Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting a rapid response to adalimumab treatment and favorable short-term outcomes through the high platelet count in patients with ulcerative colitis

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Abstract This study aimed to investigate the short-term effectiveness of adalimumab therapy in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), especially its rapid response. This retrospective, multicenter, cohort study involved 7 institutes in Japan, compiling data from patients with UC who had received at least 1 induction dose of 160 mg of adalimumab between June 2013 and May 2017. Patients should have a Lichtiger clinical activity index score of ≥5 at the initial adalimumab administration. Remission was defined as clinical activity index score of ≤4, whereas response was defined as a reduction of ≥50% from the baseline value. Rapid responders are defined as patients who achieved response at 2 weeks. A total of 91 patients were included in this study: 37.4% and 45.1% achieved clinical response at 2 and 8 weeks, respectively, whereas clinical remission rates 12 weeks were 45.1%. Among the rapid responders, 82.4% achieved clinical remission at 12 weeks. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified a higher platelet count as an independent prognostic factor for a higher rate of rapid response. Receiver operating characteristic curve showed that a platelet counts cutoff value of ≥312 × 109/L was associated with a rapid response. Approximately 40% of patients with UC showed a rapid response to adalimumab therapy after 2 weeks. Up to 80% of the rapid responders also achieved remission at 12 weeks. A higher platelet count was identified as an independent prognostic factor for a higher rapid response rate.
Diagnostic accuracy of tests for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Aim This systematic review aimed to ascertain the diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) of screening tests for early detection of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in previously undiagnosed adults. Methods This systematic review included published studies that included one or more index tests (random and fasting tests, HbA1c) for glucose detection, with 75-gram Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (or 2-hour post load glucose) as a reference standard (PROSPERO ID CRD42018102477). Seven databases were searched electronically (from their inception up to March 9, 2020) accompanied with bibliographic and website searches. Records were manually screened and full text were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subsequently, data extraction was done using standardized form and quality assessment of studies using QUADAS-2 tool. Meta-analysis was done using bivariate model using Stata 14.0. Optimal cut offs in terms of sensitivity and specificity for the tests were analysed using R software. Results Of 7,151 records assessed by title and abstract, a total of 37 peer reviewed articles were included in this systematic review. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive (LR+) and negative likelihood ratio (LR-) for diagnosing diabetes with HbA1c (6.5%; venous sample; n = 17 studies) were 50% (95% CI: 42–59%), 97.3% (95% CI: 95.3–98.4), 18.32 (95% CI: 11.06–30.53) and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.43–0.60), respectively. However, the optimal cut-off for diagnosing diabetes in previously undiagnosed adults with HbA1c was estimated as 6.03% with pooled sensitivity of 73.9% (95% CI: 68–79.1%) and specificity of 87.2% (95% CI: 82–91%). The optimal cut-off for Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) was estimated as 104 milligram/dL (mg/dL) with a sensitivity of 82.3% (95% CI: 74.6–88.1%) and specificity of 89.4% (95% CI: 85.2–92.5%). Conclusion Our findings suggest that at present recommended threshold of 6.5%, HbA1c is more specific and less sensitive in diagnosing the newly detected diabetes in undiagnosed population from community settings. Lowering of thresholds for HbA1c and FPG to 6.03% and 104 mg/dL for early detection in previously undiagnosed persons for screening purposes may be considered.
Implicit associations of teleology and essentialism concepts with genetics concepts among secondary school students

In this article, we present the development and validation of an implicit association test for measuring secondary school students’ associations between genetics concepts and teleology concepts on the one hand, and between genetics concepts and essentialism concepts on the other hand. In total, 169 students from 16 school classes took part in the study, from January 2018 to May 2018. We investigated the strength of the aforementioned associations and the influence of various covariates such as gender, age, school class, or previous learning of biology on the association of teleology or essentialism concepts with genetics concepts through an analysis of covariance and a multi-level analysis. We found moderate associations between genetics and teleology concepts, as well as between genetics and essentialism concepts. These results might reflect a tendency of students of different ages and with various backgrounds to think about genes in terms of goals (teleology) and stability (essentialism), which should be investigated further in future research.
Effects of adolescent intermittent ethanol on hippocampal expression of glutamate homeostasis and astrocyte‐neuronal tethering proteins in male and female rats

