Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The roles of juvenile hormone and biogenic amines on pheromone response plasticity and diapause termination in male Caloptilia fraxinella

In insects that exhibit a period of delayed reproduction, the timing of mating and reproduction is controlled by environmental conditions that regulate endogenous factors such as hormones and biogenic amines (BAs). Caloptilia fraxinella (Ely) (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) undergoes a 9‐month reproductive diapause from adult eclosion in the summer until diapause termination the following spring when adults mate. Male response to female sex pheromone is plastic, and is most acute when moths are reproductively active. The aim of this study is to further elucidate the mechanisms involved in the regulation of male response to pheromone in C. fraxinella, and to test whether the application of BAs with and without a juvenile hormone analogue (JHA) to males in different physiological states impacts pheromone responsiveness, as measured by electroantennogram and wind tunnel bioassays. Treatment of male C. fraxinella in reproductive diapause with one application of a JHA induces the highest subsequent pheromone response in the fall, but does not alter pheromone response earlier in reproductive diapause in the summer. The JHAs methoprene and pyriproxyfen similarly enhance pheromone response in the fall. Treatment with methoprene alone or in combination with one of the BAs octopamine, dopamine or serotonin increases male pheromone responsiveness in the fall. The increase in pheromone response can be attributed to methoprene only, as treatment with any of the BAs alone does not enhance male response to pheromone. Biogenic amine treatment lowers male responsiveness to pheromone in some experiments, indicating that there may be a role for BAs in maintaining low pheromone response during reproductive diapause in this species.
Vitamin A Absorption Efficiency Determined by Compartmental Analysis of Postprandial Plasma Retinyl Ester Kinetics in Theoretical Humans

ABSTRACT Background Better methods are needed for determining vitamin A absorption efficiency in humans to support development of dietary recommendations and to improve the accuracy of predictions of vitamin A status. Objectives We developed and evaluated a method for estimating vitamin A absorption efficiency based on compartmental modeling of theoretical data on postprandial plasma retinyl ester (RE) kinetics. Methods We generated data on plasma RE and retinol kinetics (30 min to 8 h or 56 d, respectively) after oral administration of labeled vitamin A for 12 theoretical adults with a range of values assigned for vitamin A absorption (55–90%); we modeled all data to obtain best-fit values for absorption and other parameters using Simulation, Analysis, and Modeling software. We then modeled RE data only (16 or 10 samples), with or without added random error, and compared assigned to predicted absorption values. We also compared assigned values to areas under RE response curves (RE AUCs). Results We confirmed that a unique value for vitamin A absorption cannot be identified by modeling plasma retinol tracer kinetics. However, when RE data were modeled, predicted vitamin A absorptions were within 1% of assigned values using data without error and within 12% when 5% error was included. When the sample number was reduced, predictions were still within 13% for 10 of the 12 subjects and within 23% overall. Assigned values for absorption were not correlated with RE AUC (P = 0.21). Conclusions We describe a feasible and accurate method for determining vitamin A absorption efficiency that is based on compartmental modeling of plasma RE kinetic data collected for 8 h after a test meal. This approach can be used in a clinical setting after fasting subjects consume a fat-containing breakfast meal with a known amount of vitamin A or a stable isotope label.
Streptococcus salivarius bacteria associated to human saliva is a major component of indigenous beer (chicha) from Ecuador

Indigenous beers (chicha) play an important role in cultural events of indigenous people from Ecuador. In general, all the Ecuadorian production of indigenous beer is artisanal and it does not include the addition of any starter cultures or lyophilized ferments. The fermentation depends mostly on microorganisms from the environment (including vessels from previous batches of fermented beverage). We analyzed the microbiota of artisanal beers using bacterial cultures and 16S-based tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP). As previous reports we found that Lactobacillus sp. is predominantly present in most types of Ecuadorian chicha; however we found that Streptococcus salivarius and Streptococcus mutans (part of the human mouth microbiota) were also part of microbiota of chewed beers from the Amazon region. We also demonstrated that S. salivarius and S. mutans could proliferate in cassava mush.
Composition of four essential oils obtained from plants from Cameroon, and their bactericidal and bacteriostatic activity against Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enteritidis and Staphylococcus aureus

