Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and Immunological Impacts of Latent Toxoplasmosis on COVID-19 Patients

Background Parasites are well-known immune-modulators. They inhibit some aspects of the immune system to ensure persistence inside the host for a long time; meanwhile, they stimulate other immune aspects to assure the survival of the host. Wide variations in the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among developed and developing countries were reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parasitic infections, including Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), were claimed to contribute to such variations. Methods To explore a possible relationship between latent toxoplasmosis and COVID-19 severity, our study included 44 blood samples from moderate/severe COVID-19 patients, who were admitted to Mansoura University Hospitals, Egypt, during the pandemic. Patients’ sera were screened for Toxoplasma IgG antibodies using ELISA (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, USA), and the gene expression of important immune markers (iNOS, arginase-1, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, and TGF-β) was checked using real-time quantitative PCR. Clinical and laboratory data were obtained from the patients’ medical records. Results Toxoplasma IgG antibodies were detected in 33 (75%) of patients. None of the studied clinical or laboratory parameters showed any significant changes in relation to toxoplasmosis seroprevalence. Further classification of the patients according to COVID-19 severity and Toxoplasma seroprevalence did not reveal any changes related to toxoplasmosis as well. Conclusion Our study indicates that latent toxoplasmosis has no effect on the severity of COVID-19.
Lentinula edodes Cultured Extract and Rouxiella badensis subsp. acadiensis (Canan SV-53) Intake Alleviates Immune Deregulation and Inflammation by Modulating Signaling Pathways and Epigenetic Mechanisms

Puberty is a critical developmental period of life characterized by marked physiological changes, including changes in the immune system and gut microbiota development. Exposure to inflammation induced by immune stressors during puberty has been found to stimulate central inflammation and lead to immune disturbance at distant sites from the gut; however, its enduring effects on gut immunity are not well explored. Therefore, in this study, we used a pubertal lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced inflammation mouse model to mimic pubertal exposure to inflammation and dysbiosis. We hypothesized that pubertal LPS-induced inflammation may cause long-term dysfunction in gut immunity by enduring dysregulation of inflammatory signaling and epigenetic changes, while prebiotic/probiotic intake may mitigate the gut immune system deregulation later in life. To this end, four-week-old female Balb/c mice were fed prebiotics/probiotics and exposed to LPS in the pubertal window. To better decipher the acute and enduring immunoprotective effects of biotic intake, we addressed the effect of treatment on interleukin (IL)-17 signaling related-cytokines and pathways. In addition, the effect of treatment on gut microbiota and epigenetic alterations, including changes in microRNA (miRNA) expression and DNA methylation, were studied. Our results revealed a significant dysregulation in selected cytokines, proteins, and miRNAs involved in key signaling pathways related to IL-17 production and function, including IL-17A and F, IL-6, IL-1β, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3), p-STAT3, forkhead box O1 (FOXO1), and miR-145 in the small intestine of adult mice challenged with LPS during puberty. In contrast, dietary interventions mitigated the lasting adverse effects of LPS on gut immune function, partly through epigenetic mechanisms. A DNA methylation analysis demonstrated that enduring changes in gut immunity in adult mice might be linked to differentially methylated genes, including Lpb, Rorc, Runx1, Il17ra, Rac1, Ccl5, and Il10, involved in Th17 cell differentiation and IL-17 production and signaling. In addition, prebiotic administration prevented LPS-induced changes in the gut microbiota in pubertal mice. Together, these results indicate that following a healthy diet rich in prebiotics and probiotics is an optimal strategy for programming immune system function in the critical developmental windows of life and controlling inflammation later in life.
THE ROLE OF SHOPPING CENTERS AS SIMULATED PUBLIC SPACE: THE SHOPPING CENTER CENTRO MAYOR, BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

