Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systemic Immune Modulation Alters Local Bone Regeneration in a Delayed Treatment Composite Model of Non-Union Extremity Trauma

Bone non-unions resulting from severe traumatic injuries pose significant clinical challenges, and the biological factors that drive progression towards and healing from these injuries are still not well understood. Recently, a dysregulated systemic immune response following musculoskeletal trauma has been identified as a contributing factor for poor outcomes and complications such as infections. In particular, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), immunosuppressive myeloid-lineage cells that expand in response to traumatic injury, have been highlighted as a potential therapeutic target to restore systemic immune homeostasis and ultimately improve functional bone regeneration. Previously, we have developed a novel immunomodulatory therapeutic strategy to deplete MDSCs using Janus gold nanoparticles that mimic the structure and function of antibodies. Here, in a preclinical delayed treatment composite injury model of bone and muscle trauma, we investigate the effects of these nanoparticles on circulating MDSCs, systemic immune profiles, and functional bone regeneration. Unexpectedly, treatment with the nanoparticles resulted in depletion of the high side scatter subset of MDSCs and an increase in the low side scatter subset of MDSCs, resulting in an overall increase in total MDSCs. This overall increase correlated with a decrease in bone volume (P = 0.057) at 6 weeks post-treatment and a significant decrease in mechanical strength at 12 weeks post-treatment compared to untreated rats. Furthermore, MDSCs correlated negatively with endpoint bone healing at multiple timepoints. Single cell RNA sequencing of circulating immune cells revealed differing gene expression of the SNAb target molecule S100A8/A9 in MDSC sub-populations, highlighting a potential need for more targeted approaches to MDSC immunomodulatory treatment following trauma. These results provide further insights on the role of systemic immune dysregulation for severe trauma outcomes in the case of non-unions and composite injuries and suggest the need for additional studies on targeted immunomodulatory interventions to enhance healing.
Care of Older Persons in Eastern Africa: A Scoping Review of Ethical Issues

Introduction The aging population is rapidly increasing globally, with 80% of the older population living in low- and middle-income countries. In Eastern African countries, there exists an incongruence between readiness–economically, structurally, politically, and culturally–to create a conducive environment for healthy aging, which implies public health as well as ethical concerns. The aim of this scoping review was to explore existing evidence addressing the various ethical issues in connection with elder care in the region of Eastern Africa. Methods We searched six databases (Africa-Wide Information, AgeLine, CINHAL, MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, and SocINDEX) to identify peer-reviewed journal articles that could meet some eligibility criteria such as being a peer-reviewed journal article written in English, having been published in any year until July 2020, and focusing on ethical issues in the care of older people aged 60 years and older from Eastern Africa. We also searched for additional evidence in the references of included papers and web-based platforms. We included 24 journal articles and analyzed them using the inductive content analysis approach. Results The included articles represent seven (38.9%) of the 18 countries in the Eastern African region. The articles covered six ethical concerns: lack of government attention to older persons (n = 14, 58.3%), inaccessibility of health care services (n = 13, 54.2%), loneliness and isolation (n = 11, 45.8%), gender inequalities in old age (n = 9, 37.5%), mistreatment and victimization (n = 8, 33.3%), and medical errors (n = 2, 8.3%). Conclusion This scoping review summarized ethical issues arising in relation to providing care for older persons in the Eastern African context. In light of the rapid increase in the number of older persons in this region, it is critical for governments and responsible bodies to implement and accelerate efforts promptly to generate more evidence to inform programs and policies that improve the health and wellbeing of older persons. Further research is needed to inform global health efforts that aim at improving the lives of older persons, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Clinical Trial Registration https://osf.io/sb8gw, identifier: 10.17605/OSF.IO/SB8GW.
Data-Driven Prediction of Quartz Dissolution Rates at Near-Neutral and Alkaline Environments

