Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Separation Individuation and Transitional Object Use in Daily Smoker Adolescents

Abstract Background Smoking is an important problem in adolescence. Early developmental trajectories are also associated with cigarette smoking. Objectives The present study aims to evaluate the separation-individuation process and use of transitional objects in daily smoker adolescents. Method The research included 97 adolescents who were daily smokers and 210 adolescents who were nonsmokers. Transitional object assessment questionnaire, strength and difficulties questionnaire- adolescent form(SDQ), children’s depression inventory(CDI) and state-trait anxiety inventory for children(STAI-C), separation and individuation test of adolescence(SITA) were applied. Results SITA subscales scores of engulfment anxiety, need denial, and rejection expectancy was higher and separation anxiety, teacher enmeshment, nurturance seeking scores were statistically significantly lower in smoker adolescents than nonsmokers. In logistic regression analysis, separation anxiety(odds ratio [OR] 0.93; 95% confidence interval[CI] 0.87-0.98), teacher enmeshment(OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.88-0.98), practicing mirroring(OR 1.05; 95% CI 1.02,1.08) and rejection expectancy (OR 1.06 95% CI 1.02,1.11) were found to be predictors of daily smoking. The use of a childhood transitional object for feeling tired and the use of an adolescent transitional object for feeling anxious and tired was found to be significantly higher in smokers. Conclusions There are some differences in the process of separation-individuation and the use of transitional objects in the smoker group. This suggests that early developmental characteristics may be associated with smoking. Further studies are needed to better understand the causal relationship between smoking and the separation-individuation process and transitional object use.
Does Medicaid expansion influence county health spending? A case of New York counties

Abstract We investigated the impacts of Medicaid expansion on New York county total health spending and specifics of health spending, including health services, public health facilities and public health administration. Little research considered the financial effect of Medicaid expansion on local governments while well reported are its influences on uninsured rates and health services utilization. New York counties have contributed to health in their boundaries by providing or funding public health services, and supporting a part of the non-federal share of Medicaid expenditures and uncompensated care. Medicaid expansion can reduce the size of county expenditures for health by enrolling more previously uninsured population in the program and offering more generous federal funding for the expanded Medicaid. We offer empirical evidence that Medicaid expansion was associated with reduced county health spending.
The Dehgolan Prospective Cohort Study (DehPCS) on non-communicable diseases in a Kurdish community in the west of Iran

The Dehgolan Prospective Cohort Study (DehPCS) was conducted to examine and identify risk factors for the most prevalent non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In addition, in order to examine participants’ health status, socioeconomic status, behavioral factors, nutritional status, and environmental exposures, the DehPCS collected, analyzed, and stored blood, urine, nail, and hair samples to conduct genetic studies and identify biomarkers and other biological determinants of NCDs. In total, 3,996 adults aged 35 to 70 from the general population participated in the study from February 2018 to March 2019. Of them, 43.7% were women. The first follow-up wave was conducted with 3,995 participants. Information on a wide range of variables was collected, including on socioeconomic status, lifestyle, nutritional status, habits, physical examination findings, medication use, and medical history. Proxy variables such as body mass index, metabolic equivalent task score, wealth index, and macronutrients and micronutrients were calculated. The most common self-reported diseases in descending order were kidney stones, hypertension, and fatty liver. The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was 9.3% and 33.4%, respectively. All data, samples, and measurements will be collected again at 5-year intervals. Thus, it will be possible to examine time-dependent changes in the risk factors of NCDs. The DehPCS can be used to study the relationships among genetics, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and environmental risk factors and the most prevalent NCDs in case-cohort studies using a nested case-control design that will be applied to the cohort infrastructure. Researchers can also submit pre-proposals via the following web address: http://c.ddrc. ac.ir/persianaccess/Account/Login.
Development of a DEM–VOF Model for the Turbulent Free-Surface Flows with Particles and Its Application to Stirred Mixing System

