Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Furosemide on Prevertebral Soft Tissue Swelling after Anterior Cervical Fusion: A Comparative Study with Dexamethasone

Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Purpose This study aimed to investigate the effect of furosemide on prevertebral soft tissue swelling (PSTS) after anterior cervical fusion (ACF) and compare it with the effect of dexamethasone. Overview of Literature Postoperative PSTS is a common complication of ACF. Dexamethasone has been used for its treatment; however, its efficacy remains controversial. Furosemide may reduce PSTS if it is soft tissue edema; however, no studies have demonstrated the effect of furosemide on PSTS after ACF. Methods The symptomatic PSTS group received intravenous (IV) administration of dexamethasone or furosemide. The asymptomatic PSTS group did not receive any medication. Patients were divided into the control (no medication, n=31), Dexa (IV dexamethasone, n=25), and Furo (IV furosemide, n=28) groups. PSTS was checked daily with simple radiographs and medication-induced reductions in PSTS from its peak or after medication. Results The peak time (postoperative days) of PSTS in the control (2.27±0.47, p<0.05) and Dexa (1.91±0.54, p<0.01) groups were significantly later than that in the Furo group (1.38±0.74). PSTS was significantly lower in the Furo group than in the Dexa group from postoperative days 4 to 7 (p<0.05). PSTS reduction after the peak was significantly greater in the Furo group than in the control (p<0.01) and Dexa (p<0.01) groups. After starting the medication therapy, the Furo group showed a significantly greater reduction in PSTS than the Dexa group (p<0.01). No difference was found in symptom improvement among the three groups. Conclusions If furosemide is used to reduce PSTS after ACF, it can effectively reduce symptoms.
Bacterially enhanced plant‐growing media for controlled environment agriculture

Abstract Microbe–plant interactions in the root zone not only shape crop performance in soil but also in hydroponic cultivation systems. The biological and physicochemical properties of the plant‐growing medium determine the root‐associated microbial community and influence bacterial inoculation effectiveness, which affects plant growth. This study investigated the combined impact of plant‐growing media composition and bacterial community inoculation on the root‐associated bacterial community of hydroponically grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Ten plant‐growing media were composed of varying raw materials, including black peat, white peat, coir pith, wood fibre, composted bark, green waste compost, perlite and sand. In addition, five different bacterial community inocula (BCI S1–5) were collected from the roots of lettuce obtained at different farms. After inoculation and cultivation inside a vertical farm, lettuce root‐associated bacterial community structures, diversity and compositions were determined by evaluating 16S rRNA gene sequences. The study revealed distinct bacterial community structures among experimental replicates, highlighting the influence of raw material variations on root‐associated bacterial communities, even at the batch level. However, bacterial community inoculation allowed modulation of the root‐associated bacterial communities independently from the plant‐growing medium composition. Bacterial diversity was identified as a key determinant of plant growth performance with green waste compost introducing Bacilli and Actinobacteria, and bacterial community inoculum S3 introducing Pseudomonas, which positively correlated with plant growth. These findings challenge the prevailing notion of hydroponic cultivation systems as sterile environments and highlight the significance of proper plant‐growing media raw material selection and bacterial community inoculation in shaping root‐associated microbiomes that provide stability through microbial diversity. This study supports the concept of creating bacterially enhanced plant‐growing media to promote plant growth in controlled environment agriculture.
IDENTIFYING PROFILES OF STROKE PATIENTS BENEFITTING FROM ADDITIONAL TRAINING: A LATENT CLASS ANALYSIS APPROACH

