Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Isolated High Home Systolic Blood Pressure and Diabetic Nephropathy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A 5-Year Prospective Cohort Study

Background: A previous 2-year cohort study has shown that isolated high home systolic blood pressure (IH-HSBP) may increase the risk of diabetic nephropathy, using normal HBP as a reference. However, this association has not been previously assessed in the medium to long term. Methods: This prospective 5-year cohort study of 424 patients, with normal or mildly increased albuminuria, investigated the effect of IH-HSBP on the risk of diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetic nephropathy was defined as an advancement from normal or mildly increased albuminuira to moderate or severely increased albuminuria. Results: Among 424 patients, 75 developed diabetic nephropathy during the study period. The adjusted odds ratio for developing diabetic nephropathy given IH-HSBP was 2.39 (95% confidence interval, 1.15–4.96, p = 0.02). The odds ratio for developing nephropathy in patients with IH-HSBP younger than 65 years was higher than that in patients with IH-HSBP older than 65 years. Conclusion: IH-HSBP was associated with an increased risk of diabetic nephropathy among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with normal or mildly increased albuminuria in the medium to long term. The results support and strengthen previous reports. These findings suggest that IH-HSBP might be a useful marker in disease prognostication.
Molecular docking of compounds from Clinacanthus nutans extract detected by GC-MS analysis with the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and ACE2 protein

Abstract Clinacanthus nutans has been reported to have many medicinal properties and it is traditionally used in treating viral lesions. This study aims to determine the molecular docking of C. nutans compounds detected by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) with the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 main protease) protein and its host receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein using the AutoDock 4.2 tool. The drug-likeness and molecular docking analyses showed that fourteen compounds of C. nutans satisfied the Lipinski’s rule of five and they exhibited good inhibitory effects against the SARS-Cov-2 main protease and ACE2 proteins. In addition, the glyceryl 2-linolenate compound was found to have the most potent binding affinities with both proteins. The results provide useful insights into the molecular inhibitory interactions of C. nutans compounds detected by GC-MS analysis with the targeted SARS-CoV-2 main protease and ACE2 protein. Graphical Abstract
Finite-Time Robust Intelligent Control of Strict-Feedback Nonlinear Systems With Flight Dynamics Application

The tracking control is investigated for a class of uncertain strict-feedback systems with robust design and learning systems. Using the switching mechanism, the states will be driven back by the robust design when they run out of the region of adaptive control. The adaptive design is working to achieve precise adaptation and higher tracking precision in the neural working domain, while the finite-time robust design is developed to make the system stable outside. To achieve good tracking performance, the novel prediction error-based adaptive law is constructed by considering the estimation performance. Furthermore, the output constraint is achieved by imbedding the barrier Lyapunov function-based design. The finite-time convergence and the uniformly ultimate boundedness of the system signal can be guaranteed. Simulation studies show that the proposed approach presents robustness and adaptation to system uncertainty.
Gist Inference Scores Predict Cloze Comprehension “In Your Own Words” for Native, Not ESL Readers

ABSTRACT Three patient education texts from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) were subjected to a Coh-Metrix analysis, then further analyzed to obtain Gist Inference Scores (GIS), a new measure of the likelihood that readers will make appropriate inferences about a text’s bottom-line meaning. In the GIS formula, the Coh-Metrix psycholinguistic variables referential cohesion, deep cohesion, and latent semantic analysis (LSA) verb overlap increase GIS because cohesive texts that describe related actions are likely to induce gist representations. The Coh-Metrix variables word concreteness, imagability for content words, and hypernymy for nouns and verbs are negatively weighted because they tend to promote verbatim mental representations. NCI texts were modified for a cloze procedure with every tenth word replaced by a blank starting with the second sentence. Participants in two studies received all three cloze-modified texts. Fuzzy-Trace Theory suggests that people are more likely to comprehend high GIS texts “in their own words,” and thus fill-the-blanks with multiple words that differ from those omitted by the cloze procedure expressing comparable meaning. In Study One, non-native English speakers appropriately filled blanks with different words at the same rate for all three texts of low-, medium-, and high-GIS. In Study Two, replicating previous findings, for high GIS texts, native English speakers filled blanks appropriately with words other than those removed significantly more often than for medium- or low-GIS texts. High GIS texts apparently afford readers more semantic and lexical flexibility, but non-native English speakers may be ill-equipped to capitalize on this characteristic of high GIS texts.
Socioeconomic Inequalities in Premature Cancer Mortality Among U.S. Counties During 1999 to 2018

