Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adipokine FABP4 integrates energy stores and counterregulatory metabolic responses

Although counterregulatory hormones and mediators of the fight-or-flight responses are well defined at many levels, how energy stores per se are integrated into this system remains an enigmatic question. Recent years have seen the adipose tissue become a central focus for mediating intracellular signaling and communication through the release of a variety of bioactive lipids and substrates, as well as various adipokines. A critical integration node among these mediators and responses is controlled by FA binding protein 4 (FABP4), also known as adipocyte protein 2 (aP2), which is highly expressed in adipose tissue and functions as a lipid chaperone protein. Recently, it was demonstrated that FABP4 is a secreted hormone that has roles in maintaining glucose homeostasis, representing a key juncture facilitating communication between energy-storage systems and distant organs to respond to life-threatening situations. However, chronic engagement of FABP4 under conditions of immunometabolic stress, such as obesity, exacerbates a number of immunometabolic diseases, including diabetes, asthma, cancer, and atherosclerosis. In both preclinical mouse models and humans, levels of circulating FABP4 have been correlated with metabolic disease incidence, and reducing FABP4 levels or activity is associated with improved metabolic health. In this review, we will discuss the intriguing emerging biology of this protein, including potential therapeutic options for targeting circulating FABP4. Graphical Abstract
Gardnerella and Prevotella: Co-conspirators in the Pathogenesis of Bacterial Vaginosis.

EDITORIAL COMMENTARY • jid 2019:220 (1 October) • 1085 Received 4 December 2018; editorial decision 4 December 2018; accepted 5 December 2018; published online February 1, 2019. Correspondence: A. J. Ratner, MD, MPH, Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, New York University School of Medicine, 430 E 29th St, Rm 505, New York, NY 10016 (adam.ratner@nyumc.org). The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2019;220:1085–8 © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiy705 Gardnerella and Prevotella: Co-conspirators in the Pathogenesis of Bacterial Vaginosis
Mitochondria in lung biology and pathology: more than just a powerhouse.

An explosion of new information about mitochondria reveals that their importance extends well beyond their time-honored function as the "powerhouse of the cell. " In this Perspectives article, we summarize new evidence showing that mitochondria are at the center of a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent pathway governing the response to hypoxia and to mitochondrial quality control. The potential role of the mitochondrial genome as a sentinel molecule governing cytotoxic responses of lung cells to ROS stress also is highlighted. Additional attention is devoted to the fate of damaged mitochondrial DNA relative to its involvement as a damage-associated molecular pattern driving adverse lung and systemic cell responses in severe illness or trauma. Finally, emerging strategies for replenishing normal populations of mitochondria after damage, either through promotion of mitochondrial biogenesis or via mitochondrial transfer, are discussed.
The spectrum of benign dermal dendritic melanocytic proliferations

Dermal melanocytoses (DMs) comprise a heterogeneous group of benign lesions, located on skin and mucous membranes, characterized by dendritic melanocytes in the dermis. Although they share common histopathological features, some variants may present only as bluish or grey patches, some only as papules/nodules/plaques and others may show combination of all of these lesions. Despite the fact that blue naevus (BN) is typically characterized with papulonodular lesions, its variants may show all of the aforementioned presentations. Mongolian spot, naevus of Ota and naevus of Ito are patchy DMs distinguished by their specific localizations. Apart from these classical forms, many atypical variants without unique clinicopathological characteristics have been described in the literature making the nomenclature of DMs more complicated. However, congenital dermal melanocytosis and acquired dermal melanocytosis seem to be crucial umbrella terms that encompass all patchy DMs in atypical locations. Papules or subcutaneous nodules on patchy lesions and association of epidermal pigmentation presenting as brownish patches may be encountered as rare features of DMs. On the other hand, delayed‐onset subcutaneous nodules may be typical presentations of melanoma in patchy DMs; therefore, they deserve special attention. Large plaque‐type BN with subcutaneous cellular nodules is a newly described entity, harbouring clinical features of various DMs together and has a high risk of melanoma. The whole spectrum of dermal dendritic melanocytic proliferations is discussed including novelties and controversial issues.
Association between statin use and herpes zoster: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective Statins are commonly prescribed worldwide. In addition to being potent lipid-lowering agents, statins have immunomodulating properties that may increase the risk of varicella zoster virus reactivation. This adverse effect may have substantial public health implications. Design We performed a meta-analysis of observational studies to assess the association between statin use and the risk of herpes zoster infection. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane databases to identify studies published from 1980 to 2018. The multivariate-adjusted ORs were pooled using random-effect models, and subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to examine the source of heterogeneity. Result Six studies were analysed, with a total of more than two million participants. We determined if the use of statins might increase the risk of infection of herpes zoster (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.11 to 1. 25). We detected significant heterogeneity (I2=91.2%; p<0.000), and determined that the heterogeneity arises from regional differences. Conclusion The use of statins may increase the risk of herpes zoster infection. Because the studies included are limited and there may be potential bias, further studies are warranted.
Mitochondrial D-loop sequences reveal a mixture of endemism and immigration in Egyptian goat populations

