Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Potential role of the apelin‐APJ pathway in sex‐related differential cardiotoxicity induced by doxorubicin in mice

Preclinical and clinical findings suggest sexual dimorphism in cardiotoxicity induced by a chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin (DOX). However, molecular alterations leading to sex‐related differential vulnerability of heart to DOX toxicity are not fully explored. In the present study, RNA sequencing in hearts of B6C3F1 mice indicated more differentially expressed genes in males than females (224 vs. 19; ≥1.5‐fold, False Discovery Rate [FDR] < 0.05) at 1 week after receiving 24 mg/kg total cumulative DOX dose that induced cardiac lesions only in males. Pathway analysis further revealed probable inactivation of cardiac apelin fibroblast signaling pathway (p = 0.00004) only in DOX‐treated male mice that showed ≥1.25‐fold downregulation in the transcript and protein levels of the apelin receptor, APJ. In hearts of DOX‐treated females, the transcript levels of apelin (1.24‐fold) and APJ (1.47‐fold) were significantly (p < 0.05) increased compared to saline‐treated controls. Sex‐related differential DOX effect was also observed on molecular targets downstream of the apelin‐APJ pathway in cardiac fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes. In cardiac fibroblasts, upregulation of Tgf‐β2, Ctgf, Sphk1, Serpine1, and Timp1 (fibrosis; FDR < 0.05) in DOX‐treated males and upregulation of only Tgf‐β2 and Timp1 (p < 0.05) in females suggested a greater DOX toxicity in hearts of males than females. Additionally, Ryr2 and Serca2 (calcium handling; FDR < 0.05) were downregulated in conjunction with 1.35‐fold upregulation of Casp12 (sarcoplasmic reticulum‐mediated apoptosis; FDR < 0.05) in DOX‐treated male mice. Drug effect on the transcript level of these genes was less severe in female hearts. Collectively, these data suggest a likely role of the apelin‐APJ axis in sex‐related differential DOX‐induced cardiotoxicity in our mouse model.
Condensing Nielsen–Olesen strings and the vortex–boson duality in 3+1 and higher dimensions

Dualities yield considerable insight into field theories by relating the weak coupling regime of one theory to the strong coupling regime of another. A prominent example is the ‘vortex–boson’ (or ‘Abelian-Higgs’, ‘XY’) duality in 2+1 dimensions demonstrating that the quantum disordered superfluid is equivalent to an ordered superconductor and the other way around. Such a duality structure should be ubiquitous, but despite the simplicity of the complex scalar field theory in 3+1 (and higher) dimensions, a precise formulation of the duality is lacking. In 2+1 dimensions the construction rests on the fact that the topological excitations of the superfluid (vortices) are particle-like and the dual superconductor corresponds just to a conventional Bose condensate of vortices. Departing from the superfluid, the vortices in 3+1d are Nielsen–Olesen strings and the difficulty is in the construction of string field theory. We demonstrate that an earlier attempt [1] to construct the dual theory is subtly flawed. Relying on the understanding of the physics of the disordered superfluid in higher dimensions, as well as a gauge invariant formulation of the Higgs mechanism at work in this context, we derive the effective action for the dual string superconductor in 3+1d. This turns out to be a very simple affair: the string condensate just supports a massive compressional mode, while it gives mass to the 2-form transversal photon that represents the remnant of the zero sound mode of the superfluid. We conclude with the observation that the 2+1d superfluid–superconductor duality actually persists in all D+1 dimensions with D ⩾ 2: the condensates are formed from D − 2-branes interacting via D − 1-form gauge fields but the form of the effective theory of the dual superconductor is eventually independent of dimensionality. Finally, we demonstrate that Bose–Mott insulators support topological defects that are string-like in 3+1d. This surprising implication of duality may be seen in cold atom experiments.
Airway Pressure Release Ventilation in COVID-19: There’s More to This Than Meets the Eye