Adolescent alcohol drinking is widely recognized as a significant public health problem, and evidence is accumulating that sufficient levels of consumption during this critical period of brain development have an enduring impact on neural and behavioral function. Recent studies have indicated that adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure alters astrocyte function, astrocyte–neuronal interactions, and related synaptic regulation and activity. However, few of those studies have included female animals, and a broader assessment of AIE effects on the proteins mediating astrocyte‐mediated glutamate dynamics and synaptic function is needed. We measured synaptic membrane expression of several such proteins in the dorsal and ventral regions of the hippocampal formation (DH, VH) from male and female rats exposed to AIE or adolescent intermittent water. In the DH, AIE caused elevated expression of glutamate transporter 1 (GLT‐1) in both males and females, elevated postsynaptic density 95 expression in females only, and diminished NMDA receptor subunit 2A expression in males only. AIE and sex interactively altered ephrin receptor A4 (EphA4) expression in the DH. In the VH, AIE elevated expression of the cystine/glutamate antiporter and the glutamate aspartate transporter 1 (GLAST) in males only. Compared to males, female animals expressed lower levels of GLT‐1 in the DH and greater levels of ephrin receptor B6 (EphB6) in the VH, in the absence of AIE effects. These results support the growing literature indicating that adolescent alcohol exposure produces long‐lasting effects on astrocyte function and astrocyte‐neuronal interactions. The sex and subregion specificity of these effects have mechanistic implications for our understanding of AIE effects generally.
The Role of Structural Empowerment in Predicting Computer Use among Jordanian Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM The study aimed to examine the relationship between structural empowerment and attitudes toward computer use among nurses. BACKGROUND Empowering organizational structure is a significant factor affecting employees' attitudes and behaviors toward using organizational resources. Health information technologies were proven to improve healthcare quality. No previous studies examined the relationship between structural empowerment and attitudes toward computer use. METHODS A cross-sectional correlational design was used. Self-reported questionnaires were completed by 200 Jordanian nurses. Descriptive statistics, Pearson r correlation, and linear regression analyses were used to address the research aim. RESULTS Structural empowerment was significantly and positively associated with attitudes toward computer use. Dimensions in structural empowerement that predict positive attitude toward computer use were access to opportunity (β = .382, p = .000), formal power (β = -.252, p = .006), and informal power (β= .176, p = .046). CONCLUSIONS Strengthening access to empowerment structures is essential to increase nurses' work efficiency. Improving empowering structures can be achieved by enhancing opportunities to increase professional knowledge and skills toward computerization. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Nurse managers should promote work conditions that motivate nurses toward positive recognition of innovation through efficient collaborations with the information technology teams.
Remote Pain Monitoring Using Fog Computing for e-Healthcare: An Efficient Architecture

The integration of medical signal processing capabilities and advanced sensors into Internet of Things (IoT) devices plays a key role in providing comfort and convenience to human lives. As the number of patients is increasing gradually, providing healthcare facilities to each patient, particularly to the patients located in remote regions, not only has become challenging but also results in several issues, such as: (i) increase in workload on paramedics, (ii) wastage of time, and (iii) accommodation of patients. Therefore, the design of smart healthcare systems has become an important area of research to overcome these above-mentioned issues. Several healthcare applications have been designed using wireless sensor networks (WSNs), cloud computing, and fog computing. Most of the e-healthcare applications are designed using the cloud computing paradigm. Cloud-based architecture introduces high latency while processing huge amounts of data, thus restricting the large-scale implementation of latency-sensitive e-healthcare applications. Fog computing architecture offers processing and storage resources near to the edge of the network, thus, designing e-healthcare applications using the fog computing paradigm is of interest to meet the low latency requirement of such applications. Patients that are minors or are in intensive care units (ICUs) are unable to self-report their pain conditions. The remote healthcare monitoring applications deploy IoT devices with bio-sensors capable of sensing surface electromyogram (sEMG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals to monitor the pain condition of such patients. In this article, fog computing architecture is proposed for deploying a remote pain monitoring system. The key motivation for adopting the fog paradigm in our proposed approach is to reduce latency and network consumption. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in minimizing delay and network utilization, simulations were carried out in iFogSim and the results were compared with the cloud-based systems. The results of the simulations carried out in this research indicate that a reduction in both latency and network consumption can be achieved by adopting the proposed approach for implementing a remote pain monitoring system.
Benefit and risk of adding rivaroxaban in patients with coronary artery disease: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Although the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration have, respectively, approved rivaroxaban for the prevention of recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with myocardial infarction and stable coronary artery disease, its efficacy and safety is unclear. This meta‐analysis aimed to evaluate the benefit and risk of adding rivaroxaban in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, focusing on treatment effects stratified by different baseline clinical presentations.
Investigation of self-reported chronic urticaria among adults in grasslands of northern China

