Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Low Glycaemic Index Diet in Pregnancy Induces DNA Methylation Variation in Blood of Newborns: Results from the ROLO Randomised Controlled Trial

The epigenetic profile of the developing fetus is sensitive to environmental influence. Maternal diet has been shown to influence DNA methylation patterns in offspring, but research in humans is limited. We investigated the impact of a low glycaemic index dietary intervention during pregnancy on offspring DNA methylation patterns using a genome-wide methylation approach. Sixty neonates were selected from the ROLO (Randomised cOntrol trial of LOw glycaemic index diet to prevent macrosomia) study: 30 neonates from the low glycaemic index intervention arm and 30 from the control, whose mothers received no specific dietary advice. DNA methylation was investigated in 771,484 CpG sites in free DNA from cord blood serum. Principal component analysis and linear regression were carried out comparing the intervention and control groups. Gene clustering and pathway analysis were also explored. Widespread variation was identified in the newborns exposed to the dietary intervention, accounting for 11% of the total level of DNA methylation variation within the dataset. No association was found with maternal early-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), infant sex, or birthweight. Pathway analysis identified common influences of the intervention on gene clusters plausibly linked to pathways targeted by the intervention, including cardiac and immune functioning. Analysis in 60 additional samples from the ROLO study failed to replicate the original findings. Using a modest-sized discovery sample, we identified preliminary evidence of differential methylation in progeny of mothers exposed to a dietary intervention during pregnancy.
Odin: Microsoft's Scalable Fault-Tolerant CDN Measurement System

Content delivery networks (CDNs) are critical for delivering high performance Internet services. Using world-wide deployments of front-ends, CDNs can direct users to the front-end that provides them with the best latency and availability. The key challenges arise from the heterogeneous connectivity of clients and the dynamic nature of the Internet that influences latency and availability. Without continuous insight on performance between users, front-ends, and external networks, CDNs will not be able to attain their full potential performance. We describe Odin, Microsoft’s Internet measurement platform for its first-party and third-party customers. Odin is designed to handle Microsoft’s large user base and need for large-scale measurements from users around the world. Odin integrates with Microsoft’s varied suite of web-client and thick-client applications, all while being mindful of the regulatory and privacy concerns of enterprise customers. Odin has been operational for 2 years. We present the first detailed study of an Internet measurement platform of this scale and complexity.
VHF free-free beam high-Q micromechanical resonators

Free-free-beam flexural-mode micromechanical resonators utilizing nonintrusive supports to achieve measured Qs as high as 8400 at VHF frequencies from 30 to 90 MHz are demonstrated in a polysilicon surface micromachining technology. The microresonators feature torsional-mode support springs that effectively isolate the resonator beam from its anchors via quarter-wavelength impedance transformations, minimizing anchor dissipation and allowing these resonators to achieve high-Q with high stiffness in the VHF frequency range. The free-free-beam micromechanical resonators of this paper are shown to have an order of magnitude higher Q than clamped-clamped-beam versions with comparable stiffnesses.
2 Probe Design , Production , and Applications

A probe is a nucleic acid molecule (single-stranded DNA or RNA) with a strong affinity with a specific target (DNA or RNA sequence). Probe and target base sequences must be complementary to each other, but depending on conditions, they do not necessarily have to be exactly complementary. The hybrid (probe–target combination) can be revealed when appropriate labeling and detection systems are used. Gene probes are used in various blotting and in situ techniques for the detection of nucleic acid sequences. In medicine, they can help in the identification of microorganisms and the diagnosis of infectious, inherited, and other diseases.
Screening of the prognostic targets for breast cancer based co-expression modules analysis

The purpose of the present study was to screen the prognostic targets for breast cancer based on a co-expression modules analysis. The microarray dataset GSE73383 was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, including 15 breast cancer samples with good prognosis and 9 breast cancer samples with poor prognosis. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified with the limma package. The Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery was used to perform Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Furthermore, the co-expression analysis of DEGs was conducted with weighted correlation analysis. The interaction associations were analyzed with the Human Protein Reference Database and BioGRID. The protein-protein interactions (PPI) network was constructed and visualized by Cytoscape software. A total of 491 DEGs were identified in breast cancer samples with poor prognosis compared with those with good prognosis, and they were enriched in 85 GO terms and 4 KEGG pathways. 368 DEGs were co-expressed with others, and they were clustered into 10 modules. Module 6 was the most relevant to the clinical features, and 21 genes and 273 interaction pairs were selected out. Abnormal expression levels of required for meiotic nuclear division 5 homolog A (RMND5A) and angiopoietin-like protein 1 (ANGPTL1) were associated with a poor prognosis. It was indicated that SWI/SNF related, matrix associated, actin dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily D, member 1, SWI/SNF related, matrix associated, actin dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily D, member 1, dihydropyrimidinase-like 2, RMND5A and ANGPTL1 were potential prognostic markers in breast cancer, and the cell cycle may be involved in the regulation of breast cancer.
Degree of Osteoarthritis and the Results of Total Knee Arthroplasty

