Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Sperm DNA Fragmentation Index (DFI) for the Outcome of Assisted Reproductive Technique in Infertile Male

Background: The objective of this study was to determine whether there is any possible relationship between DFI with Assisted Reproductive Technique outcome and also with age and semen parameters. Methods: This was a case study of limited number of patients . 15 male infertile patients undergoing ICSI were included in the present study. SCSA and ART were performed on semen aliquots taken from the same ejaculate. Semen parameters (count & morphology), Fertilization rate, Embryo quality and Biochemical pregnancy rates were also correlated to SCSA (DFI) parameter. Statistical analysis was also performed using SPSS version. Results: Significant difference was observed between the DFI of the subject and normality at a significant level of 1% (p= 0.000). The results showed no correlation between DFI and fertilization rates, biochemical pregnancy. But a weak correlation was observed between DFI and embryo quality and embryo quality with fertilization rate, biochemical pregnancy. For IUI, the DFI above 25% resulted in negative pregnancy. One ongoing pregnancy was achieved for ICSI with DFI levels 34.33%. Conclusion: DFI can be used as an independent predictor of pregnancy in case of IUI. SCSA test can be considered as accessory to the standard semen analysis in infertile men. In ART, pregnancy loss and time spending can be avoided based on SCSA (DFI) and move on to ICSI for better result.
Effect of different levels of irrigation on yield and yield components of wheat cultivars.

-1 ) which was significantly higher than the other two cultivars. Wheat crop supplied with five irrigations at crown root + tillering + booting + earing + milking recorded the highest grain yield (5696.8 kg ha -1 ) which was significantly higher than all the other irrigation levels. At highest irrigation level I5, cultivars AS-2002 and SH-2002 produced grain yield at par but significantly higher than Aqab-2000. At all the other irrigation levels, cultivar AS2002 recorded significantly higher grain yield than the other two cultivars.
Quantification of Circadian Movement of Small-Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) Saplings With Short Interval Terrestrial Laser Scanning

The goal of the study was to quantify and identify patterns in circadian movements of small-leaved lime (Tillia cordata) saplings with the help of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). The movements were monitored every 60 min 24 h a day and every 30 min in the hour of sunrise and sunset. In order to exclude wind effects the monitored saplings were indoors. The resulting point clouds were used in creating a time series of branch and foliage movements with high precision. The circadian vertical movement of saplings was evaluated through target points, which has a potential of capturing the point-wise movement more accurately. Our results clearly show that small saplings move their branches and leaves during 24 h in complex ways and that is difficult to identify general patterns. Since we worked with small saplings and our movement threshold was 5 mm, we detected random fluctuation–oscillation as the most common movement in monitored saplings. The results highlight the potential of TLS measurements in support of chronobiology and the possibilities to analyze circadian movements of saplings in controlled environment.
Effect of Dietary Copper Sources and Concentrations on Serum Lysozyme Concentration and Protegrin-1 Gene Expression in Weaning Piglets

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary copper sources and concentrations on serum immune indices and the protegrin-1 (NPG1) expression level in the bone marrow of weaning piglets. A total of 80 crossbred piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire), with the average age of 21 days and the initial body weight of 7.00±0.03 kg, were randomly assigned to five treatments for 14 days by different kinds of diet. The dietary treatments were: 1, basal diet; 2, basal diet + 20 mg/kg Cu as CuSO4; 3, basal diet + 20 mg/kg Cu as cupric citrate (CuCit); 4, basal diet + 180 mg/kg Cu as CuSO4; 5, basal diet + 180 mg/kg Cu as CuCit. The results showed that compared with basal diet, supplementation with 20 mg/kg Cu as CuCit had no significant difference on growth performance (P>0.05). The incidence of diarrhoea was reduced by 71.57% and serum lysozyme concentration was increased by 170.73% (P<0.05), but there were not significant differences on serum IgA, IgG and IgM concentration (P>0.05). The mRNA expression level of NPG1 was significantly increased by 2.32-fold (P<0.01). However, the other three trial groups showed no significant differences on the experimental results compared with the basal diet group. These results indicated that supplemental 20 mg/kg Cu as CuCit could increase serum lysozyme concentration and NPG1 mRNA expression level, and reduce the incidence of diarrhoea in weaning piglets.
Altered Affective Behaviors in Casein Kinase 1 Epsilon Mutant Mice

