Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term effects of childhood adversity on the subjective well-being of older adults in urban China: the mediating effect of elder abuse

Abstract Objectives Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have negative impacts on individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) in later life. This article investigates the relationships between the ACEs and SWB of Chinese older adults and examines how elder abuse victimization mediates the pathways in these relationships. Method We used retrospective cross-sectional survey data collected in Beijing, China, in 2019. The study sample consists of 1002 older adults aged 65 years and over. The survey measured individual types, number, and various categories of ACEs of older adults and their elder abuse victimization experiences, along with their SWB (i.e. depression and life satisfaction). We tested the potential mediating role of elder abuse victimization in the relationships between ACEs and SWB. Results After controlling for socio-demographic factors and self-rated health, the results suggest a full mediating effect of elder abuse on the relationship between both several individual types and multiple categories of ACEs (i.e. childhood victimization, the family’s economic difficulties, and a family member’s episodes of illness) and depression, in addition to a partial mediating effect of elder abuse between number of ACEs and depression. A full mediating effect of elder abuse was found in regard to the relationship between a family’s economic difficulties and life satisfaction. Conclusion This study provides evidence for a long-term impact of ACEs on the SWB of older adults in China. In analyzing and understanding elder abuse victimization as a pathway linking ACEs and SWB, we stress the importance of the prevention of interpersonal violence across the life course. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2022. 2040427 .
The impact of intellectual disability and sport expertise on cognitive and executive functions

Our aim was to identify the suitability of three assessment tools (i.e., Flanker test, Updating Word Span, and Color Trails Test) for future inclusion in the classification process of elite Paralympic athletes with intellectual disability and to assess the strength of the relation between Executive function (EF) and intelligence. Cognitive and EF assessments were performed on 59 participants, divided into four groups according to their cognitive level (with versus without intellectual disability) and sport expertise (athlete versus novice). Inhibition and working memory update skills were implicated in people with intellectual disability. For set-shifting, a more nuanced picture was observed. Strong associations between EF and intelligence was found in people with intellectual disability. Working memory updating and set-shifting are relevant EF skills to assess in the context of elite sport; however, culture-free alternatives for the Updating Word Span test are needed, and alternatives to the Color Trails Test, less reliant on literacy skills are required.
Effects of physical therapy with neuromuscular electrical stimulation in acute and late septic shock patients: A randomised crossover clinical trial

Background Patients with sepsis and immobility in the intensive care unit are associated with muscle weakness, and early mobilisation can counteract it. However, during septic shock, mobilisation is often delayed due to the severity of the illness. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) may be an alternative to mobilise these patients early. This study aims to identify whether NMES performed within the first 72 hours of septic shock diagnosis or later is safe from a metabolic perspective. Methods This is the analysis of two randomised controlled crossover studies. Patients with acute septic shock (within the first 72 hours of diagnosis) and sepsis and septic shock in the late phase (after 72 hours of diagnosis) were eligible. Patients were submitted in a random order to the intervention protocol (dorsal decubitus position with the lower limbs raised and NMES) and control (dorsal decubitus position with the lower limbs raised without NMES). The patients were allocated in group 1 (intervention and control) or group 2 (control and intervention) with a wash-out period of 4 to 6 hours. Metabolic variables were evaluated by indirect calorimetry. Results Sixteen patients were analysed in the acute septic shock study and 21 in the late sepsis/septic shock study. There were no significant differences between Oxygen Consumption (VO2) values in the acute phase of septic shock when the baseline period, intervention, and control protocols were compared (186.59 ± 46.10; 183.64 ± 41.39; 188.97 ± 44.88, p>0.05- expressed in mL/Kg/min). The same was observed when the VO2 values in the late phase were compared (224.22 ± 53.09; 226.20 ± 49.64; 226.79 ± 58.25, p>0.05). The other metabolic variables followed the same pattern, with no significant differences between the protocols. When metabolic variables were compared between acute to late phase, significant differences were observed (p<0.05). Conclusions As metabolic rates in septic shock patients had no increase during NMES, either in the first 72 hours of diagnosis or later, NMES can be considered safe from a metabolic viewpoint, even despite the higher metabolic demand in the acute phase of shock. Trial registration NCT03193164; NCT03815994. Registered on June 5, 2017; November 13, 2018 (clinicaltrials.gov/).
USING NEURAL NETWORK TO CONTROL STATCOM FOR IMPROVING TRANSIENT STABILITY

