Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shelf Water Export at the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence Evidenced From Combined in situ and Satellite Observations

The Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) is the region where opposing and intense western boundary currents meet along the Southwestern Atlantic slope at about 38°S, generating one of the most energetic mesoscale regions of the global ocean. Based on shipborne observations acquired within the Uruguayan Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ), combined with satellite data and an eddy tracking algorithm, we analyze the cross-shelf exchanges during May 2016, when the BMC was in an anomalous northern position. Two types of shelf water export were observed triggered by mesoscale dynamics: one was the export of shallow Rio de la Plata Plume waters driven off-shelf by the retroflection of the Brazil Current. This export formed a 70 km wide, 20 m deep filament that propagated offshore at 0.3 m s–1, with a transport of 0.42 Sv. It lasted about 10 days before being mixed with ambient Confluence waters by strong winds. An additional type of off-shelf transport consisted of a subsurface layer of Subantarctic Shelf Waters (SASW) about 60 m thick that subducted at the BMC reaching 130 m deep and transporting 0.91 ± 0.91 Sv. We show that geostrophic currents derived from satellite altimetry over the slope can be useful to track this subsurface off-shelf export as they are significantly correlated with absolute velocity measurements at this depth. Argo temperature and salinity profiles show evidence of these two types of shelf water export occurring between the BMC front and the separation of the Brazil Current from the shelf-break, suggesting this is a relatively frequent phenomenon, in agreement with previous observations.
Aspen Leaves as a “Chemical Landscape” for Fungal Endophyte Diversity—Effects of Nitrogen Addition

Abiotic and biotic factors may shape the mycobiome communities in plants directly but also indirectly by modifying the quality of host plants as a substrate. We hypothesized that nitrogen fertilization (N) would determine the quality of aspen (Populus tremula) leaves as a substrate for the endophytic fungi, and that by subjecting the plants to N, we could manipulate the concentrations of positive (nutritious) and negative (antifungal) chemicals in leaves, thus changing the internal “chemical landscape” for the fungi. We expected that this would lead to changes in the fungal community composition, in line with the predictions of heterogeneity–diversity relationship and resource availability hypotheses. To test this, we conducted a greenhouse study where aspen plants were subjected to N treatment. The chemical status of the leaves was confirmed using GC/MS (114 metabolites, including amino acids and sugars), LC/MS (11 phenolics), and UV-spectrometry (antifungal condensed tannins, CTs), and the endophytic communities were characterized using culture-dependent sequencing. We found that N treatment reduced foliar concentrations of CT precursor catechin but not that of CTs. Nitrogen treatment also increased the concentrations of the amino acids and reduced the concentration of some sugars. We introduced beetle herbivores (H) as a second treatment but found no rapid changes in chemical traits nor strong effect on the diversity of endophytes induced by herbivores. A few rare fungi were associated with and potentially vectored by the beetle herbivores. Our findings indicate that in a controlled environment, the externally induced changes did not strongly alter endophyte diversity in aspen leaves.
Occupational Stress and the Quality of Life of Nurses in Infectious Disease Departments in China: The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience

Aim We aim to explore the impact of occupational stress on the quality of life of nurses in infectious disease departments and to explore the mediating role of psychological resilience on this impact. Background Sudden public health events and the prevalence of infectious diseases give nurses in infectious disease departments a heavy task load and high occupational stress, which can affect their quality of life, and which is closely related to the quality of clinical care they provide. There are few existing studies on occupational stress, psychological resilience, and the quality of life of nurses in infectious disease departments. Methods We collected data from infectious-disease-specialized hospitals or infectious disease departments of general hospitals in China. In total 1,536 nurses completed questionnaires: the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale. We use a structural equation model to test the mediating role of the psychological resilience in the relationship between occupational stress and quality of life. Results Among 1,536 participants, 88.2% experienced an effort-reward imbalance. The average scores for psychological resilience and quality of life were 56.06 (SD = 14.19) and 51.80 (SD = 8.23), respectively. Our results show that occupational stress is negatively correlated with psychological resilience (r = −0.28, p < 0.01) and quality of life (r = −0.44, p < 0.01). In addition, we find that psychological resilience is positively correlated with quality of life (r = 0.55, p < 0.01) and that the indirect effect of occupational stress on quality of life through psychological resilience is significant (β = −0.036, 95% CI: 0.027 to 0.426), indicating at least a partial mediating role of psychological resilience. Conclusion A high proportion of nurses in infectious disease departments felt that their jobs’ effort-reward imbalance was high. These nurses’ scores for psychological resilience were in the middle level among Chinese people generally, but their quality of life was lower than the Chinese norm. We conclude that occupational stress has an important impact on their quality of life, and psychological resilience plays a partial mediating role on this impact. Implications for Nursing Management Hospital managers can benefit from paying attention to the occupational stress of nurses and helping to improve the quality of life of nurses by alleviating this occupational stress and improving psychological resilience.
Emerging Trends in Neuromodulation for Treatment of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects more than 70 million people globally. A considerable proportion of epilepsy is resistant to anti-epileptic drugs (AED). For patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), who are not eligible for resective or ablative surgery, neuromodulation has been a palliative option. Since the approval of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in 1997, expansion to include other modalities, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) and responsive neurostimulation (RNS), has led to improved seizure control in this population. In this article, we discuss the current updates and emerging trends on neuromodulation for epilepsy.
How Are Consumers Affected by Taste and Hygiene Ratings When Ordering Food Online? A Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Study

