Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haemostatic activation in post-menopausal women taking low-dose hormone therapy: Less effect with transdermal administration?

Summary Hormone therapy (HT) increases the risk of cardiovascular and thromboembolic disease in post-menopausal women. Recent studies have suggested that prothrombotic mechanisms are likely to be involved. Transdermal HT avoids the first-pass effect of oestrogen in the liver and may have a less marked effect on the haemostatic system than equivalent oral preparations. The majority of studies have compared HT preparations that have different formulations as well as routes of administration. We investigated changes in the haemostatic system in post-menopausal women using two pharmacologically similar HT preparations, which differed only in their route of administration. Three hundred forty-four healthy post-menopausal women were randomised to six months treatment with either a transdermal matrix patch containing 25 µg 17 β -estradiol/125 µg norethisterone acetate (NETA) applied every 3–4 days, or an equivalent oral preparation (estradiol 1mg and NETA 0.5 mg given once daily). Oral treatment significantly reduced fibrinogen (p<0.003), factor VIIc (FVIIc) (p<0.00001), and antithrombin (AT) levels (p<0.005); the effects in the transdermal group were less marked with no reduction in fibrinogen levels and lesser effect on FVIIc (p<0.03) compared with oral treatment. Treatment type significantly affected fibrinolysis with lower plasminanti- plasmin (PAP) levels in the transdermal group (p<0.003) and lower plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 antigen (PAI-1) (p<0.012) and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) antigen levels in the oral group (p<0.002). Prothrombin fragment 1.2 and activated protein C (APC) resistance were not affected by either treatment. Transdermal HT has a less marked effect on coagulation than an equivalent oral preparation. Randomised trials are required to investigate whether this translates into less risk of cardiovascular and thromboembolic disease.
Relationship Among Changes in Sedentary Time, Physical Activity, and Body Mass Index in Young Schoolchildren: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study.

PURPOSES To examine the association between sedentary time (ST) and light physical activity (LPA), moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA), and body mass index (BMI), and to track these behaviors over a 3-year follow-up in young schoolchildren. METHODS The final sample was 64 children (female: n = 36 or 56.3%), enrolled in schools in Porto, Portugal. Height and mass of children were measured by standard methods, and BMI was then calculated. ST, LPA, and MVPA were measured by accelerometer. Changes (Δ) and relative changes (Δ%) between 2009/2010 and 2012/2013 of ST, LPA, MVPA, and BMI were computed. Multiple linear regression analyses were fit to predict Δ%ST (outcome variable), by Δ%LPA, Δ%MVPA, and Δ%BMI (exposure variables). RESULTS ST increased and LPA decreased significantly for whole sample (both Ps < .05). No statistically significant difference was found for MVPA over time. There were no differences for ΔST, ΔLPA, ΔMVPA, and ΔBMI between boys and girls. The Δ%LPA and Δ%MVPA were negatively associated with Δ%ST, whereas Δ%BMI was positively associated. Tracking coefficients varied from moderate to strong. CONCLUSIONS Time spent in ST increases due to displacement of time in LPA. This reinforces public health measures and suggests the need for interventions focusing on offsetting the decline ST and increasing MVPA during childhood.
Biomarkers in acute kidney injury – pathophysiological basis and clinical performance

Various biomarkers of acute kidney injury (AKI) have been discovered and characterized in the recent past. These molecules can be detected in urine or blood and signify structural damage to the kidney. Clinically, they are proposed as adjunct diagnostics to serum creatinine and urinary output to improve the early detection, differential diagnosis and prognostic assessment of AKI. The most obvious requirements for a biomarker include its reflection of the underlying pathophysiology of the disease. Hence, a biomarker of AKI should derive from the injured kidney and reflect a molecular process intimately connected with tissue injury. Here, we provide an overview of the basic pathophysiology, the cellular sources and the clinical performance of the most important currently proposed biomarkers of AKI: neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin (NGAL), kidney injury molecule‐1 (KIM‐1), liver‐type fatty acid‐binding protein (L‐FABP), interleukin‐18 (IL‐18), insulin‐like growth factor‐binding protein 7 (IGFBP7), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP‐2) and calprotectin (S100A8/9). We also acknowledge each biomarker's advantages and disadvantages as well as important knowledge gaps and perspectives for future studies.
Optimal Differential Trails in SIMON-like Ciphers

