Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroprotective effect of Na+/H+ exchangers isoform‐1 inactivation against 6‐hydroxydopamine‐induced mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal apoptosis in Parkinson's disease models

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a disabling neurodegenerative disease mainly caused by degeneration of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). The neuroprotective role of Na+/H+ exchangers isoform‐1 (NHE1) inactivation in cerebral ischemic damage has been elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the impacts of NHE1 in PD. In this study, 6‐hydroxydopamine (6‐OHDA)‐induced PD rat models were established to attempt to illuminate the role and underlying mechanisms of NHE1 in SNpc neurons of PD. Meanwhile, nerve growth factor‐stimulated PC12 cells followed by 6‐OHDA treatment was used to mimic PD in vitro. Results showed that the protein levels of NHE1 were significantly increased in the SNpc neurons of rats and differentiated PC12 cells after 6‐OHDA treatment. Inactivation of NHE1 with chemical inhibitor HOE642 suppressed SNpc neuronal loss and NHE1 expression in PD rats. The overlays of tyrosine hydroxylase and NHE1 displayed that NHE1 expression was not colocalized but closely associated with TH. Besides, treatment with HOE642 relieved the dyskinesia, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuronal apoptosis. Further in vitro evidence confirmed that inhibition of NHE1 by genetic‐knockdown prevented mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis. Our study represents the first experimental evidence of a potential role for NHE1 in the pathogenesis of PD.
Risk of Aerosol Formation During High-Flow Nasal Cannula Treatment in Critically Ill Subjects

BACKGROUND: There is a persistent concern over the risk of respiratory pathogen transmission, including SARS-CoV-2, via the formation of aerosols (ie, a suspension of microdroplets and residual microparticles after evaporation) generated during high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen therapy in critically ill patients. This concern is fueled by limited available studies on this subject. In this study, we tested our hypothesis that HFNC treatment is not associated with increased aerosol formation as compared to conventional oxygen therapy. METHODS: We used laser light scattering and a handheld particle counter to detect and quantify aerosols in healthy subjects and in adults with acute respiratory disease, including COVID-19, during HFNC or conventional oxygen therapy. RESULTS: The use of HFNC was not associated with increased formation of aerosols as compared to conventional oxygen therapy in both healthy subjects (n = 3) and subjects with acute respiratory disease, including COVID-19 (n = 17). CONCLUSIONS: In line with scarce previous clinical and experimental findings, our results indicate that HFNC itself does not result in overall increased aerosol formation as compared to conventional oxygen therapy. This suggests there is no increased risk of respiratory pathogen transmission to health care workers during HFNC.
Effects of Exercise in Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Cisplatin administration may induce muscle atrophy, thereby reducing the fitness level of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). To date, only animal studies have been conducted to test the effectiveness of exercise interventions in diminishing side effects of cisplatin. Aim: To determine whether exercise training improves physical fitness and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients receiving chemotherapy for Head & Neck (H&N). Material and methods: This pilot-randomized controlled trial was conducted on 57 participants receiving chemotherapy for HNC. The participants were randomized into an exercise group and a control group. The exercise group received moderate-intensity combined aerobic, resistance and flexibility exercises three times a week for eight weeks during chemotherapy. The control group received no specific information regarding exercise. The outcome measures including body composition, muscle strength, balance, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were assessed at baseline and eight weeks following baseline. Results: The body composition (body fat percentage, p = 0.002; skeletal muscle percentage, p = 0.008), dynamic balance (p = 0.01), muscle strength (upper extremity, p = 0.037; lower extremity, p = 0.025) and HRQoL (p = 0.001) showed a significant difference between the exercise group and the control group eight weeks following baseline. Significant deteriorations were noted in flexibility, muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness and several domains of HRQoL scale in the control group at eight weeks following baseline. Conclusions: This study found that a combined aerobic, resistance and flexibility exercise program during chemotherapy may improve physical fitness (i.e., muscle strength, balance, flexibility and body composition) and HRQoL and alleviate the deterioration of cardiovascular fitness in patients with HNC. Further research studies with large sample sizes are warranted to investigate the long-term effects of exercise in this population.
Excellent Self-Rated Health among Swedish Boys and Girls and Its Relationship with Working Conditions in School: A Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which school demands, teacher support, and classmate support were associated with excellent self-rated health among students, and to examine if any such statistical predictions differed by gender. Data were drawn from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study of 2017/18, performed among adolescents in grades five, seven, and nine (n = 3701). Linear probability models showed that school demands were negatively associated with excellent self-rated health, whereas teacher and classmate support showed positive associations. The link with school demands was stronger for girls than boys, driven by the finding that in grades five and nine, school demands were associated with excellent self-rated health only among girls. In conclusion, the study suggests that working conditions in school in terms of manageable school demands and strong teacher and classmate support may benefit adolescents’ positive health. The finding that the link between school demands and excellent self-rated health was more evident among girls than among boys may be interpreted in light of girls’ on average stronger focus on schoolwork and academic success. The study contributes with to knowledge about how working conditions in school may impede or promote students’ positive health.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Based Radiomic Models of Prostate Cancer: A Narrative Review

