Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
My Sadness – Our Happiness: Writing About Positive, Negative, and Neutral Autobiographical Life Events Reveals Linguistic Markers of Self-Positivity and Individual Well-Being

Objective: Narratives of autobiographical events contain rich information about an individual’s private experience, his/her deepest thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The present study investigates linguistic markers of emotion expression and subjective well-being in adults during one session of positive, negative, and neutral expressive writing. Participants (N = 28 healthy participants, N = 7 adults with depressive symptoms), all native speakers of German were instructed to write expressively about personally relevant autobiographical life events of negative, positive, and neutral content. Methods: Quantitative text analysis was performed to determine the amount of emotional words, first person pronouns (singular vs. plural), and cognitive function words used in positive, negative, and neutral narratives and to examine the potency of these classes of words as linguistic markers of positivity/negativity, self-reference, and cognitive reappraisal. Additionally, the relationship between expressive writing and subjective well-being was explored by assessing changes in self-reported psychosomatic symptoms and in bodily and emotional awareness immediately after positive, negative, and neutral writing. Results: Regarding healthy participants, negative narratives contained significantly more negative emotional words than positive or neutral narratives. However, negative narratives also contained more positive emotional words compared to negative emotional words in positive narratives. Moreover, negative narratives contained more cognitive function words than positive narratives, suggesting that healthy participants tried to reappraise negative experiences while writing about negative personal life events. Positive narratives were characterized by an increased use of positive words and of pronouns of the first person plural (“we”), supporting a positivity bias and an extension of self-reference from first person singular to plural (we-reference) during positive expressive writing. Similarly, writing about neutral events was characterized by a positivity bias. Although based on descriptive analysis only, preferential use of positive words and cognitive function words in negative narratives was absent in participants reporting depressive symptoms. Positive, negative, and neutral expressive writing was accompanied by differential changes in bodily sensations, emotional awareness, and self-reported psychosomatic symptoms in all participants. Discussion: The findings are discussed with respect to previous research, a self-positivity bias, and a universal positivity bias in language use highlighting the relevance of these biases as markers of subjective well-being.
Computational Study of Protein-Ligand Unbinding for Enzyme Engineering

The computational prediction of unbinding rate constants is presently an emerging topic in drug design. However, the importance of predicting kinetic rates is not restricted to pharmaceutical applications. Many biotechnologically relevant enzymes have their efficiency limited by the binding of the substrates or the release of products. While aiming at improving the ability of our model enzyme haloalkane dehalogenase DhaA to degrade the persistent anthropogenic pollutant 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP), the DhaA31 mutant was discovered. This variant had a 32-fold improvement of the catalytic rate toward TCP, but the catalysis became rate-limited by the release of the 2,3-dichloropropan-1-ol (DCP) product from its buried active site. Here we present a computational study to estimate the unbinding rates of the products from DhaA and DhaA31. The metadynamics and adaptive sampling methods were used to predict the relative order of kinetic rates in the different systems, while the absolute values depended significantly on the conditions used (method, force field, and water model). Free energy calculations provided the energetic landscape of the unbinding process. A detailed analysis of the structural and energetic bottlenecks allowed the identification of the residues playing a key role during the release of DCP from DhaA31 via the main access tunnel. Some of these hot-spots could also be identified by the fast CaverDock tool for predicting the transport of ligands through tunnels. Targeting those hot-spots by mutagenesis should improve the unbinding rates of the DCP product and the overall catalytic efficiency with TCP.
A High-Resolution MRI Study of the Relationship Between Plaque Enhancement and Ischemic Stroke Events in Patients With Intracranial Atherosclerotic Stenosis