We read with great interest the article by Ibarra-Estrada et al (1). We congratulate the authors for their fascinating randomized controlled trial. However, we would like to highlight specific points regarding the study. The authors have taken the high pressure (P-high) based on the plateau pressure (Pplat) in the previous volume-controlled ventilation mode. According to the authors, this derivation of P-high on airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) mode is based on a previously unpublished protocol. The APRV group had tidal volume (TV) of 7.4 ± 1.1, 8.1 ± 1.3, and 8.6 ± 1.0 on days 3, 5, and 7, respectively. Although the TV generated on APRV cannot be equated with the TV generated on low tidal volume (LTV) ventilation, it still places patients at risk of ventilator-induced lung injury due to the high TV generated (2). APRV encourages spontaneous breathing efforts. This may increase the final endinspiratory transpulmonary pressure much higher than the set P-high of 30. We suggest using 2–5 cm H2O above mean airway pressure (Pmean) to limit adverse events such as barotraumas. Our suggestion is based on the physiologic concept that under normal conditions, the Pmean correlates with the mean alveolar pressure, which is in turn a surrogate marker of the stresses on the lung parenchyma with ventilation (3). A high frequency of severe hypercapnia in the APRV group (42%) was seen, which was also statistically significant (p = 0.009). Patients with severe obstructive lung disease are not ideal candidates for APRV. The high inspiratory time in APRV leads to hypercapnia. A few case reports have used APRV in resistant cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder to reduce hypercapnia. However, in such cases, multiple adjustments in the ventilatory settings of APRV have been made to achieve control of the hypercapnia (4). No such adjustments were accommodated in the trial protocol for COPD patients. Another reason for the lower incidence of hypercapnia in LTV group could be allowing for the Pplat Rohit Kumar Patnaik, DM
Sensory tetanisation to induce long‐term‐potentiation‐like plasticity: A review and reassessment of the approach

There is great interest in developing non‐invasive approaches for studying cortical plasticity in humans. High‐frequency presentation of auditory and visual stimuli, or sensory tetanisation, can induce long‐term‐potentiation‐like (LTP‐like) changes in cortical activity. However, contrasting effects across studies suggest that sensory tetanisation may be unreliable. We review these contrasting effects, conduct our own study of auditory and visual tetanisation, and perform meta‐analyses to determine the average effect of sensory tetanisation across studies. We measured auditory‐evoked amplitude changes in a group of younger (18–29 years of age) and older (55–83 years of age) adults following tetanisation to 1 and 4 kHz tone bursts and following a slow‐presentation control. We also measured visual‐evoked amplitude changes following tetanisation to horizontal and vertical sign gradients. Auditory and visual response amplitudes decreased following tetanisation, consistent with some studies but contrasting with others finding amplitude increases (i.e. LTP‐like changes). Older adults exhibited more modest auditory‐evoked amplitude decreases, but visual‐evoked amplitude decreases like those of younger adults. Changes in response amplitude were not specific to tetanised stimuli. Importantly, slow presentation of auditory tone bursts produced response amplitude changes approximating those observed following tetanisation in younger adults. Meta‐analyses of visual and auditory tetanisation studies found that the overall effect of sensory tetanisation was not significant across studies or study sites. The results suggest that sensory tetanisation may not produce reliable changes in cortical responses and more work is needed to determine the validity of sensory tetanisation as a method for inducing human cortical plasticity in vivo.
Association Between Dietary Habits in Midlife With Dementia Incidence Over a 20-Year Period

