Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Affinity for Technology and Teenagers' Learning Intentions

A rising number of activities are aiming at promoting interest and learning of Computer Science among teenagers. The focus of these activities is often not only on learning but also on promoting engagement and interest. To achieve these goals, activities might adopt innovative learning approaches, e.g. multi-disciplinary problem-based learning, and technologies, like micro-processors and Internet of Things (IoT). A growing body of knowledge shows the potential benefits of these activities, which are often evaluated by students as fun and engaging. But does this motivate students to continue and learn more about the subject? In this paper we propose that affinity for technology (AFT) may play an important role in explaining teenagers' perception and intention to continue learning. Building on and extending the expectancy-value theoretical model, we examine the relationship between AFT and learning intentions. In particular, we assess whether subjective task values serve as explanatory links. The theorized model was tested with data obtained from a sample of 108 secondary school students (aged between 13-18) who participated in the same learning activity. Analyses were conducted using linear regression and the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Results revealed that AFT was positively related to continuous learning intentions, and this relationship was mediated by perceived usefulness, but not by enjoyment. Additionally, this relationship was not moderated by age or gender. These findings help to fill the missing link between AFT and continuous learning intentions by establishing perceived usefulness as an important mediating mechanism. The study can help educators by identifying an important factor affecting the intentions of students to continue learning.
Herbivores at the highest risk of extinction among mammals, birds, and reptiles

Herbivores have the highest representation of at-risk species in the present day, the recent past, and the late Pleistocene. As a result of their extensive home ranges and slow population growth rates, predators have often been perceived to suffer higher risks of extinction than other trophic groups. Our study challenges this extinction-risk paradigm by quantitatively comparing patterns of extinction risk across different trophic groups of mammals, birds, and reptiles. We found that trophic level and body size were significant factors that influenced extinction risk in all taxa. At multiple spatial and temporal scales, herbivores, especially herbivorous reptiles and large-bodied herbivores, consistently have the highest proportions of threatened species. This observed elevated extinction risk for herbivores is ecologically consequential, given the important roles that herbivores are known to play in controlling ecosystem function.
SparTANN: sparse training accelerator for neural networks with threshold-based sparsification

While sparsity has been exploited in many inference accelerators, not much work is done for training accelerators. Exploiting sparsity in training accelerators involves multiple issues, including where to find sparsity, how to exploit sparsity, and how to create more sparsity. In this paper we present a novel sparse training architecture that can exploit sparsity in gradient tensors in both back propagation and weight update computation. We also propose a single-pass sparsification algorithm, which is a hardware-friendly version of a recently proposed sparse training algorithm, that can create additional sparsity aggressively during training. Our experimental results using large networks such as AlexNet and GoogleNet demonstrate that our sparse training architecture can accelerate convolution layer training time by 4.20~8.88× over baseline dense training without accuracy loss, and further increase the training speed by 7.30~11.87× over the baseline with minimal accuracy loss.
Daxx maintains endogenous retroviral silencing and restricts cellular plasticity in vivo

Daxx loss causes coordinate dysregulation of ERVs and protein-coding genes after physiologic stress and impairs tissue recovery. Tumor sequencing studies have emphasized the role of epigenetics and altered chromatin homeostasis in cancer. Mutations in DAXX, which encodes a chaperone for the histone 3.3 variant, occur in 25% of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs). To advance our understanding of physiological functions of Daxx, we developed a conditional Daxx allele in mice. We demonstrate that Daxx loss is well tolerated in the pancreas but creates a permissive transcriptional state that cooperates with environmental stress (inflammation) and other genetic lesions (Men1 loss) to alter gene expression and cell state, impairing pancreas recovery from inflammatory stress in vivo. The transcriptional changes are associated with dysregulation of endogenous retroviral elements (ERVs), and dysregulation of endogenous genes near ERVs is also observed in human PanNETs with DAXX mutations. Our results reveal a physiologic function of DAXX, provide a mechanism associated with impaired tissue regeneration and tumorigenesis, and expand our understanding of ERV regulation in somatic cells.
Fentanyl vapor self-administration model in mice to study opioid addiction

