Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of forager honey bee appetite independent of the glucose-insulin signaling pathway

Introduction To maintain energetic homeostasis the energetic state of the individual needs to communicate with appetite regulatory mechanisms on a regular basis. Although hunger levels indicated by the energetic state and appetite levels, the desire for food intake, tend to be correlated, and on their own are well studied, how the two cross-talk and regulate one another is less known. Insects, in contrast to vertebrates, tend to have trehalose as the primary sugar found in the hemolymph, which could possibly serve as an alternative monitor of the energetic state in comparison to the glucose-insulin signaling pathway, found in vertebrates. Methods We investigate how manipulating hemolymph sugar levels alter the biogenic amines in the honey bee brain, appetite levels, and insulin like peptide gene expression, across three age classes, to determine how the energetic state of the honey bee might be connected to appetite regulation. Results We found that only in the forager bees, with a lowering of hemolymph trehalose levels, there was an increase in octopamine and a decrease in tyramine levels in the honey bee brain that corresponded with increased appetite levels, while there was no significant changes in Insulin Like Peptide-1 or 2 gene expression. Discussion Our findings suggest that hemolymph trehalose levels aid in regulating appetite levels, in forager bees, via octopamine and tyramine, and this regulation appears to be functioning independent of the glucose insulin signaling pathway. Whether this potentially more direct and rapid appetite regulatory pathway can be generalized to other insects, which also undergo energy demanding activities, remains to be investigated.
Parasite load in the Iberian ibex, Capra pyrenaica victoriae

Carga parasitaria de la cabra montes Capra pyrenaica victoriae Las infecciones parasitarias en las cabras montesas ibericas son frecuentes, graves y estan bien documentadas. Sin embargo, la mayoria de trabajos se centran en la subespecie Capra pyrenaica hispanica , distribuida por el sur y el este de la peninsula iberica, mientras que hay pocos estudios dedicados a la subespecie presente en el centro de la peninsula, Capra pyrenaica victoriae . Aqui aportamos informacion sobre C. p. victoriae , analizando muestras coprologicas de esta subespecie en el Parque Nacional de la Sierra de Guadarrama. Hemos encontrado parasitos en el 97% de las muestras e identificado un total de 11 taxones de helmintos. El genero mas abundante en los analisis ha sido Muellerius . En cualquier caso, la salud de la poblacion parece, en general, buena de tal forma que las cargas parasitarias detectadas no influyen aparentemente de manera determinante en el estado de salud de la poblacion.
Polyphenols and CRISPR as Quorum Quenching Agents in Antibiotic-Resistant Foodborne Human Pathogens (Salmonella Typhimurium, Campylobacter jejuni and Escherichia coli 0157:H7)

Antibiotic resistance in foodborne pathogens is an increasing threat to global human health. Among the most prevalent antibiotic-resistant bacteria are Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Campylobacter jejuni and E. coli 0157:H7. Control of these and other pathogens requires innovative approaches, i.e., discovering new molecules that will inactivate them, or render them less virulent without inducing resistance. Recently, several polyphenol molecules have been shown to possess such characteristics. Also, the use of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) approaches has recently been proposed for such purpose. This review summarizes the main findings regarding the application of both approaches to control the above-mentioned foodborne pathogens by relying on Quorum Sensing interference (Quorum Quenching) mechanisms and highlights the avenues needed for further research.
Planting grass enhances relations between soil microbes and enzyme activities and restores soil functions in a degraded grassland

Introduction Forage culture is a common way to restore degraded grasslands and soil functions, in which the reconstruction of the soil microbial community and its relationship with extracellular enzyme activity (EEAs) can characterize the recovery effects of degraded grasslands. However, the impacts of forage culture on the interaction between soil microbes and EEAs and whether the recovery effect of soil functions depends on the varying degradation statuses remain unclear. Methods We conducted a plantation of a dominant grass, Leymus chinensis, in the soil collected from severe, moderate, light, and non-degradation statuses in the Songnen grassland in northeastern China. We measured soil microbial diversity and soil EEAs, and predicted microbial functional groups using FUNGuild. Results The results showed that L. chinensis culture promoted soil bacterial alpha diversity and soil EEAs only in the moderate degradation status, indicating a dramatic dependence of the recovery effects of the grass culture on degradation status of the grassland. After planting L. chinensis for 10 weeks, a decreasing trend in the chemoheterotrophy and nitrate-reduction microbial functional groups was found. In contrast, the abundance of the nitrogen (N)-fixing microbial functional group tended to increase. The positive correlation between soil EEAs and the nitrate-reduction and N-fixing microbial functional groups was enhanced by planting L. chinensis, indicating that grass culture could promote soil N cycle functions. Conclusion We illuminate that grass culture may promote the restoration of soil functions, especially soil N cycling in degraded grasslands, and the recovery effect may depend on the grassland degradation status. We emphasized that selection of the plant species for restoration of grasslands needs to consider the restoration effects of microbial functional groups and soil functions.
Stock Assessment of Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus L) in Northern Black Sea and Sea of Azov

