Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activated Oncostatin M signaling drives cancer-associated skeletal muscle wasting

Progressive weakness and muscle loss are associated with multiple chronic conditions including muscular dystrophy and cancer. Cancer-associated cachexia, characterized by dramatic weight loss and fatigue, leads to reduced quality of life and poor survival. Inflammatory cytokines have been implicated in muscle atrophy, however, available anti-cytokine therapies failed to prevent muscle wasting in cancer patients. We previously reported that muscle-specific deletion of the Oncostatin M (OSM) receptor (OSMR) preserved muscle mass and function in tumor-bearing mice. Here, we show that OSM is a potent inducer of muscle atrophy. OSM triggers cellular atrophy in primary myotubes utilizing the JAK/STAT3 pathway. Identification of OSM targets by RNA sequencing revealed the induction of various muscle atrophy-related genes, including Atrogin1. OSM overexpression in mice caused muscle wasting while the neutralization of circulating OSM protected from tumor-driven loss of muscle mass and function. Our results indicate that activated OSM/OSMR signaling drives muscle atrophy, and the therapeutic targeting of this pathway may be useful in preventing muscle wasting.
Genomic heritability and correlation between carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle evaluated under different ceilings of relatedness among individuals

The investigation of carcass traits to produce meat with high efficiency has been in focus on Japanese Black cattle since 1972. To implement a successful breeding program in carcass production, a comprehensive understanding of genetic characteristics and relationships between the traits is of paramount importance. In this study, genomic heritability and genomic correlation between carcass traits, including carcass weight (CW), rib eye area (REA), rib thickness (RT), subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT), yield rate (YI), and beef marbling score (BMS) were estimated using the genomic data of 9,850 Japanese Black cattle (4,142 heifers and 5,708 steers). In addition, we investigated the effect of genetic relatedness degree on the estimation of genetic parameters of carcass traits in sub-populations created based on different GRM-cutoff values. Genome-based restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) analysis was applied to estimate genetic parameters. Using all animal data, the heritability values for carcass traits were estimated as moderate to relatively high magnitude, ranging from 0.338 to 0.509 with standard errors, ranging from 0.014 to 0.015. The genetic correlations were obtained low and negative between SFT and REA [−0.198 (0.034)] and between SFT and BMS [−0.096 (0.033)] traits, and high and negative between SFT and YI [−0.634 (0.022)]. REA trait was genetically highly correlated with YI and BMS [0.811 (0.012) and 0.625 (0.022), respectively]. In sub-populations created based on the genetic-relatedness ceiling, the heritability estimates ranged from 0.212 (0.131) to 0.647 (0.066). At the genetic-relatedness ceiling of 0.15, the correlation values between most traits with low genomic correlation were overestimated while the correlations between the traits with relatively moderate to high correlations, ranging from 0.380 to 0.811, were underestimated. The values were steady at the ceilings of 0.30–0.95 (sample size of 5,443–9,850) for most of the highly correlated traits. The results demonstrated that there is considerable genetic variation and also favorable genomic correlations between carcass traits. Therefore, the genetic improvement for the traits can be simultaneously attained through genomic selection. In addition, we observed that depending on the degree of relationship between individuals and sample size, the genomic heritability and correlation estimates for carcass traits may be different.
Exploring the relationship between perceived social support and college students’ autonomous fitness behavior: Chain mediating effect test

Objective This study aims to explore the effect of perceived social support on college students’ autonomous fitness behavior, and the mediating role of mental toughness and exercise self-efficacy. Methodology A survey participated by 985 college Students (average age, 19.55) was conducted by applying the following scales: The Perceived Social Support Scale, the Adolescent Self-Government Behavior Scale, the Mental Toughness Scale, and the Exercise Self-efficacy Scale (ESES). Results (1) Perceived social support can directly and positively predict autonomous fitness behavior, mental toughness, and exercise self-efficacy; mental toughness can directly and positively predict exercise self-efficacy. Likewise, perceived social support, mental toughness, and exercise self-efficacy can positively predict autonomous fitness behavior. (2) The indirect effect of the path with mental toughness as the mediating variable is 0.078, the indirect effect of the path with exercise self-efficacy as the mediating variable is 0.122, and the indirect effect of the path with mental toughness and exercise self-efficacy as the mediating variable is 0.082. (3) The total of all indirect effects is 0.282, and the effects of the three indirect pathways account for 18.25, 28.62, and 19.37% of the total, respectively. Conclusion The perceived social support can indirectly predict college students’ autonomous fitness behavior through the independent mediating effect of mental toughness and self-efficacy, as well as the chain mediating effect of the two. The claim that mental toughness and exercise self-efficacy perform a chain-mediate role in the positive effect brought by perceived social support on autonomous fitness behavior has been supported. This study revealed the relationship and mechanism between perceived social support and college students’ autonomous fitness behavior and further improved the research on the impact of perceived social support on college students’ autonomous fitness behavior.
Xenia umbellata (Octocorallia): A novel model organism for studying octocoral regeneration ability