FACTS technology has considerable applications in power systems, such as; improving the steady state performance, damping the power system oscillations, controlling the power flow, and etc. STATCOM is one of the most important FACTS devices used in the parallel compensation, enhancing transient stability and etc. Since three phase fault is widespread in power systems, in this paper STATCOM is used to improve the transient stability of power system when three phase fault occurred. Neural Network has been used for adjusting the gain of the supplementary controller of STATCOM. The simulation performed in MATLAB / Simulink software. Simulation results showed when STATCOM combines with proposed Neural Network based supplementary controller; the transient stability of power system improves.
Current Status of Serum Insulin and C-Peptide Measurement in Clinical Laboratories: Experience from 94 Laboratories in China

Background Accurate measurements of serum insulin and C-peptide are needed for the therapy and classification of diabetes. This study investigated the status of serum insulin and C-peptide measurements in China by analyzing the results of five pooled serum samples measured in 94 laboratories. Methods Patient serum samples were pooled into five groups according to insulin and C-peptide concentrations and measured in 94 laboratories using different measurement systems. The inter- and intra-laboratory %CV as well as inter- and intra-measurement system %CV were calculated to assess the status of insulin and C-peptide measurements. To verify whether the disagreement between laboratories was due to different calibrators, as reported in previous studies, one low-level and one high-level sample extracted from the five pooled serum samples were used to recalibrate clinical measurement systems. Results The mean intra-laboratory, intra-measurement system, inter-laboratory, and inter-measurement system %CVs were 2.7%, 4.8%, 21.8%, and 22.4%, respectively, for insulin and 2.3%, 6.7%, 16.4%, and 24.5%, respectively, for C-peptide. The inter- and intra-laboratory %CVs for insulin decreased with increasing concentration. After recalibration with low- and high-level samples, the mean inter-measurement %CV decreased from 22.4% to 17.2% for insulin and from 24.5% to 5.7% for C-peptide. Conclusions The intra-laboratory and intra-measurement system imprecision values are satisfactory for serum insulin and C-peptide measurements. However, the results from laboratories using different measurement systems were not comparable, and there is still much work needed to achieve the standardization or harmonization of serum insulin and C-peptide measurements.
Repeatability and reproducibility of a handheld quantitative G6PD diagnostic

Background The introduction of novel short course treatment regimens for the radical cure of Plasmodium vivax requires reliable point-of-care diagnosis that can identify glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficient individuals. While deficient males can be identified using a qualitative diagnostic test, the genetic make-up of females requires a quantitative measurement. SD Biosensor (Republic of Korea) has developed a handheld quantitative G6PD diagnostic (STANDARD G6PD test), that has approximately 90% accuracy in field studies for identifying individuals with intermediate or severe deficiency. The device can only be considered for routine care if precision of the assay is high. Methods and findings Commercial lyophilised controls (ACS Analytics, USA) with high, intermediate, and low G6PD activities were assessed 20 times on 10 Biosensor devices and compared to spectrophotometry (Pointe Scientific, USA). Each device was then dispatched to one of 10 different laboratories with a standard set of the controls. Each control was tested 40 times at each laboratory by a single user and compared to spectrophotometry results. When tested at one site, the mean coefficient of variation (CV) was 0.111, 0.172 and 0.260 for high, intermediate, and low controls across all devices respectively; combined G6PD Biosensor readings correlated well with spectrophotometry (rs = 0.859, p<0.001). When tested in different laboratories, correlation was lower (rs = 0.604, p<0.001) and G6PD activity determined by Biosensor for the low and intermediate controls overlapped. The use of lyophilised human blood samples rather than fresh blood may have affected these findings. Biosensor G6PD readings between sites did not differ significantly (p = 0.436), whereas spectrophotometry readings differed markedly between sites (p<0.001). Conclusions Repeatability and inter-laboratory reproducibility of the Biosensor were good; though the device did not reliably discriminate between intermediate and low G6PD activities of the lyophilized specimens. Clinical studies are now required to assess the devices performance in practice.
Temporal transcriptomic analysis using TrendCatcher identifies early and persistent neutrophil activation in severe COVID-19

