Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rugose Morphotype in Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Heidelberg Induced by Sequential Exposure to Subinhibitory Sodium Hypochlorite Aids in Biofilm Tolerance to Lethal Sodium Hypochlorite on Polystyrene and Stainless Steel Surfaces

Salmonella biofilms act as a continuous source for cross-contamination in the food processing environments. In this study, a stable rugose morphotype of Salmonella was first induced by sequential exposure to subinhibitory concentrations (SICs) of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) (ranging from 50 to 300 ppm over 18-day period) in tryptic soy broth. Then, rugose and smooth morphotypes of Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028 and Salmonella Heidelberg ATCC 8326 were characterized for biofilm forming abilities on polystyrene and stainless steel surfaces. Rugose morphotype of both ATCC 14028 and ATCC 8326 exhibited higher Exopolysaccharide (EPS) formation than smooth morphotype (p ≤ 0.05). Also, the SICs of NaOCl (200 or 300 ppm in broth model) increased the biofilm formation ability of rugose morphotype of ATCC 8326 (p ≤ 0.05) but decreased that of ATCC 14028. The 2-day-old Salmonella biofilms were treated with biocidal concentrations of 50, 100, or 200 ppm NaOCl (pH 6.15) in water for 5, 10, or 20 min at room temperature. The biofilm reduction in CFU/cm2 for the rugose was lower than the smooth morphotype on both surfaces (p ≤ 0.05) by lethal NaOCl in water. Scanning electron micrographs on both polystyrene and stainless steel surfaces demonstrated that the rugose morphotype produced a denser biofilm than the smooth morphotype. Transmission electron micrographs revealed the cell wall roughness in rugose morphotype, which may help in tolerance to NaOCl. The gene expression data indicate that the expression of biofilm regulator (csgD), curli (csgA, csgB, and csgC), and cellulose (bcsE) was significantly increased in rugose morphotype when induced by sequential exposure of NaOCl SICs. These findings reveal that the rugose morphotype of S. Typhimurium and S. Heidelberg produced significantly denser biofilm on food contact surfaces, which also increased with sequential exposure to SICs of NaOCl in the case of S. Heidelberg, and these biofilms were more tolerant to biocidal NaOCl concentrations commonly used in the food processing plants.
Toward Nanomechanical Models of Liquid-Phase Exfoliation of Layered 2D Nanomaterials: Analysis of a π − peel Model

In liquid-phase exfoliation for the production of 2D nanomaterials fluid forces are used to gently overcome adhesive interlayer forces, leading to single- or few-layer 2D nanomaterials. Predicting accurately the critical fluid shear rate for exfoliation is a crucial challenge. By combining notions of fluid mechanics and fracture mechanics, we analyse a mathematical model of exfoliation, focusing on the $\pi$-peel regime in which bending forces are much smaller than the applied hydrodynamic forces. We find that in this regime the shear rate is approximately proportional to the adhesion energy, independent of the bending rigidity of the exfoliated sheet, and inversely proportional to the size $a$ of a (assumed pre-existing) material flaw. The model appears to give values comparable to those obtained in wet ball milling, but to overestimate the shear rate values reported for turbulent exfoliation (by rotor mixing or microfluidization). We suggest that for turbulent exfoliation a "cleavage model" may be more appropriate, as it gives a stronger dependence on $a$ and smaller critical shear rates.
Dissection of Chemical Composition and Associated Gene Expression in the Pigment-Deficient Tea Cultivar ‘Xiaoxueya’ Reveals an Albino Phenotype and Metabolite Formation

