Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Gut Microbiome in the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis in Response to Thermal Stress

The gut microbiota is essential for utilization of energy and nutrition and may have a role in host immunity in response to environmental shifts. The present study evaluated the temperature stress (increasing from 21 to 27°C) on gut microbiome and dynamics of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis by 16S rRNA gene sequencing with the aim of discovering the gut microbiome resilience to warming. Exposure to high temperature of 27°C significantly reduced the survival of M. galloprovincialis associated with increased microbial diversity of gut. The microbial communities were shifted with elevated temperature (from 21 to 27°C) and different exposure time (from day 0 to day 7) by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) revealed that the relative abundance of Vibrio and Arcobacter presented in live animals as the top genus-level biomarkers during the initial exposure to 27°C and followed by microbiomes fluctuation with increasing exposure time at day 4 and day 7. The proliferation of opportunistic pathogens such as genus Vibrio and Arcobacter might increase host susceptibility to disease and contributed greatly to mortality. The results obtained in this study provide the knowledge on ecological adaptation for south domestication of M. galloprovincialis and host–bacteria interaction during temperature stress (27°C).
The Therapeutic Effects of Treadmill Exercise on Osteoarthritis in Rats by Inhibiting the HDAC3/NF-KappaB Pathway in vivo and in vitro

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease characterized by non-bacterial inflammation. Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) is a crucial positive regulator in the inflammation that leads to the development of non-OA inflammatory disease. However, the precise involvement of HDAC3 in OA is still unknown, and the underlying mechanism of exercise therapy in OA requires more research. We investigated the involvement of HDAC3 in exercise therapy-treated OA. Expression levels of HDAC3, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs-5 (ADAMTS-5), matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13), HDAC3 and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) were measured by western blotting, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry. Cartilage damage and OA evaluation were measured by hematoxylin and eosin staining and Toluidine blue O staining according to the Mankin score and OARSI score, respectively. We found that moderate-intensity treadmill exercise could relieve OA. Meanwhile, the expression of HDAC3, MMP-13, ADAMTS-5 and NF-kappaB decreased, and collagen II increased in the OA + moderate-intensity treadmill exercise group (OAM) compared with the OA group (OAG) or OA + high- or low-intensity treadmill exercise groups (OAH or OAL). Furthermore, we found the selective HDAC3 inhibitor RGFP966 could also alleviate inflammation in OA rat model through inhibition of nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB. To further explore the relationship between HDAC3 and NF-kappaB, we investigated the change of NF-kappaB relocation in IL-1β-treated chondrocytes under the stimulation of RGFP966. We found that RGFP966 could inhibit the expression of inflammatory markers of OA via regulation of HDAC3/NF-kappaB pathway. These investigations revealed that RGFP966 is therefore a promising new drug for treating OA.
Owner and Cat-Related Risk Factors for Feline Overweight or Obesity

Feline obesity is a highly prevalent disease that poses an urgent and serious challenge. Attempted treatment by weight reduction is often unsuccessful; a new preventative approach that focuses on the role of the owner may be helpful. This study used data collected from an international survey of cat owners designed to assess owner personality and self-control, owner-pet attachment, feeding practices, and the cat's body condition. Owner-reported body condition scores (BCS) of cats were assessed using images adapted from a 5-point BCS system and categorized as a binary dependent variable: overweight/obese (BCS 4–5) and not overweight (BCS 1–3). Owner-reported BCS scores using a verbal BCS scale were also used as a binary dependent variable. Of the 6,835 respondents, 30.5% described their cat as overweight/obese using the visual BCS scale, and 32.5% using the verbal scale. Multivariable logistic regression models were built using stepwise-backward selection. A total of 8 variables were significant using the visual score as the dependent variable, while 11 variables were significant using the verbal score as the dependent variable (p < 0.05). Low owner conscientiousness was associated with an increased risk of feline overweight/obesity (OR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.10–1.38), whereas preference for delayed reward was associated with a decreased risk (OR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.75–0.96). Contrary to expectation, indulgent (OR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.53–0.91) and inconsistent (OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.76–0.93) feeding practices appeared protective. Other significant variables (p < 0.05) included cat-related factors (age, gender, housing, source) and management-related factors (dry diet, supermarket dry diet, raw diet, stealing, hunting, and measuring food with a scoop). A third multivariable analysis was performed, using results from cats classified as overweight/obese using both scoring methods, compared with cats classified as a healthy weight using both scoring methods. A total of 10 variables were found to be significant (p < 0.05). There was significant overlap of results from all three analyses. The results of this study indicate that feline obesity is a complex problem, with many contributing risk factors. It is essential to recognize the importance of owner characteristics, and that the prevention of obesity in cats may require the development of a range of interventional strategies.
The Flick of a Switch: Conferring Survival Advantage to Breast Cancer Stem Cells Through Metabolic Plasticity

