Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
sex differences in TgFB- β signaling with respect to age of onset and cognitive functioning in schizophrenia

: There are studies showing that gene polymorphisms within the transforming growth factor- β (TGF- β ) signaling constitute schizophrenia risk variants. However, the association between TGFB1 gene polymorphisms ( + 869T/C and +915 G / C ), TGF- β level with schizophrenia course, and its symptomatology together with cognitive functioning has not been investigated so far. We included 151 patients with schizophrenia and 279 healthy controls. Cognitive functioning was assessed using Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Trail Making Test (TMT)-A and TMT-B, Verbal Fluency task, Stroop test, as well as selected subtests from the Wechsler Adults Intelligence Scale – Revised, Polish adaptation (WAIS-R-Pl): Digit Symbol Coding, Digit Span Forward and Backward, and Similarities. Additionally, serum TGF- β levels were measured in 88 schizophrenia patients and 88 healthy controls. Serum TGF- β level was significantly higher among patients with schizophrenia in comparison with healthy controls; however, the studied polymorphisms were not associated with TGF- β level in schizophrenia patients. Subjects carrying the + 869T allele performed significantly worse in comparison with + 869CC homozygotes on Stroop task, Verbal Fluency task and Digit Symbol Coding task. There was a significant difference in age of psychosis onset in female schizophrenia patients with respect to the TGFB1 + 869T/C polymorphism. Additionally, adjustment for possible confounders revealed that there was a significant difference in cognitive performance on Digit Symbol Coding task with respect to the TGFB1 + 869T/C polymorphism among female schizophrenia patients. Our results suggest that TGF- β signaling might be a valid link contributing to observed differences in age of onset and the level of cognitive decline between male and female schizophrenia patients.
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the follow-up of patients after cataract and diabetic retinopathy interventions. Conclusions: During the pandemic, an increase in the incidence of certain ocular surface diseases has been perceived. The telematic follow-up of chronic or mild pathologies of the ocular surface entails the need to provide speciﬁc training for both the patient and the healthcare professional, in addition to screening and referral protocols that would optimize the ﬂow of care. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier
Urinary Uromodulin Levels and UMOD Variants in Black South Africans with Hypertension-Attributed Chronic Kidney Disease

Uromodulin, the most abundant protein in urine, is synthesized in the thick ascending loop of Henle and distal convoluted tubules. Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have reduced urinary uromodulin levels secondary to tubular damage. Genome wide association studies identified significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with CKD at the uromodulin (UMOD) locus. We examined the association of urinary uromodulin concentrations with CKD and with SNP rs1333226 in the UMOD gene. The study included 71 black South Africans with hypertension-attributed CKD with an eGFR ≤ 60ml/min/1.73m2, 52 first-degree relatives, and 58 unrelated controls. Urinary uromodulin concentration was measured using Luminex® multiplex kits. After DNA extraction from blood using the Maxwell® automated platform, genotyping of rs13333226 was performed using real-time PCR using TaqMan® genotyping assays. Urinary uromodulin levels were significantly lower in CKD cases compared to both controls and first-degree relatives and correlated negatively with age, serum uric acid, serum creatinine, and systolic BP and positively with CKD-EPI eGFR. For each 1-standard deviation increase in uromodulin level, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio for CKD was 0.6 (95% CI [0.48 to 0.81]; p <0.01). There were no significant differences in the minor allele frequency between CKD cases and controls (p = 0.59) nor between first-degree relatives and controls (p = 0.98). There were no significant associations between genotype at rs13333226 and urine uromodulin levels (p = 0.43). Higher levels of urinary uromodulin are associated with lower odds of hypertension-attributed CKD. We did not detect associations of genotype at rs13333226 with urinary uromodulin levels in our sample population. Larger sample size studies from ethnically disparate populations are essential to further categorize this association.
Dynamic longitudinal relations between binge eating symptoms and severity and style of interpersonal problems.

Objective : The goal of this study was to evaluate longitudinal associations of binge eating symptoms with both the severity and style of interpersonal problems in a sample of women ( N =107) receiving a 36-week treatment for Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Method: Severity and style of interpersonal problems, general distress and binge eating symptoms were measured at baseline, 12-week, 24-week and 36-week follow-up. Data were fit to linear and quadratic latent growth models to examine parallel processes between the severity/style of interpersonal problems and binge eating symptoms/general distress. Results: Baseline data indicated heterogeneity in interpersonal styles among patients with BED. The severity of interpersonal symptoms decreased with time linearly, whereas interpersonal style was stable for both dominance and warmth. General distress and binge eating symptoms decreased quadratically over time. Decreases in the severity of interpersonal problems were significantly related to decreases in general distress and marginally significantly related with decreases in binge eating symptoms. Interpersonal styles did not track with changes in general distress or binge eating. Conclusions : The study showed that the severity of interpersonal problems changed over time and in association with the changes in general distress among BED patients in treatment, whereas interpersonal styles were heterogeneous and remained unchanged over time. The results highlight the importance of distinguishing the severity of interpersonal problems from the specific style of interpersonal behavior in considering interpersonal functioning in BED patients. suggesting the independence of many forms of psychopathology from novel useful framework for understanding heterogeneity in BED and other forms for future research and clinical
Research Design Issues and Related Inference Problems Underlying Tests of the Market Pricing of Accounting Information