Affective behaviors and mental health are profoundly affected by disturbances in circadian rhythms. Casein kinase 1 epsilon (CSNK1E) is an essential component of the core circadian clock. Mice with tau or null mutation of this gene have shortened and lengthened circadian period respectively. Here we examined anxiety-like, fear, and depressive-like behaviors in both male and female mice of these two different mutants. Compared with wild-type mice, we found reductions in fear and anxiety-like behaviors in both mutant lines and in both sexes, with the tau mutants exhibiting the greatest phenotypic changes. However, the depressive-like behaviors had distinct phenotypic patterns, with markedly less depressive-like behaviors in female null mutants, but not in tau mutants of either sex. To determine whether abnormal light entrainment of tau mutants to 24 hour light-dark cycles contributes to these phenotypic differences, we also examined these behaviors in tau mutants on a 20 hour light-dark cycle close to their endogenous circadian period. The normalized entrainment restored more wild-type-like behaviors for fear and anxiety, but it induced depressive-like behavior in tau mutant females. These data show that both mutations of Csnk1e broadly affect fear and anxiety-like behaviors, while the effects on depressive-like behavior vary with genetics, photoperiod, and sex, suggesting that the mechanisms by which Csnk1e affects fear and anxiety-like behaviors may be similar, but distinct from those affecting depressive-like behavior. Our study also provides experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis of beneficial outcomes from properly entrained circadian rhythms in terms of the anxiety-like and fear behaviors.
Viability of slow-roll inflation in light of the non-zero kmin measured in the cosmic microwave background power spectrum

Slow-roll inflation may simultaneously solve the horizon problem and generate a near scale-free fluctuation spectrum P(k). These two processes are intimately connected via the initiation and duration of the inflationary phase. But a recent study based on the latest Planck release suggests that P(k) has a hard cut-off, kmin≠0, inconsistent with this conventional picture. Here, we demonstrate quantitatively that most—perhaps all—slow-roll inflationary models fail to accommodate this minimum cut-off. We show that the small parameter ε must be ≳0.9 throughout the inflationary period to comply with the data, seriously violating the slow-roll approximation. Models with such an ε predict extremely red spectral indices, at odds with the measured value. We also consider extensions to the basic picture (suggested by several earlier workers) by adding a kinetic-dominated or radiation-dominated phase preceding the slow-roll expansion. Our approach differs from previously published treatments principally because we require these modifications not only to fit the measured fluctuation spectrum but also simultaneously to fix the horizon problem. We show, however, that even such measures preclude a joint resolution of the horizon problem and the missing correlations at large angles.
To stick or swim: Cyclic-di-GMP mediated inverse regulation of biofilms and motility in Vibrio cholerae

TO STICK OR SWIM: CYCLIC-DI-GMP MEDIATED INVERSE REGULATION OF BIOFILMS AND MOTILITY IN VIBRIO CHOLERAE By Disha Srivastava Bacteria sense and respond to environmental cues to control important developmental processes. Decoding the language of chemical signaling in bacteria and the mechanisms by which these signals control coordinated behavior impacts our understanding of the role of bacteria in human health, the environment, and industrial processes. Bacteria exist in communities and often perform coordinated activities such as production and secretion of extracellular enzymes, luminescence, biofilm formation, and virulence. Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of the diarrheal disease Cholera provides an excellent model system to study the effect of environmental signals on bacterial phenotypes. In Vibrio cholerae, c-di-GMP affects transcriptome changes regulating many important phenotypes, such as biofilms and motility. I have identified two c-di-GMP binding transcription factors, VpsR and FlrA, involved in biofilm and motility, respectively. Currently, ten c-di-GMP binding transcription factors are known in bacteria, three of which are from V. cholerae. Three c-di-GMP binding transcription factors; FleQ, FlrA and VpsR belong to the NtrC-like enhancer binding protein family (EBPs). EBPs consist of an N-terminal receiver domain, central AAA+ domain (ATPase associated with diverse activities), and a C-terminal helix-turn-helix DNA binding domain. AAA+ domains are involved in ATP hydrolysis which drives open complex formation initiating transcription. The AAA+ domains are widespread in bacteria and are found in both transcription factors and other cellular machinery. The transcription factor VpsR binds c-di-GMP to induce biofilm gene expression. Alternatively, binding of c-di-GMP to FlrA, the master regulator of flagellar biosynthesis in V. cholerae, abrogates its ability to initiate downstream flagellar gene expression leading to a repression in motility. VpsR and FlrA exhibit the most homology in the AAA+ domain. I have discovered that the AAA+ domain of FlrA is important for interacting with c-di-GMP and demonstrated that two arginine residues are important for this binding. I have also isolated constitutively active mutants of VpsR which can be utilized to study the mechanism how c-di-GMP controls VpsR activity. Lastly, I have shown that other c-di-GMP regulated genes in V. cholerae are not regulated by known c-di-GMP binding transcription factors, suggesting that other unidentified machinery are involved in c-di-GMP signaling.
Understanding Graph Isomorphism Network for rs-fMRI Functional Connectivity Analysis

Graph neural networks (GNN) rely on graph operations that include neural network training for various graph related tasks. Recently, several attempts have been made to apply the GNNs to functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) data. Despite recent progresses, a common limitation is its difficulty to explain the classification results in a neuroscientifically explainable way. Here, we develop a framework for analyzing the fMRI data using the Graph Isomorphism Network (GIN), which was recently proposed as a powerful GNN for graph classification. One of the important contributions of this paper is the observation that the GIN is a dual representation of convolutional neural network (CNN) in the graph space where the shift operation is defined using the adjacency matrix. This understanding enables us to exploit CNN-based saliency map techniques for the GNN, which we tailor to the proposed GIN with one-hot encoding, to visualize the important regions of the brain. We validate our proposed framework using large-scale resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data for classifying the sex of the subject based on the graph structure of the brain. The experiment was consistent with our expectation such that the obtained saliency map show high correspondence with previous neuroimaging evidences related to sex differences.
Linking Diversity and Mental Health: Task Conflict Mediates Between Perceived Subgroups and Emotional Exhaustion

Diversity and psychological health issues at the workplace are pressing issues in today’s organizations. However, research linking two fields is scant. To bridge this gap, drawing from team faultline research, social categorization theory, and the job-demands resources model, we propose that perceiving one’s team as fragmented into subgroups increases strain. We further argue that this relationship is mediated by task conflict and relationship conflict and that it is moderated by psychological empowerment and task interdependence. Multilevel structural equation models on a two-wave sample consisting of 536 participants from 107 work teams across various industries and work contexts partially supported the hypotheses: task conflict did indeed mediate the positive relationships between perceived subgroups and emotional exhaustion while relationship conflict did not; effects on stress symptoms were absent. Moreover, contrary to our expectations, neither empowerment, nor task interdependence moderated the mediation. Results indicate that team diversity can constitute a job demand that can affect psychological health. Focusing on the mediating role of task conflict, we offer a preliminary process model to guide future research at the crossroads of diversity and psychological health at work.
Herkogamy but not reciprocity is a better predictor of legitimate pollen transfer and fruit set in Jasminum malabaricum, a self-compatible species with stigma-height dimorphism

Premise Reciprocity and herkogamy, morphological traits that define style length polymorphisms, are thought to be critical in determining legitimate inter-morph pollen transfer in plants with style length polymorphism. However, the consequences of individual-level variation in these traits for pollen transfer and reproductive success have rarely been examined, and the relationship between these two fundamental traits remains unexplored. Methods We quantified individual-level estimates of herkogamy and reciprocity and tested the assumption that higher herkogamy and reciprocity result in higher legitimate pollen transfer and reproductive success in natural populations of Jasminum malabaricum, a species that exhibits stigma-height dimorphism. Additionally, we examined the relationship between herkogamy and reciprocity to understand potential consequences for avoiding self-pollination and encouraging legitimate pollen deposition. Results Surprisingly, reciprocity was not related to pollen load, legitimate pollen fraction or reproductive success. In contrast, herkogamy was positively associated with legitimate pollen fraction and fruit set in the long-styled morph. Interestingly, we observed a negative relationship between herkogamy and reciprocity in the long-styled morph. Conclusions Herkogamy was more important than reciprocity in increasing legitimate pollen transfer and reproductive success in J. malabaricum. Herkogamy might be particularly important in stabilising species with stigma-height dimorphism and other such polymorphic intermediates with low reciprocity, and this may allow the evolution of reciprocal arrangement of sex organs at a later stage in the pathway towards distyly. The negative relationship between herkogamy and reciprocity suggests a trade-off between avoidance of self-pollen deposition and promotion of legitimate pollen deposition.
Vitamin C can reduce toxic effects of Nano Zinc Oxide

Nanoparticles are extensively employed in most industries and biological sciences. Zinc nanoparticles have widespread application in industries manufacturing medical equipment as well as household because of its unique features such as immediate effect, greater stability, and antimicrobial properties and special factors. Therefore many peoples are exposure to nanoparticles that maybe have harmful side effects. Detrimental effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles were the objective of different previous studies whit various aspects. Aim of the present research was investigation of the damages of zinc oxide nanoparticles on the liver cellsand blood factors in Wistar rats. Also this study assessed the role of vitamin C in the reduction of toxic effects of nanoparticles on the mentioned factors. 36 male rats with approximately 35 days age were divided in to six groups with 6 rats separated. The rats in the experimental groups were administrated by two acute doses of nanoparticles 200 and 400 mg/kg. After 7 days rats blood samples were prepared, then AST, ALT, ALP levels measured and WBC and placket numbered. obtained results demonstrated a significant increasing in the number of WBC in the experimental groups compared to the control. Results showed rise of the liver enzymes concentration in the blood but application of vitamin C inhibit this result.This response was dose dependent and was more significant in high dose (p<0/05). Our results demonstrated that zinc oxide nanoparticles interrupt the function of liver cell membrane so cause diffusion of liver enzymes to blood. By using of an antioxidant agent such as vitamin C toxic effects of nanoparticles reduced. This indicates one of more important ways of nanoparticles damaging is oxidative stress.
COPPER SORPTION AND RELEASE BY CYCLOTELLA MENEGHINIANA (BACILLARIOPHYCEAE) AND CHLAMYDOMONAS REINHARDTII (CHLOROPHYCEAE) 1

Initial Cu++ sorption by Cyclotella meneghiniana Kütz. (Cu++‐sensitive) and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Dangeard (Cu++‐resistant) was rapid in the first 5 min of Cu++ incubation with little sorption after 2 h. On a cell to cell basis, Cyclotella sorbed ca. five times more Cu++ from the medium than Chlamydomonas. In MBL medium with EDTA Cyclotella and Chlamydomonas cells sorbed 21.0 and 4.41 nM Cu++/106 cells respectively in 6 h with 0.3 mg Cu++/l in the medium. Proportionally similar quantities of Cu++ were sorbed when the cells were Cu++ incubated in MBL + citrate or filtered lake water. Cleaned cell walls of Cyclotella sorbed little Cu++ (1.7 nM/106 cells) as compared to living cells (17.5 nM Cu++/106 cells) in 3 h. Therefore, in living Cyclotella most of the Cu++ taken up must be absorbed by the protoplasm or perhaps by the organic layer surrounding the silica wall. Cleaned cell walls of Chlamydomonas sorbed 3.5 nM Cu++/106 cells and living Chlamydomonas cells sorbed 2.6 nM Cu++/106 cells. This indicates that most of the Cu++ sorbed by Chlamydomonas cells remained bound to the cell wall and probably did not readily enter into the protoplasm: When placed in Cu++ free medium after Cu++ incubation, Cyclotella and Chlamydomonas cells released 46 and 59% respectively of the Cu++ sorbed.
Estimation of genetic parameter in Iranian Holstein crossbred dairy cattle

The performance of Holstein × Indigenous (H×I) crossbred dairy cattle in Iran was considered between 1991 and 2003. Milk, fat yield and fat percentage traits were considered in this research. Variance components were estimated using animal model (single trait) and derivative-free restricted maximum likelihood method for different traits. Crossbred animals with 50 to 70% of Holstein gene ratio have shown higher performance. The average performances for the mentioned traits were 2722.68, 122.97 and 3.97%, respectively. The estimation of the heritability for milk yield, fat yield, and fat percentage were 0.332, 0.3277 and 0.145. The research results showed that production potential has been increased by crossbreeding. Key word: Genetic parameter, crossbreeding, Holstein.
Differential Methylation Pattern of Schizophrenia Candidate Genes in Tetrahydrocannabinol-Consuming Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenic Patients Compared to Non-Consumer Patients and Healthy Controls

Background: Patients suffering from schizophrenic psychosis show reduced synaptic connectivity compared to healthy individuals. Furthermore, the use of cannabis often precedes the onset of schizophrenic psychosis. Therefore, we investigated whether consumption of cannabis has an impact on the methylation pattern of schizophrenia candidate genes concerned with the development and preservation of synapses and synaptic function. Methods: Fifty blood samples of outpatients affected by treatment-resistant schizophrenic psychosis were collected in the outpatient department of Ch Ste Anne/INSERM (Paris, France). Extracted DNA was sent to the LMN/MHH (Hanover, Germany) where DNA samples were bisulfite converted. The methylation patterns of the promoter region of neuregulin 1 (NRG1), neurexin (NRXN1), disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), and microtubule-associated-protein tau (MAPT) were then analysed by sequencing according to Sanger. Results: In NRXN1 the group of non-consumer patients showed a methylation rate slightly lower than controls. In patients with preliminary use of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the NRXN1 promoter turned out to be methylated almost two times higher than in non-consumer patients. In MAPT, non-consumer patients showed a significant lower mean methylation rate in comparison to controls. In THC-consuming patients the difference compared with controls became less. NRG1 and DISC1 showed no significant differences between groups, whereas DISC1 appeared to be not methylated at all. Conclusion: In MAPT and NRXN1 mean methylation rates were lower in non-consumer patients compared with controls, which seems to be a compensatory mechanism. With consumption of THC, mean methylation rates were increased: in the case of MAPT compared with controls, and in NRXN1 even significantly beyond that. Methylation of NRG1 and DISC1 seems not to be affected by the psychiatric disorder or by consumption of THC.
Is Lockdown Bad for Social Anxiety in COVID-19 Regions?: A National Study in The SOR Perspective

Lockdown measures have been widely used to control and prevent virus transmission in pandemic regions. However, the psychological effects of lockdown measures have been neglected, and the related theoretical research lags behind the practice. The present study aimed to better understand the mechanism of social anxiety in pandemic regions where the lockdown measures were imposed, based on the conceptual framework of the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR). For that, this research investigated how lockdown measures and psychological distance influenced social anxiety in the pandemic region. The Chinese national data was analyzed for the outcome. The results showed that (1) psychological distance mediated the relationship between pandemic COVID-19 severity and social anxiety, (2) lockdown measures buffered the detrimental effect of the COVID-19 pandemic severity on social anxiety, (3) lockdown measures moderated the mediation effect of psychological distancing on social anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, under the SOR framework, the lockdown measures had a buffer effect on social anxiety in pandemic regions, with the mediating role of psychological distancing.