The free-surface flows with particles are widely found in chemical engineering, and numerical modeling is a powerful tool to gain insight into local and macroscopic properties for the design and optimization of operating conditions. In this work, a DEM-VOF model is extended to turbulent free-surface flows with particles, by means of Reynolds stress model (RSM). Besides, we adopt a novel virtual dual-grid porosity model to calculate the fluid porosity. The simulated results of single particle sedimentation, the falling of sinking particles and the floating of buoyant particles agree well to analytical and literatures, which validate the proposed DEM-VOF model. Furthermore, the proposed DEM-VOF model is firstly involved to simulate the free-surface flows with particles in solid-liquid mixing system. It is found that elliptical-head vessel is preferred to a flat-bottomed vessel for solid–liquid mixing by comparing the simulation results of four different stirred tanks, which agrees well to the related conten.
Long non-coding RNA TTN-AS1/microRNA-199a-3p/runt-related transcription factor 1 gene axis regulates the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has a high degree of malignancy, which affects the quality of life and prognosis of patients with OSCC. Our study aimed to reveal the function of long non-coding RNA TTN-AS1/microRNA-199a-3p (miR-199a-3p)/runt-related transcription factor 1 (RUNX1) axis in OSCC progression, thereby providing a novel OSCC effective strategy. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were performed to detect the expression of TTN-AS1, miR-199a-3p, and RUNX1 in OSCC. Several cell functional experiments, including Cell Counting Kit-8, flow cytometry, and cell adhesion assays, were used to assess cell proliferation, apoptosis, adhesion, and migration. A luciferase assay was performed to confirm the interaction between TTN-AS1, miR-199a-3p, and RUNX1. Our results revealed that TTN-AS1 and RUNX1 were upregulated in OSCC tissues and cells, whereas miR-199a-3p expression was downregulated. Knockdown of TTN-AS1 or RUNX1 suppressed cell proliferation, adhesion, and migration but induced apoptosis. Additionally, miR-199a-3p inhibitor partly relieved the effects of silencing TTN-AS1 and RUNX1 in OSCC cells due to their targeting relationship. In conclusion, TTN-AS1 and RUNX1 could promote OSCC progression and miR-199a-3p partly relieved the effects of TTN-AS1 and RUNX1.
Mating Disruption of the California Red Scale, Aonidiella aurantii (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) in Central California Citrus

Abstract A warmer climate and the development of pesticide resistance have led to an increase in the number of generations and higher population densities of California red scale, Aonidella aurantii (Maskell) in central California. Commercial citrus orchard studies were conducted to determine how effective mating disruption using CheckMate CRS was at reducing A. aurantii. In 2016–2017, two replicated trials were conducted in 15.0–15.5 ha orchards and in 2018 and 2019, one half of each of 10 orchards 8–16.2 ha in size were treated with CheckMate CRS. Mating disruption significantly suppressed male captures for up to 8 mo. Average reductions of 90% in cumulative male flight trap catches were recorded, twig and leaf infestations were reduced by 95%, and highly scale-infested fruit were reduced by 75% in the CheckMate CRS plots for the 2018 and 2019 trials. In seven of 12 sites the percentage of highly infested fruit was reduced below 0.5%. Leaf and twig infestations in August and reductions in male captures during the 4th flight were strongly related to the percentage of highly infested fruit at the end of the season and could be used as predictors of the success of mating disruption. The results of the study indicated mating disruption using CheckMate CRS can be an effective method to reduce California red scale populations throughout the 4+ generations that occur in central California. Mating disruption has the potential to reduce or eliminate pesticide applications, especially in low scale density situations.
Neural excitability and sensory input determine intensity perception with opposing directions in initial cortical responses

Perception of sensory information is determined by stimulus features (e.g., intensity) and instantaneous neural states (e.g., excitability). Commonly, it is assumed that both are reflected similarly in evoked brain potentials, that is, larger amplitudes are associated with a stronger percept of a stimulus. We tested this assumption in a somatosensory discrimination task in humans, simultaneously assessing (i) single-trial excitatory post-synaptic currents inferred from short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs), (ii) pre-stimulus alpha oscillations (8–13 Hz), and (iii) peripheral nerve measures. Fluctuations of neural excitability shaped the perceived stimulus intensity already during the very first cortical response (at ~20 ms) yet demonstrating opposite neural signatures as compared to the effect of presented stimulus intensity. We reconcile this discrepancy via a common framework based on the modulation of electro-chemical membrane gradients linking neural states and responses, which calls for reconsidering conventional interpretations of brain potential magnitudes in stimulus intensity encoding.
Treatment of pemphigus vulgaris and foliaceus with efgartigimod, a neonatal Fc receptor inhibitor: a phase II multicentre, open‐label feasibility trial *

Pemphigus vulgaris and pemphigus foliaceus are potentially life‐threatening autoimmune disorders triggered by IgG autoantibodies against mucosal and epidermal desmogleins. There is an unmet need for fast‐acting drugs that enable patients to achieve early sustained remission with reduced corticosteroid reliance.
Eighteen-month-old infants represent nonlocal syntactic dependencies

