bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
From preschool wheezing to asthma: Immunological determinants
Authors: Laubhahn Kristina , Schaub Bianca 
Published: October 2023

AbstractAsthma represents a chronic respiratory disease affecting millions of children worldwide. The transition from preschool wheezing to school‐age asthma involves a multifaceted interplay of various factors, including immunological aspects in early childhood. These factors include complex cellular interactions among different immune cell subsets, induction of pro‐inflammatory mediators and the molecular impact of environmental factors like allergens or viral infections on the developing immune system. Furthermore, the activation of specific genes and signalling pathways during this early phase plays a pivotal role in the manifestation of symptoms and subsequent development of asthma. Early identification of the propensity or risk for asthma development, for example by allergen sensitisation and viral infections during this critical period, is crucial for understanding the transition from wheeze to asthma. Favourable immune regulation during a critical ‘window of opportunity’ in early childhood can induce persistent changes in immune cell behaviour. In this context, trained immunity, including memory function of innate immune cells, has significant implications for understanding immune responses, potentially shaping long‐term immunological outcomes based on early‐life environmental exposures. Exploration of these underlying immune mechanisms that drive disease progression will provide valuable insights to understand childhood asthma development. This will be instrumental to develop preventive strategies at different stages of disease development for (i) inhibiting progression from wheeze to asthma or (ii) reducing disease severity and (iii) uncovering novel therapeutic strategies and contributing to more tailored and effective treatments for childhood asthma. In the long term, this shall empower healthcare professionals to develop evidence‐based interventions that reduce the burden of asthma for children, families and society overall.
Atypical cutaneous findings of hand‐foot‐mouth disease in children: A systematic review
Authors: Starkey Samantha Y. , Mar Kristie , Khaslavsky Sophie , Seeburruth Darshana , Khalid Bushra , Virmani Divya , Lam Joseph M. , Mukovozov Ilya 
Published: October 2023

AbstractIntroductionHand‐foot‐mouth disease (HFMD) is a common childhood infectious disease. Atypical skin findings of HFMD, often associated with coxsackievirus A6 (CVA6), were first reported in 2008, with increasing reports worldwide since. Atypical lesions of HFMD often involve sites beyond the palms and soles and tend to have unusual, polymorphic morphology.MethodsA systematic review was conducted on clinical features and outcomes of pediatric HFMD with atypical cutaneous manifestations.ResultsEighty‐five studies were included, representing 1359 cases with mean age 2.4 years and a male predominance of 61%. The most reported morphologies were vesicles (53%), papules (49%), and bullae (36%). Other morphologies included eczema herpeticum‐like (19%), purpuric/petechial (7%), and Gianotti Crosti‐like (4%). Common atypical sites included the arms and/or legs (47%), face (45%), and trunk (27%). CVA6 was identified in 63% of cases. Symptoms resolved in a mean of 10 days. Overall, 16% of cases received treatment, most commonly with acyclovir, intravenous antibiotics, or topical steroids. The most common complications were nail changes (21%) and desquamation (4%) which occurred a mean of 3 and 2 weeks after symptoms, respectively.ConclusionDue to unusual morphologies resembling other conditions, HFMD with atypical cutaneous findings may be misdiagnosed, leading to inappropriate and unnecessary investigations, hospitalization, and treatment. Greater awareness of atypical presentations of HFMD is warranted to improve patient care and counseling on infection control precautions.
Prevalence of mycophenolate mofetil discontinuation and subsequent outcomes in pediatric kidney transplant recipients: A PNRC study
Authors: Moudgil Asha , Sgambat Kristen , Benoit Elizabeth , Seifert Michael E. , Bharadwaj Madhumithaa , Jain Amrish , Mansuri Asif , Harshman Lyndsay , Katsoufis Chryso , Somers Michael 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBackgroundMycophenolate Mofetil (MMF) is an effective immunosuppressant used in kidney transplant recipients to prevent acute rejection. Complications such as diarrhea, leukopenia, and infections may necessitate the reduction or discontinuation of MMF. The objective of the study was to investigate the prevalence, timing, and reasons for MMF discontinuation and its association with outcomes in pediatric kidney transplant recipients.MethodsSeven Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium (PNRC) centers participated in a retrospective analysis of kidney transplant recipients <21 years of age. Characteristics and outcomes of patients in whom MMF was discontinued were compared to those who continued taking MMF throughout the first 2 years post‐transplant.ResultsThe study population included 288 participants (mean age 11.2 years) from 7 North American transplant centers. MMF was discontinued in 93/288 (32%) of participants. Common reasons for discontinuation included infections (35%), diarrhea (32%), leukopenia (15%), and others (18%). Increased cumulative alloimmunity (55% vs. 42%, p = .02), increased number of hospitalizations (82% vs. 67%, p = .01), and viral replications (79% vs. 47%, p < .0001) were observed in the MMF discontinuation group compared to the continuation group. Greater eGFR decline also occurred in the MMF discontinuation group over 2 years of follow‐up (−7 vs. −1 mL/min/1.73 m2, p = .05).ConclusionsAlmost a third of pediatric kidney transplant recipients who begin MMF for maintenance immunosuppression have it discontinued within the first 2 years post‐transplant, and this subset of patients is more likely to experience adverse outcomes. New strategies are needed to manage MMF therapy and improve post‐transplant outcomes.
Extracts of Trichocline sinuata (Asteraceae) as natural sensitizers in the photodynamic inactivation of Candida albicans
Authors: Schiavi Paulina Cardoso , Svetaz Laura , Petenatti Elisa , Sortino Maximiliano , Tempesti Tomas C. , Funes Matías 
Published: October 2023

