Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pre-Conception Interventions for Subfertile Couples Undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technology Treatment: Modeling Analysis

Background Approximately 1 in 7 couples experience subfertility, many of whom have lifestyles that negatively affect fertility, such as poor nutrition, low physical activity, obesity, smoking, or alcohol consumption. Reducing lifestyle risk factors prior to pregnancy or assisted reproductive technology treatment contributes to the improvement of reproductive health, but cost-implications are unknown. Objective The goal of this study was to evaluate reproductive, maternal pregnancy, and birth outcomes, as well as the costs of pre-conception lifestyle intervention programs in subfertile couples and obese women undergoing assisted reproductive technology. Methods Using a hypothetical model based on quantitative parameters from published literature and expert opinion, we evaluated the following lifestyle intervention programs: (1) Smarter Pregnancy, an online tool; (2) LIFEstyle, which provides outpatient support for obese women; (3) concurrent use of both Smarter Pregnancy and LIFEstyle for obese women; (4) smoking cessation in men; and (5) a mindfulness mental health support program using group therapy sessions. The model population was based on data from the Netherlands. Results All model-based analyses of the lifestyle interventions showed a reduction in the number of in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or intrauterine insemination treatments required to achieve pregnancy and successful birth for couples in the Netherlands. Smarter Pregnancy was modeled to have the largest increase in spontaneous pregnancy rate (13.0%) and the largest absolute reduction in potential assisted reproductive technology treatments. Among obese subfertile women, LIFEstyle was modeled to show a reduction in the occurrence of gestational diabetes, maternal hypertensive pregnancy complications, and preterm births by 4.4%, 3.8%, and 3.0%, respectively, per couple. Modeled cost savings per couple per year were €41 (US $48.66), €360 (US $427.23), €513 (US $608.80), €586 (US $695.43), and €1163 (US $1380.18) for smoking cessation, mindfulness, Smarter Pregnancy, combined Smarter Pregnancy AND LIFEstyle, and LIFEstyle interventions, respectively. Conclusions Although we modeled the potential impact on reproductive outcomes and costs of fertility treatment rather than collecting real-world data, our model suggests that of the lifestyle interventions for encouraging healthier behaviors, all are likely to be cost effective and appear to have positive effects on reproductive, maternal pregnancy, and birth outcomes. Further real-world data are required to determine the cost-effectiveness of pre-conception lifestyle interventions, including mobile apps and web-based tools that help improve lifestyle, and their effects on reproductive health. We believe that further implementation of the lifestyle app Smarter Pregnancy designed for subfertile couples seeking assistance to become pregnant is likely to be cost-effective and would allow reproductive health outcomes to be collected.
Protective potential of curcumin in L-NAME-induced hypertensive rat model: AT1R, mitochondrial DNA synergy.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Hypertension can be induced by inhibiting nitric oxide synthesis with L-NAME, which also has a role in oxidative stress. Curcumin has strong antioxidant property. Our aim was to examine the possible preventive role of curcumin on renal dysfunction secondary to hypertension. MATERIAL & METHODS Twenty-four adult male Albino rats were divided in four groups: normal (N); curcumin (C; received curcumin 100 mg/kg/day by oral gavage for 10 weeks); hypertensive (H; received L-NAME 40 mg/kg/day in their drinking water for 4 weeks); and hypertensive-curcumin (HC; received L-NAME and curcumin). Arterial blood pressure was evaluated non-invasively for 4 weeks. Rats were then sacrificed for assessment of oxidative stress (catalase, lipid peroxidase, reduced glutathione and superoxide dismutase), renal function and structure, and biomarkers of apoptosis (Bcl-2 and caspase-3). AT1R expression and renal mtDNA integrity were also assessed. RESULTS Curcumin attenuated the effects of L-NAME on blood pressure and renal function. The renal histopathological changes observed in the L-NAME group were improved by curcumin administration. The expression of Bcl2 and caspase-3 was improved associated with downregulation of AT1R in curcumin treated groups. The antioxidant markers and mtDNA fragmentation show marked increase in hypertensive group which significantly decreased after curcumin treatment. CONCLUSION Curcumin improved blood pressure elevation renal dysfunction. These improvements mediated through anti-oxidant capabilities and downregulation of AT1R favoring reduced apoptosis and preserved mitochondrial DNA.
Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of 905 COVID-19 Patients Admitted to Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex in the Capital City of Tehran, Iran.

