Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma isoprostanoids assessment as Alzheimer’s disease progression biomarkers

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide. So, there is a need to identify AD early diagnosis and monitoring biomarkers in blood samples. The aim of this study was to analyse the utility of lipid peroxidation biomarkers in AD progression evaluation. Participants (n = 19) were diagnosed with AD at early stages (Time 0, T0), and they were re‐evaluated 2 years later (Time 1, T1). Plasma biomarkers from AD patients were determined at both times. Some analytes, such as dihomo‐isoprostanes (17‐epi‐17‐F2t‐dihomo‐IsoP, 17‐F2t‐dihomo‐IsoP, Ent‐7(RS)‐7‐F2t‐dihomo‐IsoP), and neuroprostanes (10‐epi‐10‐F4t‐NeuroP) showed very high probability of showing an increasing trend over time. Baseline values allowed to develop an affordable preliminary regression model to predict long‐term cognitive status. So, some lipid peroxidation biomarkers would deserve consideration as useful progression AD biomarkers. The developed prediction model would constitute an important minimally invasive approach in AD personalized prognosis and perhaps could have some interest also in experimental treatments evaluation.
Developing and validating the self-transcendent emotion dictionary for text analysis

Recent years have seen a growing amount of research effort directed toward what positive media psychologists refer to as self-transcendent emotions, such as awe, admiration, elevation, gratitude, inspiration, and hope. While these emotions are invaluable to promote greater human connectedness, prosociality, and human flourishing, researchers are constrained in terms of analyzing self-transcendent emotions as expressed in spoken and written languages. Drawing upon the word-counting approach of the text analysis paradigm, this project aimed at constructing a dictionary tool—Self-Transcendent Emotion Dictionary (STED)—which can be uploaded into mainstream, text analytic software (e.g., LIWC) to identify and analyze self-transcendent emotions in large corpora. This dictionary tool was then refined and validated via three studies, where individual words were first rated with regard to their fitness into the proposed construct (Step 1), and then used to analyze essays written to reflect the corresponding construct (Step 2). Finally, the refined dictionary was applied to examine words used in nearly 4,000 human-coded New York Times articles (Step 3). Results indicated that the final dictionary, consisting of 351 lexicons and phrases, exhibits acceptable face and construct validity, and possesses a reasonable level of external validity and applicability. Despite its shortcoming in accounting for the rhetorical techniques ingrained in natural human language, the STED could be instrumental for social scientific inquiry of positive emotions in textual narratives.
Prevailing Knowledge on the Bioavailability and Biological Activities of Sulphur Compounds from Alliums: A Potential Drug Candidate

Allium sativum (garlic) is widely known and is consumed as a natural prophylactic worldwide. It produces more than 200 identified chemical compounds, with more than 20 different kinds of sulfide compounds. The sulfide compounds particularly are proven to contribute to its various biological roles and pharmacological properties such as antimicrobial, antithrombotic, hypoglycemic, antitumour, and hypolipidemic. Therefore, it is often referred as disease-preventive food. Sulphur-containing compounds from A. sativum are derivatives of S-alkenyl-l-cysteine sulfoxides, ajoene molecules, thiosulfinates, sulfides, and S-allylcysteine. This review presents an overview of the water-soluble and oil-soluble sulphur based phytochemical compounds present in garlic, highlighting their mechanism of action in treating various health conditions. However, its role as a therapeutic agent should be extensively studied as it depends on factors such as the effective dosage and the suitable method of preparation.
Notes on the Nesting of the Thick-Billed Euphonia in the Panama Canal Zone

Euphonias (Tanagra) are small, brightly colored tanagers with short bills and tails. The males are usually a dark, steel-blue above with bright yellow coloration on the forehead, forecrown and under parts. The extent of the yellow varies in the different species, of which four are recorded in the Canal Zone. The Thick-billed Euphonia (T. Zuniirostris) has a heavier bill than the others and differs further in having entirely yellow under parts, including the throat. The female is a yellowish olive green above and a clearer yellow below. This species is known to range through much of tropical South America north to Costa Rica. In Panama, it is often found at the edge of jungle. The natives call it “pica-gordo,” which, means “thick-bill. ” The birds which are frequently captured and caged apparently survive on fruits, although wild euphonias are believed to feed chiefly on various species of tropical mistletoe. Apparently the only published data on the actual breeding of the Thick-billed Euphonia are contained in a brief note by Carriker from Santa Marta, Colombia (Todd and Carriker, Ann. Carnegie Mus., 14, 1922:497) ; he describes the appearance of eggs and nest, which he indicates are usually placed in a crevice on the side of an overgrown earth bank. Wyatt (Ibis, 13, 187 1: 324)) also in Colombia, reports seeing on March 7 a pair of these euphonias apparently looking for a nest site in the thatch of a shed. This species has been found breeding regularly in the small town of Pedro Miguel, which is situated beside the Pacific locks of that name, on the eastern bank of the Panama Canal. The continental divide is only two and a half miles distant at Gold Hill, which overlooks historic Culebra or Gaillard Cut. Many low hills, some grass-covered and some jungle-clad, bring various forms of wildlife to the very edge of the landscaped areas about the residences. A narrow river and small lake, on the south and east, provides additional favored habitat, but it was not until we had moved from the lakeside to a cottage near the foot of Cerro Luisa that we saw our first pair of wild euphonias. They were in a small tree near our garage.
Prognostic implications of neutrophil‐lymphocyte ratio in COVID‐19

The clinical presentation of COVID‐19 ranges from a mild, self‐limiting disease, to multiple organ failure and death. Most severe COVID‐19 cases present low lymphocytes counts and high leukocytes counts, and accumulated evidence suggests that in a subgroup of patients presenting severe COVID‐19, there may be a hyperinflammatory response driving a severe hypercytokinaemia which may be, at least in part, signalling the presence of an underlying endothelial dysfunction. In this context, available data suggest a prognostic role of neutrophil‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in various inflammatory diseases and oncological processes. Following this rationale, we hypothesized that NLR, as a marker of endothelial dysfunction, may be useful in identifying patients with a poor prognosis in hospitalized COVID‐19 cases.
Targeting Molecular Mechanism of Vascular Smooth Muscle Senescence Induced by Angiotensin II, A Potential Therapy via Senolytics and Senomorphics

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a prevalent issue in the global aging population. Premature vascular aging such as elevated arterial stiffness appears to be a major risk factor for CVD. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are one of the essential parts of arterial pathology and prone to stress-induced senescence. The pervasiveness of senescent VSMCs in the vasculature increases with age and can be further expedited by various stressing events such as oxidative stress, mitochondria dysfunction, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and chronic inflammation. Angiotensin II (AngII) can induce many of these responses in VSMCs and is thus considered a key regulator of VSMC senescence associated with CVD. Understanding the precise mechanisms and consequences of senescent cell accumulation may uncover a new generation of therapies including senolytic and senomorphic compounds against CVD. Accordingly, in this review article, we discuss potential molecular mechanisms of VSMC senescence such as those induced by AngII and the therapeutic manipulations of senescence to control age-related CVD and associated conditions such as by senolytic.
A comparison of Salmonella survival and detection using an enrichment technique in dry and wet inoculated rendered chicken fat treated with sodium bisulfate.

