Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Effect of Phage Therapy in Preventing Vibrio anguillarum Infections in Cod and Turbot Larvae

The aquaculture industry is suffering from losses associated with bacterial infections by opportunistic pathogens. Vibrio anguillarum is one of the most important pathogens, causing vibriosis in fish and shellfish cultures leading to high mortalities and economic losses. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics and inefficient vaccination at the larval stage of fish emphasizes the need for novel approaches, and phage therapy for controlling Vibrio pathogens has gained interest in the past few years. In this study, we examined the potential of the broad-host-range phage KVP40 to control four different V. anguillarum strains in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) and turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.) larvae. We examined larval mortality and abundance of bacteria and phages. Phage KVP40 was able to reduce and/or delay the mortality of the cod and turbot larvae challenged with V. anguillarum. However, growth of other pathogenic bacteria naturally occurring on the fish eggs prior to our experiment caused mortality of the larvae in the unchallenged control groups. Interestingly, the broad-spectrum phage KVP40 was able to reduce mortality in these groups, compared to the nonchallenge control groups not treated with phage KVP40, demonstrating that the phage could also reduce mortality imposed by the background population of pathogens. Overall, phage-mediated reduction in mortality of cod and turbot larvae in experimental challenge assays with V. anguillarum pathogens suggested that application of broad-host-range phages can reduce Vibrio-induced mortality in turbot and cod larvae, emphasizing that phage therapy is a promising alternative to traditional treatment of vibriosis in marine aquaculture.
Activation and Alliance of Regulatory Pathways in C. albicans during Mammalian Infection

Gene expression dynamics have provided foundational insight into almost all biological processes. Here, we analyze expression of environmentally responsive genes and transcription factor genes to infer signals and pathways that drive pathogen gene regulation during invasive Candida albicans infection of a mammalian host. Environmentally responsive gene expression shows that there are early and late phases of infection. The early phase includes induction of zinc and iron limitation genes, genes that respond to transcription factor Rim101, and genes characteristic of invasive hyphal cells. The late phase includes responses related to phagocytosis by macrophages. Transcription factor gene expression also reflects early and late phases. Transcription factor genes that are required for virulence or proliferation in vivo are enriched among highly expressed transcription factor genes. Mutants defective in six transcription factor genes, three previously studied in detail (Rim101, Efg1, Zap1) and three less extensively studied (Rob1, Rpn4, Sut1), are profiled during infection. Most of these mutants have distinct gene expression profiles during infection as compared to in vitro growth. Infection profiles suggest that Sut1 acts in the same pathway as Zap1, and we verify that functional relationship with the finding that overexpression of either ZAP1 or the Zap1-dependent zinc transporter gene ZRT2 restores pathogenicity to a sut1 mutant. Perturbation with the cell wall inhibitor caspofungin also has distinct gene expression impact in vivo and in vitro. Unexpectedly, caspofungin induces many of the same genes that are repressed early during infection, a phenomenon that we suggest may contribute to drug efficacy. The pathogen response circuitry is tailored uniquely during infection, with many relevant regulatory relationships that are not evident during growth in vitro. Our findings support the principle that virulence is a property that is manifested only in the distinct environment in which host–pathogen interaction occurs.
Daily Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Marital Quality in Chinese Marriage: A Three-Wave, Cross-Lagged Analysis

Based on three annual waves of data obtained from 268 Chinese couples in the early years of marriage and using a three-wave, cross-lagged approach, the present study examined the associations among daily marital communication, marital conflict resolution, and marital quality. Results indicated unidirectional associations linking daily marital communication or marital conflict resolution to marital quality (instead of reciprocal associations); and when considered simultaneously in a single model, daily marital communication and marital conflict resolution explained variance in marital quality above and beyond each other. Furthermore, the authors also found a significant longitudinal, indirect association linking husbands’ daily marital communication at Wave 1 to husbands’ marital quality at Wave 3 via husbands’ marital conflict resolution at Wave 2. Taken altogether, the current study adds to an emerging body of research aimed at clarifying: (a) the directionality of the associations between couple interactive processes and marital well-being; (b) the unique roles of daily marital communication and marital conflict resolution in predicting marital outcomes; and (c) how daily marital communication and marital conflict resolution may operate in conjunction with each other to shape the development of couple relationship well-being.
International Journal of Self-Directed Learning

