Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can Beach Cleans Do More Than Clean-Up Litter? Comparing Beach Cleans to Other Coastal Activities

Coastal visits not only provide psychological benefits but can also contribute to the accumulation of rubbish. Volunteer beach cleans help address this issue, but may only have limited, local impact. Consequently, it is important to study any broader benefits associated with beach cleans. This article examines the well-being and educational value of beach cleans, as well as their impacts on individuals’ behavioral intentions. We conducted an experimental study that allocated students (n = 90) to a beach cleaning, rock pooling, or walking activity. All three coastal activities were associated with positive mood and pro-environmental intentions. Beach cleaning and rock pooling were associated with higher marine awareness. The unique impacts of beach cleaning were that they were rated as most meaningful but linked to lower restorativeness ratings of the environment compared with the other activities. This research highlights the interplay between environment and activities, raising questions for future research on the complexities of person-environment interactions.
Throughput, Delay, and Mobility in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Throughput capacity in wireless ad hoc networks has been studied extensively under many different mobility models such as i.i. d. mobility model, Brownian mobility model, random walk model, and so on. Most of these research works assume global mobility, i.e., each node moves around in the whole network, and the results show that a constant per-node throughput can be achieved at the cost of very high expected average end-to-end delay. Thus, we are having a very big gap here, either low throughput and low delay in static networks or high throughput and high delay in mobile networks. In this paper, employing a more practical restricted random mobility model, we try to fill in this gap. Specifically, we assume a network of unit area with n nodes is evenly divided into n^{2&#945;} cells with an area of n^{-2&#945;} where 0 &#8804; &#945; &#8804; 1/2, each of which is further evenly divided into squares with an area of n^{-2&#946;} where 0 &#8804; &#945; &#8804; &#946; &#8804;1/2. All nodes can only move inside the cell which they are initially distributed in, and at the beginning of each time slot, every node moves from its current square to a uniformly chosen point in an uniformly chosen adjacent square. Proposing a new multi-hop relay scheme, we present an upper bound and a lower bound on per-node throughput capacity and expected average end-to-end delay, respectively. We finally explicitly show smooth trade-offs between throughput and delay by controlling nodes' mobility.
Nuclear-Targeted Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 (DLC1) Is Less Efficient in Exerting Its Tumor Suppressive Activity Both In Vitro and In Vivo

Background Deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) serves as an important RhoGTPase activating protein (RhoGAP) protein that terminates active RhoA signaling in human cancers. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that the tumor suppressive activity of DLC1 depends not only on RhoGAP activity, but also relies on proper focal adhesion localization through its interaction with tensin family proteins. Recently, there are reports showing that DLC1 can also be found in the nucleus; however, the existence and the relative tumor suppressive activity of nuclear DLC1 have never been clearly addressed. Methodology and Principal Findings We herein provide new evidence that DLC1 protein, which predominantly associated with focal adhesions and localized in cytosol, dynamically shuttled between cytoplasm and nucleus. Treatment of cells with nuclear export blocker, Leptomycin B (LMB), retained DLC1 in the nucleus. To understand the nuclear entry of DLC1, we identified amino acids 600–700 of DLC1 as a novel region that is important for its nuclear localization. The tumor suppressive activity of nuclear DLC1 was directly assessed by employing a nuclear localization signal (NLS) fusion variant of DLC1 (NLS-DLC1) with preferential nuclear localization. In SMMC-7721 HCC cells, expression of NLS-DLC1 failed to suppress colony formation and actin stress fiber formation in vitro. The abrogated tumor suppressive activity of nuclear DLC1 was demonstrated for the first time in vivo by subcutaneously injecting p53−/− RasV12 hepatoblasts with stable NLS-DLC1 expression in nude mice. The injected hepatoblasts with NLS-DLC1 expression effectively formed tumors when compared with the non-nuclear targeted DLC1. Conclusions/Significance Our study identified a novel region responsible for the nuclear entry of DLC1 and demonstrated the functional difference of DLC1 in different cellular compartments both in vitro and in vivo.
Linear stability and positivity results for a generalized size-structured Daphnia model with inflow

