bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Preoperative circulating peroxiredoxin 1 levels as a predictor of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease remission after laparoscopic bariatric surgery
Authors: Cheng Xiaoyun , Fu Zhibing , Xie Wei , Zhu Liyong , Meng Jie 
Published: December 2022

BackgroundNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with obesity and insulin resistance and can be improved after bariatric surgery. Circulating Peroxiredoxin 1 (Prdx1) protein was reported to regulate energy metabolism and inflammation. This study aimed to investigate the roles of serum prdx1 in NAFLD patients with obesity undergoing LSG and to develop a prognostic model to predict the remission of severe NAFLD.MethodsThe data of 93 participants from a tertiary hospital were assessed. Before laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) and three months after LSG, anthropometric parameters, laboratory biochemical data, and abdominal B-ultrasound results were collected, and their hepatic steatosis index (HSI) and triglyceride-glucose index (TyG) were calculated. A NAFLD improvement (NAFLD-I) nomogram prediction model was constructed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and multiple regression, and its predictive ability was verified in a validation cohort.ResultsThe baseline Prdx1 (OR: 0.887, 95% CI: 0.816-0.963, p=0.004), preoperative TyG (OR: 8.207, 95% CI: 1.903-35.394, p=0.005) and HSI (OR: 0.861, 95% CI: 0.765-0.969, p=0.013) levels were independently associated with NAFLD-I at three months after LSG in NAFLD patients with obesity. In the primary and validation cohorts, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) of the developed nomogram model was 0.891 and 0.878, respectively. The preoperative circulating Prdx1 levels of NAFLD patients with obesity were significantly reduced after LSG (25.32 [18.99-30.88] vs. 23.34 [15.86-26.42], p=0.001). Prdx1 was related to obesity and hepatic steatosis based on correlation analysis.ConclusionThe nomogram based on preoperative serum prdx1, HSI and TyG could be an effective tool for predicting remission of severe NAFLD after LSG.
Increased expression of the ectoenzyme CD38 in peripheral blood plasmablasts and plasma cells of patients with systemic sclerosis
Authors: Agarbati S. , Benfaremo D. , Viola N. , Paolini C. , Svegliati Baroni S. , Funaro A. , Moroncini G. , Malavasi F. , Gabrielli A. 
Published: December 2022

ObjectiveCD38 is a type II glycoprotein highly expressed on plasmablasts and on short- and long-lived plasma cells, but weakly expressed by lymphoid, myeloid, and non-hematopoietic cells. CD38 is a target for therapies aimed at depleting antibody-producing plasma cells. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an immune-mediated disease with a well-documented pathogenic role of B cells. We therefore analyzed CD38 expression in different subsets of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a cohort of SSc patients.MethodsCell surface expression of CD38 was evaluated on PBMCs from SSc patients using eight-color flow cytometry analysis performed with a FacsCanto II (BD). Healthy individuals were used as controls (HC).ResultsForty-six SSc patients (mean age 56, range 23-79 years; 38 females and 8 males), and thirty-two age- and sex-matched HC were studied. Twenty-eight patients had the limited cutaneous form and eighteen the diffuse cutaneous form of SSc. The mean disease duration was 7 years. Fourteen patients were on immunosuppressive therapy (14 MMF, 5 RTX). The total percentages of T, B and NK cells were not different between SSc and HC. Compared to HC, SSc patients had higher levels of CD3+CD38+ T cells (p&lt;0.05), higher percentage (p&lt;0.001) of CD3+CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells, lower percentage (p&lt;0.05) of CD3+CD56+ NK T cells. Moreover, SSc patients had higher levels of CD24highCD19+CD38high regulatory B cells than HC (p&lt;0.01), while the amount of CD24+CD19+CD38+CD27+ memory B cells was lower (p&lt;0.001). Finally, the percentages of circulating CD38highCD27+ plasmablasts and CD138+CD38high plasma cells were both higher in the SSc group than in HC (p&lt;0.001). We did not observe any correlations between these immunophenotypes and disease subsets or duration, and ongoing immunosuppressive treatment.ConclusionsThe increased expression of CD38 in peripheral blood plasmablasts and plasma cells of SSc patients may suggest this ectoenzyme as a candidate therapeutic target, under the hypothesis that depletion of these cells may beneficially downregulate the chronic immune response in SSc patients. Validation of this data in multicenter cohorts shall be obtained prior to clinical trials with existing anti-CD38 drugs.
HLA-G 3’UTR polymorphism diplotypes and soluble HLA-G plasma levels impact cervical cancer susceptibility and prognosis
Authors: Gan Jun , Di Xing-Hong , Yan Zi-Yi , Gao Yang-Fan , Xu Hui-Hui 
Published: December 2022