Objective To identify profiles of stroke patient benefitting from additional training, using latent class analysis. Design Retrospective observational study. Patients Patients with stroke (n = 6,875) admitted to 42 recovery rehabilitation units in Japan between January 2005 and March 2016 who were registered in the Japan Association of Rehabilitation Database. Methods The main outcome measure was the difference in Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores between admission and discharge (referred to as “gain”). The effect of additional training, categorized as usual care (no additional training), self-exercise, training with hospital staff, or both exercise (combining self-exercise and training with hospital staff), was assessed through multiple regression analyses of latent classes. Results Applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 1185 patients were classified into 7 latent classes based on their admission characteristics (class size n = 82 (7%) to n = 226 (19%)). Patients with class 2 characteristics (right hemiparesis and modified dependence in the motor-FIM and cognitive-FIM) had positive FIM gain with additional training (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.49–3.29; p < 0.01). One-way analysis of variance revealed that training with hospital staff (95% CI 0.07–16.94; p < 0.05) and both exercises (95% CI 5.38–15.13; p < 0.01) led to a significantly higher mean FIM gain than after usual care. Conclusion Additional training in patients with stroke with right hemiparesis and modified dependence in activities of daily living was shown to improve activities of daily living. Training with hospital staff combined with self-exercise is a promising rehabilitation strategy for these patients. LAY ABSTRACT This study, conducted in Japan, aimed to identify the profiles of patients with stroke who would benefit from extra training. The records of 6875 patients with stroke who had been admitted to rehabilitation units between 2005 and 2016 were analysed and the change in patients’ abilities between admission to the unit and discharge was determined. Some patients received additional training, while others did not. The results showed that patients with certain characteristics, such as right-side weakness and difficulty with daily activities, improved with extra training. Specifically, a combination of training from hospital staff and self-exercise was most effective. In summary, the study found that additional training can help stroke patients, especially those with right-side weakness and those who find daily activities challenging. Combining training from hospital staff with self-exercise seems to be a promising approach for rehabilitation in these patients.
Mobile barrier mechanisms for Na+-coupled symport in an MFS sugar transporter

While many 3D structures of cation-coupled transporters have been determined, the mechanistic details governing the obligatory coupling and functional regulations still remain elusive. The bacterial melibiose transporter (MelB) is a prototype of major facilitator superfamily transporters. With a conformation-selective nanobody, we determined a low-sugar affinity inward-facing Na+-bound cryoEM structure. The available outward-facing sugar-bound structures showed that the N- and C-terminal residues of the inner barrier contribute to the sugar selectivity. The inward-open conformation shows that the sugar selectivity pocket is also broken when the inner barrier is broken. Isothermal titration calorimetry measurements revealed that this inward-facing conformation trapped by this nanobody exhibited a greatly decreased sugar-binding affinity, suggesting the mechanisms for substrate intracellular release and accumulation. While the inner/outer barrier shift directly regulates the sugar-binding affinity, it has little or no effect on the cation binding, which is supported by molecular dynamics simulations. Furthermore, the hydron/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry analyses allowed us to identify dynamic regions; some regions are involved in the functionally important inner barrier-specific salt-bridge network, which indicates their critical roles in the barrier switching mechanisms for transport. These complementary results provided structural and dynamic insights into the mobile barrier mechanism for cation-coupled symport.
Detection of Mortality in Tropical Forests Using Remote Sensing: From Treefall Gaps to Large Disturbances

