Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Production of β-Cyclocitral and Its Precursor β-Carotene in Microcystis aeruginosa: Variation at Population and Single-Cell Levels

Bloom-forming cyanobacteria produce and release odorous compounds and pose threats to the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystem and to the drinking water supply. In this study, the concentrations of β-cyclocitral in different bacterial growth phases were investigated using GC–MS to determine the growth stage of Microcystis aeruginosa at high risk for β-cyclocitral production. Moreover, the synchronicity of the production of β-cyclocitral and its precursor β-carotene at both population and single-cell levels was assessed. The results indicated that β-cyclocitral was the main odorous compound produced by M. aeruginosa cells. The intracellular concentration of β-cyclocitral (Cβ-cc) as well as its cellular quota (Qβ-cc) increased synchronously in the log phase, along with the increase of cell density. However, they reached the maximum values of 415 μg/L and 10.7 fg/cell in the late stationary phase and early stationary phase, respectively. The early stage of the stationary phase is more important for β-cyclocitral monitoring, and the sharp increase in Qβ-cc is valuable for anticipating the subsequent increase in Cβ-cc. The molar concentrations of β-cyclocitral and β-carotene showed a linear relationship, with an R2 value of 0.92, suggesting that the production of β-cyclocitral was linearly dependent on that of β-carotene, especially during the log phase. However, the increase in Qβ-cc was slower than that in β-carotene during the stationary phase, suggesting that β-cyclocitral production turned to be carotene oxygenase-limited when the growth rate decreased. These results demonstrate that variations of β-cyclocitral production on a single-cell level during different bacterial growth phases should be given serious consideration when monitoring and controlling the production of odorous compounds by M. aeruginosa blooms.
Examining the effect of IMF conditionality on natural resource policy

Can IMF lending improve natural resource governance in borrowing countries? While most IMF agreements mandate policy reforms in exchange for financial support, compliance with these reforms is mixed at best. The natural resource sector should be no exception. After all, resource windfalls enable short-term increases in discretionary spending, and office-seeking politicians are often unwilling to forgo this discretion by reforming the oil, gas, or mining sector. I investigate how and when borrowers go against their political interests and establish natural resource funds – a tool often promoted by the IMF – in the wake of a loan agreement. Using text analysis, statistical models, and qualitative evidence from natural resource policy and IMF conditionality for 74 countries between 1980 and 2019, I show that borrowers under an IMF agreement are more likely to create or regulate a resource fund, particularly if the agreement includes binding conditions that highlight the salience of natural resource reforms. This study contributes to extant research by proposing a new method to extract information from IMF conditions, by introducing a novel dataset on country-level natural resource policy, and by identifying under what circumstances international reform efforts can help combat the resource curse.
Geographically and temporally weighted co-location quotient: an analysis of spatiotemporal crime patterns in greater Manchester

Abstract Incident data, a form of big data frequently used in urban studies, are characterized by point features with high spatial and temporal resolution and categorical values. In contrast to panel data, such spatial data pooled over time reflect multi-directional spatial effects but only unidirectional temporal effects, which are challenging to analyze. This paper presents an innovative approach to address this challenge – a geographically and temporally weighted co-location quotient which includes global and local computation, a method to calculate a spatiotemporal weight matrix and a significance test using Monte Carlo simulation. This new approach is used to identify spatio-temporal crime patterns across Greater Manchester in 2016 from open source recorded crime data. The results show that this approach is suitable for the analysis and visualization of spatio-temporal dependence and heterogeneity in categorical spatial data pooled over time. It is particularly useful for detecting symmetrical spatio-temporal co-location patterns and mapping local clusters. The method also addresses the unbalanced temporal scale problem caused by unidirectional temporal data representation and explores potential impacts. The empirical evidence of the spatiotemporal crime patterns might usefully be deployed to inform the development of criminological theory by helping to disentangle the relationships between crime and the urban environment.
Avaliação proprioceptiva no Acidente vascular encefálico: uma revisão da literatura

