Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Management Tactics on Meeting Conservation Objectives for Western North American Groundfish Fisheries

There is considerable variability in the status of fish populations around the world and a poor understanding of how specific management characteristics affect populations. Overfishing is a major problem in many fisheries, but in some regions the recent tendency has been to exploit stocks at levels below their maximum sustainable yield. In Western North American groundfish fisheries, the status of individual stocks and management systems among regions are highly variable. In this paper, we show the current status of groundfish stocks from Alaska, British Columbia, and the U.S. West Coast, and quantify the influence on stock status of six management tactics often hypothesized to affect groundfish. These tactics are: the use of harvest control rules with estimated biological reference points; seasonal closures; marine reserves; bycatch constraints; individual quotas (i.e., ‘catch shares’); and gear type. Despite the high commercial value of many groundfish and consequent incentives for maintaining stocks at their most productive levels, most stocks were managed extremely conservatively, with current exploitation rates at only 40% of management targets and biomass 33% above target biomass on average. Catches rarely exceeded TACs but on occasion were far below TACs (mean catch:TAC ratio of 57%); approximately $150 million of potential landed value was foregone annually by underutilizing TACs. The use of individual quotas, marine reserves, and harvest control rules with estimated limit reference points had little overall effect on stock status. More valuable fisheries were maintained closer to management targets and were less variable over time than stocks with lower catches or ex-vessel prices. Together these results suggest there is no single effective management measure for meeting conservation objectives; if scientifically established quotas are set and enforced, a variety of means can be used to ensure that exploitation rates and biomass levels are near to or more conservative than management targets.
Chapparvovirus DNA Found in 4% of Dogs with Diarrhea

Feces from dogs in an unexplained outbreak of diarrhea were analyzed by viral metagenomics revealing the genome of a novel parvovirus. The parvovirus was named cachavirus and was classified within the proposed Chapparvovirus genus. Using PCR, cachavirus DNA was detected in two of nine tested dogs from that outbreak. In order to begin to elucidate the clinical impact of this virus, 2,053 canine fecal samples were screened using real-time PCR. Stool samples from 203 healthy dogs were positive for cachavirus DNA at a rate of 1.47%, while 802 diarrhea samples collected in 2017 and 964 samples collected in 2018 were positive at rates of 4.0% and 4.66% frequencies, respectively (healthy versus 2017-2018 combined diarrhea p-value of 0.05). None of 83 bloody diarrhea samples tested positive. Viral loads were generally low with average real-time PCR Ct values of 36 in all three positive groups. The species tropism and pathogenicity of cachavirus, the first chapparvovirus reported in feces of a placental carnivore, remains to be fully determined.
Transnasal Endoscopic Approach to Symptomatic Sinonasal Osteomas

Background One of the most challenging benign tumors for the ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeon is represented by sinonasal osteomas. Surgical treatment should regard just symptomatic osteomas, because these tumors can provoke rhinosinusitis and mucoceles. Recently, new instruments have been applied in endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). This study was designed to present our experience in the endoscopic management of osteomas of the paranasal sinuses. Clinical findings, preoperative imaging strategy, and surgical techniques are discussed. Methods We retrospectively reviewed clinical records of patients who underwent ESS for sinonasal osteomas between 2003 and 2010 in our institutions. Results We have treated with a transnasal endoscopic approach 29 patients affected by paranasal osteomas (13 men and 16 women; age range, 20–78 years; mean, 49.5 years). We found frontoethmoidal junction localization in 14 patients, frontal sinus in 6 patients, ethmoid in 6 patients, sphenoid in 1 patient, maxillary in 1 patient, and multiple osteomas in 1 patient. Initially, patients were treated by the cavitation technique with standard ESS instruments, whereas in more recent cases surgery was assisted by the use of ENT navigation system, curved drills, and ultrasound bone emulsifier. No major complications occurred. No radiological or endoscopic signs of recurrence (mean follow-up, 52 months; range, 6–89 months) have been observed. Conclusion Endoscopic removal of osteomas of the sinonasal region is feasible, taking into account the location and size of the lesion. Particular importance should be given to new instruments that have been applied in the last years in ESS.
Direct neuronal reprogramming: learning from and for development

The key signalling pathways and transcriptional programmes that instruct neuronal diversity during development have largely been identified. In this Review, we discuss how this knowledge has been used to successfully reprogramme various cell types into an amazing array of distinct types of functional neurons. We further discuss the extent to which direct neuronal reprogramming recapitulates embryonic development, and examine the particular barriers to reprogramming that may exist given a cell's unique developmental history. We conclude with a recently proposed model for cell specification called the ‘Cook Islands’ model, and consider whether it is a fitting model for cell specification based on recent results from the direct reprogramming field. Summary: This Review discusses how developmental studies have set the stage for direct neuronal reprogramming approaches and how direct conversion can shed light on unsolved questions in developmental biology.
Motion invariant contrast enhancement of optical imaging data in the gradient domain

