Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of a Cancer Risk Prediction Tool on Lifestyle Habits: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Risk prediction models offer a promising approach to lifestyle modification. We evaluated the effect of personalized advice based on cancer risk prediction in improving five lifestyle habits (smoking, alcohol consumption, salt intake, physical activity, and body mass index) compared with standard advice without risk prediction among a Japanese general population with at least one unhealthy lifestyle habit. Methods: In a parallel-design, single-blind, randomized controlled trial between February 2018 and July 2019, 5984 participants aged 40–64 years with unhealthy lifestyle habits were recruited from persons covered under a life insurance policy. They were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group and received personalized or standard advice, respectively. They were also sent an invitation to participate in a lifestyle modification program aimed at improving lifestyle. Primary outcome was an improvement in lifestyle, defined as an increase in healthy lifestyle habits within 6 months. Results: The proportion of participants who improved their lifestyle within 6 months in the intervention group did not significantly differ from that in the control group (18.4% vs. 17.7%; P = 0.488). Among participants with low health literacy and two or fewer of five healthy habits, the proportion of participants subscribing to the lifestyle modification program was higher in the intervention group than in the control group. Conclusions: Compared with standardized advice, personalized advice based on cancer risk prediction had no effect on improving lifestyle. Impact: Provision of predicted cancer risk information did not induce change in unhealthy lifestyle.
Correlative Biomarker Analysis of Intrinsic Subtypes and Efficacy Across the MONALEESA Phase III Studies

PURPOSE The prognostic and predictive value of intrinsic subtypes in hormone receptor–positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–negative advanced breast cancer treated with endocrine therapy and ribociclib (RIB) is currently unknown. We evaluated the association of intrinsic subtypes with progression-free survival (PFS) in the MONALEESA trials. METHODS A retrospective and exploratory PAM50-based analysis of tumor samples from the phase III MONALEESA-2, MONALEESA-3, and MONALEESA-7 trials was undertaken. The prognostic relationship of PAM50-based subtypes with PFS and risk of disease progression by subtype and treatment were evaluated using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model, adjusting for age, prior chemotherapy, performance status, visceral disease, bone-only metastases, histological grade, number of metastatic sites, prior endocrine therapy, and de novo metastatic disease. RESULTS Overall, 1,160 tumors from the RIB (n = 672) and placebo (n = 488) cohorts were robustly profiled. Subtype distribution was luminal A (LumA), 46.7%; luminal B (LumB), 24.0%; normal-like, 14.0%; HER2-enriched (HER2E), 12.7%; and basal-like, 2.6% and was generally consistent across treatment arms and trials. The associations between subtypes and PFS were statistically significant in both arms (P < .001). The risks of disease progression for LumB, HER2E, and basal-like subtypes were 1.44, 2.31, and 3.96 times higher compared with those for LumA, respectively. All subtypes except basal-like demonstrated significant PFS benefit with RIB. HER2E (hazard ratio [HR], 0.39; P < .0001), LumB (HR, 0.52; P < .0001), LumA (HR, 0.63; P = .0007), and normal-like (HR, 0.47; P = .0005) subtypes derived benefit from RIB. Patients with basal-like subtype (n = 30) did not derive benefit from RIB (HR, 1.15; P = .77). CONCLUSION In this retrospective exploratory analysis of hormone receptor–positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–negative advanced breast cancer, each intrinsic subtype exhibited a consistent PFS benefit with RIB, except for basal-like.
Aluminium Tolerance of Maize Cultivars as Assessed by Callose Production and Root Elongation

The differences in Al tolerance between 12 maize cultivars were investigated using early stress indicators such as relative root elongation rate, induction of callose formation and Al concentrations in 5 mm root tips. Plants were grown in nutrient solution (pH 4.3) and exposed to 0 (control), 20 or 50 μM Al for 24 h. According to the relative root elongation rates, Regent, C 525 M and Adour 250 were the most Al-tolerant cultivars, while BR 201 F, Teosinte, Alarik, Burras and HS 7777 were Al-sensitive. Cultivars Brummi, HS 1230, Lixis and Aladin showed an intermediate behaviour. A significant inverse correlation between relative root-elongation rates and both Al concentration in root tips and callose concentrations could be established. The usefulness of callose as an early indicator of Al stress and the importance of Al exclusion from root tips as an Al tolerance mechanism are discussed. Aluminiumtoleranz von Maissorten gemessen an der Kallosebildung und dem Langenwachstum der Wurzeln Um Unterschiede in der Aluminiumtoleranz zwischen 12 Maissorten anhand fruher Stressindikatoren zu untersuchen, wurden die relative Langenwachstumsrate der Wurzeln, die Induktion der Kallosesynthese und die Al-Konzentration in den Wurzelspitzen (5 mm) bestimmt. Die Pflanzen wurden in Nahrlosung (pH 4.3) aufgezogen und wahrend 24 Stunden mit 0 (Kontrolle), 20 oder 50 μM Al behandelt. Laut der relativen Langenwachstumsraten waren die Sorten Regent, C 525 M und. Adour 250 Al-tolerant und die Sorten BR 201 F, Teosinte, Alarik, Burras und HS 7777 Al-sensitiv. Die Sorten Brummi, HS 1230, Lixis und Aladin hatten mittlere Grade von Toleranz oder Empfindlichkeit. Sowohl die Al-Konzentrationen der Wurzelspitzen, als auch die Kallosekonzentrationen standen in einer statistisch signifikanten, negativen Korrelation zu den relativen Langenwachstumsraten. Die Nutzlichkeit der Kallose als fruher Stressindikator und die Rolle der Al-Exklusion von Wurzelspitzen wird diskutiert.
Barriers to Use of Remote Monitoring Technologies Used to Support Patients With COVID-19: Rapid Review

