Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrastructural Correlates of Sulfur Mustard Toxicity

AbstractStandardized ultrastructural technology was used to study subcellular effects of sulfur mustard (HD) on human lymphocytes in vitro, human keratinocytes in culture, and the skin of the hairless guinea pig. While dosages of mustard differed according to the dictates of individual protocols, all specimens were gathered 24 hr following exposure, aldehyde-fixed, and processed for transmission and scanning electron microscopic examination. In the hairless guinea pig model, the subcellular effects on basal cells of the stratum genninativum and the generation of microblisters at the dermal-epidermal junction were unequivocal to that reported for human skin grafted to congenitally athymic nude mice. Basal cell degenerative changes, signaled by nuclear condensations, blebbing of the perinuclear envelope, and defects of the plasmalemma, progressed to paranuclear cytoplasmic vacuolations, loss of cellular organelles, lipid inclusions, increased lysosomal activity, and necrosis. Boundaries of the microblister,.
A cellular endolysosome-modulating pore-forming protein from a toad is negatively regulated by its paralog under oxidizing conditions

Endolysosomes are key players in cell physiology, including molecular exchange, immunity, and environmental adaptation. They are the molecular targets of some pore-forming aerolysin-like proteins (ALPs) that are widely distributed in animals and plants and are functionally related to bacterial toxin aerolysins. βγ-CAT is a complex of an ALP (BmALP1) and a trefoil factor (BmTFF3) in the firebelly toad (Bombina maxima). It is the first example of a secreted endogenous pore-forming protein that modulates the biochemical properties of endolysosomes by inducing pore formation in these intracellular vesicles. Here, using a large array of biochemical and cell biology methods, we report the identification of BmALP3, a paralog of BmALP1 that lacks membrane pore-forming capacity. We noted that both BmALP3 and BmALP1 contain a conserved cysteine in their C-terminal regions. BmALP3 was readily oxidized to a disulfide bond-linked homodimer, and this homodimer then oxidized BmALP1 via disulfide bond exchange, resulting in the dissociation of βγ-CAT subunits and the elimination of biological activity. Consistent with its behavior in vitro, BmALP3 sensed environmental oxygen tension in vivo, leading to modulation of βγ-CAT activity. Interestingly, we found that this C-terminal cysteine site is well conserved in numerous vertebrate ALPs. These findings uncover the existence of a regulatory ALP (BmALP3) that modulates the activity of an active ALP (BmALP1) in a redox-dependent manner, a property that differs from those of bacterial toxin aerolysins.
Brain Structures and Cognitive Abilities Important for the Self-Monitoring of Speech Errors

The brain structures and cognitive abilities necessary for successful monitoring of one’s own speech errors remain unknown. We aimed to inform self-monitoring models by examining the neural and behavioral correlates of phonological and semantic error detection in individuals with post-stroke aphasia. First, we determined whether detection related to other abilities proposed to contribute to monitoring according to various theories, including naming ability, fluency, word-level auditory comprehension, sentence-level auditory comprehension, and executive function. Regression analyses revealed that fluency and executive scores were independent predictors of phonological error detection, while a measure of word-level comprehension related to semantic error detection. Next, we used multivariate lesion-symptom mapping to determine lesion locations associated with reduced error detection. Reduced overall error detection related to damage to a region of frontal white matter extending into dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Detection of phonological errors related to damage to the same areas, but the lesion-behavior association was stronger, suggesting that the localization for overall error detection was driven primarily by phonological error detection. These findings demonstrate that monitoring of different error types relies on distinct cognitive functions, and provide causal evidence for the importance of frontal white matter tracts and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for self-monitoring of speech.
PORCINE LONGISSIMUS GLYCOLYTIC POTENTIAL LEVEL EFFECTS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, CARCASS, AND MEAT QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS

Animals (n = 72) with longissimus glycolytic potential (GP) values ranging from 113.8 to 301.1 μmol/g of tissue, were classified as having low (n = 24), moderate (n = 24), and high (n = 24) GP levels. Meat quality measurements such as longissimus ultimate pH and subjective color score decreased, while Hunter L* values, percentage drip loss and purge loss increased for animals classified as having either high or moderate GP levels compared to those with low GP values. Animals with higher GP had decreased longissimus protein content and improved taste panel tenderness scores and lower shear force indicating superior eating quality. Increasing aging time from 2 to 21 days decreased shear force and improved taste panel tenderness scores. These data indicate that both glycolytic potential level within the muscle and aging time can have significant effects on pork quality characteristics.
Click Cross-Linking Improves Retention and Targeting of Refillable Alginate Depots

