Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduced telomere length in embryos exposed to predator cues

ABSTRACT It is often assumed that embryos are isolated from external influences, but recent studies indicate that environmental stressors during prenatal stages can exert long-term negative effects on fitness. A potential mechanism by which predation risk may lastingly shape life-history traits and phenotypes is via effects on telomeres. However, whether prenatal exposure to environmental stressors, such as cues of predator presence, affects postnatal telomere length has not hitherto been investigated. Using an experimental design in which we modified the exposure of yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) embryos to social cues of predator presence (i.e. alarm calls), we show that prenatally exposed chicks had shorter telomeres after hatching. As young birds with shorter telomere lengths have reduced fledging success, reproductive success and lifespan, the reduced telomere length in the exposed chicks is likely to have long-term fitness consequences. Moreover, our results provide a mechanistic link through which predators may negatively affect population dynamics. Summary: Bird embryos detect the presence of predators while still in the egg; this environmental stressor affects early postnatal telomere length, linking prenatal conditions to future fitness.
FinnTwin16: A Longitudinal Study from Age 16 of a Population-Based Finnish Twin Cohort

Abstract The purpose of this review is to provide a detailed and updated description of the FinnTwin16 (FT16) study and its future directions. The Finnish Twin Cohort comprises three different cohorts: the Older Twin Cohort established in the 1970s and the FinnTwin12 and FT16 initiated in the 1990s. FT16 was initiated in 1991 to identify the genetic and environmental precursors of alcoholism, but later the scope of the project expanded to studying the determinants of various health-related behaviors and diseases in different stages of life. The main areas addressed are alcohol use and its consequences, smoking, physical activity, overall physical health, eating behaviors and eating disorders, weight development, obesity, life satisfaction and personality. To date, five waves of data collection have been completed and the sixth is now planned. Data from the FT16 cohort have contributed to several hundred studies and many substudies, with more detailed phenotyping and collection of omics data completed or underway. FT16 has also contributed to many national and international collaborations.
A Quantum–Mechanical Study of Clean and Cr–Segregated Antiphase Boundaries in Fe3Al

We present a quantum-mechanical study of thermodynamic, structural, elastic, and magnetic properties of selected antiphase boundaries (APBs) in Fe3Al with the D03 crystal structure with and without Cr atoms. The computed APBs are sharp (not thermal), and they have {001} crystallographic orientation. They are characterized by a mutual shift of grains by 1/2〈100〉a where a is the lattice parameter of a cube-shaped 16-atom elementary cell of Fe3Al, i.e., they affect the next nearest neighbors (APB-NNN type, also called APB-D03). Regarding clean APBs in Fe3Al, the studied ones have only a very minor impact on the structural and magnetic properties, including local magnetic moments, and the APB energy is rather low, about 80 ± 25 mJ/m2. Interestingly, they have a rather strong impact on the anisotropic (tensorial) elastic properties with the APB-induced change from a cubic symmetry to a tetragonal one, which is sensitively reflected by the directional dependence of linear compressibility. The Cr atoms have a strong impact on magnetic properties and a complex influence on the energetics of APBs. In particular, the Cr atoms in Fe3Al exhibit clustering tendencies even in the presence of APBs and cause a transition from a ferromagnetic (Cr-free Fe3Al) into a ferrimagnetic state. The Fe atoms with Cr atoms in their first coordination shell have their local atomic magnetic moments reduced. This reduction is synergically enhanced (to the point when Fe atoms are turned non-magnetic) when the influence of clustering of Cr atoms is combined with APBs, which offer specific atomic environments not existing in the APB-free bulk Fe3Al. The impact of Cr atoms on APB energies in Fe3Al is found to be ambiguous, including reduction, having a negligible influence or increasing APB energies depending on the local atomic configuration of Cr atoms, as well as their concentration.
Lexical bias in word recognition by cochlear implant listeners.

When hearing an ambiguous speech sound, listeners show a tendency to perceive it as a phoneme that would complete a real word, rather than completing a nonsense/fake word. For example, a sound that could be heard as either /b/ or /ɡ/ is perceived as /b/ when followed by _ack but perceived as /ɡ/ when followed by "_ap. " Because the target sound is acoustically identical across both environments, this effect demonstrates the influence of top-down lexical processing in speech perception. Degradations in the auditory signal were hypothesized to render speech stimuli more ambiguous, and therefore promote increased lexical bias. Stimuli included three speech continua that varied by spectral cues of varying speeds, including stop formant transitions (fast), fricative spectra (medium), and vowel formants (slow). Stimuli were presented to listeners with cochlear implants (CIs), and also to listeners with normal hearing with clear spectral quality, or with varying amounts of spectral degradation using a noise vocoder. Results indicated an increased lexical bias effect with degraded speech and for CI listeners, for whom the effect size was related to segment duration. This method can probe an individual's reliance on top-down processing even at the level of simple lexical/phonetic perception.
Correntropy-Based Multiview Subspace Clustering

