Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Pain in the Pediatric Emergency Department and the Request of Analgesia

Objectives To determine the acute pain level associated with request for analgesia by children and their parents in the pediatric emergency department (ED) when pain was assessed by verbal numeric scale (VNS), visual analog scale (VAS), and verbal rating scale (VRS). Methods A secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study using a sample of children aged 8 to 17 presenting to the ED with acute pain. Patients and their parents were asked to quantify the child's pain on the VNS, VAS, and VRS. Scores for patients and parents who answered “yes” to the request of analgesia were compared with those responding “no.” Results A total of 202 patients aged 12.2 ± 2.6 years were enrolled. The median levels of pain associated with a request of analgesia and no request for analgesia by the patient were: 6.0 (4.0–7.4) and 5.0 (3.0–6.0) (Δ 1.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.5–2.0) for the VNS; 5.7 (3.9–7.2) and 4.3 (2.6–5.8) (Δ 1.3; 95% CI, 0.6–1.9) for the VAS; and 2.0 (2.0–2.0) and 2.0 (1.0–2.0) (Δ 0.0; 95% CI, 0.0–0.0) for the VRS. Conclusions Children who requested analgesia had higher pain scores on the VNS and the VAS, than those who did not request analgesia. No difference was demonstrated with the VRS. The pain scores between the analgesia request categories could overlap. This suggests that children seen in the ED should be asked if they want analgesia to decrease their acute pain.
Strain modulation of the spin-valley polarization in monolayer manganese chalcogenophosphates alloys

Inspired by the profound physical connotations and potential applications of the spintronics and valleytronics, two-dimensional (2D) monolayer manganese chalcogenophosphates alloys are constructed, and the strain modulated spin-valley characteristics are investigated through the first principles calculations. For both the MnFePS3 and MnFePSe3, the conductivity can be tuned reversibly between semiconductive and half-metallic, while and magnetic stability is controllable between ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Large valley splitting of up to 1000 meV is achieved in MnFePS3 under a −4% strain. Simultaneous spin splitting of 219 meV and valley splitting of 160 meV are acquired in MnFePS3 under a 4% strain. Strain tunable magnetic moment and interaction between Mn, Fe and S/Se atoms are revealed as the internal mechanisms of controlling the magnetic stability, spin and valley polarizations in the two structures. All the findings in this work provide a strategy for the manipulation of spin and valley degrees of freedom in 2D magnetic materials.
Current state of antigen-specific immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes

Purpose of review Update on antigen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT) in type 1 diabetes (T1D) with focus on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-induced immunization and the current obstacles to further research and clinical realization. Recent findings In T1D, immune system imbalances together with malfunctioning islet-specific processes cause autoreactive immune cells to destroy beta cells in the islets. ASIT may restore self-tolerance; however, the approach has yet to fully meet its promise and may require co-administration of antigen (preproinsulin) and suitable immune response modifiers. Summary A self-tolerant immune system may be regained using ASIT where T effector cells are repressed and/or T regulatory cells are induced. Administration of exogenous antigens has been safe in T1D. Conversely, adequate and lasting beta cell preservation has yet to be tested in sufficiently large clinical trials in suitable patients and may require targeting of multiple parts of the immunopathophysiology using combination therapies. DNA-based induction of native antigen expression to ensure important posttranscriptional modifications and presentation to the immune system together with tolerance-enhancing immune response modifiers (i.e., cytokines) may be more efficacious than exogenous antigens given alone. Progress is limited mainly by the scarcity of validated biomarkers to track the effects of ASIT in T1D.
A comparison of multiple imputation strategies for handling missing data in multi‐item scales: Guidance for longitudinal studies

