Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel Catabolic Pathway of Quercetin-3-O-Rutinose-7-O-α-L-Rhamnoside by Lactobacillus plantarum GDMCC 1.140: The Direct Fission of C-Ring

Lychee pulp phenolics (LPP) is mainly catabolized in the host colon, increasing the abundances of Bacteroides and Lactobacillus. Herein, five selected gut microbial strains (Bacteroides uniformis, B. thetaiotaomicron, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, L. plantarum, and L. acidophilus) were separately incubated with LPP to ascertain the specific strains participating in phenolic metabolism and the corresponding metabolites. The results indicated that B. uniformis, L. rhamnosus, and L. plantarum were involved in LPP utilization, contributing to 52.37, 28.33, and 45.11% of LPP degradation after 48 h fermentation, respectively. Unprecedentedly, the metabolic pathway of the major phenolic compound quercetin-3-O-rutinose-7-O-α-L-rhamnoside by L. plantarum, appeared to be the direct fission of C-ring at C2–O1 and C3–C4 bonds, which was proved from the occurrence of two substances with the deprotonated molecule [M–H]− ion at m/z 299 and 459, respectively. Meanwhile, it was fully confirmed that B. uniformis participated in the catabolism of isorhamnetin glycoside and procyanidin B2. In the B. uniformis culture, kaempferol was synthesized through dehydroxylation of quercetin which could be catabolized into alphitonin by L. rhamnosus. Furthermore, LPP metabolites exerted higher antioxidant activity than their precursors and gave clues to understand the interindividual differences for phenolic metabolism by gut microbiota.
Ruptured Iliac Arteriovenous Fistula Presenting With Thigh Pain and Swelling: Case Report

The presentation of abdominal arteriovenous fistulas is classically described as a triad of a pulsatile abdominal mass with a bruit, high-output heart failure, and regional venous hypertension with primarily open operative therapy. In the following case, we present the treatment of a patient who arrived with acute right heart failure and renal failure due to an arteriovenous fistula and who was successfully treated with endovascular repair.
Extracts of Dracocephalum tanguticum Maxim Ameliorate Acute Alcoholic Liver Disease via Regulating Transcription Factors in Mice

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) caused by excessive drinking is a health and economic concern worldwide. Given the high morbidity, mortality, and the progressive nature of ALD, finding effective interventions is essential. Previous studies have confirmed that edible food plants and their bioactive compounds exert a protective effect against ALD. Dracocephalum tanguticum Maxim (DTM) is one of the important traditional Tibetan medicines in China with the effect of clearing away liver heat, used for the treatment of hepatitis. In this study, the DTM chloroform extract (DtM-C), ethyl acetate extract (DtM-E), and n-butanol extract (DtM-B) were obtained by ethanol extraction combined with fractional extraction. Acute ALD was induced in mice given intragastric ethanol. Serum and liver biochemical markers were detected by ELISA. Liver histological observation, Oil Red O, and Masson’s trichrome staining were performed. Liver injury cells were induced by ethanol. The cell vitality was detected by using MTT colorimetry. The expressions of Nrf2, NF-κB, STAT3, AP-1, CREB, HIF-1α, HO-1, NQO-1, GSTA1, IKB2, and Keap1 were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to elucidate the mechanism of hepatoprotective effect, and the results were verified by using Western blot. The results of serum liver function indicators (ALT, AST, and ADH), serum hepatic lipid indicators (TC, TG, HDL-C, and LDL-C), and lipid peroxidation indicators (ADH, MDA, SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px) in liver tissue and liver histological observation showed that DtM-E could improve liver function, alleviate fatty degeneration, edema, cell necrosis, and liver fibrosis caused by alcohol. DtM-E also increased the vitality of EtOH-induced liver injury cells, upregulated the mRNA expression of Nrf2, HO-1, NQO-1, and GSTA1, while downregulated the expression of Keap-1, p65, and NF-κB. Western blot results were consistent with PCR. The results suggest that DtM-E has a protective effect against ALD in vitro and in vivo, and its mechanism of action may be related to the activation of Nrf2/Keap-1 and inhibition of the P65/NF-κB signaling pathways.
Cognitive Resilience to Psychological Stress in Military Personnel

Military personnel often perform complex cognitive operations under unique conditions of intense stress. This requirement to perform diverse physical and mental tasks under stress, often with high stakes, has led to recognition of the term ‘tactical athlete’ for these performers. Impaired cognitive performance as a result of this stress may have serious implications for the success of military operations and the well-being of military service men and women, particularly in combat scenarios. Therefore, understanding the nature of the stress experienced by military personnel and the resilience of cognitive functioning to this stress is of great importance. This review synthesises the current state of the literature regarding cognitive resilience to psychological stress in tactical athletes. The experience of psychological stress in military personnel is considered through the lens of the Transactional Theory of stress, while offering contemporary updates and new insights. Models of the effects of stress on cognitive performance are then reviewed to highlight the complexity of this interaction before considering recent advancements in the preparation of military personnel for the enhancement of cognitive resilience. Several areas for future research are identified throughout the review, emphasising the need for the wider use of self-report measures and mixed methods approaches to better reflect the subjective experience of stress and its impact on the performance of cognitive operations.
Photo-Regulation of Enzyme Activity: The Inactivation of a Carboligase with Genetically Encoded Photosensitizer Fusion Tags

