Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal Trend in Young-Onset Type 2 Diabetes—Macrovascular and Mortality Risk: Study of U.K. Primary Care Electronic Medical Records

OBJECTIVE To evaluate temporal prevalence trend, cardiometabolic risk factors, and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and all-cause mortality (ACM) in incident young- and usual-onset type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS From the U.K. primary care database, 370,854 people with a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes from 2000 to 2017 were identified. Analyses were conducted by age- group (18–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79 years) and high-/low-risk status without history of ASCVD at diagnosis, with subjects with two or more of current smoking, high systolic blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), or chronic kidney disease classified as high risk. RESULTS The proportion of people aged <50 years at diagnosis increased during 2000–2010 and then stabilized. The incidence rates of ASCVD and ACM declined in people aged ≥50 years but did not decrease in people <50 years. Compared with people aged ≥50 years, those aged 18–39 years at diagnosis had a higher proportion of obesity (71% obese) and higher HbA1c (8.6%), and 71% had high LDL-C, while only 18% were on cardioprotective therapy. Although 2% in this age-group had ASCVD at diagnosis, 23% were identified as high risk. In the 18–39-year age-group, the adjusted average years to ASCVD/ACM in high-risk individuals (9.1 years [95% CI 8.2–10.0]/9.3 years [8.1–10.4]) were similar to the years in those with low risk (10.0 years [9.5–10.5]/10.5 years [9.7–11.2]). However, individuals aged ≥50 years with high risk were likely to experience an ASCVD event 1.5–2 years earlier and death 1.1–1.5 years earlier compared with low-risk groups (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Unlike usual-onset, young-onset type 2 diabetes has similar cardiovascular and mortality risk irrespective of cardiometabolic risk factor status at diagnosis. The guidelines on the management of young-onset type 2 diabetes for intensive risk factor management and cardioprotective therapies need to be urgently reevaluated through prospective studies.
The Use of Fallows by Nesting Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax Females: Implications for Conservation in Mosaic Cereal Farmland

Summary. We describe the use of different agricultural habitat types by little bustard females nesting and rearing young chicks, based on observations gathered over a five-year period (2001–2005) in central Spain. The frequency of occurrence of nest or family locations within male lekking territories is also evaluated, as well as their association to habitat types preferred by females for nesting or chick rearing. A total of 28 nesting or brood locations (19 nests plus 9 families) were recorded over the study period. Habitat use did not differ significantly between nesting females and families. Both for the total sample (nests plus families) and the only-nests sample, the frequency of recorded locations differed between agricultural habitat types, with long-term fallows (older than two years) being the most frequently used. Young fallows (1–2 years old) were significantly more frequently used than cultivated habitats and ploughed-fields together, but less than long-term fallows in both samples. Nest plus family locations were more frequently found within estimated male territories than outside. Both in the total and the only-nests samples, locations within territories were found only in long-term and young fallows, the former being the most frequently used habitat type. These results from a mosaic cereal landscape provide further support to the role of long-term fallows as a critical habitat for breeding female little bustards found in other, more extensive, study areas, and reinforce the role of young fallows as an alternative breeding habitat when the former are absent or unsuitable. The strong dependence of breeding little bustards on fallows highlights the need to maintain their vegetation structure suitable as nesting and chick rearing habitats in order to prevent the species' current population decline in Spain.
Volunteer based approach to dog vaccination campaigns to eliminate human rabies: Lessons from Laikipia County, Kenya

Background An estimated 59,000 people die from rabies annually, with 99% of those deaths attributable to bites from domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). This preventable Neglected Tropical Disease has a large impact across continental Africa, especially for rural populations living in close contact with livestock and wildlife. Mass vaccinations of domestic dogs are effective at eliminating rabies but require large amounts of resources, planning, and political will to implement. Grassroots campaigns provide an alternative method to successful implementation of rabies control but remain understudied in their effectiveness to eliminate the disease from larger regions. Methodology/Principal Findings We report on the development, implementation, and effectiveness of a grassroots mass dog rabies vaccination campaign in Kenya, the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign. During 2015–2017, a total of 13,155 domestic dogs were vaccinated against rabies in 17 communities covering approximately 1500 km2. Based on an estimated population size of 34,275 domestic dogs, percent coverages increased across years, from 2% in 2015 to 24% in 2017, with only 3 of 38 community-years of vaccination exceeding the 70% target. The average cost of vaccinating an animal was $3.44 USD with in-kind contributions and $7.44 USD without in-kind contributions. Conclusions/Significance The evolution of the Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign from a localized volunteer-effort to a large-scale program attempting to eliminate rabies at the landscape scale provides a unique opportunity to examine successes, failures, and challenges facing grassroots campaigns. Success, in the form of vaccinating more dogs across the study area, was relatively straightforward to achieve. However, lack of effective post-vaccination monitoring and education programs, limited funding, and working in diverse community types appeared to hinder achievement of 70% coverage levels. These results indicate that grassroots campaigns will inevitably be faced with a philosophical question regarding the value of local impacts versus their contributions to a larger effort to eliminate rabies at the regional, country, or global scale.
Broad Colorization

The scribble- and example-based colorization methods have fastidious requirements for users, and the training process of deep neural networks for colorization is quite time-consuming. We instead proposed an automatic colorization approach with no dependence on user input and no need to endure long training time, which combines local features and global features of the input gray-scale images. Low-, mid-, and high-level features are united as local features representing cues existed in the gray-scale image. The global feature is regarded as data prior to guiding the colorization process. The local broad learning system is trained for getting the chrominance value of each pixel from the local features, which could be expressed as a chrominance map according to the position of pixels. Then, the global broad learning system is trained to refine the chrominance map. There are no requirements for users in our approach, and the training time of our framework is an order of magnitude faster than the traditional methods based on deep neural networks. To increase the user’s subjective initiative, our system allows users to increase training data without retraining the system. Substantial experimental results have shown that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
In Vivo Evaluation of White Matter Abnormalities in Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Using DTI

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an X-linked disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness and prominent nonmotor manifestations, such as a low intelligence quotient and neuropsychiatric disturbance. We investigated WM integrity in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy using DTI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fractional anisotropy and mean, axial, and radial diffusivity (DTI measures) were used to assess WM microstructural integrity along with neuropsychological evaluation in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (n = 60) and controls (n = 40). Exon deletions in the DMD gene were confirmed using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. Patients were classified into proximal (DMD Dp140+) and distal (DMD Dp140–) subgroups based on the location of the exon deletion and expression of short dystrophin Dp140 isoform. WM integrity was examined using whole-brain Tract-Based Spatial Statistics and atlas-based analysis of DTI data. The Pearson correlation was performed to investigate the possible relationship between neuropsychological scores and DTI metrics. RESULTS: The mean ages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and control participants were 8.0 ± 1.2 years and 8.2 ± 1.4 years, respectively. The mean age at disease onset was 4.1 ± 1.8 years, and mean illness duration was 40.8 ± 25.2 months. Significant differences in neuropsychological scores were observed between the proximal and distal gene-deletion subgroups, with more severe impairment in the distal-deletion subgroup (P < .05). Localized fractional anisotropy changes were seen in the corpus callosum, parietal WM, and fornices in the patient subgroup with Dp140+, while widespread changes were noted in the Dp140– subgroup. The Dp140+ subgroup showed increased axial diffusivity in multiple WM regions relative to the Dp140– subgroup. No significant correlation was observed between clinical and neuropsychological scores and diffusion metrics. CONCLUSIONS: Widespread WM differences are evident in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy relative to healthy controls. Distal mutations in particular are associated with extensive WM abnormalities and poor neuropsychological profiles.
16S rRNA GENE BASED IDENTIFICATION OF GUT BACTERIA FROM LABORATORY AND WILD LARVAE OF HELICOVERPA ARMIGERA (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE) FROM TOMATO FARM

Tomato fruit borer Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) is a polyphagous pest of different host plants and has developed resistance to most of the insecticide groups. In order to know the gut microbial flora of the wild and laboratory larvae of H. armigera, whole gut was dissected from the fourth to fifth instar wild and laboratory larvae of the H. armigera and the culturable bacterial species were identified by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene. Altogether eleven bacterial species of different genera were identified from wild populations were Stenotrophomonas sp. , Enterococcus casseliflavus, Enterococcus sp. , Enterococcus gallinarum, Enterococcus feacium, Bravundimonas diminuta, Staphylococcus sp. , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Bacillus subtilis and Rhodococcus sp. , of which genera Enterococcus were found to be predominant and the bacterial species from laboratory populations were Proteus vulgaris, Cellulosimicrobium cellulans, Klebsiella oxytoca, Bacillus subtillis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilla and Pseudomonas sp. , which showed variation in the bacterial sp. , in laboratory and wild populations. The nucleotide sequences of 11 isolates from wild and 6 isolates from laboratory populations were submitted to NCBI-GenBank and accession numbers was obtained
Association between access to full‐service restaurants and childhood obesity

The lack of access to full‐service restaurants (FSRs) is generally thought to be a risk factor for childhood obesity, as it could discourage healthful eating‐out behaviours while increasing the exposure to unhealthful food venues as “compensatory” options. However, the association between FSR access and childhood obesity has not been comprehensively reviewed previously. A literature search was conducted on PubMed and Web of Science for articles published before 1 January 2019 that examined the association between FSR access and weight‐related behaviours and outcomes among children and adolescents. Eighteen studies conducted in three countries were identified, published from 2006 to 2018 with a median sample size of 2352 (ranging from 323 to 529 367). Findings were mixed among these 18 studies that reported on the association between access to FSRs and weight‐related outcomes. Our meta‐analyses showed that there were no significant associations of FSR access with the level of body mass index (BMI) and the BMI z‐score among children. Also, there was no apparent evidence on the association between FSR access and the risk of overweight/obesity. Our results need to be interpreted with caution, considering the menu quality of FSRs and heterogeneity of eligible studies in this meta‐analysis. Well‐designed epidemiologic studies are warranted to further elaborate on the potential association between FSR access and children's weight status.
Establishing Causality between Environmental Stressors and Effects on Aquatic Ecosystems

Establishing causal relationships between environmental stressors and observed effects in natural systems is difficult due to the many intrinsic environmental factors that can hinder this process and because there are no widely accepted and proven approaches for determining such relationships. Several types of approaches or combinations of approaches, each with their own sets of advantages and limitations, have been applied in a variety of ecological systems to investigate possible causal relationships between stressors and effects. These include controlled laboratory studies (including acute and chronic bioassays), experimental field manipulations, field studies based on synoptic field surveys, mathematical simulation modeling, statistical associations, various combinations of laboratory, experimental, and field studies, and the ecoepidemiological (weight or evidence) approach. The use of ecoepidemiological (“forensic toxicology”) principles is becoming increasingly attractive as a method to help establish causality because it does not involve the same limitations of other approaches and it can also be used to integrate disparate information within a logical framework so that scientifically and defensible regulatory decisions can be made. The objective of this Commentary series of papers on the issue on causality is to demonstrate the application of the ecoepidemiology approach, using a variety of case history studies, for establishing causal relationships between specific stressors and biological effects. For each case history provided in the following series of papers, the authors describe their study situation, summarize the results supporting a causal relationship, and then compare their study results against seven standard causal criteria.
EFFECT OF VARYING MAIZE DENSITIES ON INTERCROPPED MAIZE AND SOYBEAN IN NEPAL

