Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survival of Patients Subjected to Hepatectomy After Spontaneous Rupture of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Meta-analysis of High-quality Propensity Score Matching Studies

Background The spontaneous rupture of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is associated with high mortality rates, and liver resection can provide better outcomes than other available treatments. However, the survival length of patients subjected to hepatectomy after spontaneous rupture of hepatocellular carcinoma remains controversial. Method Articles reporting the comparison of the survival outcome between patients with rupture HCC (rHCC) and non-rupture HCC (nrHCC) from the inception until December 31, 2021 by PubMed, Web of Science, OVID, and the Cochrane Library databases were included. The high-quality propensity score matching analysis was used to investigate the impact of rupture on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between the rHCC and nrHCC group with no heterogeneity. Result A total of 606 patients from six cohort studies were included. The major baseline characteristics of the eligible patients were well balanced between rHCC and nrHCC group. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year hazard ratios of DFS were 3.45 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.54–4.68), 3.63 (95% CI 2.87–4.60), and 3.72 (95% CI 2.93–4.72), respectively. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year hazard ratios of OS were 5.01 (95% CI 3.26–7.69), 5.49 (95% CI 4.08–7.39), and 4.20 (95% CI 3.20–5.51), respectively. Conclusion The present meta-analysis demonstrated that the DSF and OS were significantly shorter in the rHCC group than in the nrHCC group, thus revealing that spontaneous HCC rupture was a predictor of poor survival.
Nomograms to Predict Endocrinological Deficiency in Patients With Surgically Treated Craniopharyngioma

Objective Postoperative hypopituitarism associated with increased risks of premature mobility and mortality is often encountered in craniopharyngioma patients. The aim of our study is to construct nomograms related to injury types of the hypothalamus–pituitary axis (HPA) to predict hypopituitarism 1 year after surgery. Methods Craniopharyngioma patients undergoing initial endoscopic endonasal surgery between December 2012 and March 2021 in our center were retrospectively reviewed, and injury types of the HPA were categorized according to intraoperative endoscopic observation. Included patients were randomly divided into a training group and a validation group. Nomograms were established based on the results of multivariate logistic analysis. The predictive performance of the nomograms was evaluated in the training and validation groups. Results A total of 183 patients with craniopharyngioma were enrolled, and seven injury types of the HPA were summarized. Relative to intact HPA, exclusive hypothalamus injury significantly increased the risk of anterior (OR, 194.174; 95% CI, 21.311–1769.253; p < 0.001) and posterior pituitary dysfunction (OR, 31.393; 95% CI, 6.319–155.964; p < 0.001) 1 year after surgery, while exclusively sacrificing stalk infiltrated by tumors did not significantly increase the risk of anterior (OR, 5.633; 95% CI, 0.753–42.133; p = 0.092) and posterior pituitary dysfunction (OR, 1.580; 95% CI, 0.257–9.707; p = 0.621) 1 year after surgery. In the training group, the AUCs of nomograms predicting anterior and posterior pituitary dysfunction 1 year after surgery were 0.921 and 0.885, respectively, compared with 0.921 and 0.880 in the validation group. Conclusions Intact hypothalamus structure is critical in maintaining pituitary function. Moreover, our preliminary study suggests that the pituitary stalk infiltrated by craniopharyngioma could be sacrificed to achieve radical resection, without substantially rendering significantly worse endocrinological efficiency 1 year after surgery. The user-friendly nomograms can be used to predict hypopituitarism 1 year after surgery.
Temporal Variability of Co-Occurring Calanus finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus in Skagerrak

The congeneric copepods Calanus finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus co-occur in the northern North Sea and Skagerrak where they play important roles as prey for higher trophic levels. This study analyses a 26-year time series (1994-2019) with a ~ two-week temporal resolution for Calanus spp. at a fixed monitoring station in Skagerrak, off southern Norway. Seasonal variation, inter-annual variability and long-term trends for the two species were examined. Strong differences in the species-specific seasonality were revealed, with C. finmarchicus dominating in spring and C. helgolandicus in autumn. The seasonal peak of C. finmarchicus was associated with relatively low temperatures (6-8°C) and high chlorophyll a concentration, while C. helgolandicus displayed its seasonal maximum at higher temperatures (11-16°C). C. finmarchicus was found to produce one dominant annual generation (in spring), but two or more generations are considered likely. Contrasting long-term trends in abundances were found for the two species, suggesting that their population sizes were affected by different mechanisms. The abundance of C. helgolandicus showed an increasing trend over the time period studied, apart from the last years. The abundance of C. finmarchicus was more variable and displayed no unidirectional long-term trends over the time series. The study revealed a shift in the phenology of Calanus spp. over the last 25 years at this site. Since 1994 the timing of the annual peaks in both C. finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus have advanced by about one month. Moreover, the seasonal pattern of C. helgolandicus, switched from a unimodal to a bimodal pattern around 2002, with a small additional peak also appearing in spring. The results suggest that the proximity to the Norwegian Trench influences the demography and abundance of C. finmarchicus in this coastal area, both as a gateway for the advective supply, as well as a habitat for local overwintering.
Multicast Routing for Virtual Network Functions on SDN

