Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
n-3 PUFA and obesity: from peripheral tissues to the central nervous system

Abstract The current paradigms of prevention and treatment are unable to curb obesity rates, which indicates the need to explore alternative therapeutic approaches. Obesity leads to several damages to the body and is an important risk factor for a number of other chronic diseases. Furthermore, despite the first alterations in obesity being observed and reported in peripheral tissues, studies indicate that obesity can also cause brain damage. Obesity leads to a chronic low-grade inflammatory state, and the therapeutic manipulation of inflammation can be explored. In this context, the use of n-3 PUFA (especially in the form of fish oil, rich in EPA and DHA) may be an interesting strategy, as this substance is known by its anti-inflammatory effect and numerous benefits to the body, such as reduction of TAG, cardiac arrhythmias, blood pressure and platelet aggregation, and has shown potential to help treat obesity. Thereby, the aim of this narrative review was to summarise the literature related to n-3 PUFA use in obesity treatment. First, the review provides a brief description of the obesity pathophysiology, including alterations that occur in peripheral tissues and at the central nervous system. In the sequence, we describe what are n-3 PUFA, their sources and their general effects. Finally, we explore the main topic linking obesity and n-3 PUFA. Animal and human studies were included and alterations on the whole organism were described (peripheral tissues and brain).
Prognostic parameters and outcome after re‐irradiation for progressive glioblastoma

In progressive glioblastoma, salvage treatment remains unstandardized, response is highly variable, and detailed analysis of individual approaches is mandatory. Re‐irradiation is an established option in the therapy of progressive glioblastoma. Thus, we analysed outcome and prognostic parameters of patients with re‐irradiated glioblastoma treated at our institution since 1998.
An Engineering-Economic Model for Analyzing Dairy Plug-Flow Anaerobic Digesters: Cost Structures and Policy Implications

Treating animal wastes through anaerobic digestion (AD) yields methane-rich biogas that can be used for power generation or heating, and a nutrient-rich digestate that can be land-applied as fertilizer. Furthermore, AD reduces odors from stored and land-applied manures. Despite these benefits, AD deployment rates in the U.S. are only 5% for dairy farms identified as suitable for AD by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The objective of this study was to analyze the economic and technical limitations of farm-scale anaerobic digesters using a simple model permitting insight into the fundamental constraints on the technology. A model was developed to determine the cost of methane produced via AD based on operation size. Dairy plug-flow systems were modeled because of their well-documented economic performance, and model validation used data from AgSTAR's FarmWare program. The analysis shows that farm size is critical to make digestion-derived methane cost-competitive with natural gas. At low herd sizes (<400 animals), carbon credits and odor reductions alone appear insufficient to overcome the low commercial energy rates in the U.S. However, moderate reductions in digester cost and interest rate, coupled with moderate increases in amortization period and/or natural gas prices, could make AD more competitive with commercial energy in the U.S. even at relatively small herd sizes (approx. 400 animals).
The ets gene family.

E26 Virus The oncogene v-ets was originally discovered as a component of a chimeric genome, along with a truncated vmyb gene, present in the genome of E26, an avian leukosis virus (1). E26 is a replication-defective retrovirus that transforms myeloblasts and erythroblasts in vitro and causes mixed erythroid-myeloid leukemia in vivo (2). The E26 virus expresses a 5.7-kb2 RNA that encodes a 1 35 kd tripartite gag-myb-ets nuclear phosphoprotein. In chicken, the ets-1 gene locus is distributed over 60 kb of genomic DNA and encompasses 10 distinct exons: I, II, A, and Ill-IX (Fig. 1) (3, 4). The chicken ets-1 gene is expressed as two protein products that are different at their amino termini and are generated as a result of alternative splicing (5). The p54ce1s.l product contains exon A fused to exons Ill-IX, whereas the p68 ls l product lacks exon A and contains exon I and II instead, fused to exons Ill-IX (Fig. 1). It has been shown that the chicken c-ets-1 (p68c l) protooncogene was transduced into the E26 virus by an abnormal splicing event that occurred between a cryptic splice donor site in c-myb exon VI and the splice acceptor site of exon I of the avian ets-1 protooncogene (4, 5). Thus, the p68c.els. l product appears to be the progenitor of v-ets and is colinear with v-ets, except for 1 3 carboxy-termmnal amino acids (4, 5).
The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Canadian Government: Folie à Deux