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for the development and adoption of a broad range of remote monitoring technologies (RMTs) in health care delivery. It is important to demonstrate how these technologies were implemented during the early stages of this pandemic to identify their application and barriers to adoption, particularly among vulnerable populations. Objective The purpose of this knowledge synthesis was to present the range of RMTs used in delivering care to patients with COVID-19 and to identify perceived benefits of and barriers to their use. The review placed a special emphasis on health equity considerations. Methods A rapid review of published research was conducted using Embase, MEDLINE, and QxMD for records published from the inception of COVID-19 (December 2019) to July 6, 2020. Synthesis involved content analysis of reported benefits of and barriers to the use of RMTs when delivering health care to patients with COVID-19, in addition to health equity considerations. Results Of 491 records identified, 48 publications that described 35 distinct RMTs were included in this review. RMTs included use of existing technologies (eg, videoconferencing) and development of new ones that have COVID-19–specific applications. Content analysis of perceived benefits generated 34 distinct codes describing advantages of RMTs, mapped to 10 themes overall. Further, 52 distinct codes describing barriers to use of RMTs were mapped to 18 themes. Prominent themes associated with perceived benefits included a lower burden of care (eg, for hospitals, health care practitioners; 28 records), reduced infection risk (n=33), and support for vulnerable populations (n=14). Prominent themes reflecting barriers to use of RMTs included equity-related barriers (eg, affordability of technology for users, poor internet connectivity, poor health literacy; n=16), the need for quality “best practice” guidelines for use of RMTs in clinical care (n=12), and the need for additional resources to develop and support new technologies (n=11). Overall, 23 of 48 records commented on equity characteristics that stratify health opportunities and outcomes, including general characteristics that vary over time (eg, age, comorbidities; n=17), place of residence (n=11), and socioeconomic status (n=7). Conclusions Results of this rapid review highlight the breadth of RMTs being used to monitor and inform treatment of COVID-19, the potential benefits of using these technologies, and existing barriers to their use. Results can be used to prioritize further efforts in the implementation of RMTs (eg, developing “best practice” guidelines for use of RMTs and generating strategies to improve equitable access for marginalized populations).
Heterogeneous photocatalysis for synthetic purposes: oxygenation of cyclohexane with H3PW12O40 and (nBu4N)4W10O32 supported on silica

Hetrogenisation of H3PW12O40 and (nBu4N)4W10O32 with silica provides new photocatalytic systems able to oxygenate cyclohexane with O2 without causing the oxidative mineralization process which typically occur on the surface of the photosensitive semiconductor TiO2.
Application-specific nuclear medical in vivo imaging devices

Nuclear medical imaging devices, such as those enabling photon emission imaging (gamma camera, single photon emission computed tomography, or positron emission imaging), that are typically used in today’s clinics are optimized for assessing large portions of the human body, and are classified as whole-body imaging systems. These systems have known limitations for organ imaging, therefore application-specific devices have been designed, constructed and evaluated. These devices, given their compact nature and superior technical characteristics, such as their higher detection sensitivity and spatial resolution for organ imaging compared to whole-body imaging systems, have shown promise for niche applications. Several of these devices have further been integrated with complementary anatomical imaging devices. The objectives of this review article are to (1) provide an overview of such application-specific nuclear imaging devices that were developed over the past two decades (in the twenty-first century), with emphasis on brain, cardiac, breast, and prostate imaging; and (2) discuss the rationale, advantages and challenges associated with the translation of these devices for routine clinical imaging. Finally, a perspective on the future prospects for application-specific devices is provided, which is that sustained effort is required both to overcome design limitations which impact their utility (where these exist) and to collect the data required to define their clinical value.
Numerical Aspects of the Convection–Dispersion Equation

