Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short communication Cutaneous field stimulation of sensory nerve fibers reduces itch without affecting contact dermatitis

Cutaneous field stimulation of sensory nerve fibers reduces itch without affecting contact dermatitis. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Wallengren, J. (2002). Cutaneous field stimulation of sensory nerve fibers reduces itch without affecting contact dermatitis. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Short communication Cutaneous field stimulation of sensory nerve fibers reduces itch without affecting contact dermatitis Allergic skin diseases such as eczema and urticaria are characterized by inflammation of the skin and by itch. Stress-related exacerbation of the symptoms reflects the interaction between the skin and the nervous system. Itching is transmitted by special C-fibers located in the dermoepidermal junction. Recently, a new technique, cutaneous field stimulation (CFS), involving electrical stimulation of the C-fibers, was reported to inhibit histamine-induced itch (1). We have also been successful in using it to treat patients with localized itch on noninflamed areas of skin (2). CFS has also been employed to combat chronic itching eczema, but its effects on delayed immunologic and irritative reactions have not been studied. The issue was whether CFS should be used to reduce itch from inflamed eczematous skin. Atopic eczema, an example of a delayed immunologic reaction, is often accompanied by itch (3). Scratching eczematous skin tends to prolong the healing process, so relieving itch is important for successful treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of CFS on modulation of the elicitation phase of both immediate and delayed immunologic, as well as nonimmunologic, reactions in human skin. A group of 24 patients took part in the study. Twelve of them (all women, aged 35–78 years, mean 52 ± 10 years) had histories of contact dermatitis in response to nickel (delayed reactions) as verified by patch test. The other 12 (11 women and 1 man aged 22–67 years, mean 44 ± 14) had immediate, IgE-mediated allergy, as verified …
Predicting Cardiovascular Disease Mortality: Leveraging Machine Learning for Comprehensive Assessment of Health and Nutrition Variables

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the primary causes of death around the world. This study aimed to identify risk factors associated with CVD mortality using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We created three models focusing on dietary data, non-diet-related health data, and a combination of both. Machine learning (ML) models, particularly the random forest algorithm, demonstrated robust consistency across health, nutrition, and mixed categories in predicting death from CVD. Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) values showed age, systolic blood pressure, and several other health factors as crucial variables, while fiber, calcium, and vitamin E, among others, were significant nutritional variables. Our research emphasizes the importance of comprehensive health evaluation and dietary intake in predicting CVD mortality. The inclusion of nutrition variables improved the performance of our models, underscoring the utility of dietary intake in ML-based data analysis. Further investigation using large datasets with recurring dietary recalls is necessary to enhance the effectiveness and interpretability of such models.
VITAMIN D AND INJURIES IN DANCERS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

SUMMARY Vitamin D is involved in many different functions in the human body. Despite the well-known benefits of vitamin D and increasing trends of testing and supplementation, there is still a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency worldwide, present in the general but also in the highly-active population such as athletes and dancers. Dancers are at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency due to their long working hours spent indoors, without exposure to sunlight. The high level of workload and physical demands also put dancers at a high risk of injuries. The aim of this review was to systematically analyze the existing evidence on the association of vitamin D (serum level and supplementation) and injuries in dancers. Medline, Scopus, SportDiscus and Web of Science were searched to identify the available peer-reviewed articles. Five articles met the inclusion criteria (two interventional and three observational studies), three of which additionally investigated the relationship between vitamin D and muscle function. The reported results on positive influence of vitamin D serum level or vitamin D supplementation effect on reduced injury occurrence and enhanced muscular function in adolescent and elite professional ballet dancers are promising but the evidence is limited due to a low number of studies, small samples, and methodological limitations.
Microplastics, a Global Issue: Human Exposure through Environmental and Dietary Sources

