Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
InhA1-Mediated Cleavage of the Metalloprotease NprA Allows Bacillus cereus to Escape From Macrophages

Bacillus cereus is a Gram-positive spore-forming bacterium causing food poisoning and serious opportunistic infections. These infections are characterized by bacterial accumulation in the host despite the induction of inflammation. To circumvent inflammation, bacteria must resist the bactericidal activity of professional phagocytes, which constitute a first line of host defense against pathogens. Interactions between phagocytic cells and B. cereus are still poorly characterized and the mechanism of resistance to the host immune system is not known yet. We have previously shown that the spores are phagocytosed by macrophages but survive and escape from these cells. The metalloprotease InhA1 is a key effector involved in these processes. inhA1-deficient spores are retained intracellularly, in contrast to the wild type strain spores. NprA is also a B. cereus metalloprotease able to cleave tissue components such as fibronectin, laminin, and collagen. Here, we show that NprA, concomitantly secreted with InhA1 in the B. cereus secretome, is essential to promote bacterial escape from macrophages. We show that InhA1 cleaves NprA at specific sites. This cleavage allows liberation of the mature form of the NprA protein in the supernatant of the wild type strain. This mature form of NprA is actually the principal effector allowing bacterial escape from host macrophages.
The concept of “harm” in Internet gaming disorder

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a proposed condition that refers to persistent gaming leading to clinically significant impairment. However, there have been few attempts to study the different types and degrees of harm caused by IGD. This commentary describes some of the negative intrapersonal and interpersonal effects of an extreme time investment in gaming activities in the context of IGD. Future research should examine the way in which IGD harms may occur at different levels and degrees. This may enhance the screening of individuals whose behavior is suspected to meet the definition of the proposed IGD criteria.
Complement Activation During Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury Induces Pericyte-to-Myofibroblast Transdifferentiation Regulating Peritubular Capillary Lumen Reduction Through pERK Signaling

Pericytes are one of the principal sources of scar-forming myofibroblasts in chronic kidneys disease. However, the modulation of pericyte-to-myofibroblast transdifferentiation (PMT) in the early phases of acute kidney injury is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the role of complement in inducing PMT after transplantation. Using a swine model of renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, we found the occurrence of PMT after 24 h of I/R injury as demonstrated by reduction of PDGFRβ+/NG2+ cells with increase in myofibroblasts marker αSMA. In addition, PMT was associated with significant reduction in peritubular capillary luminal diameter. Treatment by C1-inhibitor (C1-INH) significantly preserved the phenotype of pericytes maintaining microvascular density and capillary lumen area at tubulointerstitial level. In vitro, C5a transdifferentiated human pericytes in myofibroblasts, with increased αSMA expression in stress fibers, collagen I production, and decreased antifibrotic protein Id2. The C5a-induced PMT was driven by extracellular signal-regulated kinases phosphorylation leading to increase in collagen I release that required both non-canonical and canonical TGFβ pathways. These results showed that pericytes are a pivotal target of complement activation leading to a profibrotic maladaptive cellular response. Our studies suggest that C1-INH may be a potential therapeutic strategy to counteract the development of PMT and capillary lumen reduction in I/R injury.
A Segmentation-Recognition Approach with a Fuzzy-Artificial Immune System for Unconstrained Handwritten Connected Digits

In this paper, we propose an off-line system for the segmentation and recognition of the unconstrained handwritten connected digits. The proposed system provides new segmentation paths by finding two types of structural features. The background and foreground features points are found from the input string image. The possible cutting paths are generated from these features points. Each candidate component is evaluated individually based on its features points and its height. The output of the segmentation module is evaluated using the fuzzy-artificial immune system (Fuzzy-AIS). The latter performs a decision function on the resulting segments, and then the hypothesis that has the best score is regarded as the global decision. The experimental results on the ell-known handwritten digit database NIST SD19 show the effectiveness of the proposed system compared with other methods in both segmentation and recognition.
Histological and Molecular Adipose Tissue Changes Are Related to Metabolic Syndrome Rather Than Lipodystrophy in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), lipodystrophy shares many similarities with metabolic syndrome, but only metabolic syndrome has objective classification criteria. We examined adipose tissue changes related to lipodystrophy and metabolic syndrome to clarify whether it may be acceptable to focus diagnosis on metabolic syndrome rather than lipodystrophy. Methods This is a cross-sectional study of 60 HIV-infected men on cART and 15 healthy men. We evaluated lipodystrophy (clinical assessment) and metabolic syndrome (JIS-2009). We compared adipocyte size, leukocyte infiltration, and gene expression in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies of patients with and without lipodystrophy and with and without metabolic syndrome. Results Lipodystrophy was only associated with increased macrophage infiltration (P = .04) and adiponectin messenger ribonucleic acid ([mRNA] P = .008), whereas metabolic syndrome was associated with larger adipocytes (P < .0001), decreased expression of genes related to adipogenesis and adipocyte function (P values between <.0001 and .08), increased leptin mRNA (P = .04), and a trend towards increased expression of inflammatory genes (P values between .08 and .6). Conclusions Metabolic syndrome rather than lipodystrophy was associated with major unfavorable abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue changes. In a clinical setting, it may be more relevant to focus on metabolic syndrome diagnosis in HIV-infected patients on cART with regards to adipose tissue dysfunction and risk of cardiometabolic complications.
Impact of a Required Service-Learning Curriculum on Preclinical Students

