Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in employment and hospitalisation in patients with Sjögren's syndrome 1996-2016: results from the German National database.

OBJECTIVES To assess trends in treatments and outcomes in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS), focusing on employment, hospitalisation and medical treatment in the past two decades. METHODS From 1996 to 2016, approximately 300 patients with pSS were annually documented in the National Database of the German Collaborative Arthritis Centres. Data on treatment, physicians' assessments of disease activity, patient-reported outcomes, hospitalisation and employment were collected and compared to patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), matched 1:1 for age, sex and disease duration for each calendar year. RESULTS Patients with pSS (>90% female, age 44 years at disease onset, disease duration 10 years) were more frequently assessed to be in low disease activity in 2016 (93%) than in 1996 (62%), p<0.01. Treatment with antimalarials increased from 1996 to 2016 (31 to 50%, p<0.01) and less patients were on glucocorticosteroids (50 to 34%, p<0.01) but <5% were treated with biologics. Employment (<65 years) in- creased by 21 percentage points (43 to 64%, p<0.001), exceeding the increase observed for RA patients (+15 percent- age points). Early retirement (22 to 10%, p=0.01), hospitalisation/year (13 to 7%, p=0.08) and sick leave (39% in 1997 to 27%, p=0.09) decreased comparably to RA patients. CONCLUSIONS Overall, similar trends were observed for RA and pSS cohorts despite minor changes in pSS therapy. Work participation has improved significantly over two decades in pSS. A greater perception of pSS without systemic manifestations may have caused a shift towards less severely affected patient cohorts today.
Joint Congestion Control and Resource Allocation in Cache-Enabled Sensor Networks

In this paper, we investigate the optimal beamforming design to achieve joint congestion control and energy-efficient resource allocation in cache-enabled sensor networks. The network of interest works in the time-slotted mode. The dynamic buffering queue for each node is introduced to reflect the degree of network congestion and service delay. Then, a time-averaged sum rate maximization problem is proposed under the constraints of queue stability, instantaneous power consumption, average power consumption, and the minimum quality of service requirements. By introducing the method of Lyapunov optimization, the importance of buffering queue backlogs and sum rate maximization can be traded off, then the original queue-aware and time-averaged optimization problem is transformed into a weighted sum rate maximization problem at each time slot. It can be further converted into a second-order cone-programming problem by successive convex approximation, which is convex and can be efficiently solved by off-the-shelf solvers. Numerical results validate that wireless caching can greatly relieve the network congestion by reducing the buffering backlogs, and show that the proposed scheme can trade off the average queue length and time-averaged sum rate by selecting different control parameters.
Gain-of-function mutant p53: history and speculation

The p53 field is complex and evolving. Yet the basic challenges of this field remain the same: how does wild-type p53 prevent cancer and how do mutant forms of p53 promote the very same disease? This essay only touches on some aspects of the research that has approached these two questions and we apologize to those whose work has not been cited. What everyone must agree on is that the findings of Arnold Levine and colleagues have created and enriched one of the most lively and challenging fields in cancer research today.
Enhanced Light Sheet Elastic Scattering Microscopy by Using a Supercontinuum Laser

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy techniques have revolutionized biological microscopy enabling low-phototoxic long-term 3D imaging of living samples. Although there exist many light sheet microscopy (LSM) implementations relying on fluorescence, just a few works have paid attention to the laser elastic scattering source of contrast available in every light sheet microscope. Interestingly, elastic scattering can potentially disclose valuable information from the structure and composition of the sample at different spatial scales. However, when coherent scattered light is detected with a camera sensor, a speckled intensity is generated on top of the native imaged features, compromising their visibility. In this work, we propose a novel light sheet based optical setup which implements three strategies for dealing with speckles of elastic scattering images: (i) polarization filtering; (ii) reducing the temporal coherence of the excitation laser light; and, (iii) reducing the spatial coherence of the light sheet. Finally, we show how these strategies enable pristine light-sheet elastic-scattering imaging of structural features in challenging biological samples avoiding the deleterious effects of speckle, and without relying on, but complementing, fluorescent labelling.
Mitochondrial genotype influences the response to cold stress in the European green crab, Carcinus maenas

