Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lifestyle correlates of dietary patterns among young adults: evidence from an Australian birth cohort

Abstract Objective: Previous studies of sociodemographic and lifestyle correlates of dietary patterns among young adults have primarily focused on physical activity and smoking, with inconclusive results. This study aims to examine the associations between a broader range of lifestyles of young adults and their patterns of food consumption. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Brisbane, Australia. Participants: The data set are from a long running birth cohort study which commenced in 1981. Details of dietary intake and sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were from the 21-year follow-up of the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) birth cohort. The effective cohort (n 2665, 57 % women) is of young adult offspring. Usual dietary intake was assessed using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Data on sociodemographic and lifestyle variables were obtained from self-reports. Results: Western and prudent dietary patterns were identified for the combined cohort of women and men using principal components analysis. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the associations between lifestyle variables and dietary patterns adjusting for potential confounders. Results from multivariable adjusted models showed that physical activity, watching TV and smoking were strongly associated with each dietary pattern; alcohol consumption and BMI showed weaker associations (P < 0·05 for all). Conclusions: Our study describes a clustering of unhealthy lifestyles in young adults. Young adults with unhealthy lifestyles less often adhere to a healthy prudent dietary pattern and more often an unhealthy Western pattern. Dietary preferences are enmeshed in a lifestyle matrix which includes physical activity, sedentary activity, smoking and alcohol consumption of young adults.
Silver nanoparticle (Ag-NP) retention and release in partially saturated soil: column experiments and modelling

The need for better understanding of the environmental fate and transport of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) is now a scientific consensus. However, the partially saturated zone, a critical region that links the earth's surface to aquifers, has to date received only minor attention in the context of ENP mobility. We investigate the transport and fate of a representative ENP, silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), in partially saturated soil. Here we present a set of column experiments and modelling simulations to examine breakthrough curves (BTCs), retention profiles, and mass balances that characterize Ag-NP transport, and gain insights into retardation mechanisms. Unlike Ag-NP transport in sand columns, where the BTC pattern often resembles that of a conservative tracer, Ag-NP transport in soil columns shows moderate mobility and more complex BTC patterns; these results also emphasize the importance of employing realistic porous media in environmental studies. Overall, Ag-NP mobility decreases in the presence of Ca(NO3)2, and increases when the solution contains humic acid, at higher water saturation levels, or at higher input concentrations of Ag-NPs. In addition, a different pattern was observed for Ag-NP aggregates, indicating nanospecific behaviour. Modelling analysis of Ag-NP transport in partially saturated soil suggests that a two-site kinetic model with a time-dependent retention function quantifies the transport behaviour of Ag-NPs.
Paravalvular Regurgitation Post-Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Intermediate Risk Patients: A Pooled PARTNER 2 Study.

BACKGROUND Moderate or worse paravalvular regurgitation (PVR) post-transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is associated with increased mortality. The mechanisms by which this occurs are not fully understood. AIMS To determine the mechanism by which PVR leads to worse outcomes. METHODS 1,974 intermediate-risk patients who received TAVR in the PARTNER 2 trial and registries were grouped by PVR severity. Clinical and echocardiographic outcomes were compared. RESULTS 1,176 (60%) patients had none/trace, 680 (34%) had mild, and 118 (6%) had ≥moderate PVR. At 2 years, ≥moderate PVR patients had increased risks of all-cause (HR 2.33 [1.41-3.85], P-value=0.001) and cardiovascular death (HR 3.30 [1.74-6.28], P-value<0.001), re-hospitalization (HR 2.68 [1.57-4.58], P-value<0.001), and re-intervention (HR 14.72 [3.13-69.32], P-value<0.001). ≥Moderate PVR was associated with greater increases in left ventricular (LV) end diastolic and systolic dimensions and volumes, LV mass indices, and reductions in LV ejection fractions (LVEFs) from 30 days to 2 years. Mild PVR was not associated with worse outcomes. Adjusting for LV dimensions and LVEF from the 1-year echocardiogram, patients with ≥moderate PVR still had an increased risk of all-cause death or re-hospitalization at 2 years (HR 2.84 [1.25-5.78], P-value=0.009). CONCLUSIONS ≥Moderate PVR, but not mild PVR, is associated with an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death, re-hospitalization, and re-intervention at 2 years. ≥Moderate PVR is also associated with adverse LV remodeling, which partially mediates how ³moderate PVR leads to worse outcomes. These results provide dual insights on the deleterious impact of ≥moderate PVR and the contributing mechanisms of poor clinical outcomes.
Prevalence of eating disorders and disordered eating in Western Asia: a systematic review and meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT This study aimed to systematically synthesize and appraise existing literature on the prevalence of eating disorders and disordered eating in Western Asia. A systematic literature search of major English and Arabic databases, i.e., PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, PsychInfo, Web of Science and Scopus (English), Al-Manhal (Arabic) and grey literature was done to obtain the prevalence of disordered eating and eating disorders in Western Asia. The literature search was conducted on June 12th, 2020, and included papers from 1990–2020. Out of the 249 unduplicated original studies reviewed, 27 were included in the final meta-analysis. Data were then categorized according to the tools used to identify the presence of disordered eating or eating disorders. The pooled prevalence of disordered eating as solicited by both the Eating Attitudes Scale 26 and the Eating Attitudes Scale 40 (N = 11841) was 22.07%, the Sick, Control, One stone, Fat, Food Questionnaire (n = 3160) was 22.28% and the Eating Disorder Examination–Questionnaire (n = 425) was 7.95%. The pooled prevalence obtained from those studies using semi-structured interviews for anorexia nervosa (n = 118190) was 1.59%, bulimia nervosa (n = 118513) was 2.41% and the estimated prevalence of Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) (n = 118087) was 3.51%. Although the prevalence rate of eating disorders solicited using semi-structured interviews appeared to parallel the international range, the overall prevalence rate of disordered eating appeared to be slightly higher than the global rates of prevalence. A significant number of the suspected/detected cases of disordered eating appear to fulfill the criteria for EDNOS. This study is classified as evidence obtained from systematic reviews and meta-analyses (i.e. Level 1).
Therapeutic Targeting of Hypoxia-A2-Adenosinergic Pathway in COVID-19 Patients

