Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Disparity of asthma prevalence in Chinese schoolchildren is due to differences in lifestyle factors].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the environmental lifestyle risk factors which may explain the disparity of asthma prevalence in the Chinese population. METHODS In a cross-sectional study, 10 902 schoolchildren were recruited from Hong Kong (n = 3110), Beijing (n = 4277), and Guangzhou (n = 3565) using the ISAAC Phase II protocol. The average age of the children among three cities was 10.1-10.4 years and 50%-53% were male. Each subject was given an ISAAC Phase II questionnaire to be completed by the parents or guardians. Random subgroups of at least 1000 children from each city, added up to 3479 children underwent skin-prick testing. The sensitivity to eight common aeroallergens was assessed. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the environmental and lifestyle risk factors for asthma and atopy. RESULTS The prevalence of wheezing in the past 12 months (Hong Kong, 5.8%; Beijing, 3.8%; Guangzhou, 3.4%) was significantly higher in schoolchildren from Hong Kong than that from the Mainland of China (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.35-1.99). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the use of gas cooking (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.32-3.26), foam pillow (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.19-3.16), and house dampness (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.25-2.71) were significant risk factors for "current wheezing". The use of cotton quilt (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.56-0.87), breast-feeding (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.66-0.96), and attendance of daycare (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.59-0.88) were protective factors against "current wheezing". When a summary measure of these variables was introduced into a regression model, the Mainland residency was no longer associated with "current asthma" or "current wheezing" suggesting that either these factors or other unmeasured factors associated with above factors are responsible for the lower prevalence of asthma in the Mainland of China. CONCLUSION Several environmental and lifestyle factors represented characteristic of life in Mainland of China, including breast feeding, attendance of daycare, use of cotton quilt, use of pillow other than foam pillow, use of cooking fuel other than gas, and the absence of damp spots on the walls or ceiling, were the significant risk factors contributed to the disparity of asthma prevalence in children from Hong Kong and the Mainland of China.
Exploring the Experience of Food Insecurity among University Students Caring for Children: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

ABSTRACT Food insecurity negatively impacts the health and well-being of postsecondary students attending college and university. Students may be especially vulnerable for food insecurity if they care for children. This qualitative study explored the experience of food insecurity among nine food-insecure university students with children who accessed a food bank on their campus. Transcripts of semi-structured, individual interviews underwent content analysis. Students tried to shield their children from the negative effects of food insecurity by sacrificing their own nutrition in times of food shortage. Food-insecure postsecondary students with children may therefore be at risk for compromised dietary intake and other negative health and academic consequences by limiting their own diet in order to ensure their children’s nutritional needs are met.
Food security and women's roles in Moroccan Berber (Amazigh) society today

Traditionally, the Berber diet was part of a semiautarkic economy. The suitability of the diet to the regional ecosystem has guaranteed food security for the Berber tribes of Morocco and other countries of North Africa. As part of a patriarchal model, Berber dietary patterns are historically embedded in a social system where women's and men's roles are complementary at all stages of food production, processing, and conservation. Women have played a dominant role in the conservation of Berber dietary patterns through the preservation of biodiverse seeds and local varieties, the transmission of the Berber language through generations, and the sharing of knowledge on food, medicinal plants, and cultural practices related to diet and food security. Political, social, demographic, economic, and cultural factors have affected the Berber dietary model and the role of women in its preservation. The shift from a semiautarkic traditional model to a model within a market economy has led to food importation, the erosion of culinary components such as wild edible plants and dietary homogenization. Despite these changes and the associated nutrition transition, the Berber diet remains a cultural heritage because of its rich diversity. Berber women play a crucial role in the preservation and sustainability of Berber culinary heritage and food security.
"Just let me play!" - understanding constraints that limit adolescent sport participation.