With the rapid development of the take-out industry, taste and hygiene ratings as social-based information have been frequently used by online food-ordering platforms to facilitate consumer purchases. The present study aims to uncover the effects of taste and hygiene ratings on online food-ordering decision by incorporating behavioral and neural approaches. The behavioral results showed that a high taste rating induced a higher ordering intention than a low taste rating, and that a high hygiene rating induced a higher ordering intention than a low hygiene rating. The effect of hygiene rating on ordering intention was moderated by taste rating. Hygiene rating had a greater impact on ordering intention when the taste rating was high (vs. low). In addition, inconsistency between taste and hygiene ratings increased the cognitive load and took more time for decision-making. The event-related potential (ERP) data revealed that consumers paid more attention to a high (vs. low) taste rating in the early cognitive process, which was reflected by a larger P2. Subsequently, a more negative N2 was elicited by conflicting ratings than consistent ratings when the taste rating was low. In the relatively late decision-making process, a larger P3 was evoked by consistent than conflicting ratings, suggesting that consumers had more confidence in their decisions for consistent ratings. These findings could help restaurants understand the roles of taste and hygiene rating cues in affecting consumer behavior and prompt those restaurants to adopt effective measures to increase online sales.
A Pragmatic Study on Naive Bayes Classifier

The naive Bayes classifier greatly simplify learning by assuming that features are independent given class. Although independence is generally a poor assumption, in practice naive Bayes often competes well with more sophisticated classifiers. Our broad goal is to understand the data characteristics which affect the performance of naive Bayes. Our approach uses Monte Carlo simulations that allow a systematic study of classification accuracy for several classes of randomly generated problems. We analyze the impact of the distribution entropy on the classification error, showing that low-entropy feature distributions yield good performance of naive Bayes. We also demonstrate that naive Bayes works well for certain nearlyfunctional feature dependencies, thus reaching its best performance in two opposite cases: completely independent features (as expected) and functionally dependent features (which is surprising). Another surprising result is that the accuracy of naive Bayes is not directly correlated with the degree of feature dependencies measured as the classconditional mutual information between the features. Instead, a better predictor of naive Bayes accuracy is the amount of information about the class that is lost because of the independence assumption.
GABAergic actions mediate opposite ethanol effects on dopaminergic neurons in the anterior and posterior ventral tegmental area

It is known that posterior ventral tegmental area (p-VTA) differs from anterior VTA (a-VTA) in that rats learn to self-administer ethanol into p-VTA, but not into a-VTA. Since activation of VTA dopaminergic neurons by ethanol is a cellular mechanism underlying the reinforcement of ethanol consumption, we hypothesized that ethanol may exert different effects on dopaminergic neurons in p-VTA and a-VTA. In patch-clamp recordings in midbrain slices from young rats (P22 - 32), we detected no significant difference in electrophysiological properties between p-VTA and a-VTA dopaminergic neurons. However, acute exposure to ethanol (21-86 mM) stimulated p-VTA dopaminergic neurons but suppressed a-VTA dopaminergic neurons. Conversely, ethanol (> 21 mM) dose-dependently reduced the frequency of the spontaneous GABAergic inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) generated by inhibitory neuronal firing but not miniature IPSCs in p-VTA dopaminergic neurons. By contrast, ethanol increased frequency and amplitude of both sIPSCs and miniature IPSCs in a-VTA dopaminergic neurons. All these effects of ethanol were abolished by a GABA A receptor antagonist. There was a strong negative correlation between ethanol-evoked modulation of sIPSCs and neuronal firing in VTA dopaminergic neurons. These results indicate that GABAergic inputs play an important role in ethanol’s actions in VTA. The differential effects of ethanol on sIPSCs and neuronal firing in p-VTA and a-VTA could be the basis for ethanol reinforcement via p-VTA. Conclusion : For the first time we show that 1) EtOH stimulates p-VTA DA neurons, but inhibits a-VTA DA neurons; and 2) these effects appear to be mediated respectively by a corresponding decrease or facilitation of GABA release. These findings could explain why rats self-administer EtOH into the p-VTA but not into the a-VTA (Rodd-Henricks et al., 2000).
Non-Expresser of PR-Genes 1 Positively Regulates Abscisic Acid Signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

The plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), is not only important for promoting abiotic stress responses but also plays a versatile and crucial role in plant immunity. The pathogen infection-induced dynamic accumulation of ABA mediates the degradation of non-expresser of PR genes 1 (NPR1) through the CUL3NPR3NPR4 proteasome pathway. However, the functional significance of NPR1 degradation by other E3 ligases in response to ABA remains unclear. Here, we report that NPR1 is induced transcriptionally by ABA and that npr1-1 mutation results in ABA insensitivity during seed germination and seedling growth. Mutants lacking NPR1 downregulate the expression of ABA-responsive transcription factors ABA INSENSITIVE4 (ABI4) and ABA INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5), and that of their downstream targets EM6, RAB18, RD26, and RD29B. The npr1-1 mutation also affects the transcriptional activity of WRKY18, which activates WRKY60 in the presence of ABA. Furthermore, NPR1 directly interacts with and is degraded by HOS15, a substrate receptor for the DDB1-CUL4 ubiquitin E3 ligase complex. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that NPR1 acts as a positive regulator of ABA-responsive genes, whereas HOS15 promotes NPR1 degradation in a proteasome-dependent manner.
A Mixture of Valine and Isoleucine Restores the Growth of Protein-Restricted Pigs Likely through Improved Gut Development, Hepatic IGF-1 Pathway, and Plasma Metabolomic Profile

Valine (Val) alone or in combination with isoleucine (Ile) improves the growth under severe protein restriction; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we assessed whether Val/Ile-induced growth in protein-restricted pigs is associated with changes in gut development, hepatic insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) production, and blood metabolomics. Forty piglets were assigned to five dietary groups: positive control (PC) with standard protein content; low protein (LP) with very low protein content; and LP supplemented with Val (LPV), Ile (LPI), and Val and Ile (LPVI). LPVI reversed the negative effects of VLP diets on growth and gut morphology. Both LPV and LPVI restored the reduced transcript of IGF-1 while decreasing the transcript of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1 (IGFBP1) in the liver. LPV and LPVI recovered the reduced plasma Val, glycine, and leucine concentrations, which were positively correlated with improved gut morphology and the hepatic IGF-1 gene expression and negatively correlated with hepatic IGFBP1 mRNA abundance. In conclusion, supplementation with a combination of Val and Ile into the VLP diets restored the decreased growth performance of pigs fed with these diets likely through improved gut development, hepatic IGF-1 expression and bioavailability, and plasma metabolomics profile.
Design and Development of Levodopa Loaded Polymeric Nanoparticles for Intranasal Delivery

Intranasal delivery is an alternative administration route to deliver levodopa (L-Dopa) to the brain. This drug delivery route offers high drug permeability across the nasal epithelium and rapid absorption into the central nervous system (CNS) while bypassing first-pass metabolism. In this study, we developed a library of polymeric nanocarrier systems for L-Dopa utilising poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and chitosan. A total of three PLGA nanoparticles formulations (P1, P2 and P3) were prepared using a modified water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) solvent evaporation technique, while four formulations of chitosan nanoparticles (C1, C2, C3 and C4) were prepared by ionic gelation method with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as a cross-linking agent. Upon characterising nanocarriers developed, it was discovered that C2 demonstrated the best results with regard to droplet size (553 ± 52 nm), polydispersity index (0.522), zeta potential (+46.2 ± 2.3 mV), and encapsulation efficiency (82.38% ± 1.63). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) further corroborated the particle size analysis highlighting that C2 displayed uniform particle size with spherical morphology. Additionally, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) revealed that C2 was in an amorphous state while Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis showed that there were no chemical interactions that might change the chemical structure of L-Dopa within the polymeric nanoparticle matrix. Lastly, an in-vivo intranasal study in male Wistar rats showed that the absorption of L-Dopa when formulated as chitosan nanoparticles was significantly enhanced (p < 0.05) by approximately two-fold compared to unmodified L-Dopa. Therefore, this work illustrates that formulating L-Dopa into chitosan nanoparticles for intranasal delivery is a potentially viable formulation strategy to improve the bioavailability of the drug for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Butenolides from the Coral-Derived Fungus Aspergillius terreus SCSIO41404

