Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Odontomachus brunneus nestmates request for help and are taken care of when caught?

In social insects, situations can arise that threaten an individual or an entire colony. When the call for help goes out, different behavioral responses are elicited by signals emitted from nestmates. In ants, the response can be one of redemptive behavior by the worker receiving it. However, little is known about the evolution of this behavior and in which group of ants it manifests. Therefore, this study investigates whether workers of Odontomachus brunneus Patton can act as rescuers, able to detect and respond to calls for help from nestmates. Laboratory experiments were carried out in which the legs of ants were trapped by tape, simulating capture by a predator. Nearby were nestmates able to receive and respond to a request for help. Two experiments were performed: 1. Calls for help were made at different distances, in order to test the response latency. 2. Evaluation of whether rescuers would respond differently to calls for help from nestmates, non-nestmates of the same species, and ants of another species. Finally, evaluation was made of the behaviors of the rescuers when they responded to requests for help from nestmates and ants of another species. It could be concluded from the results that O. brunneus workers respond to signals emitted by workers who may have been captured by a potential predator, prompting the performance of behaviors related to rescue attempts. The signals involved appear to have an optimal range and are species-specific. When exposed to a capture situation, this species transmits audible signals by stridulation, so it is possible that this type of signal may be involved, in addition to chemical signaling.
Assessment of Occupational Fatigue in Healthcare Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemia

Aim: This study aimed to determine the level of occupational fatigue in healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic process and assess some variables considered to have a relationship with it. Material and Method: This study used a descriptive cross-sectional design and was carried out on physicians and nurses between June and July 2020. The study data were collected using a questionnaire with items questioning some socio-demographic data of the healthcare professionals, characteristics of their workplace and working conditions, and contact with patients with COVID-19, and the items of the Occupational Fatigue-Exhaustion Recovery Scale. The study group consisted of 308 females and 98males. In non-normal distributions, the Mann-Whitney U test was used for variables with two groups and Kruskal–Wallis-H test for variables with more than two groups. Results: The mean scores of the healthcare professionals from the chronic fatigue and acute fatigue sub-domains of the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale were 60.65±29.10, 65.52±21.64 and 45.09±19.1, respectively. In the study group, fatigue levels were higher in women who were aged 49 years or younger, had weekly working hours of more than 40 hours, and came into contact with COVID 19 patients every day. Conclusion: The fatigue and burnout levels of healthcare professionals who are directly involved in the care of patients with COVID-19 during the pandemic process were above moderate levels, and the level of their recovery was at a moderate level. It is recommended that necessary administrative initiatives should be taken to improve healthcare workers’ rights, whose working conditions are getting more difficult in the pandemic environment, their needs for rest should be planned, and that working environments that will ensure that not only the risk of contamination but also the risk factors that will arise due to fatigue are under control should be created.
High-density lipoprotein: a double-edged sword in cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) plays a central role in vascular biology. HDL participates in multiple pathways that may be involved in the development of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease (CAD), including cholesterol removal from the tissues (including vascular arterial wall), endothelial function protection through anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects, endothelial repair, angiogenesis and improved endothelial cell survival. Initial epidemiological evidence supported an inverse relationship between HDL level and the risk for atherosclerosis and CAD. Although HDL showed an inverse relationship with cardiovascular risk, pharmacologically-based HDL-raising therapies and Mendelian randomization studies refuted a causal relationship between HDL and the risk for atherosclerosis and CAD. So far, no HDL-raising therapy that increased HDL level without a concomitant decrease in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level reduced the cardiovascular risk. HDL structure and function alterations in various morbid conditions including inflammatory states, metabolic diseases, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular risk factors and CAD transform HDL from a vasoprotective and anti-atherosclerotic particle into a proinflammatory and pro-atherosclerotic dysfunctional equivalent. Genetic studies, failure of HDL-raising therapies to improve clinical outcome despite markedly raising HDL levels and a better understanding of HDL functions led to a paradigm shift in HDL studies from investigation of HDL concentration to investigation of HDL functions (such as, cholesterol efflux capacity and anti-inflammatory indices) as a response to various therapeutic interventions. Several therapies aiming to improve HDL functions are in clinical use or under development. Future studies are needed to assess the role of HDL in vascular biology and cardiovascular epidemiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology.
The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT): A Contribution to Italian Validation with Teachers’