Fentanyl vapor self-administration in mice provides a novel and noninvasive model to study opioid addiction. Intravenous drug self-administration is considered the “gold standard” model to investigate the neurobiology of drug addiction in rodents. However, its use in mice is limited by frequent complications of intravenous catheterization. Given the many advantages of using mice in biomedical research, we developed a noninvasive mouse model of opioid self-administration using vaporized fentanyl. Mice readily self-administered fentanyl vapor, titrated their drug intake, and exhibited addiction-like behaviors, including escalation of drug intake, somatic signs of withdrawal, drug intake despite punishment, and reinstatement of drug seeking. Electrophysiological recordings from ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons showed a lower amplitude of GABAB receptor–dependent currents during protracted abstinence from fentanyl vapor self-administration. This mouse model of fentanyl self-administration recapitulates key features of opioid addiction, overcomes limitations of the intravenous model, and allows investigation of the neurobiology of opioid addiction in unprecedented ways.
Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Mental Health Outcomes Among Chinese College Students During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

Objectives To investigate the prevalence and risk factors for poor mental health of Chinese university students during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Method Chinese nation-wide on-line cross-sectional survey on university students, collected between February 12th and 17th, 2020. Primary outcome was prevalence of clinically-relevant posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Secondary outcomes on poor mental health included prevalence of clinically-relevant anxiety and depressive symptoms, while posttraumatic growth was considered as indicator of effective coping reaction. Results Of 2,500 invited Chinese university students, 2,038 completed the survey. Prevalence of clinically-relevant PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, and post traumatic growth (PTG) was 30.8, 15.5, 23.3, and 66.9% respectively. Older age, knowing people who had been isolated, more ACEs, higher level of anxious attachment, and lower level of resilience all predicted primary outcome (all p < 0.01). Conclusions A significant proportion of young adults exhibit clinically relevant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxious or depressive symptoms, but a larger portion of individuals showed to effectively cope with COVID-19 pandemic. Interventions promoting resilience should be provided, even remotely, to those subjects with specific risk factors to develop poor mental health during COVID-19 or other pandemics with social isolation.
Prognostic Impact of Tumor Extension in Patients With Advanced Temporal Bone Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective: The extreme rarity of temporal bone squamous cell carcinoma (TB-SCC) has delayed the accumulation of high-quality clinical evidence. Our objective here was to explore anatomical factors associated with the prognosis of T4 TB-SCC cases. Study Design: Case series with chart review. Setting: Two academic tertiary care medical centers. Subjects and Methods: The medical records of all TB-SCC cases were retrospectively reviewed in two institutions. The resulting data set contained 30 cases of primary T4 cancer eligible for initial definitive (curative) treatment. Disease-specific survival was calculated according to the Kaplan–Meier method. Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify anatomical prognosis factors. Results: The disease-specific 5-years survival rate of 30 cases of T4 TB-SCC was 53.9%. The tumor invasion to the pterygoid muscle, posterior fossa dura, and sigmoid sinus and destruction of the ossicles were associated with poor prognosis in univariate analysis. The multivariate analysis reveals that the invasion of the ossicles, posterior fossa dura, and sigmoid sinus is an independent prognostic factor [hazard ratio (HR): 4.528 (95% CI: 1.161–17.658), p = 0.030; HR: 5.135 (95% CI: 1.616–16.315), p = 0.006; HR: 4.292 (95% CI: 1.385–13.303), p = 0.012]. The invasion of the carotid canal, petrous apex, middle fossa dura, otic capsule, pterygoid muscle, and middle ear had a high HR (HR > 2). The more invaded anatomical factors present in patients resulted in a poorer patient disease-specific prognosis, with a statistically significant difference. Conclusions: Assessing which anatomical structures are susceptible to invasion by tumors may be important for predicting TB-SCC patient prognosis and selecting appropriate treatment planning, especially surgical intervention. In addition to previously reported factors, the destruction of the ossicles in the middle ear cavity can be an anatomical prognosis factor.
Medicinal Plants as Sources of Active Molecules Against COVID-19

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection has been declared world pandemic causing a worrisome number of deaths, especially among vulnerable citizens, in 209 countries around the world. Although several therapeutic molecules are being tested, no effective vaccines or specific treatments have been developed. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, different traditional herbal medicines with promising results have been used alone or in combination with conventional drugs to treat infected patients. Here, we review the recent findings regarding the use of natural products to prevent or treat COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, the mechanisms responsible for this preventive or therapeutic effect are discussed. We conducted literature research using PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and WHO website. Dissertations and theses were not considered. Only the situation reports edited by the WHO were included. The different herbal products (extracts) and purified molecules may exert their anti-SARS-CoV-2 actions by direct inhibition of the virus replication or entry. Interestingly, some products may block the ACE-2 receptor or the serine protease TMPRRS2 required by SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells. In addition, natural products were shown to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 life-cycle related proteins such as papain-like or chymotrypsin-like proteases. In conclusion, we suggest that natural products could be used alone or in combination as alternative medicines to treat/prevent COVID-19 infection. Moreover, their structures may offer clues for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs.
Effects of Task on Reading Performance Estimates

