Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Joint Effects of Social Norm Appeals and Fear Appeals in COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign Posters on Self-Perceived Communication Quality and Vaccination Intention

To understand how different types of cues in vaccine education messages affect attitude toward campaign messages and vaccination intention, this study examined the impact of the presence of social norm appeals (individual vs. group cues) and the presence of fear appeals in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine campaign posters on perceived communication quality and vaccination intention. A 2 (social norm appeal: individual cue vs. group cue) × 2 (fear appeal: absence vs. presence) × 3 (repetition) within-subject factorial design experiment was conducted in China. Findings demonstrated that the presence of fear appeals in COVID-19 vaccine campaign posters elicited lower levels of perceived communication quality and vaccination intention than those without fear appeals. The interactive effect of fear appeals and social norm appeals was also found to be significant. Specifically, positive-framed messages (i.e., absence of fear appeals) with group cues and fear appeal messages with individual cues elicited higher perceived information quality and stronger vaccination intention than other types of messages. Understanding how these cues function jointly in COVID-19 vaccine campaign messages will help public health practitioners create more effective intervention strategies.
COVID-19 Outcomes in Myasthenia Gravis Patients: Analysis From Electronic Health Records in the United States

Background Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune, neuromuscular condition and patients with MG are vulnerable due to immunosuppressant use and disease manifestations of dyspnea and dysphagia during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Optum® de-identified COVID-19 Electronic Health Record (EHR) dataset. Primary outcomes, such as hospitalization, ventilator use, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death in COVID-19 patients with MG, were compared with those of COVID-19 patients without MG: the subgroups of non-MG included those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus (SLE), and multiple sclerosis (MS). We further analyzed factors affecting mortality, such as age, race/ethnicity, comorbidities, and MG treatments. Results Among 421,086 individuals with COVID-19, there were 377 patients with MG, 7,362 patients with RA, 1,323 patients with SLE, 1,518 patients with MS, and 410,506 patients without MG. Patients with MG were older and had more comorbidities compared with non-MG patients and had the highest rates of hospitalization (38.5%), ICU admission (12.7%), ventilator use (3.7%), and mortality (10.6%) compared with all other groups. After adjusting for risk factors, patients with MG had increased risks for hospitalization and ICU compared with patients with non-MG and with RA but had risks similar to patients with SLE and with MS. The adjusted risk for ventilator use was similar across all groups, but the risk for mortality in patients with MG was lower compared with the SLE and MS groups. Among patients with MG, age over 75 years and dysphagia were predictors for increased COVID-19 mortality, but the recent MG treatment was not associated with COVID-19 mortality. Conclusions COVID-19 patients with MG are more likely to be admitted to the hospital and require ICU care. Older age and patients with dysphagia had an increased risk of mortality.
Photoperiodic Changes in Both Hypothalamus Neurotransmitters and Circulating Gonadal Steroids Metabolomic Profiles in Relation to Seasonal Reproduction in Male Quail