Simple Summary The increasing interest in implementing artificial intelligence in radiomic models has occurred alongside advancement in the tools used for computer-aided diagnosis. Such tools typically apply both statistical and machine learning methodologies to assess the various modalities used in medical image analysis. Specific to prostate cancer, the radiomics pipeline has multiple facets that are amenable to improvement. This review discusses the steps of a magnetic resonance imaging based radiomics pipeline. Present successes, existing opportunities for refinement, and the most pertinent pending steps leading to clinical validation are highlighted. Abstract The management of prostate cancer (PCa) is dependent on biomarkers of biological aggression. This includes an invasive biopsy to facilitate a histopathological assessment of the tumor’s grade. This review explores the technical processes of applying magnetic resonance imaging based radiomic models to the evaluation of PCa. By exploring how a deep radiomics approach further optimizes the prediction of a PCa’s grade group, it will be clear how this integration of artificial intelligence mitigates existing major technological challenges faced by a traditional radiomic model: image acquisition, small data sets, image processing, labeling/segmentation, informative features, predicting molecular features and incorporating predictive models. Other potential impacts of artificial intelligence on the personalized treatment of PCa will also be discussed. The role of deep radiomics analysis-a deep texture analysis, which extracts features from convolutional neural networks layers, will be highlighted. Existing clinical work and upcoming clinical trials will be reviewed, directing investigators to pertinent future directions in the field. For future progress to result in clinical translation, the field will likely require multi-institutional collaboration in producing prospectively populated and expertly labeled imaging libraries.
Predictors of Contemporary under-5 Child Mortality in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Machine Learning Approach

Child Mortality (CM) is a worldwide concern, annually affecting as many as 6.81% children in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). We used data of the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) (N = 275,160) from 27 LMIC and a machine-learning approach to rank 37 distal causes of CM and identify the top 10 causes in terms of predictive potency. Based on the top 10 causes, we identified households with improved conditions. We retrospectively validated the results by investigating the association between variations of CM and variations of the percentage of households with improved conditions at country-level, between the 2005–2007 and the 2013–2017 administrations of the MICS. A unique contribution of our approach is to identify lesser-known distal causes which likely account for better-known proximal causes: notably, the identified distal causes and preventable and treatable through social, educational, and physical interventions. We demonstrate how machine learning can be used to obtain operational information from big dataset to guide interventions and policy makers.
Patient and allograft outcomes after kidney transplant for the Indigenous patients in the United States.

BACKGROUND The objective is to assess cardiovascular (CV), malignancy, infectious, graft outcomes and tacrolimus levels for the Indigenous patients compared to Whites after kidney transplant (KTx). METHODS 165 Indigenous and 165 White patients matched for the KTx year at Mayo Clinic Arizona from 2007-2015 were studied over a median follow-up of 3 years. Propensity score was calculated to account for baseline differences. RESULTS Compared to Whites, Indigenous patients had the following characteristics: younger age, more obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and required dialysis prior to KTx (p<0.01). Indigenous patients had longer hospital stay for KTx, shorter follow-up and lived further from the transplant center (p<0.05). 210 (63.6%) received deceased donor KTx and more Whites received a living donor KTx compared to Indigenous patients (55.2% vs 17.6%, p<0.0001). Post-KTx, there was no difference in the CV event rates. The cumulative incidence of infectious complications was higher among the Indigenous patients (HR 1.81, p = 0.0005, 48.5% vs 38.2%, p = 0.013), with urinary causes as the most common. Malignancy rates were increased among Whites (13.3% vs 3.0%, p = 0.001) with skin cancer being the most common. There was a significant increase in the dose normalized tacrolimus level for the Indigenous patients compared to Whites at 1 months, 3 months, and 1 year post-KTx. After adjustment for the propensity score, there was no statistical difference in infectious or graft outcomes between the two groups but the mean number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations after KTx was significantly higher for Whites compared to Indigenous patients. CONCLUSIONS Compared to Whites, Indigenous patients have similar CV events, graft outcomes and infectious complications after accounting for baseline differences.
Towards better microsleep predictions in fatigued drivers: exploring benefits of personality traits and IQ

