Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduction of Energetic Demands through Modification of Body Size and Routine Metabolic Rates in Extremophile Fish

Variation in energy availability or maintenance costs in extreme environments can exert selection for efficient energy use, and reductions in organismal energy demand can be achieved in two ways: reducing body mass or metabolic suppression. Whether long-term exposure to extreme environmental conditions drives adaptive shifts in body mass or metabolic rates remains an open question. We studied body size variation and variation in routine metabolic rates in locally adapted populations of extremophile fish (Poecilia mexicana) living in toxic, hydrogen sulfide–rich springs and caves. We quantified size distributions and routine metabolic rates in wild-caught individuals from four habitat types. Compared with ancestral populations in nonsulfidic surface habitats, extremophile populations were characterized by significant reductions in body size. Despite elevated metabolic rates in cave fish, the body size reduction precipitated in significantly reduced energy demands in all extremophile populations. Laboratory experiments on common garden–raised fish indicated that elevated routine metabolic rates in cave fish likely have a genetic basis. The results of this study indicate that adaptation to extreme environments directly impacts energy metabolism, with fish living in cave and sulfide spring environments expending less energy overall during routine metabolism.
The Role of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in the Pathophysiology of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin highly expressed in the brain with a potent influence on several aspects of neuronal function. Since its discovery in the early 1980s, BDNF has prompted a great interest in better understanding its physiological role and has been established as the main central neurotrophic factor. BDNF is initially synthesized as a precursor, pro-BDNF, which is then cleaved to form mature BDNF (m-BDNF). A regulated balance between pro-BDNF and m-BDNF is crucial for physiological as well as pathological conditions. The diverse effects of BDNF are mediated through the p75 NT receptor (p75NTR), which binds to its precursor form, and the tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB), which binds to its mature form. Activation of TrkB and p75NTR may produce opposite outcomes in that TrkB receptors have a well-defined trophic role and their activation is proposed to mediate neuronal survival, whereas p75NTR may promote apoptosis. BDNF is highly expressed in limbic structures and cerebral cortex, making it a crucial factor in the regulation of learning and memory, affective behaviors and reward processes. Abnormal BDNF signaling has been proposed to have a crucial role in the course and development of numerous psychiatric and neurological disorders. Moreover, psychotropic drugs used to treat some of these conditions are known to activate BDNF signaling. The present review gives an overview of the involvement of BDNF in the pathology of psychiatric and neurological disorders, compiling what is known from human and animal studies.
Persistent spatial patterns of interacting contagions

The spread of infectious diseases, rumors, fashions, and innovations are complex contagion processes, embedded in network and spatial contexts. While the studies in the former context are intensively expanded, the latter remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we investigate the pattern formation of an interacting contagion, where two infections, A and B, interact with each other and diffuse simultaneously in space. The contagion process for each follows the classical susceptible-infected-susceptible kinetics, and their interaction introduces a potential change in the secondary infection propensity compared to the baseline reproduction number R0. We show that the nontrivial spatial infection patterns arise when the susceptible individuals move faster than the infected and the interaction between the two infections is neither too competitive nor too cooperative. Interestingly, the system exhibits pattern hysteresis phenomena, i.e., quite different parameter regions for patterns exist in the direction of increasing or decreasing R0. Decreasing R0 reveals remarkable enhancement in contagion prevalence, meaning that the eradication becomes difficult compared to the single-infection or coinfection without space. Linearization analysis supports our observations, and we have identified the required elements and dynamical mechanism, which suggests that these patterns are essentially Turing patterns. Our work thus reveals new complexities in interacting contagions and paves the way for further investigation because of its relevance to both biological and social contexts.
Finely Tuned, 2 Billion Token Based Word Embeddings for Portuguese