BackgroundHuman leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) is an immune checkpoint molecule with relevance in several cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential role of soluble HLA-G (sHLA-G), its genetic polymorphisms and its haplotype structure in the susceptibility and prognosis of primary cervical cancer in a Chinese Han population.MethodsWe investigated sHLA-G plasma levels and 3’ untranslated region (3’UTR) polymorphisms through ELISA and direct DNA sequencing, respectively, in cervical cancer patients (120 cases) and healthy control women (96 cases). The data were analyzed for associations using PowerMarker, Haploview, and GraphPad Prism.ResultsIn this study, 8 polymorphic sites, 16 haplotypes and 23 diplotypes in the HLA-G 3’UTR were identified in our study population. We observed that each pair of 8 polymorphic sites exhibited linkage disequilibrium. The heterozygote CT genotype at position +3422 (rs17875408) was more common in cervical cancer patients than in healthy women (OR=5.285, P&lt;0.05). Haplotypes UTR-1, UTR-3, and UTR-7 accounted for more than 85% of both groups, but no significant difference was found. The frequency of the UTR-1/UTR-3 diplotype in patients was significantly higher than that in controls (P&lt;0.05). In addition, we further observed that HLA-G 3’UTR polymorphisms may influence the sHLA-G plasma level in patients’ peripheral blood, especially 14 bp Ins/Del (rs371194629) and +3142 C/G (rs1063320). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the sHLA-G level had good diagnostic performance in differentiating patients with cervical cancer from healthy women (AUC&gt;0.7). Among patients, mean sHLA-G levels increased with increasing FIGO stages but were not related to the overall survival time.ConclusionsThe results of the present study enhance our understanding of how HLA-G 3’UTR polymorphisms can influence the peripheral sHLA-G plasma level and play a key role in cervical carcinogenesis. This study further confirmed that sHLA-G may represent a novel plasma biomarker for the prognosis and potential therapeutic target of cervical cancer.
A brief online writing intervention improves positive body image in adults living with dermatological conditions
Authors: Adkins Kate V. , Overton Paul G. , Thompson Andrew R. 
Published: December 2022

IntroductionDermatological conditions can affect how individuals feel about their bodies. This research therefore seeks to evaluate the potential for a brief writing intervention, focused on body functionality, to improve body image in adults living with a range of dermatological conditions.MethodsAs part of a parallel Randomised Controlled Trial, 451 adults living with a dermatological condition were randomized to either three functionality-based writing tasks or three creative writing tasks (control). Of these, 155 participants completed pre- and post-intervention measures of body appreciation, functionality appreciation, appearance anxiety, skin-related shame, and skin-related quality-of-life.ResultsFor participants with relatively low or mid-range scores on baseline body appreciation and functionality appreciation, there were medium-to-large positive effects of the intervention. Effects were smaller, with all but-one remaining significant, at 1-month follow up and in intention-to-treat analyses. No between-group effects of the intervention were found for measures of appearance anxiety, skin-related shame, and skin-related quality-of-life.DiscussionThese findings suggest that a 1-week writing intervention has the potential to improve positive aspects of body image, but not appearance- and skin-related distress in adults living with a dermatological condition.Clinical trial registration[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/history/NCT044459 74?V_3=View], identifier [NCT04445974].
Multi-modal data combination strategy based on chest HRCT images and PFT parameters for intelligent dyspnea identification in COPD
Authors: Yang Yingjian , Chen Ziran , Li Wei , Zeng Nanrong , Guo Yingwei , Wang Shicong , Duan Wenxin , Liu Yang , Chen Huai , Li Xian , Chen Rongchang , Kang Yan 
Published: December 2022

