Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of Fluorescently Labeled SSEA-3, SSEA-4, and Globo-H Glycosphingolipids for Elucidating Molecular Interactions in the Cell Membrane

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs), such as the globo-series GSLs stage-specific embryonic antigen 3 (SSEA-3), SSEA-4, and Globo-H, are specifically expressed on pluripotent stem cells and cancer cells, and are known to be associated with various biological processes such as cell recognition, cell adhesion, and signal transduction. However, the behavior and biological roles of these GSLs are still unclear. In our previous study, we observed the interactions between the lipid raft and GSLs in real-time using single-molecule imaging, where we successfully synthesized various fluorescent analogs of GSLs (e.g., GM1 and GM3). Here, we have developed fluorescent analogs of SSEA-3, SSEA-4, and Globo-H using chemical synthesis. The biophysical properties of these analogs as raft markers were examined by partitioning giant plasma membrane vesicles from RBL-2H3 cells into detergent-resistant membrane fractions and liquid-ordered/liquid-disordered phases. The results indicated that the analogs were equivalent to native-type GSLs. The analogs could be used to observe the behavior of globo-series GSLs for detailing the structure and biological roles of lipid rafts and GSL-enriched nanodomains during cell differentiation and cell malignancy.
“Don't you want to stay?” The impact of training and recognition as HR practices on volunteer turnover

Managing volunteers is a difficult undertaking. This study draws on human resource management theory and literature to investigate the effect of two human resource (HR) practices—training and recognition—on volunteer turnover. We use longitudinal administrative data collected by an Indiana nonprofit organization, which contains individual volunteer characteristics, organizational HR practices, and information on actual turnover behavior. We found that recognizing volunteer contributions with awards predicted volunteer retention in the following year. Training did not have a direct effect on volunteer turnover, but interacted with gender; men who received training were more likely to stay than women. The study contributes ___________________________________________________________________ This is the author's manuscript of the article published in final edited form as: Walk, M. , Zhang, R. , & Littlepage, L. (2019). “Don’t you want to stay? ” The impact of training and recognition as human resource practices on volunteer turnover. Nonprofit Management and Leadership. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21344 2 to the literature on human resource management in the volunteer context, adds to the emerging literature on awards as incentives for volunteers, and addresses the common method bias by using longitudinal data.
Disrupting MLV integrase:BET protein interaction biases integration into quiescent chromatin and delays but does not eliminate tumor activation in a MYC/Runx2 mouse model

Murine leukemia virus (MLV) integrase (IN) lacking the C-terminal tail peptide (TP) loses its interaction with the host bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) proteins and displays decreased integration at promoter/enhancers and transcriptional start sites/CpG islands. MLV lacking the IN TP via an altered open reading frame was used to infect tumorigenesis mouse model (MYC/Runx2) animals to observe integration patterns and phenotypic effects, but viral passage resulted in the restoration of the IN TP through small deletions. Mice subsequently infected with an MLV IN lacking the TP coding sequence (TP-) showed an improved median survival by 15 days compared to wild type (WT) MLV infection. Recombination with polytropic endogenous retrovirus (ERV), Pmv20, was identified in seven mice displaying both fast and slow tumorigenesis, highlighting the strong selection within the mouse to maintain the full-length IN protein. Mapping the genomic locations of MLV in tumors from an infected mouse with no observed recombination with ERVs, TP-16, showed fewer integrations at TSS and CpG islands, compared to integrations observed in WT tumors. However, this mouse succumbed to the tumor in relatively rapid fashion (34 days). Analysis of the top copy number integrants in the TP-16 tumor revealed their proximity to known MLV common insertion site genes while maintaining the MLV IN TP- genotype. Furthermore, integration mapping in K562 cells revealed an insertion preference of MLV IN TP- within chromatin profile states associated with weakly transcribed heterochromatin with fewer integrations at histone marks associated with BET proteins (H3K4me1/2/3, and H3K27Ac). While MLV IN TP- showed a decreased overall rate of tumorigenesis compared to WT virus in the MYC/Runx2 model, MLV integration still occurred at regions associated with oncogenic driver genes independently from the influence of BET proteins, either stochastically or through trans-complementation by functional endogenous Gag-Pol protein.
Which isotopes should we choose? Entropy-based feature ranking enables evaluation of the information content of stable isotopes in archaeofaunal material.