The interest of the pharmaceutical industry is in achieving a profit for its shareholders while the interest of the Canadian government should be in protecting public health. However, over the course of the past few decades the actions of the Canadian government have been tilted in favour of industry in two areas. The first is in the relationship between industry and Health Canada and is manifested in the regulation of clinical trials, the drug approval system, drug safety and promotion. The second is in economic policy as it applies to policies about patent protection, the price of medications and measures taken to incentivize research and development. The problems in the relationship are structural and will only be solved through systemic changes.
Comparison of Gadolinium-enhanced MRI and 18FDG PET/PET-CT for the diagnosis of brain metastases in lung cancer patients: A meta-analysis of 5 prospective studies

Objective We undertook this meta-analysis to compare the significance of Gadolinium-enhanced MRI and 18FDG PET/PET-CT for diagnosing brain metastases of lung cancer patients. Results Five articles comprising 941 patients were included for analysis. The sensitivities with 95% confidence interval for PET/PET-CT and MRI were 0.21 (0.13 − 0.32) and 0.77 (95% CI = 0.60 − 0.89), specificities were 1.00 (0.99 − 1.00) and 0.99 (0.97 − 1.00), and the areas under curve were 0.98 (0.96 − 0.89) and 0.97 (0.96 − 0.98). Materials and Methods A computerized literature search of studies was conducted in the Pubmed and Embase databases. Meta-analysis methods were used to calculate the sensitivities, specificities, likelihood ratios ratios, diagnostic odd ratios, and areas under summary receiver operating characteristic curves for PET/PET-CT and MRI, respectively. Conclusions The analysis suggested Gadolinium-enhanced MRI had higher sensitivity than 18FDG PET/PET-CT for the diagnosis of brain metastases in lung cancer. MRI may provide additional information to PET-CT for diagnosing brain metastatic lesions.
Deuterostome Genomics: Lineage-Specific Protein Expansions That Enabled Chordate Muscle Evolution

Abstract Fish‐like larvae were foundational to the chordate body plan, given the basal placement of free‐living lancelets. That body plan probably made it possible for chordate ancestors to swim by beating a tail formed of notochord and bilateral paraxial muscles. In order to investigate the molecular genetic basis of the origin and evolution of paraxial muscle, we deduced the evolutionary histories of 16 contractile protein genes from paraxial muscle, based on genomic data from all five deuterostome lineages, using a newly developed orthology identification pipeline and a species tree. As a result, we found that more than twice as many orthologs of paraxial muscle genes are present in chordates, as in nonchordate deuterostomes (ambulacrarians). Orthologs of paraxial‐type actin and troponin C genes are absent in ambulacrarians and most paraxial muscle protein isoforms diversified via gene duplications that occurred in each chordate lineage. Analyses of genes with known expression sites indicated that some isoforms were reutilized in specific muscles of nonvertebrate chordates via gene duplications. As orthologs of most paraxial muscle genes were present in ambulacrarians, in addition to expression patterns of related genes and functions of the two protein isoforms, regulatory mechanisms of muscle genes should also be considered in future studies of the origin of paraxial muscle.
Generalized Compensation Principle

Economic disruptions generally create winners and losers. The compensation problem consists of designing a reform of the existing income tax system that offsets the welfare losses of the latter by redistributing the gains of the former. We derive a formula for the compensating tax reform and its impact on the government budget when only distortionary tax instruments are available and wages are determined endogenously in general equilibrium. We apply this result to the compensation of robotization in the United States.
Influenza vaccination in the elderly

