Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retinoids in cancer chemoprevention and therapy: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Retinoids, natural and synthetic derivatives of vitamin A, have many regulatory functions in human body, including regulating cellular proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis. Moreover, retinoids have been used successfully for the treatment of certain malignancies, especially acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in adults and neuroblastoma in children. However, retinoids have not yet been translated into effective systemic treatments for most solid cancers. Some recent studies have shown that retinoids promote tumorigenesis. Therefore, we performed this meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the efficacy of retinoids in the chemoprevention and treatment of cancers. We performed literature search of several electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library from 2000 January to 2021 November. Various outcomes were applied to investigate the potential of retinoids for prevention and treatment of cancers. The primary outcomes in this study were disease recurrence and clinical response. The secondary outcomes included overall survival (OS), cancer development, disease progression and event-free survival. We identified 39 randomized controlled trials with 15,627 patients in this study. Our results showed that lower recurrence rate and better clinical response were obtained in retinoids treated patients with cancer or premalignancy as compared with control. The differences were statistically significant (RR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.74–0.96, p = 0.01; RR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.03–1.49, p = 0.02, respectively). Retinoids treatment was not associated with improvement in overall survival, cancer development, disease progression or event-free survival. Subgroup analysis conducted based on cancer type showed that patients benefited from retinoids treatment in APL, renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung cancer, Kaposi sarcoma, and complete hydatidiform mole. No significant therapeutic effect was noted in head and neck cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), melanoma, breast cancer, bladder cancer, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or cervical carcinoma. Subgroup analysis based on tumor classification demonstrated that retinoids group obtained a lower recurrence rate and better clinical response than control group in solid cancers. In conclusion, clinical application of retinoids was associated with reduction in disease recurrence and improvement in clinical response, illustrating that retinoids play a key role in cancer prevention and therapy. Further research is needed to broaden the utility of retinoids in other types of cancers. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO, identifier CRD42022296706.
Matter-wave solitons in the counterflow of two immiscible superfluids

We study formation of solitons induced by counterflows of immiscible superfluids. Our setting is based on a quasi-one-dimensional binary Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), composed of two immiscible components with large and small numbers of atoms in them. Assuming that the "small" component moves with constant velocity, either by itself, or being dragged by a moving trap, and intrudes into the "large" counterpart, the following results are obtained. Depending on the velocity, and on whether the small component moves in the absence or in the presence of the trap, two-component dark-bright solitons, scalar dark solitons, or multiple dark solitons may emerge, the latter outcome taking place due to breakdown of the superfluidity. We present two sets of analytical results to describe this phenomenology. In an intermediate velocity regime, where dark-bright solitons form, a reduction of the two-component Gross-Pitaevskii system to an integrable Mel'nikov system is developed, demonstrating that solitary waves of the former are very accurately described by analytically available solitons of the latter. In the high-velocity regime, where the breakdown of the superfluidity induces the formation of dark solitons and multi-soliton trains, an effective single-component description, in which a strongly localized wave packet of the "small" component acts as an effective potential for the "large" one, allows us to estimate the critical velocity beyond which the coherent structures emerge in good agreement with the numerical results.
Polysaccharides influence human health via microbiota-dependent and -independent pathways

Polysaccharides are the most diverse molecules and can be extracted from abundant edible materials. Increasing research has been conducted to clarify the structure and composition of polysaccharides obtained from different materials and their effects on human health. Humans can only directly assimilate very limited polysaccharides, most of which are conveyed to the distal gut and fermented by intestinal microbiota. Therefore, the main mechanism underlying the bioactive effects of polysaccharides on human health involves the interaction between polysaccharides and microbiota. Recently, interest in the role of polysaccharides in gut health, obesity, and related disorders has increased due to the wide range of valuable biological activities of polysaccharides. The known roles include mechanisms that are microbiota-dependent and involve microbiota-derived metabolites and mechanisms that are microbiota-independent. In this review, we discuss the role of polysaccharides in gut health and metabolic diseases and the underlying mechanisms. The findings in this review provide information on functional polysaccharides in edible materials and facilitate dietary recommendations for people with health issues. To uncover the effects of polysaccharides on human health, more clinical trials should be conducted to confirm the therapeutic effects on gut and metabolic disease. Greater attention should be directed toward polysaccharide extraction from by-products or metabolites derived from food processing that are unsuitable for direct consumption, rather than extracting them from edible materials. In this review, we advanced the understanding of the structure and composition of polysaccharides, the mutualistic role of gut microbes, the metabolites from microbiota-fermenting polysaccharides, and the subsequent outcomes in human health and disease. The findings provide insight into the proper application of polysaccharides in improving human health.
Peripheral role of glutamate in orofacial pain

