Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Ganoderma lucidum (Ganodermataceae, Basidiomycota) as Radioprotector

For millennia, naturopaths and physicians have used Ganoderma lucidum (reishi mushroom) for its diverse therapeutic properties, as recorded in the oldest Chinese herbal encyclopedia. Indeed, a radioprotective effect has been reported in the isolated components of its extracts. A systematic review and meta-analyses (PRISMA) was conducted in March 2020, searching databases including PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar, along with Clinical Trials. The inclusion criteria were ex vivo, in vitro, and in vivo studies, with full texts in English, conducted to determine the radioprotective benefits of G. lucidum, or reports in which ionizing radiation was used. From a total number of 1109 records identified, 15 full text articles were eligible, none of them were clinical trials. In vivo studies reveal the efficiency of G. lucidum aqueous extracts of polysaccharides and triterpenes in mice exposed to γ-rays. In plasmid, they can reduce radiation damage as an increment of the open circular form, as well as increase the DNA extension, as shown in vitro studies. Ex vivo studies conducted in human blood cells show the radioprotective effect of β-glucan of aqueous extract of G. lucidum, nevertheless, its implementation as radioprotector to humans is in need of further clinical research studies.
O6-alkylguanine-DNA Alkyltransferases in Microbes Living on the Edge: From Stability to Applicability

The genome of living cells is continuously exposed to endogenous and exogenous attacks, and this is particularly amplified at high temperatures. Alkylating agents cause DNA damage, leading to mutations and cell death; for this reason, they also play a central role in chemotherapy treatments. A class of enzymes known as AGTs (alkylguanine-DNA-alkyltransferases) protects the DNA from mutations caused by alkylating agents, in particular in the recognition and repair of alkylated guanines in O6-position. The peculiar irreversible self-alkylation reaction of these enzymes triggered numerous studies, especially on the human homologue, in order to identify effective inhibitors in the fight against cancer. In modern biotechnology, engineered variants of AGTs are developed to be used as protein tags for the attachment of chemical ligands. In the last decade, research on AGTs from (hyper)thermophilic sources proved useful as a model system to clarify numerous phenomena, also common for mesophilic enzymes. This review traces recent progress in this class of thermozymes, emphasizing their usefulness in basic research and their consequent advantages for in vivo and in vitro biotechnological applications.
Discovery of plasma biomarkers for predicting the severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis by quantitative proteomics

Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with diabetes is the leading cause of death. Finding early biomarkers for detecting asymptomatic patients with CVD can improve survival. Recently, plasma proteomics—targeted selected reaction monitoring/multiple reaction monitoring analyses (MRM)—has emerged as highly specific and sensitive tools compared with classic ELISA methods. The objective was to identify differentially regulated proteins according to the severity of the coronary artery atherosclerosis. Research design and methods A discovery cohort, a verification cohort and a validation cohort consisted of 18, 53, and 228 subjects, respectively. The grade of coronary artery stenosis was defined as a percentage of luminal stenosis of the major coronary arteries. Participants were divided into six groups, depending on the presence of diabetes and the grade of coronary artery stenosis. Two mass spectrometric approaches were employed: (1) conventional shotgun liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for a discovery and (2) quantitative MRM for verification and validation. An analysis of the covariance was used to examine the biomarkers’ predictivity beyond conventional cardiovascular risks. Results A total of 1349 different proteins were identified from a discovery cohort. We selected 52 proteins based on the tandem mass tag quantitative analysis then summarized as follows: chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 7 (CXCL7), apolipoprotein C-II (APOC2), human lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) and dedicator of cytokinesis 2 (DOCK2) in diabetes; CXCL7, APOC2, LBP, complement 4A (C4A), vitamin D-binding protein (VTDB) and laminin β1 subunit in non-diabetes. Analysis of covariance showed that APOC2, DOCK2, CXCL7 and VTDB were upregulated and C4A was downregulated in patients with diabetes showing severe coronary artery stenosis. LBP and VTDB were downregulated in patients without diabetes, showing severe coronary artery stenosis. Conclusion We identified significant associations between circulating APOC2, C4A, CXCL7, DOCK2, LBP and VTDB levels and the degree of coronary artery stenosis using the MRM technique.
Language lateralization from task‐based and resting state functional MRI in patients with epilepsy