This study aims to validate the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) adapted to the Italian education sector. Teacher burnout is physical and emotional pain, due to prolonged exposure to school-related stress factors. Previous research has abundantly proven that preventive assessment of teachers’ risk level for burnout may reduce adverse outcomes. In this regard, new assessment tools, able to bring together evidence from fifty years of research on this topic, were mainly used to monitor burnout-risk levels in the school context. For the present work, 846 Italian teachers (Female, 91.1%; M age = 47.52; SD = 9.94) were involved in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure for the core dimensions (BAT-C; exhaustion, mental distance, emotional impairment, cognitive impairment), and a two-factor structure for the secondary dimensions (BAT-S; psychological distress, psychosomatic complaints). The Italian version of the BAT-C and BAT-S has shown good internal consistency (respectively, α = 0.900 and ω = 0.913; α = 0.845 and ω = 0.857) and validity (all correlations between variables showed a p value < 0.01). Our findings support the Italian adaptation of the original version of the BAT as a valid instrument for measuring teachers’ burnout through principal and secondary symptoms.
Self Attention Based Semantic Segmentation on a Natural Disaster Dataset

Global image dependencies help in full image understanding. Self-attention based methods can map the mutual relationship and dependencies among pixels of an image and thus improve semantic segmentation accuracy. In this paper, we propose two segmentation networks based on a novel baseline self-attention network. Compared to existing self-attention methods we utilize lower level feature maps to generate position attention modules which constitute a baseline network. This baseline network is incorporated with global average pooling and U-Net to create two segmentation schemes. These two segmentation networks are evaluated on a natural disaster dataset and perform excellent in damage assessment with a Mean IoU score of 95.61%.
Oxidative Stress Markers in Young Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction and Their Correlation with Cardiac Enzymes

Objective: The relationship between oxidative stress and acute myocardial infarction has been shown in studies. Total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), and oxidative stress index (OSI) reflect the oxidative balance. The risk factors, clinical features, and prognosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in young patients differ from older counterparts. This study aims to determine the oxidative stress in the young acute AMI patients and its' correlation with cardiac markers within 48 hours by the quantitative measurement of TAS, TOS, and OSI. Material and Method: In this prospective, controlled study, we included 50 patients who were 45 years old or younger and diagnosed with AMI, as well as 20 healthy individuals as the control group. TOS and TAS were measured from venous blood samples via the spectrophotometric method. The oxidative stress index was obtained from these parameters. Results: Forty-five of totally 50 patients were male, and the mean age was (36±6.8). TOS and OSI values were found significantly higher than in the control group (p=0.002, p=0.005, respectively). TAS values were found not to be different from the control group (p=0.46). A significant correlation was found between CK 0. hour (h.), and TOS 0. h. , CK-MB 0. h. , and TOS 0. h. , CK 48. h. and OSI 48. h. , CK-MB 48. h. and OSI 48. h. , respectively (r=0.36, p=0.008), (r=0.46, p=0.001), (r=0.32, p=0.03), (r=0.36, p
An Investigation of Distance Teaching: Perceptions, Practices and Perspectives

The present study is an investiagtion of distance teaching as an alternative to in-person classes during a lockdown. The study aims at unveiling the teachers and students’ perceptions and attitudes towards e-teaching/learning during a pandemic crisis. As an alternative to face -to face interviews with the teachers and the students because of the sanitary conditions, the tools have been adapted to existing conditions. To obtain data, two tools have been used online, a semi- structured interview with (n 51) master students and a lickert scale questionnaire for (n 18) teachers in the department of English in the university Abdelhamid Ibn Badis in Algeria.Findings revealed the reluctance in the exclusive use of distance teaching by the majority of teachers and the students. The great majority of them also prefers in person classes.This is justified by technical difficulties, lack of comprehension, poor internet flow and a lack of training.
Growth, health, and economics of dairy calves fed organic milk replacer or organic whole milk in an automated feeding system

Graphical Abstract Summary: In this study, we compared the growth, health, behavior, and economics of feeding dairy calves organic milk replacer or whole milk during the preweaning period. Calves fed organic milk replacer had similar growth to calves fed organic whole milk. Milk feed cost was 37% lower for calves fed organic whole milk. The average cost per kilogram of gain was lower for calves fed organic whole milk compared with calves fed organic milk replacer. Organic dairy producers may find economic advantages of feeding whole milk to organic dairy heifer calves during the preweaning period compared with organic milk replacer because of the high cost.
Neoliberal taxation regimes and the articulation of sovereign state power

ABSTRACT After decades of consistent refusal to curb international tax evasion, the US Biden administration has recently proposed an international scheme for taxing the world’s largest transnational companies. This article seeks to better understand why it is so difficult to develop an international scheme controlling tax evasion by examining the role played by neoliberal governmentalities and their link to sovereign power. It is argued that neoliberal governmentalities have been crucial in propagating a design of sovereign power that is conducive to tax competition and, ultimately, to tax evasion. Yet, these divergences also seem to provide a space for reforming current taxation regimes.
Spatial Genetic Structure of Prunus mongolica in Arid Northwestern China Based on RAD Sequencing Data

