Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of heat treatment on organochlorine pesticide residues in selected fish species

Among persistent organic pollutants that occur in the environment and in food, a significant group is represented by the residues of highly toxic chlori- nated pesticides, used for decades mainly in plant protection. As some of the compounds have half-lives measured in years, or even decades, they can accu- mulate in water and bottom sediments. In consequence, they can penetrate into aquatic organisms and pose health risk to consumers of seafood products. The research aimed at estimating the effect of frying on concentrations of selected organochlorine pesticides (α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH, heptachlor, aldrin, heptachlor epoxide isomer B, pp'-DDE, endrin, pp'-DDT) in the meat of fish species most commonly consumed in Poland. Analyses were conducted by gas chromatography method with GC/MS HP 6890 (5973) apparatus. The study revealed that the dominant compound in the raw fish meat was pp'-DDE, with an average concentration of 3.55 µg/kg wet weight; the highest levels being found in flounder (7.33 µg/kg w.w.), and the lowest in cod (0.58 µg/kg w.w.). The less abundant compound was heptachlor epoxide isomer B. Frying caused significant (p<0.05) losses in concentrations of most organochlorine pesticides examined. The biggest loss was observed for βHCH in carp - 74.05%. Mean losses of the examined compounds ranged from 9.6% for heptachlor epoxide isomer B to 32.3% for β-HCH. The levels of pesticides detected in the raw fish were low, and did not exceed the maximum permitted levels. Frying still reduced the content of per- sistent organochlorine pesticides in fish meat, improving the quality of the food product.
Addressing Emotional Health while Protecting Status: Asian American and White Parents in Suburban America1

The emotional dimensions of parenting among upper-middle-class parents have not been fully theorized or measured. In this article I employ 60 in-depth interviews with professional white, Chinese, and Indian parents living in the same well-off suburban town to show how parents think about and attend to their teenage children’s emotional well-being. I find that attending to children’s emotional well-being sometimes competes with attending to achievement in ways not predicted by previous theories of class and parenting. Further, within the upper middle class, immigrant Asian and U.S.-born white parents employ different cultural repertoires to address their children’s emotional well-being, bolstering their own group status as they do so. The findings suggest that scholars of class influences on parenting should pay greater attention to affective dimensions, including how parents address concerns about emotional well-being, and how strategies vary by ethnicity, generation, and other lines of difference.
Impacts of COVID-19 on long-term health and health care use

Aim: To explore impacts of mild and severe COVID-19 on acute and long-term utilization of primary care, inpatient- and outpatient specialist health care. Methods: In all persons tested for the SARS-CoV-2 in Norway March 1st to November 1st 2020 (N=1 257 831), we used a difference-in-differences design to contrast the monthly health care use before and after testing, across patients with negative test (no COVID-19) and 1) positive test, not hospitalized (mild COVID-19) and 2) positive test, hospitalized (severe COVID-19). We studied all-cause- and cause-specific health care use for digestive, circulatory, respiratory, endocrine/metabolic/nutritional, genitourinary, eye/ear, musculoskeletal, mental, skin, blood and general/unspecified conditions. Results: Mild COVID-19 impacted on primary care due to respiratory conditions at 0-3 months after having tested positive (786% increase). Severe COVID-19 impacted on visits due to respiratory- (337-3316% increase), circulatory- (166-205% increase), endocrine/metabolic/nutritional- (168-791% increase) as well as visits due to general/unspecified conditions (48-431% increase) in outpatient and inpatient specialist care 0-3 months after being tested. Severe COVID-19 also impacted on outpatient specialist care after 4-6 months, for respiratory and circulatory conditions (199-246% increase) and general/unspecified conditions (40% increase). Conclusion: Our findings imply that mild COVID-19 dos not persist to cause a need for health care beyond two months after having tested positive. Health care contacts increased the most in specialist care for those who had undergone severe COVID-19, both at 0-3 and at 4-6 months. This increase was due to respiratory, circulatory, endocrine/metabolic/nutritional and general/unspecified causes.
Use of Convalescent Plasma Therapy among Hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients: A Single-Center Experience

