Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Species Distribution, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Enterotoxigenicity of Non-aureus Staphylococci in Retail Chicken Meat

Non-aureus staphylococci (NAS), including coagulase-negative staphylococci, have emerged as important causes of opportunistic infections in humans and animals and a potential cause of staphylococcal food poisoning. In this study, we investigated (i) the staphylococcal species profiles of NAS in in retail chicken meat, (ii) the phenotypic and genotypic factors associated with antimicrobial resistance in the NAS isolates, and (iii) the prevalence of classical and newer staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes. A total of 58 NAS of nine different species were isolated from retail raw chicken meat samples. The occurrence of multidrug resistance in the NAS, particularly S. agnetis and S. chromogenes, with high resistance rates against tetracycline or fluoroquinolones were confirmed. The tetracycline resistance was associated with the presence of tet(L) in S. chromogenes and S. hyicus or tet(K) in S. saprophyticus. The occurrence of fluoroquinolone resistance in S. agnetis and S. chromogenes was usually associated with mutations in the quinolone resistance determining regions (QRDR) of gyrA and parC. In addition, the frequent presence of SE genes, especially seh, sej, and sep, was detected in S. agnetis and S. chromogenes. Our findings suggest that NAS in raw chicken meat can have potential roles as reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance and enterotoxin genes.
Role of the JAK-STAT Pathway in Bovine Mastitis and Milk Production

Simple Summary The cytokine-activated Janus kinase (JAK)—signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway has an important role in the regulation of immunity and inflammation. In addition, the signaling of this pathway has been reported to be associated with mammary gland development and milk production. Because of such important functions, the JAK-STAT pathway has been widely targeted in both human and animal diseases as a therapeutic agent. Recently, the JAK2, STATs, and inhibitors of the JAK-STAT pathway, especially cytokine signaling suppressors (SOCSs), have been reported to be associated with milk production and mastitis-resistance phenotypic traits in dairy cattle. Thus, in the current review, we attempt to overview the development of the JAK-STAT pathway role in bovine mastitis and milk production. Abstract The cytokine-activated Janus kinase (JAK)—signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway is a sequence of communications between proteins in a cell, and it is associated with various processes such as cell division, apoptosis, mammary gland development, lactation, anti-inflammation, and immunity. The pathway is involved in transferring information from receptors on the cell surface to the cell nucleus, resulting in the regulation of genes through transcription. The Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), signal transducer and activator of transcription A and B (STAT5 A & B), STAT1, and cytokine signaling suppressor 3 (SOCS3) are the key members of the JAK-STAT pathway. Interestingly, prolactin (Prl) also uses the JAK-STAT pathway to regulate milk production traits in dairy cattle. The activation of JAK2 and STATs genes has a critical role in milk production and mastitis resistance. The upregulation of SOCS3 in bovine mammary epithelial cells inhibits the activation of JAK2 and STATs genes, which promotes mastitis development and reduces the lactational performance of dairy cattle. In the current review, we highlight the recent development in the knowledge of JAK-STAT, which will enhance our ability to devise therapeutic strategies for bovine mastitis control. Furthermore, the review also explores the role of the JAK-STAT pathway in the regulation of milk production in dairy cattle.
Expanding Phenotype of Schimke Immuno-Osseous Dysplasia: Congenital Anomalies of the Kidneys and of the Urinary Tract and Alteration of NK Cells

Schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia (SIOD) is a rare multisystemic disorder with a variable clinical expressivity caused by biallelic variants in SMARCAL1. A phenotype–genotype correlation has been attempted and variable expressivity of biallelic SMARCAL1 variants may be associated with environmental and genetic disturbances of gene expression. We describe two siblings born from consanguineous parents with a diagnosis of SIOD revealed by whole exome sequencing (WES). Results: A homozygous missense variant in the SMARCAL1 gene (c.1682G>A; p.Arg561His) was identified in both patients. Despite carrying the same variant, the two patients showed substantial renal and immunological phenotypic differences. We describe features not previously associated with SIOD—both patients had congenital anomalies of the kidneys and of the urinary tract and one of them succumbed to a classical type congenital mesoblastic nephroma. We performed an extensive characterization of the immunophenotype showing combined immunodeficiency characterized by a profound lymphopenia, lack of thymic output, defective IL-7Rα expression, and disturbed B plasma cells differentiation and immunoglobulin production in addition to an altered NK-cell phenotype and function. Conclusions: Overall, our results contribute to extending the phenotypic spectrum of features associated with SMARCAL1 mutations and to better characterizing the underlying immunologic disorder with critical implications for therapeutic and management strategies.
Scaffold‐free biofabrication of adipocyte structures with magnetic levitation

