Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Barrel Jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo) as Source of Antioxidant Peptides

The jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo, Macrì 1778 (Cnidaria, Rhizostomae) undergoes recurrent outbreaks in the Mediterranean coastal waters, with large biomass populations representing a nuisance or damage for marine and maritime activities. A preliminary overview of the antioxidant activity (AA) of R. pulmo proteinaceous compounds is provided here based on the extraction and characterization of both soluble and insoluble membrane-fractioned proteins, the latter digested by sequential enzymatic hydrolyses with pepsin and collagenases. All jellyfish proteins showed significant AA, with low molecular weight (MW) proteins correlated with greater antioxidant activity. In particular, collagenase-hydrolysed collagen resulted in peptides with MW lower than 3 kDa, ranging 3–10 kDa or 10–30 kDa, with AA inversely proportional to MW. No cytotoxic effect was detected on cultured human keratinocytes (HEKa) in a range of protein concentration 0.05–20 μg/mL for all tested protein fractions except for soluble proteins higher than 30 kDa, likely containing the jellyfish venom compounds. Furthermore, hydrolyzed jellyfish collagen peptides showed a significantly higher AA and provided a greater protective effect against oxidative stress in HEKa than the hydrolyzed collagen peptides from vertebrates. Due to a high reproductive potential, jellyfish may represent a potential socioeconomic opportunity as a source of natural bioactive compounds, with far-reaching beneficial implications. Eventually, improvements in processing technology will promote the use of untapped marine biomasses in nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical fields, turning marine management problems into a more positive perspective.
Rice transcription factor OsMYB102 delays leaf senescence by down-regulating abscisic acid accumulation and signaling

Abstract MYB-type transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in plant growth and development, and in the responses to several abiotic stresses. In rice (Oryza sativa), the roles of MYB-related TFs in leaf senescence are not well documented. Here, we examined rice MYB TF gene OsMYB102 and found that an OsMYB102 T-DNA activation-tagged line (termed osmyb102-D), which constitutively expresses OsMYB102 under the control of four tandem repeats of the 35S promoter, and OsMYB102-overexpressing transgenic lines (35S:OsMYB102 and 35S:GFP-OsMYB102) maintain green leaves much longer than the wild-type under natural, dark-induced, and abscisic acid (ABA)-induced senescence conditions. Moreover, an osmyb102 knockout mutant showed an accelerated senescence phenotype under dark-induced and ABA-induced leaf senescence conditions. Microarray analysis showed that a variety of senescence-associated genes (SAGs) were down-regulated in the osmyb102-D line. Further studies demonstrated that overexpression of OsMYB102 controls the expression of SAGs, including genes associated with ABA degradation and ABA signaling (OsABF4, OsNAP, and OsCYP707A6), under dark-induced senescence conditions. OsMYB102 inhibits ABA accumulation by directly activating the transcription of OsCYP707A6, which encodes the ABA catabolic enzyme ABSCISIC ACID 8′-HYDROXYLASE. OsMYB102 also indirectly represses ABA-responsive genes, such as OsABF4 and OsNAP. Collectively, these results demonstrate that OsMYB102 plays a critical role in leaf senescence by down-regulating ABA accumulation and ABA signaling responses.
Global Contraceptive Failure Rates: Who Is Most at Risk?

Abstract Contraceptive failure is a major contributor to unintended pregnancy worldwide. DHS retrospective calendars, which are the most widely used data source for estimating contraceptive failure in low‐income countries, vary in quality across countries and surveys. We identified surveys with the most reliable calendar data and analyzed 105,322 episodes of contraceptive use from 15 DHSs conducted between 1992 and 2014. We estimate contraceptive method‐specific 12‐month failure rates. We also examined how failure rates vary by age, education, socioeconomic status, contraceptive intention, residence, and marital status using multilevel piecewise exponential hazard models. Our failure rate estimates are significantly lower than results from the United States and slightly higher than previous studies that included more DHS surveys, including some with lower‐quality data. We estimate age‐specific global contraceptive failure rates and find strong, consistent age patterns with the youngest users experiencing failure rates up to ten times higher than older women for certain methods. Failure also varies by socioeconomic status, with the poorest, and youngest, women at highest risk of experiencing unintended pregnancy due to failure.
Real-time control of a prosthetic hand using human electrocorticography signals.

