Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preventing Chronic Disease

Introduction Vitamin D may modulate cardiometabolic disease risk, although the relationship has not been investigated in the general Canadian population. Understanding this relationship may inform public health strategies to curb the incidence of cardiometabolic disease in Canada and elsewhere. The objectives of this study were to examine the association between vitamin D and traditional and novel biomarkers of cardiometabolic disease and to describe the extent of the month-to-month fluctuations of vitamin D in the Canadian population. Methods We examined the association between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and a range of cardiometabolic risk biomarkers in participants (n = 1,928; age range, 16–79 years) from the Canadian Health Measures Survey. We conducted linear regressions analyses (adjusted for sex, waist circumference, physical activity, hormone use, and season) to assess the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and biomarkers of dysglycemia, dyslipidemia, and inflammation in the study population. We repeated analyses stratified by sex, and we evaluated monthly fluctuations in 25-hydroxyvitamin D in men and women. Results We observed wide month-to-month variations in 25-hydroxyvitamin D; fluctuations were more pronounced in men. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D was inversely associated with insulin, insulin resistance, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the ratio of total to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol but not with fasting glucose, apolipoprotein A1, apolipoprotein B, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, or homocysteine. This pattern varied between men and women. Conclusion Vitamin D may modulate various metabolic processes and may influence cardiometabolic disease risk in Canadians. These findings may have public health implications when recommending vitamin D for the prevention of cardiometabolic disease and related conditions. Introduction Cardiometabolic disease is characterized by dyslipidemia, dysglycemia, abdominal obesity, and hypertension (1). Novel biomarkers of risk, such as apolipoprotein (Apo) A1 and ApoB (2), and the inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, and homocysteine (3–5), have been proposed. Inadequate vitamin D status has been associated with elevated cardiometabolic disease risk, although results are inconsistent, as evidenced by recent meta-analyses pooling multiple study populations (6–8). These inconsistencies may result partly from differences in sample size, dosage, geographic location, and disease progression across studies. The prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] <50 nmol/L) among Canadians is high (9). This high prevalence of insufficiency may result from a decreased ability to produce vitamin D endogenously Page 1 of 9 Preventing Chronic Disease | Plasma Vitamin D and Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Dise.
Application of a high-throughput microcrystal delivery system to serial femtosecond crystallography

A new one-dimensional fixed-target sample delivery method combined with a real-time visual servo scan system has been developed for serial femtosecond crystallography. The developed high-throughput microcrystal delivery system shows significant improvements for microcrystal delivery efficiency at an optimal crystal stability and significantly reduced sample consumption to reveal protein structures utilizing X-ray free-electron laser pulses.
Ocular Trauma in Pediatric Age Group at a Tertiary Eye Care Center in Central Maharashtra, India

Purpose To study the demographic profile and visual outcome in pediatric ocular trauma. Study Design Prospective and interventional study. Setting Tertiary eye care center in central Maharashtra. Materials and Methods The study included all children of age group 15 years and younger sustaining eye injuries and presented to the outpatient department or emergency services. The duration of the study was 1 year. A detailed medical history was obtained. Demographic profile was noted. A detailed ocular examination included visual acuity, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, and fundus examination. All patients were followed up to 6 months. Results Out of 350 children examined, 66 (18.9%) had ocular trauma. The mean age at presentation was 8.33 ± 4.03 years. Children aged 6–10 years (39.3%) were most commonly affected followed by children from 11 to 15 years (36.1%). There were no significant differences between rural (54.1%) and urban (45.9%) children. Most (63.9%) had open and 24.6% had closed globe injuries. Perforating injuries to the cornea (n=29, 47.5%) was the most common injury. Sports-related injuries were common (n= 18) followed by wooden stick- (n = 14) and firecracker-related (n = 11) injuries. In the open and closed globe injuries, 36 (92.3%) and 5 (33.3%) patients, respectively, required immediate surgical intervention. Conclusion Sports-related activities were a common cause of ocular trauma in the pediatric age group in the central region of Maharashtra. We propose setting of rapid action ocular trauma team to prevent blindness occurring due to trauma.
Improving the Detection of Cholangiocarcinoma: In vitro MRI-Based Study Using Local Coils and T2 Mapping

