Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drug Testing for Residual Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Mice Beyond Therapy with Metformin, Ramipril, and Empagliflozin.

BACKGROUND Progression of CKD in type 2 diabetes, despite dual inhibition of sodium-glucose transporter-2 and the renin-angiotensin system, remains a concern. Bromoindirubin-3'-oxime (BIO), previously reported to promote podocyte survival and regeneration, is a candidate additional drug to elicit renoprotective effects beyond therapy with metformin, ramipril, and empagliflozin (MRE). Evaluating a drug with standard therapeutics more closely mimics the clinical setting than evaluating the drug alone. METHODS Uninephrectomized BKS-Lepr-/- (db/db) mice treated with or without MRE served as a model of progressive CKD in type 2 diabetes. Mice on or off MRE were randomized to only 4 weeks of add-on BIO or vehicle. The primary end point was slope of GFR (ΔGFR). RESULTS Four weeks of MRE treatment alone did not affect ΔGFR, but significantly attenuated hyperglycemia, albuminuria, and glomerulosclerosis and increased podocyte filtration slit density, as assessed by STED super-resolution microscopy upon tissue clearing. BIO alone improved albuminuria, podocyte density in superficial and juxtamedullary nephrons, and podocyte filtration slit density. MRE+BIO combination therapy had additive protective effects on ΔGFR, glomerulosclerosis, podocyte density in juxtamedullary nephrons, and filtration slit density. CONCLUSIONS Add-on treatment with BIO for only 4 weeks attenuates progression of CKD beyond MRE therapy in mice with type 2 diabetes. Additional drug combinations may help to further delay ESKD in type 2 diabetes.
Nest Survival of Clay-Colored and Vesper Sparrows in Relation to Woodland Edge in Mixed-Grass Prairies

Abstract The quantity and quality of northern mixed-grass prairie continues to decline because of conversion to agriculture, invasion of woody and exotic plants, and disruption of important ecological processes that shape grasslands. Declines in grassland bird populations in North Dakota, USA, have coincided with these largely anthropogenic alterations to prairie habitat. In grasslands of north-central and northwestern North Dakota, woody plants have increased due primarily to fire suppression, extirpation of bison (Bos bison), and widescale planting of tree shelter belts. In northern grasslands, effects of woody vegetation on survival of grassland birds are poorly understood, and conclusions are based mainly on studies conducted outside the region. We examined nest survival of clay-colored sparrows (Spizella pallida) and vesper sparrows (Pooecetes gramineus) relative to the distance nests were located from aspen (Populus tremuloides) woodland edges and relative to other habitat features near the nest. Clay-colored and vesper sparrow nest survival was higher for nests located near woodland edges, nests with greater cover of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), and nests more concealed by vegetation. Vesper sparrow nest survival increased as the percent cover of tall shrubs near the nest increased. Based on video-camera data, the 13-lined ground squirrel (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) was the most common predator of sparrow eggs and young. Thirteen-lined ground squirrels were more common far from woodland edges than near, and this pattern may, in part, explain clay-colored and vesper sparrow nest survival in relation to woodland edges. In contrast to our results, studies conducted in other grassland systems generally report lower nest survival for grassland birds nesting near trees and shrubs. This disparity in results demonstrates the need to identify specific nest predators and their distributions with respect to important habitat features because these data can be important in explaining—and perhaps predicting—patterns of nest predation.
Clinical characteristics of older and younger patients infected with SARS-CoV-2