Purpose: To investigate the relationships among the degree of intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS), plaque enhancement (PE), and ischemic stroke events (ISEs) using 3. 0 T high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI). Materials and Methods: Fifty-two ICAS patients who underwent HR-MRI were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into two groups according to the results of whole-brain digital subtraction angiography (DSA): the mild-moderate stenosis group (group MID) and the severe stenosis group (group SEV). According to the onset time of the ISEs, the plaques were divided into the acute/sub-acute phase culprit plaque group (group ACU, within 1 month), the chronic-phase culprit plaque group (group CHR, more than 1 month), and the non-culprit plaque group (group NON). Two neuroradiologists independently measured the signal intensity of PE and pituitary enhancement in the HR-MRI and calculated the ratio of the two indices. According to the ratio, the patients were divided into three groups: the marked enhancement group (group MA), the mild enhancement group (group ME), and the no enhancement plaque group (group NO). The relationships among the degree of ICAS, the degree of PE and ISEs were analyzed. Results: Seventy-two ICAS plaques were identified in 52 patients. The multiple independent samples Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that the differences among group ACU, CHR, and NON were significant in the degree of PE (P = 0.002). Group CHR and group NON were combined as the non-acute phase group (group non-ACU). Group NO and group ME were combined as the non-marked enhancement group (group non-MA). The comparison between group ACU and group non-ACU showed significant differences in the degree of both ICAS (P = 0.014) and PE (P = 0.006) according to the univariate logistic regression. The multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the impact of the degree of ICAS and PE on ISEs, and the results showed that severe stenosis (P = 0.036) and marked PE (P = 0.013) were independent risk factors for acute ISEs, respectively. Conclusion: Severe intracranial arterial stenosis and marked plaque enhancement are independent risk factors for acute ischemic stroke events, respectively. The study provides new ideas for further exploring the pathogenesis of stroke caused by intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis.
Non-invasive Biomarkers of Acute Rejection in Kidney Transplantation: Novel Targets and Strategies

Kidney transplantation is considered the favored treatment for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease, since successful transplantation is associated with longer survival and improved quality of life compared to dialysis. Alloreactive immune responses against the donor kidney may lead to acute rejection of the transplant. The current diagnosis of renal allograft rejection mainly relies on clinical monitoring, including serum creatinine, proteinuria, and confirmation by histopathologic assessment in the kidney transplant biopsy. These parameters have their limitations. Identification and validation of biomarkers, which correlate with or predict the presence of acute rejection, and which could improve therapeutic decision making, are priorities for the transplantation community. There is a need for alternative, less invasive but sensitive markers to diagnose acute graft rejection. Here, we provide an overview of the current status on research of biomarkers of acute kidney transplant rejection in blood and urine. We specifically discuss relatively novel research strategies in biomarker research, including transcriptomics and proteomics, and elaborate on donor-derived cell-free DNA as a potential biomarker.
Chitosan Membrane Modified With a New Zinc(II)-Vanillin Complex Improves Skin Wound Healing in Diabetic Rats

The treatment of chronic wounds is considered a public health problem. When the condition affects at-risk groups such as those with diabetics, it becomes a great clinical challenge. In this work, we evaluated the healing effects of a new zinc complex, [Zn(phen)(van)2], identified as ZPV, which was synthesized, characterized and associated with chitosan (CS) membranes and tested on cutaneous wounds of diabetic rats. Chitosan membranes were modified by Schiff base reaction with the complex under two experimental conditions (14 and 21 days), resulting in membranes with concentrations of complex equal to 0.736 μmol cm-2 (CS-ZPV1) and 1.22 μmol cm-2 (CS-ZPV2). Release assays in aqueous medium indicated that the membranes release the complex gradually when exposed to an aqueous medium. Diabetes was inducted in Wistar rats using 40 mg/kg (i.v.) streptozotocin. On the 7th day after diabetic induction, a circular excision on the skin (1.0 cm) was performed with a punch. The lesions were treated with the pure chitosan membrane and the membrane associated with the zinc-vanillin complex in two different doses. Skin samples were subjected to macroscopic and histopathological analyses, cytokine (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-10) quantification and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (TGF-β and VEGF) assays. The analyses showed a decrease in wound size, reepithelialization, angiogenic stimulus, collagen deposition, and reduced levels of TNF-α and IL-1β as well as increased IL-10 and gene expression of TGF-β and VEGF. The evaluated parameters suggest that CS-ZPV in the two concentrations tested may be effective in the treatment of chronic wounds.
Target of Rapamycin (TOR) Regulates the Expression of lncRNAs in Response to Abiotic Stresses in Cotton

