bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Modulation of sensory input to the spinal cord by peripheral afferent fibres. Searching for relays
Authors: Sławińska Urszula , Hammar Ingela , Jankowska Elzbieta 
Published: December 2024

ABSTRACTA long-lasting GABA-dependent increase in the excitability of afferent fibres, and thus modulation of the sensory input to the spinal cord, may be evoked by epidural polarization. However, the direct effects of fibre polarization are short-lasting and the sustained increase in their excitability appears to be secondary to the release of GABA from nearby astrocytes. We have now investigated whether the modulation of spinal sensory input by stimulation of a peripheral nerve, previously attributed to synaptically evoked intraspinal field potentials, is evoked in a similar way. However, as neither its dependence on GABA nor its relays have been investigated, we addressed the question of whether the increase in the excitability of epidurally stimulated afferent fibres following a peripheral nerve stimulation does or does not depend on GABA and whether it might be mediated by astrocytes. The effects of conditioning stimulation of the tibial nerve were evaluated from changes in the excitability of both group I and group II muscle afferents, estimated from action potentials recorded in peripheral nerves and in field potentials recorded in the dorsal horn respectively in acute experiments on deeply anaesthetized rats. The excitability of the afferents was increased by stimulation of group II and/or cutaneous but not group I muscle afferents. The effects were significantly weakened by blocking GABA channels by gabazine, and by astrocyte toxin L-alpha-aminoadipic acid (L-AAA), indicating that the excitability of both group I and group II afferent fibres may be modulated by GABAergic astrocytes, the new role played by astrocytes.
Not enough pleasure? Influence of hallucination proneness on sensory feedback processing of positive self-voice
Authors: Duggirala Suvarnalata Xanthate , Schwartze Michael , Goller Lisa K. , Linden David E. J. , Pinheiro Ana P. , Kotz Sonja A. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractAmple research explored changes in sensory feedback processing of the self-voice as well as the control of attention allocation in voice hearers, including both non-clinical voice hearers and voice hearers with a psychotic disorder. While the attentional bias toward negative emotional information in voice hearers with a psychotic disorder due to heightened sensitivity towards threat/danger is well established, it remains unclear how positive emotion captures or controls attention. Manipulating the certainty of sensory feedback to the self-voice, transitioning from fully neutral to entirely positive (100% neutral, 60-40% neutral-pleasure, 50-50% neutral-pleasure, 40-60% neutral-pleasure, 100% pleasure), provides an opportunity to investigate attentional control and sensory feedback processing in positive self-voice as a function of hallucination proneness (HP). Participants with different HP scores self-generated and passively listened to their own voices during EEG recordings. N100 or P200 responses to self-generated and externally-generated self-voices did not differ. Further, HP did not modulate N100/P200 responses. These null findings might result from the minimal perceptual discriminability among the five types of voices varying in pleasure content. This might have led to less variation in certainty regarding the sensory feedback to self-voice, and consequently a lack of differential engagement of attentional resources. The lack of a global N100 suppression effect prompts inquiry into the association of sense of ownership/agency and pleasure.
GRU-SCANET: Unleashing the Power of GRU-based Sinusoidal CApture Network for Precision-driven Named Entity Recognition
Authors: Happi Happi Bill Gates , Pelap Geraud Fokou , Symeonidou Danai , Larmande Pierre 
Published: December 2024

AbstractMotivationPre-trained Language Models (PLMs) have achieved remarkable performance across various natural language processing tasks. However, they encounter challenges in biomedical Named Entity Recognition (NER), such as high computational costs and the need for complex fine-tuning. These limitations hinder the efficient recognition of biological entities, especially within specialized corpora. To address these issues, we introduce GRU-SCANET (Gated Recurrent Unit-based Sinusoidal Capture Network), a novel architecture that directly models the relationship between input tokens and entity classes. Our approach offers a computationally efficient alternative for extracting biological entities by capturing contextual dependencies within biomedical texts.ResultsGRU-SCANET combines positional encoding, bidirectional GRUs (BiGRUs), an attention-based encoder, and a conditional random field (CRF) decoder to achieve high precision in entity labeling. This design effectively mitigates the challenges posed by unbalanced data across multiple corpora. Our model consistently outperforms leading benchmarks, achieving better performance than BioBERT (8/8 evaluations), PubMedBERT (5/5 evaluations), and the previous state-of-the-art (SOTA) models (8/8 evaluations), including Bern2 (5/5 evaluations). These results highlight the strength of our approach in capturing token-entity relationships more effectively than existing methods, advancing the state of biomedical NER.
Benzene metabolites increase vascular permeability by activating heat shock proteins and Rho GTPases
Authors: Zelko Igor N. , Hussain Ahtesham , Malovichko Marina V. , Wickramasinghe Nalinie , Srivastava Sanjay 
Published: December 2024