Aim Cholangiocarcinoma is endemic in southeast Asia, generally developing from liver fluke infestation. However, diagnostic imaging of early-stage disease is challenging. The aim of this work is to investigate relaxometry (specifically, T2 mapping) as a method of exploiting the higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of internal coils for improved reception of magnetic resonance signals, despite their non-uniform sensitivity. Methods Ex vivo T2 mapping was carried out at 3T on fixed resection specimens from Thai cholangiocarcinoma patients using an mGRASE sequence and an endoscope coil based on a thin-film magneto-inductive waveguide and designed ultimately for internal use. Results Disease-induced changes including granulomatous inflammation, intraepithelial neoplasia and intraductal tumours were correlated with histopathology, and relaxation data were compared with mono- and bi-exponential models of T2 relaxation. An approximately 10-fold local advantage in SNR compared to a 16-element torso coil was demonstrated using the endoscope coil, and improved tissue differentiation was obtained without contrast agents. Conclusion The performance advantage above follows directly from the inverse relation between the component of the standard deviation of T2 due to thermal noise and the SNR, and offers an effective method of exploiting the SNR advantage of internal coils. No correction is required, avoiding the need for tracking, relaxing constraints on coil and slice orientation and providing rapid visualization.
Cardiac MR segmentation based on sequence propagation by deep learning

Accurate segmentation of myocardial in cardiac MRI (magnetic resonance image) is key to effective rapid diagnosis and quantitative pathology analysis. However, a low-quality CMR (cardiac magnetic resonance) image with a large amount of noise makes it extremely difficult to accurately and quickly manually segment the myocardial. In this paper, we propose a method for CMR segmentation based on U-Net and combined with image sequence information. The method can effectively segment from the top slice to the bottom slice of the CMR. During training, each input slice depends on the slice below it. In other words, the predicted segmentation result depends on the existing segmentation label of the previous slice. 3D sequence information is fully utilized. Our method was validated on the ACDC dataset, which included CMR images of 100 patients (1700 2D MRI). Experimental results show that our method can segment the myocardial quickly and efficiently and is better than the current state-of-the-art methods. When evaluating 340 CMR image, our model yielded an average dice score of 85.02 ± 0.15, which is much higher than the existing classical segmentation method(Unet, Dice score = 0.78 ± 0.3).
Association of growth-differentiation factor-15 with the number of circulating proangiogenic endothelial progenitor cells in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

The objective: to investigate the relationship between levels of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) and circulating number of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) with angiopoietin phenotypes: CD34+CD14+CD309+, and CD34+CD14+CD309+Tie2+ in patients with type 2 DM. Methods: The study was retrospectively involved 76 patients with type 2 DM aged 38 to 55 years and 30 healthy volunteers. Data collection included demographic and anthropometric information, hemodynamic performances and biomarkers of the diseases. Flow cytometry was used to determine EPCs' populations. Results: The levels of GDF-15 in peripheral blood of diabetics associated with age (r = 0.31, P = 0.044), high-sensitive C-reactive protein [hs-CRP] (r = 0.40, P = 0.001), smoking (r = 0.38, P = 0.001), body mass index [BMI] (r = 0.34, P = 0.001), LDL cholesterol (r = 0.28, P = 0.001), glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c] (r = -0.28, P = 0.001), number of CV risk factors (r = 0.26, P = 0.001). In univariate logistic regression analysis we found that level of GDF-15 ≥ 618 pg/mL, hs-CRP ≥7.12 mg/L, HbA1c ≥6.4%, fasting glucose ≥6.7 mmol/L, and BMI ≥27.3 kg/m2 predicted deficiency of both angiopoetic phenotypes of EPCs. In multivariate logistic regression model GDF-15 ≥618 pg/mL demonstrated the best odds ratio values for declining of EPCs in diabetics in comparison with other predictors including BMI, HbA1c and hs-CRP. Conclusion: GDF-15 was remarkably evaluated in type 2 DM population to healthy volunteers, and it was an independent factor that contributes to mobilization and probably proliferation of endothelial precursors with high angiopoetic activity.
The Impact of Frozen Tissue And Molecular Collections on Natural History Museum Collections

This paper examines the impact of frozen tissue and molecular collections on traditional natural history museum collections. This was carried out by an examination of current literature, by talking to people who work with frozen tissue and molecular collections and by input of my own views as a curator of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) at The Natural History Museum, London. The first part deals with definitions of natural history museum collections and what they are used for. Then there is an examination of the issues surrounding the storage facilities for tissues and molecules, deposition of molecular material and the suitability of current and future museum specimens for molecular work. A large part of the future of systematics and taxonomy lie with molecular studies. As one of the main purposes of natural history museums is the study of systematics and taxonomy then natural history museums have to embrace frozen tissue and molecular collections to survive. I conclude that molecular collections are an important part of the future of natural history collections.
Filter-Membrane-Based Ultrafiltration Coupled with Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Potential Differentiation of Benign and Malignant Thyroid Tumors from Blood Plasma