Background and Objectives Dementia cases are expected to triple during the next 30 years, highlighting the importance of finding modifiable risk factors for dementia. The aim of this study was to investigate whether adherence to conventional dietary recommendations or to a modified Mediterranean diet are associated with a subsequent lower risk of developing all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), or with future accumulation of AD-related β-amyloid (Aβ) pathology. Methods Baseline examination in the prospective Swedish population-based Malmö Diet and Cancer Study took place in 1991–1996 with a follow-up for incident dementia until 2014. Nondemented individuals born 1923–1950 and living in Malmö were invited to participate. Thirty thousand four hundred forty-six were recruited (41% of all eligible). Twenty-eight thousand twenty-five had dietary data and were included in this study. Dietary habits were assessed with a 7-day food diary, detailed food frequency questionnaire, and 1-hour interview. Main outcomes were incident all-cause dementia, AD, or VaD determined by memory clinic physicians. Secondary outcome was Aβ-accumulation measured using CSF Aβ42 (n = 738). Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine associations between diet and risk of developing dementia (adjusted for demographics, comorbidities, smoking, physical activity, and alcohol). Results Sixty-one percent were women, and the mean (SD) age was 58.1 (7.6) years. One thousand nine hundred forty-three (6.9%) were diagnosed with dementia (median follow-up, 19.8 years). Individuals adhering to conventional dietary recommendations did not have lower risk of developing all-cause dementia (hazard ratio [HR] comparing worst with best adherence, 0.93, 95% CI 0.81–1.08), AD (HR 1.03, 0.85–1.23), or VaD (HR 0.93, 0.69–1.26). Neither did adherence to the modified Mediterranean diet lower the risk of developing all-cause dementia (HR 0.93 0.75–1.15), AD (HR 0.90, 0.68–1.19), or VaD (HR 1.00, 0.65–1.55). The results were similar when excluding participants developing dementia within 5 years or those with diabetes. No significant associations were found between diet and abnormal Aβ accumulation, conventional recommendations (OR 1.28, 0.74–2.24) or modified Mediterranean diet (OR 0.85, 0.39–1.84). Discussion In this 20-year follow-up study, neither adherence to conventional dietary recommendations nor to modified Mediterranean diet were significantly associated with subsequent reduced risk for developing all-cause dementia, AD dementia, VaD, or AD pathology.
A Q Methodology Investigation of School Counselors’ Beliefs and Feelings in Reporting Suspected Child Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT School counselors can be influenced by a wide variety of beliefs and emotions when reporting suspected child sexual abuse (CSA) including worry, fear, sadness, depression, helplessness, anger, and distrust of child protective services. These beliefs and emotions can keep school counselors from reporting suspected CSA despite their duties as mandated reporters. We sought to uncover patterns of school counselors’ (N = 85) shared beliefs and emotions that can impact their decision making in reporting suspected CSA. Q methodology allowed us to reveal common profiles of school counselors’ viewpoints on reporting CSA to inform school counseling practice and training. Our data analysis revealed two profiles representing distinct patterns of school counselor viewpoints: worry about consequences and knowledge gap. School counselors in the worry about consequences factor felt that the potential negative consequences of their reports for the child and themselves impacted their reporting process. School counselors in the knowledge gap factor believed their lack of knowledge of signs of CSA, school procedures, and school counseling ethical codes influenced their reporting of CSA. School counselors should reflect on their beliefs and emotions that may prevent reporting, communicate and collaborate with child protective services, and seek support and mentorship as necessary.
Intranasal antisepsis to reduce influenza virus transmission in an animal model

Seasonal influenza annually causes significant morbidity and mortality, and unpredictable respiratory virus zoonoses, such as the current COVID‐19 pandemic, can threaten the health and lives of millions more. Molecular iodine (I2) is a broad‐spectrum, pathogen‐nonspecific antiseptic agent that has demonstrated antimicrobial activity against a wide range of bacteria, virus, and fungi.
Electronic band gaps and transport properties in graphene superlattices with one-dimensional periodic potentials of square barriers

