Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hybridization of Two Species of Japanese Toads, Bufo torrenticola and Bufo japonicus formosus, in the Central Part of Japan

Interspecific hybridization between two species of Japanese toads, Bufo torrenticola (Bt) and Bufo japonicus formosus (Bjf), was not thought to have occurred due to the differences in their spawning habitats, although their hybridization was reported by previous research in a limited area. Such hybridization could have pivotal effects, such as genetic admixture, on Bt, which has a limited distribution and habitat. In this study, to clarify the details of hybridization, a total of 192 individuals were collected from multiple parapatric regions and an only Bjf allopatric region and analyzed based on morphology, mtDNA sequences, and nuclear DNA microsatellite loci. Each individual was identified based on morphological type and mtDNA lineage, and two mismatched combinations, Bt or an intermediate morphological type and the Bjf mtDNA lineage, were detected. In particular, the combination of Bt type and Bjf lineage was dominant in parapatric regions, and it was considered that asymmetric hybridization in which Bjf became a matriline had occurred. In addition, a Bayesian clustering method based on the microsatellite loci was conducted to detect a genetic admixture of the two toad species. Individuals representing a combination of the Bt type and Bjf lineage in the parapatric regions were largely assigned to the Bt cluster or equally to both clusters. These results indicate that backcross with Bt has been repeated, and therefore the traits of Bt might be maintained in this study.
Robust SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Responses in Asian COVID-Naïve Subjects 180 Days after Two Doses of BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

Background: Subjects with previous COVID-19 have augmented post-vaccination responses. However, the antibody response in COVID-naïve subjects from Southeast Asia is not well known. Methods: 77 COVID-naïve vaccinees were tested with a full antibody panel [spike antibodies (total (T-Ab), IgG, IgM) and neutralizing antibodies (N-Ab)] pre-vaccination, 10 days after dose 1, and 20/40/60/90/120/150/180 days after dose 2. Results: 10 days after dose 1, 67.6% (48/71)/69.0% (49/71) were T-Ab/IgG positive; only 15.5% (11/71)/14.1% (10/71) were N-Ab/IgM positive. While all (100%) subjects had brisk T-Ab, IgG and N-Ab antibody responses 20 days after complete vaccination, only 79.1% (53/67) were IgM positive. At 180 days (n = 8), T-Ab/IgG/N-Ab were still reactive (lowest T-Ab 186 U/mL, IgG 617 AU/mL, N-Ab 0.39 µg/mL), but IgM was negative in all samples. Spike antibody thresholds of T-Ab 74.1 U/mL (r = 0.95) and IgG 916 AU/mL (r = 0.95) corresponded to N-Ab reactivity (>0.3 µg/mL). Non-linear regression analysis showed that N-Ab would decrease to 0.3 µg/mL by 241 days, whereas T-Ab/IgG would need 470/163 days to reach titers of T-Ab/IgG associated with a N-Ab 0.3 µg/mL (76.4 U/mL and 916 AU/mL respectively). Conclusions: The antibody responses of T-Ab, IgG and N-Ab remain high and durable even at 180 days. N-Ab titers are expected to remain reactive up to 241 days post-vaccination.
Business model adaptation as a strategic response to crises: navigating the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose This study aims to explore how hotels adapt their business models as a strategic response to crisis situations. It sheds light on the processes and methods of business model adaptation during severe crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 outbreak. Design/methodology/approach A single-case study was conducted. Data were collected from the owner/manager of a boutique hotel chain in Chiang Mai, Thailand through an extensive interviewing process. The authors also examined corporate documents. The authors then re-organized the material as a coherent narrative about how the company navigated the COVID-19 crisis. Findings The findings show that the hotels in the study adapted their business models by cutting costs through stopping non-essential operations, increasing non-room revenues and adding new revenue channels, bringing in cash from advance bookings, securing financial support from creditors, leveraging government support and training staff for the “new normal. ” Originality/value Few previous studies have focused on business model adaptation during the COVID-19 crisis. The investigation of this largely neglected area provides two main contributions. First, it extends the literature on crisis management in hospitality firms by examining business model adaptation patterns and processes during unprecedented crisis conditions. Second, it provides managerial insights and a business model adjustment framework to help practitioners in urban settings in their efforts toward recovery from the COVID crisis.
Prediction of Larynx Function Using Multichannel Surface EMG Classification

