Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Executive Function, Theory of Mind, and Conduct-Problem Symptoms in Middle Childhood

Studies show relations between executive function (EF), Theory of Mind (ToM), and conduct-problem (CP) symptoms. However, many studies have involved cross-sectional data, small clinical samples, pre-school children, and/or did not consider potential mediation effects. The present study examined the longitudinal relations between EF, ToM abilities, and CP symptoms in a population-based sample of 1,657 children between 6 and 11 years (T1: M = 8.3 years, T2: M = 9.1 years; 51.9% girls). We assessed EF skills and ToM abilities via computerized tasks at first measurement (T1), CP symptoms were rated via parent questionnaires at T1 and approximately 1 year later (T2). Structural-equation models showed a negative relation between T1 EF and T2 CP symptoms even when controlling for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and other variables. This relation was fully mediated by T1 ToM abilities. The study shows how children’s abilities to control their thoughts and behaviors and to understand others’ mental states interact in the development of CP symptoms.
From Maternal Grazing to Barn Feeding During Pre-weaning Period: Altered Gastrointestinal Microbiota Contributes to Change the Development and Function of the Rumen and Intestine of Yak Calves

Understanding the altered gastrointestinal microbiota is important to illuminate effects of maternal grazing (MG: maternally nursed and grazed) and barn feeding (BF: supplied milk replacer, starter feed, and alfalfa hay) on the performance and immune function of yak calves. Compared with the MG group, the significantly increased body weight, body height, body length, chest girth, and organ development of liver, spleen, and thymus were identified in the BF group, which were resulted from the significantly increased dry matter intake, increased concentrations of propionate, butyrate, isobutyrate, and valerate, increased ruminal pectinase, duodenal α-amylase, jejunal α-amylase and trypsin, and ileal trypsin, and promoted gastrointestinal epithelial development. Furthermore, genera of Sharpea, Sphingomonas, Atopobium, Syntrophococcus, Clostridium_XIVb, Acinetobacter, Oscillibacter, Dialister, Desulfovibrio, Bacteroides, Lachnospiracea_incertae_sedis, and Clostridium_sensu_stricto, which were involved in utilization of non-fibrous carbohydrate and further beneficial to improve the gastrointestinal digestion, development, and immune functions, were significantly increased in the BF group. Meanwhile, the significantly enhanced ruminal epithelial immune functions and intestinal immune functions based on enhanced ruminal immune related pathway, duodenal IL-1β, jejunal IL-1β, IL-2, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, and ileal IL-1β were identified in the BF group, which also may induced by the increased abundance of gastrointestinal microbiota. Overall, barn feeding significantly increased the diversity of species and abundance of microbes which used different carbohydrates and further benefit to the growth and immune function of yak calves.
AN EVALUATION STUDY OF ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA) USING RECOMBINANT PROTEIN GRA1 FOR DETECTION OF IgG ANTIBODIES AGAINTS TOXOPLASMA GONDII INFECTIONS

Toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan parasite that live inside the cells of the reticulo endothelial and parenchymal cells of human and animals (mammals and birds). Some cases of toxoplasmosis usually have no symptoms, but in any cases caused severe symptoms, such as hydrocephalus, microcephalus, intracranial calcification, retinal damage, brain abscess, mental retardation, lymphadenopathy, and others. Its severe symptoms usually showed a long time after first exposure, except symptoms showed by congenital transmission caused by infected mother. Early diagnosis is important to prevent the illness but methods for toxoplasmosis screening are still too expensive for developing country. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) allow the testing of a large number samples within short time frame and based on antibody or antigen detection. This study aimed to know the sensitivity and specificity of recombinat protein GRA1 as antigen using ELISA methods. We tested the sensitivity and spesificity of GRA1 protein as antigen in ELISA methods to diagnose toxoplasmosis and compared with ELISA Kit Commercial. Reliable laboratory testing is important to detect Toxoplasma gondii infection, and focused to improving the low cost and easy-to-use diagnostic instrument. Seventy sera collected and tested using both indirect ELISA, commercial ELISA kit and GRA1 protein coated as antigen. Fourty eight and fifty one samples showed positive IgG antibody result of ELISA-GRA1 and ELISA kit. Negative sample tested by ELISA-GRA1 was 22 samples and 19 sample tested by ELISA Kit. The sensitivity and specificity of GRA1-based on ELISA were 100% and 86.36%, positive prediction value (ppv) was 94.11%. These data indicate that the recombinant protein GRA1 is a highly immunogenic protein in human toxoplasmosis and become a promising marker for the screening of toxoplasmosis.
Application of Supervised Machine Learning for Behavioral Biomarkers of Autism Spectrum Disorder Based on Electrodermal Activity and Virtual Reality

