Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Achievements and Current Status of the Fukushima Health Management Survey

The Fukushima Health Management Survey (FHMS) was established in response to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident on March 11, 2011. The primary objectives of the study are to monitor residents’ long-term health and promote their future well-being, and to determine the health effects of long-term low-dose radiation exposure. This special issue summarizes the results and current status of the FHMS and discusses the challenges and future directions of the FHMS. The FHMS, a cohort study of all people who were residents in Fukushima Prefecture at the time of the accident, consists of a Basic Survey, Thyroid Ultrasound Examination, Comprehensive Health Check, Mental Health and Lifestyle Survey, and Pregnancy and Birth Survey. The radiation exposure was estimated based on the behavioral records examined using the Basic Survey. Although the response rate was low in the Basic Survey, the representativeness of the radiation exposure data was confirmed using additional surveys. There appears to be no relationship between the radiation exposure and risk of thyroid cancer, although more thyroid cancer cases were detected than initially expected. The ongoing Comprehensive Health Check and Mental Health and Lifestyle Survey have provided evidence of worsening physical and mental health status. The Pregnancy and Birth Survey showed rates of preterm delivery, low birth weight, and congenital abnormalities similar to the national average. Considering the above evidence, the Fukushima Prefectural Government decided to end the Pregnancy and Birth Survey at the end of March 2021, as recommended by the Prefectural Oversight Committee. The framework of the FHMS has not changed, but the FHMS needs to adapt according to the survey results and the changing needs of the eligible residents and municipalities.
Perfect sampling of ergodic Harris chains

We develop an algorithm for simulating "perfect" random samples from the invariant measure of a Harris recurrent Markov chain. The method uses backward coupling of embedded regeneration times and works most effectively for stochastically monotone chains, where paths may be sandwiched between "upper" and "lower" processes. We give an approach to finding analytic bounds on the backward coupling times in the stochastically monotone case. An application to storage models is given.
Seroprevalence of Mycobacterium avium spp. paratuberculosis in cow-calf herds located in the prairie provinces of Canada.

Objective To determine the prevalence of Mycobacterium avium spp. paratuberculosis (MAP) in cow-calf herds located in the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba using a serum ELISA test. Animals Study herds were recruited from the Western Canadian Cow-calf Surveillance Network (WC3SN) designed to monitor factors related to the health and productivity of cow-calf herds. Overall, 1791 cows from 92 herds were included in the study. Procedure Blood samples were collected from 20 cows per herd in a systematic random fashion by private veterinarians in the fall of 2014. A serum ELISA (IDEXX, Westbrook, Maine, USA) test was used for the detection of MAP antibodies in the blood samples. Results The cow level seroprevalence across all 3 provinces was 1.5%. Alberta had the lowest cow seroprevalence (1.3%) followed by Saskatchewan (1.7%), and Manitoba (2.1%). Herd level data showed that 24% of herds had at least 1 positive animal and 5% had at least 2 positive animals. Seroprevalence estimates varied between geographical regions within each province and with herd size. Conclusions The apparent prevalence of MAP in prairie cow-calf herds remains low and similar to past estimates for the region. However, controlling the spread of Johne's disease in the western Canadian cow-calf herd should be considered an important discussion point in the beef industry. Clinical relevance Ongoing surveillance of Johne's disease in western Canadian beef herds is necessary for mitigating disease spread before it becomes a disease of major concern within the industry.
Competency and confidence in ECG interpretation among medical students