Climate change is leading to phase shifts in coral reefs worldwide. In many biogeographic regions, octocorals are now becoming the most abundant benthic components, due to their environmental resilience and ability to rapidly colonize reef surfaces. Regeneration abilities and asexual reproduction are highly important for this ability and probably contribute to the successful spread of certain octocorals, including invasive species. Regeneration, however, has been little investigated in octocorals. To achieve a deeper understanding of octocoral regeneration, we employed Xenia umbellata, a common octocoral in the Red Sea, as a novel experimental model for laboratory studies. Using single-polyp modules, we investigated its regeneration ability and polyp asexual reproduction (budding). Excised polyps successfully reattached to tissue-culture plates within 2-3 days and started budding within 10 days. Amputation of the oral disc led to full regeneration within 7-10 days, with budding continuing throughout this period. Moreover, amputated tentacles developed into polyps within 21 days, demonstrating an unusual capacity for whole-body regeneration. The regeneration abilities of this species imply high totipotency of all polyp parts and are likely important for its life cycle. Further research using this model is expected to enhance the ecological and molecular understanding of octocoral development and provide insights into phase shifts currently occurring in coral reefs. Our study also suggests that X. umbellata has potential as a model organism for integrative studies on regeneration, physiology, developmental biology, and more, encouraging its adoption as a novel colonial cnidarian model organism.
Influence of coil orientation on corticospinal excitability of trunk muscles during postural and volitional tasks in healthy adults

Introduction Trunk muscles play a role in maintaining postural stability and performing goal-directed voluntary movements in activities of daily living. Evidence has shown that the primary motor cortex (M1) is involved in modulation of postural control and voluntary movements of the trunk. However, it remains unknown whether the neural circuits within the M1 were recruited to the same extent between a postural task and a goal-directed voluntary task. Methods To address this, we examined latencies and amplitudes of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) of the erector spinae (ES) with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) figure-of-eight coil oriented to induce latero-medial (LM), posterior-anterior (PA), and anterior-posterior (AP) currents in the M1 in twenty healthy participants during a dynamic shoulder flexion (DSF) task, a postural task requiring anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs), and during a static trunk extension (STE) task, a voluntary task without involvement of APAs. Results We found that differences in the AP-LM latency of ES MEP were longer compared with the PA-LM latency in both tasks. Corticospinal excitability was overall greater during the DSF task than during the STE task irrespective of the coil orientation. Discussion Our findings suggest that while the same neural circuits in the M1 were recruited to modulate both postural and voluntary control of the trunk, the contribution was greater to the postural task than the voluntary task, possibly due to the requirement of APAs in the task.
Effect of difficulty of task on throwing performance and coping strategies in team handball

In this study the effect of level of opposition on throwing performance and coping strategies in the jump throw was examined in elite, amateur, and adolescent players in team handball. Twenty four participants consisting of 13 female elite junior handball players (age: 15.5 ± 0.7 years; height: 1.72 ± 0.07 m; body mass: 64.2 ± 7.0 kg; years of handball experience: 8.4 ± 1.76 years) and 11 senior recreational female handball players (age: 19.5 ± 1.04 years; height: 1.68 ± 0.08 m; body mass: 65.2 ± 9.3 kg; years of handball experience: 11 ± 2.61 years) performed ten jump throws under four conditions: (1) without opposition; (2) with a passive opponent; (3) with an opponent moving sideways; and (4) with a defender who was instructed to be unpredictable without physical contact with the thrower. Ball velocity and accuracy were measured for every throw together with answering a questionnaire consisting of 18 questions after each condition to investigate if coping strategies changed with increasing difficulty of task and if this was different for playing level. The main findings were that ball velocity and accuracy decreased when opposition was introduced, but with no differences when the opposition moved only sideways or unpredictably (forwards and/or sideways), similarly for both groups. Furthermore, the level had no influence on the coping strategies or a relationship with either of these coping strategies, but the avoidance coping strategy scored lower than the other two categories for both groups. It was concluded that level of opposition had a negative effect on throwing velocity and accuracy in elite junior and recreational level senior players which was probably caused by the change of given attention to one target (overcome opponent), which leaves less available for others (throwing velocity and accuracy). Furthermore, coping strategies did not change or have any correlation with throwing performance, indicating that these strategies seem to be influenced by trait and that most players mainly used problem- and emotional-focused coping strategies and less avoidance strategies when dealing with the level of opposition.
Forest stand factors determine the rainfall pattern of crown allocation of Picea schrenkiana in the northern slope of Mount Bogda, Tianshan Range, China