European anchovy is most abundant in the Azov and Black Sea Basin ichthyocenosis and plays leading role in the marine fisheries. There are two subspecies of the European anchovy in the Black Sea: the Black Sea anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus ponticus Aleksandrov and the Azov anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus maeoticus Pusanov. Wintering areas of both subspecies (stocks) are located in the Black Sea. Basing on the more than 30-years research of anchovy, this chapter summarizes data on catches, catch per unit effort, population parameters, spatial distribution patterns, abundance, and scientific survey results separately for two stocks. Direct methods of stock assessment, based on trawl, lampara and hydroacoustic surveys data, have been applied. Authors recommend to the Black Sea countries authorities to build their anchovy fishery-regulating decisions mainly on the hydroacoustic surveys’ results. A major impact of invasive Atlantic ctenophores Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata on anchovy populations is revealed.
Nursing Home Residents’ COVID-19 Infections in the United States: A Systematic Review of Personal and Contextual Factors

Background: This mixed methods systemic review synthesizes the evidence about nursing home risks for COVID-19 infections. Methods: Four electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Sage Journals Online) were searched between January 2020 and October 2022. Inclusion criteria were studies reported on nursing home COVID-19 infection risks by geography, demography, type of nursing home, staffing and resident’s health, and COVID-19 vaccination status. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the levels of evidence for quality, and a narrative synthesis for reporting the findings by theme. Results: Of 579 initial articles, 48 were included in the review. Findings suggest that highly populated counties and urban locations had a higher likelihood of COVID-19 infections. Larger nursing homes with a low percentage of fully vaccinated residents also had increased risks for COVID-19 infections than smaller nursing homes. Residents with advanced age, of racial minority, and those with chronic illnesses were at higher risk for COVID-19 infections. Discussion and implications: Findings suggest that along with known risk factors for COVID-19 infections, geographic and resident demographics are also important preventive care considerations. Access to COVID-19 vaccinations for vulnerable residents should be a priority.
Content marketing elements and their influence on search advertisement effectiveness: theoretical background and practical insights

Nowadays when internet marketing is on the wave, marketing experts recognize the importance of content; content marketing becomes a new field in marketing research. This paper provides a theoretical analysis, which ends up with a theoretical model of the content marketing influence on search system advertisement. Conclusions, practical insights and future development research directions are presented as well.
Effet de l'humidité relative sur les résultats obtenus au thermodétecteur

Le thermodetecteur permet de mesurer le potentiel de collage des cotons pollues par les miellats d'insectes. Pour obtenir des resultats fiables et comparables entre utilisateurs, il convient d'utiliser cet appareil dans des conditions precises d'humidite relative ambiante. Celle-ci doit etre comprise entre 55 et 65%, soit une teneur en humidite du coton situee entre 6,8 et 8%; Lorque l'humidite ambiante est inferieure a 55%, il faut conditionner les echantillons de coton dans une enceinte speciale, afin d'avoir une humidite suffisante pour realiser le test
Multiview Contrastive Learning for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in Brain–Computer Interfaces

Domain adaptation has gained significant attention to address the nonstationarity problem in electroencephalography (EEG) data in motor imagery (MI) classification. In MI classification, domain adaptation addresses cross-session variations, enhancing the classifier’s generalization capabilities. However, the existing methods have struggled to effectively capture both temporal and spatial features, resulting in limited classification accuracy. To tackle this issue, we propose the multiview adversarial contrastive network (MACNet). The proposed MACNet simultaneously learns spatial and temporal features in two different views: Euclidean and Riemannian. Furthermore, we introduce a multilevel domain mix-up technique to enhance domain alignment at both signal and embedding levels. The proposed MACNet method is evaluated on three public datasets. It achieves an accuracy of 83.79% on the BCI Competition IV dataset, 80.00% on the open source brain-machine interface (OpenBMI) dataset, and 85.83% on the sensorimotor rthythms (SMR) dataset that outperforms previous methods in cross-session transfer learning.
Palsa mires in Finland

