Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Host Response and Neo-Tissue Development during Resorption of a Fast Degrading Supramolecular Electrospun Arterial Scaffold

In situ vascular tissue engineering aims to regenerate vessels “at the target site” using synthetic scaffolds that are capable of inducing endogenous regeneration. Critical to the success of this approach is a fine balance between functional neo-tissue formation and scaffold degradation. Circulating immune cells are important regulators of this process as they drive the host response to the scaffold and they play a central role in scaffold resorption. Despite the progress made with synthetic scaffolds, little is known about the host response and neo-tissue development during and after scaffold resorption. In this study, we designed a fast-degrading biodegradable supramolecular scaffold for arterial applications and evaluated this development in vivo. Bisurea-modified polycaprolactone (PCL2000-U4U) was electrospun in tubular scaffolds and shielded by non-degradable expanded polytetrafluoroethylene in order to restrict transmural and transanastomotic cell ingrowth. In addition, this shield prevented graft failure, permitting the study of neo-tissue and host response development after degradation. Scaffolds were implanted in 60 healthy male Lewis rats as an interposition graft into the abdominal aorta and explanted at different time points up to 56 days after implantation to monitor sequential cell infiltration, differentiation, and tissue formation in the scaffold. Endogenous tissue formation started with an acute immune response, followed by a dominant presence of pro-inflammatory macrophages during the first 28 days. Next, a shift towards tissue-producing cells was observed, with a striking increase in α-Smooth Muscle Actin-positive cells and extracellular matrix by day 56. At that time, the scaffold was resorbed and immune markers were low. These results suggest that neo-tissue formation was still in progress, while the host response became quiescent, favoring a regenerative tissue outcome. Future studies should confirm long-term tissue homeostasis, but require the strengthening of the supramolecular scaffold if a non-shielded model will be used.
Schistosoma haematobium effects on Plasmodium falciparum infection modified by soil-transmitted helminths in school-age children living in rural areas of Gabon

Background Malaria burden remains high in the sub-Saharan region where helminths are prevalent and where children are often infected with both types of parasites. Although the effect of helminths on malaria infection is evident, the impact of these co-infections is not clearly elucidated yet and the scarce findings are conflicting. In this study, we investigated the effect of schistosomiasis, considering soil-transmitted helminths (STH), on prevalence and incidence of Plasmodium falciparum infection. Methodology This longitudinal survey was conducted in school-age children living in two rural communities in the vicinity of Lambaréné, Gabon. Thick blood smear light microscopy, urine filtration and the Kato-Katz technique were performed to detect malaria parasites, S. haematobium eggs and, STH eggs, respectively. P. falciparum carriage was assessed at inclusion, and incidence of malaria and time to the first malaria event were recorded in correlation with Schistosoma carriage status. Stratified multivariate analysis using generalized linear model was used to assess the risk of plasmodium infection considering interaction with STH, and survival analysis to assess time to malaria. Main findings The overall prevalence on subject enrolment was 30%, 23% and 9% for S. haematobium, P. falciparum infections and co-infection with both parasites, respectively. Our results showed that schistosomiasis in children tends to increase the risk of plasmodium infection but a combined effect with Trichuris trichiura or hookworm infection clearly increase the risk (aOR = 3.9 [95%CI: 1.7–9.2]). The incidence of malaria over time was 0.51[95%CI: 0.45–0.57] per person-year and was higher in the Schistosoma-infected group compared to the non-infected group (0.61 vs 0.43, p = 0.02), with a significant delay of time-to first-malaria event only in children aged from 6 to 10-years-old infected with Schistosoma haematobium. Conclusions Our results suggest that STH enhance the risk for P. falciparum infection in schistosomiasis-positive children, and when infected, that schistosomiasis enhances susceptibility to developing malaria in young children but not in older children.
Plasma-Free Amino Acid Profiles in Crohn’s Disease: Relationship With the Crohn Disease Activity Index

We aimed to clarify the relationship between plasma-free amino acid (PFAA) profiles and the Crohn’s disease (CD) activity index (CDAI) in patients with CD. Methods: We measured fasting PFAA concentrations in 29 patients with CD and their correlation with disease activity. Results: In all patients, significant correlations were noted between CDAI and concentrations of valine, methionine, leucine, histidine, tryptophan, alanine, tyrosine, total amino acids (TAAs), nonessential amino acids (NEAAs), essential amino acids (EAAs), and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). In patients with the ileo-colonic type of CD, significant correlations were noted between CDAI and valine, histidine, tryptophan, glutamine, TAA, NEAA, EAA, and BCAA. In ileal type, significant correlations were observed between CDAI and threonine, valine, histidine, serine, and glycine. In colonic type, significant correlations were noted between CDAI and valine, histidine, tryptophan, TAA, NEAA, EAA, and BCAA. Conclusions: In patients with CD, plasma amino acids appear to be associated with disease activity.
Workplace health promotion for employees working in offshore wind parks in the German exclusive economic zone: a mixed-methods study

