Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formation and growth mechanism of flake‐belt integrative Ag nanocrystals

Novel flake-belt integrative silver (Ag) nanocrystals have been constructed for the first time by a facile one-step reduction reaction. In the process, as a modulator, a trace amount of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt played an important role. According to the basic characterisation, a selective deposition and an epitaxial growth mechanism of the reduced Ag were used to explain the formation of the flake-belt integrative structure. The high integration of a flake and belt in one particle is completely different from the stacked assembly of nanobelts and flakes. Interestingly, uniform Ag nanobelts were obtained by simply modulating experiments. This work provided a methodology to fabricate metal hierarchical nanoparticles and a new thinking on the growth of Ag nanocrystals.
Printer source identification by feature modeling in the total variable printer space

Advances in the digital world have attracted the attention of many researchers in terms of developing digital forensics. Using machine learning methods for print source identification is one of the developing areas in the field of digital forensics. In this paper, a new method is presented for printer source identification by modeling the primary Local Binary Pattern (LBP) features in the total variable printer space and extracting the secondary features based on the joint factor analysis. Only one low‐dimensional i‐vector feature is employed for each document image without using any optical character recognition (OCR) algorithm or similar processes. This property eliminates the requirement for the majority voting algorithm and reduces the computational cost of the classification process. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is not limited to a specific language or character set. The capabilities of the proposed method in extracting useful discriminant information from the sparse print shadow texture are revealed through simulation. The simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm obtained the accuracy of 98.48% by refining the basic features of LBP, which is comparable to the results of the state‐of‐the‐art approaches in this field.
Does the Type of Sport Influence Morphology of the Hip? A Systematic Review

Background: Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has been extensively investigated and is strongly associated with athletic participation. Purpose: To assess (1) the prevalence of cam-type FAI across various sports; (2) whether kinematic variation among sports influences hip morphology; and (3) whether performance level, duration, and frequency of participation or other factors influence hip morphology in a sporting population. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: A systematic search of Embase, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library was undertaken following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Prospective and retrospective case series, case reports, and review articles published after 1999 were screened, and those that met the inclusion criteria decided a priori were included for analysis. Results: The literature search identified 58 relevant articles involving 5683 participants. A total of 49 articles described a higher prevalence of FAI across various “hip-heavy” sports, including soccer, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, skiing, golf, and ballet. In studies including nonathlete controls, a greater prevalence of FAI was reported in 66.7% of studies (n = 8/12). The highest alpha angle was identified at the 1-o’clock position (n = 9/9) in football, skiing, golf, ice hockey, and basketball. The maximum alpha angle was located in a more lateral position in goalkeepers versus positional players in ice hockey (1 vs 1:45 o’clock). A positive correlation was also identified between the alpha angle and both age and activity level (n = 5/8 and n = 2/3, respectively) and between prevalence of FAI and both age and activity level (n = 2/2 and n = 4/5). Conclusion: Hip-heavy sports show an increased prevalence of FAI, with specific sporting activities influencing hip morphology. There is some evidence to suggest that a longer duration and higher level of training also result in an increased prevalence of FAI. Registration: CRD4202018001 (PROSPERO).
Effect of Yeast Extract, Algae Extract and Humic Acid on Vegetative Growth and Some Chemical Constituents of Prime Grape Transplants Grafted on Freedom and Paulsen Rootstocks

The effect of foliar spraying with yeast extract and algae extract, as well as soil drench application with humic acid on some vegetative growth parameters, chlorophyll content and N, P, K% of Prime grape transplants grafted on Freedom and Paulsen rootstocks were studied during 2018 and 2019 seasons. A great effect on vegetative growth including stem height, stem diameter, number of lateral shoots/ plant, number of leaves/ plant, leaf area and root length were obtained with Prime grape transplants grafted on Freedom rootstock. All applied treatments were superior to control in improving growth parameters and the great effect was gained with combining treatment (T8) which including 0.2% yeast extract + 0.2% algae extract + 2.5 g/L. /tree humic acid. However, the highest values of total chlorophyll, N and K% were obtained with Prime grape transplants grafted on Freedom rootstock, whereas P% values did not affect the type of rootstocks. Moreover, the highest values of total chlorophyll, N and P% were recorded by the combining treatment (T8) whereas; the highest K% values were obtained with 0.4% algae extract treatment. It could be concluded that Prime grape transplants grafted on Freedom rootstock were superior to Prime grape transplants grafted on Paulsen rootstock either on vegetative growth parameters or on some chemical constituents.
Interrogation of the Dynamic Properties of Higher-Order Heterochromatin Using CRISPR/dCas9

Eukaryotic chromosomes feature large regions of compact, repressed heterochromatin hallmarked by Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1). HP1 proteins play multi-faceted roles in shaping heterochromatin, and in cells, HP1 tethering to individual gene promoters leads to epigenetic modifications and silencing. However, emergent properties of HP1 at supranucleosomal scales remain difficult to study in cells due to lack of appropriate tools. Here, we develop CRISPR-Engineered Chromatin Organization (EChO), combining live cell CRISPR imaging with inducible large-scale recruitment of chromatin proteins to native genomic targets. We demonstrate that human HP1α tiling across kilobase-scale genomic DNA forms novel contacts with natural heterochromatin, integrates two distantly targeted regions, and reversibly changes chromatin from a diffuse to compact state. The compact state exhibits delayed disassembly kinetics and represses transcription across over 600 kilobases. These findings support a polymer model of HP1α-mediated chromatin regulation and highlight the utility of CRISPR-EChO in studying supranucleosomal chromatin organization in living cells.
Reciprocal YAP1 loss and INSM1 expression in neuroendocrine prostate cancer

Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is a rare but aggressive histologic variant of prostate cancer that responds poorly to androgen deprivation therapy. Hybrid NEPC‐adenocarcinoma (AdCa) tumors are common, often eluding accurate pathologic diagnosis and requiring ancillary markers for classification. We recently performed an outlier‐based meta‐analysis across a number of independent gene expression microarray datasets to identify novel markers that differentiate NEPC from AdCa, including up‐regulation of insulinoma‐associated protein 1 (INSM1) and loss of Yes‐associated protein 1 (YAP1). Here, using diverse cancer gene expression datasets, we show that Hippo pathway‐related genes, including YAP1, are among the top down‐regulated gene sets with expression of the neuroendocrine transcription factors, including INSM1. In prostate cancer cell lines, transgenic mouse models, and human prostate tumor cohorts, we confirm that YAP1 RNA and YAP1 protein expression are silenced in NEPC and demonstrate that the inverse correlation of INSM1 and YAP1 expression helps to distinguish AdCa from NEPC. Mechanistically, we find that YAP1 loss in NEPC may help to maintain INSM1 expression in prostate cancer cell lines and we further demonstrate that YAP1 silencing likely occurs epigenetically, via CpG hypermethylation near its transcriptional start site. Taken together, these data nominate two additional markers to distinguish NEPC from AdCa and add to data from other tumor types suggesting that Hippo signaling is tightly reciprocally regulated with neuroendocrine transcription factor expression. © 2021 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Whither metabolic flux analysis in plants?

