Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Nintedanib and Pirfenidone in Treating Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Systematic Review

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which shares a radiographic pattern with the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), is a specific form of chronic and progressive interstitial lung disorder resulting in persistent fibrosis and impaired lung function. Most of the patients suffer from dyspnea which adversely affects health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The underlying etiology of the disease is not yet understood, but research done on the subject reveals that aberrant repair mechanisms and dysregulated immune responses may be the cause. It can affect any age group but predominantly affects patients who are above 50 years of age. It has been observed that in addition to age, the reasons are also related to smoking, pollution, and inhalation of harmful elements. As the cause of IPF is still unknown and there is no cure yet, presently, it is treated to delay lung function loss with antifibrotic medications, nintedanib, and pirfenidone. However, both nintedanib and perfenidone have side effects which affect different patients in different ways and with different levels of severity, thereby making the treatment even more challenging for medical practitioners. The present systematic review aims at studying the efficacy of pirfenidone and nintedanib in relieving symptoms and in extending survival in patients. A detailed search was done in relevant articles listed in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and the New England Journal of Medicine between 2018 and 2023. It was observed that the most accepted way of measuring the progression of IPF is the evaluation of pulmonary function by assessing the forced vital capacity (FVC). Several studies have shown that the decline in FVC over a period of 6-12 months is directly associated with a higher mortality rate. The outcomes were similar in both male and female irrespective of age, gender, and ethnicity. However, some patients being treated with pirfenidone and nintedanib experienced various side-effects which were mainly gastrointestinal like diarrhea, dyspepsia, and vomiting. In the case of pirfenidone, some patients also experienced photosensitivity and skin rashes. In cases where the side-effects are extremely severe and are more threatening than the disease itself, the treatment has to be discontinued. The survival rate in patients with IPF is marked by a median of 3-5 years that is even lower than many cancers; hence, the treatment should be started as soon as the disease is detected. However, further research is needed to establish the etiology of IPF and to establish treatments that can stop its progression.
Learning when to trust distant supervision: An application to low-resource POS tagging using cross-lingual projection

Cross lingual projection of linguistic annotation suffers from many sources of bias and noise, leading to unreliable annotations that cannot be used directly. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to sequence tagging that learns to correct the errors from cross-lingual projection using an explicit debiasing layer. This is framed as joint learning over two corpora, one tagged with gold standard and the other with projected tags. We evaluated with only 1,000 tokens tagged with gold standard tags, along with more plentiful parallel data. Our system equals or exceeds the state-of-the-art on eight simulated low-resource settings, as well as two real low-resource languages, Malagasy and Kinyarwanda.
2 Risk Stratification of Patients with Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is an under-diagnosed but potentially fatal condition. This condition presents with a wide clinical spectrum, from asymptomatic small PE to lifethreatening one causing cardiogenic shock. Depending on the estimated risk of an adverse outcome, treatment with thrombolysis or embolectomy may be indicated in high-risk individuals. Conversely, early hospital discharge or even home treatment with anti-coagulation may be considered in low risk PE. Thus, a systematic approach to risk stratification is essential in guiding the management of patients diagnosed with acute PE. Evidence-based prognostic tools such as clinical scores, echocardiography, computed tomography scans, and cardiac biomarkers will be discussed.
Acute and chronic central nervous system oxidative stress/toxicity during hyperbaric oxygen treatment of subacute and chronic neurological conditions

