Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Enzymatic and Microbial Bioprocessing on Antioxidant Properties of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)

Although the hemp seed boasts high nutritional and functional potential, its use in food preparations is still underestimated due to scarce technological properties and the presence of several anti-nutritional factors. Here, an optimization of a biotechnological protocol aimed at improving the antioxidant properties and the protein digestibility of the whole hemp seed has been proposed. Processing based on the use of commercial food grade enzymes and ad hoc selected lactic acid bacteria was tested and the phenolic and protein profiles were investigated through an integrated approach including selective extraction, purification, and identification of the potentially active compounds. The influence of the bioprocessing on the antioxidant activity of the hemp was evaluated both in vitro and on human keratinocytes. The lactic acid bacteria fermentation was the best method to significantly improve the antioxidant potential of the hemp through intense proteolysis which led to both the release of bioactive peptides and the increase in the protein digestibility. Moreover, changes in the phenolic profile allowed a significant protective effect against oxidative stress measured on the human keratinocyte cell line.
Direction-Averaged Diffusion-Weighted MRI Signal using different Axisymmetric B-tensor Encoding Schemes “Submitted to Magnetic Resonance in Medicine”

Purpose It has been shown previously that for the conventional Stejskal-Tanner pulsed gradient, or linear tensor encoding (LTE), as well as planar tensor encoding (PTE) and in tissue in which diffusion exhibits a ‘stick-like’ geometry, the diffusion-weighted MRI signal at extremely high b-values follows a power-law. Specifically, the signal decays as a in LTE and 1/b in PTE. Here, the direction-averaged signal for arbitrary diffusion encoding waveforms is considered to establish whether power-law behaviors occur with other encoding wave-forms and for other (non-stick-like) diffusion geometries. Methods We consider the signal decay for high b-values for encoding geometries ranging from 2-dimensional planar tensor encoding (PTE), through isotropic or spherical tensor encoding (STE) to linear tensor encoding. When a power-law behavior was suggested, this was tested using in-silico simulations and in-vivo using an ultra-strong gradient (300 mT/m) Connectom scanner. Results The results show that using an axisymmetric b-tensor a power-law only exists for two scenarios: For stick-like geometries, (i) the already-discovered LTE case; and (ii) for pure planar encoding. In this latter case, to first order, the signal decays as 1/b. Our in-silico and in-vivo experiments confirm this 1/b relationship. Conclusion A complete analysis of the power-law dependencies of the diffusion-weighted signal at high b-values has been performed. Only two forms of encoding result in a power-law dependency, pure linear and pure planar tensor encoding and when the diffusion geometry is ‘stick-like’. The different exponents of these encodings could be used to provide independent validation of the presence of stick-like geometries in-vivo.
Can Injuries Have a Lasting Effect on the Perception of Pain in Young, Healthy Women and Men?

Background: Pain is a characteristic, unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Pain is a subjective sensation, modulated by many factors such as age, sex, emotional state, national origin, or physical activity. Moreover, it is closely associated with intense physical activity, injuries, and traumas, which can significantly modulate pain tolerance. Hypothesis: We postulate that there are correlations between past injuries, physical activity, and intensity of pain perception (pain threshold and pain tolerance) in a population of healthy men and women. Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 4. Methods: A total of 302 participants aged 18 to 32 years were included. The participants were divided into 2 groups (active and inactive individuals), in accordance with the scope of physical activity they had indicated. The test of pressure pain threshold and pressure pain tolerance was performed using an algometer. Results: Active women achieved significantly higher pain threshold and pain tolerance values in all measurements on the upper limb (except for the pain threshold on the left hand) compared with inactive women. In mediation analysis, the effect of injury remained significant only for the pressure pain tolerance in the dominant arm and the left hand in the female group. In the case of men, there were no significant differences in all measurements in view of the threshold and tolerance for pain between the groups of active and inactive and between men with injuries and without injuries. Conclusion: Intense, regular physical activity is a factor modulating the perception of pain. This was demonstrated as lowered sensitivity to pain stimuli in a population of healthy women. Clinical Relevance: Injuries should be treated as an important factor modulating the perception of pain. We recommend detailed monitoring of injuries during treatment and control of pain sensation.
Temperature Characteristic of Immobilization Proteins on Pt Surface Based on Silicon Substrate

