Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential effects of ethnic density on the risk of postnatal depression and personality dysfunction

Background The relationship between ethnic density and psychiatric disorder in postnatal women in the UK is unclear. Aims To examine the effect of own and overall ethnic density on postnatal depression (PND) and personality dysfunction. Method Multilevel analysis of ethnically mixed community-level data gathered from a sample of 2262 mothers screened at 6 weeks postpartum for PND and personality dysfunction. Results Living in areas of higher own ethnic density was protective against screening positive for PND in White women (z =–3.18, P = 0.001), even after adjusting for area level deprivation, maternal age, relationship status, screening positive for personality dysfunction, parity and geographical clustering (odds ratio (OR) 0.98 (95% CI 0.96–0.99); P = 0.002), whereas the effect on personality dysfunction (z =–2.42, P = 0.016) was no longer present once the effect of PND was taken into account (OR = 0.99 (95% CI 0.90–1.0); P = 0.13). No overall ethnic density effect was found for women screening positive for PND or personality dysfunction. Conclusions In White women, living in areas of higher own ethnic density was protective against developing PND.
Native XML Support in DB2 Universal Database

The major relational database systems have been providing XML support for several years, predominantly by mapping XML to existing concepts such as LOBs or (object-)relational tables. The limitations of these approaches are well known in research and industry. Thus, a forthcoming version of DB2 Universal Database® is enhanced with comprehensive native XML support. "Native" means that XML documents are stored on disk pages in tree structures matching the XML data model. This avoids the mapping between XML and relational structures, and the corresponding limitations. The native XML storage is complemented with XML indexes, full XQuery, SQL/XML, and XML Schema support, as well as utilities such as a parallel high-speed XML bulk loader. This makes DB2 a true hybrid database system which places equal weight on XML and relational data management.
Risk factors for spinal cord ischaemia after thoracic endovascular aortic repair.

OBJECTIVES Spinal cord ischaemia (SCI) is a serious complication of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). The purpose of this study was to assess the incidence, risk factors, clinical manifestations of SCI after TEVAR and which type of patients could benefit from cerebrospinal fluid drainage. METHODS A retrospective review was conducted for 175 patients who underwent TEVAR from January 2008 to July 2014. All patients were divided into groups with and without SCI, and they were compared to identify significant risk factors for SCI. RESULTS The incidence of SCI after TEVAR including paraplegia and paraparesis was 6.9%. SCI usually occurred within 24 h, but delayed SCI was observed after 5 days in 1 patient. In all patients with SCI, we tried to increase the blood pressure to improve spinal perfusion. Three patients recovered completely, and the 6 patients with some remaining neurological deficit included 3 with motion against gravity and bladder dysfunction and the 3 remaining patients with only bladder dysfunction. Three patients did not recover. In our study, significant risk factors for SCI were as follows: rupture, shaggy aorta, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 1-stage procedure, the coverage of more than 9 segments, the coverage from Th8 to Th12, minimum of postoperative haemoglobin and the number of postoperative patent segmental arteries. CONCLUSIONS Sufficient perioperative care should be given to high-risk patients who have endografts that cover more than 9 segments and endografts that cover segments from Th8 to Th12. Adequate haemoglobin levels and mean arterial pressure are needed to provide sufficient spinal cord perfusion.
Acceleration Profile of Elite Gaelic Football Match Play