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Master of Applied Science by Sai Qian Zhang 2016 Many multicast services such as live multimedia distribution and real-time event monitoring require constructing a multicast mechanism to chain network functions (e.g. firewall, video transcoding). Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a concept that proposes using virtualization to implement network functions on infrastructure building blocks (such as high volume servers, virtual machines), where software replaces the functionality of existing purpose-built network equipment. We present an approach for building the multicast mechanism whereby multicast flows are processed by NFV before reaching end users. We propose a routing algorithm and a method for building an appropriate multicast topology. First we proposed a approximation algorithm to give an offline solution of the problem, then we further extend this problem to consider the effect of the NFV on bandwidth consumption. Finally, we consider the online version of this problem and present an online algorithm to adjust the multicast topology based on the dynamic cost of resources.
Chronic Consumption of Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) for 12 Weeks Improves Episodic Memory and Regional Brain Perfusion in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomised, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel-Groups Feasibility Study

Background Ageing is highly associated with cognitive decline and modifiable risk factors such as diet are believed to protect against this process. Specific dietary components and in particular, (poly)phenol-rich fruits such as berries have been increasingly recognised for their protection against age-related neurodegeneration. However, the impact of cranberries on cognitive function and neural functioning in older adults remains unclear. Design A 12-week parallel randomised placebo-controlled trial of freeze-dried cranberry powder was conducted in 60 older adults aged between 50 and 80 years. Cognitive assessment, including memory and executive function, neuroimaging and blood sample collection were conducted before and after the intervention to assess the impact of daily cranberry consumption on cognition, brain function and biomarkers of neuronal signalling. Results Cranberry supplementation for 12 weeks was associated with improvements in visual episodic memory in aged participants when compared to placebo. Mechanisms of action may include increased regional perfusion in the right entorhinal cortex, the accumbens area and the caudate in the cranberry group. Significant decrease in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol during the course of the intervention was also observed. No significant differences were, however, detected for BDNF levels between groups. Conclusions The results of this study indicate that daily cranberry supplementation (equivalent to 1 small cup of cranberries) over a 12-week period improves episodic memory performance and neural functioning, providing a basis for future investigations to determine efficacy in the context of neurological disease. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03679533 and at ISRCTN as ISRCTN76069316.
Prognostic Significance of Lineage Diversity in Bladder Cancer Revealed by Single-Cell Sequencing

Bladder cancer is the most common malignant tumor of the urinary system. We investigated the clinical implications of cell lineages in bladder cancer by integrating single-cell and bulk transcriptome data. By investigating the single-cell transcriptional profiles of 12,424 cells from normal bladder, eleven cell types and five types of epithelial sub-population were identified. Based on the signature of cell types identified in single-cell profiles, deconvolution analysis was employed to estimate cell types and epithelial lineages in the bulk RNA sequencing bladder cancer cohort. Cancer subtypes with clinical implications were further identified based on the heterogeneity of the epithelial lineage across patients. This study suggests that the EMT-like subtype is robustly correlated with poor prognosis and the umbrella subtype is a positive factor for the patient survival. Our research has a high potential for accurate prognostic and therapeutic stratification of bladder cancer.
A Mutant Era GTPase Suppresses Phenotypes Caused by Loss of Highly Conserved YbeY Protein in Escherichia coli

