Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversity patterns and seasonal variation of the waterbird community in Mediterranean wetlands of Northeastern Algeria

AbstractDuring two annual cycles (from September 2012 to August 2014), we analysed structural patterns (provided and compared data on diversity metrics) of bird assemblages in coastal wetlands of Northeastern Algeria. Annual and seasonal differences in relative species abundance were analysed from the viewpoint of diversity/dominance. Bird assemblages vary only in the number of species (35 recorded species during the wintering season against 23 during the breeding season). Values of the relative abundance in both seasons were similar, curves in the diversity/dominance diagram were analogous (not significantly different; both p > 0.05). Indeed, the seasonal structure of waterbird communities indicates highly dominated assemblages manifesting themselves in reduced species diversity and increased dominance of certain species. Simpson’s index was never recorded below 0.50, thus indicating evidently lower evenness. The Eurasian Coot Fulica atra and the Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis were highly dominant s.
Neighborhood Engagement, Dogs, and Life Satisfaction in Older Adulthood

Objectives This study examined the relationships between dog ownership, dog walking, and the emotional bond with a dog to neighborhood engagement and life satisfaction among those over age 50. Method Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 476), two path analysis models were conducted to test the research hypotheses. Results Findings indicated that dog ownership did not have a direct or indirect relationship on life satisfaction. However, time spent in dog walking was associated with frequency of social interactions, which itself had a positive association with life satisfaction. The bond with a dog was not directly associated with life satisfaction but was associated with dog walking. Discussion Dog walking is a promising strategy for simultaneously promoting better health and social engagement, and these factors in turn can promote greater life satisfaction of older adults.
Sexual differences in responses to simulated herbivory in Urtica dioica

We studied the responses of the stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, to simulated herbivory in terms of growth, branching, reproduction, biomass allocation and stinging trichome density. We focused on intersexual differences in the responses. The simulated herbivory treatment consisted of leaf blade clippings and removal of the plant apex. Extensive leaf clipping (50% of the leaf blades removed) cried out before anthesis had the most negative effect on reproduction in both sexes. In the other simulated herbivory treatments, male and female plants either compensated or overcompensated slightly for herbivory in terms of reproduction. The branching responses differed between the sexes. In females, both leaf clipping and apex damage increased branching (.)
Identification of Apple Varieties Using a Multichannel Hyperspectral Imaging System

This paper reports the nondestructive detection of apple varieties using a multichannel hyperspectral imaging system consisting of an illumination fiber and 30 detection fibers arranged at source–detector distances of 1.5–36 mm over the spectral range of 550–1650 nm. Spatially resolved (SR) spectra were obtained for 1500 apples, 500 each of three varieties from the same orchard to avoid environmental and geographical influences. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) models were developed for single SR spectra and spectral combinations to compare their performance of variety detection. To evaluate the effect of spectral range on variety detection, three types of spectra (i.e., visible region: 550–780 nm, near-infrared region: 780–1650 nm, full region: 550–1650 nm) were analyzed and compared. The results showed that the single SR spectra presented a different accuracy for apple variety classification, and the optimal SR spectra varied with spectral types. Spectral combinations had better accuracies for variety detection with best overall classifications of 99.4% for both spectral ranges in the NIR and full regions; however, the spectral combination could not improve the results over the optimal single SR spectra in the visible region. Moreover, the recognition of golden delicious (GD) was better than those of the other two varieties, with the best classification accuracy of 100% for three types of spectra. Overall, the multichannel hyperspectral imaging system provides more spatial-spectral information for the apples, and the results demonstrate that the technique gave excellent classifications, which suggests that the multichannel hyperspectral imaging system has potential for apple variety detection.
Assertiveness and adaptation: Prospective teachers' social competence development and its significance for occupational well-being.

BACKGROUND Difficult social interactions with students are reported to be among the main stressors of beginning teachers, and although social competence has been suggested to represent a vital resource for their transition into practice and early-career adaptation, this assumption has rarely been empirically studied. AIM We conducted two studies to investigate the predictive validity and development of prospective and beginning teachers' social competence. In Study 1, we examined, whether social competence predicts beginning teachers' emotional exhaustion. Study 2 investigated whether university teacher training contributes to social competence development among prospective teachers. SAMPLE The samples of both studies are based on large-scale assessments. Participants in Study 1 were 1,758 beginning teachers who had been tracked since their entry into university teacher training. Study 2 included 831 prospective teachers who were surveyed over a total period of two years. METHODS Data were analysed utilizing a structural equation modelling approach (Study 1) and latent change score modelling (Study 2). RESULTS The results of Study 1 revealed that social competence negatively predicts emotional exhaustion. Further, beginning teachers' reports of classroom management functioned as a mediator within that relationship. According to the findings in Study 2, prospective teachers showed no significant enhancements of social competence within one year of university teacher training. However, there was a significant change considering the two-year interval. CONCLUSIONS Social competence, as a predictor of occupational well-being, may constitute one important resource for the early-career adaptation of beginning teachers. However, efforts to promote social competence within university teacher training should be increased.
How to Implement Patient-Based Quality Control: Trial and Error.

