Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health, psychosocial factors and retirement intentions among Finnish physicians.

BACKGROUND Early retirement among physicians is a worldwide problem and all efforts to try to minimize it are of importance. AIMS To investigate whether characteristics of work, organization factors and health factors might be associated with retirement intentions among physicians. METHODS Cross-sectional survey data from the Finnish Health Care Professional Study was used. A random sample of Finnish physicians included 682 women and 701 men aged 45-65 years. A three-level retirement intention score was constructed based on responses to two questions asking about (i) willingness to continue working or retiring and (ii) pension-applying considerations. Health indicators used were self-rated health, work ability and sickness absence during the past 12 months. Karasek's job control and Colquitt's organizational justice were measured. Ordinal logistic regression models were used to analyse the data. RESULTS Self-reports of poor health [odds ratio (OR) 2.17, 95% CI 1.84-2.56], low work ability (OR 2.18, 95% CI 1.12-1.46), taking sickness absence (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.12-1.46), low job control (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.50-1.95) and organizational injustice (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.17-1.39) all independently increased the likelihood of retirement intentions. Low job control strengthened the associations of poor health and low work ability with retirement intentions. In addition, organizational injustice strengthened the associations of poor health and sickness absences with retirement intentions. CONCLUSION Low job control and organizational injustice may intensify the effect of poor health on retirement intentions. Promoting control opportunities and organizational justice might help to decrease early retirement among physicians.
Protein kinase C regulation of K+ currents in rat ventricular myocytes and its modification by hormonal status

1 The effects of protein kinase C (PKC) activation on cardiac K+ currents were studied in rat ventricular myocytes, using whole‐cell voltage clamp methods. Control rats were compared to hypothyroid or diabetic rats, in which PKC expression and activity were enhanced. 2 In control myocytes, two calcium‐independent outward K+ currents, the transient It and the sustained Iss, were attenuated by 18.9 ± 2.0 and 16.8 ± 3.5%, respectively (mean ±s.e.m.), following addition of a synthetic analogue of diacylglycerol, DiC8 (20 μm). In myocytes from hypothyroid or diabetic rats, It and Iss were not affected by DiC8. 3 The effects of DiC8 were restored in myocytes from thyroidectomized rats by injection of physiological doses of tri‐iodothyronine (T3; 10 μg kg−1 for 6–8 days). Incubating cells from diabetic rats with 100 nm insulin for 5–9 h also restored the ability of DiC8 to attenuate It and Iss. 4 The attenuation of K+ currents by DiC8 in control cells was absent in the presence of a peptide known to inhibit the translocation of the isoform PKCɛ (EAVSKPLT, 24 μm, introduced through the recording pipette). A scrambled peptide (LSETKPAV) was without effect. 5 Under hypothyroid conditions the inhibitory peptide restored the effects of DiC8 on It and Iss. These currents were attenuated by 11.9 ± 1.5 and 9.8 ± 1.5%, respectively, which was significantly (P < 0.001) more than without the peptide or with the scrambled peptide. 6 These results show that the PKC‐mediated suppression of cardiac K+ currents is normally mediated by PKC ɛ translocation. This effect is absent under hypothyroid and diabetic conditions, presumably due to prior PKC activation and translocation. A PKCɛ translocation inhibitor restores the ability of DiC8 to attenuate K+ currents under hypothyroid conditions. This presumably reflects a (partial) reversal of a chronic translocation and a shift in the balance between PKC and its anchoring proteins.
Cloning of herpesviral genomes as bacterial artificial chromosomes

