Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical Investigation of Genomic Clusters Associated with Height and the Risk of Postmenopausal Breast and Colorectal Cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study.

We empirically investigated genomic clusters associated with both height and postmenopausal breast cancer (BC) or colorectal cancer (CRC) (or both) in the Netherlands Cohort Study to unravel shared underlying mechanisms between height and these cancers. The Netherlands Cohort Study (1986-2006) includes 120,852 participants (case-cohort: nsubcohort=5000; 20.3 years follow-up). Variants in clusters on chromosomes 2, 4, 5, 6 (two clusters), 10, and 20 were genotyped using toenail DNA. Cluster-specific genetic risk scores were modelled in relation to height and postmenopausal BC and CRC risk using age-adjusted linear regression and multivariable-adjusted Cox regression, respectively. Only the chromosome 10 cluster risk score was associated with all three phenotypes in the same sex (women), i.e. it was associated with an increased height (Beta: 0.34, p-value: 0.014), an increased risk of hormone receptor-positive BC (HRcontinuous for estrogen receptor-positive BC: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02-1.20; HRcontinuous for progesterone receptor-positive BC: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.04-1.26), and an increased risk of colon (HRcontinuous: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.01-1.27) and rectal cancer (HRcontinuous: 1.14, 95% CI: 0.94-1.30). The chromosome 10 cluster variants were all annotated to ZMIZ1 ("Zinc Finger MIZ-Type Containing 1"), involved in androgen receptor activity, suggesting hormone-related growth mechanisms could influence both height and postmenopausal BC and CRC.
Within-Individual Effects of Dropping out of School on Violent Victimization Among Serious Adolescent Offenders

Despite a recent decrease in both school dropout and victimization rates, many harsh and exclusionary school policies continue to push school-aged adolescents out of school. This study combines two research areas—school dropout and violent victimization—by investigating if dropping out of school increases the chance of violent victimization. It is hypothesized that a change in the opportunity structure associated with risky lifestyles and routine activities accounts for the link between school dropout and violent victimization. Drawing on longitudinal panel data collected from a relatively homogenous sample of 1354 serious adolescent offenders who are predominantly minorities (75%) and males (86%) and fixed-effects models which enhance the causal validity of the findings by using the same individuals as their own counterfactuals over time, this study shows that dropping out of school leads to the perpetuation of violent victimization, primarily due to a change in the opportunity structure associated with risky lifestyles and routine activities. By uncovering the pathway between school dropout and victimization, this study contributes to the knowledge base on the impact of school dropouts, the source of violent victimization, and the causal mechanism underlying the link between dropping out of school and violent victimization—all of which are relatively understudied despite their significant implications for theory and policy.
Neuromuscular responses of the hamstring and lumbopelvic muscles during unanticipated trunk perturbations

ABSTRACT Hamstring strain often occurs when an opponent unanticipatedly perturbs an athlete’s movements. We examined the neuromuscular responses of hamstring and trunk muscles during unanticipated trunk perturbations in athletes with and without a history of hamstring strain injury. Male college athletes (11 with a history of a unilateral hamstring injury and 10 without prior injury) knelt while wearing a chest harness attached to a cable that was pulled backward. They were instructed to resist the force isometrically and maintain their position when the perturbations were applied. The pressure was released with or without a cue (CUE or NoCUE). We measured trunk acceleration, three-dimensional kinematic data, and surface electromyography (EMG) signals of the erector spinae, internal oblique, gluteus maximus, biceps femoris long head, and semitendinosus muscles. Maximum trunk acceleration and displacement were greater with NoCUE in both groups (p < 0.05). EMG amplitude did not differ after perturbation of any investigated muscle. The injured group demonstrated a delayed onset of the gluteus maximus and erector spinae muscles in NoCUE versus CUE stimuli (p < 0.05). Athletes with a history of hamstring strain injury exhibited a reduced neuromuscular coordination of the lumbopelvic muscles in response to unanticipated trunk movement.
Types of parental psychological control and rural and urban Chinese adolescents' psychological well-being and academic functioning.