Plastic production has grown dramatically over the years. Microplastics (MPs) are formed from the fragmentation of larger plastic debris by combining chemical, physical, and biological processes and can degrade further to form nanoplastics (NPs). Because of their size, MPs and NPs are bioavailable to many organisms and can reach humans through transport along the food chain. In addition to the risk from ingesting MPs themselves, there are risks associated with the substances they carry, such as pesticides, pathogenic microorganisms, and heavy metals, and with the additives added to plastics to improve their characteristics. In addition, bioaccumulation and biomagnification can cause a cumulative exposure effect for organisms at the top of the food chain and humans. Despite the growing scientific interest in this emerging contaminant, the potential adverse effects remain unclear. The aim of this review is to summarize the characteristics (size, shape, color, and properties) of MPs in the environment, the primary sources, and the transport pathways in various environmental compartments, and to shed more light on the ecological impact of MPs and the potential health effects on organisms and humans by identifying human exposure pathways.
The resilience of juvenile Acropora corals when exposed to artificial light at night, commonly associated with coastal urbanisation

In recent years, artificial light pollution has expanded in area and concentration due to global population growth and technological advances in lighting. The impacts of artificial light at night (ALAN) are now well acknowledged within terrestrial biomes however, influences to surrounding coastal marine ecosystems are poorly recognised. Similarly, research has only just begun to reveal the extent of damage to coral reef systems, which have both substantial ecological and economic importance. However, the survival of important reef building Scleractinia within areas of ALAN is relatively unknown. Here a series of investigations underpin the extent of damage of short and long wavelength spectral street lighting to the reef building species, Acropora microclados and compared responses to coral of unlit coastal areas. A series of experiments quantified the pigmentation degradation throughout ALAN exposure and the response to recovery simulations to investigate if restoring natural solar cycles allowed pigmentation restoration. Results showed severe degradation of the green and red pigmentation within 49 days of exposure to both LED and metal halide lighting at night. While yellow ALAN caused more decline than shorter wavelength spectra in experiment 1, recovery investigations uncovered that within 28 days of exposure to ALAN, corals experienced 20% more green pigmentation decline in shorter wavelengths. Recovery experiments showed that recruitment of red and green pigmentation was reliant on previous spectral compositions during treatments and the restoration of the natural circadian rhythm. Investigations provide insight into species specific responses to real world scenarios of light pollution displayed around coastal waters. Additionally, research highlights that current reef recovery initiatives may be counterproductive in areas that are enduring the pressures of ALAN. Therefore, deeper understanding of the true impacts of ALAN is urgently needed in order to appropriately protect coral reef systems in proximity to developed coastlines.
Cryo plus Ultrasound Therapy, a Novel Rehabilitative Approach for Football Players with Acute Lateral Ankle Injury Sprain: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Acute lateral ankle sprains are common injuries among athletes, but the optimal treatment strategies in elite athletes are still debated. This proof-of-concept study aimed to assess the impact of cryo-ultrasound therapy on the short-term recovery of football players with acute lateral ankle sprains. Methods: Semi-professional football players with grade I or II lateral ankle sprains were randomly assigned to the experimental group (receiving cryo-ultrasound therapy combined with conventional physical therapy) or control group (sham cryo-ultrasound therapy combined with conventional physical therapy). Pain intensity and physical functioning were assessed by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and Foot and Ankle Disability Index (FADI) at baseline (T0) at the end of treatment (T1), after one month (T2), and two months after treatment (T3). Results: After the study intervention, significant between groups differences were reported in terms of pain relief (NRS: 4.08 ± 1.29 vs. 5.87 ± 1.19; p = 0.003) and physical function (FADI: 50.9 ± 10.3 vs. 38.3 ± 11.5; p = 0.021). However, no significant between group differences were reported at T2 and T3. No adverse effects were reported. Conclusions: Cryo-ultrasound therapy combined with conventional physical therapy can accelerate recovery and early return to sport in elite football players with acute lateral ankle sprains. While this study contributes valuable insights into the potential benefits of cryo-ultrasound therapy, further investigations with a longer follow-up are needed to validate and optimize the application of physical agent modalities in the management of ankle injuries.
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Recent in vivo studies have proposed that integrin α v β 3 attachments between osteocyte cell processes and the extracellular matrix may facilitate mechanosensation in bone. However the role of these attachments in osteocyte biochemical response to mechanical stimulus has yet to be investigated. With this in mind, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of blocking integrin α v β 3 function on the biochemical response of osteocytes to mechanical stimulus. Antagonists specific to integrin subunit β 3 were used to block integrin α v β 3 on MLO-Y4 mouse osteocytes. After treatment, cells were subjected to laminar oscillatory fluid flow stimulus (1 Pa, 1 Hz) for 1 hour. Fluorescent staining was performed to visualise cell morphology. Prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) release was assayed using an enzyme immunoassay and qRT-PCR was used to analyse the relative expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG). Our results show that blocking integrin α v β 3 disrupts osteocyte morphology, causing a reduction in spread area and process retraction. Integrin α v β 3 blocking also disrupted COX-2 expression and PGE 2 release in response to fluid shear stress. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that integrin α v β 3 is essential for the maintenance of osteocyte cell processes and also for mechanosensation and mechanotransduction by osteocytes. A better understanding of this process may lead to the development of novel treatments for bone pathologies where mechanosensitivity is thought to be compromised.
Token-Consistent Dropout For Calibrated Vision Transformers

