Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Getting to First Base: Developmental Trajectories of Major League Baseball Players

The road to professional baseball illustrates the complexity, variability and non-linearity of athlete development, as players may be drafted from various high school, 2 year, or 4 year programs and then placed into extensive minor league systems. The purpose of this study was to identify the different pathways to Major League Baseball (MLB) and explore their influence on career success. Performance and developmental data of 2,291 American-born MLB players who debuted between 1990 and 2010 were collected using baseball-reference.com. Three performance indicators, career games played (GP), age of debut, and wins above replacement (WAR; player’s total contributions in wins), were coupled with high school, post-secondary, and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) data. Analyses revealed 17 descriptively different pathways to MLB, which were grouped into three main streams based on the last institution attended before entrance into professional baseball. Overall, 63% of the athletes started their career directly after attending a 4 year higher education institution, 23% after high school, and 14% directly after attending a 2 year institution. Interestingly, 78% of the athletes did not sign or were not selected as high school draft picks. Position players drafted or signed from high school debuted in MLB younger (M = 23.99) and averaged significantly more MiLB GP (M = 909.13) than those drafted or signed from a 2 year (M = 25.67 and 834.41 GP) or 4 year institution (M = 25.95 and 752.33 GP). Pitchers signed or drafted from high school also debuted in MLB younger and played more MiLB games, as well as played in more MLB games than players from a 2 year or 4 year institution, F(8, 3,082) = 31.96, p ≤ 0.001. No significant differences of WAR were noted in position players or pitchers. Perhaps pitchers who are drafted from high school are afforded more opportunities to succeed, which may be indicative of sunk cost effects. This is conceivable as these players had the highest average GP but did not accrue a higher WAR. Future research may benefit from the consideration of post-secondary and/or high school statistics in combination with draft selection data, which may have important implications for improving talent identification accuracy.
Inhibitory Effect of Two Traditional Chinese Medicine Monomers, Berberine and Matrine, on the Quorum Sensing System of Antimicrobial-Resistant Escherichia coli

The quorum sensing (QS) system controls bacterial biofilm formation, which is highly related to the virulence and resistance of pathogens. In the present study, the effect of two traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) monomers, berberine and matrine, on biofilm formation and QS-related gene expression of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) Escherichia coli strains was investigated by laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) observation and real-time PCR. The results indicated a roughly positive relationship between biofilm formation ability and antimicrobial resistance. LSCM observation showed that berberine and matrine inhibited biofilm formation of AMR E. coli strains at 1/2 minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) (1/2 MIC berberine at OD630: 0.1020; 1/2 MIC matrine: OD630: 0.1045); furthermore, abnormal cell morphology such as rounded and elongated cells was also observed. This finding was consistent with the downregulation of QS-related genes: luxS, pfS, sdiA, hflX, motA, and fliA. At 1/2 MIC and 1/4 MIC concentrations of berberine, a significant downregulation of luxS, pfS, hflX, ftsQ, and ftsE was observed. The results indicate that berberine and matrine can inhibit biofilm formation by inhibiting the QS system and that berberine is more effective than matrine.
Copper/Zinc-Superoxide Dismutase in Human Epidermis: An Immunochemical Study

The localization of copper and zinc-superoxide dismutase in normal and neoplastic human skin was examined with immunochemical techniques. Skin samples were taken from males and females of different ages, UV exposed and non-exposed areas and basal-/spino-cellular carcinomas. The enzyme was localized diffusely in the cytoplasm and was also found in the nuclei of epidermal cells, endothelial cells and other dermis cell types. The dismutase content in the epidermis was higher in males than females, UV-exposed than non-exposed and young than old people. In the tumors, the enzyme content of the superficial epidermal layers was higher than in the deep tumoral epithelial cells. These data suggest that the localization of Cu, Zn-SOD in skin tissues reflects the gender and age of the subject, the cell types and their normal or diseased state. Further studies based on the investigation of systemic changes of this enzyme in physiological and pathological epidermis could provide additional information on tumor cell generation.
Culture-Dependent and -Independent Analyses Reveal the Diversity, Structure, and Assembly Mechanism of Benthic Bacterial Community in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