Purpose The impact of brief service-learning curricula on physician assistant (PA) students is not well reported. This study explores student learning immediately and then one to 2 years after a preclinical service-learning experience through written reflections and a survey. Methods The 16-hour curriculum within a behavioral science course involved community immersion and engagement with underserved clients. Reflections written by students from 3 consecutive classes were coded for major themes, and theme frequency was assessed. We then administered a survey to explore the curricular impact after students completed their clinical clerkships. Results All students (132/132) completed the required curriculum. We identified 4 major themes from 132 reflections. The themes were (most to least frequent) self-discovery (54/132), patient focus (30/132), community resources (28/132), and patient–provider relationship (20/132). The primary attitude change (self-discovery) was student awareness of their own biases and recognition of the need for cultural humility when caring for underserved clients. In the postcurriculum survey (response 69/95), students recalled community resources as the most important learning, followed by self-discovery. Students viewed the curriculum positively and noted that the exposure increased their comfort with caring for underserved patients in their clerkships. Conclusions Immersion in a community-based service-learning experience with underserved clients is associated with increased self-awareness and intent to change behavior. Students perceive the experience as important for future clerkships. Preclinical service-learning curricula prepare students to care for underserved patients.
Secondary cytoreductive surgery, hyperthermic intraperitoneal intraoperative chemotherapy, and chemotherapy alone: a retrospective comparison of alternative approaches in relapsed platinum sensitive ovarian cancer.

INTRODUCTION The best treatment for relapsed platinum sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is controversial. The aim of the study was to compare progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in platinum-sensitive EOC patients treated with chemotherapy alone (CTA), secondary cytoreductive surgery (SCR) or SCR plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal intraoperative chemotherapy (HIPEC). MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective analysis of the clinical outcome of 46 EOC patients with at least 30 months of follow-up. RESULTS Median follow-up time was 32 months for the CTA group, 30 months for the SCR group, and 45 months for the SCR + HIPEC group. Fifteen recurrences were observed in the CTA group, seven in the SCR group, and 16 in the SCR + HIPEC group. The median time elapsed between first and second recurrence (PFI-2) was significantly higher among patients treated with SCR + HIPEC, in comparison with patients treated with CTA (p = 0.012 andp = 0.017, respectively). On the contrary, PFI-2 did not significantly differ between the SCR and SCR + HIPEC groups (p = 0.877). A statistically significant difference in OS favouring SCR + HIPEC in comparison with CTA (p = 0.04) was observed. CONCLUSIONS SCR HIPEC compared with CTA improves PFI-2 in patients with platinum-sensitive EOC recurrence. SCR + HIPEC might also improve OS in comparison with CTA. No improvement in favor of SCR + HIPEC vs SCR was observed,. These results further support the need of a randomized trial comparing chemotherapy with SCR ± HIPEC in this setting.
Learning facts during aging: the benefits of curiosity

ABSTRACT Background/study context: Recent studies have shown that young adults better remember factual information they are curious about. It is not entirely clear, however, whether this effect is retained during aging. Here, the authors investigated curiosity-driven memory benefits in young and elderly individuals. Methods: In two experiments, young (age range 18–26) and older (age range 65–89) adults read trivia questions and rated their curiosity to find out the answer. They also attended to task-irrelevant faces presented between the trivia question and the answer. The authors then administered a surprise memory test to assess recall accuracy for trivia answers and recognition memory performance for the incidentally learned faces. Results: In both young and elderly adults, recall performance was higher for answers to questions that elicited high levels of curiosity. In Experiment 1, the authors also found that faces presented in temporal proximity to curiosity-eliciting trivia questions were better recognized, indicating that the beneficial effects of curiosity extended to the encoding of task-irrelevant material. Conclusions: These findings show that elderly individuals benefit from the memory-enhancing effects of curiosity. This may lead to the implementation of learning strategies that target and stimulate curiosity in aging.
The presenilin loop region is essential for glycogen synthase kinase 3 &bgr; (GSK3&bgr;) mediated functions on motor proteins during axonal transport