ABSTRACTBenzene is a ubiquitous environmental and occupational pollutant abundant in household products, petrochemicals, and cigarette smoke. It is also a well-known carcinogen and hematopoietic toxin. Population-based studies indicate an increased risk of heart failure in subjects exposed to inhaled benzene, which coincides with the infiltration of immune cells into the myocardium. However, the mechanisms of benzene-induced cardiovascular disease remain unknown. Our data suggests that benzene metabolites trans,trans-muconaldehyde (MA), and hydroquinone (HQ) propagate endothelial activation and apoptosis analyzed by endothelial-specific microparticles in C57BL/6J mice plasma. Subcutaneous injections of MA and HQ increased vascular permeability by 1.54 fold and 1.27 fold correspondingly. In addition, the exposure of primary cardiac microvascular endothelial cells to MA increased vascular permeability detected by transendothelial monolayer resistance and by fluorescently labeled dextrans diffusion. The bulk RNA sequencing of endothelial cells exposed to MA for 2, 6, and 24 hours showed MA-dependent upregulation of heat shock-related pathways at 2 and 6 hours, dysregulation of GTPases at 6 hours, and altered cytoskeleton organization at 24 hours of exposure. We found that the HSP70 protein induced by MA in endothelial cells is colocalized with F-actin foci. HSP70 inhibitor 17AAG and HSP90 inhibitor JG98 attenuated MA-induced endothelial permeability, while HSP activator TRC enhanced endothelial leakage. Moreover, MA induced Rac1 GTPase activity, while Rho GTPase inhibitor Y-27632 attenuated MA-induced endothelial permeability. We showed that benzene metabolites compromised the endothelial barrier by altering HSP- and GTPase-related signaling pathways.
Adult honey bee queens consume pollen and nectar
Authors: St. Clair Ashley L. , Dwyer Bridget , Shapiro Madeleine , Dolezal Adam G. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractDespite the queen’s crucial reproductive role in honey bee colonies, queen diet and feeding behavior remain remarkably enigmatic, with most studies assuming they are solely fed nutritious glandular secretions (i.e., royal jelly) by workers. This colors our understanding of basic honey bee biology and how governmental agencies assess pesticide risk. We hypothesized that adult queens also consume honey and pollen. Through experiments with queenright laboratory microcolonies fed with marked diets, we demonstrate that queens are fed pollen and nectar by workers and can also feed directly. We then measured pollen content in mature, unmanipulated queens sacrificed from 43 conventional field colonies from two distinct geographical regions. Similar to workers, we found pollen in almost all queens guts, though at expectedly lower quantities than in young workers. These findings suggest queens have a more complex, dynamic diet than previously thought, raising new questions about how dietary habits and feeding behaviors influence pesticide risk and other aspects of queen biology.
High-Intensity Interval Training Outperforms Moderate Exercise to Improve Aerobic Capacity in Patients with Recent-Onset Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Andreasson Kristofer M. , Leijding Cecilia , Dastmalchi Maryam , Notarnicola Antonella , Gastaldello Stefano , Yamada Takashi , Sandlund Heléne , Leonard Dag , Westerblad Håkan , Lundberg Ingrid E. , Andersson Daniel C. , Alexanderson Helene 
Published: December 2024

