Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"Making sense of a disease that makes no sense": Understanding Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders among caregivers and providers within Alaska Native communities.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES With the rate of Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias (ADRD) increasing among Alaska Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people, the Alaska Native Health system is ill-prepared to meet the challenges associated with the growing population at risk of ADRD. The high cost of care, inadequate training of health care providers, and lack of supportive services for caregivers are especially concerning. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Interviews were conducted with 22 AN caregivers for ANs with ADRD and 12 ANs and non-Native health care providers in communities across Alaska. Interviews lasted approximately 60 minutes and were transcribed verbatim. We employed directed content analysis to examine the major agreements and disagreements between the participants' understandings of ADRD in each of the domains of Kleinman's Explanatory Model of Illness. RESULTS Caregivers and health care providers expressed concerns about the lack of understanding, resources, and awareness of ADRD among ANs in rural and urban communities. Both caregivers and providers recognized the need to obtain early diagnosis, blend Western and traditional medicines, promote lifestyle and dietary changes, and foster training for caregivers. Health care providers acknowledged their limited exposure to AN understanding of ADRD and wish to receive culturally relevant training to better serve AN. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS As the older AN adult population grows, the need for culturally responsive training and support services will continue to increase. We recommend establishing rural outreach and support groups for caregivers, developing an understanding of how ANs view ADRD to train and educate health care providers, and implement screening early for memory loss during routine medical examinations.
Nutritional Indices for Assessing Fatty Acids: A Mini-Review

Dietary fats are generally fatty acids that may play positive or negative roles in the prevention and treatment of diseases. In nature, fatty acids occur in the form of mixtures of saturated fatty acid (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), so their nutritional and/or medicinal values must be determined. Herein, we do not consider the classic indices, such as ∑SFA, ∑MUFA, ∑PUFA, ∑n-6 PUFA, ∑n-3 PUFA, and n-6 PUFA/n-3 PUFA; instead, we summarize and review the definitions, implications, and applications of indices used in recent years, including the PUFA/SFA, index of atherogenicity (IA), the index of thrombogenicity (IT), the hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic ratio (HH), the health-promoting index (HPI), the unsaturation index (UI), the sum of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA), fish lipid quality/flesh lipid quality (FLQ), the linoleic acid/α-linolenic acid (LA/ALA) ratio, and trans fatty acid (TFA). Of these nutritional indices, IA and IT are the most commonly used to assess the composition of fatty acids as they outline significant implications and provide clear evidence. EPA + DHA is commonly used to assess the nutritional quality of marine animal products. All indices have their advantages and disadvantages; hence, a rational choice of which to use is critical.
Sijilli: A Scalable Model of Cloud-Based Electronic Health Records for Migrating Populations in Low-Resource Settings

The world is witnessing an alarming rate of displacement and migration, with more than 70.8 million forcibly displaced individuals, including 26 million refugees. These populations are known to have increased vulnerability and susceptibility to mental and physical health problems due to the migration journey. Access of these individuals to health services, whether during their trajectory of displacement or in refugee-hosting countries, remains limited and challenging due to multiple factors, including language and cultural barriers and unavailability of the refugees’ health records. Cloud-based electronic health records (EHRs) are considered among the top five health technologies integrated in humanitarian crisis preparedness and response during times of conflict. This viewpoint describes the design and implementation of a scalable and innovative cloud-based EHR named Sijilli, which targets refugees in low-resource settings. This paper discusses this solution compared with other similar practices, shedding light on its potential for scalability.
RNF213 gene polymorphism rs9916351 and rs8074015 significantly associated with moyamoya disease in Chinese population.

Background Gene polymorphism especially Ring Finger Protein 213 (RNF213) p.R4810K is one of the main cause of moyamoya disease (MMD) in Asian populations, especially among Japanese people. However, missense mutation may not explain the reduced frequency of MMD in Chinese patients. We performed a hospital based case-control study in a Chinese population to elucidate the possible underlying reasons. Methods Five gene polymorphism loci, namely, rs35692831, rs9916351, rs9913636, rs8074015 and rs112735431, were included. A total of 98 patients and 114 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Genomic DNA was genotyped by Mass Array methods. Results A significant difference was observed between patients and healthy controls in rs9916351, rs9913636, and rs8074015 loci under three genotypes and allelic models (P<0.01). Logistic regression analysis revealed the significant differences under the dominant, recessive and additional model in rs9916351 [odds ratio (OR) =4.173, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.290-7.606, P<0.001; OR =3.152, 95% CI: 1.585-6.267, P=0.001; OR =0.199, 95% CI: 1.727-3.764, P<0.001; respectively] and rs8074015 (OR =0.359, 95% CI: 0.206-0.627, P<0.001; OR =0.348, 95% CI: 0.148-0.81, P=0.015; OR =0.208, 95% CI: 0.311-0.703, P<0.001; respectively), even adjusting for age and gender. In addition, the haplotype rs9913636-rs8074015 under "GACG" showed significant association with MMD. Conclusions Our results had revealed the polymorphism of RNF213 rs9916351 and rs8074015 were significantly associated with MMD especially in Chinese population.
Effects of Polypropylene Glycol at Very Low Concentrations on Rheological Properties at the Air-Water Interface and Foam Stability of Sodium Bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate Aqueous Solutions.

