Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychosocial working characteristics before retirement and depressive symptoms across the retirement transition: a longitudinal latent class analysis

Objectives: Retirement is a major life transition. However, previous evidence on its mental health effects has been inconclusive. Whether retirement is desirable or not may depend on pre-retirement work characteristics. We investigated trajectories of depressive symptoms across retirement and how a number of psychosocial working characteristics influenced these trajectories. Methods: We included 1735 respondents from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), retiring during 2008–2016 (mean retirement age 66 years). They had completed biennial questionnaires reporting job demands, decision authority, workplace social support, efforts, rewards, procedural justice and depressive symptoms. We applied group-based trajectory modelling to model trajectories of depressive symptoms across retirement. Multinomial logistic regression analyses estimated the associations between psychosocial working characteristics and depressive symptom trajectories. Results: We identified five depression trajectories. In four of them, depressive symptoms decreased slightly around retirement. In one, the symptom level was initially high, then decreased markedly across retirement. Perceptions of job demands, job strain, workplace social support, rewards, effort–reward imbalance and procedural justice were associated with the trajectories, while perceptions of decision authority and work efforts were only partly related to the trajectories. Conclusions: We observed a rather positive development of depressive symptoms across retirement in a sample of Swedish retirees. For a small group with poor psychosocial working characteristics, symptoms clearly decreased, which may indicate that a relief from poor working characteristics is associated with an improvement for some retirees. However, for other retirees poor working characteristics were associated with persistent symptoms, suggesting a long-term effect of these work stressors.
Most meat products have digestible indispensable amino acid scores that are greater than 100, but processing may increase or reduce protein quality

Abstract An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that meat products have digestible indispensable amino acid scores (DIAAS) >100 and that various processing methods will increase standardised ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) and DIAAS. Nine ileal-cannulated gilts were randomly allotted to a 9 × 8 Youden square design with nine diets and eight 7-d periods. Values for SID of AA and DIAAS for two reference patterns were calculated for salami, bologna, beef jerky, raw ground beef, cooked ground beef and ribeye roast heated to 56, 64 or 72°C. The SID of most AA was not different among salami, bologna, beef jerky and cooked ground beef, but was less (P < 0·05) than the values for raw ground beef. The SID of AA for 56°C ribeye roast was not different from the values for raw ground beef and 72°C ribeye roast, but greater (P < 0·05) than those for 64°C ribeye roast. For older children, adolescents and adults, the DIAAS for all proteins, except cooked ground beef, were >100 and bologna and 64°C ribeye roast had the greatest (P < 0·05) DIAAS. The limiting AA for this age group were sulphur AA (beef jerky), leucine (bologna, raw ground beef and cooked ground beef) and valine (salami and the three ribeye roasts). In conclusion, meat products generally provide high-quality protein with DIAAS >100 regardless of processing. However, overcooking meat may reduce AA digestibility and DIAAS.
Exosome mediated transfer of miRNA‐140 promotes enhanced chondrogenic differentiation of bone marrow stem cells for enhanced cartilage repair and regeneration

Exosomes (EXs) are nanocarrier vesicles with 20‐50 nm dimensions. They are involved in cell proliferation and differentiation and in protecting the integrity of materials. They can be isolated from plasma and immunoreactive components. Recent studies demonstrated their potential role in cartilage regeneration. To enhance their regenerative effect, molecules like microRNA (miR‐140) can be loaded in EX that acts as RNA delivery systems. In this study, we combined EX with miR‐140 to enhance cell differentiation by inducing membrane fusion and consequent miRNA released into the cytoplasm. The carrier RNA complex was successfully synthesized through freeze and thaw method leading to the formation of EX‐containing miR‐140. The EX morphology was assessed through transmission electron microscopy and their miR‐140 uptake efficiency through real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). The effects on bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) were evaluated by in vitro cell culture. Cell adhesion and morphology were studied using a bio‐scanning electron microscope and confocal laser scanning microscope. Differentiation BMSCs into chondrocytes was analyzed by RT‐PCR and histology. Our results confirm the bioactive role of EX loaded with miR‐140 in the differentiation of BMSCs into chondrocytes. EXs were biocompatible involving in the cartilage healing process through chromogenic differentiation of BMCS exploiting the tissue engineering route.
Amateur endurance cycling practice and adult’s physical and psychosocial health: a cross-sectional study of the influence of training volume

ABSTRACT This study aimed to analyse the association between amateur cycling training volume and physical and psychosocial health. A cross-sectional study was developed, via self-reported survey, among 1669 cyclists and 1039 controls, where analysis of variance and hierarchical multiple linear regression test were developed. Independent of gender, high volumes of amateur endurance cycling practice benefited cyclists’ body mass index and male cyclists’ physical conditioning, while psychosocial health did not differ among the training volume groups. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis highlighted the contribution of training volume to lower cyclists’ body mass index and better male cyclists’ physical conditioning. All cyclist groups presented better physical and psychosocial health than controls. High volumes of amateur endurance cycling training were associated with better physical health without jeopardizing psychosocial health. The practice of amateur endurance cycling, both in low and high volumes, was associated with better physical and psychosocial health compared with inactivity.
Inorganic halide double perovskites with optoelectronic properties modulated by sublattice mixing.