The present study took a differentiated perspective on parental psychological control to examine its impact on adolescent adjustment among urban (n = 349, females: 53%) and rural (n = 293, females: 54%) Chinese adolescents (Mage = 12.14 years). Four times over the first 2 years of Junior High school (from October, 2016 to April, 2018), adolescents reported on parental psychological control, their psychological well-being (life satisfaction and depressive symptoms), and academic relative autonomy. Adolescents' grades also were obtained. The findings show generally negative effects of social comparison shame, love withdrawal and harsh psychological control (but not shared shame or parental relationship-oriented guilt induction) on adolescents' psychological well-being, and negative effects of social comparison shame on adolescents' academic functioning.
Acute effects of cardiac contractility modulation on human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes

Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) is an intracardiac therapy whereby nonexcitatory electrical simulations are delivered during the absolute refractory period of the cardiac cycle. We previously evaluated the effects of CCM in isolated adult rabbit ventricular cardiomyocytes and found a transient increase in calcium and contractility. In the present study, we sought to extend these results to human cardiomyocytes using human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC‐CMs) to develop a robust model to evaluate CCM in vitro. HiPSC‐CMs (iCell Cardiomyocytes2, Fujifilm Cellular Dynamic, Inc.) were studied in monolayer format plated on flexible substrate. Contractility, calcium handling, and electrophysiology were evaluated by fluorescence‐ and video‐based analysis (CellOPTIQ, Clyde Biosciences). CCM pulses were applied using an A‐M Systems 4100 pulse generator. Robust hiPSC‐CMs response was observed at 14 V/cm (64 mA) for pacing and 28 V/cm (128 mA, phase amplitude) for CCM. Under these conditions, hiPSC‐CMs displayed enhanced contractile properties including increased contraction amplitude and faster contraction kinetics. Likewise, calcium transient amplitude increased, and calcium kinetics were faster. Furthermore, electrophysiological properties were altered resulting in shortened action potential duration (APD). The observed effects subsided when the CCM stimulation was stopped. CCM‐induced increase in hiPSC‐CMs contractility was significantly more pronounced when extracellular calcium concentration was lowered from 2 mM to 0.5 mM. This study provides a comprehensive characterization of CCM effects on hiPSC‐CMs. These data represent the first study of CCM in hiPSC‐CMs and provide an in vitro model to assess physiologically relevant mechanisms and evaluate safety and effectiveness of future cardiac electrophysiology medical devices.
Corticosteroid treatment in COVID-19 modulates host inflammatory responses and transcriptional signatures of immune dysregulation

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is the causative agent of coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19), a respiratory disease that varies in severity from mild to severe/fatal. Several risk factors for severe disease have been identified, notably age, male sex, and pre‐existing conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. Several advancements in clinical care have been achieved over the past year, including the use of corticosteroids (e.g., corticosteroids) and other immune‐modulatory treatments that have now become standard of care for patients with acute severe COVID‐19. While the understanding of the mechanisms that underlie increased disease severity with age has improved over the past few months, it remains incomplete. Furthermore, the molecular impact of corticosteroid treatment on host response to acute SARS‐CoV‐2 infection has not been investigated. In this study, a cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis of Ab, soluble immune mediators, and transcriptional responses in young (65 ≤ years) and aged (≥ 65 years) diabetic males with obesity hospitalized with acute severe COVID‐19 was conducted. Additionally, the transcriptional profiles in samples obtained before and after corticosteroids became standard of care were compared. The analysis indicates that severe COVID‐19 is characterized by robust Ab responses, heightened systemic inflammation, increased expression of genes related to inflammatory and pro‐apoptotic processes, and reduced expression of those important for adaptive immunity regardless of age. In contrast, COVID‐19 patients receiving steroids did not show high levels of systemic immune mediators and lacked transcriptional indicators of heightened inflammatory and apoptotic responses. Overall, these data suggest that inflammation and cell death are key drivers of severe COVID‐19 pathogenesis in the absence of corticosteroid therapy.
Lead Markets: Country-Specific Success Factors of the Global Diffusion of Innovations