BACKGROUND Organized sport is viewed as a viable medium for promoting more physical activity among youth. However, participation in youth sport declines significantly among both boys and girls during their middle school years. This study examined middle school students' perceived constraints to sport participation. METHODS Middle school students from 4 schools (6th-8th grade, N = 2465) completed a web based survey (97.3% response rate). Descriptive analysis, t tests, and ANOVA were used to assess extent of perceived constraints and differences among demographic and sport participation level subgroups. RESULTS The most salient constraint perceived by respondents was time, while knowledge was perceived as the lowest among the overall sample. Significant (P < .01) differences in perceived constraints were found among all comparisons groups. Girls, Latinos, lower SES students, and students who did not play sports reported more constraints than respective comparisons groups. DISCUSSION The sociodemographic characteristics of middle school students appear to be a significant factor in their perception of constraints to sport participation. Identifying constraints associated with sport participation can enable policy-makers and administrators to be more deliberate in channeling resources.
Monitoring in Tropical National Parks: The Power of Knowledge

Monitoring is increasingly recognised as a key instrument for effective nature conservation. It attempts to provide quantitative knowledge to implement conservation actions upon scientific evidence. However, science studies have shown that monitoring is not only a simple technical choice but also carries a cognitive representation of the world and plays a social role. Based on a socioethnographic approach involving 94 semi-structured interviews in seven national parks in tropical Africa and Indonesia, the objective of this study is to analyse the different dimensions of the relation between expertise and power, in the context of postcolonial environmental policies. Drawing on the limitations of monitoring programmes to guide management, this paper shows their unexpected roles and indirect effects. Monitoring appears as a means to provide parks with an effective existence following two dimensions. First, it enacts and contributes to convey a cognitive representation of nature conservation in those areas. Overall, monitoring programmes concentrate predominantly on long term scientific knowledge rather than on pragmatic and action driven knowledge. The majority of programmes focuses on conserving charismatic species and banning illegal activities inside the park rather than on fostering sustainable human activities around the park. Second, the implementation of monitoring programmes gives the parks a material dimension. It provides human, financial, and logistical resources, it controls the parks' activities and structures the parks' governance and administration. Therefore, the day-to-day use of indicators and technical instruments relies less on their ability to drive action than on their capacity to shape power relationships and to produce a social reality. Our findings question the predominant place given to quantitative science and technique in nature conservation and the social conditions under which an evidence based policy can be implemented.
Effects of a three-month therapeutic exercise programme on flexibility in subjects with low back pain.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Spinal and muscle flexibility have been studied intensively and used clinically as outcome measurements in the rehabilitation of subjects with low back pain. The results of previous studies are contradictory and there is a lack of longitudinal data on the effects of long term therapeutic exercise on flexibility. METHOD A controlled experimental study was conducted to determine the effects of progressive therapeutic exercise on spinal and muscle flexibility. Eighty-six chronic low back pain subjects fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were divided into three study groups: (1) intensive training group, (2) home exercise group and (3) control group. The intervention period lasted three months and measurements were performed at both the beginning of the study and immediately after intervention. Follow-up measurements were carried out six and 12 months after baseline. Spinal flexibility was measured with lumbar flexion, extension, spinal lateral flexion and rotation, and muscle flexibility was measured with measurements of erector spinae, hamstring and iliopsoas muscles. Also self-reported outcomes of the Oswestry Index and Borg Scale--Back Pain Intensity were used. Associations between change (pre- to post-treatment) were determined for the dependent variables. RESULTS The results showed no correlation between flexibility, the Oswestry Index or back pain intensity. After the first three-month period lumbar flexion, extension and spinal rotation decreased among all subjects. Spinal rotation and erector spinae muscle flexibility improved significantly with intensive training. At the nine-month follow-up, erector spine flexibility was still greater than at baseline. Hamstring flexibility increased among the intensive training and home exercise groups from pre- to post-intervention. However, the degree of hamstring flexibility gained during training was subsequently lost following the period without programmed exercise in both training groups. Self-reported outcome variables showed positive changes among the three study groups after the completion of intervention period, but these changes were only able to be maintained during subsequent follow-ups for the intensive training and home exercise groups. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that flexibility does not play an important role in coping with chronic low back pain for subjects whose functional limitations are not severe. Also, it appears that the achieved gains in spinal and muscle flexibility may not be able to be maintained without continued exercise.
Telomere Protection by TPP1 Is Mediated by POT1a and POT1b

