Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid and iterative genome editing in the malaria parasite Plasmodium knowlesi provides new tools for P. vivax research

Tackling relapsing Plasmodium vivax and zoonotic Plasmodium knowlesi infections is critical to reducing malaria incidence and mortality worldwide. Understanding the biology of these important and related parasites was previously constrained by the lack of robust molecular and genetic approaches. Here, we establish CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in a culture-adapted P. knowlesi strain and define parameters for optimal homology-driven repair. We establish a scalable protocol for the production of repair templates by PCR and demonstrate the flexibility of the system by tagging proteins with distinct cellular localisations. Using iterative rounds of genome-editing we generate a transgenic line expressing P. vivax Duffy binding protein (PvDBP), a lead vaccine candidate. We demonstrate that PvDBP plays no role in reticulocyte restriction but can alter the macaque/human host cell tropism of P. knowlesi. Critically, antibodies raised against the P. vivax antigen potently inhibit proliferation of this strain, providing an invaluable tool to support vaccine development.
IPOD: Intensive Point-based Object Detector for Point Cloud

We present a novel 3D object detection framework, named IPOD, based on raw point cloud. It seeds object proposal for each point, which is the basic element. This paradigm provides us with high recall and high fidelity of information, leading to a suitable way to process point cloud data. We design an end-to-end trainable architecture, where features of all points within a proposal are extracted from the backbone network and achieve a proposal feature for final bounding inference. These features with both context information and precise point cloud coordinates yield improved performance. We conduct experiments on KITTI dataset, evaluating our performance in terms of 3D object detection, Bird's Eye View (BEV) detection and 2D object detection. Our method accomplishes new state-of-the-art , showing great advantage on the hard set.
Direct Imaging of the HD 35841 Debris Disk: A Polarized Dust Ring from Gemini Planet Imager and an Outer Halo from HST/STIS

We present new high resolution imaging of a light-scattering dust ring and halo around the young star HD 35841. Using spectroscopic and polarimetric data from the Gemini Planet Imager in H-band (1.6 μm), we detect the highly inclined (i = 85°) ring of debris down to a projected separation of ∼12 au (∼0.″12) for the first time. Optical imaging from HST/STIS shows a smooth dust halo extending outward from the ring to >140 au (>1.″4). We measure the ring’s scattering phase function and polarization fraction over scattering angles of 22°–125°, showing a preference for forward scattering and a polarization fraction that peaks at ∼30% near the ansae. Modeling of the scattered-light disk indicates that the ring spans radii of ∼60–220 au, has a vertical thickness similar to that of other resolved dust rings, and contains grains as small as 1.5 μm in diameter. These models also suggest the grains have a low porosity, are more likely to consist of carbon than astrosilicates, and contain significant water ice. The halo has a surface brightness profile consistent with that expected from grains pushed by radiation pressure from the main ring onto highly eccentric but still bound orbits. We also briefly investigate arrangements of a possible inner disk component implied by our spectral energy distribution models, and speculate about the limitations of Mie theory for doing detailed analyses of debris disk dust populations.
Bovine cysticercosis and human taeniosis in Adama town, Oromia region, Ethiopia.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in cattle slaughtered at Adama municipal abattoir in southwest Shoa zone of Oromia region to estimate the prevalence of bovine cystiercosis using routine meat inspection method and questionnaire surveys were undertaken to assess the status of human taeniosis and associated risk factors. Out of 384 carcasses examined, 2.6% were to be infected with Cysticercus bovis (C. bovis). Among positive cases for C. bovis, 78% were viable while it was more prevalent in the tongue and triceps muscle (40%, 24%) than in the liver masseter muscle (10% 6%) respectively. Based on the questionnaire survey, Taenia saginata (T. saginata) is a wide spread problem in Adama town where Out of 200 respondents 44% of the respondents had contracted T. saginata at least once in the past years. The prevalence of taeniosis was significantly higher (p<0.000) in the raw meat consumers as compared to those consuming cooked meat. The annual taenicidal drug treatment cost by prescription in the study area from 2012-2014 was 378,609.66 Ethiopian birr which is equivalent to 18930.48 USD. The drug inventory clearly demonstrated the economic significance of T. saginata in the study area. Among respondents 85% of them do have a knowledge that taeniosis is a zoonotic disease transmitted through consumption of raw beef meat. In conclusion, C. bovis and T. saginata are among important health zoonotic cestodes in the study areas. Improvement in meat inspection procedures and sanitary conditions as well as public education as to decrease negligence among public should get due attention.
The Effects of Teacher Efficacy and Interactions among Educators on Curriculum Implementation.

