Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lymphadenopathy in IgG4-related disease: a phenotype of severe activity and poor prognosis, with eotaxin-3 as a new biomarker.

OBJECTIVE To clarify relevant proteins and clinical characteristics of a phenotype of IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) with lymphadenopathy. METHODS We enrolled patients newly diagnosed with IgG4-RD in our department between January 2000 and June 2018 and performed proteomic analysis to measure serum concentrations of 1305 proteins. We extracted proteins overexpressed in patients with IgG4-RD with lymphadenopathy by comparing between those with lymphadenopathy, those without lymphadenopathy and healthy controls. We further reviewed all the patients with IgG4-RD in our institution and investigated the characteristics and prognosis of the patients with IgG4-RD with lymphadenopathy. RESULTS Eighty-five patients with IgG4-RD were enrolled, of which, 55% had lymphadenopathy. Proteomic analysis in 31 patients with IgG4-RD and 6 healthy controls revealed that eotaxin-3 was a potential serum biomarker in the patients with lymphadenopathy versus those without lymphadenopathy and healthy controls. A cohort of 85 patients with IgG4-RD demonstrated that patients with lymphadenopathy showed a significantly higher serum IgG4, IgG4:IgG ratio, IgG4-RD responder index and eosinophilia (P < 0.001 for all), irrelevant of the extent to which organ involvement developed. Patients with lymphadenopathy treated with glucocorticoid alone relapsed with significantly higher rates than those without lymphadenopathy (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION Lymphadenopathy in IgG4-RD represents a phenotype associated with high disease activities, eosinophilia and relapsing disease. Eotaxin-3 is a novel biomarker related to IgG4-RD with lymphadenopathy.
Causal Inference between Rheumatoid Arthritis and Breast Cancer in East Asian and European Population: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization

Simple Summary Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the chronic autoimmune diseases that affects about 0.5 to 1.0% of the general population worldwide. The main symptom of RA is the destruction of the synovial joint, leading to a reduced quality of life and increased mortality. RA may be accompanied by several comorbidities, on which several studies have been conducted on the association between RA and breast cancer. However, the association between RA and breast cancer has shown different directions and has not been clearly established. In this study, we tried to determine whether RA had a causal effect on breast cancer using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, but causal evidence was not found. Therefore, additional studies are needed to determine whether RA patients are at high risk of breast cancer, based on large-scale cohorts to validate these results. Abstract Previous studies have been reported that the association between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and breast cancer remains inconclusive. A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis can reveal the potential causal association between exposure and outcome. A two-sample MR analysis using the penalized robust inverse variance weighted (PRIVW) method was performed to analyze the association between RA and breast cancer risk based on the summary statistics of six genome-wide association studies (GWAS) targeting RA in an East Asian population along with summary statistics of the BioBank Japan (BBJ), Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), and Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA) targeting breast cancer. We found that the direction of the effect of RA on breast cancer varied among GWAS-summary data from BBJ, BCAC, and CIMBA. Significant horizontal pleiotropy based on a penalized robust MR-Egger regression was observed only for BBJ and CIMBA BRCA2 carriers. As the results of the two-sample MR analyses were inconsistent, the causal association between RA and breast cancer was inconclusive. The biological mechanisms explaining the relationship between RA and breast cancer were unclear in Asian as well as in Caucasians. Further studies using large-scale patient cohorts are required for the validation of these results.
Drug repurposing for Alzheimer’s disease: in silico and in vitro investigation of FDA-approved drugs as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most familiar multifactorial and complex neurodegenerative disorders characterized by loss of cholinergic neurons in the brain. The various attempts for drug development to treat AD have been hampered by largely unsuccessful clinical trials in the last two decades. Developing a new drug from scratch takes enormous amounts of time, effort and money, mainly due to several barriers in the therapeutic drug development process. Drug repurposing strategy resuscitates this slow drug discovery process by finding new uses and clinical indications for existing drugs. This study is focused on the cholinergic hypothesis, a well-established target of the clinically available drugs in the market for the treatment of AD. The computational virtual screening (VS) led to the identification of thiazolidinedione (TZD, antidiabetic) and aminoquinoline (antimalarial) class of drugs as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors. Intriguingly, rosiglitazone (RGZ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) were found to be mild-to-moderate inhibitors of hAChE (human acetylcholinesterase) in our enzyme inhibition studies which are complementary to our computational studies. On the basis of our computational and experimental studies, it can be suggested that the beneficial effect of RGZ and HCQ in AD patients reported in the literature may partly be due to their AChE inhibitory property. The VS also led to the identification of antifungal drugs miconazole and oxiconazole as potential AChE inhibitors. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of the potential hits belonging to TZD, aminoquinoline and azoles class were also carried out. The MD simulations studies revealed detailed computational insights related to molecular interactions and protein–ligand stability for selected hits. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
A novel variant in COX16 causes cytochrome c oxidase deficiency, severe fatal neonatal lactic acidosis, encephalopathy, cardiomyopathy, and liver dysfunction

