Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of niacin supplementation on nausea-like behaviour in an isoniazid-induced mouse model of pellagra

Abstract Niacin deficiency causes pellagra, the symptoms of which include dermatitis, diarrhoea and dementia. Investigating the mechanism underlying these phenotypes has been challenging due to the lack of an appropriate animal model. Here, we report a mouse model of pellagra-related nausea induced by feeding mice a low-niacin diet and administering isoniazid (INH), which is thought to induce pellagra. Mice fed a normal or low-niacin diet received INH (0·3 or 1·0 mg/mg per animal, twice daily, 5 d), and nausea was evaluated based on pica behaviour, which considered the rodent equivalent of the emetic reflex. Furthermore, the effect of therapeutic niacin administration on nausea was evaluated in this model. Urinary and hepatic metabolite levels were analysed by LC coupled with MS. INH-induced pica was observed in mice fed a low-niacin diet but not in those fed a normal diet. Levels of urinary metabolites, such as 1-methyl-2-pyridone-5-carboxamide, kynurenic acid and xanthurenic acid, were significantly reduced in the mice treated with INH compared with those that did not receive INH. Furthermore, niacin supplementation prevented pica and restored the levels of some metabolites in this mouse model. Our findings suggest that INH-related nausea is pellagra-like. We also believe that our newly established method for quantifying pica is a useful tool for investigating the mechanisms of pellagra-related nausea.
Sleep difficulties, incident dementia and all‐cause mortality among older adults across 8 years: Findings from the National Health and Aging Trends Study

Sleep difficulties have been implicated in the development and progression of dementia and in all‐cause mortality. This study examines the relationship between sleep difficulties, incident dementia and all‐cause mortality over 8 years of follow‐up among a nationally representative sample of older (≥65 years) adults in the United States. We used data collected from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) from 2011 to 2018, a prospective cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries. At baseline, the NHATS sample comprised 6,376 older adults who were representative of 32 million older adults. Respondents reported routine difficulty initiating sleep or difficulty falling back asleep “most nights” or “every night” in each study year. In each year, dementia was determined by either self‐reported diagnosis or performance on immediate and delayed recall word and clock drawing tests, whereas all‐cause mortality was determined by proxy. We conducted Cox proportional hazards modelling, adjusting for age, sex, marital status and chronic conditions. In models predicting all‐cause mortality, we also controlled for dementia. Among respondents at baseline, 19% were 65–75 years of age, 71% identified as non‐Hispanic white and 59% were female. Difficulty initiating sleep (hazard ratio [HR], 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI],1.25–1.77), difficulty falling back asleep (HR, = 1.39; 95% CI,1.14–1.70) and concurrent sleep difficulties (HR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.25–1.99) were associated with greater risk of dementia. Difficulty initiating sleep (HR, 1.44; 95% CI,1.20–1.72), difficulty falling back asleep (HR, 1.56; 95% CI,1.29–1.89), and concurrent sleep difficulties (HR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.44–2.24) were associated with greater risk of all‐cause mortality. Our findings demonstrate that reported difficulties are prospectively associated with an increased risk of dementia and all‐cause mortality among older people.
Alternaria toxins in tomato products in Northern Italy in the period 2017-2019

ABSTRACT The occurrence of tenuazonic acid (TeA), alternariol, alternariol monomethyl and tentoxin in tomato-based products was surveyed over the years 2017–2019. A total of 120 samples were collected from retail outlets and tomato-based food producers located in Northern Italy. After extraction and purification through prepacked columns, the mycotoxins were analysed using LC-MS/MS. A widespread contamination of TeA was found in tomato-based products, particularly in concentrated tomato paste. Other Alternaria toxins were not detected. The incidence of TeA was 78.5%, 47.4%, 55.5%, and 76.9% in concentrated tomato paste (maximum value 5955 µg kg−1), tomato sauce, tomato pulp, and ketchup, respectively. The mean level was 243 ± 725 µg kg−1 in concentrated tomato paste and below 30 µg kg−1 in the other tomato products. The contamination varied from year to year. Alternaria spp strains isolated from fresh tomatoes produced mainly TeA. This study provides further Alternaria toxins occurrence data, useful for future risk assessments.
Dynamic Rearrangement and Directional Migration of Tubular Vacuoles are Required for the Asymmetric Division of the Arabidopsis Zygote.

