Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Postprandial Glucose Levels add Important Clinical Information When Fasting Glucose Levels are Near Normal in Non-Insulin-Dependent Patients with Type 2 Diabetes?

Background: Practice guidelines recommend that both fasting and postprandial blood glucose measurements be performed to achieve glycemic targets, yet few type 2 diabetes patients engage in postprandial glucose (PPG) testing. The purpose of this study was to determine if PPG testing provides important additional clinical information beyond fasting plasma glucose (FPG) tests in well-controlled, non-insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes patients. Methods: Subjects were recruited from 8 pharmacies and instructed to perform daily FPG tests during days 1 to 7 (run-in phase) and daily FPG and PPG tests during days 8 to 21 (test phase). Results: The mean FPG from 362 tests (n = 52 subjects) in the run-in phase was 7 mmol/L (SD 1.4). In the test phase, the mean FPG was 7 mmol/L (SD 1.6) and the mean PPG was 8.4 mmol/L (SD 2.2) from 700 tests. For FPG tests in the recommended target range of 4 to 7 mmol/L, 87% (322/370) of corresponding (same-day) PPG tests were within the target range of 5 to 10 mmol/L. In subjects whose mean FPG was 4 to 7 mmol/L, 87% of PPG tests were also within target limits. Conclusion: Community pharmacists are often asked by patients how frequently they should be monitoring their blood glucose, but the evidence supporting self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in non-insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes patients is conflicting and unclear. Given the results from this small study, testing PPG may be unnecessary for non-insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes patients achieving FPG targets, but further study is required.
Acute Chest Syndrome in Sickle Cell Disease: Pathophysiology and Management

Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is defined as the development of a new pulmonary infiltrate and respiratory symptoms in a patient with sickle cell disease (SCD). One of the most serious complications of SCD, ACS is the leading cause of mortality in patients with SCD. ACS is age dependent, with children having milder disease that often is infectious. Adults often have more severe disease, with pulmonary fat embolism secondary to preceding long bone infarction frequently as a contributing factor. Rapid diagnosis and a high index of suspicion are crucial since this syndrome may have a high mortality rate. A high white blood cell count and a felling hemoglobin tend to be associated with this illness. Patients are often febrile, but may not have positive blood or sputum cultures. Appropriate therapy includes judicious fluids, close attention to respiratory care, antibiotics, and transfusion therapy. Use of the drug, hydroxyurea, has been shown to decrease the incidence of ACS. Patients with repeated episodes are at risk for the development of chronic lung disease and pulmonary hypertension. New treatment strategies such as inhibitors of cytokines and pulmonary vasodilators such as nitric oxide may reduce the high mortality of ACS.
Learning Biology by Recreating and Extending Mathematical Models

Dynamics of Biological Systems, the IBI Prize–winning module, brings mathematics into the biology laboratory. Biological systems are dynamic. Proteins fold into three-dimensional shapes to serve as catalysts, motors, or regulators. A fertilized egg divides exponentially, and gradients and internal cell states choreograph fetus formation. Neurons become active or are inhibited in shifting spatial and temporal patterns as an animal moves through its environment. Flocks of birds migrate together, and schools of fish form and disperse to avoid predators and forage for food. The only constant in biological systems is change.
Structure-Based Mechanistic Insights into DNMT1-Mediated Maintenance DNA Methylation

