Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Meta-Analysis of Stressors from the Total Environment Associated with Children’s General Cognitive Ability

General cognitive ability, often referred to as ‘general intelligence’, comprises a variety of correlated abilities. Childhood general cognitive ability is a well-studied area of research and can be used to predict social outcomes and perceived success. Early life stage (e.g., prenatal, postnatal, toddler) exposures to stressors (i.e., chemical and non-chemical stressors from the total (built, natural, social) environment) can impact the development of childhood cognitive ability. Building from our systematic scoping review (Ruiz et al., 2016), we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate more than 100 stressors related to cognitive development. Our meta-analysis identified 23 stressors with a significant increase in their likelihood to influence childhood cognitive ability by 10% or more, and 80 stressors were observed to have a statistically significant effect on cognitive ability. Stressors most impactful to cognition during the prenatal period were related to maternal health and the mother’s ability to access information relevant to a healthy pregnancy (e.g., diet, lifestyle). Stressors most impactful to cognition during the early childhood period were dietary nutrients (infancy), quality of social interaction (toddler), and exposure to toxic substances (throughout early childhood). In conducting this analysis, we examined the relative impact of real-world exposures on cognitive development to attempt to understand the inter-relationships between exposures to both chemical and non-chemical stressors and early developmental life stages. Our findings suggest that the stressors observed to be the most influential to childhood cognitive ability are not permanent and can be broadly categorized as activities/behaviors which can be modified to improve childhood cognition. This meta-analysis supports the idea that there are complex relationships between a child’s total environment and early cognitive development.
Population Structure of Non-ST6 Listeria monocytogenes Isolated in the Red Meat and Poultry Value Chain in South Africa

Meat products have been implicated in many listeriosis outbreaks globally, however there is a dearth of information on the diversity of L. monocytogenes isolates circulating in food products in South Africa. The aim of this study was to investigate the population structure of L. monocytogenes isolated in the meat value chain within the South African market. Based on whole-genome sequence analysis, a total of 217 isolates were classified into two main lineage groupings namely lineages I (n = 97; 44.7%) and II (n = 120; 55.3%). The lineage groups were further differentiated into IIa (n = 95, 43.8%), IVb (n = 69, 31.8%), IIb (n = 28, 12.9%), and IIc (n = 25, 11.5%) sero-groups. The most abundant sequence types (STs) were ST204 (n = 32, 14.7%), ST2 (n = 30, 13.8%), ST1 (n = 25, 11.5%), ST9 (n = 24, 11.1%), and ST321 (n = 21, 9.7%). In addition, 14 clonal complex (CCs) were identified with over-representation of CC1, CC3, and CC121 in “Processed Meat-Beef”, “RTE-Poultry”, and “Raw-Lamb” meat categories, respectively. Listeria pathogenic islands were present in 7.4% (LIPI-1), 21.7% (LIPI-3), and 1.8% (LIPI-4) of the isolates. Mutation leading to premature stop codons was detected in inlA virulence genes across isolates identified as ST121 and ST321. The findings of this study demonstrated a high-level of genomic diversity among L. monocytogenes isolates recovered across the meat value chain control points in South Africa.
Rectus Femoris Characteristics in Post Stroke Spasticity: Clinical Implications from Ultrasonographic Evaluation

In stroke survivors, rectus femoris (RF) spasticity is often implicated in gait pattern alterations such as stiff knee gait (SKG). Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) is considered the gold standard for focal spasticity treatment. However—even if the accuracy of injection is crucial for BoNT-A efficacy—instrumented guidance for BoNT-A injection is not routinely applied in clinical settings. In order to investigate the possible implications of an inadequate BoNT-A injection on patients’ clinical outcome, we evaluated the ultrasound-derived RF characteristics (muscle depth, muscle thickness, cross-sectional area and mean echo intensity) in 47 stroke survivors. In our sample, we observed wide variability of RF depth in both hemiparetic and unaffected side of included patients (0.44 and 3.54 cm and between 0.25 and 3.16 cm, respectively). Moreover, our analysis did not show significant differences between treated and non-treated RF in stroke survivors. These results suggest that considering the inter-individual variability in RF muscle depth and thickness, injection guidance should be considered for BoNT-A treatment in order to optimize the clinical outcome of treated patients. In particular, ultrasound guidance may help the clinicians in the long-term follow-up of muscle quality.
“APS pregnancy – The offspring”