Tissue engineering research aims to repair the form and/or function of impaired tissues. Tissue engineering studies mostly rely on scaffold‐based techniques. However, these techniques have certain challenges, such as the selection of proper scaffold material, including mechanical properties, sterilization, and fabrication processes. As an alternative, we propose a novel scaffold‐free adipose tissue biofabrication technique based on magnetic levitation. In this study, a label‐free magnetic levitation technique was used to form three‐dimensional (3D) scaffold‐free adipocyte structures with various fabrication strategies in a microcapillary‐based setup. Adipogenic‐differentiated 7F2 cells and growth D1 ORL UVA stem cells were used as model cells. The morphological properties of the 3D structures of single and cocultured cells were analyzed. The developed procedure leads to the formation of different patterns of single and cocultured adipocytes without a scaffold. Our results indicated that adipocytes formed loose structures while growth cells were tightly packed during 3D culture in the magnetic levitation platform. This system has potential for ex vivo modeling of adipose tissue for drug testing and transplantation applications for cell therapy in soft tissue damage. Also, it will be possible to extend this technique to other cell and tissue types.
Mechanical Power in Endurance Running: A Scoping Review on Sensors for Power Output Estimation during Running

Mechanical power may act as a key indicator for physiological and mechanical changes during running. In this scoping review, we examine the current evidences about the use of power output (PW) during endurance running and the different commercially available wearable sensors to assess PW. The Boolean phrases endurance OR submaximal NOT sprint AND running OR runner AND power OR power meter, were searched in PubMed, MEDLINE, and SCOPUS. Nineteen studies were finally selected for analysis. The current evidence about critical power and both power-time and power-duration relationships in running allow to provide coaches and practitioners a new promising setting for PW quantification with the use of wearable sensors. Some studies have assessed the validity and reliability of different available wearables for both kinematics parameters and PW when running but running power meters need further research before a definitive conclusion regarding its validity and reliability.
Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a New Natural Host of Apple Stem Pitting Virus

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a minor but important woody crop cultivated in Asia and Europe. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) analysis of an asymptomatic loquat plant using RNAseq Illumina technology has allowed the detection for the first time of apple stem pitting virus (ASPV), the type species of the genus Foveavirus in the family Betaflexiviridae, infecting this crop. A nearly complete genome of 9303 nts (ASPV-SL61) reconstructed bioinformatically shows the typical genomic structure of this viral species and a highest nucleotide identity (85.9%) with the Chinese ASPV isolate YLX from pear. A close phylogenetic relationship between ASPV-SL61 and ASPV-YLX has been confirmed by the sequence analysis of full-length ASPV genomic sequences available in the databases. In fact, a phylogenetic study based on a partial CP N-terminal sequence previously proposed to be involved in host adaptation has shown that ASPV-SL61 loquat isolate is more closely related to ASPV pear isolates. The presence of ASPV in loquat has been further confirmed by RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing and DAS-ELISA. An incidence of 15% was determined in one of the loquat Spanish growing areas. The sequence analysis of the partial CP sequences amplified by RT-PCR has shown a high level of variability between loquat isolates. To our knowledge, this is the first record of loquat as a natural host of ASPV.
Development and Applications of Viral Vectored Vaccines to Combat Zoonotic and Emerging Public Health Threats

Vaccination is arguably the most cost-effective preventative measure against infectious diseases. While vaccines have been successfully developed against certain viruses (e.g., yellow fever virus, polio virus, and human papilloma virus HPV), those against a number of other important public health threats, such as HIV-1, hepatitis C, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), have so far had very limited success. The global pandemic of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, highlights the urgency of vaccine development against this and other constant threats of zoonotic infection. While some traditional methods of producing vaccines have proven to be successful, new concepts have emerged in recent years to produce more cost-effective and less time-consuming vaccines that rely on viral vectors to deliver the desired immunogens. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different viral vaccine vectors and their general strategies and applications in both human and veterinary medicines. A careful review of these issues is necessary as they can provide important insights into how some of these viral vaccine vectors can induce robust and long-lasting immune responses in order to provide protective efficacy against a variety of infectious disease threats to humans and animals, including those with zoonotic potential to cause global pandemics.
Domesticating olfaction: Dog breeds, including scent hounds, have reduced cribriform plate morphology relative to wolves

