SMA

Aging is known to be associated with a decline in interoceptive abilities and changes in emotional processing, including alexithymia. As the brain areas supporting interoceptive awareness participate in the perception of emotion, we suggested that interoceptive decline and alexithymia in older adults may share common neural ground. To test this hypothesis, we administered functional magnetic resonance imaging-based heartbeat detection task to 62 adults of diverse ages (range 18-73) and evaluated a larger sample of older and younger adults using questionnaires characterizing interoceptive sensibility, alexithymia, and depressive attitudes...

Neonatal screening for SMA has allowed the identification of infants who may present with early clinical signs. Our aim was to establish whether the presence and the severity of early clinical signs have an effect on the development of motor milestones. Infants identified through newborn screening were prospectively assessed using a structured neonatal neurological examination and an additional module developed for the assessment of floppy infants. As part of the follow-up, all infants were assessed using the HINE-2 to establish developmental milestones...

Flexible and stretchable organic solar cells (OSCs) show great promise in wearable and stretchable electronic applications. However, current high-performance OSCs consisting of polymer donors (PDs) and small-molecule acceptors (SMAs) face significant challenges in achieving both high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and excellent stretch-ability. In this study, we synthesized a new polymerized-small-molecule acceptor (P-SMA) PY-SiO featuring siloxane-terminated side chains and compared its photovoltaic and mechanical performance to that of the reference PY-EH with ethylhexyl-terminated side chains...

OBJECTIVES: To explore the role of endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) mediated by the TGF-β/SMAD signalling pathway in the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). METHODS: Serum levels of TGF-β1 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 48 patients with AS and 15 healthy subjects. The expression levels of TGF-β1, SMAD7, CTGF, CD34 and EndMT-related markers (α-SMA, vimentin, FSP-1, VE-cadherin) in the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) of three AS patients were detected by immunohistochemistry, and three non-spondyloarthritis (SpA) autopsy samples were used as controls...

T cells mediate organ injury and repair. A proportion of unconventional kidney T cells called double-negative (DN) T cells (TCR+ CD4- CD8- ), with anti-inflammatory properties, were previously demonstrated to protect from early injury in moderate experimental AKI. However, their role in repair after AKI has not been studied. We hypothesized that DN T cells mediate repair after severe AKI. C57B6 mice underwent severe (40min) unilateral ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). Kidney DN T cells were studied by flow cytometry and compared to gold-standard anti-inflammatory CD4+ Tregs...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Insufficiency of respiratory muscles is the most important reason for mortality in the natural history of SMA. Thus, improvement or stabilization of respiratory function by disease-modifying therapies (DMT) is a very important issue. METHODS: We examined respiratory function using forced vital capacity (FVC) in 42 adult SMA patients (2 SMA type 1, 15 SMA type 2, 24 SMA type 3, 1 SMA type 4, median age 37 years, range 17-61 years) treated with nusinersen for a median of 22...

Introduction: Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) subsequent to differential expression analysis is a standard step in transcriptomics and proteomics data analysis. Although many tools for this step are available, the results are often difficult to reproduce because set annotations can change in the databases, that is, new features can be added or existing features can be removed. Finally, such changes in set compositions can have an impact on biological interpretation. Methods: We present bootGSEA, a novel computational pipeline, to study the robustness of GSEA...

INTRODUCTION: In over 50 years since the genetic counseling (GC) profession began, a systematic study of GC communication skills and patient-reported outcomes in actual sessions across multiple clinical specialties has never been conducted. To optimize GC quality and improve efficiency of care, the field must first be able to comprehensively measure GC skills and determine which skills are most critical to achieving positive patient experiences and outcomes. This study aims to characterise GC communication skills using a novel and pragmatic measure and link variations in communication skills to patient-reported outcomes, across clinical specialties and with patients from diverse backgrounds in the USA...

There are many reports on the positional relationship between the ileocolic artery and superior mesenteric vein (SMV). However, there have been no reports of anomalous venous confluence in the ileocecal vessel area. A 69-year-old man was diagnosed with cecal cancer on a preoperative examination of a lung tumor. We planned to perform surgery for the cecal cancer. Computed tomography angiography revealed an anomalous vein confluence in the ileocolic region. We performed robot-assisted ileocecal resection. Although the small intestinal vein was misidentified as the SMV at first, we confirmed the misidentification, identified the SMV on the dorsal side of the ileocolic artery, and ligated the ileocolic vessels with precise forceps manipulation during robotic surgery...

Since the mechanotransduction by stromal stiffness stimulates the rupture and repair of the nuclear envelope in pancreatic progenitor cells, accumulated genomic aberrations are under selection in the tumor microenvironment. Analysis of cell growth, micronuclei, and γH2AX foci links to mechanotransduction pressure in vivo during serial orthotopic passages of mouse KrasLSL-G12D/+ ;Trp53flox/flox ;Pdx1-Cre (KPC) cancer cells in the tumor and in migrating through the size-restricted 3μm micropores. To search for pancreatic cancer cell-of-origin, analysis of single-cell datasets revealed that the ECM shapes an alternate route of acinar-ductal transdifferentiation of acinar cells into a central hub of elegantly restrained TOP2A-overexpressing cancer cells that spread out as unique cancer clusters with copy number amplifications in MYC-PTK2 locus and PIK3CA...