Background Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disease that affects women in childbearing age. In recent years, great improvements were achieved in the management of pregnancies in these women. Prematurity could be an issue in these pregnancies, mainly due to the direct pathogenic effect of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) on the placental surface. Maternal IgG aPL can cross the placenta and theoretically interact with the growing fetus; it could reach the fetal brain because of the incompleteness of the fetal blood-brain barrier: whether this can have an effect on brain development is still debated. Neonatal thrombosis episodes have been described in children positive for aPL, not always associated with maternal antibody positivity, suggesting the hypothesis of a possible aPL de novo synthesis in fetus and neonates. Methods A keyword-based literature search was conducted. We also described a case of neonatal catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS). Results Offspring of patients with APS are generally healthy but the occurrence of neonatal thrombosis or minor neurological disorders were reported. Conclusions The limited number of the available data on this sensitive issue supports the need for further studies. Clinical follow-up of children of mothers with APS seems to be important to exclude, in the neonatal period, the occurrence of aPL associated pathological events such as thrombosis, and in the long-term, impairment in learning skills or behavioral problems.
Diagnostic Performance of Simultaneous [18F]-FDG PET/MR for Assessing Endoscopically Active Inflammation in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis: A Prospective Study

Background: To investigate the diagnostic performance of simultaneous 18F-fluoro-deoxyglucose ([18F]-FDG) PET/MR enterography in assessing and grading endoscopically active inflammation in patients with ulcerative colitis. Methods: 50 patients underwent PET/MR 24 h before ileocolonoscopy. Inflammatory activities of bowel segments were evaluated with both Mayo endoscopic subscore and Nancy histologic index. MR, DWI (Diffusion-weighted imaging) and PET were utilized as qualitative parameters for detecting endoscopically active inflammation. SUVmaxQuot in each segment (maximum of standard uptake value relative to liver) was calculated to quantify inflammation. Results: In the study arm without bowel purgation, combined reading of PET and MR resulted in significantly increased specificity against each submodality alone (0.944 vs. 0.82 for MR and 0.843 for PET, p < 0.05) and highest overall accuracy. In the study arm with bowel purgation, the significantly lower specificity of PET (0.595) could be markedly improved by a combined reading of PET and MR. Metabolic conditions in bowel segments with both endoscopic and histological remission were significantly lower than in segments with endoscopic remission but persistent microscopic inflammation (SUVmaxQuot 0.719 vs. 0.947, p < 0.001). SUVmaxQuot correlated highly with Mayo endoscopic subscore (ρ = 0.718 and 0.606) and enabled grading of inflammatory activity. Conclusions: Simultaneous [18F]-FDG PET/MR may be considered as an alternative to endoscopy in clinical trials.
The Effect of Simulation-based Training on the Self-confidence and Self-satisfaction of Nursing Students Dealing with Patients under Isolation

