Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Childhood Health on Adult Labor Market Outcomes

This paper examines impacts of childhood health on socioeconomic status (SES) outcomes observed during adulthood: levels and trajectories of education, family income, household wealth, individual earnings, and labor supply. The analysis is conducted using panel data that collect these SES measures using a sample who were originally children and are now well into their adult years. Since all siblings are in the panel, unmeasured family and neighborhood background effects can be controlled for. With the exception of education, poor childhood health has a quantitatively large effect on all of these outcomes. Moreover, these estimated effects are larger when unobserved family effects are controlled.
Multiple Gene-Environment Interactions on the Angiogenesis Gene-Pathway Impact Rectal Cancer Risk and Survival

Characterization of gene-environment interactions (GEIs) in cancer is limited. We aimed at identifying GEIs in rectal cancer focusing on a relevant biologic process involving the angiogenesis pathway and relevant environmental exposures: cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and animal protein intake. We analyzed data from 747 rectal cancer cases and 956 controls from the Diet, Activity and Lifestyle as a Risk Factor for Rectal Cancer study. We applied a 3-step analysis approach: first, we searched for interactions among single nucleotide polymorphisms on the pathway genes; second, we searched for interactions among the genes, both steps using Logic regression; third, we examined the GEIs significant at the 5% level using logistic regression for cancer risk and Cox proportional hazards models for survival. Permutation-based test was used for multiple testing adjustment. We identified 8 significant GEIs associated with risk among 6 genes adjusting for multiple testing: TNF (OR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.10, 3.11), TLR4 (OR = 2.34, 95% CI: 1.38, 3.98), and EGR2 (OR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.04, 4.78) with smoking; IGF1R (OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.72), TLR4 (OR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.22, 3.60) and EGR2 (OR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.01, 4.46) with alcohol; and PDGFB (OR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.92) and MMP1 (OR = 2.44, 95% CI: 1.24, 4.81) with protein. Five GEIs were associated with survival at the 5% significance level but not after multiple testing adjustment: CXCR1 (HR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.13, 3.75) with smoking; and KDR (HR = 4.36, 95% CI: 1.62, 11.73), TLR2 (HR = 9.06, 95% CI: 1.14, 72.11), EGR2 (HR = 2.45, 95% CI: 1.42, 4.22), and EGFR (HR = 6.33, 95% CI: 1.95, 20.54) with protein. GEIs between angiogenesis genes and smoking, alcohol, and animal protein impact rectal cancer risk. Our results support the importance of considering the biologic hypothesis to characterize GEIs associated with cancer outcomes.
Mental Health Problems and Educational Attainment in Adolescence: 9-Year Follow-Up of the TRAILS Study

Background This study examines if mental health problems at age 11 and changes in mental health problems between age 11 and 16 predict educational attainment of adolescents at age 19, overall and stratified by gender. Methods Data from 1711 adolescents (76.8% from initial cohort) of the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a Dutch prospective cohort study with 9year follow-up, were used. Mental health problems (externalizing, internalizing and attention problems) were measured by the Youth Self Report and the Child Behavior Checklist at ages 11 and 16. Difference scores for mental health problems between age 11 and 16 were calculated. Educational attainment was assessed at age 19. Results Externalizing, internalizing and attention problems at age 11 were significantly associated with low educational attainment at age 19 (crude model). When adjusted for demographic variables and the other mental health problems, only the association for attention problems remained significant (odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval: 3.19, 2.11–4.83). Increasing externalizing problems between age 11 and 16 also predicted low educational attainment at age 19 (OR 3.12, 1.83–5.32). Among girls, increasing internalizing problems between age 11 and 16 predicted low educational attainment (OR 2.21, 1.25–3.94). For boys, no significant association was found for increasing internalizing problems and low educational attainment. For increasing attention problems between age 11 and 16 no significant association with low educational attainment was found. Conclusions Externalizing, internalizing and attention problems at age 11 and an increase of these problems during adolescence predicted low educational attainment at age 19. Early treatment of these mental health problems may improve educational attainment, and reduce socioeconomic health differences in adulthood.
Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunts With Covered Stents Increase Transplant-Free Survival of Patients With Cirrhosis and Recurrent Ascites.