Both hypothalamic neurotransmitters and serum steroid hormones are impacted by photoperiod and have effects on physiology and seasonal reproductive. However, the relationship between circulating gonadal steroids and hypothalamic neurotransmitters underlying different photoperiod is still unclear. To further understand the crosstalk of neurotransmitters and steroids in seasonal reproduction, metabolic changes of 27 neurotransmitters concentrated in hypothalamus tissues and 42 steroids hormones in serum were assessed during two artificial photoperiodic programs. The results showed that photoperiod induce testicular atrophy and recrudescence. In L-to-S groups, significantly decreased levels of testosterone concentration were found in serum (P < 0.001) and increased 11-Dehydrocorticosterone (P < 0.05); Testosterone were almost undetectable at SD_14d. In addition, the hypothalamus exhibited significantly increased arginine and 4-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration and decreased serotonin and epinephrine content (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). Accordingly, serum testosterone and androstenedione became detectable at LD_3d in the S-to-L group and were markedly increase at LD_7d. Furthermore, Serum androstenedione showed a significant increase with long light expose (P < 0.01). Additionally, the hypothalamus exhibited both significantly increased L.Tryptophan and phenylalanine concentration, as well as decreased L-glutamine and L-glutamine.acid content (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). Serotonin metabolism showed significant differences between L-to-S group and S-to-L group. Furthermore, in the correlation analysis, serum testosterone had a positive correlation with 5-Hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA), while Androstenedione was significantly negative with L.Tryptophan in L-to-S (P < 0.05). However, in S-to-L group, serum testosterone showed strong negative correlation with both serotonin and 5-HIAA (P < 0.05), but positive correlation with L.Tryptophan (P < 0.01), while Androstenedione was significantly negative correlation with both serotonin (P < 0.05) and L-Glutamine (P < 0.01). Photoperiod also had significant effects on the mRNA expression. We found significant differences in gene expression patterns of both serotonin signaling and steroid biosynthesis, while MAOB, NR5A1, and 3β-HSD showed an opposite tendency between two groups. Taken together, our results revealed that circulating gonadal steroids and hypothalamic neurotransmitters were significantly impact quail’s seasonal reproduction. Circulating gonadal steroids have different effects on neurotransmitter at different photoperiodism, which may coordinately influence the seasonal reproduction of quails.
Antibiotic-Eluting Envelopes for the Prevention of Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Infections: Rationale, Efficacy, and Cost-Effectiveness

Infections related to cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite optimal use of antimicrobials and other preventive strategies, the incidence of CIED infections is increasing over time leading to considerable costs to the healthcare systems. Recently, antibiotic-eluting envelopes (AEEs) have been introduced as a promising technology to prevent CIED infections. This review will address the current evidence on stratification of CIED infection risk, present the rationale behind AEE, and summarize the currently available evidence for CIED infection prevention as well as demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of this novel technology.
Mice Dually Disrupted for Nod2 and Mincle Manifest Early Bacteriological Control but Late Susceptibility During Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

Pattern recognition receptors Mincle and NOD2 have been implicated in mycobacterial immunity. However, knockout (KO) animal infection studies with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) have had mild/delayed phenotypes. Given that genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases can be polygenic, we hypothesized that murine double knockout (DKO) of Mincle and Nod2 would result in exacerbation of altered immunity to mycobacterial infection leading to a more extreme phenotype than either KO alone. To test this hypothesis, we monitored bacterial burden, immune responses and survival following in vivo infections with Mtb in DKO mice for comparison to wildtype (WT) and single KOs. Bacterial burden and immune responses were not significantly affected at 3 and 6 weeks after infection in all mutant mice. At later timepoints, Nod2-KO mice had reduced survival compared to wildtype mice, and Mincle-KO survival was intermediate. Unexpectedly, dual disruption had no further effect; rather, DKO mice phenocopied Nod2-KO mice. We observed that Mtb-related death, exclusively in mice with disrupted Nod2, was accompanied by greater pulmonary cell death and distinct large necrotic foci. Therefore, determining how these receptors contribute to mycobacterial resistance will require analysis of immunophenotypes and their consequences on host pathology.
Reduction of Feedback Availability Limits Self-Control Effects

