Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of physical activity on reducing the risk of diabetic retinopathy progression: 10-year prospective findings from the 45 and Up Study

Objective To examine the association of physical activities (PA) with diabetic retinopathy (DR) progression based on a 10-year follow-up of a large cohort of working-aged diabetic populations in Australia. Methods Nine thousand and eighteen working-aged diabetic patients were enrolled from the baseline of the 45 and Up Study from New South Wales, Australia. Self-reported PA collected by questionnaire at baseline in 2006 was graded into low (<5 sessions/week), medium (≥5–14), and high (≥14) levels. Retinal photocoagulation (RPC) treatment during the follow-up period was used as a surrogate for DR progression and was tracked through the Medicare Benefits Schedule, which was available from 2004 to 2016. Cox regression was used to estimate the association between PA and RPC incidence. Results In the fully adjusted model, higher PA level was significantly associated with a lower risk of RPC incident (Cox-regression, p-value for trend = 0.002; medium vs. low, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.78, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.61–0.98; high vs. low, HR = 0.61, 95%CI: 0.36–0.84. In addition, gender, body mass index, insulin treatment, family history of diabetes, history of cardiovascular disease were significant effect modifiers for the association between PA and RPC. Conclusions Higher PA level was independently associated with a lower risk of DR progression among working-aged diabetic populations in this large cohort study.
The clinical suspicion of a leaking intrathoracic esophagogastric anastomosis: the role of CT imaging

Background CT imaging is the primary diagnostic approach to assess the integrity of the intrathoracic anastomosis following Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. In the postoperative setting interpretation of CT findings, such as air and fluid collections, may be challenging. Establishment of a scoring system that incorporates CT findings to diagnose anastomotic leakage could assist radiologists and surgeons in the postoperative phase. Methods Consecutive patients who underwent a CT scan for a clinical suspicion of postoperative anastomotic leakage following Ivor Lewis esophagectomy between 2010 and 2016 in two medical centers were retrospectively included. Scans were excluded when oral contrast was not (correctly) administered. Acquired images were randomized and independently assessed by two experienced gastrointestinal radiologists, blinded for clinical information. For this study anastomotic leakage was defined as a visible defect during endoscopy or thoracotomy. Results A total of 80 patients had 101 CT scans, resulting in 32 scans with a confirmed anastomotic leak (25 patients). After multivariable backward stepwise logistic regression, a practical 5-point scoring system was developed, which included the following CT findings: presence of extraluminal oral contrast, air collection at the anastomotic site, fluid collection at the anastomotic site, pneumothorax and loculated pleural effusion. Patients with a score of ≥3 were considered at high risk for anastomotic leakage (positive predictive value: 83.3%), patients with scores <3 were considered at low risk for anastomotic leakage (negative predictive value: 84.4%). The scoring system showed a superior diagnostic performance compared to the original CT report and blinded interpretation of two radiologists. Conclusions Our CT-based practical scoring system enables a standardized approach in CT assessment and could facilitate early recognition of anastomotic leakage in patients after Ivor Lewis esophagectomy.
A R-Script for Generating Multiple Sclerosis Lesion Pattern Discrimination Plots

One significant characteristic of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, is the evolution of highly variable patterns of white matter lesions. Based on geostatistical metrics, the MS-Lesion Pattern Discrimination Plot reduces complex three- and four-dimensional configurations of MS-White Matter Lesions to a well-arranged and standardized two-dimensional plot that facilitates follow-up, cross-sectional and medication impact analysis. Here, we present a script that generates the MS-Lesion Pattern Discrimination Plot, using the widespread statistical computing environment R. Input data to the script are Nifti-1 or Analyze-7.5 files with individual MS-White Matter Lesion masks in Montreal Normal Brain geometry. The MS-Lesion Pattern Discrimination Plot, variogram plots and associated fitting statistics are output to the R console and exported to standard graphics and text files. Besides reviewing relevant geostatistical basics and commenting on implementation details for smooth customization and extension, the paper guides through generating MS-Lesion Pattern Discrimination Plots using publicly available synthetic MS-Lesion patterns. The paper is accompanied by the R script LDPgenerator.r, a small sample data set and associated graphics for comparison.
Perceived Decisional Control as a Mediator between Moving to Assisted Living Due to Caregiver Burden and Relocation Adjustment.

