Aflatoxins as a risk factor for liver cirrhosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Liver cirrhosis is characterized by fibrosis and nodule formation in the liver, due to a chronic injury, and subsequent alteration of the normal architecture of the liver. Even though there is a huge effort to elucidate the possible etiologic factors of liver cirrhosis, a significant number of cases are cryptogenic, especially in Sub Saharan Africa, where there is a high burden of aflatoxin exposure. Aflatoxins are known to cause hepatocellular carcinoma, which share similar etiologic factors with liver cirrhosis. This study aimed to assess the association between aflatoxin exposure and the risk of liver cirrhosis. Methods: Relevant studies were identified through systematic searches conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed and Google Scholar. Also, by searching the references of retrieved articles. The abstracts and full text were screened for eligibility and the risk of bias was assessed for each study using Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist for observational studies. The extracted data from included studies using Microsoft Excel were exported to Stata software version 15.0 for analyses. The overall pooled estimation of outcomes was calculated using a randomeffects model of DerSimonian–Laird method at a 95% confidence level. The heterogeneity of studies was determined using I2 statistics. The presence of publication bias between studies was evaluated using the Begg’s and Egger’s tests and funnel plot. The protocol of this systematic review and meta-analysis was registered in the Prospero database with reference number ID: CRD42019148481. Results: A total of 5 studies published between the years 2005 and 2018 that met the pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria were included. The meta-analysis showed that a significant increase in the risk of liver cirrhosis is associated with aflatoxin exposure (unadjusted pooled odds ratio (OR) = 3.35, 95% CI: 2.74–4.10, p = 0.000; I2 = 88.3%, p = 0.000; adjusted OR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.84–3.39, p = 0.000; I2 = 0%, p = 0.429). Conclusions: The present meta-analysis suggests that aflatoxin exposure is associated with a higher risk of liver cirrhosis

Deep Eyes: Binocular Depth-from-Focus on Focal Stack Pairs

Human visual system relies on both binocular stereo cues and monocular focusness cues to gain effective 3D perception. In computer vision, the two problems are traditionally solved in separate tracks. In this paper, we present a unified learning-based technique that simultaneously uses both types of cues for depth inference. Specifically, we use a pair of focal stacks as input to emulate human perception. We first construct a comprehensive focal stack training dataset synthesized by depth-guided light field rendering. We then construct three individual networks: a Focus-Net to extract depth from a single focal stack, a EDoF-Net to obtain the extended depth of field (EDoF) image from the focal stack, and a Stereo-Net to conduct stereo matching. We show how to integrate them into a unified BDfF-Net to obtain high-quality depth maps. Comprehensive experiments show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art in both accuracy and speed and effectively emulates human vision systems

An ISS Small-Gain Theorem for General Networks

We provide a generalized version of the nonlinear small-gain theorem for the case of more than two coupled input-to-state stable (ISS) systems. For this result the interconnection gains are described in a nonlinear gain matrix and the small-gain condition requires bounds on the image of this gain matrix. The condition may be interpreted as a nonlinear generalization of the requirement that the spectral radius of the gain matrix is less than one. We give some interpretations of the condition in special cases covering two subsystems, linear gains, linear systems and an associated artificial dynamical system.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Mathematics of Control, Signals, and Systems (MCSS

Optical Magnetometry

Some of the most sensitive methods of measuring magnetic fields utilize interactions of resonant light with atomic vapor. Recent developments in this vibrant field are improving magnetometers in many traditional areas such as measurement of geomagnetic anomalies and magnetic fields in space, and are opening the door to new ones, including, dynamical measurements of bio-magnetic fields, detection of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI), inertial-rotation sensing, magnetic microscopy with cold atoms, and tests of fundamental symmetries of Nature.Comment: 11 pages; 4 figures; submitted to Nature Physic