Within heterogeneous tumors, cancer stem cell (CSC) populations exhibit the greatest tumor initiation potential, promote metastasis, and contribute to therapy resistance. For breast cancer specifically, CSCs are identified by CD44highCD24low cell surface marker expression and increased aldehyde dehydrogenase activity. In general, bulk breast tumor cells possess altered energetics characterized by aerobic glycolysis. In contrast, breast CSCs appear to have adaptive metabolic plasticity that allows these tumor-initiating cells to switch between glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, depending on factors present in the tumor microenvironment (e.g., hypoxia, reactive oxygen species, availability of glucose). In this article, we review the regulatory molecules that may facilitate the metabolic plasticity of breast CSCs. These regulatory factors include epigenetic chromatin modifiers, non-coding RNAs, transcriptional repressors, transcription factors, energy and stress sensors, and metabolic enzymes. Furthermore, breast cancer cells acquire CSC-like characteristics and altered energetics by undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). This energy costly process is paired with reprogrammed glucose metabolism by epigenetic modifiers that regulate expression of both EMT and other metabolism-regulating genes. The survival advantage imparted to breast CSCs by metabolic plasticity suggests that targeting the factors that mediate the energetic switch should hinder tumorigenesis and lead to improved patient outcomes.
A Novel Strategy to Regulate 1-Deoxynojirimycin Production Based on Its Biosynthetic Pathway in Streptomyces lavendulae

This study characterized the biosynthetic pathway of the secondary metabolite 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) from Streptomyces lavendulae. The results revealed that glucose was a preferable precursor for DNJ synthesis, and its carbon skeleton underwent a C2-N-C6 cyclization reaction during synthesis. The biosynthetic pathway was related to the glycolysis pathway, and started from fructose-6-phosphate, and involved amination, dephosphorylation, oxidation, cyclization, dehydration, and reduction reaction steps, yielding DNJ. Then, based on clarified biosynthetic pathway information, precursors, analogs, and metabolism inhibitors were used as novel regulators to enhance the production of DNJ. The results demonstrated that the titer of DNJ could reach 296.56 mg/L, which was 3.3-fold higher than that of a control group (90 mg/L) when sodium citrate (0 h, 5 g/L), sorbose (0 h, 1 g/L), iodoacetic acid (20 h, 50 mg/L), and glucose (26 h, 7 g/L) were added during the fermentation process. This study provides a new understanding of the biosynthetic pathway of DNJ, and also provides an efficient strategy to regulate the production of DNJ based on this biosynthetic pathway, which is a new perspective for the regulation of other secondary metabolites.
CD44 Expression Predicts Prognosis of Ovarian Cancer Patients Through Promoting Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) by Regulating Snail, ZEB1, and Caveolin-1

Objectives: CD44, a transmembrane glycoprotein, is involved in the generation of a stem cell niche and maintaining stem cell quiescence. The aim of this study was to evaluate its contribution to ovarian cancer prognosis and progression, as well as explore the possible mechanisms. Materials and Methods: The expression of CD44 in tissue microarray of 90 ovarian cancer patients was detected by immunohistochemistry. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate the factors associated with 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival. CD44 was knocked down by small interfering RNA, the expression of Snail, ZEB1, and Caveolin-1 in a stable Snail-expressing ovarian cancer cell line HO8910PM-Snail (HOPM-Snail) and its control cell line HO8910PM-vector (HOPM) was detected by western blotting analysis. Cell clone formation, migration, and invasion of HOPM-Snail and HOPM cells with CD44 silencing were examined by 3-D culture assay, wound healing assay, and transwell assay, respectively. Results: Over-expression of CD44 was associated with advanced histological grade (p = 0.014) and FIGO stage (p = 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that CD44 expression was an independent prognostic factor to predict both overall survival (p = 0.004) and disease-free survival (p = 0.025) of ovarian cancer patients. Down-regulation of CD44 expression by small silencing RNA abrogated both basal Snail expression and TGF-β1-induced Snail expression in HOPM and HOPM-Snail cells. In addition, CD44 knockdown caused a decrease in ZEB1 expression. RPPA data indicated that Caveolin-1 may be another regulative target of CD44, and western blotting analysis confirmed that CD44 knockdown caused an increase in Caveolin-1 expression. However, there was no noticeable reciprocal regulation among ZEB1, Caveolin-1, and Snail. Moreover, CD44 knockdown caused a decrease in cell clone formation, migration, and invasion of HOPM and HOPM-Snail cells. Conclusions: As both Snail and ZEB1 are crucial inducers of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), our data suggested that CD44 may be crucial for the EMT process of ovarian cancer. Therefore, CD44 may be a potential prognostic marker as well as treatment target for ovarian cancer.
Greater Reduction in Abdominal Than in Upper Arms Subcutaneous Fat in 10- to 12-Year-Old Tennis Players: A Volumetric MRI Study