Abstract The mitochondrial D-loop region was used to investigate genetic diversity within and between populations of Egyptian goats, to elucidate processes that explain present patterns of diversity and differentiation and to characterize Egyptian goats relative to international breeds. A total of 120 animals from six populations were sampled. Results confirm the main trend from previous studies of mtDNA diversity in goats, with high levels of diversity within populations, but with a comparative lack of genetic structure supporting geographic distribution. Haplotype diversity varied in a narrow range whereas nucleotide diversity values were more informative in showing differences between populations. The majority of goats analyzed (93.2%) displayed haplotypes that group with Haplogroup A, the most common type found in global goat populations. The remaining animals grouped with the less common Haplogroup G. Population differentiation analysis showed some uniqueness in the Aswan and Sharkawi populations from the South and East of Egypt. Overall, the structure of the Egyptian goat population is characterized by a high degree of homogeneity among populations from the north-western coastal region, the Nile Delta and the upper and middle regions of the Nile valley, but with possible introgression of rarer haplotypes into populations at the southern and eastern extremities of the country.
Fracture Resistance of Endodontically Treated Maxillary Premolars Restored With Different Methods.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the resistance and patterns of fracture of endodontically treated maxillary premolars (ETPs) restored with different methods. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Mesio-occluso-distal cavities were prepared in 50 extracted caries-free human maxillary premolars after endodontic treatment. The teeth were divided into five groups (n=10), according to the restorative method. G1: intact teeth (control group); G2: conventional composite resin; G3: conventional composite resin with a horizontal glass fiber post inserted between buccal and palatal walls; G4: bulk-fill flowable and bulk-fill restorative composites; and G5: ceramic inlay. For direct restorations, Filtek Z350 XT, Filtek Bulk Fill Flowable Restorative, and Filtek Bulk Fill Posterior Restorative were used. Indirect restorations were fabricated from a pressable lithium disilicate glass-ceramic (IPS e-max Press) and adhesively cemented (RelyX Ultimate). All specimens were subjected to thermocycling (5°C to 55°C/5000 cycles) and additionally submitted to cyclic loading 50,000 times in an Electro-Mechanical Fatigue Machine. Next, the specimens were subjected to a compressive load at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min until fracture. The fractured specimens were analyzed to determine the fracture pattern using a stereomicroscope, and then representative specimens were carbon coated to allow for the studying of the fracture surface under scanning electron microscopy. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare fracture resistance of the groups. The results of fracture patterns were submitted to the Fisher exact test (α=0.05). RESULTS: All specimens survived fatigue. Mean (standard deviation) failure loads (N) for groups were as follows: G1: 949.6 (331.5); G2: 999.6 (352.5); G3: 934.5 (233.6); G4: 771.0 (147.4); and G5: 856.7 (237.5). The lowest fracture resistance was recorded for G4, and the highest ones were recorded for G2, followed by that of G1 and G3. One-way ANOVA did not reveal significant differences between groups ( p>0.05). The highest repairable fracture rates were observed in G1 (100%) and G3 (80%). CONCLUSIONS: ETPs restored with conventional composite resin with or without horizontal fiber post, bulk-fill composite, and ceramic inlay showed fracture resistance similar to that of sound teeth. Conventional composite resin restorations exhibited the highest prevalence of unrepairable fractures, and the insertion of a horizontal fiber post decreased this prevalence. Intact teeth showed 100% of repairable fractures. It is difficult to extrapolate the results directly to a clinical situation due to the limitations of this study.
Employing positive psychology to improve radiation therapy workplace culture

