Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE CIMBRIAN LANGUAGE IN LUSERNA/LUSÈRN AND GIAZZA, ITALY

Intangible Cultural Heritage – i.e. practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills that a population recognizes as part of their cultural heritage – represents a distinctive factor for a tourism destination, as tourists are increasingly interested in unique experiences deeply connected with the authentic culture of the place. Intangible heritage is, therefore, part of the discourse on sustainability on tourism. Sustainable tourism activities, seen as activities that aim at not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and to access to natural and cultural resources, comprise intangible heritage that only survives and is available to future generations with continuous and daily practice by the population. One of the most important aspects of intangible heritage, according to The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, is the language since it stands for a unique worldview and is the vehicle of the collective memories and values. More than one-third of the languages spoken in the world today, however, are endangered. Previous studies proved that tourism strengthens the sense of cultural identity of minority groups and thus encourages the population to learn more, creating a virtuous circle of cultural revival. Nonetheless, current literature only partly considers the positive impacts of tourism on minority languages, while partially neglecting Italy, although it is home to 31 endangered languages. This study will fill in a gap by considering the case of Cimbrian people in Luserna/Lusérn and Giazza, Italy, where a population with Bavarian origins still speak the dialect of their ancestors. Through qualitative interviews, this study aims to analyse whether and to what extent tourism in these two small Italian towns can be seen as sustainable, i.e. whether it contributes to the revitalization of this particular language.
HOTEL CONSUMERS’ EVALUATIONS OF CSR DIMENSIONS AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF PREVIOUS AWARENESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FIRMS

This study analyzes how consumers’ evaluations of various dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect their support of it and how consumers’ searches for CSR information influence such evaluations. The empirical analysis relies on data on CSR from a wide representative sample of 3543 Spanish hotel consumers. We use hierarchical multiple regressions to test the relationships and use factorial analysis to test the validity of the different CSR dimensions. The proposed positive effects of legal, ethical, economic, philanthropic and environmental dimensions of CSR on consumers’ support for corporate reputation, the selection of an establishment, and future purchase intention are corroborated, although they are only partially corroborated in the case of the economic dimension. These relationships are moderated in some cases by consumers’ search for information about hotels’ CSR practices. Managerial and economic implications are derived from the results.
Improving Report Generation and Delivery System of Microbiological Investigations at MRI - Sri Lanka with Concern to Turn-Around-Time, An Intervention Study

Background: Clinical Bacteriology Laboratory (CBL) of the Medical Research Institute (MRI) is a National Reference Laboratory in Sri Lanka. The service improvement research project aimed at improving the report generation and delivery system. Methods: The mixed-method applied to study the process. Gap identification and designing of the intervention used a qualitative approach. Quantitative methods measured the effectiveness of the improvements. A package of interventions based on total quality management (TQM) principles designed with all stakeholder participation. Results: Delay in sample transport resulted from poor communication, lack of established mechanism and weak coordination between the transport unit and wards. The paper-based report generation process was disorganized, unreliable and error-prone. Additionally, the report delivery to Hospitals revolved on the incoming ambulance or government postal service a tied-up, poorly coordinated system. The interventions promoted coordinated communication. WHONET, a free windows based Laboratory Information System and database software, developed by the World Health Organization for microbiology laboratories installed to generate reliable and accurate automated reports. Reports in PDF format delivered to end-users by secured email. Timeliness, accuracy, quality and uniformity of reports improved. Improvement in post-intervention turn-around-time was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: The interventions based on TQM principles improved the process of report generation and delivery. Laboratory automation is a feasible and effective solution in the local setting. The end-user satisfaction perceived to be high on the improvements.
Spawning of riverbream, Acanthopagrus berda, in Kosi estuary

The spawning habits of Acanthopagrus berda, an estuary-dependent seabream (Family Sparidae), are investigated. Spawning takes place in the Kosi estuary at night and eggs are transported out to sea during peak ebb tides. There is a preponderance of males in the spawning aggregation (sex ratio — 8,8 :1 m/f) and indirect evidence suggests that males and females are continually recruiting to the aggregation, spawning, and moving back up into the lakes so that there are no more than 2000 individuals at the mouth at any one time. Sexed fish were tagged in an effort to produce evidence of protandrous sex change in this species. It is noted that the degradation of estuarine habitats could have serious effects on an estuarine-dependent species which has developed a spawning strategy of this nature.
Successful Reversal Using Mannitol