ABSTRACT Seasonal influenza is a prevalent and serious annual illness resulting in widespread morbidity and economic disruption throughout the population; the elderly and immunocompromised are particularly vulnerable to serious sequelae and mortality. The changing demographics worldwide to an aging society have important implications for public health policy and pharmaceutical innovations. For instance, primary prevention via immunization is effective in reducing the burden of influenza illness among the elderly. However, the elderly may be insufficiently protected by vaccination due to the immunosenescence which accompanies aging. In addition, vaccine hesitancy among the younger populations increases the likelihood of circulating infectious diseases, and thus concomitant exposure. While it is clear that the development of more immunogenic vaccines is an imperative and worthy endeavor, clinical trials continue to demonstrate that the current influenza vaccine formulation remains highly effective in reducing morbidity and mortality when well matched to circulating strains.
The Role of Non-Farm Incomes in Reducing Rural Poverty and Inequality in China

China’s record in reducing rural poverty has been nothing short of spectacular and should be a source of lessons for other countries. Rural poverty reduction is generally sought in the role of agriculture in contributing to farm incomes. However, non-farm employment in rural areas can also be a major contributor. Using detailed household survey data from Hubei province, we simulate the counterfactual of what rural households’ incomes, poverty, and inequality would be in the absence of access to non-farm sources of income. Results show that, without non-farm employment, rural poverty would be much higher and deeper, and that income inequality would be higher as well. We find that education, proximity to town, neighborhood effects, and village effects are crucial in helping particular households gain access to these opportunities. We also find that those who stay as pure farmers have non-observable characteristics that make them much more productive in agriculture, implying positive selection on these characteristics. Moreover, participation in non-farm activities has a positive spillover effect on household farm production.
Postoperative cognitive dysfunction and its relationship to cognitive reserve in elderly total joint replacement patients

ABSTRACT Whether total joint replacement (TJR) patients are susceptible to postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) remains unclear due to inconsistencies in research methodologies. Moreover, cognitive reserve may moderate the development of POCD after TJR, but has not been investigated in this context. The current study investigated POCD after TJR, and its relationship with cognitive reserve, using a more rigorous methodology than has previously been utilized. Fifty-three older adults (aged 50+) scheduled for TJR were assessed pre and post surgery (6 months). Forty-five healthy controls matched for age, gender, and premorbid IQ were re-assessed after an equivalent interval. Cognition, cognitive reserve, and physical and mental health were all measured. Standardized regression-based methods were used to assess cognitive changes, while controlling for the confounding effect of repeated cognitive testing. TJR patients only demonstrated a significant decline in Trail Making Test Part B (TMT B) performance, compared to controls. Cognitive reserve only predicted change in TMT B scores among a subset of TJR patients. Specifically, patients who showed the most improvement pre to post surgery had significantly higher reserve than those who showed the greatest decline. The current study provides limited evidence of POCD after TJR when examined using a rigorous methodology, which controlled for practice effects. Cognitive reserve only predicted performance within a subset of the TJR sample. However, the role of reserve in more cognitively compromised patients remains to be determined.
Highly-Reverberant Real Environment database: HRRE

Speech recognition in highly-reverberant real environments remains a major challenge. An evaluation dataset for this task is needed. This report describes the generation of the Highly-Reverberant Real Environment database (HRRE). This database contains 13.4 hours of data recorded in real reverberant environments and consists of 20 different testing conditions which consider a wide range of reverberation times and speaker-to-microphone distances. These evaluation sets were generated by re-recording the clean test set of the Aurora-4 database which corresponds to five loudspeaker-microphone distances in four reverberant conditions.
Automatic Identification of Closely-related Indian Languages: Resources and Experiments