A distributional semantics model — also known as word embeddings — is a major asset for any language as the research results reported in the literature have consistently shown that it is instrumental to improve the performance of a wide range of applications and processing tasks for that language. In this paper, we describe the development of an advanced distributional model for Portuguese, with the largest vocabulary and the best evaluation scores published so far. This model was made possible by resorting to new languages resources we recently developed: to a much larger training corpus than before and to a more sophisticated evaluation supported by new and more ﬁne-grained evaluation tasks and data sets. We also indicate how the new language resource reported on here is being distributed and where it can be obtained for free under a most permissive license.
Investigating Cyanobacteria Metabolism and Channeling-based Regulations via Isotopic Nonstationary Labeling and Metabolomic Analyses

Intracellular enzymes can be organized into a variety of assemblies, shuttling intermediates from one active site to the next. Eukaryotic reaction compartmentalization within mitochondrion and peroxisomes and substrate tunneling within multi-enzyme complexes have been well recognized. Intriguingly, the central pathways in prokaryotes may also form extensive channels, including the heavily branched glycolysis pathway. In vivo channeling through cascade enzymes is difficult to directly measure, but can be inferred from in vitro analysis, reaction thermodynamics, transport/reaction modeling, analysis of molecular diffusion and protein interactions, or steady state/dynamic isotopic labeling. Channeling presents challenges but also opportunities for metabolic engineering applications. It rigidifies fluxes in native pathways by trapping or excluding metabolites for bioconversions, causing substrate catabolite repressions or inferior efficiency in engineered pathways. Channeling is an overlooked regulatory mechanism used to control flux responses under environmental/genetic perturbations. The heterogeneous distribution of intracellular enzymes also confounds kinetic modeling and multiple-omics analyses. Understanding the scope and mechanisms of channeling in central pathways may improve our interpretation of the robust fluxomic topology throughout the metabolic network and lead to better design and engineering of heterologous pathways.
The Effects of Unimodal Representation Choices on Multimodal Learning

Multimodal representations are distributed vectors that map multiple modes of information to a single mathematical space, where distances between instances delineate their similarity. In most cases, using a single unimodal representation technique is sufﬁcient for each mode in the creation of multimodal spaces. In this paper, we investigate how different unimodal representations can be combined, and argue that the way they are combined can affect the performance, representation accuracy and classiﬁcation metrics of other multimodal methods. In the experiments present in this paper, we used a dataset composed of images and text descriptions of products that have been extracted from an e-commerce site in Brazil. From this dataset, we tested our hypothesis in common classiﬁcation problems to evaluate how multimodal representations can differ according to their component unimodal representation methods. For this domain, we selected eight methods of unimodal representation: LSI, LDA, Word2Vec, GloVe for text; SIFT, SURF, ORB and VGG19 for images. Multimodal representations were built by a multimodal deep autoencoder and a bidirectional deep neural network.
OP19 Has the UK Healthy Start voucher scheme been associated with an increased fruit and vegetable intake amongst target families? Analysis of Health Survey for England data, 2001–2014

