Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plant Stage, Not Drought Stress, Determines the Effect of Cultivars on Bacterial Community Diversity in the Rhizosphere of Broomcorn Millet (Panicum miliaceum L.)

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is one of the oldest domesticated crops and has been grown in arid and semiarid areas in China since 10,000 cal. BP. However, limited information is available about how bacterial communities within the rhizosphere of different broomcorn millet cultivars respond to drought stress. Here, we characterized the changes in the rhizobacterial assemblages of two broomcorn millet cultivars, namely, P. miliaceum cv. HeQu Red (HQR) and P. miliaceum YanLi 10 (YL10), from the jointing stage to the grain filling stage after they were exposed to a short-term drought stress treatment at the seedling stage. Drought significantly inhibited the growth of both cultivars, but the effect on YL10 was higher than that on HQR, indicating that the drought tolerance of HQR was greater than that of YL10. Proteobacteria (33.8%), Actinobacteria (21.0%), Acidobacteria (10.7%), Bacteroidetes (8.2%), Chloroflexi (6.3%), Gemmatimonadetes (5.9%), Firmicutes (3.5%), Verrucomicrobia (2.9%), and Planctomycetes (2.7%) were the core bacterial components of broomcorn millet rhizosphere as suggested by 16S rDNA sequencing results. The diversity and composition of bacterial rhizosphere communities substantially varied at different developmental stages of broomcorn millet. As the plants matured, the richness and evenness of the rhizobacterial community significantly decreased. Principal coordinate analysis showed that the structure of the bacterial rhizosphere community changed notably only at the flowering stage between the two cultivars, suggesting a stage-dependent effect. Although drought stress had no significant effect on the diversity and structure of the bacterial rhizosphere community between the two cultivars, differential responses to drought was found in Actinobacteria and Acinetobacter, Lysobacter, Streptomyces, and Cellvibrio. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Lysobacter, Streptomyces, and Cellvibrio in the YL10 rhizosphere was stimulated by the drought treatment compared with that in the HQR rhizosphere, whereas the opposite effect was found in Acinetobacter. Our results suggested that the effects of cultivars on bacterial rhizosphere communities were highly dependent on plant developmental stage, reflecting the genetic variations in the two broomcorn millet cultivars.
IntersectingRace andGenderCues areAssociatedwithPerceptions of GayMen ’ s Preferred Sexual Roles

Preferences for anal sex roles (top/bottom) are an important aspect of gay male identity, but scholars have only recently begun to explore the factors that covary with these preferences. Here, we argue that the gendered nature of both racialstereotypes(i.e.,Blackmenaremasculine,Asianmenare feminine) and sexual role stereotypes (i.e., tops are masculine, bottoms are feminine) link the categoriesAsian/bottomand the categories Black/top.We provide empirical evidence for these claims at three levels of analysis: At the cultural level based upongaymen’sstereotypicbeliefsaboutothers (Study1),at the interpersonal levelbasedupongaymen’sperceptionsofothers’ sexual role preferences (Study 2), and at the intrapersonal level based upon racially diversemen’s self-reported sexual roles on a public hookup website (Study 3). These studies offer the first systematic evidence of linkages between race categories and sexual roles in gay male communities.
Constrained Stochastic State Estimation for 3D Shape Reconstruction of Catheters and Guidewires in Fluoroscopic Images

Minimally invasive fluoroscopy-based procedures are the gold standard for diagnosis and treatment of various pathologies of the cardiovascular system. This kind of procedures imply for the clinicians to infer the 3D shape of the device from 2D images, which is known to be an ill-posed problem. In this paper we present a method to reconstruct the 3D shape of the interventional device, with the aim of improving the navigation. The method combines a physics-based simulation with non-linear Bayesian filter. Whereas the physics-based model provides a prediction of the shape of the device navigating within the blood vessels (taking into account non-linear interactions between the catheter and the surrounding anatomy), an Unscented Kalman Filter is used to correct the navigation model using 2D image features as external observations. The proposed framework has been evaluated on both synthetic and real data, under different model parameterization, filter parameters tuning and external observations data-sets. Comparing the reconstructed 3D shape with a known ground truth, for the synthetic data-set, we obtained an average 3D Hausdorff distance of 0.07 ± 0.37 mm; the 3D distance at the tip equal to 0.021 ± 0.009 mm and the 3D mean distance at the distal segment of the catheter equal to 0.02 ± 0.008 mm. For the real data-set, the obtained average 3D Hausdorff Distance was of 0.95 ± 0.35 mm, the average 3D distance at the tip is equal to 0.7 ± 0.45 mm with an average 3D mean distance at the distal segment of 0.7 ± 0.46 mm. These results show the ability of our method to retrieve the 3D shape of the device, under a variety of filter parameterizations and challenging conditions: errors on the friction coefficient, ambiguous views and non-linear complex phenomena such as stick and slip motions.
Clinical course and prognostic factors in patients with low back pain and disability : a methodological

