Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systematic review of the literature on triclosan and health outcomes in humans

Abstract The ability of epidemiologic evidence to inform regulatory decisions is largely dependent on the coherence and quality of the published literature. This systematic review examines the quality and consistency of studies assessing health outcomes associated with exposure to triclosan (TCS), an antimicrobial chemical with a short physiologic half-life. We used elements of the Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-Lived Chemicals instrument to evaluate aspects of study quality. Each methodological domain – overall design, exposure assessment, and data analysis – was categorized according to three tiers where Tier 1 indicated the highest quality. We also examined consistency of methods, results and reporting as considerations for weight of evidence (WOE) assessment. Studies were considered sufficiently comparable if they addressed the same or similar research questions. Forty-two studies met the criteria for inclusion. Only one randomized cross-over clinical trial of TCS was assigned to Tier 1 for all three domains. Most other studies were assigned to Tier 3 for at least one domain. Although the available literature examined more than 100 different health endpoints and reported hundreds of different measures of association, few studies were considered comparable. For reported measures of association, most were not significantly different from the null; the few statistically significant results represented isolated findings without a discernable across- or within-study pattern. We conclude that the current body of epidemiologic literature does not allow a meaningful WOE assessment due to methodological limitations of individual studies and lack of inter-study consistency. On the other hand, methodologically stronger studies may be used to inform future research.
Griflola frondosa (GF) produces significant antidepressant effects involving AMPA receptor activation in mice

Abstract Context: Griflola frondosa (Fr) S.F. Gray (Meripilaceae) (GF) is a medical mushroom, and its regulation of the immune system is of interest for the treatment of mood disorders. α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionic acid (AMPA) receptors are the central mediator for the treatment of depression. Objective: This study examines the antidepressant effects of GF and the role of AMPA in these antidepressant effects. Materials and methods: The CD-1 mice were fed with GF- or Pleurotus ostreatus [(Jacq.: Fr) Kumm (Pleurotaceae)] (PO)-containing food for 1 day or 5 days. The antidepressant effects was determined in the tail suspension test (TST), forced swim test (FST), and open field test (OFT). The involvement of AMPA receptors was determined by the application of the AMPA-specific blocker GYKI 52466. Results: Treatments with 20%, 33% or 50% of GF-containing food significantly decreased the immobility time (63.6, 56.9, and 52.0% in TST; and 50.8, 43.2, and 38.2% in FST) after 1 day and (62.3, 51.8, and 52.8% in TST; and 49.5, 45.1, and 40.3% in FST) after 5 days. GF-containing food did not cause hyperactive effects in the OFT. The antidepressant effects of the 33% of GF-containing food (down-to 51.3% in 1-day TST and 46.8% in 5-day FST) were significantly stronger than that of the 33% of PO-containing food (down-to 85.5% in 1-day TST and 82.0% in 5-day FST). AMPA-specific blocker GYKI 52466 was able to block the antidepressant effects of the GF-containing food. Conclusion: GF demonstrated the potential as a safe medical food supplement for the patient with depression.
Barriers to the Effective Use of Medico-Legal Findings in Sexual Assault Cases Worldwide

Despite the increasing implementation of standardized rape kits across jurisdictions, the medico-legal findings generated by these tools are often not related to positive criminal justice outcomes. Given that there has been no global investigation of the factors that might impede their successful use in cases of sexual assault, we conducted a review of relevant scholarly and “grey” literature from industrialized and less-developed regions. One key theme to emerge from the analysis concerned certain problematic practices and behaviors of professional groups involved in the various stages of the post-sexual assault process. We found that a lack of competence in handling sexual assault cases, contempt for women who have been victimized, and corruption among some forensic examiners, police, scientists, and legal personnel often have shaped the collection, processing, analysis, and use of medico-legal evidence. We discuss recent initiatives and future directions for research that might serve to address these issues.
The redox potential of sediment from the Middle Adriatic region

Sediment redox potentials (EH) at stations of different trophic status in the central Adriatic from 2001-2007 were investigated in this paper. For most part of the year at open sea and channel stations EH values were mainly positive (+150 to 0 mV), even to 10 cm sediment depth. Positive EH (absence of sulphate reduction with very low sulphide concentrations) at these stations is probably caused by low to medium organic matter sedimentation rates. Negative EH values (presence of sulphide and appearance of anoxic conditions in sediment) and shallow redox transition depths in sediment were found in areas with higher productivity and organic matter sedimentation such as eutrophicated Kastela Bay after a winter plankton bloom, a near shore station exposed to a city wastewater outlet and stations located under fish farm cages. Vertical profiles of sediment EH, ironbound phosphorus fraction and Fe(III)OOH investigated at a middle Adriatic tuna farm indicated a relationship between redox potential and phosphate adsorption/desorption processes.
Cutting Edge: Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 3 Inhibits Activation of NFATp