Osteoarthritis of the knee is one of the leading causes of pain and disability. Total joint replacement is the most common treatment for advanced osteoarthritis of the knee, with the primary goal of the procedure to relief the pain and improves the patient's quality of life. Also it is among the most successful, highest volume procedures in medicine [1-3]. Because the prevalence of radiographic osteoarthritis in asymptomatic patients is common (60 %) [4], the radiograph is used primarily to confirm the diagnosis of OA when considering TKA. Patients with more severe and less severe radiographic changes of knee OA may be candidates for TKA. An orthopaedic survey revealed that surgeons believed patients with more severe pain and associated OA had a higher likelihood of an excellent outcome [5].
The endangered Florida pondweed (Potamogeton floridanus) is a hybrid: Why we need to understand biodiversity thoroughly

Thorough understanding of biodiversity is a fundamental prerequisite for biological research. A lack of taxonomic knowledge and species misidentifications are particularly critical for conservation. Here we present an example of Potamogeton floridanus, the Florida Pondweed, an endangered taxon endemic to a small area in the Florida panhandle, whose taxonomic status remained controversial for more than a century, and all previous attempts to elucidate its identity have failed. We applied molecular approaches to tackle the origin of the mysterious taxon and supplemented them with morphological and anatomical investigations of both historical herbarium collections and plants recently collected in the type area for a comprehensive taxonomic reassessment. Sequencing of two nuclear ribosomal markers and one chloroplast non-coding spacer resulted in the surprising discovery that P. floridanus is a hybrid of P. pulcher and P. oakesianus, with the former being the maternal parent. The hybrid colony is currently geographically isolated from the distribution range of P. oakesianus. We show that previous molecular analyses have failed to reveal its hybrid identity due to inadequate nuclear DNA sequence editing. This is an example how the uncritical use of automized sequence reads can hamper molecular species identifications and also affect phylogenetic tree construction and interpretation. This unique hybrid taxon, P. ×floridanus, adds another case study to the debate on hybrid protection; consequences for its conservation are discussed.
Beneficial Effects of a High-Protein, Low-Glycemic-Load Hypocaloric Diet in Overweight and Obese Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Intervention Study

Objective: The recommended composition of a hypocaloric diet for obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a high-protein, low-glycemic-load diet compared with a conventional hypocaloric diet on reproductive hormones, inflammatory markers, lipids, glucose, and insulin levels in obese women with PCOS. Methods: A total of 60 overweight and obese women with PCOS who did not use insulin-sensitizing agents were recruited and randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 hypocaloric diet groups for a single-blind clinical trial. The groups included a conventional hypocaloric diet (CHCD) (15% of daily energy from protein) and a modified hypocaloric diet (MHCD) with a high-protein, low-glycemic load (30% of daily energy from protein plus low-glycemic-load foods selected from a list) that was prescribed via counseling visits weekly during 12 weeks of study. Anthropometric assessments and biochemical measurements including reproductive hormones, inflammatory factors, lipids, glucose, and insulin were performed on fasting blood samples at baseline and after 12 weeks of dietary intervention. Results: Weight loss was significant and similar in the 2 groups. Mean of testosterone in the MHCD and CHCD groups decreased from 1.78 ± 0.32 to 1.31 ± 0.26 ng/ml and from 1.51 ± 0.12 to 1.15 ± 0.11 ng/ml, respectively (p < 0.001). Follicle sensitizing hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and blood lipids concentrations were not changed except low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) was reduced by 24.5% ± 12.3% (p < 0.001 for both) after 12 weeks of intervention. MHCD resulted in a significant reduction in insulin level, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA), and high-sensitivity C- reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration (p < 0.001). Conclusions: In this study both hypocaloric diets significantly led to reduced body weight and androgen levels in these two groups of women with PCOS. The combination of high-protein and low-glycemic-load foods in a modified diet caused a significant increase in insulin sensitivity and a decrease in hsCRP level when compared with a conventional diet.
Three-dimensional parallel vortex rings in Bose-Einstein condensates

