Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression of the AHPND Toxins PirAvp and PirBvp Is Regulated by Components of the Vibrio parahaemolyticus Quorum Sensing (QS) System

Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) in shrimp is caused by Vibrio strains that harbor a pVA1-like plasmid containing the pirA and pirB genes. It is also known that the production of the PirA and PirB proteins, which are the key factors that drive the observed symptoms of AHPND, can be influenced by environmental conditions and that this leads to changes in the virulence of the bacteria. However, to our knowledge, the mechanisms involved in regulating the expression of the pirA/pirB genes have not previously been investigated. In this study, we show that in the AHPND-causing Vibrio parahaemolyticus 3HP strain, the pirAvp and pirBvp genes are highly expressed in the early log phase of the growth curve. Subsequently, the expression of the PirAvp and PirBvp proteins continues throughout the log phase. When we compared mutant strains with a deletion or substitution in two of the quorum sensing (QS) master regulators, luxO and/or opaR (luxOD47E, ΔopaR, ΔluxO, and ΔopaRΔluxO), our results suggested that expression of the pirAvp and pirBvp genes was related to the QS system, with luxO acting as a negative regulator of pirAvp and pirBvp without any mediation by opaRvp. In the promoter region of the pirAvp/pirBvp operon, we also identified a putative consensus binding site for the QS transcriptional regulator AphB. Real-time PCR further showed that aphBvp was negatively controlled by LuxOvp, and that its expression paralleled the expression patterns of pirAvp and pirBvp. An electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that AphBvp could bind to this predicted region, even though another QS transcriptional regulator, AphAvp, could not. Taken together, these findings suggest that the QS system may regulate pirAvp/pirBvp expression through AphBvp.
Chemomechanics at cell-cell and cell-matrix interfaces critical to angiogenesis

The ability to characterize and control cellular responses in vitro has far reaching implications for basic science and applied medical research. For well over 125 years, researchers have studied the behavior of biological cells under in vitro conditions where rigid glass or plastic Petri dishes and defined media in the laboratory replace the compliant solids and crowded fluids of the human body in vivo. While these tools have enabled several important advances in understanding cell functions and pathological mechanisms, the behavior of tissue cells in vitro can differ remarkably from those observed in in vivo tissue microenvironments. It is becoming increasingly appreciated that there is a close coupling between the chemical and mechanical microenvironments of the cell (i.e., the chemomechanical niche). Therefore, the biochemical reactions and conditions responsible for generating mechanical stresses and attendant cell behaviors may not be well represented in typical in vitro assays. In several key respects, particularly in terms of cell proliferation, adhesion, migration and phenotypic metabolism, in vitro assays often misrepresent the major characteristics of these behaviors in vivo. Most physiological processes are defined in part by mechanical force, mechanical microenvironment, and chemical stimuli (e.g., in angiogenesis or regulation of stern cell differentation), and therefore require an updated methodology to studying cellular mechanics and behavior. This thesis aims to address the molecularto cellular-level chemical and mechanical environments that modulate cell function in vivo at the cell-cell and cell-iiatrix interfaces, while aiming to more accurately reproduce these cell responses in vitro. The experiments and analyses described in this work investigate two key questions at the heart of angiogenesis. First, how does the protein dense nature of tissue nicroenvironments affect extracellular matrix organization and, in turn, direct cellmatrix guided functions and cytoskeletal organization? This will be addressed by the addition of inert crowders which artificially enhance the effective concentration of relevant macromolecules and proteins in vitro. Second, how do the mechanically couplings and biochemical signals between adjacent, dissimilar cell types in the microvasculature coordinate and guide angiogenesis? Multiple types of deformable substrata will be used to investigate the mechanical strain and soluble growth factors generated by perivascular cells and the response of microvascular endothelial cells to those cues. This includes the development of a novel uniaxial strain-generating device and
The Geographical Distribution and Influencing Factors of COVID-19 in China