We employ semigroup and spectral methods to analyze the linear stability of positive stationary solutions of a generalized size-structured Daphnia model. Using the regularity properties of the governing semigroup, we are able to formulate a general stability condition, which permits an intuitively clear interpretation in a special case of model ingredients. Moreover, we derive a comprehensive instability criterion that reduces to an elegant instability condition for the classical Daphnia population model in terms of the inherent net reproduction rate of Daphnia individuals. §Dedicated to Professor Miklós Farkas on the occasion of his 75th birthday.
Resonance expansions for tensor-valued waves on asymptotically Kerr-de Sitter spaces

In recent joint work with Vasy, we analyze the low energy behavior of differential form-valued waves on black hole spacetimes. In order to deduce asymptotics and decay from this, one in addition needs high energy estimates for the wave operator acting on sections of the form bundle. The present paper provides these on perturbations of Schwarzschild-de Sitter spaces in all spacetime dimensions $n\geq 4$. In fact, we prove exponential decay, up to a finite-dimensional space of resonances, of waves valued in any finite rank subbundle of the tensor bundle, which in particular includes differential forms and symmetric tensors. As the main technical tool for working on vector bundles that do not have a natural positive definite inner product, we introduce pseudodifferential inner products, which are inner products depending on the position in phase space.
Fossil gastropods from Miocene Lake Randeck Maar and its hinterland (SW Germany)

The Randeck Maar lake sediments from southwestern Germany were deposited during the late Early to early Middle Miocene (mammal zone MN 5). Although historically well known as an important fossil Lagerstätte, there are few works that have dealt specifically with the fossil gastropods (no bivalves have ever been found). A revision is presented herein of all the material available from the site, both from historical museum collections and from new excavations, figuring much of these gastropods for the first time. The snail fauna of the Randeck Maar now comprises a total 32 continental gastropod species, among which only four are freshwater: Lymnaea cf. dilatata, Ferrissia deperdita, Gyraulus kleini and Planorbarius cornu. The terrestrial snail fauna consist mostly of land-dwelling pulmonates, being dominated by the following species: Pomatias conicus (the only operculate snail in the fauna), Cochlicopa loxostoma, Granaria sp. and Praeoestophorella phacodes. Finally, the following species are reported for the first time from Randeck Maar: Clausiliinae indet. , Triptychia kleini, Palaeotachea renevieri, Deroceras sp. , Milax sp. , Gastrocopta sandbergeri, Testacella zellii. Such a diverse snail fauna might help elucidate paleoecological questions regarding the Randek Maar lake and its hinterland.
Reproductive tract infections in HIV positive women: A case control study

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection primarily affects women during their reproductive years, and the coexistence of reproductive tract infections (RTIs) is not surprising given the fact that HIV is mainly acquired via heterosexual contact. Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the occurrence of RTIs among infected and noninfected women. Materials and Methods: A case control study of 83 HIV positive women, tested by two enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a matched control of 87 HIV negative women were screened for RTIs. They were submitted to gynecological examination and cervical cytology. Results: The mean age for HIV positive women was 30 years and that for HIV negative women was 27 years. 18% HIV positive women had menstrual irregularities compared to 6% in seronegative group (P= 0.024). Vaginal infections including sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were found in 47 (57%) HIV positive women and 30 (34%) HIV negative women (P= 0.0037). Vaginal candidiasis was the most common infection (34%) in HIV positive women, followed by trichomoniasis (12%). Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection was seen in nine HIV positive women versus none in HIV negative women. Cervical cytology showed inflammation in 53 (64%) HIV positive women compared to 27 (31%) HIV negative women (P= 0.000023). Genital neoplasia, including carcinoma in situ was observed in 2 (2.5%) HIV positive women and in none of the HIV negative women. Conclusion: It is seen that reproductive tract morbidities are common in HIV positive women. So it is imperative that HIV positive women have a complete gynecological evaluation including a Papanicolaou (PAP) smear with aggressive screening of STIs.
T cell-based therapies for EBV-associated malignancies

