Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlation of anthropometric indicators for identifying insulin sensitivity and resistance

ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES: Early detection of reduced insulin sensitivity (IS) and insulin resistance (IR) is desirable. The aim here was to evaluate correlations of anthropometric indicators for identifying IR or IS and determine the cutoff points of the most effective indicators. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study in the city of São Paulo. METHODS: Sixty-one individuals with normal fasting plasma glucose (NFPG) and 43 overweight women were analyzed. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), conicity index and the HOMA-IS and HOMA-IR indices were determined. The correlations between the anthropometric indices and IS and IR were determined. ROC analysis was used to determine the areas under the curve (AUC) and cutoff points. RESULTS: Among the NFPG individuals, BMI (r = -0.50; P = 0.002) and WHtR (r = -0.45; P = 0.007) showed correlations with HOMA-IS (homeostasis model assessment of insulin sensitivity). The ROC curve demonstrated statistical significance for BMI (AUC = 0.769; P = 0.005), WHtR (AUC = 0.764; P = 0.01) and WC (AUC = 0.702; P = 0.04), and the best cutoff points were 33.3 kg/m2, 0.67 and 100 cm, respectively. Among the overweight women, the best correlation with HOMA-IR was demonstrated by WHtR (r = 0.37; P = 0.01), and the best cutoff point was 0.70 (AUC = 0.61; P = 0.25). CONCLUSION: The most promising indicators for showing IS among the NFPG individuals were BMI, WHtR and WC. Among the overweight women, WHtR demonstrated greater correlation with IR.
Motor-unit activity responsible for 8- to 12-Hz component of human physiological finger tremor.

Tremor of the extended third digit and bipolar surface and needle electromyograms of the extensor digitorum were recorded from six healthy volunteers for the purpose of elucidating the motor-unit activity responsible for the 8- to 12-Hz component of physiological finger tremor. Tremor was measured with a force transducer during steady voluntary contractions of approximately 200-250 g. The surface EMGs were full-wave rectified and low-pass filtered (-3 dB at 21 Hz), producing the envelope of the surface EMG (the demodulated EMG). Spectral analyses of simultaneous tremor and demodulated EMG records were performed. In four of six subjects, a pronounced 8- to 12-Hz amplitude modulation in the surface EMG was present, and coherency analysis demonstrated that this modulation was strongly correlated with the well-known 8- to 12-Hz tremor. In two subjects this amplitude modulation and tremor were barely detectable, despite the sensitive recording and analysis techniques used in this study. Spectral analysis was performed on 43 motor-unit spike trains. Twenty-two spike trains, having mean firing frequencies in the range of 10-22 spikes/s, produced statistically significant spectral peaks at 8-12 Hz, in addition to the expected spectral peaks at the mean firing frequencies. Of the 22 8- to 12-Hz-producing motor units, 12 had mean firing frequencies in the range of 17-22 spikes/s and exhibited the greatest 8- to 12-Hz activities of all motor units recorded. These motor units displayed transient sequences of double discharges in which interspike intervals (ISIS) of approximately 8-30 ms alternated with ISIS of 60-90 ms, thus producing an 8- to 12-Hz spectral peak. Adjacent ISIS of these motor units were correlated in the range of -0.5 to -0.9. Coherency analyses demonstrated that the 8- to 12-Hz activities of these motor units were correlated with the 8- to 12-Hz finger tremor and surface EMG modulation. The remaining 10 8- to 12-Hz-producing motor units had mean firing frequencies in the range of 10-17 spike/s. Although these motor units did not display the intense double-discharge firing pattern of the more rapidly firing motor units, a tendency toward action potential grouping was present and resulted in 8- to 12-Hz spectral activities which were correlated with the tremor and surface EMG modulation.
[Effects of interleukin-1β on mineralization potential of dental pulp stem cells].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) on mineralization potential of dental pulp stem cells (DPSC). METHODS Rat DPSC were cultured in vitro and randomly divided into three groups, IL-1β (10 µg/L), osteogenic inductive medium and non-osteogenic inductive medium. After 3, 7, and 12 days of treatment, the cultures were evaluated for cell proliferation and calcium deposit. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the gene expression levels of osteocalcin (OC), bone sialoprotein (BSP), dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) and dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP-1). In vivo test, after 3 day's treatment with IL-1β, the cell-scaffold complexes were implanted subcutaneously in mice for 8 weeks. Histological analysis was performed to evaluate hard tissue formation. RESULTS In vitro test, after 3-day's treatment, IL-1β improved cell proliferation to 137.22 DNA µg/L and cell viability becomes (97.12 ± 7.18)% of control. The gene expression levels of OC, BSP, DSPP and DMP-1 are (378.19 ± 16.22)%, (427.12 ± 18.22)%, (247.19 ± 10.11)% and (198.29 ± 10.23)% respectively. The results of IL-1β's group was notable increased compared with non-osteogenic induction medium and the statistical differences are significant. IL-1β induced the odontogenic differentiation of DPSC. However, these effects tended to continuously decrease with treatment time. Histological analysis demonstrated that in the group treated with IL-1β hard tissue was markedly formed in vivo. CONCLUSIONS IL-1β may induce the mineralization of DPSC and play an important role in host defenses and tissue repair.
General fusion approaches for the age determination of latent fingerprint traces: results for 2D and 3D binary pixel feature fusion

