Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein expression during seed development in Araucaria angustifolia: transient accumulation of class IV chitinases and arabinogalactan proteins

Protein accumulation and patterns during embryogenesis in the recalcitrant seeds of the gymnosperm species Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Kuntze were studied. Soluble seed proteins, chitinases, and arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) were analyzed by means of 2-D gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, isoelectric focusing, Western blot, precipitation and staining with β-glucosyl Yariv reagent (β-Glc)3Y, and gas liquid chromatography. Despite the recalcitrant nature of the seeds, the electrophoretic patterns of A. angustifolia seed proteins showed similarities with orthodox seed types. Proteins showing chitinolytic activity were observed in all seed stages analyzed, but the expression of class IV chitinases was restricted to late stages of seed development. AGPs were prominent during stages of seed development characterized by intensive cell division and differentiation, and their decrease during seed maturation might be related to cell wall modifications during the deposition of storage compounds. Gas liquid chromatographic analyzes of AGPs did not show quantitative changes in their carbohydrate moieties during seed development. A low molecular weight protein specifically expressed in mature seeds was precipitated using (β-Glc)3Y. Amino acid sequences obtained from MS/MS analysis revealed peptides rich in valine and acidic amino acids, but devoid in amino acids normally found in AGPs polypeptides, suggesting that these peptides are not related to classical or non-classical AGPs. Possible implications of chitinases and AGPs during seed development in A. angustifolia are discussed.
The role of postoperative administration of antibiotics in prevention of infection after open reduction of mandibular compound fractures: A randomized double-blind placebo controlled pilot clinical study

Materials and Methods: This is a randomized, double-blind clinical study using a placebo control. 65 patients diagnosed with mandibular fractures underwent open reduction and internal fixation surgery. The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: antibiotic group (38 patients) and placebo group (27 patients), based on whether or not they received postoperative antibiotics. Both groups received preoperative as well as intraoperative antibiotics on the day of surgery. The antibiotic group was postoperatively given clindamycin 600 mg IV every 8 hours for 5-7 days. The placebo group received placebo using the same schedule for the same duration as the antibiotic group. Follow-up examination was performed at discharge, 2 and 3 weeks, postoperatively.
Culture and cryopreservation of endothelial cells in vitro in infantile hemangioma

Objective To investigate isolation and cryopreservation techniques of endothelial cells of infantile hemangioma(HemECs)in vitro,and provide suitable resource for researches.Methods HemECs were isolated by immunomagnetic beads after collagenase digestion and cultured in EGM-2 with 20%fetal bovine serum.HemECs and the purity were identified by immunofluorescence staining and vWF.HemECs were suspended in cryopreservation solution and stored in liquid nitrogen.The viability,morphology,reproductive curve,intake ability of Dil-Ac-LDL and apoptosis rate of cells were compared between non-frozen HemECs and the thawy HeFnECs.Results High-purified HemECs could be harvested successfully by collagenase digestion procedure followed by CD31 immunomagnetic beads sorting.The cell vitality of the thawy HemECs was 94.8%of non-frozen HemECs.There were similar in morphology,cellular reproductive curve and proliferative abilities between the thawy HemECs and non-frozen ones.The apoptosis rate of the thawy HemECs(9.15%±0.34%)was higher than that of the non-frozen(5.31%±0.23%)but without statistical difference.Conclusions Immunomagnetic isolation subsequent to collagenase digestion can effectively isolate HetnECs from the proliferative hemangioma.The thawy HemECs are kept high vitality and reproductive potentiality in vitro.These cells could be supplied the stable resources for further researches on hemangioma. Key words: Hernangioma; Endothelial cell; Cell culture techniques
Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry Psychiatric symptomatology associated with depression, anxiety, distress, and insomnia in health professionals working in patients a ﬀ ected by COVID-19: A systematic review with meta-analysis

