Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Innate Immunomodulation in Food Animals: Evidence for Trained Immunity?

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant problem in health care, animal health, and food safety. To limit AMR, there is a need for alternatives to antibiotics to enhance disease resistance and support judicious antibiotic usage in animals and humans. Immunomodulation is a promising strategy to enhance disease resistance without antibiotics in food animals. One rapidly evolving field of immunomodulation is innate memory in which innate immune cells undergo epigenetic changes of chromatin remodeling and metabolic reprogramming upon a priming event that results in either enhanced or suppressed responsiveness to secondary stimuli (training or tolerance, respectively). Exposure to live agents such as bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) or microbe-derived products such as LPS or yeast cell wall ß-glucans can reprogram or “train” the innate immune system. Over the last decade, significant advancements increased our understanding of innate training in humans and rodent models, and strategies are being developed to specifically target or regulate innate memory. In veterinary species, the concept of enhancing the innate immune system is not new; however, there are few available studies which have purposefully investigated innate training as it has been defined in human literature. The development of targeted approaches to engage innate training in food animals, with the practical goal of enhancing the capacity to limit disease without the use of antibiotics, is an area which deserves attention. In this review, we provide an overview of innate immunomodulation and memory, and the mechanisms which regulate this long-term functional reprogramming in other animals (e.g., humans, rodents). We focus on studies describing innate training, or similar phenomenon (often referred to as heterologous or non-specific protection), in cattle, sheep, goats, swine, poultry, and fish species; and discuss the potential benefits and shortcomings of engaging innate training for enhancing disease resistance.
Power Doppler Ultrasound Assessment of A1 Pulley. A New Target of Inflammation in Psoriatic Arthritis?

Objective: To determine the prevalence of grey scale and power Doppler (PD) ultrasound (US) features of A1 pulley inflammation in a cohort of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients compared with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Methods: Sixty patients (30 with PsA and 30 with RA) were consecutively enrolled. The main clinimetric indexes were recorded, and US assessment of A1 pulleys from second to fifth fingers bilaterally was carried out. The presence of A1 pulley inflammation, defined as PD signal within a thickened pulley, was registered. Results: A1 pulley inflammation was found in 15 of 240 fingers (6.3%) of eight PsA patients (26.7%) and in one of 240 fingers (0.4%) of one RA patient (3.3%) (p < 0.01 and p = 0.03, respectively). Seven of eight PsA patients (88%) with at least one inflamed A1 pulley had a moderate/high disease activity score. The regression linear analysis (R2 = 0.36, adjusted R2 = 0.31) showed that A1 pulley inflammation was correlated with Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA) (β = 0.43, p = 0.03). Conclusion: US A1 pulley inflammation appears to be relatively common at patient level in PsA, seems to be a characteristic feature of PsA compared to RA, and correlates with DAPSA.
Non-invasive Neurophysiology in Learning and Training: Mechanisms and a SWOT Analysis

Although many scholars deem non-invasive measures of neurophysiology to have promise in assessing learning, these measures are currently not widely applied, neither in educational settings nor in training. How can non-invasive neurophysiology provide insight into learning and how should research on this topic move forward to ensure valid applications? The current article addresses these questions by discussing the mechanisms underlying neurophysiological changes during learning followed by a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of non-invasive neurophysiology in learning and training. This type of analysis can provide a structured examination of factors relevant to the current state and future of a field. The findings of the SWOT analysis indicate that the field of neurophysiology in learning and training is developing rapidly. By leveraging the opportunities of neurophysiology in learning and training (while bearing in mind weaknesses, threats, and strengths) the field can move forward in promising directions. Suggestions for opportunities for future work are provided to ensure valid and effective application of non-invasive neurophysiology in a wide range of learning and training settings.
On Calculating Free Energy Differences Using Ensembles of Transition Paths

