Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suppression of Aflatoxin Biosynthesis in Aspergillus flavus by 2-Phenylethanol Is Associated with Stimulated Growth and Decreased Degradation of Branched-Chain Amino Acids

The saprophytic soil fungus Aspergillus flavus infects crops and produces aflatoxin. Pichia anomala, which is a biocontrol yeast and produces the major volatile 2-phenylethanol (2-PE), is able to reduce growth of A. flavus and aflatoxin production when applied onto pistachio trees. High levels of 2-PE are lethal to A. flavus and other fungi. However, at low levels, the underlying mechanism of 2-PE to inhibit aflatoxin production remains unclear. In this study, we characterized the temporal transcriptome response of A. flavus to 2-PE at a subinhibitory level (1 µL/mL) using RNA-Seq technology and bioinformatics tools. The treatment during the entire 72 h experimental period resulted in 131 of the total A. flavus 13,485 genes to be significantly impacted, of which 82 genes exhibited decreased expression. They included those encoding conidiation proteins and involved in cyclopiazonic acid biosynthesis. All genes in the aflatoxin gene cluster were also significantly decreased during the first 48 h treatment. Gene Ontology (GO) analyses showed that biological processes with GO terms related to catabolism of propionate and branched-chain amino acids (valine, leucine and isoleucine) were significantly enriched in the down-regulated gene group, while those associated with ribosome biogenesis, translation, and biosynthesis of α-amino acids were over-represented among the up-regulated genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis revealed that metabolic pathways negatively impacted among the down-regulated genes parallel to those active at 30 °C, a condition conducive to aflatoxin biosynthesis. In contrast, metabolic pathways positively related to the up-regulated gene group resembled those at 37 °C, which favors rapid fungal growth and is inhibitory to aflatoxin biosynthesis. The results showed that 2-PE at a low level stimulated active growth of A. flavus but concomitantly rendered decreased activities in branched-chain amino acid degradation. Since secondary metabolism occurs after active growth has ceased, this growth stimulation resulted in suppression of expression of aflatoxin biosynthesis genes. On the other hand, increased activities in degradation pathways for branched-chain amino acids probably are required for the activation of the aflatoxin pathway by providing building blocks and energy regeneration. Metabolic flux in primary metabolism apparently has an important role in the expression of genes of secondary metabolism.
Understanding Consumers’ Sustainable Consumption Intention at China’s Double-11 Online Shopping Festival: An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior Model

Double-11 shopping festival has become the largest national shopping festival in China. This study investigates the effect of the atmosphere during the Double-11 shopping festival on Chinese people’s sustainable consumption by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A survey on a sample of 404 Chinese consumers showed that the atmosphere specific to China’s Double-11 shopping festival was negatively associated with consumers’ purchase intention toward sustainable consumption. Moreover, the negative relationship was mediated by consumers’ attitude toward sustainable consumption, the subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control.
Productivity Spillovers Through Backward Linkages: The Role of the Origin of Investors and Absorptive Capacity of Domestic Firms

We argue that multinationals from different home countries have different technologies and input sourcing behavior. These differences impinge on potential productivity spillovers through backward linkages of multinationals and such effects also differ across host local firms depending on their absorptive capacity. Using a panel of Cameroonian manufacturing firms over the period 1993 to 2005, we find supportive evidence of these arguments. There is a negative relationship between the presence of American and European affiliates in downstream sectors and the productivity of Cameroonian firms in the supplying industries and a positive correlation in the case of Asian affiliates. The absorptive capacity of Cameroonian firms mainly explains these divergent results.
Comparison of in silico tools for evaluating rat oral acute toxicity†

