Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary amino acids and anthropometric indices: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study

ABSTRACT Objective: Recent studies investigated the role of amino acids (AAs) in weight management. We aimed to determine the association between AAs and three-year change of anthropometric indices and incident obesity. Materials and methods: Height, weight, hip, and waist circumference (WC) were collected at baseline and follow up. Three-year changes in anthropometric indices and obesity incident according to body mass index (BMI) (overweight & obesity) and WC cutoffs (obesity-WC) were ascertained. Dietary intakes of AAs were collected at baseline, using a food frequency questionnaire. Data analyses were conducted on 4976 adult participants and two subsamples, including 1,570 and 2,918 subjects, for assessing the AAs relationship with 3-year changes on anthropometric indices and obesity incident. Results: Lysine and aspartic acid were positively associated with higher weight change, whereas acidic AAs, cysteine, and glutamic acid showed a negative correlation with weight change. Furthermore, a weak positive correlation was shown for alkaline AAs, lysine, and valine with WC; however, acidic AAs, tryptophan, cysteine, and glutamic acid were negatively associated with WC. Aromatic and acidic AAs also demonstrated a weak negative relation with changes in BAI. Phenylalanine and Aromatic AAs showed a negative association with overweight &obesity incidence adjusting for potential confounders. Each quartile increases the dietary lysine, arginine, alanine, methionine, aspartic acid, and alkaline AAs related to a greater risk of obesity-WC, while tryptophan, glutamic acid, proline, and acidic AAs associated with lower obesity-WC risk. Conclusion: Our results suggested that certain dietary AAs may potentially change anthropometric indices and risk of obesity incident.
Potential therapeutic targets for Mpox: the evidence to date

ABSTRACT Introduction The global Mpox (MPX) disease outbreak caused by the Mpox virus (MPXV) in 2022 alarmed the World Health Organization (WHO) and health regulation agencies of individual countries leading to the declaration of MPX as a Public Health Emergency. Owing to the genetic similarities between smallpox-causing poxvirus and MPXV, vaccine JYNNEOS, and anti-smallpox drugs Brincidofovir and Tecovirimat were granted emergency use authorization by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The WHO also included cidofovir, NIOCH-14, and other vaccines as treatment options. Areas covered This article covers the historical development of EUA-granted antivirals, resistance to these antivirals, and the projected impact of signature mutations on the potency of antivirals against currently circulating MPXV. Since a high prevalence of MPXV infections in individuals coinfected with HIV and MPXV, the treatment results among these individuals have been included. Expert opinion All EUA-granted drugs have been approved for smallpox treatment. These antivirals show good potency against Mpox. However, conserved resistance mutation positions in MPXV and related poxviruses, and the signature mutations in the 2022 MPXV can potentially compromise the efficacy of the EUA-granted treatments. Therefore, MPXV-specific medications are required not only for the current but also for possible future outbreaks.
Differential expression of KCNQ1 and ATP4A genes according to the sex and age in the stomach

Abstract We compared the expression of six genes in stomach tissue samples between healthy men and women in different age groups to study sexually dimorphic gene expression. Real-Time RT-PCR was used to compare gene expression between men and women. Our results showed that the expression of KCNQ1 (p = 0.01) was significantly higher in non-menopausal women compared to post-menopausal women. In addition, the expression level of the ATP4A gene in men under 35 years was significantly higher than in men above 50 (p = 0.026). Sexually and age dimorphic gene expression in some genes throughout life may affect gastric function.
Knowing me, knowing you: a scoping review assessing the current field of social cognition in schizophrenia

Abstract Background Impaired social cognition (SC) occurs frequently in schizophrenia (SCZ), yet compared to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the research on SC in SCZ is sparse and methodologically heterogeneous. To accurately assess between-group SC differences it is further necessary to establish the relationship between nonsocial cognition (NSC) and SC, particularly as this may not be identical across disorders. Purpose The present study aimed to map, index and assess the quality of research published between 2014–2021 investigating SC in SCZ, and to summarize existing limitations and recommendations for future research. Method Following the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) fifteen (n = 15) case-control studies were identified and included across three electronic databases. Studies additionally utilizing ASD samples were included because of their clinical utility. Results Most studies reported significant SC impairments in SCZ relative to healthy controls (HC) with varying effect sizes. Significant differences between SCZ and ASD were not found in most studies including both samples. Weak-to-moderate correlations between SC and NSC were often found, although often only within patient samples. Across studies, SC tests were inconsistently described as measurements of "social cognition", "mentalization" and, most frequently and varyingly, “theory of mind”. Most studies lacked methodological transparency. Limitations related to sample sizes and test reliability were most frequently mentioned. Conclusions The current research on SC in SCZ is limited by conceptual and methodological uncertainties. Future research should focus on ensuring clear and valid definitions of key terms, evaluating and clarifying SC outcome measures and further untangling the relationship between SC and NSC.
“It’s Another Feather in My Hat”-Exploring Factors Influencing the Adoption of Apps With People Living With Dementia