ABSTRACT Mammalian telomeres are protected by the shelterin complex, which contains single-stranded telomeric DNA binding proteins (POT1a and POT1b in rodents, POT1 in other mammals). Mouse POT1a prevents the activation of the ATR kinase and contributes to the repression of the nonhomologous end-joining pathway (NHEJ) at newly replicated telomeres. POT1b represses unscheduled resection of the 5′-ended telomeric DNA strand, resulting in long 3′ overhangs in POT1b KO cells. Both POT1 proteins bind TPP1, forming heterodimers that bind to other proteins in shelterin. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated depletion had previously demonstrated that TPP1 contributes to the normal function of POT1a and POT1b. However, these experiments did not establish whether TPP1 has additional functions in shelterin. Here we report on the phenotypes of the conditional deletion of TPP1 from mouse embryo fibroblasts. TPP1 deletion resulted in the release of POT1a and POT1b from chromatin and loss of these proteins from telomeres, indicating that TPP1 is required for the telomere association of POT1a and POT1b but not for their stability. The telomere dysfunction phenotypes associated with deletion of TPP1 were identical to those of POT1a/POT1b DKO cells. No additional telomere dysfunction phenotypes were observed, establishing that the main role of TPP1 is to allow POT1a and POT1b to protect chromosome ends.
Ultra-Compact Birefringence-Compensated Arrayed Waveguide Grating Triplexer Based on Silicon-On-Insulator

We demonstrate an ultra-compact birefringence- compensated arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) triplexer for application in optical network units (ONUs) based on silicon nanowire waveguides. The cross-order design is employed to cover three operating wavelengths of 1310, 1490 and 1550 nm for the triplexer. The large birefringence of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide is compensated by using angled star coupler design in combination with different diffraction orders for TE and TM modes. The device has a small footprint of only 0.18×0.12 mm2. The excess loss for TM polarization for three channels is 3 ~ 4 dB and the crosstalk is better than -18 dB. The polarization dependent wavelength shift (PDλ) is reduced from about 370 nm to less than 2.5 nm for wavelength channels at 1490-1550 nm.
Repression of myosin isoforms in developing and denervated skeletal muscle fibers originates near motor endplates

During development of chicken pectoralis muscle, a neonatal myosin heavy‐chain isoform is supplanted progressively by an adult isoform. This expression is under neuronal control. In this study we test the hypothesis that developmental myosin transformations are initiated near the motor endplate of each muscle fiber, thereafter progressing toward the fiber ends. By using immunocytochemical methods, pectoralis muscle from chickens aged 1–115 days after hatching were labeled by antibody against neonatal isoform. Ellipse minor axis and mean optical density of labeled and/or unlabeled fiber profiles from each bird were measured by computer image analysis. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was demonstrated histochemically. Using serial cross sections, we show that smaller fiber profiles are the tapered ends of larger fiber profiles. The largest fiber profiles (central regions of the fibers) were the first to lose their neonatal myosin during development. Motor endplates were localized by AChE activity to the central regions of the fibers. The pectoralis of mature chickens was denervated for 3, 7, 15, or 21 days. After 2 weeks' denervation, neonatal myosin is first reexpressed in the fiber ends. Dev Dyn 2000;217:50–61. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Exchange Rate Predictability: Evidence from Canada