Close-Up of DNA Methylation In eukaryotes, maintenance of genomic CpG methylation patterns is required for imprinting, retrotransposon silencing, and X-chromosome inactivation. The epigenetic mark needs to be faithfully maintained and propagated during repeated cell divisions in somatic cells by selective methylation of hemimethylated CpG dinucleotides following DNA replication, which is carried out by the enzyme DNMT1. Song et al. (p. 709) determined the crystal structure of mouse DNMT1 bound to a DNA duplex containing a hemimethylated CpG on the parental strand, such as would be found immediately after DNA replication. Together with a previous structure of the autoinhibited structure, the findings suggest that a combination of active and auto-inhibitory mechanisms ensures the high fidelity of DNMT1-mediated maintenance of DNA methylation. The enzyme that maintains DNA methylation in eukaryotes flips out the target C base in hemimethylated DNA for methylation. DNMT1, the major maintenance DNA methyltransferase in animals, helps to regulate gene expression, genome imprinting, and X-chromosome inactivation. We report on the crystal structure of a productive covalent mouse DNMT1(731-1602)–DNA complex containing a central hemimethylated CpG site. The methyl group of methylcytosine is positioned within a shallow hydrophobic concave surface, whereas the cytosine on the target strand is looped out and covalently anchored within the catalytic pocket. The DNA is distorted at the hemimethylated CpG step, with side chains from catalytic and recognition loops inserting through both grooves to fill an intercalation-type cavity associated with a dual base flip-out on partner strands. Structural and biochemical data establish how a combination of active and autoinhibitory mechanisms ensures the high fidelity of DNMT1-mediated maintenance DNA methylation.
Fear Erasure in Mice Requires Synergy Between Antidepressant Drugs and Extinction Training

Long-term loss of fearful memories can be achieved through a combination of antidepressant drugs and exposure therapy. Antidepressant drugs and psychotherapy combined are more effective in treating mood disorders than either treatment alone, but the neurobiological basis of this interaction is unknown. To investigate how antidepressants influence the response of mood-related systems to behavioral experience, we used a fear-conditioning and extinction paradigm in mice. Combining extinction training with chronic fluoxetine, but neither treatment alone, induced an enduring loss of conditioned fear memory in adult animals. Fluoxetine treatment increased synaptic plasticity, converted the fear memory circuitry to a more immature state, and acted through local brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Fluoxetine-induced plasticity may allow fear erasure by extinction-guided remodeling of the memory circuitry. Thus, the pharmacological effects of antidepressants need to be combined with psychological rehabilitation to reorganize networks rendered more plastic by the drug treatment.
Human Locomotor Circuits Conform

Similar patterns of neural activity that drive locomotion in humans, mammals, and birds suggest a conserved mechanism over vertebrate evolution. We tend to consider our species in a different league from that of our relatives in the animal kingdom. The last few decades have been humbling in that respect. Not only is our genome 99% similar to that of apes, but we share many genes with fruit flies and yeast cells. Admittedly, humans excel in cognitive abilities and in skilled movements like writing or talking. But when it comes to the basic motor repertoire such as walking, posture, or orienting movements, the situation is different; cheetahs, for instance, run faster, as do bipedal ostriches. Animals like horses and antelopes locomote shortly after birth, whereas humans can walk without support after about 1 year after birth. This has in many circles been taken to indicate that the neural control of human bipedal walking is fundamentally different from that of quadruped mammals, and requires the development of new neural circuits during the year following birth. However, on page 997 of this issue, Dominici et al. (1) show that the locomotor system of humans and that of other mammals and birds evolved from similar circuitry.
The Local Structure of Amorphous Silicon

Paracrystalline Amorphous silicon has traditionally been represented by a continuous random network model in which there is no long-range ordering for the atoms, and some have less than fourfold coordination, which form dangling bonds—a type of defect. Treacy and Borisenko (p. 950; see the Perspective by Gibson) used fluctuation electron microscopy to explain that models including regions of crystalline order are needed to fit the observed local variations in structure. Thus, on the 1- to 2-nanometer-length scale, this material should be thought of as having a paracrystalline structure containing localized crystalline regions. Amorphous silicon is more accurately described by a paracrystalline model, not the idealized continuous random network. It is widely believed that the continuous random network (CRN) model represents the structural topology of amorphous silicon. The key evidence is that the model can reproduce well experimental reduced density functions (RDFs) obtained by diffraction. By using a combination of electron diffraction and fluctuation electron microscopy (FEM) variance data as experimental constraints in a structural relaxation procedure, we show that the CRN is not unique in matching the experimental RDF. We find that inhomogeneous paracrystalline structures containing local cubic ordering at the 10 to 20 angstrom length scale are also fully consistent with the RDF data. Crucially, they also matched the FEM variance data, unlike the CRN model. The paracrystalline model has implications for understanding phase transformation processes in various materials that extend beyond amorphous silicon.
Natural Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Ligands Control Organogenesis of Intestinal Lymphoid Follicles