Background: SARS-CoV-2 causes high mortality risk in older patients. This study aims to characterize the clinical features of older and younger SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. Results: A total of 239 patients were divided into the younger group (<60 years; n=181) and the older group (≥60 years; n=58). In both groups, fever and cough were common symptoms. However, dyspnea was more frequent in older patients than younger patients (20.7% versus 9.9%, p=0.032). Compared with younger patients, older patients harbored more severe cases (37.9% versus 17.1%, p=0.001) and comorbidities (58.6% versus 21.0%, p<0.001) such as hypertension and diabetes. The baseline values of eosinophils and C-reactive protein were abnormal in older and younger groups. From baseline to day 14, significant decreases of three biomarkers (C-reactive protein, hemoglobin, albumin) and dramatic increases of three biomarkers (lymphocytes, platelets, blood urea nitrogen) were observed in older patients. Conclusion: Older and younger patients exhibited differences in dyspnea, comorbidities, and proportions of severe cases. Moreover, the disease progression of SARS-CoV-2 in older patients is observed with the dynamics of laboratory biomarkers, supporting their potential use in disease monitoring. Methods: We retrieved clinical symptoms, laboratory findings, comorbidities, and hospitalization information of SARS-CoV-2 cases in Changsha.
Aromatic Polyketides from a Symbiotic Strain Aspergillus fumigatus D and Characterization of Their Biosynthetic Gene D8.t287

The chemical investigation of one symbiotic strain, Aspergillus fumigatus D, from the coastal plant Edgeworthia chrysantha Lindl led to the isolation of eight compounds (1–8), which were respectively identified as rubrofusarin B (1), alternariol 9-O-methyl ether (2), fonsecinone D (3), asperpyrone A (4), asperpyrone D (5), fonsecinone B (6), fonsecinone A (7), and aurasperone A (8) by a combination of spectroscopic methods (1D NMR and ESI-MS) as well as by comparison with the literature data. An antimicrobial assay showed that these aromatic polyketides exhibited no remarkable inhibitory effect on Escherichia coli, Staphyloccocus aureus and Candida albicans. The genomic feature of strain D was analyzed, as well as its biosynthetic gene clusters, using antibiotics and Secondary Metabolite Analysis Shell 5.1. 2 (antiSMASH). Plausible biosynthetic pathways for dimeric naphtho-γ-pyrones 3–8 were first proposed in this work. A non-reducing polyketide synthase (PKS) gene D8.t287 responsible for the biosynthesis of these aromatic polyketides 1–8 was identified and characterized by target gene knockout experiment and UPLC-MS analysis.
Genotypic and Phenotypic Resistance to Clarithromycin in Helicobacter pylori Strains

Background: The increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, together with the lack of novel treatment options, negatively affects successful eradication of Helicobacter pylori. The aim of this study was to investigate genetic mutations in the 23S rRNA genes, which is associated with clarithromycin resistance, and to determine the clinical impact of genotype on phenotypic antimicrobial resistance. Methods: A total of 46 H. pylori strains were obtained from 13 patients, before and after unsuccessful eradication with clarithromycin-based triple therapy. The phenotypic resistance of each H. pylori strain was determined by minimum inhibitory concentration against clarithromycin using the serial two-fold agar dilution method. The genomic sequences of 23S rRNA genes were identified through next-generation sequencing, and nucleotide variants were determined based on comparison with genome sequences of the reference strain H. pylori 26695. Results: Clarithromycin resistance was found in 9 of 13 subjects before treatment and all subjects after unsuccessful eradication. Whole-genome sequencing of the 23S rRNA genes detected 42 mutations on 40 nonidentical loci, including 2147A>G (formerly 2143A>G) and 2146A>G (formerly 2142A>G). All strains with clarithromycin-resistant phenotype had either 2147A>G or 2146A>G mutation. When comparing genotype and phenotype for clarithromycin resistance, there was a significant association between 2147A>G mutation and clarithromycin-resistant phenotype. Conclusions: All clarithromycin-resistant strains had either 2146A>G or 2147A>G mutation, suggesting that tests targeting these two mutations may be enough for the prediction of clarithromycin resistance in this population.
Is combination chemotherapy of cisplatin and gemcitabine in the first-line treatment of advanced gallbladder cancer the right choice? A study in indian patients from the gangetic belt

Background: Owing to presentation at advanced stage, most of the time, gallbladder carcinoma is nonresectable. Nonsurgical palliative procedures such as stenting help in a limited number of patients. Although anecdotal Western data are present, combination chemotherapy data from Indian scenario are scanty. The present study was carried out with an aim to evaluate the response to first-line chemotherapy with cisplatin and gemcitabine in Indian patients with advanced gallbladder carcinoma. This observational study was conducted in the Departments of Oncology at the Army Command Hospital (Central Command), Lucknow, between April 2013 and May 2016. All patients presenting to this center with histologically proven advanced carcinoma of gallbladder were screened for eligibility for inclusion in the study. Patients and Methods: No prior approach for sample size calculation was followed owing to rarity of disease. Hence, all the patients falling in the sampling frame were included in the study. Power analysis was done post hoc. A total of 60 patients falling in sampling frame and completing 6 months of treatment protocol were enrolled in the study. Statistical Analysis Used: Chi-square test and independent samples t-test were used to compare and evaluate the data. P < 0.05 indicated a statistically significant association. Results: At 3 months, majority of the patients (28; 46.7%) had a progressive disease, and at 6 months, the number of patients having progressive disease increased to 36 (60%). Six-month mortality did not show a significant association with age, gender, stage, or mean duration of complaints. However, a significant association with a mean number of drug cycles and mean compliance rate was observed. Conclusions: Combination gemcitabine and cisplatin which is the standard first-line therapy in advanced gallbladder carcinoma patients showed limited response in the Indian patients, leading to invariable disease progression by 6 months.
Don’t Eclipse Your Arts Due to Small Discrepancies: Boundary Repositioning with a Pointer Network for Aspect Extraction

The current aspect extraction methods suffer from boundary errors. In general, these errors lead to a relatively minor difference between the extracted aspects and the ground-truth. However, they hurt the performance severely. In this paper, we propose to utilize a pointer network for repositioning the boundaries. Recycling mechanism is used, which enables the training data to be collected without manual intervention. We conduct the experiments on the benchmark datasets SE14 of laptop and SE14-16 of restaurant. Experimental results show that our method achieves substantial improvements over the baseline, and outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
Profile of cerebrovascular accidents in subjects with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus in intensive care units of tertiary care centre

Background and Aims: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a modifiable and independent risk factor for stroke. As the clinical features, radiological profile, outcome and prognosis of the stroke in type 2 diabetic and non diabetic patients are significantly variable, we proposed to evaluate these variations of stroke in patients with or without Type 2 DM. Material and Methods: A prospective study was conducted from January, 2011 to June, 2012 on in-hospital admitted diabetic and non diabetic patients presenting with stroke. Data was recorded on a predesigned Performa. Results: A total of 150 cases were enrolled into the study. Out of these, 66% of patients had ischemic stroke and 34% of patients had hemorrhagic stroke. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was present in 52% patients. Ischemic stroke was significantly higher in diabetics than non diabetics (P = 0.007); however, hemorrhagic stroke was more in non diabetics. Mean age was significantly higher in diabetics (P = 0.04). CAD (P = 0.04), recurrent stroke (P = 0.006) had significant association with diabetes. Large vessel stroke was more common than small vessel stroke. Anterior circulation stroke was more common than posterior circulation stroke. There was significant improvement in morbidity and disability of the patients on follow up with treatment. Conclusions: A greater incidence of anterior circulation ischemic stroke, and recurrent strokes occur in patients with DM.
Revisiting Higher-Order Dependency Parsers

Neural encoders have allowed dependency parsers to shift from higher-order structured models to simpler first-order ones, making decoding faster and still achieving better accuracy than non-neural parsers. This has led to a belief that neural encoders can implicitly encode structural constraints, such as siblings and grandparents in a tree. We tested this hypothesis and found that neural parsers may benefit from higher-order features, even when employing a powerful pre-trained encoder, such as BERT. While the gains of higher-order features are small in the presence of a powerful encoder, they are consistent for long-range dependencies and long sentences. In particular, higher-order models are more accurate on full sentence parses and on the exact match of modifier lists, indicating that they deal better with larger, more complex structures.
Generation Mean Analysis for Grain Yield and Its Related Traits in Lentil

In order to estimate heritability and gene action for grain yield and its related traits in lentil, six basic generations were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a field experiment. Besides seed yield per plant, plant height, pod length, and 100-seed weight, the number of pods per plant, primary branches, clusters per plant, nodes per main stem, secondary branches, and the number of seeds per pod were recorded. Generation mean analysis using A, B, C and joint scaling tests indicated that additive [a], dominance [d] and at least one of the epistatic effect (additive ×additive [aa], additive ×dominance [ad] and dominance ×dominance [dd]) were involved in the inheritance of the studied traits. However, simple additive-dominance model was sufficient only for pod length. Significant dominance [d] and dominance×dominance [dd] interactions with opposite sign indicated duplicate epistasis for all traits except pod length. Narrow-sense heritability was low for seed yield per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod and 100-seed weight and moderate for other traits. Average dominance ratio was more than unity for seed yield per plant, number of primary and secondary branches, pod length, and 100-seed weight, which showed the high importance of dominance gene effect in control of these traits. Due to the presence of greater nonadditive gene effects combined with low narrow-sense heritability, selection for almost all of the studied traits in this cross, especially in early generations, would be complex in conventional methods.
Multimodal Transformer for Multimodal Machine Translation

Multimodal Machine Translation (MMT) aims to introduce information from other modality, generally static images, to improve the translation quality. Previous works propose various incorporation methods, but most of them do not consider the relative importance of multiple modalities. Equally treating all modalities may encode too much useless information from less important modalities. In this paper, we introduce the multimodal self-attention in Transformer to solve the issues above in MMT. The proposed method learns the representation of images based on the text, which avoids encoding irrelevant information in images. Experiments and visualization analysis demonstrate that our model benefits from visual information and substantially outperforms previous works and competitive baselines in terms of various metrics.
Avaliação de danos mecânicos em sementes de soja por meio da análise de imagens

The present study had the objective of developing a non-conventional method to determine mechanical damage in soybean seeds, and also to verify its relation to the physiological quality, using the image analysis technique. Unlike the traditional tests, this technique analyzes seeds without destroying them, and together with the germination test, it can be observed that the damage detected in the image analysis is really important because of its influence on the germination process. The research was carried out with three cultivars of soybean (FT-2, FT-10 and IAC-2), possessing different contents of lignin in the seed coat (different resistance performance for mechanical damage). The mechanical damage had been caused by means of the pendulum test in six different regions of the seeds. The image analysis identified external and internal mechanical damage in soybean seeds, and was also efficient in detecting weathering and stink-bug damage.
Heart failure and sleep‐disordered breathing: susceptibility to reduced muscle strength and preclinical congestion (SICA‐HF cohort)

Increased sympathetic activation in patients with heart failure (HF) and sleep‐disordered breathing (SDB) provokes cardiac decompensation and protein degradation and could lead to muscle wasting and muscle weakness. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in body composition, muscle function, and the susceptibility of preclinical congestion among patients with HF and SDB compared with those without SDB.
Academic Hardiness as a Moderator between Evaluative Concerns Perfectionism and Academic Procrastination in Students

Abstract Academic procrastination is a common phenomenon in students that can have a negative impact on effective learning, academic achievement, self-esteem, and quality of life. This study examined the associations among the two dimensions of perfectionism (personal standards perfectionism and evaluative concerns perfectionism), academic hardiness, and academic procrastination, as well as the moderating role of academic hardiness in the relationship between the two dimensions of perfectionism and academic procrastination. Participants of this study included 410 high school students in grades 9 to 12 from six schools in Tehran, Iran who completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised, the Academic Hardiness Scale, and the Procrastination Assessment Scale. The results indicated that personal standards perfectionism and academic hardiness had negative relationships with academic procrastination, whereas evaluative concerns perfectionism had a positive relationship with academic procrastination. Interaction-moderation analysis demonstrated that academic hardiness only played a buffering role in the relationship between evaluative concerns perfectionism and academic procrastination. The results of this study elucidate the experience of academic procrastination in students and highlight the role of academic hardiness and personal standards perfectionism. Implications for educators and psychologists are discussed.
The Olfactory Epithelium in Plaice (Pleuronectes Platessa) And Sole (Solea Solea), Two Flatfishes With Contrasting Feeding Behaviour

The olfactory epithelium of developmental stages from yolk sac larvae to adults of plaice, Pleuronectes platessa L. (Pisces: Pleuronectidae) and Dover sole, Solea solea (L.) (Pisces: Soleidae) was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Two ciliated cell types and a microvillar cell are present in both species soon after hatching and persist into adulthood. In juveniles and adults of plaice, there were significantly higher densities of ciliated sensory cells in the eyed side of the fish than in the blind side over all regions of the olfactory lamellae. Densities of microvillar cells were an order of magnitude less than those of ciliated cells in regions on the wider part of the lamellae, with no significant difference between organs in most of these regions. On the narrow part of the lamellae, densities of microvillar cells were significantly higher than on the wide part, and significantly higher in the eyed side organ. In sole, ciliated cells were significantly more dense in the blind side organ in three of the four regions examined in this species. In contrast, microvillar cells showed a similar pattern to that in plaice, being significantly more dense in the eyed side organ in two of the four regions. Comparisons between the species showed significantly higher densities of both cell types in sole, microvillar cells being an order of magnitude denser in comparable regions on the lamellae. In addition, the total area of the olfactory lamellae is around three times greater in sole. These data point to a possible morphological basis for the enhanced olfactory capabilities of sole apparent from behavioural studies.
Comparison of Clinical Outcomes of Induction Regimens in Patients Undergoing Liver Transplantation for Acute Liver Failure

Spontaneous survival rates in acute liver failure (ALF) are vastly improved by liver transplantation (LT). However, the value of induction agents beyond steroids continues to be debated. To understand the potential benefit of different induction regimens in the ALF population, we compared overall survival of recipients undergoing LT in the United States for ALF. Using the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, we assessed the impact of induction immunosuppression (IS) in a cohort of 3754 first‐time LT recipients with a diagnosis of ALF from 2002 to 2018. Induction IS therapy was grouped into steroid‐only induction, use of antithymocyte globulin (ATG), or interleukin 2 receptor antibody. Other regimens were excluded from analysis. Survival analysis was estimated via Cox proportional hazards models and expressed as hazard ratios (HRs). In LT for ALF, the use of induction agents beyond steroids is increasingly frequent over the last 2 decades. The use of ATG is associated with worse overall survival, even after adjusting for donor and recipient factors, with HR of 1.24 (95% confidence interval, 1.00‐1.53; P = 0.05). An elevated serum creatinine, recipient and donor age, and Black ethnicity, were all associated with reduced survival, whereas maintenance IS with calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) was associated with improved survival. Although adjunct induction therapy has become more common, our analysis shows that compared with a steroid‐only induction regimen, the addition of ATG is associated with worse overall survival after LT for ALF. CNI maintenance was highly protective, suggesting that an IS strategy focusing on corticosteroid‐only induction followed by CNI maintenance may offer the best overall survival rate.
Longitudinal prediction of positive and negative mental health in Germany, Russia, and China

The present study examines a broad range of longitudinal predictors of dimensional positive mental health (PMH) and negative mental health (NMH), using data from the BOOM study. Participants were drawn from university student samples in Germany (1,608), Russia (677) and China (12,057). A structural equation model was conducted with four groups of predictors and PMH/NMH as criteria (outcomes). Five of the six salutogenic predictors were predictive of both positive mental health (positively) and negative mental health, as measured by depression (negatively). Pathogenic predictors anxiety and depression were related to future depression, but not to positive mental health. Stress at baseline was related to both future positive mental health (negatively) and future depression (positively). Being male in this study was associated with increased future depression. Results hold across Germany, Russia, and China. Results support the conceptualization of positive and negative mental health as related, but independent dimensions across three cultures.