bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
T-cadherin deficiency promotes endometriosis progression through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway
Authors: guan yutao , Zhang Fu-bin , Huang Yan-qing , Zhou Ling-ling , Li Wei-feng , Zhang Xiao-lu , Chen Yang-ping , Xu Li-jiang , Wang Li-wei , Chen Li-xin , Cui Li-ning , Xie Yong , Wang Gang 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background: Endometriosis is a progressive and benign disease characterized by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma tissue outside of the uterine cavity. Though endometriosis is a benign disease, it has the characteristics of malignant tumour growth. Abnormal expression of T-cadherin is involved in the occurrence and progression of many tumours. We aimed to investigate whether T-cadherin promotes the migration and invasion of endometriosis cells through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Methods: Ectopic and eutopic endometrial samples from 62 female patients with endometriosis and endometrial samples from 51 female patients without endometriosis were collected. The immortalized endometrial stromal cell line hEM15A was cultured. Real-time RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to detect the expression of T-cadherin, phospho-PI3K/Akt/mTOR and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2). Transfection technology was employed to upregulate T-cadherin expression. The migration and invasion abilities of hEM15A cells were measured by the transwell assay with uncoated or Matrigel-coated membranes. Results: The mRNA and protein expression of T-cadherin was significantly decresed in the ectopic tissues of the patients with endometriosis, while the mRNA and protein expression in the eutopic endometrial tissues of the same patients did not significantly differ from that in the patients without endometriosis. The migration and invasion ability and phospho-PI3K/Akt/mTOR and MMP-2 expression levels were decreased in hEM15A cells with high T-cadherin expression compared with the corresponding parameters in the normal control group. However, everolimus and BEZ235 inhibited cell migration and invasion in cells with low T-cadherin expression, and weakened overexpression of T‑cadherin significantly attenuated MMP-2 protein expression. Conclusion: Loss of T-cadherin promotes cell migration and invasion in endometriosis via the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling pathway.
G2S: a new deep learning tool for predicting stool microbiome structure from oral microbiome data
Authors: Rampelli Simone , Candela Marco , Biagi Elena , Brigidi Patrizia , Turroni Silvia 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background Deep learning methodologies have revolutionized prediction in many fields and show the potential to do the same in microbial metagenomics. However, deep learning is still unexplored in the field of microbiology, with only a few software designed to work with microbiome data. In the frame of meta-community theory, we foresee new perspectives for the development and application of deep learning algorithms in microbiology, with a great potential in the field of human microbiome. Results G2S is a bioinformatic tool for the taxonomic prediction of the human stool microbiome directly from oral microbiome data of the same individual. The tool uses a deep convolutional neural network trained on data of the Human Microbiome Project, allowing to infer the stool microbiome at the family level more accurately than other approaches. G2S was validated on already characterized oral and fecal sample pairs, and then applied to ancient microbiome data from dental calculi, to derive putative intestinal components in medieval subjects. Conclusions G2S infers the family-level taxonomic configuration of the stool microbiome mirroring the real composition with exceptional performance. G2S can be used with modern samples, allowing to predict the eubiotic/dysbiotic state of the gut microbiome when fecal sampling is missing, and especially with ancient samples, as a unique opportunity in the field of paleomicrobiology to recover data related to ancient gut microbiome configurations.
Seroprevalence of the hepatitis E virus among blood donors in the Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alhatlani Bader , Aljabr Waleed , Almarzouqi Mohammed , Alhatlani Sami , Alzunaydi Rayan , Alsaykhan Abeer , Almaiman Sulaiman , Aleid Ahmed , Alsughayir Ammar , Beshawri Yara , Almusallam Abdulrahman 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV), a major public health issue worldwide with the potential for transmission via blood transfusion, in blood donors in the Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. Serum samples (n = 1,078) were collected from volunteer blood donors from January to April 2019 and tested for the presence of anti-HEV IgG and IgM by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results Overall, the seroprevalence of anti-HEV IgG and IgM among blood donors was 5.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Additionally, the seropositive rates of anti-HEV IgG and IgM were significantly higher in non-Saudi donors (22.1% and 7.8%) than in Saudi donors (3% and 0.2%). The seroprevalence of anti-HEV IgG increased with age; however, there was no correlation between gender and anti-HEV IgG and/or IgM. The seroprevalence of HEV among blood donors in the Qassim Region was lower than previous estimates for other regions of the country. Further studies covering a wider geographical area are needed to validate and expand the findings and to determine the importance of HEV screening in the region.
Characterization of a big family cluster infection associated with SARS-Cov-2 in Nanjing district
Authors: Chen Wei , Hu Chunmei , Huang Lili , zhang Yongchen , Hu Zhiliang , Zeng Yi , Wang Weixiao , Zhang Xia , Yi Yongxiang 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
Background: Outbreak of COVID-19 has brought catastrophe to huge numbers of families. However, even though numerous tragedies occurred, there were few reports about family cluster infection in the academic journals. Methods: The electronic medical records of 10 COVID-19 patients in a big family were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Results: These 10 patients, 4 males and 6 females, were infected through two successive family feasts during Spring Festival. The infection source was a family member at asymptomatic state, who lived in Hubei but travelled to Nanjing. The median age of these 10 patients was 61.5, with the oldest 95 and youngest 38. The incubation period varied from 3 to 17 days, with the median of 5.5. Of them, 2 patients were asymptomatic. The most common symptoms at onset were fever (6/10) and dry cough (6/10). All of them displayed lesions on the chest CT. 40% of them had leukopenia, neutropenia and lymphopenia. After anti-virus treatment, all the patients significantly improved and were discharged. Conclusions: SARS-Cov-2 was highly contagious and so crafty that a varied incubation period did exist. Part of patients might be asymptomatic, which was the potential source of transmission. More measures for protection or quarantine should be taken at home if family member had travel history nearby the epidemic area. Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-Cov-2, family cluster, asymptomatic, incubation period.
Effect of an Alltech soil health product on entomopathogenic nematodes, root-knot nematodes and on the growth of tomato plants in the greenhouse
Authors: Pulavarty Anusha , Horgan Karina , Kakouli-Duarte Thomais 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
An organic product that consists of proprietary blend of fermentation and plant extracts with micronutrients (ACS 5075, Alltech®, Inc., Nicholasville, KY USA) was evaluated against four strains of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN): Steinernema feltiae (SB12(1), a wild enviroCORE strain and a commercial form e-NEMA), Steinernema carpocapsae (e-NEMA), and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora. The effects on egg hatching and survival of root-knot nematodes (RKN) were also examined. The sensitivity to the product was tested by estimating mortality and survival of EPN infective juveniles (IJ) after 24-hr treatment with four different concentrations of product (4, 7, 8, and 10%) compared with the control in a 96-well plate. There was no significant difference in survival of IJ with 4% product compared to the control. A twofold reduction in survival was observed when the EPN were exposed to the product at 7%. A 10.5% RKN egg hatching was observed when RKN were exposed to 3% ACS 5075 concentration compared to 100% hatching in the untreated. A significant (p < 0.05) reduction in juvenile survival was observed at 0.5% treatment, however, it dropped to 0 when 1% and above was used for M. javanica. Juveniles did not survive with all treatment concentrations in the case of M. incognita. The improvement in tomato plant growth and development were also observed when plants were treated with 1 and 3% ACS 5075. The product shows potential as a sustainable soil health alternative causing no harm to beneficial nematodes (EPN) at concentrations below 4%, while is promising against plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) and toward plant growth promotion.
Natural occurrence and distribution of entomopathogenic nematodes (Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae) in Viti Levu, Fiji Islands
Authors: Kour Sumeet , Khurma Uma , Brodie Gilianne , Hazir Selcuk 
Published: March 2020