In the present paper, we propose an automatic search algorithm for optimal differential trails in SIMON-like ciphers. First, we give a more accurate upper bound on the differential probability of SIMON-like round function. It is shown that when the Hamming weight of the input difference α , which is denoted by wt( α ), is less than one half of the input size, the corresponding maximum differential probability of SIMON-like round function is less than or equal to 2 −wt( α )−1 . Based on this, we adapt Matsui’s algorithm and propose an efficient algorithm for searching for optimal differential trails. With the proposed algorithm, we find the provably optimal differential trails for 12, 16, 19, 28 and 37 rounds of SIMON32/48/64/96/128. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that the provably optimal differential trails for SIMON64, SIMON96 and SIMON128 are reported. The provably optimal differential trails for 13, 19 and 25 rounds of SIMECK32/48/64 are also found respectively, which confirm the results given by Kolbl et al. [KR15]. Besides the optimal differential trails, we also find the 14, 17, 23, 31 and 41-round differentials for SIMON32/48/64/96/128, and 14, 21 and 27-round differentials for SIMECK32/48/64, respectively. As far as we know, these are the best differential distinguishers for SIMON and SIMECK so far. Compared with the approach based on SAT/SMT solvers used by K¨olbl et al., our algorithm is more efficient and more practical to evaluate the security against differential cryptanalysis in the design of SIMON-like ciphers.
Changes in Urinary Arsenic Methylation Profiles in a 15-Year Interval after Cessation of Arsenic Ingestion in Southwest Taiwan

Background Inorganic arsenic (iAs) is carcinogenic to humans. Methylated metabolites of arsenic (As) found in the urine could serve as potential tools for screening and early detection of cancer in populations exposed to As. Relatively little information is available regarding changes in As methylation profiles after cessation of As exposure. Objective We examined the changes in urinary arsenic (uAs) species profiles over 15 years in a cancer-free population that has ceased heavy and prolonged ingestion of As. Methods In 1989, a cohort study was carried out with 1,081 adults who resided in three villages in southwestern Taiwan where arseniasis was hyperendemic. After 15 years of follow-up, a subgroup of 205 cancer-free participants had completed all interviews and had uAs methylation data available. We used this group in our statistical analysis. Arsenic species were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometry. Results We compared the initial analyses from 1989 with those performed 15 years later and found that the average differences for the proportion of urinary iAs, monomethylarsonic acid (MMAV), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMAV) were −4.90%, −6.80%, and 11.69%, respectively. The elderly and those residents with longer periods of consuming high-As artesian well water exhibited greater changes (decreases) in %MMAV. Conclusion The As methylation profiles indicate increased efficiency in As metabolism in residents after cessation of long-term exposure to high-level As. Moreover, the decreased %MMAV was more pronounced in the elderly cancer-free subcohort subjects.
Body composition and other physical parameters as determinants of age at sexual maturity and performance efficiency in dwarf hens divergently selected for body weight.

Hens in this study were produced from random breeding within lines (high, low, and control) of dwarf White Leghorns that had been divergently selected for four generations for 20-week body weight. Birds were weighed at 10 weeks of age and placed in individual cages at 18 weeks of age. Body weights, shank lengths, and egg weights were obtained at sexual maturity (day of first egg) and at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks after sexual maturity. Egg production was recorded during 28-day periods. Thirty hens/line were sampled at sexual maturity and at the above times after sexual maturity for body composition (percent fat, protein, moisture, and ash). High line hens showed increased percent body fat and reduced percent protein and moisture compared to low and control hens. Coefficients of determination (R2) for age at sexual maturity and body weight were small (R2 less than or equal to .20) for high and control hens. There were no meaningful relationships between body weight or other physical measurements and sexual maturity in low hens. There were no significant relationships between body composition and age at sexual maturity in high and control hens. There was a strong cubic association (R2 = .73; P less than .001) between percent ash and age at sexual maturity in low hens, although the biological importance of this relationship was uncertain. Coefficients of determination between body weight and performance efficiency (egg mass per body weight) were small to moderate (R2 = .04 to .46) for high and control hens. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Exploiting the Potential of Standard Convolutional Autoencoders for Image Restoration by Evolutionary Search

