Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Attitude of Medical Students in Paraguay Towards Homosexuality.

INTRODUCTION The attitude of medical students towards homosexuality may affect the quality of care for homosexual patients. This study aimed to describe the attitude of medical students at the National University of Asuncion, Paraguay towards homosexuality. METHODS This observational, cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2016 in consecutive medical students from the National University of Asunción (Santa Rosa del Aguaray branch), Paraguay. The 10-item attitude towards homosexuality scale (EAH-10) was used to assess participants' acceptance/ rejection of homosexuals as individuals, homosexuality as a sexual orientation, and public manifestations of homosexuality. RESULTS A total of 48 female and 29 male participants (mean age, 21 ± 2 years) were included. Most were Catholic (71.4%), followed by non-Catholic Christian (10.4%), agnostic (9.1%), atheist (2.6%), and other (6.5%). 71.4% reported having at least one homosexual friend. The mean EAH-10 score was 27.23 ± 9.379. 42.9% of participants were indifferent or undecided in their attitude towards homosexuality and 28.6% were discriminatory. Having homosexual friends was associated with a lower EAH-10 score (t = -3.447 [75], p = 0.001). CONCLUSION Education about health issues of homosexuals is needed for medical students in Paraguay.
False Beliefs and Confabulation Can Lead to Lasting Changes in Political Attitudes

In times of increasing polarization and political acrimony, fueled by distrust of government and media disinformation, it is ever more important to understand the cognitive mechanisms behind political attitude change. In two experiments, we present evidence that false beliefs about one’s own prior attitudes and confabulatory reasoning can lead to lasting changes in political attitudes. In Experiment 1 (N = 140), participants stated their opinions about salient political issues, and using the Choice Blindness Paradigm we covertly altered some of their responses to indicate an opposite position. In the first condition, we asked the participants to immediately verify the manipulated responses, and in the second, we also asked them to provide underlying arguments behind their attitudes. Only half of the manipulations were corrected by the participants. To measure lasting attitude change, we asked the participants to rate the same issues again later in the experiment, as well as one week after the first session. Participants in both conditions exhibited lasting shifts in attitudes, but the effect was considerably larger in the group that confabulated supporting arguments. We fully replicated these findings in Experiment 2 (N = 232). In addition, we found that participants’ analytical skill correlated with their correction of the manipulation, whereas political involvement did not. This study contributes to the understanding of how confabulatory reasoning and self-perceptive processes can interact in lasting attitude change. It also highlights how political expressions can be both stable in the context of everyday life, yet flexible when argumentative processes are engaged.
Thoracic Epidurals are Associated With Decreased Opioid Consumption Compared to Surgical Infiltration of Liposomal Bupivacaine Following Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery for Lobectomy: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis.

