Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
No evidence for local adaptation to salt stress in the existing populations of invasive Solidago canadensis in China

Local adaptation is an important mechanism underlying the adaptation of plants to environmental heterogeneity, and the toxicity of salt results in strong selection pressure on salt tolerance in plants and different ecotypes. Solidago canadensis, which is invasive in China, has spread widely and has recently colonized alkali sandy loams with a significant salt content. A common greenhouse experiment was conducted to test the role of local adaptation in the successful invasion of S. canadensis into salty habitats. Salt treatment significantly decreased the growth of S. canadensis, including rates of increase in the number of leaves and plant height; the root, shoot, and total biomass. Furthermore, salt stress significantly reduced the net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate and relative chlorophyll content but significantly increased peroxidase activity and the proline content of S. canadensis and the root/shoot ratio. Two-way analysis of variance showed that salt treatment had a significant effect on the physiological traits of S. canadensis, except for the intercellular CO2 concentration, whereas the population and the salt × population interaction had no significant effect on any physiological traits. Most of the variation in plasticity existed within and not among populations, excep for the root/shoot ratio. S. canadensis populations from soil with moderate/high salt levels grew similarly to S. canadensis populations from soils with low salt levels. No significant correlation between salt tolerance indices and soil salinity levels was observed. The plasticity of the proline content, intercellular CO2 concentration and chlorophyll content had significant correlations with the salt tolerance index. These findings indicate a lack of evidence for local adaption in the existing populations of invasive S. canadensis in China; instead, plasticity might be more important than local adaptation in influencing the physiological traits and salt tolerance ability across the S. canadensis distribution.
Cross-cultural validation of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM): Motivation Orientations of Navajo and Anglo students.

The Motivation Orientation scales of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM) were validated across Navajo (n = 760) and Anglo (n = 1012) students in the U.S. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the 8-factor structure of motivation orientations for the total sample and the Navajo and Anglo subsamples, although Navajo students did not distinguish well between the Effort and Task constructs. However, of 39 survey items, only 30 items were invariant across groups in factor loadings on respective a priori constructs. The findings show that even though the ISM Motivation Orientation scales are applicable to students of different cultural backgrounds, meaningful cross-cultural comparisons should use the 30 items that mean the same to both cultural groups; whereas studies that do not involve cross-cultural comparisons may use the complete version of the scales.
Effects of hypertonic saline solution on body weight and serum creatinine in patients with acute decompensated heart failure

AIM To test the safety and effectiveness of hypertonic saline solution (HSS + F) as a strategy for weight loss and prevention of further deterioration of renal function. METHODS Patients admitted with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) who received HSS + F were included in the study. After a period of a standard ADHF treatment, our patients received an intravenous infusion of furosemide (250 mg) combined with HSS (150 mL of 3% NaCl) twice a day for a mean duration of 2.3 d. Our primary outcomes were weight loss and a change in serum creatinine per day of treatment. The parameters of the period prior to treatment with HSS + F were compared with those of the period with HSS + F. RESULTS A total of 47 patients were included. The mean creatinine on admission was 155 μmol/L ± 65 μmol/L, the ejection fraction was 40% ± 17%. The experimental treatment (HSS + F) resulted in greater weight loss per day of treatment than the standard treatment (-1.4 kg/d ± 1.4 kg/d vs -0.4 kg/d ± 1.0 kg/d, P = 0.0168). Importantly, the change in creatinine was not significantly different. CONCLUSION This study supports the effectiveness of HSS + F on weight loss in patients with ADHF. The safety profile, particularly with regard to renal function, leads us to believe that HSS + F may be a valuable option for those patients presenting with ADHF who do not respond to conventional treatment with intravenous furosemide alone.
Prevalence of symptoms associated with temporomandibular disorders in Hong Kong Chinese.

AIMS To estimate the prevalence of self-reported symptoms associated with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and treatment-seeking in adult Chinese in Hong Kong. METHODS A telephone survey technique was used to identify 1,526 randomly selected Cantonese-speaking individuals aged 18 years or over. Standard questions were asked about joint and jaw muscle pain, jaw opening, and joint sounds. In addition, questions on tooth grinding and clenching, sleep patterns, and treatment-seeking behavior were posed. RESULTS Jaw pain was reported by 33% of the population. Only 5% of them had frequent pain, with two thirds of this subgroup having moderate to severe symptoms. The prevalence of frequent problems with jaw opening and joint clicking was 0.3% and 1.8%, respectively. There were no gender-related differences in the reporting of TMD symptoms or related conditions. CONCLUSION One percent of the Hong Kong Chinese population had TMD-related jaw pain that was of moderate or severe intensity and occurred frequently; 0.6% of the population had sought treatment for jaw pain, impaired jaw opening, or joint clicking that occurred often in the previous year.
Time-resolved laser flash photolysis study on transient reaction between excited triplet state of anthraquinone derivatives (AQS) and 2-deoxythymidine

The transient absorption spectra and kinetics of excited triplet state of anthraquinone derivatives 2-anthraquinonesulfonatesodium (AQS) and 2-deoxythymidine (dT) have been investigated in CH3CN-H2O (97:3) using the time-resolved laser flash photolysis technique (KrF, 248 nm). The absorption spectra of dT radical cation and the radical anion of AQS have been observed. From dynamic and thermodyrnamic analysis, the mechanism of this transient reaction has been initially analysed.
Immunological evidence for the in vivo occurrence of a crosslinked complex of poly(ADP-ribosylated) histone H1.

The poly(ADP-ribosylation) of histones, which occurs within a limited and functionally specific domain of chromatin, is a novel post-translational modification. However, in the past it has been difficult to study this process in living cells because the substrate of the reaction (NAD) does not permeate the plasma membrane. In the current study, antibodies specific for histone H1 and poly(ADP-ribose) were used to study the occurrence of poly(ADP-ribose)+ species of H1 in vivo. Perchloric acid-extracted proteins from synchronously growing HeLa cells were fractionated by electrophoresis and transferred to nitrocellulose, and the transferred moieties were allowed to react with the specific antibodies and then with 125I-labeled protein A. The results conclusively demonstrate the natural occurrence of poly(ADP-ribose)-crosslinked complexes of histone H1 (i.e., H1 dimer), at the S/G2 phase transition of the cell cycle.
Are Self-Employed Really Happier than Employees? An Approach Modelling Adaptation and Anticipation Effects to Self-Employment and General Job Changes

Empirical analyses using cross-sectional and panel data found significantly higher levels of job satisfaction for self-employed than for employees. We argue that those estimates in previous studies might be biased by neglecting anticipation and adaptation effects. For testing we specify several models accounting for anticipation and adaptation to self-employment and job changes. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP) we find that becoming self-employed is associated with large negative anticipation effects. In contrast to recent literature we find no specific long term effect of self-employment on job satisfaction. Accounting for anticipation and adaptation to job changes in general, which includes changes between employee jobs, reduces the effect of self-employment on job satisfaction by 70%. When controlling for anticipation and adaptation to job changes, we find no further anticipation effect of self-employment and a weak positive but not significant effect of self-employment on job satisfaction for three years. Thus adaptation wipes out higher satisfaction within the first three years being self-employed. According to our results previous studies at least overestimated possible positive effects of self-employment on job satisfaction.
Multicultural Learning Styles Dilemma: Re-Thinking Management Education

In this era of globalization, businesses pursue strategic advantage by shifting from being multinational to being transnational organizations. The idea of globalization represents an ever changing process that brings people and societies together into a common market of not only goods and services but also knowledge. Business curricula must also change to face this new and changed world. Arguably, business education focuses on presenting scientific principles by objectifying theories and their applications, essentially homogenizing them. However, business theories being universal are applied in various cultural contexts with varied results, and with various accreditation agencies standardizing the MBA program, homogenization is insured without regard to when, where, how and why it is applied. This thinking may be faulty. A realistic explanation for rejection of homogeneity is due to multifaceted cultural factors and contexts in which business is practiced. This apparent rejection of homogeneity is further evidenced when according to (Hooker, 2003, p. 13), “. global business and media weaken the nation state and the civic institutions it represents by making them increasingly irrelevant. More ancient forms of social organization fill the void, as nation states fracture along ethnic and religious lines. ” Students may defocus themselves from real implications of understanding and subsequent application of various business theories, especially if they are out of cultural context. While numerous cross cultural studies have surfaced focusing on national culture, there has been little or no attempt to unveil the impact of ethnic culture on learning.
Watermark embedding based on statistical specification of wavelet coefficients in subbands

Many watermarking methods use correlation detection for extraction of watermark. The decision threshold of correlation is chosen based on error probability appeared in detection process. Attacks on watermarked image usually cause fluctuation in error probability, precision, extracted energy, and length. In this paper, we have defined an index referred to as the 'ratio of detection' constructed from the correlation of coefficients of the stego image with the watermark. It is shown that this factor models the effect of energy and length of watermark and has better performance from decision threshold after any attack. The new algorithm can address fairly good optimization on the above issues. The extracted results are used in a novel embedding approach in which the DWT-coefficients of the image, in each sub-band, are separated into dominant and non-dominant groups. A sequence of a random generator output, referred to as signature data, is then embedded into these coefficients to obtain the watermarked image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method has better robustness compared to other similar methods
The new microbiology of cystic fibrosis: it takes a community

