Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enlarged Interior Built Environment Scale Modulates High-Frequency EEG Oscillations

Visual Abstract There is currently no robust method to evaluate how built environment design affects our emotion. Understanding emotion is significant, as it influences cognitive processes, behavior, and wellbeing, and is linked to the functioning of physiological systems. As mental health problems are becoming more prevalent, and exposure to indoor environments is increasing, it is important we develop rigorous methods to understand whether design elements in our environment affect emotion. This study examines whether the scale of interior built environments modulate neural networks involved in emotion regulation. Using a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and controlling for indoor environmental quality (IEQ), 66 adults (31 female, aged 18–55) were exposed to context-neutral enclosed indoor room scenes to understand whether built environment scale affected self-report, autonomic nervous system, and central nervous system correlates of emotion. Our results revealed enlarged scale increased electroencephalography (EEG) power in the β bandwidth. Frontal midline low-γ and high-γ power were also found to increase with enlarged scale, but contrary to our hypothesis, scale did not modulate frontal midline power or lateralization in the θ or α bandwidths. We did not detect an effect of scale on autonomic indicators or self-reported emotion. However, we did find increased range in skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate variability (HRV) to the built environment conditions. This study provides a rigorous empirical framework for assessing the environmental impact of a design characteristic on human emotion and suggests that measures of high-frequency oscillations may provide a useful marker of the response to built environment.
Characteristics of the ionospheric variability as a function of season, latitude, local time, and geomagnetic activity

An ionospheric F2 critical frequency database has been assembled to determine the variability of the F region as a function of local time, latitude, season, and geomagnetic activity. The database comprises observations from 75 ionosonde stations covering a range of geomagnetic latitude and includes 43 storm intervals. The database was previously used to develop the Storm‐Time Empirical Ionospheric Correction Model (STORM). The mean and standard deviation have been evaluated by sorting the data by local time, season (five intervals centered on equinox, solstice, and intermediate intervals), latitude (four regions each 20° wide in geomagnetic latitude), and up to eight levels of geomagnetic activity. The geomagnetic activity index was based on a weighted integral of the previous 33 hours of ap and is the same as that used by the STORM model. The database covers a full solar cycle, but insufficient information was available to sort by solar activity without compromising the estimates of variability on the other sorting parameters. About half the data were contained in the first level of geomagnetic activity, between 0 and 500 units of filtered ap corresponding to Kp ≤ 2, and half above that level. When local time dependence was included in the binning, sufficient data were available to sort into two levels of geomagnetic activity, quiet (Kp ≤ 2+) and disturbed (Kp > 3−). For all latitudes and levels of geomagnetic activity, the lowest variability was typically found in summer (10–15%), and the largest variability occurred in winter (15–40%), with equinox (10–30%) lying between the solstice extremes. The exception was low latitudes at equinox, which had surprising low variability (10%), possibly because of the weak interhemispheric flow at this time of year. At middle and low latitudes, the variability tended to increase with geomagnetic activity in winter and equinox but remained fairly constant in summer. At high latitudes, the surprising result was that in all seasons, and in winter in particular, the variability tended to decrease, probably because of the increased upwelling of neutral molecular species and stronger chemical control of the ionosphere. The data have also been used to build a table of estimated variability suitable for inclusion in the International Reference Ionosphere or any other climatological model. For periods where data were scarce or nonexistent, an estimated variability was provided on the basis of expectations of the consequences of physical processes. This was necessary to fill in the table of values in order to develop a module suitable for inclusion in the International Reference Ionosphere.
Exploring the experiences of frontline nurses caring for COVID‐19 patients