Objectives To investigate the awareness and use of health promotion offers among offshore wind workers and to study associations with demographic and workplace characteristics. To examine employees’ reasons for (non-)participation and their wishes for health promotion activities offshore. Design Mixed-methods study presenting the results from semistructured telephone interviews and a web-based cross-sectional survey. Setting Offshore wind parks in the German exclusive economic zone in the North and Baltic Seas. Participants 21 offshore workers in the qualitative study (19 male/2 female; all German). 303 offshore workers in the quantitative study (287 male/13 female; 275 German/24 other nationalities). Outcome measures Awareness and use of workplace health promotion offers and associations with demographic and workplace characteristics (age, work schedule and wind park phase); reasons for (non-)participation; needs and wishes for health promotion offers. Results Few workers indicated being aware of health promotion programmes at their workplace. Single offers were reported, with fitness facilities being the most common offer employees recognised and had used (n=168, 55.6%). Employees with a regular work schedule were more likely to have used fitness facilities offshore (adjusted OR (AOR)=3.22, 95% CI 1.53 to 6.80). Workers in the construction phase were more likely to have used massages (AOR=8.19, 95% CI 2.82 to 23.77). Younger workers were less likely to belong to the group of those who were aware of fitness facilities but had not used them (AOR=0.43, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.98). Employees expressed various needs and wishes for behavioural and environmental preventive measures offshore. Conclusions The results demonstrate a perceived need among the workers for the development of health promotion programmes offshore. Since the awareness and use of offers may partly depend on personal and organisational characteristics, this should be taken into account in the planning of health promotion activities.
Prominent longitudinal strain reduction of left ventricular basal segments in treatment-naïve Anderson-Fabry disease patients

AIMS Little is known about regional longitudinal strain (LS) distribution in early stages of Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) cardiomyopathy. We investigated regional left ventricular (LV) patterns of LS strain and base-to-apex behaviour of LS in treatment-naïve AFD patients. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-three consecutive AFD patients at diagnosis and 23 healthy controls without cardiovascular risk factors and matched for age and sex to the patients, underwent a comprehensive evaluation of target organs. An echo-Doppler exam, including determination of regional and global LS strain (GLS) was obtained. The average LS of 6 basal (BLS), 6 middle (MLS), and 5 apical (ALS) segments and relative regional strain ratio [ALS/(BLS + MLS)] were also calculated. Ejection fraction and diastolic indices did not differ between the two groups. LV mass index was greater in AFD (P < 0.01). GLS (P = 0.006), BLS (P < 0.0001), and MLS (P = 0.003), but not ALS, were lower in AFD patients and relative regional strain ratio was higher in AFD (P < 0.01) than in controls. These analyses were confirmed separately in the two genders and even after excluding patients with wall hypertrophy. By subdividing AFD patients according to lysoGB3 levels, 9 patients with lysoGB3 ≥ 1.8 ng/L had lower ALS compared to 11 patients with lysoGB3 < 1.8 ng/L (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION In naïve AFD patients, we observed an early reduction of LV LS, involving mainly LV basal myocardial segments. Nevertheless, the association found between the higher lysoGB3 levels and the lower apical cap LS demonstrates that apical segments LS, despite still normal, is not spared at diagnosis.
Brainstem Raphe Alterations in TCS: A Biomarker for Depression and Apathy in Parkinson's Disease Patients

Depression and apathy can both be present in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) while e. g. , essential tremor (ET) patients mostly only report depressive symptoms. In PD, depression has been linked with brainstem raphe (BR) signal alterations in transcranial sonography (TCS) but apathy has not been evaluated in such terms as a putative biomarker. Furthermore, the BR has only been investigated using a singular axial TCS examination plane, although coronal TCS examination allows a much more accurate evaluation of the craniocaudal formation of serotonergic raphe structures in the midbrain area. The objective of this study was to investigate the value of coronal TCS examination for the detection of BR signal alterations and clinically correlate it to apathy in patients with PD, ET and healthy controls (HC). We prospectively included PD patients (n = 31), ET patients (n = 16), and HC (n = 16). All were examined by TCS in the axial and coronal plane with focus on BR signal alterations. LARS and BDI-II scores were conducted to assess apathic and depressive symptoms in the study population. In a detailed analysis we found that the correlation of coronal and axial TCS alterations of BR was very high (rho = 0.950, p < 0.001). BR signal alterations were more frequent in PD patients than in ET patients and HC, while it was not different between ET patients and HC. In the PD patient group, BDI-II and LARS scores were negatively correlated to BR signal changes in TCS in a significant manner (BDI-II and axial BR: p = 0.019; BDI-II and coronal BR: p = 0.011; LARS and axial BR: p = 0.017; LARS and coronal BR: p = 0.023). Together in this brainstem ultrasound study we find a significant association of BR signal alterations with clinically evident apathy and depression in patients with PD. Therefore, TCS might enable the identification of a subgroup of PD patients which are at higher risk to suffer from or to develop depression or apathy.
Psychological risk in long‐term survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and its association with functional health status: A PETALE cohort study

