Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single-Session Bronchial Thermoplasty Guided by 129Xe Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.

RATIONALE Adverse events have limited the use of bronchial thermoplasty (BT) in severe asthma. OBJECTIVES We sought to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of using 129Xe MRI to prioritize the most involved airways for guided BT. METHODS Thirty subjects with severe asthma were imaged with volumetric CT and 129Xe MRI to quantitate segmental ventilation defects. Subjects were randomized to treatment of the six most involved airways in the first session (guided group) or a standard three-session BT (unguided). The primary outcome was the change in Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) score from baseline after the first BT for the guided group compared to after three treatments for the unguided group. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS There was no significant difference in quality of life after one guided compared to three unguided BTs (ΔAQLQ guided= 0.91[95% CI, 0.28 to 1.53], unguided=1.49 [95% CI, 0.84 to 2.14] P=0.201). After one BT, the guided group had a greater reduction in the percent of poorly/non-ventilated lung from baseline when compared to unguided (-17.2%, P=0.009). At one year, both AQLQ and asthma control tests (ACT) improved from baseline (ΔAQLQ=1.50±1.63 P=<0.001, ΔACT=5.61±5.24 P<0.001) and there was no significant difference between groups. Thirty-three percent experienced asthma exacerbations after one guided BT compared to 73% after three unguided BT (P=0.028). CONCLUSION Results of this pilot study suggest that similar short-term improvements with improved safety can be achieved with one BT treatment guided by 129Xe MRI when compared to standard BT.
Some measures of gene diversity analysis on land race populations of Ethiopian barley

158 land race populations of cultivated barley, represented by 3266 individuals from 19 diverse regions composed of 72 areas, were assayed electrophoretically for 5 enzyme loci (Est-A, Est-B, Est-C, Est-D and Acph-·l) to determine isozyme variability within and among populations. Differences in frequency of isozyme phenotypes were observed among populations within regions and between regions. The number of allozymes detected in the five loci studied were 5 in Est-A, 4 in Est-B, 6 in Est-C, 5 in Est-D and 6 in Acph-·l locus. The supply of alleles varied from region to region, from area to area and from locality to locality. Populations in the same region differed in their allelic composition. The highest number of alleles of the five loci studied detected in a region was 22 and the lowest, 7. A high frequency of null alleles at the Est-B locus was observed in two regions. 44.85% of the total gene diversity was found to be due to genetic variation within localities, 20.13% was due to variation between localities within areas, 18.71% was due to variation between areas within regions, while 16.31% of the total gene diversity was due to genetic variation between regions. The magnitude of the contribution of different components of the hierarchy to the total gene diversity varied from region to region. No correspondence was found between geographical distance and heterozygosity. For the genetic diversity computed Nei's and Gregorius' logics were not found to give a synonymous result. A significant heterogenous distribution of polymorphic events over regions was observed.
Phytotoxic and Antimicrobial Activities of Teucrium polium and Thymus decussatus Essential Oils Extracted Using Hydrodistillation and Microwave-Assisted Techniques

Essential oils (EOs) have been described as promising eco-friendly secondary products of aromatic plants with several biological activities. The present study aimed to characterize the chemical composition and explore phytotoxic and antimicrobial activities of Teucrium polium and Thymus decussatus EOs extracted using hydrodistillation (HD) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) methods. Twenty-seven and twenty-eight compounds were identified from HD and MAE extracted EOs of T. polium, respectively. The oxygenated sesquiterpenes (57.68%) were characterized as the main components of the hydrodistilled EO with a prominence of 6-epi-shyobunol (33.00%), while sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (54.48%) were the main components of the MAE method, with a prominence of delta-cadinene (25.13%). Eighteen and nineteen compounds, were characterized in T. decussatus EOs extracted using HD and MAE methods, respectively, and oxygenated monoterpenes represented the main components of both EOs with carvacrol (94.40% and 75.91%, respectively) as the main compound. The EOs extracted using the MAE method were slightly more phytotoxic than those extracted using the HD method. The T. decussatus EO extracted using the MAE method showed a higher inhibitory effect than T. polium by 16-, 32-, and 24-fold, regarding seed germination, shoot, and root growth of lettuce, respectively. Moreover, EOs extracted by HD method showed a similar pattern with 16-, 28-, and 14-fold effects. Both T. decussatus EOs exhibited potent inhibitory effect against all tested bacteria with an inhibition zone of 34–39 mm and the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.49, 0.98, and 1.95 μg/mL against Aspergillus niger, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. However, the EOs of T. polium showed weak antibacterial activity and no antifungal effect. Further studies are needed for the characterization of bioactive major compounds, either singular or synergistic, at field scale and to determine their modes of action and safety.
Myeloid ALX/FPR2 regulates vascularization following tissue injury

