Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brown-headed Nuthatches (Sitta pusilla) have more fluctuating asymmetry than White-breasted Nuthatches (S. carolinensis) but no change over 75 years

ABSTRACT Birds face many human-induced environmental challenges that we associate with population declines. Because of this, we need more ways to monitor populations before they become endangered. Several authors have proposed that fluctuating asymmetry, or nondirectional deviation from bilateral symmetry, could be used as an indicator of population declines. Fluctuating asymmetry is linked to developmental instability and stress associated with environmental challenges such as habitat loss in populations of birds and other animals. Two key premises of the argument for linking fluctuating asymmetry and population declines are that (1) fluctuating asymmetry changes over time, and (2) change over time results in overall population- or species-level differences in fluctuating asymmetry. I evaluated these premises by measuring tarsus and hallux lengths of museum specimens primarily from 1875–1950 in a pair of closely related species with different population statuses—the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) and the Brown-headed Nuthatch (S. pusilla). Since Brown-headed Nuthatch populations are decreasing whereas White-breasted Nuthatch populations are increasing, I predicted that Brown-headed Nuthatches would have increasing fluctuating asymmetry over time whereas White-breasted Nuthatches would have no change or decreasing fluctuating asymmetry over time, and this would result in Brown-headed Nuthatches having more overall fluctuating asymmetry in both morphological traits than White-breasted Nuthatches. The percent asymmetry of tarsi and halluces for Brown-headed Nuthatches were at least 1.5× higher than the corresponding values for White-breasted Nuthatches, which supported the second premise. However, since I also found that there was a great deal of interindividual variation and no change in fluctuating asymmetry over time in either species, it is still unclear whether fluctuating asymmetry could be used to help monitor populations for evidence of decline before they reach endangered status. Future studies should more broadly and deeply explore the associations between avian population declines and fluctuating asymmetry.
Smartphone Screen Time Among University Students in Lebanon and Its Association With Insomnia, Bedtime Procrastination, and Body Mass Index During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective We aimed to investigate the association of increased smartphone screen time with insomnia, bedtime procrastination, depression, anxiety, body mass index (BMI), and physical activity during the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods An online survey was performed for university students from all regions of Lebanon during the lockdown. The survey included questionnaires about smartphone screen time, diet, physical activity, psychological symptoms, and bedtime procrastination. We defined 6 hours of smartphone use as critical based on a survey done in United States. Results Among female students, smartphone use duration, physical activity levels, BMI, depression, anxiety, and insomnia severity were significantly higher than in male. When we stratified participants based on 6 hours of smartphone use, females, unhealthy food consumption, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and bedtime procrastination were significantly higher in the group with ≥6 hours of smartphone use. When we divided based on 7 hours, physical activity and body weight also differed between the two groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female, overweight, insomnia, and bedtime procrastination were significant predictors of a phone screen time of 7 hours. Conclusion Our findings suggest that adults should be more cautious and responsible when using smartphones and be more concerned about the health-related risks.
The ryanodine receptor stabilizer S107 ameliorates contractility of adult Rbm20 knockout rat cardiomyocytes

RNA binding motif 20 (RBM20) cardiomyopathy has been detected in approximately 3% of populations afflicted with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). It is well conceived that RBM20 cardiomyopathy is provoked by titin isoform switching in combination with resting Ca2+ leaking. In this study, we characterized the cardiac function in Rbm20 knockout (KO) rats at 3‐, 6‐, 9‐, and 12‐months of age and examined the effect of the ryanodine receptor stabilizer S107 on resting intracellular levels and cardiomyocyte contractile properties. Our results revealed that even though Rbm20 depletion promoted expression of larger titin isoform and reduced myocardial stiffness in young rats (3 months of age), the established DCM phenotype required more time to embellish. S107 restored elevated intracellular Ca2+ to normal levels and ameliorated cardiomyocyte contractile properties in isolated cardiomyocytes from 6‐month‐old Rbm20 KO rats. However, S107 failed to preserve cardiac homeostasis in Rbm20 KO rats at 12 months of age, unexpectedly, likely due to the existence of multiple pathogenic mechanisms. Taken together, our data suggest the therapeutic promises of S107 in the management of RBM20 cardiomyopathy.
Deletion of lrrk2 causes early developmental abnormalities and age-dependent increase of monoamine catabolism in the zebrafish brain

LRRK2 gain-of-function is considered a major cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in humans. However, pathogenicity of LRRK2 loss-of-function in animal models is controversial. Here we show that deletion of the entire zebrafish lrrk2 locus elicits a pleomorphic transient brain phenotype in maternal-zygotic mutant embryos (mzLrrk2). In contrast to lrrk2, the paralog gene lrrk1 is virtually not expressed in the brain of both wild-type and mzLrrk2 fish at different developmental stages. Notably, we found reduced catecholaminergic neurons, the main target of PD, in specific cell populations in the brains of mzLrrk2 larvae, but not adult fish. Strikingly, age-dependent accumulation of monoamine oxidase (MAO)-dependent catabolic signatures within mzLrrk2 brains revealed a previously undescribed interaction between LRRK2 and MAO biological activities. Our results highlight mzLrrk2 zebrafish as a tractable tool to study LRRK2 loss-of-function in vivo, and suggest a link between LRRK2 and MAO, potentially of relevance in the prodromic stages of PD.
Effect of Camrelizumab vs Placebo Added to Chemotherapy on Survival and Progression-Free Survival in Patients With Advanced or Metastatic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: The ESCORT-1st Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance Standard first-line therapy for advanced or metastatic esophageal carcinoma is chemotherapy, but the prognosis remains poor. Camrelizumab (an anti-programmed death receptor 1 [PD-1] antibody) showed antitumor activity in previously treated advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Objective To evaluate the efficacy and adverse events of camrelizumab plus chemotherapy vs placebo plus chemotherapy as a first-line treatment in advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Design, Setting, and Participants This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, phase 3 trial (ESCORT-1st study) enrolled patients from 60 hospitals in China between December 3, 2018, and May 12, 2020 (final follow-up, October 30, 2020). A total of 751 patients were screened and 596 eligible patients with untreated advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were randomized. Interventions Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive either camrelizumab 200 mg (n = 298) or placebo (n = 298), combined with up to 6 cycles of paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) and cisplatin (75 mg/m2). All treatments were given intravenously every 3 weeks. Main Outcomes and Measures Coprimary end points were overall survival (significance threshold, 1-sided P < .02) and progression-free survival (significance threshold, 1-sided P < .005). Results Of the 596 patients randomized (median age, 62 years [interquartile range, 56-67 years]; 523 men [87.8%]), 1 patient in the placebo-chemotherapy group did not receive planned treatment. A total of 490 patients (82.2%) had discontinued the study treatment. The median follow-up was 10.8 months. The overall survival for the camrelizumab-chemotherapy group was a median of 15.3 months (95% CI, 12.8-17.3; 135 deaths) vs a median of 12.0 months (95% CI, 11.0-13.3; 174 deaths) for the placebo-chemotherapy group (hazard ratio [HR] for death, 0.70 [95% CI, 0.56-0.88]; 1-sided P = .001). Progression-free survival for camrelizumab plus chemotherapy was a median of 6.9 months (95% CI, 5.8-7.4; 199 progression or deaths) vs 5.6 months (95% CI, 5.5-5.7; 229 progression or deaths) for the placebo-chemotherapy group (HR for progression or death, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.46-0.68]; 1-sided P < .001). Treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 189 patients (63.4%) in the camrelizumab-chemotherapy group and 201 (67.7%) in the placebo-chemotherapy group, including treatment-related deaths among 9 patients (3.0%) and 11 patients (3.7%), respectively. Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the addition of camrelizumab to chemotherapy, compared with placebo and chemotherapy, significantly improved overall survival and progression-free survival. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03691090.
A Programmatic Response, Including Bamlanivimab or Casirivimab-imdevimab Administration, Reduces Hospitalization and Death in COVID-19 Positive Abdominal Transplant Recipients