In most flowering plants, asymmetric cell division of zygotes is the initial step to establish the apical-basal axis. In the Arabidopsis zygote, vacuolar accumulation at the basal cell end is crucial to ensure zygotic division asymmetry. Despite the importance, it was unclear whether this polar vacuolar distribution is achieved by predominant biogenesis at the basal region or by directional movement after biogenesis. Here, we found that apical and basal vacuolar contents are dynamically exchanged via tubular vacuolar network and the vacuoles gradually migrate towards the basal end. The mutant of a vacuolar membrane protein, SHOOT GRAVITROPISM2 (SGR2), failed to form tubular vacuoles, and the mutant of a putative vacuolar fusion factor, VESICLE TRANSPORT THROUGH INTERACTION WITH T-SNARES11 (VTI11), could not flexibly rearrange the vacuolar network. Both mutants failed to exchange the apical and basal vacuolar contents and to polarly migrate the vacuoles, resulting in more symmetric division of zygotes. Additionally, we observed that in contrast to sgr2, the zygotic defects of vti11 were rescued by the pharmacological depletion of phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PI3P), a distinct phospholipid in the vacuolar membrane. Thus, SGR2 and VTI11 have individual sites of action in the zygotic vacuolar membrane processes. Further, a mutant of YODA (YDA) MAPKK kinase, a core component of the embryonic axis formation pathway, generated proper vacuolar network; however, it failed to migrate the vacuoles towards the basal region, which suggests impaired directional cues. Overall, we conclude that SGR2- and VTI11-dependent vacuolar exchange and YDA-mediated directional migration are necessary to achieve polar vacuolar distribution in the zygote.
Optimization of a Larval Sampling Method for Monitoring Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in Blueberries

Abstract Managing spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), in fruit crops is complicated by the unreliability of currently available traps for monitoring adult flies, combined with the difficulty of detecting larval infestation before fruit damage is apparent. A simple method to extract larvae from fruit in liquid, strain the solution, then count them in a coffee filter was developed recently for use in integrated pest management programs. Here, we present a series of experiments conducted to improve fruit sampling by making it faster, less expensive, and more accurate. The volume of blueberries sampled (59–473 ml) did not significantly affect the detection of second and third instars, but we found that 118-ml samples were best for detecting the smallest larvae. These small instars were more detectable when berries were lightly squeezed before immersion, whereas larger instars were similarly detectable without using this step. We also found that immersing fruit for 30 min was sufficient before counting larvae, and similar numbers of larvae were found in the filter using room temperature water rather than a salt solution. The process of filtering, detection, and counting larvae took only 2–4 min per sample to process, depending on larval density. Using a microscope to count the larvae was consistently the best approach for detecting D. suzukii larvae. Based on these results, we discuss how fruit sampling can be streamlined within IPM programs, so growers and their advisors can improve control and reduce the cost of monitoring this invasive pest.
Time-/Event-Triggered Adaptive Neural Asymptotic Tracking Control for Nonlinear Systems With Full-State Constraints and Application to a Single-Link Robot

This study proposes the time-/event-triggered adaptive neural control strategies for the asymptotic tracking problem of a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with full-state constraints. First, we design a time-triggered strategy. The effect caused by the residuals of the estimation via radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs), and the reasonable upper bounds on the first derivative of the reference signal and the derivative of each virtual control, can be eliminated by designing appropriate adaptive laws and utilizing the basic properties of RBF NNs. Moreover, the construction of the barrier Lyapunov functions (BLFs) in this work ensures the compliance of the full-state constraints and also holds the asymptotic output tracking performance. Then, based on the time-triggered strategy, we further design a relative threshold event-triggered strategy. The proposed event-triggered adaptive neural controller can solve the main control objective of this work, that is: 1) the full-state constraint requirements of the system are not violated and 2) the output signal asymptotically tracks the reference signal. Compared with the traditional method, the event-triggered strategy can improve the utilization of communication channels and resources and has greater practical significance. Finally, an example of single-link robot under the proposed two strategies illustrates the validity of the constructed controllers.
Infrared spectroscopy as a clinical diagnostic method for detection of disease states: developments and applications in kidney diseases and cancer diagnoses

ATR-FTIR spectroscopy has been used to develop rapid and accurate methods for urine analyses and cancer diagnoses. Complications associated with analyses of dried samples by FTIR spectroscopy were found to arise because of the existence of partial hydration states of some substances. Recognition and accommodation of such states is necessary to ensure precise deconvolution of spectra. Dramatic hydration effects were observed in the IR spectrum of urea. Four forms of urea were identified in IR spectra, corresponding to solution (1468 cm-1) and dry (1464 cm-1) states and two intermediate (1454 cm-1 and 1443 cm-1) forms that arise from specific urea-water and/or urea-urea interactions. Less pronounced hydration effects were also identified in the spectra of creatinine and other urinary compounds. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy was then applied to diagnosis of the kidney stone disease, cystinuria. A simple method for detecting and quantitating urinary insoluble cystine was developed based on the integrated area of the cystine 1296 cm-1 band. Clinically relevant levels could be detected in ATR-FTIR spectra of dried insoluble fractions of urine samples without any requirement for chemical manipulation. The use of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy as a point-of-care diagnostic tool for kidney diseases was investigated by installation of a portable benchtop spectrometer in a hospital clinic. Nurses recorded spectra of 295 unprocessed urine samples and the data were correlated with clinical diagnoses. Initial results suggested that differences in the integrated areas of key spectral features could discriminate between healthy patients and those with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and indicate the extent of kidney damage. ATR-FTIR spectra of 80 pancreatic tissue samples were also recorded and analysed for spectral patterns associated with cancer using PLS logistic regression. Tumour tissue spectra could be separated from normal tissue spectra with 90 % sensitivity. Tumour samples could be further separated into cancer stages with accuracies of 64-84 %.
Khat use and perceived health problems among African migrants in Australia: an exploratory study.

Background The chronic use of khat, a plant with psychostimulant properties, has been associated with physical and mental health problems. Previous research found that non-khat users were more likely than khat users to perceive its use to be associated with poor health. Aims We aimed to identify differences in the perception of specific khat-associated health problems between khat users and non-users. Methods In 2012, 133 adults (≥ 18 years) from African migrant communities in 4 state capital cities in Australia completed questionnaires to ascertain their perception of whether specific health problems were associated with khat use. Multivariable log-linked Poisson regression was used to compare the perceptions of the 2 groups and identify differences, adjusting for sociodemographic factors, tobacco use and years living in Australia. Results Overall, 58 (44%) and 75 (56%) participants reported current khat use and no use respectively. Adjusted log-linked Poisson regression showed that people who use khat were less likely than non-users to perceive certain health and related problems were associated with khat use, including, poor health in general [prevalence risk ratio (PRR) = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.75, 1.00]; laziness (PRR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.75, 0.99); stomach and throat problems (PRR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.96); and teeth, gum and mouth problems (PRR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.67, 0.99). Conclusions Khat users are less likely to perceive use being associated with health problems than non-users. Providing information on the health problems associated with khat use may be an important component of health promotion strategies and interventions aimed at minimising khat-related harm.
A review: nutrition and process attributes of corn in pet foods

Abstract Corn is one of the largest cereal crops worldwide and plays an important role in the U.S. economy. The pet food market is growing every year, and although corn is well utilized by dogs, some marketing claims have attributed a negative image to this cereal. Thus, the objective of this work was to review the literature regarding corn and its co-products, as well as describe the processing of these ingredients as they pertain to pet foods. Corn is well digested by both dogs and cats and provides nutrients. The processing of corn generates co-products such as corn gluten meal and distillers dried grains with solubles that retain quality protein, and fibrous components that dilute dietary energy. Further, corn has much functionality in extrusion processing. It may yield resistant starch under certain processing conditions, promoting colonic health. Carotenoids in corn may enhance immune support in companion animals if concentrated. Mycotoxin contamination in grains represent a health hazard but are well controlled by safety measures. Genetically modified (GM) corn is still controversial regarding its long-term potential for mutagenicity or carcinogenicity, thus more long-term studies are needed. In conclusion, the negative perception by some in the pet food market may not be warranted in pet foods using corn and its co-products.
Modelling urban vibrancy with mobile phone and OpenStreetMap data

The concept of urban vibrancy has become increasingly important in the study of cities. A vibrant urban environment is an area of a city with high levels of human activity and interactions. Traditionally, studying our cities and what makes them vibrant has been very difficult, due to challenges in data collection on urban environments and people’s location and interactions. Here, we rely on novel sources of data to investigate how different features of our cities may relate to urban vibrancy. In particular, we explore whether there are any differences in which urban features make an environment vibrant for different age groups. We perform this quantitative analysis by extracting urban features from OpenStreetMap and the Italian census, and using them in spatial models to describe urban vibrancy. Our analysis shows a strong relationship between urban features and urban vibrancy, and particularly highlights the importance of third places, which are urban places offering opportunities for social interactions. Our findings provide evidence that a combination of mobile phone data with crowdsourced urban features can be used to better understand urban vibrancy.
ABO system combination with Rh, Kell and MN group in Georgian blood donors.

There are numerous scientific data about the study of the prevalence of blood group antigens in the different donor population. Several studies showed that the profile of major blood group antigens is not similar in blood donors from different local areas. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Our scientific goal was to study of the prevalence blood group antigens in the Georgian blood donor population. In the current study, we analyzed the 48 phenotypically combinations based on four major (ABO, Rh, Kell, and MN) blood groups. RESEARCH METHODS The blood of 1009 donors has been studied on RBC antigens. The sample were collected from the diagnostic laboratory of Medina Ltd Health Centre of Batumi. Blood typing of the sample has been carried out on the basis of the immunogenetics laboratory of Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University. The universal monoclone antibodies was used for identify minor blood group antigens. We used as forward as reverse grouping methods. For identification erythrocytes, blood group antigens also were used ID cards, such as ABO/D + Reverse Grouping. RESULT 12 phenotypic combinations have been identified in each O, A, B, AB group of ABO system. Out of 48 theoretically possible phenotypic combinations, we can actually find 1,9 times less phenotypes and the real amount is 25 phenotypes. The remaining 23 phenotypic combinations have not been observed in the studied donors. These are: 1. O, Rh-K+ MM; 2. O, Rh-K- MN; 3. O, Rh-K- NN; 4. A, Rh-K+ MN; 5. A, Rh-K+ MM; 6. A, Rh-K+ NN; 7. A, Rh-K- MM; 8. A, Rh-K- NN; 9. B, Rh+K+ NN; 10. B, Rh-K+ MN; 11. B, Rh-K+ MM; 12. B, Rh-K+ NN; 13. B, Rh-K- MN; 14. B, Rh-K- MM; 15. B, Rh-K- NN; 16. AB, Rh+K+ MN; 17. AB, Rh+K+ NN; 18. AB, Rh+K- NN; 19. AB, Rh+K- MM; 20. AB, Rh-K+ MN; 21. AB, Rh-K+ MM; 22. AB, Rh-K+ NN; 23. B, Rh-K- NN. The value of χ2 in the case is equal to 3221,16. The P-Value is < . 00001. The result is significant at P < . 05. Out of 1009 studied donors 349 are carriers of phenotypic group A (II), while 19 donors carry AB (IV) group specification. This means that 36.23% of the studied donors have A antigen on the surface of erythrocyte membrane. The majority of them A1 subgroup. CONCLUSION As our research showed there is a quit high polymorphism of blood group phenotype combinations in Georgian blood donors in the example of one clinic. This kind of data is very important for the clinics' rational preparation of whole blood or blood components.
Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Body Fatness: Associations with Total Body Fat, Visceral Fat, and Liver Fat.

