Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kaiso (ZBTB33) Downregulation by Mirna-181a Inhibits Cell Proliferation, Invasion, and the Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition in Glioma Cells

Background/Aims: Kaiso (ZBTB33) expression is closely associated with the progression of many cancers and microRNA (miRNA) processing. MiR-181a plays critical roles in multiple cancers; however, its precise mechanisms in glioma have not been well clarified. The goal of this study was to evaluate the interaction between Kaiso and miR-181a in glioma. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect the levels of Kaiso and miR-181a in glioma tissues and cell lines. Cell proliferation, invasion, and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) were evaluated to analyze the biological functions of miR-181a and Kaiso in glioma cells. The mRNA and protein levels of Kaiso were measured by qRT-PCR and western blotting, respectively. Meanwhile, luciferase assays were performed to validate Kaiso as a miR-181a target in glioma cells. Results: We found that the level of miR-181a was the lowest among miR-181a–d in glioma tissues and cell lines, and the low level of miR-181a was closely associated with the increased expression of Kaiso in glioma tissues. Moreover, transfection of miR-181a significantly inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and EMT of glioma cells, whereas knockdown of miR-181a had the opposite effect. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that Kaiso was a potential target gene of miR-181a, and the luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that miR-181a could directly target Kaiso. In addition, Kaiso silencing had similar effects as miR-181a overexpression in glioma cells, whereas overexpression of Kaiso in glioma cells partially reversed the inhibitory effects of the miR-181a mimic. Conclusionss: miR-181a inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and EMT of glioma cells by directly targeting and downregulating Kaiso expression.
Understanding the Impact of Dietary Cholesterol on Chronic Metabolic Diseases through Studies in Rodent Models

The development of certain chronic metabolic diseases has been attributed to elevated levels of dietary cholesterol. However, decades of research in animal models and humans have demonstrated a high complexity with respect to the impact of dietary cholesterol on the progression of these diseases. Thus, recent investigations in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) point to dietary cholesterol as a key factor for the activation of inflammatory pathways underlying the transition from NAFLD to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and to hepatic carcinoma. Dietary cholesterol was initially thought to be the key factor for cardiovascular disease development, but its impact on the disease depends partly on the capacity to modulate plasmatic circulating low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. These studies evidence a complex relationship between these chronic metabolic diseases and dietary cholesterol, which, in certain conditions, might promote metabolic complications. In this review, we summarize rodent studies that evaluate the impact of dietary cholesterol on these two prevalent chronic diseases and their relevance to human pathology.
Ethnobotany of the genus Taraxacum—Phytochemicals and antimicrobial activity

Plants belonging to the genus Taraxacum have been used in traditional healthcare to treat infectious diseases including food‐borne infections. This review aims to summarize the available information on Taraxacum spp. , focusing on plant cultivation, ethnomedicinal uses, bioactive phytochemicals, and antimicrobial properties. Phytochemicals present in Taraxacum spp. include sesquiterpene lactones, such as taraxacin, mongolicumin B, and taraxinic acid derivatives; triterpenoids, such as taraxasterol, taraxerol, and officinatrione; and phenolic derivatives, such as hydroxycinnamic acids (chlorogenic, chicoric, and caffeoyltartaric acids), coumarins (aesculin and cichoriin), lignans (mongolicumin A), and taraxacosides. Aqueous and organic extracts of different plant parts exhibit promising in vitro antimicrobial activity relevant for controlling fungi and Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria. Therefore, this genus represents a potential source of bioactive phytochemicals with broad‐spectrum antimicrobial activity. However, so far, preclinical evidence for these activities has not been fully substantiated by clinical studies. Indeed, clinical evidence for the activity of Taraxacum bioactive compounds is still scant, at least for infectious diseases, and there is limited information on oral bioavailability, pharmacological activities, and safety of Taraxacum products in humans, though their traditional uses would suggest that these plants are safe.
Effects of different cooking methods on the antioxidant capacity and flavonoid, organic acid and mineral contents of Galega Kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala cv. Galega)

Abstract Brassica spp. are good sources of bioactive substances, which are known to have beneficial health effects. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of different cooking methods (boiling, steaming, microwaving, pressure cooking and vacuum cooking) on the antioxidant capacity and on the flavonoid, organic acid and mineral contents of Galega kale. Results indicate that this vegetable has a high antioxidant capacity and high contents of total flavonoids, organic acids, and minerals such as potassium and calcium. All of the cooking methods yielded losses of antioxidant capacity and of total flavonoids, organic acids and minerals, relative to the contents in fresh kale. Steaming proved to be the best method of preserving the antioxidant capacity and bioactive compounds. Although cooking did not cause large losses of oxalic acid, the resulting oxalate:calcium ratio was rather low (<2). The present data demonstrate that the different cooking methods have different effects on the bioactive compounds in kale, and that it is important the optimisation of such methods in order to minimise losses of the nutritional properties.
Quantitative Vestibular Function Testing in the Pediatric Population