The hypoxia-hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α-A2-adenosinergic pathway protects tissues from inflammatory damage during antipathogen immune responses. The elimination of this physiological tissue-protecting mechanism by supplemental oxygenation may contribute to the high mortality of oxygen-ventilated COVID-19 patients by exacerbating inflammatory lung damage. Restoration of this pathway with hypoxia-adenosinergic drugs may improve outcomes in these patients.
The locomotion of extinct secondarily aquatic tetrapods

The colonisation of freshwater and marine ecosystems by land vertebrates has repeatedly occurred in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals over the course of 300 million years. Functional interpretations of the fossil record are crucial to understanding the forces shaping these evolutionary transitions. Secondarily aquatic tetrapods have acquired a suite of anatomical, physiological and behavioural adaptations to locomotion in water. However, much of this information is lost for extinct clades, with fossil evidence often restricted to osteological data and a few extraordinary specimens with soft tissue preservation. Traditionally, functional morphology in fossil secondarily aquatic tetrapods was investigated through comparative anatomy and correlation with living functional analogues. However, in the last two decades, biomechanics in palaeobiology has experienced a remarkable methodological shift. Anatomy‐based approaches are increasingly rigorous, informed by quantitative techniques for analysing shape. Moreover, the incorporation of physics‐based methods has enabled objective tests of functional hypotheses, revealing the importance of hydrodynamic forces as drivers of evolutionary innovation and adaptation. Here, we present an overview of the latest research on the locomotion of extinct secondarily aquatic tetrapods, with a focus on amniotes, highlighting the state‐of‐the‐art experimental approaches used in this field. We discuss the suitability of these techniques for exploring different aspects of locomotory adaptation, analysing their advantages and limitations and laying out recommendations for their application, with the aim to inform future experimental strategies. Furthermore, we outline some unexplored research avenues that have been successfully deployed in other areas of palaeobiomechanical research, such as the use of dynamic models in feeding mechanics and terrestrial locomotion, thus providing a new methodological synthesis for the field of locomotory biomechanics in extinct secondarily aquatic vertebrates. Advances in imaging technology and three‐dimensional modelling software, new developments in robotics, and increased availability and awareness of numerical methods like computational fluid dynamics make this an exciting time for analysing form and function in ancient vertebrates.
Capture by hybridization for full‐length barcode‐based eukaryotic and prokaryotic biodiversity inventories of deep sea ecosystems

Biodiversity inventory of marine systems remains limited due to unbalanced access to the three ocean dimensions. The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for metabarcoding allows fast and effective biodiversity inventory and is forecast as a future biodiversity research and biomonitoring tool. However, in poorly understood ecosystems, eDNA results remain difficult to interpret due to large gaps in reference databases and PCR bias limiting the detection of some major phyla. Here, we aimed to circumvent these limitations by avoiding PCR and recollecting larger DNA fragments to improve assignment of detected taxa through phylogenetic reconstruction. We applied capture by hybridization (CBH) to enrich DNA from deep‐sea sediment samples and compared the results with those obtained through an up‐to‐date metabarcoding PCR‐based approach (MTB). Originally developed for bacterial communities and targeting 16S rDNA, the CBH approach was applied to 18S rDNA to improve the detection of species forming benthic communities of eukaryotes, with a particular focus on metazoans. The results confirmed the possibility of extending CBH to metazoans with two major advantages: (i) CBH revealed a broader spectrum of prokaryotic, eukaryotic, and particularly metazoan diversity, and (ii) CBH allowed much more robust phylogenetic reconstructions of full‐length barcodes with up to 1900 base pairs. This is particularly important for taxa whose assignment is hampered by gaps in reference databases. This study provides a database and probes to apply 18S CBH to diverse marine systems, confirming this promising new tool to improve biodiversity assessments in data‐poor ecosystems such as those in the deep sea.
Visual Impairment, Eye Disease, and 3-Year Cognitive Decline: The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

