Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Values of PET/CT in Combination With Regulatory B Cells for Therapeutic Response and Survival in Contemporary Patients With Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma

To assess patients with multiple myeloma (MM), the whole-body positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) occupies a pivotal position for diagnostic stratification, response evaluation, and survival prediction, while important limitations are recognized as incapable of representing tumor microenvironment. Regulatory B cells (Bregs) have been reported to have an inhibitory immune function, contributing to bone marrow (BM)-immunosuppressive microenvironment for MM. Therefore, to investigate the role of PET/CT in combination with Bregs’ ratios to predict therapeutic response and survival, we sequentially enrolled 120 patients with newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) who were treated with novel agents in our center, while conventional PET/CT parameters including maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax), ratios of BM-derived Bregs within CD19+ B cells, and patients’ clinical characteristics were collected. After a median follow-up of 28.20 months (range 7.00–46.93 months), SUVmax > 4.2 at onset, accounting for 53.2% of NDMM, was uncovered to predict inferior progression-free survival (PFS) as well as overall survival (OS). With regard to the ratios of BM-derived Bregs within CD19+ B cells, the cohort with the Bregs’ proportions lower than 10%, accounting for 46.2%, exerted poorer OS. Additionally, the patients with both SUVmax > 4.2 and Bregs’ ratios < 10%, accounting for 31.7%, yielded compromised therapeutic response and long-term survival. Collectively, this study may draw attention on the prognostic value of combination of PET/CT and Bregs’ ratios when clinical decisions are made for MM in the era of novel agents.
Challenges and Barriers Toward Medical Research Among Medical and Dental Students at King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: Medical research is a systematic method to obtain new knowledge, reduce diagnosis problems, discover the latest or best treatment for a disease, and also used for disease prevention. Objective: The study aims to assess the challenges and barriers to conduct medical research among medical and dentistry students and determine the reasons that hinder the conduct of the study. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the research population consisted of medical and dental students affiliated with King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia in 2020. The study followed a descriptive approach based on quantitative analysis. The Statistical Package of the Social Sciences (SPSS) program (V. 16.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for data analysis. Results: A total of 327 students participated in this study, and the response rate was 100%. Among them, 61.5% were females. In this study majority (63.3%) had a moderate attitude toward conducting medical research and the average was 56.17. The majority (53.8%) had a reasonable behavior toward conducting medical research, and the average was 29.06. Lack of time, skills, funding, facilities, and limited access to medical journals and related databases were the significant barriers found. Most of the students had positive attitudes, except that they are not awarded on their research, do not attend the sessions, and do not speak their thoughts. A significant relationship between demographic characteristics (age, level, and Grade Percentage Average), attitudes & perceived barriers toward research was found (<0.05). Conclusion: The majority of the students demonstrated a positive attitude toward and moderate behavior of research. However, most are not awarded on their research, do not attend the sessions, and do not speak their thoughts. Intensive training and adequate support in research activities of medical and dental students at the undergraduate level may help reduce these challenges and barriers toward research.
Smells in Sustainable Environments: The Scented Silk Road to Spending

Humanity's demand for ecological resources and services exceeds what earth can regenerate in that year, creating an urgent need for more sustainable behavior. Here, the focus is on a particular factor that so far has been overlooked in facilitating sustainable behavior, namely smell. The two-fold aim of this study was (i) to investigate whether ambient scent could enhance customers' subjective experience and spending behavior in a sustainable environment, and (ii) to elucidate the affective and cognitive pathways from scent to spending. To test this, a double-blind field experiment was designed where customers of a second-hand clothing store (N = 57) could face one of three conditions: fresh linen scent (pleasant and semantically priming “clean clothing” increasing the products' value), vanilla sandalwood scent (pleasant control odor), or regular store odor (odorless control). Buttressed by prior research, the fresh linen scent was expected to cause the strongest increase in spending behavior due to its positive semantic association with the product (i.e., clean clothing). The results indeed showed that fresh linen scent almost doubled consumer spending vs. the odorless control and the pleasant control odor. Other factors potentially affecting consumer behavior (e.g., weekday, weather, odor awareness) were uncorrelated. Whereas a conceptually-driven mediation analysis showed that only fresh linen scent increased mood and evaluations of the store, staff, and products, these variables did not mediate the relation between scent and spending. An explorative structural equation model suggested cognitive priming to be mainly responsible for increasing consumers' spending in the fresh linen condition by enhancing the general store evaluation. Further support is needed to corroborate the indirect findings that specific scents can follow a “cold” semantic road and a “hot” affective road to spending. At minimum, consumers are no “zombies” that empty their pockets in the presence of whatever odor; the smell needs to have a meaningful link to the (sustainable) context at hand to influence consumer behavior.
Extraction of Total Phenolics, Flavonoids and Tannins from Paederia foetida L. Leaves and their Relation with Antioxidant Activity