Background The World Health Organisation recommends a daily intake of ≥400 g of fruit and vegetables (F&V) to reduce disease risk, publicised in the UK as the ‘5 A Day’ campaign since 2003. Low F&V intake in England is associated with deprivation and lower incomes. In November 2006, Healthy Start (HS) was introduced to provide vouchers to pregnant women and families with children under 4 y in receipt of qualifying benefits. Vouchers can be spent on milk (including infant formula) and plain fresh or frozen F&V. We sought to quantify the impact of the Healthy Start scheme on F&V intake. Methods We used repeated cross-sectional data from the Health Survey for England, 2001–2014. Participants were classified into four groups: 1: HS eligible families, 2: households with qualifying children or pregnant women but without qualifying benefits, 3: households receiving qualifying benefits but without qualifying children or pregnant women, and 4: all others. Analysis was run separately for 38,058 children (5–15 y) and 62,874 adults (16–49 y). Outcome measures were daily mean portions F&V consumed, and proportions consuming 3+ portions per day. We compared the four groups in four time periods: 2001–2003 (pre 5 a day), 2004–2006 (pre HS), 2007–2009 (post HS) and 2010–2014; adjusting for potential confounders (age-group, sex, area deprivation, ethnicity, income and education) using multivariable regression. Interaction terms between time-periods and eligibility group were used to examine whether changes in group 1 outcomes were at a significantly different trajectory from those in the control groups. Results Adults in group 2 had the highest mean F&V consumption, and group 3 the lowest. Children’s mean F&V consumption was similar in all 4 groups. Changes in mean F&V consumption did not vary with time-period in a significantly different way among group 1 participants compared to control groups for adults or children. Children’s mean daily F&V intake increased significantly between 2001–3 and 2004–6 (by 0.5 portions); followed by increases of 0.1 portions from 2004–6 to 2007–9, and 2007–09 to 2010–14. Adults’ mean daily F&V intake increased significantly between 2001–3 and 2004–6 (by 0.2 portions), but decreased by 0.2 portions by 2010–14. Conclusion The change in F&V intake over time was not significantly different in HS eligible families compared to other groups. This may be explained by use of vouchers on other eligible products, low uptake, or other reasons. Further research is required to understand this. Increased F&V consumption from 2001–03 to 2004–06 may relate to the national 5 A Day campaign.
Incidence of road traffic crashes and pattern of injuries among commercial motorcyclists in Naivasha Town

BACKGROUND: Commercial Motorcycling has become a popular mode of transportation in Kenya, in both rural and urban areas since early 1990's, but traced to 1960s. In Kenya, however, its related injuries cause significant morbidity and mortality. Many road users have viewed their presence in the roads as the cause of congestion, confusion, fear, and decreased safety in the roads in the road system. Motorcyclists are at high risk of road traffic accidents and the attendant injuries, but are greatly neglected and few community-based studies have investigated the problem in Kenya. Objectives: The primary objectives were; to determine incidences of injuries among the commercial motorcyclists, pattern of crashes among motorcycles and determine the risk factors associated with commercial motorcyclist's crashes and injuries. Study design and Methods: Population based, cross-sectional study involving 166 commercial motorcyclists, Cluster, systematic and simple random sampling methods were used to select bicyclists at sites. Questionnaires were administered to the commercial motorcyclists Results: One hundred sixty six male commercial motorcyclists were interviewed; all the sampled cyclists consented to participate in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 29.4 were aged 26-30 years and 66.8% were aged 21-30 years. Nearly three quarters (72.3%) of the participants were married. One hundred and fifty five (93.4%) did not go beyond secondary school. Abuse of alcohol and cigarette and overloading, were individually analyzed; they accounted for 28.7%, 18.1% and 8.5% of the causes of road traffic accidents in each of the respective (40.4%) of motorcyclist had been involved in accidents with other motorcyclists,. 20 of the motorcyclists (14.2%) were involved in accidents with pedestrians. 12.1%) were involved in motor vehicle accidents. Conclusion: Commercial motorcyclists are men aged below 40years; they are highly exposed to crashes and injuries due to their interaction in the traffic system, since motorcyclists cyclists riding in, traffic mix feel unsafe and fearful. Therefore, it is very dangerous to ride in a mixed system because there is increased risk of crashes or accident. There are poor traffic law enforcement mechanisms in Kenya. There is need to integrate this economic activity in the road system while minimizing risks to crashes and injuries. Language: en
Neural Correlates of Anosognosia in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Multi-Method Assessment

Patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) may present anosognosia for their cognitive deficits. Three different methods have been usually used to measure anosognosia in patients with AD and MCI, but no studies have established if they share similar neuroanatomical correlates. The purpose of this study was to investigate if anosognosia scores obtained with the three most commonly used methods to assess anosognosia relate to focal atrophy in AD and MCI patients, in order to improve understanding of the neural basis of anosognosia in dementia. Anosognosia was evaluated in 27 patients (15 MCI and 12 AD) through clinical rating (Clinical Insight Rating Scale, CIRS), patient-informant discrepancy (Anosognosia Questionnaire Dementia, AQ-D), and performance discrepancy on different cognitive domains (self-appraisal discrepancies, SADs). Voxel-based morphometry correlational analyses were performed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data with each anosognosia score. Increasing anosognosia on any anosognosia measurement (CIRS, AQ-D, SADs) was associated with increasing gray matter atrophy in the medial temporal lobe including the right hippocampus. Our results support a unitary mechanism of anosognosia in AD and MCI, in which medial temporal lobes play a key role, irrespectively of the assessment method used. This is in accordance with models suggesting that anosognosia in AD is primarily caused by a decline in mnemonic processes.
Demand Uncertainty: Exporting Delays and Exporting Failures

