Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Absence of estrogen receptors delays myoregeneration and leads to intermuscular adipogenesis in a low estrogen status: Morphological comparisons in estrogen receptor alpha and beta knock out mice

This study aimed to investigate the function of estrogen receptors (ERs) in myoregeneration and intermuscular adipogenesis. Ovariectomized (OVX) ERα knockout (KO) mice and ERβ KO mice were used to assess the effect of estrogen on the myoregenerative process. Tibialis anterior muscle was collected on days 7, 10, and 14 after cardiotoxin injection to assess myotube morphology and adipogenesis area. Regenerated myotubes from OVX-ERβ KO mice were consistently smaller in diameter than those from OVX-ERα KO and OVX-wild-type mice, whereas the adipogenesis area of OVX-ERβ KO mice was consistently greater than that of the other types. Therefore, ERβ may be an influential factor in promoting myoregeneration and adipogenesis inhibition compared to ERα.
Longitudinal Cerebral Blood Flow Changes in Normal Aging and the Alzheimer's Disease Continuum Identified by Arterial Spin Labeling MRI.

BACKGROUND Cross-sectional studies have shown lower cerebral blood flow (CBF) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but longitudinal CBF changes in AD are still unknown. OBJECTIVE To reveal the longitudinal CBF changes in normal control (NC) and the AD continuum using arterial spin labeling perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI). METHODS CBF was calculated from two longitudinal ASL scans acquired 2.22±1.43 years apart from 140 subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). At the baseline scan, the cohort contained 41 NC, 74 mild cognitive impairment patients (MCI), and 25 AD patients. 21 NC converted into MCI and 17 MCI converted into AD at the follow-up. Longitudinal CBF changes were assessed using paired-t test for non-converters and converters separately at each voxel and in the meta-ROI. Age and sex were used as covariates. RESULTS CBF reductions were observed in all subjects. Stable NC (n = 20) showed CBF reduction in the hippocampus and precuneus. Stable MCI patients (n = 57) showed spatially more extended CBF reduction patterns in hippocampus, middle temporal lobe, ventral striatum, prefrontal cortex, and cerebellum. NC-MCI converters showed CBF reduction in hippocampus and cerebellum and CBF increase in caudate. MCI-AD converters showed CBF reduction in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. CBF changes were not related with longitudinal neurocognitive changes. CONCLUSION Normal aging and AD continuum showed common longitudinal CBF reductions in hippocampus independent of disease and its conversion. Disease conversion independent longitudinal CBF reductions escalated in MCI subjects.
Repurposing Nintedanib for Pathological Cardiac Remodeling and Dysfunction

Background Heart Failure (HF) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Myocardial fibrosis, one of the clinical manifestations implicated in almost every form of heart disease, contributes significantly to HF development. However, there is no approved drug specifically designed to target cardiac fibrosis. Nintedanib (NTB) is an FDA approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic fibrosing interstitial lung diseases (ILD). The favorable clinical outcome of NTB in IPF patients is well established. Furthermore, NTB is well tolerated in IPF patients irrespective of cardiovascular comorbidities. However, there is a lack of direct evidence to support the therapeutic efficacy and safety of NTB in cardiac diseases. Methods and Results We examined the effects of NTB treatment on cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction using a murine model of HF. Specifically, 10 weeks old C57BL/6J male mice were subjected to Transverse Aortic Constriction (TAC) surgery. NTB was administered once daily by oral gavage (50mg/kg) till 16 weeks post-TAC. Cardiac function was monitored by serial echocardiography. Histological analysis and morphometric studies were performed at 16 weeks post-TAC. In the control group, systolic dysfunction started developing from 4 weeks post-surgery and progressed till 16 weeks. However, NTB treatment prevented TAC-induced cardiac functional decline. In another experiment, NTB treatment was stopped at 8 weeks, and animals were followed till 16 weeks post-TAC. Surprisingly, NTB’s beneficial effect on cardiac function was maintained even after treatment interruption. NTB treatment remarkably reduced cardiac fibrosis as confirmed by Masson’s trichome staining and decreased expression of collagen genes (COL1A1, COL3A1). Compared to TAC group, NTB treated mice showed lower HW/TL ratio and cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area. Our in vitro studies demonstrated that NTB prevents myofibroblast transformation, TGFβ1-induced SMAD3 phosphorylation, and production of fibrogenic proteins (Fibronectin-1). However, NTB significantly altered vital signaling pathways in both, isolated fibroblast and cardiomyocytes, suggesting that its biological effect and underlying cardiac protection mechanisms are not limited to fibroblast and fibrosis alone. Conclusion Our findings provide a proof of concept for repurposing NTB to combat adverse myocardial fibrosis and encourage the need for further validation in large animal models and subsequent clinical development for HF patients.
Uncemented versus cemented arthroplasty after metal-on-metal total hip replacement in patients with femoral neck fractures: a retrospective study