The benthic bacterial community in Antarctic continental shelf ecosystems are not well-documented. We collected 13 surface sediments from the Ross Sea, a biological hotspot in high-latitude maritime Antarctica undergoing rapid climate change and possible microflora shift, and aimed to study the diversity, structure and assembly mechanism of benthic bacterial community using both culture-dependent and -independent approaches. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons revealed 370 OTUs distributed in 21 phyla and 284 genera. The bacterial community was dominated by Bacteroidetes, Gamma- and Alphaproteobacteria, and constituted by a compact, conserved and positively-correlated group of anaerobes and other competitive aerobic chemoheterotrophs. Null-model test based on βNTI and RCBray indicated that stochastic processes, including dispersal limitation and undominated fractions, were the main forces driving community assembly. On the other hand, environmental factors, mainly temperature, organic matter and chlorophyll, were significantly correlated with bacterial richness, diversity and community structure. Moreover, metabolic and physiological features of the prokaryotic taxa were mapped to evaluate the adaptive mechanisms and functional composition of the benthic bacterial community. Our study is helpful to understand the structural and functional aspects, as well as the ecological and biogeochemical role of the benthic bacterial community in the Ross Sea.
Inside Out: A Scoping Review on the Physical Education Teacher’s Personality

The teacher’s personality in general plays an important role in the educational process. It is often examined in relation to outcome factors on the teacher or student side, e.g., teaching effectiveness or student motivation. Physical education (PE) with its peculiarities and allocated educational mandate particularly demands the personality of the PE teacher. Research considering this group of teachers is sparse, diverse and hard to capture due to different personality understandings. Our review therefore aims at identifying and analyzing underlying personality understandings, research questions and results of studies considering the personality of the PE teacher. We conducted a scoping review. After the screening and additional analyses process, 23 studies were included. Included references had to be empirical, published in German or English and explicitly examine the PE teacher’s personality as variable or mention it as outcome factor in school context. All studies are cross-sectional, 22 studies quantitative, one qualitative. Regarding personality understandings, 12 studies follow a trait psychological, six studies a vocational, one study an interpersonal personality understanding. Four studies’ personality understanding is not concretely determinable. Considering research questions, three studies aim at identifying the PE teacher’s personality in general and do, e.g., not find considerable differences between the PE teacher’s and other teacher’s personality. Nine studies examine the relationship between the PE teacher’s personality and different correlates such as burnout, highlighting, e.g., that female PE teachers’ burnout process is less homogeneous than males. Eleven studies examine the PE teacher’s personality from an external view and show, e.g., that students of different age groups perceive the PE teacher’s personality differently. Our review offers possible practical implications. By e.g., knowing their personality structure – their inside –, PE teachers can play to their own strengths and make use of their individual personality configuration in order to teach authentically and successfully, i.e., transferring the inside to the outside. Due to partly questionable and fragmentary methodologies of the included studies, results have to be interpreted with caution. More studies considering the PE teacher’s personality following a broad personality understanding are needed to include potentially relevant factors for teaching and by this receive evident insights.
Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Oligometastatic Disease in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with a limited survival when treated with palliative intent platinum-based chemotherapy alone. Recent advances in imaging and therapeutic strategy have identified a subset of patients with limited metastases who may benefit from early local ablative therapy with either surgery or radiotherapy, in addition to standard treatment. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is increasingly used in the treatment of extra-cranial oligometastatic NSCLC (OM-NSCLC) due its non-invasive conduct and ability to deliver high doses. Clinical evidence supporting the use of SBRT in OM-NSCLC is emerging and consistently demonstrates significant benefit in local control and progression-free survival. Here, we discuss the definition of oligometastases (OM), review current available data on SBRT treatment in extra-cranial OM-NSCLC including evidence for site-specific SBRT in lung, liver, and adrenal metastases.
Blue Light Sensing in Listeria monocytogenes Is Temperature-Dependent and the Transcriptional Response to It Is Predominantly SigB-Dependent

