Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis after subarachnoid hemorrhage: A review and synthesis

Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has been associated with numerous pathophysiological sequelae, including large artery vasospasm and microvascular thrombosis. The focus of this review is to provide an overview of experimental animal model studies and human autopsy studies that explore the temporal-spatial characterization and mechanism of microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis following SAH, as well as to critically assess experimental studies and clinical trials highlighting preventative therapeutic options against this highly morbid pathophysiological process. Upon review of the literature, we discovered that microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis occur after experimental SAH across multiple species and SAH induction techniques in a similar time frame to other components of DCI, occurring in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus across both hemispheres. We discuss the relationship of these findings to human autopsy studies. In the final section of this review, we highlight the important therapeutic options for targeting microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis, and emphasize why therapeutic targeting of this neurovascular pathology may improve patient care. We encourage ongoing research into the pathophysiology of SAH and DCI, especially in regard to microvascular platelet aggregation and thrombosis and the translation to randomized clinical trials.
Scale‐free functional brain dynamics during recovery from sport‐related concussion

Studies using blood‐oxygenation‐level‐dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) have characterized how the resting brain is affected by concussion. The literature to date, however, has largely focused on measuring changes in the spatial organization of functional brain networks. In the present study, changes in the temporal dynamics of BOLD signals are examined throughout concussion recovery using scaling (or fractal) analysis. Imaging data were collected for 228 university‐level athletes, 61 with concussion and 167 athletic controls. Concussed athletes were scanned at the acute phase of injury (1–7 days postinjury), the subacute phase (8–14 days postinjury), medical clearance to return to sport (RTS), 1 month post‐RTS and 1 year post‐RTS. The wavelet leader multifractal approach was used to assess scaling ( c1) and multifractal ( c2) behavior. Significant longitudinal changes were identified for c1, which was lowest at acute injury, became significantly elevated at RTS, and returned near control levels by 1 year post‐RTS. No longitudinal changes were identified for c2. Secondary analyses showed that clinical measures of acute symptom severity and time to RTP were related to longitudinal changes in c1. Athletes with both higher symptoms and prolonged recovery had elevated c1 values at RTS, while athletes with higher symptoms but rapid recovery had reduced c1 at acute injury. This study provides the first evidence for long‐term recovery of BOLD scale‐free brain dynamics after a concussion.
Possible Involvement of β-Lactamase in Sporulation in Bacillus cereus

Nonreverting β-lactamase-negative strains were isolated from the β-lactamase-constitutive strain, Bacillus cereus 569 H. These strains differed from both β-lactamase-inducible and -constitutive strains not only in failure to produce β-lactamase but also in failure to autolyze on aging, delayed sporulation, and failure to release free spores from sporangia when produced. The addition of B. cereus β-lactamase of 15% purity to a final concentration of 10 IU/ml stimulates sporulation and particularly the release of free spores in culture from sporangia of strain 569 (inducible wild-type), 569/H (constitutive mutant of 569), and HPen−, a nonreverting β-lactamase strain isolated from 569/H in this laboratory. Cultures of HPen− did not release free spores without this treatment. Similar stimulation of sporulation and spore release by β-lactamase from B. cereus were observed in another β-lactamase-negative strain derived from 569/H as well as in certain sporogeny mutants of B. subtilis. The β-lactamase preparation used in these experiments was free of peptidases, proteases, and autolysins capable of solubilizing wall from vegetative cells. These results, taken with our previous finding that a soluble peptidoglycan inducer becomes available in cultures of B. cereus only at sporulation and that normal derepression of β-lactamase accompanies normal sporulation, suggest that β-lactamase in B. cereus may be involved in peptidoglycan metabolism during sporulation and possibly the breakdown of sporangial wall with the concomitant release of mature spores.
Monitoring Dermacentor reticulatus Host-Seeking Activity in Natural Conditions

Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites of humans and animals. These arthropods employ different strategies in their host-seeking activity; most often, it is the “nest”- and “pasture-questing” behaviour. Some species, e.g., Dermacentor reticulatus, exhibit both types of activity depending on their developmental stage. The aim of the present study was to investigate the host-seeking activity of adult D. reticulatus ticks in the eastern part of Poland. To this end, ticks were collected with the flagging method during their seasonal activity in three different types of habitat. Active specimens were marked with a permanent marker and then released. This was repeated consistently at 7-day intervals using a different colour of the marker each time, which allowed tracking the questing activity of the specimens. Most frequently, repetitive tick activity (repeated up to seven times) was noted in a locality surrounded by urban developments. In an agriculturally unused open meadow habitat, 69.9% of D. reticulatus ticks were found to undertake questing activity only once. D. reticulatus females proved to be more aggressive and determined to find a host than the males of this species. Adult D. reticulatus ticks are able to stay in the habitat for a long time and undertake multiple host-seeking activities. The greatest threat of attacks on animals, including domestic animals, and sporadically humans, by these ticks occurs in meadow habitats, which are preferred by this species.
Biodiversity of endophytic fungiisolated from selected graminaceous hosts of Mercara region in Karnataka.

