Managing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus via the Regulation of Gut Microbiota: A Chinese Medicine Perspective.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by insulin resistance and inadequate insulin production. Given the increased frequency of T2DM and the health issues it can cause, there is an increasing need to develop alternative T2DM management strategies. One such approach is Chinese Medicine (CM), a complementary therapy widely used in T2DM treatment.

Tissue-resident memory T cells in epicardial adipose tissue comprise transcriptionally distinct subsets that are modulated in atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia and carries an increased risk of stroke and heart failure. Here we investigated how the immune infiltrate of human epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), which directly overlies the myocardium, contributes to AF. Flow cytometry analysis revealed an enrichment of tissue-resident memory T (T) cells in patients with AF.

Promoter-centred chromatin interactions associated with EVI1 expression in EVI1+3q- myeloid leukaemia cells.

EVI1 expression is associated with poor prognosis in myeloid leukaemia, which can result from Chr.3q alterations that juxtapose enhancers to induce EVI1 expression via long-range chromatin interactions. More often, however, EVI1 expression occurs unrelated to 3q alterations, and it remained unclear if, in these cases, EVI1 expression is similarly caused by aberrant enhancer activation.

Subject-independent meta-learning framework towards optimal training of EEG-based classifiers.

Advances in deep learning have shown great promise towards the application of performing high-accuracy Electroencephalography (EEG) signal classification in a variety of tasks. However, many EEG-based datasets are often plagued by the issue of high inter-subject signal variability. Robust deep learning models are notoriously difficult to train under such scenarios, often leading to subpar or widely varying performance across subjects under the leave-one-subject-out paradigm.

Deep Unsupervised Representation Learning for Feature-Informed EEG Domain Extraction.

In electroencephalography (EEG) classification paradigms, data from a target subject is often difficult to obtain, leading to difficulties in training a robust deep learning network. Transfer learning and their variations are effective tools in improving such models suffering from lack of data. However, many of the proposed variations and deep models often rely on a single assumed distribution to represent the latent features which may not scale well due to inter- and intra-subject variations in signals.

Targeted engagement of β-catenin-Ikaros complexes in refractory B-cell malignancies.

Unlabelled: In most cell types, nuclear β-catenin functions as prominent oncogenic driver and pairs with TCF7-family factors for transcriptional of MYC. Surprisingly, B-lymphoid malignancies not only lacked expression and activating lesions of β-catenin but critically depended on GSK3β for effective β-catenin degradation. Our interactome studies in B-lymphoid tumors revealed that β-catenin formed repressive complexes with lymphoid-specific Ikaros factors at the expense of TCF7.

Association of transplant center market concentration and local organ availability with deceased donor kidney utilization.

Although there is a shortage of kidneys available for transplantation, many transplantable kidneys are not procured or are discarded after procurement. We investigated whether local market competition and/or organ availability impact kidney procurement/utilization. We calculated the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for deceased donor kidney transplants (2015-2019) for 58 US donation service areas (DSAs) and defined 4 groups: HHI ≤ 0.

Intention Estimation Based Adaptive Unscented Kalman Filter for Online Neural Decoding.

The commonly used fixed discrete Kalman filters (DKF) in neural decoders do not generalize well to the actual relationship between neuronal firing rates and movement intention. This is due to the underlying assumption that the neural activity is linearly related to the output state. They also face the issues of requiring large amount of training datasets to achieve a robust model and a degradation of decoding performance over time.

To Be, or Notch to Be: Mediating Cell Fate from Embryogenesis to Lymphopoiesis.

Notch signaling forms an evolutionarily conserved juxtacrine pathway crucial for cellular development. Initially identified in wing morphogenesis, Notch signaling has since been demonstrated to play pivotal roles in governing mammalian cellular development in a large variety of cell types. Indeed, abolishing Notch constituents in mouse models result in embryonic lethality, demonstrating that Notch signaling is critical for development and differentiation.

Religious Coping During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Gender, Occupational and Socio-economic Perspectives Among Malaysian Frontline Healthcare Workers.

Objective: At the dawn of the new decade of the 20th century, the world was taken aback by the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aimed to study the nature of religious coping of frontline healthcare workers seen through the perspective of gender, socio-economic status, and occupation.

Methods: An online-based study was carried out among frontline healthcare workers involved in the care of COVID-19 patients (n = 200).

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) as a risk factor for secondary osteoporosis in children.

Repetitive hypoxia seen in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) may affect bone metabolism increasing the risk for secondary osteoporosis. This study investigates the association between OSAS in children and secondary osteoporosis. This cross-sectional study included 150 children aged 10-17 years: 86 with OSAS and 64 with no OSAS.

