bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cerebral arterial flow dynamics during systole and diastole phases in young and older healthy adults
Authors: Owashi Kimi Piedad , Capel Cyrille , Balédent Olivier 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
Since arterial flow is the leading actor in neuro-fluids flow dynamics, it might be interesting to assess whether it is meaningful to study the arterial flow waveform in more detail and whether this provides new important information. Few studies have focused on determining the influence of heart rate variation over time on the arterial flow curve. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate cerebral arterial flow waveforms at extracranial and intracranial compartments in young and elderly healthy adults, also considering systole and diastole phases.

Methods
Cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (CINE-PC MRI) was performed on twenty-eight healthy young volunteers (HYV) and twenty healthy elderly volunteers (HEV) to measure arterial blood flows at the extracranial and intracranial planes. A semi-automated protocol using MATLAB scripts was implemented to identify the main representative points in the arterial flow waveforms. Representative arterial profiles were estimated for each group. Moreover, the effects of age and sex on flow times, amplitude-related parameters, and parameters related to systole and diastole phases were evaluated at the extracranial and intracranial compartments. Student’s t-test or Wilcoxon’s test (depending on the normality of the distribution) was used to detect significant differences.

Results
In HYVs, significant differences were observed between extracranial and intracranial levels in parameters related to the AP1 amplitude. Besides the detected differences in pulsatility index (extracranial: 0.92 ± 0.20 vs. 1.28 ± 0.33; intracranial: 0.79 ± 0.15 vs. 1.14 ± 0.18, p < .001) and average flow (715 ± 136 vs. 607 ± 125 ml/min, p = .008) between HYV and HEV, differences in the amplitude value of the arterial flow profile feature points were also noted. Contrary to systole duration (HYV: 360 ± 29 ms; HEV: 364 ± 47 ms), diastole duration presented higher inter-individual variability in both populations (HYV: 472 ± 145 ms; HEV: 456 ± 106 ms). Our results also showed that, with age, it is mainly the diastolic phase that changes. Although no significant differences in duration were observed between the two populations, the mean flow value in the diastolic phase was significantly lower in HEV (extracranial: 628 ± 128 vs. 457 ± 111 ml/min; intracranial: 599 ± 121 vs. 473 ± 100 ml/min, p < .001). No significant differences were observed in the arterial flow parameters evaluated between females and males in either HYV or HEV.

Conclusion
Our study provides a novel contribution on the influence of the cardiac cycle phases on cerebral arterial flow. The main contribution in this study concerns the identification of age-related alterations in cerebral blood flow, which occur mainly during the diastolic phase. Specifically, we observed that mean flow significantly decreases with age during diastole, whereas mean flow during systole is consistent.
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for the treatment of giant cervical disc herniation
Authors: Liang Weibin , Xiong Yu , Jia Yukun , Li Shaoqiang , Zhao Kaishuai , Peng Zhan , Wang Guangye 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Objective
Giant cervical disc herniation (GCDH) was defined as a herniated intervertebral disc that accounted for more than 50% of the spinal canal. The purpose of this study was to analyse the feasibility of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for the treatment of GCDH.

Methods
Patient demographic and imaging data, clinical results, and perioperative complications were analysed retrospectively.

Results
A total of 23 patients were included in the study. Spinal cord recovery pulsation was observed under a microscope in all cases. Postoperative magnetic resonance imaging showed complete decompression of the spinal cord and no residual intervertebral disc. The patients were followed up for 12 to 18 months. The average visual analogue scale score and Neck Disability Index decreased from 8.6 ± 0.5 and 86.0 ± 2.7% to 2.2 ± 0.2 and 26.7 ± 2.0%, respectively, three days after surgery. The average Japanese Orthopedic Association score increased from 6.9 ± 2.1 to 13.9 ± 1.1. The cervical spinal cord function improvement rate was 69.3%. No neurological complications after surgery were observed.

Conclusion
This study shows that ACDF is feasible for the treatment of GCDH disease. The results indicate that this approach can be used to safely remove herniated disc fragments, effectively relieve compression of the spinal cord, and improve neurological function.
Tafamidis decreased cardiac amyloidosis deposition in patients with Ala97Ser hereditary transthyretin cardiomyopathy: a 12-month follow-up cohort study
Authors: Tsai Cheng-Hsuan , Chao Chi-Chao , Hsieh Sung-Tsang , Yu An-Li , Wu Yuan-Kun , Cheng Mei-Fang , Lee Ming-Jen , Chou Chia-Hung , Shun Chia-Tung , Hsueh Hsueh-Wen , Jyh-Ming Juang Jimmy , Tseng Ping-Huei , Su Mao-Yuan , Lin Yen-Hung 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
Transthyretin cardiac cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is a rare but life-threatening disease. Tafamidis is an effective treatment for patients with ATTR-CM, however its long-term effects on cardiac remodeling and cardiac amyloid deposition are unknown. This study aimed to used cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) to investigate the effects of tafamidis on patients with hereditary A97S ATTR-CM.

