Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chromatin Regulation in Development: Current Understanding and Approaches

The regulation of mammalian stem cell fate during differentiation is complex and can be delineated across many levels. At the chromatin level, the replacement of histone variants by chromatin-modifying proteins, enrichment of specific active and repressive histone modifications, long-range gene interactions, and topological changes all play crucial roles in the determination of cell fate. These processes control regulatory elements of critical transcriptional factors, thereby establishing the networks unique to different cell fates and initiate waves of distinctive transcription events. Due to the technical challenges posed by previous methods, it was difficult to decipher the mechanism of cell fate determination at early embryogenesis through chromatin regulation. Recently, single-cell approaches have revolutionised the field of developmental biology, allowing unprecedented insights into chromatin structure and interactions in early lineage segregation events during differentiation. Here, we review the recent technological advancements and how they have furthered our understanding of chromatin regulation during early differentiation events.
Reactivity Dynamics in Atom−Field Interactions: A Quantum Fluid Density Functional Study

Dynamical behavior of chemical reactivity indices like electronegativity, hardness, polarizability, entropy, electrophilicity and nucleophilicity indices and uncertainty product is studied within a quantum fluid density functional framework for the interactions of a helium atom in its ground and excited electronic states with monochromatic and bichromatic laser pulses with different intensities. Time dependent analogues of various electronic structure principles like the principles of electronegativity equalization, maximum hardness, minimum polarizability and maximum entropy have been found to be operative. Insights into the variation of intensities of the generated higher order harmonics on the color and intensity of the external laser field are obtained.
Medical Cannabis for Chronic Noncancer Pain: A Systematic Review of Health Care Recommendations

Purpose Medical cannabis for patients with chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) has been the focus of numerous health care recommendations. We conducted a systematic review to identify and summarize the currently available evidence-based recommendations. Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, the Cochrane database of systematic reviews, and websites for clinical guidelines and recommendations. We summarized the type of the publications, developers, approach of health care recommendation development, year and country of publication, and conditions that were addressed. We categorized the direction and strength of each recommendation. Results We identified 12 eligible publications. Publication years ranged from 2007 to 2019; four (33.3%) of them were published in 2018. Canada ranked first for the number of publications (n = 4, 33.3%). Most (n = 11, 92%) of the included recommendations were based on both a systematic review of the best evidence and expert consensus. All the included publications provided a recommendation supporting medical cannabis for CNCP in general and for the specific conditions of neuropathic pain, chronic pain in people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and chronic abdominal pain, with detailed information sharing and comprehensive consideration of a patient's own values and preferences. Conclusion Clinicians can attend to the guidance currently offered, being aware that only weak recommendations are available for medical cannabis in patients with CNCP, as a third- or fourth-line therapy. Detailed discussions with patients regarding the benefits in reducing pain and potential adverse effects are required before its prescription.
Effect of Prophylactic Knee Bracing on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Agonist and Antagonist Muscle Forces During Perturbed Walking

