bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Impact of prerelease methadone on mortality among people with HIV and opioid use disorder after prison release: results from a randomized and participant choice open-label trial in Malaysia
Authors: Bazazi Alexander R. , Culbert Gabriel J. , Wegman Martin P. , Heimer Robert , Kamarulzaman Adeeba , Altice Frederick L.
Published: November 2022

Introduction

Mortality is elevated after prison release and may be higher in people with HIV and opioid use disorder (OUD). Maintenance with opioid agonist therapy (OAT) like methadone or buprenorphine reduces mortality in people with OUD and may confer benefits to people with OUD and HIV leaving prison. Survival benefits of OAT, however, have not been evaluated prospectively in people with OUD and HIV leaving prison.

Methods

This study prospectively evaluated mortality after prison release and whether methadone initiated before release increased survival after release in a sample of men with HIV and OUD (n = 291). We linked national death records to data from a controlled trial of prerelease methadone initiation conducted from 2010 to 2014 with men with HIV and OUD imprisoned in Malaysia. Vital statistics were collected through 2015. Allocation to prerelease methadone was by randomization (n = 64) and participant choice (n = 246). Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate treatment effects of prerelease methadone on postrelease survival.

Results

Overall, 62 deaths occurred over 872.5 person-years (PY) of postrelease follow-up, a crude mortality rate of 71.1 deaths per 1000 PY (95% confidence interval [CI] 54.5–89.4). Most deaths were of infectious etiology, mostly related to HIV. In a modified intention-to-treat analysis, the impact of prerelease methadone on postrelease mortality was consistent with a null effect in unadjusted (hazard ratio [HR] 1.3, 95% CI 0.6–3.1) and covariate-adjusted (HR 1.2, 95% CI 0.5–2.8) models. Predictors of mortality were educational level (HR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0–1.8), pre-incarceration alcohol use (HR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1–3.9), and lower CD4+ T-lymphocyte count (HR 0.8 per 100-cell/mL increase, 95% CI 0.7–1.0).

Conclusions

Postrelease mortality in this sample of men with HIV and OUD was extraordinarily high, and most deaths were likely of infectious etiology. No effect of prerelease methadone on postrelease mortality was observed, which may be due to study limitations or an epidemiological context in which inadequately treated HIV, and not inadequately treated OUD, is the main cause of death after prison release.

Trial registration: NCT02396979. Retrospectively registered 24/03/2015
Expression changes of Tim-3 as one of supplementary indicators for monitoring prognosis of liver pathological changes in chronic HBV infection
Authors: Wu Shanshan , Du Xinfang , Lou Guohua , Yu Shuihong , Lai Kecong , Qi Jinjin , Ni Shujun , Chen Zhi , Chen Feng
Published: November 2022

Purpose

This study was designed to analyze the liver tissue changes among the CHB patients who received treatment for at least 6 months and follow-up for at least 1 year, together with the correlation between the different disease condition and serum markers.

Methods

One-hundred and eighty-five CHB patients underwent antiviral therapy for at least 6 months were enrolled. In the 12-month follow-up, ultrasonography-guided biopsy was performed. The patients were grouped based on the serum markers and pathological changes in liver tissues. Then we determined the serum markers, virological tests and Tim-3 expression among these groups.

Results

Antiviral therapy significantly reduced liver inflammation indicators and serum Tim-3 level. However, the fibrosis process of liver tissue was not changed, and there are still disputes on the serum marker and hepatic lesion outcomes. Under normal liver function or negative hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) of CHB patients, there might be consensus between Tim-3 change and liver pathological outcome. According to the liver tissue inflammation and fibrosis conditions, Tim-3 was positively correlated with liver function indices. Besides, it was also related to fibrosis stage and inflammation grade.

Conclusion

There were inconsistent changes between serum markers and liver tissue conditions after anti-viral therapy. Tim-3 expression was more suitable to indicate the changes of liver inflammatory and fibrosis response to some extent than ALT and AST. It may serve as a certain indicator to predict the CHB prognosis, which could be used as one of the monitoring indicators in liver pathological changes of chronic HBV infection, especially in monitoring liver tissue inflammation.
Time to surgery and survival in breast cancer
Authors: An Doyeon , Choi Jihye , Lee Jaebin , Kim Jong-Yeup , Kwon Seonguk , Kim Jungeun , Lee Seunghee , Jeon Seongwoo , Lee Chungchun , Lee Suehyun , Woo Hyekyung
Published: November 2022

Background

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the time from diagnosis to breast cancer surgery on breast cancer patients’ prognosis.

Methods

Of the 1900 patients diagnosed with invasive (stage 1–3) breast cancer who underwent surgery in KUH between 2012 and 2019, 279 patients were enrolled in this study. All patients, including those who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, were classified as Model 1 subjects, and those who received immediate surgical treatment were classified as Model 2 subjects. We conducted a Cox regression analysis to identify prognostic factors of breast cancer associated with the time from diagnosis to surgery.

Results

The univariate results indicated a sharp drop in both groups’ survival rates when the time to surgery was delayed for more than 8 weeks (Model 1 p = 0.000; Model 2 p = 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, the hazard ratio (HR) of Model 1increased (HR = 6.84, 95% CI 1.06–44.25) in response to a delay in surgery of more than 8 weeks. Smoking and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system had a negative effect on breast cancer prognosis, while hormone therapy had a positive effect.