The free energy of a process is the fundamental quantity that determines its spontaneity or propensity at a given temperature. In particular, the binding free energy of a drug candidate to its biomolecular target is used as an objective quantity in drug design. Recently, binding kinetics—rates of association (kon) and dissociation (koff)—have also demonstrated utility for their ability to predict efficacy and in some cases have been shown to be more predictive than the binding free energy alone. Some methods exist to calculate binding kinetics from molecular simulations, although these are typically more difficult to calculate than the binding affinity as they depend on details of the transition path ensemble. Assessing these rate constants can be difficult, due to uncertainty in the definition of the bound and unbound states, large error bars and the lack of experimental data. As an additional consistency check, rate constants from simulation can be used to calculate free energies (using the log of their ratio) which can then be compared to free energies obtained experimentally or using alchemical free energy perturbation. However, in this calculation it is not straightforward to account for common, practical details such as the finite simulation volume or the particular definition of the “bound” and “unbound” states. Here we derive a set of correction terms that can be applied to calculations of binding free energies using full reactive trajectories. We apply these correction terms to revisit the calculation of binding free energies from rate constants for a host-guest system that was part of a blind prediction challenge, where significant deviations were observed between free energies calculated with rate ratios and those calculated from alchemical perturbation. The correction terms combine to significantly decrease the error with respect to computational benchmarks, from 3.4 to 0.76 kcal/mol. Although these terms were derived with weighted ensemble simulations in mind, some of the correction terms are generally applicable to free energies calculated using physical pathways via methods such as Markov state modeling, metadynamics, milestoning, or umbrella sampling.
Ribosomal Protein Large subunit RPL6 modulates salt tolerance in rice

The extra-ribosomal functions of ribosomal proteins RPL6 and RPL23a in stress-responsiveness have emanated from our previous studies on activation tagged mutants of rice screened for water-use efficiency (Moin et al., 2016a). In the present study, we functionally validated the RPL6, a Ribosomal Protein Large subunit member for salt stress tolerance in rice. The overexpression of RPL6 resulted in tolerance to moderate (150 mM) to high (200 mM) levels of salt (NaCl) in rice. The transgenic rice plants expressing RPL6 constitutively showed better phenotypic and physiological responses with high quantum efficiency, accumulation of more chlorophyll and proline contents, and an overall increase in seed yield compared with the wild type in salt stress treatments. An iTRAQ-based comparative proteomic analysis revealed the high expression of about 333 proteins among the 4,378 DEPs in a selected overexpression line of RPL6 treated with 200 mM of NaCl. The functional analysis showed that these highly expressed proteins (HEPs) are involved in photosynthesis, ribosome and chloroplast biogenesis, ion transportation, transcription and translation regulation, phytohormone and secondary metabolite signal transduction. An in silico network analysis of HEPs predicted that RPL6 binds with translation-related proteins and helicases, which coordinately affects the activities of a comprehensive signaling network, thereby inducing tolerance and promoting growth and yield in response to salt stress. Our overall findings identified a novel candidate, RPL6 whose characterization contributed to the existing knowledge on the complexity of salt tolerance mechanism in plants.
Representativeness of Offensive Scenarios to Evaluate Perceptual-Cognitive Skills of Water Polo Players

The aim of this study was to trial several attacking offensive sequences as representative for further use in research on the perceptual-cognitive skills of water polo players. Elite water polo coaches were presented with separate test film sequences encompassing 80 structured water polo offensive plays. Each clip was approximately 6 s–7 s long with an inter-clip interval of 5 s–10 s, where a red dot was displayed on-screen at the start of the clip to indicate the area of first appearance of the ball. The order of presentation of the video clips was counterbalanced and randomly determined. The criteria were scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale. From the 80 clips presented, only 56 showed high agreement (W = 1; p < 0.05) and internal consistence reliability between the expert observers (α = 0.980; p < 0.05). Furthermore, a very high reproducibility (Z = 0; p = 1) was obtained between viewing sessions. The results obtained determine that 56 offensive scenarios were representative of the water polo game and as such may be useful in evaluating the perceptual-cognitive skills of the players.
The immunophilin Zonda controls regulated exocytosis in endocrine and exocrine tissues

Exocytosis is a fundamental process in physiology, communication between cells, organs and even organisms. Hormones, neuropeptides and antibodies, among other cargoes are packed in exocytic vesicles that need to reach and fuse with the plasma membrane to release their content to the extracellular milieu. Hundreds of proteins participate in this process and several others in its regulation. We report here a novel component of the exocytic machinery, the Drosophila transmembrane immunophilin Zonda (Zda), previously found to participate in autophagy. Zda is highly expressed in secretory tissues, and regulates exocytosis in at least three of them: the ring gland, insulin-producing cells and the salivary gland. Using the salivary gland as a model system, we found that Zda is required at final steps of the exocytic process for fusion of secretory granules to the plasma membrane. In a genetic screen we identified the small GTPase RalA as a crucial regulator of secretory granule exocytosis that operates upstream of Zda in the process.
Experimental investigation of contra-rotating multi-rotor UAV propeller noise