Accepted : September, 2010 Endophytes are the endosymbionts, often may be a fungus and rarely a bacterium that lives within a plant for at least part of its life without causing apparent disease. They usually occur in above ground plant tissues, but also occasionally in roots. They are distinguished from mycorrhiza by lacking external hyphae or mantel (Kumerasen and Suryanarayan, 2002). Endophytes may be the ‘treasure trove’ for new pharmaceutical agents and agrochemical compounds. There is a strong need for new drug especially antibiotic, anticancer agent, immunomodulatory compounds and low toxic drought resistant agrochemicals (Huang et al., 2008) it is not surprising therefore, that the bulk of the world’s food supply comes from this family. They also include plants that are used for medicinal purposes. Graminae (Poaceae), is one of the largest families in monocots which include grasses along with rice, wheat, jowar, maize, sugarcane, corn, bamboo etc (Redlin and Carris,1996). In the present investigations, studies were focused on inventerlization of endophytic diversity on some important members of Graminae.
A VHH-Based Anti-MUC1 Chimeric Antigen Receptor for Specific Retargeting of Human Primary T Cells to MUC1-Positive Cancer Cells

Objective Immunotherapy with redirected T cells that express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is a promising prospect in cancer treatment. Most CARs use murine-derived single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) as an antigen targeting moiety, which may lead to host immunogenic responses and engineered T cell disappearance. It seems that development of less immunogenic CARs, such as CARs composed of the camelid variable domain of heavy chain antibodies (VHHs) may likely overcome this obstacle. Here, we improved the expression of the VHH-based anti-MUC1 CAR gene construct using a third generation lentiviral vector in primary human T cells and assessed its effect on antigen specific targeting, activation and cytotoxicity of redirected human T cells. Materials and Methods In this experimental study, we established a second generation novel CAR (VHH-based anti- MUC1 CAR) that contained a camelid-derived anti-MUC1 VHH followed by an IgG3 hinge, a CD28 transmembrane domain and signalling endodomains of CD28 and CD3+. Next, we constructed lentiviral vectors that contained this CAR gene construct using an optimized transiently virus production method and transduced it into human T cells. Cell surface expression of CAR, cytokine secretion and cytotoxic activity were assessed in the transduced CD3+T cells. Results The transduced T cells had high levels of surface expression of CAR. T cells that expressed anti-MUC1 CAR showed significantly increased secretion of Th1 cytokines, including IL-2, TNF alpha and IFN-γ, as well as cytotoxic activity upon recognition of MUC1 on tumour cells after co-incubation with T47D or MCF-7 (MUC1-positive) compared with A431 (MUC1-negative) or untransduced T cells. Conclusion Our results suggested that, given the unique properties of VHHs to prevent immunogenic responses and tonic signalling, our novel VHH-based anti-MUC1 CAR might be effective for clinical purposes in cancer immunotherapy.
SGC-VSLAM: A Semantic and Geometric Constraints VSLAM for Dynamic Indoor Environments

As one of the core technologies for autonomous mobile robots, Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) has been widely researched in recent years. However, most state-of-the-art VSLAM adopts a strong scene rigidity assumption for analytical convenience, which limits the utility of these algorithms for real-world environments with independent dynamic objects. Hence, this paper presents a semantic and geometric constraints VSLAM (SGC-VSLAM), which is built on the RGB-D mode of ORB-SLAM2 with the addition of dynamic detection and static point cloud map construction modules. In detail, a novel improved quadtree-based method was adopted for SGC-VSLAM to enhance the performance of the feature extractor in ORB-SLAM (Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF-SLAM). Moreover, a new dynamic feature detection method called semantic and geometric constraints was proposed, which provided a robust and fast way to filter dynamic features. The semantic bounding box generated by YOLO v3 (You Only Look Once, v3) was used to calculate a more accurate fundamental matrix between adjacent frames, which was then used to filter all of the truly dynamic features. Finally, a static point cloud was estimated by using a new drawing key frame selection strategy. Experiments on the public TUM RGB-D (Red-Green-Blue Depth) dataset were conducted to evaluate the proposed approach. This evaluation revealed that the proposed SGC-VSLAM can effectively improve the positioning accuracy of the ORB-SLAM2 system in high-dynamic scenarios and was also able to build a map with the static parts of the real environment, which has long-term application value for autonomous mobile robots.
Effects of Rehabilitation Interventions on Clinical Outcomes in Critically Ill Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials*

