Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using external data to assess the external validity of a randomised controlled trial

Abstract Background Few studies have addressed external validity of randomized controlled trials in infectious diseases. We aimed to assess the external validity of an investigator-initiated trial on treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infection. Methods In the original study, women (n = 513) with urinary tract infection were randomized to nitrofurantoin or fosfomycin treatment in three countries between 2013 and 2017. In the present study we compared women who were screened for enrolment but excluded to women who participated in the trial, both groups in Israel. The primary outcome was the rate of emergency department index visits resulting in hospitalization within 28 days. Results We compared 127 included to 110 excluded patients. The most common reasons for exclusion were logistic difficulties in recruitment and antibiotic use in the preceding month. Included patients tended to be older [39 (IQR 29–59) vs. 35.5 (IQR 24–56.25 years)], more likely to have history of recurrent infection and had more urinary symptoms. Among excluded patients, 13.6% (15/110) had initial visits resulting in hospitalization compared to 3.1% (4/127) of included participants (p = .003). The rate of emergency department visits within 28 days was similar in both groups. Clinical and microbiological failures were significantly more common in included patients [26% (33/127) vs. 1.8% (2/110), p < . 001; 7.9% (10/127) vs. 0% (0/110), p = . 003; respectively]. Conclusions While differences were observed between included and excluded patients, the excluded group did not represent a more ‘complicated’ population. The present study shows the importance of collecting data on patients excluded from randomized controlled trials.
Hybrid Process of Adsorption/Coagulation/Ceramic MF for Removing Pesticides in Drinking Water Treatment—Inline vs. Contact Tank PAC Dosing

Two pilot trials of powdered activated carbon (PAC)/(coagulation)/ceramic microfiltration were conducted to compare continuous 10–12 mg/L PAC inline dosing with 8–10 mg/L dosing to a 2 h-contact tank. Two low turbidity/low natural organic matter (NOM, total organic carbon <2 mg C/L) surface waters spiked with 7.2–10.3 µg/L total-pesticides were tested and the dosing options were compared towards operational performance, average removal of pesticides and NOM and costs. Removal differences between the two PAC dosing options depended on pesticides’ amenability to adsorption and NOM characteristics (254 nm absorbance, A254). Waters containing low A254-absorbing NOM and only pesticides amenable to adsorption showed very high removals (all pesticides ≥93%) and no significant differences between the two PAC dosing options. Waters containing higher A254-absorbing NOM and high loads of pesticides less amenable to adsorption (dimethoate, bentazone) required higher inline PAC dose. Those or more severe conditions may require PAC doses higher than tested to comply with the Drinking Water Directive limits for pesticides. Cost analysis showed PAC inline dosing is more cost-effective than PAC dosing to the contact tank when identical PAC dose is sufficient or when the doses are low, even if 50% higher for inline dosing, and the plant is small.
Influence of Imidazole-Dipeptides on Cognitive Status and Preservation in Elders: A Narrative Review

The worldwide increase in the number of patients with dementia is becoming a growing problem, while Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a primary neurodegenerative disorder, accounts for more than 70% of all dementia cases. Research on the prevention or reduction of AD occurrence through food ingredients has been widely conducted. In particular, histidine-containing dipeptides, also known as imidazole dipeptides derived from meat, have received much attention. Imidazole dipeptides are abundant in meats such as poultry, fish, and pork. As evidenced by data from recent human intervention trials conducted worldwide, daily supplementation of carnosine and anserine, which are both imidazole dipeptides, can improve memory loss in the elderly and reduce the risk of developing AD. This article also summarizes the latest researches on the biochemical properties of imidazole dipeptides and their effects on animal models associated with age-related cognitive decline. In this review, we focus on the results of human intervention studies using supplements of poultry-derived imidazole dipeptides, including anserine and carnosine, affecting the preservation of cognitive function in the elderly, and discuss how imidazole dipeptides act in the brain to prevent age-related cognitive decline and the onset of dementia.
Experimental Investigation on the Wear and Damage Behaviors of Machined Wheel-Rail Materials under Dry Sliding Conditions