ABSTRACT Purpose To examine the longitudinal association between vision-related variables and the 3-year change in cognitive test scores in a community-dwelling sample of adults and to explore whether sex, education, or hearing loss act as effect modifiers. Methods Data came from two waves of a 3-year population-based prospective cohort study (Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging), which consisted of 30,097 randomly selected people aged 45–85 years from 7 Canadian provinces. Visual impairment (VI) was defined as binocular presenting visual acuity worse than 20/40. Participants were asked if they had ever had a diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, or cataract. Cognitive change over 3 years was examined by calculating the difference between baseline and follow-up scores for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and the RAVLT delayed test (memory tests), the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) and the Animal Naming Test (ANT) (verbal fluency tests), and the Mental Alternation Test (MAT) (processing speed test). Multiple linear regression was used. Results VI, AMD, and cataract were not associated with 3-year changes on any of the 5 cognitive tests after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, education, income, smoking, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and province. A report of glaucoma was associated with greater declines in MAT scores (β = -0.60, 95% CI -1.03, -0.18). No effect modification was detected. Conclusions Glaucoma was associated with worsening processing speed. Further research to confirm this finding and to understand the possible reason is necessary.
Ex vivo donor heart preservation in heart transplantation

To the Editor, Heart transplantation (HT) remains the gold standard to treat advanced cardiac failure but the donors shortage has forced the use of various systems of circulatory mechanical support. Preservation of the donor heart, in case of long‐distance procurement, could be a problem since cold storage (CS) may determine time‐ dependent ischemic‐reperfusion damage. The normothermic ex vivo perfusion using the Organ Care System (OCS; TransMedics Inc.) is becoming an appealing alternative to CS, particularly for long‐distance graft procurement. Since this technique is currently used in our center, we read with great interest the article by Medressova et al., published in the Journal of Cardiac Surgery, and reporting a successful HT in an LVAD patient of a donor's heart preserved for 17h by OCS. We have recently reported our experience with HT in patients with mechanical circulatory support, comparing the results obtained either with CS or OCS for donor heart preservation. Our results, in a series of 38 patients during a 5‐year period, indicate that OCS is superior to CS since it reduces significantly the graft ischemic times and accordingly improving post‐HT outcomes. Therefore, our experience supports the use of ex vivo graft perfusion in patients on mechanical circulatory support as a bridge to an HTx. The longest successful “out of body” time in our experience was of 9 h even if capillary hemorrhage and cardiomyocyte degeneration are soon evident after 6 h of support as showed by myocardial biopsies performed before implantation. For this reason, we do not recommend OCS perfusion longer than 8 h. Nevertheless, the article by Medressova et al., reporting the possibility of maintaining a viable graft for an extraordinarily long period, confirms our belief that ex vivo preservation of donor's heart may significantly contribute to increasing the donors' pool and the number of HT.
The Risk of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo After Head Trauma

Head trauma may cause dislodgement of otoconia and development of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). The risk of developing BPPV is expected to be highest shortly after the trauma, then decrease and approach the risk seen in the general population. The aim of this study was to estimate the risk‐time curve of BPPV development after head trauma.
A Comparison of Functional Abilities in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Parkinson’s Disease with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Multiple Assessment Methods

Abstract Objective: This study used multiple assessment methods to examine instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) performance in individuals with Parkinson’s disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) compared to individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively healthy older adults (HOA). Associations between functional performance and cognition were also examined. Methods: Eighteen individuals with PD-MCI, 48 individuals with MCI, and 66 HOAs were assessed with multiple IADL measures, including direct observation, a performance-based measure, and self- and informant-report questionnaires. Performance on the direct-observation measure was further characterized by coding for four error types: omissions, substitutions, and inefficient and irrelevant/off-task actions. Results: Both the PD-MCI and MCI groups performed more poorly on the overall score for all IADL measures relative to HOAs. Although the PD-MCI and MCI groups did not differ in overall performance, on the direct-observation measure, the PD-MCI group took longer and made more inefficient and irrelevant/off-task errors relative to the HOA and MCI groups, whereas the MCI group made more omission and substitution errors relative to HOAs. Further, the pattern of cognitive correlates that associated most strongly with the functional measures varied across groups and functional assessment methods. Conclusion: Compared to HOAs, PD-MCI and MCI groups demonstrated increased difficulties performing everyday activities, and cognitive and motor abilities differentially contributed to the everyday task difficulties of these two groups.
Characterization of Nanoparticles Using Solid State Nanopores