Herpesviruses, which are important pathogens for both animals and humans, have large and complex genomes with a coding capacity for up to 225 open reading frames (ORFs). Due to the large genome size and the slow replication kinetics in vitro of some herpesviruses, mutagenesis of viral genes in the context of the viral genome by conventional recombination methods in cell culture has been difficult. Given that mutagenesis of viral genes is the basic strategy to investigate function, many of the herpesvirus ORFs could not be defined functionally. Recently, a completely new approach for the construction of herpesvirus mutants has been developed, based on cloning of the virus genome as a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) in E. coli. This technique allows the maintenance of viral genomes as a plasmid in E. coli and the reconstitution of viral progeny by transfection of the BAC plasmid into eukaryotic cells. Any genetic modification of the viral genome in E. coli using prokaryotic recombination proteins is possible, thereby allowing the generation of mutant viruses and facilitating the analysis of herpesvirus genomes cloned as infectious BACs. In this review, we describe the principle of cloning a viral genome as a BAC using murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV‐68), a mouse model for gammaherpesvirus infections, as an example. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Isomer-Specific Anti-Obese and Hypolipidemic Properties of Conjugated Linoleic Acid in Obese OLETF Rats

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a mixture of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid, has attracted considerable attention because of its potentially beneficial biologic effects both in vitro and in vivo. Our results clearly show the specific action of the 10trans,12cis-CLA isomer against hyperlipidemia and obesity in obese Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats. After 2 weeks of feeding with 10t,12c-CLA, but not 9cis,11trans-CLA, abdominal adipose tissue weight and serum and hepatic lipid levels in OLETF rats were lower than those in linoleic acid-fed rats. These effects were attributable to suppressed fatty acid synthesis and enhanced fatty acid beta oxidation in the liver on a 10t,12c-CLA diet. Additionally, we showed that mRNA expression of fatty acid synthase, carnitine palmitoyltransferase, leptin, and sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 was also regulated by 10t,12c-CLA. We suppose that 10t,12c-CLA reveals hypolipidemic and anti-obese activity through the alteration of mRNA expressions in the liver and white adipose tissue.
Age-related changes to wheelchair efficiency and sprint power output in novice able-bodied males

This study examined the effect of age on sub-maximal wheelchair propulsion efficiency and sprint power output (SPO) in inexperienced able-bodied males. Two age groups were used for this study: a younger adult group (N = 10; mean age 24.8 ± 3.0 years) and an older adult group (N = 8; mean age 70.9 ± 5.2 years). No one had prior manual wheelchair experience. The primary outcome measures were gross mechanical efficiency (GME), mechanical effectiveness (ME) during sub-maximal treadmill wheeling and SPO during a max sprint test. There were no significant differences in GME; however, there was a significant difference in ME [0.74 ± 0.12 and 0.62 ± 0.08 (p = 0.007)] and sprint test [SPO = 224.66 ± 79.25 and 125.98 ± 53.02 (W) (p = 0.008)], for younger and older adults, respectively. Healthy, active older individuals can have a physiological capacity similar to younger populations to wheel sub-maximally, but their ME and lower SPO reduce the ability to propel manual wheelchairs during maximal wheeling. Practitioner summary: Understanding the potential for older adults to propel wheelchairs is important as the population ages with disabilities. This study demonstrated significantly lower ME but not GME in older versus younger adult populations. Strength training may be needed to keep older adults active in manual wheelchairs.
Chromosome Segregation Errors as a Cause of DNA Damage and Structural Chromosome Aberrations

Altering whole-chromosome number can directly increase chromosome structural damage in cancer cells. Various types of chromosomal aberrations, including numerical (aneuploidy) and structural (e.g., translocations, deletions), are commonly found in human tumors and are linked to tumorigenesis. Aneuploidy is a direct consequence of chromosome segregation errors in mitosis, whereas structural aberrations are caused by improperly repaired DNA breaks. Here, we demonstrate that chromosome segregation errors can also result in structural chromosome aberrations. Chromosomes that missegregate are frequently damaged during cytokinesis, triggering a DNA double-strand break response in the respective daughter cells involving ATM, Chk2, and p53. We show that these double-strand breaks can lead to unbalanced translocations in the daughter cells. Our data show that segregation errors can cause translocations and provide insights into the role of whole-chromosome instability in tumorigenesis.
Youth-led school health initiatives: Perceptions and processes