BACKGROUND We studied the clinical characteristics and outcomes of 905 hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients admitted to Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex (IKHC), Tehran, Iran. METHODS COVID-19 patients were recruited based on clinical symptoms and patterns of computed tomography (CT) imaging between February 20 and March 19. All patients were tested for the presence of COVID-19 RNA. The Poisson regression model estimated the incidence rate ratio (IRR) for different parameters. RESULTS The average age (± standard deviation) was 56.9 (±15.7) years and 61.77% were male. The most common symptoms were fever (93.59%), dry cough (79.78%), and dyspnea (75.69%). Only 43.76% of patients were positive for the RT-PCR COVID-19 test. Prevalence of lymphopenia was 42.9% and more than 90% had elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) or C-reactive protein (CRP). About 11% were severe cases, and 13.7% died in the hospital. The median length of stay (LOS) was 3 days. We found higher risks of mortality in patients who were older than 70 years (IRR = 11.77, 95% CI 3.63-38.18), underwent mechanical ventilation (IRR = 7.36, 95% CI 5.06-10.7), were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) (IRR = 5.47, 95% CI 4.00-8.38), tested positive on the COVID-19 test (IRR = 2.80, 95% CI 1.64-3.55), and reported a history of comorbidity (IRR = 1.76, 95% CI 1.07-2.89) compared to their corresponding reference groups. Hydroxychloroquine therapy was not associated with mortality in our study. CONCLUSION Older age, experiencing a severe form of the disease, and having a comorbidity were the most important prognostic factors for COVID-19 infection. Larger studies are needed to perform further subgroup analyses and verify high-risk groups.
A Comparison of Hyperextension versus Neutral Positions for Vertebroplasty to Treat Neurologically Intact Kümmell Disease.

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy between hyperextension position (HPVP) and neutral position for vertebroplasty (NPVP) in treating Kümmell disease. STUDY DESIGN A Comparative descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Orthopaedics, Yantaishan Hospital, China, from December 2017 to July 2018. METHODOLOGY This study retrospectively analysed demographic features, operative information, radiologic data, and complications of 58 consecutive patients with single-level Kummel disease (KD) who underwent NPVP (n=27) or HPVP (n=31). All patients were observed preoperatively and at 2 days (POD 2) and one year postoperatively for cement leakage, Cobb's angle, antenior body height ratio, pain and disability. RESULTS The cement leakage rate was significantly lower in the HPVP group (p<0.01). The visual analogue scale (VAS) scores for pain, and Oswestry disability indices (ODIs) were lower in the HPVP group at one year postoperatively (both p<0.05). For the HPVP group, Cobb's angle was significantly smaller, and the anterior body height ratio (AR) was larger at POD 2 (p<0.05) and one year (p<0.05), postoperatively. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that HPVP could achieve a lower cement leakage rate with similar operative time, lower VAS and ODI scores, as well as better kyphosis restoration and AR recovery at the 1-year follow-up than NPVP. HPVP is thus superior to NPVP in treating KD. Key Words: Kyphosis, Cobb's angle, Cement leakage, Intervertebral stability, Surgical outcome, Kümmell disease, Vertebroplasty, Hyperextension position.
Effect modification by cardiorespiratory fitness on the association between physical activity and cardiometabolic health in youth: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness are inversely associated with markers of cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents, but the interplay between these variables in relation to the cardiometabolic risk profile is unclear. We systematically reviewed the literature to examine whether the association between physical activity and cardiometabolic health differs by levels of cardiorespiratory fitness in youth. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and EMBASE, filtered from 2001 up until July 2019. We obtained 8980 citations, with 6915 remaining after removal of duplicates. Estimates were retrieved from 18 studies. All included articles went through a risk of bias assessment. We found that 14 out of 20 (70%) effect-estimates supported stronger associations between physical activity and cardiometabolic health markers among low-fit youth as compared to their high-fit peers. The most consistent findings were observed with biochemical markers and blood pressure as outcomes. However, substantial uncertainty is associated with these findings as most of the included studies (~72%) had a high risk of bias. More than two-thirds of the findings supported greatest benefits of physical activity on cardiometabolic risk markers in youth with low cardiorespiratory fitness, although the clinical importance of this difference is unclear.
Measurement of Semantic Textual Similarity in Clinical Texts: Comparison of Transformer-Based Models

