Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Lingual Tactile Sensitivity in Children and Adults: Methodological Suitability and Challenges

Few methodological approaches have been developed to measure lingual tactile sensitivity, and little information exists about the comparison between children and adults. The aims of the study were to: verify the cognitive and perceptive suitability of Von Frey filaments and a gratings orientation test in children of different ages; compare lingual tactile sensitivity between children and adults; investigate the relationships between lingual tactile sensitivity, preference and consumption of foods with different textures and level of food neophobia. One hundred and forty-seven children aged 6–13 years and their parents participated in the study, in addition to a separate sample of seventy adults. Participants filled in questionnaires, and lingual tactile sensitivity was evaluated through filaments and gratings. Results showed that gratings evaluation was more difficult than filaments assessment but enabled a better separation of participants according to their performance than filaments. R-indices from filaments were not correlated with those of gratings, suggesting that the tools measure different dimensions of lingual tactile sensitivity. No differences were found in lingual tactile sensitivity between children and adults, nor between children of different ages. Food neophobia was negatively associated with preferences of hard foods in children. Although a multifactor analysis concluded that neither texture preferences nor food consumption were strongly correlated with lingual tactile sensitivity, there was a weak but significant positive correlation between lingual tactile sensitivity to the finest Von Frey filament and food neophobia in the youngest age group, indicating that children with higher levels of food neophobia are more sensitive to oral tactile stimuli. Suitable child-friendly adaptations for the assessment of lingual sensitivity in children are discussed.
CoSinGAN: Learning COVID-19 Infection Segmentation from a Single Radiological Image

Computed tomography (CT) images are currently being adopted as the visual evidence for COVID-19 diagnosis in clinical practice. Automated detection of COVID-19 infection from CT images based on deep models is important for faster examination. Unfortunately, collecting large-scale training data systematically in the early stage is difficult. To address this problem, we explore the feasibility of learning deep models for lung and COVID-19 infection segmentation from a single radiological image by resorting to synthesizing diverse radiological images. Specifically, we propose a novel conditional generative model, called CoSinGAN, which can be learned from a single radiological image with a given condition, i.e., the annotation mask of the lungs and infected regions. Our CoSinGAN is able to capture the conditional distribution of the single radiological image, and further synthesize high-resolution (512 × 512) and diverse radiological images that match the input conditions precisely. We evaluate the efficacy of CoSinGAN in learning lung and infection segmentation from very few radiological images by performing 5-fold cross validation on COVID-19-CT-Seg dataset (20 CT cases) and an independent testing on the MosMed dataset (50 CT cases). Both 2D U-Net and 3D U-Net, learned from four CT slices by using our CoSinGAN, have achieved notable infection segmentation performance, surpassing the COVID-19-CT-Seg-Benchmark, i.e., the counterparts trained on an average of 704 CT slices, by a large margin. Such results strongly confirm that our method has the potential to learn COVID-19 infection segmentation from few radiological images in the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic.
Frequent Germline and Somatic Single Nucleotide Variants in the Promoter Region of the Ribosomal RNA Gene in Japanese Lung Adenocarcinoma Patients

Ribosomal RNA (rRNA), the most abundant non-coding RNA species, is a major component of the ribosome. Impaired ribosome biogenesis causes the dysfunction of protein synthesis and diseases called “ribosomopathies,” including genetic disorders with cancer risk. However, the potential role of rRNA gene (rDNA) alterations in cancer is unknown. We investigated germline and somatic single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in the rDNA promoter region (positions −248 to +100, relative to the transcription start site) in 82 lung adenocarcinomas (LUAC). Twenty-nine tumors (35.4%) carried germline SNVs, and eight tumors (9.8%) harbored somatic SNVs. Interestingly, the presence of germline SNVs between positions +1 and +100 (n = 12; 14.6%) was associated with significantly shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) by univariate analysis (p < 0.05, respectively), and was an independent prognostic factor for RFS and OS by multivariate analysis. LUAC cell line PC9, carrying rDNA promoter SNV at position +49, showed significantly higher ribosome biogenesis than H1650 cells without SNV. Upon nucleolar stress induced by actinomycin D, PC9 retained significantly higher ribosome biogenesis than H1650. These results highlight the possible functional role of SNVs at specific sites of the rDNA promoter region in ribosome biogenesis, the progression of LUAC, and their potential prognostic value.
The Impact of the Covid-19 Social Isolation Measures on the Resilience and Quality of Life of Working Mothers