The middle elevation forest of the Tianshan Mountains, dominated by the conifer tree Picea schrenkiana, is an important part of the mountain ecosystem of arid Northwestern China, which plays a pivotal role in carbon sequestration and water conservation. As the first interface of water transfer in a forest ecosystem, tree crown allocates precipitation regulating soil water supply and sustaining vegetation growth below the crown. In this study, four 20-m × 20-m sampling quadrats were randomly installed at each of three elevation sites (2,200 m, 1,800 m, and 1,450 m) on the northern slope of Mount Bogda, the main peak of the Eastern Tianshan Range. The effects of forest stand factors and incoming rainfall on forest crown allocation of precipitation were investigated, and the trade-off between water and carbon was also discussed. The results revealed that (1) the interception, throughfall, and stemflow ratio had values of 44.3%–50.0%, 49.6%–55.4%, and<0.5%, respectively; (2) there was a complementary relationship between stemflow ability and threshold rainfall when stemflow emerged, and the crown interception rainfall had a saturation value; and (3) the allocation of crown-intercepted rainfall was controlled by trunk diameter at breast height, crown height-to-width ratio, and leaf area index, which was why differences arose in the allocation of crown precipitation at differing elevations. With greater arbor biological carbon density, the crown interception ratio initially increased rapidly but then remained stable, indicating that once a natural forest stand is mature, its biomass carbon sequestration would not change further allocation of crown precipitation.
Artificial Intelligence in microbiomes analysis: A review of applications in dermatology

Microorganisms are closely related to skin diseases, and microbiological imbalances or invasions of exogenous pathogens can be a source of various skin diseases. The development and prognosis of such skin diseases are also closely related to the type and composition ratio of microorganisms present. Therefore, through detection of the characteristics and changes in microorganisms, the possibility for diagnosis and prediction of skin diseases can be markedly improved. The abundance of microorganisms and an understanding of the vast amount of biological information associated with these microorganisms has been a formidable task. However, with advances in large-scale sequencing, artificial intelligence (AI)-related machine learning can serve as a means to analyze large-scales of data related to microorganisms along with determinations regarding the type and status of diseases. In this review, we describe some uses of this exciting, new emerging field. In specific, we described the recognition of fungi with convolutional neural networks (CNN), the combined application of microbial genome sequencing and machine learning and applications of AI in the diagnosis of skin diseases as related to the gut-skin axis.
Involvement of the GABAergic system in PTSD and its therapeutic significance

The neurobiological mechanism of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is poorly understood. The inhibition of GABA neurons, especially in the amygdala, is crucial for the precise regulation of the consolidation, expression, and extinction of fear conditioning. The GABAergic system is involved in the pathophysiological process of PTSD, with several studies demonstrating that the function of the GABAergic system decreases in PTSD patients. This paper reviews the preclinical and clinical studies, neuroimaging techniques, and pharmacological studies of the GABAergic system in PTSD and summarizes the role of the GABAergic system in PTSD. Understanding the role of the GABAergic system in PTSD and searching for new drug targets will be helpful in the treatment of PTSD.
Automatic counting of rapeseed inflorescences using deep learning method and UAV RGB imagery

Flowering is a crucial developing stage for rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) plants. Flowers develop on the main and branch inflorescences of rapeseed plants and then grow into siliques. The seed yield of rapeseed heavily depends on the total flower numbers per area throughout the whole flowering period. The number of rapeseed inflorescences can reflect the richness of rapeseed flowers and provide useful information for yield prediction. To count rapeseed inflorescences automatically, we transferred the counting problem to a detection task. Then, we developed a low-cost approach for counting rapeseed inflorescences using YOLOv5 with the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Red–Green–Blue (RGB) imagery. Moreover, we constructed a Rapeseed Inflorescence Benchmark (RIB) to verify the effectiveness of our model. The RIB dataset captured by DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0, including 165 plot images and 60,000 manual labels, is to be released. Experimental results showed that indicators R2 for counting and the mean Average Precision (mAP) for location were over 0.96 and 92%, respectively. Compared with Faster R-CNN, YOLOv4, CenterNet, and TasselNetV2+, the proposed method achieved state-of-the-art counting performance on RIB and had advantages in location accuracy. The counting results revealed a quantitative dynamic change in the number of rapeseed inflorescences in the time dimension. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation between the actual crop yield and the automatically obtained rapeseed inflorescence total number on a field plot level was identified. Thus, a set of UAV- assisted methods for better determination of the flower richness was developed, which can greatly support the breeding of high-yield rapeseed varieties.
Job stress and university faculty members’ life satisfaction: The mediating role of emotional burnout

