Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Default Effects of Credit Card Minimum Payments

Credit card minimum payments are designed to ensure that individuals pay down their debt over time, and scheduling minimum automatic repayments helps people avoid forgetting to repay. Yet minimum payments have additional, unintended psychological default effects by drawing attention away from the card balance due. First, once individuals set the minimum automatic repayment as the default, they then neglect to make the occasional larger repayments they made previously. As a result, individuals incur considerably more credit card interest than late payment fees avoided. Using detailed transaction data, the authors show that approximately 8% of all of the interest ever paid is due to this effect. Second, manual credit card payments are lower when individuals are prompted with minimum payment information. In an experiment, the authors test two new interventions to mitigate this effect—a prompt for full repayment and a prompt asking those repaying little to pay more—yielding large counter effects. Thus, shrouding the minimum payment option for automatic and manual payments and directing attention to the full balance may remedy the unintended effects of default minimum payments.
The structural repertoire of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici effectors revealed by experimental and computational studies

Plant pathogens secrete proteins, known as effectors, that function in the apoplast or inside plant cells to promote virulence. Effector recognition by cell-surface or cytosolic receptors results in the activation of defence pathways and plant immunity. Despite their importance, our general understanding of fungal effector function and recognition by immunity receptors remains poor. One complication often associated with effectors is their high sequence diversity and lack of identifiable sequence motifs precluding prediction of structure or function. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated that fungal effectors can be grouped into structural classes, despite significant sequence variation and existence across taxonomic groups. Using protein x-ray crystallography, we identify a new structural class of effectors hidden within the secreted in xylem (SIX) effectors from Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Fol). The recognised effectors Avr1 (SIX4) and Avr3 (SIX1) represent the founding members of the Fol dual-domain (FOLD) effector class, with members containing two distinct domains. Using AlphaFold2, we predicted the full SIX effector repertoire of Fol and show that SIX6 and SIX13 are also FOLD effectors, which we validated experimentally for SIX6. Based on structural prediction and comparisons, we show that FOLD effectors are present within three divisions of fungi and are expanded in pathogens and symbionts. Further structural comparisons demonstrate that Fol secretes effectors that adopt a limited number of structural folds during infection of tomato. This analysis also revealed a structural relationship between transcriptionally co-regulated effector pairs. We make use of the Avr1 structure to understand its recognition by the I receptor, which leads to disease resistance in tomato. This study represents an important advance in our understanding of Fol-tomato, and by extension plant-fungal interactions, which will assist the development of novel control and engineering strategies to combat plant pathogens.
Field Investigation of Acoustic Performance of Various Asphalt Surface Mixes

This study investigates the level and trend of tire/pavement noise on pavements with various asphalt surface mixes, and the effect of mix design factors on tire/pavement noise. Noise data were collected on the California highway network, using a newly-developed on-board sound intensity (OBSI) method, in three consecutive years from various asphalt pavements. Results show that tire/pavement noise generally increases with pavement age. Compared to conventional dense-graded mixes, open-graded mixes and rubberized gap-graded mixes can reduce noise, but with different noise reduction life spans. Open-graded mixes can retain noise reduction benefits for about five to seven years, while gap-graded mixes can only retain the benefit for a short period. The noise reduction benefit mainly comes from higher air-void contents in the open- or gap-graded mixes, while the rougher surfaces of open- or gap-graded mixes contribute to the increase of noise at low frequency levels.
Identifying target sites for placental therapeutics through the comparison of normal term pregnancies and intrauterine growth restricted proteomes

A variety of pathologies, including intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), have been linked to placental insufficiencies as important causal factors, however, little has been done to develop therapeutics that may improve placental development, structure and function. The placenta offers the opportunity to manipulate the in-utero environment without directly intervening with the fetus, accessible from the maternal circulation, a vital but temporary organ, the placenta is no longer required after birth. Developing therapeutics must involve multiple aspects of targeting and safety to ensure no off-target impact on the pregnant person or fetus as well as enhance efficiency of delivery. In addition to our studies on nanoparticle delivery to the placenta [1] we are developing targeting strategies to allow peripheral delivery via the maternal circulation. In this study we have performed the isolation of the microvillous membrane from human placental syncytiotrophoblast (the targeting cell) and via proteomic analysis identified potential targeting moieties, we have then compared this to publicly available data from pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction to ensure that we do not identify targets which would be reduced in FGR, resulting in less efficient targeting. Highlights Proteomic analysis detected key genes, proteins, and pathways present in the syncytiotrophoblast membrane of normal placentas. Specific membrane proteins identified show promise for future characterization of placental pathologies, such as IUGR. Proteomes of normal and diseased placentas require further study to better understand the etiology of certain conditions.
Turning ghosts into dragons: improving camera monitoring outcomes for a cryptic low-density Komodo dragon population in eastern Indonesia