ABSTRACT Hybrid zones provide natural experiments in recombination within and between genomes that may have strong effects on organismal fitness. On the East Coast of North America, two distinct lineages of the European green crab (Carcinus maenas) have been introduced in the last two centuries. These two lineages with putatively different adaptive properties have hybridized along the coast of the eastern Gulf of Maine, producing new nuclear and mitochondrial combinations that show clinal variation correlated with water temperature. To test the hypothesis that mitochondrial or nuclear genes have effects on thermal tolerance, we first measured the response to cold stress in crabs collected throughout the hybrid zone, then sequenced the mitochondrial CO1 gene and two nuclear single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) representative of nuclear genetic lineage. Mitochondrial haplotype had a strong association with the ability of crabs to right themselves at 4.5°C that was sex specific: haplotypes originally from northern Europe gave male crabs an advantage while there was no haplotype effect on righting in female crabs. By contrast, the two nuclear SNPs that were significant outliers in a comparison between northern and southern C. maenas populations had no effect on righting response at low temperature. These results add C. maenas to the shortlist of ectotherms in which mitochondrial variation has been shown to affect thermal tolerance, and suggest that natural selection is shaping the structure of the hybrid zone across the Gulf of Maine. Our limited genomic sampling does not eliminate the strong possibility that mito-nuclear co-adaptation may play a role in the differences in thermal phenotypes documented here. Linkage between mitochondrial genotype and thermal tolerance suggests a role for local adaptation in promoting the spread of invasive populations of C. maenas around the world. Summary: Different mitochondrial haplotypes of Carcinus maenas in the Gulf of Maine, derived from multiple biological introductions, have a strong, male-specific effect on whether invasive crabs can right themselves under cold stress, while two candidate nuclear loci have no such effect.
Intensive Care Psychological Assessment Tool (IPAT): Turkish validity and reliability study

Background/aim It is of crucial importantance to be able to detect acute psychological distress in patients. The Intensive Care Psychological Assessment Tool (IPAT) was developed for this purpose in intensive care units. This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of IPAT. Materials and methods In total, 98 patients were included. To assess concurrent validity, the Intensive Care Experiences Scale (ICES) and the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale were performed. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to estimate internal consistency. Interitem and item-total score correlations were also performed. Sensitivity and specificity were derived for concurrent anxiety and depression. Results The internal reliability was good. Cronbach’s a = 0.85. Items were well-correlated, with an average interitem correlation of 0.38. The concurrent validity of IPAT was good. Correlation between IPAT scores, anxiety, depression, ICES, and the diagnosis of delirium were as follows, respectively: r = 0.61, P < 0.01, r = 0.54, P < 0.01, r = −0.66, P < 0.01, r = 0.37, P < 0.01. With a cutoff score of ≥ 6, IPAT showed 85% sensitivity and 61% specificity to detect concurrent anxiety, and 74% sensitivity and 82% specificity to detect concurrent depression [AUC = 0.77 (95% CI, 0.68–0.87) and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.76–0.92), respectively]. Conclusion The Turkish version of IPAT was found to be a valid and reliable tool to assess acute psychological distress among patients in intensive care units.
Bispecific Antibodies Enable Synthetic Agonistic Receptor-Transduced T Cells for Tumor Immunotherapy

Purpose: Genetically engineered T cells are powerful anticancer treatments but are limited by safety and specificity issues. We herein describe an MHC-unrestricted modular platform combining autologous T cells, transduced with a targetable synthetic agonistic receptor (SAR), with bispecific antibodies (BiAb) that specifically recruit and activate T cells for tumor killing. Experimental Design: BiAbs of different formats were generated by recombinant expression. T cells were retrovirally transduced with SARs. T-cell activation, proliferation, differentiation, and T-cell–induced lysis were characterized in three murine and human tumor models in vitro and in vivo. Results: Murine T cells transduced with SAR composed of an extracellular domain EGFRvIII fused to CD28 and CD3ζ signaling domains could be specifically recruited toward murine tumor cells expressing EpCAM by anti-EGFRvIII × anti-EpCAM BiAb. BiAb induced selective antigen-dependent activation, proliferation of SAR T cells, and redirected tumor cell lysis. Selectivity was dependent on the monovalency of the antibody for EGFRvIII. We identified FAS ligand as a major mediator of killing utilized by the T cells. Similarly, human SAR T cells could be specifically redirected toward mesothelin-expressing human pancreatic cancer cells. In vivo, treatment with SAR T cells and BiAb mediated antitumoral activity in three human pancreatic cancer cell xenograft models. Importantly, SAR activity, unlike CAR activity, was reversible in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: We describe a novel ACT platform with antitumor activity in murine and human tumor models with a distinct mode of action that combines adoptive T-cell therapy with bispecific antibodies.
Effect of Vegetable Oils as Phagostimulants in Adults of Dichroplus vittigerum (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Abstract Several species of grasshoppers are attracted to vegetable oils. These oils have kairomonal properties mainly due to the presence of linolenic and linoleic fatty acids. This study aimed to determine whether the odors of canola, flax, and olive oils are attractive to Dichroplus vittigerum (Blanchard 1851) and if they induce preference and feeding. We conducted three bioassays to determine whether oil modifies attraction and feeding behavior of this grasshopper. We first determined the attraction of the oils using a wind tunnel, secondly evaluated phagostimulation produced by the oils, and finally performed preference tests comparing consumption of Taraxacum officinale (Weber ex F.H.Wigg. 1780, Asterales: Asteraceae) leaves treated with the oils versus control leaves. Even though all of the oils induced attraction, only flax oil acted as a phagostimulant. However, the oils did not determine the preference and did not increase feeding on leaves. We hypothesize that T. officinale leaves are inherently attractive and treatment with oils did not affect feeding on them. Our results provide a starting point to develop baits that can be used to attract and control these harmful insects, presenting flax oil as a potential bait for D. vittigerum since its odor was both attractive and led to increased feeding or phagostimulation. Future studies should test the effect of the oils on other plant species or at varying doses, under field conditions.
Numerical Investigation of Polymer Coated Nanoporous Gold

