Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High inter- and intraspecific niche overlap among three sympatrically breeding, closely-related seabird species: Generalist foraging as an adaptation to a highly variable environment?

1.Ecological niche theory predicts sympatric species to show segregation in their spatio-temporal habitat utilization or diet as a strategy to avoid competition. Similarly, within species individuals may specialise on specific dietary resources or foraging habitats. Such individual specialisation seems to occur particularly in environments with predictable resource distribution and limited environmental variability. Still little is known about how seasonal environmental variability affects segregation of resources within species and between closely related sympatric species. 2.The aim of the study was to investigate the foraging behaviour of three closely related and sympatrically breeding fulmarine petrels (Antarctic petrels Thalassoica antarctica, cape petrels Daption capense and southern fulmars Fulmarus glacialoides) in a seasonally highly variable environment (Prydz Bay, Antarctica) with the aim of assessing inter- and intraspecific overlap in utilized habitat, timing of foraging, and diet and to identify foraging habitat preferences. 3.We used GPS loggers with wet/dry sensors to assess spatial habitat utilization over the entire breeding season. Trophic overlap was investigated using stable isotope analysis based on blood, feathers and egg membranes. Foraging locations were identified using wet/dry data recorded by the GPS loggers and Expectation-Maximization binary Clustering (EMbC). Foraging habitat preferences were modelled using GAMs and model cross-validation. 4.During incubation and chick rearing, the utilization distribution of all three species overlapped significantly and species also overlapped in the timing of foraging during the day - partly during incubation and completely during chick-rearing. Isotopic centroids showed no significant segregation between at least two species for feathers and egg membranes,, and among all species during incubation (reflected by blood). Within species, there was no individual specialization in foraging sites or environmental space. Furthermore, no single environmental covariate predicted foraging activity along trip trajectories. Instead, best-explanatory environmental covariates varied within and between individuals even across short temporal scales, reflecting a highly generalist behaviour of birds. 5.Our results may be explained by optimal foraging theory. In the highly productive but spatio-temporally variable Antarctic environment, being a generalist may be key to finding mobile prey - even though this increases the potential for competition within and among sympatric species. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Antiplatelet activity of deferiprone through cyclooxygenase-1 inhibition

Abstract Thalassemia patients are susceptible to both iron overload and thromboembolism. Deferiprone is an iron chelator that shows an antiplatelet activity and thus may alleviate platelet hyperactivation in thalassemia. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the inhibitory effects and mechanisms of deferiprone on normal human platelets. The results illustrated that deferiprone inhibited platelet aggregation at the iron chelating concentrations (0.08–0.25 mmol/l). Deferiprone inhibited human platelet aggregation stimulated by arachidonic acid and ADP more potently than epinephrine and collagen, with the IC50 of 0.24 mmol/l and 0.25 mmol/l vs. 3.36 mmol/l and 3.73 mmol/l, respectively. Interestingly, deferiprone significantly inhibited COX-1 activity, with the IC50 of 0.33 mmol/l, and slightly increased cAMP level at the high concentration of 4 mmol/l. Moreover, the results from molecular docking showed that deferiprone interacted closely with key residues in the peroxidase active site of COX-1. These results suggested that deferiprone possessed antiplatelet activity mainly through the inhibition of COX-1 activity.
Model of Distance Travelled by packets in MANETs using Location Aware Transmission for Ubicomp

– MANET transmission is one solution towards achieving routing in a ubicomp environment. If the corresponding protocols are well designed, it can assist in energy issues in ubicomp [61]. Applying location-aware transmission strategies may enhance energy management and hence remain a serious topic of research. Some of the enhancements being expected [1] involves application of land-based GPS systems, improved location refresh rates and location accuracy along with developments of better protocols optimised for transmission according to distance criteria. To assist in the latter protocol developments, one research result that would be required is the trends of distance coverages by packets in a ubicomp topography for varying node densities. Such knowledge will definitely be useful for refining transmission protocols so that best MANET performance is achieved. In this paper, a metric PPD is put forward to assess the trend of distance coverages by packets in a ubicomp topography with varying node densities. This paper adds a result set to the area of modelling for Packets Per Distance management in ubicomp. Designers may use these results towards formulation of better transmission protocols for ubicomp. This paper is a follow-up of previous work [1-25].
Filbertone Ameliorates Adiposity in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet via Activation of cAMP Signaling