We introduce token-consistent dropout in vision transformers, which improves network calibration without causing any severe drop in performance. We use linear layers with token-consistent stochastic parameters inside the multilayer perceptron blocks, without altering the architecture of the transformer. The stochastic parameters are sampled from the uniform distribution, both during training and inference. The applied linear operations preserve the topological structure, formed by the set of tokens passing through the shared multilayer perceptron. This operation encourages the learning of the recognition task to rely on the topological structures of the tokens, instead of their values, which in turn offers the desired behavior. We compare our method to established baselines and applicable state-of-the-art alternatives, to demonstrate its impact on the calibration of vision transformers.
Surviving winter on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau: Extensive reversible protein phosphorylation plays a dominant role in regulating hypometabolism in hibernating Nanorana parkeri

Changes in protein abundance and reversible protein phosphorylation (RPP) play important roles in regulating hypometabolism but have never been documented in overwintering frogs at high altitudes. To test the hypothesis that protein abundance and phosphorylation change in response to winter hibernation, we conducted a comprehensive and quantitative proteomic and phosphoproteomic analysis of the liver of the Xizang plateau frog, Nanorana parkeri, living on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. In total, 5170 proteins and 5695 phosphorylation sites in 1938 proteins were quantified. Based on proteomic analysis, 674 differentially expressed proteins (438 up-regulated, 236 down-regulated) were screened in hibernating N. parkeri versus summer individuals. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that higher expressed proteins in winter were significantly enriched in immune-related signaling pathways, whereas lower expressed proteins were mainly involved in metabolic processes. A total of 4251 modified sites (4147 up-regulated, 104 down-regulated) belonging to 1638 phosphoproteins (1555 up-regulated, 83 down-regulated) were significantly changed in the liver. During hibernation, RPP regulated a diverse array of proteins involved in multiple functions, including metabolic enzymatic activity, ion transport, protein turnover, signal transduction, and alternative splicing. These changes contribute to enhancing protection, suppressing energy-consuming processes, and inducing metabolic depression. Moreover, the activities of phosphofructokinase, glutamate dehydrogenase, and ATPase were all significantly lower in winter compared to summer. In conclusion, our results support the hypothesis and demonstrate the importance of RPP as a regulatory mechanism when animals transition into a hypometabolic state.
University of Birmingham The role of Dopamine in temporal uncertainty

■ The temporal preparation of motor responses to external events (temporal preparation) relies on internal representations of the accumulated elapsed time (temporal representations) before an event occurs and on estimates about its most likely time of occurrence (temporal expectations). The precision (inverse of uncertainty) of temporal preparation, however, is limited by two sources of uncertainty. One is intrinsic to the nervous system and scales with the length of elapsed time such that temporal representations are least precise for longest time durations. The other is external and arises from temporal variability of events in the outside world. The precision of temporal expectations thus decreases if events become more variable in time. It has long been recognized that the processing of time durations within the range of hundreds of milliseconds (interval timing) strongly depends on dopaminergic (DA) transmission. The role of DA for the precision of temporal preparation in humans, however, remains unclear. This study therefore directly assesses the role of DA in the precision of temporal preparation of motor responses in healthy humans. In a placebo-controlled double-blind design using a selective D2-receptor antagonist (sulpiride) and D1/D2 receptor antagonist (haloperidol), participants performed a variable foreperiod reaching task, under different conditions of internal and external temporal uncertainty. DA blockade produced a striking impairment in the ability of extracting temporal expectations across trials and on the precision of temporal representations within a trial. Large Weber fractions for interval timing, estimated by fitting subjective hazard functions, confirmed that this effect was driven by an increased uncertainty in the way participants were experiencing time. This provides novel evidence that DA regulates the precision with which we process time when preparing for an action. ■
Prognostic Value of the Average Lung CT Number in Patients with Acute Paraquat Poisoning

