bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The VGNC: expanding standardized vertebrate gene nomenclature
Authors: Jones Tamsin E. M. , Yates Bethan , Braschi Bryony , Gray Kristian , Tweedie Susan , Seal Ruth L. , Bruford Elspeth A. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe Vertebrate Gene Nomenclature Committee (VGNC) was established in 2016 as a sister project to the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, to approve gene nomenclature in vertebrate species without an existing dedicated nomenclature committee. The VGNC aims to harmonize gene nomenclature across selected vertebrate species in line with human gene nomenclature, with orthologs assigned the same nomenclature where possible. This article presents an overview of the VGNC project and discussion of key findings resulting from this work to date. VGNC-approved nomenclature is accessible at https://vertebrate.genenames.org and is additionally displayed by the NCBI, Ensembl, and UniProt databases.
β-sitosterol attenuates high- fat diet-induced hepatic steatosis in rats by modulating lipid metabolism, inflammation and ER stress pathway
Authors: Abo-Zaid Omayma AR , Moawed Fatma SM , Ismail Effet Soliman , Farrag Mostafa A. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractNonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent chronic hepatic disorder. The naturally occurring phytosterol; β-sitosterol has antiobesogenic and anti-diabetic properties. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of β-sitosterol in preventing hepatic steatosis induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in rats. In the current study, to induce NAFLD in the female Wister rats, an HFD was administered to them for 8 weeks. The pathogenic severity of steatosis in rats receiving an HFD diet was dramatically decreased by oral administration of β-sitosterol. After administering β-sitosterol to HFD-induced steatosis for three weeks, several oxidative stress-related markers were then assessed. We showed that β-sitosterol reduced steatosis and the serum levels of triglycerides, transaminases (ALT and AST) and inflammatory markers (IL-1β and iNOS) compared to HFD-fed rats. Additionally, β-sitosterol reduced endoplasmic reticulum stress by preventing the overexpression of inositol-requiring enzyme-1 (IRE-1α), X-box binding protein 1(sXBP1) and C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) genes which, showing a function in the homeostatic regulation of protein folding. Also, it was found that the expression of the lipogenic factors; peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR-α), sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP-1c) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1(CPT-1), which are involved in the regulation of the fatty acid oxidation process, may be regulated by β-sitosterol. It can be concluded that β-sitosterol may prevent NAFLD by reducing oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress and inflammatory responses, which supports the possibility of using β-sitosterol as an alternative therapy for NAFLD. Together, β-sitosterol may be an option for NAFLD prevention.
Repeated intestinal perforations in vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: a case report of a novel mutation in the COL3A1 gene
Authors: Horino Taichi , Miyamoto Yuji , Ohuchi Mayuko , Ogawa Katsuhiro , Yoshida Naoya , Ishiko Takatoshi , Kukinaka Chieko , Sasaki Rumi , Ohba Takashi , Baba Hideo 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
Background
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is an inherited connective-tissue disorder characterized by skin hyperextensibility, joint hypermobility, and tissue fragility. Intestinal perforation is one of the fatal manifestations of this syndrome, and its management is complicated.

Case presentation
A 58-year-old woman with a familial history of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome visited the emergency department due to a sudden onset of lower abdominal pain. Plain abdominal computed tomography showed abdominal free air. We found a perforated descending colon and subsequently resected this lesion and performed ileostomy. Fifty-one days after this first operation, the patient had transverse colon perforation and thus underwent the Hartmann procedure as the second operation. In addition, she was diagnosed with small bowel perforation 53 days after the first operation and consequently underwent a third operation—partial resection of the jejunum with functional end-to-end anastomosis. Fifty-eight days after the first operation, she complained of acute abdominal pain. Plain abdominal computed tomography showed fluid collection near the jejunojejunal anastomosis. We detected dehiscence at the entry hole of the linear stapler during the operation and thus performed partial resection of the affected jejunum, followed by jejunostomy. The postoperative course of the fourth operation was uneventful. Genetic testing revealed a novel missense mutation (c.2095G>T, p.Gly699Cys) in the COL3A1 gene, which is presumed to be a pathogenic variant of vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Conclusion
Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome should be considered in the case of repeated intestinal perforation. The identified missense mutation in the COL3A1 gene (c.2095G>T, p.Gly699Cys) might be a novel pathogenic variation causing vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Careful postoperative screening and multidisciplinary management are required.
Challenges in managing upper gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to primary squamous cell carcinoma of the pancreas: a case report and literature review
Authors: Choi Colin Chan-Min , Arafat Yasser , Shamassi Maryam , Choi Julian 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
Background
Primary pancreatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a rare type of pancreatic cancer, with an incidence of 5% of all pancreatic cancers. This condition is associated with a poor prognosis, and no optimal treatment has been established (Zhang et al. in Medicine (Baltim). 97:e12253, 2018).