Objective The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance and feasibility of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy coupled with a filter membrane and advanced multivariate data analysis on identifying and differentiating benign and malignant thyroid tumors from blood plasma. Patients and Methods We proposed a membrane filter SERS technology for the differentiation between benign thyroid tumor and thyroid cancer. That is to say, by using filter membranes with optimal pore size, the blood plasma samples from thyroid tumor patients were pretreated with the macromolecular proteins being filtered out prior to SERS measurement. The SERS spectra of blood plasma ultrafiltrate obtained using filter membranes from 102 patients with thyroid tumors (70 thyroid cancers and 32 benign thyroid tumors) were then analyzed and compared. Two multivariate statistical analyses, principal component analysis-linear discriminate analysis (PCA-LDA) and Lasso-partial least squares-discriminant analysis (Lasso-PLS-DA), were performed on the SERS spectral data after background subtraction and normalization, as well as the first derivative processing, to analyze and compare the differential diagnosis of benign thyroid tumors and thyroid cancer. Results SERS measurements were performed in blood plasma acquired from a total of 102 thyroid tumor patients (benign thyroid tumor N=32; thyroid cancer N=70). By using filter membranes, the macromolecular proteins in blood plasma were effectively filtered out to yield high-quality SERS spectra. 84.3% discrimination accuracy between benign and malignant thyroid tumor was achieved using PCA-LDA method, while Lasso-PLS-DA yields a discrimination accuracy of 90.2%. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that SERS spectroscopy, coupled with ultrafiltration and multivariate analysis has the potential of providing a non-invasive, rapid, and objective detection and differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid tumors.
Iodine-Catalyzed Synthesis of 3-Arylthioindoles Employing a 1-Aryltriazene/CS2 Combination as a New Sulfenylation Source

A practical approach for the regioselective synthesis of 3-arylthioindoles has been accomplished using a combination of 1-aryltriazene/CS2 as a new sulfenylation source. The methodology employs molecular iodine as a catalyst and is compatible with a variety of structurally diverse reactants.
Modelling for policy: The five principles of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Modelling Consortium

1 Neglected Tropical Diseases, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 2 Blue Well 8, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 3 MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom, 4 Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, United States of America, 5 Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 6 London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, 7 London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research and Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
Cross‐species transmission of the newly identified coronavirus 2019‐nCoV

The current outbreak of viral pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, China, was caused by a novel coronavirus designated 2019‐nCoV by the World Health Organization, as determined by sequencing the viral RNA genome. Many initial patients were exposed to wildlife animals at the Huanan seafood wholesale market, where poultry, snake, bats, and other farm animals were also sold. To investigate possible virus reservoir, we have carried out comprehensive sequence analysis and comparison in conjunction with relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) bias among different animal species based on the 2019‐nCoV sequence. Results obtained from our analyses suggest that the 2019‐nCoV may appear to be a recombinant virus between the bat coronavirus and an origin‐unknown coronavirus. The recombination may occurred within the viral spike glycoprotein, which recognizes a cell surface receptor. Additionally, our findings suggest that 2019‐nCoV has most similar genetic information with bat coronovirus and most similar codon usage bias with snake. Taken together, our results suggest that homologous recombination may occur and contribute to the 2019‐nCoV cross‐species transmission.
Prevalence of Multi-Antibiotic Resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species obtained from a Tertiary Medical Institution in Oyo State, Nigeria

Background: The development of multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria, especially Gram-negative bacteria which are the major cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide, had been increasing. Escherichia coli and Klebsiella sp. had become more resistant to different classes of antibiotics, and the treatment of infections caused by these bacteria had developed into a challenge in both developed and developing countries. This study had determined the multi-antibiotic resistance (MAR) patterns of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella sp. isolated from clinical inpatient and outpatient samples. Method: The present study had used 50 E. coli and 48 Klebsiella sp. isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility test had been carried out by using disk diffusion method, and the interpretation of results of the zones of inhibition had accorded with Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The antibiotics used had included the following: streptomycin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, nitrofurantoin, amikacin, gentamicin, ofloxacin, cefepime, oxacillin, colistin sulfate, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, pefloxacine, and cloxacillin. Results: E. coli and K. pneumoniae had shown high-resistance patterns. E. coli had exhibited high resistance against cloxacillin (96%), oxacillin (96%), erythromycin (88%), and most especially streptomycin (98%). Similarly, K. pneumoniae had presented a high resistance to streptomycin (88%), cloxacillin (92%), oxacillin (92%), and colistin (92%). E. coli had presented the highest multidrug resistance with a MAR index of 1.00. A total of 17 E. coli isolates had shown resistance to the 14 antibiotics tested. Conclusion: E. coli and Klebsiella sp. in clinical isolates in outpatients and inpatients in Ibadan, Western Nigeria had demonstrated high antimicrobial resistance. Thus, such condition should be considered a major public health concern, and measures must be taken to establish the sources and drivers of this problem.
User Selection and Resource Allocation Algorithms for Multicarrier NOMA Systems on Downlink Beamforming

In this paper, we propose user grouping, subcarrier allocation, and bit allocation schemes in multicarrier nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems on downlink beamforming to reduce the total transmit power while considering the data-rate and the error-rate constraints of practical modulation types. Power control is also considered. In this system, each subcarrier can be assigned to multiple users for data transmission. Each subcarrier is allocated to a cluster that contains groups of two users for data transmission. A subset of subcarriers is assigned to the same cluster for sharing. The system is based on orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), in which a primary user (PU) is more important than a secondary user, and we ensure that all assigned subcarriers transmit data to the PU in the system. In the proposed schemes, the user-grouping operation is performed first and the subcarrier allocation along with the bit loading and power assignment are performed subsequently based on the user-grouping results. The simulation results obtained using the proposed schemes in conjunction with the nonorthogonal multiple access to allocate bits, subcarriers, and transmit power show that the proposed schemes outperform the conventional OFDMA system in terms of transmit power.
Behaviour Intention of Information Technology Students Using Youtube as Learning Resources

Information Technology learning content on Youtube is huge, both produced by individuals and companies, from professionals to academics, this greatly enriches the learning resources specifically in the field of information technology, from the many contents, what kind of content can be accepted by students majoring in information technology as a learning material which will ultimately increase the view of the video content and help students in their academics. This research was conducted to examine the factors that influence learning interest through Youtube media on Information Technology students at Bina Nusantara University. In addition, this research is to ascertain what factors influence directly or indirectly through YouTube media learning. This study uses a TAM model that aims to determine interest in using Youtube as a learning resource. Data samples were collected from 100 respondents of the Department of Information Technology at Bina Nusantara University. The results obtained from the installation of structural equation models in the sample indicate that behavioral intention is significantly influenced by attitude to use Youtube as a Learning Media for Information Technology. The overall findings show that students start with a motivation, then develop an attitude to use youtube, and driven by that, it’s then go to intention to use youtube as a learning media for Information Technology.
Dynamic Source Routing and optimized Link State Routing Performance in Multipath Fading Environment with Dynamic Network Topology

In wireless adhoc network, routing protocol plays an important role establish and to maintain end-to-end communication path. Effects of propagation environment and mobility of the nodes have to be considered in the routing protocol. In this research, we investigated proactive and reactive routing protocol performance in a more realistic environment with dynamic network topology scenarios. We proposed a more realistic model scenario which includes Rician and Rayleigh multipath fading. Performance evaluation using the proposed model has been performed for two routing protocols, Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) as reactive routing protocol and a proactive routing protocol optimized Link State Routing (OLSR). Considering the dynamic nature of the wireless adhoc network architecture, we focus on network topology change scenarios by increasing number of nodes and behavior of the node. The results show that OLSR give more advantages of higher throughput and smaller end-to-end delay compare to DSR in Rician and Rayleigh environments due to multipoint replying (MPR) strategy. However, DSR have more efficient in packet routing control with smaller normalized routing load. For dynamic topology change in Rician and Rayleigh fading, OLSR performs more stable and can gain higher performance than DSR.
Research of Efficiency of Multi-core Computers with Shared Memory

Efficient utilization of multi-core computers with shared memory depends on many factors. In this article efficiency of multi-core computers with shared memory is investigated. All computer cores execute either parallel streams of a single program, developed in accordance with the OpenMP API, or independent programs. There are no interactions between streams and independent programs. Both parallel and non-parallel (single stream) applications share memory where conflicts may occur. Models for determining the acceleration coefficients of a multi-core computer, analytical expressions which reflect the dependence of the acceleration coefficients on the number of cores, the properties performed the programs, cores and shared memory parameters and formulas for determine recommended numbers of cores for parallel applications in accordance with the OpenMP API are suggested. The main reason for the decrease in performance of multi-core computers with shared memory when parallelizing applications in accordance with the OpenMP API is the overload of shared memory.
Efficiency Improvement for Three-coil Cooperative Inductive Power Transfer Systems

A compensation method has been proposed for three-coil inductive power transfer (IPT) to realize cooperative transmission with load-independent output voltages. However, the existing configuration has not considered the mutual coupling between the primary coil and the secondary coil, and for that reason it suffers from an efficiency degradation when significant cross coupling exists. This paper proposes a novel configuration to improve the efficiency while maintaining the constant voltage functionality for the cooperative IPT system. EM simulations and experiments verify effectiveness of the proposed scheme.