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Abstract The clinical epidemiological characteristics of chronic urticaria (CU) in different populations were not completely consistent, and the epidemiological characteristics of CU were very complex. At present, there were some patient-based studies on CU, but few natural population-based studied in the world. This study aimed to analysis the prevalence of self-reported CU among adults in grasslands of northern China and its closely related factors. A multistage and proportionately stratified random sampling with a field interviewer-administered survey study was performed together with skin prick tests (SPT) and measurements of the daily pollen count. A total of 3406 subjects completed the study. The prevalence of self-reported CU was 5.61% (n = 191), which was higher in women than that of men (6.91% vs 4.08%, X2 = 12.785, P < .001). Seasonal or seasonal aggravation CU accounted for 110 (57.59%) patients. Pollen dispersal season was basically consistent with the peak season of CU, but there was no significant difference in the positive rate of pollen SPT between CU with seasonal or seasonal aggravation symptom and CU with free of symptom (X2 = 0.425, P = .51), as well as between CU with seasonal or seasonal aggravation symptom and perennial CU (X2 = 0.439, P = .51). Eczema (odds ratio [OR] = 2.807, P < .001), chronic diarrhea (OR = 2.486, P < .01), food allergy history (OR = 1.890, P < .01), history of family allergy (OR = 1.800, P < .001), and conjunctivitis (OR = 1.749, P < .01) were closely related to CU. This investigation provided the factors closely related to CU, and provided certain ideas for further research on the etiology and prevention of CU.
Expression of T-Cell Exhaustion Molecules and Human Endogenous Retroviruses as Predictive Biomarkers for Response to Nivolumab in Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Purpose: We sought to validate levels of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating cells (TIC) expressing PD-1 but not TIM-3 and LAG-3 (IF biomarker; Pignon and colleagues, 2019) and to investigate human endogenous retroviruses (hERV) as predictors of response to anti–PD-1 in a randomized trial of nivolumab (nivo) versus everolimus (evero) in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mccRCC; CheckMate-025). Experimental Design: Tumor tissues (nivo: n = 116, evero: n = 107) were analyzed by multiparametric immunofluorescence (IF) and qRT-PCR. Genomic/transcriptomic analyses were performed in a subset of samples. Clinical endpoints included objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and durable response rate (DRR, defined as complete response or partial response with a PFS ≥ 12 months). Results: In the nivo (but not evero) arm, patients with high-IF biomarker density (24/116, 20.7%) had higher ORR (45.8% vs. 19.6%, P = 0.01) and DRR (33.3% vs. 14.1%, P = 0.03) and longer median PFS (9.6 vs. 3.7 months, P = 0.03) than patients with low-IF biomarker. By RNA sequencing, several inflammatory pathways (q < 0.1) and immune-related gene signature scores (q < 0.05) were enriched in the high-IF biomarker group. When combined with the IF biomarker, tumor cell (TC) PD-L1 expression (≥1%) further separated clinical outcomes in the nivo arm. ERVE-4 expression was associated with increased DRR and longer PFS in nivo-treated patients. Conclusions: High levels of CD8+ TIC expressing PD-1 but not TIM-3 and LAG-3 and ERVE-4 expression predicted response to nivo (but not to evero) in patients with mccRCC. Combination of the IF biomarker with TC PD-L1 improved its predictive value, confirming our previous findings.
Organ-specific toxicity of magnetic iron oxide-based nanoparticles

Abstract The unique properties of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles determined their widespread use in medical applications, the food industry, textile industry, which in turn led to environmental pollution. These factors determine the long-term nature of the effect of iron oxide nanoparticles on the body. However, studies in the field of chronic nanotoxicology of magnetic iron particles are insufficient and scattered. Studies show that toxicity may be increased depending on oral and inhalation routes of administration rather than injection. The sensory nerve pathway can produce a number of specific effects not seen with other routes of administration. Organ systems showing potential toxic effects when injected with iron oxide nanoparticles include the nervous system, heart and lungs, the thyroid gland, and organs of the mononuclear phagocytic system (MPS). A special place is occupied by the reproductive system and the effect of nanoparticles on the health of the first and second generations of individuals exposed to the toxic effects of iron oxide nanoparticles. This knowledge should be taken into account for subsequent studies of the toxicity of iron oxide nanoparticles. Particular attention should be paid to tests conducted on animals with pathologies representing human chronic socially significant diseases. This part of preclinical studies is almost in its infancy but of great importance for further medical translation on nanomaterials to practice.
Longitudinal Imaging Using PET/CT with Collagen-I PET-Tracer and MRI for Assessment of Fibrotic and Inflammatory Lesions in a Rat Lung Injury Model