For the past 40 years, the approach to studying infections in the airways of persons with cystic fibrosis (CF) has largely parallelled that taken in the study of other human infectious diseases. A microorganism (the causative agent) recovered in culture from an infected site is studied in isolation using a variety of in vitro and in vivo models intended to approximate some facet of the human infection. Although this strategy has yielded a wealth of information regarding microbial virulence factors and pathogenic mechanisms for many human infections, its limitations, when applied to the chronic, polymicrobial infections that typify CF, are becoming increasingly obvious. We now appreciate that respiratory tract infection in CF most often involves diverse communities of opportunistic bacterial species that are well adapted to the peculiarities of this niche. We have, furthermore, come to understand that species within this community are not merely living unaffected by their microbial neighbours, but rather, are actively engaged with each other. And we are steadily decoding the rules and mechanisms that govern this microbial concert. Given this expanding understanding of infection in CF, it seems reasonable to shift our attention towards a conceptual framework that considers the airway microbial community as the ‘pathogenic unit. ’ Adoption of this framework leads to several relevant but unanswered questions. How are these communities structured? Are they relatively static or dynamic? Are changes in the community stochastic or canonical? What drives changes in community structure, and how do these …
Central role of the p53 pathway in the noncoding-RNA response to oxidative stress

Oxidative stress plays a fundamental role in many conditions. Specifically, redox imbalance inhibits endothelial cell (EC) growth, inducing cell death and senescence. We used global transcriptome profiling to investigate the involvement of noncoding-RNAs in these phenotypes. By RNA-sequencing, transcriptome changes were analyzed in human ECs exposed to H2O2, highlighting a pivotal role of p53-signaling. Bioinformatic analysis and validation in p53-silenced ECs, identified several p53-targets among both mRNAs and long noncoding-RNAs (lncRNAs), including MALAT1 and NEAT1. Among microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-192-5p was the most induced by H2O2 treatment, in a p53-dependent manner. Down-modulated mRNA-targets of miR-192-5p were involved in cell cycle, DNA repair and stress response. Accordingly, miR-192-5p overexpression significantly decreased EC proliferation, inducing cell death. A central role of the p53-pathway was also confirmed by the analysis of differential exon usage: Upon H2O2 treatment, the expression of p53-dependent 5′-isoforms of MDM2 and PVT1 increased selectively. The transcriptomic alterations identified in H2O2-treated ECs were also observed in other physiological and pathological conditions where redox control plays a fundamental role, such as ECs undergoing replicative senescence, skeletal muscles of critical limb-ischemia patients and the peripheral-blood mononuclear cells of long-living individuals. Collectively, these findings indicate a prominent role of noncoding-RNAs in oxidative stress response.
Psychopathology and Creativity Among Creative and Non-Creative Professions

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND CREATIVITY AMONG CREATIVE AND NONCREATIVE PROFESSIONS By Victor W. Kwan The mad genius debate has been a topic that has been discussed in both popular culture and academic discourse. The current study sought to replicate previous findings that linked psychopathology to creativity. A total of 165 biographies of eminent professionals (artists, scientists, athletes) were rated on 19 mental disorders using a three point scale of not present (0), probable (1), and present (2) for potential symptoms. Athletes served as an eminent but not creative comparison group in order to discern whether fame, independent of creativity, was associated with psychopathology. Comparison of proportion analyses were conducted to identify differences of proportion between these three groups for each psychopathology. Tests for one proportion were calculated to compare each group’s rates of psychopathology to the rates found in the U.S. population. These analyses were run twice, where subjects were dichotomized into present and not present categories; first, “present” included “probable” (inclusive) and second where it included only “present” (exclusive). Artists showed greater frequency rates of psychopathology than scientists and athletes in the more inclusive criteria for inclusion, whereas both artists and athletes showed greater frequency rates than scientists in the stricter criteria. Apart from anxiety disorder, athletes did not differ from the U.S. population in rates of psychopathology whereas artists differed from the population in terms of alcoholism, anxiety disorder, drug abuse, and depression. These data generally corroborate previous research on the link between creativity and psychopathology.
An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: radio properties and the far-infrared/radio correlation

