Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome sequence of Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi sheds light on mummy berry disease infection of blueberry and mating type

Abstract Mummy berry disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi (Mvc), is one of the most economically important diseases of blueberries in North America. Mvc is capable of inducing two separate blighting stages during its life cycle. Infected fruits are rendered mummified and unmarketable. Genomic data for this pathogen is lacking, but could be useful in understanding the reproductive biology of Mvc and the mechanisms it deploys to facilitate host infection. In this study, PacBio sequencing and Hi-C interaction data were utilized to create a chromosome-scale reference genome for Mvc. The genome comprises nine chromosomes with a total length of 30 Mb, an N50 length of 4.06 Mb, and an average 413X sequence coverage. A total of 9399 gene models were predicted and annotated, and BUSCO analysis revealed that 98% of 1,438 searched conserved eukaryotic genes were present in the predicted gene set. Potential effectors were identified, and the mating-type (MAT) locus was characterized. Biotrophic effectors allow the pathogen to avoid recognition by the host plant and evade or mitigate host defense responses during the early stages of fruit infection. Following locule colonization, necrotizing effectors promote the mummification of host tissues. Potential biotrophic effectors utilized by Mvc include chorismate mutase for reducing host salicylate and necrotrophic effectors include necrosis-inducing proteins and hydrolytic enzymes for macerating host tissue. The MAT locus sequences indicate the potential for homothallism in the reference genome, but a deletion allele of the MAT locus, characterized in a second isolate, indicates heterothallism. Further research is needed to verify the roles of individual effectors in virulence and to determine the role of the MAT locus in outcrossing and population genotypic diversity.
What happens when the party moves home? The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. college student alcohol consumption as a function of legal drinking status using longitudinal data

Abstract Many young adults in the United States (U.S.) moved from college accommodations to live with their parents/family during the Spring 2020 semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While alcohol consumption fluctuates during a typical semester among students, the impact of the sudden changes stemming from the pandemic on students’ alcohol consumption patterns is unclear. To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college student alcohol consumption while accounting for legal drinking age and living situation. Data were collected from students (n = 302) at a large, northeastern U.S. university at the beginning and end of the of the 2019 and 2020 Spring semesters via an online survey that assessed socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, race/ethnicity, living situation) and alcohol consumption using the daily drinking questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a 2 (cohort group: COVID-19 vs. normal) × 2 (age group: above 21 vs. under 21) × 2 (time: beginning vs. end of the semester) mixed model ANOVA. There was a significant three-way interaction. Students over the legal drinking age impacted by the pandemic demonstrated a drastic decrease in alcohol consumption by the end of the semester compared to those under normal circumstances. Change in living situation as a result of the pandemic drastically impacted the alcohol consumption patterns of students over the legal drinking age. Suggestions for future research on the continuing effects of the pandemic on students are discussed.
Determination of locomotor qualities in elite Australian Football: A pragmatic approach

ABSTRACT The study examined the utility of surrogate measures of athletic performance to determine locomotor qualities (maximal aerobic velocity and peak velocity) in elite Australian Football (AF). 29 professional AF players undertook aerobic fitness (3km time-trial [TT] and 30–15 Intermittent Fitness Test [30–15 IFT]) and peak velocity (PV; 50 m maximal sprints using 10Hz GPS) assessments in pre-season. Characteristics of TT performance (mean velocity, 500m and 1km splits) were compared with a surrogate for maximal aerobic velocity (MAV; 80% of 30–15 IFT final velocity). PVs derived from sprint tests were compared to those attained in AF matches (10 Hz GPS). Higher Pearson correlations were observed between MAV versus the fastest 500m (r = 0.74) and 1km (r = 0.75) of the 3km TT, but they were not superior to mean velocity (r = 0.72; p ≥ 0.30) which also demonstrated the lowest bias (p ≤ 0.01) and equivalent typical errors (0.16–0.17 m.s−1). Peak velocity was higher across match observations (0.28, CI: ± 0.17 m.s −1, p = 0.017) versus sprint tests. There was no impact of playing position on the determination of locomotor qualities using surrogate measures of locomotor qualities. Locomotor qualities can be determined practically using 10Hz GPS devices during 3km time-trials and competitive matches (assuming appropriate signal quality), without additional fitness assessments.
Effect of Sleep and Biobehavioral Patterns on Multidimensional Cognitive Performance: Longitudinal, In-the-Wild Study