We compared resting state (RS) functional connectivity and task‐based fMRI to lateralize language dominance in 30 epilepsy patients (mean age = 33; SD = 11; 12 female), a measure used for presurgical planning. Language laterality index (LI) was calculated from task fMRI in frontal, temporal, and frontal + temporal regional masks using LI bootstrap method from SPM12. RS language LI was assessed using two novel methods of calculating RS language LI from bilateral Broca's area seed based connectivity maps across regional masks and multiple thresholds (p < .05, p < .01, p < .001, top 10% connections). We compared LI from task and RS fMRI continuous values and dominance classifications. We found significant positive correlations between task LI and RS LI when functional connectivity thresholds were set to the top 10% of connections. Concordance of dominance classifications ranged from 20% to 30% for the intrahemispheric resting state LI method and 50% to 63% for the resting state LI intra‐ minus interhemispheric difference method. Approximately 40% of patients left dominant on task showed RS bilateral dominance. There was no difference in LI concordance between patients with right‐sided and left‐sided resections. Early seizure onset (<6 years old) was not associated with atypical language dominance during task‐based or RS fMRI. While a relationship between task LI and RS LI exists in patients with epilepsy, language dominance is less lateralized on RS than task fMRI. Concordance of language dominance classifications between task and resting state fMRI depends on brain regions surveyed and RS LI calculation method.
Cloning and Functional Analysis of BcMYB101 Gene Involved in Leaf Development in Pak Choi (Brassica rapa ssp. Chinensis)

As one of the largest transcription factor families, MYB transcription factors are widely present, and they are involved in a diverse range of physiological activities in plants, such as leaf development. GAMYB genes belong to the R2R3-MYB subfamily, which includes the MYB33/65/101 gene, and these genes are studied well in seed germination and flowering, but their roles in leaf development are poorly understood. In the current study, we isolated a GAMYB transcription factor from pak choi, BcMYB101, and analyzed its characteristics and function. The sequence structure analysis indicated that BcMYB101 has a highly conserved R2R3 DNA-binding domain in the N-terminal region and three GAMYB-specific motifs (Box1, Box2, and Box3). The expression pattern of diverse tissues revealed that BcMYB101 has a higher transcript level in the petiole, leaf, root, and floral organs. Furthermore, the expression level was significantly elevated after GA (gibberellin) treatment, suggesting that the BcMYB101 response was positively regulated by GA. Subcellular localization exhibited that BcMYB101 was only present in the nuclear region, consistent with the characterization of the transcription factor. The overexpression of BcMYB101 elucidated that BcMYB101 increased leaf number and resulted in downward-curling cauline leaves. Moreover, the virus-induced BcMYB101 silencing displayed that BcMYB101 is involved in the regulation of curly leaves. Furthermore, we discovered that BcMYB101 has two trans-activation activities and one interaction protein, BcTCH4, using a trans-activation activity assay and a yeast two-hybrid assay, respectively. In this study, we firstly isolated the BcMYB101 gene and explored its function in leaf development, thereby providing a solid foundation for further research on the regulatory mechanism of leaf shape in Brassica or other species.
Artificial Splitting of a Non‐Ribosomal Peptide Synthetase by Inserting Natural Docking Domains

Abstract The interaction in multisubunit non‐ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) is mediated by docking domains that ensure the correct subunit‐to‐subunit interaction. We introduced natural docking domains into the three‐module xefoampeptide synthetase (XfpS) to create two to three artificial NRPS XfpS subunits. The enzymatic performance of the split biosynthesis was measured by absolute quantification of the products by HPLC‐ESI‐MS. The connecting role of the docking domains was probed by deleting integral parts of them. The peptide production data was compared to soluble protein amounts of the NRPS using SDS‐PAGE. Reduced peptide synthesis was not a result of reduced soluble NRPS concentration but a consequence of the deletion of vital docking domain parts. Splitting the xefoampeptide biosynthesis polypeptide by introducing docking domains was feasible and resulted in higher amounts of product in one of the two tested split‐module cases compared to the full‐length wild‐type enzyme.
Quantitative proteomic analysis reveals the influence of plantaricin BM-1 on metabolic pathways and peptidoglycan synthesis in Escherichia coli K12

Plantaricin BM-1 is a class IIa bacteriocin with a strong bactericidal effect on gram-positive bacteria. Although plantaricin BM-1 also inhibits the growth of some gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli, the mechanism is not clear. In this study, we used tandem mass tag-based quantitative proteomics analysis to examine the inhibitory mechanism of plantaricin BM-1 against E. coli K12, and evaluated the morphological effects by electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that plantaricin BM-1 inhibits the growth of E. coli K12 by bacteriostatic action, mainly acting on the surface of the cell wall, leading to its collapse. Proteomic analysis identified 976 differentially expressed proteins (>1.2-fold change, p < 0.05) under treatment with plantaricin BM-1, including 490 up-regulated proteins and 486 down-regulated proteins. These proteins were mainly involved in peptidoglycan synthesis and energy metabolism pathways, including amino acid, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate, ABC transporter, and quorum-sensing pathways. Specifically, plantaricin BM-1 treatment significantly improved peptidoglycan synthesis and enhanced the tricarboxylic acid cycle in E. coli K12, and altered the expression of cell membrane proteins. These results provide new insight into the inhibition mechanism of class IIa bacteriocins on gram-negative bacteria, which can lay the foundation for its broader use as an alternative to conventional antibiotics.
Effects of digital filtering on peak acceleration and force measurements for artistic gymnastics skills