Different in silico models have been developed and implemented for the evaluation of mammalian acute toxicity, exploring acute oral toxicity data expressed as median lethal dose (LD50). We compared five software programs (TOPKAT, ACD/ToxSuite, TerraQSAR, ADMET Predictor and T.E.S.T.) using a dataset of 7417 chemicals. We tested the models’ performance using the quantitative results and, in classification, the toxicity threshold defined within the Classifying, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation. ACD gave the best results with r2 of 0.79 and 0.66 accuracy. However, its performance dropped when considering the molecules not present in its training set, and the other models behaved similarly. We also considered the information on the applicability domain (AD), which improved the models’ performance, but not enough for the molecules external to the models’ training set. We also considered the chemical classes and found that all models gave high performance for certain classes (e.g. hydrazones and sulphides) while other classes were always badly predicted (e.g. aromatic secondary amides).
Soil moisture retrieval under vegetation: Validation on TERENO observatories

The extensive field data base of the TERENO project is utilized to validate inversion results for soil moisture under vegetation within two terrestrial observatories (Central German Lowland Observatory and Lower Rhine Valley Observatory). The recently developed hybrid decomposition and inversion approach is applied to L-band fully polarimetric SAR data acquired within the TERENO campaign of 2011 by DLR's novel high resolution F-SAR sensor in order to investigate its potential. The soil moisture results state a spatially continuous inversion under vegetation with a RMSE between 3.2vol. % and 8.2vol. % for both observatories. Therefore the results are particularly suited for local analyses on the field level in contrast to soil moisture products with low resolution from passive microwave sensors on the catchment level.
Adeno-associated virus Rep protein inhibits human immunodeficiency virus type 1 production in human cells

The adeno-associated virus (AAV) rep gene encodes four proteins (Rep78, Rep68, Rep52, and Rep40) required for AAV DNA replication and AAV gene regulation. In addition, the Rep proteins may have pleiotropic regulatory effects in heterologous systems, and in particular Rep78 may mediate a negative regulatory effect. We analyzed the effects of the AAV rep gene on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gene expression. The rep gene proteins of AAV type 2 (AAV2) inhibited the trans-activating ability of HIV-1. Constructs containing the AAV2 rep gene (pHIVrep) or a CAT gene (pBennCAT) expressed from the 5' HIV-1 long terminal repeat were inducible for Rep78 and Rep68 or CAT expression, respectively, when cotransfected with a plasmid containing the HIV-1 tat gene (pARtat). When equivalent amounts of pHIVrep and pBennCAT were cotransfected with increasing amounts of pARtat, expression of CAT activity was decreased. The pHIVrep construct was more inhibitory than plasmids expressing rep from the wild-type AAV2 p5 transcription promoter. rep expression from pHIVrep almost completely inhibited the replication of an HIV-1 proviral clone as measured by reverse transcriptase activity and p24 protein levels. Inhibition of HIV-1 production by Rep protein was also seen at the transcriptional level in that all HIV-1 transcripts were decreased when pHIVrep was present. The inhibitory effects of pHIVrep appear to be mediated primarily by Rep78 and perhaps Rep68. These results suggest that a trans-acting protein from a heterologous virus might be used to inhibit HIV-1 growth.
Extreme construction: making agile accessible

In recent years agile software development methodologies have become important. Extreme programming (XP) is perhaps the best known of these. XP involves about a dozen key practices that work synergistically to provide quality software in an environment in which change is likely to occur. Here we present an exercise that we have developed and used successfully to train novices in the techniques. This exercise is novel in that it is accessible to programmers and non-programmers alike. In an industrial setting, this makes it available to managers and customers. In the educational setting, it becomes possible to teach the techniques to novices before they have learned any programming. It is intended for those who require some deep understanding of the synergies of agile methodology. Extreme construction is a game that is both fun and informative. It teaches the fundamentals of any agile methodology while helping build a closely-knit team
AR 2.0: Social Media in Mobile Augmented Reality