Neurons require intracellular transport of essential components for function and viability and defects in transport has been implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). One possible mechanism by which transport defects could occur is by improper regulation of molecular motors. Previous work showed that reduction of presenilin (PS) or glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3β) stimulated amyloid precursor protein vesicle motility. Excess GSK3β caused transport defects and increased motor binding to membranes, while reduction of PS decreased active GSK3β and motor binding to membranes. Here, we report that functional PS and the catalytic loop region of PS is essential for the rescue of GSK3β-mediated axonal transport defects. Disruption of PS loop (PSΔE9) or expression of the non-functional PS variant, PSD447A, failed to rescue axonal blockages in vivo. Further, active GSK3β associated with and phosphorylated kinesin-1 in vitro. Our observations together with previous work that showed that the loop region of PS interacts with GSK3β propose a scaffolding mechanism for PS in which the loop region sequesters GSK3β away from motors for the proper regulation of motor function. These findings are important to uncouple the complex regulatory mechanisms that likely exist for motor activity during axonal transport in vivo.
Relations Between Student Procrastination and Teaching Styles: Autonomy-Supportive and Controlling

Procrastination is a complex problem that can be defined as delaying an intended course of action (despite anticipating adverse consequences). Even when some students have equivalent motivation and skill levels, they tend to procrastinate more frequently than others. Approaches that analyze whether contextual influences may prevent or promote dysregulation processes associated with procrastination are scarce. According to Self-Determination Theory, contextual influences can facilitate self-regulated motivation (e.g., autonomous pursuit of interests or personal goals), if teaching style is autonomy-supportive and guarantees the satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs for perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Contrariwise, school context can also impede the development of autonomous motivation if teachers frustrate the satisfaction of their students’ psychological needs by recurring to controlling teaching behaviors, such as controlling use of rewards, negative conditional regard, excessive personal control, or intimidation. The goal of the present study was to assess the relations between controlling and autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors, psychological needs satisfaction (of the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness), and four distinct measures of procrastination: general procrastination, decisional procrastination, procrastination linked to task avoidance, and pure procrastination. Data based on public university undergraduate students (N = 672) shows that controlling teaching behaviors are associated negatively with psychological needs satisfaction and positively with procrastination. Contrariwise, autonomy-supportive teaching behaviors are positively associated with psychological needs satisfaction and negatively with procrastination. The data obtained is useful for suggesting new lines of research to study the link between contextual influences and the prevention of academic procrastination in view of Self-Determination Theory. Also, our results suggest new pedagogical approaches where teachers can create contextual conditions that help to prevent or reduce procrastinating tendencies.
Analyzing the effect of LTE-A transmission parameters on video streaming quality of experience

Cellular networks have witnessed an increasing demand for video streaming applications recently, and this is expected to further increase in the upcoming years. Providing high Quality of Experience (QoE) video streaming services is becoming a challenge for cellular network operators. This is due to the limited capacity in cellular networks and the impairments of transmission over radio links (e.g., path-loss and fading). As such, the parameters of the wireless communication on the radio access network between the Base-Station (BS) and User Equipments (UEs) have an effect on video streaming QoE. We study the impact of the wireless transmission parameters in Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) networks on video streaming QoE. We consider both cell level and link level parameters. Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) -based video streaming is considered here. We built a model for an LTE-A network and ran multiple simulations with various scenarios. We present and analyze the results to evaluate different video streaming QoE metrics, and to see how they are affected by the various cellular communication parameters.
Prenatal Phthalates, Maternal Thyroid Function, and Risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort

Background: There is growing concern that phthalate exposures may have an impact on child neurodevelopment. Prenatal exposure to phthalates has been linked with externalizing behaviors and executive functioning defects suggestive of an attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) phenotype. Objectives: We undertook an investigation into whether prenatal exposure to phthalates was associated with clinically confirmed ADHD in a population-based nested case–control study of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort (MoBa) between the years 2003 and 2008. Methods: Phthalate metabolites were measured in maternal urine collected at midpregnancy. Cases of ADHD (n=297) were obtained through linkage between MoBa and the Norwegian National Patient Registry. A random sample of controls (n=553) from the MoBa population was obtained. Results: In multivariable adjusted coexposure models, the sum of di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate metabolites (∑DEHP) was associated with a monotonically increasing risk of ADHD. Children of mothers in the highest quintile of ∑DEHP had almost three times the odds of an ADHD diagnosis as those in the lowest [OR=2.99 (95% CI: 1.47, 5.49)]. When ∑DEHP was modeled as a log-linear (natural log) term, for each log-unit increase in exposure, the odds of ADHD increased by 47% [OR=1.47 (95% CI: 1.09, 1.94)]. We detected no significant modification by sex or mediation by prenatal maternal thyroid function or by preterm delivery. Conclusions: In this population-based case–control study of clinical ADHD, maternal urinary concentrations of DEHP were monotonically associated with increased risk of ADHD. Additional research is needed to evaluate potential mechanisms linking phthalates to ADHD. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2358
Simplified Implementation of Synthetic Vectors for DTC of Asymmetric Six-Phase Induction Motor Drives