Background: Little is known about the impact of long term participation in sports and subcutaneous fat volume in children. This study aimed at determining whether tennis participation is associated with lower subcutaneous adipose tissue volume (SATv) in the abdominal and upper extremities in children. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to determine the SATv stored in the abdominal region and upper arms in seven tennis players and seven inactive children matched by height and age (147 cm and 10.9 years). All participants were in Tanner stage 1 or 2. Results: Playing tennis was associated with 48% (P = 0.001) lower abdominal SATv and 17–18% (P > 0.05) lower upper arms SATv compared to controls. The ratio between abdominal/upper arms SATv was larger in the controls vs. tennis players (69% P = 0.001). The SATv was similar in the dominant and non-dominant arm within each group. Conclusion: Playing tennis during childhood is associated with reduced SATv in the abdominal region and a more favorable regional distribution of fat. Despite the large amount of contractile activity of the playing (dominant) arm, there was no indication of between-arms differences in SATv.
Under Pressure to Achieve? The Impact of Type and Style of Task Instructions on Student Cheating

Combining principles of Achievement Goal Theory, which maintains that performance goals play a key role in individuals’ likelihood of cheating, and Self-Determination Theory, which highlights the importance of autonomy support and autonomous motivation underlying achievement goals, we examined whether the combination of experimentally inducing a mastery-approach (relative to performance-approach) goal with an autonomy-supportive manner (instead of controlling) may attenuate cheating. In two experiments carried out with university students, one classroom based (N = 164) and one laboratory (N = 160), we manipulated the type of induced goal (performance- vs. mastery-approach) and style of introducing the goal (i.e., controlling vs. autonomy-supportive) by taking also into consideration participants’ values. We hypothesized that the least behaviorally observed cheating would occur in a context promoting mastery-approach goals in an autonomy-supportive way and among individuals low in self-enhancement value adherence. The dependent variables in both studies consisted of two set of exercises, both including questions that could only be solved by cheating. Results of Poisson regression analyses revealed that in both studies the least cheating in the first set of exercises occurred in the autonomy-supportive/mastery-approach condition, indicating that this induced goal complex has the greatest potential to restrain academic dishonesty in the short-term. Interaction effects with self-enhancement value adherence revealed that the cheating inhibitory effects of this induced goal complex was less effective for those who value power and achievement.
Screening for New Surface Anchoring Domains for Lactococcus lactis

The display of recombinant proteins on bacterial surfaces is a developing research area with a wide range of potential biotechnological applications. The lactic acid bacterium Lactococcus lactis is an attractive host for such surface display, and a promising vector for in vivo delivery of bioactive proteins. Surface-displayed recombinant proteins are usually anchored to the bacterial cell wall through anchoring domains. Here, we investigated alternatives to the commonly applied lactococcal lysine motif (LysM)-containing surface anchoring domain, the C-terminus of AcmA (cAcmA). We screened 15 anchoring domains of lactococcal or phage origins that belong to the Pfam categories LPXTG, LysM, CW_1, Cpl-7, WxL, SH3, and ChW, which can provide non-covalent or covalent binding to the cell wall. LPXTG, LysM, the duplicated CW_1 and SH3 domains promoted significant surface display of two model proteins, B domain and DARPin I07, although the display achieved was lower than that for the reference anchoring domain, cAcmA. On the other hand, the ChW-containing anchoring domain of the lactococcal phage AM12 endolysin (cAM12) demonstrated surface display comparable to that of cAcmA. The anchoring ability of cAM12 was confirmed by enabling non-covalent heterologous anchoring of the B domain on wild-type bacteria, as well as anchoring of CXCL8-binding evasin-3, which provided potential therapeutic applicability; both were displayed to an extent comparable to that of cAcmA. We have thereby demonstrated the effective use of different protein anchoring domains in L. lactis, with ChW-containing cAM12 the most promising alternative to the established approaches for surface display on L. lactis.
Verbreitung von Betriebsräten und ihr Einfluss auf die betriebliche Weiterbildung / Works Council Presence and Impact on Training of the Workforce

With the reform of the Works Constitution Act in 2001 legislation has tried to stop the erosion of the institution of codetermination by facilating the creation of works councils and expanding their rights. The present paper examines the development of the presence of codetermination with pooled regression models and the impact of works councils on the training of the workforce with matching methods. We used data from the waves 1996-2005 of the IAB Establsihment Panel. The results of our analyses show that establishments with works councils have both a higher incidence and coverage of training of the workforce. However, a significant effect of the reform of the Works Constitution Act cannot be detected empirically.
Energy Compensation Following a Supervised Exercise Intervention in Women Living With Overweight/Obesity Is Accompanied by an Early and Sustained Decrease in Non-structured Physical Activity

