Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CD8(+) T cells that produce interleukin-17 regulate myeloid-derived suppressor cells and are associated with survival time of patients with gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND & AIMS CD8(+) T cells that produce interleukin (IL)-17 (Tc17 cells) promote inflammation and have been identified in tumors. We investigated their role in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. METHODS We used flow cytometry analyses to determine levels and phenotype of Tc17 cells in blood and tumor samples from 103 patients with gastric cancer. We performed multivariate analysis to identify factors associated with overall survival using the Cox proportional hazards model. CD8(+) T cells and monocytes were isolated and cocultured in an assay for induction of Tc17 cells. Tumor cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) were isolated and used in assays of Tc17 cell function. RESULTS Tc17 cells with distinct cytokine and functional profiles were found in gastric tumor samples from patients. The percentage of Tc17 cells increased with tumor progression and was associated with overall survival time. Tumor-activated monocytes secreted IL-6, IL-1β, and IL-23, which promoted development of Tc17 cell populations. Supernatants from cultured Tc17 cells induced production of the chemokine CXCL12 by tumor cells; this promoted CXCR4-dependent migration of MDSCs and impaired functions of anti-tumor CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells via a cell contact-dependent mechanism. CONCLUSIONS Percentages of Tc17 cells in gastric tumors are associated with survival times of patients. These cells promote chemotaxis of MDSCs, which might promote tumor progression.
Increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome in non-obese asian Indian-an urban-rural comparison.

BACKGROUND In the present study we evaluated the association of insulin resistance (IR) with different components of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) in an Asian Indian population, and performed a comparative study between urban and rural populations of India. METHODS A Total of 267 urban men and women aged 25-70 years participated in this study. RESULTS were compared with rural data from a previously published study. Fasting serum insulin, uric acid, and lipid profile were measured along with fasting and 2 hour plasma glucose. Association of MS and IR was studied by using univariate regression analysis. RESULTS Prevalence of MS was significantly higher in the urban population compared to that of the rural population (35.2% vs 20.6%, chi(2) = 23.2, p < 0.001). Calculated insulin resistence (HOMA-IR) was common in MS group of both populations. Percentage prevalence of IR was high and almost the same in both population (42%). Percentage prevalence of abdominal obesity and hypertriglyceridemia was significantly higher in the urban population compared to the rural population. Linear regression analysis of IR significantly correlated with different components of MS of both the population. CONCLUSIONS The significant finding of the present study was that the rural population exhibited a high prevalence of MS and IR, though nonobese. IR correlated with components of MS not only in the urban but also in the rural population. To reduce the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in our populations, early identification of populations at risk based on prevalence of MS and IR will become of prime importance.
The ubiquitous self: what the properties of self‐bias tell us about the self

People show systematic biases in perception, memory, and attention to favor information related to themselves over information related to other people. Researchers have examined these biases in order to throw light on the nature of the self. We review this evidence in memory, face recognition, and simple perceptual matching tasks through objective measures of self‐biases. We argue that the self serves as a stable anchor across different forms of judgment and that referring a stimulus to ourselves enhances the binding of stimulus features at different stages of processing (e.g., in perception and in memory) and also the binding between processing stages. There is neural evidence that self‐biases reflect an underlying neural network that interacts with but is independent of attentional control networks in the brain, and that damage to the self‐related network disrupts the bias effects. We discuss the implications for understanding the nature of the self.
Metabolically healthy obesity across the life course: epidemiology, determinants, and implications

In recent years, different subphenotypes of obesity have been described, including metabolically healthy obesity (MHO), in which a proportion of obese individuals, despite excess body fat, remain free of metabolic abnormalities and increased cardiometabolic risk. In the absence of a universally accepted set of criteria to classify MHO, the reported prevalence estimates vary widely. Our understanding of the determinants and stability of MHO over time and the associated cardiometabolic and mortality risks is improving, but many questions remain. For example, whether MHO is truly benign is debatable, and whether risk stratification of obese individuals on the basis of their metabolic health status may offer new opportunities for more personalized approaches in diagnosis, intervention, and treatment of diabetes remains speculative. Furthermore, as most of the research to date has focused on MHO in adults, little is known about childhood MHO. In this review, we focus on the epidemiology, determinants, stability, and health implications of MHO across the life course.
Skeletal Muscle as a Metabolic Target for Growth Hormone

Skeletal muscle is the major constituent of lean body mass and a major determinant of energy expenditure, both at rest and during physical activity. Growth hormone (GH), in turn, influences muscle mass as well as energy expenditure. GH substitution in adults increases muscle mass by 5–10%, but part of this is attributed to rehydration. In addition, GH increases resting energy expenditure independently of muscle mass, via mechanisms that may include increased conversion of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) to tri-iodothyronine (T3) and stimulation of skeletal muscle blood flow. In addition, GH regulates substrate metabolism in muscle and, in particular, antagonizes insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. This effect is linked to increased free fatty acid flux, but the molecular mechanisms remain unclear. During fasting, GH-induced insulin resistance may be favourable by reducing the demand for gluconeogenesis from protein. In the postprandial phase, however, GH exposure may compromise glucose tolerance via the same mechanisms. Understanding the mechanisms by which GH antagonizes insulin-stimulated glucose disposal in muscle is an important future research field, with implications for a variety of clinical conditions ranging from malnutrition to obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Multiparity and risk of metabolic syndrome: Isfahan Healthy Heart Program.