Background Semantic textual similarity (STS) is one of the fundamental tasks in natural language processing (NLP). Many shared tasks and corpora for STS have been organized and curated in the general English domain; however, such resources are limited in the biomedical domain. In 2019, the National NLP Clinical Challenges (n2c2) challenge developed a comprehensive clinical STS dataset and organized a community effort to solicit state-of-the-art solutions for clinical STS. Objective This study presents our transformer-based clinical STS models developed during this challenge as well as new models we explored after the challenge. This project is part of the 2019 n2c2/Open Health NLP shared task on clinical STS. Methods In this study, we explored 3 transformer-based models for clinical STS: Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), XLNet, and Robustly optimized BERT approach (RoBERTa). We examined transformer models pretrained using both general English text and clinical text. We also explored using a general English STS dataset as a supplementary corpus in addition to the clinical training set developed in this challenge. Furthermore, we investigated various ensemble methods to combine different transformer models. Results Our best submission based on the XLNet model achieved the third-best performance (Pearson correlation of 0.8864) in this challenge. After the challenge, we further explored other transformer models and improved the performance to 0.9065 using a RoBERTa model, which outperformed the best-performing system developed in this challenge (Pearson correlation of 0.9010). Conclusions This study demonstrated the efficiency of utilizing transformer-based models to measure semantic similarity for clinical text. Our models can be applied to clinical applications such as clinical text deduplication and summarization.
Key root traits of Poaceae for adaptation to soil water gradients

Summary Drought and flooding are contrasting abiotic stressors for plants. Evidence is accumulating for root anatomical traits being essential for the adaptation to drought or flooding. However, an integrated approach to comprehensively understand root anatomical traits has not yet been established. Here we analysed the root anatomical traits of 18 wild Poaceae species differing in adaptation to a range of soil water content. Regression model analyses revealed the optimal anatomical traits that were required by the plants to adapt to low or high soil water content. While the area and number of each root tissue (e.g. stele, cortex, xylem or aerenchyma) were not strongly correlated to the soil water content, the ratio of the root tissue areas (cortex to stele ratio (CSR), xylem to stele ratio (XSR) and aerenchyma to cortex ratio (ACR)) could fully explain the adaptations of the wild Poaceae species to the soil water gradients. Our results demonstrate that the optimal anatomical traits for the adaptations to soil water content can be determined by three indices (i.e. CSR, XSR and ACR), and thus we propose that these root anatomical indices can be used to improve the tolerance of crops to drought and flooding stresses.
Long-lasting tagging of neurons activated by seizures or cocaine administration in Egr1-CreERT2 transgenic mice