Objective Sensory processing is the ability to capture, elaborate, and integrate information through the five senses and is impaired in over 90% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The ASD population shows hyper–hypo sensitiveness to sensory stimuli that can generate alteration in information processing, affecting cognitive and social responses to daily life situations. Structured and semi-structured interviews are generally used for ASD assessment, and the evaluation relies on the examiner’s subjectivity and expertise, which can lead to misleading outcomes. Recently, there has been a growing need for more objective, reliable, and valid diagnostic measures, such as biomarkers, to distinguish typical from atypical functioning and to reliably track the progression of the illness, helping to diagnose ASD. Implicit measures and ecological valid settings have been showing high accuracy on predicting outcomes and correctly classifying populations in categories. Methods Two experiments investigated whether sensory processing can discriminate between ASD and typical development (TD) populations using electrodermal activity (EDA) in two multimodal virtual environments (VE): forest VE and city VE. In the first experiment, 24 children with ASD diagnosis and 30 TDs participated in both virtual experiences, and changes in EDA have been recorded before and during the presentation of visual, auditive, and olfactive stimuli. In the second experiment, 40 children have been added to test the model of experiment 1. Results The first exploratory results on EDA comparison models showed that the integration of visual, auditive, and olfactive stimuli in the forest environment provided higher accuracy (90.3%) on sensory dysfunction discrimination than specific stimuli. In the second experiment, 92 subjects experienced the forest VE, and results on 72 subjects showed that stimuli integration achieved an accuracy of 83.33%. The final confirmatory test set (n = 20) achieved 85% accuracy, simulating a real application of the models. Further relevant result concerns the visual stimuli condition in the first experiment, which achieved 84.6% of accuracy in recognizing ASD sensory dysfunction. Conclusion According to our studies’ results, implicit measures, such as EDA, and ecological valid settings can represent valid quantitative methods, along with traditional assessment measures, to classify ASD population, enhancing knowledge on the development of relevant specific treatments.
Differential Influence of Sample Sex and Neuronal Maturation on mRNA and Protein Transport in Induced Human Neurons

Nucleocytoplasmic transport (NCT) across thenuclear envelope (NE) is tightly regulated in eukaryotic cells and iscritical for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Its dysregulationleads to aging and neurodegeneration. Because they maintainaging-associated hallmarks, directly reprogrammed neurons from human fibroblasts are invaluable in understanding NCT. However, it is not clear whether NCT activity is influenced by neuronal maturation and sample sex [a key biological variable emphasized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy]. We examined here NCT activity at the single-cell level by measuring mRNA subcellular distribution and protein transport in directly induced motor neurons (diMNs) from adult human fibroblasts. The results show that mRNA subcellular distribution but not protein transport is affected by neuronal maturation stages, whereas both transport processes are not influenced by the sample sex. This study also provides quantitative methods and optimized conditions for measuring NCTs of mRNAs or protein cargoes, establishing a robust way for future functional examinations of NCT activity in directly induced neurons from diseased human patients.
Double Flash Illusions: Current Findings and Future Directions

Twenty years ago, the first report on the sound-induced double flash illusion, a visual illusion induced by sound, was published. In this paradigm, participants are presented with different numbers of auditory and visual stimuli. In case of an incongruent number of auditory and visual stimuli, the influence of auditory information on visual perception can lead to the perception of the illusion. Thus, combining two auditory stimuli with one visual stimulus can induce the perception of two visual stimuli, the so-called fission illusion. Alternatively, combining one auditory stimulus with two visual stimuli can induce the perception of one visual stimulus, the so-called fusion illusion. Overall, current research shows that the illusion is a reliable indicator of multisensory integration. It has also been replicated using different stimulus combinations, such as visual and tactile stimuli. Importantly, the robustness of the illusion allows the widespread use for assessing multisensory integration across different groups of healthy participants and clinical populations and in various task setting. This review will give an overview of the experimental evidence supporting the illusion, the current state of research concerning the influence of cognitive processes on the illusion, the neural mechanisms underlying the illusion, and future research directions. Moreover, an exemplary experimental setup will be described with different options to examine perception, alongside code to test and replicate the illusion online or in the laboratory.
Swarm Robotic Behaviors and Current Applications

In swarm robotics multiple robots collectively solve problems by forming advantageous structures and behaviors similar to the ones observed in natural systems, such as swarms of bees, birds, or fish. However, the step to industrial applications has not yet been made successfully. Literature is light on real-world swarm applications that apply actual swarm algorithms. Typically, only parts of swarm algorithms are used which we refer to as basic swarm behaviors. In this paper we collect and categorize these behaviors into spatial organization, navigation, decision making, and miscellaneous. This taxonomy is then applied to categorize a number of existing swarm robotic applications from research and industrial domains. Along with the classification, we give a comprehensive overview of research platforms that can be used for testing and evaluating swarm behavior, systems that are already on the market, and projects that target a specific market. Results from this survey show that swarm robotic applications are still rare today. Many industrial projects still rely on centralized control, and even though a solution with multiple robots is employed, the principal idea of swarm robotics of distributed decision making is neglected. We identified mainly following reasons: First of all, swarm behavior emerging from local interactions is hard to predict and a proof of its eligibility for applications in an industrial context is difficult to provide. Second, current communication architectures often do not match requirements for swarm communication, which often leads to a system with a centralized communication infrastructure. Finally, testing swarms for real industrial applications is an issue, since deployment in a productive environment is typically too risky and simulations of a target system may not be sufficiently accurate. In contrast, the research platforms present a means for transforming swarm robotics solutions from theory to prototype industrial systems.
Neutrophil L-Plastin Controls Ocular Paucibacteriality and Susceptibility to Keratitis

Why ocular mucosa is paucibacterial is unknown. Many different mechanisms have been suggested but the comprehensive experimental studies are sparse. We found that a deficiency in L-plastin (LCP1), an actin bundling protein, resulted in an ocular commensal overgrowth, characterized with increased presence of conjunctival Streptococcal spp. The commensal overgrowth correlated with susceptibility to P. aeruginosa-induced keratitis. L-plastin knock-out (KO) mice displayed elevated bacterial burden in the P. aeruginosa-infected corneas, altered inflammatory responses, and compromised bactericidal activity. Mice with ablation of LPL under the LysM Cre (LysM. CreposLPLfl/fl) and S100A8 Cre (S100A8.CreposLPLfl/fl) promoters had a similar phenotype to the LPL KOs mice. In contrast, infected CD11c.CreposLPLfl/fl mice did not display elevated susceptibility to infection, implicating the myeloid L-plastin-sufficient cells (e.g., macrophages and neutrophils) in maintaining ocular homeostasis. Mechanistically, the elevated commensal burden and the susceptibility to infection were linked to defects in neutrophil frequencies at steady state and during infection and compromised bactericidal activities upon priming. Macrophage exposure to commensal organisms primed neutrophil responses to P. aeruginosa, augmenting PMN bactericidal capacity in an L-plastin dependent manner. Cumulatively, our data highlight the importance of neutrophils in controlling ocular paucibacteriality, reveal molecular and cellular events involved in the process, and suggest a link between commensal exposure and resistance to infection.
The Contribution of Histone Crotonylation to Tissue Health and Disease: Focus on Kidney Health

Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are the most severe consequences of kidney injury. They are interconnected syndromes as CKD predisposes to AKI and AKI may accelerate CKD progression. Despite their growing impact on the global burden of disease, there is no satisfactory treatment for AKI and current therapeutic approaches to CKD remain suboptimal. Recent research has focused on the therapeutic target potential of epigenetic regulation of gene expression, including non-coding RNAs and the covalent modifications of histones and DNA. Indeed, several drugs targeting histone modifications are in clinical use or undergoing clinical trials. Acyl-lysine histone modifications (e.g. methylation, acetylation, and crotonylation) have modulated experimental kidney injury. Most recently, increased histone lysine crotonylation (Kcr) was observed during experimental AKI and could be reproduced in cultured tubular cells exposed to inflammatory stress triggered by the cytokine TWEAK. The degree of kidney histone crotonylation was modulated by crotonate availability and crotonate supplementation protected from nephrotoxic AKI. We now review the functional relevance of histone crotonylation in kidney disease and other pathophysiological contexts, as well as the implications for the development of novel therapeutic approaches. These studies provide insights into the overall role of histone crotonylation in health and disease.
Aspergillus niger Spores Are Highly Resistant to Space Radiation

