Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Zinc Supplementation on Growth Outcomes in Children under 5 Years of Age

(1) Background: The effects of zinc supplementation on child growth, and prior reviews of these studies, have shown mixed results. We aim to systematically review and meta-analyze randomized controlled trials evaluating effects of preventive zinc supplementation for 3 months or longer during pregnancy or in children up to age 5 years on pregnancy outcomes and child growth; (2) Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and trial registries for eligible trials up to October 10, 2017. Inclusion selection and data extractions were performed independently and in duplicate. Study quality was evaluated by the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Findings were pooled using random effects meta-analysis, with heterogeneity assessed by I2 and τ2 statistic, stratified analyses, and meta-regression, and publication bias by Egger’s and Begg’s tests; (3) Results: Seventy-eight trials with 34,352 unique participants were identified, including 24 during pregnancy and 54 in infancy/childhood. Maternal zinc supplementation did not significantly increase birth weight (weighted mean difference (WMD) = 0.08 kg, 95%CI: −0.05, 0.22) or decrease the risk of low birth weight (RR = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.52–1.11). Zinc supplementation after birth increased height (WMD = 0.23 cm, 95%CI: 0.09–0.38), weight (WMD = 0.14 kg, 95%CI: 0.07–0.21), and weight-for-age Z-score (WMD = 0.04, 95%CI: 0.001–0.087), but not height-for-age Z-score (WMD = 0.02, 95%CI: −0.01–0.06) or weight-for-height Z score (WMD = 0.02, 95%CI: −0.03–0.06). Child age at zinc supplementation appeared to modify the effects on height (P-interaction = 0.002) and HAZ (P-interaction = 0.06), with larger effects of supplementation starting at age ≥2 years (WMD for height = 1.37 cm, 95%CI: 0.50–2.25; WMD for HAZ = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.05–0.19). No significant effects of supplementation were found on the risk of stunting, underweight or wasting; (4) Conclusion: Although the possibility of publication bias and small study effect could not be excluded, the current meta-analysis indicates that zinc supplementation in infants and early childhood, but not pregnancy, increases specific growth outcomes, with evidence for a potentially stronger effect after 2 years of age. These findings inform recommendation and policy development for zinc supplementation to improve growth among young children.
Overexpression of Candida albicans Secreted Aspartyl Proteinase 2 or 5 Is Not Sufficient for Exacerbation of Immunopathology in a Murine Model of Vaginitis

ABSTRACT The secreted aspartyl proteinases of Candida albicans have long been implicated in virulence at the mucosal surface, including contributions to colonization and immunopathogenesis during vulvovaginal candidiasis. In an effort to disentangle hypha-associated virulence factor regulation from morphological transition, the purpose of this study was to determine if overexpression of SAP2 or SAP5 in an efg1Δ/Δ cph1Δ/Δ mutant could restore the capacity to cause immunopathology during murine vaginitis to this avirulent hypofilamentous strain. Two similar yet distinct genetic approaches were used to construct expression vectors to achieve SAP overexpression, and both genetic and functional assays confirmed elevated SAP activity in transformed strains. Similar to previous findings, intravaginal challenge of C57BL/6 mice with hypha-defective strains attained high levels of mucosal colonization but failed to induce robust vaginal immunopathology (neutrophil recruitment, interleukin-1β [IL-1β] secretion, and lactate dehydrogenase release) compared to that with the hypha-competent control. Moreover, constitutive expression of SAP2 or SAP5 in two distinct sets of such strains did not elicit immunopathological markers at levels above those observed during challenge with isogenic empty vector controls. Therefore, these results suggest that the physiological contributions of SAPs to vaginal immunopathology require hypha formation, other hypha-associated factors, or genetic interaction with EFG1 and/or CPH1 to cause symptomatic infection. Additionally, the outlined expression strategy and strain sets will be useful for decoupling other downstream morphogenetic factors from hyphal growth.
Diagnostic value of chest CT combined with x-ray for premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Abstract Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a common chronic lung disease in the newborns. Staging of BPD severity does not have a high predictive value for the outcomes. This study was aimed to assess the diagnostic value of chest computed tomography (CT) combined with x-ray for premature infants with BPD. Twenty-five premature infants with mild BPD and 20 premature infants with moderate to severe BPD treated at our hospital from January 2015 to December 2015 were randomly selected. The imaging features were compared between premature infants with different severity of BPD. In mild BPD group, the incidence of increased lung opacity (at 3–10 and 29 days) were significantly higher than those in infants with moderate to severe BPD (P = .034, P = .003, respectively). However, the incidences of stage III BPD (3–10 days) and stage IV BPD (11–27 days) were significantly lower in infants with mild BPD than those in infants with moderate to severe BPD (P = .013, P = .033, respectively). The chest x-ray score in the mild BPD group was significantly lower than that in moderate to severe BPD group [3.0 (1.0) vs 5.0 (1.0), P < . 001]. Spearman rank correlation analysis indicated that chest x-ray score had significant correlation (r = 0.787, P < .001) with the clinical severity. In the mild BPD group, the chest CT scan score was 11.52 ± 3.49, which was considerably lower than that in the moderate to severe BPD group (24.70 ± 4.32) (P < .001). Moreover, the severity of BPD in the premature infants was significantly correlated to the chest CT scan score (r = 0.855, P < .001). Chest CT combined with x-ray is an effective method for predicting the severity of BPD in premature infants.
Investigating Collaboration Within Online Communities: Software Development vs. Artistic Creation

