Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol outcomes in college students: a 3-year longitudinal analysis

Abstract Objective: Substance use is a public health concern and cross-sectional studies have found that impulsivity and drinking motives influence substance use in emerging adults. Despite these findings, longitudinal studies with nuanced measures of impulsivity and drinking motives are needed. Participants: The current study investigated the three-year relationship between impulsivity-related traits, drinking motives, sex, and drinking outcomes in a sample of 509 college students (47.47% male; 81% White). Methods: The effects of impulsivity traits and drinking motives on problematic drinking outcomes were evaluated using linear mixed effects models. Results: The results confirmed the hypothesized relationship between traits of impulsivity, drinking motives, and alcohol outcomes over time. Further, sex significantly interacted with drinking motives longitudinally in its relationship with alcohol use outcomes. Conclusions: These results indicate that intervention efforts may need to be tailored to specific individual attributes to target direct correlates of alcohol use behavior to increase effectiveness.
Variability in Bulb Organosulfur Compounds, Sugars, Phenolics, and Pyruvate among Greek Garlic Genotypes: Association with Antioxidant Properties

In order to assess the diversity of Greek garlic (Allium sativum L.) landraces, 34 genotypes including commercial ones were grown in the same field and their content in organosulfur compounds, pyruvate, total sugars, and total phenolics, alongside antioxidant capacity, was determined. The organosulfur compounds were studied by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS) after ultrasound-assisted extraction in ethyl acetate, identifying 2-vinyl-4H-1,3-dithiin and 3-vinyl-4H-1,2-dithiin as the predominant compounds, albeit in different ratios among genotypes. The bioactivity and the polar metabolites were determined in hydromethanolic extracts. A great variability was revealed, and nearly one-third of landraces had higher concentration of compounds determining bioactivity and organoleptic traits than the imported ones. We recorded strong correlations between pyruvate and total organosulfur compounds, and between antioxidant capacity and phenolics. In conclusion, chemical characterization revealed great genotype-dependent variation in the antioxidant properties and the chemical characters, identifying specific landraces with superior traits and nutritional and pharmaceutical value.
Instagranimal: Animal Welfare and Animal Ethics Challenges of Animal-Based Tourism

Simple Summary Animals of countless species, wild as well as tame, can now entertain tourists on their holidays. The popularity, however, of animal-based tourism comes with significant risks for the welfare of these animals. Many animals are kept in small confinements, are broken down to interact obediently with tourists, or are made to perform, entertain, transport or even give their lives for human leisure. In this paper, the challenges of animal-based tourism are presented from the perspectives of interdisciplinary researchers. The challenges are discussed based on a two-day symposium with workshop sessions. We bring attention to the problem of cultural relativism and the difficulty of imposing universal standards of animal welfare. We conclude that reforms and individual travel decisions as a result of biosecurity concerns will impact animal welfare. In addition to this, we observe that technology has a dual role to play in enhancing edutainment but also potentially inviting new challenges. In the end, we declare some possibilities for compassionate animal based tourism. Abstract By animal-based tourism, a host of activities offering passive viewing or active interaction with wild, semi-wild or captive animals is included. The multibillion dollar industry is on the rise globally today, offering modes of engagement with animals that trade on increasingly embodied close encounters with non-human animals. As new modes of animal-based tourism proliferate, such as sloth selfies, visiting cat cafes, swimming with sharks and agri-tourism petting zoos, animal welfare standards risk deteriorating. In the following paper, we collate concerns over animal welfare into a discussion on the challenges facing animal-based tourism. Our synthesis is the first to consider the full spectrum of such animal-based tourism: across agri-, hunting, zoo and safari tourism, to name a few, and crossing consumptive and non-consumptive boundaries. A literature review is first provided. Findings are then presented thematically following workshops at an international interdisciplinary symposium of leading tourism, animal welfare, ethics and leisure sciences scholars together with practitioners of the industry. It discusses macrolevel drivers to animal-based tourism as an industry, the problem of cultural relativism and the role of technology in enhancing or promoting the experience. We indicate ways forward toward implementing a compassionate animal-based tourism.
Ultrastructure of Antennal Morphology and Sensilla of Teak Skeletonizer, Eutectona machaeralis Walker (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Abstract The leaf skeletonizer, Eutectona machaeralis (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is a severe insect pest of teak trees (Tectona grandis L.f.) in China. To provide some basic evidence for future semiochemical-based management strategies of E. machaeralis, the morphology, ultrastructure, and distribution of antennal sensilla of adults were observed under scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The shape and structure of antenna were similar between males and females, both being filiform. However, the antennal length of males was significantly longer than that of females. Eight morphological sensilla types were observed in both sexes: Böhm's bristles, sensilla trichodea, sensilla basiconica, sensilla chaetica, sensilla styloconica, sensilla coeloconica, sensilla auricillica, and sensilla squamiformia. Significant sexual dimorphism of the sensilla dimensions was found, especially in sensillar length. The putative and potential functions of the different sensilla types are discussed based on the fine structures of the cuticular walls and dendrites of the different sensilla types. We expect these results to help lay a solid foundation for future functional research and develop further investigations of E. machaeralis.
Clinical Supervision for Support Workers in Paediatric Palliative Care: A Literature Review