INTRODUCTION More than one third of Iranian adult women have the metabolic syndrome. We conducted this study to assess the effect of parity on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in analyses controlling for sociodemographic and reproductive variables as well as behavioral risk factors. METHODS We evaluated the relationship between number of children and metabolic syndrome in 6331 adult nonpregnant women >20 years of age. The data source for this study was Isfahan Healthy Heart Program (IHHP). Metabolic syndrome was defined according to Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III). RESULTS Overall, 34.2% of women met the criteria for metabolic syndrome. The number of children borne in women with metabolic syndrome was significantly higher than others (5.2 +/- 3.1 vs. 3.5 +/- 2.6; p < 0.0001). In logistic regression analyses, the odds of metabolic syndrome increased 24% (95% confidence interval [CI], 22-26%) with each additional child, but after adjustment for sociodemographic, reproductive, and behavioral characteristics, the odds of metabolic syndrome was attenuated (odds ratio [OR], 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00-1.06). Further adjustment for body mass index (BMI) yielded similar results (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.98-1.05). CONCLUSION A combination of lifestyle risk factors and/or biological changes associated with childbearing may explain the positive association between parity and increased risk of metabolic syndrome.
Dietary glycemic index and glycemic load are associated with metabolic control in type 2 diabetes: The CAPRI experience.

BACKGROUND The role of low-glycemic-index diets in the treatment of diabetes mellitus remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between the dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) with metabolic control in type 2 diabetic patients. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in 901 outpatients with type 2 diabetes attending diabetes clinics located in the area of the Campania County, South Italy, who provided complete home blood glucose profiles and centralized glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Dietary information was obtained using semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaires. HbA1c was assessed in the centralized laboratory while blood glucose profiles were assessed at home. RESULTS After adjustment for age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, medication use, prevalence of metabolic syndrome, hypertension, energy and fiber intake, dietary GI and GL were positively associated with HbA1c in a dose-dependent fashion (P for trend, 0.007 for GI and 0.02 for GL). Diabetic patients with the highest GI and GL had the highest HbA1c levels (difference 1%, P = 0.001). The difference in 1-h postmeal glucose levels at home between the highest and the lowest quintile of GI was 37 (15) [mean and standard deviation (SD)] mg/dL (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Diets low in GI and GL are associated with lower HbA1c and postmeal glucose levels in the everyday life of type 2 diabetic patients.
Pelvic Floor Muscle Training During Pregnancy and After Delivery

Objective: Female urinary incontinence is often considered a problem that occurs primarily during pregnancy and after childbirth. The aim of this article is to review the literature addressing pelvic floor muscle training in the prevention and treatment of urinary incontinence during pregnancy and after delivery. Method: Only full publications of prospective controlled studies were included. Urinary incontinence was the primary outcome variable and pelvic floor muscle training was the main intervention. Results: Four randomised controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effect of pelvic floor muscle training during pregnancy were found. Ten articles were identified addressing the effect of pelvic floor muscle training postpartum; seven of these presented RCTs, two presented matched controlled studies and a controlled study. Three were follow-up studies. The interventions included pelvic floor muscle training, however, various training protocols were used. All studies, except for two, reported statistically and clinically significant effects of the interventions, with a significant reduction in symptoms or frequency of urinary incontinence after the intervention period. No adverse effects of the interventions were reported. Conclusions: This review suggests that women should be encouraged to perform pelvic floor muscle training during pregnancy and postpartum to prevent and/or treat urinary incontinence.
Uncoupling protein-2 45-base pair insertion/deletion polymorphism: is there an association with severe obesity and weight loss in morbidly obese subjects?