Total laryngectomy (TL) affects critical functions such as swallowing, coughing and speaking. An artificial, bioengineered larynx (ABL), operated via myoelectric signals, may improve quality of life for TL patients. To evaluate the efficacy of using surface electromyography (sEMG) as a control signal to predict instances of swallowing, coughing and speaking, sEMG was recorded from submental, intercostal and diaphragm muscles. The cohort included TL and control participants. Swallowing, coughing, speaking and movement actions were recorded, and a range of classifiers were investigated for prediction of these actions. Our algorithm achieved F1-scores of 76.0 ± 4.4% (swallows), 93.8 ± 2.8% (coughs) and 70.5 ± 5.4% (speech) for controls, and 67.7 ± 4.4% (swallows), 71.0 ± 9.1% (coughs) and 78.0 ± 3.8% (speech) for TLs, using a random forest (RF) classifier. 75.1 ± 6.9% of swallows were detected within 500 ms of onset in the controls, and 63.1 ± 6.1% in TLs. sEMG can be used to predict critical larynx movements, although a viable ABL requires improvements. Results are particularly encouraging as they encompass a TL cohort. An ABL could alleviate many challenges faced by laryngectomees. This study represents a promising step toward realising such a device.
Amino Acid Profile in Malnourished Patients with Liver Cirrhosis and Its Modification with Oral Nutritional Supplements: Implications on Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

Low plasma levels of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) in liver cirrhosis are associated with hepatic encephalopathy (HE). We aimed to identify a metabolic signature of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) in malnourished cirrhotic patients and evaluate its modification with oral nutritional supplements (ONS) enriched with ß-Hydroxy-ß-methylbutyrate (HMB), a derivative of the BCAA leucine. Post hoc analysis was conducted on a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of 43 individuals with cirrhosis and malnutrition, who were randomized to receive, for 12 weeks, oral supplementation twice a day with either 220 mL of Ensure® Plus Advance (HMB group, n = 22) or with 220 mL of Ensure® Plus High Protein (HP group, n = 21). MHE evaluation was by psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score (PHES). Compared to the HP group, an HMB-specific treatment effect led to a larger increase in Val, Leu, Phe, Trp and BCAA fasting plasma levels. Both treatments increased Fischer’s ratio and urea without an increase in Gln or ammonia fasting plasma levels. MHE was associated with a reduced total plasma amino acid concentration, a reduced BCAA and Fischer´s ratio, and an increased Gln/Glu ratio. HMB-enriched ONS increased Fischer´s ratio without varying Gln or ammonia plasma levels in liver cirrhosis and malnutrition, a protective amino acid profile that can help prevent MHE.
Evaluation on The Use of Antibiotics for Pneumonia Patients

Pneumonia is an acute infectious disease that attacks lung tissue (alveoli) which can be caused by viral, bacterial, or fungal infections. Pneumonia is one of the diseases that have the highest death risk in Indonesia. The first line of treatment for pneumonia is antibiotic therapy. Inappropriate use of antibiotics will increase the possibility of antibiotic resistance. Antimicrobial Control Program (PPRA) is a health surveillance to control the use of antibiotics where the indicator of success is seen from the improvement in the quantity and quality of antibiotic use. Antibiotic control that can be performed is evaluating the use of antibiotics quantitatively and evaluating the suitability of antibiotics. The purpose of this study was to determine the quantity of antibiotic use with the DDD/100 patient-days unit and the suitability of the use of antibiotics based on PPAB. This study was observational, the data were taken retrospectively and analyzed descriptively. The research material used medical record data for pneumonia patients from January to June 2020 at RSUD Bangil. There were 91 research samples obtained by purposive sampling that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were analyzed quantitatively using the DDD/100 patient-days unit and 90% DU, and the suitability of antibiotics was analyzed using five indicators of the right indication, the right route, the right dose, the right interval, and the right time of administration. The results showed the use of antibiotics with a total value of DDD/100 patient-days of 78.13 DDD/100 patient-days with the highest value on moxifloxacin (39.28 DDD/100 patient-days). Antibiotics included in the 90% segment that need to be controlled are parenteral moxifloxacin (50.27%), ceftriaxone (23.34%), azithromycin (6.83%), oral moxifloxacin (4.62%), and levofloxacin (3.85%). The suitability of antibiotics based on PPAB RSUD Bangil 2019 showed the right indication (51.65%), right route (100%), right dose (87.23%), right interval (48.93%), and right time of administration (10.64). %).
Men Show Reduced Cardiac Baroreceptor Sensitivity during Modestly Painful Electrical Stimulation of the Forearm: Exploratory Results from a Sham-Controlled Crossover Vagus Nerve Stimulation Study

