Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Screening of Potassium- and Phosphate-Solubilizing Actinobacteria and the Assessment of Their Ability to Promote Wheat Growth Parameters

Soil fertility and plant nutrition require an adequate management of essential macronutrients such as potassium (K) and phosphorus (P), which are mandatory for plant development. Bioleaching of K and P bearing minerals improves their chemical weathering and increases the performance of the biofertilization strategies. In this study, in vitro and greenhouse experiments were carried out to investigate P and K solubilization traits of nine Actinobacteria (P13, P14, P15, P16, P17, P18, BC3, BC10, and BC11) under fertilization with rock phosphate (RP). K and P solubilization were evaluated on Alexandrov and NBRIP media containing mica and six RP samples, respectively. The actinobacterial strains were able to solubilize K in Alexandrov medium supplemented with RP. However, when soluble P was used instead of RP, only four strains of Actinobacteria (Streptomyces alboviridis P18–Streptomyces griseorubens BC3–Streptomyces griseorubens BC10 and Nocardiopsis alba BC11) solubilized K. The solubilization values of K ranged from 2.6 to 41.45 mg/L while those of P varied from 0.1 to 32 mg/L. Moreover, all strains were able to produce IAA, siderophore, HCN, and ammonia and significantly improved the germination rate and the vigor index of wheat. The pot experiments revealed that four strains (Streptomyces alboviridis P18, Streptomyces griseorubens BC3, Streptomyces griseorubens BC10, and Nocardiopsis alba BC11) significantly improved the growth parameters of wheat, namely root length (1.75–23.84%), root volume (41.57–71.46%), root dry weight (46.89–162.41%), shoot length (8.92–23.56%), and shoot dry weight (2.56–65.68%) compared to the uninoculated control. These findings showed that Streptomyces griseorubens BC10 and Nocardiopsis alba BC11 are promising candidates for the implementation of efficient biofertilization strategies to improve soil fertility and plant yield under rock P and rock K fertilization.
Development of a convolutional neural network to differentiate among the etiology of similar appearing pathological B lines on lung ultrasound: a deep learning study

Objectives Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a portable, low-cost respiratory imaging tool but is challenged by user dependence and lack of diagnostic specificity. It is unknown whether the advantages of LUS implementation could be paired with deep learning (DL) techniques to match or exceed human-level, diagnostic specificity among similar appearing, pathological LUS images. Design A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained on LUS images with B lines of different aetiologies. CNN diagnostic performance, as validated using a 10% data holdback set, was compared with surveyed LUS-competent physicians. Setting Two tertiary Canadian hospitals. Participants 612 LUS videos (121 381 frames) of B lines from 243 distinct patients with either (1) COVID-19 (COVID), non-COVID acute respiratory distress syndrome (NCOVID) or (3) hydrostatic pulmonary edema (HPE). Results The trained CNN performance on the independent dataset showed an ability to discriminate between COVID (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 1.0), NCOVID (AUC 0.934) and HPE (AUC 1.0) pathologies. This was significantly better than physician ability (AUCs of 0.697, 0.704, 0.967 for the COVID, NCOVID and HPE classes, respectively), p<0.01. Conclusions A DL model can distinguish similar appearing LUS pathology, including COVID-19, that cannot be distinguished by humans. The performance gap between humans and the model suggests that subvisible biomarkers within ultrasound images could exist and multicentre research is merited.
Mechanism of Activated Sludge Floc Disintegration Induced by Excess Addition of NaCl: Water