Recent studies have suggested that signaling initiated by the activation of Ag receptors and signaling activated through cytokine receptors may be regulated by a common set of inhibitory proteins. Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS-3), which has previously been demonstrated to inhibit cytokine signaling, is induced on TCR ligation. Overexpression of SOCS-3 can inhibit transcription driven by the IL-2 promoter in response to T cell activation. This inhibitory activity correlates with the suppression of calcineurin-dependent dephosphorylation and activation of the IL-2 promoter binding transcription factor, NFATp. Infection of primary murine T cells with a retrovirus encoding SOCS-3 blocks their IL-2 production in response to activation. Interestingly, SOCS-3 was found to coimmunoprecipitate with the catalytic subunit of calcineurin. These studies suggest that SOCS-3 may regulate T cell function as part of a negative feedback loop.
Maintaining results from security assessments

Security assessments are cosily and lime consuming and cannot be carried out from scratch each lime a system is updated or modified This motivates the need for specific methodology addressing the maintenance Of assessment results, in particular, and a component-oriented approach to security assessment in general This paper presents such a methodology in the selling of model-based security assessment as developed by the EU-project CORAS. The main focus is on the maintenance part.
Linear Output Feedback Control of a Three-Pole Magnetic Bearing

The design and implementation of linear and nonlinear control methods for a three-pole active magnetic bearing (AMB) is presented in this paper. It is shown that the system has nearly linear dynamics by adding a bias to coil currents. A decentralized PID feedback law and an integral sliding mode controller are proposed and the unknown state variables of the system are estimated by the Kalman filter. The optimal gains of the linear controller are determined by the LQG technique. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers, they are implemented on an experimental setup. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can effectively stabilize the three-pole AMB. The simplicity of the feedback law, computation time, and inherent robustness of the PID method, which makes it less sensitive to unmatched system uncertainties, are the advantages of the linear controller compared to integral sliding mode method studied in this paper.
L-Shape Model Switching-Based Precise Motion Tracking of Moving Vehicles Using Laser Scanners

Detection and tracking of moving objects is one of the most essential functions of autonomous cars. In order to estimate the dynamic information of a moving object accurately, laser scanners are widely used for their highly accurate distance data. However, these data only represent the surface of an object facing the sensor and changes the appearance of an object over time. This change produces unexpected tracking errors of estimated dynamic states. In this paper, in order to minimize the tracking error caused by appearance changes, a tracking algorithm based on L-shaped model switching is proposed. The suggested algorithm is validated in real traffic experiments where position, velocity, and heading angle error were measured by using precise GPS. The L-shape tracking algorithm successfully mitigated the effect of appearance changes and improved estimation performance.
Staged stent-assisted angioplasty for symptomatic intracranial vertebrobasilar artery stenosis.

OBJECT Medically refractory symptomatic vertebrobasilar atherosclerotic disease has a poor prognosis. Studies have shown that longer (> or = 10 mm), eccentric, high-grade (> 70%) stenoses portend increased procedure-related morbidity. The authors reviewed their experience to determine whether a staged procedure consisting of angioplasty followed by delayed (> or = 1 month later) repeated angioplasty and stent placement reduces the morbidity associated with endovascular treatment of symptomatic basilar and/or intracranial vertebral artery (VA) stenoses. METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records in a consecutive series of eight patients who underwent planned stent-assisted angioplasty for medically refractory, symptomatic atherosclerotic disease of the intracranial posterior circulation between February 1999 and January 2002. Staged stent-assisted angioplasty was planned for these patients because the extent and degree of stenosis of the VA and/or basilar artery (BA) lesion portended an excessive procedure-related risk. The degree of stenosis, recent onset of symptoms (unstable plaque), vessel tortuosity, and lesion length and morphological feaures were contributing factors in determining procedure-related risk. Patient records were analyzed for location and degree of stenosis, preprocedural regimen of antiplatelet and/or anticoagulation agents, devices used, procedure-related complications, and clinical and radiographic outcomes. Among the patients in whom staged stent-assisted angioplasty was planned, vessel dissection, which necessitated immediate stent placement, occurred during passage of the balloon in one of them. In a second patient, the stent could not be maneuvered through the tortuous VA. In a third patient, the VA and BAs remained widely patent after angioplasty alone, and therefore stent placement was not required. Significant complications among the eight patients included transient aphasia and hemiparesis in one and a groin hematoma that necessitated surgical intervention in another; there was no permanent neurological morbidity. The mean stenosis before treatment was 78%, which fell to 54% after angioplasty, and the mean residual stenosis after stent placement was 30%. At the last follow-up examination, none of the treated patients had further symptoms attributable to the treated stenosis. CONCLUSIONS The novel combination of initial angioplasty followed by delayed endoluminal stent placement may reduce the neurological morbidity associated with endovascular treatment of long, high-grade stenotic lesions. Attempting to cross high-grade stenoses with higher-profile devices such as stents may result in an embolic shower. Furthermore, neointimal proliferation and scar formation after angioplasty result in a thickened fibrous layer, which may be protective during delayed stent deployment. Larger-scale studies involving multiple centers are needed to elucidate further the lesion morphological characteristics and patient population most likely to benefit from staged procedures.
Matching Cross-linked Peptide Spectra: Only as Good as the Worse Identification*

