Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observation of others’ actions during limb immobilization prevents the subsequent decay of motor performance

Significance In several clinical conditions, especially those related to orthopedic trauma or specific injuries of the peripheral nervous system, patients may experience a period of limb nonuse that has detrimental cascade effects on corticomotor organization and ultimately, on motor performance. During limb nonuse, treatments based on action observation may be suitable for stimulating the motor system via the mirror mechanism. Using short-term immobilization in healthy volunteers, our study showed that administering action observation during immobilization limits the movement alterations induced by limb nonuse. Given action observation’s protective role against the decline of motor performance, it represents a valid tool for early interventions during limb nonuse, thus reducing the burden of further motor rehabilitation. There is rich clinical evidence that observing normally executed actions promotes the recovery of the corresponding action execution in patients with motor deficits. In this study, we assessed the ability of action observation to prevent the decay of healthy individuals’ motor abilities following upper-limb immobilization. To this end, upper-limb kinematics was recorded in healthy participants while they performed three reach-to-grasp movements before immobilization and the same movements after 16 h of immobilization. The participants were subdivided into two groups; the experimental group observed, during the immobilization, the same reach-to-grasp movements they had performed before immobilization, whereas the control group observed natural scenarios. After bandage removal, motor impairment in performing reach-to-grasp movements was milder in the experimental group. These findings support the hypothesis that action observation, via the mirror mechanism, plays a protective role against the decline of motor performance induced by limb nonuse. From this perspective, action observation therapy is a promising tool for anticipating rehabilitation onset in clinical conditions involving limb nonuse, thus reducing the burden of further rehabilitation.
IL-27–producing B-1a cells suppress neuroinflammation and CNS autoimmune diseases

Significance Importance of regulatory B cells (Breg cells) is underscored by scores of autoimmune, infectious, or neoplastic diseases that result from loss of Breg functions in vivo. We identified an innate B-1a Breg population in peritoneal cavity and human umbilical cord that suppresses encephalomyelitis or uveitis by propagating inhibitory signals that convert conventional lymphocytes to IL-35–secreting regulatory cells and inhibiting Lag3+PD-1+ T cells that mediate CNS autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, IRF8 signaling is required for i27-Breg development and loss of IL-27Rα or IL-27 function in B cells abrogates capacity of i27-Bregs to suppress diseases or induce B-1a differentiation into i27-Breg. i27-Breg requires activation by innate stimuli and is not antigen-specific, suggesting that i27-Breg would be effective immunotherapy for diverse autoimmune diseases. Regulatory B cells (Breg cells) that secrete IL-10 or IL-35 (i35-Breg) play key roles in regulating immunity in tumor microenvironment or during autoimmune and infectious diseases. Thus, loss of Breg function is implicated in development of autoimmune diseases while aberrant elevation of Breg prevents sterilizing immunity, exacerbates infectious diseases, and promotes cancer metastasis. Breg cells identified thus far are largely antigen-specific and derive mainly from B2-lymphocyte lineage. Here, we describe an innate-like IL-27–producing natural regulatory B-1a cell (i27-Breg) in peritoneal cavity and human umbilical cord blood. i27-Bregs accumulate in CNS and lymphoid tissues during neuroinflammation and confers protection against CNS autoimmune disease. i27-Breg immunotherapy ameliorated encephalomyelitis and uveitis through up-regulation of inhibitory receptors (Lag3, PD-1), suppression of Th17/Th1 responses, and propagating inhibitory signals that convert conventional B cells to regulatory lymphocytes that secrete IL-10 and/or IL-35 in eye, brain, or spinal cord. Furthermore, i27-Breg proliferates in vivo and sustains IL-27 secretion in CNS and lymphoid tissues, a therapeutic advantage over administering biologics (IL-10, IL-35) that are rapidly cleared in vivo. Mutant mice lacking irf4 in B cells exhibit exaggerated increase of i27-Bregs with few i35-Bregs, while mice with loss of irf8 in B cells have abundance of i35-Bregs but defective in generating i27-Bregs, identifying IRF8/BATF and IRF4/BATF axis in skewing B cell differentiation toward i27-Breg and i35-Breg developmental programs, respectively. Consistent with its developmental origin, disease suppression by innate i27-Bregs is neither antigen-specific nor disease-specific, suggesting that i27-Breg would be effective immunotherapy for a wide spectrum of autoimmune diseases.
Stress in teachers of children with neuro-developmental disorders: Effect of blended rational emotive behavioral therapy