Abstract
In Fiji, little or no attention has been given to entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) in biocontrol programs due to the lack of awareness about their occurrence and distribution in Fiji. A survey of EPNs was conducted for the first time in Fiji Islands in 2012 and 2013, throughout the eight provinces in Viti Levu to determine the occurrence and distribution across different habitat in Viti Levu. The soil samples from various habitats were collected and assayed for the presence of EPN using Galleria mellonella as baits. EPNs were recovered from five out of seven provinces with 35 positive sites (7.3%) out of 478 sites sampled. The only EPN genera encountered was Heterorhabditis. Steinernema was not isolated from any of the samples. Characterization of isolates was done by using morphometric and molecular examinations and isolates were identified as Heterorhabditis indica. H. indica isolates were primarily recovered from leeward side of the Viti Levu Island along the coastline and riversides, being more prevalent in lighter soil with pH > 6. Further, this study found significant association between habitat type, soil type, soil pH, average annual rainfall and EPN occurrence. This is the first record of naturally occurring EPNs in Fiji. The found nematodes will serve as the basis for efficacy screening with the ultimate aim of delivering effective, more sustainable and environmentally safe control for agricultural pests in Fiji.
Analysis of the Non-Specific Binding Proteins in the RNA Pull-Down Experiment
Authors: Yang Baicai , Zhang Yali , Hei Kaiwen , Xiao Mingming , Chen Ruibing , Li Yongmei 
Published: March 2020

