Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elevated plasma pentraxin 3 levels are associated with development and progression of diabetic retinopathy in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PURPOSE To evaluate the association between elevated levels of plasma pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and the development and/or progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR). METHODS In this case-control study, 92 diabetic patients with DR (group 3), 30 diabetic patients without DR (group 2), and 41 normal subjects (group 1) were enrolled. Log-transformed values of plasma PTX3 and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentrations were measured and used in our analysis. For subgroup analysis, group 3 was divided into four subgroups: mild, moderate, severe nonproliferative, and proliferative DR. RESULTS In our 163 participants, average plasma PTX3 levels were 916.1 ± 532.2, 1093.7 ± 1034.2, and 1817.9 ± 1776.9 pg/mL for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The duration of diabetic mellitus (DM), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), log hsCRP, and log PTX3 were significantly different between the three groups (P = 0.008, P < 0.001, P = 0.046, and P < 0.001, respectively). In subgroup analysis, plasma log PTX3 levels increased in correlation with the severity of DR (R = 0.372, P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis showed that the correlation between DR development and duration of DM and log PTX3 values was significant (P = 0.014 and P = 0.025, respectively), whereas correlation with log hsCRP values was not significant in univariate analysis (P = 0.129). The receiver operating characteristic curves of DR development were plotted using log PTX3 and log hsCRP values, and the area under the curves was found to be 0.721 (P = 0.001) and 0.614 (P = 0.087), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Plasma PTX3 is positively associated with DR development and progression, and may be a more accurate predictor of DR development than hsCRP.
Disease Monitoring and Health Campaign Evaluation Using Google Search Activities for HIV and AIDS, Stroke, Colorectal Cancer, and Marijuana Use in Canada: A Retrospective Observational Study

Background Infodemiology can offer practical and feasible health research applications through the practice of studying information available on the Web. Google Trends provides publicly accessible information regarding search behaviors in a population, which may be studied and used for health campaign evaluation and disease monitoring. Additional studies examining the use and effectiveness of Google Trends for these purposes remain warranted. Objective The objective of our study was to explore the use of infodemiology in the context of health campaign evaluation and chronic disease monitoring. It was hypothesized that following a launch of a campaign, there would be an increase in information seeking behavior on the Web. Second, increasing and decreasing disease patterns in a population would be associated with search activity patterns. This study examined 4 different diseases: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, stroke, colorectal cancer, and marijuana use. Methods Using Google Trends, relative search volume data were collected throughout the period of February 2004 to January 2015. Campaign information and disease statistics were obtained from governmental publications. Search activity trends were graphed and assessed with disease trends and the campaign interval. Pearson product correlation statistics and joinpoint methodology analyses were used to determine significance. Results Disease patterns and online activity across all 4 diseases were significantly correlated: HIV infection (r=.36, P<.001), stroke (r=.40, P<.001), colorectal cancer (r= −.41, P<.001), and substance use (r=.64, P<.001). Visual inspection and the joinpoint analysis showed significant correlations for the campaigns on colorectal cancer and marijuana use in stimulating search activity. No significant correlations were observed for the campaigns on stroke and HIV regarding search activity. Conclusions The use of infoveillance shows promise as an alternative and inexpensive solution to disease surveillance and health campaign evaluation. Further research is needed to understand Google Trends as a valid and reliable tool for health research.
Psychosocial and risk behavior correlates of youth suicide attempts and suicidal ideation.

