Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EFFICIENCY OF PHYSICAL REHABILITATION OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE

The analysis of the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is carried out. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease remains one of the most important health problems. In medical, social and economic terms, it is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide; people suffer from this disease for years and prematurely die of it or its complications. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has a significant negative impact on quality of life, imposing restraints on working capacity, normal physical activity, home occupations, social and family activities, and sleep patterns. The purpose of the research is to study the effectiveness of the proposed method of physical rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A comparative analysis of the data of a survey of 162 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease of moderate severity in the process of treatment and physical rehabilitation was conducted. Patients in control groups underwent treatment according to the protocol and rehabilitation according to the generally accepted method, and patients in treatment groups underwent treatment according to the protocol and rehabilitation according to the proposed method. The effectiveness of rehabilitation was assessed by determining changes in the function of external respiration and quality of life parameters during the study. The use of physical rehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has led to an increase in functional capabilities of patients, which was shown by an increase in the mean values of the parameters of external respiration in the study group at the end of the study, which indicate its effectiveness. By virtue of application of the proposed program of physical rehabilitation, it became possible to achieve a significant increase in the overall quality of life and health in patients of the main group by increasing parameters in problem areas and sub-sectors. Physical rehabilitation should be recommended to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to help control symptoms, improve quality of life and increase physical activity.
Covid-19: four fifths of cases are asymptomatic, China figures indicate

New evidence has emerged from China indicating that the large majority of coronavirus infections do not result in symptoms. Chinese authorities began publishing daily figures on 1 April on the number of new coronavirus cases that are asymptomatic, with the first day’s figures suggesting that around four in five coronavirus infections caused no illness. Many experts believe that unnoticed, asymptomatic cases of coronavirus infection could be an important source of contagion. A total of 130 of 166 new infections (78%) identified in the 24 hours to the afternoon of Wednesday 1 April were asymptomatic, said China’s National Health Commission. And most of the 36 cases in which patients showed symptoms involved arrivals from overseas, down from 48 the previous day, the commission said. China is rigorously testing arrivals from overseas for fear of importing a …
Toward a universal glacier slip law

A new friction rule may describe ice flow over rigid or deformable surfaces Glaciers and ice sheets shape Earth's surface and are important components of the climate system. Among the notable effects of glacier flow are erosion and sedimentation of Earth's surface and variations in sea level as glaciers lose or gain mass. These effects depend on the slip of glaciers along their beds, which is accompanied by drag at ice-bed interfaces. Parameterizations of drag with slip rate are called sliding or slip laws. Recent acceleration in glacier flow and rates of mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica highlight the need to better understand and parameterize glacier sliding (1–4). On page 76 of this issue, Zoet and Iverson (5) present a slip law for deformable sediment that is similar to laws derived for rigid beds, thereby supporting a universal slip law that could improve projections of ice sheet contributions to sea level.
Change in the Distribution of National Bird (Himalayan Monal) Habitat in Gandaki River Basin, Central Himalayas

Abstract: Gandaki River Basin (GRB) is part of the central Himalayan region, which provides habitat for numerous wild species. However, due to changes in climate and land cover, the habitats of many protected species are at risk. Based on the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model, coupled with bioclimatic layers, land cover and DEM data, the impacts of environmental factors on habitat suitability of Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus), a national bird of Nepal, was quantified. This study further assessed the present and future habitat and distribution of the Himalayan Monal in the context of climate and land cover changes. The results of this study show that the highly suitable habitat of Himalayan Monal presently occupies around 749 km2 within the northern, eastern and western parts, particularly protected areas such as Langtang National Park, Manaslu Conservation Area and Annapurna Conservation Area, while it is likely to decrease to 561 km2 by 2050, primarily in the northern and northwestern parts (i.e., Chhyo, Tatopani, Humde and Chame). These expected changes indicate increasing risk for Himalayan Monal due to a decline in its suitable habitat area.
Secreted TAL effectors protect symbiotic bacteria from entrapment within fungal hyphae