Exchange rate forecasting has proven to be a difficult task, specifically in terms of the Meese and Rogoff puzzle. The fundamental question that I address is: which model best forecasts changes in the nominal exchange rate, a macroeconomic model or a random walk with drift? I use the ordinary least square method to estimate several macroeconomic models of bilateral exchange rates, and then I compare the ability of the macroeconomic models to forecast movements in the exchange rate to that of the random walk using data at the daily frequency. I use measures of forecast error and directional accuracy to evaluate the models. I find that the macroeconomic model outperforms the benchmark for the exchange rates between the Canadian Dollar and the currencies of the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea and the United
CLN3 Loss Disturbs Membrane Microdomain Properties and Protein Transport in Brain Endothelial Cells

Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) is a fatal childhood-onset neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutations in ceroid lipofuscinosis neuronal-3 (CLN3), a hydrophobic transmembrane protein of unresolved function. Previous studies indicate blood–brain barrier (BBB) defects in JNCL, and our earlier report showed prominent Cln3 expression in mouse brain endothelium. Here we find that CLN3 is necessary for normal trafficking of the microdomain-associated proteins caveolin-1, syntaxin-6, and multidrug resistance protein 1 (MDR1) in brain endothelial cells. Correspondingly, CLN3-null cells have reduced caveolae, and impaired caveolae- and MDR1-related functions including endocytosis, drug efflux, and cell volume regulation. We also detected an abnormal blood–brain barrier response to osmotic stress in vivo. Evaluation of the plasma membrane with fluorescent sphingolipid probes suggests microdomain destabilization and enhanced fluidity in CLN3-null cells. In further work we found that application of the glycosphingolipid lactosylceramide to CLN3-deficient cells rescues protein transport and caveolar endocytosis. Last, we show that CLN3 localizes to the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and partitions with buoyant microdomain fractions. We propose that CLN3 facilitates TGN-to-plasma membrane transport of microdomain-associated proteins. Insult to this pathway may underlie BBB dysfunction and contribute to JNCL pathogenesis.
Defects in keratinocyte activation during wound healing in the syndecan-1-deficient mouse

Mice lacking syndecan-1 are viable, fertile and have morphologically normal skin, hair and ocular surface epithelia. While studying the response of these mice to corneal epithelial and skin wounding, we identified defects in epithelial cell proliferation and regulation of integrin expression. mRNA profiling of corneal epithelial tissues obtained from wild-type and syndecan-1-/- mice suggest that these defects result from differences in overall gene transcription. In the cornea, syndecan-1-/- epithelial cells migrate more slowly, show reduced localization of α9 integrin during closure of wounds and fail to increase their proliferation rate 24 hours after wounding. In the skin, we did not document a migration defect after full thickness wounds but did observe cell proliferation delays and reduced localization of α9 integrin in the syndecan-1-/- epidermis after dermabrasion. Despite increased cell proliferation rates in the uninjured syndecan-1-/- epidermis and the corneal epithelium, morphologically normal epithelial thickness is maintained prior to injury; however, wounding is accompanied by prolonged hypoplasia in both tissues. Analyses of integrin protein levels in extracts from full thickness skin, revealed increased levels of α3 and α9 integrins both prior to injury and after hair removal in syndecan-1-/- mice but no increase 2 days after dermabrasion. These data for the first time show involvement of α9 integrin in skin wound healing and demonstrate essential roles for syndecan-1 in mediating cell proliferation and regulation of integrin expression in normal and wounded epithelial tissues.
Retrievabilty of calcium hydroxide intracanal medicament with Chitosan from root canals: An in vitro CBCT volumetric analysis