Determining the age of latent fingerprint traces found at crime scenes is an unresolved research issue since decades. Solving this issue could provide criminal investigators with the specific time a fingerprint trace was left on a surface, and therefore would enable them to link potential suspects to the time a crime took place as well as to reconstruct the sequence of events or eliminate irrelevant fingerprints to ensure privacy constraints. Transferring imaging techniques from different application areas, such as 3D image acquisition, surface measurement and chemical analysis to the domain of lifting latent biometric fingerprint traces is an upcoming trend in forensics. Such non-destructive sensor devices might help to solve the challenge of determining the age of a latent fingerprint trace, since it provides the opportunity to create time series and process them using pattern recognition techniques and statistical methods on digitized 2D, 3D and chemical data, rather than classical, contact-based capturing techniques, which alter the fingerprint trace and therefore make continuous scans impossible. In prior work, we have suggested to use a feature called binary pixel, which is a novel approach in the working field of fingerprint age determination. The feature uses a Chromatic White Light (CWL) image sensor to continuously scan a fingerprint trace over time and retrieves a characteristic logarithmic aging tendency for 2D-intensity as well as 3D-topographic images from the sensor. In this paper, we propose to combine such two characteristic aging features with other 2D and 3D features from the domains of surface measurement, microscopy, photography and spectroscopy, to achieve an increase in accuracy and reliability of a potential future age determination scheme. Discussing the feasibility of such variety of sensor devices and possible aging features, we propose a general fusion approach, which might combine promising features to a joint age determination scheme in future. We furthermore demonstrate the feasibility of the introduced approach by exemplary fusing the binary pixel features based on 2D-intensity and 3D-topographic images of the mentioned CWL sensor. We conclude that a formula based age determination approach requires very precise image data, which cannot be achieved at the moment, whereas a machine learning based classification approach seems to be feasible, if an adequate amount of features can be provided.
Shivering Thermogenesis in Birds and Mammals

Shivering is the only universal facultative thermogenic mechanism in endothermic vertebrates. Skeletal muscle constitutes a large proportion of body mass and a high scope of metabolic rate, and thus heat production, between resting level and active contraction. Its contractile activity is under rapid and accurate neural control. Together with the inherently low metabolic efficiency of muscle, these “preadaptive” factors have led to an independent evolution of shivering as the main facultative thermogenic effector in birds and mammals as well as other modes of contraction-related muscle thermogenesis in some heterothermic animals. Shivering fulfils the requirements of a facultative mechanism, since it accurately and rapidly tracks variations in thermal conditions and obligatory thermogenesis and is adjusted accordingly to maintain thermal balance. In contrast to the other facultative thermogenic tissue, mammalian brown fat, aerobic muscle has a high inherent capacity for ATP-splitting, which drives the combustion of cellular fuels. Thus, any uncoupling of mitochondrial respiration for thermogenic purposes would incur little selective advantage.
Endocrinology of the Avian Reproductive System