Injectable alginate hydrogels have demonstrated utility in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications due in part to their mild gelation conditions, low host responses and chemical versatility. Recently, the potential of these gels has expanded with the introduction of refillable hydrogel depots - alginate gels chemically decorated with click chemistry groups to efficiently capture prodrug refills from the blood. Unfortunately, high degrees of click group substitution on alginate lead to poor viscoelastic properties and loss of ionic cross-linking. In this work, we introduce tetrabicyclononyne (tBCN) agents that covalently cross-link azide-modified alginate hydrogels for tissue engineering and drug delivery application in vivo. Adjusting cross-linker concentration allowed tuning the hydrogel mechanical properties for tissue-specific mechanical strength. The bioorthogonal and specific click reaction creates stable hydrogels with improved in vivo properties, including improved retention at injected sites. Azide-alginate hydrogels cross-linked with tBCN elicited minimal inflammation and maintained structural integrity over several months and efficiently captured therapeutics drug surrogates from the circulation. Taken together, azide-alginate hydrogels cross-linked with tBCN convey the benefits of alginate hydrogels for use in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications of refillable drug delivery depots. Statement of Significance Ionically cross-linked, injectable alginate biomaterials hold promise in many different clinical settings. However, adding new chemical functionality to alginate can disrupt their ionic cross-linking, limiting their utility. We have developed a "click" cross-linking strategy to improve the mechanical properties and tissue function of modified alginate biomaterials and enable them to capture small molecule drugs from the blood. We show that click cross-linked materials remain in place better than ionically cross-linked materials and efficiently capture payloads from the blood. Development of click cross-linking for refillable depots represents a crucial step toward clinical application of this promising drug delivery platform.
Health state utilities for economic evaluation of bariatric surgery: A comprehensive systematic review and meta‐analysis

Health state utilities (HSUs) are health economic metrics that capture and assess health‐related quality of life (HRQoL). They are essential in health‐economic evaluations when calculating quality‐adjusted life years. We investigated published studies reporting bariatric surgery‐related HSUs elicited through direct or indirect (multiattribute utility instrument [MAUI]) patient‐reported methods (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42019131725). Mean HSUs for different time points and HSU changes over time (where feasible) were meta‐analysed using random‐effects models. Of the 950 potentially relevant identified studies, n = 28 (2004–2018) qualified for data extraction, with n = 85 unique HSUs elicited mainly from the EQ‐5D (88%). Most (75%) studies were published after 2013. The follow‐up duration varied between studies and was often limited to 12 months. The pooled mean HSU was 0.72 (0.67–0.76) at baseline/presurgery (n = 18) and 0.84 (0.79–0.89) one‐year postsurgery (n = 11), indicating a 0.11 (0.09–0.14) utility unit increment. EQ‐5D showed the similar results. This positive difference can be partially explained by BMI and/or co‐morbidities status improvement. This study provides a valuable summary of HSUs to future bariatric surgery‐related cost‐utility models. However, more well‐designed higher‐quality bariatric‐related HSU studies are expected for future reviews to improve the available evidence. We suggest that researchers select an MAUI that is preferentially sensitive to the study population.
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Inverse Reinforcement Learning in Advancing Cancer Research

The "No Free Lunch" theorem states that for any algorithm, elevated performance over one class of problems is offset by its performance over another. Stated differently, no algorithm works for everything. Instead, designing effective algorithms often means exploiting prior knowledge of data relationships specific to a given problem. This "unreasonable efficacy" is especially desirable for complex and seemingly intractable problems in the natural sciences. One such area that is rife with the need for better algorithms is cancer biology-a field where relatively few insights are being generated from relatively large amounts of data. In part, this is due to the inability of mere statistics to reflect cancer as a genetic evolutionary process-one that involves cells actively mutating in order to navigate host barriers, outcompete neighboring cells, and expand spatially. Our work is built upon the central proposition that the Markov Decision Process (MDP) can better represent the process by which cancer arises and progresses. More specifically, by encoding a cancer cell's complex behavior as a MDP, we seek to model the series of genetic changes, or evolutionary trajectory, that leads to cancer as an optimal decision process. We posit that using an Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) approach will enable us to reverse engineer an optimal policy and reward function based on a set of expert demonstrations extracted from the DNA of patient tumors. The inferred reward function and optimal policy can subsequently be used to extrapolate the evolutionary trajectory of any tumor. Here, we introduce a Bayesian nonparametric IRL model (PUR-IRL) where the number of reward functions is a priori unbounded in order to account for uncertainty in cancer data, i.e., the existence of latent trajectories and non-uniform sampling. We show that PUR-IRL is "unreasonably effective" in gaining interpretable and intuitive insights about cancer progression from high-dimensional genome data.
Incarceration And Its Disseminations: COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons From Chicago's Cook County Jail.