BACKGROUND & AIMS There is controversy over the ability of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) to increase survival times of patients with cirrhosis and refractory ascites. The high rate of shunt dysfunction with the use of uncovered stents counteracts the benefits of TIPS. We performed a randomized controlled trial to determine the effects of TIPS with stents covered with polytetrafluoroethylene in these patients. METHODS We performed a prospective study of 62 patients with cirrhosis and at least 2 large-volume paracenteses within a period of at least 3 weeks; the study was performed at 4 tertiary care centers in France from August 2005 through December 2012. Patients were randomly assigned to groups that received covered TIPS (n = 29) or large-volume paracenteses and albumin as necessary (LVP+A, n = 33). All patients maintained a low-salt diet and were examined at 1 month after the procedure then every 3 months until 1 year. At each visit, liver disease-related complications, treatment modifications, and clinical and biochemical variables needed to calculate Child-Pugh and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores were recorded. Doppler ultrasonography was performed at the start of the study and then at 6 and 12 months after the procedure. The primary study end point was survival without a liver transplant for 1 year after the procedure. RESULTS A higher proportion of patients in the TIPS group (93%) met the primary end point than in the LVP+A group (52%) (P = .003). The total number of paracenteses was 32 in the TIPS group vs 320 in the LVP+A group. Higher proportions of patients in the LVP+A group had portal hypertension-related bleeding (18% vs 0%; P = .01) or hernia-related complications (18% vs 0%; P = .01) than in the TIPS group. Patients in LVP+A group had twice as many days of hospitalization (35 days) as the TIPS group (17 days) (P = .04). The 1-year probability of remaining free of encephalopathy was 65% for each group. CONCLUSIONS In a randomized trial, we found covered stents for TIPS to increase the proportion of patients with cirrhosis and recurrent ascites who survive transplantation-free for 1 year, compared with patients given repeated LVP+A. These findings support TIPS as the first-line intervention in such patients. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT00222014.
Investigation on physical and mechanical properties of pulp–plastic composites from bagasse

ABSTRACT High-density polyethylene (HDPE), bagasse fibers treated by four pulping processes (AS-AQ (alkaline sulfite anthraquinone), SODA-AQ (soda anthraquinone), MEA (monoethanolamine) and chemical–mechanical pulping (CMP)), three levels of nano-SiO2 (0, 2, and 5 wt%), and maleic anhydride polyethylene as coupling agent were used to produce pulp–plastic composites (PPCs) by injection molding. The physical and mechanical properties of corresponding composites were evaluated according to ASTM standards. The results showed that compared to untreated bagasse/HDPE composite, the addition of bagasse pulp fibers increased significantly the mechanical properties such as tensile strength and modulus, flexural strength and modulus, and hardness. The chemical pulps-reinforced composites showed better mechanical strengths than that of CMP-reinforced composites, but in some properties, CMP pulp composites have comparable results to the chemical pulp-reinforced composites. Natural fibers (untreated and treated) increased water absorption and thickness swelling of composites compared to pure HDPE. The addition of nano-SiO2 particles showed both increasing and decreasing trends on physical and mechanical properties ofPPCs.
Individual and social determinants of obesity in strategic health messages: Interaction with political ideology

ABSTRACT Antiobesity health communication campaigns often target individual behavior, but these ads might inflate the role of individual responsibility at the expense of other health determinants. In a 2 × 2 full-factorial, randomized, online experiment, 162 American adults viewed antiobesity advertisements that varied in emphasizing social or individual causation for obesity through text and images. Locus for attribution of responsibility for obesity causes and solutions was measured, as was how these responses were moderated by political ideology. Participants who viewed text emphasizing individual responsibility were less likely to agree that genetic factors caused obesity. Conservative participants who viewed images of overweight individuals were less likely than liberal participants to agree that social factors were responsible for causing obesity. In addition, among conservative participants who viewed images of fast food versus images of overweight individuals, agreement that the food industry bore some responsibility mediated support for policy solutions to obesity. These findings, among others, demonstrate that awareness of multilevel determinants of health outcomes can be a precursor of support for policy solutions to obesity among those not politically inclined to support antiobesity policy. In addition, stigmatizing images of overweight individuals in antiobesity campaigns might overemphasize the role of individual behavior in obesity at the expense of other factors.
Disorganized Attachment and Personality Functioning in Adults: A Latent Class Analysis

Though researchers have attended to disorganized attachment in infants and children, they have infrequently focused on the character of disorganized attachment in adults. In this study, we aimed to identify clusters of participants based on attachment levels and styles, seeking to better delineate severity and stylistic differences in disorganized attachment than has been previously articulated. We used a new assessment approach focused on a hierarchy of attachment organization, including secure, insecure (dismissive and preoccupied), rigid-controlling (hostile control and compulsive caregiving), and disorganized (contradictory, impoverished, and unresolved) levels of attachment. Clinical evaluators used information from diagnostic and attachment-based interviews to rate participants on each of these aspects of attachment. Latent class analysis (LCA) revealed a 4-class solution, including a secure (n = 33), insecure (n = 110), and 2 disorganized classes. One disorganized class (disorganized-oscillating) was characterized by elevations on contradictory and preoccupied styles (n = 77) and another (disorganized-impoverished) showed elevations on impoverished and dismissive styles (n = 53). The disorganized-oscillating class exhibited elevated personality disorder (PD) severity and general symptom severity, borderline personality disorder (BPD), histrionic, and antisocial dimensional scores, and the most severe identity disturbance compared with the other classes. The impoverished-dismissive class exhibited the highest avoidant and schizoid PD dimensional scores of the classes, and higher PD severity compared with the insecure and secure classes. These results highlight the possibility of identifying distinct classes of attachment organization, differentiated both by aspects of severity and interpersonal style. They also shed light on the manifestation of attachment disorganization in adults.
Cyanobacteria: Promising biocatalysts for sustainable chemical production