Background/Objectives Body composition (BC) does not always vary as a function of exercise induced energy expenditure (exercise EE – resting EE). Energy balance variables were measured to understand energy compensation (EC) in response to an exercise intervention performed at low (LOW) or moderate (MOD) intensity. Subjects/Methods Twenty-one women with overweight/obesity (33 ± 5 kg/m2; 29 ± 10 yrs; 31 ± 4 ml O2/kg/min) were randomized to a 3-month LOW or MOD (40 or 60% of VȮ2reserve, respectively) matched to expend 1500 kcal/week (compliance = 97 ± 5%). Body energy stores (DXA), energy intake (EI) (food menu and food diaries), resting EE (indirect calorimetry), total EE (doubly-labeled water), time spent in different activities (accelerometers), appetite (visual analog scale), eating behavior traits and food reward (liking and wanting) were assessed at baseline, after weeks 1 and 2 and at the end of the 3-month exercise intervention. Results EC based on BC changes (fat mass and fat-free mass) was 49 ± 79% and 161 ± 88% in LOW and MOD groups, respectively (p = 0.010). EI did not change significantly during the intervention. However, eating behavior traits and food reward had changed by the end of the 3-month supervised exercise. Non-structured physical activity (NSPA) decreased across the intervention (p < 0.002), independent of the intensity of the exercise training. Conclusion Women with overweight/obesity training at LOW presented lower EC for a given energy cost of exercise. Our results strongly suggest that NSPA plays a major role in mediating the effects of exercise on energy balance and ultimately on changes in BC. Clinical Trial Registration www.ClinicalTrials. gov, identifier ISRCTN31641049.
Sustained Effect of Music Training on the Enhancement of Executive Function in Preschool Children

Musical training is an enrichment activity involving multiple senses, including auditory, visual, somatosensorial, attention, memory, and executive function (EF), all of which are related to cognition. This study examined whether musical training enhances EF in preschool children who had not undergone previous systematic music learning. This study also explored the after-effects 12 weeks after cessation of musical training. Participants were 61 preschool children from a university-affiliated kindergarten in North China. The experimental group underwent 12 weeks of integrated musical training (i.e., music theory, singing, dancing, and role-playing), while the control group performed typical daily classroom activities. The three components (inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility) of executive functions were evaluated using the Day/Night Stroop, Dimensional Change Card Sort, Dot Matrix Test, and Backward Digit Span Task. In Experiment 1, EFs were tested twice-before (T1) and after (T2) the music training. The results showed that children’s EFs could be promoted by musical training. In addition, EFs were tested again 12 weeks later after the end of the intervention (T3) in Experiment 2. We discovered that integrated musical training demonstrated a sustained promotion effect.
A Scoping Review of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation to Improve Gait in Cerebral Palsy: The Arc of Progress and Future Strategies

Background: Neuromuscular deficits of children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) limits mobility, due to muscle weakness, short muscle-tendon unit, spasticity, and impaired selective motor control. Surgical and pharmaceutical strategies have been partially effective but often cause further weakness. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is an evolving technology that can improve neuromuscular physiology, strength, and mobility. This review aims to identify gaps in knowledge to motivate future NMES research. Methods: Research publications from 1990- July 20th 2019 that investigated gait-specific NMES in CP were reviewed using the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Results were filtered by the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke common data elements guidelines for CP. The Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine guidelines were used to determine levels of evidence for each outcome. Gait-specific NMES research protocols and trends are described, with implications for future research. Results: Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria, reporting on 212 participants, 162 of whom received NMES while walking, average age of 9.8 years, GMFCS levels I–III. Studies included 4 randomized control trials, 9 cohort studies and 5 case studies. A historical trend emerged that began with experimental multi-channel NMES device development, followed by the commercial development of single-channel devices with inertial sensor-based gait event detection to facilitate ankle dorsiflexion in swing phase. This research reported strong evidence demonstrating improved ankle dorsiflexion kinematics in swing and at initial contact. Improved walking speed, step length, and muscle volume were also reported. However, improvements in global walking scores were not consistently found, motivating a recent return to investigating multi-channel gait-specific NMES applications. Conclusions: Research on single-channel gait-specific NMES found that it improved ankle motion in swing but was insufficient to address more complex gait abnormalities common in CP, such as flexed-knee and stiff-knee gait. Early evidence indicates that multi-channel gait-specific NMES may improve gait patterns in CP, however significantly more research is needed. The conclusions of this review are highly limited by the low level of evidence of the studies available. This review provides a historical record of past work and a technical context, with implications for future research on gait-specific NMES to improve walking patterns and mobility in CP.