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is associated with a number of human malignancies. The cells of these tumours express a range of EBV latent cycle gene products that have the potential to be exploited as targets for T cell-mediated immunological therapies. Considerable progress has been made in developing adoptive T cell transfer for EBV-associated post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and clinical experience clearly demonstrates that EBV-specific T cell responses can be used to treat this EBV-associated malignancy. Adoptive T cell therapies for other EBV-associated malignancies are less advanced, although encouraging data are starting to emerge. Adoptive T cell transfer, however, does require significant levels of specialist laboratory support. Large-scale treatment of patients in geographical areas with a high prevalence of EBV-associated malignancy is likely to require the development of therapeutic vaccination strategies, a number of which are in development at present. Although it remains to be seen whether long-lasting sterilising immunity to EBV could be achieved, an alternative vaccine-based approach would be to develop a prophylactic vaccine to protect against primary EBV infection.
Rod Sensitivity of Neonatal Mouse and Rat

We have measured the sensitivity of rod photoreceptors isolated from overnight dark–adapted mice of age P12 (neonate) through P45 (adult) with suction-pipette recording. During this age period, the dark current increased roughly in direct proportion to the length of the rod outer segment. In the same period, the flash sensitivity of rods (reciprocal of the half-saturating flash intensity) increased by ∼1.5-fold. This slight developmental change in sensitivity was not accentuated by dark adapting the animal for just 1 h or by increasing the ambient luminance by sixfold during the prior light exposure. The same small, age-dependent change in rod sensitivity was found with rat. After preincubation of the isolated retina with 9-cis-retinal, neonatal mouse rods showed the same sensitivity as adult rods, suggesting the presence of a small amount of free opsin being responsible for their lower sensitivity. The sensitivity of neonate rods could also be increased to the adult level by dark adapting the animal continuously for several days. By comparing the sensitivity of neonate rods in darkness to that of adult rods after light bleaches, we estimated that ∼1% of rod opsin in neonatal mouse was devoid of chromophore even after overnight dark adaptation. Overall, we were unable to confirm a previous report that a 50-fold difference in rod sensitivity existed between neonatal and adult rats.
Bacteroides species as indicators of faecal pollution in environmental water sources: A literature review

v LIST OF FIGURES . vi LIST OF TABLES . vi ABBREVIATIONS . vii CHAPTER 1 – PROBLEM STATEMENT, INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW . 9 1.1 Problem statement . 9 1.2 Aim and objectives . 10 1.3 Introduction and Literature Review . 10 1.3. 1 The importance of water and water quality . 10 1.3. 2 Reality regarding water quality and faecal pollution in Africa. 12 1.3. 3 Reality regarding water quality and faecal pollution in South Africa . 15 1.3. 4 South African Blue and Green Drop water status . 19 1.3. 5 Indicator organisms and potential human health risk . 20 1.3. 6 Suitability of Bacteroides as alternative faecal indicator . 26 CHAPTER 2 – SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH MOLECULAR METHODS USED FOR DETECTION OF BACTERIOIDES SPP. 29 2.
Defining the Strain-Dependent Impact of the Staphylococcal Accessory Regulator (sarA) on the Alpha-Toxin Phenotype of Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT We demonstrate that mutation of the staphylococcal accessory regulator (sarA) limits the accumulation of alpha-toxin and phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs) in Staphylococcus aureus isolates of the USA300 clonal lineage. Degradation assays and experiments done with protease inhibitors suggested that this was due to the increased production of extracellular proteases rather than differences associated with the impact of sarA on transcription of the target gene (hla) or the accessory gene regulator (agr). This was confirmed by demonstrating that concomitant mutation of the gene encoding aureolysin (aur) reversed the alpha-toxin and PSM-deficient phenotypes of a USA300 sarA mutant. Mutation of sarA had little impact on the alpha-toxin or PSM phenotypes of the commonly studied strain Newman, which is known to have a mutation in saeS that results in constitutive activation of the saeRS regulatory system, and we also demonstrate that repair of this defect resulted in the increased production of extracellular proteases and reversed both the alpha-toxin and PSM-positive phenotypes of a Newman sarA mutant.
Trends in socioeconomic health inequalities in Korea: use of mortality and morbidity measures