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) are an increasingly popular technology with a rapidly expanding range of uses. Contra-rotating propellers are used as propulsors on some multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Contrarotating propellers have the benefit of reducing the UAV's plan size and adding redundancy in case of component failure. However, contra-rotating propellers are notoriously noisy in other applications, but the noise from contrarotating multi-rotor UAVs has not been studied. This paper presents results from an experimental investigation of a single static contra-rotating propeller mounted in an anechoic chamber. The effect of propeller diameter, propeller spacing, and blade number were investigated. The rotational speed of the upstream and downstream propellers was varied over a large range to generate a data set containing noise and efficiency measurements at many different operating points.
Hemoglobin is essential for normal growth of Arabidopsis organs

In Arabidopsis thaliana, the class I hemoglobin AHb1 is transiently expressed in the hydathodes of leaves and in floral buds from young inflorescences. Nitric oxide (NO) accumulates to high levels in these organs when AHb1 is silenced, indicating an important role in metabolizing NO. AHb1-silenced lines are viable but show a mutant phenotype affecting the regions where AHb1 is expressed. Arabidopsis lines with an insertional knockout or overexpression of AHb2, a class II 3-on-3 hemoglobin, were generated. Seedlings overexpressing AHb2 show enhanced survival of hypoxic stress. The AHb2 knockout lines develop normally. However, when AHb2 knockout is combined with AHb1 silencing, seedlings die at an early vegetative stage suggesting that the two 3-on-3 hemoglobins, AHb1 and AHb2, together play an essential role for normal development of Arabidopsis seedlings. In conclusion, these results suggests that 3-on-3 hemoglobins apart from a role in hypoxic stress play a general role under non-stressed conditions where they are essential for normal development by controlling the level of NO which tends to accumulate in floral buds and leaf hydathodes of plants.
SSR based linkage and mapping analysis of C, a yellow cocoon gene in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

The yellow color of the cocoon of the silkworm Bombyx mori is controlled by three genes, Y (Yellow haemolymph), I (Yellow inhibitor) and C (Outer‐layer yellow cocoon), which are located on linkage groups 2, 9 and 12, respectively. Taking advantage of a lack of crossing over in females, reciprocal backcrossed F1 (BC1) progeny were used for linkage analysis and mapping of the C gene using silkworm strains C108 and KY, which spin white and yellow cocoons, respectively. DNA was extracted from individual pupae and analyzed for simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The C gene was found to be linked to seven SSR markers. All the yellow cocoon individuals from a female heterozygous backcross (BC1 F) showed a heterozygous profile for SSR markers on linkage group 12, whereas individuals with light yellow cocoons showed the homozygous profile of the strain C108. Using a reciprocal heterozygous male backcross (BC1 M), we constructed a linkage map of 36.4 cM with the C gene located at the distal end, and the closest SSR marker at a distance of 13.9 cM.
Mitochondrial DNA variation in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) from Italy: Evidence of admixture in one of the last C. c. italicus pure populations from central‐southern Italy

We present sequence data of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region from 28 samples from southern Italy (Orsomarso, Pollino National Park, Basilicata and Calabria), one of the last putative pure population of Capreolus capreolus italicus. MtDNA variation in these samples is compared to the one from 243 samples from 17 locations across the Italian peninsula and 41 samples from several populations across Europe. Level of mtDNA genetic structuring as high as the one recorded among the European populations was found among the Italian populations (Φ ST = 0.58). The high Φ ST value between the southern and central populations and the other Italian samples (Φ ST = 0.59) together with the occurrence of unique haplotypes supports the assignment of these samples to their own subspecies, C. c. italicus. However, the population from Orsomarso also includes mtDNA haplotypes genealogically related to ones occurring in northern and central Apennine populations. This finding could result from incomplete lineage sorting or from unrecorded translocations of animals into the Orsomarso population. The management implications of this finding are discussed.
DIGESTIBILITY OF RYE AND ITS VALUE IN PELLETED RATIONS FOR PIGS

Digestibility and N-retention were determined with eight barrows fed rye and barley in a crossover experiment. Dry matter and crude protein digestibility coefficients for rye were higher than those for barley, but differences in N-retention were negligible. The coefficients obtained by indirect measurement were higher than those determined directly. Seventy-two pigs were used in a factorial experiment to determine the effect on production of feeding two grades of rye at 0, 30 and 60% of pelleted and non-pelleted finisher rations. Weight gains by barrows compared with gilts were affected less by the addition of rye to the rations. The growth rate of gilts was reduced by the inclusion of 30% rye in non-pelleted but not in pelleted rations. The use of No. 2 grade rye appeared to have restricted rate of gain less than did No. 3 grade rye. The feeding value of rye was improved by pelleting, since the daily gain of 0.75 kg obtained by feeding a 30% rye, pelleted ration equalled that from pigs fed a 0% rye, non-.
Determination of GD&T Features Varying the Setting Parameters of X-Ray Computed Tomography by Response Surface Method

Measuring dimensional parameters (such as diameter, distance) by industrial computed tomography (CT) becomes more and more popular because of its advantages such as non-destructive method and short measurement time. However, the goodness of the measured values needs to be evaluated as a requirement of quality control. An aluminium test piece are designed and manufactured for mapping the measurement errors and uncertainties in case of dimensional CT measurements. In this article, the measurement errors are investigated based on the results of an experimental design, response surface method (RSM). Three main factors are varied systematically: the magnification of the CT, the numbers of views (NoV), and the set-up of the scanning mode. In the course of measurement evaluation several GD&T parameters are determined such as diameter of holes, distances between the holes, flatness and perpendicularity. The purpose of this research is to calculate the measurement errors and to determine the factors which have an effect on the dimensional CT measurement process.
Technical Specification Development for Ceramic Tile Type III Environmental Declarations

In order to address increasingly serious global environmental problems and intensified international trade barriers as well as the promotion of production processes by enterprises for the improvement of environmental impacts, Type III environmental declaration has emerged in response to the proper time and condition and gradually developed into an important mean to solve environmental problems. This study, based on the principles and requirements stated in ISO 14025, takes ceramic tile products as the example to discuss about the formulation of technical specifications for life cycle assessment of the ceramic tile, in order to provide methodological basis and technical support for the formulation of technical specifications for the life cycle assessment of other domestic products as well as for the assessment of Type III environmental declaration. AcknowledgementSources of project funds: 13th Five-year National Key R&D Plan “Study on Key Technologies for Certification of Green Products Used in Home Furnishing Field”(No. 2017YFF0211504)
Research Progress on Anti-Corrosive Properties of Graphene Modified Coatings

Graphene modified coatings have attracted extensive attention in recent years due to their excellent corrosion resistance and broad application prospects in the field of anti-corrosion. However, large-scale applications of graphene coatings were seldom reported, which is mainly attributed to the lack of fundamental research on the anti-corrosive mechanism and the long-term service performance evaluation of graphene modified coatings in actual working conditions. In the present work, the influence of the characteristics of corrosive medium, the content of graphene, the structure and morphology of graphene and the external environmental conditions on the anti-corrosive performance of graphene modified coatings were systematically reviewed. The deficiencies in the research of anti-corrosive performance of graphene modified coatings were summarized. The future work were prospected for the anti-corrosive performance and applications of graphene modified coatings in oil and gas exploration.
To beer or not to beer: A meta-analysis of the effects of beer consumption on cardiovascular health

A moderate alcohol consumption is demonstrated to exert a protective action in terms of cardiovascular risk. Although this property seems not to be beverage-specific, the various composition of alcoholic compounds could mediate peculiar effects in vivo. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential beer-mediated effects on the cardiovascular health in humans, using a meta-analytic approach (trial registration number: CRD42018118387). The literature search, comprising all English articles published until November, 30th 2019 in EMBASE, PubMed and Cochrane database included all controlled clinical trials evaluating the cardiovascular effects of beer assumption compared to alcohol-free beer, water, abstinence or placebo. Both sexes and all beer preparations were considered eligible. Outcome parameters were those entering in the cardiovascular risk charts and those related to endothelial dysfunction. Twenty-six trials were included in the analysis. Total cholesterol was significantly higher in beer drinkers compared to controls (14 studies, 3.52 mg/dL, 1.71–5.32 mg/dL). Similar increased levels were observed in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (18 studies, 3.63 mg/dL, 2.00–5.26 mg/dL) and in apolipoprotein A1 (5 studies, 0.16 mg/dL, 0.11–0.21 mg/dL), while no differences were detected in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (12 studies, -2.85 mg/dL, -5.96–0.26 mg/dL) and triglycerides (14 studies, 0.40 mg/dL, -5.00–5.80 mg/dL) levels. Flow mediated dilation (FMD) resulted significantly higher in beer-consumers compared to controls (4 studies, 0.65%, 0.07–1.23%), while blood pressure and other biochemical markers of inflammation did not differ. In conclusion, the specific beer effect on human cardiovascular health was meta-analysed for the first time, highlighting an improvement of the vascular elasticity, detected by the increase of FMD (after acute intake), and of the lipid profile with a significant increase of HDL and apolipoprotein A1 serum levels. Although the long-term effects of beer consumption are not still understood, a beneficial effect of beer on endothelial function should be supposed.