Illusionary Self-Motion Perception in Zebrafish

Zebrafish mutant belladonna (bel) carries a mutation in the lhx2 gene (encoding a Lim domain homeobox transcription factor) that results in a defect in retinotectal axon pathfinding, which can lead to uncrossed optic nerves failing to form an optic chiasm. Here, we report on a novel swimming behavior of the bel mutants, best described as looping. Together with two previously reported oculomotor instabilities that have been related to achiasmatic bel mutants, reversed optokinetic response (OKR) and congenital nystagmus (CN, involuntary conjugate oscillations of both eyes), looping opens a door to study the influence of visual input and eye movements on postural balance. Our result shows that looping correlates perfectly with reversed OKR and CN and is vision-dependent and contrast sensitive. CN precedes looping and the direction of the CN slow phase is predictive of the looping direction, but is absent during looping. Therefore, looping may be triggered by CN in bel. Moreover, looping in wild-type fish can also be evoked by whole-field motion, suggesting that looping in a bel mutant larvae is a result of self-motion perception. In contrary to previous hypotheses, our findings indicate that postural control in vertebrates relies on both direct visual input (afference signal) and eye-movement-related signals (efference copy or reafference signal)

Matched sizes of activating and inhibitory receptor/ligand pairs are required for optimal signal integration by human Natural Killer cells

It has been suggested that receptor-ligand complexes segregate or co-localise within immune synapses according to their size, and this is important for receptor signaling. Here, we set out to test the importance of receptor-ligand complex dimensions for immune surveillance of target cells by human Natural Killer (NK) cells. NK cell activation is regulated by integrating signals from activating receptors, such as NKG2D, and inhibitory receptors, such as KIR2DL1. Elongating the NKG2D ligand MICA reduced its ability to trigger NK cell activation. Conversely, elongation of KIR2DL1 ligand HLA-C reduced its ability to inhibit NK cells. Whereas normal-sized HLA-C was most effective at inhibiting activation by normal-length MICA, only elongated HLA-C could inhibit activation by elongated MICA. Moreover, HLA-C and MICA that were matched in size co-localised, whereas HLA-C and MICA that were different in size were segregated. These results demonstrate that receptor-ligand dimensions are important in NK cell recognition, and suggest that optimal integration of activating and inhibitory receptor signals requires the receptor-ligand complexes to have similar dimensions

Structure of hadron resonances with a nearby zero of the amplitude

We discuss the relation between the analytic structure of the scattering amplitude and the origin of an eigenstate represented by a pole of the amplitude.If the eigenstate is not dynamically generated by the interaction in the channel of interest, the residue of the pole vanishes in the zero coupling limit. Based on the topological nature of the phase of the scattering amplitude, we show that the pole must encounter with the Castillejo-Dalitz-Dyson (CDD) zero in this limit. It is concluded that the dynamical component of the eigenstate is small if a CDD zero exists near the eigenstate pole. We show that the line shape of the resonance is distorted from the Breit-Wigner form as an observable consequence of the nearby CDD zero. Finally, studying the positions of poles and CDD zeros of the KbarN-piSigma amplitude, we discuss the origin of the eigenstates in the Lambda(1405) region.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, v2: published versio

Improved Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Mixing from Disappearance Searches in the MINOS, MINOS+, Daya Bay, and Bugey-3 Experiments.

Searches for electron antineutrino, muon neutrino, and muon antineutrino disappearance driven by sterile neutrino mixing have been carried out by the Daya Bay and MINOS+ collaborations. This Letter presents the combined results of these searches, along with exclusion results from the Bugey-3 reactor experiment, framed in a minimally extended four-neutrino scenario. Significantly improved constraints on the θ_{μe} mixing angle are derived that constitute the most constraining limits to date over five orders of magnitude in the mass-squared splitting Δm_{41}^{2}, excluding the 90% C.L. sterile-neutrino parameter space allowed by the LSND and MiniBooNE observations at 90% CL_{s} for Δm_{41}^{2}<13  eV^{2}. Furthermore, the LSND and MiniBooNE 99% C.L. allowed regions are excluded at 99% CL_{s} for Δm_{41}^{2}<1.6 eV^{2}