Patient-based QC offers considerable theoretical advantages and, ideally, would enable earlier detection of errors, more sensitive detection of errors, and fewer report corrections. The most common of these approaches is referred to as moving average (MA) QC. MA QC approaches involve triggering alarms when the average of a prespecified number of consecutive patient results that are considered normal, as defined by being within prespecified truncation limits, is outside of prespecified control limits (1). The theoretical performance of MA QC approaches depends on setting these prespecified parameters to balance the time to error detection and the frequency of falsepositive alarms. Tools to perform these analyses in real time have recently become available through laboratory or middleware information systems, but their clinical adoption has been limited (2). Authors van Rossum and van den Broek (3) demonstrate the feasibility of using an MA QC approach that they described previously (4) to improve monitoring of clinical chemistry and hematology assay performance. The monitored analytes spanned a variety of analytical methodologies and population result distributions. Testing was performed on multiple instruments at a single laboratory site. The system was assessed over enough time to encompass substantial supplier, batch, and other sources of temporal variation. This report details the detection of analytical errors and highlights many of the challenges in implementing clinical processes that incorporate MA QC. This report makes clear that translating the theoretical performance of MA into real-time QC practice requires considerable development and conscientious implementation of policies, procedures, and tools. The MA rules themselves require validation and, potentially, the development or purchase of new information system tools. However, the MA calculation is just one component of a much larger quality system that includes procedures for acting on an alarm and for monitoring the performance of the system. In the workup of MA QC alarms, for example, the authors designed an error-investigation procedure that enabled rapid evaluation for potential errors. However, they chose to not automatically stop autovalidation based on MA QC results. As intended, this approach likely mitigated potential delays in result turnaround time but at the cost of missing 71 alarms (35%). MA can be very useful for quality assurance, but if intended for real-time QC, then the fidelity with which the real-time process is adopted is essential.
Primary Dermal Melanoma (PDM): Histological and Clinical Interdependence to Guide Therapy

Background/purpose This study examined clinical and histological parameters of primary dermal melanoma (PDM) to aid in its distinction from dermal metastasis. Methods Retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort of PDM patients. Includes patients fulfilling the strict histologic criteria for PDM (N = 9) and patients who did not, but clinically, unequivocally had an intradermal melanoma—clinical PDM (cPDM; N = 17). Histopathology slides were re-examined. Prognosticators and outcome measures were compared between groups. Sentinel nodes’ retrieval and wide local excision (WLE) were offered to all patients as primary treatment. Results 26 patients identified, 15 females with a median age of 69 years (range 3.5-85). Mean Breslow was 7.9 ± 5.7 mm (median 5.8, range 1.8-25.0), and the mean mitotic rate was 4.9 ± 3.8/mm2 (median 4.0, range 0-17). Initial treatment and follow-up were as for cutaneous melanoma. One patient in each group with a palpable stage III underwent primary radical dissection. Sentinel nodes were retrieved in all 20 lymphatic mappings performed and found to be metastatic in 5 (25%) patients. Treatment consisted of completion lymph-node dissection. At a median postoperative follow-up of 62 months (range 8-132), 20 patients were disease-free, including 6 of 7 patients with stage III disease at presentation. Six patients died all of cPDM; 5 of 6 patients had primary ulcerated or epidermal-abutting melanomas. Conclusions This is the first study to highlight cPDM. Diagnosis requires expert pathology review and a tight correlation to the clinical parameters. Patients seem to benefit from WLE with sentinel node retrieval and complete dissection when appropriate. However, clinical guidelines for dissection have changed since the time period of this retrospective review. Based on this series, complete nodal dissection in these melanomas is associated with better than expected outcome, for stage III disease.
Feasibility and Reliability of SmartWatch to Obtain 3-Lead Electrocardiogram Recordings