Online creative communities have been able to develop large, open source software (OSS) projects like Linux and Firefox throughout the successful collaborations carried out over the Internet. These communities have also expanded to creative arts domains such as animation, video games, and music. Despite their growing popularity, the factors that lead to successful collaborations in these communities are not entirely understood. In the following, I describe my Ph.D. research project aimed at improving communication, collaboration, and retention in creative arts communities, starting from the experience gained from the literature about OSS communities.
Unsupervised Cross-Dataset Person Re-identification by Transfer Learning of Spatial-Temporal Patterns

Most of the proposed person re-identification algorithms conduct supervised training and testing on single labeled datasets with small size, so directly deploying these trained models to a large-scale real-world camera network may lead to poor performance due to underfitting. It is challenging to incrementally optimize the models by using the abundant unlabeled data collected from the target domain. To address this challenge, we propose an unsupervised incremental learning algorithm, TFusion, which is aided by the transfer learning of the pedestrians' spatio-temporal patterns in the target domain. Specifically, the algorithm firstly transfers the visual classifier trained from small labeled source dataset to the unlabeled target dataset so as to learn the pedestrians' spatial-temporal patterns. Secondly, a Bayesian fusion model is proposed to combine the learned spatio-temporal patterns with visual features to achieve a significantly improved classifier. Finally, we propose a learning-to-rank based mutual promotion procedure to incrementally optimize the classifiers based on the unlabeled data in the target domain. Comprehensive experiments based on multiple real surveillance datasets are conducted, and the results show that our algorithm gains significant improvement compared with the state-of-art cross-dataset unsupervised person re-identification algorithms.
Combined application of tenuigenin and β-asarone improved the efficacy of memantine in treating moderate-to-severe Alzheimer’s disease

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disease which cannot be cured at present. The aim of this study was to assess whether the combined application of β-asarone and tenuigenin could improve the efficacy of memantine in treating moderate-to-severe AD. Patients and methods One hundred and fifty-two patients with moderate-to-severe AD were recruited and assigned to two groups. Patients in the experiment group received β-asarone 10 mg/d, tenuigenin 10 mg/d, and memantine 5–20 mg/d. Patients in the control group only received memantine 5–20 mg/d. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR), and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) were used to assess the therapeutic effects. The drug-related adverse events were used to assess the safety and acceptability. Treatment was continued for 12 weeks. Results After 12 weeks of treatment, the average MMSE scores, ADL scores, and CDR scores in the two groups were significantly improved. But, compared to the control group, the experimental group had a significantly higher average MMSE score (p<0.00001), lower average ADL score (p=0.00002), and lower average CDR score (p=0.030). Meanwhile, the rates of adverse events were similar between the two groups. Subgroup analysis indicated that the most likely candidates to benefit from this novel method might be the 60–74-years-old male patients with moderate AD. Conclusion These results demonstrated that the combined application of β-asarone and tenuigenin could improve the efficacy of memantine in treating moderate-to-severe AD. The clinical applicability of this novel method showed greater promise and should be further explored.
Dominant Functional Group Effects on the Invasion Resistance at Different Resource Levels