Stable isotope labelling experiments provide many opportunities for probing metabolic pathways. One goal of such experiments is to define the metabolic phenotype of an organism in terms of the fluxes supported by the entire metabolic network. Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is used routinely in prokaryotes, but its application to plants is more challenging. Here we examine the status of MFA in plants, highlighting difficulties that hinder wider exploitation of the technique. We conclude that simulation of network fluxes using constraints-based modelling offers a more versatile approach for exploring the capabilities of a network, and that MFA might be best used to probe the interesting features that simulation reveals.
Generating Class-Level Integration Tests Using Call Site Information

Search-based approaches have been used in the literature to automate the process of creating unit test cases. However, related work has shown that generated tests with high code coverage could be ineffective, i.e., they may not detect all faults or kill all injected mutants. In this paper, we propose Cling, an integration-level test case generation approach that exploits how a pair of classes, the caller and the callee, interact with each other through method calls. In particular, Cling generates integration-level test cases that maximize the Coupled Branches Criterion (CBC). Coupled branches are pairs of branches containing a branch of the caller and a branch of the callee such that an integration test that exercises the former also exercises the latter. CBC is a novel integration-level coverage criterion, measuring the degree to which a test suite exercises the interactions between a caller and its callee classes. We implemented Cling and evaluated the approach on 140 pairs of classes from five different open-source Java projects. Our results show that (1) Cling generates test suites with high CBC coverage, thanks to the definition of the test suite generation as a many-objectives problem where each couple of branches is an independent objective; (2) such generated suites trigger different class interactions and can kill on average 7.7% (with a maximum of 50%) of mutants that are not detected by tests generated randomly or at the unit level; (3) Cling can detect integration faults coming from wrong assumptions about the usage of the callee class (25 for our subject systems) that remain undetected when using automatically generated random and unit-level test suites.
Asymmetry and hysteresis in the Russian gasoline market: the rationale for green energy exports

Using monthly data of 79 Russian regions from 2003 to 2017, we study the long-run relationship of the retail gasoline prices with the crude oil price and the nominal exchange rate. We find that models that were successfully applied to deal with asymmetries in other countries are not suitable for Russia without taking structural breaks into account. Once breaks are allowed, we find that there is no asymmetry in the long-run elasticities between the gasoline prices and the crude oil price, and no significant hysteresis. However, there is an asymmetric relation between the gasoline price and the exchange rate that has decreased over time. These results also hold after several robustness checks. The evidence reported in this work shows that the effects of the exchange rate on gasoline prices are much more difficult to control than the oil price, and they require a larger set of policy measures: the recent development of a plan to decrease the importance of hydrocarbons exports by producing clean hydrogen using electrolysis and pyrolysis and the potential future export of electricity generated using nuclear power and onshore wind farms may help to diversify the local economy and to shield it from new sanctions.
MicroRNA-139-5p improves sepsis-induced lung injury by targeting Rho-kinase1

Sepsis-induced acute lung injury (ALI) is an inflammatory process that involves inflammatory cytokine production and cell apoptosis. In the present study, the regulatory role of microRNA (miR)-139-5p in sepsis-induced ALI was investigated using a murine model of cecal ligation puncture (CLP) and an in vitro model using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBEs). Sepsis-induced pathological changes in the lungs of ALI mice were detected using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Lung water content was determined, and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum of sepsis-induced ALI mice were quantified using ELISA. The levels of oxidative stress in lung tissues were determined using commercial kits. The degree of apoptosis was determined using a TUNEL assay. The expression levels of miR-139-5p and Rho-kinase 1 (ROCK1) were determined using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blot analyses. A dual-luciferase reporter assay was used to confirm the direct targeting of ROCK1 by miR-139-5p. NHBEs were co-transfected with vectors expressing ROCK1 (or empty vector) and miR-139-5p mimics or control mimics prior to LPS treatment. The transcriptional activity of caspase-3, the ratio of apoptotic cells, the expression levels of mucin 5AC, mucin 1, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, NLR family pyrin domain containing 3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD and caspase-1 were evaluated. Compared with the normal group, mice that underwent CLP exhibited abnormal lung morphology, enhanced production of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde and lactate dehydrogenase levels, an increased proportion of apoptotic cells and increased ROCK1 expression. Superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and miR-139-5p levels were decreased following CLP. In the NHBEs, stimulation with LPS caused a marked increase in inflammatory cytokine levels and apoptosis compared with the untreated cells. Overexpression of miR-139-5p attenuated cell apoptosis and inflammation. Overexpression of ROCK1 in NHBEs restored the ROS levels and proinflammatory cytokine production inhibited by miR-139-5p. In conclusion, miR-139-5p alleviated sepsis-induced ALI via suppression of its downstream target, ROCK1, suggesting that miR-139-5p may hold promise in the treatment of sepsis-induced ALI.
Effect of ammonia treatment on white birch wood