Significance As mature speakers of a language, we are able to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences. This ability comes from a powerful cognitive system—syntax—whose properties reveal the types of computations that human minds can engage in. One core property is the capacity to encode abstract grammatical dependencies that can hold at a distance. When does this property emerge in development? We identify a nonlocal dependency that 18-mo-old infants, but not younger infants, represent syntactically. These findings suggest that the second year of life is a period of active syntactic development and that even before they regularly produce full sentences of their own, infants demonstrate some of the core computational capacities that syntax relies on. The human ability to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences is driven by syntax, a cognitive system that can combine a finite number of primitive linguistic elements to build arbitrarily complex expressions. The expressive power of syntax comes in part from its ability to encode potentially unbounded dependencies over abstract structural configurations. How does such a system develop in human minds? We show that 18-mo-old infants are capable of representing abstract nonlocal dependencies, suggesting that a core property of syntax emerges early in development. Our test case is English wh-questions, in which a fronted wh-phrase can act as the argument of a verb at a distance (e.g., What did the chef burn? ). Whereas prior work has focused on infants’ interpretations of these questions, we introduce a test to probe their underlying syntactic representations, independent of meaning. We ask when infants know that an object wh-phrase and a local object of a verb cannot co-occur because they both express the same argument relation (e.g., *What did the chef burn the pizza). We find that 1) 18 mo olds demonstrate awareness of this complementary distribution pattern and thus represent the nonlocal grammatical dependency between the wh-phrase and the verb, but 2) younger infants do not. These results suggest that the second year of life is a period of active syntactic development, during which the computational capacities for representing nonlocal syntactic dependencies become evident.
FPR2 serves a role in recurrent spontaneous abortion by regulating trophoblast function via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) effects both the physical and mental health of women of reproductive age. Trophoblast dysfunction may result in RSA due to shallow placental implantation. The mechanisms underlying formyl peptide receptor 2 (FPR2) on the biological functions of trophoblasts remain to be elucidated. The present study aimed to explore the potential functions of FPR2, a G protein-coupled receptor, in placental trophoblasts. The location and expression levels of FPR2 in the villi tissue of patients with RSA were detected using immunohistochemical staining, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting. Following the transfection of small interfering RNA targeting FPR2 in HTR-8/SVneo cells, a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was used to determine the levels of cell viability. Flow cytometry was used to examine the levels of cell apoptosis and gap closure and Transwell assays were carried out to evaluate the levels of cell migration and invasion. A tube formation assay was performed to detect the levels of capillary-like structure formation. Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of proteins in the associated signaling pathways. The expression of FPR2 was present in villi trophoblasts and was markedly increased in patients with RSA. The levels of trophoblast invasion, migration and tube formation were markedly increased following FPR2 knockdown, whereas the levels of apoptosis were markedly decreased. In addition, FPR2 knockdown caused an increase in the phosphorylation levels of AKT and PI3K. Thus, FPR2 may be involved in the regulation of trophoblast function via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. The results of the present study provided a theoretical basis for the use of FPR2 as a target for the treatment of trophoblast-associated diseases, such as RSA.
Two-Stream Spatial–Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks for Driver Drowsiness Detection

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved remarkable performance in driver drowsiness detection based on the extraction of deep features of drivers’ faces. However, the performance of driver drowsiness detection methods decreases sharply when complications, such as illumination changes in the cab, occlusions and shadows on the driver’s face, and variations in the driver’s head pose, occur. In addition, current driver drowsiness detection methods are not capable of distinguishing between driver states, such as talking versus yawning or blinking versus closing eyes. Therefore, technical challenges remain in driver drowsiness detection. In this article, we propose a novel and robust two-stream spatial–temporal graph convolutional network (2s-STGCN) for driver drowsiness detection to solve the above-mentioned challenges. To take advantage of the spatial and temporal features of the input data, we use a facial landmark detection method to extract the driver’s facial landmarks from real-time videos and then obtain the driver drowsiness detection result by 2s-STGCN. Unlike existing methods, our proposed method uses videos rather than consecutive video frames as processing units. This is the first effort to exploit these processing units in the field of driver drowsiness detection. Moreover, the two-stream framework not only models both the spatial and temporal features but also models both the first-order and second-order information simultaneously, thereby notably improving driver drowsiness detection. Extensive experiments have been performed on the yawn detection dataset (YawDD) and the National TsingHua University drowsy driver detection (NTHU-DDD) dataset. The experimental results validate the feasibility of the proposed method. This method achieves an average accuracy of 93.4% on the YawDD dataset and an average accuracy of 92.7% on the evaluation set of the NTHU-DDD dataset.
Characterization of Peptides Targeting Metastatic Tumor Cells as Probes for Cancer Detection and Vehicles for Therapy Delivery