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate efficacy, safety, and tolerance of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) versus standard low-moderate intensity home-based exercise (CON) to improve aerobic capacity, muscle endurance, and mitochondrial function in patients with recent onset, idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM).MethodsTwenty-three patients with recent onset IIM were randomized into two groups: HIIT and CON. HIIT underwent 12 weeks of supervised high-intensity training, while CON followed a low-moderate intensity home-based exercise program. Outcomes included maximal exercise test (VO2peak, peak power, time-to-exhaustion (TTE)), mitochondrial protein expression in muscle biopsy serum levels of muscle enzymes (CK, LD, AST, ALT), muscle strength (MMT8) and disease activity (subset of MDAAT), before and after intervention.ResultsHIIT resulted in a 16 % increase in VO2peak L/min, significantly higher than the 1.8 % change in CON (95 % CI 0.1;0.47). Peak power and TTE also improved significantly more in HIIT, 18 % and 23 %, respectively, compared to CON, 8 % and 12 %, (95 % CI 3.9;30.8 and 00:06;03:18, respectively). Muscle biopsies (HIIT n=7, CON n=6) showed increases (p<0.05) in central mitochondrial protein expression in HIIT but not in CON, suggesting enhanced mitochondrial function. Both groups maintained stable serum muscle enzymes indicating no increase in disease activity from the intervention. Muscle disease activity remained low and unchanged in both groups (95 % CI −1.2;1.0), physician global activity and MMT8significantly improved within CON (95 % CI −1.7;-0.26 and 0.1;3.9, respectively) but not in the HIIT group. Compliance with HIIT was high, and no adverse events were reported.ConclusionHIIT is a highly effective and safe exercise intervention to improve aerobic fitness, muscle endurance, and mitochondrial function in patients with recent onset IIM. This approach should be considered as an adjuvant treatment in managing IIM, potentially enhancing the health for these patients.The study was registered atClinicalTrials.gov:NCT03324152Significance and InnovationsHigh-intensity interval training (HIIT) is more effective to improve aerobic capacity (peak oxygen uptake; VO2peak), increasing 16 % compared to 1.8 % change in the moderate exercise control group in patients with recent onset IIM.HIIT produced larger exercise adaptations with increased expression of aerobic metabolism (mitochondrial) proteins in muscle tissue compared to moderate exercise.HIIT is a safe and well tolerated exercise intervention for patients with recent onset IIM.
Patient-specific hemodynamic markers co-localise with regions of neointimal hyperplasia in an arteriovenous graft
Authors: Ninno Federica , Stokes Catriona , Aboian Edouard , Dardik Alan , Strosberg David , Balabani Stavroula , Díaz-Zuccarini Vanessa 
Published: December 2024

