Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medical nutrition therapy using plant-focused low-protein meal plans for management of chronic kidney disease in diabetes

Purpose of review Nearly half of all Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) also have type-2-diabetes (T2D). Whereas traditional and emerging pharmacotherapies are increasingly frequently used for the management of CKD in diabetes (CKD/DM), the role of integrated or multimodal interventions including the potentially synergistic and additive effect of diet and lifestyle modifications in addition to pharmacotherapy has not been well examined, in sharp contrast to the well-known integrated approaches to heart disease. Recent findings Low-carbohydrate low-fat diets are often recommended in T2D, whereas low-protein diets (LPD) are recommended by guidelines for nondiabetic CKD with increasing emphasis on plant-based protein sources. High-protein diets with greater animal protein lead to glomerular hyperfiltration, especially in patients with T2D, and faster decline in renal function. Guidelines provide differing recommendations regarding the amount (low vs high) and source (plant vs animal) of dietary protein intake (DPI) in CKD/DM. Some such as KDIGO recommend 0.8 g/kg/day based on insufficient evidence for DPI restriction in CKD/DM, whereas KDOQI and ISRNM recommend a DPI of 0.6 to <0.8 g/kg/day. A patient-centered plant-focused LPD for the nutritional management of CKD/DM (PLAFOND), a type of PLADO diet comprising DPI of 0.6 to <0.8 g/kg/day with >50% plant-based sources, high dietary fiber, low glycemic index, and 25–35 Cal/kg/day energy, can be implemented by renal dietitians under Medical Nutrition Therapy. Summary Potential risks vs benefits of high vs low protein intake in CKD/DM is unknown, for which expert recommendations remain opinion based. Randomized controlled studies are needed to examine safety, acceptability and efficacy of PLAFOND.
Sedentary behaviors and gestational diabetes mellitus: A systematic review

Sedentary behaviors are activities that expend less energy than 1.5 metabolic equivalents, such as watching TV, sitting. We aim to systematically review the evidence to determine the association of sedentary behavior (SB) with the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, and the associations of SB with health outcomes in pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and women at high risk of gestational diabetes mellitus.
The origins of research and patterns of authorship in the International Journal of Production Research

This paper evaluates the origins of the research that has been published in the International Journal of Production Research (IJPR) for the time period 1985–2010, which includes approximately 77% of all articles that have been published in IJPR since its inception. We assess the productivity of individual authors, the author’s affiliation at the time each article was published, the country the author’s affiliation is located, and the institution where the author was granted a Ph.D. degree. By analysing the countries in which author affiliations are located, we can determine which countries are having the greatest impact on defining the research published in IJPR. For international journals, it is important to publish research from an international constituency, thus maintaining one of its purposes. By analysing the affiliations of the authors as well as where the authors received their Ph.D. training, we can determine which institutions are having the greatest contributions to the research published in IJPR. We believe it is useful to consider both the affiliations of the authors and where the authors received their academic training since both are indicative of an institution’s true influence on a journal. To date, no published study has examined the individuals, institutions, and countries that have contributed to IJPR and, in particular, where the contributing researchers received their Ph.D. degrees.
Hypertension Care for People With HIV in Tanzania: Provider Perspectives and Opportunities for Improvement

One in three people with HIV (PWH) has hypertension. However, most hypertensive PWH in sub-Saharan Africa are unaware of their hypertension diagnosis and are not on treatment. To better understand barriers to hypertension care faced by PWH, we interviewed 15 medical providers who care for patients with HIV and hypertension in northern Tanzania. The data revealed barriers at the patient, provider, and system level and included: stress, depression, and HIV-related stigma; lack of hypertension knowledge; insufficient hypertension training; inefficient prescribing practices; challenges with counselling; capacity limitations in hypertension care; high costs of care; and lack of routine hypertension screening and follow-up. Opportunities for improvement focused on prioritizing resources and funding towards hypertension care. System-related challenges were the underlying cause of barriers at individual levels. Strategies that focus on strengthening capacity and utilize existing HIV platforms to promote hypertension care delivery are urgently needed to improve cardiovascular outcomes among PWH.
Impact of the COVID-19 Confinement on Couple Satisfaction and Sexuality