Researchers have applied deep neural networks to image restoration tasks, in which they proposed various network architectures, loss functions, and training methods. In particular, adversarial training, which is employed in recent studies, seems to be a key ingredient to success. In this paper, we show that simple convolutional autoencoders (CAEs) built upon only standard network components, i.e., convolutional layers and skip connections, can outperform the state-of-the-art methods which employ adversarial training and sophisticated loss functions. The secret is to employ an evolutionary algorithm to automatically search for good architectures. Training optimized CAEs by minimizing the $\ell_2$ loss between reconstructed images and their ground truths using the ADAM optimizer is all we need. Our experimental results show that this approach achieves 27.8 dB peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) on the CelebA dataset and 40.4 dB on the SVHN dataset, compared to 22.8 dB and 33.0 dB provided by the former state-of-the-art methods, respectively.
Intravenous micro-particle injections and pulmonary hypertension in broiler chickens: acute post-injection mortality and ascites susceptibility.

Intravenously injected micro-particles become trapped within the pulmonary vasculature where they increase the resistance to blood flow and trigger pulmonary hypertension. We tested the hypothesis that i.v. micro-particle injections can be used to trigger acute (24 to 48 h) post-injection mortality in broilers having the most limited pulmonary vascular capacity, or ascites in broilers whose marginal cardiopulmonary capacity renders them susceptible to pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS). Progressive inflammation-associated responses were initiated within the lung parenchyma by 10 to 80 microm diameter dextran polymer (Sephadex) and 30 microm diameter cellulose micro-particles, leading to the scavenging of Sephadex micro-particles from the pulmonary vasculature by <5 d post-injection, whereas the cellulose micro-particles persisted for >7 d post-injection. The persistency and size of the cellulose apparently facilitated chronic occlusion of blood flow through precapillary arterioles, thereby triggering appreciable post-injection mortality and PHS at relatively low injection volumes (0.3 to 0.6 mL at 0.02 g/mL). In contrast, the small size of the polystyrene microspheres (15 microm), and the lack of persistency of the Sephadex micro-particles, apparently precluded the reliable occurrence of post-injection mortality or PHS until higher volumes (>0.8 mL at 0.02 g/mL) were injected. Values for the total susceptibility index (TSI: 24 to 48 h post-injection mortality + PHS mortality) following cellulose injections were higher for broilers reared at cool temperatures than at thermoneutral temperatures. The incidences of PHS induced by exposing broilers from different genetic lines to constant cool temperatures qualitatively paralleled the respective post-injection mortalities elicited by injecting the cellulose micro-particle suspension into the same lines. These observations indicate the micro-particle injection methodology potentially can replace unilateral pulmonary artery occlusion as the technique of choice for genetically selecting broilers that have a sufficiently robust pulmonary vascular capacity to resist the onset of pulmonary hypertension and PHS. The functional importance of the relative antigenicity of different micro-particle types, and the extent to which key immune-mediated responses, either beneficial or detrimental, might be co-selected by the micro-particle injection technology, remain to be clarified.
Depression of secondary immunity by high environmental temperature.