All-inorganic halide double perovskites have emerged as a promising class of materials that are potentially more stable and less toxic than lead-containing hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite optoelectronic materials. In this work, 311 cesium chloride double perovskites (Cs2BB'Cl6) were selected from a set of 903 compounds as likely being stable based on a statistically learned tolerance factor (τ) for perovskite stability. First-principles calculations on these 311 double perovskites were then performed to assess their stability and identify candidates with band gaps appropriate for optoelectronic applications. We predict that 261 of the 311 Cs2BB'Cl6 compounds are likely synthesizable based on a thermodynamic analysis of their decomposition to competing compounds (decomposition enthalpy < 0.05 eV/atom). Of these 261 likely synthesizable compounds, 47 contain no toxic elements and have direct or nearly direct (within 100 meV) band gaps between 1 and 3 eV as computed with hybrid density functional theory (HSE06). Within this set, we identify the triple alkali perovskites Cs2[Alk]+[TM]3+Cl6, where Alk is a group 1 alkali cation and TM is a transition metal cation, as a class of Cs2BB'Cl6 double perovskites with remarkable optical properties, including large and tunable exciton binding energies as computed by the GW-Bethe Salpeter Equation (GW-BSE) method. We attribute the unusual electronic structure of these compounds to the mixing of the Alk-Cl and TM-Cl sublattices, leading to materials with small band gaps, large exciton binding energies, and absorption spectra that are strongly influenced by the identity of the transition metal. The role of the double perovskite structure in enabling these unique properties is probed through analysis of the electronic structures and chemical bonding of these compounds as compared with other transition metal and alkali transition metal halides.
Using Deep Learning to create a Universal Game Player Tackling Transfer Learning and Catastrophic Forgetting Using Asynchronous Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learning

This dissertation introduces a general-purpose architecture that allows a learning agent to (i) transfer knowledge from a previously learned task to a new one that is now required to learned and (ii) remember how to perform the previously learned tasks as it learns the new one. The proposed architecture modifies the asynchronous advantage actor-critic, on GPU (GA3C, enabling multi-task learning and augments it with the Elastic Weight Consolidation algorithm, alleviating catastrophic forgetting. With our obtained agent, named the Universal Game Player (UGP), we show that by learning multiple tasks it is possible to improve the learning efficiency for a new one that is now required to learned and that by augmenting the GA3C’s with the Elastic Weight Consolidation (EWC) algorithm, it is possible to overcome a substantial amount of catastrophic forgetting. We make our source code publicly available at https://github.com/ jmribeiro/UGP.
The RoyalFlush Synthesis System for Blizzard Challenge 2020

The paper presents the RoyalFlush synthesis system for Bliz-zard Challenge 2020. Two required voices are built from the released Mandarin and Shanghainese data. Based on end-to-end speech synthesis technology, some improvements are introduced to the system compared with our system of last year. Firstly, a Mandarin front-end transforming input text into phoneme sequence along with prosody labels is employed. Then, to improve speech stability, a modiﬁed Tacotron acoustic model is proposed. Moreover, we apply GMM-based attention mechanism for robust long-form speech synthesis. Finally, a lightweight LPCNet-based neural vocoder is adopted to achieve a nice traceoff between effectiveness and efﬁciency. Among all the participating teams of the Challenge, the i-dentiﬁer for our system is N. Evaluation results demonstrates that our system performs relatively well in intelligibility. But it still needs to be improved in terms of naturalness and similarity.
Directive effect of chain length in modulating peptide nano-assemblies.

RADA-4 (Ac-RADARADARADARADA-NH2) is the most extensively studied and marketed self- assembling peptide, forming hydrogel, used to create defined three-dimensional microenvironments for cell culture applications. In this work, we use various biophysical techniques to investigate the length dependency of RADA aggregation and assembly. We synthesized a series of RADA-N peptides, N ranging from 1 to 4, resulting in four peptides having 4, 8, 12, and 16 amino acids in their sequence. Our observations show that the aggregation of ionic, charge-complementary RADA motif-containing peptides is length-dependent, with N less than 3 are not forming spontaneous self-assemblies.
Novel Techniques for Detection of Mycobacterium bovis Infection in a Cheetah

In South Africa, bovine tuberculosis threatens some of Africa’s most iconic wildlife species, including the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). The lack of antemortem diagnostic tests for this species strongly hinders conservation efforts. We report use of antemortem and postmortem diagnostic assays to detect Mycobacterium bovis infection in a cheetah.
Neuropsychological Disorders and Their Nanocarriers.