Virtually all reservoir simulators obtain solutions to fluid flow equations, usually nonlinear partial-differential equations, by making discrete approximations to derivatives. Whether finite-difference or finite-element methods are used, these approximations always introduce truncation errors that often can distort the accuracy and stability of the solution. The truncation error is often referred to as numerical dispersion because, to the lowest order, it can be represented as a second spatial derivative term added to any true dispersion term in the problem. Distortion of the numerical solution is most significant in the simulation of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes where sharp displacement, concentration, and/or temperature fronts are an important part of the efficiency of the processes, and artificial smearing as a result of numerical dispersion can render the simulation meaningless. In this work, two different methods, namely, finite difference and method of line, are considered to investigate numerical dispersion. The effect of grid sizes on smearing and oscillation is investigated by selecting various values for grid size. The results indicate that numerical dispersion can be minimized using the method of line as a solution method for the general difference equation.
Values of liquid biopsy in early detection of cancer: results from meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Background There is tremendous interest in the development of liquid biopsy techniques, but the potential role of liquid biopsy for the early detection of cancer has not yet been elucidated. We aim to explore the performance of liquid biopsy in the early diagnosis of cancer. Methods A systematic review was conducted of liquid biopsy in cancer early detection. Meta-regression was carried out to explore the source of heterogeneity and publication bias was also evaluated. Results Overall, there were six types of biomarkers and 17 studies focusing on liquid biopsy in the early detection of cancer, 7 studies in ctDNA, 5 studies in cfDNA, 2 studies in CTC, and the other three studies used circulating nucleosome, microRNA, and multiple biomarkers, respectively. Pooled sensitivity and specificity of liquid biopsy in cancer early detection was 0.76 (95%CI:0.67–0.83) and 0.92 (95%CI:0.86–0.96) and the area under the SROC curve was 0.91 (95%CI:0.88–0.93). Conclusions The current evidence shows that liquid biopsy has relatively low sensitivity and high specificity in cancer early detection. Among all these biomarkers, cfDNA may have potentially promising value in cancer early detection, thereby supporting further study of cancer early detection. Study Registration The study is registered at PROSPERO (Identifier number: CRD42020137205).
Analysis of Fungal Genomes Reveals Commonalities of Intron Gain or Loss and Functions in Intron-Poor Species

Abstract Previous evolutionary reconstructions have concluded that early eukaryotic ancestors including both the last common ancestor of eukaryotes and of all fungi had intron-rich genomes. By contrast, some extant eukaryotes have few introns, underscoring the complex histories of intron–exon structures, and raising the question as to why these few introns are retained. Here, we have used recently available fungal genomes to address a variety of questions related to intron evolution. Evolutionary reconstruction of intron presence and absence using 263 diverse fungal species supports the idea that massive intron reduction through intron loss has occurred in multiple clades. The intron densities estimated in various fungal ancestors differ from zero to 7.6 introns per 1 kb of protein-coding sequence. Massive intron loss has occurred not only in microsporidian parasites and saccharomycetous yeasts, but also in diverse smuts and allies. To investigate the roles of the remaining introns in highly-reduced species, we have searched for their special characteristics in eight intron-poor fungi. Notably, the introns of ribosome-associated genes RPL7 and NOG2 have conserved positions; both intron-containing genes encoding snoRNAs. Furthermore, both the proteins and snoRNAs are involved in ribosome biogenesis, suggesting that the expression of the protein-coding genes and noncoding snoRNAs may be functionally coordinated. Indeed, these introns are also conserved in three-quarters of fungi species. Our study shows that fungal introns have a complex evolutionary history and underappreciated roles in gene expression.
Jointly Heterogeneous Palmprint Discriminant Feature Learning

Heterogeneous palmprint recognition has attracted considerable research attention in recent years because it has the potential to greatly improve the recognition performance for personal authentication. In this article, we propose a simultaneous heterogeneous palmprint feature learning and encoding method for heterogeneous palmprint recognition. Unlike existing hand-crafted palmprint descriptors that usually extract features from raw pixels and require strong prior knowledge to design them, the proposed method automatically learns the discriminant binary codes from the informative direction convolution difference vectors of palmprint images. Differing from most heterogeneous palmprint descriptors that individually extract palmprint features from each modality, our method jointly learns the discriminant features from heterogeneous palmprint images so that the specific discriminant properties of different modalities can be better exploited. Furthermore, we present a general heterogeneous palmprint discriminative feature learning model to make the proposed method suitable for multiple heterogeneous palmprint recognition. Experimental results on the widely used PolyU multispectral palmprint database clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Atmospheric Gas-Aerosol Equilibrium I. Thermodynamic Model

