bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Direct-acting antivirals used in HCV-related liver disease do not affect thyroid function and autoimmunity
Authors: Rodia R. , Meloni P. E. , Mascia C. , Balestrieri C. , Ruggiero V. , Serra G. , Conti M. , Loi M. , Pes F. , Onali S. , Perra A. , Littera R. , Velluzzi F. , Mariotti S. , Chessa L. , Boi F. 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
Purpose
It is well known that interferon-α (IFN-α), used for long time as the main therapy for HCV-related disease, induces thyroid alterations, but the impact of the new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) on thyroid is not established. Aim of this prospective study was to evaluate if DAAs therapy may induce thyroid alterations.

Methods
A total of 113 HCV patients, subdivided at the time of the enrollment in naïve group (n = 64) and in IFN-α group (n = 49) previously treated with pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin, were evaluated for thyroid function and autoimmunity before and after 20–32 weeks of DAAs.

Results
Before starting DAAs, a total of 8/113 (7.1%) patients showed Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) all belonging to IFN-α group (8/49, 16.3%), while no HT cases were found in the naïve group. Overall, 7/113 (6.2%) patients were hypothyroid: 3/64 (4.7%) belonging to naïve group and 4/49 (8.2%) to IFN-α group. Furthermore, a total of 8/113 patients (7.1%) showed subclinical hyperthyroidism: 2/64 (3.1%) were from naïve group and 6/49 (12.2%) from IFN-α group. Interestingly, after DAAs therapy, no new cases of HT, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism was found in all series, while 6/11 (54.5%) patients with non-autoimmune subclinical thyroid dysfunction became euthyroid. Finally, the only association between viral genotypes and thyroid alterations was genotype 1 and hypothyroidism.

Conclusions
This study supports evidence that DAAs have a limited or missing influence on thyroid in patients with HCV-related diseases. Moreover, it provides preliminary evidence that subclinical non-autoimmune thyroid dysfunction may improve after HCV infection resolution obtained by DAAs.
Estimation of bedload sedimentation rate in a paleo-drowned river-valley
Authors: Lound S. P. , Birch G. F. , Dragovich D. 
Published: September 2022

AbstractExtensive, high-resolution seismic data were correlated with borehole, land use, and geological data to calculate the mass of genetically different sediment deposits in the Middle Harbour estuary in Sydney, Australia. Middle Harbour is a drowned-river valley located adjacent to the larger Sydney estuary. The estuary follows a well-defined sedimentation model featuring small fluvial bedload delta deposits in the upper reaches of the embayments, a deep, central extensive mud basin overlying transgressive basal accumulations and a large flood-tide delta at the entrance. Deposits of an estimated 5094 t of bedload, 21,143 t of suspended sediment and 5947 t of transgressive basal material located in the estuary provided average sediment accumulation rates of 0.68 t year−1, 1.29 t year−1, and 2.86 t year−1, respectively. These rates, determined from measured accumulations, were surprisingly low and substantially smaller than modelled rates. However, low sediment accumulation rates for suspended material may be due to fine sediment escaping over the top of the marine tidal delta, which effectively traps all bedload material from exiting the Harbour. Results of this study indicate that Holocene bedload sedimentation in Middle Harbour was slow and regular until a rapid increase after urbanisation commenced in the catchment. Most pre-Holocene material was eroded from Middle Harbour during the Last Glacial period with sediment currently present in the estuary having been deposited since sea-level recovery.
Second sound with ultracold atoms: a brief review
Authors: Hu Hui , Yao Xing-Can , Liu Xia-Ji 
Published: September 2022

