Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Upper-limb interval versus constant-load exercise in patients with COPD: a physiological crossover study

Objective Upper-limb exercise is recommended for patients with COPD, albeit there are limited data concerning the optimal modality to implement. We compared interval (INT-EX) to continuous (CONT-EX) upper-limb exercise in terms of exercise tolerance, ventilatory and metabolic responses when both conditions were sustained at an equivalent work rate. Methods 26 stable COPD patients undertook three upper-limb exercise sessions to initially establish peak work rate (PWR) via an incremental exercise test and subsequently two equivalent work rate tests to the limit tolerance in balanced order: 1) INT-EX consisting of 30-s work at 100% PWR interspersed with 30-s work at 40% of PWR; and 2) CONT-EX at 70% PWR. Results 20 patients (76.9%) had longer tolerance during INT-EX, while six out of 26 (23.1%) exhibited longer tolerance during CONT-EX. The average endurance time was 434.1±184.7 and 315.7±128.7 s for INT-EX and CONT-EX, respectively. During INT-EX at isotime (i.e. when work completed was the same between INT-EX and CONT-EX), the majority of patients manifested lower oxygen uptake, minute ventilation, pulmonary hyperinflation, heart rate, symptoms and higher CO2 blood concentration. Patients with longer INT-EX had a lower comorbidity score (Cumulative Illness Rating Scale: 1.58±0.30 versus 1.88±0.29, p=0.0395) and better-preserved lung function (forced vital capacity 84.7±15.31% versus 67.67±20.56%, p=0.0367; forced expiratory volume in 1 s 57.15±14.59 versus 44.67±12.99% predicted, p=0.0725) compared to patients with longer CONT-EX. Conclusion INT-EX is more sustainable than CONT-EX for the majority of COPD patients with moderate obstruction, leading to lower dynamic hyperinflation and symptoms at isotime. Further studies need to define the benefits of its application during pulmonary rehabilitation.
Enhanced Electrophoretic Depletion of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate with Methanol for Membrane Proteome Analysis by Mass Spectrometry

Membrane proteins are underrepresented during proteome characterizations, primarily owing to their lower solubility. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) is favored to enhance protein solubility but interferes with downstream analysis by mass spectrometry. Here, we present an improved workflow for SDS depletion using transmembrane electrophoresis (TME) while retaining a higher recovery of membrane proteins. Though higher levels of organic solvent lower proteome solubility, we found that the inclusion of 40% methanol provided optimal solubility of membrane proteins, with 86% recovery relative to extraction with SDS. Incorporating 40% methanol during the electrophoretic depletion of SDS by TME also maximized membrane protein recovery. We further report that methanol accelerates the rate of detergent removal, allowing TME to deplete SDS below 100 ppm in under 3 min. This is attributed to a three-fold elevation in the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of SDS in the presence of methanol, combined with a reduction in the SDS to protein binding ratio in methanol (0.3 g SDS/g protein). MS analysis of membrane proteins isolated from the methanol-assisted workflow revealed enhanced proteome detection, particularly for proteins whose pI contributed a minimal net charge and therefore possessed reduced solubility in a purely aqueous solvent. This protocol presents a robust approach for the preparation of membrane proteins by maximizing their solubility in MS-compatible solvents, offering a tool to advance membrane proteome characterization.
Activity patterns of American Martens, Maries americana, Snowshoe Hares, Lepus americanus, and Red Squirrels, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, in westcentral Montana

We investigated winter activity patterns of American Martens, Martes americana Snowshoe Hares, Lepus americanu , and Red Squirrels, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, in westcentral Montana between November 1994 and March 1995 u ing dualensor remote cameras. One hundred percent of Snowshoe Hare (n = 25) observations occurred at night while Martens (n = 85) exhibited random activity during diel and nocturnal hours and Red Squirrels (n = 22) were diurnal . Marten activity coincided with the nocturnal and diurnal microtines and diurnal Red Squirrel though they could take advantage of the strictly nocturnal Snowshoe Hares.
Prevalence, Etiology, Risk Factors, and Complications of Facial Nerve Palsy at King Abdulaziz Medical City: A Multicenter Study

Background: Facial nerve palsy is a condition of nerve damage that results in impaired facial movement on one or both sides of the face. Objectives: This multicenter study aimed to determine the prevalence of facial nerve palsy and evaluate the association between its risk factors and complications to identify its etiology among patients admitted to King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 2016 and 2023. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to obtain data from medical records using the best care system for patients with facial nerve palsy. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0 (Released 2011; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States), Chi-square test, t-test, and ANOVA. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: The study involved 123 patients, with 0.0164% prevalence. Bell's palsy was the most common etiology, accounting for 81.8% of cases, followed by head injuries, dental trauma, otitis media, stroke, and head and neck tumors. Obesity was the most significant risk factor, followed by upper respiratory problems. Hypertension and diabetes exert similar effects. Facial asymmetry, ophthalmic complications, and eye twitching were the most common complaints followed by speech difficulties, psychological and social effects, mouth twitching, and synkinesis. Conclusion: Facial nerve palsy is common in this region. We recommend health education sessions to increase public awareness and provide preventive strategies to reduce the complications of facial nerve damage. We recommend further research on the association between the risk factors and complications of facial nerve palsy.
mRNA Delivery: Challenges and Advances through Polymeric Soft Nanoparticles