A rigorous and computationally efficient thermodynamic model that estimates the state and composition of atmospheric inorganic species between the gas and aerosol phases is presented. The estimation of important thermodynamic properties, equilibrium constants, ionic activity coefficients, water activity, and deliquescence points is described. Various sources and estimation methods for inorganic gas-liquid-solid equilibrium properties are compared and optimal approaches for the new equilibrium routine are incorporated.
High alveolar nitric oxide is associated with steeper lung function decline in foundry workers

Occupational dust exposure induces inflammatory responses that often precede the onset of clinical disease. Inflammation in the peripheral part of the lung can be demonstrated by measuring the alveolar NO concentration (CANO) in exhaled breath. The aim of the study was to assess whether cumulative dust exposure affects the change in CANO during follow-up and whether baseline CANO can predict an impairment in lung function during follow-up in foundry workers. We examined 74 dust-exposed and 42 nonexposed foundry workers and measured CANO and lung function at baseline and after 7 years of follow-up. An increase in CANO during the follow-up period was positively associated with cumulative dust exposure in foundry work (p = 0.035). Furthermore, a higher baseline CANO was associated with an accelerated decline in the forced vital capacity (FVC) during the follow-up period (absolute decrease in FVC p = 0.021, relative decrease in FVC p = 0.017). Higher cumulative dust exposure in foundry work is associated with a greater increase in CANO during follow-up, suggesting ongoing pulmonary inflammation in these subjects. Importantly, a high baseline CANO is associated with an accelerated decline in lung function, suggesting that CANO measurements might serve as a screening tool for high-risk workers.
Lipid Composition Analysis Reveals Mechanisms of Ethanol Tolerance in the Model Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Many microbial processes are not implemented at the industrial level because the product yield is poorer and more expensive than can be achieved by chemical synthesis. It is well established that microbes show stress responses during bioprocessing, and one reason for poor product output from cell factories is production conditions that are ultimately toxic to the cells. ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important unicellular yeast species within the biotechnological and the food and beverage industries. A significant application of this species is the production of ethanol, where concentrations are limited by cellular toxicity, often at the level of the cell membrane. Here, we characterize 61 S. cerevisiae strains for ethanol tolerance and further analyze five representatives with various ethanol tolerances. The most tolerant strain, AJ4, was dominant in coculture at 0 and 10% ethanol. Unexpectedly, although it does not have the highest noninhibitory concentration or MIC, MY29 was the dominant strain in coculture at 6% ethanol, which may be linked to differences in its basal lipidome. Although relatively few lipidomic differences were observed between strains, a significantly higher phosphatidylethanolamine concentration was observed in the least tolerant strain, MY26, at 0 and 6% ethanol compared to the other strains that became more similar at 10%, indicating potential involvement of this lipid with ethanol sensitivity. Our findings reveal that AJ4 is best able to adapt its membrane to become more fluid in the presence of ethanol and that lipid extracts from AJ4 also form the most permeable membranes. Furthermore, MY26 is least able to modulate fluidity in response to ethanol, and membranes formed from extracted lipids are least leaky at physiological ethanol concentrations. Overall, these results reveal a potential mechanism of ethanol tolerance and suggest a limited set of membrane compositions that diverse yeast species use to achieve this. IMPORTANCE Many microbial processes are not implemented at the industrial level because the product yield is poorer and more expensive than can be achieved by chemical synthesis. It is well established that microbes show stress responses during bioprocessing, and one reason for poor product output from cell factories is production conditions that are ultimately toxic to the cells. During fermentative processes, yeast cells encounter culture media with a high sugar content, which is later transformed into high ethanol concentrations. Thus, ethanol toxicity is one of the major stresses in traditional and more recent biotechnological processes. We have performed a multilayer phenotypic and lipidomic characterization of a large number of industrial and environmental strains of Saccharomyces to identify key resistant and nonresistant isolates for future applications.
Effect of Nitric Acid Concentration on Doping of Thin Film Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes for Electrode Application in Transparent, Flexible Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

A simple method is proposed for the chemical modification of carbon nanotubes (CNT) thin film counter electrodes (CE) for the replacement of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and platinum catalyst (Pt) while retaining light transparency. In order to decrease the sheet resistance, CNT thin films underwent various concentrations (≤10 M) and durations of HNO 3 treatment prior to cell fabrication, and the effect on thin film properties was analyzed. P-doping was observed, and the maximum change in work function was found to be +0.35 eV with 4 M HNO 3 . Optimum sheet resistance reduction (50%) and work function increment were achieved after 1 h treatment with 4 M HNO 3 . Changes in optical transmittances for all samples were negligible (± 5%). Pristine and HNO 3 treated films on plastic substrates were tested as CE in flexible bifacial dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Most significant improvements in conversion efficiencies were obtained when CNT on plastic substrates were pretreated with 8 M HNO 3 (from 1.18% to 1.40% under roomlight, from 0.19% to 0.26% under 1 Sun).