The Human Gut Virome in Hypertension

Objectives: Previous studies have reported that the gut microbiome has an important link with the development of hypertension. Though previous researches have focused on the links of gut bacteria with hypertension, little has been known about the linkage of gut viruses to hypertension and the development of hypertension, largely due to the lack of data mining tools for such investigation. In this work, we have analyzed 196 fecal metagenomic data related to hypertension aiming to profile the gut virome and link the gut virome to pre-hypertension and hypertension.Design: Here, we have applied a statistically sound method for mining of gut virome data and linking gut virome to hypertension. We characterized the viral composition and bacterial composition of 196 samples, identified the viral-type of each sample and linked gut virome to hypertension.Results: We stratified these 196 fecal samples into two viral-types and selected 32 viruses as the biomarkers for these groups. We found that viruses could have a superior resolution and discrimination power than bacteria for differentiation of healthy samples and pre-hypertension samples, as well as hypertension samples. Moreover, as to the co-occurrence networks linking viruses and bacteria, we found increasingly pervasive virus-bacteria linkages from healthy people to pre-hypertension people to hypertension patients.Conclusion: Overall, our results have shown ample indications of the link between human gut virome and hypertension, and could help provide microbial solutions toward early diagnoses of hypertension

Art therapy practices in museum education: A mini review

This article reviews the potential functions and approaches of museum education in alleviating psychological anxiety, particularly the psychological anxiety experienced by adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. We outline the main forms of museum education, highlighting how it supports the potential functions of art therapy for psychological anxiety. Thereafter, we review the representative research on museum art therapy practice for different populations to invite discussion, dialogue, and awareness of future directions for museum education and suggest gaps in the research that require further study

Relative distance perception of sound sources in critical listening environment via binaural reproduction

Accurate distance cues are important in the degree of realism provided by virtual audio systems. In the last decade there has been an increased interest in this research area. The main focus of this research project is to investigate the effect of different acoustic cues related to distance perception, such as Direct to Reverberant ratio (D/R), in the perception of the relative distance between sound sources in a virtual medium sized critical listening room. The virtual sources were generated by convolving a dry speech signal with modelled and measured BRIRs. The BRIRs were modelled using a direction related image source model for the early reflections and exponentially decaying noise for the reverb tail. In order to investigate relative distance perception and the factors that affect it, a pairwise comparison was conducted involving twenty- three subjects. Three different distances ranging between 1.0m and 3.0m were used in the comparison pairs. The main outcomes from the tests are: 1) Modelled and measured BRIRs provide relative distance cues equally well; 2) Direct-to-reverberant ratio is a significant relative distance cue, even when level between virtual sources is normalized; 3) Adding level differences between the sources does not have a significant effect on the perception of relative distance. However, it reduced the precedence of wrong relative distance judgments by 5%-15%; 4) Manipulation of early reflection time of arrival (TOA) does not appear to be a significant cue in distance perception. These findings are important in the field of virtual reality and computer gaming because they show that the relative distance of a virtual source can be manipulated simply by adjusting the direct-to-reverberant ratio of the BRIRs. It can thus be concluded that large BRIR databases and interpolation between BRIRs at different distances are not required for appropriate distance cues

MOESM7 of Pan-genome analyses of 24 Shewanella strains re-emphasize the diversification of their functions yet evolutionary dynamics of metal-reducing pathway

Additional file 7: Figure S5. Phylogenetic relationship of mtr–omc clusters within different bacteria. The phylogenic trees built by protein sequences were showed for (A) mtrB, (B) mtrC, (C) mtrE, (D) mtrF, (E) omcA, (F) mtrA and (G) mtrD, respectively. The branches of Shewanella and clade of S. oneidensis MR-1 are marked in red

MOESM4 of Pan-genome analyses of 24 Shewanella strains re-emphasize the diversification of their functions yet evolutionary dynamics of metal-reducing pathway

Additional file 4: Table S2. Possible donors of HGT genes in each strain

MOESM5 of Pan-genome analyses of 24 Shewanella strains re-emphasize the diversification of their functions yet evolutionary dynamics of metal-reducing pathway

Additional file 5: Figure S3. Phylogenetic tree of mtr–omc gene clusters in 24 Shewanella genomes. The phylogenetic tree was constructed using a multiple sequence alignment of the full mtr–omc clusters and cymA genes of all 24 Shewanella

MOESM3 of Pan-genome analyses of 24 Shewanella strains re-emphasize the diversification of their functions yet evolutionary dynamics of metal-reducing pathway

Additional file 3: Figure S2. GO annotation of gained and lost genes. (A) Function enrichment of expanded gene families. (B) Function enrichment of contracted gene families. (C) Function enrichment of HGT-origin genes

MOESM2 of Pan-genome analyses of 24 Shewanella strains re-emphasize the diversification of their functions yet evolutionary dynamics of metal-reducing pathway

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Distribution of genes based on COG category of the pan-genome. Distribution of COG categories between the core (blue bars), accessory (green bars) and specific genes (red bars) of Shewanella

MOESM8 of Pan-genome analyses of 24 Shewanella strains re-emphasize the diversification of their functions yet evolutionary dynamics of metal-reducing pathway

Additional file 8: Table S3. Genomes and strains used in this study. Organism information is collected from NCBI