The goal of this thesis is to design, implement and evaluate novel techniques for integrating social media into handheld Augmented Reality (AR) applications. Augmenting the physical environment with information is an idea prospected for over twenty years within the AR research community. The availability of mobile phones as an affordable platform for mobile AR applications lead for the first time to a wide awareness of the public. For instance, AR browsers, applications that allow users to browse information registered to places or objects in the real world, are now installed on several millions of phones. Despite the fact that AR browsers have arrived in the mass market, we argue that they are solely used for browsing information while at the same time lacking in amount and variety of information that can be accessed. This is caused by the current authoring tools aiming at professionals and do not permit a spontaneous creation of content in place, while also focussing on rather simple content forms. In the first part of this thesis, we want to shed light on the adoption of AR browsers to the public, by presenting results of two conducted studies. The results are later used for developing the concept of Augmented Reality 2.0 as the next evolution of Augmented Reality. Augmented Realities 2.0 utmost concern is to not only see users of AR applications as consumers, but also as a producers of content (”Prosumer”). In preparations for our implemented prototypes, we present fundamental technologies such as a precise tracking for handheld devices and an AR framework that can be used to implement AR 2.0 applications. In the second part of this thesis, we present novel prototypes integrating social media in various forms into mobile AR applications. Lastly, an assessment of these prototypes is done based on user feedback and observations made through user studies. This thesis extends the current understanding on the adoption of AR browsers and gives requirements helping developers to make informed design decision when building next generation AR browsers relying on user-generated content.
A weighted Fama-MacBeth two-step panel regression procedure

ABSTRACT We propose a weighted Fama-MacBeth (FMB) two-step panel regression procedure and compare the properties of the usual unweighted versus our proposed weighted FMB procedures through a Monte Carlo simulation study. We find evidence that when the cross-sectional regression explanatory power changes over time as well as the standard errors of the coefficient estimates, the proposed weighted FMB procedure produces more efficient coefficient estimators and more powerful tests compared to the usual unweighted FMB procedure across various model specifications in terms of the sampling distribution, sample size, and time-series distribution.
The presentation of early-onset psychotic disorders

Objective: This study aims to describe the clinical course of psychotic disorders, including the premorbid history, symptoms and level of functioning in a group of children and adolescents treated by paediatric mental health services, mainly as inpatients. Method: A sample of 45 children and adolescents with a psychotic disorder (mean age 13.2 years) was assessed using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, parent interviews and file audit. The symptoms of those with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) were compared to those with a mood disorder (MD). Results: This population showed a high level of premorbid impairment, including previous treatment for other psychiatric disorders. As well as hallucinations and delusions, high levels of self-harm, aggression, anxiety and depression were reported. The SSD and MD groups differed mainly in their levels of premorbid functioning. Conclusions: While it is well known that childhood-onset schizophrenia is a severe disorder with a poor outcome, this study found that young people diagnosed with other psychotic disorders also have significant impairment and are likely to require high levels of care to maximize their functional recovery.
Loss of HCF-1–Chromatin Association Precedes Temperature-Induced Growth Arrest of tsBN67 Cells

ABSTRACT Human HCF-1 is a large, highly conserved, and abundant nuclear protein that plays an important but unknown role in cell proliferation. It also plays a role in activation of herpes simplex virus immediate-early gene transcription by the viral regulatory protein VP16. A single proline-to-serine substitution in the HCF-1 VP16 interaction domain causes a temperature-induced arrest of cell proliferation in hamster tsBN67 cells and prevents transcriptional activation by VP16. We show here that HCF-1 is naturally bound to chromatin in uninfected cells through its VP16 interaction domain. HCF-1 is chromatin bound in tsBN67 cells at permissive temperature but dissociates from chromatin before tsBN67 cells stop proliferating at the nonpermissive temperature, suggesting that loss of HCF-1 chromatin association is the primary cause of the temperature-induced tsBN67 cell proliferation arrest. We propose that the role of HCF-1 in cell proliferation is to regulate gene transcription by associating with a multiplicity of DNA-bound transcription factors through its VP16 interaction domain.
The Role of CD38 in Fcγ Receptor (FcγR)-mediated Phagocytosis in Murine Macrophages*