Objectives To assess competency and confidence in ECG interpretation in medical students across years of medical school and evaluate the associations of various factors, a curriculum change, and student confidence with ECG competency. Methods Four hundred and fourteen (414) third- to sixth-year medical students participated in this cross-sectional study conducted in 2019 in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. A voluntary response sample of participants answered a validated, web-based questionnaire, composed of eight ECG strips. Participants were also asked about confidence and sources for ECG education and exposure. Competency and confidence across medical school years were compared using the ANOVA and chi-square tests. Results Competency was low overall (mean score, SD (standard deviation) 3.23±1.81 out of 8), and higher in sixth-year students compared to third-, fourth- and fifth-year students (4.37±1.69 vs. 2.90±1.82, 2.90±1.54, 2.50±1.56, respectively, F(3,337)=24.425, p<0.0001). There was no difference between students before and after the curriculum change. Work experience in medicine was associated with competency (odds ratio (OR), 7.97; 95% confidence interval (CI), 4.03-15.77, p<0.0001). The reported confidence level was low (median 2 out of 5) and was found to be correlated with the total score achieved (r(332)=0.5, p<0.0001). Conclusions Student competency was shown to be insufficient throughout medical school. Competency and confidence in ECG interpretation seem to be significantly improved by increased and repetitive exposure to ECG. Thus, strategies to facilitate better ECG skills should involve an extended focus on ECG in the undergraduate and graduate curricula and include competency-based educational programs.
Simultaneous ultraviolet, optical, and X-ray observations of the X-ray source Vela X-1 /HD 77581/

Ultraviolet spectra of HD 77581, associated with the binary X-ray source Vela X-1, taken with the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite (IUE) show a spectrum typical of an early B-type supergiant. However, the P Cygni profiles of strong resonance lines show substantial variations with orbital phase. These variations can be ascribed to the changing ionization state in the stellar wind caused by the X-ray emitting companion as suggested by Hatchett and McCray. The mass loss of the supergiant primary is determined to be approx.1 x 10/sup -6/ M/sub sun/ yr/sup -1/. X-ray and spectroscopic and photometric optical observations, simultaneous with the IUE measurements, indicate behavior consistent with previous epochs. The interstellar spectrum shows strong, relatively broad lines of highly ionized Si IV and CIV which may result from the effects of X-rays upon the interstellar material neighboring the source.
Genetic and demographic signatures accompanying the evolution of the selfing syndrome in Daphne kiusiana, an evergreen shrub

Abstract Background and Aims The evolution of mating systems from outcrossing to self-fertilization is a common transition in flowering plants. This shift is often associated with the ‘selfing syndrome’, which is characterized by less visible flowers with functional changes to control outcrossing. In most cases, the evolutionary history and demographic dynamics underlying the evolution of the selfing syndrome remain poorly understood. Methods Here, we characterize differences in the demographic genetic consequences and associated floral-specific traits between two distinct geographical groups of a wild shrub, Daphne kiusiana, endemic to East Asia; plants in the eastern region (southeastern Korea and Kyushu, Japan) exhibit smaller and fewer flowers compared to those of plants in the western region (southwestern Korea). Genetic analyses were conducted using nuclear microsatellites and chloroplast DNA (multiplexed phylogenetic marker sequencing) datasets. Key Results A high selfing rate with significantly increased homozygosity characterized the eastern lineage, associated with lower levels of visibility and herkogamy in the floral traits. The two lineages harboured independent phylogeographical histories. In contrast to the western lineage, the eastern lineage showed a gradual reduction in the effective population size with no signs of a severe bottleneck despite its extreme range contraction during the last glacial period. Conclusions Our results suggest that the selfing-associated morphological changes in D. kiusiana are of relatively old origin (at least 100 000 years ago) and were driven by directional selection for efficient self-pollination. We provide evidence that the evolution of the selfing syndrome in D. kiusiana is not strongly associated with a severe population bottleneck.
Habenular volume in depressed patients