This paper presents data from a transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation experiment that point towards a blunted cardiac baroreceptor sensitivity (cBRS) in young males compared to females during electrical stimulation of the forearm and a rhythmic breathing task. Continuous electrocardiography, impedance cardiography and continuous blood-pressure recordings were assessed in a sex-matched cohort of twenty young healthy subjects. Electrical stimulation of the median nerve was conducted by using a threshold-tracking method combined with two rhythmic breathing tasks (0.1 and 0.2 Hz) before, during and after active or sham transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation. Autonomic and hemodynamic parameters were calculated, and differences were analyzed by using linear mixed models and post hoc F-tests. None of the autonomic and hemodynamic parameters differed between the sham and active conditions. However, compared to females, male participants had an overall lower total cBRS independent of stimulation condition during nerve stimulation (females: 14.96 ± 5.67 ms/mmHg, males: 11.89 ± 3.24 ms/mmHg, p = 0.031) and rhythmic breathing at 0.2 Hz (females: 21.49 ± 8.47 ms/mmHg, males: 15.12 ± 5.70 ms/mmHg, p = 0.004). Whereas vagus nerve stimulation at the left inner tragus did not affect the efferent vagal control of the heart, we found similar patterns of baroreceptor sensitivity activation over the stimulation period in both sexes, which, however, significantly differed in their magnitude, with females showing an overall higher cBRS.
Impact of Corporate Governance on Financial Returns of Indian Listed Companies

Purpose- In this paper, we have evaluated the relationship of corporate governance with companies’ financial returns using return on assets (ROA) and return on capital employed (ROCE) as proxies. For this purpose, companies listed in Nifty-50 are considered as a sample. Design/Methodology- The present study is conducted on the NIFTY-50 Index with a final sample of 35 companies after excluding banking companies, financial services companies, and companies that did not have the required data in the sample period. Data has been collected for ten years from 2009-10 to 2018-19, and they are analyzed with the help of software packages such as SPSS and Stata. Findings- The results showed that firms’ financial return measures (ROA and ROCE) were significantly affected by governance measures, board committees, and CEO duality. Board size, board meetings, and board independence did show positive relation, but it was not significant. Our analysis observed that corporate governance significantly affected the financial return of Indian listed companies. Practical Implications- Our research work indicated the importance of corporate governance in generating financial returns for Indian listed companies. CEO duality is found to be increasing the ROCE of listed companies in India, and therefore investors should choose such companies where the CEO plays a dual role in the board. Also, policymakers should take into consideration the dual role of CEOs while making changes in company regulations.
A Survey of Flaky Tests