Study objective: To examine trends in educational mortality and morbidity inequalities in Korea. Design: Census data (1990, 1995, 2000) and death certificate data (1990–91, 1995–96, 2000–01) were used for mortality. For morbidity, four waves (1989, 1992, 1995, and 1999) of Social Statistics Survey from Korea’s National Statistical Office were used. Morbidity indicators were self rated health and self reported illness in the past two weeks. Trends were studied using indices for both the relative and absolute size of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Setting: South Korea. Patients (or Participants): Representative annual samples of the adult population aged 30–59 in Korea. Main results: Based on trends in relative index of inequalities, the relative level of socioeconomic mortality inequality remained virtually unchanged in men and women in the past 10 years. Meanwhile, inequalities in self rated health have increased over time in both sexes. Most of the total increase in health inequalities happened between 1995 and 1999. Inequalities in self reported acute illness increased in the past 10 years. Conclusions: The rise in inequalities in morbidity requires increased social discourse and policy discussions about health inequalities in Korean society.
Institute for Mathematical Physics from Brunn{minkowski to Brascamp{lieb and to Logarithmic Sobolev Inequalities from Brunn-minkowski to Brascamp-lieb and to Logarithmic Sobolev Inequalities

| We develop several applications of the Brunn-Minkowki inequality in the Pr ekopa-Leindler form. In particular, we show that an argument of B. Maurey may be adapted to deduce from the Pr ekopa-Leindler theorem the Brascamp-Lieb inequality for stricly convex potentials. We deduce similarly the logarithmic Sobolev inequality for uniformly convex potentials for which we deal more generally with arbitrary norms and obtain some new results in this context. Applications to transportation cost and to concentration on uniformly convex bodies complete the exposition.
Maturational delay in ADHD: evidence from CPT

While data from behavioral, neuropsychological, and brain studies suggested that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is related to a developmental lag that reduces with age, other studies have proposed that ADHD represents a deviant brain function. The present study used a cross-sectional approach to examine whether ADHD children show a developmental delay in cognitive performance measured by continuous performance test (CPT). We thus, compared six age groups of ADHD children (N = 559) and their unaffected peers (N = 365), aged 6–11, in four parameters of MOXO-CPT performance: Attention, Timing, Hyperactivity and Impulsivity. Results have shown that despite improvement in CPT performance with age, ADHD children continued to demonstrate impaired performance as compared to controls. In most parameters, CPT performance of ADHD children matched that of 1–3 years younger normal controls, with a delay most prominent in older children. However, in the Hyperactivity parameter, ADHD children's performance resembled that of much younger healthy children, with almost no evidence for a developmental catch up. This study suggests that while some cognitive functions develop slower but normally, other functions (e.g., inhibitory control) show a different trajectory.
Extreme photopolarimetric behaviour of the blazar AO0235+164

We present optical photopolarimetric observations with high temporal resolution of the blazar AO 0235+164. Our data, the first to test the photopolarimetric behaviour of this object at very short time-scales, show significant micro-variability in total flux, colour index, linear polarization degree and position angle. Strong inter-night variations are also detected for these parameters. Although no correlation between colour index and total flux was found, our data seem to support the general bluer-when-brighter trend already known for this object. The polarization degree, in turn, shows no correlation with total flux, but a clear trend in the sense that colour index is redder (the spectrum is softer) when the measured polarization is higher.
Hash functions for near duplicate image retrieval