Objective To compare the clinical outcomes of primary metal-on-metal total hip replacement (MoM-TR) converted to uncemented total hip replacement (UTR) or cemented total hip replacement (CTR) in patients with femoral neck fractures (AO/OTA: 31B/C). Methods Patient data of 234 UTR or CTR revisions after primary MoM-TR failure from March 2007 to January 2018 were retrospectively identified. Clinical outcomes, including the Harris hip score (HHS) and key orthopaedic complications, were collected at 3, 6, and 12 months following conversion and every 12 months thereafter. Results The mean follow-up was 84.12 (67–100) months for UTR and 84.23 (66–101) months for CTR. At the last follow-up, the HHS was better in the CTR- than UTR-treated patients. Noteworthy dissimilarities were correspondingly detected in the key orthopaedic complication rates (16.1% for CTR vs. 47.4% for UTR). Statistically significant differences in specific orthopaedic complications were also detected in the re-revision rate (10.3% for UTR vs. 2.5% for CTR), prosthesis loosening rate (16.3% for UTR vs. 5.9% for CTR), and periprosthetic fracture rate (12.0% for UTR vs. 4.2% for CTR). Conclusion In the setting of revision of failed primary MoM-TR, CTR may demonstrate advantages over UTR in improving functional outcomes and reducing key orthopaedic complications.
Determinants of verbal fluency trajectories among older adults from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging

Abstract Background Prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment increase creating the need for identifying modifiable risk factors to reduce their burden. The aim of this study was to identify latent groups following similar trajectories in cognitive performance assessed with the verbal fluency test, as well as their determinants. Methods Data from English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA) were studied. Latent groups of similar course through a 6-year period in the outcome variable (verbal fluency) were investigated, along with their determinants, using Group Based Trajectory Modeling (GBTM). Results Four latent groups of verbal fluency trajectories were revealed. Education was the strongest predictor for a favorable trajectory, while cardiovascular disease and depression symptoms were associated with lower within each trajectory. Conclusion Cardiovascular diseases and depressive symptoms are associated with a worse course of verbal fluency through aging, implying that they might serve as targets for interventions to prevent cognitive decline in the aging population. Contrarily, higher level of education is associated with a more favorable course through aging.
Beliefs: A challenge in neuropsychological disorders.

INTRODUCTION Beliefs have recently been defined as the neural product of perception of objects and events in the external world and of an affirmative internal affective state reflecting personal meaning. It is, however, undetermined in which way diseases of the brain affect these integrative processes. METHODS Here, the formation and updating of abnormal beliefs in cerebral disorders are described. RESULTS It will be shown that well-defined neuropsychological syndromes resulting from brain lesions also interfere with the neural processes that enable the formation, up-dating and communication of beliefs. Similarly, in neuropsychiatric disorders abnormal and delusional beliefs appear to be caused by altered perception and/or misattribution of aversive meaning. CONCLUSION Given the importance of beliefs for ordinary social behaviour, abnormal beliefs are a challenge in neuropsychological disorders.
RFC1 expansions are a common cause of idiopathic sensory neuropathy