Neuropsychological disorders are growing rapidly worldwide recently amongst the people of diverse background irrespective of age, gender and geographical region. such disorders not only disturb the normal life and functionality of an individual but also impacts the social relationships of the patient and of the people associated with them, and if not treated in time it may also result into mortality in severe conditions. Various antipsychotic drugs have been developed but their use is often limited by issues related to effective drug delivery at the site of action i.e. brain, mainly because of the blood brain barrier. To resolve these issues, researchers and scientist have been working to develop more effective drug delivery system where drugs can cross the blood brain barrier and reach the brain in more effective concentrations. Drugs have been modified and formulated into nano-carriers and experimental studies for efficient and targeted delivery of drugs have been conducted. This review focuses on certain common neuropsychological diseases and their nanocarriers developed for drug delivery in brain are discussed with brief description of various experimental in vitro and in vivo studies. This review also focuses on the intranasal route for delivery of antipsychotic drugs and constraints faced due to blood brain barrier by the drugs.
Quality and Complications of Colonoscopy in Ahvaz Jundishapur University

Introduction: Colonoscopy is the most effective method for screening and diagnosing the colorectal cancers. Using colonoscopy has expanded dramatically in recent years due to good efficacy and safety profile. The aim of this study is to evaluate the rate of bowel cleansing by routine prep regimen and quality of performing colonoscopy in outpatient clinics of Ahvaz Jundishapur University with the international standards of quality criteria. Method: In a 6-months period, data of all patients who were candidate for elective outpatient colonoscopy including quality of bowel prep, polyp detection rate and any potential complication collected by a questionnaire and analyzed. Results: Totally, 239 (113 males, 125 females) patients enrolled to this study. Patients’ mean ages were 44 ± 16 years (males) and 44.5 ± 16 years (females). In terms of geographic distribution, 59.1% resided in the center of the province followed by 40.1% who were residents of the other areas of province. The most common colonoscopy findings in male patients were anal hemorrhoids (15.7%), proctitis (11%), polyps (10.2%), IBD (5.6%) and cancer (4.6%). Among female patients the findings included anal hemorrhoids (16.7%), proctitis (11%), polyp (8.3%), IBD (6%) and cancer (4.6%), Melanosis coli and anal fissure (3.3%). The most common reasons for referring to colonoscopy among male patients include rectal bleeding (31.5%), Abdominal pain (24.3%), diarrhea (9%) and constipation (7.2%); in women include rectal bleeding (27.2%), Abdominal pain (25.6%), constipation(12.8%), diarrhea(10.4%) and anemia (8.8%). Colon prep was appropriate in 40.5%, inadequate in 36.8% and poor in 22.8% of cases. The rate of cecal intubation was 72.5%. 1.3% of patients experienced minor complication such as pain and abdominal swelling after colonoscopy with no major complication at all.
Interleukin‐20 differentially regulates bone mesenchymal stem cell activities in RANKL‐induced osteoclastogenesis through the OPG/RANKL/RANK axis and the NF‐κB, MAPK and AKT signalling pathways

The immune and skeletal systems share common mechanisms, and the crosstalk between the two has been termed osteoimmunology. Osteoimmunology mainly focuses on diseases between the immune and bone systems including bone loss diseases, and imbalances in osteoimmune regulation affect skeletal homeostasis between osteoclasts and osteoblasts. The immune mediator interleukin‐20 (IL‐20), a member of the IL‐10 family, enhances inflammation, chemotaxis and angiogenesis in diseases related to bone loss. However, it is unclear how IL‐20 regulates the balance between osteoclastogenesis and osteoblastogenesis; therefore, we explored the mechanisms by which IL‐20 affects bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in osteoclastogenesis in primary cells during differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis and signalling. We initially found that IL‐20 differentially regulated preosteoclast proliferation and apoptosis; BMSC‐conditioned medium (CM) significantly enhanced osteoclast formation and bone resorption, which was dose‐dependently regulated by IL‐20; IL‐20 inhibited OPG expression and promoted M‐CSF, RANKL and RANKL/OPG expression; and IL‐20 differentially regulated the expression of osteoclast‐specific gene and transcription factors through the OPG/RANKL/RANK axis and the NF‐kB, MAPK and AKT pathways. Therefore, IL‐20 differentially regulates BMSCs in osteoclastogenesis and exerts its function by activating the OPG/RANKL/RANK axis and the NF‐κB, MAPK and AKT pathways, which make targeting IL‐20 a promising direction for targeted regulation in diseases related to bone loss.
In-the-Moment Feedback and Coaching: Improving R2C2 for a New Context.