Significance Ischemia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and can lead to progressive tissue dysfunction. Ischemia promotes an inflammatory response that must be resolved to facilitate tissue repair and revascularization. Resolvins are lipid mediators that promote resolution of inflammation in part via specific receptors on macrophages. This study identifies that resolvin D1 is generated during tissue ischemia and induces a pro-revascularization phenotype in macrophages via its receptor, ALX/FPR2, leading to enhanced tissue perfusion. Because impaired resolution of inflammation in chronic inflammatory diseases is associated with altered tissue vascularization, these results could inform therapeutic approaches to improving tissue perfusion. Ischemic injury initiates a sterile inflammatory response that ultimately participates in the repair and recovery of tissue perfusion. Macrophages are required for perfusion recovery during ischemia, in part because they produce growth factors that aid in vascular remodeling. The input signals governing this pro-revascularization phenotype remain of interest. Here we found that hindlimb ischemia increases levels of resolvin D1 (RvD1), an inflammation-resolving lipid mediator that targets macrophages via its receptor, ALX/FPR2. Exogenous RvD1 enhances perfusion recovery during ischemia, and mice deficient in Alx/Fpr2 have an endogenous defect in this process. Mechanistically, RNA sequencing revealed that RvD1 induces a transcriptional program in macrophages characteristic of a pro-revascularization phenotype. Vascularization of ischemic skeletal muscle, as well as cutaneous wounds, is impaired in mice with myeloid-specific deficiency of Alx/Fpr2, and this is associated with altered expression of pro-revascularization genes in skeletal muscle and macrophages isolated from skeletal muscle. Collectively, these results uncover a role of ALX/FPR2 in revascularization that may be amenable to therapeutic targeting in diseases associated with altered tissue perfusion and repair.
Personality Trait Change at Work: Associations with Organizational Socialization and Identification.

OBJECTIVE This study investigates associations between Big Five personality trait change, organizational socialization, and organizational identification during a three-year police officer training program (N = 416 police officer cadets). METHOD Participants completed a questionnaire measuring the Big Five personality traits when they entered the training academy, and then completed the same personality questionnaire, along with measures of organizational socialization and identification, during their second (n = 360) and third (n = 397) year of training. RESULTS Results corroborated the hypotheses that (a) the Big Five traits can show systematic changes even across a relatively short time period and (b) this change is functional, given that the latent difference scores of all Big Five traits significantly predicted increases in organizational socialization and identification. CONCLUSION The Big five personality traits showed significant mean level changes across the three-year training program. Although these changes were not fully consistent with theoretical expectations, they did predict two aspects of organizational adjustment (socialization and identification). The theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.
Growing Trend of Fighting Infections in Aquaculture Environment—Opportunities and Challenges of Phage Therapy