Aim: This study compared the amount of aqueous-based and oil-based calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2 ] remaining in the canal, after removal with two different chelators 17% EDTA and 0.2% Chitosan in combination with ultrasonic agitation. Materials and Methods: Cleaning and shaping of root canals of 28 mandibular premolar was done and canals were filled either with Metapex or Ca(OH)2 mixed with distilled water. Volumetric analysis was performed utilizing cone beam-computed tomography (CBCT) after 7 days of incubation. Ca(OH)2 was removed using either 17% EDTA or 0.2% Chitosan in combination with ultrasonic agitation. Volumetric analysis was repeated and percentage difference was calculated and statistically analysed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Both the chelators failed to remove aqueous-based as well as oil-based Ca(OH)2 completely from the root canal. Aqueous-based Ca(OH)2 was easier to be removed than oil-based Ca(OH)2. 0.2% Chitosan was significantly more effective for removal of oil-based Ca(OH)2 (P < 0.01) while both 17% EDTA and 0.2% Chitosan were equally effective in removing aqueous-based Ca(OH)2 . Conclusion: Combination of 0.2% Chitosan and ultrasonic agitation results in lower amount of Ca(OH)2 remnants than 17% EDTA irrespective of type of vehicle present in the mix.
An exploration of the perceived effects of a support group for individuals with rheumatoid arthritis

Purpose: To explore the effects of attendance at a peer support group on the quality of life of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Data sources: There were 23 participants recruited for the study. A series of six monthly support groups lasting approximately 60 min, with the researcher as a participant observer, were audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Following the sixth support group session, the researcher interviewed participants who had attended a minimum of four sessions. The evaluation interviews were also audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Content analysis of the support group transcripts and the evaluation interview transcripts was performed to identify themes related to the quality of life of the participants with respect to their diagnosis of RA. Conclusion: Analysis of the support group and evaluation interview transcripts indicated an improvement in the quality of life of the participants through improved social support and empowerment of the participants with increased knowledge and self‐efficacy.
Free-style Deepithelialized Propeller Flaps: An Ideal Local Flap to Obliterate Wounds with Dead Space

Background: The reconstruction of the posterior trunk, especially with large dead spaces, remains challenging. Regional muscle flaps may lack adequate volume and reach. The purpose of this report was to evaluate the efficacy of deepithelialized free-style perforator-based propeller flaps to obliterate defects with large dead space. Methods: A total of 7 patients with defects on the posterior trunk with large dead spaces were evaluated. After complete debridement or resection, all flaps were designed on a single perforator adjacent to the defect, deepithelialized, and then rotated in a propeller fashion. Flaps were further modified in some cases such as folding the flap after deepithelialization to increase bulk and to obliterate the dead space. Results: The flap dimension ranged from 10 × 5 × 1 to 15 × 8 × 2.5 cm based on a single perforator. The rotation arch of the flap ranged from 90 to 180 degrees. Uneventful healing was noted in all cases. One case showed latent redness and swelling at 7 months after falling down, which resolved with medication. During the average follow-up of 28 months, there were no other flap and donor site complications. Conclusion: The deepithelialized propeller flap can be used efficiently to obliterate dead spaces in the posterior trunk and retains advantages such as having a good vascular supply, adequate bulk, sufficient reach without tension, and minimal donor site morbidity.
Informing energy consumption uncertainty: an analysis of energy data revisions

Quality energy consumption data are important for many types of analysis, and global data sets estimate trends of county level energy consumption, derived from country reported data and regional reports. We present a novel basis for informing uncertainty in energy data by quantifying the changes in reported energy consumption as countries update their previously reported data. We use 17 editions of the British Petroleum World Energy Statistics (2001–2017) to evaluate how reported energy consumption is revised over time in aggregate coal, oil, and natural gas consumption data. We find that 70% of non-zero data points are adjusted by an average of 1.3% of a country’s total fossil fuel use in the year after their first publication. Earlier data points are revised less often, but almost half of historical trends contain some revisions in later years. The size and rate of data revisions vary over countries and fuels: coal data points have larger, less frequent revisions while oil data points have smaller more frequent revisions, with natural gas in between. A k-means cluster analysis was performed to group together countries with similar revision patterns. These groups span income, economy classification, OECD membership, and regions. Standard country groupings, therefore, do not predict the extent to which a country’s energy data has undergone revisions in the past.