Medical research often involves using multi‐item scales to assess individual characteristics, disease severity, and other health‐related outcomes. It is common to observe missing data in the scale scores, due to missing data in one or more items that make up that score. Multiple imputation (MI) is a popular method for handling missing data. However, it is not clear how best to use MI in the context of scale scores, particularly when they are assessed at multiple waves of data collection resulting in large numbers of items. The aim of this article is to provide practical advice on how to impute missing values in a repeatedly measured multi‐item scale using MI when inference on the scale score is of interest. We evaluated the performance of five MI strategies for imputing missing data at either the item or scale level using simulated data and a case study based on four waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). MI was implemented using both multivariate normal imputation and fully conditional specification, with two rules for calculating the scale score. A complete case analysis was also performed for comparison. Based on our results, we caution against the use of a MI strategy that does not include the scale score in the imputation model(s) when the scale score is required for analysis.
The mitochondrial genomes of five spring and groundwater amphipods of the family Crangonyctidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from eastern North America

Abstract We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of one spring-dwelling (Crangonyx forbesi) and four groundwater amphipods (Bactrurus brachycaudus, Stygobromus allegheniensis, S. pizzinii, and S. t. potomacus) from eastern North America using a shotgun sequencing approach on an Illumina HiSeq 4000 (Illumina, San Diego, CA). All five mitochondrial genomes encoded 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) representative of subphylum Crustacea. Although the four groundwater species exhibited gene orders nearly identical to the ancestral pancrustacean gene order, the spring-dwelling species, C. forbesi, possessed a transposition of the trnH–nad4–nad4l loci downstream after nad6–cytb–trnS2. Moreover, a long nad5 locus, longer rrnL, and rrnS loci, and unconventional start codons distinguished C. forbesi from the four groundwater amphipods. Overall, our five amphipod mitogenomes add to the increasing publicly available mitogenome resources for amphipods that are not only valuable for studying the evolutionary relationships of this diverse group of crustaceans but for exploring the evolution of mitochondrial genomes in general.
Proteomic analysis of a murine model of lung hypoplasia induced by oligohydramnios

Severe oligohydramnios (OH) due to prolonged loss of amniotic fluid can cause pulmonary hypoplasia. Animal model of pulmonary hypoplasia induced by amniotic fluid drainage is partly attributed to changes in mechanical compression of the lung. Although numerous studies on OH‐model have demonstrated changes in several individual proteins, however, the underlying mechanisms for interrupting normal lung development in response to a decrease of amniotic fluid volume are not fully understood. In this study, we used a proteomic approach to explore differences in the expression of a wide range of proteins after induction of OH in a mouse model of pulmonary hypoplasia to find out the signaling/molecular pathways involved in fetal lung development. Liquid chromatography‐massspectromery/mass spectrometry analysis found 474 proteins that were differentially expressed in OH‐induced hypoplastic lungs in comparison to untouched (UnT) control. Among these proteins, we confirmed the downregulation of AKT1, SP‐D, and CD200, and provided proof‐of‐concept for the first time about the potential role that these proteins could play in fetal lung development.
Theoretical Study of N749 Dyes Anchoring on the (TiO2)28 Surface in DSSCs and Their Electronic Absorption Properties

We have performed calculations on the panchromatic N749 dyes adsorbed on the (TiO2)28 surface. N749 is a prototypical form of Ru(II) complexes for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which possesses a terpyridine tridentate ligand bearing four different protonation states (0, 1, 2, or 3 carboxylic protons). Depending on the type of proton bonding interaction (protonated and deprotonated), seven N749/(TiO2)28 surface models (N749-0H/(TiO2)28, N749-1H-P/(TiO2)28, N749-1H-DP/(TiO2)28, N749-2H-P/(TiO2)28, N749-2H-DP/(TiO2)28, N749-3H-P/(TiO2)28, and N749-3H-DP/(TiO2)28) have been applied in this study for the geometry optimization, frontier molecular orbital level diagrams, and calculated absorption spectra. The moderate surface area of the (TiO2)28 cluster is suitable for N749 dyes adsorbing behaviors so that all calculations can be performed using the Gaussian 09 program package. We have carefully examined these seven N749/(TiO2)28 assemblies that could influence the DSSC device performance. The calculated .
Asporin inhibits collagen matrix‐mediated intercellular mechanocommunications between fibroblasts during keloid progression