The aim of this research was to estimate the preventive effects of filbertone, the main flavor compound in hazelnuts, on lipid accumulation in the adipose tissue of mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) and to reveal the underlying molecular mechanisms. Male C57BL/6N mice were fed chow, a HFD, or a 0.025% filbertone-supplemented HFD for 14 weeks. We found that filbertone supplementation resulted in significant reductions in body weight gain and lipid accumulation in adipose tissue, with parallel improvements in plasma lipid levels (triglycerides, total cholesterol, and free fatty acids) and proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α)). Molecular analysis revealed that filbertone treatment led to reprogramming of metabolic signatures in the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pathway. Filbertone supplementation significantly increased the cAMP level and increased downstream protein kinase A catalytic subunit (PKA) signaling in mouse adipose tissue. The mRNA level of adipogenesis-related genes was downregulated in the adipose tissue of filbertone-fed mice compared to control mice fed the HFD alone. Furthermore, filbertone treatment elevated the expression of thermogenic genes in mouse adipose tissue. Filbertone reduced intracellular lipid accumulation and increased the oxygen consumption rate in 3T3-L1 cells and these filbertone-induced changes were abrogated by the adenylate cyclases (ADCY) inhibitor. Taken together, our results suggest that the beneficial effects of filbertone on lipid accumulation may be associated with the activation of cAMP signaling.
Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis in Patients with HIV: Management Considerations within High-Resourced Settings.

The management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) is notably complex among patients with HIV. TB treatment recommendations typically include very little information specific to HIV and MDR TB, which often is derived from clinical trials conducted in low-resource settings. Mortality rates among patients with HIV and MDR TB remain high. We reviewed the published literature and recommendations to synthesize possible patient management approaches demonstrated to improve treatment outcomes in high-resourced countries for patients with MDR TB and HIV. Approaches to diagnostic testing, impact and timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on mortality, anti-MDR TB and antiretroviral drug interactions and the potential role for short-course MDR TB therapy are examined. The combination of ART with expanded TB drug therapy, along with the management of immunologic reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), other potential HIV-associated opportunistic diseases and drug toxicities, necessitate an integrated multidisciplinary patient care approach utilizing public health case management and provider expertise in drug-resistant TB and HIV management.
The influence of nurse education and training on communication, emotional intelligence, and empathy.

OBJECTIVE To determine the influence of nurse education and training on attitudes towards communication, emotional intelligence, and empathy. METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted using three separate instruments to measure attitudes towards communication, empathy, and emotional intelligence, and two questions to determine the academic qualifications of the study participants. The effect of the variables was tested using one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlations, and hierarchical multiple linear regression. RESULTS The study sample comprised 438 nurses from hospitals in Valencia, Spain. Differences in subscale scores of the instruments according to degree level and specialized training were observed, showing that nurses with only a degree and less specialized training had lower capacity for empathy and emotional intelligence. The strongest correlations were found between the factors of the communication dimensions. Multiple linear regression showed that perspective taking and emotional clarity had the greatest predictive power. CONCLUSION Degree level and specialized training were shown to influence the study variables and it is therefore necessary to prioritize education and training programs that promote the development of these skills to ensure improved service quality.
Genome-Wide Association Study of Metabolic Syndrome Reveals Primary Genetic Variants at CETP Locus in Indians

Indians, a rapidly growing population, constitute vast genetic heterogeneity to that of Western population; however they have become a sedentary population in past decades due to rapid urbanization ensuing in the amplified prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS). We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of MetS in 10,093 Indian individuals (6617 MetS and 3476 controls) of Indo-European origin, that belong to our previous biorepository of The Indian Diabetes Consortium (INDICO). The study was conducted in two stages—discovery phase (N = 2158) and replication phase (N = 7935). We discovered two variants within/near the CETP gene—rs1800775 and rs3816117—associated with MetS at genome-wide significance level during replication phase in Indians. Additional CETP loci rs7205804, rs1532624, rs3764261, rs247617, and rs173539 also cropped up as modest signals in Indians. Haplotype association analysis revealed GCCCAGC as the strongest haplotype within the CETP locus constituting all seven CETP signals. In combined analysis, we perceived a novel and functionally relevant sub-GWAS significant locus—rs16890462 in the vicinity of SFRP1 gene. Overlaying gene regulatory data from ENCODE database revealed that single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs16890462 resides in repressive chromatin in human subcutaneous adipose tissue as characterized by the enrichment of H3K27me3 and CTCF marks (repressive gene marks) and diminished H3K36me3 marks (activation gene marks). The variant displayed active DNA methylation marks in adipose tissue, suggesting its likely regulatory activity. Further, the variant also disrupts a potential binding site of a key transcription factor, NRF2, which is known for involvement in obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Catalytic Production of Levulinic Acid (LA) from Actual Biomass

