Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Body as an Object of Stigmatization in Cultures of Guilt and Shame: A Polish–Vietnamese Comparison

The aim of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in body stigmatization between the individualistic Christian culture of guilt (Poland) and the collectivistic Buddhist/Confucian culture of honor and shame (Vietnam). The study included 1290 university students from Poland (n = 586) and Vietnam (n = 704). Subjects filled in the body esteem scale and the perceived stigmatization questionnaire, and body measurements were collected to calculate anthropometric indices. Participants from Vietnam were less satisfied with their appearance than their Polish peers. Men in both countries assessed themselves more favorably. No anthropometric index predicted body esteem in Vietnamese women, while only indices related to fat levels were predictors in Polish women. Men with a V-shaped body assessed themselves as stronger and as having a better physical condition. A possible explanation of the observed cross-cultural differences is that interdependent self-construal makes young adults in collectivistic societies more susceptible to criticism, and the Confucian values of modesty and shame lead to them not perceiving their bodies as sexual objects. The Christian sense of guilt does not influence the perception of sexuality. Absence of friendly behavior mediated the relation between anthropometric indices and body esteem in both cultures.
Firefighters' Physical Activity and Waist Circumference as Predictors of VO2max.

OBJECTIVE To examine associations among objectively measured physical activity (PA), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in firefighters. METHODS Career firefighters (n = 29; male = 100%) wore accelerometers to assess PA. BMI and WC classified obesity. Each participant completed a stage-graded exercise test to determine maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). RESULTS Two linear regression models were used to investigate whether PA intensities, step count, BMI, or WC were predictive of "true" VO2max. Vigorous physical activity (VPA) was predictive of "true" VO2max (F(1,27) = 7.89, R = 0.23, p < 0.01). Additionally, when BMI and WC were added, only WC was predictive of "true" VO2max (F(1,27) = 11.76, R = 0.30, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION Fire departments should be cognizent of ways to increase PA levels, decrease excess weight gain, and maintain CRF to adequately perform job-specific tasks.
Endothelium-Dependent Vasorelaxant Effect of Prunus Persica Branch on Isolated Rat Thoracic Aorta

Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is a popular fruit consumed by people worldwide, owing to its pleasant flavor and high mineral nutrient content. A few plants from the genus Prunus, such as Prunus yedoensis, Prunus cerasus, and Prunus serotina have shown vasorelaxant and vasodilatory effects, to date, no study has investigated the vasorelaxation effects of the P. persica branch extract (PPE). The vasorelaxant effect of PPE was endothelium-dependent, and it was related to the NO-sGC-cGMP, vascular prostacyclin, and muscarinic receptor transduction pathway. K+ channels, such as the BKCa, KV, and KATP channels, were partially associated with PPE-induced vasorelaxation. PPE was effective in relaxing serotonin (5-HT)- or angiotensin II-induced contraction; furthermore, PPE attenuated Ca2+-induced vasoconstriction by IP3 receptors in the SR membrane, but its vasorelaxant effect was not associated with the influx of extracellular Ca2+ via receptor-operative Ca2+ channels or voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels. Recognizing the rising use of functional foods for hypertension treatment, our findings imply that PPE may be a natural antihypertensive agent.
D-lnc: a comprehensive database and analytical platform to dissect the modification of drugs on lncRNA expression

ABSTRACT Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to be implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases. Multiple studies have demonstrated that small molecule drugs can modify lncRNA expression, which suggests a promising therapy for human diseases. Here, we constructed a comprehensive query and analytical platform D-lnc to dissect the influence of drugs on lncRNA expression. Firstly, we manually curated the experimentally validated regulations of drugs on lncRNA expression and recorded 7,825 entries between 59 drugs and 7,538 lncRNAs across five species from nearly 1,000 published papers. Secondly, we comprehensively screened the Connectivity Map (cMap) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases to obtain the drug-perturbed gene expression profiles. Through probe re-annotation of microarray data, we identified 19,946 putative associations between 1,279 drugs and 129 lncRNAs in cMap and 36,210 entries between 115 drugs and 2,360 lncRNAs in GEO. Finally, we developed an online analytical platform to predict the potential acting drugs or modified lncRNAs based on user input lncRNA sequence or drug structure through computing the similarities of lncRNA sequences or drug structures. In a word, D-lnc provides a comprehensive platform to detect the modification of drugs on lncRNA expression, which would facilitate the development of lncRNA-targeted therapeutics. D-lnc is freely available at http://www.jianglab. cn/D-lnc/.
Complete Genome Sequence of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Podophage LL11