Nutrients can shape immune system development function through aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling. Innate lymphoid cells (ILC) expressing the transcription factor RORγt induce the postnatal formation of intestinal lymphoid follicles and regulate intestinal homeostasis. RORγt+ ILC express the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a highly conserved, ligand-inducible transcription factor believed to control adaptation of multicellular organisms to environmental challenges. We show that AhR is required for the postnatal expansion of intestinal RORγt+ ILC and the formation of intestinal lymphoid follicles. AhR activity within RORγt+ ILC could be induced by dietary ligands such as those contained in vegetables of the family Brassicaceae. AhR-deficient mice were highly susceptible to infection with Citrobacter rodentium, a mouse model for attaching and effacing infections. Our results establish a molecular link between nutrients and the formation of immune system components required to maintain intestinal homeostasis and resistance to infections.
The Robustness and Restoration of a Network of Ecological Networks

Networks of Networks Quantitative networks, such as those represented by food webs, have become an important way of investigating the structure of ecological communities, but thus far only encompass a small subset of species. Pocock et al. (p. 973) have linked seven different types of ecological networks to form a network of networks. They found that although networks varied in their robustness to species loss, they did not strongly co-vary; that is, what happens to one network is unrelated to what happens to another. The networks studied were identified from an agroecosystem in the southwestern UK, a habitat in which biodiversity has suffered substantially. This study succeeded in revealing which species are potential targets for restoration of ecological function in this and other systems. Analysis of seven interconnected networks on a farm reveals that they vary in their fragility, but that they do not covary. Understanding species’ interactions and the robustness of interaction networks to species loss is essential to understand the effects of species’ declines and extinctions. In most studies, different types of networks (such as food webs, parasitoid webs, seed dispersal networks, and pollination networks) have been studied separately. We sampled such multiple networks simultaneously in an agroecosystem. We show that the networks varied in their robustness; networks including pollinators appeared to be particularly fragile. We show that, overall, networks did not strongly covary in their robustness, which suggests that ecological restoration (for example, through agri-environment schemes) benefitting one functional group will not inevitably benefit others. Some individual plant species were disproportionately well linked to many other species. This type of information can be used in restoration management, because it identifies the plant taxa that can potentially lead to disproportionate gains in biodiversity.
Mechanistic Understanding of Lanthipeptide Biosynthetic Enzymes

Lanthipeptides are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) that display a wide variety of biological activities, from antimicrobial to antiallodynic. Lanthipeptides that display antimicrobial activity are called lantibiotics. The post-translational modification reactions of lanthipeptides include dehydration of Ser and Thr residues to dehydroalanine and dehydrobutyrine, a transformation that is carried out in three unique ways in different classes of lanthipeptides. In a cyclization process, Cys residues then attack the dehydrated residues to generate the lanthionine and methyllanthionine thioether cross-linked amino acids from which lanthipeptides derive their name. The resulting polycyclic peptides have constrained conformations that confer their biological activities. After installation of the characteristic thioether cross-links, tailoring enzymes introduce additional post-translational modifications that are unique to each lanthipeptide and that fine-tune their activities and/or stability. This review focuses on studies published over the past decade that have provided much insight into the mechanisms of the enzymes that carry out the post-translational modifications.
Decoupling odometry and exteroceptive perception in building a global world map of a mobile robot: the use of local maps

A mobile robot navigates in an environment and incrementally builds a map while locating itself. The quality of the map depends on the sensor models. Due to the difficulty of defining a stochastic odometric model, the classical approach based on Kalman filtering is revisited in order to decouple the information provided by the odometric sensor and exteroceptive sensors. The proposed approach is based on the observation and fusion of geometric relationships between objects. These relationships are represented in local maps and related in a global map where odometric information is exploited. The resulting local maps are invariant with respect to biases introduced in the robot location (position and orientation) due to sliding for instance. Experimental results on real data compare both the classical and the proposed approach.
Designing Responsive Buckled Surfaces by Halftone Gel Lithography