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused feelings of desperation, fear, terror, anxiety while it has also brought radical changes in the quality of life and psychological health of people worldwide. The lockdown and social isolation measures due to the pandemic seem to have affected the working mothers’ resilience, health, and quality of life. The purpose of this study is to examine how working mothers reacted during the Covid-19 pandemic and how the stateimposed quarantine affected their quality of life, their health, and their resilience. We designed and carried out a webbased survey in Cyprus with 208 participants, all working mothers. We administered two questionnaires, namely the World Health Organization Quality Of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF (WHO, 1998), which examines the quality of life, and the Self-evaluation Resilience Questionnaire (Resilience-Project EU, 2019), which assesses working mothers’ resilience. The participants answered the questionnaires on the Internet platform Enklikanketa, from May 20 to May 30, 2020. The results showed that the state-imposed measures of social isolation in the form of quarantine had a negative impact on the psychological resilience and the quality of life of younger working mothers, of single working mothers, and of those working mothers who were residing in rural areas at the time. Working mothers who belonged to older age groups, those who continued to pursue activities and hobbies during the quarantine, and mothers who maintained a higher quality of life were affected less by social isolation measures. In conclusion, important protective and supportive factors to working mothers were family support, cooperation between their family members, the right working conditions, and job satisfaction.
[Food habits in the Galician population during confinement for COVID-19].

INTRODUCTION during the COVID-19 crisis food habits have changed among the population as food consumption is now carried out totally at home, and visits to groceries or food centers have decreased considerably. Likewise, other habits, such as physical activity or sleeping hours have also been modified. OBJECTIVES the objective of this work was to evaluate the changes occurred in eating and lifestyle habits among the adult Galician population during the confinement period ordered in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS a survey was conducted using Microsoft Forms, and spread among the population using an instant messaging service for mobiles through the internet. RESULTS a total of 1350 Galician adults completed the questionnaire; mean of age was 63.2 ± 8.1 years, 30 % were men, and 70 % were women. The obtained data show a trend towards consumption of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, and a decrease in less healthy ones such as processed foods. In total, 46 % of the population reported they were eating more than before the confinement, with an increase in snacking between meals (54 %) and in anxiety about food due to situations of stress or nervousness bieng reported by 40 % of respondents. This has resulted in an increase in body weight, reported by 44 % of participants, with the average gain being 2.8 ± 1.5 kg. CONCLUSIONS during confinement, the eating and lifestyle habits of the Galician population have been modified. The weight gain observed in a population that already had a high level of overweight and obesity at confinement onset aggravates the present situation and may have a negative impact on the development of chronic, non-communicable.
MiR-223 alleviates thrombus and inflammation in thromboangiitis obliterans rats by regulating NLRP3.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to observe the regulatory effects of micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-223 on thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) rats, and to explore the potential regulatory mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS Online database TargetScan was used to predict the downstream regulatory targets of miR-223. A total of 45 Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into three groups, including sham operation group (Sham group), Model group, and miR-223 agonist group (miR-223 mimic group). TAO model was successfully established in rats through the injection of lauric acid via the femoral artery. The content of serum thromboxane B2 (TXB2) and endothelin (ET) was measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The pathological changes in the left hind limb were detected via hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Moreover, the expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1β in the tissues of the rat left hind limb were determined via immunohistochemistry. In addition, the protein expression of Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) in tissues was determined using Western blotting. RESULTS TargetScan database predicted that NLRP3 was the downstream target gene of miR-223. Compared with the Sham group, Model group exerted significantly higher content of serum TXB2 and ET, severe lesions in the rat left hind limb, as well as significantly increased expressions of IL-6 and IL-1β and protein expression of NLRP3 in tissues of the rat left hind limb (p<0.05). Besides, compared with the Model group, miR-223 mimic group showed remarkably lower content of serum TXB2 and ET, improved lesions in the rat left hind limb, as well as decreased expressions of IL-6 and IL-1β and protein expression of NLRP3 in the tissues of the rat left hind limb (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS MiR-223 agonist can alleviate thrombus and inflammatory response in TAO rats. The possible underlying mechanism may be related to targeted regulation on NLRP3 inflammasome expression.
Integrated analysis of concomitant medications and oncological outcomes from PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors in clinical practice