Dialysis disequilibrium syndrome (DDS) is a morbid but rare complication of dialysis. Feared sequalae of this diagnosis are brain herniation and death. &is report presents a patient who was diagnosed with DDS with subsequent tonsillar herniation shown on imaging with complete resolution of clinical signs and symptoms, as well as imaging findings of herniation after prompt initiation of intravenous mannitol. &is is the first known case of reversal and survival of DDS-induced tonsillar herniation using mannitol.
HIGH-QUALITY SHADOW RENDERING FROM COMPLEX LIGHT SOURCES

In interactive applications, shadows are traditionally rendered using the shadow mapping algorithm. The disadvantage of the algorithm is limited resolution of depth texture which may lead to unpleasant visual artifacts on shadow edges. This work introduces an approach that is based on the improved texture warping. It allows for rendering a scene with the complex light sources, reduce the artifacts on the shadow boundaries and also improve the quality of the shadows regardless of the type of the scene and its configuration Abstrakt V interaktivńıch aplikaćıch jsou st́ıny tradičně zobrazovány s pomoćı algoritmu založeným na st́ınových mapách. Nevýhodou toho algoritmu je, že st́ınová mapa, reprezentovaná texturou, má pouze omezené rozlǐseńı. To může vést k nepěkným vizuálńım artefakt̊um objevuj́ıćıch se na hranách st́ın̊u. Tato práce představuje postup, který je založen na vylepšené deformaci textury. To umožńı zobrazit scénu obsahuj́ıćı složité světelné zdroje, zredukovat artefakty na hranićıch st́ın̊u a také vylepšit kvalitu st́ın̊u bez ohledu na typu scény a jej́ı konfiguraci.
The response of annual minimum temperature on the eastern central Tibetan Plateau to large volcanic eruptions for the period 1380–2014 AD

Volcanic eruptions have a significant impact on global temperature; their consequences are of particular interest in regions that are especially sensitive to climate change, like the Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we develop a temperature-sensitive tree-ring-width standard chronology covering the period 1348–2014 CE using Qilian juniper (Sabina przewalskii (Kom.)) samples collected from the Animaqin Mountains on the Tibetan Plateau. We reconstruct the annual (prior August to current July) mean minimum temperature (Tmin) since 1380 CE and show that our reconstruction explains 58 % of the variance during the 1960–2014 calibration period. Our results demonstrate that in 77.8 % of cases in which a volcanic eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 5 or greater occurs, temperature decreases in the year of or the year following the eruption. The results of the superposed epoch analysis also indicate that there is a high probability that the Tmin decreases for 2 years after a large volcanic eruption, especially when such eruptions occur in the Northern Hemisphere.
Fractional Power Allocation Scheme for NOMA

- Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has currently received significant consideration as a promising possibility for a fifth generation (5G) frameworks. NOMA is a basic empowering technology for 5G wireless networks to meet the heterogeneous requests on low inactivity, high dependability, enormous availability, and high throughput. NOMA is a upcoming downlink multiple access (MA) scheme accomplishes huge spectral proficiency by consolidating superimposed coding with successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the transmitter and receivers respectively. The NOMA scheme achieves a lower outage probability. Here we considered the probability of outage and bit error rate performance (BER) for downlink and uplink NOMA. Simulation results show that user channel gain and fractional power allocation of total power to user will play a vital role in the probability of outage, BER and sum rate capacity.
EFFECT OF ALTERNATE-LONG FURROWS IRRIGATION ON CALCAREOUS SOILS PRODUCTIVITY

Field experiment was conducted along two successive seasons of winter (2004/2005) and summer (2005) at Maryout Experimental Station of the Desert Research Center, to evaluate the performance of alternate–long furrow irrigation system, using three irrigation water inflow rates on faba bean and sunflower crops productivity grown in calcareous soil. The experiments carried out in a split plot design with four replicates at random procedure. Irrigation system treatments were used as the main plots (120 m length with longitudinal soil surface slope 0.25%) namely: every long-furrow irrigation (EFI), and alternate long-furrow irrigation (AFI). Three different water inflow rates designated as Q1, Q2, and Q3 represented the sub plots: 105, 90, and 65 lpm/furrow, respectively. The irrigation performance was evaluated through application efficiency (AE%) and distribution uniformity (DU) parameters. Irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) was estimated, which is related to water management by different treatments. The obtained results indicated that application of AFI led to high significant interrelations between the values of seed yield and increases in AE% and DU values compared with EFI treatments. The highest mean DU values in 1st. and 2nd. seasons were 0.85 and 0.83 obtained by Q2 and Q1 treatments, respectively. Both faba and sunflower seed yield had significant increases with increasing the inflow rates under both studied irrigation systems. The highest yield mean value, with faba bean season, was 1046.5 kg/fed. , while with sunflower season; it was 659.95 kg/fed. obtained by (AFI+Q1) treatment. The highest IWUE mean value, with faba bean season, was 0.83 kg/m3, while with sunflower season; it was 0.27 kg/m3. obtained by (AFI+Q3) treatment. The two combined treatments (AFI+Q1) and (AFI+Q2) were the best treatments for soil moisture distribution uniformity, improving calcareous soil productivity and percent of sunflower oil content (O C%) in seeds under the conditions of the present investigation.
Isolation and characterization of aerobic actinomycetes with probiotic properties in Nile tilapia

Jirayut Euanorasetr1,2*, Varissara Chotboonprasit1,2, Wacharaporn Ngoennamchok1,2, Sutassa Thongprathueang1,2, Archiraya Promprateep1,2, Suppakit Taweesaga1,2, Pongsan Chatsangjaroen1,2, Bungonsiri Intra3,4 1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Khet Thung Khru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand 2 Laboratory of biotechnological research for energy and bioactive compounds, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Khet Thung Khru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand 3 Mahidol University-Osaka University: Collaborative Research Center for Bioscience and Biotechnology (MU-OU: CRC), Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand 4Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
FRET Dyes Significantly Affect SAXS Intensities of Proteins

Structural analyses in biophysics aim at revealing a relationship between a molecule’s dynamic structure and its physiological function. Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) are complementary experimental approaches to this. Their concomitant application in combined studies has recently opened a lively debate on how to interpret FRET measurements in the light of SAXS data with the popular example of the radius of gyration, commonly derived from both FRET and SAXS. There still is a lack of understanding in how to mutually relate and interpret quantities equally obtained from FRET or SAXS, and to what extent FRET dyes affect SAXS intensities in combined applications. In the present work, we examine the interplay of FRET and SAXS from a computational simulation perspective. Molecular simulations are a valuable complement to experimental approaches and supply instructive information on dynamics. As FRET depends not only on the mutual separation but also on the relative orientations, the dynamics, and therefore also the shapes of the dyes, we utilize a novel method for simulating FRET-dye-labeled proteins to investigate these aspects in atomic detail. We perform structure-based simulations of four different proteins with and without dyes in both folded and unfolded conformations. In-silico derived radii of gyration are different with and without dyes and depend on the chosen dye pair. The dyes apparently influence the dynamics of unfolded systems. We find that FRET dyes attached to a protein have a significant impact on theoretical SAXS intensities calculated from simulated structures, especially for small proteins. Radii of gyration from FRET and SAXS deviate systematically, which points to further underlying mechanisms beyond prevalent explanation approaches.
FFA-DMRI: A Network Based on Feature Fusion and Attention Mechanism for Brain MRI Denoising

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an indispensable tool in the diagnosis of brain diseases due to painlessness and safety. Nevertheless, Rician noise is inevitably injected during the image acquisition process, which leads to poor observation and interferes with the treatment. Owing to the complexity of Rician noise, using the elimination method of Gaussian to remove it does not perform well. Therefore, the feature fusion and attention network (FFA-DMRI) is proposed to separate noise from observed MRI. Inspired by the attention-guided CNN network (ADNet) and Convolutional block attention module (CBAM), a spatial attention mechanism has been specially designed to obtain the area of interest in MRI. Furthermore, the feature fusion block concatenates local with global information, which makes full use of the multilevel structure and boosts the expressive ability of network. The comprehensive experiments on Alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative dataset (ADNI) have demonstrated high effectiveness of FFA-DMRI with maintaining the crucial brain details. Moreover, in terms of visual inspections, the denoising results are also consistent with human perception.
Identifying zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2 by modeling the binding affinity between Spike receptor-binding domain and host ACE2

Despite considerable research progress on SARS-CoV-2, the direct zoonotic origin (intermediate host) of the virus remains ambiguous. The most definitive approach to identify the intermediate host would be the detection of SARS-CoV-2-like coronaviruses in wild animals. However, due to the high number of animal species, it is not feasible to screen all the species in the laboratory. Given that the recognition of the binding ACE2 proteins is the first step for the coronaviruses to invade host cells, we proposed a computational pipeline to identify potential intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2 by modeling the binding affinity between the Spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) and host ACE2. Using this pipeline, we systematically examined 285 ACE2 variants from mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians, and found that the binding energies calculated on the modeled Spike-RBD/ACE2 complex structures correlate closely with the effectiveness of animal infections as determined by multiple experimental datasets. Built on the optimized binding affinity cutoff, we suggested a set of 96 mammals, including 48 experimentally investigated ones, which are permissive to SARS-CoV-2, with candidates from primates, rodents, and carnivores at the highest risk of infection. Overall, this work not only suggested a limited range of potential intermediate SARS-CoV-2 hosts for further experimental investigation; but more importantly, it proposed a new structure-based approach to general zoonotic origin and susceptibility analyses that are critical for human infectious disease control and wildlife protection.
Glutamine deprivation triggers NAGK-dependent hexosamine salvage

