Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative study between bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell and their conditioned medium in the treatment of rat model of Parkinsonism

Parkinsonism is one of the most common aging neurodegenerative disorders. This study aims to compare the therapeutic effect of stem cell versus its conditioned medium in the Parkinsonism model. Parkinsonism was induced by daily subcutaneous injection of 0.5 mg/kg of rotenone dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide for 28 days. Fifty rats were divided randomly into five groups: control, dimethyl sulfoxide, Parkinsonism, stem cell‐treated, and conditioned medium‐treated groups. Midbrain specimens were obtained for histological, immunohistochemical, and biochemical studies. Lewy bodies were observed in the Parkinsonism group in the dopaminergic neuron and neuropil as well. Almost all of the pathological changes were clearly ameliorated in both stem cell‐ and conditioned medium‐treated groups as confirmed by biochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical (anti‐nestin, anti‐glial fibrillary acidic protein, and anti‐α synuclein) studies. However, the conditioned medium showed more superior therapeutic effect establishing nearly the normal histological architecture of substantia nigra. These results may pave the future for using stem cell‐conditioned medium as a more convenient and effective adjuvant therapy in Parkinsonism and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Emergence of RBD and D614G Mutations in Spike Protein: An Insight from Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Analysis

Currently, entire world is crumbled due to COVID-19 caused by novel SARS-CoV-2. Globally, over 5 million people are infected by SARS-CoV-2 with 6% fatality rate. The surface spike (S) protein plays a key role in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 by mediating viral entry through human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptors on the host cell and there is a big global race to find viral neutralizing antibodies and vaccine against S protein of SARS-CoV-2. Since SARS-CoV-2 evolved into 10 different clades in a very short span, a study on sipke protein mutation is essential to have effective vaccine coverage globally. Based on the mutation analysis of S protein from 166 Indian SARS-CoV-2 genome, a total of 40 different SNPs comprising of 14 synonymous and 26 non-synonymous mutations were observed, and notably, Indian S protein diverged into two major clusters, D614 and G614, with 11 different types. Majority of Indian strains fall in A2a and O clusters. Alarmingly, we have observed six SNPs at RBD and notably two of them at RBM (S438F and S494P). S494P SNP, similar to Bat–SARS like-CoV, may indicate a low ACE2 binding affinity. Interestingly 38% of Indian strains harbor a characteristic D614G SNP which was found predominantly in A2a cluster, mostly comprising USA and European strains with high disease severity. The association of disease severity with D614G SNP is well-correlated in states with high death rate except Maharashtra. Notably, more than 50% of D614G mutation were observed in Northern part of India and 14% in Southern part but not in Kerala and Tamil Nadu strains. Highly conserved motif, D614 (608-VAVLYQDVNCT-618) in upstream and also few downstream, of S1/S2 furin cleavage site may indicate specific key role in efficient interaction with host proteases in pathogenesis. Further studies are warranted to clarify the impact of SD614G SNP association to disease severity . Interestingly, C2367T (Y789Y) synonymous SNP is observed in 37% of Indian strains and notably similar SNPs with degeneracy bases were observed which is a key indication for the possibility of misdiagnosis by Real-Time PCR and revised strategies are needed for the precise diagnosis. Circulation of high number of signature SNPs [D614G and C2367T (Y789Y)] in certain states may be an early indication of emergence of community transmission in India. Further large genome sequence data from India will aid in deep understanding on the diversity of circulating SASR-Cov-2 and its impact on disease severity, origin of imported cases to India, community spread, effect on diagnosis and vaccine coverage.
Revisiting the relation between momentum and scalar roughness lengths of urban surfaces

Large‐Eddy Simulations (LESs) of neutral flow over regular arrays of cuboids are conducted to explore connections between momentum (z0m) and scalar (z0s) roughness lengths in urban environments, and how they are influenced by surface geometry. As LES resolves the obstacles but not the micro‐scale boundary layers attached to them, the aforementioned roughness lengths are analyzed at two distinct spatial scales. At the micro‐scale (roughness of individual facets, e.g., roofs), it is assumed that both momentum and scalar transfer are governed by accepted arguments for smooth walls that form the basis for the LES wall‐model. At the macro‐scale, the roughness lengths are representative of the aggregate effects of momentum and scalar transfer over the resolved roughness elements of the whole surface, and hence they are directly computed from the LES. The results indicate that morphologically based parametrizations for macro‐scale z0m are adequate overall. The relation between the momentum and scalar macro‐roughness values, as conventionally represented by log(z0m/z0s) and assumed to scale with Re∗n (where Re∗ is a roughness Reynolds number), is then interpreted using surface renewal theory (SRT). SRT predicts n = 1/4 when only Kolmogorov‐scale eddies dominate the scalar exchange, whereas n = 1/2 is predicted when large eddies limit the renewal dynamics. The latter is found to better capture the LES results. However, both scaling relations indicate that z0s decreases when z0m increases for typical urban geometries and scales. This is opposite to how their relation is usually modelled for urban canopies (i.e., z0s/z0m is a fixed value smaller than unity).
Population characteristics and taxonomy of lantern fishes of genus Diaphus (Family Myctophidae) off south west coast of India

Globally most of the conventional fish stocks have reached a state of optimum exploitation or even over-exploitation; efficient utilization of non-conventional resources is necessary to meet the supply-demand gap for protein supply. Mesopelagic fishes can be considered as one such promising resource for the future, if appropriate harvest and post-harvest technologies are developed. Increasing human population and increasing demand for cheaper food fishes has made myctophids a possible potential resource for future exploitation and utilization. Earlier studies indicated the abundance of Diaphus spp. in the eastern and northeastern Arabian Sea. The present study also indicates the dominance of Diaphus spp. in the deep sea trawling grounds of south west coast of India.
Joint Developmental Trajectories of Bullying and Victimization from Childhood to Adolescence: A Parallel-Process Latent Class Growth Analysis

Previous studies have shown that bullying and victimization can be experienced simultaneously by an individual and can change over time. Understanding the joint longitudinal development of the two is of great significance. We conducted a 4-year longitudinal study to examine the joint developmental trajectories of bullying and victimization, gender and grade differences in trajectory group membership, and changes in specific forms of bullying and victimization (verbal, relational, and physical bullying /victimization) in each trajectory group. A total of 775 children from China participated in our study. The average age of participants at the first wave was 10.90 years (SD = 1.12), and boys accounted for 69.5% of the sample. Based on mean scores, four distinct joint developmental trajectories of bullying and victimization were found: the involvement group (both bullying and victimization increased from low to high over time, accounting for 7.6% of the total), the desisted group (both bullying and victimization decreased from high to low over time, 6.1%), the victimization group (victimization remained at a high level, whereas bullying remained at a low level for 3 years, 13.2%), and the noninvolved group (bullying and victimization remained at a stable low level, 73.1%). Boys were more likely than girls to belong to the involvement group, desisted group, and victimization group, whereas girls were more likely than boys to belong to the noninvolved group. There was no significant grade difference in the trajectory group. All forms of bullying/victimization were consistent with the overall trend and showed similar levels. These results have important implications for the prevention of and interventions for school bullying.
Ecomorphology of Migratory and Sedentary Populations of the Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Dendroica Coronata)

Abstract We contrast patterns of variation in morphological traits of migratory and sedentary forms of the Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata) to test functional predictions regarding the evolution of traits related to flight. Sedentary individuals are larger than migrants in all traits except bill width and depth. However, when traits are adjusted for body size differences using multivariate approaches, migrants have longer and more concave wings than do individuals from sedentary populations, suggesting selection for high–aspect ratio wings for fast, sustained flight. Subadults have relatively shorter and rounder wings than do adults of all subspecies except for the long-distance migrant D. c. coronata, and age-related differences are most pronounced in short-distance migrants. We propose a graphic model for the evolution of age-related differences in wing shape that is based on the role of antagonistic selective pressures imposed by migratory flight vs. maneuverability. Size-adjusted differences in tail length are not significant. Longer culmens and tarsi in the sedentary D. c. goldmani subspecies of Guatemala suggest differences in diet and foraging behavior compared to migratory groups. Our results strongly suggest that divergent natural selection has caused the morphological differentiation between migratory and sedentary subspecies.
The Gender Differences in Science Achievement, Interest, Habit, and Creativity: A national representative evidence from China

In this study, we explored the gender differences in science achievement, interest, creativity, and so on, using a national representative sample from the National Assessment of Education Quality (NAEQ). NAEQ assessed the Grade-4 (n = 112,314) and Grade-8 (n = 74,808) students’ scientific literacy of Mainland China in 2017. The findings indicated that there was no gender difference of science academic achievement in both Grade 4 and Grade 8 in China. However, scientific interests varied in different grades and disciplines. Girls had a higher interest in science in Grade 4 and higher interest in biology in Grade 8. The 8th-grade boys had much higher creativity than girls (p 1.1), while the girls had slight greater variability in creativity (0.9 < VR <1.0). Our results provide a reliable Chinese evidence for international studies on gender differences. However, further research is demanded to study the reasons behind gender differences deeply.
MAIN DEFECTS AND DETERIORATIONS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN THE ABANDONED HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES OF LITHUANIA

Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Vytautas Magnus University. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. MAIN DEFECTS AND DETERIORATIONS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN THE ABANDONED HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES OF LITHUANIA
Market structure and efficiency in Swedish commercial banking, 1912–1938

ABSTRACT This article investigates the link between market structure and performance in the Swedish commercial banking industry between 1912 and 1938. During this period, new market regulation was introduced with the intention to encourage large-scale banking. As a result, the industry entered a far-reaching consolidation phase. These market structure changes coincided with industrial development and progress. For this reason, it has commonly been assumed that the new regime fostered banks with capacity to efficiently supply the industry with financial services. However, hitherto, no comprehensive analyses on the actual impact of these policy changes on the performance of the banks have been conducted. We examine this impact by measuring the efficiency of Swedish commercial banks by constructing a Malmquist index based on technical efficiency scores derived from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We use fractional regression analysis to examine the impact of market concentration and bank mergers on efficiency. We find that market concentration had a decidedly negative impact on the average efficiency of the Swedish commercial banking industry during this period. While large financial intermediaries may have been necessary to channel capital into the large-scale industrial and infrastructural projects of the time, it came at the cost of increased deadweight losses.
Exploring the link between green manufacturing, operational competitiveness, firm reputation and sustainable performance dimensions: a mediated approach

The aim of this study is to explore the link between green manufacturing practices, operational competitiveness, firm reputation and sustainable performance dimensions as well as advance a mediation approach. ,The study resorted to structured questionnaire to collect data from 158 manufacturing firms from different industries, and partial least square–structural equation modelling is used to test all hypothesized relationships. ,The results indicate that green manufacturing has a positive significant impact on social, economic and environmental performance. However, firm reputation and operational competitiveness were found not to significantly influence economic performance. The mediation analysis also showed that operational competitiveness, firm reputation and environmental performance play no mediation role between green manufacturing and economic performance. Furthermore, social performance is found to mediate the relationship between green manufacturing and economic performance. ,The study did not consider any moderator variables. Also, the universal applicability and generalizability are somewhat a problem since data was mainly collected from Ghana, an emerging country. ,The results provide managers with reasonable evidence to proactively implement and invest in green manufacturing practices because such practices will not only have a positive impact on their sustainable performance dimensions but further enhance operational competitiveness and provide firms with superior reputation. ,The study provides significant findings that contribute to and expand the literature on green manufacturing, and it is among the relatively few studies that has investigated the link between green manufacturing, sustainable performance dimensions, firm reputation and operational competitiveness, especially from a mediation analysis perspective.
The Impacts of Cultural and Emotional Intelligence on Hotel Guest Satisfaction: Asian and Non-Asian Perceptions of Staff Capabilities

ABSTRACT This study examines the impacts of frontline hotel employees’ emotional intelligence (EI) and cultural intelligence (CQ) on guests’ satisfaction, and uniquely captures guests’ perceptions of staff capabilities. The results of a survey conducted with Asian and non-Asian respondents suggest there is a strong positive relationship between employee EI and CQ. More significantly, non-Asian hotel guests perceived higher employee EI and CQ than Asian hotel guests. Finally, both employee EI and CQ had positive and significant impact on overall satisfaction, nevertheless, CQ had a much stronger prediction of overall satisfaction than EI. The paper examines the implications of these findings for human resource practices with particular reference to businesses targeting culturally diverse market segments. The conclusion also considers the potential for future studies to expand research based on consumer’s conceptions and perceptions of frontline staffs’ EI and CQ capabilities in alternative hospitality and service domains.
Challenges of PD-L1 testing in non-small cell lung cancer and beyond