As one of the leading work-related health problems arising from increasingly fierce competition, work-related stress has become a significant predictor of the reduced wellbeing of university faculty members, especially for non-tenured junior faculty members. In light of this and based on a survey, this research seeks to examine how and why work-related stress impacts the life satisfaction level of university junior faculty members. The results indicate that the three subdivisions of university faculty members’ work-related stress, namely, research stress, teaching stress, and administrative stress, are all negatively related to their life satisfaction level. In addition, emotional burnout has been confirmed to function as the psychological mechanism for the aforementioned main effects. The research contributes to the literature mainly by offering a new insight in which the three subdivisions of work-related stress are regarded as independent variables affecting the life satisfaction level of university junior faculty members.
4-Allyl-2-methoxyphenol modulates the expression of genes involved in efflux pump, biofilm formation and sterol biosynthesis in azole resistant Aspergillus fumigatus

Introduction Antifungal therapy for aspergillosis is becoming problematic because of the toxicity of currently available drugs, biofilm formation on host surface, and increasing prevalence of azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus. Plants are rich source of bioactive molecules and antimicrobial activity of aromatic bioactive compounds draws attention because of its promising biological properties. The present study elucidated the antibiofilm activity of 4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol (eugenol) against azole-resistant environmental A. fumigatus isolates. Methods Soil samples were collected from agricultural fields across India; azole-resistant A. fumigatus (ARAF) were isolated followed by their molecular identification. Antibiofilm activity of eugenol was calculated via tetrazolium based-MTT assay. The expression of the multidrug efflux pumps genes MDR1, MDR4, transporters of the MFS gene, erg11A gene encoding 14α demethylase, and transcription regulatory genes, MedA, SomA and SrbA, involved in biofilm formation of A. fumigatus were calculated by quantitative real time PCR. Results Out of 89 A. fumigatus isolates, 10 were identified as azole resistant. Eugenol exhibited antibiofilm activity against ARAF isolates, ranging from 312 to 500 µg/mL. Confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis revealed absence of extracellular matrix of ARAF biofilm after eugenol treatment. The gene expression indicated significantly low expression of efflux pumps genes MDR1, MDR4, erg11A and MedA in eugenol treated ARAF isolates when compared with untreated isolates. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that eugenol effects the expression of efflux pump and biofilm associated genes as well as inhibits biofilm formation in azole resistant isolates of A. fumigatus.
Diffusive–dispersive travelling waves and kinetic relations V. Singular diffusion and nonlinear dispersion

We consider scalar hyperbolic conservation laws with non-convex flux and vanishing, nonlinear and possibly singular, diffusion and dispersion terms. The diffusion has the form R(u, ux)x and we cover, for instance, the singular diffusion (|ux|pux)x, where p ≥ 0 is arbitrary. We investigate the existence, uniqueness and various properties of classical and non-classical travelling waves and of the kinetic function. The latter serves to characterize non-classical shock waves, via an additional algebraic constrain called a kinetic relation. We discover that p = ⅓ is a somewhat unexpected critical value. For p ≤ ⅓, we obtain properties that are qualitatively similar to those we established earlier for regular and linear diffusion. However, for p > ⅓, the behaviour of the kinetic function is very different, as, for instance, non-classical shocks can have arbitrary small strength. The behaviour of the kinetic function near the origin is carefully investigated and depends on whether p < ½, p = ½ or p > ½. In particular, in the special case of the cubic flux-function and for the regularization (|ux|pux)x with p = 0, ½ or 1, the kinetic function can be computed explicitly. When p = ½, the kinetic function is simply a linear function of its argument.
Research progress on specific and non-specific immune effects of BCG and the possibility of BCG protection against COVID-19

Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only approved vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) prevention worldwide. BCG has an excellent protective effect on miliary tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis in children or infants. Interestingly, a growing number of studies have shown that BCG vaccination can induce nonspecific and specific immunity to fight against other respiratory disease pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2. The continuous emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2 makes the protective efficiency of COVID-19-specific vaccines an unprecedented challenge. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that BCG-induced trained immunity might protect against COVID-19 infection. This study comprehensively described BCG-induced nonspecific and specific immunity and the mechanism of trained immunity. In addition, this study also reviewed the research on BCG revaccination to prevent TB, the impact of BCG on other non-tuberculous diseases, and the clinical trials of BCG to prevent COVID-19 infection. These data will provide new evidence to confirm the hypotheses mentioned above.