Dissolution of silicate-based materials is important to many natural processes and engineering applications, including cement and concrete production. Here, we present a data-driven study to predict the dissolution rates of crystalline silica (i.e., quartz) in near-neutral and alkaline environments. We present a quartz dissolution database containing both dissolution rates and five major dissolution conditions (i.e., temperature, pressure, pH at the experimental temperature T (pHT), and the sodium and alumina content in the solution) via data mining from the literature. We supplement the database with experimental data of quartz dissolution rate in sodium hydroxide solutions (0–5 M) at different target temperatures (25–90°C), which are significantly less covered by the existing literature. We build two data-driven models (i.e., random forest (RF) and artificial neural network (ANN)) to predict the dissolution rate of quartz (i.e., output target) as a function of dissolution conditions (i.e., input features). The results show that both RF and ANN models exhibit high predictive capability, with R 2 values of 0.97–0.98, MAPEs of 2.95–4.24% and RMSEs of ∼0.31–0.44 log (mole/m2/s) for the test set. These prediction errors are much smaller than linear regression models (RMSE of ∼1.25 log) also presented here and comparable with those achieved in previous studies using reaction models based on a smaller and less complex dataset (RMSE of ∼0.35–0.44 log). We further evaluate the interpretability and performance of the data-driven models, and the results show that the model predictions are generally consistent with literature observations, including the different impacts of input features on dissolution rate. In particular, the ANN model appears to exhibit a certain level of ability to extrapolate, i.e., making predictions in feature space not covered in the database.
Association of Dietary Intake and Biomarker of α-Linolenic Acid With Incident Colorectal Cancer: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

Background and Objective There is keen interest in better understanding the impacts of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-derived n-3 fatty acid, in ameliorating the development of cancer; however, results of several prospective cohorts present an inconsistent association between ALA intake and the incident colorectal cancer (CRC). We aimed to investigate the summary association of dietary intake and biomarkers of ALA with CRC risk based on the prospective cohorts. Methods Pertinent prospective cohorts were identified in Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMBASE from inception to February 2022. Study-specific risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for comparing the top with the bottom quartiles of ALA levels were combined using a random-effects model. Nonlinear dose-response relationships of ALA levels in diet and blood with CRC risk were assessed using the restricted cubic spline models, respectively. Results Over the duration of follow-up with a median of 9.3 years ranging from 1 to 28 years, 12,239 CRC cases occurred among 861,725 participants from 15 cohorts (11 studies on diet and 5 studies on biomarkers including 4 on blood and 1 on adipose tissue). The summary RR was 1.03 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.10; I2: 0.00%) for dietary intake and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.69, 0.99; I2: 0.00%) for biomarker. Each 0.1% increase in the levels of ALA in blood was associated with a 10% reduction in risk of CRC (summary RR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.80, 0.99; I2: 38.60%), whereas no significant dose-response association was found between dietary intake of ALA and the incident CRC (p for non-linearity = 0.18; p for linearity = 0.24). Conclusions Blood levels of ALA were inversely and linearly associated with the risk of CRC, which suggested that increased intake of ALA to improve circulating levels was beneficial for CRC prevention.
Loss of α6β4 Integrin-Mediated Hemidesmosomes Promotes Prostate Epithelial Cell Migration by Stimulating Focal Adhesion Dynamics

Epithelial cell adhesion is mediated by actin cytoskeleton-linked focal adhesions (FAs) and intermediate filament-associated hemidesmosomes (HDs). HDs are formed by α6β4-integrins and mediate stable anchoring to the extracellular matrix (ECM) while FAs containing β1-integrins regulate cell migration. Loss of HDs has been reported in various cancers such as prostate cancer where it correlates with increased invasive migration. Here we have studied cell migration properties and FA dynamics in genetically engineered prostate epithelial cell lines with intact or disrupted HDs. Disruption of HDs by depleting α6- or β4-integrin expression promoted collective cell migration and modulated migratory activity. Dynamic analysis of fluorescent protein-tagged FA marker proteins revealed faster FA assembly and disassembly kinetics in HD-depleted cells. FRAP analysis showed that loss of HDs correlated with faster diffusion rates of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and vinculin in and out of FAs. These data suggest that loss of α6β4-mediated HDs promote cell migration and FA assembly dynamics by influencing the molecular diffusion rates of FAK.
Impact of Leading by Example on Employees' Organizational and Job Psychological Ownership: A Moderated Mediation Study

