Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of hunger on the exploratory behaviour of shoals of mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki

The question of how hunger affects locomotory behaviour, in particular how it affects the kinematics of movement and an animal’s interaction with the physical structures in its environment is of broad relevance in behavioural ecology. We experimentally manipulated the hunger levels of individual mosquitofish ( Gambusia holbrooki ) and recorded their swimming behaviour in shoals of 4 fish. We found that hungry individuals in shoals moved at greater speeds and had higher turning speeds than satiated individuals in shoals, as well as a greater variance in speed and turning speeds. We also found that hungry individuals explored more of the arena and used more of its internal space, away from the square arena’s walls and displayed less wall-following behaviour than satiated individuals. A functional explanation for this change in swimming behaviour and interaction with environmental heterogeneity is discussed in the context of social foraging, as is the consequence of these results for models of search patterns and collective movement.
Sandfish (Holothuria scabra) production and sea-ranching trial in Fiji

There is presently enormous interest in the Pacific islands region in restoring depleted sea cucumber fisheries with hatchery-produced juveniles. The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research funded projects in Fiji to transfer technology for culturing and sea ranching of sandfish (Holothuria scabra, known locally as 'dairo'). Two hatcheries that respectively produce blacklip pearl oyster and penaeid shrimp were successfully used to culture sandfish. Government aquaculture officers and private-sector hatchery technicians were trained in sandfish production methods. Successful spawning and rearing to the small juvenile stage were carried out at both hatcheries but, due to factors such as cyclones and equipment failure, only one of the hatchery runs produced about 500 large juveniles for a release trial. An extensive seagrass bed on a shallow sand flat in front of Natuvu village, Vanua Levu, met the criteria for suitable habitat for sea ranching, and the community was committed to the research. The juveniles were released into four 100-m² sea pens (two pens each of small and large juveniles, 1–3 g and >3–10 g, respectively). Survival after 6 months was around 28% overall (23% for small and 33% for large sandfish). The Natuvu community ceased harvest of sandfish from the wild prior to the project starting, and also declared a marine protected area (MPA) around the sea-ranching site. An unanticipated benefit of the project was an increase in other valuable sea cucumber species in their MPA, which were harvested for a one-off community fundraising event.
An Image-Based Approach to Detecting Structural Similarity Among Mixed Integer Programs

Operations researchers have long drawn insight from the structure of constraint coefficient matrices (CCMs) for mixed integer programs (MIPs). We propose a new question: Can pictorial representations of CCM structure be used to identify similar MIP models and instances? In this paper, CCM structure is visualized using digital images, and computer vision techniques are used to detect latent structural features therein. The resulting feature vectors are used to measure similarity between images and, consequently, MIPs. An introductory analysis examines a subset of the instances from strIPlib and MIPLIB 2017, two online repositories for MIP instances. Results indicate that structure-based comparisons may allow for relationships to be identified between MIPs from disparate application areas. Additionally, image-based comparisons reveal that ostensibly similar variations of an MIP model may yield instances with markedly different mathematical structures. Summary of Contribution: This paper presents a methodology for comparing mixed integer programs (MIPs) from any research domain based on the structure of the constraint coefficient matrices for one or more instances of a model. Specifically, computer vision and deep learning techniques are used to extract structural features and measure the similarity between these images. This process is agnostic to application area and instead focuses solely on mathematical structure. As a result, this methodology offers a fundamentally new way for operations researchers to view MIP similarity and highlights similarities between research problems that may have previously been viewed as unrelated.
Expansion and Contraction Modulate Visual Short-Term Memory

We examined the influence of expansion and contraction on visual short-term memory (VSTM) using a change-detection task. In each trial, several expanding/contracting line segments with various orientations were presented in two successive displays. The orientation of objects in the second display was either identical to, or different from, that of the first display. Observers were asked to judge the presence or absence of an orientation change in successive displays. Results showed that memory performance for expanding objects was higher than for contracting objects (expansion benefit: Experiments 1A and 1B). Further experiments focused on VSTM processing (encoding, storage, and retrieval). Regarding the retrieval stage, an expansion benefit was replicated only when the direction of motion was consistent between two successive displays (Experiment 2A). A cueing stimulus enhanced the memory performance for both expanding and contracting motions and eliminated the expansion benefit (Experiment 2B). Regarding the storage stage, we found the expansion benefit occurred only for shorter blank intervals between the two displays (Experiment 3). Regarding the encoding stage, the expansion benefit was observed regardless of presentation times (Experiment 4). These results indicate the possibility that expanding and contracting motions modulate VSTM.
Co-word Network Embedding: A Way to Detect Emerging Technology

