Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GERD: A practical approach

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is mainly a clinical diagnosis based on typical symptoms of heartburn and acid regurgitation. Current guidelines indicate that patients with typical symptoms should first try a proton pump inhibitor (PPI). If reflux symptoms persist after 8 weeks on a PPI, endoscopy of the esophagus is recommended, with biopsies taken to rule out eosinophilic esophagitis. This review discusses the evidence for different medical, endoscopic, and surgical therapies and presents a management algorithm. PPIs are the first-line medical therapy. Endoscopic and surgical options are pursued only if medical therapy fails.
Antioxidant Therapies in Traumatic Brain Injury

Due to a multiplicity of causes provoking traumatic brain injury (TBI), TBI is a highly heterogeneous pathology, characterized by high mortality and disability rates. TBI is an acute neurodegenerative event, potentially and unpredictably evolving into sub-chronic and chronic neurodegenerative events, with transient or permanent neurologic, cognitive, and motor deficits, for which no valid standardized therapies are available. A vast body of literature demonstrates that TBI-induced oxidative/nitrosative stress is involved in the development of both acute and chronic neurodegenerative disorders. Cellular defenses against this phenomenon are largely dependent on low molecular weight antioxidants, most of which are consumed with diet or as nutraceutical supplements. A large number of studies have evaluated the efficacy of antioxidant administration to decrease TBI-associated damage in various animal TBI models and in a limited number of clinical trials. Points of weakness of preclinical studies are represented by the large variability in the TBI model adopted, in the antioxidant tested, in the timing, dosages, and routes of administration used, and in the variety of molecular and/or neurocognitive parameters evaluated. The analysis of the very few clinical studies does not allow strong conclusions to be drawn on the real effectiveness of antioxidant administration to TBI patients. Standardizing TBI models and different experimental conditions, as well as testing the efficacy of administration of a cocktail of antioxidants rather than only one, should be mandatory. According to some promising clinical results, it appears that sports-related concussion is probably the best type of TBI to test the benefits of antioxidant administration.
Do dental nonmetric traits actually work as proxies for neutral genomic data? Some answers from continental- and global-level analyses.

OBJECTIVES Crown and root traits, like those in the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS), are seemingly useful as genetic proxies. However, recent studies report mixed results concerning their heritability, and ability to assess variation to the level of genomic data. The aim is to test further if such traits can approximate genetic relatedness, among continental and global samples. MATERIALS AND METHODS First, for 12 African populations, Mantel correlations were calculated between mean measure of divergence (MMD) distances from up to 36 ASUDAS traits, and FST distances from >350,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among matched dental and genetic samples. Second, among 32 global samples, MMD and FST distances were again compared. Correlations were also calculated between them and inter-sample geographic distances to further evaluate correspondence. RESULTS A close ASUDAS/SNP association, based on MMD and F ST correlations, is evident, with r m -values between . 72 globally and . 84 in Africa. The same is true concerning their association with geographic distances, from . 68 for a 36-trait African MMD to . 77 for F ST globally; one exception is F ST and African geographic distances, r m = 0.49. Partial MMD/F ST correlations controlling for geographic distances are strong for Africa (.78) and moderate globally (.4). DISCUSSION Relative to prior studies, MMD/F ST correlations imply greater dental and genetic correspondence; for studies allowing direct comparison, the present correlations are markedly stronger. The implication is that ASUDAS traits are reliable proxies for genetic data-a positive conclusion, meaning they can be used with or instead of genomic markers when the latter are unavailable.
Pacific culture and type 2 diabetes: formative research to inform interventions to improve glycemic control among Pacific Islanders

The type 2 diabetes (T2DM) epidemic is a global health issue that is especially severe among Pacific Islanders in the United States (U.S.) and U.S. Associated Pacific Islands (USAPI) including Chuukese living in their homeland of Chuuk and the state of Hawaii. Although there are diabetes prevention and management programs in Hawai’i and the Pacific, success is limited due in part to the lack of tailoring for the Pacific audience. In spite of numerous recommendations to incorporate Pacific cultural constructs into health interventions, there are no studies in Chuuk or the Pacific that examine the integration of cultural constructs into diabetes prevention and management. To address this research need, the four studies in this dissertation used Grounded Theory and Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) processes to explore the relationships between constructs such as culture, religion, family, and diabetes prevention and control. The aims were to obtain perspectives on diabetes prevention, screening and management (Study1) and identify socio-cultural influences that hinder or facilitate adherence to diabetes prevention and management behaviors specifically adherence to nutrition therapy (Study 2), physical activity (Study 3) and prescription medication (Study 4). Data where gathered through key informant interviews (faith leaders and health care providers) and focus group discussions (individual with diabetes and care takers). Results from Study 1 showed that participants perceived T2DM as a major problem and the discussion followed four significant narratives: (1) the need for specific information on “how to” operationalize diabetes treatment recommendations; (2) the practice of seeking medical help only when in pain; (3) the role spirituality plays in etiology disease beliefs and its influence on help-seeking behaviors; and (4) the role emotions play in treatment compliance. Study 2 revealed barriers to nutrition therapy adherence that were similar to other minority populations in the U.S. such as cost of
Effect of Soybean Meal Substitution by Raw Chickpea Seeds on Thermal Properties and Fatty Acid Composition of Subcutaneous Fat Tissue of Broiler Chickens

