Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A qualitative study into the informational needs of coronary heart disease patients

Abstract The overall aim of this study was to assess the informational needs of patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease (CHD) in order to develop a health education prototype. It has been widely acknowledged that people with chronic conditions, particularly CHD, benefit from being knowledgeable about their disease, treatments and lifestyle. However, if patients are to be proactive in their own care they must have information presented to them in ways that are appropriate and understandable. It is therefore important for information providers to have a deep understanding of how patients appraise their health and the information they require. This paper reports on a qualitative study that considered patients' understanding of the issues perceived to be important in reducing CHD risk factors. A focus group methodology was used and several themes emerged. The findings highlighted the complex interaction between participants' beliefs and appraisal of their health. During the early stages of the disease process, patients had difficulty assimilating health information. However they also defined their own management strategies at this time based on their own perceptions of risk. Later in the disease process, patients appraised their own risk factors and modified their behaviour accordingly. They also differed in their perception of the control they felt they had over their condition. In terms of information provision, the findings highlight the importance of individualising information as far as possible in order to help patients understand their own risk factors and take personal action. The timing of information is also crucial as the patients demonstrated a readiness for information at different points in the disease process. Good-quality individualised information should therefore be available for patients to access when required.
The copulatory plug delays ejaculation by rival males and affects sperm competition outcome in house mice

Females of many species mate with multiple males (polyandry), resulting in male–male competition extending to post‐copulation (sperm competition). Males adapt to such post‐copulatory sexual selection by altering features of their ejaculate that increase its competitiveness and/or by decreasing the risk of sperm competition through female manipulation or interference with rival male behaviour. At ejaculation, males of many species deposit copulatory plugs, which are commonly interpreted as a male adaptation to post‐copulatory competition and are thought to reduce or delay female remating. Here, we used a vertebrate model species, the house mouse, to study the consequences of copulatory plugs for post‐copulatory competition. We experimentally manipulated plugs after a female's first mating and investigated the consequences for rival male behaviour and paternity outcome. We found that even intact copulatory plugs were ineffective at preventing female remating, but that plugs influenced the rival male copulatory behaviour. Rivals facing intact copulatory plugs performed more but shorter copulations and ejaculated later than when the plug had been fully or partially removed. This suggests that the copulatory plug represents a considerable physical barrier to rival males. The paternity share of first males increased with a longer delay between the first and second males' ejaculations, indicative of fitness consequences of copulatory plugs. However, when males provided little copulatory stimulation, the incidence of pregnancy failure increased, representing a potential benefit of intense and repeated copulation besides plug removal. We discuss the potential mechanisms of how plugs influence sperm competition outcome and consequences for male copulatory behaviour.
Successful Strategies for Dealing With Infected, Custom-Made Hydroxyapatite Cranioplasty.

When a cranioplasty implant becomes infected, standard operating procedure dictates its removal and the initiation of a long course of antibiotic therapy. However, removing such a prosthesis can have a series of adverse consequences, including delayed cognitive and motor recovery, lack of brain tissue protection, unsightly deformity, and the need for two additional surgical procedures, not to mention the additional costs involved. To maintain the advantages of cranioplasty, we opted for a conservative approach (levofloxacin and rifampicin every 24 hours for 8 weeks) in a 68-year-old woman whose custom-made porous hydroxyapatite implant, fitted following aneurysm clipping, had become infected. The tissues overlying the implant were curettaged, and the patient's clinical condition, blood markers, and infection course were continuously monitored (local monitoring was performed by single-photon emission computed tomography [SPECT]/computed tomography [CT after intravenous administration of Tc-labeled antigranulocyte antibody). Blood tests and SPECT/CT evidenced a progressive reduction in phlogosis indices and infection locus, even 1 month after antibiotic therapy was commenced, and at 2 years from cranioplasty, the same tests and clinical examination were negative. At 6-year follow-up, clinical assessment revealed nothing out of the ordinary.Hence, specific cases (hydroxyapatite prosthesis, intact dura, cranial CT and magnetic resonance imaging negative for empyema, well-vascularized scalp, antibiotic-responsive bacteria) of infected cranial implant can be treated using a conservative approach consisting of appropriate antibiotic therapy, accompanied by local debridement where necessary, and assiduous monitoring of phlogosis indices and local verification via labeled-leukocyte scintigraphy. Our report, which was compiled after a long-term follow-up period, shows that this conservative procedure appears to be a viable option in cases of infected, custom-made hydroxyapatite cranioplasty, provided that some basic rules concerning clinical and instrumental standards are adhered to, as clearly stated in our report.
Multiple paternity in a wild population of Armadillidium vulgare: influence of infection with Wolbachia?

