Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations of Environmental Factors With Quality of Life in Older Adults

Purpose of the Study Environmental factors play an important role in the quality of life of older people who often have difficulty maintaining physical, psychological, and social functioning. In this study, we aimed at (a) developing a measurement instrument assessing the factors of older adults' perceptions of their environment, (b) examining the associations of these environmental factors with quality of life domains physical health, psychological, social relations, and environmental, controlling for background characteristics. Design and Methods Associations between environmental factors and quality of life domains were examined in a cross-sectional study using a sample of 1,031 Dutch people aged 65 years and older. Participants completed a Web-based questionnaire, the "Senioren Barometer. " Forty-two questions on environmental factors were asked, and quality of life domains were assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF. Results Seven scales (comprising 3-9 items) of environment were constructed-housing, facilities, nuisance, residents, neighborhood, stench/noise, and traffic. All quality of life domains (physical, psychological, social, environmental) were associated with at least one environmental scale. Housing, residents, and nuisance were associated with 4, 3, and 2 domains, respectively. Facilities, neighborhood, stench/noise, and traffic were associated only with quality of life environmental. Implications This study showed that multiple environmental factors are associated with quality of life in older people. To support independent living in older people health and social care professionals and policymakers may need to carry out interventions, in particular focusing on housing, residents, and nuisance.
Cost–Benefit Analysis of a Chlamydia trachomatis Vaccine Program in Adolescent Girls in the United States

Background With >1.4 million cases in the United States reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012, Chlamydia trachomatis infection is a major public health concern. We examined the impact of a C trachomatis vaccination program using a decision-analysis model to estimate the effects of vaccination on C trachomatis-associated costs and morbidity. Methods We developed a Markov model considering a cohort of 2158117 US females aged 9 to 26 years. Morbidity, death, and healthcare-associated costs associated with chlamydial infection of mothers and fetuses/neonates were calculated over a 17-year time frame. We developed 2 major comparison arms, namely, a C trachomatis vaccination program and no C trachomatis vaccination program. Base-case efficacy and coverage were set to those of human papillomavirus in the United States with all variables, including efficacy and coverage, ranged in sensitivity analyses. Results On the basis of a base-case analysis, a vaccination program would cost an estimated $710 million for a cohort of 2158117 women over a 17-year period, an increase of $41 million over having no vaccination program. A vaccination program would prevent 34000 cases of C trachomatis infection and 5976 cases of pelvic inflammatory disease. Conclusions A C trachomatis vaccination program results in increased cost to the healthcare system but averts significant morbidity and death.
Myotonic dystrophy diagnosed during the perinatal period: A case series report

myotonic dystrophy (CMD); however, the disorder often has not been diagnosed beforehand. Although DM is a systemic disease for which there is no complete cure, early diagnosis remains important as effective management may reduce the morbidity and mortality of patients and help them to plan their pregnancies. Here, we report four cases in which the prenatal and postnatal data were available from March 2009 to December 2010 at Cheil General Hospital.
Royal Decree: Gene Expression in Trans-Generationally Immune Primed Bumblebee Workers Mimics a Primary Immune Response

