Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Distribution of Omura’s Whales (Balaenoptera omurai) and Assessment of Range-Wide Threats

When the Omura’s whale (Balaenoptera omurai) was first described in 2003, it was known from only three locations: the southern Sea of Japan, and the vicinities of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Solomon Islands. Work over the following decade suggested a range limited to the Indo-Pacific, but more recent discoveries in the western Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean suggested a more widespread range than previously thought. Here we use all available sources of information, including published papers, unpublished reports, and web-based accounts, substantiated through genetic, morphological, photographic and acoustic documentation, to complile accounts of Omura’s whales globally. Reports increased precipitously since 2015 after publication of the first detailed external description of the species, reflecting the impact of the recently elevated awareness of the species. We report 161 accounts from 26 locales in the waters of 21 range states, and found that the species is widely distributed in primarily tropical and warm-temperate locations. Currently it is known from all ocean basins with the exception of the central and eastern Pacific. The majority of accounts remain in the eastern Indo-Pacific suggesting a potentially recent range expansion from this region. There is a strong tendency towards a coastal and neritic distribution, although there are also several pelagic records. A predominantly near coastal distribution places Omura’s whale at risk from anthropogenic activities throughout its range, and its tropical distribution in often remote and poorly monitored areas makes adequately documenting and assessing threats challenging. We assess documented threats in light of the reported species’ range, and found threats from, at minimum, ship strikes, fisheries bycatch and entanglement, local directed hunting, petroleum exploration (seismic surveys), and coastal industrial development. Current evidence indicates that at least some populations are non-migratory with local, potentially restricted ranges. Furthermore, there is low genetic diversity documented throughout its global distribution. Given the species may be characterized by small local populations, it may be particularly vulnerable to impacts from existing regional anthropogenic threats. We recommend that focused work be conducted to locate and study local populations, assess potential population isolation, and determine conservation status and specific anthropogenic threats across the species’ range.
Ginsenoside Rb2 Alleviates Obesity by Activation of Brown Fat and Induction of Browning of White Fat

Ginsenoside Rb2 (Rb2), the most abundant saponin contained in Panax ginseng, has been used to treat variety of metabolic diseases. However, its effects in obesity and potential mechanisms are not well-understood. In the present study, we investigated metabolic performance with a Rb2 supplement in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice, focusing on the effects and mechanisms of Rb2 on brown and beige fat functions. Our results demonstrated that Rb2 effectively reduced body weight, improved insulin sensitivity, as well as induced energy expenditure in DIO mice. Histological and gene analysis revealed that Rb2 induced activation of brown fat and browning of white fat by reducing lipid droplets, stimulating uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) staining, and increasing expression of thermogenic and mitochondrial genes, which could be recapitulated in 3T3-L1, C3H10T1/2, and primary adipocytes. In addition, Rb2 induced phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) both in vitro and in vivo. These effects were shown to be dependent on AMPK since its inhibitor blocked Rb2 from inducing expressions of Pgc1α and Ucp1. Overall, the present study revealed that Rb2 activated brown fat and induced browning of white fat, which increased energy expenditure and thermogenesis, and consequently ameliorated obesity and metabolic disorders. These suggest that Rb2 holds promise in treating obesity.
Agency and Bandura’s Model of Triadic Reciprocal Causation: An Exploratory Mobility Study Among Metrorail Commuters in the Western Cape, South Africa

Most studies on sustainable mobility focus on technological, socio-structural, or psychosocial influences while neglecting individual motivations and practices. In this study, we examine mobility motivations and practices as part of a complex interplay between psychosocial and socio-structural dimensions within the mobility infrastructure of Metrorail in the Western Cape. Drawing on Albert Bandura’s theory of personal agency and the model of triadic reciprocal causation, we interviewed 38 commuters (mean age 33 years, SD 11, 50% women/men) and analyzed the data using hermeneutic content analysis and multidimensional scaling. Based on our analyses, we identified three pathways that describe the mobility practices of Metrorail users, each with its own purpose and function. We explore these pathways and their consequences for sustainable mobility in relation to daily commuter agency, motivations, and past experiences.
Impact of the McDonald Criteria 2017 on Early Diagnosis of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic immune mediated demyelinating disease leading to neurological disabilities that need to be diagnosed and treated early. Guidelines on multiple sclerosis diagnosis and monitoring experienced comprehensive changes over the last decades. The first McDonald criteria published in 2001 emphasized the importance of MR imaging but also recognized the role of cerebrospinal fluid diagnostics. The demonstration of an intrathecal immunoglobulin G synthesis is a well-established additional component and has a long tradition in the diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. However, the role of cerebrospinal fluid for diagnostic purposes was rather diminished in each revision of the McDonald criteria. In the latest revision of the McDonald criteria of 2017, the detection of an intrathecal immunoglobulin G synthesis as oligoclonal bands experienced a revival. Patients with the first clinical event suggesting multiple sclerosis who fulfill the criteria for dissemination in space can be diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis when oligoclonal bands in cerebrospinal fluid are detected. The diagnostic sensitivity of these novel criteria with a focus on dissemination in time and oligoclonal bands as a substitute for dissemination in time was published in different cohorts in the last year and is of special interest in this review. Recently published data show that by applying the 2017 McDonald criteria, multiple sclerosis can be diagnosed more frequently at the time of first clinical event as compared to the 2010 McDonald criteria. The main effect was due to the implementation of oligoclonal bands as a substitute for dissemination in time. However, careful differential diagnosis is essential in patients with atypical clinical manifestations to avoid misdiagnoses.
Divorce in Australia : 1947-1982