Catalytic conversion of actual biomass to valuable chemicals is a crucial issue in green chemistry. This review discusses on the recent approach in the levulinic acid (LA) formation from three prominent generations of biomasses. Our paper highlights the impact of the nature of different types of biomass and their complex structure and impurities, different groups of catalyst, solvents, and reaction system, and condition and all related pros and cons for this process.
MRI in systems medicine

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the primary medical imaging modalities and a key component of the standard of care in modern healthcare systems. One of the factors that distinguishes MRI from other imaging methods is the ability to program the MRI system to reveal a wide range of imaging contrasts, where each type of contrast offers unique information about the biological sample of interest. This ability stems from the fact that both the amplitude and phase of the magnetization of the underlying tissue can be manipulated to highlight different biological phenomenon. The flexibility and capabilities offered by modern MRI systems have enabled the development of a myriad of techniques for characterizing anatomy, physiology, and function. These include methods to characterize gross anatomy, tissue microstructure, bulk blood flow, tissue perfusion, and functional changes in blood oxygenation.
Interaction between dietary fatty acids and genotype on immune response in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) after vaccination: A transcriptome study

A pivotal matter to aquaculture is the sourcing of sustainable resources as ingredients to aquafeeds. Levels of plant delivered oils as source of fatty acids (FA) in aquafeeds have reached around 70% resulting in reduced levels of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA), such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), in salmon fillet composition. EPA and DHA can modulate inflammation and immune response, so it is crucial to understand how fish immune response is affected by low LC n-3 PUFA diet and if this diet can have a detrimental effect on vaccine response. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) can produce EPA/DHA from α-linolenic acid (ALA) and this endogenous capacity can be explored to develop families with higher tolerance to low LC n-3 PUFA diets. Here we analyze innate and adaptive immune response in Atlantic salmon to a commercial vaccine after being fed low levels of EPA and DHA, and we also compare three strains of salmon selected by their endogenous capacity of synthesizing LC- n-3 PUFA. A total of 2,890 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified (p-value adjusted < 0.1) when comparing vaccinated fish against control non-vaccinated. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG analysis with 442 up/downregulated genes revealed that most DEGs were both related to immune response as well as part of important immune related pathways, as “Toll-like receptor” and “Cytokine-Cytokine interaction”. Adaptive response was also addressed by measuring antigen specific IgM, and titers were significantly higher than in the pre-immune fish at 62 days post-immunization. However, diet and strain had no/little effect on vaccine-specific IgM or innate immune responses. Atlantic salmon therefore display robustness in its response to vaccination even when feed low levels of LC n-3 PUFA.
Changes in playfulness, creativity and honesty as possible outcomes of psychotherapy

Abstract Objectives: This study comprised an examination of whether clients’ playfulness, creativity, honesty, humor, and happiness changed during psychotherapy. Methods: Sixty-two clients who underwent psychotherapy in a naturalistic setting completed questionnaires at five time points throughout treatment. An HLM analytic approach was applied to account for the hierarchical nature of the data. Results: Mental distress declined during treatment, while playfulness and creativity increased significantly. Honesty decreased significantly in the course of the treatment, while no significant change was found in the level of affiliative humor or the level of happiness. Conclusions: Changes in personality variables that can serve as positive constructs defining mental health, namely playfulness, creativity, and honesty, might be a possible outcome of psychotherapy.
Subjective effects from the first cigarette of the day vary with precigarette affect in premenopausal female daily smokers.

The 1st cigarette of the day is strongly tied to tobacco dependence. However, prior research has not investigated whether within-subject (WS) day-to-day fluctuations in prefirst-cigarette affect are associated with the subjective effects from the 1st cigarette of the day or whether these associations differ by smokers' average prefirst-cigarette affect. In the current study, 85 premenopausal female daily smokers completed baseline measures and 35 days of ecological momentary assessment. Prefirst-cigarette positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) were assessed prior to the 1st cigarette of the day and were partitioned into between-subjects (BS) and WS variables. Pleasurable and NA relief effects were assessed following the 1st cigarette of the day. On days when women reported higher than their usual prefirst-cigarette PA (WS-PA), they reported more pleasurable effects. On days when women reported higher than their usual prefirst-cigarette WS-NA, they reported greater pleasurable effects and NA relief effects. Women with higher average prefirst-cigarette NA relative to others (BS-NA), reported greater NA relief effects. Women with higher average prefirst-cigarette PA relative to others (BS-PA) reported greater pleasurable and NA relief effects from smoking. The association of within-subject affect (i.e., that day's level of NA or PA) with NA relief effects is attenuated in female smokers with higher average prefirst-cigarette NA (i.e., Prefirst-Cigarette WS Affect × Prefirst-Cigarette BS-NA interaction). Results suggest that prefirst-cigarette affect may impact the subjective effects from the 1st cigarette of the day and that the association between prefirst-cigarette affect and NA relief effects may be dampened in women with greater average precigarette NA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Durable and Scalable Candle Soot Icephobic Coating with Nucleation and Fracture Mechanism.

Ice formation and accretion affects the residential and commercial activities. Icephobic coatings decrease the ice adhesion strength τice < 100 kPa. However, rare icephobic coatings remove the ice under the action of gravity or natural winds. The icephobicity of such coatings depend on materials with low-interfacial toughness. We develop durable candle soot icephobic coating with RTV-1 as a low modulus and binding material. The heterogeneous nucleation on 20-40 nm candle soot particles and their fracture mechanism is discussed. The developed coating always show durable Cassie-Baxter superhydrophobic state with low ice adhesion (18 kPa) and maintain the τice about 25 kPa after severe mechanical abrasion, 30 liquid nitrogen/water cycles, 100 frosting/defrosting cycles, 100 icing/deicing cycles, acid/base exposure, under UV and exposure to natural freezing rain in Hangzhou. In addition, the proposed technique is time-efficient, inexpensive and suitable for large-scale applications.
Solvent extraction, spectral analysis and antibacterial activity of the bioactive crystals of Sargassum aquifolium (Turner) C.Agardh from Red Sea

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the chemical composition and anti-bacterial properties of the bioactive principles of Sargassum aquifolium (Turner) C.Agardh, a brown seaweed in Red sea of Jazan province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Crystals were obtained from the petroleum ether extract of Sargassum aquifolium and subjected to chemical tests, FTIR spectroscopic analysis and NMR analysis to identify their chemical composition, and to study their antibacterial properties against selected human pathogenic bacteria. In addition, GC–MS analysis was performed to identify the bioactive compounds in the crude petroleum ether extract. Results of the antibacterial effect of the crystal analyte showed a wide spectrum of activity against the screened human pathogenic bacteria. Graphical Abstract
For Your Enrichment: Developing a Reflective Practice Template for Citation Management Software Instruction

One of the essential characteristics of successful librarians is the ability to use their experiences to build their skills. Donald Schön defined this concept as “reflectve practice” in his 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner. Here, Milewski and Williamson take on the role of reflective practitioners in examining their work in teaching citation management software. Their experience offers a model for librarians in all sorts of instructional positions to engage in reflective practice. —Editor
Bayesian estimation of genetic regulatory effects in high-throughput reporter assays

MOTIVATION High-throughput reporter assays dramatically improve our ability to assign function to noncoding genetic variants, by measuring allelic effects on gene expression in the controlled setting of a reporter gene. Unlike genetic association tests, such assays are not confounded by linkage disequilibrium when loci are independently assayed. These methods can thus improve the identification of causal disease mutations. While work continues on improving experimental aspects of these assays, less effort has gone into developing methods for assessing the statistical significance of assay results, particularly in the case of rare variants captured from patient DNA. RESULTS We describe a Bayesian hierarchical model, called Bayesian Inference of Regulatory Differences (BIRD), which integrates prior information and explicitly accounts for variability between experimental replicates. The model produces substantially more accurate predictions than existing methods when allele frequencies are low, which is of clear advantage in the search for disease-causing variants in DNA captured from patient cohorts. Using the model, we demonstrate a clear tradeoff between variant sequencing coverage and numbers of biological replicates, and we show that the use of additional biological replicates decreases variance in estimates of effect size, due to the properties of the Poisson-binomial distribution. We also provide a power and sample size calculator, which facilitates decision making in experimental design parameters. AVAILABILITY The software is freely available from www.geneprediction. org/bird. The experimental design web tool can be accessed at http://67.159. 92.22:8080. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary information is available online.
Recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vector vaccines for WHO blueprint priority pathogens

ABSTRACT The devastating Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak in West Africa in 2013–2016 has flagged the need for the timely development of vaccines for high-threat pathogens. To be better prepared for new epidemics, the WHO has compiled a list of priority pathogens that are likely to cause future outbreaks and for which R&D efforts are, therefore, paramount (R&D Blueprint: https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/en/). To this end, the detailed characterization of vaccine platforms is needed. The vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has been established as a robust vaccine vector backbone for infectious diseases for well over a decade. The recent clinical trials testing the vaccine candidate VSV-EBOV against EBOV disease now have added a substantial amount of clinical data and suggest VSV to be an ideal vaccine vector candidate for outbreak pathogens. In this review, we discuss insights gained from the clinical VSV-EBOV vaccine trials as well as from animal studies investigating vaccine candidates for Blueprint pathogens.