Rail grinding and wheel turning can effectively remove surface defects and unevenness, which is a crucial process for the safe and smooth operation of trains. Machined surface integrity of wheel/rail materials significantly influences their tribological property. In this study, firstly, the rail blocks were ground via a cylindrical grinding machine, and the wheel rings were turned by a computer numerical control (CNC) lathe with varied parameters. Then, the sliding wear and damage characteristics of the machined wheel/rail samples under dry conditions were studied by virtue of a block-on-ring tribometer. The results show that the surface microhardness of the ground rail blocks is larger than that of wheel rings, while the surface roughness and the thickness of the subsurface plastic deformation layer (SPDL) of rail blocks are much smaller than those of wheel rings. After sliding, the surface microhardness of wheel/rail samples increases remarkably. The thickness of the SPDL, the wear loss, and the increase degree of surface microhardness of rail blocks are larger than those of wheel rings. Surface microhardness, roughness and the SPDL of the machined wheel/rail samples impose a combined influence on the anti-wear property, and the tribological pair with proper initial surface roughness and microhardness engenders the smallest amount of total wear loss.
The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity

This study aimed to investigate if two weeks of working memory (WM) training on a progressive N-back task can generate changes in the activity of the underlying WM neural network. Forty-six healthy volunteers (23 training and 23 controls) were asked to perform the N-back task during three fMRI scanning sessions: (1) before training, (2) after the half of training sessions, and (3) at the end. Between the scanning sessions, the experimental group underwent a 10-session training of working memory with the use of an adaptive version of the N-back task, while the control group did not train anything. The N-back task in the scanning sessions was relatively easy (n = 2) in order to ensure high accuracy and a lack of between-group differences at the behavioral level. Such training-induced differences in neural efficiency were expected. Behavioral analyses revealed improved performance of both groups on the N-back task. However, these improvements resulted from the test-retest effect, not the training outside scanner. Performance on the non-trained stop-signal task did not demonstrate any transfer effect. Imaging analysis showed changes in activation in several significant clusters, with overlapping regions of interest in the frontal and parietal lobes. However, patterns of between-session changes of activation did not show any effect of training. The only finding that can be linked with training consists in strengthening the correlation between task performance accuracy and activation of the parietal regions of the neural network subserving working memory (left superior parietal lobule and right supramarginal gyrus posterior). These results suggest that the effects of WM training consist in learning that, in order to ensure high accuracy in the criterion task, activation of the parietal regions implicated in working memory updating must rise.
Pain Catastrophizing and Quality of Life in Adults With Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Psychological comorbidity is common in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and is correlated with decreased overall and disease‐specific quality of life (QoL). Prior research reported that anxiety and depression, as measured by the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), are associated with worse CRS‐specific QoL, as assessed via the Rhinosinusitis Disability Index (RSDI). Furthermore, patients prone to anxiety/depression may display an exaggerated response to real or anticipated discomfort; the pain catastrophizing scale (PCS) is a validated instrument designed to measure this phenomenon. This study is intended to explore the role of pain catastrophizing in relation to anxiety, depression, and disease‐specific QoL in patients with facial pain attributed to CRS.
pH regulation of the first phase could enhance the energy recovery from two‐phase anaerobic digestion of food waste

