bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sun Protective Clothing and Sun Avoidance: The Most Critical Components of Photoprotection in Patients With Melanoma
Authors: Patel Sagar P. , Chien Anna L. 
Published: September 2020

BACKGROUND
Ultraviolet radiation is the main modifiable risk factor for melanoma which can be reduced by avoiding excess sun exposure.

OBJECTIVE
We sought to explore (1) sun protective practices, (2) effectiveness of these sun protective practices, and (3) vitamin D supplementation in patients with melanoma.

METHODS
Using the National Health Interview Survey, the authors conducted a cross-sectional analysis to investigate sun protective behaviors and sunburns among adults with melanoma compared with those without skin cancer. We calculated adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 95% confidence interval (95% CI), and p-values using logistic regression.

RESULTS
Patients with melanoma reported increased use of sun avoidance, shade, sunscreen, long sleeves, and hats, but had similar sunburn rates compared with those without skin cancer. Only sun avoidance and long sleeves were associated with decreased odds of sunburn. Patients with melanoma also reported decreased vitamin D supplementation.

CONCLUSION
Although it is reassuring that patients with melanoma practice sun protective behaviors, this does not always translate into reduced sunburns. Physicians should emphasize the importance of photoprotection, especially sun avoidance and sun protective clothing, to reduce future melanoma risk.
Air Conditioning and Heat-related Mortality
Authors: Sera Francesco , Hashizume Masahiro , Honda Yasushi , Lavigne Eric , Schwartz Joel , Zanobetti Antonella , Tobias Aurelio , Iñiguez Carmen , Vicedo-Cabrera Ana M. , Blangiardo Marta , Armstrong Ben , Gasparrini Antonio 
Published: September 2020

Background:
Air conditioning has been proposed as one of the key factors explaining reductions of heat-related mortality risks observed in the last decades. However, direct evidence is still limited.

Methods:
We used a multi-country, multi-city, longitudinal design to quantify the independent role of air conditioning in reported attenuation in risk. We collected daily time series of mortality, mean temperature, and yearly air conditioning prevalence for 311 locations in Canada, Japan, Spain, and the USA between 1972 and 2009. For each city and sub-period, we fitted a quasi-Poisson regression combined with distributed lag non-linear models to estimate summer-only temperature–mortality associations. At the second stage, we used a novel multilevel, multivariate spatio-temporal meta-regression model to evaluate effect modification of air conditioning on heat–mortality associations. We computed relative risks and fractions of heat-attributable excess deaths under observed and fixed air conditioning prevalences.

Results:
Results show an independent association between increased air conditioning prevalence and lower heat-related mortality risk. Excess deaths due to heat decreased during the study periods from 1.40% to 0.80% in Canada, 3.57% to 1.10% in Japan, 3.54% to 2.78% in Spain, and 1.70% to 0.53% in the USA. However, increased air conditioning explains only part of the observed attenuation, corresponding to 16.7% in Canada, 20.0% in Japan, 14.3% in Spain, and 16.7% in the USA.

Conclusions:
Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that air conditioning represents an effective heat adaptation strategy, but suggests that other factors have played an equal or more important role in increasing the resilience of populations.
Modeling Desert Dust Exposures in Epidemiologic Short-term Health Effects Studies
Authors: Tobías Aurelio , Stafoggia Massimo 
Published: September 2020

Background:
Desert dust is assumed to have substantial adverse effects on human health. However, the epidemiologic evidence is still inconsistent, mainly because previous studies used different metrics for dust exposure and its corresponding epidemiologic analysis. We aim to provide a standardized approach to the methodology for evaluating the short-term health effects of desert dust.

Methods:
We reviewed the methods commonly used for dust exposure assessment, from use of a binary metric for the occurrence of desert dust advections to a continuous one for quantifying particulate matter attributable to desert dust. We presented alternative time-series Poisson regression models to evaluate the dust exposure–mortality association, from the underlying epidemiological and policy-relevant questions. A set of practical examples, using a real dataset from Rome, Italy, illustrate the different modeling approaches.

Results:
We estimate substantial effects of desert dust episodes and particulate matter with diameter <10 μm (PM10) on daily mortality. The estimated effect of non-desert PM10 was 1.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.4, 3.2) for a 10 μg/m3 rise of PM10 at lag 0 for dust days, 0.4% (95% CI = −0.1, 0.8) for non-dust days, and 0.6% (95% CI = −0.5, 2.1) for desert PM10.