Although the needs and aspirations of teachers, students, and society in general have changed, the organization of today's schools and the instructional methods used are remarkably similar to the schools of the 1940s and earlier. Procedures for instituting change in public organizations have been docu mented since the 1930s I Educational change has also been extensively reported in the literature 2 Change in schools, though, has progressed slowly. Most adopted educational innovations are never carried out. For example, in reviewing studies of educational change conducted in the last 25 years, the orists conclude that most curriculum development and educational change "adoptions" of the 1960s and 1970s were not put into practice. ' Implementation-or the extent to which teachers and students change their beliefs, behavior, or use of resources-continues to puzzle researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of several schoollevel variables on the implementation of a changed curriculum.
Community Engagement in K-12 Tutoring Programs: A Research-Based Guide for Best Practices.

This report on historical trends and recent findings in the literature on academic tutoring is the first step in a community-based research collaboration between faculty and students at a small liberal arts college, the local public school district, and a nonprofit foundation that supports public K-12 education. Each year, this nonprofit administers a program that pairs over 200 public school students with academic tutors while overcoming limited resources for accessing and synthesizing the research on best practices in the field. Our partnership seeks to provide community members and volunteers with foundational knowledge and practical guidelines for promoting student success through tutoring. In subsequent phases of the research we will use these guidelines to implement and evaluate changes in the tutoring program. Here, we present accumulated evidence from researchers across disciplines, synthesizing a set of best practices in tutoring for use by community engagement practitioners. Additionally, we incorporate recent findings suggesting that factors beyond typical academic outcomes, so-called non-cognitive skills like motivation, perseverance, and mindset, could be important components of tutoring for more broadly defined student success.
Deficiency symptoms and uptake of micronutrients by castor bean grown in nutrient solution

Castor bean is a nutrient-demanding species, but there is still little information on its micronutrient requirements. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of levels of B (2.5, 12.5 and 25.0 µmol L-1), Cu (0.05, 0.25 and 0.50 µmol L-1), Mn (0.2, 1.0 and 2.0 µmol L-1) and Zn (0.2, 1.0 and 2.0 µmol L-1) in a nutrient solution on plant B, Cu, Mn and Zn concentrations and uptake, vegetative growth and fruit yield of castor bean "Iris", grown in greenhouse. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized block design with three replicates. The first deficiency symptoms were observed for B, followed by Zn, Cu and Mn. The main changes in the cell ultrastructure due to lack of B were thickening of the cell walls and middle lamellae, distorted chloroplasts and tightly stacked thylakoids, besides the absence of starch grains. The Mn, Zn and Cu deficiencies led to disruption of chloroplasts, disintegration of thylakoids and absence of amyloplasts. The concentration and uptake of B, Cu, Mn, and Zn in castor bean plants increased with micronutrient supply in the solution. Fruit yield was drastically reduced by B and Mn deficiencies. On the other hand, the dry matter yield of the shoot and root of castor bean plants was not. In the treatment with full nutrient solution, the leaves accumulated 56 and 48 % of the total B and Mn taken up by the plants, respectively, and the seeds and roots 85 and 61 % of the total Cu and Zn taken up, respectively. This shows the high demand of castor bean Iris for B and Mn for fruit yield.
Phenolic composition and total antioxidant capacity analysis of red wine vinegars commercialized in Portuguese market

In the last years, there has been an increase in consumption of wine vinegars in Portugal. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the phenolic composition and total antioxidant capacity from several commercial red wine vinegars commercialized in Portuguese market. Several parameters were evaluated: general phenolic composition, chromatic characteristics, individual anthocyanins and phenolic acids by HPLC, and total antioxidant capacity by two methodologies (DPPH and ABTS). For the different parameters analyzed, the red wine vinegars samples studied differed significantly. Vinegars with higher phenolic content tend to have lower lightness, but higher values of the red component color. High diversity of anthocyanins was detected, with some of the vinegars being distinguished by having significantly higher values of anthocyanins compared to the others, as was detected for the generality of the other phenolic parameters. The total antioxidant capacity was positively correlated with the different phenolic parameters. Finally, higher total antioxidant capacity was detected for the phenolic fraction containing anthocyanins and polymeric proanthocyanidins. The results obtained confirm that red wine vinegars are good sources of phenolic compounds and antioxidants. However, there is a great diversity of values for the various red wine vinegars commercialized in the Portuguese market.
Interpreting Trends in Intergenerational Income Mobility