A B S T A C Background: Health professionals are key personnel to containing infectious diseases like COVID-19. In the face of long work shifts (that reach 16 h per day on average), the risk of getting infected by a high-infectious disease and the lack of enough biological protection measures, mental su ﬀ ering among health professionals suddenly became evident. Method: We carried out an updated meta-analysis to investigate the psychiatric impacts on health professionals in the face of the physical and psychological conditions to which they are subjected due to the high demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. Papers were researched in four databases from December 2019 to April 2020. In total, eight papers were included in the study. Results: Health professionals working to ﬁ ght COVID-19 are being more severely a ﬀ ected by psychiatric dis- orders associated with depression, anxiety, distress and insomnia, stress, and indirect traumatization than other occupational groups. No signi ﬁ cant di ﬀ erences were observed in the publication bias. Conclusion: There is a strong association between health professionals and COVID-19 in terms of psychiatric repercussions. Our meta-analysis showed that health professionals have a higher level of indirect traumatization, in which the level of damage exceeds psychological and emotional tolerance and indirectly results in psychological abnormalities. The incidence of obsessive-compulsive traces and somatizations was higher in situations involving front-line professionals.
Zur psychometrischen Differenzierbarkeit von sozialen Ängsten und sozialen Defiziten. Eine empirische Studie an nichtklinischen und klinischen Stichproben.

Bei der Sozialen Phobie / Sozialen Angststorung stehen zwei theoretisch differenzierbare Storungsmerkmale im Zentrum der Symptomatik: soziale Angste und soziale Defizite. Welche Art der Behandlung erforderlich ist (Angstbehandlung, Soziales Kompetenztraining), hangt von der Auspragung und Konstellation der beiden Symptome ab. Daher ist die eingangsdiagnostische differentielle Erfassung der beiden Storungskomponenten wichtig fur die gezielte Indikation und die Therapieplanung. Bislang existierende klinisch-diagnostische Instrumente leisten diese Differenzierung nicht bzw. nur unzureichend, da sie den Aspekt der sozialen Defizite nicht explizit berucksichtigen. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde ein Analyse-Instrument konstruiert mit der Intention, soziale Angste und soziale Defizite bei der Sozialen Phobie / Sozialen Angststorung reliabel und valide getrennt zu erfassen. Die Entwicklung und Evaluation des Selbstrating-Instruments erfolgte entlang testtheoretischer Anforderungen im Rahmen von vier Unterstudien (Hauptstudie, Replikationsstudie, Reteststudie, klinische Validierungsstudie), in denen insgesamt 413 gesunde erwachsene Personen sowie 68 Patienten mit diagnostizierter Sozialphobie, einige davon mit Angstlicher (vermeidender) Personlichkeitsstorung, untersucht wurden. Der Fragebogen enthalt insgesamt funf faktorenanalytisch gestutzte Subskalen, wovon sich die ersten vier auf die beiden Dimensionen soziale Angste und soziale Defizite beziehen: zwei Subskalen beschreiben charakteristische Aspekte sozialer Angst (Sprech- und Mittelpunktsangst; Angst vor Ablehnung), zwei Subskalen zielen auf Symptome sozialer Defizite (Interaktionsdefizite, Informationsverarbeitungsdefizite). Der funfte Faktor betrifft das Merkmal Einsamkeit, das konzeptionell weder unter Angsten noch Defiziten zu fassen ist, im Storungsgeschehen der Sozialen Phobie / Sozialen Angststorung jedoch eine herausragende Rolle einnehmen kann. Daher blieb die Subskala Einsamkeit im Forschungsprozess unter Beobachtung. Die ermittelten Befunde zur Reliabilitat und Validitat des Fragebogens sind ermutigend. Angesichts der Grenzen vorhandener diagnostischer Skalen zur Erfassung der Sozialen Phobie durfte sich das neu entwickelte Instrument als nutzliche Erganzung zu den etablierten Fragebogen erweisen.
Modeling and numerical simulation of action potential patterns in human atrial tissues