Abstract Transverse sections of white birch (Betula platyphylla) were treated with anhydrous ammonia at 60–140°C (ammonia treatment, AT). As a result, the crystal structure of cellulose in the AT samples changed to cellulose IIII, and acetamide was produced. The surface area of the AT samples, the amount of sugar released upon acid hydrolysis and the lignin content were not changed. However, a small amount of lignin became acid soluble. Mäule color reaction, indicative of the presence of syringyl lignin, showed decreasing color intensities with increasing temperature of AT. The results can be easily interpreted that AT affects ester linkages and side chains of hemicelluloses and syringyl lignin. In addition, AT was carried out on 1-μm thick transverse sections and block specimens. Xylanase treatment and immunolabeling revealed that AT enhances xylan degradation, but ray cells are resistant to xylanase even after AT. On the block sample, a deposited xylan layer appeared on the inner surface of fiber cell walls. Apparently, xylan moved to the surface in contact with the fluid ammonia during AT. The vessel cell wall did not show a similar migration effect, indicating a cell wall-specific interaction with ammonia.
Sonothrombolysis in Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke With Large Vessel Occlusion

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background and Purpose: Evidence about the utility of ultrasound-enhanced thrombolysis (sonothrombolysis) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is conflicting. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of sonothrombolysis in patients with AIS with large vessel occlusion, by analyzing individual patient data of available randomized-controlled clinical trials. Methods: We included all available randomized-controlled clinical trials comparing sonothrombolysis with or without addition of microspheres (treatment group) to intravenous thrombolysis alone (control group) in patients with AIS with large vessel occlusion. The primary outcome measure was the rate of complete recanalization at 1 to 36 hours following intravenous thrombolysis initiation. We present crude odds ratios (ORs) and ORs adjusted for the predefined variables of age, sex, baseline stroke severity, systolic blood pressure, and onset-to-treatment time. Results: We included 7 randomized controlled clinical trials that enrolled 1102 patients with AIS. A total of 138 and 134 confirmed large vessel occlusion patients were randomized to treatment and control groups respectively. Patients randomized to sonothrombolysis had increased odds of complete recanalization compared with patients receiving intravenous thrombolysis alone (40.3% versus 22.4%; OR, 2.17 [95% CI, 1.03–4.54]; adjusted OR, 2.33 [95% CI, 1.02–5.34]). The likelihood of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was not significantly different between the 2 groups (7.3% versus 3.7%; OR, 2.03 [95% CI, 0.68–6.11]; adjusted OR, 2.55 [95% CI, 0.76–8.52]). No differences in the likelihood of asymptomatic intracranial hemorrhage, 3-month favorable functional and 3-month functional independence were documented. Conclusions: Sonothrombolysis was associated with a nearly 2-fold increase in the odds of complete recanalization compared with intravenous thrombolysis alone in patients with AIS with large vessel occlusions. Further study of the safety and efficacy of sonothrombolysis is warranted.
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) deletions as biomarkers of response to treatment of chronic active EBV

Chronic active Epstein–Barr virus (CAEBV) disease is a rare condition characterised by persistent EBV infection in previously healthy individuals. Defective EBV genomes were found in East Asian patients with CAEBV. In the present study, we sequenced 14 blood EBV samples from three UK patients with CAEBV, comparing the results with saliva CAEBV samples and other conditions. We observed EBV deletions in blood, some of which may disrupt viral replication, but not saliva in CAEBV. Deletions were lost overtime after successful treatment. These findings are compatible with CAEBV being associated with the evolution and persistence of EBV+ haematological clones that are lost on successful treatment.
Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in Peripheral Blood Does not Predict Dementia Risk.

BACKGROUND There is strong evidence that epigenetic age acceleration is associated with increased risk of later-life diseases and all-cause mortality. However, there is currently limited evidence that suggests accelerated epigenetic age is associated with dementia risk. OBJECTIVE This study aims to clarify whether epigenetic biomarkers of accelerated aging can pre- dict dementia risk, which is an important consideration as aging is the greatest risk factor for the disease. METHODS DNA methylation was measured in peripheral blood samples provided by 160 partici- pants from the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly study, including 73 pre-symptomatic de- mentia cases and 87 controls matched for age, sex, and smoking and education status. Epigenetic age was calculated using Horvath, Hannum, GrimAge and PhenoAge DNA methylation clocks, and age acceleration (the disparity between chronological age and epigenetic age) was determined. RESULTS There was no difference in age acceleration between dementia cases and controls. In males, only Hannum's intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration was increased in pre-symptomatic de- mentia cases compared to controls (Δ +1.8 years, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION These findings provide no strong evidence that accelerated epigenetic aging measured in peripheral blood can predict dementia risk.
EFFECTS OF β-HYDROXY-β-METHYLBUTYRATE SUPPLEMENTATION ON MUSCLE MASS AND STRENGTH IN ONABOTULINUMTOXIN TYPE-A-INJECTED AND CONTRALATERAL QUADRICEPS FEMORIS IN RABBITS

Objective To determine the effects of the leucine metabolite β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB) on strength, muscle mass, and contractile material in muscle wasting induced by onabotulinumtoxin type-A (BoNT-A) injection into the quadriceps femoris muscles of New Zealand white rabbits. Methods A total of 21, female rabbits were divided into 3 groups (n = 7, each). Group 1 (Control) received intramuscular injection of saline. Groups 2 and 3 received intramuscular injection of BoNT-A (3.5 units/kg), with group 3 receiving supplementation with HMB (120 mg/kg-BW/day). Muscle morphology, mass, and strength were assessed 8 weeks later in both injected and non-injected contralateral limbs. Results Injected muscle strength of group 2 (BoNT-A) and group 3 (BoNT-A+HMB) was reduced by 63% and 60%, respectively, compared with Controls (p < 0.0001). Strength in contralateral muscles of group 2 was reduced by 23% vs Controls (p <0.002), while in group 3, strength was similar to Controls. Muscle mass in the injected muscles of the BoNT-A and BoNT-A+HMB groups was significantly reduced, by 46% and 48%, respectively. Conclusion While HMB did not prevent loss of muscle strength and mass in the BoNT-A-injected musculature, it prevented significant loss of contractile material in the injected musculature and strength loss in the contralateral non-injected musculature. LAY ABSTRACT Onabotulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) is currently approved for cosmetic procedures and for the treatment of many conditions, such as migraine headaches and neuromuscular conditions associated with spasticity, such as cerebral palsy or post-stroke in USA. Once injected into the muscle BoNT-A causes muscle paralysis, which is reversible. The current study examined the local and distant detrimental effects of BoNT-A on decreasing muscle wasting and muscle function in a rabbit model, and the effects of dietary use of HMB (β-hydroxy-βmethylbutyrate), a leucine metabolite, on these detrimental effects. BoNT-A was injected into 1 leg of a rabbit model and muscle mass and strength measured in both the injected and non-injected legs. BoNT-A caused a loss of muscle mass in the injected legs. It also caused a loss of strength in the injected legs and a somewhat reduced loss of strength in the non-injected legs. This suggests that BoNT-A injections can cause a decrease in function in distant, non-target muscles. HMB partially reversed some of the detrimental side-effects of BoNT-A, being shown to be effective in maintaining muscle strength in the non-injected leg.