Chemical cross-linking mass spectrometry identifies interacting surfaces within a protein assembly through labeling with bifunctional reagents and identifying the covalently modified peptides. These yield distance constraints that provide a powerful means to model the three-dimensional structure of the assembly. Bioinformatic analysis of cross-linked data resulting from large protein assemblies is challenging because each cross-linked product contains two covalently linked peptides, each of which must be correctly identified from a complex matrix of potential confounders. Protein Prospector addresses these issues through a complementary mass modification strategy in which each peptide is searched and identified separately. We demonstrate this strategy with an analysis of RNA polymerase II. False discovery rates (FDRs) are assessed via comparison of cross-linking data to crystal structure, as well as by using a decoy database strategy. Parameters that are most useful for positive identification of cross-linked spectra are explored. We find that fragmentation spectra generally contain more product ions from one of the two peptides constituting the cross-link. Hence, metrics reflecting the quality of the spectral match to the less confident peptide provide the most discriminatory power between correct and incorrect matches. A support vector machine model was built to further improve classification of cross-linked peptide hits. Furthermore, the frequency with which peptides cross-linked via common acylating reagents fragment to produce diagnostic, cross-linker-specific ions is assessed. The threshold for successful identification of the cross-linked peptide product depends upon the complexity of the sample under investigation. Protein Prospector, by focusing the reliability assessment on the least confident peptide, is better able to control the FDR for results as larger complexes and databases are analyzed. In addition, when FDR thresholds are calculated separately for intraprotein and interprotein results, a further improvement in the number of unique cross-links confidently identified is achieved. These improvements are demonstrated on two previously published cross-linking datasets.
Prolonged Infusion of Tetrodotoxin Does Not Block Mossy Fiber Sprouting in Pilocarpine‐treated Rats

Summary: Purpose: Mossy fiber sprouting is a common abnormality found in patients and models of temporal lobe epilepsy. The role of mossy fiber sprouting in epileptogenesis is unclear, and its blockade would be useful experimentally and perhaps therapeutically. Results from previous attempts to block mossy fiber sprouting have been disappointing or controversial. In some brain regions, prolonged application of the sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin prevents axon sprouting and posttrauma epileptogenesis. The present study tested the hypothesis that prolonged, focal infusion of tetrodotoxin would block mossy fiber sprouting after an epileptogenic treatment.
Use of the SF-36v2 Health Survey as a Screen for Risk of Major Depressive Disorder in a US Population-based Sample and Subgroup With Chronic Pain

Study Objectives: To assess the feasibility of using the SF-36v2 mental health (MH) and mental component summary (MCS) scores for classification of risk for major depressive disorder (MDD), and to determine cut-off scores based on the sensitivity and specificity in a general US representative sample, and a chronic pain subpopulation. Methods: Data were analyzed from the 2013 US National Health and Wellness Survey (adults 18 y old and above; N=75,000), and among a chronic pain subpopulation (n=6679). Risk of MDD was a score ≥10 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Logistic regression modeling was used to predict at risk for MDD and receiver operating characteristic curves were produced. Results: The total sample had MH scores of 48.8 and MCS scores of 48.9, similar to the normative US population mean. Percent of respondents with a PHQ-9≥10 were 15.0% and 29.1% for the total sample and chronic pain subpopulation, respectively. Cut-off scores (PHQ-9≥10) in the total sample for the MH and MCS were 43.0 and 46.0, respectively. Specificities for the MH and MCS were 77.8% and 76.1%; sensitivities were 84.9% and 88.1%, respectively. Among the subpopulation with chronic pain, cut-off scores for the MH and MCS were 40.4 and 43.1, respectively. Corresponding specificities for the MH and MCS were 77.9% and 73.9%; sensitivities were 78.3% and 83.4%, respectively. Conclusions: The SF-36v2 was found to have sufficient specificity and sensitivity to categorize participants at risk for MDD. If no depression questionnaire is available, it is feasible to use the SF-36v2 to characterize the MH of populations.
Improvement of spot welding control system

