Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Goats’ Performance in Unsolvable Tasks Is Predicted by Their Reactivity Toward Humans, but Not Social Rank

In order to clarify the ability of animals to communicate with humans, it is necessary to examine the behaviors of animals directed at humans, taking into account individual differences. This study investigated whether the behaviors of goats (Capra hircus) can be predicted when given an unsolvable task. Two experiments were performed in a paddock using 16 domesticated goats. In Experiment 1, behavioral tests were conducted to determine the goats’ social rank and reactivity toward a stranger. In Experiment 2, the goats’ behaviors in an unsolvable task and two control conditions in which either only a human or bucket was presented were examined. The behaviors of the goats were video-recorded and compared between the conditions. Then, we examined whether the behaviors of goats in the presence of both the human and unsolvable task can be predicted from the scores for social rank and reactivity toward humans. Compared with the control conditions, the goats increased physical contact with the human, but did not increase gazing. It is possible that differences in individual characteristics and long-term experiences with humans can lead to differences in human-directed behaviors of animals. Although the social rank order of the goats was clearly linear, there was no correlation between their behaviors in the unsolvable task and their social rank. The goats that tended to interact with the stranger in Experiment 1 were more likely to approach and establish contact with the human in the unsolvable task than goats that reacted more averse toward humans. There was no association between the level of reactivity toward the stranger and the goats’ involvements in the unsolvable task. Therefore, it is possible that the goats which increased interactions with humans did not necessarily have low motivation to engage in unsolvable tasks, but relied on humans as a means of communication. In conclusion, the behavioral changes and its diversity as the responses toward short-term changes in the environment, such as the presence or absence of humans and unsolvable tasks, were related to differences in individual behavioral characteristics (i.e., reactivity toward humans).
Positive aging benefits of home and community gardening activities: Older adults report enhanced self-esteem, productive endeavours, social engagement and exercise

Objectives: This study examined relationships between home and community gardening and older adults’ self-reported psychosocial and physical well-being, attitudes to aging relative to gardening activities and benefits of membership to a gardening group. Methods: A survey addressing (a) demographic characteristics, (b) gardening interests and sentiments, (c) activities, (d) benefits, (e) self-rated health and quality of life and (f) attitudes to aging was administered online and via mail-out. Results: Participants, 331 gardeners aged 60–95 years from Australia, reported numerous benefits from leisure gardening. According to multiple regression analysis, Restoration and Physical benefits were the strongest explanatory variables of participants’ positive aging self-perceptions. Members of gardening groups reported significantly more social and physical benefits than non-members. Conclusion: The current study provides support for promoting positive aging through gardening. Regardless of ‘doing’ gardening or simply ‘being’ in the garden, having contact with nature was key to attaining positive therapeutic benefits for this sample.
Reciprocal Filial Piety Facilitates Academic Success via Autonomy: Generalizing Findings in Chinese Society to a Global Context

In cross-cultural psychology it is important to examine the universal (etic) and specific (emic) aspects of culture constructs. Filial piety is a core value of Chinese society that has shown related to psycho-social and academic development. This study was designed to investigate whether these relations revealed in specific cultural settings can be generalized to a global context. Using Chinese junior high school students as participants, Study 1 was intended to analyze the relations between filial piety and academic achievement, and whether autonomy need satisfaction serves as a bridge between them at the students’ and classes’ level. Study 2 was designed to examine whether these psycho-social and academic effects of filial piety can be applicable to a global context via analyzing two country-level databases [i.e., World Values Survey (WVS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)]. The results of Study 1 showed that reciprocal filial piety was positively associated with academic achievement via the satisfaction of the need for autonomy, the authoritarian filial belief was negatively associated with academic achievement. The results of Study 2 showed that in a global context reciprocal filial belief in a society was related to the endorsement of autonomy, which in turn positively related to students’ academic achievement in that society, while authoritarian filial belief did not show such effects. These findings suggest that some psychological constructs established in non-Western settings can also be applied to a global context.
Heat Stress Causes Immune Abnormalities via Massive Damage to Effect Proliferation and Differentiation of Lymphocytes in Broiler Chickens