Background. (COVID-19) has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality in solid organ transplant recipients. In December 2020, at the peak of the Los Angeles outbreak, our center rapidly implemented a protocol to improve outpatient management and provide bamlanivimab or casirivimab-imdevimab [COVID monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies] to all eligible COVID-19 positive liver and kidney transplant recipients. Methods. A retrospective review of all abdominal organ transplant recipients who were COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction positive between February 2020 and February 2021 from our center was performed. Patient demographics, COVID-19 treatments, hospitalizations, and survival were reviewed. Patients were considered eligible for COVID mAb therapy if they met outpatient criteria at the time of diagnosis. Results. In the study period, 121 patients in the kidney transplant recipients group (KG) and 105 patients in the liver or combined liver/kidney transplant recipients group (LG) were COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction positive. Hospitalization rates were similar for the KG (45%) versus LG (35%) (P = 0.20), but mortality was higher for the KG (22%) when compared to LG (10%) (P = 0.02). Our programmatic response, including outpatient COVID mAb therapies, reduced hospitalizations (P = 0.01) and deaths (P = 0.01). Ninety-four KG and 87 LG patients were identified as potentially eligible for COVID mAb therapy, and 17 KG and 17 LG patients were treated. COVID mAb therapies reduced hospitalization from 32% to 15% (P = 0.045) and eliminated mortality (13% versus 0%, P = 0.04). Conclusions. An aggressive approach including outpatient COVID mAb therapy in the COVID positive abdominal organ transplant recipients significantly decreased hospitalization and death. Early outpatient intervention for COVID-19 disease in transplant patients should be considered where possible.
Automated Georeferencing of Antarctic Species

Many text documents in the biological domain contain references to the toponym of specific phenomena (e.g. species sightings) in natural language form “In <LOCATION> Garwood Valley summer activity was 0.2% for <SPECIES> Umbilicaria aprina and 1.7% for <SPECIES> Caloplaca sp. ” While methods have been developed to extract place names from documents, and attention has been given to the interpretation of spatial prepositions, the ability to connect toponym mentions in text with the phenomena to which they refer (in this case species) has been given limited attention, but would be of considerable benefit for the task of mapping specific phenomena mentioned in text documents. As part of work to create a pipeline to automate georeferencing of species within legacy documents, this paper proposes a method to: (1) recognise species and toponyms within text and (2) match each species mention to the relevant toponym mention. Our methods find significant promise in a bespoke rules-and dictionary-based approach to recognise species within text (F1 scores up to 0.87 including partial matches) but less success, as yet, recognising toponyms using multiple gazetteers combined with an off the shelf natural language processing tool (F1 up to 0.62). Most importantly, we offer a contribution to the relatively nascent area of matching toponym references to the object they locate (in our case species), including cases in which the toponym and species are in different sentences. We use tree-based models to achieve precision as high as 0.88 or an F1 score up to 0.68 depending on the downsampling rate. Initial results out perform previous research on detecting entity relationships that may cross sentence boundaries within biomedical text, and differ from previous work in specifically addressing species mapping.
COVID-19 severity impacts on long-term neurological manifestation after hospitalisation

