Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence of a Strong Association Between Frequency of Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose and Hemoglobin A1c Levels in T1D Exchange Clinic Registry Participants

OBJECTIVE Despite substantial evidence of the benefit of frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in type 1 diabetes, certain insurers limit the number of test strips that they will provide. The large database of the T1D Exchange clinic registry provided an opportunity to evaluate the relationship between the number of SMBG measurements per day and HbA1c levels across a wide age range of children and adults. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The analysis included 20,555 participants in the T1D Exchange clinic registry with type 1 diabetes ≥1 year and not using a continuous glucose monitor (11,641 younger than age 18 years and 8,914 18 years old or older). General linear models were used to assess the association between the number of SMBG measurements and HbA1c levels after adjusting for potential confounding variables. RESULTS A higher number of SMBG measurements per day were associated with non-Hispanic white race, insurance coverage, higher household income, and use of an insulin pump for insulin delivery (P < 0.001 for each factor). After adjusting for these factors, a higher number of SMBG measurements per day was strongly associated with a lower HbA1c level (adjusted P < 0.001), with the association being present in all age-groups and in both insulin pump and injection users. CONCLUSIONS There is a strong association between higher SMBG frequency and lower HbA1c levels. It is important for insurers to consider that reducing restrictions on the number of test strips provided per month may lead to improved glycemic control for some patients with type 1 diabetes.
Heme oxygenase‐1 promotes Caco‐2 cell proliferation and migration by targeting CTNND1

Background Heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) can be induced by inflammatory cytokines, oxidation, ischemia, hypoxia, and endotoxins. As a “graft survival protective gene,” HO‐1 is a hot spot in organ transplantation research. However, the role of HO‐1 gene expression in the function of human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (Caco‐2) cells has not been reported previously. Methods The role of HO‐1 in the proliferation and migration of Caco‐2 cells was analyzed using a stable HO‐1 expression plasmid. We constructed a recombinant adeno‐associated virus plasmid containing the HO‐1 gene, heme oxygenase 1 (HMOX1), which was transfected into Caco‐2 intestinal cells. We identified a number of target genes by global microarray analysis combined with real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Results Our results showed that significant HO‐1 upregulation was demonstrated in the Caco‐2 cells after HO‐1 transfection. Restoration of HO‐1 expression promoted proliferation and invasion in vitro. The CTNND1 gene, a member of the armadillo protein family, was identified as a direct HO‐1 target gene. Conclusion Overexpression of HO‐1 promotes Caco‐2 cell proliferation and migration by targeting the CTNND1 gene.
Reconfigurable Multiband Extended U-Slot Antenna with Switchable Polarization for Wireless Applications

This paper proposes a reconfigurable multiband extended U-slot antenna with polarization diversity for wireless applications. The antenna is able to switch among linear polarization (LP) and left-hand (LH) and right-hand (RH) circular polarizations (CPs) for 2.4-/5.8-GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. The antenna is composed of an extended U-slot patch with modified ground plane and two p-i-n diodes to switch the slots at ON- and OFF-states. The p-i-n diodes are appropriately positioned to change the length of the slot arms, which alters the antenna's polarization with frequency diversity to operate in four states. The simulated and measured results verified the effectiveness of the proposed antenna configuration. The experimental bandwidths of the 10-dB return loss for RHCP and LHCP of 2.4-GHz WLAN are similar about 320 MHz (2.3-2.6 GHz), whereas for LP, the bandwidth is about 500 MHz (2.4-2.9 GHz). The bandwidths of the 3-dB axial ratio for the RHCP and LHCP states are about 400 MHz on the broadside direction for 2.4-GHz WLAN. The bandwidths for RHCP and LHCP of 5.8-GHz WLAN are about 500 MHz (5.6-6.1 GHz), whereas for LP, the bandwidth has two states about 300 MHz (5.7-6 GHz) and 600 MHz (5.3-5.9 GHz). This reconfigurable patch antenna with agile polarization and frequency diversity has good performance and concise structure, which can be also used for LP at 2.6-GHz Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), digital multimedia broadcasting, 3.5-GHz WiMAX, C-band satellite (downlink), and HiperLAN/2 systems.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Clinical Classification and Disease Heterogeneity