Jails and prisons are major sites of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Many jurisdictions in the United States have therefore accelerated release of low-risk offenders. Early release, however, does not address how arrest and pre-trial detention practices may be contributing to disease spread. Using data from Cook County Jail, in Chicago, Illinois, one of the largest known nodes of SARS-CoV-2 spread, we analyze the relationship between jailing practices and community infections at the zip-code level. We find that jail cycling is a significant predictor of SARS-CoV-2 infection, accounting for 55 percent of the variance in case rates across zip codes in Chicago and 37 percent in Illinois. By comparison, jail cycling far exceeds race, poverty, public transit utilization, and population density as a predictor of variance. The data suggest that cycling through Cook County Jail alone is associated with 15.7 percent of all documented novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Illinois and 15.9 percent in Chicago as of April 19, 2020. Our findings support arguments for reduced reliance on incarceration and for related justice reforms both as emergency measures during the present pandemic and as sustained structural changes vital for future pandemic preparedness and public health. [Editor's Note: This Fast Track Ahead Of Print article is the accepted version of the peer-reviewed manuscript. The final edited version will appear in an upcoming issue of Health Affairs. ].
Role of Iron-Oxidizing Microorganism in Bioleaching of Heavy Metals From Sewage Sludge Contaminated with Textile Dyes

This article reports the role of indigenous iron-oxidizing microorganisms in bioleaching of heavy metals from anaerobically digested sewage sludge in presence of toxic dyes namely, methylene blue (MB), Remazol black B (RBB) and mixture of both the dyes (DM). To achieve this goal, different concentrations of dyes (0, 500, 10,000, 15,000 and 25,000 mg/L) were added to the sewage sludge (initial pH ∼ 7) and subsequently, the solubilization of heavy metals (Cu, Ni, Zn and Cr) was measured at time intervals of 48 h for 16 days. The results showed that an increase in dye concentration adversely affected the population of indigenous iron-oxidizing microorganisms, thereby decreased the bioleaching of metals. The metal solubilization from sludge is more adversely affected in presence of RBB and DM than MB. In majority of cases, the maximum metal solubilization was recorded at dye concentration of 5,000 mg/L. Two factor analyses (ANOVA) suggests the impact of both factors: dye concentration and dye type on metal leaching rate in sludge system.
Molecular testing in diagnosis of indeterminate thyroid cytology: Trends and drivers

Fine needle aspiration (FNA), the cornerstone of diagnosis in thyroid swellings, fails to render a definitive diagnosis in about 20% to 30% of cases that are reported as indeterminate on cytology. Since the clinical management in thyroid rests on the risk of malignancy (ROM) in a given nodule, this distinction between “benign” and “possibly malignant” assumes paramount clinical importance. Over the last two decades, tremendous progress has been achieved in our understanding of the molecular basis of thyroid pathologies leading to identification of several genetic alterations that could potentially be exploited for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic purposes. An array of molecular tests has hit the markets aiming to predict the ROM in thyroid nodules. A deeper understanding of the strengths and limitations of these tests is imperative to be able to judiciously choose the right molecular test in a given case for maximum clinical benefit. This narrative review provides an overview of current status of molecular testing in the evaluation of thyroid nodules encompassing the current status and applications of these tests in diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic areas along with a brief insight into the future developments in this field.
PF-BVM: A Privacy-aware Fog-enhanced Blockchain Validation Mechanism

Blockchain technology has been successfully implemented in cryptocurrency industries, yet it is in the research phase for other applications. Enhanced security, decentralization and reliability are some of the advantages of blockchain technology that represent beneficial integration possibilities for computing and storage infrastructures. Fog computing is one of the recently emerged paradigms that needs to be improved to serve Internet of Things (IoT) environments of the future. In this paper we propose PF-BVM, a Privacy-aware Fogenhanced Blockchain Validation Mechanism, that aims to support the integration of IoT, Fog Computing, and the blockchain technology. In this model the more trusted a fog node is, the higher the authority granted to validate a block on behalf of the blockchain nodes. To guarantee the privacy-awareness in PF-BVM, we use a blockchain-based PKI architecture that is able to provide higher anonymity levels, while maintaining the decentralization property of a blockchain system. We also propose a concept for measuring reliability levels of blockchain systems. We validated our proposed approach in terms of execution time and energy consumption in a simulated environment. We compared PF-BVM to the currently used validation mechanism in the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, and found that PF-BVM can effectively reduce the total validation time and total energy consumption of an IoT-Fog-Blockchain system.
The Effectiveness of Digital Health Interventions in the Management of Musculoskeletal Conditions: Systematic Literature Review