AbstractWe briefly review the research on second sound in ultracold atomic physics, with emphasis on strongly interacting unitary Fermi gases with infinitely large s-wave scattering length. Second sound is a smoking-gun feature of superfluidity in any quantum superfluids. The observation and characterization of second sound in ultracold quantum gases have been a long-standing challenge, and in recent years, there are rapid developments due to the experimental realization of a uniform box-trap potential. The purpose of this review is to present a brief historical account of the key research activities on second sound over the past two decades. We summarize the initial theoretical works that reveal the characteristics of second sound in a unitary Fermi gas, and introduce its first observation in a highly elongated harmonic trap. We then discuss the most recent measurement on second sound attenuation in a uniform setup, which may open a new era to understand quantum transport near quantum criticality in the strongly interacting regime. The observation of second sound in homogeneous weakly interacting Bose condensates in both two and three dimensions are also briefly introduced.
A radio-frequency generator for ion thrusters based on a Class-E power circuit
Authors: Beller Edwin , Roessler Christian , Probst Uwe , Thueringer Rainer , Volkmar Chris 
Published: September 2022

AbstractOperating a radio-frequency ion thruster (RIT) requires a high frequency current flowing through an induction coil in order to ignite and maintain an inductively coupled plasma discharge (ICP). Several methods to create that current have been demonstrated and evaluated regarding complexity, flexibility and efficiency. Especially in space applications reliability and minimal power loss is crucial to comply to strict mission requirements. As one of the leanest concepts in terms of required components and nevertheless highest possible efficiency, the Class-E power circuit has proven itself as a well suited radio-frequency generator (RFG) of a RIT system. However, electrical performance and especially electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) during operation have not been evaluated, but are essential if the system is intended for use in space. In order to fill this gap and bring the Class-E circuit into the fold of established RFG concepts, a prototype was designed, built, and used to operate a RIT-10. For reference, a conventional Half-Bridge RFG was tested under the same operating conditions. Further investigations are concerned with EMC behaviour of both devices and show that Class-E circuit exhibits significantly lower electromagnetic emission during operation compared to the Half-Bridge reference.
Temporal contrast enhancement by nonlinear elliptical polarization rotation in a multi-pass cell
Authors: Song Jiajun , Shen Liya , Sun Jianyu , Peng Yujie , Leng Yuxin 
Published: September 2022

Abstract
We demonstrate the simultaneous temporal contrast improvement and pulse compression of a Yb-doped femtosecond laser via nonlinear elliptical polarization rotation in a solid state multi-pass cell. The temporal contrast is improved to 109, while the pulse is shortened from 181 to 36 fs, corresponding to a compression factor of 5. The output beam features excellent beam quality with M2 values of 1.18 × 1.16. The total efficiency of the contrast enhancement system exceeds 50%. This technique will have wide applications in high temporal contrast ultra-intense femtosecond lasers.
Body composition and anthropometric indicators as predictors of blood pressure: a cross-sectional study conducted in young Algerian adults
Authors: Dahel-Mekhancha Corinne Colette , Rolland-Cachera Marie-Françoise , Botton Jérémie , Karoune Rabiaa , Sersar Ibrahim , Yagoubi-Benatallah Lynda , Bouldjedj Ikram , Benini Abderraouf , Fezeu Léopold K. , Nezzal Lahcène , Mekhancha Djamel-Eddine 
Published: September 2022

AbstractVarious body indicators are used to predict health risks. However, controversies still exist regarding the best indicators to predict CVD. Using a large number of measurements, our aim was to assess their associations with blood pressure (BP) and to identify the most relevant parameters to be used in health surveillance studies. The population included 589 students (67·2 % women) aged 20–25 years from Constantine (Algeria). Sixteen parameters were considered, including crude body measurements, ratios and body fat indicators based on bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). We used multi-adjusted linear regression models to assess the associations between body measurements and BP. According to WHO definitions, underweight, overweight-without obesity, obesity and hypertension (HT) were identified in 6·1, 18·0, 2·4 and 5·1 % of the subjects, respectively. Prevalence of HT was higher in men than in women (11·9 % v. 1·8 %; P < 0·001). In the whole sample, almost all indicators were positively associated with systolic and diastolic BP. The suprailiac skinfold had the strongest associations with systolic (β = 3·498; P < 0·001) and diastolic (β = 2·436; P < 0·001) BP, and as a whole, arm circumferences and weight were also good candidates. The currently used BMI, waist-to-hip, waist-to-height ratio and BIA indictors also predicted BP, but they did not seem to be better determinants of BP than crude anthropometric measurements. This study showed that overweight and HT were already found in the present population of young Algerian adults. Most body indicators were highly associated with BP, but simple anthropometric measurements appeared to be particularly useful to predict BP.
Ethical issues when interviewing older people about loneliness: reflections and recommendations for an effective methodological approach
Authors: Naughton-Doe Ruth , Barke Jenny , Manchester Helen , Willis Paul , Wigfield Andrea 
Published: September 2022

