains low. We hypothesized that poor health outcomes in this region may be due to converging demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, and access-to-care factors and are influenced by the presence of hog CAFOs. METHODS We studied mortality, hospital admissions, and emergency department (ED) usage for health conditions potentially associated with hog CAFOs—anemia, kidney disease, infectious diseases, and low birth weight (LBW)—in North Carolina communities located in zip codes with hog CAFOs (Study group 1), in zip codes with > 215hogs/km2 (Study group 2), and without hog CAFOs (Control group). We compared cause-specific age-adjusted rates, the odds ratios (ORs) of events in multivariable analyses (adjusted for 6 co-factors), and the changes of ORs relative to the distance to hog CAFOs. RESULTS Residents from Study groups 1 and 2 had higher rates of all-cause mortality, infant mortality, mortality of patients with multimorbidity, mortality from anemia, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and septicemia, and higher rates of ED visits and hospital admissions for LBW infants than the residents in the Control group. In zip codes with > 215hogs/km2, mortality ORs were 1.50 for anemia (P < 0.0001), 1.31 for kidney disease (P < 0.0001), 2.30 for septicemia (P < 0.0001), and 2.22 for tuberculosis (P = 0.0061). LIMITATIONS This study included a lack of individual measurements on environmental contaminants, biomarkers of exposures and co-factors, and differences in residential and occupational locations. CONCLUSION North Carolina communities located near hog CAFOs had higher all-cause and infant mortality, mortality due to anemia, kidney disease, tuberculosis, septicemia, and higher hospital admissions/ED visits of LBW infants. Although not establishing causality with exposures from hog CAFOs, our findings support the need for future studies to determine factors that influence these outcomes, as well as the need to improve screening and diagnostic strategies for these diseases in North Carolina communities adjacent to hog CAFOs.
Mortality in nursing home residents: A longitudinal study over three years

Objective Nursing home (NH) stay is the highest level of formal care. With the expected demographic changes ahead, the need for NH placement will put an increasing socioeconomic strain on the society. Survival in NHs and factors predicting survival are important knowledge in order to evaluate NH admission policies and plan future NH capacity. Methods We followed 690 NH residents included at admission to NH over a period of three years. Participants were examined at baseline (BL) and every six months. Demographic and clinical data were collected, including comorbidity, severity of cognitive impairment, dependency in activities of daily living (ADL) and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Median survival was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier analysis, and factors associated with mortality were identified by Cox models with baseline and time-dependent covariates. Results Median survival in NH was 2.2 years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.9–2.4). Yearly mortality rate throughout the three-year observation period was 31.8%. Mortality was associated with higher age and comorbidity at BL, and more severe dementia, higher ADL-dependency, less severe psychotic symptoms, and a lower BMI throughout the study period. Of the organizational variables, living on a ward with more residents resulted in a higher risk of mortality. Conclusion In conclusion, the NH mortality rate remained stable throughout the three-year study period with about one third of the residents deceasing each year. Individual resident characteristics appeared to be more important than organizational variables for predicting mortality risk. The finding of an association between ward size and mortality risk deserves further investigation in future studies.
MicroRNA 628 suppresses migration and invasion of breast cancer stem cells through targeting SOS1

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of miR-628 on migration and invasion of breast cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are essential for tumor recurrence and metastasis. Materials and methods Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression of microRNAs and mRNAs. A subpopulation of CD44+/CD24− breast CSCs were sorted by flow cytometry. Transwell assays were used to evaluate cell migration and invasion. Luciferase reporter assays were performed to verify whether miR-628 targeted SOS Ras/Rac guanine nucleotide exchange factor 1 (SOS1). pcDNA3.1(+)-SOS1 was constructed for overexpressing SOS1 after transfection. Results Compared with primary breast cancer cells, bone metastatic breast cancer cells showed significant downregulation of miR-628. The CD44+/CD24− breast CSC subpopulations in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines were analyzed and sorted. Transfection with an miR-628 mimic significantly suppressed the migration and invasion of these breast CSCs by targeting SOS1, which plays an essential role in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Overexpression of SOS1 rescued miR-628-mediated migration and invasion by upregulating Snail and vimentin, and downregulating E-cadherin. Conclusion miR-628 suppressed migration and invasion of breast CSCs of MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells by directly targeting SOS1. Enhancement of miR-628 expression might be an effective strategy for managing breast cancer metastasis.
From Implantation to Birth: Insight into Molecular Melatonin Functions

Melatonin is a lipophilic hormone synthesized and secreted mainly in the pineal gland, acting as a neuroendocrine transducer of photoperiodic information during the night. In addition to this activity, melatonin has shown an antioxidant function and a key role as regulator of physiological processes related to human reproduction. Melatonin is involved in the normal outcome of pregnancy, beginning with the oocyte quality, continuing with embryo implantation, and finishing with fetal development and parturition. Melatonin has been shown to act directly on several reproductive events, including folliculogenesis, oocyte maturation, and corpus luteum (CL) formation. The molecular mechanism of action has been investigated through several studies which provide solid evidence on the connections between maternal melatonin secretion and embryonic and fetal development. Melatonin administration, reducing oxidative stress and directly acting on its membrane receptors, melatonin thyroid hormone receptors (MT1 and MT2), displays effects on the earliest phases of pregnancy and during the whole gestational period. In addition, considering the reported positive effects on the outcomes of compromised pregnancies, melatonin supplementation should be considered as an important tool for supporting fetal development, opening new opportunities for the management of several reproductive and gestational pathologies.
Effects of Ulinastatin on myocardial oxidative stress and inflammation in severely burned rats.

