Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in Body Composition and Cardiometabolic Health After Detraining in Older Men with Osteosarcopenia: 6-Month Follow-Up of the Randomized Controlled Franconian Osteopenia and Sarcopenia Trial (FrOST) Study

Purpose Temporary cessation of exercise but maintenance of habitual physical activity might be a frequent situation in older people’s lives. Particularly the COVID-19 induced lockdown of exercise training facilities with individual outdoor activities still being allowed might be a blueprint for this potentially harmful scenario. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine the effects of 6 months of detraining after 18 months of high-intensity resistance exercise (HIT-RT) on body composition and cardiometabolic outcomes in predominately obese older men with osteosarcopenia. Materials and Methods Community-dwelling predominately obese men 72–91 years old with low muscle and bone mass (n=43) were randomly assigned to an 18-month HIT-RT (EG: n=21) or a non-training control group (CG, n=22). After the intervention, participants of the EG discontinued HIT-RT for 6 months, but increased their habitual physical activity. Study outcomes were group differences in detraining changes (“effects”) for lean body mass (LBM), total and abdominal body fat rate (determined by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and the Metabolic Syndrome Z-Score (MetSZ). We applied an intention-to-treat analysis with multiple imputation to analyze the data. Results After the 18-month HIT-RT, we observed significant positive training effects for LBM, total and abdominal body fat rate and the MetSZ (all p<0.001). Abrupt cessation of HIT-RT for 6 months resulted in significantly higher unfavorable changes in the HIT-RT compared with the CG for LBM (p=0.001), total body fat (p=0.003) and the MetSZ (p=0.003), apart from abdominal body fat (p=0.059). However, significant overall effects were still present after 24 months for LBM and body fat indices but not for the MetSZ. Conclusion The present study clearly indicates the unfavorable effects of 6 months of detraining after HIT-RT. Correspondingly, exercise protocols particularly for older people should focus on continuous exercise with short regeneration periods rather than on intermitted protocols with pronounced training breaks.
Sucrose synthase gene family in Brassica juncea: genomic organization, evolutionary comparisons, and expression regulation

Sucrose synthase (SUS) plays an important role in sucrose metabolism and plant development. The SUS gene family has been identified in many plants, however, there is no definitive study of SUS gene in Brassica juncea. In this study, 14 SUS family genes were identified and comprehensively analyzed using bioinformatics tools. The analyzed parameters included their family member characteristics, chromosomal locations, gene structures and phylogenetic as well as transcript expression profiles. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the 14 members could be allocated into three groups: SUS I, SUS II and SUS III. Comparisons of the exon/intron structure of the mustard SUS gene indicated that its structure is highly conserved. The conserved structure is attributed to purification selection during evolution. Expansion of the SUS gene family is associated with fragment and tandem duplications of the mustard SUS gene family. Collinearity analysis among species revealed that the SUS gene family could be lost or mutated to varying degrees after the genome was doubled, or when Brassica rapa and Brassica nigra hybridized to form Brassica juncea. The expression patterns of BjuSUSs vary among different stages of mustard stem swelling. Transcriptomics revealed that the BjuSUS01-04 expression levels were the most elevated. It has been hypothesized that they play an important role in sucrose metabolism during stem development. The expression levels of some BjuSUSs were significantly up-regulated when they were treated with plant hormones. However, when subjected to abiotic stress factors, their expression levels were suppressed. This study establishes SUS gene functions during mustard stem development and stress.
Inguinal hernia repair with or without mesh in late adolescent males