Maize and soybean are commonly intercropped in the drier zones of the western mid-hills in Nepal, but farmers report that productivity of soybean has been declining in recent years. Two researcher managed on-farm field experiments were conducted in the mid-hills environment of Nepal during 2001 and 2002, and one glasshouse experiment at the University of Wales, Bangor during 2003, to determine whether varying densities of maize and soybean influenced productivity of the system and to what extent soybean exhibited adaptation to shade. In neither season was maize yield affected by the presence of soybean, but grain yield of soybean was reduced in mixture by means of 59 and 53% during 2001 and 2002 respectively. Biomass and grain yield of maize were greatest at 53×103 plants ha−1 and least at the lowest density, whilst conversely biomass and grain yield of soybean increased. With increasing maize density, rates of accumulation of dry matter and leaf area index also increased, the latter resulting in decreasing transmission of light to the intercropped soybean. Soybean exhibited no photosynthetic adaptation to shade, but the specific leaf area was greater in artificially shaded and intercropped plants. Land equivalent ratios of all intercrops were greater than unity (1.30 to 1.45), indicating higher efficiency of intercropping compared to sole crops. Given the low plasticity in response of the maize canopy to variations in density, it is suggested that soybean could be better grown under maize by increasing between-row spacing of maize from 0.75 to 1.0 m to improve light transmission to the understorey, resulting in higher overall productivity of the intercropping system, and also that soybean germplasm be screened for adaptation to shade.
Postpancreatitis Diabetes Confers Higher Risk for Pancreatic Cancer Than Type 2 Diabetes: Results From a Nationwide Cancer Registry

OBJECTIVE Pancreatitis and diabetes are established risk factors for pancreatic cancer. However, to date, studies have investigated only the risk associated with either of them alone. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pancreatitis and diabetes combined, as well as their temporal relationship, on the risk of pancreatic cancer. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Nationwide cancer registry was linked to hospital discharge and mortality data from 1998 to 2015 in New Zealand. Incidence of primary pancreatic cancer in the four study groups (type 2 diabetes [T2D] alone, pancreatitis alone, T2D followed by pancreatitis, and postpancreatitis diabetes mellitus [PPDM]) was identified. Multivariable Cox regression analyses were conducted, with T2D as the reference group. A head-to-head comparison between the T2D followed by pancreatitis and PPDM groups was also performed. RESULTS Among 139,843 individuals (735,541 person-years), 913 (0.7%) were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The proportion of pancreatic cancer was 3.1%, 2.3%, 2.0%, and 0.6% in individuals with PPDM, T2D followed by pancreatitis, pancreatitis alone, and T2D alone, respectively. PPDM (hazard ratio [HR] 6.94; 95% CI 4.09–11.77) and T2D followed by pancreatitis (HR 5.35; 95% CI 3.52–8.14) were associated with significantly higher risks of pancreatic cancer compared with T2D alone. In the head-to-head comparison, PPDM was associated with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer compared with T2D followed by pancreatitis (HR 2.35; 95% CI 1.12–4.93). CONCLUSIONS Pancreatitis significantly increases the risk of pancreatic cancer in individuals with diabetes. In particular, PPDM poses the highest risk for pancreatic cancer.
Differential Benefit of Adjuvant Docetaxel-Based Chemotherapy in Patients With Early Breast Cancer According to Baseline Body Mass Index.

PURPOSE Lipophilic drugs, such as taxanes, have a high affinity for adipose tissue and a resulting higher volume of distribution. Here, we reanalyzed clinical trial data to investigate whether the efficacy of docetaxel-based chemotherapy differs from non-docetaxel-based chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer according to their baseline body mass index (BMI). PATIENTS AND METHODS We retrospectively analyzed data from all of the patients in the adjuvant BIG 2-98 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00174655; N = 2,887) comparing non-docetaxel- to docetaxel-containing chemotherapy. BMI (kg/m2) was categorized as follows: 18.5 to < 25, lean; 25 to < 30, overweight; and ≥ 30, obese. Disease-free survival (DFS) was the primary endpoint, and overall survival (OS) was the secondary endpoint. A second-order interaction was assessed among treatment, BMI, and estrogen receptor (ER) status. RESULTS There was no difference in DFS or OS according to BMI in the non-docetaxel group, while reduced DFS and OS were observed with increasing BMI category in the docetaxel group. Adjusted hazard ratios for DFS and OS were, respectively, 1.12 (95% CI, 0.98 to 1.50; P = .21) and 1.27 (95% CI, 1.01 to 1.60; P = .04) for overweight versus lean groups and were 1.32 (95% CI, 1.08 to 1.62; P = .007) and 1.63 (95% CI, 1.27 to 2.09; P < .001), respectively, for obese versus lean groups. Similar results were obtained when considering ER-negative and ER-positive tumors separately and when considering only patients who received a relative dose intensity ≥ 85% for docetaxel. A joint modifying role of BMI and ER status on treatment effect was evident for DFS (adjusted P = .06) and OS (adjusted P = .04). CONCLUSION This retrospective analysis of a large adjuvant trial highlights a differential response to docetaxel according to BMI, which calls for a body composition-based re-evaluation of the risk-benefit ratio of the use of taxanes in breast cancer. These results now must be confirmed in additional series.
Draft Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Paraburkholderia aromaticivorans AR20-38, a Gram-Negative, Cold-Adapted Degrader of Aromatic Compounds

