Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diabetes severity, metabolic syndrome, and the risk of erectile dysfunction.

INTRODUCTION Erectile dysfunction (ED) is more common in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity, and/or the metabolic syndrome (MetS). AIM The aim of this study is to investigate the associations among proxy measures of diabetic severity and the presence of MetS with ED in a nationally representative U.S. data sample. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional analysis of adult participants in the 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES ED was ascertained by self-report. T2DM severity was defined by calculated measures of glycemic control and insulin resistance (IR). IR was estimated using fasting plasma insulin (FPI) levels and the homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR) definition. We classified glycemic control using hemoglobin-A1c (HbA1c) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels. MetS was defined by the American Heart Association and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute criteria. Logistic regression models, adjusted for sociodemographics, risk factors, and comorbidities, were fitted for each measure of T2DM severity, MetS, and the presence of ED. RESULTS Proxy measures of glycemic control and IR were associated with ED. Participants with FPG between 100-126 mg/dL (5.6-7 mmol/L) and ≥ 126 mg/dL (>7 mmol/L) had higher odds of ED, odds ratio (OR) 1.22 (confidence interval or CI, 0.83-1.80), and OR 2.68 (CI, 1.48-4.86), respectively. Participants with HbA1c 5.7-6.4% (38.8-46.4 mmol/mol) and ≥ 6.5% (47.5 mmol/mol) had higher odds of ED (OR 1.73 [CI, 1.08-2.76] and 3.70 [CI, 2.19-6.27], respectively). When FPI and HOMA-IR were evaluated by tertiles, there was a graded relation among participants in the top tertile. In multivariable models, a strong association remained between HbA1c and ED (OR 3.19 [CI,1.13-9.01]). MetS was associated with >2.5-fold increased odds of self reported ED (OR 2.55 [CI, 1.85-3.52]). CONCLUSIONS Poor glycemic control, impaired insulin sensitivity, and the MetS are associated with a heightened risk of ED.
Men, Masculinities, and Hemophilia

Hemophilia is a congenital bleeding disorder that predominantly affects men. Home intravenous replacement of missing clotting factor is the most effective treatment; however, the uptake of preventative treatment (also known as prophylaxis) varies among men with hemophilia. The purpose of the current qualitative study was to describe the connections between masculinities and men’s (n = 11) experiences of hemophilia across varying age groups. The inductively derived findings revealed bleed-related joint pain as the primary prompt for men to treat or seek medical help. Many men reported experiencing a high number of bleed-related injuries in adolescence, particularly in high school, oftentimes as a result of engaging in idealized masculine physical activities. Though the limitations imposed by hemophilia were contested by most men early on in their lives, as men grow older more conservative approaches were employed both in terms of treatment and activity to reduce the potential for residual bleed-related disabilities. Overall, the results indicate that men with hemophilia may benefit from peer and professional education about recognition, prevention, and optimal treatment of bleeds. Furthermore, masculine ideals act as important context in which men navigate hemophilia management practices and may facilitate contesting or conceding behaviors. Masculine ideals of strength and control may be garnered to facilitate optimal hemophilia management practices.
Locoregional Confinement and Major Clinical Benefit of 188Re-Loaded CXCR4-Targeted Nanocarriers in an Orthotopic Human to Mouse Model of Glioblastoma

Purpose: Gold standard beam radiation for glioblastoma (GBM) treatment is challenged by resistance phenomena occurring in cellular populations well prepared to survive or to repair damage caused by radiation. Among signals that have been linked with radio-resistance, the SDF1/CXCR4 axis, associated with cancer stem-like cell, may be an opportune target. To avoid the problem of systemic toxicity and blood-brain barrier crossing, the relevance and efficacy of an original system of local brain internal radiation therapy combining a radiopharmaceutical with an immuno-nanoparticle was investigated. Experiment design: The nanocarrier combined lipophilic thiobenzoate complexes of rhenium-188 loaded in the core of a lipid nanocapsule (LNC188Re) with a function-blocking antibody, 12G5 directed at the CXCR4, on its surface. The efficiency of 12G5-LNC188Re was investigated in an orthotopic and xenogenic GBM model of CXCR4-positive U87MG cells implanted in the striatum of Scid mice. Results: We demonstrated that 12G5-LNC188Re single infusion treatment by convection-enhanced delivery resulted in a major clinical improvement in median survival that was accompanied by locoregional effects on tumor development including hypovascularization and stimulation of the recruitment of bone marrow derived CD11b- or CD68-positive cells as confirmed by immunohistochemistry analysis. Interestingly, thorough analysis by spectral imaging in a chimeric U87MG GBM model containing CXCR4-positive/red fluorescent protein (RFP)-positive- and CXCR4-negative/RFP-negative-GBM cells revealed greater confinement of DiD-labeled 12G5-LNCs than control IgG2a-LNCs in RFP compartments. Main conclusion: These findings on locoregional impact and targeting of disseminated cancer cells in tumor margins suggest that intracerebral active targeting of nanocarriers loaded with radiopharmaceuticals may have considerable benefits in clinical applications.
A pilot randomized crossover trial assessing the safety and short-term effects of pomegranate supplementation in hemodialysis patients.