Purpose Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common treatments worldwide, but there are few studies about the use of mesh in late adolescent patients because hernias are rare in this group. This study aimed to evaluate the postoperative outcomes of hernia repair with and without mesh in late adolescent patients. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the data of 243 male patients aged between 18 and 21 years who underwent inguinal hernia repair at a single institution from January 2013 to December 2017. We distinguished 2 groups depending on the repair method; mesh (n = 121) and no-mesh (n = 122) groups. We compared the baseline characteristics, immediate postoperative outcomes, and recurrence and chronic pain rates between the 2 groups. Results There were no significant differences between the mesh and no-mesh groups on immediate postoperative outcomes (length of stay: 18.5 ± 8.9 days vs. 17.0 ± 6.0 days, P = 0.139; postoperative complications: 8.2% vs. 6.6%, P = 0.821) and 2-year recurrence rate (0.8% vs. 2.6%, P = 0.194). There was a significant difference in the chronic pain rate (9.0% vs. 1.7%, P = 0.023). Conclusion Using mesh for inguinal hernia repair in late adolescent male patients increases chronic postoperative inguinal pain.
Magnesium-gold binary alloy for organic light-emitting diodes with high corrosion resistance

The authors demonstrate a simple approach to obtain cathodes that have a high resistance against corrosion by water and oxygen and an air-stable work-function of −3.7 eV by doping 10 at. % of gold (Au) into a magnesium (Mg) base metal layer. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with the Mg-Au cathodes achieved electroluminescence characteristics that are comparable to those of devices with conventional cathodes such as aluminum (Al) and Mg-silver (Ag). Although OLEDs with Al or Mg-Ag cathodes exhibited a significant reduction of their emissive area when operated in air, the emissive area of the OLEDs with Mg-Au cathodes decreased only 10% after 10 days of operation in ambient air without any specific encapsulation. These results suggest that Mg-Au cathodes can loosen the strict requirements for encapsulation, reducing the number of process steps and cost of OLED fabrication.
Flexible wearable sensors - an update in view of touch-sensing

ABSTRACT Nowadays, much of user interface is based on touch and the touch sensors have been common for displays, Internet of things (IoT) projects, or robotics. They can be found in lamps, touch screens of smartphones, or other wide arrays of applications as well. However, the conventional touch sensors, fabricated from rigid materials, are bulky, inflexible, hard, and hard-to-wear devices. The current IoT trend has made these touch sensors increasingly important when it added in the skin or clothing to affect different aspects of human life flexibly and comfortably. The paper provides an overview of the recent developments in this field. We discuss exciting advances in materials, fabrications, enhancements, and applications of flexible wearable sensors under view of touch-sensing. Therein, the review describes the theoretical principles of touch sensors, including resistive, capacitive, and piezoelectric types. Following that, the conventional and novel materials, as well as manufacturing technologies of flexible sensors are considered to. Especially, this review highlights the multidisciplinary approaches such as e-skins, e-textiles, e-healthcare, and e-control of flexible touch sensors. Finally, we summarize the challenges and opportunities that use is key to widespread development and adoption for future research. Graphical abstract
Growth charts for individualized evaluation of brain morphometry for preschool children

Brain development from 1 to 6 years-of-age anchors the rapid development of a wide range of functional capabilities. However, quantitative growth charts of typical development during this age period are lacking, preventing the identification of early brain abnormalities. Here we characterize the time-dependent individual differences of cortical thickness and subcortical volume in 340 typically developing children and construct regional growth curves for these brain morphological measures. The growth curves reflect four types of time-dependence for cortical thickness and subcortical volume metrics. At the individual level, the growth curve model provides percentiles for each brain region's cortical thickness or volume during ages 1 to 6, allowing for individualized inferences of brain developmental status relative to the same-age population. The growth curves further demonstrate clinical utility potentials by identifying children with developmental speech and language disorders, achieving high accuracies on data collected on both 1.5T and 3T scanners. Our results fill the knowledge gap in brain morphometrics in a critical development period and provide an avenue for individualized brain developmental status evaluation, with demonstrated sensitivity and generalizability.
Agents antimicrobiens ciblant le complexe III de la chaine respiratoire mitochondriale : Etudes des déterminants structuraux de la sensibilité différentielle et du développement de la résistance, en utilisant la levure comme organisme modèle