Introduction Oxygen toxicity has been defined as acute central nervous system (CNS), acute pulmonary, and chronic pulmonary oxygen toxicity. This study identifies acute and chronic CNS oxygen toxicity under 2.0 atmospheres absolute (ATA) pressure of oxygen. Methods: The authors’ medical records from September 29, 1989 to January 20, 2023 and correspondence to the authors (9/1994 to 1/20.2023) from patients with signs and/or symptoms historically identified as acute CNS oxygen toxicity and those with neurological deterioration receiving hyperbaric oxygen for neurological conditions were reviewed. Acute cases were those occurring with ≤5 HBOTs and chronic cases >5 HBOTs. Chronic cases were separated into those at 1.5 ATA, > 1.5 ATA, or < 1.5 ATA oxygen. Cumulative dose of oxygen in atmosphere-hours (AHs) was calculated at symptom onset. Results Seven acute cases, average 4.0 ± 2.7 AHs, and 52 chronic cases were identified: 31 at 1.5 ATA (average 116 ± 106 AHs), 12 at >1.5 ATA (103 ± 74 AHs), and 9 at <1.5 ATA (114 ± 116 AHs). Second episodes occurred at 81 ± 55, 67 ± 49, and 22 ± 17 AHs, and three or more episodes at 25 ± 18, 83 ± 7.5, and 5.4 ± 6.0 AHs, respectively. Most cases were reversible. There was no difference between adults and children (p = 0.72). Acute intervention in cases (<3 months) was more sensitive than delayed intervention (21.1 ± 8.8 vs. 123 ± 102 AHs, p = 0.035). Outside sources reported one acute and two chronic exposure deaths and one patient institutionalized due to chronic oxygen toxicity. A withdrawal syndrome was also identified. Conclusion Hyperbaric oxygen therapy-generated acute and chronic cases of CNS oxygen toxicity in chronic neurological conditions were identified at <2.0 ATA. Chronic CNS oxygen toxicity is idiosyncratic, unpredictable, and occurred at an average threshold of 103–116 AHs with wide variability. There was no difference between adults and children, but subacute cases were more sensitive than chronic intervention cases. When identified early it was reversible and an important aid in proper dosing of HBOT. If ignored permanent morbidity and mortality resulted with continued HBOT.
Taking appreciation to heart: appreciation at work and cardiovascular risk in male employees

Introduction While perceived appreciation at work has been associated with self-reported health and wellbeing, studies considering biological health markers are lacking. In this study, we investigated whether appreciation at work would relate to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk as well as the specificity of this proposed association. Methods Our study comprised a total of 103 male participants, including apparently healthy, medication-free, non-smoking men in the normotensive to hypertensive range (n = 70) as well as medicated hypertensive and CHD patients (n = 33). CHD risk was assessed by blood pressure [mean arterial pressure (MAP)], the diabetes marker glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood lipids [total cholesterol (TC)/high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio], coagulation activity (D-dimer and fibrinogen), and inflammation [interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP)]. Perceived appreciation at work, as well as potentially confounding psychological factors (social support, self-esteem, and work strain due to a lack of appreciation), were measured by self-report questionnaires. Results We found higher appreciation at work to relate to lower overall composite CHD risk (p’s ≤ 0.011) and, in particular, to lower MAP (p’s ≤ 0.007) and lower blood lipids (p’s ≤ 0.031) in medication-free participants as well as all participants. This overall association was independent of confounding factors, including related psychological factors (p’s ≤ 0.049). Discussion Our findings indicate that appreciation at work might be an independent health-promoting resource in terms of CHD risk. Implications include that encouraging appreciation at work may help reduce the development and progression of CHD.
Stochastic Geometry Modeling of Cellular Networks: Analysis, Simulation and Experimental Validation

Due to the increasing heterogeneity and deployment density of emerging cellular networks, new flexible and scalable approaches for their modeling, simulation, analysis and optimization are needed. Recently, a new approach has been proposed: it is based on the theory of point processes and it leverages tools from stochastic geometry for tractable system-level modeling, performance evaluation and optimization. In this paper, we investigate the accuracy of this emerging abstraction for modeling cellular networks, by explicitly taking realistic base station locations, building footprints, spatial blockages and antenna radiation patterns into account. More specifically, the base station locations and the building footprints are taken from two publicly available databases from the United Kingdom. Our study confirms that the abstraction model based on stochastic geometry is capable of accurately modeling the communication performance of cellular networks in dense urban environments.
Cell-cell interaction in the pathogenesis of inherited retinal diseases