Abstract After extensive evaluation, one-third of patients affected by polyneuropathy remain undiagnosed and are labelled as having chronic idiopathic axonal polyneuropathy, which refers to a sensory or sensory-motor, axonal, slowly progressive neuropathy of unknown origin. Since a sensory neuropathy/neuronopathy is identified in all patients with genetically confirmed RFC1 cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy, vestibular areflexia syndrome, we speculated that RFC1 expansions could underlie a fraction of idiopathic sensory neuropathies also diagnosed as chronic idiopathic axonal polyneuropathy. We retrospectively identified 225 patients diagnosed with chronic idiopathic axonal polyneuropathy (125 sensory neuropathy, 100 sensory-motor neuropathy) from our general neuropathy clinics in Italy and the UK. All patients underwent full neurological evaluation and a blood sample was collected for RFC1 testing. Biallelic RFC1 expansions were identified in 43 patients (34%) with sensory neuropathy and in none with sensory-motor neuropathy. Forty-two per cent of RFC1-positive patients had isolated sensory neuropathy or sensory neuropathy with chronic cough, while vestibular and/or cerebellar involvement, often subclinical, were identified at examination in 58%. Although the sensory ganglia are the primary pathological target of the disease, the sensory impairment was typically worse distally and symmetric, while gait and limb ataxia were absent in two-thirds of the cases. Sensory amplitudes were either globally absent (26%) or reduced in a length-dependent (30%) or non-length dependent pattern (44%). A quarter of RFC1-positive patients had previously received an alternative diagnosis, including Sjögren’s syndrome, sensory chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and paraneoplastic neuropathy, while three cases had been treated with immune therapies.
Crowdsourcing as a Tool for Research: Methodological, Fair, and Political Considerations

Crowdsourcing platforms are powerful tools for academic researchers. Proponents claim that crowdsourcing helps researchers quickly and affordably recruit enough human subjects with diverse backgrounds to generate significant statistical power, while critics raise concerns about unreliable data quality, labor exploitation, and unequal power dynamics between researchers and workers. We examine these concerns along three dimensions: methods, fairness, and politics. We find that researchers offer vastly different compensation rates for crowdsourced tasks, and address potential concerns about data validity by using platform-specific tools and user verification methods. Additionally, workers depend upon crowdsourcing platforms for a significant portion of their income, are motivated more by fear of losing access to work than by specific compensation rates, and are frustrated by a lack of transparency and occasional unfair treatment from job requesters. Finally, we discuss critical computing scholars’ proposals to address crowdsourcing’s problems, challenges with implementing these resolutions, and potential avenues for future research.
Antibacterial activity of a malodor neutralizer containing silver nanoparticles

In this study bactericidal activity of a malodor neutralizer containing silver nanoparticles manufactured in Iran has been tested. For this purpose different concentrations of the product encounter with Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus cereus then the activity were evaluated in different contact times. The products containing at least 200 ppm of silver nanoparticles were effective on all of bacterial strains and higher exposure time increased its antibacterial activity. Bactericidal activity against spore of Bacillus cereus was less obvious in comparison with other bacteria. It seems that silver nanoparticle is a valuable antibacterial agent even in presence of aromatic fragments and could be applied as disinfectant in many situations.
Great educators in computer networking

This interview is part of a series on Great Educators in Computer Networking, where we interview some of the most impactful and skilled educators in our field. Here, we interviewed Australian Bruce Davie, the self-described computer scientist/engineer/runner/cyclist, who agreed to talk to us about his thoughts on computer networking education, his role in it, his thoughts about the big ideas in our field, and how the pandemic is changing our work. Bruce has over 30 years of industry experience and is well known for a broad spectrum of educational initiatives such as co-authoring several textbooks, as well as his contributions to many networking standards and technologies, including IP quality of service, network virtualization, software defined networking, and more
Protein mapping of peanut extract with capillary electrophoresis

