Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elevated Circulating Fetuin-B Levels Are Associated with Insulin Resistance and Reduced by GLP-1RA in Newly Diagnosed PCOS Women

Background Previous studies have suggested that Fetuin-B seems to be a secreted adipokine related to metabolic diseases. However, the results have been inconsistent. Here, our objective is to investigate the changes in circulating Fetuin-B levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and analyze the association of Fetuin-B and insulin resistance (IR). Methods The current study is comprised of a cross-sectional study and a series of interventional studies. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (EHC) were engaged to assess glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Serum Fetuin-B levels were determined by ELISA. Results Serum Fetuin-B and TNF-α levels were markedly increased in women with PCOS compared to healthy women. Circulating Fetuin-B was positively associated with body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, the percentage of body fat (FAT%), systolic blood pressure, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, 2 h blood glucose after glucose overload, fasting insulin, 2 h insulin after glucose overload, HOMA-insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), the area under the curve for insulin (AUCi), AUCg, and TNF-α, while negatively associated with M value and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH). During the EHC, Fetuin-B levels were found to be significantly increased in PCOS women. After a glucose challenge, serum Fetuin-B levels in healthy women were significantly increased. Lipid infusion reduced serum Fetuin-B levels in 30 healthy subjects. After six months of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) intervention, serum Fetuin-B concentrations in PCOS women markedly decreased following ameliorated IR. Conclusion Our results indicate that Fetuin-B may be a biomarker of IR in individuals with PCOS. This trial is registered with ChiCTR-IIR-16007901.
Relationship between indica-japonica index of parents and hybrid yield and rice quality traits in japonica hybrid rice in Northern China.

The parental indica-japonica index and hybrid yield and rice quality traits were investigated with the main parents and their combinations of japonica hybrid rice in northern China according to the Cheng's index(Chi) as well as analysis by molecular markers.Parental Chi and ADi(indica component value) ranged from 13.5-19.3 and 0.12-0.38,respectively.Some parents differed in classification by Chi and ADi.The Chi of male parent showed a closer relationship with heterosis and hybrid traits than that of female parent,but ADi was on the contrary.There was a closer relation between parental difference in Chi and yield heterosis and hybrid traits than that in ADi.The indica-japonica indices of the parents and their difference presented conic relationships to yield heterosis and hybrid traits and there existed a critical extremum.The directions of correlation of indica-japonica index of the parents and their difference with yield-related traits were opposite to those with rice quality traits.Therefore,in order to obtain best yield heterosis and hybrid performance in high yield and good quality,the female and male parents should be properly combined in indica-japonica index.
Evaluation of the Biomarkers HMGB1 and IL-6 as Predictors of Mortality in Cirrhotic Patients with Acute Kidney Injury

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) affects from 20% to 50% of cirrhotic patients, and the one-month mortality rate is 60%. The main cause of AKI is bacterial infection, which worsens circulatory dysfunction through the release of HMGB1 and IL-6. Objectives To evaluate HMGB1 and IL-6 as biomarkers of morbidity/mortality. Methods Prospective, observational study of 25 hospitalised cirrhotic patients with AKI. Clinical and laboratory data were collected at the time of diagnosis of AKI, including serum HMGB1 and IL-6. Results The mean age was 55 years; 70% were male. Infections accounted for 13 cases. The 30-day and three-month mortality rates were 17.4% and 30.4%, respectively. HMGB1 levels were lower in survivors than in nonsurvivors at 30 days (1174.2 pg/mL versus 3338.5 pg/mL, p = 0.035), but not at three months (1540 pg/mL versus 2352 pg/mL, p = 0.243). Serum IL-6 levels were 43.3 pg/mL versus 153.3 pg/mL (p = 0.061) at 30 days and 35.8 pg/mL versus 87.9 pg/mL (p = 0.071) at three months, respectively. The area under the ROC curve for HMGB1 was 0.842 and 0.657, and that for IL-6 was 0.803 and 0.743 for discriminating nonsurvivors at 30 days and three months, respectively. In multivariate analysis, no biomarker was independently associated with mortality. Conclusion HMGB1 levels were associated with decreased survival in cirrhotics. Larger studies are needed to confirm our results.
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Report 1: Diabetic Retinopathy

