Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of a New Immunosuppressive and Antimicrobial Peptide, DRS-DA2, Isolated from the Mexican Frog, Pachymedusa dacnicolor

Inflammatory and antimicrobial diseases constitute a major burden for society, and fighting them is a WHO strategic priority. Most of the treatments available to fight inflammatory diseases are anti-inflammatory drugs, such as corticosteroids or immunomodulators that lack cellular specificity and lead to numerous side effects. In addition to suppressing undesired inflammation and reducing disease progression, these drugs lessen the immune system protective functions. Furthermore, treating infectious diseases is more and more challenging due to the rise of microbial resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Thus, controlling the inflammatory process locally without compromising the ability to combat infections is an essential feature in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. We isolated three forms (DRS-DA2N, DRS-DA2NE, and DRS-DA2NEQ) of the same peptide, DRS-DA2, which belongs to the dermaseptin family, from the Mexican tree frog Pachymedusa dacnicolor. Interestingly, DRS-DA2N and DRS-DA2NEQ exhibit a dual activity by inducing the death of leukocytes as well as that of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including multiresistant strains, without affecting other cells such as epithelial cells or erythrocytes. We showed that the death of both immune cells and bacteria is induced rapidly by DRS-DA2 and that the membrane is permeabilized, leading to the loss of membrane integrity. We also validated the capacity of DRS-DA2 to regulate the pool of inflammatory cells in vivo in a mouse model of noninfectious peritonitis. After the induction of peritonitis, a local injection of DRS-DA2N could decrease the number of inflammatory cells locally in the peritoneal cavity without inducing a systemic effect, as no changes in the number of inflammatory cells could be detected in blood or in the bone marrow. Collectively, these data suggest that this peptide could be a promising tool in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory skin diseases, as it could reduce the number of inflammatory cells locally without suppressing the ability to combat infections.
Procedurally Generating Biologically Driven Bird and Non-Avian Dinosaur Feathers

A key element in computer-graphics research is representing the world around us, and immense inspiration may be found in nature. Algorithms and procedural models may be developed that can describe the three-dimensional shape of objects and how they interact with light. This thesis focuses particularly on bird and other dinosaur feathers and their structure. More specifically, it addresses the problem of procedurally generating biologically driven geometry for modeling feathers in computer graphics. As opposed to previously published methods for generated feather geometry, data is derived from a myriad of real-world specimens of feathers and used in creating graphical models of feathers. Modeling feathers is of interest both for media production and also for various fields of research such as ornithology, paleontology, and material science. In order to create realistic, computergraphics feathers, the anatomy of feathers is analyzed in detail with the aim of understanding their structure and variation in order to apply that understanding to modeling. Data concerning the shape of actual feathers was collected and analyzed to drive attribute parameters for modeling accurate synthetic feathers, during which methods for generating geometry informed by the data were investigated. Synthesized image results, capabilities, limitations, and extensions of the developed techniques are presented.
Quadruplex PCR for Phylogenetic Analysis of Uropathogenic Escherichia Coli in Iraqi Population

Background Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) are the most common cause of urinary tract infection (UTI). Clermont and his coworkers recently classified E. coli strains into eight phylogenetic groups using a new quadruplex PCR method. This study aimed to identify the phylogenetic groups of E. coli based on Quadruplex PCR method to detect any of the phylogenetic groups that mainly cause UTIs in the Iraqi population. Method Isolates of Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) and other bacteria are identified by culture media and biochemical test, and then UPEC is subjected to phylogenetic analysis by a quadruplex PCR method. Results Out of 210 urine samples, only 114 (54%) samples have a positive culture for E. coli with a count of 10 5 CFU/mL. The frequency of other bacteria are Enterobacter (24%), Proteus (10%), Pseudomonas (6%), Klebsiella (3%), Citrobacter (2%), and Acinetobacter (1%). In the present study, only seven groups of UPEC are detected and PCR profiles showed most UPEC isolate are related to B2 (42(36.8%)) followed by D (24(21.1%)), A 12((10.5%)), C(13(11.4%)), F (9(8%)), clade1 (8 (7%)), E (3(2.6%)) and unknown (3(2.6%)) but not detected any isolate below to group B1 (0(0%)). In the existing study, most phylogenetic groups were isolated from females and from patients in age groups 2, 3, and 4 (young and adults). Conclusion Only seven phylogenetic groups of UPEC are detected, including A, B2, C, D, E, F, and clade 1. Phylogenetic group B2 was the most common cause of UTI in the Iraqi population. Moreover, most UPEC phylogenetic groups are isolated from young and adult females.
Genomic characterization of Bacillus cereus isolated from food poisoning cases revealed the mechanism of toxin production