OBJECTIVE Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) is considered the gold standard for postoperative pain control in thoracic surgery, however it is associated with the undesirable risks of hypotension urinary retention, and bleeding. Recently, surgical site infiltration with liposomal bupivicaine (LB) has been suggested as a comparable alternative to TEA. The authors compared total opioid consumption in patients who received either TEA or LB undergoing video-assisted thorascopic surgery (VATS) for lobectomy. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING University hospital. PARTICIPANTS Patients undergoing VATS for lobectomy. INTERVENTIONS TEA versus LB MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome was POD 0 to 2 total opioid requirements, measured in intravenous morphine equivalents (mg). Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to calculate the significant differences in the primary outcome. The 25 - 75% interquartile range (IQR) was reported with each median value. Forty-five patients were included in the analysis, in which 14 (31.1%) were in the LB group. Between the TEA and LB group, there were no differences in age, sex, or body mass. The median (25 - 75% IQR) total opioid consumption during POD 0 - 2 in the TEA and LB group were 28.0 mg (12.0 - 52.0 mg) and 49.5 mg (35.0 - 70.5 mg), respectively (p = 0.03), in which the median difference was 22.5 mg (95% CI 0.60 - 38.0 mg). CONCLUSIONS VATs lobectomy patients consumed 43.4% less opioids on POD 0-2 with TEA when compared to surgical site infiltration of LB. Further prospective randomized controlled trials are required to demonstrate superior analgesia of TEA in this surgical population.
Inflammatory caspase-related pyroptosis: mechanism, regulation and therapeutic potential for inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract As an essential part of programmed cell death, pyroptosis is an inflammatory response that is elicited upon infection by intracellular pathogens. Metabolic diseases, atherosclerosis and vital organ damage occur if pyroptosis is over-activated. Macrophages are the main cells that induce pyroptosis with the help of intracellular pattern-recognition receptors stimulated by danger signals and pathogenic microorganisms in the cytosol of host cells. Activated inflammatory caspases induce pyroptosis and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1β and interleukin-18. Inflammatory programmed cell death is classified as canonical or non-canonical based on inflammatory caspases, which includes caspase-1 (in human and mouse) and caspase-11 (in mouse) or caspase-4 and -5 (in humans). Activated inflammatory caspases cleave the pore-forming effector protein, gasdermin-D, inducing osmotic pressure deregulation of internal fluids and subsequently rupturing the cell membranes. Inflammatory caspases could be attractive therapeutic targets for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in which pyroptosis may play an important role. This article reviews the current understanding of the mechanism of pyroptosis, focusing on the regulation of inflammatory caspases and therapeutic strategies for IBD.
Identification and Validation of Reference Genes for RT-qPCR Normalization in Mythimna separata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Mythimna separata is a major agricultural pest with seasonal migrating trait in China. Formation and regulation mechanism of migration behavior has resulted in a large number of fundamental researches involving quantitative studies of gene expression in this species. Using appropriate reference gene is critical in RT-qPCR data normalization. A comprehensive study on the reference genes in M. separata is lacking. In this paper, expression stabilities of ten candidate reference genes were evaluated in M. separata under various biotic and abiotic conditions by employing four different software geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and the comparative ΔCT method. The comprehensive stabilities ranking of these genes were suggested by RefFinder. PKG as a target gene was employed to justify the number of reference genes in four larval tissues and two photoperiod treatments. Results demonstrate that the first three most stable genes were as follows: EF, CypA, and β-TUB for developmental stages; EF, CypA, and RPL12 for larval tissues; EF, TBP, and β-TUB for adult tissues. RPL12, β-TUB, and EF for densities; EF, RPL12, and GAPDH for photoperiod treatments; β-TUB, EF, and ATPase for temperature treatments. Stable reference gene combinations may reduce bias in normalization. This work provides for the first time a comprehensive list of appropriate reference genes and facilitates future studies on gene function of M. separata.
Successful Treatment of Tumoral Calcinosis by Lanthanum Carbonate

Tumoral calcinosis (TC) is a rare benign but aggressive disorder with variable response rates and high recurrence rates despite medical or surgical treatments. We herein report a case of a 28-year-old woman with underlying systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who developed diffuse tumoral calcinosis that was successfully treated by lanthanum carbonate. The formation of tumoral calcinosis depends on the supersaturation of calcium and phosphate. Lanthanum carbonate not only has an excellent phosphate-lowering ability but also low gastro-intestinal calcium absorption. It can be considered an effective alternative treatment for tumoral calcinosis if surgical treatment is not feasible.
Characterization of pork patties containing dry radish (Raphanus sativus) leaf and roots