Amaç: Yenilikçi bir eğitim modeli olan simülasyon hemşirelik eğitiminde oldukça etkilidir. Enfeksiyon kontrolünün önemi ile ilgili yenilikçi eğitim programlarının uygulanması, hemşirelik öğrencilerin konuyla ilgili farkındalığını artırmakta ve izole hastaların bakımı sırasında öğrencilerin kaygı düzeyinin azalmasını sağlamaktadır. Yöntemler: Araştırmanın örneklemini, bir üniversitenin hemşirelik bölümünde 2. sınıfta öğrenim gören 30 öğrenci oluşturmuştur. Çalışmada öğrencilere öncelikle ön test uygulanmış ve ilk performansları düşük gerçeklikli simülatör ile değerlendirilmiş daha sonra teorik eğitim verilmiştir. Araştırmaya katılan her öğrenci senaryo eşliğinde standart hastayla çalışmıştır. Çözümleme görüşmeleri 5 öğrenciden oluşan gruplar şeklinde yürütülmüştür. Uygulama sonrasında öğrenciler öğrenmede memnuniyet ve özgüven ölçeğini uygulamış ve son test yapmışlardır. Bulgular: Araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçlara göre öğrencilerin bilgi puanları incelendiğinde son test puanlarının ön test puanlarından anlamlı derecede yüksek olduğu bulunmuştur (p<0,05). Çalışmaya katılan öğrencilerin özgüven ve memnuniyet puanları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki görülmektedir (p<0,05, r=0,538). Sonuç: Araştırma sonuçlarına göre; hemşirelik öğrencilerine temas izolasyonlu hasta bakımına yönelik standart hasta kullanılarak verilen eğitimin öğrencilerin bilgi puanlarının katkı sağladığı görülmüştür. Anahtar Sözcükler: Simülasyon, temas izolasyonu, hemşirelik eğitimi, standart hasta Objective: Simulation is an innovative education model that is highly effective in nursing training. The implementation of innovative training programmes on the importance of infection control increases the awareness of nursing students and ensures less anxiety when providing care to patients under isolation.
Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers: Biological and Clinical Features

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) include basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). These neoplasms are highly diverse in their clinical presentation, as well as in their biological evolution. While the deregulation of the Hedgehog pathway is commonly observed in BCC, SCC and MCC are characterized by a strikingly elevated mutational and neoantigen burden. As result of our improved understanding of the biology of non-melanoma skin cancers, innovative treatment options including inhibitors of the Hedgehog pathway and immunotherapeutic agents have been recently investigated against these malignancies, leading to their approval by regulatory authorities. Herein, we review the most relevant biological and clinical features of NMSC, focusing on innovative treatment approaches.
Microbiology of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is common ailment worldwide with female predominance. Catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is the most common healthcare related infection commonly used in urinary obstruction and incontinence in critically ill patients with prolonged indwelling catheterization means more than 30 days, which is almost invariable in all patients within 14 days of catheterization which increases mor- bidity and mortality and treatment expenses. Approximately 80% of nosocomial UTI is CAUTI. CAUTI may be asymptomatic and symptomatic. 2–4% cases may develop bacter- aemia. Organisms responsible for CAUTI is similar to UTI as Escherichia coli the commonest than proteus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Enterococci, Candida, Serratia and rarely with Delftia tsuruhatensis , Achromobacter xylosoxidans and few others. CAUTI can be multibacterial. In CAUTI infective organisms form biofilm and propagate from there. E. coli is the most common isolate of CAUTI but Enterobacter cloacae exhibit highest biofilm production. CAUTI organisms are more antibiotic resistance than UTI. Even due to extensive use of antibiotics now Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) producing CAUTI organisms are isolated from catheter biofilm. enterococci or yeasts appears to be lower than that for gram-negative bacilli. Dipstick testing for nitrites and leukocyte esterase was also shown to be unhelpful in establishing a diagnosis in catheterized patients hospitalized in the ICU [ 17 ].
Biological control of citrus green mould, Penicillium digitatum, by antifungal activities of Streptomyces isolates from agricultural soils

Streptomyces strains can control postharvest citrus fruit diseases caused by Penicillium digitatum. One hundred and ten (110) Streptomyces strains were isolated from agricultural soils and screened against P. digitatum. The antagonistic activities of the isolates were determined through dual culture technique. In the 110 isolates, only strain 328 showed strong antifungal inhibitory effects. Streptomyces strain 328 showed a maximum biomass value (1.85 g/L) after 72 h incubation in yeast extract, malt extract, glucose (YMG) medium; in starch casein medium, the highest value was 0.68 g/L after 96 h incubation. The metabolites produced in starch casein medium showed the maximum inhibition zone against P. digitatum (28 mm diameter). Streptomyces strain 328 metabolites have molecular mass higher than 2000 and they have fungistatic mode of action against P. digitatum. In in vivo assays, the selected isolate has significantly reduced severity of green mold on crops which have been stored under 24°C for 28 days as compared to the controls. The inhibition effect of about 95% was shown by strain 328. Key words: Penicillium digitatum, Streptomyces spp. , Actinomycetes, biocontrol.
Genome-Wide Association Analysis for Tuber Dry Matter and Oxidative Browning in Water Yam (Dioscorea alata L.)

Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a nutritional and medicinal staple tuber crop grown in the tropics and sub-tropics. Among the food yam species, water yam (Dioscorea alata L.) is the most widely distributed and cultivated species worldwide. Tuber dry matter content (DMC) and oxidative browning (OxB) are important quality attributes that determine cultivar acceptability in water yam. This study used a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay from a diversity arrays technology (DArT) platform for a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the two quality traits in a panel of 100 water yam clones grown in three environments. The marker–trait association analysis identified significant SNPs associated with tuber DMC on chromosomes 6 and 19 and with OxB on chromosome 5. The significant SNPs cumulatively explained 45.87 and 12.74% of the total phenotypic variation for the tuber DMC and OxB, respectively. Gene annotation for the significant SNP loci identified important genes associated in the process of the proteolytic modification of carbohydrates in the dry matter accumulation pathway as well as fatty acid β-oxidation in peroxisome for enzymatic oxidation. Additional putative genes were also identified in the peak SNP sites for both tuber dry matter and enzymatic oxidation with unknown functions. The results of this study provide valuable insight for further dissection of the genetic architecture of tuber dry matter and enzymatic oxidation in water yam. They also highlight SNP variants and genes useful for genomics-informed selection decisions in the breeding process for improving food quality traits in water yam.
Cranberry Polyphenols and Prevention against Urinary Tract Infections: Relevant Considerations

Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a distinctive source of polyphenols as flavonoids and phenolic acids that has been described to display beneficial effects against urinary tract infections (UTIs), the second most common type of infections worldwide. UTIs can lead to significant morbidity, especially in healthy females due to high rates of recurrence and antibiotic resistance. Strategies and therapeutic alternatives to antibiotics for prophylaxis and treatment against UTIs are continuously being sought after. Different to cranberry, which have been widely recommended in traditional medicine for UTIs prophylaxis, probiotics have emerged as a new alternative to the use of antibiotics against these infections and are the subject of new research in this area. Besides uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), the most common bacteria causing uncomplicated UTIs, other etiological agents, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae or Gram-positive bacteria of Enterococcus and Staphylococcus genera, seem to be more widespread than previously appreciated. Considerable current effort is also devoted to the still-unraveled mechanisms that are behind the UTI-protective effects of cranberry, probiotics and their new combined formulations. All these current topics in the understanding of the protective effects of cranberry against UTIs are reviewed in this paper. Further progresses expected in the coming years in these fields are also discussed.
High-Efficiency Inscription of Fiber Bragg Grating Array with High-Energy Nanosecond-Pulsed Laser Talbot Interferometer

A high-energy nanosecond-pulsed ultraviolet (UV) laser Talbot interferometer for high-efficiency, mass production of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array was experimentally demonstrated. High-quality FBG arrays were successfully inscribed in both H2-free and H2-loaded standard single-mode fibers (SMFs) with high inscription efficiency and excellent reproducibility. Compared with the femtosecond pulse that had a coherent length of several tens of micrometers, a longer coherent length (~10 mm) of the employed laser rendered a wider FBG wavelength versatility over 700 nm band (1200–1900 nm) without the need for optical path difference (OPD) compensation. Dense FBG array with center wavelength separation of ~0.4 nm was achieved and more than 1750 FBGs with separated center wavelength could be inscribed in a single H2-free or H2-loaded SMF in theory, which is promising for mass production of FBG arrays in industry. Moreover, precise focusing of laser beam was superfluous for the proposed system due to the high energy density of pulse. The proposed FBG inscription system was promising for industrialization production of dense FBG arrays.
Trajectories of Cognitive and Motor Function Between Ages 45 and 90 Years: A Population-Based Study

