Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell surface adhesins, exopolysaccharides and the Por (Type IX) secretion system of Flavobacterium johnsoniae

Cells of Flavobacterium johnsoniae move rapidly over surfaces by a process known as gliding motility. Gld proteins are thought to comprise the motor that propels the cell surface adhesin SprB. Cells with mutations in sprB are partially defective in motility and are also resistant to some bacteriophages. Transposon mutagenesis of a strain carrying a deletion spanning sprB identified eight mutants that were resistant to additional phages and exhibited reduced motility. Four of the mutants had transposon insertions in remA, which encodes a cell-surface protein that has a lectin domain and appears to interact with polysaccharides. Three other genes identified in this screen (remC, wza, wzc) encode proteins predicted to be involved in polysaccharide synthesis and secretion. Myc-tagged versions of RemA localized to the cell surface, and were propelled rapidly along the cell at speeds of 1 to 2 μm per sec. Deletion of gldN and gldO, which encode components of a bacteroidete protein secretion system, blocked transport of RemA to the cell surface. Overexpression of RemA resulted in the formation of cell aggregates that were dispersed by the addition of galactose or rhamnose. Cells lacking RemC, Wza and Wzc failed to aggregate. Cells of a remC mutant, and cells of a remA mutant, neither of which formed aggregates in isolation, aggregated when they were mixed together, suggesting that polysaccharides secreted by one cell may interact with RemA on another cell. Fluorescently labeled lectin Ricinus communis Agglutinin I detected polysaccharides secreted by F. johnsoniae. The polysaccharides bound to cells
msHelse: a Self-Management Mobile Application for Persons with Multiple Sclerosis

This master thesis presents the msHelse application for patient self-management within the field of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This Design Science research project went through a usercentred design process that included nine persons with MS and two medical experts from the Norwegian competence centre of MS at the Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen. The development was comprised of four design iterations from lowto high-fidelity prototypes. Resulting are four main modules; Mobile diary, Summary statistics module, Stress management module and a To-do list. Through these functionalities users are supported to monitor the course of the disease, to gain knowledge about the disease dynamics and to make adjustments to their lifestyle. Useful in the development were suggestions from the users and medical experts. For example, the persons with MS suggested that the application should be personalised and automated to simplify data registration into the Mobile diary. The medical staff believed that a patient – physician consultation would benefit from using the collected data. Both the persons with MS and the medical experts have expressed their positive attitude throughout the development and evaluation, which resulted in high System Usability Scores. The outcome of the usability testing with the ten IT experts was encouraging as well and they suggested that it would be a good idea to implement a user guide for new users and improve the navigation to enhance the user experience. The results have suggested that there is a place for IT based tools to support patient self-management, even as a part of the patient routine care. The future development would include testing the application in clinical trials to understand clinical outcomes for users. It would also be important to integrate the msHelse application with the Norwegian healthcare system in order to combine patient entered data with the rest of the patient record.
Antimicrobial Resistance and Plasmid Profiles of Salmonella enterica Serovars from Different Sources in Lagos, Nigeria

Introduction: Salmonella enterica Serovars remains one of the leading pathogens that cause diarrhoea and bloodstream infections in developing countries. The emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) Salmonella has become a serious problem globally. This study investigated the antibiotic resistance and plasmid profiles of Salmonella isolates from different sources. Methods: Seventy-three samples comprised of clinical (30), hand swab (15), food (10) and water (18) were analyzed bacteriologically. Salmonella isolates were identified and characterized by standard procedures. Isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing and were further screened for plasmid DNA by standard methods. Results: A total of 27 Salmonella isolates made up of 5 (18.5%) S. typhi, 6 (22.2%) S. enteritidis, 9 (33.3) S. typhimurium, 5 (18.5%) S. cholerasuis, and 1 (3.7%) each of S.arizonae and S. vichow were obtained in this study. All the isolates developed resistance to three or more antibiotics evaluated. Four distinct resistance profiles: TetAmpCol, TetAmpColCot, TetAmpColCip and TetAmpColCotCip were recorded with 63% of the isolates exhibiting resistance profile TetAmpColCot. Specifically 23 of 27 (85.2%) of the isolates harboured plasmid DNA comprised of 12 distinct plasmid profiles of different sizes ranging from 3.2 kb to 30.2kb. Salmonella isolates of the same species from different sources differed in plasmid profile. Plasmid profile was found to show good discriminatory capability compared to antibiotics resistance profile. Conclusion: This study revealed that both resistance antibiogram and plasmid profile are still viable epidemiological tools for tracing the source of Salmonella isolates. A need for prudent use of antibiotics is suggested.
Health Literacy and Cervical Cancer Screening Among Mexican-American Women

