Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EAACI position paper: Influence of dietary fatty acids on asthma, food allergy, and atopic dermatitis

The prevalence of allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, food allergy, and atopic dermatitis has increased dramatically during the last decades, which is associated with altered environmental exposures and lifestyle practices. The purpose of this review was to highlight the potential role for dietary fatty acids, in the prevention and management of these disorders. In addition to their nutritive value, fatty acids have important immunoregulatory effects. Fatty acid‐associated biological mechanisms, human epidemiology, and intervention studies are summarized in this review. The influence of genetics and the microbiome on fatty acid metabolism is also discussed. Despite critical gaps in our current knowledge, it is increasingly apparent that dietary intake of fatty acids may influence the development of inflammatory and tolerogenic immune responses. However, the lack of standardized formats (ie, food versus supplement) and standardized doses, and frequently a lack of prestudy serum fatty acid level assessments in clinical studies significantly limit our ability to compare allergy outcomes across studies and to provide clear recommendations at this time. Future studies must address these limitations and individualized medical approaches should consider the inclusion of specific dietary factors for the prevention and management of asthma, food allergy, and atopic dermatitis.
Spatial-Data-Driven Student Characterization in Higher Education

Higher Education is facing disruptive innovation that requires, among other things, provision of a more effective and customized education service to individual students. In the field of Learning Analytics (LA), there has been much effort, in the form of the collection and thorough analysis of a variety of student-related datasets, to optimize learning performance and environments by means of personalization. The datasets include traditional questionnaire surveys, learning management system (LMS) log data of learner activities, and, more recently in the wake of the big-data-analytics trend, unstructured datasets such as SNS activities, text data, and other transactional data. Spatial data, however, is rarely considered as a key dataset, despite its high potential for characterization of students and prediction of their performances and conditions. In this context, the authors propose a new, spatial-data-driven student-characterization research framework. This vision paper describes spatial computing in its three, descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive modeling stages as well as its three challenges: (1) technical spatial data acquisition issues; (2) legal and administrative issues; (3) expansion of the application domains in which spatial data can contribute to improved modeling quality. With respect to each challenge, the on-going efforts are briefly introduced in order to substantiate the feasibility of the proposed research framework.
Evaluations of a Previous Day as a Pathway Between Personality and Healthy Cognitive Aging

Objective: To examine the association between Five-Factor Model personality traits and how individuals evaluate a recent day in their lives (yesterday) and whether these evaluations mediate personality and cognitive function over time. Methods: Participants were a subsample from the Health and Retirement Study who completed personality measures in 2008/2010, the day evaluation in 2011, and cognitive tasks in 2012 (N = 3,454). Results: Lower Neuroticism and Higher Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were associated with a more engaging day, fewer negative feelings, better subjective health, and less time spent alone. Active engagement and subjective health were associated with cognitive function and mediated the prospective associations between Neuroticism, Openness, and Conscientiousness and cognitive function. Discussion: Personality is associated with how individuals evaluated their previous day, which contributes to cognition over time. The present research contributes to a mechanistic model that aims to identify pathways through which personality contributes to cognitive aging.
"They called me a terrorist": Social and Internalized Stigma in Latino Youth with Type 1 Diabetes.

Background Diabetes-related stigma (DRS) globally affects patients' lives. Over a third of adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Puerto Rico reported concerns of others knowing about their diabetes and about being different. Participants and Procedures We examined DRS among 65 T1D Latino youth (aged 12-17). During a depression-treatment study screening, they answered open-ended questions about diabetes-related concerns/difficulties and issues bothering them while interacting with peers, family, and healthcare professionals because of T1D. Using content analysis, we classified responses into Social Stigma (SS), Internalized Stigma (IS), and No Stigma. Four SS and IS sub-categories were developed. Results After coding, inter-rater reliability (Cohen's kappa) ranged from . 73 to . 1.00 (p≤.001). Forty-four youth (67.69%) reported at least one DRS verbalization, and 25 reported more than one. Both SS and IS were identified in 32 (49.23%) adolescents. Among SS experiences were: "they call me a junkie [because of insulin shots]"; "they call me a terrorist [because of insulin pump]". IS verbalizations included: "I've never wanted to accept that I have T1D, so I don't practice good self-care"; "at times I do not feel the same as others". We found more stigma-related verbalizations among those from urban zones or larger families. DRS was related to increased depressive symptoms and risk of a depressive disorder. Peers were the main source of SS. Conclusion DRS was common, pervasive, and linked to depression. This study innovatively examines DRS in an exclusively T1D Latino and adolescent sample. Understanding its extent and nature is essential for developing interventions to address DRS.
Measured Reduction in Alfvén Wave Energy Propagating through Longitudinal Gradients Scaled to Match Solar Coronal Holes