Recent research has suggested that long‐term pediatric cancer survivors were at risk of important physical and psychological morbidities. To date, we do not know to what extent functional health status contributes to psychological risk and which domains are most important. The aim of this study was to systematically explore which functional domain could explain anxiety, depression, and distress symptoms.
Acculturation of immigrant diet, basic taste responses and sodium appetite

In young new Ethiopian immigrants (EI, about 0·5 years since immigration; n 20), veteran Ethiopian immigrant students (ES, about 13 years since immigration; n 30) and native Israeli students (NS; n 82), dietary macronutrients and electrolytes, and responses to basic tastes were compared in a cross-sectional design. From EI, to ES, to NS, dietary energy, protein, fat, and Na+ increase, whereas carbohydrates, K+ and Ca2+ do not differ. Corrected for energy intake, only Na+ increases. EI consume less dietary Na+, like foods with less Na+ content, salt their food less, yet show a greater hedonic response to salt taste. In contrast, preference for sweet does not differ. Taste psychophysics, 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) responses and lingual fungiform papillae density differ by group (and sex), but do not relate to dietary intake. Together, these changes could reflect dietary acculturation, increasing overall intake, Na+ in particular, accompanied by decreasing taste sensitivity, and changes in sensory perception and preference in these Ethiopian immigrants. The fact that immigrants find salt more hedonic, yet eat less of it, could suggest increased sensitivity to its taste, and might suggest restoring sensitivity to reduce Na+ intake for all. Similar alterations in taste sensory responses might be obtained in other forms of dietary flux. Understanding dietary acculturation can focus efforts (e.g. on Na+), to anticipate the disease burden of diets of affluence among immigrants. Yet, these immigrants’ nutrition is healthier in its low fat and Na+, suggesting that nutritional advice should focus on preservation, as well as prevention. Our study adds Ethiopian nutritional acculturation to that of the varied immigrant groups around the world.
Cardio-Oncology Services: rationale, organization, and implementation.

AIMS Anticancer therapies have extended the lives of millions of patients with malignancies, but for some this benefit is tempered by adverse cardiovascular (CV) effects. Cardiotoxicity may occur early or late after treatment initiation or termination. The extent of this cardiotoxicity is variable, depending on the type of drug used, combination with other drugs, mediastinal radiotherapy, the presence of CV risk factors, and comorbidities. A recent position paper from the European Society of Cardiology addressed the management of CV monitoring and management of patients treated for cancer. METHODS AND RESULTS The current document is focused on the basis of the Cardio-Oncology (C-O) Services, presenting their rationale, organization, and implementation. C-O Services address the spectrum of prevention, detection, monitoring, and treatment of cancer patients at risk of cardiotoxicity and/or with concomitant CV diseases. These services require a multidisciplinary approach, with the aims of promoting CV health and facilitating the most effective cancer therapy. CONCLUSION The expected growing volume of patients with cancer at risk of developing/worsening CV disease, the advent of new technological opportunities to refine diagnosis, and the necessity of early recognition of cancer therapy-related toxicity mandate an integrative multidisciplinary approach and care in a specialized environment. This document from the ESC Cardio-Oncology council proposes the grounds for creating C-O Services in Europe based on expert opinion.
The effectiveness of sofosbuvir and daclatasvir in the treatment of hepatitis C in thalassaemia major patients and their effect on haematological factors

Context: Patients with thalassaemia are at risk of infections such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) due to their repeated blood transfusions; meanwhile, the treatment of thalassaemia patients who had developed HCV infection is a controversial issue. Aims: Although the effectiveness of direct-acting antivirals on HCV infection has been confirmed, their side-effects as well as effects on haematological factors due to the resultant need for blood transfusion remain to be further understood. Materials and Methods: In this study, 61 patients with major beta thalassaemia and HCV infection, and who had a history of interferon treatment failure were examined. The patients underwent a 24-week treatment with sofosbuvir (SOF) and daclatasvir (DAC). Sustained virological response 12 was used to assess response to treatment. At the end of the study, the need for blood transfusion and serum ferritin was evaluated. Results: About 98.4% of the patients responded to the treatment, and only one patient with genotype 1b did not respond positively. No significant complications necessitating treatment cessation were observed, and all the patients tolerated the treatment well. The level of liver enzymes showed a significant reduction 12 weeks after the treatment. The need for blood transfusions in patients before treatment was averagely 1.595 ± 0.65 bag per month, in which 1.593 ± 0.64 bags were received after treatment (P = 0.9). This regimen did not affect the amount of anaemia in patients and did not differentiate the need for blood transfusions. The rate of haemoglobin before treatment was 9.5 ± 1.42 g/dl, which reached 9.6 ± 1.6 g/dl after treatment (P = 0.54). Ferritin levels decreased significantly (from 1948.08 ± 1539.54 to 1315.73 ± 1207.67 ng/ml) (P = 0.001) in the patients after the treatment. Conclusion: Combination of SOF and DAC is an effective and tolerable treatment regimen without affect on the amount of anaemia in patients and did not differentiate the need for blood transfusions.
CoCloud: Enabling Efficient Cross-Cloud File Collaboration Based on Inefficient Web APIs