The Family Law Act of 1975, which introduced no-fault divorce, represented the greatest change in divorce legislation in Australian history. In 1976, when the law took effect, divorce reached unprecedented levels and after 1976 remained substantially higher than it had been under the previous legislation based on matrimonial fault. This thesis is a demographic analysis of divorce in Australia from 194 7 to 1982, focusing particularly on the years immediately before and after the Family Law Act took effect. Period analysis is used to examine divorce by duration of marriage and by age at divorce for the census years from 194 7 to 1981. Other demographic and social variables are also analysed. Cohort analysis is employed to study the marriage cohorts 1964 to 1981 and the divorces they experienced from 1964 to 1982. The effect of age at marriage is examined for couples marrying at the youngest ages, at relatively young ages and at older ages. Age of bride and age difference between bride and groom are also analysed. Previous marital status of bride and previous marital status of groom are studied separately, followed by an analysis of relative previous marital status. Data from the 1982 Families Survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of · Statistics, are used to provide a profile of the population, which reflects the changes in marriage and divorce over the period studied. Marital status, including the prevalence of de facto unions, and marital history are examined.
The Role of Callous-Unemotional Traits on Adolescent Positive and Negative Emotional Reactivity: A Longitudinal Community-Based Study

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with lower emotional reactivity in adolescents. However, since previous studies have focused mainly on reactivity to negative stimuli, it is unclear whether reactivity to positive stimuli is also affected. Further, few studies have addressed the link between CU traits and emotional reactivity in longitudinal community samples, which is important for determining its generalizability and developmental course. In the current study, pupil dilation and self-ratings of arousal and valence were assessed in 100 adolescents (15–17 years) from a community sample, while viewing images with negative and positive valence from the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS). Behavioral traits (CU) were assessed concurrently, as well as at ages 12–15, and 8–9 (subsample, n = 68, low levels of prosocial behavior were used as a proxy for CU traits). The results demonstrate that CU traits assessed at ages 12–15 and 8–9 predicted less pupil dilation to both positive and negative images at ages 15–17. Further, CU traits at ages 12–15 and concurrently were associated with less negative valence ratings for negative images and concurrently to less positive valence ratings for positive images. The current findings demonstrate that CU traits are related to lower emotional reactivity to both negative and positive stimuli in adolescents from a community sample.
The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes

Dream experience (DE) represents a fascinating condition linked to emotional processes and the human inner world. Although the overlap between REM sleep and dreaming has been overcome, several studies point out that emotional and perceptually vivid contents are more frequent when reported upon awakenings from this sleep stage. Actually, it is well-known that REM sleep plays a pivotal role in the processing of salient and emotional waking-life experiences, strongly contributing to the emotional memory consolidation. In this vein, we highlighted that, to some extent, neuroimaging studies showed that the processes that regulate dreaming and emotional salience in sleep mentation share similar neural substrates of those controlling emotions during wakefulness. Furthermore, the research on EEG correlates of the presence/absence of DE and the results on EEG pattern related to the incorporated memories converged to assign a crucial role of REM theta oscillations in emotional re-processing. In particular, the theta activity is involved in memory processes during REM sleep as well as during the waking state, in line with the continuity hypothesis. Also, the gamma activity seems to be related to emotional processes and dream recall as well as to lucid dreams. Interestingly, similar EEG correlates of DE have been found in clinical samples when nightmares or dreams occur. Research on clinical samples revealed that promoting the rehearsal of frightening contents aimed to change them is a promising method to treat nightmares, and that lucid dreams are associated with an attenuation of nightmares. In this view, DE can defuse emotional traumatic memories when the emotional regulation and the fear extinction mechanisms are compromised by traumatic and frightening events. Finally, dreams could represent a sort of simulation of reality, providing the possibility to create a new scenario with emotional mastery elements to cope with dysphoric items included in nightmares. In addition, it could be hypothesized that the insertion of bizarre items besides traumatic memories might be functional to “impoverish” the negative charge of the experiences.
The Aquila Digital Community The Aquila Digital Community

Background: Reference genome selection is a prerequisite for successful analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data. Current practice employs one of the two most recent human reference genome versions: HG19 or HG38. To date, the impact of genome version on SNV identification has not been rigorously assessed. Methods: We conducted analysis comparing the SNVs identified based on HG19 vs HG38, leveraging whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from the genome-in-a-bottle (GIAB) project. First, SNVs were called using 26 different bioinformatics pipelines with either HG19 or HG38. Next, two tools were used to convert the called SNVs between HG19 and HG38. Lastly we calculated conversion rates, analyzed discordant rates between SNVs called with HG19 or HG38, and characterized the discordant SNVs. Results: The conversion rates from HG38 to HG19 (average 95%) were lower than the conversion rates from HG19 to HG38 (average 99%). The conversion rates varied slightly among the various calling pipelines. Around 1.5% SNVs were discordantly converted between HG19 or HG38. The conversions from HG38 to HG19 had more SNVs which failed conversion and more discordant SNVs than the opposite conversion (HG19 to HG38). Most of the discordant SNVs had low read depth, were low confidence SNVs as defined by GIAB, and/or were predominated by G/C alleles (52% observed versus 42% expected). Conclusion: A significant number of SNVs could not be converted between HG19 and HG38. Based on careful review of our comparisons, we recommend HG38 (the newer version) for NGS SNV analysis. To summarize, our findings suggest caution when translating identified SNVs between different versions of the human reference genome.
Gender Differences in Generating Cognitive Reappraisals for Threatening Situations: Reappraisal Capacity Shields Against Depressive Symptoms in Men, but Not Women

Despite major research interest regarding gender differences in emotion regulation, it is still not clear whether men and women differ in their basic capacity to implement specific emotion regulation strategies, as opposed to indications of the habitual use of these strategies in self-reports. Similarly, little is known on how such basic capacities relate to indices of well-being in both sexes. This study took a novel approach by investigating gender differences in the capacity for generating cognitive reappraisals in adverse situations in a sample of 67 female and 59 male students, using a maximum performance test of the inventiveness in generating reappraisals. Participants’ self-perceived efficacy in emotion regulation was additionally assessed. Analyses showed that men and women did not differ in their basic capacity to generate alternative appraisals for anxiety-eliciting scenarios, suggesting similar functional cognitive mechanisms in the implementation of this strategy. Yet, higher cognitive reappraisal capacity predicted fewer depressive daily-life experiences in men only. These findings suggest that in the case of cognitive reappraisal, benefits for well-being in women might depend on a more complex combination of basic ability, habits, and efficacy-beliefs, along with the use of other emotion regulation strategies. The results of this study may have useful implications for psychotherapy research and practice.
Programmable Base Editing of the Sheep Genome Revealed No Genome-Wide Off-Target Mutations

Since its emergence, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated base editors (BEs) with cytosine deaminase activity have been used to precisely and efficiently introduce single-base mutations in genomes, including those of human cells, mice, and crop species. Most production traits in livestock are induced by point mutations, and genome editing using BEs without homology-directed repair of double-strand breaks can directly alter single nucleotides. The p.96R > C variant of Suppressor cytokine signaling 2 (SOCS2) has profound effects on body weight, body size, and milk production in sheep. In the present study, we successfully obtained lambs with defined point mutations resulting in a p.96R > C substitution in SOCS2 by the co-injection of BE3 mRNA and a single guide RNA (sgRNA) into sheep zygotes. The observed efficiency of the single nucleotide exchange in newborn animals was as high as 25%. Observations of body size and body weight in the edited group showed that gene modification contributes to enhanced growth traits in sheep. Moreover, targeted deep sequencing and unbiased family trio-based whole genome sequencing revealed undetectable off-target mutations in the edited animals. This study demonstrates the potential for the application of BE-mediated point mutations in large animals for the improvement of production traits in livestock species.
Assessing Online Flow Across Cultures: A Two-Fold Measurement Invariance Study

