Manually curated and harmonised transcriptomics datasets of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis patients

We present manually curated transcriptomics data of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis patients retrieved from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus and EBI ArrayExpress repositories. We collected 39 transcriptomics datasets, deriving from DNA microarrays and RNA-Sequencing technologies, for a total of 1677 samples. We provide quality-checked, homogenised and preprocessed gene expression matrices and their corresponding metadata tables along with the estimated surrogate variables. These data represent a ready-made valuable source of knowledge for translational researchers in the dermatology field.Peer reviewe

Emotion Recognition and Traffic-Related Risk-Taking Behavior in Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Objectives : Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), such as Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Huntington's disease, inevitably lead to impairments in higher-order cognitive functions, including the perception of emotional cues and decision-making behavior. Such impairments are likely to cause risky daily life behavior, for instance, in traffic. Impaired recognition of emotional expressions, such as fear, is considered a marker of impaired experience of emotions. Lower fear experience can, in turn, be related to risk-taking behavior. The aim of our study was to investigate whether impaired emotion recognition in patients with NDD is indeed related to unsafe decision-making in risky everyday life situations, which has not been investigated yet.  Methods: Fifty-one patients with an NDD were included. Emotion recognition was measured with the Facial Expressions of Emotions: Stimuli and Test (FEEST). Risk-taking behavior was measured with driving simulator scenarios and the Action Selection Test (AST). Data from matched healthy controls were used: FEEST (n = 182), AST (n = 36), and driving simulator (n = 18).   Results: Compared to healthy controls, patients showed significantly worse emotion recognition, particularly of anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. Furthermore, patients took significantly more risks in the driving simulator rides and the AST. Only poor recognition of fear was related to a higher amount of risky decisions in situations involving a direct danger.   Conclusions: To determine whether patients with an NDD are still fit to drive, it is crucial to assess their ability to make safe decisions. Measuring emotion recognition may be a valuable contribution to this judgment

Echocardiographic evaluation of right ventricular diastolic function in pulmonary hypertension

Background: Right ventricular (RV) diastolic dysfunction may be prognostic in pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, its assessment is complex and relies on conductance catheterisation. We aimed to evaluate echocardiography-based parameters as surrogates of RV diastolic function, provide validation against the gold standard, end-diastolic elastance (Eed), and define the prognostic impact of echocardiography-derived RV diastolic dysfunction. Methods: Patients with suspected PH who underwent right heart catheterisation including conductance catheterisation were prospectively recruited. In this study population, an echocardiography-based RV diastolic function surrogate was derived. Survival analyses were performed in patients with precapillary PH in the Giessen PH Registry, with external validation in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension at Sapienza University (Rome). Results: In the derivation cohort (n=61), the early/late diastolic tricuspid inflow velocity ratio (E/A) and early tricuspid inflow velocity/early diastolic tricuspid annular velocity ratio (E/e') did not correlate with Eed (p>0.05). Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed a large area under the curve (AUC) for the peak lateral tricuspid annulus systolic velocity/right atrial area index ratio (S'/RAAi) to detect elevated Eed (AUC 0.913, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.839-0.986) and elevated end-diastolic pressure (AUC 0.848, 95% CI 0.699-0.998) with an optimal threshold of 0.81 m2·s-1·cm-1. Subgroup analyses demonstrated a large AUC in patients with preserved RV systolic function (AUC 0.963, 95% CI 0.882-1.000). Survival analyses confirmed the prognostic relevance of S'/RAAi in the Giessen PH Registry (n=225) and the external validation cohort (n=106). Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the usefulness of echocardiography-derived S'/RAAi for noninvasive assessment of RV diastolic function and prognosis in PH

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Glassy dynamics of poly(2-vinyl-pyridine) brushes with varying grafting density

The molecular dynamics of poly(2-vinyl-pyridine) (P2VP) brushes is measured by Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) in a wide temperature (250 K to 440 K) and broad spectral (0.1 Hz to 1 MHz) range. This is realized using nanostructured, highly conductive silicon electrodes being separated by silica spacers as small as 35 nm. A “grafting-to”-method is applied to prepare the P2VP-brushes with five different grafting densities (0.030 nm−2 to 0.117 nm−2), covering the “true-brush” regime with highly stretched coils and the “mushroom-to-brush” transition regime. The film thickness ranges between 1.8 to 7.1 (±0.2) nm. Two relaxations are observed, an Arrhenius-like process being attributed to fluctuations in the poly(glycidyl-methacrylate) (PGMA) linker used for the grafting reaction and the segmental dynamics (dynamic glass transition) of the P2VP brushes. The latter is characterized by a Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann dependence similar to bulk P2VP. The results can be comprehended considering the length scale on which the dynamic glass transition (≤1 nm) takes place