Female multiple mating has been extensively studied to understand how nonobvious benefits, generally thought to be of genetic nature, could overcome heavy costs such as an increased risk of infection during mating. However, the impact of infection itself on multiple mating has rarely been addressed. The interaction between the bacterium Wolbachia and its terrestrial crustacean host, Armadillidium vulgare, is a relevant model to investigate this question. In this association, Wolbachia is able to turn genetic males into functional females (i.e. feminization), thereby distorting the sex ratio and decreasing the number of available males at the population scale. Moreover, in A. vulgare, females have been shown to mate multiply under laboratory conditions and males prefer uninfected females over infected ones. Additionally, different Wolbachia strains are known to infect A. vulgare and these strains differ in their transmission rate and virulence. All these elements suggest a potential impact of different Wolbachia strains on multiple mating. To investigate this assumption, we collected gravid females in a wild A. vulgare population harbouring both uninfected females and females infected with one of two different Wolbachia strains (wVulM and wVulC) and performed paternity analyses on the obtained broods using microsatellite markers. We demonstrate that (i) multiple paternity is common in this wild population of A. vulgare, with a mean number of fathers of 4.48 ± 1.24 per brood and (ii) females infected with wVulC produced broods with a lower multiple paternity level compared with females infected with wVulM and uninfected ones. This work improves our knowledge of the impact of infections on reproductive strategies.
Mixed evidence for the erosion of intertactical genetic correlations through intralocus tactical conflict

Alternative reproductive tactics, whereby members of the same sex use different tactics to secure matings, are often associated with conditional intrasexual dimorphisms. Given the different selective pressures on males adopting each mating tactic, intrasexual dimorphism is more likely to arise if phenotypes are genetically uncoupled and free to evolve towards their phenotypic optima. However, in this context, genetic correlations between male morphs could result in intralocus tactical conflict (ITC). We investigated the genetic architecture of male dimorphism in bulb mites (Rhizoglyphus echinopus) and earwigs (Forficula auricularia). We used half‐sibling breeding designs to assess the heritability and intra/intersexual genetic correlations of dimorphic and monomorphic traits in each species. We found two contrasting patterns; F. auricularia exhibited low intrasexual genetic correlations for the dimorphic trait, suggesting that the ITC is moving towards a resolution. Meanwhile, R. echinopus exhibited high and significant intrasexual genetic correlations for most traits, suggesting that morphs in the bulb mite may be limited in evolving to their optima. This also shows that intrasexual dimorphisms can evolve despite strong genetic constraints, contrary to current predictions. We discuss the implications of this genetic constraint and emphasize the potential importance of ITC for our understanding of intrasexual dimorphisms.
Genome evolution, structural rearrangements and speciation

Ravinet et al. (2017) focus their review on the genomic landscape of speciation, in particular on the identification of barrier loci. However, here we wish to direct attention towards the evolution of structural rearrangements of the genome. By this, we refer to structural changes in the genome, including deletions, insertions, duplications, inversions and translocations, which alter the genome organization of individuals and result in structural variations within populations and structural differences between species. Within this short comment, we touch on three aspects of this subject, by no means attempting a comprehensive review of the topic. We aim to highlight that genome structure, as well as its sequence, evolves and point out some intrinsic differences between small sequence mutations, including single nucleotides and indels usually smaller than 50 bp, and larger structural variants (SVs) often much larger than 1 kb. The three aspects we judge particularly relevant for considering structural variations in a speciation context and want to review here are (i) the evidence for adaptive SVs, (ii) indications of incompatibilities due to SVs and (iii) the effects of SVs on recombination.
Emission properties of colloidal quantum dots on polyelectrolyte multilayers

We present steady state and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) characteristics of differently charged CdTe quantum dots (QDs) adsorbed onto a polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayer. The PE multilayer is built up using a layer-by-layer assembly technique. We find that the diffusion of the QDs into the PE multilayer is an important factor in the case of 3-mercapto-1, 2-propanediol stabilized QDs (neutral surface charge), resulting in a ∼31-fold enhancement in PL intensity accompanied by a blue shift in the PL spectra and an increase in decay lifetime from 3.74 ns to a maximum of 11.65 ns. These modified emission properties are attributed to the enhanced surface related emission resulting from the interaction of the QD’s surface with the PE. We find that diffusion does not occur for thioglycolic acid (TGA) stabilized QDs (negative surface charge) or 2-mercaptoethylamine stabilized QDs (positive surface charge), indicating localization of the QDs on top of the PE multilayer. However, the PL lifetime of the TGA stabilized QDs decreases from 9.58 to 5.78 ns with increasing PE multilayer thickness. This provides evidence for increased intrinsic exciton recombination relative to surface related emission, which results in an overall reduction in the average lifetime. Our studies indicate the importance of the QD surface charge in determining the interaction with the PE multilayers and the subsequent modification of the QD emission properties.
Reinforcement Learning and Fuzzy PID Control for Ball-on-plate Systems

Ball-on-plate system (BPs) is a well-known two-dimensional balancing problem that many types of controllers were implemented. The Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Fuzzy PID controllers are proposed to improve the performance of time-domain response. The comparison of the controllers with PD controller shows the high robustness of disturbance rejection and the requirements of performance are satisfied. The application of RL becomes a solution with different characteristics from other traditional controllers, and the performance of Fuzzy PID is confirmed in the BPs control.
5‐fluorouracil drug alters the microrna expression profiles in MCF‐7 breast cancer cells

5‐Fluorouracil (5‐FU) is a classic chemotherapeutic drug that has been widely used for breast cancer treatment. Although aberrant expression of protein‐coding genes was observed after 5‐FU treatment, the regulatory mechanism remains poorly understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a newly identified class of small regulatory RNAs which play an important role in gene regulation at the post‐transcriptional levels. Recent evidence suggests an important role of miRNAs in initiation, progression, and metastasis of human cancers. In this study, using a combined advanced microarray and quantitative real‐time PCR (qRT‐PCR) technology, we show that 5‐FU significantly alters the global expression profile of miRNAs in vitro. After 48 h of treatment with a low dose (0.01 µM), 42 miRNAs were differentially expressed in MCF‐7 breast cancer cell line. Of these, 23 miRNAs were up‐regulated with up to 4.59‐fold changes, while 19 were down‐regulated with up to 1.89‐fold changes. A majority of these miRNAs are associated with cancer development, progression, and metastasis. Target prediction and GO analysis suggest that these differentially expressed miRNAs potentially target many oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes and genes related to programmed cell death, activation of immune response, and cellular catabolic processes. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 1868–1878, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pulmonary epithelial CCR3 promotes LPS‐induced lung inflammation by mediating release of IL‐8

Interleukin (IL)‐8 from pulmonary epithelial cells has been suggested to play an important role in the airway inflammation, although the mechanism remains unclear. We envisioned a possibility that pulmonary epithelial CCR3 could be involved in secretion and regulation of IL‐8 and promote lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced lung inflammation. Human bronchial epithelial cell line NCI‐H292 and alveolar type II epithelial cell line A549 were used to test role of CCR3 in production of IL‐8 at cellular level. In vivo studies were performed on C57/BL6 mice instilled intratracheally with LPS in a model of acute lung injury (ALI). The activity of a CCR3‐specific inhibitor (SB‐328437) was measured in both in vitro and in vivo systems. We found that expression of CCR3 in NCI‐H292 and A549 cells were increased by 23% and 16%, respectively, 24 h after the challenge with LPS. LPS increased the expression of CCR3 in NCI‐H292 and A549 cells in a time‐dependent manner, which was inhibited significantly by SB‐328437. SB‐328437 also diminished neutrophil recruitment in alveolar airspaces and improved LPS‐induced ALI and production of IL‐8 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. These results suggest that pulmonary epithelial CCR3 be involved in progression of LPS‐induced lung inflammation by mediating release of IL‐8. CCR3 in pulmonary epithelia may be an attractive target for development of therapies for ALI. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 2398–2405, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
HAX‐1: A family of apoptotic regulators in health and disease

HAX‐1 comprises a family of ubiquitously expressed proteins that play important roles in the regulation of programmed cell death. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of the expression profile of HAX‐1 and its functional implications during health and disease, highlighting its direct involvement in the development of congenital neutropenia and neural abnormalities, when absent, and its contribution to the progression of psoriasis and cancer, when overexpressed. Moreover, we provide new information on the differential expression of the HAX‐1 subfamily in three distinct types of epithelial cancers, including breast, skin, and colon. Our results demonstrate a significant up‐regulation of the anti‐apoptotic HAX‐1 variant 001 in skin and colon, but not in breast and cancer cells, indicating tissue‐specific differences in its expression pattern and properties during cancer formation and progression. Our findings further reveal a considerable down‐regulation, if not abrogation, of three distinct, yet to be characterized, HAX‐1 isoforms in breast cancer cells, suggesting that they may function in an opposite manner to the anti‐apoptotic variant 001. This study aims to summarize our current knowledge on the physiological implications of the expression profile of the HAX‐1 subfamily in health and disease, and provide new information on the differential expression and activities of HAX‐1 members in three distinct types of cancer. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 2752–2761, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Experimental and computational characterization of photosensitized conformational effects mediated by protoporphyrin ligands on human serum albumin

When investigating the interaction between proteins and protoporphyrins in aqueous solution, one typically has to contend with the tendency of the latter to form polydispersed aggregates. The interference of aggregated protoporphyrins manifests, at least, at two levels: aggregates sequester the majority of the protoporphyrin molecules in solution and prevent their interaction with the proteins, but also their presence interferes with optical experiments such as absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. In this study we present a protocol which uses dialysis and centrifugation to eliminate the aggregates and yield solutions dominated by non-covalent complexes of albumin (HSA) and protoporphyrins. The elimination of the aggregates enabled us to observe effects which had not been previously observed such as eliminating the discrepancy between the binding constants obtained through the quenching of HSA. fluorescence and the one obtained through the emission of the protoporphyrins. Moreover the elimination of the aggregated protoporphyrins enabled us to reveal the occurrence of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the Trp214 residue of HSA. and the porphyrin ligands. FRET. data were then used to estimate the location of metal free as well as Zn-protoporphyrin IX. relative to the well-known location of Trp214. This information was used to refine docking simulations to find the best binding site for the two protoporphyrins. In addition we observed that the irradiation of the protoporphyrins in the visible region prompts small conformational changes in HSA. that appear to be largely due to tertiary modifications.
Use of satellite-based phenometrics, geophysical soil data and a semi-distributed agro-hydrological model for variable-rate irrigation management in a maize farm in northern Italy

In the most recent agricultural seasons water scarcity problems in many areas of the Po plain had become more frequent; thus, the introduction of irrigation-saving methods and technologies is becoming essential, especially in areas that cannot benefit from a large availability of surface water resources. In the context of precision irrigation, aimed at increasing water and energy productivity at the farm scale by operating a spatial and temporal variable-rate irrigation if needed, agro-hydrological models play a crucial role. In this study, remote-sensed phenometrics and biophysical crop parameters, and delineation of homogeneous management zones through an electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor, were used to parametrize a semi-distributed mechanistic agro-hydrological model in the case of a 300-ha maize farm located in Brescia (northern Italy). The modelling system was applied to simulate irrigation use in the current situation and in the case of an optimized and variable rate irrigation management. Average results for the period 2016–2020 showed a water and energy saving of about 20% in the case of the optimized irrigation management, confirmed by savings achieved in a pilot pivot in which the modelling procedure was used in 2021 to support the irrigation scheduling in combination with 7-days weather forecast data.
Fabrication of ZnS nanoparticles and nanorods with cubic and hexagonal crystal structures: a simple solvothermal approach

ZnS nanoparticles and nanorods with control over their crystal structure are fabricated through a solvothermal approach by changing the solvent used for the synthesis. The synthetic approach is suitable to fabricate ZnS nanoparticles with various sizes by varying the synthesis temperatures. Quantum confinement phenomena are studied by tailoring the particle sizes for both wurtzite and sphalerite polymorphs of ZnS. Photoluminescence studies reveal that the surface states greatly influence the emissions from the nanostructures. Wurtzite nanoparticles exhibit band-edge related UV emission owing to the effective surface passivation by the ethylene glycol molecules used as the solvent for the synthesis. On the other hand, the photoluminescence spectra of the cubic nanoparticles are mainly dominated by their surface states. Some of the nanorod samples exhibited Zn-vacancy related green emissions along with the surface defect related blue emission band. It is also demonstrated that ZnS nanostructures could be easily doped with useful impurities via this synthesis approach to tailor their luminescent properties.
Endothelial cell microparticles act as centers of matrix metalloproteinsase‐2 (MMP‐2) activation and vascular matrix remodeling

Endothelial cell (EC)‐derived microparticles (MPs) are small membrane vesicles associated with various vascular pathologies. Here, we investigated the role of MPs in matrix remodeling by analyzing their interactions with the extracellular matrix. MPs were shown to bind preferentially to surfaces coated with matrix molecules, and MPs bound fibronectin via integrin αV. MPs isolated from EC‐conditioned medium (Sup) were significantly enriched for matrix‐altering proteases, including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). MPs lacked the MMP inhibitors TIMP‐1 and TIMP‐2 found in the Sup and, while Sup strongly inhibited MMP activities but MPs did not. In fact, MPs were shown to bind and activate both endogenous and exogenous proMMP‐2. Taken together, these results indicate that MPs interact with extracellular matrices, where they localize and activate MMP‐2 to modify the surrounding matrix molecules. These findings provide insights into the cellular mechanisms of vascular matrix remodeling and identify new targets of vascular pathologies. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 534–549, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Imunologia da paracoccidioidomicose

Paracoccidioidomicose e a mais prevalente micose sistemica na America Latina, em pacientes imunocompetentes, sendo causada pelo fungo dimorfico Paracoccidioiddes brasiliensis. O estudo da sua imunopatogenese e importante na compreensao de aspectos relacionados a historia natural, como a imunidade protetora, e a relacao entre hospedeiro e parasita, favorecendo o entendimento clinico e a elaboracao de estrategias terapeuticas. O polimorfismo clinico da doenca depende, em ultima analise, do perfil de resposta imune que prevalece expresso pelo padrao de citocinas teciduais e circulantes, alem da qualidade da resposta imune desencadeada, que levam ao dano tecidual