Reading is a primary problem for low vision patients and a common functional endpoint for eye disease. However, there is limited agreement on reading assessment methods for clinical outcomes. Many clinical reading tests lack standardized materials for repeated testing and cannot be self-administered, which limit their use for vision rehabilitation monitoring and remote assessment. We compared three different reading assessment methods to address these limitations. Normally sighted participants (N = 12) completed MNREAD, and two forced-choice reading tests at multiple font sizes in counterbalanced order. In a word identification task, participants indicated whether 5-letter pentagrams, syntactically matched to English, were words or non-words. In a true/false reading task, participants indicated whether four-word sentences presented in RSVP were logically true or false. The reading speed vs. print size data from each experiment were fit by an exponential function with parameters for reading acuity, critical print size and maximum reading speed. In all cases, reading speed increased quickly as an exponential function of text size. Reading speed and critical print size significantly differed across tasks, but not reading acuity. Reading speeds were faster for word/non-word and true/false reading tasks, consistent with the elimination of eye movement load in RSVP but required larger text sizes to achieve those faster reading speeds. These different reading tasks quantify distinct aspects of reading behavior and the preferred assessment method may depend on the goal of intervention. Reading performance is an important clinical endpoint and a key quality of life indicator, however, differences across methods complicate direct comparisons across studies.
Interleukin-27 Functional Duality Balances Leishmania Infectivity and Pathogenesis

IL-27 is a cytokine that exerts diverse effects on the cells of innate and adaptive immune systems. Chiefly expressed in macrophages and dendritic cells during the early phase of Leishmania infection, IL-27 contributes to the protection against L. major infection but suppresses the protective Th1 response against L. donovani, L. infantum, L. amazonensis and L. braziliensis infections, suggesting its functional duality. During the late stage of Leishmania infection, IL-27 limits the immunopathogenic reactions and tissue damages. Herein, we analyze the mechanism of the functional duality of IL-27 in the resistance or susceptibility to Leishmania infection, prompting IL-27 for anti-Leishmanial therapy.
Fermentation of Wheat Bran and Whey Permeate by Mono-Cultures of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus Strains and Co-culture With Yeast Enhances Bioactive Properties

The aim of this work was to obtain a bioingredient (BI) with bioactive properties through the solid fermentation of a wheat bran-whey permeate (WB/WP) mixture with three strains of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus (R0011, ATCC 9595, and RW-9595M) in mono or co-culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The choice of these strains was based on their capacity to produce the same exopolysaccharide (EPS), but at different yields. The solid fermentation of WB/WP revealed a similar growth pattern, sugar utilization and metabolite production between strains and types of culture. Lactic acid, soluble protein, free amino acid and phenolic compound content in BI were compared to NFWB. Water soluble polysaccharides (including EPS) were significantly increased in co-culture for (44%) ATCC 9595, (40%) R0011 and (27%) RW-9595M. The amount of bound Total Phenolic Content (TPC) as well as the antioxidant activity in BI were higher after fermentation. The free phenolic acid content was higher after fermentation with ATCC 9595 (53–59%), RW-9595M (45–46%), and R0011 (29–39%) compared to non-fermented NFWB. Fermentation by these strains increased the amounts of free caffeic acid and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid in both types of culture. The bound phenolic acid content was enhanced in co-culture for the BI obtained from the highest EPS producer strain RW-9595M which was 30% higher than NFWB. After in vitro digestion, bioaccessibility of free total phenolic acids was improved by more than 40% in BI compared to NFWB. The co-culture increased recovery of TPC (%) and antioxidant activity compared to monoculture for the strains in digested product. In contrast, the recovery of bound total phenolic acids in co-culture was 33 and 38% lower when compared to monoculture for R0011 and RW-9595M. Our findings provide new insights into the impact of LAB/yeast co-culture on the bioactive properties of fermented wheat bran.
Distributed Code for Semantic Relations Predicts Neural Similarity during Analogical Reasoning

