Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of Varenicline in Patients With Severe Alcohol Dependence: A Pilot Double-Blind Randomized and Controlled Study.

PURPOSE/BACKGROUND Varenicline has proven its efficacy in the treatment of nicotine dependence, and there is also evidence that it could be helpful in the treatment of alcohol dependence. In our pilot study, we investigated the feasibility and acceptability of varenicline for the treatment of a population of patients with severe alcohol dependence and multiple somatic comorbidities after alcohol detoxification. METHODS/PROCEDURES We conducted a phase II, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial of daily oral varenicline versus a placebo in alcohol-dependent men and women after alcohol detoxification (n = 28). Following our study protocol, somatic conditions and adverse events were thoroughly monitored and several study end points were investigated (percentage of abstinent days for both alcohol and nicotine, number of standardized drinks and cigarettes per day, days of heavy drinking). FINDINGS/RESULTS Compared with the placebo, varenicline did not have more side effects and did not provoke more adverse events. Patients in the varenicline group did not show a significantly higher percentage of alcohol abstinent days or fewer heavy drinking days. A trend significance was found for a reduced number of standard drinks per day (P = 0.06) in the varenicline group. IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS In this pilot trial, varenicline was shown to be well tolerated by our study population of severely alcohol-dependent patients with somatic conditions. Varenicline did not sustain alcohol abstinence or reduce the number of heavy drinking days, but it did reduce the daily amount of alcohol consumed.
Designing Space to Support Knowledge Work

Based on spatial analysis, network analysis, self-assessment questionnaires, field discussions and accounting documents, the authors discuss how workplace design and spatial layout support productivity in a communication design organization. The authors suggest that the impact of design goes beyond supporting more intense patterns of interaction and smoother flows of information. Workplace design and layout provide an intelligible framework within which collective knowledge is continuously explored, represented, interpreted, and transformed in relation to ongoing projects. Thus, the structure of space supports an organizational culture with cognitive functions.
Knockdown of STIL suppresses the progression of gastric cancer by down‐regulating the IGF‐1/PI3K/AKT pathway

SCL/TAL1 interrupting locus (STIL) regulates the mitotic centrosome to promote the centriolar replication and cell cycling, and is associated with malignancies. However, the role and mechanism of STIL in gastric cancer (GC) remain elusive. STIL expression in GC tissue microarray was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). GC cells were transduced with control lentivirus or lentivirus for expression STIL‐specific shRNA and the effect of STIL silencing on the malignant behaviors of GC cells was measured in vitro and in vivo. The potential mechanisms underlying the action of STIL were analyzed by transcriptome microarray and bioinformatics. STIL expression was up‐regulated in GC tissues both in our cohort and the data from the cancer genome atlas, and positively associated with T stage and poor overall survival of GC patients. Knockdown of STIL significantly inhibited the proliferation and clonogenicity of human GC cells and attenuated the growth of implanted GC in vivo. Furthermore, STIL silencing induced cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase and apoptosis of GC cells. Transcriptome analysis indicated that STIL silencing modulated many gene expression, particularly for down‐regulating the IGF‐1/PI3K/AKT pathway. In addition, treatment with SC79, an AKT activator, significantly mitigated the effect of STIL‐silencing in GC cells. In conclusion, STIL promotes gastric carcinogenesis and progression by enhancing the IGF‐1/PI3K/AKT signaling, and STIL may be a novel target for intervention of GC.
Incidence of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ in the United States, 2000–2014

Background: In absence of definitive molecular risk markers, clinical management of patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) remains largely guided by patient and tumor characteristics. In this study, we analyzed recent trends in DCIS incidence and compared them against trends in mammography use. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry was queried for patients diagnosed with DCIS from 2000 to 2014 (18 registries). Joinpoint regression analyses were used to compute age- and race-stratified trends in age-adjusted incidence of DCIS. The patterns of DCIS incidence were compared against mammography utilization data from the National Health Interview Survey. Results: Between 2000 and 2014, overall DCIS incidence in the U.S. population was stable (P = 0.24). Among age groups 20 to 44 years and 45 to 55 years, DCIS incidence increased by 1.3% (P = 0.001) and 0.6% (P = 0.02) per year, respectively. Although stable among white women, DCIS incidence increased among black women and women of other races by 1.6% (P < 0.001) and 1.0% (P = 0.002) per year, respectively. Mammography uptake correlated well with DCIS incidence, with the exception of women ages 40 to 49 years and black women who experienced an increase in DCIS incidence despite stagnating and decreasing mammography uptake, respectively. Conclusions: Overall DCIS incidence rates have remained stable between 2000 and 2014. However, subgroup analyses revealed an increase in incidence among both younger women and black women. Impact: DCIS incidence trends did not correlate with the mammography uptake patterns, suggesting that etiologic factors other than screening may be leading to an increased DCIS incidence in these groups.
Protein expression pattern of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-3 (TIMP3) in endometriosis and normal endometrium