OBJECT A brain-machine interface (BMI) offers patients with severe motor disabilities greater independence by controlling external devices such as prosthetic arms. Among the available signal sources for the BMI, electrocorticography (ECoG) provides a clinically feasible signal with long-term stability and low clinical risk. Although ECoG signals have been used to infer arm movements, no study has examined its use to control a prosthetic arm in real time. The authors present an integrated BMI system for the control of a prosthetic hand using ECoG signals in a patient who had suffered a stroke. This system used the power modulations of the ECoG signal that are characteristic during movements of the patient's hand and enabled control of the prosthetic hand with movements that mimicked the patient's hand movements. METHODS A poststroke patient with subdural electrodes placed over his sensorimotor cortex performed 3 types of simple hand movements following a sound cue (calibration period). Time-frequency analysis was performed with the ECoG signals to select 3 frequency bands (1-8, 25-40, and 80-150 Hz) that revealed characteristic power modulation during the movements. Using these selected features, 2 classifiers (decoders) were trained to predict the movement state--that is, whether the patient was moving his hand or not--and the movement type based on a linear support vector machine. The decoding accuracy was compared among the 3 frequency bands to identify the most informative features. With the trained decoders, novel ECoG signals were decoded online while the patient performed the same task without cues (free-run period). According to the results of the real-time decoding, the prosthetic hand mimicked the patient's hand movements. RESULTS Offline cross-validation analysis of the ECoG data measured during the calibration period revealed that the state and movement type of the patient's hand were predicted with an accuracy of 79.6% (chance 50%) and 68.3% (chance 33.3%), respectively. Using the trained decoders, the onset of the hand movement was detected within 0.37 ± 0.29 seconds of the actual movement. At the detected onset timing, the type of movement was inferred with an accuracy of 69.2%. In the free-run period, the patient's hand movements were faithfully mimicked by the prosthetic hand in real time. CONCLUSIONS The present integrated BMI system successfully decoded the hand movements of a poststroke patient and controlled a prosthetic hand in real time. This success paves the way for the restoration of the patient's motor function using a prosthetic arm controlled by a BMI using ECoG signals.
Detection of insect prey by wild common marmosets: The effect of color vision

Most species of New World primates have an unusual color vision pattern that can affect an individual's ability to detect food. Whereas males can only be dichromatic, females can be either dichromatic or trichromatic. Trichromats are expected to have an advantage in detecting conspicuous food whereas dichromats should be better at locating cryptic resources. Here we aimed to understand how color vision phenotype influences insect foraging by five groups of common marmosets living in a semiarid environment. We recorded insect predation events, noting morphotype and color of the captured insect, and the substrate from which it was captured. Color modeling suggested that, for all values of chromatic contrast resulting from comparing the measured insect–substrate pairs, trichromats outperformed dichromats. Females showed an overall higher insect capture rate than males. Females also showed a higher capture rate of conspicuous insects but there was no sex difference for the capture of cryptic insects. When we compared only dichromatic individuals there was no difference between sexes. These findings suggest that differences found in capture rate related not only to sex but also to visual polymorphism and that the latter is a crucial factor determining insect capture rate in common marmosets. Nevertheless, these results should be interpreted with caution because of the small number (three) of dichromat females and the unknown phenotype of the remaining females. Our results support the balancing selection hypothesis, suggesting that the advantage of one phenotype over the other may depend on environmental circumstances. This hypothesis has recently been considered as the most plausible for the maintenance of visual polymorphism in New World primates.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Epacanthaclisis banksi (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)

Abstract The mitochondrial genome of Epacanthaclisis banksi (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) is a circular molecule of 15,870 bp in length, containing 37 typical mitochondrial genes: 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs and a non-coding AT-rich region. Its gene order and arrangement are identical to the common type found in most insect mitogenomes. All PCGs start with a typical ATN codon except for the COI which uses TTA as its start codon; all PCGs terminate in the common stop codon TAA or TAG, except for the COI, COII, ND3 and ND5 which use single T as their stop codons. The non-coding AT-rich region is 1065 bp long, located between rrnS and tRNAlle genes. It contains some structures of repeated motifs and microsatellite-like elements characteristic of the neuropterids.
Activation of cell migration via morphological changes in focal adhesions depends on shear stress in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells

Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumour of childhood, and it metastasizes to distant organs. However, the mechanism of metastasis, which generally depends on the cell motility of the neuroblastoma, remains unclear. In many solid tumours, it has been reported that shear stress promotes metastasis. Here, we investigated the relationship between shear stress and cell motility in the MYCN-amplified human neuroblastoma cell line IMR32, using a microfluidic device. We confirmed that most of the cells migrated downstream, and cell motility increased dramatically when the cells were exposed to a shear stress of 0.4 Pa, equivalent to that expected in vivo. We observed that the morphological features of focal adhesion were changed under a shear stress of 0.4 Pa. We also investigated the relationship between malignancy and the motility of IMR32 cells under shear stress. Decreasing the expression of MYCN in IMR32 cells via siRNA transfection inhibited cell motility by a shear stress of 0.4 Pa. These results suggest that MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells under high shear stress migrate to distant organs due to high cell motility, allowing cell migration to lymphatic vessels and venules.
NF-κB activation is a turn on for vaccinia virus phosphoprotein A49 to turn off NF-κB activation

Significance Vaccinia virus (VACV) encodes many proteins that inhibit innate immunity. For instance, protein A49 inhibits NF-κB activation by binding to β-TrCP. Here we show that A49 is phosphorylated on serine 7 and that this is necessary for binding β-TrCP and inhibition of NF-κB activation. Further, this phosphorylation occurs when the NF-κB pathway is stimulated and the kinase IKKβ is activated. Thus, A49 shows beautiful biological regulation, for activation of the pathway also activates the virus inhibitor of the pathway. The significance is seen in vivo, since VACVs expressing A49 S7A or S7E are less virulent than wild-type virus but more virulent than a virus lacking A49. Vaccinia virus protein A49 inhibits NF-κB activation by molecular mimicry and has a motif near the N terminus that is conserved in IκBα, β-catenin, HIV Vpu, and some other proteins. This motif contains two serines, and for IκBα and β-catenin, phosphorylation of these serines enables recognition by the E3 ubiquitin ligase β-TrCP. Binding of IκBα and β-catenin by β-TrCP causes their ubiquitylation and thereafter proteasome-mediated degradation. In contrast, HIV Vpu and VACV A49 are not degraded. This paper shows that A49 is phosphorylated at serine 7 but not serine 12 and that this is necessary and sufficient for binding β-TrCP and antagonism of NF-κB. Phosphorylation of A49 S7 occurs when NF-κB signaling is activated by addition of IL-1β or overexpression of TRAF6 or IKKβ, the kinase needed for IκBα phosphorylation. Thus, A49 shows beautiful biological regulation, for it becomes an NF-κB antagonist upon activation of NF-κB signaling. The virulence of viruses expressing mutant A49 proteins or lacking A49 (vΔA49) was tested. vΔA49 was attenuated compared with WT, but viruses expressing A49 that cannot bind β-TrCP or bind β-TrCP constitutively had intermediate virulence. So A49 promotes virulence by inhibiting NF-κB activation and by another mechanism independent of S7 phosphorylation and NF-κB antagonism. Last, a virus lacking A49 was more immunogenic than the WT virus.
Separate contributions of autistic traits and anxious apprehension, but not alexithymia, to emotion processing in faces