YOUTH-LED SCHOOL HEALTH INITAITIVES: PERCEPTIONS AND PROCESSES by LILA GUTUSKEY August 2016 Advisor: Dr. Nathan McCaughtry Major: Kinesiology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Disparities in obesity prevalence, based on a child’s race and income, establish that health interventions should prioritize these target populations. Additionally, children who are from low-income families in urban neighborhoods and of ethnic minorities have unequal access to environmental determinants of healthy eating (HE) and physical activity (PA). Schools might be the best setting for health interventions, given the understanding that a school’s mission should be to educate the whole child and the substantial amount of time that a child spends in school. The purpose of this study was to examine student-led, school-health interventions in four elementary schools. The Fuel Up to Play 60 (FUTP60) program was utilized by student leadership teams. FUTP60 materials report the program provides empowering experiences for youth, improves HE and PA environments within the school, and positively influencing students’ HE and PA behaviors. I utilized social ecological theory and empowerment theory to inform my understanding of teams’ implementation of FUTP60. Additionally, education reform literature informed this study. Specifically, comparing the often ineffective method of mandated national reform with grass-roots initiated reforms, which more commonly recognize teachers as the driving force of change within a school.
A look at the dark side of hardware reverse engineering - a case study

A massive threat to the modern and complex IC production chain is the use of untrusted off-shore foundries which are able to infringe valuable hardware design IP or to inject hardware Trojans causing severe loss of safety and security. Similarly, market dominating SRAM-based FPGAs are vulnerable to both attacks since the crucial gate-level netlist can be retrieved even in field for the majority of deployed device series. In order to perform IP infringement or Trojan injection, reverse engineering (parts of) the hardware design is necessary to understand its internal workings. Even though IP protection and obfuscation techniques exist to hinder both attacks, the security of most techniques is doubtful since realistic capabilities of reverse engineering are often neglected. The contribution of our work is twofold: first, we carefully review an IP watermarking scheme tailored to FPGAs and improve its security by using opaque predicates. In addition, we show novel reverse engineering strategies on proposed opaque predicate implementations that again enables to automatically detect and alter watermarks. Second, we demonstrate automatic injection of hardware Trojans specifically tailored for third-party cryptographic IP gate-level netlists. More precisely, we extend our understanding of adversary's capabilities by presenting how block and stream cipher implementations can be surreptitiously weakened.
The Dynamic of Women Leading Women in Higher Education

With each passing decade, women make significant strides in their educational attainment, better positioning themselves for leadership roles. Despite decades of research assessing the leadership styles of women, the established picture of women and leadership is mixed. On one hand, women are praised for possessing many of the leader ship skills, behaviors and attributes associated with effective lead ership. Yet, on the other hand, women tend to deny support to one another. Twenty women with various years and levels of leadership experience in higher education were interviewed to explore how they describe their experiences leading women and being led by women. Initially I planned to utilize Eagly and Carli’s (2007) labyrinth of lead ership as the theoretical framework. However, analysis and interpre tation of the data was more precisely aligned with Kouzes and Pos ner’s (2007) paradigm: the leadership challenge. Results of the study revealed women who successfully lead other women, influence those they lead through a willingness to strengthen and challenge, pull them forward, and continuously improve.
No trade-off between biting and suction feeding performance in clariid catfishes