The association between online Flow and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has attracted significant attention. Despite the consensus that online Flow plays a pivotal role in the development of IGD and other Internet addictive behaviors, there has been a lack of consistency in measurement scales used to assess online Flow. Even widely used measures of online Flow have not been psychometrically assessed across culturally diverse populations of gamers. Such an assessment would enhance the accuracy of cross-cultural comparisons. Attending to this need, the present study assessed the psychometric properties of the binary coded (i.e., Yes, No) Online Flow Questionnaire (OFQ), while concurrently taking into consideration country, age, language, and mode of data collection (online or face-to-face) differences. Two sequences of successive multiple group confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the psychometric properties of the OFQ, between: (a) emergent adults from the United States of America (N = 482, Mage = 25.23, SD = 2.746) and Australia (N = 168, Mage = 23.55, SD = 3.37) and (b) adolescents from Greece (N = 1579, Mage = 16.12, SD = 0.849) and Cyprus (N = 1372, Mage = 15.54, SD = 0.656). Configural and partial metric invariance were confirmed between the United States and Australian samples. For the Greek and Cypriot samples, results indicated full configural and metric invariance. These results provide initial information to researchers and clinicians of the extent to which the OFQ maintains its consistency when used across cultures and invite for further cross-cultural studies in the field. Implications, as well as limitations, are discussed.
Inferring Bacterial Infiltration in Primary Colorectal Tumors From Host Whole Genome Sequencing Data

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide with abysmal survival, thus requiring novel therapy strategies. Numerous studies have frequently observed infiltrating bacteria within the primary tumor tissues derived from patients. These studies have implicated the relative abundance of these bacteria as a contributing factor in tumor progression. Infiltrating bacteria are believed to be among the major drivers of tumorigenesis, progression, and metastasis and, hence, promising targets for new treatments. However, measuring their abundance directly remains challenging. One potential approach is to use the unmapped reads of host whole genome sequencing (hWGS) data, which previous studies have considered as contaminants and discarded. Here, we developed rigorous bioinformatics and statistical procedures to identify tumor-infiltrating bacteria associated with colorectal cancer from such whole genome sequencing data. Our approach used the reads of whole genome sequencing data of colon adenocarcinoma tissues not mapped to the human reference genome, including unmapped paired-end read pairs and single-end reads, the mates of which were mapped. We assembled the unmapped read pairs, remapped all those reads to the collection of human microbiome reference, and then computed their relative abundance of microbes by maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. We analyzed and compared the relative abundance and diversity of infiltrating bacteria between primary tumor tissues and associated normal blood samples. Our results showed that primary tumor tissues contained far more diverse total infiltrating bacteria than normal blood samples. The relative abundance of Bacteroides fragilis, Bacteroides dorei, and Fusobacterium nucleatum was significantly higher in primary colorectal tumors. These three bacteria were among the top ten microbes in the primary tumor tissues, yet were rarely found in normal blood samples. As a validation step, most of these bacteria were also closely associated with colorectal cancer in previous studies with alternative approaches. In summary, our approach provides a new analytic technique for investigating the infiltrating bacterial community within tumor tissues. Our novel cloud-based bioinformatics and statistical pipelines to analyze the infiltrating bacteria in colorectal tumors using the unmapped reads of whole genome sequences can be freely accessed from GitHub at https://github.com/gutmicrobes/UMIB.git.
Rat in a Cage: Trappability of Urban Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Understanding the local ecology of urban Norway rats (Rattus norevgicus) is necessary to inform effective rat mitigation strategies. While Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) methods can be used to acquire such ecological information (e.g., abundance, movement patterns, and habitat use), these techniques assume that all individuals of the study population are equally trappable. To test whether urban rats adhere to this assumption, we conducted a four-week CMR study in an urban neighborhood of Vancouver, Canada, to evaluate whether rat characteristics (i.e., age, sex, size, wound status, and infection with the pathogen Leptospira spp.) were associated with trappability. We found that the majority of rats entered traps in the first two weeks of trapping, and that larger rats were caught earlier in the trapping period. However, smaller, sexually immature rats were recaught more often than were larger, sexually mature rats, suggesting that prior capture affects the ability to recapture urban Norway rats. This highlights the need for CMR studies to account for size and sexual maturity when interpreting data.
Open-Book Versus Closed-Book Tests in University Classes: A Field Experiment

The present field study compared open-book testing and closed-book testing in two (parallel) introductory university courses in cognitive psychology. The critical manipulation concerned seven lessons. In these lessons, all students received two to three questions concerning the content of the respective lesson. Half the participants (open-book group) were allowed to use their notes and the course materials, which had been distributed at the beginning of each class; the other half was not allowed to use these materials (closed-book group). A surprise test conducted in the eighth week demonstrated better results for the closed-book group. Further 6 weeks later, the final module exam took place. A number of questions in this exam concerned the learning matters instructed during the critical seven lessons. Even with respect to these questions, the closed-book group performed better than the open-book group. We discuss these results with respect to two possible explanations, retrieval practice and motivational differences.