Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In neonates with vitamin D deficiency, low lymphocyte activation markers are risk factors for infection

ABSTRACT Background: Vitamin D has regulatory effects on different cells of the immune system and low levels are associated with several immune-mediated diseases. Aim: To investigate the association between neonatal 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OHD) level and the expression of lymphocyte activation markers (HLA-DR, CD69, CD25, CD45RA) on T-lymphocyte subpopulations and its impact in neonatal infection. Methods: 25-OHD level was measured in the cord blood of 56 neonates and their mothers using an enzyme immune-assay method. Based on the 25-OHD level, infants were categorised into four groups: severe deficiency (n = 7), moderate deficiency (n = 21), mild deficiency (n = 15) and normal 25-OHD level (n = 13). Mothers were classified into deficient (n = 18), insufficient (n = 21) and normal levels (n = 17). T-lymphocyte subpopulations and lymphocyte activation markers were investigated using flow cytometry. Results: There was a positive correlation between maternal and cord blood 25-OHD levels (r = 0.503, p = 0.001). The group with severe 25-OHD deficiency had the significantly lowest level of total lymphocytes, CD3+ T lymphocytes, CD4+ T-helper and CD8+ T-cytotoxic lymphocytes and CD4+CD45RA+ naïve T-cells compared with the other groups. The frequencies of CD8+CD25+, CD4+CD25+ and CD4+HLA-DR+ activated T-lymphocytes were significantly lower in the severe, moderate and mild deficiency groups than in the normal group. Seven of 43 (16.27%) infants with 25-OHD deficiency were admitted with sepsis to the neonatal intensive care unit and there were no cases of sepsis in the normal 25-OHD group. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a reduction of lymphocyte subsets and altered T-lymphocyte activation which are considered to be risk factors for neonatal infection.
A diet high in sugar-sweetened beverage and low in fruits and vegetables is associated with adiposity and a pro-inflammatory adipokine profile

Abstract Diet, obesity and adipokines play important roles in diabetes and CVD; yet, limited studies have assessed the relationship between diet and multiple adipokines. This cross-sectional study assessed associations between diet, adiposity and adipokines in Mexican Americans. The cohort included 1128 participants (age 34·7±8·2 years, BMI 29·5±5·9 kg/m2, 73·2 % female). Dietary intake was assessed by 12-month food frequency questionnaire. Adiposity was measured by BMI, total percentage body fat and percentage trunk fat using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Adiponectin, apelin, C-reactive protein (CRP), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-IV), IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-6, IL-18, leptin, lipocalin, monocyte chemo-attractant protein-1 (MCP-1), resistin, secreted frizzled protein 4 (SFRP-4), SFRP-5, TNF-α and visfatin were assayed with multiplex kits or ELISA. Joint multivariate associations between diet, adiposity and adipokines were analysed using canonical correlations adjusted for age, sex, energy intake and kinship. The median (interquartile range) energy intake was 9514 (7314, 11912) kJ/d. Overall, 55 % of total intake was accounted for by carbohydrates (24 % from sugar). A total of 66 % of the shared variation between diet and adiposity, and 34 % of diet and adipokines were explained by the top canonical correlation. The diet component was most represented by sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables. Participants consuming a diet high in SSB and low in fruits and vegetables had higher adiposity, CRP, leptin, and MCP-1, but lower SFRP-5 than participants with high fruit and vegetable and low SSB intake. In Mexican Americans, diets high in SSB but low in fruits and vegetables contribute to adiposity and a pro-inflammatory adipokine profile.
Identification and Molecular Docking Study of a Novel Angiotensin-I Converting Enzyme Inhibitory Peptide Derived from Enzymatic Hydrolysates of Cyclina sinensis