The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the avian reproductive system. Attention is given to the neuroendocrine regulation of hypothalamic and pituitary gland hormones as well as the target tissues regulated by these hormones. Emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the system and the effects of alterations resulting from environmental and other influences on the function of the reproductive system. The ovulatory cycle, oviduct, and shell gland are discussed relative to egg formation and the hormonal regulation of this process. Testicular function and the cellular bases for spermatogenesis and steroid production are also discussed.
Ena/VASP Proteins Enhance Actin Polymerization in the Presence of Barbed End Capping Proteins*[boxs]

Ena/VASP proteins influence the organization of actin filament networks within lamellipodia and filopodia of migrating cells and in actin comet tails. The molecular mechanisms by which Ena/VASP proteins control actin dynamics are unknown. We investigated how Ena/VASP proteins regulate actin polymerization at actin filament barbed ends in vitro in the presence and absence of barbed end capping proteins. Recombinant His-tagged VASP increased the rate of actin polymerization in the presence of the barbed end cappers, heterodimeric capping protein (CP), CapG, and gelsolin-actin complex. Profilin enhanced the ability of VASP to protect barbed ends from capping by CP, and this required interactions of profilin with G-actin and VASP. The VASP EVH2 domain was sufficient to protect barbed ends from capping, and the F-actin and G-actin binding motifs within EVH2 were required. Phosphorylation by protein kinase A at sites within the VASP EVH2 domain regulated anti-capping and F-actin bundling by VASP. We propose that Ena/VASP proteins associate at or near actin filament barbed ends, promote actin assembly, and restrict the access of barbed end capping proteins.
A 15‐year follow‐up of phenytoin‐induced unilateral gingival hyperplasia: a case report

Introduction– The aim of this case report is to present a 15‐year follow‐up of a patient with phenytoin (PHT) intoxication with unilateral gingival hyperplasia (GH). Material and methods– A 50‐year‐old woman was followed‐up for 15 years clinically and paraclinically after a heavy PHT intoxication. Her immunoglobulins in serum were checked on PHT and after 15 years treatment with carbamazepine. Results– A gross mass of hyperplasia tissue found primarily in the left side of her mouth had disappeared and serum IgA which was subnormal at the first visit had normalized. Conclusion– It is possible to prevent GH from PHT treatment by intensive dental care, correct mouth hygiene and by change of treatment of carbamazepine.
STUDIES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Optic neuritis may be defined as involvement of the optic nerve by toxic, metabolic, infectious, hereditary, or dcmyelinating processes. In a young adult, optic neuritis is often considered a forerunner of multiple sclerosis if no specific cause can be identified. Optic neuritis is divisible into retrobulbar neuritis and optic papillitis, depending on the site of involvement as inferred from the ophthalmoscopic appearance. The annual incidence of optic neuritis has been estiniatcd at 4 to 5 per 100,000 population ( 1 3 , 1 8 ) , a rate several times greatcr than the incidence of multiple sclerosis in the United States (18). The present investigation is part of a study of the natural history of multiple sclerosis based upon the experience of men in the U S . Army in World War I1 (22) in which geographic or climatic influences on the progression of multiple sclerosis were to be evaluated. The mcn with optic neuritis were chosen since visual impairment during military service almost always lcads to a medical evaluation. Early in the investigation, however, it became clear that the great majority of men with optic neuritis were not considered to have multiple sclerosis according to subsequent Veterans Administration records. The study was thcrcfore redirected to the question of the likelihood of multiple sclerosis developing after an attack of optic neuritis in young adult males.
Assessment of nutritional status of patients with cancer who are qualified for home enteral nutrition – a retrospective analysis