Notch signaling induces a transcriptionally permissive state at the Complement C3d Receptor 2 (CR2) promoter in a pre-B cell model.

During mammalian lymphoid development, Notch signaling is necessary at multiple stages of T lymphopoiesis, including lineage commitment, and later stages of T cell effector differentiation. In contrast, outside of a defined role in the development of splenic marginal zone B cells, there is conflicting evidence regarding whether Notch signaling plays functional roles in other B cell sub-populations. Complement receptor 2 (CR2) modulates BCR-signaling and is tightly regulated throughout differentiation.

Disease-associated missense variants in ZBTB18 disrupt DNA binding and impair the development of neurons within the embryonic cerebral cortex.

The activities of DNA-binding transcription factors, such as the multi-zinc-finger protein ZBTB18 (also known as RP58, or ZNF238), are essential to coordinate mammalian neurodevelopment, including the birth and radial migration of newborn neurons within the fetal brain. In humans, the majority of disease-associated missense mutations in ZBTB18 lie within the DNA-binding zinc-finger domain and are associated with brain developmental disorder, yet the molecular mechanisms explaining their role in disease remain unclear. To address this, we developed in silico models of ZBTB18, bound to DNA, and discovered that half of the missense variants map to residues (Asn461, Arg464, Glu486) predicted to be essential to sequence-specific DNA contact, whereas others map to residues (Leu434, Tyr447, Arg495) with limited contributions to DNA binding.

Prognostic factors for mortality due to pneumonia among adults from different age groups in Singapore and mortality predictions based on PSI and CURB-65.

Introduction: Pneumonia is associated with considerable mortality. However, there is limited information on age-specific prognostic factors for death from pneumonia.

Methods: Patients hospitalised with a diagnosis of pneumonia through the emergency department were stratified into three age groups: 18-64 years, 65-84 years and ≥ 85 years.

Measuring the effectiveness of a novel CPRcard™ feedback device during simulated chest compressions by non-healthcare workers.

Introduction: There is a need for a simple-to-use and easy-to-carry CPR feedback device for laypersons. We aimed to determine if a novel CPRcard™ feedback device improved the quality of chest compressions.

Methods: We compared participants' chest compression rate and depth with and without feedback.

The risk of tuberculosis in SLE patients from an Asian tertiary hospital.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been associated with increased risk of tuberculosis (TB). However, little is known about the extent and risk factors for TB among Asian patient with SLE. We aimed to assess the rate of TB in patients with SLE, and investigate the risk of SLE on TB development using hospital administrative database.

The effect of chronic liver disease on venous thromboembolism among medically managed patients in Singapore General Hospital.

Background: Chronic liver disease (CLD) has been suggested to be associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE) in western populations. However, little is known about the risk effects of CLD on VTE among Asians.

Objective: To compute the prevalence of VTE among hospitalised Asian patients, and to evaluate the pattern and scale of risk effects of CLD on VTE occurrence.

Focused transcription from the human CR2/CD21 core promoter is regulated by synergistic activity of TATA and Initiator elements in mature B cells.

Complement receptor 2 (CR2/CD21) is predominantly expressed on the surface of mature B cells where it forms part of a coreceptor complex that functions, in part, to modulate B-cell receptor signal strength. CR2/CD21 expression is tightly regulated throughout B-cell development such that CR2/CD21 cannot be detected on pre-B or terminally differentiated plasma cells. CR2/CD21 expression is upregulated at B-cell maturation and can be induced by IL-4 and CD40 signaling pathways.

Preferential association of a functional variant in complement receptor 2 with antibodies to double-stranded DNA.

Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE; OMIM 152700) is characterised by the production of antibodies to nuclear antigens. We previously identified variants in complement receptor 2 (CR2/CD21) that were associated with decreased risk of SLE. This study aimed to identify the causal variant for this association.

Discovering implicit entity relation with the gene-citation-gene network.

In this paper, we apply the entitymetrics model to our constructed Gene-Citation-Gene (GCG) network. Based on the premise there is a hidden, but plausible, relationship between an entity in one article and an entity in its citing article, we constructed a GCG network of gene pairs implicitly connected through citation. We compare the performance of this GCG network to a gene-gene (GG) network constructed over the same corpus but which uses gene pairs explicitly connected through traditional co-occurrence.

Preparation of emulsions by rotor-stator homogenizer and ultrasonic cavitation for the cosmeceutical industry.

Oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions play an important key role in transporting bioactive compounds into a range of cosmeceutical products to the skin. Small droplet sizes have an inherent stability against creaming, sedimentation, flocculation, and coalescence. O/W emulsions varying in manufacturing process were prepared.