Here, we report the draft genome sequence of Paraburkholderia aromaticivorans strain AR20-38, a cold-adapted Gram-negative bacterium. It was isolated from Alpine forest soil and can degrade a range of aromatic compounds. ABSTRACT Here, we report the draft genome sequence of Paraburkholderia aromaticivorans strain AR20-38, a cold-adapted Gram-negative bacterium. It was isolated from Alpine forest soil and can degrade a range of aromatic compounds.
Aflatoxin exposure was not associated with childhood stunting: results from a birth cohort study in a resource-poor setting of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract Objective: Chronic aflatoxin exposure has been associated with childhood stunting (length-for-age/height-for-age < –2 sd), while data lacks for Bangladesh, a country with substantial burden of childhood stunting. This paper examined the association between aflatoxin exposure and childhood stunting in a slum setting of Dhaka city. Design: In this MAL-ED aflatoxin birth cohort study, plasma samples were assayed for aflatoxin B1-lysine adduct (AFB1-lys) by MS at 7, 15, 24 and 36 months of age for 208, 196, 173 and 167 children to assess chronic aflatoxin exposure. Relationship between aflatoxin exposure and anthropometric measures was examined by mixed-effects logistic regression models. Setting and participants: The study was conducted in Mirpur, Dhaka, where children were followed from birth to 36 months. Results: Prevalence of stunting increased from 21 % at 7 months to 49 % at 36 months of age. Mean AFB1-lys concentrations at 7, 15, 24 and 36 months were 1·30 (range 0·09–5·79), 1·52 (range 0·06–6·35), 3·43 (range 0·15–65·60) and 3·70 (range 0·09–126·54) pg/mg albumin, respectively, and the percentage of children with detectable AFB1-lys was 10, 21, 18 and 62 %, respectively. No association was observed between aflatoxin exposure and stunting in multivariable analyses. Factors associated with childhood stunting were age, low birth weight, maternal height, stool myeloperoxidase and number of people sleeping in one room. Conclusions: A relatively lower exposure to aflatoxin may not influence the linear growth of children. This finding indicates a threshold level of exposure for linear growth deficit and further investigation in other areas where higher concentrations of aflatoxin exposure exist.
Reversible gene knockdown in mice using a tight, inducible shRNA expression system

RNA interference through expression of short hairpin (sh)RNAs provides an efficient approach for gene function analysis in mouse genetics. Techniques allowing to control time and degree of gene silencing in vivo, however, are still lacking. Here we provide a generally applicable system for the temporal control of ubiquitous shRNA expression in mice. Depending on the dose of the inductor doxycycline, the knockdown efficiency reaches up to 90%. To demonstrate the feasibility of our tool, a mouse model of reversible insulin resistance was generated by expression of an insulin receptor (Insr)-specific shRNA. Upon induction, mice develop severe hyperglycemia within seven days. The onset and progression of the disease correlates with the concentration of doxycycline, and the phenotype returns to baseline shortly after withdrawal of the inductor. On a broad basis, this approach will enable new insights into gene function and molecular disease mechanisms.