RATIONALE Methods for multi-isotope analyses are gaining in importance in anthropological, archaeological, and ecological studies. However, when material is limited (i. e. archaeological remains) it is obligatory to decide a priori which isotopic system(s) could be omitted without losing information. METHODS We introduce a method which enables feature ranking of isotopic systems according to distance-based entropy. The feature ranking method is evaluated using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) clustering as well as a cluster validation index ("trace index"). RESULTS Combinations of features resulting in high entropy values are less important than those resulting in low entropy values structuring the dataset into more distinct clusters. Hence, this method allows us to rank isotopic systems. The isotope ranking depends on the analyzed dataset, e.g. consisting of terrestrial mammals or fish. The feature ranking results were verified by cluster analysis. CONCLUSIONS Entropy-based feature ranking can be used to a priori select the isotopic systems which should be analyzed. Consequently, we strongly suggest that this method should be applied if only limited material is available.
Executive task-based brain function in children with type 1 diabetes: An observational study

Background Optimal glycemic control is particularly difficult to achieve in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D), yet the influence of dysglycemia on the developing brain remains poorly understood. Methods and findings Using a large multi-site study framework, we investigated activation patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 93 children with T1D (mean age 11.5 ± 1.8 years; 45.2% female) and 57 non-diabetic (control) children (mean age 11.8 ± 1.5 years; 50.9% female) as they performed an executive function paradigm, the go/no-go task. Children underwent scanning and cognitive and clinical assessment at 1 of 5 different sites. Group differences in activation occurring during the contrast of “no-go > go” were examined while controlling for age, sex, and scan site. Results indicated that, despite equivalent task performance between the 2 groups, children with T1D exhibited increased activation in executive control regions (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal and supramarginal gyri; p = 0.010) and reduced suppression of activation in the posterior node of the default mode network (DMN; p = 0.006). Secondary analyses indicated associations between activation patterns and behavior and clinical disease course. Greater hyperactivation in executive control regions in the T1D group was correlated with improved task performance (as indexed by shorter response times to correct “go” trials; r = −0.36, 95% CI −0.53 to −0.16, p < 0.001) and with better parent-reported measures of executive functioning (r values < −0.29, 95% CIs −0.47 to −0.08, p-values < 0.007). Increased deficits in deactivation of the posterior DMN in the T1D group were correlated with an earlier age of T1D onset (r = −0.22, 95% CI −0.41 to −0.02, p = 0.033). Finally, exploratory analyses indicated that among children with T1D (but not control children), more severe impairments in deactivation of the DMN were associated with greater increases in hyperactivation of executive control regions (T1D: r = 0.284, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.46, p = 0.006; control: r = 0.108, 95% CI −0.16 to 0.36, p = 0.423). A limitation to this study involves glycemic effects on brain function; because blood glucose was not clamped prior to or during scanning, future studies are needed to assess the influence of acute versus chronic dysglycemia on our reported findings. In addition, the mechanisms underlying T1D-associated alterations in activation are unknown. Conclusions These data indicate that increased recruitment of executive control areas in pediatric T1D may act to offset diabetes-related impairments in the DMN, ultimately facilitating cognitive and behavioral performance levels that are equivalent to that of non-diabetic controls. Future studies that examine whether these patterns change as a function of improved glycemic control are warranted.
Product Review Summarization With Feature Extraction and Opinion Mining

The boom of e-commerce sites has resulted in the shift of shopping from traditional retailers to online platforms. This has resulted in a host of products being sold on e-commerce platforms and with them, there is an increasing number of reviews, feedbacks and suggestion being posted on those sites. These reviews contain customer opinions which are of high value in an e-commerce environment. We propose a review summarization tool which enhances existing text summarization techniques notably feature extraction and opinion mining. We try to accomplish an accurate model for opinion mining by taking in account domain-specific vocabulary and sentiment analysis of opinion to exact an unambiguous opinion of the feature. After performing opinion mining we use TextRank to extract sentences relevant to the features to extract sentences for a review summarization. Such a review summarizing tool would obviate the need to manually go through each and every review and instead provide a pithy aggregation which would provide comprehensive summary covering varied facets of the product. Such an aggregation would help in the understanding of traits of listed products which would, in turn, help the seller to identify shortcomings or strengths of the product as well gauge the opinion of the customers on various features of the product. Whereas, the customers can use this aggregation to make an informed decision while making a purchase.
Postreproductive killer whale grandmothers improve the survival of their grandoffspring

