Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mineral oil migration from paper-based packaging into food, investigated by means of food simulants and model substances

ABSTRACT Mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) are known to be mixtures of non-identified substances, which can migrate from, inter alia, recycled food packaging into food products. Such substances may have carcinogenic potential, which leads to a need to avoid their migration into food. In this article, we investigate the possible use of food simulants and model substances to simplify migration approaches. Tenax and Sorb-Star were chosen as simulant media. To stage the action of known components as a replacement for the migration of MOH, 16 single substances, including n-alkanes and aromatic compounds, were used. Kinetic studies were carried out at a maximum of 60°C with contact times of up to 14 days in touching contact with a medium or in gas-phase transfer to it. The results demonstrated that migration was predominantly a function of temperature, time and contact type, but it was also dependant on the molecular weight and polarity of the substances. Due to their low polarity, alkanes showed higher migration to the lipophilic food simulants than did pure aromatics without alkylation. Additionally, alkylated aromatics represent mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) more realistically. In contrast to Tenax in the gas-phase transition, Tenax in touching contact may lead to overestimated values at higher temperatures. Migration values for Sorb-Star are in similar regions for both contact types. However, the values of the touching contact experiments were slightly higher than those of the gas-phase transfer. The results for Sorb-Star and Tenax with transport solely over the gas phase are also in good agreement. Sorb-Star generally represents an optimal simulant for chunky foods, whereas Tenax seems a good simulant for food types with a high contact surface. Temperatures up to 40°C are appropriate for most types of migration experiments, whereas 60°C should only be used as an option for experiments with Sorb-Star. Graphical Abstract
Evaluation of the relationship between appearances of the lingual foramen on panoramic radiography and cone-beam computed tomography

Aim: The aim of this retrospective study is to determine the level of visibility of the lingual foramen in panoramic radiography using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) as a reference tool. Method: A total of 200 patients (111 females and 89 males) were included in the study. Cross-sectional CBCT images of the mandible in the midline were used to locate and define the orifice and diameter of each lingual canal that was detected. The appearance of the lingual foramen in the anterior mandible in panoramic radiography was assessed using a five-point ordinal scale. Descriptive statistics including tables and graphs were used. The correlation between CBCT and panoramic radiography findings were analyzed using Chi-square tests. Results: The lingual foramen was found to be located most frequently in the mandibular midline, above the genial tubercle (78.5%). A narrow-diameter type was found to occur most frequently (56.5%). A prominent genial tubercle was the most commonly found type (57.5%). The lingual foramen could be definitively identified in panoramic radiographs in only 8 cases (4%), while a high degree of probability was found in 25 cases (12.5%). The lingual foramen appears wider and therefore more distinctive in panoramic radiographs when the angulation of the lingual canal is less than 20° to the ground plane. Conclusions: Radiological evaluation with panoramic radiographs alone may lead to inadequate assessments prior to surgical procedures involving the anterior mandible. Clinicians may consider using three-dimensional imaging for procedures with a risk of hemorrhagic and neurosensory complications such as dental implant placement in the anterior mandible.
Exploration of Disparities in Regions and Specialized Fields of Day Surgery System

The main objective of this paper was to find similarities among eight Slovak regions from the viewpoint of five specialized day surgery fields and among specialized day surgery fields from the viewpoint of Slovak regions on the basis of day surgery operated and hospitalized patient counts. Day surgery data of paediatric patients and of adult patients from the National Health Information Centre during the years 2009–2017 were used. Correspondence analysis in two dimensions of the Slovak regions and of specialized day surgery fields was applied in order to achieve the paper’s objective. The Košice Region differs most from the overall national average in both groups of paediatric day surgery. This is caused by its largest proportions in the fields of Gynaecology (29.7%) and Urology (48.0%) (operated patients), and in the fields of Gynaecology (60.5%) and Surgery (21.6%) (hospitalized patients). The most different specialized day surgery fields from overall average are: Urology (operated paediatric patients), Gynaecology (hospitalized paediatric patients), Otorhinolaryngology (operated adult patients) and Ophthalmology (hospitalized adult patients). Urogenital system day surgery procedures (Gynaecology, Urology) are separated from other three fields (i.e., Surgery, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology) either in the first or in the second dimension of the singular value matrix decomposition.
Anatomy of brain lesions after stroke predicts effectiveness of mirror therapy

