Unique and Shared Molecular Mechanisms of Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis Identified Through Transcriptomics Data Integration.

Liver cirrhosis is a severe chronic disease that results from various etiological factors and leads to substantial morbidity and mortality. Alcoholic cirrhosis (AC) and non-AC (NAC) arise from prolonged and excessive consumption of alcohol and metabolic syndromes, respectively. Precise molecular mechanisms of AC and NAC are yet to be comprehensively understood for diagnostics and therapeutic advances to materialize.

Comparative analyses define differences between BHD-associated renal tumour and sporadic chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.

Background: Birt-Hogg-Dubé (BHD) syndrome, caused by germline alteration of folliculin (FLCN) gene, develops hybrid oncocytic/chromophobe tumour (HOCT) and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC), whereas sporadic ChRCC does not harbor FLCN alteration. To date, molecular characteristics of these similar histological types of tumours have been incompletely elucidated.

Methods: To elucidate renal tumourigenesis of BHD-associated renal tumours and sporadic renal tumours, we conducted whole genome sequencing (WGS) and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) of sixteen BHD-associated renal tumours from nine unrelated BHD patients, twenty-one sporadic ChRCCs and seven sporadic oncocytomas.

The Origin and Invasion Pathway of Brown Rats on Dok-Do Island Revealed by Genome-Wide Markers from 3-RADseq Approach.

Biological invasions are known to cause local extinctions on islands. Dok-do, a small, remote volcanic island in the East Sea of Korea in the western Pacific, has recently been invaded by rats, posing ecological problems. To infer their origin and invasion pathway, we collected rats from Dok-do and from the potential introduction source locations, Ulleung-do in the Pacific Ocean, and four east coastal ports.

The Effects of Nurses' Perception of the Older Adults and Work Stress on Nursing Competency of Nurses Who Care for Older Adult Patients at General Hospital.

The older adult population is rapidly increasing in South Korea, and hospitalization at general hospitals is increasing too. Therefore, nurses working at general hospitals need the nursing competency for older adult patients. The study was conducted to examine the effects of nurses' perception of the older adults and work stress on the nursing competency of nurses at a general hospital, South Korea.

COOBoostR: An Extreme Gradient Boosting-Based Tool for Robust Tissue or Cell-of-Origin Prediction of Tumors.

We present here COOBoostR, a computational method designed for the putative prediction of the tissue- or cell-of-origin of various cancer types. COOBoostR leverages regional somatic mutation density information and chromatin mark features to be applied to an extreme gradient boosting-based machine-learning algorithm. COOBoostR ranks chromatin marks from various tissue and cell types, which best explain the somatic mutation density landscape of any sample of interest.

The telomere maintenance mechanism spectrum and its dynamics in gliomas.

Background: The activation of the telomere maintenance mechanism (TMM) is one of the critical drivers of cancer cell immortality. In gliomas, TERT expression and TERT promoter mutation are considered to reliably indicate telomerase activation, while ATRX mutation and/or loss indicates an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). However, these relationships have not been extensively validated in tumor tissues.

Evaluation of the Public Health Emergency Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Daegu, Korea During the First Half of 2020.

Objectives: This study evaluated the response in Daegu, Korea to the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic according to a public health emergency response model.

Methods: After an examination of the official data reported by the city of Daegu and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as a literature review and advisory meetings, we chose a response model. Daegu's responses were organized into 4 phases and evaluated by applying the response model.

Cellular direct conversion by cell penetrable OCT4-30Kc19 protein and BMP4 growth factor.

Background: The number of patients suffering from osteoporosis is increasing as the elderly population increases. The demand for investigating bone regeneration strategies naturally arises. One of the approaches to induce bone regeneration is somatic cell transdifferentiation.

Factors Influencing Male Nursing Students' Adaptation to College Life in Korea.

Background: Male nursing students face challenges in the nursing profession because of its female-centered nature. In particular, most male students in South Korea must complete military service while in college. Although these kinds of situations may make it difficult for them to adapt to college life, the number of male nursing students is gradually increasing.

Subcellular progression of mesenchymal transition identified by two discrete synchronous cell lines derived from the same glioblastoma.

Glioblastomas (GBM) exhibit intratumoral heterogeneity of various oncogenic evolutional processes. We have successfully isolated and established two distinct cancer cell lines with different morphological and biological characteristics that were derived from the same tissue sample of a GBM. When we compared their genomic and transcriptomic characteristics, each cell line harbored distinct mutation clusters while sharing core driver mutations.

Hybrid Stomach-Intestinal Chromatin States Underlie Human Barrett's Metaplasia.

Background & Aims: Tissue metaplasia is uncommon in adults because established cis-element programs resist rewiring. In Barrett's esophagus, the distal esophageal mucosa acquires a predominantly intestinal character, with notable gastric features, and is predisposed to developing invasive cancers. We sought to understand the chromatin underpinnings of Barrett's metaplasia and why it commonly displays simultaneous gastric and intestinal properties.

Epidemiological characteristics of a COVID-19 outbreak caused by religious activities in Daegu, Korea.

Objectives: A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak triggered by religious activities occurred in Daegu, Korea in February 2020. This outbreak spread rapidly to the community through high-risk groups. This study describes the characteristics of COVID-19 cases based on S religious group membership and summarizes the Daegu municipal government's processes and responses to control the outbreak.

Psycho-Electrophysiological Benefits of Forest Therapies Focused on Qigong and Walking with Elderly Individuals.

We developed two distinct forest therapy programs (FTPs) and compared their effects on dementia prevention and related health problems for older adults. One was focused on Qigong practice in the forest (QP) and the other involved active walking in the forest (WP). Both FTPs consisted of twelve 2-h sessions over six weeks and were conducted in an urban forest.