Background Concomitant medications, such as steroids, proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and antibiotics, might affect clinical outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Methods We conducted a multicenter observational retrospective study aimed at evaluating the impact of concomitant medications on clinical outcomes, by weighing their associations with baseline clinical characteristics (including performance status, burden of disease and body mass index) and the underlying causes for their prescription. This analysis included consecutive stage IV patients with cancer, who underwent treatment with single agent antiprogrammed death-1/programmed death ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) with standard doses and schedules at the medical oncology departments of 20 Italian institutions. Each medication taken at the immunotherapy initiation was screened and collected into key categories as follows: corticosteroids, antibiotics, gastric acid suppressants (including proton pump inhibitors - PPIs), statins and other lipid-lowering agents, aspirin, anticoagulants, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), ACE inhibitors/Angiotensin II receptor blockers, calcium antagonists, β-blockers, metformin and other oral antidiabetics, opioids. Results From June 2014 to March 2020, 1012 patients were included in the analysis. Primary tumors were: non-small cell lung cancer (52.2%), melanoma (26%), renal cell carcinoma (18.3%) and others (3.6%). Baseline statins (HR 1.60 (95% CI 1.14 to 2.25), p=0.0064), aspirin (HR 1.47 (95% CI 1.04 to 2.08, p=0.0267) and β-blockers (HR 1.76 (95% CI 1.16 to 2.69), p=0.0080) were confirmed to be independently related to an increased objective response rate. Patients receiving cancer-related steroids (HR 1.72 (95% CI 1.43 to 2.07), p<0.0001), prophylactic systemic antibiotics (HR 1.85 (95% CI 1.23 to 2.78), p=0.0030), prophylactic gastric acid suppressants (HR 1.29 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.53), p=0.0021), PPIs (HR 1.26 (95% CI 1.07 to 1.48), p=0.0050), anticoagulants (HR 1.43 (95% CI: 1.16 to 1.77), p=0.0007) and opioids (HR 1.71 (95% CI 1.28 to 2.28), p=0.0002) were confirmed to have a significantly higher risk of disease progression. Patients receiving cancer-related steroids (HR 2.16 (95% CI 1.76 to 2.65), p<0.0001), prophylactic systemic antibiotics (HR 1.93 (95% CI 1.25 to 2.98), p=0.0030), prophylactic gastric acid suppressants (HR 1.29 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.57), p=0.0091), PPI (HR 1.26 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.52), p=0.0172), anticoagulants (HR 1.45 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.84), p=0.0024) and opioids (HR 1.53 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.11), p=0.0098) were confirmed to have a significantly higher risk of death. Conclusion We confirmed the association between baseline steroids administered for cancer-related indication, systemic antibiotics, PPIs and worse clinical outcomes with PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors, which can be assumed to have immune-modulating detrimental effects.
Time Course of Quality of Life Improvement Between Resection Arthroplasty and Metatarsophalangeal Joint-Preserving Forefoot Arthroplasty for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