Conclusion:
The standardized modeling approach we propose could be applicable elsewhere, in and near hot spots, which could lead to more consistent evidence on the health effects of desert dust from future studies.
Dual-tracer radionuclide imaging in hyperparathyroidism: thallium-201 parathyroid scintigraphy revisited
Authors: Siraj Qaisar Hussain , Javaid Amir , Rasulova Nigora 
Published: September 2020

Objectives

99mTc-sestamibi is the current radiopharmaceutical of choice for the localization of hyperactive lesions of the parathyroid glands in patients with hyperparathyroidism. However, there are multiple factors that adversely affect the accumulation and retention 99mTc-sestamibi in the hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue, resulting in a false-negative scan. The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of an incremental diagnostic role of thallium-201 parathyroid scintigraphy in patients with presumably false-negative 99mTc-sestamibi scan results.

Patients and methods
The study comprised of 22 patients including 16 with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) and 6 with secondary hyperparathyroidism where 99mTc-sestambi scan was initially negative, inconclusive or where additional lesions were suspected on the single-photon computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) scan with the CT component identifying lesion(s) without significant 99mTc-sestamibi uptake.

Results
The results of our study show that in 22 patients (5 male, 17 female; age range 26–81; median age 53.4) further imaging with thallium-201 SPECT/CT scan showed 46.5% additional lesions in patients with hyperparathyroidism caused by an adenomatous or hyperplastic parathyroid lesion. In patients with PHPT caused by an adenomatous or hyperplastic parathyroid lesion, further imaging with thallium-201 showed 59% additional hyperactive parathyroid lesions. In patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism, further imaging with thallium-201 SPECT/CT showed additional 33.3% hyperplastic parathyroid lesions.

Conclusion
The results of this pilot study strongly advocate a role for thallium parathyroid SPECT/CT imaging in patients with primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism where the initial 99mTc-sestamibi scan is deemed to be false-negative in the presence of biochemical hyperparathyroidism.
Monitoring jaw osteomyelitis therapy with single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography
Authors: Heimann Ilsedore , Kuttenberger Johannes , della Chiesa Andrea , Bhure Ujwal , del Sol Pérez-Lago Maria , Roos Justus E. , Lima Thiago V.M. , Strobel Klaus 
Published: September 2020

Objective
The aim of the study was to evaluate the value of single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) for therapy response assessment of jaw osteomyelitis.

Materials and methods
Thirty-four baseline and 74 follow-up SPECT/CT examinations for therapy response assessment were performed in 34 patients with jaw osteomyelitis. SPECT/CT and planar late-phase bone scintigraphy images were assessed at baseline and follow-up, according to the following criteria: tracer uptake grade (0 = no uptake, 1 = low uptake, 2 = moderate uptake and 3 = high uptake); and morphologic signs (osteolysis, sequestration, sclerosis, periosteal reaction and pathologic fracture).

Results
At baseline, SPECT/CT showed marked (grade 2 or 3) uptake in 91% (31/34) of the patients, osteolysis in 85% (29/34), sclerosis in 71% (24/34), periosteal reaction in 44% (15/34) and a sequestrum in 24% (8/34). In 24 patients with clinically complete remission during or after at least 12 months’ therapy, bone scintigraphy showed grade 0 or 1 uptake in 100% (24/24) and SPECT/CT in 91% (22/24) of the patients. Sclerosis with the disappearance of osteolysis, sequestration and periosteal reactions was the predominant morphologic finding in complete responders (68%; 16/24). In 10 patients with symptoms of exacerbation of the osteomyelitis, 80% (8/10) showed increasing uptake, 90% (9/10) sclerosis, 80% osteolysis (8/10) and 40% (4/10) osteolysis and periosteal reactions.

