Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bees Do It: Distributed Cognition and Psychophysical Laws

Within philosophy of mind, active externalism—the metaphysical assumption that cognition’s material realisers are not always organism-bound—comes in three main forms: the hypothesis of extended cognition; the extended mind thesis; and the hypothesis of distributed cognition. In addition to philosophers of mind, cognitive scientists are also interested in active externalism as a guide to their scientific research programmes. However, a scientifically relevant problem surrounding the view in the form of the hypothesis of extended cognition and the extended mind thesis is that arguments in their support usually rely on common-sense functionalism; thus, a common line of criticism against these two versions of active externalism invokes the more scientifically informed alternative of psycho-functionalism. In this chapter, I note that the same objection can be raised against the hypothesis of distributed cognition. Nevertheless, a recent study of the way bee-colonies reach decisions on new nest sites indicates that arguments for distributed cognition would go through, even if psycho-functionalism were true. This significant observation speaks in defence of active externalism’s fitness, at least in the form of the hypothesis of distributed cognition, as a guide to cognitive scientific research.
Incentives for avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons

Efforts to protect vulnerable environmental resources have focused largely on legal prohibitions and sanctions or on economic rewards or penalties. The role and importance of social and cultural factors have been much less considered. While theoretical arguments have addressed whether state institutions must be involved in resource protection, or whether private incentives can be manipulated to achieve desired outcomes, this preoccupation with either public sector or private sector solutions to the problems of environmental conservation has caused a neglect of social values and community consensus. The analysis offered here seeks to enlarge the debate from being two-sided to three-cornered. By bringing in a third set of considerations, the socio-cultural, the analysis underscores that individual decisions are embedded in community and local contexts. All three kinds of incentives are considered to be potentially of equal importance for resource-conserving behaviour (RCB) vis-à-vis resource-degrading behaviour (RDB). The analysis is concerned first with the strength of different incentives in favour of RCB compared to RDB, comparing legal and economic with socio-cultural considerations affecting RCB and RDB. Efforts to protect vulnerable resources can seek to alter in an RCB direction the attitudes and incentives of people along any or all of these three dimensions of motivation, or they can seek to make a particular domain of motivation more salient if it is supportive of environmental conservation. This analysis is proposed in part to get the socio-cultural domain taken more seriously alongside the legal and economic domains, as well as to prompt more systematic consideration of different kinds of policies, investments, actions or pronouncements that could shift the net balance of incentives in favour of RCB. While the analysis is admittedly simplified, there is utility in encouraging focused comparisons and evaluations of conservation alternatives. Examples of efforts to promote RCB in Madagascar and Costa Rica are given to illustrate this.
Regenerative medicine of pancreatic islets

The pancreas became one of the first objects of regenerative medicine, since other possibilities of dealing with the pancreatic endocrine insufficiency were clearly exhausted. The number of people living with diabetes mellitus is currently approaching half a billion, hence the crucial relevance of new methods to stimulate regeneration of the insulin-secreting β-cells of the islets of Langerhans. Natural restrictions on the islet regeneration are very tight; nevertheless, the islets are capable of physiological regeneration via β-cell self-replication, direct differentiation of multipotent progenitor cells and spontaneous α- to β- or δ- to β-cell conversion (trans-differentiation). The existing preclinical models of β-cell dysfunction or ablation (induced surgically, chemically or genetically) have significantly expanded our understanding of reparative regeneration of the islets and possible ways of its stimulation. The ultimate goal, sufficient level of functional activity of β-cells or their substitutes can be achieved by two prospective broad strategies: β-cell replacement and β-cell regeneration. The “regeneration” strategy aims to maintain a preserved population of β-cells through in situ exposure to biologically active substances that improve β-cell survival, replication and insulin secretion, or to evoke the intrinsic adaptive mechanisms triggering the spontaneous non-β- to β-cell conversion. The “replacement” strategy implies transplantation of β-cells (as non-disintegrated pancreatic material or isolated donor islets) or β-like cells obtained ex vivo from progenitors or mature somatic cells (for example, hepatocytes or α-cells) under the action of small-molecule inducers or by genetic modification. We believe that the huge volume of experimental and clinical studies will finally allow a safe and effective solution to a seemingly simple goal-restoration of the functionally active β-cells, the innermost hope of millions of people globally.
Modeling and Experimentation of the Unidirectional Orthodontic Force of Second Sequential Loop Orthodontic Archwire