We have explored the effectiveness of a longitudinal gradient in Alfvén speed in reducing the energy of propagating Alfvén waves under conditions scaled to match solar coronal holes. The experiments were conducted in the Large Plasma Device at the University of California, Los Angeles. Our results show that the energy of the transmitted Alfvén wave decreases as the inhomogeneity parameter, λ/LA, increases. Here, λ is the wavelength of the Alfvén wave and LA is the scale length of the gradient in Alfvén speed. For gradients similar to those in coronal holes, the waves are observed to lose a factor of ≈5 more energy than they do when propagating through a uniform plasma without a gradient. We have carried out further experiments and analyses to constrain the cause of wave energy reduction in the gradient. The loss of Alfvén wave energy from mode coupling is unlikely, as we have not detected any other modes. Contrary to theoretical expectations, the reduction in the energy of the transmitted wave is not accompanied by a detectable reflected wave. Nonlinear effects are ruled out because the amplitude of the initial wave is too small and the wave frequency well below the ion cyclotron frequency. Since the total energy must be conserved, it is possible that the lost wave energy is being deposited in the plasma. Further studies are needed to explore where the energy is going.
GlycA, a Novel Inflammatory Marker and Its Association With Peripheral Arterial Disease and Carotid Plaque: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

GlycA, a composite biomarker of systemic inflammation, is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality, but its relationship with peripheral artery disease (PAD) is unknown. We assessed whether plasma GlycA is associated with ankle–brachial index (ABI), carotid plaque (CP), and incident clinical PAD among 6466 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants without CVD at baseline. GlycA, ABI, and CP were measured at baseline. Both ABI and CP were remeasured at 10 years. Incident clinical PAD was ascertained from hospital records. We used logistic, Cox, and linear mixed regression models adjusted for demographic and lifestyle factors. Mean (standard deviation, SD) was 62 (10) years for age and 381 (61) µmol/L for GlycA; 53% were women. GlycA was associated with both prevalent low ABI ≤0.8 (prevalence odds ratio [95% confidence interval, CI] per SD increment in GlycA, 1.65 [1.39-1.97]) and CP (1.19 [1.11-1.27]) at baseline. There were no significant associations of GlycA with incident low ABI, incident CP, or 10-year change in ABI or CP score. We identified 110 incident cases of PAD after 79 590 person-years. The hazard ratio (95% CI) of incident PAD per SD increment in GlycA was 1.38 (1.14-1.66). In conclusion, GlycA was associated with prevalent low ABI, prevalent CP, and incident PAD after a median of 14 years.
Concurrent Exercise-Associated Ventricular Complexes and a Prolonged QT Interval are Associated with Evidence of Myocarditis

Background: Precise myocardial tissue characterization in subjects with exercise-associated ventricular ectopy and prolonged QT interval but no obvious structural heart disease might facilitate further risk stratification. There is no data assessing QT intervals in patients with exercise-associated premature ventricular complexes (PVCs). Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) enables us to non-invasively assess myocardial scar and oedema. The purpose of our study was to assess the QT intervals in patients with exercise-associated premature ventricular complexes (PVCs). Methods: We analyzed the QT and QTc intervals of the 162 consecutive patients with documented exerciseassociated PVCs but no history or evidence of coronary heart disease or cardiomyopathy we previously examined. Findings were compared with those from 182 new controls without exercise-associated PVCs matched for gender and age. Continuous 12-holder ECG during upright bicycle exercise test and ECG-triggered, T2-weighted, fast spin echo triple inversion recovery sequences and late gadolinium enhancement were obtained, as were LV function and dimensions. Results: QT and QTc intervals were significantly prolonged in patients compared to controls (396.3 ± 33.5 ms vs. 385.9 ± 28.4 ms, p=0.002 and 431.7 ± 26.2 ms vs. 419.9 ± 26.6 ms, p=0.0001). Eighty five percent of patients with exercise-associated PVCs and prolonged QT intervals had structural abnormalities in the myocardium suggestive of acute or remote myocarditis or myopericarditis. Conclusion: Patients with exercise-associated PVCs showed prolonged QT intervals compared to controls. As a long QT interval is predictive of increased risk for arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death these findings may supply a potential mechanism for explaining the increased risk of some patients with exercise-associated PVCs.
Actor-Expert: A Framework for using Q-learning in Continuous Action Spaces