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes showing great promise as biocatalysts for the direct conversion of CO2 into fuels, chemicals, and other value-added products. Introduction of just a few heterologous genes can endow cyanobacteria with the ability to transform specific central metabolites into many end products. Recent engineering efforts have centered around harnessing the potential of these microbial biofactories for sustainable production of chemicals conventionally produced from fossil fuels. Here, we present an overview of the unique chemistry that cyanobacteria have been co-opted to perform. We highlight key lessons learned from these engineering efforts and discuss advantages and disadvantages of various approaches.
Effect of Feeding a Reduced Crude Protein and Reduced Phosphorus Diet on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics in Grow-Finish Swine

The swine industry has undergone many production changes over the past two decades. Production facilities have become more concentrated, not only in the number of pigs reared at one operation, but also the number of production facilities located in the same geographic area. A negative aspect of this increased animal concentration is the increase in the amount of manure that is produced and the land that is needed for manure application at environmentally sustainable rates. Many practices are currently being explored to increase the amount of manure that can be spread on the same amount of land by reducing the concentration of nutrients excreted in the urine and feces. Three such practices include: feeding diets with a reduced crude protein level and supplementing with crystalline amino-acids, replacing normal corn with high available phosphorus (HAP) corn, and the inclusion of phytase in the diet. The purpose of this experiment was to combine these three feeding practices into the same low nutrient excretion (LNE) diet and measure its effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics in grow-finish swine.
Higher Quality of Life and Lower Depression for People on ART in Uganda as Compared to a Community Control Group

Provision of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to people living with HIV (PLWH) has increased globally. Research measuring whether ART restores subjective well-being to “normal” levels is lacking, particularly in resource limited settings. The study objectives are to compare quality of life and depression symptoms for PLWH on ART to a general community population and to explore factors to explain these differences, including socio-economic status and the impact of urban or rural residence. PLWH on ART (n = 263) were recruited from ART delivery sites and participants not on ART (n = 160) were recruited from communities in Wakiso District, Uganda. Participants were interviewed using the translated World Health Organisation Quality of Life brief measure, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression section, and questions about socio-economic status, residence as urban or rural and, for PLWH on ART, self-reported adherence and use of HIV counselling. Compared to the community sample and controlling for location of residence, PLWH on ART had significantly higher quality of life (QOL) for physical, psychological and environment domains, but not the social domain. These differences were not due to socio-economic status alone. Depression scores were significantly lower for PLWH on ART. Both comparisons controlled for the effect of location of residence. People on ART self-reported high adherence and the majority had used HIV counselling services. Our findings show better QOL amongst PLWH on ART compared to a general community sample, which cannot be explained solely by differences in socio-economic status nor location of residence. The general community sample results point towards the challenges of life in this setting. Access to health services may underpin this difference and further research should explore this finding, in addition to identification of psychological mechanisms that relate to better QOL. ART provision infrastructure has clear benefits. Further work should consider sustainability and replication for other health conditions.
Assessment of Image Quality of Repeated Limited Transthoracic Echocardiography After Cardiac Surgery.

OBJECTIVES The use of limited transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) has been restricted in patients after cardiac surgery due to reported poor image quality. The authors hypothesized that the hemodynamic state could be evaluated in a high proportion of patients at repeated intervals after cardiac surgery. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Tertiary university hospital. PARTICIPANTS The study comprised 51 patients aged 18 years or older presenting for cardiac surgery. INTERVENTIONS Patients underwent TTE before surgery and at 3 time points after cardiac surgery. Images were assessed offline using an image quality scoring system by 2 expert observers. Hemodynamic state was assessed using the iHeartScan protocol, and the primary endpoint was the proportion of limited TTE studies in which the hemodynamic state was interpretable at each of the 3 postoperative time points. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Hemodynamic state interpretability varied over time and was highest before surgery (90%) and lowest on the first postoperative day (49%) (p<0.01). This variation in interpretability over time was reflected in all 3 transthoracic windows, ranging from 43% to 80% before surgery and from 2% to 35% on the first postoperative day (p<0.01). Image quality scores were highest with the apical window, ranging from 53% to 77% across time points, and lowest with the subcostal window, ranging from 4% to 70% across time points (p< 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Hemodynamic state can be determined with TTE in a high proportion of cardiac surgery patients after extubation and removal of surgical drains.
NuMA recruits dynein activity to microtubule minus-ends at mitosis