Background: Health literacy is a requisite skill for making personal health and health care decisions. Low health literacy may contribute to lower cervical cancer screening rates and cervical cancer health disparities among Mexican-American women in South Texas. Objective: To explore older Mexican-American women's health literacy related to cervical cancer from the perspective of Zarcadoolas, Pleaseant, and Greer's health literacy model. Methods: We conducted five focus groups and seven individual interviews with 30 Mexican and Mexican-American women in South Texas. We analyzed demographic data using descriptive statistics and conducted thematic analysis of focus group and individual interview data. Key Results: Several themes reflected the domains of health literacy, including fundamental literacy (“speaking of language”), science literacy (cancer prevention), cultural literacy (“we are different”), civic literacy (the availability of “consejos” [advice]), and media literacy (e.g., “telenovelas” [soap-operas] teach a lot). In this article, we present findings related to culture and language under the domains of fundamental and cultural literacy. Conclusions: Mexican-American women's cultural values and language use may serve as both deterrents and incentives to cervical cancer screening. The meaning of words can be lost in translations. Health care providers can use this information to provide cervical cancer screening education congruent with Mexican-American's culture, language, and code switching. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(1):e1–e8. ] Plain Language Summary: The understanding of culture and language can help health care providers improve cervical cancer screening practices among Mexican-American women. The results from this study can be used to individualize patient care and to develop education and communication strategies that are similar to the population we serve, including Mexican-American women.
Inside Wood – A Web resource for hardwood anatomy

Inside Wood is an Internet-accessible wood anatomy reference, research, and teaching tool. The InsideWood database has coded wood anatomical descriptions based on the IAWA List of Microscopic Features for Hardwood Identification and is accompanied by a collection of photomicrographs. As of November 2010 there were over 5,800 descriptions and 36,000 images of modern woods, and over 1,600 descriptions and 2,000 images of fossil woods. CITES-listed timber species and other endangered woody plants are included in this digital collection hosted by North Carolina State University’s library. This web site has value in helping with wood identification because it has a multiple entry key that allows searching by presence or absence of IAWA features and it serves as a virtual reference collection whereby descriptions and images can be retrieved by searching by scientific or common name or other keywords.
Estimation of relative growth rate of ten field-grown herbaceous species: the effects of LAR and NAR depend on time scale and type of analysis.

Ten herbaceous species were grown under field conditions to assess their relative growth rate (RGR) and if the differences in RGR amongst species were more associated with morphological or physiological traits. Nine harvests (every 14 days) were carried out in both years. Factors explaining RGR differences between species varied, depending on whether short (14 days) or longer periods (56 and 112 days) were considered and whether analysis was performed by single relationships or by a multivariate linear equation system using the three-stage least squares simultaneous estimation method. When the data were analyzed by single relationships, RGR for short periods (14 days) always showed a positive correlation with net assimilation rate (NAR). In contrast, when growth was investigated over two months, RGR was positively correlated also with morphological traits (LAR, SLA and LMR) in the first two months, only with NAR in the second two months, but considering all the 4 months period, RGR was not correlated with all the traits under observation. When the data were analyzed by multivariate relationships, both NAR and LAR were correlated with RGR, but the key role is attributable to LAR, which together with tem- perature was found to condition NAR. It is concluded that under field conditions, for short time periods, the differences in RGR values among species seem to be explained by NAR. For longer periods, the plasticity of the plant morphological traits reduces the importance of NAR, and LAR becomes more relevant to plant growth.
Investigation of Specifics of Self-Management towards Dealing with Cancer Pain among Adult Outpatients