The electronic transport properties and band structures for the graphene-based one-dimensional (1D) superlattices with periodic potentials of square barriers are investigated. It is found that a new Dirac point is formed, which is exactly located at the energy which corresponds to the zero (volume) averaged wave number inside the 1D periodic potentials. The location of such a new Dirac point is robust against variations in the lattice constant, and it is only dependent on the ratio of widths of the potential barriers. The zero-averaged wave-number gap associated with the new Dirac point is insensitive to both the lattice constant and the structural disorder and the defect mode in the zero-averaged wave-number gap is weakly dependent on the incident angles of carriers.
Evidence of Serial Dependence from Decoding of Visual Evoked Potentials

It is well known that recent sensory experience influences perception, recently demonstrated by a phenomenon termed “serial dependence. ” However, its underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. We measured ERP responses to pairs of stimuli presented randomly to the left or right hemifield. Seventeen male and female adults judged whether the upper or lower half of the grating had higher spatial frequency, independent of the horizontal position of the grating. This design allowed us to trace the memory signal modulating task performance and also the implicit memory signal associated with hemispheric position. Using classification techniques, we decoded the position of the current and previous stimuli and the response from voltage scalp distributions of the current trial. Classification of previous responses reached full significance only 700 ms after presentation of the current stimulus, consistent with retrieval of an activity-silent memory trace. Cross-condition classification accuracy of past responses (trained on current responses) correlated with the strength of serial dependence effects of individual participants. Overall, our data provide evidence for a silent memory signal that can be decoded from the EEG potential, which interacts with the neural processing of the current stimulus. This silent memory signal could be the physiological substrate subserving at least one type of serial dependence. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The neurophysiological underpinnings of how past perceptual experience affects current perception are poorly understood. Here, we show that recent experience is reactivated when a new stimulus is presented and that the strength of this reactivation correlates with serial biases in individual participants, suggesting that serial dependence is established on the basis of a silent memory signal.
Hypercritical accretion phase and neutrino expectation in the evolution of Cassiopeia A

Cassiopeia A the youngest supernova remnant known in the Milky Way is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky and a unique laboratory for supernova physics. Although its compact remnant was discovered in 1999 by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, nowadays it is widely accepted that a neutron star lies in the center of this supernova remnant. In addition, new observations suggest that such neutron star with a low magnetic field and evidence of a carbon atmosphere could have suffered a hypercritical accretion phase seconds after the explosion. Considering this hypercritical accretion episode, we compute the neutrino cooling effect, the number of events and neutrino flavor ratios expected on Hyper-Kamiokande Experiment. The neutrino cooling effect (the emissivity and luminosity of neutrinos) is obtained through numerical simulations performed in a customized version of the FLASH code. Based on these simulations, we forecast that the number of events expected on the Hyper-Kamiokande Experiment is around 3195. Similarly, we estimate the neutrino flavor ratios to be detected considering the neutrino effective potential due to the thermal and magnetized plasma and thanks to the envelope of the star. It is worth noting that our estimates correspond to the only trustworthy method for verifying the hypercritical phase and although this episode took place 330 years ago, at present supernova remnants with these similarities might occur thus confirming our predictions for this phase.
Varying coefficient models as Mixed Models : reparametrization methods and bayesian estimation

Non-linear relationships are accommodated in a regression model using smoothing functions. Interaction may occurs between continuous variable, in this case interaction between nonlinear and linear covariate leads to varying coefficent model (VCM), a subclass of generalized additive model. Additive models can be estimated as generalized linear mixed models, after being reparametrized. In this article we show three different type of matrix design for mixed model for VCM, by applying b-spline smoothing functions. An application on real data is provided and model estimates re computed with a Bayesian approach.
Metastable GeV-scale particles as a solution to the cosmological lithium problem

