Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cellular Cytotoxicity and Oxidative Potential of Recurrent Molds of the Genus Aspergillus Series Versicolores

Molds are ubiquitous biological pollutants in bioaerosols. Among these molds, the genus Aspergillus is found in the majority of indoor air samples, and includes several species with pathogenic and toxigenic properties. Aspergillus species in the series Versicolores remain little known despite recurrence in bioaerosols. In order to investigate their toxicity, we studied 22 isolates of clinical and environmental origin, corresponding to seven different species of the series Versicolores. Spore suspensions and ethyl acetate extracts prepared from fungal isolates were subjected to oxidative potential measurement using the dithiothreitol (DTT) test and cell survival measurement. The DTT tests showed that all species of the series Versicolores had an oxidative potential, either by their spores (especially for Aspergillus jensenii) or by the extracts (especially from Aspergillus amoenus). Measurements of cell survival of A549 and HaCaT cell lines showed that only the spore suspension containing 105 spores/mL of Aspergillus jensenii caused a significant decrease in survival after 72 h of exposure. The same tests performed with mixtures of 105 spores/mL showed a potentiation of the cytotoxic effect, with a significant decrease in cell survival for mixtures containing spores of two species (on A549 cells, p = 0.05 and HaCaT cells, p = 0.001) or three different species (on HaCaT cells, p = 0.05). Cell survival assays after 72 h of exposure to the fungal extracts showed that Aspergillus puulaauensis extract was the most cytotoxic (IC50 < 25 µg/mL), while Aspergillus fructus caused no significant decrease in cell survival.
Disturbance of water‐air temperature synchronisation by dam reservoirs

A thermal regime of aquatic ecosystems determines the possibility of survival and development of aquatic biota. Thermal stratification of river water impounded by dam reservoirs can cause a permanent disturbance in the naturally existing water‐air temperature relationship downstream of reservoirs. This article aims at determining the role of dam reservoirs in the disturbance of naturally shaped synchronous behaviour of water‐air temperatures. The object of the analysis is the Carpathian river Dunajec downstream of a reservoir complex built in 1994–1997. Results of spectral analysis indicate that the annual scale is the main scale of water temperature (WT) variation, and this scale corresponds to the main frequency of phase synchronisation. However, following the reservoirs construction, the definite synchronous behaviour of interacting air and WTs was apparently distorted, because the response time of WT to changing atmospheric conditions has considerably increased in comparison with the predam period.
Communication Management Model of Alumni Tracking at Boarding University

—Tracer study is an important thing that every university should do to find out the information on graduates, tracer study data as material to improve the quality of higher education management. The implementation of the tracer study at the University of Darussalam Gontor is not following the design standards and methodology set by the Directorate General of Learning and Student Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. Starting in 2020, the Alumni Bureau of the University of Darussalam Gontor strives to run tracer studies with the right standards. The implementation of a tracer study with various adjustments to this standard certainly requires communication management. This study aims to find the communication management model of tracer study at the University of Darussalam Gontor as a boarding university. Data collection techniques are carried out through observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis was carried out by data reduction, data presentation, and verification or concluding. This research found a communication management model of tracer study at the University of Darussalam Gontor. The model includes elements of communication management. It consists of adjustment, communication planning, action, and evaluation. This research contributes to a communication management model of tracer study in the boarding university.
DESIGN OF OUTLYING RAPID TRANSIT STATION AREAS

Design of modern rapid transit stations in outlying areas is a complex process that has had only limited documentation. The paper attempts to help the designer in organizational and technical aspects of his or her work. Steps in the design procedure are outlined, and data needed for design are listed. The designer's work starts with an analysis of the requirements of the 3 interested parties: passengers, transit system operator, and community. Design principles and standards emphasize priority sequence for different access modes: pedestrians, feeder bus, kiss-and-ride, and park-and-ride. Maximum separation of modes is desirable: Bus stops should be close to the station entrance, preferably in a separate transit area; kiss-and-ride should be next in distance from the station; park-and-ride should be in the farthest areas. Design should be such that the maximum concentration of automobile traffic is on the periphery of the station, for close-in areas have pedestrian concentrations. Safe and convenient pedestrian movement must be provided for throughout the station area. Examples of design elements for each mode are presented. Finally, the paper contains several examples of total designs of different types of stations.
Developmental niche construction in necrophagous larval societies: Feeding facilitation can offset the costs of low ambient temperature