The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger is one of the main contaminants of the International Space Station (ISS). It forms highly pigmented, airborne spores that have thick cell walls and low metabolic activity, enabling them to withstand harsh conditions and colonize spacecraft surfaces. Whether A. niger spores are resistant to space radiation, and to what extent, is not yet known. In this study, spore suspensions of a wild-type and three mutant strains (with defects in pigmentation, DNA repair, and polar growth control) were exposed to X-rays, cosmic radiation (helium- and iron-ions) and UV-C (254 nm). To assess the level of resistance and survival limits of fungal spores in a long-term interplanetary mission scenario, we tested radiation doses up to 1000 Gy and 4000 J/m2. For comparison, a 360-day round-trip to Mars yields a dose of 0.66 ± 0.12 Gy. Overall, wild-type spores of A. niger were able to withstand high doses of X-ray (LD90 = 360 Gy) and cosmic radiation (helium-ion LD90 = 500 Gy; and iron-ion LD90 = 100 Gy). Drying the spores before irradiation made them more susceptible toward X-ray radiation. Notably, A. niger spores are highly resistant to UV-C radiation (LD90 = 1038 J/m2), which is significantly higher than that of other radiation-resistant microorganisms (e.g., Deinococcus radiodurans). In all strains, UV-C treated spores (1000 J/m2) were shown to have decreased biofilm formation (81% reduction in wild-type spores). This study suggests that A. niger spores might not be easily inactivated by exposure to space radiation alone and that current planetary protection guidelines should be revisited, considering the high resistance of fungal spores.
A Likelihood Framework for Modeling Pairwise Beta Diversity Patterns Based on the Tradeoff Between Colonization and Extinction

Ecological communities are assembled by various mechanisms, including a tradeoff between colonization and extinction processes. However, it is still unclear how this tradeoff influences pairwise beta diversity patterns. Herein, we propose a novel likelihood framework to disentangle the compound impacts of species’ colonization and extinction rates on community-level compositional dissimilarity, which are ignored by traditional indices. The framework infers two parameters of colonization and extinction rates, allowing ecologists to study their latitudinal or broad-scale spatial variation patterns and test the relative influences of associated environmental factors. More importantly, the likelihood-based model showed that multi-site beta diversity is essentially identical to the local colonization failure or extinction rate of species in newly colonized sites but is not related to species’ colonization rates. Profoundly, the present likelihood model allows ecologists to explicitly infer the independent species’ colonization rate parameter and test its underpinning mechanisms, as it can be proven that this parameter would be only implicitly measured if used to compute multi-site beta diversity indices.
Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Computerized Cognitive Training in the General Population

Introduction In recent years, computerized cognitive training (CCT) programs have been developed commercially for widespread public consumption. Despite early enthusiasm, whether these programs enhance cognitive abilities in healthy adults is a contentious area of investigation. Given the mixed findings in the literature, researchers are beginning to investigate how beliefs and attitudes toward CCT impact motivation, expectations, and gains after cognitive training. Method We collected survey data from 497 North American participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). This survey asked novel questions regarding respondents’ beliefs about the effectiveness of CCT for improving different domains of cognition, mood, and daily life; beliefs about whether CCT programs are supported by research; and whether impressions of CCT have improved or worsened over time. Exploratory analyses are reported descriptively, while parametric tests were used to analyze a priori hypotheses. Results Almost half of the surveyed participants had used CCT, and respondents with a self-reported psychological or neurological disorder were more likely to have used CCT platforms than participants without such conditions. Motivations for using CCT included curiosity; to improve or maintain cognition; to prevent cognitive decline; and/or for enjoyment or fun. Participants believed that CCT is somewhat effective for improving mood and cognition across a variety of domains. Greater age and fewer years of education predicted perceived effectiveness of CCT. Finally, participants largely reported unchanged opinions of CCT platforms over time. Conclusion Our study suggests the need for future research regarding the general population’s beliefs and attitudes toward CCT, along with knowledge translation for relevant stakeholders.
Computational Creativity and Music Generation Systems: An Introduction to the State of the Art

Computational Creativity is a multidisciplinary field that tries to obtain creative behaviors from computers. One of its most prolific subfields is that of Music Generation (also called Algorithmic Composition or Musical Metacreation), that uses computational means to compose music. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this research field, it is sometimes hard to define precise goals and to keep track of what problems can be considered solved by state-of-the-art systems and what instead needs further developments. With this survey, we try to give a complete introduction to those who wish to explore Computational Creativity and Music Generation. To do so, we first give a picture of the research on the definition and the evaluation of creativity, both human and computational, needed to understand how computational means can be used to obtain creative behaviors and its importance within Artificial Intelligence studies. We then review the state of the art of Music Generation Systems, by citing examples for all the main approaches to music generation, and by listing the open challenges that were identified by previous reviews on the subject. For each of these challenges, we cite works that have proposed solutions, describing what still needs to be done and some possible directions for further research.