Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual Perceptual Learning Induces Long-Lasting Recovery of Visual Acuity, Visual Depth Perception Abilities and Binocular Matching in Adult Amblyopic Rats

An abnormal visual experience early in life, caused by strabismus, unequal refractive power of the eyes, or eye occlusion, is a major cause of amblyopia (lazy eye), a highly diffused neurodevelopmental disorder severely affecting visual acuity and stereopsis abilities. Current treatments for amblyopia, based on a penalization of the fellow eye, are only effective when applied during the juvenile critical period of primary visual cortex plasticity, resulting mostly ineffective at older ages. Here, we developed a new paradigm of operant visual perceptual learning performed under conditions of conventional (binocular) vision in adult amblyopic rats. We report that visual perceptual learning induced a marked and long-lasting recovery of visual acuity, visual depth perception abilities and binocular matching of orientation preference, and we provide a link between the last two parameters.
Intestinal Microbiota Regulate Certain Meat Quality Parameters in Chicken

Growing evidence of intestinal microbiota-muscle axis provides a possibility to improve meat quality of broilers through regulating intestinal microbiota. Water-holding capacity is a crucial factor to evaluate the meat quality. High quality of water-holding capacity is usually described as a low drip-losing rate. This study aimed to explore the relationship between intestinal microbiota and water-holding capacity of muscle in broilers. According to our results, two native breeds of broilers (the Arbor Acres broilers and the Beijing-You broilers) exhibited remarkable differences in microbiota composition. However, the regular of gut bacteria compositions gradually became similar when the two breeds of broiler were raised in a same feeding environment. Therefore, this similar regular of intestinal microbiota induced similar water-holding capacity of the muscle from the two breeds. In subsequent fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) experiments, the intestinal microbiota community of the Arbor Acres broilers was remodeling by oral gavage of bacterial suspension that was derived from the Beijing-You broilers. Then, not only body weight and abdominal fat rate were increased, but also drip loss of muscle was decreased in the Arbor Acres broilers. Additionally, muscle fiber diameter of biceps femoris muscle and expression of MyoD1 were notably enlarged. Muscle fiber diameter and related genes were deemed as important elements for water-holding capacity of muscle. Simultaneously, we screened typical intestinal bacteria in both the two native breeds of broilers by 16S rDNA sequencing. Lachnoclostridium was the only bacteria genus associated with drip-losing rate, meat fiber diameter, body weight, and abdominal fat rate. Importance Higher body weight and superior meat quality in livestock imply an adequate source of protein and substantial commercial value. Regulating the intestinal microbiota of broilers is a promising approach to optimize commercial phenotypes. Our results indicate that the intestinal microbiota profile could be reconstructed by external factors, leading to advantageous changes in muscle characteristics. The cecum microbiota of native broilers have the ability to improve certain meat quality and production performance. The population of Lachnoclostridium spp. could be used to regulate body weight and drip-losing rate in broilers, but more study is needed. Graphical Abstract Experiment model for fecal Microbiota transplantation.
Age-Related Changes in the Perception of Emotions in Speech: Assessing Thresholds of Prosody and Semantics Recognition in Noise for Young and Older Adults

Older adults process emotions in speech differently than do young adults. However, it is unclear whether these age-related changes impact all speech channels to the same extent, and whether they originate from a sensory or a cognitive source. The current study adopted a psychophysical approach to directly compare young and older adults’ sensory thresholds for emotion recognition in two channels of spoken-emotions: prosody (tone) and semantics (words). A total of 29 young adults and 26 older adults listened to 50 spoken sentences presenting different combinations of emotions across prosody and semantics. They were asked to recognize the prosodic or semantic emotion, in separate tasks. Sentences were presented on the background of speech-spectrum noise ranging from SNR of −15 dB (difficult) to +5 dB (easy). Individual recognition thresholds were calculated (by fitting psychometric functions) separately for prosodic and semantic recognition. Results indicated that: (1). recognition thresholds were better for young over older adults, suggesting an age-related general decrease across channels; (2). recognition thresholds were better for prosody over semantics, suggesting a prosodic advantage; (3). importantly, the prosodic advantage in thresholds did not differ between age groups (thus a sensory source for age-related differences in spoken-emotions processing was not supported); and (4). larger failures of selective attention were found for older adults than for young adults, indicating that older adults experienced larger difficulties in inhibiting irrelevant information. Taken together, results do not support a sole sensory source, but rather an interplay of cognitive and sensory sources for age-related differences in spoken-emotions processing.
Erysense, a Lab-on-a-Chip-Based Point-of-Care Device to Evaluate Red Blood Cell Flow Properties With Multiple Clinical Applications

In many medical disciplines, red blood cells are discovered to be biomarkers since they “experience” various conditions in basically all organs of the body. Classical examples are diabetes and hypercholesterolemia. However, recently the red blood cell distribution width (RDW), is often referred to, as an unspecific parameter/marker (e.g., for cardiac events or in oncological studies). The measurement of RDW requires venous blood samples to perform the complete blood cell count (CBC). Here, we introduce Erysense, a lab-on-a-chip-based point-of-care device, to evaluate red blood cell flow properties. The capillary chip technology in combination with algorithms based on artificial neural networks allows the detection of very subtle changes in the red blood cell morphology. This flow-based method closely resembles in vivo conditions and blood sample volumes in the sub-microliter range are sufficient. We provide clinical examples for potential applications of Erysense as a diagnostic tool [here: neuroacanthocytosis syndromes (NAS)] and as cellular quality control for red blood cells [here: hemodiafiltration (HDF) and erythrocyte concentrate (EC) storage]. Due to the wide range of the applicable flow velocities (0.1–10 mm/s) different mechanical properties of the red blood cells can be addressed with Erysense providing the opportunity for differential diagnosis/judgments. Due to these versatile properties, we anticipate the value of Erysense for further diagnostic, prognostic, and theragnostic applications including but not limited to diabetes, iron deficiency, COVID-19, rheumatism, various red blood cell disorders and anemia, as well as inflammation-based diseases including sepsis.
Quantifying Stimulus-Affected Cinematic Spaces Using Psychophysiological Assessments to Indicate Enhanced Cognition and Sustainable Design Criteria

Objectives: Converging architecture with cinema and cognition has proved to be a practical approach to scrutinizing architectural elements’ significant contribution to engineering science. In this research, a behavioral analysis has been conducted to examine if disruptive events in cinematic spaces can lead to an insightful perception of architectural qualities and enhanced interplay with the observed spaces to highlight mental health and improved cognitive tasks in sustainable design characteristics. Methods: The experiment was conducted in participants (N = 90) while watching three films with different stimuli to facilitate multivariate analyses. The HR, BP, SCL, and BT were measured while screening films to subjects. Psychological assessments of PANAS, TIPI, Chills, Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance, and NAQ were gathered to conduct correlation and regression analyses between variables. An independent space syntax analysis of film plans was also performed to compare film spaces’ properties. Results: Analyses show that physiological responses of HR, BP, SCL, and BT showed a meaningful relationship with the event intensity. Psychological assessments of Chills, SAM, and NAQ also depicted a meaningful relationship with the degree of stimuli during the movie screenings. Regression analyses illustrated that the age factor had a significant relationship with Arousal (p-value = 0.04), Chills (p-value = 0.03), and Dominance (p-value = 0.00). The TIPI factor showed a meaningful relationship with Chills (p-value = 0.03) and Dominance (p-value = 0.00). PANAS PA factor’s relationship was significant on Chills (p-value = 0.00), Arousal (p-value = 0.04), and Dominance (p-value = 0.03), and the PANAS NA factor showed a meaningful relationship with Chills (p-value = 0.00) and Dominance (p-value = 0.05). The correlations in Chills–Arousal (p-value = 0.01), PANAS NA–TIPI (p-value = 0.01), NAQ–Pleasure (p-value = 0.05), and Arousal–Dominance (p-value = 0.00) were significant. Space syntax analyses also showed that film 3 had a mixed plan structure than the other two films. Factors such as area compactness, connectivity, visual entropy, controllability, and mean depth were influential in distinguishing film spaces. Conclusion: It has been concluded that the space with intensive disruption of architectural elements successfully indicated improved cognitive perception of spatial qualities, enhanced interaction, and signified sustainable design criteria. Evoking events disrupted the banalization of cinematic spaces, illustrating that the designed model can indicate a more homogenous evaluation of a sustainable environment.
Mental Health and Wellbeing in Lithuanian Medical Students and Resident Doctors During COVID-19 Pandemic

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a negative effect on mental health and subjective psychological wellbeing. One of the most affected population is medical students, reporting higher levels of depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and overall poorer wellbeing. However, the relationship between depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties, and subjective psychological wellbeing has not been extensively researched in medical students in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between depression, anxiety, and sleep quality, and subjective psychological wellbeing. Methods In total, 524 medical students and resident doctors (78.6% female, mean age 24 ± 3 years old) participated in an online survey between December 2020 and February 2021. Participants completed the WHO—Five Wellbeing Index Questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment-7. Results Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that female participants’ worse subjective psychological wellbeing was associated with sleep difficulties [odds ratio (OR) = 2.39, 95% CI = 1.37–4.18, p = 0.002], higher depression (OR = 6.13, 95% CI = 3.46–10.88, p < 0.001), and anxiety symptoms (OR = 2.95, 95% CI = 1.66–5.22, p < 0.001). In male participants, analysis revealed an association between worse subjective psychological wellbeing and higher depression scores (OR = 9.94, 95% CI = 3.29–30.03, p < 0.001). Conclusion Sex differences are an important factor to consider when evaluating subjective psychological wellbeing. Clinicians should be aware of significant contributors, such as sleep patterns anxiety, and depression, to subjective psychological wellbeing.
Psychological Distress, Fear and Coping Strategies During the Second and Third Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Germany