Abstract Young chickens, heated at temperatures of 41.7°–43.3°C. for 30 minute periods on the hour for four consecutive hours on the day following a secondary challenge with sheep red blood cells, produced lowered circulating agglutinins one day after heating but no effect was observed on the developing precipitin response to bovine serum albumin. When birds were similarly heated 24 hours after both> the primary and secondary challenges with the aforementioned antigens, developing primary antibody levels were depressed at least two days after treatment in the sheep red blood cell-challenged birds and at five days post-heating in the bovine serum albumin-challenged birds. Depression of developing secondary antibody levels occurred only at the one-day post-heat bleeding in the sheep red blood cell-challenged birds. Immunodepression of secondary precipitin responses was not observed.
Estimation of Neuromuscular Primitives from EEG Slow Cortical Potentials in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury Individuals for a New Class of Brain-Machine Interfaces

One of the current challenges in human motor rehabilitation is the robust application of Brain-Machine Interfaces to assistive technologies such as powered lower limb exoskeletons. Reliable decoding of motor intentions and accurate timing of the robotic device actuation is fundamental to optimally enhance the patient's functional improvement. Several studies show that it may be possible to extract motor intentions from electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. These findings, although notable, suggests that current techniques are still far from being systematically applied to an accurate real-time control of rehabilitation or assistive devices. Here we propose the estimation of spinal primitives of multi-muscle control from EEG, using electromyography (EMG) dimensionality reduction as a solution to increase the robustness of the method. We successfully apply this methodology, both to healthy and incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) patients, to identify muscle contraction during periodical knee extension from the EEG. We then introduce a novel performance metric, which accurately evaluates muscle primitive activations.
H5N1 NS genomic segment distinctly governs the influenza virus infectivity and cytokine induction in monocytic cells.

BACKGROUND The level of virulence of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus was higher than those of the other virus subtypes. It has been suggested that the nonstructural (NS) gene might be a factor contributing to H5N1 HPAI virulence. OBJECTIVES To determine the efficiency of the NS genomic segment of H5N1 HPAI virus on governing viral infectivity and cytokine induction in monocytic cells compared to other virus strain/subtypes. METHODS By reverse genetics, five reassortant influenza viruses carrying the NS genomic segment derived from seasonal influenza A(H1N1), 2009 pandemic A(H1N1), A(H3N2) or H5N1 HPAI virus in the backbone of A/Puerto Rico/8/34 H1N1 (PR8) virus were constructed together with the reassorted PR8 virus control, i.e., rgH1N1sea-NS, rgH1N1pdm-NS, rgH3N2-NS, rgH5N1-NS and rgPR8 viruses, respectively. These reverse genetics-derived viruses (rg-viruses) were used to infect monocytic cells for 24 hours prior to determining intracellular influenza nucleoprotein (NP) levels and cytokine induction by flow cytometry. RESULTS U937 cells were significantly more susceptible to rgPR8 control virus than THP-1 cells; thus, U937 cells were chosen for further study. The number of U937-infected cells (NP+ cells) and the numbers of infected cells that expressed IFN-α (NP+IFN-α+ cell) obtained with rgH5N1-NS virus infection were significantly higher than the others, except for cells infected with the rgH1N1pdm-NS virus. Nevertheless, the numbers of U937 cells that expressed NP+IL-1β+ were comparable upon infection with any of the rg-viruses; almost none expressed TNF-α. CONCLUSIONS The H5N1 NS genomic segment distinctly up-regulated the viral infectivity and induction of IFN-α compared to the rgPR8, rgH1N1sea-NS and rgH3N2-NS viruses.
Twenty Years of AIRE

