Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical characteristics and factors relating to poor outcome in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in Vietnam: A multicenter prospective cohort study

Background The prevalence of risk factors for poor outcomes from aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) varies widely and has not been fully elucidated to date in Vietnam. Understanding the risk and prognosis of aneurysmal SAH is important to reduce poor outcomes in Vietnam. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the rate of poor outcome at 90 days of ictus and associated factors from aneurysmal SAH in the country. Methods We performed a multicenter prospective cohort study of patients (≥18 years) presenting with aneurysmal SAH to three central hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam, from August 2019 to August 2020. We collected data on the characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients with aneurysmal SAH and compared these data between good (defined as modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 0 to 3) and poor (mRS, 4–6) outcomes at 90 days of ictus. We assessed factors associated with poor outcomes using logistic regression analysis. Results Of 168 patients with aneurysmal SAH, 77/168 (45.8%) were men, and the median age was 57 years (IQR: 48–67). Up to 57/168 (33.9%) of these patients had poor outcomes at 90 days of ictus. Most patients underwent sudden-onset and severe headache (87.5%; 147/168) and were transferred from local to participating central hospitals (80.4%, 135/168), over half (57.1%, 92/161) of whom arrived in central hospitals after 24 hours of ictus, and the initial median World Federation of Neurological Surgeons (WFNS) grading score was 2 (IQR: 1–4). Nearly half of the patients (47.0%; 79/168) were treated with endovascular coiling, 37.5% (63/168) were treated with surgical clipping, the remaining patients (15.5%; 26/168) did not receive aneurysm repair, and late rebleeding and delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) occurred in 6.1% (10/164) and 10.4% (17/163) of patients, respectively. An initial WFNS grade of IV (odds ratio, OR: 15.285; 95% confidence interval, CI: 3.096–75.466) and a grade of V (OR: 162.965; 95% CI: 9.975–2662.318) were independently associated with poor outcomes. Additionally, both endovascular coiling (OR: 0.033; 95% CI: 0.005–0.235) and surgical clipping (OR: 0.046; 95% CI: 0.006–0.370) were inversely and independently associated with poor outcome. Late rebleeding (OR: 97.624; 95% CI: 5.653–1686.010) and DCI (OR: 15.209; 95% CI: 2.321–99.673) were also independently associated with poor outcome. Conclusions Improvements are needed in the management of aneurysmal SAH in Vietnam, such as increasing the number of aneurysm repairs, performing earlier aneurysm treatment by surgical clipping or endovascular coiling, and improving both aneurysm repairs and neurocritical care.
Trauma Risk Score Also Predicts Blood Transfusion Requirements in Hip Fracture Patients

Introduction The purpose of this study is to determine if the risk of receiving a blood transfusion during hip fracture hospitalization can be predicted by a validated risk profiling score (Score for Trauma Triage in Geriatric and Middle Aged (STTGMA)). Materials and Methods A consecutive series of 1449 patients 55 years and older admitted for a hip fracture at one academic medical center were identified from a trauma database. The STTGMA risk score was calculated for each patient. Patients were stratified into risk groups based on their STTGMA score quantile: minimal risk (0–50%), low risk (50–80%), moderate risk (80–95%), and high risk (95–100%). Incidence and volume of blood transfusions were compared between risk groups. Results There were 562 (38.8%) patients who received a transfusion during their admission. 58.3% of patients in the high risk group received a transfusion during admission compared to 31.2% of minimal risk group patients, 42.6% of low risk group patients, and 50.0% of moderate risk group patients (p < 0.001). STTGMA was predictive of first transfusion incidence in both the preoperative and postoperative periods. There was no difference in mean total transfusion volume between the four risk groups. Conclusion The STTGMA model is capable of risk stratifying hip fracture patients more likely to receive blood transfusions during hospitalization. Surgeons can use this tool to anticipate transfusion requirements.
Psychometric Properties of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) Among Family Caregivers of People with Schizophrenia in China