Multiview subspace clustering, which aims to cluster the given data points with information from multiple sources or features into their underlying subspaces, has a wide range of applications in the communities of data mining and pattern recognition. Compared with the single-view subspace clustering, it is challenging to efficiently learn the structure of the representation matrix from each view and make use of the extra information embedded in multiple views. To address the two problems, a novel correntropy-based multiview subspace clustering (CMVSC) method is proposed in this article. The objective function of our model mainly includes two parts. The first part utilizes the Frobenius norm to efficiently estimate the dense connections between the points lying in the same subspace instead of following the standard compressive sensing approach. In the second part, the correntropy-induced metric (CIM) is introduced to characterize the noise in each view and utilize the information embedded in different views from an information-theoretic perspective. Furthermore, an efficient iterative algorithm based on the half-quadratic technique (HQ) and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is developed to optimize the proposed joint learning problem, and extensive experimental results on six real-world multiview benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed methods can outperform several state-of-the-art multiview subspace clustering methods.
Protein Intake Greater than the RDA Differentially Influences Whole-Body Lean Mass Responses to Purposeful Catabolic and Anabolic Stressors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Under stressful conditions such as energy restriction (ER) and physical activity, the RDA for protein of 0.8 g · kg-1 · d-1 may no longer be an appropriate recommendation. Under catabolic or anabolic conditions, higher protein intakes are proposed to attenuate the loss or increase the gain of whole-body lean mass, respectively. No known published meta-analysis compares protein intakes greater than the RDA with intakes at the RDA. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effects of protein intakes greater than the RDA, compared with at the RDA, on changes in whole-body lean mass. Three researchers independently screened 1520 articles published through August 2018 using the PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases, with additional articles identified in published systematic review articles. Randomized, controlled, parallel studies ≥6 wk long with apparently healthy adults (≥19 y) were eligible for inclusion. Data from 18 studies resulting in 22 comparisons of lean mass changes were included in the final overall analysis. Among all comparisons, protein intakes greater than the RDA benefitted changes in lean mass relative to consuming the RDA [weighted mean difference (95% CI): 0.32 (0.01, 0.64) kg, n = 22 comparisons]. In the subgroup analyses, protein intakes greater than the RDA attenuated lean mass loss after ER [0.36 (0.06, 0.67) kg, n = 14], increased lean mass after resistance training (RT) [0.77 (0.23, 1.31) kg, n = 3], but did not differentially affect changes in lean mass [0.08 (-0.59, 0.75) kg, n = 7] under nonstressed conditions (no ER + no RT). Protein intakes greater than the RDA beneficially influenced changes in lean mass when adults were purposefully stressed by the catabolic stressor of dietary ER with and without the anabolic stressor of RT. The RDA for protein is adequate to support lean mass in adults during nonstressed states. This review was registered at www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero as CRD 42018106532.
Predictors of Early Neurologic Deterioration in Acute Pontine Infarction

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background and Purpose— The relationship between infarct dimensions and neurological progression in patients with acute pontine infarctions remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the morphometric predictive value of magnetic resonance imaging for early neurological deterioration (END) in acute pontine infarction. Methods— We included all patients admitted to our department having an acute ischemic stroke in the pons. The ventrodorsal length multiplied by thickness was measured as parameters of infarct size. END was defined as an incremental increase in the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score by ≥1 point in motor power, or ≥2 points in the total score within the first week after admission. Results— We enrolled 407 patients, and 114 (28.0%) patients were diagnosed with END. Adjusted logistic regression analyses showed the maximum length multiplied by thickness was independently associated with END (odds ratio, 4.580 [95% CI, 2.909–7.210]). The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve were 77.2%, 79.2%, and 0.843, respectively, in the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of maximum length multiplied by thickness for predicting END. Conclusions— These results suggest that the maximum length multiplied by thickness may be a possible predictor in the evaluation of progression with isolated acute pontine infarction. The extent of the pontine infarction along the conduction tract may contribute to deterioration.
Analysis of Protein‐Protein Interactions by Split Luciferase Complementation Assay

Protein‐protein interactions are important in human disease. Developing and refining tools to understand physical contacts between signaling proteins is crucial. This article describes a split luciferase complementation (SLC) method designed to discover inhibitors of protein‐protein interaction. Different fusion proteins with split luciferase are constructed, expressed, and purified, and then assessed to determine the best pair that generates the strongest luminescence. SLC specificity and affinity are further confirmed. Step‐by‐step instructions are provided for performing these assays using the NS2B‐NS3 interaction as an example. NS2B is an essential cofactor for flaviviral NS3 protease function. Advantages and disadvantages of these assays are further discussed. © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Effect of Physiological Fluids Contamination on Selected Mechanical Properties of Acrylate Bone Cement