About two decades ago, cloning of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene materialized one of the most important actors on the scene of self-tolerance. Thymic transcription of genes encoding tissue-specific antigens (ts-ags) is activated by AIRE protein and embodies the essence of thymic self-representation. Pathogenic AIRE variants cause the autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1, which is a rare and complex disease that is gaining attention in research on autoimmunity. The animal models of disease, although not identically reproducing the human picture, supply fundamental information on mechanisms and extent of AIRE action: thanks to its multidomain structure, AIRE localizes to chromatin enclosing the target genes, binds to histones, and offers an anchorage to multimolecular complexes involved in initiation and post-initiation events of gene transcription. In addition, AIRE enhances mRNA diversity by favoring alternative mRNA splicing. Once synthesized, ts-ags are presented to, and cause deletion of the self-reactive thymocyte clones. However, AIRE function is not restricted to the activation of gene transcription. AIRE would control presentation and transfer of self-antigens for thymic cellular interplay: such mechanism is aimed at increasing the likelihood of engagement of the thymocytes that carry the corresponding T-cell receptors. Another fundamental role of AIRE in promoting self-tolerance is related to the development of thymocyte anergy, as thymic self-representation shapes at the same time the repertoire of regulatory T cells. Finally, AIRE seems to replicate its action in the secondary lymphoid organs, albeit the cell lineage detaining such property has not been fully characterized. Delineation of AIRE functions adds interesting data to the knowledge of the mechanisms of self-tolerance and introduces exciting perspectives of therapeutic interventions against the related diseases.
Asparagine and glutamine metabolism in chicks.

In a series of four experiments, asparaginase and glutaminase activity was measured in liver and kidney tissue of 7- to 19-day-old male broiler chicks. In Experiment 1, chicks were fed purified amino acid diets with 14.8 and 44.6% protein equivalents (PE) with 1, 3, or 5% added sodium bicarbonate. In Experiments 2, 3, and 4 the chicks were fed a 23% protein basal control diet, basal diet containing 5% ammonium chloride, and basal diet containing 5% ammonium chloride with 5 or 10% sodium bicarbonate, asparagine, or glutamine. In Experiments 2 and 4 the chicks were also fed 25, 50, or 75% protein-isolated soy-purified diets. The 44.6% PE diet increased liver and kidney asparaginase activity in chicks as compared to chicks fed a 14.8% PE diet. The addition of sodium bicarbonate to the 44.6% PE amino acid diet decreased the kidney asparaginase activity equivalent to kidney asparaginase activity of chicks fed the 14.8% PE diet. Asparaginase activity increased 4-fold in the kidneys of chicks fed the 23% protein basal diet containing 5% ammonium chloride and the pH of the urine from the chicks was 4.9. Chicks fed basal diets with 5% ammonium chloride plus 10% sodium bicarbonate or asparagine had the same kidney asparaginase activity and urine pH as chicks fed the 23% protein basal control diet. Glutamine added to chick diets containing 5% ammonium chloride did not decrease the kidney asparaginase activity or the urine acidity. Liver asparaginase activity was not increased in acidotic chicks fed diets with 5% ammonium chloride. The asparaginase activity of liver and kidney tissue were both significantly increased in chicks fed 75% protein-isolated soy purified diets and the pH of their urine was 5.6. The increase in liver asparaginase of chicks fed 75% protein or 44.5% PE diets was probably due to an endocrine gluconeogenic response producing increased catabolism of the majority of amino acids. The increase in kidney asparaginase of chicks fed 75% protein, 44.5% PE diets, and 23% protein basal diets with 5% ammonium chloride was primarily related to metabolic acidosis. Phosphate-dependent glutaminase (PDG) activity was localized in chick kidney mitochondria and was heat sensitive (55 C for 30 sec). The phosphate-independent glutaminase (PIG) activity was primarily localized in chick kidney mitochondria but was stable to a temperature of 55 C for 30 sec. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Dynamics of Driver's Gaze: Explorations in Behavior Modeling and Maneuver Prediction

The study and modeling of driver's gaze dynamics are important because, if and how the driver is monitoring the driving environment is vital for driver assistance in manual mode, for takeover requests in highly automated mode and for semantic perception of the surround in fully autonomous mode. We developed a machine vision-based framework to classify driver's gaze into context rich zones of interest and model driver's gaze behavior by representing gaze dynamics over a time period using gaze accumulation, glance duration, and glance frequencies. As a use case, we explore the driver's gaze dynamic patterns during maneuvers executed in freeway driving, namely, left lane change maneuver, right lane change maneuver, and lane keeping. It is shown that condensing gaze dynamics into durations and frequencies leads to recurring patterns based on driver activities. Furthermore, modeling these patterns show predictive powers in maneuver detection up to a few hundred milliseconds a priori.