Introduction The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is one of the most widely used scales for social support. Although previous studies have shown good reliability and concurrent validity, conflicting evidence exists on its factor structures. Aim To validate the MSPSS among caregivers of people with schizophrenia in China and assess its factor structure. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted of 449 family caregivers in 12 communities for psychometric testing, eg, internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability, construct validity, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results The MSPSS showed good internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.95, good test–retest reliability with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.91, and kappa ranging from 0.62 to 0.71. Concurrent validity was supported by its negative correlations with perceived stress, and significant positive correlations with caregiving rewarding feelings, family functioning, and coping. EFA yielded a two-factor structure (family vs non-family), while CFA generally supported a three-factor structure (family, friends, and significant others). Conclusion Our findings show good psychometric properties of the MSPSS among caregivers of people with schizophrenia in China. EFA yields two-factor structure and CFA yields three factors consistent with the theory underlying the measure’s development.
TMB and Inflammatory Gene Expression Associated with Clinical Outcomes following Immunotherapy in Advanced Melanoma

This exploratory analysis investigating biomarkers of response to nivolumab and ipilimumab in melanoma patients demonstrates that combined assessment of tumor mutational burden, an inflammatory gene signature, and BRAF mutation status has the potential to predict response to immunotherapy. Outcomes for patients with melanoma have improved over the past decade as a result of the development and FDA approval of immunotherapies targeting cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), programmed death-1 (PD-1), and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). However, these therapies do not benefit all patients, and an area of intensive research investigation is identifying biomarkers that can predict which patients are most likely to benefit from them. Here, we report exploratory analyses of the associations of tumor mutational burden (TMB), a 4-gene inflammatory gene expression signature, and BRAF mutation status with tumor response, progression-free survival, and overall survival in patients with advanced melanoma treated as part of the CheckMate 066 and 067 phase III clinical trials evaluating immuno-oncology therapies. In patients enrolled in CheckMate 067 receiving the anti–PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (NIVO) alone or in combination with the anti–CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (IPI) or IPI alone, longer survival appeared to associate with high (>median) versus low (≤median) TMB and with high versus low inflammatory signature scores. For NIVO-treated patients, the results regarding TMB association were confirmed in CheckMate 066. In addition, improved survival was observed with high TMB and absence of BRAF mutation. Weak correlations were observed between PD-L1, TMB, and the inflammatory signature. Combined assessment of TMB, inflammatory gene expression signature, and BRAF mutation status may be predictive for response to immune checkpoint blockade in advanced melanoma.
Spatial organization of dinoflagellate genomes: Novel insights and remaining critical questions

As is true for many other aspects, genome architecture, evolution, and function in dinoflagellates are enigmatic and, in the meantime, continuous inspiration for scientific quests. Recent third‐generation sequencing and Hi‐C linkage analyses brought new insights into the spatial organization of symbiodiniacean genomes, revealing the topologically associated domains, discrete gene clusters and their cis and trans orientations, and relationships with transcription. Where do these new findings bring us in dinoflagellate genomics? Here, we aim to place these new results in the backdrop of the long history of research on this topic and in the context of what critical questions remain to be pursued in the future. The new data suggest, pending verification of other complete chromosome assemblies, a potential evolutionary trend in chromosome number decrease and length increase within the Symbiodiniaceae. While questions remain about the mechanics of the three‐dimensional chromosome structure and cell cycle‐related DNA replication, the mechanisms of gene transcription and genome size evolution, these latest findings set new starting points for further inquiries.
Nonparametric estimation of the survival distribution under covariate‐induced dependent truncation

There is often delayed entry into observational studies, which results in left truncation. In the estimation of the distribution of time‐to‐event from left‐truncated data, standard survival analysis methods require quasi‐independence between the truncation time and event time. Incorrectly assuming quasi‐independence may lead to biased estimation. We address the problem of estimation of the survival distribution when dependence between the event time and its left truncation time is induced by shared covariates. We introduce propensity scores for truncated data and propose two inverse probability weighting methods that adjust for both truncation and dependence, if all of the shared covariates are measured. The proposed methods additionally allow for right censoring. We evaluate the proposed methods in simulations, conduct sensitivity analyses, and provide guidelines for use in practice. We illustrate our approach in application to data from a central nervous system lymphoma study. The proposed methods are implemented in the R package, depLT.
COVID-19 Screening in Chest X-Ray Images Using Lung Region Priors

