Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medicinal clays improve the endurance of loaded inspiratory muscles in COPD: a randomized clinical trial of nonpharmacological treatment

Background: Inspiratory resistive breathing (IRB) challenges affect respiratory muscle endurance in healthy individuals, which is considered to be an interleukin 6 (IL-6)–dependent mechanism. Whether nonpharmacological thermal therapies promote the endurance of loaded inspiratory muscles in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unclear. The objectives of this study were to compare the effects of two thermal interventions on endurance time (ET) and plasma IL-6 concentration following an IRB challenge. Methods: This study was a randomized, parallel-group, unblinded clinical trial in a single-center setting. Forty-two patients (aged 42–76 years) suffering from mild to severe COPD participated in this study. Both groups completed 12 sessions of the mud bath therapy (MBT) (n = 22) or leisure thermal activity (LTA) (n = 19) in a thermal spa center in Italy. Pre- and postintervention spirometry, maximum inspiratory pressure, and plasma mediators were obtained and ET and endurance oxygen expenditure (VO 2Endur ) were measured following IRB challenge at 40% of maximum inspiratory pressure. Results: There was no difference in Δ IL-6 between the intervention groups. But, IRB challenge increased cytokine IL-6 plasma levels systematically. The effect size was small. A statistically significant treatment by IRB challenge effect existed in ET, which significantly increased in the MBT group ( P = 0.003). In analysis of covariance treatment by IRB challenge analysis with LnVO 2Endur as the dependent variable, Δ IL-6 after intervention predicted LnVO 2Endur in the MBT group, but not in the LTA group. Adverse events occurred in two individuals in the MBT group, but they were mainly transient. One patient in the LTA group dropped out. Conclusion: MBT model improves ET upon a moderate IRB challenge, indicating the occurrence of a training effect. The LnVO 2Endur / Δ IL-6 suggests a physiologic adaptive mechanism in respiratory muscles of COPD patients allocated to treatment. Both thermal interventions are safe.
UHF wind profiler observations of monsoon low level jet over Pune

Data from a UHF (404 MHz) wind profiler during the active monsoon periods in 2003, 2004 and 2005 have been analyzed. Details of July 2003 as representative have been presented, which clearly show existence of jet stream over the wind profiler site at Pune (18.3 Â°N, 73.5 Â°E) throughout the day and night. The paper presents observed occurrence statistics of low level jet (LLJ) during monsoon month of July 2003. Wind speeds in excess of 20 ms-1 are frequently observed during active monsoon phase and peak found around a height of 2-3 km. Wind speed then decreases on either side of the peak without more than 40Â° change in the prevailing wind directions. The evolution of monsoon LLJ, particularly its diurnal variation and its difference with respect to nocturnal LLJ phenomenon have been brought out. The observed vertical velocities are predominantly upward, up to 4 km in the presence of LLJ with mean downward momentum flux. This upward directed clear air vertical velocities probably help in developing convective systems. The energy dissipation rates are also estimated and shown to be maximum near the LLJ height.
Plasma concentrations and dosing of 2 long-acting injectable formulations of aripiprazole

: Maintaining therapeutic plasma concentrations of an antipsychotic agent is essential in preventing relapse of symptoms in schizophrenia. Long-acting injectable (LAI) formulations provide extended exposure to antipsychotic therapy and have been useful in address-ing treatment nonadherence. Aripiprazole is an atypical antipsychotic used in the treatment of schizophrenia and is available in 2 chemically different (aripiprazole monohydrate and aripiprazole lauroxil [AL]) and pharmaceutically different LAI formulations (aripiprazole once-monthly 400 mg [AOM 400] and AL). The pharmaceutical difference is that AL, unlike AOM 400, is a prodrug that requires additional metabolic steps to form the active drug aripiprazole. We present data demonstrating that aripiprazole plasma concentrations are similar for AOM 400 and the 882 mg dose of AL when administered once every 4 weeks and that both provide similar therapeutic plasma concentrations of aripiprazole when compared with therapeutic oral doses.
Genome-to-genome analysis highlights the impact of the human innate and adaptive immune systems on the hepatitis C virus