Abstract Ryan, M, Malone, S, and Collins, K. An acceleration profile of elite Gaelic football match play. J Strength Cond Res 32(3): 812–820, 2018—The use of global positioning system (GPS) technology in Gaelic football is the primary source of quantifying game demands. The aim of this study was to quantify the acceleration profile of elite Gaelic football. Thirty-six elite male Gaelic football players (mean ± SD, age: 24 ± 6 years; height: 180 ± 7 cm; mass: 81 ± 7 kg) across 5 playing positions took part in a multiple study (n = 154 observations). Player movement was recorded during 19 (n = 19) competitive games over 2 seasons using 4-Hz GPS (VXSport, New Zealand). The average total distance (m), high-speed running distance (m; ≥17 km·h−1), and very high–speed running distance (m; ≥22 km·h−1) were recorded. In addition, the number (n), distance (m), and the duration of accelerations were quantified. Accelerations were subdivided into 14 equal parts of 5-minute epochs (E1 = 0–5 minutes, E2 = 5–10 minutes, E3 = 10–15 minutes etc). Players performed 166 ± 41 accelerations. High-speed running distance and very high–speed running distance was 1563 ± 605 and 524 ± 190 m, respectively. The mean acceleration distance was 267 ± 45 m distributed between 12 ± 5 accelerations per 5-minute epoch. The maximum acceleration epoch classified as the greatest distance covered accelerating during a predetermined 5-minute epoch was 296 ± 134 m. The PEAK epoch resulted in a significant reduction of acceleration distance covered in the period before and in the subsequent epoch. An understanding of the acceleration profile in Gaelic football can inform the prescription of appropriate training regimen.
Detection of novel metabolites of flaxseed lignans in vitro and in vivo.

SCOPE This study aimed to improve the knowledge of secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) transformation by human gut microbiota. METHODS AND RESULTS SDG-supplemented microbiota cultures were inoculated with the feces of five subjects. The same volunteers received a flaxseed supplement for 7 days. SDG metabolites in cultures, feces, and urine were monitored by LC-ESI-QTOF and LC-DAD. In all cultures, SDG was deglycosylated to secoisolariciresinol (SECO) within 12 h. SECO underwent successive dehydroxylations and demethylations yielding enterodiol (4-18% conversion) and enterolactone (0.2-6%) after 24 h. Novel intermediates related to SECO, matairesinol (MATA), and anhydrosecoisolariciresinol (AHS) were identified in fecal cultures. These metabolites were also found after flaxseed consumption in feces and urine (in approximate amounts between 0.01-47.03 μg/g and 0.01-13.49 μg/mL, respectively) in their native form and/or modified by phase II human enzymes (glucuronide, sulfate and sulfoglucuronide conjugates). CONCLUSIONS Derivatives of MATA and AHS are described for the first time as intermediates of SDG biotransformation by intestinal bacteria, providing a more comprehensive knowledge of lignan intestinal metabolism. The transformations observed in vitro seem to occur in vivo as well. The detection in urine of SDG intermediates indicates their gut absorption, opening new perspectives on the study of their systemic biological effects.
Remote monitoring of autonomic nervous system indices using video cameras

It is notable that the photoplethysmogram can be extracted by processing the green component of a video signal of a human body taken with a video camera. This is an affordable, remote and non-contact measurement method to obtain not only heart rate but also blood pressure information. In this study, a tool for obtaining the pulse transit time which correlates with blood pressure has been developed. It is expected that this tool can be used to evaluate plural persons' autonomic function using only one video camera.
Effective ellipse detector with polygonal curve and likelihood ratio test

A robust ellipse detector is proposed. The detector preprocesses the edge map by removing all the isolated points and conjunction points, and exploits polygonal curve to extract the elliptical arcs. A non-iterative geometric distance computation method is presented to serve a criterion which identifies the elliptical arcs belonging to the same ellipse by likelihood ratio test and fit ellipses to those merged arcs. The authors test their algorithm on both synthetic and real images, and the experimental results show a good performance of their algorithm.
A stick-slip vibration suppression method for the drillstring system based on neutral type model

A controller is proposed based on the equivalent input disturbance (EID) method to suppress the stick-slip vibration of the drilling process. The drillstring system is described by a neutral type model with unknown disturbances, where the unknown disturbances are mainly nonlinear bit-rock reaction. The core idea of this approach is to use EID to suppress a variety of external disturbances and the impact caused by the state delay of the neutral type model. The main advantage of our method is that the controller does not depend on the specific disturbance model, which is of great significance for the suppression control of stick-slip vibration in complex stratigraphic environment. Moreover, our method is applicable to more general neutral type systems. The simulation was carried out to eliminate stick-slip vibration quickly and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Compact two pole metamaterial bandpass filter using inverted IDC, meander line and rectangular stub for WiMAX application