Early screening of COVID-19 is essential for pandemic control, and thus to relieve stress on the health care system. Lung segmentation from chest X-ray (CXR) is a promising method for early diagnoses of pulmonary diseases. Recently, deep learning has achieved great success in supervised lung segmentation. However, how to effectively utilize the lung region in screening COVID-19 still remains a challenge due to domain shift and lack of manual pixel-level annotations. We hereby propose a multi-appearance COVID-19 screening framework by using lung region priors derived from CXR images. Firstly, we propose a multi-scale adversarial domain adaptation network (MS-AdaNet) to boost the cross-domain lung segmentation task as the prior knowledge to the classification network. Then, we construct a multi-appearance network (MA-Net), which is composed of three sub-networks to realize multi-appearance feature extraction and fusion using lung region priors. At last, we can obtain prediction results from normal, viral pneumonia, and COVID-19 using the proposed MA-Net. We extend the proposed MS-AdaNet for lung segmentation task on three different public CXR datasets. The results suggest that the MS-AdaNet outperforms contrastive methods in cross-domain lung segmentation. Moreover, experiments reveal that the proposed MA-Net achieves accuracy of 98.83$\%$ and F1-score of 98.71$\%$ on COVID-19 screening. The results indicate that the proposed MA-Net can obtain significant performance on COVID-19 screening.
Distance Learning in Children with and without ADHD: A Case-control Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: This research involved the parents of ADHD students to explore how their children coped with online distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic and what implications this schooling method had on their emotional and behavioral well-being. Method: Data were collected during lockdown using an online questionnaire addressed to 100 mothers and were compared with 184 matched controls from a national survey launched in the same period. Results: Attention span, spontaneous commitment, and autonomy in distance learning was found to be more limited in ADHD group. Compared to controls, 21.7% of ADHD students were not assessed and 40.9% did not receive grades. Behavioral changes were reported in both groups (64.2%), represented mainly by restlessness, aggressiveness, and anxiety. Conclusion: Distance education increases academic difficulties, especially in ADHD pupils. The effects of lockdown should be adequately evaluated upon school reopening and appropriate recovery interventions should be planned.
Sustained expression of unc-4 homeobox gene and unc-37/Groucho in postmitotic neurons specifies the spatial organization of the cholinergic synapses in C. elegans

Neuronal cell fate determinants establish the identities of neurons by controlling gene expression to regulate neuronal morphology and synaptic connectivity. However, it is not understood if neuronal cell fate determinants have postmitotic functions in synapse pattern formation. Here we identify a novel role for UNC-4 homeobox protein and its corepressor UNC-37/Groucho, in tiled synaptic patterning of the cholinergic motor neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans. We show that unc-4 is not required during neurogenesis but is required in the postmitotic neurons for proper synapse patterning. In contrast, unc-37 is required in both developing and postmitotic neurons. The synaptic tiling defects of unc-4 mutants are suppressed by bar-1/β-catenin mutation, which positively regulates the expression of ceh-12/HB9. Ectopic ceh-12 expression partly underlies the synaptic tiling defects of unc-4 and unc-37 mutants. Our results reveal a novel postmitotic role of neuronal cell fate determinants in synapse pattern formation through inhibiting the canonical Wnt signaling pathway.
Genomic association and further characterisation of faecal immunoglobulin A deficiency in German Shepherd dogs