AbstractDespite significant progress in the development of phototherapy drugs, it is widely recognized that natural products remain the primary source of new photoactive compounds. Exploring uncharted flora in the east‐central region of Argentina may offer a vast array of opportunities to isolate new photoactive molecules or plant extracts with high potential for use in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) against Candida albicans. To assess the photofungicidal potential of T. sinuata (“contrayerba”) against C. albicans, the extracts underwent spectroscopic and chromatographic analysis, resulting in the identification of furanocoumarin metabolites with similar spectrophotometric properties in all extracts. The extract profiles were created using UHPLC‐DAD, and seven furanocoumarins (FCs) were detected. The highest photoinactivation against C. albicans was observed for dicholormethanic extracts (MFC = 62.5 μg/mL), equal to xanthotoxin employed as a positive control. Furthermore, we determine that photochemical mechanisms dependent on oxygen (type I and type II processes) and mechanisms independent of oxygen (photoadduct formation) are involved in the death of these yeasts. These results support the use of native plants of the east‐central region of Argentina as potent sensitizers for aPDT and suggest that they can replace xanthotoxin in treating superficial yeast infections of the skin.
Risk assessment for conventional diesel exhaust (before 1990) and lung cancer in a cohort of miners
Authors: Park Robert M 
Published: October 2023