Abstract Given the involvement of different extracellular matrix (ECM) metalloproteinases (MMPs) in endometriosis, the protein expression pattern of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-3 (TIMP3) was analyzed in this study in endometriosis and normal endometrium. Tissue samples were collected prospectively from 64 premenopausal patients undergoing operative laparoscopy. Protein expression of TIMP3 was analyzed immunohistochemically in endometriotic lesions (n = 30) and normal eutopic endometrium from patients with (n = 35) and without (n = 29) endometriosis. Comparison between the three different groups of tissue samples showed that TIMP3 was differentially expressed between the three groups (p = .04). Pair-wise comparisons showed that TIMP3 expression was lower in endometriotic lesions as compared with normal eutopic endometrium from controls (p = .006); the same non-significant trend was found, in the comparison between endometriosis lesions and matched eutopic endometrium. There were no differences in TIMP3 expression in the normal eutopic endometrium between patients with and without endometriosis. In conclusion, TIMP3 seems to be involved in the pathogenesis, pathophysiology, and maintenance of endometriosis and it might be useful as a diagnostic and prognostic marker of endometriosis. Future studies should further investigate this issue, as well as the interplay between TIMPs and different extracellular MMPs in endometriosis.
Adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern is inversely associated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress

ABSTRACT Background: Few studies have assessed adherence to the Mediterranean diet in relation to psychological health, in particular in the Middle East. Objective: To examine the association between adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern and prevalence of psychological disorders among a large population of Iranian adults. Design: In this cross-sectional study on 3172 Iranian adults aged 18–55 years, we used a validated food frequency questionnaire for the assessment of dietary intakes. Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern was examined using the Trichopoulou et al. method. To assess psychological health, the Iranian validated version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used. Psychological distress was assessed through the use of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Results: Mean age of study participants was 36.54 ± 4.97 years. After controlling for potential confounders, participants with the greatest adherence to the Mediterranean diet had lower odds for depression (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.46–0.78), anxiety (OR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.42–0.86) and psychological distress (OR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.45–0.79) compared with those with the lowest adherence. When the association with components of Mediterranean diet was examined, we found that high intake of fruits and vegetables was associated with a lower odds of depression, anxiety and psychological distress. In contrast, high intake of grains was positively associated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress. Conclusion: We found evidence indicating an inverse association between adherence to Mediterranean dietary pattern and odds of psychological disorders including depression, anxiety and psychological distress.
Regional anaesthesia for trauma: an update

The term trauma has Greek origins, meaning ‘wound’. Trauma represents a major global health burden, with significant morbidity, mortality, and socioeconomic impact. Injuries vary in aetiology, distribution, severity, and prognosis. Worldwide, millions are injured, disabled, or killed each year. Falls, burns, violence, and road traffic accidents are among the most significant causes stated by the World Health Organization. Acute phase resuscitation has improved dramatically after introduction of Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS w ) algorithms. The result is a reduction in mortality rates, but comparatively more victims progressing to long-term disability. Regional nerve block is contentious in the context of trauma. Historical reports apportion blame to regional interventions as contributing to poor outcomes in particular patients, such as those at risk of compartment syndrome. Traditional aversion is now being questioned. A growing evidence base from military and civilian sources is supportive of a greater role for regional anaesthesia (RA) in the management of trauma casualties. Optimized pain control may improve outcome in such patients. This article aims to clarify the current evidence, address common controversies, and provide a summary of the advancing role of RA in the trauma setting.
Recent Research Advances in Mitosis during Mammalian Gametogenesis

Mitosis is a highly sophisticated and well-regulated process during the development and differentiation of mammalian gametogenesis. The regulation of mitosis plays an essential role in keeping the formulation in oogenesis and gametogenesis. In the past few years, substantial research progress has been made by showing that cyclins/cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) have roles in the regulation of meiosis. In addition, more functional signaling molecules have been discovered in mitosis. Growing evidence has also indicated that miRNAs influence cell cycling. In this review, we focus on specific genes, cyclins/Cdk, signaling pathways/molecules, and miRNAs to discuss the latest achievements in understanding their roles in mitosis during gametogenesis. Further elucidation of mitosis during gametogenesis may facilitate delineating all processes of mammalian reproduction and the development of disease treatments.
Policy Adoption of Forest Management Unit: A Knowledge Diffusion Analysis