Simple Summary A soybean meal, commonly used as a primary source of protein in animal diets, is often obtained from processing genetically modified soybean varieties. The tendency to reduce the use of feeds containing transgenic constituents increases the need for alternative sources of dietary protein. In this study, we fed broiler chickens diets containing either soybean meal or raw chickpea seeds. We examined the effect of such a substitution on broilers’ subcutaneous fat tissue, which has numerous important physiological functions in chickens. Abstract In this study, the effect of soybean meal substitution by raw chickpea seeds on the thermal properties and fatty acid profile of subcutaneous fat tissue of broiler chickens was examined. The experiment, performed on Ross 308 chickens, lasted for 42 days. Tight subcutaneous fat tissue was analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements while the fatty acid composition of subcutaneous adipose tissue was determined chromatographically. There was no effect of soybean meal substitution on fat crystallization temperature or crystallization enthalpy. However, the total calorimetric enthalpy of the melting of low-melting monounsaturated and saturated triacylglycerols differed between groups. Fatty acid proportions in the subcutaneous fat tissue of broiler chickens were also altered. Among others, chickpea seed inclusion decreased the content of main saturated acid (palmitic acid) and increased the content of main monounsaturated (oleic) and tri-unsaturated (linolenic) acids. The results show that the soybean meal substitution by raw chickpea seeds in the feed can affect the structural properties of adipose tissue in broiler chickens, including the thermal transformation of unsaturated fatty acids. Due to the numerous physiological functions of subcutaneous fat tissue, understanding these mechanisms can promote the use of alternative protein both in poultry and human nutrition.
Metabolic phenotyping by treatment modality in obese women with gestational diabetes suggests diverse pathophysiology: An exploratory study

Background and purpose Excess insulin resistance is considered the predominant pathophysiological mechanism in obese women who develop gestational diabetes (GDM). We hypothesised that obese women requiring differing treatment modalities for GDM may have diverse underlying metabolic pathways. Methods In this secondary analysis of the UK pregnancies Better Eating and Activity Trial (UPBEAT) we studied women from the control arm with complete biochemical data at three gestational time points; at 15–18+6 and 27–28+6 weeks (before treatment), and 34–36+0 weeks (after treatment). A total of 89 analytes were measured (plasma/serum) using a targeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) platform and conventional assays. We used linear regression with appropriate adjustment to model metabolite concentration, stratified by treatment group. Main findings 300 women (median BMI 35kg/m2; inter quartile range 32.8–38.2) were studied. 71 developed GDM; 28 received dietary treatment only, 20 metformin, and 23 received insulin. Prior to the initiation of treatment, multiple metabolites differed (p<0.05) between the diet and insulin-treated groups, especially very large density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) subclasses and constituents, with some differences maintained at 34–36 weeks’ gestation despite treatment. Gestational lipid profiles of the diet treatment group were indicative of a lower insulin resistance profile, when compared to both insulin-treated women and those without GDM. At 28 weeks’ the diet treatment group had lower plasma fasting glucose and insulin than women treated with insulin, yet similar to those without GDM, consistent with a glycaemic mechanism independent of insulin resistance. Conclusions/Interpretation This exploratory study suggests that GDM pathophysiological processes may differ amongst obese women who require different treatment modalities to achieve glucose control and can be revealed using metabolic profiling.
Complex Role of Touch in Social Relationships for Older Adults’ Cardiovascular Disease Risk

The purpose of this study was to examine the links among relationship quality (RQ) and predictors of cardiovascular risks and consider the role of physical touch as a moderator. The sample includes 2,731 adults who participated in the National Social Life Health and Aging Project (NSHAP). Results indicate that positive RQ and negative RQ are associated with systolic blood pressure (BP) and pulse pressure (PP) depending on the level of physical touch. Participants who reported highly positive RQ had lower systolic BP and PP with higher physical touch with others. Conversely, participants who reported highly negative RQ had higher systolic BP when reporting higher physical touch. The findings offer preliminary evidence for how physical touch in the context of social relationships may have nuanced implications for older adults’ cardiovascular outcomes.
Linguistic Complexity of Speech Recognition Test Sentences and Its Influence on Children's Verbal Repetition Accuracy.

OBJECTIVES Speech recognition (SR)-tests have been developed for children without considering the linguistic complexity of the sentences used. However, linguistic complexity is hypothesized to influence correct sentence repetition. The aim of this study is to identify lexical and grammatical parameters influencing verbal repetition accuracy of sentences derived from a Dutch SR-test when performed by 6-year-old typically developing children. DESIGN For this observational, cross-sectional study, 40 typically developing children aged 6 were recruited at four primary schools in the Netherlands. All children performed a sentence repetition task derived from an SR-test for adults. The sentence complexity was described beforehand with one lexical parameter, age of acquisition, and four grammatical parameters, specifically sentence length, prepositions, sentence structure, and verb inflection. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. RESULTS Sentences with a higher age of acquisition (odds ratio [OR] = 1.59) or greater sentence length (OR = 1.28) had a higher risk of repetition inaccuracy. Sentences including a spatial (OR = 1.25) or other preposition (OR = 1.25) were at increased risk for incorrect repetition, as were complex sentences (OR = 1.69) and sentences in the present perfect (OR = 1.44) or future tense (OR = 2.32). CONCLUSIONS The variation in verbal repetition accuracy in 6-year-old children is significantly influenced by both lexical and grammatical parameters. Linguistic complexity is an important factor to take into account when assessing speech intelligibility in children.
Dielectric Polarization in Inverse Spinel‐Structured Mg2TiO4 Coating to Suppress Oxygen Evolution of Li‐Rich Cathode Materials

High‐energy Li‐rich layered cathode materials (≈900 Wh kg−1) suffer from severe capacity and voltage decay during cycling, which is associated with layered‐to‐spinel phase transition and oxygen redox reaction. Current efforts mainly focus on surface modification to suppress this unwanted structural transformation. However, the true challenge probably originates from the continuous oxygen release upon charging. Here, the usage of dielectric polarization in surface coating to suppress the oxygen evolution of Li‐rich material is reported, using Mg2TiO4 as a proof‐of‐concept material. The creation of a reverse electric field in surface layers effectively restrains the outward migration of bulk oxygen anions. Meanwhile, high oxygen‐affinity elements of Mg and Ti well stabilize the surface oxygen of Li‐rich material via enhancing the energy barrier for oxygen release reaction, verified by density functional theory simulation. Benefited from these, the modified Li‐rich electrode exhibits an impressive cyclability with a high capacity retention of ≈81% even after 700 cycles at 2 C (≈0.5 A g−1), far superior to ≈44% of the unmodified counterpart. In addition, Mg2TiO4 coating greatly mitigates the voltage decay of Li‐rich material with the degradation rate reduced by ≈65%. This work proposes new insights into manipulating surface chemistry of electrode materials to control oxygen activity for high‐energy‐density rechargeable batteries.
Adipose‐derived stem cells: An appropriate selection for osteogenic differentiation

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a major component of various forms of tissue engineering. MSCs have self‐renewal and multidifferential potential. Osteogenic differentiation of MSCs is an area of attention in bone regeneration. One form of MSCs are adipose‐derived stem cells (ASCs), which can be simply harvested and differentiated into several cell lineages, such as chondrocytes, adipocytes, or osteoblasts. Due to special properties, ASCs are frequently used in vitro and in vivo bone regeneration. Identifying factors involved in osteogenic differentiation of ASCs is important for better understanding the mechanism of osteogenic differentiation. Different methods are used to stimulate osteogenesis of ASCs in literature, including common osteogenic media, growth factors, hormones, hypoxia, mechanical and chemical stimuli, genetic modification, and nanotechnology. This review article provides an overview describing the isolation procedure, characterization, properties, current methods for osteogenic differentiation of ASCs, and their basic biological mechanism.
Myo-Inositol Transporter SLC5A3 Associates with Degenerative Changes and Inflammation in Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

Myo-inositol exerts many cellular functions, which include osmo-protection, membrane functioning, and secondary messaging. Its Na+/myo-inositol co-transporter SLC5A3 is expressed in muscle tissue and further accumulates in myositis. In this study we focused on the peculiar subgroup of sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM), in which auto-inflammatory responses and degenerative changes co-exist. A cohort of nine patients was selected with clinically confirmed IBM, in which SLC5A3 protein was immune-localized to the different tissue constituents using immunofluorescence, and expression levels were evaluated using Western blotting. In normal muscle tissue, SLC5A3 expression was restricted to blood vessels and occasional low levels on muscle fiber membranes. In IBM tissues, SLC5A3 staining was markedly increased, with discontinuous staining of the muscle fiber membranes, and accumulation of SLC5A3 near inclusions and on the rims of vacuoles. A subset of muscle-infiltrating auto-aggressive immune cells was SLC5A3 positive, of which most were T-cells and M1 lineage macrophages. We conclude that SLC5A3 is overexpressed in IBM muscle, where it associates with protein aggregation and inflammatory infiltration. Based on our results, functional studies could be initiated to explore the possibilities of therapeutic osmolyte pathway intervention for preventing protein aggregation in muscle cells.
Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Target Attainment in Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease: Analysis of Routine Care Data

Background Direct feedback on quality of care is one of the key features of a learning health care system (LHS), enabling health care professionals to improve upon the routine clinical care of their patients during practice. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the potential of routine care data extracted from electronic health records (EHRs) in order to obtain reliable information on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) management in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients referred to a tertiary care center. Methods We extracted all LDL-c measurements from the EHRs of patients with a history of CVD referred to the University Medical Center Utrecht. We assessed LDL-c target attainment at the time of referral and per year. In patients with multiple measurements, we analyzed LDL-c trajectories, truncated at 6 follow-up measurements. Lastly, we performed a logistic regression analysis to investigate factors associated with improvement of LDL-c at the next measurement. Results Between February 2003 and December 2017, 250,749 LDL-c measurements were taken from 95,795 patients, of whom 23,932 had a history of CVD. At the time of referral, 51% of patients had not reached their LDL-c target. A large proportion of patients (55%) had no follow-up LDL-c measurements. Most of the patients with repeated measurements showed no change in LDL-c levels over time: the transition probability to remain in the same category was up to 0.84. Sequence clustering analysis showed more women (odds ratio 1.18, 95% CI 1.07-1.10) in the cluster with both most measurements off target and the most LDL-c measurements furthest from the target. Timing of drug prescription was difficult to determine from our data, limiting the interpretation of results regarding medication management. Conclusions Routine care data can be used to provide feedback on quality of care, such as LDL-c target attainment. These routine care data show high off-target prevalence and little change in LDL-c over time. Registrations of diagnosis; follow-up trajectory, including primary and secondary care; and medication use need to be improved in order to enhance usability of the EHR system for adequate feedback.
PP-25 Drug use during pregnancy: a systematic review

Background Maternal drug use in pregnancy is a health care issue of major concern as most drugs are used with limited knowledge of safety and efficacy for the mother, have undetermined risks, and potential adverse effects on the fetus. Recent epidemiological data are insufficient to evaluate their licensed status and use during pregnancy. The aim of the present review is to provide a recent up-date on the use of medications during gestational period and determine the circumstances of this consumption in terms of prescription/automedication, according to label or off-label use. Methods MEDLINE and Embase databases were used to select peer reviewed journal articles published between 1990 and 2016. The search included the keywords: preg-nancy, drug, medication, prescription, over-the-counter and automedication. Only epidemiological studies ana-lyzing the overall use of drugs (prescribed drugs, medi-cation available over-the-counter, vitamins and other supplements) among pregnant women were included, both international and national/regional, excluding those focusing on a specific therapeutic category. Results The screening process led to a final selection of 77 studies, conducted in 28 different countries (2 studies were from Oceania, 9 from Africa, 14 from Asia, 18 from America, and 31 studies from Europe). The investigated period was remarkably different and ranged from a one month to 33 years with information collected at differ-ent time periods from 1976 to 2014. Sample sizes were also very variable between studies from 100 to 1 106 757 included women. Overall drug consumption was highly different among countries ranging from 17.6% to 93.9% when vitamins, minerals and other supplements were excluded. Of all the studies reporting the percentage of women using drugs during pregnancy (n=58, 75.3%), 21 studies (36%) (among 2 38 731 women) reported that more than 90% of women took one or more drugs while being pregnant. Folic acid, iron supplements and vita-mins were in most countries the most frequently used therapeutic category. Analgesics, antibiotics and other anti-infectives were also used extensively. Nineteen stud-ies reported data on automedication with an important variability in prescription/over-the-counter medicines ratio among studies. Information about off-label prescrip-tion was rarely reported. Conclusion The use of drugs is frequent during preg-nancy. Comparisons of medication exposure rates and characteristics of drug consumption were difficult due to the observed heterogeneity of methodology, type of drugs reported or data sources. Standardised reports and analyses of drug consumption during pregnancy are needed to contribute to this issue of major public health importance. Recommendations have been made on the main criteria that should be taken into consideration when carrying out an epidemiology study on drug use during pregnancy.
Evaluation the Antimicrobial Effects of Pistacia terebinthus L. and Papaver rhoeas l. Extracts Against Some Pathogen Microorganisms

In this study, the antimicrobial activity of Pistacia terebinthus L. and Papaver rhoeas L. extracts were tested against some pathogen microorganisms. Leaves of the plant samples were freeze-dried and powdered. Three solvents were used for extraction. The agar well diffusion method is used for the antimicrobial activities of extracts. Six different bacteria, two yeasts, and two molds were used. The extracts of P. terebinthus L. was found more effect than P. rhoeas L. extracts against tested bacteria and fungi pathogens.