A growing body of research has demonstrated that providing learners with self-control over aspects of the learning environment facilitates the learning of a motor skill. In applied group settings, however, the provision of feedback is at times constrained by factors such as instructor availability. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to examine how learners ostensibly provided self-control over feedback responded when the actual availability of feedback was constrained by a predetermined schedule of a virtual coach's availability to provide feedback. Participants were divided into four feedback groups and completed 72 practice trials of a sequential key-pressing task, with three different goal movement times (900, 1,200, 1,500 ms). The KR100 group received knowledge of results (KR) after every practice trial. The KR50 group received KR on an evenly distributed quasi-randomly determined schedule after 50% of the trials. The SC group had the opportunity to request KR after every trial, but KR was only available for 50% of practice trials according to the same schedule used for the KR50 group. The YK (i.e., yoked) group received KR according to the schedule of KR received by counterparts in the SC group. Approximately 24 h after acquisition, each participant returned to complete retention and transfer tests. The retention test consisted of 15 no-KR trials of the acquisition tasks (five trials for each goal time−900, 1,200, 1,500 ms). The transfer test consisted of 15 no-KR trials with new time goals (1,300, 1,600, 1,900 ms). Results revealed a significantly lower absolute constant error (ACE) score for the SC group during transfer (p < 0.05), suggesting that SC effects can occur in a reduced feedback availability environment. Other measures, however, failed to show significant advantages for the SC group during any phase of the study suggesting that effects were not as robust as previous research has indicated. The results also provided some indication that perceived scarcity might have played a role in elevating the number of feedback requests in response to the reduced autonomy environment.
Workforce Agility: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure

The concept of workforce agility has become increasingly popular in recent years as agile individuals are expected to be better able to handle change and uncertainty. However, agility has rarely been studied in a systematic way. Relations between agility and positive work outcomes, such as higher performance or increased well-being, have often been suggested but rarely been empirically tested. Furthermore, several different workforce agility measures are used in the literature which complicates the comparison of findings. Recognizing these gaps in the literature, we developed a new workforce agility measure, compared this measure to established workforce agility measures, and empirically tested the relations of workforce agility with work outcomes. For this purpose, we surveyed participants from two samples (N1 = 218, N2 = 533). In a first step, we used Sample 1 to examine the factor structure of the measure for item selection. In a second step, we used Sample 2 to confirm the 10-factor structure and to compare the predictive validity of our measure along with two other agility measures. Findings demonstrate predictive validity for all three workforce agility scales, especially in relation to innovative performance. Furthermore, workforce agility related positively to task and innovative performance, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and well-being.
The Effect of Rifle Carriage on the Physiological and Accelerometer Responses During Biathlon Skiing

Purpose Investigate the effect of biathlon rifle carriage on physiological and accelerometer-derived responses during biathlon skiing. Methods Twenty-eight biathletes (11F, 17M) completed two XC skiing time-trials (~2,300 m), once with and once without the biathlon rifle, with concurrent measurements of HR, skiing speed and accelerations recorded from three triaxial accelerometers attached at the Upper-spine, Lower-spine and Pelvis. Exercise intensity was quantified from HR, skiing speed as well from accelerometry-derived PlayerLoad™ per minute (PL·min−1) and average net force (AvFNet). All metrics were analyzed during Uphill, Flat and Downhill sections of the course. Relationships between accelerometry-derived metrics and skiing speed were examined. Results Time-trials were faster for males compared with females (mean difference: 97 ± 73 s) and No-Rifle compared to With-Rifle (mean difference: 16 ± 9 s). HR was greatest during Downhill (183 ± 5 bpm), followed by Uphill (181 ± 5 bpm) and was lowest in the Flat sections (177 ± 6 bpm, p <0.05). For PL·min−1 and AvFNet there were 3-way Rifle x Gradient x Sensor-Position interactions. Typically, these metrics were greatest during Uphill and Flat sections and were lowest during Downhill sections. Rifle carriage had no impact on the AvFNet at the Lower-Spine or Pelvis. Significant positive linear relationships were identified between skiing speed and accelerometer-derived metrics during Uphill, Flat and Downhill skiing (r = 0.12–0.61, p < 0.05). Conclusions The accelerometry-derived approach used in this study provides the potential of a novel method of monitoring the external demands during skiing. In particular, AvFNet with sensors located close to the center of mass displayed greatest utility because it followed the expected response of external intensity where responses were greatest during uphill sections, followed by flats and lowest during downhills. In addition, there were significant positive relationships between AvFNet and skiing speed ranging from small to large. Accelerometry-derived measures could provide useful estimates of the external demands in XC skiing and biathlon.
A Cell Wall Hydrolase MepH Is Negatively Regulated by Proteolysis Involving Prc and NlpI in Escherichia coli