Background: Preclinical and clinical investigations have argued for nervous system involvement in SARS-CoV-2 infection and for long term sequalae including neurological manifestations Methods: a sample of 208 previously hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 165 patients were re-assessed at 6 months according to a structured standardized clinical protocol. Premorbid comorbidities and clinical status, severity of COVID-19 disease, complications during and after hospitalization were recorded. Results At 6-month follow-up after hospitalisation due to COVID-19 disease, patients displayed a wide array of neurological symptoms, being fatigue (34%), memory/attention (31%), and sleep disorders (30%) the most frequent. Subjects reporting neurological symptoms were affected by more severe respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection parameters during hospitalisation. At neurological examination, 37.4% of patients exhibited neurological abnormalities, being cognitive deficits (17.5%), hyposmia (15.7%) and postural tremor (13.8%) the most common. Patients with cognitive deficits at follow-up were comparable for age, sex and pre-admission comorbidities but experienced worse respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection disease and longer hospitalisation. Conclusions: long term neurological manifestations after hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection affects one third of survivors. Multiple neurological abnormalities including mild cognitive impairment are associated with severity of respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection.
DualRing

We present DualRing, a novel ring-form input device that can capture the state and movement of the user's hand and fingers. With two IMU rings attached to the user's thumb and index finger, DualRing can sense not only the absolute hand gesture relative to the ground but also the relative pose and movement among hand segments. To enable natural thumb-to-finger interaction, we develop a high-frequency AC circuit for on-body contact detection. Based on the sensing information of DualRing, we outline the interaction space and divide it into three sub-spaces: within-hand interaction, hand-to-surface interaction, and hand-to-object interaction. By analyzing the accuracy and performance of our system, we demonstrate the informational advantage of DualRing in sensing comprehensive hand gestures compared with single-ring-based solutions. Through the user study, we discovered the interaction space enabled by DualRing is favored by users for its usability, efficiency, and novelty.
Fusaric acid induces hepatic global m6A RNA methylation and differential expression of m6A regulatory genes in vivo - a pilot study

ABSTRACT N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is an abundant epitranscriptomic mark that regulates gene expression to execute cellular developmental programmes and environmental adaptation. Fusaric acid (FA) is a mycotoxin that contaminates agricultural foods and exerts toxicity in humans and animals; however, its epitranscriptomic effects are unclear. We investigated the effect of FA on global m6A RNA methylation and mRNA expression levels of key m6A regulatory genes in C57BL/6 mouse livers. C57BL/6 mice (n = 6/group) were orally administered 0.1 M phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or 50 mg/kg FA. Mice were euthanized 24 h after oral administration, livers were harvested, and RNA was isolated. RNA samples were assayed for global m6A levels using an m6A RNA Methylation Quantification Kit. The mRNA expression of m6A regulators i.e. writers, erasers, and readers were measured by qRT-PCR. FA increased global m6A RNA methylation (p < 0.0001) in mouse livers. FA increased the expression of METTL3 (p = 0.0143) and METTL14 (p = 0.0281), and decreased the expression of FTO (p = 0.0036) and ALKBH5 (p = 0.0035). The expression of YTHDF2 (p = 0.0007), YTHDF3 (p = 0.0061), and YTHDC2 (p = 0.0258) were increased by FA in mouse livers. This study shows that the liver m6A epitranscriptome can be modified by FA exposure in an in vivo model and can be useful for identifying the molecular mechanisms whereby m6A RNA modifications influence the toxicological outcomes of FA exposure.
Transcriptome-based identification of molecular markers related to the development and prognosis of Colon cancer

Abstract Colon cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the digestive system that seriously threaten human health and whose pathogenesis has not been completely elucidated. The purpose of this study was to investigate genes related to colon cancer and explore their potential values in colon cancer prognosis. Clinical information and transcriptome data of patients with colon cancer were obtained from UCSC Xena. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between colon cancer tissues and normal colon tissues were identified and analyzed by R packages. A total of 1414 DEGs were identified, including 593 upregulated and 821 downregulated genes in colon cancer tissues. These DEGs were enriched in multiple biological processes, such as cell junction organization, mitotic nuclear division and digestive tract development. The expression of 14 DEGs (such as PBK, C2CD4A and CXCL10) was correlated with tumor stages of colon cancer. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the expression of 139 DEGs (such as HSPA1A, CCDC136 and SEZ6L2) was related to the prognosis of patients with colon cancer. The prognosis prediction model constructed based on 35 DEGs could effectively estimate 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) of patients with colon cancer (AUC of 3- and 5-year OS were 0.816 and 0.897, respectively). In addition, the OS of high-risk patients was significantly poorer than that of low-risk patients. In conclusion, the present study identified multiple genes related to the development and prognosis of colon cancer, which would provide novel molecular targets for the diagnosis and therapy of colon cancer.
BreathTrack

