Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical application of fractional exhaled nitric oxide and nasal nitric oxide levels for the assess eosinophilic inflammation of allergic rhinitis among children

Background Allergic rhinitis is one of the most common nasal inflammatory diseases among children. Assessment of clinical symptoms, skin prick test and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) are common methods used to diagnose allergic rhinitis and assess inflammation degree in clinical settings. However, via blood tests assess eosinophils inflammation is invasive, and may cause fear in children. It makes have burden of the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. Nasal nitric oxide (nNO) and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) are noninvasive, inexpensive, and can provide immediate results. These methods may therefore be preferable to assess the inflammation of allergic rhinitis. Methods This study was a retrospective analysis. We recruited 61 children with allergic rhinitis from November 2019 to March 2020. The participants were assessed using the FeNO and nNO tests. We also administered questionnaires and carried out traditional allergen and blood tests. We analyzed the relationship between diagnosis results and FeNO and nNO levels before and after the treatment of allergic rhinitis, to investigate the clinical application of FeNO and nNO levels for assess eosinophilic inflammation of allergic rhinitis in children. Results We observed a significant association both FeNO, nNO level with eosinophils, total IgE. In different levels of eosinophils (EOS), the correlation of detection parameters had obvious change. FeNO and nNO levels were obvious higher compared to pre-treatment. Conclusions Using NO concentration can indicates the extent of allergic inflammation and can measure allergy treatment effects combine other influence indexes. The combined use of FeNO and nNO levels may be a useful method for assess the degree of eosinophilic inflammation of allergic rhinitis in children.
Immobilization of copper ions on chitosan/cellulose acetate blend hollow fiber membrane for protein adsorption

An affinity membrane was prepared by immobilizing copper ions (Cu2+) on chitosan (CS) and cellulose acetate (CA) blend hollow fibers, and the affinity membrane (denoted as CS/CA-Cu) was evaluated for its performance in the adsorption of a model protein, Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). The analysis indicated that the amount of copper ions coupled on CS/CA-Cu reached around 3.9 mg per g-membrane. The experimental results showed that CS/CA-Cu achieved a high adsorption capacity of the 69 mg-BSA per g-membrane, under the typical solution condition of pH at 7.4 and ionic strength at 0.12 M, with the nonspecific adsorption being as low as less than 15%. The adsorption isotherm followed the Langmuir model and the adsorption kinetics exhibited both transport-limited and attachment-limited behaviors. CS/CA-Cu also performed favorably in the neutral pH range and at low ionic strength.
COVID-19 Reflection: From the Diary of A Black Social Worker

COVID-19 entered the world in March of 2020 like a roaring lion. Fast forward to December 2020 and this virus does not intend to go out like a lamb. I’m an oncology social worker at an outpatient infusion center in the suburbs of Long Island. In early March of 2020, our interdisciplinary team scurried to keep up with the media briefings, the number of confirmed cases, if and when to begin wearing masks, and the steps needed to support and protect our staff and patients. I recall leaving the infusion center on March 13 feeling fatigued. Upon entering my home, I changed out of my work clothes and participated in a telehealth visit with our family physician. My husband had experienced some mild symptoms during that day and contacted our physician to get his recommendations. Our physician told us “operate like you have it, stay home from work; by the end of the night you’ll feel like you were hit by a bus. ” I jokingly laughed with my husband and children and questioned his recommendation to stay home. Maybe we were just feeling tired—could we have been experiencing the symptoms based on the constant barrage of news reports related to COVID-19 symptoms? His words proved to be prophetic as for the next three weeks, my husband and I shuffled between our bed and living room sofa. Dragging myself from the sofa to the bed required a painstaking amount of energy. My ability to move, my agile, second nature responses, were now consumed with unbearable weakness and shortness of breath. It now took careful maneuvering to move from the bed to the sofa. All the symptoms listed on the CDC’s website were true . and became quite familiar. Many nights were spent in bone-shattering pain and teeth-chattering chills while standing in scolding hot showers. Our ability to breathe effortlessly and clearly was now staggered, labored, and mixed with fear and angst, wondering if we would elude the presence of death that lingered by our bedside. My husband and I tried to reassure our two teenage children. Our will, our last testament laid in a folder, sorrowfully by our bedside. Strict
Impact of multicomponent ionic transport on pH fronts propagation in saturated porous media