The composition of four essential oils (EOs) extracted by hydrodistillation from plants of common use in Cameroon (Curcuma longa, Xylopia aethiopica, Zanthoxylum leprieurii L., Zanthoxylum xanthoxyloides) was assessed by gas chromatography-mass. Their bactericidal and bacteriostatic activity was tested in vitro against three food borne pathogenic bacteria: Listeria monocytogenes,Salmonella enteritidis and Staphylococcus aureus. The bacteriostatic activities of this EOs on food borne bacteria were assessed in vitro through optical density measurements. The minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBC) were determined in broth combined with a spot plating method. Z. xanthoxyloides and Z. leprieuriishowed a similar composition, with a prevalence of oxygenated monoterpenes (about 58%). The EO of Z. xanthoxyloides was the most effective against the microorganisms tested. Its higher concentration of geraniol could be linked to this higher activity. In almost all cases, the MBC was higher than the maximum concentration tested (3000 ppm). Notwithstanding their low bactericidal effect, the EOs studied showed interesting inhibiting activities against the tested food borne pathogens. S. enteritidis was the most resistant to the bacteriostatic effect of the four EOs. The knowledge of the antimicrobial potential of local plant EOs used in developing countries could help in their choice and their use to improve food safety and shelf-life. Key words: Essential oils, composition analysis, antimicrobial activity, pathogens.
Dietary effects of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activity, body composition, mineral uptake and bacterial challenge of rainbow trout fry (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This study investigated the effects of diet supplementation with poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) on growth performance, digestive enzyme activity, lipid metabolism, mineral uptake and bacterial challenge of the rainbow trout fry (initial weight: 111.3 +/- 13.7 mg) during a 6-week experimental period. In the experimental set-up, the commercial diet of rainbow trout fry was replaced with 0.5%, 1% and 2% PHB. The results of our work showed that the replacing of diets with PHB in experimental treatments decreases the weight of rainbow trout fry during the first 2 weeks before significantly increasing final weight at the end of the 6-week period. PHB also improved digestive enzyme activity in experimental treatments. The highest total protease, pepsin activity and pancreatic enzyme secretion were observed with the 0.5% PHB treatment. A higher concentration of Na and K was observed in the whole body of the fry fed on 1% and 2% PHB-supplemented diets. Enhanced survival rates occurred in all groups of fry after bath exposure to Yersinia ruckeri compared to rates in those fed the control diet. Our results suggest that the diet supplemented with PHB may improve growth performance, digestive enzyme activity and the functioning of the immune system. These positive effects could be considered for new applications in aquaculture.
Epidemiology of outpatient and inpatient eye injury in Taiwan: 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015

Purpose To estimate the incidence rate of eye injuries (EI) requiring inpatient and outpatient treatment in Taiwan and compare the epidemiologic characteristics of EI (age, sex, treatment setting, seasonality, occupation, external cause, diagnosis, and surgery) in the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. Methods We analyzed four random samples of 1,000,000 beneficiaries each from 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. The direct age-standardized rate, with 95% confidence interval (CI), was used to compare EI rates for the four calendar years. The chi-square test and chi-square test for trend were used to compare data for the four calendar years. Results Annual EI incidence rates were between 2.57% in 2000 and 3.28% in 2015. The age-standardized rates were 2.73% (95% CI, 2.70%–2.76%) in 2000, 3.37% (95% CI, 3.33%–3.41%) in 2005, 3.31% (95% CI, 3.28%–3.35%) in 2010, and 3.02% (95% CI, 2.99%–3.06%) in 2015. Manual workers had the highest EI incidence rate, followed by non-manual workers and civil servants. The proportion of EI requiring inpatient treatment declined from 1.34% in 2000 to 0.63% in 2015 (P <0.0001). Analysis of seasonality showed a consistent decrease in February in the four sampling years; however, this decrease in EI was only seen in outpatients, not in EI requiring hospitalization. The proportion of outpatients requiring surgery significantly decreased, from 2.53% in 2000 to 1.2% in 2015 (P<0.0001). However, the proportion of inpatients requiring surgery for EI as the principal diagnosis increased from 69.32% in 2000 to 83.02% in 2015 (P = 0.29), and the proportion of inpatients requiring surgery for EI as a secondary diagnosis increased from 54.86% in 2000 to 71.6% in 2015 (P = 0.0019). Among inpatients with EI, the most common cause of EI was a traffic accident (44.79%, especially motorcycles), followed by falls (9.75%) and homicide (6.05%). Conclusion In Taiwan, the annual EI incidence rate slightly increased from 2000 to 2005 and then decreased through 2015. The proportion of EI patients requiring hospitalization decreased from 1.34% in 2000 to 0.63% in 2015, but the percentage of inpatients requiring surgery increased. Traffic accidents (especially those involving motorcyclists) remained the predominant external cause of EI requiring hospitalization during the study period.
Teaching lingua franca English – teaching the impossible