Outcomes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and treatment depend on viral and 51 host genetic factors. We use human genome-wide genotyping arrays and new 52 whole-genome HCV viral sequencing technologies to perform a systematic genome- 53 to-genome study of 542 individuals chronically infected with HCV, predominately 54 genotype 3. We show that both HLA alleles and interferon lambda innate immune 55 system genes drive viral genome polymorphism, and that IFNL4 genotypes 56 determine HCV viral load through a mechanism that is dependent on a specific 57 polymorphism in the HCV polyprotein. We highlight the interplay between innate 58 immune responses and the viral genome in HCV control. generated data a cohort of 601 infected patients the BOSON 21 clinical to systematically look for associations between host and virus genomes, exploiting the fact that while host genetics remain fixed, the virus mutates, allowing it to evolve during infection. For this we developed targeted viral enrichment 22,23 to obtain whole HCV genomes, and used high-throughput genotyping arrays in combination with statistical imputation to obtain data on HLA alleles 24,25 and nucleotide polymorphisms across the human genome. We provide evidence that polymorphisms relevant to the innate ( IFNL4 ) and adaptive immune systems (HLA genes) are associated with HCV sequence polymorphisms. We show that an interaction between host IFNL4 genotypes and a viral site in the NS5A protein determines HCV viral load. By assessing viral evolution in individuals with different IFNL4 genotypes, we highlight systematic differences in the innate immune response and discuss how these might relate to previous associations with spontaneous clearance and clinical treatment. We demonstrate the potential for a joint analysis of and genomic data to provide information on underlying molecular and their importance in treating and preventing HCV, and other viral in the era of genomic analysis.
Clinical course of thyroid function and thyroid associated-ophthalmopathy in patients with euthyroid graves’ disease

Background: Euthyroid Graves’ disease (EGD) is a rare condition defined as the presence of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) in patients with normal thyroid function. Due to the rarity of this disease, only a limited number of studies and case reports are available for further evaluation of the characteristics of the disease. The aim of this study was to examine the changes in the thyroid function, thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAb) and eye symptoms, and then determine whether TRAb is related to TAO in EGD patients. TRAb in this study was defined as including both thyrotropin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin (TBII) and thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin (TSAb). Patients and methods: Medical records of patients diagnosed with EGD were reviewed. Ophthalmologists specializing in TAO examined the eyes of all subjects. Results: Of the 58 patients diagnosed with EGD, 24.1% developed hyperthyroidism, while 3.4% developed hypothyroidism. A total of 72.4% of the 58 patients remained euthyroid throughout the entire follow-up period. At the initial presentation, TBII and TSAb were positive in 74.5% and 70.5%, respectively. Ophthalmic treatments were administered to 30 (51.7%) out of the 58 patients. A significant spontaneous improvement of the eye symptoms was found in 28 of the EGD patients who did not require eye treatments. EGD patients exhibited positive rates for both TBII and TSAb, with the number of the TRAb-positive patients gradually decreasing while the eye symptoms spontaneously improved over time. There were no correlations found between TRAb at initial presentation and the eye symptoms. Conclusion: TBII and TSAb were positive in about 70% of EGD patients at their initial visit. Thyroid functions of EGD patients who have been euthyroid for more than 6.7 years may continue to remain euthyroid in the future. Key include: Optometry; Visual science; Pharmacology and drug therapy in eye diseases; Basic Sciences; Primary and Secondary eye care; Patient and
SecA mediates cotranslational targeting and translocation of an inner membrane protein

vitro reconstitution and in vivo targeting assays show that SecA is necessary and sufficient to direct the targeting and translocation of RodZ to the bacterial plasma membrane in an obligatorily cotranslational mechanism. Sequence elements upstream and downstream of the RodZ transmembrane domain dictate nascent polypeptide selection by SecA instead of the SRP machinery. These findings identify a new route for the targeting of inner membrane proteins in bacteria and highlight the diversity of targeting pathways that enables an organism to accommodate diverse nascent proteins.
The Equity Premium