AbstractPurposeMost computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies on arteriovenous grafts (AVGs) adopt idealised geometries and simplified boundary conditions (BCs), potentially resulting in misleading conclusions when attempting to predict neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) development. Moreover, they often analyse a limited range of hemodynamic indices, lack validation, and fail to link the graft-altered hemodynamics with follow-up data. This study develops a novel patient-specific CFD workflow for AVGs using pathophysiological BCs. It validates the CFD results with patient medical data and assesses the co-localisation between CFD results and NIH regions at follow-up.MethodsContrast-enhanced computed tomography angiography images were used to segment the patient’s AVG geometry. A uniform Doppler ultrasound (DUS)-derived velocity profile was imposed at the inlet, and three-element Windkessel models were applied at the arterial outlets of the domain. Transient, rigid-wall simulations were performed using the k-ω SST turbulence model. The CFD-derived flow waveform was compared with the patient’s DUS image to ensure validation. Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), helicity and near-wall hemodynamic descriptors were calculated and linked with regions presenting NIH from a 4-month follow-up fistulogram.ResultsIn the analysed patient, areas presenting high TKE and balanced helical flow structures at baseline exhibit NIH growth at follow-up. Transverse wall shear stress index is a stronger predictor of NIH than other commonly analysed near-wall hemodynamic indices, since luminal areas subjected to high values greatly co-localise with observed areas of remodelling.ConclusionThis patient-specific computational workflow for AVGs could be applied to a larger cohort to unravel the link between altered hemodynamics and NIH progression in vascular access.
Genetic Analysis of Psychosis Biotypes: Shared Ancestry-Adjusted Polygenic Risk and Unique Genomic Associations
Authors: Xia Cuihua , Alliey-Rodriguez Ney , Tamminga Carol A. , Keshavan Matcheri S. , Pearlson Godfrey D. , Keedy Sarah K. , Clementz Brett , McDowell Jennifer E. , Parker David , Lencer Rebekka , Kristian Hill S. , Bishop Jeffrey R. , Ivleva Elena I. , Wen Cindy , Dai Rujia , Chen Chao , Liu Chunyu , Gershon Elliot S. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThe Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network for Intermediate Phenotypes (B-SNIP) created psychosis Biotypes based on neurobiological measurements in a multi-ancestry sample. These Biotypes cut across DSM diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder with psychosis. Two recently developedpost hocancestry adjustment methods of Polygenic Risk Scores (PRSs) generate Ancestry-Adjusted PRSs (AAPRSs), which allow for PRS analysis of multi-ancestry samples. Applied to schizophrenia PRS, we found the Khera AAPRS method to show superior portability and comparable prediction accuracy as compared with the Ge method. The three Biotypes of psychosis disorders had similar AAPRSs across ancestries. In genomic analysis of Biotypes, 12 genes and isoforms showed significant genomic associations with specific Biotypes in Transcriptome-Wide Association Study (TWAS) of genetically regulated expression (GReX) in adult brain and fetal brain. TWAS inflation was addressed by inclusion of genotype principal components in the association analyses. Seven of these 12 genes/isoforms satisfied Mendelian Randomization (MR) criteria for putative causality, including four genesTMEM140,ARTN,C1orf115,CYREN, and three transcripts ENSG00000272941, ENSG00000257176, ENSG00000287733. These genes are enriched in the biological pathways of Rearranged during Transfection (RET) signaling, Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule 1 (NCAM1) interactions, and NCAM signaling for neurite out-growth. The specific associations with Biotypes suggest that pharmacological clinical trials and biological investigations might benefit from analyzing Biotypes separately.
Sleep problems and sleep quality in the general adult population living in South Tyrol (Italy), a cross-sectional survey study
Authors: Ausserhofer Dietmar , Piccoliori Giuliano , Engl Adolf , Marino Pasqualina , Barbieri Verena , Lombardo Stefano , Gärtner Timon , Wiedermann Christian J. 
Published: December 2024

AbstractThis cross-sectional, population-based survey study aimed to (1) investigate the prevalence of sleep problems and poor sleep quality and (2) explore the associated sociodemographic and health-related factors. A stratified probabilistic sample of 4,000 adults aged ≥ 18 years living in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (South Tyrol, Italy) was invited to complete a questionnaire. Sleep quality was assessed using the brief version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed to analyze the data. A total of 2,090 adults (53%) completed the survey. Poor sleep quality was reported by 17.8%, with 28.2% of participants reporting insufficient sleep duration (i.e., six hours or less), 12.7% having problems staying asleep (i.e. waking up to 3-4 times a week and unable to fall asleep again), and 8.7% having problems getting to sleep (i.e. >30 minutes). Sleep problems and poor sleep quality were associated with sociodemographic and health-related factors, including sex, age, mother tongue, overall health status, chronic disease, and sleep hygiene. Italian-speaking participants reported poorer sleep quality and greater difficulty staying asleep compared to German-speaking participants, highlighting potential sociocultural influences on sleep health. Sleep quality and other problems are prevalent among adults in South Tyrol. Further research on public health interventions that promote sleep health literacy and hygiene is needed.
Leveraging Stacked Classifiers for Multi-task Executive Function in Schizophrenia Yields Diagnostic and Prognostic Insights
Authors: Zhang Tongyi , Zhao Xin , Yeo B.T. Thomas , Huo Xiaoning , Eickhoff Simon B. , Chen Ji 
Published: December 2024