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries most commonly occur after a perturbation. Prophylactic knee braces (PKBs) are off-the-shelf braces designed to prevent and reduce the severity of knee injuries during sports, yet their effectiveness has been debated. Purpose: To identify differences in ACL agonist and antagonist muscle forces, during braced and unbraced conditions, while walking with the application of unexpected perturbations. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: A total of 20 recreational athletes were perturbed during walking at a speed of 1.1 m/s, and motion analysis data were used to create patient-specific musculoskeletal models. Static optimization was performed to calculate the lower-limb muscle forces. Statistical parametric mapping was used to compare muscle forces between the braced and unbraced conditions during the stance phase of the perturbed cycle. Results: The brace reduced muscle forces in the quadriceps (QUADS), gastrocnemius (GAS), and soleus (SOL) but not in the hamstrings. The peak QUADS muscle force was significantly lower with the brace versus without at 49% to 60% of the stance phase (28.9 ± 12.98 vs 14.8 ± 5.06 N/kg, respectively; P < .001) and again at 99% of the stance phase (1.7 ± 0.4 vs 3.6 ± 0.13 N/kg, respectively; P = .049). The SOL muscle force peak was significantly lower with the brace versus without at 25% of the stance phase (1.9 ± 1.7 vs 4.6 ± 3.4 N/kg, respectively; P = .031) and at 39% of the stance phase (1.9 ± 1.4 vs 5.3 ± 5.6 N/kg, respectively; P = .007). In the GAS, there were no significant differences between conditions throughout the whole stance phase except between 97% and 100%, where the braced condition portrayed a smaller peak force (0.23 ± 0.13 vs 1.4 ± 1.1 N/kg for unbraced condition; P = .024). Conclusion: These findings suggested that PKBs that restrict knee hyperextension and knee valgus/varus motion can alter neuromuscular patterns, which result in a reduction of QUADS force. Clinical Relevance: Understanding the way PKBs alter muscle function and knee mechanics can provide invaluable information that will help in making decisions about their use. Further studies should investigate different types of braces and perturbations to evaluate the effectiveness of PKBs.
The Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on Blood Lipids in Patients with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Purpose Studies have found that vitamin D supplementation may improve blood lipids in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome, but the results are controversial, so this study will further analyze the effect of vitamin D supplementation on blood lipids in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. Methods PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang databases were searched up to May 2020, to identify randomized controlled trials of the effect of vitamin D supplementation on blood lipids in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was applied to assess the risk of bias, and RevMan5.3 software was used for statistical analysis. Results Ten studies were included in this study, including 543 subjects. The results of the meta-analysis showed that, compared with placebo, vitamin D supplementation can significantly reduce total cholesterol level (WMD = –11.32, 95% CI = [–14.51, –8.41], P < 0.00001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (WMD = –4.83, 95% CI = [–7.52, –2.14], P=0.0004), and triglyceride level (WMD = –8.23, 95% CI = [–13.08, –3.38], P=0.0009, but the effect on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level is not statistically significant (WMD = –0.32, 95%CI = [–1.24, 0.60], P=0.50). Conclusion Vitamin D supplementation can significantly reduce total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. However, it has no significant effect on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
FAM83H‐AS1 is a noncoding oncogenic driver and therapeutic target of lung adenocarcinoma

Abstract Background Little is known about noncoding oncogenes of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and these potential drivers might provide novel therapeutic targets. Methods Since abnormally overexpression of oncogenic drivers is induced by genomic variation, we here utilized genomic, transcriptomic, and clinical prognosis data of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) LUAD datasets to discover novel drivers from long noncoding RNAs. We further used zebrafish models to validate the biological function of candidates in vivo. The full length of FAM83H‐AS1 was obtained by rapid amplification of the cDNA ends assay. RNA pull‐down, RNA immunoprecipitation, quantitative mass spectrometry, and RNA sequencing assays were conducted to explore the potential mechanisms. Additionally, we used CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) method and patient‐derived tumor xenograft (PDTX) model to evaluate the therapeutic potential of targeting FAM83H‐AS1. Results The results suggest that FAM83H‐AS1 is a potential oncogenic driver due to chromosome 8q24 amplification. Upregulation of FAM83H‐AS1 results in poor prognosis of LUAD patients in both Jiangsu Cancer Hospital (JSCH) and TCGA cohorts. Functional assays revealed that FAM83H‐AS1 promotes malignant progression and inhibits apoptosis. Mechanistically, FAM83H‐AS1 binds HNRNPK to enhance the translation of antiapoptotic oncogenes RAB8B and RAB14. Experiments using CRISPRi‐mediated xenografts and PDTX models indicated that targeting FAM83H‐AS1 inhibited LUAD progression in vivo. Conclusions Our work demonstrates that FAM83H‐AS1 is a noncoding oncogenic driver that inhibits LUAD apoptosis via the FAM83H‐AS1–HNRNPK–RAB8B/RAB14 axis, which highlights the importance and potential roles that FAM83H‐AS1 may serve as a novel therapeutic target for LUAD.
What are the limits on whale ear bone size? Non-isometric scaling of the cetacean bulla