In this paper, we discuss an attempt to develop an automatic language identification system for 5 closely-related Indo-Aryan languages of India, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj, Hindi and Magahi. We have compiled a comparable corpora of varying length for these languages from various resources. We discuss the method of creation of these corpora in detail. Using these corpora, a language identification system was developed, which currently gives state of the art accuracy of 96.48\%. We also used these corpora to study the similarity between the 5 languages at the lexical level, which is the first data-based study of the extent of closeness of these languages.
Evaluation of a Workplace-Based Sleep Education Program

Introduction: Poor sleep is common among working adults. Chronic sleep deprivation is associated with health problems. A healthy sleep educational program (using webinars and other intranet-based resources) was offered to employees of a financial services corporation. Methods: In 2015, a total of 357 employees (50% completion rate) completed both a pre- and post-program questionnaire assessing sleep quality and workplace productivity. Results: Many aspects of sleep statistically improved from T1 to T2 for program participants. These included improvements in hours of sleep, sleep quality, ease of getting asleep, feeling rested, nights of poor sleep, job performance, days of sleepiness, and others. Employees reporting any limitation in productivity also showed significant improvement. Conclusions: This workplace healthy sleep intervention was associated with significant improvements in sleep quality and quantity among program participants.
A novel BRCA2 mutation in prostate cancer sensitive to combined radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy

ABSTRACT Genetic factors contribute to more than 40% of prostate cancer risk, and mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 are well-established risk factors. By using target capture-based deep sequencing to identify potential pathogenic germline mutations, followed by Sanger sequencing to determine the loci of the mutations, we identified a novel pathogenic BRCA2 mutation caused by a cytosine-to-guanine base substitution at position 4211, resulting in protein truncation (p.Ser1404Ter), which was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Analysis of peripheral blood also identified benign polymorphisms in BRCA2 (c.7397T>C, p.Val2466Ala) and SRD5A2 (c.87G>C, p.Lys29Asn). Analysis of tumor tissues revealed seven somatic mutations in prostate tumor tissue and nine somatic mutations in esophageal squamous carcinoma tissue (single nucleotide polymorphisms, insertions, and deletions). Five-year follow-up results indicate that ADT combined with radiotherapy successfully treated the prostate cancer. To our knowledge, we are the first to report the germline BRCA2 mutation c.4211C>G (p.Ser1404Ter) in prostate cancer. Combined ADT and radiotherapy may be effective in treating other patients with prostate cancer caused by this or similar mutations.
The Roles of Reactive Oxygen Species and Nitric Oxide in Perfluorooctanoic Acid-Induced Developmental Cardiotoxicity and l-Carnitine Mediated Protection

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an environmental contaminant that could induce developmental cardiotoxicity in a chicken embryo, which may be alleviated by l-carnitine. To explore the roles of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) in such changes and the potential effects of l-carnitine, fertile chicken eggs were exposed to PFOA via an air cell injection, with or without l-carnitine co-treatment. The ROS and NO levels in chicken embryo hearts were determined with electron spin resonance (ESR), and the protein levels of the nuclear factor κ-light chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) p65 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in chicken embryo hearts were assessed with western blotting. The results of ESR indicated that PFOA exposure induced an elevation in the ROS levels in ED19 chicken embryo hearts and hatchling chicken hearts, while l-carnitine could alleviate such changes. Meanwhile, increased NO levels were observed in ED19 embryo hearts and hatchling hearts following PFOA exposure, while l-carnitine co-treatment exerted modulatory effects. Western blotting revealed that p65 translocation in ED19 embryo hearts and hatchling hearts was enhanced by PFOA, while l-carnitine co-treatment alleviated such changes. iNOS expression levels in ED19 embryo hearts followed the same pattern as NO levels, while a suppression of expression was observed in hatchling hearts exposed to PFOA. ROS/NF-κB p65 and iNOS/NO seem to be involved in the late stage (ED19 and post hatch) of PFOA-induced developmental cardiotoxicity in a chicken embryo. l-carnitine could exert anti-oxidant and NO modulatory effects in the developing chicken embryo hearts, which likely contribute to its cardioprotective effects.
Untangling cell tracks: Quantifying cell migration by time lapse image data analysis

