Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of worksite interventions promoting healthier food and/or physical activity habits among employees working ‘around the clock’ hours: a systematic review

We conducted a systematic review of randomised studies on the impact of worksite interventions to promote healthier food and/or physical activity among people who work irregular hours ‘around the clock’, that is, outside of ordinary daytime working hours. The population–intervention–comparator–outcomes–study (PICOS) design format was used. Data sources were PubMed and CINAHL. An updated search was conducted on October 2017 using Google Scholar and the related articles function in PubMed on initially included studies to identify additional studies. Risk of bias was used to assess study quality. A total of seven studies (reports published in 14 papers) were included in the systematic review: Two interventions with a broader lifestyle approach, three focusing on physical exercise and two on providing healthier food or meal options. The studies had sample sizes from 30 to 1,000 and targeted a mixture of occupations, including both male- and female-dominated occupational groups. The interventions lasted from 2 to 12 months. Only one had an extended follow-up. In general, the studies showed small-to-moderate effect sizes on several measures, including dietary and/or physical activity measures, suggesting acceptable effectiveness for interventions involving community-level behaviour change. Our findings highlight a need to further develop and implement well-designed health promotion interventions with comparable outcome measures and effect size reports. A mixture of health promotion strategies is recommended for future practice in this target population, including individually tailored programmes, improving the food and physical activity environment and using broader lifestyle approaches including the use of participatory and empowerment strategies. While more research is needed in this field, the existing knowledge base on effective approaches awaits translation into practice.
Isolating the roles of movement and reproduction on effective connectivity alters conservation priorities for an endangered bird

Significance Animal movement has captured the interest of biologists over the past century. Although animal movement is increasingly well understood, it is unclear how postmovement reproduction varies across landscapes despite its important role in many ecological and evolutionary processes. We address this problem by isolating the roles of movement and postmovement reproduction for connecting local populations using 9 years of data on an endangered bird across its entire geographic range. Our findings highlight the important role that postmovement reproduction can play for connecting animal populations across landscapes. Movement is important for ecological and evolutionary theory as well as connectivity conservation, which is increasingly critical for species responding to environmental change. Key ecological and evolutionary outcomes of movement, such as population growth and gene flow, require effective dispersal: movement that is followed by successful reproduction. However, the relative roles of movement and postmovement reproduction for effective dispersal and connectivity remain unclear. Here we isolate the contributions of movement and immigrant reproduction to effective dispersal and connectivity across the entire breeding range of an endangered raptor, the snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus). To do so, we unite mark–resight data on movement and reproduction across 9 years and 27 breeding patches with an integrated model that decomposes effective dispersal into its hierarchical levels of movement, postmovement breeding attempt, and postmovement reproductive success. We found that immigrant reproduction limits effective dispersal more than movement for this endangered species, demonstrating that even highly mobile species may have limited effective connectivity due to reduced immigrant reproduction. We found different environmental limitations for the reproductive component of effective dispersal compared with movement, indicating that different conservation strategies may be needed when promoting effective dispersal rather than movement alone. We also demonstrate that considering immigrant reproduction, rather than movement alone, alters which patches are the most essential for connectivity, thereby changing conservation priorities. These results challenge the assumption that understanding movement alone is sufficient to infer connectivity and highlight that connectivity conservation may require not only fostering movement but also successful reproduction of immigrants.
Resource use of healthcare services 1 year after stroke: a secondary analysis of a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a client-centred activities of daily living intervention

Objective The objective of the study was to compare the total use of healthcare services in the course of the first year after a stroke between participants who, after the acute care, had received occupational therapy as a client-centred activities of daily living (ADL) intervention (CADL) and participants who had received usual ADL intervention (UADL). Design A secondary analysis of a multicentre cluster-randomised controlled trial (RCT). Setting Primary and secondary care in Sweden. Participants Participants were included if they: (1) had received CADL or UADL in the RCT, either as inpatients in geriatric rehabilitation units or in their own homes, and (2) data could be retrieved about their use of healthcare services provided by the county council from computerised registers. Interventions CADL or UADL. Outcome measures Inpatient and outpatient healthcare in the course of the first year after stroke. Results Participants from 7 of the 16 units included in the RCT met the criteria. Participants in the CADL group (n=26) who received geriatric inpatient rehabilitation had a shorter length of hospital stay (p=0.03) than participants in the UADL group (n=46), and the CADL group with home rehabilitation (n=13) had fewer outpatient contacts (p=0.01) compared with the UADL group (n=25). Multiple regression analyses showed that in four of the models, a higher age was associated with a lower use of healthcare services. The use of healthcare services was also associated (some of the models) with dependence in ADL, stroke severity and type of rehabilitation received, CADL or UADL. Conclusions The provision of client-centred occupational therapy after stroke did not appear to increase the use of healthcare services during the first year after stroke.rrrrr Trial registration number NCT01417585.
Microbiological Criteria of Local Manufactured Beef Luncheon