The present study investigated the effects of very low concentrations of polypropylene glycol (PPG) on the rheological properties of sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) aqueous solutions at the surface for the precise control of foam properties. Langmuir trough experiments and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) of the AOT monolayer on the surfaces of PPG aqueous solutions indicated that a very low concentration of PPG increased the number of AOT molecules at the surface. Viscoelastic behaviors at the surface and surface tension isotherms in mixed aqueous solutions of AOT and PPG revealed that AOT interacted with PPG in the surface and bulk phase. A modified Ross-Miles method was performed to assess the foam stabilities of AOT aqueous solutions with and without PPG. The stabilization of foam by PPG was attributed to the rheological properties of AOT aqueous solutions at the surface.
Differential Metabolomics Profiles Identified by CE-TOFMS between High and Low Intramuscular Fat Amount in Fattening Pigs

The amount of intramuscular fat (IMF) present in the loin eye area is one of the most important characteristics of high-quality pork. IMF measurements are currently impractical without a labor-intensive process. Metabolomic profiling could be used as an IMF indicator to avoid this process; however, no studies have investigated their use during the fattening period of pigs. This study examined the metabolite profiles in the plasma of two groups of pigs derived from the same Duroc genetic line and fed the same diet. Five plasma samples were collected from each individual the day before slaughter. Capillary electrophoresis-time of flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOFMS) was used to analyze the purified plasma from each sample. Principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) were used to find the semi-quantitative values of the compounds. The results indicate that branched-chain amino acids are significantly associated with high IMF content, while amino acids are associated with low IMF content. These differences were validated using the quantification analyses by high-performance liquid chromatograph, which supported our results. These results suggest that the concentration of branched-chain amino acids in plasma could be an indicative biomarker for the IMF content in the loin eye area.
Structural Complexity and Plasticity of Signaling Regulation at the Melanocortin-4 Receptor

The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) is a class A G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), essential for regulation of appetite and metabolism. Pathogenic inactivating MC4R mutations are the most frequent cause of monogenic obesity, a growing medical and socioeconomic problem worldwide. The MC4R mediates either ligand-independent or ligand-dependent signaling. Agonists such as α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) induce anorexigenic effects, in contrast to the endogenous inverse agonist agouti-related peptide (AgRP), which causes orexigenic effects by suppressing high basal signaling activity. Agonist action triggers the binding of different subtypes of G proteins and arrestins, leading to concomitant induction of diverse intracellular signaling cascades. An increasing number of experimental studies have unraveled molecular properties and mechanisms of MC4R signal transduction related to physiological and pathophysiological aspects. In addition, the MC4R crystal structure was recently determined at 2.75 Å resolution in an inactive state bound with a peptide antagonist. Underpinned by structural homology models of MC4R complexes simulating a presumably active-state conformation compared to the structure of the inactive state, we here briefly summarize the current understanding and key players involved in the MC4R switching process between different activity states. Finally, these perspectives highlight the complexity and plasticity in MC4R signaling regulation and identify gaps in our current knowledge.
Using a deep recurrent neural network with EEG signal to detect Parkinson's disease.

Background Parkinson's disease (PD) gradually degrades the functionality of the brain. Because of its relevance to the abnormality of the brain, electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is used for the early detection of this disease. This paper introduces a novel computer-aided diagnosis method to detect PD, which is an efficient deep learning method based on a pooling-based deep recurrent neural network (PDRNN). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to detect Parkinson's disease based on deep recurrent neural network of EEG signal. Methods The EEG signals of 20 patients with Parkinson's disease and 20 healthy people in Henan Provincial People's Hospital (People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University) were examined, and a PDRNN learning method was applied on the dataset for managing the demand of the traditional feature presentation step. Results The suggested DPRNN network gives the precision, sensitivity and specificity of 88.31%, 84.84% and 91.81%, respectively. Nevertheless, 11.28% of the healthy cases are wrongly categorized in Parkinson class. Also, 11.49% percent of Parkinson cases are classified wrongly in the healthy class. Conclusions The experimental model has high efficiency and can be used as a reliable tool for clinical PD detection. In future research, more cases should be used to test and develop the proposed model.
A Geographic Information System-Based Indicator of Waste Risk to Investigate the Health Impact of Landfills and Uncontrolled Dumping Sites