Purpose: This study aimed to identify specifics of self-management towards dealing with cancer pains among adult outpatients. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 adult outpatients (9 males and 7 females) who suffered from cancer pain and the data obtained were analyzed using the qualitative synthesis method of KJ Ho. Results: An analysis of the results revealed these key findings for the following symbolic wording of the semi-structured interviews: Cooperative relationship with medical professionals; Problems originating from cancer pain; Self-regulation of analgesic medications based on the interactions with medical professionals; Self-regulation of the analgesic medications based on the physical perceptions of the effects; Self-regulation to maintain a balanced and calm mind, Fulfilling life by the pain alleviation and liberation from the restrictions imposed by the cancer; and Efforts to maintain their lives by themselves. Conclusion: Based on the cooperative relationship established with medical professionals, the patient carried out the self-regulation of cancer pain using analgesics, and self-regulation to maintain a balanced and calm mind. Nurses must therefore sufficiently educate patients regarding how to communicate successfully with medical professionals in order to improve cancer patients’ pain management regarding both physical and mental aspects.
The ecological role of the Bonobo : seed dispersal service in Congo forests

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are threatened with extinction. They are the largest primates, and the only apes (except human), of the southern bank of the Congo Basin. Along with chimpanzees, they are our closest living relatives and are studied by anthropologists to include/understand our hominid origins; but what about their functional role in the forest? Would their disappearance have serious consequences for forest ecology? Answering this question is the aim of this new project, with several years of observations of a free-ranging habituated group of bonobos on the LuiKotale research station (DR Congo). In this tropical rainforest, the very great majority of plants need animals to reproduce and disperse their seeds. Bonobos are the largest frugivorous animals in this region, after elephants. During its life, each bonobo will ingest and disperse nine tons of seeds, from more than 91 species of lianas, grass, trees and shrubs. These seeds will travel 24 hours in the bonobo digestive tract, which will transfer them over several kilometers (mean 1.3 km; max: 4.5 km), far from their parents, where they will be deposited intact in their feces. These dispersed seeds remain viable, germinate better and more quickly than unpassed seeds. For those seeds, diplochory with dung-beetles (Scarabaeidae) imrpoves post-dispersal survival. Certain plants such as Dialium may even be dependent on bonobos to activate the germination of their seeds, characterized by tegumentary dormancy. The first parameters of the effectiveness of seed dispersal by bonobos are present. Behavior of the bonobo could affect the population structure of plants whose seeds they disperse. The majority of these zoochorous plants cannot recruit without dispersal and the homogeneous spatial structure of the trees suggests a direct link with their dispersal agent. Few species could replace bonobos in terms of seed dispersal services, just as bonobos could not replace elephants. There is little functional redundancy between frugivorous mammals of the Congo, which face severe human hunting pressures and local exctinction. The defaunation of the forests, leading to the empty forest syndrome, is critical in conservation biology, as will be illustrated here. The disappearance of the bonobos, which disperse seeds of 65% of the tree species in these forests, or 11.6 million individual seeds during the life of each bonobo, will have consequences for the conservation of the Congo rainforest
Liver volume is lower and associates with resting and dynamic blood pressure variability in chronic fatigue syndrome