Numerous accounting studies conduct tests of the market pricing of accounting information. The purpose of this study is to both highlight and quantify the consequences of using of ex-post information to form trading strategies based on accounting numbers and to document the importance of performing robustness tests (such as a careful analysis of outliers), when testing economic or behavioral explanations for apparent accounting-related (mis)pricing. To illustrate the importance of these issues we focus on the accrual anomaly (see Sloan 1996). We show that correcting for common sample selection biases not only reduces the magnitude of the abnormal returns to the hedge portfolio, but also dramatically alters the abnormal returns attributable to the high and low accrual portfolios. After eliminating outliers we document an inverted U-shaped relation between buy-and-hold abnormal returns and accruals. This result, combined with a detailed examination of both the truncated sample and the outliers, leads us to conclude that it is neither investors' inability to process accounting information (Sloan 1996) nor their excessive optimism with respect to glamour stocks (Desai, et al 2004) that explains the accrual and operating cash flow anomalies.
Frame Contestation in the News: National Identity, Cultural Resonance, and U.S. Drone Policy

Scholarship suggests that disagreement among political officials significantly impacts how the press covers a particular policy issue and how the public perceives and comes to understand it. An unexplored area of research in the framing effects literature asks to what extent frame contestation impacts public opinion in moments of national transgressions—specifically, when the U.S. military has been accused of acts that potentially threaten the image of the nation. We, therefore, conducted an experiment in which U.S. adults were exposed to a news story about a U.S. drone strike that killed 23 Afghan civilians. We found that respondents were significantly more critical of the incident and the military more broadly when presented with frame contestation.
Micropropagation of Trachyspermum roxburghianum (DC.) Craib

: The family Apiaceae occupies a prominent part in the angiosperms as it represents genus diversity rich in aromatic and medicinal properties. Trachyspermum , a genus included, is grown in parts of Asia much valued for its spicy seeds, both medicinally as well as in culinary. The genus has 25 or more species distributed in the temperate regions. Trachspermum roxburghianum (DC) Craib plant under study, can be propagated only through seeds and germination to produce healthy seedlings is season dependent. Attempts to produce plantlets irrespective of season achieved through tissue culture and the variants developed from several explants, exhibited in vitro flowering also.
Site representativity of AERONET and GAW remotely sensed AOT and AAOT observations

Abstract. Remote sensing observations from the AERONET and GAW networks are intermittent in time and have a limited field-of-view. A global high-resolution simulation (GEOS5 Nature Run) is used to conduct an Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for AERONET and GAW observations of AOT and AAOT and estimate the spatio-temporal representativity of individual sites for larger areas (from 0.5° to 4° in size). G5NR and the OSSE are evaluated and shown to have sufficient skill, although daily AAOT variability is significantly underestimated while the frequency of AAOT observations is over-estimated (both resulting in an under-estimation of temporal representativity errors in AAOT). Yearly representation errors are provided for a host of scenarios: varying grid-box size, temporal collocation protocols, and site altitudes are explored. Monthly representation errors are shown to correlate strongly throughout the year, with a pronounced annual cycle. The collocation protocol for AEROCOM model evaluation (using daily data) is shown to be sub-optimal and the use of hourly data advocated instead. A previous subjective ranking of site spatial representativity (Kinne et al., 2013) is analysed and a new objective ranking proposed. Several sites are shown to have yearly representation errors in excess of 40 %. Lastly, a recent suggestion by Wang et al. (2018) that AERONET observations of AAOT suffer a positive representation bias of 30 % globally is analysed and evidence is provided that this bias is likely an overestimate (the current paper finds 4 %) due methodological choices.
Detection of Early Human Papillomavirus-Associated Cancers by Liquid Biopsy.