This paper investigated a method that proteins were immobilized on platinum surface based on silicon substrate according to the concept self-assembled monolayers. At first, we produced actived carboxyl groups through surface modification of platinum surface on silicon substrate in reaction solution, and then utilized condensation reaction between proteins and carboxyl groups to immobilize proteins (cattle IgG). Secondly, we showed SEM photographs of surface morphologies of immobilization cattle IgG on silicon wafer. EDS energy spectrum microanalysis of cattle IgG immobilization on silicon wafer was also obtained by means of SEM. By contrast,it was evident that proteins (cattle IgG) can be immobilized effectively on the platinum surface on silicon using the experimental methods. Finally, there were tests of I-V characteristic and I-T characteristic of immobilized cattle IgG which demonstrated its temperature coefficient is .
A proposed approach for evaluating expert wine judge performance using descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the performance of five expert wine judges using a 20‐point quality scorecard in a wine competition environment. For each judge, frequency distributions were used to assess scorecard usage, and deviation font‐means were calculated as an index of consistency with the group. Differences in curve shapes were described using means, skewness and kurtosis values. Four of the five judges showed unimodal frequency distributions that were slightly skewed to lower scores. This information was believed to be useful for identifying expert judges whose use of a 20‐point quality scorecard and perspective of wine quality are consistent with the group.
A Gesture Elicitation Study of Nose-Based Gestures

Presently, miniaturized sensors can be embedded in any small-size wearable to recognize movements on some parts of the human body. For example, an electrooculography-based sensor in smart glasses recognizes finger movements on the nose. To explore the interaction capabilities, this paper conducts a gesture elicitation study as a between-subjects experiment involving one group of 12 females and one group of 12 males, expressing their preferred nose-based gestures on 19 Internet-of-Things tasks. Based on classification criteria, the 912 elicited gestures are clustered into 53 unique gestures resulting in 23 categories, to form a taxonomy and a consensus set of 38 final gestures, providing researchers and practitioners with a larger base with six design guidelines. To test whether the measurement method impacts these results, the agreement scores and rates, computed for determining the most agreed gestures upon participants, are compared with the Condorcet and the de Borda count methods to observe that the results remain consistent, sometimes with a slightly different order. To test whether the results are sensitive to gender, inferential statistics suggest that no significant difference exists between males and females for agreement scores and rates.
Towards Continuous and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring: Methods for Efficient Data Acquisition for Pulse Transit Time Estimation

We developed a prototype for measuring physiological data for pulse transit time (PTT) estimation that will be used for ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring. The device is comprised of an embedded system with multimodal sensors that streams high-throughput data to a custom Android application. The primary focus of this paper is on the hardware–software codesign that we developed to address the challenges associated with reliably recording data over Bluetooth on a resource-constrained platform. In particular, we developed a lossless compression algorithm that is based on optimally selective Huffman coding and Huffman prefixed coding, which yields virtually identical compression ratios to the standard algorithm, but with a 67–99% reduction in the size of the compression tables. In addition, we developed a hybrid software–hardware flow control method to eliminate microcontroller (MCU) interrupt-latency related data loss when multi-byte packets are sent from the phone to the embedded system via a Bluetooth module at baud rates exceeding 115,200 bit/s. The empirical error rate obtained with the proposed method with the baud rate set to 460,800 bit/s was identically equal to 0%. Our robust and computationally efficient physiological data acquisition system will enable field experiments that will drive the development of novel algorithms for PTT-based continuous BP monitoring.
Metabolic Bone Disease of Prematurity: Risk Factors and Associated Short-Term Outcomes