Functional optical imaging (OI) of intrinsic signals (like blood oxygenation coupled reflection changes) and of extrinsic properties of voltage sensitive probes (like voltage-sensitive dyes (VSD)) forms a group of neuroimaging techniques that possess up to date highest temporal and spatial resolution on a meso-to macroscopic scale. An inherent problem of OI is a very low signal to noise ratio (SNR), which restricts the recordings to be completely motionless and requires detailed knowledge of the properties of the different noise sources. In our experiments we performed a durectomy and did not use an imaging chamber to allow us future joint electroencephalography-optical imaging (EEG-OI) measures, which resulted in movement artifacts. With the goal of motion compensation in OI recordings and magnification of signal changes, we present a novel processing pipeline, which is based on optic flow guided denoising and gradient domain tone mapping for spatiotemporal contrast enhancement.
Tetherin-mediated restriction of filovirus budding is antagonized by the Ebola glycoprotein

Mammalian cells employ numerous innate cellular mechanisms to inhibit viral replication and spread. Tetherin, also known as Bst-2 or CD317, is a recently identified, IFN-induced, cellular response factor that blocks release of HIV-1 and other retroviruses from infected cells. The means by which tetherin retains retroviruses on the cell surface, as well as the mechanism used by the HIV-1 accessory protein Vpu to antagonize tetherin function and promote HIV-1 release, are unknown. Here, we document that tetherin functions as a broadly acting antiviral factor by demonstrating that both human and murine tetherin potently inhibit the release of the filovirus, Ebola, from the surface of cells. Expression of the Ebola glycoprotein (GP) antagonized the antiviral effect of human and murine tetherin and facilitated budding of Ebola particles, as did the HIV-1 Vpu protein. Conversely, Ebola GP could substitute for Vpu to promote HIV-1 virion release from tetherin-expressing cells, demonstrating a common cellular target for these divergent viral proteins. Ebola GP efficiently coimmunoprecipitated with tetherin, suggesting that the viral glycoprotein directly interferes with this host antiviral factor. These results demonstrate that tetherin is a cellular antiviral factor that restricts budding of structurally diverse enveloped viruses. Additionally, Ebola has evolved a highly effective strategy to combat this antiviral response elicited in the host during infection.
Tris{2-methoxy-6-[(4-methylphenyl)iminiomethyl]phenolato-κ2 O,O′}tris(thiocyanato-κN)cerium(III)

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Ce(NCS)3(C15H15NO2)3], contains three Schiff base 2-methoxy-6-[(4-methylphenyl)iminomethyl]phenol (HL) ligands and three independent thiocyanate ions that coordinate the cerium ion via their N atoms. The protonated imine N atoms are involved in an intramolecular hydrogen bond with the respective phenoxide group. The Ce(III) ion exhibits a coordination number of nine.
EFFECT OF MATURITY ON COMPARATIVE NUTRITIVE VALUE AND FERMENTATION CHARACTERISTICS OF MAIZE , SORGHUM AND MILLET SILAGES

This study was conducted to compare nutritional worth of maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and millet (Pennisetum americanum) silages. These fodders were manually harvested and then preserved in laboratory scale silos at three physiological stages i.e., pre heading (CS1), heading (CS2) and milk stage (CS3). The results showed that the dry matter, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin and water soluble carbohydrate contents increased (p<0.05) in all three fodder silages with advancing age. However, crude protein, total digestible nutrients and metabolizable energy contents decreased (p<0.05) in all fodders silages with the advancement of their growth. The water soluble carbohydrates, pH and ammonia nitrogen values of silages prepared from three fodders decreased (p<0.05) as the plants advanced in age. However, lactic acid contents in three fodder silages increased (p<0.05) with the advancement of age of fodder. Based upon nutritive value and fermentation characteristics, the milk growth stage was the best physiological stage of the three fodder silages.
Simple leakage current and 1/f noise expressions for polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors

Simple drain current and 1/f noise expressions are presented for polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs) in leakage regime. The leakage current expression Ids is derived from the thermal field emission mechanism. The leakage current noise power spectral density (PSD) expression SIds is derived from the carrier number fluctuation theory. It is proved that SIds is proportional to IDS, approximately. The current and noise expressions are verified by available experimental data.
Transgenerational epigenetic programming via sperm microRNA recapitulates effects of paternal stress