OBJECTIVE Oxidative stress and systemic inflammation are highly prevalent in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) and are linked to excess cardiovascular risk. This study examined whether short-term supplementation with pomegranate juice and extract is safe and well tolerated by MHD patients. The secondary aim was to assess the effect of pomegranate supplementation on oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, monocyte function, and blood pressure. DESIGN Prospective, randomized, crossover, pilot clinical trial (NCT01562340). SETTING The study was conducted from March to October 2012 in outpatient dialysis facilities in the Seattle metropolitan area. SUBJECTS Twenty-four patients undergoing MHD (men, 64%; mean age, 61 ± 14 years) were randomly assigned to receive pomegranate juice or extract during a 4-week intervention period. After a washout period, all patients received the alternative treatment during a second 4-week intervention period. INTERVENTION Patients assigned to receive pomegranate juice received 100 mL of juice before each dialysis session. Patients assigned to receive pomegranate extract were given 1,050 mg of extract daily. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The main outcome measures were safety and tolerability of pomegranate juice and extract. Additional secondary outcomes assessed included serum lipids, laboratory biomarkers of inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin 6) and oxidative stress (plasma F2 isoprostanes and isofurans), monocyte cytokine production, and predialysis blood pressure. RESULTS Both pomegranate juice and extract were safe and well tolerated by study participants. Over the study period, neither treatment had a significant effect on lipid profiles, plasma C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, F2-isoprostane or isofuran concentrations, predialysis systolic or diastolic blood pressure nor changed the levels of monocyte cytokine production. CONCLUSIONS Both pomegranate juice and extract are safe and well tolerated by patients undergoing MHD but do not influence markers of inflammation or oxidative stress nor affect predialysis blood pressure.
CLUH regulates mitochondrial metabolism by controlling translation and decay of target mRNAs

Mitochondria are essential organelles that host crucial metabolic pathways and produce adenosine triphosphate. The mitochondrial proteome is heterogeneous among tissues and can dynamically change in response to different metabolic conditions. Although the transcriptional programs that govern mitochondrial biogenesis and respiratory function are well known, posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we show that the cytosolic RNA-binding protein clustered mitochondria homologue (CLUH) regulates the expression of a mitochondrial protein network supporting key metabolic programs required under nutrient deprivation. CLUH exerts its function by controlling the stability and translation of target messenger RNAs. In the absence of Cluh, mitochondria are severely depleted of crucial enzymes involved in catabolic energy-converting pathways. CLUH preserves oxidative mitochondrial function and glucose homeostasis, thus preventing death at the fetal–neonatal transition. In the adult liver, CLUH ensures maximal respiration capacity and the metabolic response to starvation. Our results shed new light on the posttranscriptional mechanisms controlling the expression of mitochondrial proteins and suggest novel strategies to tailor mitochondrial function to physiological and pathological conditions.
ADvaNCE - Efficient and Scalable Approximate Density-Based Clustering Based on Hashing

Analysing massive amounts of data and extracting value from it has become key across different disciplines. As the amounts of data grow rapidly, current approaches for data analysis are no longer efficient. This is particularly true for clustering algorithms where distance calculations between pairs of points dominate overall time: the more data points are in the dataset, the bigger the share of time needed for distance calculations. Crucial to the data analysis and clustering process, however, is that it is rarely straightforward: instead, parameters need to be determined and tuned first. Entirely accurate results are thus rarely needed and instead we can sacrifice little precision of the final result to accelerate the computation. In this paper we develop ADvaNCE, a new approach based on approximating DBSCAN. More specifically, we propose two measures to reduce distance calculation overhead and to consequently approximate DBSCAN: (1) locality sensitive hashing to approximate and speed up distance calculations and (2) representative point selection to reduce the number of distance calculations. The experiments show that the resulting clustering algorithm is more scalable than the state-ofthe-art as the datasets become bigger. Compared with the most recent approximation technique for DBSCAN, our approach is in general one order of magnitude faster (at most 30× in our experiments) as the size of the datasets increase.
Power Generation Load Sharing Using Droop Control in an Island System

