Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COVID-19 Lockdown and Its Adverse Impact on Psychological Health in Breast Cancer

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak generated an unprecedented set of emotional challenges for women diagnosed with breast cancer. In the United Kingdom (UK), the pandemic significantly disrupted oncology services as resources were reassigned to care for COVID-19 patients. In addition to service disruptions, many women received a UK Government letter advising them to shield for 12-weeks. We aimed to explore the effect of disruption to scheduled oncology services and the UK Government shielding letter on emotional and cognitive vulnerability. A further aim was to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 related emotional vulnerability (COVID-EMV) and anxiety, depression and perceived cognitive function. Women diagnosed with primary breast cancer (N = 234) completed a series of online questionnaires to assess their cognitive and emotional wellbeing as well as their COVID-EMV. Results indicated that disrupted oncology services had a significant impact on COVID-EMV, anxiety and depression, with those experiencing disruptions expressing higher general emotional vulnerability as well as COVID-EMV. Further, the UK Government letter had a significant effect on perceived cognitive function; those who received the letter reported poorer cognitive function. Regression analyses revealed that after allowing for the effects of sociodemographic and clinical variables, women’s COVID-EMV significantly predicted worse outcomes of anxiety, depression and perceived cognitive function. Our findings indicate that concerns about COVID-19 amongst women affected by breast cancer leads to increased risk of developing affective disorder, such as anxiety and depression symptomatology, among this sample. We advocate the rapid implementation of accessible interventions designed to promote emotional resilience in the breast cancer population.
MEK Inhibitor Augments Antitumor Activity of B7-H3-Redirected Bispecific Antibody

Targeting cancer antigens by T cell-engaging bispecific antibody (BiAb) or chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy has achieved successes in hematological cancers, but attempts to use it to fight solid cancers have been disappointing, in part due to antigen escape. MEK inhibitor had limited activity as a single agent, but enhanced antitumor activity when combined with other therapies, such as targeted drugs or immunotherapy agents. This study aimed to analyze the expression of B7-H3 in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and bladder cancer (BC) and to evaluate the combinatorial antitumor effect of B7-H3 × CD3 BiAb with MEK inhibitor trametinib. We found B7-H3 was highly expressed in NSCLC and BC compared with normal samples and its increased expression was associated with poor prognosis. Treatment with trametinib alone could induce apoptosis in tumor cell, while has no effect on T cell proliferation, and a noticeable elevation of B7-H3 expression in tumor cells was also observed following treatment. B7-H3 × CD3 BiAb specifically and efficiently redirected their cytotoxicity against B7-H3 overexpressing tumor cells both in vitro and in xenograft mouse models. While trametinib treatment alone affected tumor growth, the combined therapy increased T cell infiltration and significantly suppressed tumor growth. Together, these data suggest that combination therapy with B7-H3 × CD3 BiAb and MEK inhibitor may serve as a new therapeutic strategy in the future clinical practice for the treatment of NSCLC and BC.
Comprehensive RNA-seq Analysis to Evaluate the Pigmentation-Related Genes Involved in Albinism of Cichlid Fish, Aulonocara baenschi

The Nkhomo-benga peacock, Aulonocara baenschi is a species inhabiting Lake Malawi and its population has decreased by over 70% over the past 10 years. Since 2018, the species has been included in the IUCN Red list and its status has been set to the critically endangered (CR) level. And the fish is known to have rare but naturally occurring albino strain. Despite that, little has been done to develop its genetic resources such as sequence-based data and expression patterns of genes. Accordingly, this study performed high-throughput sequencing on the caudal fin of the two different-colored A. baenschi in order to identify their pigment-related genes and analyze the expression patterns of the genes on the transcriptome level. Through the Illumina sequencing platform, we obtained 77,035,702 and 88,689,756 reads from the caudal fin of the wild-type and the albino-type, respectively. In addition to that, using de novo assembly and various annotation databases, a total of 141,116 contigs, including 129,369 unigenes were obtained. In the comparative analysis of differentially expressed genes between the wild-type and the albino-type in terms of melanogenesis, the tyrosinase gene family involved in melanin synthesis tended to be less expressed in the albino-type than the wild-type. However, the expression of the critical proteins involved in the pigment synthesis of xanthophore was higher in the albino-type than in the wild-type. In addition, the yellow-orange pigment was more apparently expressed in the caudal fin of the albino-type than of the wild-type. This indicates that the external characteristics of the fish were in accordance with the analysis results on the transcriptome level. The results of this study will be the foundation of research on expression characteristics and gene networking analysis of the pigmentation-related genes of fish.
Autoimmunity Following Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Autoimmune manifestations after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) are rare and poorly understood due to the complex interplay between the reconstituting immune system and transplant-associated factors. While autoimmune manifestations following AHSCT have been observed in children with graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), an alloimmune process, they are distinct from the latter in that they are generally restricted to the hematopoietic compartment, i.e., autoimmune hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and/or neutropenia. Autoimmune cytopenias in the setting of ASHCT represent a donor against donor immune reaction. Non-hematologic autoimmune conditions in the post-AHSCT setting have been described and do not currently fall under the GvHD diagnostic criteria, but could represent alloimmunity since they arise from the donor immune attack on the antigens that are shared by the donor and host in the thyroid, peripheral and central nervous systems, integument, liver, and kidney. As in the non-transplant setting, autoimmune conditions are primarily antibody mediated. In this article we review the incidence, risk factors, potential pathophysiology, treatment, and prognosis of hematologic and non-hematologic autoimmune manifestations in children after AHSCT.
Biomarkers of the Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma

The mechanisms underlying the resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) therapy in metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) patients are not clear. It is of great significance to discern mUC patients who could benefit from ICI therapy in clinical practice. In this study, we performed machine learning method and selected 10 prognostic genes for constructing the immunotherapy response nomogram for mUC patients. The calibration plot suggested that the nomogram had an optimal agreement with actual observations when predicting the 1- and 1.5-year survival probabilities. The prognostic nomogram had a favorable discrimination of overall survival of mUC patients, with area under the curve values of 0.815, 0.752, and 0.805 for ICI response (ICIR) prediction in the training cohort, testing cohort, and combined cohort, respectively. A further decision curve analysis showed that the prognostic nomogram was superior to either mutation burden or neoantigen burden for overall survival prediction when the threshold probability was >0.35. The immune infiltrate analysis indicated that the low ICIR-Score values in mUC patients were significantly related to CD8+ T cell infiltration and immune checkpoint-associated signatures. We also identified differentially mutated genes, which could act as driver genes and regulate the response to ICI therapy. In conclusion, we developed and validated an immunotherapy-responsive nomogram for mUC patients, which could be conveniently used for the estimate of ICI response and the prediction of overall survival probability for mUC patients.
Trait Respect Is Linked to Reduced Gray Matter Volume in the Anterior Temporal Lobe

Respect is a positive other-oriented social emotion upon the recognition of excellence in others. We previously reported that respect-related brain activity in the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL). Since brain activity and structure are often involved in common cognitive functions, we investigated the morphological properties of the left ATL using voxel-based morphometry analysis. We found an association of trait respect with reduced gray matter volume (GMV) in part of the left ATL. Moreover, since the ATL is involved in general conceptual knowledge, we investigated the relationships between other social emotions with similar properties as respect and the GMV of the left ATL. We observed an association of reduced GMV with empathic concern, which is an other-oriented and affective aspect of trait empathy. Our findings indicated an association of the left ATL with other-oriented and affective aspect of social emotions.
Energy Deficiency in Soldiers: The Risk of the Athlete Triad and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport Syndromes in the Military