Listeria monocytogenes is an important food-borne pathogen that is tolerant to many of the stresses commonly used during food preservation. Outside the host, the bacterium has a saprophytic lifestyle that includes periodic exposure to solar irradiance. The blue component of this light is known to influence the activity of the stress-inducible sigma factor Sigma B (σB). In this study, the influence of temperature and growth phase on the response of L. monocytogenes to blue light was investigated and the global transcriptional response to blue light was elucidated using an RNAseq-based approach. Stationary phase cells were found to be significantly more resistant to killing by blue light (470 nm) than exponential phase cells. Temperature also had a marked effect on blue light resistance with cells cultured at 37°C being much more sensitive than cells grown at 30°C. The role of σB in light tolerance was confirmed but this effect was observed only at 30°C. σB activation by blue light was assessed by measuring the transcriptional response of known σB-dependent genes (sigB, lmo2230, and opuCA) to light. The transcripts were induced by blue light only at 30°C suggesting that blue light fails to activate σB at 37°C. The light-induced transcription at 30°C was dependent on a functional blue light sensor, Lmo0799 (which we rename herein as RsbL). A transcriptomic analysis of the response to sub-lethal levels of blue light found that the changes in transcription were almost entirely σB-dependent. A mutant where the light sensing mechanism of RsbL was inactivated through an amino acid substitution (Cys56Ala) was found to have an attenuated response to blue light, but residual activation of σB-dependent genes suggested that alternative routes for activation of σB by light are likely to exist. Overall, the study highlights the central role of σB in the response of this pathogen to visible light and further shows that light sensing is absent at temperatures that exist within the mammalian host.
Maximize Resolution or Minimize Error? Using Genotyping-By-Sequencing to Investigate the Recent Diversification of Helianthemum (Cistaceae)

A robust phylogenetic framework, in terms of extensive geographical and taxonomic sampling, well-resolved species relationships and high certainty of tree topologies and branch length estimations, is critical in the study of macroevolutionary patterns. Whereas Sanger sequencing-based methods usually recover insufficient phylogenetic signal, especially in recently diversified lineages, reduced-representation sequencing methods tend to provide well-supported phylogenetic relationships, but usually entail remarkable bioinformatic challenges due to the inherent trade-off between the number of SNPs and the magnitude of associated error rates. The genus Helianthemum (Cistaceae) is a species-rich and taxonomically complex Palearctic group of plants that diversified mainly since the Upper Miocene. It is a challenging case study since previous attempts using Sanger sequencing were unable to resolve the intrageneric phylogenetic relationships. Aiming to obtain a robust phylogenetic reconstruction based on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), we established a rigorous methodological workflow in which we i) explored how variable settings during dataset assembly have an impact on error rates and on the degree of resolution under concatenation and coalescent approaches, ii) assessed the effect of two extreme parameter configurations (minimizing error rates vs. maximizing phylogenetic resolution) on tree topology and branch lengths, and iii) evaluated the effects of these two configurations on estimates of divergence times and diversification rates. Our analyses produced highly supported topologically congruent phylogenetic trees for both configurations. However, minimizing error rates did produce more reliable branch lengths, critically affecting the accuracy of downstream analyses (i.e. divergence times and diversification rates). In addition to recommending a revision of intrageneric systematics, our results enabled us to identify three highly diversified lineages in Helianthemum in contrasting geographical areas and ecological conditions, which started radiating in the Upper Miocene.
Prognostic and Clinic Pathological Value of Cx43 Expression in Glioma: A Meta-Analysis

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) composed of connexin proteins is considered vital to cancer onset and progression since 50 years ago based on Lowenstein and Kano's works, however altered expression of connexins is still a lesser known “hallmark” of cancer. Although many studies support the hypothesis that connexins are tumor suppressors, recent evidence indicates that, in some tumor types including glioma, they may play contradictory role in some specific stages of tumor progression. We thus conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic role of Cx43 in glioma for the unanswered questions that whether Cx43 is a beneficial or insalubrity factor for glioma. Eight studies with 1,706 patients were included for meta-analysis. The results showed that Cx43 expression was a clearly negative factor with tumor grades (I2 = 34%, P < 0.001) and beneficial for OS (n = 3, HR 2.62, 95%CI 1.47–4.68; P = 0.001). Subgroup analysis also found that Cx43 had different expression in Asian young patients vs. other groups. In conclusion, this article summarize the prognostic value of Cx43 and offer a clinical evidence for the notion that Cx43 is generally a tumor suppressor and beneficial for the patients' survival time.
Biophysics of Cell-Substrate Interactions Under Shear

Cells adhere to substrates through mechanosensitive focal adhesion complexes. Measurements that probe how cells detach from substrates when they experience an applied force connect molecular-scale aspects of cell adhesion with the biophysical properties of adherent cells. Such forces can be applied through shear devices that flow fluid in a controlled manner across cells. The signaling pathways associated with focal adhesions, in particular those that involve integrins and receptor tyrosine kinases, are complex, receiving mechano-chemical feedback from the sensing of substrate stiffness as well as of external forces. This article reviews the signaling processes involved in mechanosensing and mechanotransduction during cell-substrate interactions, describing the role such signaling plays in cancer metastasis. We examine some recent progress in quantifying the strength of these interactions, describing a novel fluid shear device that allows for the visualization of the cell and its sub-cellular structures under a shear flow. We also summarize related results from a biophysical model for cellular de-adhesion induced by applied forces. Quantifying cell-substrate adhesions under shear should aid in the development of mechano-diagnostic techniques for diseases in which cell-adhesion is mis-regulated, such as cancers.
Bridging the Gap Between Second Language Acquisition Research and Memory Science: The Case of Foreign Language Attrition