Background Functional group composition may affect invasion in two ways the effect of abundance, i.e. dominance of functional group; and the effect of traits, i.e. identity of functional groups. However, few studies have focused on the role of abundance of functional group on invasion resistance. Moreover, how resource availability influences the role of the dominant functional group in invasion resistance is even less understood. Methodology/Principal Findings In this experiment, we established experimental pots using four different functional groups (annual grass, perennial grass, deciduous shrub or arbor and evergreen shrub or arbor), and the dominant functional group was manipulated. These experimental pots were respectively constructed at different soil nitrogen levels (control and fertilized). After one year of growth, we added seeds of 20 different species (five species per functional group) to the experimental pots. Fertilization significantly increased the overall invasion success, while dominant functional group had little effect on overall invasion success. When invaders were grouped into functional groups, invaders generally had lower success in pots dominated by the same functional group in the control pots. However, individual invaders of the same functional group exhibited different invasion patterns. Fertilization generally increased success of invaders in pots dominated by the same than by another functional group. However, fertilization led to great differences for individual invaders. Conclusions/Significance The results showed that the dominant functional group, independent of functional group identity, had a significant effect on the composition of invaders. We suggest that the limiting similarity hypothesis may be applicable at the functional group level, and limiting similarity may have a limited role for individual invaders as shown by the inconsistent effects of dominant functional group and fertilization.
Effect of Crimped and Hooked End Steel Fibers on the Impact Resistance of Concrete

It is well known that concrete is characterized by its high compressive strength, yet its brittle mode of failure is considered as a drawback of high strength concrete when it is subjected to impact and dynamic loads. This study aims to investigate the impact resistance of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC), incorporated with steel fibres at various dosages. For this, a drop weight test was performed on the 28 days cured plain and fibre reinforced concrete samples as per the testing procedure recommended by ACI committee 544. Crimped and hooked end steel fibre of length 50 mm and an aspect ratio equal to 50 was added to concrete in different proportions i.e. 0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% with water cement ratio of 0.42. From the test results, it was proved that the (FRC) was effective under the impact loads thus improving the impact resistance. Also, the reduction of strength under impact load in each specimen for every three blows was determined by ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) test. Further, a statistical correlation between (UPV) and number of blows under impact load was developed using regression analysis. The developed regression model predicts the reduction in strength of concrete under impact load accurately.
Effect of Actual Indenter Shape on the Results of Spherical Nanoindentation

Actual shape of the diamond spherical indenter of nominal radius 20 μm was investigated in this study. 3D reconstruction was performed by atomic force microscope and by the method of stereopair using SEM images of the tip taken under several different angles. The results were compared with the shape obtained indirectly by the calibration performed on specimens with known Young’s modulus. It was found that lower effective values of tip radius for the small penetration depths are caused by the irregular geometry of contact between indenter and specimen surface. With increasing penetration depth the radius increased to the theoretical values and it decreased again for high penetration depths. The stress-strain curves were determined using corrected effective indenter radius.
Laboratory Diagnosis and Clinical Profile of Anti-p200 Pemphigoid.