Abstract This study examined dyadic adjustment, which is an essential aspect for a couple’s functioning, and its relationship with sexual self-esteem during COVID-19 confinement. This article presents data from before and during the confinement due to COVID-19 in Spain. 120 men and 89 women who were part of a couple at the time of confinement and completed an online survey participated in the study. The sample was obtained during the de-escalation months, from May 9th until July 1st, 2020. Three questionnaires were administered. The results that were obtained from the T-student, Pearson correlations and regression analyses show a decline in couples’ adjustment during the months of confinement. Regarding the Sexuality Scale, the results showed that the sexual-depression subscale and the sexual self-esteem subscale had a statistically significant role in predicting the dyadic adjustment during confinement. Overall, our findings suggest that confinement had a negative effect on sexuality because the sexual-depression of the sample increased and couple adjustment decreased during the confinement due to COVID-19.
Privacy Preserving Defense For Black Box Classifiers Against On-Line Adversarial Attacks

Deep learning models have been shown to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Adversarial attacks are imperceptible perturbations added to an image such that the deep learning model misclassifies the image with a high confidence. Existing adversarial defenses validate their performance using only the classification accuracy. However, classification accuracy by itself is not a reliable metric to determine if the resulting image is “adversarial-free”. This is a foundational problem for online image recognition applications where the ground-truth of the incoming image is not known and hence we cannot compute the accuracy of the classifier or validate if the image is “adversarial-free” or not. This paper proposes a novel privacy preserving framework for defending Black box classifiers from adversarial attacks using an ensemble of iterative adversarial image purifiers whose performance is continuously validated in a loop using Bayesian uncertainties. The proposed approach can convert a single-step black box adversarial defense into an iterative defense and proposes three novel privacy preserving Knowledge Distillation (KD) approaches that use prior meta-information from various datasets to mimic the performance of the Black box classifier. Additionally, this paper proves the existence of an optimal distribution for the purified images that can reach a theoretical lower bound, beyond which the image can no longer be purified. Experimental results on six public benchmark datasets namely: 1) Fashion-MNIST, 2) CIFAR-10, 3) GTSRB, 4) MIO-TCD, 5) Tiny-ImageNet, and 6) MS-Celeb show that the proposed approach can consistently detect adversarial examples and purify or reject them against a variety of adversarial attacks.
Pseudoachondroplasia: Phenotype and genotype in 11 Indian patients

Pseudoachondroplasia (PSACH) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by rhizomelic short‐limbed skeletal dysplasia. The primary clinical and radiographic features include disproportionate dwarfism, joint laxity and hyperextensibility, exaggerated lumbar lordosis, and late ossification of the epiphyses. Identification of disease‐causing variants in heterozygous state in COMP establishes the molecular diagnosis of PSACH. We examined 11 families with clinical features suggestive of PSACH. In nine families, we used Sanger sequencing of exons 8–19 of COMP (NM_000095.2) and in two families exome sequencing was used for confirming the diagnosis. We identified 10 de novo variants, including five known variants (c.925G>A, c.976G>A, c.1201G>T, c.1417_1419del, and c.1511G>A) and five variants (c.874T>C, c.1201G>C, c.1309G>A, c.1416_1421delCGACAA, and c.1445A>T) which are not reported outside Indian ethnicity. We hereby report the largest series of individuals with molecular diagnosis of PSACH from India and reiterate the well‐known genotype–phenotype corelation in PSACH.
An adaptive neuro-fuzzy model for the prediction and control of light in integrated lighting schemes