Ribosome assembly is a complex fundamental cellular process that involves assembling multiple ribosomal proteins and several ribosomal RNA species in a highly coordinated yet flexible and resilient manner. The highly conserved YbeY protein is a single-strand specific endoribonuclease, important for ribosome assembly, 16S rRNA processing, and ribosome quality control. In Escherichia coli, ybeY deletion results in pleiotropic phenotypes including slow growth, temperature sensitivity, accumulation of precursors of 16S rRNA, and impaired formation of fully assembled 70S subunits. Era, an essential highly conserved GTPase protein, interacts with many ribosomal proteins, and its depletion results in ribosome assembly defects. YbeY has been shown to interact with Era together with ribosomal protein S11. In this study, we have analyzed a suppressor mutation, era(T99I), that can partially suppress a subset of the multiple phenotypes of ybeY deletion. The era(T99I) allele was able to improve 16S rRNA processing and ribosome assembly at 37°C. However, it failed to suppress the temperature sensitivity and did not improve 16S rRNA stability. The era(T99I) allele was also unable to improve the 16S rRNA processing defects caused by the loss of ribosome maturation factors. We also show that era(T99I) increases the GroEL levels in the 30S ribosome fractions independent of YbeY. We propose that the mechanism of suppression is that the changes in Era’s structure caused by the era(T99I) mutation affect its GTP/GDP cycle in a way that increases the half-life of RNA binding to Era, thereby facilitating alternative processing of the 16S RNA precursor. Taken together, this study offers insights into the role of Era and YbeY in ribosome assembly and 16S rRNA processing events.
Does Tranexamic Acid Reduce the Blood Loss in Various Surgeries? An Umbrella Review of State-of-the-Art Meta-Analysis

Background: Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been applied in various types of surgery for hemostasis purposes. The efficacy and safety of TXA are still controversial in different surgeries. Guidelines for clinical application of TXA are needed. Materials and method: We systematically searched multiple medical databases for meta-analyses examining the efficacy and safety of TXA. Types of surgery included joint replacement surgery, other orthopedic surgeries, cardiac surgery, cerebral surgery, etc. Outcomes were blood loss, blood transfusion, adverse events, re-operation rate, operative time and length of hospital stay, hemoglobin (Hb) level, and coagulation function. Assessing the methodological quality of systematic reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2) and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) were used for quality assessment of the included meta-analyses. Overlapping reviews were evaluated by calculating the corrected covered area (CCA). Result: In all, we identified 47 meta-analyses, of which 44 of them were of “high” quality. A total of 319 outcomes were evaluated, in which 58 outcomes were assessed as “high” quality. TXA demonstrates significant hemostatic effects in various surgeries, with lower rates of blood transfusion and re-operation, shorter operative time and length of stay, and higher Hb levels. Besides, TXA does not increase the risk of death and vascular adverse events, but it is a risk factor for seizure (a neurological event) in cardiac surgery. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that TXA has a general hemostatic effect with very few adverse events, which indicates TXA is the recommended medication to prevent excessive bleeding and reduce the blood transfusion rate. We also recommend different dosages of TXA for different types of adult surgery. However, we could not recommend a unified dosage for different surgeries due to the heterogeneity of the experimental design. Systematic Review Registration: clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier CRD42021240303
Habitat and Marine Reserve Status Drive Reef Fish Biomass and Functional Diversity in the Largest South Atlantic Coral Reef System (Abrolhos, Brazil)

The effects of fishing have been documented across coral reefs worldwide. No-take marine reserves do not only act as a conservation tool but also allow an opportunity to study impacts of fishing, by acting as control sites. In addition, well-planned and well-managed no-take marine reserves (NTRs) provide conservation benefits that are essential to marine biodiversity and ecosystem-based management. The Abrolhos Marine National Park, off the tropical Brazilian coast, protects part of the largest coral reef system in the South Atlantic. To investigate the effects of fishing on reef fish richness, abundance, biomass, and functional diversity of the fish assemblage, we compared sites across two protection levels considering the variation in habitats (Fringing Reefs—Protected; Pinnacles Reefs—Protected; and Coastal Reefs—Open Access), using Baited Remote Underwater Stereo-Video systems (stereo-BRUVs). We adjusted generalized additive mixed models of fish assemblage characteristics with protection levels and environmental variables, such as topographic complexity (mean relief and relief variation), visibility, and benthic cover percentage. Inside NTRs, we found higher total biomass and biomass of fishery target species and carnivores, specifically for the Carcharhinidae (sharks) and Epinephelidae (groupers) families, indicating direct fisheries effects on these groups. In contrast, the ecological parameters of non-target fish were positively correlated with habitat characteristics, including mean relief and variance of relief. Moreover, fish functional diversity was higher within NTRs, demonstrating an even distribution of functional entities. The presence of large mobile predators and the overall higher biomass of carnivores inside the NTR indicate the effect of fishing exclusion. Our results point to the value of NTRs to study the effects of fishing and achieve biodiversity conservation and suggest the importance of using remote sampling methods to assess large mobile predators.
Identification of Clinical Phenotypes in Septic Patients Presenting With Hypotension or Elevated Lactate