Public space is in an integral part of the cultural richness of cities, and an essential element in the functioning of a democratic society. Made up of the networks of streets, sidewalks, parks and plazas, public space is what makes urban centers living entities. Though its importance is consistently recognized around the world, public space in Latin America has held a special role in society. In the context of Colombia, the role of public space has been shaped not only by its function as a gathering space for citizens, but it has been marked by decades of armed conflict. It was in this context in Colombia that the construction of major shopping malls emerged, becoming an increasingly important part of the commercial sector of Colombian cities, and, according to some authors, providing an alternative â€˜public' space in which citizens could gather. This study, through a review of the literature and a survey, summarizes some of the changes that have occurred in the urban public realm of Bogota in the past decades, and hypothesizes the role that major commercial centers are playing in the daily lives of the city's residents.
Prenylated Proteins: Structural Diversity and Functions

The cell membranes consist of lipid bilayers that are semipermeable. The semipermeable nature enables the cell membranes to regulate the transport of materials entering and exiting the cell. Apart from providing protection and a fixed environment to the cell, the cell membrane has several functions. The covalently linked proteins to lipids on the surface of the cell membranes are the Lipid-anchored proteins. The function of the protein to which the lipid is attached depends on the type of the lipid. Prenylated proteins, fatty acylated proteins, and glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked proteins (GPI) are the three main types of lipid-anchored proteins on the cell membrane. In particular, the prenylated proteins are very important for cell growth, differentiation, and morphology. The dynamic interaction of prenylated proteins with the cell membrane is important for their signaling functions and is often deregulated in disease processes, such as cancer. An understanding of the prenylated proteins and their mechanisms is important for drug development efforts to combat cancer.
How Birds Migrate

How Birds Migrate Paul Kerlinger Information on migratory flight patterns, flight speed and distance, travel seasons, calls of migrating birds, and more. Fly Away Home: A Novel ● The Academic Job Search Handbook ● Mastering JavaScript ● The Great Game in Cuba: CIA and the Cuban Revolution ● El origen de la hermenéutica de sí: Conferencias de Dartmouth, 1980 (Biblioteca Clásica de Siglo ● Veintiuno) (Spanish Edition) Conspiracy Theories: The Roots, Themes and Propagation of Paranoid Political and Cultural Narratives ● The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank's Window ● Wicked Pissed: New England's Most Famous Feuds ● A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland ● (Great Lakes Books Series) Sissie: A Novel ● Visionary Pragmatism: Radical and Ecological Democracy in Neoliberal Times ● A Mysterious Life and Calling: From Slavery to Ministry in South Carolina (Wisconsin Studies in ● Autobiography) Metabolic Phenotyping in Personalized and Public Healthcare ● Seeing Through the Eye: Malcolm Muggeridge on Faith ● Affluenza ● Us versus Them: The United States, Radical Islam, and the Rise of the Green Threat ● Islam and Popular Culture ● Ubuntu: One Woman's Motorcycle Odyssey Across Africa ● Fascinators: 25 Stylish Accessories to Top Off Your Look ● CLEP French ●
Musical Creation Process and Digital Technology: ”the Supra-Instrumental Gesture”

Considering artistic creation as an emblematic enactive process and the artistic creation process as deeply linked with technology, we propose a conceptual framework allowing to give signification to the concept of artistic creation tool in the context of digital technology. We start from a very simple (theoretical) situation, which is a kind of primordial musical instrumental experience where we characterize the main phases of the creation process under an enactive point of view. Then, we discuss briefly some needs to which technology evolution brought certain solutions and the new functionalities it introduced. After that, entering in the “new technology” era we show in what the introduction of the digital technology in the field of artistic creation is not simply an evolution but, though not yet accomplished, a deep revolution. Finally, through a brief presentation of our own research and its correlated musical creation activity in the laboratory, we introduce two important concepts: the first concerns the use of the mass-interaction physical modeling paradigm for the musical macrostructure creation, the second, closely related, is that of “Supra-Instrumental Gesture”. Both correspond, in the case of musical creation, to an extension of the enaction point of view from the multisensory-motricity level to the scale of musical composition.
Pore‐Scale Modeling of Coupled CO2 Flow and Dissolution in 3D Porous Media for Geological Carbon Storage

