Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Communication, Social Networks and Sustainable Development Goals: A Reflection From the Perspective of Social Marketing and Happiness Management in the General Elections in Spain

The challenges imposed by the global development agenda imply reflecting on the role and contribution of political parties to development processes in the online environment. Social networks have been characterised as a part of the strategies of political campaigns, as it allows political leaders to establish bidirectional communication with citizens. In this context, the present study aims to empirically explore the leading Spanish political formations' publications from a social marketing perspective. In this way, it will be possible to verify how issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are addressed. On the one hand, this requires elaborating the communication profiles of the main political parties presented to the Spanish General Elections from 2015 to 2019. On the other hand, to analyse whether social themes better discriminate or distinguish one political party from another. For this purpose, a methodology based on text mining, content analysis from a quantitative and qualitative approach, and simple correspondence analysis has been used. Finally, it should be noted that the results of this research show that there are differences between political parties according to the social issues published, with a divergence between the social issues that provoke a better reaction from the public and those most published on Facebook.
Review on power electronic boost converters

ABSTRACT This paper reviews a family of power electronic high voltage gain dc-dc boost converters. The dc-dc boost converter acts as an interface between the renewable sources and the utility grid. Over the last few years, many topologies have been developed on the basis of boost converter topology. Among these, some important topologies are discussed and compared with various parameters such as voltage gain, switching element stress, voltage stress on the diodes, and component count. Conventional boost converter topology starts with switching voltage multiplier techniques and then introduces a coupled inductor. Several topologies have been developed by integrating these coupled inductors with voltage multiplier circuits to achieve a high voltage gain and reduce stress. This work provides an introduction, framework, and review of high voltage gain power electronic dc-dc boost converters.
Alkynyl ethers of dextrans as Intermediates for new Functional Biopolymers

Due to wide use in medical applications and biocompatibility, dextran is an interesting polysaccharide. In this thesis, O-alkynyl ethers of dextran were studied due to the special properties and reactivity of terminal alkynes. Pentynyl dextrans (PyD) were prepared using 5-chloro-1-pentyne and Li-dimsyl in DMSO and characterized by elemental analysis, ATR-IR, NMR spectroscopy, GLC and ESI-MS. Monomer analysis of PyD after methanolysis and trimethylsilylation showed substitution following the order O-2 > O-4 ≥ O-3. PyD (DS 0.43) complexation with Ag forms a product containing 24% Ag which after reduction with formic acid displayed Ag nanoparticles of diameter 4-10 nm. For further functionalyzation, different azides i.e. 2-azidoethylamine, 3-azido-1-propanol, 6-azido-N-Boc-hexylamine, 4-azidobutyric acid, 3-azido-1-propanethiol, N-biotinyl-2-aminoethylazide and α-tocopheryl azide were reacted in a copper-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with PyD. In all reactions ca. 60-100% of pentynyl groups were converted. Click product with a biotinyl derivative was shown to bind streptavidin, labeled with a fluorophor in solution as well as after spin-coating. In further studies PyD was tested for its ability to immobilize lipase (from R. arrhizus) and was compared with commercial adsorbents. In this comparative investigation, PyD-lipase turned out to be superior to all ion-exchange resin-based biocatalysts with regard to esterifcation activity, storage stability and reuseabilty.
Efficacy of Lactobacillus fermentum Isolated from the Vagina of a Healthy Woman against Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella Infections In Vivo

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) that produce Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase are increasingly reported worldwide and have become more and more resistant to nearly all antibiotics during the past decade. The emergence of K. pneumoniae strains with decreased susceptibility to carbapenems, which are used as a last resort treatment option, is a significant threat to hospitalized patients worldwide as K. pneumoniae infection is responsible for a high mortality rate in the elderly and immunodeficient individuals. This study used Lactobacillus fermentum as a candidate probiotic for treating CRE-related infections and investigated its effectiveness. We treated mice with L. fermentum originating from the vaginal fluid of a healthy Korean woman and evaluated the Lactobacilli’s efficacy in preventive, treatment, non-establishment, and colonization mouse model experiments. Compared to the control, pre-treatment with L. fermentum significantly reduced body weight loss in the mouse models, and all mice survived until the end of the study. The oral administration of L. fermentum after carbapenemresistant Klebsiella (CRK) infection decreased mortality and illness severity during a 2-week observation period and showed that it affects other strains of CRK bacteria. Also, the number of Klebsiella bacteria was decreased to below 5.5 log10 CFU/ml following oral administration of L. fermentum in the colonization model. These findings demonstrate L. fermentum’s antibacterial activity and its potential to treat CRE infection in the future.
Lateralized motor behaviour in the righting responses of the cane toad (Rhinella marina)