Glutamate is the principal excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. In the periphery, glutamate acts as a transmitter and involves in the signaling and processing of sensory input. Glutamate acts at several types of receptors and also interacts with other transmitters/mediators under various physiological and pathophysiological conditions including chronic pain. The increasing amount of evidence suggests that glutamate may play a role through multiple mechanisms in orofacial pain processing. In this study, we reviewed the current understanding of how peripheral glutamate mediates orofacial pain, how glutamate is regulated in the periphery, and how these findings are translated into therapies for pain conditions.
On gravitational-wave echoes from neutron-star binary coalescences

A tentative detection of gravitational-wave echoes in the post-merger signal of GW170817 has been recently claimed at significance level. It has been speculated that the signal might provide evidence for near-horizon quantum structures in the remnant exotic object. We point out that if the remnant object is an ultracompact neutron star, echoes are expected for objects with radius only slightly smaller than that of an ordinary neutron star. The reported echoes at ≈72 Hz are compatible with a toy model of incompressible star with mass approximately and radius close to the Buchdahl limit, . If confirmed, low-frequency gravitational-wave echoes would be in tension with all current neutron-star models and would have dramatic implications for nuclear physics and gravity.
Evaluation of intracoronary hemodynamics identifies perturbations in vorticity

Background and objective: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is highly prevalent and associated with adverse events. Challenges have emerged in the treatment of intermediate coronary artery stenoses. These lesions are often interrogated with fractional flow reserve (FFR) testing to determine if a stenosis is likely to be causative for ischemia in a cardiac territory. This invasive test requires insertion of a pressure wire into a coronary vessel. Recently computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used to noninvasively assess fractional flow reserve in vessels reconstructed from medical imaging data. However, many of these simulations are unable to provide additional information about intravascular hemodynamics, including velocity, endothelial shear stress (ESS), and vorticity. We hypothesized that vorticity, which has demonstrated utility in the assessment of ventricular and aortic diseases, would also be an important hemodynamic factor in CAD. Methods: Three-dimensional (3D), patient-specific coronary artery geometries that included all vessels >1 mm in diameter were created from angiography data obtained from 10 patients who underwent diagnostic angiography and FFR testing (n = 9). A massively parallel CFD solver (HARVEY) was used to calculate coronary hemodynamic parameters including pressure, velocity, ESS, and vorticity. These simulations were validated by comparing velocity flow fields from simulation to both velocities derived from in vitro particle image velocimetry and to invasively acquired pressure wire-based data from clinical testing. Results: There was strong agreement between findings from CFD simulations and particle image velocimetry experimental testing (p < 0.01). CFD-FFR was also highly correlated with invasively measured FFR (ρ = 0.77, p = 0.01) with an average error of 5.9 ± 0.1%. CFD-FFR also had a strong inverse correlation with the vorticity (ρ = -0.86, p = 0.001). Simulations to determine the effect of the coronary stenosis on intravascular hemodynamics demonstrated significant differences in velocity and vorticity (both p < 0.05). Further evaluation of an angiographically normal appearing non-FFR coronary vessel in patients with CAD also demonstrated differences in vorticity when compared with FFR vessels (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The use of highly accurate 3D CFD-derived intravascular hemodynamics provides additional information beyond pressure measurements that can be used to calculate FFR. Vorticity is one parameter that is modified by a coronary stenosis and appears to be abnormal in angiographically normal vessels in patients with CAD, highlighting a possible use-case in preventative screening for early coronary disease.
Nicotinamide riboside kinases regulate skeletal muscle fiber-type specification and are rate-limiting for metabolic adaptations during regeneration

Nicotinamide riboside kinases (NRKs) control the conversion of dietary Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) to NAD+, but little is known about their contribution to endogenous NAD+ turnover and muscle plasticity during skeletal muscle growth and remodeling. Using NRK1/2 double KO (NRKdKO) mice, we investigated the influence of NRKs on NAD+ metabolism and muscle homeostasis, and on the response to neurogenic muscle atrophy and regeneration following muscle injury. Muscles from NRKdKO animals have altered nicotinamide (NAM) salvage and a decrease in mitochondrial content. In single myonuclei RNAseq of skeletal muscle, NRK2 mRNA expression is restricted to type IIx muscle fibers, and perturbed NAD+ turnover and mitochondrial metabolism shifts the fiber type composition of NRKdKO muscle to fast glycolytic IIB fibers. NRKdKO does not influence muscle atrophy during denervation but alters muscle repair after myofiber injury. During regeneration, muscle stem cells (MuSCs) from NRKdKO animals hyper-proliferate but fail to differentiate. NRKdKO also alters the recovery of NAD+ during muscle regeneration as well as mitochondrial adaptations and extracellular matrix remodeling required for tissue repair. These metabolic perturbations result in a transient delay of muscle regeneration which normalizes during myofiber maturation at late stages of regeneration via over-compensation of anabolic IGF1-Akt signaling. Altogether, we demonstrate that NAD+ synthesis controls mitochondrial metabolism and fiber type composition via NRK1/2 and is rate-limiting for myogenic commitment and mitochondrial maturation during skeletal muscle repair.
Suppressing Charge Noise Decoherence in Superconducting Charge Qubits

We present an experimental realization of the transmon qubit, which is an improved superconducting charge qubit derived from the Cooper pair box. We experimentally verify the predicted exponential suppression of sensitivity to $1∕f$ charge noise. This removes the leading source of dephasing in charge qubits which results in homogeneously broadened transitions with relaxation and dephasing times in the microsecond range. Our systematic characterization of the qubit spectrum, anharmonicity, and charge dispersion shows excellent agreement with theory.
Effect of virtual reality exercise on interventions for patients with Alzheimer’s disease: A systematic review

Virtual reality (VR) interventions are increasingly being used in rehabilitating and treating patients with neurological disorders. This study aimed to explore the effects of VR exercise interventions for patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A systematic review of the published literature on randomized controlled trials of VR technology applied to patients with AD was conducted using the preferred reporting entry for systematic reviews and Meta-analysis guidelines. Descriptive analyses were performed to assess the quality of the studies in terms of the characteristics of the included studies, samples, diagnoses, types of VR technologies, subjective and objective levels of immersion, and quality of studies. Eight studies were included, including a pooled sample of 362 patients with AD. A systematic review showed that most studies focused on patients with AD’s cognitive and physical functions. The main finding was that VR interventions could help improve cognitive and physical balance in patients with AD. However, future studies should emphasize design and use well-accepted assessment tools to validate the effects of VR interventions further.
Narrow Line Seyfert 1s in the IBISCO Sample

We present the broad-band soft and hard X-ray spectral analysis of 8 Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies extracted from the IBISCO Sample. The study also focuses on the properties of the NLS1 in our sample in relation to those of the IBISCO parent Seyfert population. The IBISCO sample comprises 57 AGN selected from the INTEGRAL IBIS AGN catalogue (in the 20-100 keV band), with z$<$0.05 and covering a wide range of luminosities, BH masses and absorption. All AGN have also measurements of the molecular gas (H$_2$) content of their host galaxies, through the detection of CO emission lines. The main goals of this analysis are to accurately determine the X-ray continuum emission, investigate the presence of absorption features around 7 keV (indicative of the presence of outflows) and measure the bolometric luminosity in order to study the accretion parameters of the eight IBISCO NLS1, and study the accretion mechanisms and investigate the feeding and feedback cycle in these peculiar AGN. Preliminary results show that NLS1 tend to have higher Eddington ratios and larger molecular gas fractions than their parent Seyfert population in the IBISCO sample. Nuclear (AGN) vs. host galaxy properties scaling relations of NLS1 in relation to the parent Seyfert population are also explored.
Trident: A dual oxygenation and fluorescence imaging platform for real-time and quantitative surgical guidance

Despite recent technological progress in surgical guidance, current intraoperative assessment of tissue that should be removed (e.g., cancer) or avoided (e.g., nerves) is still performed subjectively. Optical imaging is a non-contact, non-invasive modality that has the potential to provide feedback regarding the condition of living tissues by imaging either an exogenously administered contrast agent or endogenous constituents such as hemoglobin, water, and lipids. As such, optical imaging is an attractive modality to provide physiologically and structurally relevant information for decision-making in real-time during surgery. The Trident imaging platform has been designed for real-time surgical guidance using state-of-the-art optical imaging. This platform is capable of dual exogenous and endogenous imaging owing to a unique filter and source combination, allowing to take advantage of both imaging modalities. This platform makes use of a real-time and quantitative imaging method working in the spatial frequency domain, called Single Snapshot imaging of Optical Properties (SSOP). The Trident imaging platform is designed to comply with all relevant standards for clinical use. In this manuscript, we first introduce the rationale for developing the Trident imaging platform. We then describe fluorescence and endogenous imaging modalities where we present the details of the design, assess the performance of the platform on the bench. Finally, we perform the validation of the platform during an in vivo preclinical experiment. Altogether, this work lays the foundation for translating state-of-the-art optical imaging technology to the clinic.
Interface effects of strange quark matter

The interface effects play important roles for the properties of strange quark matter (SQM) and the related physical processes. We show several examples on the implications of interface effects for both stable and unstable SQM. Based on an equivparticle model and adopting mean-field approximation (MFA), the surface tension and curvature term of SQM can be obtained, which are increasing monotonically with the density of SQM at zero external pressure. For a parameter set constrained according to the 2$M_\odot$ strange star, we find the surface tension is $\sim$2.4 MeV/fm${}^2$, while it is larger for other cases.
Phase diagram of CeFeAs 1-x P x O obtained from electrical resistivity, magnetization, and specific heat measurements

We performed a systematic study on the properties of ${\text{CeFeAs}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\text{P}}_{x}\text{O}$ $(0\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}1)$ by electrical resistivity, magnetization, and specific heat measurements. The $c$-axis lattice constant decreases significantly with increasing P content, suggesting a remarkable chemical pressure. The $\text{Fe}\text{ }3d$ electrons show the enhanced metallic behavior upon P doping and undergo a magnetic quantum phase transition around $x\ensuremath{\approx}0.4$. Meanwhile, the $\text{Ce}\text{ }4f$ electrons develop a ferromagnetic order near the same doping level. The ferromagnetic order is vanishingly small around $x=0.9$. The data suggest a heavy-fermionlike behavior as $x\ensuremath{\ge}0.95$. No superconductivity is observed down to 2 K. Our results show the ferromagnetic ordered state as an intermediate phase intruding between the antiferromagnetic bad metal and the nonmagnetic heavy-fermion metal and support the cerium-containing iron pnictides as a unique layered Kondo lattice system.
Broken symmetry phase solution of the 4 model at two-loop level of the Φ-derivable approximation

The set of coupled equations for the self-consistent propagator and the field expectation value is solved numerically with high accuracy in Euclidean space at zero temperature and in the broken symmetry phase of the phi^4 model. Explicitly finite equations are derived with the adaptation of the renormalization method of van Hees and Knoll [H. van Hees, J. Knoll, Phys. Rev. D65, 025010 (2001)] to the case of non-vanishing field expectation value. The set of renormalization conditions used in this method leads to the same set of counterterms obtained recently in A. Patkos, Zs. Szep, Nucl. Phys. A811, 329-352 (2008). This makes possible the direct comparison of the accurate solution of explicitly finite equations with the solution of renormalized equations containing counterterms. The numerically efficient way of solving iteratively these latter equations is obtained by deriving at each order of the iteration new counterterms which evolve during the iteration process towards the counterterms determined based on the asymptotic behavior of the converged propagator. As shown at different values of the coupling, the use of these evolving counterterms accelerates the convergence of the solution of the equations.
BINARY ASTROMETRIC MICROLENSING WITH GAIA

We investigate whether or not Gaia can specify the binary fractions of massive stellar populations in the Galactic disk through astrometric microlensing. Furthermore, we study whether or not some information about their mass distributions can be inferred via this method. In this regard, we simulate the binary astrometric microlensing events due to massive stellar populations according to the Gaia observing strategy by considering (i) stellar-mass black holes, (ii) neutron stars, (iii) white dwarfs, and (iv) main-sequence stars as microlenses. The Gaia efficiency for detecting the binary signatures in binary astrometric microlensing events is ∼10%–20%. By calculating the optical depth due to the mentioned stellar populations, the numbers of the binary astrometric microlensing events being observed with Gaia with detectable binary signatures, for the binary fraction of about 0.1, are estimated to be 6, 11, 77, and 1316, respectively. Consequently, Gaia can potentially specify the binary fractions of these massive stellar populations. However, the binary fraction of black holes measured with this method has a large uncertainty owing to a low number of the estimated events. Knowing the binary fractions in massive stellar populations helps with studying the gravitational waves. Moreover, we investigate the number of massive microlenses for which Gaia specifies masses through astrometric microlensing of single lenses toward the Galactic bulge. The resulting efficiencies of measuring the mass of mentioned populations are 9.8%, 2.9%, 1.2%, and 0.8%, respectively. The numbers of their astrometric microlensing events being observed in the Gaia era in which the lens mass can be inferred with the relative error less than 0.5 toward the Galactic bulge are estimated as 45, 34, 76, and 786, respectively. Hence, Gaia potentially gives us some information about the mass distribution of these massive stellar populations.
In vitro performance of Lifetech IBS Angel™ (iron-based bioresorbable scaffold) stents during overdilation for use in pediatric patients

Objectives The objective of this study was to assess the mechanical performance of the Lifetech IBS Angel stents during overdilation as is often required in pediatric applications; including time of first fracture, foreshortening, and the type of fracturing that occurs. Materials and methods In vitro testing was performed and repeated for each stent three times under physiologic conditions with continuous audiovisual imaging allowing for post-testing evaluations. Assessment of sheath fit was also completed. Results A total of 47 stents on monorail system were overdilated to complete fracture after passing through either a 4 or 5 French sheath. First strut fracture occurred in 4 and 6 mm stents when they reached greater than 50% overexpansion. Larger stents could achieve at least 30% increased diameter prior to first strut fracture. No fragmentation of any of the stents was seen throughout testing. Conclusion The IBS Angel has thin struts allowing for a lower profile with increased maneuverability and use with smaller sheaths. Embolization potential of strut fragments was not seen. Increased diameter well beyond design parameters was seen in all with acceptable foreshortening.