BACKGROUND Resection arthroplasty has long been a major treatment option for forefoot deformity caused by rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint-preserving surgery is now surpassing classic resection arthroplasty. This study was performed to compare the postoperative results of these 2 operative methods. METHODS Fifty-one toes of 40 patients with RA who underwent resection arthroplasty (resection group) or MTP joint-preserving arthroplasty (preservation group) from 2014 to 2017 for forefoot deformity were followed up for >1 year and were retrospectively analyzed. In the preservation group, open reduction of joint dislocation was performed if needed, and the deformity was corrected by metatarsal shortening osteotomy. The mean follow-up period was 21 months. The Japanese Society for Surgery of the Foot (JSSF) scales (objective outcome measures), the Self-Administered Foot Evaluation Questionnaire (SAFE-Q) (subjective outcome measure), and radiographic indices were compared between the groups. The resection group and preservation group comprised 15 toes of 11 patients and 36 toes of 29 patients, respectively. RESULTS There were no significant differences in the preoperative radiographic indices, JSSF scales, or SAFE-Q results between the 2 groups. The preservation group showed better JSSF scores at the last follow-up (median hallux scale, 89 vs 74; median lesser scale, 87 vs 79). In the preservation group, the SAFE-Q scores gradually improved with time until 12 months postoperatively. In the resection group, the scores decreased 3 months postoperatively and then improved and reached a plateau 6 months postoperatively. At 12 months postoperatively, there was no significant difference in the SAFE-Q scores between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS MTP joint-preserving arthroplasty resulted in superior objective scores to resection arthroplasty in patients with RA forefoot deformity. Although the subjective scores did not differ between the groups at the last follow-up, the time course of postoperative quality of life improvement was different between the 2 surgeries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level III, retrospective comparative study.
Depressive Disorders and Sleeping Disturbances—Surveys Study of 923 Participants on the Pol’and’Rock Festival, Kostrzyn, Poland 2019

Depressive disorders are common among young people and can decrease social competences and thus the quality of life. There is a relationship between the occurrence of depressive disorders and insomnia. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of insomnia and depressive behavior and assess the relationship between these among participants of the Pol’and’Rock Festival, Kostrzyn, Poland 2019. The study used the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and the Beck Inventory II Scale (BDI-II). The study group consisted of 923 people, with the majority of women (n = 500; 54.2%). A total of 297 persons (32.2%) reported varying severity of depressive symptoms. Insomnia was observed in 261 (28.28%) respondents. Sleeping disturbances were observed more frequently in females. Persons with insomnia had a significantly higher BDI-II score. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.65) between the number of points obtained on the Beck and AIS scales was observed. Insomnia and depressive behavior are prevalent in the Polish population. Due to long-term social and economic consequences, special attention should be paid to the prevention, early detection and treatment of both disorders.
Sleep Characteristics in Diabetic Patients Depending on the Occurrence of Neuropathic Pain and Related Factors