ABSTRACT This paper reports a series of tests for fore- and hind-limb preferences used by cane toads, Rhinella marina, to assist returning to the righted position after being overturned. We confirm the strong and significant right-handedness reported in this species, which under certain conditions exceeded 90% right-hand preference at the group level. Toads were tested under a variety of conditions including horizontal and inclined surfaces, with and without the opportunity for the forelimbs to grasp a support, in order to assess the effects of different vestibular and proprioceptive input on the strength and direction of fore- and hind-limb preferences. A range of behavioural strategies indicated learning effects; however, the strength or direction of limb preferences did not increase significantly with experience, even in toads retested multiple times. Comparisons with the mammalian condition for limb preferences are discussed with relevance to practice effects and established limb preferences, and to effects associated with arousal or stress. In contrast to the expectation that handedness in toads represents intentional or voluntary preferences, the presence of lateralized central pattern generators in the toads is postulated to explain the different forms of lateralization revealed by our tests.
Down-regulation of aflatoxin biosynthetic genes in Aspergillus parasiticus by Heliopsis longipes roots and affinin for reduction of aflatoxin production

Abstract Affinin present in Heliopsis longipes roots has been identified as an anti-aflatoxin molecule. However, its mechanism of action has yet to be clarified. Aflatoxins biosynthesis involves not less than 27 enzymatic reactions. In this work, the genes aflG, aflH, aflI, aflK, aflL, aflM, aflO, aflP, and aflQ of the aflatoxins cluster and the aflS gene encoding an internal regulatory factor involved in aflatoxins biosynthesis in Aspergillus parasiticus, were studied by qRT-PCR. Results demonstrated that ethanolic extract of H. longipes roots and affinin inhibit aflatoxin biosynthesis and fungal growth in a dose-dependent manner. At 300 µg/mL, ethanolic extract and affinin presented the highest inhibition of radial growth (86% and 94%) and aflatoxin production (68% and 80%). The qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that nine tested genes were down-regulated by affinin and ethanolic extract. The most down-regulated was the aflK, a gene that encodes an enzyme cyclase with double function during the aflatoxin biosynthesis. While no significant down-regulation was obtaining for aflH gene. Exposure to affinin also resulted in decreased transcript levels of the internal regulator factor aflS. Based on our results, a model showing the regulatory mechanism in aflatoxin biosynthesis and its role in gene expression was proposed. In conclusion, affinin modulates the expression of several aflatoxin biosynthetic genes, leading to mycotoxin biosynthesis inhibition. Therefore, H. longipes roots is a suitable candidate to developed control strategies via lowering gene expressions as a future perspective in reducing aflatoxin contamination.
Movement Analysis for Neurological and Musculoskeletal Disorders Using Graph Convolutional Neural Network

Using optical motion capture and wearable sensors is a common way to analyze impaired movement in individuals with neurological and musculoskeletal disorders. However, using optical motion sensors and wearable sensors is expensive and often requires highly trained professionals to identify specific impairments. In this work, we proposed a graph convolutional neural network that mimics the intuition of physical therapists to identify patient-specific impairments based on video of a patient. In addition, two modeling approaches are compared: a graph convolutional network applied solely on skeleton input data and a graph convolutional network accompanied with a 1-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN). Experiments on the dataset showed that the proposed method not only improves the correlation of the predicted gait measure with the ground truth value (speed = 0.791, gait deviation index (GDI) = 0.792) but also enables faster training with fewer parameters. In conclusion, the proposed method shows that the possibility of using video-based data to treat neurological and musculoskeletal disorders with acceptable accuracy instead of depending on the expensive and labor-intensive optical motion capture systems.
Analysis-oriented Metadata for Data Lakes

Data lakes are supposed to enable analysts to perform more efficient and efficacious data analysis by crossing multiple existing data sources, processes and analyses. However, it is impossible to achieve that when a data lake does not have a metadata governance system that progressively capitalizes on all the performed analysis experiments. The objective of this paper is to have an easily accessible, reusable data lake that capitalizes on all user experiences. To meet this need, we propose an analysis-oriented metadata model for data lakes. This model includes the descriptive information of datasets and their attributes, as well as all metadata related to the machine learning analyzes performed on these datasets. To illustrate our metadata solution, we implemented an application of data lake metadata management. This application allows users to find and use existing data, processes and analyses by searching relevant metadata stored in a NoSQL data store within the data lake. To demonstrate how to easily discover metadata with the application, we present two use cases, with real data, including datasets similarity detection and machine learning guidance.
Improving Human Ground Control Performance in Unmanned Aerial Systems