Abstract Quantitative tests of vestibular function include the caloric test, cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP), rotary chair, and head impulse test, either at the bedside or utilizing video head impulse test (vHIT). The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of how to perform these tests in children, including which tests are recommended based on the child's age and any modifications or considerations that can be made. A variety of clinical measures have been recommended as screening measures for vestibular loss, which will be reviewed. Symptom questionnaires designed to assess the functional impact of dizziness and vestibular loss in children will also be discussed. If a child complains of dizziness or if vestibular loss is suspected (either by case history or positive screening measure), vestibular function testing is warranted. For vestibular function testing, children aged 0 to 2 years typically receive rotary chair, cervical VEMP, and vHIT if a remote system is available. For children aged 3 to 7 years, vHIT, cervical VEMP, and ocular VEMP are completed, and for children aged 8+ years, vHIT, caloric testing if vHIT is normal, and cervical and ocular VEMP are completed. For all children, modifications to testing can be made, as needed.
Predicting Consumer Responses to a Chatbot on Facebook

As chatbots have become increasingly popular over the past years, most social networking sites have recognized their far-reaching potential for commercial purposes. Their rapid and widespread usage warrants a better understanding. This study examines the effectiveness of chatbots on Facebook for brands. The study proposes and tests a model based on the Consumer Acceptance of Technology model (CAT-model) including three cognitive (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, and perceived helpfulness) and three affective (pleasure, arousal, and dominance; PAD-dimensions) determinants that potentially influence consumers' attitude toward brands providing a chatbot, and hence, their likelihood to use and recommend the chatbot (i.e., patronage intention). Structural equation modeling analyses show that two cognitive (i.e., perceived usefulness and perceived helpfulness) and all three affective predictors are positively related to consumers' attitude toward the chatbot brand. The findings further indicate that attitude toward the brand explained a significant amount of variation in consumers' patronage intention. Finally, all the significant determinants also have an indirect effect on patronage intention, mediated through attitude toward the brand. In conclusion, our findings hold valuable practical implications, as well as relevant suggestions for future research.
The Use of Juçara (Euterpe edulis Mart.) Supplementation for Suppression of NF-κB Pathway in the Hypothalamus after High-Fat Diet in Wistar Rats

Obesity is associated with modern diets that are rich in saturated fatty acids. These dietary patterns are linked to low-grade proinflammatory mechanisms, such as the toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) pathway rapidly activated through high-fat diets. Juçara is a berry rich in anthocyanins and unsaturated fatty acids, which prevents obesity and associated comorbidities. We evaluated the effect of different doses of freeze-dried juçara pulp on NF-κB pathway after the consumption of short-term high-fat diet. Male Wistar rats with ad libitum access to food and water were divided into four groups: Control diet (C), high-fat diet (HFC), high-fat diet with 0.25% juçara (HFJ 0.25%), and high-fat diet with 0.5% juçara (HFJ 0.5%). Energy intake and body weight gain were increased in HFC and HFJ 0.5% groups compared to C group. The hypothalamus weight reduced in the HFC group compared to C and HFJ 0.25% groups. Cytokines, MYD88, TRAF6, and pNF-κBp50 levels in the hypothalamus, serum triacylglycerol, LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), and free fatty acid levels were improved in the HFJ 0.25% group. In summary, the HFJ 0.25% group had better protective effects than those in the HFJ 0.5%. Therefore, 0.25% juçara can be used to protect against central inflammation through the high-fat diet-induced NF-κB pathway.
Functional success evaluation of lacrimal drainage system by dacryoscintigraphy after transcanalicular diode laser dacryocystorhinostomy

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the functional success rates using dacryoscintigraphy (DSG) after transcanalicular diode laser dacryocystorhinostomy (TDL-DCR). Methods: In this retrospective study, we investigated the records of 56 patients who underwent TDL-DCR for unilateral primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction and anatomic patency was achieved. The lacrimal drainage systems of the other eyes of the patients were normal and were selected as control group. The functional success was evaluated with tear transit time (TT) on DSG and epiphora complaints' score (ECS) at postoperative 6 months. Results: Twenty-two (39%) of the patients were male and 34 (61%) were female, with a mean age of 46.6 (21–64). The dacryoscintigraphic findings of the operated and healthy eyes showed that there was statistically insignificant prolongation in the tear TT at the operated side at postoperative 6th month (P > 0.05). The mean ECS of operated eyes was 0.89. Functional success was achieved in 43 (76.8%) patients when the ECS of 0 and 1 was accepted as successful. A statistically significant delay in drainage was observed in DSG in all of the cases with epiphora score of 2 and 3 (P < 0.05). The tear TT was prolonged with the age increase (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference concerning the gender. Conclusion: DSG is an effective tool to evaluate the functional success of TDL-DCR.
A Simple and Sensitive Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometric Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Anthraquinone Glycosides and Their Aglycones in Rat Plasma: Application to a Pharmacokinetic Study of Rumex acetosa Extract

Rumex acetosa (R. acetosa) has been used in folk remedies for gastrointestinal disorders and cutaneous diseases. Rumex species, in particular, contain abundant anthraquinones. Anthraquinone glycosides and aglycones show different bioactive effects. However, information on the pharmacokinetics of anthraquinone glycosides is limited, and methods to quantify anthraquinone glycosides in plasma are rarely available. A simple and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric bioanalytical method for the simultaneous determination of both anthraquinone glycosides and their aglycones, including emodin, emodin-8-O-β-d-glucoside, chrysophanol, chrysophanol-8-O-β-d-glucoside, physcion, and physcion-8-O-β-d-glucoside , in a low volume of rat plasma (20 µL) was established. A simple and rapid sample preparation was employed using methanol as a precipitating agent with appropriate sensitivity. Chromatographic separation was performed on HPLC by using a biphenyl column with a gradient elution using 2 mM ammonium formate (pH 6) in water and 2 mM ammonium formate (pH 6) in methanol within a run time of 13 min. The anthraquinones were detected on triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer in negative ionization mode using multiple-reaction monitoring. The method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, recovery, and stability. The values of the lower limit of quantitation of anthraquinones were 1–20 ng/mL. The intra-batch and inter-batch accuracies were 96.7–111.9% and the precision was within the acceptable limits. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of R. acetosa 70% ethanol extract to rats at a dose of 2 g/kg.
The Acute Effect of Talocrural Joint Mobilization on Dorsiflexor Muscle Strength in Healthy Individuals: A Randomized Controlled Single-Blind Study.

CONTEXT Mobilization has been used for enhancing muscle strength. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the acute effect of talocrural joint mobilization on ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength in healthy individuals, which has not yet been studied. DESIGN Randomized controlled single-blind study. SETTING University laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Forty-eight healthy individuals. INTERVENTIONS Maitland grade III (study group) versus Maitland grade I (control group) mobilizations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Muscle strength measurements were performed using a handheld dynamometer at baseline, immediately after the mobilization, and 30 minutes after mobilization. RESULTS At baseline, the physical characteristics and muscular strength were similar in both groups (P > .05). According to Friedman analysis, a significant difference was detected following the mobilization in the study group (P < .001), and while the muscle strength at immediately after the mobilization and at 30 minutes after mobilization was significantly higher than baseline (P < .001), no significant differences were observed between 30 minutes after mobilization and immediately after the mobilization (P = .17). However, no significant changes were detected in the control group. The study group was found superior to the control group in terms of muscle strength differences following the mobilization (P < .001). CONCLUSION The ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength might be increased by performing Maitland grade III mobilization, and this increase might be preserved for 30 minutes, while Maitland grade I mobilization did not lead to such an improvement in healthy individuals.
Annexin A8 (ANXA8) regulates proliferation of porcine endometrial cells via Akt signalling pathway

Annexin A8 (ANXA8) gene, a member of the annexin family, encodes an anticoagulant protein involved in blood coagulation cascade and acts as an indirect inhibitor of the thromboplastin-specific complex. However, little is known about the function of ANXA8 in porcine endometrial cells so far. Here, ANXA8 mRNA was found to be abundant in porcine endometrium on days 11-13 of pregnancy. Real-time RT-PCR analysis indicated that the mRNA expression of the leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and the epidermal growth factor (EGF) was upregulated by ANXA8 in porcine endometrial cells. Immunofluorescence technology and cell cycle analysis revealed that ANXA8 promoted the proliferation of endometrial cells, as evidenced by the abundant proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression and an increase in the S phase. Western blot analysis results indicated that ANXA8 activated the phosphorylation of the target protein kinase B (Akt) protein. Immunofluorescence technology results showed that the PCNA protein had no significant change in porcine endometrial cells with both ANXA8 overexpression and the addition of Akt inhibitor. Furthermore, the number of implantation sites was significantly reduced by injection of mus-siRNA-ANXA8 into the uterine horn of mice. Collectively, these results suggest that ANXA8 promotes the proliferation of endometrial cells through the Akt signalling pathway.
Appetite, Metabolism and Hormonal Regulation in Normal Ageing and Dementia

Feeding and nutrition follow the growth trajectory of the course of life. The profound physiological changes that human body experiences during ageing affect separate aspects of food intake, from tastant perception to satiety. Concurrent morbidities, such as neurodegeneration, as seen in dementia, and metabolic syndrome, may further shape nutritional behaviours, status and adequacy. In an effort to fill the gap between the exhausting basic research and the actual needs of professionals caring for the exponentially expanding ageing population, the current review addresses major factors relevant to appetite and eating disturbances. Does age alter the perception of food modalities? Is food generally still perceived as alluring and delicious with age? Is there an interplay between ageing, cognitive decline, and malnutrition? What tools can we adopt for proper and timely monitoring? Finally, what anatomical and pathophysiological evidence exists to support a hypothesis of central regulation of metabolic perturbations in normal and accelerated cognitive impairment, and how can we benefit from it in health practice?
Primary angle-closure glaucoma, a rare but severe complication after blepharoplasty: Case report and review of the literature

Blepharoplasty is one of the most commonly performed aesthetic procedures. Surgical complications are rare, but can have severe consequences, such as permanent vision loss. In this report, we describe a patient who developed primary angle-closure glaucoma (ACG) with associated vision loss after a oculoplastic procedure using local anesthesia. So far, six similar cases have been described in the literature. It is believed that acute ACG is triggered by the surgical procedure in patients with predisposing risk factors such as a cataract. Surgical triggering factors include the use of buffered lidocaine/xylocaine with adrenaline/epinephrine, stress, and coverage of the eyes postoperatively. Due to postoperative analgesic use, the clinical presentation can be mild and atypical, leading to a significant diagnostic delay. Acute ACG should therefore be excluded in each patient with postoperative complaints by assessing pupillary reactions. If a fixed mid-wide pupil is observed in an ophthalmologic examination, an immediate ophthalmology referral is warranted. Surgeons should be aware of this rare complication in order to offer treatment at an early stage and to minimize the chance of irreversible vision loss.
Dynamic Privacy Pricing Based on Reinforcement Learning

In recent years, with the fast development of big data, the value of personal data has attracted great attention. How to balance the conflict between the exploitation of personal data and the protection of personal privacy is now one of the most important problems in the field of information technology. To ease this sharp conflict, the personal data market mechanism has been provided to us to realize the legitimate and commercialized usage of the private data by the market. However, the traditional personal data market mechanism still has shortcomings in some aspects. To solve the dynamic pricing problem of the private data which arises under this mechanism, this paper first introduced the reinforcement learning algorithm to our study, and then a corresponding model of the dynamic pricing situation was built in this paper, to help the data collector to find a learning strategy that can maximize the total payoff in the process of data collecting. Finally, the simulation experiment of the pricing model and the learning strategy was carried out in this paper, and their performances were analyzed, which verified the effectiveness of our algorithm.
Skin Lesion Analysis Towards Melanoma Detection via End-to-end Deep Learning of Convolutional Neural Networks

This article presents the design, experiments and results of our solution submitted to the 2018 ISIC challenge: Skin Lesion Analysis Towards Melanoma Detection. We design a pipeline using state-of-the-art Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models for a Lesion Boundary Segmentation task and a Lesion Diagnosis task.
Lactation Duration and Long-Term Thyroid Function: A Study among Women with Gestational Diabetes

Lactation is associated with reduced postpartum weight retention and a lower risk of several cardiometabolic disorders in population-based studies. We examined the association between lactation and long-term thyroid function among women with history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), a high-risk population for subsequent metabolic complications. The study included 550 women who developed GDM in the Danish National Birth Cohort (1996–2002) and followed-up in the Diabetes & Women’s Health Study (2012–2014). We assessed adjusted associations between cumulative lactation duration and concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (fT3), and free thyroxine (fT4) measured at follow-up. Women with longer cumulative lactation duration tended to have higher fT3 levels (adjusted β and 95% confidence interval (CI) for ≥12 months vs. none: 0.19 (0.03–0.36); p-trend = 0.05). When restricted to women with a single lifetime pregnancy to control for parity (n = 70), women who lactated for >6 months (vs. none) had higher fT3 levels (0.46 pmol/L (0.12–0.80); p-trend = 0.02) and a higher fT3:fT4 ratio (0.61 (0.17–1.05); p-trend = 0.007). Our findings suggested that a longer duration of lactation may be related to greater serum fT3 levels and fT3:fT4 ratio 9–16 years postpartum among Danish women with a history of GDM. The association was particularly pronounced among women who only had one lifetime pregnancy.