The effect of pH regulation in phase I on hydrolysis and acidogenesis rate, metabolites production, microbial community, and the overall energy recovery efficiency during two‐phase anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste (FW) was investigated. pH strongly affected the acidogenesis rate and the yield of the fermentation products. The highest acidogenesis efficiency (60.4%) and total volatile fatty acids (VFA)/ethanol concentration (12.4 g/L) were obtained at pH 8 during phase I. Microbial community analysis revealed that Clostridium IV was enriched at pH 8, relating to the accumulation of butyrate. Also, Clostridium sensu stricto played a crucial role in hydrogen production and was abundant at pH 6, resulting in the highest hydrogen yield (212.2 ml/g VS). In phase II, the highest cumulative methane yield (412.6 ml/g VS) was obtained at pH 8. By considering the hydrogen and methane production stages, the highest energy yield (22.8 kJ/g VS, corresponding to a 76.4% recovery efficiency) was generated at pH 8, which indicates that pH 8 was optimal for energy recovery during two‐phase AD of FW. Overall, the results demonstrated the possibility of increasing the energy recovery from FW by regulating the pH in the hydrolysis/acidogenesis phase based on the two‐phase AD system.
Factors influencing estimates of HIV-1 infection timing using BEAST

While large datasets of HIV-1 sequences are increasingly being generated, many studies rely on a single gene or fragment of the genome and few comparative studies across genes have been done. We performed genome-based and gene-specific Bayesian phylogenetic analyses to investigate how certain factors impact estimates of the infection dates in an acute HIV-1 infection cohort, RV217. In this cohort, HIV-1 diagnosis corresponded to the first RNA positive test and occurred a median of four days after the last negative test, allowing us to compare timing estimates using BEAST to a narrow window of infection. We analyzed HIV-1 sequences sampled one week, one month and six months after HIV-1 diagnosis in 39 individuals. We found that shared diversity and temporal signal was limited in acute infection, and insufficient to allow timing inferences in the shortest HIV-1 genes, thus dated phylogenies were primarily analyzed for env, gag, pol and near full-length genomes. There was no one best fitting model across participants and genes, though relaxed molecular clocks (73% of best fitting models) and the Bayesian skyline (49%) tended to be favored. For infections with single founders, the infection date was estimated to be around one week pre-diagnosis for env (IQR: 3-9 days) and gag (IQR: 5-9 days), whilst the genome placed it at a median of 10 days (IQR: 4-19). Multiply-founded infections proved problematic to date. Our ability to compare timing inferences to precise estimates of HIV-1 infection (within a week) highlights that molecular dating methods can be applied to within-host datasets from early infection. Nonetheless, our results also suggest caution when using uniform clock and population models or short genes with limited information content.
NLRP3 inflammasome is a key driver of Obesity-Induced atrial arrhythmias.

AIMS Obesity, an established risk factor of atrial fibrillation (AF), is frequently associated with enhanced inflammatory response. However, whether inflammatory signaling is causally linked to AF pathogenesis in obesity remains elusive. We recently demonstrated that the constitutive activation of the 'NACHT, LRR & PYD Domains-containing Protein 3' (NLRP3) inflammasome promotes AF susceptibility. In this study, we hypothesized that the NLRP3 inflammasome is a key driver of obesity-induced AF. METHODS AND RESULTS Western blotting was performed to determine the level of NLRP3 inflammasome activation in atrial tissues of obese patients, sheep, and diet-induced obese (DIO) mice. The increased bodyweight in patients, sheep, and mice was associated with enhanced NLRP3-inflammasome activation. To determine whether NLRP3 contributes to the obesity-induced atrial arrhythmogenesis, wildtype (WT) and NLRP3 homozygous knockout (NLRP3-/-) mice were subjected to high-fat diet (HFD) or normal chow (NC) for 10 weeks. Relative to NC-fed WT mice, HFD-fed WT mice were more susceptible to pacing-induced AF with longer AF duration. In contrast, HFD-fed NLRP3-/- mice were resistant to pacing-induced AF. Optical mapping in DIO mice revealed an arrhythmogenic substrate characterized by abbreviated refractoriness and action potential duration (APD), two key determinants of reentry-promoting electrical remodeling. Upregulation of ultra-rapid delayed-rectifier K+-channel (Kv1.5) contributed to the shortening of atrial refractoriness. Increased profibrotic signaling and fibrosis along with abnormal Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) accompanied atrial arrhythmogenesis in DIO mice. Conversely, genetic ablation of Nlrp3 (NLRP3-/-) in HFD-fed mice prevented the increases in Kv1.5 and the evolution of electrical remodeling, the upregulation of profibrotic genes, and abnormal SR Ca2+ release in DIO mice. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that the atrial NLRP3 inflammasome is a key driver of obesity-induced atrial arrhythmogenesis and establishes a mechanistic link between obesity-induced AF and NLRP3-inflammasome activation.
RNA Pore Translocation with Static and Periodic Forces: Effect of Secondary and Tertiary Elements on Process Activation and Duration