We construct three-dimensional structures of topological defects hosted in trapped wave fields, in the form of vortex stars, vortex cages, parallel vortex lines, perpendicular vortex rings, and parallel vortex rings, and we show that the latter exist as robust stationary, collective states of nonrotating Bose-Einstein condensates. We discuss the stability properties of excited states containing several parallel vortex rings hosted by the condensate, including their dynamical and structural stability.
Link analysis techniques for object modeling and recognition

This paper proposes a novel approach for unsupervised modeling and recognition of object categories in which we first build a large-scale complex network which captures the interactions of all unit visual features across the entire training set and we infer information, such as which features are in which categories, directly from the graph by using link analysis techniques. The link analysis techniques are based on well-established graph mining techniques used in diverse applications such as WWW, bioinformatics, and social networks. The techniques operate directly on the patterns of connections between features in the graph rather than on statistical properties, e.g., from clustering in feature space. We argue that the resulting techniques are simpler, and we show that they perform similarly or better compared to state of the art techniques on both common and more challenging data sets. Also, we extend this link analysis idea to combine it with the statistical framework of topic contents. By doing so, our approach not only dramatically increases performance but also provides feasible solutions to some persistent problems of statistical topic models based on bag-of-words representation such as modeling of geometric information, computational complexity, and the inherent ambiguity of visual words. Our approach can be incorporated in any generative models, but here we consider two popular models, pLSA and LDA. Experimental results show that the topic models updated by adding link analysis terms significantly outperform the standard pLSA and LDA models. Furthermore, we presented competitive performances on unsupervised modeling, classification, and localization tasks with datasets such as MSRC and PASCAL2005. This research was performed in part for the Intelligent Robotics Development Program, one of the 21st Century Frontier R&D Program funded by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy of Korea. Thesis supervisor: Prof. Martial Hebert
The Unconscious Allocation of Cognitive Resources to Task-Relevant and Task-Irrelevant Thoughts.

Conscious allocation of cognitive resources to task-relevant thoughts is necessary for learning. However, task-irrelevant thoughts often associated with fear of failure can enter the mind and interfere with learning. Effects like this prompt the question of whether or not learners consciously shift their cognitive resources from task-relevant to task-irrelevant thoughts. This review examines the effect of learners’ unconscious cognitive and affective processes on their resource allocation. The review concludes by calling for further research into how learners unconsciously allocate cognitive resources to task-relevant and taskirrelevant thoughts.
The effect of folic acid as an antioxidant on the hypothalamic monoamines in experimentally induced hypothyroid rat

Thyroid hormones are recognized as key metabolic hormones that play a critical role in the central nervous system development throughout life. In the present study, we studied the biochemical changes of hypothalamus of hypothyroid rats at post-pubertal stage, and the possible ameliorating effect of folic acid. A total of 50 male albino rats were equally divided into five groups; the first and second groups were the control and folic acid groups, respectively, while the third group was the hypothyroid group in which rats received daily 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) in drinking water for 6 weeks to induce hypothyroidism. The fourth and fifth groups were hypothyroid rats treated with folic acid for 4 weeks during and after receiving PTU, respectively, and were dissected after 6 and 10 weeks, respectively. There was a significant increase in plasma total homocysteine, malondialdehyde (MDA), oxidized glutathione\reduced glutathione and total nitric oxide and hypothalamic MDA, serotonin and norepinephrine in the hypothyroid rats group as compared to the control group. This reflects hyperhomocysteinaemia and oxidative stress associated with hypothyroid state. On the other hand, hypothalamic total nitric oxide and dopamine in the hypothyroid rats group were significantly decreased when compared to the control group. Treatment of hypothyroid rats with folic acid improves the oxidative stress and hypothalamic monoamines. Our results revealed that, folic acid treatment was better if it is administered as an adjuvant after returning to the euthyroid state.
Predicting fluid responsiveness in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: functional haemodynamic parameters including the Respiratory Systolic Variation Test and static preload indicators.

BACKGROUND Prediction of the response of the left ventricular stroke volume to fluid administration remains an unsolved clinical problem. We compared the predictive performance of various haemodynamic parameters in the perioperative period in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. These parameters included static indicators of cardiac preload and functional parameters, derived from the arterial pressure waveform analysis. These included the systolic pressure variation (SPV) and its delta down component (dDown), pulse pressure variation (PPV), stroke volume variation (SVV), and a new parameter, termed the respiratory systolic variation test (RSVT), which is a measure of the slope of the lowest systolic pressure values during a standardized manoeuvre consisting of three successive incremental pressure-controlled breaths. METHODS Eighteen patients were included into this prospective observational study. Seventy volume loading steps (VLS), each consisting of 250 ml of colloid administration were performed before surgery and after the closure of the chest. The response to each VLS was considered as a positive (increase in stroke volume more than 15%) or non-response. Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted for each parameter to evaluate its predictive value. RESULTS All functional parameters predicted fluid responsiveness better than the intrathoracic blood volume and the left ventricular end-diastolic area. Parameters with the best predictive ability were the RSVT and PPV. CONCLUSIONS Functional haemodynamic parameters are superior to static indicators of cardiac preload in predicting the response to fluid administration. The RSVT and PPV were the most accurate predictors of fluid responsiveness, although only the RSVT is independent of the settings of mechanical ventilation.
Complications of Surgical Treatment of Anterior Shoulder Dislocation: A Systematic Review