Objective This study investigated the effects of dry radish leaf and root on the quality of pork patties during refrigeration storage. Methods The patties were divided into the following three groups: the control containing 0% dry radish leaf root powder, RL1 containing 0.5% dry radish leaf root powder, and RL2 and RL3 containing 1% and 2% dry radish leaf root powder, respectively. Proximate composition, pH, cooking loss, microbial analysis, lipid oxidation analysis, color, texture profile analysis and sensory test were performed. Results Moisture, crude protein, and crude ash contents in RL2 and RL3 were significantly higher than those in other groups (p<0.05), whereas crude fat contents in RL2 and RL3 were significantly lower than other groups (p<0.05). Lightness was significantly lower in RL2 and RL3 than in CON (p<0.05). Cooking loss for RL2 and RL3 were significantly lower than those for the other groups (p<0.05). The pH, thiobarbituric acid levels, and total plate counts of RL2 and RL3 were significantly lower than those of CON at days 7 and 14 (p<0.05). Hardness values of RL2 and RL3 were significantly lower than those of CON, whereas chewiness values were higher than those of CON (p<0.05). In addition, the juiciness of RL2 were significantly greater (p<0.05) than those of the other groups. Conclusion Dried radish leaves and roots improved the proximate composition and quality characteristics of pork patties, providing a basis to produce high-quality patties with extended expiration dates. Thus, dried radish leaves and roots are effective ingredients for health or functional foods.
The roles of TNFAIP2 in cancers and infectious diseases

TNFα‐induced protein 2 (TNFAIP2) is a primary response gene of TNFα. TNFAIP2 is highly expressed in immune cells and the urinary bladder. The expression of TNFAIP2 is regulated by multiple transcription factors and signalling pathways, including NF‐κB, KLF5 and retinoic acid. Physiologically, TNFAIP2 appears to be a multiple functional mediator not only for inflammation, angiogenesis and tunneling nanotube (TNT) formation but also as a regulator of cell proliferation and migration. The expression of TNFAIP2 is frequently abnormal in human cancers and in infectious diseases. Due to its significant functions in cell proliferation, angiogenesis, migration and invasion, TNFAIP2 could be a potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for cancer.
Analysis of genetic characteristics of pig breeds using information on single nucleotide polymorphisms

Objective This study was undertaken to investigate the genetic characteristics of Berkshire (BS), Landrace (LR), and Yorkshire (YS) pig breeds raised in the Great Grandparents pig farms using the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) information. Methods A total of 25,921 common SNP genotype markers in three pig breeds were used to estimate the expected heterozygosity (HE), polymorphism information content, F-statistics (FST), linkage disequilibrium (LD) and effective population size (Ne). Results The chromosome-wise distribution of FST in BS, LR, and YS populations were within the range of 0–0.36, and the average FST value was estimated to be 0.07±0.06. This result indicated some level of genetic segregation. An average LD (r2) for the BS, LR, and YS breeds was estimated to be approximately 0.41. This study also found an average Ne of 19.9 (BS), 31.4 (LR), and 34.1 (YS) over the last 5th generations. The effective population size for the BS, LR, and YS breeds decreased at a consistent rate from 50th to 10th generations ago. With a relatively faster Ne decline rate in the past 10th generations, there exists possible evidence for intensive selection practices in pigs in the recent past. Conclusion To develop customized chips for the genomic selection of various breeds, it is important to select and utilize SNP based on the genetic characteristics of each breed. Since the improvement efficiency of breed pigs increases sharply by the population size, it is important to increase test units for the improvement and it is desirable to establish the pig improvement network system to expand the unit of breed pig improvement through the genetic connection among breed pig farms.
How do phenology, plasticity, and evolution determine the fitness consequences of climate change for montane butterflies?