SUMMARY It is generally assumed that biting performance trades off with suction performance in fish because both feeding types may place conflicting demands on the cranial musculo-skeletal system. However, the functional consequences of morphological adaptations enhancing biting on the mechanics and performance of suction feeding in fish remain obscure. In this study, suction feeding performance was compared between three clariid catfish species differing considerably in their biting capacity, by measuring the velocity of a standardized prey being sucked into the buccal cavity using high-speed cineradiography. In addition, buccal volume changes during prey capture were quantified by ellipse modelling. As all species were able to accelerate the prey to similar peak velocities, our results demonstrate the possibility for catfishes to increase bite performance considerably without compromising suction performance. The amount of buccal expansion in the ventral direction is approximately equal for all species. Consequently, the system generating expansion through ventral rotation of the lower jaw, hyoid and pectoral girdle is apparently not constrained (mechanically or architectonically) by the hypertrophy of the jaw adductors. As the effect of a reduced magnitude of lateral expansion (suspensorium abduction) on suction performance in Clariidae appears to be negligible (for example in Gymnallabes typus), these data demonstrate the dominant role of ventral expansion for producing suction in these fish.
Small Molecule Mediated Restoration of Mitochondrial Function Augments Anti-Mycobacterial Activity of Human Macrophages Subjected to Cholesterol Induced Asymptomatic Dyslipidemia

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection manifests into tuberculosis (TB) in a small fraction of the infected population that comprises the TB susceptible group. Identifying the factors potentiating susceptibility to TB persistence is one of the prime agenda of TB control programs. Recently, WHO recognized diabetes as a risk factor for TB disease progression. The closely related pathological state of metabolic imbalance, dyslipidemia, is yet another emerging risk factor involving deregulation in host immune responses. While high cholesterol levels are clinically proven condition for perturbations in cardiac health, a significant fraction of population these days suffer from borderline risk cholesterol profiles. This apparently healthy population is susceptible to various health risks placing them in the “pre-disease” range. Our study focuses on determining the role of such asymptomatic dyslipidemia as a potential risk factor for susceptibility to TB persistence. Macrophages exposed to sub-pathological levels of cholesterol for chronic period, besides impaired release of TNF-α, could not clear intracellular pathogenic mycobacteria effectively as compared to the unexposed cells. These cells also allowed persistence of opportunistic mycobacterial infection by M. avium and M. bovis BCG, indicating highly compromised immune response. The cholesterol-treated macrophages developed a foamy phenotype with a significant increase in intracellular lipid-bodies prior to M.tb infection, potentially contributing to pre-disease state for tuberculosis infection. The foamy phenotype, known to support M.tb infection, increased several fold upon infection in these cells. Additionally, mitochondrial morphology and function were perturbed, more so during infection in cholesterol treated cells. Pharmacological supplementation with small molecule M1 that restored mitochondrial structural and functional integrity limited M.tb survival more effectively in cholesterol exposed macrophages. Mechanistically, M1 molecule promoted clearance of mycobacteria by reducing total cellular lipid content and restoring mitochondrial morphology and function to its steady state. We further supported our observations by infection assays in PBMC-derived macrophages from clinically healthy volunteers with borderline risk cholesterol profiles. With these observations, we propose that prolonged exposure to sub-pathological cholesterol can lead to asymptomatic susceptibility to M.tb persistence. Use of small molecules like M1 sets yet another strategy for host-directed therapy where re-functioning of mitochondria in cholesterol abused macrophages can improve M.tb clearance.
Evaluation of the clinical efficacy of asenapine in schizophrenia

Importance of the field: Asenapine is a new atypical antipsychotic medication with high affinity for D2 and 5HT2A receptors that has been approved by the FDA in adults for the acute treatment of schizophrenia in the USA. The purpose of this review is to describe the compound and examine whether it addresses some of the unmet clinical needs in treating schizophrenia. Areas covered in this review: The development of asenapine is described with attention to its chemistry, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profile. Preclinical and clinical trials of safety and efficacy are reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of asenapine relative to other antipsychotic medications are discussed. What the reader will gain: Asenapine will be evaluated for whether it: i) causes a reduction in symptoms of schizophrenia; ii) has a side-effect profile minimizing extrapyramidal symptoms, weight gain and cardiac effects; and iii) affects negative and/or cognitive symptoms. Take home message: Asenapine is a recently approved agent with an acceptable cardiometabolic profile and exhibits similar efficacy as other antipsychotic medications, primarily on positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Relatively less weight gain compared with other agents may confer a notable advantage. Sublingual administration may have positive and negative effects on patient compliance. Potential ‘pro-cognitive’ effects of asenapine are preliminary and require more investigation.
Real-time low-complexity automatic modulation classifier for pulsed radar signals