The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems, commonly called drones, is growing enormously today. Applications that can benefit from the use of fleets of drones and a related human–machine interface are emerging to ensure better performance and reliability. In particular, a fleet of drones can become a valuable tool for monitoring a wide area and transmitting relevant information to the ground control station. We present a human–machine interface for a Ground Control Station used to remotely operate a fleet of drones, in a collaborative setting, by a team of multiple operators. In such a collaborative setting, a major interface design challenge has been to maximize the Team Situation Awareness, shifting the focus from the individual operator to the entire group decision-makers. We were especially interested in testing the hypothesis that shared displays may improve the team situation awareness and hence the overall performance. The experimental study we present shows that there is no difference in performance between shared and non-shared displays. However, in trials when unexpected events occurred, teams using shared displays-maintained good performance whereas in teams using non-shared displays performance reduced. In particular, in case of unexpected situations, operators are able to safely bring more drones home, maintaining a higher level of team situational awareness.
A Convenient One-pot Synthesis of 2,3-Disubstituted Thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-ones from 2H-Thieno[2,3-d][1,3]oxazine-2,4(1H)-diones, Aromatic Aldehydes and Amines

Abstract An efficient, simple protocol has been established for convenient synthesis of novel 2,3-disubstituted thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one derivatives in good to high yields through a one-pot, two-step and three-component reaction from 2H-thieno[2,3-d][1,3]oxazine-2,4(1H)-diones, aromatic aldehydes, and amines.
Sex Differences in Psychological Status and Fatigue of Frontline Staff After the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading globally, and it is significant to pay attention to the mental health of frontline staff in this pandemic. This study is aimed to explore the sex difference among the frontline staff in demographics, characteristics of mental state, and the potential relationship between them. Method: A total of 2,614 Chinese frontline staff were recruited. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) were used for assessing the mental status of frontline staff, and the Fatigue Self-Assessment Scale (FSAS) was used for detecting fatigue. Result: The prevalence rate of anxiety for female frontline staff is higher than that of male (P = 0.003), and the prevalence rate of depression is similar between them (P = 0.091). After comparing the risk factors of unhealthy mental state between different sexes, it is found that family income below 100,000 [depression: odds ratio (OR) 1.37; 95% CI, 1.08–1.73; anxiety: OR 1.99; 95% CI, 1.44–2.75], unsupported of family (depression: OR 10.94; 95% CI, 1.39–85.79; anxiety: OR 11.92; 95% CI, 3.80–37.36), and marriage (depression: OR 1.67; 95% CI, 1.15–2.43) are risk factors for male, and total fatigue (depression: OR 2.96; 95% CI, 1.46–6.02) is risk factor for female. Conclusions: This study found that depression and anxiety are widespread among the frontline staff of COVID-19, and anxiety showed a higher prevalence rate among female frontline staff. From the sex difference in risk factors, the focus of psychological interventions may differ between genders. Men with low family income, unsupported by family or marriage, and women with a high score of total fatigue required particular attention to their psychological status.
Polarization Potential Has No Effect on Maximum Current Density Produced by Halotolerant Bioanodes

Halotolerant bioanodes are considered an attractive alternative in microbial electrochemical systems, as they can operate under higher conductive electrolytes, in comparison with traditional wastewater and freshwater bioanodes. The dependency between energetic performance and polarization potential has been addressed in several works; however the vast majority discusses its effect when wastewater or freshwater inocula are employed, and fewer reports focus on inocula from highly-saline environments. Moreover, the effect of the polarization potential on current production is not fully understood. To determine if the polarization potential has a significant effect on current production, eight bioanodes were grown by chronoamperometry at positive and negative potentials relative to the reference electrode (+0.34 V/SHE and −0.16 V/SHE), in a three-electrode set-up employing sediments from a hyperhaline coastal lagoon. The maximum current density obtained was the same, despite the differences in the applied potential. Our findings indicate that even if differences in organic matter removal and coulombic efficiency are obtained, the polarization potential had no statistically significant effect on overall current density production.
Scaffolding Social Presence in MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) often lack valuable social presences that provide learners opportunities to interact and to be feel as a real person. This subjective experience of being present with a “real” person and having access to their thoughts and emotions increase the learning experience. Although MOOCs provide forums for such interactions, they are often populated with cognitive types of presence limiting social presence. Meaningful social interactions are challenging in MOOCs due to scale and design limitations. This research presents a conceptual framework of 4 phases: Cluster, Orient, Focus and Network to scaffold better social interaction in MOOCs. The framework introduce a re-design of interactions in MOOC forums space — leverages clustered groups by creating many communities in forums spaces with a community leader facilitating the conversations leading social presence. It also provides a community structure with orientation, focus to work in the community and better networking opportunities. An initial integration of the framework to a real MOOC with 27,554 students provides preliminary results indicating effective scaffolding of social presence in MOOC communities, yet the framework poses challenges relying the social interactions centered upon community manger. However, the study opens new directions to leverage communities in MOOCs and potential to scale.
Measuring Quality of Workers by Goodness-of-Fit of Machine Learning Model in Crowdsourcing