Despite the importance of early recognition of metabolic bone disease (MBD) of prematurity, there is still significant variability in screening practices across institutions. We conducted an observational study of infants born at ≤32 weeks of gestation with a birth weight of ≤1500 g (n = 218) to identify clinical factors associated with biochemical indicators of MBD. Bone mineral status was assessed by measuring alkaline phosphatase and phosphate levels between weeks 3 and 5 of life. Two comparisons were performed after classifying infants as either MBD (cases) or non-MBD (controls), and as either high or low risk for MBD, as determined based on the results of MBD screening. In total, 27 infants (12.3%) were classified as cases and 96 (44%) as high-risk. Compared with controls, MBD infants had a significantly lower gestational age and birth weight, and a longer duration of parenteral nutrition and hospital stay. Respiratory outcomes were significantly poorer in high- versus low-risk infants. Multivariate logistic regression showed that birth weight was the only independent risk factor for MBD (odds ratio [OR]/100 g, 0.811; confidence interval [CI95%], 0.656–0.992; p = 0.045) and that birth weight (OR/100 g, 0.853; CI95%, 0.731–0.991; p = 0.039) and red blood cell transfusion (OR, 2.661; CI95%, 1.308–5.467; p = 0.007) were independent risk factors for high risk of MBD. Our findings provide evidence of risk factors for MBD that could help clinicians to individualize perinatal management. The association of red blood cell transfusion with MBD is a novel finding that may be related to iron overload and that merits further study.
The Molecular ‘Myc-anisms’ Behind Myc-Driven Tumorigenesis and the Relevant Myc-Directed Therapeutics

MYC, a well-studied proto-oncogene that is overexpressed in >20% of tumors across all cancers, is classically known as “undruggable” due to its crucial roles in cell processes and its lack of a drug binding pocket. Four decades of research and creativity led to the discovery of a myriad of indirect (and now some direct! ) therapeutic strategies targeting Myc. This review explores the various mechanisms in which Myc promotes cancer and highlights five key therapeutic approaches to disrupt Myc, including transcription, Myc-Max dimerization, protein stability, cell cycle regulation, and metabolism, in order to develop more specific Myc-directed therapies.
Active bacterial modification of the host environment through RNA Polymerase II inhibition.

Unlike pathogens, which attack the host, commensal bacteria create a state of friendly coexistence. Here, we identified a mechanism of bacterial adaptation to the host niche, where they reside. Asymptomatic carrier strains were shown to inhibit RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) in host cells by targeting Ser2 phosphorylation; a step required for productive mRNA elongation. Assisted by a rare, spontaneous loss-of-function mutant from a human carrier, the bacterial NlpD protein was identified as a Pol II inhibitor. After internalization by host cells, NlpD was shown to target constituents of the Pol II phosphorylation complex (RPB1 and PAF1C), attenuating host gene expression. Therapeutic efficacy of the rNlpD protein was demonstrated in a urinary tract infection model, by reduced tissue pathology, accelerated bacterial clearance and attenuated Pol II-dependent gene expression. The findings suggest an intriguing, evolutionarily conserved mechanism for bacterial modulation of host gene expression, with a remarkable therapeutic potential.
Austrian Raw-Milk Hard-Cheese Ripening Involves Successional Dynamics of Non-Inoculated Bacteria and Fungi