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate specifically in type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) individuals the relationship between perifoveal superficial capillary plexus (SCP) parameters assessed by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) grade. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of a large scale prospective OCTA trial cohort (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03422965). A total of 1186 eyes (593 individuals), 956 type 1 DM eyes (478 patients), and 230 control eyes (115 healthy volunteers) were included in this study. DR stage was graded according to the International Classification. OCTA imaging was performed with a commercially available device (Cirrus HD-OCT). Vessel density (VD), perfusion density (PD), and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area, perimeter and circularity measurements were quantified in the SCP and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed for each OCTA parameter. Results VD and PD (in both 3 × 3 and 6 × 6 mm captures) were inversely associated with DR stage (P < 0.001 in all cases) in a multiple regression analysis after controlling by age, gender, signal strength index, axial length, and DM duration. Greater FAZ area and perimeter and conversely lower circularity measurements were observed as DR severity increased in both scanning protocols (P < 0.05 in all cases). Conclusions In type 1 DM individuals, OCTA provides an objective, continuous, and reliable method for accurate quantification of VD, PD, and FAZ parameters in the SCP, which ultimately correlate with DR stages. Translational Relevance Objective OCTA measurements of the retinal microvasculature could substitute the clinical DR classification in patients with type 1 DM, identify patients at risk of DR progression, and inform treatment decisions to modify the evolution of the disease.
Application of Transcriptional Gene Modules to Analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans’ Gene Expression Data

Identification of co-expressed sets of genes (gene modules) is used widely for grouping functionally related genes during transcriptomic data analysis. An organism-wide atlas of high-quality gene modules would provide a powerful tool for unbiased detection of biological signals from gene expression data. Here, using a method based on independent component analysis we call DEXICA, we have defined and optimized 209 modules that broadly represent transcriptional wiring of the key experimental organism C. elegans. These modules represent responses to changes in the environment (e.g., starvation, exposure to xenobiotics), genes regulated by transcriptions factors (e.g., ATFS-1, DAF-16), genes specific to tissues (e.g., neurons, muscle), genes that change during development, and other complex transcriptional responses to genetic, environmental and temporal perturbations. Interrogation of these modules reveals processes that are activated in long-lived mutants in cases where traditional analyses of differentially expressed genes fail to do so. Additionally, we show that modules can inform the strength of the association between a gene and an annotation (e.g., GO term). Analysis of “module-weighted annotations” improves on several aspects of traditional annotation-enrichment tests and can aid in functional interpretation of poorly annotated genes. We provide an online interactive resource with tutorials at http://genemodules.org/, in which users can find detailed information on each module, check genes for module-weighted annotations, and use both of these to analyze their own gene expression data (generated using any platform) or gene sets of interest.
Building a Brain Tumor Practice: Objective Analysis of Referral Patterns and Implications for the Growth of a Subspecialty Surgical Program

Introduction Growth of surgical caseload among specialties with a large contribution margin is an important financial objective for hospitals. In this study, we examined the diversity of referral patterns to a neurosurgeon over an eight-year interval and examined practice attributes related to surgical growth. Methods The electronic records of all patients undergoing an intracranial surgical procedure between August 2011 and August 2019 by an academic neurosurgeon were reviewed retrospectively. The Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) was used to assess the distribution of referrals among community physicians who referred such patients; a value of HHI <0.15 indicates diversity. The yearly HHI trend was evaluated using meta-regression. Results The neurosurgeon’s brain surgery caseload progressively increased on an annual basis from 1.4 to 12.5 cases per week between 2012 and 2018. Among the 1540 cases referred by 1775 different physicians, 78% were from three counties in southeast Florida and 8.1% from two counties in southwest Florida. The HHI declined between 2013 and 2018 by 0.023 per year (0.0046 standard error [SE], p = 0.0073) with the estimated value 0.0063 (0.0014 SE) < 0.15 in 2018 (p < 0.0001). The findings indicate that the base of referring physicians was highly diverse and that growth in caseload was accompanied by significantly less concentration of referrals. Conclusion Surgical growth in the neurosurgeon’s practice resulted from a small number of referrals from many physicians, not from many referrals from a small number of physicians. Few physicians referred a sufficient number of patients to warrant attribution of the referral itself to personal knowledge of their patients' eventual outcomes. Rather, factors promoting timely access to patient care appear to have been the driving force for growth.
Age Changes in the Detection of Deception.

DEPAULO, BELLA M. ; JORDAN, AUDREY; IRVINE, AUDREY; and LASER, PATRICIA S. Age Changes in the Detection of Deception. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 701-709. The development of the ability to detect deception was investigated. Subjects were sixth graders, eighth graders, tenth graders, twelfth graders, and college students who watched or listened to a videotape of 4 males and 4 females, each describing someone they liked and someone they disliked (honest messages) and pretending to like the disliked person ("pretend to like") and to dislike the liked person ("pretend to dislike") (deceptive messages). When subjects were asked to indicate the speakers' affect (liking ratings), subjects at every age level tended to report the affect that was overtly expressed, even when the speakers were lying. However, subjects at every age level did perceive the feigned expressions of liking as less positive than the sincere expressions of liking, and the feigned expressions of disliking as less negative than the honest expressions of disliking. The three oldest groups also discriminated truth from deception by their "mixed-feelings" ratings-they perceived the speakers as having more mixed feelings when they were lying than when they were telling the truth. However, only the twelfth graders and college students perceived the dishonest messages as more deceptive than the honest messages. Finally, there were systematic changes, with age, in the kinds of messages that subjects perceived as deceptive. At the younger age levels, subjects judged expressions of negative affect as more deceptive than expressions of positive affect; however, among the older subjects, this trend reversed and subjects judged expressions of positive affect to be relatively more deceptive than expressions of negative affect.
Investigation of geographical distribution of wild buckwheat resourcein Yunnan province

The wild buckwheat resources were systematically investigated and collected from 50 counties in 6 prefectures of Yunnan province.The distribution of the wild buckwheat resources in Yunnan was identified.The diversity of geographical distribution was studied,and 2 main distributing centers of the wild buckwheat resources were established in Yunnan province.A new species or mutant was found (waiting to identify)in the investigation.
Roles of Reactive Oxygen Species in Biological Behaviors of Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa), known as a heterogenous disease, has a high incidence and mortality rate around the world and seriously threatens public health. As an inevitable by-product of cellular metabolism, reactive oxygen species (ROS) exhibit beneficial effects by regulating signaling cascades and homeostasis. More and more evidence highlights that PCa is closely associated with age, and high levels of ROS are driven through activation of several signaling pathways with age, which facilitate the initiation, development, and progression of PCa. Nevertheless, excessive amounts of ROS result in harmful effects, such as genotoxicity and cell death. On the other hand, PCa cells adaptively upregulate antioxidant genes to detoxify from ROS, suggesting that a subtle balance of intracellular ROS levels is required for cancer cell functions. The current review discusses the generation and biological roles of ROS in PCa and provides new strategies based on the regulation of ROS for the treatment of PCa.
Safety and Efficacy of Long-Term Zoledronic Acid in Advanced Breast Cancer with Bone Metastasis in South China

Background This retrospective study aimed to characterize the long-term (>24 months) safety profile of zoledronic acid (ZA). We aimed to investigate whether long-term ZA treatment had greater benefits than short-term treatment in patients from southern China with advanced breast cancer (ABC) with bone metastasis. Patients and Methods. A total of 566 metastatic breast cancer cases were included and divided into two groups according to the duration of ZA treatment. The included patients had at least one lytic bone lesion and had no skeletal-related events (SREs) prior to ZA therapy. The primary endpoint was to analyze the safety and long-term adverse effects, which covered osteonecrosis of jaws (ONJ), renal impairment, and hearing impairment. The second objective was to determine the efficacy of long-term ZA treatment by the incidence of SREs. Results Fifteen patients were diagnosed with ONJ (2.7%): nine in the short-term group (3.1%) and six in the long-term group (2.2%, P = 0.606). Five cases (0.9%) had renal function impairment: two in the short-term group (0.7%) and four in the long-term group (1.1%, P = 0.676). One patient (0.2%) in the long-term group had hearing impairment after 23 months of ZA treatment (0.4%, P = 0.482). In total, 103 cases in the short-term group (35.2%) and 138 cases in long-term group (50.5%) developed SREs (P < 0.001). The mean annual SRE rate was 0.3 in the short-term group (range, 0–3.1) versus 0.2 in the long-term group (0–1.0, P = 0.269). Subgroup analysis suggested that cases with non-load-bearing bone involvement and those who received systematic anticancer therapy without chemotherapy might benefit from long-term ZA treatment. Cox regression analysis indicated poor performance status, and nonvisceral organ involvement predicted high risk for SRE. Conclusions The extension of ZA treatment did not increase the long-term adverse events and reduced the annual incidence of SREs beyond 24 months. Although longer treatment of ZA over 24 months appeared to be safe, further prospective investigation is required.
Effectiveness of the Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Program for Yaquis with Obesity and Risk of Diabetes in the Short and Medium Term: A Translational Study

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a public health problem worldwide, and the main risk factor for its development is obesity. The Yaqui ethnic group of Sonora has serious obesity problems, resulting in an increased risk of T2D in its inhabitants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a health promotion program on obesity parameters and cardiovascular risk factors in short- (6 months) and medium-term periods (12 months) in indigenous Yaquis of Sonora. The design is a translational clinical study of a single cohort with prepost intervention measurements in a sample of 93 subjects. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated by comparing obesity parameters, metabolic markers, and physical activity 6 and 12 months with those measured under basal conditions using a paired t-test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The short-term retention percentage was 58.0%. There was a decrease in body weight (Δ = −3.9 kg, p ≤ 0.05) and other obesity parameters, and an increase in physical activity and improvements in metabolic markers (p ≤ 0.05) was observed. Similar findings were obtained for the medium-term period; body weight loss was also -3.9 kg (p ≤ 0.05). The short and medium-term results of the program showed improvements in the obesity parameters and other cardiovascular risk factors of the participants. These results support the effectiveness of the program and its translation in this ethnic group.
How Affective Polarization Shapes Americans’ Political Beliefs: A Study of Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Affective polarization – partisans’ dislike and distrust of those from the other party – has reached historically high levels in the United States. While numerous studies estimate its effect on apolitical outcomes (e.g., dating and economic transactions), we know much less about its effects on political beliefs. We argue that those who exhibit high levels of affective polarization politicize ostensibly apolitical issues and actors. An experiment focused on responses to COVID-19 that relies on pre-pandemic, exogenous measures of affective polarization supports our expectations. Partisans who harbor high levels of animus towards the other party do not differentiate the “United States’” response to COVID-19 from that of the Trump administration. Less affectively polarized partisans, in contrast, do not politicize evaluations of the country’s response. Our results provide evidence of how affective polarization, apart from partisanship itself, shapes substantive beliefs. Affective polarization has political consequences and political beliefs stem, in part, from partisan animus.
Role Asymmetries in Interactions among School-Aged Children, Their Younger Siblings, and Their Friends.

BRODY, GENE H. ; STONEMAN, ZOLINDA; and MACKINNON, CAROL E. Role Asymmetries in Interactions among School-aged Children, Their Younger Siblings, and Their Friends. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 1364-1370. 22 school-aged children, their younger siblings, and their best friends were observed in their homes while playing a popular board game. The older sibling and the younger sibling and the older sibling and the best friend were observed on different days. Observations were also obtained of the older sibling, younger sibling, and best friend playing the game together. 5 roles were operationalized and observed: teacher, learner, manager, managee, and playmate. Analysis of the roles assumed in each social context revealed that older siblings assume the dominant role (teacher and manager) while playing with their younger sibling, and equalitarian roles (playmate) while playing with their best friend. The older sibling directed the teacher, manager, and playmate roles less often toward the younger sibling in the triadic social context. The results were discussed in terms of the possible contributions that role asymmetries make to social development.
EVALUACIÓN DE ENZIMAS PARA LA HIDRÓLISIS DE RESIDUOS (HOJAS Y COGOLLOS) DE LA COSECHA CAÑA DE AZÚCAR EVALUATION OF ENZYMES FOR THE HYDROLYSIS OF WASTE (LEAVES AND TOP CANE) FROM THE HARVEST OF SUGAR CANE

The enzymatic hydrolysis of waste (leaves and top cane) from the harvest of sugar cane was evaluated. The substrates were prepared by applying different delignification treatments using enzymes, organic solvents, sodium hydroxide, and sodium chlorite. Wastes with no treatment were used as control. Five mixtures of enzymes were prepared by using the enzymatic activities of the commercial enzymes, and were evaluated in the different substrates. A criterion for evaluating the efficiency of enzymes from progress curves, percentage saccharification and saccharification index, called "global index of hydrolysis" was introduced. The results shows that the hydrolysis with E5 enzymatic preparation with the following enzyme activities, hemicelullases: 52.75 global units of /ml, total cellulase: 27.53 FPU / ml, endoglucanase: 1782.1 CMC / ml, exoglucanase: 0.377 UI / ml, β-glucosidase: 550 pUPG U / ml, xylanase: 28.23 UI / ml, galactosidasa: 7.1 UI / ml, manase: 2.76 UI / ml, and ranmanasa: 14.63 UI / ml, and the S3 substrate with 80.53% of cellulose content, 13.35% of hemicellulose, 1,36 % of lignin, and Kappa Number of 5.85 has the highest overall index of hydrolysis,117.16. The study concludes that this enzyme preparation, E5, has greatest potential for the hydrolysis the harvest waste of sugarcane used in this study.
Imitation of Peers and Adults in a Natural Setting: A Functional Analysis.

GRUSEC, JOAN E. , and ABRAMOVITCH, RONA. Imitation of Peers and Adults in a Natural Setting: A Functional Analysis. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 636-642. 2 studies were done in which events following children's imitation were observed. In the first study, immediate imitation of peers was observed during free play in 4 groups of preschoolers ranging in age from 23 months to 5 years. Amount of imitation decreased with age. A majority of imitations were followed by positive consequences in the form of maintained or increased social interaction, including counterimitation. Children whose imitations were successful in this sense imitated more, while those who responded positively to being imitated were imitated more. Generally there was a positive relationship between dominance and being imitated. There were no sex differences in imitating or being imitated. In the second study, immediate imitation of both peers and adults was observed in 6 groups of preschoolers ranging in age from 27 months to 5 years. The results for peer imitation replicated those of the first study. In addition, most of the children's imitations of adults were followed by positive consequences, although the content of peer and adult imitation differed.