Uncontrolled and poor waste management practices are widespread. The global health impact of hazardous waste exposure is controversial, but the excess of some diseases appears to be consistent. The Geographic Information System (GIS, ESRI Inc., Rome, Italy) method used to estimate the waste risk exposure, in an area with many illegal waste dumps and burning sites, is described. A GIS geodatabase (ESRI ArcGIS format) of waste sites’ data was built. A municipal GIS-based indicator of waste risk (Municipal Risk Index: MRI) has been computed, based on type and quantity of waste, typology of waste disposal, known or potential environmental contamination by waste and population living near waste sites. 2767 waste sites were present in an area 426 km2 large. 38% of the population lived near one or more waste sites (100 m). Illegal/uncontrolled waste dumps, including waste burning areas, constituted about 90% of all sites. The 38 investigated municipalities were categorized into 4 classes of MRI. The GIS approach identified a widespread impact of waste sites and the municipalities likely to be most exposed. The highest score of the MRI included the municipalities with the most illegal hazardous waste dumps and burning sites. The GIS-geodatabase provided information to contrast and to prosecute illegal waste trafficking and mismanagements.
Engineering a Histone Reader Protein by Combining Directed Evolution, Sequencing, and Neural Network Based Ordinal Regression

Directed evolution is a powerful approach for engineering proteins with enhanced affinity or specificity for a ligand of interest but typically requires many rounds of screening/library mutagenesis to obtain mutants with desired properties. Furthermore, mutant libraries generally only cover a small fraction of the available sequence space. Here, for the first time, we use ordinal regression to model protein sequence data generated through successive rounds of sorting and amplification of a protein-ligand system. We show that the ordinal regression model trained on only two sorts successfully predicts chromodomain CBX1 mutants that would have stronger binding affinity with the H3K9me3 peptide. Furthermore, we can extract the predictive features using contextual regression, a method to interpret nonlinear models, which successfully guides identification of strong binders not even present in the original library. We have demonstrated the power of this approach by experimentally confirming that we were able to achieve the same improvement in binding affinity previously achieved through a more laborious directed evolution process. This study presents an approach that reduces the number of rounds of selection required to isolate strong binders and facilitates the identification of strong binders not present in the original library.
Stem Cells and Lung Regeneration.

Summary/Abstract The ability to replace defective cells in an airway with cells that can engraft, integrate and restore a functional epithelium could potentially cure a number of lung diseases. Progress toward the development of strategies to regenerate the adult lung by either in vivo or ex vivo targeting of endogenous stem cells or pluripotent stem cell derivatives, is limited by our fundamental lack of understanding of the mechanisms controlling human lung development, the precise identity and function of human lung stem and progenitor cell types, and the genetic and epigenetic control of human lung fate. In this review, we intend to discuss the known stem/progenitor cell populations, their relative differences between rodents and humans, their roles in chronic lung disease, and their therapeutic prospects. Additionally, we highlight the recent breakthroughs that have increased our understanding of these cell types. These advancements include novel lineage-traced animal models and single-cell RNA sequencing of human airway cells, which have provided critical information on the stem cell subtypes, transition states, identifying cell markers, and intricate pathways that commit a stem cell to differentiate or to maintain plasticity. As our capacity to model the human lung evolves, so will our understanding of lung regeneration and our ability to target endogenous stem cells as a therapeutic approach for lung disease.
Synthesis and Characterization of Amorphous Iron Oxide Nanoparticles by the Sonochemical Method and Their Application for the Remediation of Heavy Metals from Wastewater

