Publications by authors named "Lao O"

Genetic ancestry plays a major role in pharmacogenomics, and a deeper understanding of the genetic diversity among individuals holds immerse promise for reshaping personalized medicine. In this pivotal study, we have conducted a large-scale genomic analysis of 1,136 pharmacogenomic variants employing machine learning algorithms on 3,714 individuals from publicly available datasets to assess the risk proximity of experiencing drug-related adverse events. Our findings indicate that Admixed Americans and Europeans have demonstrated a higher risk of experiencing drug toxicity, whereas individuals with East Asian ancestry and, to a lesser extent, Oceanians displayed a lower risk proximity.

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Introduction: Pediatric firearm injury prevention research in younger age groups is limited. This study evaluated a large multicenter cohort of younger children with firearm injuries, focusing on injury patterns and surgical resource utilization.

Methods: Children ≤15 y old sustaining firearm injuries between 2016 and 2021 and treated at 10 pediatric trauma centers in Florida were included.

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Background: North African human populations present a complex demographic scenario due to the presence of an autochthonous genetic component and population substructure, plus extensive gene flow from the Middle East, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Results: We conducted a comprehensive analysis of 364 genomes to construct detailed demographic models for the North African region, encompassing its two primary ethnic groups, the Arab and Amazigh populations. This was achieved through an Approximate Bayesian Computation with Deep Learning (ABC-DL) framework and a novel algorithm called Genetic Programming for Population Genetics (GP4PG).

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Background: The rise of value-based purchasing has led to decreased compensation for hospital-acquired conditions, including surgical site infections (SSI). This study aims to assess the risk factors for SSI in children and teenagers undergoing gastrointestinal surgery across US hospitals.

Methods: The 2018-2020 Nationwide Readmissions Database was queried for patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery under the age of 18.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists found that modern humans have lighter bones than ancient relatives like Neanderthals and that this might be due to both how they lived and genetics.
  • They studied a gene called LRP5, which affects bone strength, and discovered it behaves differently in ancient and modern people.
  • Their research shows that there are unique genetic changes in modern humans compared to ancient ones, which might help explain why our bones are different today.
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  • - The study analyzed injury patterns and outcomes for golf cart (GC) and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) accidents among children under 16, revealing a rise in injuries for both types of vehicles from January 2016 to June 2021.
  • - It found that GC patients tend to be younger and have a higher rate of intracranial injuries compared to ATV patients, but overall injury severity, ICU admission rates, and surgical needs were similar for both.
  • - The results suggest that despite being seen as safer, golf carts pose a significant injury risk similar to ATVs, indicating a need for improved safety measures for their use.
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Venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pediatric trauma patients is under-investigated. The purpose of this study was to perform an evaluation of the risk factors for VTE after pediatric trauma, including readmissions across the United States. The Nationwide Readmissions Database for 2016-2020 was queried for all patients under the age of 18 years admitted for trauma.

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  • Triage accuracy is crucial for effective pediatric trauma care, with this study exploring factors leading to under- and over-triage in an urban trauma center.
  • The study analyzed 1,094 trauma cases involving patients under 18 years old from January 2021 to July 2023, finding an under-triage rate of 3.8% and an over-triage rate of 13.6%.
  • Key risk factors identified include infants (0-1 years) being most likely to be under-triaged and older teens (11-17 years) being most often over-triaged, with non-accidental trauma linked to under-triage and penetrating injuries associated with over-triage.
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In population genetics, the emergence of large-scale genomic data for various species and populations has provided new opportunities to understand the evolutionary forces that drive genetic diversity using statistical inference. However, the era of population genomics presents new challenges in analysing the massive amounts of genomes and variants. Deep learning has demonstrated state-of-the-art performance for numerous applications involving large-scale data.

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Background: Relationships between social determinants of health and pediatric trauma mechanisms and outcomes are unclear in context of COVID-19.

Methods: Children <16 years old injured between 2016 and 2021 from ten pediatric trauma centers in Florida were included. Patients were stratified by high vs.

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Archaic admixture has had a substantial impact on human evolution with multiple events across different clades, including from extinct hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans into modern humans. In great apes, archaic admixture has been identified in chimpanzees and bonobos but the possibility of such events has not been explored in other species. Here, we address this question using high-coverage whole-genome sequences from all four extant gorilla subspecies, including six newly sequenced eastern gorillas from previously unsampled geographic regions.