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is an opportunistic pathogen that commonly causes foodborne illness. Study of bacteriophages against this pathogen could be useful to develop alternative treatment approaches. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of LL11, a T7-like podophage that infects ETEC. ABSTRACT Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is an opportunistic pathogen that commonly causes foodborne illness. Study of bacteriophages against this pathogen could be useful to develop alternative treatment approaches. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of LL11, a T7-like podophage that infects ETEC.
Evaluation of the usefulness of saliva for DNA methylation analysis in cohort studies

Epigenetic information such as DNA methylation is a useful biomarker that reflects complex gene‐environmental interaction. Peripheral tissues such as blood and saliva are commonly collected as the source of genomic DNA in cohort studies. Epigenetic studies mainly use blood, while a few studies have addressed the epigenetic characteristics of saliva.
Effectiveness of school dental health education on the oral health status and knowledge of children: A systematic review

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of school dental health education on the oral health status, oral health-related knowledge, and practice behavior of 6–12-year-old children. Methods: Hand search and electronic search based on the keywords on school dental health education in seven search engines till 2017 identified 7434 articles. Trials involving school-based dental health education with a minimum follow-up period of 6 months were screened. Risk of bias assessment was done independently by two authors. Results: Among the 18 articles which fulfilled the eligibility criteria, six were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 12 were non-RCTs. Quality assessment showed that 12 trials had a low risk of bias. Oral health-related knowledge improved in children. Oral health-related practice behaviors such as frequency and duration of brushing improved. Use of fluoridated toothpaste was increased. Plaque scores and gingival bleeding scores reduced. Conclusion: School dental health education had a positive impact on the oral health status, knowledge, and practice behavior of children. There is a definite need for high-quality RCTs analyzing the effectiveness of school dental health education on specific oral health outcomes.
Structure folding of RNA kissing complexes in salt solutions: predicting 3D structure, stability, and folding pathway

RNA kissing complexes are essential for genomic RNA dimerization and regulation of gene expression, and their structures and stability are critical to their biological functions. In this work, we used our previously developed coarse-grained model with an implicit structure-based electrostatic potential to predict three-dimensional (3D) structures and stability of RNA kissing complexes in salt solutions. For extensive RNA kissing complexes, our model shows great reliability in predicting 3D structures from their sequences, and our additional predictions indicate that the model can capture the dependence of 3D structures of RNA kissing complexes on monovalent/divalent ion concentrations. Moreover, the comparisons with extensive experimental data show that the model can make reliable predictions on the stability for various RNA kissing complexes over wide ranges of monovalent/divalent ion concentrations. Notably, for RNA kissing complexes, our further analyses show the important contribution of coaxial stacking to the 3D structures and stronger stability than the corresponding kissing-interface duplexes at high salts. Furthermore, our comprehensive analyses for RNA kissing complexes reveal that the thermally folding pathway for a complex sequence is mainly determined by the relative stability of two possible folded states of kissing complex and extended duplex, which can be significantly modulated by its sequence.
Energy Intake Requirements in Pregnancy

Energy intake requirements in pregnancy match the demands of resting metabolism, physical activity, and tissue growth. Energy balance in pregnancy is, therefore, defined as energy intake equal to energy expenditure plus energy storage. A detailed understanding of these components and their changes throughout gestation can inform energy intake recommendations for minimizing the risk of poor pregnancy outcomes. Energy expenditure is the sum of resting and physical activity-related expenditure. Resting metabolic rate increases during pregnancy as a result of increased body mass, pregnancy-associated physiological changes, i.e., cardiac output, and the growing fetus. Physical activity is extremely variable between women and may change over the course of pregnancy. The requirement for energy storage depends on maternal pregravid body size. For optimal pregnancy outcomes, women with low body weight require more fat mass accumulation than women with obesity, who do not require to accumulate fat mass at all. Given the high energy density of fat mass, these differences affect energy intake requirements for a healthy pregnancy greatly. In contrast, the energy stored in fetal and placental tissues is comparable between all women and have small impact on energy requirements. Different prediction equations have been developed to quantify energy intake requirements and we provide a brief review of the strengths and weaknesses and discuss their application for healthy management of weight gain in pregnant women.
Logarithmic Strain Model for Nonlinear Load Cell

General load cells have typically constant sensitivity throughout the measurement range, which is acceptable for common force measurement systems. However, it is not adequate for high-performance control and high-stroke applications such as robotic systems. It is required to have a higher sensitivity in a small force range than that in a large force range. In contrast, for large loading force, it is more important to increase the measurement range than the sensitivity. To cope with these characteristics, the strain curve versus the force measurement should be derived as a logarithmic graph. To implement this nonlinear nature, the proposed load cell is composed of two mechanical components: an activator, which has a curved surface profile to translocate the contact point, and a linear torque measurement unit with a moment lever to measure the loading force. To approximate the logarithmic deformation, the curvature of the activator was designed by an exponential function. Subsequent design parameters were optimized by an evolutionary computation.
In Silico Tissue Engineering of Vascular Grafts: A Coupled Agent Based-Finite Element Approach.