Background/Objectives: Neuro-developmental disorders impose a wide range of learning barriers on learners, increasing stress among their teachers. Evidence attests to the heightened stress among teachers teaching children with such conditions. This study tested the efficacy of blended Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in reducing job stress among teachers of children with neuro-developmental disorders in Abia State, Nigeria. Method: The current study adopted a group-randomized waitlist control trial design with pretest, post-test, and follow-up assessments. Participants (N = 83) included teachers of children with neuro-developmental disorders in inclusive and specialized schools. The blended Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy group participated in a 2 h intersession face-to-face and online Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) program weekly for 12 weeks. Data were collected using the Single Item Stress Questionnaire, Teachers’ Stress Inventory, and Participants’ Satisfaction questionnaire. The waitlisted group also received a blended Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy intervention after all data collection. Data collected at baseline; post-test as well as follow-up 1 and 2 evaluations were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test statistics, repeated measures analysis of variance, and charts. Results: Results revealed that the mean perceived stress, stress symptoms, and the total teachers’ stress score of the blended Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy group at post-test and follow-up assessments reduced significantly, compared to the waitlisted group. Participants also reported a high level of satisfaction with the therapy and procedures. Conclusion: From the findings of this study, we conclude that blended Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy is efficacious in occupational stress management among teachers of children with neuro-developmental disorders.
The effect of choice on intentional and incidental memory

Recent studies have revealed that memory performance is better when participants have the opportunity to make a choice regarding the experimental task (choice condition) than when they do not have such a choice (fixed condition). These studies, however, used intentional memory tasks, leaving open the question whether the choice effect also applies to incidental memory. In the current study, we first repeated the choice effect on the 24-h delayed intentional memory performance (experiment 1). Next, using an incidental paradigm in which participants were asked to judge the category of the items instead of intentionally memorizing them, we observed the choice effect on judgment during encoding and memory performance in a 24-h delayed surprise test (experiment 2). Participants judged more accurately and quickly and had better recognition memory for items in the choice condition than for items in the fixed condition. These results are discussed in terms of the role of choice in both intentional and incidental memory.
M&M: A maximum duration design with the Maxcombo test for a group sequential trial of an immunotherapy with a random delayed treatment effect

A random delayed treatment effect is expected in a confirmatory clinical trial for an immunotherapy due to the individual heterogeneity of physiological conditions. For this reason, the delay time will be assumed to follow a continuous distribution that is difficult to estimate accurately based on the early‐phase data, which hinders the specification of the most powerful weighted log‐rank test. Therefore, we propose a simulation‐based maximum duration design with a robustly powerful Maxcombo test for a group sequential trial for the immunotherapy with the random delayed treatment effect. The design obtains the group sequential boundaries by a simulation procedure and determines the required maximum sample size using a one‐dimensional search in which another simulation procedure is used to calculate empirical power. The simulation researches proved the accuracy of the group sequential boundaries and their robustness against the misspecified maximum sample sizes for large samples and revealed their moderate sensitivity against the misspecified survival distributions under the null hypothesis of no difference. The studies investigated whether the type I error rate would inflate under the “inferior” null hypothesis and evaluated the robustness against different distributions of the delay time in terms of the empirical power among the Maxcombo tests and component weighted log‐rank tests.
An aluminum hydroxide:CpG adjuvant enhances protection elicited by a SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain vaccine in aged mice

Global deployment of vaccines that can provide protection across several age groups is still urgently needed to end the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Although vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 based on mRNA and adenoviral vector technologies have been rapidly developed, additional practical and scalable SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are required to meet global demand. Protein subunit vaccines formulated with appropriate adjuvants represent an approach to address this urgent need. The receptor binding domain (RBD) is a key target of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies but is poorly immunogenic. We therefore compared pattern recognition receptor (PRR) agonists alone or formulated with aluminum hydroxide (AH) and benchmarked them against AS01B and AS03-like emulsion-based adjuvants for their potential to enhance RBD immunogenicity in young and aged mice. We found that an AH and CpG adjuvant formulation (AH:CpG) produced an 80-fold increase in anti-RBD neutralizing antibody titers in both age groups relative to AH alone and protected aged mice from the SARS-CoV-2 challenge. The AH:CpG-adjuvanted RBD vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies against both wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and the B.1. 351 (beta) variant at serum concentrations comparable to those induced by the licensed Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. AH:CpG induced similar cytokine and chemokine gene enrichment patterns in the draining lymph nodes of both young adult and aged mice and enhanced cytokine and chemokine production in human mononuclear cells of younger and older adults. These data support further development of AH:CpG-adjuvanted RBD as an affordable vaccine that may be effective across multiple age groups. Description An aluminum hydroxide:CpG adjuvant improves SARS-CoV-2 RBD immunogenicity in aged mice and activates leukocytes isolated from older humans. A vaccine for the ages Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are especially important for protecting older adults who are at the highest risk of developing severe COVID-19. To address this, Nanishi et al. tested a receptor binding domain (RBD) protein subunit vaccine with a variety of adjuvants to find which combination best protected aged mice. The authors found that combining RBD with aluminum hydroxide (AH) and CpG resulted in a highly immunogenic vaccine that was protective in young and aged mice. The authors also showed that AH:CpG induced robust innate immune responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from older adults. This vaccine is also scalable and could be deployed to low- and middle-income countries.
Diagnostic Yield of 8-Hour Video-EEG in Detecting Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES)

