Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food Insecurity and Mortality in American Adults: Results From the NHANES-Linked Mortality Study

Food insecurity is a significant public health problem in the United States leading to substantial social, economic, and health care–related burdens. While studies continue to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity, the long-term outcomes are not extensively explored. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of food insecurity on mortality. We analyzed data on adults (≥ 20 years) from the 1999–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, with mortality data obtained through 2015. Among the total study participants (n = 25,247), 17.6% reported food insecurity. Food-insecure individuals were more likely to be younger in age, minorities, poorer, with lesser education, obese, smokers, and with diabetes compared to food-secure counterparts. During a 10.2-year follow-up, among the food insecure, 821 individuals died (11%). The hazard ratio (HR) for mortality among the food insecure compared with the food secure, with adjustment for age and gender only, was 1.58; 95% confidence interval [CI: 1.25, 2.01]. The adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality, HR = 1.46, CI [1.23, 1.72], p < . 001, and cardiovascular mortality, HR = 1.75, CI [1.19, 2.57], p < . 01, were statistically significantly higher among food-insecure individuals, after adjustment for multiple demographic and health risk factors. Individuals who are food-insecure have a significantly higher probability of death from any cause or cardiovascular disease in long-term follow-up. Comprehensive and interdisciplinary approaches to reducing food insecurity–related disparities and health risks should be implemented. Including food insecurity in health risk assessments and addressing food insecurity as a determinant of long-term outcomes may contribute to lower premature death rates.
Comparing the Partnering, Minority Stress, and Depression for Bisexual, Lesbian, and Gay Adults from Religious Upbringings

ABSTRACT Minority stress impacts the mental health of bi+ individuals (e.g., bisexual, pansexual, queer), similar to gay and lesbian individuals. Bi+ individuals may have difficulty accessing social supports for mitigating minority stress. A religious upbringing may complicate this process. This study sought to compare a survey sample of bi+ individuals (n = 153) and their gay/lesbian (n = 231) peers from religious families on minority stress factors, depression, and partnering. Results highlighted differences between gay/lesbian and bi+ individuals in partnering and LGB community connection with bi+ group reporting more minority stressors. Bi+ individuals in same-gender partnerships reported lower parent rejection and being more out than those who were single or in different-gender partnerships. Family religiosity was associated with family rejection; however, it did not directly predict minority stress factors or depression for bi+ individuals. Implications for future research are discussed in light of the distinctions emerging between gay/lesbian and bi+ adults.
Population genomics identifies a distinct Plasmodium vivax population on the China-Myanmar border of Southeast Asia

Plasmodium vivax has become the predominant malaria parasite and a major challenge for malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Yet, our knowledge about the evolution of P. vivax populations in the GMS is fragmental. We performed whole genome sequencing on 23 P. vivax samples from the China-Myanmar border (CMB) and used 21 high-coverage samples to compare to over 200 samples from the rest of the GMS. Using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we analyzed population differentiation, genetic structure, migration and potential selection using an array of methods. The CMB parasites displayed a higher proportion of monoclonal infections, and 52% shared over 90% of their genomes in identity-by-descent segments with at least one other sample from the CMB, suggesting preferential expansion of certain parasite strains in this region, likely resulting from the P. vivax outbreaks occurring during this study period. Principal component, admixture, fixation index and phylogenetic analyses all identified that parasites from the CMB were genetically distinct from parasites from eastern parts of the GMS (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand), whereas the eastern GMS parasite populations were largely undifferentiated. Such a genetic differentiation pattern of the P. vivax populations from the GMS parasite was largely explainable through geographic distance. Using the genome-wide SNPs, we narrowed down to a set of 36 SNPs for differentiating parasites from different areas of the GMS. Genome-wide scans to determine selection in the genome with two statistical methods identified genes potentially under drug selection, including genes associated with antifolate resistance and genes linked to chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum.
Cytotrophoblast extracellular vesicles enhance decidual cell secretion of immune modulators via TNFα

ABSTRACT The placenta releases large quantities of extracellular vesicles (EVs) that likely facilitate communication between the embryo/fetus and the mother. We isolated EVs from second trimester human cytotrophoblasts (CTBs) by differential ultracentrifugation and characterized them using transmission electron microscopy, immunoblotting and mass spectrometry. The 100,000 g pellet was enriched for vesicles with a cup-like morphology typical of exosomes. They expressed markers specific to this vesicle type, CD9 and HRS, and the trophoblast proteins placental alkaline phosphatase and HLA-G. Global profiling by mass spectrometry showed that placental EVs were enriched for proteins that function in transport and viral processes. A cytokine array revealed that the CTB 100,000 g pellet contained a significant amount of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). CTB EVs increased decidual stromal cell (dESF) transcription and secretion of NF-κB targets, including IL8, as measured by qRT-PCR and cytokine array. A soluble form of the TNFα receptor inhibited the ability of CTB 100,000 g EVs to increase dESF secretion of IL8. Overall, the data suggest that CTB EVs enhance decidual cell release of inflammatory cytokines, which we theorize is an important component of successful pregnancy. Highlighted Article: This study identifies human placental extracellular vesicles as a form of intercellular communication between the embryo/fetus and the mother that enhance uterine production of immune-related molecules.
Older adults with dual sensory loss in rehabilitation show high functioning and may fare better than those with single sensory loss