Non-invasive imaging biomarkers (IBs) are warranted to enable improved diagnostics and follow-up monitoring of interstitial lung disease (ILD) including drug-induced ILD (DIILD). Of special interest are IB, which can characterize and differentiate acute inflammation from fibrosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a PET-tracer specific for Collagen-I, combined with multi-echo MRI, in a rat model of DIILD. Rats were challenged intratracheally with bleomycin, and subsequently followed by MRI and PET/CT for four weeks. PET imaging demonstrated a significantly increased uptake of the collagen tracer in the lungs of challenged rats compared to controls. This was confirmed by MRI characterization of the lesions as edema or fibrotic tissue. The uptake of tracer did not show complete spatial overlap with the lesions identified by MRI. Instead, the tracer signal appeared at the borderline between lesion and healthy tissue. Histological tissue staining, fibrosis scoring, lysyl oxidase activity measurements, and gene expression markers all confirmed establishing fibrosis over time. In conclusion, the novel PET tracer for Collagen-I combined with multi-echo MRI, were successfully able to monitor fibrotic changes in bleomycin-induced lung injury. The translational approach of using non-invasive imaging techniques show potential also from a clinical perspective.
Oxidative Chemical Stressors Alter the Physiological State of the Nasal Olfactory Mucosa of Atlantic Salmon

The olfactory organs of fish have vital functions for chemosensory and defence. Though there have been some ground-breaking discoveries of their involvement in immunity against pathogens in recent years, little is known about how they respond to non-infectious agents, such as exogenous oxidants, which fish encounter regularly. To this end, we employed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) as a model to study the molecular responses at the nasal olfactory mucosa of a teleost fish when challenged with oxidants. Microarray analysis was employed to unravel the transcriptional changes at the nasal olfactory mucosa following two types of in vivo exposure to peracetic acid (PAA), a highly potent oxidative agent commonly used in aquaculture: Trial 1: periodic and low dose (1 ppm, every 3 days over 45 days) to simulate a routine disinfection; and Trial 2: less frequent and high dose (10 ppm for 30 min, every 15 days, 3 times) to mimic a bath treatment. Furthermore, leukocytes from the olfactory organ were isolated and exposed to PAA, as well as to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and acetic acid (AA)—the two other components of PAA trade products—to perform targeted cellular and molecular response profiling. In the first trial, microarrays identified 32 differentially expressed genes (DEG) after a 45-day oxidant exposure. Erythrocyte-specific genes were overly represented and substantially upregulated following exogenous oxidant exposure. In Trial 2, in which a higher dose was administered, 62 DEGs were identified, over 80% of which were significantly upregulated after exposure. Genes involved in immune response, redox balance and stress, maintenance of cellular integrity and extracellular matrix were markedly affected by the oxidant. All chemical stimuli (i.e., PAA, H2O2, AA) significantly affected the proliferation of nasal leukocytes, with indications of recovery observed in PAA- and H2O2-exposed cells. The migration of nasal leukocytes was promoted by H2O2, but not much by PAA and AA. The three chemical oxidative stressors triggered oxidative stress in nasal leukocytes as indicated by an increase in the intracellular reactive oxygen species level. This resulted in the mobilisation of antioxidant defences in the nasal leukocytes as shown by the upregulation of crucial genes for this response network. Though qPCR revealed changes in the expression of selected cytokines and heat shock protein genes following in vitro challenge, the responses were stochastic. The results from the study advance our understanding of the role that the nasal olfactory mucosa plays in host defence, particularly towards oxidative chemical stressors.
Medical cost and healthcare utilization of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in China

Abstract Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a specific neurodegenerative disease, imposed increased economic and utilizations burden on the healthcare system, especially with the progress of the diseases severity. However, the economic burden on Chinese ALS patients remained unclear. This study therefore was aimed to investigate medical cost and healthcare utilization for Chinese ALS patients. Longitudinal health data of over 20 million individuals, including military personnel and civilians, was collected from all Chinese military hospitals. We identified 480 patients with a first major diagnosis for ALS from 2015 to 2018, while matched 400 controlled patients on age, gender, ethnic group, geographic region, length of stay, year of diagnosis and comorbidity. Their medical cost and healthcare utilizations were then measured 1 year before, and 1 year after ALS diagnosis. The median annual medical cost of ALS patients was about 2-fold higher, 17,087 CNY during the index year than 1 year before, 7859 CNY. The highest increase in utilizations may account for medical costs on ALS patients, which was represented by hospitalizations (Odd Ratio (OR) = 4.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.52, 5.15), electromyography (OR = 4.14, 95% CI 2.37, 7.22), nerve conduction velocity (OR = 3.26, 95% CI 2.23, 4.77). This study is the first one reporting direct economic burden on Chinese ALS patients. Efforts should be made to develop cost-effective diagnostic tools in order that sources of medical cost were more effectively allocated, and this disease was detected earlier.