We investigate the propagation of pH fronts during multicomponent ionic transport in saturated porous media under flow‐through conditions. By performing laboratory bench‐scale experiments combined with numerical modeling, we show the important influence of Coulombic effects on proton transport in the presence of ionic admixtures. The experiments were performed in a quasi two‐dimensional flow‐through setup under steady‐state flow and transport conditions. Dilute solutions of hydrochloric acid with MgCl2 (1:2 strong electrolyte) were used as tracer solutions to experimentally test the effect of electrochemical cross coupling on the migration of diffusive/dispersive pH fronts. We focus on two experimental scenarios, with different composition of tracer solutions, causing remarkably different effects on the propagation of the acidic fronts with relative differences in the penetration depth of pH fronts of 36% between the two scenarios and of 25% and 15% for each scenario with respect to the transport of ions at liberated state (i.e., without considering the charge effects). Also differences in the dilution of the distinct ions plumes up to 28% and 45% in experiment 1 and 2, respectively, were measured at the outflow of the flow‐through system. The dilution of the pH plumes also changed considerably (26% relative difference) in the two flow‐through experiments only due to the different composition of the pore water solution and to the electrostatic coupling of the ions in the flow‐through setups. Numerical transport simulations were performed to interpret the laboratory experiments. The simulations were based on a multicomponent ionic formulation accurately capturing the Coulombic interactions between the transported ions in the flow‐through system. The results of purely forward simulations show a very good agreement with the high‐resolution measurements performed at the outlet of the flow‐through setup and confirms the importance of charge effects on pH transport in porous media.
A semiparametric model for between‐subject attributes: Applications to beta‐diversity of microbiome data

The human microbiome plays an important role in our health and identifying factors associated with microbiome composition provides insights into inherent disease mechanisms. By amplifying and sequencing the marker genes in high‐throughput sequencing, with highly similar sequences binned together, we obtain operational taxonomic units (OTUs) profiles for each subject. Due to the high‐dimensionality and nonnormality features of the OTUs, the measure of diversity is introduced as a summarization at the microbial community level, including the distance‐based beta‐diversity between individuals. Analyses of such between‐subject attributes are not amenable to the predominant within‐subject‐based statistical paradigm, such as t‐tests and linear regression. In this paper, we propose a new approach to model beta‐diversity as a response within a regression setting by utilizing the functional response models (FRMs), a class of semiparametric models for between‐ as well as within‐subject attributes. The new approach not only addresses limitations of current methods for beta‐diversity with cross‐sectional data, but also provides a premise for extending the approach to longitudinal and other clustered data in the future. The proposed approach is illustrated with both real and simulated data.
Testing Invariance of Measures of Internalizing Symptoms Before and After a Major Life Stressor: The Impact of COVID-19 in an Adolescent and Young Adult Sample

There are reports of increases in levels of internalizing psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these studies presume that measurement properties of these constructs remained unchanged from before the pandemic. In this study, we examined longitudinal measurement invariance of assessments of depression, anxiety, and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in adolescents and young adults from ongoing longitudinal studies. We found consistent support for configural and metric invariance across all constructs, but scalar invariance was unsupported for depression and IU. Thus, it is necessary to interpret pandemic-associated mean-level changes in depression and IU cautiously. In contrast, mean-level comparisons of panic, generalized, and social anxiety symptoms were not compromised. These findings are limited to the specific measures examined and the developmental period of the sample. We acknowledge that there is tremendous distress accompanying disruptions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, for some instruments, comparisons of symptom levels before and during the pandemic may be limited.
The obstetrical dilemma hypothesis: there's life in the old dog yet