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 Disease has strained our healthcare system. Convalescent plasma has been used to treat emerging infectious diseases - Influenza A/B, SARS-CoV, Ebola virus and now SARS-CoV 2. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the outcome and clinical course of COVID-19 patients who received convalescent plasma transfusion at Cardinal Santos Medical Center. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort analytical study of 75 patients who received convalescent plasma. RESULTS: Median time from admission to CP transfusion was 3 days. Majority of patients received additional therapies including dexamethasone (100%); Remdesivir (95%); antibiotics (100%), tocilizumab (65%); hemoperfusion (88%) or combination of these. Among the survivors, the median LOS was 15 days while non-survivors have a median LOS of 6 days. One patient (1.33%) had mild transfusion reaction. Four patients (5.33%) developed DVT despite anti-coagulation. There was improvement in the inflammatory markers (LDH pvalue 0.04, CRP pvalue 0.00, Ferritin pvalue 0.0001). There was improvement in the pulmonary parameters - increase in mean PaO2, mean SaO2, and mean PFR; and decrease in mean FiO2 and mean RR post-treatment. Median LOS is 14 days for the CP group vs 11 days for the non-CP group. Mortality rate among the CP group is 25.33% while the non-CP group was 26.67%. LOS and mortality rate did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference in mortality and length of hospital stay in patients given CP vs controls. CP might have a role in the improvement of inflammatory markers and pulmonary status.
Overall burden and characteristics of COVID-19 in the United States during 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health systems and economies throughout the world during 2020 and was particularly devastating for the United States. Many of epidemiological features that produced observed rates of morbidity and mortality have not been thoroughly assessed. Here we use a data-driven model-inference approach to simulate the pandemic at county-scale in the United States during 2020 and estimate critical, time-varying epidemiological properties underpinning the dynamics of the virus. The pandemic in the US during 2020 was characterized by an overall ascertainment rate of 21.6% (95% credible interval (CI):18.9-25.5%). Population susceptibility at year end was 68.8% (63.4-75.3%), indicating roughly one third of the US population had been infected. Community infectious rates, the percentage of people harboring a contagious infection, rose above 0.8% (0.6-1.0%) before the end of the year, and were as high as 2.4% in some major metropolitan areas. In contrast, the infection fatality rate fell to 0.3% by year end; however, community control of transmission, estimated from trends of the time-varying reproduction number, Rt, slackened during successive pandemic waves. In the coming months, as vaccines are distributed and administered and new more transmissible virus variants emerge and spread, greater use of non-pharmaceutical interventions will be needed.
Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards

The evolution of sociality and traits that correlate with, or predict, sociality, have been the focus of considerable recent study. In order to reduce the social conflict that ultimately comes with group living, and foster social tolerance, individuals need reliable information about group members and potential rivals. Chemical signals are one such source of information and are widely used in many animal taxa, including lizards. Here, we take a phylogenetic comparative approach to test the hypothesis that social grouping correlates with investment in chemical signalling. We used the presence of epidermal glands as a proxy of chemical investment and considered social grouping as the occurrence of social groups containing both adults and juveniles. Based on a dataset of 911 lizard species, our models strongly supported correlated evolution between social grouping and chemical signalling glands. The rate of transition towards social grouping from a background of ‘epidermal glands present’ was an order of a magnitude higher than from a background of ‘no epidermal glands’. Our results highlight the potential importance of chemical signalling during the evolution of sociality and the need for more focused studies on the role of chemical communication in facilitating information transfer about individual and group identity, and ameliorating social conflict.
Hydrothermal physiology and climate vulnerability in amphibians

Concerns over the consequences of global climate change for biodiversity have spurred a renewed interest in organismal thermal physiology. However, temperature is only one of many environmental axes poised to change in the future. In particular, hydrologic regimes are also expected to shift concurrently with temperature in many regions, yet our understanding of how thermal and hydration physiology jointly affect performance and fitness is still limited for most taxonomic groups. Here, we investigated the relationship between functional performance, hydration state and temperature in three ecologically distinct amphibians, and compare how temperature and water loss can concurrently limit activity under current climate conditions. We found that performance was maintained across a broad range of hydration states in all three species, but then declines abruptly after a threshold of 20–30% mass loss. This rapid performance decline was accelerated when individuals were exposed to warmer temperatures. Combining our empirical hydrothermal performance curves with species-specific biophysical models, we estimated that dehydration can increase restrictions on species' activity by up to 60% compared to restriction by temperature alone. These results illustrate the importance of integrating species' hydration physiology into forecasts of climate vulnerability, as omitting this axis may significantly underestimate the effects of future climate change on Earth's biological diversity.
Two-Round Ca2+ transient in papillae by mechanical stimulation induces metamorphosis in the ascidian Ciona intestinalis type A