An automatic modulation classifier (AMC) based on low-complexity signal features and a hierarchical decision tree is presented for pulsed radar applications. This AMC is implemented on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform. The algorithm has been designed to minimize the computational burden to achieve real-time operation. The novelty of the paper consists of the development of a low-computational-complexity radar AMC suitable for real-time FPGA implementation.
Reconstructing transcriptional Regulatory Networks using data integration and Text Mining

Transcriptional Regulatory Networks (TRNs) are powerful tool for representing several interactions that occur within a cell. Recent studies have provided information to help researchers in the tasks of building and understanding these networks. One of the major sources of information to build TRNs is biomedical literature. However, due to the rapidly increasing number of scientific papers, it is quite difficult to analyse the large amount of papers that have been published about this subject. This fact has heightened the importance of Biomedical Text Mining approaches in this task. Also, owing to the lack of adequate standards, as the number of databases increases, several inconsistencies concerning gene and protein names and identifiers are common. In this work, we developed an integrated approach for the reconstruction of TRNs that retrieve the relevant information from important biological databases and insert it into a unique repository, named KREN. Also, we applied text mining techniques over this integrated repository to build TRNs. However, was necessary to create a dictionary of names and synonyms associated with these entities and also develop an approach that retrieves all the abstracts from the related scientific papers stored on PubMed, in order to create a corpora of data about genes. Furthermore, these tasks were integrated into @Note, a software system that allows to use some methods from the Biomedical Text Mining field, including an algorithms for Named Entity Recognition (NER), extraction of all relevant terms from publication abstracts, extraction relationships between biological entities (genes, proteins and transcription factors). And finally, extended this tool to allow the reconstruction Transcriptional Regulatory Networks through using scientific literature.
Investigating the relationship between foveal morphology and refractive error in a population with infantile nystagmus syndrome.

PURPOSE We explored associations between refractive error and foveal hypoplasia in infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS). METHODS We recruited 50 participants with INS (albinism n = 33, nonalbinism infantile nystagmus [NAIN] n = 17) aged 4 to 48 years. Cycloplegic refractive error and logMAR acuity were obtained. Spherical equivalent (SER), most ametropic meridian (MAM) refractive error, and better eye acuity (VA) were used for analyses. High resolution spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was used to obtain foveal scans, which were graded using the Foveal Hypoplasia Grading Scale. Associations between grades of severity of foveal hypoplasia, and refractive error and VA were explored. RESULTS Participants with more severe foveal hypoplasia had significantly higher MAMs and SERs (Kruskal-Wallis H test P = 0.005 and P = 0.008, respectively). There were no statistically significant associations between foveal hypoplasia and cylindrical refractive error (Kruskal-Wallis H test P = 0.144). Analyses demonstrated significant differences between participants with albinism or NAIN in terms of SER and MAM (Mann-Whitney U test P = 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between astigmatic errors between participants with albinism and NAIN. Controlling for the effects of albinism, results demonstrated no significant associations between SER, and MAM and foveal hypoplasia (partial correlation P > 0.05). Poorer visual acuity was associated statistically significantly with more severe foveal hypoplasia (Kruskal-Wallis H test P = 0.001) and with a diagnosis of albinism (Mann-Whitney U test P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Increasing severity of foveal hypoplasia is associated with poorer VA, reflecting reduced cone density in INS. Individuals with INS also demonstrate a significant association between more severe foveal hypoplasia and increasing hyperopia. However, in the absence of albinism, there is no significant relation between refractive outcome and degree of foveal hypoplasia, suggesting that foveal maldevelopment in isolation does not impair significantly the emmetropization process. It likely is that impaired emmetropization evidenced in the albinism group may be attributed to the whole eye effect of albinism.