Dissolution trapping is one of the crucial trapping mechanisms for geological carbon storage in deep saline aquifers. The injected supercritical CO2 (scCO2) flow and dissolution processes are coupled and interact with each other. Therefore, we performed direct numerical simulations in three‐dimensional micro‐CT images of sandstones using the volume of fluid and continuous species transfer method. We investigated the coupled scCO2 flow and dissolution processes at pore‐scale under different rock structures, capillary numbers, and rock wettability conditions. The dynamic evolution of the scCO2/brine phase distribution and scCO2 concentration distribution occurring during the injection period were presented and analyzed. Complicated coupling mechanisms between scCO2‐brine two‐phase flow and interphase mass transfer were also revealed. Our results showed that the scCO2 dissolution was highly dependent on the local distribution of scCO2 clusters. The rock with relatively high porosity and permeability would have more capacity for scCO2 injection resulting in a faster and greater dissolution of scCO2 in brine. The effect of capillary number on the scCO2 dissolution process was related to the range of capillary number. The effective upscaled (macro‐scale) mass transfer coefficient (kA) during scCO2 dissolution was evaluated, and the power‐law relationship between kA and Péclet number was obtained. Rock wettability was found to be another factor controlling the scCO2 dissolution process by affecting the scCO2‐brine interfacial area. Our pore‐scale study provides a deep understanding of the scCO2 dissolution trapping mechanism, which is important to enhance the prediction of sequestration risk and improve sequestration efficiency.
Unstable slippage across a fault that separates elastic media of different elastic constants

In this paper it is demonstrated that relatively slow, quasi-static slippage on a fault that separates two half spaces of different elastic constants can become unstable if the slippage is governed by the Amontons-Coulomb friction law (the shear stress across a fault required for slipping motion is proportional to the normal compressive stress across the fault). If the two half spaces have identical properties, unstable slippage is not possible under this friction law. The unstable slippage that is investigated in this paper is a consequence of the existence of a short-range normal traction stress that gliding edge dislocations produce across an interface between two half spaces of different elastic constants, This normal traction stress does not exist if the two half spaces have identical properties. (Recent work of Dundurs and Comninou and their co-workers has revealed the importance of the short-range traction stress components to crack problems.)
Forest ecosystem research in Hainich National Park (Thuringia): first results on flora and vegetatio

A floristic description is presented of the study sites of the Research Training Group “The role of biodiversity for biogeochemical cycles and biotic interactions in temperate deciduous forests”. To investigate different aspects of plant biodiversity in Hainich National Park (Thuringia), deciduous forest stands with low, medium and high canopy tree species diversity were compared. The results of species richness and forest communities show that the research sites are characterised by a typical central European forest flora. Greater vascular plant species richness occurs with higher diversity of tree species. Six of altogether twelve research sites are assigned to the beech forest alliance (G a l i o o d o r a t i – F a g i o n), the second half belongs to the oak-hornbeam forest alliance (C a r p i n i o n b e t u l i). Suballiances within the G a l i o o d o r a t i – F a g i o n in the study area include the G a l i o – F a g e t u m and the H o r d e l y m o – F a g e t u m. All C a r p i n i o n b e t u l i relevées are assigned to the suballiance S t e l l a r i o – C a r p i n e t u m.
Physiological and Cellular Ultrastructural Responses of Sesuvium portulacastrum under Cd Stress Grown Hydroponically

This study aimed to investigate the physiological and cellular mechanisms of Sesuvium portulacastrum under heavy metal stress to evaluate possible tolerance and adaptation mechanisms in a metal-polluted environment. The physiological and cellular ultrastructural responses of S. portulacastrum were studied hydroponically under exposure to a range of cadmium (Cd) concentrations (50 µM to 600 µM) for 28 days. The activity of antioxidant enzymes like catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD), changes in chlorophyll, and cellular ultrastructural content were examined. There was no significant difference in chlorophyll content in the leaf under the stress of 300 μM, but 400 μM and 600 μM Cd stress showed significantly decreased chlorophyll content. The SOD activity indicates an increase under the Cd stress of 100 μM for leaves, 300 μM for stems, and 50 μM for roots; after that, the SOD activity gradually decreased with increasing Cd concentrations. But POD activity was considerably increased with increasing Cd stress. CAT activity showed a gradual increase in concentrations until 300 μM of Cd stress and then decreased sharply in roots, stems, and leaf tissues. Cd stress had a considerable impact on the structure of the roots, stems, and leaves cells, such as distorted and thinner cell walls and the deformation of chloroplasts, mitochondria, and other organelles. Therefore, the increased number of nucleolus in the cell nucleus suggests that cells may be able to maintain their protein synthesis in a stressful environment. This study concludes that SOD is the dominant antioxidant enzyme activity during low Cd toxicity (<100 μM), while POD is the dominant enzyme activity during higher Cd toxicity (>100 μM).
New insights into the reading of Paleozoic plant fossil record discontinuities

Studying the discontinuity patterns of Paleozoic vascular plants provides a global vision of these key events from the multivariate methods viewpoint. Non-metric multidimensional scaling, detrended correspondence analysis and cluster analysis have been employed together with a set of diversity and abundance measures and an evaluation of the geologic constraints from the plant fossil record data. The results reveal four clear significant discontinuities in terms of taxonomic composition and record representativeness during the early-middle Devonian, Devonian–Carboniferous, Mississippian–Pennsylvanian and early-late Permian. Due to the controversial character of the plant fossil record data and the effect of mass extinction events, the results can be explained in taxonomic turnover and ecological reorganisation terms which emphasise the crucial role of the geologic constrains in paleobiological inference.
Elevated foraminifera‐bound nitrogen isotopic composition during the last ice age in the South China Sea and its global and regional implications

We report a new foraminifera‐boundδ15N (FB‐δ15N) record from the South China Sea (SCS) extending back to 42 ka. This record shows a ∼1.2‰ glacial‐to‐interglacialδ15N decrease, with a deglacial δ15N maximum similar to that observed in many bulk sedimentary δ15N records and in a Caribbean FB‐δ15N record. The glacial‐to‐interglacialδ15N decrease is smaller than in the Caribbean record, indicating that at least half of the Caribbean δ15N decrease into the Holocene was regional, not global, supporting the interpretation of a Holocene increase in Atlantic nitrogen fixation. At the same time, the glacial‐to‐interglacialδ15N decrease observed in the SCS may also be explained as a regional signal of increasing nitrogen fixation into the Holocene. Other aspects of the SCS record suggest an effect of physical circulation on FB‐δ15N. FB‐δ15N starts to increase toward its deglacial maximum before the last ice age ends, and it continues to decrease through the later Holocene, in contrast to the more pure glacial/deglacial/interglacial steps in the Caribbean record. These changes have parallels in other Pacific δ15N records, precessionally driven East Asian monsoon records, and the slow Holocene warming of SCS surface waters. In addition, the SCS record exhibits two one‐point high‐δ15N spikes in multiple foraminiferal species that coincide with apparent hydrographic events. Thinning or weakening of the thermocline, in the late glacial and early Holocene as well as during the noted events, may have yielded a higher δ15N for thermocline nitrate and thus a higher FB‐δ15N.
Effect of density on electrical conductivity of chemically laden polar ice

[1] Electrical conductivity measurements made using the dielectric profiling technique (DEP) are compared to chemical data from the top 350 m of the Dome C ice core in Antarctica. The chemical data are used to calculate the concentration of the major acidic impurities in the core: sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid. The conductivity coefficients in solid ice for sulphuric acid (βH2SO4) and hydrochloric acid (βHCl) are found to be 4.9 and 4.5 S m−1M−1. These are consistent with previously found values for the acid conductivity coefficient at different sites and suggest that the same conductivity mechanisms are important in all polar ice. A method of rolling regression analysis is used to find the variation of the pure ice conductivity (σ∞ pure) and the conductivity coefficient of sulphuric acid, βH2SO4, with depth. Then σ∞ pure and βH2SO4are assessed against changes in core density and hence volume fraction of ice, v, due to the inclusion of air bubbles in the firn. Looyenga's model for dielectric mixtures applied to conduction in firn broadly predicts the variation observed in σ∞ purebut does not fit well for ice above 110 m. A previous application of the theory of percolation in random lattices is used to model the conductivity coefficient in firn. The coefficient βH2SO4 is linked to vby the power law: βH2SO4(v) ∝ βH2SO4(1) (v − vc)t; where vc is a threshold volume fraction below which no conduction can take place and is related to the geometry of the conducting lattice being modeled. The value of the exponent tis also dependent on the structure of the lattice and is here found to be t = 2.5, which is slightly lower than the previously obtained value of t = 2.7 for a structure where each grain has between 14 and 16 nearest neighbors. This model is consistent with the concept of conduction, via liquid H2SO4, taking place at two grain boundaries for firn. The model does not, however, preclude conduction taking place via acid situated at three grain boundaries or in an interconnected vein network at densities above 640 kg m−3.
Sea surface temperature–induced cyclogenesis in the Antarctic circumpolar wave

[1] An Antarctic circumpolar wave (ACW) of 3- to-4-year period propagated eastward around the Southern Ocean in covarying sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies from 1983 through 1992, composed of two wavelengths that circled most of the global ocean along the midlatitude storm track near 40°S. In this ACW, positive SST anomalies drove upward latent heat flux, positive precipitation (PCP), and mid to upper level diabatic heating anomalies in the troposphere, the latter balanced principally by the cooling tendency from deep convection (White and Chen, 2002). One hypothesis has the anomalous PCP and deep convection in this ACW arising from that in more frequent and/or stronger extratropical cyclones in the synoptic storm aggregate. Here we verify this hypothesis, finding negative SLP anomalies in this ACW collocated with positive extratropical cyclone intensity (ECI) and extratropical cyclone density (ECD) anomalies in the annual synoptic storm aggregate. Because individual extratropical cyclones are 3 to 4 times smaller than SLP anomalies in the ACW, their density and intensity appear to be modulated by anomalous zonal SST gradients in the ACW. These results are corroborated by finding greater interannual PCP anomalies over southeast Australia collocated with positive SST anomalies, occurring on the eastern side of covarying negative SLP and positive ECI and ECD anomalies in the ACW along the mid-latitude storm track. Because positive interannual PCP anomalies over southeast Australia derive from the integral of rainfall from more dense and/or intense extratropical cyclones in the aggregate, the same is true for the ACW propagating eastward along the midlatitude storm track over the remainder of the Southern Ocean.
Oblique convergence and deformation along the Kuril and Japan Trenches

The hypothesis that present-day deformation within the southern Kuril forearc is driven by oblique subduction of the Pacific plate is tested using 397 horizontal slip directions derived from shallow-thrust earthquakes from the Kuril and Japan trenches for the period 1963–1991. A simple two-plate model fits the 397 slip vectors significantly worse than a model that permits strike-slip motion of the southern Kuril forearc relative to the overlying plate. Weighted, mean slip directions along the southern Kuril trench are systematically rotated toward the direction orthogonal to the trench, which implies that the net convergence is partitioned into less oblique subduction and trench-parallel displacement of the southern Kuril forearc. The angular discrepancy between the observed slip direction and the direction predicted by the NUVEL-1 Pacific-North America Euler vector implies that the southern Kuril forearc translates 6–11 mm yr−1 to the southwest relative to the overlying North American plate. These results are consistent with geologically, geodetically, and seismologically observed convergence at the leading edge of the forearc sliver in southern Hokkaido and with previously inferred extension at the trailing edge of the sliver, which is located at the Bussol Strait at 46°N. The percentage of the oblique component of the rigid plate convergence vector that is transferred into forearc strike-slip motion is only 30%, which may be evidence that the Hokkaido/Honshu bend in the trench hinders southwest forearc motion or that the greater strength of oceanic forearcs impedes motion along forearc strike-slip faults.