Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does the inclusion of vehicle impoundment in provincial short-term administrative driver’s license suspension programs reduce total and alcohol-related fatal collisions in Canada?

Abstract Objectives: To determine (1) whether the implementation of vehicle impoundment as part of provincial short-term administrative driver licensing suspension (ADLS) programs significantly reduced total and alcohol-related collision fatalities, and (2) if provinces with vehicle impoundment as part of their short-term ADLS programs see greater reductions in total and alcohol-related fatal collisions when compared to provinces without a vehicle impoundment law. Methods: Data on monthly total and alcohol-related fatal collisions from January 2005 to December 2016 are drawn from British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), Saskatchewan (SK), Manitoba (MB) and Ontario (ON). Changepoint time series analysis of fatal crashes is employed to detect within-province differences after implementing short-term impoundment programs, and between province differences comparing provinces with short-term impoundment programs (BC, introduced October 2010; AB, introduced July 2012; and SK, introduced July 2014) and those without (ON and MB). Outcome measures are the monthly per capita total and alcohol-related fatal collisions. Results: A significant reduction in per-capita alcohol-related fatal crashes was observed in British Columbia (−47.4%) in the period following the adoption of vehicle impoundment in their short-term ADLS. A significant decrease was also observed in Alberta (−37.5%), though this trend began prior to policy change; no significant effect was observed in per capita alcohol-related fatal crashes rates in Saskatchewan (−6.1%) in the two years following the introduction of vehicle impoundment. Ontario and Manitoba, two provinces without mandatory vehicle impoundment laws, also experienced significant reductions in per-capita alcohol-related fatal crashes between 2005 and 2016 (−36.4% and −35%, respectively). Conclusions: While mandatory vehicle impoundment programs for driving in the “warn” range (0.05%–0.08% BAC) have shown success in reducing fatal crashes in British Columbia, similar reductions in two other provinces with short-term vehicle impoundment were not observed. Moreover, large reductions in fatal crashes were observed in two provinces without vehicle impoundment as part of their short-term ADLS programs. Collectively, these findings suggest that vehicle impoundment, alone, has limited impact on fatal crash rates and that other factors help to explain the observed trends. Further analysis of new vehicle impoundment programs is warranted.
A Novel Approach to Developing a Discordance Index for Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease.

BACKGROUND Older adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD)-discordant conditions (comorbid conditions with treatment recommendations that potentially complicate CKD management) have greater risk of hospitalization and death. Our goal was to develop a CKD-Discordance Index using electronic health records to improve recognition of discordance. METHODS This retrospective cohort included Kaiser Permanente Southern California patients aged ≥65 years with incident CKD (N=30,932). To guide inclusion of conditions in the Index and weight each condition, we first developed a prediction model for 1-year hospitalization risk using Cox regression. Points were assigned proportional to regression coefficients derived from the model. Next, the CKD-Discordance Index was calculated as an individual's total points divided by the maximum possible discordance points. The association between CKD-Discordance Index and hospitalizations, ED visits, and mortality was accessed using multivariable adjusted Cox regression. RESULTS Overall, mean (SD) age was 77.9 (7.6), 55% were female, 59.3% were white, and 32% (n=9,869) had ≥1 hospitalization during 1 year of follow-up. The CKD-Discordance Index included the following: heart failure, gastroesophageal reflux disease/peptic ulcer disease, osteoarthritis, dementia, depression, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/asthma, and having ≥4 prescribers. Compared to those with a CKD-Discordance Index of 0, adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) for hospitalization were 1.39 (1.27-1.51) and 1.81 (1.64-2.01) for those with a CKD-Discordance Index of 0.001-0.24 and ≥0.25, respectively (Ptrend<0.001). A graded pattern of risk was seen for ED visits and all-cause mortality. CONCLUSION A data-driven approach identified CKD-discordant indicators for a CKD-Discordance Index. Higher CKD-Discordance Index was associated with healthcare utilization and mortality.
SINC: a scale-invariant deep-neural-network classifier for bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data