The history of cetaceans demonstrates dramatic macroevolutionary changes that have aided their transformation from terrestrial to obligate aquatic mammals. Their fossil record shows extensive anatomical modifications that facilitate life in a marine environment. To better understand the constraints on this transition, we examined the physical dimensions of the bony auditory complex, in relation to body size, for both living and extinct cetaceans. We compared the dimensions of the tympanic bulla, a conch-shaped ear bone unique to cetaceans, with bizygomatic width—a proxy for cetacean body size. Our results demonstrate that cetacean ears scale non-isometrically with body size, with about 70% of variation explained by increases in bizygomatic width. Our results, which encompass the breadth of the whale fossil record, size diversity, and taxonomic distribution, suggest that functional auditory capacity is constrained by congruent factors related to cranial morphology, as opposed to allometrically scaling with body size.
Altered Topological Properties of Grey Matter Structural Covariance Networks in Complete Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury Patients: A Graph Theoretical Network Analysis

Purpose This study is aimed at investigating brain structural changes and structural network properties in complete spinal cord injury (SCI) patients, as well as their relationship with clinical variables. Materials and Methods Structural MRI of brain was acquired in 24 complete thoracic SCI patients (38.50 ± 11.19 years, 22 males) within the first postinjury year, while 26 age- and gender-matched healthy participants (38.38 ± 10.63 years, 24 males) were enrolled as control. The voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approach and graph theoretical network analysis based on cross-subject grey matter volume- (GMV-) based structural covariance networks (SCNs) were conducted to investigate the impact of SCI on brain structure. Partial correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationship between the GMV of structurally changed brain regions and SCI patients' clinical variables, including injury duration, injury level, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS), International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) scale, Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), after removing the effects of age and gender. Results Compared with healthy controls, SCI patients showed higher SDS score (t = 4.392 and p < 0.001). In the VBM analysis, significant GMV reduction was found in the left middle frontal cortex, right superior orbital frontal cortex (OFC), and left inferior OFC. No significant difference was found in global network properties between SCI patients and healthy controls. In the regional network properties, significantly higher betweenness centrality (BC) was noted in the right anterior cingulum cortex (ACC) and left inferior OFC and higher nodal degree and efficiency in bilateral middle OFCs, while decreased BC was noted in the right putamen in SCI patients. Only negative correlation was found between GMV of right middle OFC and SDS score in SCI patients (r = −0.503 and p = 0.017), while no significant correlation between other abnormal brain regions and any of the clinical variables (all p > 0.05). Conclusions SCI patients would experience depressive and/or anxious feelings at the early stage. Their GMV reduction mainly involved psychology-cognition related rather than sensorimotor brain regions. The efficiency of regional information transmission in psychology-cognition regions increased. Greater GMV reduction in psychology region was related with more severe depressive feelings. Therefore, early neuropsychological intervention is suggested to prevent psychological and cognitive dysfunction as well as irreversible brain structure damage.
Commodity risk assessment of Momordica charantia fruits from Mexico