BACKGROUND Uncoupling proteins are attractive candidate genes for obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our aim was to investigate the potential association of the uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2) 45-bp insertion/deletion (ins/del) polymorphism with obesity, as well as the potential effect of this polymorphism on weight loss variability in severely obese subjects. METHODS A total of 158 severely obese subjects (94 without and 64 with metabolic syndrome) and 91 age and sex-matched lean controls were recruited. A subgroup of 124 obese patients participated in a 3-month weight loss program. Anthropometric and metabolic variables were measured. Participants were genotyped for the UCP2 ins/del polymorphism. RESULTS Allelic frequency differed neither between obese subjects and controls (P=0.56), nor between obese subjects with versus without metabolic syndrome (P=0.58). At 3 months, metabolically healthy subjects carrying the insertion allele had significantly greater reduction in body mass index (P=0.029) and fat-free mass (P=0.013) and a borderline significant improvement in the homeostatic model assessment index (P=0.048). CONCLUSION There is no association of the UCP2 ins/del polymorphism with morbid obesity in our population, but this genotype appears to be linked with a favorable response to dietary changes in metabolically healthy obese subjects.
Approximating Quasistationary Distributions of Birth-Death Processes

For a sequence of finite state space birth–death processes, each having a single absorbing state, we show that, under certain conditions, as the size of the state space tends to infinity, the quasistationary distributions converge to the stationary distribution of a limiting infinite state space birth–death process. This generalizes a result of Keilson and Ramaswamy by allowing birth and death rates to depend upon the size of the state space. We give sufficient conditions under which the convergence result of Keilson and Ramaswamy remains valid. The generalization allows us to apply our convergence result to examples from population biology: a Pearl–Verhulst logistic population growth model and the susceptible-infective-susceptible (SIS) model for infectious spread. The limit distributions obtained suggest new finite-population approximations to the quasistationary distributions of these models, obtained by the method of cumulant closure. The new approximations are found to be both simple in form and accurate.
Where to attend next: guiding refreshing of visual, spatial, and verbal representations in working memory

One of the functions that attention may serve in working memory (WM) is boosting information accessibility, a mechanism known as attentional refreshing. Refreshing is assumed to be a domain‐general process operating on visual, spatial, and verbal representations alike. So far, few studies have directly manipulated refreshing of individual WM representations to measure the WM benefits of refreshing. Recently, a guided‐refreshing method was developed, which consists of presenting cues during the retention interval of a WM task to instruct people to refresh (i.e., attend to) the cued items. Using a continuous‐color reconstruction task, previous studies demonstrated that the error in reporting a color varies linearly with the frequency with which it was refreshed. Here, we extend this approach to assess the WM benefits of refreshing different representation types, from colors to spatial locations and words. Across six experiments, we show that refreshing frequency modulates performance in all stimulus domains in accordance with the tenet that refreshing is a domain‐general process in WM. The benefits of refreshing were, however, larger for visual–spatial than verbal materials.
Rates of childhood myopia progression as a function of type of astigmatism

This study examines the relation of rate of childhood myopia progression to the type of astigmatism exhibited. Longitudinal records of myopia progression were collected from five optometry practices in the USA. Patients were classified as having with‐the‐rule (WTR) astigmatism, zero astigmatism or against‐the‐rule (ATR) astigmatism. Rates of myopia progression for both principal meridians in the right eye were calculated by linear regression. Rates of myopia progression were not significantly different in the three astigmatism groups. Rates of astigmatism change were much less in magnitude than rates of myopia progression, but were significantly different in the three astigmatism groups. WTR astigmats are likely to change in the WTR direction, while ATR astigmats are likely to change in the ATR direction.
Association between serum vaspin level and metabolic syndrome in healthy Korean subjects.

BACKGROUND Visceral obesity is associated with insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Vaspin [visceral adipose tissue (VAT)-derived serpin] may be a novel adipokine related to obesity and its metabolic consequences. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among serum vaspin levels and VAT and the components of metabolic syndrome. METHODS A cross-sectional analysis of healthy men (n=97) and women (n=156) for clinical, laboratory, and anthropometric factors was undertaken. Serum vaspin levels were measured. Abdominal VAT and subcutaneous adipose tissue were measured by computed tomography. RESULTS Of 253 subjects, 47 (18%) had metabolic syndrome: 33 men (34%) and 14 women (9%). Serum vaspin concentration was significantly lower in men than in women and significantly lower in men with metabolic syndrome than in men without metabolic syndrome. Serum vaspin level tended to decrease with increasing number of metabolic syndrome components, and was negatively correlated with waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum triglyceride level, and abdominal VAT, but positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level. However, after adjustment for sex, this correlation disappeared. CONCLUSIONS Low serum vaspin levels are associated with male gender and metabolic syndrome, particularly in men, and with the majority of metabolic syndrome components.
Family‐based models for childhood‐obesity intervention: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Effective interventions are needed to address the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. In the past 35 years, family‐based approach has gradually developed as a preferred intervention. This review aimed to examine the methodological rigour and treatment effectiveness of family‐based interventions according to intervention types and theoretical orientations. A total of 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of family‐based lifestyle interventions for children and adolescents aged 2–19 years were included. The adapted Methodological Quality Rating Scales (MQRS) and a four‐grade qualitative scoring scheme were adopted to evaluate the methodological rigour and the effectiveness of treatment, respectively. The average MQRS score was 7.93 out of 14 points. Ten of the 15 RCTs had well aligned their research questions with appropriate research methods. The overall short‐term outcome of the15 RCTs were satisfactory with an average score of 3.1. Family‐based interventions rooted in behaviour theory achieved better results than those theoretically connected to family systems theory in terms of treatment effectiveness. Results suggest future studies to improve the methodological design and continue to explore the potential of the family systems approach.
CONTEXTUAL CORRELATES OF CHILD MALNUTRITION IN RURAL MAHARASHTRA