ABSTRACT Objectives The rapid growth of the older population in the United States has led to increased utilization of assisted living facilities (ALFs), and it is important to understand what factors may facilitate better adjustment. This study examined the mediating role of perceived decisional control in the relationship between moving to assisted living (AL) to prevent/alleviate caregiver burden and post-relocation adjustment. Methods Participants were 91 newly-transitioned residents of ALFs in Alabama and Maryland. Data were gathered through in-person interviews and questionnaires. Mediation analyses were done using the PROCESS macro for SPSS, applying 5,000 bootstrap resamples with 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals estimated around the indirect effect. Results The effect of moving to AL to prevent/alleviate caregiver burden on post-relocation depression and socialization was indirect and dependent on the degree of perceived decisional control. Conclusions Perceived decisional control may be a key factor in adjusting to AL, even when the move is catalyzed by such a complex and emotionally laden construct as caregiver burden. Clinical Implications Greater perceived decisional control over potential relocation may facilitate better adjustment, and other parties involved in the decision-making process should strive to involve the older adult in question in this process to the greatest extent possible.
Does the Hispanic Mortality Advantage Vary by Marital Status Among Postmenopausal Women in the Women's Health Initiative?

BACKGROUND Literature assessing the effect of marital status on mortality has underrepresented, or altogether omitted Hispanics and the potential moderating effect of Hispanic ethnicity on these relationships. Given cultural and network dynamics, marital advantages in older Hispanic women may be greater than other groups given their family-focused, collectivist orientation. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to understand whether older Hispanic women exhibited a more pronounced marital advantage as compared with non-Hispanic Whites. METHODS We used longitudinal data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study and Clinical Trials (N = 161,808) collected initially from 1993 to 1998 and followed until 2018. Our sample excluded those respondents indicating "other" as their race-ethnicity and those missing marital status and race-ethnicity variables (N = 158,814). We used Cox-proportional hazards models to assess the association between race-ethnicity, marital status, and the interactive effect of race-ethnicity and marital status on survival. RESULTS After controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and health controls, we found a Hispanic survival advantage when compared with non-Hispanic Whites and all other racial-ethnic groups with the exception of Asian/Pacific Islander women (all significant HRs < 0.78, all ps ≤ 0.001). Hispanics had a higher rate of divorce when compared with non-Hispanic Whites. The interactive effect of race-ethnicity and marital status was not significant. CONCLUSIONS U.S. Hispanic, postmenopausal women exhibit a mortality advantage over and above marital status despite their high rates of divorce. Implications and potential explanations are discussed. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT00000611.
Identification and characterization of novel ACD variants: modulation of TPP1 protein level offsets the impact of germline loss-of-function variants on telomere length