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The genetic variation of the European population at a macro-geographic scale follows genetic gradients which reflect main migration events. However, less is known about factors affecting mating patterns at a micro-geographic scale. In this study we have analyzed 726,718 autosomal single nucleotide variants in 435 individuals from the catalan Pyrenees covering around 200 km of a vast and abrupt region in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, for which we have information about the geographic origin of all grand-parents and parents.

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An important fraction of patients with rare disorders remains with no clear genetic diagnostic, even after whole-exome or whole-genome sequencing, posing a difficulty in giving adequate treatment and genetic counseling. The analysis of genomic data in rare disorders mostly considers the presence of single gene variants in coding regions that follow a concrete monogenic mode of inheritance. A digenic inheritance, with variants in two functionally-related genes in the same individual, is a plausible alternative that might explain the genetic basis of the disease in some cases.

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Precursors of the adult hematopoietic system arise from the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region shortly after the embryonic circulation is established. Here, we develop a microfluidic culture system to mimic the primitive embryonic circulation and address the hypothesis that circulatory flow and shear stress enhance embryonic blood development. Embryonic (HOXA) hematopoiesis was derived from human pluripotent stem cells and induced from mesoderm by small-molecule manipulation of TGF-β and WNT signaling (SB/CHIR).

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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by hyperactivity, impulsivity, and/or inattention, which are symptoms also observed in many rare genetic disorders. We searched for genes involved in Mendelian disorders presenting with ADHD symptoms in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database, to curate a list of new candidate risk genes for ADHD. We explored the enrichment of functions and pathways in this gene list, and tested whether rare or common variants in these genes are associated with ADHD or with its comorbidities.

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The 1000 Genomes Project (1000G) is one of the most popular whole genome sequencing datasets used in different genomics fields and has boosting our knowledge in medical and population genomics, among other fields. Recent studies have reported the presence of ghost mutation signals in the 1000G. Furthermore, studies have shown that these mutations can influence the outcomes of follow-up studies based on the genetic variation of 1000G, such as single nucleotide variants (SNV) imputation.

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Microfluidic chips provide versatile tools to mimic the biological effect of blood flow on pluripotent stem cells (PSC). This paper presents methods for the use of microfluidics to model embryonic circulation using differentiated PSC. Pulsatile circulatory flow is created with a microfluidics device with pressure-driven microvalves and ventricles.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Bronze Age in Greece included three main cultures: Cycladic, Minoan, and Helladic (Mycenaean) and featured cities, specialized jobs, and early writing.
  • Scientists studied ancient DNA from these cultures and found that the Early Bronze Age people mostly came from the Neolithic Aegeans, not a big population change as previously thought.
  • By the Middle Bronze Age, people in northern Greece showed a mix of ancestry from different regions, which helped shape the genetics of modern Greeks.
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The area of the Spanish Pyrenees is particularly interesting for studying the demographic dynamics of European rural areas given its orography, the main traditional rural condition of its population and the reported higher patterns of consanguinity of the region. Previous genetic studies suggest a gradient of genetic continuity of the area in the West to East axis. However, it has been shown that micro-population substructure can be detected when considering high-quality NGS data and using spatial explicit methods.

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Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a complex disease in which both non-genetic and genetic factors interplay. To date, 40 GWAS hits have been associated with PC risk in individuals of European descent, explaining 4.1% of the phenotypic variance.

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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an impairing neurodevelopmental condition highly prevalent in current populations. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this paradox, mainly in the context of the Paleolithic versus Neolithic cultural shift but especially within the framework of the mismatch theory. This theory elaborates on how a particular trait once favoured in an ancient environment might become maladaptive upon environmental changes.

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An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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Previous studies indicated existing, albeit limited, genetic-geographic population substructure in the Dutch population based on genome-wide data and a lack of this for mitochondrial SNP based data. Despite the aforementioned studies, Y-chromosomal SNP data from the Netherlands remain scarce and do not cover the territory of the Netherlands well enough to allow a reliable investigation of genetic-geographic population substructure. Here we provide the first substantial dataset of detailed spatial Y-chromosomal haplogroup information in 2085 males collected across the Netherlands and supplemented with previously published data from northern Belgium.

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Background: Population demography and gene flow among African groups, as well as the putative archaic introgression of ancient hominins, have been poorly explored at the genome level.

Results: Here, we examine 15 African populations covering all major continental linguistic groups, ecosystems, and lifestyles within Africa through analysis of whole-genome sequence data of 21 individuals sequenced at deep coverage. We observe a remarkable correlation among genetic diversity and geographic distance, with the hunter-gatherer groups being more genetically differentiated and having larger effective population sizes throughout most modern-human history.

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