Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adult occupant injury risk in rear impact and frontal impact: Effect of impact conditions and occupant-related factors

Abstract Objectives The objectives of this study were to compare the adult occupant injury risk on specific body regions in frontal and rear impact and to investigate the effect of those crash conditions and occupant-related factors on the injury risk. Method Data from the NASS-CDS and Crash Investigation Sampling System were studied for crashes during 2000 to 2019 involving model year 2000 to 2020 motor vehicles, including frontal collisions and rear-end collisions. The injury risk by specific body regions were compared by descriptive statistics, and logistic regression models were developed to examine the effects of various factors on injury risk by specific body regions, controlling for crash type (frontal impact and rear impact), vehicle impact speed, vehicle impact location, vehicle model year, and occupant gender, age, belt use, and seating position. Results After controlling for the confounding factors, the occupants in frontal impact had higher overall injury risk than in rear impact (at Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale [MAIS] 3+; odds ratio [OR] = 6.23; 95% confidence interval [CI] [6.06–6.40]), except for lower neck/spine injury risk at MAIS 1+ (OR = 0.47; 95% CI [0.46–0.47]). The impact speed (at MAIS 3+; OR = 1.10; 95% CI [1.10–1.10]) and aging (at MAIS 3+; OR = 1.05; 95% CI [1.05–1.05]) increase overall injury risk, and the unbelted occupants had higher overall injury risk than belted occupants not only in frontal impact (at MAIS 3+; OR = 4.04; 95% CI [3.98–4.10]), but also in rear impact (at MAIS 3+; OR = 28.4; 95% CI [26.4–30.5]). Females had higher overall injury risk than males in frontal impact (at MAIS 3+; OR = 2.01; 95% CI [1.99–2.04]) but not in rear impact (at MAIS 3+; OR = 0.77; 95% CI [0.73–0.81]). Conclusions Occupants in rear impact had lower injury risk than in frontal impact at MAIS 1+ to MAIS 3+, except for neck/spine at MAIS 1+. The belt restraint was effective not only in frontal impact but also in rear impact. This study provided injury risk references for current vehicles that may provide insight to the potential injury risk of rear-facing occupants in future vehicle configurations.
Age‐dependent white matter disruptions after military traumatic brain injury: Multivariate analysis results from ENIGMA brain injury

Mild Traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a signature wound in military personnel, and repetitive mTBI has been linked to age‐related neurogenerative disorders that affect white matter (WM) in the brain. However, findings of injury to specific WM tracts have been variable and inconsistent. This may be due to the heterogeneity of mechanisms, etiology, and comorbid disorders related to mTBI. Non‐negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a data‐driven approach that detects covarying patterns (components) within high‐dimensional data. We applied NMF to diffusion imaging data from military Veterans with and without a self‐reported TBI history. NMF identified 12 independent components derived from fractional anisotropy (FA) in a large dataset (n = 1,475) gathered through the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta‐Analysis) Military Brain Injury working group. Regressions were used to examine TBI‐ and mTBI‐related associations in NMF‐derived components while adjusting for age, sex, post‐traumatic stress disorder, depression, and data acquisition site/scanner. We found significantly stronger age‐dependent effects of lower FA in Veterans with TBI than Veterans without in four components (q < 0.05), which are spatially unconstrained by traditionally defined WM tracts. One component, occupying the most peripheral location, exhibited significantly stronger age‐dependent differences in Veterans with mTBI. We found NMF to be powerful and effective in detecting covarying patterns of FA associated with mTBI by applying standard parametric regression modeling. Our results highlight patterns of WM alteration that are differentially affected by TBI and mTBI in younger compared to older military Veterans.
Tissue‐engineered in vitro modeling of the impact of Schwann cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease affecting upper and lower motor neurons (MNs). To investigate whether Schwann cells could be involved in the disease pathogenesis, we developed a tissue‐engineered three‐dimensional (3D) in vitro model that combined MNs cocultured with astrocytes and microglia seeded on top of a collagen sponge populated with epineurium fibroblasts to enable 3D axonal migration. C2C12 myoblasts were seeded underneath the sponge in the presence or absence of Schwann cells. To reproduce an ALS cellular microenvironment, MNs, astrocytes, and microglia were extracted from SOD1G93A mice recapitulating many aspects of the human disease. This 3D ALS in vitro model was compared with a 3D control made of cells isolated from SOD1WT mice. We showed that normal Schwann cells strongly enhanced MN axonal migration in the 3D control model but had no effect in the ALS model. However, ALS‐derived Schwann cells isolated from SOD1G93A mice failed to significantly improve axonal migration in both models. These results suggest that a cell therapy using healthy Schwann cells may not be effective in promoting axonal regeneration in ALS. In addition, this 3D ALS model could be used to study the impact of other cell types on ALS by various combinations of normal and diseased cells.
Genomic adaptations for arboreal locomotion in Asian flying treefrogs

