Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mental Health and Self-Esteem of Active Athletes.

INTRODUCTION Systematic and continuous physical exercise of certain intensity and volume is irreplaceable in the stages of growth and development and in preventing impairments of the biological, functional and health state of the human organism.Many studies show that physical exercise contributes to development and reinforcement of mental health and increases self-esteem. Examine mental health and self-esteem of active athletes. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The subjects of the study are active athletes from Herzegovina and students of the Faculty of Health Studies in Mostar. Mental health and self-esteem were measured by a sociodemographic questionnaire, The Symptom Checklist-90 and the Satisfaction With Life Scale. RESULTS There is a statistically significant difference in the frequency of exercise, active athletes have the highest percentage (100%) and state that they exercise often (almost every day) while university students have a significantly lower percentage (20%). Students scored significantly higher on the subscales for somatization, obsessive - compulsive symptoms, interpersonal vulnerability, depression, anxiety, aggression, phobia, and paranoia than active athletes. Active athletes have statistically higher scores for almost all the claims of the subjective assessment of life satisfaction. CONCLUSION Active athletes showed significantly less psychological symptoms and better mental health, greater life satisfaction and higher self-esteem than students of the Faculty of Health Studies in Mostar.
External (Versus Internal) Facial Features Contribute Most to Repetition Priming in Facial Recognition: ERP Evidence

Previous event-related potential (ERP) research demonstrated four successive ERP components in the repetition priming of human face recognition: P100, N170, N250r, and N400. While these components correspond, respectively, to the four stages proposed by the interactive activation and competition (IAC) model, there has been no emphasis in past research on how internal and external facial features affect repetition priming and the sensitivity of these ERP components to item interval. This study was designed to address these issues. We used faces of celebrities as targets, including completely familiar faces, familiar internal feature faces, and familiar external feature faces. We displayed a target face either immediately following its prime (immediate repetition) or after a delay with interference from a presentation of two other faces (delayed repetition). ERP differences at P100 and N170 were nearly statistically non-significant; familiar faces and familiar external feature faces were associated with reliable ERP signals of N250r and N400 in the immediate repetition condition. For delayed repetition, however, N250r and N400 signals were only preserved for the familiar external feature faces. The differences of these ERP components suggest that, compared with internal facial features, external features of a previously presented face contribute more to brain-based facial repetition priming, particularly during the last two stages of the IAC model.
Multicenter Comparative Study of Six Cryptosporidium parvum DNA Extraction Protocols Including Mechanical Pretreatment from Stool Samples

Background: Nowadays, many commercial kits allow the detection of Cryptosporidium sp. in stool samples after deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction. Protocols of stool pretreatment have been proposed to optimize oocysts’ DNA extraction. Among them, mechanical grinding was reported to improve the performance of Cryptosporidium oocysts’ DNA extraction. Methods: A multicenter comparative study was conducted within the framework of the French National Reference Center-Expert Laboratory for Cryptosporidiosis. Six extraction systems (i.e., manual or automated) associated with various mechanical pretreatment protocols, were compared for the Cryptosporidium parvum oocyst’ DNA extraction, before amplification using the same real-time PCR method targeting. Results: The sensitivity of real-time PCR assay was unequally impacted by the pretreatment/extraction protocol. We observed significant differences for the lowest concentrations of C. parvum oocysts (i.e., 0–94.4% and 33.3–100% respectively for 10 and 50 oocysts/mL). All in all, the protocol using Quick DNA Fecal/Soil Microbe-Miniprep® manual kit showed the best performances. In addition, optimal performances of mechanical pretreatment were obtained by combining a grinding duration of 60 s with a speed of 4 m/s using Fastprep24® with Lysing Matrix E®. Conclusions: Sample pretreatment, as well as the extraction method, needs to be properly adapted to improve the diagnostic performances of the C. parvum DNA amplification methods.
Seasonal changes of nitrogen metabolism in the sporophyte of Laminaria japonica (Phaeophyceae)