Conclusion
SPECT/CT is a valuable tool to accurately assess therapy response, disease exacerbation and complications of jaw osteomyelitis. Low-grade (grade 1) residual tracer uptake is common in patients with clinically complete remission and is suggestive of ongoing bone remodeling and healing.
Nature contact by window opening and depressive symptoms among Older Adults: A cross-sectional analysis of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey
Authors: Jin Xurui , Zhang Hao , Zhang Kehan , Leng Yu , Zhao Yali , Zeng Yi , (Jim) Zhang Junfeng , Yao Yao 
Published: September 2020

AbstractBACKGROUNDRecent evidence suggests that window-view and window-ventilation may contribute to mental wellbeing. Compared to their younger counterparts, older adults spend more time at home and have less contact with natural environments due to social isolation and physical decline. However, the association of residential window-opening with depressive symptoms is understudied among older populations.METHODSWe used data from a community-based cohort study conducted in 23 provinces of China including 13,125 adults age 65 years or older (mean age: 83.8 years [SD: 11.1]). We created the window opening index (WOI) as a proxy of window-view and window-ventilation, leveraging relevant data on self-reported frequencies of manual window opening at home. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the 10-item version of the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale no fewer than 10. We used multivariate logistic regression model to examine the association between window opening and depressive symptoms.RESULTSIn the multivariate logistic regression model controlling for a set of well-designed mood-influencing environmental and individual-level covariates, a protective effect of window opening on depressive symptoms was observed, with 16% lower odds per interquartile increment in WOI (odds ratio: 0.84, 95%-CI: 0.81-0.87). Subgroup analyses indicated that the beneficial effects were more pronounced among those with higher socioeconomic status (higher levels of education, urban residents) and better surrounding environments (lower exposure of ambient fine particular matter, proximity to park, or higher levels of residential greenness).DISCUSSIONThe results point to the benefits of well-designed household window-opening environments on the mental health of older populations and suggest a synergistic effect of window-opening and favorable surrounding natural environment.
A response to Yurko et al: H-MAGMA, inheriting a shaky statistical foundation, yields excess false positives
Authors: de Leeuw Christiaan , Sey Nancy Y. A. , Posthuma Danielle , Won Hyejung 
Published: September 2020

AbstractHi-C coupled multimarker analysis of genomic annotation (H-MAGMA) was initially developed to advance MAGMA by assigning non-coding SNPs to their cognate genes based on threedimensional chromatin architecture. Yurko and colleagues raised concerns that the SNP-wise mean gene-analysis model of MAGMA may allow inflation in type I errors. Accordingly, we updated MAGMA and found that the updated version (MAGMA v.1.08) effectively controls for error rate inflation. Intrigued by this result, H-MAGMA was also updated by implementing MAGMA v.1.08. As expected, H-MAGMA v.1.08 detected a smaller set of risk genes than its original version (v.1.07), but the overall statistical architecture remained largely unchanged between v.1.07 and v.1.08. H-MAGMA v.1.08 was then applied to genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of five psychiatric disorders, from which we recapitulated our previous findings that psychiatric disorder risk genes display neuronal and prenatal enrichment. Therefore, issues raised by Yurko and colleagues can be overcome by using (H-)MAGMA v.1.08.
A longitudinal study of white matter functional network in mild traumatic brain injury
Authors: Jia Xiaoyan , Chang Xuebin , Bai Lijun , Wang Yulin , Dong Debo , Gan Shuoqiu , Wang Shan , Li Xuan , Yang Xuefei , Sun Yinxiang , Li Tianhui , Xiong Feng , Niu Xuan , Yan Hao 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) results in traumatic axonal injury, which damages the long-distance white matter (WM) connections and thus disrupts the functional connectome of large-scale brain networks that support cognitive function. Patterns of WM structural damage following mTBI were well documented using diffusion tensor imaging, however, the functional organization of WM and its association with grey matter functional networks (GM-FNs) and cognitive assessments remains unknown. The present study adopted resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore WM functional properties in mTBI patients (113 acute patients, 56 chronic patients, 47 healthy controls (HCs)). Eleven large-scale WM functional networks (WM-FNs) were constructed by the k-means clustering algorithm which carried out in voxel-wise WM functional connectivity (FC). Compared to HCs, acute mTBI patients showed enhanced FC between inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) WM-FN and primary sensorimotor WM-FNs, and cortical primary sensorimotor GM-FNs. And FC between IFOF WM-FN and anterior cerebellar GM-FN was positively correlated with information processing speed. Moreover, all of these WM-FNs abnormalities were returned to the normal level at the chronic stage. Our findings suggest the compensatory mechanism of cognitive deficits in the acute stage and its involvement in facilitating recovery from cognitive deficits in the chronic stage. The convergent damage of the IFOF network highlighted its key role in our understanding of the pathophysiology mechanism of mTBI patients and thus might be regarded as a biomarker in the acute stage and a potential indicator of treatment effect.
NDRG1 expression is an independent prognostic factor in inflammatory breast cancer
Authors: Villodre Emilly S , Gong Yun , Huo Lei , Yoon Esther C , Ueno Naoto T , Woodward Wendy A , Tripathy Debu , Song Juhee , Debeb Bisrat G 
Published: September 2020

ABSTRACTNDRG1 is widely described as a metastasis suppressor in breast cancer. However, we found that NDRG1 is critical in promoting tumorigenesis and brain metastasis in mouse models of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a rare but highly aggressive form of breast cancer. We hypothesized that NDRG1 is a prognostic marker associated with poor outcome in patients with IBC. Microarray gene expression data from the IBC Consortium dataset were analyzed to compareNDRG1expression between IBC and non-IBC tumors and among breast cancer subtypes. NDRG1 levels in tissue microarrays from 64 IBC patients were evaluated by immunohistochemical staining with anti-NDRG1 primary antibody (32 NDRG1-low [≤ median], 32 NDRG1-high [>median]). Overall and disease-free survival (OS and DSS) were analyzed with Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank test.NDRG1mRNA expression was higher in IBC than in non-IBC tumors (p=0.007), and in more aggressive HER2+ and basal-like vs luminal IBC subtypes (p<0.0001). Univariate analysis showed NDRG1 expression, tumor grade, disease stage, estrogen receptor (ER) status, and receipt of adjuvant radiation to be associated with OS and DSS. NDRG1-high patients had poorer 10-year OS and DSS than NDRG1-low patients (OS, 19% vs 45%,p=0.0278; DSS, 22% vs 52%,p=0.0139). On multivariable analysis, NDRG1 independently predicted OS (hazard ratio [HR]=2.034,p=0.0274) and DSS (HR=2.287,p=0.0174). NDRG1-high ER-negative tumors had worse outcomes OS,p=0.0003; DSS,p=0.0003; and NDRG1-high tumors that received adjuvant radiation treatment had poor outcomes (OS,p=0.0088; DSS,p=0.0093). NDRG1 correlated positively with aggressive tumor characteristics in IBC and was a significant independent prognostic factor for DSS and OSS in IBC patients. Targeting NDRG1 may represent a novel strategy for improving clinical outcomes for patients with IBC.
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM antibodies among Danish and Swedish Falck emergency and non-emergency healthcare workers
Authors: Laursen Jannie , Petersen Janne , Didriksen Maria , Iversen Kasper , Ullum Henrik 
Published: September 2020

AbstractBackgroundKnowledge about the COVID-19 outbreak is still sparse especially in a cross-national setting. COVID-19 is caused by a SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aim of the study is to contribute to the surveillance of the pandemic by bringing new knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity among healthcare workers and evaluating whether certain job functions is associated with a higher risk of being infected, and to clarify if such association is mediated by the number of individuals that the employees meet during a workday. Finally, we will investigate regional and national differences in seroprevalence.MethodsA bi-national prospective observational cohort study including 3,272 adults employed at Falck in Sweden and Denmark. Participants were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies every second week for a period of 8 weeks from June 22, 2020 until August 10, 2020. Descriptive statistics as well as multivariable logistic regression analyses were applied.ResultsOf the 3,272 Falck employees participating in this study, 159 (4.9%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The seroprevalence was lower among Danish Falck employees than among those from Sweden (2.8% in Denmark and 8.3% in Sweden). We also found that number of customer or patient contacts during a workday was the most prominent predictor for seropositivity, and that ambulance staff was the most vulnerable staff group.ConclusionsOur study presents geographical variations in seroprevalence within the Falck organization and shows evidence that social interaction is one of the biggest risk factors for getting infected with SARS-CoV-2.Key pointsSARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence vary between Denmark and Sweden, between job types and is mostly affected by number of social interactions among Falck healthcare workers
Context-Dependent Relationships between Locus Coeruleus Firing Patterns and Coordinated Neural Activity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Authors: Joshi Siddhartha , Gold Joshua I. 
Published: September 2020