This study explored the trade‐offs between thermal regulation and aggregation, two key factors impacting blow fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) larvae development. Recent works have demonstrated that necrophagous maggots engage in developmental niche construction, which provides adaptive benefits. First, each species has a preferential temperature, at which larvae grow fast and efficiently. Second, larvae are attracted by each other and aggregate in large maggot masses. These groups modify the local environment and facilitate the exodigestion process (niche construction by perturbation). However, aggregation and relocation towards thermal preferendum are not always compatible under field conditions, forcing larvae to make choices. To test the developmental consequences of such trade‐offs, 40 or 80 Lucilia sericata larvae were placed on a thermal gradient (from 22 to 48°C) with or without a captive aggregate of 40 larvae located at 22°C, and their development speed, size and survival were measured. A previous study showed that in such situation the free larvae alone relocated at 33°C, while in the presence of captive larvae they gathered with the captive group at 22°C. In the present developmental study, we observed that such 22°C aggregated larvae actually grew as fast as if they were at 33°C. This result shows that niche construction, here resulting from larval gregarism and feeding facilitation, can compensate for the physiological costs of low ambient temperature. This finding confirms that aggregation of necrophagous Diptera larvae is an efficient adaptation to the carrion environmental constraints and highlights the adaptive value of developmental niche construction.
The Adverse Effects of Air Pollution on the Eye: A Review

Air pollution is inevitably the result of human civilization, industrialization, and globalization. It is composed of a mixture of gases and particles at harmful levels. Particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon dioxides (CO2) are mainly generated from vehicle emissions and fuel consumption and are the main materials causing outdoor air pollution. Exposure to polluted outdoor air has been proven to be harmful to human eyes. On the other hand, indoor air pollution from environmental tobacco smoking, heating, cooking, or poor indoor ventilation is also related to several eye diseases, including conjunctivitis, glaucoma, cataracts, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In the past 30 years, no updated review has provided an overview of the impact of air pollution on the eye. We reviewed reports on air pollution and eye diseases in the last three decades in the PubMed database, Medline databases, and Google Scholar and discussed the effect of various outdoor and indoor pollutants on human eyes.
Is the effect of dividend policy on the volatility of stock prices stable? An empirical study on European countries

ABSTRACT We scrutinise the impact of dividend policy on stock price volatility by examining the relationship between volatility and three dividend policy indicators, dividend yield, dividend payout, and stock repurchases, for 1,221 firms in eleven developed and emerging countries in Europe during the 2003–2017 period. We employ fixed-effects panel data analysis and we check for possible effects of the 2008–2009 global financial crisis on the relationship under investigation. Our results reveal an inverse relationship in a comprehensive and comparative setting. The results are robust for sub-groups of countries, i.e., developed and emerging, and sub-sample periods, i.e., pre- (2003–2007) and post- (2010–2017) crisis.
Reduced Theta Sampling in Infants at Risk for Dyslexia across the Sensitive Period of Native Phoneme Learning