Single-stranded messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) plays a pivotal role in transferring genetic information, and tremendous effort has been devoted over the years to utilize its transcription efficacy in therapeutic interventions for a variety of diseases with high morbidity and mortality. Lipid nanocarriers have been extensively investigated for mRNA delivery and enabled the rapid and successful development of mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Some constraints of lipid nanocarriers have encouraged the development of alternative delivery systems, such as polymer-based soft nanoparticles, which offer a modular gene delivery platform. Such macromolecule-based nanocarriers can be synthetically articulated for tailored parameters including mRNA protection, loading efficacy, and targeted release. In this review, we highlight recent advances in the development of polymeric architectures for mRNA delivery, their limitations, and the challenges that still exist, with the aim of expediting further research and the clinical translation of such formulations.
Cooling Efficiency of Sleeveless 3D-Printed Surgical Guides with Different Cylinder Designs

Background and Objectives: Surgical guides might impede the flow of coolant to the implant drills during the preparation of the implant bed, potentially contributing to increased temperatures during bone drilling. The objective of this experimental study was to assess the cooling efficiency of various guiding cylinder designs for sleeveless surgical guides used in guided surgery. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, surgical guides with three different guiding cylinder designs were printed. One group had solid cylinders (control) and two test groups (cylinders with pores and cylinders with windows). Forty customized polyurethane blocks with type III bone characteristics were fitted into the guide and fixed in a vise, and implant bed preparations were completed using a simplified drilling protocol with and without irrigation. An infrared thermographic camera was used to record the temperature changes during drilling at the coronal, middle, and apical areas. ANOVA test and Games-Howell post hoc test were used to determine significant thermal differences among groups. Results: A significant thermal increase was observed at the coronal area in the group without irrigation (39.69 ± 8.82) (p < 0.05). The lowest thermal increase was recorded at the surgical guides with windows (21.451 ± 0.703 °C) compared to solid (25.005 ± 0.586 °C) and porous surgical guides (25.630 ± 1.004) (p < 0.05). In the middle and apical areas, there were no differences between solid and porous cylinders (p > 0.05). Conclusions: 3D-printed sleeveless surgical guides with window openings at the guiding cylinders reduce the temperature elevation at the cortical bone in guided implant surgery.
Exploring the role of the principals in promoting professional development activities in schools : a case study of three secondary schools in Pinetown District.

Democratic changes in South Africa necessitated a new curriculum which was going to redress the past inequalities through improving the quality of education; although research points to the direction that the cascade model of professional development is ineffective, the department of education, apparently for the sake of expediency, relies on the workshops to convey information on curricular changes. Research also suggests that there is a need for principals to work together with all stakeholders to come up with professional development activities in a school context which are going to address problems identified by teachers; this will put teachers in a position to develop one another and contribute meaningfully to curriculum development. The department of education in collaboration with Higher Education Institutions designed Advance Certificate in Education (ACE: SL) to, as one of its purposes, capacitate principals to run their schools as learning organisations. The hallmark of a school which is a learning organisation is professional development, the aim of the study was to explore if principals who completed ACE: SL between 2007 and 2009 promoted professional development activities in schools that they head. Three schools which were headed by principals who completed ACE: SL from 2007 to 2009 were purposively sampled due their close proximity, the principals were the main participants, HoDs and teachers were interviewed for the purpose of triangulation and to get a balanced view. Semi-structured interviews and document review were used as methods of data collection. The information which was collected during the interviews was audio recorded and transcribed verbatim; participants were requested to supply documents i.e. minutes of the meetings for the years 2012 and 2013. The method of data analysis that was employed was content analysis. Data was classified into the nine main themes. The findings were that schools could not produce policies on PD, there were no formal induction and mentorship programmes, there were very few workshops which were organised in a school context and their focus was also limited to computer literacy, filing and classroom management; teachers wanted to do PD during normal teaching time, there was little collaborative teaching and learning.
An Incremental Majority Voting Approach for Intrusion Detection System Based on Machine Learning