Introduction: shoulder joint has the greatest range of motion in the human body. The shoulder anatomy promotes high mobility and favors relative sacrifice of articular stability, making it susceptible and more prone to events of instability and dislocation. This review aimed at identifying main complications of surgical treatment of anterior shoulder dislocation. Methodology: This systematic review was conducted according to the International Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies which were eligible for this systematic review included: English or Spanish language, studies published from 2000, which mentioned surgical complications of anterior shoulder dislocation in their results, both in open and arthroscopic surgery. Included studies which were required to have at least 1 complication following surgical repair. Only studies from original data were included. Results: We found 228 potentially eligible studies for the survey. Through the inclusion and exclusion criteria and after consensus among reviewers, we chose 9 studies to compose the systematic review. Conclusion: Important information emerges: recurring instability, recurring dislocation, external rotation limitation and arthritis are main surgical complications of anterior shoulder dislocation.
Systematic Investigation of Insulator-Based Protein Dielectrophoresis Under DC Condition

The ability to rapidly separate and analyze proteins in small volumes and concentrations is of great interest in situations where time is critical and sample availability is low. Here, we report on the dielectrophoretic manipulation of the proteins immunoglobulin G (IgG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) under DC conditions in a tailored insulator-based microfluidic device. Our results demonstrate that dielectrophoresis can be used to concentrate protein monomers along a streamline profile. These findings are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations and indicate positive dielectrophoresis of proteins. Moreover, parameters such as conductivity and pH influencing protein dielectrophoresis were analyzed experimentally.
Correlates of domestic violence experience among recently-married women residing in slums in Pune, India

The high risk of experiencing domestic violence (DV) among married women in India who reside in slum communities underscores the need for effective, evidence-based, and culturally-tailored primary prevention. To inform such DV primary prevention strategies for this population, we herein aimed to identify correlates of DV experience in early marriage. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, potential correlates of DV experience were explored among a geographically-clustered random sample of 100 recently-married women residing in slums in Pune, India. In multivariable regression, DV experience was associated with less educational attainment by the participant’s spouse (standardized β = -0.281, p = 0.004), less satisfaction of the spouse’s family with the maanpaan (wedding-related gifts provided by the bride’s family) they received at the time of marriage (standardized β = -0.298, p<0.001), poorer conflict negotiation skills (standardized β = -0.308, p<0.001), and greater acknowledgement of DV occurrence in family and friends (standardized β = 0.436, p<0.001). These correlates suggest strategies that could be incorporated into future DV primary prevention interventions for this vulnerable population (i.e. promoting completion of formal education of boys alongside girls, mitigating causes of familial dowry harassment, improving conflict negotiation skills, and challenging norms surrounding DV).
“The wound is still open”: the Nakba experience among internally displaced Palestinians in Israel

Purpose While the 1948 Nakba represents the most significant crisis in the history of the Palestinian people, its psychological effects on its survivors in Israel have yet to be explored. The purpose of this paper is to examine the subjective experience and the psychological implications of the Nakba ordeals and the ensuing uprooting among the internally displaced Palestinians living in Israel. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten internally displaced Palestinians who experienced the Nakba as youngsters. The interview transcripts were analyzed thematically in line with accepted practice in phenomenological research in psychology. Findings Participants had experienced a wide range of traumatic events intertwined with protracted daily struggles and accumulated losses. These experiences resulted in pronounced psychological distress and immense inner pain that was perpetuated throughout their lives, rendering the Nakba an unresolved traumatic experience. Research limitations/implications This paper describes the psychological outcome of the Nakba among a small sample of elderly survivors. Further urgent research is needed to collect valuable untapped information from this aging and dwindling community. Originality/value Although more than six decades have elapsed since the tragic events, the current research paper constitutes a pioneering effort to document the subjective experience of the Nakba. The current research findings counterbalance 60 years of public and academic disregard of this tragic period.