To improve clinical outcome, one longstanding goal in treating stroke patients has been an individual therapy based on functional and anatomical knowledge of the single patient. Therefore, in this study brain imaging of 36 chronic stroke patients was analyzed to identify parameters predicting clinical recovery. T1‐weighted MRI was acquired to assess the lesion; functional MRI was used to visualize existing resources; DTI for the integrity of the corticospinal tract (CST) and long association tracts. These data were related to the clinical course. All patients were treated intensively with the mirror therapy (MT) only. After the training period, we analyzed which patient's feature would predict a beneficial course. Patients as a group improved after MT, but according to the fMRI activation of primary sensorimotor cortex (SMC), they could be divided in two groups with very diverging clinical outcome: those with ipsilesional SMC activation showed a noticeable increase of clinical scores, accompanied with ipsilesional activation in the frontal projection areas of the dorsal and ventral streams during action observation in fMRI. Those with contralesional SMC activation had lesions affecting both the dorsal and ventral stream and did not benefit from MT. The outcome for this therapy was not related to affection of CST. This study demonstrates that only in patients in which dorsal and ventral streams are not affected and therefore an interaction between these streams in post‐ and prerolandic regions is possible, MT can induce clinical improvement. Consequently, knowledge of the anatomical lesion can predict the beneficial course of MT.
Synbiotics use for preventing sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis in very low birth weight neonates: a randomized controlled trial

Background Probiotics and prebiotics have strain-specific effects on the host. Synbiotics, a mixture of probiotics and prebiotics, are proposed to have more beneficial effects on the host than either agent has alone. Purpose We performed a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effect of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium together with oligosaccharides and lactoferrin on the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or sepsis in very low birth weight neonates. Methods Neonates with a gestational age ≤32 weeks and birth weight ≤1,500 g were enrolled. The study group received a combination of synbiotics and lactoferrin, whereas the control group received 1 mL of distilled water as placebo starting with the first feed until discharge. The outcome measures were the incidence of NEC stage ≥2 or late-onset cultureproven sepsis and NEC stage ≥2 or death. Results Mean birth weight and gestational age of the study (n=104) and the control (n=104) groups were 1,197±235 g vs. 1,151±269 g and 29±1.9 vs. 28±2.2 weeks, respectively (P>0.05). Neither the incidence of NEC stage ≥2 or death, nor the incidence of NEC stage ≥2 or late-onset culture-proven sepsis differed between the study and control groups (5.8% vs. 5.9%, P=1; 26% vs. 21.2%, P=0.51). The only significant difference was the incidence of all stages of NEC (1.9% vs. 10.6%, P=0.019). Conclusion The combination of synbiotics and lactoferrin did not reduce NEC severity, sepsis, or mortality.
Retrospective analysis of the association between tooth loss and dementia: a population-based matched case-control study.

OBJECTIVE To clarify the association between multiple tooth loss and dementia. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN Case-control study based on the claims data from National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Patients were divided into two groups: the dementia groups and non-dementia group. For each case patient, one control patient was randomly selected and frequency matched by age (per 5 years) and sex. The case group comprised patients newly diagnosed with dementia, and the index date was the the date of dementia diagnosis, which became the baseline for comorbidity and age calculations. RESULTS Among the 43,026 individuals, patients with dementia had a significantly higher extraction density at ages 60-69 (p ⟨ 0.0001) and 70-79 (p = 0.04) years compared with control patients. CONCLUSIONS This population-based retrospective study demonstrated an association between tooth loss and dementia. Patients in Taiwan with more tooth extraction experience are likely to have an increased risk of dementia.
Evaluation of Transfer Learning with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Screening Osteoporosis in Dental Panoramic Radiographs

Dental panoramic radiographs (DPRs) provide information required to potentially evaluate bone density changes through a textural and morphological feature analysis on a mandible. This study aims to evaluate the discriminating performance of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), employed with various transfer learning strategies, on the classification of specific features of osteoporosis in DPRs. For objective labeling, we collected a dataset containing 680 images from different patients who underwent both skeletal bone mineral density and digital panoramic radiographic examinations at the Korea University Ansan Hospital between 2009 and 2018. Four study groups were used to evaluate the impact of various transfer learning strategies on deep CNN models as follows: a basic CNN model with three convolutional layers (CNN3), visual geometry group deep CNN model (VGG-16), transfer learning model from VGG-16 (VGG-16_TF), and fine-tuning with the transfer learning model (VGG-16_TF_FT). The best performing model achieved an overall area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.858. In this study, transfer learning and fine-tuning improved the performance of a deep CNN for screening osteoporosis in DPR images. In addition, using the gradient-weighted class activation mapping technique, a visual interpretation of the best performing deep CNN model indicated that the model relied on image features in the lower left and right border of the mandibular. This result suggests that deep learning-based assessment of DPR images could be useful and reliable in the automated screening of osteoporosis patients.
Vitamin D and Ovarian Cancer: Systematic Review of the Literature with a Focus on Molecular Mechanisms

