Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drivers of parasite β-diversity among anuran hosts depend on scale, realm and parasite group

A robust understanding of what drives parasite β-diversity is an essential step towards explaining what limits pathogens' geographical spread. We used a novel global dataset (latitude −39.8 to 61.05 and longitude −117.84 to 151.49) on helminths of anurans to investigate how the relative roles of climate, host composition and spatial distance to parasite β-diversity vary with spatial scale (global, Nearctic and Neotropical), parasite group (nematodes and trematodes) and host taxonomic subset (family). We found that spatial distance is the most important driver of parasite β-diversity at the global scale. Additionally, we showed that the relative effects of climate concerning distance increase at the regional scale when compared with the global scale and that trematodes are generally more responsive to climate than nematodes. Unlike previous studies done at the regional scale, we did not find an effect of host composition on parasite β-diversity. Our study presents a new contribution to parasite macroecological theory, evidencing spatial and taxonomic contingencies of parasite β-diversity patterns, which are related to the zoogeographical realm and host taxonomic subset, respectively. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe’.
In vitro digestibility of oil palm frond treated by local microorganism (MOL)

Oil palm frond is by product from oil palm plantation and were found in large quantity in Indonesia. This research aims to examine the ability of local microorganisms and buffalo rumen isolates in improving the digestibility of dry matter and organic matter in vitro of oil palm frond. The research used experimental method with four treatments and three replications. The treatments were given: Oil palms without treatment (P0); Starbio (P2); Aspergillus niger + Saccharomyces cerevisiae (P3); Aspergillus niger + Saccharomyces cerevisiae + Isolate of buffalo rumen bacteria (P4). The results showed that the fermented Oil Palm Frond had higher (P<0.05) DMD and OMD than control. The addition of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae plus buffalo rumen bacterial isolates had higher (P<0.05) DMD and OMD than other treatments. It can be concluded that the utilisation of MOL can improve the digestibility of oil palm frond in vitro.
Research of the Influence of the Polymer Composition Structure on the Film Material Properties for Special Clothes Production

The paper presents the influence research results of the structure of the original polymer composition on the resulting films physical and mechanical properties. Films are intended for gluing of protective clothing thread connections. It is shown that the change of the composition viscosity in the studied interval does not have a significant effect on the finished material performance properties.
Assessment of sorghum production constraints and farmer preferences for sorghum variety in Uganda: implications for nutritional quality breeding

ABSTRACT Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the main food staple grain widely cultivated in sub-Sharan Africa including Uganda. There is a lack of current information on sorghum production constraints and varietal trait preferences in the major sorghum production areas in Uganda. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the sorghum production constraints and farmer preferences for sorghum variety in Uganda. A participatory rural appraisal study was undertaken in four selected sorghum production districts in Uganda (Kumi, Bukedea, Oyam and Gulu). Data were collected through surveys using semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussion involving 128 and 55 participants, respectively. Data were subjected to parametric and non-parametric statistical analyses to draw inferences. A lack of improved sorghum varieties was the major sorghum production constraint reported by 82.8% of participants. Farmer preferred ideal sorghum varieties were short to medium plant height with high grain yield. The quality attributes mostly preferred by farmers were baking quality, nutrition, and seed colour. Farmers in the study areas mainly grew unimproved sorghum varieties with low food values. Overall, the study provides the current evidence on sorghum production constraints and farmer-preferred attributes that will guide sorghum nutritional quality breeding with farmer preferred traits.
Novel Amphiphilic Star-Shaped Poly(2-Oxazoline)s with Calix[4]Arene Branching Center

Novel amphiphlic four-arm star-shaped poly (2-alkyl-2-oxazoline) s with calix [4] arene core were synthesized using the “grafting from” approach. The chlorosulfonated calix [4] arene derivative was synthesized and successfully applied as a multifunctional initiator for the cationic ring-opening polymerization of 2-alkyl-2-oxazolines. Obtained star-shaped poly (2-alkyl-2-oxazoline) s were characterized by means of NMR, UV-Vis spectroscopy and gel-permeation chromatography. It was shown that star-shaped poly (2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) perform thermosensitivity in aqueous solutions.
Interpretation preferences in contexts with three antecedents: examining the role of prominence in German pronouns