J Thorac Dis 2020;12(8):4541-4548 | http://dx.doi. org/10.21037/jtd-2019-itm-010 Treatment options and clinical outcomes for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have recently been transformed with the introduction of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), including antibodies targeting programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). In advanced NSCLC patients with no epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) genomic tumour aberrations, anti-PD-1/PD-L1 given either as a monotherapy or combined with chemotherapy had superior efficacy over standard chemotherapy (1). Accordingly, nivolumab (OPDIVO, Bristol-Myers Squibb) (2); pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA, Merck Sharp & Dohme) (3); atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ, Roche/ Genentech) (4); and durvalumab (IMFINZI, MedImmune/ AstraZeneca) (5) have achieved regulatory approval for advanced NSCLC (Table 1). These agents are expensive and have side effects that may lead to life-threatening toxicity. To maximise clinical benefits and spare unnecessary cost and toxicity, the challenge remains to stratify patients so that the most appropriate treatment options are selected. To achieve this, along with regulatory approval, immunohistochemistry (IHC) for PD-L1 expression was also approved as either a companion or complementary diagnostic test (Table 1). Although PD-L1 testing is now established as a routine clinical practice, challenges remain. Clinical trial data showed not all patients with high PD-L1 expression responded to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, and responses were observed in PD-L1 low, or even PD-L1 negative patients (11,14,17,20). By contrast, biomarkers such as EGFR and ALK typically guide clinical management with clear binary results as either positive or negative. PD-L1 testing differs as the staining is often heterogeneous. PD-L1 is expressed transiently on various cell types in the tumour, and rarely only on cancer cells. More importantly, its expression can alter when tumour cells encounter immune effector cells in the tumour microenvironment and may be affected by previous treatment such as chemotherapy or targeted drug therapy. Another critical factor is the variable PD-L1 staining cut-off used in different clinical trials (6,7,9,10,21); this can affect the response rate. For example, in the KEYNOTE-024 trial (6), in which pembrolizumab was shown to be superior to platinum-based chemotherapy, the PD-L1 tumour proportion score (TPS) was ≥50%. However, in the CheckMate 026 trial, in which the TPS was ≥1% (21), there was no difference in the response rate. Furthermore, how PD-L1 staining is quantified can be influenced by various factors including site and method of biopsy, which antibody is used, and the staining methodology, including which platform is used in the IHC assay and which cell type/s are included in the analysis (Figure 1). This review will primarily discuss these major challenges of PD-L1 testing in clinical practice and update the results regarding biomarker analysis in NSCLC.
A Foundation for Cue-Triggered Behavior

Exposure to environmental cues triggers sudden preference reversals in several choice contexts, including consumption and intertemporal, social, and risky choices. This paper introduces a dual-self model of cue-triggered behavior that (1) is based on a general mechanism that makes it applicable to many choice contexts, (2) allows a sharp comparative analysis of the responsiveness to cues, (3) can explain a wide range of behavioral anomalies, from a cue-triggered present bias to high-frequency variations in social and risk preferences, and (4) can inform the design of managerial interventions and advertising strategies employing environmental cues. Testable restrictions combining choice and nonchoice data fully characterize the model. This paper was accepted by Manel Baucells, decision analysis.
Chilling stress and oxygen metabolizing enzymes in Zea mays and Zea diploperennis

Abstract. The activities of five active-oxygen scavenging enzymes were compared for cold-lability and three were compared for chilling induction in two Zea genotypes of contrasting susceptibility to photoinhibition during chilling. Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), ascorbate peroxidase (APX, EC 1.11.1.11), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR, EC 1.6.5.4), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR, EC 1.8.5.1), and glutathione reductase (GTR, EC 1.6.4.2) in leaf extracts from plants grown without chilling stress were assayed at 19°C and 5°C. Enzymes from the chilling-susceptible Z. Mays cv. LG11 had lower specific activities at 5°C than did enzymes from the chilling-tolerant Z. diploperennis, except for MDHAR where no significant differences were observed. The activities of SOD and APX from Z. diploperennis were double those of Z. mays at both assay temperatures. Monodehydroa-scrobate reductase and glutathione reductase activities in both species were reduced by 63–78% at a 5°C assay temperature. The dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) showed the greatest low-temperature lability losing 96% (Z. diploperennis) and 100% (Z. mays) of its activity at 5°C. To examine possible chilling-induced changes in levels of enzyme activity, plants of both Zea genotypes were transferred to growth chambers at 10°C at moderate light intensities. Glutathione reductase activity was found to increase within 24h in Z. diploperennis, but it decreased slightly in Z. mays. MDHAR activity decreased by 50% in Z. diploperennis but showed only a transient increase in activity in Z. mays.
Perceptions, Competencies and Motivation for Study Choice: Occupational Therapy and Social Work Student Perspectives

Caring for others is one of the most important attributes for individuals who want to be occupational therapists or social workers. Students are not necessarily aware of the challenges and responsibilities of the helping relationship. Deeper insights are needed into these aspects in order to train and prepare students to become competent, work-ready professionals. This study therefore aimed to describe student beliefs about their chosen profession, the competencies they perceived were most important to develop, and their motivators for their choice of profession. In this explorative study, 51 first-year students from occupational therapy (22 students) and social work (29 students) participated in individual semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically. Although participants had difficulty defining their future profession, they agreed it was all about helping people. A range of competencies was identified, such as establishing interpersonal relationships, sensitivity to difference, communication, flexibility, and teamwork. Differences emerged according to the chosen profession, such as creativity and imagination for occupational therapy students, and administrative skills and the desire to effect change for social work students. Concerning the choice of profession, most participants wanted to help others and engage in human relationships. Diversity and variety of tasks were also attractive elements of both professions. From the beginning of the program, educational institutions should describe more clearly occupational therapy and social work, so that students can develop a realistic vision of their future profession.