Marine-derived angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides have shown potent ACE inhibitory activity with no side effects. In this study, we reported the discovery of a novel ACE-inhibitory peptide derived from trypsin hydrolysates of Cyclina sinensis (CSH). CSH was separated into four different molecular weight (MW) fractions by ultrafiltration. Fraction CSH-I showed the strongest ACE inhibitory activity. A peptide was purified by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and its sequence was determined to be Trp-Pro-Met-Gly-Phe (WPMGF, 636.75 Da). The Lineweaver-Burk plot showed that WPMGF was a competitive inhibitor of ACE. WPMGF showed a significant degree of stability at varying temperatures, pH, and simulated gastrointestinal environment conditions. We investigated the interaction between this pentapeptide and ACE by means of a flexible molecular docking tool. The results revealed that effective interaction between WPMGF and ACE occurred mainly through hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, and coordination bonds between WPMGF and Zn(II). In conclusion, our study indicates that a purified extract derived from Cyclina sinensis or the WPMGF peptide could potentially be incorporated in antihypertensive functional foods or dietary supplements.
Fatigue, Sleep Disturbances, and Their Influence on Quality of Life in Cervical Dystonia Patients

Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) are highly prevalent in cervical dystonia (CD). In general, fatigue and sleep are important NMS that determine a decreased health‐related quality of life (HR‐QoL), but their influence in CD is unknown. The authors systematically investigated fatigue, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), and sleep quality in patients with CD and controls and assessed the influence of psychiatric comorbidity, pain, and dystonia motor severity. They also examined the predictors of HR‐QoL.
Selective Oxidation of HMF via Catalytic and Photocatalytic Processes Using Metal-Supported Catalysts

In this study, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) oxidation was carried out via both the catalytic and the photocatalytic approach. Special attention was devoted to the preparation of the TiO2-based catalysts, since this oxide has been widely used for catalytic and photocatalytic application in alcohol oxidation reactions. Thus, in the catalytic process, the colloidal heterocoagulation of very stable sols, followed by the spray-freeze-drying (SFD) approach, was successfully applied for the preparation of nanostructured porous TiO2-SiO2 mixed-oxides with high surface areas. The versatility of the process made it possible to encapsulate Pt particles and use this material in the liquid-phase oxidation of HMF. The photocatalytic activity of a commercial titania and a homemade oxide prepared with the microemulsion technique was then compared. The influence of gold, base addition, and oxygen content on product distribution in the photocatalytic process was evaluated.
Overexpression Cathepsin D Contributes to Perineural Invasion of Salivary Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma

Objective: Cathepsin D (CTSD) is a pivotal orchestrator in the occurrence and development of tumors. Recently, CTSD was detected in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC). However, its functional role in perineural invasion (PNI) of SACC remained elusive. We conducted the present study to detect the expression of CTSD in SACC, analyze the correlation between CTSD expression and prognosis of SACC patients and elucidate the role of CTSD in occurrence of PNI in SACC to lay the foundation for further studies. Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis was conducted to assess CTSD and Ki67 expression in 158 SACC samples and 20 normal salivary gland samples adjacent to carcinoma. Meanwhile, the correlation between CTSD and PNI of SACC specimens was analyzed using Wilcoxon test. QRT-PCR, immunofluorescence and western blot analysis were used to examine the levels of CTSD mRNA and protein in SACC-LM cell line. SiRNA-mediated CTSD silence was performed. Scratch wound healing assay, transwell invasion assay and DRG co-culture assay of PNI was used to detect the ability of migration, invasion and PNI. FITC-phalloidin was used to detect cytoskeletal organization. Results: Our data demonstrated that the positive expression of CTSD was observed in 74.1% (117/158) of SACC cases, and the expression of CTSD was significantly correlated with the PNI (p < 0.05). The ability of migration, invasion, and PNI could be inhibited significantly by siRNA-mediated CTSD silence (p < 0.01). Furthermore, siRNA-mediated CTSD silence inhibited cytoskeletal organization and pseudo foot formation in SACC-LM cells. Conclusion: Our results suggested that an association between PNI and expression of CTSD existed. CTSD may promote PNI of SACC accompanied by cytoskeletal organization and pseudo foot formation.
Network-based and cohesion-based social capital and variations in depressive symptoms among Taiwanese adults