The retina is part of the central nervous system specialized for vision. Inherited retinal diseases (IRD) are a group of clinically and genetically heterogenous disorders that lead to progressive vision impairment or blindness. Although each disorder is rare, IRD accumulatively cause blindness in up to 5.5 million individuals worldwide. Currently, the pathophysiological mechanisms of IRD are not fully understood and there are limited treatment options available. Most IRD are caused by degeneration of light-sensitive photoreceptors. Genetic mutations that abrogate the structure and/or function of photoreceptors lead to visual impairment followed by blindness caused by loss of photoreceptors. In healthy retina, photoreceptors structurally and functionally interact with retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and Müller glia (MG) to maintain retinal homeostasis. Multiple IRD with photoreceptor degeneration as a major phenotype are caused by mutations of RPE- and/or MG-associated genes. Recent studies also reveal compromised MG and RPE caused by mutations in ubiquitously expressed ciliary genes. Therefore, photoreceptor degeneration could be a direct consequence of gene mutations and/or could be secondary to the dysfunction of their interaction partners in the retina. This review summarizes the mechanisms of photoreceptor-RPE/MG interaction in supporting retinal functions and discusses how the disruption of these processes could lead to photoreceptor degeneration, with an aim to provide a unique perspective of IRD pathogenesis and treatment paradigm. We will first describe the biology of retina and IRD and then discuss the interaction between photoreceptors and MG/RPE as well as their implications in disease pathogenesis. Finally, we will summarize the recent advances in IRD therapeutics targeting MG and/or RPE.
Role of tRNA amino acid-accepting end in aminoacylation and its quality control

Aminoacyl–tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) are remarkable enzymes that are in charge of the accurate recognition and ligation of amino acids and tRNA molecules. The greatest difficulty in accurate aminoacylation appears to be in discriminating between highly similar amino acids. To reduce mischarging of tRNAs by non-cognate amino acids, aaRSs have evolved an editing activity in a second active site to cleave the incorrect aminoacyl–tRNAs. Editing occurs after translocation of the aminoacyl–CCA76 end to the editing site, switching between a hairpin and a helical conformation for aminoacylation and editing. Here, we studied the consequence of nucleotide changes in the CCA76 accepting end of tRNALeu during the aminoacylation and editing reactions. The analysis showed that the terminal A76 is essential for both reactions, suggesting that critical interactions occur in the two catalytic sites. Substitutions of C74 and C75 selectively decreased aminoacylation keeping nearly unaffected editing. These mutations might favor the regular helical conformation required to reach the editing site. Mutating the editing domain residues that contribute to CCA76 binding reduced the aminoacylation fidelity leading to cell-toxicity in the presence of non-cognate amino acids. Collectively, the data show how protein synthesis quality is controlled by the CCA76 homogeneity of tRNAs.
Optimization of doping design for planar P-N homologous junction perovskite solar cells

In this study, we used the solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS) to analyse numerically the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) containing CH3NH3PbI3. The findings indicate that P-N homologous junction processing based on traditional P-I-N PSCs can enhance the photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE). Furthermore, the authors analyzed the effect of uniform P-N doping of CH3NH3PbI3, concluding that the photoelectric efficiency can be improved from 16.10% to 19.03% after doping. In addition, the optical properties of PSCs under solar irradiation are simulated using finite difference time-domain (FDTD) software under AM1.5. This method is applied to investigate the effect of the P-N uniform junction on the internal electric field generated within the cell. The generation of this electric field promotes carrier separation and transmission, ultimately increasing the open circuit voltage (VOC) of the solar cell from 1.03 to 1.12 V. The usage of P-N junctions enhances PSCs performance and exhibits vast potential for designing and developing PSCs.
Complementary functions of ATM and H2AX in development and suppression of genomic instability

Upon DNA damage, histone H2AX is phosphorylated by ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and other phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related protein kinases. To elucidate further the potential overlapping and unique functions of ATM and H2AX, we asked whether they have synergistic functions in the development and maintenance of genomic stability by inactivating both genes in mouse germ line. Combined ATM/H2AX deficiency caused embryonic lethality and dramatic cellular genomic instability. Mechanistically, severe genomic instability in the double-deficient cells is associated with a requirement for H2AX to repair oxidative DNA damage resulting from ATM deficiency. We discuss these findings in the context of synergies between ATM and other repair factors.
Increased functional connectivity between default mode network and visual network potentially correlates with duration of residual dizziness in patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