This paper presents a simplified implementation technique for direct torque control (DTC) of asymmetric six-phase induction motor drive. Current harmonics of fifth and seventh order are observed in the phase currents if conventional DTC scheme is extended for the asymmetric six-phase machine. These harmonic components are not responsible for torque production, thus causing losses in the motor winding. Synthetic vectors are generally used for reduction of current harmonics. Average voltage in <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$xy$</tex-math></inline-formula> subspace is maintained to zero by synthetic vectors leading to reduction of currents in <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $xy$</tex-math></inline-formula> subspace. A simplified method of implementation of synthetic vectors is proposed in this paper, which eliminates the need for designing of switching sequence and requirement of field-programmable gate array. Also, the number of synthetic vectors that can be possibly produced is increased compared with the ones developed by techniques available in the literature. The experimentation is carried out on a laboratory-developed prototype and the experimental results are presented in this paper to verify the proposed scheme.
T7 phage factor required for managing RpoS in Escherichia coli

Significance Viruses that infect bacteria (phages) represent the most abundant living entities on the planet, and many aspects of our fundamental knowledge of phage–bacteria relationships have been derived in the context of exponentially growing bacteria. In the case of the prototypical Escherichia coli phage T7, specific inhibition of the housekeeping form of the RNA polymerase (Eσ70) by a T7 protein, called Gp2, is essential for the development of viral progeny. We now reveal that T7 uses a second specific inhibitor that selectively inhibits the stationary phase RNA polymerase (EσS), which enables T7 to develop well in exponentially growing and stationary phase bacteria. The results have broad implications for our understanding of phage–bacteria relationships and the therapeutic application of phages. T7 development in Escherichia coli requires the inhibition of the housekeeping form of the bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP), Eσ70, by two T7 proteins: Gp2 and Gp5.7. Although the biological role of Gp2 is well understood, that of Gp5.7 remains to be fully deciphered. Here, we present results from functional and structural analyses to reveal that Gp5.7 primarily serves to inhibit EσS, the predominant form of the RNAP in the stationary phase of growth, which accumulates in exponentially growing E. coli as a consequence of the buildup of guanosine pentaphosphate [(p)ppGpp] during T7 development. We further demonstrate a requirement of Gp5.7 for T7 development in E. coli cells in the stationary phase of growth. Our finding represents a paradigm for how some lytic phages have evolved distinct mechanisms to inhibit the bacterial transcription machinery to facilitate phage development in bacteria in the exponential and stationary phases of growth.
Adaptive App Design by Detecting Handedness

Taller and sleeker smartphone devices are becoming the new norm. More screen space and very responsive touchscreens have made for enjoyable experiences available to us at all times. However, after years of interacting with smaller, portable devices, we still try to use these large smartphones on the go, and do not want to change how, where, and when we interact with them. The older devices were easier to use with one hand, when mobile. Now, with bigger devices, users have trouble accessing all parts of the screen with one hand. We need to recognize the limitations in usability due to these large screens. We must start designing user interfaces that are more conducive to one hand usage, which is the preferred way of interacting with the phone. This paper introduces Adaptive App Design, a design methodology that promotes dynamic and adaptive interfaces for one handed usage. We present a novel method of recognizing which hand the user is interacting with and suggest how to design friendlier interfaces for them by presenting a set of design guidelines for this methodology.
Fairness and Smiling Mediate the Effects of Openness on Perceived Fairness: Beside Perceived Intention

Previous studies have shown that smiling, fairness, intention, and the results being openness to the proposer can influence the responses in ultimatum games, respectively. But it is not clear that how the four factors might interact with each other in twos or in threes or in fours. This study examined the way that how the four factors work in resource distribution games by testing the differences between average rejection rates in different treatments. Two hundred and twenty healthy volunteers participated in an intentional version of the ultimatum game (UG). The experiment used a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 mixed design with “openness” as a between subjects factor and the other three as within subjects factors, and the participants were assigned as recipients. The results revealed that fairness or perceived good intention reduced the subject’s average rejection rates. There was a significant interaction between facial expressions and openness. With fair offers, the average rejection rate for informed was lower than that of uninformed; but when unfair, no difference between the corresponding average rejection rates was found. The interaction effect of smiling and openness was also significant, the average rejection rate for informed offers was lower when the proposer was smiling and no rejection rate difference between uninformed offers and informed offers when no smiling. No other interaction effect was found.