TOR (Target of Rapamycin) kinase is an evolutionarily conserved protein kinase, which integrates stress-related cues with growth and metabolic outputs. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a vital role in the regulation of eukaryotic genes. However, little is known about TOR's function in regulating the expression of lncRNAs in plants. In this study, four putative homologous genes encoding the TOR protein were identified by utilizing the recently completed cotton genome. Pharmacological experiments with TOR inhibitor AZD8055 and on silencing GhTOR genes resulted in obvious cotton growth retardation, indicating the conserved role of TOR in plant growth. The expression pattern analyses in different tissues reveal that TOR may play a role in root development, and the transcript levels of TOR genes were changed under different stress conditions. Importantly, we found TOR may be a key player in regulating the expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). A total of 10,315 lncRNAs were discovered in cotton seedlings, 90.7% of which were long intergenic ncRNAs. Moreover, we identified the differentially expressed lncRNAs, of which 296 were significantly upregulated and 105 were downregulated in TOR inactivated plants. GO and KEGG analyses of differentially expressed lncRNA neighboring genes reveal that these differentially expressed lncRNA-targeted genes are involved in many life processes, including stress response, glutathione, and ribosomes in cotton. A series of differentially expressed lncRNAs potentially involved in plant stress response was identified under TOR inhibition. Collectively, these results suggest that cotton TOR proteins may directly modulate the expression of putative stress-related lncRNAs and eventually play a potential role in the cotton stress response.
The Addition of ViriditecTM Aqueous Ozone to Peracetic Acid as an Antimicrobial Spray Increases Air Quality While Maintaining Salmonella Typhimurium, Non-pathogenic Escherichia coli, and Campylobacter jejuni Reduction on Whole Carcasses

Currently, the most utilized antimicrobial in processing facilities is peracetic acid, PAA; however, this chemical is increasingly recognized as a hazard to human health. Preliminary evidence suggests that ozone, when introduced in a specific manner, can reduce the noxious nature of PAA. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of TetraClean Systems aqueous ozone, O3, in combination with PAA as an antimicrobial spray on whole chicken carcasses. This trial used 70 whole hen carcasses (7 treatments; 10 replications) that were inoculated in a 400 mL cocktail containing Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and Campylobacter (107 CFU/mL) and allowed to adhere for 60 min at 4°C for a final concentration of 105 to 106 CFU/g. The experimental 5 s (4×) spray treatments included: a no treatment negative control, TW; TW + O3 (10 ppm), TW + PAA (50 ppm), TW + PAA (500 ppm), TW + O3 + PAA (50 ppm), and TW + O3 + PAA (500 ppm). During treatment application, ambient PAA vapor was measured with a ChemDAQ Safecide PAA vapor sensor. After treatment, carcasses were immediately rinsed in 400 mL of nBPW for 2 min. Following rinsing, the dot method was utilizing for enumeration with 10 μL of rinsate being serially diluted, plated on XLD and mCCDA agar, and incubated aerobically at 37°C for 24 h or microaerophilically at 42°C for 48 h. Log-transformed counts were analyzed using ANOVA in JMP 14.0. Means were separated using Tukey’s HSD when P ≤ 0.05. There was a significant treatment effect among Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter counts, and a significant treatment effect among ambient PAA (P < 0.05). TW + O3 + PAA (500 ppm), reduced Salmonella significantly compared to TW (5.71 and 6.30 log CFU/g). Furthermore, TW + PAA (500 ppm), reduced the presence of E. coli significantly compared to TW or no treated control (5.57 and 6.18 log CFU/g). Also, TW + PAA (50 ppm), TW + PAA (500 ppm), and TW + O3 + PAA (500 ppm) significantly reduced Campylobacter compared to carcasses not treated (4.80, 4.81, and 4.86 log CFU/g). Lastly, the addition of ozone significantly reduced the ambient PAA when O3 was added to 500 ppm of PAA, as TW + O3 + PAA (500 ppm) produced less ambient PAA than TW + PAA (500 ppm) (0.052 and 0.565 ppm). In conclusion, the addition of ozone to PAA may demonstrated the ability to effectively reduce ambient PAA, thus increasing employee safety.
Effect of Sodium-Glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitors on Bone Metabolism and Fracture Risk