Abrupt salt intrusion in municipal wastewater treatment plants has triggered serious disturbances and deteriorated the biological treatment process from steady state into unsteady state. The effects of sodium (Na+) concentration on the structure and properties of activated sludge during the shock period were investigated in this paper. A floc disintegration characterized as the decreased floc size and increased porosity in the floc matrix was found when excess Na+ was added to the bioreactor. Increased Na+ resulted in a slight decrease in the normalized capillary suction time. About 53–57% of the total extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) derived from activated sludge was protein, at Na+ concentrations <150.74 mmol/L, and this value even reached 68% at 286.04 mmol/L Na+. Over 50% of Na+ in EPS was found in the loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS). The Na+ sorbed in LB-EPS followed Langmuir model with a maxium sorption capacity of 2.086 mmol/g VSS. With the increase of Na+ concentration in LB-EPS, the Mg2+ concentration in LB-EPS decreased until reaching equilibrium while there was no significant change of Ca2+ concentration. A concept model is proposed for the first time targeting to improve the understanding of sodium ion effects on activated sludge.
Common Trends and Differences in Antioxidant Activity Analysis of Phenolic Substances Using Single Electron Transfer Based Assays

Numerous assays were developed to measure the antioxidant activity, but each has limitations and the results obtained by different methods are not always comparable. Popular examples are the DPPH and ABTS assay. Our aim was to study similarities and differences of these two assay regarding the measured antioxidant potentials of 24 phenolic compounds using the same measurement and evaluation methods. This should allow conclusions to be drawn as to whether one of the assays is more suitable for measuring specific subgroups like phenolic acids, flavonols, flavanones, dihydrochalcones or flavanols. The assays showed common trends for the mean values of most of the subgroups. Some dihydrochalcones and flavanones did not react with the DPPH radical in contrast to the ABTS radical, leading to significant differences. Therefore, to determine the antioxidant potential of dihydrochalcone or flavanone-rich extracts, the ABTS assay should be preferred. We found that the results of the flavonoids in the DPPH assay were dependent on the Bors criteria, whereas the structure–activity relationship in the ABTS assay was not clear. For the phenolic acids, the results in the ABTS assay were only high for pyrogallol structures, while the DPPH assay was mainly determined by the number of OH groups.
Characterization of acute pain‐induced behavioral passivity in mice: Insights from statistical modeling

Affective‐motivational disturbances are highly inconsistent in animal pain models. The reproducibility of the open‐field test in assessing anxiety, malaise or disability remains controversial despite its popularity. While traumatic, persistent or multiregional pain models are commonly considered more effective in inducing negative affect or functional impairment, the early psychobehavioral changes before pain chronification are often underexplored. Here, we aimed to clarify the fundamental relationship between hypernociception and passive distress‐like behavior using a model of transient inflammatory pain. To minimize latent confounders and increase data consistency, male C57BL/6N mice were habituated to the open‐field arena 6 times before receiving the unilateral intraplantar injection of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) or vehicle. Open‐field (40‐min exploration) and nociceptive behavior were evaluated repeatedly along the course of hypernociception in both wild‐type and transgenic mice with a known pronociceptive phenotype. To reduce subjectivity, multivariate open‐field behavioral outcomes were analyzed by statistical modeling based on exploratory factor analyses, which yielded a 2‐factor solution. Within 3 hr after PGE2 injection, mice developed significantly reduced center exploration (factor 1) and a marginally significant increase in their habituation tendency (factor 2), which were not apparent in vehicle‐injected mice. The behavioral passivity generally improved as hypernociception subsided. Therefore, transient inflammatory irritation is sufficient to suppress mouse open‐field exploratory activity. The apparent absence of late affective‐motivational changes in some rodents with prolonged hypernociception may not imply a lack of preceding or underlying neuropsychological alterations. Procedural pain after invasive animal experiments, however small, should be assessed and adequately controlled as a potential research confounder.
Hypothalamic Microglial Heterogeneity and Signature under High Fat Diet–Induced Inflammation

Under high-fat feeding, the hypothalamus atypically undergoes pro-inflammatory signaling activation. Recent data from transcriptomic analysis of microglia from rodents and humans has allowed the identification of several microglial subpopulations throughout the brain. Numerous studies have clarified the roles of these cells in hypothalamic inflammation, but how each microglial subset plays its functions upon inflammatory stimuli remains unexplored. Fortunately, these data unveiling microglial heterogeneity have triggered the development of novel experimental models for studying the roles and characteristics of each microglial subtype. In this review, we explore microglial heterogeneity in the hypothalamus and their crosstalk with astrocytes under high fat diet–induced inflammation. We present novel currently available ex vivo and in vivo experimental models that can be useful when designing a new research project in this field of study. Last, we examine the transcriptomic data already published to identify how the hypothalamic microglial signature changes upon short-term and prolonged high-fat feeding.
Quantitative Proteomics Reveals Changes Induced by TIMP-3 on Cell Membrane Composition and Novel Metalloprotease Substrates