OBJECTIVE To identify the independent psychosocial and risk behavior correlates of suicidal ideation and attempts. METHOD The relationships between suicidal ideation or attempts and family environment, subject characteristics, and various risk behaviors were examined among 1,285 randomly selected children and adolescents, aged 9 through 17 years, of whom 42 (3.3%) had attempted suicide and 67 (5.2%) had expressed suicidal ideation only. The youths and their parents were enumerated and interviewed between December 1991 and July 1992 as part of the NIMH Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study. RESULTS Compared with subjects with suicidal ideation only, attempters were significantly more likely to have experienced stressful life events, to have become sexually active, to have smoked more than one cigarette daily, and to have a history of ever having smoked marijuana. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, a statistically significant association was found between suicidal ideation or attempt and stressful life events, poor family environment, parental psychiatric history, low parental monitoring, low instrumental and social competence, sexual activity, marijuana use, recent drunkenness, current smoking, and physical fighting. Even after further adjusting for the presence of a mood, anxiety, or disruptive disorder, a significant association persisted between suicidal ideation or attempts and poor family environment, low parental monitoring, low youth instrumental competence, sexual activity, recent drunkenness, current smoking, and physical fighting. CONCLUSION Low parental monitoring and risk behaviors (such as smoking, physical fighting, alcohol intoxication, and sexual activity) are independently associated with increased risk of suicidal ideation and attempts, even after adjusting for the presence of psychiatric disorder and sociodemographic variables.
Self-regulatory processes mediate the intention-behavior relation for adherence and exercise behaviors.

OBJECTIVES Understanding the gap between people's intentions and actual health behavior is an important issue in health psychology. Our aim in this study was to investigate whether self-regulatory processes (monitoring goal progress and responding to discrepancies) mediate the intention-behavior relation in relation to HIV medication adherence (Study 1) and intensive exercise behavior (Study 2). METHOD In Study 1, questionnaire and electronically monitored adherence data were collected at baseline and 3 months later from patients in the control arm of an HIV-adherence intervention study. In Study 2, questionnaire data was collected at 3 time points 6-weeks apart in a cohort study of physical activity. RESULTS Complete data at all time points were obtained from 51 HIV-infected patients and 499 intensive exercise participants. Intentions were good predictors of behavior and explained 25 to 30% of the variance. Self-regulatory processes explained an additional 11% (Study 1) and 6% (Study 2) of variance in behavior on top of intentions. Regression and bootstrap analyses revealed at least partial, and possibly full, mediation of the intention-behavior relation by self-regulatory processes. CONCLUSIONS The present studies indicate that self-regulatory processes may explain how intentions drive behavior. Future tests, using different health behaviors and experimental designs, could firmly establish whether self-regulatory processes complement current health behavior theories and should become routine targets for intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Low-cost portable fluorescein angiography

Fundus fluorescein angiography has great potential as a unique non-invasive tool to investigate in vivo the microvascular pathogenesis of a wide variety of diseases affecting the central nervous system. However, because it requires a bulky and expensive tabletop retinal camera, it is normally limited to cooperative and alert seated patients in well-resourced settings. Recently completed and ongoing studies of the pathogenesis of severe malaria are using fluorescein angiography to examine in detail the postulated central role of microvascular obstruction. We describe a novel method of fluorescein angiography with a portable retinal camera that can be adapted at very low cost for use in sick patients at the bedside. This method greatly expands the scope of potential studies utilising fluorescein angiography.
The formation of educators: a study on PNAIC La formación de formadores: los estudios sobre del PNAIC

This paper has the aim to analyze the process of the formation of educator teachers (Study advisors) that assume the responsibility of the literacy teachers' education and how they build knowledge to contribute in the education of literacy teachers. The research is of qualitative nature and for data collection we used a questionnaire that was answered by 49 educator teachers. When analyzing data, we understood that the formation of educators is still a little studied and explored field. The educators pointed out the construction and the mobilization of a necessary knowledge base to develop * Este artigo, em sua versao inicial, foi apresentado no II Congresso Nacional de Formacao de Professores e XII Congresso Estadual Paulista sobre Formacao de Educadores, realizado em Aguas de Lindoia (SP), de 7 a 9 de abril de 2014. **
Second order blind identification of convolutive mixtures with temporally correlated sources: A subspace based approach

This contribution addresses the blind identification of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) linear FIR systems having a number of inputs less than the number of outputs. Recent publications have proposed an efficient second order identification method in the Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) case. Based on a sub-space analysis, it allows a perfect recovery of the system parameters and excitation in a noise free environment. In this paper we indicate how to extend the original subspace based approach to the general MIMO case.
A Statistical Method of Evaluating Pronunciation Proficiency for English Words Spoken by Japanese