Tumors of many types exhibit aberrant glycosylation, which can impact cancer progression and therapeutic responses. The hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) branches from glycolysis at fructose-6-phosphate to synthesize uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc), a major substrate for glycosylation in the cell. HBP enzyme gene expression is elevated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), and studies have pointed to the potential significance of the HBP as a therapeutic target. Yet, the PDA tumor microenvironment is nutrient poor, and adaptive nutrient acquisition strategies support tumorigenesis. Here, we identify that pancreatic cancer cells salvage GlcNAc via N-acetylglucosamine kinase (NAGK), particularly under glutamine limitation. Glutamine deprivation suppresses de novo HBP flux and triggers upregulation of NAGK. NAGK expression is elevated in human PDA. NAGK deletion forces PDA cells to rely on de novo UDP-GlcNAc synthesis and impairs tumor growth in mice. Together, these data identify an important role for NAGK-dependent hexosamine salvage in supporting PDA tumor growth.
mTOR S-nitrosylation inhibits autophagy and lysosomal proteolysis

Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) is a master regulator of autophagy and lysosomes, and its downstream kinase-dependent pathways have been extensively characterized. Here, we report an unexpected kinase-independent regulation of autophagy and lysosomes by S-nitrosylation at Cys423 position of mTOR that resulted in suppression of VPS34 and PIKfyve-dependent phosphoinositide synthesis. Physiologically, S-nitrosylation of mTOR reduced basal lysosomal proteolysis via nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-mediated synthesis of NO from lysosomal arginine precursor, a marker of cellular nutrition status. Significantly, we found increased lysosomal NOS-mTOR complexes in APP-PS1 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) murine model, and increased mTOR S-nitrosylation in AD patient-derived fibroblasts. Lastly, we demonstrated that pharmacological inhibition of NOS or overexpression of mTORCys423Ala mutant reversed lysosomal and autophagic dysfunction in AD patient-derived fibroblasts, suggesting novel therapeutic strategies for autophagosome-lysosomal activation.
ALK3-SMAD1/5 Signaling Mediates the BMP2-Induced Decrease in PGE2 Production in Human Endometrial Stromal Cells and Decidual Stromal Cells

BMP2 is a critical factor that is involved in the processes of embryo implantation and uterine decidualization. The expression of cyclooxygenase (COX) and subsequent prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production are critical for successful pregnancy. However, it is not clear whether BMP2 can regulate the production of PG during endometrial decidualization. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of BMP2 on COX-1 expression and PGE2 production as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms in the human endometrium. Immortalized human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) and human decidual stromal cells (HDSCs) were used as the study model to investigate the effects of BMP2-induced cellular activities. Our results showed that BMP2 treatment significantly decreased PGE2 production by downregulating COX-1 expression in both human endometrial stromal and decidual stromal cells. Additionally, BMP2 induced an increase in the levels of phosphorylated SMAD1/5/8, and this effect was completely abolished by the addition of the inhibitors DMH-1 and dorsomorphin, but not by SB431542. Knocking down ALK3 completely reversed the BMP2-induced downregulation of COX-1. Moreover, concomitantly knocking down SMAD1 and SMAD5 completely reversed the BMP2-induced downregulation of COX-1. Our results indicated that BMP2 decreased PGE2 production by downregulating COX-1 expression, most likely through the ALK3/SMAD1-SMAD5 signaling pathway in human endometrial stromal and human decidual stromal cells. These findings deepen our understanding of the functional role of BMP2 in the regulation of endometrial decidualization in humans.
Shared PKS Module in Biosynthesis of Synergistic Laxaphycins

Cyanobacteria produce a wide range of lipopeptides that exhibit potent membrane-disrupting activities. Laxaphycins consist of two families of structurally distinct macrocyclic lipopeptides that act in a synergistic manner to produce antifungal and antiproliferative activities. Laxaphycins are produced by range of cyanobacteria but their biosynthetic origins remain unclear. Here, we identified the biosynthetic pathways responsible for the biosynthesis of the laxaphycins produced by Scytonema hofmannii PCC 7110. We show that these laxaphycins, called scytocyclamides, are produced by this cyanobacterium and are encoded in a single biosynthetic gene cluster with shared polyketide synthase enzymes initiating two distinct non-ribosomal peptide synthetase pathways. The unusual mechanism of shared enzymes synthesizing two distinct types of products may aid future research in identifying and expressing natural product biosynthetic pathways and in expanding the known biosynthetic logic of this important family of natural products.