The paper discusses the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF), in pedagogical activities in the language class. On the basis of the didactic approach called CLT (Communicative Language Teaching it was pointed out that the treatment of learning a foreign language as a lingua franca rather than as a foreign language sensu stricto may be an effective aid for a student (and often a teacher) in their collaborative efforts leading to effective L2 learning.
Creativity enhancement method for STEM education

Personal types of students were determined in accordance with the Myers-Briggs typology. It is established that the dominant types of students - prospective teachers of Maths - basically correspond to the dominant types of students studying a science, mathematics, engineering and technology. The effectiveness of the heuristic method largely depends on the selection of students for the project team and the distribution of roles within the team in accordance with the personality type of students. Creativity enhancement method united the Myers-Briggs typology and heuristic methods are developed.
Push-Sum Distributed Online Optimization With Bandit Feedback

In this article, we concentrate on distributed online convex optimization problems over multiagent systems, where the communication between nodes is represented by a class of directed graphs that are time varying and uniformly strongly connected. This problem is in bandit feedback, in the sense that at each time only the cost function value at the committed point is revealed to each node. Then, nodes update their decisions by exchanging information with their neighbors only. To deal with Lipschitz continuous and strongly convex cost functions, a distributed online convex optimization algorithm that achieves sublinear individual regret for every node is developed. The algorithm is built on the algorithm called the push-sum scheme that releases the request of doubly stochastic weight matrices, and the one-point gradient estimator that requires the function value at only one point at every iteration, instead of the gradient information of loss function. The expected regret of our proposed algorithm scales as <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {O} (T^{2/3} \ln ^{2/3}(T))$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of iterations. To validate the performance of the algorithm developed in this article, we give a simulation of a common numerical example.
The Lichen Flora of Serpentine Outcrops in the Middle Urals of Russia

Abstract Serpentine outcrops in the Middle Urals, Russia, supported 113 species of lichens. These rocks had a more diverse lichen flora and lower specificity (only 9 species) than other rocks types of the region. Pyroxenite's lichen flora was the most similar to that of serpentine. Rocky outcrops along different rivers varied in species richness, the highest being at the southernmost site (River Iset; 81 species) and the lowest at the northernmost site (River Neiva; 57 species).
Probiotic Strains and Intervention Total Doses for Modulating Obesity-Related Microbiota Dysbiosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Obesity is a growing health threat worldwide. Administration of probiotics in obesity has also parallelly increased but without any protocolization. We conducted a systematic review exploring the administration pattern of probiotic strains and effective doses for obesity-related disorders according to their capacity of positively modulating key biomarkers and microbiota dysbiosis. Manuscripts targeting probiotic strains and doses administered for obesity-related disorders in clinical studies were sought. MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases were searched using keywords during the last fifteen years up to April 2020. Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts, and then full-text papers against inclusion criteria according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. From 549 interventional reports identified, we filtered 171 eligible studies, from which 24 full-text assays were used for calculating intervention total doses (ITD) of specific species and strains administered. Nine of these reports were excluded in the second-step because no specific data on gut microbiota modulation was found. Six clinical trials (CT) and 9 animal clinical studies were retained for analysis of complete outcome prioritized (body mass index (BMI), adiposity parameters, glucose, and plasma lipid biomarkers, and gut hormones). Lactobacillus spp. administered were double compared to Bifidobacterium spp. ; Lactobacillus as single or multispecies formulations whereas most Bifidobacteria only through multispecies supplementations. Differential factors were estimated from obese populations’ vs. obesity-induced animals: ITD ratio of 2 × 106 CFU and patterns of administrations of 11.3 weeks to 5.5 weeks, respectively. Estimation of overall probiotics impact from selected CT was performed through a random-effects model to pool effect sizes. Comparisons showed a positive association between the probiotics group vs. placebo on the reduction of BMI, total cholesterol, leptin, and adiponectin. Moreover, negative estimation appeared for glucose (FPG) and CRP. While clinical trials including data for positive modulatory microbiota capacities suggested that high doses of common single and multispecies of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium ameliorated key obesity-related parameters, the major limitation was the high variability between studies and lack of standardized protocols. Efforts in solving this problem and searching for next-generation probiotics for obesity-related diseases would highly improve the rational use of probiotics.
The importance of sociodemographic characteristics of psychotherapy patients in institutional conditions on the Balkan territory