With the rapid growth of digitalization and the increasing volume of data, the cybersecurity threat landscape is expanding at an alarming rate. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) have been widely employed in conjunction with firewalls to safeguard networks. However, traditional IDS systems operate in a static manner, rendering them vulnerable to obsolescence and necessitating costly retraining efforts. As a result, the demand for dynamic models capable of handling continuous streams of network traffic has surged as they can learn from the incoming traffic without the need to old data and costly retraining. In response to this challenge, we have implemented an enhanced approach: an incremental majority voting IDS system, which utilizes existing tools and techniques to improve the robustness and adaptability of intrusion detection By leveraging the collective decision-making power of multiple machine learning models such as: KNN classifier, Softmax Regressor and Adaptive Random Forest classifier, our system aims to improve the accuracy, especially reducing false alarm rates, and effectiveness of intrusion detection in real-time scenarios. Through this research, we have managed to obtain a model which scores 96.43% of accuracy as well as giving 100% precision for majority type of attacks. By successfully handling the imbalanced nature of streaming data, our adopted model shows promising potential as a high-performing solution for IDS and can be considered one of the robust IDS models capable of dealing with real-world imbalanced datasets.
The Complex Mechanisms and the Potential Effects of Statins on Vascular Calcification: A Narrative Review

Vascular calcification (VC) is a complex process of calcium deposition on the arterial wall and atherosclerotic plaques and involves interaction between vascular smooth muscle cells, inflammatory and VC mediators. The latter are independent predictors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and potential targets of pharmaceutical therapy. This paper is a narrative review of the complex mechanisms of VC development and in this context the potential anti-atherosclerotic effects of statins. At the initial stages of atherosclerosis VC correlates with atherosclerosis burden and in the long-term with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. A plethora of animal and clinical studies have proposed statins as the cornerstone of primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Based on coronary computed tomography data, high doses of statins may have negligible or even positive effects on the progression of coronary artery calcification. Growing data support an increase in atherosclerotic plaque calcification in peripheral arteries (e.g., carotids), after long-term, statin-therapy. Despite the paradox of increasing VC, those effects of statins have been associated with higher plaque stability, reducing the risk of consequent adverse events. Statins seem to promote a “favorable” atherosclerotic calcification, suppressing atherosclerotic lesion expansion and their vulnerability. More studies are required to clarify the underlying mechanisms.
A Comparison of Leg Muscle Oxygenation, Cardiorespiratory Responses, and Blood Lactate between Walking and Running at the Same Speed

It is not known whether different gait modes, or movement patterns, at the same speed elicit differences in muscle oxygen oxygenation, expressed as muscle oxygen saturation (SmO2). Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the oxygenation of two leg muscles (vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius medialis), as well as the heart rate, respiratory gases, and blood lactate between two gait modes (walking and running) of the same speed and duration. Ten men walked and ran for 30 min each at 7 km/h in a random, counterbalanced order. SmO2, heart rate, and respiratory gases were monitored continuously. Blood lactate was measured at rest, at the end of each exercise, and after 15 min of recovery. Data were analyzed by two-way (gait mode × time) or three-way (gait mode × muscle × time) ANOVA, as applicable. Heart rate and oxygen consumption were higher when running compared to walking. SmO2 was lower during exercise compared to rest and recovery, in gastrocnemius medialis compared to vastus lateralis, and in running compared to walking. Blood lactate increased during exercise but did not differ between gait modes. In conclusion, running caused higher deoxygenation in leg muscles (accompanied by higher whole-body oxygen uptake and heart rate) than walking at the same speed (one that was comfortable for both gait modes), thus pointing to a higher internal load despite equal external load. Thus, preferring running over walking at the same speed causes higher local muscle deoxygenation, which may be beneficial in inducing favorable training adaptations.
Impact of temporary and involuntary suppression of hydroxyurea treatment on hematological and clinical parameters in patients with sickle cell disease

Objective: Here we investigate the impact of involuntary and temporary interruption of hydroxyurea (HU) treatment in patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Methods: Clinical and hematological parameters were explored in 30 patients with SCD under treatment with HU. The study was performed in two different periods: 1 - During nine months of involuntary discontinuation (April/2015 to January/2016) and 2 – During nine months after resumption of the treatment (March/2016 to December/2016). Results: The resumption of HU treatment improved the hematological parameters, by increasing levels of hemoglobin (+0.65±0.71), hematocrit (+1.16±2.26), mean corpuscular volume (+8.33±5.89), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (+3.15±2.65). There was a reduction in red blood cell distribution width (-0.66±1.69), reticulocytes (-2.53±1.96), leukocytes (-1122±2764) and platelets numbers (-79.933±162.756). These was followed by a reduction in hospital admissions (-0.30±0.79) and in the number of pain episodes (-0.97±1.19), whereas the denial in episodes of pain crisis increased (+1.43±1.43). After resumption, in period 2, hemoglobin levels were inversely correlated with blood transfusion numbers (p=0.034) and acute thoracic syndrome (p=0.017). The hematocrit was inversely correlated with the number of consultations (p=0.030) and the number of times patients denied crisis (p=0.002). Conclusions: Our study shows that the treatment with HU improves clinical and haematological parameters in patients and highlights the negative effects of the discontinuation of the treatment in the quality of life in patients with SCD.
Data-Driven Models to Forecast the Impact of Temperature Anomalies on Rice Production in Southeast Asia

Models are a core element in performing local estimation of the climate change input. In this work, a novel approach to perform a fast downscaling of global temperature anomalies on a regional level is presented. The approach is based on a set of data-driven models linking global temperature anomalies and regional and global emissions to regional temperature anomalies. In particular, due to the limited number of available data, a linear autoregressive structure with exogenous input (ARX) has been considered. To demonstrate their relevance to the existing literature and context, the proposed ARX models have been employed to evaluate the impact of temperature anomalies on rice production in a socially, economically, and climatologically fragile area like Southeast Asia. The results show a significant impact on this region, with estimations strongly in accordance with information presented in the literature from different sources and scientific fields. The work represents a first step towards the development of a fast, data-driven, holistic approach to the climate change impact evaluation problem. The proposed ARX data-driven models reveal a novel and feasible way to downscale global temperature anomalies to regional levels, showing their importance in comprehending global temperature anomalies, emissions, and regional climatic conditions.
Understanding the role of Bcl-3 in triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents an aggressive subtype associated with progression to metastasis and poor prognosis. The NFkB co-factor B-cell lymphoma 3 (Bcl-3) is a proto-oncogene commonly dysregulated in a range of cancers and has been shown to be up-regulated in metastatic breast cancer lesions. In this study we investigated the therapeutic potential of targeting Bcl-3 in TNBCs. Knockdown of Bcl-3 with siRNA in a panel of TNBC cell lines resulted in reduced cellular proliferation, collective migration, single-cell motility, NFkB-targeted transcriptional activity and increased apoptosis-mediated cell death. Ectopic overexpression of wild type (WT) Bcl-3 protein in TNBC cells resulted in increased proliferation, single cell motility, and NF-kB activity; however, substantially increased apoptosis-mediated cell death was also observed, resulting in an overall reduced cell turnover. Affymetrix gene expression profiling of MDA-MB-231-Luc cells treated with Bcl-3 siRNA revealed enrichment of up-regulated genes associated with BCL2-mediated apoptosis regulators (MCL1, TP53, BAX, BAK1, BCL2); as well as enrichment of down- regulated genes associated with migration including Rho GTPase signalling (CDC42, RHOB, CFL2, ROCK1, PAK1, PFN2). In a murine in vivo xenograft metastasis model, MDA-MB-231 cells treated with Bcl-3 siRNA were injected via the tail vein, resulting in significantly fewer pulmonary metastatic lesions at experimental endpoint when compared with controls. Tail vein injection of MDA-MB-231 cells overexpressing WT Bcl-3 resulted in significantly increased pulmonary and hepatic metastatic lesions when compared with controls, as well as colonisation at novel distal organs including the heart, mammary gland and bone marrow (femur). Pharmacological inhibition of Bcl-3 with novel small molecule inhibitors, JS6 and CB1, were able to recapitulate Bcl3 siRNA responses in functional assays. Affymetrix gene expression profiling of MDA-MB-231-Luc cells treated with CB1 revealed a significant proportion of the genes that responded to siRNA treatment also responded to this pharmacological inhibitor (including TFGB1, INPP4B, IL1B, IL24), highlighting mechanistic similarities. In a murine in vivo xenograft tail vein metastasis model, daily treatment of CB1 significantly inhibited early metastatic seeding events and reduced average metastatic burden, as well increased the proportion of disease free animals at experimental endpoint when compared to controls. The findings from this study highlighted Bcl-3 as a promising therapeutic target in TNBCs and we were able to demonstrate that the novel Bcl-3 inhibitor, CB1 functioned as an effective anti-metastatic agent in murine models of advanced TNBC.
Common Trends and Country Specific Heterogeneities in Long-Run World Energy Consumption

We employ a semiparametric functional coefficient panel approach to allow an economic relationship of interest to have both country-specific heterogeneity and a common component that may be nonlinear in the covariate and may vary over time. Surfaces of the common component of coefficients and partial derivatives (elasticities) are estimated and then decomposed by functional principal components, and we introduce a bootstrap-based procedure for inference on the loadings of the functional principal components. Applying this approach to national energy-GDP elasticities, we find that elasticities are driven by common components that are distinct across two groups of countries yet have leading functional principal components that share similarities. The groups roughly correspond to OECD and non-OECD countries, but we utilize a novel methodology to regroup countries based on common energy consumption patterns to minimize root mean squared error within groups. The common component of the group containing more developed countries has an additional functional principal component that decreases the elasticity of the wealthiest countries in recent decades