bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Human amniotic membrane grafts for retinal breaks in diabetic tractional retinal detachment and combined tractional and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment
Authors: Chen Yen-Chih , Chen San-Ni 
Published: April 2021

AbstractTo describe the surgical outcomes of using human amniotic membrane (hAM) grafts in the management of retinal breaks in diabetic tractional detachment (TRD) and combined tractional and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (CTRRD). A retrospective case series of 10 eyes with TRD or CTRRD receiving pars plana vitrectomy with hAM grafts implantation, compared with 13 controls receiving the same surgery without hAM grafts. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and re-detachment rate were compared between two groups. Postoperatively, all eyes in the hAM group had retina attachment without recurrence, while 9 eyes in the control group had retina re-detachment and required additional surgery (0% vs 69.2%, p = 0.003). The BCVA significantly improved in the hAM group (from 1.96 ± 0.95 to 1.44 ± 0.77 in log MAR, p = 0.03), but not improved in control group (p = 0.20). Postoperative optical coherence tomography of the eyes receiving hAM grafts demonstrated glial tissue regeneration and restoration of ellipsoid zone. In diabetic TRD or CTRRD, hAM grafts could be an effective method, with promising outcome. Compared to standard surgery, it could result in higher retina reattachment rate and significant visual improvement. Moreover, it may offer the adjunctive benefit in tissue regeneration and fasten ellipsoid zone restoration.
Immunomagnetic sequential ultrafiltration (iSUF) platform for enrichment and purification of extracellular vesicles from biofluids
Authors: Zhang Jingjing , Nguyen Luong T. H. , Hickey Richard , Walters Nicole , Wang Xinyu , Kwak Kwang Joo , Lee L. James , Palmer Andre F. , Reátegui Eduardo 
Published: April 2021

AbstractExtracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from tumor cells have the potential to provide a much-needed source of non-invasive molecular biomarkers for liquid biopsies. However, current methods for EV isolation have limited specificity towards tumor-derived EVs that limit their clinical use. Here, we present an approach called immunomagnetic sequential ultrafiltration (iSUF) that consists of sequential stages of purification and enrichment of EVs in approximately 2 h. In iSUF, EVs present in different volumes of biofluids (0.5–100 mL) can be significantly enriched (up to 1000 times), with up to 99% removal of contaminating proteins (e.g., albumin). The EV recovery rate by iSUF for cell culture media (CCM), serum, and urine corresponded to 98.0% ± 3.6%, 96.0% ± 2.0% and 94.0% ± 1.9%, respectively (p > 0.05). The final step of iSUF enables the separation of tumor-specific EVs by incorporating immunomagnetic beads to target EV subpopulations. Serum from a cohort of clinical samples from metastatic breast cancer (BC) patients and healthy donors were processed by the iSUF platform and the isolated EVs from patients showed significantly higher expression levels of BC biomarkers (i.e., HER2, CD24, and miR21).
Near and mid-infrared optical vortex parametric oscillator based on KTA
Authors: Ababaike Mairihaba , Wang Shutong , Aierken Palidan , Omatsu Takashige , Yusufu Taximaiti 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWe investigated high energy, near and mid-infrared optical vortex lasers formed by a 1 μm optical vortex-pumped KTiOAsO4 (KTA) optical parametric oscillator. The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the pump beam can be selectively transferred to the signal or idler output by changing the reflectivity of the output coupler. With this system, 1.535 µm vortex signal output with an energy of 2.04 mJ and 3.468 µm vortex idler output with an energy of 1.75 mJ were obtained with a maximum pump energy of 21 mJ, corresponding to slope efficiencies of 14% and 10%, respectively. The spectral bandwidth (full width at half maximum, FWHM) of the signal and idler vortex outputs were measured to be Δλs ~ 1.3 nm (~ 5.5 cm−1) and Δλi ~ 1.7 nm (~ 1.4 cm−1), respectively.