PURPOSE A circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) test to detect plasma Epstein-Barr viral DNA can be used to screen for early nasopharyngeal cancers; however, the reported sensitivity of viral ctDNA tests to detect human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers is modest. We assessed the utility of droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) to detect early-stage HPV-associated cancers using sequential HPV16 and HPV33 assays that account for HPV subtype distribution and subtype sequence variants. PATIENTS AND METHODS We collected plasma specimens from 97 HPV-positive patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and eight patients with HPV-positive anal squamous cell carcinoma, each with locoregionally confined disease. Negative controls included samples from seven patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancers and 20 individuals without cancer. RESULTS Of 97 patients with nonmetastatic, locoregionally confined oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, 90 patients had detectable HPV16 ctDNA and three patients had HPV33 ctDNA, indicating an overall sensitivity of 95.6%. Seven of eight patients with early anal cancer were HPV16 ctDNA positive. No HPV ctDNA was detected in 27 negative controls, indicating 100% specificity. HPV16 ctDNA was detected in 19 of 19 patients with low-volume disease, defined as patients with a single, asymptomatic positive lymph node (N1) or an isolated T1-2 asymptomatic primary tumor. HPV16 ctDNA levels directly corresponded to tumor responses to chemoradiation and surgery. CONCLUSION With an updated understanding of HPV subtypes and sequence variation, HPV ctDNA by ddPCR is highly sensitive and specific, identifying HPV16 and HPV33 subtypes in a similar distribution as reported in major genomic profiling studies. The detection of small tumors indicates that HPV16 and HPV33 ctDNA ddPCR could be readily used in early detection screening trials and in disease response monitoring, analogous to Epstein-Barr virus DNA.
Digital Commons @ New Haven Digital Commons @ New Haven

Background: Morgellons disease (MD) is a complex skin disorder characterized by ulcerating lesions that have protruding or embedded filaments. Many clinicians refer to this condition as delusional parasitosis or delusional infestation and consider the filaments to be introduced textile fibers. In contrast, recent studies indicate that MD is a true somatic illness associated with tickborne infection, that the filaments are keratin and collagen in composition and that they result from proliferation and activation of keratinocytes and fibroblasts in the skin. Previously, spirochetes have been detected in the dermatological specimens from four MD patients, thus providing evidence of an infectious process. Methods & Results: Based on culture, histology, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy and molecular testing, we present corroborating evidence of spirochetal infection in a larger group of 25 MD patients. Irrespective of Lyme serological reactivity, all patients in our study group demonstrated histological evidence of epithelial spirochetal infection. Strength of evidence based on other testing varied among patients. Spirochetes identified as Borrelia strains by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or in-situ DNA hybridization were detected in 24/25 of our study patients. Skin cultures containing Borrelia spirochetes were obtained from four patients, thus demonstrating that the organisms present in dermatological specimens were viable. Spirochetes identified by PCR as Borrelia burgdorferi were cultured from blood in seven patients and from vaginal secretions in three patients, demonstrating systemic infection. Based on these observations, a clinical classification system for MD is proposed. Conclusions: Our study using multiple detection methods confirms that MD is a true somatic illness associated with Borrelia spirochetes that cause Lyme disease. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal treatment for this spirochete-associated dermopathy
leads to accelerated erosion of previously stable

This study investigated the impact of Juniperus ashei and Quercus virginiana encroachment on soil C, N, and P stoichiometry in mixed grass prairies on the Edwards Plateau of central Texas, considering the influence of underlying geological variations between soils lying atop two different limestone parent materials – the Buda vs. Edwards formations. Stable C isotope ratios (δ 13 C) of soil organic matter revealed that 45-90 % of soil C in the 0-40 cm depth interval beneath juniper and oak stands was derived
Deep Learning for Apple Fruit Quality Inspection using X-Ray Imaging

Apples are widely consumed worldwide, but the quality of the fruit flesh might deteriorate during storage, resulting in brown tissue formation. X-ray radiography has emerged as a non-destructive method for quickly detecting internal quality problems. This method provides X-ray imaging data that should be processed in an accurate and efficient way. In this paper, we investigate the classification of healthy and defect apples from different orchards and storage conditions using deep learning. The aim of the study was to select a robust and efficient deep learning network that can be used on an X-ray sorting system in a practical setting in the agrifood industry. To this end, the models were evaluated not only in terms of performance but also computational cost. As biological variability is inherent to agrifood problems, we strongly focused on generalizability of the models by using multiple test sets with apples from another orchard and stored under different conditions. The best model had the GoogLeNet architecture, reaching an accuracy of respectively 100 (0)% on a first test set with apples from another orchard, and 82 (8)% on a second test set stored at other conditions. The comparative study provides valuable insights for improving robust and efficient detection algorithms and implementing X-ray technology in the agrifood industry. The proposed technology can be extended to other fruit and vegetables that also suffer from internal quality problems.
Qualidade das águas de riachos da região norte do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil) através de variáveis físicas, químicas e biológicas

Water quality of streams in the north region of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) through use of physical, chemical and biological variables. The damages caused to the hydric bodies for the human activities beings generate the necessity of trust information in respect to the water quality. The present study objectified to evaluate the hydric quality of two hydrographic basins in north of Rio Grande do Sul, through a physical and chemical index (WQI) and another biological (BMWP), beyond other biological metric. Physical, chemical and microbiological variables were analyzed and, beyond the benthic macroinvertebrates collection, in four points of sampling of each basin, in the periods of winter/2005 and summer/2006. In the majority of the studied places the index WQI presented values that consider waters of satisfactory quality. The BMWP revealed more rigorous in this evaluation, verifying that the activities developed in the studied basins had modified the hydric quality of the places. In the sites where the anthropogenic activities are more evident the differences between the indices had been bigger, suggesting that in environments with higher degradation, a wide explication can be gotten using the biomonitoring. The differences between the index can be explained by the characteristic of the physical and chemical monitoring in to evaluate the point quality and to analyze only some variables, while the biological components present sensitivity to the environmental factors.
Methods and Findings

Funding: JD has been supported by the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award in the Medical Sciences. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Copyright: Ó 2006 Ye et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are known to abolish or reduce the activities of intracellular enzymes that help detoxify environmental carcinogens, such as those found in tobacco smoke. It has been suggested that polymorphisms in the GST genes are risk factors for lung cancer, but a large number of studies have reported apparently conflicting results. Literature-based meta-analysis was supplemented by tabular data from investigators of all relevant studies of five GST polymorphisms (GSTM1 null, GSTT1 null, I105V, and A114V polymorphisms in the GSTP1 genes, and GSTM3 intron 6 polymorphism) available before August, 2005, with investigation of potential sources of heterogeneity. Included in the present meta-analysis were 130 studies, involving a total of 23,452 lung cancer cases and 30,397 controls. In a combined analysis, the relative risks for lung cancer of the GSTM1 null and GSTT1 In addition to size of study, ethnic background was a significant source of heterogeneity among studies of the GSTM1 null genotype, with possibly weaker associations in studies of individuals of European continental ancestry. Combined analyses of studies of the 105V, 114V, and GSTM3*B variants showed no significant overall associations with lung cancer, yielding per-allele relative risks of 1. Conclusions The risk of lung cancer is not strongly associated with the I105V and A114V polymorphisms in the GSTP1 gene or with GSTM3 intron 6 polymorphism. Given the non-significant associations in the larger studies, the relevance of the weakly positive overall associations with the GSTM1 null and the GSTT1 null polymorphisms is uncertain. As lung cancer has important environmental causes, understanding any genetic contribution to it in general populations will require the conduct of particularly large and comprehensive studies.
Species and strain differences in drug metabolism in liver and intestine

Animal models are commonly used in the preclinical development of new drugs to predict the metabolic behaviour of new compounds in human. It is however important to realize that humans differ from animals with regard to isoform composition, expression and catalytic activities of drug metabolizing enzymes. In this review we aim to describe similarities and differences in this respect among the different species, including man. This may be helpful for drug researchers to choose the most relevant animal species in which the metabolism of a compound can be studied for extrapolating these results to human. We focus on cytochrome P450s (CYPs) that are the main enzymes involved in numerous oxidative reactions and often play a critical role in the metabolism and pharmacokinetics of xenobiotics. In addition, induction and inhibition of CYPs are compared among species. We conclude that CYP2E1 shows no large differences between species and extrapolation between species appears to hold quite well. In contrast, the species-specific isoforms of CYP1A, CYP2C, CYP2D, and CYP3A show appreciable interspecies differences in terms of catalytic activity and some caution should be applied when extrapolating metabolism data from animal models to human.
Do Oil Shocks Aﬀect Financial Stress? Evidence from Oil-Exporting and -Importing Countries

In recent years, there is increasing attention to examining the relationship between oil prices, financial markets, and the economy. Relatively little is known about the dynamic relationship between structural oil shocks and financial market stress of countries, which are majorly dependent on oil price fluctuations. This paper examines the impact of structural oil shocks (oil supply shocks, global aggregate demand shocks, speculative shocks, and other oil shocks) on the financial stress of major oil-exporting and-importing economies. In this study, we construct a financial stress index and using a structural vector autoregression model, we investigate the effects of oil price shocks on the financial stress of major oil-exporting and importing economies. We find evidence that global demand shocks, followed by speculative demand shocks, have significant impacts on financial stress. Furthermore, the US subprime crisis has a significant bearing on the response of the financial stress index to structural oil shocks. The magnitude of oil price shocks on financial stress has subdued during the post-crisis period.