The study of the spatial differentiation of COVID-19 in cities and its driving mechanism is helpful to reveal the spatial distribution pattern, transmission mechanism and diffusion model, and evolution mechanism of the epidemic and can lay the foundation for constructing the spatial dynamics model of the epidemic and provide theoretical basis for the policy design, spatial planning and implementation of epidemic prevention and control and social governance. Geodetector (Origin version, Beijing, China) is a great tool for analysis of spatial differentiation and its influencing factors, and it provides decision support for differentiated policy design and its implementation in executing the city-specific policies. Using factor detection and interaction analysis of Geodetector, 15 indicators of economic, social, ecological, and environmental dimensions were integrated, and 143 cities were selected for the empirical research in China. The research shows that, first of all, risks of both infection and death show positive spatial autocorrelation, but the geographical distribution of local spatial autocorrelation differs significantly between the two. Secondly, the inequalities in urban economic, social, and residential environments interact with COVID-19 spatial heterogeneity, with stronger explanatory power especially when multidimensional inequalities are superimposed. Thirdly, the spatial distribution and spread of COVID-19 are highly spatially heterogeneous and correlated due to the complex influence of multiple factors, with factors such as Area of Urban Construction Land, GDP, Industrial Smoke and Dust Emission, and Expenditure having the strongest influence, the factors such as Area of Green, Number of Hospital Beds and Parks, and Industrial NOx Emissions having unignorable influence, while the factors such as Number of Free Parks and Industrial Enterprises, Per-GDP, and Population Density play an indirect role mainly by means of interaction. Fourthly, the factor interaction effect from the infected person’s perspective mainly shows a nonlinear enhancement effect, that is, the joint influence of the two factors is greater than the sum of their direct influences; but from the perspective of the dead, it mainly shows a two-factor enhancement effect, that is, the joint influence of the two factors is greater than the maximum of their direct influences but less than their sum. Fifthly, some suggestions are put forward from the perspectives of building a healthy, resilient, safe, and smart city, providing valuable reference and decision basis for city governments to carry out differentiated policy design.
Analysis of Groundwater Quality Using Water Quality Index (WQI) and Geographic Information System (GIS) Techniques: A Case Study of Boarding Area Near Hasanuddin University, Makassar (Workshop and Sahabat)

The importance and high demand of groundwater, in this case, the well water in the boarding area near Hasanuddin University is not supported by the data to ensure that the water quality in the area is sufficient and suitable for use. Several parameters are needed to determine the quality of groundwater in the area, such as pH, Turbidity, Lead (Pb), Antimony (Sb), Molybdenum (Mo), and Uranium (U). The methods used in this study are Water Quality Index (WQI) and Geographic Information System (GIS), combined with literature review results and field data. This study shows that the WQI index value of the second sample point (Workshop) is 51.76666667, which is classified as a C rating (poor water quality), and the seventh sample point (Sahabat) is the worst with an index value of 76.35185185, which is classified as a D rating (very poor water quality). These results indicate that land use and population will affect the water quality in the study area.
A Fitness-Fatigue Model of Performance in Peripheral Artery Disease: Predicted and Measured Effects of a Pain-Free Exercise Program

Banister impulse-response (IR) model estimates the performance in response to the training impulses (TRIMPs). In 100 patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), we tested by an IR model the predictability of the effects of a 6-month structured home-based exercise program. The daily TRIMPs obtained from prescribed walking speed, relative intensity and time of exercise determined the fitness-fatigue components of performance. The estimated performance values, calculated from the baseline 6-min and pain-free walking distance (6MWD and PFWD, respectively) were compared with values measured at visits through regression models. Interval pain-free walking at controlled speed prescribed during circa-monthly hospital visits (5 ± 1) was safely performed at home with good adherence (92% of scheduled sessions, 144 ± 25 km walked in 50 ± 8 training hours). The mean TRIMP rose throughout the program from 276 to 601 a.u. The measured 6MWD and PFWD values increased (+33 m and +121 m, respectively) showing a good fit with those estimated by the IR model (6MWD: R2 0.81; PFWD: R2 0.68) and very good correspondence (correlation coefficients: 0.91 to 0.95), without sex differences. The decay of performance without training was estimated at 18 ± 3 weeks. In PAD, an IR model predicted the walking performance following a pain-free exercise program. IR models may contribute to design and verify personalized training programs.
Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Molecular Determinants during Cardiogenesis