A total number of 105 samples of local beef luncheon sold in different local markets in Alexandria city were subjected to microbial analysis for assessment of their safety and quality. The results showed that the incidence of Staphylococcus aureus was 49.5 % in beef luncheon, while Salmonellae was not be detected. The mean values of aerobic bacterial count, coliforms count, Enterobacteriaceae count and mould and yeast count were 7.06x104 Â± 1.4x104, 2.3x105 Â± 1.4x105,8.5x103 Â± 3.3x103 and 6. 6x105Â± 1.6x105, respectively. The samples were subjected to mycological examination to evaluate the fungal load of beef luncheon. The results showed that the most predominant species were Penicillium (41%), Asperigellus (25%), Paecilomyces (10%), Fusarium (7%), Trichoderma (9%), Cladosporium (5%), Alternaria alternate (2%), Helminthesporium (1%) and Syncephalostrum (1%). This study showed the degree of contamination of beef luncheon, in addition to the public health importance of such contaminates had been discussed.
Incidence and risk factors for neurological signs after attenuation of single congenital portosystemic shunts in 253 dogs

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence, outcome, and risk factors for postattenuation neurological signs (PANS) and seizures after attenuation of single congenital portosystemic shunts (CPSS) in dogs. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SAMPLE POPULATION Dogs (N = 253) with single CPSS. METHODS Medical records of dogs treated by surgical attenuation of a single CPSS between February 2000 and July 2015 were reviewed for signalment and preoperative and postoperative clinical outcomes, including the occurrence of PANS. Univariable and multivariable binary logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for PANS and for seizures. RESULTS Twenty-eight (11.1%) dogs developed PANS, including 12 (4.7%) dogs with seizures. Five (17.9%) dogs with PANS did not survive to discharge. Risk factors for PANS included the presence of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) immediately preoperatively (P = .038, odds ratio [OR] 2.704, CI 1.057-6.922) and increasing age (P < .001, OR 1.476, CI 1.223-1.780). Risk factors for seizures included the presence of HE immediately preoperatively (P = .048, OR 3.538, CI 1.013-12.363) and increasing age (P = .009, OR 1.364, CI 1.082-1.720). No association was found between the location of portosystemic shunts (extrahepatic and intrahepatic) and post-operative PANS (P = .532) or seizures (P = .620). Similarly, preemptive administration of levetiracetam did not influence the risk of PANS (P = .991) or seizures (P = .752). CONCLUSION Preoperative HE and older age in dogs with a CPSS increased the odds of developing PANS and seizures in our population. Preemptive administration of levetiracetam did not protect dogs against the development of PANS or seizures. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Surgical attenuation of a single CPSS should not be excessively delayed, and surgeons should stabilize the clinical signs of HE before surgery to prevent postoperative PANS and seizures.
Outcome Prediction of Acute Kidney Injury Biomarkers at Initiation of Dialysis in Critical Units

The ideal circumstances for whether and when to start RRT remain unclear. The outcome predictive ability of acute kidney injury (AKI) biomarkers measuring at dialysis initializing need more validation. This prospective, multi-center observational cohort study enrolled 257 patients with AKI undergoing renal replacement therapy (RRT) shortly after admission. At the start of RRT, blood and urine samples were collected for relevant biomarker measurement. RRT dependence and all-cause mortality were recorded up to 90 days after discharge. Areas under the receiver operator characteristic (AUROC) curves and a multivariate generalized additive model were applied to predict outcomes. One hundred and thirty-five (52.5%) patients died within 90 days of hospital discharge. Plasma c-terminal FGF-23 (cFGF-23) had the best discriminative ability (AUROC, 0.687) as compared with intact FGF-23 (iFGF-23) (AUROC, 0.504), creatinine-adjusted urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (AUROC, 0.599), and adjusted urine cFGF-23 (AUROC, 0.653) regardless whether patients were alive or not on day 90. Plasma cFGF-23 levels above 2050 RU/mL were independently associated with higher 90-day mortality (HR 1.76, p = 0.020). Higher cFGF-23 levels predicted less weaning from dialysis in survivors (HR, 0.62, p = 0.032), taking mortality as a competing risk. Adding cFGF-23 measurement to the AKI risk predicting score significantly improved risk stratification and 90-day mortality prediction (total net reclassification improvement = 0.148; p = 0.002). In patients with AKI who required RRT, increased plasma cFGF-23 levels correlated with higher 90-day overall mortality after discharge and predicted worse kidney recovery in survivors. When coupled to the AKI risk predicting score, cFGF-23 significantly improved mortality risk prediction. This observation adds evidence that cFGF-23 could be used as an optimal timing biomarker to initiate RRT.
Individual differences and impact of gender on curvature redirection thresholds