The term palsa was originally used by the Sami people and Finns, and in their languages it means a large peat hummock with a frozen core, rising above the surface of a mire (Lundqvist 1969, Seppala 1972, Nelson & al. 1992, Gurney 2001). Palsas are characteristic to the discontinuous circumpolar permafrost zone (Seppala 1997) provided that the peat layer is thick enough. They contain a permanently frozen core of peat and/or silt, small ice crystals and thin layers of segregated ice, which can survive the heat of summers. An insulating peat layer is important for preserving the frozen core during the summer. The peat should be dry during the summer, thus having a very low thermal conductivity, and wet in autumn, when freezing starts, giving a much higher thermal conductivity. This allows the cold to penetrate so deep into the peat layers that they do not thaw during the summer. In western Finnish Lapland palsas are located north of 68o30’N latitude and in eastern Lapland north of Lake Inari (Fig. 1). Palsas are found in valleys with an insulating peat layer suffi ciently thick to preserve the frozen core. The vertical distribution of palsas in northern Finnish Lapland varied from altitudes of 180 m to 390 m a.s. l. (Luoto & Seppala 2002). On lower altitudes there is probably too much snow and on higher levels peat layers are too thin.
The Impact of Social Media on Users’ Self-Efficacy and Loneliness: An Analysis of the Mediating Mechanism of Social Support

Purpose The integration of social media into all areas of society has become a typical phenomenon of the Internet era. This study’s core objective is to dissect the relationship between social media, self-efficacy and loneliness, especially emphasizing the mediating function of social support. Patients and Methods The research data is derived from the pooled cross-sectional data combined from the four-period data of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The study employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression as the basic research method, and utilizes Instrumental Variables (IV) and other methods to conduct robustness checks. Results Social media usage frequency (SMUF) enhances self-efficacy and loneliness through social support. Social support promotes self-efficacy and alleviates users’ loneliness. In self-efficacy, social support plays a fully mediating role. Moreover, education (human capital) has a significant moderating effect. There are noticeable differences in the response of different characteristics groups to SMUF. Conclusion This study reveals how social media impacts self-efficacy and loneliness through social support. Based on the research results, avoiding prolonged usage of social media and improving digital literacy are the crucial means to exert the positive benefits of social media.
FV-EffResNet: an efficient lightweight convolutional neural network for finger vein recognition

Several deep neural networks have been introduced for finger vein recognition over time, and these networks have demonstrated high levels of performance. However, most current state-of-the-art deep learning systems use networks with increasing layers and parameters, resulting in greater computational costs and complexity. This can make them impractical for real-time implementation, particularly on embedded hardware. To address these challenges, this article concentrates on developing a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) named FV-EffResNet for finger vein recognition, aiming to find a balance between network size, speed, and accuracy. The key improvement lies in the utilization of the proposed novel convolution block named the Efficient Residual (EffRes) block, crafted to facilitate efficient feature extraction while minimizing the parameter count. The block decomposes the convolution process, employing pointwise and depthwise convolutions with a specific rectangular dimension realized in two layers (n × 1) and (1 × m) for enhanced handling of finger vein data. The approach achieves computational efficiency through a combination of squeeze units, depthwise convolution, and a pooling strategy. The hidden layers of the network use the Swish activation function, which has been shown to enhance performance compared to conventional functions like ReLU or Leaky ReLU. Furthermore, the article adopts cyclical learning rate techniques to expedite the training process of the proposed network. The effectiveness of the proposed pipeline is demonstrated through comprehensive experiments conducted on four benchmark databases, namely FV-USM, SDUMLA, MMCBNU_600, and NUPT-FV. The experimental results reveal that the EffRes block has a remarkable impact on finger vein recognition. The proposed FV-EffResNet achieves state-of-the-art performance in both identification and verification settings, leveraging the benefits of being lightweight and incurring low computational costs.
The One Health Concept

The concept of One Health has been developed as the appreciation that human health is intricately connected to those of other animals and the environment that they inhabit. In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and noticeable effects of climate change have encouraged national and international cooperation to apply One Health strategies to address key issues of health and welfare. The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals have established targets for health and wellbeing, clean water and sanitation, climate action, as well as sustainability in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The One Health Quadripartite comprises the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH—formerly OIE), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). There are six areas of focus which are Laboratory services, Control of zoonotic diseases, Neglected tropical diseases, Antimicrobial resistance, Food safety and Environmental health. This article discusses the concept of One Health by considering examples of infectious diseases and environmental issues under each of those six headings. Biomedical Scientists, Clinical Scientists and their colleagues working in diagnostic and research laboratories have a key role to play in applying the One Health approach to key areas of healthcare in the 21st Century.
Should the Left Atrial Appendage Closure (LAAC) Technique Be the Main Form of Stroke Prevention in Patients With Long-Standing Persistent or Permanent Atrial Fibrillation?