Studying temporal gene expression shifts during disease progression provides important insights into the biological mechanisms that distinguish adaptive and maladaptive responses. Existing tools for the analysis of time course transcriptomic data are not designed to optimally identify distinct temporal patterns when analyzing dynamic differentially expressed genes (DDEGs). Moreover, there are not enough methods to assess and visualize the temporal progression of biological pathways mapped from time course transcriptomic data sets. In this study, we developed an open-source R package TrendCatcher (https://github.com/jaleesr/TrendCatcher), which applies the smoothing spline ANOVA model and break point searching strategy, to identify and visualize distinct dynamic transcriptional gene signatures and biological processes from longitudinal data sets. We used TrendCatcher to perform a systematic temporal analysis of COVID-19 peripheral blood transcriptomes, including bulk and single-cell RNA-Seq time course data. TrendCatcher uncovered the early and persistent activation of neutrophils and coagulation pathways, as well as impaired type I IFN (IFN-I) signaling in circulating cells as a hallmark of patients who progressed to severe COVID-19, whereas no such patterns were identified in individuals receiving SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations or patients with mild COVID-19. These results underscore the importance of systematic temporal analysis to identify early biomarkers and possible pathogenic therapeutic targets.
Nivolumab as a bridge to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is associated with improved survival.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of nivolumab bridge to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) and toxicity profile. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study population consisted of relapsed/refractory cases of HL, who were treated with nivolumab for disease control and subsequently underwent allo-SCT at our institution. The control group consisted of HL patients who relapsed or refractory after multiple lines of therapy and underwent allo-SCT without nivolumab before transplantation as bridging therapy. RESULTS The incidence of acute and chronic graft vs. host disease (GVHD) was similar in both groups. The 100-day mortality occurred in 1 patient (10%) in the nivolumab group and 4 patients (16.7%) in the control group (p = 0.54). During 30-month follow-up, PFS was achieved in 60% of patients in the nivolumab group and 45.8% in the control group (p = 0.69). OS during 30-month follow-up was 80% in the nivolumab group and 41.7% in the control group, OS was superior in patients in the nivolumab group than in the control group (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Allo-SCT after bridging therapy with nivolumab provides a survival advantage over patients who underwent allo-SCT without the bridging. Therapy with nivolumab in combination with post-transplant cyclophosphamide does not appear to increase GVHD.
Aberrant translation regulated by METTL1/WDR4‐mediated tRNA N7‐methylguanosine modification drives head and neck squamous cell carcinoma progression

Cancer cells selectively promote the translation of oncogenic transcripts to stimulate cancer progression. Although growing evidence has revealed that tRNA modifications and related genes participate in this process, their roles in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remain largely uncharacterized. Here, we sought to investigate the function and mechanisms of the transfer RNA (tRNA) N7‐methylguanosine (m7G) modification in regulating the occurrence and development of HNSCC.
Critical Evaluation of Analytical Methods for the Determination of Anthropogenic Organic Contaminants in Edible Oils: An Overview of the Last Five Years

Abstract Anthropogenic contaminants, as pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and monochloropropanediols (MCPDs), have become important to be controlled in edible oils, since their regular occurrence. In fact, alerts from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in oils normally include these compounds. From a critical point of view, tools used to control these compounds in the last 5 years will be discussed, including sample preparation, analysis and current regulations. Extraction and analysis methods will be discussed next, being liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and QuEChERS, with or without clean-up step, as well as chromatographic methods coupled to different analyzers (mainly mass spectrometry), the most commonly used for extraction and analysis respectively. Occurrence in samples will also be reviewed and compared with the legal maximum residue limits (MRLs), observing that 4%, 20% and 60% of the analyzed samples exceed the legal limits for pesticides, MCPDs and PAHs respectively.
Failing Homonationalism? Gay Israeli Eurovision Geeks Negotiating Nationalism and Masculinity

ABSTRACT In 2019, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was hosted in Tel Aviv. Like other national contests such as the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, the ESC is a political event. For gay Israeli men who are ESC fans, this was an opportunity to become more integrated in the gay and national communities through homonormativity and homonational processes. However, as this case study shows, Israeli gay men ESC fans mostly rejected homonational masculinity in favor of a counterhegemonic identification, self-characterized as “ESC geeks. ” In that, they adhered to their marginal space and adopted a subversive queer perspective. Analytically, this means that homonationalism should not be considered a political form of normalizing power that is accessible to all gay men. Rather, it is a process that produces manifold, including queer practices, and it can no longer be seen as accessible to all LGBTs, or as something into which LGBTs are duped.
The Expert Delphi: Methodology and Application in 'Technology Foresight' (Das Expertinnen-Delphi: Methodische Grundlagen Und Anwendungsfeld 'Technology Foresight')