Objective To assess changes in static and dynamic functional network connectivity (sFNC and dFNC) and explore their correlations with clinical features in benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) patients with residual dizziness (RD) after successful canalith repositioning maneuvers (CRM) using resting-state fMRI. Methods We studied resting-state fMRI data from 39 BPPV patients with RD compared to 38 BPPV patients without RD after successful CRM. Independent component analysis and methods of sliding window and k-means clustering were adopted to investigate the changes in dFNC and sFNC between the two groups. Additionally, temporal features and meta-states were compared between the two groups. Furthermore, the associations between fMRI results and clinical characteristics were analyzed using Pearson’s partial correlation analysis. Results Compared with BPPV patients without RD, patients with RD had longer duration of BPPV and higher scores of dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) before successful CRM. BPPV patients with RD displayed no obvious abnormal sFNC compared to patients without RD. In the dFNC analysis, patients with RD showed increased FNC between default mode network (DMN) and visual network (VN) in state 4, the FNC between DMN and VN was positively correlated with the duration of RD. Furthermore, we found increased mean dwell time (MDT) and fractional windows (FW) in state 1 but decreased MDT and FW in state 3 in BPPV patients with RD. The FW of state 1 was positively correlated with DHI score before CRM, the MDT and FW of state 3 were negatively correlated with the duration of BPPV before CRM in patients with RD. Additionally, compared with patients without RD, patients with RD showed decreased number of states and state span. Conclusion The occurrence of RD might be associated with increased FNC between DMN and VN, and the increased FNC between DMN and VN might potentially correlate with the duration of RD symptoms. In addition, we found BPPV patients with RD showed altered global meta-states and temporal features. These findings are helpful for us to better understand the underlying neural mechanisms of RD and potentially contribute to intervention development for BPPV patients with RD.
The effects of thymidylate synthase 3'UTR genotype on methylation of tumor-specific genes promoter in 22 colorectal cancer patients from southern Iran

To investigate the effects of thymidylate synthase (TS) 3'UTR genotype on promotor methylation of tumor-related genes in 22 patients with sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) from southern Iran. We evaluated the correlations of TS 3'UTR genotype with promoter methylation of hTERT, hMLH1, MSH2, MMP2, CDH1, p14, p16, and p21 genes in CRC patients. The polymorphism of TS 3′UTR was evaluated through mutagenically specific PCR. The genes promoter methylation was determined using methylation-specific PCR. For 10 patients, the gene expression profile of epigenetic regulating enzymes, histone deacetylases (HDACs) and DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), was also examined in both tumor and normal adjacent tissues by quantitative real time PCR. There was a significant association between the hMLH1 methylation and age of patients (P= 0.039) and also between MSH2 methylation and tumor site (P= 0.036). There was insignificant association between gene-specific methylation and TS 3′UTR genotype. However, all polymorphic genotypes of TS were associated with higher methylation of hMLH1 and CDH1 and lower methylation of MSH2. The -6bp/+6bp (heterozygous mutant) and [-6bp/+6bp, +6bp/+6bp] (homozygous mutant) genotypes resulted in higher methylation of p16, and -6bp/+6bp and [-6bp/+6bp, +6bp/+6bp] genotypes were correlated with lower methylation of MMP2. The overexpression of epigenetic enzymes, HDACs and DNMTs, was also demonstrated. There was no association between DNMTs transcript levels and gene-specific hypermethylation. The polymorphic TS genotypes, especially -6bp/+6bp, could affect methylation frequencies of studied genes. Moreover, promoter methylation status was not dependent on DNMTs gene expression. Large sample size studies may contribute to validate these findings.
Clinical evaluation of pulmonary quantitative computed tomography parameters for diagnosing eosinophilic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Characteristics and diagnostic performance