The population of older adults that have Dual Sensory Loss (DSL) is increasing, yet most research to date has focused on single sensory impairment and is inconclusive as to whether DSL is associated with worse impact on health and well-being over single sensory loss. The primary aim of this study was to characterize the health and functioning of community-dwelling older adults with DSL who were receiving sensory rehabilitation, using an understudied assessment: the interRAI Community Health Assessment (CHA). The secondary aim was to investigate whether older adults with DSL had worse health-related outcomes than their peers with only vision loss (VL) or only hearing loss (HL). We report and compare the interRAI CHA results in a sample of 200 older adults (61+ years of age) who had DSL, VL or HL. Overall, all sensory impairment groups showed high functioning in the areas of cognition, communication, activities of daily living, depression, and psycho-social well-being. DSL was not always associated with worse outcomes compared to a single sensory loss. Rather, the results varied depending on the tasks assessed, as well as which groups were compared. Our findings highlight that despite the negative impact of sensory losses, community-dwelling older adults receiving sensory rehabilitation services tend to have overall good health and a high level of independence. These results also show that DSL is not always associated with worse outcomes compared to a single sensory loss. Further research is needed to better characterize older adults with DSL who have more severe sensory and cognitive difficulties than those in our sample, and among those who are not receiving rehabilitation services.
Leaf and Fruit Methanolic Extracts of Azadirachta indica Exhibit Anti-fertility Activity on Rats' Sperm Quality and Testicular Histology.

BACKGROUND The world's population is still growing, having an impact on the environment and the economic growth of developing countries; so that, there is currently a particular interest in the development of new fertility control methods, focused on male contraception. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of methanolic extracts of leaf and fruit of Azadirachta indica on sperm quality and testicular histology of Long Evans rats. METHOD Antifertility effects of a methanolic leaf and fruit extracts of A. indica on 24 male rats were investigated. The animals were randomly divided into two control groups and four treatment groups (n=4). Doses of the leaf and fruit extract were given at concentrations of 100 and 200 µg mL-1. RESULTS A significant decrease in the viability of sperm cells was observed. The leaf extract at a concentration of 200 µg mL-1 inhibited cell viability compared to the negative control (p˂ 0.001). The percentage of abnormal cells is shown being leaf extract at 100 and 200 µg mL-1, the conditions at which a higher percentage of morphological irregularities were observed (15% and 16% respectively). The results show that there was cellular detachment in the seminiferous epithelium in the experimental groups treated with methanolic extracts. Sperm death was observed without decreasing the number of sperm. CONCLUSION The methanolic extracts of Azadirachta indica have a modulating effect on the spermatogenesis of experimental rats through sperm morphological alterations.
Rib Variation at Multiple Locations and Implications for Histological Age Estimation*

Existing histological age estimation methods using the rib were developed mainly from the midshaft; however, in forensic practice, uncertainty of sampling location often arises due to fragmented or previously sampled ribs. The potential for error increases when sampling location is uncertain and utilizing a section beyond the midshaft (either anterior or posterior) may result in erroneous age estimates. Additionally, there is debate within the field regarding the minimum number of sections needed for accurate age estimation. The aim of this research is to determine the importance of the midshaft distinction for age‐at‐death assessment and the necessity of analyzing serial sections by evaluating histological variables at sampling locations along the length of the rib. Three seriated histological sections at three sampling locations (anterior, midshaft, and posterior) were obtained from sixth ribs of ten postmortem human subjects. Cortical area (Ct.Ar) and osteon population density (OPD) were collected from each section (n = 90). Significant differences were determined in Ct.Ar between sampling locations, demonstrating the variation present along the length of the rib. A comparison of OPD at sampling locations revealed significant differences, suggesting that sampling site is critical to accurate age estimates. When sampling location is uncertain, a more anterior section should be taken. Analysis of serial sections within locations revealed no significant differences in OPD or Ct.Ar, supporting the practice of collecting data from one section for age estimation. While an age estimate can be achieved through the analysis of one section, best practice suggests reading two sections to capture intraindividual variation.
A nurse‐led atrial fibrillation clinic: Impact on anticoagulation therapy and clinical outcomes