IntroductionBecause of persistent airflow limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), patients with COPD often have complications of dyspnea. However, as a leading symptom of COPD, dyspnea in COPD deserves special consideration regarding treatment in this fragile population for pre-clinical health management in COPD. Methods: Based on the above, this paper proposes a multi-modal data combination strategy by combining the local and global features for dyspnea identification in COPD based on the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) classifier.MethodsFirst, lung region images are automatically segmented from chest HRCT images for extracting the original 1,316 lung radiomics (OLR, 1,316) and 13,824 3D CNN features (O3C, 13,824). Second, the local features, including five selected pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters (SLF, 5), 28 selected lung radiomics (SLR, 28), and 22 selected 3D CNN features (S3C, 22), are respectively selected from the original 11 PFT parameters (OLF, 11), 1,316 OLR, and 13,824 O3C by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) algorithm. Meantime, the global features, including two fused PFT parameters (FLF, 2), six fused lung radiomics (FLR, 6), and 34 fused 3D CNN features (F3C, 34), are respectively fused by 11 OLF, 1,316 OLR, and 13,824 O3C using the principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm. Finally, we combine all the local and global features (SLF + FLF + SLR + FLR + S3C + F3C, 5+ 2 + 28 + 6 + 22 + 34) for dyspnea identification in COPD based on the MLP classifier.ResultsOur proposed method comprehensively improves classification performance. The MLP classifier with all the local and global features achieves the best classification performance at 87.7% of accuracy, 87.7% of precision, 87.7% of recall, 87.7% of F1-scorel, and 89.3% of AUC, respectively.DiscussionCompared with single-modal data, the proposed strategy effectively improves the classification performance for dyspnea identification in COPD, providing an objective and effective tool for COPD management.
The SFT2D2 gene is associated with the autoimmune pathology of schizophrenia in a Chinese population
Authors: Liu Duilin , Wu Lin , Wei Hui , Zhu Caiyun , Tian Runhui , Zhu Wanwan , Xu Qi 
Published: December 2022

BackgroundThe relative risk of GWAS-confirmed loci strongly associated with schizophrenia may be underestimated due to the decay of linkage disequilibrium between index SNPs and causal variants. This study is aimed to investigate schizophrenia-associated signals detected in the 1q24-25 region in order to identify a causal variant in LD with GWAS index SNPs, and the potential biological functions of the risk gene.MethodsRe-genotyping analysis was performed in the 1q24-25 region that harbors three GWAS index SNPs associated with schizophrenia (rs10489202, rs11586522, and rs6670165) in total of 9801 case-control subjects of Chinese Han origin. Circulating autoantibody levels were assessed using an in-house ELISA against a protein derived fragment encoded by SFT2D2 in total of 682 plasma samples.ResultsA rare variant (rs532193193) in the SFT2D2 locus was identified to be strongly associated with schizophrenia. Compared with control subjects, patients with schizophrenia showed increased anti-SFT2D2 IgG levels. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.803 with sensitivity of 28.57% against specificity of 95% for the anti-SFT2D2 IgG assay.DiscussionOur findings indicate that SFT2D2 is a novel gene for risk of schizophrenia, while endogenous anti-SFT2D2 IgG may underlie the pathophysiology of the immunological aspects of schizophrenia.
Merging Brain-Computer Interface P300 speller datasets: Perspectives and pitfalls
Authors: Bianchi Luigi , Ferrante Raffaele , Hu Yaoping , Sahonero-Alvarez Guillermo , Zenia Nusrat Z. 
Published: December 2022