Some of the recently released smartwatch products feature a single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) recording capability. The reliability of obtaining 3-lead ECG with smartwatches is yet to be confirmed in a large study. This study aimed to assess the feasibility and reliability of smartwatch to obtain 3-lead ECG recordings, the classical Einthoven ECG leads I-III compared to standard ECG. To record lead I, the watch was worn on the left wrist and the right index finger was placed on the digital crown for 30 s. For lead II, the watch was placed on the lower abdomen and the right index finger was placed on the digital crown for 30 s. For lead III, the same process was repeated with the left index finger. Spearman correlation and Bland-Altman tests were used for data analysis. A total of 300 smartwatch ECG tracings were successfully obtained. ECG waves’ characteristics of all three leads obtained from the smartwatch had a similar duration, amplitude, and polarity compared to standard ECG. The results of this study suggested that the examined smartwatch (Apple Watch Series 4) could obtain 3-lead ECG tracings, including Einthoven leads I, II, and III by placing the smartwatch on the described positions.
Rational design and chemical modification of TEAD coactivator peptides to target hippo signaling pathway against gastrointestinal cancers

Abstract Human Hippo signaling pathway has been recognized as a new and promising therapeutic target of gastrointestinal cancers, which is regulated by the intermolecular recognition between the TEA domain (TEAD) transcription factor and its prime coactivators. The coactivator proteins adopt two hotspot sites, namely α-helix and Ω-loop, to interact with TEAD. Here, we demonstrate that both the α-helix and Ω-loop peptides cannot maintain in structured state when splitting from the full-length coactivator proteins; they exhibit a large intrinsic disorder in free state that prevents the coactivator peptide recognition by TEAD. Rational design is used to optimize the interfacial residues of coactivator α-helix peptides, which can effectively improve the favorable direct readout effect upon the peptide binding to TEAD. Chemical modification is employed to constrain the free α-helix peptide into native ordered conformation. The method introduces an all-hydrocarbon bridge across i and i + 4 residues to stabilize the helical structure of a free coactivator peptide, which can considerably reduce the unfavorable indirect readout effect upon the peptide binding to TEAD. The all-hydrocarbon bridge is designed to point out of the TEAD–peptide complex interface, which would not disrupt the direct intermolecular interaction between the TEAD and peptide. Therefore, the stapling only improves peptide affinity, but does not alter peptide specificity, to TEAD. Affinity assay confirms that the binding potency of coactivator α-helix peptides is improved substantially by >5-fold upon the rational design and chemical modification. Structural analysis reveals that the optimized/stapled peptides can form diverse nonbonded interactions such as hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic contacts with TEAD, thus conferring stability and specificity to the TEAD–peptide complex systems.
Sky Blue-Emissive Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes: Crystal Growth and Interfacial Control Using Conjugated Polyelectrolytes as Hole-Transporting Layer.