Five undescribed butenolides including two pairs of enantiomers, (+)-asperteretal G (1a), (−)-asperteretal G (1b), (+)-asperteretal H (2a), (−)-asperteretal H (2b), asperteretal I (3), and para-hydroxybenzaldehyde derivative, (S)-3-(2,3-dihydroxy-3-methylbutyl)-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (14), were isolated together with ten previously reported butenolides 4–13, from the coral-derived fungus Aspergillus terreus SCSIO41404. Enantiomers 1a/1b and 2a/2b were successfully purified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a chiral column, and the enantiomers 1a and 1b were new natural products. Structures of the unreported compounds, including the absolute configurations, were elucidated by NMR and MS data, optical rotation, experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism, induced circular dichroism, and X-ray crystal data. The isolated butenolides were evaluated for antibacterial, cytotoxic, and enzyme inhibitory activities. Compounds 7 and 12 displayed weak antibacterial activity, against Enterococcus faecalis (IC50 = 25 μg/mL) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (IC50 = 50 μg/mL), respectively, whereas 6 showed weak inhibitory effect on acetylcholinesterase. Nevertheless, most of the butenolides showed inhibition against pancreatic lipase (PL) with an inhibition rate of 21.2–73.0% at a concentration of 50 μg/mL.
Recent Developments for the Detection of Escherichia Coli Biosensors Based on Nano-Objects—A Review

Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible in recent years to develop strategies for rapid and sensitive detection of pathogenic bacteria using new nanomaterials and the development of electronic nano-sensors. The detection of bacteria still faces problems such as long analysis time and complexity of the process. An alternative method is the use of biosensors, which combines a biological recognition mechanism with a physical transduction technique. Thus, a number of methods and manufacturing technologies have been developed in order to achieve performance in sensitivity, detection limit, label-free detection or real-time analysis. This review aims to focus on the state of the art of biosensors for the recognition elements of Escherichia coli in label-free biosensors with a particular focus on the beneficial use of nanomaterials and nano-objects for detection. Among the recent related biosensors based on nano-objects for E. coli detection, the technologies and measurement techniques are detailed by comparing their performances detection in terms of concentration range and detection limit. Detection becomes more sensitive and more flexible using nanoparticles as markers, and real-time electrical detection methods are dominant in comparison with optical ones. The lowest detection limit can be achieved for sensors based on metal (gold or silver nanoparticles) with optical detection techniques in contrast with electrical detection methods using measurement conductance.
Microbe-Immune Crosstalk: Evidence That T Cells Influence the Development of the Brain Metabolome

Cross-talk between the immune system and the brain is essential to neuronal development, neuronal excitability, neuroplasticity, and neurotransmission. Gut microbiota are essential to immune system development and immune function; hence, it is essential to consider more broadly the microbiota-immune-brain axis in neurodevelopment. The gut, brain, and microbial metabolomes obtained from C57Bl/6 and T-cell-deficient mice across four developmental timepoints (postnatal day 17, 24, 28, and 84) were studied by 1H NMR spectroscopy. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on cecal and fecal samples. In the absence of T-cells, the developmental trajectory of the gut microbiota and of the host’s metabolic profile was altered. The novel insights from this work include (1) the requirement of functional T-cells for the normal trajectory of microbiotal development and the metabolic maturation of the supra-organism, (2) the potential role for Muribaculaceae taxa in modulating the cecal availability of metabolites previously implicated with a role in the gut-brain axis in T-cell deficient mice, and (3) the impact of T-cell-deficiency on central levels of neuroactive metabolites.
Live Performance and Microbial Load Modulation of Broilers Fed a Direct-Fed Microbials (DFM) and Xylanase Combination

The animal industry, which focuses on producing protein for human consumption, is continuously seeking solutions that can enhance both animal performance and health at a low cost. Several feed additives are currently being used to improve the nutritive value of feed as well as replacing the subtherapeutic levels of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP). This study was designed to investigate the effect of a feed additive that is a blend of multi-strain Bacillus spp. probiotics and a xylanase in a 2 × 2 factorial dietary treatments design, testing two levels of the feed additive blend (0 and 100 g/MT) and two cereal grain types (corn and wheat) on live performance, gut lesions, environmental Clostridium perfringens load, and pathogen load in the digesta of broiler chickens (E. tenella, total aerobic count cells (APC), E. coli, and C. perfringens). Day-old chicks were randomly placed in 10 replicate pens per treatment with 52 birds per replicate and grown to 42 d of age. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA. At 42 d, birds fed EnzaPro were heavier (p < 0.0004) than unsupplemented birds. An improvement in FCR (p = 0.03) was observed from 1 to 42 d by approximately two points in both corn- and wheat-based diets supplemented with EnzaPro. In wheat-based diets, supplementing EnzaPro reduced (p < 0.0001) a 21 d lesion score of intestines with a further reduction (p < 0.02) at 42 d. EnzaPro reduced (p < 0.03) litter moisture by approximately 1% compared to non-supplemented EnzaPro in both corn- and wheat-based diets. Pathogen load in digesta (C. perfringens, E. tenella, APC, and E. coli) was reduced (p < 0.0002) when EnzaPro was supplemented in diets. It can be concluded that EnzaPro (a blend of DFM Bacillus spp (1 × 105 CFU/g feed) and xylanase (10 XU/g feed)) may be used in both corn- and wheat-based diets to improve the performance and gut health of broilers.