Genetically encoded photosensitizers are able to produce reactive oxygen species upon illumination and are exploited in a wide range of applications, especially in the medical field. In this work, we envisioned to further apply these genetically encoded photosensitizers for the light-dependent control of single enzymes in multi-step biocatalysis. One of the challenges in the application of several enzymes in a cascade is the unwanted cross-reactivity of these biocatalysts on reaction intermediates when all enzymes are simultaneously present in the reaction. As one strategy to address this issue, we investigated whether the introduction of genetically encoded photosensitizers as fusion tags would allow the selective inactivation of enzymes after successful transformation by simply turning on light. We tested five different photosensitizers as molecular biological fusion tags to inactivate the pyruvate decarboxylase variant E469G/W543H from Acetobacter pasteurianus. Dimeric photosensitizer tags, like the flavin-binding fluorescent proteins from Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas putida showed the tendency to form insoluble protein aggregates in combination with the tetrameric carboligase. Enzyme activity was, to some extent, retained in these aggregates, but the handling of the insoluble aggregates proved to be unfeasible. Monomeric photosensitizer tags appeared to be much more suitable when fused to the tetrameric enzyme. In the dark, the singlet oxygen photosensitizing protein (SOPP3)-tagged carboligase retained 79% of its activity as compared to the unfused enzyme. Upon blue light exposure, the SOPP3 tag showed the best specific inactivation and enabled complete inactivation of the carboligase within 30 min. SOPP3 is thus seen as a promising photosensitizer tag to be applied in future multi-step enzyme cascades to overcome the challenge of cross-reactivity.
Host Immune Responses to Salivary Components - A Critical Facet of Tick-Host Interactions

Tick sialome is comprised of a rich cocktail of bioactive molecules that function as a tool to disarm host immunity, assist blood-feeding, and play a vibrant role in pathogen transmission. The adaptation of the tick’s blood-feeding behavior has lead to the evolution of bioactive molecules in its saliva to assist them to overwhelm hosts’ defense mechanisms. During a blood meal, a tick secretes different salivary molecules including vasodilators, platelet aggregation inhibitors, anticoagulants, anti-inflammatory proteins, and inhibitors of complement activation; the salivary repertoire changes to meet various needs such as tick attachment, feeding, and modulation or impairment of the local dynamic and vigorous host responses. For instance, the tick’s salivary immunomodulatory and cement proteins facilitate the tick’s attachment to the host to enhance prolonged blood-feeding and to modulate the host’s innate and adaptive immune responses. Recent advances implemented in the field of “omics” have substantially assisted our understanding of host immune modulation and immune inhibition against the molecular dynamics of tick salivary molecules in a crosstalk between the tick–host interface. A deep understanding of the tick salivary molecules, their substantial roles in multifactorial immunological cascades, variations in secretion, and host immune responses against these molecules is necessary to control these parasites. In this article, we reviewed updated knowledge about the molecular mechanisms underlying host responses to diverse elements in tick saliva throughout tick invasion, as well as host defense strategies. In conclusion, understanding the mechanisms involved in the complex interactions between the tick salivary components and host responses is essential to decipher the host defense mechanisms against the tick evasion strategies at tick-host interface which is promising in the development of effective anti-tick vaccines and drug therapeutics.
TNF-α (G-308A) Polymorphism, Circulating Levels of TNF-α and IGF-1: Risk Factors for Ischemic Stroke—An Updated Meta-Analysis