Cell wall assembly of Gram-negative bacteria requires DD-endopeptidase activity that cleaves peptidoglycan (PG) crosslinks in addition to PG synthetic activity, and the activity of DD-endopeptidases needs to be tightly regulated to maintain cell wall integrity during PG expansion. Among the major DD-endopeptidases functioning for PG assembly in Escherichia coli, MepS and MepM have been shown to be negatively controlled by the periplasmic protease Prc. In this study, we performed a genetic selection using the synthetic lethality between the mepS and mepM mutations in rich medium to uncover regulatory mechanisms controlling the activity of DD-endopeptidases other than MepS and MepM. This selection revealed mutations in prc and nlpI as suppressors. Gene deletion analyses revealed that MepH is required for suppression of the MepS— MepM— growth defect by the prc or nlpI mutation. We also discovered that MepH is directly degraded by Prc and that this degradation is further promoted by NlpI. Thus, our study showed that all three DD-endopeptidases which play major roles in PG assembly of E. coli under normal physiological conditions are controlled by a common periplasmic protease.
Developing a Model for the Establishment of the Hospice Care Delivery System for Iranian Adult Patients With Cancer

Introduction Making appropriate plans for the provision of hospice care is considered a perceived need in the Iranian health system. The current study aimed to develop a model for establishing hospice care delivery system for the adult patients with cancer. Materials and Methods This study is part (data of the third and fourth phases) of a larger study that has been done in four phases. This Health System Policy Research (HSPR) utilized a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach. At the first phase, a qualitative study was conducted which explained the care needs and the requirements for establishing this system from the stakeholders’ perspective (directed content analysis). The second phase aimed to examine the current situation of hospice care delivery in Iran and identify and determine the similarities and differences among them in the selected countries (comparative study). At the third phase, the main areas of the model and the related indicators were extracted and prioritized by consulting with experts (Delphi survey). Then the model was formulated. At the fourth phase, the proposed model was validated and finalized in terms of importance, scientific acceptability, and feasibility. Results Based on the developed model the first and the most important step in establishing the hospice care delivery system is laying the groundwork in the health system which requires focusing on policymaking. It is necessary to establish hospice centers and implement public awareness raising programs, train, and supply expert manpower, strengthen family physician and referral process, formulate clinical guidelines, encourage the private sector and NGOs(Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). ) to invest, develop end-of-life and hospice care service packages, and create quality care indicators. The proposed model had moderate feasibility. Conclusion This model was developed based on the current Iranian healthcare structure and the needs of terminally ill cancer patients. It can be used as a model tailored to the current state of the health system and community in Iran. It is suggested to use this model as a pilot at the regional level.
MGMSN: Multi-Granularity Matching Model Based on Siamese Neural Network

Aiming to overcome the shortcomings of the existing text matching algorithms, in this research, we have studied the related technologies of sentence matching and dialogue retrieval and proposed a multi-granularity matching model based on Siamese neural networks. This method considers both deep semantic similarity and shallow semantic similarity of input sentences to completely mine similar information between sentences. Moreover, to alleviate the problem of out of vocabulary in sentences, we have combined both word and character granularity in deep semantic similarity to further learn information. Finally, comparative experiments were carried out on the Chinese data set LCQMC. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness and generalization ability of this method, and several ablation experiments also show the importance of each part of the model. Graphical Abstract
Automatic Measurement of Endometrial Thickness From Transvaginal Ultrasound Images