Keloids are fibrotic lesions that grow unceasingly and invasively and are driven by local mechanical stimuli. Unlike other fibrotic diseases and normal wound healing, keloids exhibit little transformation of dermal fibroblasts into α‐SMA+ myofibroblasts. This study showed that asporin is the most strongly expressed gene in keloids and its gene‐ontology terms relate strongly to ECM metabolism/organization. Experiments with human dermal cells (HDFs) showed that asporin overexpression/treatment abrogated the HDF ability to adopt a perpendicular orientation when subjected to stretching tension. It also induced calcification of the surrounding 3D collagen matrix. Asporin overexpression/treatment also prevented the HDFs from remodeling the surrounding 3D collagen matrix, leading to a disorganized network of thick, wavy collagen fibers that resembled keloid collagen architecture. This in turn impaired the ability of the HDFs to contract the collagen matrix. Asporin treatment also made the fibroblasts impervious to the fibrous collagen contraction of α‐SMA+ myofibroblasts, which normally activates fibroblasts. Thus, by calcifying collagen, asporin prevents fibroblasts from linearly rearranging the surrounding collagen; this reduces both their mechanosensitivity and mechanosignaling to each other through the collagen network. This blocks fibroblast activation and differentiation into the mature myofibroblasts that efficiently remodel the extracellular matrix. Consequently, the fibroblasts remain immature, highly proliferative, and continue laying down abundant extracellular matrix, causing keloid growth and invasion. Notably, dermal injection of asporin‐overexpressing HDFs into murine wounds recapitulated keloid collagen histopathological characteristics. Thus, disrupted interfibroblast mechanocommunication may promote keloid progression. Asporin may be a new diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for keloids.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Heteropolygonatum ginfushanicum (Asparagaceae) and phylogenetic analysis

Abstract Heteropolygonatum ginfushanicum is an endemic epiphytic herb in China. The complete chloroplast (cp) genome of H. ginfushanicum is reported in this study. The total length of the cp genome is 155,508 bp with a typical quadripartite structure consisting of a large single copy region (LSC) of 84,552 bp and a small single copy region (SSC) of 18,528 bp, separated by a pair of 26,214 bp inverted repeats (IRs). It encodes a total of 113 unique genes, including 79 protein-coding, 30 tRNA, and four rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that H. ginfushanicum is sister to Heteropolygonatum marmoratum within subfamily Nolinoideae.
General dentists' attitudes and perceived barriers in providing domiciliary dental care to older adults in long-term care facilities or their homes in Northern Ireland: A descriptive qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE Many older patients, housebound or living in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) have limited access to dental care. This descriptive qualitative study aimed to understand general dental practitioners (GDPs) attitudes and perceived barriers to undertaking Domiciliary Dental Care (DDC) for those patients in Northern Ireland (NI). METHODS Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 12 GDPs in Northern Ireland. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. An iterative coding process using theme-analytic methods was used. RESULTS The data were characterised into four major themes-risk of professional litigation, remuneration for those undertaking DDC, complexity of treatment, and the overall framework of the dental care system in NI. Two minor themes identified were practice culture and reasons for undertaking DDC. The GDPs in the study identified a number of barriers to undertaking DDC including a legal requirement to transport oxygen, lack of organisation and limited oral hygiene care provision in LTCFs, and confusion around their responsibilities for provision of DDC. Those GDPs who were providing DDC indicated that they did so out of kindness and a sense of loyalty to their long-standing patients. CONCLUSION The GDPs in this study identified a number of significant barriers to provision of DDC at organisational, structural and clinical levels. The GDPs indicated that they required clarification of their responsibilities around DDC with clear guidelines necessary given the increase in demand for this service.
Unsupervised Feature Selection via Orthogonal Basis Clustering and Local Structure Preserving

