Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nocturnal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (nCPAP) Decreases High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) in Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome

Background Systemic and airway inflammation has recently been linked to obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and is considered to be a probable risk factor for OSAHS-induced cardiovascular damage. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), as an inflammatory mediator, may be useful for the prediction of the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and assessment of nocturnal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) therapy effect in OSAHS patients. Methods A prospective, controlled, cross-sectional study was conducted on 64 consecutive adult subjects with suspected sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Results OSAHS was confirmed in 43 patients (24 normotensive and 19 hypertensive patients) and ruled out in 21 normotensive subjects (controls). The median plasma level of hs-CRP did not differ significantly between OSAHS patients and controls. It showed an unmarked rise with the severity of OSAHS (p = 0.20) and was not correlated with AHI (p = 0.067; r = 0.28). After adjusting for cervical perimeter (CP), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and blood sugar level, hs-CRP level of 1 mg/dL or greater was significantly more often observed in OSAHS patients compared with controls (p = 0.032; OR = 5.60) and was also significantly associated with AHI (p = 0.021). A significant decrease in the median plasma hs-CRP level was observed in CPAP compliant patients (p = 0.006). Of those, only normotensive patients showed a significant decrease in plasma hs-CRP level. In hypertensive ones, however, the hs-CRP level dropped but not significantly. Using a linear regression model, the change in hs-CRP level (Δhs-CRP) following a 6-month-nCPAP therapy was found to positively correlate with the baseline hs-CRP level for both hypertensive (p = 0.02; r = 0.68), and even more normotensive OSAHS patients (p < 0.0001; r = 0.89). Conclusion nCPAP therapy may have a cardiovascular protective effect in OSAHS patients. hs-CRP level would be useful as a valuable predictor of success in OSAHS treatment monitoring.
Regularisation, optimisation, subregularity

Regularisation theory in Banach spaces, and non-norm-squared regularisation even in finite dimensions, generally relies upon Bregman divergences to replace norm convergence. This is comparable to the extension of first-order optimisation methods to Banach spaces. Bregman divergences can, however, be somewhat suboptimal in terms of descriptiveness. Using the concept of (strong) metric subregularity, previously used to prove the fast local convergence of optimisation methods, we show norm convergence in Banach spaces and for non-norm-squared regularisation. For problems such as total variation regularised image reconstruction, the metric subregularity reduces to a geometric condition on the ground truth: flat areas in the ground truth have to compensate for the fidelity term not having second-order growth within the kernel of the forward operator. Our approach to proving such regularisation results is based on optimisation formulations of inverse problems. As a side result of the regularisation theory that we develop, we provide regularisation complexity results for optimisation methods: how many steps N δ of the algorithm do we have to take for the approximate solutions to converge as the corruption level δ ↘ 0?
Acute Imidacloprid Poisoning in Thailand

Introduction Imidacloprid is the most commonly used neonicotinoid insecticide worldwide. Despite its reputation for safety, there is increasing evidence regarding its toxicity. This study characterized the clinical manifestations and outcomes of acute imidacloprid poisoning. Methods This was a retrospective study of patients with imidacloprid poisoning who were referred to the Ramathibodi Poison Center in Bangkok, Thailand between 2010 and 2018. Results A total of 163 patients with imidacloprid-only exposure were included. Most were exposed by ingestion (93.3%). The patients were predominantly male (55.8%), with a median age of 41.3 years. The common presenting features were gastrointestinal symptoms (63.8%) with no corrosive injuries and neurological effects (14.2%). The majority of medical outcomes was no (18.4%) to mild (76.1%) toxicity. One patient had symptoms mimicking cholinergic syndrome, three developed liver injury, and five died. Among the five deaths, two patients presented severe initial severity, and one presented moderate initial severity. Two of the patients who died initially presented only mild severity. The mortality rate was 3.1%. The estimated amount of ingestion, cardiovascular effects (especially tachycardia and cardiac arrest), central nervous system effects (especially coma), dyspnea, and diaphoresis were significantly associated with mortality. Patient management primarily included supportive and symptomatic care. Conclusion Most patients with imidacloprid poisoning developed only mild toxicity. The mortality rate was low, but a few patients with mild initial severity died. Patients who ingest a large amount or show these warning signs including cardiovascular effects, central nervous system effects, dyspnea, and diaphoresis at the initial presentation should be considered for close observation and monitoring.
Case Report: Preimplantation Genetic Testing and Pregnancy Outcomes in Women With Alport Syndrome