Le complexe bc₁ de la chaine respiratoire mitochondriale est une bonne cible therapeutique pour traiter le paludisme car cette enzyme est essentielle au parasite. Ses deux sites actifs, Qo et Qi, formes par le cytochrome b, ne sont pas totalement conserves entre les especes, facilitant la decouverte d’inhibiteurs a affinite differentielle, ce qui est important dans le developpement de medicaments. L’atovaquone est le seul antipaludique ciblant le complexe bc₁ utilise en medecine. L’emergence de resistance rend urgente l’etude de nouveaux inhibiteurs. Les ELQs (Endochin-like Quinolones) sont une classe d’antipaludiques particulierement prometteuse.Pour etudier la liaison des inhibiteurs dans les sites actifs et l’effet de mutations de resistance, nous utilisons la levure et des methodes biochimiques et bio-informatiques. Dans ce travail, nous avons etudie la relation entre mutations de resistance a l’atovaquone dans le site Qo et perte de fonction. Nous avons aussi modifie le site Qo de la levure pour qu’il mime mieux le site de l’enzyme du parasite. Les residus «Plasmodium» alterent le fonctionnement du site, resultant en une surproduction d’ions superoxides et une perte de croissance respiratoire, qui est restauree par la modification d’une autre sous-unite du complexe, ISP, partenaire du site Qo, suggerant que les deux sous-unites doivent s’ajuster pour un fonctionnement correct. Nous avons analyse des polymorphismes de la region Qo observes chez l’Homme et trouve qu’ils peuvent modifier la sensibilite du complexe a l’atovaquone, ce qui pourrait avoir un impact sur les effets secondaires du traitement. Nous avons ensuite etudie le mode d’action d’ELQ-400 et montre que ce nouvel antipaludique cible les deux sites Qo et Qi, ce qui rend l’apparition de resistance peu probable. Enfin, nous avons commence la reconstruction du site Qi de la levure pour mimer le site du parasite.Les mutants de levure avec un complexe bc₁ «Plasmodium» semblent etre de bons outils pour l’etude des inhibiteurs. Leur etude a aussi permis de comprendre mieux la structure et le fonctionnement du complexe bc₁.
Fecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection associates with functional alterations in circulating microRNAs.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The molecular mechanisms underlying successful fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) remain poorly understood. The primary objective of this study was to characterize alterations in microRNAs (miRs) following FMT for rCDI. METHODS Sera from two prospective multicentre randomized controlled trials were analyzed for miRNA levels using the Nanostring nCounter platform and quantitative RT-PCR. Additionally, rCDI-FMT and toxin-treated animals and ex vivo human colonoids were employed to compare intestinal tissue and circulating miRNAs. miRNA inflammatory gene targets in colonic epithelial and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were evaluated by qPCR and 3'UTR reporter assays. Colonic epithelial cells were employed for mechanistic, cytoskeleton, cell growth and apoptosis studies. RESULTS miRNA profiling revealed upregulation of 64 circulating miRNAs 4- and 12-weeks following FMT compared to screening, of which the top 6 were validated in the discovery cohort by RT-qPCR. In a murine model of relapsing-CDI, RT-qPCR analyses of sera and cecal RNA extracts demonstrated suppression of these miRNAs, an effect reversed by FMT. In mouse colon and human colonoids, TcdB mediated the suppressive effects of CDI on miRNAs. CDI dysregulated Drosha, an effect reversed by FMT. Correlation analyses, qPCR and 3'UTR reporter assays revealed that miR-23a, miR-150, miR-26b, miR-28 target directly the 3'UTR of IL12B, IL18, FGF21 and TNFRSF9, respectively. miR-23a and miR-150 demonstrated cytoprotective effects against TcdB. CONCLUSION These results provide novel and provocative evidence that modulation of the gut microbiome via FMT induces alterations in circulating and intestinal tissue miRNAs. These findings contribute to a greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying FMT and identify new potential targets for therapeutic intervention in rCDI.
The Use of In Silico Tools for the Toxicity Prediction of Potential Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2

The current strategy for treating the Covid-19 coronavirus disease involves the repurposing of existing drugs or the use of convalescent plasma therapy, as no specific therapeutic intervention has yet received regulatory approval. However, severe adverse effects have been reported for some of these repurposed drugs. Recently, several in silico studies have identified compounds that are potential inhibitors of the main protease (3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease) and the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2. An essential step of drug development is the careful evaluation of toxicity, which has a range of associated financial, temporal and ethical limitations. In this study, a number of in silico tools were used to predict the toxicity of 19 experimental compounds. A range of web-based servers and applications were used to predict hepatotoxicity, mutagenicity, acute oral toxicity, carcinogenicity, cardiotoxicity, and other potential adverse effects. The compounds were assessed based on the consensus of results, and were labelled as positive or negative for a particular toxicity endpoint. The compounds were then categorised into three classes, according to their predicted toxicity. Ten compounds (52.6%) were predicted to be non-mutagenic and non-hERG inhibitors, and exhibited zero or low level hepatotoxicity and carcinogenicity. Furthermore, from the consensus of results, all 19 compounds were predicted to be non-mutagenic and negative for acute oral toxicity. Overall, most of the compounds displayed encouraging toxicity profiles. These results can assist further lead optimisation studies and drug development efforts to combat Covid-19.
Long‐COVID syndrome‐associated brain fog and chemofog: Luteolin to the rescue

COVID‐19 leads to severe respiratory problems, but also to long‐COVID syndrome associated primarily with cognitive dysfunction and fatigue. Long‐COVID syndrome symptoms, especially brain fog, are similar to those experienced by patients undertaking or following chemotherapy for cancer (chemofog or chemobrain), as well in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) or mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). The pathogenesis of brain fog in these illnesses is presently unknown but may involve neuroinflammation via mast cells stimulated by pathogenic and stress stimuli to release mediators that activate microglia and lead to inflammation in the hypothalamus. These processes could be mitigated by phytosomal formulation (in olive pomace oil) of the natural flavonoid luteolin.
Chronic Kidney Disease of Undetermined Etiology around the World

Background: Epidemics of chronic kidney disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) are occurring on the Pacific coast of Central America, in Sri Lankan and Indian agricultural communities, and in other hotspots around the world. CKDu primarily affects male agricultural workers, and traditional risk factors such as diabetes and hypertension are not involved in the pathogenesis. Although a causal factor has not yet been identified, culprits include repeated volume depletion-induced kidney injury, as well as exposure to agrichemicals, heavy metals and nephrotoxins contained in drugs, beverages, and traditional medications. Multiple risk factors may interact in a synergistic fashion thus resulting in chronic kidney damage. The absence of undefined protective factors may amplify the risk. Summary: This review focuses on the current understanding of CKDu by analyzing epidemiology, potential risk factors, and clinical and pathological features as well as geographical peculiarities of each disease. We also focus our attention on the etiology of these conditions in which multiple factors may synergistically contribute to the development and progression of the disease. The last part of the manuscript is dedicated to the research agenda and practical recommendations. Key Messages: Since renal replacement therapy is not extensively available in areas where CKDu is widespread, prevention by avoiding all known potential risk factors is crucial. Innovative healthcare solutions and social policies in endemic areas along with collaborative clinical research projects are needed to better identify factors involved in disease promotion and progression.
Public Health Decisions Are Made at the Tails of the Distribution: A Novel Tool to Estimate Usual Intake Distributions from Short-Term Dietary Assessment Methods.

Dietary data are notoriously challenging in a number of ways: difficulty and cost of collection, reliance on self-report, and measurement error, to name just a few (1). To further compound this complexity, researchers and policymakers are interested in “usual” intake, i.e., long-term average or habitual daily intake, for most applications relevant to dietary data, including 1) nutrition monitoring (e.g., to estimate compliance with recommendations); 2) nutrition research (e.g., to examine relations between dietary exposures and health outcomes); and 3) for policy development (e.g., The Dietary Guidelines for Americans) or evaluation (e.g., to examine the effect of food assistance programs over time). The central problem to these goals is that usual intakes are rarely directly observable and, therefore, need to be estimated from self-report, usually through short-term tools like 24-h recall (24HR) or food record or longer-term tools like FFQs. However, all available self-reported dietary assessment methods are prone to random and systematic measurement error (2). The 24HR is currently considered the least biased assessment method, when compared with FFQs, relative to energy, protein, sodium, and potassium (3–5); but the 24HR suffers more from random error (3–6). A primary source of random error in the 24HRs is within-person variation that occurs based on substantial variability in daily consumption patterns (6). Random error does not affect the mean intake estimate of a particular food component for a population, but affects the probabilities in the tails of the distribution because it leads to a larger variance than the true usual intake distribution [Figure 1, reproduced from (7)]. Most public health decisions are made at the tails of the distribution; stated differently, they are made to address those who are at potential risk of inadequacy or excess (Figure 1). Therefore, multiple statistical tools have been developed to mitigate random error in order to produce usual intake distributions, as described in detail elsewhere (8, 9). Although these tools and methods are critical to use for estimating usual intake distributions, extraordinary
High coverage of diverse invasive meningococcal serogroup B strains by the 4-component vaccine 4CMenB in Australia, 2007–2011: Concordant predictions between MATS and genetic MATS

ABSTRACT Meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) accounts for an important proportion of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The 4-component vaccine against MenB (4CMenB) is composed of factor H binding protein (fHbp), neisserial heparin-binding antigen (NHBA), Neisseria adhesin A (NadA), and outer membrane vesicles of the New Zealand strain with Porin 1.4. A meningococcal antigen typing system (MATS) and a fully genomic approach, genetic MATS (gMATS), were developed to predict coverage of MenB strains by 4CMenB. We characterized 520 MenB invasive disease isolates collected over a 5-year period (January 2007–December 2011) from all Australian states/territories by multilocus sequence typing and estimated strain coverage by 4CMenB. The clonal complexes most frequently identified were ST-41/44 CC/Lineage 3 (39.4%) and ST-32 CC/ET-5 CC (23.7%). The overall MATS predicted coverage was 74.6% (95% coverage interval: 61.1%–85.6%). The overall gMATS prediction was 81.0% (lower–upper limit: 75.0–86.9%), showing 91.5% accuracy compared with MATS. Overall, 23.7% and 13.1% (MATS) and 26.0% and 14.0% (gMATS) of isolates were covered by at least 2 and 3 vaccine antigens, respectively, with fHbp and NHBA contributing the most to coverage. When stratified by year of isolate collection, state/territory and age group, MATS and gMATS strain coverage predictions were consistent across all strata. The high coverage predicted by MATS and gMATS indicates that 4CMenB vaccination may have an impact on the burden of MenB-caused IMD in Australia. gMATS can be used in the future to monitor variations in 4CMenB strain coverage over time and geographical areas even for non-culture confirmed IMD cases.
Religious assessment in Italian older adults: psychometric properties of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and the Behavioral Religiosity Scale

ABSTRACT Objectives Studies have shown that religiosity (R) and spirituality (S) can positively impact older adults’ life. Nevertheless, no validated tools for measuring these constructs in the older Italian population are currently available. This study investigates the psychometric properties of two of the most common measures of R and S in the literature: the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity short form (FSACsf) and the Behavioral Religiosity Scale (BRS). Method 313 older Italians completed the questionnaires anonymously. The functioning of the items and the response scales, the factor structure, age invariance and internal consistency of both scales were investigated. Results Each scale defines a substantively unidimensional variable. Moreover, items seem, on the whole, to be well formulated. The values of the Rasch-Andrich thresholds suggest that the response scale of the FSACsf was adequate for measuring spirituality. However, this was not the case for BRS, where the response categories needed to be collapsed to measure behavioral religiosity properly. Age invariance was confirmed for each scale. Cronbach’s α, composite reliability and person separation reliability revealed both scales to be internally consistent. Discussion The results suggest that the scales have solid psychometric properties, and can therefore be considered valid, reliable tools for investigating religiosity and spirituality in older people.