Methods
We retrospectively analyzed a prospective cohort of ATTR-CM patients, including 14 with hereditary A97S ATTR-CM and 17 healthy controls with baseline CMR data. All ATTR-CM patients received tafamidis treatment and received CMR with extracellular volume (ECV) at baseline and after 1 year of follow-up.

Results
Baseline N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, left ventricular (LV) mass, LV ejection fraction, global radial, circumferential and longitudinal strain, T1 mapping and ECV were significantly worse in the patients with ATTR-CM compared with the healthy controls. After 1 year of tafamidis treatment, ECV decreased from 51.5 ± 8.9% to 49.0 ± 9.4% (P = 0.041), however there were no significant changes in LV mass, LV ejection fraction, global radial strain, global circumferential strain, global longitudinal strain and T1 mapping.

Conclusions
After a one-year treatment period, tafamidis exhibited subtle but statistically significant reductions in ECV, potentially indicating a decrease in amyloid deposition among patients diagnosed with hereditary A97S ATTR-CM.
A robust deep learning workflow to predict CD8 + T-cell epitopes
Authors: Lee Chloe H. , Huh Jaesung , Buckley Paul R. , Jang Myeongjun , Pinho Mariana Pereira , Fernandes Ricardo A. , Antanaviciute Agne , Simmons Alison , Koohy Hashem 
Published: September 2023

AbstractBackgroundT-cells play a crucial role in the adaptive immune system by triggering responses against cancer cells and pathogens, while maintaining tolerance against self-antigens, which has sparked interest in the development of various T-cell-focused immunotherapies. However, the identification of antigens recognised by T-cells is low-throughput and laborious. To overcome some of these limitations, computational methods for predicting CD8 + T-cell epitopes have emerged. Despite recent developments, most immunogenicity algorithms struggle to learn features of peptide immunogenicity from small datasets, suffer from HLA bias and are unable to reliably predict pathology-specific CD8 + T-cell epitopes.MethodsWe developed TRAP (T-cell recognition potential of HLA-I presented peptides), a robust deep learning workflow for predicting CD8 + T-cell epitopes from MHC-I presented pathogenic and self-peptides. TRAP uses transfer learning, deep learning architecture and MHC binding information to make context-specific predictions of CD8 + T-cell epitopes. TRAP also detects low-confidence predictions for peptides that differ significantly from those in the training datasets to abstain from making incorrect predictions. To estimate the immunogenicity of pathogenic peptides with low-confidence predictions, we further developed a novel metric, RSAT (relative similarity to autoantigens and tumour-associated antigens), as a complementary to ‘dissimilarity to self’ from cancer studies.ResultsTRAP was used to identify epitopes from glioblastoma patients as well as SARS-CoV-2 peptides, and it outperformed other algorithms in both cancer and pathogenic settings. TRAP was especially effective at extracting immunogenicity-associated properties from restricted data of emerging pathogens and translating them onto related species, as well as minimising the loss of likely epitopes in imbalanced datasets. We also demonstrated that the novel metric termed RSAT was able to estimate immunogenic of pathogenic peptides of various lengths and species. TRAP implementation is available at:https://github.com/ChloeHJ/TRAP.ConclusionsThis study presents a novel computational workflow for accurately predicting CD8 + T-cell epitopes to foster a better understanding of antigen-specific T-cell response and the development of effective clinical therapeutics.
The changing relationship between Cholera and interannual climate variables in Kolkata over the past century
Authors: Shackleton Debbie , Memon Fayyaz Ali , Chen Albert , Dutta Shanta , Kanungo Suman , Deb Alok 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
In the Bengal Delta, research has shown that climate and cholera are linked. One demonstration of this is the relationship between interannual ocean-atmospheric oscillations such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). What remains unclear in the present literature is the nature of this relationship in the specific context of Kolkata, and how this relationship may have changed over time.

Results
In this study, we analyse the changing relationship between ENSO and IOD with cholera in Kolkata over recent (1999–2019) and historical (1897–1941) time intervals. Wavelet coherence analysis revealed significant non-stationary association at 2–4 year and 4–8 year periods between cholera and both interannual timeseries during both time intervals. However, coherence was notably weakened in the recent interval, particularly with regards to ENSO, a result supported by a complementary SARIMA analysis. Similar coherence patterns with temperature indicate it could be an important mediating factor in the relationship between cholera and oscillating climate phenomena in Kolkata.

Conclusions
This study reveals a shifting relationship between cholera and climate variables (ENSO and IOD) in Kolkata, suggesting a decoupling between environmental influences and cholera transmission in recent years. Our results therefore do not suggest that an intensification of ENSO is likely to significantly influence cholera in the region. We also find that the relationship between cholera and interannual climate variables is distinct to Kolkata, highlighting the spatial heterogeneity of the climate-cholera relationship even within the Bengal Delta.
Transient lateral rectus palsy associated with acute coronary syndrome treated with percutaneous coronary intervention: a case report
Authors: Farsavian Ali Asghar , Mobinikhaledi Mahya , Ghorbani Parastoo , Ghadirzadeh Erfan 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
Patients who experience angina and acute myocardial infarction often receive diagnostic coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention.

Case presentation
A 54-year-old Persian man with acute coronary syndrome was admitted to the hospital and underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention. Two hours after the procedure, the patient experienced ophthalmoplegia and diplopia. The diagnosis was abducens nerve palsy resulting in transient lateral rectus palsy. The cause is presumed to have been an ischemic event affecting the unilateral abducens nerve. This could have occurred owing to the microembolism during the percutaneous coronary intervention, which resulted in left lateral rectus palsy. Within 1 month, the diplopia was relieved completely, and the physical examination was normal.

Conclusion
The occurrence of neuro-ophthalmic complications that may arise from percutaneous coronary intervention is extremely rare. To our knowledge, this is the second reported case of unilateral rectus palsy associated with percutaneous coronary intervention.
Biodistribution of mesenchymal stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles administered during acute lung injury
Authors: Tieu Alvin , Stewart Duncan J. , Chwastek Damian , Lansdell Casey , Burger Dylan , Lalu Manoj M. 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
Mesenchymal stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) are a promising cell-free therapy for acute lung injury (ALI). To date, no studies have investigated their biodistribution in ALI or discerned the timing of administration for maximal lung targeting, which are crucial considerations for clinical translation. Our study aimed to characterize a mouse model of ALI and establish the distribution kinetics and optimal timing of MSC-EV delivery during lung injury.

Methods
MSC-EVs were isolated by ultracentrifugation alone (U/C) or tangential flow filtration with ultracentrifugation (TFF-U/C) and characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis and western blot. A lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse model of ALI was established to study the inflammatory response over 72 h. ALI was assessed by histological lung injury score, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cell count and inflammatory cytokines. For biodistribution studies, ALI mice were intravenously administered fluorescently labeled MSC-EVs to determine the optimal timing of administration and organ-specific biodistribution. Live in vivo and ex vivo fluorescence imaging was conducted at various timepoints post-EV injection.

Results
EVs isolated by either ultracentrifugation alone or TFF-U/C displayed comparable size distribution (~ 50–350 nm) and EV marker expression (CD63/81). TFF-U/C generated a 5.4-fold higher particle concentration and 3.9-fold higher total protein when compared to ultracentrifugation alone. From the inflammatory time-course study, cell count and IL-1β peaked in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid at 24 h after ALI induction. MSC-EVs delivered at 24 h (as opposed to 0.5 h, 5 h or 10 h) after disease induction resulted in a 2.7–4.4-fold higher lung uptake of EVs. Biodistribution studies comparing organ-specific MSC-EV uptake showed progressive lung accumulation up to 48 h post-delivery (threefold higher than the spleen/liver), with a decline at 72 h. Importantly, lung EV fluorescence at 48 h in ALI mice was significantly elevated as compared to control mice. The lung tropism of MSC-EVs was further validated as therapeutically inert EVs derived from HEK293T cells accumulated mainly to the spleen and liver with a 5.5-fold lower distribution to the lungs as compared to MSC-EVs.

Conclusion
MSC-EVs exhibit maximal lung accumulation when administered during heightened inflammation at 24 h after ALI induction. This lung tropism suggests that MSC-EVs may serve as a practical rescue treatment for acute inflammatory respiratory conditions.
Suprachoroidal spheroidal mesenchymal stem cell implantation in retinitis pigmentosa: clinical results of 6 months follow-up
Authors: Özkan Berna , Yılmaz Tuğan Büşra , Hemşinlioğlu Cansu , Sır Karakuş Gözde , Şahin Özlem , Ovalı Ercüment 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Purpose
This prospective clinical case series aimed to evaluate the effect of suprachoroidal implantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the form of spheroids as a stem cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients with relatively good visual acuity.

Methods
Fifteen eyes of 15 patients with RP who received suprachoroidal implantation of MSCs in the form of spheroids were included. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), 10–2 and 30–2 visual field examination and multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) recordings were recorded at baseline, postoperative 1st, 3rd and 6th months during follow-up.

Results
Baseline median BCVA of RP patients was 1.30 (1.00–2.00) logMAR. BCVA has improved to 1.00 (0.50–1.30), 0.80 (0.40–1.30) and 0.80 (0.40–1.30) at the postoperative 1st, 3rd and 6th months, respectively. The improvements from baseline to the 3rd and 6th months were statistically significant (p = 0.03 and p < 0.001, respectively). In the 30–2 VF test, median MD was significantly improved at the 6th month compared to baseline (p = 0.030). In the 10–2 VF test, the median MD value was significantly different at the 6th month compared to the baseline (p = 0.043). The PSD value of the 10–2 VF test was significantly different at the 6th month compared to the 3rd month (p = 0.043). The amplitudes of P1 waves in < 2°, 5°–10° and 10°–15° rings improved significantly at the postoperative 6th month (p = 0.014, p = 0.018 and p = 0.017, respectively). There was also a statistically significant improvement in implicit times of P1 waves in 10°–15° ring at the postoperative 6th month (p = 0.004).

Conclusion
Suprachoroidal implantation of MSCs in the form of spheroids as a stem cell therapy for RP patients with relatively good visual acuity has an improving effect on BCVA, VF and mfERG recordings during the 6-month follow-up period. Spheroidal MSCs with enhanced effects may be more successful in preventing apoptosis and improving retinal tissue healing in RP patients.
Biomarkers for Duchenne muscular dystrophy progression: impact of age in the mdx tongue spared muscle
Authors: Lorena Marcelo dos Santos Voltani , Santos Estela Kato dos , Ferretti Renato , Nagana Gowda G. A. , Odom Guy L. , Chamberlain Jeffrey S. , Matsumura Cintia Yuri 
Published: September 2023

Abstract
Background
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe form of muscular dystrophy without an effective treatment, caused by mutations in the DMD gene, leading to the absence of dystrophin. DMD results in muscle weakness, loss of ambulation, and death at an early age. Metabolomics studies in mdx mice, the most used model for DMD, reveal changes in metabolites associated with muscle degeneration and aging. In DMD, the tongue muscles exhibit unique behavior, initially showing partial protection against inflammation but later experiencing fibrosis and loss of muscle fibers. Certain metabolites and proteins, like TNF-α and TGF-β, are potential biomarkers for dystrophic muscle characterization.

Methods
To investigate disease progression and aging, we utilized young (1 month old) and old (21–25 months old) mdx and wild-type tongue muscles. Metabolite changes were analyzed using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, while TNF-α and TGF-β were assessed using Western blotting to examine inflammation and fibrosis. Morphometric analysis was conducted to assess the extent of myofiber damage between groups.

Results
The histological analysis of the mid-belly tongue showed no differences between groups. No differences were found between the concentrations of metabolites from wild-type or mdx whole tongues of the same age. The metabolites alanine, methionine, and 3-methylhistidine were higher, and taurine and glycerol were lower in young tongues in both wild type and mdx (p < 0.001). The metabolites glycine (p < 0.001) and glutamic acid (p = 0.0018) were different only in the mdx groups, being higher in young mdx mice. Acetic acid, phosphocreatine, isoleucine, succinic acid, creatine, and the proteins TNF-α and TGF-β had no difference in the analysis between groups (p > 0.05).

Conclusions
Surprisingly, histological, metabolite, and protein analysis reveal that the tongue of old mdx remains partially spared from the severe myonecrosis observed in other muscles. The metabolites alanine, methionine, 3-methylhistidine, taurine, and glycerol may be effective for specific assessments, although their use for disease progression monitoring should be cautious due to age-related changes in the tongue muscle. Acetic acid, phosphocreatine, isoleucine, succinate, creatine, TNF-α, and TGF-β do not vary with aging and remain constant in spared muscles, suggesting their potential as specific biomarkers for DMD progression independent of aging.
Energy efficiency maximization for UAV-enabled amplify-and-forward relaying via joint power and trajectory optimization
Authors: Guo Lili , Zhang Shibing , Ji Xiaodong , Shi Senyi 
Published: September 2023

AbstractThis paper investigates an optimization problem corresponding to energy efficiency maximization of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled relaying system, where a fixed-wing UAV acts as an amplify-and-forward mobile relay to assist data transmission between a source node and a destination node. On the premise of satisfying the speed and acceleration constraints of the UAV, the energy efficiency (EE) of the relaying system is maximized by jointly optimizing the UAV’s trajectory and the individual transmit power levels of the source and the UAV relay. The initial joint optimization problem is non-convex and cannot be solved directly. Therefore, the joint optimization problem is decomposed into two sub-problems which are solved by applying the successive convex approximation technique and the Dinkelbach’s algorithm. On this basis, an efficient iterative algorithm is proposed to tackle the joint optimization problem through the block coordinate descent technique. Simulation results demonstrated that by conducting the proposed algorithm, the flight trajectory of the UAV and the individual transmit power levels of the nodes can be flexibly adjusted according to the system conditions, and the proposed algorithm contributes to the higher EE compared with the benchmark schemes.