IMPORTANCE Anti-p200 pemphigoid is a rare subepidermal autoimmune blistering disease characterized by autoantibodies against a 200-kDa protein in the basement membrane zone. Anti-p200 pemphigoid is probably often misdiagnosed because of low availability of diagnostic assays and expertise and classified as bullous pemphigoid or epidermolysis bullosa acquisita. OBJECTIVE To clinically characterize patients with anti-p200 pemphigoid, identified by using indirect immunofluorescence microscopy on skin substrates deficient in type VII collagen and laminin-332 (knockout analysis), to validate this technique by immunoblot with dermal extract, and to incorporate direct immunofluorescence serration pattern analysis in the diagnostic algorithm. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This was a retrospective study performed from January 2014 to June 2015 with biobank patient materials and clinical data for the period 1998 to 2015 from the single national referral center on autoimmune bullous diseases. Patients were selected based on a dermal side binding on 1-mol/L salt (sodium chloride)-split human skin substrate by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, not diagnosed epidermolysis bullosa acquisita or anti-laminin-332 mucous membrane pemphigoid. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy knockout analysis was performed and diagnosis of anti-p200 confirmed by immunoblot with dermal extract. Clinical, histological, and immunological findings were registered. Autoantibodies against laminin γ1 were determined by immunoblot. RESULTS Twelve patients with anti-p200 pemphigoid (7 male and 5 female; mean age, 66.6 years) were identified using the indirect immunofluorescence microscopy knockout analysis. Direct immunofluorescence microscopy showed a linear n-serrated IgG deposition pattern along the basement membrane zone in 9 of 11 patients. The diagnosis was confirmed by immunoblot showing autoantibodies against 200-kDa protein in dermal extract in 12 of 12 patients. Autoantibodies against recombinant laminin γ1 were detected by immunoblot in 8 of 12 patients. Remarkable similarities were seen in clinical features with predominantly tense blisters on hands and feet, resembling dyshidrosiform pemphigoid. Mucosal involvement was seen in 6 (50%) of the patients. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Predominance of blisters on hands and feet may be a clinical clue to the diagnosis of anti-p200 pemphigoid. Direct immunofluorescence microscopy serration pattern analysis and indirect immunofluorescence microscopy knockout analysis are valuable additional techniques to facilitate the diagnosis of anti-p200 pemphigoid.
Attentional Tuning Resets after Failures of Perceptual Awareness

Key to successfully negotiating our environment is our ability to adapt to current settings based on recent experiences and behaviour. Response conflict paradigms (e.g., the Stroop task) have provided evidence for increases in executive control after errors, leading to slowed responses that are more likely to be correct, and less susceptible to response congruency effects. Here we investigate whether failures of perceptual awareness, rather than failures at decisional or response stages of information processing, lead to similar adjustments in visual attention. We employed an attentional blink task in which subjects often fail to consciously register the second of two targets embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of distractors, and examined how target errors influence performance on subsequent trials. Performance was inferior after Target 2 errors and these inter-trial effects were independent of the temporal lag between the targets and were not due to more global changes in attention across runs of trials. These results shed light on the nature of attentional calibration in response to failures of perceptual consciousness.
Energy Metabolism of the Osteoblast: Implications for Osteoporosis

Osteoblasts, the bone-forming cells of the remodeling unit, are essential for growth and maintenance of the skeleton. Clinical disorders of substrate availability (e.g., diabetes mellitus, anorexia nervosa, and aging) cause osteoblast dysfunction, ultimately leading to skeletal fragility and osteoporotic fractures. Conversely, anabolic treatments for osteoporosis enhance the work of the osteoblast by altering osteoblast metabolism. Emerging evidence supports glycolysis as the major metabolic pathway to meet ATP demand during osteoblast differentiation. Glut1 and Glut3 are the principal transporters of glucose in osteoblasts, although Glut4 has also been implicated. Wnt signaling induces osteoblast differentiation and activates glycolysis through mammalian target of rapamycin, whereas parathyroid hormone stimulates glycolysis through induction of insulin-like growth factor-I. Glutamine is an alternate fuel source for osteogenesis via the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and fatty acids can be metabolized to generate ATP via oxidative phosphorylation although temporal specificity has not been established. More studies with new model systems are needed to fully understand how the osteoblast utilizes fuel substrates in health and disease and how that impacts metabolic bone diseases.
Ancient DNA from Coral-Hosted Symbiodinium Reveal a Static Mutualism over the Last 172 Years