Advanced lighting simulation tools as well as computationally intelligent systems present the possibility of using a model based on computation as a means of controlling lighting on the visual task. Lighting control has now become an essential element of good design and an integral part of energy management programmes. This paper presents a novel computational model suitable for the adaptive predictive control of artificial light in accordance with the variation of daylight. Simulated data and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system are incorporated into the model. The software package Radiance is used to carry out the simulation. In this process, the role of a simulator is considered as the source of the system knowledge by which a supervised learner, implemented in adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is trained for faster predictions. The goal of this paper is to make use of the benefits of the hybridization between simulation and machine learning for the purpose of light control.
Oxymatrine promotes hypertrophic scar repair through reduced human scar fibroblast viability, collagen and induced apoptosis via autophagy inhibition

Scars are common complications of burns and trauma, resulting in mental trauma, physical pain, and a heavy financial burden for patients. Specific and effective anti‐scarring drugs are lacking in clinical practice. Phytochemicals are easily accessible, low in toxicity, and have various biological and pharmacological properties. Oxymatrine is a phytochemical that regulates autophagy networks. Autophagy is closely related to the maintenance, activity, differentiation, and life‐death of skin fibroblasts during wound repair, which results in pathological scars. We hypothesised that oxymatrine may promote hypertrophic scar repair by inhibiting fibroblast autophagy. In vitro studies showed that inhibition of autophagy by oxymatrine decreased viability and collagen metabolism, and increased apoptosis of human scar fibroblasts (HSFs). In vivo studies showed that inhibition of autophagy by oxymatrine promoted scar repair, resulting in a significantly improved final outcome of the hypertrophic scars, a smaller scar area, decreased epidermal and dermal thickness, and a significant downregulation of CK10, P63, collagen I, α‐SMA, and TGF‐β1. In summary, oxymatrine promoted hypertrophic scar repair by decreasing HSF viability and collagen, and inducing apoptosis via autophagy inhibition. This study provides a new perspective on the mechanism of hypertrophic burn scar formation, as well as key scientific data for the application of the phytochemical oxymatrine as a new method for the prevention and treatment of hypertrophic scars.
Optical coherence tomography angiography of retinal vasculature in recovered COVID-19 patients compared to age and ethnic matched controls

ABSTRACT Clinical relevance Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the retinochoroidal vasculature can provide valuable information regarding potential multi-organ ischaemic sequelae in COVID-19 patients, and can thus be a useful tool for optometrists, ophthalmologists, pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists and others. Background Assessment of retinochoroidal vasculature alterations in recovered mild COVID-19 patients using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) when compared to age and ethnic matched controls. Methods Multimodal imaging was performed using OCTA, spectral domain (SD)-OCT (Optovue RTVue XR Avanti; Optovue, Inc, Fremont, CA), and colour fundus photography (Compass; iCare Inc, Raleigh, NC). Vessel flow density, foveal avascular zone, foveal perimeter circumference and retinal thickness were calculated automatically by the OCTA software on 6 × 6mm angiograms. Morphologic changes in the retinochoroidal vasculature on OCTA were assessed and compared with the findings on fundoscopy, SD-OCT and fundus photography and were evaluated by two trained graders. Results Mean vessel parafoveal density, superior and inferior hemispheric vessel density and perifoveal temporal vessel density on 6 × 6 angiograms of the superficial capillary plexus were lower among the COVID-19 patients when compared to their age and ethnic matched controls. Vessel flow density of the deep capillary plexus, foveal avascular zone size and circumference and retinal thickness did not illustrate statistical significance between the groups. Conclusion OCTA provides non-invasive high-resolution imaging of the retinochoroidal vascular network. Compared with conventional imaging, OCTA can demonstrate precise microvascular structural alterations in the retinal vessels before visible on SD-OCT or fundus examination. When matched for age and ethnicity, patients with a history of mild COVID illness manifested alterations in vessel density.
Sulforaphane suppresses autophagy during the malignant progression of gastric carcinoma via activating miR-4521/PIK3R3 pathway