This study analyses the degradation rate of selected mechanical properties of bone cement contaminated with human blood and saline solution. During the polymerisation stage, the PMMA cement specimens were supplemented with the selected physiological fluids in a range of concentrations from 0% to 10%. The samples were then subjected to the standardised compression tests, as per ISO 5833: 2002, and hardness tests. The obtained results were analysed statistically to display the difference in the degradation of the material relative to the degree of contamination. Subsequently, numerical modelling was employed to determine the mathematical relationship between the degree of contamination and the material strength degradation rate. The introduction of various concentrations of contaminants into the cement mass resulted in a statistically significant change in their compressive strength. It was shown that the addition of more than 4% of saline and more than 6% of blood (by weight) causes that the specimens exhibit lower strength than the minimum critical value of 70 MPa, specified in the abovementioned International Standard. It was further revealed that the cement hardness characteristics degraded accordingly. The mathematical models showed a very good fit with the results from the experiments: The coefficient of determination R2 was 0.987 in the case of the linear hardness model for blood and 0.983 for salt solution; secondly, the values of R2 for the third-degree polynomial model of compressive strength were 0.88 for blood and 0.92 for salt. From the results, it can be seen that there is a quantitative/qualitative relationship between the contamination rate and the drop in the tested mechanical characteristics. Therefore, great effort must be taken to minimise the contact of the bone cement with physiological fluids, which naturally occur in the operative field, particularly when the material cures, in order to prevent the cement material strength declining below the minimum threshold specified in the ISO standard.
Relationship Between Bioelectrical Impedance and Anthropometric Techniques to Determine Body Fat in a Black Pediatric Population

This investigation compared the percentage of body fat obtained using the bioelectrical impedance technique and the anthropometric technique on a black pediatric population consisting of 196 subjects, 93 girls and 103 boys, ages 5-11 years. Subjects were measured utilizing the Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer-103 (RJL Systems, Inc.). In order to simulate a realistic school environment, protocol was deliberately not followed. Anthropometric measurements were obtained at two sites: triceps and medial calf. The anthropometric and BIA percentages of body fat were compared using the Pearson product-moment coefficient or correlation and an ANOVA. The overall relationship between the groups was . 809. Use of the BIA appears to lead to an overestimation of fatness in black children.
The Study of Generic Model Set for Reducing Calibration Time in P300-Based Brain–Computer Interface

P300-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide an additional communication channel for individuals with communication disabilities. In general, P300-based BCIs need to be trained, offline, for a considerable period of time, which causes users to become fatigued. This reduces the efficiency and performance of the system. In order to shorten calibration time and improve system performance, we introduce the concept of a generic model set. We used ERP data from 116 participants to train the generic model set. The resulting set consists of ten models, which are trained by weighted linear discriminant analysis (WLDA). Twelve new participants were then invited to test the validity of the generic model set. The results demonstrated that all new participants matched the best generic model. The resulting mean classification accuracy equaled 80% after online training, an accuracy that was broadly equivalent to the typical training model method. Moreover, the calibration time was shortened by 70.7% of the calibration time of the typical model method. In other words, the best matching model method only took 81s to calibrate, while the typical model method took 276s. There were also significant differences in both accuracy and raw bit rate between the best and the worst matching model methods. We conclude that the strategy of combining the generic models with online training is easily accepted and achieves higher levels of user satisfaction (as measured by subjective reports). Thus, we provide a valuable new strategy for improving the performance of P300-based BCI.
A daily end‐to‐end quality assurance workflow for MR‐guided online adaptive radiation therapy on MR‐Linac