Phage therapy, a promising alternative to antimicrobial treatment of bacterial diseases, is getting more and more popular, especially due to the rising awareness of antibiotic resistance and restrictions in antibiotics’ use. During recent years, we observed a growing trend of bacteriophages’ application in aquaculture, which in each year reports high losses due to bacterial diseases. This review provides an update of the status of bacteriophage therapy for the treatment and prevention of infections in the aquatic environment. As it is still mostly in the scientific stage, there are a few constraints that may prevent effective therapy. Therefore, specific characteristics of bacteriophages, that can act in favor or against their successful use in treatment, were described. We underlined aspects that need to be considered: specificity of phages, bacterial resistance, safety, immune response of the host organism, formulation, administration and stability of phage preparations as well as bacteriophages’ influence on the environment. The biggest challenge to overcome is finding the right balance between the desired and problematic characteristics of bacteriophages. Finally, regulatory approval challenges may be encountered by bacteriophage manufacturers. Even though there are still some technical constraints connected with the global use of bacteriophage therapy, it was concluded that it can be successfully applied in aquaculture.
DIGESTIVE EFFICIENCY, GROWTH AND QUALITIES OF MUSCLE AND OOCYTE IN ATLANTIC SALMON (SALMO SALAR L.) FED ON DIETS WITH KRILL MEAL AS AN ALTERNATIVE PROTEIN SOURCE

ABSTRACT Atlantic krill meal and Antarctic krill meal were tested to replace fish meal in Atlantic salmon diets. Different techniques were applied to precisely evaluate dietary quality and quality of fish growth performance. Inverse relationship between trypsin specific activity (T) and ratio of trypsin to chymotrypsin (T/C ratio) as a result of increased chymotrypsin specific activity (C) in the pyloric ceca indicated fish growth status as a reduction in growth rate. These protease values in the feces could also indicate fish digestive efficiency, but could not predict fish growth status. There were relationships among feed conversion efficiency (FCE), in vitro digestibility, and pyloric cecal T/C ratio, with inverse levels of krill meal in the diets. Krill meal seemed to increase muscle protein concentration through increasing protein retention, as capacity for protein synthesis was reduced. Dietary quality tests by in vitro digestibility were corresponded with growth studies, and indicated a possibility of inclusion of krill meal at 50–60% replacements, and larger fish were more sensitive to dietary quality than smaller ones. At 80–100% replacements, in vitro digestibility and FCE reduced, and oocyte quality changed through increased trypsin-like specific activity probably because of less or abnormal oocyte development. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The work illustrates differences in digestive efficiency and the quality of growth performance (protein growth efficiency and capacity for protein synthesis in muscle and oocytes) in fish feeding on diets with different levels of krill meal as fish meal replacer. The advantage of using various methods simultaneously for evaluating digestive efficiency and the quality of fish growth performance is to precisely provide reasonable information for some important biological differences between fish groups that could not be explained by using growth parameter alone, especially when the numbers of samples are not high. The methods are very practical for studying food quality, food utilization and growth quality of fish in different environmental conditions and with different behaviors in aquaculture as well as in natural ecosystem where food consumption rate cannot be measured. The in vitro digestibility method, using fish crude enzyme extracts and standardized by trypsin activity, could also compare the digestive ability between different species and provide information on food quality in fish growth trials that may not be necessary to be performed.
Age at Puberty and Some Biological Parameters of Awassi and its First Crosses with Charollais and Romanov Rams

Abstract The aim of this experiment was to determine the age at puberty of both ram and ewe lambs of three genotypes: Awassi (A), Charollais x Awassi (CA), and Romanov x Awassi (RA) F1 crosses. Twenty, six-month old lambs (10 from each sex) from each genotype were used. Ram and ewe lambs were kept in separate groups from the beginning until the end of the experiment. Birth weight and weaning weight were recorded for all animals. Body weights and body condition scores were recorded at monthly intervals between 6.5 and 12 months of age. Blood samples were collected weekly from ewe lambs and fortnightly from ram lambs to monitor progesterone and testosterone profiles, respectively. Semen characteristics and scrotal circumferences (SC) were evaluated fortnightly. Weight at puberty in ewe and ram lambs were not significantly different among the three genotypes and ranged around 35 kg and 42 kg, respectively. In ewe lambs, age at puberty was significantly higher (P< 0.01) in A (280±11.5 d) than in RA (232±11 d) and CA (255±11.5 d). Age at puberty of ram lambs was also significantly different (P < 0.01) among the three genotypes being higher in A (243±5 d) than in CA (223±5 d) and RA (226±5 d) ram lambs. Semen parameters improved with age in all genotypes. The RA ram lambs had greater semen concentration and lower abnormal spermatozoa than the other two genotypes (P< 0.05). Results of the present study indicate that crossing Awassi ewes with either Charollais or Romanov sires tends to improve reproductive characteristics of the F1 crossbreds through advancing age at puberty in both ram and ewe lambs.
An in vivo study of nanorod, nanosphere, and nanowire forms of titanium dioxide using Drosophila melanogaster: toxicity, cellular uptake, oxidative stress, and DNA damage