Research on children and adults with developmental dyslexia—a specific difficulty in learning to read and spell—suggests that phonological deficits in dyslexia are linked to basic auditory deficits in temporal sampling. However, it remains undetermined whether such deficits are already present in infancy, especially during the sensitive period when the auditory system specializes in native phoneme perception. Because dyslexia is strongly hereditary, it is possible to examine infants for early predictors of the condition before detectable symptoms emerge. This study examines low-level auditory temporal sampling in infants at risk for dyslexia across the sensitive period of native phoneme learning. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found deficient auditory sampling at theta in at-risk infants at both 6 and 12 months, indicating atypical auditory sampling at the syllabic rate in those infants across the sensitive period for native-language phoneme learning. This interpretation is supported by our additional finding that auditory sampling at theta predicted later vocabulary comprehension, nonlinguistic communication and the ability to combine words. Our results indicate a possible early marker of risk for dyslexia.
Novel design of heavy cargo airdrop acquisition and analytic system

A novel heavy cargo airdrop acquisition and analytic system was implemented. The main control chip is a highly integrated Cortex-M3 Processor. The data of gravitational acceleration, triaxial angular velocity and strain were collected in real-time and stored in Flash memory. After the acquisition, PC terminal analyzed these data through the serial port. The changes of gravitational acceleration, triaxial angular velocity and strain during landing were displayed in graphic. In this system, data acquisition equipment and data processing equipment were separated to obtain high accuracy and real-time data acquisition. Field experiment proves that this system shows higher accurate and real-time performance.
Features of Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy Early in the Lives of Infants With Biliary Atresia Correlate With Outcomes Following Kasai Portoenterostomy

Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy (CCM), detected during two‐dimensional echocardiography (2DE), is prevalent in patients with biliary atresia (BA) awaiting transplant. Whether CCM occurs early in the lives of infants with BA is unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the incidence and consequence of CCM in patients with BA, focusing on the earliest ages when 2DE was performed. A cohort of 78 patients with BA at a single center underwent 2DE (median age = 132 days) during the first year of life. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) to upper limit of normal (ULN) ratio ≥ 1.0 was present in 60% of patients who never underwent Kasai portoenterostomy (KPE; n = 15), 49% with nondraining KPE (n = 41), and 21% with draining KPE (n = 19). Patients with a draining KPE (median age at 2DE = 72 days) had a lower LVMI/ULN ratio (0.75 [interquartile range [IQR] 0.70, 0.91]) compared to those with a nondraining KPE (0.99 [IQR 0.78, 1.17] median age of 141 days; P = 0.012). In those whose 2DE was performed within 7 days of KPE (n = 19, median age of 61 days), the LVMI/ULN ratio was lower in those with a future draining KPE (0.73 [IQR 0.66, 0.75]) compared to the group with a future nondraining KPE (1.03 [IQR 0.88, 1.08], P = 0.002). Logistic regression modeling revealed LVMI/ULN ratio ≥ 1.0 as a predictor of KPE outcome, with an odds ratio of 16.7 (95% confidence interval 1.36‐204; P = 0.028) for a future nondraining KPE compared to those with a LVMI/ULN ratio < 1.0. Conclusion: 2DE early in the lives of patients with BA revealed features of CCM that correlated with future outcomes. If validated in a multicenter study, this could lead to 2DE as a useful clinical tool in the care of infants with BA.
Formulation and Application of SMU – an Open-Source MATLAB Package for Structural Model Updating

: This paper describes a MATLAB package for structural model updating, named SMU. The SMU package updates parameter values of a finite element model by solving optimization problems utilizing modal properties obtained from sensor measurements. In particular, the package offers three model updating formulations, namely (1) the MAC (modal assurance criterion) value approach, (2) the eigenvector difference approach, and (3) the modal dynamic residual formulation. The first two belong to the family of modal property difference formulations. For each formulation, the analytical Jacobian derivative of the objective function is derived and implemented in SMU. Since the formulated optimization problems are generally nonconvex, the global optimality of the solution cannot be guaranteed using off-the-shelf optimization algorithms. In order to increase the chance of finding a better local minimum, the SMU package can perform gradient search from randomly generated starting points. Several examples for the model updating of as-built structures are included in the GitHub package. This paper demonstrates the SMU functionality through model updating of an 18-DOF model and a concrete building frame model.
Study on the Anti-multipath Performance of Turbo Code over Shallow Water Acoustic Channels