Smooth Operator When thin sheets are compressed they can buckle and wrinkle, such as when the edges of a sheet of paper, or two areas of skin, are pushed together. Variations in local thickness and stiffness will alter the buckling patterns, but controlling this in a simple and predictable way is difficult. Kim et al. (p. 1201; see the Perspective by Sharon) used halftone lithography with two photomasks to create highly cross-linked dots embedded in a lightly cross-linked matrix of a swellable polymer. This material could generate “smooth” swelling profiles on thin sheets with arbitrary two-dimensional geometries so that complex three-dimensional structures could be produced. Halftone lithography can pattern two-dimensional swellable gels to produce complex three-dimensional shapes. Self-actuating materials capable of transforming between three-dimensional shapes have applications in areas as diverse as biomedicine, robotics, and tunable micro-optics. We introduce a method of photopatterning polymer films that yields temperature-responsive gel sheets that can transform between a flat state and a prescribed three-dimensional shape. Our approach is based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) copolymers containing pendent benzophenone units that allow cross-linking to be tuned by irradiation dose. We describe a simple method of halftone gel lithography using only two photomasks, wherein highly cross-linked dots embedded in a lightly cross-linked matrix provide access to nearly continuous, and fully two-dimensional, patterns of swelling. This method is used to fabricate surfaces with constant Gaussian curvature (spherical caps, saddles, and cones) or zero mean curvature (Enneper’s surfaces), as well as more complex and nearly closed shapes.
Design of Household Appliance Control System Based on Zigbee

According to Zigbee wireless communication technology with the characteristics of low cost, low power, low-complexity and short-distance, we designed a wireless home remote control system. Its design is based on micro controller chip CC2430 from TI company and IAR software platform. This paper introduces the system hardware circuit design and the core software algorithm in detail. the test finally shows the system can achieve the wireless remote control in household equipments - lights, doorbell, air conditioning, etc. Some other potential application areas and its direction of development in future are given at last.
Anxiety sensitivity and abstinence duration to smoking

Aims: The aim of the present investigation was to replicate and extend previous work on Anxiety Sensitivity (AS) and shorter abstinence duration among a sample of young adult daily smokers. Methods: Participants were 75 daily smokers who completed measures of smoking history, AS, and negative affectivity. Results: As expected, AS total score was significantly associated with increased risk of early smoking relapse; these effects were above and beyond smoking rate and negative affectivity. Conclusions: Results suggest that elevations in AS may increase the probability of abstinence duration and that this association is not attributable to negative affectivity or smoking rate.
Association of in Vitro Escherichia coli Adherence to Vaginal and Buccal Epithelial Cells with Susceptibility of Women to Recurrent Urinary-Tract Infections

Abstract To identify changes in epithelial cells that were associated with susceptibility to recurrent urinary-tract infections, we investigated the adherence of Escherichia coli to vaginal and buccal cells obtained from 11 healthy controls and 24 patients who had had at least three such infections in the preceding year. Adherence to vaginal cells was greater in patients than in controls (10.1±0.92 vs. 3.8±0.47 bacteria per cell [mean ±S.E.], P<0.001), as was adherence to buccal cells (11.7±1.29 vs. 7.1±0.49, P = 0.002). This increased adherence in patients persisted despite temporary remission of the infection. Vaginal cells from patients not receiving antimicrobial prophylaxis had greater adherence than cells from patients given prophylactic therapy (11.7±1.34 vs. 8.3±1.0; P = 0.027). The range and rapidity of change in adherence as well as in vivo colonization of the vaginal mucosa were greater in patients than controls. Our data suggest that susceptibility to urinary-tract infections in women is assoc.
Update on fasciolosis in cattle and sheep

THE number of outbreaks of disease caused by the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica in cattle and sheep in Great Britain has increased dramatically in recent years, particularly in 1999 and 2000. The disease is closely linked to summer rainfall which favours fluke development and provides an optimum habitat for the intermediate host, the mud snail Lymnaea truncatula. The disease poses a threat to animal welfare and may also cause major economic losses through mortality, illthrift, treatment and veterinary costs. Fasciolosis has long been associated with high mortality in sheep flocks, and anaemia and poor production in beef and dairy cattle. In the past few years, fluke-related deaths have also been reported in adult beef cattle and the parasite has been linked with outbreaks of salmonellosis and metabolic disease in dairy cattle. This article discusses the pathogenesis and epidemiology of fasciolosis and outlines an approach to diagnosis, treatment and control. While much of the data provided in the article relate to Scotland, it is generally considered that these are mirrored in other parts of the UK.
A Correlation for the 21st Century

A novel statistical approach has been developed that can uncover nonlinear associations in large data sets. Most scientists will be familiar with the use of Pearson's correlation coefficient r to measure the strength of association between a pair of variables: for example, between the height of a child and the average height of their parents (r ≈ 0.5; see the figure, panel A), or between wheat yield and annual rainfall (r ≈ 0.75, panel B). However, Pearson's r captures only linear association, and its usefulness is greatly reduced when associations are nonlinear. What has long been needed is a measure that quantifies associations between variables generally, one that reduces to Pearson's in the linear case, but that behaves as we'd like in the nonlinear case. On page 1518 of this issue, Reshef et al. (1) introduce the maximal information coefficient, or MIC, that can be used to determine nonlinear correlations in data sets equitably.
The role of ultrasonography in the measurement of subcutaneous and visceral fat and its correlation with hepatic steatosis

* Trabalho realizado no Serviço de Ultrassonografia da Fundação Riograndense Universitária de Gastroenterologia (Fugast), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. 1. Médico Especialista em Radiologia e Diagnóstico por Imagem da Fundação Riograndense Universitária de Gastroenterologia (Fugast), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Endereço para correspondência: Dr. Roberto Velloso Eifler. Rua Cabral, 983/302, Rio Branco. Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 90420-121. E-mail: eifler2010@hotmail.com. Recebido para publicação em 7/3/2013. Aceito, após revisão, em 27/5/2013. Eifler RV. O papel da ultrassonografia na medida da gordura subcutânea e visceral e sua correlação com a esteatose hepática. Radiol Bras. 2013 Set/Out;46(5):273–278. 0100-3984 © Colégio Brasileiro de Radiologia e Diagnóstico por Imagem ARTIGO ORIGINAL • ORIGINAL ARTICLE têm risco duas a três maior de morbidade cardiovascular do que indivíduos sem SM. A doença hepática gordurosa não alcoólica (DHGNA) é a manifestação hepática da síndrome metabólica. Ela abrange um amplo espectro de lesões hepáticas, que vão da esteatose benigna até a esteato-hepatite não alcoólica (EHNA), que apresenta alto risco de progressão para a cirrose e o carcinoma hepatocelular. A DHGNA pode ser diagnosticada por exames de imagem, tanto pela ultrassonografia (US) como pela tomografia computadorizada (TC) e a ressonância magnética (RM). Embora a US demonstre acurácia inferior à TC e à RM para a detecção de DHGNA, seu baixo em crianças como em adultos. Já na década de 80, Reaven observava que a obesidade estava muitas vezes associada a doenças como hipertensão arterial, hiperglicemia, dislipidemia e, principalmente, que essas alterações hemodinâmicas e metabólicas tinham um elo comum: a resistência à insulina. A partir de suas observações consolidou-se o conceito de síndrome metabólica (SM). A prevalência da SM é estimada, atualmente, entre 20% e 25% da população geral, com índices crescentes. A importância do diagnóstico de SM se tornou evidente após a confirmação de sua relação com a doença cardiovascular. Indivíduos com SM INTRODUÇÃO Nas últimas décadas e, especialmente, nos últimos anos vem ocorrendo um aumento crescente das taxas de obesidade nas populações dos países ocidentais, tanto desenvolvidos como emergentes, e tanto