The effect of anti-diabetic medications on bone metabolism has received increasing attention, considering that type 2 diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder with adverse effects on bone metabolism. Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are novel anti-diabetic medications that prevent glucose resorption at the proximal convoluted tubules in the kidney, increasing urinary glucose excretion, and decreasing the blood glucose level. The superiority of SGLT2 inhibitors shows in reducing the glucose level independent of insulin secretion, lowering the risk of hypoglycemia, and improving cardiovascular outcomes. SGLT2 inhibitors have been associated with genital mycotic infections, increased risk of acute kidney injury, dehydration, orthostatic hypotension, and ketoacidosis. Moreover, the effect of SGLT2 inhibitors on bone metabolism and fracture risk has been widely taken into consideration. Our review summarizes the results of current studies investigating the effects of SGLT2 inhibitors on bone metabolism (possibly including increased bone turnover, disrupted bone microarchitecture, and reduced bone mineral density). Several mechanisms are probably involved, such as bone mineral losses due to the disturbed calcium and phosphate homeostasis, as confirmed by an increase in fibroblast growth factor 23 and parathyroid hormone levels and a decrease in 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels. SGLT2 inhibitors might indirectly increase bone turnover by weight loss. Lowering the blood glucose level might ameliorate bone metabolism impairment in diabetes. The effect of SGLT2 inhibitors on bone fractures remains unclear. Evidence indicating the direct effect of SGLT2 inhibitors on fracture risk is lacking and increased falls probably contribute to fractures.
Trabecular Architecture Determines Impulse Propagation Through the Early Embryonic Mouse Heart

Most embryonic ventricular cardiomyocytes are quite uniform, in contrast to the adult heart, where the specialized ventricular conduction system is molecularly and functionally distinct from the working myocardium. We thus hypothesized that the preferential conduction pathway within the embryonic ventricle could be dictated by trabecular geometry. Mouse embryonic hearts of the Nkx2.5:eGFP strain between ED9.5 and ED14.5 were cleared and imaged whole mount by confocal microscopy, and reconstructed in 3D at 3.4 μm isotropic voxel size. The local orientation of the trabeculae, responsible for the anisotropic spreading of the signal, was characterized using spatially homogenized tensors (3 × 3 matrices) calculated from the trabecular skeleton. Activation maps were simulated assuming constant speed of spreading along the trabeculae. The results were compared with experimentally obtained epicardial activation maps generated by optical mapping with a voltage-sensitive dye. Simulated impulse propagation starting from the top of interventricular septum revealed the first epicardial breakthrough at the interventricular grove, similar to experimentally obtained activation maps. Likewise, ectopic activation from the left ventricular base perpendicular to dominant trabecular orientation resulted in isotropic and slower impulse spreading on the ventricular surface in both simulated and experimental conditions. We conclude that in the embryonic pre-septation heart, the geometry of the A-V connections and trabecular network is sufficient to explain impulse propagation and ventricular activation patterns.
Interleukin-6 Interweaves the Bone Marrow Microenvironment, Bone Loss, and Multiple Myeloma