Due to the “curse of dimensionality” issue, how to discard redundant features and select informative features in high-dimensional data has become a critical problem, hence there are many research studies dedicated to solving this problem. Unsupervised feature selection technique, which does not require any prior category information to conduct with, has gained a prominent place in preprocessing high-dimensional data among all feature selection techniques, and it has been applied to many neural networks and learning systems related applications, e.g., pattern classification. In this article, we propose an efficient method for unsupervised feature selection via orthogonal basis clustering and reliable local structure preserving, which is referred to as OCLSP briefly. Our OCLSP method consists of an orthogonal basis clustering together with an adaptive graph regularization, which realizes the functionality of simultaneously achieving excellent cluster separation and preserving the local information of data. Besides, we exploit an efficient alternative optimization algorithm to solve the challenging optimization problem of our proposed OCLSP method, and we perform a theoretical analysis of its computational complexity and convergence. Eventually, we conduct comprehensive experiments on nine real-world datasets to test the validity of our proposed OCLSP method, and the experimental results demonstrate that our proposed OCLSP method outperforms many state-of-the-art unsupervised feature selection methods in terms of clustering accuracy and normalized mutual information, which indicates that our proposed OCLSP method has a strong ability in identifying more important features.
Anticipating control over aversive stimuli is mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex: An fMRI study with healthy adults

The anticipation of control over aversive events in life is relevant for our mental health. Insights on the underlying neural mechanisms remain limited. We developed a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task that uses auditory stimuli to explore the neural correlates of (1) the anticipation of control over aversion and (2) the processing of aversion. In a sample of 25 healthy adults, we observed increased neural activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (ventromedial prefrontal cortex and rostral anterior cingulate cortex), other brain areas relevant for reward anticipation (ventral striatum, brainstem [ventral tegmental area], midcingulate cortex), and the posterior cingulate cortex when they anticipated control over aversion compared with anticipating no control (1). The processing of aversive sounds compared to neutral sounds (2) was associated with increased neural activation in the bilateral posterior insula. Our findings provide evidence for the important role of medial prefrontal regions in control anticipation and highlight the relevance of conceiving the neural mechanisms involved within a reward‐based framework.
A new method for the study of biophysical and morphological parameters in 3D cell cultures: Evaluation in LoVo spheroids treated with crizotinib

Three-dimensional (3D) culture systems like tumor spheroids represent useful in vitro models for drug screening and more broadly for cancer biology research, but the generation of uniform populations of spheroids remains challenging. The possibility to properly characterize spheroid properties would increase the reliability of these models. To address this issue different analysis were combined: i) a new device and relative analytical method for the accurate, simultaneous, and rapid measurement of mass density, weight, and size of spheroids, ii) confocal imaging, and iii) protein quantification, in a clinically relevant 3D model. The LoVo colon cancer cell line forming spheroids, treated with crizotinib (CZB) an ATP-competitive small-molecule inhibitor of the receptor tyrosine kinases, was employed to study and assess the correlation between biophysical and morphological parameters in both live and fixed cells. The new fluidic-based measurements allowed a robust phenotypical characterization of the spheroids structure, offering insights on the spheroids bulk and an accurate measurement of the tumor density. This analysis helps overcome the technical limits of the imaging that hardly penetrates the thickness of 3D structures. Accordingly, we were able to document that CZB treatment has an impact on mass density, which represents a key marker characterizing cancer cell treatment. Spheroid culture is the ultimate technology in drug discovery and the adoption of such precise measurement of the tumor characteristics can represent a key step forward for the accurate testing of treatment’s potential in 3D in vitro models.
A Topological Similarity Measure Between Multi-Resolution Reeb Spaces