Within the policy adoption process of Forest Management Unit (FMU) concept, there has been disagreement of stakeholders on FMUs concept. This disagreement is caused by the exchange of knowledge, information, and perception among stakeholders involved. The results of these interactions could speed up, slow down, and prevent the adoption process of FMU policy. The study objective was analyzing process of knowledge diffusion of FMUs development policy and stakeholders interaction in PFMU Batutegi and PFMU Kotaagung Utara, Indonesia. Adoption process was analyzed by the logical diffusion technique based on knowledge time of FMUs concept received and its interaction space. Social interaction among stakeholders was analyzed using method developed by International Development Studies analysis, i.e. interaction among discourse/narrative, actors/networks and politics/interests. The results showed that knowledge diffusion of FMUs concept in both PFMU tends to cascade diffusion. Factors was affecting of it process were network, role of opinion leaders, willingness to know, and understand on FMUs concept. Indicative strategy is needed as anticipating and overcoming an obstacle in its internalization process, i.e. harmonization of legislative and executive relationship, building an opinion the importance of FMU, and optimalizing network for bureaucratic problems.
Real Semantics : Capturing Floating-Point Imprecision

Floating-point numbers and their respective arithmetic operations are often used with the assumption of a certain level of precision. However, there are times when exact precision is necessary. In these cases, floating-point arithmetic is defective in that it is fundamentally interval arithmetic wherein the interval lengths are a function of the median point. Therefore, we present Real Semantics, an automated tool that reasons about the accuracy of floating-point arithmetic. Real Semantics systematically discovers instances where the floating-point arithmetic result is not the most accurate floating-point approximation to the real number implied by any given algorithm. Thereafter, Real Semantics shows the user where the discrepancy is taking place in the form of a line number and variable name.
OLTPShare: The Case for Sharing in OLTP Workloads

In the past, resource sharing has been extensively studied for OLAP workloads. Naturally, the question arises, why studies mainly focus on OLAP and not on OLTP workloads? At first sight, OLTP queries - due to their short runtime - may not have enough potential for the additional overhead. In addition, OLTP workloads do not only execute read operations but also updates. In this paper, we address query sharing for OLTP workloads. We first analyze the sharing potential in real-world OLTP workloads. Based on those findings, we then present an execution strategy, called OLTPShare that implements a novel batching scheme for OLTP workloads. We analyze the sharing benefits by integrating OLTPShare into a prototype version of the commercial database system SAP HANA. Our results show for different OLTP workloads that OLTPShare enables SAP HANA to provide a significant throughput increase in high-load scenarios compared to the conventional execution strategy without sharing.
Role of Working‐Memory Capacity in Cognitive Control

This paper discusses the psychometric properties important to the measurement of working memory. Domain‐specific aspects of working memory, such as the phonological loop and store and the visual and spatial stores, are important to the performance of many real‐world tasks and were probably important to the evolution of the modern mind. However, there is little work demonstrating the critical psychometric properties of reliability and validity of measurement of these domain‐specific stores. The domain‐general aspect of working memory—attention control—on the other hand, has established reliability and validity of measurement. Individual differences in domain‐general working‐memory capacity have been shown to be important to a wide range of both speech‐based and visual/spatial‐based tasks. Working‐memory capacity appears to be both a trait and a state variable.
Liquid biopsy in non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

ctDNA provides an important new strategy that will aid in the treatment of non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma. Immunoglobulin sequencing provides a tumor specific marker for disease activity with a sensitivity equivalent to one tumor cell per 10‐6. Furthermore, it can provide an estimate of tumor bulk and tumor response dynamics during treatment. Interim monitoring can identify patients at high risk of treatment failure and surveillance monitoring can identify patients months before radiographic disease progression. Tumor specific mutations can also be detected in ctDNA and may reflect an averaging of mutations present within multiple tumor masses. Such analysis may aid in the molecular characterization of tumors and selection of targeted treatments for precision medicine.
Bioavailability of Different Vitamin D Oral Supplements in Laboratory Animal Model

Background and Objectives: The major cause of vitamin D deficiency is inadequate exposure to sunlight. It is difficult to supplement it with food because sufficient concentrations of vitamin D naturally occur only in a handful of food products. Thereby, deficiency of this vitamin is commonly corrected with oral supplements. Different supplement delivery systems for improved vitamin D stability and bioavailability are proposed. In this study, we compared efficiency of three vitamin D delivery systems: microencapsulated, micellized, and oil-based. Materials and Methods: As a model in this medical testing, laboratory rats were used for the evaluation of bioavailability of different vitamin D vehicles. Animals were divided into three groups: the first one was given microencapsulated vitamin D3, the second—oil-based vitamin D3, and the third—micellized vitamin D3. Test substances were given per os to each animal for 7 days, and vitamin D concentration in a form of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in the blood was checked both during the vitamin delivery period and later, up to the 24th day. Results: Comparison of all three tested products showed that the microencapsulated and oil-based vitamin D3 vehicles were the most bioavailable in comparison to micellized vitamin D3. Even more, the effect of the microencapsulated form of vitamin D3 remained constant for the longest period (up to 14 days). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the oral vitamin D supplement vehicle has an impact on its bioavailability, thus it is important to take into account how much of the suppled vitamin D will be absorbed. To maximize the full exploit of supplement, the best delivery strategy should be employed. In our study, the microencapsulated form of vitamin D was the most bioavailable.
Mechanisms of voice control related to prosody in autism spectrum disorder and first‐degree relatives

Differences in prosody (e.g., intonation, rhythm) are among the most obvious language‐related impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and significantly impact communication. Subtle prosodic differences have also been identified in a subset of clinically unaffected first‐degree relatives of individuals with ASD, and may reflect genetic liability to ASD. This study investigated the neural basis of prosodic differences in ASD and first‐degree relatives through analysis of feedforward and feedback control involved in the planning, production, self‐monitoring, and self‐correction of speech by using a pitch‐perturbed auditory feedback paradigm during sustained vowel and speech production. Results revealed larger vocal response magnitudes to pitch‐perturbed auditory feedback across tasks in ASD and ASD parent groups, with differences in sustained vowel production driven by parents who displayed subclinical personality and language features associated with ASD (i.e., broad autism phenotype). Both ASD and ASD parent groups exhibited increased response onset latencies during sustained vowel production, while the ASD parent group exhibited decreased response onset latencies during speech production. Vocal response magnitudes across tasks were associated with prosodic atypicalities in both individuals with ASD and their parents. Exploratory event‐related potential (ERP) analyses in a subgroup of participants during the sustained vowel task revealed reduced P1 ERP amplitudes in the ASD group, with similar trends observed in parents. Overall, results suggest underdeveloped feedforward systems and neural attenuation in detecting audio‐vocal feedback may contribute to ASD‐related prosodic atypicalities. Importantly, results implicate atypical audio‐vocal integration as a marker of genetic risk to ASD, evident in ASD and among clinically unaffected relatives. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1192–1210. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Decision Making in a Sensor Network with Poisson Process Observations

This paper addresses a detection problem where several spatially distributed sensors independently observe a time-inhomogeneous stochastic process. The task is to decide at the end of a fixed time interval between two hypotheses regarding the statistics of the observed process. In the proposed method, each of the sensors transmits once to a fusion center a locally processed summary of its information in the form of a likelihood ratio. The fusion center then combines these messages to arrive at an optimal decision in the NeymanPearson framework. The approach is motivated by applications arising in the detection of mobile radioactive sources, and it serves as a first step toward the development of novel fixed-interval detection algorithms that combine decentralized processing with optimal centralized decision making.
Metabolomics: new analytical methods for metabolome research

Summary Metabolome research is based on so-called “omic” techniques, which are particularly used to investigate problems in system biology. The central analytical procedure in metabolomics is mass spectrometry − mostly in combination with chromatographic procedures. The evaluation may either be targeted (hypothesis-supported) or untargeted (hypothesis-free). As these evaluation approaches in combination with mass spectrometry generate high data density, computerised procedures are inevitable. Targets, core statements and the analytical techniques are described.
Characterization of Krt19 CreERT allele for targeting the nucleus pulposus cells in the postnatal mouse intervertebral disc

Intervertebral disc degeneration and associated back pain are relatively common but sparsely understood conditions, affecting over 70% of the population during some point of life. Disc degeneration is often associated with a loss of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. Genetic mouse models offer convenient avenues to understand the cellular and molecular regulation of the disc during its formation, growth, maintenance, and aging. However, due to the lack of inducible driver lines to precisely target NP cells in the postnatal mouse disc, progress in this area of research has been moderate. NP cells are known to express cytokeratin 19 (Krt19), and tamoxifen (Tam)‐inducible Krt19CreERT allele is available. The current study describes the characterization of Krt19CreERT allele to specifically and efficiently target NP cells in neonatal, skeletally mature, middle‐aged, and aged mice using two independent fluorescent reporter lines. The efficiency of recombination at all ages was validated by immunostaining for KRT19. Results show that following Tam induction, Krt19CreERT specifically drives recombination of NP cells in the spine of neonatal and aged mice, while no recombination was detected in the surrounding tissues. Knee joints from skeletally mature Tam‐treated Krt19CreERT/+; R26tdTOM mouse show the absence of recombination in all tissues and cells of the knee joint. Thus, this study provides evidence for the use of Krt19CreERT allele for genetic characterization of NP cells at different stages of the mouse life.