Providing home care to children with complex physical health needs is an emotionally challenging role. Extant literature and documents such as the Cavendish Review (2013) have reported that a large proportion of care for this population is carried out by non-registered staff (support workers). Provision of clinical supervision for nurses working in palliative care is increasing, however, supervision needs of support workers are commonly neglected. This paper sought to synthesise what is known about clinical supervision practices for support workers in paediatric palliative care (PPC). A literature review was conducted in accordance with integrative review guidelines. 315 papers were identified initially, 15 studies were included in this review. Four commonalities were identified: importance of team cohesion, varying degrees of formality, self-awareness and practicalities. Support workers received varying forms of supervision and some facilitators faced organisational difficulties involving staff in supervision. Support workers who received staff support generally appreciated it in recognition that their work is complex and emotionally difficult. This paper highlighted that further research should investigate the efficacy of clinical supervision as a method of reducing stress and burnout for support workers. Any implementation of supervision should involve a considered approach to training and supervision to ensure fidelity.
Co-crystal structures of HIV TAR RNA bound to lab-evolved proteins show key roles for arginine relevant to the design of cyclic peptide TAR inhibitors

RNA-protein interfaces control key replication events during the HIV-1 life cycle. The viral trans-activator of transcription (Tat) protein uses an archetypal arginine-rich motif (ARM) to recruit the host positive transcription elongation factor b (pTEFb) complex onto the viral trans-activation response (TAR) RNA, leading to activation of HIV transcription. Efforts to block this interaction have stimulated production of biologics designed to disrupt this essential RNA-protein interface. Here, we present four co-crystal structures of lab-evolved TAR-binding proteins (TBPs) in complex with HIV-1 TAR. Our results reveal that high-affinity binding requires a distinct sequence and spacing of arginines within a specific β2-β3 hairpin loop that arose during selection. Although loops with as many as five arginines were analyzed, only three arginines could bind simultaneously with major-groove guanines. Amino acids that promote backbone interactions within the β2-β3 loop were also observed to be important for high-affinity interactions. Based on structural and affinity analyses, we designed two cyclic peptide mimics of the TAR-binding β2-β3 loop sequences present in two high-affinity TBPs (KD values of 4.2 ± 0.3 and 3.0 ± 0.3 nm). Our efforts yielded low-molecular weight compounds that bind TAR with low micromolar affinity (KD values ranging from 3.6 to 22 μm). Significantly, one cyclic compound within this series blocked binding of the Tat-ARM peptide to TAR in solution assays, whereas its linear counterpart did not. Overall, this work provides insight into protein-mediated TAR recognition and lays the ground for the development of cyclic peptide inhibitors of a vital HIV-1 RNA-protein interaction.
Structure-Property Relationship of Amorphous Maltitol as Tableting Excipient

