Group-specific Patterns Research Articles

A Bayesian incorporated linear non-Gaussian acyclic model for multiple directed graph estimation to study brain emotion circuit development in adolescence.

Emotion perception is essential to affective and cognitive development which involves distributed brain circuits. Emotion identification skills emerge in infancy and continue to develop throughout childhood and adolescence. Understanding the development of the brain's emotion circuitry may help us explain the emotional changes during adolescence. In this work, we aim to deepen our understanding of emotion-related functional connectivity (FC) from association to causation. We proposed a Bayesian incorporated linear non-Gaussian acyclic model (BiLiNGAM), which incorporated association model into the estimation pipeline. Simulation results indicated stable and accurate performance over various settings, especially when the sample size was small. We used fMRI data from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) to validate the approach. It included 855 individuals aged 8-22 years who were divided into five different adolescent stages. Our network analysis revealed the development of emotion-related intra- and intermodular connectivity and pinpointed several emotion-related hubs. We further categorized the hubs into two types: in-hubs and out-hubs, as the center of receiving and distributing information, respectively. In addition, several unique developmental hub structures and group-specific patterns were discovered. Our findings help provide a directed FC template of brain network organization underlying emotion processing during adolescence.

On Measurement Validity and Language Models: Increasing Validity and Decreasing Bias with Instructions

ABSTRACT Language models like BERT or GPT are becoming increasingly popular measurement tools, but are the measurements they produce valid? Literature suggests that there is still a relevant gap between the ambitions of computational text analysis methods and the validity of their outputs. One prominent threat to validity is hidden biases in the training data, where models learn group-specific language patterns instead of the concept researchers want to measure. This paper investigates to what extent these biases impact the validity of measurements created with language models. We conduct a comparative analysis across nine group types in four datasets with three types of classification models, focusing on the robustness of models against biases and on the validity of their outputs. While we find that all types of models learn biases, the effects on validity are surprisingly small. In particular when models receive instructions as an additional input, they become more robust against biases from the fine-tuning data and produce more valid measurements across different groups. An instruction-based model (BERT-NLI) sees its average test-set performance decrease by only 0.4% F1 macro when trained on biased data and its error probability on groups it has not seen during training increases only by 0.8%.

Gifted Students’ Academic Motivation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study in Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia

Research suggests that the effect of emergency remote education on the motivation of gifted students during the COVID-19 pandemic differs from that observed in traditional students. The main aim of the present study was to explore the lived experience of academic motivation among gifted high school students in Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 47 gifted students aged 15 to 18, using the same methodological procedure in the three countries with similar educational backgrounds. Grounded in gifted students’ narratives about their academic motivation, we detected three groups of students who experienced decreased, no change in, or increased academic motivation. Furthermore, we identified group-specific patterns based on the most common activities and salient features of students’ school context, learning, and leisure time during the pandemic.

An Analysis of DIF and Sources of DIF in Achievement Motivation Items Using Anchoring Vignettes

ABSTRACT This study evaluated differential item functioning (DIF) in achievement motivation items before and after using anchoring vignettes as a statistical tool to account for group differences in response styles across gender and ethnicity. We applied the nonparametric scoring of the vignettes to motivation items from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and examined changes to DIF characteristics between the raw self-report item scores and the vignette-adjusted item scores. Overall, applying the anchoring vignettes changed DIF classification, magnitude, direction, and form for some items. Group-specific response patterns by gender and by ethnicity group were also seen. Our findings contribute to the research literature on observed response styles in PISA motivation items, DIF in PISA items, and changes to DIF characteristics after adjusting self-report item scores with anchoring vignettes.

The relationship between metacognitive monitoring, non-verbal intellectual ability, and memory performance in kindergarten children

When assessing their certainty, children are often poor at accurately monitoring their level of learning. The study examined the relationships between memory performance, intellectual ability, and metacognitive monitoring accuracy in kindergarten children. We also explored whether specific thresholds in memory performance and non-verbal intellectual ability influence metacognitive monitoring accuracy to identify group-specific patterns that might be masked by an overall linear analysis. We assessed the monitoring discrimination of 290 kindergarteners (Mage 6 years) using a paired-associates learning task. Results showed small correlations between task performance, intellectual ability, and metacognitive monitoring. Non-verbal intellectual ability provided explanatory value for monitoring accuracy beyond memory performance. We observed group-specific results consistent with the unskilled-and-unaware effect; children with the highest memory skills were more effective at discriminating between correct and incorrect answers than their peers with the lowest memory skills. However, kindergarteners with the highest non-verbal intellectual abilities did not demonstrate greater cognitive adaptability in novel tasks, as their monitoring accuracy was comparable to that of peers with average or lower intellectual abilities. Findings indicate that both task performance and non-verbal intellectual ability are relevant for monitoring accuracy, but the impact of non-verbal intellectual ability was less significant than anticipated. The modest correlation suggests that kindergarteners' non-verbal intellectual ability and metacognitive monitoring abilities operate relatively independently.

Do autistic adults spontaneously reason about belief? A detailed exploration of alternative explanations.

Southgate et al.'s (Southgate 2007 Psychol. Sci. 18, 587-92 (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01944.x)) anticipatory-looking paradigm has presented exciting yet inconclusive evidence surrounding spontaneous mentalizing in autism. The present study aimed to develop this paradigm to address alternative explanations for the lack of predictive eye movements on false-belief tasks by autistic adults. This was achieved through implementing a multi-trial design with matched true-belief conditions, and both high and low inhibitory demand false-belief conditions. We also sought to inspect if any group differences were related to group-specific patterns of attention on key events. Autistic adults were compared with non-autistic adults on this adapted implicit mentalizing task and an established explicit task. The two groups performed equally well in the explicit task; however, autistic adults did not show anticipatory-looking behaviour in the false-belief trials of the implicit task. Critically, both groups showed the same attentional distribution in the implicit task prior to action prediction, indicating that autistic adults process information from social cues in the same way as non-autistic adults, but this information is not then used to update mental representations. Our findings further document that many autistic people struggle to spontaneously mentalize others' beliefs, and this non-verbal paradigm holds promise for use with a wide range of ages and abilities.

Application of immersive virtual reality for assessing chronic neglect in individuals with stroke: the immersive virtual road-crossing task

ABSTRACT Background Neglect can be a long-term consequence of chronic stroke that can impede an individual’s ability to perform daily activities, but chronic and discrete forms can be difficult to detect. We developed and evaluated the “immersive virtual road-crossing task” (iVRoad) to identify and quantify discrete neglect symptoms in chronic stroke patients. Method The iVRoad task requires crossing virtual intersections and placing a letter in a mailbox placed either on the left or right. We tested three groups using the HTC Vive Pro Eye: (1) chronic right hemisphere stroke patients with (N = 20) and (2) without (N = 20) chronic left-sided neglect, and (3) age and gender-matched healthy controls (N = 20). We analyzed temporal parameters, errors, and head rotation to identify group-specific patterns, and applied questionnaires to measure self-assessed pedestrian behavior and usability. Results Overall, the task was well-tolerated by all participants with fewer cybersickness-induced symptoms after the VR exposure than before. Reaction time, left-sided errors, and lateral head movements for traffic from left most clearly distinguished between groups. Neglect patients committed more dangerous crossings, but their self-rated pedestrian behavior did not differ from that of stroke patients without neglect. This demonstrates their reduced awareness of the risks in everyday life and highlights the clinical relevance of the task. Conclusions Our findings suggest that a virtual road crossing task, such as iVRoad, has the potential to identify subtle symptoms of neglect by providing virtual scenarios that more closely resemble the demands and challenges of everyday life. iVRoad is an immersive, naturalistic virtual reality task that can measure clinically relevant behavioral variance and identify discrete neglect symptoms.

Horizontal migration of zooplankton in lake–wetland interfaces. Can temperature-driven surface exchange flows modulate its patterns?

Lake ecology can be affected by exchange flows driven by horizontal temperature gradients in lake–wetland interfaces. In this work, we investigate the hypothesis that thermally driven flows modulate the horizontal migration patterns of freshwater zooplankters. A 48-h field campaign in a shallow lake (Lake Vela, Quiaios, Portugal) was carried out to test this hypothesis. Thermal differences between the littoral and limnetic areas were measured along two transects featuring a Schoenoplectus lacustris and a Myriophyllum aquaticum stand in the littoral. In parallel, the physiochemistry and chlorophyll a, as a proxy for food availability differences between the littoral and the limnetic zones, were monitored. Zooplankton samples were collected for assessing overall and group-specific number-density differences. The diel period (day or night) and the site (littoral or limnetic zone) did not interact significantly to modulate the variation patterns for the studied physiochemical variables, indicating that these parameters should not explain horizontal zooplankton distribution patterns. The expected patterns for zooplankton diel horizontal migration as driven by the presence of visual predators were occasionally confirmed by our limnetic versus littoral abundance records through time, depending on the transect. Group-specific abundance patterns indicate particular features: copepods always preferred the littoral over the limnetic zone regardless of the diel period; chydorids always preferred the littoral zone regardless of the macrophyte stand involved; bosminids tended to preferentially concentrate in the limnetic zone. No consistent relationship was identified between the expected flow direction due to temperature differences and zooplankton abundance changes, although it occasionally occurred through the dataset.

Neural and cortisol responses to acute psychosocial stress in work-related burnout: The Regensburg Burnout Project

BackgroundWhile several attempts have been made to elucidate the pathophysiology of burnout, neural stress responses have not yet been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine salivary cortisol and - for the first time - neural responses to acute psychosocial stress within a strictly specified sample consisting of individuals suffering from burnout (BO group) and a healthy comparison group (HC group). MethodsAfter a multi-stage recruitment procedure based on burnout symptomatology and pathogenesis, 55 individuals suffering from burnout (25 women) and 61 individuals serving as HC group (31 women) out of an initial sample of 1022 volunteers were exposed to acute psychosocial stress during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) applying ScanSTRESS. ResultsNo differences were found between the BO and the HC group with respect to cortisol and mean neural stress responses. However, an exploratory comparison of neural stress responses of the first and second run of ScanSTRESS (exposure-time effect) revealed group-specific response patterns in one cluster peaking in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). While the neural activation of the HC group was higher in the first compared to the second run of ScanSTRESS (i.e., decreasing activation), this pattern was reversed in the BO group (i.e., increasing activation). ConclusionsOur analysis mainly did not provide evidence for altered acute cortisol and mean neural stress responses in burnout. However, the BO group was characterized by a limited capacity to show decreasing activation over stress exposure-time and exhibited instead increasing activation. Importantly, this group difference manifested in the left dACC which is both involved in neural stress processing and affected in individuals suffering from burnout. Given the present results, it seems promising to further examining temporal dynamics of neural stress responses in (sub-) clinical conditions such as burnout.

Group-level differences in social network structure remain repeatable after accounting for environmental drivers.

Individuals show consistent between-individual behavioural variation when they interact with conspecifics or heterospecifics. Such patterns might underlie emergent group-specific behavioural patterns and between-group behavioural differences. However, little is known about (i) how social and non-social drivers (external drivers) shape group-level social structures and (ii) whether animal groups show consistent between-group differences in social structure after accounting for external drivers. We used automated tracking to quantify daily social interactions and association networks in 12 colonies of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). We quantified the effects of five external drivers (group size, group composition, ecological factors, physical environments and methodological differences) on daily interaction and association networks and tested whether colonies expressed consistent differences in day-to-day network structure after controlling for these drivers. Overall, we found that external drivers contribute significantly to network structure. However, even after accounting for the contribution of external drivers, there remained significant support for consistent between-group differences in both interaction (repeatability R: up to 0.493) and association (repeatability R: up to 0.736) network structures. Our study demonstrates how group-level differences in social behaviour can be partitioned into different drivers of variation, with consistent contributions from both social and non-social factors.

Tau protein spreads through functionally connected neurons in Alzheimer's disease: a combined MEG/PET study.

Recent studies on Alzheimer's disease (AD) suggest that tau proteins spread through the brain following neuronal connections. Several mechanisms could be involved in this process: spreading between brain regions that interact strongly (functional connectivity); through the pattern of anatomical connections (structural connectivity); or simple diffusion. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated which spreading pathways influence tau protein spreading by modelling the tau propagation process using an epidemic spreading model. We compared the modelled tau depositions with 18F-flortaucipir PET binding potentials at several stages of the AD continuum. In this cross-sectional study, we analysed source-reconstructed MEG data and dynamic 100-min 18F-flortaucipir PET from 57 subjects positive for amyloid-β pathology [preclinical AD (n = 16), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (n = 16) and AD dementia (n = 25)]. Cognitively healthy subjects without amyloid-β pathology were included as controls (n = 25). Tau propagation was modelled as an epidemic process (susceptible-infected model) on MEG-based functional networks [in alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) bands], a structural or diffusion network, starting from the middle and inferior temporal lobe. The group-level network of the control group was used as input for the model to predict tau deposition in three stages of the AD continuum. To assess performance, model output was compared to the group-specific tau deposition patterns as measured with 18F-flortaucipir PET. We repeated the analysis by using networks of the preceding disease stage and/or using regions with most observed tau deposition during the preceding stage as seeds. In the preclinical AD stage, the functional networks predicted most of the modelled tau-PET binding potential, with best correlations between model and tau-PET [corrected amplitude envelope correlation (AEC-c) alpha C = 0.584; AEC-c beta C = 0.569], followed by the structural network (C = 0.451) and simple diffusion (C = 0.451). Prediction accuracy declined for the MCI and AD dementia stages, although the correlation between modelled tau and tau-PET binding remained highest for the functional networks (C = 0.384; C = 0.376). Replacing the control-network with the network from the preceding disease stage and/or alternative seeds improved prediction accuracy in MCI but not in the dementia stage. These results suggest that in addition to structural connections, functional connections play an important role in tau spread, and highlight that neuronal dynamics play a key role in promoting this pathological process. Aberrant neuronal communication patterns should be taken into account when identifying targets for future therapy. Our results also suggest that this process is more important in earlier disease stages (preclinical AD/MCI); possibly, in later stages, other processes may be influential.

Genetic and Physiological Diversity of Marine Actinobacteria from the Okha Coast, Gujarat, India

Saline and alkaline habitats of the Okha coastline, Gujarat, India, were explored for the diversity of actinobacteria. Based on the phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity, nine haloalkaliphilic actinobacterial strains were characterized and identified. The PCR amplification of 16S rDNA using universal and genus-specific primers corroborated the trends that emerged through cultural and physiological characterization. Streptomyces was the most abundant genus amplified with the Streptomyces-specific primers (StreptB/E, StreptB/F), whereas other actinobacterial strains were amplified by the universal primers U1 and U2. Further molecular diversity was investigated by the gradient PCR-DGGE as a fingerprinting tool that generated group-specific DGGE patterns. Based on the nucleotide homology and phylogenetic analysis, strains OK-1 and OK-2 were identified as Streptomyces somaliensis. At the same time, OK-3 and OK-7 were detected as Streptomyces sp., while OK-5, OK-6, OK-8, OK-9, and OK-10 belonged to Nocardiopsis alba. Further, the cluster analysis using the UPGMA method generated 3 clusters based on biochemical characterization, sugar utilization, and enzyme production. The dendrogram based on the DGGE band pattern created with Jaccard-distance revealed two major clades with 33.33% similarity. Further, the study of alpha diversity calculation using phenotypic characteristics discloses highly diverse sugar utilization abilities. Moreover, a stress value of 0.1236 was obtained based on the NMDS analysis of the plots using Bary-Curties dissimilarity. Overall, the distinct phenotypic, metabolic, and molecular profiling illustrated the diversity among marine actinobacteria.

Group-specific functional patterns of mitochondrion-related organelles shed light on their multiple transitions from mitochondria in ciliated protists.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42995-022-00147-w.

Profiles of Motor-Cognitive Interference in Parkinson's Disease-The Trail-Walking-Test to Discriminate between Motor Phenotypes.

Background and Aims. Most research on Parkinson’s disease (PD) focuses on describing symptoms and movement characteristics. Studies rarely focus on the early detection of PD and the search for suitable markers of a prodromal stage. Early detection is important, so treatments that may potentially change the course of the disease can be attempted early on. While gait disturbances are less pronounced in the early stages of the disease, the prevalence, and severity increase with disease progression. Therefore, postural instability and gait difficulties could be identified as sensitive biomarkers. The aim was to evaluate the discriminatory power of the Trail-Walking Test (TWT; Schott, 2015) as a potential diagnostic instrument to improve the predictive power of the clinical evaluation concerning the severity of the disease and record the different aspects of walking. Methods. A total of 20 older healthy (M = 72.4 years, SD = 5.53) adults and 43 older adults with PD and the motor phenotypes postural instability/gait difficulty (PIGD; M = 69.7 years, SD = 8.68) and tremor dominant (TD; M = 68.2 years, SD = 8.94) participated in the study. The participants performed a motor-cognitive dual task (DT) of increasing cognitive difficulty in which they had to walk a given path (condition 1), walk to numbers in ascending order (condition 2), and walk to numbers and letters alternately and in ascending order (condition 3). Results. With an increase in the cognitive load, the time to complete the tasks (seconds) became longer in all groups, F(1.23, 73.5) = 121, p < 0.001, ɳ2p = 0.670. PIGD showed the longest times in all conditions of the TWT, F(2, 60) = 8.15, p < 0.001, ɳ2p = 0.214. Mutual interferences in the cognitive and motor domain can be observed. However, clear group-specific patterns cannot be identified. A differentiation between the motor phenotypes of PD is especially feasible with the purely motor condition (TWT-M; AUC = 0.685, p = 0.44). Conclusions. PD patients with PIGD must be identified by valid, well-evaluated clinical tests that allow for a precise assessment of the disease’s individual fall risk, the severity of the disease, and the prognosis of progression. The TWT covers various aspects of mobility, examines the relationship between cognitive functions and walking, and enables differentiation of the motor phenotypes of PD.

Brain structural and perfusion changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia patients with cognitive and motor onset: a preliminary study

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD) is rare but exhibits worse prognosis than either ALS or FTD alone. However, cognitive onset ALS-FTD (ALS-FTD-C) confers significantly better patient survival than does motor onset ALS-FTD (ALS-FTD-M), underscoring a meager understanding of pathological group differences. This study aimed to assess disparities in cortical atrophy and perfusion shown by patients with the above disease variants. A total of 38 participants (ALS-FTD-C, 8; ALS-FTD-M, 6; simultaneous-onset ALS-FTD [ALS-FTD-S], 4; healthy controls [HC], 20) qualified for the study and underwent magnetic resonance imaging scan. Three-dimensional T1-weighted structural brain imaging and 3D-pseudocontinuous arterial spin-labeled imaging were routinely collected. Gray matter volume (GMV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) in ALS-FTD-C and ALS-FTD-M were compared through voxel-based analysis. Correlations between imaging parameters and clinical data were also assessed. Compared with HC, ALS-FTD had significant GMV reduction mainly in bilateral limbic system. GMV reduction in ALS-FTD-C was similar in pattern but less widespread, whereas ALS-FTD-M lacked any significant GMV reduction. In CBF analyses, ALS-FTD displayed hypoperfusion in bilateral motor cortex, frontotemporal lobe, and left basal ganglia. Hypoperfusion involved bilateral temporal lobe, prefrontal cortex, and putamen in ALS-FTD-C but was limited to left parahippocampal gyrus in ALS-FTD-M. Correlations between clinical data and GMV/CBF changes in specific regions were also identified in ALS-FTD. Group-specific patterns of cortical atrophy and perfusion were evident in ALS-FTD-C and ALS-FTD-M. ALS-FTD-C showed pronounced cortical atrophy and hypoperfusion, which were otherwise minimal in ALS-FTD-M. Above findings preliminarily revealed the pathological group differences that may help in classifying patients with ALS-FTD.

Mind the gap: functional network connectivity interpolation between schizophrenia patients and controls using a variational autoencoder.

Mental disorders such as schizophrenia have been challenging to characterize due in part to their heterogeneous presentation in individuals. Most studies have focused on identifying groups differences and have typically ignored the heterogeneous patterns within groups. Here we propose a novel approach based on a variational autoencoder (VAE) to interpolate static functional network connectivity (sFNC) across individuals, with group-specific patterns between schizophrenia patients and controls captured simultaneously. We then visualize the original sFNC in a 2D grid according to the samples in the VAE latent space. We observe a high correspondence between the generated and the original sFNC. The proposed framework facilitates data visualization and can potentially be applied to predict the stage that a subject falls within a disorder continuum as well as characterize individual heterogeneity within and between groups.

EPEN-09. Multi-omics characterization of the blood-brain barrier in molecular groups of ependymoma

Abstract BACKGROUND: A major challenge in the treatment of brain tumors is the limited penetration of many drugs through the blood-brain barrier (BBB). BBB characteristics include endothelial cells connected by tight junction proteins (e.g. Claudin5) and expression of efflux transporters (e.g.P-gp) with the physiological role to limit the accumulation of potentially toxic substances in brain tissue. While BBB permeability shows anatomical region-specific characteristics and changes with age, brain tumors can also impact its integrity. To achieve therapeutically relevant drug concentrations in the tumor, characterization of the pathophysiological BBB is fundamental when developing (pre)clinical trials. Our study seeks to increase our understanding of the BBB composition in various molecular groups of ependymoma. RESULTS: Transcriptional BBB characteristics were assessed for primary ependymoma (n=440), cell lines (n=3), mouse models (n=22), and healthy brain controls (n=200). T-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (tSNE)-based clustering analyses based on most relevant tight junction and efflux transporter gene sets revealed distinct molecular ependymoma group-specific expression patterns. While patient-derived xenografts models (PDX, n=20) showed high similarity with patient tumor samples, in utero electroporation-based (IUE, n=2) mouse models did not fully recapitulate these BBB characteristics. Supratentorial ependymoma with ZFTA fusions revealed a higher transcriptional expression level of important tight junctions (e.g.Claudin5) compared to other groups and normal brain which was confirmed at protein level in respective PDX models by using both western blot and ultra-high content imaging. CONCLUSION: Analyses of important BBB markers revealed significant differences between molecular groups of ependymoma, which may partly explain drug resistance of ependymoma with ZFTA fusion caused by a low BBB permeability. BBB characteristics of corresponding models suggest that IUE and PDX models representing ZFTA fusion-driven tumors cannot equally be used within preclinical drug trials. Findings will be further validated in preclinical studies while molecular BBB characterization will be expanded to other brain tumors.

Clue Cells and Pseudo Clue Cells in Different Morphotypes of Bacterial Vaginosis.

IntroductionClue cells (epithelial cells heavily covered with adherent bacteria) are an accepted clue to the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis. However, the exact morphologic criteria of clue cells and bacterial adherence were never elaborated.Materials and MethodsWe investigated adhesive and cohesive patterns of main microbiota groups in vaginal discharge using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Samples from 500 women diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis and positive for clue cells with classic microscopy were collected from 42 gynecologic practices in Berlin and reexamined in our FISH laboratory for the spatial distribution of Bifidobacteriaceae, Gardnerella, Fannyhessea vaginae (Atopobium); low G+C (guanine+cytosine) bacteria, lactobacilli, Lactobacillus iners; Lactobacillus crispatus, Gamma-Proteobacteria; and Enterobacteriaceae, Prevotella–Bacteroides, Veillonella, and Coriobacterium groups.ResultsBacterial taxa present in vaginal smears were not accidentally assembled according to their relative abundance but were built in group-specific distribution patterns, which can be well described by two features: cohesiveness to each other and adherence to epithelial cells. Accordingly, four patterns can be distinguished: dispersed (non-adherent bacteria), dispersed adherent bacteria, cohesive (non-adherent) bacteria, and cohesive adherent bacteria. Direct cohesive adherence to the epithelial cells representing true clue cells was unique for Gardnerella species and observed only in 56% of the investigated samples. In the remaining vaginal samples, the epithelial cells were mechanically entrapped in bacterial masses, and the composition was unrelated to the epithelial cell surface, building non-adherent pseudo clue cells. The proportion of women with true clue cells in their samples from different gynecologic practices varied from 19% to 80%.DiscussionTaxon indifferent imaging is inadequate for the exact analysis of the microbial layer adjacent to the vaginal epithelial cells. Morphologically seen bacterial vaginosis is a mix of at least two different conditions: biofilm vaginosis and bacterial excess vaginosis.

A country-specific model of COVID-19 vaccination coverage needed for herd immunity in adult only or population wide vaccination programme

We present a country specific method to calculate the COVID-19 vaccination coverage needed for herd immunity by considering age structure, age group-specific contact patterns, relative infectivity and susceptibility of children to adults, vaccination effectiveness and seroprevalence prior to vaccination. We find that across all six countries, vaccination of adults age 60 and above has little impact on Reff and this is could be due to the smaller number of contacts between this age group and the rest of the population according to the contact matrices used. If R0 is above 6, herd immunity by vaccine alone is unattainable for most countries either if vaccination is only available for adults or that vaccine effectiveness is lower at 65% against symptomatic infections. In this situation, additional control measures, booster shots, if they improve protection against infection, or the extension of vaccination to children, are required. For a highly transmissible variant with R0 up to 8, herd immunity is possible for all countries and for all four scenarios of varying relative infectivity and susceptibility of children compared to adults, if vaccine effectiveness is very high at 95% against symptomatic infections and that high vaccination coverage is achieved for both adults and children. In addition, we show that the effective reproduction number will vary between countries even if the same proportion of the population is vaccinated, depending on the demographics, the contact rates and the previous pre-vaccination seroprevalence in the country. This therefore means that care must be taken in extrapolating population level impacts of certain vaccine coverages from one country to another.

Identification of differentially expressed genes and pathways for risk stratification in HPV-associated cancers governing different anatomical sites.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the major cause of cervical cancer (CC) etiology; its contribution to head and neck cancer (HNC) incidence is steadily increasing. As individual patients' response to the treatment of HPV-associated cancer is variable, there is a pressing need for the identification of biomarkers for risk stratification that can help determine the intensity of treatment. We have previously reported a novel prognostic and predictive indicator (HPPI) scoring system in HPV-associated cancers regardless of anatomical location by analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus databases. In the present study, we comprehensively investigated the association of group-specific expression patterns of common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between high- and low-risk groups in HPV-associated CC and HNC, identifying molecular biomarkers and pathways for risk stratification. Among the 174 identified DEGs, the expression of genes associated with extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction pathway (ITGA5, ITGB1, LAMB1, and LAMC1) was increased in high-risk groups in both HPV-associated CC and HNC, while the expression of genes associated with T-cell immunity (CD3D, CD3E, CD8B, LCK, and ZAP70) was decreased and vice versa. The individual genes showed significant prognostic impact on HPV-associated cancers but not on HPV-negative cancers. The expression levels of identified genes were similar between HPV-negative and HPV-associated high-risk groups with distinct expression patterns only in HPV-associated low-risk groups. Each group of genes showed negative correlations and distinct patterns of immune cell infiltration in tumor microenvironments. These results allowed us to identify molecular biomarkers and pathways for risk stratification in HPV-associated cancers regardless of anatomical location. The identified targets were found to be selectively working in only HPV-associated cancers and not in HPV-negative cancers, indicating the possibility of selective targets governing HPV-infective tumor microenvironments.