Military personnel experience energy deficit (total energy expenditure higher than energy intake), particularly during combat training and field exercises where exercising energy expenditures are high and energy intake is reduced. Low energy availability (energy intake minus exercising energy expenditure expressed relative to fat free mass) impairs endocrine function and bone health, as recognized in female athletes as the Female Athlete Triad syndrome. More recently, the Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) syndrome encompasses broader health outcomes, physical and cognitive performance, non-athletes, and men. This review summarizes the evidence for the effect of low energy availability and energy deficiency in military training and operations on health and performance outcomes. Energy availability is difficult to measure in free-living individuals but doubly labeled water studies demonstrate high total energy expenditures during military training; studies that have concurrently measured energy intake, or measured body composition changes with DXA, suggest severe and/or prolonged energy deficits. Military training in energy deficit disturbs endocrine and metabolic function, menstrual function, bone health, immune function, gastrointestinal health, iron status, mood, and physical and cognitive performance. There are more data for men than women, and little evidence on the chronic effects of repeated exposures to energy deficit. Military training impairs indices of health and performance, indicative of the Triad and RED-S, but the multi-stressor environment makes it difficult to isolate the independent effects of energy deficiency. Studies supplementing with energy to attenuate the energy deficit suggest an independent effect of energy deficiency in the disturbances to metabolic, endocrine and immune function, and physical performance, but randomized controlled trials are lacking.
Establishment of Clinical Prediction Model Based on the Study of Risk Factors of Stroke in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Purpose: Stroke has sparked global concern as it seriously threatens people's life, bringing about dramatic health burdens on patients, especially for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Therefore, a risk scoring model is urgently valuable for T2DM patients to predict the risk of stroke incidence and for positive health intervention. Methods: We randomly divided 4,335 T2DM patients into two groups, training set (n = 3,252) and validation set (n = 1,083), at the ratio of 3:1. Characteristic variables were then selected based on the data of training set through least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. Three models were established to verify predictive ability. Foundation model was composed of basic information and physical indicators. Biochemical model consisted of biochemical indexes. Integrated model combined the above two models. Data of three models were then put into logistic regression analysis to form nomogram prediction models. Tools including C index, calibration plot, and curve analysis were implemented to test discrimination, calibration, and clinical use. To select the best predicting model, net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were put into effect. Results: Eleven risk factors were determined, including age, duration of T2DM, estimated glomerular filtration rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, body mass index, uric acid, and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c, all with significant P-values through logistic regression analysis. In the training set, areas under the curve of three models were 0.810, 0.819, and 0.884, whereas in the validation set, they were 0.836, 0.832, and 0.909. Through calibration plot, the S:P values in the training set were 0.836, 0.754, and 0.621 and were 0.918, 0.682, and 0.666 separately in the validation set. In terms of the decision curve analysis, the risk thresholds were, respectively, 8–73%, 8–98%, and 8%~ in the training set and 8–70%, 8–90%, and 8–95% in the validation set. With the aid of NRI and IDI, integrated model is proved to be the best model in training set and validation set. Besides, internal validation was conducted on all the subjects in this study, and the C index was 0.890 (0.873–0.907). Conclusion: This study established a model predicting risk of stroke for T2DM patients through a community-based survey.
Spatial Ecology of Sub-Adult Green Turtles in Coastal Waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands: Implications for Conservation Management

Marine turtles are of conservation concern throughout their range, with past population declines largely due to exploitation through both legal and illegal take, and incidental capture in fisheries. Whilst much research effort has been focused on nesting beaches and elaborating migratory corridors, these species spend the vast majority of their life-cycle in foraging grounds, which are, in some species, quite discrete. To understand and manage these populations, empirical data are needed on distribution, space-use, and habitats to best inform design of protective measures. Here we describe space-use, occupancy, and wide-ranging movements derived from conventional flipper tagging and satellite tracking of sub-adult green turtles (Chelonia mydas) within the coastal waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI; 2011–2017). 623 turtles were fitted with flipper tags, with 69 subsequently recaptured, five of which in international waters. Sixteen individual turtles of between 63 and 81 cm curved carapace length were satellite tracked for a mean 226 days (range: 38–496). Data revealed extended periods of occupancy in the shallow coastal waters within a RAMSAR protected area. Satellite tracking and flipper tagging showed wide-ranging movements, with flipper tag recaptures occurring in waters off Nicaragua (n = 4), and Venezuela (n = 1). Also, four of 16 satellite tracked turtles exhibiting directed movements away (displaced >450 km) from TCI waters traveling through nine geo-political zones within the Caribbean-Atlantic basin, as well as on the High Seas. One turtle traveled to the Central American coast before settling on inshore habitat in Colombia’s waters for 162 days before transmission ceased, indicating ontogenetic dispersal to a distant foraging habitat. These data highlight connectivity throughout the region, displaying key linkages between countries that have previously only been linked by genetic evidence. This study also provides evidence of the importance of the Turks and Caicos Islands marine protected area network and importance of effective management of the sea turtle fishery for regional green turtle populations.
Transcriptomic Profiling of Dental Pulp Pericytes: An RNAseq Approach

Pericytes represent a population of mesenchymal cells that are found in virtually all vascularised organs where they share a range of similar features, mostly associated with vascular maintenance roles. It is becoming increasingly apparent that organ to organ differences exist between pericytes that directly relate to tissue-specific functions of these cells. Here, we present novel data indicating that in dental structures, pericytes have an immunomodulatory role. We show evidence supporting the concept that pericytes are a source of multiple cytokines and chemokines within the dental pulp, capable of regulating the extravasation of circulating lymphocytes. Using the SmartSeq-2 method we performed single cell RNA-seq and show that this is attributed to a defined pericyte sub-population that exists in vivo. In addition, as a consequence of our transcriptomic screen, we detect and validate a novel marker that can identify mature pericytes capable of giving rise to odontoblasts in vivo. Using transcriptomic screening, this marker is also identified to be expressed in pericytes residing in multiple other tissues including bone marrow, lung, and pancreas.
Automated Scoring of Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge – A Comparison Between Human and Machine Scoring