ABSTRACT The biological impact of nanomaterials (NMs) is determined by several factors such as size and shape, which need to be taken into consideration in any type of analysis. While investigators often prefer to conduct in vitro studies for detection of any possible adverse effects of NMs, in vivo approaches yield more relevant data for risk assessment. For this reason, Drosophila melanogaster was selected as a suitable in vivo model to characterize the potential risks associated with exposure nanorods (NRs), nanospheres (NSs), nanowires (NWs) forms of titanium dioxide (TiO2), and their microparticulated (or bulk) form, as TiO2. Third instar larvae (72 hr old larvae) were fed with TiO2 (NRs, NSs, or NWs) and TiO2 at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 10 mM. Viability (toxicity), internalization (cellular uptake), intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and genotoxicity (Comet assay) were the end-points evaluated in hemocyte D. melanogaster larvae. Significant intracellular oxidative stress and genotoxicity were noted at the highest exposure concentration (10 mM) of TiO2 (NRs, NSs, or NWs), as determined by the Comet assay and ROS analysis, respectively. A concentration–effect relationship was observed in hemocytes exposed to the NMs. Data demonstrated that selected forms of TiO2. -induced genotoxicity in D. melanogaster larvae hemocytes indicating this organism is susceptible for use as a model to examine in vivo NMs-mediated effects.
New substrates for β-lactam-recognizing enzymes: Aryl malonamates

Aryl malonamates are demonstrated to be novel substrates of a broad range of β-lactam-recognizing enzymes. These compounds are isomers of the aryl phenaceturates, which are well-known substrates of these enzymes, but the new compounds contain a retro-amide side chain. Several lines of evidence, including comparisons of steady-state kinetic parameters between enzymes and a detailed investigation of the methanolysis kinetics, solvent deuterium isotope effects, and pH−rate profile for turnover of a retro substrate by the Enterobacter cloacae P99 β-lactamase, suggested that the new substrates are likely to be hydrolyzed by the same chemical mechanisms as “normal” substrates. Molecular modeling indicated that the retro-amide group fits snugly into the active site of the P99 β-lactamase by hydrogen bonding to the conserved lysine-67 residue. The retro-amide side chain may represent a lead to novel mechanism-based and transition state analogue inhibitors.
Navigation of marine, freshwater and coastal animals: concepts and current problems

The animals from the environments focused on here share the same navigational mechanisms with terrestrial animals. However, some of them seem to rely on additional ways of detecting and/or processing navigational cues, some of which are perhaps still unknown. A classification of the mechanisms of navigation is given. This is based on the source of information that animals use to head for their targets. A selected series of phenomena of current interest is presented, starting with olfactory beaconing in oceanic birds, which allows the detection of patchily distributed food and productive areas from long distances. Animals of sandy beaches rely on an array of mechanisms of orientation, which have an adaptive value for their ecotonal system. As some species are capable of using both the moon and sun compass in orientation, attention and experiments are focused on the significance of these celestial cues in the navigational process. Two clocks of different periods, one of which would appear to regulate both the activity rhythm and the sun compass, are presumed to underlie the two compass mechanisms. The feats of global navigators in and over the oceans are especially puzzling considering their ability of homing to the natal and nesting sites after long lasting, extended wandering in the open ocean, and of pinpointing tiny, isolated oceanic islands. The existent literature allows comparison of the navigational capabilities of oceanic birds with those of sea turtles. Their performances in natural conditions seem to be similar, but sea turtles exhibit a reduced capacity of compensation for experimental relocation. Capacity of positioning based on geomagnetic parameters has been indicated for sea turtles through laboratory experiments, but this is not confirmed by the routes of magnetically disturbed turtles tracked while migrating or attempting to compensate for relocation. Also albatrosses with fitted magnets are not disturbed in their homing.
The CSF Levels of Neutrophil‐Related Chemokines in Patients with Neuromyelitis Optica