Searching similarity between a pair of shapes or data is an important problem in data analysis and visualization. The problem of computing similarity measures using scalar topology has been studied extensively and proven useful in the shape and data matching. Even though multi-field or multivariate (consists of multiple scalar fields) topology reveals richer topological features, research on building tools for computing similarity measures using multi-field topology is still in its infancy. In the current article, we propose a novel similarity measure between two piecewise-linear multi-fields based on their multi-resolution Reeb spaces - a newly developed data-structure that captures the topology of a multi-field. Overall, our method consists of two steps: (i) building a multi-resolution Reeb space corresponding to each of the multi-fields and (ii) proposing a similarity measure between two multi-resolution Reeb spaces by computing a list of topologically consistent matching pairs (of nodes) and the similarity between them. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed similarity measure in detecting topological features from real time-varying multi-field data in two application domains - one from computational physics and one from computational chemistry.
Early Inflammation Dysregulates Neuronal Circuit Formation In Vivo via Upregulation of IL-1β

Neuroimmune interaction during development is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders, but the mechanisms that cause neuronal circuit dysregulation are not well understood. We performed in vivo imaging of the developing retinotectal system in the larval zebrafish to characterize the effects of immune system activation on refinement of an archetypal sensory processing circuit. Acute inflammatory insult induced hyperdynamic remodeling of developing retinal axons in larval fish and increased axon arbor elaboration over days. Using calcium imaging in GCaMP6s transgenic fish, we showed that these morphologic changes were accompanied by a shift toward decreased visual acuity in tectal cells. This finding was supported by poorer performance in a visually guided behavioral task. We further found that the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), is upregulated by the inflammatory insult, and that downregulation of IL-1β abrogated the effects of inflammation on axonal dynamics and growth. Moreover, baseline branching of the retinal ganglion cell arbors in IL-1β morphant animals was significantly different from that in control larvae, and their performance in a predation assay was impaired, indicating a role for this cytokine in normal neuronal development. This work establishes a simple and powerful non-mammalian model of developmental immune activation and demonstrates a role for IL-1β in mediating the pathologic effects of inflammation on neuronal circuit development. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Maternal immune activation can increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring; however, the mechanisms involved are not fully understood. Using a non-mammalian vertebrate model of developmental immune activation, we show that even brief activation of inflammatory pathways has immediate and long-term effects on the arborization of axons, and that these morphologic changes have functional and behavioral consequences. Finally, we show that the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β plays an essential role in both the effects of inflammation on circuit formation and normal axonal development. Our data add to a growing body of evidence supporting epidemiological studies linking immune activation to neurodevelopmental disorders, and help shed light on the molecular and cellular processes that contribute to the etiology of these disorders.
TRIM33 protects osteoblasts from oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis in osteoporosis by inhibiting FOXO3a ubiquitylation and degradation

This study aimed to probe into the effect of TRIM33 on oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis of osteoblasts in osteoporosis and to probe into the underlying mechanism. The apoptosis of osteoblasts was induced by H2O2 treatment and tested by flow cytometry. A mouse osteoporosis model was conducted by ovariectomy (OVX). The function of TRIM33 was assessed by in vitro and in vivo experiments. The mechanism of TRIM33 was determined by immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescent staining and co‐transfection experiments. Here, we found that TRIM33 expression was lessened in the osteoblasts of patients with osteoporosis and was positively correlated with the bone mineral density of these patients. FOXO3a and TRIM33 were co‐localized in the osteoblasts nuclei. TRIM33 silence boosted FOXO3a degradation in normal osteoblasts, while TRIM33 overexpression restrained FOXO3a degradation in H2O2‐treated osteoblasts. The binding of TRIM33 to CBP and its overexpression restrained CBP‐mediated FOXO3a acetylation, thereby attenuating FOXO3a ubiquitylation. The H2O2‐induced apoptosis of osteoblasts was restrained by TRIM33 overexpression, while the FOXO3a knockdown reversed this trend. The in vivo experiments corroborated that TRIM33 overexpression attenuated the OVX‐driven impacts in mice. In general, our findings expounded that TRIM33 protected osteoblasts against oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis in osteoporosis and that the underlying mechanism was the restraint of FOXO3a ubiquitylation and degradation.