Purpose: Endometrial thickness is one of the most important indicators in endometrial disease screening and diagnosis. Herein, we propose a method for automated measurement of endometrial thickness from transvaginal ultrasound images. Methods: Accurate automated measurement of endometrial thickness relies on endometrium segmentation from transvaginal ultrasound images that usually have ambiguous boundaries and heterogeneous textures. Therefore, a two-step method was developed for automated measurement of endometrial thickness. First, a semantic segmentation method was developed based on deep learning, to segment the endometrium from 2D transvaginal ultrasound images. Second, we estimated endometrial thickness from the segmented results, using a largest inscribed circle searching method. Overall, 8,119 images (size: 852 × 1136 pixels) from 467 cases were used to train and validate the proposed method. Results: We achieved an average Dice coefficient of 0.82 for endometrium segmentation using a validation dataset of 1,059 images from 71 cases. With validation using 3,210 images from 214 cases, 89.3% of endometrial thickness errors were within the clinically accepted range of ±2 mm. Conclusion: Endometrial thickness can be automatically and accurately estimated from transvaginal ultrasound images for clinical screening and diagnosis.
Scallop IKK1 Responds to Bacterial and Virus-Related Pathogen Stimulation and Interacts With MyD88 Adaptor of Toll-Like Receptor Pathway Signaling

IKK proteins are key signaling molecules in the innate immune system of animals, and act downstream of pattern recognition receptors. However, research on IKKs in invertebrates, especially marine mollusks, remains scarce. In this study, we cloned CfIKK1 gene from the Zhikong scallop (Chlamys farreri) and studied its function and the signaling it mediates. The open reading frame of CfIKK1 was 2190 bp and encoded 729 amino acids. Phylogenetic analysis showed that CfIKK1 belonged to the invertebrate IKKα/IKKβ family. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed the ubiquitous expression of CfIKK1 mRNA in all scallop tissues and challenge with lipopolysaccharide, peptidoglycan, or poly(I:C) significantly upregulated the expression of CfIKK1. Co-immunoprecipitation assays confirmed the interaction of CfIKK1 with scallop MyD88 (Myeloid differentiation actor 88, the key adaptor of the TLR signaling pathway) via its N-terminal kinase domain. Additionally, CfIKK1 protein could form homodimers and even oligomers, with N-terminal kinase domain and C-terminal scaffold dimerization domain playing key roles in this process. Finally, the results of RNAi experiments showed that when the scallop IKK1 gene was suppressed, the expression of IRF genes also decreased significantly. In conclusion, CfIKK1 could respond to PAMPs challenge and interact with MyD88 protein of scallop TLR signaling, with the formation of CfIKK1 dimers or oligomers. At the same time, the results of RNAi experiments revealed the close regulatory relationship between IKK1 and IRF genes of scallop. Therefore, as a key signal transduction molecule and immune activity regulator, CfIKK1 plays important roles in the innate immune system of scallops.
Genome-wide Association Study for Starch Pasting Properties in Chinese Spring Wheat

In order to understand the genetic basis of starch pasting viscosity characteristics of Chinese spring wheat, we assessed the genetic variation of RVA parameters determined by the Rapid Visco Analyser in a panel of 192 Chinese spring wheat accessions grown in Er’shi, Shihezi and Zhaosu during 2012 and 2013 cropping seasons. A genome-wide association study with 47,362 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers was conducted to detect marker-trait associations using mixed linear model. Phenotypic variations of RVA parameters ranged from 1.6 to 30.7% and broad-sense heritabilities ranged from 0.62 to 0.91. Forty-one SNP markers at 25 loci were significantly associated with seven RVA traits in at least two environments; among these, 20 SNPs were located in coding sequences (CDS) of 18 annotation genes, which can lead to discovering novel genes underpinning starch gelatinization in spring wheat. Haplotype analysis revealed one block for breakdown (BD) on chromosome 3B and two blocks for pasting temperature (T) on chromosome 7B. Cultivars with superior haplotypes at these loci showed better starch pasting viscosity than the average of all cultivars surveyed. The identified loci and associated markers provide valuable sources for future functional characterization and genetic improvement of starch quality in wheat.