This paper presents a model of trade that explains why firms wait to export and why many exporters fail. Firms face uncertain demands that are only realized after the firm enters the destination. The model retools the timing of uncertainty resolution found in productivity heterogeneity models. This retooling addresses several shortcomings. First, the imperfect correlation of demands reconciles the sales variation observed in and across destinations. Second, since demands for the firm's output are correlated across destinations, a firm can use previously realized demands to forecast unknown demands in untested destinations. The option to forecast demands causes firms to delay exporting in order to gather more information about foreign demand. Third, since uncertainty is resolved after entry, many firms enter a destination and then exit after learning that they cannot profit. This prediction reconciles the high rate of exit seen in the first years of exporting. Finally, when faced with multiple countries in which to export, some firms will choose to sequentially export in order to slowly learn more about its chances for success in untested markets.
Sulphate and nitrogen deposition and trend analyses

Peter Waldner, Anne Thimonier, Maria Schmitt (ch), Aldo Marchetto, Michela Rogora (it), Oliver Granke, Volker Mues (pcc), Karin Hansen, Gunilla Pihl-Karlsson (se), Daniel Zlindra (si), Nicolas Clarke (no), Arne Verstraeten (be), Andis Lazdins (lv), Claus Schimming (de), Carmen Iacoban (ro), Antti-Jussi Lindroos (fi), Elena Vanguelova, Sue Benham (uk), Henning Meesenburg (de), Manuel Nicholas (fr), Anna Kowalska (pl), Vladislav Apuhtin, Ulle Nappa (ee), Zora Lachmanova (cz), Markus Neumann (at), Albert Bleeker (nl), Morten Ingerslev (dk), Juan Molina (es), Lars Vesterdal (dk), Walter Seidling, Uwe Fischer (de), Richard Fischer and Martin Lorenz.
An overview of glycopyrrolate/eFlow® CS in COPD

ABSTRACT Introduction: COPD is highly prevalent in the US and globally, requiring new treatment strategies due to the high disease burden and increase in the aging population. Here, we profile the newly FDA-approved LONHALA MAGNAIR (glycopyrrolate [GLY]/eFlow® Closed System [CS]; 25 mcg twice daily), a nebulized long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) for the long-term maintenance treatment of COPD, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema. Areas covered: An overview of COPD and treatment landscape, focusing on GLY/eFlow CS, reviewing the published literature pertinent to the drug/device combination is reported. Expert commentary: GLY/eFlow CS consists of glycopyrrolate delivered via a novel electronic nebulizer and is the first nebulized LAMA to be approved by the FDA. GLY/eFlow CS has been studied in an extensive clinical development program, including phase II dose-ranging studies, two 12-week phase III studies demonstrating statistically significant and clinically important improvements in pulmonary function and patient-reported outcomes with a well-tolerated safety profile, and a 48-week phase III study highlighting the long-term safety of GLY/eFlow CS, along with long-term improvements in lung function and patient-reported outcomes. Additional studies are required to assess the impact of GLY/eFlow CS on COPD exacerbations, identify alternative uses of the eFlow CS nebulizer, and direct comparisons to other LAMAs.
Antibiotic treatment–induced secondary IgA deficiency enhances susceptibility to Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia

Broad-spectrum antibiotics are widely used with patients in intensive care units (ICUs), many of whom develop hospital-acquired infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Although preceding antimicrobial therapy is known as a major risk factor for P. aeruginosa–induced pneumonia, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that depletion of the resident microbiota by broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment inhibited TLR-dependent production of a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), resulting in a secondary IgA deficiency in the lung in mice and human ICU patients. Microbiota-dependent local IgA contributed to early antibacterial defense against P. aeruginosa. Consequently, P. aeruginosa–binding IgA purified from lamina propria culture or IgA hybridomas enhanced resistance of antibiotic-treated mice to P. aeruginosa infection after transnasal substitute. Our study provides a mechanistic explanation for the well-documented risk of P. aeruginosa infection following antimicrobial therapy, and we propose local administration of IgA as a novel prophylactic strategy.
A critical look at integrating people, process and information systems within the construction sector

The problems that the construction industry faces are widely discussed over the years. The pressure is increasing on the industry to deliver projects with minimal buffers of time, space and resources; and with minimal negative impact on the surrounding environment. The industry has been slow to respond to these challenges and continues to be criticised for that reason. There have been a number of attempts to address these challenges within the research community with varying degrees of success. However majority of these projects tend to address specific areas within the construction process rather than looking at the process as a whole. Lean principles help address the inherent wastes lying within the construction process, however there is no evidence of widespread implementation of such principles. People, process and Technology are three important aspects from Lean perspective. However in construction, technology is mostly being applied to peripheral processes resulting in less than satisfactory outcomes. There is a need address the construction process as a whole with a view to integrate various areas and aspects involved. The goal of this paper is to provide a new conceptualization for doing this with a specific focus on application of ICT within construction. Based on a literature review, prior arguments and propositions for a holistic view are reviewed. Based on them, outline of a tentative new framework for integrating processes, people and information systems is presented.
Upper Gastrointestinal Bleed Induced By Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs/Aspirin In Jamaica

Background: Gastrointestinal disturbances are the most common adverse effects of NSAIDs and ASA. Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) occurs in over 2-4% of NSAIDs/ASA users. Objectives: To review patients admitted with upper gastrointestinal bleed induced by NSAIDs/ASA at the University hospital of the West Indies between January 2001 to December 2007. Methods: Patients admitted between January 2001 to December 2007 with upper gastrointestinal bleed caused by NSAIDs/ASA were reviewed. Data regarding age, gender, hospital stay and drugs used were obtained. Descriptive frequency statistics was used to analyse the data collected. Results: Of 88 patients reviewed, 46 (24 females and 22 males) were admitted with UGI bleed induced by NSAIDs/ASA and 42 patients (13 females and 29 males) had non-NSAIDs/ASA induced UGIB. The mean age in the NSAIDs/ASA induced UGI haemorrhage group was significantly older compared to the non-NSAIDs/ASA group (62 vs 51 years). The patients hospitalized for NSAIDs/ASA induced UGIB had significantly shorter hospital stays being 3.48 times more likely (95% CI= 1.27-9.56; Z= 2.42, p <0.05) to be hospitalized for 1-3 days than non-NSAIDs/ASA patients. Aspirin and diclofenac were most frequently implicated followed by ibuprofen and indomethacin, mefenamic acid, piroxicam and rofecoxib. Conclusions: NSAID/ASA induced UGI bleeding occurred in older patients. Hospital stay in the NSAID/ASA group was shorter. Aspirin and diclofenac are responsible for majority of the drug induced haemorrhages that occurred.
Adherence to Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) social and environmental disclosure requirements by the Indian organisations

The guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework have increasingly become the international benchmark for organisational transparency and accountability across the world. Adherents to the GRI’s social and environmental disclosure guidelines have the potential to increase organizational competitiveness and profitability and thereby the share prices of the organisations. Few studies have been undertaken in developing countries like India on social and environmental disclosure based on the GRI Guidelines. This paper investigates the corporate social and environmental disclosures of 50 small and large Indian organizations drawn from five industries. Using seventeen social and eighteen environmental disclosure criteria, the study evaluates disclosure information as presented in annual reports and related website reports.