Invertebrates lack the cellular and physiological machinery of the adaptive immune system, but show specificity in their immune response [1, 2] and immune priming [3-11]. Functionally, immune priming is comparable to immune memory in vertebrates. Individuals that have survived exposure to a given parasite are better protected against subsequent exposures. Protection may be cross-reactive (e.g. [12]), but demonstrations of persistent and specific protection in invertebrates are increasing [3, 5]. This immune priming can cross generations ("trans-generational" immune priming) [4, 8], preparing offspring for the prevailing parasite environment. While these phenomena gain increasing support, the mechanistic foundations underlying such immune priming, both within and across generations, remain largely unknown. Using a transcriptomic approach, we show a bacterial challenge to bumblebee queens, known to induce trans-generational immune priming, alters daughter (worker) gene expression. Daughters, even when unchallenged themselves, constitutively express a core set of the genes induced upon direct bacterial exposure, including high expression of antimicrobial peptides, a beta-glucan receptor protein implicated in bacterial recognition and the induction of the toll signaling pathway[13], and slit-3 which is important in honeybee immunity[14]. Maternal challenge results in a distinct upregulation of their daughters’ immune system, with a signature overlapping with the induced individual response to a direct immune challenge. This will mediate mother-offspring protection, but also associated costs related to reconfiguration of constitutive immune expression. Identification of conserved immune pathways in memory-like responses has important implications for our understanding of the innate immune system, including the innate components in vertebrates, which share many of these pathways[15]. Author Summary Invertebrate individuals surviving exposure to an infectious disease can become better at fighting future infection by that same disease. This protection, known as immune priming, can even be transferred to the individuals’ offspring. The functional outcome is very similar to that of vertebrate immune memory, but the mechanisms of how invertebrates achieve immune priming within an individual or across generations remain enigmatic. We found that bumblebee daughters of mothers exposed to a simulated bacterial infection express strongly many of the genes that they would activate if they were themselves infected. Our results show how immune priming across generations might be produced in bumblebees. Many parts of the invertebrate immune system are shared with us, and thus our study also sheds a light on how diverse immune memory-like effects could be achieved.
Relation between caloric intake, body weight, and physical work: studies in an industrial male population in West Bengal.

I T HAS been stated-or implied-by many workers that the regulation of food intake functions with such flexibility that an increase in energy output due to exercise is automatically followed by an equivalent increase in caloric intake. This view, usually accompanied by a minimization of the energy expenditure due to exercise, has often led to the disparagement of physical activity as a factor in weight control. The fallacies inherent in such an attitude have been discussed It has been shown that when rats are exercised for increasing durations on a treadmill, intakes vary linearly with exercise only within certain limits of activity.3 Below this level, in what can be termed the ‘ ‘sedentary’ ‘ range, a further decrease in activity is not followed by a decrease in food intake but, on the contrary, by a slight but significant increase. The animals increase both their weight and fat content. Enforced total inactivity in the rat can even lead to a considerable degree of obesity.4 It has also been shown that spontaneous inactivity is a major factor in the development of genetic obesity in the mouse. ’ Enforced exercise decreases weight gain even when food
A novel pretherapeutic gene expression-based risk score for treatment guidance in gastric cancer

Background Perioperative chemotherapy is an established treatment of advanced gastric cancer patients. Treatment selection is based on clinical staging (cT). We aimed to establish and validate a prognostic score including clinical and molecular factors, to optimize treatment decisions for these patients. Patients and methods We analyzed 626 carcinomas of the stomach and of the gastro-esophageal junction from two academic centers including primarily resected and pre-/perioperatively treated patients. Patients were divided into a training (N = 269) and validation (N = 357) set. Expression of 11 target genes was measured by quantitative PCR in resected tumors. A risk score to predict overall survival (OS) was generated and validated. Intra-tumoral heterogeneity was assessed by analyzing 50 tumor areas from 10 patients. Results A risk score including the expression of CCL5, CTNNB1, EXOSC3 and LZTR1 and the clinical parameters cT, tumor localization and histopathologic type suggested two groups with a significant difference in OS [hazard ratio (HR) 0.30; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.17-0.52]. The risk score was successfully validated in an independent cohort (HR 0.32; 95% CI 0.21-0.51; P < 0.001) as well as in subgroups of primarily resected (HR 0.30; 95% CI 0.17-0.54; P < 0.001) and pre-/perioperatively treated patients (HR 0.37; 95% CI 0.17-0.81; P = 0.009). A significant difference in OS of high- and low-risk patients was also found in primarily resected patients with intestinal (HR 0.45; 95% CI 0.23-0.90; P = 0.020) and nonintestinal-type carcinomas (HR 0.1; 95% CI 0.02-0.42; P < 0.001). Intra-tumor heterogeneity analysis indicated a classification reliability of 95% for a supposed analysis of three biopsies. Conclusion The identified risk score could substantially contribute to an improved management of gastric cancer patients in the context of perioperative chemotherapy.
Robot-Ergonomics: A Proposal for a Framework in HRI