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed enormous psychological discomfort and fear across the globe, including Germany. Objectives To assess the levels of COVID-19 associated psychological distress and fear amongst Southern German population, and to identify their coping strategies. Methods A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted in healthcare and community settings in the region of Ulm, Southern Germany. Assessment inventories were the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10), the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), which were valid and reliable tools. Results A total of 474 Individuals participated in the study. The mean age was 33.6 years, and 327 (69%) were females. Most participants (n = 381, 80.4%) had high levels of psychological distress, whereas only 5.1% had high levels of fear, and two-thirds of participants showed higher levels of coping. Moderate to very high levels of psychological distress were associated with being female, living alone, distress due to employment changes, experiencing financial impact, having multiple co-morbidities, being a smoker, increased alcohol use over the previous 6 months, contact with COVID-19 cases and healthcare providers for COVID-19-related stress. Individuals who were ≥60 years, lived with non-family members, had co-morbidities and visited a healthcare provider had higher levels of fear. Higher levels of education and income showed better coping amongst participants. Conclusion Psychological distress was very high during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and associated with low levels of coping. This study identified vulnerable groups of people, who should be given priorities for addressing their health and wellbeing in future crisis periods.
Metabolic Phenotype and Microbiome of Infants Fed Formula Containing Lactobacillus paracasei Strain F-19

Early childhood nutrition drives the development of the gut microbiota. In contrast to breastfeeding, feeding infant formula has been shown to impact both the gut microbiota and the serum metabolome toward a more unfavorable state. It is thought that probiotics may alter the gut microbiota and hence create a more favorable metabolic outcome. To investigate the impact of supplementation with Lactobacillus paracasei spp. paracasei strain F-19 on the intestinal microbiota and the serum metabolome, infants were fed a formula containing L. paracasei F19 (F19) and compared to a cohort of infants fed the same standard formula without the probiotic (SF) and a breast-fed reference group (BF). The microbiome, as well as serum metabolome, were compared amongst groups. Consumption of L. paracasei F19 resulted in lower community diversity of the gut microbiome relative to the SF group that made it more similar to the BF group at the end of the intervention (4 months). It also significantly increased lactobacilli and tended to increase bifidobacteria, also making it more similar to the BF group. The dominant genus in the microbiome of all infants was Bifidobacterium throughout the intervention, which was maintained at 12 months. Although the serum metabolome of the F19 group was more similar to the group receiving the SF than the BF group, increases in serum TCA cycle intermediates and decreases in several amino acids in the metabolome of the F19 group were observed, which resulted in a metabolome that trended toward the BF group. Overall, L. paracasei F19 supplementation did not override the impact of formula-feeding but did impact the microbiome and the serum metabolome in a way that may mitigate some unfavorable metabolic impacts of formula-feeding.
Parishin From Gastrodia Elata Ameliorates Aging Phenotype in Mice in a Gut Microbiota-Related Manner

The physiological and pathological processes that accompany aging can seriously affect the quality of life of the elderly population. Therefore, delaying aging and developing antiaging products have become popular areas of inquiry. Gut microbiota plays an important role in age-related phenotypes. The present study aimed to investigate the antiaging effects and underlying mechanism of parishin, a phenolic glucoside isolated from traditional Chinese medicine Gastrodia elata. Samples from adult (12 weeks), low-dose (10 mg/kg/d) or high-dose (20 mg/kg/d) parishin-treated and untreated aged (19 months) mice were collected to determine blood indicators, gut microbiota and metabolome, and cardiopulmonary histopathological features. The results showed that parishin treatment ameliorates aging-induced cardiopulmonary fibrosis and increase in serum p16Ink4a, GDF15, and IL-6 levels. Furthermore, parishin treatment alleviated dysbiosis in gut microbiota, including altered microbial diversity and the aberrant abundance of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria such as Turicibacter and Erysipelatoclostridium. Gene function prediction and gut metabolome analysis results indicated that the parishin treatment-altered gut microbiota played important roles in sugar, lipid, amino acid and nucleic acid metabolism, and improved gut metabolic disorders in aged mice. In conclusion, the present study provides an experimental basis of potential applications of parishin against aging.
Human Gut Microbiome Across Different Lifestyles: From Hunter-Gatherers to Urban Populations

Human lifestyle and its relationship with the human microbiome has been a line of research widely studied. This is because, throughout human history, civilizations have experienced different environments and lifestyles that could have promoted changes in the human microbiome. The comparison between industrialized and non-industrialized human populations in several studies has allowed to observe variation in the microbiome structure due to the population lifestyle. Nevertheless, the lifestyle of human populations is a gradient where several subcategories can be described. Yet, it is not known how these different lifestyles of human populations affect the microbiome structure on a large scale. Therefore, the main goal of this work was the collection and comparison of 16S data from the gut microbiome of populations that have different lifestyles around the world. With the data obtained from 14 studies, it was possible to compare the gut microbiome of 568 individuals that represent populations of hunter-gatherers, agricultural, agropastoral, pastoral, and urban populations. Results showed that industrialized populations present less diversity than those from non-industrialized populations, as has been described before. However, by separating traditional populations into different categories, we were able to observe patterns that cannot be appreciated by encompassing the different traditional lifestyles in a single category. In this sense, we could confirm that different lifestyles exhibit distinct alpha and beta diversity. In particular, the gut microbiome of pastoral and agropastoral populations seems to be more similar to those of urban populations according to beta diversity analysis. Beyond that, beta diversity analyses revealed that bacterial composition reflects the different lifestyles, representing a transition from hunters-gatherers to industrialized populations. Also, we found that certain groups such as Bacteoidaceae, Lanchospiraceae, and Rickenellaceae have been favored in the transition to modern societies, being differentially abundant in urban populations. Thus, we could hypothesize that due to adaptive/ecological processes; multifunctional bacterial groups (e.g., Bacteroidaceae) could be replacing some functions lost in the transition to modern lifestyle.
Pretreatment Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index Can Predict Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Cervical Cancer at Stages IB2-IIB

Background: The systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) has been identified as a predictor of chemotherapy efficacy for a variety of cancers, and we aimed to determine its ability to predict the response to chemotherapy and its long-term prognosis for patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) who have underwent platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). Methods: The date from 210 patients (133 in the training cohort and 77 in the validation cohort) with CSCC who received NACT were analyzed retrospectively. The association between SII and the pathological complete response (pCR) was determined using Pearson’s chi-square test, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and Logistic regression analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional regression model were used to assess the relationship between SII and progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS). Results: The calculated optimal SII cutoff values for pCR and survival were 568.7051 and 600.5683, respectively, and patients were divided into two groups: a low SII group (≤568.7051 or ≤600.5683) and a high SII group (>568.7051 or >600.5683). A high SII was associated significantly with a lower pCR. Further analysis determined that SII was a more efficient predictor of pCR than the prognostic nutritional index, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio. Upon multivariate logistic analysis, SII proved to be an independent risk factor to predict the pCR of patients with CSCC. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that PFS and OS rates were significantly higher in the low-SII group compared with those in the high-SII group. Additional multivariate analysis indicated that the SII is an independent prognostic factor for patients with CSCC treated with NACT. Conclusion: The results confirmed that the pre-treatment SII is not only an independent predictor of pCR but also an independent prognostic factor of CSCC patients treated with platinum based NACT.
Expression of CD274 mRNA Measured by qRT-PCR Correlates With PD-L1 Immunohistochemistry in Gastric and Urothelial Carcinoma

Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) immunohistochemistry (IHC) is widely used to predict the clinical responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, PD-L1 IHC suffers from the complexity of multiple testing platforms and different cutoff values caused by the current one drug-one diagnostic test co-development approach for ICIs. We aimed to test whether PD-L1 (CD274) mRNA expression levels measured using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) can represent PD-L1 IHC and predict responses to ICI. The FDA-approved PD-L1 IHC results with 22C3 pharmDx (gastric cancer) and SP142 (urothelial carcinoma) were compared with CD274 mRNA expression levels via qRT-PCR using the same formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from 59 gastric cancer and 41 urothelial carcinoma samples. CD274 mRNA expression was identified using three independent sets of primers and TaqMan® probes targeting exon 1–2, exon 3–4, and exon 5–6. CD274 mRNA levels in spanning exon 1–2, exon 3–4, and exon 5–6 junctions of CD274 correlated well with PD-L1 expression (r2=0.81, 0.65, and 0.59, respectively). The area under the curve of exon 1–2 was the highest (0.783), followed by exon 3–4 (0.701), and exon 5–6 (0.671) of the CD274 gene against the PD-L1 combined positive score cutoff of 10. When CD274 mRNA expression was matched for response to immunotherapy, the overall response rate was higher in patients with high CD274 mRNA levels with a cutoff of 0.0722 (gastric cancer) and 0.0480 (urothelial carcinoma) than in those with low CD274 mRNA expression (P < 0.001 and P = 0.018, respectively). These results show that CD274 mRNA levels predicted ICI responses in patients with gastric or urothelial carcinomas and could be used as alternatives for PD-L1 IHC.