The immune system is strongly linked to the maintenance of healthy bone. Inflammatory cytokines, specifically, are crucial to skeletal homeostasis and any dysregulation can result in detrimental health complications. Interleukins, such as interleukin 6 (IL-6), act as osteoclast differentiation modulators and as such, must be carefully monitored and regulated. IL-6 encourages osteoclastogenesis when bound to progenitors and can cause excessive osteoclastic activity and osteolysis when overly abundant. Numerous bone diseases are tied to IL-6 overexpression, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, and bone-metastatic cancers. In the latter, IL-6 can be released with growth factors into the bone marrow microenvironment (BMM) during osteolysis from bone matrix or from cancer cells and osteoblasts in an inflammatory response to cancer cells. Thus, IL-6 helps create an ideal microenvironment for oncogenesis and metastasis. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a blood cancer that homes to the BMM and is strongly tied to overexpression of IL-6 and bone loss. The roles of IL-6 in the progression of MM are discussed in this review, including roles in bone homing, cancer-associated bone loss, disease progression and drug resistance. MM disease progression often includes the development of drug-resistant clones, and patients commonly struggle with reoccurrence. As such, therapeutics that specifically target the microenvironment, rather than the cancer itself, are ideal and IL-6, and its myriad of downstream signaling partners, are model targets. Lastly, current and potential therapeutic interventions involving IL-6 and connected signaling molecules are discussed in this review.
Some Prospective Alternatives for Treating Pain: The Endocannabinoid System and Its Putative Receptors GPR18 and GPR55

Background: Marijuana extracts (cannabinoids) have been used for several millennia for pain treatment. Regarding the site of action, cannabinoids are highly promiscuous molecules, but only two cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) have been deeply studied and classified. Thus, therapeutic actions, side effects and pharmacological targets for cannabinoids have been explained based on the pharmacology of cannabinoid CB1/CB2 receptors. However, the accumulation of confusing and sometimes contradictory results suggests the existence of other cannabinoid receptors. Different orphan proteins (e.g., GPR18, GPR55, GPR119, etc.) have been proposed as putative cannabinoid receptors. According to their expression, GPR18 and GPR55 could be involved in sensory transmission and pain integration. Methods: This article reviews select relevant information about the potential role of GPR18 and GPR55 in the pathophysiology of pain. Results: This work summarized novel data supporting that, besides cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptors, GPR18 and GPR55 may be useful for pain treatment. Conclusion: There is evidence to support an antinociceptive role for GPR18 and GPR55.
The Influence of Light Intensity and Leaf Movement on Photosynthesis Characteristics and Carbon Balance of Soybean

In intercropping systems shading conditions significantly impair the seed yield and quality of soybean, and rarely someone investigated the minimum amount of light requirement for soybean growth and development. Therefore, it is an urgent need to determine the threshold light intensity to ensure sustainable soybean production under these systems. An integrated approach combining morphology, physiology, biochemistry and genetic analysis was undertaken to study the light intensity effects on soybean growth and development. A pot experiment was set up in a growth chamber under increasing light intensity treatments of 100 (L100), 200 (L200), 300 (L300), 400 (L400), and 500 (L500) μmol m−2 s−1. Compared with L100, plant height, hypocotyl length, and abaxial leaf petiole angle were decreased, biomass, root:shoot ratio, and stem diameter were increased, extremum was almost observed in L400 and L500. Leaf petiole movement and leaf hyponasty in each treatment has presented a tendency to decrease the leaf angle from L500 to L100. In addition, the cytochrome content (Chl a, Chl b, Car), net photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll fluorescence values of Fv/Fm, Fv′/Fm′, ETR, ΦPSII, and qP were increased as the light intensity increased, and higher values were noted under L400. Leaf microstructure and chloroplast ultrastructure positively improved with increasing light intensity, and leaf-thickness, palisade, and spongy tissues-thickness were increased by 105, 90, and 370%, under L500 than L100. Moreover, the cross-sectional area of chloroplast (C) outer membrane and starch grains (S), and sectional area ratio (S:C) was highest under L400 and L500, respectively. Compared to L100, the content of starch granules increased by 35.5, 122.0, 157.6, and 145.5%, respectively in L400. The same trends were observed in the enzyme activity of sucrose-synthase, sucrose phosphate synthase, starch synthase, rubisco, phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase, and phosphoenol pyruvate phosphatase. Furthermore, sucrose synthesis-related genes were also up-regulated by increasing light intensity, and the highest seed yield and yield related parameters were recorded in the L400. Overall, these results suggested that 400 and 500 μmol m−2 s−1 is the optimum light intensity which positively changed the leaf orientation and adjusts leaf angle to perpendicular to coming light, consequently, soybean plants grow well under prevailing conditions.