Abstract Purpose Magnetic Resonance (MR)‐guided online adaptive radiation therapy (MRgOART), enabled with MR‐Linac, has potential to revolutionize radiation therapy. MRgOART is a complex process. This work is to introduce a comprehensive end‐to‐end quality assurance (QA) workflow in routine clinic for MRgOART with a high‐magnetic‐field MR‐Linac. Materials and Method The major components in MRgOART with a high‐magnetic field MR‐Linac (Unity, Elekta) include: (1) a patient record and verification (R&V) system (e.g., Mosaiq, Elekta), (2) a treatment session manager, (3) an offline treatment planning system (TPS), (4) an online adaptive TPS, (5) a 1.5T MRI scanner, (6) an 7MV Linac, (7) an MV imaging controller (MVIC), and (8) ArtQA: software for plan data consistency checking and secondary dose calculation. Our end‐to‐end QA workflow was designed to test the performance and connectivity of all these components by transferring, adapting and delivering a specifically designed five‐beam plan on a phantom. Beams 1–4 were designed to check Multi‐Leaves Collimator (MLC) position shift based on rigid image registration in TPS, while beam 5 was used to check daily radiation output based on image pixel factor of MV image of the field. The workflow is initiated in the R&V system and followed by acquiring and registering daily MRI of the phantom, checking isocenter shift, performing online adaptive replanning, checking plan integrity and secondary 3D dose calculation, delivering the plan while acquiring MV imaging using MVIC, acquiring real‐time images of the phantom, and checking the delivering parameters with ArtQA. Results It takes 10 min to finish the entire end‐to‐end QA workflow. The workflow has detected communication problems, permitted resolution prior to setting up patients for MRgOART. Up to 0.9 mm discrepancies in isocenter shift based on the image registration were detected. ArtQA performed the secondary 3D dose calculation, verified the plan integrity as well as the MR‐MV isocenter alignment values in TPS. The MLC shapes of beam 1–4 in all adaptive plans were conformal to the target and agreed with MV images. The variation of daily output was within ±2.0%. Conclusions The comprehensive end‐to‐end QA workflow can efficiently check the performance and communication between different components in MRgOART and has been successfully implemented for daily clinical practice.
Joint Prediction of Breast Cancer Histological Grade and Ki-67 Expression Level Based on DCE-MRI and DWI Radiomics

Objective: Histologic grade and Ki-67 proliferation status are important clinical indictors for breast cancer prognosis and treatment. The purpose of this study is to improve prediction accuracy of these clinical indicators based on tumor radiomic analysis. Methods: We jointly predicted Ki-67 and tumor grade with a multitask learning framework by separately utilizing radiomics from tumor MRI series. Additionally, we showed how multitask learning models (MTLs) could be extended to combined radiomics from the MRI series for a better prediction based on the assumption that features from different sources of images share common patterns while providing complementary information. Tumor radiomic analysis was performed with morphological, statistical and textural features extracted on the DWI and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) series of the precontrast and subtraction images, respectively. Results: Joint prediction of Ki-67 status and tumor grade on MR images using the MTL achieved performance improvements over that of single-task-based predictive models. Similarly, for the prediction tasks of Ki-67 and tumor grade, the MTL for combined precontrast and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) images achieved AUCs of 0.811 and 0.816, which were significantly better than that of the single-task- based model with p values of 0.005 and 0.017, respectively. Conclusion: Mapping MRI radiomics to two related clinical indicators improves prediction performance for both Ki-67 expression level and tumor grade. Significance: Joint prediction of indicators by multitask learning that combines correlations of MRI radiomics is important for optimal tumor therapy and treatment because clinical decisions are made by integrating multiple clinical indicators.
High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Treatment-Induced Tumor Lysis Syndrome in Uterine Myoma Patient

Tumor lysis syndrome is one of the major oncological emergency. It causes complications such as acute kidney injury, cardiac arrhythmia, and death. However, it is rare in solid tumors. We report on a case of a patient with myoma of uterus who developed tumor lysis syndrome and acute kidney injury after high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment. The potential complications of tumor lysis syndrome should be considered in HIFU treatment.
Oxidative Imbalance and Kidney Damage: New Study Perspectives from Animal Models to Hospitalized Patients

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health problem worldwide and affects both elderly and young subjects. Its main consequences include the loss of renal function, leading to end-stage renal disease, an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, a significant increase in morbidity and mortality, and a decrease in health-related quality of life. This review arose in significant part from work in the authors’ laboratory, complemented by literature data, and was based on a translational approach: we studied the role of many CKD risk factors, such as hypertension, obesity, and oxidative stress/inflammation. The aim was to identify new molecular mechanisms of kidney damage to prevent it through successful behavior modifications. For this purpose, in our studies, both human and animal models were used. In the animal models, we analyzed the mechanisms of renal damage induced by hypertension (spontaneously hypertensive rats) and obesity (cafeteria diet-fed rats), showing that redox disequilibrium in plasma and tissue is extremely important in renal alteration in terms of both oxidative damage (lipid peroxidation, altered expression antioxidant enzymes) and apoptotic pathway (intrinsic/extrinsic) activation. In hemodialysis patients, we explored the correlation between the global oxidative balance and both inflammatory markers and cardiovascular risk, showing a strong correlation between the oxidative index and the blood levels of C-reactive protein and previous cardiovascular events. This multilevel approach allowed us to individually and synergistically analyze some aspects of the complex pathogenic mechanisms of CKD in order to clarify the role of the new amplified risk factors for CKD and to prepare an effective personalized prevention plan by acting on both modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors.