Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasticity of the MFS1 promotor is not the only driver of Multidrug resistance in Zymoseptoria tritici

Background Multidrug resistance has been identified in the fungal pathogen responsible for Septoria leaf blotch, Zymoseptoria tritici, since 2011. It has been linked to the overexpression of the gene encoding the MFS1 transporter due to inserts in the promoter region of MFS1 (PMFS1), namely types I-III. Recently, two new inserts were discovered in PMFS1 that were not linked to MDR, interrogating about whether PMFS1 inserts are the only drivers of MDR in Z. tritici. The goal of our study was to gain a more complete view of MDR in Z. tritici by examining the genotypic diversity associated with the MDR phenotype in a large sample of the modern population. Results We isolated 384 potential MDR strains between 2020 and 2021 in northern Europe for PMFS1 genotype and MDR assessment. We discovered six new inserts in PMFS1, bringing the total count to 13 including one insertion-deletion in the 5’ UTR region. Of these, 11 display similarities with transposable elements, and 3 are not linked to MDR. Some field strains were significantly more resistant than their respective reference of the same PMFS1 genotype and some strains without insert displayed MDR phenotype. Conclusion We described the landscape of the MDR in modern Z. tritici population and postulate that PMFS1 is a hot-spot for insertions involving transposition events. Our study shows that MDR cannot be solely explained by inserts found in PMFS1, and that additional mechanisms might be at work.
Occupancy Information Ratio: Infinite-Horizon, Information-Directed, Parameterized Policy Search

In this work, we propose an information-directed objective for infinite-horizon reinforcement learning (RL), called the occupancy information ratio (OIR), inspired by the information ratio objectives used in previous information-directed sampling schemes for multi-armed bandits and Markov decision processes as well as recent advances in general utility RL. The OIR, comprised of a ratio between the average cost of a policy and the entropy of its induced state occupancy measure, enjoys rich underlying structure and presents an objective to which scalable, model-free policy search methods naturally apply. Specifically, we show by leveraging connections between quasiconcave optimization and the linear programming theory for Markov decision processes that the OIR problem can be transformed and solved via concave programming methods when the underlying model is known. Since model knowledge is typically lacking in practice, we lay the foundations for model-free OIR policy search methods by establishing a corresponding policy gradient theorem. Building on this result, we subsequently derive REINFORCE- and actor-critic-style algorithms for solving the OIR problem in policy parameter space. Crucially, exploiting the powerful hidden quasiconcavity property implied by the concave programming transformation of the OIR problem, we establish finite-time convergence of the REINFORCE-style scheme to global optimality and asymptotic convergence of the actor-critic-style scheme to (near) global optimality under suitable conditions. Finally, we experimentally illustrate the utility of OIR-based methods over vanilla methods in sparse-reward settings, supporting the OIR as an alternative to existing RL objectives.
Impaired activation of the prefrontal executive network during working memory processing in multiple sclerosis

In multiple sclerosis (MS), working memory (WM) impairment occurs soon after disease onset and significantly affects the patient’s quality of life. Functional imaging research in MS aims to investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of WM impairment. In this context, we utilized a data-driven technique, the time delay embedded- hidden Markov model (TDE-HMM), to extract spectrally defined functional networks in magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data acquired during a WM visual-verbal n-back task. We observed that two networks show an altered activation in RR-MS patients. First, the activation of an early theta prefrontal network linked to stimulus encoding and attentional control significantly decreased in RR-MS compared to HC. This diminished activation correlated with reduced accuracy in task performance in the MS group, suggesting an impaired encoding and learning process. Secondly, a frontoparietal network characterized by beta coupling is activated between 300 and 600 ms after stimulus onset; this resembles the characteristic event-related P300, a cognitive marker extensively explored in EEG studies. The activation of this network is amplified in patients treated with benzodiazepine, in line with the well-known benzodiazepine-induced beta enhancement. Altogether, the TDE-HMM technique extracted task-relevant functional networks showing disease-specific and treatment- related alterations, revealing potential new markers to assess and track WM impairment in MS. Highlights We decomposed the brain dynamics underlying a WM n-back task in data-driven, spectrally defined whole-brain networks in both healthy controls and people with relapsing-remitting-MS (pwMS). PwMS showed a significantly decreased activation of an early theta prefrontal network linked to stimulus encoding and attentional control. The weaker activation of this prefrontal theta network is correlated with worse task performance. A beta frontoparietal network with a P300-like temporal evolution was significantly modulated by the use of benzodiazepines. The model distinguished disease-induced and treatment-induced dynamic network alterations.
The value of craft souvenirs induces travel intention by shaping destination image: from the perspective of souvenir gift recipients

ABSTRACT This study adopts the Stimuli-Organism-Response framework to explore how the perceived value of craft souvenirs in a souvenir gift-giving context arouses recipients’ (non-visitors) perception of destination image and ultimately induces their travel intention. Data were collected from 381 respondents in Chengdu, China. Results show that recipients’ perceived craft souvenir value positively influences two components of destination image (cognitive and affective), further influencing travel intention. This study contributes to souvenir-induced tourism research by focusing on a new perspective of stakeholders and inspiring researchers’ interest in understanding souvenir recipients. It also provides ways to utilize craft souvenirs to promote destinations.
Impacts of UAM on tourism: the roles of innovative characteristics, motivated consumer innovativeness, attitude, problem awareness, and cultural differences

ABSTRACT Urban air mobility (UAM) is ready to fly and is a disruptive technology in improving city tourism. This study explores the roles of innovation characteristics, motivated consumer innovativeness, and attitude in stimulating intention to use UAM, with consideration of cultural differences. For this, we adopted both symmetric and asymmetric approaches based on data gathered in the United States and China. This study examined the structural relationships between predictors and tested the moderating effect of problem awareness in the link between motivated consumer innovativeness and attitude in developing travelers’ approach behaviors relating to UAM. This study found multiple solutions based on a complex interplay among antecedents, and identified a necessary condition to drive intention to use UAM. Our findings from multiple analytic approaches help to advance the current knowledge of UAM adoption behavior in different cultures.
Online versus offline tourism emotion: uncovering the bias pattern in online tourism emotion within theme parks

ABSTRACT Online texts and images have become an important data source for investigating tourism emotion. However, tourism emotion extracted from online data cannot reflect the emotions in the real world. Few scholarly attempts have focused on the complex biases in tourism emotion based on online data. By comparing online and offline emotion, this study quantified biases in tourism emotion and explored patterns among biases. Facial expressions and texts within Disney Resort were collected. Based on facial expression recognition and text mining, several indices were proposed to measure tourism emotion and biases. Our results reveal that tourists tend to share stronger happiness, increased anger in commerce areas and exaggerated disgust in waiting areas. In addition, males show “surprise-suppress”; while females show “surprise-exaggeration” in recreation areas. Our research can help scholars reexamine previous conclusions based on online tourism emotion and provides a theoretical basis for improving the quality of online tourism emotion.
Modeling Women's Elective Choices in Computing

Evidence-based strategies suggest ways to reduce the gender gap in computing. For example, elective classes are valuable in enabling students to choose in which directions to expand their computing knowledge in areas aligned with their interests. The availability of electives of interest may also make computing programs of study more meaningful to women. However, research on which elective computing topics are more appealing to women is often class or institution specific. In this study, we investigate differences in enrollment within undergraduate-level elective classes in computing to study differences between women and men. The study combined data from nine institutions from both Western Europe and North America and included 272 different classes with 49,710 student enrollments. These classes were encoded using ACM curriculum guidelines and combined with the enrollment data to build a hierarchical statistical model of factors affecting student choice. Our model shows which elective topics are less popular with all students (including fundamentals of programming languages and parallel and distributed computing), and which elective topics are more popular with women students (including mathematical and statistical foundations, human computer interaction and society, ethics, and professionalism). Understanding which classes appeal to different students can help departments gain insight of student choices and develop programs accordingly. Additionally, these choices can also help departments explore whether some students are less likely to choose certain classes than others, indicating potential barriers to participation in computing.
Executives' Blaming External Factors and Market Reactions: Evidence from Earnings Conference Calls

We investigate how market participants react to corporate executives' strategically blaming the economy or industries for poor firm performance. In the quarters subsequent to earnings conference calls, we find that the ``blame sentences", which capture executives' blaming tactics, predict negative and non-reverting abnormal returns, negative earnings surprises, and analyst recommendation downgrades. These blaming tactics also reduce the sensitivity of executives' turnover to their past performance. Our findings imply that executives strategically inject into the blame sentences the negative value-relevant information which market participants can digest by combining distinct categories of information (e.g., firm-specific vs economy-wide), leading to delayed market reactions to the blame sentences.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Photophysics of perylene monoimide-labelled organocatalysts

We designed and synthesized cinchona alkaloid derivates PMI-BnCPD , 1 and PMI-dHQD , 2 , in which a ﬂ uo-rescent perylene monoimide unit is linked to the quinuclidine fragment. The latter acts as an electron donor, quenching the perylene imide ﬂ uorescence in polar solvents. In the organocatalytic application of these compounds, the electron donor is deactivated by binding to an electrophile, e.g. H + . We show that this restores the ﬂ uorescence, allowing the compounds to signal the electrophile binding step that occurs in many catalytic reactions. In order to demonstrate that charge transfer is indeed the ﬂ uorescence quenching mechanism, we detected the charge separated state by means of transient absorption spectroscopy. Incidentally, the excited state absorption bands of the locally excited and charge transfer states are very similar. The activity of the ﬂ uorophore labeled organocatalyst 1 in a ﬂ uorogenic Michael addition reaction is demonstrated.
Does habitat restoration increase macroinvertebrate diversity of urban streams in Perth, Western Australia?

Stream macroinvertebrates provide essential ecological functions that are facilitated by high taxonomic diversity. However, the response of macroinvertebrate diversity to habitat restoration is not well understood. A section of Bannister Creek (Perth, Western Australia) was restored in 2001 to a living stream by bank stabilisation, revegetation, and riffle-pool construction. Habitat quality, macroinvertebrate diversity and abundance within functional groups in this living stream will be compared with diversity in degraded reaches downstream and upstream of this reach, degraded reaches on nearby Bickley Brook, and an undisturbed reference reach. This study aims to determine if macroinvertebrate diversity responds positively to habitat restoration.
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES IN THE ROMANIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

: In recent decades, for a number of socio-economic, demographic and environmental reasons, there has been a steady increase in the number of children with disabilities in the mainstream education system. Students with disabilities at all levels of education (preschool, primary, middle school, high school, even adult education) are extremely vulnerable to exclusion and to have multiple barriers to accessing educational opportunities. And among those who drop out of school, they do not even finish primary education, most of them are children with disabilities. The article aims to achieve its own re-elective perspective through the systematic analysis of scientific literature, research studies in the field of educational inclusion and to propose directions for understanding the mechanisms of manifestation of the phenomenon of inclusion in the Romanian educational system. The research part involves identifying through the analysis of research studies already conducted the challenges and opportunities in implementing inclusive educational policies, with emphasis on the role of teachers. The results of the analysis confirm that the resources and difficulties of this complex process of inclusion, its consequences on students, teachers, parents, community, but also on the functioning of society. The attitudes of all those involved in the process are the variables that determine the success or not of the process of integration and socio-educational inclusion. Negative attitudes, rejection, isolation and non-acceptance are the ones that lead to a decrease in the student’s ability to integrate in school and later in society, emotionally destabilizing the entire context and making inefficient a number of mechanisms and processes.
Key processes for the eastward propagation of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation based on multimodel simulations

As a prominent climate variability mode with widespread influences on global weather extremes, the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) remains poorly represented in the latest generation of general circulation models (GCMs), with a particular challenge in simulating its eastward propagating convective signals. In this study, by analyzing multimodel simulations from a recent global MJO model evaluation project, an effort is made to identify key processes for the eastward propagation of the MJO through analyses of moisture entropy (ME) processes under a “moisture mode” framework for the MJO. The column‐integrated horizontal ME advection is found to play a critical role for the eastward propagation of the MJO in both observations and good MJO models, with a primary contribution through advection of the lower tropospheric seasonal mean ME by the MJO anomalous circulations. By contrast, the horizontal ME advection effect for the eastward propagation is greatly underestimated in poor MJO GCMs, due to model deficiencies in simulating both the seasonal mean ME pattern and MJO circulations, leading to a largely stationary MJO mode in these GCMs. These results thus pinpoint an important guidance toward improved representation of the MJO in climate and weather forecast models. While this study mainly focuses on fundamental physics for the MJO propagation over the Indian Ocean, complex influences by the Maritime Continent on the MJO and also ME processes associated with the MJO over the western Pacific warrant further investigations.
Histopathological patterns of testicular biopsy in male infertility: A retrospective study from a tertiary care center in the western part of Saudi Arabia

Objective: To identify and categorize various pathological changes seen in testicular biopsies of males with infertility and to compare the results with data from other local and international studies. Materials and Methods: All testicular biopsies from males with infertility received by the Pathology Department of King AbdulAziz University Hospital, Jeddah, in the period from January 2004 until May 2010 are reviewed and histopathologically classified into seven categories as follows : Normal spermatogenesis, hypospermatogenesis, germ cell maturation arrest (GCMA), Sertoli cell only syndrome, seminiferous tubule hyalinization, mixed and discordant patterns. Results: One hundred testicular biopsies were identified in the computerized records of the Department of Pathology of King AbdulAziz University Hospital in the studied period. The age ranged from 22 to 70 years with a mean age of 24.5 years. The histopathological patterns were as follows: 14 (14%) cases were reported as normal spermatogenesis;(29, 29%) cases as hypospermatogesis; and 12 (12%) cases were reported as GCMA, mostly at the level of primary spermatocytes. The Sertoli cell only syndrome and the seminiferous tubule hyalinization categories were each reported in 16 cases (16%). Nine cases (9%) showed a mixed pattern. Discordant pattern was seen in 5 (5%) cases. Conclusion: Our study showed that hypospermatogenesis is the commonest pattern in testicular biopsies taken from males with infertility in our region. This study supports the recommendation of bilateral testicular biopsies when investigating male infertility.
endog-Effects of fractionated colostrum replacer and vitamins A, D, and E on haptoglobin and clinical health in neonatal Holstein calves challenged with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis

Thirty Holstein calves were obtained from 2 dairy farms in central Iowa at birth and randomly assigned to 1 of 6 treatment groups: (1) colostrum deprived (CD), no vitamins; (2) colostrum replacer (CR), no vitamins; (3) CR, vitamin A; (4) CR, vitamin D 3 ; (5) CR, vitamin E; and (6) CR, vitamins A, D 3 , E, with 5 calves per treatment in a 14-d study. Calves were fed pasteurized whole milk (CD) or fractionated colostrum replacer (CR) at birth (d 0) and injected with vitamins according to treatment group. From d 1 through d 14 of the study, all calves were fed pasteurized whole milk (PWM) supplemented with vitamins as assigned. All calves were inoculated with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis on d 1 and 3 of age. Calves fed CR acquired IgG 1 and haptoglobin in serum within 24 h of birth, whereas CD calves did not. The CR-fed calves were 2.5 times less likely to develop scours, and CR calves supplemented with vitamins D 3 and E also demonstrated a decreased incidence of scours. Serum vitamin levels of A, D, and E increased within treatment group by d 7 and 14 of the study. Interestingly, synergistic effects of supplemental vitamins A, D 3 , and E on serum 25-(OH)-vitamin D were observed at d 7, resulting in higher levels than in calves administered vitamin D only. Further, vitamin D 3 deficiency was observed in CD and CR calves fed a basal diet of pasteurized whole milk and no supplemental vitamins. Colonization of tissues with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis was negligible and was not affected by colostrum feeding or vitamin supplementation. Results demonstrated passive transfer of haptoglobin to neonatal calves, and potential health benefits of supplemental vitamins D 3 and E to calves fed pasteurized whole milk.
Resource-Aware Federated Hybrid Proﬁling for Edge Node Selection in Federated Patient Similarity Network

: The widespread adoption of edge computing for resource-constrained devices presents challenges in computational straggler issues, primarily due to the heterogeneity of edge node resources. This research addresses these issues by introducing a novel resource-aware federated hybrid proﬁling approach. This approach involves classifying edge node resources with relevant performance metrics and leveraging their capabilities to optimize performance and improve Quality of Service (QoS), particularly in real-time eHealth applications. Such paradigms include Federated Patient Similarity Network (FPSN) models that distribute processing at each edge node and fuse the built PSN matrices in the cloud, presenting a unique challenge in terms of optimizing training and inference times, while ensuring efﬁcient and timely updates at the edge nodes. To address this concern, we propose a resource-aware federated hybrid proﬁling approach that measures the available static and dynamic resources of the edge nodes. By selecting nodes with the appropriate resources, we aim to optimize the FPSN to ensure the highest possible Quality of Service (QoS) for its users. We conducted experiments using edge performance metrics, i.e., accuracy, training convergence, memory and disk usage, execution time, and network statistics. These experiments uniquely demonstrate our work’s contribution to optimizing resource allocation and enhancing the performance of eHealth applications in real-time contexts using edge computing.
The status of conventional metaphorical meaning in the L2 lexicon

Abstract This paper investigates how L2 speakers of English process conventional metaphorical expressions. While much of the literature on L2 processing of figurative expressions focuses on idioms only, the aim of this paper is to investigate how L2 speakers process conventional metaphorical expressions. The results of a cross-modal semantic priming task show that conventional metaphors have a special status in comparison to literal language in the L2 lexicon. The differences in reaction times show that L2 speakers are aware of the connections between literal primes and targets, resulting in slower reaction times, while this effect is not found in the metaphorical condition. This demonstrates that even when metaphorical language is very conventional, it can cause difficulties for L2 speakers. Furthermore, these results show that conventional metaphorical expressions can pose a semantic and pragmatic challenge for language learners, thus creating a need for explicit teaching of metaphorical meanings of polysemous words.