Role of Commensal Microbes in the γ-Ray Irradiation-Induced Physiological Changes in .

Ionizing radiation induces biological/physiological changes and affects commensal microbes, but few studies have examined the relationship between the physiological changes induced by irradiation and commensal microbes. This study investigated the role of commensal microbes in the γ-ray irradiation-induced physiological changes in . The bacterial load was increased in 5 Gy irradiated flies, but irradiation decreased the number of operational taxonomic units.

An Organoid Biobank of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms Enables Genotype-Phenotype Mapping.

Gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN) that consists of neuroendocrine tumor and neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is a lethal but under-investigated disease owing to its rarity. To fill the scarcity of clinically relevant models of GEP-NEN, we here established 25 lines of NEN organoids and performed their comprehensive molecular characterization. GEP-NEN organoids recapitulated pathohistological and functional phenotypes of the original tumors.

Mechanism for Transition of Reverse Cylindrical Micelles to Spherical Micelles Induced by Diverse Alcohols.

Herein, the effects of various alcohols on lecithin/CaCl organogels are investigated. Mixtures of lecithin and CaCl form reverse cylindrical micelles, resulting in optically transparent organogels. The addition of various alcohols to a mixture of lecithin and CaCl induces a decrease in viscosity through which reverse cylindrical micelles are transformed into spherical micelles (or short cylindrical micelles).

Ectopic transient overexpression of facilitates BMP4-induced osteogenic transdifferentiation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Limitation in cell sources for autologous cell therapy has been a recent focus in stem cell therapy and tissue engineering. Among various research advances, direct conversion, or transdifferentiation, is a notable and feasible strategy for the generation and acquirement of wanted cell source. So far, utilizing cell transdifferentiation technology in tissue engineering was mainly restricted at achieving single wanted cell type from diverse cell types with high efficiency.

Somatic mutation landscape reveals differential variability of cell-of-origin for primary liver cancer.

Primary liver tissue cancer types are renowned to display a consistent increase in global disease burden and mortality, thus needing more effective diagnostics and treatments. Yet, integrative research efforts to identify cell-of-origin for these cancers by utilizing human specimen data were poorly established. To this end, we analyzed previously published whole-genome sequencing data for 384 tumor and progenitor tissues along with 423 publicly available normal tissue epigenomic features and single cell RNA-seq data from human livers to assess correlation patterns and extended this information to conduct prediction of the cell-of-origin for primary liver cancer subtypes.

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein in patients with osteoarthritis is independently associated with metastatic disease in prostate cancer.

Metastatic prostate cancer has a 5-year survival rate of 30%. Identifying predictors of metastasis outcome could potentially reduce patient mortality. The objective of this study was to determine whether osteoarthritis had an impact on outcomes of prostate cancer including death, local recurrence and/or metastasis and to determine whether cartilage oligomeric matrix protein was involved.

Turo (Qi Dance) Program for Parkinson's Disease Patients: Randomized, Assessor Blind, Waiting-List Control, Partial Crossover Study.

Context: Qigong, Tai-chi and dancing have all been proven effective for Parkinson's disease (PD); however, no study has yet assessed the efficacy of Turo, a hybrid qigong dancing program developed to relieve symptoms in PD patients.

Objective: To determine whether Turo may provide benefit in addressing the symptoms of PD patients.

Design: Randomized, assessor blind, waiting-list control, partial crossover study.

Generalization of Conscious Fear Is Positively Correlated with Anxiety, but Not with Depression.

Generalization of learned fear has been considered to be critical for our survival. Patients with anxiety problems show overgeneralization of learned fear, as reflected by defensive physiological responses to harmless stimuli. Together with these physiological responses, conscious feeling of fear is a seminal part of emotional process that is directly related to the suffering of anxiety patients.

Chromatin marks shape mutation landscape at early stage of cancer progression.

Somatic mutation rates in cancer differ across the genome in a cancer cell-type specific manner. Although key factors that contribute to the differences were identified, the major cancer progression stage when these factors associate with the mutation variance remained poorly investigated. Here, we analyzed whole-genome sequencing data of pre-cancerous and matching cancer tissues from 173 individuals and 423 normal tissue chromatin features to determine the critical stage of these features contributing to shaping the somatic mutation landscape.

Repeated injections of botulinum toxin into the masseter muscle induce bony changes in human adults: A longitudinal study.

Objective: To evaluate soft- and hard-tissue changes in the mandibular angle area after the administration of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) injection to patients with masseteric hypertrophy by using three-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (3D-CBCT).

Methods: Twenty volunteers were randomly divided into two groups of 10 patients. Patients in group I received a single BoNT-A injection in both masseter muscles, while those in group II received two BoNT-A injections in each masseter muscle, with the second injection being administered 4 months after the first one.

Brain correlates to facial motor imagery and its somatotopy in the primary motor cortex.

Motor imagery (MI) has attracted increased interest for motor rehabilitation as many studies have shown that MI shares the same neural networks as motor execution (ME). Nevertheless, MI in terms of facial movement has not been studied extensively; thus, in the present study, we investigated shared neural networks between facial motor imagery (FMI) and facial motor execution (FME). In addition, FMI somatotopy within-face was investigated between the forehead and the mouth.

Genetic identification of prey species from teeth in faeces from the Endangered leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis using mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequence.

To understand the dietary ecology of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), DNA analysis was performed to identify prey species using DNA isolated from teeth harvested from the faeces of this feline species. From 70 DNA samples, a total of 52 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome b (cytb) gene sequences of mammals were identified. The results of a sequence identity test indicated that those sequences were derived from four rodent species (Apodemus agrarius, Apodemus peninsulae, Eothenomys regulus and Tamias sibiricus) and two shrew species (Crocidura lasiura and Crocidura shantungensis).