Electrophysiology of the heart is the subject of a vast interdisciplinary literature, from medical sciences through bio-engineering,physiology, chemistry and physics. The difficulty in having access to direct measures on real patients entailed the coupling of such studies with numerical simulations. Several works have been done on this topic, focusing mainly on the behavior of the ventricles. In this paper we focus on atrial simulation: we present a reaction-diffusion model coupled with the simple Fitz-Hugh-Nagumo (FHN) model and the more complex Courtemanche-Ramirez-Nattel (CRN) model, wich has been derived explicitely for human atrial cells. Numerical experiments are performed with both the bidomain and the monodomain models to simulate the evolution of a complete heartbeat.
Conidial Persistence and Competitive Ability of the Antagonist Ulocladium atrum on Strawberry Leaves

The persistence of conidia and competitive ability of Ulocladium atrum , an antagonist of Botrytis cinerea , were studied in field plots of strawberry in The Netherlands. Single application of conidial suspensions (2 - 10 6 conidia ml -1 ) of U. atrum were sprayed on the canopy and repeated 14 times, each in a different plot during the spring, summer or early winter of 1997 and 1998. Leaf samples were taken approximately weekly in the summer crops and monthly in the overwintering crops up to 30-120 days after application, to assess total conidial density, conidial viability, and competitive colonization of necrotic leaf tissue by U. atrum in relation to naturally occurring B. cinerea and other necrotrophic fungi. The total density of U. atrum conidia on green strawberry leaves declined exponentially after application by an average relative rate of -0.10/day. Variation in the rate of decrease between individual sprays was large and partly associated with the average daily precipitation during the first week after application. For pooled data, percentage viability of U. atrum conidia declined linearly at a rate of 1%/day after application. Colonization of necrotic strawberry leaf tissue by U. atrum increased with total conidial density and, at densities > 1500 conidia cm -2 , leaf colonization by naturally occurring B. cinerea was consistently reduced. With the exponential decline in total conidial density of U. atrum , effective suppression of B. cinerea on strawberry leaves can only be expected when U. atrum is applied less than one week before the leaves become necrotic. Further research needs to focus on enhanced rain-fastness of deposited conidia of U. atrum to reduce spore loss.
Disturbing Dreams and Psychosocial Maladjustment in Children: A Prospective Study of the Moderating Role of Early Negative Emotionality

Although frequent disturbing dreams, including bad dreams and nightmares, have been repeatedly associated with poor psychological well-being in adults, considerably less information exists on their psychosocial correlates in children. Recent empirical and theoretical contributions suggest that the association between disturbing dream frequency and psychosocial adaptation in children may differ as a function of children's negative emotionality. The current study assessed the moderating effect of very early negative emotionality (17 months of age) in the relation between disturbing dream frequency and psychosocial maladjustment (i.e., externalizing + internalizing behaviors) in a sample of 173 11-year-old children. Mixed-model analyses revealed that disturbing dream frequency was associated with some internalizing behaviors but that the association between disturbing dream frequency and most externalizing behaviors was moderated by early negative emotionality. The latter result indicates that the relation between disturbing dream frequency and externalizing behaviors was significant in 11-year-old children showing moderate negative emotionality early in life, but particularly strong in those children with high early negative emotionality. Whereas, a moderating effect of early negative emotionality was not found between disturbing dream frequency and internalizing behaviors, the findings highlight the more specific role of early emotional negativity as a developmental moderator for the link between disturbing dreams and externalizing behaviors in children. The results are discussed in light of recent models of disturbed dreaming production.
Learning non-rigid, 3D shape variations using statistical, physical and geometric models