Abstract Context. Detection probability is a key attribute influencing population-level wildlife estimates necessary for conservation inference. Increasingly, camera traps are used to monitor threatened reptile populations and communities. Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) populations have been previously monitored using camera traps; however, considerations for improving detection probability estimates for very low-density populations have not been well investigated. Aims. Here we compare the effects of baited versus non-baited camera monitoring protocols to influence Komodo dragon detection and occupancy estimates alongside monitoring survey design and cost considerations for ongoing population monitoring within the Wae Wuul Nature Reserve on Flores Island, Indonesia. Methods. Twenty-six camera monitoring stations (CMS) were deployed throughout the study area with a minimum of 400 m among CMS to achieve independent sampling units. Each CMS was randomly assigned as a baited or non-baited camera monitoring station and deployed for 6 or 30 daily sampling events. Key results. Baited camera monitoring produced higher site occupancy estimates with reduced variance. Komodo dragon detection probability estimates were 0.15 ± 0.092–0.22 (95% CI), 0.01 ± 0.001–0.03, and 0.03 ± 0.01–0.04 for baited (6 daily survey sampling events), unbaited (6 daily survey sampling events) and long-unbaited (30 daily survey sampling events) sampling durations respectively. Additionally, the provision of baited lures at cameras had additional benefits for Komodo detection, survey design and sampling effort costs. Conclusions. Our study indicated that baited cameras provide the most effective monitoring method to survey low-density Komodo dragon populations in protected areas on Flores. Implications. We believe our monitoring approach now lends itself to evaluating population responses to ecological and anthropogenic factors, hence informing conservation efforts in this nature reserve.
Genotyping and Association of the Presence of Helicobacter Pylori in Dental Plaque and Gastric Biopsy Specimens in Dyspeptic Patients by PCR-RFLP Technique in Southwest of Iran

The oral cavity can act as an extra gastric reservoir for H pylori, and also the presence of the bacteria in the oral cavity is associated with a higher risk of dental caries development. The aim of this study was to determine the genotype and evaluate the association of the presence of H. pylori in dental plaque and gastric biopsy specimens in dyspeptic patients in Ahvaz, Southwest of Iran. In this study, 106 patients with recruited dyspeptic complaints were selected and from each patient, two gastric antral biopsy specimens and two dental plagues were examined. The presence of H. pylori was identified by the Rapid Urease Test (RUT) and the amplification of ureAB and 16S rRNA genes. Also, to verify a hypothetical mouth-to-stomach infection route, the enzymatic digestions of three genes of cagA, vacA, and ureAB in H. pylori strains isolated from dental plaques and stomach samples were compared for each same case. H. pylori was found in the stomach of 52.8% (56 /106) and the dental plaques of 17.9% (19/106) of the studied cases. On the other hand, H. pylori was recognized in the stomach of all 19 cases with oral colonization. Following a combination of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of these three known genes on stomach and dental plague samples, 14 and 11 unique patterns were seen, respectively. However, for all H. pylori-positive cases (19), the comparison of RLFP patterns of these genes in the dental plaque and gastric biopsy specimens was different for the same case. This study showed, no significant association was observed between the presence of H. pylori in dental plaque and the stomach of the same case.
Muscles in Winter: The Epigenetics of Metabolic Arrest