The extensive range of sand deserts, gravel deserts, and recent human activities have shaped habitat fragmentation of relict and endangered plants in arid northwestern China. Prunus mongolica is a relict and endangered shrub that is mainly distributed in the study area. In the present study, population genomics was integrated with a species distribution model (SDM) to investigate the spatial genetic diversity and structure of P. mongolica populations in response to habitat fragmentation and create a proposal for the conservation of this endangered species. The results showed that the northern marginal populations were the first isolated from other populations. The SDM suggested that these marginal populations had low levels of habitat suitability during the glacial period. They could not obtain migration corridors, and thus possessed low levels of gene flow connection with other populations. Additionally, several populations underwent secondarily geographical isolation from other central populations, which preserved particular genetic lineages. Genetic diversity was higher in southern populations than in northern ones. It was concluded that long-term geographical isolation after historical habitat fragmentation promoted the divergence of marginal populations and refugial populations along mountains from other populations. The southern populations could have persisted in their distribution ranges and harbored higher levels of genetic diversity than the northern populations, whose distribution ranges fluctuated in response to paleoclimatic changes. We propose that the marginal populations of P. mongolica should be well considered in conservation management.
Melody, not Beat Perception, Predicts Rhythmic Error Detection

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among beat perception, error detection, and musical experience. We presented monophonic rhythms using a piano timbre along with two measures of beat perception (Harvard Beat Finding and Interval Test [BFIT] and Goldsmiths Beat Alignment Test) and a measure of melodic error detection. College musicians’ (N = 43) ability to detect rhythm errors was not significantly correlated to their ability to perceive beat alignment (Goldsmiths test) or tempo change (BFIT). Age was related to performance on only one of the measures, the BFIT test. A regression model yielded pitch error detection as the only significant predictor of rhythmic error detection. We suggest that college musicians already possess a requisite ability for beat processing that allows them to perform error detection. The lack of relationship between beat perception and rhythmic error detection is explained by this requisite ability in the population, and we promote future research for pitch and rhythm processing as it relates to rhythm perception or performance.
Studying C-reactive protein and D-dimer levels in blood may prevent severe complications: A study in Bangladeshi COVID-19 patients

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a scientific, medical and social challenge. Since clinical course of this disease is largely unpredictable and can develop rapidly causing severe complications, it is important to identify laboratory biomarkers, which may help to classify patient’s severity during initial stage. Previous studies have suggested C—reactive protein (inflammatory) and D-dimer (biochemical) as an effective biomarker. The differential severity in patients across the world and our limited understanding in the progression of the disease calls for a multi-country analysis for biomarkers. Therefore, we have analyzed these biomarkers among 228 Bangladeshi COVID-19 patients. We observed significant association of COVID-19 severity with these two biomarkers. Thus, we suggest to use these biomarkers for Bangladeshi COVID-19 patients for better disease monitoring. Such validated preventive measures may decrease the case fatality ratio substantially.
Finding the best tour for travelling salesman problem using artificial ecosystem optimization

This paper presents a new method based on the artificial ecosystem optimization (AEO) algorithm for finding the shortest tour of the travelling salesman problem (TSP). Wherein, AEO is a newly developed algorithm based on the idea of the energy flow of living organisms in the ecosystem consisting of production, consumption and decomposition mechanisms. In order to improve the efficiency of the AEO for the TSP problem, the 2-opt movement technique is equipped to enhance the quality of the solutions created by the AEO. The effectiveness of AEO for the TSP problem has been verified on four TSP instances consisting of the 14, 30, 48 and 52 cities. Based on the calculated results and the compared results with the previous methods, the proposed AEO method is one of the effective approaches for solving the TSP problem.
Kinetics of the Reactions of Ozone with Halogen Atoms in the Stratosphere

It is well established that reaction cycles involving inorganic halogens contribute to the depletion of ozone in the atmosphere. Here, the kinetics of O3 with halogen atoms (Cl, Br, and I) were investigated between 180 and 400 K, expanding the temperature range relative to prior studies. Canonical variational transition state theory including small curvature tunneling correction (CVT/SCT) were considered, following the construction of the potential energy surfaces. MRCI + Q/aug-ano-pVTZ//MP2/aug-cc-pV(T + d)Z and MRCI + Q/aug-ano-RCC-VTZP//MP2/aug-cc-pV(T + d)Z levels of theory were used to calculate the kinetic parameters. Calculated rate coefficients were used to fit the Arrhenius equations, which are obtained to be k1 = (3.48 ± 0.4) × 10−11 exp[(−301 ± 64)/T] cm3 molecule−1 s−1, k2 = (3.54 ± 0.2) × 10−11 exp[(−990 ± 35)/T] cm3 molecule−1 s−1 and k3 = (1.47 ± 0.1) × 10−11 exp[(−720 ± 42)/T] cm3 molecule−1 s−1 for the reactions of O3 with Cl, Br, and I atoms, respectively. The obtained rate coefficients for the reactions of O3 with halogen atoms using CVT/SCT are compared to the latest recommended rate coefficients by the NASA/JPL and IUPAC evaluations. The reactivity trends and pathways of these reactions are discussed.
Motivating Bilevel Approaches To Filter Learning: A Case Study

