Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mycotoxin contamination of Lithuanian-grown cereal grains and factors determining it

During the period 2003–2005, spring and winter cereal grain samples were analysed for the presence of the mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN), T-2 toxin, ochratoxin A and aflatoxin (total) by the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture. Mycotoxin DON produced by the fungi of the genus Fusarium was found to be most frequent in Lithuanian-grown cereal grains. DON-contaminated samples accounted for 84.0–98.0% of the total samples analysed. Grains of spring cereals were found to be more heavily contaminated by this toxin than those of winter cereals. The level of ZEN contamination was higher in spring wheat, barley and oats as compared with winter wheat, rye and triticale grains. T-2 toxin producers Fusarium poae, F. sporotrichioides prevailed in the Lithuanian-grown cereal grains. Analysis of T-2 toxin in oat grains showed the actual relevance of studies of this toxin, since during the period 2003– 2005 the oat grains tested was 100% contaminated with this toxin. Elevated T-2 toxin concentrations were identified not only in oats but also in spring barley and winter rye grain samples. Eighty per cent of spring barley grain samples were contaminated with ochratoxin; in 42.0% of samples its concentrations exceeded 3.0 μg kg-1, and their contamination with aflatoxin (total) amounted to 67.9%, but the contents identified did not exceed the levels specified in the EU regulations.
Relationship of Goal Level to Performance Level

Several previous srudies (Locke, 1966) have yielded a positive, linear relationship between the level or difficulty of the goal assigned to S and quantity of output on "brainstorming" tasks. However, the strength of the relationships may have been attenuated in these studies since Ss assigned easy goals usually exceeded these goals. This was prevented in the present study. Fifty-six male and 49 female paid, undergraduate, volunteers worked for 15 1-rnin. trials, the task being to list objects or things that could be described by a given adjective (e.g., "heavy"). The adjectives were different for each trial. Goals were assigned in terms of the n ~ ~ m b e r of things S was to try and list. The goals were: 4 ( N = l l ) , 8 ( N = 17) , 10(N = 15 ) , 12(N = 4 1 ) , and 13(N = 2 1 ) . A given S had the same goal on all 15 trials. Ss were told to stop working if they reached their goal before 1 min. was up. E checked the protocoIs for repetitions but not for quality of answers. Mean output quantity as a fiinction of goal level, and probability of reaching the goal is shown in Fig. 1. The Pearson r between goal level and output was . 88 ( p < .001; N = 105) .
A plasma microRNA signature of acute lentiviral infection: biomarkers of central nervous system disease

Objective:Plasma microRNAs (miRNAs) are modulated during disease and are emerging biomarkers; they have not been characterized in HIV infection. Using our macaque/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) model of HIV, we sought to identify a plasma miRNA profile of acute lentiviral infection, evaluate its relationship with known cellular and viral determinants of lentivirus-associated central nervous system (CNS) disease, and explore the potential of miRNAs to predict CNS disease. Design:Plasma samples were obtained before inoculation and 10 days after inoculation from SIV-infected macaques. Methods:Plasma miRNA expression profiles were determined by TaqMan low-density array for six individuals. miRNA expression was compared with levels of cytokines, virus, and plasma platelet count. miRNA results were confirmed by single miRNA-specific assays for 10 macaques. Nineteen individuals were used to validate a disease prediction test. Results:A 45-miRNA signature of acute infection (differential expression with P < 0.05 after multiple comparison correction) classified plasma as infected or not. Several differentially expressed miRNAs correlated with CNS disease-associated cytokines interleukin-6 and CCL2 and included predicted and/or validated regulators of the corresponding mRNAs. miRNAs tracked with viral load and platelet count were also predictors of CNS disease. At least six miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in individuals with severe versus no CNS disease; in an unweighted expression test, they predicted CNS disease. Conclusion:Acute-phase differential expression of plasma miRNAs predicts CNS disease and suggests that CNS damage or predisposition to disease progression begins in the earliest phase of infection. Plasma miRNAs should be investigated further as leading indicators of HIV diseases as early as acute infection.
On the Correction of Anomalous Phase Oscillation in Entanglement Witnesses Using Quantum Neural Networks