Summary This paper examines the role of observed contextual factors like topography, development and literacy on severe malnutrition among social groups in rural Maharashtra based on the Reproductive and Child Health District Level Household Survey (RCH-DLHS) Round II (2002–04) data. Multilevel modelling techniques were applied in order to examine the district-wise variations in severe malnutrition associated with the characteristics of the places (contextual effects), as the relationships with the type of people (compositional effects) have already been well established. The results show that developmental aspects such as road connectivity, community literacy, toilet facilities and household standard of living contribute positively to the status of severe malnutrition. Also, the scheduled tribe, aboriginal underprivileged group are more at risk of severe malnourishment due to a lack of proper development, poor awareness about maintaining and enhancing the nutritional value of food and lack of hygiene and sanitation as compared with the scheduled castes, another aboriginal group.
DOES FAMINE HAVE A LONG-TERM EFFECT ON COHORT MORTALITY? EVIDENCE FROM THE 1959–1961 GREAT LEAP FORWARD FAMINE IN CHINA

Summary Using retrospective individual mortality records of three cohorts of newborns (1954–1958, 1959–1962 and 1963–1967) from a large national fertility survey conducted in 1988 in China, this paper examines the effect of being conceived or born during the 1959–1961 Great Leap Forward Famine on postnatal mortality. The results show strong evidence of a short-term (period) effect of the famine, caused directly by starvation or severe malnutrition during the period of the famine. After controlling for period mortality fluctuation, however, the famine-born cohort does not show higher mortality than either the pre-famine or the post-famine cohort. Aggregate-level cross-temporal comparisons using published cohort population counts from China's 1982 Census, 1990 Census, 1995 micro-Census, 2000 Census and 2005 micro-Census lead to the same conclusion. The relevance of these new findings for the ‘fetal origins’ hypothesis and the selection effect hypothesis is discussed.
Will reducing sugar‐sweetened beverage consumption reduce obesity? Evidence supporting conjecture is strong, but evidence when testing effect is weak

We provide arguments to the debate question and update a previous meta‐analysis with recently published studies on effects of sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSBs) on body weight/composition indices (BWIs). We abstracted data from randomized controlled trials examining effects of consumption of SSBs on BWIs. Six new studies met these criteria: (i) human trials, (ii) ≥ 3 weeks duration, (iii) random assignment to conditions differing only in consumption of SSBs and (iv) including a BWI outcome. Updated meta‐analysis of a total of seven studies that added SSBs to persons’ diets showed dose‐dependent increases in weight. Updated meta‐analysis of eight studies attempting to reduce SSB consumption showed an equivocal effect on BWIs in all randomized subjects. When limited to subjects overweight at baseline, meta‐analysis showed a significant effect of roughly 0.25 standard deviations (more weight loss/less weight gain) relative to controls. Evidence to date is equivocal in showing that decreasing SSB consumption will reduce the prevalence of obesity. Although new evidence suggests that an effect may yet be demonstrable in some populations, the integrated effect size estimate remains very small and of equivocal statistical significance. Problems in this research area and suggestions for future research are highlighted.
Neonatal sterilization of rodents with steroid hormones.

5 day old male rats were injected with either 250 mg estradiol benzoate (EB) or 1000 mg of testosterone propionate (TP). At the age of 200 days each male was injected intravenously with 20 mcg Ci of tritiated 12 testosterone. The amounts circulating in plasma and incorporation into various tissues was measured 2 hours later. The specific activity of testesterone isolated from plasma of EB treated animals was 2.3 times higher than in control group and in TP treated animals 3.1 times higher. Tables index: 1) organ weights of 200 day old rats injected neonatally with steroid hormones 2) distribution of total radioactivity from intravenously given testosterone in various organs of 200 day old rats treated neonatally with steroid hormones 3) distribution of radioactivity between ether and water in extracts from various organs 4) crystallization of testosterone isolated from various tissues to constant specific activity 5) specific activity of testosterone isolated from various tissues 6) comparison of the specific activity of testosterone between control and treatment groups. The study concludes that treatment of male rats with androgens or estrogens may result in disturbances of enzymatic processes which direct biosynthesis and metabolism of testosterone.