Abstract Fatigued driving is one of the main contributors to road traffic accidents. Poor sleep quality and lack of sleep negatively affect driving performance, and extreme states of fatigue can cause microsleep (i.e., short episodes of sleep with complete loss of awareness). Driver monitoring systems analyse biosignals (e.g., gaze, blinking, heart rate) and vehicle data (e.g., steering wheel movements, lane holding, acceleration) to detect states of fatigue and prevent accidents. We argue that inter-individual differences in personality, sensation seeking behaviour, and intelligence could improve microsleep prediction, in addition to sleepiness. We tested 144 male participants in a supervised driving track after 27 hours of sleep deprivation. More than 74% of drivers experienced microsleep, after an average driving time of 52 min. Overall, prediction models for microsleep vulnerability and driving time before microsleep were significantly improved by conscientiousness, sensation seeking and non-verbal IQ, in addition to situational sleepiness, as individual risk factors. Practitioner summary: This study offers valuable insights for the design of driver monitoring systems. The use of individual risk factors such as conscientiousness, sensation seeking, and non-verbal IQ can increase microsleep prediction. These findings may improve monitoring systems based solely on physiological signals (e.g., blinking, heart rate) and vehicle data (e.g., steering wheel movements, acceleration, cornering). Abbreviations: ADAC: Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil Club; ANOVA: analysis of variance; AIC: Akaike information criteria; CI: confidence interval; GPS: global positioning system; IQ: intelligence quotient; IQR: inter quartile range; KSS: Karolinska sleepiness scale; NEO-PI-R: revised NEO personality inventory; OLS: ordinary least squares; PSQI: Pittsburgh sleep quality index; SPM: standard progressive matrices; SSS: sensation seeking scale; WHO: World Health Organization
FBXW7 mediates high glucose-induced SREBP-1 expression in renal tubular cells of diabetic nephropathy under PI3K/Akt pathway regulation

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a severe complication of diabetes mellitus and lipid metabolism abnormality serves a key role in the pathogenesis of DN. Sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1) overexpression mediates aberrant lipid accumulation in renal tubular cells of DN. However, the exact mechanism involved in increased SREBP-1 has not been fully elucidated. The aim of the present study was to explore the mechanism involved in SREBP-1 upregulation. Diabetic mice and high glucose-cultured HKC cells were chosen to detect the expression of FBXW7 and SREBP-1 using immunohistochemistry, western blotting and PCR. The present study demonstrated that F-box and WD repeat domain containing 7 (FBXW7) expression was decreased in renal tubular cells of diabetic mice. Moreover, the co-expression of FBXW7 and SREBP-1 was observed in renal tubular cells, but not in the glomeruli. High glucose-induced the downregulation of FBXW7 expression in in vitro cultured HKC cells, which was accompanied by SREBP-1 upregulation. In addition, overexpression of FBXW7 in HKC cells led to SREBP-1 downregulation. By contrast, knockdown of FBXW7 caused SREBP-1 upregulation in HKC cells. It was found that the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was activated in high glucose-stimulated HKC cells, and inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway using LY294002 increased FBXW7 expression and decreased SREBP-1 expression. Taken together, the present results suggested that FBXW7 mediated high glucose-induced SREBP-1 expression in renal tubular cells of DN, under the regulation of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.
The Impacts of Temporal Variation and Individual Differences in Driver Cognitive Workload on ECG-Based Detection

Objective This paper aimed to investigate the robustness of driver cognitive workload detection based on electrocardiogram (ECG) when considering temporal variation and individual differences in cognitive workload. Background Cognitive workload is a critical component to be monitored for error prevention in human–machine systems. It may fluctuate instantaneously over time even in the same tasks and differ across individuals. Method A driving simulation study was conducted to classify driver cognitive workload underlying four experimental conditions (baseline, N-back, texting, and N-back + texting distraction) in two repeated 1-hr blocks. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were compared among the experimental conditions and between the blocks. Random forests were built on HR and HRV to classify cognitive workload in different blocks and for different individuals. Results HR and HRV were significantly different between repeated blocks in the study, demonstrating the time-induced variation in cognitive workload. The performance of cognitive workload classification across blocks and across individuals was significantly improved after normalizing HR and HRV in each block by the corresponding baseline. Conclusion The temporal variation and individual differences in cognitive workload affects ECG-based cognitive workload detection. But normalization approaches relying on the choice of appropriate baselines help compensate for the effects of temporal variation and individual differences. Application The findings provide insight into the value and limitations of ECG-based driver cognitive workload monitoring during prolonged driving for individual drivers.
A Review of the Discriminant Analysis Methods for Food Quality Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Pattern Recognition