Cheese ripening involves successional changes of the rind microbial composition that harbors a key role on the quality and safety of the final products. In this study, we analyzed the evolution of the rind microbiota (bacteria and fungi) throughout the ripening of Austrian Vorarlberger Bergkäse (VB), an artisanal surface-ripened cheese, by using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The real-time quantitative PCR results revealed that bacteria were more abundant than fungi in VB rinds throughout ripening, although both kingdoms were abundant along the process. The qualitative investigation was performed by high-throughput gene-targeted (amplicon) sequencing. The results showed dynamic changes of the rind microbiota throughout ripening. In the fresh products, VB rinds were dominated by Staphylococcus equorum and Candida. At early ripening times (14–30 days) Psychrobacter and Debaryomyces flourished, although their high abundance was limited to these time points. At the latest ripening times (90–160 days), VB rinds were dominated by S. equorum, Brevibacterium, Corynebacterium, and Scopulariopsis. Strong correlations were shown for specific bacteria and fungi linked to specific ripening periods. This study deepens our understanding of VB ripening and highlights different bacteria and fungi associated to specific ripening periods which may influence the organoleptic properties of the final products.
Creative Economic Development in Economic Education Perspective

This study aims to determine the effect of entrepreneurial knowledge on creative attitudes of creative economy sub-sector Small Medium Enterprises in Kendal sub-district in the context of creative economic development. The population in this study were 129 Micro Small Medium Enterprises in the creative industry subsector. The total sample in this study was as many as 33 Micro Small Medium Enterprises in the creative industry sub-sector. The results of this study indicate that entrepreneurial knowledge has a positive and significant influence on the creative attitude of creative economy sub-sector Micro Small Medium Enterprises in Kendal sub-district, Central Java City, Indonesia.
Measures of movement and mobility used in clinical practice and research: a scoping review

ABSTRACT Objective: The first objective of this scoping review was to identify all the tools designed to measure movement or mobility in adults. The second objective was to compare the tools to the conceptual definitions of movement and mobility by mapping them to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Introduction: The concepts of movement and mobility are distinct concepts that are often conflated, and the differences are important to patient care. Movement is a change in the place or position of a part of the body or of the whole body. Mobility is derived from movement and is defined as the ability to move with ease. Researchers and clinicians, including nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists who work with adults and in rehabilitation, need to be confident that they are measuring the outcome of interest. Inclusion criteria: This scoping review considered studies that included participants who are adults, aged 19 and older, with any level of ability or disability. The concepts of interest were tools that measured movement or mobility relative to the human body. Studies were considered regardless of country of origin, health care setting, or sociocultural setting. Methods: CINAHL, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, MEDLINE, and Embase were searched in June 2018 and OpenGrey, Dissertation Abstracts International, and Google Scholar were searched in November 2018. The searches were limited to articles in English, and the date range was from the inception of the database to the current date. Data were extracted from the studies using a custom data extraction tool. Once tools were identified for analysis, they were coded using the table format developed by Cieza and colleagues. Results: There were 702 unique tools identified, with 651 of them available to be coded for the ICF. There were 385 ICF codes used when coding the tools. From these codes, the percentage of codes of the defining attributes of movement and mobility that were covered could be calculated, as well as the percentage of tool items that were linked to the antecedents, consequences, or defining attributes of movement or mobility. Conclusions: Although there are many tools that measure only movement or mobility, there are many that measure a mixture of the defining attributes as well as the antecedents and consequences. The tool name alone should not be considered a guarantee of the concept measured, and tool selection should be done with a critical eye. This study provides a starting point from which clinicians and researchers can find tools that measure the concepts of movement and mobility of interest and importance to their patient population.
Accounting for drinking water quality in measuring multidimensional poverty in Ethiopia

The Multidimensional Poverty Index is used increasingly to measure poverty in developing countries. The index is constructed using selected indicators that cover health, education, and living standards dimensions. The accuracy of this tool, however, depends on how each indicator is measured. This study explores the effect of accounting for water quality in multidimensional poverty measurement. Access to drinking water is traditionally measured by water source types. The study uses a more comprehensive measure, access to safely managed drinking water services, which are free from E. coli contamination, available when needed and accessible on premises in line with Sustainable Development Goal target 6.1. The study finds that the new measure increases national multidimensional headcount poverty by 5–13 percentage points, which would mean that 5–13 million more people are multidimensionally poor. It also increases the poverty level in urban areas to a greater extent than in rural areas. The finding is robust to changes in water contamination risk levels and Multidimensional Poverty Index aggregation approaches and weighting structures.
RESTRICTING CLIMATIC CONDITIONS ON THE EASTERN DISTRIBUTION LIMIT OF EUROPEAN BEECH (FAGUS SYLVATICA) IN NORTH-EASTERN ROMANIA FOR THE MARCH – JUNE INTERVAL

