Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of androgen in autophagy of granulosa cells from PCOS

Abstract Hyperandrogenism is one of the most common causes for anovulation in women and increases the risk for metabolic disorder in PCOS patients. Autophagy plays an important role in dysfunction of endocrine and anovulation. However, the relationship between hyperandrogenism and autophagy in human granulosa cells of PCOS patients remains unclear. By collecting granulosa cells from PCOS patients and non-PCOS patients, we found that the abundance of autophagy-related genes ATG5, ATG7, BECN1 mRNA and the ratio of autophagy marker protein light chain 3B II/I (LC3 II/I) were significantly increased whereas the abundance of the autophagy substrate SQSTM1/p62 was decreased in ovarian granulosa cells from PCOS patients. Furthermore, we demonstrated that BECN1 mRNA abundance in human granulosa cells positively correlated with the basal level of serum total testosterone and androgen up-regulated the abundance of BECN1 mRNA and the ratio of LC3II/LC3I in a dose-dependent manner in cultured granulosa cells. These observations indicated that androgen-induced activation of autophagy may play an important role in the development of PCOS and to explore the autophagy mechanisms involved in PCOS yield new insight into the pathophysiology and therapy of the disorder.
Are Bipartisan Lawmakers More Effective?

We use the Bipartisanship Index (Lugar and Montgomery 2015) and Legislative Effectiveness Scores (Volden and Wiseman 2014) from the U.S. House of Representatives to explore whether bipartisan lawmakers are more effective at advancing their legislative proposals into law. Across numerous specifications we find that bipartisanship is positively related with lawmaking effectiveness. This relationship is conditional, however, on both expected and unexpected factors. For example, intuitively, bipartisanship is more important for minority-party members who wish to advance their sponsored bills than for majority-party members. Perhaps less intuitively, however, bipartisanship is at least as important for ideological extremists as it is for centrists, and bipartisanship is a more influential strategy for lawmakers in recent Congresses than for those in previous decades. Working Paper: 4-2016 Research Concentration: Legislative Politics and Policymaking
Endoscopic palliation of biliary obstruction

Advanced pancreaticobiliary malignancy tends to be uncurable at presentation and causes significant morbidity for patients. Palliation for malignant biliary obstruction should be minimally invasive, cost‐effective, and aim to improve quality of life of patients. Strategies of endoscopic palliation of malignant biliary obstruction can differ based on sites and degree of biliary obstruction with complex decisions of optimal stent type and placement that involve conscientious planning by a multidisciplinary team.
Cooperative routing for distributed detection in large sensor networks

In this paper, the detection of a correlated Gaussian field using a large multi-hop sensor network is investigated. A cooperative routing strategy is proposed by introducing a new link metric that characterizes the detection error exponent. Derived from the Chernoff information and Schweppe's likelihood recursion, this link metric captures the contribution of a given link to the decay rate of error probability and has the form of the capacity of a Gaussian channel with the sender transmitting the innovation of its measurement. For one-dimensional Gauss-Markov fields, the link metric can be represented explicitly as a function of the link length. Cooperative routing is achieved using the Kalman data aggregation and shortest path routing. Numerical simulations show that cooperative routing can be significantly more energy efficient than noncooperative routing for the same detection performance
A Novel Internet of Things-Enabled Accident Detection and Reporting System for Smart City Environments

Internet of Things-enabled Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are gaining significant attention in academic literature and industry, and are seen as a solution to enhancing road safety in smart cities. Due to the ever increasing number of vehicles, a significant rise in the number of road accidents has been observed. Vehicles embedded with a plethora of sensors enable us to not only monitor the current situation of the vehicle and its surroundings but also facilitates the detection of incidents. Significant research, for example, has been conducted on accident rescue, particularly on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for efficient and prompt rescue operations. The majority of such works provide sophisticated solutions that focus on reducing response times. However, such solutions can be expensive and are not available in all types of vehicles. Given this, we present a novel Internet of Things-based accident detection and reporting system for a smart city environment. The proposed approach aims to take advantage of advanced specifications of smartphones to design and develop a low-cost solution for enhanced transportation systems that is deployable in legacy vehicles. In this context, a customized Android application is developed to gather information regarding speed, gravitational force, pressure, sound, and location. The speed is a factor that is used to help improve the identification of accidents. It arises because of clear differences in environmental conditions (e.g., noise, deceleration rate) that arise in low speed collisions, versus higher speed collisions). The information acquired is further processed to detect road incidents. Furthermore, a navigation system is also developed to report the incident to the nearest hospital. The proposed approach is validated through simulations and comparison with a real data set of road accidents acquired from Road Safety Open Repository, and shows promising results in terms of accuracy.
Dysregulated long non-coding RNAs in pleomorphic adenoma tissues of pleomorphic adenoma gene 1 transgenic mice