The field of second language acquisition (SLA) is by nature of its subject a highly interdisciplinary area of research. Learning a (foreign) language, for example, involves encoding new words, consolidating and committing them to long-term memory, and later retrieving them. All of these processes have direct parallels in the domain of human memory and have been thoroughly studied by researchers in that field. Yet, despite these clear links, the two fields have largely developed in parallel and in isolation from one another. The present article aims to promote more cross-talk between SLA and memory science. We focus on foreign language (FL) attrition as an example of a research topic in SLA where the parallels with memory science are especially apparent. We discuss evidence that suggests that competition between languages is one of the mechanisms of FL attrition, paralleling the interference process thought to underlie forgetting in other domains of human memory. Backed up by concrete suggestions, we advocate the use of paradigms from the memory literature to study these interference effects in the language domain. In doing so, we hope to facilitate future cross-talk between the two fields and to further our understanding of FL attrition as a memory phenomenon.
Frontal and Insular Input to the Dorsolateral Temporal Pole in Primates: Implications for Auditory Memory

The temporal pole (TP) has been involved in multiple functions from emotional and social behavior, semantic processing, memory, language in humans and epilepsy surgery, to the fronto-temporal neurodegenerative disorder (semantic) dementia. However, the role of the TP subdivisions is still unclear, in part due to the lack of quantitative data about TP connectivity. This study focuses in the dorsolateral subdivision of the TP: area 38DL. Area 38DL main input originates in the auditory processing areas of the rostral superior temporal gyrus. Among other connections, area 38DL conveys this auditory highly processed information to the entorhinal, rostral perirhinal, and posterior parahippocampal cortices, presumably for storage in long-term memory (Muñoz-López et al., 2015). However, the connections of the TP with cortical areas beyond the temporal cortex suggest that this area is part of a wider network. With the aim to quantitatively determine the topographical, laminar pattern and weighting of the lateral TP afferents from the frontal and insular cortices, we placed a total of 11 tracer injections of the fluorescent retrograde neuronal tracers Fast Blue and Diamidino Yellow at different levels of the lateral TP in rhesus monkeys. The results showed that circa 50% of the total cortical input to area 38DL originates in medial frontal areas 14, 25, 32, and 24 (25%); orbitofrontal areas Pro and PAll (15%); and the agranular, parainsular and disgranular insula (10%). This study sets the anatomical bases to better understand the function of the dorsolateral division of the TP. More specifically, these results suggest that area 38DL forms part of the wider limbic circuit that might contribute, among other functions, with an auditory component to multimodal memory processing.
An Opportunity to Be Heard: Family Experiences of Coronial Investigations Into Missing People and Views on Best Practice

Experiences of 15 family members and friends of missing people of a coronial investigation into the suspected death of a missing person in New South Wales (NSW), Australia were examined via in-depth interviews. This study explored participant perceptions of the impact of coronial proceedings on well-being, and views on best practice approaches to families in the Coroner’s Court. Transcripts were thematically analysed, yielding six key themes in participant experiences of inquests: (1) Opportunity to be heard, (2) A chance for education, (3) If you are human with me (sensitive treatment and language), (4) Timely investigations, (5) A public and formal court environment, and (6) Coronial outcomes. Overall, families benefitted from opportunities to have input and feel heard, compassionate treatment, and appropriate education about the process and available support services. A detriment on well-being was described when these factors were precluded. Some participants perceived positive outcomes arising from public awareness of cases of missing people, formalities that conveyed respect, and timeframes that enabled further investigation or preparation for the inquest. Others reported distress and trauma in response to significant delays that led to a loss of evidence, intrusive media and unknown persons in court, and unwelcoming, formal court environments. Some participants were profoundly distressed by a finding of death and by the procedures that followed the inquest, emphasising the need for post-inquest debriefing and ongoing support. These findings deepen our understanding of coronial practices, and of measures to prevent harm, that will be instructive to other coronial jurisdictions. Further research should examine family experiences in contexts where there are variable coronial proceedings or procedures that result in legal findings of death.