We use MD simulations to study the pore translocation properties of a pseudoknotted viral RNA. We consider the 71-nucleotide long xrRNA from Zika virus and establish how it responds when driven through a narrow pore by static or periodic forces applied to either one of the two termini. Unlike the case of fluctuating homopolymers, the onset of translocation is significantly delayed with respect to the application of static driving forces. Because of the peculiar xrRNA architecture, activation times can differ by orders of magnitude at the two ends. Instead, translocation duration is much smaller than activation times and occurs on timescales comparable at the two ends. Periodic forces amplify significantly the differences at the two ends, both for activation times and translocation duration. Finally, we use a waiting-times analysis to examine the systematic slowing-downs in xrRNA translocations and associate them to the hindrance of specific secondary and tertiary elements of xrRNA. The findings ought to be useful as a reference to interpret and design future theoretical and experimental studies of RNA translocation.
Aerosol and spatter mitigation in dentistry: Analysis of the effectiveness of 13 setups

Abstract Objectives The current study aims to investigate the aerosol and spatter mitigation quality of 13 dry‐field isolation methods in a simulated setup that replicates real‐life work scenarios encountered in dental practices. Methods A crown preparation on a manikin was performed on tooth number 30 and repeated five times for each setup to simulate a patient under care. Aerosol, environmental, and operator face shield spatter, and sound intensity was measured. Generalized linear mixed models were used, and posthoc pairwise comparisons were performed to compare least‐squares means when appropriate using a Tukey adjustment. Results All tested setups showed some environmental spatter formation; however, these were able to control most (and in some cases all) spatter on the operator face shield. All methods resulted in excellent aerosol mitigation when a second line of high‐volume evacuation (HVE) was added to the device setup. However, in most setups, total sound levels exceeded 85 dB, posing a concern for prolonged noise exposure. Conclusions The Prototype device and four other tested setups with secondary HVE addition completely eliminated aerosol creation as tested. Spatter of the Face Shield was best eliminated using the Prototype device. Clinical Significance Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that the dental community has at its disposal equipment that can effectively mitigate aerosol and spatter.
Long‐term outcomes of index cryoballoon ablation or point‐by‐point radiofrequency ablation in patients with atrial fibrillation and systolic heart failure

Catheter ablation is an established effective approach for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with heart failure, however, the role of cryoablation in this setting is unclear. Procedural success and left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVEF) improvement in patients with LVEF ≤ 45% undergoing index catheter ablation with cryoablation were evaluated. Freedom from AF recurrence was seen in 43% rising to 59% following repeat procedure. There were significant improvements in LVEF and functional status at long‐term follow‐up. Results were comparable to a contemporaneous cohort of heart failure patients undergoing index ablation with radiofrequency ablation. Cryoablation is an effective first‐line AF ablation approach in the setting of heart failure.
Influence of chronic training workload on the hematological profile: a pilot study in sedentary people, amateur and professional cyclists