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: To assess the impact of rehabilitation in ICU on clinical outcomes. Data Sources: Secondary data analysis of randomized controlled trials published between 1998 and October 2019 was performed in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Study Selection: We have selected trials investigating neuromuscular electrical stimulation or cycling exercises or protocolized physical rehabilitation as compared to standard of care in critically ill adults. Data Extraction: Mortality, length of stay in ICU and at hospital, days on mechanical ventilator, and adverse events. Data Synthesis: We found 43 randomized controlled trials (nine on cycling, 14 on neuromuscular electrical stimulation alone and 20 on protocolized physical rehabilitation) into which 3,548 patients were randomized and none of whom experienced an intervention-related serious adverse event. The exercise interventions had no influence on mortality (odds ratio 0.94 [0.79–1.12], n = 38 randomized controlled trials) but reduced duration of mechanical ventilation (mean difference, –1.7 d [–2.5 to –0.8 d], n = 32, length of stay in ICU (–1.2 d [–2.5 to 0.0 d], n = 32) but not at hospital (–1.6 [–4.3 to 1.2 d], n = 23). The effects on the length of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay were only significant for the protocolized physical rehabilitation subgroup and enhanced in patients with longer ICU stay and lower Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores. There was no benefit of early start of the intervention. It is likely that the dose of rehabilitation delivered was much lower than dictated by the protocol in many randomized controlled trials and negative results may reflect the failure to implement the intervention. Conclusions: Rehabilitation interventions in critically ill patients do not influence mortality and are safe. Protocolized physical rehabilitation significantly shortens time spent on mechanical ventilation and in ICU, but this does not consistently translate into long-term functional benefit. Stable patients with lower Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II at admission (<20) and prone to protracted ICU stay may benefit most from rehabilitation interventions.
Properties of Salvia officinalis L. and Thymus serpyllum L. Extracts Free and Embedded into Mesopores of Silica and Titania Nanomaterials

This study evidenced the nanoconfinement effect on polyphenolic extracts prepared from Salvia officinalis L. and Thymus serpyllum L. into the mesopores of silica and titania nanomaterials on their radical scavenging capacity and antimicrobial potential. The ethanolic and hydroalcoholic extracts obtained either by conventional or microwave-assisted extraction were characterized in terms of total polyphenols, total flavonoids, and chlorophyll content, as well as radical scavenging activity by consecrated spectrometric determinations. The phytochemical fingerprint of extracts was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detector. Salvia officinalis extracts exhibited better radical scavenging capacity and antimicrobial potential than Thymus serpyllum extracts. The mesoporous MCM-41 silica and titania nanomaterials, prepared by the sol–gel method, were characterized by small- and wide-angle powder diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, while the materials containing embedded extracts were analyzed through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, N2 sorption measurements, and thermal analysis. All extracts free and embedded in mesoporous matrix exhibited high radical scavenger properties and good bactericidal activity against several reference strains. It was proved that by embedding the polyphenolic extracts into mesopores of silica or titania nanoparticles, the phytochemicals stability was enhanced as the materials containing extract exhibited higher radical scavenger activity after 3–6 months storage than that of the free extracts. Additionally, the extract-loaded material showed mild improved antimicrobial activity in comparison with the corresponding free extract.
Scoring systems for the evaluation of adnexal masses nature: current knowledge and clinical applications

Abstract Adnexal masses are a common finding in women, with 20% of them developing at least one pelvic mass during their lifetime. There are more than 30 different subtypes of adnexal tumours, with multiple different subcategories, and the correct characterisation of the pelvic masses is of paramount importance to guide the correct management. On that basis, different algorithms and scoring systems have been developed to guide the clinical assessment. The first scoring system implemented into the clinical practice was the Risk of Malignancy Index, which combines ultrasound evaluation, menopausal status, and serum CA-125 levels. Today, current guidelines regarding female patients with adnexal masses include the application of International Ovarian Tumours Analysis simple rules, logistic regression model 1 (LR1) and LR2, OVERA, cancer ovarii non-invasive assessment of treating strategy, and assessment of Different Neoplasias in the adnexa. In this scenario, the choice of the scoring system for the discrimination between benign and malignant ovarian tumours can be complex when approaching patients with adnexal masses. This review aims to summarise the available evidence regarding the different scoring systems to provide a complete overview of the topic.
The Role of miRNA and Related Pathways in Pathophysiology of Uterine Fibroids—From Bench to Bedside