Introduction Limited knowledge of the causes of low back pain (LBP) (box 1) and how chronic LBP and disability develops has probably contributed to a negative trend of poor interventions, increasing disability and costs due to LBP. Waddell (1) and other back pain researchers (2) have claimed that the failure to distinguish between pain and disability might explain some of the poor effectiveness of most treatment interventions. Most clinicians have acted as if disability is caused by pain and ignored that pain and disability are both conceptually and clinically different. A pain experience is always subjective and involves several components such as localization, quality and intensity, but also affective and behavioural components (3) (box 2). For example, LBP is, for many patients, an intense and overwhelming experience that is closely associated with fear and anxiety responses, psychological distress and avoidance behaviour (4,5). The relationship between pain, impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions in the context of LBP is not straightforward. Neither pain nor different impairment factors can explain the magnitude of activity limitations or work restrictions (5). The report of LBP and the seeking of health care are influenced by a range of psychological variables such as cognitions (e.g., Clinical course and prognostic factors in patients with low back pain and disability:
Orientation and size dependence of the elastic properties of zinc oxide nanobelts

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to characterize the response of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanobelts to tensile loading. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and Young’s modulus are obtained as functions of size and growth orientation. Nanobelts in three growth orientations are generated by assembling the unit wurtzite cell along the [0001], , and crystalline axes. Following the geometric construction, dynamic relaxation is carried out to yield free-standing nanobelts at 300 K. Two distinct configurations are observed in the [0001] and orientations. When the lateral dimensions are above 10 Å, nanobelts with rectangular cross-sections are seen. Below this critical size, tubular structures involving two concentric shells similar to double-walled carbon nanotubes are obtained. Quasi-static deformations of belts with and orientations consist of three stages, including initial elastic stretching, wurtzite-ZnO to graphitic-ZnO structural transformation, and cleavage fracture. On the other hand, [0001] belts do not undergo any structural transformation and fail through cleavage along (0001) planes. Calculations show that the UTS and Young’s modulus of the belts are size dependent and are higher than the corresponding values for bulk ZnO. Specifically, as the lateral dimensions increase from 10 to 40 Å, decreases between 38–76% and 24–63% are observed for the UTS and Young’s modulus, respectively. This effect is attributed to the size-dependent compressive stress induced by tensile surface stress in the nanobelts. and nanobelts with multi-walled tubular structures are seen to have higher values of elastic moduli (∼340 GPa) and UTS (∼36 GPa) compared to their wurtzite counterparts, echoing a similar trend in multi-walled carbon nanotubes.
Molecular characterization of Aedes, Culex, Anopheles, and Armigeres vector mosquitoes inferred by mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene sequence analysis

The current epidemics of vector-borne diseases in tropical countries, especially in India, have extended the need for a comprehensive understanding of the distribution of epidemiologically important vector mosquitoes. The advanced developments in genomic research including phylogenetic studies will empower the molecular studies that are vital to determine the genetic divergence and evolutionary history of mosquito vectors. The use of the cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI) gene-based approaches to outline the interrelationship of vector mosquitoes from different genera could also elucidate the obscurity that has risen from improper taxonomical classification. The mosquitoes were collected from Nelliyampathy, Kerala, India and identified using systematic keys and catalogues. The genomic DNA of the mosquitoes was extracted using NucleoSpin® Tissue Kit and PCR amplification of the mitochondrial COI gene was accomplished by using the following primers: Forward 5′- GGTCAACAAATCATAAAGATATTGG-3′ and reverse 5′- TAAACTTCAGGGTGACCAAAAAATCA-3′. The genetic divergence was assessed by means of the NJ-K2P method. The neighbor-joining tree was constructed using the MEGA7 software. The diversity of mosquitoes was estimated using the Shannon index through SPSS and Venn diagram plotter. The COI gene-based mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed distinct clustering of individual mosquito species within every genus together with strong bootstrap support. In total, our investigation productively identified and confirmed the interrelationship between the COI gene sequences of ten epidemiologically important mosquito species. This study also discusses the substantial evidence of mosquito species complex formation. Our findings offer a base for future research which is essential for the better understanding of mosquito phylogeny and shed light upon, a novel vector control strategy.
Assessment of eight nucleic acid amplification technologies for potential use to detect infectious agents in low-resource settings