The seasonal changes of nitrogen metabolism in the sporophyte of Laminaria japonica (Phae-ophyceae) were investigated under a natural environment. The experiment was conventionally distinguished by concentrations of nitrogen compounds dissolved in seawater, that is, a relatively high NO2-+NO3- concentration period and a low one. In the high-nitrogen period, the prominent nitrogen metabolism was nitrogen uptake, assimilation, and accumulation. After the ambient nitrite+nitrate was exhausted from the seawater, the nitrogen metabolism was displaced to the utilization of the stored nitrogen. When the nitrogen limitation in the blade was severe about two months after entering the low-nitrogen period, the metabolism was characterized by the utilization of catabolite NH4+ in apical blade tissues. It was suggested from these results that the nitrogen metabolism was divided into three periods: (i) nitrogen uptake and assimilation, (ii) the utilization of stored nitrogen, and (iii) catabolic and re-assimilation periods, with the change in the nitrogen environment. Furthermore, the critical nitrogen content for maintaining maximum growth and the subsistent nitrogen content were 2.4 and 1.3% (on a dry weight basis), respectively. It is sug-gested that these nitrogen contents are useful for predicting the nitrogen status of the blade and for the effective management of L. japonica cultivation.
Eponychial flap elevation method for surgical excision of a subungual glomus tumor

The clinical symptoms of glomus tumors are pain, tenderness, nail discoloration, and cold intolerance. The only treatment for subungual glomus tumors is surgical removal. In this clinical study, we present an eponychium preserving method as a new innovative surgical approach for subungual glomus tumor. We retrospectively reviewed the data of 27 patients with subungual glomus tumors who underwent tumor resection using the eponychial flap elevation method between March 2010 and 2019. After the excision of the subungual glomus tumor using the eponychial flap elevation method, wound problems, severe pain, and nail deformity other than a minimal scar were not noted. The innovative eponychial flap elevation method is a simple and straightforward method for the management of subungual glomus tumors; the tumors can be sufficiently exposed and completely excised using this method while avoiding secondary nail dystrophy. This method can be another option among several methods of subungual glomus tumor removal.
Clinical outcomes associated with computed tomography‐based body composition measures in lung transplantation: a systematic review

Computed tomography (CT) is gaining increased recognition in the assessment of body composition in lung transplant (LTx) candidates as a prognostic marker of post‐transplant outcomes. This systematic review was conducted to describe the methodology of CT measures of body composition used in LTx patients and its association with post‐transplant outcomes. Six databases were searched (inception‐April 2020) for studies of adult LTx patients with thoracic or abdominal CT measures [muscle cross‐sectional area (CSA) and/or adiposity]. Thirteen articles were included with 1911 LTx candidates, 58% males, mean age range (48–61 years) and body mass index of 21.0–26.1 kg/m2. Several methods were utilized using thoracic or abdominal CT scans to assess skeletal muscle (n = 11) and adiposity (n = 4) at various anatomic locations (carina, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae), differing muscle groups, and adipose tissue compartments. Low muscle mass was associated with adverse outcomes in 6/11 studies, including longer mechanical ventilation days (n = 2), intensive care (n = 2) and hospital stay (n = 2), and mortality (n = 4). Greater subcutaneous and mediastinal fat were associated with increased risk of primary graft dysfunction (n = 2), but implications of adiposity on survival were variable across four studies. Further standardization of CT body composition assessments is needed to assess the prognostic utility of these measures on LTx outcomes.
Genetic modification of human hematopoietic stem cells