Background: Network- and cohesion-based social capital may play an important role in improving mental health. However, there is limited understanding about these relationships among adults in Taiwan. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the association between individual-level network and cohesion-based social capital and depressive symptoms among a population-based sample of Taiwanese adults. Methods: Data were obtained from the 1997 Taiwan Social Change Survey (n = 2,598). The 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptom scores; ⩾16 represented high depressive symptoms. Network-based social capital was measured using a position generator. Two dimensions of cohesion-based social capital were assessed: cognitive (perceived neighborhood trust and reciprocity) and structural (local community participation and organizational participation). Multivariable log-binomial regression models, weighted to account for the complex sampling design and adjusted for confounders, estimated prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to examine the association between each social capital measure and depressive symptoms. Results: In this study, 29.6% of respondents were classified as having high depressive symptom scores. Higher scores of composite cognitive social capital (adjusted Prevalence Ratios (aPR) = 0.92, 95% CI = [0.90, 0.95]) and structural social capital (aPR = 0.80, 95% CI = [0.65, 0.99]) were associated with a lower likelihood of high depressive symptom scores after controlling for confounders. However, there was no association between network social capital and depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the relationship between social capital and depressive symptoms in Taiwan differs according to the specific dimension of social capital assessed. Differentiating between network- and cohesion-based social capital merits greater attention to inform our understanding of building social capital to promote and improve mental health outcomes.
Veganism, vegetarianism, bone mineral density, and fracture risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Context The numbers of vegans and vegetarians have increased in the last decades. However, the impact of these diets on bone health is still under debate. Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to study the impact of vegetarian and vegan diets on bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk. Data Sources A systematic search was conducted of PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct, covering the period from the respective start date of each database to November 2017. Data Extraction Two investigators evaluated 275 studies against the inclusion criteria (original studies in humans, written in English or Spanish and including vegetarian or vegan diets and omnivorous diets as factors with BMD values for the whole body, lumbar spine, or femoral neck and/or the number of fractures as the outcome) and exclusion criteria (articles that did not include imaging or studies that included participants who had suffered a fracture before starting the vegetarian or vegan diet). The quality assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies was used to assess the quality of the studies. Results Twenty studies including 37 134 participants met the inclusion criteria. Compared with omnivores, vegetarians and vegans had lower BMD at the femoral neck and lumbar spine and vegans also had higher fracture rates. Conclusions Vegetarian and vegan diets should be planned to avoid negative consequences on bone health. Systematic Review Registration PROSPERO registration no. CRD42017055508.
Spamalytics: an empirical analysis of spam marketing conversion

The "conversion rate" of spam--the probability that an unsolicited e-mail will ultimately elicit a "sale"--underlies the entire spam value proposition. However, our understanding of this critical behavior is quite limited, and the literature lacks any quantitative study concerning its true value. In this paper we present a methodology for measuring the conversion rate of spam. Using a parasitic infiltration of an existing botnet's infrastructure, we analyze two spam campaigns: one designed to propagate a malware Trojan, the other marketing on-line pharmaceuticals. For nearly a half billion spam e-mails we identify the number that are successfully delivered, the number that pass through popular anti-spam filters, the number that elicit user visits to the advertised sites, and the number of "sales" and "infections" produced.
Emergence of Resistance to Macrolides and Rifampin in Clinical Isolates of Rhodococcus equi from Foals in Central Kentucky, 1995 to 2017

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Rhodococcus equi strains resistant to macrolides and rifampin over time in clinical samples from foals submitted to diagnostic laboratories in central Kentucky. We performed a retrospective observational study of all clinical samples from foals that were submitted to veterinary diagnostic laboratories in Kentucky between January 1995 and December 2017. ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Rhodococcus equi strains resistant to macrolides and rifampin over time in clinical samples from foals submitted to diagnostic laboratories in central Kentucky. We performed a retrospective observational study of all clinical samples from foals that were submitted to veterinary diagnostic laboratories in Kentucky between January 1995 and December 2017. Samples were included if the R. equi bacterium was cultured and tested for in vitro susceptibility to erythromycin or rifampin. In vitro susceptibility testing to erythromycin was available for 2,169 isolates of R. equi, while susceptibility testing to both erythromycin and rifampin was available for 1,681 isolates. Rifampin resistance was first detected in 2000, and erythromycin resistance was first detected in 2004. Between 1995 and 2006, the proportion of resistant isolates of R. equi was 0.7% for erythromycin and 2.3% for rifampin. There was a significant (P < 0.001) increase in the proportion of resistant R. equi between 2007 and 2017, with 13.6% of isolates being resistant to erythromycin and 16.1% being resistant to rifampin. Between 2007 and 2017, isolates of R. equi resistant to erythromycin or rifampin were significantly less likely to be isolated from feces than from the respiratory tract, other soft tissues, or musculoskeletal infections. The considerable increase in the prevalence of isolates of R. equi resistant to macrolides and rifampin since 2007 is of concern for both human and animal health.
Public and patient involvement in dementia research: Time to reflect?

Public and patient involvement in research is a well-established requirement for applications to many grant-awarding bodies. Numerous models of consultation, collaboration and leadership have been developed to support all stages of research, from ideas development through to project execution and dissemination of findings. However, the interface between researchers and lay members is not always a happy one; scientific ‘fact’ may not square with lived experience; clinical researchers may regard their accumulated knowledge from working with many people with dementia and their families as ‘more valid’ than the individual experience(s) of a small number of public and patient involvement representatives; public and patient involvement members can fall victim to tokenism and manipulation. In this opinion piece, I consider the nature of representation in public and patient involvement in dementia research, and whether identifying disconfirmatory cases provides greater value than current consensus building approaches. I conclude by encouraging researchers to listen, reflect and embrace the opportunity to engage with alternative perspectives.
Capacity Enhanced Cooperative D2D Systems over Rayleigh Fading Channels with NOMA

This paper considers the cooperative device-to-device (D2D) systems with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). We assume that the base station (BS) can communicate simultaneously with all users to satisfy the full information transmission. In order to characterize the impact of the weak channel and different decoding schemes, two kinds of decoding strategies are proposed: \emph{single signal decoding scheme} and \emph{MRC decoding scheme}, respectively. For the \emph{single signal decoding scheme}, the users immediately decode the received signals after receptions from the BS. Meanwhile, for the \emph{MRC decoding scheme}, instead of decoding, the users will keep the receptions in reserve until the corresponding phase comes and the users jointly decode the received signals by employing maximum ratio combining (MRC). Considering Rayleigh fading channels, the ergodic sum-rate (SR), outage probability and outage capacity of the proposed D2D-NOMA system are analyzed. Moreover, approximate expressions for the ergodic SR are also provided with a negligible performance loss. Numerical results demonstrate that the ergodic SR and outage probability of the proposed D2D-NOMA scheme overwhelm that of the conventional NOMA schemes. Furthermore, it is also revealed that the system performance including the ergodic SR and outage probability are limited by the poor channel condition for both the \emph{single signal decoding scheme} and conventional NOMA schemes.
Design of a digital library maturity model (DLMM)