Species have responded to climate change via seasonal (phenological) shifts, morphological plasticity, and evolutionary adaptation, but how these responses contribute to changes and variation in population fitness are poorly understood. We assess the interactions and relative importance of these responses for fitness in a montane butterfly, Colias eriphyle, along an elevational gradient. Because environmental temperatures affect developmental rates of each life stage, populations along the gradients differ in phenological timing and the number of generations each year. Our focal phenotype, wing solar absorptivity of adult butterflies, exhibits local adaptation across elevation and responds plastically to developmental temperatures. We integrate climatic data for the past half‐century with microclimate, developmental, biophysical, demographic, and evolutionary models for this system to predict how phenology, plasticity, and evolution contribute to phenotypic and fitness variation along the gradient. We predict that phenological advancements incompletely compensate for climate warming, and also influence morphological plasticity. Climate change is predicted to increase mean population fitness in the first seasonal generation at high elevation, but decrease mean fitness in the summer generations at low elevation. Phenological shifts reduce the interannual variation in directional selection and morphology, but do not have consistent effects on variation in mean fitness. Morphological plasticity and its evolution can substantially increase population fitness and adaptation to climate change at low elevations, but environmental unpredictability limits adaptive plastic and evolutionary responses at high elevations. Phenological shifts also decrease the relative fitness advantages of morphological plasticity and evolution. Our results illustrate how the potential contributions of phenological and morphological plasticity and of evolution to climate change adaptation can vary along environmental gradients and how environmental variability will limit adaptive responses to climate change in montane regions.
Asian American and Pacific Islander substance use treatment completion.

Mental health professionals and administrators work to improve substance use treatment for racially and ethnically diverse populations. However, a national comparison study of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and non-AAPIs substance use outpatient treatment completion has received little attention. The present study examined treatment completion by comparing AAPI clients to White and Latinx clients, and identified demographic and treatment-related moderating factors associated with treatment completion using discharge data from the Treatment Episode Data Sets-Discharge (TEDS-D). A retrospective analysis of AAPI treatment completion was conducted using logistic regression for the years 2006-2011 (N = 2,356,883). AAPIs were significantly more likely to complete treatment than non-AAPIs when controlling for all study variables in the multivariate model, Wald χ[1]2 = 158.60, p < . 001, AOR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.15-1.21. Additionally, we found a moderating effect (Wald χ[2]2 = 69.65, p < .001) with large effect sizes in treatment completion differences between the three comparison groups (AAPI, White, and Latinx). Results demonstrated AAPI clients are more likely to complete treatment than White and Latinx clients with small effect sizes. Additionally, being female, an adolescent, in school, living with parents or adult guardians, having more frequent substance use, and being admitted to treatment at younger age in the AAPI samples were associated with higher treatment completion percentages with clinically meaningful effect sizes. These findings may help to enhance and expand culturally competent psychological services to AAPIs at risk for substance use problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Piperlongumine inhibits angiotensin II‐induced extracellular matrix expression in cardiac fibroblasts

Piperlongumine (PL), a single component isolated from Piper longum, has been reported to possess anti‐inflammatory, antibacterial, antiangiogenic, antioxidant, antitumor, and antidiabetic activities. However, its role in cardiac fibrosis remains to be clarified. Therefore, we determined the effects of PL on cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) proliferation, and extracellular matrix (ECM) production under angiotensin II (Ang II) conditions, and further investigated the underlying molecular mechanism. Our data revealed that PL inhibited the proliferation and migration of CFs induced by Ang II. In addition, PL blocked the transformation of CFs to myofibroblasts induced by Ang II, as well as decreased cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and malondialdehyde level in Ang II‐stimulated CFs. Furthermore, PL significantly suppressed the Ang II‐increased phosphorylation of extracellular regulated protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) in CFs. Taken together, the results of the current study demonstrated that PL inhibits Ang II‐induced cell proliferation, migration, and ECM expression in CFs through the inactivation of the ERR1/2 signaling pathway. These data strongly suggest that PL may be a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of cardiac fibrosis.
Cardiovascular Safety of Lorcaserin in Overweight or Obese Patients