The abnormal tooth arrangement is one of the most common clinical features of malocclusion which is mainly caused by the tooth root compression malformation. The second sequential loop is mostly used for the adjusting of the abnormal tooth arrangement. Now, the shape devise of orthodontic archwire depends completely on the doctor's experience and patients' feedback, this practice is time-consuming, and the treatment effect is unstable. The orthodontic-force of the different parameters of the second sequence loop, including different cross-sectional parameters, material parameters, and characteristic parameters, was compared and simulated for the abnormal condition of root compression deformity. In this paper, the analysis and experimental study on the unidirectional orthodontic-force were carried out. The different parameters of the second sequential loop are analyzed, and the equivalent beam deflection theory is used to analyze the relationship between orthodontic-force and archwire parameters. Based on the structural analysis of the second sequential loop, the device for measuring orthodontic force has been designed. The orthodontic force with different structural characteristics of archwire was compared and was measured. Finally, the correction factor was developed in the unidirectional orthodontic-force forecasting model to eliminate the influence of inherent error. The average relative error rate of the theoretical results of the unidirectional orthodontic-force forecasting model is between 12.6% and 8.75%, which verifies the accuracy of the prediction model.
Chrysophanol administration alleviates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis by inhibiting lung fibroblast proliferation and Wnt/β-catenin signaling

Purpose: To determine the functional effect of chrysophanol (CH) on bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and reveal its mechanism of action.Methods: A mouse model of PF was established by intratracheal instillation of BLM (5 mg/kg), prior to CH administration. Masson’s trichrome staining was used to analyze interstitial fibrosis and collagen deposition. Hydroxyproline (HYP) content was measured, and lung fibroblast viability determined by MTT assay. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was collected, and levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Expression of cell signaling, adhesion, and apoptotic proteins were determined by western blotting.Results: Administration of CH reduced collagen deposition and HYP content, downregulated α-smooth muscle actin, upregulated E-cadherin, and decreased the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-γ in BLM-treated mice. The viability of lung fibroblasts was also reduced, and Bcl-2-associated X protein and cleaved caspase-3 were upregulated after CH treatment in BLM-treated mice. In addition, CH treatment in BLM-treated mice significantly increased levels of cytoplasmic β-catenin but decreased its expression in the nucleus.Conclusion: Administration of CH alleviated BLM-induced PF by inhibiting lung fibroblast proliferation and nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Thus, this study provides a potential therapeutic strategy for PF. Keywords: Chrysophanol, Bleomycin, Pulmonary fibrosis, Hydroxyproline, E-cadherin
Reproduction and Survival of the Dung Beetle Onthophagus binodis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Exposed to Abamectin and Doramectin Residues in Cattle Dung

Abstract Two groups of 50 heifers were given a subcutaneous injection of either abamectin (Avomec) or doramectin (Dectomax) at a dose rate of 200 μg/kg live weight. A third group of 50 heifers remained untreated. Dung samples were collected on 1, 3, 6, 9, 18, 24, 34, and 42 d after injection, and excreted residues were bioassayed using the dung beetle Onthophagus binodis Thunberg. Fewer newly emerged adults of O. binodis survived exposure to dung from cattle treated 3 and 6 d previously with abamectin or 9 d previously with doramectin than from dung of untreated cattle. Both compounds induced a range of sublethal effects on O.binodis. Abamectin residues excreted in dung up to 42 d after injection had a deleterious impact on ovarian condition, brood mass (egg) production, and larval survival. Doramectin residues only had a deleterious effect on these parameters at 3 and 6 d after injection relative to dung from control cattle. Analysis of the dung collected at each date after injection indicated that moisture content, pH, and percent nitrogen were not different from other physicochemical profiles conducted on cattle dung. Doramectin residues attained maximal concentrations of 101.1 μg/kg 3 d after injection followed by a linear decline with an elimination half-life estimate of 15 d. The bioassay data indicated that doramectin concentrations of <60 μg/kg have minimal impact on the mortality and reproductive potential of O. binodis and that deleterious effects to this species will be evident for only 1–2 wk after administration of the drug to cattle. The potential ecotoxic effects of these compounds are discussed in terms of dung beetle activity and strategies for parasite control of cattle in the Australian environment.
Two New Species of Pangrapta from South China (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Pangraptinae)

Abstract Two new species, Pangrapta paralasiophora sp. nov. and Pangrapta neorecusata sp. nov., are described from South China. Each of them is superficially similar to Pangrapta lasiophora (Hampson, 1926) and Pangrapta recusata (Walker, 1859), but they can easily be distinguished by their genitalia. Illustrations of external features and genitalia are provided.
Learning Optimal Kernel for Pattern Classiﬁcation

: Kernel methods provide an efﬁcient mechanism to derive nonlinear algorithms. Using a kernel function, original data can be implicitly mapped to a very high or even inﬁnite dimensional feature space where the data is approximately linearly separable. For it, a main challenge is to select an appropriate kernel. In this paper, we optimize combinative weight coefﬁcients and combination kernel is constructed by two methods. one method is learning optimal kernel for kernel ﬁsher discriminant analysis (KFDA) for ﬁnding optimally combinative weight coefﬁcients. In this method, we treat optimizing combinative weight coefﬁcients as optimization problem over the convex set of ﬁnitely many basic kernels. Besides, in order to solve the optimization problem, we use a new iterative method. Another method is a feature space based class separability measure which is introduced in order to further show the efﬁcacy of combination kernel . With this measure, the weight coefﬁcients of combination kernel were optimized. Experiments on ﬁve real-words data sets are performed to test and evaluate the efﬁcacy of combination kernel on classiﬁcation accuracy. The results show that the efﬁcacy of combination kernel is very signiﬁcant.
Paratuberculosis (Johne's disease) in animals: Pathogenesis, diagnosis and zoonotic significance

Paratuberculosis (Johne's disease), is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). Though, it is primarily a disease of domestic and wild ruminants, the host range is wide and has been implicated with Crohn's disease in humans. The infection has been spreading insidiously through the animal population for about a century and has almost become endemic in most countries including India. This happened because of poor knowledge of the complex biology of the organism and the lack of adequate and sustained efforts to restrict the spread of infection. The disease causes heavy economic losses to the dairy industry. Epidemiology of the paratuberculosis infection is changing due to increase in the host range and strain variation. A number of diagnostic tests are available that can be appropriately used for the diagnosis and control of the disease. With the availability of complete sequence of MAP genome, several specific and novel genes have been identified that can be exploited for the diagnosis. In this paper, the disease status in India, pathogenesis, diagnosis, andzoonotic significance of Johne's disease have been briefly reviewed.
The Role of Face Concerns and Facework in Managing Communication Conflict among Arabs and Malaysians

This study investigates the associations between face concerns and facework in managing intercultural conflict among Arabs and Malaysians. A questionnaire was administered to 149 participants at the Universiti Utara Malaysia. The findings of the current study revealed that face concerns have a moderate and negative relationship with intercultural conflict. Meanwhile, facework has a very weak relationship with intercultural conflict. Additionally, this study demonstrates that Arabs and Malaysians have significant differences of facework and face concerns in managing intercultural conflict situations. The implications of the findings reported in this study is that face concerns and facework are critical for improving conflict management. The study contributes by providing useful insights in managing intercultural communication, negotiation, and conflict across cultures, especially among Arabs and Malaysians.
Evolución de la nomenclatura de los factores del sistema de antígenos leucocitarios humanos Nomenclature evolution for factors of human leukocyte antigen system

La nomenclatura del sistema de antígenos leucocitarios humanos (HLA, del inglés human leukocyte antigens) ha sido objeto de numerosas modificaciones según se han descubierto y caracterizado sus factores. Los avances en el campo de la biología molecular motivaron las variaciones nominales más importantes en el llamado complejo principal de histocompatibilidad (MHC, del inglés major histocompatibility complex). En la actualidad, un nombre de alelo se forma por el prefijo "HLA", seguido por un guión (-) y luego el nombre del gen A, B, C, DP, DQ o DR. Después del encabezamiento se coloca un asterisco (*) como separador y cuatro campos numéricos delimitados entre sí por dos puntos (:). El primer campo describe el grupo del alelo, que corresponde frecuentemente con la denominación serológica; y el segundo campo indica la proteína específica. Los alelos que difieren solo por sustituciones de nucleótidos sinónimos en la secuencia codificadora se muestran en un tercer campo; los que solo presentan diferencias en una región no codificadora, se precisan por el cuarto campo. Se puede incorporar además, un sufijo para indicar el estado de expresión del alelo: "N" para "nulo", "L" para "bajo", "S"para "secretado" sin expresión en membrana, "C" para "citoplasmático", "A" para "aberrante" por dudas en la expresión del antígeno y "Q" para "cuestionable", en el caso de mutaciones que afecten los niveles normales de expresión.
NASTURTIUM OFFICINALE AND RAPHANUS SATIVUS CRUDE EXTRACTS PROTECT OVARY FROM RADIATION-INDUCED DNA DAMAGE

This study was designed to investigate the potential protective effect of Nasturtium officinale (watercress) and Raphanus sativus (radish) on gamma-irradiation induced DNA damage in female rats. One-hundred female wistar albino rats were divided into ten groups. Four groups were controls (normal control, irradiated group, watercress control and radish control). Three groups orally administrated the watercress extract (500 mg/kg) before, after or before and after irradiation. The experiment period was 8 weeks and the irradiation was at the beginning of the 5 th week. The other three groups were orally administrated the radish extract (400 mg/kg) before, after or before and after irradiation. As gamma radiation can lead to damage in the genomic DNA, RAPD-PCR analysis was performed to detect the different types of DNA damages which were confirmed by histopathological examination. The irradiation caused damage in the genomic DNA which appeared as a decrease in the number of the amplified DNA fragments or quantitative mutation. This damage was ameliorated with administration of extracts especially with radish treatment before and after irradiation. In addition, the damages occurred to the ovary structure by ionizing radiation were disappeared by extracts administration before and after irradiation. These reflect the radioprotective effect of watercress and radish which may be due to the high content of isothiocyanate, kaempherol glycosides and l-tryptophan compounds which have the ability to scavenge free radical and enhance the DNA repair system or DNA synthesis. W
Parasites, commensals and phoretics of Timarcha (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

A review of the known parasites, commensals and phoretics of the genus Timarcha is presented. Probably additional species of gregarines, nematodes and Hymenoptera will be found, but the review includes what is known from Western Europe and Western North America. Gregarine and Heterorhabditis nematode infections of North American Timarcha are reported here for the first time. So far, very few studies have been done on the effect of these parasites on their hosts.
Identification of Protease Producing Halophilic Bacteria from Bledug KuwuMud Volcano

The objective of this research was to isolate and identify the halophilic bacteria from Bledug Kuwu-mud volacano having an ability to produce proteolytic enzyme. From this work, 6 bacterial isolates were obtained from mud and water samples using artifi cial sea water media after incubation at room temperature. Three out of the 6 isolates (BKL-3, BKL-5, and BKA-1) were selected for further analysis. BKL-3, BKL-5 and BKA-1 exhibited an ability to grow at salt concentration greater than 10%. BKL-3 could grow on media supplemented with 15% of salt, meanwhile BKL-5 and BKA-1 could grow at 20% of salt, respectively. Furthermore, those isolates also exhibited proteolytic activity when they were grown on casein media. The phylogenetic analysis based on the 16SrRNA gene sequences showed that the BKL-3 belong to the group of Bacillaceae, whilst BKL-5 and BKA-1 isolates were relatively distance from the group of Halomonadaceae. Therefore, BKL-5 and BKA-1 could be considered as the allegedly new species that were separated from Halomonadaceae.
Deciphering the oxygen isotope composition of nitrous oxide produced by nitrification

The ability to use δ18O values of nitrous oxide (N2O) to apportion environmental emissions is currently hindered by a poor understanding of the controls on δ18O–N2O from nitrification (hydroxylamine oxidation to N2O and nitrite reduction to N2O). In this study fertilized agricultural soils and unfertilized temperate forest soils were aerobically incubated with different 18O/16O waters, and conceptual and mathematical models were developed to systematically explain the δ18O–N2O formed by nitrification. Modeling exercises used a set of defined input parameters to emulate the measured soil δ18O–N2O data (Monte Carlo approach). The Monte Carlo simulations implied that abiotic oxygen (O) exchange between nitrite (NO2−) and H2O is important in all soils, but that biological, enzyme‐controlled O‐exchange does not occur during the reduction of NO2− to N2O (nitrifier‐denitrification). Similarly, the results of the model simulations indicated that N2O consumption is not characteristic of aerobic N2O formation. The results of this study and a synthesis of the published literature data indicate that δ18O–N2O formed in aerobic environments is constrained between +13‰ and +35‰ relative to Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW). N2O formed via hydroxylamine oxidation and nitrifier‐denitrification cannot be separated using δ18O unless 18O tracers are employed. The natural range of nitrifier δ18O–N2O is discussed and explained in terms of our conceptual model, and the major and minor controls that define aerobically produced δ18O–N2O are identified. Despite the highly complex nature of δ18O–N2O produced by nitrification this δ18O range is narrow. As a result, in many situations δ18O values may be used in conjunction with δ15N–N2O data to apportion nitrifier‐ and denitrifier‐derived N2O. However, when biological O‐exchange during denitrification is high and N2O consumption is low, there may be too much overlap in δ18O values to distinguish N2O formed by these pathways.