The Delphi method is basically a structured group process through which experts assess issues on which knowledge is uncertain and imperfect by nature. Delphi procedures are applied among others in the worldwide expanding field of Technology Foresight. The paper explains basic elements of the method and illustrates its use within the Austrian Technology Delphi. The innovative character of this application case is constituted by the following key features: a Foresight approach tailored to country-specific needs (selective, demand-, problem- and implementation-oriented); modification of the classical Delphi towards a 'Decision Delphi'; broader definition of relevant experts; and use of the 'Total Design Method' in the postal survey. The contribution elaborates on the translation of these design elements as well as on effects on response rates and also looks at wider impacts of the Delphi process.
Language Modulates Categorical Effects of Moving Color Objects

Categorical perception (CP) of color claims that colors from different linguistic categories are discriminated more easily than those from the same category, suggesting that language may interact with visual perception. However, controversy remains regarding whether CP effects derive from language. Recently, CP effects were found in a dynamic paradigm named multiple object tracking (MOT). Here, we investigated whether this kind of CP is dependent on online use of language. We found that the CP effects are reduced by verbal interference when the participants were required to memorize color words during tracking (Experiment 2) but not when the interference stimuli were digits (Experiment 1). Our study suggested that the CP effects in tracking depend partly on online use of language and that the difficulty of verbal interference tasks influences the capability of disrupting CP.
The Pan African Society of Cardiology and its commitment to clinical research training.

General Medicine & Global Health, Cape Heart Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Department of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Medicine, Bayero University Kano (BUK)/Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, Nigeria; Cape Heart Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; and Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
Leaf out time correlates with wood anatomy across large geographic scales and within local communities

Summary There is a long‐standing idea that the timing of leaf production in seasonally cold climates is linked to xylem anatomy, specifically vessel diameter because of the hydraulic requirements of expanding leaves. We tested for a relationship between the timing of leaf out and vessel diameter in 220 plants in three common gardens accounting for species’ phylogenetic relationships. We investigated how vessel diameter related to wood porosity, plant height and leaf length. We also used dye perfusion tests to determine whether plants relied on xylem produced during the previous growing season at the time of leaf out. In all three gardens, there was later leaf out in species with wider vessels. Ring‐porous species had the widest vessels, exhibited latest leaf out and relied less on xylem made during the previous growing season than diffuse‐porous species. Wood anatomy and leaf phenology did not exhibit a phylogenetic signal. The timing of leaf out is correlated with wood anatomy across species regardless of species’ geographic origin and phylogenetic relationships. This correlation could be a result of developmental and physiological links between leaves and wood or tied to a larger safety efficiency trade‐off.
Impact of Qigong exercises on the severity of the menopausal symptoms and health-related quality of life: A randomised controlled trial

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of a Qigong exercise programme on the severity of the menopausal symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of community-dwelling postmenopausal women. This was done by means of a randomised clinical trial with a sample of 125 women who were assigned to either a control (n = 62) or an experimental group (n = 63). The severity of their menopause-related symptoms and HRQoL were assessed through the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) respectively, before and after the intervention period. The main findings of our study reveal significant improvement in the severity of menopausal symptoms at the somatic, psychological, and urogenital levels, as well as in the total score of the MRS. Additionally, participants assigned to the Qigong group experienced improvement in the general health, physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, vitality, and mental health domains of the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey, as well as in its physical component and mental component summaries. We can therefore conclude that, among Spanish postmenopausal women, a twelve-week Qigong exercise programme has beneficial effects on the severity of menopausal symptoms and HRQoL. Highlights We have studied the effects of Qigong on menopause-related quality of life. Qigong is a useful tool in the management of the severity of menopausal symptoms. A 12-week Qigong programme showed benefits on health-related quality of life. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03989453.
Association of Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index with Survival Outcomes in Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) is a valuable simplified tool in prediction of nutrition-related complications. The objective of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association of GNRI with survival outcomes in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed and Embase databases from their inception to September 30, 2020. Observational studies that investigated the association of GNRI with survival outcomes in patients with ESCC were selected. The pooled adjusted hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the lowest vs. the highest GNRI level was used to summarize the association. Eight retrospective studies involving 1460 ESCC patients were identified and included. For the lowest vs. the highest GNRI category, the pooled HR was 1.92 (95% CI 1.59-2.31) for overall survival and 1.77 (95% CI 1.19–2.62) for cancer-specific survival, respectively. Lower GNRI is significantly associated with reduced overall survival and cancer-specific survival among ESCC patients. Determination of nutritional status using GNRI has potential to improve survival stratification in patients with ESCC. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01635581.2022. 2028865 .