The term ‘obstetrical dilemma’ was coined by Washburn in 1960 to describe the trade‐off between selection for a larger birth canal, permitting successful passage of a big‐brained human neonate, and the smaller pelvic dimensions required for bipedal locomotion. His suggested solution to these antagonistic pressures was to give birth prematurely, explaining the unusual degree of neurological and physical immaturity, or secondary altriciality, observed in human infants. This proposed trade‐off has traditionally been offered as the predominant evolutionary explanation for why human childbirth is so challenging, and inherently risky, compared to that of other primates. This perceived difficulty is likely due to the tight fit of fetal to maternal pelvic dimensions along with the convoluted shape of the birth canal and a comparatively low degree of ligamentous flexibility. Although the ideas combined under the obstetrical dilemma hypothesis originated almost a century ago, they have received renewed attention and empirical scrutiny in the last decade, with some researchers advocating complete rejection of the hypothesis and its assumptions. However, the hypothesis is complex because it presently captures several, mutually non‐exclusive ideas: (i) there is an evolutionary trade‐off resulting from opposing selection pressures on the pelvis; (ii) selection favouring a narrow pelvis specifically derives from bipedalism; (iii) human neonates are secondarily altricial because they are born relatively immature to ensure that they fit through the maternal bony pelvis; (iv) as a corollary to the asymmetric selection pressure for a spacious birth canal in females, humans evolved pronounced sexual dimorphism of pelvic shape. Recently, the hypothesis has been challenged on both empirical and theoretical grounds. Here, we appraise the original ideas captured under the ‘obstetrical dilemma’ and their subsequent evolution. We also evaluate complementary and alternative explanations for a tight fetopelvic fit and obstructed labour, including ecological factors related to nutrition and thermoregulation, constraints imposed by the stability of the pelvic floor or by maternal and fetal metabolism, the energetics of bipedalism, and variability in pelvic shape. This reveals that human childbirth is affected by a complex combination of evolutionary, ecological, and biocultural factors, which variably constrain maternal pelvic form and fetal growth. Our review demonstrates that it is unwarranted to reject the obstetrical dilemma hypothesis entirely because several of its fundamental assumptions have not been successfully discounted despite claims to the contrary. As such, the obstetrical dilemma remains a tenable hypothesis that can be used productively to guide evolutionary research.
Significance of monitoring vascular endothelial growth factor, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and Interleukin-8 in diabetic macular edema towards early identification of nonresponders to ranibizumab therapy

Purpose: Identification of nonresponders prior to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy would help in the judicious clinical management of diabetic macular edema (DME) patients. Thus, a systematic study was initiated to identify nonresponding DME patient population undergoing ranibizumab treatment to figure out additional inflammatory components that may contribute to their nonresponsiveness to anti-VEGF therapy. Methods: A total of 40 patients recruited to this investigator-initiated trial received intravitreal ranibizumab monthly for 3 months. The fourth- and fifth-month injections were according to PRN protocol and the sixth-month injection was mandatory. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), and VEGF in aqueous humor were measured for all the patients. Patients were grouped into responders/nonresponders on the formulated criteria and the levels of key pro-inflammatory cytokines were also measured between the two groups at baseline, 2 month and 5 months using cytometric bead array (CBA). Results: Eleven patients were categorized (29.72%) as responders and 10 patients (27.02%) as nonresponders. Nonresponders showed poorer BCVA (P = 0.024, 0.045, and 0.048 for 4, 5, and 6 months) and higher CMT (P = 0.021, 0.0008 and <0.0001 for baseline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months) compared to responders. The cytokines IL-8, MCP-1 were significantly up regulated (P = 0.0048 and 0.029 for MCP-1 and IL-8) in nonresponders. Conclusion: Elevated MCP-1 and IL-8 levels found in the nonresponders could be used as a prognostic marker to identify these groups of patients and can help in developing alternative treatment options along with anti-VEGF therapy.
Interventional pulmonology during COVID-19 pandemic: current evidence and future perspectives

