Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex and recombination in aflatoxigenic Aspergilli: global implications

For most of the half century that aflatoxigenic species have been intensively studied, these molds were known only to reproduce asexually, with parasexuality found only in the laboratory between certain mutant strains. Therefore, the fairly recent discovery of their sexual (teleomorphic) states creates a new wrinkle in our understanding of the field behavior of these agriculturally significant fungi. Sex within populations of these fungi, and attendant genetic recombination, eventually may create difficulties for their control; and subsequently for the protection of important human and animal food supplies. Moreover, if fungal sex is a form of response to ecological and environmental stressors, then perhaps human influence and climate change could accelerate this phenomenon. This article will explore scientific research into sexuality and recombination in aflatoxigenic Aspergillus species; the potential impacts these phenomena could have on a popular method of pre-harvest prevention of aflatoxin contamination (i.e., use of non-aflatoxigenic A. flavus for biocontrol); and the outlook for maintaining control of aflatoxin contamination in an era of changing global climate.
A Four-Year Longitudinal Study of Principled Judgment Reasoning in Teacher Education Students

This paper has four objectives. First, to conceptually link studies of principled judgment reasoning to recent efforts by national teacher accrediting bodies to include professional dispositions as a teacher education program goal. Second, the investigator reports four-year longitudinal results of a character development study of teacher education students as measured by principled judgment reasoning scores. Four-year results are compared with other four-year longitudinal samples. Third, the investigator examines correlations between principled judgment reasoning and prospective teachers’ performance during student teaching. Finally, implications are drawn for teacher education programs.
FRET‐based detection of different conformations of MK2

MAP kinase‐activated protein kinase 2 (MK2 or MAPKAP K2) is a stress‐activated enzyme downstream to p38 MAPK. By fusion of green fluorescent protein variants to the N‐ and C‐terminus we analysed conformational changes in the kinase molecule in vitro and in vivo. Activation of MK2 is accompanied by a decrease in fluorescence resonance energy transfer, indicating a transition from an inactive/closed to an active/open conformation with an increase in the apparent distance between the fluorophores of ∼9 Å. The closed conformation exists exclusively in the nucleus. Upon stress, the open conformation of MK2 rapidly becomes detectable in the cytoplasm and accumulates in the nucleus only when Crm1‐dependent nuclear export is blocked. Hence, in living cells activation of MK2 and its nuclear export are coupled by a phosphorylation‐dependent conformational switch.
Forward Actor-Critic for Nonlinear Function Approximation in Reinforcement Learning

Multi-step methods are important in reinforcement learn- ing (RL). Eligibility traces, the usual way of handling them, works well with linear function approximators. Recently, van Seijen (2016) had introduced a delayed learning approach, without eligibility traces, for handling the multi-step λ-return with nonlinear function approximators. However, this was limited to action-value methods. In this paper, we extend this approach to handle n-step returns, generalize this approach to policy gradient methods and empirically study the effect of such delayed updates in control tasks. Specifically, we introduce two novel forward actor- critic methods and empirically investigate our proposed methods with the conventional actor-critic method on mountain car and pole-balancing tasks. From our experiments, we observe that forward actor-critic dramatically outperforms the conventional actor-critic in these standard control tasks. Notably, this forward actor-critic method has produced a new class of multi-step RL algorithms without eligibility traces.
Pseudotumor cerebri syndrome in childhood: incidence, clinical profile and risk factors in a national prospective population-based cohort study

Aim To investigate the epidemiology, clinical profile and risk factors of pseudotumor cerebri syndrome (PTCS) in children aged 1–16 years. Methods A national prospective population-based cohort study over 25 months. Newly diagnosed PTCS cases notified via British Paediatric Surveillance Unit were ascertained using classical diagnostic criteria and categorised according to 2013 revised diagnostic criteria. We derived national age, sex and weight-specific annual incidence rates and assessed effects of sex and weight categories. Results We identified 185 PTCS cases of which 166 also fulfilled revised diagnostic criteria. The national annual incidence (95% CI) of PTCS in children aged 1–16 years was 0.71 (0.57 to 0.87) per 100 000 population increasing with age and weight to 4.18 and 10.7 per 100 000 in obese boys and girls aged 12–15 years, respectively. Incidence rates under 7 years were similar in both sexes. From 7 years onwards, the incidence in girls was double that in boys, but only in overweight (including obese) children. In children aged 12–15 years, an estimated 82% of the incidence of PTCS was attributable to obesity. Two subgroups of PTCS were apparent: 168 (91%) cases aged from 7 years frequently presented on medication and with headache and were predominantly female and obese. The remaining 17 (9%) cases under 7 years often lacked these risk factors and commonly presented with paralytic squint. Conclusions This uniquely large population-based study of childhood PTCS will inform the design of future intervention studies. It suggests that weight reduction is central to the prevention of PTCS.
Absence of human metapneumovirus co‐infection in cases of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection

It has been suggested that co‐infection of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) in severe respiratory syncytial (RSV) virus bronchiolitis is very common. To evaluate the epidemiology of hMPV co‐infection in children with severe lower respiratory tract infection caused by RSV virus. This was an observational cohort study in which hMPV and RSV viral load was measured by RT‐PCR in tracheal specimens from the target population. hMPV could not be detected in any of the 30 mechanically ventilated children with RSV lower respiratory tract infection. Our study suggests that hMPV co‐infection is not very common in severe RSV lower respiratory tract infection. Pediatr Pulmonol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Anthropogenic modification of New England salt marsh landscapes

Salt marshes play a critical role in the ecology and geology of wave-protected shorelines in the Western Atlantic, but as many as 80% of the marshes that once occurred in New England have already been lost to human development. Here we present data that suggest that the remaining salt marshes in southern New England are being rapidly degraded by shoreline development and eutrophication. On the seaward border of these marshes, nitrogen eutrophication stimulated by local shoreline development is shifting the competitive balance among marsh plants by releasing plants from nutrient competition. This shift is leading to the displacement of natural high marsh plants by low marsh cordgrass. On the terrestrial border of these same marshes, shoreline development is also precipitating the invasion of the common reed, Phragmites, by means of nitrogen eutrophication caused by the removal of the woody vegetation buffer between terrestrial and salt marsh communities. As a consequence of these human impacts, traditional salt marsh plant communities and the plants and animals that are dependent on these habitats are being displaced by monocultures of weedy species.
Books, Banks and Bullets: Controlling Our Minds — The Global Project of Imperialistic and Militaristic Neo-Liberalism and its Effect on Education Policy

This article focuses on global trends in education policy during the current epoch of imperializing, militaristic, neo-liberal global capital. It is based on an analysis that global capital, in the form of dominant US multinational capital, together with its client governments, uses the repressive and ideological apparatuses of the state to advance its interests, and to marginalize, terrorize, weaken, or kill those who stand in its way. What we are seeing is class war from above — war by national and global capitalist classes against national and global working classes. The author identifies global and national characteristics of the ideological and repressive state apparatuses that impose (broadly neo-liberal) educational and wider social, cultural, economic, and fiscal policy as part of the hegemonic activity of US-led global neo-liberal capital. In particular, he examines the repression of critical thought and oppositional activity within the sites of teacher education, schooling, and university/higher education — the compression and repression of critical space in education today.
Distinguishing key biological pathways between primary breast cancers and their lymph node metastases by gene function-based clustering analysis.

In order to identify key biological pathways that can distinguish between primary breast cancers and their lymph node metastases, we employed gene expression profiling together with gene function-based clustering analysis. We first acquired gene expression profiles of 9 matched primary tumors and the corresponding metastases that contained at least 75% of tumor cells. Then, we applied a clustering algorithm to the preprocessed data. In order to focus on the most informative genes, we ranked all the genes individually based on their abilities to separate the primary breast tumor and metastases samples. Further, we separated these genes into six functional groups according to the Stanford SOURCE database: 'cell cycle,' 'apoptosis,' 'metabolism,' 'cell adhesion and migration,' 'signal transduction,' and 'transcriptional factor and DNA binding molecules. ' Unsupervised clustering analysis using all of the 2,303 genes on the microarrays was not able to separate the primary and metastases samples. Clustering analysis using the most informative genes revealed that primary tumors were more tightly clustered, whereas the metastases samples were relatively heterogeneous. The clustering analysis with the genes belonging to different functional groups showed that different functional gene sets varied in their abilities to separate primary tumors and their metastases. Marked separations were found with genes involved in metabolism, signal transduction, cell cycle, and transcriptional factor and DNA binding molecules. In contrast, apoptosis and cell adhesion and migration genes did not provide a clear separation of the two groups of samples. These results suggest that metastatic cells have different metabolism and signal transduction activities, regulated by transcriptional events, from the primary tumor cells. The results also suggest that the altered cell adhesion and migration potentials that are required for tumors to metastasize already exist in the primary tumors as a whole.
Personal pronouns and perspective taking in toddlers

This study examined the evolution of visual perspective-taking skills in relation to the comprehension and production of first, second and third person pronouns. Twelve French-speaking and 12 English-speaking children were observed longitudinally from 1;6 until they had acquired all pronouns and succeeded on all tasks. Free-play sessions and three tasks were used to test pronominal competence. Four other tasks assessed Level-1 perspective-taking skills: two of these tasks required the capacity to consider two visual perspectives, and two others tested the capacity to coordinate three such perspectives. The results indicated that children's performance on perspective-taking tasks was correlated with full pronoun acquisition. Moreover, competence at coordinating two visual perspectives preceded the full mastery of first and second person pronouns, and competence at coordinating three perspectives preceded the full mastery of third person pronouns when a strict criterion was adopted. However, with less stringent criteria, the sequence from perspective taking to pronoun acquisition varied either slightly or considerably. These findings are discussed in the light of the ‘specificity hypothesis’ concerning the links between cognition and language, and also in the context of the recent body of research on the child's developing theory of mind.
Bmc Plant Biology Relationship between Homoeologous Regulatory and Structural Genes in Allopolyploid Genome – a Case Study in Bread Wheat

Background: The patterns of expression of homoeologous genes in hexaploid bread wheat have been intensively studied in recent years, but the interaction between structural genes and their homoeologous regulatory genes remained unclear. The question was as to whether, in an allopolyploid, this interaction is genome-specific, or whether regulation cuts across genomes. The aim of the present study was cloning, sequence analysis, mapping and expression analysis of F3H (flavanone 3-hydroxylase – one of the key enzymes in the plant flavonoid biosynthesis pathway) homoeologues in bread wheat and study of the interaction between F3H and their regulatory genes homoeologues – Rc (red coleoptiles).
Alternative FIB TEM Sample Preparation Method for Cross-Sections of Thin Metal Films Deposited on Polymer Substrates

Abstract Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and focused ion beam (FIB) are proven tools to produce site-specific samples in which to study devices from initial processing to causes for failure, as well as investigating the quality, defects, interface layers, etc. However, the use of polymer substrates presents new challenges, in the preparation of suitable site-specific TEM samples, which include sample warping, heating, charging, and melting. In addition to current options that address some of these problems such as cryo FIB, we add an alternative method and FIB sample geometry that address these challenges and produce viable samples suitable for TEM elemental analysis. The key feature to this approach is a larger than usual lift-out block into which small viewing windows are thinned. Significant largely unthinned regions of the block are left between and at the base of the thinned windows. These large unthinned regions supply structural support and thermal reservoirs during the thinning process. As proof-of-concept of this sample preparation method, we also present TEM elemental analysis of various thin metallic films deposited on patterned polycarbonate, lacquer, and poly-di-methyl-siloxane substrates where the pattern (from low- to high-aspect ratio) is preserved.
Epidemiological and excision margin status of Basal cell carcinoma--three years Armed Forces Institute of Pathology experience in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE The rationale of this study is to analyze the demographic distribution and clearance of excision margin in basal cell carcinoma among patients diagnosed at AFIP Rawalpindi. MATERIALS AND METHODS Records of a total of 235 cases diagnosed from January 2005 to December 2007 were retrieved from our tumour registry. The following variables were recorded for each patient: age, gender, site of biopsy, type of biopsy (incisional vs excisional) and status of clearance of surgical margins. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. RESULTS Among the total of 235 cases, 125 (53.2%) were males and 110 (46.8%) were females (1.2:1). The ages ranged from 32 to 90 years with mean age of 60.0 + 11.7, with a general age-dependent increase. The nose was the most frequent site (28.9%), followed by the eye, including the orbit (24.7%), and the cheek (20.4%). Among the type of biopsies, 140 (59.6%) were excisional and 95 (40.4%) were incisional. With the former, the excision margins were reported as clear in 82 (34.9%) cases and involved in 55 (23.4%) cases. CONCLUSION Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) appears to be on the rise in our part of world. Careful clinical assessment, and complete excision with the help of frozen sections can avoid recurrence.
Diffusion of rifampin and vancomycin through a Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm

Using an equilibrium dialysis chamber, we evaluated the penetration of vancomycin, rifampin, or both through a staphylococcal biofilm to simulate treatment of an infected biomedical implant. A biofilm of ATCC 35984 (slime-positive Staphylococcus epidermidis; vancomycin MIC and MBC, 1 and 2 micrograms/ml, respectively; rifampin MIC and MBC, 0.00003 and 0.00025 micrograms/ml, respectively) was established on the inner aspect of the dialysis membrane (molecular mass exclusion, 6,000 kDa). Serum containing vancomycin (40 micrograms/ml), rifampin (20 micrograms/ml), or a combination of both was introduced into the inner chamber of the dialysis unit (in direct contact with the biofilm), and serum alone was added to the outer chamber. Rifampin and vancomycin concentrations in both chambers were determined over a 72-h period. In the absence of rifampin, the concentration of vancomycin in the outer chamber exceeded the MBC for the organism after 24 h, and the MBC increased to nearly 8.0 micrograms/ml by 72 h, demonstrating that therapeutic levels of vancomycin can penetrate a staphylococcal biofilm. However, viable bacteria were recovered from the biofilm after 72 h of treatment with no apparent increase in the MIC or MBC of vancomycin. Similarly, concentrations of rifampin exceeding the MBC were detected in the outer chamber after 24 h of treatment, but viable organisms were recovered from the biofilm after 72 h of treatment. In this case, the rifampin MBCs for surviving organisms increased from 0.00025 to > 128 micrograms/ml. The combination of agents prevented the development of resistance to rifampin, improved the perfusion of vancomycin through the biofilm, and decreased the penetration of rifampin but did not sterilize the membrane. These observations provide evidence that bactericidal levels of vancomycin, rifampin, or both can be attained at the surface of an infected implant. Despite this, sterilization of the biofilm was not accomplished after 72 h of treatment.
Primary human keratinocytes efficiently induce IL‐1‐dependent IL‐17 in CCR6+ T cells