The recent trend in regularization methods for inverse problems is to replace handcrafted sparsifying operators with data-driven approaches. Although using such machine learning techniques often improves image reconstruction methods, the results can depend significantly on the learning methodology. This paper compares two supervised learning methods. First, the paper considers a transform learning approach and, to learn the transform, introduces a variant on the Procrustes method for wide matrices with orthogonal rows. Second, we consider a bilevel convolutional filter learning approach. Numerical experiments show the learned transform performs worse for denoising than both the handcrafted finite difference transform and the learned filters, which perform similarly. Our results motivate the use of bilevel learning.
Shocks effects of inflation, money supply, and exchange rate on the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ): Asymmetric SVAR modelling

This paper has investigated the shocks effects of inflation, money supply, and exchange rate on the economies of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) from 1987 to 2019 using the Kapetanios-Shin-Snell nonlinear cointegration test, Kilian-Vigfusson asymmetric tests, and Hatemi technique that allows the estimation of Asymmetric Structural Vector Autoregressive (ASVAR) model. The findings revealed that in all the countries, the shocks effects of inflation, money supply, and exchange rate are asymmetric except in Guinea and inflation in Liberia. Furthermore, for Gambia and Nigeria, only money supply is impacting the economies, while for Ghana, Guinea, and Liberia, none of the variables is impacting the economies but for Serra Leone, money supply and exchange rate are impacting its economy. Moreover, all the countries have common sources of shocks emanating from monetary and exchange rate policies except Gambia, which is monetary policy only. Therefore, the paper recommends the members, especially Ghana, Guinea, and Liberia, a solemn effort on appropriate monetary and exchange rate policies to boost their economies. Also, since almost all the countries have common sources of shocks emanating from monetary and exchange rate policies, they can embark into the monetary integration.
Seasonal Evolution of the Chemical Composition of Atmospheric Aerosol in Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica)

Atmospheric aerosol samples were collected at Faraglione Camp, 3 km away from the Italian Mario Zucchelli Station (Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea), from 1 December 2013 to 2 February 2014. A two-step extraction procedure was applied to characterize the soluble and insoluble components of PM10-bound metals. Samples were analyzed for Al, Fe, Cd, Cu, and Pb by square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) and by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometer (GF-AAS). The mean atmospheric concentrations were (reported as means ± SD) Al 24 ± 3 ng m−3; Fe 23 ± 4 ng m−3; Cd 0.92 ± 0.53 pg m−3; Cu 43 ± 9 pg m−3, and Pb 16 ± 5 pg m−3. The fractionation pattern was metal-specific, with Al, Fe, and Pb mainly present in the insoluble fractions, Cd in the soluble one, and Cu equally distributed between the two fractions. The summer evolution showed overall constant behavior of both fractions for Al and Fe, while a bell-shaped trend was observed for the three trace metals. Cd and Cu showed a bell-shaped evolution involving both fractions. A seasonal increase in Pb occurred only for the insoluble fraction, while the soluble fraction remained almost constant. Sequential extraction and enrichment factors indicated a crustal origin for Al, Fe, and Pb, and additional (marine or anthropogenic) contributions for Cd and Cu. Back trajectory analysis showed a strong contribution of air masses derived from the Antarctic plateau. A potential low contribution from anthropized areas cannot be excluded. Further studies are necessary to better characterize the chemical composition of the aerosol, to discriminate between natural and anthropogenic sources, and to evaluate a quantitative source apportionment.
How Fast Does the Clock of Finance Run?—A Time-Definition Enforcing Stationarity and Quantifying Overnight Duration

A definition of time based on the assumption of scale invariance may enhance and simplify the analysis of historical series with cyclically recurrent patterns and seasonalities. By enforcing simple-scaling and stationarity of the distributions of returns, we identify a successful protocol of time definition in finance, functional from tens of minutes to a few days. Within this time definition, the significant reduction of cyclostationary effects allows analyzing the structure of the stochastic process underlying the series on the basis of statistical sampling sliding along the whole time series. At the same time, the duration of periods in which markets remain inactive is properly quantified by the novel clock, and the corresponding returns (e.g., overnight or weekend) can be consistently taken into account for financial applications. The method is applied to the S&P500 index recorded at a 1 min frequency between September 1985 and June 2013.