Objective Sulforaphane, which exerts an effective anti-cancer ability, is a phytochemical converted from cruciferous plants. Here, we aimed to identify whether sulforaphane could suppress autophagy during the malignant progression of gastric carcinoma and to explore the underlying mechanisms. Methods SGC7901 cells were transfected with miR-4521 mimics, inhibitor, and pcDNA3.1-PIK3R3, and treated with sulforaphane or autophagy inhibitor. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, and miR-4521 or PIK3R3 expression were detected. Results MiR-4521 over-expression suppressed LC3-II/I ratio and Beclin-1 expression but induced p62 expression in SGC7901 cells. MiR-4521 also reduced gastric carcinoma cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis in vitro. In the mechanical observation, we identified that miR-4521 directly targeted PIK3R3 to repress its expression, and PIK3R3 up-regulation partly antagonized miR-4521-mediated autophagy, proliferation, and apoptosis in gastric carcinoma cells. In addition, sulforaphane exerted effective anti-cancer functions by repressing autophagy and growth in tumor cells at a concentration-dependent way. MiR-4521 inhibition or PIK3R3 over-expression weakened the anti-cancer functions of sulforaphane in gastric carcinoma cells. Conclusion Consequently, miR-4521 suppressed autophagy during the malignant progression of gastric carcinoma by targeting PIK3R3. Thus, miR-4521 may be applied as a therapeutic target for sulforaphane in gastric carcinoma.
Covered stents favored in complex aortoiliac disease

• Covered balloon expandable stents have 2 year primary patency rates of approximately 85% compared to 75% for uncovered stents in complex aortoiliac disease. • A reduction in the area and thickness of neointimal hyperplasia may explain the superior maintenance of post-procedural ankle-brachial index improvements and patency of covered stents for complex aortoiliac disease. • Improved outcomes prediction based on anatomic disease (Trans-Atlantic Inter-Society Consensus disease classification) and clinical characteristics may inform patient-specific device selection to improve long-term outcomes and cost-effectiveness in the endovascular treatment of aortoiliac disease.
Development of auditory cognition in 5- to 10-year-old children: focus on musical and verbal short-term-memory.

Developmental aspects of auditory cognition were investigated in 5-to-10-year-old children (n = 100). Musical and verbal short-term memory (STM) were assessed by means of delayed matching-to-sample tasks (comparison of two 4-item sequences separated by a silent retention delay), with two levels of difficulty. For musical and verbal materials, children's performance increased from 5 years to about 7 years of age, then remained stable up to 10 years of age, with performance remaining inferior to performance of young adults. Children and adults performed better with verbal material than with musical material. To investigate auditory cognition beyond STM, we assessed speech-in-noise perception with a 4-alternative forced-choice task with two conditions of phonological difficulty and two levels of cocktail-party noise intensity. Partial correlations, factoring out the effect of age, showed a significant link between musical STM and speech-in-noise perception in the condition with increased noise intensity. Our findings reveal that auditory STM improves over development with a critical phase around 6-7 years of age, yet these abilities appear to be still immature at 10 years. Musical and verbal STM might in particular share procedural and serial order processes. Furthermore, musical STM and the ability to perceive relevant speech signals in cocktail-party noise might rely on shared cognitive resources, possibly related to pitch encoding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that auditory STM is assessed with the same paradigm for musical and verbal material during childhood, providing perspectives regarding diagnosis and remediation in developmental learning disorders. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Precision medicine in aggressive thyroid cancer: Moving beyond multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Umair Mahmood, MSc, is a clinical researcher at the Center for Head and Neck Oncology and the Department of Radiation Oncology at the DanaFarber Cancer Institute. He pursued additional research training in radiation biology at the University of Oxford. Highimpact literature originating from his scholarly work on advanced head and neck malignancies has been published in multiple peerreviewed journals and presented at national meetings, including those of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society for Radiation Oncology. His academic interests lie in clinical trials using targeted agents and immune checkpoint inhibitors for head and neck cancers, in exploring the interplay between radiotherapy and the tumor microenvironment, and in clinical bioinformatics.
[Loxoscelism. Experience in 200 patients].