ABSTRACT Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in many cases is characterised by abnormal autonomic function and lower blood pressure (BP). In animals the liver is a capacitance vessel for BP homeostasis. We developed a novel liver magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technique to compare liver volume in CFS to controls, and to explore its role in cardiovascular physiology. Methods: Liver MR (single breath-hold, enhanced T1-weighted, high-resolution isotropic volume excitation 3-Tesla Achieva, NL) determined liver volume. Red cell and plasma volume were also measured. A 10 min resting cardiac autonomic assessment using beat-to-beat measurement (Taskforce; CNSystems) was followed by assessment of hemodynamic response to standing to determine blood pressure drop and return to baseline. Results: Forty-four CFS patients (age = 45.5, 34f/10 m, Fukuda criteria) and 10 age, activity and sex matched controls (age = 49.4, 7f/3 m) participated. Adjusted for body size, CFS patients had significantly reduced liver volumes (775 (101) ml/m2 v 846 (96) ml/m2; p = 0.02). At rest, liver volume was unrelated to symptom severity, heart rate, BP or heart rate variability. Both increased systolic and diastolic low frequency (LF) BP variability (predominantly sympathetic) were associated with lower liver volumes. On standing, liver volume was unrelated to BP drop but was associated with successful BP return-to-baseline. Red cell and plasma volume were associated positively with liver volume. Multivariate analysis confirmed return-to-baseline BP on standing which was independently associated with liver volume. Conclusion: Liver volumes were smaller in CFS compared to controls. The relationship between return-to-baseline BP after standing and liver volume suggests, as in animals, that the liver is involved in maintenance of BP. Abbreviations: ACI: Accelerated cardiac index; BPV: Blood pressure variability; BRS: Baroreflex sensitivity; CFS: chronic fatigue syndrome; Chr: Chromium; CI: cardiac index; FIS: Fatigue impact scale; HF: High frequency; HRV: Heart rate variability; LF: Low frequency; MR: magnetic resonance; NU: normalised units; SD: Standardised deviation; PSD: power spectral density; SI: Stroke index; TPRI: Total peripheral resistance index
The association between the physical activity of patients with idiopathic chronic neck pain and their psychological state

OBJECTIVE Investigation of the association between physical activity in patients with idiopathic chronic neck pain and their psychological state. METHOD Data were collected from 45 patients with chronic idiopathic neck pain. Three instruments were used: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to assess their level of anxiety and depression, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia. Their physical activity level was recorded using the Baecke Questionnaire for Habitual Physical Activity. RESULTS Depression showed significant negative correlation with physical activity (r=-0.39, p<0.01) and sport-related physical activity (r=-0.34, p<0.05). All other relationships were non-significant (p>0.05). Physical activity was predicted by a model, including both depression and kinesiophobia as significant predictors (R=0.5, R=0.25, adjusted R=0.17, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Kinesiophobia and depression appear to be associated with physical activity in patients with chronic neck pain. Limitation in physical activity may further exacerbate the physical and psychological state of these patients. Recognition of the psychological determinants of physical activity can indicate potential therapeutic markers for the management of physical activity limitation in this population. Z. Dimitriadis, E. Kapreli, N. Strimpakos, J. Oldham
Le pin maritime Pinus pinaster Ait : biologie et génétique des terpènes pour la connaissance et l'amélioration de l'espèce

Production, composition. Applications: caracterisation des races geographiques, differenciation, tests varietaux sur peuplements (analyses de rameaux) sur lots de graines (analyse de plantule), etude des lots de croisement en populations naturelles ou artificielles, relation avec la resistance a diocyctria splendidella
Application of Reverse Vaccinology in Designing a Vaccine for Malaria