Electrophysiological evidence of different neural processing between visual and audiovisual inhibition of return
Authors: Tang Xiaoyu , Wang Xueli , Peng Xing , Li Qi , Zhang Chi , Wang Aijun , Zhang Ming 
Published: April 2021

AbstractInhibition of return (IOR) refers to the slower response to targets appearing on the same side as the cue (valid locations) than to targets appearing on the opposite side as the cue (invalid locations). Previous behaviour studies have found that the visual IOR is larger than the audiovisual IOR when focusing on both visual and auditory modalities. Utilising the high temporal resolution of the event-related potential (ERP) technique we explored the possible neural correlates with the behaviour IOR difference between visual and audiovisual targets. The behavioural results revealed that the visual IOR was larger than the audiovisual IOR. The ERP results showed that the visual IOR effect was generated from the P1 and N2 components, while the audiovisual IOR effect was derived only from the P3 component. Multisensory integration (MSI) of audiovisual targets occurred on the P1, N1 and P3 components, which may offset the reduced perceptual processing due to audiovisual IOR. The results of early and late differences in the neural processing of the visual IOR and audiovisual IOR imply that the two target types may have different inhibitory orientation mechanisms.
Vitamin D and lumisterol derivatives can act on liver X receptors (LXRs)
Authors: Slominski Andrzej T. , Kim Tae-Kang , Qayyum Shariq , Song Yuwei , Janjetovic Zorica , Oak Allen S. W. , Slominski Radomir M. , Raman Chander , Stefan Joanna , Mier-Aguilar Carlos A. , Atigadda Venkatram , Crossman David K. , Golub Andriy , Bilokin Yaroslav , Tang Edith K. Y. , Chen Jake Y. , Tuckey Robert C. , Jetten Anton M. , Song Yuhua 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe interactions of derivatives of lumisterol (L3) and vitamin D3 (D3) with liver X receptors (LXRs) were investigated. Molecular docking using crystal structures of the ligand binding domains (LBDs) of LXRα and β revealed high docking scores for L3 and D3 hydroxymetabolites, similar to those of the natural ligands, predicting good binding to the receptor. RNA sequencing of murine dermal fibroblasts stimulated with D3-hydroxyderivatives revealed LXR as the second nuclear receptor pathway for several D3-hydroxyderivatives, including 1,25(OH)2D3. This was validated by their induction of genes downstream of LXR. L3 and D3-derivatives activated an LXR-response element (LXRE)-driven reporter in CHO cells and human keratinocytes, and by enhanced expression of LXR target genes. L3 and D3 derivatives showed high affinity binding to the LBD of the LXRα and β in LanthaScreen TR-FRET LXRα and β coactivator assays. The majority of metabolites functioned as LXRα/β agonists; however, 1,20,25(OH)3D3, 1,25(OH)2D3, 1,20(OH)2D3 and 25(OH)D3 acted as inverse agonists of LXRα, but as agonists of LXRβ. Molecular dynamics simulations for the selected compounds, including 1,25(OH)2D3, 1,20(OH)2D3, 25(OH)D3, 20(OH)D3, 20(OH)L3 and 20,22(OH)2L3, showed different but overlapping interactions with LXRs. Identification of D3 and L3 derivatives as ligands for LXRs suggests a new mechanism of action for these compounds.