Significance Studies examining paternal exposure to diverse environmental stimuli propose that epigenetic marks in germ cells, including small noncoding RNAs such as microRNA (miR), transmit experience-dependent information from parent to offspring. However, these nongenetic mechanisms of transgenerational inheritance are poorly understood, specifically how these germ-cell marks may act postfertilization to enact long-term changes in offspring behavior or physiology. In this study, through zygote microinjection of nine specific sperm miRs previously identified in our paternal stress mouse model, we demonstrate that sperm miRs function to reduce maternal mRNA stores in early zygotes, ultimately reprogramming gene expression in the offspring hypothalamus and recapitulating the offspring stress dysregulation phenotype. Epigenetic signatures in germ cells, capable of both responding to the parental environment and shaping offspring neurodevelopment, are uniquely positioned to mediate transgenerational outcomes. However, molecular mechanisms by which these marks may communicate experience-dependent information across generations are currently unknown. In our model of chronic paternal stress, we previously identified nine microRNAs (miRs) that were increased in the sperm of stressed sires and associated with reduced hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) stress axis reactivity in offspring. In the current study, we rigorously examine the hypothesis that these sperm miRs function postfertilization to alter offspring stress responsivity and, using zygote microinjection of the nine specific miRs, demonstrated a remarkable recapitulation of the offspring stress dysregulation phenotype. Further, we associated long-term reprogramming of the hypothalamic transcriptome with HPA axis dysfunction, noting a marked decreased in the expression of extracellular matrix and collagen gene sets that may reflect an underlying change in blood–brain barrier permeability. We conclude by investigating the developmental impact of sperm miRs in early zygotes with single-cell amplification technology, identifying the targeted degradation of stored maternal mRNA transcripts including sirtuin 1 and ubiquitin protein ligase E3a, two genes with established function in chromatin remodeling, and this potent regulatory function of miRs postfertilization likely initiates a cascade of molecular events that eventually alters stress reactivity. Overall, these findings demonstrate a clear mechanistic role for sperm miRs in the transgenerational transmission of paternal lifetime experiences.
Experimental Evaluation of Adaptive SR-SW-ARQ/FEC Scheme for Ultra Low-Latency Mobile Networks

In order to realize ultra low-latency mobile networks whose target is a unidirectional end-to-end latency of 10 milliseconds per IP packet, we proposed an adaptive error recovery scheme. The simulation results, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, need to be complemented by more realistic testing. Hence, we have implemented the proposed scheme using field programmable gate array (FPGA) and developed a testbed. The experimental evaluation results obtained using the testbed show similar IP packet error rate (IP PER) performances to those of the simulation results. Moreover, the IP PER performances with an end-to-end latency limitation (including transmission latency and processing latency) are firstly evaluated using the testbed. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive error recovery scheme using the testbed and indicate the possibility of realizing ultra low-latency mobile networks using the proposed error recovery scheme.
Distinct Single Amino Acid Replacements in the Control of Virulence Regulator Protein Differentially Impact Streptococcal Pathogenesis

Sequencing of invasive strains of group A streptococci (GAS) has revealed a diverse array of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the gene encoding the control of virulence regulator (CovR) protein. However, there is limited information regarding the molecular mechanisms by which CovR single amino acid replacements impact GAS pathogenesis. The crystal structure of the CovR C-terminal DNA-binding domain was determined to 1.50 Å resolution and revealed a three-stranded β-sheet followed by a winged helix-turn-helix DNA binding motif. Modeling of the CovR protein-DNA complex indicated that CovR single amino acid replacements observed in clinical GAS isolates could directly alter protein-DNA interaction and impact protein structure. Isoallelic GAS strains that varied by a single amino acid replacement in the CovR DNA binding domain had significantly different transcriptomes compared to wild-type and to each other. Similarly, distinct recombinant CovR variants had differential binding affinity for DNA from the promoter regions of several virulence factor-encoding genes. Finally, mice that were challenged with GAS CovR isoallelic strains had significantly different survival times, which correlated with the transcriptome and protein-DNA binding studies. Taken together, these data provide structural and functional insights into the critical and distinct effects of variation in the CovR protein on GAS pathogenesis.
Insight into the Family of Na+/Ca2+ Exchangers of Caenorhabditis elegans

Here we provide the first genome-wide in vivo analysis of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger family in the model system Caenorhabditis elegans. We source all members of this family within the Caenorhabditis genus and reconstruct their phylogeny across humans and Drosophila melanogaster. Next, we provide a description of the expression pattern for each exchanger gene in C. elegans, revealing a wide expression in a number of tissues and cell types including sensory neurons, interneurons, motor neurons, muscle cells, and intestinal tissue. Finally, we conduct a series of behavioral and functional analyses through mutant characterization in C. elegans. From these data we demonstrate that, similar to mammalian systems, the expression of Na+/Ca2+ exchangers in C. elegans is skewed toward excitable cells, and we propose that C. elegans may be an ideal model system for the study of Na+/Ca2+ exchangers.
Double-pumped fiber optical parametric amplifier with flat gain over 47-nm bandwidth using a conventional dispersion-shifted fiber