The domestic dog is assumed by nearly everyone to be the consummate smeller. Within the species Canis familiaris individual breeds, such as the bloodhound or beagle, are known as olfactory stars. These are “scent breeds,” a grouping variably defined as a genetic clade or breed class commonly used for scent detection tasks. Previous work suggests that the dog has a more robust olfactory anatomy than many mammal species. Now we undertake a closer investigation of the dog's olfactory system, both in relationship to its closest wild relatives, the wolf and coyote, and across individual breeds. First, we seek to resolve whether the dog has lost olfactory capacity through its domestication from the wolf lineage. Second, we test the inertial lore that among dogs, “scent breeds,” have a superior olfactory facility. As a measure of relative olfactory capacity, we look to the cribriform plate (CP), a bony cup in the posterior nasal cavity perforated by passageways for all olfactory nerve bundles streaming from the periphery to the brain. Using high‐resolution computed tomography (CT) scans and digital quantification, we compare relative CP size in 46 dog breeds, the coyote and gray wolf. Results show the dog has a reduced CP surface area relative to the wolf and coyote. Moreover, we found no significant differences between CP size of “scent” and “non‐scent” breeds. Our study suggests that the dog lost olfactory capacity as a result of domestication and this loss was not recovered in particular breed groupings through directed artificial selection for increased olfactory facility.
Stromal Stem Cells: Nature, Biology and Potential Therapeutic Applications

Stromal cells are connective tissue cells of any organ. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), are multipotent progenitors, which were first described by Caplan and colleagues in 1991. MSCs hold great potential for regenerative medicine because of their ability for self- renewal and differentiation into tissue-specific cells such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. Recent studies indicate that MSCs resemble pericytes and emerge from the peripheral stromal region surrounding blood vessels, thus clarifying their broad regenerative potential in adult tissues. The development of uniform protocols for both preparation and characterization of MSCs, including standardized functional assays for evaluation of their biological potential, are critical factors contributing to their clinical utility. Nowadays, due to the capacity of modulating immunological responses, suppor-ting hematopoiesis and repairing tissues, MSCs have been widely used to treat immune- based disorders, such as Crohn ’ s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. Based on animal experiments and clinical studies, the most successful clinical application of MSCs is in the field of hematological disease.
GEE Tests for Two Means in a Stratified Cluster-Randomized Design

Suppose you are interested in comparing the means of two groups (treatment and control). Further suppose that the response is known to be related to other covariates (such as age, race, or gender) and so their impact needs to be adjusted for. This may be accomplished by stratifying on the covariates and forming hypotheses about a common mean difference across all clusters and strata. Often, the stratification is based on cluster size, but this is not required.
Tutors' Participation in Decision-Making and Its Effects on Job Satisfaction in Nursing Training Colleges in Ghana

This study sought to examine the impact of academic staff participation in decision-making on their job satisfaction in Nursing Training Colleges in Ghana. The study adopted the descriptive research design. Two hundred and sixty tutors were selected using multistage stratified random sampling. The questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was face validated by researchers and content validated by senior researchers. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient 0.89 was obtained for the research instruments. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, independent t-test, correlation and simple regression. The study found that the level of tutor’s participation in decision-making in the Nursing Training Colleges was moderate. Most tutors’ participated in decisions on students’ policies, curriculum and instructional development and college planning. The level of job satisfaction among the tutor’s was moderate for freedom to use their own judgment and feeling of accomplishment from job. Tutor’s participation in decision-making was directly related to sex, age, education, and rank. The study also found that contextual factors – knowledge; tutor management relationship and college politics had direct relationship with tutors’ participation in decision-making and impacted positively on their job satisfaction due to demographic and contextual factors. The study recommends among others increased level of participation of tutors in decision-making in the Nursing Training Colleges in Ghana.
Knowledge and Export Modes: Which Export Strategy Boosts Firms Knowledge Acquisition?

The aim of our research is to investigate whether the choice to export directly versus indirect export plays a role in the level of knowledge acquired by exporting firms. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical evidence in this stream of literature and our original contribution consists in considering the outcomes of learning-by-exporting in presence of export intermediaries. Thus, we study whether different export strategies may generate different unobservable productivity premia. In particular, we focused on 25 emerging Countries, and through a machine learning method, we evaluate how the level of knowledge acquired by firms would change if those who chose a specific strategy had instead chosen another one. Our results show that (1) the learning by exporting hypothesis is still valid when firms export indirectly; (2) direct exporters acquire more knowledge than indirect exporters; (3) under the same export strategy, Chinese exporters (direct and indirect) outperform other Asian exporters.
Oil-in-water Pickering emulsion stabilization with oppositely charged polysaccharide particles: chitin nanocrystals/fucoidan complexes.