Case presentation
A 56-year-old man presented to our hospital with upper gastrointestinal bleeding and new-onset diabetes mellitus. He had no other medical comorbidities, episodes of pancreatitis and symptoms secondary to pancreatic insufficiency. A computed tomography (CT) scan showed a 94 × 72 × 83 mm necrotic pancreatic body mass with gastric invasion and multiple liver metastases. Gastroscopy revealed deep ulcerations at the posterior wall of the stomach with an active slow ooze. Endoscopic ultrasound was performed with EUS guided biopsy, which confirmed poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma of the pancreas. The patient underwent palliative radiotherapy for recurrent upper gastrointestinal bleeding followed by palliative chemotherapy with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel. He was referred to dietitians and diabetes educators for the management of pancreatic exocrine and endocrine insufficiency before being referred to community palliative care upon discharge.

Conclusions
This is the first reported Australian case of pancreatic SCC presenting with upper gastrointestinal bleeding and new-onset diabetes mellitus. Patients with unresectable disease require a multidisciplinary approach to manage complications and improve symptom control. However, there are no standard treatment guidelines and future research is needed in this regard.
Imported severe Plasmodium falciparum infection in the first trimester of pregnancy complicated by post-artemisinin delayed hemolysis and intrauterine fetal death, a case report
Authors: Kamegai Kohei , Hayakawa Kayoko , Yamamoto Kei , Nomoto Hidetoshi , Komaki-Yasuda Kanako , Kano Shigeyuki , Ohmagari Norio 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
Background
Post-artemisinin delayed hemolysis (PADH) is a serious complication in patients who recover from severe malaria after receiving artemisinin-based combined therapy (ACT), including artemether-lumefantrine. In Japan, among the antimalarial drugs recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline for severe malaria, intravenous quinine gluconate is available only in 29 designated hospitals, and intravenous artesunate is unavailable. Therefore, oral artemether-lumefantrine is occasionally administered as an alternative, even though it may be a suboptimal treatment. In non-endemic settings like Japan, a lack of knowledge of malaria and the side effects, such as post-artemisinin delayed hemolysis caused by the ACT, can have critical consequences. Like our patient, being a primigravida in the early stages of pregnancy is a serious risk factor for severe malaria and must be carefully monitored.

Case presentation
This report describes a severe case of imported Plasmodium falciparum malaria complicated by fetal loss and prolonged anemia, requiring frequent blood transfusions. The patient was a previously healthy pregnant Japanese female in her 30 s. She developed a high fever 2 days after returning from Nigeria. The patient fulfilled the severe malaria criteria by WHO. On arrival, an abdominal ultrasound incidentally revealed a fetus of 5 week gestational age with a heartbeat in the uterus. Given her pregnancy and the severity of the disease, she was administered intravenous quinine 16 mg/kg as a loading dose. However, the second dose of quinine was not administered due to frequent vomiting and QTc prolongation. We initiated treatment with oral artemether-lumefantrine, and clearance of parasitemia was confirmed by microscopic observation on day 4. Miscarriage was noted on day 6 after admission. Moreover, the patient became feverish again up to 39 °C, and from days 14 to 22, the patient required multiple blood transfusions due to PADH. On day 40, follow-up was discontinued as the hemoglobin level exceeded 10 g/dL.

Conclusions
In patients who recover from severe malaria after ACT treatment, monitoring the hemoglobin level for at least a month is strongly recommended for prompt identification of PADH. Travelers to malaria-endemic countries, especially primigravida women, should be provided with adequate information on the risk and prevention of infection.
Public relations strategies employed by the Ghana Health Service to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: a qualitative inquiry
Authors: McCarthy Ruth Nana Efua , Donkoh Emmanuel Timmy , Arthur Dominic DeGraft , Dassah Edward Tieru , Boadu Kwame Ofori , Otoo John Ekow , Boadu Ivy Wina Ofori , Gyasi Samuel Fosu 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
Background
Strategies for developing and advancing good public relations can be recognized in nearly all fields of life without making an exception for the healthcare industry. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, matters of public health have gathered more force. The importance of effective public relations for improving healthcare is highlighted by the position that immediate access to reliable health information should be the hallmark of a just society. However, the strategies available for addressing major threats to the uptake of public health services such as mass vaccination campaigns are not properly studied and documented in the Ghanaian context. This organizational case study explored strategies used by healthcare professionals working with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to address COVID-19-related vaccine hesitancy in the country.