Broiler chickens are highly sensitive to high ambient temperatures due to their feathers, lack of skin sweat glands, and high productivity. Heat stress (HS) is a major concern for the poultry industry because it negatively affects growth as well as immune functions, which increase the potential risk of infectious disease outbreaks. Therefore, it is vital to elucidate HS's effect on the avian immune system, especially considering the global rise in average surface temperature. Our study identified a series of immunological disorders in heat-stressed broiler chickens. We exposed 22-day-old broiler chickens to a continuous HS condition (34.5 ± 0.5°C) for 14 days and immunized them with a prototype bovine serum albumin (BSA) antigen. The plasma and lymphoid tissues (thymus, bursa of Fabricius, and spleen) were harvested at the end of the experiments to investigate the induction of BSA-specific immune responses. Our results revealed that plasma titers of immunoglobulin (Ig)Y, IgM, and IgA antibodies specific for BSA were lower than those of thermoneutral chickens immunized with BSA. Furthermore, the spleens of the heat-stressed broiler chickens displayed severe depression of Bu1+ B cells and CD3+ T cells, including CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, and lacked a fully developed germinal center (GC), which is crucial for B cell proliferation. These immunological abnormalities might be associated with severe depression of CD4−CD8− or CD4+CD8+ cells, which are precursors of either helper or killer T cells in the thymus and Bu1+ B cells in the bursa of Fabricius. Importantly, HS severely damaged the morphology of the thymic cortex and bursal follicles, where functional maturation of T and B cells occur. These results indicate that HS causes multiple immune abnormalities in broiler chickens by impairing the developmental process and functional maturation of T and B cells in both primary and secondary lymphoid tissues.
Mapping Theme Trends and Knowledge Structure of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies of Schizophrenia: A Bibliometric Analysis From 2004 to 2018

Background Recently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology has been widely used to quantitatively analyze brain structure, morphology, and functional activities, as well as to clarify the neuropathological and neurobiological mechanisms of schizophrenia. However, although there have been many relevant results and conclusions, there has been no systematic assessment of this field. Aim To analyze important areas of research utilizing MRI in studies of schizophrenia and explore major trends and the knowledge structure using bibliometric analysis. Methods Literature related to MRI studies of schizophrenia published in PubMed between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2018 were retrieved in 5-year increments. The extracted major Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms/MeSH subheadings were analyzed quantitatively. Bi-clu-stering analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and strategic diagrams were employed to analyze the word matrix and co-occurrence matrix of high-frequency MeSH terms. Results For the periods of 2004 to 2008, 2009 to 2013, and 2014 to 2018, the number of relevant retrieved publications were 916, 1,344, and 1,512 respectively, showing an overall growth trend. 26, 34, and 36 high-frequency major MeSH terms/MeSH subheadings were extracted in each period, respectively. In line with strategic diagrams, the main undeveloped theme clusters in 2004–2008 were effects of antipsychotics on brain structure and their curative efficacy. These themes were replaced in 2009–2013 by physiopathology mechanisms of schizophrenia, etiology of cognitive disorder, research on default mode network and schizophrenic psychology, and were partially replaced in 2014–2018 by studies of differences in the neurobiological basis for schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Based on SNA, nerve net/physiopathology and psychotic disorder/pathology were considered the emerging hotspots of research in 2009–2013 and 2014–2018. Conclusions MRI studies on schizophrenia were relatively diverse, but the theme clusters derived from each period may reflect the publication trends to some extent. Bibliometric research over a 15-year period may be helpful in depicting the overall scope of research interest and may generate novel ideas for researchers initiating new projects.
Isolation, Characterization, and Complete Genome Sequence of a Bradyrhizobium Strain Lb8 From Nodules of Peanut Utilizing Crack Entry Infection

In many legumes, the colonization of roots by rhizobia is via “root hair entry” and its molecular mechanisms have been extensively studied. However, the nodulation of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) by Bradyrhizobium strains requires an intercellular colonization process called “crack entry,” which is understudied. To understand the intercellular crack entry process, it is critical to develop the tools and resources related to the rhizobium in addition to focus on investigating the mechanisms of the plant host. In this study, we isolated a Bradyrhizobium sp. strain, Lb8 from peanut root nodules and sequenced it using PacBio long reads. The complete genome sequence was a circular chromosome of 8,718,147 base-pair (bp) with an average GC content of 63.14%. No plasmid sequence was detected in the sequenced DNA sample. A total of 8,433 potential protein-encoding genes, one rRNA cluster, and 51 tRNA genes were annotated. Fifty-eight percent of the predicted genes showed similarity to genes of known functions and were classified into 27 subsystems representing various biological processes. The genome shared 92% of the gene families with B. diazoefficens USDA 110T. A presumptive symbiosis island of 778 Kb was detected, which included two clusters of nif and nod genes. A total of 711 putative protein-encoding genes were in this region, among which 455 genes have potential functions related to symbiotic nitrogen fixation and DNA transmission. Of 21 genes annotated as transposase, 16 were located in the symbiosis island. Lb8 possessed both Type III and Type IV protein secretion systems, and our work elucidated the association of flagellar Type III secretion systems in bradyrhizobia. These observations suggested that complex rearrangement, such as horizontal transfer and insertion of different DNA elements, might be responsible for the plasticity of the Bradyrhizobium genome.
Emotion Recognition and Aging. Comparing a Labeling Task With a Categorization Task Using Facial Representations