Scholars of self-directed learning look to define best practices in teaching and learning that promote an improvement in self-directed learning. In order to do this, learners need more awareness of the student learning outcomes that exist as part of their programs of study. Could the use of an e-portfolio system allow students to see their learning goals, determine how to meet those learning goals, and evaluate their own learning outcomes as a means to foster increased self-directed learning? The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted weaknesses in our education system and has prompted renewed conversation about the structure of education. This article argues that the conversation should be more geared to the why of education (i.e., the purpose of schools) rather than the how (i.e., the multiple ways of delivering education both for in-person and remote settings). This article examines two conflicting philosophies of education. First, the model of self-directed learning put forward by Knowles in 1975 is presented and why it may be useful in our present circumstances. In contrast, Biesta’s critique of the rise of learning (and removal of teaching) in education will be presented, showing the political power at work in this discourse. Finally, a type of synthesis is reached between these two polarized positions with the help of Freire, arguing for a why of education that has rehumanization at its center.
Beyond BRIC: offshoring in non-BRIC countries: Egypt – a new growth market: an LSE Outsourcing Unit report January 2009

This report was commissioned as an independently researched report by Hill & Knowlton, acting for the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt. The global offshore outsourcing market for IT and business services exceeded $55 billion USD in 2008, and some estimates suggest an annual growth rate of 20% over the next five years. It is common to talk of Brazil, Russia, India and China as the BRIC inheritors of globalisation, offering both offshore IT and back-office services, and also, with their vast populations and developing economies, huge potential markets. This report, however, which was commissioned by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt, set out to investigate to what extent, within this context, non-BRIC countries could also be seen to be potential inheritors of globalisation. A representative sample of 14 countries drawn from Central and Eastern Europe, the African Mediterranean, the Americas and Asia Pacific, where the main active non-BRIC economies can be found, provided the focus for the systematic comparison of their relative competitiveness from which a benchmarking index could be developed. Setting out the long-term context and trends through which these countries are emerging as IT and business service 'hot spots', and identifying the global sourcing trends and pressures that are likely to develop in the next five years and their implications for these non-BRIC countries, the report turns in its final chapters to consider Egypt in more detail to assess its current positioning, the future path that it can take, and the challenges it faces as well as actions needed for it to get there.
Biological Oscillators in Nanonetworks—Opportunities and Challenges

One of the major issues in molecular communication-based nanonetworks is the provision and maintenance of a common time knowledge. To stay true to the definition of molecular communication, biological oscillators are the potential solutions to achieve that goal as they generate oscillations through periodic fluctuations in the concentrations of molecules. Through the lens of a communication systems engineer, the scope of this survey is to explicitly classify, for the first time, existing biological oscillators based on whether they are found in nature or not, to discuss, in a tutorial fashion, the main principles that govern the oscillations in each oscillator, and to analyze oscillator parameters that are most relevant to communication engineer researchers. In addition, the survey highlights and addresses the key open research issues pertaining to several physical aspects of the oscillators and the adoption and implementation of the oscillators to nanonetworks. Moreover, key research directions are discussed.
Polypyrrole-chitosan conductive biomaterial synchronizes cardiomyocyte contraction and improves myocardial electrical impulse propagation

Background: The post-myocardial infarction (MI) scar interrupts electrical impulse propagation and delays regional contraction, which contributes to ventricular dysfunction. We investigated the potential of an injectable conductive biomaterial to restore scar tissue conductivity and re-establish synchronous ventricular contraction. Methods: A conductive biomaterial was generated by conjugating conductive polypyrrole (PPY) onto chitosan (CHI) backbones. Trypan blue staining of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (CMs) cultured on biomaterials was used to evaluate the biocompatibility of the conductive biomaterials. Ca2+ imaging was used to visualize beating CMs. A cryoablation injury rat model was used to investigate the ability of PPY:CHI to improve cardiac electrical propagation in the injured heart in vivo. Electromyography was used to evaluate conductivity of scar tissue ex vivo. Results: Cell survival and morphology were similar between cells cultured on biomaterials-coated and uncoated-control dishes. PPY:CHI established synchronous contraction of two distinct clusters of spontaneously-beating CMs. Intramyocardial PPY:CHI injection into the cryoablation-induced injured region improved electrical impulse propagation across the scarred tissue and decreased the QRS interval, whereas saline- or CHI-injected hearts continued to have delayed propagation patterns and significantly reduced conduction velocity compared to healthy controls. Ex vivo evaluation found that scar tissue from PPY:CHI-treated rat hearts had higher signal amplitude compared to those from saline- or CHI-treated rat heart tissue. Conclusions: The PPY:CHI biomaterial is electrically conductive, biocompatible and injectable. It improved synchronous contraction between physically separated beating CM clusters in vitro. Intra-myocardial injection of PPY:CHI following cardiac injury improved electrical impulse propagation of scar tissue in vivo.
What do Household Surveys Really Tell Us about Risk, Shocks, and Risk Management in the Developing World?