Background: This study investigated socioeconomic inequalities in premature cancer mortality by cancer types, and evaluated the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and premature cancer mortality by cancer types. Methods: Using multiple databases, cancer mortality was linked to SES and other county characteristics. The outcome measure was cancer mortality among adults ages 25–64 years in 3,028 U.S. counties, from 1999 to 2018. Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality were calculated as a concentration index (CI) by income (annual median household income), educational attainment (% with bachelor's degree or higher), and unemployment rate. A hierarchical linear mixed model and dominance analyses were used to investigate SES associated with county-level mortality. The analyses were also conducted by cancer types. Results: CIs of SES factors varied by cancer types. Low-SES counties showed increasing trends in mortality, while high-SES counties showed decreasing trends. Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality among high-SES counties were larger than those among low-SES counties. SES explained 25.73% of the mortality. County-level cancer mortality was associated with income, educational attainment, and unemployment rate, at −0.24 [95% (CI): −0.36 to −0.12], −0.68 (95% CI: −0.87 to −0.50), and 1.50 (95% CI: 0.92–2.07) deaths per 100,000 population with one-unit SES factors increase, respectively, after controlling for health care environment and population health. Conclusions: SES acts as a key driver of premature cancer mortality, and socioeconomic inequalities differ by cancer types. Impact: Focused efforts that target socioeconomic drivers of mortalities and inequalities are warranted for designing cancer-prevention implementation strategies and control programs and policies for socioeconomically underprivileged groups.
The potential versatility of RNA catalysis

It is commonly thought that in the early development of life on this planet RNA would have acted both as a store of genetic information and as a catalyst. While a number of RNA enzymes are known in contemporary cells, they are largely confined to phosphoryl transfer reactions, whereas an RNA based metabolism would have required a much greater chemical diversity of catalysis. Here we discuss how RNA might catalyze a wider variety of chemistries, and particularly how information gleaned from riboswitches could suggest how ribozymes might recruit coenzymes to expand their chemical range. We ask how we might seek such activities in modern biology.
A Narrative Review of the Role of Diet and Lifestyle Factors in the Development and Prevention of Endometrial Cancer

Simple Summary The incidence and prevalence of endometrial cancer is increasing globally. The main factors involved in this increase have been the way women live today and what they eat and drink. In fact, the obesity pandemic that is sweeping across the planet is considered to be the main contributory feature. This review aims to introduce to a new audience, those that are not experts in the field, what is known about the different types of endometrial cancer and the mechanisms for their induction and protection. We also seek to summarise the existing knowledge on dietary and lifestyle factors that prevent endometrial development in susceptible populations and identify the main problem in this arena; the paucity of research studies and clinical trials that investigate the interaction(s) between diet, lifestyle and endometrial cancer risk whilst highlighting those areas of promise that should be further investigated. Abstract Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer affecting the reproductive organs of women living in higher-income countries. Apart from hormonal influences and genetic predisposition, obesity and metabolic syndrome are increasingly recognised as major factors in endometrial cancer risk, due to changes in lifestyle and diet, whereby high glycaemic index and lipid deposition are prevalent. This is especially true in countries where micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals are exchanged for high calorific diets and a sedentary lifestyle. In this review, we will survey the currently known lifestyle factors, dietary requirements and hormonal changes that increase an individual’s risk for endometrial cancer and discuss their relevance for clinical management. We also examine the evidence that everyday factors and clinical interventions have on reducing that risk, such that informed healthy choices can be made. In this narrative review, we thus summarise the dietary and lifestyle factors that promote and prevent the incidence of endometrial cancer.
Effectiveness of a Visual Imagery Training Program to Improve Prospective Memory in Older Adults with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Study

ABSTRACT Prospective memory (PM) problems in aging and, to a greater extent, in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), compromise functional independence. This study examined the effectiveness of a cognitive training program based on visual imagery to improve PM among older adults with and without MCI. Participants were older adults, 24 with MCI and 24 cognitively healthy (HOA). Half of them (12 MCI and 12 HOA) were randomly assigned to the PM training program, the other half to the no-training control group. All participants also completed a pre- and post-test evaluation, including neuropsychological tests, questionnaires, and the Ecological Test of Prospective Memory (TEMP). There was no significant effect of the intervention on the TEMP total, event-based or time-based scores for either the MCI or HOA groups. However, the trained MCI group committed fewer false alarms (i.e., more efficient identification of prospective cues) in the event-based condition of the TEMP at post-test. On the other hand, all trained participants performed better than control participants on retrospective memory tests, which suggests that visual imagery-based training is more effective to improve retrospective memory than PM. Possible explanations for these results are explored.
Profiling Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease

Abstract Objective: Discrepancies exist in reports of social cognition deficits in individuals with premanifest Huntington’s disease (HD); however, the reason for this variability has not been investigated. The aims of this study were to (1) evaluate group- and individual-level social cognitive performance and (2) examine intra-individual variability (dispersion) across social cognitive domains in individuals with premanifest HD. Method: Theory of mind (ToM), social perception, empathy, and social connectedness were evaluated in 35 individuals with premanifest HD and 29 healthy controls. Cut-off values beneath the median and 1.5 × the interquartile range below the 25th percentile (P25 – 1.5 × IQR) of healthy controls for each variable were established for a profiling method. Dispersion between social cognitive domains was also calculated. Results: Compared to healthy controls, individuals with premanifest HD performed worse on all social cognitive domains except empathy. Application of the profiling method revealed a large proportion of people with premanifest HD fell below healthy control median values across ToM (>80%), social perception (>57%), empathy (>54%), and social behaviour (>40%), with a percentage of these individuals displaying more pronounced impairments in empathy (20%) and ToM (22%). Social cognition dispersion did not differ between groups. No significant correlations were found between social cognitive domains and mood, sleep, and neurocognitive outcomes. Conclusions: Significant group-level social cognition deficits were observed in the premanifest HD cohort. However, our profiling method showed that only a small percentage of these individuals experienced marked difficulties in social cognition, indicating the importance of individual-level assessments, particularly regarding future personalised treatments.
Functional subgroups of cochlear inner hair cell ribbon synapses differently modulate their EPSC properties in response to stimulation

Spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) form single synapses on Inner Hair Cells (IHCs), transforming sound induced IHC receptor potentials into trains of action potentials. SGN neurons are classified by spontaneous firing rates as well as their threshold response to sound intensity levels. We investigated the hypothesis that synaptic specializations underlie mouse SGN response properties and vary with pillar versus modiloar synapse location around the hair cell. Depolarizing hair cells with 40 mM K+ increased the rate of postsynaptic responses. Pillar synapses matured later than modiolar synapses. EPSC amplitude, area and number of underlying events per EPSC were similar between synapse locations at steady-state. However, modiolar synapses produced larger monophasic EPSCs when EPSC rates were low and EPSCs became more multiphasic and smaller in amplitude when rates were higher, while pillar synapses produced more monophasic and larger EPSCs when the release rates were higher. We propose that pillar and modiolar synapses have different operating points. Our data provide insight into underlying mechanisms regulating EPSC generation.
Efficacy of Carbamazepine and Its Derivatives in the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Background and Objectives: This review is dedicated to the use of carbamazepine and its derivatives oxcarbazepine and eslicarbazepine in bipolar disorder and their relative strengths in treating and preventing new depressive or manic episodes. This paper will discuss the evidence of their efficacy relative to the polarity of relapse from controlled acute and maintenance/relapse prevention studies in bipolar patients. Materials and Methods: A Medline search was conducted for controlled acute and maintenance studies with carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, and eslicarbazepine in bipolar disorder. In addition, abstracts reporting on controlled studies with these medications from key conferences were taken into consideration. Results: Information was extracted from 84 articles on the acute and prophylactic efficacy of the medications under consideration. They all appear to have stronger efficacy in treating acute mania than depression, which also translates to better protection against manic than depressive relapses for carbamazepine. Still, there is a paucity of controlled acute studies on bipolar depression for all and, with the exception of carbamazepine, a lack of long-term monotherapy maintenance data. For eslicarbazepine, the efficacy in bipolar disorder remains largely unknown. Especially with carbamazepine, tolerability issues and drug–drug interactions need to be kept in mind. Conclusions: Two of the medications discussed in this review, carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine, match Class A criteria according to the criteria proposed by Ketter and Calabrese, meaning acute antimanic efficacy, prevention of manic relapses, and not causing or worsening depression.
Narratives of Prevention and Affliction in Type 2 Diabetes: Mechanisms of Influence in a Sample of Middle-aged Women

Research suggests that readers identify more with a competent protagonist who acts to prevent diabetes than with a less competent protagonist whose inaction leads to disease. We sought a better understanding of the mediators of this protagonist competence effect. Middle-aged women (45–55) read a prevention narrative depicting a protagonist at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) who prevents diabetes through lifestyle changes or an affliction narrative in which protagonist inaction leads to disease (N = 315). The prevention narrative elicited more identification than the affliction narrative for participants at low risk of T2D, but less identification for higher risk participants. Identification’s impact on intentions to adopt self-protective behaviors was partially mediated by self-referencing. Protagonist competence did not affect transportation, but transportation had a direct effect on behavioral intentions and an indirect effect on intentions mediated by self-referencing. Fear arousal predicted behavioral intentions and was highest among those who read the affliction narrative and rated self as at risk for T2D. Protagonist competence had an indirect effect on intentions mediated by attributions of trustworthiness in response to the affliction narrative. This study contributes to our understanding of how narratives work and underscores the importance of tailoring narratives to the risk profile of individuals.
Hyperketonemia Predictions Provide an On-Farm Management Tool with Epidemiological Insights

Simple Summary In dairy cows, the transition to lactation period is metabolically challenging. Elevated blood ketone bodies, known as hyperketonemia or ketosis, is a postpartum metabolic disorder that is associated with negative energy balance, greater comorbidity risk, and decreased milk production. Research to understand the etiology of hyperketonemia has highlighted risk factors and unfavorable outcomes; however, analysis of real-world data is valuable for determining the outcomes across a region. Dairy herd improvement data from herds with diverse size and production were analyzed to determine potential risk factors for and production outcomes of hyperketonemia in the Midwest region (US). Cows predicted to have hyperketonemia had greater previous lactation dry period length, somatic cell count, and dystocia, which may represent risk factors for ketosis. Cows with predicted hyperketonemia had lower milk yield and milk protein but greater milk fat and somatic cell count in the current lactation. Culling rate within 60d of calving, days open, and artificial inseminations were all greater in cows predicted to have hyperketonemia. Prevalence of hyperketonemia decreased linearly in herds with greater rolling herd average milk yield. This work demonstrates the impact of hyperketonemia on production variables which underscores the importance on continued work to reduce hyperketonemia prevalence. Abstract Prediction of hyperketonemia (HYK), a postpartum metabolic disorder in dairy cows, through use of cow and milk data has allowed for high-throughput detection and monitoring during monthly milk sampling. The objective of this study was to determine associations between predicted HYK (pHYK) and production parameters in a dataset generated from routine milk analysis samples. Data from 240,714 lactations across 335 farms were analyzed with multiple linear regression models to determine HYK status. Data on HYK or disease treatment was not solicited. Consistent with past research, pHYK cows had greater previous lactation dry period length, somatic cell count, and dystocia. Cows identified as pHYK had lower milk yield and protein percent but greater milk fat, specifically greater mixed and preformed fatty acids (FA), and greater somatic cell count (SCC). Differential somatic cell count was greater in second and fourth parity pHYK cows. Culling (60d), days open, and number of artificial inseminations were greater in pHYK cows. Hyperketonemia prevalence decreased linearly in herds with greater rolling herd average milk yield. This research confirms previously identified risk factors and negative outcomes associated with pHYK and highlights novel associations with differential SCC, mixed FA, and preformed FA across farm sizes and production levels.
The Lost Neural Hierarchy of the Autistic Self—Locked-Out of the Mental Self and Its Default-Mode Network

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by a fundamental change in self-awareness including seemingly paradoxical features like increased ego-centeredness and weakened self-referentiality. What is the neural basis of this so-called “self-paradox”? Conducting a meta-analytic review of fMRI rest and task studies, we show that ASD exhibits consistent hypofunction in anterior and posterior midline regions of the default-mode network (DMN) in both rest and task with decreased self–non-self differentiation. Relying on a multilayered nested hierarchical model of self, as recently established (Qin et al. 2020), we propose that ASD subjects cannot access the most upper layer of their self, the DMN-based mental self—they are locked-out of their own DMN and its mental self. This, in turn, results in strong weakening of their self-referentiality with decreases in both self-awareness and self–other distinction. Moreover, this blocks the extension of non-DMN cortical and subcortical regions at the lower layers of the physical self to the DMN-based upper layer of the mental self, including self–other distinction. The ASD subjects remain stuck and restricted to their intero- and exteroceptive selves as manifested in a relative increase in ego-centeredness (as compared to self-referentiality). This amounts to what we describe as “Hierarchical Model of Autistic Self” (HAS), which, characterizing the autistic self in hierarchical and spatiotemporal terms, aligns well with and extends current theories of ASD including predictive coding and weak central coherence.