Q-learning can be difficult to use in continuous action spaces, because an optimization has to be solved to find the maximal action for the action-values. A common strategy has been to restrict the functional form of the action-values to be concave in the actions, to simplify the optimization. Such restrictions, however, can prevent learning accurate action-values. In this work, we propose a new policy search objective that facilitates using Q-learning and a framework to optimize this objective, called Actor-Expert. The Expert uses Q-learning to update the action-values towards optimal action-values. The Actor learns the maximal actions over time for these changing action-values. We develop a Cross Entropy Method (CEM) for the Actor, where such a global optimization approach facilitates use of generically parameterized action-values. This method - which we call Conditional CEM - iteratively concentrates density around maximal actions, conditioned on state. We prove that this algorithm tracks the expected CEM update, over states with changing action-values. We demonstrate in a toy environment that previous methods that restrict the action-value parameterization fail whereas Actor-Expert with a more general action-value parameterization succeeds. Finally, we demonstrate that Actor-Expert performs as well as or better than competitors on four benchmark continuous-action environments.
The development and exploitation of synchrotron single-crystal diffraction for chemistry and materials

A historical account is given of the 25-year development of dedicated synchrotron beamlines for single-crystal diffraction as applied to the so-called small-molecule fields of chemistry and materials science. Designs have drawn on previous successful models in macromolecular crystallography, with appropriate modifications in view of the different properties and behaviour of the respective sample types. Key factors in making these facilities attractive and productive for users include familiarity of operational procedures and the availability of experimental techniques and features normally found in local chemical crystallography laboratories, especially for the handling of samples and processing of diffraction data. Beamlines dedicated to single-crystal diffraction rather than shared with other techniques can be optimized for effective and efficient use. The experience gained from the original design, development and exploitation of stations 9.8 and 16.2SMX at the Daresbury Laboratory Synchrotron Radiation Source and beamline 11.3. 1 at the Advanced Light Source have led to highly productive current facilities at ALS beamline 12.2. 1 and Diamond Light Source beamline I19, including the recent introduction of remote-access operation. Such facilities have generated and continue to provide major impact in academic and commercial research that could otherwise not be achieved, including patents and applications in pharmaceuticals, energy and gas storage systems, and government policy. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fifty years of synchrotron science: achievements and opportunities’.
Electromagnetic Nanoparticles for Sensing and Medical Diagnostic Applications

A modeling and design approach is proposed for nanoparticle-based electromagnetic devices. First, the structure properties were analytically studied using Maxwell’s equations. The method provides us a robust link between nanoparticles electromagnetic response (amplitude and phase) and their geometrical characteristics (shape, geometry, and dimensions). Secondly, new designs based on “metamaterial” concept are proposed, demonstrating great performances in terms of wide-angle range functionality and multi/wide behavior, compared to conventional devices working at the same frequencies. The approach offers potential applications to build-up new advanced platforms for sensing and medical diagnostics. Therefore, in the final part of the article, some practical examples are reported such as cancer detection, water content measurements, chemical analysis, glucose concentration measurements and blood diseases monitoring.
Deepcasd: An End-to-End Approach for Multi-Spectral Image Super-Resolution

Multi-spectral (MS) image super-resolution aims to reconstruct super-resolved multi-channel images from their low-resolution images by regularizing the image to be reconstructed. Recently data-driven regularization techniques based on sparse modeling and deep learning have achieved substantial improvements in single image reconstruction problems. Inspired by these data-driven methods, we develop a novel coupled analysis and synthesis dictionary (CASD) model for MS image super-resolution, by exploiting a regularizer that operates within, as well as across, multiple spectral channels using convolutional dictionaries. To learn the CASD model parameters, we propose a deep dictionary learning framework, named DeepCASD, by unfolding and training an end-to-end CASD based reconstruction network over an image data set. Experimental results show that the DeepCASD framework exhibits improved performance on multi-spectral image super-resolution compared to state-of-the-art learning based super-resolution algorithms.
Guided Regeneration of Nerve Repair by Means of Local Administration of Insulin-Like Growth Factor I In Streptozotocin Induced Diabetes In Rats

The aim was to evaluate the effect of locally administered insulin-like growth factor (IGF I) on functional recovery of peripheral nerve in diabetic rats. Sixty male healthy white Wistar rats were divided into four experimental groups (n = 15), randomly: In transected group (TC), left sciatic nerve was transected and stumps were fixed in the adjacent muscle. In treat - ment group defect was bridged using a silicone conduit (SIL/IGF) and filled with 10 µL IGF I (100 ng/kg). In silicone graft group (SIL), the graft was filled with phosphate-buffered saline alone. In sham-operated group (SHAM), sciatic nerve was exposed and manipulated. Each group was subdivided into three subgroups of five animals each and regenerated nerve fibers were studied 4, 8 and 12 weeks after surgery. Behavioral testing, sciatic nerve functional study, gastrocnemius muscle mass and morphometric indices confirmed faster recovery of regenerated axons in SIL/IGF than in SIL group (p < 0.05). In immunohistochemistry, location of reactions to S-100 in SIL/IGF was clearly more positive than that in SIL group. When loaded in a silicone graft, IGF I accelerated and improved functional recovery and morphometric indices of sciatic nerve in diabetic rats.
Tiotropium for the Treatment of Asthma: Patient Selection and Perspectives