Resumo—Os déficits somatossensoriais causados após um acidente vascular encefálico são determinados pela localização do ictus. No entanto, falta uma compreensão detalhada do efeito de longo prazo das lesões no desempenho sensóriomotor. As avaliações de déficits proprioceptivos normalmente são realizadas de maneira qualiquantitativa por meio de escalas clínicas e a partir de observações de profissionais da área da saúde, tratando-se de um processo subjetivo que pode não ser sensível o suficiente para acompanhar adequadamente o progresso da terapia ou mesmo permitir diagnósticos mais precisos. Por isso tem-se cada vez mais integrado estas avaliações clínicas a dipositivos tecnológicos. Durante a busca na literatura, pesquisamos bancos de dados principais com os termos de pesquisa pertinentes a avaliação proprioceptiva. Da busca inicial foram 139, desdes 23 foram duplicados ou títulos não coerente, após esta primeira seleção, 52 foram excluídos pelos resumos e 41 não atenderam os critérios de inclusão como data de publicação. Ao final restaram 23 artigos que se encaixavam nos critérios iniciais. Dentre os artigos observamos a relevância das avaliações realizadas por unidades de medidas inerciais como única ou em conjunto com outras formas de avaliações. Portanto não existe uma medida única de avaliação proprioceptiva devido à complexidade dos processos neurofisiológicos que abrangem a própria propriocepção; por isso muitas vezes para avaliar esta perda faz-se necessário o uso de mais de uma técnica avaliativa. Mais recentemente, isso foi impulsionado pela investigação da capacidade dos sentidos proprioceptivos de serem melhorados por meio de treinamento sensorial específico ou regulação positiva por meio de estimulação aferente.
Borealin Promotes Tumor Growth and Metastasis by Activating the Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background and Aims Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant disease with high morbidity and mortality throughout the world. While Borealin is a putative oncogene that is dysregulated in multiple tumors, its exact role in HCC remains less investigated. Methods Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays were employed to examine the relative amount of Borealin. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and other bioinformatic analyses were implemented to probe into the potential functions of Borealin. The biological roles and mechanisms of Borealin in the tumorigenesis and development of HCC were further evaluated using a battery of functional assays in vivo and in vitro. Results Borealin was enhanced in the HCC tissue samples and hepatoma cells when compared with the nontumor tissues and normal liver cells. Higher Borealin expression was positively linked with advanced pathological phenotypes and inferior overall survival. The overexpression of Borealin promoted the cells’ abilities on proliferation, invasion and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro, facilitated tumor growth and lung metastasis in vivo, whereas the silencing of Borealin inhibited these capabilities in vitro. Furthermore, Borealin interacted with β-catenin and further activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, which endowed HCC cells with highly aggressive and metastatic capabilities. Conclusion Borealin was identified as an oncogene that could promote HCC growth and metastasis by activating the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway. These findings extended the understanding of Borealin in HCC tumorigenesis and development and highlighted the significance of Borealin in HCC diagnosis and treatment.
GEOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE ABU FANNANI MYLONITIC AMPHIBOLITES AND RELATED AMPHIBOLITE XENOLITHS IN THE JUVENILE NEOPROTEROZOIC MEATIQ DOME AREA, CENTRAL EASTERN DESERT, EGYPT.