Research suggests that aging comes with a decline in the ability to identify emotional expressions. In previous studies on emotion recognition and aging, participants were typically instructed to classify images of facial expressions using sets of lexical emotion labels. Yet, in daily life, when exposed to facial expressions by others, people match these with their conceptual knowledge of how emotions are visually presented (i.e., a smile for “happiness”), rather than recalling lexical labels (i.e., the word “happy”). By comparing performances of young adults and older adults on an emotion sorting task based on visual categorization and a traditional labeling task based on lexical categorization, this research aimed to explore a different way of studying emotion recognition abilities over the lifespan. In line with earlier research, results of the labeling task showed that our older participants (Mage = 71.9) were less accurate in labeling emotions than participants in a young age group (Mage = 23.8), especially for expressions of sadness, fear, anger and contempt. Outcomes of the categorization task suggest that older adults have difficulties separating distinctive meanings of emotions more than young adults do. Results of this study indeed shows a decline in emotion recognition using both tasks, and suggests future studies to examine possible changes in conceptual knowledge of emotions, rather than the inability to perceive certain facial cues.
Current Standards and Practices Within the Therapy Dog Industry: Results of a Representative Survey of United States Therapy Dog Organizations

Organizations that deliver animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), as well as those that train, evaluate, and register therapy dogs, have proliferated in recent decades in the United States (U.S.). Each of these organizations has its own policies and procedures for screening, evaluating, and instructing dogs and their owners/handlers, but little is currently known about the range of different practices that exist nationwide. The aim of this project was to survey a representative, national sample of U.S. therapy dog organizations to investigate commonalities and differences in the types of practices in current use and to compare these to recommendations in existing published guidelines. The findings suggest the need for further research, and highlight a number of areas relating to dog welfare, human safety, and infection control in which many organizations were inconsistent in their adherence to existing guidelines. Of particular concern with regard to animal welfare was the finding that approximately half of the organizations surveyed imposed no time limit on the length of visits. Also, given the potential for zoonotic disease transmission, the finding that only a small minority of organizations prohibit the feeding of raw meat diets and treats to visiting dogs is concerning. This information will help to raise awareness among facilities with therapy animal programs and assist in the development of future best practices within the therapy dog industry.
Use of Changestat for Growth Rate Studies of Gut Microbiota

Human colon microbiota, composed of hundreds of different species, is closely associated with several health conditions. Controlled in vitro cultivation and up-to-date analytical methods make possible the systematic evaluation of the underlying mechanisms of complex interactions between the members of microbial consortia. Information on reproducing fecal microbial consortia can be used for various clinical and biotechnological applications. In this study, chemostat and changestat cultures were used to elucidate the effects of the physiologically relevant range of dilution rates on the growth and metabolism of adult fecal microbiota. The dilution rate was kept either at D = 0.05 or D = 0.2 1/h in chemostat cultures, while gradually changing from 0.05 to 0.2 1/h in the A-stat and from 0.2 to 0.05 1/h in the De-stat. Apple pectin as a substrate was used in the chemostat experiments and apple pectin or birch xylan in the changestat experiments, in the presence of porcine mucin in all cases. The analyses were comprised of HPLC for organic acids, UPLC for amino acids, GC for gas composition, 16S-rDNA sequencing for microbial composition, and growth parameter calculations. It was shown that the abundance of most bacterial taxa was determined by the dilution rate on both substrates. Bacteroides ovatus, Bacteroides vulgatus, and Faecalibacterium were prevalent within the whole range of dilution rates. Akkermansia muciniphila and Ruminococcaceae UCG-013 were significantly enriched at D = 0.05 1/h, while Bacteroides caccae, Lachnospiraceae unclassified and Escherichia coli clearly preferred D = 0.2 1/h. In the chemostat cultures, the production of organic acids and gases from pectin was related to the dilution rate. The ratio of acetate, propionate and butyrate was 5:2:1 (D = 0.05 1/h) and 14:2:1 (D = 0.2 1/h). It was shown that the growth rate-related characteristics of the fecal microbiota were concise in both directions between D = 0.05 and 0.2 1/h. Reproducible adaptation of the fecal microbiota was shown in the continuous culture with a changing dilution rate: changestat. Consortia cultivation is a promising approach for research purposes and several biotechnological applications, including the production of multi-strain probiotics and fecal transplantation mixtures.
Advanced Cancer Imaging Applied in the Comparative Setting