Introduction With the growing interest and availability of mobile applications (apps) for people living with dementia, it is desirable to have a broader insight into how technology adoption may be further improved. This paper aims to explore the factors influencing adoption of mobile applications for people living with dementia. Methods The recruitment of participants was facilitated through a dementia advocacy group of people living with dementia. A focus group design was applied to elicit discussion and to explore divergent views on the topic. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings The 15 individuals who participated in this study comprised of seven women and eight men within the age range of 60-90 years. This study reports key findings pertaining to the views and experiences of using mobile apps. Data analysis revealed the following four distinct themes; (Theme 1: Living with dementia)-“That’s the difficulty there even with apps or anything else. ” (Theme 2: Motivation)- “It makes me feel good. I feel a little with it [laughs], that its not all gone in there” (Theme 3: Fears and Concerns)- “Can somebody else get into your personal memories? ” (Theme 4- Support)– “So it’s important that we have that support”. Together these themes encapsulate the most influential aspects, as highlighted by the participants influencing the acceptance and adoption of apps. Conclusion This paper explores the barriers and facilitators to app acceptance and adoption. This includes the importance of “feel good moments” and positive experiences, challenges associated with living with dementia, the importance of ongoing support, and security of the user’s information. This study adds to what is already known by capturing the views and experiences of people living with dementia in relation to the factors influencing the adoption of apps.
Reference intervals for serum TSH concentrations of healthy children from the Central Region of Brazil

ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentration reference intervals (RIs) of healthy children aged 1 to 10 years of both sexes, living in the Central Region of Brazil. Subjects and methods: 1,735 children [869 (50.1%) female; 866 (49.9%) male] enrolled in the morning shift of 47 pre- and 83 public elementary schools in the municipality of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, were studied by gathering anthropometric and social data and their medical history. A blood sample was collected from each child to determine the TSH concentration using the electrochemiluminescence method on a Cobas® 6000 modular analyzer (Analyzer series, Roche Diagnostics). Results: The RIs were determined using the 2.5 and 97.5 percentile and the mean ± 2 standard deviations methods. After identifying the homoscedastic groups by age and sex, outliers higher or lower than three standard deviations were excluded. The distribution of serum TSH concentrations showed no significant age or sex differences. Based on the percentile method, TSH RI ranged from 0.93 to 5.86 μIU/mL. Based on the mean ± 2 standard deviations, TSH RI ranged from 0.30 to 5.29 μIU/mL. Conclusion: The normal serum TSH concentration of the Brazilian children evaluated in this study differ from those of populations from other countries. Other regional population studies may validate the RIs found in this study and enable its safer use in pediatric clinical practice.
The E/e′ ratio on echocardiography as an independent predictor of the improvement of left ventricular contraction in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction

Clinical feature of heart failure with improved ejection fraction (HFimpEF) remains to be fully elucidated. The present study investigated the association of clinical and echocardiographic parameters with the subsequent improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
Contributions of age groups and causes of death to the sex gap in lifespan variation in Europe

Much less is known about the sex gap in lifespan variation, which reflects inequalities in the length of life, than about the sex gap in life expectancy (average length of life). We examined the contributions of age groups and causes of death to the sex gap in lifespan variation for 28 European countries, grouped into five European regions. In 2010–15, males in Europe displayed a 6.8-year-lower life expectancy and a 2.3-year-higher standard deviation in lifespan than females, with clear regional differences. Sex differences in lifespan variation are attributable largely to higher external mortality among males aged 30–39, whereas sex differences in life expectancy are due predominantly to higher smoking-related and cardiovascular disease mortality among males aged 60–69. The distinct findings for the sex gap in lifespan variation and the sex gap in life expectancy provide additional insights into the survival differences between the sexes.
Predicting Treatment Effects of a New‐to‐Market Drug in Clinical Practice Based on Phase III Randomized Trial Results