Nurses play a central role in the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. An unresolved question is whether a nurse‐led clinic would improve clinical outcomes. Herein, we investigated the impact of a nurse‐led clinic on anticoagulation therapy and clinical outcomes in a cohort of naïve AF patients.
Annual and Seasonal Variation in the Growth Rates of Young Little Penguins Eudyptula minor in Western Australia

Summary Four linear measurements and body mass were used to measure the growth of Little Penguin Eudytula minor nestlings on Penguin Island, Western Australia, from 1989 to 1991. In general, beak length and beak depth increased more slowly than flipper and tarsus lengths, and body mass increased rapidly. Growth rates did not differ significantly between years. However, second-hatched chicks grew more slowly than first-hatched chicks, especially in body mass, and were lighter at fledging.
A Deep Framework Assembling Principled Modules for CS-MRI: Unrolling Perspective, Convergence Behaviors, and Practical Modeling

Compressed Sensing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CS-MRI) significantly accelerates MR acquisition at a sampling rate much lower than the Nyquist criterion. A major challenge for CS-MRI lies in solving the severely ill-posed inverse problem to reconstruct aliasing-free MR images from the sparse ${k}$ -space data. Conventional methods typically optimize an energy function, producing restoration of high quality, but their iterative numerical solvers unavoidably bring extremely large time consumption. Recent deep techniques provide fast restoration by either learning direct prediction to final reconstruction or plugging learned modules into the energy optimizer. Nevertheless, these data-driven predictors cannot guarantee the reconstruction following principled constraints underlying the domain knowledge so that the reliability of their reconstruction process is questionable. In this paper, we propose a deep framework assembling principled modules for CS-MRI that fuses learning strategy with the iterative solver of a conventional reconstruction energy. This framework embeds an optimal condition checking mechanism, fostering efficient and reliable reconstruction. We also apply the framework to three practical tasks, i.e., complex-valued data reconstruction, parallel imaging and reconstruction with Rician noise. Extensive experiments on both benchmark and manufacturer-testing images demonstrate that the proposed method reliably converges to the optimal solution more efficiently and accurately than the state-of-the-art in various scenarios.
Association between HIV stigma and antiretroviral therapy adherence among adults living with HIV: baseline findings from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in Zambia and South Africa

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) leads to viral suppression for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and is critical for both individual health and reducing onward HIV transmission. HIV stigma is a risk factor that can undermine adherence. We explored the association between HIV stigma and self‐reported ART adherence among PLHIV in 21 communities in the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in Zambia and the Western Cape of South Africa.
Rabies virus diversification in aerial and terrestrial mammals

Abstract Rabies is a fatal zoonotic infection of the central nervous system of mammals and has been known to humans for millennia. The etiological agent, is a neurotropic RNA virus in the order Mononegavirales, family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus. There are currently accepted to be two cycles for rabies transmission: the urban cycle and the sylvatic cycle. The fact that both cycles originated from a common RABV or lyssavirus ancestor and the adaptive divergence that occurred since then as this ancestor virus adapted to a wide range of fitness landscapes represented by reservoir species in the orders Carnivora and Chiroptera led to the emergence of the diverse RABV lineages currently found in the sylvatic and urban cycles. Here we study full genome phylogenies and the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of the RABVs in the sylvatic and urban cycles. Results show that there were differences between the nucleotide substitution rates per site per year for the same RABV genes maintained independently in the urban and sylvatic cycles. The results identify the most suitable gene for phylogenetic analysis, heterotachy among RABV genes and the TMRCA for the two cycles.
Deep Generative Model of Individual Variability in fMRI Images of Psychiatric Patients

Neuroimaging techniques, such as the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have been investigated to find objective biomarkers of neuro-logical and psychiatric disorders. Objective biomarkers potentially provide a refined diagnosis and quantitative measurements of the effects of treatment. However, fMRI images are sensitive to individual variability, such as functional topography and personal attributes. Suppressing the irrelevant individual variability is crucial for finding objective biomarkers for multiple subjects. Herein, we propose a structured generative model based on deep learning (i.e., a deep generative model) that considers such individual variability. The proposed model builds a joint distribution of (preprocessed) fMRI images, state (with or without a disorder), and individual variability. It can thereby discriminate individual variability from the subject's state. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model can diagnose unknown subjects with greater accuracy than conventional approaches. Moreover, the diagnosis is fairer to gender and state, because the proposed model extracts subject attributes (age, gender, and scan site) in an unsupervised manner.
High relatedness of invasive multi-drug resistant non-typhoidal Salmonella genotypes among patients and asymptomatic carriers in endemic informal settlements in Kenya