A crude oil production and shipping terminal was built and expanded over time such that the facility was powered by three isolated power systems. These separate plants have since been interconnected to permit the sharing of generation reserves. Initially, the interconnected system was supervised by a power management system (PMS) that relied on isochronous operation of one power plant for frequency control. The PMS attempted to implement system wide load sharing by issuing raise and lower speed and voltage signals to the second power plant, which was operated in droop control. Due to a variety of factors, this control proved unsatisfactory. The control strategy was revised to operate all generators in droop mode and to handle management of frequency, voltage, and power flows between plants at the secondary control level. This paper describes why the initial PMS was unsatisfactory, why it was abandoned, and how it was modified to enable the successful interconnection of all three power plants into a single network.
Scalable Stability and Time-Scale Separation of Networked, Cascaded Systems

In this paper, we investigate the effect of insufficient time-scale separation between inner and the outer loops in networked, cascaded systems. First, a qualitative model is developed where the stability of a cascaded system is analyzed in terms of the gains acting at the outer and inner loops. Next, interconnected cascaded systems are considered, which represent networks congested by data sent by multiple clients. Then, the effect of the number of clients for the performance is examined through the scalable stability notion, which guarantees positively lower-bounded convergence rates with respect to the number of clients.
A Dynamical Role for Acetylcholine in Synaptic Renormalization

Although sleep is a fundamental behavior observed in virtually all animal species, its functions remain unclear. One leading proposal, known as the synaptic renormalization hypothesis, suggests that sleep is necessary to counteract a global strengthening of synapses that occurs during wakefulness. Evidence for sleep-dependent synaptic downscaling (or synaptic renormalization) has been observed experimentally, but the physiological mechanisms which generate this phenomenon are unknown. In this study, we propose that changes in neuronal membrane excitability induced by acetylcholine may provide a dynamical mechanism for both wake-dependent synaptic upscaling and sleep-dependent downscaling. We show in silico that cholinergically-induced changes in network firing patterns alter overall network synaptic potentiation when synaptic strengths evolve through spike-timing dependent plasticity mechanisms. Specifically, network synaptic potentiation increases dramatically with high cholinergic concentration and decreases dramatically with low levels of acetylcholine. We demonstrate that this phenomenon is robust across variation of many different network parameters.
Changes in the Anti-Allergic Activities of Sesame by Bioconversion

Sesame is an important oilseed crop, which has been used as a traditional health food to ameliorate the prevention of various diseases. We evaluated the changes in the anti-allergic activities of sesame by bioconversion. SDS-PAGE of non-fermented sesame proteins showed major allergen bands, while that of fermented sesame showed only a few protein bands. Additionally, we investigated the effectiveness of fermented sesame by bioconversion in tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)- and interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-induced HaCaT cells. In HaCaT cells, fermented sesame inhibited the mRNA expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), thymus and macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC/CCL22), activation-regulated chemokine (TARC/CCL17), and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). Moreover, fermented sesame inhibited the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1). Fermented sesame exerts anti-allergic effects by suppressing the expression of chemokines and cytokines via blockade of NF-κB and STAT1 activation.
Early Urinary Markers for Diabetic and Other Kidney Diseases.

BACKGROUND Nephropathy is a debilitating complication of diabetes associated with increased risk for renal failure, leading to poor quality of life of the affected patients and eventually to mortality. Early intervention is crucial to enhance the well-being of the patients with nephropathy. Albuminuria is a well-known predictor of weak renal outcomes in patients with diabetes and hypertension, unfortunately, it is not an early marker for kidney injury. OBJECTIVE Assessment of new and precise markers is necessary to predict the early onset and progression of nephropathy. It is important to find early markers which could predict kidney injury even before the clinical signs (no microalbuminuria) appear. RESULTS Prevention and therapy for kidney diseases using surrogate markers such as serum creatinine have not proven to be better indicators for interventions that have been shown to decrease morbidity or mortality. A number of studies have elucidated the importance of kidney injury markers. This article describes the significance of urinary markers such as nephrin, Cystatin C, Monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM- 1) and nestin, which are associated with early renal dysfunction. CONCLUSION Although significant advances have been made in medical therapy, the degree of morbidity and mortality associated with kidney diseases remain despondently high. Besides the serum markers, urinary markers may provide a better prediction of progression of the damage to the kidneys in diabetic patients.
Player-adaptive Spelunky level generation

Procedural Content Generation (PCG) is nowadays widely applied to many different aspects of computer games. However, it can do more than to assist level designers during game creation. It can generate personalized levels according to the tastes and abilities of players online. This has already been demonstrated for (largely 1D) scrolling games and we show in this work how personalized, difficulty-adjusted levels can be generated for the more complex 2D platformer Spelunky. As direct and indirect player feedback is taken into account, the method may be filed under the Experience-Driven PCG approach. Our approach is based on a rather generic rule set that may also be transferred to similar games. We also present a user study showing that most users appreciate the online adaptation but are especially critical about making the game easier to play at any time.
Alcohol exposure during late adolescence increases drinking in adult Wistar rats, an effect that is not reduced by finasteride.

