Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of using fecal testing after a negative sigmoidoscopy on the risk of death from colorectal cancer

Objective To examine whether receiving a fecal occult blood test after a negative sigmoidoscopy reduced mortality from colorectal cancer. Methods We used a nested case–control design with incidence-density matching in historical cohorts of 1,877,740 50–90-year-old persons during 2006–2012, in an integrated health-system setting. We selected 1758 average risk patients who died from colorectal cancer and 3503 matched colorectal cancer-free persons. Colorectal cancer-specific death was ascertained from cancer and mortality registries. Screening histories were determined from electronic and chart–audit clinical data in the 5- to 10-year period prior to the reference date. We evaluated receipt of subsequent fecal occult blood test within five years of the reference date among patients with negative sigmoidoscopy two to six years before the reference date. Results Of the 5261 patients, 831 patients (204 colorectal cancer deaths/627 controls) had either negative sigmoidoscopy only (n = 592) or negative sigmoidoscopy with subsequent screening fecal occult blood test (n = 239). Fifty-six (27.5%) of the 204 patients dying of colorectal cancer and 183 (29.2%) of the 627 colorectal cancer-free patients received fecal occult blood test following a negative sigmoidoscopy. Conditional regressions found no significant association between fecal occult blood test receipt and colorectal cancer death risk, overall (adjusted odds ratio = 0.93, confidence interval: 0.65–1.33), or for right (odds ratio = 1.02, confidence interval: 0.65–1.60) or left-colon/rectum (odds ratio = 0.77, confidence interval: 0.39–1.52) cancers. Similar results were obtained in sensitivity analyses with alternative exposure ascertainment windows or timing of fecal occult blood test. Conclusions Our results suggest that receipt of at least one fecal occult blood test during the several years after a negative sigmoidoscopy did not substantially reduce mortality from colorectal cancer.
Maternal risk factors for underweight among children under-five in a resource limited setting: A community based case control study

Previous studies conducted in Nepal have not identified the potential maternal risk for underweight among children under-five years of age in resource-poor settings. Therefore, to identify these risk factors for being underweight among children under-five years old, a community-based case-control study was conducted in a rural village in the Chitwan District in Nepal. Cases were defined as children who were diagnosed as underweight based on low weight per age, whereas controls were the children with normal weight for their age. Mothers of 93 cases and 186 controls were invited for an interview to collect the data. More than half of underweight children were female (51.6%) and nearly one third of them (31.2%) were aged 13–24 months. Nearly, 30% of the cases belonged to families in the lowest wealth quintile and 82% of cases were from food insecure families. Logistic regression analysis showed that children of mothers who were illiterate had 1.48 times the odds of being underweight compared to whose mothers were not illiterate (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.53–3.07)). Children whose mother had not completed their postnatal care (PNC) were 3.16 more times likely to be underweight compared to children of mothers who completed PNC (95% CI: 1.24–8.03). The children who received care from other family members besides their mothers were 6.05 times more likely to be underweight (95% CI: 1.44–25.42); the children having mothers who had no income at all had 5.13 times the odds of being underweight (95% CI: 1.27–20.71) and children with diarrhea episodes within one month were 2.09 times more likely to be underweight (95% CI:1.02–4.31) compared to those children without any diarrhea episodes within one month. Women should be encouraged to take care of their children themselves, seek PNC services and take precautions to protect their children from diarrhea. Also, enabling factors such as education and improved income for women can help to reduce malnutrition among children.
Understanding African swine fever outbreaks in domestic pigs in a sylvatic endemic area: the case of the South African controlled area between 1977-2017.

South Africa declared a controlled area for African swine fever (ASF) in 1935, consisting of the northern parts of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Kwa-Zulu Natal Provinces. The area was delineated based on the endemic presence of the sylvatic cycle of ASF, involving warthogs and argasid ticks. Occasionally, spill over occurs from the sylvatic cycle to domestic pigs, causing ASF outbreaks. In the period 1977 to 2017, 59 outbreaks of ASF were reported in domestic pigs within the ASF controlled area of South Africa. During these outbreaks, at least 4031 domestic pigs either died or were culled. Season did not affect the number of reported ASF outbreaks, but the number of reported outbreaks in this area per year was thought to be slowly increasing, although not statistically significant. Outbreaks occurred predominantly in Limpopo province (93%) and were mostly due to contact (or suspected contact) with warthog or warthog carcasses. Clustering analysis of outbreaks found that the local municipalities of Ramotshere Moiloa, Lephalale and Thabazimbi had the highest relative risk for outbreaks. In 32 of the 59 outbreaks, the genotype of the ASF virus (ASFV) involved could be determined. Phylogenetic analysis of ASFVs detected in domestic pigs during the study period revealed that p72 genotypes I, III, IV, VII, VIII, XIX, XX, XXI and XXII had been involved in causing outbreaks within the ASF controlled area. No outbreaks were reported in the Kwa-Zulu Natal part of the controlled area during this period. South Africa is unlikely to eradicate all sources of ASFV as spill over from the sylvatic cycle in the controlled area continued to occur, but with the implementation of appropriate biosecurity measures pigs can be successfully farmed despite the presence of ASFV in African wild suids and soft ticks.
Organic Cation Transporters (OCTs) in EpiAirway™, a Cellular Model of Normal Human Bronchial Epithelium

Organic cation transporters (OCTs) and novel organic cation transporters (OCTNs) are responsible for drug delivery in the intestine and kidney; in the lung, OCTs mediate inhaled drugs’ transport, although their physiological role in airways remains poorly understood. The studies addressing OCTs/OCTNs in human airways were mostly performed in immortal or transformed cell lines; here, we studied OCTs in EpiAirway™, a recently developed in vitro model of normal bronchial epithelium. Calu-3 monolayers were used for comparison. The activity of OCTs was evaluated by measuring the uptake of 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) at the apical and basolateral side of monolayers and protein expression through Western Blot analysis. OCTs and OCTNs expression, along with that of Amino acid Transporter B0,+ (ATB0,+)transporter, was determined by measuring the number of mRNA molecules through quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). The interaction of the transporters with bronchodilators was also assessed. Results highlight significant differences between Calu-3 cells and EpiAirway™, since, in the latter, OCTs are active only on the basolateral membrane where they interact with the bronchodilator ipratropium. No activity of OCTs is detectable at the apical side; there, the most abundant carrier is, instead, SLC6A14/ATB0,+, that can thus be potentially listed among organic cation transporters responsible for drug delivery in the lung.
Participation of Women and Older Participants in Randomized Clinical Trials of Lipid-Lowering Therapies

Key Points Question Are women and older participants adequately represented in randomized clinical trials of lipid-lowering therapy? Findings In this systematic review of 60 trials with 485 409 participants that were conducted between 1990 and 2018, there was a modest increase in the enrollment of women (from 19.5% to 33.6%) and older participants (from 31.6% to 46.2%); however, overall representation was low (28.5% women and 46.7% older adults). Women were underrepresented in trials compared with their relative disease burden. Meaning The results of this study suggest that despite ongoing efforts to increase the representation of women and older participants, these subgroups remained consistently underrepresented in randomized clinical trials of lipid-lowering therapies, limiting the evidence base.
Monitoring Workloads of a Professional Female Futsal Team over a Season: A Case Study