Background With nearly 20% of the US adult population using fitness trackers, there is an increasing focus on how physiological data from these devices can provide actionable insights about workplace performance. However, in-the-wild studies that understand how these metrics correlate with cognitive performance measures across a diverse population are lacking, and claims made by device manufacturers are vague. While there has been extensive research leading to a variety of theories on how physiological measures affect cognitive performance, virtually all such studies have been conducted in highly controlled settings and their validity in the real world is poorly understood. Objective We seek to bridge this gap by evaluating prevailing theories on the effects of a variety of sleep, activity, and heart rate parameters on cognitive performance against data collected in real-world settings. Methods We used a Fitbit Charge 3 and a smartphone app to collect different physiological and neurobehavioral task data, respectively, as part of our 6-week-long in-the-wild study. We collected data from 24 participants across multiple population groups (shift workers, regular workers, and graduate students) on different performance measures (vigilant attention and cognitive throughput). Simultaneously, we used a fitness tracker to unobtrusively obtain physiological measures that could influence these performance measures, including over 900 nights of sleep and over 1 million minutes of heart rate and physical activity metrics. We performed a repeated measures correlation (rrm) analysis to investigate which sleep and physiological markers show association with each performance measure. We also report how our findings relate to existing theories and previous observations from controlled studies. Results Daytime alertness was found to be significantly correlated with total sleep duration on the previous night (rrm=0.17, P<.001) as well as the duration of rapid eye movement (rrm=0.12, P<.001) and light sleep (rrm=0.15, P<.001). Cognitive throughput, by contrast, was not found to be significantly correlated with sleep duration but with sleep timing—a circadian phase shift toward a later sleep time corresponded with lower cognitive throughput on the following day (rrm=–0.13, P<.001). Both measures show circadian variations, but only alertness showed a decline (rrm=–0.1, P<.001) as a result of homeostatic pressure. Both heart rate and physical activity correlate positively with alertness as well as cognitive throughput. Conclusions Our findings reveal that there are significant differences in terms of which sleep-related physiological metrics influence each of the 2 performance measures. This makes the case for more targeted in-the-wild studies investigating how physiological measures from self-tracking data influence, or can be used to predict, specific aspects of cognitive performance.
Effect of high‐intensity interval training on cardiometabolic component risks in persons with paraplegia: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI) are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and present with a multitude of elevated cardiometabolic component risks. Although upper‐body exercise appears an effective strategy to improve some of these outcomes, the effectiveness of high‐intensity interval training (HIIT) has yet to be determined for this population. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of a 6 week home‐based upper‐body HIIT intervention on biomarkers of cardiometabolic health in persons with spinal cord injury, in comparison to a control (CON) group. We will recruit 40 individuals with chronic (>1 year post‐injury) paraplegia (spinal cord lesion between the second thoracic and second lumbar vertebrae), aged between 18 and 65 years. After baseline testing, participants will be assigned randomly, using a 2:1 allocation, to the home‐based exercise intervention (HIIT, n = 26) or control group (CON, n = 14). The HIIT intervention will consist of 30 min of arm crank‐based HIIT (60 s intervals at 80–90% peak heart rate) four times per week. Participants in the CON group will be asked to maintain their habitual diet and physical activity patterns over the study period. Baseline and follow‐up assessments will be made for determination of body composition, postprandial glycaemic control, fasting blood lipids and systemic inflammation, aerobic capacity, physical activity and energy intake, resting metabolic rate, resting blood pressure, and subjective measures of health and well‐being. ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT04397250. Registered on 21 May 2020.
Molecular Cytogenetic Characterization of the Murine Melanoma Cell Lines S91 Clone M3 and B16-F1 with Variant B16-4A5

Melanoma is considered to be one of the most aggressive human tumors. Thus, early molecular diagnosis with risk factor stratification could be an efficacious strategy to increase the survival rates in affected patients. Murine cell lines B16-F1, B16-4A5, and S91 clone M3 are the ones most commonly applied in melanoma research. However, genetic peculiarities of these 3 cell lines have not been studied in detail before. Here, we closed this gap by molecular cytogenetic and array-comparative genomic hybridization studies and the translation of the characterized imbalances into the human genome. This study revealed severely rearranged karyotypes with in parts similar imbalances for all 3 cell lines. Interestingly, they involve genes known to play major roles in human melanoma. These are specifically the oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, being associated with aggressive forms of melanoma. B16-F1, B16-4A5, and S91 clone M3 revealed aberrations which were similarly observed in human eye and skin but not in human uveal melanoma. Thus, they can be considered as model systems for advanced eye and skin melanoma.
Conformational changes and phase transformation mechanisms in PVDF solution-cast films