We investigate the performance of conventional dispersion-shifted fibers (DSFs) as nonlinear medium in double-pumped fiber optical parametric amplifiers (2P-FOPAs). We report on high gain (37 dB) with low ripple (/spl plusmn/1.5 dB) over a 47-nm bandwidth using these fibers. We show that the 2P-FOPA average gain and the gain uniformity are limited by longitudinal variations of the zero dispersion wavelength and by polarization-mode dispersion. We demonstrate that 2P-FOPAs constructed with DSFs exhibit negligible crosstalk even for high gains (40 dB) and large output signal powers (12.5 dBm) in a ten-channel system.
Comparative Efficacy of Different Binders in the Development of Chicken Meat Cutlets

Present study was envisaged to assess the efficacy of different binders viz. 3% refined wheat flour (T1) and 3% rice flour (T2) replacing lean meat in the preparation of chicken meat cutlets. The developed products as well as control were assessed for various physico-chemical, instrumental texture and colour profile, and sensory evaluation. L* values were comparable for T1 and T2 but were significantly (P<0.05) lower than control. The hardness values differ significantly (P<0.05) in treatments than control and recorded highest for T2 and lowest for control. The springiness of the T1 was significantly (P<0.05) higher as compared to T2 but was comparable to control. The juiciness score were significantly (P<0.05) higher for treatments as compared to control. Overall acceptability of cutlets with refined wheat flour (T1) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than control and comparable with T2. Thus it can be concluded that chicken cutlet with 3% refined wheat flour was found optimum.
Exploring the Effect of Avatar Trust on Learners’ Perceived Participation Intentions in an e-Learning Environment

With continued advancements in Web technology, e-learning systems have emerged as an effective venue in which learners can interact with online contents and they are often equipped with avatar instructors in lieu of human instructors. In this case, avatar trust, the learners’ perceived trust in the avatar instructor, plays an important role in learners’ perceived intentions to participate in the e-learning activities. We assumed that social presence positively affects participation intention (PI) through avatar trust. The main purpose of this study is to empirically validate this hypothesis. Using two types of avatars as a moderating factor, our hypothesis was tested against 200 valid questionnaires. We found that social presence had a statistically significant influence on perceived PI through avatar trust, and that an attractive avatar type sheds stronger moderating effect on paths between social presence and avatar trust, and path between trust and participation than does an expert avatar type.
Optimal Combining for Optical Wireless Systems With Amplification: The $\chi ^{2}$ Noise Regime

We present novel analytical results on the optimal combiner (OC) for pre-amplified optical wireless receivers under chi-squared noise. The results show that the OC architecture that minimizes the average bit-error rate (BER) is determined by the level of the signal-spontaneous beating noise. Moreover, the OC provides increased gain to the diversity branches with the higher energies, up to the point where the beating noise becomes detrimental to the BER. The performance of the OC is simulated for practical receiver arrangements and it is shown that it performs better than the maximal-ratio and equal-gain combiners. The performance improvement amounts to an energy gain of less than 1 dB for implementations that utilize narrow optical filters and a modest number of diversity branches.
Evaluation of the surface free energy of plant surfaces: toward standardizing the procedure

Plant surfaces have been found to have a major chemical and physical heterogeneity and play a key protecting role against multiple stress factors. During the last decade, there is a raising interest in examining plant surface properties for the development of biomimetic materials. Contact angle measurement of different liquids is a common tool for characterizing synthetic materials, which is just beginning to be applied to plant surfaces. However, some studies performed with polymers and other materials showed that for the same surface, different surface free energy values may be obtained depending on the number and nature of the test liquids analyzed, materials' properties, and surface free energy calculation methods employed. For 3 rough and 3 rather smooth plant materials, we calculated their surface free energy using 2 or 3 test liquids and 3 different calculation methods. Regardless of the degree of surface roughness, the methods based on 2 test liquids often led to the under- or over-estimation of surface free energies as compared to the results derived from the 3-Liquids method. Given the major chemical and structural diversity of plant surfaces, it is concluded that 3 different liquids must be considered for characterizing materials of unknown physico-chemical properties, which may significantly differ in terms of polar and dispersive interactions. Since there are just few surface free energy data of plant surfaces with the aim of standardizing the calculation procedure and interpretation of the results among for instance, different species, organs, or phenological states, we suggest the use of 3 liquids and the mean surface tension values provided in this study.