To build the spindle at mitosis, motors exert spatially regulated forces on microtubules. We know that dynein pulls on mammalian spindle microtubule minus-ends, and this localized activity at ends is predicted to allow dynein to cluster microtubules into poles. How dynein becomes enriched at minus-ends is not known. Here, we use quantitative imaging and laser ablation to show that NuMA targets dynactin to minus-ends, localizing dynein activity there. NuMA is recruited to new minus-ends independently of dynein and more quickly than dynactin; both NuMA and dynactin display specific, steady-state binding at minus-ends. NuMA localization to minus-ends involves a C-terminal region outside NuMA’s canonical microtubule-binding domain and is independent of minus-end binders γ-TuRC, CAMSAP1, and KANSL1/3. Both NuMA’s minus-end-binding and dynein-dynactin-binding modules are required to rescue focused, bipolar spindle organization. Thus, NuMA may serve as a mitosis-specific minus-end cargo adaptor, targeting dynein activity to minus-ends to cluster spindle microtubules into poles.
Nonlinear Dual Reconstruction of SPECT Activity and Attenuation Images

In single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), accurate attenuation maps are needed to perform essential attenuation compensation for high quality radioactivity estimation. Formulating the SPECT activity and attenuation reconstruction tasks as coupled signal estimation and system parameter identification problems, where the activity distribution and the attenuation parameter are treated as random variables with known prior statistics, we present a nonlinear dual reconstruction scheme based on the unscented Kalman filtering (UKF) principles. In this effort, the dynamic changes of the organ radioactivity distribution are described through state space evolution equations, while the photon-counting SPECT projection data are measured through the observation equations. Activity distribution is then estimated with sub-optimal fixed attenuation parameters, followed by attenuation map reconstruction given these activity estimates. Such coupled estimation processes are iteratively repeated as necessary until convergence. The results obtained from Monte Carlo simulated data, physical phantom, and real SPECT scans demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed method both from visual inspection of the images and a quantitative evaluation, compared to the widely used EM-ML algorithms. The dual estimation framework has the potential to be useful for estimating the attenuation map from emission data only and thus benefit the radioactivity reconstruction.
Neural Correlates of Advantageous and Disadvantageous Inequity in Sharing Decisions

Humans have a strong preference for fair distributions of resources. Neuroimaging studies have shown that being treated unfairly coincides with activation in brain regions involved in signaling conflict and negative affect. Less is known about neural responses involved in violating a fairness norm ourselves. Here, we investigated the neural patterns associated with inequity, where participants were asked to choose between an equal split of money and an unequal split that could either maximize their own (advantageous inequity) or another person’s (disadvantageous inequity) earnings. Choosing to divide money unequally, irrespective who benefited from the unequal distribution, was associated with activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Inequity choices that maximized another person’s profits were further associated with activity in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Taken together, our findings show evidence of a common neural pattern associated with both advantageous and disadvantageous inequity in sharing decisions and additional recruitment of neural circuitry previously linked to the computation of subjective value and reward when violating a fairness norm at the benefit of someone else.
Responses of the Metabolism of the Larvae of Pocillopora damicornis to Ocean Acidification and Warming

Ocean acidification and warming are expected to threaten the persistence of tropical coral reef ecosystems. As coral reefs face multiple stressors, the distribution and abundance of corals will depend on the successful dispersal and settlement of coral larvae under changing environmental conditions. To explore this scenario, we used metabolic rate, at holobiont and molecular levels, as an index for assessing the physiological plasticity of Pocillopora damicornis larvae from this site to conditions of ocean acidity and warming. Larvae were incubated for 6 hours in seawater containing combinations of CO2 concentration (450 and 950 µatm) and temperature (28 and 30°C). Rates of larval oxygen consumption were higher at elevated temperatures. In contrast, high CO2 levels elicited depressed metabolic rates, especially for larvae released later in the spawning period. Rates of citrate synthase, a rate-limiting enzyme in aerobic metabolism, suggested a biochemical limit for increasing oxidative capacity in coral larvae in a warming, acidifying ocean. Biological responses were also compared between larvae released from adult colonies on the same day (cohorts). The metabolic physiology of Pocillopora damicornis larvae varied significantly by day of release. Additionally, we used environmental data collected on a reef in Moorea, French Polynesia to provide information about what adult corals and larvae may currently experience in the field. An autonomous pH sensor provided a continuous time series of pH on the natal fringing reef. In February/March, 2011, pH values averaged 8.075±0.023. Our results suggest that without adaptation or acclimatization, only a portion of naïve Pocillopora damicornis larvae may have suitable metabolic phenotypes for maintaining function and fitness in an end-of-the century ocean.