Trial results may not be generalizable to target populations treated in clinical practice with different distributions of baseline characteristics that modify the treatment effect. We used outcome models developed with trial data to predict treatment effects in Medicare populations. We used data from the Randomized Evaluation of Long‐Term Anticoagulation Therapy trial (RE‐LY), which investigated the effect of dabigatran vs. warfarin on stroke or systemic embolism (stroke/SE) among patients with atrial fibrillation. We developed outcome models by fitting proportional hazards models in trial data. Target populations were trial‐eligible Medicare beneficiaries who initiated dabigatran or warfarin in 2010–2011 (“early”) and 2010–2017 (“extended”). We predicted 2‐year risk ratios (RRs) and risk differences (RDs) for stroke/SE, major bleeding, and all‐cause death in the Medicare populations using the observed baseline characteristics. The trial and early target populations had similar mean (SD) CHADS2 scores (2.15 (SD 1.13) vs. 2.15 (SD 0.91)) but different mean ages (71 vs. 79 years). Compared with RE‐LY, the early Medicare population had similar predicted benefit of dabigatran vs. warfarin for stroke/SE (trial RR = 0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.50 to 0.76 and RD = −1.37%, −1.96% to −0.77%, Medicare RR = 0.73, 0.65 to 0.82 and RD = −0.92%, −1.26% to −0.59%) and risks for major bleeding and all‐cause death. The time‐extended target population showed similar results. Outcome model‐based prediction facilitates estimating the average treatment effects of a drug in different target populations when treatment and outcome data are unreliable or unavailable. The predicted effects may inform payers' coverage decisions for patients, especially shortly after a drug's launch when observational data are scarce.
Dissociating attentional capture from action cancellation during the inhibition of bimanual movement.

Inhibiting ongoing responses when environmental demands change is a critical component of motor control. Experimentally, the stop signal task (SST) represents the gold standard response inhibition paradigm. However, an emerging body of evidence suggests that the SST conflates two dissociable sources of inhibition, namely an involuntarily pause associated with attentional capture and the (subsequent) voluntary cancellation of action. The extent to which these processes also occur in other response tasks is unknown. Younger n = 24 (20-35 years) and older n = 23 (60-85 years) adults completed tasks involving rapid unimanual or bimanual responses to visual stimuli. A subset of trials required cancellation of one component of an initial bimanual response (i.e., selective stop task; stop left response, continue right response) or enacting an additional response (e.g., press left button as well as right button). Critically, both tasks involved some infrequent stimuli baring no behavioral imperative (i.e., they had to be ignored). EMG recordings of voluntary responses during stopping tasks revealed bimanual covert responses (muscle activation, which was suppressed before a button press ensued), consistent with a pause process, following both stop and ignore stimuli, before the required response was subsequently enacted. Critically, we also observed the behavioral consequences of a similar involuntary pause in trials where action cancellation was not part of the response set. Notably, the period over which movements were susceptible to response delays from additional stimuli was longer for older adults than younger adults. The findings demonstrate that an involuntary attentional component of inhibition significantly contributes to action cancellation processes.
Watermarking Based on CL Multi-wavelet

Digital watermark is invisible mark embedded in digital image, video or audio documents, which can be detected to protect copyright of multimedia data. The thesis describes a watermarking scheme based on CL multi-wavelets. After the CL multi-wavelet transformation of an image, most energy of the image is mainly concentrated on its lowest resolution sub-image. Moreover, most energy of the lowest resolution sub-image is further concentrated on its first component. Because lowest resolution sub-image can survive from some transformation such as compression, this scheme can improve robust of embedded watermark. But the invisibility of watermark is reduced at that time because of the sensitivity of the lowest resolution sub-image to HVS(Human Visual Model). The position to embed watermark is selected with a trade-off between robustness and invisibility. And preprocessing of the watermark image is here for declining the difference between the watermarked and original image. To deal with attack of counterfeit, it uses not additive method but replacement algorithm when embedding watermark. The correlation between the original and extracted watermark is computed to tell whether there exists watermark in the image. The performance of the proposed watermarking is invisible to HVS and robust to a variety of signal distortions, such as JPEG compression, filtering, cropping and incorporating attacks.
Objective measurement versus clinician-based assessment for Parkinson’s disease

ABSTRACT Introduction Although clinician-based assessment through standardized clinical rating scales is currently the gold standard for quantifying motor impairment in Parkinson’s disease (PD), it is not without limitations, including intra- and inter-rater variability and a degree of approximation. There is increasing evidence supporting the use of objective motion analyses to complement clinician-based assessment. Objective measurement tools hold significant potential for improving the accuracy of clinical and research-based evaluations of patients. Areas covered The authors provide several examples from the literature demonstrating how different motion measurement tools, including optoelectronics, contactless and wearable systems allow for both the objective quantification and monitoring of key motor symptoms (such as bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor, and gait disturbances), and the identification of motor fluctuations in PD patients. Furthermore, they discuss how, from a clinician’s perspective, objective measurements can help in various stages of PD management. Expert opinion In our opinion, sufficient evidence supports the assertion that objective monitoring systems enable accurate evaluation of motor symptoms and complications in PD. A range of devices can be utilized not only to support diagnosis but also to monitor motor symptom during the disease progression and can become relevant in the therapeutic decision-making process.
Automated Theorem Proving in a First-Order Logic with First class Boolean Sort