Permanent tagging of neuronal ensembles activated in specific experimental situations is an important objective to study their properties and adaptations. In the context of learning and memory these neurons are referred to as engram neurons. Here we describe and characterize a novel mouse line, Egr1-CreERT2, which carries a transgene in which the promoter of the immediate early gene Egr1 drives the expression of the CreERT2 recombinase that is only active in the presence of tamoxifen metabolite, 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen (4-OHT). Egr1-CreERT2 mice were crossed with various reporter mice, Cre-dependently expressing a fluorescent protein. Without tamoxifen or 4-OHT, no or few tagged neurons were observed. Epileptic seizures induced by pilocarpine or pentylenetetrazol in the presence of tamoxifen or 4-OHT, induced the persistent tagging of many neurons and some astrocytes in the dentate gyrus of hippocampus, where Egr1 is transiently induced by seizures. One week after cocaine and 4-OHT administration, these mice displayed a higher number of tagged neurons in the dorsal striatum than saline/4-OHT controls, with differences between reporter lines. Cocaine-induced tagging required ERK activation and tagged neurons were more likely than others to exhibit ERK phosphorylation or Fos induction after a second injection. Interestingly neurons tagged in saline-treated mice also had an increased propensity to express Fos, suggesting the existence of highly responsive striatal neurons susceptible to be re-activated by cocaine repeated administration, which may contribute to the behavioral adaptations. Our report validates a novel transgenic mouse model for permanently tagging activated neurons and studying long term alterations of Egr1-expressing cells.
Manipulation of a Cation-π Sandwich Reveals Conformational Flexibility in Phenylalanine Hydroxylase

Phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) is an allosteric enzyme responsible for maintaining phenylalanine (Phe) below neurotoxic levels; its failure results in phenylketonuria. Wild type (WT) PAH equilibrates among resting-state (RS-PAH) and activated (A-PAH) conformations, whose equilibrium position depends upon allosteric Phe binding to the A-PAH conformation. The RS-PAH conformation of WT rat PAH (rPAH) contains a cation-π sandwich between Phe80, Arg123, and Arg420, which cannot exist in the A-PAH conformation. Phe80 variants F80A, F80D, F80L, and F80R were prepared; their conformational equilibrium was evaluated using native PAGE, size exclusion chromatography, ion exchange behavior, intrinsic protein fluorescence, enzyme kinetics, and limited proteolysis, each as a function of [Phe]. Like WT rPAH, F80A and F80D show allosteric activation by Phe while F80L and F80R are constitutively active. Maximal activity of all variants suggests relief of a rate-determining conformational change involving Phe80. Limited proteolysis of WT rPAH in the absence of Phe reveals facile cleavage within a C-terminal 4-helix bundle that is buried in the RS-PAH tetramer interface, reflecting dynamic dissociation of the RS-PAH conformation. This cleavage is not seen for the Phe80 variants, which all show proteolytic hypersensitivity in a linker that repositions during the RS-PAH to A-PAH conformational interchange. Hypersensitivity is corrected by addition of Phe such that all Phe80 variants become like WT rPAH and achieve the A-PAH conformation. Thus, manipulation of Phe80 perturbs the conformational space sampled by PAH, increasing the propensity to sample intermediates in the RS-PAH and A-PAH interchange, which are presumed on-pathway because they can readily achieve the A-PAH conformation by addition of Phe.
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF Cu(I) CONCENTRATION IN CLICK CHEMISTRY : BIOTINYLATION AT SIDE CHAIN OF PROPARGYLGLYCINE USING CLICK CHEMISTRY UNDER HEATING CONDITIONS (Dedicated to Professor Dr. Ei-ichi Negishi on the occasion of his 77th birthday)

– The click reaction is one of the latest techniques for the chemical modification of bioactive compounds. Chemical modifications of  -amino acid side chains are gaining significance as useful and important tools for biochemical research. Biotinylation at side chain of propargylglycine using click reaction was examined. The detail quantitative analysis of Cu(I) concentration are performed to proceed the click reaction effectively.
Managerial Knowledge Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment

This paper analyses managerial knowledge spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) and provides a first empirical test of their existence and extent using a recent UK national workplace survey dataset and linked Annual Response Database. It is found that multinational enterprises have adopted more management practices across a wide range of areas than the indigenous firms. Statistical evidence suggests that there are significant intra-firm transfer and inter-firm spillovers of managerial knowledge from FDI. The productivity effects of these spillovers on indigenous workplaces are positive and statistically significant. Implications for cross country productivity gap are discussed.
Risk factors for the development of knee osteoarthritis