Introduction Bacillus cereus is a ubiquitous opportunistic human pathogen that causes food intoxications worldwide. However, the genomic characteristics and pathogenic mechanisms of B. cereus are still unclear. Methods Here, we isolated and purified nine strains of B. cereus (LY01-LY09) that caused vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms from four foodborne outbreaks happened in Guizhou Province in southwest China from June to September 2021. After colony observation, Gram staining, microscopic examination and biochemical test, they were identified as B. cereus. The genomic characteristics, phylogenetic relationships and virulence factors of the isolated strains were analyzed at the genome level. Genome sequencing, comparative genomic analysis, secondary metabolite analysis and quantitative PCR were utilized to give a thorough exploration of the strains. Results We obtained the genome maps of LY01-LY09 and found that LY01-LY09 had a complex interspecific relationship with B. anthracis and B. thuringiensis. We also observed a contraction of gene families in LY01-LY09, and the contracted families were mainly associated with prophage, which contributed to the species diversity of B. cereus. The Hsp20 gene family underwent a rapid evolution in LY01-LY09, which facilitated the adaptation of the strains to adverse environmental conditions. Moreover, the LY01-LY09 strains exhibited a higher copy number in the non-ribosomal polypeptide synthetase (NRPS) genes and carried the complete cereulide synthetase (ces) gene cluster sequences. Considering that the NRPS system is a classical regulatory mechanism for emetic toxin synthesis, we hypothesized that LY01-LY09 could synthesize emetic toxins through the regulation of ces gene clusters by the NRPS system. Discussion These findings are important for further investigation into the evolutionary relationship between B. cereus and their related species, as well as the underlying mechanisms governing the synthesis and secretion of bacterial toxins.
Body Image Affects on Cosmetics Consumption among Young Females in the Greater Helsinki Region

The study was conducted to investigate if there could be a relationship between body image and the consumption of cosmetics. The research sought first to identify the body image and cosmetics consumption among the target population, and then to seek for possible correlations between body image and consumption variables. A foundation for the research was laid out by introducing the Finnish cosmetics market and a variety of body image aspects. The theoretical framework consisted mostly of previous research findings within the area of body image and cosmetics. The empirical research was conducted using a quantitative method. The sample frame consisted of 1926 year old female students in the greater Helsinki region. Data was collected for a purpose of receiving numerical data for statistical and correlation analysis. Statistical measures were used to identify the body image and cosmetics consumption habits among the respondents. Correlation measures were used to explore a possible relationship between body image and cosmetics consumption. The research results indicated that a weak relationship between some aspects of body image and cosmetics consumption was found. Consumption was dominated by coping behavior, which was expressed through cosmetics usage amounts and investment in appearance management. Also a consumer profile for both body image and cosmetics consumption was developed based on statistical findings.
Factors Associated with Poor Glycemic Control among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Miletus in Sana'a City

Objectives : Determine factors associated with poor glycemic control among patients with Type 2 diabetes in Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana'a city. Methods : A systematic random sample of 611 patients was selected from all patients with Type 2 diabetes over a period of 6 months in 2022 (April to October 2022). A restructured questionnaire sought information about sociodemographic, clinical characteristics, self-care management behaviors, medication adherence, barriers to adherence, and attitudes toward diabetes. Weight, height, and waist circumferences were measured. All available last readings of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting blood sugar measurements, and lipids were abstracted from patients' records. Poor glycemic control was defined as HbA1c ≥6.5%. Results : Of the total 611patients, 66.6% had HbA1c ≥6.5%. In the multivariate analysis, increased duration of diabetes (N7 years vs. ≤7years) (OR=1.99, P≤.0005), not following eating plan as recommended by dietitians (OR=2.98, P≤.0005), negative attitude towards diabetes (OR=1.04, P=.020, and increased barriers to adherence scale scores were significantly associated with increased odds of poor glycemic control( OR= 1.02, P=.002). Conclusion : The proportion of patients with poor glycemic control was high, which was comparable to that reported from many previous studies. Longer duration of diabetes and not adherent to diabetes self-care management behaviors were associated with poor glycemic control. Recommendation : An educational program that emphasizes lifestyle modification with the importance of adherence to treatment regimen would be of great benefit in glycemic control
Water Resource Management

IPIECA IPIECA, the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association, was established in 1974. It is a voluntary non-profit organization whose membership includes both petroleum companies and associations at the national, regional and international levels. Separate working groups within IPIECA address global environmental and social issues related to the petroleum industry: oil spill preparedness and response, global climate change, biodiversity, social responsibility, fuel quality and vehicle emissions, and human health. IPIECA also helps members identify new global issues and assesses their potential impact on the oil industry. IPIECA holds formal United Nations status, which allows it access as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to all UN negotiations. The Association represents the views of its members in public fora and provides an interface between the petroleum industry and the United Nations Agencies. IPIECA's goals are to promote good practices and industry consensus through: • Arranging international workshops • Publishing authoritative reports • Providing a channel of communication with the UN • Providing a forum for open dialogue • Facilitating stakeholder engagement • Promoting partnerships
Effects of quality nursing on the surgical site wound infections in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery: A meta‐analysis