To enable real walking in a virtual environment (VE) that is larger than the available physical space, redirection techniques that introduce multisensory conflicts between visual and nonvisual cues to manipulate different aspects of a user's trajectory could be applied. When applied within certain thresholds, these manipulations could go unnoticed and immersion remains intact. Research effort has been spent on identifying these thresholds and a wide range of thresholds was reported in different studies. These differences in thresholds could be explained by many factors such as individual differences, walking speed, or context settings such as environment design, cognitive load, distractors, etc. In this paper, we present a study to investigate the role of gender on curvature redirection thresholds (RDTs) using the maximum likelihood procedure with the classical two-alternative force choice task. Results show high variability in individuals' RDTs, and that on average women have higher curvature RDTs than men. Furthermore, results also confirm existing findings about the negative correlation between walking speed and curvature RDTs.
Isotope effects in the tyrosinase catalysed hydroxylation of l-tyrosine methyl derivatives

ABSTRACT To investigate isotope effects in the hydroxylation of [3′,5′-2H2]-α-methyl- and [3′,5′-2H2]-N-methyl-l-tyrosine, they were synthesised using acid catalysed isotope exchange at high temperature. The kinetic and solvent deuterium isotope effects on Vmax and Vmax/Km parameters of tyrosinase in its action on methylated derivatives of l-tyrosine were determined using the non-competitive spectrophotometric method. Lineweaver–Burk plots were used to consider the inhibition type of O-methyl-l-tyrosine, revealing that it is an uncompetitive inhibitor of tyrosinase.
Predicting Structural Details of the Sodium Channel Pore Basing on Animal Toxin Studies

Eukaryotic voltage-gated sodium channels play key roles in physiology and are targets for many toxins and medically important drugs. Physiology, pharmacology, and general architecture of the channels has long been the subject of intensive research in academia and industry. In particular, animal toxins such as tetrodotoxin, saxitoxin, and conotoxins have been used as molecular probes of the channel structure. More recently, X-ray structures of potassium and prokaryotic sodium channels allowed elaborating models of the toxin-channel complexes that integrated data from biophysical, electrophysiological, and mutational studies. Atomic level cryo-EM structures of eukaryotic sodium channels, which became available in 2017, show that the selectivity filter structure and other important features of the pore domain have been correctly predicted. This validates further employments of toxins and other small molecules as sensitive probes of fine structural details of ion channels.
Deep Transfer Learning for EEG-Based Brain Computer Interface

The electroencephalography classifier is the most important component of brain-computer interface based systems. There are two major problems hindering the improvement of it. First, traditional methods do not fully exploit multimodal information. Second, large-scale annotated EEG datasets are almost impossible to acquire because biological data acquisition is challenging and quality annotation is costly. Herein, we propose a novel deep transfer learning approach to solve these two problems. First, we model cognitive events based on EEG data by characterizing the data using EEG optical flow, which is designed to preserve multimodal EEG information in a uniform representation. Second, we design a deep transfer learning framework which is suitable for transferring knowledge by joint training, which contains a adversarial network and a special loss function. The experiments demonstrate that our approach, when applied to EEG classification tasks, has many advantages, such as robustness and accuracy.
Autophagy receptor optineurin promotes autophagosome formation by potentiating LC3-II production and phagophore maturation

ABSTRACT Autophagy is an essential physiological process that maintains cellular homeostasis by eliminating harmful protein aggregates, damaged organelles and certain pathogens through lysosomal degradation. During autophagy specialized structures, known as autophagosomes are formed that recruit the cargo through autophagy receptors, and deliver it to lysosomes. Optineurin (Optn) is an autophagy receptor that mediates cargo selective autophagy. Recently, we have identified a novel function of Optn that promotes autophagosome formation during non-selective autophagy. Optn-deficient cells show reduced formation of autophagosomal protein LC3-II and lower number of autophagosomes as well as autolysosomes. Interestingly, formation of phagophores is increased in Optn-deficient cells. This suggests that Optn promotes autophagosome formation by potentiating LC3-II production and phagophore maturation. Phosphorylation of Optn at Ser-177 is required for promoting autophagosome formation. Here, we discuss various aspects of the role of Optn in the formation of autophagosomes and Atg16L1-positive vesicles. We also discuss the potential role of Rab1a-Optn interaction.
An evaluation of crude palm oil (CPO) and tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) of palm oil as percutaneous permeation enhancers using full-thickness human skin