Telomere biology disorders, largely characterized by telomere lengths below the first centile for age, are caused by variants in genes associated with telomere replication, structure, or function. One of these genes, ACD, which encodes the shelterin protein TPP1, is associated with both autosomal dominantly and autosomal recessively inherited telomere biology disorders. TPP1 recruits telomerase to telomeres and stimulates telomerase processivity. Several studies probing the effect of various synthetic or patient-derived variants have mapped specific residues and regions of TPP1 that are important for interaction with TERT, the catalytic component of telomerase. However, these studies have come to differing conclusions regarding ACD haploinsufficiency. Here, we report a proband with compound heterozygous novel variants in ACD (NM_001082486.1)—c. 505_507delGAG, p.(Glu169del); and c.619delG, p.(Asp207Thrfs*22)—and a second proband with a heterozygous chromosomal deletion encompassing ACD: arr[hg19] 16q22.1(67,628,846-67,813,408)x1. Clinical data, including symptoms and telomere length within the pedigrees, suggested that loss of one ACD allele was insufficient to induce telomere shortening or confer clinical features. Further analyses of lymphoblastoid cell lines showed decreased nascent ACD RNA and steady-state mRNA, but normal TPP1 protein levels, in cells containing heterozygous ACD c.619delG, p.(Asp207Thrfs*22), or the ACD-encompassing chromosomal deletion compared to controls. Based on our results, we conclude that cells are able to compensate for loss of one ACD allele by activating a mechanism to maintain TPP1 protein levels, thus maintaining normal telomere length.
Reducing the Use of Mechanical Restraints in the Medical–Surgical Department

BACKGROUND: The most crucial discussion in psychiatric hospitals is the safety of patients, especially during incidents that have the potential to cause physical harm such as those where mechanical restraints are used. AIM: The goal of the project was to reduce the use of mechanical restraints by 25% within 10 weeks in two piloted medical–surgical units. METHOD: A total of 60 articles were examined for relevance; out of these, the author used 30 studies that were based on observational, literature review, quantitative analysis, or clinical trial methodologies to conduct a comprehensive literature review. The author used a retrospective and descriptive design of chart review data collection to implement the project. The six core strategies framework, coupled with the creation of mental health championship role, was implemented to mitigate the problem. RESULTS: This study shows that the implementation of the six core strategies and the role of a mental health champion helped reduce the use of mechanical restraints by 100%. CONCLUSION: A total of 3,072 patients’ charts were reviewed in which there were three PERT (Psychiatric Emergency Response Team) activation and no mechanical restraint events, which showed a considerable quality improvement compared to the pre-implementation data collection of 37 PERT and 14 mechanical restraint events. The implications for practice and further study in the field are the involvement of more authors with similar expertise, the use of a control group for comparison, and a longer length of study duration.
A scaling PNO–MP2 method using a hybrid OSV–PNO approach with an iterative direct generation of OSVs†

We present an implementation of pair natural orbital second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory with computational costs that scale only cubically with the system size. The low cost-scaling is achieved by combining a hybrid approach, where the pair natural orbitals are build from orbital-specific virtuals OSVs, with an iterative block Davidson algorithm for solving the equations for OSVs. We thereby avoid a complete diagonalisation of amplitude matrices and the explicit construction of the corresponding exchange integral matrices. This reduces the cost-scaling for the generation of the OSVs and of the pair natural orbitals to without a priori assumptions about locality. The costs can be further reduced by combining the approach with a local resolution-of-the-identity approximation for the exchange integrals. The errors introduced by these approximations are negligible and do not affect the final accuracy of the correlation energy. Test calculations on a set of organic and inorganic molecules demonstrate that the additional errors are at least one order of magnitude smaller than the truncation error for the pair natural orbital space and that the accuracies for all steps can be controlled by a single threshold parameter. Calculations on glycine chains with n = 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 in the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set reveal an early break even point between the -scaling and the non-iterative -scaling implementation that uses a full diagonalisation and with canonical RI-MP2. We present applications to systems, which are of interest in the field of nano machines: a fullerene acceptor system with over 8000 basis functions and a foldamer with nearly 8000 basis functions.
Post-traumatic stress disorder as a moderator of transdiagnostic, residential eating disorder treatment outcome trajectory.