Cardiovascular development is initiated soon after gastrulation as bilateral precardiac mesoderm is progressively symmetrically determined at both sides of the developing embryo. The precardiac mesoderm subsequently fused at the embryonic midline constituting an embryonic linear heart tube. As development progress, the embryonic heart displays the first sign of left-right asymmetric morphology by the invariably rightward looping of the initial heart tube and prospective embryonic ventricular and atrial chambers emerged. As cardiac development progresses, the atrial and ventricular chambers enlarged and distinct left and right compartments emerge as consequence of the formation of the interatrial and interventricular septa, respectively. The last steps of cardiac morphogenesis are represented by the completion of atrial and ventricular septation, resulting in the configuration of a double circuitry with distinct systemic and pulmonary chambers, each of them with distinct inlets and outlets connections. Over the last decade, our understanding of the contribution of multiple growth factor signaling cascades such as Tgf-beta, Bmp and Wnt signaling as well as of transcriptional regulators to cardiac morphogenesis have greatly enlarged. Recently, a novel layer of complexity has emerged with the discovery of non-coding RNAs, particularly microRNAs and lncRNAs. Herein, we provide a state-of-the-art review of the contribution of non-coding RNAs during cardiac development. microRNAs and lncRNAs have been reported to functional modulate all stages of cardiac morphogenesis, spanning from lateral plate mesoderm formation to outflow tract septation, by modulating major growth factor signaling pathways as well as those transcriptional regulators involved in cardiac development.
Differences in Transporters Rather than Drug Targets Are the Principal Determinants of the Different Innate Sensitivities of Trypanosoma congolense and Trypanozoon Subgenus Trypanosomes to Diamidines and Melaminophenyl Arsenicals

The animal trypanosomiases are infections in a wide range of (domesticated) animals with any species of African trypanosome, such as Trypanosoma brucei, T. evansi, T. congolense, T. equiperdum and T. vivax. Symptoms differ between host and infective species and stage of infection and are treated with a small set of decades-old trypanocides. A complication is that not all trypanosome species are equally sensitive to all drugs and the reasons are at best partially understood. Here, we investigate whether drug transporters, mostly identified in T. b. brucei, determine the different drug sensitivities. We report that homologues of the aminopurine transporter TbAT1 and the aquaporin TbAQP2 are absent in T. congolense, while their introduction greatly sensitises this species to diamidine (pentamidine, diminazene) and melaminophenyl (melarsomine) drugs. Accumulation of these drugs in the transgenic lines was much more rapid. T. congolense is also inherently less sensitive to suramin than T. brucei, despite accumulating it faster. Expression of a proposed suramin transporter, located in T. brucei lysosomes, in T. congolense, did not alter its suramin sensitivity. We conclude that for several of the most important classes of trypanocides the presence of specific transporters, rather than drug targets, is the determining factor of drug efficacy.
Comprehensive Appraisal on the Training Level of the Outstanding Physiques of Young Tennis Players in Hubei

To carry on the physical test on typically outstanding young tennis players of Hubei Province,the test indexes are chosen by specialist-investigated method and the physiques of the players are examined by competence-tested method.Through the Theory of Factor Analysis,these indexes are sifted and five representative test indexes of physiques are gained,such as: 5 times right-left double move,soccer distance throw,one-minute-single-shaking rope skipping,grip,three-thousand-meter race.Furthermore,"the order law" and "the weight law" are adopted to build the comprehensive evaluation on the physiques of the outstanding tennis players,which provides the objective reference for the scientific regulation of the training plan and effective monitor on the training process for the purpose of understanding the athlets'physical situation.
Combining Variable Selection and Multiple Linear Regression for Soil Organic Matter and Total Nitrogen Estimation by DRIFT-MIR Spectroscopy