Human hematopoiesis originates in a population of stem cells with transplantable lympho-myeloid reconstituting potential but an in vivo method for quantitating these cells has not been available. In this study an assay was developed that allows human cord blood (CB) cells with in-vivo repopulating potential to be quantitated. It is based on the ability of immunodeficient mice to be engrafted by intravenously injected human hematopoietic cells and uses limiting dilution analysis to measure the frequency of human cells that produce both lymphoid and myeloid cells in the marrow of the recipient mice. The frequency of human competitive repopulating units (CRU) was shown to be ~1 per 6xl0 5 light density CB cells, 1 per 900 CD34+CD38" CB cells and 1 per 18,000 CD34+CD38+ CB cells. In addition, it was demonstrated that under selected culture conditions, a significant expansion of both CRU and Long-Term Culture-Initiating Cells (LTCIC) could be obtained. The ability to reliably transfer genes into hematopoietic stem cells remains an important but elusive goal. To date the power of recombinant retroviral gene transfer has been severely compromised by the low efficiency of retroviral infection. A series of experiments was undertaken to develop improved, clinically applicable, gene transfer conditions. These focused on the use of retroviral supernatant and the use of fibronectin coated dishes. The applicability of this protocol was tested by infecting CB cells capable of repopulating immunodeficient mice. The gene transfer efficiency as determined by G418-resistance to CRU and LTC-IC was 17 ± 3% and 17 ± 8 respectively. There was a significant correlation between the gene transfer to LTC-IC and CRU, however there was no correlation between gene transfer to CFC and LTC-IC or CFC and CRU. To further optimize the utility of recombinant retroviruses, the murine heat stable antigen (HSA) a cell surface antigen was developed as dominant selectable marker in a retroviral vector
Polymorphisms in GDF 9 Gene and Its Relationship

The ovulation rate and litter size are results of well regulated interactions of endocrine and paracrine mediators in mammals. Even though the tendency of twining and triplicate is common in both sheep and goats, how the litter size is precisely controlled remains a critical question in reproductive biology. Growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) was first identified as an oocyte-derived growth factor required for ovarian somatic cell function (Dong et al. 1996), the FecG mutation leads to the substitution of serine with phenylalanine at position 77 of the mature GDF9 peptide S77F, (Hanrahan et al. 2004). A close homolog of GDF9 was discovered later, namely, GDF9B (BMP15), and it is also expressed in the oocyte from the primary follicle stage continuing through ovulation (Dube et al. 1998). Heterozygous ewe carriers of the FecG (high fertility) allele exhibit one to two additional ovulations compared with non-carriers, whereas homozygous mutant ewes are sterile, and have small, flattened streak ovaries containing only follicles that do not develop up to the primary (type 2) stage (Hanrahan et al. 2004; Galloway et al. 2000; Mc Natty et al. 2005; Bodin et al. 2007). The genetic basis of caprine prolificacy remains to be explored. Recent studies on prolific goat breeds like Boer, Haimen, Huanghuai, Nubi, Matou and Jining Grey suggested that genetic control of higher prolificacy in goats is In this study, we investigated the relationship between the genetic polymorphism of growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) genes and the litter size in 384 individuals of five breeds of black goats. Four pairs of primers were designed to detect single nucleotide polymorphism o GDF9 gene in goats by PCR-SSCP. The least square was used to analyze the relation between different genotypes and the litter size. The results showed that the PCR products from primer pair 1 (P1) displayed polymorphisms in three genotypes (AA, AB and BB) in big foot (BF) and Jintang (JT) black goats. For primer pairs of P2, P3 and P4, there was no polymorphism. The sequencing results revealed that there was a single nucleotide mutation (A792→G) in exon 2 of GDF9 gene in BF and JT black goats, and this mutation resulted in an amino acid change: valine→isoleucine. In BF and JT black goats, the average litter size in the third parity was significantly higher in genotype AA than both genotypes of AB and BB while the average little size of genotype AB was higher than that of genotype BB in the same parity. GDF9 gene could be therefore considered as a candidate gene for marker-assisted selection of litter size trait in goats.
Influence of environmental factors on the growth and survival of Phytophthora clandestina