Background Alport syndrome, a monogenic kidney disease, is characterized by progressive hemorrhagic nephritis, sensorineural hearing loss, and ocular abnormalities. Mutations in COL4A5 at Xq22 accounts for 80–85% of X-linked Alport syndrome patients. Three couples were referred to our reproductive genetics clinic for prenatal or preconception counseling. Methods Prenatal diagnoses were performed by amplifying targeted regions of COL4A5. Targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based haplotype analysis or karyomapping was performed in two patients. Pregnancy outcomes in the three patients were collected and analyzed. Published Alport syndrome cases were searched in Pubmed and Embase. Results Prenatal diagnoses in two cases showed one fetus harbored the same pathogenic mutation as the proband and the other was healthy. The couple with an affected fetus and the patient with a family history of Alport syndrome chose to take the preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) procedure. One unaffected embryo was transferred to the uterus, and a singleton pregnancy was achieved, respectively. Two patients presented non-nephrotic range proteinuria (<3 g/24 h) during pregnancy and the three cases all delivered at full-term. However, published Alport cases with chronic kidney disease or proteinuria during pregnancy were came with a high rate (75%) of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Conclusion The PGT procedure performed in this study was proven to be practicable and might be expanded to be applied in other monogenic diseases. Moderate or severe renal impairments in Alport syndrome were strongly associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes, and baseline proteinuria was a potential predictor for pregnancy outcomes of Alport syndrome as other kidney diseases.
Levels and Determinants of Health Literacy in Bahrain’s Community Context

Objectives We sought to assess health literacy (HL) and its associated factors in the Bahraini community using a validated HL scale and address its deficient domains to inform policy. Methods We carried out a conveniently sampled, cross-sectional survey using the All Aspects of Health Literacy Scale in the Bahraini community. The scale has three key aspects: basic or functional HL (FUN-4 items), which corresponds to basic reading and writing skills, and knowledge of health conditions and health systems; communicative or interactive HL (COM-3 items) on communicative and social skills to extract information from different forms of communication; and critical HL (CR-4 items), the advanced cognitive and social skills to critically analyze information and exert greater control over life events and situations relating to individual and community level wellbeing goals. We examined the association between sociodemographic and health information for the survey tool items using the chi-square test. The relationship between total scale score and subscale scores of the three domains of the survey tool to sociodemographic and health information was investigated using the t-test and ANOVA. Results Of the 836 participants (mean age = 26.6 years), single (64.0%) and university students (76.6%) were predominant; 15.6% reported long-term sickness and visited the general physician often. The highest mean item scores were for empowerment (1.8) and lowest for functional HL (0.1). The significant domain-specific responses to the survey tool items were 12 for critical HL, 10 for functional HL, six for communicative HL, and five for empowerment. Participants aged < 30 years old, female, married, pursuing/completed Master’s program, employed, and whose self-rating of health was excellent had higher total HL scores. Conclusions Older, less educated respondents with a poor self-rating of health had low HL scores. We recommend further studies to address the relative importance of functional, interactive, and critical HL in the community to promote health outcomes.
Analytic Sensitivity of Three Nucleic Acid Detection Assays in Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Abstract Background Detection of SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction is the primary method to diagnose Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Yet, the analytical sensitivity required is not well defined and it is unclear how available assays compare. Methods For the Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay (Abbott Molecular Inc.; abbreviated as m2000), we determined that it could detect viral concentrations as low as 26 copies/mL, we defined the relationship between cycle number and viral concentrations, and we tested naso- and oropharyngeal swab specimens from N = 8,538 consecutive individuals. Using the m2000 as a reference assay method, we described the distribution of viral concentrations in these patients. We then used selected clinical specimens to determine the positive percent agreement of two other assays with more rapid turnaround times (Cepheid Xpert Xpress (Cepheid Inc.; GeneXpert, N = 27 specimens) and a laboratory developed test on the Luminex ARIES system (Luminex Corporation; ARIES LDT, N = 50)) as a function of virus concentrations, from which we projected their false negative rates in our patient population. Results SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 27% (95% confidence interval of 26-28%) of all specimens. Estimated viral concentrations were widely distributed and 17% (16-19%) of positive individuals had viral concentrations below 845 copies/mL. Positive percent agreement was strongly related to viral concentration and reliable detection (i.e. ≥95%), was observed at concentrations >100 copies/mL for the GeneXpert but not the ARIES LDT, corresponding to projected false negative rates of 4% (0-21%) and 27% (11-46%), respectively. Conclusions Substantial proportions of clinical specimens have low to moderate viral concentrations and may be missed by methods with lesser analytical sensitivity.
Cytochrome C Oxidase Assembly Factor 1 Homolog Predicts Poor Prognosis and Promotes Cell Proliferation in Colorectal Cancer by Regulating PI3K/AKT Signaling