Background:
To investigate the interactions between RNA and proteins is essential to understand how these macromolecule complexes exert their functions. RNA pull-down is a classic technique to enrich RNA binding proteins, however, a large number of non-specific binding proteins may be enriched during sample preparation, interfering with the downstream mass spectrometric analyses and also causing false positives.

Objective:
In this study we examined the background contaminates in RNA pull-down experiment using mass spectrometric analysis. Method Antisense MALAT1 was first synthesized using in vitro transcription and incubated with cellular proteins extracted from HepG2 cells. The non-specific binding proteins were isolated using streptavidin conjugated magnetic beads and separated on SDS-PAGE. Each gel lane was divided into nine bands and digested with trypsin for the downstream LC-MS/MS analyses.

Methods:
Antisense MALAT1 was first synthesized using in vitro transcription and incubated with
cellular proteins extracted from HepG2 cells. The non-specific binding proteins were isolated using
streptavidin conjugated magnetic beads and separated on SDS-PAGE. Each gel lane was divided into
nine bands and digested with trypsin for the downstream LC-MS/MS analyses.

Results:
191 protein groups were identified as non-specific binding proteins in RNA pull-down
samples. In addition, a comparison between different sample preparation conditions showed that
the level of background contaminates was mostly induced by the solid phase support rather than
the studied RNA. In addition, using more stringent detergent and streptavidin magnetic beads with
smaller size could reduce the amount of background interfering proteins.

Conclusion:
This study provides a reference to distinguish bona fide RNA interacting proteins
from the background contaminants. The results also demonstrate that different sample preparation
conditions have great impacts on the level of enriched background contaminates, shedding new
light on the optimization of RNA pull-down experiments.
Relationship Between Health Literacy and Social Support and the Quality of Life in Patients With Cancer: Questionnaire Study
Authors: Kobayashi Rei , Ishizaki Masato 
Published: March 2020

Background
Low health literacy is associated with factors such as not taking medication as prescribed as well as poor health status and increased hospitalization and mortality risk, and has been identified as a risk factor for decreased physical function in older individuals. Health literacy is becoming an increasingly important issue because of the increased number of people affected by cancer who must make complicated treatment decisions. Health literacy has been shown to be positively associated with quality of life (QOL), and social support has been identified as important for addressing health-related problems and reducing the relative risk of mortality in patients with cancer. However, few studies have examined the relationship between health literacy, social support, age, and QOL.