Abstract: Keratinocytes and activated T cells interact in skin inflammation by virtue of chemokines and cytokines. T cell‐derived IL‐17 has been described to play an important role in the course of psoriatic inflammation. In this study, we addressed how keratinocytes influence the secretion of IL‐17 in autologous T cell subsets. We found that a co‐culture of autologous keratinocytes and T cell‐receptor‐stimulated T cells markedly enhanced the production of IL‐17. Besides the importance of direct cell contact, this effect was mainly mediated by IL‐1 and could be blocked by the IL‐1 antagonist anakinra. An additional increase in IL‐17 production by IL‐23 was only seen in the presence of IL‐1, which thus plays a permissive role for the action of IL‐23. Importantly, co‐culture of keratinocytes with CCR6+ CD4+ T cells that are enriched for Th17 cells resulted in significantly higher IL‐17 production compared to co‐culture with CD4+ T cells.
Subliminal Reorientation and Repositioning in Immersive Virtual Environments using Saccadic Suppression

Virtual reality strives to provide a user with an experience of a simulated world that feels as natural as the real world. Yet, to induce this feeling, sometimes it becomes necessary for technical reasons to deviate from a one-to-one correspondence between the real and the virtual world, and to reorient or reposition the user's viewpoint. Ideally, users should not notice the change of the viewpoint to avoid breaks in perceptual continuity. Saccades, the fast eye movements that we make in order to switch gaze from one object to another, produce a visual discontinuity on the retina, but this is not perceived because the visual system suppresses perception during saccades. As a consequence, our perception fails to detect rotations of the visual scene during saccades. We investigated whether saccadic suppression of image displacement (SSID) can be used in an immersive virtual environment (VE) to unconsciously rotate and translate the observer's viewpoint. To do this, the scene changes have to be precisely time-locked to the saccade onset. We used electrooculography (EOG) for eye movement tracking and assessed the performance of two modified eye movement classification algorithms for the challenging task of online saccade detection that is fast enough for SSID. We investigated the sensitivity of participants to translations (forward/backward) and rotations (in the transverse plane) during trans-saccadic scene changes. We found that participants were unable to detect approximately ±0.5m translations along the line of gaze and ±5° rotations in the transverse plane during saccades with an amplitude of 15°. If the user stands still, our approach exploiting SSID thus provides the means to unconsciously change the user's virtual position and/or orientation. For future research and applications, exploiting SSID has the potential to improve existing redirected walking and change blindness techniques for unlimited navigation through arbitrarily-sized VEs by real walking.
The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on short-interval intracortical inhibition and intracortical facilitation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is increasingly being used to affect the neurological conditions with deficient intracortical synaptic activities (i.e. Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy). In addition, it is suggested that the lasting effects of tDCS on corticospinal excitability (CSE) have intracortical origin. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine whether tDCS has any effect on intracortical circuits. Eleven electronic databases were searched for the studies investigating intracortical changes induced by anodal (a) and cathodal (c) tDCS, in healthy individuals, using two paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigms: short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF). Additionally, motor-evoked potential (MEP) size alterations, assessed by single-pulse TMS, were extracted from these studies to investigate the probable intracortical origin of tDCS effects on CSE. The methodological quality of included studies was examined using Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and Downs and Black’s (D&B) assessment tools. Thirteen research papers, including 24 experiments, were included in this study scoring good and medium quality in PEDro and D&B scales, respectively. Immediately following anodal tDCS (a-tDCS) applications, we found significant decreases in SICI, but increases in ICF and MEP size. However, ICF and MEP size significantly decreased, and SICI increased immediately following cathodal tDCS (c-tDCS). The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis reveal that a-tDCS changes intracortical activities (SICI and ICF) toward facilitation, whereas c-tDCS alters them toward inhibition. It can also be concluded that increases and decreases in CSE after tDCS application are associated with corresponding changes in intracortical activities. The results suggest that tDCS can be clinically useful to modulate intracortical circuits.