The frequency, severity, and intensity of natural disturbances in tropical forests continually re-shape forest structure. At small scale, branch or tree-falls gaps and subsequent recovery are important mechanisms for carbon cycling. At landscape scale, large disturbances (blow-downs) may also play a role on the structure and composition of tropical forests. Quantitative studies of natural disturbances across the occurrence spectrum (branch fall-gaps to blow-downs) are rare for the Amazon. Remote sensing coupled with intense field work data collection provides the means to analyze the dynamic of tropical forests at multiple scales. In this dissertation three aspects of natural disturbances were examined: (1) formation and detection of small scale disturbances investigated in the field and with high resolution remote sensing; (2) mapping and spatial analysis of large disturbances (blow-downs) caused by convective cloud drafts; and (3) a quantitative characterization of the large spectrum of natural disturbances in tropical ecosystems. For small scale disturbances, two large plots of 114 and 53 ha were established and surveyed in unmanaged tropical forest of the Amazon. Data of gap area, canopy openness (CO), leaf area index (LAI), coarse woody debris (CWD) and tree mortality were collected in both plots. The relation between CO and LAI of gaps coupled with high resolution satellite images IKONOS-2 was investigated using geostatistics. Based on field plot measurements, tree-fall gaps account only about 30% of the flux of annual tree mortality. Most mortality does not result in gap formation. On average, gap formation accounted for a minor proportion of the stocks (about 5% of the total fallen CWD) and fluxes (about 23%) of CWD carbon. There was no significant correlation between remote sensing products and variables of CO and LAI in both large plots, probably due to high shadow fraction in high-resolution images. For large scale disturbances, a spatial pattern analysis of blow-downs apparently caused by severe storms was discovered using 27 Landsat images and daily precipitation from NOAA satellite data. In this image mosaic from 1999 to 2000, there are 279 patches (from 5 ha to 2,223 ha) characteristic of blow-downs. A total of 21,931 ha of forest were disturbed. There was a strong correlation between occurrence of blow-downs and frequency of heavy rainfall (Spearman's rank, r2=0.84, p<0.0003). We provided the first spectrum analysis of disturbances, at several scales of severity by combining data collected for this dissertation with previously published information from a variety of sources: (1) Large plot surveys; (2) mapped blowdowns; (3) RAINFOR permanent plots; (4) historical blow-downs ≥ 30 ha; and (5) the published mean above-ground biomass map of the Amazon. We found two disjointed disturbance regimes---small-scale treefall gaps and larger-scale blow-down disturbances---suggesting that there may be other missed disturbance mechanisms in the Amazon may also play a role in the dynamics of tropical forest ecosystems.
Parafoveal vision reveals qualitative differences between fusiform face area and parahippocampal place area

Abstract The center‐periphery visual field axis guides early visual system organization with enhanced resources devoted to central vision leading to reduced peripheral performance relative to that of central vision (i.e., behavioral eccentricity effect) for many visual functions. The center‐periphery organization extends to high‐order visual cortex where, for example, the well‐studied face‐sensitive fusiform face area (FFA) shows sensitivity to central vision and the place‐sensitive parahippocampal place area (PPA) shows sensitivity to peripheral vision. As we have recently found that face perception is more sensitive to eccentricity than place perception, here we examined whether these behavioral findings reflect differences in FFA's and PPA's sensitivities to eccentricity. We assumed FFA would show higher sensitivity to eccentricity than PPA would, but that both regions' modulation by eccentricity would be invariant to the viewed category. We parametrically investigated (fMRI, n = 32) how FFA's and PPA's activations are modulated by eccentricity (≤8°) and category (upright/inverted faces/houses) while keeping stimulus size constant. As expected, FFA showed an overall higher sensitivity to eccentricity than PPA. However, both regions' activation modulations by eccentricity were dependent on the viewed category. In FFA, a reduction of activation with growing eccentricity (“BOLD eccentricity effect”) was found (with different amplitudes) for all categories. In PPA however, qualitatively different BOLD eccentricity effect modulations were found (e.g., at 8° mild BOLD eccentricity effect for houses but a reverse BOLD eccentricity effect for faces and no modulation for inverted faces). Our results emphasize that peripheral vision investigations are critical to further our understanding of visual processing.
Combined transient electromagnetic and magnetotelluric study of the southern Kenya Rift Valley