Greater variability in lipid measurements associated with kidney diseases in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a 10-year diabetes cohort study
Authors: Wan Eric Yuk Fai , Yu Esther Yee Tak , Chin Weng Yee , Lau Christie Sze Ting , Mok Anna Hoi Ying , Wang Yuan , Wong Ian Chi Kei , Chan Esther Wai Yin , Lam Cindy Lo Kuen 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis study aimed to evaluate the associations between variability of lipid parameters and the risk of kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio and triglyceride were specifically addressed in this study. This retrospective cohort study included 105,552 patients aged 45–84 with type 2 diabetes mellitus and normal kidney function who were managed under Hong Kong public primary care clinics during 2008–2012. Those with kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or urine albumin to creatinine ratio ≥ 3 mg/mmol) were excluded. Variabilities of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio and triglyceride were determined using the standard deviation of the respective parameter obtained from a mixed effects model to minimize regression dilution bias. The associations between lipid variability and renal outcomes including incident kidney disease, renal function decline defined as ≥ 30% reduction in estimated glomerular filtration rate since baseline, and end-stage renal disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 15 mL/min/1.73 m2) were evaluated by multivariable Cox regression. After a median follow-up of 66.5 months (0.5 million person-years in total), 49,653 kidney disease, 29,358 renal function decline, and 1765 end-stage renal disease cases were recorded. Positive linear associations between low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio variabilities and the risk of all renal outcomes were demonstrated. However, no association between triglyceride variability and any outcome was found. Each mmol/L increase in low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol variability was associated with 20% (Hazard ratio 1.20 [95% CI 1.15–1.25]), 38% (Hazard ratio 1.37 [95% CI 1.30–1.45]), and 108% (Hazard ratio 2.08 [95% CI 1.74–2.50]) higher risk in incident kidney disease, renal function decline and end-stage renal disease respectively. Similarly, each unit increase in total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio variability was associated with 35% (Hazard ratio 1.15 [95% CI 1.10–1.20]), 33% (Hazard ratio 1.33 [95% CI 1.26–1.40]), and 75% (Hazard ratio 1.75 [95% CI 1.46–2.09]) heightened risk in incident kidney disease, renal function decline and end-stage renal disease respectively. Cholesterol variability may potentially be a useful predictor of kidney diseases in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Attention should be drawn to cholesterol variability when managing diabetic patients and further research is warranted to investigate the modifiable risk factors for lipid variability.
Evaluation and SNP typing of DNA from ultraviolet-irradiated human bloodstains using TaqMan assay
Authors: Tie Jian , Uchigasaki Seisaku , Isobe Eiji 
Published: April 2021

AbstractWhen detecting DNA profiles from forensic materials, it is pivotal to know the extent of degradation and which DNA marker can be genotyped. Ultraviolet (UV) is one of the common external factors that causes DNA damage, through which, an attempt to reveal cardinal genetic information can be made. In this study, after irradiation with three different UV wavelengths, UV-damaged DNA in the bloodstains was analyzed with long and short TaqMan assays using real-time PCR. In addition, both short tandem repeat (STR) profiles and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the damaged DNA at different stages of UV exposure were also assessed. With increasing in UV irradiation cycles, there was a delay of the amplification curves accompanied with a decrease in the DNA amounts collected. Despite the amplification of STR genotype was not altered after 75 cycles of UVC irradiation, all 12 SNP loci could still be detected. Furthermore, a short-assay line was detected in the absence of an amplification of the evaluation curve. The results indicate that, although the DNA template might not be useful and suitable for analysis of STR profile, this approach is of some values in detecting SNPs.
New-onset lesions on MRI-DWI and cerebral blood flow changes on 3D-pCASL after carotid artery stenting
Authors: Wang Wen-Xin , Wang Ting , Ma Lin , Sun Zheng-Hui , Wang Ge-Sheng 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the relationship between the new-onset hyperintense lesions on diffusion-weighted images (DWI) and the changes of cerebral blood flow (CBF) before and after carotid artery stenting (CAS) in patients with symptomatic unilateral carotid artery stenosis. Twenty-four patients with symptomatic unilateral carotid stenosis (50–99%) were enrolled. Routine head magnetic resonance imaging and three-dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling were taken 7 days before the surgery and for four consecutive days post CAS. While the incidence of new DWI lesions were high (17/24, 70.8%) and 176 lesions were observed among the 17 cases, there was only one subject showing the symptoms. The majority of the lesions were located at the cortex/subcortex of the ipsilateral frontal and parietal lobes (60.8%) with 92.6% of the lesions size being less than 3 mm. The CBFs in this area were significantly higher than that of the temporal lobe on the first 3 days post stenting (p < 0.05). No periprocedural CBF differences were observed between the two groups, however, the micro-embolism group presented decreased relative CBF in frontal and parietal lobes prior to stenting compared with the non-embolism group. The systolic blood pressure in the micro-embolism group at discharge was significantly lower than that at admission. The high incidence rate of micro-embolism in patients receiving CAS may not be the result of direct changes of hemodynamics in the brain but rather the loss of CBF regulation due to long-term hypoperfusion prior to the stenting.
The impact of indole-3-lactic acid on immature intestinal innate immunity and development: a transcriptomic analysis
Authors: Huang Wuyang , Cho Ky Young , Meng Di , Walker W. Allan 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAn excessive intestinal inflammatory response may have a role in the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in very preterm infants. Indole-3-lactic acid (ILA) of breastmilk tryptophan was identified as the anti-inflammatory metabolite involved in probiotic conditioned media from Bifidobacteria longum subsp infantis. This study aimed to explore the molecular endocytic pathways involved in the protective ILA effect against inflammation. H4 cells, Caco-2 cells, C57BL/6 pup and adult mice were used to compare the anti-inflammatory mechanisms between immature and mature enterocytes in vitro and in vivo. The results show that ILA has pleiotropic protective effects on immature enterocytes including anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and developmental regulatory potentials in a region-dependent and an age-dependent manner. Quantitative transcriptomic analysis revealed a new mechanistic model in which STAT1 pathways play an important role in IL-1β-induced inflammation and ILA has a regulatory effect on STAT1 pathways. These studies were validated by real-time RT-qPCR and STAT1 inhibitor experiments. Different protective reactions of ILA between immature and mature enterocytes indicated that ILA’s effects are developmentally regulated. These findings may be helpful in preventing NEC for premature infants.
Radiotherapy for brain metastasis and long-term survival
Authors: Park Kawngwoo , Bae Gi Hwan , Kim Woo Kyung , Yoo Chan-Jong , Park Cheol Wan , Kim Soo-Ki , Cha Jihye , Kim Jin Wook , Jung Jaehun 
Published: April 2021

AbstractPatients with brain metastases (BM) can benefit from radiotherapy (RT), although the long-term benefits of RT remain unclear. We searched a Korean national health insurance claims database and identified 135,740 patients with newly diagnosed BM during 2002–2017. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to evaluate survival according to RT modality, which included whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and/or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). The 84,986 eligible patients were followed for a median interval of 6.6 months, and 37,046 patients underwent RT (43.6%). After the PSM, patients who underwent RT had significantly better overall survival after 1 year (42.4% vs. 35.3%, P < 0.001), although there was no significant difference at 2.6 years, and patients who did not undergo RT had better survival after 5 years. Among patients with BM from lung cancer, RT was also associated with a survival difference after 1 year (57.3% vs. 32.8%, P < 0.001) and a median survival increase of 3.7 months. The 1-year overall survival rate was significantly better for SRS than for WBRT (46.4% vs. 38.8%, P < 0.001). Among Korean patients with BM, especially patients with primary lung cancer, RT improved the short-term survival rate, and SRS appears to be more useful than WBRT in this setting.
Buoyancy control in ammonoid cephalopods refined by complex internal shell architecture
Authors: Peterman David J. , Ritterbush Kathleen A. , Ciampaglio Charles N. , Johnson Erynn H. , Inoue Shinya , Mikami Tomoyuki , Linn Thomas J. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe internal architecture of chambered ammonoid conchs profoundly increased in complexity through geologic time, but the adaptive value of these structures is disputed. Specifically, these cephalopods developed fractal-like folds along the edges of their internal divider walls (septa). Traditionally, functional explanations for septal complexity have largely focused on biomechanical stress resistance. However, the impact of these structures on buoyancy manipulation deserves fresh scrutiny. We propose increased septal complexity conveyed comparable shifts in fluid retention capacity within each chamber. We test this interpretation by measuring the liquid retained by septa, and within entire chambers, in several 3D-printed cephalopod shell archetypes, treated with (and without) biomimetic hydrophilic coatings. Results show that surface tension regulates water retention capacity in the chambers, which positively scales with septal complexity and membrane capillarity, and negatively scales with size. A greater capacity for liquid retention in ammonoids may have improved buoyancy regulation, or compensated for mass changes during life. Increased liquid retention in our experiments demonstrate an increase in areas of greater surface tension potential, supporting improved chamber refilling. These findings support interpretations that ammonoids with complex sutures may have had more active buoyancy regulation compared to other groups of ectocochleate cephalopods. Overall, the relationship between septal complexity and liquid retention capacity through surface tension presents a robust yet simple functional explanation for the mechanisms driving this global biotic pattern.