AbstractDiesel exhaust in the latter half of the 20th century has been found to be a lung carcinogen. Conventional diesel emissions continue in the transportation, mining, construction, and farming industries. From the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study, a public‐use dataset was used to calculate the excess lifetime risk of lung cancer associated with diesel exposure (1947–1997). Excess rates of lung cancer mortality associated with respirable elemental carbon (REC) and possible other mining exposures (e.g., oil mists, explosives emissions) were investigated using Poisson regression methods. Lung cancer mortality declined with increasing employment duration while increasing with cumulative REC and non‐diesel exposures, suggesting a strong worker survivor effect. Attenuation of the REC effect was observed with increasing cumulative exposure. After adjustment for employment duration, the excess rate ratio for lung cancer mortality was 0.67 (95% CI = 0.35–0.99) for a 10‐year lagged exposure to 200 μg/m3 REC, a typical below‐ground exposure in the study mines. At exposures of 200, 10, and 1 μg/m3 REC, the estimated excess lifetime risks, respectively, were 119, 43, and 8.7 per thousand. Analysis of an inception cohort hired after dieselization commenced produced smaller and less certain estimates of lifetime risk. From exposures to conventional diesel engine exhaust common in occupational groups in the past, the excess lifetime risk of lung cancer was more than 5%. Ambient REC exposures in the general population were estimated to confer lifetime risks of 0.14 to 14 per thousand, depending on assumptions made.
TBTs, firm organization and labor structure
Authors: Barba Navaretti Giorgio , Fontagné Lionel , Orefice Gianluca , Pica Giovanni , Rosso Anna Cecilia 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThis article investigates the effect of shocks to the occupational structure of exporting firms induced by the introduction of technical barriers to trade (TBTs) in importing countries. We rely on specific trade concerns data to identify trade‐restrictive TBT measures, combined with matched employer‐employee data for French exporters over the period 1995–2010, and information on the product‐destinations served by each exporter. Controlling for time‐invariant firm/occupation fixed effects and for time‐varying sector/occupation shocks, the 2SLS estimates show that exporting firms adapt to the imposition of TBTs at destination by increasing the share of managers at the expense of blue collars, white collars and other professionals.
Everyday sense making and the discursive delineation of social policy space in Zambia
Authors: Wolkenhauer Anna 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThis article connects the notions of policy space and social contract in order to understand the importance of everyday discourse for the perceived legitimacy of social policy choices and emerging responsibilities in Zambia. Based on a Grounded Theory analysis of interview and document material, the article reconstructs common sense ideas about the limited resources of the state, from which modalities in the Social Cash Transfer programme, especially the requirements for targeting and graduation, are derived. It moreover explores how from these limited means also follows the sharing of responsibilities between the state and the recipients themselves, giving way to a self‐responsibility discourse. Thereby, the attempt by implementing officers and the wider community to rationalise distributional choices in light of wide‐spread poverty, shape the social contract between the state and citizens in Zambia and ultimately also delineate the space of what becomes possible to imagine within social policy. The article concludes with an argument for broadening social policy visions away from the individual level towards tackling the underlying structural causes of poverty by connecting social with economic interventions.
Boosting the performance of pretrained CNN architecture on dermoscopic pigmented skin lesion classification
Authors: Nugroho Erwin Setyo , Ardiyanto Igi , Nugroho Hanung Adi 
Published: October 2023

AbstractBackgroundPigmented skin lesions (PSLs) pose medical and esthetic challenges for those affected. PSLs can cause skin cancers, particularly melanoma, which can be life‐threatening. Detecting and treating melanoma early can reduce mortality rates. Dermoscopic imaging offers a noninvasive and cost‐effective technique for examining PSLs. However, the lack of standardized colors, image capture settings, and artifacts makes accurate analysis challenging. Computer‐aided diagnosis (CAD) using deep learning models, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), has shown promise by automatically extracting features from medical images. Nevertheless, enhancing the CNN models' performance remains challenging, notably concerning sensitivity.Materials and methodsIn this study, we aim to enhance the classification performance of selected pretrained CNNs. We use the 2019 ISIC dataset, which presents eight disease classes. To achieve this goal, two methods are applied: resolution of the dataset imbalance challenge through augmentation and optimization of the training hyperparameters via Bayesian tuning.ResultsThe performance improvement was observed for all tested pretrained CNNs. The Inception‐V3 model achieved the best performance compared to similar results, with an accuracy of 96.40% and an AUC of 0.98.ConclusionAccording to the study, classification performance was significantly enhanced by augmentation and Bayesian hyperparameter tuning.
Conjugacy of transitive SFTs minus periodic points
Authors: Salo Ville 
Published: October 2023