OBJECTIVE By constructing the severe burns model in rat, we explored the effects of different doses of Ulinastatin (UTI) on protecting myocardium from oxidative stress and inflammatory reaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS The severe burns model in rat was first constructed. Burned rats were intervened with different doses of UTI. Contents of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), Interleukin-1 (IL-1), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in rat serum and heart homogenate were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Activities of SOD (superoxide dismutase), CAT (catalase), GSH-Px (glutathione peroxidase), and MDA (malondialdehyde) were detected by commercial kits. The inflammation and pathological changes in rat heart were observed by HE (Hematoxylin-Eosin) staining. Protein expressions of Cox-2, iNOS, NF-κB, Nrf2, and HO-1 in rat myocardium were detected by Western blot. RESULTS Higher levels of cTnI, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α were found in model group than those of control group (p<0.05). Besides, decreased contents of cTnI, IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α were observed in both UTI 50 ku/kg group and UTI 100 ku/kg group compared with those of model group (p<0.05). Decreased activities of SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px, as well as increased MDA level were observed in model group than those of control group (p<0.05). However, UTI treatment remarkably elevated SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px activities, whereas downregulated MDA level in burned rats (p<0.05). Abundant infiltration of inflammatory cells was found in the rat's myocardium of model group, which was alleviated in UTI group in a dose-dependent manner. Upregulated Cox-2, iNOS, and NF-κB, as well as downregulated Nrf2 and HO-1 were found in model group compared with those of control group (p<0.05). UTI pretreatment remarkably reversed the above-mentioned trends. CONCLUSIONS Ulinastatin alleviates myocardial injury induced by severe burns. It exerts a protective role in myocardium via inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammatory response.
Laboratory assessment of folate (vitamin B9) status

Folate (vitamin B9) plays a crucial role in fundamental cellular processes, including nucleic acid biosynthesis, methyl group biogenesis and amino acid metabolism. The detection and correction of folate deficiency prevents megaloblastic anaemia and reduces the risk of neural tube defects. Coexisting deficiencies of folate and vitamin B12 are associated with cognitive decline, depression and neuropathy. Folate deficiency and excess has also been implicated in some cancers. Excessive exposure to folic acid, a synthetic compound used in supplements and fortified foods, has also been linked to adverse health effects. Of at least three distinct laboratory markers of folate status, it is the total abundance of folate in serum/plasma that is used by the majority of laboratories. The analysis of folate in red cells is also commonly performed. Since the folate content of red cells is fixed during erythropoiesis, this marker is indicative of folate status over the preceding ~4 months. Poor stability, variation in polyglutamate chain length and unreliable extraction from red cells are factors that make the analysis of folate challenging. The clinical use of measuring specific folate species has also been explored. 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate, the main form of folate found in blood, is essential for the vitamin B12-dependent methionine synthase mediated remethylation of homocysteine to methionine. As such, homocysteine measurement reflects cellular folate and vitamin B12 use. When interpreting homocysteine results, age, sex and pregnancy, specific reference ranges should be applied. The evaluation of folate status using combined markers of abundance and cellular use has been adopted by some laboratories. In the presence of discordance between laboratory results and strong clinical features of deficiency, treatment should not be delayed. High folate status should be followed up with the assessment of vitamin B12 status, a review of previous results and reassessment of folic acid supplementation regime.
Brain Waves Evaluation of Sound Therapy in Chronic Subjective Tinnitus Cases Using Wavelet Decomposition

Management and treatment of subjective tinnitus is an ongoing focus of research activities. One of the most viable assessments of such treatment is the evaluation of brain activity in addition to patient response and clinical assessment. This study focuses on sound therapy and evaluation of patients’ electroencephalogram (EEG) in order to verify the potency of this approach. Broadband sound therapy was applied to nineteen participants aging from 25 to 64 and suffering from chronic subjective tinnitus to study the difference of brain activity, a) before fake treatment, b) after fake treatment and c) after the main treatment, using EEG and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for evaluating Residual Inhibition (RI). Four features were extracted using 4-level wavelet decomposition with Symlet 8 as its mother wavelet. For the “After the main treatment” stage, the mean value of wavelet coefficients for the last wavelet level, which corresponded to delta band of EEG, was lower in the FC3 channel based on Two-Sample T-Test with significance level of 0.01, as compared to the same channel of the “before the treatment” stage, for cases in which decreased tinnitus loudness were reported.
Implication of Asana, Pranayama and Meditation on Telomere Stability

Telomeres, the repetitive sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes, help to maintain genomic integrity and are of key importance to human health. Telomeres progressively shorten throughout life and a number of studies have shown shorter telomere length to be associated with lifestyle disorders. Previous studies also indicate that yoga and lifestyle-based intervention have significant role on oxidative DNA damage and cellular aging. However, very few publications investigate telomere stability and its implication from the point of view of asana, pranayama, and meditation. In this context, a review was conducted to systematically assess the available data on the effectiveness of asana, pranayama, and meditation in maintaining telomere and telomerase. Literature search was performed using the following electronic databases: Cochrane Library, NCBI, PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and Web of Science. We explored the possible mechanisms of how asana, pranayama, and meditation might be affecting telomere length and telomerase. Moreover, results showed that asana and pranayama increase the oxygen flow to the cells and meditation reduces the stress level by modulating the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Summing up the result, it can be concluded that practice of asana, pranayama, and meditation can help to maintain genomic integrity and are of key importance to human health and lifestyle disorders.