We examine how intergenerational income mobility responds to structural changes in a simple theoretical model of intergenerational transmission, deviating from the existing literature by explicitly analyzing the transition path between steady states. We find that mobility depends not only on current but also on past transmission mechanisms, such that changing policies, institutions or economic conditions may generate long-lasting trends. Variation in mobility levels across countries may thus be partly explained by differences in former institutions; current mobility trends may be caused by institutional changes in the past. We further find that transitions between steady states tend to be non-monotonic. Changes in the relative returns to different skills or a shift towards a less plutocratic and more meritocratic economy raise mobility initially, but also generate a negative trend over subsequent generations. Times of change thus tend to be times of high mobility, and declining mobility today may not reflect a recent deterioration of equality of opportunity but rather major improvements made in the past.
Faster Detection of Helicobacter pylori Infection by 13 C-Urea Breath Test. Comparing Short versus Standard Sampling Time.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS 13 C-Urea Breath Test (UBT) is a non-invasive, highly accurate and recommended test to detect Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and to confirm post-therapy eradication. However, differences exist in terms of manufacturers, dose of labelled urea, addition of citric acid, solid vs. liquid formulation, and sampling times of breath samples. In this study, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of "short" (15 minutes) vs. "standard" (30 minutes) time for a single type of liquid UBT. METHODS We compared the performance of a single UBT type (BREATHQUALITY, AB Analitica, Padua, Italy, 10 mL of 75 mg 13 C-Urea and 1.4 g citric acid) during a "short" vs. "standard" breath sampling time. Enrolled were 151 subjects requiring UBT as naïve (N=92) or post-eradication (N=59) checks. RESULTS UBT at 15 and 30 minutes were highly comparable, showing optimal correlation in all subsets of patients (i.e. naïve vs. post eradication, negative vs. post eradication check). One discrepant result occurred at the borderline zone of the DOB 4‰, but proved to be true positive at a later confirmation by a second UBT and stool antigen test. CONCLUSIONS By shortening the testing time of BREATHQUALITY to 15 minutes (-50%) comparable accuracy will be maintained and in addition, it will bring some benefits to patients' waiting lists, compliance, and hospital staff.
How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample‐Based Hip‐Hop

In 1991, the first lawsuit regarding sample-based hip hop, Grand Upright Music Ltd. v. Warner Brothers Records, was decided in court, and this decision forever changed how artists and their record labels approached sample-based hip hop. Although several lawsuits had been filed before 1991, all of those were settled out of court. There was no established legal precedent until this particular case. After 1991, artists changed how they sampled, largely out of fear of copyright infringement lawsuits. Hip-hop artists adapted and modified their musical language to accommodate the reduced availability of samples. Considering the music of five hip-hop groups, all of whom released sample-based music before and after 1991, I have developed a typology to quantify how the sample-based music of the Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Salt ’n’ Pepa, and A Tribe Called Quest changed after 1991. The typology, which is a classification system for every individual sample in a sample-based hip-hop track, is a concrete language for discussing the structural components in sample-based hip hop. As we will see, each group adapted their production styles in interesting and creative ways in order to accommodate fewer available samples. While some scholars such as Kembrew McLeod, Peter DiCola, Joanna Demers, and Siva Vaidhyanathan claim that the sample clearance system has only negative consequences for musicians, I would argue that these outcomes for the musicians are not necessarily positive or negative. The current scholarly conversation about sample-based music from this period is framed by rhetoric in which the hip-hop producers are the innocent bystanders who fall victim to the evil record labels, greedy copyright holders, and sneaky sample troll companies. A typological analysis of this music is a means of quantifying how the musicians adapted their production in light of fewer available samples. This is not to minimize the importance of copyright law and its effect on artistic and creative processes, of course. I agree wholeheartedly
Medication persistence to antihypertensive drug treatment – a cross-sectional study of attitudes towards hypertension and medication in persistent and non-persistent patients

Abstract Purpose: To study the differences in attitudes towards hypertension and drug treatment between patients persistent and non-persistent to antihypertensive drug treatment. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study on patients with hypertension treated at 25 primary healthcare centres in Stockholm, Sweden. Questionnaires were sent to the patients 3–12 months after initiation of antihypertensive drug treatment. Persistent medication users, defined as patients with less than 30 days without tablet supply between prescription refills, were compared with non-persistent users by scores from Likert scales: Brief-Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ, 0–10) and Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ General, 4–20 and BMQ Specific, 5–25). Results: A total of 711 patients were included in the final analyses (mean age: 62 years; 50% women), of whom 609 (86%) were classified as persistent and 102 (14%) as non-persistent by analyses of their filled prescriptions. Likert scales from the Brief-IPQ showed (all p < 0.02) that persistent patients believed that hypertension was a chronic condition (median 6 vs. 4), that hypertension had less consequences on their life (median 2 vs. 3) and that they can prevent cardiovascular disease by taking antihypertensive treatment (median 7 vs. 5). Likert scales from the BMQ General showed (all p < 0.02) that persistent patients believed that there are potential benefits from taking the treatment (median 16 vs. 16), and they did not believe that the doctors put too much trust in drugs (median 12 vs. 13). Further, results from the BMQ Specific showed that they believed that the antihypertensive drugs are necessary for them in order to maintain or improve their own health (median 17 vs. 16). Conclusions: Primary healthcare providers should further emphasize the chronicity of hypertension diagnosis and the benefits of treatment, to improve the patients’ medication persistence to antihypertensive treatment.
Reducing childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh: the importance of addressing socio-economic inequalities