BackgroundIn the last decades, the P300 Speller paradigm was replicated in many experiments, and collected data were released to the public domain to allow research groups, particularly those in the field of machine learning, to test and improve their algorithms for higher performances of brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Training data is needed to learn the identification of brain activity. The more training data are available, the better the algorithms will perform. The availability of larger datasets is highly desirable, eventually obtained by merging datasets from different repositories. The main obstacle to such merging is that all public datasets are released in various file formats because no standard way is established to share these data. Additionally, all datasets necessitate reading documents or scientific papers to retrieve relevant information, which prevents automating the processing. In this study, we thus adopted a unique file format to demonstrate the importance of having a standard and to propose which information should be stored and why.MethodsWe described our process to convert a dozen of P300 Speller datasets and reported the main encountered problems while converting them into the same file format. All the datasets are characterized by the same 6 × 6 matrix of alphanumeric symbols (characters and numbers or symbols) and by the same subset of acquired signals (8 EEG sensors at the same recording sites).Results and discussionNearly a million stimuli were converted, relative to about 7000 spelled characters and belonging to 127 subjects. The converted stimuli represent the most extensively available platform for training and testing new algorithms on the specific paradigm – the P300 Speller. The platform could potentially allow exploring transfer learning procedures to reduce or eliminate the time needed for training a classifier to improve the performance and accuracy of such BCI systems.
Construction and validation of a prognostic model for gastrointestinal stromal tumors based on copy number alterations and clinicopathological characteristics
Authors: Zhao Heng , Song Nuohan , Feng Hao , Lei Qiang , Zheng Yingying , Liu Jing , Liu Chunyan , Chai Zhengbin 
Published: December 2022

BackgroundThe increasing incidence of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) has led to the discovery of more novel prognostic markers. We aim to establish an unsupervised prognostic model for the early prediction of the prognosis of future patients with GISTs and to guide clinical treatment.MethodsWe downloaded the GISTs dataset through the cBioPortal website. We extracted clinical information and pathological information, including the microsatellite instability (MSI) score, fraction genome altered (FGA) score, tumor mutational burden (TMB), and copy number alteration burden (CNAB), of patients with GISTs. For survival analysis, we used univariate Cox regression to analyze the contribution of each factor to prognosis and calculated a hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). For clustering groupings, we used the t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) method for data dimensionality reduction. Subsequently, the k-means method was used for clustering analysis.ResultsA total of 395 individuals were included in the study. After dimensionality reduction with t-SNE, all patients were divided into two subgroups. Cluster 1 had worse OS than cluster 2 (HR=3.45, 95% CI, 2.22-5.56, P&lt;0.001). The median MSI score of cluster 1 was 1.09, and the median MSI score of cluster 2 was 0.24, which were significantly different (P&lt;0.001). The FGA score of cluster 1 was 0.28, which was higher than that of cluster 2 (P&lt;0.001). In addition, both the TMB and CNAB of cluster 1 were higher than those of cluster 2, and the P values were less than 0.001.ConclusionBased on the CNA of GISTs, patients can be divided into high-risk and low-risk groups. The high-risk group had a higher MSI score, FGA score, TMB and CNAB than the low-risk group. In addition, we established a prognostic nomogram based on the CNA and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with GISTs.
Analysis of healthcare-associated infection in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease in PICU: Evidence from a tertiary hospital in western China
Authors: Li Jing-wen , Guo Ling-wen , Tao Si-yuan , Deng Yu-hua , Yang Cui , Qiao Fu 
Published: December 2022