Introduction: Paederia foetida L. is a climbing shrub that possesses several ethnomedicinal uses with immense pharmacologic relevance. Objective: The study aims to determine an efficient extraction condition for phenolic compounds with substantial antioxidant activity. Materials and Methods: Solvent (aqueous, methanol, ethanol and acetone) extracts were made from fresh leaves (FL) and shade dried leaves (SDL) of P. foetida with different durations (12, 24, 36 and 48 h). Quantitative estimations of all extracts were made for total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and total tannin content (TTC) along with their total antioxidant activity (TAA). The phenolic contents of different extracts were correlated with their TAA. Extracts with highest phenolic yield and TAA estimates for each solvent were assessed by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2, 2ˊ-azinobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6sulfonic acid (ABTS), superoxide (SO) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Results: Methanol exhibited the highest extraction ability for TPC, TFC and TAA while aqueous extractions are superior for TTC. The maximum estimates of all the studied components are noted at 48 h. Mostly, extracts of SDL are superior to FL. TPC and TFC are interrelated between themselves as well as showed positive and significant correlation with TAA. The antioxidant assays (DPPH, ABTS, SO and FRAP) reveal higher antioxidant activity with methanolic extracts compared to other studied solvents. Conclusion: The study highlights antioxidant properties of phenolics, particularly flavonoids in P. foetida, which can be further explored for its pharmacological importance.
Dual Negative Differential of Heat Generation in a Strongly Correlated Quantum Dot Side-Coupled to Majorana Bound States

We study theoretically the properties of local heat originated from energy exchange between electrons passing through a quantum dot (QD) coupled to a phonon bath. The dot is sandwiched between two normal metal leads and also side-coupled to Majorana bound states (MBSs) formed at opposite ends of a topological superconductor nanowire. We find that in addition to the negative differential of heat generation (NDHG) in the Coulomb blockade regime, another NDHG emerges near the leads’ Fermi level due to the dot-MBS coupling. This dual NDHG effect is robust against the variation of intradot Coulomb interaction strength, and disappears if the QD is coupled to regular Fermions. Direct hybridization between the MBSs reduces their impacts on the electronic transport processes, and eliminates the dual NDHG effect. Our results show that the dual NDHG effect is quite efficient for inferring the existence of MBSs, and may remedy some limitations of the detection schemes relying on tunneling spectroscopy technique.
Microwave modification of surface hydroxyl density for g-C3N4 with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Microwave modification was performed on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalysts to tail the surface hydroxyl content for enhanced photocatalytic activity in this work. The influence of microwave heating on the surface hydroxyl density was investigated by a suite of characterization methods. The microwave treated g-C3N4 (MT-g-C3N4) delivered a higher photocatalytic activity in degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation than pristine g-C3N4 due to its improved separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carries and promoted absorption capacity of RhB reactants on surface, which resulted from the increased surface hydroxyl density induced by microwave treatment. This study provides a simple and convenient method to modify g-C3N4 materials with enhanced photocatalytic activity for the potential application in photocatalytic elimination of environmental pollutants.
The increased survival of treated people living with HIV

The increased survival of treated people living with HIV (PLWH) represents a tremendous accomplishment. However, this has not been accompanied by uniform improvements in quality of life. Many PLWH prematurely develop age-related complications and traditional geriatric syndromes, including frailty. This is a potentially reversible state of vulnerability to adverse outcomes. Its operationalization remains challenging. The most commonly used tools, the frailty phenotype and the frailty index, have their advantages and limitations, but predict similar poor outcomes. Yeoh et al. applied both metrics, and a simpler construct, the Edmonton Frail Scale, to a population of Australian PLWH. Although the prevalence of frailty was generally similar to that in other settings, distinct differences occurred between the tools. This paper adds to the literature on this serious condition in this already vulnerable population. Further research is needed before consensus is reached on how to reliably and simply diagnose frailty in PLWH.
Background: Greater cumulative exposure to ribavirin increases response to interferon–ribavirin combination therapy for hepatitis C but also induces more severe anaemia. Polymorphisms in the ITPA gene protect against ribavirin-induced anaemia. The maximum dosage of riba-

Background: Greater cumulative exposure to ribavirin increases response to interferon–ribavirin combination therapy for hepatitis C but also induces more severe anaemia. Polymorphisms in the ITPA gene protect against ribavirin-induced anaemia. The maximum dosage of ribavirin that can be tolerated by patients with different ITPA polymorphisms remains unknown. Methods: We developed a mathematical model of haemoglobin (Hb) decline in patients undergoing combination therapy. Using it to analyse published patient data, we estimated the average erythrocyte lifespan in patients with different ITPA polymorphisms. Coupled with a previous population pharmacokinetic study, we derived a formula for predicting the optimal ribavirin dosage, Dopt, above which anaemia becomes intolerable (Hb<10 g/dl). Results: Our model provided good fits to patient data of ribavirin accumulation in erythrocytes and the ensuing Hb decline during therapy. With the current treatment protocol, the average erythrocyte lifespan was approximately 36 days in patients with wild-type ITPA activity, and approximately 43 days and 55 days, respectively, in patients with mild and moderate ITPA deficiency. Our model yielded a facile formula for estimating Dopt given a patient’s weight, creatinine clearance, pretreatment Hb and ITPA polymorphism. Patients with moderate ITPA deficiency are predicted to tolerate twice the ribavirin dosage as patients with wild-type ITPA. Conclusions: Our formula for Dopt presents an avenue for personalizing ribavirin dosage. By keeping anaemia tolerable, the predicted optimal dosage may improve adherence, reduce the need for drug monitoring, and increase response rates. Response rates may be increased further by the higher dosages recommended for patients with ITPA deficiency.
Many of the antiretrovirals used against HIV-1 are either ineffective or less effective in HIV-2 infection. There is in vitro evidence of the potency of maraviroc and sev-

Many of the antiretrovirals used against HIV-1 are either ineffective or less effective in HIV-2 infection. There is in vitro evidence of the potency of maraviroc and several investigational agents against HIV-2. We conclude that, whilst specific boosted protease inhibitors combined with nucleoside analogues should still be considered the mainstays of HIV-2 treatment, maraviroc, T-1249, TAK779 and AMD3100, as well as raltegravir, could contribute to regimens for treatment-experienced individuals. Factors bearing on the use and timing of these alternative agents are discussed.
Background: The effect of HIV type-1 (HIV-1) subtype on in vitro susceptibility and virological response to daruna-

Background: The effect of HIV type-1 (HIV-1) subtype on in vitro susceptibility and virological response to darunavir (DRV) and lopinavir (LPV) was studied using a broad panel of primary isolates, and in recombinant clinical isolates from treatment-naive, HIV-1-infected patients in the Phase III trial, AntiRetroviral Therapy with TMC114 ExaMined In naive Subjects (ARTEMIS). Methods: Patients received DRV/ritonavir (DRV/r) 800/100 mg once daily (n=343) or LPV/ritonavir (LPV/r) 800/200 mg total daily dose (n=346), plus a fixed daily dose of emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. Results: DRV demonstrated high antiviral activity against a broad panel of HIV-1 major group (M) and outlier group (O) primary isolates in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, with a median 50% effective concentration (EC50) of 0.52 nM. Most (61%) patients in ARTEMIS harboured HIV-1 subtype B; other prevalent subtypes were C (13%) and CRF01_AE (17%); 9% harboured other subtypes. Median EC50 values (interquartile range) for DRV were 1.79 nM (1.3–2.6) for subtype B, 1.12 nM (0.8–1.4) for C and 1.27 nM (1.0–1.7) for CRF01_AE. Virological response to DRV/r (HIV-1 RNA<50 copies/ml [intent-to-treat, timeto-loss of virological response algorithm]) was 81%, 87% and 85% for patients with subtype B, C and CRF01_AE infections, respectively. Similar results were observed in the LPV/r treatment group. Conclusions: In vitro susceptibility to DRV was comparable across HIV-1 subtypes in a broad panel of primary isolates and in recombinant clinical isolates. Once daily DRV/r 800/100 mg and LPV/r 800/200 mg were highly effective in ARTEMIS irrespective of the HIV-1 subtype studied, confirming their broad anti-HIV-1 activity.
CROP MODELING WITH LESS DATA: THE FAO MODEL FOR SOYBEAN YIELD ESTIMATION

Crop growth simulation models such as WOFOST and DSSAT are useful, but require several inputs that sometimes are not available, especially in developing areas. In addition, measured data is usually time and labor-intensive. In search of faster and easier methods for soybean estimates, this study presents a lower input requiring methodology for yield estimation. This study combines the FAO-33 yield model with the agroecological zone approach for soybean yield estimations using mostly indirect data. Sowing and harvest dates and yield were collected from 74 soybean commercial farms. Agrometeorological data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) were used. Fifty farms (66%) were used to calibrate the model and 24 farm areas (33%) were used for evaluation purposes. Two methodologies (FAO-56 and Thornthwaite and Mather) for water balance and actual evapotranspiration (ETa) estimations were used. The comparison of yield estimations and observations showed that the use of low data input to obtain reasonable accuracy, with a mean error of −310 kg ha and a mean absolute percentage error of 23.3%.
Immune regulation in Epstein-Barr virus-associated diseases