Solid state nanopores are widely used in detection of highly charged biomolecules like DNA and proteins. In this study, we use a solid state nanopore based device to characterize spherical nanoparticles to estimate their size and electrical charge using the principle of resistive pulse technique. The principle of resistive pulse technique is the method of counting and sizing particles suspended in a fluid medium, which are electrophoretically driven through a channel and produce current blockage signals due to giving rise to a change in its initial current. This change in current is denoted as a current blockage or as a resistive pulse. The information from these current blockage signals in case of nanopore devices and spherical nanoparticles helps us to look at the properties of each individual nanoparticles such as size, electrical charge and electrophoretic mobility. In this thesis, two spherical nanoparticles of different sizes and different surface charge groups are used: Negatively charged 25 nm iron oxide nanoparticle with −COOH surface group and positively charged 53 nm polystyrene nanoparticle with −NH2 surface group. Nanopores used in these studies are about twice the nanoparticle size. These nanopores were fabricated by various fabrication techniques such as, Focused ion beam milling and ion beam sculpting method. The current blockage events produced by these two nanoparticles were measured as a function of applied voltage. The parameters extracted from the current blockage events, such as the current drop amplitudes and event duration are analyzed to estimate the size and electrical charge of the nanoparticles. Estimation of drift velocity of the nanoparticle and diffusion coefficient are also discussed. The estimated size is then compared to the nanoparticle size obtained from dynamic light scattering technique. Stable nanoparticles are widely used in biological and pharmacological studies and understanding the behavior of these nanoparticles in a nanopore environment would make a significant contribution to the studies at the nanoscale.
Social validity of work ability evaluations and official decisions within the sickness insurance system: A client perspective

BACKGROUND: Studies of the social validity of work ability evaluations are rare, although the concept can provide valuable information about the acceptability, comprehensibility and importance of procedures. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore clients’ perceptions of social validity of work ability evaluations and the following official decisions concerning sickness benefits within the Swedish sickness insurance system. METHODS: This was a longitudinal qualitative study based on interviews with 30 clients on sick leave, analyzed through deductive content analysis. RESULTS: Clients’ understanding of the evaluation was dependent on whether the specific tests were perceived as clearly related to the clients’ situation and what information they received. For a fair description of their work ability, clients state that the strict structure in the evaluation is not relevant to everyone. CONCLUSION: The work ability evaluations indicate low acceptability due to lack of individual adaptation, the comprehensibility varied depending on the applicability of the evaluation and information provided, while the dimension ‘importance’ indicated as higher degree of social validity. The official decision about sickness benefits however was considered unrelated to the evaluation results, lacking solid arguments and sometimes contradictory to other stakeholders’ recommendations indicating poor social validity.
Exploring the Obesity Paradox in A Murine Model of Sepsis: Improved Survival Despite Increased Organ Injury in Obese Mice

ABSTRACT Despite the known deleterious effects of obesity, clinical data indicate that overweight or obese patients experience higher rates of sepsis survival compared to normal and underweight patients; a phenomenon called the obesity paradox. Results from preclinical sepsis studies have not been able to replicate these findings. The objective of this study was to test the existence of the obesity paradox in a murine model of cecal slurry (CS)-induced sepsis with insulin-resistant diet-induced obese mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were provided high-fat (HFD) or low-fat (LFD) diets for 20 weeks. HFD-fed mice experienced higher rates of survival compared to LFD-fed mice after septic challenge induced by CS injection (66% vs. 25%, P = 0.01, survival assessed for 14 days). Despite the survival advantage, HFD-fed mice had higher rates of positive bacterial cultures and increased markers of kidney injury. Circulating levels of IL-6, IL-1β, TNFα, and IL-23 were equivalent 24 h after CS-injection; however, IL-17A was uniquely increased in HFD-fed mice. While LFD-fed mice maintained euglycemia, HFD-fed mice were hyperglycemic 6 and 12 h after CS-injection. Stable isotope resolved metabolomics analysis of liver tissue showed diverging pathways of glucose utilization during sepsis, with LFD-fed mice significantly upregulating glycolytic activity and HFD-fed mice decreasing glucose entry into the TCA cycle. This murine study corroborates clinical data that obesity confers a survival benefit in sepsis, albeit at the expense of more significant organ injury. The mechanisms promoting survival in the obese remain unknown; however, this model appears to be well-poised to begin answering this question. Differences in glucose utilization are a novel target to investigate this paradox.