Significance Why humans and some species of whales go through menopause remains an evolutionary puzzle. In humans, postreproductive females gain genetic benefits by helping family members—particularly increasing their number of surviving grandoffspring. The extent to which these grandmother benefits are important in the evolution of menopause in whales remains unclear. Here, we test the grandmother effect in resident killer whales, where females can live for decades after their last reproductive event. We show that grandmothers increase the survival of their grandoffspring, and these effects are greatest when grandmothers are no longer reproducing. These findings can help explain why killer whales have evolved the longest postreproductive life span of all nonhuman animals. Understanding why females of some mammalian species cease ovulation prior to the end of life is a long-standing interdisciplinary and evolutionary challenge. In humans and some species of toothed whales, females can live for decades after stopping reproduction. This unusual life history trait is thought to have evolved, in part, due to the inclusive fitness benefits that postreproductive females gain by helping kin. In humans, grandmothers gain inclusive fitness benefits by increasing their number of surviving grandoffspring, referred to as the grandmother effect. Among toothed whales, the grandmother effect has not been rigorously tested. Here, we test for the grandmother effect in killer whales, by quantifying grandoffspring survival with living or recently deceased reproductive and postreproductive grandmothers, and show that postreproductive grandmothers provide significant survival benefits to their grandoffspring above that provided by reproductive grandmothers. This provides evidence of the grandmother effect in a nonhuman menopausal species. By stopping reproduction, grandmothers avoid reproductive conflict with their daughters, and offer increased benefits to their grandoffspring. The benefits postreproductive grandmothers provide to their grandoffspring are shown to be most important in difficult times where the salmon abundance is low to moderate. The postreproductive grandmother effect we report, together with the known costs of late-life reproduction in killer whales, can help explain the long postreproductive life spans of resident killer whales.
The Role of Housing Environment and Dietary Protein Source on the Gut Microbiota of Chicken

Simple Summary The gut microbiota—the community of microorganisms that colonize the gut—is now recognized as a key regulator of immune activity, metabolism, and welfare in all vertebrates, including poultry. The diet and environment can both influence the gut microbiota, but the extent of these changes is unclear in poultry, where diets and environments are important management tools. As the majority of U.S. egg production (>90%) has pledged to move to cage-free egg production by 2025, it is necessary to understand how much the diet and the rearing environment contribute to gut microbiota composition and function, and ultimately to health and production traits of chicken. We addressed this unknown by analyzing the gut microbiota community of laying hens with both the housing environment and diet as variables. We compared conventional cage systems against cage-free systems. In both environments, hens were fed a standard soy-based diet, versus an alternate soy-free diet. We found that cage-free environments generated higher gut microbiota diversity, and that the diet had a relatively lower effect on changing the gut microbiota. Our results highlight the difficulty of promoting consistent, beneficial gut microbiota across production systems or diet variations in commercial poultry conditions. Abstract The gut microbiota of chicken has received much attention due to its importance for bird health, food safety, and performance. In the United States, the impending transition to cage-free housing environments has raised many questions about its consequences for poultry health, productivity, and welfare. Therefore, we investigated how housing environments and feed composition affect the poultry gut microbiome. Such data is necessary to inform the design of production systems that promote health and food safety. In this study, we investigated the cecal microbiome of both caged and cage-free laying hens that were fed either an industry-standard soy-based versus a soy-free diet. Caged hens were housed in standard industry-style layer cages with one bird per cage, and cage-free hens were housed in a poultry barn with an outdoor enclosed yard with multiple hens per pen. Our study showed significant differences in the gut microbiota between cage-free and caged environments. Cage free housing generated higher diversity compared to caged housing. Furthermore, we observed a synergistic interaction of soy-based feed in cage-free housing, as the cage-free soy group showed the highest alpha diversity, whereas the caged-soy group showed the lowest diversity overall.
Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Of Syrian Refugee Mothers Towards Sexually Transmitted Infections

Purpose Refugee women are vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to risk factors associated with displacement. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to STIs among Syrian refugee mothers in Jordan. Methods A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted with a convenience sample of 523 Syrian refugee mothers in host communities in Jordan. Results A moderately positive relationship between the mothers’ knowledge of and attitudes towards STIs (p<0.001) was found. Although Syrian refugee mothers’ attitudes towards STIs were reasonably good, they had poor knowledge about non-HIV causes of STIs and clinical symptoms. Spousal acceptance of using a condom was significantly associated with mothers’ STIs knowledge, attitude, length of being a refugee in Jordan and duration of marriage (p<0.05). Almost all Syrian refugee mothers (91.6%) and their spouses (95%) did not follow regular check-ups for STIs. Two-thirds of mothers’- spouses (66.6%) did not accept the usage of a condom during sexual intercourse. Conclusion Syrian refugee mothers have poor knowledge about non-HIV causes of STIs and clinical symptoms. They have poor practices concerning STI screening and prevention. It is imperative that nurses address these issues especially among refugees where in locales where resources are scarce.
Authenticity of the leaders and reactions of the led

