Publications by authors named "Daniel Liu"

Background: Uniportal spine endoscopy is a minimally invasive technique gaining widespread popularity, but fluid insufflation during the procedure poses risks of neurological deterioration. The present study examines these risks through a case series and literature review.

Methods: A review of the literature was conducted to identify reported complications related to fluid insufflation.

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Background: There are limited data comparing the effectiveness of multidisciplinary severe asthma clinics (SACs) with that of conventional single-discipline clinics (SDCs) for pediatric severe asthma.

Objective: Our aim was to compare asthma outcomes between SACs and SDCs clinics and examine longitudinal health outcomes for patients with severe asthma who were followed in SACs.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing pediatric asthma outcomes among patients with severe asthma between 2018 and 2022 who were treated at the multidisciplinary Arkansas Children's SAC with those of patients with severe asthma treated at SDCs.

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Spinal instability due to degenerative pathologies in patients with metastatic cancer presents significant challenges when spinal fusion and post-operative imaging and radiotherapy are required. Traditional metallic hardware hinders imaging quality and radiotherapy precision due to metal artefact. Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) implants offer a novel solution, combining mechanical stability with radiolucency to enhance post-operative multidisciplinary care.

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We derive and test a CT-based biological age model for predicting longevity, using an automated pipeline of explainable AI algorithms that quantifies skeletal muscle, abdominal fat, aortic calcification, bone density, and solid abdominal organs. We apply these AI tools to abdominal CT scans from 123,281 adults (mean age, 53.6 years; 47% women; median follow-up, 5.

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Humans can remember specific remote events without acting on them and influence which memories are retrieved based on internal goals. However, animal models typically present sensory cues to trigger memory retrieval and then assess retrieval based on action. Thus, it is difficult to determine whether measured neural activity patterns relate to the cue(s), the memory, or the behavior.

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Article Synopsis
  • NPIs significantly reduced asthma exacerbations and viral infections in pediatric patients during their enforcement from March 2020 to December 2022.
  • A total of 5,758 asthma exacerbations were recorded, with a 50% decline during NPIs, while 87% of the 70,682 respiratory tests returned positive for pathogens but showed decreased rates for some viruses.
  • After the NPIs ended, asthma exacerbations returned to pre-pandemic levels, and an unexpected spike in respiratory syncytial virus infections highlighted the importance of ongoing monitoring.
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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a deadly form of glioma notable for its significant intratumoral heterogeneity, which is believed to drive therapy resistance. GBM has been observed to mimic a neural stem cell hierarchy reminiscent of normal brain development. However, it is still unclear how cell-of-origin shapes intratumoral heterogeneity.

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In 1861 the physiologist Ernst Brücke (1819-1892) published "The Elementary Organisms," calling for a major reform of the definition of the animal cell. An English translation of Brücke's essay is presented here for the first time. In this translation the numbered footnotes 1-9 are Brücke's own; alphabetical endnotes A-HH are my own annotations, with additional references to works cited by Brücke.

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Ernst Brücke's 1861 essay Die Elementarorganismen has often been cited as a watershed in the history of physiology as well as in the history of cell theory. In its time it was widely read as a reform of animal cell theory, shifting the concept of the cell away from Schleiden and Schwann's original cell schema of a membranous vesicle with a nucleus, and towards the protoplasm theory that had developed in botany, centered on the cell's living contents. It was also notorious for its arguments against the necessity of both the nucleus and the cell membrane.

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Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in up to half of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and is associated with increased risks of death and more days of mechanical ventilation, hospitalization, and vasopressor drug support. Our objective was to build a granular relational database to study the impact that AKI has on infants admitted to Level-IV NICUs.

Methods: A relational database was created by linking data from the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database with AKI-focused data from electronic health records from 9 centers.

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Background: Cauda equina neuroendocrine tumors (CENETs), previously known as cauda equina paragangliomas, and multiple cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are uncommon conditions affecting the central nervous system. To the authors' knowledge, they have not been reported in the same patient.

Observations: The authors present the case of a 45-year-old male with CENET and concurrent incidental MRI findings of multiple CCMs.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The article introduces a new method called top-down drug discovery (TD), which involves searching through a large database of fungi to find genetic locations that produce molecules targeting specific human proteins, like cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs).
  • * Researchers successfully discovered two new molecules that inhibit CDKs and improved one of them to enhance its selectivity and effectiveness, showcasing the potential of TD for developing innovative medicines.
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Background: Biliary obstruction can be due to both malignant and benign pancreaticobiliary disease. Currently, there are no biomarkers that can accurately help make this distinction. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are stable molecules in tissue and biofluids that are commonly deregulated in cancer.