This article studies the influence of leading by example on organizational psychological ownership and job psychological ownership. This article further introduces the mediating mechanism of organizational identification and the regulating mechanism of Leader–member Exchange (LMX). This study investigated 312 personnel from eight property management enterprises in East, Northwest, Northeast, and central China. This study adopts a quantitative research method, using survey data of project managers, team leaders, and managers of Property management projects in China. The data were collected by questionnaire survey. In terms of data analysis, AMOS 21.0 software was used to conduct structural equation modeling (SEM) using the maximum likelihood method to test direct and indirect effects. SPSS 25.0 software was used to test the moderating effect by multilevel regression analysis with the maximum variance method. Use these two methods to analyze the whole theoretical framework. The results established all assumed relationships. In this article, leading by example, one of the important dimensions of empowering leadership is studied as a new leadership style, and the predictive effect of leading by example on organizational psychological ownership and job psychological ownership is verified. This finding further verifies the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of empowering leadership in different dimensions. It is found that organizational identification has different mediating effects on leading by example and organizational psychological ownership and job psychological ownership. The moderating effect of LMX also further indicates that under the influence of Confucian pan-family culture, the leader's exemplary behavior with higher authority has a stronger influence on employees' organizational identification, organizational psychological ownership, and job psychological ownership. Their relationship is deeply influenced by the culture of China's unique organizational Circle Culture.
Host Manipulation, Gene Editing, and Non-Traditional Model Organisms: A New Frontier for Behavioral Research?

Insects and parasites dominate the biosphere, in terms of known biodiversity and mode of life, respectively. Consequently, insects play a part in many host-parasite systems, either as parasite, host, or both. Moreover, a lot of these systems involve adaptive parasite-induced changes of host phenotype (typically behavior or morphology), which is commonly known as host manipulation. While many host manipulation systems have been described within the last few decades, the proximate mechanisms that underpin host phenotypic change are still largely unknown. Given the intimate co-evolutionary history of host-parasite systems, teasing apart the intricate network of biochemical reactions involved in host manipulation requires the integration of various complementary technologies. In this perspective, we stress the importance of multidisciplinary research on host manipulation, such as high-throughput sequencing methods (genomics and transcriptomics) to search for candidate mechanisms that are activated during a manipulation event. Then, we argue that gene editing technologies, specifically the CRISPR-Cas9 system, are a powerful way to test for the functional roles of candidate mechanisms, in both the parasite and the host. Finally, given the sheer diversity of unique host-parasite systems discovered to date, there is indeed a tremendous potential to create novel non-traditional model systems that could greatly expand our capacity to test the fundamental aspects of behavior and behavioral regulation.
Functional Groups Mask Inter- and Intraspecific Variation in Water Use Strategies in a Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest

Across the karst landscape of Quintana Roo, Mexico, plant access to nutrients and water appears limited by generally shallow soil. However, underlying this surface are heterogenous pockets in bedrock and deeper, stable groundwater, suggesting the potential for specialization by species in accessing soil resources. If species differentially access rock resources, divisions by functional groups may also be expected. In this study, shallow caves provided an opportunity to assess resource use strategies by direct, species-specific root observations coupled with traditional above ground measurements. Utilizing stable isotopes from stems and leaves (δ18O and δ13C), we investigated water access and water use efficiency of trees during the dry season to uncover relationships between rooting habit, tree size, and pre-determined functional groups based on leaf habit and wood density. Functional group membership did not predict measured stable isotope ratios, indicating that functional groups were poor predictors of resource use. We did find evidence for deep water use by select species and larger individuals. Interestingly, as trees became larger, δ13C increased to a threshold but then declined, suggesting increasing vulnerability to water limitation as trees increase in size, consistent with other seasonally dry tropical forests. Our work demonstrates that, although shallow soils likely drive strong resource limitations, co-occurring trees in karst ecosystems employ diverse resource acquisition strategies, suggesting important consequences for community composition and ecosystem function in the face of environmental change.
SARS-CoV-2 and the Missing Link of Intermediate Hosts in Viral Emergence - What We Can Learn From Other Betacoronaviruses