This paper represents a via-less compact metamaterial (MTM) bandpass filter. The proposed filter is configured with a symmetrical shunt meander line and rectangular stub on both side of the inverted interdigital capacitor and makes pi-type equivalent circuit diagram. Inverted interdigital capacitor generates a series left handed capacitance and current flowing through it forms right handed inductance. Left handed inductance generated by meander line and right handed capacitance produced by parasitic effect of fingers of IDC and ground plane. The rectangular stub works as a virtual ground and form large capacitance connected with meander line. Two poles are generated due to two meander line and two rectangular stub and it is shown by its electric field distribution. Two transmission zeros are produced one before the passband and other after the passband and its position is controlled by meander line length. The MTM properties of designed filter is verified by dispersion diagram. The designed filter delivers excellent scattering parameters with measured insertion loss of 0.70 dB and return loss greater than 25 dB with 3 dB fractional bandwidth 50.4% at centre frequency 3.01 GHz. The frequency band from 1.95 GHz to 2.62 GHz comes under left handed region due to negative slope and from 2.62 GHz to 3.9 GHz comes under right handed region due to positive slope. The electrical size of the suggested filter is 0. 13λg × 0. 24λg, where λg is the guided wavelength at ZOR frequency of 2.62 GHz. The designed structure has been fabricated and experimentally validated. The designed filter offers measured group delay variation between 0.5 ns to 0.75 ns within the passband. It is suitable for WLAN (2.4–2.48 GHz) and WiMAX (2.5–2.69 GHz, 3.3–3.69 GHz) applications.
Food-Grade Encapsulation Systems for (−)-Epigallocatechin Gallate

(−)-Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has attracted significant research interest due to its health-promoting effects such as antioxidation, anti-inflammation and anti-cancer activities. However, its instability and poor bioavailability have largely limited its efficacy and application. Food-grade materials such as proteins, carbohydrates and lipids show biodegradability, biocompatibility and biofunctionality properties. Food-grade encapsulation systems are usually used to improve the bioavailability of EGCG. In the present paper, we provide an overview of materials and techniques used in encapsulating EGCG, in which the adsorption mechanisms of food-grade systems during in vitro digestion are reviewed. Moreover, the potential challenges and future work using food-grade encapsulates for delivering EGCG are also discussed.
Upregulation of HLA Class I Expression on Tumor Cells by the Anti-EGFR Antibody Nimotuzumab

Defining how epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeting therapies influence the immune response is essential to increase their clinical efficacy. A growing emphasis is being placed on immune regulator genes that govern tumor – T cell interactions. Previous studies showed an increase in HLA class I cell surface expression in tumor cell lines treated with anti-EGFR agents. In particular, earlier studies of the anti-EGFR blocking antibody cetuximab, have suggested that increased tumor expression of HLA class I is associated with positive clinical response. We investigated the effect of another commercially available anti-EGFR antibody nimotuzumab on HLA class I expression in tumor cell lines. We observed, for the first time, that nimotuzumab increases HLA class I expression and its effect is associated with a coordinated increase in mRNA levels of the principal antigen processing and presentation components. Moreover, using 7A7 (a specific surrogate antibody against murine EGFR), we obtained results suggesting the importance of the increased MHC-I expression induced by EGFR-targeted therapies display higher in antitumor immune response. 7A7 therapy induced upregulation of tumor MHC-I expression in vivo and tumors treated with this antibody display higher susceptibility to CD8+ T cells-mediated lysis. Our results represent the first evidence suggesting the importance of the adaptive immunity in nimotuzumab-mediated antitumor activity. More experiments should be conducted in order to elucidate the relevance of this mechanism in cancer patients. This novel immune-related antitumor mechanism mediated by nimotuzumab opens new perspectives for its combination with various immunotherapeutic agents and cancer vaccines.
The patterns of anticoagulation control and the risk of stroke, bleeding and mortality in patients with non‐valvular atrial fibrillation