This study aims to compare the sleep characteristics (structure and quality) in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus with and without diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP), and to investigate the relationship of sensory phenotypes, anxiety, and depression with sleep quality in DNP patients. A cross-sectional study was performed in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus and neuropathy. Patients were classified into two groups—with or without neuropathic pain—according to the “Douleur Neuropathique-4 (DN4)” scale. Sleep characteristics and quality (Medical Outcomes Study—MOS-sleep), pain phenotype (Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory—NPSI), mood status (Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale—HADS), pain intensity (Visual Analogue Scale—VAS), and quality of life (SF-12v2) were measured. The sample included 130 patients (65 with DNP). The mean scores in all the dimensions of the MOS-sleep scale were higher (more disturbances) in the DNP patients. Higher scores in anxiety or depression, greater intensity of pain or a higher score in the paroxysmal pain phenotype were associated with lower sleep quality in DNP patients. A shorter duration of the diabetes and lower levels of glycated hemoglobin were also associated with lower sleep quality. The results show the relationship between DNP and sleep quality, and the importance of assessing sensory phenotypes and mental comorbidities in these patients. Taking these factors into consideration, to adopt a multimodal approach is necessary to achieve better clinical results.
Utility of the EAT-10 in the detection of dysphagia in high-risk hospitalisation units at a university hospital: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION the objective was to assess the utility of the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) in hospitalisation units with patients at high risk of dysphagia. PATIENTS AND METHODS a cross-sectional study was conducted in the Neurology and Internal Medicine wards; patients with admission < 24 hours and in a terminal stage of disease were excluded. In the first 24-48 hours of admission the presence of dysphagia as assessed with the EAT-10, the risk of malnutrition as assessed with the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tools (MUST), and comorbidities using the Charlson index were screened. RESULTS a total of 169 patients were recruited (76.0 years, 52 % women); 19.5 % were at risk of malnutrition. The EAT-10 instrument could be administered in 80.6 % of the patients, and was positive in 26.6 % (women 34.1 % vs. men 18.4 %; p = 0.025). When comparing patients with higher comorbidity with those with a lower Charlson index, a lower response rate to EAT-10 was observed (78.4 % vs. 93.9 %; p = 0.038), without differences in screening positivity (28.3 % vs. 19.4 %; p = 0.310). The prevalence of dysphagia risk was higher in the Internal Medicine unit than in the Neurology unit (30.4 % vs. 19.6 %; p = 0.133), as was the percentage of cases in which screening could not be performed (21.1 % vs. 11.1 %; p = 0.011). There were no significant differences in risk of malnutrition, mortality, hospital stay, or readmission according to the EAT-10. CONCLUSIONS The EAT-10 has limited utility in the studied hospitalisation units due to a high rate of unfeasible tests, especially among patients at higher risk of dysphagia.
COVID-19 and COPD: a narrative review of the basic science and clinical outcomes

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Clinical outcomes, including mortality, are worse in males, older individuals and patients with comorbidities. COPD patients are included in shielding strategies due to their susceptibility to virus-induced exacerbations, compromised pulmonary function and high prevalence of associated comorbidities. Using evidence from basic science and cohort studies, this review addresses key questions concerning COVID-19 and COPD. First, are there mechanisms by which COPD patients are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection? Secondly, do inhaled corticosteroids offer protection against COVID-19? And, thirdly, what is the evidence regarding clinical outcomes from COVID-19 in COPD patients? This up-to-date review tackles some of the key issues which have significant impact on the long-term outlook for COPD patients in the context of COVID-19. This up-to-date review tackles some of the key issues which have significant impact on the long-term outlook for COPD patients in the context of COVID-19 https://bit.ly/36PKzEO
Naturally-Occurring Rare Mutations Cause Mild to Catastrophic Effects in the Multifunctional and Cancer-Associated NQO1 Protein

The functional and pathological implications of the enormous genetic diversity of the human genome are mostly unknown, primarily due to our unability to predict pathogenicity in a high-throughput manner. In this work, we characterized the phenotypic consequences of eight naturally-occurring missense variants on the multifunctional and disease-associated NQO1 protein using biophysical and structural analyses on several protein traits. Mutations found in both exome-sequencing initiatives and in cancer cell lines cause mild to catastrophic effects on NQO1 stability and function. Importantly, some mutations perturb functional features located structurally far from the mutated site. These effects are well rationalized by considering the nature of the mutation, its location in protein structure and the local stability of its environment. Using a set of 22 experimentally characterized mutations in NQO1, we generated experimental scores for pathogenicity that correlate reasonably well with bioinformatic scores derived from a set of commonly used algorithms, although the latter fail to semiquantitatively predict the phenotypic alterations caused by a significant fraction of mutations individually. These results provide insight into the propagation of mutational effects on multifunctional proteins, the implementation of in silico approaches for establishing genotype-phenotype correlations and the molecular determinants underlying loss-of-function in genetic diseases.