Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-care and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM): a literature review in sex-related differences

Background and aim of the work. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a multifactorial disease, and it is considered a worldwide challenge for its increasing prevalence and its negative impact on patients’ wellbeing. Even if it is known that self-care is a key factor in reaching optimal outcomes, and males and females implement different self-care behaviors, sex-related differences in self-care of patients with T2DM have been poorly investigated. Especially, an overall view of the available evidence has not yet been done. Accordingly, this review aims to summarize, critically review, and interpret the available evidence related to the sex-related differences in self-care behaviors of patients with T2DM. Methods. An extensive literature review was performed with a narrative synthesis following the PRISMA statement and flowchart through four databases: PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Embase. Results. From the 5776 identified records by the queries, only 29 articles were included, having a high-quality evaluation. Both females and males with T2DM must improve their self-care: more males reported performing better behaviors aimed at maintaining health and clinical stability (i.e., self-care maintenance) than females, but mainly in relation to physical activity. On the other hand, more females reported performing adequate behaviors aimed at monitoring their signs and symptoms (i.e., self-care monitoring) but with worse glycemic control and diabetic complications (i.e., self-care management). Conclusions. This review firstly provides an overall view of different self-care behaviors implemented by males and females with T2DM, showing that self-care management should be improved in both sexes. Health education must include the problems related to the diabetic pathology and the patient’s own characteristics, such as sex. (www.actabiomedica.it)
A thresholding method based on society modularity and role division for functional connectivity analysis

Objective. Inferring the optimized and sparse network structure from the fully connected matrix is a key step in functional connectivity (FC) analysis. However, it is still an urgent problem to be solved, how to exclude the weak and spurious connections contained in functional networks objectively. Most existing binarization methods assume that the network has some certain constraint structures, which lead to changes in the original topology of the network. Approach. To solve this problem, we develop a Trade-off Model between Cost and Topology under Role Division (MCT), which consists of three crucial strategies, including modularity detection, definition of node role, and E-cost optimization algorithm. This algorithm weighs the physical cost and adaptive value of the network while preserving the network structure. Reliability and validity of MCT were evaluated by comparing different binarization methods (efficiency cost optimization, cluster-span threshold, threshold method, and MCT) on synthetic and real data sets. Main results. Experiment results demonstrated that the recovery rate of MCT for networks under noise interference is superior to other methods. In addition, brain networks filtered with MCT had higher network efficiency and shorter characteristic path length, which is more in line with the small world characteristics. Finally, applying MCT to resting-state electroencephalography data from patients with major depression reveals abnormal topology of the patients’ connectivity networks, manifested as lower clustering coefficient (CC) and higher global efficiency (GE). Significance. This study provides an objective method for complex network analysis, which may contribute to the future of FC research.
Developing Information Quality Model and Measuring Information Quality for Further Improvement: A Case of ERP System of a State Owned Company

Information quality (IQ) has received considerable attention in various sectors due to its critical impact on the accuracy of decision-making process. Many organizations are aware of having problems with their information quality, but often facing difficulty to measure IQ capability. This study aims to develop a model that will be used to measure information quality by adopting PSP/IQ Model. Data was collected through focus group discussion and internal survey. IQ model development was carried out by using Analytical Hierarchy Process methodology. The final model concludes the priority of IQ aspects is in the same level priority with the same weighted score of 0,25. Furthermore, three dimensions that have the highest priority are consecutively security (0.188), free-of-error (0.137), and reputation (0.112). The result of information quality measurement shows that relevancy (3,29) has the highest satisfaction score among others. Finally, gap analysis was discussed to propose further improvement priority of the IQ dimension.
Cell-Free Treatments: A New Generation of Targeted Therapies for Treatment of Ischemic Heart Diseases

Although recent progress in medicine has substantially reduced cardiovascular diseases (CVDs)-related mortalities, current therapeutics have failed miserably to be beneficial for all patients with CVDs. A wide array of evidence suggests that newly-introduced cell-free treatments (CFTs) have more reliable results in the improvement of cardiac function. The main regeneration activity of CFTs protocols is based on bypassing cells and using paracrine factors. In this article, we aim to compare various stem cell secretomes, a part of a CFTs strategy, to generalize their effective clinical outcomes for patients with CVDs. Data for this review article were collected from 70 published articles (original, review, randomized clinical trials (RCTs), and case reports/series studies done on human and animals) obtained from Cochrane, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, Elsevier, and Google Scholar) from 2015 to April 2020 using six keywords. Full-text/full-length articles, abstract, section of book, chapter, and conference papers in English language were included. Studies with irrelevant/insufficient/data, or undefined practical methods were excluded. CFTs approaches involved in growth factors (GFs); gene-based therapies; microRNAs (miRNAs); extracellular vesicles (EVs) [exosomes (EXs) and microvesicles (MVs)]; and conditioned media (CM). EXs and CM have shown more remarkable results than stem cell therapy (SCT). GF-based therapies have useful results as well as side effects like pathologic angiogenesis. Cell source, cell′s aging and CM affect secretomes. Genetic manipulation of stem cells can change the secretome’s components. Growing progression to end stage heart failure (HF), propounds CFTs as an advantageous method with practical and clinical values for replacement of injured myocardium, and induction of neovascularization. To elucidate the secrets behind amplifying the expansion rate of cells, increasing life-expectancy, and improving quality of life (QOL) for patients with ischemic heart diseases (IHDs), collaboration among cell biologist, basic medical scientists, and cardiologists is highly recommended.
TGFß Gene Members and Their Regulatory Factors in Granulosa Compared to Cumulus Cells in PCOS: A Case-Control Study

Objective Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily and its members that include bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15), anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), growth /differentiation factor-9 (GDF9), and their respective receptors: BMPR1A, BMPR1B, and BMPR2 have been implicated as key regulators in various aspects of ovarian function. The abnormal function of the ovaries is one of the main contributing factors to polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), so this study aimed to investigate the mRNA expression profile of these factors in granulosa (GCs) and cumulus cells (CCs) of those patients. Materials and Methods The case-control research was conducted on 30 women (15 infertile PCOS and 15 normo-ovulatory patients, 22≤age ≤38 years old) who underwent ovarian stimulation for in vitro fertilization (IVF)/ intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycle. GCs/CCs were obtained during ovarian puncture. The expression analysis of the aforementioned genes was quantified using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results AMH and BMPR1A expression levels were significantly increased in GCs of PCOS compared to the control group. In contrast, GDF9, BMP15, BMPR1B, and BMPR2 expressions were decreased. PCOS' CC showed the same expression patterns. GDF9 and AMH were effectively expressed in normal CCs, and BMP15 and BMPR1B in normal GCs (P<0.05). Conclusion Differential gene expression levels of AMH and its regulatory factors and their primary receptors were detected in granulosa and cumulus cells in PCOS women. Since the same antagonist protocol for ovarian stimulation was used in both PCOS and control groups, the results were independent of the protocols. This diversity in gene expression pattern may contribute to downstream pathways alteration of these genes, which are involved in oocyte competence and maturation.
H∞ Bipartite Synchronization Control of Markov Jump Cooperation–Competition Networks With Reaction–Diffusions

This article is concerned with the bipartite synchronization problem of coupled switching neural networks with cooperative–competitive interactions and reaction–diffusion terms. Different from the existing literature, the networked systems under investigation possess the relationship of cooperation and competition among nodes. Notably, the switching topology is described by a signed graph subject to the Markov jump process with the coexistence of positive and negative interaction weights. Specifically, a positive weight indicates an alliance relationship between two nodes and a negative one shows an adversary relationship. This article aims to design a bipartite synchronization controller for the aforementioned networks with the switching topology such that a prescribed $\mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ bipartite synchronization is satisfied. Then, some sufficient criteria to ensure the stochastic stability of bipartite synchronization error systems are established in view of an appropriate Lyapunov function. Finally, two simulation examples are presented to verify the validity of the proposed bipartite synchronization control method.
Regional anesthesia and analgesia for trauma: an updated review

Purpose of review This narrative review is an updated summary of the value of regional anesthesia and analgesia for trauma and the special considerations when optimizing pain management and utilizing regional analgesia for acute traumatic pain. Recent findings In the setting of the opioid epidemic, the need for multimodal analgesia in trauma is imperative. It has been proposed that inadequately treated acute pain predisposes a patient to increased risk of developing chronic pain and continued opioid use. Enhanced Regional Anesthesia techniques along with multimodal pain therapies is thought to reduce the stress response and improve patient's short- and long-term outcomes. Summary Our ability to save life and limb has improved, but our ability to manage acute traumatic pain continues to lag. Understanding trauma-specific concerns and tailoring the analgesia to a patient's specific injuries can increase a patient's immediate comfort and long-term outcome as well.
Electroencephalographic Network Topologies Predict Antidepressant Responses in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

Medication therapy seems to be an effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). However, although the efficacies of various medicines are equal or similar on average, they vary widely among individuals. Therefore, an understanding of methods for the timely evaluation of short-term therapeutic response and prediction of symptom improvement after a specific course of medication at the individual level at the initial stage of treatment is very important. In our present study, we sought to identify a neurobiological signature of the response to short-term antidepressant treatment. Related brain network analysis was applied in resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) datasets from patients with MDD. The corresponding EEG networks were constructed accordingly and then quantitatively measured to predict the efficacy after eight weeks of medication, as well as to distinguish the therapeutic responders from non-responders. The results of our present study revealed that the corresponding resting-state EEG networks became significantly weaker after one week of treatment, and the eventual medication efficacy was reliably predicted using the changes in those network properties within the one-week medication regimen. Moreover, the corresponding resting-state networks at baseline were also proven to precisely distinguish those responders from other individuals with an accuracy of 96.67% when using the spatial network topologies as the discriminative features. These findings consistently provide a deeper neurobiological understanding of antidepressant treatment and a reliable and quantitative approach for personalized treatment of MDD.
Validation of the Brazilian version of the Hip Sports Activity Scale (HSAS) for patients with femoroacetabular impingement: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The Hip Sports Activity Scale (HSAS) is a hip-specific instrument for assessing the present levels of physical activity among patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) syndrome. When evaluating treatment outcomes in patients with FAI syndrome, it is necessary to use joint-specific instruments and ones that can evaluate the levels of physical activity in these patients, such as the HSAS-Brazil. OBJECTIVE: To validate the HSAS-Brazil among a group of physically active patients after arthroscopic treatment of FAI syndrome. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional research of quantitative and qualitative types using data obtained from July 2018 to October 2019. METHODS: A total of 58 patients of both genders diagnosed with FAI syndrome and who had undergone hip arthroscopy participated in this research. To establish reliability and validity, patients first answered the Brazilian versions of the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), Nonarthritic Hip Score (NAHS), and HSAS; after a 48-hour interval, they answered the HSAS-Brazil again. RESULTS: For test-retest reliability, the interclass correlation was 0.908 (P < 0.001). The HSAS-Brazil correlated to the NAHS-Brazil (r = 0.63, P < 0.001), as well as the SF-12 (Physical Health) (r = 0.42, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The HSAS-Brazil was validated and proved to be a reliable and valid scale to assess sports activity levels in physically active patients with FAI syndrome after arthroscopic treatment.
Recurrent Stroke and Racial Disparities

Stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, and there continues to be glaring racial-ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in stroke.1-3 Specifically, Black Americans have a higher risk of incident stroke, are up to 60% more likely to experience a recurrent stroke within 2 years, and are twice as likely to die of stroke when compared with their White counterparts.4-6
Cell Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes: From Islet Transplantation to Stem Cells

The field of cell therapy of type 1 diabetes is a particularly interesting example in the scenario of regenerative medicine. In fact, β-cell replacement has its roots in the experience of islet transplantation, which began 40 years ago and is currently a rapidly accelerating field, with several ongoing clinical trials using β cells derived from stem cells. Type 1 diabetes is particularly suitable for cell therapy as it is a disease due to the deficiency of only one cell type, the insulin-producing β cell, and this endocrine cell does not need to be positioned inside the pancreas to perform its function. On the other hand, the presence of a double immunological barrier, the allogeneic one and the autoimmune one, makes the protection of β cells from rejection a major challenge. Until today, islet transplantation has taught us a lot, pioneering immunosuppressive therapies, graft encapsulation, tissue engineering, and test of different implant sites and has stimulated a great variety of studies on β-cell function. This review starts from islet transplantation, presenting its current indications and the latest published trials, to arrive at the prospects of stem cell therapy, presenting the latest innovations in the field.
Utility of Normalized Body Composition Areas, Derived From Outpatient Abdominal CT Using a Fully Automated Deep Learning Method, for Predicting Subsequent Cardiovascular Events.

Background: CT-based body composition (BC) measurements have historically been too resource intensive to analyze for widespread use and lacked robust comparison to traditional weight metrics for predicting cardiovascular risk. Objective: This study's aim was to determine if BC measurements obtained from routine CT scans using a fully automated deep learning algorithm could predict subsequent cardiovascular events independently from weight, BMI, and additional cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: This retrospective study included 9752 outpatients (mean age, 53.2 years; 5519 women, 4233 men; self-reported race of Black in 890 patients and White in 8862 patients) who underwent routine abdominal CT at a single health system from January through December 2012, without a major cardiovascular or oncologic diagnosis within 3 months of CT. Fully automated deep learning body composition analysis was performed at the L3 vertebral body level to determinate three BC areas [skeletal muscle area (SMA), visceral fat area (VFA), and subcutaneous fat area (SFA)]. Age-, sex-, and race-normalized reference curves were used to generate z scores for the three BC areas. Subsequent myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke was determined from the electronic medical record. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine hazard ratios (HR) for MI or stroke within 5 years after CT for the three BC area z scores, adjusting for normalized weight, normalized BMI, and additional cardiovascular risk factors (smoking status, diabetes diagnosis, and systolic blood pressure). Results: In multivariable models, age, race and sex-normalized VFA was associated with subsequent MI risk (HR of highest compared to lowest quartile, 1.31 [1.03-1.67], p=.04 for overall effect) and stroke risk (HR of highest compared to lowest quartile, 1.46 [1.07-2.00], p=.04 for overall effect). In multivariable models, normalized SMA, SFA, weight, and BMI, were not associated with subsequent MI or stroke risk. Conclusion: VFA from fully automated and normalized analysis of abdominal CT examinations predicts subsequent MI or stroke in Black and White patients, independent of traditional weight metrics, and should be considered as an adjunct to BMI in risk models. Clinical Impact: Fully automated and normalized BC analysis of abdominal CT has promise to augment traditional cardiovascular risk prediction models.
WGRLR: A Weighted Group Regularized Logistic Regression for Cancer Diagnosis and Gene Selection

Sparse regressions applied to cancer diagnosis suffer from noise reduction, gene grouping, and group significance evaluation. This paper presented the weighted group regularized logistic regression (WGRLR) for dealing with the above problems. Clean data was separated from noisy gene expression profile data, based on which gene grouping and model building were performed. An interpretable gene group significance evaluation criterion was proposed based on symmetrical uncertainty and module eigengene. A group-wise individual gene significance evaluation criterion was also presented. The performances of the proposed method were compared with WGGL, ASGL-CMI, SGL, GL, Elastic Net, and lasso on acute leukemia and brain cancer data. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to the other six methods in cancer diagnosis accuracy and gene selection.
Integrating herbivore assemblages and woody plant cover in an African savanna to reveal how herbivores respond to ecosystem management

African savannas are experiencing anthropogenically-induced stressors that are accelerating the increase of woody vegetation cover. To combat this, land managers frequently implement large-scale clearing of trees, which can have a cascading influence on mammalian herbivores. Studies rarely focus on how differences in woody cover influence the herbivore assemblage, making it difficult to assess how aggressive measures, or the lack of management, to counteract increasing woody cover affect the local composition and biodiversity of herbivores. We address this knowledge gap by applying a model-based clustering approach to field observations from MalaMala Game Reserve, South Africa to identify multiple herbivore–vegetation ‘configurations,’ defined as unique sets of herbivore assemblages (i.e., groups of herbivores) associated with differing woody plant covers. Our approach delineated how tree-clearing influences the distribution and abundance of the herbivore community in relation to surrounding savanna areas, which represent a natural mosaic of varying woody cover. Regardless of season, both intensively managed areas cleared of trees and unmanaged areas with high tree cover contained configurations that had depauperate assemblages of herbivores (low species richness, low abundance). By contrast, habitats with intermediate cover of woody vegetation had much higher richness and abundance. These results have substantial implications for managing African savannas in a rapidly changing climate.
When acidic residues do not mimic phosphorylation: high-affinity binding of the reticulophagy receptor TEX264 to LC3/GABARAP

ABSTRACT Substrates that are selected for degradation by autophagy interact in more complex eukaryotes with Atg8-family proteins via the LC3-interacting region (LIR) that is often preceded by either acidic residues or phosphorylated serine or threonine. These upstream amino acid residues increase the binding affinity of the LIR motif to its binding site on the surface of LC3/GABARAP. It is not fully understood whether or how phosphorylation functionally replaces acidic residues in the LIR-Atg8-family protein interactions. A recent study by Chino et al. discussed in this article analyzed the phosphorylation of two serine residues upstream of the LIR motif in TEX264, a reticulophagy receptor that exhibits a high binding affinity to LC3/GABARAP proteins. The authors found a structural basis for the high-affinity interaction yielded by phosphorylation but not by an acidic residue in place of phosphoserine. Furthermore, finding that phosphorylation of TEX264 generates its high binding affinity to Atg8-family proteins uncovers a mechanistic alternative to that utilized by other reticulophagy receptors when they interact with LC3/GABARAP. Abbreviations: CSNK2: casein kinase 2; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; IDPR: intrinsically disordered protein region; LIR: LC3-interacting region; p-S: phosphorylated serine
Complete Genome Sequence of Lacticaseibacillus paracasei Strain VHProbi F22, Isolated from Cheese

Lacticaseibacillus paracasei strain VHProbi F22 is a proprietary probiotic strain that can be found in the Chinese market. Here, we investigate the whole-genome sequence of this bacterium. The whole genome contains a chromosome and a plasmid. ABSTRACT Lacticaseibacillus paracasei strain VHProbi F22 is a proprietary probiotic strain that can be found in the Chinese market. Here, we investigate the whole-genome sequence of this bacterium. The whole genome contains a chromosome and a plasmid.