To validly assess teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), performance-based tasks with open-response formats are required. Automated scoring is considered an appropriate approach to reduce the resource-intensity of human scoring and to achieve more consistent scoring results than human raters. The focus is on the comparability of human and automated scoring of PCK for economics teachers. The answers of (prospective) teachers (N = 852) to six open-response tasks from a standardized and validated test were scored by two trained human raters and the engine “Educational SCoRIng Toolkit” (ESCRITO). The average agreement between human and computer ratings, κw = 0.66, suggests a convergent validity of the scoring results. The results of the single-sector variance analysis show a significant influence of the answers for each homogeneous subgroup (students = 460, trainees = 230, in-service teachers = 162) on the automated scoring. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for the use of automated scoring in educational assessment and its potentials and limitations.
Recognizing a Heart Attack: Patients’ Knowledge of Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Its Relation to Prehospital Decision Delay in Acute Coronary Syndrome

In acute coronary syndromes (ACSs), longer decision delay – the time patients wait before seeking medical attention after symptoms have started – increases the risk of complications and death. However, many patients wait much longer than recommended and research is needed investigating how patient decision delay can be reduced. In a cross-sectional study of 120 ACS survivors, we investigated the relationship between knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors and decision delay. Several days after the onset of a cardiac event, patients completed a questionnaire measuring demographics, decision delay, objective knowledge of cardiovascular risks factors and of ACS symptoms, and subjective perceptions of symptoms during the cardiac episode. Relevant clinical data were extracted from patients’ medical records. In a multiple linear regression analysis, controlling for demographic and clinical factors, objective knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors and ACS symptoms, and subjective attributions of symptoms to a cardiac cause were related to shorter decision delays. Among patients with relatively high knowledge of risk factors, only 5% waited more than 1 h to seek help, compared to 22% among patients with relatively low knowledge. These results suggest that knowledge of the factors that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease could play a role in patient decision making during an acute cardiac event. We discuss methodological issues and potential underlying mechanisms related to decision heuristics and biases, which can inform future research.
Cerebral Small Vessel Disease and Alzheimer's Disease: A Review

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Despite this, clear pathophysiology for AD has not been confirmed, and effective treatments are still not available. As AD results in a complex disease process for cognitive decline, various theories have been suggested as the cause of AD. Recently, cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) has been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of AD, as well as contributing to vascular dementia. Cerebral SVD refers to a varied group of diseases that affect cerebral small arteries and microvessels. These can be seen as white matter hyperintensities, cerebral microbleeds, and lacunes on magnetic resonance imaging. Data from epidemiological and clinical-pathological studies have found evidence of the relationship between cerebral SVD and AD. This review aims to discuss the complex relationship between cerebral SVD and AD. Recent reports that evaluate the association between these diseases will be reviewed.
The Phonological Mapping (Mismatch) Negativity: History, Inconsistency, and Future Direction

The last three decades have seen a considerable growth in the use of event-related potential (ERP) methods in language research. As our appreciation of the cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing increases, so too does our understanding of its electrophysiological correlates. The phonological mapping negativity1 (PMN) is an ERP component long established to index pre-lexical phonological processing (Connolly and Phillips, 1994; Connolly et al., 2001; Desroches et al., 2009), involving the mapping of speech signals onto phonological representations (Newman and Connolly, 2009). Generally maximal at around 300ms post stimulus onset (PSO), the PMN is classically elicited in paradigms in which phonological expectancies are generated using words (Newman and Connolly, 2009), sentences with high cloze probability (Connolly and Phillips, 1994), and pictures (Desroches et al., 2009). For example, asking participants to delete the initial sound from a word (e.g., snap without the /s/) will generate expectation of “nap. ” When this expectation of particular phonological input is violated (e.g., presentation of “tap” in place of “nap”) the component increases in amplitude. ERP components are typically identified through a combination of their scalp distribution, timing, polarity, and sensitivity to experimental manipulations (Woodman, 2010). Marked overlaps in timing and sensitivity with another component, the N400, initially prompted research intended to distinguish the PMN as a discrete response (Connolly et al., 1992; Connolly and Phillips, 1994). Over the last 30 years however, such research has unveiled a host of inconsistencies in the reported topography, timing, and sensitivity of the response. Despite its established place in the core repertoire of ERP components as a reliable, well-defined effect, consistent ambiguity in the characterization of the response necessitates reconsideration of the reliability and authenticity of the PMN.