Objective The chest computed tomography (CT) examination is an important clinical examination in the diagnosis and monitoring of paraquat- (PQ-) induced lung injury. The aim of this study was to explore the prognostic value of the average lung CT number acquired by quantitative CT techniques in patients with acute paraquat poisoning in the early stages of the disease. Methods 46 patients who suffered from acute PQ poisoning in the emergency department of the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital from January 2015 to June 2020 were enrolled in the present study. The patients were divided into survival group (n = 21) and nonsurvival group (n = 25). Clinical data were collected from subjects who met the inclusion criteria, including general information, personal disease history, and laboratory test indicators. The average lung CT numbers of each patient were obtained by quantitative CT techniques. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted to assess the prognostic value of average lung CT number in patients with acute paraquat poisoning. Results The average CT numbers of the middle-lung, lower-lung, and whole lung fields in the nonsurvival group were significantly higher than those of the survival group (p < 0.0001). However, the upper-lung field was not significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.7765). The AUCs of different levels ranged from 0.554 to 0.977, among which the lower-lung field presented the largest AUC of 0.977 (95% CI: 0.943∼1; cut-off value: −702Hu; sensitivity 96%; specificity, 90.5%; YI: 0.865), followed by the whole lung field 0.914 (95% CI: 0.830∼0.999; cut-off value: −727Hu; sensitivity 76%; specificity, 95.2%; YI: 0.712) and the middle-lung field 0.87 (95% CI: 0.768∼0.971; cut-off value: −779Hu; sensitivity 80%; specificity, 85.7%; YI: 0.657). Conclusion The present study indicated that the average lung CT number could be used to evaluate the relationship between the severity of PQ-induced lung injury and prognosis, especially in the lower-lung field. However, further research is needed to draw a clear conclusion.
Modern Kidney-Sparing Management of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma

Simple Summary Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a lethal cancer of the urinary tract. Radical nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff excision is the gold standard for the management of patients with UTUC. Nevertheless, less-invasive surgeries to preserve maximum kidney function, such as endoscopic ablation and segmental ureteral resection, have become the preferred options in select patients. In this paper, we reviewed the latest evidence on the kidney-sparing management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma. We showed that these approaches are acceptable for low- as well as select high-risk patients who are not eligible for radical treatments. The main advantages of such approaches include renal function preservation as well as decreased surgical morbidity associated with radical treatments. Abstract Purpose: To review the latest evidence on the modern techniques and outcomes of kidney-sparing surgeries (KSS) in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Methods: A comprehensive literature search on the study topic was conducted before 30 April 2023 using electronic databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE. A narrative overview of the literature was then provided based on the extracted data and a qualitative synthesis of the findings. Results: KSS is recommended for low- as well as select high-risk UTUCs who are not eligible for radical treatments. Endoscopic ablation is a KSS option that is associated with similar oncological outcomes compared with radical treatments while preserving renal function in well-selected patients. The other option in this setting is distal ureterectomy, which has the advantage of providing a definitive pathological stage and grade. Data from retrospective studies support the superiority of this approach over radical treatment with similar oncological outcomes, albeit in select cases. Novel chemoablation agents have also been studied in the past few years, of which mitomycin gel has received FDA approval for use in low-risk UTUCs. Conclusion: KSSs are acceptable approaches for patients with low- and select high-risk UTUCs, which preserve renal function without compromising the oncological outcomes.
Effects of tobacco waste and Farmyard manure on macro element status of soil and yield of grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.var. capitata)

he aim of this study is to compare effects of composted tobacco waste (CTW) with farmyard manure (FYM) on macro element status of soil and yield of lettuce. This research was held in the experimental fields of Agriculture Faculty's Research Farm of Ege University in Menemen-Izmir-Turkey in the years of 2005 and 2006. Tobacco wastes gathered from cigarette industry were composted and applied to lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. capitata) with manure. No mineral fertilizers or pesticides were applied. The treatments were; (1) control, (2) 12.5 t ha -1 FYM + 37.5 t ha -1