The aims of this study were to describe the external and internal workloads in a professional female futsal team during a whole season and to compare workloads during different periods of the season. Ten professional female futsal players (age 22.8 ± 4.3 years; 5.1 ± 2.4 years of experience; weight 61.9 ± 7.1 kg; height 1.66 ± 0.06 m) participated voluntarily in this study during the whole season. The internal workload was measured by the session-Rate of perceived exertion (session-RPE) method, while the external workload was indirectly measured by considering the training and match volume and the type of contents of each session over 43 weeks. Mean sRPE throughout the season was 319.9 ± 127.1 arbitrary units (AU). Higher internal loads (total weekly training load and strain) were reported during the pre-season compared with the in-season mesocycles (p < 0.05); meanwhile, the fifth to eighth mesocycles of the in-season showed an oscillatory pattern. Finally, Monday was the most-demanding session during the in-season period over the Thursday (p < 0.05; effect size: 1.33) followed by match day, meanwhile no statistical differences were reported during different sessions of the pre-season microcycle (p > 0.05). This study suggests that microcycles of pre-season present a stable load pattern, meanwhile workloads during the in-season period report a tapering strategy in a professional female futsal team.
Effects of Density and Microdetritus Enrichment on the Growth of Chironomid Larvae in a Small Pond

Densities, species-ratios, and food regimes of chironomid larvae were manipulated in enclosures placed in a small prairie pond, and effects of these treatments on the growth rates of larvae of Chironomus riparius and Glyptotendipes paripes were measured. These two species have tubiculous microphagous larvae that make up the majority of the benthos of the study pond. Intraspecific density effects strongly reduced growth rates for both species; however, interspecific effects were weak and sometimes not statistically significant. Chironomus riparius responded to the addition of sedimented microdetritus with a substantial increase in its growth rate, whereas G. paripes showed no response. The results indicate that the larvae of the two species can coexist stably at densities high enough to result in substantial intraspecies competition, and that differences associated with their mode of feeding contribute to resource partitioning. A sharp reduction in chironomid larval densities resulting from poor weather du.
Psychobiological markers of allostatic load in depressed and nondepressed mothers and their adolescent offspring.

BACKGROUND A substantial body of research has emerged suggesting that depression is strongly linked to poor physical health outcomes, which may be partly due to increased allostatic load across stress response systems. Interestingly, health risks associated with depression are also borne by the offspring of depressed persons. Our aim was to simultaneously investigate whether maternal depression is associated not only with increased allostatic load across cardiac control, inflammation, cellular aging, but also if this is transmitted to adolescent children, possibly increasing the risk for early onset of psychiatric conditions and disease in these offspring. METHODS A preregistered, case-control study of 180 low-income mothers (50% mothers depressed, 50% mothers nondepressed) and their adolescent offspring was conducted to determine how depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring systematically differ in terms of autonomic, sympathetic, and parasympathetic cardiac control; inflammation; cellular aging; and behavioral health in offspring, which are indicators suggestive of higher allostatic load. RESULTS Findings indicate that depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring differ in terms of comorbid mental and physical health risk profiles that are suggestive of higher allostatic load. Findings indicate that depressed mothers exhibit elevated resting heart rate and decreased heart rate variability, and adolescent offspring of depressed mothers exhibit greater mental health symptoms, elevated heart rate, and accelerated biological aging (shorter telomeres). These effects persisted after controlling for a range of potential covariates, including medication use, sex, age, and adolescents' own mental health symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Findings indicate that maternal depression is associated with increased allostatic load in depressed women and their adolescent children, possibly increasing risk for early onset of psychiatric conditions and disease in these offspring. Future research is needed to delineate why some biological systems are more impacted than others and to explore how findings might inform preventative programs targeted at adolescent offspring of depressed mothers.
Computation Offloading Strategy Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning in Cloud-Assisted Mobile Edge Computing