Introduction: Patients with cancer are at risk of malnutrition. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status of patients with cancer who are qualified for home enteral nutrition. Secondary aim is to compare the nutritional status of patients with gastric cancer and with esophageal cancer. Materials and methods: Retrospective analysis of medical documentation of 84 participants with cancer who were qualified for home enteral nutrition in Nutritional Counseling Center Copernicus in Gdansk in 2009-2015 was performed. Assessment of nutritional status included body mass index, the level of total protein and albumin in blood serum, total lymphocyte count, and the Nutritional Risk Score (NRS) 2002. Results: Patients with gastric cancer most often presented albumin deficiency in comparison with patients with esophageal cancer (p = 0.02). The low level of total lymphocyte count in 1mm3 of peripheral blood was observed in 47.6% participants. All the patients qualified for home enteral nutrition received at least 3 points in NRS 2002 and most often 5 points (40.4%). Conclusions: All patients required nutritional treatment. Notwithstanding, the nutritional status of patients varied. Hypoalbuminemia was observed more often in patients with gastric cancer in comparison with patients with esophageal cancer.
The Future of Cloud Gaming

In the late 2000s, several startups including OnLive [7] and GaiKai [8] started to offer cloud gaming services. Cloud gaming, as illustrated in Fig. 1, refers to the technologies that offload parts of game software from traditional game consoles or personal computers (PCs) to powerful and elastic cloud infrastructures. Cloud gaming makes perfect sense to: 1) gamers, who otherwise have to constantly upgrade their consoles or PCs, which is certainly no fun and costly; 2) cloud service providers, who can sell the already-deployed and idling cloud resources to support the cutting-edge games that are extremely resource hungry; and 3) game developers, who no longer need to spend months to port their games to different platforms. As such, cloud gaming has attracted significant attention from both academia and industry. Initially, given the limited scales of these startups, people were not sure whether cloud gaming could be commercially successful. A fundamental question that came to people, inside and outside the gaming circle, was: Will the three dominating console manufacturers, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, be willing to give up their margin of selling the game consoles? The answer was initially unclear, and many suspected that these console manufacturers would be more than happy to kill cloud gaming in order to remain profitable. The opposite actually happened: Sony acquired GaiKai in 2012 for $380 million, announced the new service PlayStation Now (PS Now) in early 2014, and brought PS Now to parts of the world in 2015. Using PS Now, Sony allows their customers to play hundreds of PlayStation 3 (PS3) games on the latest PlayStation 4 (PS4) consoles without porting the games. Sony has also unveiled a plan to: 1) allow gamers to use other PlayStation consoles and smart TV to access PS Now; and 2) include game titles developed for other generations of PlayStations on PS Now. The emerging PS Now service indicates that cloud gaming has great potential to become the next-generation, universal computer gaming platform. Offering high-quality cloud gaming experience with the remote cloud through the public Internet, however, is no easy task. Current cloud gaming services have leveraged real-time video streaming technologies that have a long history of development. They share certain common characteristics, including high bandwidth demand and real-time constraints. Yet the demands of gaming are often higher than live or on-demand video streaming. Certain cloud gaming services dictate a network bandwidth of about 5 Mb/s for smooth gaming experience, which Corresponding author: Jiangchuan Liu (e-mail: jcliu@sfu.ca).
Body mass index, circulating levels of sex-steroid hormones, IGF-I and IGF-binding protein-3: a cross-sectional study in healthy women.

