Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of inhaler use on dental caries in asthma pediatrics patients: A case-control study.

INTRODUCTION Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that is highly prevalent among pediatric patients. The results about the effect of asthma on the rate of dental caries are contradictory. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of dental caries in asthma pediatric patients using inhaled drugs. POPULATION AND METHODS Case-control study in a sample made up of pediatric patients who attended Centro Médico Naval "Cirujano Mayor Santiago Távara" between December 2014 and March 2015. Patients were divided into two groups: group A (cases) included asthma patients using inhalers as part of their treatment; group B (controls), healthy subjects who attended the same facility. A medical examination was done to determine the type, time, and frequency of treatment and an oral exam, to establish the prevalence of dental caries and the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index. RESULTS The prevalence of dental caries was 34.2 % in the control group and 28.3 % in the case group (p = 0.094). In relation to the rate of dental caries, the DMFT index in the control group was 4.73 ± 0.32, and 3.98 ± 0.31 in the case group (p = 0.08). However, it was evidenced that a longer duration of inhaler use led to a significantly higher DMFT index (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Inhaled drugs do not increase the prevalence of dental caries in asthma pediatric patients. However, there is a direct relationship between treatment duration and the prevalence of dental caries.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness Normalized to Fat-Free Mass and Mortality Risk

ABSTRACT Purpose Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is known to be directly related to fat-free mass (FFM), therefore, it has been suggested that normalizing CRF to FFM (V˙O2peakFFM) may be the most accurate expression of CRF as related to exercise performance and cardiorespiratory function. However, the influence of V˙O2peakFFM (mL·kg FFM−1·min−1) on predicting mortality has been largely unexplored. This study aimed to primarily assess the relationship between V˙O2peakFFM and all-cause and disease-specific mortality risk in apparently healthy adults. Further, this study sought to compare the predictive ability of V˙O2peakFFM to V˙O2peak normalized to total body weight (V˙O2peakTBW) for mortality outcomes. Methods Participants included 2905 adults (1555 men, 1350 women) who completed a cardiopulmonary exercise test between 1970 and 2016 to determine CRF. Body composition was assessed using the skinfold method to estimate FFM. Cardiorespiratory fitness was expressed as V˙O2peakTBW and V˙O2peakFFM. Participants were followed for 19.0 ± 11.7 yr after their cardiopulmonary exercise test for mortality outcomes. Cox-proportional hazard models were performed to determine the relationship of V˙O2peakFFM with mortality outcomes. Parameter estimates were assessed to compare the predictive ability of CRF expressed as V˙O2peakTBW and V˙O2peakFFM. Results Overall, V˙O2peakFFM was inversely related to all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality, with a 16.2%, 8.4%, and 8.0% lower risk per 1 mL·kg FFM−1·min−1 improvement, respectively (P < 0.01). Further, assessment of the parameter estimates showed V˙O2peakFFM to be a significantly stronger predictor of all-cause mortality than V˙O2peakTBW (parameter estimates, −0.49 vs −0.16). Conclusions Body composition is an important factor when considering the relationship between CRF and mortality risk. Clinicians should consider normalizing CRF to FFM when feasible, because it will strengthen the predictive power of the measure.
Effects of zinc supplementation on metallothionein levels in ischemic renal tissue

ABSTRACT We investigated how zinc (Zn) supplementation affects metallothionein levels in the cortex and medulla of ischemic renal tissue of rats. We used adult male rats divided into four groups: group 1, untreated control; group 2, sham-operated; group 3, ischemia-reperfusion; group 4, ischemia-reperfusion + 5 g/kg Zn. Renal tissue was analyzed using immunostaining of rat metallothionein. Cells stained with metallothionein were counted and their percentage was calculated. We found that the Zn supplemented ischemia and reperfusion group exhibited a greater percentage of cells stained strongly for metallothionein in the renal cortex than all other groups. In the renal medulla, percentages of weak staining for metallothionein in the control and ischemia and reperfusion groups were greater than those in the sham and Zn-supplemented ischemia/reperfusion groups. Our findings indicate that the main effect of Zn in the renal tissue occurs in the cortex, while metallothionein synthesis in the renal medulla is unaffected.
Metachronous Pancreatic and Thyroid Metastases from Primary Soft-Tissue Myoepithelioma in the Clavicular Region: A Case Report of a Long-Term Survivor

Patient: Male, 69-year-old Final Diagnosis: Metachronous pancreatic and thyroid metastases from primary soft tissue myoepithelioma Symptoms: None Medication:— Clinical Procedure: Surgery Specialty: Surgery Objective: Rare disease Background: Myoepithelioma is a rare neoplasm that differentiates toward myoepithelial cells. This condition mainly occurs in the salivary gland and rarely in the soft tissue or internal organs. Long-term survival with repeated multiple rounds of resection for recurrence is rarely reported. Case Report: A 69-year-old man was diagnosed with metachronous pancreatic and thyroid metastases from myoepithelioma, which initially originated from a resected soft-tissue lesion in the left clavicular region in 2007. In addition, a locally recurrent lesion was resected and the patient received brachytherapy in 2015. Moreover, a meta-chronous metastatic lesion in the right lung was resected in 2017. Histopathological examination confirmed that all lesions were myoepithelioma. In the present case, pancreatoduodenectomy and right hemithyroidectomy for both metastatic lesions were successfully performed. Histopathology revealed small round-to-spindle-shaped tumor cells with atypia, proliferating in reticular formation, accompanied by myxoid stroma with chondromyxoid and hyalinized stroma, and the histology was similar to that observed in the previous specimen. Immunohistochemistry revealed positivity for cytokeratin (AE1/AE3), glial fibrillary acidic protein, vimentin, and S-100, and confirmed the diagnosis of myoepithelioma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study presenting a long-term survivor of soft-tissue myoepithelioma who underwent repeated multiple rounds of resection for recurrence in various organs. Conclusions: We reported the case of a long-term survivor of soft-tissue myoepithelioma requiring multiple rounds of surgical resection for local recurrence and metachronous metastases in the lung, pancreas, and thyroid. When managed appropriately, some patients might benefit in terms of survival from repeated resection of recurrent lesions.
Use of Composites in Analysis of Individual Time Series: Implications for Person-Specific Dynamic Parameters

Abstract Psychology has seen an increase in the study of intra-individual processes through time series. Although timely and relevant, modeling variance from unique sources in time series may lead to model non-convergence, making it tempting to reduce the number of parameters in the model. The purpose of this paper was to investigate use of composite scores in analysis of individual time series. To meet this goal, we compared the dynamic factor analysis (DFA) model using multiple indicators with the autoregressive (AR) and autoregressive + white noise (AR + WN) models using composites. We conducted a Monte Carlo study in which a DFA(1,1) model was used to generate the data with varying conditions of size of factor loadings, number of indicators, size of AR parameters, and time series length. We also conducted analysis of empirical data from six individuals’ daily self-reports of mood. Findings indicated that the DFA(1,1) and AR(1) + WN models performed comparably in their recovery of AR parameters, while the AR(1) model underestimated the parameter under nearly all conditions. However, variability of estimates may make the AR(1) + WN model less viable for researchers conducting individual-level analyses when the true data-generating mechanism is the DFA(1, 1) model.
Prevalence of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) in Iranian Breast Carcinoma Patients

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy affecting females worldwide. Various risk factors play a role in the developing of BC. Infectious agents like viruses have been proposed for this cancer and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a widely researched candidate virus. This study detects the presence of EBV-DNA in breast cancer patients. Methods: The study was conducted on 59 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks samples of women with breast carcinoma and 11 non-neoplastic breast controls. The DNA was extracted for all the samples. Then detection of EBNA1 EBV was done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: EBV was detected in 6.7% (4/59) of patients while all breast control samples were negative. All patients with positive EBV-DNA were high tumor grades (II, and III). Also, they had a low level of educations. Conclusions: According to our findings, it can be suggested that EBV may have a potential role in breast cancer development. However, this study provides substantial but not conclusive evidence for the involvement of viruses in BC disease development. Therefore, future investigations are needed to elucidate the exact role of EBV in breast cancer.
Cytokine responses to symbiotic and lactoferrin combination in very low birth weight neonates: a randomized control trial.

INTRODUCTION Probiotics and prebiotics, which are multifunctional agents, have potential benefits in chronic mucosal inflammation, including the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis. However, the mechanisms and the results of these immunomodulatory effects are not clear. This study aimed to investigate the cytokine response to the combination of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium together with fructo- and galacto-oligosaccharides (symbiotic) and lactoferrin in very low birth weight neonates. POPULATION AND METHODS Infants ≤ 32 GWs and ≤ 1,500 g were randomly assigned to receive a symbiotic combination or 1 ml distilled water as placebo starting with the first feed until discharge. Blood samples were obtained at postnatal 0 ± 2, 14 ± 2, and 28 ± 2 days, and the serum levels of interferon-y, interleukin (IL)-5, IL-10, and IL-17A were measured. RESULTS In the study group (n = 25), the IL-10 levels decreased throughout the study period (p = 0.011) but did not change in the control group. The IL-5 levels remained steady in the first 14 days and decreased significantly thereafter (p = 0.042) in the study group, whereas they increased in the first 14 days (p = 0.019), and then decreased in 28 days (p = 0.011) in the control group (n = 25). The levels of the other cytokines did not change throughout the study period. CONCLUSION The combined use of probiotics with oligosaccharides and lactoferrin was associated with a decrease in IL-10 levels, but no change was observed in the other cytokines.
Echocardiographic Changes in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with and without Hypertension

Background Whether type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is independently associated with structural heart abnormalities is controversial because of confounders associated with T2DM. This study aimed to investigate echocardiographic features in patients with newly diagnosed T2DM, exploring changes in cardiac structure and function. Material/Methods This was a retrospective study of new T2DM cases treated at the Second People’s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University (Changzhou) in 2014–2016. In all, 128 T2DM cases were included (62 hypertensive and 66 non-hypertensive individuals). Controls were selected among individuals who underwent examination at the same department/period. Interventricular septal thickness (IVST), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD), posterior left ventricular wall thickness (PWTD), left ventricle mass (LVM), end-diastolic thickness of left ventricular posterior wall (Dd), aortic root diameter, left atrial diameter (LAd), left atrial diameter fraction-shortening values, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were determined routinely. Results IVST, LVEDD, PWTD, Dd, LAd, and left atrial diameter fraction-shortening values were larger in patients with T2DM (all P<0.05 vs. controls). LVM was higher in T2DM patients (median, 57.12 vs. 54.77 g, P=0.001). There were no differences in aortic root diameter and EF (both P>0.05). Multivariable analysis showed that IVST (OR=1.33, 95% CI: 1.01–1.76, P=0.04), LAd (OR=1.16, 95% CI: 1.07–1.25, P<0.001), TGs (OR=1.34, 95% CI: 1.09–1.63, P=0.005), and HDL (OR=1.46, 95% CI: 1.02–2.08, P=0.04) were independently associated with hypertension in patients with T2DM. Conclusions Patients with newly diagnosed T2DM already display structural heart abnormalities. LAd and IVST are independently associated with hypertension in these patients, probably contributing to increased cardiovascular risk.
Comparative Study in Quality of Life between Thai Endometrial Cancer Survivors and Healthy Women in Thammasat University Hospital

Background: This study aimed to survey quality of life (QoL) in endometrial cancer survivors between surgery with adjuvant therapy (radiation with or without chemotherapy) and surgery alone in Thammasat University Hospital, Thailand. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Gynecologic Oncology clinic, Thammasat University hospital, Thailand between March 2011 and May 2019. Participants were endometrial cancer cases who underwent surgical staging with or without adjuvant treatment (study) and healthy women who came to gynecologic department for annual cervical screening (control). Assessment of QoL was investigated via the structural questionnaire designed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 (Thai version). Results: During the period of the study, 94 participants who were diagnosed with endometrial cancer and underwent surgical staging were enrolled. There were 51, 43 and 51 cases in group A (surgery with adjuvant therapy), group B (surgery only) and group C (control), respectively. Control cases were participants who had comparable demographic characteristics and underwent gynecological checkup during the period of study. In part of physical functioning, group B had statistically better scores than group A. Participant in group B and C reported significantly better QoL in part of social functioning than group A. Symptom severity; appetite loss and constipation in group B was statistically less than in group A. Constipation problems in group A and C were comparable. Participants in group C had worse global health status than group A/B. Conclusion: Adjuvant treatment with either radiation or chemotherapy had negative impacts on QoL in endometrial cancer survivors. It impacted physical health, social function, appetite loss, and constipation. All endometrial cancer survivors had global health scores better than healthy peers. Thoroughly counseling to endometrial cancer survivors remains an important tool for increasing awareness of treatment complications and lowering psychological emotional stress.
Can machine learning consistently improve the scoring power of classical scoring functions? Insights into the role of machine learning in scoring functions

How to accurately estimate protein-ligand binding affinity remains a key challenge in computer-aided drug design (CADD). In many cases, it has been shown that the binding affinities predicted by classical scoring functions (SFs) cannot correlate well with experimentally measured biological activities. In the past few years, machine learning (ML)-based SFs have gradually emerged as potential alternatives and outperformed classical SFs in a series of studies. In this study, to better recognize the potential of classical SFs, we have conducted a comparative assessment of 25 commonly used SFs. Accordingly, the scoring power was systematically estimated by using the state-of-the-art ML methods that replaced the original multiple linear regression method to refit individual energy terms. The results show that the newly-developed ML-based SFs consistently performed better than classical ones. In particular, gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) and random forest (RF) achieved the best predictions in most cases. The newly-developed ML-based SFs were also tested on another benchmark modified from PDBbind v2007, and the impacts of structural and sequence similarities were evaluated. The results indicated that the superiority of the ML-based SFs could be fully guaranteed when sufficient similar targets were contained in the training set. Moreover, the effect of the combinations of features from multiple SFs was explored, and the results indicated that combining NNscore2.0 with one to four other classical SFs could yield the best scoring power. However, it was not applicable to derive a generic target-specific SF or SF combination.
CFTR deletion affects mouse osteoblasts in a gender‐specific manner