Significance To adapt to arboreal lifestyles, treefrogs have evolved a suite of complex traits that support vertical movement and gliding, thus presenting a unique case for studying the genetic basis for traits causally linked to vertical niche expansion. Here, based on two de novo-assembled Asian treefrog genomes, we determined that genes involved in limb development and keratin cytoskeleton likely played a role in the evolution of their climbing systems. Behavioral and morphological evaluation and time-ordered gene coexpression network analysis revealed the developmental patterns and regulatory pathways of the webbed feet used for gliding in Rhacophorus kio.
The influence of maternal and paternal education on birth outcomes: an analysis of the Ottawa and Kingston (OaK) birth cohort

Abstract Background Education is considered one of the most robust determinants of health. However, it is unclear whether maternal education and paternal education have differential impacts on perinatal health outcomes. We assess maternal and paternal education differences and their association with adverse birth outcomes in a large birth cohort from Ontario, Canada. Methods The OaK Birth Cohort recruited patients from Ontario, Canada, between October 2002 and April 2009. We recruited mothers were recruited between 12 and 20 weeks’ gestation and collected both mother and infant data. The final sample size of the cohort was 8,085 participants. We use logistic regression to model the probability of preterm birth (less than 34 and 37 weeks’ gestation), small-for-gestational-age (SGA), or stillbirth as a function of maternal and paternal educational attainment. We adjust for household-level income, maternal and paternal race and ethnicity, and compare the strength of the association between maternal and paternal education on outcomes using Wald tests. Results 7,928 mother-father-offspring triads were available for the current analysis. 75% of mothers and fathers had college or university level education, and 8.7% of mothers experienced preterm delivery. Compared to mothers with college or university education, mothers with a high school education had an odds ratio of 1.37 (95% CI: 1.01–1.87) for SGA. Paternal education was not associated with infant outcomes. Comparing the odds ratios for maternal education and paternal education showed a stronger association than paternal education at the high school level for SGA birth (difference in odds ratio: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.13–3.36, p = .016) among women at least 25 years old. Conclusion Maternal education was associated with SGA, and this effect was more robust than paternal education, but both associations were weaker than previously reported.
Assistive devices among people living at home with advanced cancer: Use, non‐use and who have unmet needs for assistive devices?

Abstract Objective To investigate which assistive devices people with advanced cancer have and whether they are in use. In addition, to explore the characteristics of people with advanced cancer who have unmet needs for assistive devices. Methods This descriptive cross‐sectional study used data from a randomised controlled trial evaluating efficacy of an occupational therapy‐based intervention. Participants were 237 people with advanced cancer. Data were collected by means of instruments about demography, functioning and assistive devices. Results The most frequent assistive devices possessed by the participants were as follows: (1) small aids for dressing (47%), (2) Pillow for positioning (40%) and (3) electrically operated adjustable bed (39%). The prevalence of assistive devices was 92% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 88%–95%) with 14.2% non‐use, largest for trolley tables (50%). In all, 27.4% of the participants were found to have unmet needs for assistive devices. These participants had similar characteristics to the other participants except from lower activity of daily living (ADL) ability (p values = <0.001). Conclusion The assistive devices possessed by the participants were primarily for positioning and resting, and most were in use. More than a fourth of the participants had unmet needs for assistive devices and were characterised by lower ADL ability.
Adult Age Differences in Sensitivity to Semantic Satiation

ABSTRACT Objective In this study, we investigated age differences in sensitivity to semantic satiation.Semantic satiation was conceptualized as occurring within a semantic activation framework. Method A prime or to-be-satiated word (e.g., ANIMAL) was presented repeatedly for an average of 2.5, 12.5, or 22.5 times. Afterward, a word triad comprised of two related words (e.g., PURPLE, YELLOW) and one unrelated word (e.g., DOG) was presented. The two related words were designated as nontargets or context words in the display and the unrelated word was the target. Participants were instructed to indicate as quickly and as accurately as possible which of the words in the triad was the unrelated word by pressing a key which was spatially compatible to the position of the stimulus on the CRt. Results For young but not older adults, there was an attenuation of priming effects in the response latency data as repetition of the prime increased. Conclusion These results were interpreted as evidence that older adults are less sensitive to the semantic satiation phenomenon than young adults.
Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Intervertebral Discs: Spin‐Echo Echo‐Planar Imaging Sequence Validation

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is an imaging technique that can noninvasively assess the shear properties of the intervertebral disc (IVD). Unlike the standard gradient recalled echo (GRE) MRE technique, a spin‐echo echo‐planar imaging (SE‐EPI) sequence has the potential to improve imaging efficiency and patient compliance.
A DA M ATCH : A U NIFIED A PPROACH TO S EMI - S UPERVISED L EARNING AND D OMAIN A DAPTATION