The meteo-climatic arguments for the eastern biogeographic limit of beech in Romania are of particular interest to forestry, but also to geographers and climatologists. This limit marks the transition from the temperate humid climate of Western and Central Europe to the temperate continental climate of Eastern Europe. Our paper provides improved knowledge on climatic conditions that restrict the longitudinal distribution of beech at temperate latitudes in north-eastern Romania. Results show that rainfall scarcity and high temperature in the March-June interval, added to temperature drop below the freezing point in April-June are the main climatic conditions that limit beech expansion eastward of this biogeographic limit.
Allergen-induced airway inflammation and Th2 cell development requires Blimp-1

A Th2 immune response is central to allergic airway inflammation, which afflicts millions worldwide. However, the mechanisms that augment GATA3 expression in an antigen-primed developing Th2 cell are not well understood. Here, we describe an unexpected role for Blimp-1, a transcriptional repressor that constrains autoimmunity, as an upstream promoter of GATA3 expression that is critical for Th2 cell development in the lung, but dispensable for TFH function and IgE production. Mechanistically, Blimp-1 intrinsically represses Bcl6, which is necessary to drive GATA3 expression. Surprisingly, the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, but not the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 or IL-21, is required via STAT3 activation to upregulate Blimp-1 and promote Th2 cell development. These data reveal a hitherto unappreciated role for an IL-10-STAT3-Blimp-1 circuit as an initiator of an inflammatory Th2 response in the lung to allergens. Thus, Blimp-1 in a context-dependent fashion can drive inflammation by promoting rather than terminating effector T cell responses. Summary The transcriptional repressor Blimp-1 acts via a pro-inflammatory IL-10-STAT3 axis as a critical positive regulator of Th2 cells in the lung in response to allergens driving pathophysiology associated with asthma disease.
Versatile Roles of Aquaporins in Plant Growth and Development

Aquaporins (AQPs) are universal membrane integrated water channel proteins that selectively and reversibly facilitate the movement of water, gases, metalloids, and other small neutral solutes across cellular membranes in living organisms. Compared with other organisms, plants have the largest number of AQP members with diverse characteristics, subcellular localizations and substrate permeabilities. AQPs play important roles in plant water relations, cell turgor pressure maintenance, the hydraulic regulation of roots and leaves, and in leaf transpiration, root water uptake, and plant responses to multiple biotic and abiotic stresses. They are also required for plant growth and development. In this review, we comprehensively summarize the expression and roles of diverse AQPs in the growth and development of various vegetative and reproductive organs in plants. The functions of AQPs in the intracellular translocation of hydrogen peroxide are also discussed.
The role of historical and contemporary environmental factors in the distribution of genetic diversity in the teosinte in Mexico

The wild maize, commonly known as teosinte, has a wide distribution and is abundant in Mexico. Previous reports indicate that the environmental conditions are determinant in the distribution and amount of genetic diversity. In this work, we used a set of neutral markers in a large number of samples and localities to explore the influence on genetic diversity of historical environmental shifts. We genotyped 527 individuals from 29 localities using a set of 22 microsatellites. We found high levels of genetic diversity and significant values of structure among localities. Also, significant values of heterozygote deficit and variable levels of selfing were recovered. The historical demographic analysis implemented concur with the distribution modeling analyses. We conclude that the genetic diversity of teosinte is a mixture of local events and historical factors.