Introduction Emerging technologies are often perceived as having large undeveloped economic potential and being capable of promoting the society status quo. Although emerging technologies are a focus for policy makers, researchers and companies, the way to identify it have yet to achieve consensus. With technological development, practical applications, or both largely unrealized, how to capture new terminology that may represent emerging technology, and what does the terminology mean? This paper aims to provide a useful way to detect emergent terms and its relevant concepts via text analysis to address the above question. Many attempts have been tried in identifying emerging technologies, most of them are based on publication and patent analysis. The text and structural information of publication and patent make the analysis suitable to conduct methods like bibliometrics, social network analysis, Natural Language Processing (NLP), etc. Co-word network is usually utilized to analyze relations among different keywords through building a matrix or network, which can be visualized and reveal the hotspot and trend in certain technological area. Topic model can cluster documents and get multiple topics, which is widely used in detecting emerging clustering or items. Radical novelty and relatively fast growth are put forth by Rotolo et al. as 2 out of 5 major attributes of emerging technology. To measure attribute of technology’s emergence, quantitative analysis is required, and how implicit information can contribute to indicator such as growth should be focused. While a single method has threshold exploiting implicit information and carrying on quantitative analysis, we develop a new method that combines co-word network and neural network model to learn from the co-word network and get dense representation of items for further indicator analysis. This method behaves well in emerging items mining and getting items highly correlated with the emerging ones.
Single-molecule measurements of Kinesin motor proteins

This thesis covers the developments and new findings on different regulatory processes in Kinesin-5 motor proteins. The first two chapters give a general introduction into motor proteins and some of the well established experiments to study them. In Chapter 3, a hypothesis is studied that tries to explain how processive motion in molecular motors is possible. The assumption was that intra-molecular communication is facilitated by the transmission of tension by the neck linker of a Kinesin. We studied a set of Kinesin constructs with different length of the neck linker which we expected to influence the motors’ properties. We were able to show that the simple model is, at least for our constructs, not true. At the same time, we found evidence that supports a different explanation and might indicate a conserved mechanism in all Kinesins. In recent studies, the ability of Kinesin-5 motors from Saccharomyces cerevisiae to switch their direction of movement was reported. This is contradicting the previous observation that processive Kinesin motors exclusively move to the plus end of microtubules. The mechanism, by which this is achieved, is completely unknown. In Chapter 4, we hypothesize that the interaction of the tail domains of a Kinesin-5 with the adjacent head groups might be able to regulate the directionality. To test this, different constructs of the S. cerevisiae motors without tail domains were designed. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the design and application of a new assay that mimics the environment of the mitotic spindle. So far, the motility of mitotic motors was most of the time investigated by using single-molecule techniques that either were in a load free environment, like single-molecule fluorescence assays, or in a completely artificial environment, as in single-bead motility assays. To generate a situation that is as closely related to the mitotic spindle, I developed a new optical trap based assay. With this technique, I was able to measure the native Kinesin-5 Eg5 as well as a tetrameric Kinesin-1/Kinesin-5 chimera in a loaded environment. Not only could I show that small angles between the filaments do not influence the native protein but I was also able to observe previously unknown characteristics of tetrameric motors that are only visible in this new assay. The last chapter of this thesis, Chapter 6, summarizes the results of this work and tries to offer some points for future studies to begin. This thesis covers examples of the regulatory processes that enable Kinesin motors to exhibit a vast range of different properties, even though they are structurally similar. The results, presented in the Chapters 3 to Chapter 5, provide some additional puzzle pieces that hopefully will help to complete our understanding of Kinesin-5 motility in particular and molecular motors in general.
RNA-seq Data Analysis: A Practical Approach