Abstract Objective: To obtain projections of the prevalence of childhood malnutrition indicators up to 2030 and to analyse the changes of wealth-based inequality in malnutrition indicators and the degree of contribution of socio-economic determinants to the inequities in malnutrition indicators in Bangladesh. Additionally, to identify the risk factors of childhood malnutrition. Design: Cross-sectional study. A Bayesian linear regression model was used to estimate trends and projections of malnutrition. For equity analysis, slope index, relative index and decomposition in concentration index were used. Multilevel logistic models were used to identify risk factors of malnutrition. Setting: Household surveys in Bangladesh from 1996 to 2014. Participants: Children under the age of 5 years. Results: A decreasing trend was observed for all malnutrition indices. In 1990, predicted prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight was 55·0, 15·9 and 61·8 %, respectively. By 2030, prevalence is projected to reduce to 28·8 % for stunting, 12·3 % for wasting and 17·4 % for underweight. Prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight were 34·3, 6·9 and 32·8 percentage points lower in the richest households than the poorest households. Contribution of the wealth index to child malnutrition increased over time and the largest contribution of pro-poor inequity was explained by wealth index. Being an underweight mother, parents with a lower level of education and poorer households were the key risk factors for stunting and underweight. Conclusions: Our findings show an evidence-based need for targeted interventions to improve education and household income-generating activities among poor households to reduce inequalities and reduce the burden of child malnutrition in Bangladesh.
Loneliness in the United States: A 2018 National Panel Survey of Demographic, Structural, Cognitive, and Behavioral Characteristics

Purpose: To inform health behavior intervention design, we sought to quantify loneliness and its correlates, including social media use, among adults in the United States. Design: Cross-sectional research panel questionnaire. Setting: Responses were gathered from individuals in all 50 states surveyed via Internet from February 2018 to March 2018. Participants: A total of 20 096 US panel respondents aged 18+. Measures: The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale (theoretical score range = 20-80) was administered along with demographic, structural, cognitive, and behavioral items. Analysis: After calibrating the sample to population norms, we conducted multivariable linear regression analysis. Results: The overall mean survey-weighted loneliness score was 44.03 (standard error = 0.09). Social support (standardized β [sβ] = −0.19) and meaningful daily interactions (sβ = −0.14) had the strongest associations with lower loneliness, along with reporting good relationships, family life, physical and mental health, friendships, greater age, being in a couple, and balancing one’s daily time. Social anxiety was most strongly associated with greater loneliness (sβ = +0.20), followed by self-reported social media overuse (sβ = +0.05) and daily use of text-based social media (sβ = +0.03). Conclusion: Our findings confirm that loneliness decreases with age, and that being in a relationship as well as everyday behavioral factors in people’s control are most strongly related to loneliness. Population health promotion efforts to reduce loneliness should focus on improving social support, decreasing social anxiety, and promoting healthy daily behaviors.
Effect of Dexamethasone Stress on Concentrations of Zinc in Blood Plasma and in Sub-Cellular Fractions of Various Tissues of Neonatal Buffalo Calves

Effect of chemical stress of daily administration of glucocorticoid (dexamethasone @0.125 mg./calf/day) injections on plasma zinc levels, Zn status of body tissues and its distribution in sub cellular fractions, was studied in neonatal buffalo calves. Daily i/m injections of dexamethasone, starting at the completion of 1 week of age and continued till 8th week, led to a significant decline in plasma Zn concentration from 3rd week onwards, which then persisted throughout the rest of the experimental period. In control group, liver had the highest concentration of zinc, followed by heart, muscle, spleen, kidney and testis. In all these tissues, cytosolic fractions had the highest (>60%) zinc levels followed by nuclear, mitochondrial and microsomal fractions. In dexamethasone treated calves, there was a significant increase in the Zn uptake by the tissues of liver and muscle. This increase in zinc concentration was observed in all the sub cellular fractions of liver and muscle, however about 80% of this increase was in cytosolic fraction. It was concluded that glucocorticoid-induced stress caused increase in Zn levels of liver/muscles and decrease in blood plasma zinc, thus indicating a redistribution of Zn in body. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2002. Vol 15, No. 7 : 1022-1025)