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to serve vital roles in various human diseases. However, their involvement in the development of pleomorphic adenoma (PA) in the salivary gland has yet to be examined. In the present study, microarray analysis of the lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles in pleomorphic adenoma gene 1 (PLAG1) transgenic mice was performed. Next, bioinformatics tools were used to predict the differentially expressed genes associated with PA, including Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment and lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network analyses. Comparison of the transgenic and control mice demonstrated that a total of 9,110 lncRNAs and 7,750 mRNAs were significantly differentially expressed (fold change >2; P<0.05). Subsequently, six lncRNAs were randomly selected for further analysis, and five of these were validated as differentially expressed in PA by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, supporting the methodology employed in the current study. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of the differentially expressed mRNAs revealed that these mRNAs were closely associated with a number of processes involved in the development of PA. Furthermore, the lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network indicated that certain lncRNAs may serve vital roles in the pathogenesis of PA by interacting with a number of core genes. Taken together, these results indicated that lncRNAs and mRNAs were differentially expressed in PA tissues obtained from PLAG1 transgenic mice as compared with those from control mice. These differentially expressed lncRNAs may act as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for PA.
The relationship between homocysteine level and vitamins B12, B9 and B6 status in patients with chronic kidney disease.

OBJECTIVE Introduction: According to present knowledge, hyperhomocysteinemia is one of the risk factors of cardio-vascular pathology. Patients with chronic kidney disease are known to develop hyperhomocysteinemia more often than those in general population. Іmportant cause of hyperhomocysteinemia is the deficiency of vitamins В6, В9 and В12 that are involved in homocysteine metabolism. Vitamins deficiency, we believe, can be one of the causes of hyperhomocysteinemia in the patients with chronic renal failure. The aim: To analyze the plasma homocysteine level in patients with chronic kidney disease and its assosiation with the levels of vitamins B6, B9, B12 in Ukraine. PATIENTS AND METHODS Materials and methods: The study involved 148 persons with different stagesis of chronic kidney disease who underwent immunoenzyme determination of total plasma homocysteine, B9, cobalamin and vitamin В6 status. RESULTS Results: It was found that in ukrainian patient population with chronic kidney disease 58.7% of patients have hyperhomocysteinemia. Homocysteine level was shown to increase with the increase of chronic kidney disease stage. Supply of vitamins В6, В9 та В12 in the patients with chronic kidney disease was lower than in apparently healthy persons, but there was significant decrease of folic acid level proportionally to the increase of chronic kidney disease stage. There was close relationship between homocysteine level and folic acid status in the patients with chronic kidney disease, but it appeared to be independent on cobalamin and pyridoxin status. CONCLUSION Conclusions: The obtained data are promising for finding effective means of correction of hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with chronic kidney disease by normalizing the vitamin status of such patients.
A corpus of European Portuguese child and child-directed speech

We present a corpus of child and child-directed speech of European Portuguese. This corpus results from the expansion of an already existing database (Santos, 2006). It includes around 52 hours of child-adult interaction and now contains 27,595 child utterances and 70,736 adult utterances. The corpus was transcribed according to the CHILDES system (Child Language Data Exchange System) and using the CLAN software (MacWhinney, 2000). The corpus itself represents a valuable resource for the study of lexical, syntax and discourse acquisition. In this paper, we also show how we used an existing part-of-speech tagger trained on written material (Genereux, Hendrickx & Mendes, 2012) to automatically lemmatize and tag child and child-directed speech and generate a line with part-of-speech information compatible with the CLAN interface. We show that a POS-tagger trained on the analysis of written language can be exploited for the treatment of spoken material with minimal effort, with only a small number of written rules assisting the statistical model.
To what extent does maternal body mass index predict intentions, attitudes, or practices of early infant feeding?

Public health guidelines recommend women establish and maintain exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months postpartum. Women with a body mass index (BMI, kg/m2 ) in the overweight or obese range are less likely to initiate and continue breastfeeding than healthy weight women. Evidence for psychological mechanisms of this association using validated methods of measurement is limited, but factors such as attitudes and intentions for infant feeding are implicated. This study aimed to investigate the associations between maternal BMI, antenatal attitudes and intentions for infant feeding, and subsequent breastfeeding practices. A total of N = 128 women completed an online questionnaire antenatally, and n = 48 were followed-up in the first month postpartum. Validated measures of intentions (Infant Feeding Intentions Scale) and attitudes (Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale) for infant feeding were used. One-way analysis of variance and multivariate regression analyses assessed study objectives. Infant feeding attitudes (p = .327) and intentions (p = .254) were similar among healthy weight, overweight, and obese women and did not differ significantly. In adjusted regression models, only intentions significantly predicted early breastfeeding behaviour (p = .036; AR2 = .301). Missing data analysis revealed no significant differences in the profile of completing versus noncompleting women. Evidence suggests postnatal factors contribute significantly to lower breastfeeding rates in cohorts of women with overweight or obese BMIs. Further investigations should consider using theory and methods from behavioural science to longitudinally investigate modifiable mechanisms of action responsible for lower breastfeeding rates among overweight and obese women to inform practices that support prolonged breastfeeding.
VR THOR - Virtual reality training with hotstick on operations risks