Background Musculoskeletal conditions are the second greatest contributor to disability worldwide and have significant individual, societal, and economic implications. Due to the growing burden of musculoskeletal disability, an integrated and strategic response is urgently required. Digital health interventions provide high-reach, low-cost, readily accessible, and scalable interventions for large patient populations that address time and resource constraints. Objective This review aimed to investigate if digital health interventions are effective in reducing pain and functional disability in patients with musculoskeletal conditions. Methods A systematic review was undertaken to address the research objective. The review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The review protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews before commencement of the study. The following databases were searched: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Excerpta Medica database (EMBASE), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Scopus from January 1, 2000, to November 15, 2019, using search terms and database specific−medical subject headings terms in various combinations appropriate to the research objective. Results A total of 19 English language studies were eligible for inclusion. Of the 19 studies that assessed musculoskeletal pain, 9 reported statistically significant reductions following digital intervention. In all, 16 studies investigated functional disability; 10 studies showed a statistically significant improvement. Significant improvements were also found in a range of additional outcomes. Due to the heterogeneity of the results, a meta-analysis was not feasible. Conclusions This review has demonstrated that digital health interventions have some clinical benefits in the management of musculoskeletal conditions for pain and functional disability. Digital health interventions have the potential to contribute positively toward reducing the multifaceted burden of musculoskeletal conditions to the individual, economy, and society. Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42018093343; https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/prospero/display_record. php? RecordID=93343
Antioxidant effect of green-tea extracts on peroxidation of eels

Water and ethanol extracts of green tea were analyzed for their antioxidative properties on peroxidation of eel. As a pre-treatment, eels were treated with green tea extract (approximately two times the weight of eels) for 1 h and cleaned with water. The DPPH radical scavenging effect, ABTS scavenging effect, acid value, peroxide value, carbonyl value, and TBA value of eel, and antioxidant effect on linoleic acid and eel oil were investigated. Ethanol extract of green tea showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging. Regarding ABTS scavenging activity, ethanol extract of green tea was more effective than water extract (p<0.05). Both ethanol and water extracts showed higher ABTS scavenging effects than 10 mM vitamin C. Acid value and peroxide value were lowest for water extract, followed by ethanol extract and vitamin C. Carbonyl values of green tea extracts increased only 6-9 percent by the end of 21 days of refrigeration, indicating their ability to reduce carbonyl compounds. TBA values of green tea extractand vitamin C-treated eels were 4.6 and 5.6, respectively. Green tea extracts prevented oxidative rancidity and linoleic acid peroxidation. The ethanol extract was more effective than water extract in preventing linoleic acid peroxidation. In conclusion, pre-treatment with ethanolic extract (30°, Soju) of green tea was found to be effective in preventing peroxidation of eels in refrigeration.
How do I manage O− red blood cell inventory

Currently there are no widely accepted guidelines regarding the appropriate use of O− red blood cells (RBCs). Although there has been a decline in overall RBC utilization since 2010, the use of O− RBCs has continued to proportionally increase over this time period resulting in frequent shortages. When faced with these shortages, we implemented some simple strategies that resulted in a significant decrease in annual O− RBC utilization from 10% to 7.5% despite an increase in total RBC utilization. These strategies included collaboration with the clinical staff, improving practices within the blood bank, and having our health system partner with our blood supplier. Herein, we detail our strategies for hospital transfusion services to improve O− RBC utilization. Most of these can be easily implemented and do not require additional resources.
Phytochemical, Proximate and Metal Content Analysis of the Leaves of Psidium guajava Linn (Myrtaceae)

Purpose: To investigate the phytochemicals and some other constituents of the powdered leaves of Psidium guajava Linn and to evaluate the tolerability profile of the leaves because of their profound medicinal and non-medicinal uses. Methods: The phytochemical analysis of Psidium guajava was carried out by using a standard procedure. Ash, fat, protein, carbohydrate and fibre contents were determined using proximate analysis while the metal contents were determined using Pearson’s method. Results: The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of saponins, glycosides, terpenoids, anthraquinones, tannins, flavonoids and alkaloids, the proximate analysis showed a low ash value of 2.80%, protein content 2.80%, fibre 2.70% and fat 1.80% but a relatively high content of carbohydrate 88.90%. The metal content analysis revealed the presence of seven metals Calcium 1.34 mg/kg, Magnesium 0.64 mg/kg, Potassium 0.76 mg/kg, Sodium 0.05 mg/kg, Iron 16.18 mg/kg, at concentrations below the tolerable upper intake level except for Manganese 29.23 mg/kg and Zinc 56.49 mg/kg Conclusion: The powdered leaves of Psidium guajava contain more of organic components and levels of manganese and zinc is above the tolerable upper intake established by the overseeing body. Keywords: Psidium guajava, Toxicity, Screening, Tolerability, Leaves