Combined Transient Electromagnetic and Magnetotelluric Study of the Southern Kenya Rift Valley The transient electromagnetic (TEM) method and the magnetotelluric (MT) technique have been applied to determine the electrical resistivity structure across the southern Kenya Rift Valley. The main profile extends from the shores of Lake Victoria, west of the Rift Valley, to the north of the Chyulu Hills volcanic chain, 150 km SE of the rift. A second profile runs parallel to the Chyulu Hills volcanic trend. Data from 19 stations along the two profiles have been processed using classical techniques and in the case of MT, analysed with modem tensor decomposition methods. The TEM data have facilitated the removal of static shift effects from the MT data and recovery of the near-surface (<300 m) geoelectric structure. One-dimensional joint inversion of TEM and MT data yielded an approximate geoelectric structure for the region. Subsequent two-dimensional modelling has revealed a more realistic resistivity distribution for the complex environment of the Kenya Rift. A resistive (>2000 Q.m) Archaean crust 30 km thick, with a 10-12 km mid-crustal conductive (=100 Q.m) zone, resting on a moderately resistive (=100 £2.m) mantle appears at the west end of the main profile. A conductive fault-like zone extending to mantle depths in the area of the Oloololo Escarpment coincides with the exposed boundary between the Archaean Nyanza Craton and the Proterozoic Mozambique Belt. A poorly constrained highly resistive (>10000 Q.m) (Proterozoic ? ) crust is found at the western flank of the rift. Low resistivities (<50 £2.m) are found down to the base of the crust in the rift zone and are possibly due to the presence of sedimentary fill deposits at shallow depths, and the presence of magmatism and partial melt at deeper levels. East of the rift a less sharply defined geoelectric margin, offset from the accepted topographic and geologic boundary of the rift, marks the transition to a more resistive (=1000 Q.m) Proterozoic crust. Significantly enhanced conductivities (<100 Q.m) are implied in the complex 3-D region of the Chyulu Hills. The 2-D model is shown to be consistent with previous geophysical models for the area but offers new insights into the structure and tectonics of the Kenya Rift Valley.
Characterizing the diversity and commensal origins of penA mosaicism in the genus Neisseria

Mosaic penA alleles formed through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) have been instrumental to the rising incidence of ceftriaxone-resistant gonococcal infections. Although interspecies HGT of regions of the penA gene between Neisseria gonorrhoeae and commensal Neisseria species has been described, knowledge concerning which species are the most common contributors to mosaic penA alleles is limited, with most studies examining only a small number of alleles. Here, we investigated the origins of recombinant penA alleles through in silico analyses that incorporated 1700 penA alleles from 35 513 Neisseria isolates, comprising 15 different Neisseria species. We identified Neisseria subflava and Neisseria cinerea as the most common source of recombinant sequences in N. gonorrhoeae penA. This contrasted with Neisseria meningitidis penA, for which the primary source of recombinant DNA was other meningococci, followed by Neisseria lactamica. Additionally, we described the distribution of polymorphisms implicated in antimicrobial resistance in penA, and found that these are present across the genus. These results provide insight into resistance-related changes in the penA gene across human-associated Neisseria species, illustrating the importance of genomic surveillance of not only the pathogenic Neisseria, but also of the oral niche-associated commensals from which these pathogens are sourcing key genetic variation.
Sclerobionts on Patagonian Oysters from the Puerto Madryn Formation (Early—Late Miocene, Argentina)