The Neoproterozoic crustal rocks exposed in the Meatiq dome area, Central Eastern Desert of Egypt, comprise medium to high grade mylonites. They form strongly foliated and folded mappable units, including (in the core): Um Baanib granite-gneiss, followed structurally upward by Fiadiya augen schists, Gabal Meatiq phyllonitic mylonites, Abu Zohleiqa augen gneisses, Um Esh El-hamra quartzofeldspathic mylonites, and Abu Fannani mylonitic amphibolites. These appear to have been largely derived from granitic, pelitic to semipelitic, and basaltic to basaltic andesite rocks. The present work is focused only on the Abu Fannani mylonitic amphibolites which occur mainly in the shear zone constituting the frame of the Meatiq Dome. The amphibolite xenoliths hosted by the Um Baanib granite-gneiss are supposed to be originally belonging to the Abu Fannani unit. Field and petrographic characteristics of both amphibolitic types indicate that they were undergone a complex evolution of repeated deformations and metamorphisms. These were genetically connected with three major events, including subduction, obduction and updoming processes. Due to subduction, the original basaltic to basaltic andesites, together with the pelitic to semipelitic sediments formed a strongly folded and highly metamorphosed (M1) orogenic belt. The lower part of this belt was migmatized and intruded by a synkinematic granite (i.e., Um Baanib granite-gneiss). During obduction, thick nappes overrode the highly metamorphosed belt leading to its transformation into high-to mediumgrade mylonites having the amphibolite facies grade metamorphism (M2). Thereafter, updoming processes originally linked with the Najd Fault System took place where brittle-ductile shear zones accompanied with greenschist facies metamorphism (M3) were achieved. Regarding geochemistry of the amphibolites, major elements refer to their derivation from tholeiitic basalt to basaltic andesites. In Harker variation diagrams, immobile and incompatible elements (Zr,Ti,Y, and P) show good linear correlation relative to the mobile elements. Tectonic discrimination diagrams suggest the presence of two tectonic settings for both amphibolites, i.e., within-plate and MORB environments.
Building Energy Audits—Diagnosis and Retrofitting towards Decarbonization and Sustainable Cities

A collection of twelve papers published in Energies, in a Special Issue on “Building Energy Audits-Diagnosis and Retrofitting”, was bound together and published in 2021, focusing on the built environment. The aim was to systematically collect and analyze relevant data for obtaining adequate knowledge on the energy use profile of buildings, and was extended for the sustainability assessment of the built environment. To date, all papers have been very well received, attaining a total of 97 citations and over 15,300 views. The papers addressed historic and various building types, baselines for non-residential buildings from energy performance audits and from in-situ measurements, monitoring and data analysis, assessment of indoor environmental quality, model calibration and verification of energy savings, along with an urban audit and rating method for assessing the sustainability of the built environment. Following on from the success of this Special Issue, the decision was made to reopen and extend it to include papers related to decarbonization and sustainability, at building, city, region, and national scales. This Editorial reviews the performance of the first Special Issue and outlines the second volume on Building Energy Audits-Diagnosis and Retrofitting Towards Decarbonization and Sustainable Cities, as a Special Issue in Energies.
Reverse Electrochemical Sensing of FLT3-ITD Mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Using Gold Sputtered ZnO-Nanorod Configured DNA Biosensors

Detection of genetic mutations leading to hematological malignancies is a key factor in the early diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). FLT3-ITD mutations are an alarming gene defect found commonly in AML patients associated with high cases of leukemia and low survival rates. Available diagnostic assessments for FLT3-ITD are incapable of combining cost-effective detection platforms with high analytical performances. To circumvent this, we developed an efficient DNA biosensor for the recognition of AML caused by FLT3-ITD mutation utilizing electrochemical impedance characterization. The system was designed by adhering gold-sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods onto interdigitated electrode (IDE) sensor chips. The sensing surface was biointerfaced with capture probes designed to hybridize with unmutated FLT3 sequences instead of the mutated FLT3-ITD gene, establishing a reverse manner of target detection. The developed biosensor demonstrated specific detection of mutated FLT3 genes, with high levels of sensitivity in response to analyte concentrations as low as 1 nM. The sensor also exhibited a stable functional life span of more than five weeks with good reproducibility and high discriminatory properties against FLT3 gene targets. Hence, the developed sensor is a promising tool for rapid and low-cost diagnostic applications relevant to the clinical prognosis of AML stemming from FLT3-ITD mutations.
Assessment of Avermectins-Induced Toxicity in Animals