The successful estimation of soil organic matter (SOM) and soil total nitrogen (TN) contents with mid-infrared (MIR) reflectance spectroscopy depends on selecting appropriate variable selection techniques and multivariate methods for regression analysis. This study aimed to explore the potential of combining a multivariate method and spectral variable selection for soil SOM and TN estimation using MIR spectroscopy. Five hundred and ten topsoil samples were collected from Quzhou County, Hebei Province, China, and their SOM and TN contents and reflectance spectra were measured using DRIFT-MIR spectroscopy (diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform in the mid-infrared range, MIR, wavenumber: 4000–400 cm−1; wavelength: 2500–25,000 nm). Two multivariate methods (partial least-squares regression, PLSR; multiple linear regression, MLR) combined with two variable selection techniques (stability competitive adaptive reweighted sampling, sCARS; bootstrapping soft shrinkage approach, BOSS) were used for model calibration. The MLR model combined with the sCARS method yielded the most accurate estimation result for both SOM (Rp2 = 0.72 and RPD = 1.89) and TN (Rp2 = 0.84 and RPD = 2.50). Out of the 2382 wavenumbers in a full spectrum, sCARS determined that only 31 variables were important for SOM estimation (accounting for 1.30% of all variables) and 27 variables were important for TN estimation (accounting for 1.13% of all variables). The results demonstrated that sCARS was a highly efficient approach for extracting information on wavenumbers and mitigating redundant wavenumbers. In addition, the current study indicated that MLR, which is simpler than PLSR, when combined with spectral variable selection, can achieve high-precision prediction of SOM and TN content. As such, DRIFT-MIR spectroscopy coupled with MLR and sCARS is a good alternative for estimating the SOM and TN of soils.
Newspapers' Treatment of Child Abuse Cases in Lahore

According to research, the careless use of words in news coverage on child abuse has been brought to light. It was discovered that the language used in the crime story has a significant impact on reducing the severity of the crime and, as a result, has a substantial impact on how the readers perceive the nature of such crimes. The purpose of this research was to conduct a detailed investigation on how incidences of child abuse are reported in Pakistani media. Its primary emphasis is on understanding how news articles about child abuse are framed and promoted in the media. The reports of child sexual abuse that appeared in four daily newspapers (two English and two Urdu) between January 2016 and January 2018 were studied for the frames and language used to convey the events. A summary of the results was presented in the form of graphs and tables. To get an accurate count, we surveyed a total of 2718 people across both English-language and Urdu-language newspapers. According to this study, a total of 706 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in Lahore during the years (2016-2010) and 355 cases of CSA (Child Sexual Abuse) were reported in Lahore during the years (2010-2010). How the newspapers covered the news about child abuse did and does have a sound impact in underlining the importance of this matter on both the governmental and public scale. Sensitized coverage is problematic because it tends to portray child abuse more as a political issue than as a grim reality, affecting everyone across society. It is time to strictly implement anti-child abuse laws so that crimes against children could be effectively prevented.
Rethinking creativity: creative industries, AI and everyday creativity

This commentary reflects on how creativity is dehumanised (and rehumanised) and how its labour aspects are hindered (and highlighted) in the three recent developments in our understanding of arts, culture and creativity: the creative industries; AI creativity; and creativity in everyday life. The creative industries discourse instrumentalises and dehumanises creativity by hiding labour perspectives and treating creativity as human capital and a generator of IP. Meanwhile, contemplating AI creativity helps us to look beyond the economic paradigm and consider key traits of human creativity and the creation process, some aspects of which are successfully emulated by AI. Yet, we also observe how AI dissociates creativity from human agency and how its cost-cutting effect can challenge human creators in many sectors. Finally, the idea of everyday creativity effectively rehumanises and democratises creativity; however, it not only lacks labour perspectives but also hinders them.
Development of a rapid LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of various flavonoids, isoflavonoids, and phytohormones extracted from Medicago truncatula leaves