Currently, oral anticoagulants are considered the gold standard for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation. Despite the efficacy of oral anticoagulants in reducing stroke incidence, patients are at risk of developing adverse reactions such as excessive bleeding and bruising, and can also have drug-drug interactions. In the early 2000s, a minimally invasive technique called the left atrial appendage closure emerged as an alternative for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation patients who could not tolerate oral anticoagulants. Despite the success of the left atrial appendage closure, practitioners still opt for medication therapy and are reluctant to advocate for this procedure. Given the adverse effects of oral anticoagulants, physicians should question if this is the appropriate method of stroke prevention in long-standing persistent or permanent atrial fibrillation patients. This case report investigates an 82-year-old Middle Eastern male in the United States with long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation who underwent a left atrial appendage closure due to recurrent bleeding on oral anticoagulants. In addition, there will be further discussion on the appropriate method of stroke prevention in similar patients.
Surgery Night Float Team: Should Medical Students Have a Spot on the Roster?

Background: Following the trend of residency programs, more medical schools are offering night float (NF) schedules for clerkships and sub-internship rotations. The efficacy of this structure to educate students and prepare them for residency was evaluated. Methods: Twenty individuals were surveyed after a month-long 4th year NF elective in Trauma and Emergency Surgery. Results: Thirteen participants responded (65%), reporting more bedside procedures (84.7%) and oneon-one teaching with residents (84.7%), when compared to daytime shifts. Six (46.2%) experienced more operative procedures and contact with the attending physician. All participants (100%) reported: increased autonomy; that this elective better prepared them for their surgical residencies; and that they would recommend this type of program to other students considering a career in surgery. Conclusion: Overall the NF surgical sub-internship was an effective and well-received experience for 4th medical students, with increased autonomy, more frequent procedures, and added resident-led education, when compared to a traditional daytime surgical clerkship/sub-internship. A NF schedule can be a valuable learning experience that prepares medical students for surgical residency. Keywords: NIGHT FLOAT, TRAUMA SURGERY, SUB-INTERNSHIP, CURRICULUM
Impact of Autonomous Motivation on College Students’ Continuous Intention to Use Chaoxing Platform toward Hybrid Learning Context: TAM-PCASS Model

Hybrid learning integrates online instruction with in-person interaction, and the Chaoxing platform serves as an indispensable intermediary in higher education in China. The efficacy of hybrid learning hinges upon the learner's active engagement in the mobile technology educational process. Hence, this study integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) with the perceived choice and awareness of self scale (PCASS) to develop a comprehensive model for assessing learners' continuous intention to use Chaoxing. The study identifies five constructs: perceived choice (PC), self-awareness (SA), perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and continuous intention to use (CI). 320 valid responses were obtained from undergraduate students at Jitang College, North China University of Science and Technology. The model's path coefficients are computed using SPSS and AMOS software. The empirical findings demonstrate that the two factors of autonomous motivation, specifically perceived choice and self-awareness, exert a substantial impact on continuous intention to use Chaoxing. Nevertheless, the importance of the perceived ease of use in relation to the continuous intention to use Chaoxing that of the perceived usefulness. This suggests that learners prioritize the information offered by the course. These findings can offer efficient pedagogical approaches for administrators and educators who can facilitate hybrid instruction using Chaoxing as a medium.
Resilience analysis: a mathematical formulation to model resilience of engineering systems

Abstract The resilience of a system is related to its ability to withstand stressors, adapt, and rapidly recover from disruptions. Two significant challenges of resilience analysis are to (1) quantify the resilience associated with a given recovery curve; and (2) develop a rigorous mathematical model of the recovery process. To quantify resilience, a mathematical approach is proposed that systematically describes the recovery curve in terms of partial descriptors, called resilience metrics. The proposed resilience metrics have simple and clear interpretations, and their definitions are general so that they can characterize the resilience associated with any recovery curve. This paper also introduces a reliability-based definition of damage levels which is well-suited for probabilistic resilience analysis. For the recovery modeling, a stochastic formulation is proposed that models the impact of recovery activities and potential disrupting shocks, which could happen during the recovery, on the system state. For illustration, the proposed formulation is used for the resilience analysis of a reinforced concrete (RC) bridge repaired with fiber-reinforced polymer.
A Case of Autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis With Predominantly Peripheral Opacities Diagnosed by Transbronchial Lung Biopsy

Although pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) showed various shadows, its shadows are usually distributed predominantly in the central lung area. We report a case of autoimmune PAP with localized subpleural ground-glass shadows in the bilateral upper lobes, which was diagnosed based on transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) specimen findings and anti-granulocyte macrophage colony PAP stimulating factor antibody positivity. PAP should be listed as a differential diagnosis for subpleural shadows. If subpleural shadows are observed, TBLB should be performed aggressively, and anti-granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (anti-GM-CSF) antibodies should be submitted.