The clinical classification of spinal muscular atrophy, caused by deletion of the survival motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1), is based on age at onset and maximum function achieved. Evidence suggests that maximum function achieved is more closely related to life expectancy than age at onset. Therefore, it is important to wait for a period before assigning a patient to 1 of 5 classes of the disorder. Several diseases result from degeneration of the anterior horn cell but are not caused by SMN1. The classification for these conditions is evolving. This article offers an attempt at organizing one's thinking about this disease group.
Interactions of Intestinal Bacteria with Components of the Intestinal Mucus

The human gut is colonized by a variety of large amounts of microbes that are collectively called intestinal microbiota. Most of these microbial residents will grow within the mucus layer that overlies the gut epithelium and will act as the first line of defense against both commensal and invading microbes. This mucus is essentially formed by mucins, a family of highly glycosylated protein that are secreted by specialize cells in the gut. In this Review, we examine how commensal members of the microbiota and pathogenic bacteria use mucus to their advantage to promote their growth, develop biofilms and colonize the intestine. We also discuss how mucus-derived components act as nutrient and chemical cues for adaptation and pathogenesis of bacteria and how bacteria can influence the composition of the mucus layer.
Facilitating Protein Disulfide Mapping by a Combination of Pepsin Digestion, Electron Transfer Higher Energy Dissociation (EThcD), and a Dedicated Search Algorithm SlinkS*

Disulfide bond identification is important for a detailed understanding of protein structures, which directly affect their biological functions. Here we describe an integrated workflow for the fast and accurate identification of authentic protein disulfide bridges. This novel workflow incorporates acidic proteolytic digestion using pepsin to eliminate undesirable disulfide reshuffling during sample preparation and a novel search engine, SlinkS, to directly identify disulfide-bridged peptides isolated via electron transfer higher energy dissociation (EThcD). In EThcD fragmentation of disulfide-bridged peptides, electron transfer dissociation preferentially leads to the cleavage of the S–S bonds, generating two intense disulfide-cleaved peptides as primary fragment ions. Subsequently, higher energy collision dissociation primarily targets unreacted and charge-reduced precursor ions, inducing peptide backbone fragmentation. SlinkS is able to provide the accurate monoisotopic precursor masses of the two disulfide-cleaved peptides and the sequence of each linked peptide by matching the remaining EThcD product ions against a linear peptide database. The workflow was validated using a protein mixture containing six proteins rich in natural disulfide bridges. Using this pepsin-based workflow, we were able to efficiently and confidently identify a total of 31 unique Cys–Cys bonds (out of 43 disulfide bridges present), with no disulfide reshuffling products detected. Pepsin digestion not only outperformed trypsin digestion in terms of the number of detected authentic Cys–Cys bonds, but, more important, prevented the formation of artificially reshuffled disulfide bridges due to protein digestion under neutral pH. Our new workflow therefore provides a precise and generic approach for disulfide bridge mapping, which can be used to study protein folding, structure, and stability.
Combinaison de classificateurs simples pour une sélection rapide de caractéristiques

La selection de caracteristiques est une technique permettant de choisir les caracteristiques les plus pertinentes, celles adaptees a la resolution d'un probleme particulier. Les methodes classiques presentent quelques inconvenients. Par exemple, elles peuvent etre trop complexes, elles peuvent faire dependre les caracteristiques selectionnees du classificateur utilise, elles risquent de selectionner des caracteristiques redondantes. Dans le but de limiter ces inconvenients, nous proposons dans cet article une nouvelle methode rapide de selection de caracteristiques basee sur la construction et la selection de classificateurs simples associes a chacune des caracteristiques. Une optimisation par un algorithme genetique est proposee afin de trouver la meilleure combinaison des classificateurs. Differentes methodes de combinaison sont considerees et adaptees a notre probleme. Cette methode a ete appliquee sur differents ensembles de caracteristiques de tailles variees et construite a partir de la base de chiffres manuscrits MNIST. Les resultats obtenus montrent la robustesse de l'approche ainsi que l'efficacite de la methode. En moyenne, le nombre de caracteristiques selectionnees a diminue de 69,9% tout en conservant le taux de reconnaissance.
Enhancement of Extra Chromosomal Recombination in Somatic Cells by Affecting the Ratio of Homologous Recombination (HR) to Non-Homologous End Joining (NHEJ)

Advancements in somatic cell gene targeting have been slow due to the finite lifespan of somatic cells and the overall inefficiency of homologous recombination. The rate of homologous recombination is determined by mechanisms of DNA repair, and by the balance between homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). A plasmid-to-plasmid, extra chromosomal recombination system was used to study the effects of the manipulation of molecules involved in NHEJ (Mre11, Ku70/80, and p53) on HR/NHEJ ratios. In addition, the effect of telomerase expression, cell synchrony, and DNA nuclear delivery was examined. While a mutant Mre11 and an anti-Ku aptamer did not significantly affect the rate of NHEJ or HR, transient expression of a p53 mutant increased overall HR/NHEJ by 2.5 fold. However, expression of the mutant p53 resulted in increased aneuploidy of the cultured cells. Additionally, we found no relationship between telomerase expression and changes in HR/NHEJ. In contrast, cell synchrony by thymidine incorporation did not induce chromosomal abnormalities, and increased the ratio of HR/NHEJ 5-fold by reducing the overall rate of NHEJ. Overall our results show that attempts at reducing NHEJ by use of Mre11 or anti-Ku aptamers were unsuccessful. Cell synchrony via thymidine incorporation, however, does increase the ratio of HR/NHEJ and this indicates that this approach may be of use to facilitate targeting in somatic cells by reducing the numbers of colonies that need to be analyzed before a HR is identified.
Relationship between upper gastrointestinal symptoms and lifestyle, psychosocial factors and comorbidity in the general population: results from the Domestic/International Gastroenterology Surveillance Study (DIGEST).

BACKGROUND The Domestic/International Gastroenterology Surveillance Study (DIGEST) investigated the prevalence and economic/quality-of-life impact of upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms over 3 months among the general population of seven international sites (n = 5581). METHODS Respondents were classified as having relevant or non-relevant symptoms, and were further classified as having gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD)-, ulcer-, or dysmotility-like symptoms, based on their most bothersome symptom. Associations were investigated between the prevalence of relevant upper GI symptoms and these subtypes, and the following potential risk factors: psychosocial variables (income, educational level, marital status, having children, occupation, any significant life event during previous year); lifestyle variables (tobacco use, levels of alcohol and caffeine consumption); comorbidity variables (illnesses or symptoms experienced in the previous 3 months, concurrent conditions diagnosed by a doctor, prescriptions and over-the-counter (OTC) medications taken in the previous 3 months for health problems other than upper GI symptoms). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The most notable risk factors for the occurrence of upper GI symptoms, including symptoms indicative of GORD, were found to be various indicators of psychological stress (particularly recent life events) and psychiatric disease. A wide range of other non-psychiatric illnesses and their treatments was also clearly associated with the occurrence of upper GI symptoms, consistent with these symptoms occurring in many organic illnesses or as adverse effects of their treatments. Smoking was also found to be associated with GORD-like symptoms.
The Micropolitical Acumen of Secondary School Principals in Ontario