Invasive Non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease is a major public health challenge, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In Kenya, mortality rates are high (20–25%) unless prompt treatment is instituted. The most common serotypes are Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) and Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis). In a 5 year case-control study in children residing in the Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, a total of 4201 blood cultures from suspected iNTS cases and 6326 fecal samples from age-matched controls were studied. From the laboratory cultures we obtained a total of 133 S. Typhimurium isolates of which 83(62.4%) came from cases (53 blood and 30 fecal) and 50(37.6%) from controls (fecal). A total of 120 S. Enteritidis consisted of 70(58.3%) from cases (43 blood and 27 fecal) and 50(41.7%) from controls (fecal). The S. Typhimurium population fell into two distinct ST19 lineages constituting 36.1%, as well as ST313 lineage I (27.8%) and ST313 lineage II (36.1%) isolates. The S. Enteritidis isolates fell into the global epidemic lineage (46.6%), the Central/Eastern African lineage (30.5%), a novel Kenyan-specific lineage (12.2%) and a phylogenetically outlier lineage (10.7%). Detailed phylogenetic analysis revealed a high level of relatedness between NTS from blood and stool originating from cases and controls, indicating a common source pool. Multidrug resistance was common throughout, with 8.5% of such isolates resistant to extended spectrum beta lactams. The high rate of asymptomatic carriage in the population is a concern for transmission to vulnerable individuals and this group could be targeted for vaccination if an iNTS vaccine becomes available.
The interaction between social media, knowledge management and service quality: A decision tree analysis

The existing literature fails to identify to which extent the utilization of social media could be relevant for increasing the effectiveness of knowledge management, in respect to overall business operations. In order to shed some light on this area we define three goals. Firstly, we investigate to what extent the different activities of clients on social media (SM), are important to the processes of knowledge management (KM) in companies. Secondly, we examine to what extent KM functions can be relevant in attaining the quality of IT services. Thirdly, we analyze to what extent KM mediates between SM and the quality of IT services, that is, which client activities on SM should be formalised in the form of KM processes so as to influence the quality of IT services. In order to asses these goals, the decision tree method was used at the sample of B2B companies, more specifically at the sample of those companies offering Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS). The study has shown that: (i) SM client activities have the largest importance for building efficient KM; (ii) KM functions are relevante to the overall quality of IT services, and (iii) those SM options and activities have been identified, whose importance for the assessment of the quality of IT services is indirectly transmitted through KM. This paper offers new empirical evidence which can lead to a better understanding of the role of KM in KIBS. Thanks to the obtained findings, managers will be able to define the goals of their companies in relation to the utilization of SM, more specifically: their presentation on SM, monitoring the outcomes of the SM, usage improving their KM practices and, thus, define strategies to increase the quality of the IT services they offer.
The effect of tractor wheel passes on herbage production from diploid and tetraploid ryegrass swards

Diploid and tetraploid perennial ryegrass swards were managed under an intensive silage system over 3 years. The swards were subjected to five tractor wheel pass treatments to simulate combinations of silage operations in the field from cutting, tedding, lifting and fertilizing. Wheel tracking was applied uniformly over the swards after June, July, August and October cuts each year. Tractor wheel passes caused mean reductions in herbage dry matter (DM) yield during successive years of 14%, 6% and 9% compared with their absence, and frequent or delayed wheel passes affected yield more adversely than infrequent or undelayed wheel passes. Nitrogen and mineral concentrations in herbage and nutrient offtakes were also generally reduced but organic matter digestibility (OMD) was unaffected. Soil assessments each autumn showed that soil bulk density increased in the wheel-pass treatments, particularly when frequently applied. The two sward types responded in a similar manner to the wheel-tracking treatments, probably because they had similar cushioning capability, the disadvantage of the tetraploid in terms of fewer tillers in relation to the diploid being compensated for by larger tiller size. Soil compaction, with its adverse effect on sward growth vigour, and direct wheel damage to young regrowth will be lessened by minimizing wheel traffic on silage swards and undertaking operations over short rather than long periods.
Investigation of CdTe, GaAs, Se and Si as Sensor Materials for Mammography

Despite the benefits of mammography investigations, some studies have shown that X-ray exposure from the mammography screening itself can statistically cause breast cancer in a small fraction of women. Therefore, a dose reduction in mammography is desirable. At the same time, there is a demand for a higher spatial resolution in mammographic imaging. The most promising way to achieve these goals is the use of advanced photon-processing semiconductor X-ray detectors with optimum sensor materials. This study addresses the investigation of the optimum semiconductor sensor material for mammography in combination with the photon-processing detector Medipix3RX. The influence of K-shell fluorescence from the sensor material on the achievable contrast-to-noise ratio is investigated, as well as the attenuation efficiency. The three different sensor materials, CdTe, GaAs, and Si are studied, showing advances of CdTe-sensors for mammography. Furthermore, a comparison of the contrast-to-noise ratio between a clinical Se-detector and Medipix3RX detectors with Si- and CdTe-sensors is shown using a self-produced mammography phantom that is based on real human tissue.