A lot of effort has been done in the development of hardware and software for functional social robots in daily environments. However, not enough exploration has been done in the adaptation of the current infrastructure for these robots to make them really useful for the users. In this paper, we present a proposal for the design of Robot Ergonomic environments shared by humans and robots. As future work we aim to design guidelines for interior designers, architects and robot designers to develop Robot Ergonomic spaces.
Minimal Community Structure: An Explanation of Species Abundance Patterns

Recent proposals that the canonical lognormal distribution and the resulting species-area constant, $$z \simeq 1/4$$, are artifacts of the general lognormal curve and regression techniques, are shown to be inadequate. An alternative hypothesis is suggested which accounts for these regularities in terms of a hierarchical community structure represented by a sequentially divided niche space. This hierarchical pattern, which can be considered to be a minimal form of community structure, derives from evolutionary and ecological considerations for generating species diversity, and is shown to account for the observed abundance structures of small ensembles as well as large natural communities. Evidence is presented which implies that niche apportionment between species may involve the random division of more than one resource, and an interesting invariance in the pattern of apportionment is observed for assemblages with three species. The possibility that the canonical lognormal distribution is a conceptual artifact resulting from arbitrary systems of classification is considered and shown to be false. Aside from its intuitive appeal, the model presented should be of interest because it offers explanations of two ubiquitous patterns in nature: the canonical lognormal and the resulting species-area constant.
Effects of conjugated linoleic acid/n-3 and resistance training on muscle quality and expression of atrophy-related ubiquitin ligases in middle-aged mice with high-fat diet-induced obesity

[Purpose] To investigate the effects of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)/n-3 supplements and resistance exercise training (RT) for 20 weeks on muscle quality and genes related to protein synthesis/degradation in middle-aged mice with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity. [Methods] Nine-month-old C57BL/6 male mice were randomly assigned to five groups: 1) normal diet (C), 2) high-fat diet (H), 3) H+RT (HRT), 4) H+CLA/n-3 (H-CN), and 5) H+RT+CLA/n-3 (H-RTCN). HFD groups were given a diet containing 60% fat for 20 weeks, and exercised groups underwent progressive RT using weighted ladder climbing. The CLA/n-3 mixed diet contained 1% CLA and 1% n-3. Grip strength was assessed, and triceps were removed. RT-PCR was used to analyze transcript levels. [Results] Grip strength of the H group was significantly lower than that of the C group; however, those in the H-CN, H-RT, and H-RTN groups were significantly greater than that in the H group. However, the muscle quality was significantly greater only in the H-RT group compared with the H and H-CN groups. Akt expression decreased in the H-CN, H-RT, and H-RTCN groups compared with those in the C and H groups, whereas mammalian target of rapamycin expression increased in the H, H-CN, H-RT, and H-RTCN groups compared with that in the C group. However, atrogin1 was significantly downregulated in the H-RTCN group compared with that in the H and H-CN groups, and MuRF1 expression was also decreased in the H-RT and H-RTCN groups. Interestingly, atrogin1 and MuRF1 were downregulated in the H-RTCN group compared with that in the H-CN group. [Conclusion] HFD-mediated gene expression involved in protein degradation was attenuated following 20-week RT with CLA/n-3. Furthermore, RT with or without CLA/n-3 improved grip strength and muscle quality in middle-aged mice during HFD. Therefore, RT with CLA/n-3 during HFD may improve muscle strength and quality by suppressing protein degradation.
Polymorphisms in CRHR1 and the Serotonin Transporter Loci: Gene × Gene × Environment Interactions on Depressive Symptoms