The effects of temperature, pH, and osmotic water potential on the growth on lima bean agar and survival in soil of Phytophthora clandestina were investigated. On agar it grew over a wide pH range of 4–9 and growth increased as the pH of the initial medium rose from 4 to 6 at temperatures of 15, 20, and 25 °C. Growth was reduced by 58, 56, and 65% under acidic (pH 4) or by 54, 63, and 32% under alkaline (pH 9) conditions when compared with growth at pH 6 at 15, 20, and 25 °C, respectively. At 10, 15, 20, and 25 °C growth was reduced with increasing water stress. Generally growth increased with progressively increasing incubation temperatures up to 20 °C. Osmotic water potential of less than −12bars (1 bar = 100 kPa) prevented mycelial growth of P. clandestina. Maximum growth occurred on lima bean agar (0 bar) without KCl amendment at all temperatures. Survival of the pathogen within pasteurized soil was increased under cooler conditions (5–10 °C) at all water potentials tested (−0.01, −0.026, and −0.063 b.
Uniqueness of Positive Solutions of the Conformal Scalar Curvature Equation and Applications to Conformal Transformations

We study uniqueness of positive solutions to the conformal scalar curvature equation on complete Riemannian manifolds with constant negative scalar curvature. We apply the results to show that conformal transformations on certain complete Riemannian manifolds of constant negative scalar curvature are isometries. We also study uniqueness of complete positive solutions and radial solutions.
Association between genomic polymorphism of matrix metalloproteinase-9 and pregnancy induced hypertension

Objective:To investigate the association between pregnancy induced hypertension and genomic polymorphism of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (C1562T). Methods: A study group of 82 patients with pregnancy induced hypertension and control group of 102 health pregnant women were recruited in the study. Denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) were used for detecting the gene polymorphism of MMP-9 -C1562T. Results: The results of individual polymorphism analysis showed that the frequency of C/T genotype and 1562T allele of MMP-9 gene of pregnancy induced hypertension patients were significantly lower than that of the control group.Conclusion: The present findings suggest that the genetic polymorphism in MMP-9 promoter(C-1562T)is associated with the susceptibility to pregnancy induced hypertension in pregnant woman.
Predicting metabolic strategies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a kinetically constrained FBA model

Metabolism is central to all life. It provides the energy and the building blocks from which the cells are constructed and maintained. Synthetic biologists often make genetic alterations to the enzymes involved in metabolism to improve product yields. Drastic changes in metabolism are linked to several diseases, e.g. cancer. It is therefore desirable to understand and quantitatively predict cell metabolism. Flux balance analysis (FBA) is a successful mathematical approach for predicting the metabolic activity of a cell. It makes use of the stoichiometry of the biochemical reactions and the rates of nutrient uptake. These relations are used to generate self consistent sets of metabolic fluxes, i.e. rates of metabolic conversion over the reactions. Amongst these it is common to select the set that has the highest growth rate as the predicted set. This has been shown to agree well with experimental data. One problem with the standard FBA approach is that it does not constrain the flux levels. In the living cell fluxes are constrained by the fact that they are performed by a finite amount of enzymes. The enzyme levels are limited by the amount of energy available for enzyme production and a limited space for enzymes to occupy. It has been shown that taking such limits in to account can improve the prediction powers of FBA. In this master thesis a modified version of FBA has been developed that uses the fluxes and enzyme kinetic parameters to estimates the weight of the participating enzymes. The total protein weight is constrained to experimentally observed levels. This allows prediction of the maximum growth rate for different substrates and shifts in metabolic strategy to fermento respiration at high growth rates. This might become of use to metabolic engineers in predicting if a potential pathway might decrease cell fitness.
Determination of Self-incompatible Citrus Cultivars with S1 and/or S2 Alleles by Pollination with Homozygous S1 Seedlings (S1S1 or S2S2) of 'Banpeiyu' Pummelo