1 Introduction. - 2 International Diffusion of Innovations: Overviews of Literature. - 3 Foundations of Lead Markets. - 4 The Case of Cellular Mobile Telephony. - 5 Harnessing Lead Markets for Global Innovations. - 6 Discussion, Limitations and Further Research. - 7 Epilogue: Implications for National Policies. - References. - Index of Figures. - Index of Tables.
REALIZING STRUCTURAL DESIGN OBJECTIVES THROUGH MINIMIZATION OF CONSTRUCTION INDUCED CRACKING. SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF ASPHALT PAVEMENTS, VOLUME I, PROCEEDINGS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, JULY 13-17, 1987, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

The structural analysis of asphalt overlays is conventionally carried out for the inservice condition, over the traffic-serving life cycle of the pavement. However, there is a short period of time, during construction, when the overlay is quite different from its inservice condition but is not conventionally analyzed as a structure. This paper contends that the overlay's long-term behavior and performance may in fact be significantly affected by the construction procedures, aside from the usual requirements for density and voids. In other words, the overlay may not be as structurally sound when put into service as normally assumed. A theoretical analysis is first presented to compare stress, strain and displacement distributions for two representative overlays for both the construction and inservice situations. It is shown that there are major and significant differences. Then, the principle of relative rigidity is introduced and applied to the construction situation where a stiff compactor acts on a soft layer which has been placed on an underlying stiff layer. A coefficient of stability can be used to identify instabilities in this loaded system, and in turn to show that the critical interface for new overlays is at the top. This can result in the often observed roller cracking. It is contended that the conventional circular roller therefore creates a curvature incompatibility between it and the distorted surface of the new overlay because of the large relative difference in stiffness. An experimental investigation was carried out on mixes compacted with such conventional equipment and a new Asphalt Multi-Integrated Roller (AMIR) to verify this contention and to propose a new approach to compaction. The results showed roller cracking to be eliminated when the AMIR compactor was used, and maximum bending strengths of the overlay material to be 30 to 70 percent higher. These results, while preliminary, suggest that substantially better long term performance of overlays may be achieved by a new method of compaction.
The adsorption, kinetics, and interaction mechanisms of various types of estrogen on electrospun polymeric nanofiber membranes

This study focuses on the adsorption kinetics of four highly potent sex hormones (estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), and estriol (E3)), present in water reservoirs, which are considered a major cause of fish feminization, low sperm count in males, breast and ovarian cancer in females induced by hormonal imbalance. Herein, electrospun polymeric nanostructures were produced from cellulose acetate, polyamide, polyethersulfone, polyurethanes (918 and elastollan), and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) to simultaneously adsorbing these estrogenic hormones in a single step process and to compare their performance. These nanofibers possessed an average fiber diameter in the range 174–330 nm and their specific surface area ranged between 10.2 and 20.9 m2 g−1. The adsorption–desorption process was investigated in four cycles to determine the effective reusability of the adsorption systems. A one-step high-performance liquid chromatography technique was developed to detect and quantify concurrently each hormone present in the solution. Experimental data were obtained to determine the adsorption kinetics by applying pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models. Findings showed that E1, E2 and EE2 best fitted pseudo-second-order kinetics, while E3 followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. It was found that polyurethane Elastollan nanofibers had maximum adsorption capacities of 0.801, 0.590, 0.736 and 0.382 mg g−1 for E1, E2, EE2 and E3, respectively. In addition, the results revealed that polyurethane Elastollan nanofibers had the highest percentage efficiency of estrogens removal at ∼58.9% due to its strong hydrogen bonding with estrogenic hormones, while the least removal efficiency for PAN at ∼35.1%. Consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles demonstrated that polyurethane maintained the best efficiency, even after being repeatedly used four times compared to the other polymers. Overall, the findings indicate that all the studied nanostructures have the potential to be effective adsorbents for concurrently eradicating such estrogens from the environment.
Cholesterol-Lowering Intervention Decreases mTOR Complex 2 Signaling and Enhances Antitumor Immunity

Purpose: There is a need for strategies to prevent prostate cancer. Cholesterol-lowering interventions are employed widely and safely to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and has been proposed for chemoprevention. Using preclinical models and a window-of-opportunity clinical trial, we describe an adaptive antitumor immunity resulting from cholesterol lowering. Experimental Design: Statins do not reliably lower serum cholesterol in mice. Therefore, oral ezetimibe was administered to mice to lower serum cholesterol to clinically relevant levels and evaluated the final adaptive immune response. T-lymphocytes-specific mTORC2 knockout mice were used to evaluate mTOR signaling and antitumor immunity. Pretreatment and posttreatment prostate tumors and lymphocytes were examined from a window-of-opportunity clinical trial where men with prostate cancer were treated with 2 to 6 weeks of aggressive cholesterol-lowering intervention prior to radical prostatectomy. Results: Mice treated with oral ezetimibe exhibited enhanced antitumor immunity against syngeneic cancers in a CD8+ lymphocyte-dependent manner, produced immunity that was transferrable through lymphocytes, and had enhanced central CD8+ T-cell memory. In mice and in patients undergoing prostatectomy, lowering serum cholesterol inhibited mTORC2 signaling in lymphocytes and increased infiltration of CD8+ lymphocytes into prostate tumors. T-lymphocyte-specific mTORC2 knockout mice demonstrated enhanced CD8+ lymphocyte function and antitumor capacity. In patients, cholesterol-lowering intervention prior to prostatectomy decreased the proliferation of normal prostate and low-grade adenocarcinomas. Conclusions: Lowering serum cholesterol decreased signaling through mTORC2 and enhanced antitumor CD8+ T-cell memory. We provide a rationale for large-scale clinical testing of cholesterol lowering strategies for prostate cancer chemoprevention.
Training and competition injury epidemiology in professional basketball players: a prospective observational study

ABSTRACT Background There is a lack of epidemiological data comparing the characteristics of injuries sustained during basketball matches vs. training taking into account incidence, type of injury, body location and risk factors associated with the development of the injury. Purpose The main aim of the present study was to analyze the incidence and characteristics of training vs. competition injuries sustained by professional basketball players. Methods The injuries incurred by 61 professional basketball players (mean ± SD, age: 25.7 ± 5.1 years; height: 200.2 ± 9.2 cm; body mass: 98.2 ± 13.8 kg) from the same team were prospectively recorded by the team’s medical staff for 6 consecutive seasons (2014/15 to 2019/20). The team competed in a top national basketball division and in the EuroLeague among other national-level competitions. The injuries were recorded using a validated medical questionnaire that included information according to type, severity, location, and injury mechanism. Training and match times were also recorded for each player in order to calculate injury incidence. Results A total of 306 injuries were reported, representing 12.59 injuries per 1000 h of basketball play. Most injuries occurred without direct contact with another player/object (70.9%) and were located in the lower limbs (74.8%), particularly in the knee (22.9%). The incidence of injuries was higher during competition than during training: 77.83 vs. 8.29 injuries per 1000 h of basketball play. However, there were no differences in the mechanism and mode of onset between training and competition injuries while the proportion of time-loss injuries was also similar in training and competition. Conclusions In summary, injury incidence in professional basketball was ~10-times higher during competition than during training. Beyond differences in incidence, injury characteristics were similar for basketball training and competition.
Sex and Prediction Error, Part 2: Jouissance and The Free Energy Principle in Neuropsychoanalysis