3D shape modelling is a fundamental component in computer vision and computer graphics. Applications include shape interpolation and extrapolation, shape reconstruction, motion capture and mesh editing, etc. By “modelling” we mean the process of learning a parameter-driven model. This thesis focused on the scope of statistical modelling for 3D non-rigid shapes, such as human faces and bodies. The problem is challenging due to highly non-linear deformations, high dimensionality, and data sparsity. Several new algorithms are proposed for 3D shape modelling, 3D shape matching (computing dense correspondence) and applications. First, we propose a variant of Principal Component Analysis called “Shell PCA” which provides a physically-inspired statistical shape model. This is our first attempt to use a physically plausible metric (specifically, the discrete shell model) for statistical shape modelling. Second, we further develop this line of work into a fully Riemannian approach called “Shell PGA”. We demonstrate how to perform Principal Geodesic Analysis in the space of discrete shells. To achieve this, we present an alternate formulation of PGA which avoids working in the tangent space and deals with shapes lying on the manifold directly. Unlike displacement-based methods, Shell PGA is invariant to rigid body motion, and therefore alignment preprocessing such as Procrustes analysis is not needed. Third, we propose a groupwise shape matching method using functional map representation. Targeting at near-isometric deformations, we consider groupwise optimisation of consistent functional maps over a product of Stiefel manifolds, and optimise over a minimal subset of the transformations for efficiency. Last, we show that our proposed shape model achieves state-of-the-art performance in two very challenging applications: handle-based mesh editing, and model fitting using motion capture data. We also contribute a new algorithm for human body shape estimation using clothed scan sequence, along with a new dataset “BUFF” for evaluation.
Cancer Stem Cells—Origins and Biomarkers: Perspectives for Targeted Personalized Therapies

The use of biomarkers in diagnosis, therapy and prognosis has gained increasing interest over the last decades. In particular, the analysis of biomarkers in cancer patients within the pre- and post-therapeutic period is required to identify several types of cells, which carry a risk for a disease progression and subsequent post-therapeutic relapse. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of tumor cells that can drive tumor initiation and can cause relapses. At the time point of tumor initiation, CSCs originate from either differentiated cells or adult tissue resident stem cells. Due to their importance, several biomarkers that characterize CSCs have been identified and correlated to diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. However, CSCs have been shown to display a high plasticity, which changes their phenotypic and functional appearance. Such changes are induced by chemo- and radiotherapeutics as well as senescent tumor cells, which cause alterations in the tumor microenvironment. Induction of senescence causes tumor shrinkage by modulating an anti-tumorigenic environment in which tumor cells undergo growth arrest and immune cells are attracted. Besides these positive effects after therapy, senescence can also have negative effects displayed post-therapeutically. These unfavorable effects can directly promote cancer stemness by increasing CSC plasticity phenotypes, by activating stemness pathways in non-CSCs, as well as by promoting senescence escape and subsequent activation of stemness pathways. At the end, all these effects can lead to tumor relapse and metastasis. This review provides an overview of the most frequently used CSC markers and their implementation as biomarkers by focussing on deadliest solid (lung, stomach, liver, breast and colorectal cancers) and hematological (acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia) cancers. Furthermore, it gives examples on how the CSC markers might be influenced by therapeutics, such as chemo- and radiotherapy, and the tumor microenvironment. It points out, that it is crucial to identify and monitor residual CSCs, senescent tumor cells, and the pro-tumorigenic senescence-associated secretory phenotype in a therapy follow-up using specific biomarkers. As a future perspective, a targeted immune-mediated strategy using chimeric antigen receptor based approaches for the removal of remaining chemotherapy-resistant cells as well as CSCs in a personalized therapeutic approach are discussed.
COVID-19 in Africa: Dampening the storm?

The dampened course of COVID-19 in Africa might reveal innovative solutions Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly and extensively to most countries in the world, resulting in considerable mortality in Europe and the United States, as well as in numerous upper-middle-income countries in South America and Asia. Experts predicted millions of COVID-19 deaths in Africa because many countries in the continent rank poorly on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index. However, more than 4 months after the first cases in Africa were detected, prevalence and mortality are still low. It remains unclear if Africa is really spared from substantial cases and deaths. However, differences between Africa and the most affected countries in reliable reporting and death registration, lockdown stringency, demography, sociocultural aspects, environmental exposures, genetics, and the immune system could help to explain the experience of COVID-19 in Africa.
How to Count Our Microbes? The Effect of Different Quantitative Microbiome Profiling Approaches