Abstract The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Plant Health to prepare and deliver risk assessments for commodities listed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 as ‘High risk plants, plant products and other objects’. Momordica fruits originating from countries where Thrips palmi is known to occur qualify as high risk plants. This Scientific Opinion covers the introduction risk for T. palmi posed by fruits of Momordica charantia L. imported from Mexico, taking into account the available scientific information, including the technical information provided by the National Service of Health, Safety and Agrifood Quality (Senasica) of Mexico. The risk mitigation measures proposed in the technical dossier from Mexico were evaluated taking into account the possible limiting factors. An expert judgement is given on the likelihood of pest freedom taking into consideration the potential pest pressure in the field, the risk mitigation measures acting on the pest in the field and in the packinghouse, including uncertainties associated with the assessment. For T. palmi on M. charantia fruits from Mexico, an expert judgement is given on the likelihood of pest freedom following the evaluation of the risk mitigation measures acting on T. palmi, including any uncertainties. The Expert Knowledge Elicitation indicated, with 95% certainty that between 9,492 and 10,000 M. charantia fruits per 10,000 will be free from T. palmi.
The structures of Tb7O12 and Tb11O20

Abstract The structures of Tb 7 O 12 and Tb 11 O 20 have been determined by Rietveld analysis of high-resolution neutron diffraction data. Tb 7 O 12 is rhombohedral of space group R 3 with a = 6.5082(3), α = 99.3420(1), V = 263.32(3), and Z = 1. This structure is isomorphous with Pr 7 O 12 . Tb 11 O 20 is triclinic of space group P 1 with a = 6.50992(4), b = 9.8298(6), c = 6.4878(4), α = 90.019(2), β = 99.966(1), γ = 95.881(1), V = 406.68(7), and Z = 1. Its structure is different than previously proposed. The vacant oxygen coordination sites are not paired across metal atoms. Establishment of these structures will contribute to unraveling the structural principle underlying oxygen-deficient fluorite-related structures.
New Semiconducting Poly(arylene sulfide)s: Synthesis, Characterization, and Optical Properties

New semiconducting soluble poly(arylene sulfide)s were synthesized by Wittig polycondensation. The arylene moieties consist of distyrylbiphenyl (P1) and distyrylbithiophene (P2) π-conjugated systems. The polymers are fully amorphous and show good thermal stability. The absorption and photoluminescence properties of the polymers were investigated. P1 film has an optical gap of 2.95 eV and exhibits green-blue fluorescence. P2 shows a longer effective conjugation length with a gap of 2.42 eV and emits in the orange region. The HOMO/LUMO energy levels were estimated by cyclic voltammetry measurements. Single-layer diodes were fabricated and show relatively low turn-on voltages.
An ECG Signal Classification Method Based on Dilated Causal Convolution

The incidence of cardiovascular disease is increasing year by year and is showing a younger trend. At the same time, existing medical resources are tight. The automatic detection of ECG signals becomes increasingly necessary. This paper proposes an automatic classification of ECG signals based on a dilated causal convolutional neural network. To solve the problem that the recurrent neural network framework network cannot be accelerated by hardware equipment, the dilated causal convolutional neural network is adopted. Given the features of the same input and output time steps of the recurrent neural network and the nondisclosure of future information, the network is constructed with fully convolutional networks and causal convolution. To reduce the network depth and prevent gradient explosion or gradient disappearance, the dilated factor is introduced into the model, and the residual blocks are introduced into the model according to the shortcut connection idea. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified in the MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation Database (MIT-BIH AFDB). In the experiment of the MIT-BIH AFDB database, the classification accuracy rate is 98.65%.
COVID-19 incidence and mortality in Nigeria: gender based analysis