Shallow water acoustic channels introduce long multipath spreads and rapid time variations that deteriorate the performance of digital communication systems.These characteristics of the channel limit the data rate of reliable communication systems and require sophisticated equalization and coding technique.In this paper,a channel model including time-varying fading,multipath and additive noise for the shallow water acoustic channels is built,and one of the turbo coder/decoder is introduced.Based on the channel model,the performance of the turbo code over shallow water acoustic channel is simulated,and the effects of multipath,fading velocity and channel interleaver on the decoding performance are studied.As the result,the following four conclusions can be given safely:SNR(signal noise rate) at the range of number accepted by underwater acoustic communication(10~20 dB),the performance of turbo code is excellent(Bit error rate less than);The performance of turbo code degrades with the increasing of the number of multipath;under the condition of 8 dB of SNR,the performance of turbo code degrades 20 dB or so with three multipath comparing with one path;The performance of turbo code degrades slowly with the decreasing of the fading velocity;Channel interleaver can improve the performance of turbo code,and make up its difference because of different fading velocity.
Dynamics in a Chemotaxis Model with Periodic Source

We consider a system of two differential equations modeling chemotaxis. The system consists of a parabolic equation describing the behavior of a biological species “u” coupled to an ODE patterning the concentration of a chemical substance “v”. The growth of the biological species is limited by a logistic-like term where the carrying capacity presents a time-periodic asymptotic behavior. The production of the chemical species is described in terms of a regular function h, which increases as “u” increases. Under suitable assumptions we prove that the solution is globally bounded in time by using an Alikakos-Moser iteration, and it fulfills a certain periodic asymptotic behavior. Besides, numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the behavior of the solutions of the system showing that the model considered here can provide very interesting and complex dynamics.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Inflammatory Choriocapillaropathies (PICCPs): A Comprehensive Overview

Purpose: Primary inflammatory choriocapillaropathies (PICCPs) belong to a group of intraocular inflammatory diseases with the common characteristic of inflammatory choriocapillaris hypo- or non-perfusion as the main clinicopathological mechanism. The purpose of our article is to describe clinical characteristics and multimodal imaging, that can help the diagnosis and treatment of PICCPs. Methods: Narrative review with multimodal imaging analysis. Results: Choriocapillaris non-perfusion can affect the end-choriocappilaries, at the benign end of the PICCP spectrum (MEWDS), to larger choriocapillaris vessels or precapillary vessels at the origin of more severe forms such as acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy (APMPPE), idiopathic multifocal choroiditis (MFC) and Serpiginous Choroiditis (SC). Diagnosis is mostly based on multimodal imaging and especially on indocyanine green angiography (ICGA), fundus autofluorescence (FAF) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT)/OCT-angiography (OCT-A). ICGA shows the typical pattern of patchy lobular hypofluorescence reflecting hypo- or non-perfusion of the choriocapillaris that can also take the aspect of geographic areas in the more severe forms. Treatment depends on the severity of the disease and goes from observation in MEWDS and some mild cases of APMPPE, to oral corticosteroid and/or immunomodulator agents in the more severe conditions of APMPPE and MFC and SC cases. Close multimodal monitoring is crucial in order to introduce or adjust treatment. Conclusion: PICCPs are resulting from one common clinicopathological mechanism, inflammatory choriocapillaris hypo- or non-perfusion. ICGA findings are essential for the diagnosis and follow-up of PICCPs, but non-invasive methods such as FAF and SD-OCT/OCT-A also have their role especially in follow-up of the diseases. Treatment should be individualized according to the pathology and the evolution of lesions.
Volume and Connectivity Differences in Brain Networks Associated with Cognitive Constructs of Binge Eating