The persistent discrepancy between observations of {sup 7}Li with putative primordial origin and its abundance prediction in big bang nucleosynthesis has become a challenge for the standard cosmological and astrophysical picture. We point out that the decay of GeV-scale metastable particles X may significantly reduce the big bang nucleosynthesis value down to a level at which it is reconciled with observations. The most efficient reduction occurs when the decay happens to charged pions and kaons, followed by their charge-exchange reactions with protons. Similarly, if X decays to muons, secondary electron antineutrinos produce a similar effect. We consider the viability of these mechanisms in different classes of new GeV-scale sectors, and find that several minimal extensions of the standard model with metastable vectors and/or scalar particles are capable of solving the cosmological lithium problem. Such light states can be a key to the explanation of recent cosmic ray anomalies and can be searched for in a variety of high-intensity medium-energy experiments.
Breaking institutional barriers to enhance women’s participation in and benefit from the Peste des Petits Ruminants and Newcastle Disease vaccine value chains for Sembabule district of Uganda

This paper describes the institutional context that shapes the visibility and positioning of women along the Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and Newcastle Disease (ND) vaccine value chains for Sembabule district of Uganda. It examines the institutional barriers and opportunities that affect women’s empowerment derived from inclusion of women in the decision-making processes along the livestock vaccine value chain (LVVC) and that can support viable women-centered and owned enterprises, at the vaccine development, delivery, distribution and use level. Qualitative data analysis tools such as focus group discussions, focus meals, jar voices and key informant interviews were used. Using outcome mapping, a stakeholder analysis of the critical partners in the PPR and ND value chain was done involving the regulators, vaccine manufacturers, importers, distributors, agrovets, public and private veterinary service deliverers, local leaders, women groups, and farmers. The study concluded that training related to gender equality and livestock vaccines, infrastructural and technical support to the poultry and goat women and men farmers and other chain actors are inadequate in themselves to increase vaccine adoption and improve livestock productivity in Sembabule district. Strategies that promote gender-transformative collaborative efforts among the LVVC actors and build viable gender-transformed women groups and networks are critical to increase women’s participation in and benefit from the livestock vaccine value chain.
Changes in Lifestyle and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition

INTRODUCTION: We investigated the impact of changes in lifestyle habits on colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in a multicountry European cohort. METHODS: We used baseline and follow-up questionnaire data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer cohort to assess changes in lifestyle habits and their associations with CRC development. We calculated a healthy lifestyle index (HLI) score based on smoking status, alcohol consumption, body mass index, and physical activity collected at the 2 time points. HLI ranged from 0 (most unfavorable) to 16 (most favorable). We estimated the association between HLI changes and CRC risk using Cox regression models and reported hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Among 295,865 participants, 2,799 CRC cases were observed over a median of 7.8 years. The median time between questionnaires was 5.7 years. Each unit increase in HLI from the baseline to the follow-up assessment was associated with a statistically significant 3% lower CRC risk. Among participants in the top tertile at baseline (HLI > 11), those in the bottom tertile at follow-up (HLI ≤ 9) had a higher CRC risk (HR 1.34; 95% CI 1.02–1.75) than those remaining in the top tertile. Among individuals in the bottom tertile at baseline, those in the top tertile at follow-up had a lower risk (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.59–1.00) than those remaining in the bottom tertile. DISCUSSION: Improving adherence to a healthy lifestyle was inversely associated with CRC risk, while worsening adherence was positively associated with CRC risk. These results justify and support recommendations for healthy lifestyle changes and healthy lifestyle maintenance for CRC prevention.
Direct visualization of cooperative adsorption of a string-like molecule onto a solid

Natural systems, composite materials, and thin-film devices adsorb macromolecules in different phases onto their surfaces. In general, polymer chains form interfacial layers where their aggregation states and thermal molecular motions differ from the bulk. Here, we visualize well-defined double-stranded DNAs (dsDNAs) using atomic force microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations to clarify the adsorption mechanism of polymer chains onto solid surfaces. Initially, short and long dsDNAs are individually and cooperatively adsorbed, respectively. Cooperative adsorption involves intertwining of multiple chains. The dependence of adsorption on the chain affects the formation of the interfacial layer, realizing different mechanical properties of DNA/filler bulk composites. These findings will contribute to the development of light and durable polymer composites and films for various industrial, biomedical, and environmental applications.