Purpose Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies in the world. The prognosis of advanced CRC is still poor. The purpose of this study was to identify a gene expression profile associated with CRC that may contribute to the early diagnosis of CRC and improve patient prognosis. Patients and Methods Five pairs of CRC tissues and paracancerous tissues were used to identify causative genes using microarray assays. The prognostic value of Cytochrome C Oxidase Assembly Factor 1 Homolog (COA1) in CRC was assessed in 90 CRC patients. Loss-of-function assays, cell proliferation assays using Celigo and MTT, colony formation assays, a subcutaneous xenograft mouse model, and apoptosis assays were used to define the effects of downregulation of COA1 in CRC cells in vitro and in vivo. The underlying molecular mechanisms of COA1 in CRC were also investigated. Results The causative gene COA1 was identified through microarray analysis. COA1 expression in CRC was notably associated with pathologic differentiation, tumor size, and tumor depth. COA1 expression may act as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of CRC. Knockdown of COA1 inhibited the proliferation of CRC cells in vitro and the tumorigenicity of CRC cells in vivo. Decreased COA1 expression induced apoptosis of CRC cells. Based on the microarray assay results comparing HCT116 cells transfected with lentivirus encoding anti-COA1 shRNA or negative control shRNA, ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA) revealed that the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway was significantly enriched. Moreover, CCND1, mTOR, AKT1, and MDM2 were identified as the downstream genes of COA1. Conclusion These findings demonstrate that COA1 promotes CRC cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis by regulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Our results implicate COA1 as a potential oncogene involved in tumor growth and progression of CRC.
Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques for the Estimation of Basal Insulin in Patients with Type I Diabetes

Artificial intelligence techniques have been positioned in the resolution of problems in various areas of healthcare. Clinical decision support systems developed from this technology have optimized the healthcare of patients with chronic diseases through mobile applications. In this study, several models based on this methodology have been developed to calculate the basal insulin dose in patients with type I diabetes using subcutaneous insulin infusion pumps. Methods. A pilot experimental study was performed with data from 56 patients with type 1 diabetes who used insulin infusion pumps and underwent continuous glucose monitoring. Several models based on artificial intelligence techniques were developed to analyze glycemic patterns based on continuous glucose monitoring and clinical variables in order to estimate the basal insulin dose. We used neural networks (NNs), Bayesian networks (BNs), support vector machines (SVMs), and random forests (RF). We then evaluated the agreement between predicted and actual values using several statistical error measurements: mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE), root-mean-square error (RMSE), Pearson's correlation coefficient (R), and determination coefficient (R2). Results. Twenty-four different models were obtained, one for each hour of the day, with each chosen technique. Correlation coefficients obtained with RF, SVMs, NNs, and BNs were 0.9999, 0.9921, 0.0303, and 0.7754, respectively. The error increased between 06:00 and 07:00 and between 13:00 and 17:00. Conclusions. The performance of the RF technique was excellent and got very close to the actual values. Intelligence techniques could be used to predict basal insulin dose. However, it is necessary to explore the validity of the results and select the target population. Models that allow for more accurate levels of prediction should be further explored.
Urinary glycoproteins associated with aggressive prostate cancer

Background: There is an urgent need for the detection of aggressive prostate cancer. Glycoproteins play essential roles in cancer development, while urine is a noninvasive and easily obtainable biological fluid that contains secretory glycoproteins from the urogenital system. Therefore, here we aimed to identify urinary glycoproteins that are capable of differentiating aggressive from non-aggressive prostate cancer. Methods: Quantitative mass spectrometry data of glycopeptides from a discovery cohort comprised of 74 aggressive (Gleason score ≥8) and 68 non-aggressive (Gleason score = 6) prostate cancer urine specimens were acquired via a data independent acquisition approach. The glycopeptides showing distinct expression profiles in aggressive relative to non-aggressive prostate cancer were further evaluated for their performance in distinguishing the two groups either individually or in combination with others using repeated 5-fold cross validation with logistic regression to build predictive models. Predictive models showing good performance from the discovery cohort were further evaluated using a validation cohort. Results: Among the 20 candidate glycoproteins, urinary ACPP outperformed the other candidates. Urinary ACPP can also serve as an adjunct to serum PSA to further improve the discrimination power for aggressive prostate cancer (AUC= 0.82, 95% confidence interval 0.75 to 0.89). A three-signature panel including urinary ACPP, urinary CLU, and serum PSA displayed the ability to distinguish aggressive prostate cancer from non-aggressive prostate cancer with an AUC of 0.86 (95% confidence interval 0.8 to 0.92). Another three-signature panel containing urinary ACPP, urinary LOX, and serum PSA also demonstrated its ability in recognizing aggressive prostate cancer (AUC=0.82, 95% confidence interval 0.75 to 0.9). Moreover, consistent performance was observed from each panel when evaluated using a validation cohort. Conclusion: We have identified glycopeptides of urinary glycoproteins associated with aggressive prostate cancer using a quantitative mass spectrometry-based glycoproteomic approach and demonstrated their potential to serve as noninvasive urinary glycoprotein biomarkers worthy of further validation by a multi-center study.
Phosphorylated MAPK14 Promotes the Proliferation and Migration of Bladder Cancer Cells by Maintaining RUNX2 Protein Abundance