Abstract Background Immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency, chronic enteropathies and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) have a high prevalence in German Shepherd dogs (GSD). This prospective study determined the prevalence of faecal IgA deficiency (IgAD) in GSD and investigated several candidate genes and the canine genome for a region or locus co‐segregating with IgAD in GSD. Faecal IgA concentrations were quantified and genomic DNA was extracted from 8 GSD with an undetectable faecal IgA (classified as IgAD) and 80 non‐IgAD GSD. The canine minimal screening set II microsatellite markers were genotyped, with evidence of an association at p < 1.0 × 10−3. Faecal IgA concentrations were also tested for an association with patient clinical and biochemical variables. Results Allele frequencies observed using the candidate gene approach were not associated with faecal IgAD in GSD. In the genome‐wide association study (GWAS), the microsatellite marker FH2361 on canine chromosome 33 approached statistical significance for a link with IgAD in GSD (p = 1.2 × 10−3). A subsequent GWAS in 11 GSD with EPI and 80 control GSD revealed a significant association between EPI and FH2361 (p = 8.2 × 10−4). Conclusions The lack of an association with the phenotype of faecal IgAD in GSD using the candidate gene approach and GWAS might suggests that faecal IgAD in GSD is a relative or transient state of deficiency. However, the prevalence of faecal IgAD in GSD appears to be low (<3%). The relationship between faecal IgAD, EPI and loci close to FH2361 on canine chromosome 33 in GSD warrants further investigation.
Rapid Increase in SARS-CoV-2 P.1 Lineage Leading to Codominance with B.1.1.7 Lineage, British Columbia, Canada, January–April 2021

Several severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants of concern (VOCs) emerged in late 2020; lineage B.1. 1.7 initially dominated globally. However, lineages B.1. 351 and P.1 represent potentially greater risk for transmission and immune escape. In British Columbia, Canada, B.1. 1.7 and B.1. 351 were first identified in December 2020 and P.1 in February 2021. We combined quantitative PCR and whole-genome sequencing to assess relative contribution of VOCs in nearly 67,000 infections during the first 16 weeks of 2021 in British Columbia. B.1. 1.7 accounted for <10% of screened or sequenced specimens early on, increasing to >50% by week 8. P.1 accounted for <10% until week 10, increased rapidly to peak at week 12, and by week 13 codominated within 10% of rates of B.1. 1.7. B.1. 351 was a minority throughout. This rapid expansion of P.1 but suppression of B.1. 351 expands our understanding of population-level VOC patterns and might provide clues to fitness determinants for emerging VOCs.
Preovulatory Dominant Follicular Size and Serum Nitric Oxide Can Predicate the Conception Rate after Foaling Heat in Straight Egyptian Arabian Mares

Postpartum heat is very important for ability of mare’s to conceive. The present study aimed to evaluate ovarian changes and its relation to oxidative stress during early postpartum period in Arabian horses. Further, the predication of conception according to the relationship between sonographic and biochemical changes analyses. Ultrasound imaging of follicular changes and oxidative analyses changes were investigated at day 7-9 postpartum whereas Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the ability of oxidative stress and ultrasound imaging to predict the conception rate. ROC analyses indicated that nitric oxide predicate the conception rate with sensitivity (79% P<0.003) and dominant follicle size (80-100% P<0.0001). Alkaline phosphatase, catalase, glutathione, glutathione S transferase and total antioxidant capacity (P>0.05) between pregnant and nonpregnant mares. In conclusion, nitric oxide and dominant follicle diameter plays a crucial role in enhancement the conception rate during foaling heat.
Crossflow reversal effect on removal of RO particulate fouling: a comparison of two spacers

Worldwide fresh water scarcity is nowadays becoming a reality rather than a futuristic concern. Non-conventional sources of wastewater are being considered as a solution for this problem, since fresh water sources will not be sufficient to satisfy the world’s water demand in the following years. Extensive research is being done on different wastewater treatment technologies and methodologies, and lately, reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration has caught more attention as a solution for reclaiming and reusing wastewater. Nevertheless, the biggest problem RO membranes face is fouling, which increases energy consumption, and therefore, costs. Organic/particulate fouling affects the mass transfer of an RO membrane, but it can also contribute to biofouling, worsening the mass transfer and causing pressure drop on the RO system. For this study, a RO crossflow cell was used in order to investigate the effect of crossflow reversal on particulate fouling removal by testing two different feed spacers: (a) 1.25-mm high cavity spacer and (b) 0.71-mm high zigzag spacer. The experiments were carried out with an average crossflow velocity of 0.36 m/s, an average permeate flux of 20 L/m2 hr (LMH), an average feed electroconductivity (EC) of 14.90 mS/cm, and a feed temperature in the range of 21-25 C. Four runs were done, each with an average runtime of 1050 minutes. Two runs tested the cavity spacer, one with a crossflow reversal done at minute 806, and the other run with a crossflow reversal done twice every working day. The last two runs follow the same methodology but using the zigzag spacer. Each run used a new membrane and spacer. The mass transfer was graphed as a Mass Transfer Coefficient (MTC), and its development with time was analysed for identifying fouling, as well as particulate fouling when applying the crossflow reversal method. Crossflow reversal proved to be a reliable method for removing organic/particulate fouling. The cavity spacer caused a more severe organic/particulate fouling, but allowed it to be removed by crossflow reversal. The cavity spacer also proved to be less energy-consuming if applied to a full-scale RO facility. On the other hand, the zigzag showed to have a better effect on flow mixing and concentration polarization disruption inside the feed channel, thus keeping a higher mass transfer for a longer period of time. A more frequent crossflow reversal showed was not more efficient in removing organic/particulate fouling.
Synthesis of evidence from zero‐events studies: A comparison of one‐stage framework methods

In evidence synthesis, dealing with zero‐events studies is an important and complicated task that has generated broad discussion. Numerous methods provide valid solutions to synthesizing data from studies with zero‐events, either based on a frequentist or a Bayesian framework. Among frequentist frameworks, the one‐stage methods have their unique advantages to deal with zero‐events studies, especially for double‐arm‐zero‐events. In this article, we give a concise overview of the one‐stage frequentist methods. We conducted simulation studies to compare the statistical properties of these methods to the two‐stage frequentist method (continuity correction) for meta‐analysis with zero‐events studies when double‐zero‐events studies were included. Our simulation studies demonstrated that the generalized estimating equation with unstructured correlation and beta‐binomial method had the best performance among the one‐stage methods. The random intercepts generalized linear mixed model showed good performance in the absence of obvious between‐study variance. Our results also showed that the continuity correction with inverse‐variance heterogeneous (IVhet) analytic model based on the two‐stage framework had good performance when the between‐study variance was obvious and the group size was balanced for included studies. In summary, the one‐stage framework has unique advantages to deal with studies with zero events and is not susceptive to group size ratio. It should be considered in future meta‐analyses whenever possible.
Piceatannol ameliorates behavioural, biochemical and histological aspects in cisplatin‐induced peripheral neuropathy in rats

Peripheral neurotoxicity is a dose‐limiting and a potentially lifelong persistent toxicity of cisplatin. This study investigated the possible protective effect of piceatannol (PIC) in a model of cisplatin‐induced peripheral neuropathy in rats. PIC (10 mg/kg, i.p.) was given for 7 days, starting 2 days before cisplatin single injection (7 mg/kg, i.p.). Behavioural, biochemical and histological examinations were conducted. Cisplatin administration resulted in thermal hypoalgesia evidenced by increased paw and tail withdrawal latency times in the hotplate and tail flick tests, respectively, and reduced the abdominal constrictions in response to the acetic acid injection. Moreover, cisplatin treatment decreased rat locomotor activity and grip strength. These behavioural alterations were reversed by PIC coadministration. In addition, PIC decreased cisplatin‐induced elevation in serum neurotensin and platinum accumulation in sciatic nerve. Also, PIC reversed, to a large extent, cisplatin‐induced microscopical alterations in nerve axons and restored normal myelin thickness. Therefore, PIC may protect against cisplatin‐induced peripheral neuropathy.