BACKGROUND Loxoscelism is an important public health problem in Chile and South America, due to the higher rate of cutaneous-visceral involvement. The diagnosis of loxoscelism is mostly clinical without established diagnostic criteria. There is little evidence to support any treatment used in this condition. AIM To characterize the clinical features and epidemiology of loxoscelism among patients consulting at the Emergency and Dermatology Services of a clinical hospital between 2013 and 2017. MATERIAL AND METHODS Review of medical records of patients registered in the electronic clinical record system with a confirmed diagnosis of loxoscelism. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory tests and treatment variables were analyzed. RESULTS We reviewed data from 200 patients. Ninety-four percent presented cutaneous loxoscelism and 5.5% cutaneous-visceral loxoscelism. Systemic symptoms were present in 73% of patients with cutaneous-visceral loxoscelism. Patients who developed systemic symptoms had an 18 times higher risk of developing cutaneous-visceral loxoscelism. Laboratory abnormalities were more common in patients with cutaneous-visceral loxoscelism. Not all patients with hematuria had cutaneous-visceral loxoscelism. Most patients required analgesia. Anti-loxosceles serum was not used in any patient. CONCLUSIONS Many questions remain to be answered regarding the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Studies are required to validate diagnostic criteria for loxoscelism, predictors for visceral involvement and response to treatment.
Association of ovarian stimulation and embryonic aneuploidy in in vitro fertilization cycles with preimplantation genetic testing: A narrative systematic review

The impact of gonadotropins used for COS on the rate of embryo aneuploidy in patients without the negative effects of age as a confounding factor, is still a subject of lively debate. We ran a systematic search for studies in MEDLINE, PubMed, Google Scholar and the Cochrane Library. A librarian coordinated the search in December of 2020. We included all original peer-reviewed papers in English, irrespective of study-design. There were no restrictions concerning method of amplification or platform used to analyze the amplified DNA. We used the PICO model to select the study population. We included women/couples submitted to COS for IVF with the intention to genetically analyze her/their embryos through PGT. The primary outcome was the rate of aneuploidy. We used the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) score to evaluate the quality of the studies included. The search yielded 73 citations, and 14 were eligible for analysis, which included data on 4805 cycles. Media quality NOS score was 8. Although it has been demonstrated that natural cycles are associated with aneuploidy, it does seem that more robust stimulations are indeed associated with a higher proportion of aneuploidy. Nevertheless, a higher response is associated with an increased number of euploid embryos available for transfer, which translates into more embryo-transfer cycles with a prospective higher cumulative live birth rate. Further evidence is needed to ascertain if there is a negative impact of COS, especially at the cellular level.
SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 triggers a consistent cross-variant humoral and cellular response

ABSTRACT As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to rage worldwide, the emergence of numerous variants of concern (VOC) represents a challenge for the vaccinal protective efficacy and the reliability of commercially available high-throughput immunoassays. Our study demonstrates the administration of two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine that elicited a robust SARS-CoV-2-specific immune response which was assessed up to 3 months after full vaccination in a cohort of 37 health care workers (HCWs). SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody response, evaluated by four commercially available chemiluminescence immunoassays (CLIA), was qualitatively consistent with the results provided by the gold-standard in vitro neutralization assay (NTA). However, we could not observe a correlation between the quantity of the antibody detected by CLIA assays and their neutralizing activity tested by NTA. Almost all subjects developed a SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell response. Moreover, vaccinated HCWs developed a similar protective neutralizing antibodies response against the EU (B.1), Alpha (B.1.1.7), Gamma (P.1), and Eta (B.1.525) SARS-CoV-2 variants, while Beta (B.1.351) and Delta (B.1.617.2) strains displayed a consistent partial immune evasion. These results underline the importance of a solid vaccine-elicited immune response and a robust antibody titre. We believe that these relevant results should be taken into consideration in the definition of future vaccinal strategies.