Summary. Background: Anticoagulation control is often summarized using the percentage of time spent in a therapeutic range (TTR). This method does not describe the timing and severity of fluctuations in the International Normalised Ratio (INR). Objective: To evaluate whether the TTR method can be improved by considering the patterns of INR over time.Methods: The cohort included adults aged 40+ years with atrial fibrillation (AF) and laboratory records of INR as recorded in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Statistical clustering techniques based on simple INR measures were used to describe the patterns of INR. Nested case–control studies calculated the odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of stroke, bleeding and mortality with TTR and different INR patterns. It was also evaluated whether cluster analyses improved the prediction of outcomes over TTR.Results: A number of 27 381 patients were studied with a mean age of 73 years. The OR for mortality was 3.76 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.03–4.68) in patients with < 30% TTR compared with patients with 100% TTR. INR patterns were found to be best described by six different clusters. The cluster with the most unstable pattern was associated with the largest risk of mortality (OR 10.7, 95% CI 8.27–13.85) and stroke (OR 3.42, 95% CI 2.08–5.63). INR measures that predicted death independent of the TTR‐included absolute difference between two subsequent INR measurements and change relative to the mean over time.Conclusion: Cluster analysis of INR patterns improved the prediction of clinical outcomes over TTR and may help to identify warfarin users who need additional anticoagulation monitoring.
DNA damage response

An estimated 105 DNA lesions occur daily in the mammalian genome as a consequence of spontaneous decay, replication errors, and cell metabolism, including reactive oxygen species produced by the mitochondria. Oxidative stress is a major mechanism of DNA damage in the nervous system. Damaged DNA must be repaired to allow the proper reading of the genetic code. The response to DNA damage involves DNA damage recognition first, followed by resection of the affected site, DNA processing, filling the gap by action of DNA polymerases, and sealing of the nick by DNA ligases. Severe DNA damage also triggers chromatin remodeling, transient interruption of the cell cycle, and, if left unrepaired, programmed cell death. Whereas disturbances in DNA repair have been primarily linked to carcinogenesis or immunodeficiency, they can also affect development or survival of cells in the nervous system. A prototype neurologic disorder of DNA repair is ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) due to mutation of the A-T mutated (ATM) gene encoding A-T mutated (ATM), a kinase that coordinates responses to double-strand DNA breaks. Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia (AOA) results from mutations of key proteins involved in DNA end-processing and transcription regulation. Many neurodegenerative disorders are associated with inability to repair oxidative base modifications in both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Mismatch and base excision–repair are important modifiers in trinucleotide repeat expansion disorders. There are several reviews on the complex mechanisms involved in DNA repair1–7 and the neurologic disorders associated with defective DNA repair pathways.8–16 A comprehensive discussion of these is beyond the scope of this review and only selected topics are discussed here.
Cognitive and neurophysiological markers of ADHD persistence and remission

Background Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) persists in around two-thirds of individuals in adolescence and early adulthood. Aims To examine the cognitive and neurophysiological processes underlying the persistence or remission of ADHD. Method Follow-up data were obtained from 110 young people with childhood ADHD and 169 controls on cognitive, electroencephalogram frequency, event-related potential (ERP) and actigraph movement measures after 6 years. Results ADHD persisters differed from remitters on preparation-vigilance measures (contingent negative variation, delta activity, reaction time variability and omission errors), IQ and actigraph count, but not on executive control measures of inhibition or working memory (nogo-P3 amplitudes, commission errors and digit span backwards). Conclusions Preparation-vigilance measures were markers of remission, improving concurrently with ADHD symptoms, whereas executive control measures were not sensitive to ADHD persistence/remission. For IQ, the present and previous results combined suggest a role in moderating ADHD outcome. These findings fit with previously identified aetiological separation of the cognitive impairments in ADHD. The strongest candidates for the development of non-pharmacological interventions involving cognitive training and neurofeedback are the preparation-vigilance processes that were markers of ADHD remission.
Using an Open Source Observational Tool to Measure the Influence of the Doctor's Consulting Style and the Computer System on the Outcomes of the Clinical Consultation