The tea cultivar ‘Xiaoxueya’, a temperature-sensitive albino mutant, is a rare tea germplasm because of its highly enriched amino acid content and brisk flavour. In comparison with green leaf tissues of ‘Xiaoxueya’, albino leaves show significant deficiency in chlorophylls and carotenoids and severely disrupted chloroplasts. Furthermore, the accumulation of quality-related secondary metabolites is altered in ‘Xiaoxueya’ albino leaf, with significantly increased contents of total amino acids, theanine, and glutamic acid and significantly decreased contents of alkaloids, catechins, and polyphenols. To uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying albinism and quality-related constituent variation in ‘Xiaoxueya’ leaves, expression profiles of pivotal genes involved in the biosynthetic pathways of pigments, caffeine, theanine, and catechins were investigated by quantitative real-time PCR technology. The results revealed that suppressed expression of the chloroplast-localized 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase genes DXS1 and DXS2 involved in the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) pathway and protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase genes POR1 and POR2 involved in the chlorophyll biosynthetic pathway is responsible for the pigment deficiency in ‘Xiaoxueya’ albino leaf. Additionally, the low expression of the tea caffeine synthase gene (TCS) involved in caffeine biosynthesis and the chalcone synthase genes CHS1, CHS2, and CHS3, the chalcone isomerase gene CHI, the flavonoid 3’,5’-hydroxylase genes F3’5’H1 and F3’5’H2, and the anthocyanidin reductase genes ANR1 and ANR2 involved in the flavonoid pathway is related to the reduction in alkaloid and catechin levels in ‘Xiaoxueya’ albino leaves.
Roles for IFT172 and Primary Cilia in Cell Migration, Cell Division, and Neocortex Development

The cilium of a cell translates varied extracellular cues into intracellular signals that control embryonic development and organ function. The dynamic maintenance of ciliary structure and function requires balanced bidirectional cargo transport involving intraflagellar transport (IFT) complexes. IFT172 is a member of the IFT complex B, and IFT172 mutation is associated with pathologies including short rib thoracic dysplasia, retinitis pigmentosa and Bardet-Biedl syndrome, but how it underpins these conditions is not clear. We used the WIM cell line, derived from embryonic fibroblasts of Wimple mice (carrying homozygous Leu1564Pro mutation in Ift172), to probe roles of Ift172 and primary cilia in cell behavior. WIM cells had ablated cilia and deficiencies in directed migration (electrotaxis), cell proliferation and intracellular signaling. Additionally, WIM cells displayed altered cell cycle progression, with increased numbers of chromatids, highlighting dysfunctional centrosome status. Exposure to a physiological electric field promoted a higher percentage of primary cilia in wild-type cells. Interestingly, in situ hybridization revealed an extensive and dynamic expression profile of Ift172 in both developing and adult mouse cortex. In vivo manipulation of Ift172 expression in germinal regions of embryonic mouse brains perturbed neural progenitor proliferation and radial migration of post-mitotic neurons, revealing a regulatory role of Ift172 in cerebral morphogenesis. Our data suggest that Ift172 regulates a range of fundamental biological processes, highlighting the pivotal roles of the primary cilium in cell physiology and brain development.
Value of Brain Computed Tomographic Angiography to Predict Post Thrombectomy Final Infarct Size and Clinical Outcome in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Aims: This study aims to analyze the predictor in preoperative brain computed tomographic angiography (CTA) for final infarct and outcome in postendovascular thrombectomy patient. Subjects and Methods: 52 patients were retrospectively reviewed. The Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score (ASPECTS) comparison between preoperative noncontrast computed tomography (NCCT) and 24-h NCCT as well as preoperative CTA source image (CTA-SI) and 24-h NCCT were performed. Factors associated with increased ASPECTS and clinical outcome were evaluated. Results: Preoperative NCCT ASPECTS = 24-h NCCT in 23%. Whereas, 46% showed preoperative CTA-SI ASPECTS = 24-h NCCT. Moreover, 40.4% showed 24-h NCCT ASPECTS > preoperative CTA-SI (increased ASPECTS). The two significant factors associated with increased ASPECTS are thrombolysis in cerebral infarct score 2b/3 (P = 0.02) and good collateral status (P = 0.02). Finally, good clinical outcome was associated with age <60 (P = 0.04), preoperative CTA-SI ASPECTS >5 (P = 0.01), good collaterals status (P = 0.02), and increased ASPECTS (P = 0.05). Conclusions: Preoperative brain CTA provided the necessary factors that are associated with good clinical outcomes, which are CTA-SI ASPECTS > 5, good collateral status, and increased ASPECTS.
Medullary Hemorrhage Caused by Foramen Magnum Dural Arteriovenous Fistula Successfully Obliterated using Combination of Endovascular and Surgical Treatments: A Case Report and Literature Review