Vitamin D is a lipid soluble vitamin involved primarily in calcium metabolism. Epidemiologic evidence indicates that lower circulating vitamin D levels are associated with a higher risk of ovarian cancer and that vitamin D supplementation is associated with decreased cancer mortality. A vast amount of research exists on the possible molecular mechanisms through which vitamin D affects cancer cell proliferation, cancer progression, angiogenesis, and inflammation. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the effects of vitamin D on ovarian cancer cell.
Skill Profiles of College Students With a History of Developmental Language Disorder and Developmental Dyslexia

Developmental language disorder (DLD) and developmental dyslexia (DD) are two prevalent subtypes of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [5th ed.; DSM-5]). Yet, little information is available regarding the distinct challenges faced by adults with DLD and/or DD in college. The purpose of the present report is to characterize the relative strengths and challenges of college students with a history of DLD and/or DD, as this information is critical for providing appropriate institutional support. We examined the cognitive skill profiles of 352 college students (ages 18–35 years), using standardized and research-validated measures of reading, spoken language, nonverbal cognition, and self-reported childhood diagnostic history. We classified college students as having DLD (n = 50), and/or DD (n = 40), or as typically developed adults (n = 132) according to procedures described for adults with DLD and DD. A structural equation model determined the cognitive, language, and reading measures predicted by the classification group. Adults with DLD demonstrated poor verbal working memory and speeded sentence-level reading. Adults with DD primarily demonstrated deficits in phonology-based skills. These results indicate that adults with DLD and/or DD continue to face similar challenges as they did during childhood, and thus may benefit from differentially targeted accommodations in college.
Food safety evaluation for the use of albendazole in fish: residual depletion profile and withdrawal period estimation

ABSTRACT Due to the lack of drugs regulated for aquaculture, we have evaluated the use of albendazole (ABZ) – a potential drug to be regulated for fish – under food safety perspectives assessing the depletion profile of ABZ and its main metabolites (albendazole sulphoxide – ABZSO, albendazole sulphone – ABZSO2 and albendazole amino sulphone – ABZ-2-NH2SO2) in fish fillets (muscle and skin) after single dose oral administration of 10 mg ABZ kg-1 body weight. For the drug administration, a suitable procedure for ABZ incorporation into fish feed was employed, obtaining good homogeneity of ABZ concentration among feed pellets (CV<4.1%) and low drug leaching when medicated feed remained in the water for up to 60 min (<2.7%). After medication, fish were euthanised at 8, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h and fillets collected. Depletion studies in various fish species (patinga and tilapia) were conducted simultaneously, under water temperature at 30.4 ± 0.3 °C and pH 6.8 ± 0.1. The highest concentrations for the sum of residues (ABZ, ABZSO, ABZSO2 and ABZ-2-NH2SO2) in fish fillet were 1210 ng g-1 in patinga and 637 ng g−1 in tilapia. Under the employed rearing conditions, the obtained results did not indicate a requirement for a minimum withdrawal period to be proposed for tilapia considering the maximum residue limit of 100 µg g−1, since the determined residual concentration was <LOQ (10 ng g−1) from 24 h post medication treatment. For patinga, the estimated minimum withdrawal period was 3 days. With the well-recognised demands for new alternative veterinary drugs for aquaculture use by fish farmers, this study offers important evidence for consideration of ABZ use in tilapia and patinga taking into account food safety issues. Graphical abstract
Behavioral Health at School: Do Three Competences in Road Safety Education Impact the Protective Road Behaviors of Spanish Children?