Marine invertebrate larvae are known to begin metamorphosis in response to environmentally derived cues. However, little is known about the relationships between the perception of such cues and internal signalling for metamorphosis. To elucidate the mechanism underlying the initiation of metamorphosis in the ascidian, Ciona intestinalis type A (Ciona robusta), we artificially induced ascidian metamorphosis and investigated Ca2+ dynamics from pre- to post-metamorphosis. Ca2+ transients were observed and consisted of two temporally distinct phases with different durations before tail regression which is the early event of metamorphosis. In the first phase, Phase I, the Ca2+ transient in the papillae (adhesive organ of the anterior trunk) was coupled with the Ca2+ transient in dorsally localized cells and endoderm cells just after mechanical stimulation. The Ca2+ transients in Phase I were also observed when applying only short stimulation. In the second phase, Phase II, the Ca2+ transient in papillae was observed again and lasted for approximately 5–11 min just after the Ca2+ transient in Phase I continued for a few minutes. The impaired papillae by Foxg-knockdown failed to induce the second Ca2+ transient in Phase II and tail regression. In Phase II, a wave-like Ca2+ propagation was also observed across the entire epidermis. Our results indicate that the papillae sense a mechanical cue and two-round Ca2+ transients in papillae transmits the internal metamorphic signals to different tissues, which subsequently induces tail regression. Our study will help elucidate the internal mechanism of metamorphosis in marine invertebrate larvae in response to environmental cues.
To form and function: on the role of basement membrane mechanics in tissue development, homeostasis and disease

The basement membrane (BM) is a special type of extracellular matrix that lines the basal side of epithelial and endothelial tissues. Functionally, the BM is important for providing physical and biochemical cues to the overlying cells, sculpting the tissue into its correct size and shape. In this review, we focus on recent studies that have unveiled the complex mechanical properties of the BM. We discuss how these properties can change during development, homeostasis and disease via different molecular mechanisms, and the subsequent impact on tissue form and function in a variety of organisms. We also explore how better characterization of BM mechanics can contribute to disease diagnosis and treatment, as well as development of better in silico and in vitro models that not only impact the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, but can also reduce the use of animals in research.
After 15 years, no evidence for trophic cascades in marine protected areas

In marine ecosystems, fishing often targets predators, which can drive direct and indirect effects on entire food webs. Marine reserves can induce trophic cascades by increasing predator density and body size, thereby increasing predation pressure on populations of herbivores, such as sea urchins. In California's northern Channel Islands, two species of sea urchins are abundant: the red urchin Mesocentrotus franciscanus, which is targeted by an economically valuable fishery, and the virtually unfished purple urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. We hypothesized that urchin populations inside marine reserves would be depressed by higher predation, but that red urchins would be less affected due to fishing outside reserves. Instead, our analyses revealed that purple urchin populations were unaffected by reserves, and red urchin biomass significantly increased in response to protection. Therefore, urchin biomass overall has increased inside reserves, and we found no evidence that giant kelp is positively affected by reserves. Our results reveal the overwhelming direct effect of protecting fished species in marine reserves over indirect effects that are often predicted but seldom clearly documented. Indirect effects due to marine reserves may eventually occur in some cases, but very effective predators, large reserves or extended time periods may be needed to induce them.
Factorial design-assisted reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous determination of fluconazole, itraconazole and terbinafine

A 23 full factorial design model was used for the development of a new high performance liquid chromatography method with UV detection to estimate three antifungal drugs simultaneously. Fluconazole (FLU), itraconazole (ITR) and terbinafine (TRH) are co-administered for severe fungal infections. They have been determined using MOS-1 Hypersil C18 column and an isocratic eluent; methanol 95% and phosphate buffer 5% with 0.001% triethylamine. The pH was adjusted to 7, and the flow rate was 0.7 ml min−1. The three drugs were separated within less than 7 min at 210 nm. The developed method gave a linear response over 5–80 µg ml−1, 5–50 µg ml−1 and 1–50 µg ml−1 for FLU, ITR and TRH, respectively. It showed detection limits of 0.88, 0.29 and 0.20 µg ml−1 and quantification limits of 2.66, 0.88 and 0.60 µg ml−1 for the three drugs, respectively. The design of the experiment facilitated the optimization of different variables affecting the separation of the three drugs. The sensitivity of the designed method permitted the simultaneous estimation of ITR and TRH in spiked human plasma successfully.
Sex-specific speed–accuracy trade-offs shape neural processing of acoustic signals in a grasshopper