Gene × environment (G × E) interactions mediating depressive symptoms have been separately identified in the stress‐sensitive serotonergic (5‐HTTLPR) and corticotropin‐releasing hormone (CRHR1) systems. Our objective was to examine whether the effects of child abuse are moderated by gene × gene (G × G) interactions between CRHR1 and 5‐HTTLPR polymorphisms. We used an association study examining G × G × E interactions of CRHR1 and 5‐HTTLPR polymorphisms and measures of child abuse on adult depressive symptomatology. The participant population (N = 1,392) was African‐American, of low socioeconomic status (60% with <$1,000/month family income), and with high rates of childhood and lifetime trauma. Depressive symptoms were measured with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and history of Major Depression by Structure Clinical Interview based on DSM‐IV (SCID). We first replicated an interaction of child abuse and 5‐HTTLPR on lifetime SCID diagnosis of major depression in a subsample (N = 236) of the study population—the largest African‐American 5‐HTTLPR cohort reported to date. We then extended our previously reported interaction with both a CRHR1 SNP (rs110402) and TCA haplotype interacting with child abuse to predict current symptoms (N = 1,059; P = 0.0089). We found that the 5‐HTTLPR S allele interacted with CRHR1 haplotypes and child abuse to predict current depressive symptoms (N = 856, P = 0.016). These data suggest that G × E interactions predictive of depressive symptoms may be differentially sensitive to levels of childhood trauma, and the effects of child abuse are moderated by genetic variation at both the CRHR1 and 5‐HTTLPR loci and by their G × G interaction. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Genotyping of Genetically Monomorphic Bacteria: DNA Sequencing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Highlights the Limitations of Current Methodologies

Because genetically monomorphic bacterial pathogens harbour little DNA sequence diversity, most current genotyping techniques used to study the epidemiology of these organisms are based on mobile or repetitive genetic elements. Molecular markers commonly used in these bacteria include Clustered Regulatory Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and Variable Number Tandem Repeats (VNTR). These methods are also increasingly being applied to phylogenetic and population genetic studies. Using the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) as a model, we evaluated the phylogenetic accuracy of CRISPR- and VNTR-based genotyping, which in MTBC are known as spoligotyping and Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Units (MIRU)-VNTR-typing, respectively. We used as a gold standard the complete DNA sequences of 89 coding genes from a global strain collection. Our results showed that phylogenetic trees derived from these multilocus sequence data were highly congruent and statistically robust, irrespective of the phylogenetic methods used. By contrast, corresponding phylogenies inferred from spoligotyping or 15-loci-MIRU-VNTR were incongruent with respect to the sequence-based trees. Although 24-loci-MIRU-VNTR performed better, it was still unable to detect all strain lineages. The DNA sequence data showed virtually no homoplasy, but the opposite was true for spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR, which was consistent with high rates of convergent evolution and the low statistical support obtained for phylogenetic groupings defined by these markers. Our results also revealed that the discriminatory power of the standard 24 MIRU-VNTR loci varied by strain lineage. Taken together, our findings suggest strain lineages in MTBC should be defined based on phylogenetically robust markers such as single nucleotide polymorphisms or large sequence polymorphisms, and that for epidemiological purposes, MIRU-VNTR loci should be used in a lineage-dependent manner. Our findings have implications for strain typing in other genetically monomorphic bacteria.
Preconception Care Education for Women With Diabetes: A Systematic Review of Conventional and Digital Health Interventions

