Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genomic background of the Klebsiella pneumoniae NDM-1 outbreak in Poland, 2012-18.

OBJECTIVES To characterize genomes of Klebsiella pneumoniae ST11 NDM-1 responsible for a countrywide outbreak in Poland and compare them phylogenetically with other Polish and international ST11 strains. METHODS Seventy-one carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae ST11 isolates from Poland, including 66 representatives of the NDM-1 epidemic from 2012-18, were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Additionally, three outbreak isolates were also sequenced using MinION. The clonality and phylogenetic analysis was done by core-genome MLST and SNP approaches. Resistomes, virulomes, K/O antigens and plasmid replicons were screened for. The detailed plasmid analysis was based on full assemblies using Oxford Nanopore Technologies data. RESULTS Chromosomes of the outbreak isolates formed an essentially homogeneous cluster (though accumulating SNPs gradually with time), differing remarkably from other Polish NDM-1/-5-, KPC-2- or OXA-48-producing K. pneumoniae ST11 strains. The cluster belonged to a clade with 72 additional isolates identified worldwide, including closely related NDM-1 producers from several countries, including organisms from Bulgaria and Greece. All these had KL24 and O2v1 antigens and the chromosomal yersiniabactin locus YbST230 residing in the ICEKp11 element. The specific blaNDM-1-carrying Tn125 transposon derivative, named Tn125A, was located in IncFII/pKPX-1- and/or IncR-like plasmids; however, the IncRs rearranged extensively during the outbreak, contributing to highly dynamic plasmid profiles and resistomes. CONCLUSIONS The K. pneumoniae ST11 NDM-1 genotype that has been expanding in Poland since 2012 is largely monoclonal and represents a novel international high-risk lineage that is also spreading in other countries.
Health literacy: Prevalence and determinants in Lagos State, Nigeria

Background Poor health literacy has been associated with poorer physical and mental health function, and higher emergency department and hospital utilizations. The study was conducted to measure the prevalence of health literacy and its determinants among Lagos State residents. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in three local government areas in Lagos State. Health literacy was assessed using the Brief Health Literacy Screening tool (BHLS), a three-item tool with possible scores ranging between 3 and 15. Health literacy was classified as inadequate (≤ 9) or adequate (>9). Results A total of 1831 respondents participated in the study, among whom, 952 (52%) were women. The mean age of respondents was 31.7 (±10.5) years. Three-quarters (74.8%) of respondents had adequate health literacy. Adequate levels of health literacy were associated with being female (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.07–1.71), frequent use of the broad cast media as source of information (OR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.03–1.70), frequent use of the internet as source of information (OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.13–1.96). Adequate health literacy was also associated with having knowledge of a frequently prescribed antibiotic (OR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.32–2.12) and being more comfortable with the use of the English language (OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.32–2.22). Conclusion Gender, the use of broadcast media and the internet are predictive of adequate health literacy and should be taken into consideration in planning health interventions.
COVID-19 mortality in Lombardy: the vulnerability of the oldest old and the resilience of male centenarians

Italy was the first European nation to be affected by COVID-19. The biggest cluster of cases occurred in Lombardy, the most populous Italian region, and elderly men were the population hit in the hardest way. Besides its high infectivity, COVID-19 causes a severe cytokine storm and old people, especially those with comorbidities, appear to be the most vulnerable, presumably in connection to inflammaging. In centenarians inflammaging is much lower than predicted by their chronological age and females, presenting survival advantage in almost all centenarian populations, outnumber males, a phenomenon particularly evident in Northern Italy. Within this scenario, we wondered if: a) the COVID-19 mortality in centenarians was lower than that in people aged between 50 and 80 and b) the mortality from COVID-19 in nonagenarians and centenarians highlighted gender differences. We checked COVID-19-related vulnerability/mortality at the peak of infection (March 2020), using data on total deaths (i.e. not only confirmed COVID-19 cases). Our conclusion is that excess mortality increases steadily up to very old ages and at the same time men older than 90 years become relatively more resilient than age-matched females.
Vocal interaction during rhythmic joint action stabilizes interpersonal coordination and individual movement timing.

Because work songs are ubiquitous around the world, singing while working and performing a task with a coactor is presumably beneficial for both joint action and individual task performance. The present study investigated the impact of interpersonal rhythmic vocal interaction on interpersonal phase relations and on individual motor timing performance, which was evaluated by a synchronization-continuation paradigm requiring whole-body movement with or without visual contact. Participants repeated the syllable "tah" or remained silent in a manipulation of vocal interaction, and they were oriented toward or away from their partner to manipulate visual interaction. Results indicated the occurrence of spontaneous interpersonal coordination, evidenced by interpersonal phase relations that were closer to 0° and less variable when participants interacted both visually and vocally. At the individual level, visual interaction increased the variability of synchronization with the metronome but did not modulate the variability of continuation movements, whereas vocal interaction helped to decrease the variability of synchronization and continuation movements. Visual interaction therefore degraded individual movement timing while vocal interaction improved it. Communication via the auditory modality may play a compensatory role in naturalistic contexts where visual contact has potential destabilizing effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Simulation and Nonlinearity Optimization of a High-Pressure Sensor

A pressure sensor in the range of 0–120 MPa with a square diaphragm was designed and fabricated, which was isolated by the oil-filled package. The nonlinearity of the device without circuit compensation is better than 0.4%, and the accuracy is 0.43%. This sensor model was simulated by ANSYS software. Based on this model, we simulated the output voltage and nonlinearity when piezoresistors locations change. The simulation results showed that as the stress of the longitudinal resistor (RL) was increased compared to the transverse resistor (RT), the nonlinear error of the pressure sensor would first decrease to about 0 and then increase. The theoretical calculation and mathematical fitting were given to this phenomenon. Based on this discovery, a method for optimizing the nonlinearity of high-pressure sensors while ensuring the maximum sensitivity was proposed. In the simulation, the output of the optimized model had a significant improvement over the original model, and the nonlinear error significantly decreased from 0.106% to 0.0000713%.
An ecofriendly synthesized gold nanoparticles induces cytotoxicity via apoptosis in HepG2 cells

Microbes have long been used for the synthesis of a variety of nanoparticles. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the primary liver cancer and it is the second leading cause of cancer‐related mortality worldwide. In this study, we have synthesized Enterococcus mediated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and investigated their cytotoxic potential against human hepatocellular cancer cell line (HepG2). AuNPs were synthesized using Enterococcus sp. RMAA. HepG2 cells were treated with different concentrations of AuNPs for 24 hours and cytotoxicity was analyzed by MTT ((4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. AuNPs induced reactive oxygen species expression was analyzed by 2′,7′‐dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate staining. Morphological changes related to apoptosis was analyzed by annexin V/propidium iodide staining. Protein expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was done by western blotting analysis. Bacterial‐mediated AuNPs caused significant cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells. AuNPs treatment also caused the significant expression of ROS and morphological damage related to apoptosis. AuNPs treatments were responsible for the dislocation of cytochrome c from mitochondria to cytosol. The protein expression of PCNA was significantly decreased upon AuNPs treatment. These findings suggest that Enterococcus‐mediated AuNPs can inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells via intracellular ROS mediated apoptosis, decreased PCNA expressions, and it may have the potential to treat HCC.
Localization of ZIP14 and ZIP8 in HIBCPP Cells

The blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCB) is important in maintaining brain manganese (Mn) homeostasis. This barrier consists of a single layer of epithelial cells, connected by tight junctions, that restrict the passage of nutrients to only allow molecules to be carried through the membrane by a transporter. These epithelial cells are polarized with asymmetrical blood-facing and cerebrospinal fluid-facing sides. Here, we have established a polarized model of a human choroid plexus papilloma cell line, HIBCPP. For the first time, Mn importers ZIP14 and ZIP8 were identified in HIBCPP cells and were found to be enriched at the basolateral and apical sides of the cell monolayer, respectively. The localization of each ZIP protein adds to the understanding of Mn transport across the HIBCPP BCB model to help understand the mechanism of Mn homeostasis within the brain.
Improvement of Decorrelation-Based OCT Angiography by an Adaptive Spatial-Temporal Kernel in Monitoring Stimulus-Evoked Hemodynamic Responses

Complex decorrelation-based OCT angiography (OCTA) has the potential for monitoring hemodynamic activities in a label-free, high-resolution, and quantitative manner. To improve the measurement dynamic range and uncertainty of blood flow, an adaptive spatial-temporal (ST) kernel was proposed for decorrelation estimation and it was validated through a theoretical simulation and experimental measurements. The ensemble size in the decorrelation computation was effectively enlarged by collecting samples of the phasor pair in both the spatial and temporal dimensions. The spatial sub-kernel size was adaptively changed to suppress the influence of bulk motion in the temporal dimension by solving a maximum entropy model. Using the flow phantom, it was observed that the decorrelation dynamic range presented an increase of ~49% and the uncertainty exhibited a decrease of ~40% and ~38% in the saturation and background limits, respectively. In monitoring the stimulus-evoked hemodynamic response, the extended dynamic range enabled an improvement of ~180% in the separability between different stimulation modes. Furthermore, the suppressed uncertainty and motion artifacts allowed a reliable temporal analysis of the hemodynamic response. The proposed adaptive ST-kernel will greatly promote the development of decorrelation-based quantitative OCTA in hemodynamic studies.
Superficial angiomyxoma in a pregnant cow

A 3-year-old, pregnant, Alpine Brown cow showed a rapidly growing, pedunculated, skin mass located at the umbilical region, reaching 8 kg in weight over a 3-month period after its initial detection. Six days after parturition, the mass was completely surgically excised. During the follow-up period, the cow remained in good health, without signs of recurrence, and showed increased milk production. Histological examination of the mass revealed a loose proliferation of spindle-shaped or stellate cells, immersed in an abundant myxoid matrix with admixed numerous thin-walled blood vessels. Immunohistochemically, the tumour cells were positive for vimentin, α-smooth muscle actin, and desmin. Gross and histopathological features were compatible with superficial angiomyxoma, a subtype of angiomyxoma rarely described in humans, but not in the veterinary literature. The tumour did not infiltrate into the surrounding tissues, and there was no post-excision recurrence after 3 months. The possibility of hormonal dependence of the tumour during pregnancy is discussed based on such findings in some human cases.
Basic ZX-calculus for students and professionals

These are the lecture notes of guest lectures for Artur Ekert's course Introduction to Quantum Information at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University, Hilary Term 2023. Some basic familiarity with Dirac notation is assumed. For the readers of Quantum in Pictures (QiP) who have some basic quantum background, these notes also constitute the shortest path to an explanation of how what they learn in QIP relates to the traditional quantum formalism.
In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. Phenolic Extract and Its In Situ Application on Shelf-Life of Beef Meat

Compounds from spices and herbs extracts are being explored as natural antibacterial additives. A plant extract used in traditional folk medicine is Hibiscus sabdariffa L. , also known as Roselle. Therefore, the potential use of a phenolic hibiscus extract as antibacterial or natural food preservative was analyzed in vitro and in situ. A phenolic extract was obtained from hibiscus calyces and fractionated, and then the fractions were tested against foodborne pathogen bacteria. Liquid–liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction were used to fractionate the hibiscus extract, and HPLC was employed to analyze the fractions’ phenolic composition. Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) were calculated for brute hibiscus phenolic extract, each of the fractions and pure commercial phenolic compounds. Bacteria tested were Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus. The fraction obtained after liquid–liquid extraction presented the best performance of MBC and MIC against the bacteria tested. Furthermore, a hibiscus ethanolic extract was employed as a natural preservative to extend the shelf-life of beef. Microbiological, color and sensory analyses were performed to the meat during the shelf-life test. The application of the phenolic hibiscus extract also showed an increase of the duration of the meat`s shelf life.
Effects of Whey and Pea Protein Supplementation on Post-Eccentric Exercise Muscle Damage: A Randomized Trial

This randomized trial compared pea protein, whey protein, and water-only supplementation on muscle damage, inflammation, delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS), and physical fitness test performance during a 5-day period after a 90-min eccentric exercise bout in non-athletic non-obese males (n = 92, ages 18–55 years). The two protein sources (0.9 g protein/kg divided into three doses/day) were administered under double blind procedures. The eccentric exercise protocol induced significant muscle damage and soreness, and reduced bench press and 30-s Wingate performance. Whey protein supplementation significantly attenuated post-exercise blood levels for biomarkers of muscle damage compared to water-only, with large effect sizes for creatine kinase and myoglobin during the fourth and fifth days of recovery (Cohen’s d > 0.80); pea protein versus water supplementation had an intermediate non-significant effect (Cohen’s d < 0.50); and no significant differences between whey and pea protein were found. Whey and pea protein compared to water supplementation had no significant effects on post-exercise DOMS and the fitness tests. In conclusion, high intake of whey protein for 5 days after intensive eccentric exercise mitigated the efflux of muscle damage biomarkers, with the intake of pea protein having an intermediate effect.
Three Thousand Consecutive Pancreaticoduodenectomies in a Tertiary Cancer Center: A Retrospective Observational Study

(1) Aim: To evaluate clinicopathological features and postoperative outcomes including survival in patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for periampullary diseases. (2) Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 3078 cases of PD performed in our center for 25 years. Periampullary diseases were divided into benign and malignancy groups. All cases were also classified by location. The time of 25 years was divided to different periods (5 years per period) to compare outcomes. Overall survival was compared between subdivided periods. (3) Results: Hospitalization became significantly shorter from 28.0 days in the 1st period to 13.8 days in the 5th period. Overall complication rate was significantly increased since the 3rd period. The rate without postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) was high at 98.7% in the 1st period. This might be because drain amylase on the 3rd day after PD was not routinely checked in the past. Thus, POPF was not detected. In survival analysis of adenocarcinoma of pancreas, bile duct, and ampulla, overall survival was found to be improved significantly in recent years. (4) Conclusions: Our study revealed that outcomes were improved with increasing number of PDs performed. Although POPF and overall complications showed increases more recently, those were detected and managed, resulting in shorter hospitalization and improved outcomes.
RGBD Salient Object Detection via Disentangled Cross-Modal Fusion

Depth is beneficial for salient object detection (SOD) for its additional saliency cues. Existing RGBD SOD methods focus on tailoring complicated cross-modal fusion topologies, which although achieve encouraging performance, are with a high risk of over-fitting and ambiguous in studying cross-modal complementarity. Different from these conventional approaches combining cross-modal features entirely without differentiating, we concentrate our attention on decoupling the diverse cross-modal complements to simplify the fusion process and enhance the fusion sufficiency. We argue that if cross-modal heterogeneous representations can be disentangled explicitly, the cross-modal fusion process can hold less uncertainty, while enjoying better adaptability. To this end, we design a disentangled cross-modal fusion network to expose structural and content representations from both modalities by cross-modal reconstruction. For different scenes, the disentangled representations allow the fusion module to easily identify and incorporate desired complements for informative multi-modal fusion. Extensive experiments show the effectiveness of our designs and a large outperformance over state-of-the-art methods.
Review on telomerase activity in metastasis and proposal of amino-modified polystyrene-antisense human RNA nanoparticles in killing metastatic cells

Telomeres protect chromosomes from losing base-pair sequences at their ends. Part of telomeres is lost during each cell division. When the telomere becomes too short, the chromosome can no longer replicate. Telomerase, by reverse transcription, maintains telomere length and stability in cancer, gonadal and hemopoietic stem cells. During telomerase maturation, the RNA component is transferred to the cytoplasm where it recruits proteins and the mature complex is then re-imported into the nucleus. Telomerase activity in cancer cells is 10-20 times greater than that in normal cells. Amino silica nanoparticles are transport carrier for antisense human telomerase RNA (hTR) to cytoplasm where hTR binds to telomerase mRNA leading to its degradation. Sometimes a nti-telomerase leads to growth arrest but not to cancerous cell death. It is proposed that amino polystyrene (NH 2 PS) can replace amino silica nanoparticles and carry antisense hTR to the cytoplasm. After the binding of the antisense hTR to the mRNA of telomerase, NH 2 PS nanoparticles will be released. These nanoparticles inhibit the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling, leading to G2 cell cycle arrest of all cells exhibiting activated mTOR signaling including cancer cells. Due to the absence of mTOR signaling, macrophage resist to NH 2 PS toxicity. Besides, NH 2 PS inhibits angiogenesis and proliferation of tumour cells.
Effect of insulin on readmission for heart failure following a hospitalization for acute heart failure

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is common in patients with heart failure (HF) and is related with worse outcomes. Insulin treatment is associated with sodium and water retention, weight gain, and hypoglycaemia—all pathophysiological mechanisms related to HF decompensation. This study aimed to evaluate the association between insulin treatment and the risk of 1 year readmission for HF in patients discharged for acute HF.
Species relationship in the genus Silene L. section Auriculatae (Caryophyllaceae) based on morphology and RAPD analyses.

Morphological and RAPD studies were performed on Silene species of the sect. Auriculatae growing in Iran for the first time using phenetic, parsimony and Bayesian analyses. Trees obtained differed in the species groupings although agreed in some parts. Parsimony and Bayesian analyses of morphological characters produced some clades which were not well supported by bootstrap and clade credibility values but UPGMA tree showed a high cophenetic correlation. Grouping based on morphological characters partly support the species affinity given in Flora Iranica. Out of 40 RAPD primers used 15 primer produced reproducible polymorphic bands. In total 347 bands were produced out of which 340 bands were polymorph and 7 bands were monomorph. Among the species studied S. goniocaula showed the highest number of RAPD bands (184), while S. commelinifolia var. isophylla showed the lowest number (123). Some of the species studied showed the presence of specific bands which may be use for species discrimina- tion. NJ and Bayesian trees of RAPD data partly agree with morphological trees obtained.
ANT2681: SAR studies leading to the identification of a metallo-β-lactamase inhibitor with potential for clinical use in combination with meropenem for the treatment of infections caused by NDM-producing Enterobacteriaceae.

The clinical effectiveness of the important β-lactam class of antibiotics is under threat by the emergence of resistance, mostly due to the production of acquired serine- (SBL) and metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) enzymes. To address this resistance issue, multiple β-lactam/ β-lactamase inhibitor combinations have been successfully introduced into the clinic over the past several decades. However, all of those combinations contain SBL inhibitors and, as yet, there are no MBL inhibitors in clinical use. Consequently there exists an unaddressed yet growing healthcare problem due to the rise in recent years of highly resistant strains which produce NDM-type metallo-carbapenemases. Previously we reported the characterisation of an advanced MBL inhibitor lead compound, ANT431. Herein we discuss the completion of a lead optimisation campaign culminating in the discovery of the preclinical candidate ANT2681, a potent NDM inhibitor entering clinical development.