Abstract Bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED) are characterized by episodes of eating large amounts of food while experiencing a loss of control. Recent studies suggest that the underlying causes of BN/BED consist of a complex system of environmental cues, atypical processing of food stimuli, altered behavioral responding, and structural/functional brain differences compared with healthy controls (HC). In this narrative review, we provide an integrative account of the brain networks associated with the three cognitive constructs most integral to BN and BED, namely increased reward sensitivity, decreased cognitive control, and altered negative affect and stress responding. We show altered activity in BED/BN within several brain networks, specifically in the striatum, insula, prefrontal cortex (PFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and cingulate gyrus. Numerous key nodes in these networks also differ in volume and connectivity compared with HC. We provide suggestions for how this integration may guide future research into these brain networks and cognitive constructs.
Measuring the neural correlates of the violation of social expectations: A comparison of two experimental tasks

ABSTRACT Evidence exists that people’s brains respond differently to stimuli that violate social expectations. However, there are inconsistencies between studies in the event-related potentials (ERP) on which differential brain responses are found, as well as in the direction of the differences. Therefore, the current paper examined which of the two most frequently used tasks, the Impression Formation Task (IFT) or Implicit Association Test (IAT), provided more robust ERP components in response to the violation of gendered expectations. Both IFT and IAT paradigms were administered in a counter-balanced way among 25 young adults (age 22–31, 56% male), while brain activity was assessed with electroencephalography. The IFT and IAT specifically measured the violation of gendered expectations with regard to toy preferences and behavioral tendencies of young children. The results showed that both tasks were able to elicit relevant ERP components. Yet, the IFT evoked ERP effects of the violation of gendered expectations on all but one of the selected ERP components; the P1, N1, and LPP. The IAT only elicited different P3 amplitudes when expectations were violated. We recommend the use of IFT paradigms when studying neural processes underlying the violation of social expectations.
Targeting Secreted Protease/Anti-Protease Balance as a Vaccine Strategy against the Helminth Fasciola hepatica

The liver fluke Fasciola hepatica is an economically important global pathogen of humans and their livestock. To facilitate host invasion and migration, F. hepatica secretes an abundance of cathepsin peptidases but prevents excessive damage to both parasite and host tissues by co-secreting regulatory peptidase inhibitors, cystatins/stefins and Kunitz-type inhibitors. Here, we report a vaccine strategy aimed at disrupting the parasite’s protease/anti-protease balance by targeting these key inhibitors. Our vaccine cocktail containing three recombinant stefins (rFhStf-1, rFhStf-2, rFhStf-3) and a Kunitz-type inhibitor (rFhKT1) formulated in adjuvant Montanide 61VG was assessed in two independent sheep trials. While fluke burden was not reduced in either trial, in Trial 1 the vaccinated animals showed significantly greater weight gain (p < 0.05) relative to the non-vaccinated control group. In both trials we observed a significant reduction in egg viability (36–42%). Multivariate regression analyses showed vaccination and increased levels of IgG2 antibodies specific for the F. hepatica peptidase inhibitors were positive indicators for increased weight gain and levels of haemoglobin within the normal range at 16 weeks post-infection (wpi; p < 0.05). These studies point to the potential of targeting peptidase inhibitors as vaccine cocktails for fasciolosis control in sheep.
Supporting primary school students' mental health needs: Teachers' perceptions of roles, barriers, and abilities

Mental health problems among children are on the rise across the United Kingdom. Teachers are uniquely placed to play a vital role in early identification and intervention. This study aims to identify and discuss potential barriers among Scottish teachers' concerning their role in supporting children's mental health. One hundred and seventy ‐ nine Scottish primary school teaching staff from 30 different council areas completed an online survey. The survey examined mental health concerns observed in the classroom; barriers to support; perceived personal knowledge; and training. Results indicate that teachers believe they have a role in supporting children's mental health. However, teachers perceive themselves as having a lack of knowledge and specific skills to promote positive mental health. A lack of adequate training was identified as a primary barrier to delivering adequate supports and identification. Results demonstrate the need for a greater emphasis on professional development and preservice training to address this knowledge gap.