Background: Education in road safety (also known as Road Safety Education—RSE) constitutes, nowadays, an emergent approach for improving present and future road behaviors, aiming at taking action against the current, and concerning, state-of-affairs of traffic crashes, through a behavioral perspective. In the case of children, and despite their overrepresentation in traffic injury figures, RSE-based strategies for behavioral health in transportation remain a “new” approach, whose impact still needs to be empirically tested. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the impact of three key road safety skills of the Positive Attitudes, Risk perception and Knowledge of norms (PARK) model, addressed in RSE-based interventions, on the safe road behavior of Spanish children. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a representative sample of 1930 (50.4% males and 49.6% females) Spanish children attending primary school, with a mean age of 10.1 (SD = 1.6) years, was gathered from 70 educational centers across all Spanish regions, through a national study on RSE and road safety. Results: Road safety skills show a positive relationship with children’s self-reported safe behaviors on the road. However, the knowledge of traffic norms alone does not predict safe behaviors: it needs to be combined with risk perception and positive attitudes towards road safety. Furthermore, the degree of exposure to previous RSE interventions was shown to have an effect on the score obtained by children in each road safety skill; on the other hand, road misbehaviors observed in parents and peers had a negative impact on them. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study suggest that education in road safety is still a key process for the acquisition of safe habits, patterns and behaviors among young road users.
Double dissociation of inhibitory effects between the hippocampal TET1 and TET3 in the acquisition of morphine self‐administration in rats

The development of opioid addiction involves DNA methylation. Accordingly, the DNA demethylation, induced by ten‐eleven translocation (Tet) enzymes, may represent a novel approach to prevent opioid addiction. The present study examined the role of TET1 and TET3 in the development of morphine‐seeking behavior in rats. We showed that 1 day of morphine self‐administration (SA) training upregulated TET3 but not TET1 expression in the hippocampal CA1. With 7 days of morphine SA training, the expression of TET3 in the CA1 returned to the baseline level, while the TET1 expression was downregulated. No change of TET1 and TET3 in the nucleus accumbens shell was observed in morphine SA trained rats, or in the yoked morphine rats, or in rats trained for saccharin SA. Furthermore, we found that knocking down TET3 expression in the CA1 accelerated the acquisition of morphine SA, while overexpression of the catalytic domain of TET1 in the CA1 attenuated the acquisition. Together, these findings suggest that TET1 and TET3 in the CA1 are important epigenetic modulators involved in the morphine‐seeking behavior and provide a new strategy in the treatment of opioid addiction.
Micromorphology, pharmacognosy, and bio‐elemental analysis of an important medicinal herb: Verbascum thapsus L.

The present study was conducted on characterization of morpho‐anatomical, phytochemical, and bio‐elemental analysis of root, stem, and leaf of Verbascum thapsus. Morphologically Verbascum is a biennial plant that flowers for a month and a half in mid‐ to late summer. Various organoleptic features of root, leaf, and stem were recorded. Anatomically the T. S of the root, stem, and leaf showed a typical dicot histological differentiation. Leaf possessed anomocytic stomata, crescent shape vascular bundles, and covered with long and stellate type trichomes while, stem contained collateral type of vascular bundles and a well‐developed pith to store phytochemicals responsible for various pharmacological activities. The powder drug study through scanning electron microscopy revealed the presence of various types of tissues. Branched, tree like and stellate trichomes in root and leaf help in absorption and reduce loss of water. These anatomical features are responsible for the survival of the plant as biennial. Four macro elements (Na, K, Ca, and Mg) and seven microelements (Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn, and Cd) and their concentrations in ppm were also studied using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Phytochemical screening of methanolic extract showed existence of various secondary metabolites, while mucilage and anthraquinones was not detected. The present study helps to understand the taxonomic identification of the plant based on morpho‐anatomical features and throws the attention of the researchers to carry out the work for developing its various formulations, which can ultimately be beneficial for the human beings as well as animals.
Genomic variance of the 2019‐nCoV coronavirus

There is a rising global concern for the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019‐nCoV). Full genomic sequences have been released by the worldwide scientific community in the last few weeks to understand the evolutionary origin and molecular characteristics of this virus. Taking advantage of all the genomic information currently available, we constructed a phylogenetic tree including also representatives of other coronaviridae, such as Bat coronavirus (BCoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome. We confirm high sequence similarity (>99%) between all sequenced 2019‐nCoVs genomes available, with the closest BCoV sequence sharing 96.2% sequence identity, confirming the notion of a zoonotic origin of 2019‐nCoV. Despite the low heterogeneity of the 2019‐nCoV genomes, we could identify at least two hypervariable genomic hotspots, one of which is responsible for a Serine/Leucine variation in the viral ORF8‐encoded protein. Finally, we perform a full proteomic comparison with other coronaviridae, identifying key aminoacidic differences to be considered for antiviral strategies deriving from previous anti‐coronavirus approaches.