Objectives: The effects of psychotherapy are proven, compelling and far-reaching. The aim was to evaluate sociodemographic characteristics and clinical diagnosis of psychotherapeutic patients who were treated at the Institute of Mental Health in Belgrade. Design and Methods: Retrospective clinical study was composed of 334 patients. Patients data related to the gender, age, education, employment, marital status and clinical diagnose were processed by descriptive statistics methods and chi-square test. Results: Psychotherapy services were mostly used by female patients (64.1%), aged 30 to 39 years, majority finished secondary school (47.6%) and were employed (54.8%). Half of the patients were single (49.7%) with unipolar depressive non-psychotic disorder (60.5%). Conclusions: The research of this kind and with this volume of patients, coming from institutional conditions, has never been done among Balkan nationalities and thus represent encouragement for future studies.
Full-Duplex Store-Carry-Forward scheme for Intermittently Connected Vehicular Networks

We consider intermittently connected vehicular networks (ICVNs) in which base stations (BSs) are installed along the highway to connect moving vehicles with internet. Due to the deployment cost, it is hard to cover the entire highway with BSs. To minimize the outage time in the uncovered area (UA), several cooperative store-carry-forward (CSCF) schemes have been proposed in which a vehicle is selected to act as a relay by buffering data to be relayed to a target vehicle in the UA. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient full-duplex (FD) CSCF scheme that exploits the relay ability to receive and transmit simultaneously to improve the effective communication time, $T_{\mathrm{e}}$, between the relay and the target vehicle. Accordingly, it can minimize the outage time and deliver more data to the the target vehicle. In addition, the power allocation that minimizes the transmission cost (TC) under the required rates constraints is found. The problem is formulated as a geometric program (GP) and globally solved using the interior-point method. As compared to the half-duplex CSCF scheme, simulation results show that the proposed FD scheme offers more effective time, more successfully delivered data in the UA and lower TC.
A Rapid Method for the Analysis of Starch

A rapid enzymic method for starch analysis, especially in cereal products, is presented. One person can analyze 30 samples per day. The method includes a 15 min gelatinization step in a boiling water bath in the presence of a thermostable α-amylase, a 30 min amyloglucosidase incubation of a subsample, and subsequent determination of glucose with a glucose oxidase/peroxidase reagent. The method was evaluated by analysis of the starch content in various raw and industrially processed wheat samples. The method showed high precision (CV=0.6–1.0%) and accuracy. Some factors which might affect the enzymic availability of starch and thus its recovery in the analysis are evaluated and discussed.
The Overmyer Mastodon (Mammut Americanum) from Fulton County, Indiana

ABSTRACT In June 1978 the partial skeleton of an American mastodon, Mammut americanum, was salvaged from a drainage ditch in Fulton County, north-central Indiana. The remains were recovered mostly from ca. 170–260 cm below the current land surface in marl overlain by peat and peaty marl. The stratigraphy of the site indicates that the remains were deposited in a small, open-water pond that subsequently filled. The skeleton, which is 41–48% complete, is that of a mature female, ca. 30–34 y old at death based on dental eruption and wear. Postcranial bone measurements indicate that this individual was relatively large for a female. Radiocarbon dating of wood from under the pelvis of the mastodon provided a maximum date of 12,575 ± 260 14C y BP [15,550–13,850 cal y BP] for the animal, which is up to 2575 14C y before the species is believed to have become extinct. Pollen samples from the site corroborate the interpretation that the regional climate was cooler and more humid than at present and supported a mixed spruce-deciduous parkland assemblage. The relatively small size of the molars of this and other mastodons from Indiana supports the hypothesis that late-glacial mastodons—just prior to their extinction—were smaller in size relative to earlier, full-glacial conspecifics. The relationship between molar size and body size is not clear, however, and there may be geographical factors as well as a temporal influence to size variation in these animals.
DSS1 and ssDNA regulate oligomerization of BRCA2

Abstract The tumor suppressor BRCA2 plays a key role in initiating homologous recombination by facilitating RAD51 filament formation on single-stranded DNA. The small acidic protein DSS1 is a crucial partner to BRCA2 in this process. In vitro and in cells (1,2), BRCA2 associates into oligomeric complexes besides also existing as monomers. A dimeric structure was further characterized by electron microscopic analysis (3), but the functional significance of the different BRCA2 assemblies remains to be determined. Here, we used biochemistry and electron microscopic imaging to demonstrate that the multimerization of BRCA2 is counteracted by DSS1 and ssDNA. When validating the findings, we identified three self-interacting regions and two types of self-association, the N-to-C terminal and the N-to-N terminal interactions. The N-to-C terminal self-interaction of BRCA2 is sensitive to DSS1 and ssDNA. The N-to-N terminal self-interaction is modulated by ssDNA. Our results define a novel role of DSS1 to regulate BRCA2 in an RPA-independent fashion. Since DSS1 is required for BRCA2 function in recombination, we speculate that the monomeric and oligomeric forms of BRCA2 might be active for different cellular events in recombinational DNA repair and replication fork stabilization.