Gametophytic self-incompatibility (SI), an important character for breeding seedless cultivars of Citrus, is known in pummelo, mandarin, and many hybrid cultivars with pummelo in their pedigrees. Only a little is known about the allelic variation in the self-incompatibility gene (S), S allele frequencies, and the genotypes of self-incompatible and semi-self-compatible cultivars. In this study, pollination of ‘Banpeiyu’ S1 seedlings with ‘Banpeiyu’ and pollination between the S1 seedlings were performed to determine homozygous S1 seedlings for the S gene. Seventy-eight Citrus accessions, including 55 pummelo accessions, were pollinated with each of two homozygous S1 seedlings (S1S1 and S2S2). Pollen tube arrest in the style base of their pollinated pistils indicated that 23 accessions, including ‘Banpeiyu’, have an S1 allele each and 16 accessions, including ‘Banpeiyu’, have an S2 allele each. Frequency of accessions with S1 allele was 29.9% (23 of 77 accessions examined) and S1 allele frequency was 16.4% (23 of 140 alleles excluding Sf allele). Frequency of accessions with S2 allele was 21.3% (16 of 75 accessions examined) and S2 allele frequency was 11.6% (16 of 138 alleles excluding Sf allele). Pummelo accessions collected from Kagoshima Prefecture had S1 alleles with two and half times higher frequency (56.3%) than that in all accessions examined. Of the 79 accessions, six accessions (‘Banpeiyu’, ‘Iriki Buntan’, ‘Kaopang’, Nagashima Buntan No. 6, Nagashima Buntan No. 7, and ‘Soyu’) were S1S2 genotypes. The Citrus cultivars, whose S genotypes have been fully determined in this study, were ‘Banpeiyu’ (S1S2), ‘Iriki Buntan’ (S1S2), ‘Kaopang’ (S1S2), ‘Soyu’ (S1S2), ‘Kinukawa’ (SfS2), and ‘Kawano Natsudaidai’ (SfS2).
Antiphospholipid Syndrome Is Still a Rare Disease—Estimated Prevalence in the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Regions of Northwest Italy: Comment on the Article by Duarte‐García et al

population. This is why scientific societies support the idea of continuing treatments (IL-6 inhibitors for juvenile idiopathic arthritis, DMARDs or JAK inhibitors for adult RA, and mycophenolate mofetil or HCQ for SLE). While specific antivirals are awaited, these drugs may help in the hyperinflammatory phase of the infection, and, in fact, several trials are underway using anti– IL-6, other cytokines, or JAK1/2 inhibitors (ClinicalTrials.gov). The key question is whether, or when, to prescribe glucocorticoids, since the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America (11) did not strongly support the use of glucocorticoids once the hyperinflammatory phase progresses to the cytokine release syndrome and ARDS-like phase. Data from clinical trials and the real world are badly needed to support these theories. Dr. Gremese has received speaking fees from MSD, Roche, Novartis, Eli Lilly, and AbbVie (less than $10,000 each). Dr. Ferraccioli has received consulting fees from Novartis and Gilead (less than $10,000 each).
Recovery of Botrychium Gametophytes, Gemmae, and Immature Sporophytes by Centrifugation

In order to obtain a quantitative estimate of the population size, including isolated gametophytes and non-emergent sporophytes, we have utilized a centrifugation method to recover underground plants and propagules. We present this method as an effective and efficient way to study the natural occurrence of gemmae, gametophytes, and non-emergent sporophytes
Genetic Variation of Pinus densiflora Populations in South Korea Based on ESTP Markers

Genetic diversity and genetic differentiation of thirteen Pinus densiflora populations in South Korea were estimated using nine ESTP (Expressed Sequence Tag Polymorphism) markers. The numbers of allele and the effective allele were 2.2 and 1.8, respectively. The percentage of polymorphic loci (P) was 98.8%. The observed and the expected heterozygosity were 0.391 and 0.402, respectively, and the eleven populations except for Ahngang and Gangneung population were under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium state. The level of genetic differentiation (Wright’s FST = 0.057) was higher than those of isozyme or nSSR markers. We could not find out any relationship between the genetic distance and geographic distribution among populations from cluster analysis. Also, the genetic differentiation between populations was not correlated with the geographic distance (r = 0.017 and P = 0.344 from Mantel test). From the result of FST-outlier analysis to identify a locus under selection, six loci were detected at confidence interval of 99% by the frequentist’s method. However, only three loci (sams2+AluI, sams2+RsaI, PtNCS_p14A9+HaeIII) were presumed as outliers by Bayesian method. The sams2+AluI and sams2+RsaIlocus were originated from the sams2 gene and seemed to be the loci under balancing selection.