Asthma is a chronic disease of airway inflammation with a large global burden. Despite established, guideline-based stepwise therapy, a significant proportion of patients remain symptomatic and poorly controlled. As such, there is a need for additional safe, effective, convenient, and cost-effective therapies that can be broadly applied across a range of asthma phenotypes. Tiotropium is a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) that leads to bronchodilation by blocking endogenous acetylcholine receptors in the airways. Tiotropium has long been approved for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and it has recently been recognized for its safety and efficacy in improving lung function and controlling asthma. Evidence from several Phase III trials in the adult and paediatric population has shown that tiotropium is well tolerated and significantly improves a range of endpoints as an add-on treatment to ICS therapy, regardless of baseline characteristics and clinical phenotypes. Consequently, regulatory authorities worldwide have recently licensed tiotropium as the only LAMA approved for the treatment of asthma. This review provides an overview of safety and efficacy data and discusses the use of tiotropium in patients across the range of asthma severities, ages, and phenotypes.
Downregulation of microRNA-195 promotes angiogenesis induced by cerebral infarction via targeting VEGFA

Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting endothelium, is a process that involves a series of interassociated and mutually interactive pathophysiological processes. It is accepted that microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate endothelial cell behavior, including their involvement in angiogenesis. However, it remains unclear whether miRNAs are involved in the regulation of angiogenesis following cerebral ischemia. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the role of miRNAs in angiogenesis and the underlying mechanism following cerebral ischemia. Expression profiles of miRNAs in rat brain samples following middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) were investigated using a miRNA microarray. The expression of candidate miRNA, miR-195 was further validated using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Then, the effects of miR-195 on cell migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) were investigated following miR-195 silencing, and overexpression. The specific target genes of miR-195 were predicted using microRNA prediction bioinformatics software (http://www.microrna.org/microrna/home.do), and then confirmed using a dual-luciferase reporter assay and rescue experiment. It was demonstrated that miR-195 was significantly downregulated in the brains of rats following MCAO and in hypoxia-induced HUVECs. Furthermore, it was revealed that miR-195 overexpression inhibited the invasion ability and tube formation of HUVECs in vitro, while miR-195 silencing enhanced these functions. In addition, vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) was identified as a direct target of miR-195 and was negatively correlated with miR-195 expression. In addition, the rescue experiment revealed that overexpression of VEGFA reversed the inhibitory effects of miR-195 overexpression on the invasion ability and tube formation of HUVECs. The present study has provided a novel insight into the promoting roles of miR-195 downregulation on angiogenesis following cerebral infarction and suggests that the miR-195/VEGFA signaling pathway is a putative therapeutic target in cerebral ischemia.
Profile and use of licit psychotropic substances in the former Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaër Region (Morocco): the case of tiflet city

Introduction Psychopharmacology today faces serious challenges, especially related inappropriate drug choices, abuse and resulting side effects. The aim of this pharmacy based study in the City of Tiflet was to profile the prescription and usage patterns of psychotropic drugs. Methods This study was conducted in the pharmacies of the City of Tiflet (Morocco). Descriptive statistics of 5125 prescriptions collected from 21 pharmacies were analysed, and summarized as means, percentages and proportions where appropriate. Results The patterns of psychotropic drugs use were similar, compared to Western Countries, especially for anxiolytics/hypnotics, neuroleptics and anti-depressants. A poor monitoring of the treatment, and the lack of control of its side effects were major concerns. General practitioners ranked first among doctors who prescribed psychotropic drugs (48.5%), followed by psychiatrists (41.7%), and the rest of the prescriptions come from other specialists (neurologists, cardiologists, gynaecologists…). Among psychotropic drugs, anxiolytics dominated prescriptions (52.0%), followed by neuroleptics (29.0%) and anti-depressants (19.0%). Men consumed more psychotropic drugs than women (51.8% against 48.2% respectively). Conclusion Anxiolytics/hypnotics constitute the main class of psychotropic drugs prescribed in the Tiflet City, followed by neuroleptics and anti-depressants. Nearly half of the population currently receive prescribed psychotropic drugs from general practitioners. Psychiatrists are less involved in the prescription and monitoring of these patients. This could predispose the population to addiction, drug misuse, intoxication, and at times, misdiagnosis of serious psychiatric illnesses. Our study highlights the urgency of reinforcing psychotropic prescription regulation and monitoring in Tiflet city.