Abstract Aim This study seeks to gain a comprehensive understanding of the experiences of frontline nurses who provided direct care for COVID‐19 patients. Background Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, the demands on healthcare systems have been higher than before. Although previous studies have explored the experiences of frontline nurses, these experiences could vary depending on each country's social, cultural, and historical contexts. Introduction In the midst of the global pandemic, sharing the experiences of COVID‐19 frontline nurses could have implications for both nursing and nursing policies that could be applied to future pandemics. Methods This descriptive qualitative study comprised 14 South Korean nurses with a minimum of one month of experience working within a COVID‐19 department. Individual interviews were conducted on a virtual platform, and a thematic analysis was employed. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies were used to ensure a detailed reporting of the study. Results Four themes and 12 subthemes were developed. The themes included: (1) feeling forced into a world of uncertainty; (2) providing unique care for COVID‐19 patients; (3) perceiving barriers to providing quality care; and (4) seeking meaning in caring for COVID‐19 patients. Discussion Nurses recognized their unique roles in caring for COVID‐19 patients and sought new meanings within their profession. However, the poor work environment exacerbated the physical and emotional burden among the nurses and compromised the provision of quality care. Conclusion This study highlighted the nursing policy issues that need to be improved to ensure better quality care and a stronger healthcare system. Implications for nursing policy Governmental action is essential to ensure that nurses can maintain the quality of care they have provided during COVID‐19 and any future pandemics.
Predictive value of post-percutaneous coronary intervention fractional flow reserve: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS We aimed to investigate the relationship between post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) fractional flow reserve (FFR) and clinical outcome using a systematic review with a study-level meta-analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS MEDLINE, Embase and CENTRAL were systematically searched for articles with clinical follow-up reporting mean or median final post-PCI FFR. The main outcome was a composite of MACE including all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI), and target vessel revascularization (TVR). Meta-regression analyses were performed of mean post-PCI FFR values. A total of 62 studies with 12 340 patients and 12 923 stented vessels were included, with follow-up ranging from 1 to 89 months. Post-PCI FFR was not continuously associated with the rate of 1-year MACE or 1-year TVR using meta-regression models accounting for heterogeneous follow-up lengths. For studies comparing high versus low post-PCI FFR, low post-PCI FFR was associated with high risk ratio for MACE (1.97 [95%CI:1.45-2.67]), all-cause death (1.59 [95%CI:1.08-2.34]), MI (3.18 [95%CI:1.84-5.50]), TVR (2.08 [95%CI:1.63-2.65]) and angina status (2.50 [95%CI:1.53-4.06]) using different optimal cut-off values spanning from 0.80 to 0.95. CONCLUSION We found no clear continuous association between post-PCI FFR and clinical outcomes in this systematic study-level meta-analysis. In a subset of studies investigating binary classification, high post-PCI FFR was associated with better clinical outcome than low post-PCI FFR.
Postmortem Tissue Donation: Giving Families the Ability to Choose.

Postmortem tissue donations can represent a driving force toward progress in brain tumor research, particularly malignant and recurrent tumors where current survival is dismal. In addition to the scientific value, there are benefits to postmortem tissue donation from the parental perspective. However, several real and perceived barriers exist, which have limited the rate of autopsy including discrepancies between clinician, patient, and parental views. To identify and address these barriers, a consensus conference of advocates of children who died of brain cancer was held in December 2018 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Major barriers to obtaining autopsy were identified with an emerging theme that a cultural shift is urgently required where families and patients with terminal brain cancers are uniformly provided with the option of postmortem donation.
Efficacy and Safety of Dapagliflozin in Heart Failure With Mildly Reduced or Preserved Ejection Fraction According to Age: The DELIVER Trial

Background: The prevalence of heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction markedly increases with age, with older individuals disproportionately facing excess risk for mortality and hospitalization. Methods: The DELIVER trial (Dapagliflozin Evaluation to Improve the Lives of Patients With Preserved Ejection Fraction Heart Failure) randomized patients with New York Heart Association functional class II–IV and left ventricular ejection fraction >40% to either dapagliflozin or placebo for a median follow-up period of 2.3 years. We examined efficacy and safety outcomes by age categories (<55, 55–64, 65–74, and ≥75 years) and across age as a continuous measure. Results: Among 6263 randomized patients (aged 40–99 years, mean age 71.7±9.6 years), 338 (5.4%) were <55 years, 1007 (16.1%) were 55–64 years, 2326 (37.1%) were 65 to 74 years, and 2592 (41.4%) were ≥75 years. Dapagliflozin reduced the risk of the primary composite outcome compared with placebo in all age categories (Pinteraction=0.95) and across the age spectrum as a continuous function (Pinteraction=0.76). Similar benefits were observed for the components of the primary outcome, with no significant interaction between randomized treatment and age category. Adverse events occurred more frequently with increasing age, but there were no significant differences in predefined safety outcomes between patients randomized to dapagliflozin and placebo across all age categories. Conclusions: In patients with heart failure and mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction enrolled in DELIVER, dapagliflozin reduced the combined risk of cardiovascular death or worsening heart failure events across the spectrum of age, with a consistent safety profile, including among the traditionally under-treated older segment of patients ≥75 years. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials. gov; Unique identifier: NCT03619213.
Nano-RNases: oligo- or dinucleases?