The goal of this study is to explore the dimensionalization of the behaviors of authentic leadership and understand how the authentic and non-authentic behaviors of the leaders influence the followers reactions. Therefore, three “operational” objectives are pursued: (1) categorize the behaviors of authentic leaders; (2) categorize the reactions of the followers; and (3) understand the relation between the leaders’ behaviors and the reactions of the followers. To achieve the latter goals, a three parts questionnaire was developed, to access authentic leadership measurement of the leader and situations of authentic and non-authentic leadership and the respectively reactions of the led. The majority of the cited situations of leaders’ authentic and non-authentic behaviors fit within the four dimensions of the authentic leadership construct as presented in the literature. In what concerns the categorization of the reactions of the followers, the majority of the reported reactions also fitted within the categories cited in the literature. A number of reactions to unauthentic behaviors can be categorized as courageous relational transparency. Within authentic leadership behaviors, the most often linkage is between the leader relational transparency and the follower acceptance. Open and transparent relationships, identification and job performance are followers’ reactions with a low appearance frequency, whatever the authentic behavior of the leader. Considering the reaction to non-authentic behavior, the most common reaction is a lack of personal and social identification with the leader/organization. The leader lack of internalized moral perspective and lack of self-awareness lead to a low identification reaction. Leaders with high values of authentic leadership seem to behave with relational transparency. In this scenario, the most reported linkage between behaviors and reactions is the relation between relational transparency and acceptance. Still in this scenario, but analyzing the non-authentic behaviors, the most mentioned leaders’ behaviors are lack of relational transparency and lack of internalized moral perspective. From this cross linkage, the most referred follower reaction is courageous relational transparency. Considering the leaders classified with the lowest values of authentic leadership, a dominant authentic behavior was not highlighted, nor any special relation between behaviors and reactions. Considering the non-authentic leadership situations, the most referred behaviors are lack of relational transparency, lack of internalized moral perspective and lack of self-awareness, and the followers’ reactions more times cited are low identification, job dissatisfaction and courageous relational transparency.
An fMRI study of inhibitory control and the effects of exposure to violence in Latin-American early adolescents: alterations in frontoparietal activation and performance

Abstract We used functional magnetic resonance to investigate the effects of exposure to violence on early adolescent brain function in an inhibitory control task. We investigated the association among scores on self-reported exposure to violence, performance and brain activation. Thirty-seven early adolescents (ages 10–14) from a Latin-American urban region participated in the study. Results showed that recent and chronic exposure to violence was associated with less activation of a network of frontal regions, including the anterior cingulate gyrus and the superior frontal cortex; recent exposure to violence was also associated with less activation of the superior parietal lobe. Results also showed that less activation correlated with more prominent deterioration in the performance in the inhibitory control task (increased latency with time). The findings suggest that early adolescence exposure to violence is associated with differences in activation of a neural network commonly associated with executive function and control. The results underscore the urgency of addressing exposure to violence in adolescence, a period of high susceptibility to the environment, and are discussed in the light of the evidence of the effects of violence on adolescent brain function. Executive function training may be a candidate for targeted cognitive interventions aimed at mitigating these effects.
Premature Deaths, Statistical Lives, and Years of Life Lost: Identification, Quantification, and Valuation of Mortality Risks

Mortality effects of exposure to air pollution and other environmental hazards are often described by the estimated number of “premature” or “attributable” deaths and the economic value of a reduction in exposure as the product of an estimate of “statistical lives saved” and a “value per statistical life. ” These terms can be misleading because the number of deaths advanced by exposure cannot be determined from mortality data alone, whether from epidemiology or randomized trials (it is not statistically identified). The fraction of deaths “attributed” to exposure is conventionally derived as the hazard fraction (R – 1)/R, where R is the relative risk of mortality between high and low exposure levels. The fraction of deaths advanced by exposure (the “etiologic” fraction) can be substantially larger or smaller: it can be as large as one and as small as 1/e (≈0.37) times the hazard fraction (if the association is causal and zero otherwise). Recent literature reveals misunderstanding about these concepts. Total life years lost in a population due to exposure can be estimated but cannot be disaggregated by age or cause of death. Economic valuation of a change in exposure‐related mortality risk to a population is not affected by inability to know the fraction of deaths that are etiologic. When individuals facing larger or smaller changes in mortality risk cannot be identified, the mean change in population hazard is sufficient for valuation; otherwise, the economic value can depend on the distribution of risk reductions.