In this paper, we propose a statistical method of evaluating the pronunciation proﬁciency of English words spoken by Japanese. We analyze statistically the utterances to ﬁnd a combination that has a high correlation between an English teacher’s score and some acoustic features. We found that the likelihood ratio of English phoneme acoustic models to phoneme acoustic models adapted by Japanese was the best measure of pronunciation proﬁciency. The combination of the likelihood for American native models, likelihood for English models adapted by Japanese, the best likelihood for arbitrary sequences of acoustic models, phoneme recognition rate and the rate of speech are highly related to the English teacher’s score. We obtained the correlation coefﬁcient of 0.81 with open data for vocabulary and 0.69 with open data for speaker at the ﬁve words set level, respectively. The coefﬁcient was higher than the correlation be-tween humans’ scores, 0.65.
Cutaneous Lesions of Disseminated Histoplasmosis in a Haitian Man with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Observation chez un Haitien de 31 ans hospitalise au Venezuela pour fievre continue, diarrhee, perte de poids et malaises depuis 2 mois. 7 jours apres l'admission le malade presente une insuffisance respiratoire et une coagulopathie de consommation. Il meurt 10 jours apres l'admission. L'autopsie revele une bronchopneumonie hemorragique bilaterale, un petit abces de la rate, et des ganglions lymphatiques mediastinaux. Des etudes en microscopie optique et electronique montrent la presence de Histoplasma capsulatum dans la moelle osseuse, les reins, la peau, le cœur, l'intestin, la rate et les poumons
Pepstatin A induces extracellular acidification distinct from aspartic protease inhibition in microglial cell lines

The extrusion of protons is considered a very general parameter of the activation of many kinds of membrane or intracellular molecules, such as receptors, ion channels, and enzymes. We found that pepstatin A caused a reproducible, concentration‐related increase in the extracellular acidification rate in two microglial cell lines, Ra2 and 6‐3. Washing abolished pepstatin A‐induced acidification immediately. However, pepstatin A did not cause the extracellular acidification in other cell types, such as CHO, C6 glioma, and NIH3T3 cells. These observations strongly suggest that pepstatin A interacts with certain membrane proteins specific to both Ra2 and 6‐3 cells from outside. N‐methylmaleimide and N,N′‐dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, inhibitors of H+‐ATPase, were found to reduce pepstatin A‐induced response strongly, while bafilomycin A1, a vacuolar H+‐ATPase inhibitor, vanadate, a P‐type H+‐ATPase inhibitor, and NaN3, an F1 ATPase inhibitor, virtually did not. 5‐(N‐ethyl‐N‐isopropyl) amiloride, an inhibitor of Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 1, greatly enhanced pepstatin‐induced response, while amiloride did not. Zn2+, a voltage‐dependent proton channel blocker, did not affect pepstatin‐induced response neither. Staurosporine, a nonspecific inhibitor of protein kinase C, inhibited pepstatin A‐induced response, while chelerythrine, more selective inhibitor of protein kinase C, greatly enhanced it. H‐7 and H‐8 did not affected the response. These findings suggest that pepstatin A induces extracellular acidification in microglia cell lines, Ra2 and 6‐3, through an N‐methylmaleimide‐ and N,N′‐dicyclohexylcarbodiimide‐sensitive, but bafilomycin A1‐insensitive, ATPase, which seems to be distinct from protein kinase C‐dependent process. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Methylation and Expression Analyses of the 7q Autism Susceptibility Locus Genes MEST, COPG2, and TSGA14 in Human and Anthropoid Primate Cortices