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has instigated the research on the role of the microbiome in health and disease. The compositional nature of such microbiome datasets makes it however challenging to identify those microbial taxa that are truly associated with an intervention or health outcome. Quantitative microbiome profiling overcomes the compositional structure of microbiome sequencing data by integrating absolute quantification of microbial abundances into the NGS data. Both cell-based methods (e.g., flow cytometry) and molecular methods (qPCR) have been used to determine the absolute microbial abundances, but to what extent different quantification methods generate similar quantitative microbiome profiles has so far not been explored. Here we compared relative microbiome profiling (without incorporation of microbial quantification) to three variations of quantitative microbiome profiling: (1) microbial cell counting using flow cytometry (QMP), (2) counting of microbial cells using flow cytometry combined with Propidium Monoazide pre-treatment of fecal samples before metagenomics DNA isolation in order to only profile the microbial composition of intact cells (QMP-PMA), and (3) molecular based quantification of the microbial load using qPCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Although qPCR and flow cytometry both resulted in accurate and strongly correlated results when quantifying the bacterial abundance of a mock community of bacterial cells, the two methods resulted in highly divergent quantitative microbial profiles when analyzing the microbial composition of fecal samples from 16 healthy volunteers. These differences could not be attributed to the presence of free extracellular prokaryotic DNA in the fecal samples as sample pre-treatment with Propidium Monoazide did not improve the concordance between qPCR-based and flow cytometry-based QMP. Also lack of precision of qPCR was ruled out as a major cause of the disconcordant findings, since quantification of the fecal microbial load by the highly sensitive digital droplet PCR correlated strongly with qPCR. In conclusion, quantitative microbiome profiling is an elegant approach to bypass the compositional nature of microbiome NGS data, however it is important to realize that technical sources of variability may introduce substantial additional bias depending on the quantification method being used.
Current Situation of the Presence of Dirofilaria immitis in Dogs and Humans in Bucaramanga, Colombia

The cardiopulmonary dirofilariosis caused by Dirofilaria immitis, is a vector-borne infection, which can be transmitted to humans. The main hosts are both domestic and wild canids. This species mainly occurs in tropical and subtropical climates, and temperature and humidity are the main factors that favor the presence and proliferation of culicid mosquitoes as vectors of the disease. There are few reports of cardiopulmonary dirofilariosis in dogs and humans in Colombia, a region with favorable climatic conditions which favors the presence of mosquitoes that act as vectors of the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to examine its current prevalence in dogs and the risk of human exposure to the disease in Bucaramanga, one of the most populated areas in Colombia located at the center of the country. Furthermore, its demographic and environmental characteristics could be useful as a study model for other similar locations and neighboring countries. Serum samples from 351 dogs and 506 humans from the Bucaramanga Metropolitan area were analyzed. All dog samples were analyzed by Knott's technique and tested with a commercial immunochromatographic to detect the presence of circulating antigens of D. immitis. Human samples were analyzed using a non-commercial ELISA test kit to detect IgG against the somatic antigens of adult D. immitis and Wolbachia. Positive results were further confirmed using western blot analysis. Thirty-eight dogs tested positive with a overall prevalence of 10.82%. Of these dogs, 18 showed D. immitis microfilariae, being 5.12% of the total population. The overall seroprevalence in humans was 6.71%; seroprevalence was significantly higher in individuals aged 16–34 years-old and in women than in men. To our knowledge, this study describes seropositivity to D. immitis for the first time in a Colombian human population located in the same area as that of dogs infected with D. immitis, which represents a potential threat to public health. In humans, age and gender can be considered risk factors for exposure to D. immitis.
Math Performance and Sex: The Predictive Capacity of Self-Efficacy, Interest and Motivation for Learning Mathematics

Differences between the sexes in education is something of particular interest in much research. This study sought to investigate the possible differences between the sexes in math performance, and to deeply examine the causal factors for those differences. Beginning from the administration of the BECOMA-On (Online Evaluation Battery of Mathematics Skills) to 3,795 5th year primary students aged 10–11, in 16 Spanish autonomous communities and the 2 autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The results for each sex were compared to their perceptions of self-efficacy about completing the test items, and with their interest in and motivation for mathematics. Statistically significant differences were seen in the variables examined. The boys were generally more engaged with science and technical subjects. Generalizing from studies such as this aims to more thoroughly explore, and improve this situation.