The authors describe an extremely rare case of foramen magnum dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF), Cognard type V, presented with medullary hemorrhage caused by venous varix on the lateral medullary draining vein embedded into the medulla oblongata. Following mild myelopathy for 3 days, a 20-year-old male developed dyspnea, generalized seizures, loss of consciousness, and finally cardiac arrest. After successful resuscitation, computed tomography scan (CT) of the brain was obtained and showed acute medullary hemorrhage. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed diffuse venous congestion or edema of the medulla with multiple dilated flow voids surrounding the medulla, more prominent on the left side, with venous varix embedded into the left-sided of the lower medulla. He was sent to the emergency department of the local hospital and intubated promptly. A few minutes later, the patient had a cardiac arrest. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) demonstrated DAVF of the foramen magnum supplied mainly by dural branches of bilateral hypertrophic posterior inferior cerebellar arteries (PICAs), slightly by the posterior meningeal branch of the left vertebral artery, and the jugular branch of the left ascending pharyngeal artery (APA) originating from the occipital artery. Transarterial embolization through the bilateral dural branches of the PICAs was successfully performed using N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (NBCA), resulting in complete obliteration. The patient had excellence recovery and lost to annual follow-up. Seven years later, he had a recurrent of the fistula presented with occipital headache. DSA with angiographic CT in three-dimensional reconstruction and maximum intensity projection reformatted images clearly demonstrated the exact location of the DAVFs at the posterior rim of the foramen magnum, mainly recruited by the hypertrophic jugular branch of the APA originating from the occipital artery. The fistula was successfully treated surgically following transarterial embolization through the jugular branch of the APA using NBCA. Follow-up DSA confirmed complete obliteration of the DAVF. The patient has remained clinically asymptomatic 2 years after the operation.
Production of antioxidant exopolysaccharide from Pseudomonas aeruginosa utilizing heavy oil as a solo carbon source

Aim/Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is capable of utilizing heavy oil hydrocarbons as a sole carbon source. P. aeruginosa produce exopolysaccharide (EPS) in an inorganic medium in the presence of crude oil. Several environmental factors affect the majority of EPS production. Materials and Methods: Strain of P. aeruginosa were managed under various media (maintenance medium, inoculum, and basal media). Different heavy petroleum oil concentrations (5, 10, 20, and 30 ml/L) were used as solo carbon source to the basal medium. Various conditions of bacterial growth were monitored. The growth of cells was estimated by measuring the absorbance of the mixture of 1 ml of the basal medium diluted with 1 ml of distilled water at 600 nm spectrophotometrically. P. aeruginosa was grown aerobically in a production medium at 37°C and 150 rpm on a rotary shaker. The culture broth was centrifuged to separate the cells. The precipitated polysaccharide was separated by centrifugation and washed with ethanol, acetone, and ether, and then dried under reduced pressure oven at 45°C. The DPPH test was carried out as described by Burits and Bucar to monitor the free radical scavenging activities of the extracts. Results: The preferable culture conditions for EPS production were at 10 ml/L heavy oil, with 0.5 g/L NaNO3as best N sources at pH 6.0 after 5 days incubation. The net weight of purified EPS production was 0.5 g/L. Conclusion: The obtained polysaccharide showed antioxidant activity that possesses DPPH radical scavenging activity, with an EC50 =0.201.
Diagnostic modality for evaluation of right ventricle in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients

Background: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a progressive disease of pulmonary hypertension (PH) as a consequence obstructive of pulmonary arteries with thromboembolism. Augmented pulmonary vascular resistance and pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) can ultimately lead to the right ventricular dysfunction, which leads to adaptive and maladaptive changes. Right ventricle (RV) remodeling can cause clinical deterioration and RV failure. Aims and Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the RV functions with a new diagnostic modality 2-deoxy-2-(18F)-fluoro-D-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) in patients with CTEPH. Materials and Methods: We included 53 patients diagnosed with CTEPH who were planned to have pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PEA) and did not have any contraindication for cardiac PET/computed tomography (CT). We performed transthoracic echo, cardiac PET/CT, 6-minute walk distance (6-MWT), and right heart catheterization 1 week before PEA surgery. Results: The patients divided into two groups according to RV/left ventricle (LV) FDG-PET uptake ratio, RV/LV ≤1, and RV/LV >1. Six-MWD was significantly higher in the RV/LV ≤1 group (P = 0.005). Pro-BNP was considerably higher in the RV/LV >1 group (P = 0.041). Conclusion: The present study aims to demonstrate the RV/LV FDG-PET uptake ratio could be used in the noninvasive diagnostic method in diagnosing, treatment strategy, and clinical follow-up in patients with CTEPH.
Endoscopic band ligation versus argon plasma coagulation in management of bleeding from gastric antral vascular ectasia in patients with portal hypertension

IntroductIon We can define gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) as a capillary‐type vascular malformation located mainly in the gastric antrum. It has been described as dilated, tortuous mucosal capillaries, which are often occluded by thrombus, and also as dilated, tortuous submucosal veins ([1]). At endoscopy, GAVE may look like multiple longitudinal streaks that converge at the pyloric orifice (stripe type) or as Background Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) may cause recurrent hemorrhage, and thus, chronic anemia, in patients with portal hypertension. Treatment with argon plasma coagulation (APC) is an effective and safe method in adults but requires multiple sessions of endoscopic therapy. Endoscopic band ligation (EBL) was found to be a good alternative for APC as a treatment for GAVE, especially in refractory cases. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of EBL, as compared with APC, in treating nonvariceal upper GI bleeding GAVE in patients with portal hypertension.
Behavioral Coordination, Structural Congruence and Entrainment in a Simulation of Acoustically Coupled Agents

er for as long as possible using noisy continuous acoustic interaction. Evolved dynamical recurrent neural networks are used as the control architecture. Acoustic coupling poses nontrivial problems like discriminating ’self’ from ’non-self’ and structuring production of signals in time so as to minimize interference. Detailed observation of the most frequently evolved behavioral strategy shows that interacting agents perform rhythmic signals leading to the coordination of movement. During coordination, signals become entrained in an anti-phase mode that resembles turn-taking. Perturbation techniques show that signalling behavior not only performs an external function, but it is also integrated into the movement of the producing agent, thus showing the difficulty of separating behavior into social and non-social classes. Structural congruence between agents is shown by exploring internal dynamics as well as the response of single agents in the presence of signalling beacons that reproduce the signal patterns of the interacting agents. Lack of entrain-
Cardioprotection after angiotensin II type 1 blockade involves angiotensin II type 2 receptor expression and activation of protein kinase C-ε in acutely reperfused myocardial infarction in the dog

To determine whether cardioprotection after chronic angiotensin II (Ang II) type 1 (AT1) receptor blockade involves Ang II type 2 (AT2) receptor expression and protein kinase C-ε (PKCε) activation, we measured in vivo haemodynamics and left ventricular (LV) remodelling and dysfunction (echocardiogram/ Doppler) and ex vivo AT1/AT2-receptor expression, IP 3R (1, 4, 5-inositol trisphosphate type 2 receptor) and PKCε proteins in dogs with acutely reperfused (90 minutes ischaemia, 90 minutes reperfusion) myocardial infarction (MI) following seven days of AT1-receptor blockade with oral losartan or UP269-6. The animals were randomised to sham; sham + losartan or UP269-6; MI alone; MI + losartan; MI + UP269-6. More marked AT1-receptor blockade with UP269-6 (greater inhibition of Ang II pressor responses) was associated with a smaller increase in preload, less systolic and diastolic dysfunction, less infarct expansion, and smaller LV diastolic and systolic volumes. However, both AT1-receptor antagonists decreased infarct size. Importantly, MI decreased AT1-receptor and AT2-receptor expression while MI after AT1-receptor antagonism increased AT1-receptor (mRNA, not protein) and AT 2-receptor (mRNA and protein) expression as well as IP3R and PKCε proteins and cyclic guanosine 3', 5' monophosphate (cGMP). These results suggest that cardioprotection induced by chronic AT1-receptor antagonism involves enhanced AT2-receptor expression and possibly downstream signalling through IP3R, PKCε and cGMP.
Robust SAR Automatic Target Recognition Based on Transferred MS-CNN with L2-Regularization

Though Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) via Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) has made huge progress toward deep learning, some key issues still remain unsolved due to the lack of sufficient samples and robust model. In this paper, we proposed an efficient transferred Max-Slice CNN (MS-CNN) with L2-Regularization for SAR ATR, which could enrich the features and recognize the targets with superior performance. Firstly, the data amplification method is presented to reduce the computational time and enrich the raw features of SAR targets. Secondly, the proposed MS-CNN framework with L2-Regularization is trained to extract robust features, in which the L2-Regularization is incorporated to avoid the overfitting phenomenon and further optimizing our proposed model. Thirdly, transfer learning is introduced to enhance the feature representation and discrimination, which could boost the performance and robustness of the proposed model on small samples. Finally, various activation functions and dropout strategies are evaluated for further improving recognition performance. Extensive experiments demonstrated that our proposed method could not only outperform other state-of-the-art methods on the public and extended MSTAR dataset but also obtain good performance on the random small datasets.
An Intrusion Detection System Based on a Simplified Residual Network

Residual networks (ResNets) are prone to over-fitting for low-dimensional and small-scale datasets. And the existing intrusion detection systems (IDSs) fail to provide better performance, especially for remote-to-local (R2L) and user-to-root (U2R) attacks. To overcome these problems, a simplified residual network (S-ResNet) is proposed in this paper, which consists of several cascaded, simplified residual blocks. Compared with the original residual block, the simplified residual block deletes a weight layer and two batch normalization (BN) layers, adds a pooling layer, and replaces the rectified linear unit (ReLU) function with the parametric rectified linear unit (PReLU) function. Based on the S-ResNet, a novel IDS was proposed in this paper, which includes a data preprocessing module, a random oversampling module, a S-Resnet layer, a full connection layer and a Softmax layer. The experimental results on the NSL-KDD dataset show that the IDS based on the S-ResNet has a higher accuracy, recall and F1-score than the equal scale ResNet-based IDS, especially for R2L and U2R attacks. And the former has faster convergence velocity than the latter. It proves that the S-ResNet reduces the complexity of the network and effectively prevents over-fitting; thus, it is more suitable for low-dimensional and small-scale datasets than ResNet. Furthermore, the experimental results on the NSL-KDD datasets also show that the IDS based on the S-ResNet achieves better performance in terms of accuracy and recall compared to the existing IDSs, especially for R2L and U2R attacks.
The Influence of Age, Gender, and Cognitive Ability on the Susceptibility to Persuasive Strategies

The fact that individuals may react differently toward persuasive strategies gave birth to a shift in persuasive technology (PT) design from the one-size-fits-all traditional approach to the individualized approach which conforms to individuals’ preferences. Given that learners’ gender, age, and cognitive level can affect their response to different learning instructions, it is given primacy of place in persuasive educational technology (PET) design. However, the effect of gender, age, and cognitive ability on learners’ susceptibility to persuasive strategies did not receive the right attention in the extant literature. To close this gap, we carried out an empirical study among 461 participants to investigate whether learners’ gender, age, and cognitive ability significantly affect learners’ susceptibility to three key persuasive strategies (social learning, reward, and trustworthiness) in PETs. The results of a repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) revealed that people with high cognitive level are more likely to be susceptible to social learning, while people with low cognitive level are more likely to be susceptible to trustworthiness. Comparatively, our results revealed that males are more likely to be susceptible to social learning, while females are more likely to be susceptible to reward and trustworthiness. Furthermore, our results revealed that younger adults are more likely to be susceptible to social learning and reward, while older adults are more likely to be susceptible to trustworthiness. Our findings reveal potential persuasive strategies which designers can employ to personalize PTs to individual users in higher learning based on their susceptibility profile determined by age, gender, and cognitive level.