The winter months are challenging for many animal species, which often enter a state of dormancy or hypometabolism to “wait out” the cold weather, food scarcity, reduced daylight, and restricted mobility that can characterize the season. To survive, many species use metabolic rate depression (MRD) to suppress nonessential metabolic processes, conserving energy and limiting tissue atrophy particularly of skeletal and cardiac muscles. Mammalian hibernation is the best recognized example of winter MRD, but some turtle species spend the winter unable to breathe air and use MRD to survive with little or no oxygen (hypoxia/anoxia), and various frogs endure the freezing of about two-thirds of their total body water as extracellular ice. These winter survival strategies are highly effective, but create physiological and metabolic challenges that require specific biochemical adaptive strategies. Gene-related processes as well as epigenetic processes can lower the risk of atrophy during prolonged inactivity and limited nutrient stores, and DNA modifications, mRNA storage, and microRNA action are enacted to maintain and preserve muscle. This review article focuses on epigenetic controls on muscle metabolism that regulate MRD to avoid muscle atrophy and support winter survival in model species of hibernating mammals, anoxia-tolerant turtles and freeze-tolerant frogs. Such research may lead to human applications including muscle-wasting disorders such as sarcopenia, or other conditions of limited mobility.
The Effects of Virtual Reality Treatment on Prefrontal Cortex Activity in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder: Participatory and Interactive Virtual Reality Treatment Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Attempts to use virtual reality (VR) as a treatment for various psychiatric disorders have been made recently, and many researchers have identified the effects of VR in psychiatric disorders. Studies have reported that VR therapy is effective in social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, there is no prior study on the neural correlates of VR therapy in patients with SAD. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to find the neural correlates of VR therapy by evaluating the treatment effectiveness of VR in patients with SAD using portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). METHODS Patients with SAD (n=28) were provided with 6 sessions of VR treatment that was developed for exposure to social situations with a recording system of each participant’s self-introduction in VR. After each VR treatment session, the first-person view (video 1) and third-person view (video 2) clips of the participant’s self-introduction were automatically generated. The functional activities of prefrontal regions were measured by fNIRS while watching videos 1 and 2 with a cognitive task, before and after whole VR treatment sessions, and after the first session of VR treatment. We compared the data of fNIRS between patients with SAD and healthy controls (HCs; n=27). RESULTS We found that reduction in activities of the right frontopolar prefrontal cortex (FPPFC) in HCs was greater than in the SAD group at baseline (t=–2.01, P=.049). Comparing the frontal cortex activation before and after VR treatment sessions in the SAD group showed significant differences in activities of the FPPFC (right: t=–2.93, P<.001; left: t=–2.25, P=.03) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (right: t=–2.10, P=.045; left: t=–2.21, P=.04) while watching video 2. CONCLUSIONS Activities of the FPPFC and OFC were associated with symptom reduction after VR treatment for SAD. Our study findings might provide a clue to understanding the mechanisms underlying VR treatment for SAD. CLINICALTRIAL Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS) KCT0003854; https://tinyurl.com/559jp2kp
Variant Histology: The Impact on Oncological Outcomes of Patients with Urothelial Carcinoma of The Bladder Treated with Radical Cystectomy

Berk Hazır, Hakan Bahadır Haberal, Kadir Emre Baltacı, Parviz Shahsuvarli, Bülent Akdoğan, Cenk Yücel Bilen, Mustafa Sertaç Yazıcı What’s known on the subject? and What does the study add? The association of variant histologies of bladder cancer with prognosis is a current debate in the literature. Our study illustrates that variant histologies of bladder cancer are related to poor survival rate. However, lymph node metastasis have been identified as the most significant factor for overall and cancer-specific survival. Variant Histology: The Impact on Oncological Outcomes of Patients with Urothelial Carcinoma of The Bladder Treated with Radical Cystectomy Doi: 10.4274/jus.galenos. 2021.2021. 0015
Predictive role of the monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients receiving anti-PD-1 therapy

Background The immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICIs) therapy has been proven effective in a range of solid tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), non-small cell lung carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. However, only a subset of approximately 20% of patients shows an objective response to anti-PD-1 therapy in HCC. Furthermore, the response to anti-PD-1 therapy is not correlated with programmed cell death 1 ligand expression in tumor tissue. Therefore, it is urgent to identify a biomarker to predict the response of anti-PD-1 therapy. Methods This retrospective study was conducted at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center from December 2019 to June 2021. The monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) was analyzed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. A Cox regression model and the log-rank test were used to analyze the relationship between the MLR value and the time to progression (TTP). Results A total of 34 advanced HCC patients were enrolled in this study. The cut-off point for the MLR at baseline was 0.35. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models showed that the MLR at baseline was significantly correlated with the TTP (P<0.05). Consistent results were found for disease progression. The log-rank test showed that patients in the low MLR group had a longer TTP (P=0.0027). At the time of disease progression, the median TTP in the low and high MLR groups were 33 and 18 weeks, respectively (P=0.0047). Conclusions The MLR can predict the response to anti-PD-1 therapy, and a high MLR is correlated with a short TTP in anti-PD-1-treated HCC patients.
Miles away: determining the extent of secondary task interference on simulated driving

There is a seemingly perennial debate in the literature about the relative merits of using a secondary task as a measure of spare attentional capacity. One of the main drawbacks is that it could adversely affect the primary task, or other measures of mental workload. The present experiment therefore addressed an important methodological issue for the dual-task experimental approach–that of secondary task interference. The current experiment recorded data in both single- and dual-task scenarios to ascertain the level of secondary task interference in the Southampton Driving Simulator. The results indicated that a spatial secondary task did not have a detrimental effect on driving performance, although it consistently inflated subjective mental workload ratings. However, the latter effect was so consistent across all conditions that it was not considered to pose a problem. General issues of experimental design, as well as wider implications of the findings for multiple resources theory, are discussed.
Modelling of Long and Short Term Blood Pressure Control Systems