The Australian radiotherapy profession is challenged by job dissatisfaction, stress, burnout and unfavourable attrition. This paper will use psychological models to discuss the confluence of job demands, resources and personal characteristics that contribute to these challenges. Factors contributing to burnout and attrition amongst Australian Radiation Therapists will be explored, and a number of leadership strategies will be introduced to improve workplace culture. These strategies – aligned with positive psychology – seek to address staff engagement, emotional needs, and job stressors.
A coverage-preserving node scheduling scheme for large wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks that consist of a large number of low-power, short-lived, unreliable sensors, one of the main design challenges is to obtain long system lifetime, as well as maintain sufficient sensing coverage and reliability. In this paper, we propose a node-scheduling scheme, which can reduce system overall energy consumption, therefore increasing system lifetime, by turning off some redundant nodes. Our coverage-based off-duty eligibility rule and backoff-based node-scheduling scheme guarantees that the original sensing coverage is maintained after turning off redundant nodes. We implement our proposed scheme in NS-2 as an extension of the LEACH protocol. We compare the energy consumption of LEACH with and without the extension and analyze the effectiveness of our scheme in terms of energy saving. Simulation results show that our scheme can preserve the system coverage to the maximum extent. In addition, after the node-scheduling scheme turns off some nodes, certain redundancy is still guaranteed, which we believe can provide enough sensing reliability in many applications.
Interfraction and intrafraction performance of the Gamma Knife Extend system for patient positioning and immobilization.

OBJECT The Extend system for the Gamma Knife Perfexion makes possible multifractional Gamma Knife treatments. The Extend system consists of a vacuum-monitored immobilization frame and a positioning measurement system used to determine the location of the patient's head within the frame at the time of simulation imaging and before each treatment fraction. The measurement system consists of a repositioning check tool (RCT), which attaches to the Extend frame, and associated digital measuring gauges. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of the Extend system for patient repositioning before each treatment session (fraction) and patient immobilization between (interfraction) and during (intrafraction) each session in the first 10 patients (36 fractional treatments) treated at the University of Virginia. METHODS The RCT was used to acquire a set of reference measurements for each patient position at the time of CT simulation. Repositioning measurements were acquired before each fraction, and the patient position was adjusted until the residual radial difference from the reference position measurements was less than 1 mm. After treatment, patient position measurements were acquired, and the difference between those measurements and the ones obtained for patient position before the fraction was calculated as a measure of immobilization capability. Analysis of patient setup and immobilization performance included calculation of the group mean, standard deviation (SD), and distribution of systematic (components affecting all fractions) and random (per fraction) uncertainty components. RESULTS Across all patients and fractions, the mean radial setup difference from the reference measurements was 0.64 mm, with an SD of 0.24 mm. The distribution of systematic uncertainty (Σ) was 0.17 mm, and the distribution of random uncertainty (σ) was 0.16 mm. The root mean square (RMS) differences for each plate of the RCT were as follows: right = 0.35 mm; left = 0.41 mm; superior = 0.28 mm; and anterior = 0.20 mm. The mean intrafractional positional difference across all treatments was 0.47 mm, with an SD of 0.30 mm. The distribution of systematic uncertainty was 0.18 mm, and the distribution of random uncertainty was 0.22 mm. The RMS differences for each plate of the RCT were 0.24 mm for the right plate, 0.22 mm for the left plate, 0.24 mm for the superior plate, and 0.34 mm for the anterior plate. Data from 1 fraction were excluded from the analysis because the vacuum-monitoring interlock detected patient motion, which in turn required repositioning in the middle of the fraction. CONCLUSIONS The Extend system can be used to reposition and immobilize patients in a radiosurgical setting. However, care should be taken to acquire measurements that can implicitly account for rotations of the patient's head. Further work is required to determine the sensitivity of the vacuum interlock to detect patient motion.
SpyCLIP: an easy-to-use and high-throughput compatible CLIP platform for the characterization of protein–RNA interactions with high accuracy

Abstract UV crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (CLIP) coupled with high-throughput sequencing is the most state-of-the-art technology to characterize protein–RNA interactions, yet only a small portion of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) have been studied by CLIP due to its complex procedures and high level of false-positive signals. Herein, we report a SpyCLIP method that employs a covalent linkage formed between the RBP-fused SpyTag and SpyCatcher, which can withstand the harshest washing conditions for removing nonspecific interactions. Moreover, SpyCLIP circumvents the radioactive labeling and PAGE-membrane purification steps, and the whole procedure can be performed on beads and is readily amenable to automation. We investigated multiple RBPs by SpyCLIP and generated high-quality RNA binding maps with significantly improved reproductivity and accuracy. Therefore, the small tag size and convenient protocol of SpyCLIP provides a robust method for both routine characterization and high-throughput studies of protein–RNA interactions.
Bilateral Deep Brain Stimulation of the Globus Pallidus Pars Interna in a Patient with Variant Ataxia‐Telangiectasia