BACKGROUND Chitin nanocrystals (ChN) are insoluble particles that can be used as stabilizers for Pickering emulsions. Their unique cationic properties and antibacterial activity have generated considerable interest among researchers. However, ChN have remained largely underexplored. Furthermore, the droplet sizes of the emulsion stabilized by ChN are as large as 10-100 μm, and the physical stability requires further improvement. Some studies have shown that the spontaneous reaction of oppositely charged particles can effectively stabilize the emulsions. Therefore, positively charged ChN and negatively charged fucoidan (F) were compounded to stabilize Pickering emulsions, and the stability of these emulsions was qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS The results showed that the composite particles comprising two polysaccharides in a mass ratio of 1:1 and at a pH of 2 (ChN1 -F1 -pH2) possessed the lowest sulfate content (20.1%) and almost zero potential (-3 mV), indicating the high degree of neutralization of the positively charged amino group in ChN and the negatively charged sulfate group in F. Meanwhile, ChN1 -F1 -pH2 displayed a dense network structure that improved the dispersibility and wettability (contact angle = 9.3°). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results confirmed that ChN and F were effectively combined through electrostatic interaction or neutralization to produce a polyelectrolyte complex. Furthermore, the particle size of the Pickering emulsion stabilized by ChN-F significantly reduced, and the maximum size did not exceed 10 μm; the physical and storage stabilities also improved. The ChN1 -F1 -pH2 emulsion presented excellent storage stability; in particular, the emulsions stabilized by ChN1 -F1 -pH5 and ChN1 -F1 -pH6 exhibited excellent flocculation stabilities. CONCLUSION The size of the emulsion droplets stabilized by the oppositely charged polysaccharide particles (ChN-F complexes) significantly reduced. Furthermore, by changing the mass ratio and pH, the microstructure and binding degree of the complexes can be adjusted, thereby promoting their adsorption on the oil-water interface and improving the stability of the Pickering emulsion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Observation of Acoustic Charge Transport in GaN-Based Quantum Well Structures Under Surface Acoustic Wave Excitations

Though the acoustoelectric and acoustooptic interactions have been widely studied on III–V semiconductors, most studies were conducted at low temperature to avoid the influence of lattice scattering. Here, we demonstrate larger-than-1-GHz optical oscillation and acoustic charge transport at room temperature from a nitride-based LED (light-emitting diode) by acoustic wave excitation. The optical oscillation is generated by the harmonics of acoustic waves, while the acoustic transport of carriers was observed from the LED light output at different acoustic excitation frequencies. Furthermore, with the change of bias voltage, the frequency response of light output varies correspondingly due to the thermal disturbance that affects the lattice vibration and acoustic wave propagation. The results also suggest that we are able to achieve a tunable optical resonant frequency by varying bias voltages without changing the LED structure.
Paleozoic–Mesozoic Eustatic Changes and Mass Extinctions: New Insights from Event Interpretation

Recent eustatic reconstructions allow for reconsidering the relationships between the fifteen Paleozoic–Mesozoic mass extinctions (mid-Cambrian, end-Ordovician, Llandovery/Wenlock, Late Devonian, Devonian/Carboniferous, mid-Carboniferous, end-Guadalupian, end-Permian, two mid-Triassic, end-Triassic, Early Jurassic, Jurassic/Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous, and end-Cretaceous extinctions) and global sea-level changes. The relationships between eustatic rises/falls and period-long eustatic trends are examined. Many eustatic events at the mass extinction intervals were not anomalous. Nonetheless, the majority of the considered mass extinctions coincided with either interruptions or changes in the ongoing eustatic trends. It cannot be excluded that such interruptions and changes could have facilitated or even triggered biodiversity losses in the marine realm.
Revisiting Facial Age Estimation With New Insights From Instance Space Analysis

When demonstrating the effectiveness of a new algorithm, researchers are traditionally encouraged to compare their algorithm's performance against existing algorithms on well-studied benchmark test suites. In the absence of more nuanced methodologies, algorithm performance is typically summarized on average across the test suite examples. This paper highlights the potential bias of conclusions drawn by analyzing “on average” performance, and the opportunities offered by a recent testing methodology known as instance space analysis. To illustrate, we revisit our 2007 comparative study of algorithms for facial age estimation, and rigorously stress-test to challenge the original conclusions. The case study demonstrates how powerful visualizations offered by instance space analysis enable greater insights into unique strengths and weaknesses, and which algorithm should be used when and why. Inspired by such insights, a new algorithm is proposed, and its unique advantage is demonstrated. The bias often hidden in well-studied datasets, and the ramifications for drawing biased conclusions, are also illustrated in this case study. While focused on facial age estimation, the methodology and lessons learned from the case study are broadly applicable to any study seeking to draw conclusions about algorithm performance based on empirical results.