Blood pressure levels are tightly controlled in the body by a variety of interconnected mechanisms at the short-, medium- and long-term scale. In pathophysiological conditions, blood pressure may be chronically elevated above normal levels, which can lead to the development of cardiovascular disease and increased mortality. Building a complete picture of the mechanisms involved in blood pressure control is vital for the development of a better understanding of the processes that may lead to hypertension. Mathematical models of physiological systems can greatly aid in our understanding of the systems under study, and can also be used in teaching and research tools. This thesis develops a range of mathematical models of various blood pressure control systems and present a diverse set of generic modelling tools, which can be applied to other aspects of human physiology also. A set of nonlinear grey-box models of varying complexities are developed in this thesis to model the process of salt-induced hypertension in Dahl rats. The models successfully replicate the multiphasal response of blood pressure to high salt intake and provide information on the magnitudes and time scales of the various response components. The renal vasculature response to sympathetic nerve activity is also modelled by a nonlinear grey-box model. The model represents the renal blood ow response to electrical renal nerve stimulation, under the condition of renal denervation, which can aid in the development of an overall model of the neural control of blood pressure. In contrast, a linear black-box modelling approach is taken in this thesis to represent the arterial barore ex, since barore ex impairment has been associated with a number of conditions such as hypertension, myocardial infarction and heart failure. A measure of the gain of the barore ex, the barore ex sensitivity index, can be a useful diagnostic and prognostic tool in cardiology. This thesis develops a rigorous system identifcation approach to barore ex sensitivity estimation, based on a linear black-box model of the barore ex. Finally, this thesis presents a novel visual, hierarchical, implementation of Arthur Guyton's famous integrative physiology model (Guyton et al., 1972b), in a modelling and simulation environment, which could potentially facilitate its use and further development.
Effect of Truck Suspension and Tire Properties on Pavement Damage Spatial Distribution

Strain energy is stored within pavement by a measured distribution of heavy vehicle traffic. A simulation methodology based on this strain energy is proposed to study the spatial distribution of pavement damage. Stored energy in the model depends on the magnitude and speed of the tire loads and on the pavement response. Pavement response is a function of different asphalt binder and mix properties, including temperature, softening temperature, void content, and penetration index. Aggregated stored energy for measured heavy vehicle traffic is obtained in terms of suspension stiffness and damping and tire stiffness properties. A pavement–traffic model is derived after linear in-plane vehicle models are integrated with the distributed pavement model. The accumulated stored energy is compared with AASHO test data to validate the proposed methodology. Results for the spatial concentration of the potential road damage revealed that normalized-to-average difference between the maximum and minimum values for pavement potential damage along the road profile is a function of pavement roughness, with average values of approximately 45%, 20%, and 11.5% for rough, medium-rough, and smooth pavements, respectively. Variations in normalized road damage concentration because of changing suspension and tire properties are from 40% to 50% for a rough pavement, from 18% to 22% for a medium-rough pavement, and from 9% to 14% for a smooth pavement.
The Brain-Gut-Microbiome System: Pathways and Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Gastrointestinal dysfunction is one of the most prevalent physiological symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A growing body of largely preclinical research suggests that dysbiotic gut microbiota may modulate brain function and social behavior, yet little is known about the mechanisms that underlie these relationships and how they may influence the pathogenesis or severity of ASD. While various genetic and environmental risk factors have been implicated in ASD, this review aims to provide an overview of studies elucidating the mechanisms by which gut microbiota, associated metabolites, and the brain interact to influence behavior and ASD development, in at least a subgroup of individuals with gastrointestinal problems. Specifically, we review the brain-gut-microbiome system and discuss findings from current animal and human studies as they relate to social-behavioral and neurological impairments in ASD, microbiota-targeted therapies (i.e., probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation) in ASD, and how microbiota may influence the brain at molecular, structural, and functional levels, with a particular interest in social and emotion-related brain networks. A deeper understanding of microbiome-brain-behavior interactions has the potential to inform new therapies aimed at modulating this system and alleviating both behavioral and physiological symptomatology in individuals with ASD.
Effect of Corporate Tax on Government Expenditure in Nigeria

The study investigated the impact of corporate income tax on the government expenditure in Nigeria. Data on corporate income tax, value added tax, interest rate, gross domestic product, petroleum profit tax and consumer price index were collected and used as independent variable in the study while data on public expenditure were collected and used as independent variable in the estimated model. The ARDL bound test was applied and the result showed that corporate income tax have long run relationship that is significant with government expenditure. Other forms of tax such as value added tax and petroleum profit tax also have significant impact on government expenditure. The study concluded that corporate income tax should be sustained in order to ensure that government continue to fulfill her obligation of provision of social amenities that will promote the economic growth of the country.