Macrocyclic lactones, particularly the avermectins, have completely revolutionized the approaches aimed at control of parasites. These avermectins are the most widely used anti-parasitic drugs in veterinary field with sales exceeding one billion US dollars annually. However, before clinical usage, their safety evaluation in the animals is a major critical factor that must be considered. Many studies have reported the negative effects of avermectins like ivermectin, abamectin, doramectin, and eprinomectin on the host animals. These harmful effects arise from avermectins targeting GABA and glutamate-gated chloride channels present both in the parasites and the host animals. In this review, various modes of avermectins action along with the negative effects on the host like nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and endocrine disruption were discussed in detail. Furthermore, other important issues like ecotoxicity, drug resistance, and drug residues in milk associated with avermectins usage were also discussed, which need special attention.
An SVM Classifier With Autoencoder Feature Extractor for Breast Cancer Diagnosis

In this paper, we present the development and training of an efficient algorithm based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) with dimensionality reduction for auto encoder for application on the process of Breast Cancer classification. We use Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) as our original data set. Detection and characterization of benign and malignant for the diagnosis of breast cancer is important for early diagnosis. Five autoencoder models based on fully connected neural networks with different data compression rates were developed. After being trained, the characteristic vector of each model was extracted, so an SVM is used to classify the type of tumor from that vector. to validate the models, 10fold cross validation was used. From the original data set, we used the trained encoder to extract vectors of size three, five, eight, ten and sixteen. The results obtained are compared with other results found in the literature and showed a better performance, reaching an accuracy of 99.12%. Finally, the experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm has the ability to compress the original data without losing information relevant to the classification, presenting a better performance than the traditional SVM for the classification of breast cancer.
Reversal of Doxorubicin-Induced Bone Loss and Mineralization by Supplementation of Resveratrol and MitoTEMPO in the Early Development of Sparus aurata

Doxorubicin is a widely used chemotherapeutic drug known to induce bone loss. The mechanism behind doxorubicin-mediated bone loss is unclear, but oxidative stress has been suggested as a potential cause. Antioxidants that can counteract the toxic effect of doxorubicin on the bone would be helpful for the prevention of secondary osteoporosis. We used resveratrol, a natural antioxidant, and MitoTEMPO, a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant, to counteract doxorubicin-induced bone loss and mineralization on Sparus aurata larvae. Doxorubicin supplemented Microdiets increased bone deformities, decreased mineralization, and lipid peroxidation, whereas Resveratrol and MitoTEMPO supplemented microdiets improved mineralization, decreased bone deformities, and reversed the effects of doxorubicin in vivo and in vitro, using osteoblastic VSa13 cells. Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis highlighted differences between groups on the distribution of skeletal anomalies and mineralization of skeleton elements. Calcium and Phosphorus content was negatively affected in the doxorubicin supplemented group. Doxorubicin reduced the mRNA expression of antioxidant genes, including catalase, glutathione peroxidase 1, superoxide dismutase 1, and hsp90 suggesting that ROS are central for Doxorubicin-induced bone loss. The mRNA expression of antioxidant genes was significantly increased on resveratrol alone or combined treatment. The length of intestinal villi was increased in response to antioxidants and reduced on doxorubicin. Antioxidant supplements effectively prevent bone deformities and mineralization defects, increase antioxidant response and reverse doxorubicin-induced effects on bone anomalies, mineralization, and oxidative stress. A combined treatment of doxorubicin and antioxidants was beneficial in fish larvae and showed the potential for use in preventing Doxorubicin-induced bone impairment.
“Just the two of us“: Der Einfluss des Blickkontakts zwischen einem Pianisten und seinem Medienpublikum auf die Soziale Präsenz und das Unterhaltungserleben einer audiovisuellen Klavierperformance