OBJECTIVE Residential treatment for severe eating disorders (EDs) is associated with primarily positive outcomes. However, less is known about the moderators of treatment response. Comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis is associated with increased ED symptom severity. This study investigated whether PTSD moderated outcomes of transdiagnostic, residential ED treatment based upon the Unified Protocol. METHOD Female patients (N = 1055) in residential ED treatment completed a clinical interview to assess PTSD diagnosis and self-reported ED, depression, and anxiety symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness. We tested whether PTSD moderated trajectories of symptom change from treatment admission to discharge and 6-month follow-up using multilevel models. RESULTS PTSD moderated change in ED symptoms, depression severity, and experiential avoidance. Patients with PTSD showed steeper symptom improvements from admission to discharge. However, PTSD was associated with greater symptom recurrence after residential treatment. CONCLUSIONS Patients with comorbid PTSD demonstrated more improvement during residential treatment, but experienced steeper posttreatment symptom recurrence.
Dispersal history of Miniopterus fuliginosus bats and their associated viruses in east Asia

In this study, we examined the role of the eastern bent-winged bat (Miniopterus fuliginosus) in the dispersion of bat adenovirus and bat alphacoronavirus in east Asia, considering their gene flows and divergence times (based on deep-sequencing data), using bat fecal guano samples. Bats in China moved to Jeju Island and/or Taiwan in the last 20,000 years via the Korean Peninsula and/or Japan. The phylogenies of host mitochondrial D-loop DNA was not significantly congruent with those of bat adenovirus (m2XY = 0.07, p = 0.08), and bat alphacoronavirus (m2XY = 0.48, p = 0.20). We estimate that the first divergence time of bats carrying bat adenovirus in five caves studied (designated as K1, K2, JJ, N2, and F3) occurred approximately 3.17 million years ago. In contrast, the first divergence time of bat adenovirus among bats in the 5 caves was estimated to be approximately 224.32 years ago. The first divergence time of bats in caves CH, JJ, WY, N2, F1, F2, and F3 harboring bat alphacoronavirus was estimated to be 1.59 million years ago. The first divergence time of bat alphacoronavirus among the 7 caves was estimated to be approximately 2,596.92 years ago. The origin of bat adenovirus remains unclear, whereas our findings suggest that bat alphacoronavirus originated in Japan. Surprisingly, bat adenovirus and bat alphacoronavirus appeared to diverge substantially over the last 100 years, even though our gene-flow data indicate that the eastern bent-winged bat serves as an important natural reservoir of both viruses.
Activation of an Effective Immune Response after Yellow Fever Vaccination Is Associated with the Genetic Background and Early Response of IFN-γ and CLEC5A

The yellow fever vaccine (YF17DD) is highly effective with a single injection conferring protection for at least 10 years. The YF17DD induces polyvalent responses, with a TH1/TH2 CD4+ profile, robust T CD8+ responses, and synthesis of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), culminating in high titers of neutralizing antibodies. Furthermore, C-type lectin domain containing 5A (CLEC5A) has been implicated in innate outcomes in other flaviviral infections. Here, we conducted a follow-up study in volunteers immunized with YF17DD, investigating the humoral response, cellular phenotypes, gene expression, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IFNG and CLEC5A, to clarify the role of these factors in early response after vaccination. Activation of CLEC5A+ monocytes occurred five days after vaccination (DAV). Following, seven DAV data showed activation of CD4+ and CD8+T cells together with early positive correlations between type II IFN and genes of innate antiviral response (STAT1, STAT2, IRF7, IRF9, OAS1, and RNASEL) as well as antibody levels. Furthermore, individuals with genotypes rs2430561 AT/AA, rs2069718 AG/AA (IFNG), and rs13237944 AC/AA (CLEC5A), exhibited higher expression of IFNG and CLEC5A, respectively. Together, we demonstrated that early IFN-γ and CLEC5A responses, associated with rs2430561, rs2069718, and rs13237944 genotypes, may be key mechanisms in the long-lasting immunity elicited by YF17DD.
Recent Advances in Photodynamic Therapy for Deep-Seated Tumors with the Aid of Nanomedicine