Protein separation can be achieved with different modes of capillary electrophoresis, such as with capillary gel electroporesis (CGE) or with capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). CZE protein mapping of peanut extract was approached in four different ways, combining neutral‐coated or multilayer‐coated capillaries with pHs well over or under the isoelectric point range of the proteins of interest. At acidic pHs, the mobility ranges of the major peanut allergens Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, and Ara h6 were identified. Although the pH is a major factor in CZE separation, buffers with different compositions but with the same pH and ionic strength showed significantly different resolutions. Different components of the electrolyte were studied in a multifactorial design of experiment. CE‐SDS and CZE proved to be suitable for protein mapping and we were able to distinguish different batches of peanut extract and burned peanut extract.
Factors associated with bone metastasis in breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND To systematically evaluate and analyze the risk factors for breast cancer (BC) with bone metastasis (BM) and provide clinical evidence supporting the early prevention of BM. METHODS We systematically retrieved databases from the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE for BC with BM patient. Limited: publish cation between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2019. Literature screening and evaluation were performed independently by 2 evaluators. The quality of all included studies was evaluated with the NOS. Studies with NOS ≥6 on factors related to the BM of BC were identified. Weighted odds ratio (OR) were used as the combined effects. RESULTS We identified 18 articles with available data. The NOS scores ranged from 6-9. Progesterone receptor (PR)-positive BC patients had a relatively lower risk of BM [I2=45.9%, OR =0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72, 0.88, P<0.001]. HER2-positive BC patients had a relatively higher risk of BM (I2=77.6%, OR =1.35, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.76, P=0.025). The risk of BM in patients with lymph node metastasis was higher than that in patients with no lymph node metastasis (I2=99.7%, OR =2.60, 95% CI: 1.41, 4.80, P=0.002). The risk of BM in stage T2 BC patients was 1.99 times that in stage T1 BC patients (I2=96.8%, OR =1.99, 95% CI: 1.03, 3.83, P=0.040). The risk of BM in stage T3 BC patients was 4.74 times that in stage T1 BC patients (I2=95.6%, OR =4.74, 95% CI: 1.94, 11.57, P=0.001). The risk of BM in stage T4 BC patients was 14.57 times that in stage T1 BC patients (I2=95.4%, OR =14.57, 95% CI: 4.16, 51.05, P<0.001). The incidence of BM in BC patients without lobular or ductal BC was significantly higher than that in patients with ductal BC (I2=56.4%, OR =1.26, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.45, P=0.001). DISCUSSION Patients with PR-positive BC have a relatively lower risk of BM. Patients with HER2-positive, lymph node metastasis-positive, nonlobular, or ductal BC have a relatively higher risk of BM. With increasing T stage, the risk of BM in BC patients also increases.
The time in between a case of ‘wrongful’ and ‘rightful’ conviction in the UK: Miscarriages of justice and the contribution of psychology to reforming the police investigative process

Wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice are experienced by justice systems worldwide. At the centre of each miscarriage lies a complex mix of causes. The contribution of the police investigative process and particularly the interview process, to this mix is, however, significant and enduring. Nevertheless, in the UK important inroads have been made with respect to reform in this regard. This has occurred partly in response to revelations of dreadful miscarriages of justice and the findings of ground-breaking psychological research. This research began in earnest in the 1970s, the decade when Noel Jones, a vulnerable young man falsely confessed to, and was wrongfully convicted of, the killing of schoolgirl Janet Commins. It has continued through to the second decade of the 21st century when following a case review, Stephen Hough was rightfully convicted of the same crime; the justice system acknowledging that the original police investigation was flawed and that Jones was ‘wholly exonerated’ (Evans, 2019). Taking these wrongful and rightful convictions as rough ‘start’ and ‘end’ points in time, this article critically examines the contribution of psychological research to bringing about reform of the investigative process and particularly the interview process, in the UK. In doing so, it argues that miscarriages of this nature are now less likely, but that further psychological research and policing reform are required to continue progress already made.
Noninvasive evaluation of ovarian endometriosis: a single-center experience.