Maltitol shows interesting properties compared with mannitol or sorbitol, two other polyols, which are widely used as a pharmaceutical excipients for tablet compaction. For this study, the properties of an amorphous polyol, maltitol, were investigated using a tablet press simulator. The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior of amorphous maltitol compared to SweetPearl® P 200, a pure product, and SweetPearl® P 300 DC, a textured crystalline maltitol excipient for direct compression. The physicochemical and pharmacotechnical properties were compared, revealing a major change in properties after amorphization. The study of the tabletability, mean yield pressure, elastic properties, etc. shows that the compression behavior of amorphous powders has been significantly altered. The results showed specific properties of amorphous maltitol with good tabletability at low compaction pressure. The stability of the amorphous and the evolution of its behavior in compression were then studied, showing a direct link between its recrystallization and the change in its properties. The use of a stabilizing agent, maltotriitol, slowed down the recrystallization, maintaining the specific properties of the amorphous material in compression for a longer period of time.
Enhanced Humoral Immune Responses against Toxin A and B of Clostridium difficile is Associated with a Milder Disease Manifestation

The role of the humoral immune response to Clostridium difficile in modulating the severity of C. difficile infection (CDI) is unclear. We compared the levels of serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin A (IgA) against toxin A (TcdA) and toxin B (TcdB) of C. difficile between CDI and control patients and according to disease severity. The levels of IgG and IgA antibodies against TcdA and TcdB were measured in sera from patients with CDI (n = 50; 19 had severe CDI) and control patients (n = 52), using ELISA. Patients with CDI had higher levels of IgG antibodies against TcdA and TcdB than controls (p = 0.001 and p = 0.04, respectively). Higher IgG levels against TcdA and TcdB were found in patients with mild vs. severe CDI 7–14 days after the diagnosis (p = 0.004 and 0.036, respectively). A factor analysis included both IgA and IgG levels against both toxins into one composite variable, which was of higher values in patients with mild vs. severe CDI (p = 0.026). In conclusion, the systemic humoral immune responses against TcdA and TcdB might modulate the severity of CDI. These preliminary findings provide a basis for future large-scale studies and support the development and evaluation of active and passive immunotherapies for CDI management.
Discovery of Novel Fetal Hemoglobin Inducers through Small Chemical Library Screening

The screening of chemical libraries based on cellular biosensors is a useful approach to identify new hits for novel therapeutic targets involved in rare genetic pathologies, such as β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease. In particular, pharmacologically mediated stimulation of human γ-globin gene expression, and increase of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) production, have been suggested as potential therapeutic strategies for these hemoglobinopathies. In this article, we screened a small chemical library, constituted of 150 compounds, using the cellular biosensor K562.GR, carrying enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) and red fluorescence protein (RFP) genes under the control of the human γ-globin and β-globin gene promoters, respectively. Then the identified compounds were analyzed as HbF inducers on primary cell cultures, obtained from β-thalassemia patients, confirming their activity as HbF inducers, and suggesting these molecules as lead compounds for further chemical and biological investigations.
ΕGFR/ERβ-Mediated Cell Morphology and Invasion Capacity Are Associated with Matrix Culture Substrates in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer accounts for almost one in four cancer diagnoses in women. Studies in breast cancer patients have identified several molecular markers, indicators of aggressiveness, which help toward more individual therapeutic approaches. In triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression is associated with increased metastatic potential and worst survival rates. Specifically, abnormal EGFR activation leads to altered matrix metalloproteinases’ (MMPs) expression and, hence, extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, resulting in induced migration and invasion. The use of matrix substrates for cell culture gives the opportunity to mimic the natural growth conditions of the cells and their microenvironment, as well as cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of EGFR inhibition, estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) and different matrix substrates [type I collagen and fibronectin (FN)] on the functional properties, expression of MMPs and cell morphology of ERβ-positive TNBC cells and shERβ ones. Our results highlight EGFR as a crucial regulator of the expression and activity levels of MMPs, while ERβ emerges as a mediator of MMP7 and MT1-MMP expression. In addition, the EGFR/ERβ axis impacts the adhesion and invasion potential of breast cancer cells on collagen type I. Images obtained by scanning electron microscope (SEM) from cultures on the different matrix substrates revealed novel observations regarding various structures of breast cancer cells (filopodia, extravesicles, tunneling nanotubes, etc.). Moreover, the significant contribution of EGFR and ERβ in the morphological characteristics of these cells is also demonstrated, hence highlighting the possibility of dual pharmacological targeting.
Depression during the pandemic in Turkey