Introduction Introduction to RNA-seq data analysis Quality control and preprocessing Aligning reads to reference and visualizing them in genomic context Transcriptome assembly Annotation-based quality control and quantitation of gene expression RNA-seq analysis framework in R and Bioconductor Differential expression analysis Analysis of differential exon usage Annotating the results Visualization Small non-coding RNAs Computational analysis of small noncoding RNA sequencing data
Antidiarrhoeagenic Potentials of Synergistic Activities of Water Extracts of Aloe vera and Hyptis suaveolens against Giardia lamblia and Salmonella Species Infections among Children 0-5 Years in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Background: The epidemiological significance of Salmonella species and Giardia lamblia co-infections of childhood diarrhoea differs substantially between regions depending on socio-economic conditions in the prevalence of different categories of diarrhoeagenic disease associated with diarrhoea among under 5 populations, medicinal plants extracts has increasingly been advocated in productions of antimicrobial agents as resistance with synthetic drugs increases. Methodology: The phytochemicals constituents obtained from Aloe vera and Hyptis suaveolens were investigated to evaluate their medicinal potentials, the screening revealed the presence of Research Article saponins, tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, phenols. The study was conducted between June, 2018 and February, 2019 in an attempt to ascertain the efficacies of Aloe vera and Hyptis suaveolens individually and in combined against diarrhoea infections caused by Giardia lamblia and Salmonella species in under five children in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Anti-giardial activity was carried out in an in-vitro susceptibility assays method on Giardia lamblia and antibacterial activity was carried out by Kirby-Bauer method on Salmonella species. Parasites mortality was determined by counting in hemocytometer under a light microscope and zone of inhibitions produced against the bacteria were determined and subjected to descriptive statistics and inferential statistical analysis to determine their significance at 5% level using SPSS version 23. Means were separated using DMRT (P≤0.05). Results: The results obtained showed that water extracts of Aloe vera and Hyptis suaveolens plants singly and in combinations had inhibitory effects on Giardia lamblia and Salmonella species. Shows that Aloe vera extracts on Salmonella species exhibited good zone of inhibitions 0.302±18.00, Hyptis suaveolens extracts 0.315±19.67 and the combined extracts 0.413±30.00. On Giardia lamblia, shows better activities with Aloe vera extracts 0.002±0.505, Hyptis suaveolens extracts 0.002±0.478 and the combined extracts 0.002±0.643. In all the cases, plants, concentrations and time were determinants factors for the anti-giardial and antibacterial activity. Conclusion: better activities Hyptis suaveolens extracts while the combined extracts shows better activities of antigiardial.
Cloning and expression of sterol Δ14‐reductase from bovine liver

Biosynthesis of cholesterol represents one of the fundamental cellular metabolic processes. Sterol Delta 14-reductase (Delta 14-SR) is a microsomal enzyme involved in the conversion of lanosterol to cholesterol in mammals. Amino-acid sequence analysis of a 38-kDa protein purified from bovine liver in our laboratory revealed > 90% similarity with a human sterol reductase, SR-1, encoded by the TM7SF2 gene, and with the C-terminal domain of human lamin B receptor. A cDNA encoding the 38-kDa protein, similar to human TM7SF2, was identified by analysis of a bovine expressed sequence tag (EST) database. The cDNA was synthesized by RT-PCR, cloned, and sequenced. The cDNA encodes a 418 amino-acid polypeptide with nine predicted transmembrane domains. The deduced amino-acid sequence exhibits high similarity with Delta 14-SR from yeasts, fungi, and plants (55-59%), suggesting that the bovine cDNA encodes Delta 14-SR. Northern blot analysis of bovine tissues showed high expression of mRNA in liver and brain. The polypeptide encoded by the cloned cDNA was expressed in COS-7 cells. Immunofluorescence analysis of transfected cells revealed a distribution of the protein throughout the ER. COS-7 cells expressing the protein exhibited Delta 14-SR activity about sevenfold higher than control cells. These results demonstrate that the cloned bovine cDNA encodes Delta 14-SR and provide evidence that the human TM7SF2 gene encodes Delta 14-SR.
Blocking agents for ELISA quantification of cathepsin L in bovine and porcine muscle crude extracts

Skimmed milk revealed to be the most efficient of the assayed blockers, as also observed by other authors. In the case of pork, this would be the only suitable blocking agent but avoiding the highest assayed muscle crude extract concentration. All the same attention must be paid, since some authors pointed out the possibility that skimmed milk may interfere the antigen-antibody reaction under certain conditions [Vogt et al., 1987]. For ELISA quantification of cathepsin L from bovine species, goat serum and BSA, together with skimmed milk, could be used as effective blockers always that a surcoating steps be included in addition to be present in the assay buffer.
How Geographical Isolation and Aging in Place Can Be Accommodated Through Connected Health Stakeholder Management: Qualitative Study With Focus Groups