ABSTRACT Low-pass filters are ideal when filtering human movements, however the effectiveness of such filters relies on the correct selection of the cut-off frequency. The aim of this study was to determine the most appropriate filter cut-off for acceleration- and force-time data when measuring peak resultant acceleration (PRA) and ground reaction force (PRGRF) during gymnastics landings. Sixteen gymnasts executed backward handsprings and backward somersault landings onto a matted force plate while wearing four inertial measurement units (IMUs). Acceleration- and force-time data were filtered using a fourth-order Butterworth filter at different cut-off frequencies ranging from raw through to 250 Hz. Residual analysis plots were produced, and the PRGRF and PRA for all IMUs were calculated for each participant and skill at all cut-off frequencies. Descriptive statistics, model II linear regressions and Bland-Altman plots were conducted. Results indicated that a minimum 85 Hz cut-off is optimal. High cut-off frequencies (>80 Hz) showed good linear relationships and had minimal mean bias compared with raw values, indicating that either filtered (above ~85 Hz) or raw signals can be used. It is suggested that for applied sports settings no filtering is needed, however a minimum cut-off of 85 Hz should be implemented for research purposes.
Effect of Subtropical Natural Exposure on the Bond Behavior of FRP-Concrete Interface

Subtropical natural exposure may significantly affect the bonding behavior of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) externally bonded to concrete. To study the effect of subtropical natural climates on the FRP-concrete interface, natural exposure tests and an analytical approach were carried out on specimens externally bonded with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP). The bilinear bond stress-slip relationships for different exposure periods were derived from the experimental results of the strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams. Based on these bond-slip relationships, the full-range behavior of shear stress along the bond length and debonding load can be obtained through the analytical solution. The testing and numerical results showed that subtropical natural exposure can greatly affect the bond behavior of CFRP-concrete and BFRP-concrete interfaces in the early exposure period. In the late exposure period, the bond behavior was basically stable. With the increase of exposure time, the position of maximum shear stress tended to move backward, which indicated that the behavior of the FRP-concrete interface was weakened by natural exposure. Compared to the CFRP-concrete interface, subtropical natural exposure has greater influence on the bond behavior of the BFRP-concrete interface.
Analyzing the Job Demands-Control-Support Model in Work-Life Balance: A Study among Nurses in the European Context

The balance of personal life with professional life is a topical issue that is increasingly worrisome due to globalization, the rapid introduction of new technologies into all areas of human life, the overlap between time between work and family, new organizational systems, and changes in the nature of work. This problem is accentuated by professions subjected to intense labor demands, as is the case of nurses. Adopting the Job Demand–Control–Support model, the main purpose of this research is to analyze how these factors lead to a greater or lesser degree of work–life balance. The research proposes a logistic regression model, which was constructed with a sample of 991 nursing professionals from the V European Working Conditions Survey. The results obtained confirm, on the one hand, that there is a significant effect of physical demands (but not psychological demands) on work–life balance. On the other hand, the moderating effects of job control are partially confirmed for psychological demands, and those of supervisor support (but not co-worker support) are partially confirmed for physical demands. In conclusion, the present research shows that effective management of nurses’ work context can decisively contribute to finding the difficult balance between personal and professional time.
MSR2N: Multi-Stage Rotational Region Based Network for Arbitrary-Oriented Ship Detection in SAR Images

In synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, ships are often arbitrary-oriented and densely arranged in complex backgrounds, posing enormous challenges for ship detection. However, most existing methods detect ships with horizontal bounding boxes, which leads to the redundancy of detected regions. Furthermore, the high Intersection-over-Union (IoU) between two horizontal bounding boxes of densely arranged ships can cause missing detection. In this paper, a multi-stage rotational region based network (MSR2N) is proposed to solve the above problems. In MSR2N, the rotated bounding boxes, which can reduce background noise and prevent missing detection caused by high IoUs, are utilized to represent ship regions. MSR2N consists of three modules: feature pyramid network (FPN), rotational region proposal network (RRPN), and multi-stage rotational detection network (MSRDN). First of all, the FPN is applied to combine high-resolution features with semantically strong features. Second, in RRPN, a rotation-angle-dependent strategy is employed to generate multi-angle anchors which can represent arbitrary-oriented ship regions more felicitously than horizontal anchors. Finally, the MSRDN with three sub-networks is proposed to regress proposals of ship regions stage by stage. Meanwhile, the incrementally increasing IoU thresholds are selected for resampling positive and negative proposals in sequential stages of MSRDN, which eliminates close false positive proposals successively. With the above characteristics, MSR2N is more suitable and robust for ship detection in SAR images. The experimental results on SAR ship detection dataset (SSDD) show that the MSR2N has achieved state-of-the-art performance.
A Double-Branch Surface Detection System for Armatures in Vibration Motors with Miniature Volume Based on ResNet-101 and FPN