Uterine fibroids (UFs) are the most common benign tumors of the female genital tract. Their prevalence usually is estimated at 30–40%, but may reach up to 70–80% in predisposed groups of women. UFs may cause various clinical issues which might constitute the major reason of the overall deterioration of the quality of life. The mechanisms leading to UFs formation and growth still remain poorly understood. The transformation of smooth muscle cells of the uterus into abnormal, immortal cells, capable of clonal division, is thought to be a starting point of all pathways leading to UF formation. Micro-ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) are non-coding single-stranded RNAs about 22 nucleotides in length, that regulate gene expression. One of recent advances in this field is the comprehension of the role of miRNAs in tumorigenesis. Alterations in the levels of miRNAs are related to the formation and growth of several tumors which show a distinct miRNA signature. The aim of this review is to summarize the current data about the role of miRNAs in the pathophysiology of UFs. We also discuss future directions in the miRNA research area with an emphasis on novel diagnostic opportunities or patient-tailored therapies. In our opinion data concerning the regulation of miRNA and its gene targets in the UFs are still insufficient in comparison with gynecological malignancies. The potential translational use of miRNA and derived technologies in the clinical care is at the early phase and needs far more evidence. However, it is one of the main areas of interest for the future as the use of miRNAs in the diagnostics and treatment of UFs is a new and exciting opportunity.
Capturing the perspectives of women with coronary artery disease regarding interval training or continuous exercise in cardiac rehabilitation

Abstract Background Motivators and barriers to exercise participation in women with coronary artery disease remain poorly understood. With evidence suggesting that women with coronary artery disease are less likely to adhere to exercise during cardiac rehabilitation and are more likely to drop out, it is important to understand these factors in order to optimize cardiac rehabilitation programs for women. Methods We contribute to the discussion by presenting findings from a qualitative study using two focus groups with nine women with coronary artery disease sharing their experiences with attending cardiac rehabilitation and exercising in this setting, in addition to their perceived motivators and barriers to performing aerobic interval training. Focus group transcripts were analysed using a deductive thematic approach with Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory as the guiding conceptual framework. Results Four themes were identified regarding the attitudes and experiences of attending and exercising at cardiac rehabilitation, while five themes capturing the motivators and barriers for these women to perform aerobic interval training were identified for the first time. These novel themes encompassed the daunting nature of it, the physical discomfort associated with it, and conversely, the potential sense of enjoyment and accomplishment that it could bring. Conclusion This study demonstrates the complexity of implementation of aerobic interval training into clinical practice, and suggests that further research is warranted to explore this domain. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Despite challenges in feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial in female patients with coronary artery disease examining the effects of aerobic interval training versus moderate-intensity continuous exercise on aerobic exercise capacity, there was a significant per protocol treatment effect of 0.95 ml·kg−1·min−1 in favour of aerobic interval training. The cardiac rehabilitation environment provides key facilitators and perceived benefits for exercising and attending cardiac rehabilitation for women, and thus emphasises the need for improving referral and enrolment processes specifically for women into cardiac rehabilitation programs. Aerobic interval training may elicit feelings of fear and physical discomfort, or may be precluded by comorbid conditions, therefore, judicious consideration must be taken in examining the suitability of implementation into clinical practice for each female patient.
Antagonistic activities of endophytic bacteria against Fusarium wilt of black pepper (Piper nigrum).

Fusarium wilt is a fungal disease, which affects a broad range of plants including black pepper (Piper nigrum). Fusarium solani f. sp. piperis is a common causal agent of root rots and stem blight in black pepper. F. oxysporum Schl. f. sp. piperis, a less common but an important pathogen of black pepper. The biological approach to control F. oxysporum is becoming popular in many crop plants however there is lack of scientific record in black pepper. Endophytic bacteria were isolated from black pepper roots and cultured on nutrient agar. The bacterial isolates were screened for in vitro antagonistic activity against F. oxysporum through dual culture, mycelial growth, spore germination and double plate tests. Five isolates with promising antifungal activity were further identified through 16S rDNA sequencing. Isolates EB1 and EB2 showed highest antagonism against F. oxysporum mycelia with the percentage of inhibition up to 43% and 41%, respectively. Isolated EB3, EB4 and EB5 produced clearing zones in spore germination test with radii measurements at 12.5-15.0 mm. The antifungal activities apparently involved the secretion of volatile and diffusible bioactive compounds. Analysis of the 16S rDNA sequences suggested the closest identities of the bacterial isolates as Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter sp. and Bacillus sp. Five endophytic bacteria isolates demonstrated significant control over both mycelia growth and spore germination of F. oxysporum. Some of these bacteria might possess additional beneficial plant growth promoting and insecticidal properties for the development of multi-function products in black pepper farming.