Background: Ca2+ signaling in FcγR-mediated phagocytosis is unclear. Results: We show that FcγR-mediated phagocytosis requires the production of cyclic ADP-ribose by CD38. Conclusion: CD38 plays a crucial role for Ca2+ signaling in FcγR-mediated phagocytosis. Significance: This study provides new perspectives in immune defense and can help shed light on developing novel methods or drugs for manipulating bacterial infections. Phagocytosis is a crucial event in the immune system that allows cells to engulf and eliminate pathogens. This is mediated through the action of immunoglobulin (IgG)-opsonized microbes acting on Fcγ receptors (FcγR) on macrophages, which results in sustained levels of intracellular Ca2+ through the mobilization of Ca2+ second messengers. It is known that the ADP-ribosyl cyclase is responsible for the rise in Ca2+ levels after FcγR activation. However, it is unclear whether and how CD38 is involved in FcγR-mediated phagocytosis. Here we show that CD38 is recruited to the forming phagosomes during phagocytosis of IgG-opsonized particles and produces cyclic-ADP-ribose, which acts on ER Ca2+ stores, thus allowing an increase in FcγR activation-mediated phagocytosis. Ca2+ data show that pretreatment of J774A.1 macrophages with 8-bromo-cADPR, ryanodine, blebbistatin, and various store-operated Ca2+ inhibitors prevented the long-lasting Ca2+ signal, which significantly reduced the number of ingested opsonized particles. Ex vivo data with macrophages extracted from CD38−/− mice also shows a reduced Ca2+ signaling and phagocytic index. Furthermore, a significantly reduced phagocytic index of Mycobacterium bovis BCG was shown in macrophages from CD38−/− mice in vivo. This study suggests a crucial role of CD38 in FcγR-mediated phagocytosis through its recruitment to the phagosome and mobilization of cADPR-induced intracellular Ca2+ and store-operated extracellular Ca2+ influx.
Interleukin‐5 enhances eosinophil adhesion to bronchial epithelial cells

Eosinophil–bronchial epithelial cell interactions are thought to be central to the pathogenesis of asthma, both in terms of the epithelium as a source of pro‐inflammatory mediators and as a target for eosinophil‐mediated damage. We have therefore investigated adhesion interactions between these two cell types.
Effects of social work practice on practitioners’ spirituality

ABSTRACT Increased attention to the intersection between spirituality/religion and social work has led to improved understanding of the importance of these influences in the lives of social workers and the people they serve. The effects of social work practice on practitioner spirituality, however, have not been adequately examined. A sample of social workers were surveyed to explore how their social work practice has influenced their spirituality. Three means of influence were found: practice can serve as a source of spirituality of new spiritual knowledge and growth; practice can support existing, fixed spiritual beliefs and values; and denial of influence of practice on spirituality. The findings suggest needed changes in organizational practice as well as social work education.
Optimal force magnitude loaded to orthodontic microimplants: A finite element analysis.

OBJECTIVE To find an optimal force that can be loaded onto an orthodontic microimplant to fulfill the biomechanical demands of orthodontic treatment without diminishing the stability of the microimplant. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using the finite element analysis method, 3-D computer-aided design models of a microimplant and four cylindrical bone pieces (incorporating cortical bone thicknesses of 0.5, 1.2, 2.0, and 3.0 mm) into which the microimplant was inserted were used. Various force magnitudes of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 N were then horizontally and separately applied to the microimplant head as inserted into the different bone assemblies. For each bone/force assembly tested, peak stresses developed at areas of intimate contact with the microimplant along the force direction were then calculated using regression analysis and compared with a threshold value at which pathologic bone resorption might develop. RESULTS The resulting peak stresses showed that bone pieces with thicker cortical bone tolerated higher force magnitudes better than did thinner ones. For cortical bone thicknesses of 0.5, 1.2, 2.0, and 3.0 mm, the maximum force magnitudes that could be applied safely were 3.75, 4.1, 4.3, and 4.45 N, respectively. CONCLUSIONS For the purpose of diminishing orthodontic microimplant failure, an optimal force that can be safely loaded onto a microimplant should not exceed a value of around 3.75-4.5 N.
Alpha-2 Adrenergic Receptor Agonists are Neuroprotective in Experimental Models of Glaucoma