Abstract Aims To investigate the characteristics and diagnostic performance of quantitative computed tomography (QCT) parameters in eosinophilic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Methods High‐resolution CT scans of COPD patients were retrospectively analyzed, and various emphysematous parenchyma measurements, including lung volume (LC), lung mean density (LMD), lung standard deviation (LSD), full‐width half maximum (FWHM), and lung relative voxel number (LRVN) were performed. The QCT parameters were compared between eosinophilic and noneosinophilic COPD patients, using a definition of eosinophilic COPD as blood eosinophil values ≥ 300 cells·µL−1 on at least three times. Receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curve (ROC‐AUC) and python were used to evaluate discriminative efficacy of QCT. Results Noneosinophilic COPD patients had a significantly lower TLMD (−846.3 ± 47.9 Hounsfield Unit [HU]) and TFWHM(162.5 ± 30.6 HU) compared to eosinophilic COPD patients (−817.8 ± 54.4, 177.3 ± 33.1 HU, respectively) (p = 0.018, 0.03, respectively). Moreover, the total LC (TLC) and TLSD were significantly lower in eosinophilic COPD group (3234.4 ± 1145.8, 183.8 ± 33.9 HU, respectively) than the noneosinophilic COPD group (5600.2 ± 1248.4, 203.5 ± 20.4 HU, respectively) (p = 0.009, 0.002, respectively). The ROC‐AUC values for TLC, TLMD, TLSD, and TFWHM were 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.828–0.936), 0.66 (95% CI, 0.546–0.761), 0.64 (95% CI, 0.524–0.742), and 0.63 (95% CI, 0.511–0.731), respectively. When the TLC value was 4110 mL, the sensitivity was 90.7% (95% CI, 79.7–96.9), specificity was 77.8% (95% CI, 57.7–91.4) and accuracy was 86.4%. Notably, TLC demonstrated the highest discriminative efficiency with an F1 Score of 0.79, diagnostic Odds Ratio of 34.3 and Matthews Correlation Coefficient of 0.69, surpassing TLMD (0.55, 3.66, 0.25), TLSD (0.56, 3.95, 0.26), and TFWHM (0.56, 4.16, 0.33). Conclusion Eosinophilic COPD patients exhibit lower levels of emphysema and a more uniform density distribution throughout the lungs compared to noneosinophilic COPD patients. Furthermore, TLC demonstrated the highest diagnostic efficiency and may serve as a valuable diagnostic marker for distinguishing between the two groups.
Hypertension at the nexus of veteran status, psychiatric disorders, and traumatic brain injury: Insights from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Variable military service-related experiences, such as combat exposure, psychiatric disorders (PD), and traumatic brain injuries (TBI), may differentially affect the likelihood of having health care professional-identified high blood pressure (i.e., hypertension). PURPOSE: Compare the odds of self-reported hypertension among non-combat and combat veterans with and without PD/TBI to non-veterans and each other. METHODS: We used data from men from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and distinguished: non-veterans (n = 21,076); non-combat veterans with no PD/TBI (n = 3,150); combat veterans with no PD/TBI (n = 1,979); and veterans (combat and non-combat) with PD and/or TBI (n = 805). Multivariable, hierarchical logistic regression models included exogenous demographic, socioeconomic attainment and family structure, health behavior and conditions, and methodological control variables. RESULTS: One-third of men reported having been told at least once by a medical professional that they had high blood pressure. Bivariate analyses indicated that each veteran group had a higher prevalence of self-reported hypertension than non-veterans (design-based F = 45.2, p<0.001). In the fully adjusted model, no statistically significant differences in the odds of self-reported hypertension were observed between non-veterans and: non-combat veterans without PD/TBI (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92); combat veterans without PD/TBI (OR = 0.87); veterans with PD and/or TBI (OR = 1.35). However, veterans with PD and/or TBI had greater odds of reporting hypertension than both combat and non-combat veterans without PD/TBI (p<0.05). DISCUSSION: Military service-related experiences were differentially associated with a survey-based measure of hypertension. Specifically, veterans self-reporting PD and/or TBI had significantly higher odds of self-reporting hypertension (i.e., medical provider-identified high blood pressure).