The ability to generate and process semantic relations is central to many aspects of human cognition. Theorists have long debated whether such relations are coarsely coded as links in a semantic network or finely coded as distributed patterns over some core set of abstract relations. The form and content of the conceptual and neural representations of semantic relations are yet to be empirically established. Using sequential presentation of verbal analogies, we compared neural activities in making analogy judgments with predictions derived from alternative computational models of relational dissimilarity to adjudicate among rival accounts of how semantic relations are coded and compared in the brain. We found that a frontoparietal network encodes the three relation types included in the design. A computational model based on semantic relations coded as distributed representations over a pool of abstract relations predicted neural activities for individual relations within the left superior parietal cortex and for second-order comparisons of relations within a broader left-lateralized network.
Decoding non-conscious thought representations during successful thought suppression

Controlling our own thoughts is central to mental wellbeing and its failure is at the crux of a number of mental disorders. Paradoxically, behavioural evidence shows that thought-suppression often fails. Despite the broad importance of understanding the mechanisms of thought control, little is known about the fate of neural representations of suppressed thoughts. Using functional MRI, we investigated the brain areas involved in controlling visual thoughts and tracked suppressed thought representations using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA). Participants were asked to either visualize a vegetable/fruit or suppress any visual thoughts about those objects. Surprisingly, the content (object identity) of successfully suppressed thoughts was still decodable in visual and executive areas with algorithms trained on perception or imagery. This suggests that pictorial representations of the suppressed thoughts are still present despite individuals reporting they are not. Thought generation was associated with the left hemisphere, whereas thought suppression with right hemisphere engagement. Further, GLM analyses showed that subjective success in thought suppression was correlated with engagement of executive areas, while thought-suppression failure was associated with engagement of visual and memory related areas. These results reveal that the content of suppressed thoughts exist hidden from awareness, seemingly without an individual’s knowledge, providing a compelling reason why thought suppression is so ineffective. These data inform models of unconscious thought production and could be used to develop new treatment approaches to disorders involving maladaptive thoughts.
The Seasonal Succession of Biotic Communities in Wetlands of the Tropical Wet‐and‐Dry Climatic Zone: IV. The Free‐Living Sarcodines and Ciliates of the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, Brazil

This fourth paper in a series on the effects of the wet-and-dry climate on the northern Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil, provides an outline of the seasonal activity of sarcodine and ciliate species. Both of these groups of protozoans include grazers on bacteria and algae, predators, and omnivores. Apparently because of their more complex trophic relationships and competition from small metazoans, the fauna of these groups in the Pantanal is considerably less rich in species than the alga flora, and the populations of most species remain small throughout the year. The presence of only 97 species was recorded during a period of study lasting about three and a half years. While the number of testacean species encountered is not notably less than expected, the number and diversity of the ciliate fauna are remarkably low compared to those encountered not only in the eutrophic waters of the temperate zones but also in water bodies in the eastern part of Brazil. The species found are almost exclusively cosmopolitan or circumtropical in distribution.
Home mechanical ventilation for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Canadian Thoracic Society clinical practice guideline

Abstract Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder involving both upper and lower motor neurons that results in progressive weakness of skeletal muscles. Regardless of site of first onset, death usually occurs as a result of progressive respiratory muscle involvement, with 50% of patients dying within three years of symptom onset. Mechanical ventilation is becoming increasingly accepted in ALS. In Canada, noninvasive ventilation is the most common form of ventilation applied, with tracheostomy ventilation being very uncommon. The current guideline addresses respiratory muscle testing, the benefits of mechanical ventilation in ALS, timing of initiation of ventilation and modes, settings and place of initiation. It also reviews diaphragm pacing and respiratory muscle training. Finally, given the challenges involved with tracheostomy ventilation in ALS, the question of tracheostomy ventilation is addressed.
Recurrent Factorization Machine with Self-Attention for Time-aware Service Recommendation

With the emergence of a flood of Web services which makes it difficult for users to find suitable services from a series of similar services. How to provide users with personalized services that utilize sequential historical records has become the key issue in service recommendation. In recent years, Factorization Machine(FM) and long Short Term Memory(LSTM) has been proposed for sequential service recommendation. However, FM ignored dynamic long-term dependencies that change over time between users and services. In addition, LSTM has the problem of vanishing gradient and exploding gradient simultaneously. To address this challenges,we proposed a novel model that combined Gated Recurrent Unit with Self-Attention (SAGRU) and Projected Factorization Machine (PFM), namely Recurrent Factorization Machine (RFM) . The new model comes with three innovations: 1) Self-Attention is considered in our model through assigning different weights for service records for extracting an interpretable user-service-time tensor embedding. 2) A bottleneck structure is designed in downstream candidate output for compressing the encoded information and suppressing the noise. 3) Through comprehensive experiments on real-world dataset, it is proved that this method is significantly better than other state-of-the-art time-aware methods in service recommendation.