Abstract We report on a project to explore empirical patterns in risk, shocks and risk management using recent household surveys with risk modules from 16 different developing countries. Natural disasters, health shocks, economic shocks, and asset loss are the most commonly reported types of shocks and, especially for the poor, often result in ‘bad’ coping responses that may perpetuate vulnerability. The information culled from these survey modules falls short of expectations in several ways.
The Usefulness of Historical Accounting Reports

In this study we investigate the usefulness of historical accounting reports (10-Ks and 10-Qs) by examining four settings where we expect investors to acquire historical reports in order to obtain qualitative and quantitative information that contextualizes and conditions information released in the current period. Using a novel dataset that tracks user requests for accounting reports stored in the SEC EDGAR database, we find that requests for historic reports during the fiscal year are positively associated with financial reporting complexity and that requests around earnings announcements are positively associated with accounting discretion and negative earnings shocks (particularly for conservative firms). Finally, we find that daily requests for historical reports are positively associated with shocks to firm value (particularly negative shocks). Overall, our evidence suggests that historical reports make up an important component of the information mosaic assembled by investors.
Impact of Financial Leverage on the Incidence and Severity of Product Failures: Evidence from Product Recalls

We study the impact of the financial condition of firms on firms’ ability to produce safer products that result in fewer recalls. Using a variety of tests, including two quasi-natural experiments that result in exogenous negative industry cash-flow shocks, we find that firms with higher leverage or distress likelihood have a greater probability of a product recall. These firms also face more frequent and severe recalls. Further, firms with more debt due at the onset of the financial crisis experience a greater likelihood and frequency of recalls. We conclude that a firm’s financial condition has real effects that impact product safety.
Performance analysis of error resilience wireless image transmission using H.264/AVC I-frame

H.264 is the latest video coding standard designed to provide better coding efficiency and error robustness compared to previous standards. However, H.264 can also be used to encode still image by using I-frame coding. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of error resilience features of H.264 I-frame for image transmission over Rayleigh fading channel. Objective and subjective results are presented in terms of error resilience performance of the standard. The results show that an image quality of service (QoS) in relation of channel errors can be significantly improved by using error resilience source coding.
Reciprocal relations among motivational frameworks, math anxiety, and math achievement in early elementary school

ABSTRACT School-entry math achievement is a strong predictor of math achievement through high school. We asked whether reciprocal relations among math achievement, math anxiety, and entity motivational frameworks (believing that ability is fixed and a focus on performance) can help explain these persistent individual differences. We assessed 1st and 2nd graders’ (N = 634) math achievement, motivational frameworks, and math anxiety 2 times, 6 months apart. Cross-lagged path analyses showed reciprocal relations between math anxiety and math achievement and between motivational frameworks and math achievement. Entity motivational frameworks predicted higher math anxiety. High math achievement was a particularly strong predictor of lower math anxiety and less entity-oriented motivational frameworks. We concluded that reciprocal effects are already present in the first 2 years of formal schooling, with math achievement and attitudes feeding off one another to produce either a vicious or virtuous cycle. Improving both math performance and math attitudes may set children onto a long-lasting, positive trajectory in math.
Utility of optical coherence tomography in the evaluation of sellar and parasellar mass lesions

Purpose of review Anterior visual pathway compression is a common feature of sellar region masses. We review the visual pathway neuroanatomy pertaining to sellar and parasellar lesions and describe recent advances in optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging that have provided a novel quantitative perspective in the evaluation and management of such patients. Recent findings Ultrastructural measurements of optic nerve integrity using OCT, namely peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) and the ganglion cell and inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thicknesses, have been shown to correlate with visual acuity and visual field deficits on perimetry in patients with compressive sellar region masses. In some cases, OCT can visualize early signs of anterior visual pathway involvement in the absence of clinically evident visual field loss or optic disc pallor. OCT is particularly useful when assessing patients who demonstrate less reliable visual field testing. Furthermore, there is growing awareness that pRNFL and GCIPL thinning preoperatively correlate with worse visual recovery following chiasmal decompression, highlighting the prognostic utility of OCT in this patient population. Summary OCT provides a complimentary, yet critical, role in quantitatively assessing ultrastructural retinal injury in patients with sellar and parasellar lesions compressing the anterior visual pathway and should be incorporated into routine evaluation.
How face blurring affects body language processing of static gestures in women and men