Conclusion

For all patients, a delay in breast cancer surgery of more than 8 weeks was inversely associated with survival.
Epidemiology of type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Kazakhstan: data from unified National Electronic Health System 2014–2019
Authors: Galiyeva Dinara , Gusmanov Arnur , Sakko Yesbolat , Issanov Alpamys , Atageldiyeva Kuralay , Kadyrzhanuly Kainar , Nurpeissova Aiymzhan , Rakhimzhanova Marzhan , Durmanova Aigul , Sarria-Santamera Antonio , Gaipov Abduzhappar
Published: November 2022

Background

We aimed to explore descriptive epidemiology of T1 and T2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and to investigate demographic factors and comorbidities associated with all-cause mortality by aggregating and utilizing large-scale administrative healthcare data from the Unified National Electronic Health System (UNEHS) of Kazakhstan for 2014–2019 years period.

Methods

A total of 475,539 individuals were included in the analyses. The median years of follow-up for Type 1 DM patients accounted for 4.7 years and 4.5 years in Type 2 DM patients. We used Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test to calculate failure function and differences in survival by age, sex, ethnicity, and comorbidities with all-cause mortality for Type 1 and Type 2 DM. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to obtain crude and adjusted hazard ratios.

Results

Prevalence of Type 1 and Type 2 DM increased 1.7 times from 2014 to 2019. Mortality of Type 1 and Type 2 DM also increased 4 times and 6 times from 2014 to 2019, respectively. Male sex, older age and Kazakh ethnicity were associated with a higher risk of all-cause death compared to females, younger age and other nationalities than Kazakh in patients with Type 1 and Type 2 DM. Coronary artery disease, diabetic nephropathy, stroke, amputations and neoplasms were associated with a higher risk of all-cause death.

Conclusion

The prevalence and mortality rate of Type 1 and Type 2 DM increased during the years 2014–2019 in Kazakhstan. Male sex, older age and Kazakh ethnicity were associated with a higher risk of all-cause death compared to females, younger age and other nationalities than Kazakh. Coronary artery disease, diabetic nephropathy, stroke, amputations and neoplasms were associated with a higher risk of all-cause death.
Factors explaining men’s intentions to support their partner’s participation in cervical cancer screening
Authors: Dsouza Jyoshma Preema , Van den Broucke Stephan , Pattanshetty Sanjay , Dhoore William
Published: November 2022

Background

Cervical cancer represents a high burden of disease. Many women in low- and middle-income countries face opposition from their partners and families to undergo cervical cancer screening. Identifying the social, cultural, and psychological factors that underly the opposition to screening by male partners is an important step towards reducing barriers for men to support their wives’ participation in cervical screening. This study explored the role of structural and psychological factors deriving from theoretical models as determinants of Indian men’s opposition to their partners being screened for cervical cancer.

Methods

A survey among 500 sexually active males was conducted between April 2020 and August 2020 to measure knowledge of cervical cancer and screening, awareness of screening possibilities, attitude towards screening, perceived barriers to screening, and health literacy. Regression analysis was performed to assess which of the potential factors contributed to the intention to support their wives’ screening.

Results

The majority of participants had very poor knowledge and awareness about cervical cancer and screening procedures, tended towards a negative attitude towards screening, and perceived several structural barriers. Attitude towards the screening procedure and routine participation in general screening significantly predicted their intention to support their wives’ screening for cervical cancer. Education moderated the association between knowledge and awareness and the intention to support their wives’ screening.

Conclusion

As women often rely on their spouses’ financial and emotional support of cervical screening, there is a need for men to be encouraged to support their wives’ screening participation. Programs to encourage men to support their wives’ cervical screening should focus on their attitude towards screening, educate about cervical cancer and screening procedures, and reduce perceived barriers.
Systematic characterization of seed overlap microRNA cotargeting associated with lupus pathogenesis
Authors: Kitai Hiroki , Kato Noritoshi , Ogami Koichi , Komatsu Shintaro , Watanabe Yu , Yoshino Seiko , Koshi Eri , Tsubota Shoma , Funahashi Yoshio , Maeda Takahiro , Furuhashi Kazuhiro , Ishimoto Takuji , Kosugi Tomoki , Maruyama Shoichi , Kadomatsu Kenji , Suzuki Hiroshi I.
Published: November 2022

Background

Combinatorial gene regulation by multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) is widespread and closely spaced target sites often act cooperatively to achieve stronger repression (“neighborhood” miRNA cotargeting). While miRNA cotarget sites are suggested to be more conserved and implicated in developmental control, the pathological significance of miRNA cotargeting remains elusive.

Results

Here, we report the pathogenic impacts of combinatorial miRNA regulation on inflammation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In the SLE mouse model, we identified the downregulation of two miRNAs, miR-128 and miR-148a, by TLR7 stimulation in plasmacytoid dendritic cells. Functional analyses using human cell lines demonstrated that miR-128 and miR-148a additively target KLF4 via extensively overlapping target sites (“seed overlap” miRNA cotargeting) and suppress the inflammatory responses. At the transcriptome level, “seed overlap” miRNA cotargeting increases susceptibility to downregulation by two miRNAs, consistent with additive but not cooperative recruitment of two miRNAs. Systematic characterization further revealed that extensive “seed overlap” is a prevalent feature among broadly conserved miRNAs. Highly conserved target sites of broadly conserved miRNAs are largely divided into two classes—those conserved among eutherian mammals and from human toCoelacanth, and the latter, including KLF4-cotargeting sites, has a stronger association with both “seed overlap” and “neighborhood” miRNA cotargeting. Furthermore, a deeply conserved miRNA target class has a higher probability of haplo-insufficient genes.

Conclusions

Our study collectively suggests the complexity of distinct modes of miRNA cotargeting and the importance of their perturbations in human diseases.
Intestinal gluconeogenesis is downregulated in pediatric patients with celiac disease
Authors: Karlson Olof , Arnell Henrik , Gudjonsdottir Audur H. , Agardh Daniel , Torinsson Naluai Åsa
Published: November 2022

Background

Untreated celiac disease (CD) patients have increased levels of blood glutamine and a lower duodenal expression of glutaminase (GLS). Intestinal gluconeogenesis (IGN) is a process through which glutamine is turned into glucose in the small intestine, for which GLS is crucial. Animal studies suggest impaired IGN may have long-term effects on metabolic control and be associated with the development of type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to thoroughly investigate IGN at the gene expression level in children with untreated celiac disease.

Methods

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to quantify the expression of 11 target genes related to IGN using the delta-delta Ct method with three reference genes (GUSB, IPO8, and YWHAZ) in duodenal biopsies collected from 84 children with untreated celiac disease and 58 disease controls.

Results

Significantly lower expression of nine target genes involved in IGN was seen in duodenal biopsies from CD patients compared with controls: FBP1, G6PC, GLS, GPT1, PCK1, PPARGC1A, SLC2A2, SLC5A1, and SLC6A19. No significant difference in the expression was observed for G6PC3 or GOT1.

Conclusions

Children with untreated celiac disease have lower expression of genes important for IGN. Further studies are warranted to disentangle whether this is a consequence of intestinal inflammation or due to an impaired metabolic pathway shared with other chronic metabolic diseases. Impaired IGN could be a mechanism behind the increased risk of NAFLD seen in CD patients.
Thrombin induces IL-8/CXCL8 expression by DCLK1-dependent RhoA and YAP activation in human lung epithelial cells
Authors: Yuliani Fara Silvia , Chen Jing-Yun , Cheng Wen-Hao , Wen Heng-Ching , Chen Bing-Chang , Lin Chien-Huang
Published: November 2022

Background

Doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) has been recognized as a marker of cancer stem cell in several malignancies. Thrombin is crucial in asthma severity as it can promote IL-8/CXCL8 production in lung epithelial cells, which is a potent chemoattractant for neutrophils. However, the pathologic role of DCLK1 in asthma and its involvement in thrombin-stimulated IL-8/CXCL8 expression remain unknown.

Methods

IL-8/CXCL8, thrombin, and DCLK1 expression were observed in the lung tissues of severe asthma patients and ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthmatic mice model. A549 and BEAS-2B cells were either pretreated with inhibitors or small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) before being treated with thrombin. IL-8/CXCL8 expression and the molecules involved in signaling pathway were performed using ELISA, luciferase activity assay, Western blot, or ChIP assay.

Results

IL-8/CXCL8, thrombin, and DCLK1 were overexpressed in the lung tissues of severe asthma patients and ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthmatic mice model. Our in vitro study found that DCLK siRNA or LRKK2-IN-1 (DCLK1 inhibitor) attenuated IL-8/CXCL8 release after thrombin induction in A549 and BEAS-2B cells. Thrombin activated DCLK1, RhoA, and YAP in a time-dependent manner, in which DCLK1 siRNA inhibited RhoA and YAP activation. YAP was dephosphorylated on the Ser127 site after thrombin stimulation, resulting in YAP translocation to the nucleus from the cytosol. DCLK1, RhoA and YAP activation following thrombin stimulation were inhibited by U0126 (ERK inhibitor). Moreover, DCLK1 and YAP siRNA inhibited κB-luciferase activity. Thrombin stimulated the recruitment of YAP and p65 to the NF-κB site of the IL-8/CXCL8 promoter and was inhibited by DCLK1 siRNA.

Conclusions

Thrombin activates the DCLK1/RhoA signaling pathway, which promotes YAP activation and translocation to the nucleus from the cytosol, resulting in YAP/p65 formation, and binding to the NF-κB site, which enhances IL-8/CXCL8 expression. DCLK1 might be essential in thrombin-stimulated IL-8/CXCL8 expression in asthmatic lungs and indicates a potential therapeutic strategy for severe asthma treatment.
Impact of aerial humidity on seasonal malaria: an ecological study in Zambia
Authors: Duque Carolina , Lubinda Mukuma , Matoba Japhet , Sing’anga Caison , Stevenson Jennifer , Shields Timothy , Shiff Clive J.
Published: November 2022

Background

Seasonal patterns of malaria cases in many parts of Africa are generally associated with rainfall, yet in the dry seasons, malaria transmission declines but does not always cease. It is important to understand what conditions support these periodic cases. Aerial moisture is thought to be important for mosquito survival and ability to forage, but its role during the dry seasons has not been well studied. During the dry season aerial moisture is minimal, but intermittent periods may arise from the transpiration of peri-domestic trees or from some other sources in the environment. These periods may provide conditions to sustain pockets of mosquitoes that become active and forage, thereby transmitting malaria. In this work, humidity along with other ecological variables that may impact malaria transmission have been examined.

Methods

Negative binomial regression models were used to explore the association between peri-domestic tree humidity and local malaria incidence. This was done using sensitive temperature and humidity loggers in the rural Southern Province of Zambia over three consecutive years. Additional variables including rainfall, temperature and elevation were also explored.

Results

A negative binomial model with no lag was found to best fit the malaria cases for the full year in the evaluated sites of the Southern Province of Zambia. Local tree and granary night-time humidity and temperature were found to be associated with local health centre-reported incidence of malaria, while rainfall and elevation did not significantly contribute to this model. A no lag and one week lag model for the dry season alone also showed a significant effect of humidity, but not temperature, elevation, or rainfall.

Conclusion

The study has shown that throughout the dry season, periodic conditions of sustained humidity occur that may permit foraging by resting mosquitoes, and these periods are associated with increased incidence of malaria cases. These results shed a light on conditions that impact the survival of the common malaria vector species, Anopheles arabiensis, in arid seasons and suggests how they emerge to forage when conditions permit.
Malaria attributable fractions with changing transmission intensity: Bayesian latent class vs logistic models
Authors: Mwai Kennedy , Nkumama Irene , Thairu Amos , Mburu James , Odera Dennis , Kimathi Rinter , Nyamako Lydia , Tuju James , Kinyanjui Samson , Musenge Eustasius , Osier Faith
Published: November 2022

Background

Asymptomatic carriage of malaria parasites is common in high transmission intensity areas and confounds clinical case definitions for research studies. This is important for investigations that aim to identify immune correlates of protection from clinical malaria. The proportion of fevers attributable to malaria parasites is widely used to define different thresholds of parasite density associated with febrile episodes. The varying intensity of malaria transmission was investigated to check whether it had a significant impact on the parasite density thresholds. The same dataset was used to explore an alternative statistical approach, using the probability of developing fevers as a choice over threshold cut-offs. The former has been reported to increase predictive power.

Methods

Data from children monitored longitudinally between 2005 and 2017 from Junju and Chonyi in Kilifi, Kenya were used. Performance comparison of Bayesian-latent class and logistic power models in estimating malaria attributable fractions and probabilities of having fever given a parasite density with changing malaria transmission intensity was done using Junju cohort. Zero-inflated beta regressions were used to assess the impact of using probabilities to evaluate anti-merozoite antibodies as correlates of protection, compared with multilevel binary regression using data from Chonyi and Junju.

Results

Malaria transmission intensity declined from over 49% to 5% between 2006 and 2017, respectively. During this period, malaria attributable fraction varied between 27–59% using logistic regression compared to 10–36% with the Bayesian latent class approach. Both models estimated similar patterns of fevers attributable to malaria with changing transmission intensities. The Bayesian latent class model performed well in estimating the probabilities of having fever, while the latter was efficient in determining the parasite density threshold. However, compared to the logistic power model, the Bayesian algorithm yielded lower estimates for both attributable fractions and probabilities of fever. In modelling the association of merozoite antibodies and clinical malaria, both approaches resulted in comparable estimates, but the utilization of probabilities had a better statistical fit.

Conclusions

Malaria attributable fractions, varied with an overall decline in the malaria transmission intensity in this setting but did not significantly impact the outcomes of analyses aimed at identifying immune correlates of protection. These data confirm the statistical advantage of using probabilities over binary data.
Aging, inflammaging and immunosenescence as risk factors of severe COVID-19
Authors: Tizazu Anteneh Mehari , Mengist Hylemariam Mihiretie , Demeke Gebreselassie
Published: November 2022

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory infectious disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 is characterized by having a heterogeneous disease course, ranging from asymptomatic and mild symptoms to more severe and critical cases. In most cases the severity of COVID-19 is related to host factors, especially deregulation of the immune response in patients. Even if COVID-19 indiscriminately affects individuals of different age group, ethnicity and economic status; most severe cases and disproportional mortality occur in elderly individuals. This point out that aging is one risk factor for unfavourable clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients. The biology of aging is a complex process; Aging can alter the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs resulting in impaired response to stress. Alongside with other systems, the immune system is also affected with the aging process. Immunosenescence is an age associated change in the immune system that affects the overall response to immunological challenges in the elderly. Similarly, apart from the normal inflammatory process, aging is associated with a low grade, sterile, chronic inflammation which is termed as inflammaging. We hypothesized that inflammaging and immunosenescence could play an important role in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and poor recovery from COVID-19 in elderly individuals. This review summarizes the changes in the immune system with age and how these changes play part in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 and clinical outcome of COVID-19 which could add to the understanding of age associated targeted immunotherapy in the elderly.
Birthweight, childhood body size, and timing of puberty and risks of breast cancer by menopausal status and tumor receptor subtypes
Authors: Pedersen Dorthe C. , Jensen Britt W. , Tjønneland Anne , Andersen Zorana J. , Mellemkjaer Lene , Bjerregaard Lise G. , Aarestrup Julie , Baker Jennifer L.
Published: November 2022

Background

Associations of birthweight, childhood body size and pubertal timing with breast cancer risks by menopausal status and tumor receptor subtypes are inconclusive. Thus, we investigated these associations in a population-based cohort of Danish women.

Methods

We studied 162,419 women born between 1930 and 1996 from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register. The register includes information on birthweight, measured childhood weights and heights at the age of 7–13 years, and computed ages at the onset of the growth spurt (OGS) and at peak height velocity (PHV). The Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group database provided information on breast cancer (n = 7510), including estrogen receptor (ER), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and menopausal status. Hormone replacement therapy use came from the Danish National Prescription Registry. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by Cox regression.

Results

We found that birthweight was not associated with any breast cancer subtypes. While childhood BMI was not statistically significantly associated with ER+ tumors nor consistently with ER− tumors among pre-menopausal women, consistent inverse associations were found among postmenopausal women. At the age of 7 years, the HRs for postmenopausal ER+ and ER− tumors were 0.90 (95% CI 0.87–0.93) and 0.84 (95% CI 0.79–0.91) per BMI z-score, respectively. Similarly, childhood BMI was inversely associated with pre- and postmenopausal HER2− tumors, but not with HER2+ tumors. Childhood height was positively associated with both pre- and postmenopausal ER+ tumors, but not with ER− tumors. At the age of 7 years, the HRs for postmenopausal ER+ and ER− tumors were 1.09 (95% CI 1.06–1.12) and 1.02 (95% CI 0.96–1.09) per height z-score, respectively. In general, childhood height was positively associated with HER2+ and HER2− tumors among pre- and postmenopausal women. Ages at OGS and PHV were not associated with any breast cancer subtypes.

Conclusions

We showed that a high BMI and short stature in childhood are associated with reduced risks of certain breast cancer subtypes. Thus, childhood body composition may play a role in the development of breast cancer.
Further study on domains and quasihyperbolic distances
Authors: Ding Shusen , Helliwell Dylan , Pandya Gavin , Yae Arya
Published: November 2022

We establish constructive geometric tools for determining when a domain is $L^{s}$

L
s

-averaging and obtain upper and lower bounds for the $L^{s}$

L
s

-integrals of the quasihyperbolic distance. We also construct examples that are helpful to understand our geometric tools and the relationship between p-Poincaré domains and $L^{s}$

L
s

-averaging domains. Finally, finite unions of $L^{s}(\mu )$

L
s

(
μ
)
-averaging domains are explored.
Effect of povidone-iodine and propanol-based mecetronium ethyl sulphate on antimicrobial resistance and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Barakat Nada A. , Rasmy Salwa A. , Hosny Alaa El-Dien M. S. , Kashef Mona T.
Published: November 2022

Background

Reports are available on cross-resistance between antibiotics and biocides. We evaluated the effect of povidone-iodine (PVP-I) and propanol-based mecetronium ethyl sulphate (PBM) on resistance development, antibiotics cross-resistance, and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus.

Methods

The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of PVP-I and PBM were determined against S. aureus ATCC 25923 using the agar-dilution method. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 was subjected to subinhibitory concentrations of the tested biocides in ten consecutive passages followed by five passages in a biocide-free medium; MIC was determined after each passage and after the fifth passage in the biocide-free medium. The developed resistant mutant was tested for cross-resistance to different antibiotics using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles as well as biocides’ MIC were determined for 97 clinical S. aureus isolates. Isolates were categorized into susceptible and resistant to the tested biocides based on MIC distribution pattern. The virulence of the biocide-resistant mutant and the effect of subinhibitory concentrations of biocides on virulence (biofilm formation, hemolysin activity, and expression of virulence-related genes) were tested.

Results

PVP-I and PBM MIC were 5000 μg/mL and 664 μg/mL. No resistance developed to PVP-I but a 128-fold increase in PBM MIC was recorded, by repeated exposure. The developed PBM-resistant mutant acquired resistance to penicillin, cefoxitin, and ciprofloxacin. No clinical isolates were PVP-I-resistant while 48.5% were PBM-resistant. PBM-resistant isolates were more significantly detected among multidrug-resistant isolates. PVP-I subinhibitory concentrations (¼ and ½ of MIC) completely inhibited biofilm formation and significantly reduced hemolysin activity (7% and 0.28%, respectively). However, subinhibitory concentrations of PBM caused moderate reduction in biofilm activity and non-significant reduction in hemolysin activity. The ½ MIC of PVP-I significantly reduced the expression of hla, ebps, eno, fib, icaA, and icaD genes. The virulence of the biocide-resistant mutant was similar to that of parent strain.

Conclusion

PVP-I is a highly recommended antiseptic for use in healthcare settings to control the evolution of high-risk clones. Exposure to PVP-I causes no resistance-development risk in S. aureus, with virulence inhibition by subinhibitory concentrations. Also, special protocols need to be followed during PBM use in hospitals to avoid the selection of resistant strains.
Heat shock protein-70 is elevated in childhood primary immune thrombocytopenia
Authors: Ge Jiao , Liu Yan
Published: November 2022

Background

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired autoimmune disorder characterized by the destruction of the platelets resulting from autoimmune recognition and subsequent attack. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are directly associated with progression and pathogenesis in some specific autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the serum expression of HSP-70 in ITP children and healthy controls.

Materials and methods

A total of 86 children aged 1–6 years were enrolled in the study. The participants were divided into 20 newly diagnosed ITP (ndITP), 34 chronic ITP (cITP) patients and 32 healthy children. The white blood cells and platelet counts were determined and compared between the groups. HSP-70 serum levels were analyzed by sandwich ELISA. Data analysis was done using SPSS and the data variables assessment was done through histogram, probability plots and Shapiro–Wilk tests to determine normal distribution.

Results

The white blood cell counts were 8.9 (4.2–10.4) for new diagnosis ITP, 7.1(3.9–11.9) for the chronic ITP group and 7.0 (4.3–9.5) for the healthy controls. The platelet counts were significantly increased in the chronic ITP group, 83.5(31.7–297) compared to the ndITP group 27.4 (3.7–63.7), but significantly lower compared to the healthy controls 271(172–462) (P = 0.0009). There were significantly increased HSP-70 serum levels in cITP patients compared to the ndITP and the healthy group. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the serum HSP-70 level and the thrombocyte counts among the ITP children.

Conclusions

HSP-70 has a role in the progression of childhood ITP. Increased HSP-70 level is associated with the severity of childhood primary ITP.
Potential Mediators of Oxaliplatin-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy From Adjuvant Therapy in Stage III Colon Cancer: Findings From CALGB (Alliance)/SWOG 80702
Authors: Lee Seohyuk , Ma Chao , Shi Qian , Kumar Pankaj , Couture Felix , Kuebler Philip , Krishnamurthi Smitha , Lewis DeQuincy , Tan Benjamin , Goldberg Richard M. , Venook Alan , Blanke Charles , O'Reilly Eileen M. , Shields Anthony F. , Meyerhardt Jeffrey A.
Published: November 2022

PURPOSE

We sought to evaluate the independent and interactive associations of planned treatment duration, celecoxib use, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), diabetes mellitus, and vitamin B6 with oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy (OIPN) among patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in a clinical trial.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective, observational study of 2,450 patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in the CALGB/SWOG 80702 trial, randomly assigned to 6 versus 12 cycles of adjuvant fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin chemotherapy with or without 3 years of celecoxib. OIPN was reported using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) during and following completion of chemotherapy and the FACT/GOG-NTX-13 15-17 months after random assignment. Multivariate analyses were adjusted for baseline sociodemographic and clinical factors.

RESULTS

Patients assigned to 12 treatment cycles, relative to 6, were significantly more likely to experience higher-grade CTCAE- and FACT/GOG-NTX-13-reported neuropathy and longer times to resolution, while neither celecoxib nor vitamin B6 intake attenuated OIPN. Exercising ≥ 9 MET-hours per week after treatment relative to < 9 was associated with improvements in FACT/GOG-NTX-13-reported OIPN (adjusted difference in means, 1.47; 95% CI, 0.49 to 2.45; P = .003). Compared with patients with baseline BMIs < 25, those with BMIs ≥ 25 were at significantly greater risk of developing higher-grade CTCAE-reported OIPN during (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.40; P = .05) and following completion (adjusted odds ratio, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.50; P = .04) of oxaliplatin treatment. Patients with diabetes were significantly more likely to experience worse FACT/GOG-NTX-13-reported neuropathy relative to those without (adjusted difference in means, –2.0; 95% CI, –3.3 to –0.73; P = .002). There were no significant interactions between oxaliplatin treatment duration and any of these potentially modifiable exposures.

CONCLUSION

Lower physical activity, higher BMI, diabetes, and longer planned treatment duration, but not celecoxib use or vitamin B6 intake, may be associated with significantly increased OIPN severity.
Increased Circulating Cortisol After Vaginal Birth Is Associated With Increased FGF19 Secretion in Neonatal Pigs
Authors: Vonderohe Caitlin , Guthrie Gregory , Stoll Barbara , Hebib Valeria Melendez , Dawson Harry , Burrin Douglas
Published: November 2022

The influence of birth modality (scheduled cesarean or spontaneous vaginal) on the development of the newborn has been a source of controversy in neonatology. The impact of cesarean vs vaginal birth on the development of bile acid and fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) signaling is unknown. Our aim was to determine the effect of birth modality and gestational age (preterm vs term) on plasma hormone levels, bile acid pool distribution, expression of genes in the bile acid-FXR-FGF19 pathway, and plasma levels of FGF19 at birth and on day 3 of life in neonatal pigs. Four sows underwent cesarean delivery on gestation day 105 (n = 2) and 114 (n = 2; term = 115 days), and 2 additional sows were allowed to farrow at term (gestation days 112 and 118). Piglets were euthanized at birth (Term-Vaginal n = 6; Term-Cesarean n = 8; Preterm n = 10) for tissue and blood collection, and the remaining pigs received total parenteral nutrition then were fed enterally on day 3 (Term-Vaginal n = 8; Term-Cesarean n = 10; Preterm n = 8), before blood and tissue were collected. Piglets born vaginally had a markedly (30-fold) higher plasma FGF19 at birth than term pigs born via cesarean delivery, and 70-fold higher than preterm pigs (P < 0.001). However, distal ileum FGF19 gene expression was similar in all groups (P > 0.05). Plasma FGF19 positively correlated with plasma cortisol (r = 0.58; P < 0.05) and dexamethasone treatment increased ileal FGF19 expression in cultured pig tissue explants and human enteroids. Our findings suggest that exposure to maternal or endogenous glucocorticoids in the perinatal period may upregulate the development of the bile acid–FGF19 pathway.
Paper Bomb Warfare: Propaganda Leaflets about Consumerism in South Korea during the Park Chung Hee Period (1961–1979)
Authors: Lee Anna Jungeun
Published: November 2022

This article examines South Korean propaganda leaflets as a border-crossing medium designed as “paper bombs,” or psychological weapons, of the continued Korean War during the Park Chung Hee period. Instead of focusing on the militaristic elements of the earlier leaflets, this article traces the propaganda leaflets’ evolving content about daily economic life and consumption. Historically embedded in the larger narratives of political, ideological, and institutional changes of society in postwar South Korea, the article captures both the materiality and transient nature of the leaflets themselves and the purpose they served as cultural advertisement tools signaling the shifting atmosphere of the Cold War context in Korea. In the leaflets, leisure, consumption, and the pleasures of shopping were exaggerated and magnified, intended to entice the North Korean population and invite them to a different way of life, the “everyday life of consumption” in material comfort and a lifestyle of well-being. Stimulating a way to rethink political penetration into private economic lives, the leaflets became printed windows through which to visualize the forbidden possibilities of capitalism and consumerist modernity, generating internal conflict and the desire to defect to South Korea.
Politics of Literary Materiality: Yun Ihyŏng and Postmillennial South Korean Literature
Authors: Chung Jae Won Edward
Published: November 2022

In the 1990s, South Korean literature underwent a crisis of relevance due to the changing materiality of cultural production as shaped by globalization, neoliberalism, and technological saturation. Nevertheless, the postmillennial decades have witnessed an efflorescence of new styles and voices in the literary field. Abroad, South Korean literature in translation has achieved unprecedented success in Anglophone publishing. At home, #MeToo has converged with structural critiques against the literary institution, animated by online social movements and new paradigms for understanding relationships between politics, affect, and everyday life. This article begins by exploring these phenomena through the framework of “literary materiality,” understood as a set of contradictions about tangible and intangible properties distributed across intransitivity of signs, book-as-thing, codes and networks, material conditions of writerly life, and entities that confer and mediate literary value. The article goes on to examine the case of Yun Ihyŏng, whose oeuvre and activism have mobilized against the culture of literary commodification operating immanently in and across these forms. This article argues that her attempt to claim moral autonomy from the South Korean literary system is a promising vector in the ongoing struggle to dis-alienate literary culture in the age of neoliberal globalization.
Harold Cousins’s Plaiton Sculpture
Authors: Kroiz Lauren
Published: November 2022

In 1971, Harold Cousins published an essay explaining the sculptures that he had begun creating in the mid-1950s, following his relocation in October 1949 from New York to Paris. Cousins described his series named Plaiton, his own neologism combining the English word plate with the French word laiton (brass). This linguistic combination paralleled Cousins’s description of himself as a “sculptor-welder,” a practice that grew from experiments in oxyacetylene welding while studying in Paris with funding from the GI Bill. Providing the first scholarly analysis of sculptor Cousins’s rich career, this article recovers the artist’s early biography through family archives, including correspondence and period criticism. It then examines Cousins’s early artwork and his own description of his artistic practice culminating in Plaiton. Finally, it considers Cousins’s 1950s sculptures, particularly Plaiton Suspendu, and speculates on its relation to his later work. In considering Cousins’s sculpture in relation to racial constructions of the immediate postwar period, I draw on prior scholarship focused on postwar African American artists in Paris. I also look to studies of the ways Black artists employed abstraction—histories that often begin in the mid-1960s or 1970s. In examining the mid-1950s Plaiton works, I hope to both bring Cousins and his work back to visibility and suggest that this history actually began substantially earlier.
Black Transnational Resistance
Authors: Silberstein Elodie
Published: November 2022

Look Back at It (2016) is a cutting-edge interpretation of Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) by African American multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome. The work is a collage of magazine cuttings. The action is set in the vogue ballroom scene, a counterculture sparked in the 1970s by the Black and Latinx Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) communities in New York. The muses are disenfranchised African American trans women who have faced a long-standing subjugation anchored in America’s history of racial slavery and classed transphobic capitalism. Their bodies are made of a collage of dazzling jewels cut from glossy magazines that have rendered them invisible. Drawing on beauty politics, this article maps the visual repertoire of Newsome’s aesthetic and its geopolitical implications. A formal and contextual analysis highlights how the use of high jewelry alludes to the global trade in minerals—most specifically, the diamond industry’s spoliation of South Africa’s natural resources, pionered by British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Special attention is paid to the way Newsome’s subversion of the codes of high jewelry visually and conceptually echoes voguers’ transgression of high fashion in dance competitions. Newsome stages a transnational and transhistorical dialogue between two distinct but interconnected systems of oppression, imperialism and global capitalism, thus sketching a collective history of Black pain and of creative resilience, guided by trans women, that is essential at the time of the resurgence of global populist nationalistic discourses.
Black Life and Photographic Time
Authors: Wooden Isaiah Matthew
Published: November 2022

Photographer and video artist LaToya Ruby Frazier’s The Notion of Family series (2001–14) strikingly looks forward through the past. The project traces its origins to Frazier’s teen years growing up in the industrial suburb of Braddock, Pennsylvania, a once-thriving mill town just nine miles outside of Pittsburgh that drew many African Americans northward in the decades following the failures of Reconstruction. Braddock began experiencing rapid decline in the 1970s when American steel no longer dominated the global market. The Braddock that Frazier grew up in was characterized by many of the markers of industrial disintegration: widespread unemployment, decaying infrastructure, increased drug addiction, and palpable rage and despair about the collapse of the economy and local industry, among them. Frazier uses her photographic practice to document some of these developments and reckon with the implications and meanings of these changes in conditions for those suffering their consequences. Often central to and reflected in the artist’s work is a critique of narratives of progress. This article examines the ways The Notion of Family series bears witness to Black life experienced in real time while also demonstrating the impossibility of the dominant temporal order to account for Black living and being. Sharpening focus on several of the images of Frazier’s Grandma Ruby, featured in the series, The Notion of Family also examines how Frazier uses her photographic practice to refuse the kind of willful forgetting and violent obfuscating that insists upon rendering invisible or fungible Black people who have vitalized communities like Braddock for generations.
“Rubbed Inflections of Litany and Myth”
Authors: Kang Nancy
Published: November 2022

Ciguapas are mythical creatures, typically represented as naked, comely females with uniquely backward feet. Such anatomy renders their path virtually untraceable. Legends suggest they inhabit remote mountains and forests in the Dominican Republic, preying on men. This essay steps away from the predatory archetype, formulating a theory of women’s loss and mourning through the motif of “forward backwardness” epitomized by the ciguapa’s feet. Using selections from the work of Dominican American poet Rhina P. Espaillat (b. 1932), the author outlines the feminist paradigm of ciguapismo, a fundamentally paradoxical mode for understanding how women endure in times of personal grief, awareness of aging, and under the shadow of sexual violence. It is also a form of environmental reckoning centered on collective care. Whether set in the Caribbean or the U.S. Dominican diaspora, ciguapismo in Espaillat’s poetry offers a critical resource, an imaginative faculty, and a liminal ontology for mapping transformative feminist intimacies against a backdrop of ever-encroaching human and environmental losses.
Unweepable Wounds Unwept
Authors: Lott Patricia Ann
Published: November 2022

This essay analyzes Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig (1859) as a book of lamentations for its bereaved black subject’s mother loss, social death, and prematurely ended girlhood. More specifically, it examines a daughter’s devastation over her natal alienation, violent domination, and general degradation within a hurtful herstory in which white motherhood and white mistresshood are sisters in subjugation. The author literarily autopsies Nig’s raciogenesis as black, her sociopolitical genealogy as enslaved, and her etiology as melancholic. This essay conceptualizes the domestic maternal passage as her transfer from white mother to mistress, a passage that sets in motion her exile from home and entrance into the hell of slavery. This passage is procreative of her social death and an open wound in her memory of mother loss and her mother hunger. Moreover, she is plagued by racial melancholia insofar as she bewails being governed as black and covets whiteness. Nig tends to her inner wounds by mourning, but social death chokes off her measures to work through her losses. This affective asphyxiation illustrates that her psychic condition arises not from an inner inability to digest loss but from external impediments that forcibly prescribe her inconsolability. This plight delineates Nig as a figure of unweepable wounds unwept in a grievous herstory.
Control of cranial ectomesenchyme fate by Nr2f nuclear receptors
Authors: Okeke Chukwuebuka , Paulding David , Riedel Alexa , Paudel Sandhya , Phelan Conrad , Teng Camilla S. , Barske Lindsey
Published: November 2022

Certain cranial neural crest cells are uniquely endowed with the ability to make skeletal cell types otherwise only derived from mesoderm. As these cells migrate into the pharyngeal arches, they downregulate neural crest specifier genes and upregulate so-called ectomesenchyme genes that are characteristic of skeletal progenitors. Although both external and intrinsic factors have been proposed as triggers of this transition, the details remain obscure. Here, we report the Nr2f nuclear receptors as intrinsic activators of the ectomesenchyme program: zebrafish nr2f5 single and nr2f2;nr2f5 double mutants show marked delays in upregulation of ectomesenchyme genes, such as dlx2a, prrx1a, prrx1b, sox9a, twist1a and fli1a, and in downregulation of sox10, which is normally restricted to early neural crest and non-ectomesenchyme lineages. Mutation of sox10 fully rescued skeletal development in nr2f5 single but not nr2f2;nr2f5 double mutants, but the initial ectomesenchyme delay persisted in both. Sox10 perdurance thus antagonizes the recovery but does not explain the impaired ectomesenchyme transition. Unraveling the mechanisms of Nr2f function will help solve the enduring puzzle of how cranial neural crest cells transition to the skeletal progenitor state.