The differences in the recovery of Salmonella from rendered chicken fat treated with sodium bisulfate (SBS) when inoculated with a dry vs wet inoculum was evaluated. Food grade rendered chicken fat was inoculated with a dry and wet inoculum containing a Salmonella cocktail (S. Enteritidis, S. Heidelberg, and S. Typhimurium). In addition, the effect of an antimicrobial treatment (sodium bisulfate, SBS) against Salmonella spp. in both the aqueous and fat phase of the chicken fat was evaluated. The untreated control samples in the aqueous phase had a consistent level of Salmonella (~7 log) when both the dry and wet inoculum was used. In the SBS treated aqueous phase, Salmonella were not detectable after 6h when the wet inoculum was used; whereas, when using the dry inoculum, the Salmonella were not detectable at 24h. Salmonella were detected for up to 6h in the SBS treated fat phase when the dry inoculum was used as compared to 2h with the wet-inoculum. The 24h fat samples which failed to show growth on trypticase soy agar were enriched for Salmonella isolation followed by confirmation by polymerase chain reaction using primers for the invA gene. Both SBS treated and control samples from the dry inoculated, and the inoculated control from the wet inoculated rendered chicken fat tested positive for Salmonella. However, the SBS treated sample from the wet inoculated fat was negative for Salmonella. The use of dry SBS powder against dry Salmonella inoculum in the fat matrix caused only ~2.8 log reduction after 24h as compared to ~2.2 log reduction in the positive control. However, the recovery of Salmonella from untreated control fat was lower and was not different (P ≤ 0.05) than the SBS treated fat. The results suggest the development of potential VBNC states of Salmonella or the presence of injured cells in rendered chicken fat hence suggesting that testing should include an enrichment and appropriate molecular confirmation instead of agar plating alone.
Organ-Sparing Surgery in Testicular Tumor: Is This the Right Approach for Lesions ≤ 20 mm?

Background: This study was conducted in order to analyze factors predicting malignancy in patients undergoing organ-sparing surgery (OSS) for small testicular lesions. Methods: Patients with small (≤20 mm) marker-negative clinical stage I testicular tumors were managed by OSS with tumor enucleation and frozen section examination (FSE) for the past 15 years at our institution. Benign and malignant cases were compared, focusing on preoperative and postoperative lesion sizes. Results: Eighty-nine patients were enrolled in this retrospective study. Ten (11.2%) of them were treated for synchronous bilateral tumors. Sixty-seven (67.7%) of ninety-nine lesions were benign, confirming a high concordance rate (98%) between FSE and final histology. Patients with benign tumors were significantly older than patients with malignant tumors (p = 0.026), and benign tumors were detected more frequently during urologic work-up of hormone disorders (p = 0.001). Preoperative tumor size was a strong predictor of malignancy (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.726; p < 0.001). According to the Youden index, the best cutoff to predict tumor dignity was 13.5 mm, resulting in a sensitivity and specificity of 53% and 85%, respectively. No cases of local recurrence or distant metastasis were confirmed after a median follow-up of 42 months. Conclusion: Our findings are consistent with previous reports, supporting an OSS approach in small testicular tumors whenever possible. Most tumors ≤ 20 mm were benign, and in the case of malignancy, OSS with FSE and consecutive orchiectomy is oncologically safe due to the high concordance rate of FSE and final histology, thus preventing a two-stage procedure.
False Codling Moth

Introduction Thaumatotibia leucotreta is a pest of more than 100 host plants, including all Citrus spp. and more than 40 other crops of economic importance in the US including corn, cotton, grapes, peaches, eggplant, and peppers. Its potential economic impact rating is “High” owing to its highly polyphagous habits and its potential ability to thrive in many climates in the US (USDA climatic zones 7b through 10a; Vennette et al. 2003; Gilligan et al. 2011). Native to Ethiopia and sub-Saharan Africa, T. leucotreta is not currently established in the US but it was intercepted over 1500 times at 34 ports of entry between 1984 and 2006 (Venette et al. 2003; Gilligan et al. 2011). It is predominantly a warm climate pest so development is limited by cold temperatures. As much as 20% of the country could be at risk of introduction owing to its suitable climate and high availability of host plants (Venette et al. 2003).
Intestinal Receptor of SARS-CoV-2 in Inflamed IBD Tissue Seems Downregulated by HNF4A in Ileum and Upregulated by Interferon Regulating Factors in Colon