Automated theorem proving is one of the central areas of computer mathematics. It studies methods and techniques for establishing validity of mathematical problems using a computer. The problems are expressed in a variety of formal logics, including first-order logic. Algorithms of automated theorem proving are implemented in computer programs called theorem provers. They find significant application in formal methods of system development and as a mean of automation in proof assistants. This thesis contributes to automated theorem proving with an ex- tension of many-sorted first-order logic called FOOL. In FOOL boolean sort has a fixed interpretation and boolean terms are treated as formulas. In addition, FOOL contains if-then-else and let-in constructs. We argue that these extensions are useful for expressing problems coming from program analysis and interactive theorem proving. We give a formalisation of FOOL and a translation of FOOL formulas to ordinary first-order logic. This translation can be used for proving theorems of FOOL using a first-order theorem prover. We describe our implementation of this translation in the Vampire theorem prover. We extend TPTP, the standard input language of first-order provers, to sup- port formulas of FOOL. We simplify TPTP by providing more powerful and uniform representations of if-then-else and let-in expressions. We discuss a modification of superposition calculus that can reason efficiently about formulas with interpreted boolean sort. We present a superposition-friendly translation of FOOL formulas to clausal normal form. We demonstrate usability and high performance of these modifications in Vampire on a series of benchmarks coming from various libraries of problems for automated provers. Finally, we present an extension of FOOL, aimed to be used for auto- mated program analysis. With this extension, the next state relation of a program can be expressed as a boolean formula which is linear in the size of the program.
Donor Age Influences Graft-Versus-Host Disease Relapse-Free Survival after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant in Elderly Patients in Two Countries from Latin America.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (Allo-SCT) in elderly patients is a growing practice. We aimed to determine the graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) relapse-free survival (GRFS) in patients ≥65 years who underwent Allo-SCT in two countries from Latin America. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a retrospective analysis of patients ≥65 years who underwent Allo-SCT in Argentina and Brazil from 2007 to 2019. RESULTS Ninety-eight patients were evaluated, with primary diagnoses of acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome; 30% of patients had a hematopoietic cell transplant-comorbidity index (HCT-CI) score ≥3 and 49% were in complete remission. Donor types included matched sibling (n = 41), matched unrelated (n = 31), and haploidentical (HID; n = 26) donors. The conditioning regimen was myeloablative in 28 patients (14 busulfan pharmacokinetically [PK]-guided) and reduced-intensity in 70 patients. The two-year non-relapse mortality (NRM) was 29%, with a higher NRM in melphalan-based compared to other conditionings (51% vs. 33%, p = 0.02). The two-year relapse rate was 24%, with a reduction in PK-guided busulfan (0% vs. 28%, p = 0.03). The two-year overall survival (OS) and GRFS was 52% and 38%, respectively, with a significant reduction in GRFS in HCT-CI ≥3 (27% vs. others 42%, p = 0.02) and donors ≥40 years (29% vs. <40 years 55%, p = 0.02). These variables remained significantly associated with GRFS after multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION In this cohort of elderly patients from Argentina and Brazil undergoing Allo-SCT, donor age and comorbidities significantly influenced GRFS. The role of the conditioning regimen in this population deserves further investigation.
Coarse‐grained simulations of von Willebrand factor adsorption to collagen with consequent platelet recruitment

A multimeric glycoprotein of blood plasma—Von Willebrand factor (VWF)—mediates platelet adhesion to the fibrillar collagen of the subendothelial matrix if the blood vessel walls are damaged. The adsorption of VWF to collagen is thus essential for the initial stages of platelet hemostasis and thrombosis, as it plays a role of a molecular bridge between the injury and platelet adhesion receptors. Biomechanical complexity and sensitivity to the hydrodynamics are inherent in this system, therefore, modern computational methods supplement experimental studies of biophysical and molecular mechanisms that underlie platelet adhesion and aggregation in the blood flow. In the present paper, we propose a simulation framework for the VWF‐mediated platelet adhesion to a plane wall with immobilized binding sites for VWF under the action of shear flow. VWF multimers and platelets are represented in the model by particles connected by elastic bonds and immersed in a viscous continuum fluid. This work complements the scientific field by taking into account the shape of a flattened platelet, but keeping a compromise between the detail of the description and the computational complexity of the model.