Nucleic acid amplification technologies (NAATs) are high-performance tools for rapidly and accurately detecting infectious agents. They are widely used in high-income countries to diagnose disease and improve patient care. The complexities associated with test methods, reagents, equipment, quality control and assurance require dedicated laboratories with trained staff, which can exclude their use in low-resource and decentralized healthcare settings. For certain diseases, fully integrated NAAT devices and assays are available for use in environmentally-controlled clinics or emergency rooms where relatively untrained staff can perform testing. However, decentralized settings in many low- and middle-income countries with large burdens of infectious disease are challenged by extreme environments, poor infrastructure, few trained staff and limited financial resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need for low-cost, integrated NAAT tools specifically designed for use in low-resource settings (LRS). Two essential components of integrated NAAT tools are: 1) efficient nucleic acid extraction technologies for diverse and complex sample types; and 2) robust and sensitive nucleic acid amplification and detection technologies. In prior work we reported the performance and workflow capacity for the nucleic acid extraction component. In the current study we evaluated performance of eight novel nucleic acid amplification and detection technologies from seven developers using blinded panels of RNA and/or DNA from three pathogens to assess both diagnostic accuracy and suitability as an essential component for low-cost NAAT in LRS. In this exercise, we noted significant differences in performance among these technologies and identified those most promising for potential further development.
Machine Learning Predicts Pathologic Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for ER+HER2- Breast Cancer: Integrating Tumoral and Peritumoral MRI Radiomic Features

Background: This study aimed to predict pathologic complete response (pCR) in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for ER+HER2- locally advanced breast cancer (LABC), a subtype with limited treatment response. Methods: We included 265 ER+HER2- LABC patients (2010–2020) with pre-treatment MRI, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and confirmed pathology. Using data from January 2016, we divided them into training and validation cohorts. Volumes of interest (VOI) for the tumoral and peritumoral regions were segmented on preoperative MRI from three sequences: T1-weighted early and delayed contrast-enhanced sequences and T2-weighted fat-suppressed sequence (T2FS). We constructed seven machine learning models using tumoral, peritumoral, and combined texture features within and across the sequences, and evaluated their pCR prediction performance using AUC values. Results: The best single sequence model was SVM using a 1 mm tumor-to-peritumor VOI in the early contrast-enhanced phase (AUC = 0.9447). Among the combinations, the top-performing model was K-Nearest Neighbor, using 1 mm tumor-to-peritumor VOI in the early contrast-enhanced phase and 3 mm peritumoral VOI in T2FS (AUC = 0.9631). Conclusions: We suggest that a combined machine learning model that integrates tumoral and peritumoral radiomic features across different MRI sequences can provide a more accurate pretreatment pCR prediction for neoadjuvant chemotherapy in ER+HER2- LABC.
Structure of Fission Yeast Transcription Factor Pho7 Bound to pho1 Promoter DNA and Effect of Pho7 Mutations on DNA Binding and Phosphate Homeostasis

Pho7 is the Schizosaccharomyces pombe fission yeast Zn2Cys6 transcriptional factor that drives a response to phosphate starvation in which phosphate acquisition genes are upregulated. Here we report a crystal structure at 1.6-Å resolution of the Pho7 DNA-binding domain (DBD) bound at its target site 2 in the pho1 promoter (5′-TCGGAAATTAAAAA). ABSTRACT Pho7 is the Schizosaccharomyces pombe fission yeast Zn2Cys6 transcriptional factor that drives a response to phosphate starvation in which phosphate acquisition genes are upregulated. Here we report a crystal structure at 1.6-Å resolution of the Pho7 DNA-binding domain (DBD) bound at its target site 2 in the pho1 promoter (5′-TCGGAAATTAAAAA). Comparison to the previously reported structure of Pho7 DBD in complex with its binding site in the tgp1 promoter (5′-TCGGACATTCAAAT) reveals shared determinants of target site specificity as well as variations in the protein-DNA interface that accommodate different promoter DNA sequences. Mutagenesis of Pho7 amino acids at the DNA interface identified nucleobase contacts at the periphery of the footprint that are essential for the induction of pho1 expression in response to phosphate starvation and for Pho7 binding to site 1 in the pho1 promoter.
Fabrications of the Flexible Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensors Using Au-CuO-rGO and Au-CuO-rGO-MWCNTs Nanocomposites as Carriers