AbstractLoneliness among older people is perceived as a global public health concern, although assumptions that old age is a particularly lonely time for everyone are not accurate. While there is accumulating quantitative and qualitative evidence on the experience and impact of loneliness amongst older adults, there is little exploration of methodological issues that arise in engaging with older adults particularly through research-oriented conversations. The sensitivity and stigma often attached to loneliness means that interviewing research participants presents ethical challenges for researchers navigating complex emotional responses. This paper presents reflections from three research projects that used research interviews to explore accounts of loneliness experienced by older people. The everyday methodological decisions of research teams are often hidden from view, but through a critical examination of reflexive accounts of fieldwork, this paper makes visible the internal and external negotiations of researchers responding to ethical complexity. The paper explores the key decisions that researchers make during interviews about loneliness: how to introduce the topic; how to phrase questions about loneliness; when to ask the questions; how to deal with the stigma of loneliness and respond to ageism; and how to manage the participant–researcher relationship post-interview. The paper concludes with recommendations for appropriately navigating ethical complexity in loneliness research, thus contributing to an effective qualitative methodological approach to researching loneliness in later life.
The effect of apoprotein E gene polymorphism on neurocognitive functions of children with CHD
Authors: Bedir Demirdag Tugba , Gucuyener Kivilcim , Soysal A. Sebnem , Guntekin Ergun Sezen , Ozturk Zeynep , Ergun Mehmet Ali , Tunaoğlu Sedef 
Published: September 2022

AbstractStudies have demonstrated an association between CHD and neurodevelopmental delay. This delay is associated with many factors like reduced blood flow and oxygen, cardiac catheterisations, and genetic factors. Apo E gene polymorphism is one of these genetic factors. This study aims to show the effect of Apo E gene polymorphism on neurodevelopmental process in children having CHD. A total of 188 children having CHD were admitted to the study. Apo E gene polymorphism of these patients was determined, and psychometric evaluation was performed. The relationship between psychometric test results and gene polymorphism was evaluated. This study shows that, similar to the literature, patients having cyanotic CHD have worse scores than acyanotic patients, and the children with CHD are under risk in terms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Other novel and important findings of this study were the lower verbal scores of ε2 allele carriers than ε4 carriers in Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised group and the worse test score of patients having VSD than other acyanotic patients. Besides, some special disorders may be seen in this patient group.
Transcatheter management of life-threatening pulmonary arteriovenous fistula with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support in an infant
Authors: Guvenc Osman , Odemis Ender , Saygi Murat , Onalan M. Akif 
Published: September 2022

AbstractPulmonary arteriovenous malformation is a rare disease leading to cyanosis, where there is a direct relation between the pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein without a capillary structure. Arteriovenous fistulae may be single or multiple. Clinical signs emerge depending on the size of the fistulae and amount of shunt. Due to the advancements in transcatheter devices and increased experience render enable the fistula embolisation procedure as an alternative to surgical treatment. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is used to support the patient haemodynamically and respirationally in cases of treatment-resistant, severe and revocable cardiac or pulmonary sufficiency. This paper presents an infant patient with pulmonary arteriovenous malformation, who had haemodynamic instability due to severe hypoxia and received successful transcatheter fistula embolisation via extracorporeal membrane oxygenation under emergency conditions.
Gelatin sponge to close a tract after large-bore transhepatic access: tips for success
Authors: Mohammad Nijres Bassel , Justino Henri , Law Ian , Aldoss Osamah 
Published: September 2022