The autism susceptibility locus on human chromosome 7q32 contains the maternally imprinted MEST and the non-imprinted COPG2 and TSGA14 genes. Autism is a disorder of the ‘social brain’ that has been proposed to be due to an overbalance of paternally expressed genes. To study regulation of the 7q32 locus during anthropoid primate evolution, we analyzed the methylation and expression patterns of MEST, COPG2, and TSGA14 in human, chimpanzee, Old World monkey (baboon and rhesus macaque), and New World monkey (marmoset) cortices. In all human and anthropoid primate cortices, the MEST promoter was hemimethylated, as expected for a differentially methylated imprinting control region, whereas the COPG2 and TSGA14 promoters were completely demethylated, typical for transcriptionally active non-imprinted genes. The MEST gene also showed comparable mRNA expression levels in all analyzed species. In contrast, COPG2 expression was downregulated in the human cortex compared to chimpanzee, Old and New World monkeys. TSGA14 either showed no differential regulation in the human brain compared to chimpanzee and marmoset or a slight upregulation compared to baboon. The human-specific downregulation supports a role for COPG2 in the development of a ‘social brain’. Promoter methylation patterns appear to be more stable during evolution than gene expression patterns, suggesting that other mechanisms may be more important for inter-primate differences in gene expression.
Treatment of Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Elderly

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is primarily a disease of the elderly. Although NSCLC is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the overall prognosis of this disease is poor, treatment improves survival compared with best supportive care, independent of the stage of disease. Elderly patients have a particularly poor prognosis with NSCLC compared with younger patients, likely due to age-related biases in referral and treatment patterns. There is an emerging literature regarding the tolerability of NSCLC treatments in elderly patients. In advanced disease, subgroup analyses of the elderly population participating in randomized clinical trials as well as elder-specific prospective randomized trials have demonstrated that elderly NSCLC patients derive equivalent survival benefit from the treatment of NSCLC as younger patients. This treatment is tolerable for "fit" elderly patients, and modified regimens are available for the more frail elderly patients. Evaluating the relative fitness of an elderly patient may be achieved through an assessment of functional ability. As the U.S. population ages and the incidence of NSCLC rises, an understanding of treatment options for elderly patients with NSCLC is vital for all clinicians involved in their clinical care.
Elongation factor G initiates translocation through a power stroke

Significance Elongation factor G (EF-G) uses energy stored in GTP to catalyze movement of transfer RNAs and messenger RNA in the ribosome during the translocation step of prokaryotic protein synthesis. Using single-molecule polarized fluorescence microscopy, three-dimensional rotational motions of individual domains of EF-G were directly captured, for the first time to our knowledge, during normal translocation. Our observations strongly imply a hybrid model, in which the initial steps of translocation are ribosome unlocking driven by a force generated via EF-G–dependent GTP hydrolysis, and further steps of translocation are mainly driven by the energetics of the ribosome itself. These results demonstrate that the ribosome and EF-G make use of power-stroke and Brownian-ratchet mechanisms to ensure efficiency and accuracy of translocation. During the translocation step of prokaryotic protein synthesis, elongation factor G (EF-G), a guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase), binds to the ribosomal PRE-translocation (PRE) complex and facilitates movement of transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and messenger RNA (mRNA) by one codon. Energy liberated by EF-G’s GTPase activity is necessary for EF-G to catalyze rapid and precise translocation. Whether this energy is used mainly to drive movements of the tRNAs and mRNA or to foster EF-G dissociation from the ribosome after translocation has been a long-lasting debate. Free EF-G, not bound to the ribosome, adopts quite different structures in its GTP and GDP forms. Structures of EF-G on the ribosome have been visualized at various intermediate steps along the translocation pathway, using antibiotics and nonhydolyzable GTP analogs to block translocation and to prolong the dwell time of EF-G on the ribosome. However, the structural dynamics of EF-G bound to the ribosome have not yet been described during normal, uninhibited translocation. Here, we report the rotational motions of EF-G domains during normal translocation detected by single-molecule polarized total internal reflection fluorescence (polTIRF) microscopy. Our study shows that EF-G has a small (∼10°) global rotational motion relative to the ribosome after GTP hydrolysis that exerts a force to unlock the ribosome. This is followed by a larger rotation within domain III of EF-G before its dissociation from the ribosome.
Effects of ankle plantar flexors stretching with closed kinetic chain on pelvic movements and gait speed in hemiplegia patients: a case study