Purpose There are many challenges in the development of a digital library (DL) and their complexity can be approached effectively with a maturity model. In a maturity model, the features of a phenomenon are divided into different levels and at each level, they are first improved before going on to the improvement or realization of the next level. The purpose of this study is to design a digital library maturity model (DLMM) in Iran. Design/methodology/approach The DLMM was designed using a qualitative approach, meta-synthesis and the Delphi technique. First, the maturity features of a DL were identified by assessing 68 sources of study concerning DLs and maturity models using meta-synthesis. The maturity features were then validated by experts using the three-round Delphi technique. Finally, the experts were asked to categorize these features into the five levels of the capability maturity model (CMM) as the base model. Findings By analyzing these sources, three categories, seven concepts and 35 codes for the maturity features of a DL were identified. The majority of previous studies focused on the use of hardware/software systems as the backup and empowerment of DLs and the concept of DL content. The maturity features were then validated by experts using the three-round Delphi technique. Like the base model, DLMM has five levels, and most features were categorized into the third and fourth levels by the experts. Features such as human resources, needs assessment of DL and readiness to create a DL were included in the second level. Originality/value This work adds the concept of the maturity model to the literature of DLs.
The Skin and Parkinson's Disease: Review of Clinical, Diagnostic, and Therapeutic Issues

Parkinson's disease (PD) and the skin are related in a number of ways, including clinical abnormalities of the disease itself and skin‐related side effects of dopaminergic medication, pumps, and surgical therapies. Recent advances in understanding the role of α‐synuclein suggest skin biopsies as a potential diagnostic or even a premotor marker of PD.
The endangered northern bettong, Bettongia tropica, performs a unique and potentially irreplaceable dispersal function for ectomycorrhizal truffle fungi

Organisms that are highly connected in food webs often perform unique and vital functions within ecosystems. Understanding the unique ecological roles played by highly connected organisms and the consequences of their loss requires a comprehensive understanding of the functional redundancy amongst organisms. One important, yet poorly understood, food web is that between truffle‐forming ectomycorrhizal fungi and their mammalian consumers and dispersers. Mammalian fungal specialists rely on fungi as a food source, and they consume and disperse a higher diversity and abundance of fungi than do mycophagous mammals with generalist diets. Therefore, we hypothesize that mammalian fungal specialists are functionally distinct because they disperse a set of fungal taxa not fully nested within the set consumed by the combined generalist mammalian community (i.e., functional redundancy of fungal dispersal is limited). Using high‐throughput sequencing, we compared the fungal composition of 93 scats from the endangered fungal specialist northern bettong (Bettongia tropica) and 120 scats from nine co‐occurring generalist mammal species across three sites and three seasons. Compared with other generalist mammals, B. tropica consumed a more diverse fungal diet with more unique taxa. This aligns with our hypothesis that B. tropica performs a unique dispersal function for ectomycorrhizal truffle fungi. Additionally, modelling of mammalian extinctions predicted rapid loss of food web connections which could result in loss of gene flow for truffle taxa. Our results suggest that this system is sensitive to the extinction of highly connected specialist species like B. tropica and their loss could have consequences for ectomycorrhizal truffle fungal diversity. This suggests that the conservation of fungal specialists is imperative to maintaining ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity and healthy plant–mycorrhizal relationships.
Exploring the Use of Attention within an Neural Machine Translation Decoder States to Translate Idioms

Idioms pose problems to almost all Machine Translation systems. This type of language is very frequent in day-to-day language use and cannot be simply ignored. The recent interest in memory augmented models in the field of Language Modelling has aided the systems to achieve good results by bridging long-distance dependencies. In this paper we explore the use of such techniques into a Neural Machine Translation system to help in translation of idiomatic language.
New Binary Locally Repairable Codes with Locality 2 and Uneven Availabilities for Hot Data

In this paper, a new family of binary LRCs (BLRCs) with locality 2 and uneven availabilities for hot data is proposed, which has a high information symbol availability and low parity symbol availabilities for the local repair of distributed storage systems. The local repair of each information symbol for the proposed codes can be done not by accessing other information symbols but only by accessing parity symbols. The proposed BLRCs with k=4 achieve the optimality on the information length for their given code length, minimum Hamming distance, locality, and availability in terms of the well-known theoretical upper bound.