Abstract This paper focuses on the relational notion of prominence, in which entities of equal type are ranked according to certain prominence-lending features. In German two demonstrative forms, “der” and “dieser”, can function like personal pronouns in English. It has been proposed that processing “der” involves computing a prominence hierarchy of the prior referents, and excluding the referent with the highest prominence rank. The demonstrative “dieser” has not been extensively tested. In the current study, personal and demonstrative pronominal forms were investigated following ditransitive contexts, where three potential antecedents are available, in two rating experiments. The personal pronoun showed flexibility in that it received equally high ratings for all three antecedents in canonical configurations. The ratings for dieser followed a graded sensitivity to thematic role prominence, with lowest scores when referring to prominent antecedents (agents) and the highest scores for the least prominent antecedents (patients), with scores for the medium prominence candidate (recipients) differing from both. Der followed a similar but not identical pattern, with a less marked difference between lower prominence candidates. Positional information also has a strong influence on demonstratives. In sum, final interpretation is sensitive to fine-grained differences in prominence hierarchies.
Ethnomedicinal study of plants used in the Uvira Territory (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the ethnomedicinal plant knowledge among people living in The Uvira Territory. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with and field observation in seven villages. The ethnomedicinal data was analyzed using the informant consensus factor (ICF), family importance value (FIV), and Jaccard index (JI). Sixty-nine medicinal plants belonging to 61 genera and 34 families were used to treat eight disease categories. Fabaceae was not only the dominant family but also a family with the high FIV. Decoction and pound were the most common methods of preparation, while leaves were the most used part. We compared this study with 24 other ethnomedicinal studies conducted in RD Congo and neighboring countries, and the results showed that the Jaccard index ranged from 0.57 to 10.94. The highest degree of similarity (10.94) was found with another study conducted in Congo, while the lowest degree of similarity (0.57) was found with a study conducted in Rwanda. The disease category for which there was the highest number of use (66) and plant species (39) was “diseases of the digestive system disorders and intestinal parasites” (ICF 0.42). The investigation of the plants used as drugs in the study area revealed that the population daily relies on medicinal plants to treat different diseases.
Indirect structural crosslinguistic influence in early Catalan–Spanish bilinguals in adulthood: Predicate selection in Catalan existential constructions

Abstract This study reports an oral production experiment investigating the expression of existentiality in the Catalan of adult Catalan–Spanish early bilinguals (N = 58) with comparable proficiencies but different language dominance. The results show qualitative differences among the bilinguals in existential predicate selection and in their supply of partitive pronouns, modulated by language dominance. Balanced Bilinguals as well as Spanish-dominant bilinguals significantly produced more estar (in detriment of ser-hi and haver-hi) not only in locative contexts, where Catalan already presents optionality regulated by semantic differences, but also in existential constructions, where this optionality does not exist. We argue for indirect crosslinguistic influence (CLI), when the bilingual perceives certain structural overlap within constructions, mediating the influence from one structure to another one and expanding the limits of CLI. The qualitative differences found among bilinguals challenge the idea of a bilingualism continuum in Catalan–Spanish bilingualism with an identical mental representation.
Sex differences in language competence of 4-year-old children: Female advantages are mediated by phonological short-term memory

Abstract For some time now, psycholinguistic research has involved the study of sex differences in language development. Overall, girls seem to have an early advantage over boys, mainly in regard to vocabulary, which appears to decrease and, eventually, vanish with age. While there are numerous studies on sex differences in the acquisition of vocabulary as well as grammar, early sex differences in phonological short-term memory (PSTM) have been mostly neglected, or if research was conducted, it resulted in null findings, for the most part. In the present study, we examined sex differences in language competence (in a wide array of linguistic domains) of German children 4 years of age. Several tests were administered to assess articulation, vocabulary, grammar, speech comprehension, and, most importantly, PSTM (by means of the repetition of non-words and sentences). Girls performed better than boys in all domains, although some effect sizes were small. Most importantly, we found evidence for a female advantage in PSTM performance. Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed that the obtained sex differences in articulation, vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension were partially or fully mediated by (sex differences in) PSTM.
Gradience in subject–verb number agreement: Can bilinguals tune in?

Abstract This study investigates native German speakers’ and bilingual Turkish/German speakers’ sensitivity to constraints on verbal agreement with pseudo-partitive subjects such as eine Packung Tabletten (“a pack of pills”). Although number agreement with the first noun phrase (headed by a container noun) is considered to be the norm, agreement with the second (containee) noun phrase is also possible. We combined scalar acceptability ratings with a stochastic constraint-based grammatical framework to model the relative strength of the constraints that determine speakers’ agreement preferences and subsequently tested whether these models could correctly predict speakers’ verb choices in a production task. For both participant groups, number match between the container noun phrase and the verb was the strongest determinant of both acceptability and production choices. The relative ranking of the constraints that we identified was the same for both groups, and the lack of age-of-acquisition effects suggests that constraints on variable subject–verb agreement, and their relative strength, are acquirable by both early and later learners of German. Group differences were seen in the absolute constraint weightings, however, with the bilinguals’ agreement preferences being more strongly influenced by number match with the containee phrase, indicating a comparatively greater reliance on surface-level cues to agreement (such as noun proximity) among the bilingual group.
An enactivist reconceptualization of the medical model

ABSTRACT According to the medical model that prevails in the Western world, mental disorder is a form of illness, parallel to bodily illness, which can be diagnosed by a doctor on the basis of symptoms and administered treatments designed to “cure” it. However, it seems clear that how we understand “disorder” is influenced by cultural norms and values. Theorists associated with the so-called anti-psychiatry movement have gone so far as to claim that ‘mental illness’ simply is the accepted term for behaviors and experiences that are problematic or do not fit the cultural norm. In my view, however, this social-constructionist view downplays and obscures the very real difficulties encountered by subjects with mental disorder. I argue that rather than rejecting the medical model altogether, we should revise the model by utilizing insights from the enactivist approach in philosophy of mind. An appeal to the enactivist notions of autonomy, sense-making, and adaptivity, I propose, can help us to (a) account for mental disorder’s normative aspect, so that we can navigate a middle way between the medical model and an anti-psychiatry stance; and (b) understand the way in which the neurobiological, social, and existential dimensions of mental disorder are integrated.
Optogenetic‐mediated cardiovascular differentiation and patterning of human pluripotent stem cells

Precise spatial and temporal regulation of dynamic morphogen signals during human development governs the processes of cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation to form organized tissues and organs. Tissue patterns spontaneously emerge in various human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) models. However, the lack of molecular methods for precise control over signal dynamics limits the reproducible production of tissue patterns and a mechanistic understanding of self‐organization. We recently implemented an optogenetic‐based OptoWnt platform for light‐controllable regulation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling in hPSCs for in vitro studies. Using engineered illumination devices to generate light patterns and thus precise spatiotemporal control over Wnt activation, here we triggered spatially organized transcriptional changes and mesoderm differentiation of hPSCs. In this way, the OptoWnt system enabled robust endothelial cell differentiation and cardiac tissue patterning in vitro. Our results demonstrate that spatiotemporal regulation of signaling pathways via synthetic OptoWnt enables instructive stem cell fate engineering and tissue patterning.
Heat transfer in a vertical rectangular duct filled with a porous matrix and saturated with a nanofluid for temperature dependent viscosity

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive numerical study to analyze free convective heat transfer in a vertical rectangular duct filled with porous matrix and saturated with nanofluid for temperature dependent viscosity. Using the Darcy- Forchhiemer model, the momentum in the porous medium was simulated. While insulating two opposing wall ducts, the temperatures remained varied for the other two walls. Solutions to the transport equations for a Newtonian fluid were provided numerically through the finite difference approach to second order accuracy. The impact of the overriding parameters, for instance, the parameters of variable viscosity as well as inertial, the Grashof number, Darcy number, Brinkman number, solid volume index as well as the aspect ratio having a water-Copper nanofluid on the flow characteristics of natural convection is investigated. The flow nature using different nanoparticles is also studied. The values of volumetric flow rate, skin friction and Nusselt number are tabulated for pertinent parameters. It is found that for negative values of viscosity variation parameter the flow is enhanced in the lower part of the duct and positive values will enhance the flow in the upper part of the duct. Silver nanoparticle attains the maximum heat transfer rate when compared to other nanoparticles. Keywords: Natural convection; Darcy-Forchhiemer model; Nanofluids; Variable viscosity; Viscous dissipation; Rectangular duct; Finite difference method.
Targeting DNA Homologous Repair Proficiency With Concomitant Topoisomerase II and c-Abl Inhibition