Dear Editor, Ustun (2020) used the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to assess mood in respondents to a cross-sectional, online survey, conducted 2 weeks after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey. We believe that the findings of the survey need to be interpreted with caution. Online surveys advertised through multiple online channels and inviting voluntary participation are associated with two serious limitations: the target population is unknown and the sample is biased. With regard to the former limitation, there is no way of knowing whom the survey has and has not reached, and so there is no way of knowing to what population the results of the survey can be generalized; and generalization to the reported demographics of the respondents is fallacious because the method of sampling was non-random, so we cannot assume that persons who responded to the survey were representative of their population demographics (Ameen & Praharaj, 2020). With regard to the latter limitation, besides obvious biases such as literacy and access to the internet, it is likely that persons with specific characteristics, such as mood disturbance, would have greater interest in the survey and would therefore select themselves into the sample, thereby biasing the findings (Menon & Muraleedharan, 2020). The conclusion expressed by the authors in their abstract, that the Covid-19 pandemic caused mild-level depression in the Turkish society, is therefore presumptuous. Concluding that the pandemic caused mild-level depression is fallacious. Without knowledge of the BDI scores of the respondents before the onset of the pandemic, the authors cannot rule out pre-existing depressive symptoms in some or all respondents. In the absence of demonstration of change, a cause-effect relationship cannot be hypothesized, let alone concluded. There are concerns about the data analysis, as well. Continuous variables, such as age, were analysed as categorical variables. In Table 1, it is not clear what the multiple comparisons were when only a single P value was reported. In Tables 2 to 4, more than 50 variables were analysed for association with the BDI score; because these were exploratory analyses in the absence of a priori hypotheses, it is very likely that many of the significant findings are Type 1 (false positive) statistical errors. The authors presented no information on how the questionnaire was developed or validated. Items such as “I was not affected at all” are inappropriate when everybody is affected in a national lockdown; only the extent of being affected differs. Because it is impossible to ask about all situations that affected participants, the author should have included an open-ended question, responses to which could have been qualitatively analysed. As a final note, a point estimate of a BDI score cannot be equated with clinical depression. Depression is associated with specific symptoms that the BDI does not assess, and with a duration of persistence of the symptoms, which the survey could not examine.
Critical role of WNK1 in MYC-dependent early mouse thymocyte development

WNK1, a kinase that controls kidney salt homeostasis, also regulates adhesion and migration in CD4+ T cells. Wnk1 is highly expressed in thymocytes, and since migration is important for thymocyte maturation, we investigated a role for WNK1 in mouse thymocyte development. We find that WNK1 is required for the transition of double negative (DN) thymocytes through the β-selection checkpoint and subsequent proliferation and differentiation into double positive (DP) thymocytes. Furthermore, we show that WNK1 negatively regulates LFA1-mediated adhesion and positively regulates CXCL12-induced migration in DN thymocytes. Despite this, migration defects of WNK1-deficient thymocytes do not account for the developmental arrest. Instead, we show that in DN thymocytes WNK1 transduces pre-TCR signals via OXSR1 and STK39 kinases, and the SLC12A2 ion co-transporter that are required for post-transcriptional upregulation of MYC and subsequent proliferation and differentiation into DP thymocytes. Thus, a pathway regulating ion homeostasis is a critical regulator of thymocyte development.
Qualitative Analysis of PLP in LSTM for Bangla Speech Recognition