PURPOSE It remains unclear to what extent habitual physical activity and sedentary time are associated with visceral fat and liver fat. We studied substitution of sedentary time with time spent physically active and total body fat (TBF), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and hepatic triglyceride content (HTGC) in middle-aged men and women. DESIGN In this cross-sectional analysis of the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study, physical activity was assessed in 228 participants using a combined accelerometer and heart rate monitor. Total body fat was assessed by the Tanita bio-electrical impedance, VAT by MRI and HTGC by proton-MR spectroscopy. Behavioural intensity distribution was categorized as sedentary time (ST), time spent in light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). To estimate the effect of replacing 30 minutes/day of ST with 30 minutes/day LPA or MVPA, we performed isotemporal substitution analyses, adjusted for sex, age, ethnicity, education, the Dutch Healthy Diet index, and smoking. RESULTS Included participants (41% men) had a mean (SD) age of 56 (6) years and spent 88 (56) minutes in MVPA and 9.0 hours (2.1) of ST. Replacing 30 minutes/day of ST with 30 minutes of MVPA was associated with 1.3% less TBF (95% CI: -2.0, -0.7), 7.8 cm2 less VAT (-11.6, -4.0) and 0.89 times HTGC (0.82, 0.97). Replacement with LPA was not associated with TBF (-0.03 %; -0.5, 0.4), VAT (-1.7 cm2; -4.4, 0.9) or HTGC (0.98 times; 0.92, 1.04). CONCLUSIONS Reallocation of time spent sedentary with time spent in MVPA, but not LPA, was associated with less total body fat, and visceral and liver fat. These findings contribute to the development of more specified guidelines on sedentary time and physical activity.
Document-Level Chemical-Induced Disease Relation Extraction via Hierarchical Representation Learning

Over the past decades, Chemical-induced Disease (CID) relations have attracted extensive attention in biomedical community, reflecting wide applications in biomedical research and healthcare field. However, prior efforts fail to make full use of the interaction between local and global contexts in biomedical document, and the derived performance needs to be improved accordingly. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for document-level CID relation extraction. More specifically, a stacked Hypergraph Aggregation Neural Network (HANN) layers are introduced to model the complicated interaction between local and global contexts, based on which better contextualized representations are obtained for CID relation extraction. In addition, the CID Relation Heterogeneous Graph is constructed to capture the information with different granularities and improve further the performance of CID relation classification. Experiments on a real-world dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
Physicians payment in the United States between 2014 and 2018: An analysis of the CMS Open Payments database

The Open Payments database reports payments made to physicians by industry. Given the potential for financial conflicts of interest relating to patient outcomes, further scrutiny of these data is valuable. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze physician-industry relationships by specialty type, payment type, geospatial trend, and longitudinal trend between 2014–2018. We conducted an observational, retrospective data analysis of payments from the Open Payments database for licensed United States physicians listed in the National Plan & Provider Enumeration System (NPPES). Datasets from 2013–2018 were joined using the Python programming language. Aggregation and sub-setting by characteristics of interest was done in R to calculate means and frequencies of reported general physician payments from industry across different specialties, locations, timeframes, and payment types. Normalization was applied for numbers of physicians or payments. Geospatial statistical hot spot analysis was conducted in ArcGIS. 51.73 million payment records were analyzed. In total, 50,047,930 payments were issued to 771,113 allopathic or osteopathic physicians, representing $8,702,631,264 transferred from industry to physicians over the five-year period between 2014 and 2018. The mean payment amount was $179, with a standard deviation of $12,685. Variability in physicians’ financial relationships with industry were apparent across specialties, regions, time, and payment type. A limited match rate between records in the NPPES and Open Payments databases may have resulted in selection bias of trends related to physician characteristics. Further research is necessary, particularly in the context of changing industry payment trends and public perceptions of the appropriateness of these relationships.