Automated microscopy has given researchers access to great amounts of live cell imaging data from in vitro and in vivo experiments. Much focus has been put on extracting cell tracks from such data using a plethora of segmentation and tracking algorithms, but further analysis is normally required to draw biologically relevant conclusions. Such relevant conclusions may be whether the migration is directed or not, whether the population has homogeneous or heterogeneous migration patterns. This review focuses on the analysis of cell migration data that are extracted from time lapse images. We discuss a range of measures and models used to analyze cell tracks independent of the biological system or the way the tracks were obtained. For single‐cell migration, we focus on measures and models giving examples of biological systems where they have been applied, for example, migration of bacteria, fibroblasts, and immune cells. For collective migration, we describe the model systems wound healing, neural crest migration, and Drosophila gastrulation and discuss methods for cell migration within these systems. We also discuss the role of the extracellular matrix and subsequent differences between track analysis in vitro and in vivo. Besides methods and measures, we are putting special focus on the need for openly available data and code, as well as a lack of common vocabulary in cell track analysis. © 2017 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Anorexia‐cachexia syndrome in hepatoma tumour‐bearing rats requires the area postrema but not vagal afferents and is paralleled by increased MIC‐1/GDF15

The cancer‐anorexia‐cachexia syndrome (CACS) negatively affects survival and therapy success in cancer patients. Inflammatory mediators and tumour‐derived factors are thought to play an important role in the aetiology of CACS. However, the central and peripheral mechanisms contributing to CACS are insufficiently understood. The area postrema (AP) and the nucleus tractus solitarii are two important brainstem centres for the control of eating during acute sickness conditions. Recently, the tumour‐derived macrophage inhibitory cytokine‐1 (MIC‐1) emerged as a possible mediator of cancer anorexia because lesions of these brainstem areas attenuated the anorectic effect of exogenous MIC‐1 in mice.
Visualizing Text Data in Space and Time to Augment a Political News Broadcast on a Second Screen

While second screen scenarios – that is, simultaneously using a phone, tablet or laptop while watching TV or a recorded broadcast are finding their ways into the homes of millions of people, our understanding of how to properly design them is still very limited. We envision this design space and investigate how interactive data visualization can be leveraged in a second screen context. In this paper, we present the design process of a tablet application visualizing content from the stenographic minutes of the Austrian National Council.
Use of Millet Husk as a Biosorbent for the Removal of chromium and Manganese Ions from the Aqueous Solutions.

Movement of heavy metal ions into the water sources has made it unfit for consumption. Rural areas situated near the industrial area are facing the problem of contaminated water. Present work is an effort to develop a self sufficient, easy to assemble and eco friendly system for the removal of heavy metal ions from the water. Millet husk readily available in the rural areas of eastern Rajasthan has been tried and tested for the removal of chromium and manganese ions from the aqueous system. The results are exiting and indicate that it could be used for the removal of heavy metal ions from the water. A column of 12 inches height and 2 inches diameter of pretreated millet husk was used as a biosorbent. This column is sufficient to treat a 50 ml solution (0.012g/L) of chromium ions and 65ml solution (0.001g/L) of manganese ions. The rate of flow of the solution was kept 2ml/min at room temperature and Ph3-4.
Dimensional Stability of Bamboo Particleboards Made from Acetylated Particles *1

Bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides Sieb et Zucc.) particales were acetylated with acetic anhy­ dride along, and the acetylated particles were pressed into particleboards using a phenolformalde­ hyde adhesive. In liquid-water tests, boards made from acetylated particles swelled at a much slower rate and to a less extent than did control boards after 5 cycles of wetting and oven drying. In humidity tests, all boards made from acetylated particles had much lower equilibrium moisture contents than the control boards.