The association of the agriculturally significant phytopathogenic fungus Rhizopus microsporus with the bacterial endosymbiont Burkholderia rhizoxinica is a remarkable example of bacteria controlling host physiology and reproduction. Here, we show that a group of transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) called Burkholderia TALE-like proteins (BATs) from B. rhizoxinica are essential for the establishment of the symbiosis. Mutants lacking BAT proteins are unable to induce host sporulation. Utilising novel microfluidic devices in combination with fluorescence microscopy we observed the accumulation of BAT-deficient mutants in specific fungal side-hyphae with accompanying increased fungal re-infection. High-resolution live imaging revealed septa biogenesis at the base of infected hyphae leading to compartmental trapping of BATdeficient endobacteria. Trapped endosymbionts showed reduced intracellular survival, suggesting a protective response from the fungal host against bacteria lacking specific effectors. These findings underscore the involvement of BAT proteins in maintaining a balance between mutualism and antagonism in bacterial-fungal interactions and provide deeper insights into the dynamic interactions between bacteria and eukaryotes.
The Hoja loca1 Mutant and AUX/IAA Function in Phytomer Development

Plant architecture is determined by the iterative building of phytomer units, each containing a portion of stem, an organ and an axillary meristem. Each phytomer can follow different developmental paths underpinning the complexity, and plasticity, of plant form. Auxin plays a central role in the coordination of phytomer development, regulating organ initiation and patterning across all axes. This diversity in auxin function results from changes in the activities and expression of auxin signaling components, including the AUX/IAA repressors. Higher land plants have multigene AUX/IAA families, which leads to functional redundancy. Dominant mutations, which prevent AUX/IAA degradation in response to auxin, have highlighted the importance of these proteins in fine-tuning organ development. Here we report a new dominant AUX/IAA mutant in maize, Hoja loca1 (Oja). Oja has a mutation in the degron motif of ZmIAA28 and specifically affects aerial organ initiation and leaf medio-lateral patterning, but phytomer initiation remains unchanged. Mutant phenotypes are variable and transcriptional profiling of individual meristems identified clusters of genes that may underpin the phenotypic differences. The unique phenotype of Oja provides evidence of species-specific sub-functionalization of the AUX/IAAs, and illustrates the crucial role of auxin signaling in the tight coordination of phytomer unit development.
Medicago truncatula Yellow Stripe-Like7 encodes a peptide transporter required for symbiotic nitrogen fixation

Yellow Stripe-Like (YSL) proteins are a family of plant transporters typically involved in transition metal homeostasis. The substrate of three of the four YSL clades (clades I, II, and IV) are metal complexes with non-proteinogenic amino acid nicotianamine or its derivatives. No such transport capabilities have been shown for any member of the remaining clade (clade III), which is able to translocate short peptides across the membranes instead. The connection between clade III YSL members and metal homeostasis might have been masked by the functional redundancy characteristic of this family. This might have been circumvented in legumes through neofunctionalization of YSLs to ensure a steady supply of transition metals for symbiotic nitrogen fixation in root nodules. To test this possibility, Medicago truncatula clade III transporter MtYSL7 has been studied both when the plant was fertilized with ammonium nitrate or when nitrogen had to be provided by endosymbiotic rhizobia within the root nodules. MtYSL7 is a plasma membrane protein expressed in the vasculature and in the nodule cortex. This protein is able to transport short peptides into the cytosol, although none with known metal homeostasis roles. Reducing MtYSL7 expression levels resulted in diminished nitrogen fixation rates. In addition, nodules of mutant lines lacking YSL7 accumulated more copper and iron, the later the likely result of increased expression in roots of iron uptake and delivery genes. The available data is indicative of a role of MtYSL7, and likely other clade III YSLs, in transition metal homeostasis. ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY Medicago truncatula YSL7 is a peptide transporter required for symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume nodules, likely controlling transition metal allocation to these organs.
Forest condition in the Congo Basin for the assessment of ecosystem conservation status

Measuring forest degradation is important for understanding and designing measures to protect biodiversity and the capacity of forests to deliver ecosystem services. Conservation planning, particularly the prioritization of management interventions for forests, is often lacking spatial data on ecological condition, and it is often overlooked within decision-making processes. Existing methods for assessing forest degradation via proxies or binary measures (i.e. intact or not) cannot adequately consider the important variations of ecological condition. Direct methods to measure degradation (e.g. through remote sensing) require extensive training data, calibration and validation, and may be too sensitive to small-scale or short-term changes which may not be related to degradation. We developed a metric termed Forest Condition (FC) which aims to measure the degree of forest degradation, incorporating temporal history of forest change over a large spatial extent. We parameterized this metric based on estimated changes in above ground biomass in the context of forest fragmentation over time to estimate a continuous measure of forest degradation for Congo Basin countries. We estimate that just less than 70% of Congo Basin forests remain fully intact. FC was validated by direct remote sensing measurements from Landsat imagery for DRC. Results showed that FC was significantly positively correlated with forest canopy cover, gap area per hectare, and magnitude of temporal change in Normalized Burn Ratio. We tested the ability of FC to distinguish primary and secondary degradation and deforestation and found significant differences in gap area and spectral anomalies to validate our theoretical model. We used the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems criteria to demonstrate the value of applying forest degradation to assess the risk of ecosystem collapse. Based on this assessment, we found that without including FC in the assessment of biotic disruption, 12 ecosystems could not have a threat status assigned, and a further 9 ecosystems would have a lower threat status. Our overall assessment of ecosystems found approximately half of forest of Congo Basin ecosystem types which cover over 20% of all forest area are threatened including 4 ecosystems (<1% of total area) which are critically engendered. FC is a transferrable and scalable assessment to support forest monitoring, planning, and management.
Opposing influence of top-down and bottom-up input on different types of excitatory layer 2/3 neurons in mouse visual cortex

Processing in cortical circuits is driven by combinations of cortical and subcortical inputs. These signals are often conceptually categorized as bottom-up input, conveying sensory information, and top-down input, conveying contextual information. Using intracellular recordings in mouse visual cortex, we measured neuronal responses to visual input, locomotion, and visuomotor mismatches. We show that layer 2/3 (L2/3) neurons compute a difference between top-down motor-related input and bottom-up visual flow input. Most L2/3 neurons responded to visuomotor mismatch with either hyperpolarization or depolarization, and these two response types were associated with distinct physiological properties. Consistent with a subtraction of bottom-up and top-down input, visual and motor-related inputs had opposing influence in L2/3 neurons. In infragranular neurons, we found no evidence of a difference-computation and responses were consistent with a positive integration of visuomotor inputs. Our results provide evidence that L2/3 functions as a bidirectional comparator of top-down and bottom-up input.
Maximizing Quantitative Phosphoproteomics of Kinase Signaling Expands the Mec1 and Tel1 Networks

Global phosphoproteome analysis is crucial for comprehensive and unbiased investigation of kinase-mediated signaling. However, since each phosphopeptide represents a unique entity for defining identity, site-localization, and quantitative changes, phosphoproteomics often suffers from lack of redundancy and statistical power for generating high confidence datasets. Here we developed a phosphoproteomic approach in which data consistency among experiments using reciprocal stable isotope labeling defines a central filtering rule for achieving reliability in phosphopeptide identification and quantitation. We find that most experimental error or biological variation in phosphopeptide quantitation does not revert in quantitation once light and heavy media are swapped between two experimental conditions. Exclusion of non-reverting data-points from the dataset not only reduces quantitation error and variation, but also drastically reduces false positive identifications. Application of our approach in combination with extensive fractionation of phosphopeptides by HILIC identifies new substrates of the Mec1 and Tel1 kinases, expanding our understanding of the DNA damage signaling network regulated by these kinases. Overall, the proposed quantitative phosphoproteomic approach should be generally applicable for investigating kinase signaling networks with high confidence and depth.
Stroke Due to Hypercoagulable State Can Mimic Multiple Sclerosis: A Case Report

Introduction: Stroke is the second major cause of mortality worldwide and in several cases, and it may lead to disability. Factor V Leiden is a common genetic thrombophilia, which causes activated protein C (APC) resistance. Hyperhomocysteinemia and factor V Leiden deficiency, two independent coagulopathy factors, can lead to venous and arterial infarctions in multiple small and large arteries and veins anywhere in the body. Case Report: Here, we report a unique case in which both hyperhomocysteinemia and factor V Leiden deficiency are documented together with MTHFR (C677T) (Methylene Tetra Hydro Folate Reductase) gene polymorphism and activated protein C resistance respectively. Conclusion: More interestingly, the mode of presentation in this case highly resembled that of progressive multiple sclerosis; all signs and symptoms slowly progressed without any systemic signs at first few years. Further studies needed to assess current outcomes.
Agrammatism and Paragrammatism: A Cortical Double Dissociation Revealed by Lesion-Symptom Mapping