Purpose The glaucomas are characterized by chronic progressive ganglion cell loss over many years. A drug with neuroprotective activity should increase the resistance of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) to chronic stress or injury and therefore enhance survival. Brimonidine is a highly selective and potent alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonist, which lowers intra-ocular pressure (IOP) and is neuroprotective. Immunohistochemistry data have shown that the specific receptor targets, the alpha-2 receptors, are located in the inner retina. Methods Brimonidine 0.1 mg/kg given intraperitoneally promoted RGC survival compared with vehicle using the optic nerve crush model even when administered up to 24 hours before injury. Using the chronic ocular hypertensive rat model, brimonidine 1 mg/kg/day (with osmotic pump) significantly prevented the loss of RGCs when compared with vehicle or timolol. This ability was due to the neuroprotective action of brimonidine, since it did not affect IOP. In addition, brimonidine 0.1 mg/day reached concentrations in the retina of Sprague-Dawley rats within 30 minutes of injection, which was sufficient to activate the alpha-2 receptor (≥ 2 nM) and maintained these concentrations for 6 hours. Conclusions Having demonstrated that: a. the specific receptor target of brimonidine is located in the retina, which is important for optic neuroprotection, b. the agent shows neuroprotective ability in animal models, c. pharmacological concentrations of the drug can be reached in the retina, clinical trial has been initiated to determine whether brimonidine is neuroprotective in patients with nonarteritic ischaemic optic neuropathy.
A Theory-based Approach to Understanding Follow-up of Abnormal Pap Tests

We applied a general theoretical framework to understand intentions to attend recommended follow-up for abnormal Pap results. Participants were 338 women attending university-affiliated clinics. Intention was associated with favorable attitudes toward follow-up (OR = 5.3); perceiving attending follow-up as consistent with one's self-concept (OR = 3.0); self-efficacy (OR = 1.8); and believing one would be told exactly what is wrong (OR = 1.3). Intention was negatively associated with believing the problem could be avoided by not returning for follow-up (OR = 0.75). Beliefs, affect and attitudes differed by race and ethnicity (all p < .05). Attendance at follow-up was related to attitude and self-concept (both p < .05). Results have implications for theory development and patient education.
An iterative learning scheme for high performance, periodic quadrocopter trajectories

Quadrocopters allow the execution of high-performance maneuvers under feedback control. However, repeated execution typically leads to a large part of the tracking errors being repeated. This paper evaluates an iterative learning scheme for an experiment where a quadrocopter flies in a circle while balancing an inverted pendulum. The scheme permits the non-causal compensation of periodic errors when executing the circular motion repeatedly, and is based on a Fourier series decomposition of the repeated tracking error and compensation input. The convergence of the learning scheme is shown for the linearized system dynamics. Experiments validate the approach and demonstrate its ability to significantly improve tracking performance.
80Gb/s multi-level BPSK experiment with an InP-monolithic source based on prefixed optical phase switching

Improved-speed full-monolithic BPSK transmitter based on prefixed phase switching by fast Electro-Absorption Modulators has been realized on InP using a Selective Area Growth integrating circuit technology. It has been used in 80Gb/s multi-level BPSK format modulation experiments. Simplicity, speed scalability, ultra-small footprint and low power drive of the monolithic circuit are attractive for advanced format migration towards low-cost applications.
Conditional Expectiles, Time Consistency and Mixture Convexity Properties

We study conditional expectiles, defined as a natural generalisation of conditional expectations by means of the minimisation of an asymmetric quadratic loss function. We show that conditional expectiles can be equivalently characterised by a conditional first order condition and we derive their main properties. For possible applications as dynamic risk measures, we discuss their time consistency properties.