Das Unterhaltungserleben von audiovisuellen Musikperformances kann durch das soziale Präsenzerleben, d. h. das Gefühl, mit jemand anderem zusammen zu sein, verstärkt werden. Soziale Präsenz wird in einigen Ausarbeitungen als multidimensionales Konstrukt beschrieben, in denen als Dimensionen u.a. empfundene wechselseitige Wahrnehmung (WW; d. h. das Gefühl einer beidseitig wahrgenommen Co-Präsenz mit dem vermittelten anderen) sowie empfundene Empathie (E; d. h. Rezipierende empfinden eine gegenseitige Beeinflussung der Stimmungslage) angeführt werden. Blickkontakt als nonverbaler Hinweisreiz kann zu einer Steigerung der sozialen Präsenz führen. Es kann zudem davon ausgegangen werden, dass ein höheres Level an E sowie WW sich auf die wahrgenommene soziale Reichhaltigkeit (SR) einer Musikperformance auswirkt und zusammen mit der SR das Unterhaltungserleben der Musikperformance positiv beeinflusst. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist, zu untersuchen, ob der Blickkontakt im Rahmen einer audiovisuellen Musikperformance die soziale Präsenz (E und WW) sowie die SR erhöhen kann und dadurch das Unterhaltungserleben an der Performance gesteigert werden kann. Für diesen Zweck wurde ein 1 x 2 between-subjects Online-Experiment (N = 114) durchgeführt. Die unabhängige Variable Blickkontakt variierte darin, ob der Musiker während der Performance zeitweise in die Kamera schaute oder seinen Blick die ganze Zeit auf den Klaviertasten behielt. Die Ergebnisse der Mediationsanalyse zeigen, dass der Blickkontakt das Level an Unterhaltungserleben erhöhen kann und dass der Effekt durch die drei Mediatoren (WW, E und SR) vollständig mediiert wird. Das Modell konnte 67 % der Varianz des Unterhaltungserlebens der Teilnehmer:innen erklären. Der positive Einfluss sozialpsychologischer Prozesse auf die Entstehung von Unterhaltungserleben von audiovisuellen Musikperformances konnte sowohl untermauert als auch weiter differenziert werden.
Effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and Rhizobium Inoculation on Growth and Yield of Glycine max L. Varieties

Biofertilizers are preparations containing living cells that help crop plants in the uptake of nutrients. This study aimed to investigate the effect of coinoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Rhizobium species on the growth and nutrient uptake of three varieties of Glycine max: Belsa 95, Afgat M5, and Nova E3, in the greenhouse and the field. These varieties were obtained from the Gambela research center of Ethiopia. Commercial Rhizobium inoculants were obtained from the Menagesha Biotechnology Institute (MBI), and the previously isolated indigenous AMF inoculants were mass-produced using Sorghum bicolor as a trap plant. Two kilograms of sterilized soil and sand in a 2:1 ratio were used for greenhouse treatments, and 2 m × 3 m plots were used for field treatments. In the greenhouse trials, for all the three varieties was recorded better yield plant−1 in coinoculated treatments with fertilizer application and without fertilizer application, respectively. The highest root number plant−1 (10.0 ± 1.2 and 10.0 ± 1.7) was recorded for variety 1 with the application of only fertilizer and fertilizer + Rhizobium, respectively, and the highest values (8.7 ± 1.9 and 4.7 ± 0.8) were recorded for coinoculated treatments with fertilizer application for varieties 2 and 3, respectively. For sole mycorrhiza-inoculated treatments in the greenhouse was recorded higher dry biomass (16.67% for V1, 42.20% for V2, and 22.18% for V3) as compared with the control. Moreover, for combined inoculation of AMF + Rhizobium and AMF + Rhizobium + fertilizer were recorded 27.01% and 66.99% for V1, 42.20% and 70.33% for V2, and 36.84 and 80.20% for V3, respectively. That means tripartite interactions favor the growth response in association with higher P and N uptake. Finally, it is recommended to apply biofertilizers as the plant-fungi-Rhizobium interactions may have a bigger potential role in maintaining sustainable agriculture with effective environmental resilience.