This paper proposes new hash functions for indexing local image descriptors. These functions are first applied and evaluated as a range neighbor algorithm. We show that it obtains similar results as several state of the art algorithms. In the context of near duplicate image retrieval, we integrated the proposed hash functions within a bag of words approach. Because most of the other methods use a kmeans-based vocabulary, they require an off-line learning stage and highest performance is obtained when the vocabulary is learned on the searched database. For application where images are often added or removed from the searched dataset, the learning stage must be repeated regularly in order to keep high recalls. We show that our hash functions in a bag of words approach has similar recalls as bag of words with kmeans vocabulary learned on the searched dataset, but our method does not require any learning stage. It is thus very well adapted to near duplicate image retrieval applications where the dataset evolves regularly as there is no need to update the vocabulary to guarantee the best performance.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytotoxin: periplasmic localization and inhibition of macrophages

Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytotoxin has been isolated previously from cell autolysates. Both purified cytotoxin and periplasmic contents (osmotic shock fluid) cross-reacted on Western immunoblots with antibodies specific for cytotoxin. In addition, both preparations caused a significant reduction in antibody-mediated phagocytosis of P. aeruginosa M2 by mouse macrophage cell line P388D1. Phagocytosis was restored in each case on preincubation of cytotoxin or periplasmic contents with anti-cytotoxin serum. Both cytotoxin and periplasmic contents caused depolarization of the P388D1 cell membrane, as demonstrated with a polarization-sensitive fluorescent probe. Similar correlations were not observed for other P. aeruginosa cell fractions or for osmotic shock fluid from Escherichia coli C600. These data indicate that P. aeruginosa cytotoxin is localized in the periplasm and has the potential to inhibit macrophage-mediated phagocytosis, possibly by perturbing ion gradients across the macrophage plasma membrane.
A new speculative addition architecture suitable for two's complement operations

Existing architectures for speculative addition are all based on the assumption that operands have uniformly distributed bits, which is rarely verified in real applications. As a consequence, they may be disadvantageous for real-world workloads, although in principle faster than standard adders. To address this limitation, we introduce a new architecture based on an innovative technique for speculative global carry evaluation. The proposed architecture solves the main drawback of existing schemes and, evaluated on real-world benchmarks, it exhibits an interesting performance improvement with respect to both standard adders and alternative architectures for speculative addition.
Antigen Receptor–Induced Activation and Cytoskeletal Rearrangement Are Impaired in Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein–Deficient Lymphocytes

The Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASp) has been implicated in modulation of lymphocyte activation and cytoskeletal reorganization. To address the mechanisms whereby WASp subserves such functions, we have examined WASp roles in lymphocyte development and activation using mice carrying a WAS null allele (WAS − / −). Enumeration of hemopoietic cells in these animals revealed total numbers of thymocytes, peripheral B and T lymphocytes, and platelets to be significantly diminished relative to wild-type mice. In the thymus, this abnormality was associated with impaired progression from the CD44−CD25+ to the CD44−CD25− stage of differentiation. WASp-deficient thymocytes and T cells also exhibited impaired proliferation and interleukin (IL)-2 production in response to T cell antigen receptor (TCR) stimulation, but proliferated normally in response to phorbol ester/ionomycin. This defect in TCR signaling was associated with a reduction in TCR-evoked upregulation of the early activation marker CD69 and in TCR-triggered apoptosis. While induction of TCR-ζ, ZAP70, and total protein tyrosine phosphorylation as well as mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and stress-activated protein/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) activation appeared normal in TCR-stimulated WAS − / − cells, TCR-evoked increases in intracellular calcium concentration were decreased in WASp-deficient relative to wild-type cells. WAS − / − lymphocytes also manifested a marked reduction in actin polymerization and both antigen receptor capping and endocytosis after TCR stimulation, whereas WAS − / − neutrophils exhibited reduced phagocytic activity. Together, these results provide evidence of roles for WASp in driving lymphocyte development, as well as in the translation of antigen receptor stimulation to proliferative or apoptotic responses, cytokine production, and cytoskeletal rearrangement. The data also reveal a role for WASp in modulating endocytosis and phagocytosis and, accordingly, suggest that the immune deficit conferred by WASp deficiency reflects the disruption of a broad range of cellular behaviors.