Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk assessment of musculoskeletal disorders by Muscle Fatigue Assessment method and implementation of an ergonomic intervention in Assembly industry

Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders are a major part of occupational diseases in working environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders by the Muscle Fatigue Assessment (MFA) method. This study also sought to determine the effects of an ergonomic intervention on the mentioned risk in an assembly industry. Methods: This study was conducted on 15 people working in the assembly line. Medical records of assembly line workers were reviewed and Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaires (NMQ) after one year of intervention. Activities of these workers in the assembly line were evaluated by the Muscle Fatigue Assessment method (MFA) and workers were given the necessary training. Data were analyzed using the SPSS-16 software. Results: The initial evaluations showed that neck, back, leg and knee, respectively in 6.67, 20 and 13.33% were in "very high" priority corrective measures. Re-assessments after the intervention showed that percentage of people with musculoskeletal disorders in the neck in the "very high" corrective actions changed to zero. The percentage of organs, with "high" corrective actions before the intervention, was greatly reduced. For example, a reduction was recorded around the waist from 60% to 33.33% and neck from 53% to 26.27% after the intervention. A total of 30 cases of abnormalities were detected before the intervention, and after the intervention this number reduced to 11. conclusions: According to MFA score, risk of musculoskeletal disorders was reduced by intervention in this industry and according to Questionnaire, prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was also significantly reduced. Received: 1.05. 2016 Accepted: 07.06. 2016
Cow Milk and Intestinal Epithelial Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Systems for Enhancing Oral Drug Delivery

Ingestion is the preferred way for drug administration. However, many drugs have poor oral bioavailability, warranting the use of injections. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) from cow milk have shown potential utility in improving oral drug bioavailability. However, EVs produced by intestinal epithelial cells have not been investigated for this application. We compared the capacity of cow milk EVs and intestinal epithelial cell-derived counterparts to enhance oral drug bioavailability. EVs were isolated, fluorescently labelled, and loaded with curcumin (CUR) as a model poorly absorbable drug. These were then characterised before testing in an intestinal model (Caco-2). Epithelial cell-derived EVs showed notably higher cell uptake compared to cow milk EVs. Cell uptake was significantly higher in differentiated compared to undifferentiated cells for both types of EVs. While both milk- and cell-derived EVs improved the cell uptake and intestinal permeability of CUR (confirming oral drug bioavailability enhancement potential), epithelial cell EVs demonstrated a superior effect.
Mutations in a single signaling pathway allow cell growth in heavy water.

Life is completely dependent on water. To analyze the role of water as a solvent in biology, we replaced water with heavy water (D2O), and investigated the biological effects by a wide range of techniques, using Schizosaccharomyces pombe as model organism. We show that high concentrations of D2O lead to altered glucose metabolism and growth retardation. After prolonged incubation in D2O, cells displayed gross morphological changes, thickened cell walls and aberrant cytoskeletal organization. By transcriptomics and genetic screens, we show that the solvent replacement activates two signaling pathways: 1) the heat-shock response pathway and 2) the cell integrity pathway. Although the heat-shock response system upregulates various chaperones and other stress-relieving enzymes, we find that activation of this pathway does not offer any fitness advantage to the cells under the solvent replaced conditions. However, limiting the D2O-triggered activation of the cell integrity pathway allows cell growth when H2O is completely replaced with D2O. The isolated D2O-tolerant strains may aid biological production of deuterated biomolecules.
A graph regularized generalized matrix factorization model for predicting links in biomedical bipartite networks

MOTIVATION Predicting potential links in biomedical bipartite networks can provide useful insights into the diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases and the discovery of novel drug targets. Computational methods have been proposed recently to predict potential links for various biomedical bipartite networks. However, existing methods are usually rely on the coverage of known links, which may encounter difficulties when dealing with new nodes without any known link information. RESULTS In this study, we propose a new link prediction method, named graph regularized generalized matrix factorization (GRGMF), to identify potential links in biomedical bipartite networks. First, we formulate a generalized matrix factorization model to exploit the latent patterns behind observed links. In particular, it can take into account the neighborhood information of each node when learning the latent representation for each node, and the neighborhood information of each node can be learned adaptively. Second, we introduce two graph regularization terms to draw support from affinity information of each node derived from external databases to enhance the learning of latent representations. We conduct extensive experiments on six real datasets. Experiment results show that GRGMF can achieve competitive performance on all these datasets, which demonstrate the effectiveness of GRGMF in prediction potential links in biomedical bipartite networks. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The package is available at https://github.com/happyalfred2016/GRGMF. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Potential Probiotic Yeasts Sourced from Natural Environmental and Spontaneous Processed Foods

In the last decades, there has been a growing interest from consumers in their food choices. Organic, natural, less processed, functional, and pre-probiotic products were preferred. Although, Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii is the most well-characterized probiotic yeast available on the market, improvement in probiotic function using other yeast species is an attractive future direction. In the present study, un-anthropized natural environments and spontaneous processed foods were exploited for wild yeast isolation with the goal of amplifying the knowledge of probiotic aptitudes of different yeast species. For this purpose, 179 yeast species were isolated, identified as belonging to twelve different genera, and characterized for the most important probiotic features. Findings showed interesting probiotic characteristics for some yeast strains belonging to Lachancea thermotolerans, Metschnikowia ziziphicola, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Torulaspora delbrueckii species, although these probiotic aptitudes were strictly strain-dependent. These yeast strains could be proposed for different probiotic applications, such as a valid alternative to, or in combination with, the probiotic yeast S. cerevisiae var. boulardii.
Abnormal Emotional Processing and Emotional Experience in Patients with Peripheral Facial Nerve Paralysis: An MEG Study

Abnormal emotional reactions of the brain in patients with facial nerve paralysis have not yet been reported. This study aims to investigate this issue by applying a machine-learning algorithm that discriminates brain emotional activities that belong either to patients with facial nerve paralysis or to healthy controls. Beyond this, we assess an emotion rating task to determine whether there are differences in their experience of emotions. MEG signals of 17 healthy controls and 16 patients with facial nerve paralysis were recorded in response to picture stimuli in three different emotional categories (pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral). The selected machine learning technique in this study was the logistic regression with LASSO regularization. We demonstrated significant classification performances in all three emotional categories. The best classification performance was achieved considering features based on event-related fields in response to the pleasant category, with an accuracy of 0.79 (95% CI (0.70, 0.82)). We also found that patients with facial nerve paralysis rated pleasant stimuli significantly more positively than healthy controls. Our results indicate that the inability to express facial expressions due to peripheral motor paralysis of the face might cause abnormal brain emotional processing and experience of particular emotions.
Enhancing Students' Reasoning Skills in Engineering and Technology through Game-based learning

Engineering and technology are crucial domains both in colleges and in the industries as they play a vital role in the nations’ economy and serve as the medium for the nations’ active participation in the global competitiveness aiming at attaining industrial revolution 4.0 goals. These goals are only realized when graduates, particularly engineers and technologist are equipped with reasoning skills. In view of this, the paper highlighted the connections between reasoning skills in technology and engineering through game-based learning. The paper utilized systematic review format and synthesized the existing literature through search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, framework analysis and quality assessment. It further analyzed and discussed types of games in learning with relevant descriptions and how its integration into teaching and learning technology and engineering courses would enhance reasoning skills among students and promote their problem-solving ability and likewise creativity to innovate new products, machines and services for societal development. The paper suggested for the integrating of suitable games in learning technology and engineering courses.
Predictive energy equations for spinal muscular atrophy type I children.

BACKGROUND Knowledge on resting energy expenditure (REE) in spinal muscular atrophy type I (SMAI) is still limited. The lack of a population-specific REE equation has led to poor nutritional support and impairment of nutritional status. OBJECTIVE To identify the best predictors of measured REE (mREE) among simple bedside parameters, to include these predictors in population-specific equations, and to compare such models with the common predictive equations. METHODS Demographic, clinical, anthropometric, and treatment variables were examined as potential predictors of mREE by indirect calorimetry (IC) in 122 SMAI children consecutively enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal observational study. Parameters predicting REE were identified, and prespecified linear regression models adjusted for nusinersen treatment (discrete: 0 = no; 1 = yes) were used to develop predictive equations, separately in spontaneously breathing and mechanically ventilated patients. RESULTS In naïve patients, the median (25th, 75th percentile) mREE was 480 (412, 575) compared with 394 (281, 554) kcal/d in spontaneously breathing and mechanically ventilated patients, respectively (P = 0.009). In nusinersen-treated patients, the median (25th, 75th percentile) mREE was 609 (592, 702) compared with 639 (479, 723) kcal/d in spontaneously breathing and mechanically ventilated patients, respectively (P = 0.949). Both in spontaneously breathing and mechanically ventilated patients, the best prediction of REE was obtained from 3 models, all using as predictors: 1 body size related measurement and nusinersen treatment status. Nusinersen treatment was correlated with higher REE both in spontaneously breathing and mechanically ventilated patients. The population-specific equations showed a lower interindividual variability of the bias than the other equation tested, however, they showed a high root mean squared error. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrated that ventilatory status, nusinersen treatment, demographic, and anthropometric characteristics determine energy requirements in SMAI. Our SMAI-specific equations include variables available in clinical practice and were generally more accurate than previously published equations. At the individual level, however, IC is strongly recommended for assessing energy requirements. Further research is needed to externally validate these predictive equations.
The role of community sports clubs in adolescent mental health: the perspectives of adolescent males’ parents

Abstract Adolescent males are at relatively high risk of developing mental health disorders and show low rates of help seeking when mental health disorders arise. Parents are the primary source of support for adolescents and therefore have an important role in mental health promotion and prevention of mental health disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of adolescent males’ parents on the potential role of community sport clubs in adolescent mental health promotion. Forty-six parents of adolescent males took part in 10 focus groups to investigate parents’ mental health knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, perceptions of the role of sport clubs in mental health promotion and disorder prevention, and factors that might promote or limit participation in (and effectiveness of) mental health-focused interventions. Thematic analysis revealed that parents had low levels of mental health literacy, were worried about the development of mental health disorders, but reported favourable attitudes towards receiving education on adolescent mental health. Parents also reported low confidence in their ability to discuss mental health with their adolescent and expressed mixed views on the role of the sport club in promoting positive mental health. These findings are considered in the context of developing mental health interventions that can maximise use of the unique youth sport environment.
Efficacy of electrotherapy in Bell's palsy treatment: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND Up to now there is not enough evidence that supports the use of electrotherapy in the treatment of Bell's palsy. OBJECTIVE Through a systematic review, we aimed to verify whether the use of electrotherapy is effective for treating Bell's palsy or peripheral paralysis. METHODS Publications were searched in PubMed, EBSCO and Web of Science. The present systematic review included studies that analyzed the electrotherapy as a therapeutic method for treating individuals with Bell's palsy, in order to recover the function of facial muscles. RESULTS Seven studies involving a total of 131 cases and 113 controls were included in this systematic review. In the studies analyzed, patients received electrotherapy combined with other treatments such as hot-wet facial napkins, massages and muscle reeducation. Although the effect of electrotherapy alone was not evaluated, the use of electrotherapy combined with other treatments produced a significant improvement in the individuals evaluated. CONCLUSIONS Due to the diverse methodologies used and the small number of individuals included in the studies, we could not fully prove the efficacy of electrotherapy for treating Bell's Palsy. Future studies with larger samples and homogenous populations should be performed to obtain conclusive results.
A Review for the Clinician

The number of athletes self-administering ergogenic pharmacological agents to increase their competitive edge continues to be a problem. Most athletes using anabolic steroids (AS) have acquired a crude pharmacological database regarding these drugs. Their opinions regarding steroids have been derived from their subjective experiences and anecdotal information. For this reason, traditional warnings regarding the lack of efficacy and potential dangers of steroid misuse are disregarded. A common widely held opinion among bodybuilders is that the anabolic steroid experts are the athletic gurus who for years have utilised themselves as the experimental participants and then dispensed their empirical findings. This review will address the common anabolic steroid misconceptions held by many of today’s athletes by providing an evaluation of the scientific literature related to AS in athletic performance. LEADING ARTICLE
The Agglomeration of Manufacturing Industry, Innovation and Haze Pollution in China: Theory and Evidence

Haze pollution in China is a serious environmental issue, which does harm both to people’s health and to economic development. Simultaneously, as an important industrial development law, agglomeration may result in the increased concentration of manufacturing firms and, consequently, an increase in haze pollution. However, the positive externalities of agglomeration can also improve the efficiency of regional innovation, which curbs haze pollution. In this paper, we construct both theoretical and empirical models to investigate the effects of industrial manufacturing agglomeration on haze pollution. The results reveal the following: (1) By incorporating the effect of agglomeration and haze pollution into a general endogenous growth model, we show an inverted-U relationship between agglomeration and haze pollution on the balance growth path. (2) Based on data concerning haze pollution (PM2.5) and data from 285 Chinese cities, the empirical results verify the findings of the theoretical model. Further, we calculated the values of agglomeration variables, with respect to the inflection points of the inverted-U, which the cities need to reach in order to gain the specific agglomeration values required to enjoy the inhibition effect of agglomeration on haze pollution. (3) A heterogeneity analysis shows that the inverted-U relationship is more obvious among the cities in the middle and northeastern areas of China, as well as medium-size cities. (4) Cities’ environmental regulation policies and high-quality institutional environments can restrain the positive effect of agglomeration on haze pollution. (5) Using three measures of innovation, it is also empirically found that innovation is the mechanism (mediator) between agglomeration and haze pollution.
Attitudes and Perceived Barriers among Medical Students towards Clinical Research: A Cross-Sectional Study in an Egyptian Medical School

Background. Despite the key role played by physician-investigators in bridging basic and clinical sciences, their number has declined significantly in the last decades especially in developing countries. Thus, we aimed to investigate attitudes and perceived barriers towards participation in clinical research among medical students in an Egyptian medical school. Methods. We employed a cross-sectional design, in which 420 students from the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University completed a self-administrated questionnaire to assess their attitudes, perceived barriers, and knowledge about clinical research. The results were analyzed considering the students’ gender, year of enrollment, and high school background. Results. Seventy medical students from each year of enrollment participated in the study. The majority of students (74.2%) agree that undergraduates should participate in clinical research. However, only 23.8% reported engagement in related activities. Students showed low knowledge scores of on a scale of six questions. They highlighted several barriers against research participation including lack of time, proper mentoring, and funding. Conclusion. Although the majority of students showed positive attitudes towards clinical research, they reported low participation in related activities, associated with low knowledge scores. Several barriers should be addressed as lack of time, funding, and proper mentoring.
Intraoperative Transfusion is Independently Associated with a Worse Prognosis in Resected Pancreatic Cancer—A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Backgrounds: Investigate whether intraoperative transfusion is a negative prognostic factor for oncologic outcomes of resected pancreatic cancer. Methods: From June 2004 to January 2014, the medical records of 305 patients were retrospectively reviewed, who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy, pylorus preserving pancreatoduodenectomy, total pancreatectomy, distal pancreatectomy for pancreatic cancer. Patients diagnosed with metastatic disease (n = 3) and locally advanced diseases (n = 15) were excluded during the analysis, and total of 287 patients were analyzed. Results: The recurrence and disease-specific survival rates of the patients who received intraoperative transfusion showed poorer survival outcomes compared to those who did not (P = 0.031, P = 0.010). Through multivariate analysis, T status (HR (hazard ratio) = 2.04, [95% CI (confidence interval): 1.13–3.68], P = 0.018), N status (HR = 1.46 [95% CI: 1.00–2.12], P = 0.045), adjuvant chemotherapy (HR = 0.51, [95% CI: 0.35–0.75], P = 0.001), intraoperative transfusion (HR = 1.94 [95% CI: 1.23–3.07], P = 0.004) were independent prognostic factors of disease-specific survival after surgery. As well, adjuvant chemotherapy (HR = 0.67, [95% CI: 0.46–0.97], P = 0.035) was independently associated with tumor recurrence. Estimated blood loss was one of the most powerful factors associated with intraoperative transfusion (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Intraoperative transfusion can be considered as an independent prognostic factor of resected pancreatic cancer. As well, it can be avoided by following strict transfusion policy and using advanced surgical techniques to minimize bleeding during surgery.
Long-term Clinical Outcomes and Cost-Effectiveness of Full-Arch Implant-Supported Zirconia-Based and Metal-Acrylic Fixed Dental Prostheses: A Retrospective Analysis.

PURPOSE To provide a long-term comparison of metal-acrylic and zirconia implant-supported fixed complete dental prostheses. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients treated with a metal-acrylic or zirconia fixed implant prosthesis with a minimum 5-year follow-up were included. All complications were registered, along with events such as peri-implantitis and implant failure. Survival and all costs associated with the prostheses were assessed to provide an overall evaluation of each type of fixed implant prosthesis protocol. RESULTS Seventy-four rehabilitated arches (43 metal-acrylic, 31 zirconia, mean follow-up: 8.7 ± 3.37 years) were included. Delayed complications accompanied the metal-acrylic prostheses more frequently. In both groups, single tooth chipping/fracture was the most prominent minor complication, and incidence of multiple teeth and framework fracture was the most frequent major complication. Zirconia fixed implant prostheses demonstrated higher prosthetic survival rates than the metal-acrylic prostheses (93.7% ± 5.5% at 5 years vs 83.0% ± 11.1%). No difference was observed for peri-implantitis or implant failure. The initial cost for zirconia prosthesis fabrication was significantly higher than metal-acrylic hybrids (an estimated difference of $7,829 [P < .001]); however, due to reduced complication rates for the zirconia fixed implant prosthesis, maintenance and treatment for complications did not greatly differ between groups. CONCLUSION Within the limitations, zirconia fixed implant prostheses presented higher initial costs than metal-acrylic hybrids, however, with satisfactory outcomes, reduction of overall complications, and superior survival rates.