ABSTRACT To evaluate the diagnostic yield of the first 8 hours of video-EEG (vEEG) monitoring in detecting Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES) during the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) admission. We performed a retrospective chart review of patients ages ≥4 years who were admitted to the EMU between 2011 and 2018 (n = 616). We calculated the proportion of patients diagnosed with PNES within the first 8 hours of EEG recording and studied the associated risk factors for patients diagnosed with PNES and patients with epileptic seizures (ES). Out of the total 616 patients, 24% (149) patients had an EMU diagnosis of PNES. Of these, 44.3% had at least one typical event within the first 8 hours of vEEG monitoring. A higher incidence was seen within the pediatric subgroup (54.8% had an event within 8 hours). A diagnosis of chronic pain disorder was more common with PNES compared to ES (48.3% versus 16.5%, p < 0.001). A suspicion for PNES documented during an office visit was noted in a high proportion of patients (68.5%) who eventually had a PNES event during EMU. Our study suggests that in a well-selected group of patients (such as a high suspicion of PNES during a physician/neurology office visit), an outpatient 8-hour vEEG could open new avenues for a prompt diagnosis. This could especially be beneficial in hospital settings where there is either a lack of an EMU or a delay in admission to the EMU.
Diagnostic Characteristics of Lactate Dehydrogenase on a Multiplex Assay for Malaria Detection Including the Zoonotic Parasite Plasmodium knowlesi

ABSTRACT. Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) is a common target in malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). These commercial antibody capture assays target either Plasmodium falciparum–specific pLDH (PfLDH), P. vivax–specific pLDH (PvLDH), or a conserved epitope in all human malaria pLDH (PanLDH). However, there are no assays specifically targeting P. ovale, P. malariae or zoonotic parasites such as P. knowlesi and P. cynomolgi. A malaria multiplex array, carrying the specific antibody spots for PfLDH, PvLDH, and PanLDH has been previously developed. This study aimed to assess potential cross-reactivity between pLDH from various Plasmodium species and this array. We tested recombinant pLDH proteins, clinical samples for P. vivax, P. falciparum, P. ovale curtisi, and P. malariae; and in vitro cultured P. knowlesi and P. cynomolgi. P. ovale-specific pLDH (PoLDH) and P. malariae-specific pLDH (PmLDH) cross-reacted with the PfLDH and PanLDH spots. Plasmodium Knowlesi-specific pLDH (PkLDH) and P. cynomolgi-specific pLDH (PcLDH) cross-reacted with the PvLDH spot, but only PkLDH was recognized by the PanLDH spot. Plasmodium ovale and P. malariae can be differentiated from P. falciparum by the concentration ratios of PanLDH/PfLDH, which had mean (range) values of 4.56 (4.07–5.16) and 4.56 (3.43–6.54), respectively, whereas P. falciparum had a lower ratio of 1.12 (0.56–2.61). Plasmodium knowlesi had a similar PanLDH/PvLDH ratio value, with P. vivax having a mean value of 2.24 (1.37–2.79). The cross-reactivity pattern of pLDH can be a useful predictor to differentiate certain Plasmodium species. Cross-reactivity of the pLDH bands in RDTs requires further investigation.
Left parietal involvement in motion sickness susceptibility revealed by multimodal magnetic resonance imaging

Susceptibility to motion sickness varies greatly across individuals. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this susceptibility remain largely unclear. To address this gap, the current study aimed to identify the neural correlates of motion sickness susceptibility using multimodal MRI. First, we compared resting‐state functional connectivity between healthy individuals who were highly susceptible to motion sickness (N = 36) and age/sex‐matched controls who showed low susceptibility (N = 36). Seed‐based analysis revealed between‐group differences in functional connectivity of core vestibular regions in the left posterior Sylvian fissure. A data‐driven approach using intrinsic connectivity contrast found greater network centrality of the left intraparietal sulcus in high‐ rather than in low‐susceptible individuals. Moreover, exploratory structural connectivity analysis uncovered an association between motion sickness susceptibility and white matter integrity in the left inferior fronto‐occipital fasciculus. Taken together, our data indicate left parietal involvement in motion sickness susceptibility.
Restless legs syndrome and related factors in people with multiple sclerosis in Turkey