Nanoporous metals represent a fascinating class of materials. They consist of a bi-continuous three-dimensional network of randomly intersecting pores and ligaments where the ligaments form the skeleton of the structure. The open-pore structure allows for applying a thin electrolytic coating on the ligaments. In this paper, we will investigate the stiffening effect of a polymer coating numerically. Since the coating adds an additional difficulty for the discretization of the microstructure by finite elements, we apply the finite cell method. This allows for deriving a mesh in a fully automatic fashion from the high resolution 3D voxel model stemming from the 3D focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope tomography data of nanoporous gold. By manipulating the voxel model in a straightforward way, we add a thin polymer layer of homogeneous thickness numerically and study its effect on the macroscopic elastic properties systematically. In order to lower the influence of the boundary conditions on the results, the window method, which is known from homogenization procedures, is applied. In the second part of the paper, we fill the gap between numerical simulations and experimental investigations and determine real material properties of an electrolytic applied polypyrrole coating by inverse computations. The simulations provide an estimate for the mechanical properties of the ligaments and the polymeric coating and are in accordance with experimental data.
Feasibility, appropriateness and meaningfulness analysis of the Sunfrail Tool to the European Portuguese population during cross-cultural adaptation process.

Frailty is an age-related condition characterized by increased vulnerability to negative outcomes. To enable informed decision-making and implementation of individually tailored practices for frailty management, it is necessary to develop screening tools that cover different domains of individual functioning, reliably predict future adverse outcomes and are generalizable to healthcare settings other than primary care. The Sunfrail Tool, an easy-to-use nine-item instrument, seems to meet all these requirements. The current study aimed to perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the Sunfrail Tool for the European Portuguese population and to perform the feasibility, appropriateness and meaningfulness analyses of the Sunfrail Tool Portuguese version. METHODS The process of cross-cultural adaptation was conducted in four-phases (translation, synthesis, back translation and creation of consensual version). To reinforce the content validity, the additional analysis on feasibility, appropriateness and meaningfulness were conducted with end-users (older adults, informal caregivers and health and social care professionals). RESULTS The frailty concept was considered suitable for the European Portuguese population. A consensus version was reached by an expert panel after considering the results of two forward and two back-translations. This prefinal version was endorsed to the first author of the original version of the instrument, as recommended by international guidelines. The content validation performed by healthcare professionals (n = 7), patients (n = 18) and informal caregivers (n = 3) showed that the Sunfrail Tool was moderately comprehensible and ambiguous. Five items required changes for cultural adaptation. CONCLUSION The Sunfrail Tool seems to be a promising instrument for the early identification of frailty to be used in the European Portuguese context to inform clinical decisions on preventive responses. However, to enable identification of frail and nonfrail individuals with this tool and ensure effectiveness on pathways activation for frailty management, there is a need to define cut-off points. Guidelines supporting the interview process are also desirable.
The Effect of Nonpharmacological Interventions on Managing Symptom Clusters Among Cancer Patients

Background Cancer patients often experience multiple concurrent and related symptoms, or symptom clusters. Research increasingly indicates that targeting a symptom cluster as an overall entity instead of individual symptoms could be more effective and efficient in improving patients’ quality of life. Various nonpharmacological interventions are used to manage symptom clusters in cancer patients during and after treatment, but the effect of such interventions is uncertain. Objective To provide a summary of such interventions and evaluate their effects in terms of symptom cluster severity, quality of life, and functional ability of patients with cancer. Methods A comprehensive literature search of 5 English and 2 Chinese electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, CNKI, and Wanfang) was combined with hand searching, to identify eligible research studies from 2001 to January 2018. Two reviewers carried out data selection, data extraction, and quality appraisal independently. A narrative approach was used to summarize data. Results Thirteen randomized controlled trials, involving 1490 patients, were included in the review. The methodological quality of the studies was generally fair. Nonpharmacological interventions can reduce the severity of symptom clusters, especially the pain–fatigue–sleep disturbance, cognitive, and gastrointestinal clusters, and improve both quality of life and functional ability. Conclusions While symptom cluster interventions are potentially useful in cancer care, further well-designed research is needed to test them rigorously on various types of cancer symptom clusters. Implications for Practice Nonpharmacological interventions are shown to be effective in managing cancer-associated symptom clusters and could be considered as part of the existing healthcare services for cancer patients.
Metabolic and Nutritional Characteristics of Long-Stay Critically Ill Patients