AbstractCognitive impairment is a central characteristic of schizophrenia. Executive functioning (EF) impairments are often seen in mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia, where they relate to adverse outcomes. As a heterogeneous construct, how specifically each dimension of EF to characterize the diagnostic and prognostic aspects of schizophrenia remains opaque. We used classification models with a stacking approach on systematically measured EFs to discriminate 195 patients with schizophrenia from healthy individuals. Baseline EF measurements were moreover employed to predict symptomatically remitted or non-remitted prognostic subgroups. EF feature importance was determined at the group-level and the ensuing individual importance scores were associated with four symptom dimensions. EF assessments of inhibitory control (interference and response inhibitions), followed by working memory, evidently predicted schizophrenia diagnosis (area under the curve [AUC]=0.87) and remission status (AUC=0.81). The models highlighted the importance of interference inhibition or working memory updating in accurately identifying individuals with schizophrenia or those in remission. These identified patients had high-level negative symptoms at baseline and those who remitted showed milder cognitive symptoms at follow-up, without differences in baseline EF or symptom severity compared to non-remitted patients. Our work indicates that impairments in specific EF dimensions in schizophrenia are differentially linked to individual symptom-load and prognostic outcomes. Thus, assessments and models based on EF may be a promising tool that can aid in the clinical evaluation of this disorder.
On the Trade-Off between Fidelity, Utility and Privacy of Synthetic Patient Data
Authors: Adams Tim , Birkenbihl Colin , Otte Karen , Ng Hwei Geok , Rieling Jonas Adrian , Näher Anatol-Fiete , Sax Ulrich , Prasser Fabian , Fröhlich Holger ,   Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Published: December 2024

ABSTRACTThe advancement of medical research and healthcare is increasingly dependent on the analysis of patient-level data, but privacy concerns and legal constraints often hinder data sharing. Synthetic data mimicking real patient data offers a widely discussed potential solution. According to the literature, synthetic data may, however, not fully guarantee patient privacy and can vary greatly in terms of fidelity and utility. In this study, we aim to systematically investigate the trade-off between privacy, fidelity and utility of synthetic patient data. We assess synthetic data fidelity in terms of statistical similarity to real data, and utility via the performance of machine learning models trained on synthetic and tested on real data. Regarding data privacy we focus on membership inference via shadow model attacks as well as singling out and attribute inference risks. In this regard, we also consider differential privacy (DP) as a possible mechanism to probabilistically guarantee a certain level of data privacy, and we compare against classical anonymization techniques. We evaluate the fidelity, utility and privacy of synthetic data generated by five different models for three distinctive patient-level datasets. Our results show that our implementations of DP have a strongly detrimental effect on the fidelity of synthetic data, specifically its correlation structure, and therefore emphasize the need to improve techniques that effectively balance privacy, fidelity and utility in synthetic patient data generation.
Metformin, monoacylglycerol lipase expression, cognition and emotion recognition in people with multiple sclerosis and comorbid type II diabetes: A case-control study
Authors: Walker Lisa A. S. , Ramani Sanghamithra , Pumphrey Jordan D. , Islam Tamanna , Berard Jason A. , Seegobin Matthew , Buckle Mai , Lymer Jennifer M. , Freedman Mark S. , Wang Jing 
Published: December 2024

AbstractBackgroundDiabetes (DM), a common comorbidity, results in poorer cognition in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Metformin may be a treatment option given cognitive benefits. Metformin represses monoacylglycerol lipase (Mgll), accompanied by improvements in cognition in animals.AimsTo determine 1) whether metformin represses Mgll in humans, 2) if Mgll correlates with cognition/emotion recognition, and 3) if cognition differs between groups.MethodsA convenience sample of seventeen PwMS and DM on metformin, 4 with MS and DM not on metformin, 10 with MS, and 21 healthy controls completed BICAMS and measures of premorbid ability, emotion recognition, mood and fatigue. Blood draw established Mgll levels. T-tests determined group differences in Mgll. Correlational analyses examined if Mgll correlated with cognition. ANCOVA evaluated differences in cognition/emotion recognition.ResultsGiven small samples, we combined groups to determine if metformin impacted Mgll regardless of diabetes status. Significant differences in Mgll (t= -2.07,p= .05), suggested that metformin suppresses Mgll. No relationship was found between Mgll and cognition/emotion recognition. Differences were found between PwMS and DM compared to controls in verbal learning (F= 5.85,p= .02) and memory (F= 5.62,p= .02).ConclusionsMetformin suppresses Mgll in humans suggesting metformin be evaluated as a potential MS treatment. Mgll did not correlate with cognition possibly due to sample size or methodology. Combined impact of MS and DM negatively impacts cognition, supporting literature demonstrating that vascular comorbidity increases risk of cognitive dysfunction. Findings support pursuing clinical trials evaluating metformin efficacy.