Abstract Diribonucleotides arise from two sources: turnover of RNA transcripts (rRNA, tRNA, mRNA, and others) and linearization of cyclic-di-nucleotide signaling molecules. In both cases, there appears to be a requirement for a dedicated set of enzymes that will cleave these diribonucleotides into mononucleotides. The first enzyme discovered to mediate this activity is oligoribonuclease (Orn) from Escherichia coli. In addition to being the enzyme that cleaves dinucleotides and potentially other short oligoribonucleotides, Orn is also the only known exoribonuclease enzyme that is essential for E. coli, suggesting that removal of the shortest RNAs is an essential cellular function. Organisms naturally lacking the orn gene encode other nanoRNases (nrn) that can complement the conditional E. coli orn mutant. This review covers the history and recent advances in our understanding of these enzymes and their substrates. In particular, we focus on (i) the sources of diribonucleotides; (ii) the discovery of exoribonucleases; (iii) the structural features of Orn, NrnA/NrnB, and NrnC; (iv) the enzymatic activity of these enzymes against diribonucleotides versus other substrates; (v) the known physiological consequences of accumulation of linear dinucleotides; and (vi) outstanding biological questions for diribonucleotides and diribonucleases.
Preschool language and visuospatial skills respectively predict multiplication and addition/subtraction skills in middle school children.

A converging body of evidence from neuroimaging, behavioral and neuropsychology studies suggests that different arithmetic operations rely on distinct neuro-cognitive processes: while addition and subtraction may rely more on visuospatial reasoning, multiplication would depend more on verbal abilities. In this paper, we tested this hypothesis in a longitudinal study measuring language and visuospatial skills in 358 preschoolers, and testing their mental calculation skills at the beginning of middle school. Language skills at 5.5 years significantly predicted multiplication, but not addition nor subtraction scores at 11.5 years. Conversely, early visuospatial skills predicted addition and subtraction, but not multiplication scores. These results provide strong support for the existence of a double dissociation in mental arithmetic operations, and demonstrate the existence of long-lasting links between language/visuospatial skills and specific calculation abilities. Using structural equation modelling, we analyzed longitudinal data from 358 children. Language skills in preschool significantly predicted multiplication, but not addition nor subtraction scores in middle school. The reverse was true for preschool visuo-spatial skills. Importantly, this pattern remained unchanged when we controlled addition and multiplication operations for overall difficulty and for the magnitude of the operands. These results provide strong support for the existence of a double dissociation in mental arithmetic operations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Imaging of placental circulations by 4D sonography with high‐definition flow and spatiotemporal image correlation technology

Conventionally, two‐ and three‐ dimensional color Doppler ultrasonography are used to examine the placental vascularization, but there are limitations in the examinations. In this report, spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) volume acquisition in high‐definition flow, displayed in glass‐body mode was used to study the placental vascularization in eight pregnancies. At 20 weeks' gestation, STIC technique allowed visualization of blood flow in the intraplacental branches of the umbilical artery (IPB) and the spiral artery jets in a cardiac cycle. In particular, blood flow from a mega jet penetrating more than half of the placental thickness was demonstrated. Small blood flow from a tertiary order branch of the IPB traversing the placenta and sharply diminishing into the uterine wall was also demonstrated. There were differences in the IPB pattern between normal pregnancies and pregnancies at risk of fetal growth restriction/pre‐eclampsia. There were also differences in the appearance of IPB between 20‐ and 33‐weeks' gestation. The results of this report support that it is feasible to use STIC technology to study the placental vascularization. This novel application of STIC technology can increase the understanding of the complex vascularization.
The application of zebrafish patient‐derived xenograft tumor models in the development of antitumor agents

The cost of antitumor drug development is enormous, yet the clinical outcomes are less than satisfactory. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop effective drug screening methods that enable accurate, rapid, and high‐throughput discovery of lead compounds in the process of preclinical antitumor drug research. An effective solution is to use the patient‐derived xenograft (PDX) tumor animal models, which are applicable for the elucidation of tumor pathogenesis and the preclinical testing of novel antitumor compounds. As a promising screening model organism, zebrafish has been widely applied in the construction of the PDX tumor model and the discovery of antineoplastic agents. Herein, we systematically survey the recent cutting‐edge advances in zebrafish PDX models (zPDX) for studies of pathogenesis mechanisms and drug screening. In addition, the techniques used in the construction of zPDX are summarized. The advantages and limitations of the zPDX are also discussed in detail. Finally, the prospects of zPDX in drug discovery, translational medicine, and clinical precision medicine treatment are well presented.
Oxoplatin‐Based Pt(IV) Lipoate Complexes and Their Biological Activity

α‐Lipoic acid, known for its anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activity, represents a promising ligand for Pt(IV) prodrugs. Three new Pt(IV) lipoate complexes were synthesized and characterized by NMR spectroscopy (1H, 13C, 195Pt), mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. Due to the low solubility of the complex containing two axial lipoate ligands, further experiments to examine the biological activity were performed with two Pt(IV) complexes containing just one axial lipoate ligand. Both complexes exhibit anticancer activity and produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cell lines tested. Especially, the monosubstituted complex can be reduced by ascorbic acid and forms adducts with 9‐methylguanine (9MeG), which is favorable for the formation of DNA‐crosslinks in the cells.
Astrocytes Learn to Detect and Signal Deviations From Critical Brain Dynamics

Abstract Astrocytes are nonneuronal brain cells that were recently shown to actively communicate with neurons and are implicated in memory, learning, and regulation of cognitive states. Interestingly, these information processing functions are also closely linked to the brain's ability to self-organize at a critical phase transition. Investigating the mechanistic link between astrocytes and critical brain dynamics remains beyond the reach of cellular experiments, but it becomes increasingly approachable through computational studies. We developed a biologically plausible computational model of astrocytes to analyze how astrocyte calcium waves can respond to changes in underlying network dynamics. Our results suggest that astrocytes detect synaptic activity and signal directional changes in neuronal network dynamics using the frequency of their calcium waves. We show that this function may be facilitated by receptor scaling plasticity by enabling astrocytes to learn the approximate information content of input synaptic activity. This resulted in a computationally simple, information-theoretic model, which we demonstrate replicating the signaling functionality of the biophysical astrocyte model with receptor scaling. Our findings provide several experimentally testable hypotheses that offer insight into the regulatory role of astrocytes in brain information processing.
Longitudinal Changes in Health and Fitness Measures Among State Patrol Officers by Sex

Abstract Dawes, JJ, Lopes dos Santos, M, Kornhauser, C, Holmes, RJ, Alvar, BA, Lockie, RG, and Orr, RM. Longitudinal changes in health and fitness measures among state patrol officers by sex. J Strength Cond Res 37(4): 881–886, 2023—Research suggests that police officers lose fitness as a result of their policing vocation with occupational factors like stress, shift work, poor sleep, and poor diet all contributors to this loss The purpose of this research was to measure changes in fitness test scores of qualified police officers over a 5-year period. Archived fitness data for 523 state patrol officers (n = 494 men; 29 women) from one agency were used for this analysis. These tests included 60-second sit-up [SU] and push-up [PU] scores (muscular endurance), vertical jump height [VJ] (lower-body power), and 20-m multistage fitness test (aerobic capacity). A series of paired-samples t-tests and effect size calculations were used to investigate mean differences in fitness tests score at the beginning and end of a 5-year period. The paired-samples t test showed significant tests score decreases among male officers over the 5-year period in VJ, PU, and V̇o2max,, with no differences observed in SU performance. Small effect sizes were observed in both VJ (g = −0.20) and PU (g = −0.27) with a trivial effect size observed in changes to V̇o2max (g = −0.14). In contrast, significant improvements in performance were observed in SU performance among female officers, with a small effect size (g = 0.38). No other significant differences were found in female measures. Whether at an organizational or individual level, annual fitness assessments for police officers can serve to educate and motivate officers regarding their personal fitness and potentially slow the negative impact of aging on health, fitness, and performance in these populations.
GC/MS Composition and Resistance Modulatory Inhibitory Activities of Three Extracts of Lemongrass: Citral Modulates the Activities of Five Antibiotics at Sub‐Inhibitory Concentrations on Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

We investigated whether three extractable fractions of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus): aqueous and ethanol extracts and lemongrass essential oil exhibited any antimicrobial resistance modulatory effects if used in combination with selected antibiotics ampicillin, tetracycline, streptomycin, cefloxacin and amoxicillin on methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA growth inhibition (zones of inhibition) was greatest for the lemongrass oil at concentrations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 % (wt/vol). The MIC for lemongrass oil was 0.5 mg/mL, while it was 4 mg/mL for both the aqueous and ethanol extracts. Evaluation of extracts for antibacterial resistance modifying activities when used in combination with either of the five antibiotics at sub‐inhibitory concentrations, showed that lemongrass oil highly potentiated the activities of three antibiotics; amoxicillin, streptomycin and tetracycline. The ethanol extract enhanced the activity of tetracycline and ampicillin, while the aqueous extract only increased the activity of tetracycline against MRSA. The activity of cefloxacin with the extracts was either indifferent. Analysis of the lemongrass oil by GC/MS showed the prominence of three compounds: the two isomers neral and geranial of citral and, the acetate geranyl acetate, which together made up 94 % of the composition. The compounds were also observed in the ethanol and water extracts but to a lesser extent when analyzed by HPLC‐UV (λ 233 nm). Our study confirms the antibacterial properties of the extracts especially, lemongrass oil. It also demonstrates that lemongrass oil potentiates the activities of three antibiotics against the biofilm‐forming MRSA. This biocidal, anti‐biofilm disruption and antibiotic potentiating abilities are mainly attributable to citral and geranyl acetate, further evidence of lemongrass oil as a very useful source of phytochemicals, especially citral for the fight against antibiotic resistance.