Background Lorcaserin, a selective serotonin 2C receptor agonist that modulates appetite, has proven efficacy for weight management in overweight or obese patients. The cardiovascular safety and efficacy of lorcaserin are undefined. Methods We randomly assigned 12,000 overweight or obese patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or multiple cardiovascular risk factors to receive either lorcaserin (10 mg twice daily) or placebo. The primary safety outcome of major cardiovascular events (a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke) was assessed at an interim analysis to exclude a noninferiority boundary of 1.4. If noninferiority was met, the primary cardiovascular efficacy outcome (a composite of major cardiovascular events, heart failure, hospitalization for unstable angina, or coronary revascularization [extended major cardiovascular events]) was assessed for superiority at the end of the trial. Results At 1 year, weight loss of at least 5% had occurred in 1986 of 5135 patients (38.7%) in the lorcaserin group and in 883 of 5083 (17.4%) in the placebo group (odds ratio, 3.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.74 to 3.30; P<0.001). Patients in the lorcaserin group had slightly better values with respect to cardiac risk factors (including blood pressure, heart rate, glycemic control, and lipids) than those in the placebo group. During a median follow‐up of 3.3 years, the rate of the primary safety outcome was 2.0% per year in the lorcaserin group and 2.1% per year in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.85 to 1.14; P<0.001 for noninferiority); the rate of extended major cardiovascular events was 4.1% per year and 4.2% per year, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.87 to 1.07; P=0.55). Adverse events of special interest were uncommon, and the rates were generally similar in the two groups, except for a higher number of patients with serious hypoglycemia in the lorcaserin group (13 vs. 4, P=0.04). Conclusions In a high‐risk population of overweight or obese patients, lorcaserin facilitated sustained weight loss without a higher rate of major cardiovascular events than that with placebo. (Funded by Eisai; CAMELLIA–TIMI 61 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02019264.)
Financial Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis using Deep Representations

The topic of aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) has been explored for a variety of industries, but it still remains much unexplored in finance. The recent release of data for an open challenge (FiQA) from the companion proceedings of WWW '18 has provided valuable finance-specific annotations. FiQA contains high quality labels, but it still lacks data quantity to apply traditional ABSA deep learning architecture. In this paper, we employ high-level semantic representations and methods of inductive transfer learning for NLP. We experiment with extensions of recently developed domain adaptation methods and target task fine-tuning that significantly improve performance on a small dataset. Our results show an 8.7% improvement in the F1 score for classification and an 11% improvement over the MSE for regression on current state-of-the-art results.
Spatio‐temporal connectivity and host resistance influence evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics of the canola pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans

Genetic, physiological and physical homogenization of agricultural landscapes creates ideal environments for plant pathogens to proliferate and rapidly evolve. Thus, a critical challenge in plant pathology and epidemiology is to design durable and effective strategies to protect cropping systems from damage caused by pathogens. Theoretical studies suggest that spatio‐temporal variation in the diversity and distribution of resistant hosts across agricultural landscapes may have strong effects on the epidemiology and evolutionary potential of crop pathogens. However, we lack empirical tests of spatio‐temporal deployment of host resistance to pathogens can be best used to manage disease epidemics and disrupt pathogen evolutionary dynamics in real‐world systems. In a field experiment, we simulated how differences in Brassica napus resistance deployment strategies and landscape connectivity influence epidemic severity and Leptosphaeria maculans pathogen population composition. Host plant resistance, spatio‐temporal connectivity [stubble loads], and genetic connectivity of the inoculum source [composition of canola stubble mixtures] jointly impacted epidemiology (disease severity) and pathogen evolution (population composition). Changes in population composition were consistent with directional selection for the ability to infect the host (infectivity), leading to changes in pathotype (multilocus phenotypes) and infectivity frequencies. We repeatedly observed decreases in the frequency of unnecessary infectivity, suggesting that carrying multiple infectivity genes is costly for the pathogen. From an applied perspective, our results indicate that varying resistance genes in space and time can be used to help control disease, even when resistance has already been overcome. Furthermore, our approach extends our ability to test not only for the efficacy of host varieties in a given year, but also for durability over multiple cropping seasons, given variation in the combination of resistance genes deployed.