The supramolecular crystal structure in poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) solution-cast films is studied through changing crystallization conditions in two solvents of different structures and polarities. The crystalline-state chain conformations of isothermally solution-crystallized PVDF in N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc), and cyclohexanone are studied through the specific FTIR absorption bands of α, β, and γ phase crystals. There are no changes in the FTIR spectra of cyclohexanone solution-crystallized films in the temperature range of 50–120 °C. In the case of DMAc solution-crystallized films, low temperature crystallization mainly results in formation of trans states (β and γ phases), whereas at higher temperatures gauche states become more populated (α phase). This is due to the variations in solvent polarity and ability to induce a specific conformation in PVDF chains, through the changes in chain coil dimensions. This indicates that in spite of cyclohexanone solutions, the intermolecular interactions between PVDF and DMAc are temperature-sensitive and more important in stabilizing conformations of PVDF in crystalline phase than temperature dependence of PVDF chain end-to-end distance . The high-resolution 19F NMR spectroscopy also showed little displacement in PVDF characteristic chemical shifts probably due to changes in PVDF chain conformation resulting from temperature variations. Upon uniaxial stretching of the prepared films under certain conditions, contribution of trans state becomes more prominent, especially for the originally higher α phase-containing films. Due to formation of some kink bands during film stretching and phase transformation, α phase absorption bands are still present in infrared spectra. Besides, uniaxial stretching greatly enhances piezoelectric properties of the films, maybe due to formation of oriented β phase crystals, which are of more uniform distribution of dipole moments. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3487–3495, 2004
Synthesis, Characterization and Antibacterial Evaluation of Some Arylideneaminotetrahydrobenzothiazoles

The starting material, 2-amino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobe nzo[d]thiazole ( 1), was prepared from cyclohexanone and thiourea in the presence of iodine under heating on a water bat h with occasional stirring. Reaction of 2-amino-4,5 ,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo -[d]thiazole (1) with various aromatic aldehydes afforded 2-arylid eneamino-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[d]thiazole derivatives (2-8) in excellent yields. The structures of the synthe sized thiazole derivatives have been established on the basis of their IR, NMR spectral data and elemental analyses. The obtained compounds were screened for their antibacte rial activities against three Gram-positive pathogenic organisms: Bacillus cereus (BTCC 19), Bacillus subtilis (BTCC 17), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and against six Gram-negative pathogenic organisms: Shigella dysenteriae (AE 14396), Salmonella typhi (AE 14612), Pseudomonous aeruginosa, Vibrio cholerae , Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) and Salmonella paratyphi (Table 1). The disc diffusion method was used for antibacterial activities. Some of them were found to possess significant activity, when compared to s tandard drug.
Light scattering polydispersity analysis of molecular diffusion by Laplace transform inversion in weighted spaces

Previous work on the use of singular systems for the inversion of photon correlation functions obtained in the analysis of molecular polydispersity by laser light scattering is extended to allow the imposition of a ‘‘profile’’ function, having the measured mean and polydispersity index, to localize the recovered solution and improve its resolution. This profile function is used to construct an appropriate orthonormal basis in a weighted L2 space in which to expand the solution and also a basis of vectors for expanding the experimental data.
Strategy for the analysis of cuticular hydrocarbon waxes from insects using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with electron impact and chemical ionization

Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric methods have been developed for the analysis of cuticular hydrocarbon waxes from termites, ants and house flies. A combination of electron impact, chemical ionization with ethylene oxide, methane and ammonia together with methoxy mercuration followed by reductive demercuration, enabled alkane and alkene components of waxes from Reticulitermes termites, Hypoponera eduardi, Camponotus Vagus, and Cataglyphis cursor ants and Calliphora Vomitora house flies to be characterized.
Fission Product Decay Heat Calculations for Thermal Neutron Fission of 235U

Precise information of the decay heat from fission products following times after a fission reaction is necessary for safety designs and operations of nuclear power reactors, fuel storage, transport flasks, and for spent fuel management and processing. In this study, an efficient computation procedure has been applied for exact calculation of the decay heat of fission products for times following a thermal neutron fission reaction of 235U.
Impacts of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth Caribbean: key lessons

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has further weakened the fragile socio-economic fabric of the Commonwealth Caribbean (CC). Economies have been stifled by ‘lockdowns’, and by a global decline in travel and tourism. The result has been higher levels of indebtedness, unemployment and psychological stress, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations throughout the region. Despite their limited size and resources, CC states have sought to support business and individuals alike, stimulate economic activity and preserve livelihoods. In this article, the authors acknowledge multilateral and regional policy responses, and argue that the present scenario offers opportunities to deepen functional cooperation and build resilience.
In the Shadow of the ‘Government of the Left’: The 2019 Legislative Elections in Portugal