Advancements in research and care have contributed to increase life expectancy of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). With increasing age comes a greater likelihood of developing CF bone disease, a comorbidity characterized by a low bone mass and impaired bone quality, which displays gender differences in severity. However, pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this gender difference have never been thoroughly investigated. We used bone marrow‐derived osteoblasts and osteoclasts from Cftr+/+ and Cftr−/− mice to examine whether the impact of CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) deletion on cellular differentiation and functions differed between genders. To determine whether in vitro findings translated into in vivo observations, we used imaging techniques and three‐point bending testing. In vitro studies revealed no osteoclast‐autonomous defect but impairment of osteoblast differentiation and functions and aberrant responses to various stimuli in cells isolated from Cftr−/− females only. Compared with wild‐type controls, knockout mice exhibited a trabecular osteopenic phenotype that was more pronounced in Cftr−/− males than Cftr−/− females. Bone strength was reduced to a similar extent in knockout mice of both genders. In conclusion, we find a trabecular bone phenotype in Cftr−/− mice that was slightly more pronounced in males than females, which is reminiscent of the situation found in patients. However, at the osteoblast level, the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this phenotype differ between males and females, which may underlie gender differences in the way bone marrow–derived osteoblasts behave in absence of CFTR.
Reverse Attention-Based Residual Network for Salient Object Detection

Benefiting from the quick development of deep convolutional neural networks, especially fully convolutional neural networks (FCNs), remarkable progresses have been achieved on salient object detection recently. Nevertheless, these FCNs based methods are still challenging to generate high resolution saliency maps, and also not applicable for subsequent applications due to their heavy model weights. In this paper, we propose a compact and efficient deep network with high accuracy for salient object detection. Firstly, we propose two strategies for initial prediction, one is a new designed multi-scale context module, the other is incorporating hand-crafted saliency priors. Secondly, we employ residual learning to refine it progressively by only learning the residual in each side-output, which can be achieved with few convolutional parameters, therefore leads to high compactness and high efficiency. Finally, we further design a novel top-down reverse attention block to guide the above side-output residual learning. Specifically, the current predicted salient regions are used to erase its side-output feature, thus the missing object parts and details can be efficiently learned from these unerased regions, which results in more complete detection and high accuracy. Extensive experimental results on seven benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed network performs favorably against the state-of-the-art approaches, and shows advantages in simplicity, compactness and efficiency.
Innate and Adaptive Immune Correlates of Chronic and Self-limiting EBV DNAemia in Solid-organ Transplant Recipients

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNAemia is a major risk factor for posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder; however, immune correlates of EBV DNAemia in the transplant setting are limited. Methods. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from 30 transplant recipients with self-limiting EBV DNAemia (SLD; n = 11) or chronic EBV DNAemia (CD; n = 19) at enrollment and 4–8 weeks later. Mass cytometry was used to characterize innate and T-cell immune correlates of EBV DNAemia. Furthermore, flow cytometry was used to measure the frequency of EBV-specific T-cell responses between groups following stimulation with an EBV-infected cell lysate. Results. Unsupervised analysis of the innate compartment (CD3–CD19– cells) identified 5 CD11c+ clusters at higher abundance in the SLD group (false discovery rate ≤ 1%). These clusters expressed CD11b, CD45RO, CD14, CD123, CD127, and CD38, among others. Unsupervised profiling of the T-cell compartment (CD3+CD19–) revealed 2 CD4+ T-cell clusters at higher frequency among those with SLD (false discovery rate ≤ 1%), which expressed CD45RA, CCR7, CD27, CD28, and CD40L—suggestive of a naive T cell (TN). Manual biaxial gating confirmed increased frequencies of conventional dendritic cells (3.1% versus 2.1%; P = 0.023) and CD4+ TN (4.4% versus 1.9%; P = 0.018) among those with SLD. Last, frequencies of interferon-γ–producing EBV-specific CD4+ T cells were significantly lower in the CD group relative to those with SLD (4243 versus 250 cells/106 cells; P = 0.015). Conclusions. CD is associated with a reduction of CD11c+ cells, CD4+ TN, and interferon-γ–producing EBV-specific CD4+ T cells, suggesting an interplay between innate and adaptive immune compartments may be important for regulating EBV DNAemia.
Neuroticism, conscientiousness, and in vivo Alzheimer pathologies measured by amyloid PET and MRI

It has been suggested that personality traits, particularly neuroticism and conscientiousness, are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related cognitive decline. However, the underlying pathological links between personality traits and AD‐related cognitive impairments remain unclear. Thus, the present study investigated associations of neuroticism and conscientiousness with in vivo cerebral amyloid‐beta (Aβ) burden, AD‐signature regional neurodegeneration, and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in non‐demented middle‐ and old‐aged adults.