The potential for companion (pet) species with spontaneously arising tumors to act as surrogates for preclinical development of advanced cancer imaging technologies has become more apparent in the last decade. The utility of the companion model specifically centers around issues related to body size (including spatial target/normal anatomic characteristics), physical size and spatial distribution of metastasis, tumor heterogeneity, the presence of an intact syngeneic immune system and a syngeneic tumor microenvironment shaped by the natural evolution of the cancer. Companion species size allows the use of similar equipment, hardware setup, software, and scan protocols which provide the opportunity for standardization and harmonization of imaging operating procedures and quality assurance across imaging protocols, imaging hardware, and the imaged species. Murine models generally do not replicate the size and spatial distribution of human metastatic cancer and these factors strongly influence image resolution and dosimetry. The following review will discuss several aspects of comparative cancer imaging in more detail while providing several illustrative examples of investigational approaches performed or currently under exploration at our institutions. Topics addressed include a discussion on interested consortia; image quality assurance and harmonization; image-based biomarker development and validation; contrast agent and radionuclide tracer development; advanced imaging to assess and predict response to cytotoxic and immunomodulatory anticancer agents; imaging of the tumor microenvironment; development of novel theranostic approaches; cell trafficking assessment via non-invasive imaging; and intraoperative imaging to inform surgical oncology decision making. Taken in totality, these comparative opportunities predict that safety, diagnostic and efficacy data generated in companion species with naturally developing and progressing cancers would better recapitulate the human cancer condition than that of artificial models in small rodent systems and ultimately accelerate the integration of novel imaging technologies into clinical practice. It is our hope that the examples presented should serve to provide those involved in cancer investigations who are unfamiliar with available comparative methodologies an understanding of the potential utility of this approach.
Therapeutic Response of Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy for Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy Between Sports-Active and Nonsports-Active Patients With 5-Year Follow-up

Background: Insertional Achilles tendinopathy (IAT) is a common cause of posterior heel pain. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has proven to be an effective treatment, but the relationship between therapeutic responses and sports activity levels has not been studied. Purpose: To compare the clinical outcomes of ESWT used to treat IATs between sports-active and nonsports-active patients over 5 years. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 33 patients with IAT who received ESWT from October 2012 to September 2013. Patients were classified into 2 groups according to their preinjury Tegner activity level: a sports-active group, defined as patients who self-reported to be regular joggers (SA group; Tegner activity level >3; n = 16), and a nonsports-active group (control group; Tegner activity level ≤3; n = 17). The mean age was 31 ± 7 years for the SA group and 37 ± 10 years for the control group. The Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment–Achilles (VISA-A) questionnaire scores and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were used to evaluate the clinical outcomes before treatment, immediately after treatment, and 5 years after treatment. Ultrasonography was also used to assess the insertional Achilles tendon quality. Results: Before treatment, there were no significant differences between the groups with regard to VAS scores, while the VISA-A score in the SA group was higher than that in the control group. After ESWT, both groups had increased VISA-A scores and decreased VAS scores, indicating improvement. At 5-year follow-up, the SA group had a significantly lower mean VAS score (0.3 ± 0.8 vs 1.6 ± 1.3; P = .001) and a significantly higher mean VISA-A score (90 ± 4 vs 78 ± 7; P < .001) compared with the control group. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding the calcification and neovascularization of the Achilles tendon based on ultrasonography. Conclusion: ESWT can improve the symptoms of Achilles tendinopathy, and patients with IAT who had greater sports activity levels had better therapeutic responses than nonsports-active patients after 5-year follow-up.
Effects of TRPV1 Activation by Capsaicin and Endogenous N-Arachidonoyl Taurine on Synaptic Transmission in the Prefrontal Cortex

While the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) ion channel, a non-selective calcium-permeable cation channel with high Ca2+ permeability, mainly integrates physical and chemical stimuli for nociception, recent studies suggest that it has a role beyond a noxious thermal sensor. In fact, TRPV1 is presently being considered as a target for treating pathophysiological processes including pain, fear, and anxiety disorders. Although this ion channel has many potential roles, its underlying mechanism of action remains elusive. Here we show in mice that activation of TRPV1-, by the exogenous agonist capsaicin-, regulates synaptic activity in both glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic transmission. Moreover, activation by the endogenous activator N-arachidonoyl taurine (NAT), induced similar effects as capsaicin. On the other hand, taurine, the decomposition product of NAT, strongly depressed the evoked glutamatergic synaptic transmission. In addition to these findings, we also show the immunohistochemical distribution of TRPV1 in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of mice, as such studies are currently less frequent in the PFC. Overall, these observations allow for a better understanding of how TRPV1 helps regulate excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activity in the PFC of mice.