was not under direct armed attack. Still, some participants perceived the attack as an imminent threat and were traumatized. People are highly fearful of uncertain or invisible threats. When such events occur, or people think they might occur, the peoples’ subjective risks may outweigh their objective risks. Trauma assessment might benefit foreign nationals experiencing political uncertainties and enhance occupational/community support among at-risk individuals. This support may emphasize psychological first aid (e.g. providing a sense of safety) and risk communication principles (e.g. active dissemination of safety information from responsible organizations). The participant’s high PTS was associated with their discrimination experiences. In human-made and imperceptible events, heightened public fear can lead to discrimination and adverse mental health. Mental health professionals could assist the discriminated foreign nationals by alleviating their sense of guilt. Several limitations warrant discussion. This study’s sample size is small, and the convenience sample does not represent the entire community. Self-report surveys are not as accurate as face-to-face surveys, especially amid political uncertainties. Also, cross-sectional studies cannot establish a cause-and-effect relationship. Amid these limitations, our data suggest the importance of providing mental health interventions to foreign nationals facing political uncertainties, emphasizing posttraumatic stress and discrimination experiences. In this process, evacuees/returnees should not be excluded as intervention targets.
Fast three‐dimensional image generation for healthy brain aging using diffeomorphic registration

Predicting brain aging can help in the early detection and prognosis of neurodegenerative diseases. Longitudinal cohorts of healthy subjects scanned through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been essential to understand the structural brain changes due to aging. However, these cohorts suffer from missing data due to logistic issues in the recruitment of subjects. This paper proposes a methodology for filling up missing data in longitudinal cohorts with anatomically plausible images that capture the subject‐specific aging process. The proposed methodology is developed within the framework of diffeomorphic registration. First, two novel modules are introduced within Synthmorph, a fast, state‐of‐the‐art deep learning‐based diffeomorphic registration method, to simulate the aging process between the first and last available MRI scan for each subject in three‐dimensional (3D). The use of image registration also makes the generated images plausible by construction. Second, we used six image similarity measurements to rearrange the generated images to the specific age range. Finally, we estimated the age of every generated image by using the assumption of linear brain decay in healthy subjects. The methodology was evaluated on 2662 T1‐weighted MRI scans from 796 healthy participants from 3 different longitudinal cohorts: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Open Access Series of Imaging Studies‐3, and Group of Neuropsychological Studies of the Canary Islands (GENIC). In total, we generated 7548 images to simulate the access of a scan per subject every 6 months in these cohorts. We evaluated the quality of the synthetic images using six quantitative measurements and a qualitative assessment by an experienced neuroradiologist with state‐of‐the‐art results. The assumption of linear brain decay was accurate in these cohorts (R2 ∈ [.924, .940]). The experimental results show that the proposed methodology can produce anatomically plausible aging predictions that can be used to enhance longitudinal datasets. Compared to deep learning‐based generative methods, diffeomorphic registration is more likely to preserve the anatomy of the different structures of the brain, which makes it more appropriate for its use in clinical applications. The proposed methodology is able to efficiently simulate anatomically plausible 3D MRI scans of brain aging of healthy subjects from two images scanned at two different time points.
Comparison of viral inactivation methods on the characteristics of extracellular vesicles from SARS‐CoV‐2 infected human lung epithelial cells

Abstract The interaction of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection with extracellular vesicles (EVs) is of particular interest at the moment. Studying SARS‐CoV‐2 contaminated‐EV isolates in instruments located outside of the biosafety level‐3 (BSL‐3) environment requires knowing how viral inactivation methods affect the structure and function of extracellular vesicles (EVs). Therefore, three common viral inactivation methods, ultraviolet‐C (UVC; 1350 mJ/cm2), β‐propiolactone (BPL; 0.005%), heat (56°C, 45 min) were performed on defined EV particles and their proteins, RNAs, and function. Small EVs were isolated from the supernatant of SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected human lung epithelial Calu‐3 cells by stepwise centrifugation, ultrafiltration and qEV size‐exclusion chromatography. The EV isolates contained SARS‐CoV‐2. UVC, BPL and heat completely abolished SARS‐CoV‐2 infectivity of the contaminated EVs. Particle detection by electron microscopy and nanoparticle tracking was less affected by UVC and BPL than heat treatment. Western blot analysis of EV markers was not affected by any of these three methods. UVC reduced SARS‐CoV‐2 spike detectability by quantitative RT‐PCR and slightly altered EV‐derived β‐actin detection. Fibroblast migration‐wound healing activity of the SARS‐CoV‐2 contaminated‐EV isolate was only retained after UVC treatment. In conclusion, specific viral inactivation methods are compatible with specific measures in SARS‐CoV‐2 contaminated‐EV isolates. UVC treatment seems preferable for studying functions of EVs released from SARS‐CoV‐2 infected cells.
The effective thermal conductivity of composites reinforced by coated cylindrically orthotropic fibers

The present paper is concerned with coated‐fiber composites in which the fibers possess cylindrical orthotropy and may have an arbitrary orientation distribution. A micromechanics model is developed which predicts the effective thermal conductivity and estimates the local fields of such composites which may be subjected to uniform heat fluxes on its boundary. The micromechanics model is based on the Mori–Tanaka mean‐field concept [T. Mori and K. Tanaka, Acta Metall. 21, 571 (1973)] and provides explicit expressions for the effective conductivity of the considered composite aggregate which is highly complicated. The analysis shows that special care is needed in formulating an effective theory of composites with constituents possessing curvilinear anisotropy.
Shorter telomere length and suicidal ideation in familial bipolar disorder

Bipolar Disorder (BD) has recently been related to a process of accelerated aging, with shortened leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in this population. It has also been observed that the suicide rate in BD patients is higher than in the general population, and more recently the telomere length variation has been described as shorter in suicide completers compared with control subjects. Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate if there is an association between LTL and BD in families where two or more members have BD including clinical symptomatology variables, along with suicide behavior. Methods Telomere length and single copy gene ratio (T/S ratio) was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in a sample of 143 relatives from 22 families, of which 60 had BD. The statistical analysis was performed with a polygenic mixed model. Results LTL was associated with suicidal ideation (p = 0.02) as that there is an interaction between suicidal ideation and course of the disorder (p = 0.02). The estimated heritability for LTL in these families was 0.68. In addition, covariates that relate to severity of disease, i.e. suicidal ideation and course of the disorder, showed an association with shorter LTL in BD patients. No difference in LTL between BD patients and healthy relatives was observed. Conclusion LTL are shorter in subjects with familial BD suggesting that stress related sub-phenotypes possibly accelerate the process of cellular aging and correlate with disease severity and suicidal ideation.
Consumer acceptance of reduced sodium white and multigrain bread: Impact of flavor enhancement and ingredient information on sample liking

Abstract Chronic consumption of sodium in quantities exceeding recommendations has led to sodium being designated as a nutrient of health concern for overconsumption. As a result of the prevalence of sodium overconsumption, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released voluntary sodium reduction goals for a wide variety of products on both short‐ and long‐term timespans. As food palatability may decrease when sodium is reduced, flavor enhancers such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) may provide a promising solution to mitigate such palatability loss. The objective of this research was to investigate consumer acceptance of white and multigrain breads with either a 43% or 60% reduction in sodium content and with and without MSG as well as to investigate the influence of information on consumer acceptance of these breads under blind, informed, and informed with education conditions. Seventy‐eight frequent bread consumers participated in the evaluations. A significant difference was evidenced across breads with different levels of sodium content and MSG status, although no difference was seen across the different evaluation conditions. Consumer segmentation found multiple consumer clusters showing different liking patterns of the bread treatments for both white and multigrain breads. Breads with sodium content set at the FDA's long‐term goal with and without MSG were liked no differently in nearly all attributes evaluated than the full‐sodium bread demonstrating the feasibility of producing acceptable reduced‐sodium breads. Future research characterizing the predominant sensory attributes of full‐sodium and reduced‐sodium breads with and without MSG would be valuable for identifying the drivers of liking in such products. Practical Application: The findings of our study suggest that consumer liking of reduced sodium white and multigrain breads could be improved with the addition of monosodium glutamate. Increasing the acceptance of reduced sodium food products could help to reduce the risk of hypertension and subsequently heart attacks and stroke for the American population.
A connection between survival multistate models and causal inference for external treatment interruptions