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of ankle plantar flexors stretching with closed kinetic chain (CKC) in hemiplegia patients. [Methods] This study used a reversal design (A-B-A’) for a stroke with hemiplagia. The intervention program consisted of 30 min sessions, once a day, for 15 days. The subjects were trained for 15 sessions in total. Pelvic movements (anterior ·posterior tilting, elevation, depression, forward·backward rotation) during walking and gait speed were measured in hemiplegia patients. [Results] Overall, the angle of pelvic movements was increased in Treatment and, Baseline II compared with Baseline I. The gait speed was maximally increased in Baseline II, followed by Treatment and Baseline I. [Conclusion] These results suggest that ankle plantar flexors stretching with closed kinetic chain had a positive effect on pelvic movements and gait speed in hemiplegia patients. Also, after treatment, its effect on gait of hemiplegia patients was maintained.
A network of enzymes involved in repair of oxidative DNA damage in Neisseria meningitidis

Although oxidative stress is a key aspect of innate immunity, little is known about how host‐restricted pathogens successfully repair DNA damage. Base excision repair is responsible for correcting nucleobases damaged by oxidative stress, and is essential for bloodstream infection caused by the human pathogen, Neisseria meningitidis. We have characterized meningococcal base excision repair enzymes involved in the recognition and removal of damaged nucleobases, and incision of the DNA backbone. We demonstrate that the bi‐functional glycosylase/lyases Nth and MutM share several overlapping activities and functional redundancy. However, MutM and other members of the GO system, which deal with 8‐oxoG, a common lesion of oxidative damage, are not required for survival of N. meningitidis under oxidative stress. Instead, the mismatch repair pathway provides back‐up for the GO system, while the lyase activity of Nth can substitute for the meningococcal AP endonuclease, NApe. Our genetic and biochemical evidence shows that DNA repair is achieved through a robust network of enzymes that provides a flexible system of DNA repair. This network is likely to reflect successful adaptation to the human nasopharynx, and might provide a paradigm for DNA repair in other prokaryotes.
Extraordinary linear dynamic range in laser-defined functionalized graphene photodetectors

Quenching thermoelectric effects in graphene leads to an extraordinary increase of the linear dynamic range in photodetectors. Graphene-based photodetectors have demonstrated mechanical flexibility, large operating bandwidth, and broadband spectral response. However, their linear dynamic range (LDR) is limited by graphene’s intrinsic hot-carrier dynamics, which causes deviation from a linear photoresponse at low incident powers. At the same time, multiplication of hot carriers causes the photoactive region to be smeared over distances of a few micrometers, limiting the use of graphene in high-resolution applications. We present a novel method for engineering photoactive junctions in FeCl3-intercalated graphene using laser irradiation. Photocurrent measured at these planar junctions shows an extraordinary linear response with an LDR value at least 4500 times larger than that of other graphene devices (44 dB) while maintaining high stability against environmental contamination without the need for encapsulation. The observed photoresponse is purely photovoltaic, demonstrating complete quenching of hot-carrier effects. These results pave the way toward the design of ultrathin photodetectors with unprecedented LDR for high-definition imaging and sensing.
Adaptive PID with sliding mode control for the rotary inverted pendulum system

In this paper, a novel adaptive PID with sliding mode control for the rotary inverted pendulum is proposed. The goal is to achieve system robustness against parameter variations and external disturbances. In this study, the three parameters of PID controller, proportional gain, integral gain, and derivative gain can be systematically obtained according to the adaptive law. Further reduction of the high frequency chattering in the controller is achieved by using the boundary layer technique. The proposed control method is applied to a rotary inverted pendulum control system. By using Lyapunov theorem, the stability and convergence of the proposed scheme is proven. Simulation results show that the chattering and the steady state error are eliminated and trajectory tracking is achieved effectively.