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, has become increasingly prevalent worldwide, reaching a pandemic stage in March 2020. The organization of health care services had to change because of this new disease, with the need to reallocate staff and materials, besides changing management protocols. A very important challenge is not to expose patients and health care workers to the risk of infection and not to waste personal protective equipment (PPE). In the field of interventional pulmonology, various aspects related to COVID-19 must be taken into great consideration. Although bronchoscopy is not a first-line test for patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection, it has a role in selected cases and it can be useful for differential diagnosis. However, bronchoscopy is an aerosol-generating procedure, that’s why its unjustified use could contribute to propagate the virus. For this reason, the utility of each procedure must be carefully evaluated, the patient has to be properly investigated before the procedure, which has to be performed with specific precautions, including adequate PPE. In this review, we summarize the knowledge and the principal statements about endoscopic activity in COVID-19 period, in both diagnosis of COVID-19 and management of patients. How to safely perform both bronchoscopic and pleural-related procedures (thoracoscopy, pleural biopsy and drainage of pleural effusions) is described with the aim to help the staff to decide when and how performing a procedure. We also highlight how interventional pulmonology could help in matter of complications related to COVID-19.
Microglial MERTK eliminates phosphatidylserine‐displaying inhibitory post‐synapses

Glia contribute to synapse elimination through phagocytosis in the central nervous system. Despite the important roles of this process in development and neurological disorders, the identity and regulation of the "eat‐me" signal that initiates glia‐mediated phagocytosis of synapses has remained incompletely understood. Here, we generated conditional knockout mice with neuronal‐specific deletion of the flippase chaperone Cdc50a, to induce stable exposure of phosphatidylserine, a well‐known "eat‐me" signal for apoptotic cells, on the neuronal outer membrane. Surprisingly, acute Cdc50a deletion in mature neurons causes preferential phosphatidylserine exposure in neuronal somas and specific loss of inhibitory post‐synapses without effects on other synapses, resulting in abnormal excitability and seizures. Ablation of microglia or the deletion of microglial phagocytic receptor Mertk prevents the loss of inhibitory post‐synapses and the seizure phenotype, indicating that microglial phagocytosis is responsible for inhibitory post‐synapse elimination. Moreover, we found that phosphatidylserine is used for microglia‐mediated pruning of inhibitory post‐synapses in normal brains, suggesting that phosphatidylserine serves as a general "eat‐me" signal for inhibitory post‐synapse elimination.
Novel Canine Coronavirus Isolated from a Hospitalized Pneumonia Patient, East Malaysia

Abstract Background During the validation of a highly sensitive pan-species coronavirus (CoV) semi-nested RT-PCR assay, we found canine CoV (CCoV) RNA in nasopharyngeal swabs from eight (2.5%) of 301 patients hospitalized with pneumonia during 2017-18 in Sarawak, Malaysia. Most patients were children living in rural areas with frequent exposure to domesticated animals and wildlife. Methods Specimens were further studied with universal and species-specific CoV and CCoV one-step RT-PCR assays, and viral isolation was performed in A72 canine cells. Complete genome sequencing was conducted using Sanger method. Results Two of eight specimens contained sufficient amounts of CCoVs as confirmed by less-sensitive single-step RT-PCR assays, and one specimen demonstrated cytopathic effects (CPE) in A72 cells. Complete genome sequencing of the virus causing CPE identified it as a novel canine-feline recombinant alphacoronavirus (genotype II) that we named CCoV-HuPn-2018. Most of CCoV-HuPn-2018 genome is more closely related to a CCoV TN-449, while its S gene shared significantly higher sequence identity with CCoV-UCD-1 (S1 domain) and a feline CoV WSU 79-1683 (S2 domain). CCoV-HuPn-2018 is unique for a 36 nt (12-aa) deletion in the N protein and the presence of full-length and truncated 7b non-structural protein which may have clinical relevance. Conclusions This is the first report of a novel canine-feline recombinant alphacoronavirus isolated from a human pneumonia patient. If confirmed as a pathogen, it may represent the eighth unique coronavirus known to cause disease in humans. Our findings underscore the public health threat of animal CoVs and a need to conduct better surveillance for them.
What Types of Exercise Are More Effective in Reducing Obesity and Blood Pressure for Middle-Aged Women? A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis

Background: A systematic review was performed to identify the types of physical activities effective as interventions in preventing metabolic syndrome in middle-aged women. Methods: Electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and CINAHL) served as the data sources. Cochrane’s Risk of Bias 2 was applied to assess the risk of bias of the randomized controlled trials. Meta-analyses were performed on selected studies using Review Manager 5.3. Thirty-one trials enrolling 2,202 participants were included. Results: Compared to controls, the effects of physical activity were indicated by pooled mean differences, which were −0.57 kg for body weight, −0.43 kg/m2 for body mass index, −1.63 cm for waist circumference, −4.89 mmHg for systolic blood pressure (BP), and −2.71 mmHg for diastolic BP. The effects were greater on the measurements of waist circumference and BP than on body weight and BMI. The types of physical activities were further analyzed according to sub-groups. Only aerobic exercise did not affect body weight and resistance exercise did not significantly change any results. Contrarily, combined exercises significantly reduced measurements of waist circumference and BP. Conclusion: This review can provide valuable information for research and implementation of measures to prevent metabolic syndrome in middle-aged women.
Vitamin D Deficiency Prevalence in Late Neonatal Hypocalcemia: A Multicenter Study.

Objective Late neonatal hypocalcemia (LNH) is a common metabolic problem associated with hypoparathyroidism, high phosphate intake and vitamin D deficiency (VDD), often presenting with seizures. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to evaluate the role of VDD in LNH in Turkey and to describe the characteristics of affected newborns. Methods Conducted in a cross-sectional design with the participation of 61 neonatal centers from December 2015 to December 2016, the study included term neonates with LNH (n=96) and their mothers (n=93). Data were registered to the FAVOR Web Registry System. Serum samples of the newborns and mothers were analyzed for calcium, phosphate, magnesium, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, intact parathormone (iPTH) and 25 hydroxyvitamin D 25(OH) D levels. Results The median onset time of hypocalcemia was 5.0 (range, 4.0-8.0) days of age, with a male preponderance (60.4%). The median serum 25(OH)D levels of the neonates and their mothers were 6.3 (range, 4.1-9.05) ng/ml and 5.2 (range, 4.7-8.8) ng/ml, respectively. The prevalence of VDD (<12 ng/ml) was high in both the neonates (86.5%) and mothers (93%). Serum 25(OH)D levels of the infants and mothers showed a strong correlation (p<0.001). While the majority (93.7%) of the neonates had normal/high phosphorus levels, iPTH levels were low or inappropriately normal in 54.2% of the patients. Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency prevalence was found to be high in LNH. Efforts to provide vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy should be encouraged. Evaluation of vitamin D status should be included in the workup of LNH.
quantitative method of determining the hygienic efficiency of meat thawing processes

The temperature function integration technique was examined as a means of evaluating the hygienic efficiency of meat thawing processes. Lag phase and growth rate data subsequent to freezing/thawing were obtained for Escherichia coli over the temperature range 10-40 o C. A lag phase model were formulated. Application of these models to product temperature histories for both laboratory and commercial thawing gave calculated and observed values for E. coli growth that were sufficiently close to directly determined values to be of practical utility in process hygiene assurance