Entanglement of a quantum system depends upon the relative phase in complicated ways, which no single measurement can reflect. Because of this, “entanglement witnesses” (measures that estimate entanglement) are necessarily limited in applicability and/or utility. We propose here a solution to the problem using quantum neural networks. A quantum system contains the information of its entanglement; thus, if we are clever, we can extract that information efficiently. As proof of concept, we show how this can be done for the case of pure states of a two-qubit system, using an entanglement indicator corrected for the anomalous phase oscillation. Both the entanglement indicator and the phase correction are calculated by the quantum system itself acting as a neural network.
Promoting Work-Family Balance Through Positive Psychology: A Practical Review of the Literature

Balancing work and personal life roles has become a major focus of research and is a practical concern for individuals and organizations. This article draws from positive psychology, work–family, and leadership literatures to provide guidelines for managers to promote work–family balance. Recent research documents the value of positive psychology in work–family literature with novel constructs such as enrichment. Informal leadership practices including positive communication, role-modeling, and relationship building offer promising directions for work–family intervention. In particular, work–family balance is considered from an authentic leadership perspective, emphasizing self-care as an ethical concern. Training (i.e., cognitive and PsyCap) and appreciative inquiry are offered as formal intervention strategies for promoting work–family balance at individual, group, and organizational levels.
Effects of incorporating special methods into cohesion measurement on class instantiation reuse-proneness prediction

The previously proposed class cohesion measures employ different approaches to assess the strength of the relations between the attributes and methods in a class. Access methods, constructors and destructors are special types of methods with special characteristics that can falsely alter the class cohesion measurement. In this study, the authors empirically explored the impact of considering special methods (SPs) on the cohesion measures’ abilities to predict the classes that can be intensively reused via instantiation (IRI). They considered classes in the JHotDraw and Eclipse systems. For each class, they obtained cohesion results using 17 measures in four different scenarios of considering or ignoring SPs. They collected the instantiation reusability data and applied a statistical technique to build a prediction model using each measure in each considered scenario. They investigated the significance of the changes in the prediction results. The authors’ results demonstrated that cohesion had a negative impact on class instantiation reuse-proneness and that SPs had significant impacts on cohesion values and the abilities of the cohesion measures to predict IRI classes. In practice, when applying cohesion measures to predict IRI classes, the results suggest that SPs must be included in cohesion measurement.
THE SITUATIVITY OF KNOWING, LEARNING, AND RESEARCH

The situative perspective shifts the focus of analysis from individual behavior and cognition to larger systems that include behaving cognitive agents interacting with each other and with other subsystems in the environment. The first section presents a version of the situative perspective that draws on studies of social interaction, philosophical situation theory, and ecological psychology. Framing assumptions and concepts are proposed for a synthesis of the situative and cognitive theoretical perspectives, and a further situative synthesis is suggested that would draw on dynamic-systems theory. The second section discusses relations between the situative, cognitive, and behaviorist theoretical perspectives and principles of educational practice. The third section discusses an approach to research and social practice called interactive research and design, which fits with the situative perspective and provides a productive, albeit syncretic, combination of theory-oriented and instrumental functions of research.
Investigating Reliability and Validity for the Construct of Inferential Statistics

A hierarchical construct to assess and describe students' learning of inferential statistics has been previously developed using the Rasch analysis. In particular, the Rasch Partial Credit Model was instrumental in identifying the number of strata in the construct and in establishing the reliability and validity of the instrument used. In this paper, the analysis is replicated with a different sample of students to investigate if the reliability and validity still hold.
Can machine-learning improve cardiovascular risk prediction using routine clinical data?