The fundamental distinction of grammatical deficits in aphasia, agrammatism and paragrammatism, was made over a century ago. However, the extent to which the agrammatism/paragrammatism distinction exists independently of differences in speech fluency has not clearly been investigated. Despite much research on agrammatism, the lesion correlates of paragrammatism are essentially unknown. Lesion-symptom mapping was used to investigate the degree to which the lesion correlates of agrammatism and paragrammatism overlap or dissociate. Four expert raters assessed videos of 53 right-handed patients with aphasia following chronic left hemisphere stroke retelling the Cinderella story. Consensus discussion determined each subject’s classification with respect to grammatical deficits as Agrammatic, Paragrammatic, Both, or No Grammatical Deficit. Each subject’s lesion was manually drawn on a high-resolution MRI and warped to standard space for group analyses. Lesion-symptom mapping analyses were performed in NiiStat including lesion volume as a covariate. Secondary analyses included speech rate (words per minute) as an additional covariate. Region of interest analyses identified a double dissociation between these syndromes: damage to Broca’s area was significantly associated with agrammatism, p = 0.001 (but not paragrammatism, p = 0.930), while damage to the left posterior superior and middle temporal gyri was significantly associated with paragrammatism, p < 0.001 (but not agrammatism, p = 0.873). The same results obtained when regressing out the effect of speech rate, and non-overlapping lesion distributions between the syndromes were confirmed by uncorrected whole brain analyses. Our results support a fundamental distinction between agrammatism and paragrammatism.
Numerical response of predators to large variations of grassland vole abundance, long-term community change and prey switches

Voles can reach high densities with multi-annual population fluctuations of large amplitude, and they are at the base of large and rich communities of predators in temperate and arctic food webs. This status places them at the heart of management conflicts wherein crop protection and health concerns are often raised against conservation issues. Here, a 20-year survey describes the effects of large variations in grassland vole populations on the densities and the daily theoretical food intakes (TFI) of vole predators based on roadside counts. Our results show how the predator community responds to prey variations of large amplitude and how it reorganized with the increase in a dominant predator, here the red fox, which likely negatively impacted hare, European wildcat and domestic cat populations. They also indicate which subset of predator species might have a role in vole population control in the critical phase of a low density of grassland voles. Our study provides empirical support for more timely and better focused actions in wildlife management and vole population control, and it supports an evidence-based and constructive dialogue about management targets and options between all stakeholders of such socio-ecosystems.
A Controlled Slip: Training Propulsion via Acceleration of the Trailing Limb

Walking function, which is critical to performing many activities of daily living, is commonly assessed by walking speed. Walking speed is dependent on propulsion, which is governed by ankle moment and the posture of the trailing limb during push-off. Here, we present a new gait training paradigm that utilizes a dual belt treadmill to train both components of propulsion by accelerating the belt of the trailing limb during push off. Accelerations require subjects to produce greater propulsive force to counteract inertial effects, and increase trailing limb angle through increased belt velocity. We hypothesized that exposure to our training p rogram would produce after effects in propulsion mechanics and, consequently, walking speed. We tested our protocol on healthy subjects at two acceleration magnitudes–Perceptible (PE), and Imperceptible, (IM)–and compared their results to a third control group (VC) that walked at a higher velocity during training. Results show that the PE group significantly increased walking speed following training (mean ± s.e.m: 0.073 ± 0.013 m/s, p < 0.001). The change in walking speed in the IM and VC groups was not significant at the group level (IM: 0.032 ± 0.013 m/s; VC: -0.003 ± 0.013 m/s). Responder analysis showed that changes in push-off posture and in neuro-motor control of ankle plantar-flexor muscles contributed to the larger increases in gait speed measured in the PE group compared to the IM and VC groups. Analysis of the effects during and after training suggest that changes in neuromotor coordination are consistent with use-dependent learning.
An optogenetic switch for the Set2 methyltransferase provides evidence for transcription-dependent and -independent dynamics of H3K36 methylation

Background Histone H3 lysine 36 methylation (H3K36me) is a conserved histone modification associated with transcription and DNA repair. Although the effects of H3K36 methylation have been studied, the genome-wide dynamics of H3K36me deposition and removal are not known. Results We established rapid and reversible optogenetic control for Set2, the sole H3K36 methyltransferase in yeast, by fusing the enzyme with the light activated nuclear shuttle (LANS) domain. Early H3K36me3 dynamics identified rapid methylation in vivo, with total H3K36me3 levels correlating with RNA abundance. Although genes exhibited disparate levels of H3K36 methylation, relative rates of H3K36me3 accumulation were largely linear and consistent across genes, suggesting a rate-limiting mechanism for H3K36me3 deposition. Removal of H3K36me3 was also rapid and highly dependent on the demethylase Rph1. However, the per-gene rate of H3K36me3 loss weakly correlated with RNA abundance and followed exponential decay, suggesting H3K36 demethylases act in a global, stochastic manner. Conclusion Altogether, these data provide a detailed temporal view of H3K36 methylation and demethylation that suggest transcription-dependent and independent mechanisms for H3K36me deposition and removal, respectively.