Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘She convinced me’- partner involvement in choosing a high risk birth setting against medical advice in the Netherlands: A qualitative analysis

Home births in high risk pregnancies and unassisted childbirth seem to be increasing in the Netherlands. There is a lack of qualitative data on women’s partners’ involvement in these choices in the Dutch maternity care system, where integrated midwifery care and home birth are regular options in low risk pregnancies. The majority of available literature focuses on the women’s motivations, while the partner’s influence on these decisions is much less well understood. We aimed to examine partners’ involvement in the decision to birth outside the system, in order to provide medical professionals with insight and recommendations regarding their interactions with these partners in the outpatient clinic. An exploratory qualitative research design with a constructivist approach and a grounded theory method were used. In-depth interviews were performed with twenty-one partners on their involvement in the decision to go against medical advice in choosing a high risk childbirth setting. Open, axial and selective coding of the interview data was done in order to generate themes. Four main themes were found: 1) Talking it through, 2) A shared vision, 3) Defending our views, and 4) Doing it together. One overarching theme emerged that covered all other themes: ‘She convinced me’. These data show that the idea to choose a high risk birth setting almost invariably originated with the women, who did most of the research online, filtered the information and convinced the partners of the merit of their plans. Once the partners were convinced, they took a very active and supportive role in defending the plan to the outside world, as well as in preparing for the birth. Maternity care providers can use these findings in cases where there is a discrepancy between the wishes of the woman and the advice of the professional, so they can attempt to involve partners actively during consultations in pregnancy. That will ensure that partners also receive information on all options, risks and benefits of possible birth choices, and that they are truly in support of a final plan.
Methodologies for Detecting Environmentally-Induced DNA Damage and Repair.

Environmental DNA damaging agents continuously challenge the integrity of the genome through introducing a variety of DNA lesions. The DNA damage caused by environmental factors will lead to mutagenesis and subsequent carcinogenesis if they are not removed efficiently by repair pathways. Methods for detection of DNA damage and repair can be applied to identify, visualize and quantify the DNA damage formation and repair events, and they enable us to illustrate the molecular mechanisms of DNA damage formation, DNA repair pathways, mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. Ever since the discovery of double helix structure of DNA in 1953, a great number of methods have been developed to detect various types of DNA damage and repair. Rapid advances in sequencing technologies have facilitated the emergence of a variety of novel methods for detecting environmentally-induced DNA damage and repair at genome-wide scale during the last decade. In this review, we provide a historical overview of the development of various damage detection methods. We also highlight the current methodologies to detect DNA damage and repair, especially some next generation sequencing (NGS)-based methods. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers for Graft-Versus-Host Disease After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION A lack of testing options for the diagnosis and prognosis of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a barrier to clinical management. Studies that have investigated the role of blood proteins as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cGVHD were reviewed. LITERATURE SEARCH PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for articles published from January 1, 2000, to May 31, 2019. 660 articles were retrieved. DATA EVALUATION The authors appraised seven articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria to summarize identified blood protein biomarkers for cGVHD. SYNTHESIS Several blood proteins were identified as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Most of these proteins are thought to be key contributors in cGVHD pathogenesis and, therefore, could be ideal biomarkers to guide clinical management. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE These biomarkers could aid providers in diagnosing cGVHD, identifying patients at high risk for development of cGVHD, and initiating preemptive therapy.
Similarities Between Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising Exposure and Adolescent Use of Each of These Substances

Objective: Underage alcohol use is a major public health problem and substantial corporate money supports alcohol advertising across multiple venues. A diverse research literature demonstrates that adolescent exposure to such advertising is associated with drinking attitudes and behavior, but no scientific body has determined these associations to be causal. The objective of this study was to assess the association between alcohol advertising and teen drinking in the context of the “Analogy” criterion of the Bradford Hill criteria and consider a determination that the association between exposure to alcohol advertising and alcohol use is causal. Method: This study was a narrative review on the association between adolescent exposure to alcohol advertising and subsequent alcohol use in the context of domains utilized in the Surgeon General’s 2012 Report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, which concluded, “Advertising and promotional activities by tobacco companies have been shown to cause the onset and continuation of smoking among adolescents and young adults. ” Results: In every aspect compared (i.e., adolescent knowledge; attitudes toward; initiation of use; continuation of use; mediums of advertisement; the use of mascots, celebrities, and themes; and frequency and density of advertisements and retailers), the findings for both tobacco and alcohol and their association with exposure to advertising are analogous. Conclusions: Application of the Analogy criterion of the Bradford Hill criteria comparing alcohol and tobacco supports a judgment that the association between exposure to alcohol advertising and increased adolescent knowledge, attitudes toward, initiation, and continuation of alcohol use are causal in nature.
Death, sex, and sugars: variations in nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations in a sexually plastic tree.

PREMISE Environmental sex determination (ESD) is a rare sex determination system in which individuals may switch sex expression throughout their lifetimes in response to environmental factors. In sexually stable species, individuals usually bear more female flowers if the plants are larger, have greater access to limiting resources, or are in better condition. Research regarding sexually plastic species with ESD and how resources correlate with sex expression is limited. Furthermore, most research investigates resources at the population level, failing to account for resources available to individuals for growth, maintenance, or reproduction. METHODS Acer pensylvanicum is a species that is known to switch sex. Using twig samples collected during 2014-2016 in December and May, we analyzed resource status in the form of stored nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) and compared this with expressed sex. RESULTS We found that females had higher sugar concentrations than males. Furthermore, males changing expression to female had higher sugar concentrations during the prior winter than did males remaining male. We found that size was not a key predictor: neither male nor female-flowering individuals increased NSC concentrations with size. Dying female trees had high concentrations of NSCs throughout the dying process and only manifested reduced NSCs once dead. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study showing significant correlations between NSCs and sex expression in a plant species with ESD. These findings support the hypothesis that sex switching could be a consequence of increased resource availability and that the high female mortality of A. pensylvanicum populations is likely not a direct result of carbon starvation.
Contribution of COMT and BDNF Genotype and Expression to the Risk of Transition From Acute to Chronic Low Back Pain

Objectives: A number of factors, including heritability and the environment, contribute to risk of transition from acute low back pain to chronic low back pain (CLBP). The aim of this study was to (1) compare somatosensory function and pain ratings at low back pain (LBP) onset between the acute low back pain and CLBP conditions and (2) evaluate associations between BDNF and COMT polymorphisms and expression levels at LBP onset to acute and chronic pain burden and risk for transition to the chronic pain state. Methods: In this longitudinal study, 220 participants were enrolled following recent onset of LBP and data were collected until the LBP resolved or until the end of the study at 6 months. Forty-two participants’ pain resolved before 6 weeks from onset and 42 participants continued to have pain at 6 months. Patient-reported pain burden, somatosensory function (quantitative sensory testing), and blood samples were collected at each study visit. Results: CLBP is associated with greater pain burden and somatosensory hypersensitivity at the time of LBP onset. COMT rs4680 genotype (GG) was associated with acute cold pain sensitivity and with the risk for transition to CLBP while COMT expression was independently associated with risk for transition. Discussion: CLBP was characterized by higher reported pain burden and augmented hypersensitivity at LBP onset. COMT expression and genotype were associated with acute pain burden and likelihood of transition to CLBP.
SDN-based Handover Scheme in Cellular/IEEE 802.11p Hybrid Vehicular Networks †

With the arrival of 5G, the wireless network will be provided with abundant spectrum resources, massive data transmissions and low latency communications, which makes Vehicle-to-Everything applications possible. However, VANETs always accompany with frequent network topology changes due to the highly mobile feature of vehicles. As a result, the network performance will be affected by the frequent handover. In this paper, a seamless handover scheme is proposed where the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technologies are employed to adapt to the dynamic topology change in VANETs. The introduction of SDN provides a global view of network topology and centralized control, which enables a stable transmission layer connection when a handover takes place, so that the upper layer performance is not influenced by the network changes. By employing MEC server, the data are cached in advance before a handover happens, so that the vehicle can restore normal communication faster. In order to confirm the superiority of our proposal, computer simulations are conducted from different aspects. The results show that our proposal can significantly improve the network performance when a handover happens.
Esophageal Cancer Development: Crucial Clues Arising from the Extracellular Matrix

In the last years, the extracellular matrix (ECM) has been reported as playing a relevant role in esophageal cancer (EC) development, with this compartment being related to several aspects of EC genesis and progression. This sounds very interesting due to the complexity of this highly incident and lethal tumor, which takes the sixth position in mortality among all tumor types worldwide. The well-established increase in ECM stiffness, which is able to trigger mechanotransduction signaling, is capable of regulating several malignant behaviors by converting alteration in ECM mechanics into cytoplasmatic biochemical signals. In this sense, it has been shown that some molecules play a key role in these events, particularly the different collagen isoforms, as well as enzymes related to its turnover, such as lysyl oxidase (LOX) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). In fact, MMPs are not only involved in ECM stiffness, but also in other events related to ECM homeostasis, which includes ECM remodeling. Therefore, the crucial role of distinct MMPs isoform has already been reported, especially MMP-2, -3, -7, and -9, along EC development, thus strongly associating these proteins with the control of important cellular events during tumor progression, particularly in the process of invasion during metastasis establishment. In addition, by distinct mechanisms, a vast diversity of glycoproteins and proteoglycans, such as laminin, fibronectin, tenascin C, galectin, dermatan sulfate, and hyaluronic acid exert remarkable effects in esophageal malignant cells due to the activation of oncogenic signaling pathways mainly involved in cytoskeleton alterations during adhesion and migration processes. Finally, the wide spectrum of interactions potentially mediated by ECM may represent a singular intervention scenario in esophageal carcinogenesis natural history and, due to the scarce knowledge on the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in EC development, the growing body of evidence on ECM’s role along esophageal carcinogenesis might provide a solid base to improve its management in the future.
A low-complexity PPG pulse detection method for accurate estimation of the pulse rate variability (PRV) during sudden decreases in the signal amplitude

Background: One of the biggest obstacles to reliable pulse rate variability (PRV) analysis is the erroneous detection of photoplethysmographic (PPG) pulses. Among all the disturbances that may hinder pulse detection, the ripples appearing at the smooth segments of the PPG signal can become a serious problem when the amplitude of the signal decreases considerably. Objective: To present a low-complexity PPG pulse detection method for reliable PRV estimation under conditions in which a sudden decrease in the amplitude of the PPG signal can be expected. Approach: 2-min ECG and PPG data (sampling rate at 500 Hz) were obtained from thirty healthy subjects, who were asked to take a deep inspiration to provoke a sudden amplitude decrease (SAD) of the PPG signal. After introducing a new parameter denoted as C, through which it is possible to jump over the ripples hindering the accurate detection of the systolic peaks, 500 Hz-sampled PPG recordings were down-sampled (400, 300, 200 and 100 Hz) to investigate the effect of the sampling rate on pulse detection. For ECG recordings, automatic R-peak detection was performed by the Pan and Tompkins (PT) algorithm, whereas PPG pulse detection was performed by the well-known maximum of the first derivative (M1D) and the proposed method, once the C-value for best detection results on 500 Hz-sampled PPG recordings was found. The agreement between heart rate variability (HRV) and PRVs estimated from each pulse detection method was assessed and the correlation between HRV and PRV-derived indexes was computed for comparison. Main results: The proposed method can perform well on PPG-SAD segments, provided that the proper value of the parameter C is used. Moreover, a good agreement between HRV and PRV series, as well as lower relative errors and higher correlation coefficients between HRV and PRV indexes, were achieved by the proposed pulse detection method during SADs. Significance: Results show that the proposed method can dynamically adapt to circumstances in which a decrease in the amplitude of the PPG signal can be expected, providing continuous systolic peak detection and reliable PRV estimation under those conditions. However, more extensive testing under a wide range of conditions is needed to perform a more rigorous validation.
Identification and expression of main genes involved in non-target site resistance mechanisms to fenoxaprop-p-ethyl in Beckmannia syzigachne.

BACKGRAOUD Non-target-site resistance (NTSR) to herbicide is a serious threat to global agriculture. Though the metabolic resistance was the dominant mechanism of NTSR, the molecular mechanism is not yet well-characterized. This study aimed to uncover the likely metabolism-related genes in Beckmannia syzigachne (American sloughgrass) resistant to fenoxaprop-p-ethyl. RESULTS UPLC-MS-MS experiment showed that the resistant American sloughgrass biotype (R, SD-04-SS) showed enhanced degradation of this herbicide compared to the susceptible biotype (S, SD-12). R and S biotype were harvested at the 24 hour after fenoxaprop-p-ethyl treatment to conduct RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis to investigate the likely fenoxaprop-p-ethyl metabolic genes. The RNA-Seq libraries yield 417,969,980 clean reads. The de novo assembly generated 115,112 unigenes, in which 57906 unigenes were annotated. Finally, we identified 273 cytochrome P450s, 178 oxidase, 47 GSTs, 166 GTs and 180 ABC transporter genes to determine the likely fenoxaprop-p-ethyl metabolism-related genes in R biotype. Twelve overlapping up-regulated genes in R biotype (fenoxaprop-p-ethyl-treated R/non-treated R, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl-treated R/fenoxaprop-p-ethyl-treated S) were identified by RNA-Seq and the results were validated using qRT-PCR. Ten were identified as fenoxaprop-p-ethyl metabolism-related genes including three P450s (homology to CYP71D7, CYP99A2, and CYP71D10), one GSTs (homology to GSTF1), two GTs (homology to UGT90A1 and UGT83A1) and four oxidase genes. CONCLUSION This work demonstrates that the NTSR mechanism by means of enhanced detoxification of fenoxaprop-p-ethyl in American sloughgrass is very likely driven by the herbicide metabolism related genes. The RNA-Seq data presented here provide a valuable resource for understanding the molecular mechanism of NTSR in American sloughgrass. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in ovarian cancer: an update

Abstract In the treatment of advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC)-associated surgery and chemotherapy with intravenous platinum/taxane-based therapy most patients had early or late recurrence. Prevention of progression and recurrence is a major objective for the management of EOC. Recently, many clinical studies have evaluated the strategy with hyperthermic intraoperative intraperitoneal (IP) drug delivery. This is an update of hyperthermic intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in EOC and a view for future strategies. Until recently studies on HIPEC in patients with EOC were mostly retrospective and heterogeneous. Thanks to recent clinical trials, it is reasonable to conclude that surgical cytoreduction and HIPEC is an interesting approach in the management of EOC without increasing morbidity.
Object-Based Shadow Index via Illumination Intensity from High Resolution Satellite Images over Urban Areas

For multi-spectral remote sensing imagery, accurate shadow extraction is of great significance for overcoming the information loss caused by high buildings and the solar incidence angle in urban remote sensing. However, diverse solar illumination conditions, similarities between shadows, and other dark land features bring uncertainties and deviations to shadow extraction processes and results. In this paper, we classify shadows as either strong or weak based on the ratio between ambient light intensity and direct light intensity, and use the fractal net evolution approach (FNEA), which is a multi-scale segmentation method based on spectral and shape heterogeneity, to reduce the interference of salt and pepper noise and relieve the error of misdiagnosing land covers with high reflectivity in shaded regions as unshaded ones. Subsequently, an object-based shadow index (OSI) is presented according to the illumination intensities of different reflectance features, as well as using the normalized difference water index (NDWI) and near infrared (NIR) band to highlight shadows and eliminate water body interference. The data from three high-spatial-resolution satellites—WorldView-2 (WV-2), WorldView-3 (WV-3), and GaoFen-2 (GF-2)—were used to test the methods and verify the robustness of the OSI. The results show that the OSI index performed well regarding both strong and weak shadows with the user accuracy and the producer accuracy both above 90%, while the four other existing indexes that were tested were not effective at diverse solar illumination conditions. In addition, all the disturbances from water body were excluded well when using the OSI, except for the GF-2 data in weak shadows.
Understanding neighborhood effects to increase restoration success of woody plant communities.

Revegetation is the most common procedure in the restoration of disturbed areas; this practice usually aims at reconstructing plant communities that can last without further management. A low-cost strategy to assist these efforts is the application of ecological knowledge in the design of the restoration. Promoting ecological processes that enhance the functioning of the restored community could result in higher restoration success. Among these processes, plant-plant interactions, e.g., facilitation and competition, can play an important role, both facilitating or impeding the development of a self-sustaining plant community. Although these processes have been well-studied in nature, we rarely have sufficient knowledge about the whole plant community. To develop that knowledge, we leverage on a restoration experiment that took place after a mine toxic spill, where ~15,000 woody plants from 13 species were planted and geolocated. Species were planted in three mixtures mimicking natural communities found along soil moisture gradients (xerophyte, intermediate, and hydrophyte). Plantings also varied in density. ~2,600 plants were monitored for damage status, survival, and growth, for four years. We analyzed growth performance of six targeted species as a function of their damage status, planted mixture, and density. Growth was also assessed on the basis of neighboring plants, accounting for the species identity and distance to the focal plant. Results show that survival among planted species was relatively high and was mostly unaffected by mixture or density of the plantings. Only very damaged plants in one species experienced a decrease in survival with increasing density. Neighborhood effects on growth show positive, neutral, and negative interactions among the tested species; these also varied depending on the type of growth performance considered (height, crown area, diameter). The species-specific results ranged from positive to negative, varying between pair of species and growth performance metric. Results gathered from our neighborhood analyses on plant growth provide valuable information for the design of planting schemes that could enhance the performance of the target species. The methods developed can be applied to other systems and species. Given the potential impacts that facilitation and competition may have during revegetation, these interactions could be considered in restoration operations.