ObjectiveThe present study intends to analyze the targeted surveillance and risk factors for healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease (CHD-PAH) in a Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and provide basis for formulating relevant prevention and control measures of HAI.MethodsChildren (≤14 years old) who were admitted to the PICU for ≥2 calendar days from January 2018 to December 2021 were included. Targeted surveillance of HAI was described.ResultsA total of 7,828 patients in PICU were monitored, and the total hospitalization days of the patients were 36,174. 108 cases of HAI occurred, with a per-case infection rate of 1.38% and a per-thousand day infection rate of 2.99. 1,129 patients with CHD-PAH were included, among which the total hospitalization days were 1,483. In this subpopulation, 38 cases of HAI were diagnosed, with a per-case infection rate of 3.37% and a per-thousand day infection rate of 25.62. The main site of HAI was lower respiratory tract (43.51%), followed by blood infection (34.26%) and surgical site infection (9.26%). 36 strains of pathogenic bacteria were detected from patients with HAI. The top three pathogens with the highest detection rate were Klebsiella pneumoniae (6 episodes, 16.67%), Enterococcus faecium (6 episodes, 16.67%) and Acinetobacter baumannii (4 episodes, 11.11%). The incidence of VAP, CAUTI and CLABSI was 2.78, 0.08 and 1.66 per 1,000 catheter days respectively. Analysis revealed that patients with CHD-PAH were younger and prone to receive surgical corrections. CHD-PAH could significantly increase the length of ICU stay, ventilator days, times of central venous catheterization and central venous catheterization days. The choice of different central venous catheter types differed significantly between the two groups.ConclusionPatients with CHD-PAH are characterized with excessive central venous catheterization operations, prolonged indwelling time, and more types of catheterization, which are considered to be risk factors for HAI, thus increasing the length of hospital stay. The clinical etiology is mainly G-bacteria, which requires reasonable selection of antibiotics and strict aseptic operation. Limiting unnecessary invasive procedures is helpful for reducing the incidence of postoperative HAI in PICU.
Low-dissipation optimization of the prefrontal cortex in the −12° head-down tilt position: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study
Authors: Lun Tingting , Wang Dexin , Li Li , Zhou Junliang , Zhao Yunxuan , Chen Yuecai , Yin Xuntao , Ou Shanxing , Yu Jin , Song Rong 
Published: December 2022

IntroductionOur present study set out to investigate the instant state of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in healthy subjects before and after placement in the -12°head-down tilt (HDT) position in order to explore the mechanism behind the low-dissipation optimization state of the PFC.Methods40 young, right-handed healthy subjects (male: female = 20: 20) were enrolled in this study. Three resting state positions, 0°initial position, -12°HDT position, and 0°rest position were sequentially tested, each for 10 minutes. A continuous-wave functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) instrument was used to assess the resting state hemodynamic data of the PFC. After preprocessing the hemodynamics data, we evaluated changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) level and beta values of PFC. The subjective visual analogue scale (VAS) was applied before and after the experiment. The presence of sleep changes or adverse reactions were also recorded.ResultsPairwise comparisons of the concentrations of oxyhemoglobin (HbO), deoxyhemoglobin (HbR), and hemoglobin (HbT) revealed significant differences in the aforementioned positions. Specifically, the average rsFC of PFC showed a gradual increase throughout the whole process. In addition, based on graph theory, the topological properties of brain network, such as small-world network and nodal degree centrality were analyzed. The results show that global efficiency and small-world sigma (σ) value were differences between 0°initial and 0°rest.DiscussionIn this study, placement in the -12°HDT had a significant effect on PFC function, mainly manifested as self-inhibition, decreased concentration of HbO in the PFC, and improved rsFC, which may provide ideas to the understanding and explanation of neurological diseases.
Power decline and the change of self-esteem: The moderating effect of self-defense
Authors: Huang Caiyun 
Published: December 2022

IntroductionPower is a fundamental force in social relationships. Having more power means more freedom and resources and the ability to control and influence others. Psychologically, people are afraid of power decline, therefore are motivated towards self-enhancement to avoid the decline of self-esteem. We asked if power decline brings about a subsequent decline in self-esteem.ObjectiveTo investigate whether power decline in social relationships leads to a decline in self-esteem and to explore the moderating role of self-defense.MethodsA laboratory experiment was conducted with college students in East China as subjects, which was divided into manipulation tests of power decline and Self-Defense (N = 61) and two formal experiments (N = 65; N = 160). In addition, a semi-structured in-depth interview was used to further improve the ecological validity of the findings.Results(1) Power decline did not lead to a decline of self-esteem, and self-esteem rises when power remained unchanged; (2) When the level of self-defense was higher, constant power lead to a greater increase of self-esteem, and the decline of power would not lead to the change of self-esteem; (3) When the level of self-defense was lower, the relationship between constant power and the rise of self-esteem was weakened, and power decline would not lead to the significant change of self-esteem. At the end of this study, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.