Ectodomain shedding is a key mechanism of several biological processes, including cell-communication. Disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs), together with the membrane-type matrix metalloproteinases, play a pivotal role in shedding transmembrane proteins. Aberrant shedding is associated to several pathological conditions, including arthritis. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases 3 (TIMP-3), an endogenous inhibitor of ADAMs and matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), has been proven to be beneficial in such diseases. Thus, strategies to increase TIMP-3 bioavailability in the tissue have been sought for development of therapeutics. Nevertheless, high levels of TIMP-3 may lead to mechanism-based side-effects, as its overall effects on cell behavior are still unknown. In this study, we used a high-resolution mass-spectrometry-based workflow to analyze alterations induced by sustained expression of TIMP-3 in the cell surfaceome. In agreement with its multifunctional properties, TIMP-3 induced changes on the protein composition of the cell surface. We found that TIMP-3 had differential effects on metalloproteinase substrates, with several that accumulated in TIMP-3-overexpressing cells. In addition, our study identified potentially novel ADAM substrates, including ADAM15, whose levels at the cell surface are regulated by the inhibitor. In conclusion, our study reveals that high levels of TIMP-3 induce modifications in the cell surfaceome and identifies molecular pathways that can be deregulated via TIMP-3-based therapies.
Primary vitrectomy for degenerative and tractional lamellar macular holes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose To assess the efficacy of vitrectomy in degenerative and tractional lamellar macular holes (LMHs) by meta-analysis of published studies. Methods PubMed, Medline and Embase databases were searched up to May 2020. Included cohorts were divided into three groups: degenerative LMH group, lamellar hole associated epiretinal proliferation (LHEP) group and tractional LMH group. LHEP is likely to be associated with degenerative LMHs, but less commonly could be associated with mixed LMHs. To reduce risk of possible misclassification bias, eyes with LHEP which could not have been precisely classified by the authors, were included into the LHEP group. The primary outcome was to investigate the visual change following primary vitrectomy in the degenerative LMH and LHEP group versus the tractional LMH group. A sensitivity analysis excluding the LHEP group was also performed on the primary outcome. Mean difference (MD) in best corrected visual acuity between baseline and post-treatment was calculated, along with 95% confidence interval (CI). Rate of incidence of post-operative full-thickness macular hole (FTMH) was assessed as secondary outcome. Results Thirteen studies were included. Pooled analyses including all groups showed a significant visual improvement following vitrectomy (pre-post MD = -0.17;95%CI = -0.22,-0.12;p<0.001), with no difference in visual improvement between the degenerative LMH and LHEP group and the tractional LMH group. The sensitivity analysis excluding LHEP group confirmed no difference in visual change between the degenerative LMH group (pre-post MD = -0.18;95%CI = -0.24,-0.12;p<0.001) and the tractional LMH group (MD = -0.16;95%CI = -0.26,-0.07;p<0.001). The incidence rate of post-operative FTMH was higher in the degenerative LMH and LHEP group than in the tractional LMH group (p = 0.002). Conclusion Primary vitrectomy for LMH ensured a favorable visual outcome, with no difference in visual gain between degenerative and tractional LMHs. However, a higher incidence of post-operative FTMHs was found in eyes with the degenerative LMH subtype.
Importance of between and within Subject Variability in Extracellular Vesicle Abundance and Cargo when Performing Biomarker Analyses