This study explores the micropolitical acumen of Ontario secondary school principals in their work with teachers. Secondary schools can be unwieldy because of their size, fragmented structure, and balkanization of departments. Effective principals must understand the micropolitics of this environment, work strategically with teachers, and reflect on their strategic action. Five secondary school principals, considered by teachers to be politically effective, were interviewed from one school board. The data was analysed by constant comparison regarding principals’ understanding, strategic actions, and reflection within a micropolitical environment. Principals’ strategies were categorized as follows: setting direction; communicating strategically; building relationships; gathering information; managing conflict; team-building; using policy strategically; and persuading. Three findings follow: gathering information and relationship building are foundational to other micropolitical strategies; principals perceive morals and micropolitics as interconnected; and principals’ differing opinions regarding the nature of conflict in their role may influence the strategies they use.
Stochastic Exponential Stability for Markovian Jumping BAM Neural Networks With Time-Varying Delays

This correspondence provides stochastic exponential stability for Markovian jumping bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time-varying delays. An approach combining the Lyapunov functional with linear matrix inequality is taken to study the problems. Some criteria for the stochastic exponential stability are derived. The results obtained in this correspondence are less conservative, less restrictive, and more computationally efficient than the ones reported so far in the literature
The relationship between wearing incorrectly sized shoes and foot dimensions, foot pain, and diabetes.

CONTEXT Wearing inappropriate shoes can cause biomechanical imbalance, foot problems, and pain and induce falls. OBJECTIVE To verify the prevalence of wearing incorrectly sized shoes and the relationship between incorrectly sized shoes and foot dimensions, pain, and diabetes among older adults. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS 399 older adults (227 women and 172 men) age 60 to 90 y. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The participants were asked about the presence of diabetes, pain in the lower limbs and back, and pain when wearing shoes. Foot evaluations comprised the variables of width, perimeter, height, length, first metatarsophalangeal angle, the Arch Index, and the Foot Posture Index. The data analysis was performed using a 2-sample t test and chi-square test. RESULTS The percentage of the participants wearing shoe sizes bigger than their foot length was 48.5% for the women and 69.2% for the men. Only 1 man was wearing a shoe size smaller than his foot length. The older adults wearing the incorrect shoe size presented larger values for foot width, perimeter, and height than those wearing the correct size, but there were no significant differences between the groups with respect to the Arch Index and the Foot Posture Index. Incorrectly sized shoes were associated with ankle pain in women but not with diabetes. Men were more likely to wear incorrectly fitting shoes. The use of correctly sized shoes was associated with back pain in women. CONCLUSIONS The use of incorrectly sized shoes was highly prevalent in the population studied and was associated with larger values for foot width, perimeter, and height and with ankle pain.
Antagonism of D1/D5 receptors prevents long‐term depression (LTD) and learning‐facilitated LTD at the perforant path–dentate gyrus synapse in freely behaving rats

Hippocampal synaptic plasticity, in the form of long‐term potentiation (LTP) and long‐term depression (LTD), enables spatial memory formation, whereby LTP and LTD are likely to contribute different elements to the resulting spatial representation. Dopamine, released from the ventral tegmental area particularly under conditions of reward, acts on the hippocampus, and may specifically influence the encoding of information into long‐term memory. The dentate gyrus (DG), as the “gateway” to the hippocampus is likely to play an important role in this process. D1/D5 dopamine receptors are importantly involved in the regulation of synaptic plasticity thresholds in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and determine the direction of change in synaptic strength that occurs during novel spatial learning. Here, we explored whether D1/D5‐receptors influence LTD that is induced in the DG following patterned afferent stimulation of the perforant path of freely behaving adult rats, or influence LTD that occurs in association with spatial learning. We found that LTD that is induced by afferent stimulation, and LTD that is facilitated by learning about novel landmark configurations, were both prevented by D1/D5‐receptor antagonism, whereas agonist activation of the D1/D5‐receptor had no effect on basal tonus or short‐term depression. Other studies have reported that in the DG, D1/D5‐receptor agonism or antagonism do not affect LTP, but agonism prevents depotentiation. These findings suggest that the dopaminergic system, acting via D1/D5‐receptors, influences information gating by the DG and modulates the direction of change in synaptic strength that underlies information storage in this hippocampal substructure. Information encoded by robust forms of LTD is especially dependent on D1/D5‐receptor activation. Thus, dopamine acting on D1/D5‐receptors is likely to support specific experience‐dependent encoding, and may influence the content of hippocampal representations of experience. © 2014 The Authors. Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Anisotropy correction of medical image data employing patch similarity