Background Mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (MAPK14) acts as an integration point for multiple biochemical signal pathways. High expressions of MAPK14 have been found in a variety of tumors. Runt‑related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) is related to many tumors, especially in tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the mechanism of these two genes in bladder cancer remains unclear. Methods TCGA database and Western blot were used to analyze the mRNA and protein levels of the target gene in bladder cancer tissues and adjacent tissues. The proliferation ability of bladder cancer cells was tested by colony forming and EdU assay. The migration ability of cells was detected by transwell assay. Immunoprecipitation was utilized to detect protein–protein interaction. Cycloheximide chase assay was used to measure the half-life of RUNX2 protein. Results Phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 (P-MAPK14, Thr180/Tyr182) was highly expressed in bladder cancer tissues and bladder cancer cell lines. Accordingly, P-MAPK14 could be combined with RUNX2 and maintain its protein stability and promote the proliferation and migration of bladder cancer cells. In addition, the functional degradation caused by the downregulation of MAPK14 and P-MAPK14 could be partially compensated by the overexpression of RUNX2. Conclusion These results suggest that P-MAPK14 might play an important role in the development of bladder cancer and in the regulation of RUNX2 protein expression. P-MAPK14 might become a potential target for the treatment of bladder cancer.
Effect of Panax notoginseng Saponins on Focal Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion in Rat Models: A Meta-Analysis

With the increase of the aging population, the high mortality and disability rates caused by ischemic stroke are some of the major problems facing the world, and they dramatically burden the society. Panax notoginseng (Burk) F. H. Chen, a traditional Chinese medicine, is commonly used for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and its main bioactive components are Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS). Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis on focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion animal models established with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) surgery to evaluate the therapeutic effect of PNS. We systematically searched the reports of PNS in MCAO animal experiments in seven databases. We assessed the study quality using two literature quality evaluation criteria; evaluated the efficacy of PNS treatment based on the outcomes of the neurological deficit score (NDS), cerebral infarct volume (CIV), and biochemical indicators via a random/fixed-effects model; and performed a subgroup analysis utilizing ischemia duration, drug dosage, intervention time, and administration duration. We also compared the efficacy of PNS with positive control drugs or combination treatment. As a result, we selected 14 eligible studies from the 3,581 searched publications based on the predefined exclusion-inclusion criteria. PNS were significantly associated with reduced NDS, reduced CIV, and inhibited release of the inflammatory factors IL-1β and TNF-α in the focal MCAO rat models. The PNS combination therapy outperformed the PNS alone. In addition, ischemia time, drug dosage, intervention time, and administration duration in the rat models all had significant effects on the efficacy of PNS. Although more high-quality studies are needed to further determine the clinical efficacy and guiding parameters of PNS, our results also confirmed that PNS significantly relieves the focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rat models. In the animal trials, it was suggested that an early intervention had significant efficacy with PNS alone or PNS combination treatment at a dosage lower than 25 mg/kg or 100–150 mg/kg for 4 days or longer. These findings further guide the therapeutic strategy for clinical cerebral ischemic stroke.
Cortinarius pakistanicus and C. pseudotorvus: two new species in oak forests in the Pakistan Himalayas

Abstract The genus of basidiomycetous fungi Cortinarius occurs worldwide, from subtropical to boreal latitudes. Although molecular systematics has triggered the study of these fungi in the Americas and Europe in the last two decades, there is still limited research on its diversity in large portions of the planet, such as the high mountain ranges of Asia. Several collections of Cortinarius were made during mycological field trips conducted between 2014 and 2018 in pure oak forests in the Pakistan Himalayas. An integrative framework combining morphological and phylogenetic data was employed for their study. As a result, the two species C. pakistanicus and C. pseudotorvus are here described as new to science. Detailed macro- and micro-morphological descriptions, including SEM images of spores, and a molecular phylogenetic reconstruction based on nrITS sequence data are provided and used to discriminate the new species from morphologically and phylogenetically close taxa. Whereas our phylogenetic tree inference gave unequivocal support for the inclusion of C. pseudotorvus within C. sect. Telamonia, the assignment of C. pakistanicus to any known sections remained elusive. These species likely establish ectomycorrhizal associations with trees in the genus Quercus, making this type of forest in the Pakistan Himalayas a promising focus for future research on the diversity of Cortinarius.