Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wikipedia Editor Drop-Off A Framework to Characterize Editors’ Inactivity

While there is extensive literature both on the motivations of Wikipedia’s editors and on newcomers’ retention, less is known about the process by which experienced editors leave. In this paper, we present an approach to characterize Wikipedia’s editor drop-off as the transitional states from activity to inactivity. Our approach is based on the data that can be collected or inferred about editors’ activity within the project, namely their contributions to encyclope-dic articles, discussions with other editors, and overall participation. Along with the characterization, we want to advance three main hypotheses, derived from the state of the art in the literature and the documentation produced by the community, to understand which interaction patterns may anticipate editors leaving Wikipedia: 1) abrupt interactions or conflict with other editors, 2) excess in the number and spread of interactions, and 3) a lack of interactions with editors with similar characteristics. We present this work both as a preliminary stage of our research to understand editor drop-off and as a flexible frame to look at the phenomenon that we believe can be useful in the future. Furthermore, by characterizing drop-off and identifying interaction patterns that may be associated with it, it may be possible to assess the general health of a community, and ultimately propose changes to improve it.
Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

The most common type of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is a urinary tract infection (UTI), and 80 percent of these are associated with the use of indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs). These are termed catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). It has been estimated that about 25 percent of all hospitalized patients have an IUC placed during their hospital stay. In addition to the morbidity and mortality that may be associated with a CAUTI, there are also financial consequences. This is particularly true since as of October 1, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped reimbursing hospitals for several types of infections acquired during a hospital stay, including CAUTIs. In United States (U.S.) the estimated annual cost of treating these CAUTIs is $350 million. It has been proposed that a large percentage of CAUTIs should be preventable. This article will discuss the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CAUTIs
Development of Segmentation and Classification Algorithm for Brain Tumor Detection Using MR Images and Performance Analysis

: Segmentation of medical images and extracting the required information using magnetic resonance (MR) has become a tedious task . The data obtained can be used in medical industry and experts to do surgery and other medical procedure, in this paper a novel approach is presented to segment the brain MR images and extract the required features and fed to SVM classifier to classify. The experimental results show that the proposed technique performs well when compared to the tradition techniques presented, for experimentation; more than 200 images are used from the BRATS database.
Ethnic Disproportionality in the Identification of High-Incidence Special Educational Needs: A National Longitudinal Study Ages 5 to 11

We used pupil-level data from the National Pupil Database in England to conduct a longitudinal analysis of the identification of moderate learning difficulties (MLD) and social, emotional, and mental health difficulties (SEMH) among 550,000 pupils ages 5 to 11 years. Survival analysis was used to determine the hazard ratios (HRs) for time to first identification, controlling for prior attainment and social-emotional development at age 5 as well as socioeconomic variables. For MLD, the overrepresentation of Black Caribbean and Pakistani pupils compared with White British pupils was eliminated following age 5 controls, and the predominant picture was of ethnic-minority underrepresentation. For SEMH, Black Caribbean and mixed White and Black Caribbean (MWBC) pupils continued to be overrepresented even after age 5 controls (HR = 1.36 and 1.44, respectively), although this was not true for the larger group of Black African pupils, who were underrepresented in the adjusted analyses (HR = 0.62), as were most other ethnic-minority groups. The results indicate most ethnic-minority groups are underrepresented for special educational needs after adjusting for pupil characteristics on entry to school, though this varies by ethnic group and type of need.
NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields

The recent Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF [1]) is a breakthrough in the field, generating highly photorealistic views of complex scenes. A NeRF learns an implicit representation of a scene, optimizing a neural network mapping from 3D location x = (x, y, z) and 2D viewing direction d = (φ, θ) to radiance c = (r, g, b) and volume density σ. Given this representation, NeRF use classic rendering techniques [2] to render the color of a pixel. To optimize the radiance field, NeRF minimizes the squared loss between the ground truth pixels and the corresponding rendered pixels. The results are shown in Figure 2.
Not so clonal asexuals: Unraveling the secret sex life of Artemia parthenogenetica

The maintenance of sex is paradoxical as sexual species pay the “twofold cost of males” and should thus quickly be replaced by asexual mutants reproducing clonally. However, asexuals may not be strictly clonal and engage in “cryptic sex,” challenging this simple scenario. We study the cryptic sex life of the brine shrimp Artemia parthenogenetica, which has once been termed an “ancient asexual” and where no genetic differences have ever been observed between parents and offspring. This asexual species rarely produces males, which can hybridize with sexual females of closely related species and transmit asexuality to their offspring. Using such hybrids, we show that recombination occurs in asexual lineages, causing loss‐of‐heterozygosity and parent‐offspring differences. These differences cannot generally be observed in field‐sampled asexuals because once heterozygosity is lost, subsequent recombination leaves no footprint. Furthermore, using extensive paternity tests, we show that hybrid females can reproduce both sexually and asexually, and transmit asexuality to both sexually and asexually produced offspring in a dominant fashion. Finally, we show that, contrary to previous reports, field‐sampled asexual females also rarely reproduce sexually (rate ∼2‰). Overall, most previously known facts about Artemia asexuality turned out to be erroneous. More generally, our findings suggest that the evidence for strictly clonal reproduction of asexual species needs to be reconsidered, and that rare sex and consequences of nonclonal asexuality, such as gene flow within asexuals, need to be more widely taken into account in more realistic models for the maintenance of sex and the persistence of asexual lineages.
Spatially variable hydrologic impact and biomass production tradeoffs associated with Eucalyptus (E. grandis) cultivation for biofuel production in Entre Rios, Argentina

Climate change and energy security promote using renewable sources of energy such as biofuels. High woody biomass production achieved from short‐rotation intensive plantations is a strategy that is increasing in many parts of the world. However, broad expansion of bioenergy feedstock production may have significant environmental consequences. This study investigates the watershed‐scale hydrological impacts of Eucalyptus (E. grandis) plantations for energy production in a humid subtropical watershed in Entre Rios province, Argentina. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was calibrated and validated for streamflow, leaf area index (LAI), and biomass production cycles. The model was used to simulate various Eucalyptus plantation scenarios that followed physically based rules for land use conversion (in various extents and locations in the watershed) to study hydrological effects, biomass production, and the green water footprint of energy production. SWAT simulations indicated that the most limiting factor for plant growth was shallow soils causing seasonal water stress. This resulted in a wide range of biomass productivity throughout the watershed. An optimization algorithm was developed to find the best location for Eucalyptus development regarding highest productivity with least water impact. E. grandis plantations had higher evapotranspiration rates compared to existing terrestrial land cover classes; therefore, intensive land use conversion to E. grandis caused a decline in streamflow, with January through March being the most affected months. October was the least‐affected month hydrologically, since high rainfall rates overcame the canopy interception and higher ET rates of E. grandis in this month. Results indicate that, on average, producing 1 kg of biomass in this region uses 0.8 m3 of water, and the green water footprint of producing 1 m3 fuel is approximately 2150 m3 water, or 57 m3 water per GJ of energy, which is lower than reported values for wood‐based ethanol, sugar cane ethanol, and soybean biodiesel.
The thermal environment at fertilization mediates adaptive potential in the sea

Additive genetic variation for fitness at vulnerable life stages governs the adaptive potential of populations facing stressful conditions under climate change, and can depend on current conditions as well as those experienced by past stages or generations. For sexual populations, fertilization is the key stage that links one generation to the next, yet the effects of fertilization environment on the adaptive potential at the vulnerable stages that then unfold during development are rarely considered, despite climatic stress posing risks for gamete function and fertility in many taxa and external fertilizers especially. Here, we develop a simple fitness landscape model exploring the effects of environmental stress at fertilization and development on the adaptive potential in early life. We then test our model with a quantitative genetic breeding design exposing family groups of a marine external fertilizer, the tubeworm Galeolaria caespitosa, to a factorial manipulation of current and projected temperatures at fertilization and development. We find that adaptive potential in early life is substantially reduced, to the point of being no longer detectable, by genotype‐specific carryover effects of fertilization under projected warming. We interpret these results in light of our fitness landscape model, and argue that the thermal environment at fertilization deserves more attention than it currently receives when forecasting the adaptive potential of populations confronting climate change.
RIPK2 as a New Therapeutic Target in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are becoming more frequent worldwide. A significant fraction of patients with IBD are refractory to various types of therapeutic biologics and small molecules. Therefore, identification of novel therapeutic targets in IBD is required. Receptor-interacting serine/threonine kinase 2 (RIPK2), also known as receptor-interacting protein 2 (RIP2), is a downstream signaling molecule for nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1), NOD2, and Toll-like receptors (TLRs). RIPK2 is expressed in antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells and macrophages. Recognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns by NOD1, NOD2, and TLRs leads to the interaction between RIPK2 and these innate immune receptors, followed by the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-12/23p40 through the activation of nuclear factor kappa B and mitogen-activated protein kinases. Thus, activation of RIPK2 plays a critical role in host defense against microbial infections. Recent experimental and clinical studies have provided evidence that activation of RIPK2 is involved in the development of autoimmune diseases, especially IBDs. In addition, the colonic mucosa of patients with IBD exhibits enhanced expression of RIPK2 and associated signaling molecules. Furthermore, the blockage of RIPK2 activation ameliorates the development of experimental murine colitis. Thus, activation of RIPK2 underlies IBD immunopathogenesis. In this review, we attempt to clarify the roles played by RIPK2 in the development of IBD by focusing on its associated signaling pathways. We also discuss the possibility of using RIPK2 as a new therapeutic target in IBD.
Evaluation of Phenolic Root Exudates as Stimulants of Saptrophic Fungi in the Rhizosphere

The rhizosphere microbial community of crop plants in intensively managed arable soils is strongly dominated by bacteria, especially in the initial stages of plant development. In order to establish more diverse and balanced rhizosphere microbiomes, as seen for wild plants, crop variety selection could be based on their ability to promote growth of saprotrophic fungi in the rhizosphere. We hypothesized that this can be achieved by increasing the exudation of phenolic acids, as generally higher fungal abundance is observed in environments with phenolic-rich inputs, such as exudates of older plants and litter leachates. To test this, a rhizosphere simulation microcosm was designed to establish gradual diffusion of root exudate metabolites from sterile sand into arable soil. With this system, we tested the fungus-stimulating effect of eight phenolic acids alone or in combination with primary root metabolites. Ergosterol-based fungal biomass measurements revealed that most phenolic acids did not increase fungal abundance in the arable soil layer. These results were supported by comparison of fungal biomass in the rhizosphere of wild type Arabidopsis thaliana plants and mutants with altered phenolic acid metabolism. Salicylic acid was the only phenolic acid that stimulated a higher fungal biomass in the arable soil layer of microcosms, but only when combined with a background of primary root metabolites. However, such effect on rhizosphere fungi was not confirmed for a salicylic acid-impaired A. thaliana mutant. For three phenolic acid treatments (chlorogenic acid, salicylic acid, vanillic acid) fungal and bacterial community compositions were analyzed using amplicon sequencing. Despite having little effect on fungal biomass, phenolic acids combined with primary metabolites promoted a higher relative abundance of soil-borne fungi with the ability to invade plant roots (Fusarium, Trichoderma and Fusicolla spp.) in the simulated rhizosphere. Bacterial community composition was also affected by these phenolic acids. Although this study indicates that phenolic acids do not increase fungal biomass in the rhizosphere, we highlight a potential role of phenolic acids as attractants for root-colonizing fungi.
Uremia-Associated Immunological Aging and Severity of COVID-19 Infection

One year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic it has become clear that some groups of individuals are at particular high risk of a complicated course of infection resulting in high morbidity and mortality. Two specific risk factors are most prominent, old age and the presence of co-morbidity. Recent studies have shown that patients with compromised renal function, especially those treated with renal replacement therapy or having received a kidney transplant are at a much higher risk for severe COVID infection and increased mortality. This may be in part due to the increased prevalence of co-morbid conditions in these patients but specific alterations in their immune system, reflecting premature immunological aging, may be equally important. In this review the different aspects, in particular thymus function and memory T cell expansion, of uremia-associated immunological aging are reviewed with respect to COVID 19 infection. In essence, the decreased generation of naïve T cells may be instrumental in suboptimal anti-viral immune responses while the relatively uncontrolled expansion of effector T cells may facilitate the feared phase of the COVID-19 infection with excessive and live-threatening inflammation of the lung parenchyma.
Challenges in Current Coral Reef Protection – Possible Impacts of UV Filters Used in Sunscreens, a Critical Review

Coral reefs are highly endangered ecosystems. The identification and quantification of potential stress factors are essential to protect them. UV filters from sunscreens that are introduced to coral reef areas are considered as one of these stressors and their impact on corals needs to be further investigated. Even though UV filters are functionally similar, their structural features are very diverse. Their impact on limnic organisms have also been shown to be highly variable ranging from no or low to high toxicity. It is therefore to be expected that their effect on corals also differs significantly and that each compound has to be evaluated individually. The demand for conclusive benchmarks and guidelines from policy makers and the public over the past years shows the necessity for an objective literature review on the effects of various UV filters on scleractinian corals. Here, we review the present literature, summarize the data on the different UV filters and discuss the different approaches, advantages and limitations of the studies. However, the methods used in the latter studies vary greatly. They differ in many aspects such as species and life stage used, field and laboratory approaches, with exposure times ranging from hours to weeks. Some studies include analytics and measure the actual test concentration, others only provide nominal concentrations. The lack of standardized methods renders comparisons between studies futile. Additionally, most UV filters have only been investigated in a single or a few studies of different quality. Reliable thresholds are therefore impossible to draw on the basis of currently available studies. Nevertheless, certain UV filters repeatedly showed comparable toxicity in both freshwater and marine species tested. Yet, existing differences in results from coral tests emphasize the need for a standardized testing method comparable to those established for other aquatic organisms in order to allow for a more conclusive assessment. In this review, we describe what a scientifically sound testing proposal should include in order to obtain reliable and reproducible data, which ultimately should result in an internationally organized standardized ring test trial. Such standardized toxicity tests would enable validation of coral toxicity data related to UV filters, but also testing of other types of compounds that are known to be introduced and effect coral reefs, thus helping to identify significant stressors and enabling objective policy decisions.
Analyses of Clinical and Biological Data for French and Belgian Immunocompetent Patients Infected With Hepatitis E Virus Genotypes 4 and 3

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes 3 and 4 are the major causes of acute hepatitis in industrialized countries. Genotype 3 is mainly found in Europe and America, while genotype 4 is predominant in Asia. Several Japanese studies have suggested that genotype 4 is more virulent than genotype 3. We investigated this aspect by analyzing the clinical and biological data for 27 French and Belgian immunocompetent patients infected with HEV genotype 4. Their infections were probably acquired locally, since none of these patients reported traveling outside France or Belgium during the 2–8 weeks before symptoms onset. Each patient was matched for age (±5 years) and gender with two patients infected with HEV genotype 3. Bivariate analysis indicated that the HEV genotype 4-infected patients had significantly higher alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (2067 IU/L) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (1581 IU/L) activities and total bilirubin concentrations (92.4 μmol/L) than did those infected with HEV genotype 3 (1566 IU/L, p = 0.016; 657 IU/L, p = 0.003 and 47 μmol/L, p = 0.046) at diagnosis. In contrast, more patients infected with HEV genotype 3 reported dark urine (71% vs. 39%, p = 0.02) and experienced asthenia (89% vs. 58%, p < 0.01) than did those infected with HEV genotype 4. Two HEV genotype 4-infected patients died of multi-organ failure, while none of the genotype 3-infected patients died (p = 0.035). Finally, stepwise regression analysis retained only a greater increase in ALT (odds-ratio: 1.0005, 95% confidence interval: 1.00012–1.00084) and less frequent fever (odds-ratio = 0.1244; 95% confidence interval: 0.01887–0.82020) for patients infected with HEV genotype 4. We conclude that HEV-4 infections are likely to be associated with higher ALT activity than HEV-3 infections. Additional immunological and virological studies are required to confirm these findings and better understand the influence, if any, of genotype on HEV pathophysiology.
Clinical Experience and Recent Advances in the Development of Listeria-Based Tumor Immunotherapies

The promise of tumor immunotherapy to significantly improve survival in patients who are refractory to long-standing therapies, such as chemotherapy and radiation, is now being realized. While immune checkpoint inhibitors that target PD-1 and CTLA-4 are leading the charge in clinical efficacy, there are a number of other promising tumor immunotherapies in advanced development such as Listeria-based vaccines. Due to its unique life cycle and ability to induce robust CTL responses, attenuated strains of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) have been utilized as vaccine vectors targeting both infectious disease and cancer. In fact, preclinical studies in a multitude of cancer types have found Listeria-based vaccines to be highly effective at activating anti-tumor immunity and eradicating tumors. Several clinical trials have now recently reported their results, demonstrating promising efficacy against some cancers, and unique challenges. Development of the Lm-based immunotherapies continues with discovery of improved methods of attenuation, novel uses, and more effective combinatorial regimens. In this review, we provide a brief background of Listeria monocytogenes as a vaccine vector, discuss recent clinical experience with Listeria-based immunotherapies, and detail the advancements in development of improved Listeria-based vaccine platforms and in their utilization.
Stem Cell-Based Therapy for Experimental Ischemic Stroke: A Preclinical Systematic Review

Stem cell transplantation offers promise in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Here we utilized systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression to study the biological effect of stem cell treatments in animal models of ischemic stroke. A total of 98 eligible publications were included by searching PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science from inception to August 1, 2020. There are about 141 comparisons, involving 5,200 animals, that examined the effect of stem cell transplantation on neurological function and infarct volume as primary outcome measures in animal models for stroke. Stem cell-based therapy can improve both neurological function (effect size, −3.37; 95% confidence interval, −3.83 to −2.90) and infarct volume (effect size, −11.37; 95% confidence interval, −12.89 to −9.85) compared with controls. These results suggest that stem cell therapy could improve neurological function deficits and infarct volume, exerting potential neuroprotective effect for experimental ischemic stroke, but further clinical studies are still needed.