CT or MR image data is typically anisotropic. But, it is desirable to base image processing as well as diagnosis on isotropic image data. In this work, we propose a novel method for correcting anisotropy of 3D image data sets by employing the recurrence of small 2D patches across different scales. We base our method on previous work dealing with super-resolution of single natural 2D images, show the applicability of that approach also to medical images, and extend it to a 3D solution for anisotropy correction. Our results show that the image quality can be significantly improved. For clinical CT and MRI data, we present feedback from the clinical end user.
Roles of cysteine residues of DsbB in its activity to reoxidize DsbA, the protein disulphide bond catalyst of Escherichia coli

Background: DsbA, a periplasmic protein, catalyses the disulphide bond formation of other cell surface proteins in E. coli. Reoxidation of DsbA for catalytic turn over is assured by DsbB, a membrane protein with four essential cysteine residues facing the periplasm. We and others previously reported that the reactive Cys30 residue of DsbA forms a mixed disulphide with DsbB in the absence of its partner Cys33 residue.
Analysis of Ridge-Loaded Folded-Waveguide Slow-Wave Structures for Broadband Traveling-Wave Tubes

An E-plane serpentine folded-waveguide slow-wave structure with ridge loading on one of its broad walls is proposed for broadband traveling-wave tubes (TWTs) and studied using a simple quasi-transverse-electromagnetic analysis for the dispersion and interaction impedance characteristics, including the effects of the beam-hole discontinuity. The results are validated against cold test measurements, an approximate transmission-line parametric analysis, an equivalent circuit analysis, and 3-D electromagnetic modeling using CST Microwave Studio. The effect of the structure parameters on widening the bandwidth of a TWT is also studied.
Cytological diagnosis of endocrine tumors of the pancreas by endoscopic ultrasound‐guided fine‐needle aspiration biopsy

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)‐guided fine‐needle aspiration (FNA) in the diagnosis of pancreatic endocrine tumors and to analyze their cytomorphology. Between March 1999 and June 2004, a total of 30 patients with a cytological diagnosis of pancreatic endocrine tumors were found. Their records were retrieved and the cytological materials were analyzed. The mean size of the tumors assessed by EUS was 3.0 cm. Immediate preliminary interpretation was rendered after an average of 1.5 passes. Based on the cellular patterns, cases were divided into three categories: loosely cohesive aggregates, discohesive single cells, and cohesive flat sheets. Most tumor cells had abundant cytoplasm and eccentric nuclei. Chromatin was fine or coarse but was evenly distributed in all cases. Nuclear pleomorphism, multinucleation, intranuclear inclusions, mitotic figures, and necrosis were seen. Immunohistochemical (IHC) studies on cell blocks confirmed the diagnosis in all cases. EUS‐guided FNA is efficient and accurate in establishing the diagnosis of pancreatic endocrine tumors. The variety of cellular patterns presents several differential diagnostic issues that should be considered to avoid erroneous interpretation. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2005;32:204–210. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sentiment analysis and Feedback Evaluation

Feedback Evaluation is a necessary part of any institute to maintain and monitor the academic quality of the system. Traditionally, a questionnaire based system is used to evaluate the performance of teachers of an institute. Here, we propose an automatic evaluation system based on sentiment analysis, which shall be more versatile and meaningful than existing system. In our proposed system, feedback is collected in the form of running text and sentiment analysis is performed to identify important aspects along with the orientations using supervised and semi supervised machine learning techniques.