ABSTRACT This article examines the Portuguese 2019 legislative election, which took place after a period of unprecedented and unexpected cooperation of the pro-European centre left and eurosceptic radical left. Initially dismissed as a ‘contraption’, this alliance belied the initial expectations and increasingly became a reference for South European social democratic parties. Yet, despite a seemingly reinforced popular mandate, it was not maintained after the 2019 election. We identify three factors for this. First, we suggest that the 2015–19 ‘contraption’ was a case of weak contract parliamentarism, making it easier not to renew. Second, the electoral victory of the Socialist Party made deals between the left-wing parties less necessary. Third, enduring programmatic differences between those parties hindered cooperation. Finally, it should be noted that the ‘contraption’ impacted interparty relations on the left and the expansion in the number of parliamentary parties in 2019, notably on the right.
Draft Genome Sequences of Pelagimyophage Mosig EXVC030M and Pelagipodophage Lederberg EXVC029P, Isolated from Devil’s Hole, Bermuda

We present the genomes of two isolated bacteriophages infecting Pelagibacter ubique HTCC1062. Pelagibacter phage Mosig EXVC030M (Myoviridae) and Pelagibacter phage Lederberg EXVC029P (Podoviridae) were isolated by dilution-to-extinction culturing from the oxygen minimum zone at Devil’s Hole (Harrington Sound, Bermuda). ABSTRACT We present the genomes of two isolated bacteriophages infecting Pelagibacter ubique HTCC1062. Pelagibacter phage Mosig EXVC030M (Myoviridae) and Pelagibacter phage Lederberg EXVC029P (Podoviridae) were isolated by dilution-to-extinction culturing from the oxygen minimum zone at Devil’s Hole (Harrington Sound, Bermuda).
The Soundtrack of the Extreme: Nasheeds and Right-Wing Extremist Music as a “Gateway Drug” into the Radical Scene?

Abstract Music plays an important role in both the right-wing extremist and the Salafi jihadist scenes as a unifying and radicalizing factor. It is used to share propaganda and highlight specific ideologies. Music is disseminated by various means, e.g. via social media, and used strategically to attract potential new members. The aims of right-wing extremist music and the Salafi jihadist nasheeds are, among other things, to inspire the youth, reach out to a worldwide audience of potential sympathizers, and disseminate their absolutist worldview. To achieve these goals, seemingly objective depictions of negative everyday experiences, of oppression, and the need for resistance are utilized. The songs are usually associated with violent content, and in conjunction with videos, they illustrate the perceived need to defend oneself. In this article, we will take a closer look at the content of four selected extremist songs. Our analysis of the content is based on a triangulation of sequential text analysis methods and identifies the differences and comparable elements of the ideologies in a final step. In addition to the content, the research aims to examine the possible effects of extremist groups’ music.
The role of lifetime stressors in adult fibromyalgia: systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies

Abstract Background Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain. Although accumulating evidence suggests that exposure to stressful events increases the risk for this complex disorder, this is the first meta-analysis to compare the impact of a full range of lifetime stressors (e.g. physical trauma through to emotional neglect) on adult fibromyalgia. Methods This review was performed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Random-effects models examined associations between different stressor exposures and fibromyalgia status with meta-regression investigating the effects of publication year and study quality on effect sizes. Results Nineteen studies were included in the meta-analysis. Significant associations with fibromyalgia status were observed for all six exposure types examined: odds ratios (OR) were highest for physical abuse (OR 3.23, 95% confidence interval 1.99–5.23) and total abuse (3.06, 1.71–5.46); intermediate for sexual abuse (2.65, 1.85–3.79) and smaller for medical trauma (1.80, 1.19–2.71), other lifetime stressors (1.70, 1.31–2.20), and emotional abuse (1.52, 1.27–1.81). Results were not significantly changed when childhood, as opposed to adult, exposures were used in studies that reported both. Meta-regression analyses demonstrated no effect of publication year or study quality on effect sizes. Conclusions This study confirmed a significant association between stressor exposure and adult fibromyalgia with the strongest associations observed for physical abuse. Limitations related to current available literature were identified; we provide several suggestions for how these can be addressed in future studies. Stressors are likely to be one of many risk factors for fibromyalgia which we argue is best approached from a biopsychosocial perspective.
The Dark Side of Human Values: How Values are Related to Bright and Dark Personality Traits

Abstract In the present research, we replicate and extend previous findings on the relations between human values and bright\dark traits of personality, using the functional theory of human values (Gouveia, 2013). Specifically, we assessed which dark traits are associated with human values and whether the dark traits explained variance in values beyond the bright traits (Big Five). While prior research has investigated the relations between the three sets of constructs mainly in Western countries, we tested whether the findings hold in Brazil (N = 819). Although values are defined as positive constructs, several value subfunctions were positively correlated with the dark traits (e.g., excitement values with narcissism), while other relations were negative. Controlling for participants' age and gender, hierarchical regressions further revealed that dark traits explain variance in values beyond bright traits, although overall bright traits were more strongly associated with values than dark traits. Together, our findings replicate previous research. Implications for our understanding of the Dark Triad and cross-cultural research are discussed.