Abstract. This work describes the composition and distribution of sclerobionts on the Miocene Patagonian oyster Ostrea alvarezii d'Orbigny and provides information about its paleoenvironment. The structure of sclerobiont assemblages and their preferential distribution on left/right valves (n=340) as well as their external/internal surfaces and areas was evaluated by means of multivariate analyses (nMDS, SIMPER), non-parametric tests for producing mean comparisons, and goodness of fit tests using coverage and abundance data. Sixteen ichnotaxa were recorded. Bivalves, polychaetes and bryozoans were the most representative encrusters. External surfaces, left valves and sediment-free areas were the most colonized. O. alvarezii beds are interpreted as within-habitat time-averaged assemblages. Oysters appear to have lived in small subtidal channels in a low energy tidal flat and closely related to the sediment-water interface, with the right valve resting on the substrate. Sclerobionts showed diverse behaviors, trophic levels and tiering. This suggests that sclerobiont assemblages on O. alvarezii had a complex structure with subdivision of resources, including a vertical colonization of valves by tracemakers at different levels of depth.
Cone-beam Computed Tomography Analysis of the Root Canal Morphology of Mandibular Incisors Using Two Classification Systems in a Spanish Subpopulation: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective This study evaluated the root and canal morphology in permanent mandibular incisors teeth using cone-beam computer tomography imaging in a Spanish subpopulation, and compared these findings with ipsilateral (similarity) and contralateral (symmetry) incisors. In addition, the position of canal splitting was measured. Methods A total of 229 datasets comprising four mandibular teeth each (n=916 incisors) were analysed using Vertucci and Ahmed et al. classifications, and, the similarity and symmetry were calculated. The distance from the cemento-enamel junction (CEJ), and the most coronal canal divergence was measured (if present). The role of sex was also assessed. The Cochran Q Test, LOGIS PROC in SUDAAN, Chi-square, and Kappa were used for the different comparisons. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results All incisors were single-rooted and no significant differences regarding root canal morphology were found according to the sex of the subjects included in the database. The most common morphology was Vertucci type I/Ahmed et al. 1MI1(65.3% for central and 66.8% for lateral incisors respectively), followed by type III/1MI1–2–1 (31% for central and 30.6% for lateral incisors). 1.8% of the samples were considered as non-classifiable with Vertucci but were classified with codes using the Ahmed et al. system. Similarity values were 74.7% for the left side, and 74.2% for the right side, whereas symmetry values were 90% for central and 84.3% for lateral incisors. In the presence of divergences, the main (SD) distances from the CEJ were for type II/1MI1–2–1 3.8±0.8 (centrals) 4.0±0.7 mm (laterals); for type V/1MI1–2 this value ranged between 6.0±1.8 and 5.5±1.5 mm, whereas values for 1MI1–2–3–2–1 were 1.8 and 2.1 mm. No significant differences were found when the position of the most coronal divergence was compared between lateral and central incisors for the different morphologies. Conclusion A high prevalence of Vertucci I/Ahmed et al. 1MI1 configuration was present in mandibular incisors from Spanish individuals. Similarity and symmetry were common, particularly for central incisors. The position of the coronal splitting of the canals varied according to the root canal morphology.
Looking through the imaging perspective: the importance of imaging necrosis in glioma diagnosis and prognostic prediction – single centre experience

Abstract Background The aim of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of imaging necrosis (Imnecrosis) in grading, predict the genotype and prognosis of gliomas, and further assess tumor necrosis by dynamic contrast-enhanced MR perfusion imaging (DCE-MRI). Patients and methods We retrospectively included 150 patients (104 males, mean age: 46 years old) pathologically proved as adult diffuse gliomas and all diagnosis was based on the 2021 WHO central nervous system (CNS) classification. The pathological necrosis (Panecrosis) and gene mutation information were collected. All patients underwent conventional and DCE-MRI examinations and had been followed until May 31, 2021. The Imnecrosis was determined by two experienced neuroradiologists. DCE-MRI derived metric maps have been post-processed, and the mean value of each metric in the tumor parenchyma, peritumoral and contralateral area were recorded. Results There was a strong degree of inter-observer agreement in defining Imnecrosis (Kappa = 0.668, p < 0.001) and a strong degree of agreement between Imnecrosis and Panecrosis (Kappa = 0.767, p < 0.001). Compared to low-grade gliomas, high-grade gliomas had more Imnecrosis (85.37%, p < 0.001), and Imnecrosis significantly increased with the grade of gliomas increasing. And Imnecrosis was significantly more identified in IDH-wildtype, 1p19q-non-codeletion, and CDKN2A/B-homozygous-deletion gliomas. Using multivariate Cox regression analysis, Imnecrosis was an independent and unfavorable prognosis factor (Hazard Ratio = 2.113, p = 0.046) in gliomas. Additionally, extravascular extracellular volume fraction (ve) in tumor parenchyma derived from DCE-MRI demonstrated the highest diagnostic efficiency in identifying Panecrosis and Imnecrosis with high specificity (83.3% and 91.9%, respectively). Conclusions Imnecrosis can provide supplementary evidence beyond Panecrosis in grading, predicting the genotype and prognosis of gliomas, and ve in tumor parenchyma can help to predict tumor necrosis with high specificity.