Abstract The role of facial coding in body language comprehension was investigated by event-related potential recordings in 31 participants viewing 800 photographs of gestures (iconic, deictic and emblematic), which could be congruent or incongruent with their caption. Facial information was obscured by blurring in half of the stimuli. The task consisted of evaluating picture/caption congruence. Quicker response times were observed in women than in men to congruent stimuli, and a cost for incongruent vs congruent stimuli was found only in men. Face obscuration did not affect accuracy in women as reflected by omission percentages, nor reduced their cognitive potentials, thus suggesting a better comprehension of face deprived pantomimes. N170 response (modulated by congruity and face presence) peaked later in men than in women. Late positivity was much larger for congruent stimuli in the female brain, regardless of face blurring. Face presence specifically activated the right superior temporal and fusiform gyri, cingulate cortex and insula, according to source reconstruction. These regions have been reported to be insufficiently activated in face-avoiding individuals with social deficits. Overall, the results corroborate the hypothesis that females might be more resistant to the lack of facial information or better at understanding body language in face-deprived social information.
Efficient and robust deep networks for semantic segmentation

This paper explores and investigates deep convolutional neural network architectures to increase the efficiency and robustness of semantic segmentation tasks. The proposed solutions are based on up-convolutional networks. We introduce three different architectures in this work. The first architecture, called Part-Net, is designed to tackle the specific problem of human body part segmentation and to provide robustness to overfitting and body part occlusion. The second network, called Fast-Net, is a network specifically designed to provide the smallest computation load without losing representation power. Such an architecture is capable of being run on mobile GPUs. The last architecture, called M-Net, aims to maximize the robustness characteristics of deep semantic segmentation approaches through multiresolution fusion. The networks achieve state-of-the-art performance on the PASCAL Parts dataset and competitive results on the KITTI dataset for road and lane segmentation. Moreover, we introduce a new part segmentation dataset, the Freiburg City dataset, which is designed to bring semantic segmentation to highly realistic robotics scenarios. Additionally, we present results obtained with a ground robot and an unmanned aerial vehicle and a full system to explore the capabilities of human body part segmentation in the context of human–robot interaction.
Comprehensive profiling and quantitation of oncogenic mutations in non small-cell lung carcinoma using single molecule amplification and re-sequencing technology

Activating and resistance mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of several oncogenes are frequently associated with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). In this study we assessed the frequency, type and abundance of EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, TP53 and ALK mutations in tumour specimens from 184 patients with early and late stage disease using single molecule amplification and re-sequencing technology (SMART). Based on modelling of EGFR mutations, the detection sensitivity of the SMART assay was at least 0.1%. Benchmarking EGFR mutation detection against the gold standard ARMS-PCR assay, SMART assay had a sensitivity and specificity of 98.7% and 99.0%. Amongst the 184 samples, EGFR mutations were the most prevalent (59.9%), followed by KRAS (16.9%), TP53 (12.7%), EML4-ALK fusions (6.3%) and BRAF (4.2%) mutations. The abundance and types of mutations in tumour specimens were extremely heterogeneous, involving either monoclonal (51.6%) or polyclonal (12.6%) mutation events. At the clinical level, although the spectrum of tumour mutation(s) was unique to each patient, the overall patterns in early or advanced stage disease were relatively similar. Based on these findings, we propose that personalized profiling and quantitation of clinically significant oncogenic mutations will allow better classification of patients according to tumour characteristics and provide clinicians with important ancillary information for treatment decision-making.
Ferrets as Models for Influenza Virus Transmission Studies and Pandemic Risk Assessments

The ferret transmission model is extensively used to assess the pandemic potential of emerging influenza viruses, yet experimental conditions and reported results vary among laboratories. Such variation can be a critical consideration when contextualizing results from independent risk-assessment studies of novel and emerging influenza viruses. To streamline interpretation of data generated in different laboratories, we provide a consensus on experimental parameters that define risk-assessment experiments of influenza virus transmissibility, including disclosure of variables known or suspected to contribute to experimental variability in this model, and advocate adoption of more standardized practices. We also discuss current limitations of the ferret transmission model and highlight continued refinements and advances to this model ongoing in laboratories. Understanding, disclosing, and standardizing the critical parameters of ferret transmission studies will improve the comparability and reproducibility of pandemic influenza risk assessment and increase the statistical power and, perhaps, accuracy of this model.
Distributed State Estimation of Sensor-Network Systems Subject to Markovian Channel Switching With Application to a Chemical Process

This paper addresses a distributed estimator design problem for linear systems deployed over sensor networks within a multiple communication channels (MCCs) framework. A practical scenario is taken into account such that the channel used for communication can be switched and the switching is governed by a Markov chain. With the existence of communicational imperfections and external disturbances, an estimation algorithm is proposed such that the developed distributed estimators are able to give accurate state estimates against the channel switching phenomenon. The distributed estimation framework is applied to a chemical process to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and the superiority of the MCCs framework featured by channel switching.