We estimate the equity premium using dividend and earnings growth rates to measure the expected rate of capital gain. Our estimates for 1951 to 2000, 2.55 percent and 4.32 percent, are much lower than the equity premium produced by the average stock return, 7.43 percent. Our evidence suggests that the high average return for 1951 to 2000 is due to a decline in discount rates that produces a large unexpected capital gain. Our main conclusion is that the average stock return of the last half-century is a lot higher than expected.
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report 313 Average Debt and Equity Returns: Puzzling?

Mehra and Prescott (1985) found the difference between average equity and debt returns puzzling because it was too large to be a premium for bearing nondiversifiable aggregate risk. Here, we reexamine this puzzle, taking into account some factors ignored by Mehra and Prescott–taxes, regulatory constraints, and diversification costs–and focusing on long-term rather than short-term savings instruments. Accounting for these factors, we find the difference between average equity and debt returns during peacetime in the last century is less than 1 percent, with the average real equity return somewhat under 5 percent, and the average real debt return almost 4 percent. As theory predicts, the real return on debt has been close to the 4 percent average after-tax real return on capital. Similarly, as theory predicts, the real return on equity is equal to the after-tax real return on capital plus a modest premium for bearing nondiversifiable aggregate risk. for their helpful comments. We also thank the NSF for financial support. For a more detailed version of the paper and the data used in this study, see The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis or the Federal Reserve System.
Matern et During Pregnancy and Lactation has Opposite Effects on Gonadal Expression of Leptin and Leptin Receptor in Rat Dams and Their Offspring

Leptin, predominantly produced by adipose tissue, was first explored as a satiety signal regulating food intake and energy expenditure. Leptin binds to the long-form of the leptin receptor (ObRb) in the hypothalamus, to reduce neuropeptide-Y (NPY) and agouti-regulated protein (AgRP) activity, increasing pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) and cocaineand amphetamine related protein (CART) neuron activity, thus effectively reducing appetite and feed intake [1, 2]. Studies in rats show that a high-fat (HF) diet during pregnancy and lactation has a marked impact on offspring body composition, risk of metabolic syndrome, dysfunction of reproduction [3, 4], and the development of obesity in both early life and adulthood [5]. Maternal HF diet consumption increased abdominal fat in dams at the end of the lactation period associated with increased leptin plasma levels, while fasting plasma insulin concentration was increased [6]. In the offspring of these dams, the plasma leptin concentration was higher than that in the control rats in adulthood [6]. Our previously published study documented that a maternal HF diet changed steroid hormone secretion and other adipokine such as adiponectin parallel with opposite effect of maternal HF diet on gonadal adiponectin expression in female and male offspring: lowMatern et During Pregnancy and Lactation has Opposite Effects on Gonadal Expression of Leptin and Leptin Receptor in Rat Dams and Their Offspring
Does COPD risk vary by ethnicity? a retrospective cross-sectional study

Background: Lower risk of COPD has been reported in black and Asian people, raising ques-tions of poorer recognition or reduced susceptibility. We assessed prevalence and severity of COPD in ethnic groups, controlling for smoking. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study using routinely collected primary care data in London. COPD prevalence, severity (% predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV 1 ]), smoking status, and treatment were compared between ethnic groups, adjusting for age, sex, smoking, deprivation, and practice clustering. Results: Among 358,614 patients in 47 general practices, 47.6% were white, 20% black, and 5% Asian. Prevalence of COPD was 1.01% overall, 1.55% in whites, 0.58% in blacks, and 0.78% in Asians. COPD was less likely in blacks (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.44; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39–0.51) and Asians (0.82; CI, 0.68–0.98) than whites. Black COPD patients were less likely to be current smokers (OR, 0.56; CI, 0.44–0.71) and more likely to be never-smokers (OR, 4.9; CI, 3.4–7.1). Treatment of patients with similar disease severity was similar irrespective of ethnic origin, except that long-acting muscarinic antagonists were prescribed less in black COPD patients (OR, 0.53; CI, 0.42–0.68). Black ethnicity was a predictor of poorer lung function (% predicted FEV 1 : B coefficient, - 7.6; P , 0.0001), an effect not seen when ethnic-specific predicted FEV 1 values were used. Conclusion: Black people in London were half as likely as whites to have COPD after adjusting for lower smoking rates in blacks. It seems likely that the differences observed were due either to ethnic differences in the way cigarettes were smoked or to ethnic differences in susceptibility to COPD.
Lexical Access in the Processing of Word Boundary Ambiguity

Language ambiguity results from, among other things, the vagueness of the syntactic structure of phrases and whole sentences. Numerous types of syntactic ambiguity are associated with the placement of the phrase boundary. A special case of the segmentation problem is the phenomenon of word boundary ambiguities; in spoken natural language words coalesce, making it possible to interpret them in different ways (e.g., a name vs. an aim). The purpose of the study was to verify whether the two meanings of words with boundary ambiguities are activated, or whether it is a case of semantic context priming. The study was carried out using the cross-modality semantic priming paradigm. Sentences containing phrases with word boundary ambiguities were presented in an auditory manner to the participants. Immediately after, they performed a visual lexical decision task. Results indicate that both meanings of the ambiguity are automatically activated — independently of the semantic context. When discussing the results I refer to the autonomous and interactive models of parsing, and show other possible areas of research concerning word boundary ambiguities.
Syddansk Universitet The association between Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination ( 1331 SSI ) skin reaction and subsequent scar development in infants

Background: The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) against tuberculosis is administered intradermally, and vaccination is often followed by a scar at the injection site. Among BCG-vaccinated individuals, having a scar has been associated with lower mortality. We aimed to examine the impact of vaccination technique for scarring in a high income setting, by assessing the associations between the post injection reaction, the wheal size, and the probability of developing a scar, and scar size. Methods: This study was nested within a clinical multicenter study randomizing 4262 infants to either BCG vaccination (BCG 1331 SSI) or no intervention. In this substudy, including 492 vaccinated infants, the immediate post BCG vaccination reaction was registered as either wheal (a raised, blanched papule at the injection site), bulge (a palpable element at the injection site), or no reaction. The presence or absence of a BCG scar and the size the scar was measured at 13 months of age. Results: Of 492 infants included, 87% had a wheal after vaccination, 11% had a bulge, and 2% had no reaction. The mean wheal size was 3.8 mm (95% confidence interval 3.7–3.9). Overall, 95% (442/466, 26 lost to follow-up) of BCG-vaccinated infants had a scar at 13 months of age. In infants with a wheal, the probability of developing a scar was 96%, declining to 87% in the case of a bulge, and to 56% in the case of no reaction (p for same probability = 0.03). Wheal size was positively correlated with the probability of getting a scar and scar size. Conclusion: Scarring after BCG vaccination has been associated with lower infant mortality. In a high-income setting, we found that correct injection technique is highly important for the development of a BCG scar and that registration of the category of BCG skin reaction (as wheal, bulge, or no reaction) may be used to identify infants at risk of scar failure. Finally, the wheal size was positively associated with both the probability of getting a scar and scar size. Trial registration: The study was registered at www.ClinicalTrials. gov with trial registration number NCT01694108. * Correspondence: sdn@dadlnet.dk Department of Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Birk et al. BMC Infectious Diseases (2017) 17:540 DOI 10.1186/s12879-017-2641-0
The Routledge handbook of language and identity

This book is a true intellectual treat! It contemplates language from a refreshingly new perspective (or, perhaps more appropriately, a range of new perspectives), more in tune with our fast-changing world, one where the question of identity has become more of a hard nut to crack than something one could blithely take for granted, as one used to until not very long ago. This is because identities, whether of persons or of the languages they speak, have become more and more complex and difficult to pin down, thanks to the growing cross-fertilization of cultures as a direct consequence of globalization and unprecedented connectivity amongst peoples. Siân Preece, the editor of the volume, has assembled a veritable galaxy of prominent scholars and pioneering researchers in this cutting edge area of investigation. She announces at the outset of her Introduction: “This Handbook is about identity and its relationship with language. ” I must enter here an important caveat, though: what excited me most about the book was the fact that, to my mind, this collection of 37 scholarly articles is primarily about the phenomenon of language and how it is viscerally tied to the whole question of who we are, or better still, what we understand ourselves to be. Not the other way around, as the editor’s actual wording in that crisp sentence might lead someone to think. Maybe I am being nitpicky here, but I would insist that the point is far from being trivial. It is all a question of what you choose to focus on. Luckily, besides the very title of the volume, a number of chapter headings too (to wit: ‘Language and ethnic identity,’ ‘Language, race and identity,’ ‘Language and gender identities,’ and so forth, all randomly picked up) right the tilt and turn the spotlight onto language. Another important issue I would like to raise right away is that the reflections that the authors present in this volume are just as important to theoretical linguistics as they are to the sub-field of applied linguistics, a fact somehow blurred by claims such as:
Using photographs and deep neural networks to understand flowering phenology and diversity in mountain meadows

Mountain meadows are an essential part of the alpine-subalpine ecosystem; they provide ecosystem services like pollination and are home to diverse plant communities. Changes in climate affect meadow ecology on multiple levels, for example by altering growing season dynamics. Tracking the effects of climate change on meadow diversity through the impacts on individual species and overall growing season dynamics is critical to conservation efforts. Here, we explore how to combine crowd sourced camera images with machine learning to quantify flowering species richness across a range of elevations in alpine meadows located in Mt Rainier National Park, Washington, USA. We employed three machine learning techniques (Mask R-CNN, RetinaNet and YOLOv5) to detect wildflower species in images taken during two flowering seasons. We demonstrate that deep learning techniques can detect multiple species, providing information on flowering richness in photographed meadows. The results indicate higher richness just above the tree line for most of the species, which is comparable with patterns found using field studies. We found that the two-stage detector Mask R-CNN was more accurate than single-stage detectors like RetinaNet and YOLO, with the Mask R-CNN network performing best overall with mean average precision (mAP) of 0.67 followed by RetinaNet (0.5) and YOLO (0.4). We found that across the methods using anchor box variations in multiples of 16 led to enhanced accuracy. We also show that detection is possible even when pictures are interspersed with complex backgrounds and are not in focus. We found differential detection rates depending on species abundance, with additional challenges related to similarity in flower characteristics, labeling errors, and occlusion issues. Despite these potential biases and limitations in capturing flowering abundance and location-specific quantification, accuracy was notable considering the complexity of flower types and picture angles in this data set. We therefore expect that this approach can be used to address many ecological questions that benefit from automated flower detection, including studies of flowering phenology and floral resources, and that this approach can therefore complement a wide range of ecological approaches (e.g., field observations, experiments, community science, etc.). In all, our study suggests that ecological metrics like floral richness can be efficiently monitored by combining machine learning with easily accessible publicly curated datasets (e.g., Flickr, iNaturalist).
Individual variability in response to renin angiotensin aldosterone system inhibition predicts cardiovascular outcome in patients with type 2 diabetes: A primary care cohort study

To assess variability in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and albuminuria (urinary albumin creatinine ratio [UACR]) responses in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus initiating renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibition, and to assess the association of response variability with cardiovascular outcomes.