Background Current approaches to predict cardiovascular risk fail to identify many people who would benefit from preventive treatment, while others receive unnecessary intervention. Machine-learning offers opportunity to improve accuracy by exploiting complex interactions between risk factors. We assessed whether machine-learning can improve cardiovascular risk prediction. Methods Prospective cohort study using routine clinical data of 378,256 patients from UK family practices, free from cardiovascular disease at outset. Four machine-learning algorithms (random forest, logistic regression, gradient boosting machines, neural networks) were compared to an established algorithm (American College of Cardiology guidelines) to predict first cardiovascular event over 10-years. Predictive accuracy was assessed by area under the ‘receiver operating curve’ (AUC); and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) to predict 7.5% cardiovascular risk (threshold for initiating statins). Findings 24,970 incident cardiovascular events (6.6%) occurred. Compared to the established risk prediction algorithm (AUC 0.728, 95% CI 0.723–0.735), machine-learning algorithms improved prediction: random forest +1.7% (AUC 0.745, 95% CI 0.739–0.750), logistic regression +3.2% (AUC 0.760, 95% CI 0.755–0.766), gradient boosting +3.3% (AUC 0.761, 95% CI 0.755–0.766), neural networks +3.6% (AUC 0.764, 95% CI 0.759–0.769). The highest achieving (neural networks) algorithm predicted 4,998/7,404 cases (sensitivity 67.5%, PPV 18.4%) and 53,458/75,585 non-cases (specificity 70.7%, NPV 95.7%), correctly predicting 355 (+7.6%) more patients who developed cardiovascular disease compared to the established algorithm. Conclusions Machine-learning significantly improves accuracy of cardiovascular risk prediction, increasing the number of patients identified who could benefit from preventive treatment, while avoiding unnecessary treatment of others.
Positive psychological capital: The role of Islamic work ethics in Tehran Public Organizations

Swift development in economic aspects and the call for more concentration on the ethics in new era is taking considerations in the world. The aim of this study was the investigation of the impact of the Islamic work ethics and its aspects in every point of human being characters, especially in employees’ hope, resilience, optimism and efficacy, as the dimensions of Positive Psychological Capital. The conducted research method for achieving mentioned aim was descriptive and correlation and the statistical population were employees of six public organizations in the Tehran province located in Iran (a country with the large Muslim population), participated in this study. The results of the analyzing the questionnaires and testing the hypotheses by Warp PLS indicated Islamic Work Ethics had positive effect on Positive Psychological Capital. These findings provide evidence to the importance of including Islamic Work Ethics in future research. Additionally, these findings provide significant suggestions for the utilization of Islamic work ethics in organizational practice too, that is in Staff recruitment, Compensation, Performance evaluation and HRM Strategies.
Analyzing Appraisal Automatically

We present a method for classifying texts automatically, based on their subjective content. We apply a standard method for calculating semantic orientation (Turney 2002), and expand it by giving more prominence to certain parts of the text, where we believe most subjective content is concentrated. We also apply a linguistic classification of Appraisal and find that it could be helpful in distinguishing different types of subjective texts (e.g., movie reviews from consumer product reviews).
Spirituality and Religion: Through the Eyes of the “Hidden Educators”

Spirituality and religion are often mistakenly understood as synonymous terms.2 For that reason, many scholars have recently attempted to differentiate between the two concepts. Royce-Davis and Stewart describe spirituality as “an internal phenomenon addressing issues such as the search for a sense of meaning and purpose in one’s life, establishment of an intrinsically held value system that determines behavior, and participation in a community of shared values. ”3 Spirituality also includes a desire for and the perception of connection to something greater than self such as a higher power.4 Conversely, religion refers to “an organized set of doctrines around faith beliefs within an organization. ”5 These beliefs serve as moral guides and are usually concerned with issues surrounding the origins of life, right and wrong behavior, and assumptions about an afterlife. Nash, while recognizing a distinction between spirituality and religion, believes that the concepts are “interchangeable parts of the same experience,” and thus, prefers the use of the term “religio-spirituality. ”6 In spite of the lack of congruence among scholars about the precise definition of these terms, many are realizing that spirituality and religion both play an important role in higher education. Dalton believes that spirituality is especially important in the learning and experience of college students due to the fact that most traditional-aged college students are grappling with issues related to their personal identity, relationships, ideology, and decisions about the future.7 Additionally, the transcendent qualities of spirituality can ideally reflect the complexity and diversity within a campus community, cultivating an atmosphere conducive to students transcending boundaries and differences within their communities.8 Additionally, the influence of religion on the overall moral and social development of college students is positive. Students who identify with a
Multilocus Sequence Typing of the Pathogenic Fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