Jouissance refers to an excess enjoyment beyond (yet tied to) speech and representation. From the perspective of some Lacanian analysts, jouissance is precisely what testifies against any relationship to the brain—jouissance “slips” out of cognition. On the contrary, it is argued here that jouissance has a central place in contemporary neuropsychoanalysis. In part 1 of this series the metapsychology of jouissance was presented in relation to the real and symbolic registers. Here, in part 2, Mark Solms’s neuropsychoanalytic model of Karl Friston’s free energy principle is summarized. In this model, “predictions” aim to resolve prediction errors—most notably, those signaled by affective consciousness. “Surplus prediction error”—prediction error that arises at the point where the predictive model fails—is proposed to be a neural correlate of jouissance. This limit within prediction is analogous to the real as a structural negativity within the symbolic.
Fatigue, Depression, Cardiovascular Risk, and Self-Rated Health: Comparing a Community Sample of Adults to Those With a History of Myocardial Infarction

This cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to compare fatigue, depression, cardiovascular risk, and self-rated health in community dwelling adults (CDA) without a history of myocardial infarction (MI) compared to adults who had experienced an MI 3 to 7 years ago. A convenience sample (n = 40) of CDA completed: demographic health form, Revised Piper Fatigue Scale, and CES-D. Age-matched controls (n = 40) were randomly selected from the Recurrence of Myocardial Infarction (ROMI) study. Most (N = 80) were White (66%) with a mean age of 58.3 (SD = 11.5; range 21–83). The ROMI group reported more diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and hypertension, and had higher fatigue (t(61) = 4.51, p < . 001). No differences were noted in depression scores (p = .952). Higher fatigue and depression scores were correlated with poorer self-rated health: r = . 544 (p < .001) and r = . 295 (p = .008).
Global and Local Stress Analyses of McDonnell Douglas Stitched/RFI Composite Wing Stub Box

This report contains results of structural analyses performed in support of the NASA structural testing of an all-composite stitched/RFI (resin film infusion) wing stub box. McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Company designed and fabricated the wing stub box. The analyses used a global/local approach. The global model contains the entire test article. It includes the all-composite stub box, a metallic load-transition box and a metallic wing-tip extension box. The two metallic boxes are connected to the inboard and outboard ends of the composite wing stub box, respectively. The load-transition box was attached to a steel and concrete vertical reaction structure and a load was applied at the tip of the extension box to bend the wing stub box upward. The local model contains an upper cover region surrounding three stringer runouts. In that region, a large nonlinear deformation was identified by the global analyses. A more detailed mesh was used for the local model to obtain more accurate analysis results near stringer runouts. Numerous analysis results such as deformed shapes, displacements at selected locations, and strains at critical locations are included in this report.
STUDY OF THE HUMAN/ITS INTERFACE ISSUES ON THE DESIGN OF TRAFFIC INFORMATION BULLETIN BOARD AND TRAFFIC CONTROL SIGNAL DISPLAYS

The success of automation for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is ultimately contingent upon the interface between the users (humans) and the system (ITS). The issues of variable message signs (VMS) and traffic signal device (TSD) design were studied in this project. Well designed VMS and high TSDs will get better driver response. Those messages or signals will serve the intended purpose of helping the ITS function effectively. In this project, computer simulations and experimental design were conducted to determine the significant factors such as size, color, and shape, which might affect driver response. In addition to the commonly used circular-shaped traffic signals, other shaped signals were also included in this study. VMS are programmable message bulletin boards that are used to provide information about changing condition on highways to improve operations, reduce accidents, and inform drivers. This project studied the VMS used in present transportation systems and explored potential improvements through designed experiments. It evaluated the impacts of several factors on the design and display of VMS as the effectiveness of VMS depends upon their color scheme, format, size, wording, etc.