COX16 is involved in the biogenesis of cytochrome‐c‐oxidase (complex IV), the terminal complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. We present the first report of two unrelated patients with the homozygous nonsense variant c.244C>T(p. Arg82*) in COX16 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, encephalopathy and severe fatal lactic acidosis, and isolated complex IV deficiency. The absence of COX16 protein expression leads to a complete loss of the holo‐complex IV, as detected by Western blot in patient fibroblasts. Lentiviral transduction of patient fibroblasts with wild‐type COX16 complementary DNA rescued complex IV biosynthesis. We hypothesize that COX16 could play a role in the copper delivery route of the COX2 module as part of the complex IV assembly. Our data provide clear evidence for the pathogenicity of the COX16 variant as a cause for the observed clinical features and the isolated complex IV deficiency in these two patients and that COX16 deficiency is a cause for mitochondrial disease.
Bacteriophages presence in nature and their role in the natural selection of bacterial populations

Phages are the obligate parasite of bacteria and have complex interactions with their hosts. Phages can live in, modify, and shape bacterial communities by bringing about changes in their abundance, diversity, physiology, and virulence. In addition, phages mediate lateral gene transfer, modify host metabolism and reallocate bacterially-derived biochemical compounds through cell lysis, thus playing an important role in ecosystem. Phages coexist and coevolve with bacteria and have developed several antidefense mechanisms in response to bacterial defense strategies against them. Phages owe their existence to their bacterial hosts, therefore they bring about alterations in their host genomes by transferring resistance genes and genes encoding toxins in order to improve the fitness of the hosts. Application of phages in biotechnology, environment, agriculture and medicines demands a deep insight into the myriad of phage-bacteria interactions. However, to understand their complex interactions, we need to know how unique phages are to their bacterial hosts and how they exert a selective pressure on the microbial communities in nature. Consequently, the present review focuses on phage biology with respect to natural selection of bacterial populations. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Auditory Feedback Control of Vocal Pitch in Spasmodic Dysphonia

Hearing plays an important role in the maintenance of vocal control in normal individuals. In patients with spasmodic dysphonia (SD), however, the ability to maintain sustained control of phonation is impaired. The origins of SD are unknown, and it is unclear whether auditory feedback‐dependent vocal control is compromised in these patients.
Affective priming enhances gaze cueing effect.

Other's gaze direction triggers a reflexive shift of attention known as the gaze cueing effect. Fearful facial expressions are further reported to enhance the gaze cueing effect, but it remains unclear whether this facilitative effect is specific to gaze cues or the result of more general increase in attentional resources resulting from affective arousal. We examined the effects of affective priming on the cueing effects of gaze and arrow stimuli in the Posner cueing task. Participants were primed with two types of briefly presented affective stimuli (neutral, threatening), and the target location was cued either by an arrow or a gaze cue in a neutral face. Gaze cues were preceded by the same face with its eyes closed or directed to the viewer. Study 1 (n = 26) assessed the cueing effect using manual key press, and Study 2 (n = 30) employed gaze-contingent eye tracking techniques to assess the cueing effect using time to first fixate the cued target location. Both studies found that threatening priming significantly enhanced the cueing effects of eye gaze but not arrow stimuli. The results therefore suggest that affective priming does not facilitate general attentional orienting, but the facilitation is more specific to social cues such as eye gaze. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Quality Reporting of Radiomics Analysis in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Roadmap for Moving Forward

Objective To evaluate radiomics analysis in studies on mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) using a radiomics quality score (RQS) system to establish a roadmap for further improvement in clinical use. Materials and Methods PubMed MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched using the terms ‘cognitive impairment’ or ‘Alzheimer’ or ‘dementia’ and ‘radiomic’ or ‘texture’ or ‘radiogenomic’ for articles published until March 2020. From 258 articles, 26 relevant original research articles were selected. Two neuroradiologists assessed the quality of the methodology according to the RQS. Adherence rates for the following six key domains were evaluated: image protocol and reproducibility, feature reduction and validation, biologic/clinical utility, performance index, high level of evidence, and open science. Results The hippocampus was the most frequently analyzed (46.2%) anatomical structure. Of the 26 studies, 16 (61.5%) used an open source database (14 from Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and 2 from Open Access Series of Imaging Studies). The mean RQS was 3.6 out of 36 (9.9%), and the basic adherence rate was 27.6%. Only one study (3.8%) performed external validation. The adherence rate was relatively high for reporting the imaging protocol (96.2%), multiple segmentation (76.9%), discrimination statistics (69.2%), and open science and data (65.4%) but low for conducting test-retest analysis (7.7%) and biologic correlation (3.8%). None of the studies stated potential clinical utility, conducted a phantom study, performed cut-off analysis or calibration statistics, was a prospective study, or conducted cost-effectiveness analysis, resulting in a low level of evidence. Conclusion The quality of radiomics reporting in MCI and AD studies is suboptimal. Validation is necessary using external dataset, and improvements need to be made to feature reproducibility, feature selection, clinical utility, model performance index, and pursuits of a higher level of evidence.
THE SATISFACTION OF SOPHOMORE DENTAL STUDENTS WITH THE VIRTUAL MICROSCOPY PRACTICALS USED IN HISTOLOGY AND ANATOMICAL PATHOLOGY COURSE

The visual aids for learning advanced over the last several decades. With the approach digital slice imaging, there is an opportunity to complement the way of teaching and learning histology. The aims of this study were: 1 To assess the opinion of sophomore dental students of the use of digital microscopy, in the Histology and Anatomical Pathology course, in comparison with light microscopy. 2 To compare the opinion of the students from “National” groups, who students are mainly from Spain, versus “International” group, who students are from different countries. Practical classes were using the computer rooms as a Virtual Microscopy Laboratory. Every student had access to a desktop computer with the Leica SCN400 Image Viewer installed, and free access to the virtual drive hosted. Student satisfaction was assessed using 12 questions survey with three possible answers (Agree, Undecided, Disagree). First, we determined the percentage of students in agreement with a particular question of the study. Secondly, the Chi square test was used to compare differences between groups. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05. The survey data indicated that students were satisfied with virtual microscopy. Students pointed out that Virtual microscopy is a useful tool and enhanced their learning of the material in this course. We only found significant differences between groups in three questions. In general, students consider virtual microscopy a significant improvement in the study of histology. As lecturers, we must adapt to new trends and integrate technological innovations into our courses as a means of information, training, knowledge and continuous learning, which could facilitate the teacher-student communication. Likewise, we have to consider the student profile.
The Role of Social Capital in Enhancing Competitive Advantage

The present study aims to examine the impact of internal social capital on competitive advantage at Jordanian banks. The study's sample consists of (480) employees that will help answering the study's questions and hypotheses; besides, the researcher developed a questionnaire for the detection of social capital dimensions (relational social capital, cognitive social capital and structural social capital) and the level of competitive advantage. The most important findings and conclusions of the research are: The arithmetic mean of the estimates of employees at Jordanian banks towards social capital dimensions were high. The arithmetic mean of the estimates of employees at Jordanian banks towards competitive advantage were moderate. Regression results indicates that there is statistically significant effect for social capital on competitive advantage at Jordanian banks. Besides, Structural social dimension influence came first concerning the size of the effect.
Study the Effect of Different Drying Methods on Quality and Consumer Acceptability of Tamarind Leathers

An investigation was carried out to assess the quality and sensory characteristics of tamarind leather as affected by drying methods. In this study tamarind leathers were dried by two different methods i.e. cabinet drier (70°C) and solar drier (54±4°C). The quality parameters were texture, color, rehydration ratio, drying ratio, pH and titratable acidity and sensory properties of tamarind leathers were evaluated. Results showed that, the moisture content of cabinet dried leathers was lower (5.52%) than that dried by solar drier (7.95%). Instrumental results of texture showed that all the leathers were significantly different (p≤ 0.05), the leathers dried by solar drier were tender (2.52) than that dried by cabinet drier (3.29). Drying methods considerably influenced the color changes of tamarind leathers, that tamarind leathers dried by cabinet drier revealed darker color values (0.138±0.01) than that dried by solar drier (0.043±0.03) . The Rehydration ratio values were (1.78) and (1.44) for tamarind leathers dried by solar and cabinet driers respectively. The drying ratio of tamarind leathers values were significantly different (p≤ 0.05), 3.5 and 3.25 for tamarind leathers dried by cabinet and solar driers respectively. The pH values of tamarind leathers dried by cabinet and solar driers were 2.78±0.03 and 2.81±0.03 respectively. While the treatable acidity values of tamarind leathers dried by cabinet and solar driers were 6.86±0.03 and 7.83±0.39 respectively. Solar dried leathers were liked and received significantly higher scores (p≤ 0.05) on all sensory attributes evaluated.
EFFECT OF ACTIVE IMMUNIZATION AGAINST GnRH ON “BOAR TAINT”, TESTES AND ACCESSORY SEX GLANDS IN MATURED BOARS

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of active immunization with Improvac® (Pfizer Ltd, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) on the concentration of boar taint substances, i.e., skatole and indole in the back fat and omentum tissues, testes, accessory sex glands and testosterone concentration in the blood serum of matured AI boars. Thirteen Danish Landrace clinically healthy mature boars from a commercial AI station were included in the study. The experiment lasted for 15 weeks. The animals were divided into 3 groups: not vaccinated animals (Control, n=7), twice vaccinated animals (Group II VAC, n=3), and 3 times vaccinated animals (Group III VAC, n=3). The mean concentrations of skatole in the back fat and in the omentum tissue of the Control group animals were by 0.62 ± 0.31 μg/g and 0.64 ± 0.43 μg/g higher than in Group III VAC (P<0.05). The total weight of testes and accessory sex glands after 2 or 3 vaccinations with Improvac was significantly lower compared with the Control group (P<0.05). The results of this study indicated that active immunization of matured boars against GnRH effectively reduced boar taint substances, i.e., indole and skatole levels, testosterone concentration and weight of testes and accessory sex glands.
International Journal of Instruction

The purpose of this critical review is to explore international perspectives on the analysis of the content of developed mathematics textbooks. This led us to explore the contributions to our knowledge of the compatibility of the content of the developed mathematics textbooks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in the United States of America (USA) between 2013 and 2019. This study sought to extract and synthesise the recommendations subsequent to comparing them according to the methodology, samples, grades, the number of NCTM standards that were covered, and the results of the analyses. Moreover, this review sought to identify the areas of the mathematics curriculum which covered a low percentage of NCTM standards according to such studies, and to help the stakeholders to develop these curricula. It was recommended that a study should be conducted in order to evaluate the content of developed mathematics for grades not covered in their studies, such as primary grades 1 to 2 and secondary grades 2 to 3. We found that the mathematics curriculum for the first secondary grade achieved a low percentage of NCTM standards.
Study on incidence, haemato biochemical changes and therapeutic management of post parturient haemoglobinuria in Murrah buffaloes

Post parturient haemoglobinuria (PPH) is a metabolic disease most commonly affects high-yielding dairy buffaloes, characterized by development of per acute intravascular hemolysis and anemia with potentially fatal outcome. The study was conducted on thirty nine (incidence of 5.83%, 39/668) clinical cases of Post parturient haemoglobinuria in buffalo presented to the RVDEC, LUVAS, Uchani, Karnal. Diagnosis was done on the basis of clinical signs and clinical pathology. All the animals were recently parturited (average 3.35 ± 0.39 weeks), on an average in their third lactation (mean 3.25 ± 0.3) and exhibited clinical signssuch as anorexia, constipation, pale mucous membrane (both Conjuctival and vaginal), reddish brown colour urine and drastic reduction in milk production. Haemato-biochemical examination showed leucocytosis with absolute neutrophilia and lymphopenia, lower total erythrocyte count, haemoglobin, packed cell volume, increased activities of ALT and AST, hyperglycemia, hypocalcaemia and hypophosphatemia. All affected buffaloes were treated by sodium acid phosphate 80g in one litre NSS intravenously, parenteral phosphorus preparation, antibiotic oxytetracycline along with supportive treatment. Owner was also advised to feed the mineral mixture regularly along with Vitamin A, D3 & H preparation. The animals responded well to the therapy within 5 days of treatment and effectively restore the normal haemato-biochemical indices. The report records incidence, changes in haematological and serum biochemical parameters and successful therapeutic management of post parturient haemoglobinuria in Murrah buffaloes.
Accident Analysis and Prevention

There is extensive literature into the mechanisms of injury in traffic crashes involving vulnerable road users (VRUs), but little research into the social or psychological factors in causation in these crash types. Attitudes and emotional associations can affect how people attend to objects in their visual environment and physical approach/avoidance responses, but few studies have extended these approaches into the road safety domain. Existing driving simulator studies of driver-bicyclist interactions have focused on driver behavior but not underlying attitudes and their effect on safety-related behaviors. This research explored the impact of implicit and explicit attitudes on drivers' behavior in interactions with bicyclists. In a driving simulator, various objective measures of safety (e.g., speed, passing distance, crash occurrence) were collected in an overtaking scenario. Participants' self-reported attitudes about driving and bicyclists were collected via survey instrument, along with an online test of subconscious attitudes called an Implicit Association Test, developed to examine preference between drivers and bicyclists. Importantly, this study examined not only distance, but duration and speed during overtaking. Results demonstrate that conscious attitudes affect how quickly and closely drivers overtake bicyclists. Participants who hold negative attitudes about bicyclists as a legitimate road user group passed significantly faster, while people with concerns about their knowledge or judgment about overtaking a bicyclist passed further and more slowly. Drivers self-identification as a bicyclist predicted higher passing speeds, while respondents who bicycle weekly drove closer but more slowly to the simulated bicyclist. These behaviors did not significantly differ based on the measure of implicit attitudes. The results of this study provide potential avenues for infrastructure and education interventions to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Additionally, pairing driving simulator behavior with attitudinal measures represents a significant methodological contribution.