ABSTRACT A multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme was devised for Aspergillus fumigatus. The system involved sequencing seven gene fragments and was applied to a panel of 100 isolates of A. fumigatus from diverse sources. Thirty different sequence types were found among the 100 isolates, and 93% of the isolates differed from the other isolates by only one allele sequence, forming a single clonal cluster as indicated by the eBURST algorithm. The discriminatory power of the MLST method was only 0.93. These results strongly indicate that A. fumigatus is a species of a relatively recent origin, with low levels of sequence dissimilarity. Typing methods based on variable numbers of tandem repeats offer higher levels of strain discrimination. Mating type data for the 100 isolates showed that 71 isolates were type MAT1-2 and 29 isolates were MAT1-1.
Meiotic recombination protein Rec12: functional conservation, crossover homeostasis and early crossover/non-crossover decision

In fission yeast and other eukaryotes, Rec12 (Spo11) is thought to catalyze the formation of dsDNA breaks (DSBs) that initiate homologous recombination in meiosis. Rec12 is orthologous to the catalytic subunit of topoisomerase VI (Top6A). Guided by the crystal structure of Top6A, we engineered the rec12 locus to encode Rec12 proteins each with a single amino acid substitution in a conserved residue. Of 21 substitutions, 10 significantly reduced or abolished meiotic DSBs, gene conversion, crossover recombination and the faithful segregation of chromosomes. Critical residues map within the metal ion-binding pocket toprim (E179A, D229A, D231A), catalytic region 5Y-CAP (R94A, D95A, Y98F) and the DNA-binding interface (K201A, G202E, R209A, K242A). A subset of substitutions reduced DSBs but maintained crossovers, demonstrating crossover homeostasis. Furthermore, a strong separation of function mutation (R304A) suggests that the crossover/non-crossover decision is established early by a protein–protein interaction surface of Rec12. Fission yeast has multiple crossovers per bivalent, and chromosome segregation was robust above a threshold of about one crossover per bivalent, below which non-disjunction occurred. These results support structural and functional conservation among Rec12/Spo11/Top6A family members for the catalysis of DSBs, and they reveal how Rec12 regulates other features of meiotic chromosome dynamics.
Comparative Analysis of High Level Programming for Reconfigurable Computers: Methodology and Empirical Study

Most application developers are willing to give up some performance and chip utilization in exchange of productivity. High-level tools for developing reconfigurable computing applications trade performance with ease-of-use. However, it is hard to know in a general sense how much performance and utilization one is giving up and how much ease-of-use he/she is gaining. More importantly, given the lack of standards and the uncertainty generated by sales literature, it is very hard to know the real differences that exist among different high-level programming paradigms. In order to do so, one needs a formal methodology and/or a framework that uses a common set of metrics and common experiments over a number of representative tools. In this work, we consider three representative high-level tools, Impulse-C, Mitrion-C, and DSPLogic in the Cray XD1 environment. These tools were selected to represent imperative programming, functional programming and graphical programming, and thereby demonstrate the applicability of our methodology. It will be shown that in spite of the disparity in concepts behind those tools, our methodology will be able to formally uncover the basic differences among them and analytically assess their comparative performance, utilization, and ease-of-use.
NOD 2-mediated dysbiosis predisposes mice to transmissible colitis and colorectal cancer