Abstract The aim of this study is to systematically evaluate the effects of quality nursing on wound infections and postoperative complications in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. Computerised searches of the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, China Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang databases were conducted from database inception to October 2023 for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on the application of quality nursing to patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. The studies were screened and evaluated by two researchers based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and data were extracted from the included studies. Stata software (version 17.0) was used for all analyses performed. A total of 18 RCTs and 1742 patients were included, including 972 in the quality nursing group and 870 in the routine nursing group. The analysis revealed that compared with routine nursing, patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery who received quality nursing care were significantly less likely to experience postoperative wound infections (OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.19–0.51, p < 0.001) and complications (OR = 0.24. 95% CI: 0.17–0.33, p < 0.001). The implementation of quality nursing in clinical care after cardiothoracic surgery can effectively reduce the incidence of wound infections and postoperative complications, and is worthy of promotion and clinical application.
The dose-dependent effect of caffeine supplementation on performance, reaction time and postural stability in CrossFit – a randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial

ABSTRACT Background Caffeine (CAF) ingestion improves performance in a broad range of exercise tasks. Nevertheless, the CAF-induced, dose-dependent effect on discipline-specific performance and cognitive functions in CrossFit/High-Intensity Functional Training (HIFT) has not been sufficiently investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of acute supplementation of three different doses of CAF and placebo (PLA) on specific performance, reaction time (RTime), postural stability (PStab), heart rate (HR) and perceived exertion (RPE). Methods In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design, acute pre-exercise supplementation with CAF (3, 6, or 9 mg/kg body mass (BM)) and PLA in 26 moderately trained CrossFit practitioners was examined. The study protocol involved five separate testing sessions using the Fight Gone Bad test (FGB) as the exercise performance evaluation and biochemical analyses, HR and RPE monitoring, as well as the assessment of RTime and PStab, with regard to CYP1A2 (rs762551) and ADORA2A (rs5751876) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Results Supplementation of 6 mgCAF/kgBM induced clinically noticeable improvements in FGBTotal results, RTime and pre-exercise motor time. Nevertheless, there were no significant differences between any CAF doses and PLA in FGBTotal, HRmax, HRmean, RPE, pre/post-exercise RTime, PStab variables or pyruvate concentrations. Lactate concentration was higher (p < 0.05) before and after exercise in all CAF doses than in PLA. There was no effect of CYP1A2 or ADORA2A SNPs on performance. Conclusions The dose-dependent effect of CAF supplementation appears to be limited to statistically nonsignificant but clinically considered changes on specific performance, RTime, PStab, RPE or HR. However, regarding practical CAF-induced performance implications in CrossFit/HIFT, 6 mgCAF/kgBM may be supposed as the most rational supplementation strategy.
Horizontal Plane Haptic Redirection: Realizing Haptic Feedback for the Virtual Inclined Plane in VR

Some interactions in virtual environments need to be operated on inclined planes. If a real inclined plane can be found in the real environment that corresponds exactly to the angle of the virtual inclined plane to provide haptic feedback, the user's immersion can be enhanced. However, it is not easy to find such a real inclined plane in the real environment. We proposed a horizontal plane haptic redirection scheme, where users interacting with virtual inclined planes in virtual environments can obtain haptic feelings by using real horizontal planes that are easily available in the real world for redirection mapping. We also designed an integrated solution to locate the real horizontal plane and for haptic redirection based on the Vive Pro headset. Then we measured the angle and size thresholds for horizontal plane haptic redirection as 20° and 88%, respectively, through a user study. Through experiments, we also found that when the degree of redirection exceeded the threshold, the user's operation efficiency would be significantly reduced. In addition, we compared the horizontal plane haptic redirection scheme with the scheme without redirection and the scheme without haptic feedback to demonstrate the validity and necessity of the redirection scheme proposed in this paper.
Photocontrol of the β-Hairpin Polypeptide Structure through an Optimized Azobenzene-Based Amino Acid Analogue

A family of neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s disease (HD) and spinocerebellar ataxias, are associated with an abnormal polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion in mutant proteins that become prone to form amyloid-like aggregates. Prior studies have suggested a key role for β-hairpin formation as a driver of nucleation and aggregation, but direct experimental studies have been challenging. Toward such research, we set out to enable spatiotemporal control over β-hairpin formation by the introduction of a photosensitive β-turn mimic in the polypeptide backbone, consisting of a newly designed azobenzene derivative. The reported derivative overcomes the limitations of prior approaches associated with poor photochemical properties and imperfect structural compatibility with the desired β-turn structure. A new azobenzene-based β-turn mimic was designed, synthesized, and found to display improved photochemical properties, both prior and after incorporation into the backbone of a polyQ polypeptide. The two isomers of the azobenzene-polyQ peptide showed different aggregate structures of the polyQ peptide fibrils, as demonstrated by electron microscopy and solid-state NMR (ssNMR). Notably, only peptides in which the β-turn structure was stabilized (azobenzene in the cis configuration) closely reproduced the spectral fingerprints of toxic, β-hairpin-containing fibrils formed by mutant huntingtin protein fragments implicated in HD. These approaches and findings will enable better deciphering of the roles of β-hairpin structures in protein aggregation processes in HD and other amyloid-related neurodegenerative diseases.
Using Artificial Intelligence for Rheumatic Heart Disease Detection by Echocardiography: Focus on Mitral Regurgitation

Background Identification of children with latent rheumatic heart disease (RHD) by echocardiography, before onset of symptoms, provides an opportunity to initiate secondary prophylaxis and prevent disease progression. There have been limited artificial intelligence studies published assessing the potential of machine learning to detect and analyze mitral regurgitation or to detect the presence of RHD on standard portable echocardiograms. Methods and Results We used 511 echocardiograms in children, focusing on color Doppler images of the mitral valve. Echocardiograms were independently reviewed by an expert adjudication panel. Among 511 cases, 229 were normal, and 282 had RHD. Our automated method included harmonization of echocardiograms to localize the left atrium during systole using convolutional neural networks and RHD detection using mitral regurgitation jet analysis and deep learning models with an attention mechanism. We identified the correct view with an average accuracy of 0.99 and the correct systolic frame with an average accuracy of 0.94 (apical) and 0.93 (parasternal long axis). It localized the left atrium with an average Dice coefficient of 0.88 (apical) and 0.9 (parasternal long axis). Maximum mitral regurgitation jet measurements were similar to expert manual measurements (P value=0.83) and a 9‐feature mitral regurgitation analysis showed an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.93, precision of 0.83, recall of 0.92, and F1 score of 0.87. Our deep learning model showed an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.84, precision of 0.78, recall of 0.98, and F1 score of 0.87. Conclusions Artificial intelligence has the potential to detect RHD as accurately as expert cardiologists and to improve with more data. These innovative approaches hold promise to scale echocardiography screening for RHD.
Multimodal Haptic Feedback for Virtual Collisions Combining Vibrotactile and Electrical Muscle Stimulation

In this paper, we explore the effects of multimodal haptic feedback combining vibrotactile and electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) on expressing virtual collisions. We first present a wearable multimodal haptic device capable of generating both mechanical vibration and EMS stimuli. The two types of haptic stimulus are combined into a haptic rendering method that conveys improved virtual collision sensations. This multimodal rendering method highlights the strengths of each modality while compensating for mutual weaknesses. The multimodal rendering method is compared in subjective quality with two unimodal methods (vibration only and EMS only) by a user study. Experimental results demonstrate that our multimodal feedback method can elicit more realistic, enjoyable, expressive, and preferable user experiences.
Hypoxia promotes non-small cell lung cancer cell stemness, migration, and invasion via promoting glycolysis by lactylation of SOX9

ABSTRACT Background Lung cancer is the deadliest form of malignancy and the most common subtype is non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Hypoxia is a typical feature of solid tumor microenvironment. In the current study, we clarified the effects of hypoxia on stemness and metastasis and the molecular mechanism. Methods The biological functions were assessed using the sphere formation assay, Transwell assay, and XF96 extracellular flux analyzer. The protein levels were detected by western blot. The lactylation modification was assessed by western blot and immunoprecipitation. The role of SOX9 in vivo was explored using a xenografted tumor model. Results We observed that hypoxia promoted sphere formation, migration, invasion, glucose consumption, lactate production, glycolysis, and global lactylation. Inhibition of glycolysis suppressed cell stemness, migration, invasion, and lactylation. Moreover, hypoxia increased the levels of SOX9 and lactylation of SOX9, whereas inhibition of glycolysis reversed the increase. Additionally, knockdown of SOX9 abrogated the promotion of cell stemness, migration, and invasion. In tumor-bearing mice, overexpression of SOX9 promoted tumor growth, and inhibition of glycolysis suppressed tumor growth. Conclusion Hypoxia induced the lactylation of SOX9 to promote stemness, migration, and invasion via promoting glycolysis. The findings suggested that targeting hypoxia may be an effective way for NSCLC treatment and reveal a new mechanism of hypoxia in NSCLC.