Objective Accumulated studies have explored gene polymorphisms and circulating levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 in the etiology of ischemic stroke (IS). Of the numerous etiopathological factors for IS, a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1800629 located in the TNF-α gene promoter region and increased levels of TNF-α were found to be associated with IS in different ethnic backgrounds. However, the published results are inconsistent and inconclusive. The primary objective of this meta-analysis was to investigate the concordance between rs1800629 polymorphism and IS. A secondary aim was to explore circulating levels of TNF-α and IGF-1 with IS in different ethnic backgrounds and different sourced specimens. Methods In this study, we examined whether rs1800629 genetic variant and levels of TNF-α and IGF-1 were related to the etiology of IS by performing a meta-analysis. Relevant case-control studies were retrieved by database searching and systematically selected according to established inclusion criteria. Results A total of 47 articles were identified that explored the relationship between the rs1800629 polymorphism and levels of TNF-α and IGF-1 with IS risk susceptibility. Statistical analyses revealed a significant association between the rs1800629 polymorphism and levels of TNF-α and IGF-1 with IS pathogenesis. Conclusion Our findings demonstrated that the TNF-α rs1800629 polymorphism, the increased levels of TNF-α, and decreased levels of IGF-1 were involved in the etiology of IS.
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine Integrated With Conventional Rehabilitation for Post-stroke Functional Recovery: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background Stroke leads to tremendous impacts on patients and the healthcare system. It is crucial to explore the potential management of rehabilitation. Acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCHM) integrated with conventional rehabilitation benefit post-stroke functional recovery. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients included in the Integrated Traditional Chinese-Western Medicine care program for stroke (ITCWM-stroke care program) in 2019 in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital to investigate the effects of acupuncture and TCHM integrated with conventional rehabilitation on National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Barthel Index (BI) scores before and after the program. Results A total of 255 stroke inpatients were retrieved and divided into acupuncture and acupuncture + TCHM group by hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke types, respectively. All the patients were recruited in the program at the early subacute phase after stroke onset. Of the hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke subjects, the NIHSS and BI total scores were significantly improved in the acupuncture and acupuncture + TCHM groups. The subgroup analysis results showed that in subjects with a baseline BI score ≤ 40, the acupuncture + TCHM group significantly improved BI total score better than the acupuncture group in both hemorrhagic (p < 0.05) and ischemic (p < 0.05) stroke subjects. Conclusion Acupuncture and TCHM integrated with conventional rehabilitation significantly improve stroke patients’ functional recovery at the early subacute phase. Acupuncture + TCHM contributes to better activities of daily living (ADL) improvements in stroke patients with a baseline BI score ≤ 40. We suggest integrating acupuncture and TCHM into the post-stroke rehabilitation strategy, especially for stroke patients with poor ADL function.
Modeling Feedback in Interaction With Conversational Agents—A Review

Intelligent agents interacting with humans through conversation (such as a robot, embodied conversational agent, or chatbot) need to receive feedback from the human to make sure that its communicative acts have the intended consequences. At the same time, the human interacting with the agent will also seek feedback, in order to ensure that her communicative acts have the intended consequences. In this review article, we give an overview of past and current research on how intelligent agents should be able to both give meaningful feedback toward humans, as well as understanding feedback given by the users. The review covers feedback across different modalities (e.g., speech, head gestures, gaze, and facial expression), different forms of feedback (e.g., backchannels, clarification requests), and models for allowing the agent to assess the user's level of understanding and adapt its behavior accordingly. Finally, we analyse some shortcomings of current approaches to modeling feedback, and identify important directions for future research.
Towards Splitting Monolithic Workflows Into Serverless Functions and Estimating Their Run-Time in the Earth Observation Domain (Poster)

In the Earth observation domain, monolithic legacy workflows are still prevalent to this day. As a result, runtimes of such scientist workflows range from hours to weeks or months, depending on the area being investigated and/or the architecture of the algorithms. As minor optimizations and improved scalability can reduce runtimes considerably, we envision a novel full-stack execution platform Earth observation scientific workflows in the long term. This work introduces two cornerstones of our vision: (i) Splitting monolithic workflows into smaller, more scalable, and manageable functions. More precisely, we aim to result in workflows consisting of serverless functions since the user is not concerned with the operational part (NoOps). (ii) Estimating the runtime of the extracted functions based on different aspects to provide optimal scheduling. Firstly, we have to investigate different aspects to port workflows to serverless functions. However, before we can extract serverless functions from these legacy monoliths, which mainly comprise serial program code, we have to solve the essential intermediate step of splitting the scientific workflow into parallelizable parts or applying other measures to improve the scalability and runtime. As part of the solution, parallelization is sought because it offers many possibilities for speedup and allows for easier distribution onto different threads and or processor cores during execution. In recent decades, the speedup of single CPU cores per new generation flattened. In contrast, the number of cores increased [1, 2, 3], promoting the trend to invest in parallel executable software development further. Another essential part of a possible solution is the optimization or reduction of serial code. As seen by Amdahl’s law [4], code that needs to be processed in serial, even if it only represents 10% of the overall workflow code has significant implications for the speedup of the system. Therefore, we primarily have to shrink the percentage of serial code and assess optimizations for the remainder while keeping parallelization techniques in mind. After optimizing, parallelizing, and reducing the serial code, our vision is to construct graphs for the specific workflow, split off nodes by using a predefined ruleset that correlates with the previously used strategies, and in a final step map these new
Numerical investigation of active flow control using steady blowing for landing gear noise reduction