BACKGROUND To investigate the relationships of cancer antigen (CA) 125, CA 19-9, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), thrombin time (TT), fibrinogen (FIB), and D-dimer values with ovarian endometriosis (OEM), and to explore the validation of biomarkers for noninvasive preoperative evaluation of patients with severe OEM. METHODS This retrospective case-control study included 413 women with OEM (of whom 143 cases were stage I to II, 139 cases were stage III, and 131 cases were stage IV, respectively) and 158 women without OEM as controls. Subjects' serum CA-125 and CA19-9 levels, and coagulation test results (serum PT, aPTT, and D-dimer values) were evaluated. RESULTS The serum CA-125, aPTT, FIB and D-dimer levels were statistically different between OEM patients in the stages I to (and) II group and those in the stages III and IV group (P<0.05). However, a statistical difference in CA 19-9 levels and TT was only found between patients with stages III and IV OEM. In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of single indexes, the area under the ROC curve values for CA-125, CA19-9, aPTT, TT, FIB, and D-dimer were 0.953, 0.512, 0.66, 0.576, 0.573, and 0.624, respectively, for diagnosing stage III and stage IV OEM. In ROC curve analysis of combined indexes, the AUC values for aPTT + D-dimer, CA-125 + D-dimer, CA-125 + aPTT and CA-125 + D-dimer + aPTT were 0.672, 0.954, 0.958, and 0.961, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The combined index of CA-125, aPTT, and D-dimer is a valid noninvasive preoperative method for the evaluation of moderate and severe OEM, and may help to decrease the interval between the first complaint and a definitive diagnosis.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a clinical and genomics update.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a global medical priority that needs urgent resolution. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a versatile, adaptable bacterial species with widespread environmental occurrence, strong medical relevance, a diverse set of virulence genes and a multitude of intrinsic and possibly acquired antibiotic resistance traits. P. aeruginosa causes a wide variety of infections and has an epidemic-clonal population structure. Several of its dominant global clones have collected a wide variety of resistance genes rendering them multi-drug resistant (MDR) and particularly threatening groups of vulnerable individuals including surgical patients, immunocompromised patients, Caucasians suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF) and more. AMR and MDR especially are particularly problematic in P. aeruginosa significantly complicating successful antibiotic treatment. In addition, antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of P. aeruginosa can be cumbersome due to its slow growth or the massive production of exopolysaccharides and other extracellular compounds. For that reason, phenotypic AST is progressively challenged by genotypic methods using whole genome sequences (WGS) and large-scale phenotype databases as a framework of reference. We here summarize the state of affairs and the quality level of WGS-based AST for P. aeruginosa mostly from clinical origin.
Multi-linguality helps: Event-Argument Extraction for Disaster Domain in Cross-lingual and Multi-lingual setting

Automatic extraction of disaster-related events and their arguments from natural language text is vital for building a decision support system for crisis management. Event extraction from various news sources is a well-explored area for this objective. However, extracting events alone, without any context, provides only partial help for this purpose. Extracting related arguments like Time, Place, Casualties, etc., provides a complete picture of the disaster event. In this paper, we create a disaster domain dataset in Hindi by annotating disaster-related event and arguments. We also obtain equivalent datasets for Bengali and English from a collaboration. We build a multi-lingual deep learning model for argument extraction in all the three languages. We also compare our multi-lingual system with a similar baseline mono-lingual system trained for each language separately. It is observed that a single multi-lingual system is able to compensate for lack of training data, by using joint training of dataset from different languages in shared space, thus giving a better overall result.