Background: insufficient feeding is frequent in the intensive care unit (ICU), which results in poor outcomes. Little is known about the nutrition pattern of patients requiring prolonged ICU stays. The aims of our study are to describe the demographic, metabolic, and nutritional specificities of chronically critically ill (CCI) patients defined by an ICU stay >2 weeks, and to identify an early risk factor. Methods: analysis of consecutive patients prospectively admitted to the CCI program, with the following variables: demographic characteristics, Nutrition Risk Screening (NRS-2002) score, total daily energy from nutritional and non-nutritional sources, protein and glucose intakes, all arterial blood glucose values, length of ICU and hospital stay, and outcome (ICU and 90-day survival). Two phases were considered for the analysis: the first 10 days, and the next 20 days of the ICU stay. Statistics: parametric and non-parametric tests. Results: 150 patients, aged 60 ± 15 years were prospectively included. Median (Q1, Q3) length of ICU stay was 31 (26, 46) days. The mortality was 18% at ICU discharge and 35.3% at 90 days. Non-survivors were older (p = 0.024), tended to have a higher SAPSII score (p = 0.072), with a significantly higher NRS score (p = 0.033). Enteral nutrition predominated, while combined feeding was minimally used. All patients received energy and protein below the ICU’s protocol recommendation. The proportion of days with fasting was 10.8%, being significantly higher in non-survivors (2 versus 3 days; p = 0.038). Higher protein delivery was associated with an increase in prealbumin over time (r2 = 0.19, p = 0.027). Conclusions: High NRS scores may identify patients at highest risk of poor outcome when exposed to underfeeding. Further studies are required to evaluate a nutrition strategy for patients with high NRS, addressing combined parenteral nutrition and protein delivery.
From Fish Eggs to Fish Name: Caviar Species Discrimination by COIBar-RFLP, an Efficient Molecular Approach to Detect Fraud in the Caviar Trade

The demand for caviar is growing as is its price on the market. Due to the decline of true caviar production from sturgeons, eggs from other fish species and other animals have been used as substitutes for caviar. The labels on these products should indicate the species from which the eggs were derived, but the label can be misleading in some cases. In this context, species identification using DNA analysis is crucial for traceability and authentication of caviar products. In this work, we applied the COIBar-RFLP procedure to obtain species-specific endonuclease restriction patterns useful to discriminate “caviar” species. The tested caviar products were identified as originating from eight species: Acipenser transmontanus, A. gueldenstaedtii, A. stellatus, A. baerii, Mallotus villosus, Huso huso, Cyclopterus lumpus and Eumicrotremus orbis. The results demonstrated that 14% of the caviar products examined have a label that does not indicate the species from which the eggs were originated. The MboI restriction enzyme produced specific profiles discriminating the eight species, confirming that the COIBar-RFLP is a useful approach for routine screening of seafood products due to its ease and rapid execution, as the results of screening can be obtained within 7 h, by-passing the need for sequencing.
Testing the weekend effect hypothesis: Time of day and lunar phase better predict the timing of births in laboratory‐housed primates than day of week

The weekend effect hypothesis proposes that captive primates are more likely to give birth during times of low disturbance and reduced staff activity. The hypothesis specifically predicts that laboratory‐housed primates will be more likely to give birth during the weekend than weekdays when staff activity is reduced. To date, support for the weekend effect hypothesis has been mixed and based on studies with relatively few subjects. To further examine the hypothesis, we analyzed the birthing patterns of three genera of laboratory‐housed primates: squirrel monkeys (Saimiri species, N = 2,090 births), owl monkeys (Aotus species, N = 479 births), and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, N = 2,047 births). Contrary to predictions derived from the weekend effect hypothesis, the frequencies of births during weekends for all taxa were not significantly different from rates that would be expected by chance. However, while there was no variance across days of the week, all three taxa gave birth at nighttime, when staff was absent. This parallels reports of births in wild and captive monkeys, both diurnal and nocturnal, which are more likely to give birth during the night; plausibly a time when the environmental and social disturbance is lowest and the mother is safest to bond with her newborn infant. As all births occurred at night, we also explored the relationship between the lunar cycle and the timing of births timing. While the diurnal primates (i.e., Saimiri and Macaca) were no more likely to give birth on “bright” nights than “dark” nights, owl monkeys (Aotus) had a much higher frequency of births on bright nights than darker ones, and at rates that deviated from chance. Our data provide a more detailed understanding on how the environment may influence captive monkey births but do not support the oft‐cited weekend effect hypothesis.