Background The R2C2, a 4-phase feedback and coaching model, builds relationships, explores reactions, determines content and coaches for change, and facilitates formal feedback conversations between clinical supervisors/preceptors and residents. Formal discussions about performance are typically based on collated information from daily encounter sheets, objective structured clinical examinations, multisource feedback, and other data. This model has not been studied in settings where brief feedback and coaching conversations occur immediately after a specific clinical experience. Objective We explored how supervisors adapt the R2C2 model for in-the-moment feedback and coaching and developed a guide for its use in this context. Methods Eleven purposefully selected supervisors were interviewed in 2018 to explore where they used the R2C2 model, how they adapted it for in-the-moment conversations, and phrases used corresponding to each phase that could guide design of a new R2C2 in-the-moment model. Results Participants readily adapted the model to varied feedback situations; each of the 4 phases were relevant for conversations. Phase-specific phrases that could enable effective coaching conversations in a limited amount of time were identified. Data facilitated a revision of the original R2C2 model for in-the-moment feedback and coaching conversations and design of an accompanying trifold brochure to enable its effective use. Conclusions The R2C2 in-the-moment model offers a systematic approach to feedback and coaching that builds on the original model, yet addresses time constraints and the need for an iterative conversation between the reaction and content phases. The model enables supervisors to coach and co-create an action plan with residents to improve performance.
Mitochondrial ClpX activates an essential biosynthetic enzyme through partial unfolding

Mitochondria control the activity, quality, and lifetime of their proteins with an autonomous system of chaperones, but the signals that direct substrate-chaperone interactions and outcomes are poorly understood. We previously discovered that the mitochondrial AAA+ protein unfoldase ClpX (mtClpX) activates the initiating enzyme for heme biosynthesis, 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase (ALAS), by promoting cofactor incorporation. Here, we ask how mtClpX accomplishes this activation. Using S. cerevisiae proteins, we identified sequence and structural features within ALAS that position mtClpX and provide it with a grip for acting on ALAS. Observation of ALAS undergoing remodeling by mtClpX revealed that unfolding is limited to a region extending from the mtClpX-binding site to the active site. Unfolding along this path is required for mtClpX to gate cofactor binding to ALAS. This targeted unfolding contrasts with the global unfolding canonically executed by ClpX homologs and provides insight into how substrate-chaperone interactions direct the outcome of remodeling.
Common Audiological Functional Parameters (CAFPAs) for single patient cases: deriving statistical models from an expert-labelled data set

Abstract Objective: Statistical knowledge about many patients could be exploited using machine learning to provide supporting information to otolaryngologists and other hearing health care professionals, but needs to be made accessible. The Common Audiological Functional Parameters (CAFPAs) were recently introduced for the purpose of integrating data from different databases by providing an abstract representation of audiological measurements. This paper aims at collecting expert labels for a sample database and to determine statistical models from the labelled data set. Design: By an expert survey, CAFPAs as well as labels for audiological findings and treatment recommendations were collected for patients from the database of Hörzentrum Oldenburg. Study sample: A total of 287 single patient cases were assessed by twelve highly experienced audiological experts. Results: The labelled data set was used to derive probability density functions for categories given by the expert labels. The collected data set is suitable for estimating training distributions due to realistic variability contained in data for different, distinct categories. Suitable distribution functions were determined. The derived training distributions were compared regarding different audiological questions. Conclusions: The method-expert survey, sorting data into categories, and determining training distributions – could be extended to other data sets, which could then be integrated via the CAFPAs and used in a classification task.
Fabrication of antigen‐containing nanoparticles using microfluidics with Tesla structure

The polyethyleneimine (PEI)‐based antigen delivery system has been proved valuable for therapeutic vaccines. However, the previous bulk mixing method is not ideal to prepare PEI‐base antigen‐ containing nanoparticles. The wide‐size distribution and poor reproducibility limit its further application. In this research, we developed a microfluidic method to prepare nanopolyplexes on chips with Tesla structure to improve the fabrication. The structure and bioactivity of protein were not hampered by the shearing force in microfluidics. Comparison between physiochemical parameters suggested that the polyplexes prepared by Tesla chips were more uniform than those prepared by bulk mixing and non‐Tesla chips. The reproducibility was improved obviously. The preparation was not influence much by the operating parameters such as flow rates, reagents concentration, and switching of inlets. The results indicated that it was a robust and reliable method. The data that were obtained from BMDC model demonstrated that the nanopolyplexes with optimal weight ratio had higher antigen cross‐presentation efficiency than those in free antigen group. In conclusion, Tesla structured microfluidics offers a better method over bulk mixing in the preparation of PEI‐based antigen‐containing nanopolyplexes. It greatly expands the scope of our study and increases the potential of PEI‐based antigen delivery system.