Recently, treatment interruptions such as a clinical hold in randomized clinical trials have been investigated by using a multistate model approach. The phase III clinical trial START (Stimulating Targeted Antigenic Response To non-small-cell cancer) with primary endpoint overall survival was temporarily placed on hold for enrollment and treatment by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Multistate models provide a flexible framework to account for treatment interruptions induced by a time-dependent external covariate. Extending previous work, we propose a censoring and a filtering approach both aimed at estimating the initial treatment effect on overall survival in the hypothetical situation of no clinical hold. A special focus is on creating a link to causal inference. We show that calculating the matrix of transition probabilities in the multistate model after application of censoring (or filtering) yields the desired causal interpretation. Assumptions in support of the identification of a causal effect by censoring (or filtering) are discussed. Thus, we provide the basis to apply causal censoring (or filtering) in more general settings such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A simulation study demonstrates that both causal censoring and filtering perform favorably compared to a naïve method ignoring the external impact.
ON NONINNER AUTOMORPHISMS OF FINITE NONABELIAN \$p\$-GROUPS

A longstanding conjecture asserts every finite nonabelian \(p\)-group has a noninner automorphism of order \(p\). In this paper the verification of the conjecture is reduced to the case of \(p\)-groups \(G\) satisfying \(Z_2^\star(G)\leq C_G(Z_2^\star(G))=\Phi(G)\), where \(Z_2^\star(G)\) is the preimage of \(\Omega_1(Z_2(G)/Z(G))\) in \(G\). This improves Deaconescu and Silberberg's reduction of the conjecture: If \(C_G(Z(\Phi(G)))\not=\Phi(G)\), then \(G\) has a noninner automorphism of order \(p\) leaving Frattini subgroup of \(G\) elementwise fixed [‘Noninner automorphisms of order \(p\) of finite \(p\)-groups’, J. Algebra \(250\) (2002), 283–287]. 10.1017/S0004972713000403
Theoretical study of structure and physical properties of (Al2O3)n clusters

The atomic structures, and thermochemical and physical properties, such as static isotropic polarizability, dipole moment, multiplicity and enthalpy of formation of (Al2O3)n, n = 1–4, clusters have been studied within the framework of density functional theory. The different forms of clusters have been identified. Under the assumption of the existence of a Boltzmann distribution within each class of clusters: monomer, dimers, trimers and tetramers, the enthalpy, entropy and specific heat capacity temperature dependences have been calculated. The non-monotonic temperature dependence of the heat capacity has been determined and explained. The collision diameters of clusters, indispensable for the estimation of the transport and kinetic properties, have been also estimated.
Anodal cerebellar stimulation increases cortical activation: Evidence for cerebellar scaffolding of cortical processing

While the cerebellum contributes to nonmotor task performance, the specific contributions of the structure remain unknown. One possibility is that the cerebellum allows for the offloading of cortical processing, providing support during task performance, using internal models. Here we used transcranial direct current stimulation to modulate cerebellar function and investigate the impact on cortical activation patterns. Participants (n = 74; 22.03 ± 3.44 years) received either cathodal, anodal, or sham stimulation over the right cerebellum before a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan during which they completed a sequence learning and a working memory task. We predicted that cathodal stimulation would improve, and anodal stimulation would hinder task performance and cortical activation. Behaviorally, anodal stimulation negatively impacted behavior during late‐phase sequence learning. Functionally, we found that anodal cerebellar stimulation resulted in increased bilateral cortical activation, particularly in parietal and frontal regions known to be involved in cognitive processing. This suggests that if the cerebellum is not functioning optimally, there is a greater need for cortical resources.