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is a new computing paradigm that migrates rich computing and storage resources to the edge of the network. However, compared with traditional cloud computing, mobile edge computing is constrained in computing capacity, especially under the scenario of dense population. In this paper, a Cloud-Assisted Mobile Edge (CAME) computing framework is used to study the problem of computation offloading and resource allocation. First, the transmission delay as well as computation delay that computation jobs may experience, the transmission energy as well as computation energy that the computing system would consume were modeled. Then, the weighted sum of the delay and energy-efficient minimization computation offloading problem was formulated, constrained to the maximum latency and server resources. After that, a DQN algorithm based on reinforcement learning is proposed. In order to avoid the problem of excessive state space and overestimation, a DDQN offloading algorithm is proposed. Simulation results show that the offloading algorithm DDQN proposed in this paper can reduces the weighted sum of delay and energy consumption effectively.
Gill-Net Saturation by Lake Trout in Michigan Waters of Lake Superior

Abstract We conducted experimental fishing for lake trout Salvelinus namaycush in Michigan waters of Lake Superior to determine the importance of soak time on catch per effort (CPE) in numbers per kilometer of standard gill net. We modeled CPE as a nonlinear function of the number of nights between setting and lifting (soak time), in which the nets fill at a certain rate toward some maximum after which the nets cannot hold more fish. We found that lake trout CPE increased with soak time at a rate that varied with lake trout density toward a saturation level that was independent of lake trout density. The CPE values of nets soaked 2–5 nights divided by the CPE of nets soaked 1 night were significantly lower than would be expected had CPE increased as a linear function of the number of nights soaked. We derived a means for correcting gill-net CPE values for differing soak times to a common base of 1 night soaked. We concluded that it is inappropriate to assume lake trout catches in gill nets will increase i.
Unraveling the structure and biological functions of RNA triple helices

It has been nearly 63 years since the first characterization of an RNA triple helix in vitro by Gary Felsenfeld, David Davies, and Alexander Rich. An RNA triple helix consists of three strands: A Watson–Crick RNA double helix whose major‐groove establishes hydrogen bonds with the so‐called “third strand”. In the past 15 years, it has been recognized that these major‐groove RNA triple helices, like single‐stranded and double‐stranded RNA, also mediate prominent biological roles inside cells. Thus far, these triple helices are known to mediate catalysis during telomere synthesis and RNA splicing, bind to ligands and ions so that metabolite‐sensing riboswitches can regulate gene expression, and provide a clever strategy to protect the 3′ end of RNA from degradation. Because RNA triple helices play important roles in biology, there is a renewed interest in better understanding the fundamental properties of RNA triple helices and developing methods for their high‐throughput discovery. This review provides an overview of the fundamental biochemical and structural properties of major‐groove RNA triple helices, summarizes the structure and function of naturally occurring RNA triple helices, and describes prospective strategies to isolate RNA triple helices as a means to establish the “triplexome”.
Role of the trigger loop in translesion RNA synthesis by bacterial RNA polymerase

DNA lesions can severely compromise transcription and block RNA synthesis by RNA polymerase (RNAP), leading to subsequent recruitment of DNA repair factors to the stalled transcription complex. Recent structural studies have uncovered molecular interactions of several DNA lesions within the transcription elongation complex. However, little is known about the role of key elements of the RNAP active site in translesion transcription. Here, using recombinantly expressed proteins, in vitro transcription, kinetic analyses, and in vivo cell viability assays, we report that point amino acid substitutions in the trigger loop, a flexible element of the active site involved in nucleotide addition, can stimulate translesion RNA synthesis by Escherichia coli RNAP without altering the fidelity of nucleotide incorporation. We show that these substitutions also decrease transcriptional pausing and strongly affect the nucleotide addition cycle of RNAP by increasing the rate of nucleotide addition but also decreasing the rate of translocation. The secondary channel factors DksA and GreA modulated translesion transcription by RNAP, depending on changes in the trigger loop structure. We observed that although the mutant RNAPs stimulate translesion synthesis, their expression is toxic in vivo, especially under stress conditions. We conclude that the efficiency of translesion transcription can be significantly modulated by mutations affecting the conformational dynamics of the active site of RNAP, with potential effects on cellular stress responses and survival.
A Reference Genome of Bursaphelenchus mucronatus Provides New Resources for Revealing Its Displacement by Pinewood Nematode