Tests that fail inconsistently, without changes to the code under test, are described as flaky . Flaky tests do not give a clear indication of the presence of software bugs and thus limit the reliability of the test suites that contain them. A recent survey of software developers found that 59% claimed to deal with flaky tests on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. As well as being detrimental to developers, flaky tests have also been shown to limit the applicability of useful techniques in software testing research. In general, one can think of flaky tests as being a threat to the validity of any methodology that assumes the outcome of a test only depends on the source code it covers. In this article, we systematically survey the body of literature relevant to flaky test research, amounting to 76 papers. We split our analysis into four parts: addressing the causes of flaky tests, their costs and consequences, detection strategies, and approaches for their mitigation and repair. Our findings and their implications have consequences for how the software-testing community deals with test flakiness, pertinent to practitioners and of interest to those wanting to familiarize themselves with the research area.
Controlled Heterogeneous Nucleation for Synthesis of Uniform Mesoporous Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods with Tailorable Rotational Diffusion and 1 nm-Scale Size Tunability

We demonstrate a strategy for the synthesis of discrete and uniform gold nanorod (GNR)@mesoporous silica (mSiO2) core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) with finely tuned shell thickness by significantly suppressing the formation of undesired core-free NPs. We could control the thickness of the mSiO2 shell with high precision, close to 1 nm, and hence the rotational diffusion mode of NPs by simply controlling the silica precursor injection times. The growth of the mSiO2 shell on the GNR seeds and the formation of core-free mSiO2 NPs could be explained by two models based on the modified LaMer’s theory. Between these two, we found the most suitable one for the synthesis of GNR@mSiO2 NPs with a precisely controlled shell thickness and negligible core-free NPs as the synthesis mostly occurs via heterogeneous nucleation on GNR seeds. As our results are very simple and highly reproducible, we expect this work to provide profound insights into the synthesis of a variety of heterogeneous nanostructures.
Metabolic Reprogramming in Thyroid Cancer: Role of the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

Thyroid cancer (TC) represents the most common endocrine malignancy, with an increasing incidence all over the world. Papillary TC (PTC), a differentiated TC subtype, is the most common and, even though it has an excellent prognosis following radioiodine (RAI) ablation, it shows an aggressive behavior in 20–30% of cases, becoming RAI-resistant and/or metastatic. On the other side, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), the most undifferentiated TC, is a rare but devastating disease, indicating that progression of differentiated to undifferentiated forms of TC could be responsible for RAI-resistance and increased mortality. The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a pivotal role in both tumor progression and resistance to therapy. Moreover, during tumor progression, cancer cells modify their metabolism to meet changed requirements for cellular proliferation. Through these metabolic changes, cancer cells may adopt cancer stem cell-like properties and express an EMT phenotype. EMT, in turn, can induce metabolic changes to which cancer cells become addicted. Here we review metabolic reprogramming in TC highlighting the role of EMT with the aim to explore a potential field to find out new therapeutic strategies for advanced-stage PTC. Accordingly, we discuss the identification of the metabolic enzymes and metabolites, critical to TC progression, which can be employed either as predicting biomarkers of tumor response to RAI therapy or possible targets in precision medicine.
Attitude, Intent and Different Aspects of Marriage in University Students: A Path Analysis

ABSTRACT This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the attitude, intention and aspects of marriage among students. There was a significant relationship between gender and general attitude toward marriage and, mean score of male students’ attitude toward marriage was higher (P < .05). Based on the results of path analysis, sub-scales of general attitude toward marriage and Aspects of Marriage, explained 40% of the variance for the Intent to Marry. The results showed that students’ attitude toward marriage was moderate and their marriage intention was not high. According to the results, it is necessary that implemented the training courses to change attitudes and create realistic expectations about marriage in the students.
Medical Term and Status Generation From Chinese Clinical Dialogue With Multi-Granularity Transformer

This paper describes a generative model for extracting medical terms and their status from Chinese medical dialogues. Notably, the extracted semantic information is particularly important to downstream tasks like automatic medical scribe and automatic diagnosis systems. However, how to effectively leverage dialogue context to generate medical terms and their corresponding status accurately remains less explored. Existing generative approaches treat dialogue text as a single continuous text, ignoring conversational characteristics like colloquialism, redundancy and interactions. Between the doctor and the patient, a variety of colloquial medical information is frequently discussed. Each speaker (doctor and patient) plays a specific role in the interaction's goals. As a result, the importance of role information and interactions between utterances cannot be overstated. Furthermore, existing generative approaches only use character-level tokens, disregarding word-level tokens, which are the shortest meaningful utterances in Chinese. In this paper, we propose a Multi-granularity Transformer (MGT) model to enhance the dialogue context understanding from multi-granularity features. We incorporate word-level information by adapting a Lattice-based encoder with our proposed relative position encoding method. We further propose a Role Access Controlled Attention (RaCa) mechanism for introducing utterance-level interaction information. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets illustrate our model's validity and effectiveness, achieving state-of-the-art performance on both datasets.
Is the Integration of Additional Eccentric, Balance and Core Muscles Exercises into a Typical Soccer Program Effective in Improving Strength and Postural Stability?