Abstract Background Patients with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] are considered immunosuppressed, but do not seem more vulnerable for COVID-19. Nevertheless, intestinal inflammation has shown to be an important risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and prognosis. Therefore, we investigated the role of intestinal inflammation on the viral intestinal entry mechanisms, including ACE2, in IBD. Methods We collected inflamed and uninflamed mucosal biopsies from Crohn’s disease [CD] [n = 193] and ulcerative colitis [UC] [n = 158] patients, and from 51 matched non-IBD controls for RNA sequencing, differential gene expression, and co-expression analysis. Organoids from UC patients were subjected to an inflammatory mix and processed for RNA sequencing. Transmural ileal biopsies were processed for single-cell [sc] sequencing. Publicly available colonic sc-RNA sequencing data, and microarrays from tissue pre/post anti-tumour necrosis factor [TNF] therapy, were analysed. Results In inflamed CD ileum, ACE2 was significantly decreased compared with control ileum [p = 4.6E-07], whereas colonic ACE2 was higher in inflamed colon of CD/UC compared with control [p = 8.3E-03; p = 1.9E-03]. Sc-RNA sequencing confirmed this ACE2 dysregulation and exclusive epithelial ACE2 expression. Network analyses highlighted HNF4A as key regulator of ileal ACE2, and pro-inflammatory cytokines and interferon regulating factors regulated colonic ACE2. Inflammatory stimuli upregulated ACE2 in UC organoids [p = 1.7E-02], but not in non-IBD controls [p = 9.1E-01]. Anti-TNF therapy restored colonic ACE2 regulation in responders. Conclusions Intestinal inflammation alters SARS-CoV-2 coreceptors in the intestine, with opposing dysregulations in ileum and colon. HNF4A, an IBD susceptibility gene, seems an important upstream regulator of ACE2 in ileum, whereas interferon signalling might dominate in colon.
Infant-directed input and literacy effects on phonological processing: Non-word repetition scores among the Tsimane’

Language input in childhood and literacy (and/or schooling) have been described as two key experiences impacting phonological processing. In this study, we assess phonological processing via a non-word repetition (NWR) group game, in adults and children living in two villages of an ethnic group where infants are rarely spoken to, and where literacy is variable. We found lower NWR scores than in previous work for both children (N = 17; aged 1-12 years) and adults (N = 13; aged 18-60 years), which is consistent with the hypothesis that there would be long-term effects on phonological processing of experiencing low levels of directed input in infancy. Additionally, we found some evidence that literacy and/or schooling increases NWR scores, although results should be interpreted with caution given the small sample size. These findings invite further investigations in similar communities, as current results are most compatible with phonological processing being influenced by aspects of language experience that vary greatly between and within populations.
Contrastive Cross-Site Learning With Redesigned Net for COVID-19 CT Classification

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has lead to a global public health crisis spreading hundreds of countries. With the continuous growth of new infections, developing automated tools for COVID-19 identification with CT image is highly desired to assist the clinical diagnosis and reduce the tedious workload of image interpretation. To enlarge the datasets for developing machine learning methods, it is essentially helpful to aggregate the cases from different medical systems for learning robust and generalizable models. This paper proposes a novel joint learning framework to perform accurate COVID-19 identification by effectively learning with heterogeneous datasets with distribution discrepancy. We build a powerful backbone by redesigning the recently proposed COVID-Net in aspects of network architecture and learning strategy to improve the prediction accuracy and learning efficiency. On top of our improved backbone, we further explicitly tackle the cross-site domain shift by conducting separate feature normalization in latent space. Moreover, we propose to use a contrastive training objective to enhance the domain invariance of semantic embeddings for boosting the classification performance on each dataset. We develop and evaluate our method with two public large-scale COVID-19 diagnosis datasets made up of CT images. Extensive experiments show that our approach consistently improves the performanceson both datasets, outperforming the original COVID-Net trained on each dataset by 12.16% and 14.23% in AUC respectively, also exceeding existing state-of-the-art multi-site learning methods.
Nusinersen safety and effects on motor function in adult spinal muscular atrophy type 2 and 3