Small extracellular vesicles (sEV) have emerged as a potential rich source of biomarkers in human blood and present the intriguing potential for a ‘liquid biopsy’ to track disease and the effectiveness of interventions. Recently, we have further demonstrated the potential for EV derived biomarkers to account for variability in drug exposure. This study sought to evaluate the variability in abundance and cargo of global and liver-specific circulating sEV, within (diurnal) and between individuals in a cohort of healthy subjects (n = 10). We present normal ranges for EV concentration and size and expression of generic EV protein markers and the liver-specific asialoglycoprotein receptor 1 (ASGR1) in samples collected in the morning and afternoon. EV abundance and cargo was generally not affected by fasting, except CD9 which exhibited a statistically significant increase (p = 0.018). Diurnal variability was observed in the expression of CD81 and ASGR1, which significantly decreased (p = 0.011) and increased (p = 0.009), respectively. These results have potential implications for study sampling protocols and normalisation of biomarker data when considering the expression of sEV derived cargo as a biomarker strategy. Specifically, the novel finding that liver-specific EVs exhibit diurnal variability in healthy subjects should have broad implications in the study of drug metabolism and development of minimally invasive biomarkers for liver disease.
Selective Cardiomyocyte Oxidative Stress Leads to Bystander Senescence of Cardiac Stromal Cells

Accumulation of senescent cells in tissues during normal or accelerated aging has been shown to be detrimental and to favor the outcomes of age-related diseases such as heart failure (HF). We have previously shown that oxidative stress dependent on monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) activity in cardiomyocytes promotes mitochondrial damage, the formation of telomere-associated foci, senescence markers, and triggers systolic cardiac dysfunction in a model of transgenic mice overexpressing MAOA in cardiomyocytes (Tg MAOA). However, the impact of cardiomyocyte oxidative stress on the cardiac microenvironment in vivo is still unclear. Our results showed that systolic cardiac dysfunction in Tg MAOA mice was strongly correlated with oxidative stress induced premature senescence of cardiac stromal cells favoring the recruitment of CCR2+ monocytes and the installation of cardiac inflammation. Understanding the interplay between oxidative stress induced premature senescence and accelerated cardiac dysfunction will help to define new molecular pathways at the crossroad between cardiac dysfunction and accelerated aging, which could contribute to the increased susceptibility of the elderly to HF.
The Two-Component System 09 Regulates Pneumococcal Carbohydrate Metabolism and Capsule Expression

Streptococcus pneumoniae two-component regulatory systems (TCSs) are important systems that perceive and respond to various host environmental stimuli. In this study, we have explored the role of TCS09 on gene expression and phenotypic alterations in S. pneumoniae D39. Our comparative transcriptomic analyses identified 67 differently expressed genes in total. Among those, agaR and the aga operon involved in galactose metabolism showed the highest changes. Intriguingly, the encapsulated and nonencapsulated hk09-mutants showed significant growth defects under nutrient-defined conditions, in particular with galactose as a carbon source. Phenotypic analyses revealed alterations in the morphology of the nonencapsulated hk09- and tcs09-mutants, whereas the encapsulated hk09- and tcs09-mutants produced higher amounts of capsule. Interestingly, the encapsulated D39∆hk09 showed only the opaque colony morphology, while the D39∆rr09- and D39∆tcs09-mutants had a higher proportion of transparent variants. The phenotypic variations of D39ΔcpsΔhk09 and D39ΔcpsΔtcs09 are in accordance with their higher numbers of outer membrane vesicles, higher sensitivity against Triton X-100 induced autolysis, and lower resistance against oxidative stress. In conclusion, these results indicate the importance of TCS09 for pneumococcal metabolic fitness and resistance against oxidative stress by regulating the carbohydrate metabolism and thereby, most likely indirectly, the cell wall integrity and amount of capsular polysaccharide.
Evaluation of the Effects of Cement and Lime with Rice Husk Ash as an Additive on Strength Behavior of Coastal Soil