ABSTRACT Objective Restless legs syndrome is one of the most reported sleep disorders in multiple sclerosis (MS). The study aims to investigate the possible factors related to the occurrence and severity of restless legs syndrome in persons with MS (pwMS) comparing with healthy controls. Methods This is a case-control study that included 447 pwMS and 57 healthy controls. Demographic and clinical data such as gender, age, duration of education, body mass index, marital status, disease duration, and MS type were recorded. Neurological disability was assessed by the Expanded Disability Status Scale. The Restless Legs Syndrome Rating Scale was used to assess the severity of restless legs syndrome. Results The prevalence of restless legs syndrome in pwMS was 133 (29.8%) and 3 (4.9%) in healthy controls (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of gender, body mass index, and MS type (p > 0.05). Patients with restless legs syndrome have more advanced age, longer disease duration, and higher Expanded Disability Status Scale scores than patients without restless legs syndrome (p < 0.05). The correlation between restless legs syndrome severity and age, Expanded Disability Status Scale score, disease duration was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Conclusions This study has shown that the presence of restless legs syndrome is high in persons with MS compared to healthy controls. Advanced age, disease duration, and higher disability level could be related to the increased rate of restless legs syndrome in persons with MS, especially those with high-frequency symptoms.
A cloud-based toolbox for the versatile environmental annotation of biodiversity data

A vast range of research applications in biodiversity sciences requires integrating primary species, genetic, or ecosystem data with other environmental data. This integration requires a consideration of the spatial and temporal scale appropriate for the data and processes in question. But a versatile and scale flexible environmental annotation of biodiversity data remains constrained by technical hurdles. Existing tools have streamlined the intersection of occurrence records with gridded environmental data but have remained limited in their ability to address a range of spatial and temporal grains, especially for large datasets. We present the Spatiotemporal Observation Annotation Tool (STOAT), a cloud-based toolbox for flexible biodiversity–environment annotations. STOAT is optimized for large biodiversity datasets and allows user-specified spatial and temporal resolution and buffering in support of environmental characterizations that account for the uncertainty and scale of data and of relevant processes. The tool offers these services for a growing set of near global, remotely sensed, or modeled environmental data, including Landsat, MODIS, EarthEnv, and CHELSA. STOAT includes a user-friendly, web-based dashboard that provides tools for annotation task management and result visualization, linked to Map of Life, and a dedicated R package (rstoat) for programmatic access. We demonstrate STOAT functionality with several examples that illustrate phenological variation and spatial and temporal scale dependence of environmental characteristics of birds at a continental scale. We expect STOAT to facilitate broader exploration and assessment of the scale dependence of observations and processes in ecology.
Reliability Methods for Passive Safety Functions

This paper presents the study performed within the framework of a European Project called Reliability Methods for Passive Safety Functions (RMPS). Its objective is to propose a specific methodology to assess the passive system thermal-hydraulic (T-H) reliability. The methodology is tested on an example of industrial passive system: the Isolation Condenser System (ICS). The T-H calculations are performed using the RELAP5, ATHLET and CATHARE computer codes. In this paper, the present state of the methodology and its application to the example are described. Owing to the recent start of the project, only results concerning the first objective of the project (identification and quantification of the sources of uncertainties and determination of the important variables) are presented. A sensitivity analysis was carried out on 69 computation results performed with the RELAP5 code. This first analysis highlights the significant parameters influencing the performances of the ICS and shows a non-monotonous behavior of the system.Copyright © 2002 by ASME
The 3′UTR‐derived sRNA RsaG coordinates redox homeostasis and metabolism adaptation in response to glucose‐6‐phosphate uptake in Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus RsaG is a 3′‐untranslated region (3′UTR) derived sRNA from the conserved uhpT gene encoding a glucose‐6‐phosphate (G6P) transporter expressed in response to extracellular G6P. The transcript uhpT‐RsaG undergoes degradation from 5′‐ to 3′‐end by the action of the exoribonucleases J1/J2, which are blocked by a stable hairpin structure at the 5′‐end of RsaG, leading to its accumulation. RsaG together with uhpT is induced when bacteria are internalized into host cells or in the presence of mucus‐secreting cells. Using MS2‐affinity purification coupled with RNA sequencing, several RNAs were identified as targets including mRNAs encoding the transcriptional factors Rex, CcpA, SarA, and the sRNA RsaI. Our data suggested that RsaG contributes to the control of redox homeostasis and adjusts metabolism to changing environmental conditions. RsaG uses different molecular mechanisms to stabilize, degrade, or repress the translation of its mRNA targets. Although RsaG is conserved only in closely related species, the uhpT 3′UTR of the ape pathogen S. simiae harbors an sRNA, whose sequence is highly different, and which does not respond to G6P levels. Our results hypothesized that the 3′UTRs from UhpT transporter encoding mRNAs could have rapidly evolved to enable adaptation to host niches.