Nanoparticles have gained huge attention in the last decade due to their applications in electronics, medicine, and environmental clean-up. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are widely used for the wastewater treatment due to their recyclable nature and easy manipulation by an external magnetic field. Here, in the present research work, iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by the sonochemical method by using precursors of ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride at 70 °C for one hour in an ultrasonicator. The synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized by diffraction light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), electron diffraction spectroscopy (EDS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The FTIR analysis exhibits characteristic absorption bands of IONPs at 400–800 cm−1, while the Raman spectra showed three characteristic bands at 273, 675, and 1379 cm−1 for the synthesized IONPs. The XRD data revealed three major intensity peaks at two theta, 33°, 35°, and 64° which indicated the presence of maghemite and magnetite phase. The size of the spherical shaped IONPs was varying from 9–70 nm with an average size of 38.9 nm while the size of cuboidal shaped particle size was in microns. The purity of the synthesized IONPs was confirmed by the EDS attached to the FESEM, which clearly show sharp peaks for Fe and O, while the magnetic behavior of the IONPs was confirmed by the VSM measurement and the magnetization was 2.43 emu/g. The batch adsorption study of lead (Pb) and chromium (Cr) from 20% fly ash aqueous solutions was carried out by using 0.6 mg/100 mL IONPs, which exhibited maximum removal efficiency i.e., 97.96% and 82.8% for Pb2+ and Cr ions, respectively. The fly ash are being used in making cements, tiles, bricks, bio fertilizers etc., where the presence of fly ash is undesired property which has to be either removed or will be brought up to the value of acceptable level in the fly ash. Therefore, the synthesized IONPs, can be applied in the elimination of heavy metals and other undesired elements from fly ash with a short period of time. Moreover, the IONPs that have been used as a nanoadsorbent can be recovered from the reaction mixture by applying an external magnetic field that can be recycled and reused. Therefore, this study can be effective in all the fly ash-based industries for elimination of the undesired elements, while recyclability and reusable nature of IONPs will make the whole adsorption or elimination process much economical.
Protective effects of combination of Stauntonia hexaphylla and Cornus officinalis on testosterone-induced benign prostatic hyperplasia through inhibition of 5α- reductase type 2 and induced cell apoptosis

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a progressive pathological condition associated with proliferation of prostatic tissues, prostate enlargement, and lower-urinary tract symptoms. However, the mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of BPH is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of a combination of Stauntonia hexaphylla and Cornus officinalis (SC extract) on a testosterone propionate (TP)-induced BPH model. The effect of SC extract was examined in a TP-induced human prostate adenocarcinoma cell line. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 6) for in vivo experiments. To induce BPH, all rats, except those in the control group, were administered daily with subcutaneous injections of TP (5 mg/kg) and orally treated with appropriate phosphate buffered saline/drugs (finasteride/saw palmetto/SC extract) for 4 consecutive weeks. SC extract significantly downregulated the androgen receptor (AR), prostate specific antigen (PSA), and 5α-reductase type 2 in TP-induced BPH in vitro. In in vivo experiments, SC extract significantly reduced prostate weight, size, serum testosterone, and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels. Histologically, SC extract markedly recovered TP-induced abnormalities and reduced prostatic hyperplasia, thereby improving the histo-architecture of TP-induced BPH rats. SC extract also significantly downregulated AR and PSA expression, as assayed using immunoblotting. Immunostaining revealed that SC extract markedly reduced the 5α-reductase type 2 and significantly downregulated the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen. In addition, immunoblotting of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family proteins indicated that SC extract significantly downregulated anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and markedly upregulated pro-apoptotic B cell lymphoma-associated X (Bax) expression. Furthermore, SC treatment significantly decreased the Bcl-2/Bax ratio, indicating induced prostate cell apoptosis in TP-induced BPH rats. Thus, our findings demonstrated that SC extract protects against BPH by inhibiting 5α-reductase type 2 and inducing prostate cell apoptosis. Therefore, SC extract might be useful in the clinical treatment of BPH.
West Nile virus in humans, Greece, 2018: the largest seasonal number of cases, 9 years after its emergence in the country

Background Human cases of West Nile virus (WNV) infection are recorded since 2010 in Greece, with seasonal outbreaks occurring almost annually. Enhanced surveillance has been implemented since 2010, to promptly characterise cases’ temporal and geographical distribution and inform authorities for implementation of appropriate measures (mosquito control, health education, blood safety). Aim We describe the epidemiology of WNV human infections in Greece focusing on the 2018 season. Methods The National Public Health Organization advised physicians to test all suspect WNV infection cases and refer samples to reference laboratories. Laboratories notified diagnosed cases on a daily basis. Treating physicians, patients, and infected blood donors were interviewed within 48 hours after diagnosis and the probable infection location was identified. Hospitalised cases were followed up until discharge. Results A total of 317 autochthonous WNV infection cases were diagnosed in 2018. Among them, 243 cases had neuroinvasive disease (WNND), representing a 23% increase of WNND cases compared with 2010, the previous most intense season. There were 51 deaths. Cases started occurring from week 22, earlier than usual. Both rural and urban areas were affected, with 86 (26% of the total) municipalities belonging to seven (54% of the total) regions recording cases. Two major epicentres were identified in Attica and Central Macedonia regions. Conclusions The largest number of human cases of WNV infection ever recorded in Greece occurred in 2018, with a wide geographical distribution, suggesting intense virus circulation. Enhanced surveillance is vital for the early detection of human cases and the prompt implementation of response measures.