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) combined with pattern recognition technique has become an important type of non-destructive discriminant method. This review first introduces the basic structure of the qualitative analysis process based on near-infrared spectroscopy. Then, the main pretreatment methods of NIRS data processing are investigated. Principles and recent developments of traditional pattern recognition methods based on NIRS are introduced, including some shallow learning machines and clustering analysis methods. Moreover, the newly developed deep learning methods and their applications of food quality analysis are surveyed, including convolutional neural network (CNN), one-dimensional CNN, and two-dimensional CNN. Finally, several applications of these pattern recognition techniques based on NIRS are compared. The deficiencies of the existing pattern recognition methods and future research directions are also reviewed.
Analysis of the penetration process of drugs and cosmetic products into the skin by tape stripping in combination with spectroscopic measurements

A new method is described for analyzing the penetration of drugs and cosmetic products into the skin. This method combines the tape stripping procedure with UV/VIS spectroscopic measurements to determine the amount of corneocytes on the tapes removed by their scattering properties. The UV/VIS spectroscopic measurements were made using a Perkin Elmer Lambda 20 double beam spectrophotometer, which had been modified to obtain a rectangular beam diameter of 10 times 10 mm2. The absorbance measured at 430 nm was taken as measure for the mass of the corneocyte aggregates placed on the individual tapes. It was proven by weighing, laser scanning microscopy and spatial-spectral density analysis, that the absorbance in the visible range is better suited than the weight to quantify the amount of corneocyte aggregates removed by a single strip. This novel combination method permits to determine the actual position of sunscreen components in the stratum corneum.
The role of glycosylation in the N-terminus of the hemagglutinin of a unique H4N2 with a natural polybasic cleavage site in virus fitness in vitro and in vivo

ABSTRACT To date, only low pathogenic (LP) H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses (AIV) have been observed to naturally shift to a highly pathogenic (HP) phenotype after mutation of the monobasic hemagglutinin (HA) cleavage site (HACS) to polybasic motifs. The LPAIV monobasic HACS is activated by tissue-restricted trypsin-like enzymes, while the HPAIV polybasic HACS is activated by ubiquitous furin-like enzymes. However, glycosylation near the HACS can affect proteolytic activation and reduced virulence of some HPAIV in chickens. In 2012, a unique H4N2 virus with a polybasic HACS was isolated from quails but was LP in chickens. Whether glycosylation sites (GS) near the HACS hinder the evolution of HPAIV H4N2 remains unclear. Here, we analyzed the prevalence of potential GS in the N-terminus of HA1, 2NYT4 and 18NGT20, in all AIV sequences and studied their impact on H4N2 virus fitness. Although the two motifs are conserved, some non-H5/H7 subtypes lack one or both GS. Both sites were glycosylated in this H4N2 virus. Deglycosylation increased trypsin-independent replication in cell culture, cell-to-cell spread and syncytium formation at low-acidic pH, but negatively affected the thermostability and receptor-binding affinity. Alteration of 2NYT4 with or without 18NGT20 enabled systemic spread of the virus to different organs including the brain of chicken embryos. However, all intranasally inoculated chickens did not show clinical signs. Together, although the conserved GS near the HACS are important for HA stability and receptor binding, deglycosylation increased the H4N2 HA-activation, replication and tissue tropism suggesting a potential role for virus adaptation in poultry.
Combination of Nanomicellar Technology and In Situ Gelling Polymer as Ocular Drug Delivery System (ODDS) for Cyclosporine-A

A combination of in situ gelling systems and a loaded drug self-assembling nanomicellar carrier was chosen in this study as a new potential Ocular Drug Delivery System (ODDS) for Cyclosporine-A (CyA), a poorly water-soluble drug. Two non-ionic surfactants (d-α-tocopherol polyethylene glycol succinate, VitE-TPGS and polyoxyl 40 hydrogenated castor oil, RH-40) were used to produce the nanomicelles. The physical–chemical characterization of the nanomicelles in terms of CyA entrapment (EE%) and loading efficiency (LE%), cloud point (CP), regeneration time (RT), size and polydispersity index (PI) allowed us to select the best combination of surfactant mixture, which showed appropriate stability, high CyA-EE (99.07%), very small and homogeneous dimensions and favored the solubilization of an amount of CyA (0.144% w/w) comparable to that contained in marketed emulsion Ikervis®. The selected nanomicellar formulation incorporated into optimized ion-sensitive polymeric dispersions of gellan gum (GG-LA: 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20% w/w) able to trigger the sol–gel transition after instillation was characterized from technological (osmolality, pH, gelling capacity, rheological behavior, wettability, TEM and storage stability at 4 and 20 °C) and biopharmaceutical points of view. This new combined approach allowed us to obtain clear aqueous dispersions that were easy to instill and able to form a viscous gel when in contact with the tear fluid, improving CyA ocular bioavailability. Furthermore, this new ODDS prevented CyA transcorneal permeation, exhibited low cytotoxicity and prolonged the CyA resident time in the precorneal area compared to Ikervis®.