A graph neural network framework for causal inference in brain networks
Authors: Wein S. , Malloni W. M. , Tomé A. M. , Frank S. M. , Henze G. -I. , Wüst S. , Greenlee M. W. , Lang E. W. 
Published: April 2021

AbstractA central question in neuroscience is how self-organizing dynamic interactions in the brain emerge on their relatively static structural backbone. Due to the complexity of spatial and temporal dependencies between different brain areas, fully comprehending the interplay between structure and function is still challenging and an area of intense research. In this paper we present a graph neural network (GNN) framework, to describe functional interactions based on the structural anatomical layout. A GNN allows us to process graph-structured spatio-temporal signals, providing a possibility to combine structural information derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with temporal neural activity profiles, like that observed in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Moreover, dynamic interactions between different brain regions discovered by this data-driven approach can provide a multi-modal measure of causal connectivity strength. We assess the proposed model’s accuracy by evaluating its capabilities to replicate empirically observed neural activation profiles, and compare the performance to those of a vector auto regression (VAR), like that typically used in Granger causality. We show that GNNs are able to capture long-term dependencies in data and also computationally scale up to the analysis of large-scale networks. Finally we confirm that features learned by a GNN can generalize across MRI scanner types and acquisition protocols, by demonstrating that the performance on small datasets can be improved by pre-training the GNN on data from an earlier study. We conclude that the proposed multi-modal GNN framework can provide a novel perspective on the structure-function relationship in the brain. Accordingly this approach appears to be promising for the characterization of the information flow in brain networks.
A comprehensive evaluation of early potential risk factors for disease aggravation in patients with COVID-19
Authors: Tang Qiang , Liu Yanwei , Fu Yingfeng , Di Ziyang , Xu Kailiang , Tang Bo , Wu Hui , Di Maojun 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has become an unprecedented public crisis. We retrospectively investigated the clinical data of 197 COVID-19 patients and identified 88 patients as disease aggravation cases. Compared with patients without disease aggravation, the aggravation cases had more comorbidities, including hypertension (25.9%) and diabetes (20.8%), and presented with dyspnoea (23.4%), neutrophilia (31.5%), and lymphocytopenia (46.7%). These patients were more prone to develop organ damage in liver, kidney, and heart (P < 0.05). A multivariable regression analysis showed that advanced age, comorbidities, dyspnea, lymphopenia, and elevated levels of Fbg, CTnI, IL-6, and serum ferritin were significant predictors of disease aggravation. Further, we performed a Kaplan–Meier analysis to evaluate the prognosis of COVID-19 patients, which suggested that 64.9% of the patients had not experienced ICU transfers and survival from the hospital.
AD Course Map charts Alzheimer’s disease progression
Authors: Koval Igor , Bône Alexandre , Louis Maxime , Lartigue Thomas , Bottani Simona , Marcoux Arnaud , Samper-González Jorge , Burgos Ninon , Charlier Benjamin , Bertrand Anne , Epelbaum Stéphane , Colliot Olivier , Allassonnière Stéphanie , Durrleman Stanley 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the progressive alterations seen in brain images which give rise to the onset of various sets of symptoms. The variability in the dynamics of changes in both brain images and cognitive impairments remains poorly understood. This paper introduces AD Course Map a spatiotemporal atlas of Alzheimer’s disease progression. It summarizes the variability in the progression of a series of neuropsychological assessments, the propagation of hypometabolism and cortical thinning across brain regions and the deformation of the shape of the hippocampus. The analysis of these variations highlights strong genetic determinants for the progression, like possible compensatory mechanisms at play during disease progression. AD Course Map also predicts the patient’s cognitive decline with a better accuracy than the 56 methods benchmarked in the open challenge TADPOLE. Finally, AD Course Map is used to simulate cohorts of virtual patients developing Alzheimer’s disease. AD Course Map offers therefore new tools for exploring the progression of AD and personalizing patients care.