Soccer teams integrate specific exercises into their typical workout programs for injury prevention. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the incorporation of a brief and supplementary training program that involves eccentric, balance, and core exercises into the weekly soccer schedule can cause positive neuromuscular adaptations. Twenty-one soccer players were randomly allocated to either a training (n = 11) or a control group (n = 10). All players followed their teams’ typical program, consisting of 4–5 soccer-specific sessions plus 1 match, weekly. Training group players additionally performed biweekly, hamstring eccentric, balance, and core stability exercises for 8 weeks. Isokinetic concentric and eccentric peak torque (PT) of the hamstrings and quadriceps, changes in the center of pressure (COP) during a 30 s single-leg stance, and a supine bridge (trunk stability) test were assessed before and after the intervention. After the intervention, a 27% increase in hamstring concentric PT and a 33% reduction in COP sway in the stance test, were observed for the training group only (p < 0.05). These improvements were significant only for the non-dominant leg. Furthermore, the control group displayed an increase in COP sway during the bridge test compared to baseline values (p < 0.05), which reflects a deterioration in postural balance over time. Consequently, incorporating small doses of hamstring eccentric, proprioception, and core stability exercises into a typical training program of youth soccer players improves strength and postural balance in the non-dominant leg, as well as core muscle performance.
Endlessly Connected: Moving Forward with Agentic Perspectives of Mobile Media (Non-)Use

ABSTRACT The ubiquity of mobile media devices provides an abundance of new challenges and opportunities relevant to mass communication research. In an ever-connected and “always-on” society, it seems as if the users have become an inseparable entity with their mobile devices, leading to novel online/offline social norms dynamics, demands for disconnecting and changed media literacy skills. This essay advocates for agentic perspectives of mobile media (non-)use by focusing on the characteristics and implementation of self-regulative and self-reflective processes. Following a literature review on the opportunities and threats of agentic uses of mobile media, we introduce the collection of four empirical studies—each contributing in a unique way to our understanding of agentic (non-)use of mobile media. The essay finishes by identifying future directions for research with the aim to inspire scholars from around the globe to broaden the discourse on mobile media research.
The spread and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus in South African dairy herds – A review

Staphylococcus aureus is internationally recognised as a principal agent of mastitis and the foremost reason for economic loss in the dairy industry. The limited data available on organism-specific antibiotic resistance surveillance in dairy cattle have stimulated the need for such a review article. The objective of this study was to review relevant literature on antimicrobial resistance of mastitis-causing staphylococci isolated from dairy cows in South Africa compared to other countries. Factors relating to the incidence of mastitis and treatment strategies in terms of the One Health concept and food security were included. The Web of Science (all databases) and relevant websites were used, and articles not written in English were excluded. The incidence of mastitis varied between South Africa and other countries. Antimicrobial resistance patterns caused by S. aureus also varied in regions within Southern Africa and those of other countries although some similarities were shown. Antimicrobial resistance differed between S. aureus bacteria that were maltose positive and negative (an emerging pathogen). The results highlighted the importance of the availability of organism-specific surveillance data of the incidence of mastitis and antibiotic resistance for specific countries and within similar climatic conditions. Accurate knowledge about whether a specific pathogen is resistant to an antibiotic within a certain climate, country, area or farm should reduce the incidence of unnecessary or incorrect treatment with antibiotics. This should enable dairy farmers to deal with these organisms in a more effective manner. Therefore such research should be ongoing.