AIMS We tested whether an exposure to alcohol in late adolescence, an age of rapid increase in neuroactive steroid precursors, would increase voluntary alcohol consumption in adult rats and whether this effect would be modulated by finasteride, an inhibitor of neuroactive steroid synthesis. METHODS In Experiment 1, we exposed male Wistar rats to 8% alcohol during the dark cycle for 1 week during late adolescence [postnatal days (PNDs) 51-58], and then measured voluntary alcohol consumption 1 month later in adulthood (PNDs 91-104). In Experiment 2, finasteride was administered during the forced alcohol exposure in late adolescence and, in Experiment 3, during voluntary alcohol consumption in adulthood. Plasma was collected at the end of each finasteride treatment to confirm the reduction of plasma neuroactive steroid levels. RESULTS We found that a daily 12-h exposure to alcohol for 7 days in late adolescence significantly increased voluntary alcohol consumption (4-fold) a month later during adulthood. Finasteride administration in late adolescence increased group alcohol intake in late adolescence but did not block the effect of adolescent alcohol exposure on increasing alcohol preference in adulthood. There was no effect of finasteride treatment in adulthood on alcohol preference. CONCLUSIONS A daily 12-h exposure to alcohol for 7 days in late adolescence was sufficient to induce chronically increased alcohol preference in adulthood, indicating that this age may be sensitive to the effects of alcohol.
Data gathering algorithm for children's observation system: For realizing real-time performance in information terminal bus stop

In this paper, we propose a data gathering algorithm for children's observation system which enhances anonymity of data and enhances security and has advanced security function to prevent third parties from exploiting data. Data gathering algorithm is studied widely[1, 2]. However, these methods are suitable for handling relatively small data such as temperature, and it is not suitable for transmitting data more than 30 times as large as the temperature information, such as children's feature information. In the children's observation system, real-time performance is important. We describe the proposed data gathering algorithm is superior the conventional algorithm in the point of data gathering time. The proposed children's observation system using information terminal bus stop is expected great contribution for city safety and security.
How Are Autism and Schizotypy Related? Evidence from a Non-Clinical Population

Both autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) and schizophrenia spectrum conditions (SSCs) involve altered or impaired social and communicative functioning, but whether these shared features indicate overlapping or different etiological factors is unknown. We outline three hypotheses (overlapping, independent, and diametric) for the possible relationship between ASCs and SSCs, and compare their predictions for the expected relationships between autistic and schizotypal phenotypes using the Autism Spectrum Quotient and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised from a large non-clinical sample of undergraduate students. Consistent with previous research, autistic features were positively associated with several schizotypal features, with the most overlap occurring between interpersonal schizotypy and autistic social and communication phenotypes. The first component of a principal components analysis (PCA) of subscale scores reflected these positive correlations, and suggested the presence of an axis (PC1) representing general social interest and aptitude. By contrast, the second principal component (PC2) exhibited a pattern of positive and negative loadings indicative of an axis from autism to positive schizotypy, such that positive schizotypal features loaded in the opposite direction to core autistic features. These overall PCA patterns were replicated in a second data set from a Japanese population. To evaluate the validity of our interpretation of the PCA results, we measured handedness and mental rotation ability, as these are established correlates of SSCs and ASCs, respectively. PC2 scores were significantly associated with hand preference, such that increasingly ‘schizotypal’ scores predicted reduced strength of handedness, which is consistent with previous research. PC1 scores were positively related to performance on the mental rotation task, suggesting trade-offs between social skills and visual-spatial ability. These results provide novel evidence for an autism-positive schizotypy axis, and highlight the importance of recognizing that psychological variation involving reduced social interest and functioning may have diverse causes.
Piezoelectric ultrathin polymer films synthesized by electrostatic self-assembly processing

Ultrathin piezoelectric composite films composed of poly(sodium 4-styrenesolfonate) (PSS) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) were synthesized using the electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) process. The ESA-processed PSS/PDDA films have a layer-by-layer laminated structure, and exhibit a piezoelectric response directly without electric field poling. The measured piezoelectric coefficient d33 = 6.0 pC N-1. The molecular self-assembly process plays a very important role in molecular alignment, resulting in a net macroscopic polarization of the layer-by-layer structured ultrathin film, although the process is quite different from that used to form conventional piezoelectric materials. Further study concerning the principles governing the novel ESA processing of piezoelectric and other functional films is on-going.