We present a study of the radio properties of 870 μm-selected submillimetre galaxies (SMGs), observed at high resolution with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. From our initial sample of 76 ALMA SMGs, we detect 52 SMGs at >3σ significance in Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array 1400 MHz imaging, of which 35 are also detected at >3σ in new 610 MHz Giant Metre-Wave Radio Telescope imaging. Within this sample of radio-detected SMGs, we measure a median radio spectral index α^(1400)_(610)=−0.79±0.06, (with inter-quartile range α = [−1.16, −0.56]) and investigate the far-infrared/radio correlation via the parameter qIR, the logarithmic ratio of the rest-frame 8–1000 μm flux and monochromatic radio flux. Our median qIR = 2.56 ± 0.05 (inter-quartile range qIR = [2.42, 2.78]) is higher than that typically seen in single-dish 870 μm-selected sources (qIR ∼ 2.4), which may reflect the fact that our ALMA-based study is not biased to radio-bright counterparts, as previous samples were. Finally, we search for evidence that qIR and α evolve with age in a codependent manner, as predicted by starburst models: the data populate the predicted region of parameter space, with the stellar mass tending to increase along tracks of qIR versus α in the direction expected, providing the first observational evidence in support of these models.
A Rare Classical Presentation of Bardet-Biedl Syndrome in a Three-Year-Old Male from South East Nigeria: A Case Report

Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) is a rare autosomal recessive ciliopathy characterized by obesity, post-axial polydactyly, renal abnormalities, mental retardation, pigmentary retinopathy and hypogenitalism. Diagnosis is rare in early childhood, and only few of the features are present at that age. This is because the disease is slow evolving. However, it is possible to find majority of the component of this syndrome in very young children. A 3-year old very obese male presented with clinical features of sepsis and congestive cardiac failure. He is a product of non-consanguineous marriage with unremarkable family history. Both parents are of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria. Polydactyly was noticed at birth. There was delay in some aspects of his developmental milestone. Examination revealed mild hypertelorism and retrognathia, polydactyly of both feet with syndactyly of the big and second toes. Other findings were short broad hands, mottled pigments on the retina, moderate mental retardation, hypogenitalism, nephrotic syndrome, renal tubulopathy, hyperglycaemia and hypopigmented skin lesions. A case of BBS with all the primary features and some secondary manifestations in a very young child is hereby reported. A high index of suspicion for BBS should be shown in any young child with at least one of the features of this syndrome. This will enhance earlier diagnosis and improve disease outcome.
Low-Income Children and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the US.

with the risk of epidemic resurgence. The best solution for the COVID19 pandemic is not known. It has been suggested that children who test positive on serologic tests that identify IgG against SARS-CoV-2 could beadmittedtoschool. It issupposedthatpositivitycouldallowtheidentificationofchildrenwhohavealreadybeeninfected,canbeconsidered protected, and can attend school without posing risks per se to other children. However, the use of this procedure can be strongly criticized. The sensitivity of the presently available antibody tests is suboptimal. Most children have an asymptomatic infection, and as the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection has been found to be greater the more serious the disease is, it seems likely that most children will have a low antibody titer that is inadequate for obtaining positivity on tests with relatively low sensitivity.10 Moreover, even when IgG levels are measured, it is not possible to state whether children are protected or how long the protection may last. The antibody protective level and secondary immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are not known. Taken together, these factors seem to indicate that most children with IgG positivity cannot be identified and, even if identified, cannot be considered protected for the long term. Other criteria, such as a systematic adoption of face masks with some lessons on this issue and on all hygiene measures for COVID-19 prevention, screening with temperature measurements, or closing classrooms with infected students, must be followed when school is resumed.
Miocene rejuvenation of topographic relief in the southern Appalachians

Conventional wisdom holds that the southern Appalachian Mountains have not experienced a significant phase of tectonic forcing for >200 myr; yet, they share many characteristics with tectonically active settings, including locally high topographic relief, steep slopes, incised river gorges, and frequent mass-wasting events. Two competing hypotheses are commonly used to explain their modern topographic expression. One suggests that relief is largely controlled by variable lithologic resistance to weathering and that their modern form has long persisted in a dynamic equilibrium. The second postulates that their relief is a product of recent rejuvenation, driven either by climate change or the epeirogenic uplift of the land surface driven by mantle forcing. Within portions of the Cullasaja River basin of the southern Appalachians, we show that relief has increased by >150% since the Miocene. Evident within the basin are a set of retreating knickpoints that delineate a rugged, actively incising landscape from lower-relief relict topography. Constraints on the timing of knickpoint entry into the basin suggest that the process of landscape rejuvenation began well prior to the late Cenozoic (<4 myr) transition to a more oscillatory (glacial-interglacial) climate regime. Furthermore, the geomorphology of the Cullasaja River basin is difficult to reconcile in the context of a transition to a more erosive climatic regime but is consistent with an epeirogenically uplifted landscape. Consequently, these observations lend new support to the idea that the rugged topography of the southern Appalachians has developed in response to post-orogenic regional uplift in the Miocene.