Active Flow Control in the form of steady blowing is used with the aim of reducing the noise generated by high Reynolds number flow over bluff bodies. A Computational Fluid Dynamics solver is used to compute the flow field and provide surface pressure samples to a Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings solver to obtain far-field acoustic pressure signals. Two geometries are considered, a circular cylinder and a main strut and drag-stay configuration with the upstream drag-stay inclined by 25◦ towards the upstream direction. The latter is representative of interaction flow occurring in a landing gear. The steady blowing is applied on the cylinder and drag-stay configurations from a slot located on both sides of the body at ±30◦, measured from the stagnation line. For the drag-stay configuration, blowing at 180◦ is also investigated. In the isolated cylinder configuration, the noise reduction obtained by blowing at ±30◦ is found to be related to a modification of the flow field directly downstream of the cylinder. An increase in the recirculation region length and a reduction of the velocity fluctuations are observed. However, applying the same flow control on the drag-stay configuration results in an increase in the overall noise. Blowing at 180◦ on the drag-stay component results in a maximum reduction of 8.5 dB at the shedding peak frequency for an observer aligned with the lift dipole to the side of the drag-stay configuration. The self-noise of both components and the interaction noise are reduced.
Experiences in Replicating an Experiment on Comparing Static and Dynamic Coupling Metrics

In software engineering, coupling metrics are used to assess the quality of a software system’s architecture, especially its maintainability and understandability. On an abstract level, two types of coupling metrics can be distinguished: static metrics are solely based on source and/or byte code, and dynamic metrics also take observed run-time behavior into account. While both metric types complement each other, a recent study by Schnoor and Hasselbring suggests that these two types are correlated. This observation indicates that to a certain degree both metric types encode redundant information. In this paper, we replicate the original experiment using the same data but a different tool set. Our successful replication hence substantiates the original findings. Moreover, the summary of our experience provides valuable insights to researchers who want to ensure reproducibility and replicability of their experiments. Following open science principles, we publish all data and scripts online.
Ex-Vitro Acclimation of Black Currant

Micropropagation is a modern and very important technique for increasing the available stock of planting material, especially for newly bred cultivars (Ružic D., Lazic T., 2006). At the Fruit Research Station of Cluj experiments were carried out for the ex-vitro acclimation of black currant plantlets, cultivars Perla Neagra and Amurg, bred at the Fruit Research station. The plants were cultured in vitro for 2 months on modified hormone-free Murashige & Skoog medium (Murashige T., Skoog F.1962,), with 1 mg/l Vitamin B1, 6 g/l Plant-agar and pH adjusted to 5.8, in which they generated very vigorous roots. For the experiment, two types of plant material were used: a) whole rooted plantlets and b) the basal parts of the plantlets containing the roots and 2-3 viable nodes, left in the process of subculturing. For the acclimation phase, two types of solid substrates were used: perlite and a mixture of soil and perlite, 1:1 volume to volume ratio. Both types of plant material was planted ex-vitro into the solid substrates in small plastic trays covered with lids. Trays containing a liquid substrate consisting of a layer of 2-3 cm of plain tap water from Cluj, with the pH=7 were also used for the experiment. Plantlets and plantlet bases were inserted into the liquid substrate and were cultured, in uncovered trays, in direct contact with the surrounding air. After one month of culture, in the case of plant material type a) survival rate in perlite as well as in liquid culture was of almost 100 % and in perlite+ soil mixture it was 95 %. For plant material type b) survival rate in perlite as well as in liquid culture was of 90 %, resulting vigorous shoots from the buds left at the bases. The plants resulting in all experimental variants were planted into pots
Leadership, Management and Organisational Development

In this chapter I suggest that leadership, management and organisational development are all parts of the same process - namely enhancing the capacity of organisations, and the people within them to better achieve their purpose. As such, they are closely tied to strategic mission and all the systems that support it, as the Center for Creative Leadership Handbook for Leadership Development concludes: ''to be fully effective, a development system must be integrated with the organization’s other processes: management planning, performance management, job selection, reward and recognition systems, and even mistake systems. The confluence of these processes determines the relative effectiveness of any one development activity.
Networked virtual instrument testing system for automotive comprehensive performance

Networked virtual instrument testing system for automotive comprehensive performance was developed against the disadvantages of traditional instruments in the field of automotive performance testing.Virtual instrument technique and communication technique of DataSocket and Web Sever were used in designing the system.It adopted the PC-DAQ pattern,serial communication,multi-sensor collection,and data inosculation,to realize the test of automotive performance like chassis power,exhaust emission,noise,sideslip,headlight,braking system,suspension system,and so on.The practice results show that the utilization of virtual instrument and networking technique improves the performance of data acquisition and enhances the shared function of information and data.The testing system is real-time,extensible,(exact) and reliable.vehicle performance test;virtual instrument;networked instrument;testing system;DataSocket communication