Speed–accuracy trade-offs—being fast at the risk of being wrong—are fundamental to many decisions and natural selection is expected to resolve these trade-offs according to the costs and benefits of behaviour. We here test the prediction that females and males should integrate information from courtship signals differently because they experience different pay-offs along the speed–accuracy continuum. We fitted a neural model of decision making (a drift–diffusion model of integration to threshold) to behavioural data from the grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus to determine the parameters of temporal integration of acoustic directional information used by male grasshoppers to locate receptive females. The model revealed that males had a low threshold for initiating a turning response, yet a large integration time constant enabled them to continue to gather information when cues were weak. This contrasts with parameters estimated for females of the same species when evaluating potential mates, in which response thresholds were much higher and behaviour was strongly influenced by unattractive stimuli. Our results reveal differences in neural integration consistent with the sex-specific costs of mate search: males often face competition and need to be fast, while females often pay high error costs and need to be deliberate.
A revised phylogeny of the New Caledonian endemic genus Troglosiro (Opiliones : Cyphophthalmi : Troglosironidae) with the description of four new species

Abstract. The Cyphophthalmi genus Troglosiro (the only genus of the family Troglosironidae) is endemic to New Caledonia, representing one of the oldest lineages of this emerged part of Zealandia. Its species are short-range endemics, many known from single localities. Here we examined the phylogenetic relationships of Troglosironidae using standard Sanger-sequenced markers (nuclear 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, and mitochondrial 16S rRNA and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) and a combination of phylogenetic methods, including parsimony under Direct Optimization and maximum likelihood with static homology. We also applied a diversity of species delimitation methods, including distance-based, topology-based and unsupervised machine learning to evaluate previous species designations. Finally, we used a combination of genetic and morphological information to describe four new species – T. dogny sp. nov., T. pin sp. nov., T. pseudojuberthiei sp. nov. and T. sharmai sp. nov. – and discuss them in the broader context of the phylogeny and biogeographic history of the family. A key to the species of Troglosiro is also provided.
Determining the position of Diomocoris, Micromimetus and Taylorilygus in the Lygus-complex based on molecular data and first records of Diomocoris and Micromimetus from Australia, including four new species (Insecta : Hemiptera : Miridae : Mirinae)

Abstract. The Lygus-complex is one of the most taxonomically challenging groups of Miridae (Heteroptera), and its Australian fauna is poorly studied. Here we examine the Australian taxa of the Lygus-complex using morphological and molecular methods. After a detailed morphological study of the material collected throughout Australia, Taylorilygus nebulosus is transferred to Diomocoris, with the genus recorded for the first time in this country. Taylorilygus apicalis, also widely distributed in Australia, is redescribed on the basis of Australian material. The genus Micromimetus is recorded for the first time in Australia, with M. celiae, sp. nov., M. hannahae, sp. nov., M. nikolai, sp. nov. and M. shofneri, sp. nov. described as new to science. Micromimetus pictipes is redescribed and its distributional range is increased. The monophyly of the Lygus-complex and relationships within this group were tested using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA markers. The Lygus-complex has been found to be non-monophyletic. Phylogeny confirmed the monophyly of Micromimetus, and it has shown that Taylorilygus apicalis is closer to Micromimetus species than to Diomocoris nebulosus. This study is the initial step in understanding the Lygus-complex phylogeny; analyses with more taxa, more genes and morphology are needed to reveal the interrelationships within this group, and sister-group relationships of Australian taxa.
In Situ Synthesis of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in Ethylene Glycol Containing Terephthalic Acid and Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs) as an Approach to MWNT/PET Nanocomposites

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) (diameter range, 10−20 nm) were functionalized with 4-methoxybenzoic acid and 4-ethoxybenzoic acid via a Friedel−Crafts reaction in polyphosphoric acid to afford methoxybenzoyl- and ethoxybenzoyl-functionalized MWNTs. As-received MWNT, methoxybenzoyl-functionalized (MeO-MWNT), and ethoxybenzoyl-functionalized (EtO-MWNT) nanotubes were dispersed in ethylene glycol (EG). Because of the structural similarity, the mixture of EtO-MWNT (0.4 wt %) and EG was a homogeneous dispersion, whereas MeO-MWNT and pristine MWNT were dispersed in EG rather heterogeneously at the same loading. In situ polycondensation of EG and terephthalic acid in the presence of pristine MWNT, MeO-MWNT, or EtO-MWNT was carried out to generate the corresponding MWNT/PET, MeO-MWNT/PET, and EtO-MWNT/PET nanocomposites. High molecular weight poly(ethylene terephthalates) (PETs), with intrinsic viscosity range 0.6−0.7 dL/g (o-chlorophenol at 30 ± 0.1 °C), were obtained in all cases. In comparing the images .