Pathologic findings showed that neutrophils played an important role in the pathogenesis of NMO. This study aims to investigate the CSF levels of neutrophil‐related chemokines in NMO. CXCL1, CXCL5, and CXCL7 were measured in 95 patients with NMO, 15 patients with MS, 18 patients with GFAP astrocytopathy, and 16 controls. The CSF level of CXCL1, CXCL5, and CXCL7 was significantly elevated in the NMO group but not correlated with the patient clinical severity. Besides, the CSF CXCL1, CXCL5, and CXCL7 could act as biomarkers to distinguish NMO from MS with good reliability, especially the CXCL7.
The Effect of Sodium Bicarbonate, a Beneficial Adjuvant Molecule in Cystic Fibrosis, on Bronchial Epithelial Cells Expressing a Wild-Type or Mutant CFTR Channel

Clinical and experimental results with inhaled sodium bicarbonate as an adjuvant therapy in cystic fibrosis (CF) are promising due to its mucolytic and bacteriostatic properties, but its direct effect has not been studied on respiratory epithelial cells. Our aim was to establish and characterize co-culture models of human CF bronchial epithelial (CFBE) cell lines expressing a wild-type (WT) or mutant (deltaF508) CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) channel with human vascular endothelial cells and investigate the effects of bicarbonate. Vascular endothelial cells induced better barrier properties in CFBE cells as reflected by the higher resistance and lower permeability values. Activation of CFTR by cAMP decreased the electrical resistance in WT but not in mutant CFBE cell layers confirming the presence and absence of functional channels, respectively. Sodium bicarbonate (100 mM) was well-tolerated by CFBE cells: it slightly reduced the impedance of WT but not that of the mutant CFBE cells. Sodium bicarbonate significantly decreased the more-alkaline intracellular pH of the mutant CFBE cells, while the barrier properties of the models were only minimally changed. These observations indicate that sodium bicarbonate is beneficial to deltaF508-CFTR expressing CFBE cells. Thus, sodium bicarbonate may have a direct therapeutic effect on the bronchial epithelium.
Forest history affects genetic diversity - molecular variation ofDryopteris dilatata(Dryopteridaceae) in ancient and recent forests

In a pilot study presented here, the genetic diversity of Dryopteris dilatata in relation to the history of forest stands in the Western Bavarian Forest, Germany, was investigated using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. We selected three ancient and three recent sites, which were classified for age considering historical maps, stand age, vegetation composition and charcoal analysis. RAPD analysis of 118 individuals with ten primers resulted in 81 fragments. Mean genetic diversity, measured as percentage of polymorphic bands and Nei's gene diversity, was higher in ancient than in recent forests. Furthermore, we detected a higher total number of genotypes and more unique genotypes in ancient than in recent forests. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed significant genetic variation between the populations in the differently aged forests (6%), the populations within the forests (9%) and a high variation (85%) within populations. Populations from ancient forests were clearly differentiated from each other (14%), while populations from recent forests exhibited no significant differences (0%). Thus, forest history seems to have an impact both on genetic differentiation between and on diversity within populations of forest plants. In conclusion, the combination of population genetics and palaeoecology is a promising approach to analyse the impact of historical events on the genetic structure of plant populations.