We extend semi-supervised learning to the problem of domain adaptation to learn significantly higher-accuracy models that train on one data distribution and test on a different one. With the goal of generality, we introduce AdaMatch, a unified solution for unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA), semi-supervised learning (SSL), and semi-supervised domain adaptation (SSDA). In an extensive experimental study, we compare its behavior with respective state-of-the-art techniques from SSL, SSDA, and UDA and find that AdaMatch either matches or significantly exceeds the state-of-the-art in each case using the same hyper-parameters regardless of the dataset or task. For example, AdaMatch nearly doubles the accuracy compared to that of the prior state-of-the-art on the UDA task for DomainNet and even exceeds the accuracy of the prior state-of-the-art obtained with pre-training by 6.4% when AdaMatch is trained completely from scratch. Furthermore, by providing AdaMatch with just one labeled example per class from the target domain (i.e., the SSDA setting), we increase the target accuracy by an additional 6.1%, and with 5 labeled examples, by 13.6%. 1
Bedload transport: beyond intractability

Scrutiny of multifarious field and laboratory data amassed over nine decades reveals four distinct bedload transport regimes and demonstrates the search for a universal formula is a fallacious pursuit. In only one regime, in which the supply of transportable material is unconstrained, does the transport rate in some rivers approximate the expected proportional relationship with dimensionless specific stream power (ω∗). At the other extreme, transport occurs at or near the threshold of particle motion, and the availability of sediment is regulated by the characteristics of the bed surface. In each regime, there is an underlying variation of transport rates at a given discharge, that is neither obscured by long measurement times nor standardized methodologies, and to properly differentiate them, the bedload size must be known. We show a data-driven relationship based on measurements made over several years, across the entire flow range, that requires no a priori specification of the association between the transport rate and ω∗, can reveal nonlinear trends that may otherwise be masked by omni-present temporal and spatial variability. The demise of the search for a universal formula will be accelerated by the development of idiomatic relations that embrace the specificity of rivers in each transport regime.
Antony Hewish. 11 May 1924—13 September 2021

Antony (Tony) Hewish was a pioneer radio astronomer who will always be remembered as the leader of the team in 1967 that discovered the pulsars, which proved to be rapidly rotating, magnetized neutron stars. The discovery resulted from Tony's programme of systematic all-sky surveys to detect the scintillation, or flickering, of small angular diameter radio sources due to electron density fluctuations in the solar wind flowing out from the Sun. The large low-frequency 4.5-acre array was designed by Tony to find radio quasars, which often display radio scintillations, to estimate the angular sizes of the sources and to study the physics of the interplanetary medium. In the course of commissioning the telescope, his research student, Jocelyn Bell (Jocelyn Bell Burnell, FRS 2003), noted a strange 100% scintillating source unlike anything seen before. Tony and the team soon established that this source was a pulsating radio source, Jocelyn first observing the pulsations with period 1.33 s in November 1967. The discovery paved the way for the rapid development of high energy astrophysics and an appreciation that general relativity plays a key role in the stability of neutron stars. Tony's contributions spanned a very wide range of pioneering studies in the new discipline of radio astronomy, including telescope and electronic design, cosmological studies of distant radio sources and the physics of the ionospheric, interplanetary and interstellar plasmas. He was awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize in physics for ‘his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars’.
Nocturnal lighting in animal research should be replicable and reflect relevant ecological conditions

In nature, light is a key driver of animal behaviour and physiology. When studying captive or laboratory animals, researchers usually expose animals to a period of darkness, to mimic night. However, ‘darkness’ is often poorly quantified and its importance is generally underappreciated in animal research. Even small differences in nocturnal light conditions can influence biology. When light levels during the dark phase are not reported accurately, experiments can be impossible to replicate and compare. Furthermore, when nocturnal light levels are unrealistically dark or bright, the research is less ecologically relevant. Such issues are exacerbated by huge differences in the sensitivity of different light meters, which are not always described in study methods. We argue that nocturnal light levels need to be reported clearly and precisely, particularly in studies of animals housed indoors (e.g. ‘<0.03 lux’ rather than ‘0 lux’ or ‘dark’), and that these light levels should reflect conditions that the animal would experience in a natural context.
Non-pharmaceutical intervention levels to reduce the COVID-19 attack ratio among children

The attack ratio in a subpopulation is defined as the total number of infections over the total number of individuals in this subpopulation. Using a methodology based on an age-stratified transmission dynamics model, we estimated the attack ratio of COVID-19 among children (individuals 0–11 years) when a large proportion of individuals eligible for vaccination (age 12 and above) are vaccinated to contain the epidemic among this subpopulation, or the effective herd immunity (with additional physical distancing measures). We describe the relationship between the attack ratio among children, the time to remove infected individuals from the transmission chain and the children-to-children daily contact rate while considering the increased transmissibility of virus variants (using the Delta variant as an example). We illustrate the generality and applicability of the methodology established by performing an analysis of the attack ratio of COVID-19 among children in the population of Canada and in its province of Ontario. The clinical attack ratio, defined as the number of symptomatic infections over the total population, can be informed from the attack ratio and both can be reduced substantially via a combination of reduced social mixing and rapid testing and isolation of the children.
Direct Inhibition of RetS Synthesis by RsmA Contributes to Homeostasis of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Gac/Rsm Signaling System

The Pseudomonas aeruginosa Gac/Rsm system controls ∼500 genes and governs a critical lifestyle switch by inversely regulating factors that favor acute or chronic colonization. Control of gene expression by the Gac/Rsm system is mediated through RsmA and RsmF, small RNA-binding proteins that interact with target mRNAs to inhibit or promote protein synthesis and/or mRNA stability. ABSTRACT The Gac/Rsm system is a global regulator of Pseudomonas aeruginosa gene expression. The primary effectors are RsmA and RsmF. Both are RNA-binding proteins that interact with target mRNAs to modulate protein synthesis. RsmA/RsmF recognize GGA sequences presented in the loop portion of stem-loop structures. For repressed targets, the GGA sites usually overlap the ribosome binding site (RBS) and RsmA/RsmF binding inhibits translation initiation. RsmA/RsmF activity is controlled by several small non-coding RNAs (sRNA) that sequester RsmA/RsmF from target mRNAs. The most important sequestering sRNAs are RsmY and RsmZ. Transcription of rsmY/rsmZ is directly controlled by the GacSA two-component regulatory system. GacSA activity is antagonized by RetS, a hybrid sensor kinase. In the absence of retS, rsmY/rsmZ transcription is derepressed and RsmA/RsmF are sequestered by RsmY/RsmZ. Gac/Rsm system homeostasis is tightly controlled by at least two mechanisms. First, direct binding of RsmA to the rsmA and rsmF mRNAs inhibits further synthesis of both proteins. Second, RsmA stimulates rsmY/rsmZ transcription through an undefined mechanism. In this study we demonstrate that RsmA stimulates rsmY/rsmZ transcription by directly inhibiting RetS synthesis. RetS protein levels are elevated 2.5-fold in an rsmA mutant. Epistasis experiments demonstrate that the rsmA requirement for rsmY/rsmZ transcription is entirely suppressed in an rsmA, retS double mutant. RsmA directly interacts with the retS mRNA and requires two distinct GGA sites, one of which overlaps the RBS. We propose a model wherein RsmA inhibits RetS synthesis to promote rsmY/rsmZ transcription and that this acts as a checkpoint to limit RsmA/RsmF availability. IMPORTANCE The Pseudomonas aeruginosa Gac/Rsm system controls ∼500 genes and governs a critical lifestyle switch by inversely regulating factors that favor acute or chronic colonization. Control of gene expression by the Gac/Rsm system is mediated through RsmA and RsmF, small RNA-binding proteins that interact with target mRNAs to inhibit or promote protein synthesis and/or mRNA stability. RsmA/RsmF activity is governed by two small non-coding RNAs (RsmY and RsmZ) that sequester RsmA/RsmF from target mRNAs. The GacSA two-component regulatory system plays a pivotal role in the Gac/Rsm system by controlling rsmYZ transcription. This study provides insight into the control of homeostasis by demonstrating that RsmA directly targets and inhibits expression of RetS, an orphan sensor kinase critical for rsmYZ transcription.
Considerations for the Use of Phage Therapy in Clinical Practice

Increasing antimicrobial resistance and medical device-related infections have led to a renewed interest in phage therapy as an alternative or adjunct to conventional antimicrobials. Expanded access and compassionate use cases have risen exponentially but have varied widely in approach, methodology, clinical situations in which phage therapy might be considered, dosing, route of administration, and outcomes. ABSTRACT Increasing antimicrobial resistance and medical device-related infections have led to a renewed interest in phage therapy as an alternative or adjunct to conventional antimicrobials. Expanded access and compassionate use cases have risen exponentially but have varied widely in approach, methodology, and clinical situations in which phage therapy might be considered. Large gaps in knowledge contribute to heterogeneity in approach and lack of consensus in many important clinical areas. The Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) has convened a panel of experts in phage therapy, clinical microbiology, infectious diseases, and pharmacology, who worked with regulatory experts and a funding agency to identify questions based on a clinical framework and divided them into three themes: potential clinical situations in which phage therapy might be considered, laboratory testing, and pharmacokinetic considerations. Suggestions are provided as answers to a series of questions intended to inform clinicians considering experimental phage therapy for patients in their clinical practices.