Objective. This article presents case control study conducted at the Rheumatology Outpatient Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. The aim of this study was to determine several risk factors for the development of knee osteoarthritis (OA) at Rheumatology out-patient unit Department of InternalMedicine, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital.Method. This study used a case control design. Subjects were divided into two groups, case group and control group. The case group included all patients who had kneecomplaints that fulfi lled the 1990 American College of Radiology criteria while the control group included patients randomly chosen from visitors of the RheumatologyOutpatient Unit of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital who did not complain of knee pain and had been proven of not suffering OA by physical and radiological examinations. A similar questionnaire was designed for both groups. After filling out the questionnaire, both groups were examined physically and radiologically. The risk factors were analyzed using logistic regression.Results. We included 127 patients in the case group and 102 in the control group. In the case group, there were 95 women (74.80 %) and 32 men (25.20%) while the control group consisted of 69 women (67.65%) and 33 men (32.35%). From the analysis of several risk factors, there were signifi cant differences between the case and control groups such as weight (p < 0.0001 df 3), prior history of overweight or obesity (x2 = 21.255, df 1, p < 0.0001), knee trauma (p = 0.0002), and kneel down activity (p < 0.0001). There was also a signifi cant difference of smoking habit between the case group and the control group (p < 0.0001). Duration of smoking cessation was also signifi cantly different between the case group and controlgroup (t = 2.315, df 45, p = 0.0252). From the multivariate analysis, it was found that age, kneel down activity, prior obesity condition, interval between knee trauma and onset of OA, smoking habit, and duration of smoking cessation had a signifi cant correlation with knee OA.Conclusion. Age, prior history of overweight or obesity, kneeling, and interval between knee trauma and onset of OA were risk factors of knee OA. Smoking was a negative risk factor for knee OA. The protective effect of smoking was infl uenced by the duration of smoking habit and the duration of smoking cessation.
Impact of climate change on agricultural and natural ecosystems

This book illustrates the main results deriving from fourteen studies, dealing with the impact of climate change on different agricultural and natural ecosystems, carried out within the Impact of Climate change On agricultural and Natural Ecosystems (ICONE) project funded by the ALFA Programme of the European Commission. During this project, a common methodology on several Global Change-related matters was developed and shared among members of scientific communities coming from Latin America and Europe. In order to facilitate this interdisciplinary approach, specific mobility programmes, addressed to post-graduate, Master and PhD students, have been organized. The research, led by the research groups, was focused on the study of the impact of climate change on various environmental features (i.e. runoff in hydrological basins, soil erosion and moisture, forest canopy, sugarcane crop, land use, drought, precipitation, etc). Integrated and shared methodologies of atmospheric physics, remote sensing, eco-physiology and modelling have been applied.
Physical Chemistry for the Chemical and Biological Sciences

Introduction The Gas Laws Kinetic Theory of Gases The First Law of Thermodynamics The Second Law of Thermodynamics Gibbs and Helmholtz Energies and Their Applications Nonelectrolyte Solutions Electrolyte Solutions Chemical Equilibrium Electrochemistry Acids and Bases Chemical Kinetics Enzyme Kinetics Quantum Mechanics The Chemical Bond Intermolecular Forces Spectroscopy Molecular Symmetry and Optical Activity Photochemistry and Photobiology The Solid State The Liquid State Macromolecules Statistical Thermodynamics Appendices Glossary Answers to Even-Numbered Numerical Problems Index
Models for combustion and formation of nitric oxide and soot in direct injection diesel engines. SAE Paper 760129

A mathematical model was developed for predicting the concentration of exhaust nitric oxide, soot and other emissions in a direct injection diesel engine. In the model, it was emphasized to describe the phenomena occurring in the combustion chamber from the microscopic point of view. The prediction was based on the knowledges concerning a single droplet as well as the droplet size distribution in a fuel spray and the spatial and temporal distribution histories of fuel in a combustion chamber. The heterogeneous field of temperature and equivalence ratio, and uniform pressure in the cylinder were postulated. The heat release model gives the burning rate of injected fuel and pressure and temperature history in the cylinder. The concentration of nitric oxide and soot in the cylinder was predicted by the emission formation model. In order to confirm the validity of the theoretical analysis, the calculated results were compared with the experimental results for typical direct injection diesel engine.