In this paper, we propose a method for predicting the quality of crowdsourcing workers using the goodness-of-fit (GoF) of machine learning models. We assume a relationship between the quality of workers and the quality of machine-learning models using the outcomes of the workers as training data. This assumption means that if worker quality is high, a machine-learning classifier constructed using the worker’s outcomes can easily predict the outcomes of the worker. If this assumption is confirmed, we can measure the worker quality without using the correct answer sets, and then the requesters can reduce the time and effort. However, if the outcomes by workers are low quality, the input tweet does not correspond to the outcomes. Therefore, if we construct a tweet classifier using input tweets and the classified results by the worker, the prediction of the outcomes by the classifier and that by the workers should differ. We assume that the GoF scores, such as accuracy and F1 scores of the test set using this classifier, correlates to worker quality. Therefore, we can predict worker quality using the GoF scores. In our experiment, we did the tweet classification task using crowdsourcing. We confirmed that the GoF scores and the quality of workers correlate. These results show that we can predict the quality of workers using the GoF scores.
Designing a Chatbot for Survivors of Sexual Violence: Exploratory Study for Hybrid Approach Combining Rule-based Chatbot and ML-based Chatbot

Chatbots are developed using two approaches: rule-based and ML-based. The former has a scripted tree structure consisting of questions and answers, while the latter can understand the intent of a user’s question and generate answers from machine learning. Despite these benefits, each method has drawbacks: rule-based chatbots cannot answer slightly different questions with the same meaning in the patterns, and ML-based chatbots have difficulty performing continuous conversations while keeping the conversation context. We propose the concept of a hybrid chatbot that combines a rule-based chatbot and an ML-based chatbot to overcome the limitations of each. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate how a hybrid chatbot could support a survivor of sexual violence. A total of 349 questions asked from the stance of survivors were collected and analyzed. We found that the most frequently asked questions were about the punishment for sexual violence, the police report, and the list of support centers. Also, 30% of the questions omitted contextual information about sexual violence, and 10% of questions consisted of only keywords, not complete sentences. We suggest two design implications for the hybrid chatbot based on the survey’s findings: 1) dialog flow for helping survivors understand the abuse experience sufficiently to report the sexual violence to police, and 2) contextualization strategies for connecting dialog flow with questions from the survivors.
COMFlex: An Adaptive Haptic Interface with Shape-Changing and Weight-Shifting Mechanism for Immersive Virtual Reality

This work explores shape-changing and weight-shifting mechanisms for haptic interfaces to simulate various shapes and sizes in Virtual Reality (VR) for the industrial product design process. The COMFlex system offers haptic feedback in the form of a weight distribution changing (COM) and shape-changing (Flex) device while perceiving a visual representation in VR. Any state changes to the virtual representation are reflected by the COMFlex system, allowing live dynamic feedback to the user. We share initial findings from experimenting with COMFlex in several use cases for our follow up design improvements. Finally, future work is discussed, including physical changes to the device and potential applications.
Gardenoside Hinders Caspase-1-Mediated Hepatocyte Pyroptosis Through the CTCF/DPP4 Signaling Pathway

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)is accompanied by typical inflammatory damage and cell death. As a pro-inflammatory form of cell death, pyroptosis participates in important pathological processes involved in NAFLD. Regulatory roles of both CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) have been reported in NAFLD, but it is still unclear whether the mechanism of action of gardenoside, a potential therapeutic for NAFLD, can be driven via these proteins. In this study, the direct interaction between CTCF and DPP4 was first confirmed by a dual-luciferase reporter assay system. Then, a cell model of NAFLD was established by induction with palmitic acid (PA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). A mouse NAFLD model was established, and the effect of gardenoside on both the cell and mouse models of NAFLD was also investigated. Increased lipid accumulation, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and hepatocyte pyroptosis were recorded in NAFLD in vitro and in vivo. Gardenoside treatment effectively reduced the lipid accumulation, increased cell viability, reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and attenuated pyroptosis and apoptosis in NAFLD in the in vitro and in vivo models. Alterations in these biological processes were evidenced by the decreased expression levels of several pro-pyroptotic markers including the NLR family, pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-related speckle-like protein (ASC), caspase-1 p20, Gasdermin D N-terminal domain (GSDMD-N), and IL-1β, along with simultaneously decreased CTCF and DPP4 levels. Importantly, CTCF silencing or DPP4 silencing exhibited effects similar to gardenoside treatment, while CTCF overexpression counteracted this trend, which indicated that CTCF might be a target responsible for gardenoside-induced alleviation of NAFLD, such therapeutic effects might be achieved through controlling the expression of the direct target of CTCF (DPP4) and several downstream molecules. In general, the current study provides a promising strategy for NAFLD treatment.