Objective
The aim of this study is to examine the effects of health literacy, social support, and age on the QOL of patients with cancer.

Methods
An anonymous, self-administered online questionnaire was conducted from March 28 to 30, 2017, in Japan on patients with lung, stomach, or colon cancer that were voluntarily registered with an internet survey company. The survey covered basic attributes, health literacy, social support, and QOL. The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire, a comprehensive measure of health literacy instrument, was used to measure health literacy; the Japanese version of the Social Support Scale was used to measure social support; and the Japanese version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (7-item version) assessment tool was used to measure QOL.

Results
A total of 735 survey invitations were randomly sent to patients with lung, stomach, or colorectal cancer, and responses were obtained from 619 (82.2% response rate). Significant effects on the QOL in patients with lung, stomach, or colon cancer were observed for health literacy, social
support, and age, and for the interactions of health literacy and social support and of social support and age. Health literacy, social support, and the interaction between these variables also showed a significant effect on the QOL in patients 50 years or older, but not on those younger than 50 years.

Conclusions
The results of this study revealed that higher health literacy, social support, and age were associated with the QOL in patients with cancer. In addition, the relationship with QOL was stronger for social support than for health literacy. These findings suggest the importance of health literacy and social support and indicate that social support has a greater effect on QOL than does health literacy, while the QOL in patients with cancer aged younger than 50 years was lower than that of those 50 years or older. Therefore, elucidating the needs of these patients and strengthening social support based on those needs may improve their QOL.
Document-Level Biomedical Relation Extraction Leveraging Pretrained Self-Attention Structure and Entity Replacement: Algorithm and Pretreatment Method Validation Study
Authors: Liu Xiaofeng , Fan Jianye , Dong Shoubin 
Published: March 2020

Background
The most current methods applied for intrasentence relation extraction in the biomedical literature are inadequate for document-level relation extraction, in which the relationship may cross sentence boundaries. Hence, some approaches have been proposed to extract relations by splitting the document-level datasets through heuristic rules and learning methods. However, these approaches may introduce additional noise and do not really solve the problem of intersentence relation extraction. It is challenging to avoid noise and extract cross-sentence relations.

Objective
This study aimed to avoid errors by dividing the document-level dataset, verify that a self-attention structure can extract biomedical relations in a document with long-distance dependencies and complex semantics, and discuss the relative benefits of different entity pretreatment methods for biomedical relation extraction.

Methods
This paper proposes a new data preprocessing method and attempts to apply a pretrained self-attention structure for document biomedical relation extraction with an entity replacement method to capture very long-distance dependencies and complex semantics.

Results
Compared with state-of-the-art approaches, our method greatly improved the precision. The results show that our approach increases the F1 value, compared with state-of-the-art methods. Through experiments of biomedical entity pretreatments, we found that a model using an entity replacement method can improve performance.

Conclusions
When considering all target entity pairs as a whole in the document-level dataset, a pretrained self-attention structure is suitable to capture very long-distance dependencies and learn the textual context and complicated semantics. A replacement method for biomedical entities is conducive to biomedical relation extraction, especially to document-level relation extraction.
Underweight Increases the Risk of End-Stage Renal Diseases for Type 2 Diabetes in Korean Population: Data From the National Health Insurance Service Health Checkups 2009–2017
Authors: Kim Yang-Hyun , Kang Jun Goo , Lee Seong Jin , Han Kyung-do , Ihm Sung-Hee , Cho Kyung-Hwan , Park Yong-Gyu 
Published: March 2020

OBJECTIVE
There is a controversy over the association between obesity and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in people with or without type 2 diabetes; therefore, we examined the effect of BMI on the risk of ESRD according to glycemic status in the Korean population.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
The study monitored 9,969,848 participants who underwent a National Health Insurance Service health checkup in 2009 from baseline to the date of diagnosis of ESRD during a follow-up period of ∼8.2 years. Obesity was categorized by World Health Organization recommendations for Asian populations, and glycemic status was categorized into the following five groups: normal, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), newly diagnosed diabetes, diabetes &lt;5 years, and diabetes ≥5 years.