Globus Pallidus Pars Interna in a Patient with Variant Ataxia-Telangiectasia Dejan Georgiev, MD, PhD, Dwij Mehta, MD, Andr e Zacharia, MD, Ruben Saman Vinke, MD, Catherine Milabo, Joseph Candelario, Elina Tripoliti, PhD, Jonathan A. Hyam, FHEA, DPhil, FRCS, Ludvic Zrinzo, MD, MSc, FRCSEd, PhD, Marwan Hariz, MD, PhD, Se an O’Riordan, MD, FRCPI, Thomas Foltynie, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, PhD, Patricia Limousin, MD, PhD*
Understanding Patients’ Behavior: Vision-Based Analysis of Seizure Disorders

A substantial proportion of patients with functional neurological disorders (FND) are being incorrectly diagnosed with epilepsy because their semiology resembles that of epileptic seizures (ES). Misdiagnosis may lead to unnecessary treatment and its associated complications. Diagnostic errors often result from an overreliance on specific clinical features. Furthermore, the lack of electrophysiological changes in patients with FND can also be seen in some forms of epilepsy, making diagnosis extremely challenging. Therefore, understanding semiology is an essential step for differentiating between ES and FND. Existing sensor-based and marker-based systems require physical contact with the body and are vulnerable to clinical situations such as patient positions, illumination changes, and motion discontinuities. Computer vision and deep learning are advancing to overcome these limitations encountered in the assessment of diseases and patient monitoring; however, they have not been investigated for seizure disorder scenarios. Here, we propose and compare two marker-free deep learning models, a landmark-based and a region-based model, both of which are capable of distinguishing between seizures from video recordings. We quantify semiology by using either a fusion of reference points and flow fields, or through the complete analysis of the body. Average leave-one-subject-out cross-validation accuracies for the landmark-based and region-based approaches of 68.1% and 79.6% in our dataset collected from 35 patients, reveal the benefit of video analytics to support automated identification of semiology in the challenging conditions of a hospital setting.
Genetic Variation in Steroid and Xenobiotic Metabolizing Pathways and Enterolactone Excretion Before and After Flaxseed Intervention in African American and European American Women

Background: Metabolism and excretion of the phytoestrogen enterolactone (ENL), which has been associated with breast cancer risk, may be affected by variation in steroid hormone and xenobiotic-metabolizing genes. Methods: We conducted a randomized, crossover flaxseed intervention study in 252 healthy, postmenopausal women [137 European ancestry (EA) and 115 African ancestry (AA)] from western New York. Participants were randomly assigned to maintain usual diet or consume 10 g/day ground flaxseed for 6 weeks. After a 2-month washout period, participants crossed over to the other diet condition for an additional 6 weeks. Urinary ENL excretion was measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and 70 polymorphisms in 29 genes related to steroid hormone and xenobiotic metabolism were genotyped. Mixed additive genetic models were constructed to examine association of genetic variation with urinary ENL excretion at baseline and after the flaxseed intervention. Results: SNPs in several genes were nominally (P < 0.05) associated with ENL excretion at baseline and/or after intervention: ESR1, CYP1B1, COMT, CYP3A5, ARPC1A, BCL2L11, SHBG, SLCO1B1, and ZKSCAN5. A greater number of SNPs were associated among AA women than among EA women, and no SNPs were associated in both races. No SNP–ENL associations were statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Variation in several genes related to steroid hormone metabolism was associated with lignan excretion at baseline and/or after flaxseed intervention among postmenopausal women. Impact: These findings may contribute to our understanding of the differences observed in urinary ENL excretion among AA and EA women and thus hormone-related breast cancer risk.
Walking > walking-in-place > flying, in virtual environments

A study by Slater, et al., [1995] indicated that naive subjects in an immersive virtual environment experience a higher subjective sense of presence when they locomote by walking-in-place (virtual walking) than when they push-button-fly (along the floor plane). We replicated their study, adding real walking as a third condition. Our study confirmed their findings. We also found that real walking is significantly better than both virtual walking and flying in ease (simplicity, straightforwardness, naturalness) as a mode of locomotion. The greatest difference in subjective presence was between flyers and both kinds of walkers. In addition, subjective presence was higher for real walkers than virtual walkers, but the difference was statistically significant only in some models. Follow-on studies show virtual walking can be substantially improved by detecting footfalls with a head accelerometer. As in the Slater study, subjective presence significantly correlated with subjects' degree of association with their virtual bodies (avatars). This, our strongest statistical result, suggests that substantial potential presence gains can be had from tracking all limbs and customizing avatar appearance. An unexpected by-product was that real walking through our enhanced version of Slater's visual-cliff virtual environment (Figure 1) yielded a strikingly compelling virtual experience - The strongest we and most of our visitors have yet experienced. The most needed system improvement is the substitution of wireless technology for all links to the user. Copyright ACM 1999.