AbstractIt is a question of Hochman whether any two one‐dimensional topologically mixing subshifts of finite type (SFTs) with the same entropy are topologically conjugate when their periodic points are removed. We give a negative answer, and, in fact, we prove the stronger result that there is a canonical correspondence between topological conjugacies of transitive SFTs and topological conjugacies between the systems obtained by removing the periodic points.
Joint integrability and spectral rigidity for Anosov diffeomorphisms
Authors: Gogolev Andrey , Shi Yi 
Published: October 2023

AbstractLet be an Anosov diffeomorphism whose linearization is irreducible. Assume that is also absolutely partially hyperbolic where a weak stable subbundle is considered as the center subbundle. We show that if the strong stable subbundle and the unstable subbundle are jointly integrable, then is dynamically coherent and all foliations match corresponding linear foliation under the conjugacy to the linearization . Moreover, admits the finest dominated splitting in the weak stable subbundle with dimensions matching those for , and it has spectral rigidity along all these subbundles. In dimension 4, we also obtain a similar result by grouping the weak stable and unstable subbundles together as a center subbundle and assuming joint integrability of the strong stable and unstable subbundles. As an application, we show that for every symplectic diffeomorphism that is ‐close to an irreducible nonconformal automorphism , the extremal subbundles of are jointly integrable if and only if is smoothly conjugate to .
Functional knockout of the TRPV1 channel has no effect on the exercise pressor reflex in rats
Authors: Anselmi Laura , Ducrocq Guillaume P. , Ruiz‐Velasco Victor , Stocker Sean D. , Higgins Shannon P. , Kaufman Marc P. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe role played by the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel on the thin fibre afferents evoking the exercise pressor reflex is controversial. To shed light on this controversy, we compared the exercise pressor reflex between newly developed TRPV1+/+, TRPV1+/− and TRPV1−/− rats. Carotid arterial injection of capsaicin (0.5 μg), evoked significant pressor responses in TRPV1+/+ and TRPV1+/− rats, but not in TRPV1−/− rats. In acutely isolated dorsal root ganglion neurons innervating the gastrocnemius muscles, capsaicin evoked inward currents in neurons isolated from TRPV1+/+ and TRPV1+/− rats but not in neurons isolated from TRPV1−/− rats. The reflex was evoked by stimulating the tibial nerve in decerebrated rats whose femoral artery was either freely perfused or occluded. We found no difference between the reflex in the three groups of rats regardless of the patency of the femoral artery. For example, the peak pressor responses to contraction in TRPV1+/+, TRPV1+/− and TRPV1−/− rats with patent femoral arteries averaged 17.1 ± 7.2, 18.9 ± 12.4 and 18.4 ± 8.6 mmHg, respectively. Stimulation of the tibial nerve after paralysis with pancuronium had no effect on arterial pressure, findings which indicated that the pressor responses to contraction were not caused by electrical stimulation of afferent tibial nerve axons. We also found that expression levels of acid‐sensing ion channel 1 and endoperoxide 4 receptor in the L4 and 5 dorsal root ganglia were not upregulated in the TRPV1−/− rats. We conclude that TRPV1 is not needed to evoke the exercise pressor reflex in rats whose contracting muscles have either a patent or an occluded arterial blood supply.
imageKey points
A reflex arising in contracting skeletal muscle contributes to the increases in arterial blood pressure, cardiac output and breathing evoked by exercise.
The sensory arm of the reflex comprises both mechanoreceptors and metaboreceptors, of which the latter signals that blood flow to exercising muscle is not meeting its metabolic demand.
The nature of the channel on the metaboreceptor sensing a mismatch between supply and demand is controversial; some believe that it is the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel.
Using genetically engineered rats in which the TRPV1 channel is rendered non‐functional, we have shown that it is not needed to evoke the metaboreflex.
Thermal adaptation of soil microbial growth traits in response to chronic warming
Authors: Eng Ashley Y. , Narayanan Achala , Alster Charlotte J. , DeAngelis Kristen M. 
Published: October 2023

ABSTRACT
Adaptation of soil microbes due to warming from climate change has been observed, but it remains unknown what microbial growth traits are adaptive to warming. We studied bacterial isolates from the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site, where field soils have been experimentally heated to 5°C above ambient temperature with unheated controls for 30 years. We hypothesized that Alphaproteobacteria from warmed plots have (i) less temperature-sensitive growth rates; (ii) higher optimum growth temperatures; and (iii) higher maximum growth temperatures compared to isolates from control plots. We made high-throughput measurements of bacterial growth in liquid cultures over time and across temperatures from 22°C to 37°C in 2–3°C increments. We estimated growth rates by fitting Gompertz models to the growth data. Temperature sensitivity of growth rate, optimum growth temperature, and maximum growth temperature were estimated by the Ratkowsky 1983 model and a modified Macromolecular Rate Theory (MMRT) model. To determine evidence of adaptation, we ran phylogenetic generalized least squares tests on isolates from warmed and control soils. Our results showed evidence of adaptation of higher optimum growth temperature of bacterial isolates from heated soils. However, we observed no evidence of adaptation of temperature sensitivity of growth and maximum growth temperature. Our project begins to capture the shape of the temperature response curves, but illustrates that the relationship between growth and temperature is complex and cannot be limited to a single point in the biokinetic range.

IMPORTANCE
Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink and the foundation of our food, fiber, and fuel systems. Healthy soils are carbon sinks, storing more carbon than they release. This reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and buffers against climate change. Soil microbes drive biogeochemical cycling and contribute to soil health through organic matter breakdown, plant growth promotion, and nutrient distribution. In this study, we determined how soil microbial growth traits respond to long-term soil warming. We found that bacterial isolates from warmed plots showed evidence of adaptation of optimum growth temperature. This suggests that increased microbial biomass and growth in a warming world could result in greater carbon storage. As temperatures increase, greater microbial activity may help reduce the soil carbon feedback loop. Our results provide insight on how atmospheric carbon cycling and soil health may respond in a warming world.
Multicenter evaluation of the BIOFIRE Joint Infection Panel for the detection of bacteria, yeast, and AMR genes in synovial fluid samples
Authors: Esteban Jaime , Salar-Vidal Llanos , Schmitt Bryan H. , Waggoner Amy , Laurent Frédéric , Abad Lelia , Bauer Thomas W. , Mazariegos Irving , Balada-Llasat Joan-Miquel , Horn Jared , Wolk Donna M. , Jefferis Alexa , Hermans Mirjam , Verhoofstad Irma , Butler-Wu Susan M. , Umali-Wilcox Minette , Murphy Caitlin , Cabrera Barbara , Craft David , von Bredow Benjamin , Leber Amy , Everhart Kathy , Dien Bard Jennifer , Flores Irvin Ibarra , Daly Judy , Barr Rebecca , Holmberg Kristen , Graue Corrin , Kensinger Bart 
Published: October 2023

ABSTRACT

The bioMérieux BIOFIRE Joint Infection (JI) Panel is a multiplex
in vitro
diagnostic test for the simultaneous and rapid (~1 h) detection of 39 potential pathogens and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes directly from synovial fluid (SF) samples. Thirty-one species or groups of microorganisms are included in the kit, as well as several AMR genes. This study, performed to evaluate the BIOFIRE JI Panel for regulatory clearance, provides data from a multicenter evaluation of 1,544 prospectively collected residual SF samples with performance compared to standard-of-care (SOC) culture for organisms or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing for AMR genes. The BIOFIRE JI Panel demonstrated a sensitivity of 90.9% or greater for all but six organisms and a positive percent agreement (PPA) of 100% for all AMR genes. The BIOFIRE JI Panel demonstrated a specificity of 98.5% or greater for detection of all organisms and a negative percent agreement (NPA) of 95.7% or greater for all AMR genes. The BIOFIRE JI Panel provides an improvement over SOC culture, with a substantially shorter time to result for both organisms and AMR genes with excellent sensitivity/PPA and specificity/NPA, and is anticipated to provide timely and actionable diagnostic information for joint infections in a variety of clinical scenarios.