Malaria is a life-threatening disease and a major public health problem in Nigeria. According to the latest WHO estimates, there about 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 with an uncertainty range of 154 million to 289 million) and an estimated 660,000 deaths mostly among African children. To date, there is no vaccine and the parasites are becoming resistant to available drugs, this necessitates the need for the identification vaccine candidates. Pharmacoproteomic and computational biology represent an attractive alternative approach for the identification of common drug target and peptide-vaccine candidates in the pathogen. Vaccine designing is shifted from entire pathogen or whole antigen to peptide or epitope based-vaccines that are specific, safe and easy to produce. Subtractive genomic approach was used to identify non-human homologous outer membrane proteins in P. falciparum. Four hypothetical proteins were identified based on Vaxijen score and exo-membrane topology, used to produce both B-cell and T-cell mediated immunity. Propred and propred1 were used to predict promiscuos helper T-Lymphocytes (HTL), Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes and MHCPred for their binding affinity. Three T-cell epitopes derived from identified B-cells bind to maximum number of MHC class I and class II alleles and specifically bind to HLA alleles such as DRB1*0101 and DRB1*0401. The epitopes are LLNNNMLGS, FSVTTNITI and FNVQYAAQL show high potential to induce both B-cell and T-cell mediated immune responses. These predicted epitopes (small peptide) might be promising candidates for vaccine design against malaria. Experimental validation is required.
Induction Of Histamine, Bradykinin And Serotonin Release In Response To Anthrax Lethal Toxin

Background: Anthrax lethal toxin (LeTx) is a major virulence factor in anthrax infection but compelling evidence suggests that it exerts a strong inhibitory effect on macrophage cytokine production. This leaves no definitive explanation as to the etiology of many of the early signs and symptoms, seen in inhalational anthrax infection. Methods: The responses of histamine, bradykinin and serotonin release to challenge by various concentrations of B. anthracis cell wall (CW) components, lethal toxin (LeTx), and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were measured in vitro using human blood cells and murine mast cells. An in vivo testing using C57BL/6 mice was also performed to further verify the in vitro observations. Results: In both human and murine cells, the group stimulated with LeTx released significant amounts of histamine, bradykinin and serotonin when compared to the group stimulated with CWs. We also demonstrated that LeTx stimulated the in vivo release of large quantities of histamine and serotonin when injected into a C57BL/6 mouse model. Conclusions: These results newly implicate these heretofore insufficiently investigated mediators as possible participants in anthrax pathogenesis. This may help our understanding of this often fatal disease, and, may also affect future adjunctive treatment choices in anthrax infection.
Bioinformatics analysis identifies several intrinsically disordered human E3 ubiquitin-protein ligases

The ubiquitin-proteasome system targets misfolded proteins for degradation. Since the accumulation of such proteins is potentially harmful for the cell, their prompt removal is important. E3 ubiquitin-protein ligases mediate substrate ubiquitination by bringing together the substrate with an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, which transfers ubiquitin to the substrate. For misfolded proteins, substrate recognition is generally delegated to molecular chaperones that subsequently interact with specific E3 ligases. An important exception is San1, a yeast E3 ligase. San1 harbors extensive regions of intrinsic disorder, which provide both conformational flexibility and sites for direct recognition of misfolded targets of vastly different conformations. So far, no mammalian ortholog of San1 is known, nor is it clear whether other E3 ligases utilize disordered regions for substrate recognition. Here, we conduct a bioinformatics analysis to examine >600 human and S. cerevisiae E3 ligases to identify enzymes that are similar to San1 in terms of function and/or mechanism of substrate recognition. An initial sequence-based database search was found to detect candidates primarily based on the homology of their ordered regions, and did not capture the unique disorder patterns that encode the functional mechanism of San1. However, by searching specifically for key features of the San1 sequence, such as long regions of intrinsic disorder embedded with short stretches predicted to be suitable for substrate interaction, we identified several E3 ligases with these characteristics. Our initial analysis revealed that another remarkable trait of San1 is shared with several candidate E3 ligases: long stretches of complete lysine suppression, which in San1 limits auto-ubiquitination. We encode these characteristic features into a San1 similarity-score, and present a set of proteins that are plausible candidates as San1 counterparts in humans. In conclusion, our work indicates that San1 is not a unique case, and that several other yeast and human E3 ligases have sequence properties that may allow them to recognize substrates by a similar mechanism as San1.