Ancient DNA (aDNA) provides powerful evidence for detecting the genetic basis for adaptation to environmental change in many taxa. Among the greatest of changes in our biosphere within the last century is rapid anthropogenic ocean warming. This phenomenon threatens corals with extinction, evidenced by the increasing observation of widespread mortality following mass bleaching events. There is some evidence and conjecture that coral-dinoflagellate symbioses change partnerships in response to changing external conditions over ecological and evolutionary timescales. Until now, we have been unable to ascertain the genetic identity of Symbiodinium hosted by corals prior to the rapid global change of the last century. Here, we show that Symbiodinium cells recovered from dry, century old specimens of 6 host species of octocorals contain sufficient DNA for amplification of the ITS2 subregion of the nuclear ribosomal DNA, commonly used for genotyping within this genus. Through comparisons with modern specimens sampled from similar locales we show that symbiotic associations among several species have been static over the last century, thereby suggesting that adaptive shifts to novel symbiont types is not common among these gorgonians, and perhaps, symbiotic corals in general.
Sageretia thea (Osbeck.) modulated biosynthesis of NiO nanoparticles and their in vitro pharmacognostic, antioxidant and cytotoxic potential

Abstract NiO nanoparticles are biosynthesized using Sageretia thea (Osbeck.) aqueous leave extracts and their biological activities are reported. Nanoparticles (∼18 nm) were characterized through XRD, ATR-FTIR, EDS, SAED, HR-SEM/TEM and Raman spectroscopy. Antibacterial activity was investigated against six pathogenic bacterial strains (gram positive and gram negative) and their corresponding minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were calculated. UV-exposed nanoparticles were investigated to have reduced MICs relative to the NiO nanoparticles have not been exposed to UV. Moderate linear fungal growth inhibition was observed while Mucor racemosus (percentage inhibition 64% ± 2.30) was found to be most susceptible. Cytotoxicity was confirmed using brine shrimps lethality assay (IC50 42.60 μg/ml). MTT cytotoxicity was performed against Leishmania tropica-KWH23 promastigotes and amastigotes revealed significant percentage inhibition across the applied concentrations. IC50 values were calculated as 24.13 μg/ml and 26.74 μg/ml for the promastigote and amastigote cultures of Leishmania tropica. NiO nanoparticles were found. Moderate, antioxidant potential was concluded through assays like DPPH, TAP and TAC. Furthermore, protein kinase inhibition and alpha amylase inhibition is also reported. Graphical Abstract
Larval and Post-Larval Stages of Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) Are Resistant to Elevated CO2

The average pH of surface oceans has decreased by 0.1 unit since industrialization and is expected to decrease by another 0.3–0.7 units before the year 2300 due to the absorption of anthropogenic CO2. This human-caused pH change is posing serious threats and challenges to the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas), especially to their larval stages. Our knowledge of the effect of reduced pH on C. gigas larvae presently relies presumptively on four short-term (<4 days) survival and growth studies. Using multiple physiological measurements and life stages, the effects of long-term (40 days) exposure to pH 8.1, 7.7 and 7.4 on larval shell growth, metamorphosis, respiration and filtration rates at the time of metamorphosis, along with the juvenile shell growth and structure of the C. gigas, were examined in this study. The mean survival and growth rates were not affected by pH. The metabolic, feeding and metamorphosis rates of pediveliger larvae were similar, between pH 8.1 and 7.7. The pediveligers at pH 7.4 showed reduced weight-specific metabolic and filtration rates, yet were able to sustain a more rapid post-settlement growth rate. However, no evidence suggested that low pH treatments resulted in alterations to the shell ultrastructures (SEM images) or elemental compositions (i.e., Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios). Thus, larval and post-larval forms of the C. gigas in the Yellow Sea are probably resistant to elevated CO2 and decreased near-future pH scenarios. The pre-adapted ability to resist a wide range of decreased pH may provide C. gigas with the necessary tolerance to withstand rapid pH changes over the coming century.