Introduction Targeted therapies for sepsis have failed to show benefit due to high variability among subjects. We sought to demonstrate different phenotypes of septic shock based solely on clinical features and show that these relate to outcome. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed of a 1,023-subject cohort with early septic shock from the ProCESS trial. Twenty-three clinical variables at baseline were analyzed using hierarchical clustering, with consensus clustering used to identify and validate the ideal number of clusters in a derivation cohort of 642 subjects from 20 hospitals. Clusters were visualized using heatmaps over 0, 6, 24, and 72 h. Clinical outcomes were 14-day all-cause mortality and organ failure pattern. Cluster robustness was confirmed in a validation cohort of 381 subjects from 11 hospitals. Results Five phenotypes were identified, each with unique organ failure patterns that persisted in time. By enrollment criteria, all patients had shock. The two high-risk phenotypes were characterized by distinct multi-organ failure patterns and cytokine signatures, with the highest mortality group characterized most notably by liver dysfunction and coagulopathy while the other group exhibited primarily respiratory failure, neurologic dysfunction, and renal dysfunction. The moderate risk phenotype was that of respiratory failure, while low-risk phenotypes did not have a high degree of additional organ failure. Conclusions Sepsis phenotypes with distinct biochemical abnormalities may be identified by clinical characteristics alone and likely provide an opportunity for early clinical actionability and prognosis.
Spatial and Temporal Development of Müller Glial Cells in hiPSC-Derived Retinal Organoids Facilitates the Cell Enrichment and Transcriptome Analysis

Müller glial cells (MGCs) play important roles in human retina during physiological and pathological conditions. However, the development process of human MGCs in vivo remains unclear, and how to obtain large numbers of human MGCs with high quality faces technical challenges, which hinder the further study and application of MGCs. Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived retinal organoids (ROs) with all retinal cell subtypes provide an unlimited cell resource and a platform for the studies of retinal development and disorders. This study explored the development of human MGCs in hiPSC-derived ROs and developed an approach to select and expand the induced MGCs (iMGCs). In ROs, retinal progenitor cells progressively differentiated into SOX9+ Ki67– MGC precursors during differentiation day (D) 60 to D90, while mature MGCs expressing markers CRALBP and GS gradually appeared since D120, which spanned the entire thickness of the neural retina layer. Cells isolated from ROs aged older than 120 days was an optimal source for the enrichment of iMGCs with high purity and expansion ability. They had typical features of human MGCs in morphological, structural, molecular and functional aspects, and could be passaged serially at least 10 times, yielding large numbers of cells in a short period. The transcriptome pattern of the expanded iMGCs was also revealed. This study firstly clarified the timecourse of human MGC development in the RO model, where the iMGCs could be enriched and expanded, paving the way for downstream investigation and application in MGC-related retinal disorders.
Neural Plasticity Induced by Hearing Aid Use

Age-related hearing loss is one of the most prevalent health conditions in older adults. Although hearing aid technology has advanced dramatically, a large percentage of older adults do not use hearing aids. This untreated hearing loss may accelerate declines in cognitive and neural function and dramatically affect the quality of life. Our previous findings have shown that the use of hearing aids improves cortical and cognitive function and offsets subcortical physiological decline. The current study tested the time course of neural adaptation to hearing aids over the course of 6 months and aimed to determine whether early measures of cortical processing predict the capacity for neural plasticity. Seventeen (9 females) older adults (mean age = 75 years) with age-related hearing loss with no history of hearing aid use were fit with bilateral hearing aids and tested in six testing sessions. Neural changes were observed as early as 2 weeks following the initial fitting of hearing aids. Increases in N1 amplitudes were observed as early as 2 weeks following the hearing aid fitting, whereas changes in P2 amplitudes were not observed until 12 weeks of hearing aid use. The findings suggest that increased audibility through hearing aids may facilitate rapid increases in cortical detection, but a longer time period of exposure to amplified sound may be required to integrate features of the signal and form auditory object representations. The results also showed a relationship between neural responses in earlier sessions and the change predicted after 6 months of the use of hearing aids. This study demonstrates rapid cortical adaptation to increased auditory input. Knowledge of the time course of neural adaptation may aid audiologists in counseling their patients, especially those who are struggling to adjust to amplification. A future comparison of a control group with no use of hearing aids that undergoes the same testing sessions as the study’s group will validate these findings.