Background In remote areas, connected health (CH) is needed, but as local resources are often scarce and the purchasing power of residents is usually poor, it is a challenge to apply CH in these settings. In this study, CH is defended as a technological solution for reshaping the direction of health care to be more proactive, preventive, and precisely targeted—and thus, more effective. Objective The objective of this study was to explore the identity of CH stakeholders in remote areas of Taiwan and their interests and power in order to determine ideal strategies for applying CH. We aimed to explore the respective unknowns and discover insights for those facing similar issues. Methods Qualitative research was conducted to investigate and interpret the phenomena of the aging population in a remote setting. An exploratory approach was employed involving semistructured interviews with 22 participants from 8 remote allied case studies. The interviews explored perspectives on stakeholder arrangements, including the power and interests of stakeholders and the needs of all the parties in the ecosystem. Results Results were obtained from in-depth interviews and focus groups that included identifying the stakeholders of remote health and determining how they influence its practice, as well as how associated agreements bring competitive advantages. Stakeholders included people in government sectors, industrial players, academic researchers, end users, and their associates who described their perspectives on their power and interests in remote health service delivery. Specific facilitators of and barriers to effective delivery were identified. A number of themes, such as government interests and power of decision making, were corroborated across rural and remote services. These themes were broadly grouped into the disclosure of conflicts of interest, asymmetry in decision making, and data development for risk assessment. Conclusions This study contributes to current knowledge by exploring the features of CH in remote areas and investigating its implementation from the perspectives of stakeholder management. It offers insights into managing remote health through a CH platform, which can be used for preliminary quantitative research. Consequently, these findings could help to more effectively facilitate diverse stakeholder engagement for health information sharing and social interaction.
Improving the Lifestyle of Adolescents Through Peer Education and Support in Vietnam: Protocol for a Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Background In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, recent studies found a rapid increase in overweight and obesity in adolescents. There is a need for effective health promotion interventions to support healthy diets and encourage a physically active lifestyle. This study will help fill an evidence gap on effective interventions to prevent excess weight gain in adolescents and generate new insights about peer-led education to promote healthy lifestyles. Objective We aim to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a combined peer-led and peer support intervention among junior high school students in Ho Chi Minh City. Additionally, the efficacy of the intervention on adolescents’ dietary practices and time spent on physical activity will also be measured in this pilot study. Methods The Peer Education and Peer Support (PEPS) project is a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial with 2 intervention and 2 control schools. The intervention consists of 4 weekly education sessions of why and how to choose healthy food and drinks and how to be more physically active. Additionally, the intervention includes a school-based and online support system to help maintain student engagement during the intervention. We will use in-depth interviews with students, peer leaders, teachers, and parents; focus group discussions with peer educators; and direct observation of the school environment and peer leaders’ interactions with the students. Acceptability and feasibility of the intervention will be assessed. We will also quantitatively assess limited efficacy by measuring changes in student’ physical activity levels and dietary behaviors. Results We delivered the peer education intervention at the start of each school year over 3 months for all new grade 6 adolescents in the selected schools, followed by peer support and home engagement activities over 6 months until the end of the school year. There was a baseline assessment and 2 post-intervention assessments: the first immediately after the intervention to assess the short-term impact and the second at the end of the school year to assess the sustained impact on changes in adiposity, diet, and physical activity. Conclusions The findings of this study will be used to develop a larger-scale cluster randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a multicomponent, school- and home-based health promotion intervention. The trial will use innovative peer education methods to reduce overweight and obesity and improve dietary choices and physical activity levels in Vietnamese adolescents. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12619000421134; https://www.anzctr. org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx? id=376690&isReview=true International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/15930
INTERESTS OF DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING STUDENTS FOR SPORTS

Slow speech-language development and reduced communication skills can affect weaker experiences in different activities. The aim of the research was to determine interests and aspirations for sports of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The sample consisted of 94 examinees, divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 47 deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and the second, control group, the same number of their hearing peers, both sexes, average age of 16 ± 1.27 years. The test used for research was Test for Interests and Aspirations of Students of 20 Assertions - Indicators of attitudes about participation and opportunities provided by eight different activities, of which sport is one of them. The obtained data were processed with descriptive analysis, and the differences between the groups tested with the t-test. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students recognize the importance of dealing with sports, but feel that they do not participate enough. The examinees without hearing impairments pleaded more favorably about participation in sport activities than examinees with hearing impairment, and the statistically significant difference was established. Statistically significant difference was not determined in the case of pleading about the possibilities provided by sport. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students believe that sport can have significant impact on better socialization, wherefore it is necessary to include these persons in sport activities at an early age.
Application of noise robust MDT speech recognition on the SPEECON and speechdat-car databases

We show that the recognition accuracy of an MDT recognizer which performs well on artificially noisified data, deteriorates rapidly under realistic noisy conditions (using multiple microphone recordings from the SPEECON/SpeechDat-Car databases) and is outperformed by a commercially available recognizer which was trained using a multi-condition paradigm. Analysis of the recognition results indicates that the recording channels with the lowest SNRs where the MDT recognizer fails most, are also the channels which suffer most from room reverberation. Despite the channel compensation measures we took, it appears difficult to maintain the restorative power of MDT in such non-additive noise conditions.