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) works through photoactivation of a specific photosensitizer (PS) in a tumor in the presence of oxygen. PDT is widely applied in oncology to treat various cancers as it has a minimally invasive procedure and high selectivity, does not interfere with other treatments, and can be repeated as needed. A large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and singlet oxygen is generated in a cancer cell during PDT, which destroys the tumor effectively. However, the efficacy of PDT in treating a deep-seated tumor is limited due to three main reasons: Limited light penetration depth, low oxygen concentration in the hypoxic core, and poor PS accumulation inside a tumor. Thus, PDT treatments are only approved for superficial and thin tumors. With the advancement of nanotechnology, PDT to treat deep-seated or thick tumors is becoming a reachable goal. In this review, we provide an update on the strategies for improving PDT with nanomedicine using different sophisticated-design nanoparticles, including two-photon excitation, X-ray activation, targeting tumor cells with surface modification, alteration of tumor cell metabolism pathways, release of therapeutic gases, improvement of tumor hypoxia, and stimulation of host immunity. We focus on the difficult-to-treat pancreatic cancer as a model to demonstrate the influence of advanced nanomedicine in PDT. A bright future of PDT application in the treatment of deep-seated tumors is expected.
INFLUENCE OF AGGREGATE SIZE OF EUTRIC CAMBISOL AND GLEYIC PHAEOZEM ON EVAPORATION

This work presents results of research on the influence of aggregate size of Eutric Cambisol and Gleyic Phaeozem on water evaporation from their surface for different external conditions. The results showed that evaporation from the surface of aggregated soils depends on the size of aggregates, i.e., in all the cases the rate of evaporation decreased with the increase of aggregate size. The decrease of evaporation was bigger for the aggregates of Gleyic Phaeozem than Eutric Cambisol, especially for high evaporativity.
Distinct Oxidative Damage of Biomolecules by Arrays of Metals Mobilized from Different Types of Airborne Particulate Matters; SRM1648, Fine (PM 2.5 ), and Coarse (PM 10 ) Fractions

This study was performed to examine the in vitro toxicities which are incurred due to the mobilization metals from standard reference material (SRM) 1648, fine (PM 2.5), and coarse (PM10) particulate matter collected in Seoul metropolitan area. DNA single strand breaks of approximately 74% and 62% for PM2.5 and for PM10, respectively, were observed in the presence of chelator (EDTA or citrate)/ reductant (ascorbate), as compared to the control by 2% without chelator or reductant. PM2.5 induced about 40% more carbonyl formation with proteins in the presence of EDTA/ascorbate than PM10. Therefore, more damage to biomolecules was incurred upon exposure to PM2.5 than to PM10. The treatment of a specific chelator, desferrioxamine, to the reaction mixture containing chelator plus reductant decreased the extent of damage to DNA to the level of the control, but did not substantially decrease the extent of damage to proteins. This suggests that different arrays of metals were involved in the oxidation of DNA and proteins.
Increased Heschl’s Gyrus Duplication in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Cross-Sectional MRI Study

Duplicated Heschl’s gyrus (HG) is prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and may reflect early neurodevelopmental anomalies. However, it currently remains unclear whether patients with schizotypal disorder, a prototypic disorder within the schizophrenia spectrum, exhibit a similar HG gyrification pattern. In this magnetic resonance imaging study, HG gyrification patterns were examined in 47 patients with schizotypal disorder, 111 with schizophrenia, and 88 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. HG gyrification patterns were classified as single, common stem duplication (CSD), or complete posterior duplication (CPD). The prevalence of the duplicated HG patterns (CSD or CPD) bilaterally was higher in the schizophrenia and schizotypal groups than in healthy controls, whereas no significant difference was observed between the schizophrenia and schizotypal groups. Schizophrenia patients with the right CPD pattern had less severe positive symptoms, whereas the right single HG pattern was associated with higher doses of antipsychotic medication in schizotypal patients. The present study demonstrated shared HG gyrification patterns in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, which may reflect a common biological vulnerability factor. HG patterns may also be associated with susceptibility to psychopathology.