Abstract Flavonoids, isoflavonoids, and phytohormones are small metabolites of plants, which are involved in the regulation of plant development and/or defense against pathogens. Quantitation of these metabolites in plants is important to basic research on crop protection and in the food and herbal industry. Hence, a robust, reliable, and sensitive method is required for the analysis of these compounds in plant samples. In the present study, a high-performance liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric (HPLC–ESI-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of isoflavonoids including genistein, daidzein, formononetin, biochanin A, 2′-hydroxyformononetin, 2′-methoxyformononetin, medicarpin, flavonoids; liquiritigenin, naringenin, and phytohormones; salicylic acid and jasmonic acid in Medicago truncatula. The analytes were separated by means of C-18, reversed-phase chromatography, and detected using QTRAP mass spectrometer. The on-column limit of detection of all the analytes was as low as 0.03 pg, whereas the limit of quantification of all the compounds was observed up to 0.1 pg levels. Further the method was also validated in terms of selectivity, linearity (r 2 > 0.99), recovery (90.6–110.3%), accuracy (RE% ≤ 3%) and precision (RSD% ≤ 3%). As a proof of concept, the developed method was successfully used for the quantitation of these metabolites from leaf extract of M. truncatula. Graphical Abstract
A Case for Value-Added Exports in the Estimation of Export Diversification in Asia and the Pacific

As economies integrate into global and regional value chains, these fragmented production structures may not be adequately reflected in diversification measurements. While an assessment of export diversification using gross exports provides insight into the direct exports of a trading economy, it does not tell the full story. Using both gross exports and value-added exports can better inform policy decisions and enable exporting economies to carve their niche in increasingly digitally-enabled value chains.
Discriminant analysis of background noise in extremity magnetic resonance images

Since the creation of the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment in 1974, experts have been studying the continuous improvement of image quality. This work aims to study the types of background noise in images from extremity MRI system of high-field, mainly caused by Faraday Cage problems. Phantom images of 1T equipment were investigated for this study. For the acquisition of these images, a protocol called DQA (Daily Quality Assurance) was used. For this work, 45 MRI images were acquired, which were pre-classified by an expert, and analyzed by SNR, an index that quantifies the ratio between signal and image noise, and by the multivariate statistical methods PCA + MLDA. PCA served as a statistical filter, which considerably decreased the amount of input information for MLDA. When all main components were used, MLDA showed an accuracy of 93.33% and results that allowed to discriminate background noise from these images in complementarity with SNR.
The Prevalence of Amnestic and Non-Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Its Association with Different Lifestyle Factors in a South Italian Elderly Population

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a transition stage between normal aging and dementia and can be useful to monitor the cognitive status of people at risk of dementias. Our aims were to investigate the prevalence of amnestic and non-amnestic MCI in a South Italian elderly population, and to identify socio-demographic, clinical and lifestyle factors associated with MCI. A cross-sectional retrospective population study on 839 community-dwelling participants over 60 years of age was carried out. Elderly people were administered a brief neuropsychological screening to identify their cognitive and functional status, and a questionnaire to investigate several socio-demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors. Prevalence estimate for MCI was 12.0% (95% CI: 10.0–14.5%), for amnestic MCI was 7.4% (95% CI: 5.8–9.4%), and for non-amnestic MCI was 4.6% (95% CI: 3.4–6.4%), for people older than 60 years of age. Logistic regression models, corrected for age, sex, and education, revealed a significant association of MCI with the following factors: age, education, intellectual activities, and topographical disorientation. On the other hand, education, clinical factors (e.g., depression level and perceived physical pain), lifestyle factors (e.g., smoking, alcohol, and leisure/productive activities), dietary habits, quality of life, and self-reported topographical disorientation were non-significantly associated with MCI. Prevalence estimates and the association of MCI and its subtypes with risk and protective factors were discussed in comparison with the most recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses.