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Sacred Relief or Silent Strain? Religious Involvement and Stress-Related Inflammation Among Asian American Subgroups
Get PDFReligious involvement is often linked to stress reduction, yet its effects on physiological health markers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), remain unclear among Asian Americans. Using data from Add Health, this study examines the relationship between religious coping and CRP levels across Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, and other/mixed Asian subgroups. Findings show no statistically significant association between religiosity and CRP in the full sample, though subgroup differences emerge. Filipino participants exhibit the highest CRP levels, with suggestive evidence that frequent religious coping correlates with lower inflammation. Korean participants who occasionally rely on religious coping show significantly higher CRP, raising questions about stress-related religious engagement. These findings emphasize the need for culturally sensitive stress-related health interventions that account for subgroup-specific stressors. Health policies should integrate religious and cultural factors alongside structural determinants of health to address disparities in stress-related inflammation among Asian Americans.Bachelor of Art
Conditional generation of real antigen-specific T cell receptor sequences
Get PDFDespite recent advances in T cell receptor (TCR) engineering, designing functional TCRs against arbitrary targets remains challenging due to complex rules governing cross-reactivity and limited paired data. Here we present TCR-TRANSLATE, a sequence-to-sequence framework that adapts low-resource machine translation techniques to generate antigen-specific TCR sequences against unseen epitopes. By evaluating 12 model variants of the BART and T5 model architectures, we identified key factors affecting performance and utility, revealing discordances between these objectives. Our flagship model, TCRT5, outperforms existing approaches on computational benchmarks, prioritizing functionally relevant sequences at higher ranks. Most significantly, we experimentally validated a computationally designed TCR against Wilms’ tumour antigen, a therapeutically relevant target in leukaemia, excluded from our training and validation sets. Although the identified TCR shows cross-reactivity with pathogen-derived peptides, highlighting limitations in specificity, our work represents the successful computational design of a functional TCR construct against a non-viral epitope from the target sequence alone. Our findings establish a foundation for computational TCR design and reveal current limitations in data availability and methodology, providing a framework for accelerating personalized immunotherapy by reducing the search space for novel targets
Disentangling the effects of corticotrophin releasing factor and GABA release from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis on ethanol self-administration in mice
Get PDFExcessive alcohol use causes a great deal of harm and negative health outcomes. Corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF), a stress-related neuropeptide, has been implicated in binge ethanol intake and ethanol dependence in rodents. CRF containing neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTCRF) can influence ethanol consumption. These BNSTCRF neurons also release GABA, raising the question, is it CRF release, GABA release, or both that is regulating alcohol consumption. Here, we used viral vectors to separate the effects of CRF and GABA release from BNSTCRF neurons on the escalation of ethanol intake in an operant self-administration procedure in male and female mice. We found that CRF deletion in BNST neurons reduces ethanol intake in both sexes, with a stronger effect in males. For sucrose self-administration there was no effect of CRF deletion. Suppression of GABA release, via knockdown of vGAT, from BNSTCRF produced a transient increase in ethanol operant self-administration in male mice, and reduced motivation to work for sucrose on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement in a sex-dependent manner. Together, these results highlight how different signaling molecules from the same populations of neurons can bidirectionally control behavior. Moreover, they suggest that BNST CRF release is important for high intensity ethanol drinking that precedes dependence, whereas GABA release from these neurons may play a role in regulating motivation
A Guide to Engaging with Media to Amplify Health Research.
Get PDFCommunicating health research through local and national print, television, and radio news can amplify the impact of research findings. However, relatively few health researchers work with the media to communicate their findings to a broader audience. In April 2024, we convened a group of specialists with expertise in traditional media, health news, and health advocacy for a webinar sponsored by the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative. We present an overview of the discussion, including opportunities within the context of traditional media, guidance for health researchers on partnering with the media, and themes on translating health research to a general audience. Health researchers can use this article as a guide to working with the media to expand the influence of their research findings
Evaluation of Commercial Camera-Based Solutions for Tracking Hand Kinematics
Get PDFTracking hand kinematics is essential for numerous clinical and scientific applications. Markerless motion capture devices have advantages over other modalities in terms of calibration, set up, and overall ease of use; however, their accuracy during dynamic tasks has not been fully explored. This study examined the performance of two popular markerless systems, the Leap Motion Controller 2 (LM2) and MediaPipe (MP), in capturing joint motion of the digits. Data were compared to joint motion collected from a marker-based multi-camera system (Vicon). Eleven participants performed six tasks with their dominant right hand at three movement speeds while all three devices simultaneously captured the position of hand landmarks. Using these data, digit joint angles were calculated. The root mean squared error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (r) relative to the Vicon angles were computed for LM2 and MP. LM2 achieved a lower error (p < 0.001, mean RMSE = 14.8°) and a higher correlation (p = 0.007, mean r = 0.58) than the MP system (mean RMSE = 22.5°, mean r = 0.45). Greater movement speed led to significantly higher RMSE (p < 0.001) and lower r (p < 0.001) for MP but not for LM2. Error was substantially greater for the proximal interphalangeal joint than for other finger joints, although r values were higher for this joint. Overall, the LM2 and MP systems were able to capture motion at the joint level across digits for a variety of tasks in real time, although the level of error may not be acceptable for certain applications
Patterns of Shared Variation in Knee Ultrasound for Osteoarthritis: A Machine Learning Approach
Get PDFObjective : To identify phenotypes of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) based on demographic and clinical variables, symptoms, and ultrasound (US) features using a novel machine learning (ML) approach. Design : Participants in the Johnston County Health Study provided demographics, symptomatic and functional assessments, and joint radiographs, which were transformed into the clinical data block. Standardized knee US were obtained, and US features composed the second data block. The Angle-based Joint and Individual Variation Explained (AJIVE) algorithm was used to identify shared and individual modes of variation. We focused on shared structure to explore how US features and non-US clinical data varied together overall, and in the subset with radiographic KOA (rKOA). Results : This analysis included 861 participants (mean age 55 years, mean BMI 33 kg/m2); 335 (39%) had rKOA. AJIVE identified two components of shared variation (subgroup and SC2). SC1 associated osteophytes and cartilage damage on US with higher BMI, older age, and worse symptoms and outcome scores. SC2 correlated effusion and synovitis but less cartilage damage on US, with better physical function and lower BMI. A similar pattern was seen in those with rKOA. Conclusions : We identified two shared directions of variation that may represent distinct phenotypes of KOA. The first is consistent with prior studies linking osteophytes and cartilage damage to worse symptoms and function. The second may represent an inflammatory subtype of KOA, with greater effusion and synovitis but less osteophytosis and cartilage damage. These clinically feasible phenotypes should be confirmed in future studies
Scaling up spatial transcriptomics for large-sized tissues: uncovering cellular-level tissue architecture beyond conventional platforms with iSCALE
Get PDFRecent advances in spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies have transformed our ability to profile gene expression while preserving crucial spatial context within tissues. However, existing ST platforms are constrained by high costs, long turnaround times, low resolution, limited gene coverage and inherently small tissue capture areas, which hinder their broad applications. Here we present iSCALE, a method that reconstructs large-scale, super-resolution gene expression landscapes and automatically annotates cellular-level tissue architecture in samples exceeding capture areas of current ST platforms. The performance of iSCALE was assessed by comprehensive evaluations involving benchmarking experiments, immunohistochemistry staining and manual annotations by pathologists. When applied to multiple sclerosis human brain samples, iSCALE uncovered lesion-associated cellular characteristics undetectable by conventional ST experiments. Our results demonstrate the utility of iSCALE in analyzing large tissues by enabling unbiased annotation, resolving cell type composition, mapping cellular microenvironments and revealing spatial features beyond the reach of standard ST analysis or routine histopathological assessment
Performance of 123I‐ioflupane SPECT striatal binding in dementia with Lewy bodies
Get PDFINTRODUCTION: We aimed to determine whether 123I-ioflupane single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) striatal binding ratio (SBR) correlated with parkinsonian motor symptoms in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and if SBR predicts worsening of parkinsonism over time. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of the U.S. Dementia with Lewy Bodies Consortium dataset including individuals with DLB with baseline 123I-ioflupane SPECT analyzed with DaTQUANT and baseline and 24-month Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-Part III (MDS-UPDRS-III). A subset had cerebrospinal fluid α-synuclein seed amplification assay (SAA) evaluation. RESULTS: Baseline mean SBRs were significant predictors of baseline and 24-month MDS-UPDRS-III scores, although they did not predict meaningful worsening over time. SAA positivity was associated with lower SBRs; Z score cut-off values are provided. DISCUSSION: In suspected DLB, 123I-ioflupane SPECT, at diagnosis, could be used to confirm underlying dopamine deficiency; it does not predict meaningful worsening of motor parkinsonism. More severe dopamine deficiency increases confidence in presence of synucleinopathy. HIGHLIGHTS: 123I-ioflupane single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) can confirm underlying dopamine deficiency. Striatal binding ratio (SBR) Z scores predicted 24-month Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-Part III (UPDRS-III) scores. SBR Z scores are not predictive of subsequent meaningful worsening of parkinsonism. More severe dopamine dysfunction on SPECT is associated with presence of seed amplification assay (SAA). SBR Z score cut-offs that indicate cerebrospinal fluid SAA positivity are provided
Anthropometric measures and incidence of obesity-related cancers in the HCHS/SOL Onco-SOL ancillary study
Get PDFObesity is highly prevalent among Hispanic/Latino adults and is an established risk factor for 13 cancers; however, studies focused on Hispanic/Latino adults are limited. We examined six anthropometric measures in association with incidence of obesity-related cancers (ORCs) among Hispanic/Latino adults, overall and by sex, age, and heritage. We included 16,415 Hispanic/Latino adults from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Baseline (2008-2011) anthropometric measures included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, waist-to-hip ratio (WHp), fat mass index, and percent body fat. The incidence of 13 ORCs was ascertained through linkages with four state cancer registries (n = 330 incident ORC diagnosed over a mean follow-up of 10.7 years). Survey-weighted Cox models estimated covariate-adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for the associations between each anthropometric measure and latent class analysis-derived groups and ORC risk. HRs were elevated among adults with the highest levels of anthropometric measures, and more so among women than among men. For example, a BMI ≥30 (vs < 25) kg/m2 was associated with aHR of 1.42 (95%CI = 0.88-2.30) overall, and aHRs of 2.22 (95%CI = 1.18-4.16) in women and 0.46 (95%CI = 0.20-1.02) in men. aHRs also varied by Hispanic/Latino heritage. For example, a one-standard deviation increase in BMI was associated with a 63% (HR = 1.63; 95%CI = 1.10-2.41) increase in ORC risk among South American adults, but not among Central American adults (HR = 1.03; 95%CI = 0.53-2.00). Multiple anthropometric measures were positively associated with ORC risk, particularly among women. Efforts to reduce obesity may be important for cancer prevention in Hispanic/Latino adults
Correction to: Skeletal versus conventional anchorage in dentofacial orthopedics: an international modified Delphi consensus study.
Get PDFCorrection to: Skeletal versus conventional anchorage in dentofacial orthopedics: an international modified Delphi consensus study