Instability in the composition of gut bacterial communities (dysbiosis) has been linked to common human intestinal disorders, such as Crohn’s disease and colorectal cancer. Here, we show that dysbiosis caused by Nod2 deficiency gives rise to a reversible, communicable risk of colitis and colitis-associated carcinogenesis in mice. Loss of either Nod2 or RIP2 resulted in a proinflammatory microenvironment that enhanced epithelial dysplasia following chemically induced injury. The condition could be improved by treatment with antibiotics or an anti–interleukin-6 receptor–neutralizing antibody. Genotype-dependent disease risk was communicable via maternally transmitted microbiota in both Nod2deficient and WT hosts. Furthermore, reciprocal microbiota transplantation reduced disease risk in Nod2-deficient mice and led to long-term changes in intestinal microbial communities. Conversely, disease risk was enhanced in WT hosts that were recolonized with dysbiotic fecal microbiota from Nod2-deficient mice. Thus, we demonstrated that licensing of dysbiotic microbiota is a critical component of disease risk. Our results demonstrate that NOD2 has an unexpected role in shaping a protective assembly of gut bacterial communities and suggest that manipulation of dysbiosis is a potential therapeutic approach in the treatment of human intestinal disorders. Research Article Oncology
The Role of Performance Feedback and Job Autonomy in Mitigating the Negative Effect of Role Ambiguity on Employee Satisfaction

ABSTRACT: The job demands-control (JDC) model suggests that job demands and job control (job autonomy) combine interactively in predicting job-related outcomes. While the model has been widely tested, studies using it have often failed to demonstrate the predicted interaction effects of job demands and job control on measures of a wide range of outcomes. The current study proposes performance feedback as a different situational variable that could relate to job demands and job control, and examines the three-way interaction effects among role ambiguity, performance feedback, and job autonomy in predicting employee satisfaction. Analyzing data from the 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the study finds that performance feedback mitigates the negative effect of role ambiguity on employee satisfaction, but is significantly stronger in the high job autonomy condition. This study contributes to theoretical knowledge of the way job demands and job autonomy interact in producing motivational outcomes by offering a plausible explanation for the lack of consistency of the interaction effect of job demands and job control in the JDC model.
Development of New Multilocus Variable Number of Tandem Repeat Analysis (MLVA) for Listeria innocua and Its Application in a Food Processing Plant

Listeria innocua is an important hygiene indicator bacterium in food industries because it behaves similar to Listeria monocytogenes, which is pathogenic to humans. PFGE is often used to characterize bacterial strains and to track contamination source. However, because PFGE is an expensive, complicated, time-consuming protocol, and poses difficulty in data sharing, development of a new typing method is necessary. MLVA is a technique that identifies bacterial strains on the basis of the number of tandem repeats present in the genome varies depending on the strains. MLVA has gained attention due to its high reproducibility and ease of data sharing. In this study, we developed a MLVA protocol to assess L. innocua and evaluated it by tracking the contamination source of L. innocua in an actual food manufacturing factory by typing the bacterial strains isolated from the factory. Three VNTR regions of the L. innocua genome were chosen for use in the MLVA. The number of repeat units in each VNTR region was calculated based on the results of PCR product analysis using capillary electrophoresis (CE). The calculated number of repetitions was compared with the results of the gene sequence analysis to demonstrate the accuracy of the CE repeat number analysis. The developed technique was evaluated using 60 L. innocua strains isolated from a food factory. These 60 strains were classified into 11 patterns using MLVA. Many of the strains were classified into ST-6, revealing that this MLVA strain type can contaminate each manufacturing process in the factory. The MLVA protocol developed in this study for L. innocua allowed rapid and easy analysis through the use of CE. This technique was found to be very useful in hygiene control in factories because it allowed us to track contamination sources and provided information regarding whether the bacteria were present in the factories.