The Bursaphelenchus mucronatus, which was highly similar with Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in terms of morphological characteristics and biological properties—but had weaker pathogenicity to forests—was a native species often displaced by B. xylophilus when occupying the same niche. Since the draft genome of the invasive B. xylophilus has been published, the absence of a reference genome of B. mucronatus still prevents us from understanding the molecular evidences behind competitive displacement. In this study, we employed Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing and a Hi-C scaffolding approach to yield a near chromosome-level assembly of B. mucronatus, including six pseudo-chromosomes. The assembly size is 73 Mb, with scaffold N50 of 11.50 Mb and contig N50 of 1.48 Mb. Comparative genomics results showed high similarity between B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus. However, the losing of orphan genes and species-specific orthologous genes in B. mucronatus may indicate weaker adaptability to the environment. The gene family contractions of GPCRs (G Protein-Coupled Receptors) and cellulases in B. mucronatus may jointly contribute to its displacement by B. xylophilus. Overall, we introduced a valuable genomic resource for molecular and evolutionary studies of B. mucronatus, especially for studying the competitive displacement by the pinewood nematode, which could help us control the pathogenicity of pine wilt diseases.
Multifrequency Spaceborne Deployable Radiometer Antenna Designs

As part of overall ocean dynamic satellite research, the atmospheric correction microwave radiometer (ACMR) used to correct atmospheric path delay in the radar altimeter has been developed recently. The ACMR, composed of an observing antenna (OA) and calibration antenna, operates at 18.7, 23.8, and 37 GHz for improving atmospheric retrieval accuracy. The dual-polarized OA is realized by an offset deployable dish and the common corrugated horn feeding subsystem, while the calibration antenna uses three corrugated horns. The deployable reflector is made of carbon fiber composite (CFRP) supported by a CFRP frame that connects to the satellite deck, and the deployment of the dish is implemented by two hinges. The feeding subsystem has a loaded-ring corrugated horn, an ultra-wideband orthomode transducer (OMT) that covers almost 2:1 bandwidth ratio and bandpass filters. Compromise is made to guarantee that the root-mean-square errors of the deviation of the phase center from the focal point are as small as possible for the three frequencies. Measured results of the OA showed that the voltage standing-wave ratios (VSWRs) are lower than 1.5 while the cross-polarization levels are below −20 dB throughout the all working bands. Furthermore, the radiation patterns have sidelobe levels below −20 dB, and the antenna main beam efficiencies are all above 90% for the tri-band. The calibration horn antennas have VSWR below 1.2 throughout the tri-band, too. Thermal and vibration tests confirm that the antenna is suitable for space use.
Action-Perception Coupling and Near Transfer: Listening to Melodies after Piano Practice Triggers Sequence-Specific Representations in the Auditory-Motor Network

Abstract Understanding how perception and action are coupled in the brain has important implications for training, rehabilitation, and brain–machine interfaces. Ideomotor theory postulates that willed actions are represented through previously experienced effects and initiated by the anticipation of those effects. Previous research has accordingly found that sensory events, if previously associated with action outcomes, can induce activity in motor regions. However, it remains unclear whether the motor-related activity induced during perception of more naturalistic sequences of actions actually represents “sequence-specific” information. In the present study, nonmusicians were firstly trained to play two melodies on the piano; secondly, they performed an fMRI experiment while listening to these melodies as well as novel, untrained melodies; thirdly, multivariate pattern analysis was used to test if voxel-wise patterns of brain activity could identify trained, but not novel melodies. The results importantly show that after associative learning, a series of sensory events can trigger sequence-specific representations in both sensory and motor networks. Interestingly, also novel melodies could be classified in multiple regions, including default mode regions. A control experiment confirmed these outcomes to be training-dependent. We discuss how action-perception coupling may enable spontaneous near transfer and action simulation during action observation.