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 has resulted in a global pandemic with devastating human health and economic consequences. The development of multiple vaccines, antivirals and supportive care modalities have aided in our efforts to gain control of the pandemic. However, the emergence of multiple variants of concern and spillover into numerous nonhuman animal species could protract the pandemic. Further, these events also increase the difficulty in simultaneously monitoring viral evolution across multiple species and predicting future spillback potential into the human population. Here, we provide historic context regarding the roles of reservoir and intermediate hosts in coronavirus circulation and discuss current knowledge of these for SARS-CoV-2. Increased understanding of SARS-CoV-2 zoonoses are fundamental for efforts to control the global health and economic impacts of COVID-19.
Auxin Coordinates Achene and Receptacle Development During Fruit Initiation in Fragaria vesca

In strawberries, fruit set is considered as the transition from the quiescent ovary to a rapidly growing fruit. Auxin, which is produced from the fertilized ovule in the achenes, plays a key role in promoting the enlargement of receptacles. However, detailed regulatory mechanisms for fruit set and the mutual regulation between achenes and receptacles are largely unknown. In this study, we found that pollination promoted fruit development (both achene and receptacle), which could be stimulated by exogenous auxin treatment. Interestingly, auxin was highly accumulated in achenes, but not in receptacles, after pollination. Further transcriptome analysis showed that only a small portion of the differentially expressed genes induced by pollination overlapped with those by exogenous auxin treatment. Auxin, but not pollination, was able to activate the expression of growth-related genes, especially in receptacles, which resulted in fast growth. Meanwhile, those genes involved in the pathways of other hormones, such as GA and cytokinin, were also regulated by exogenous auxin treatment, but not pollination. This suggested that pollination was not able to activate auxin responses in receptacles but produced auxin in fertilized achenes, and then auxin might be able to transport or transduce from achenes to receptacles and promote fast fruit growth at the early stage of fruit initiation. Our work revealed a potential coordination between achenes and receptacles during fruit set, and auxin might be a key coordinator.
A Novel Prognostic Score Including the CD4/CD8 for AIDS-Related Lymphoma

Background A simple and clinically applicable prognostic scoring system for AIDS-related lymphoma (ARL) in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) is needed to better stratify patients’ risks and to assist in the decision-making of therapeutic strategies. Methods We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study in 138 primary ARL patients over an 8-year period from 2013 to 2020. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were performed to identify the association between patient-, lymphoma-, and HIV-specific variables with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The incremental prognostic value of novel inflammatory biomarkers in the International Prognostic Index (IPI) was evaluated by comparing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, the concordance index (C-index), and the integrated Brier score (IBS). Results The median age was 49.14 ± 14.20 (range 18–79) years, 81.9% were men, and the median follow-up was 44.94 (95% CI = 37.05–52.84) months. The 3-year OS and PFS were 39.4% (95% CI = 16.3–21.2) and 38.7% (95% CI = 14.5–19.7), respectively. We found that age, extranodal sites, bulky mass, CD4 T-cell counts, CD4/CD8 ratio, and hypoalbuminemia were associated with OS (all P < 0.05) at both univariate and multivariate analyses. Of the new inflammatory markers, only the CD4/CD8 ratio was an independent prognostic parameter of OS and PFS. A lower CD4/CD8 ratio was strongly associated with adverse clinical factors, including older age, advanced Ann Arbor stage, more extranodal sites, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, prior history of HIV, higher red cell distribution width ratio, hypoproteinemia, and emaciation. When the CD4/CD8 ratio was added to the IPI, the composite HIV-IPI score showed significantly better discrimination than IPI alone [AUC (95% CI): HIV-IPI, 0.83 (0.77–0.89) vs. IPI, 0.72 (0.70–0.85)]. The HIV-IPI model provided good predictive performance [C-index (95% CI): HIV-IPI, 0.82 (0.81–0.83) vs. IPI, 0.75 (0.73–0.77), P < 0.001] and a satisfactory calibration function. Conclusions The CD4/CD8 ratio, an inexpensive and readily available marker, is a powerful independent prognostic parameter in patients with ARL. Furthermore, when the CD4/CD8 ratio is used in combination with IPI, it increases prognostic ability. The useful prediction of expected outcomes in ARL can inform treatment decisions.
Survival and Replication of Zika Virus in Diapause Eggs of Aedes Albopictus From Beijing, China

Zika virus (ZIKV) has emerged as a globally important arbovirus. The virus is primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of an infective Aedes albopictus in temperate area. Vertical transmission of ZIKV by Ae. albopictus is determined and has been suggested to be a means by which the virus could persist in nature. Ae. albopictus undergoes a well-characterized photoperiodic diapause. Viruses are harbored by overwintering mosquitoes in diapause that contributes to the resurgence of vertebrate diseases in the following spring, yet little is known about the impact of diapause on the regulation of viral replication and survival. The purpose of this study is to determine that Ae. albopictus in Beijing are highly susceptible to ZIKV (92.3%), and viable virus is passed to their organs of progeny via vertical transmission. Moreover, diapause eggs (diapause incidence 97.8%) had significantly lower minimum infection rates and filial infection rates of the first gonotrophic cycle than those of the second gonotrophic cycle in the short-day photoperiod group. Regarding the development of diapause eggs, the minimum infection rates and ZIKV RNA copy number increased significantly, suggesting that virus RNA replication occurred in the diapause eggs. Meanwhile, eggs from the ZIKV-infected mosquitoes had a significantly lower hatching rate compared with uninfected mosquitoes, implying an intriguing interaction between diapause eggs and virus. The findings here suggest that vertical transmission of ZIKV from diapause eggs to progeny may have a critical epidemiological role in the dissemination and maintenance of ZIKV circulating in the vector.
Nomogram Based on CT Radiomics Features Combined With Clinical Factors to Predict Ki-67 Expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objectives The study developed and validated a radiomics nomogram based on a combination of computed tomography (CT) radiomics signature and clinical factors and explored the ability of radiomics for individualized prediction of Ki-67 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods First-order, second-order, and high-order radiomics features were extracted from preoperative enhanced CT images of 172 HCC patients, and the radiomics features with predictive value for high Ki-67 expression were extracted to construct the radiomic signature prediction model. Based on the training group, the radiomics nomogram was constructed based on a combination of radiomic signature and clinical factors that showed an independent association with Ki-67 expression. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to verify the performance of the nomogram. Results Sixteen higher-order radiomic features that were associated with Ki-67 expression were used to construct the radiomics signature (AUC: training group, 0.854; validation group, 0.744). In multivariate logistic regression, alfa-fetoprotein (AFP) and Edmondson grades were identified as independent predictors of Ki-67 expression. Thus, the radiomics signature was combined with AFP and Edmondson grades to construct the radiomics nomogram (AUC: training group, 0.884; validation group, 0.819). The calibration curve and DCA showed good clinical application of the nomogram. Conclusion The radiomics nomogram developed in this study based on the high-order features of CT images can accurately predict high Ki-67 expression and provide individualized guidance for the treatment and clinical monitoring of HCC patients.