Abstract Background To establish trajectories of cognitive and motor function, and to determine the sequence of change across individual tests in community-dwelling individuals aged 45–90 years. Method Between 1997 and 2016, we repeatedly assessed cognitive function with 5 tests in 9514 participants aged 45–90 years from the population-based Rotterdam Study. Between 1999 and 2016, we measured motor function with 3 tests in 8297 participants. All participants were free from dementia, stroke, and parkinsonism. We assessed overall and education-specific cognitive and motor trajectories using linear mixed models with age as time scale. Next, we determined the sequence of change across individual tests. Results The number of assessments per participant ranged between 1 and 6 (mean interval, years [SD]: 5.1 [1.4]) for cognitive function, and 1 and 4 (5.4 [1.4]) for motor function. Cognitive and motor trajectories declined linearly between ages 45 and 65 years, followed by steeper declines after ages 65–70 years. Lower educated participants had lower cognitive function at age 45 years (baseline), and declined faster on most cognitive, but not on motor tests than higher educated participants. Up to a 25-year age difference between the fastest and slowest declining test scores was observed. Conclusions On a population-level, cognitive and motor function decline similarly. Compared to higher educated individuals, lower educated individuals had lower cognitive function at baseline, and a faster rate of decline thereafter. These educational-effects were not seen for motor function. These findings benefit the understanding of the natural course of cognitive and motor function during aging, and highlight the role of education in the preservation of cognitive but not motor function.
AAV9 gene transfer of cMyBPC N-terminal domains ameliorates cardiomyopathy in cMyBPC-deficient mice

Decreased cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyBPC) expression due to inheritable mutations is thought to contribute to the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) phenotype, suggesting that increasing cMyBPC content is of therapeutic benefit. In vitro assays show that cMyBPC N-terminal domains (NTDs) contain structural elements necessary and sufficient to modulate actomyosin interactions, but it is unknown if they can regulate in vivo myocardial function. To test whether NTDs can recapitulate the effects of full-length (FL) cMyBPC in rescuing cardiac function in a cMyBPC-null mouse model of HCM, we assessed the efficacy of AAV9 gene transfer of a cMyBPC NTD that contained domains C0C2 and compared its therapeutic potential with AAV9-FL gene replacement. AAV9 vectors were administered systemically at neonatal day 1, when early-onset disease phenotypes begin to manifest. A comprehensive analysis of in vivo and in vitro function was performed following cMyBPC gene transfer. Our results show that a systemic injection of AAV9-C0C2 significantly improved cardiac function (e.g., 52.24 ± 1.69 ejection fraction in the C0C2-treated group compared with 40.07 ± 1.97 in the control cMyBPC–/– group, P < 0.05) and reduced the histopathologic signs of cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, C0C2 significantly slowed and normalized the accelerated cross-bridge kinetics found in cMyBPC–/– control myocardium, as evidenced by a 32.41% decrease in the rate of cross-bridge detachment (krel). Results indicate that C0C2 can rescue biomechanical defects of cMyBPC deficiency and that the NTD may be a target region for therapeutic myofilament kinetic manipulation.
Label Independent Memory for Semi-Supervised Few-Shot Video Classification

In this paper, we propose to leverage freely available unlabeled video data to facilitate few-shot video classification. In this semi-supervised few-shot video classification task, millions of unlabeled data are available for each episode during training. These videos can be extremely imbalanced, while they have profound visual and motion dynamics. To tackle the semi-supervised few-shot video classification problem, we make the following contributions. First, we propose a label independent memory (LIM) to cache label related features, which enables a similarity search over a large set of videos. LIM produces a class prototype for few-shot training. This prototype is an aggregated embedding for each class, which is more robust to noisy video features. Second, we integrate a multi-modality compound memory network to capture both RGB and flow information. We propose to store the RGB and flow representation in two separate memory networks, but they are jointly optimized via a unified loss. In this way, mutual communications between the two modalities are leveraged to achieve better classification performance. Third, we conduct extensive experiments on the few-shot Kinetics-100, Something-Something-100 datasets, which validates the effectiveness of leveraging the accessible unlabeled data for few-shot classification.