Computerization of general practice is an international phenomenon. Many of the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems have developed organically with considerable variation in their interface and functionality. Consequently they have differing impact on the clinical consultation. There is a dearth of tools available to study their impact on the consultation. The objective is to use ALFA to film and analyze a simulated clinical consultation. We used the ALFA (Activity Log File Aggregation) open source toolkit, to make video based observation and analysis of the computer mediated consultation. ALFA enables precise comparison of core elements of EPR systems. It allows multiple video channels including screen capture, data about computer use, and verbal interactions to be synchronized, timed and navigated through for analysis. The toolkit is free and can be downloaded under an open source license from www.biomedicalinformatics. info/alfa/. Its outputs, which include Unified Modelling Language (UML), provide the evidence-base for assessing the impact of the computer on the consultation the designing of EPR systems. ALFA has been used to compare different brands of primary care computer systems; nurse case-load selection and consultation in psychiatry.
ResCSRF: Algorithm to Automatically Extract Cheyne–Stokes Respiration Features From Respiratory Signals

Objective: Cheyne–Stokes respiration (CSR) related features are significantly associated with cardiac dysfunction. Scoring of these features is labor intensive and time-consuming. To automate the scoring process, an algorithm (ResCSRF) has been developed to extract these features from nocturnal measurement of respiratory signals. Methods: ResCSRF takes four signals (nasal flow, thorax, abdomen, and finger oxygen saturation) as input. It first detects CSR cycles and then calculates the respiratory features (cycle length, lung-to-periphery circulation time, and time to peak flow). It outputs nightly statistics (mean, median, standard deviation, and percentiles) of these features. It was developed and blindly tested on a group of 49 chronic heart failure patients undergoing overnight in-home unattended respiratory polygraphy recordings. Results: The performance of ResCSRF was evaluated against manual expert scoring (ES) (consensus between two independent sleep scorers). In terms of percentage of CSR per recording, the mean difference [reproducibility coefficient (RPC)] between ResCSRF and ES was $-$0.5(6.4) and 0.5(8.1) for development and test set, respectively. The nightly statistics of CSR-related features output by ResCSRF showed high correlation with ES on the blind test set with the mean difference of less than 3 s and RPC of less than 7 s. Conclusions: These results indicate that ResCSRF is capable of automating the scoring of CSR-related features and could potentially be implemented into a remote monitoring system to regularly monitor patients’ cardiac function.
An improved cluster labeling algorithm based on vector similarity in radar signal sorting

Radar signal sorting is a process of detecting and identifying the target radar emitter. This paper presents an improved cluster labeling algorithm based on vector similarity in radar signal sort, which reduces the computation complexity without loss of accuracy. The basic idea of the algorithm is making full use of the features of support vectors to search the stable equilibrium points and calculating the similarity of vectors to assign the rest data points. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Phenotypic and Functional Properties of Tumor-Infiltrating Regulatory T Cells

Regulatory T (Treg) cells maintain immune homeostasis by suppressing excessive immune responses. Treg cells induce tolerance against self- and foreign antigens, thus preventing autoimmunity, allergy, graft rejection, and fetus rejection during pregnancy. However, Treg cells also infiltrate into tumors and inhibit antitumor immune responses, thus inhibiting anticancer therapy. Depleting whole Treg cell populations in the body to enhance anticancer treatments will produce deleterious autoimmune diseases. Therefore, understanding the precise nature of tumor-infiltrating Treg cells is essential for effectively targeting Treg cells in tumors. This review summarizes recent results relating to Treg cells in the tumor microenvironment, with particular emphasis on their accumulation, phenotypic, and functional properties, and targeting to enhance the efficacy of anticancer treatment.