This paper deals with the control improvement of a middle-frequency resistance spot welding system. This is achieved by a combined closed-loop control of the welding current and closed-loop control of the iron core saturation level. The proposed control assures a very short rise time of the welding current and the best possible utilization of the transformer iron core.
Two Signal Transduction Pathways Involved in the Catecholaminergic Differentiation of Avian Neural Crest-Derived Cells In Vitro


Molecules derived from the neural tube and found in chick embryo extract (CEE) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) support the differentiation of neural crest-derived catecholaminergic (CA) neurons. We now report that intracellular signaling resulting in the activation of Map kinase (MapK) or translocation of Smad1 mediate the differentiation of CA neurons in response to CEE or BMP 4, respectively. The differentiation of CA neurons was significantly reduced by inhibiting MapK using PD98059 or by pan-specific blockade of tyrosine kinases using Herbimycin A. In the presence of BMP 4 and inhibitors of MapK signaling, differentiation of CA neurons was only moderately reduced. Independent of MapK, BMP 4 induced translocation of Smad1 from the cytosol to the nucleus and induced transcription of dHAND, a DNA binding protein required for the differentiation of CA neurons. The data suggest that CEE-derived factors and BMP4 support the differentiation of CA neurons via independent signaling pathways.
Does marital status impact survival and quality of life in patients with non-small cell lung cancer? Observations from the mayo clinic lung cancer cohort.

PURPOSE Previous studies have found that marriage is associated with longer survival and better quality of life among lung cancer patients. The present study used the Mayo Clinic Lung Cancer Cohort to re-examine this issue. METHODS In total, 5,898 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, who had available information on marital status and who had been enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Lung Cancer Cohort (MCLCC), were the focus of this study. Patients had extensive baseline and follow-up data on cancer stage, cancer treatment, and prognostic factors. All patients had been followed within the MCLCC with at least annual confirmation of vital status and patient-reported quality of life (the Lung Cancer Symptom Scale and the Linear Analogue Scales of Assessment). RESULTS The numbers of patients who were married, single, divorced, and widowed at the time of cancer diagnosis were 4,457 (76%), 265 (4%), 440 (7%), and 736 (12%), respectively. No statistically significant difference in survival was observed among these four groups, even after adjusting for a variety of prognostic factors, such as age, gender, and tumor stage. However, exploratory analyses suggested that widowed and divorced patients received less aggressive cancer therapy, and certain patient subgroups, such as stage IA widowed patients, had a shorter survival. Divorced patients reported greater financial concerns, and married and widowed patients reported greater spirituality and better social support. CONCLUSION This study did not observe differences in survival or quality of life based on marital status at the time of diagnosis of NSCLC, but subgroup analyses appear to suggest findings worthy of further exploration.
Geneology Pattern Classifier Technique to Analysis Frequently Changing Uncertain Attribute Mining in Foreign Exchange Trading

Data mining is the process of detect and examine the reliable patterns from large data sets in data base. Data mining method is developed for discovering the useful information which determines significant pattern and rules. In data management, mining the uncertain data is a major concern due to the indefinite nature of the data. Existing system was presented a technique as Multi-viewpoint-based similarity measure for efficient clustering. In this method, two clustering criterion functions are described for multi-viewpoint based similarity measure. The existing method utilizes many different viewpoints, when the objects are not in the same cluster with the two objects being measured. The similarity measurement is effectively done while using of multiple view points based clustering. However, the existing cluster model properties are fixed. In order to overcome these problems, we propose a technique for analyzing frequently changing uncertain attribute mining in foreign exchange trading based on geneology pattern classifier technique. In this method, document categorization is developed to classify the documents into groups based on the criterion. The geneology pattern classifier technique is combined with probabilistic database to select the frequently changing attributes. Finally, the uncertain attributes are extracted from the groups of documents
Work hours, sleep patterns and fatigue among merchant marine personnel

SUMMARY A field study of work and sleep patterns among commercial merchant marine personnel is reported. Data collected over a 10‐30‐d period from 141 subjects aboard eight ships included information concerning work‐rest schedules, sleep timing, alertness on the job and critical fatigue. The data indicate that watchstanders on the 4‐on, 8‐off schedule show considerable disruption in their sleep. The average sleep duration for all mariners is 6.6 h; watchstanders obtain their sleep in fragmented periods that are frequently less than 5 h in duration. Analysis of critical fatigue shows an incidence of 1‐24% across personnel and measures. Of particular concern are the watchstanders on the 04.00‐08.00 schedule, who sleep less than 4 h per 24‐h period 22% of the time. Potential countermeasures, including changes in scheduling and staffing are proposed.