AbstractPercutaneous transhepatic venous access has been utilised for numerous transcatheter cardiac procedures. Traditionally, a large transhepatic tract requires the placement of permanent occlusion devices or coils. We describe a successful closure using a simple technique (Surgifoam) without the need for metal hardware placement. Immediate hemostasis was achieved. No complications were encountered.
Suppression of PFKFB3-driven glycolysis restrains endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition and fibrotic response
Authors: Zeng Hao , Pan Ting , Zhan Meiling , Hailiwu Renaguli , Liu Baolin , Yang Hua , Li Ping 
Published: September 2022

AbstractEndothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT), the process wherein endothelial cells lose endothelial identity and adopt mesenchymal-like phenotypes, constitutes a critical contributor to cardiac fibrosis. The phenotypic plasticity of endothelial cells can be intricately shaped by alteration of metabolic pathways, but how endothelial cells adjust cellular metabolism to drive EndoMT is incompletely understood. Here, we identified 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) as a critical driver of EndoMT via triggering abnormal glycolysis and compromising mitochondrial respiration. Pharmacological suppression of PFKFB3 with salvianolic acid C (SAC), a phenolic compound derived from Salvia miltiorrhiza, attenuates EndoMT and fibrotic response. PFKFB3-haplodeficiency recapitulates the anti-EndoMT effect of SAC while PFKFB3-overexpression augments the magnitude of EndoMT and exacerbates cardiac fibrosis. Mechanistically, PFKFB3-driven glycolysis compromises cytoplasmic nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (reduced form, NADPH) production via hijacking glucose flux from pentose phosphate pathway. Efflux of mitochondrial NADPH through isocitrate/α-ketoglutarate shuttle replenishes cytoplasmic NADPH pool but meanwhile impairs mitochondrial respiration by hampering mitochondrial iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis. SAC disrupts PFKFB3 stability by accelerating its degradation and thus maintains metabolic homeostasis in endothelial cells, underlying its anti-EndoMT effects. These findings for the first time identify the critical role of PFKFB3 in triggering EndoMT by driving abnormal glycolysis in endothelial cells, and also highlight the therapeutic potential for pharmacological intervention of PFKFB3 (with SAC or other PFKFB3 inhibitors) to combat EndoMT-associated fibrotic responses via metabolic regulation.
Lactate metabolism in human health and disease
Authors: Li Xiaolu , Yang Yanyan , Zhang Bei , Lin Xiaotong , Fu Xiuxiu , An Yi , Zou Yulin , Wang Jian-Xun , Wang Zhibin , Yu Tao 
Published: September 2022

AbstractThe current understanding of lactate extends from its origins as a byproduct of glycolysis to its role in tumor metabolism, as identified by studies on the Warburg effect. The lactate shuttle hypothesis suggests that lactate plays an important role as a bridging signaling molecule that coordinates signaling among different cells, organs and tissues. Lactylation is a posttranslational modification initially reported by Professor Yingming Zhao’s research group in 2019. Subsequent studies confirmed that lactylation is a vital component of lactate function and is involved in tumor proliferation, neural excitation, inflammation and other biological processes. An indispensable substance for various physiological cellular functions, lactate plays a regulatory role in different aspects of energy metabolism and signal transduction. Therefore, a comprehensive review and summary of lactate is presented to clarify the role of lactate in disease and to provide a reference and direction for future research. This review offers a systematic overview of lactate homeostasis and its roles in physiological and pathological processes, as well as a comprehensive overview of the effects of lactylation in various diseases, particularly inflammation and cancer.
Antibody stabilization for thermally accelerated deep immunostaining
Authors: Lai Hei Ming , Tang Yumi , Lau Zachary Y. H. , Campbell Robert A. A. , Yau Juno C. N. , Chan Caleb C. Y. , Chan Danny C. W. , Wong Tin Yan , Wong Harriet K. T. , Yan Leo Y. C. , Wu William K. K. , Wong Sunny H. , Kwok Ka-Wai , Wing Yun-Kwok , Lam Henry H. N. , Ng Ho-Keung , Mrsic-Flogel Thomas D. , Mok Vincent C. T. , Chan Jason Y. K. , Ko Ho 
Published: September 2022

AbstractAntibodies have diverse applications due to their high reaction specificities but are sensitive to denaturation when a higher working temperature is required. We have developed a simple, highly scalable and generalizable chemical approach for stabilizing off-the-shelf antibodies against thermal and chemical denaturation. We demonstrate that the stabilized antibodies (termed SPEARs) can withstand up to 4 weeks of continuous heating at 55 °C and harsh denaturants, and apply our method to 33 tested antibodies. SPEARs enable flexible applications of thermocycling and denaturants to dynamically modulate their binding kinetics, reaction equilibrium, macromolecular diffusivity and aggregation propensity. In particular, we show that SPEARs permit the use of a thermally facilitated three-dimensional immunolabeling strategy (termed ThICK staining), achieving whole mouse brain immunolabeling within 72 h, as well as nearly fourfold deeper penetration with threefold less antibodies in human brain tissue. With faster deep-tissue immunolabeling and broad compatibility with tissue processing and clearing methods without the need for any specialized equipment, we anticipate the wide applicability of ThICK staining with SPEARs for deep immunostaining.
DNA-PAINT MINFLUX nanoscopy
Authors: Ostersehlt Lynn M. , Jans Daniel C. , Wittek Anna , Keller-Findeisen Jan , Inamdar Kaushik , Sahl Steffen J. , Hell Stefan W. , Jakobs Stefan 
Published: September 2022

AbstractMINimal fluorescence photon FLUXes (MINFLUX) nanoscopy, providing photon-efficient fluorophore localizations, has brought about three-dimensional resolution at nanometer scales. However, by using an intrinsic on–off switching process for single fluorophore separation, initial MINFLUX implementations have been limited to two color channels. Here we show that MINFLUX can be effectively combined with sequentially multiplexed DNA-based labeling (DNA-PAINT), expanding MINFLUX nanoscopy to multiple molecular targets. Our method is exemplified with three-color recordings of mitochondria in human cells.
Structurally-constrained optical-flow-guided adversarial generation of synthetic CT for MR-only radiotherapy treatment planning
Authors: Vajpayee Rajat , Agrawal Vismay , Krishnamurthi Ganapathy 
Published: September 2022

AbstractThe rapid progress in image-to-image translation methods using deep neural networks has led to advancements in the generation of synthetic CT (sCT) in MR-only radiotherapy workflow. Replacement of CT with MR reduces unnecessary radiation exposure, financial cost and enables more accurate delineation of organs at risk. Previous generative adversarial networks (GANs) have been oriented towards MR to sCT generation. In this work, we have implemented multiple augmented cycle consistent GANs. The augmentation involves structural information constraint (StructCGAN), optical flow consistency constraint (FlowCGAN) and the combination of both the conditions (SFCGAN). The networks were trained and tested on a publicly available Gold Atlas project dataset, consisting of T2-weighted MR and CT volumes of 19 subjects from 3 different sites. The network was tested on 8 volumes acquired from the third site with a different scanner to assess the generalizability of the network on multicenter data. The results indicate that all the networks are robust to scanner variations. The best model, SFCGAN achieved an average ME of 0.9 5.9 HU, an average MAE of 40.4 4.7 HU and 57.2 1.4 dB PSNR outperforming previous research works. Moreover, the optical flow constraint between consecutive frames preserves the consistency across all views compared to 2D image-to-image translation methods. SFCGAN exploits the features of both StructCGAN and FlowCGAN by delivering structurally robust and 3D consistent sCT images. The research work serves as a benchmark for further research in MR-only radiotherapy.