MOTIVATION Scaling by sequencing depth is usually the first step of analysis of bulk or single-cell RNA-seq data, but estimating sequencing depth accurately can be difficult, especially for single-cell data, risking the validity of downstream analysis. It is thus of interest to eliminate the use of sequencing depth and analyze the original count data directly. RESULTS We call an analysis method "scale-invariant" (SI) if it gives the same result under different estimates of sequencing depth and hence can use the original count data without scaling. For the problem of classifying samples into pre-specified classes, such as normal versus cancerous, we develop a deep-neural-network based SI classifier named SINC. On nine bulk and single-cell datasets, the classification accuracy of SINC is better than or competitive to the best of eight other classifiers. SINC is easier to use and more reliable on data where proper sequencing depth is hard to determine. AVAILABILITY This source code of SINC is available at https://www.nd. edu/~jli9/SINC.zip. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage, transpapillary drainage, or percutaneous drainage in high risk acute cholecystitis patients: a systematic review and comparative meta-analysis

Abstract Background Endoscopic transpapillary gallbladder drainage (ETGBD) and endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage (EUSGBD) are alternatives to percutaneous gallbladder drainage (PCGBD) for patients with acute cholecystitis who are unfit for surgery. Data comparing these modalities are limited and have reported conflicting results. Methods We searched multiple databases from inception to May 2019 to identify studies that reported on ETGBD, EUSGBD, and PCGBD in the management of acute cholecystitis in patients with a high surgical risk. Aims were to compare the pooled rates of technical success, clinical success, adverse events, and disease recurrence. Results 1223 patients (22 studies), 557 patients (14 studies), and 13 351 patients (46 studies) were treated by ETGBD, EUSGBD, and PCGBD, respectively. The pooled technical and clinical successes were: ETGBD 83 % (95 % confidence interval [CI] 80.1 – 85.5, I 2 = 29) and 88.1 % (95 %CI 83.6 – 91.4, I 2 = 50), respectively; EUSGBD 95.3 % (95 %CI 92.8 – 96.9, I 2 = 0) and 96.7 % (95 %CI 94.0 – 98.2, I 2 = 0), respectively; and PCGBD 98.7 % (95 %CI 98.0 – 99.1, I 2 = 0) and 89.3 % (95 %CI 86.6 – 91.5, I 2 = 84), respectively. Clinical success with EUSGBD was significantly superior to the other approaches. All complications were comparable between the groups. Pancreatitis occurred with ETGBD in 5.1 % (95 %CI 3.5 – 7.3), whereas bleeding and perforation occurred with EUSGBD in 4.3 % (95 %CI 2.7 – 6.8) and 3.7 % (95 %CI 2.3 – 6.0), respectively. Stent migration occurred with PCGBD in 7.4 % (95 %CI 5.5 – 10.0). Conclusion EUSGBD demonstrated better clinical success than ETGBD and PCGBD in the management of acute cholecystitis patients at high surgical risk.
Cannabidiol prevents LPS‐induced microglial inflammation by inhibiting ROS/NF‐κB‐dependent signaling and glucose consumption