Objective To retrospectively investigate safety and efficacy of nusinersen in a large cohort of adult Italian patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Methods Inclusion criteria were: (1) clinical and molecular diagnosis of SMA2 or SMA3; (2) nusinersen treatment started in adult age (>18 years); (3) clinical data available at least at baseline (T0-beginning of treatment) and 6 months (T6). Results We included 116 patients (13 SMA2 and 103 SMA3) with median age at first administration of 34 years (range 18–72). The Hammersmith Functional Rating Scale Expanded (HFMSE) in patients with SMA3 increased significantly from baseline to T6 (median change +1 point, p<0.0001), T10 (+2, p<0.0001) and T14 (+3, p<0.0001). HFMSE changes were independently significant in SMA3 sitter and walker subgroups. The Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM) in SMA3 significantly improved between T0 and T14 (median +0.5, p=0.012), with most of the benefit observed in sitters (+2, p=0.018). Conversely, patients with SMA2 had no significant changes of median HFMSE and RULM between T0 and the following time points, although a trend for improvement of RULM was observed in those with some residual baseline function. The rate of patients showing clinically meaningful improvements (as defined during clinical trials) increased from 53% to 69% from T6 to T14. Conclusions Our data provide further evidence of nusinersen safety and efficacy in adult SMA2 and SMA3, with the latter appearing to be cumulative over time. In patients with extremely advanced disease, effects on residual motor function are less clear.
Traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen treating corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19): Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Introduction As the global epidemic continues to spread, countries have tapped effective drugs to treat new coronavirus pneumonia. The therapeutic effect of the traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen in this new coronary pneumonia epidemic has attracted attention from all walks of life, and relevant research reports continue to appear. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the clinical efficacy and safety of the traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen in the treatment of new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) (referred to as "new coronary pneumonia"), and evaluated the overall level of research quality. Methods We searched seven databases and retrieved the Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), Vip Database (VIP), China Biomedicine (SinoMed), Wanfang Database and PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE from October 2019 to May 2020 Literature references. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that tested the efficacy of the traditional Chinese medicine lotus clearing plague in the treatment of new coronavirus pneumonia. The authors extracted data and independently assessed quality. We used Stata15.1 software to analyze the data of randomized trials. Results A total of 2 articles were identified, including 154 patients. All the participating patients were diagnosed with new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19). The meta-analysis results showed that the disappearance rate of the main clinical symptoms of Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen in the treatment of new coronavirus pneumonia was significantly higher than that of the control group [OR = 3.34, 95% CI (2.06, 5.44), P <0.001]; the disappearance rate of other clinical secondary symptoms is significantly higher than the control group [OR = 6.54, 95% CI (3.59, 11.90), P <0.001]. The duration of fever was significantly lower than that of the control group [OR = -1.04, 95% CI (-1.60, -0.49), P <0.001]. It is confirmed that the traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen treatment improves the clinical effectiveness, and also has certain advantages in relieving cough and fever. Conclusion The treatment of new pneumonia with traditional Chinese medicine lotus clearing plague can be used as an effective therapy to improve the clinical symptoms of new coronary pneumonia. More rigorous design, multi-center, and prospective RCTs are necessary to further determine the effectiveness and safety of the traditional Chinese medicine lotus decoction in the treatment of new pneumonia.
Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?

The gastrointestinal tract is often considered as a key organ involved in the digestion of food and providing nutrients to the body for proper maintenance. However, this system is composed of organs that are extremely complex. Among the different parts, the intestine is viewed as an incredible surface of contact with the environment and is colonised by hundreds of trillions of gut microbes. The role of the gut barrier has been studied for decades, but the exact mechanisms involved in the protection of the gut barrier are various and complementary. Among them, the integrity of the mucus barrier is one of the first lines of protection of the gastrointestinal tract. In the past, this ‘slimy’ partner was mostly considered a simple lubricant for facilitating the progression of the food bolus and the stools in the gut. Since then, different researchers have made important progress, and currently, the regulation of this mucus barrier is gaining increasing attention from the scientific community. Among the factors influencing the mucus barrier, the microbiome plays a major role in driving mucus changes. Additionally, our dietary habits (ie, high-fat diet, low-fibre/high-fibre diet, food additives, pre- probiotics) influence the mucus at different levels. Given that the mucus layer has been linked with the appearance of diseases, proper knowledge is highly warranted. Here, we debate different aspects of the mucus layer by focusing on its chemical composition, regulation of synthesis and degradation by the microbiota as well as some characteristics of the mucus layer in both physiological and pathological situations.