Over the past two decades, the increase in prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and the limited availability of autologous blood vessels and saphenous vein grafts has motivated the development of Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts (TEVGs). However, compliance mismatch and poor mechanical properties of the TEVGs remain as two major issues that need to be addressed. Researchers have investigated the role of various culture conditions and mechanical conditioning in deposition and orientation of collagen fibers, which are the key structural components in the vascular wall, however the intrinsic complexity of mechanobiological interactions demands implementing new engineering approaches that allow researchers to investigate various scenarios more efficiently. In this study, we utilized a coupled Agent Based-Finite Element Analysis (AB-FEA) modeling approach to study the effect of various loading modes (uniaxial, biaxial, and equibiaxial), boundary conditions, stretch magnitudes, and growth factor concentrations on growth and remodeling of smooth muscle cell (SMC) populated TEVGs, with specific focus on collagen deposition and orientation. Our simulations (12 weeks of culture) showed that biaxial cyclic loading (and not uniaxial or equibiaxial) leads to alignment of collagen fibers in the physiological directions. Moreover, axial boundary conditions of the TEVG act as determinants of fiber orientations. Decreasing the serum concentration, from 10% to 5% or 1%, significantly decreased the growth and remodeling speed, but only affected the fiber orientation in the 1% serum case. In conclusion, in-silico tissue engineering has the potential to evolve the future of tissue engineering, as it will allow researchers to conceptualize various interactions and investigate numerous scenarios with great speed. Here, we were able to predict the orientation of collagen fibers in TEVGs using a coupled AB-FEA model in less than 8 hours.
Effectiveness of psycho-educational counseling on anxiety in preeclampsia.

INTRODUCTION Preeclampsia is a serious complication during pregnancy that not only influences maternal and fetal physical health, but also has maternal mental health outcomes such as anxiety. Prenatal anxiety has negative short- and long-term effects on pre- and postpartum maternal mental health, delivery, and mental health in subsequent pregnancies. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effectiveness of individual psycho-educational counseling on anxiety in pregnant women with preeclampsia. METHODS This was a randomized, intervention-controlled study involving two governmental hospitals in the municipality of Sirjan, Kerman, from January 30 2017 to March 31 2017. A total of 44 pregnant women with preeclampsia were assessed. The women were randomized into two groups: control (n=22) and intervention (n=22). The intervention consisted of two sessions of individual psycho-educational counseling. The level of anxiety was measured using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) as pretest before the first session and as posttest after the second session during the hospitalization period. RESULTS There was a significant reduction in the anxiety level after the counselling sessions in the intervention group (p<0.005). In addition, there was a slight increase in the anxiety level in the control group after the study. CONCLUSION According to the results, psycho-educational counseling can significantly reduce the anxiety level in pregnant women with preeclampsia. Therefore, it is recommended that healthcare providers provide this type of therapeutic intervention for pregnant women after hospitalization, in order to reduce their anxiety level and its subsequent negative outcomes. Clinical trial registration: IRCT2017082029817N3.
Acantholytic dyskeratosis of the vulva presenting with clinical features of vulval lichen sclerosus—A possible rare collision entity

We present a challenging case of chronic, erosive, scarring dermatosis of the vulva with clinical features of long standing lichen sclerosus (LS), namely pallor and loss of vulval architecture, but with histopathology consistently showing features of an acantholytic process. The history and clinical features of this case do not resemble other acantholytic conditions such as pemphigus vulgaris, Hailey‐Hailey disease, Darier disease, or the entities described as acantholytic dermatoses affecting the vulva. As far as we are aware, the combination of the clinical features and histopathologic findings in our case do not fit with any previously described condition and we propose that this is a rare entity of a collision of LS and an erosive acantholytic process occurring together.
Chronic statin therapy is associated with enhanced cutaneous vascular responsiveness to sympathetic outflow during passive heat stress