Abstract The drawbacks associated with chemical skin permeation enhancers such as skin irritation and toxicity necessitated the research to focus on potential permeation enhancers with a perceived lower toxicity. Crude palm oil (CPO) is obtained by direct compression of the mesocarp of the fruit of the oil palm belonging to the genus Elaeis. In this research, CPO and tocotrienol-rich fraction (TRF) of palm oil were evaluated for the first time as skin permeation enhancers using full-thickness human skin. The in vitro permeation experiments were conducted using excised human skin mounted in static upright ‘Franz-type’ diffusion cells. The drugs selected to evaluate the enhancing effects of these palm oil derivatives were 5-fluorouracil, lidocaine and ibuprofen: compounds covering a wide range of Log p values. It was demonstrated that CPO and TRF were capable of enhancing the percutaneous permeation of drugs across full-thickness human skin in vitro. Both TRF and CPO were shown to significantly enhance the permeation of ibuprofen with flux values of 30.6 µg/cm2 h and 23.0 µg/cm2 h respectively, compared to the control with a flux of 16.2 µg/cm2 h. The outcome of this research opens further scope for investigation on the transdermal penetration enhancement activity of pure compounds derived from palm oil. Graphical Abstract
Clinical spectrum, susceptibility profile, treatment and outcome of culture-confirmed brucellosis from South India

Brucellosis, a common zoonosis, is under reported in India despite its endemicity and increased exposure to livestock among the population. This study was conducted to determine the clinical manifestations, antibiotic susceptibility pattern, treatment and outcome of culture confirmed brucellosis. Adult patients with culture confirmed brucellosis who presented to a large teaching hospital in South India between 2009 and 2015 were included. A diagnosis of brucellosis was confirmed on automated culture. Clinical profile, laboratory parameters, drug susceptibility, treatment and outcome were documented by reviewing the medical records. The cohort comprised of 22 patients with mean ± SD age of 42 ± 13 years. Twenty one (95.5%) was male. Thirteen (59%) patients were from rural area and risk of acquisition of brucellosis including occupational exposure or consumption of unpasteurized milk was evident in 16 (72.7%) patients. The mean duration of symptoms before presentation was 54.5 ± 52 days. The commonest clinical presentation was prolonged fever without a definite focus in 18 patients (82%), whereas 2 (9%) patients had osteoarticular involvement and one patient (4.5%) each had genital involvement and endocarditis. Eighteen patients (82%) with uncomplicated brucellosis were treated with aminoglycoside and doxycycline for 6 weeks. There was no relapse or mortality at 18 ± 9 months of follow up. Brucellosis in this cohort had acute or subacute presentation with prolonged fever and bacteremia. High index of clinical suspicion based on significant epidemiological history along with automated blood culture improves the efficiency of diagnosis. Cure with lack of relapse among these cases suggests a combination therapy with doxycycline and aminoglycoside is highly effective for the treatment.
Leaf Amino Acid Supply Affects Photosynthetic and Plant Nitrogen Use Efficiency under Nitrogen Stress1[OPEN]

Enhancing amino acid allocation to leaves represents an effective strategy for improving photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency and oilseed yields in Arabidopsis thaliana under reduced nitrogen input. The coordinated distribution of nitrogen to source leaves and sinks is essential for supporting leaf metabolism while also supplying sufficient nitrogen to seeds for development. This study aimed to understand how regulated amino acid allocation to leaves affects photosynthesis and overall plant nitrogen use efficiency in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and how soil nitrogen availability influences these processes. Arabidopsis plants with a knockout of AAP2, encoding an amino acid permease involved in xylem-to-phloem transfer of root-derived amino acids, were grown in low-, moderate-, and high-nitrogen environments. We analyzed nitrogen allocation to shoot tissues, photosynthesis, and photosynthetic and plant nitrogen use efficiency in these knockout plants. Our results demonstrate that, independent of nitrogen conditions, aap2 plants allocate more nitrogen to leaves than wild-type plants. Increased leaf nitrogen supply positively affected chlorophyll and Rubisco levels, photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, and carbon assimilation and transport to sinks. The aap2 plants outperformed wild-type plants with respect to growth, seed yield and carbon storage pools, and nitrogen use efficiency in both high and deficient nitrogen environments. Overall, this study demonstrates that increasing nitrogen allocation to leaves represents an effective strategy for improving carbon fixation and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency. The results indicate that an optimized coordination of nitrogen and carbon partitioning processes is critical for high oilseed production in Arabidopsis, including in plants exposed to limiting nitrogen conditions.