We used mouse microglial cells in culture activated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 10 ng/ml) to study the anti‐inflammatory potential of cannabidiol (CBD), the major nonpsychoactive component of cannabis. Under LPS stimulation, CBD (1–10 μM) potently inhibited the release of prototypical proinflammatory cytokines (TNF‐α and IL‐1β) and that of glutamate, a noncytokine mediator of inflammation. The effects of CBD were predominantly receptor‐independent and only marginally blunted by blockade of CB2 receptors. We established that CBD inhibited a mechanism involving, sequentially, NADPH oxidase‐mediated ROS production and NF‐κB‐dependent signaling events. In line with these observations, active concentrations of CBD demonstrated an intrinsic free‐radical scavenging capacity in the cell‐free DPPH assay. Of interest, CBD also prevented the rise in glucose uptake observed in microglial cells challenged with LPS, as did the inhibitor of NADPH oxidase apocynin and the inhibitor of IκB kinase‐2, TPCA‐1. This indicated that the capacity of CBD to prevent glucose uptake also contributed to its anti‐inflammatory activity. Supporting this view, the glycolytic inhibitor 2‐deoxy‐d‐glucose (2‐DG) mimicked the antioxidant/immunosuppressive effects of CBD. Interestingly, CBD and 2‐DG, as well as apocynin and TPCA‐1 caused a reduction in glucose‐derived NADPH, a cofactor required for NADPH oxidase activation and ROS generation. These different observations suggest that CBD exerts its anti‐inflammatory effects towards microglia through an intrinsic antioxidant effect, which is amplified through inhibition of glucose‐dependent NADPH synthesis. These results also further confirm that CBD may have therapeutic utility in conditions where neuroinflammatory processes are prominent.
Functional models in genome-wide selection

The development of sequencing technologies has enabled the discovery of markers that are abundantly distributed over the whole genome. Knowledge about the marker locations in reference genomes provides further insights in the search for causal regions and the prediction of genomic values. The present study proposes a Bayesian functional approach for incorporating the marker locations into genomic analysis using stochastic methods to search causal regions and predict genotypic values. For this, three scenarios were analyzed: F2 population with 300 individuals and three different heritability levels (0.2, 0.5, and 0.8), along with 12,150 SNP markers that were distributed through ten linkage groups; F∞ populations with 320 individuals and three different heritability levels (0.2, 0.5, and 0.8), along with 10,020 SNP markers that were distributed through ten linkage groups; and data related to Eucalyptus spp. to measure the model performance in a real LD setting, with 611 individuals whose phenotypes were simulated from QTLs distributed through a panel of 36,812 SNPs with known positions. The performance of the proposed method was compared with those of other genome selection models, namely, RR-BLUP, Bayes B and Bayesian Lasso. The Bayesian functional model presented higher or similar predictive ability when compared with those classical regressions methods in simulated and real scenarios on different LD structures. In general, the Bayesian functional model also achieved higher computational efficiency, using 12 SNPs per MCMC round. The model was efficient in the identification of causal regions and showed high flexibility of analysis, as it is easily adaptable to any genomic selection model.
Minds Under Siege: Cognitive Signatures of Poverty and Trauma in Refugee and Non‐Refugee Adolescents

The impacts of war and displacement on executive function (EF)—what we might call the cognitive signatures of minds under siege—are little known. We surveyed a gender‐balanced sample of 12‐ to 18‐year‐old Syrian refugees (n = 240) and Jordanian non‐refugees (n = 210) living in Jordan. We examined the relative contributions of poverty, trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, and insecurity to variance in inhibitory control and working memory. We observed associations between poverty and WM, suggesting that, even in populations exposed to substantial violence and fear, poverty is a specific pathway to WM deficit. We did not, however, find associations between EFs and exposures to trauma. Careful distinction between childhood adversities may illuminate which neurocognitive pathways matter for measures of cognitive function.
Retinoic acid and/or progesterone differentiate mouse induced pluripotent stem cells into male germ cells in vitro