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a member of the human herpesvirus family and, like many other herpesviruses, maintains a lifelong latent association with B lymphocytes and a permissive association with stratified epithelium in the oropharynx. Clinical manifestations of primary EBV infection range from acute infectious mononucleosis to an asymptomatic persistent infection. EBV is also associated with a number of malignancies in humans. This review discusses features of the biology of the virus, both in cell culture systems and in the natural host, before turning to the role of the immune system in controlling EBV infection in healthy individuals and in individuals with EBV-associated diseases. Cytotoxic T cells that recognize virally determined epitopes on infected cells make up the major effector arm and control the persistent infection. In contrast, the options for immune control of EBV-associated malignancies are more restricted. Not only is antigen expression restricted to a single nuclear antigen, EBNA1, but also these tumor cells are unable to process EBV latent antigens, presumably because of a transcriptional defect in antigen-processing genes (such as TAP1 and TAP2). The likelihood of producing a vaccine capable of controlling the acute viral infection and EBV-associated malignancies is also discussed.
Mechanisms of microbial resistance and detoxification of mercury and organomercury compounds: physiological, biochemical, and genetic analyses

INTRODUCTION . 95 METHYLATION OF MERCURY BY MICROORGANISMS . 96 Mechanism of Methylation of Mercury. 96 Methylmercury Formation Under Anaerobic Conditions . 97 Methylmercury Formation Under Aerobic Conditions . 97 Effects of HgS on Methylation of Mercury . 98
TraT lipoprotein, a plasmid-specified mediator of interactions between gram-negative bacteria and their environment

The TraT protein is a cell-surface-exposed, outer membrane lipoprotein specified by large, usually conjugative, F-like plasmids. Two biological activities have been associated with the protein: (i) prevention of self-mating of cells carrying identical or closely related conjugative plasmids, by blocking the formation of stable mating aggregates; and (ii) resistance to the bactericidal activities of serum, possibly by inhibiting the correct assembly or efficient functioning of the terminal membrane attack complex of complement. The protein therefore interacts not only with components of the outer membrane but also with specific external agents. In conjugative plasmids the traT gene lies within the region necessary for the conjugal transfer of DNA (tra), although its expression is not necessarily dependent on the expression of other tra genes. Recently, however, the gene has been discovered in isolation from other tra genes in nonconjugative virulence-associated plasmids, providing further evidence that the TraT protein may have a role in pathogenesis. The nucleotide sequences of several traT genes have been determined, and comparison of the corresponding amino acid sequences suggests that a central region of five amino acid residues flanked by hydrophobic domains determines the specificity of the protein in surface exclusion. Additionally, studies of mutants with different amino acid alterations within the hydrophobic domains have shown that insertion of charged residues disrupts normal outer membrane integrity. This review considers our current knowledge of the distribution, structure, and biological role(s) of the protein. Recent applications of the protein in studies of the unusual permeability properties of the outer membrane and for the transport of foreign antigenic determinants to the bacterial cell surface are also discussed.
Analysis of erionites from volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks and possible implications for toxicological research

Abstract Erionite occurs in volcaniclastic rocks and soils; in some villages in Turkey the presence of erionite in local rocks is associated with mesothelioma, a disease also associated with inhalation of airborne asbestos. Since volcaniclastic rocks containing erionite are widely present in the western U.S.A. , there is a concern over potential health issues following inhalation of dust particles in these areas and thus there is a need to identify and quantify erionite particles found in air samples during hygienic investigations. Previous attempts to analyze the few micrometer-sized erionite particles found on air sample filters under transmission electron microscope (TEM) encountered difficulties due to electron beam damage. Recommendations are presented for accurate analysis by both energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED). Much of the work previously published to establish the crystal chemistry of erionite has involved the relatively large crystals found in vesicles in extrusive volcanic rocks. Analysis of these crystals gives a weight percent ratio of Si to Al in a narrow range around 2.7 (molar ratio 2.6), consistent with a unit-cell formula Al10Si26. In addition, the cation contents of these crystals generally meet the charge balance error formula for zeolites. However, erionites formed in volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks (tuffs) have very different Si:Al weight percent ratios, around 4.0, which is above the upper range for the analyses of the crystals found in vesicles. Analysis of many particles in samples from different locations reveal two other major differences between the erionites from the sedimentary situations and those found in vesicles. (1) The extra-framework alkali cation (Na, K, Ca) contents are lower than required for a stoichiometric balance with framework Al substitution for Si so that the cation charge balance error formula limits for zeolites are not met. (2) There is a large variability in measured cation contents from particle to particle from the same source as well as substantial differences in average compositions from different sources. However, sedimentary erionites cannot be termed a separate mineral species because the crystallographic data are consistent with erionite and new zeolite names cannot be proposed on the basis of Si:Al ratios alone. In addition to chemical differences between erionite from different sources, there are also morphological differences. By analogy with asbestos minerals, differences in composition and morphology may have implications for relative toxicity, and future research should include consideration of these aspects.