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Background: Distinguishing benign from malignant pancreaticobiliary disease is challenging because of the absence of reliable biomarkers. Circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as functional mediators between cells. Their cargos, including microRNAs (miRNAs), are increasingly acknowledged as an important source of potential biomarkers.

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Humans can remember specific remote events without acting on them and influence which memories are retrieved based on internal goals. However, animal models typically present sensory cues to trigger memory retrieval and then assess retrieval based on action. Thus, it is difficult to determine whether measured neural activity patterns relate to the cue(s), the memory, or the behavior.

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Early stages of deadly respiratory diseases including COVID-19 are challenging to elucidate in humans. Here, we define cellular tropism and transcriptomic effects of SARS-CoV-2 virus by productively infecting healthy human lung tissue and using scRNA-seq to reconstruct the transcriptional program in "infection pseudotime" for individual lung cell types. SARS-CoV-2 predominantly infected activated interstitial macrophages (IMs), which can accumulate thousands of viral RNA molecules, taking over 60% of the cell transcriptome and forming dense viral RNA bodies while inducing host profibrotic (TGFB1, SPP1) and inflammatory (early interferon response, CCL2/7/8/13, CXCL10, and IL6/10) programs and destroying host cell architecture.

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Objective: This study aims to integrate and use AI to teach core concepts in a medicinal chemistry course and to increase the familiarity of pharmacy students with AI in pharmacy practice and drug development. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a multidisciplinary science that aims to build software tools that mimic human intelligence. AI is revolutionizing pharmaceutical research and patient care.

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The developmental origin of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is a longstanding question. Here, our non-invasive genetic lineage tracing in mouse embryos pinpoints that artery endothelial cells generate HSCs. Arteries are transiently competent to generate HSCs for 2.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study looked at patients who had a hip fracture and compared them to others who didn’t, using automated CT scans to find out more about their bones, muscles, and fat.
  • They found that certain measurements from the CT scans could help predict the risk of a hip fracture, like how strong the bones and muscles were.
  • This means doctors can use CT scans for more than just checking for immediate problems; they can also help figure out who might get injured later, so they can take steps to prevent it.
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Purpose: To compare fully automated artificial intelligence body composition measures derived from thin (1.25 mm) and thick (5 mm) slice abdominal CT data.

Methods: In this retrospective study, fully automated CT-based body composition algorithms for quantifying bone attenuation, muscle attenuation, muscle area, liver attenuation, liver volume, spleen volume, visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio (VSR) and aortic calcium were applied to both thin (1.

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Organic agriculture is a farming method that provides healthy food and is friendly to the environment, and it is developing rapidly worldwide. This study compared microbial communities in organic farming (Or) paddy fields to those in nonorganic farming (Nr) paddy fields based on 16S rDNA sequencing and analysis. The predominant microorganisms in both soils were Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Nitrospirota.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a very poor survival. The intra-tumoural microbiome can influence pancreatic tumourigenesis and chemoresistance and, therefore, patient survival. The role played by bile microbiota in PDAC is unknown.

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Differentiating between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is crucial for the appropriate course of treatment, especially with advancements in the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapies for PDAC, compared to CCA. Furthermore, benign pancreaticobiliary diseases can mimic malignant disease, and indeterminate lesions may require repeated investigations to achieve a diagnosis. As bile flows in close proximity to these lesions, we aimed to establish a bile-based microRNA (miRNA) signature to discriminate between malignant and benign pancreaticobiliary diseases.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess whether AI-based biomarkers from abdominal CT scans can predict a patient's risk of falling in the future.
  • A total of 9,029 patients were analyzed, comparing 3,535 individuals who experienced falls over time with 5,494 controls, using automated algorithms to measure muscle, fat, and bone composition.
  • Results indicated that specific CT biomarker combinations improved fall risk prediction, highlighting the potential of using automated scans for identifying patients at risk due to conditions like osteosarcopenic obesity.*
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Prospective isolation of defined cell types is critical for the functional study of stem cells, especially in primary human tissues. Here, we present a protocol for purifying 10 transcriptomically and functionally distinct neural stem and progenitor cell types from the developing human brain using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. We describe steps for tissue dissociation, staining, and cell sorting as well as downstream functional experiments for measuring clonogenicity, differentiation, and engraftment potential of purified populations.

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