Critical DNA repair pathways become deranged during cancer development. This vulnerability may be exploited with DNA-targeting chemotherapy. Topoisomerase II inhibitors induce double-strand breaks which, if not repaired, are detrimental to the cell. This repair process requires high-fidelity functional homologous recombination (HR) or error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). If either of these pathways is defective, a compensatory pathway may rescue the cells and induce treatment resistance. Consistently, HR proficiency, either inherent or acquired during the course of the disease, enables tumor cells competent to repair the DNA damage, which is a major problem for chemotherapy in general. In this context, c-Abl is a protein tyrosine kinase that is involved in DNA damage-induced stress. We used a low-dose topoisomerase II inhibitor mitoxantrone to induce DNA damage which caused a transient cell cycle delay but allowed eventual passage through this checkpoint in most cells. We show that the percentage of HR and NHEJ efficient HeLa cells decreased more than 50% by combining c-Abl inhibitor imatinib with mitoxantrone. This inhibition of DNA repair caused more than 87% of cells in G2/M arrest and a significant increase in apoptosis. To validate the effect of the combination treatment, we tested it on commercial and patient-derived cell lines in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), where chemotherapy resistance correlates with HR proficiency and is a major clinical problem. Results obtained with HR-proficient and deficient HGSOC cell lines show a 50–85% increase of sensitivity by the combination treatment. Our data raise the possibility of successful targeting of treatment-resistant HR-proficient cancers.
Fostering Positive Communities: A Scoping Review of Community-Level Positive Psychology Interventions

Historically, positive psychology research and practice have focused on studying and promoting well-being among individuals. While positive psychology interventions focusing on the well-being of communities and marginalized groups have recently been developed, studies reporting on their nature and characteristics are lacking. The aim of this paper is to examine the nature of community-level positive psychology interventions. It reviews the target populations, intervention modalities, objectives, and desired effects of 25 community-level positive psychology interventions found in 31 studies. This scoping review shows that community-level programs based on positive psychology vary greatly in all these aspects. However, most interventions are aimed at individual-level changes to achieve target group outcomes. Contextual issues such as social conditions, values, and fairness affecting well-being are rarely considered. Discrepancies between community-level positive psychology interventions and community psychology in terms of values and social change are discussed.
SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Spike Protein-Induced Apoptosis, Inflammatory, and Oxidative Stress Responses in THP-1-Like-Macrophages: Potential Role of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor (Perindopril)

A purified spike (S) glycoprotein of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) coronavirus was used to study its effects on THP-1 macrophages, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and HUVEC cells. The S protein mediates the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells through binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. We measured the viability, intracellular cytokine release, oxidative stress, proinflammatory markers, and THP-1-like macrophage polarization. We observed an increase in apoptosis, ROS generation, MCP-1, and intracellular calcium expression in the THP-1 macrophages. Stimulation with the S protein polarizes the THP-1 macrophages towards proinflammatory futures with an increase in the TNFα and MHC-II M1-like phenotype markers. Treating the cells with an ACE inhibitor, perindopril, at 100 µM reduced apoptosis, ROS, and MHC-II expression induced by S protein. We analyzed the sensitivity of the HUVEC cells after the exposure to a conditioned media (CM) of THP-1 macrophages stimulated with the S protein. The CM induced endothelial cell apoptosis and MCP-1 expression. Treatment with perindopril reduced these effects. However, the direct stimulation of the HUVEC cells with the S protein, slightly increased HIF1α and MCP-1 expression, which was significantly increased by the ACE inhibitor treatment. The S protein stimulation induced ROS generation and changed the mitogenic responses of the PBMCs through the upregulation of TNFα and interleukin (IL)-17 cytokine expression. These effects were reduced by the perindopril (100 µM) treatment. Proteomic analysis of the S protein stimulated THP-1 macrophages with or without perindopril (100 µM) exposed more than 400 differentially regulated proteins. Our results provide a mechanistic analysis suggesting that the blood and vascular components could be activated directly through S protein systemically present in the circulation and that the activation of the local renin angiotensin system may be partially involved in this process. Graphical Suggested pathways that might be involved at least in part in S protein inducing activation of inflammatory markers (red narrow) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) modulation of this process (green narrow).