Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated transcriptomic and neuroimaging brain model decodes biological mechanisms in aging and Alzheimer’s disease

Both healthy aging and Alzheimer disease (AD) are characterized by concurrent alterations in several biological factors. However, generative brain models of aging and AD are limited in incorporating the measures of these biological factors at different spatial resolutions. Here, we propose a personalized bottom-up spatiotemporal brain model which accounts for the direct interplay between hundreds of RNA transcripts and multiple macroscopic neuroimaging modalities (PET, MRI). In normal elderly and AD participants, the model identifies top genes modulating tau and amyloid-{beta} burdens, vascular flow, glucose metabolism, functional activity, and atrophy to drive cognitive decline. The results also revealed that AD and healthy aging share specific biological mechanisms, even though AD is a separate entity with considerably more altered pathways. Overall, this personalized model offers novel insights into the multiscale alterations in the elderly brain, with important implications for identifying effective genetic targets for extending healthy aging and treating AD progression.
Voice Without Choice? Investigating Adolescent Girls’ Agency in Marital Decision-making in Niger

This article uses qualitative data from Niger to examine adolescent girls’ perceptions of their own agency in marriage decisions and contextual factors influencing these perceptions. We find that girls make marital decisions within a context that stresses parental consent and community approval, places a high value on obedience, and is constrained by limited opportunities, gendered distribution of labor, and dominant social norms promoting an early and narrow ‘window of opportunity’ for marriage. Findings demonstrate that interventions aiming to delay marriage in Niger must work to influence both community norms supporting child marriage and girls’ own motivations in martial decision-making.
Iripin-3, a New Salivary Protein Isolated From Ixodes ricinus Ticks, Displays Immunomodulatory and Anti-Hemostatic Properties In Vitro

Tick saliva is a rich source of pharmacologically and immunologically active molecules. These salivary components are indispensable for successful blood feeding on vertebrate hosts and are believed to facilitate the transmission of tick-borne pathogens. Here we present the functional and structural characterization of Iripin-3, a protein expressed in the salivary glands of the tick Ixodes ricinus, a European vector of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease. Belonging to the serpin superfamily of protease inhibitors, Iripin-3 strongly inhibited the proteolytic activity of serine proteases kallikrein and matriptase. In an in vitro setup, Iripin-3 was capable of modulating the adaptive immune response as evidenced by reduced survival of mouse splenocytes, impaired proliferation of CD4+ T lymphocytes, suppression of the T helper type 1 immune response, and induction of regulatory T cell differentiation. Apart from altering acquired immunity, Iripin-3 also inhibited the extrinsic blood coagulation pathway and reduced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated bone marrow-derived macrophages. In addition to its functional characterization, we present the crystal structure of cleaved Iripin-3 at 1.95 Å resolution. Iripin-3 proved to be a pluripotent salivary serpin with immunomodulatory and anti-hemostatic properties that could facilitate tick feeding via the suppression of host anti-tick defenses. Physiological relevance of Iripin-3 activities observed in vitro needs to be supported by appropriate in vivo experiments.
Highly Contaminated Marine Sediments Can Host Rare Bacterial Taxa Potentially Useful for Bioremediation

Coastal areas impacted by high anthropogenic pressures typically display sediment contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (HMs). Microbial-based bioremediation represents a promising strategy for sediment reclamation, yet it frequently fails due to poor knowledge of the diversity and dynamics of the autochthonous microbial assemblages and to the inhibition of the target microbes in the contaminated matrix. In the present study, we used an integrated approach including a detailed environmental characterization, high-throughput sequencing and culturing to identify autochthonous bacteria with bioremediation potential in the sediments of Bagnoli-Coroglio (Gulf of Naples, Mediterranean Sea), a coastal area highly contaminated by PAHs, aliphatic hydrocarbons and HMs. The analysis of the benthic prokaryotic diversity showed that the distribution of the dominant taxon (Gammaproteobacteria) was mainly influenced by PAHs, As, and Cd concentrations. The other abundant taxa (including Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, NB1-j, Desulfobacterota, and Myxococcota) were mainly driven by sediment grain size and by Cu and Cr concentrations, while the rare taxa (i.e., each contributing <1%) by As and aliphatic hydrocarbons concentrations and by sediment redox potential. These results suggest a differential response of bacterial taxa to environmental features and chemical contamination and those different bacterial groups may be inhibited or promoted by different contaminants. This hypothesis was confirmed by culturing and isolating 80 bacterial strains using media highly enriched in PAHs, only nine of which were contextually resistant to high HM concentrations. Such resistant isolates represented novel Gammaproteobacteria strains affiliated to Vibrio, Pseudoalteromonas, and Agarivorans, which were only scarcely represented in their original assemblages. These findings suggest that rare but culturable bacterial strains resistant/tolerant to high levels of mixed contaminants can be promising candidates useful for the reclamation by bioaugmentation strategies of marine sediments that are highly contaminated with PAHs and HMs.
Clinical Application of Shear Wave Elastography for Assisting Brain Tumor Resection

Background The clinical outcomes for brain tumor resection have been shown to be significantly improved with increased extent of resection. To achieve this, neurosurgeons employ different intra-operative tools to improve the extent of resection of brain tumors, including ultrasound, CT, and MRI. Young’s modulus (YM) of brain tumors have been shown to be different from normal brain but the accuracy of SWE in assisting brain tumor resection has not been reported. Aims To determine the accuracy of SWE in detecting brain tumor residual using post-operative MRI scan as “gold standard”. Methods Thirty-four patients (aged 1–62 years, M:F = 15:20) with brain tumors were recruited into the study. The intraoperative SWE scans were performed using Aixplorer® (SuperSonic Imagine, France) using a sector transducer (SE12-3) and a linear transducer (SL15-4) with a bandwidth of 3 to 12 MHz and 4 to 15 MHz, respectively, using the SWE mode. The scans were performed prior, during and after brain tumor resection. The presence of residual tumor was determined by the surgeon, ultrasound (US) B-mode and SWE. This was compared with the presence of residual tumor on post-operative MRI scan. Results The YM of the brain tumors correlated significantly with surgeons’ findings (ρ = 0.845, p < 0.001). The sensitivities of residual tumor detection by the surgeon, US B-mode and SWE were 36%, 73%, and 94%, respectively, while their specificities were 100%, 63%, and 77%, respectively. There was no significant difference between detection of residual tumor by SWE, US B-mode, and MRI. SWE and MRI were significantly better than the surgeon’s detection of residual tumor (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions SWE had a higher sensitivity in detecting residual tumor than the surgeons (94% vs. 36%). However, the surgeons had a higher specificity than SWE (100% vs. 77%). Therefore, using SWE in combination with surgeon’s opinion may optimize the detection of residual tumor, and hence improve the extent of brain tumor resection.
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Functional Connectivity Predicts Working Memory Training Gains

Background: Normal aging is associated with working memory decline. A decrease in working memory performance is associated with age-related changes in functional activation patterns in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Cognitive training can improve cognitive performance in healthy older adults. We implemented a cognitive training study to assess determinants of generalization of training gains to untrained tasks, a key indicator for the effectiveness of cognitive training. We aimed to investigate the association of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of DLPFC with working memory performance improvement and cognitive gains after the training. Method: A sample of 60 healthy older adults (mean age: 68 years) underwent a 4-week neuropsychological training, entailing a working memory task. Baseline resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) images were acquired in order to investigate the FC of DLPFC. To evaluate training effects, participants underwent a neuropsychological assessment before and after the training. A second follow-up assessment was applied 12 weeks after the training. We used cognitive scores of digit span backward and visual block span backward tasks representing working memory function. The training group was divided into subjects who had and who did not have training gains, which was defined as a higher improvement in working memory tasks than the control group (N = 19). Results: A high FC of DLPFC of the right hemisphere was significantly associated with training gains and performance improvement in the visuospatial task. The maintenance of cognitive gains was restricted to the time period directly after the training. The training group showed performance improvement in the digit span backward task. Conclusion: Functional activation patterns of the DLPFC were associated with the degree of working memory training gains and visuospatial performance improvement. Although improvement through cognitive training and acquisition of training gains are possible in aging, they remain limited.
Multiparameter Flow Cytometry Analysis of the Human Spleen Applied to Studies of Plasma-Derived EVs From Plasmodium vivax Patients

The spleen is a secondary lymphoid organ with multiple functions including the removal of senescent red blood cells and the coordination of immune responses against blood-borne pathogens, such as malaria parasites. Despite the major role of the spleen, the study of its function in humans is limited by ethical implications to access human tissues. Here, we employed multiparameter flow cytometry combined with cell purification techniques to determine human spleen cell populations from transplantation donors. Spleen immuno-phenotyping showed that CD45+ cells included B (30%), CD4+ T (16%), CD8+ T (10%), NK (6%) and NKT (2%) lymphocytes. Myeloid cells comprised neutrophils (16%), monocytes (2%) and DCs (0.3%). Erythrocytes represented 70%, reticulocytes 0.7% and hematopoietic stem cells 0.02%. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-bound nanoparticles involved in intercellular communication and secreted by almost all cell types. EVs play several roles in malaria that range from modulation of immune responses to vascular alterations. To investigate interactions of plasma-derived EVs from Plasmodium vivax infected patients (PvEVs) with human spleen cells, we used size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) to separate EVs from the bulk of soluble plasma proteins and stained isolated EVs with fluorescent lipophilic dyes. The integrated cellular analysis of the human spleen and the methodology employed here allowed in vitro interaction studies of human spleen cells and EVs that showed an increased proportion of T cells (CD4+ 3 fold and CD8+ 4 fold), monocytes (1.51 fold), B cells (2.3 fold) and erythrocytes (3 fold) interacting with PvEVs as compared to plasma-derived EVs from healthy volunteers (hEVs). Future functional studies of these interactions can contribute to unveil pathophysiological processes involving the spleen in vivax malaria.
Editorial: New Insights Into Salinity Sensing, Signaling and Adaptation in Plants

Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Plant Science & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, Western Crop Genetics Alliance, Agricultural Sciences, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States, 5 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Social, Family, and Educational Impacts on Anxiety and Cognitive Empathy Derived From the COVID-19: Study on Families With Children

This research aims to monitor the current situation of confinement in Spanish society motivated by COVID-19 crisis. For this, a study of its socio-family, psychological and educational impact is conducted. The sample (N = 165 families, 89.1% nuclear families with children living in the same household and 20.5% with a relative in a risk group) comes from the Aragonese region (Spain). The instruments used are: Beck-II Depression Inventory (BDI-II); Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright’s Empathy Quotient (EQ) with its cognitive empathy subscale, as well as an ad-hoc questionnaire, reviewed by a panel of experts, to learn about socio-personal, family and housing conditions, use of technology, involvement in school tasks and household, and working condition. The multiple regression analysis results show that the anxiety derived from the current situation is explained in 23.1% (p < 0.001) by the variables: gender (t = -2.31, p = 0.022), level of Internet consumption (t = 2.139, p = 0.034), increase of family conflicts (t = 2.980, p = 0.003) and help with school tasks (t = 2.980, p = 0.040). On the other hand, cognitive empathy is explained in 24.6% (p < 0.001) by the variables: gender (t = -4.690, p < 0.001) and mother’s hours of teleworking (t = 2.101, p = 0.037). All this leads us to conclusions related to preventive systems of social, psychological, and educational aspects to better serve families. These conclusions can be also be transferred to the future with an inclusive care to family settings from those three parameters.
Perceived vs. Actual Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Individuals With and Without a History of NSSI

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has consistently been associated with self-reported difficulties in emotion reactivity and the regulation of negative emotions; however, less is known about the accuracy of these self-reports or the reactivity and regulation of positive emotions. The present study sought to investigate differences between women with and without a history of NSSI on: (a) self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion reactivity, (b) self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion regulation, and (c) emotion regulation reported in response to a positive and negative mood induction. The sample consisted of 36 women with a recent history of NSSI within the last 2 years (Mage = 20.06; SD = 1.51) and a comparison group with no history of NSSI (n = 34; Mage = 20.15; SD = 1.54). Participants completed self-report measures of negative and positive emotion reactivity and regulation. In a separate session, participants underwent both a negative and positive mood induction using a counterbalanced design and reported their experienced emotions. Results from two-way MANOVAs and ANOVAs revealed those with a history of NSSI reported significantly greater difficulties in negative emotion reactivity and regulation than the no-NSSI comparison group; however, no group differences emerged in self-reported reactivity or regulation of positive emotions. In contrast, repeated measures ANOVAs on data from the mood induction task found no group differences in reactivity or regulation for either negative or positive emotions. These findings highlight the possibility that although individuals with a history of NSSI evaluate their ability to manage negative emotions as significantly worse than individuals with no history of self-injury, this may not reflect their actual emotion regulatory processes.
The Diagnostic Value of Exosome-Derived Biomarkers in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnoses once depended on neuropathologic examination. Now, many widely used, validated biomarkers benefits for monitoring of AD neuropathologic changes. Exosome-derived biomarker studies have reported them to be significantly related to AD's early occurrence and development, although the findings are inconclusive. The aim of this meta-analysis was to identify exosome-derived biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, Embase, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) were searched for studies assessing the diagnostic value of biomarkers, including data describing the pooled sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive diagnostic likelihood ratio (DLR+), negative diagnostic likelihood ratio (DLR–), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC). The quality of the included studies was assessed using RevMan 5.3 software. Publication bias was analyzed. Results: In total, 19 eligible studies, including 3,742 patients, were selected for this meta-analysis. The SEN, SPE, DLR+, DLR–, DOR, and AUC (95% confidence intervals) of exosome-derived biomarkers in the diagnosis of AD or MCI were 0.83 (0.76–0.87), 0.82 (0.77–0.86), 4.53 (3.46–5.93), 0.21 (0.15–0.29), 17.27 (11.41–26.14), and 0.89 (0.86–0.92), respectively. Sub-group analyses revealed that studies based on serum or microRNA (miRNA) analysis, and those of Caucasian populations, AD patients, patient sample size >50, neuron-derived exosomes (NDE) from plasma and p-tau had higher sensitivity, specificity, and AUC values. Conclusion: Exosome-derived biomarkers have shown potential diagnostic value in AD and MCI, although further research is required for confirmation.
Assessing the Accuracy of Popular Commercial Technologies That Measure Resting Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability

Commercial off-the shelf (COTS) wearable devices continue development at unprecedented rates. An unfortunate consequence of their rapid commercialization is the lack of independent, third-party accuracy verification for reported physiological metrics of interest, such as heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). To address these shortcomings, the present study examined the accuracy of seven COTS devices in assessing resting-state HR and root mean square of successive differences (rMSSD). Five healthy young adults generated 148 total trials, each of which compared COTS devices against a validation standard, multi-lead electrocardiogram (mECG). All devices accurately reported mean HR, according to absolute percent error summary statistics, although the highest mean absolute percent error (MAPE) was observed for CameraHRV (17.26%). The next highest MAPE for HR was nearly 15% less (HRV4Training, 2.34%). When measuring rMSSD, MAPE was again the highest for CameraHRV [112.36%, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC): 0.04], while the lowest MAPEs observed were from HRV4Training (4.10%; CCC: 0.98) and OURA (6.84%; CCC: 0.91). Our findings support extant literature that exposes varying degrees of veracity among COTS devices. To thoroughly address questionable claims from manufacturers, elucidate the accuracy of data parameters, and maximize the real-world applicative value of emerging devices, future research must continually evaluate COTS devices.
Gene Expression of Small Leucine-Rich Proteoglycans during Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells toward Osteoblasts

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) have the capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts. To identify genes involved in the commitment of hMSC to osteoblasts, total RNA from hMSC cultured in osteogenic induction medium was isolated on days 0 and 10 and used to create gene expression profiles with oligonucleotide microarrays. Seven SLRPs were expressed in hMSC during osteoblast differentiation. Asporin, which is a small leucine-rich proteoglycan (SLRP), was the most up-regulated extracellular matrix protein in the mineralization stage. The expression levels of these SLRPs genes were compared in hMSC cultured in osteogenic induction medium and hMSC cultured in MSC growth medium on days 0, 1, 3, and 10. The mRNA levels of asporin and osteomodulin were drastically increased in hMSC cultured in osteogenic induction medium as compared to MSC growth medium. The expression levels of asporin, osteomodulin (OMD), proline arginine rich end leucine rich repeat protein, and decorin on day 10 were significantly increased in osteogenic induction medium culture as compared to MSC growth medium culture. These SLRPs are ECM components in bone and articular cartilage. Thus, these SLRPs, particular OMD and ASPN, may be important matrix molecules during differentiation into osteoblasts and/or mineralization.
Gas‐liquid mass transfer in a bubble column with suspended solids

Etude experimentale distribuee a verifier l'applicabilite de l'equation de Nzuyen-tien et al (1985) relative aux lits fluidises a trois phases, aux colonnes a bulles avec particules en suspension. On peut calculer le coefficient de transfert de matiere volumetrique par cette equation, si on considere les fractions de solides au fond de la colonne
Crystal structure of 4-bromo-N′-[(3-chloro-2-hydroxyphenyl)methylidene]benzohydrazide, C14H7Br2N2O2

Abstract C14H7Br2N2O2, triclinic, P21/n (no. 14), a = 4.8308(2) Å, b = 6.1438(2) Å, c = 23.0836(9) Å, β = 91.0784(14)°, V = 684.99(4) Å3, Z = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.0477, wRref(F2) = 0.1108, T = 150.0 K. CCDC No.: 2043231
Optimization of Parallel Stochastic Gradient Descent on Sunway TaihuLight

It is well known that deep neural networks(DNN) have shown outstanding expressive learning ability in machine learning and other tasks. Stochastic gradient descent(SGD) algorithm is widely used to train a number of machine learning models due to its advantages of simple use, fast convergence, and reliable effect. In the background of big data, asynchronous parallel implementations of SGD have been widely applied for accelerating the training of machine learning in a distributed computing environment. However, there are a vast number of time-consuming calculations in training of DNNs. The emerging Sunway(SW) many-core processor has powerful computing capacity and high bandwidth, which makes it particularly suitable for processing parallel tasks with large computational overhead. In this paper, we present a scheme to update the parameter through scaling the asynchronous stochastic gradient descent(ASGD) method to multiple processors efficiently. Our novel method is based on swCaffe, which is an efficient parallel framework on Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. We evaluate our implementation by training LENET neural network with the MNIST dataset and CIFAR10-quick with the CIFAR10 dataset. Experimental results show that our implementation achieves considerable speedup on TaihuLight supercomputer, compared to synchronous stochastic gradient descent(SSGD) used in swCaffe.