This study identifies new molecules that bind metastatic cells and demonstrates their application as noninvasive imaging probes and vehicles for cytotoxic therapy delivery in preclinical cancer models. Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, and metastatic cancers remain largely incurable due to chemoresistance. Biomarkers of metastatic cells are lacking, and probes that could be used to detect and target metastases would be highly valuable. Here we hypothesize that metastatic cancer cells express cell-surface receptors that can be harnessed for identification of molecules homing to metastases. Screening a combinatorial library in a mouse mammary tumor model of spontaneous metastasis identified cyclic peptides with tropism for cancer cells disseminated to the lungs. Two lead peptides, CLRHSSKIC and CRAGVGRGC, bound murine and human cells derived from breast carcinoma and melanoma in culture and were selective for metastatic cells in vivo. In mice, peptide CRAGVGRGC radiolabeled with 67Ga for biodistribution analysis demonstrated selective probe homing to lung metastases. Moreover, systemic administration of 68Ga-labeled CRAGVGRGC enabled noninvasive imaging of lung metastases in mice by PET. A CRAGVGRGC-derived peptide induced apoptosis upon cell internalization in vitro and suppressed metastatic burden in vivo. Colocalization of CLRHSSKIC and CRAGVGRGC with N-cadherin+/E-cadherin− cells indicated that both peptides are selective for cancer cells that have undergone the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. We conclude that CRAGVGRGC is useful as a probe to facilitate the development of imaging modalities and therapies targeting metastases. Significance: This study identifies new molecules that bind metastatic cells and demonstrates their application as noninvasive imaging probes and vehicles for cytotoxic therapy delivery in preclinical cancer models.
KPC-39-Mediated Resistance to Ceftazidime-Avibactam in a Klebsiella pneumoniae ST307 Clinical Isolate

Resistance to the ceftazidime (CAZ)-avibactam (AVI) combination is increasingly being reported. Here, we report a CAZ-AVI-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain belonging to the high-risk sequence type 307 (ST307) clone and producing Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase 39 (KPC-39), a single-amino-acid variant of KPC-3 (A172T). ABSTRACT Resistance to the ceftazidime (CAZ)-avibactam (AVI) combination is increasingly being reported. Here, we report a CAZ-AVI-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain belonging to the high-risk sequence type 307 (ST307) clone and producing Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase 39 (KPC-39), a single-amino-acid variant of KPC-3 (A172T). Cloning experiments, steady-state kinetic parameters, and molecular dynamics simulations revealed a loss of carbapenemase activity and increased affinity for CAZ. KPC-39 was identified in a patient without prior exposure to CAZ-AVI, suggesting silent dissemination in European health care settings.
Identification of Breast Cancer Survivors With High Symptom Burden

Background While women diagnosed with breast cancer have increased survival when compared with other cancers, survivorship may include residual symptom burden from treatment and continuing endocrine therapies. Objective The objective of this study was to identify subgroups of breast cancer survivors experiencing similar symptom severity. Methods Participants were 498 women with breast cancer, not on active treatment. Symptom severity was self-reported using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory. Target symptoms were included in a latent profile analysis. Factors related to subgroup membership and differences in quality of life (QOL) and functioning were explored using logistic regression. Results Mean age was 60.11 (SD, 11.32) years, 86.1% were white, and 79.1% were receiving endocrine therapy. Target symptoms included fatigue (reported at ≥5 by 22.8% of women), sleep disturbance (24.8%), and trouble remembering (17.2%). Two subgroups were identified: low symptom severity (77.0% of women) and high (23.0%). Older women (odds ratio [OR], 0.971; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.952–0.989) and employed women (OR, 0.621; 95% CI, 0404–0.956) were less likely to be in the high subgroup; women with poorer performance status (OR, 1.653; 95% CI, 1.188–2.299) were more likely to be in the high subgroup. Women in the high subgroup reported lower QOL (P = .000) and greater interference with functioning (P = .000). Conclusions Two subgroups of women with distinct symptom severity were identified. Implications for Practice Identification of women at risk for high symptoms during survivorship may allow clinicians to intensify their approach to symptom management, thereby mitigating poor outcomes and impairments in QOL.
Recent advances in polymer scaffolds for biomedical applications

Abstract The review provides insights into current advancements in electrospinning-assisted manufacturing for optimally designing biomedical devices for their prospective applications in tissue engineering, wound healing, drug delivery, sensing, and enzyme immobilization, and others. Further, the evolution of electrospinning-based hybrid biomedical devices using a combined approach of 3 D printing and/or film casting/molding, to design dimensionally stable membranes/micro-nanofibrous assemblies/patches/porous surfaces, etc. is reported. The influence of various electrospinning parameters, polymeric material, testing environment, and other allied factors on the morphological and physico-mechanical properties of electrospun (nano-/micro-fibrous) mats (EMs) and fibrous assemblies have been compiled and critically discussed. The spectrum of operational research and statistical approaches that are now being adopted for efficient optimization of electrospinning process parameters so as to obtain the desired response (physical and structural attributes) has prospectively been looked into. Further, the present review summarizes some current limitations and future perspectives for modeling architecturally novel hybrid 3 D/selectively textured structural assemblies, such as biocompatible, non-toxic, and bioresorbable mats/scaffolds/membranes/patches with apt mechanical stability, as biological substrates for various regenerative and non-regenerative therapeutic devices. Graphical Abstract