RESULTS
Underweight was associated with a higher risk of ESRD in all participants after adjustment for all covariates. In the groups with IFG, newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, diabetes duration &lt;5 years, and diabetes ≥5 years, the hazard ratio (HR) of the underweight group increased with worsening glycemic status (HR 1.431 for IFG, 2.114 for newly diagnosed diabetes, 4.351 for diabetes &lt;5 years, and 6.397 for diabetes ≥5 years), using normal weight with normal fasting glucose as a reference. The adjusted HRs for ESRD were also the highest in the sustained underweight group regardless of the presence of type 2 diabetes (HR 1.606 for nondiabetes and 2.14 for diabetes).

CONCLUSIONS
Underweight showed more increased HR of ESRD according to glycemic status and diabetes duration in the Korean population. These associations also persisted in the group with sustained BMI during the study period.
Culture, Social Support, and Diabetes Empowerment Among American Indian Adults Living With Type 2 Diabetes
Authors: Gonzalez Miigis B. , Herman Kaley A. , Walls Melissa L. 
Published: March 2020

OBJECTIVE | Type 2 diabetes represents a major health disparity for many American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) communities, in which prevalence rates are more than double that of the general U.S. population. Diabetes is a major indicator for other comorbidities, including the leading cause of death for AIANs (i.e., cardiovascular disease). This study investigated associations between protective factors (social support and cultural factors) and self-reported empowerment to manage illness.
DESIGN AND METHODS | Participants were drawn from a random sample of tribal clinic records. Data included results from computer-assisted personal interviews with 192 American Indian adults with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes living on or near a reservation. Community Research Councils, developed at each of the five partnering Anishinaabe reservations, oversaw protocols and procedures in this community-based participatory research collaboration.
RESULTS | Multiple ordinary least squares regression models determined that general social support and diabetes-specific social support are positively related to diabetes empowerment. These associations persisted when both social support measures were added to the model, indicating independent effects of different types of social support. Cultural identity and cultural practices were positively related to diabetes empowerment in bivariate analyses; however, both measures dropped from statistical significance after accounting for all other covariates. An interaction term revealed a moderation effect through which cultural identity amplified the positive relationship between social support and diabetes empowerment.
CONCLUSION | Results moderately support policy and risk-reduction efforts aiming at expanding social support networks into multiple domains and reinforcing cultural identity and cultural practices.
SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF IZONIAZID AND ITS DERIVATIVES BY REACTION OF FORMATION THE POLYMETHINE DYE WITH 4-OXOURACIL
Authors: Gromova Z. F. , Chekulaeva G. Yu. 
Published: March 2020

The process of tuberculosis treatment requires monitoring of the concentration of antituberculosis drugs in the blood, as well as their distribution and elimination from the body to prevent overdose of antituberculosis drugs. Individualizing the dose of drugs possibly including individual activity of the enzyme N-acetyltransferase, may be determined indirectly by biotransformation product of antituberculosis drugs.
Currently existing methods for detecting the content of the test drug acetylation of isoniazid - mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography have several major limitations such as the high cost, complexity of tests methods in experimentation.
This article demonstrates the results of development of unified methods of quantitative determination of antituberculosis drug isoniazid and its conjugate - acetylizoniazid. The basis of spectrophotometric method is the cleavage reaction of isoniazid pyridine ring to form glutaconic aldehyde and its subsequent combination with the 4-oxouracil with the formation of a polymethine dye.
The developed method allows to carry out quantitative determination of isoniazid in the pharmaceuticals forms as well as isoniazid and its derivatives in body fluids (urine), which indirectly makes it possible to evaluate the activity of N-acetyltransferase during pharmacokinetic studies.