Impairments in both central sympathetic and peripheral microvascular function contribute to blunted reflex cutaneous vasodilatation during heat stress in healthy older adults. Hypercholesterolaemia is associated with decrements in neurovascular function; however, little is known about the impact of hypercholesterolaemia on the integrated responses to heat stress. Further, whether chronic statin therapy alters skin sympathetic outflow or its relation to cutaneous vascular conductance during heat stress is unknown. We demonstrate that reflex cutaneous vasodilatation is impaired in older hypercholesterolaemic adults but not in formerly hypercholesterolaemic adults currently treated with a statin compared to age‐matched controls. Additionally, chronic statin treatment‐induced improvements in reflex vasodilatation are mediated, in part, by increases in end‐organ responsiveness to efferent sympathetic outflow during whole‐body heating. These data add to the growing body of literature substantiating the beneficial pleiotropic neurovascular effects of chronic statin treatment and provide further support for the use of statins to confer additional cardioprotective benefits in older adults.
Advanced 3D Motion Prediction for Video-Based Dynamic Point Cloud Compression

Point cloud-based immersive media representation format has provided many opportunities for extended reality applications and has become widely used in volumetric content capturing scenarios. The high data rate of the point cloud is one of the key problems preventing the adoption of this media format. MPEG Immersive media working group (MPEG-I) aims to create a point cloud compression methodology relying on the existing video coding hardware implementations to solve this problem. However, in the scope of the state-of-the-art video-based dynamic point cloud compression (V-PCC) standard under MPEG-I, the intrinsic 3D object’s motion continuity is destroyed by the 2D projections, resulting in a significant loss of inter prediction coding efficiency. In this paper, we first propose a general model utilizing the 3D motion and 3D to 2D correspondence to calculate the 2D motion vector (MV). Then, under the V-PCC, we propose a geometry-based method using the accurate 3D reconstructed geometry from the 2D geometry video to estimate the 2D MV in the 2D attribute video. In addition, we propose an auxiliary-information-based method using the coarse 3D reconstructed geometry provided by the auxiliary information to estimate the 2D MV in both the 2D geometry and attribute videos. Furthermore, we provide the following two ways to use the estimated 2D MV to improve coding efficiency. The first one is normative. We propose adding the estimated MV into the advanced MV candidate list and find a better MV predictor for each prediction unit (PU). The second one is non-normative. We propose applying the estimated MV as an additional candidate of the centers for motion estimation. We implement the proposed algorithms in the V-PCC reference software. Experimental results show that the proposed methods present significant coding gains compared with the current state-of-the-art motion prediction algorithm.
Bidirectional Cross-Talk between Biliary Epithelium and Th17 Cells Promotes Local Th17 Expansion and Bile Duct Proliferation in Biliary Liver Diseases

Key Points Biliary epithelial cells secrete Th17-polarizing cytokines. Biliary epithelial cells chemoattract AhR+CCR6+CD4 T cells. Th17 cells promote local Th17 expansion and bile duct proliferation. There is no effective treatment for autoimmune biliary diseases. Therefore, understanding their immunopathology is crucial. The biliary epithelial cells (BEC), expressing TLR-4, are constantly exposed to gut microbes and bacterial wall LPS, and in settings of inflammation, the immune infiltrate is dense within the peribiliary region of human liver. By dual immunohistochemistry, we affirm human intrahepatic T cell infiltrate includes CCR6+CD4+ and AhR+CD4+ T cells with potential for plasticity to Th17 phenotype. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that Th1 and Th17 inflammatory cytokines and LPS enhance human primary BEC release of the CCR6 ligand CCL20 and BEC secretion of Th17-polarizing cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β. Cell culture assays with human BEC secretome showed that secretome polarizes CD4 T cells toward a Th17 phenotype and supports the survival of Th17 cells. BEC secretome did not promote Th1 cell generation. Additionally, we give evidence for a mutually beneficial feedback of the type 17 cell infiltrate on BEC, showing that treatment with type 17 cytokines increases BEC proliferation, as monitored by Ki67 and activation of JAK2-STAT3 signaling. This study identifies human BEC as active players in determining the nature of the intrahepatic immune microenvironment. In settings of inflammation and/or infection, biliary epithelium establishes a prominent peribiliary type 17 infiltrate via recruitment and retention and enhances polarization of intrahepatic CD4 cells toward Th17 cells via type 17 cytokines, and, reciprocally, Th17 cells promote BEC proliferation for biliary regeneration. Altogether, we provide new insight into cross-talk between Th17 lymphocytes and human primary biliary epithelium in biliary regenerative pathologies.