Breathing biomarkers, such as breathing rate, fractional inspiratory time, and inhalation-exhalation ratio, are vital for monitoring the user's health and well-being. Accurate estimation of such biomarkers requires breathing phase detection, i.e., inhalation and exhalation. However, traditional breathing phase monitoring relies on uncomfortable equipment, e.g., chestbands. Smartphone acoustic sensors have shown promising results for passive breathing monitoring during sleep or guided breathing. However, detecting breathing phases using acoustic data can be challenging for various reasons. One of the major obstacles is the complexity of annotating breathing sounds due to inaudible parts in regular breathing and background noises. This paper assesses the potential of using smartphone acoustic sensors for passive unguided breathing phase monitoring in a natural environment. We address the annotation challenges by developing a novel variant of the teacher-student training method for transferring knowledge from an inertial sensor to an acoustic sensor, eliminating the need for manual breathing sound annotation by fusing signal processing with deep learning techniques. We train and evaluate our model on the breathing data collected from 131 subjects, including healthy individuals and respiratory patients. Experimental results show that our model can detect breathing phases with 77.33% accuracy using acoustic sensors. We further present an example use-case of breathing phase-detection by first estimating the biomarkers from the estimated breathing phases and then using these biomarkers for pulmonary patient detection. Using the detected breathing phases, we can estimate fractional inspiratory time with 92.08% accuracy, the inhalation-exhalation ratio with 86.76% accuracy, and the breathing rate with 91.74% accuracy. Moreover, we can distinguish respiratory patients from healthy individuals with up to 76% accuracy. This paper is the first to show the feasibility of detecting regular breathing phases towards passively monitoring respiratory health and well-being using acoustic data captured by a smartphone.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Lifestyle: How Young people have Adapted Their Leisure and Routine during Lockdown in Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global event. Physical distancing and other restrictions imposed by national and local governments all over the world to contain the spread of the virus almost certainly have had a significant impact on young people, who are more sensitive to peer interaction and social stimuli than adults. This article sets out to investigate the lifestyles of young Italians during the first lockdown, with the aim of exploring how leisure becomes the object of a negotiation between social needs, regulatory requirements, and a situation of crisis. To investigate these aspects, we present the results of a quantitative study conducted on a large group of individuals in Italy, focusing on young Italians’ lifestyles and leisure activities, together with an overview of prevailing moods. Our findings indicate that young people activated various adaptation strategies in response to the crisis with possible significant effects on lifestyles and well-being.
A Three-Coefficient Model with Global Optimization for Heavy End Characterization of Gas Condensate PVT Data

Characterization of heavy end, as plus fraction, is among the most crucial steps in predicting phase behavior of a hydrocarbon fluid system. Proper selection of single carbon number (SCN) distribution function is essential for heavy end characterization. The SCN distribution function is subject to fluid nature. The exponential distribution function has been and is widely applied to gas condensate plus fractions. More complicated functions are necessary in systems with jumps or discontinuities in successive SCN groups. Thirty fluid samples of a supergiant gas condensate reservoir are analyzed, most of which showing a discontinuity at SCN=10. A three-coefficient model is developed and then applied to determine the distribution function. The plus fraction is divided into three zones, each characterized by an adjustable parameter. A global optimization algorithm is developed and then applied to obtain unique coefficients for complete set of samples. This developed model predicts the experimental data with 10.6% accuracy and is in better agreement with experimental data compared to existing distribution functions.