A flexible, non-enzymatic glucose sensor was developed and tested on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The sensor’s design involved printing Ag (silver) as the electrode and utilizing mixtures of either gold–copper oxide-modified reduced graphene oxide (Au-CuO-rGO) or gold–copper oxide-modified reduced graphene oxide-multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Au-CuO-rGO-MWCNTs) as the carrier materials. A one-pot synthesis method was employed to create a nanocomposite material, consisting of Au-CuO-rGO mixtures, which was then printed onto pre-prepared flexible electrodes. The impact of different weight ratios of MWCNTs (0~75 wt%) as a substitute for rGO was also investigated on the sensing characteristics of Au-CuO-rGO-MWCNTs glucose sensors. The fabricated electrodes underwent various material analyses, and their sensing properties for glucose in a glucose solution were measured using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The LSV measurement results showed that increasing the proportion of MWCNTs improved the sensor’s sensitivity for detecting low concentrations of glucose. However, it also led to a significant decrease in the upper detection limit for high-glucose concentrations. Remarkably, the research findings revealed that the electrode containing 60 wt% MWCNTs demonstrated excellent sensitivity and stability in detecting low concentrations of glucose. At the lowest concentration of 0.1 μM glucose, the nanocomposites with 75 wt% MWCNTs showed the highest oxidation peak current, approximately 5.9 μA. On the other hand, the electrode without addition of MWCNTs displayed the highest detection limit (approximately 1 mM) and an oxidation peak current of about 8.1 μA at 1 mM of glucose concentration.
Adaptive Routing Optimization Algorithm in Community-Oriented Opportunistic Networks for Mobile Health

The appearance of a large number of mobile intelligent devices boosts the fast rise of mobile health (mHealth) application. However, due to the sensitivity and complexity of medical data, an efficient and secure mobile communication mode is a very difficult and challenging task in mHealth. The Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) is self-organizing and can expand the communication capacity by the movement of nodes, so it has a good prospect in the application of mHealth. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of stable and reliable end-to-end links, the routing protocol in OppNets has usually lower performance and is unsafe. To address these issues, we propose an adaptive routing optimization algorithm in OppNets for mHealth. This routing scheme firstly analyzes the relationship between nodes and defines the average message forwarding delay as a new metric to selectively forward messages, and then designs a local community detection algorithm based on the metric to adapt to the characteristics of OppNets, and finally resorts to some super-nodes to ferry messages between different communication domains. The simulation results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed scheme. It increases the delivery ratio by about 30%, decreases delay by about 35%, and decreases the number of forwarding by about 5%, by comparing it with several existing routing schemes. We believe that the relationship between nodes, community, and message ferrying will play an important role in routing of OppNets for mHealth.
Fabrication and Applications of Solid-State Nanopores

Nanopores fabricated from synthetic materials (solid-state nanopores), platforms for characterizing biological molecules, have been widely studied among researchers. Compared with biological nanopores, solid-state nanopores are mechanically robust and durable with a tunable pore size and geometry. Solid-state nanopores with sizes as small as 1.3 nm have been fabricated in various films using engraving techniques, such as focused ion beam (FIB) and focused electron beam (FEB) drilling methods. With the demand of massively parallel sensing, many scalable fabrication strategies have been proposed. In this review, typical fabrication technologies for solid-state nanopores reported to date are summarized, with the advantages and limitations of each technology discussed in detail. Advanced shrinking strategies to prepare nanopores with desired shapes and sizes down to sub-1 nm are concluded. Finally, applications of solid-state nanopores in DNA sequencing, single molecule detection, ion-selective transport, and nanopatterning are outlined.
Evaluation of the Effect of a Tracheal Stent on Radiation Dose Distribution via Micro-CT Imaging

Purpose: To study the effect of a metal tracheal stent on radiation dose distribution. Method: A metal tube bracket is placed in a self-made foam tube sleeve, and micro-computed tomography scanning is performed directly. The foam sleeve containing the metal bracket is placed in a nonuniform phantom for a routine computed tomography scan. The stents in conventional computed tomography images are replaced by the stents in micro-computed tomography images. Subsequently, 2 sets of computed tomography images are obtained and then imported to a radiotherapy treatment planning system. A single photon beam at 0° is designed in a field size of 10 cm × 10 cm, a photon beam of 6 MV, and a monitor unit of 200 MU. Monte Carlo algorithm is used to calculate the dose distribution and obtain the dose curve of the central axis of the field. The dose is verified with thermoluminescence dose tablets. Results: The micro-computed tomography images of the tracheal stent are clearer and less false-like than its conventional computed tomography images. The planned dose curves of the 2 groups are similar. In comparison with the images without any stents in place, the doses at the incident surface of the stent in the conventional computed tomography images and at the stent exit surface in the rear of the stent increase by 1.86% and 2.76%, respectively. In the micro-computed tomography images, the doses at the incident surface of the stent and at the exit surface behind the stent increase by 1.32% and 1.19%, respectively. Conventional computed tomography reveals a large deviation between the measured and calculated values. Conclusion: Tracheal stent based on micro-computed tomography imaging has a less effect on radiotherapy calculation than that based on conventional computed tomography imaging.