Background Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been surging globally. Risk strata in medical attention are of dynamic significance for apposite assessment and supply distribution. Presently, no known cultured contrivance is available to fill this gap of this pandemic. The aim of this study is to develop a predictive model based on vector autoregressive moving average (VARMA) model of various orders for gender based daily COVID-19 incidence in Nigeria. This study also aims to proffer empirical evidence that compares incidence between male and female for COVID-19 risk factors. Methods Wilcoxon signed-rank test is employed to investigate the significance of the difference in the gender distributions of the daily incidence. A VARMA model of various orders is formulated for the gender based daily COVID-19 incidence in Nigeria. The optimal VARMA model is identified using Bayesian information criterion. Also, a predictive model based on univariate autoregressive moving average model is formulated for the daily death cases in Nigeria. Fold change is estimated based on crude case-fatality risk to investigate whether there is massive underreporting and under-testing of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria. Results Daily incidence is higher in males on most days from 11 April 2020 to 12 September 2020. Result of Wilcoxon signed-rank test shows that incidence among male is significantly higher than female (p-value < 2.22 × 10−16). White neural network test shows that daily female incidence is not linear in mean (p-value = 0.00058746) while daily male incidence is linear in mean (p-value = 0.4257). McLeod-Li test shows that there is autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity in the female incidence (Maximum p-value = 1.4277 × 10−5) and male incidence (Maximum p-value = 9.0816 × 10−14) at 5% level of significance. Ljung-Box test (Tsay, 2014) shows that the daily incidence cases are not random (p-value=0.0000). The optimal VARMA model for male and female daily incidence is VARMA (0,1). The optimal model for the Nigeria’s daily COVID-19 death cases is identified to be ARIMA (0,1,1). There is no evidence of massive underreporting and under-testing of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria. Conclusions Comparison of the observed incidence with fitted data by gender shows that the optimal VARMA and ARIMA models fit the data well. Findings highlight the significant roles of gender on daily COVID-19 incidence in Nigeria.
Longitudinal deterioration of white-matter integrity: heterogeneity in the ageing population

Abstract Deterioration in white-matter health plays a role in cognitive ageing. Our goal was to discern heterogeneity of white-matter tract vulnerability in ageing using longitudinal imaging data (two to five imaging and cognitive assessments per participant) from a population-based sample of 553 elderly participants (age ≥60 years). We found that different clusters (healthy white matter, fast white-matter decliners and intermediate white-matter group) were heterogeneous in the spatial distribution of white-matter integrity, systemic health and cognitive trajectories. White-matter health of specific tracts (genu of corpus callosum, posterior corona radiata and anterior internal capsule) informed about cluster assignments. Not surprisingly, brain amyloidosis was not significantly different between clusters. Clusters had differential white-matter tract vulnerability to ageing (commissural fibres > association/brainstem fibres). Identification of vulnerable white-matter tracts is a valuable approach to assessing risk for cognitive decline.
Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide on Mesoporous Silicas near the Critical Temperature

The adsorption of carbon dioxide on mesoporous silicas was studied near the critical temperature (Tc) of CO2, i.e. 304.2 K. The critical temperature in the mesopores at which the first-order phase transition (capillary condensation) was observed (Tcp) was estimated from the inverse slope of the adsorption isotherms and the behaviour of the adsorption isotherms per unit surface area. The values of Tcp for CO2 in mesopores whose radii, rp, were 3.02 and 2.14 nm were higher than those estimated using a slab model in which the adsorbing parts of layer were clearly separated from the non-adsorbing regions. The differential heat of adsorption decreased with increasing pore size of the mesoporous adsorbent. This result also suggested a deviation from the slab model.
The role of baseline and post-treatment frontal QRS-T angle for detecting arterial blood pressure control

ABSTRACT Objectives: In this study, we aimed to investigate the value of the frontal QRS-T angle (f(QRS-T)) in determining blood pressure control among newly diagnosed hypertensive patients with no left ventricular hypertrophy. Methods: Fifty patients with newly diagnosed hypertension were included in this single-center study. The patients were examined with 12-lead ECGs and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (24 h-ABPM) before and 1 month after antihypertensive treatment. Results: Baseline and post-treatment f(QRS-T) angle values were observed to be similar (38.0 [0.0–174.0] and 37.0 [1.0–139.0], respectively; p = .827). The values of QT minimum (p = .006), QTc mean (p = .030), Tp-e (p = .027), and JTc (p = .010) significantly decreased after control of blood pressure. Conclusions: The f(QRS-T) angle, which can be easily calculated on the ECG, is not a useful tool to determine hypertension control at early stage in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients.