The 2021 SIIM-FISABIO-RSNA Machine Learning COVID-19 Challenge: Annotation and Standard Exam Classification of COVID-19 Chest Radiographs.

We describe the curation, annotation methodology, and characteristics of the dataset used in an artificial intelligence challenge for detection and localization of COVID-19 on chest radiographs. The chest radiographs were annotated by an international group of radiologists into four mutually exclusive categories, including "typical," "indeterminate," and "atypical appearance" for COVID-19, or "negative for pneumonia," adapted from previously published guidelines, and bounding boxes were placed on airspace opacities. This dataset and respective annotations are available to researchers for academic and noncommercial use.

Maternal fructose intake aggravates the harmful effects of a Western diet in rat male descendants impacting their cholesterol metabolism.

Scope: fructose consumption from added sugars correlates with the epidemic rise in MetS and CVD. Maternal fructose intake has been described to program metabolic diseases in progeny. However, consumption of fructose-containing beverages is allowed during gestation. Cholesterol is also a well-known risk factor for CVD. Therefore, it is essential to study Western diets which combine fructose and cholesterol and how maternal fructose can influence the response of progeny to these diets. Methods and results: a high-cholesterol (2%) diet combined with liquid fructose (10%), as a model of an unhealthy Western diet, was administered to descendants from control and fructose-fed mothers. Gene (mRNA and protein) expression and plasma, fecal and tissue parameters of cholesterol metabolism were measured. Interestingly, progeny from fructose-fed dams consumed less liquid fructose and cholesterol-rich chow than males from control mothers. Moreover, descendants of fructose-fed mothers fed a Western diet showed an increased cholesterol elimination through bile and feces than males from control mothers. Despite these mitigating circumstances to develop a proatherogenic profile, the same degree of hypercholesterolemia and severity of steatosis were observed in all descendants fed a Western diet, independently of maternal intake. An increased intestinal absorption of cholesterol, synthesis, esterification, and assembly into lipoprotein found in males from fructose-fed dams consuming a Western diet could be the cause. Moreover, an augmented GLP2 signalling seen in these animals would explain this enhanced lipid absorption. Conclusions: maternal fructose intake, through a fetal programming, makes a Western diet considerably more harmful in their descendants than in the offspring from control mothers.

Comparing adaptation in emotional and non-emotional conflict in patients with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder.

Research on conflict adaptation suggests that complex networks are involved in the detection and resolution of conflicts. These networks are believed to be different depending on whether the conflict occurs in emotional or non-emotional contexts. In addition, the adaptation to both types of conflict also seems to have different neural bases. The main aim of the present study was to compare conflict adaptation in two clinical groups - patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) - and a healthy control group during emotional and non-emotional versions of a facial Stroop task. We considered that the neural impairment and neuropsychological profile of these populations would be interesting to examine the above-mentioned mechanisms. Results showed that the performance was worse with incongruent compared to congruent stimuli in both task contexts. The Stroop effect was more marked in both clinical groups and greater in the SZ group. By contrast, the Gratton effect was clearly present in the SZ group, but was inverted in the BPD group mainly in the emotional task. Specifically, participants with BDP had a higher error rate in the current incongruent trial when the previous trial was incongruent in the emotional task. These results suggest that SZ and BDP groups have different patterns of conflict adaptation. Results are discussed according to the clinical characteristics and neural systems affected in each of these psychopathological disorders.

Relationship between lipoprotein lipase and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha expression in rat liver during development.

The present study was addressed to determine whether the high expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPAR-alpha) in rat liver during the perinatal stage plays a role in the induction of liver lipoprotein lipase (LPL) expression and activity. Parallel increases in liver mRNA PPAR-alpha and LPL activity were found in newborn rats, and after a slight decline, values remained elevated until weaning. Anticipated weaning for 3 days caused a decline in those two variables as well as in the mRNA LPL level, and a similar change was also found in liver triacylglycerol concentration. Force-feeding with Intralipid in 10-day-old rats or animals kept fasted for 5 h showed high mRNA-PPARalpha and -LPL levels as well as LPL activity with low plasma insulin and high FFA levels, whereas glucose and a combination of glucose and Intralipid produced low mRNA-PPARalpha and -LPL levels as well as LPL activity. Under these latter conditions, plasma insulin and FFA levels were high in those rats receiving the combination of glucose and Intralipid, whereas plasma FFA levels were low in those force-fed with glucose. It is proposed that the hormonal and nutritional induction of liver PPAR-alpha expression around birth and its maintained elevated level throughout suckling is responsible for the induction of liver LPL-expression and activity during suckling.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha expression in rat liver during postnatal development.

The expression of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARalpha) as well as of some related genes was studied in rat liver at different stages of development (from 19-day-old fetuses to 1 month-old rats). The level of PPARalpha mRNA appeared higher in neonates than in fetuses or 1 month-old rats. Whereas the pattern for phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) mRNA level was similar to that of PPARalpha, the mRNA level of both acyl-CoA oxidase (ACO) and apolipoprotein CIII (apo CIII) showed diverse profiles. Western blotting analysis also revealed an increased level of PPARalpha protein in liver of suckling rats. Similarities of mRNA PEPCK and PPARalpha expression indicate a common control mechanism, where both nutritional and hormonal factors may be involved.

Factors modulating fibrates response: therapeutic implications and alternative strategies.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) regulates transcription of genes involved both in lipid and glucose metabolism as well as in inflammation. Fibrates are PPARalpha ligands used to normalize lipid and glucose parameters and exert antiinflammatory effects. In fact, fibrates have already been demonstrated to benefit metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This article reviews the mechanism of action and the functional roles of fibrates, emphasizing the factors modulating their capacity to activate PPARalpha and affecting their effectiveness. These factors may possibly explain the findings obtained in animal studies and clinical trials with fibrates which showed either untoward effects and/or inefficient hypolipidemic action of PPARalpha activation. We also discuss briefly the natural and synthetic agonists of PPARalphawhich are currently being developed and supposedly display greater effectiveness and fewer adverse effects than fibrates.

Complement genetic markers in schizophrenia: C3, BF and C6 polymorphisms.

Polymorphic variants of C3, BF and C6 complement factors have been investigated in schizophrenic patients subdivided according to the existence or not of a family history of both schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. To analyze the contingency tables, besides the usual methods, log-linear models have been fitted. Significant associations have been found in the C3 system, with a decrease of C3*F in patients (contradicting previous findings), and in the BF system, with a decrease of FS phenotype among patients (confirming some previous results). No association has been found for the C6 polymorphism (in accordance to previous results). Therefore, the present findings only partially confirm previous results and do not clarify the relationship between complement genetic markers and schizophrenia, stressing some statistical difficulties.

Nutritionally induced changes in the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha gene expression in liver of suckling rats are dependent on insulinaemia.

It was previously found that the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARalpha) was markedly augmented in the liver of suckling rats, in comparison to the fetuses and most notably to adult rats and it paralleled similar changes in hepatic lipid concentration. To determine whether these changes could be related to the high lipid content of the maternal milk and/or to hormonal status, the role of changes in nutrient availability and in plasma insulin concentration on liver expression during the perinatal stage in vivo in the rat was studied. When suckling rats were weaned on day 17, instead of on day 20, the level of hepatic PPARalpha mRNA decreased earlier than in rats weaned later. When 10-day-old rats were force-fed with either glucose or Intralipid or a combination of both diets, it was found that, at similar low levels of plasma insulin, a high level of FFA stimulated PPARalpha expression, whereas, at similar high plasma FFA concentrations, an elevated insulin level attenuated the increase in PPARalpha expression. It is proposed that both the high lipid intake and decreased plasma insulin level are responsible for the high PPARalpha expression detected in rat neonates.

Mediastinal mass following chemotherapy in patients with Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma.

Thymic hyperplasia following combination chemotherapy for malignant disease is very uncommon in adolescents and adults. Our experience includes a thymic enlargement noted on the sequential computed tomography (CT) in three patients who were disease-free after chemotherapy for Ewing sarcoma (2) and osteosarcoma (1). The development of an anterior mediastinal mass after successful chemotherapy does not always imply relapse of malignant disease. To prevent inappropriate treatment, the possibility of benign aetiology must be considered.