Background Worldwide, 199.5 million women have diabetes mellitus (DM). Preconception care (PCC) education starting from adolescence has been recommended as an effective strategy for safeguarding maternal and child health. However, traditional preconception care advice provided by health care professionals (HCPs) within clinic settings is hindered by inadequate resources, suboptimal coverage, and busy clinics. Electronic health (eHealth), which is instrumental in solving problems around scarce health resources, could be of value in overcoming these limitations and be used to improve preconception care and pregnancy outcomes for women with DM. Objective The objectives were to: (1) identify, summarize, and critically appraise the current methods of providing PCC education; (2) examine the relationship between PCC educational interventions (including use of technology as an intervention medium) on patient and behavioral outcomes; and (3) highlight limitations of current interventions and make recommendations for development of eHealth in this field. Methods Electronic databases were searched using predefined search terms for PCC education in women with type 1 or 2 DM for quantitative studies from 2003 until June 2016. Of the 1969 titles identified, 20 full papers were retrieved and 12 papers were included in this review. Results The reviewed studies consistently reported that women receiving educational interventions via health care professionals and eHealth had significantly improved levels of glycosylated hemoglobin (P<.001) with fewer preterm deliveries (P=.02) and adverse fetal outcomes (P=.03). Significant improvements in knowledge (P<.001) and attitudes toward seeking PCC (P=.003) were reported along with reduced barriers (P<.001). Conclusions PCC has a positive effect on pregnancy outcomes for women with DM. However, uptake of PCC is low and the use of eHealth applications for PCC of women with DM is still in its infancy. Initial results are promising; however, future research incorporating mobile phones and apps is needed. Clearly, there is much to be done if the full potential of eHealth PCC to improve obstetric outcomes for women with DM is to be realized.
Design of a Novel Nano-Sensor for Determination of Acetaminophen

The Fe3O4 nanoparticles coated with silica nanoparticles were prepared, the obtained Fe3O4@SiO2 have uniform spherical morphology with a mean diameter of about 30 nm. Then an electrochemical sensor based on with Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles –coated poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA)- carbon nanotube (Fe3O4@SiO2 -PDDA-CNT) nanocomposite was fabricated for sensitive detection of acetaminophen. The samples were characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to investigate the electrocatalytic ability of acetaminophen on the Fe3O4@SiO2- PDDA-CNT/ GCE, and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was used for the quantification of acetaminophen.
A Nonlinear Framework of Delayed Particle Smoothing Method for Vehicle Localization under Non-Gaussian Environment

In this paper, a novel nonlinear framework of smoothing method, non-Gaussian delayed particle smoother (nGDPS), is proposed, which enables vehicle state estimation (VSE) with high accuracy taking into account the non-Gaussianity of the measurement and process noises. Within the proposed method, the multivariate Student’s t-distribution is adopted in order to compute the probability distribution function (PDF) related to the process and measurement noises, which are assumed to be non-Gaussian distributed. A computation approach based on Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) is designed to cope with the mean and the covariance matrix of the proposal non-Gaussian distribution. A delayed Gibbs sampling algorithm, which incorporates smoothing of the sampled trajectories over a fixed-delay, is proposed to deal with the sample degeneracy of particles. The performance is investigated based on the real-world data, which is collected by low-cost on-board vehicle sensors. The comparison study based on the real-world experiments and the statistical analysis demonstrates that the proposed nGDPS has significant improvement on the vehicle state accuracy and outperforms the existing filtering and smoothing methods.
Electrochemical Synthesis and Characterisation of BiTe-Based Nanowire Arrays as Thermoelectric Nanogenerators

Thermoelectric (TE) nanogenerators are solid state devices that can directly convert thermal energy into electrical power. The family of bismuth telluride (BiTe)-based semiconductor materials is a good candidate for room-temperature thermoelectric applications. This work aims to synthesize the binary and ternary TE nanowire arrays from BiTe and BiSbTe using template-assisted electrochemical deposition. The compositions and lengths of the nanowires fabricated were precisely tuned by controlling the deposition conditions, while their diameters were confined by the pore sizes of the anodized alumina oxide (AAO) templates used. Chemical compositions of the nanowires were evaluated using Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) Spectroscopy and their microstructures were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), conventional transmission electron microscopy (CTEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). TE nanogenerator modules comprising of BiTe and BiSbTe nanowires/AAO composite arrays were fabricated for TE performance evaluation on the basis of their power outputs.