Reduced eye fixation has been commonly reported in autistic samples but may be at least partially explained by alexithymia (i.e., difficulty understanding and describing one’s emotional state). Because anxiety is often elevated in autism, and emotion-processing differences have also been observed in anxious samples, anxiety traits may also influence emotion processing within autism. This study tested the contribution of dimensional traits of autism, anxious apprehension, and alexithymia in mediating eye fixation during face processing. Participants included 105 adults from three samples: autistic adults (AS; n = 30), adults with clinically elevated anxiety and no autism (HI-ANX; n = 29), and neurotypical adults without elevated anxiety (NT; n = 46). Experiment 1 used an emotion identification task with dynamic stimuli, while Experiment 2 used a static luminance change detection task with emotional- and neutral-expression static photos. The emotions of interest were joy, anger, and fear. Dimensional mixed-effects models showed that autism traits, but not alexithymia, predicted reduced eye fixation across both tasks. Anxious apprehension was negatively related to response time in Experiment 1 and positively related to eye fixation in Experiment 2. Attentional avoidance of negative stimuli occurred at lower levels of autism traits and higher levels of worry traits. The results highlight the contribution of autism traits to emotional processing and suggest additional effects of worry-related traits.
Comparison of combined transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation with surgical resection by using propensity score matching in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma within Milan criteria.

PURPOSE To retrospectively compare the outcome of combined transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) (hereafter, TACE-RFA) with that of surgical resection (SR) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) within the Milan criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. From January 2000 to December 2010, 154 patients (mean age, 69.9 years; age range, 50-89 years; 107 men, 47 women) underwent TACE-RFA, and 176 patients (mean age, 66.9 years; age range, 29-83 years; 128 men, 48 women) underwent SR. Patients with HCC who underwent TACE-RFA or SR were enrolled if they met the following inclusion criteria: no previous HCC treatment, one HCC lesion no larger than 5 cm or up to three nodules smaller than 3 cm without vascular invasion or extrahepatic metastasis, and Child-Pugh class A or B disease. Cumulative overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were compared after adjustment with propensity score matching. RESULTS After this adjustment, OS rates were comparable between the groups (P = .393), but DFS was superior in the SR group (P < .048). Among patients with very early stage HCC (lesions <2 cm in diameter), OS and DFS rates in the SR group were significantly higher than those in the TACE-RFA group (P < .001 and P = .008, respectively). However, adjustment with propensity score matching yielded comparable OS and DFS rates between the two groups (P = .348 and P = .614, respectively). CONCLUSION TACE-RFA may be a viable alternative treatment for early-stage HCC when SR is not feasible.
The role of robotic gait training and tDCS in Friedrich ataxia rehabilitation

Rationale: Friedrich ataxia (FA) is the most common inherited neurodegenerative cerebellar ataxic syndrome. In patients with FA, physiotherapy is highly recommended to improve motor function outcome. Cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been demonstrated to be effective in improving symptoms by modulating cerebellar excitability. Recently, robotic rehabilitation with Lokomat-Pro has been used to treat motor impairment in ataxic syndromes by “modulating” cortical plasticity and cerebello-motor connectivity. Patient concerns: A 29-year-old Italian male with FA, come to our Institute to undergo intensive rehabilitation training. He presented a moderate-to-severe spastic tetraparesis, brisk deep tendon reflexes, moderate dysarthria, occasional difficulty in speaking, and mild delay in swallowing. He was able to stand for at least 10 seconds in the natural position with constant support, and thus he used a wheelchair. Diagnosis: Tetraparesis in a young patient with FA. Interventions: The effects of a stand-alone robotic gait training with Lokomat-Pro preceded by cerebellar anodal tDCS (a-tDCS) versus Lokomat-Pro preceded by cathodal-tDCS (c-tDCS) are compared. Outcomes: The coupled approach (i.e., tDCS and Lokomat) demonstrated better improvement in functional motor outcomes on the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA). Lessons: Although only a single case is described, we found that the combined neuromodulation-neurorobotic approach could become a promising tool in the rehabilitation of cerebellar ataxias, possibly by shaping cerebello-cerebral plasticity and connectivity.
Mutation-Based Therapeutic Strategies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: From Genetic Diagnosis to Therapy