Crime remains a crucial concern regarding ensuring a safe and secure environment for the public. Numerous efforts have been made to predict crime, emphasizing the importance of employing deep learning approaches for precise predictions. However, sufficient crime data and resources for training state-of-the-art deep learning-based crime prediction systems pose a challenge. To address this issue, this study adopts the transfer learning paradigm. Moreover, this study fine-tunes state-of-the-art statistical and deep learning methods, including Simple Moving Averages (SMA), Weighted Moving Averages (WMA), Exponential Moving Averages (EMA), Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), Bi-directional Long Short Term Memory (BiLSTMs), and Convolutional Neural Networks and Long Short Term Memory (CNN-LSTM) for crime prediction...

BACKGROUND: Hepatic fibrosis (HF) is a histopathological change in the process of long-term liver injury caused by cytokine secretion and internal environment disturbance, resulting in excessive liver repair and fiber scar. Nogo-B protein is widely distributed in peripheral tissues and organs and can regulate the migration of endothelial cells by activating TGF-β1 in vascular remodeling after injury. Nogo-B has been shown to promote organ fibrosis. This study was to determine the role of Nogo-B in HF...

PURPOSE: To compare the inter-reader agreement of pancreatic adenocarcinoma resectability assessment at pancreatic protocol photon-counting CT (PCCT) with conventional energy-integrating detector CT (EID-CT). METHODS: A retrospective single institution database search identified all contrast-enhanced pancreatic mass protocol abdominal CT performed at an outpatient facility with both a PCCT and EID-CT from 4/11/2022 to 10/30/2022. Patients without pancreatic adenocarcinoma were excluded...

A 54-year-old woman with a mycotic superior mesenteric artery (SMA) aneurysm underwent emergent aneurysm resection with a great saphenous vein bypass. Follow-up computed tomography revealed a rapidly growing recurrent SMA aneurysm at the stump. Under the diagnosis of recurrent pseudoaneurysm of SMA with a fragile stump, we performed an open dual arterial bypass using indocyanine green fluorescence angiography and endovascular coil embolization. Subsequently, the patient's recurrent mycotic SMA aneurysm was successfully managed without mesenteric ischemic complications...

Sinapic acid (SA) is renowned for its many pharmacological activities as a polyphenolic compound. The cause of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a commonly encountered array of metabolic and hormonal abnormalities in females, has yet to be determined. The present experiment was performed to evaluate the antifibrotic properties of SA in rats with letrozole-induced PCOS-related ovarian fibrosis. SA treatment successfully mitigated the changes induced by letrozole in body weight (BW) ( p  < .01) and relative ovary weight ( p  < ...

OBJECTIVES: The goals of this study were to investigate the treatment outcomes of acute thromboembolic occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery (ATOS) and identify prognostic factors after treatment. METHODS: The clinical data of 62 patients with ATOS between 2013 and 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were stratified by the treatment strategy, complications and mortality were compared in different group. RESULTS: Sixty-two consecutive patients were identified with ATOS...

Responding to rating scale items is a multidimensional process, since not only the substantive trait being measured but also additional personal characteristics can affect the respondents' category choices. A flexible model class for analyzing such multidimensional responses are IRTree models, in which rating responses are decomposed into a sequence of sub-decisions. Different response processes can be involved in item responding both sequentially across those sub-decisions and as co-occurring processes within sub-decisions...

Introducing restricted rotation in a molecule, often achieved through the incorporation of double or triple bonds, constitutes a crucial approach to induce a frustrated mesophase. Furthermore, the inclusion of a chiral moiety, such as cholesterol, serves to enhance the stabilization of chiral frustrated mesophases. This study presents the synthesis and characterization of novel optically active dimers incorporating cholesterol and phenyl 3-phenylpropiolate segments interconnected by an ω-oxyalkanoyloxy spacer with varying lengths and parity...

Background: Chronic unilateral vestibulopathy (CUVP) is a common chronic vestibular syndrome; the mechanisms of central vestibular compensation in CUVP are rarely studied. Methods: This study analyzed the data of 18 patients with CUVP and 18 healthy controls (HCs) and used seed-based functional connectivity (FC) and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) analyses to explore the FC alterations. Results: Compared with HCs, patients with CUVP showed decreased FC between the left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus and the right hippocampus; the left middle frontal gyrus and the right posterior cingulate gyrus, the right hippocampus, the right parahippocampal gyrus...

This data article presents information on the measurement of Indirect Tensile Stiffness Modulus of laboratory and field asphalt mixtures. The asphalt mixes are composed of three distinct binders that were categorised by their penetration grade (40/55-TLA, 60/75-TLA, and 60/70-MB) and aggregates (limestone, sharp sand, and filler). The asphalt mixtures are called dense-graded hot mix asphalt (HMA) and gap-graded stone matrix asphalt (SMA). The variables in the dataset were selected in accordance with the specifications of the dynamic modulus models that are currently in use as well as the needs for the quality control and assurance (QC & QA) assessment of asphalt concrete mixes...