A series of poly(fluorene-co-phenylene)-based anionic conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) is prepared with varying sizes of counterions (tetramethylammonium, tetraethylammonium, and tetrabutylammonium (TBA+)) and studied as a hole transport layer (HTL) for sky blue-emissive perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs). Ionic CPE HTLs improve the wettability, compatibility and nucleation of perovskite crystals at interfaces, enabling highly crystalline perovskite crystal growth with enhanced light-emitting properties. By incorporating the CPE HTLs containing bulky TBA+ counterions (MPS2-TBA) in place of PEDOT:PSS, the decreased phonon-electron coupling and increased exciton binding energy in perovskites are measured by temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements. With increasing the size of counterions in CPE interlayers, the PL intensities and lifetimes of perovskite films increase. Through space charge limited current measurements, the lowest trap density is measured in the perovskite film on MPS2-TBA, emphasizing a critical role of larger counterions. By density functional theory, MPS2-TBA is calculated to show the strongest adsorption affinity toward the interstitial defect of lead ions, explaining its pronounced interfacial defect passivation. The counterion size in CPE interlayers is interpreted as a main factor to determine the adsorption affinity onto perovskite, which determines the interacted area since non-covalent adsorption occurs.
Impact of Wnt/β-Catenin Inhibition on Cell Proliferation through CDC25A Downregulation in Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Simple Summary Growing evidence suggests that Wnt signaling may be crucial for tumorigenesis and progression of soft tissue sarcomas (STS). Inhibitors of this pathway are currently in clinical trials or pre-clinical studies in order to validate its utility in different neoplasia. One of this inhibitors, PRI-724, is showing promising results for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma or ovarian cancer. We found that PRI-724 is able to suppress cell viability/proliferation and to increase cell death rates of soft tissue sarcomas cells in vitro. CDC25A, a target gene of Wnt signaling pathway, is essential for STS proliferation because its downregulation via siRNA was able to mimic the effect of PRT-724 on cell cycle arrest and evaluation of NCBI/GenBank data confirmed its overexpression in STS patients’ samples. Moreover, in vitro administration of PRI-724 along with standard STS chemotherapeutic drugs improved the efficacy of chemotherapy, suggesting that Wnt inhibition could be a promising new therapeutic strategy in STS. Abstract The Wnt signaling pathway is an important cellular mechanism for regulating differentiation processes as well as cell cycle events, and different inhibitors of this pathway, for example, PRI-724, are showing promising results in clinical trials for treatment of advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma or ovarian cancer. Growing evidence suggests that Wnt signaling may also be crucial for tumorigenesis and progression of soft tissue sarcomas (STS), a malignant neoplasm with few therapeutic options at an advanced state. Our study with several STS cell lines and primary cultures shows that inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling with PRI-724 is able to suppress cell viability/proliferation and to increase cell death rates. TCF/β-catenin-mediated transcriptional activity is decreased in treated cells, leading to downregulation of its target genes CCND1 and CDC25A. The latter was critical because its downregulation via siRNA was able to mimic the effect of PRI-724 on cell cycle arrest and cell death induction. An evaluation of NCBI/GenBank data confirmed that CDC25A mRNA is elevated in STS patients. Importantly, PRI-724 in combination with standard STS chemotherapeutics doxorubicin or trabectedin enhanced their antitumoral effect in a synergistic manner according to isobolographic analysis, suggesting that Wnt inhibition through PRI-724 could be a beneficial combination regime in patients with advanced STS.
GPR183-Oxysterol Axis in Spinal Cord Contributes to Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is a debilitating public health concern for which novel non-narcotic therapeutic targets are desperately needed. Using unbiased transcriptomic screening of the dorsal horn spinal cord after nerve injury we have identified that Gpr183 (Epstein-Barr virus–induced gene 2) is upregulated after chronic constriction injury (CCI) in rats. GPR183 is a chemotactic receptor known for its role in the maturation of B cells, and the endogenous ligand is the oxysterol 7α,25-dihydroxycholesterol (7α,25-OHC). The role of GPR183 in the central nervous system is not well characterized, and its role in pain is unknown. The profile of commercially available probes for GPR183 limits their use as pharmacological tools to dissect the roles of this receptor in pathophysiological settings. Using in silico modeling, we have screened a library of 5 million compounds to identify several novel small-molecule antagonists of GPR183 with nanomolar potency. These compounds are able to antagonize 7α,25-OHC–induced calcium mobilization in vitro with IC50 values below 50 nM. In vivo intrathecal injections of these antagonists during peak pain after CCI surgery reversed allodynia in male and female mice. Acute intrathecal injection of the GPR183 ligand 7α,25-OHC in naïve mice induced dose-dependent allodynia. Importantly, this effect was blocked using our novel GPR183 antagonists, suggesting spinal GPR183 activation as pronociceptive. These studies are the first to reveal a role for GPR183 in neuropathic pain and identify this receptor as a potential target for therapeutic intervention. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We have identified several novel GPR183 antagonists with nanomolar potency. Using these antagonists, we have demonstrated that GPR183 signaling in the spinal cord is pronociceptive. These studies are the first to reveal a role for GPR183 in neuropathic pain and identify it as a potential target for therapeutic intervention.
Equine Herpesvirus Type 1 Modulates Cytokine and Chemokine Profiles of Mononuclear Cells for Efficient Dissemination to Target Organs

Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) causes encephalomyelopathy and abortion, for which cell-associated viremia and subsequent virus transfer to and replication in endothelial cells (EC) are responsible and prerequisites. Viral and cellular molecules responsible for efficient cell-to-cell spread of EHV-1 between peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and EC remain unclear. We have generated EHV-1 mutants lacking ORF1, ORF2, and ORF17 genes, either individually or in combination. Mutant viruses were analyzed for their replication properties in cultured equine dermal cells, PBMC infection efficiency, virus-induced changes in the PBMC proteome, and cytokine and chemokine expression profiles. ORF1, ORF2, and ORF17 are not essential for virus replication, but ORF17 deletion resulted in a significant reduction in plaque size. Deletion of ORF2 and ORF17 gene significantly reduced cell-to-cell virus transfer from virus-infected PBMC to EC. EHV-1 infection of PBMC resulted in upregulation of several pathways such as Ras signaling, oxidative phosphorylation, platelet activation and leukocyte transendothelial migration. In contrast, chemokine signaling, RNA degradation and apoptotic pathways were downregulated. Deletion of ORF1, ORF2 and ORF17 modulated chemokine signaling and MAPK pathways in infected PBMC, which may explain the impairment of virus spread between PBMC and EC. The proteomic results were further confirmed by chemokine assays, which showed that virus infection dramatically reduced the cytokine/chemokine release in infected PBMC. This study uncovers cellular proteins and pathways influenced by EHV-1 after PBMC infection and provide an important resource for EHV-1 pathogenesis. EHV-1-immunomodulatory genes could be potential targets for the development of live attenuated vaccines or therapeutics against virus infection.