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BACKGROUND/AIMS: Variability in the grade of atherosclerosis among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) could affect the ultrasound measurements of intima media thickness (IMT). We sought to investigate IMTs of carotid (cIMT) and femoral (fIMT) arteries in CKD patients and assess the degree of their correlation with histopathological atherosclerosis., METHODS: Eighty-nine out of 99 enrolled subjects completed this study. The subjects were divided into 3 groups: 34 patients with CKD (Case group), 31 with coronary artery disease undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, positive control group), and 24 healthy kidney donors (negative control group). For histopathological assessment of atherosclerosis, arterial tissue samples were obtained from the patients in each study group. The cIMT and fIMTs were measured by ultrasonography., RESULTS: Histopathological atherosclerosis was present in 82.3, 100, and 20.8% of CKD, CABG, and donor groups respectively (p < 0.001). CKD patients had higher values of cIMT and fIMT than the donor group (p = 0.01 and 0.004, respectively). cIMT was positively correlated with the grade of atherosclerosis in the CKD group only (p < 0.001), while fIMT was correlated with the grade of atherosclerosis in both CKD and donor groups (p < 0.001 and p = 0.009 respectively). In CKD patients, cIMT >0.65 mm and femoral values >0.57 mm predicted the presence of histopathological atherosclerosis with sensitivities of 96 and 92% respectively., CONCLUSION: Higher values of cIMT and fIMT in CKD patients are associated with higher rates and degrees of histopathological atherosclerosis. Additionally, when compared to fIMT, cIMT has a higher sensitivity for detecting atherosclerosis in CKD patients. Copyright © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Promoter region of protein-coding genes are gradually being well understood, yet no comparable studies exist for the promoter of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes which has emerged as a global potential regulator in multiple cellular process and different diseases for human. To understand the difference in the transcriptional regulation pattern of these genes, previously, we proposed a machine learning based model to classify the promoter of protein-coding genes and lncRNA genes. In this study, we are presenting DeepCNPP (deep coding non-coding promoter predictor), an improved model based on deep learning (DL) framework to classify the promoter of lncRNA genes and protein-coding genes. We used convolution neural network (CNN) based deep network to classify the promoter of these two broad categories of human genes. Our computational model, built upon the sequence information only, was able to classify these two groups of promoters from human at a rate of 83.34% accuracy and outperformed the existing model. Further analysis and interpretation of the output from DeepCNPP architecture will enable us to understand the difference in transcription regulatory pattern for these two groups of genes.

Human genes often, through alternative splicing of pre-messenger RNAs, produce multiple mRNAs and protein isoforms that may have similar or completely different functions. Identification of splice sites is, therefore, crucial to understand the gene structure and variants of mRNA and protein isoforms produced by the primary RNA transcripts. Although many computational methods have been developed to detect the splice sites in humans, this is still substantially a challenging problem and further improvement of the computational model is still foreseeable. Accordingly, we developed DeepDSSR (deep donor splice site recognizer), a novel deep learning based architecture, for predicting human donor splice sites. The proposed method, built upon publicly available and highly imbalanced benchmark dataset, is comparable with the leading deep learning based methods for detecting human donor splice sites. Performance evaluation metrics show that DeepDSSR outperformed the existing deep learning based methods. Future work will improve the predictive capabilities of our model, and we will build a model for the prediction of acceptor splice sites.

BACKGROUND: Hamstring strain injuries (HSI) are among the most common injuries in field-based team sports with a high-speed running component. The implementation of the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) is a well-documented method of improving eccentric hamstring strength to mitigate the risk of HSI occurrence. Sprint training is specific to the injury mechanism and is thought to activate the hamstrings through maximal eccentric contractions. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of sprint training and the NHE on eccentric hamstring strength and sprint performance., METHODS: Twenty-eight participants (mean+/-SD age=16.21+/-1.34 years; height=1.75m+/-0.10m; body mass=68.5kg+/-12.1kg) completed an eccentric hamstring strength assessment and 40m sprint to assess acceleration and maximum speed. Participants were randomly allocated to either a NHE training or sprint training group. Two sessions per week for four-weeks of training was performed with baseline testing procedures repeated in the week following the intervention. Perceptions of soreness were recorded following the warm-up in each training session., RESULTS: Both the NHE (effect size=0.39, P<0.05) and sprint training (effect size=0.29, P<0.05) groups displayed significant gains in eccentric hamstring strength. The NHE group reported trivial improvements in sprint performance, whilst the sprint training group experienced a moderate improvement, specifically in maximum speed (ES=0.83 Moderate). Sprint training also produced greater perceptions of soreness than the NHE following a four-week training intervention, specifically before the start of the last session (P<0.05)., CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that sprint training had a beneficial effect for both eccentric hamstring strength and sprint performance, whilst also producing greater soreness than the NHE following the final training session. It was concluded that a four-week block of maximum speed training may have both an injury prevention and performance enhancement benefit.