Coastal accretion and erosion are unavoidable processes as some coastal sediments undergo modification and stabilization. This study was conducted to investigate the geotechnical behavior of soil collected from Bagan Lalang coast and treated with lime, cement, and rice husk ash (RHA) to design a low-cost alternative mixture with environmentally friendly characteristics. Laboratory tests were carried out to analyze the physical properties of the soil (Atterberg limits and compaction properties), together with mechanical characteristics (direct shear and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests) to determine the effect of different ratios of stabilizer/pozzolan on the coastal soil and the optimum conditions for each mixture. Part of the purpose of this study was also to analyze the shear behavior of the coastal soil and monitor the maximum axial compressive stress that the treated specimens can bear under zero confining pressure. Compared to the natural soil, the soil treated with lime and rice husk ash (LRHA) in the ratio of 1:2 (8% lime content) showed a tremendous increase in shear stress under the normal stress of 200 kPa. The strength parameters such as the cohesion (c) and internal friction angle (ϕ) values showed a significant increase. Cohesion values increased considerably in samples cured for 90 days compared to specimens cured for 7 days with additional LRHA in the ratio of 1:2 (28%).
Moral Reasoning about Aggressive Behavior in Relation to Type of Aggression, Age and Gender in South Korean Pupils

Studies of moral reasoning in relation to aggressive behaviors have paid limited attention to different types of aggression, and have mainly been conducted in Western societies. We describe findings from a study of 157 children, aged 6 or 11 years, from two schools in South Korea. Using a cartoon scenario methodology, we assessed moral reasoning about eight types of aggression: verbal, physical individual, physical group, social exclusion, rumor spreading, breaking one’s belongings, sending a nasty text via mobile phone, and sending a nasty message/email via computer. Four aspects of moral reasoning were assessed: moral judgment, harmfulness, reason for judgment, and causal responsibility. Many significant differences by type of aggression were found, especially for social exclusion (seen as less wrong and harmful, and more the victim’s responsibility), physical group aggression (seen as more wrong or harmful, and a matter of fairness, especially in older children and boys), and cyber aggression (seen more as the aggressor’s responsibility). Older children gave more reasons based on welfare, and fewer “don’t know” responses for reasons and attributions. Gender differences were relatively few, but girls did make more use of welfare in the moral reasoning domain. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research and the cultural context in South Korea.
Fluorescent Orthopalladated Complexes of 4-Aryliden-5(4H)-oxazolones from the Kaede Protein: Synthesis and Characterization

The goal of the work reported here was to amplify the fluorescent properties of 4-aryliden-5(4H)-oxazolones by suppression of the hula-twist non-radiative deactivation pathway. This aim was achieved by simultaneous bonding of a Pd center to the N atom of the heterocycle and the ortho carbon of the arylidene ring. Two different 4-((Z)-arylidene)-2-((E)-styryl)-5(4H)-oxazolones, the structures of which are closely related to the chromophore of the Kaede protein and substituted at the 2- and 4-positions of the arylidene ring (1a OMe; 1b F), were used as starting materials. Oxazolones 1a and 1b were reacted with Pd(OAc)2 to give the corresponding dinuclear orthometalated palladium derivates 2a and 2b by regioselective C–H activation of the ortho-position of the arylidene ring. Reaction of 2a (2b) with LiCl promoted the metathesis of the bridging carboxylate by chloride ligands to afford dinuclear 3a (3b). Mononuclear complexes containing the orthopalladated oxazolone and a variety of ancillary ligands (acetylacetonate (4a, 4b), hydroxyquinolinate (5a), aminoquinoline (6a), bipyridine (7a), phenanthroline (8a)) were prepared from 3a or 3b through metathesis of anionic ligands or substitution of neutral weakly bonded ligands. All species were fully characterized and the X-ray determination of the molecular structure of 7a was carried out. This structure has strongly distorted ligands due to intramolecular interactions. Fluorescence measurements showed an increase in the quantum yield (QY) by up to one order of magnitude on comparing the free oxazolone (QY < 1%) with the palladated oxazolone (QY = 12% for 6a). This fact shows that the coordination of the oxazolone to the palladium efficiently suppresses the hula-twist deactivation pathway.