Methods
We performed a qualitative inquiry with semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 25 public health officials of the GHS. The interviews were timed to coincide with the mass deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in four Regions. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Data collected included demographic characteristics, perspectives on public relations strategies used in the past year to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake as well as successes and pitfalls. Thematic analysis was performed with NVIVO software to generate themes from interview transcripts.

Results
Four main themes emerged from the data analysis and these are presented. Healthcare workers perceived vaccine hesitancy to be a threat with the potential to undermine an important strategic organizational goal related to COVID-19 illness. In terms of PR strategies, we determined that a combination of informative, motivational, persuasive and coercive public relations strategies was employed by the Ghana Health Service to address the challenge of vaccine hesitancy. We further found that PR strategies were deployed across both traditional (print, radio, TV) and emerging/social media networks. Officials were optimistic that the strategies would produce results, but were uncertain whether they could attribute current successes or failures to the PR strategies used.

Conclusion
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public relations strategies which have been employed by the Ghana Health Service to address vaccine hesitancy are characterized and catalogued. The nature of the audience and PR strategies employed suggests that the effect of these strategies may be short-lived unless they are constantly reinforced by the GHS. These findings show that effective PR strategies exist for addressing vaccine hesitancy in public health practice.
Darifenacin Self-assembled Liquid Crystal Cubic Nanoparticles: a Sustained Release Approach for an Overnight Control of Overactive Bladder
Authors: Farag Michael M. , El-Sebaie Wessam , Basalious Emad B. , El-Gazayerly Omaima N. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe current study is regarding the development and characterization of Darifenacin-loaded self-assembled liquid crystal cubic nanoparticles (LCCN). An anhydrous approach was used for the preparation of these cubic nanoparticles using a hydrotropic agent (propylene glycol), with minimal energy input. Upon dispersion in aqueous medium, the system was successfully transformed to cubosomal nanoparticles counterpart as depicted by transmission electron micrographs. A Box-Behnken design was used to optimize formulation variables, namely A: amount of GMO, B: amount of Pluronic F127, C: amount of PG, and D: amount of HPMC. The design has generated 29 formulae which were tested regarding drug content uniformity, dispersibility in water, particle size, zeta potential, polydispersity index, and in vitro release behavior. The numerical optimization algorithms have generated an optimized formula with high desirability ≈ 1. The optimized formula displayed small particle size, good homogeneity, and zeta potential along with controlled in vitro release profile and ex vivo permeation through rabbit intestine. Thus, self-assembled LCCN might offer an alternative anhydrous approach for the preparation of cubosomal nanoparticles with controlled release profile for a possibly better control of overactive bladder syndrome which tremendously affect the overall life quality.
Graphical Abstract
In the Time of the Law
Authors: Werder Valerie 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
In 1850 Harvard University commissioned daguerreotypes of seven enslaved people — Delia, Renty, Jem, Alfred, Fassena, Drana, and Jack — as part of its effort to popularize the racist theory of polygenesis. Today the same university retains possession of the photographs but now reframes them as evidence of a liberal idea of shared humanity. This article argues that such reframings are a form of harm made possible by Harvard's proprietary and discursive capture of the photographs, which is currently being contested in a reparations lawsuit brought by Tamara Lanier, a descendent of Renty and Delia. Focusing on this lawsuit and its historical precedents, this article claims that the spectral forms of Renty and Delia recur in Harvard's institutional mediascape not only because they are routinely instrumentalized by the university but also because the ongoing harms of slavery and anti-Blackness have not yet been acknowledged, much less repaired, within or beyond the US legal system.
Trust Land
Authors: Easterling Keller 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
In the wake of civil rights struggles, a rural area in Southwest Georgia became a global stage for rehearsing some of the world's most provocative experiments with community and land tenure. An interracial intentional community, a Nation of Islam farm, the first community land trust, and a wave of cooperative experiments moving through the South in the late 1960s and 1970s found fertile ground around Albany, Georgia. Reflecting solidarity between the civil rights, Pan-African, Nonaligned, and Tricontinental movements, associations with prominent international activists also linked this area in the US South to decolonizing efforts in the Global South just prior to a neoliberal turn. Within these networks, victims of white supremacy modeled approaches to survival that are now broadly relevant to today's social and climate justice work. The story offers spatial tools and surprising histories to ground and energize a fresh wave of activism that looks to collective forms of urban and rural landholding to address racism, whiteness, inequality, reparations, and climate change.
The Buddhavanam Replica Stupa in Telangana
Authors: Becker Catherine 
Published: May 2023

Abstract
The Sri Parvata Arama, or the Buddhavanam, is a Buddhist theme park near the banks of the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir in Telangana. Sponsored by the state government, this park features at its center a full-scale replica of the Amaravati stupa. While this replica stupa might seem to revivify the largely destroyed stupa at Amaravati, this article also examines how the Buddhavanam engages with a wide-ranging visual archive in order to create a home at which every imaginable visitor—foreign and local—will encounter familiar imagery. The stupa's sculptural adornment primarily takes inspiration from limestone sculptures that once adorned ancient Buddhist sites along the Krishna River Valley. However, additional scenes on the stupa are drawn from disparate sources: reliefs carved from photographs of M. K. Gandhi, B. R. Ambedkar, and the current chief minister of Telangana appear alongside stone versions of paintings from the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang and Alchi in Ladakh. This article examines how this replica stupa and the surrounding theme park allow the new state of Telangana not only to articulate its claim to the Buddhist heritage that is now shared with the state of Andhra Pradesh but also to participate in a boom in state-sponsored religious monuments across India.
Mesodermal FGF and BMP govern the sequential stages of zebrafish thyroid specification
Authors: Haerlingen Benoit , Opitz Robert , Vandernoot Isabelle , Molinaro Angelo , Shankar Meghna Parakkal , Gillotay Pierre , Trubiroha Achim , Costagliola Sabine 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACT
Thyroid tissue, the site of de novo thyroid hormone biosynthesis, is derived from ventral pharyngeal endoderm and defects in morphogenesis are a predominant cause of congenital thyroid diseases. The first molecularly recognizable step of thyroid development is the specification of thyroid precursors in anterior foregut endoderm. Recent studies have identified crucial roles of FGF and BMP signaling in thyroid specification, but the interplay between signaling cues and thyroid transcription factors remained elusive. By analyzing Pax2a and Nkx2.4b expression dynamics in relation to endodermal FGF and BMP signaling activities in zebrafish embryos, we identified a Pax2a-expressing thyroid progenitor population that shows enhanced FGF signaling but lacks Nkx2.4b expression and BMP signaling. Concurrent with upregulated BMP signaling, a subpopulation of these progenitors subsequently differentiates into lineage-committed thyroid precursors co-expressing Pax2a and Nkx2.4b. Timed manipulation of FGF/BMP activities suggests a model in which FGF signaling primarily regulates Pax2a expression, whereas BMP signaling regulates both Pax2a and Nkx2.4b expression. Our observation of similar expression dynamics of Pax8 and Nkx2-1 in mouse embryos suggests that this refined model of thyroid cell specification is evolutionarily conserved in mammals.
Genotype-Phenotype Models Predicting V̇O2max Response to High-Intensity Interval Training in Physically Inactive Chinese
Authors: YANG XIAOLIN , LI YANCHUN , BAO DAPENG , MEI TAO , WUYUN GERILE , ZHOU DUOQI , NIE JING , XIA XIAOHUI , LIU XIAOXI , HE ZIHONG 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACT

Purpose
This study aimed to analyze the interindividual differences of the maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) response to 12 wk of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and the genotype–phenotype models were constructed to predict the effect of HIIT on V̇O2max.

Methods
A total of 228 physically inactive adults who completed a 12-wk HIIT were analyzed. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to identify genetic variants associated with the V̇O2max response. Nonresponders, responders, and the highest training responders were defined as the effect sizes (ES) <0.2, ≥0.2, and ≥0.8, respectively. We generated polygenic predictor score (PPS) using lead variants and constructed a predictive model for V̇O2max response based on a linear stepwise regression analysis.

Results
The V̇O2max increased significantly after HIIT (~14%, P < 0.001), but with interindividual differences (−7.8 to 17.9 mL·kg−1·min−1). In 27% of participants, the V̇O2max showed no improvement. We identified one genetic locus near the γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor subunit beta 3 gene (GABRB3, rs17116985) associated with V̇O2max response at the genome-wide significance level (P < 5 × 10−8), and an additional nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the suggestive significance level (P < 1 × 10−5). The SNPs rs474377, rs9365605, and rs17116985, respectively, explained 11%, 9%, and 6.2% of variance in V̇O2max response. The 13 SNPs (P < 1 × 10−5) were found on chromosome 6 (position: 148209316–148223568). Individuals with a PPS greater than 1.757 had the highest response, and those with a PPS lower than −3.712 were nonresponders. The PPS, baseline V̇O2max, sex, and body mass explained 56.4% of the variance in the V̇O2max response; the major predictor was the PPS, which explained 39.4% of the variance.

Conclusions
The PPS, baseline V̇O2max, sex, and body mass could explain the variance in V̇O2max response. Individuals who had a PPS greater than 1.757 had the highest training response after 12 wk of HIIT. Genetic variants in a region on chromosome 6, especially the sterile alpha motif domain containing 5 gene (SAMD5), which had been explored influencing angiogenesis, might have a potential role in the V̇O2max response.