AbstractAscending neuromodulatory projections from the locus coeruleus (LC) affect cortical neural networks via the release of norepinephrine (NE). However, the exact nature of these neuromodulatory effects on neural activity patternsin vivois not well understood. Here we show that in awake monkeys, LC activation is associated with changes in coordinated activity patterns in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). These relationships, which are largely independent of changes in firing rates of individual ACC neurons, depend on the type of LC activation: ACC pairwise correlations tend to be reduced when ongoing (baseline) LC activity increases but enhanced when external events evoke transient LC responses. Both relationships covary with pupil changes that reflect LC activation and arousal. These results suggest that modulations of information processing that reflect changes in coordinated activity patterns in cortical networks can result partly from ongoing, context-dependent, arousal-related changes in activation of the LC-NE system.
3Cnet: Pathogenicity prediction of human variants using knowledge transfer with deep recurrent neural networks
Authors: Won Dhong-gun , Lee Kyoungyeul 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThanks to the improvement of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), genome-based diagnosis for rare disease patients become possible. However, accurate interpretation of human variants requires massive amount of knowledge gathered from previous researches and clinical cases. Also, manual analysis for each variant in the genome of patients takes enormous time and effort of clinical experts and medical doctors. Therefore, to reduce the cost of diagnosis, various computational tools have been developed for the pathogenicity prediction of human variants. Nevertheless, there has been the circularity problem of conventional tools, which leads to the overlap of training data and eventually causes overfitting of algorithms. In this research, we developed a pathogenicity predictor, named as 3Cnet, using deep recurrent neural networks which analyzes the amino-acid context of a missense mutation. 3Cnet utilizes knowledge transfer of evolutionary conservation to train insufficient clinical data without overfitting. The performance comparison clearly shows that 3Cnet can find the true disease-causing variant from a large number of missense variants in the genome of a patient with higher sensitivity (recall = 13.9 %) compared to other prediction tools such as REVEL (recall = 7.5 %) or PrimateAI (recall = 6.4 %). Consequently, 3Cnet can improve the diagnostic rate for patients and discover novel pathogenic variants with high probability.
Estimating Multiple Latencies in the Auditory System from Auditory Steady-State Responses on a Single EEG Channel
Authors: Wang Lei , Noordanus Elisabeth , van Opstal A. John 
Published: September 2020

AbstractThe latency of the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) may provide valuable information regarding the integrity of the auditory system, as it could potentially reveal the presence of multiple intracerebral sources. To estimate multiple latencies from high-order ASSRs, we propose a novel two-stage procedure that consists of a nonparametric estimation method, called apparent latency from phase coherence (ALPC), followed by a heuristic sequential forward selection algorithm (SFS). Compared with existing methods, ALPC-SFS requires few prior assumptions, and is straightforward to implement for higher-order nonlinear responses to multi-cosine sound complexes with their initial phases set to zero. It systematically evaluates the nonlinear components of the ASSRs by estimating multiple latencies, automatically identifies involved ASSR components, and reports a latency consistency index (LCI). To verify the proposed method, we performed simulations for several scenarios: two nonlinear subsystems with different or overlapping outputs. We compared the results from our method with predictions from existing, parametric methods. We also recorded the EEG from ten normal-hearing adults by bilaterally presenting superimposed tones with four frequencies that evoke a unique set of ASSRs. From these ASSRs, two major latencies were found to be stable across subjects on repeated measurement days. The two latencies are dominated by low-frequency (LF) (near 40 Hz, at around 41-52 ms) and high-frequency (HF) (>80 Hz, at around 21-27 ms) ASSR components. The frontal-central (FC) brain region showed longer latencies on LF components, but shorter latencies on HF components, when compared with temporal-lobe regions. In conclusion, the proposed nonparametric ALPC-SFS method, applied to zero-phase, multi-cosine sound complexes is more suitable for evaluating embedded nonlinear systems underlying ASSRs than existing methods. It may therefore be a promising objective measure for hearing performance and auditory cortex (dys)function. The Matlab scripts for the ALPC-SFS method is available here: https://github.com/ieeeWang/ALPC-SFS-method-Matlab-scripts.