OBJECTIVE Excess weight has been associated with increased risk of cancer at several organ sites. In part, this effect may be modulated through alterations in the metabolism of sex steroids and IGF-I related peptides. The objectives of the study were to examine the association of body mass index (BMI) with circulating androgens (testosterone, androstenedione and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS)), estrogens (estrone and estradiol), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), IGF-I and IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-3, and the relationship between sex steroids, IGF-I and IGFBP-3. DESIGN AND METHODS A cross-sectional analysis was performed using hormonal and questionnaire data of 620 healthy women (177 pre- and 443 post-menopausal). The laboratory measurements of the hormones of interest were available from two previous case-control studies on endogenous hormones and cancer risk. RESULTS In the pre-menopausal group, BMI was not related to androgens and IGF-I. In the post-menopausal group, estrogens, testosterone and androstenedione increased with increasing BMI. The association with IGF-I was non-linear, with the highest mean concentrations observed in women with BMI between 24 and 25. In both pre- and post-menopausal subjects, IGFBP-3 did not vary across BMI categories and SHBG decreased with increasing BMI. As for the correlations between peptide and steroid hormones, in the post-menopausal group, IGF-I was positively related to androgens, inversely correlated with SHBG, and not correlated with estrogens. In the pre-menopausal group, similar but weaker correlations between IGF-I and androgens were observed. CONCLUSIONS These observations offer evidence that obesity may influence the levels of endogenous sex-steroid and IGF-related hormones in the circulation, especially after menopause. Circulating IGF-I, androgens and SHBG appear to be related to each other in post-menopausal women.
Increased Pilus Production Conferred by a Naturally Occurring Mutation Alters Host-Pathogen Interaction in Favor of Carriage in Streptococcus pyogenes

ABSTRACT Studies of the human pathogen group A Streptococcus (GAS) define the carrier phenotype to be an increased ability to adhere to and persist on epithelial surfaces and a decreased ability to cause disease. We tested the hypothesis that a single amino acid change (Arg135Gly) in a highly conserved sensor kinase (LiaS) of a poorly defined GAS regulatory system contributes to a carrier phenotype through increased pilus production. When introduced into an emm serotype-matched invasive strain, the carrier allele (the gene encoding the LiaS protein with an arginine-to-glycine change at position 135 [liaSR135G]) recapitulated a carrier phenotype defined by an increased ability to adhere to mucosal surfaces and a decreased ability to cause disease. Gene transcript analyses revealed that the liaS mutation significantly altered transcription of the genes encoding pilus in the presence of bacitracin. Elimination of pilus production in the isogenic carrier mutant decreased its ability to colonize the mouse nasopharynx and to adhere to and be internalized by cultured human epithelial cells and restored the virulence phenotype in a mouse model of necrotizing fasciitis. We also observed significantly reduced survival of the isogenic carrier mutant compared to that of the parental invasive strain after exposure to human neutrophils. Elimination of pilus in the isogenic carrier mutant increased the level of survival after exposure to human neutrophils to that for the parental invasive strain. Together, our data demonstrate that the carrier mutation (liaSR135G) affects pilus expression. Our data suggest new mechanisms of pilus gene regulation in GAS and that the invasiveness associated with pilus gene regulation in GAS differs from the enhanced invasiveness associated with increased pilus production in other bacterial pathogens.
Thermosensitivity of muscle: high‐intensity thermal stimulation of muscle tissue induces muscle pain in humans

Small‐calibre afferent units responding to thermal stimuli have previously been reported to exist in muscle. The question as to whether these receptors in humans mediate subjective thermal sensations from muscle remains unresolved. The aims of the present study were to determine in humans whether intramuscular injection of warm and cold isotonic saline elicits temperature sensations, muscle pain or any other sensations. In 15 subjects, no thermal sensations assessed on a temperature visual analogue scale (VAS) could be detected with intramuscular injections of isotonic saline (1.5 ml) into the anterior tibial muscle at temperatures ranging from 8 to 48 °C. The same subjects recorded strongly increasing scores on a temperature VAS when thermal stimuli in the same intensity range were applied to the skin overlying the muscle by a contact thermode. However, i.m. isotonic saline of 48 °C induced muscle pain with peak scores of 3.2 ± 0.8 cm on a VAS scale ranging from 0 to 10 cm. Using the the McGill pain questionnaire a subgroup, of subjects qualitatively described the pain using the ‘thermal hot’ and ‘dullness’ word groups. Temperature measurements within the muscle during the stimulating injections showed that the time course of the pain sensation elicited by saline at 48 °C paralleled that of the intramuscular temperature and far outlasted the injection time. The present data show that high‐intensity thermal stimulation of muscle is associated with muscle pain. High‐threshold warm‐sensitive receptors may mediate the pain following activation by temperatures of 48 °C or more. Taken together, the data indicate that thermosensation from a given volume of muscle is less potent than nociception.