In this work we present a simulator system for training operation and maintenance of power grids distribution lines with focus on workplace safety and risk control of fuse cutout activities. The student uses a VR goggles to visualize the virtual environment (Oculus Rift) and maneuver a real bat to interact with the 3D environment, both tracked by a high precision infrared camera system (OptiTrack). It all provides a high degree of immersion and realism to the user experience. The student arms, back and head are also tracked, and the movements are replicated in a virtual avatar, allowing the instructor to evaluate ergonomic aspects. The system consists of two modules: a) Instructor Interface, which helps her/him to create and to control different challenges in the scenario and, also, to follow the student reactions and behavior; and b) Simulation Interface, which is presented to the student through VR goggles. It is important to underline that the training session can also be viewed on a projected screen by other students, extending the learning process to the observation of mistakes and successes of their peers. The simulator features various risk scenarios such as: climate (sun, rain and wind), lighting (day and night), types of structures, transformer on fire and explosions, short-circuit and electric arc, defective equipment and many other obstacles (trees, cars, windows, swarm of bees, etc)
Effect of integrin β1 in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence by electrical stimulation

The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of integrin β1 in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) by electrical stimulation, and the underlying mechanisms by which electrical stimulation regulates the collagen metabolism of female vaginal wall fibroblasts (FVWFs). FVWFs obtained from the vaginal wall tissue of patients with (Ingelman-Sundberg scale; grade II, n=8; grade III, n=10) or without (n=8) SUI during gynecological operations were isolated by enzymatic digestion and subsequently identified by immunocytochemistry. Following this, cultured FVWFs were treated with an inhibitor of integrin β1, recombinant human integrin β1 and electrical stimulation (100 mv/mm, 2 h, 20 Hz), followed by total mRNA and protein extraction. mRNA and protein expression levels of integrin β1, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and collagen (COL) I and III in FVWFs were quantified by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and western blot analysis respectively. Integrin β1, TGF-β1 and COL I and III expression levels were decreased in patients with SUI compared with healthy controls, and the grade III group had lower levels than the grade II group. Following electrical stimulation treatment, the expression levels of TGF-β1, COL I and III were enhanced in the grade II group, but not in the grade III group. Nevertheless, the inhibitor of integrin β1 reduced the protective effect of electrical stimulation in the grade II group. In addition, electrical stimulation combined with recombinant human integrin β1 could also protect cells from SUI in the grade III group. The present study provides evidence for the increased degradation of the extracellular matrix and integrin β1 in the vaginal wall tissues of patients with SUI, and the protective effect of electrical stimulation against SUI via integrin β1. These results provide a novel mechanism for the treatment of SUI using electrical stimulation.
A roadmap to integrate astrocytes into Systems Neuroscience

Systems neuroscience is still mainly a neuronal field, despite the plethora of evidence supporting the fact that astrocytes modulate local neural circuits, networks, and complex behaviors. In this article, we sought to identify which types of studies are necessary to establish whether astrocytes, beyond their well‐documented homeostatic and metabolic functions, perform computations implementing mathematical algorithms that sub‐serve coding and higher‐brain functions. First, we reviewed Systems‐like studies that include astrocytes in order to identify computational operations that these cells may perform, using Ca2+ transients as their encoding language. The analysis suggests that astrocytes may carry out canonical computations in a time scale of subseconds to seconds in sensory processing, neuromodulation, brain state, memory formation, fear, and complex homeostatic reflexes. Next, we propose a list of actions to gain insight into the outstanding question of which variables are encoded by such computations. The application of statistical analyses based on machine learning, such as dimensionality reduction and decoding in the context of complex behaviors, combined with connectomics of astrocyte–neuronal circuits, is, in our view, fundamental undertakings. We also discuss technical and analytical approaches to study neuronal and astrocytic populations simultaneously, and the inclusion of astrocytes in advanced modeling of neural circuits, as well as in theories currently under exploration such as predictive coding and energy‐efficient coding. Clarifying the relationship between astrocytic Ca2+ and brain coding may represent a leap forward toward novel approaches in the study of astrocytes in health and disease.
Outdoor Walking Training Compared To Cycle Ergometer Training in Severe COPD: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial

Abstract Exercise can improve walking capacity in persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, most endurance training programs use cycle ergometers. The objectives of this study were: (i) to evaluate the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing outdoor walking training (OWT) to cycle ergometer training (CT) during inpatient rehabilitation in persons with severe COPD; (ii) to estimate the effect of OWT and CT on health-related quality of life, physical capacity and physical activity; and (iii) to estimate the required sample size for a RCT. A single-blind randomized controlled feasibility trial was conducted with three months' follow-up in the rehabilitation center in Walenstadtberg, Switzerland. Sixteen patients were included in the study, which had a recruitment rate of 33% (16/48). Patients were allocated to an OWT (n = 8) or CT (n = 8) group. Participants completed 75% of scheduled training and the follow-up rate was 75%. All participants in the OWT group were satisfied with the training. The OWT group had better health-related quality of life after three weeks' training compared to the CT group (p = 0.042, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.06–49.94, effect size (d)=1.19). No exacerbations occurred in the OWT group, but three occurred in the CT group after three months’ follow-up. There was no significant difference in the other outcomes. In conclusion, the study design and the OWT are feasible. Health-related quality of life improved in the OWT group compared to the CT group after three weeks' inpatient rehabilitation. A minimum of 46 participants is needed for a RCT. Trial registration: www.who. int/trialsearch DRKS00010977
The Impact of Morning versus Afternoon Exercise on Iron Absorption in Athletes.

PURPOSE This study examined post-exercise inflammatory, hepcidin and iron absorption responses to endurance exercise performed in the morning versus the afternoon. METHODS Sixteen endurance-trained runners (10 male, 6 female) with serum ferritin (sFer) < 50 μg⋅L completed a 90 min running protocol (65% vV[Combining Dot Above]O2max) in the morning (AM), or the afternoon (PM), in a crossover design. An iron-fortified fluid labelled with stable iron isotopes (Fe or Fe) was administered with a standardized meal 30 min following the exercise and control conditions during each trial, serving as a breakfast and dinner meal. Venous blood samples were collected pre-, immediately post-, and 3 h post- the exercise and control conditions to measure sFer, serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), and serum hepcidin-25. A final venous blood sample was collected 14 d after each trial to determine the erythrocyte iron incorporation, which was used to calculate iron absorption. Linear mixed-modelling was used to analyse the data. RESULTS Overall, exercise significantly increased the concentrations of IL-6 (4.938 pg⋅mL; p=0.006), and Hepcidin-25 concentrations significantly increased 3 h following exercise by 0.380 nM (p<0.001). During the PM trial, hepcidin concentrations exhibited diurnal tendency, increasing 0.55 nM at rest (p=0.007), before further increasing 0.68 nM (p<0.001) from pre- to 3 h post-run. Fractional iron absorption was significantly greater at breakfast following the AM run, compared with both the rested condition (0.778%; p=0.020) and dinner in the AM run trial (0.672%; p=0.011). While exercise resulted in increased concentrations of IL-6 and hepcidin, iron was best absorbed in the morning following exercise, indicating there may be a transient mechanism during the acute post-exercise window to promote iron absorption opposing the homeostatic regulation by serum hepcidin elevations.
Brain cancer-activated microglia: A potential role for sphingolipids.

Almost no neurological disease exists without microglial activation. Microglia exert a pivotal role in the maintenance of the central nervous system and its response to external and internal insults. Microglia have traditionally been classified as, in the healthy central nervous system, "resting", with branched morphology system and, as a response to disease, "activated", with amoeboid morphology; as a response to diseases but this distinction is now outmoded. The most devastating disease that hits the brain is cancer, in particular glioblastoma. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive glioma with high invasiveness and little chance of being surgically removed. During tumor onset, many brain alterations are present and microglia have a major role because the tumor itself changes microglia from the pro-inflammatory state to the anti-inflammatory and protects the tumor from an immune intervention. What are the determinants of these changes in the behavior of the microglia? In this review, we survey and discuss the role of sphingolipids in microglia activation in the progression of brain tumors, with a particular focus on glioblastoma.
International comparative analyses of healthcare risk management

Objective Interpretation of the growing body of global literature on health care risk is compromised by a lack of common understanding and language. This series of articles aims to comprehensively compare laws and regulations, institutional management, and administration of incidence reporting systems on medical risk management in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan, so as to provide evidence and recommendations for health care risk management policy in China.
Genetic analysis in the bariatric clinic; impact of a PTEN gene mutation

Pathogenic PTEN gene mutations are known to cause PTEN tumor hamartoma syndrome. Recent studies also suggest a role for PTEN mutations in the pathogenesis of obesity. No PTEN mutations have been reported among bariatric surgery patients and obesity treatment results are unknown. Since preventive screening for associated tumors is offered to patients with molecular proven PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome, recognition of this condition in the bariatric surgery clinic is important.