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) are X-linked muscle disorders caused by mutations of the DMD gene, which encodes the subsarcolemmal protein dystrophin. In DMD, dystrophin is not expressed due to a disruption in the reading frame of the DMD gene, resulting in a severe phenotype. Becker muscular dystrophy exhibits a milder phenotype, having mutations that maintain the reading frame and allow for the production of truncated dystrophin. To date, various therapeutic approaches for DMD have been extensively developed. However, the pathomechanism is quite complex despite it being a single gene disorder, and dystrophin is expressed not only in a large amount of skeletal muscle but also in cardiac, vascular, intestinal smooth muscle, and nervous system tissue. Thus, the most appropriate therapy would be complementation or restoration of dystrophin expression, such as gene therapy using viral vectors, readthrough therapy, or exon skipping therapy. Among them, exon skipping therapy with antisense oligonucleotides can restore the reading frame and yield the conversion of a severe phenotype to one that is mild. In this paper, I present the significance of molecular diagnosis and the development of mutation-based therapeutic strategies to complement or restore dystrophin expression.
A Successive Approximation Time-to-Digital Converter with Single Set of Delay Lines for Time Interval Measurements

The paper is focused on design of time-to-digital converters based on successive approximation (SA-TDCs—Successive Approximation TDCs) using binary-scaled delay lines in the feedforward architecture. The aim of the paper is to provide a tutorial on successive approximation TDCs (SA-TDCs) on the one hand, and to make the contribution to optimization of SA-TDC design on the other. The proposed design optimization consists essentially in reduction of circuit complexity and die area, as well as in improving converter performance. The main paper contribution is the concept of reducing SA-TDC complexity by removing one of two sets of delay lines in the feedforward architecture at the price of simple output decoding. For 12 bits of resolution, the complexity reduction is close to 50%. Furthermore, the paper presents the implementation of 8-bit SA-TDC in 180 nm CMOS technology with a quantization step 25 ps obtained by asymmetrical design of pair of inverters and symmetrized multiplexer control.
The Efficacy of CHK1 Inhibitors Is Not Altered by Hypoxia, but Is Enhanced after Reoxygenation

Inhibitors of CHK1 are in clinical trials for cancer treatment in combination with DNA-damaging agents. Importantly, it was previously suggested that hypoxic cancer cells may be particularly sensitive to CHK1 inhibition. However, this suggestion was based on studies in severe, toxic levels of hypoxia (anoxia). The influence of less severe hypoxia on the efficacy of CHK1 inhibitors, administered either as single agents or in combination with other treatments, remains to be investigated. Here, we have assayed the effects of the CHK1 inhibitors, AZD7762 and UCN-01, during various hypoxic conditions and after reoxygenation in the absence and presence of ionizing radiation. Treatment with CHK1 inhibitors during acute or prolonged hypoxia (< 0.03%, 0.2%, and 1% O2; 3 h or 20–24 h) gave similar effects on cell survival as treatment with these inhibitors during normoxia. CHK1 inhibitors combined with ionizing radiation showed similar radiosensitization in hypoxic and normoxic cells. However, when the inhibitors were administered after reoxygenation following prolonged hypoxia (< 0.03% and 0.2%; 20–24 h), we observed decreased cell survival and stronger induction of the DNA damage marker, γH2AX, in S-phase cells. This was accompanied by enhanced phosphorylation of the single-stranded DNA-binding replication protein A. These results suggest that the cytotoxic effects of CHK1 inhibitors are enhanced after reoxygenation following prolonged hypoxia, most likely due to the increased replication-associated DNA damage. Combining CHK1 inhibitors with other treatments that cause increased reoxygenation, such as fractionated radiotherapy, might therefore be beneficial. Mol Cancer Ther; 12(5); 705–16. ©2013 AACR.