Background and aim: The assessment of hematological profile requires to identify possible sources of biological variability, including exercise-related variations. This study was hence aimed to evaluate hematological profile variations in amateur and professional athletes, and establish their possible dependence on cumulative training volume. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of 59 sedentary male subjects, 78 amateur and 80 professional male cyclists, in whom a large number of hematological variables were measured at rest. Results: Red blood cell (RBC) count and hemoglobin were decreased in the two athlete cohorts compared to sedentary subjects, but did not differ between amateur and professional cyclists. Hematocrit was gradually and significantly decreased in parallel with cumulative training volume. Amateur cyclists displayed higher mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and lower mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) values than sedentary subjects and professional cyclists, whilst mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) was higher in professional cyclists. The reticulocyte count and soluble transferrin receptor (sTFR) values were similar across all groups. Serum ferritin was higher in professional cyclists than in the other two groups, whilst transferrin gradually decreased from sedentary group to the two cohorts of amateur and professional cyclists. In univariate analysis, cumulative training volume was inversely associated with age, body mass index (BMI), RBC count, hematocrit, hemoglobin and transferrin, whilst a positive association was found with ferritin. In multivariate analysis, BMI, RBC count and ferritin remained significantly associated with training volume. Conclusions: These results show that the volume of endurance training may affect some hematological variables. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Prevalence and Correlates of Poor Oral Hygiene among School-Going Students in Mongolia

Brushing at least twice a day is one of the most effective methods for the prevention of dental caries and oral diseases. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence and correlates of poor oral hygiene in Mongolian school-going students. A secondary analysis of nationally representative data from the 2013 Mongolian Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS) was performed. In the survey, a questionnaire was completed by 5393 students aged 12–16 years old. The prevalence of poor oral hygiene and its association with some independent variables were analyzed by frequency distribution, chi-squared test, and logistic regression. The overall prevalence of poor oral hygiene was 33%. In the multivariate analysis, male students, inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, parents’ smoking, being exposed to second-hand smoke, poor parental supervision and connectedness, physical inactivity, and sedentary behavior were significantly associated with poor oral hygiene. Meanwhile, students who ate fast food and drank carbonated soft drink were found to be less likely to be poor tooth-brushers in 2013. Various determinants were identified in connection with poor oral hygiene. Based on these findings, it is recommended that an oral health promotion program should be combined with general health promotion and lifestyle intervention programs for this target population.
ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SERUM ANTIBODIES TO PERIODONTAL PATHOGENS AND PRECLINICAL PHASES OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS.

OBJECTIVES To examine whether serum antibodies against selected periodontal pathogens are associated with early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) development in healthy individuals at risk of developing the disease. METHODS Within an ongoing study cohort of first-degree relatives of patients with RA (RA-FDRs), we selected four groups corresponding to specific preclinical phases of RA development (n = 201). (1) RA-FDR controls without signs and symptoms of arthritis nor RA-related autoimmunity (n = 51); (2) RA-FDRs with RA-related autoimmunity (n = 51); (3) RA-FDRs with inflammatory arthralgias without clinical arthritis (n = 51); (4) RA-FDRs who have presented at least one swollen joint ("unclassified arthritis") (n = 48). Groups were matched for smoking, age, sex and shared epitope status. The primary outcome was IgG serum levels against five selected periodontal pathogens and one commensal oral species assessed using validated-in-house ELISA assays. Associations between IgG measurements and preclinical phases of RA development were examined using Kruskal-Wallis or Mann-Whitney tests (α = 0.05). RESULTS None of the IgGs directed against individual periodontal pathogens significantly differed between the four groups of RA-FDRs. Further analyses of cumulated IgG levels into bacterial clusters representative of periodontal infections, revealed significantly higher IgG titers against periodontopathogens in anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA)-positive RA-FDRs (p = 0.015). Current smoking displayed a marked trend towards reduced IgG titers against periodontopathogens. CONCLUSION Our results do not suggest an association between serum IgG titers against individual periodontal pathogens and specific preclinical phases of RA development. However, associations between cumulative IgG titers against periodontopathogens and the presence of ACPAs suggest a synergistic contribution of periodontopathogens to ACPA development.