Numerous reagents were employed for differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into male germ cells; however, the induction procedure was ineffective. The aim of this study was to improve the in vitro differentiation of mice iPSCs (miPSCs) into male germ cells with retinoic acid (RA) and progesterone (P). miPSCs were differentiated to embryoid bodies (EBs) in suspension with RA with or without progesterone for 0, 4, and 7 days. Then, the expression of certain genes at different stages of male germ cell development including Ddx4 (pre meiosis), Stra8 (meiosis), AKAP3 (post meiosis), and Mvh protein was examined in RNA and/or protein levels by real‐time polymerase chain reaction or flow cytometry, respectively. The Stra8 gene expression increased in the RA groups on all days. But, expression of this gene declined in RA + P groups. In addition, an increased expression of Ddx4 gene was observed on day 0 in the P group. Also, a significant upregulation was observed in the expression of AKAP3 gene in the RA + P group on days 0 and 4. However, gene expression decreased in P and RA groups on day 7. The expression of Mvh protein significantly increased in the RA group on day 7. The Mvh expression was also enhanced in the P group on day 4, but it decreased on day 7, while this protein upregulated on day 0 and 7 in the RA + P group. The miPSCs have the capacity for in vitro differentiation into male germ cells by RA and/or progesterone. However, the effects of these inducers depend on the type of combination and an effective time.
Opening the black box: Examining the nomological network of work ability and its role in organizational research.

The aging of the industrialized workforce has spurred research on how to support people working later in life. Within this context, the concept of work ability, or an employee's ability to continue working in their job, has been introduced as an explanatory mechanism for understanding employee disability, wellbeing, attitudes, and behavior. However, the work ability concept has evolved across disparate literatures with multiple, content-diverse measures and often with little consideration of theory or examination of its nomological network. Using the job demands-resources model as a framework, we present a meta-analytic summary (k = 247; N = 312,987) of work ability's correlates and potential moderators of these relationships. Taken together, we found consistent negative relationships between job demands and work ability, and consistent positive relationships between job and personal resources and work ability. Work ability was also associated with important job outcomes including job attitudes and behaviors such as absenteeism and retirement. Measures of work ability that include both perceived and objective components generally showed stronger relationships than did exclusively perceptual measures, and occupation type was a significant moderator of certain relations between work ability and its correlates. We supplemented this meta-analysis with a primary data collection to examine differences between perceived work ability and the conceptually similar variables of self-efficacy and perceived fit, demonstrating that perceived work ability can explain incremental variance in job- and health-related variables. Our discussion focuses on the value of the work ability construct for both research and practice and future directions for work ability research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Health Capability and Psychological Effects of Regular Exercise on Adults: Middle-Aged and Older

This study sought to determine whether there is any difference on participation in regular exercise between middle-aged and older adults and to determine whether the benefits of regular exercise differed between middle-aged and older adults in terms of health capability, mood, or anxiety symptoms and life-satisfaction level. The results indicated that older adults engaged in regular exercise more frequently than middle-aged adults. In addition, exercise participants among middle-aged adults had the better health capabilities, lower depression and anxiety symptoms, and higher life-satisfaction level than nonparticipants. On the other hands, older adults tended to be negatively associated with depression and anxiety symptoms and be positively correlated with life-satisfaction level than middle-aged adults even if middle-aged adults had the better health capabilities. These findings might be beneficial to provide appropriate exercise programs, to prevent and minimize the negative symptoms of anxiety and depression, and to facilitate the life-satisfaction level.
Predicting infant–father attachment: the role of pre- and postnatal triadic family alliance and paternal testosterone levels

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study examined whether prenatal family alliance and prenatal paternal testosterone levels predicted infant–mother and infant–father attachment security and whether this association was mediated by postnatal family alliance and postnatal paternal testosterone levels. In 105 couples expecting their first child, family alliance was assessed in the third trimester of pregnancy with the prenatal version of the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP). Family alliance was measured again 6 months postnatally, using the LTP. Fathers provided testosterone samples prenatally and at 6 months postnatally. Infant–parent attachment was assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) at 24 months. Results indicated an increase in paternal testosterone levels from the pre- to the postnatal period. A more positive prenatal family alliance predicted higher infant–father attachment security at 24 months, but not infant–mother attachment security. The association between prenatal family alliance and attachment security was not mediated by postnatal family alliance or postnatal paternal testosterone levels. This study highlights the significance of prenatal family relations, and the need to consider in research and practice the divergent effects of prenatal family alliance patterns on the emerging infant–mother and infant–father attachment relationships. The underlying hormonal mechanisms during the transition to fatherhood are important targets for future research.
Applying dignity of risk principles to improve quality of life for vulnerable persons

Freedom of choice impacts quality of life. Expressed through dignity of risk (DoR), nursing home (NH) residents should be afforded the dignity to take risks to enhance well‐being. How DoR is understood and implemented in the context of aged care remains largely unknown. This study explored the meaning and the barriers and facilitators to applying DoR to NH residents.
Patients’ serum protein electrophoresis with normal serum total protein level

Serum protein electrophoresis pattern can assist in diagnosis of liver disease, hematological disorders, renal disorders and gastrointestinal disease. Measurement of total protein level in the serum cannot detect any disorders in patient with normal limit of serum total protein level. The aim of this study; was to evaluate the serum protein electrophoresis pattern in patient with normal limits of serum protein level. This research was carried out by descriptive retrospective study using the electrophoresis data from patients’ medical record at the Clinical Pathology Department, Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung. The data of serum electrophoresis (by Sebia gel electrophoresis) were grouped based on disease or disorders, and confirmed with the diagnosis derived from patient’s medical record. Inclusion criteria of samples if ; the electrophoresis data were available, serum total protein level within normal limits (6.4–8.3 mg/dL), and the data of electrophoresis taken from medical record were taken from August 2006 until August 2008. The result found so far was, there were 240 data of electrophoresis from patients with serum protein level within normal limits (6.4–8.3 mg/dL). the interpretation of electrophoresis consist of 1) inflammation (149 patients; 62.2% ; sensitivity 83.7%, specificity 86,5%) 2) Cirrhosis (46 patients ; 19.2% ; sensitivity 87.5% ; specificity 88.4%) 3) Nephritic syndrome (15 patients ; 6.2%; sensitivity 53%; specificity 96.9% 4) Monoclonal gammophaty (15 patients(6.2% ; sensitivity 80% ; specificity 98.7%) 5) Normal pattern in 15 patient (6.2%). This study found abnormal serum protein electrophoresis pattern in the condition of inflammation, Cirrhosis, Nephritic Syndrome, and Monoclonal gammophaty. It can be concluded that many disorders could be detected in patient with serum protein level within normal limits such as inflammation, cirrhosis, nephritis syndrome and monoclonal gammophaty by abnormal electrophoresis pattern
Regulation of large and small G proteins by ubiquitination

Many sensory and chemical signal inputs are transmitted by intracellular GTP-binding (G) proteins. G proteins make up two major subfamilies: “large” G proteins comprising three subunits and “small” G proteins, such as the proto-oncogene product RAS, which contains a single subunit. Members of both subfamilies are regulated by post-translational modifications, including lipidation, proteolysis, and carboxyl methylation. Emerging studies have shown that these proteins are also modified by ubiquitination. Much of our current understanding of this post-translational modification comes from investigations of the large G-protein α subunit from yeast (Gpa1) and the three RAS isotypes in humans, NRAS, KRAS, and HRAS. Gα undergoes both mono- and polyubiquitination, and these modifications have distinct consequences for determining the sites and mechanisms of its degradation. Genetic and biochemical reconstitution studies have revealed the enzymes and binding partners required for addition and removal of ubiquitin, as well as the delivery and destruction of both the mono- and polyubiquitinated forms of the G protein. Complementary studies of RAS have identified multiple ubiquitination sites, each having distinct consequences for binding to regulatory proteins, shuttling to and from the plasma membrane, and degradation. Here, we review what is currently known about these two well-studied examples, Gpa1 and the human RAS proteins, that have revealed additional mechanisms of signal regulation and dysregulation relevant to human physiology. We also compare and contrast the effects of G-protein ubiquitination with other post-translational modifications of these proteins.