Cloud storage services such as Dropbox have been widely used for file collaboration among multiple users. However, this desirable functionality is yet restricted to the “walled-garden” of each service. At present, the only feasible approach to cross-cloud file collaboration seems to be using web APIs, whose performance is known to be highly unstable and unpredictable. Now that using inefficient web APIs is inevitable, in this paper we attempt to achieve sound user-perceived performance for cross-cloud file collaboration. This attempt is enabled by two key observations from real-world measurements. First, for each cloud, we are always able to deploy one or several nearby (client) proxies which can efficiently access the web APIs. Second, during file collaboration, significant similarity exists among different versions of a file. This can be exploited to substantially reduce inter-proxy traffic and thus shorten the data sync time. Guided by the observations, we design and implement an open-source prototype system called CoCloud. Currently, it supports file collaboration among four popular cloud storage services in the US and China. Its performance is well acceptable to users under representative workloads, even approaching or exceeding that of intra-cloud collaboration in many cases.
Information-Based Principle Induces Small-World Topology and Self-Organized Criticality in a Large Scale Brain Network

The information processing in the large scale network of the human brain is related to its cognitive functions. Due to requirements for adaptation to changing environments under biological constraints, these processes in the brain can be hypothesized to be optimized. The principles based on the information optimization are expected to play a central role in affecting the dynamics and topological structure of the brain network. Recent studies on the functional connectivity between brain regions, referred to as the functional connectome, reveal characteristics of their networks, such as self-organized criticality of brain dynamics and small-world topology. However, these important attributes are established separately, and their relations to the principle of the information optimization are unclear. Here, we show that the maximization principle of the mutual information entropy induces the optimal state, at which the small-world network topology and the criticality in the activation dynamics emerge. Our findings, based on the functional connectome analyses, show that according to the increasing mutual information entropy, the coactivation pattern converges to the state of self-organized criticality, and a phase transition of the network topology, which is responsible for the small-world topology, arises simultaneously at the same point. The coincidence of these phase transitions at the same critical point indicates that the criticality of the dynamics and the phase transition of the network topology are essentially rooted in the same phenomenon driven by the mutual information maximization. As a consequence, the two different attributes of the brain, self-organized criticality and small-world topology, can be understood within a unified perspective under the information-based principle. Thus, our study provides an insight into the mechanism underlying the information processing in the brain.
A young testicular microenvironment protects Leydig cells against age-related dysfunction in a mouse model of premature aging

Testicular Leydig cells (LCs) are the primary source of circulating androgen in men. As men age, circulating androgen levels decline. However, whether reduced LC steroidogenesis results from specific effects of aging within LCs or reflects degenerative alterations to the wider supporting microenvironment is unclear; inability to separate intrinsic LC aging from that of the testicular microenvironment in vivo has made this question difficult to address. To resolve this, we generated novel mouse models of premature aging, driven by CDGSH iron sulfur domain 2 (Cisd2) deletion, to separate the effects of cell intrinsic aging from extrinsic effects of aging on LC function. At 6 mo of age, constitutive Cisd2‐deficient mice display signs of premature aging, including testicular atrophy, reduced LC and Sertoli cell (SC) number, decreased circulating testosterone, increased luteinizing hormone/testosterone ratio, and decreased expression of steroidogenic mRNAs, appropriately modeling primary testicular dysfunction observed in aging men. However, mice with Cisd2 deletion (and thus premature aging) restricted to either LCs or SCs were protected against testicular degeneration, demonstrating that age‐related LCs dysfunction cannot be explained by intrinsic aging within either the LC or SC lineages alone. We conclude that age‐related LC dysfunction is largely driven by aging of the supporting testicular microenvironment. —Curley, M. , Milne, L. , Smith, S. , J⊘rgensen, A. , Frederiksen, H. , Hadoke, P., Potter, P., Smith, L. B. A Young testicular microenvironment protects Leydig cells against age‐related dysfunction in a mouse model of premature aging. FASEB J. 33, 978–995 (2019). www.fasebj. org