Screening for social determinants of health allows health care teams to assess and address social factors that influence one's health, mental health, and access to care. These social factors include poverty, health literacy, social support, exposure to trauma, food insecurity, and housing instability. The objective of this study was to examine what screening tools for social determinants of health are being used, in what contexts, and with what populations. Findings suggest that health literacy is the most commonly screened for, followed by trauma history, social support, food insecurity and housing across diverse contexts and populations. Results from this study can be used to inform providers of available screening tools and resources that can be readily utilized in practice.

Objective Alternative primary care structures such as group well-child care (GWCC) may enhance care for families, particularly those subject to structural vulnerabilities such as poverty or restrictive immigration policies. The purpose of this study was to characterize how group dynamics in GWCC impact the perceptions of low-income, immigrant, and/or Spanish-speaking parents of health services. Methods Using Spanish and English interview guides that were conceptually identical, we conducted semi-structured interviews with parents who elected to participate in GWCC at an urban academic center. We drew from directed content analysis, grounded theoretically in the Andersen model of health services utilization. Modeling a bilingual, multicultural analytic strategy, we preserved the narrative of participants in the source language through all stages of analysis. Results From March through August 2017, we interviewed 22 caregivers in their preferred language. Most (82%) were mothers and half spoke Spanish only. Three themes emerged: participants perceived that (1) GWCC facilitates their and their peers' discovery of inherent expertise, which moderates parents' use of health services, (2) GWCC encourages rearrangements of hierarchies of knowledge, professional roles and genders; and (3) in the context of structural vulnerabilities, relationships formed in GWCC facilitate collective efficacy. Conclusions for Practice By considering the self and peer as sources of health-related expertise, GWCC may extend current theoretical models of health services utilization. GWCC provides opportunities to impact health services utilization among families subject to structural vulnerabilities.

The exploration of new alloys with desirable properties has been a long-standing challenge in materials science because of the complex relationship between composition and microstructure. In this Research Article, we demonstrate a combinatorial strategy for the exploration of composition dependence of microstructure. This strategy is comprised of alloy library synthesis followed by high-throughput microstructure characterization. As an example, we synthesized a ternary Au-Cu-Si composition library containing over 1000 individual alloys using combinatorial sputtering. We subsequently melted and resolidified the entire library at controlled cooling rates. We used scanning optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction mapping to explore trends in phase formation and microstructural length scale with composition across the library. The integration of combinatorial synthesis with parallelizable analysis methods provides a efficient method for examining vast compositional ranges. The availability of microstructures from this vast composition space not only facilitates design of new alloys by controlling effects of composition on phase selection, phase sequence, length scale, and overall morphology, but also will be instrumental in understanding the complex process of microstructure formation in alloys.

We present the first measurement of charge-dependent directed flow in Cu+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The results are presented as a function of the particle transverse momentum and pseudorapidity for different centralities. A finite difference between the directed flow of positive and negative charged particles is observed that qualitatively agrees with the expectations from the effects of the initial strong electric field between two colliding ions with different nuclear charges. The measured difference in directed flow is much smaller than that obtained from the parton-hadron-string-dynamics model, which suggests that most of the electric charges, i.e., quarks and antiquarks, have not yet been created during the lifetime of the strong electric field, which is of the order of, or less than, 1 fm/c. © 2017 American Physical Society.

We report the first dijet transverse momentum asymmetry measurements from Au+Au and pp collisions at RHIC. The two highest-energy back-to-back jets reconstructed from fragments with transverse momenta above 2 GeV/c display a significantly higher momentum imbalance in heavy-ion collisions than in the pp reference. When reexamined with correlated soft particles included, we observe that these dijets then exhibit a unique new feature - momentum balance is restored to that observed in pp for a jet resolution parameter of R=0.4, while rebalancing is not attained with a smaller value of R=0.2. © 2017 American Physical Society.

Rapidity-odd directed-flow measurements at midrapidity are presented for Λ, Λ, K±, Ks0, and φ at sNN=7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV in Au+Au collisions recorded by the Solenoidal Tracker detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These measurements greatly expand the scope of data available to constrain models with differing prescriptions for the equation of state of quantum chromodynamics. Results show good sensitivity for testing a picture where flow is assumed to be imposed before hadron formation and the observed particles are assumed to form via coalescence of constituent quarks. The pattern of departure from a coalescence-inspired sum rule can be a valuable new tool for probing the collision dynamics. © 2018 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

The Λ (Λ̄) hyperon polarization along the beam direction has been measured in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, for the first time in heavy-ion collisions. The polarization dependence on the hyperons' emission angle relative to the elliptic flow plane exhibits a second harmonic sine modulation, indicating a quadrupole pattern of the vorticity component along the beam direction, expected due to elliptic flow. The polarization is found to increase in more peripheral collisions, and shows no strong transverse momentum (pT) dependence at pT greater than 1 GeV/c. The magnitude of the signal is about 5 times smaller than those predicted by hydrodynamic and multiphase transport models; the observed phase of the emission angle dependence is also opposite to these model predictions. In contrast, the kinematic vorticity calculations in the blast-wave model tuned to reproduce particle spectra, elliptic flow, and the azimuthal dependence of the Gaussian source radii measured with the Hanbury Brown-Twiss intensity interferometry technique reproduce well the modulation phase measured in the data and capture the centrality and transverse momentum dependence of the polarization signal. © 2019 American Physical Society.

We report first measurements of e^{+}e^{-} pair production in the mass region 0.4

We report the first measurement of rapidity-odd directed flow (v1) for D0 and D0̄ mesons at midrapidity (|y|<0.8) in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV using the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In 10-80% Au+Au collisions, the slope of the v1 rapidity dependence (dv1/dy), averaged over D0 and D0̄ mesons, is -0.080±0.017(stat)±0.016(syst) for transverse momentum pT above 1.5 GeV/c. The absolute value of D0 meson dv1/dy is about 25 times larger than that for charged kaons, with 3.4σ significance. These data give a unique insight into the initial tilt of the produced matter, and offer constraints on the geometric and transport parameters of the hot QCD medium created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. © 2019 American Physical Society.

We report on the first measurements of J/ψ production at very low transverse momentum (pT<0.2 GeV/c) in hadronic Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV and U+U collisions at sNN=193 GeV. Remarkably, the inferred nuclear modification factor of J/ψ at midrapidity in Au+Au (U+U) collisions reaches about 24 (52) for pT<0.05 GeV/c in the 60%-80% collision centrality class. This noteworthy enhancement cannot be explained by hadronic production accompanied by cold and hot medium effects. In addition, the dN/dt distribution of J/ψ for the very low pT range is presented for the first time. The distribution is consistent with that expected from the Au nucleus and shows a hint of interference. Comparison of the measurements to theoretical calculations of coherent production shows that the excess yield can be described reasonably well and reveals a partial disruption of coherent production in semicentral collisions, perhaps due to the violent hadronic interactions. Incorporating theoretical calculations, the results strongly suggest that the dramatic enhancement of J/ψ yield observed at extremely low pT originates from coherent photon-nucleus interactions. In particular, coherently produced J/ψ's in violent hadronic collisions may provide a novel probe of the quark-gluon plasma. © 2019 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

Micronutrients applied as nanoparticles of metal oxides have shown efficacy in vegetable and other crops for improving yield and reducing Fusarium diseases, but their role in ornamental crop management has not been investigated. In 2017, 2018, and 2020, nanoparticles of CuO, Mn2O3, or ZnO were foliarly applied at 500 mug/mL (0.6 mg/plant) to chrysanthemum transplants and planted in potting soil noninfested or infested with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. chrysanthemi. An untreated control and a commercial fungicide, Fludioxonil, was also included. Chrysanthemums treated with nanoscale CuO had a 55, 30, and 32% reduction in disease severity ratings compared to untreated plants in 2017, 2018, and 2020, respectively. Specifically, the average dry biomass for the three years was reduced 22% by disease, but treatment with nanoscale CuO led to a 23% increase when compared to controls. Similar trends with plant height were observed. Horticultural quality was improved 28% with nano CuO and was equal to the fungicide. Nanoscale Mn2O3 and the fungicide did not consistently reduce disease ratings or increase dry biomass each year. Nanoscale ZnO was ineffective. Nanoscale CuO-treated plants had 24 to 48% more Cu/g tissue than controls (P < 0.001). These findings agree with past reports on food crops where single applications of nanoscale CuO improved plant health, growth, and yield and could offer significant impacts for managing plant diseases on ornamentals.

Women of childbearing age who misuse opioids are a particularly vulnerable population, and their barriers to treatment are unique because of their caregiver roles. Research on treatment for opioid use generally draws from urban and rural areas. This study fills a gap in research that focuses on barriers and motivators to opioid treatment in suburban areas. The aim of this study was to give voice to suburban pregnant women and mothers caring for children while using opioids. Ethnographic methods were used for recruitment, and 58 in-depth interviews were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. Barriers to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) included stigma, staff attitudes, and perceptions the women had about MAT treatment. Barriers associated with all types of treatment included structural factors and access difficulties. Relationships with partners, friends, family, and providers could be barriers as well as motivators, depending on the social context of the women's situation. Our findings suggest increasing treatment-seeking motivators for mothers and pregnant women by identifying lack of resources, more empathetic consideration of social environments, and implementing structural changes to overcome barriers. Findings provide a contemporary understanding of how suburban landscapes affect mothers' treatment-seeking for opioid dependence and suggest the need for more focus on emotional and structural resources rather than strict surveillance of women with opioid dependence who are pregnant or caring for children. Copyright © 2021 Boeri, Lamonica, Turner, Parker, Murphy and Boccone.

Global polarization of Ξ and ω hyperons has been measured for the first time in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The measurements of the Ξ- and Ξ¯+ hyperon polarization have been performed by two independent methods, via analysis of the angular distribution of the daughter particles in the parity violating weak decay Ξ→Λ+π, as well as by measuring the polarization of the daughter Λ hyperon, polarized via polarization transfer from its parent. The polarization, obtained by combining the results from the two methods and averaged over Ξ- and Ξ¯+, is measured to be ⟨PΞ ©=0.47±0.10(stat)±0.23(syst)% for the collision centrality 20%-80%. The ⟨PΞ. © 2021 American Physical Society. All rights reserved.

The Breit-Wheeler process which produces matter and antimatter from photon collisions is experimentally investigated through the observation of 6085 exclusive electron-positron pairs in ultraperipheral Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV. The measurements reveal a large fourth-order angular modulation of cos4DELTAphi=(16.8+/-2.5)% and smooth invariant mass distribution absent of vector mesons (phi, omega, and rho) at the experimental limit of <=0.2% of the observed yields. The differential cross section as a function of e^{+}e^{-} pair transverse momentum P_{} peaks at low value with sqrt[ ]=38.1+/-0.9 MeV and displays a significant centrality dependence. These features are consistent with QED calculations for the collision of linearly polarized photons quantized from the extremely strong electromagnetic fields generated by the highly charged Au nuclei at ultrarelativistic speed. The experimental results have implications for vacuum birefringence and for mapping the magnetic field which is important for emergent QCD phenomena.

We report on the first measurement of charm-strange meson Ds± production at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV from the STAR experiment. The yield ratio between strange (Ds±) and nonstrange (D0) open-charm mesons is presented and compared to model calculations. A significant enhancement, relative to a pythia simulation of p+p collisions, is observed in the Ds±/D0 yield ratio in Au+Au collisions over a large range of collision centralities. Model calculations incorporating abundant strange-quark production in the quark-gluon plasma and coalescence hadronization qualitatively reproduce the data. The transverse-momentum integrated yield ratio of Ds±/D0 at midrapidity is consistent with a prediction from a statistical hadronization model with the parameters constrained by the yields of light and strange hadrons measured at the same collision energy. These results suggest that the coalescence of charm quarks with strange quarks in the quark-gluon plasma plays an important role in Ds±-meson production in heavy-ion collisions. © 2021 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Funded by SCOAP3.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing shutdown of the library building for several months, there was a sudden need to adjust how the Hilton C. Buley Library at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) delivered its services. Overnight, the library’s virtual chat service went from a convenient way to reach a librarian to the primary method by which library patrons contacted the library for help. In this article, the authors will discuss what was learned during this time and how the service has been adjusted to meet user needs. Best practices and future improvements will be discussed.