The performance of various acoustic feature extraction methods has been compared in this work using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network in a Bangla speech recognition system. The acoustic features are a series of vectors that represents the speech signals. They can be classified in either words or sub word units such as phonemes. In this work, at first linear predictive coding (LPC) is used as acoustic vector extraction technique. LPC has been chosen due to its widespread popularity. Then other vector extraction techniques like Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and perceptual linear prediction (PLP) have also been used. These two methods closely resemble the human auditory system. These feature vectors are then trained using the LSTM neural network. Then the obtained models of different phonemes are compared with different statistical tools namely Bhattacharyya Distance and Mahalanobis Distance to investigate the nature of those acoustic features.
Anti-tumor effect of the preparation extracted from sea fish manta birostris

Manta Birostris preparation extracted from sea fish Manta Birostris using 10 mmol·L -1 PB containong 2 mol·L -1 NaCl, 3 mmol·L -1 EDTA, was fractionally precipitated with 40%~80%. Further purification was achieved by Sephacryl S 300 gel filtration. With the method of MTT, it was showed that Manta Birostris preparation inhibited the growth of Hela cells significantly, but no effect on HLF cells. With cytotoxity assay, Manta Birostris preparation has potential cytotoxity effect on Hela cells, and no effect on HLF cells. In vivo , Manta Birostris preparation inhibited potentially the growth of Lewis lung cancer and S 180 sarcoma, and the inhibition rate was 59.11% and 54.67% in the dose of 1.00 mg·g -1 . d -1 , respectively. The results suggested that Manta Birostris preparation is a potential antitumor preparation.
A STUDY ON THE REDUCTION OF CHIP EVACUATION TORQUE IN ULTRASONIC ASSISTED DRILLING OF SMALL AND DEEP HOLES

This paper presents an experimental study to examine the effectiveness of ultrasonic assisted drilling (UAD). The cutting torque has been typically considered as independent from the hole depth. It has been found that the cutting torque in drilling can be reduced by 25% by applying ultrasonic assistance. As deeper depths, a new component named as chip evacuation torque is generated, making the total torque exponentially increase. The substantial increase of the total torque can lead to a risk of drilling breakage. A critical depth is defined as the depth where the total torque is still lower than the allowance torque, which was determined from the broken condition of the drill bits. Using response surface technique in design of experiments, this study found that UAD can increase the critical depth in small and deep drilling by 1.4 times compared to conventional drilling, with a safety factor of 5. This helpfulness of UAD can be further developed to combine with other common techniques such as peck drilling or grooving tool for deep and small drilling.
Callus induction and regeneration of Alkanna orientalis var. Orientalis and A. sieheana

Callus induction and proliferation of Alkanna orientalis var. orientalis and Alkanna sieheana containing valuable alkannin/shikonin (A/S) derivates were investigated using leaf base and stem segment explants. Stem segments and cotyledonary leaf base of both species were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium fortified with different concentrations of BAP, Kn, NAA, IAA and IBA for callus induction and shoot regeneration. High frequency reproducible, prolific and compact calli formation was obtained from the stem segments of both species in all media tested. The frequency variations of callus induction and shoot regeneration were discussed in terms of different species, plant growth regulators and explant resources. A. orientalis and A. sieheana may be considered to be alternative plants for the A/S production in vitro.
Three new records of the genus Agrocybe from China

Three species of Agrocybe:A.elatella,A.brunneola and A.pediades var.cinctula,collected from different forest areas,are new to China.The morphological descriptions and illustrations were offered in this paper.They were compared and discussed with allied species.The specimens examined were deposited in the Herbarium of Mycology of Jilin Agricultural University (HMJAU).