In this paper, a complete system based on computer vision and deep learning is proposed for surface inspection of the armatures in a vibration motor with miniature volume. A device for imaging and positioning was designed in order to obtain the images of the surface of the armatures. The images obtained by the device were divided into a training set and a test set. With continuous experimental exploration and improvement, the most efficient deep-network model was designed. The results show that the model leads to high accuracy on both the training set and the test set. In addition, we proposed a training method to make the network designed by us perform better. To guarantee the quality of the motor, a double-branch discrimination mechanism was also proposed. In order to verify the reliability of the system, experimental verification was conducted on the production line, and a satisfactory discrimination performance was reached. The results indicate that the proposed detection system for the armatures based on computer vision and deep learning is stable and reliable for armature production lines.
Concentric and Eccentric Resistance Training Comparison on Physical Function and Functional Pain Outcomes in Knee Osteoarthritis

Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Objective The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of concentrically focused resistance training to eccentrically focused resistance training on physical function and functional pain in knee osteoarthritis. Design This is a randomized, single-blinded controlled 4-mo trial. Older adults with knee osteoarthritis (N = 88; 68.3 ± 6.4 yrs, 30.4 ± 6.9 kg/m2, and 67.4% women) were randomized to eccentrically focused resistance training, concentrically focused resistance training, or no-exercise control. Main outcomes included chair rise time, stair climb time, 6-min walk test distance, temporal-spatial parameters of gait, community ambulation, and functional pain. Results Leg muscle strength improved in both training groups compared with no-exercise control. There were no significant group × time interactions for any functional performance score (chair rise time, stair climb time, 6-min walk test distance, gait parameters, community ambulation). Compared with no-exercise control, functional pain scores were reduced for chair rise (−38.6% concentrically focused resistance training, −50.3% eccentrically focused resistance training vs. +10.0%) and stair climb (−51.6% concentrically focused resistance training, −41.3% eccentrically focused resistance training vs. +80.7%; all P < 0.05). Pain scores were reduced during the 6-min walk and in early recovery with concentrically focused resistance training compared with the remaining two groups (P < 0.05). Conclusions Either resistance exercise type improves activity-related knee osteoarthritis pain, but concentrically focused resistance training more effectively reduced severity of ambulatory pain and pain upon walking cessation.
Enhanced nonlinear light generation in oligomers of silicon nanoparticles under vector beam illumination.

All-dielectric nanoparticle oligomers have recently emerged as promising candidates for nonlinear optical applications. Their highly resonant collective modes, however, are difficult to access by linearly polarized beams due to symmetry restraints. In this paper we propose a new way to increase the efficiency of nonlinear processes in all- dielectric oligomers by tightly focused azimuthally polarized cylindrical vector beam illumination. We demonstrate two orders enhancement of the third-harmonic gener- ation signal, governed by a collective optical mode represented by coherently excited out-of-plane magnetic dipoles. Crucially, the collective mode is characterized by strong electromagnetic field localization in the bulk of the nonlinear material. For comparison, we measure third-harmonic generation in the same oligomer pumped with linearly and radially polarized fundamental beams, which both show significantly lower harmonic output. We also provide numerical analysis to describe and characterize the observed effect. Our findings open new route to enhance and modulate the third-harmonic gen- eration efficiency of Mie-resonant isolated nanostructures by tailoring the polarization of the pump beam.
Lifetime Costs of Surviving Cancer—A Queensland Study (COS-Q): Protocol of a Large Healthcare Data Linkage Study

Australia-wide, there are currently more than one million cancer survivors. There are over 32 million world-wide. A trend of increasing cancer incidence, medical innovations and extended survival places growing pressure on healthcare systems to manage the ongoing and late effects of cancer treatment. There are no published studies of the long-term health service use and cost of cancer survivorship on a population basis in Australia. All residents of the state of Queensland, Australia, diagnosed with a first primary malignancy from 1997–2015 formed the cohort of interest. State and national healthcare databases are linked with cancer registry records to capture all health service utilization and healthcare costs for 20 years (or death, if this occurs first), starting from the date of cancer diagnosis, including hospital admissions, emergency presentations, healthcare costing data, Medicare services and pharmaceuticals. Data analyses include regression and economic modeling. We capture the whole journey of health service contact and estimate long-term costs of all cancer patients diagnosed and treated in Queensland by linking routinely collected state and national healthcare data. Our results may improve the understanding of lifetime health effects faced by cancer survivors and estimate related healthcare costs. Research outcomes may inform policy and facilitate future planning for the allocation of healthcare resources according to the burden of disease.