Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Utility of Game-Based Approaches within the PE Curriculum Design and Implementation Process to Develop “More Knowledgeable Others”

Abstract This article presents information relating to the use of a specific family of pedagogical approaches, namely gamebased approaches (GBAs), as a means to design physical education curricula that develops and recognizes learners as MKOs. Also discussed is Wiggins and McTighe's (2005) Understanding by Design framework and its use in designing a PE curriculum that aligns to the key features of GBA implementation. Finally, strategies are presented to help teachers overcome common challenges of GBA implementation so that more MKOs are recognized and developed in our PE classes.
Application of Pediococcus acidilactici BD16 (alaD +) expressing L-alanine dehydrogenase enzyme as a starter culture candidate for secondary wine fermentation

Abstract Secondary fermentation is generally recommended to improve the aroma, flavour, overall acceptability and stability of the wines. Pediococcus acidilactici BD16 expressing L-alanine dehydrogenase gene is hereby proposed as a starter culture bacterium for the value addition of ginger, kiwi, plum and rose wines through secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation using Pediococcus acidilactici BD16 (alaD +) imparted a natural sweetness and several health-promoting attributes to the dry wines, thereby improving their sensory and quality attributes. GC-MS-based metabolic fingerprinting further revealed the presence of significantly higher levels of L-alanine and many bioactive secondary metabolites and flavour enhancers such as 3-butynol, acetaldehyde, alaninol, aminopentols, benzene methanol, octanoic acid, ribitol, etc. and therapeutic ingredients such as 8-azanonane, actinobolin, adamantanemethylamine, aminononadecane, amphetamine, benzeneethanamine, guanosine, heptadecanenitrile, isopropyluriedoacetate, octanoic acid, nortriptyline and rimantadine in the secondary fermented wines. Further, a probable metabolic pathway was constructed to indicate major metabolic biotransformations in the wines which accounted for the improved quality attributes and strongly anticipated their therapeutic potential. This study is probably the first of its kind to highlight the application of P. acidilactici BD16 (alaD +) for in situ L-alanine production during secondary wine fermentation for enhancing organoleptic and therapeutic attributes of interest to health-conscious consumers.
A Review on Climate Change Impacts on Forest Ecosystem Services in the Mediterranean Basin

Abstract The Mediterranean Basin covers more than 2 million square kilometres and is surrounded by three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. The Basin that is rich in biodiversity has tilted towards warmer and drier conditions over the last decades. The emerging climatic conditions particularly the increase in the number of climate extremes are bringing new threats and risks that will exacerbate existing pressures. The present study thoroughly reviewed the recent scientific literature and synthesized existing body of knowledge on the impacts (direct and indirect) of climate change on forest ecosystem services in the Mediterranean Basin. Despite many uncertainties about climate change in the Basin, there appears to be a consensus among a number of studies that climate change is having and will continue to have mostly negative impacts on the Mediterranean forest ecosystem services (wood and non-wood forest products, water resources, carbon storage and recreation and tourism) with possible substantial impacts in the future. Further, evidence is mounting that climate-induced natural disturbances (fires, insect pests, and pathogenic diseases) are becoming frequent and severe. The Mediterranean plants are known for their resilience to natural disturbances. However, the novel climatic conditions may exceed their resilience and alter the ecosystem services. Therefore, there is the need to mitigate the challenges posed by climate change and adapt forest management practices to impending changes to sustain the forest ecosystem services.
Modified 2D-Ghost-Free Stereoscopic Display with Depth-of-Field Effects

Backward-compatible stereoscopic display, a novel display technique that can simultaneously present satisfying 3D effects to viewers with stereo glasses and clear 2D contents to viewers without, aims at helping the people who are unsuitable for watching 3D movies for a long time. In this article, we introduce two versions of backward-compatible stereoscopic display: the simpler version is far simpler than Hidden Stereo (the state-of-the-art method) while preserving competitive 2D–3D effects; the advanced version, which we call 2D-Ghost-Free Stereoscopic Display, overcomes the limitation that Hidden Stereo and the simpler version are both confined to small absolute disparity. 2D-Ghost-Free Stereoscopic Display improves tolerable disparity range by adding depth-of-field in the regions with large disparity, so that it can be applied to more scenes of 3D movies. User experiments and theoretical analysis both demonstrate the superiority of the 2D-Ghost-Free Stereoscopic Display over the state-of-the-art method and our simpler version. In addition, to make the user experiments double-blind and automatic, we developed a user study system that can automatically present 3D images and videos in NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 and collect corresponding votes of subjects on stimuli, whereas the previous researchers did not state that their user experiments were double-blind.
TCB-spline-based Image Vectorization

Vector image representation methods that can faithfully reconstruct objects and color variations in a raster image are desired in many practical applications. This article presents triangular configuration B-spline (referred to as TCB-spline)-based vector graphics for raster image vectorization. Based on this new representation, an automatic raster image vectorization paradigm is proposed. The proposed framework first detects sharp curvilinear features in the image and constructs knot meshes based on the detected feature lines. It iteratively optimizes color and position of control points and updates the knot meshes. By using collinear knots at feature lines, both smooth and discontinuous color variations can be efficiently modeled by the same set of quadratic TCB-splines. A variational knot mesh generation method is designed to adaptively introduce knots and update their connectivity to satisfy the local reconstruction quality. Experiments and comparisons show that our framework outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods in providing more faithful reconstruction results. In particular, our method is able to model undetected features and subtle or complicated color variations in-between features, which the previous methods cannot handle efficiently. Our vectorization representation also facilitates a variety of editing operations performed directly over vector images.
Erenumab Impact on Sleep Assessed With Questionnaires and Home-Polysomnography in Patients With Migraine: The ERESON Study

Introduction Migraine and sleep share a complex and unclear relationship. Poor sleep may trigger migraine attacks; migraine, in turn, is frequently associated with sleep disorders. Few previous studies used questionnaires to assess sleep changes in patients who were treated with migraine-preventive medications (MPMs). More extensive polysomnography (PSG)-based studies for this purpose were not available. Objective To investigate possible sleep changes in patients with migraine treated with erenumab, using validated sleep questionnaires and home-PSG. Methods This observational, prospective, open-label pilot study was conducted at the Clinical Neurology Unit Headache Center of Udine University Hospital from 2020 to 2021. Patients were treated with erenumab as monotherapy or add-on treatment for migraine prevention. Sleep changes were evaluated with questionnaires and polysomnographic recordings at baseline, after 3 and 12 months of treatment. Erenumab efficacy and safety in migraine prophylaxis were also investigated. Results Twenty-nine patients completed 3 months of follow-up, whereas 15 patients completed 12 months. We found a weak trend of improvement in daytime somnolence after 3 months of treatment, with stronger results after 12 months (median Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score from 6.0 to 4.0, p = 0.015); a significant improvement in subjective sleep quality (median Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) total score from 7 to 5; p = 0.001) was also observed. Home-PSG showed a significant increase in objective sleep efficiency (SE), both after 3 (from 88.1 to 91.0, p = 0.006) and 12 months (from 87.1 to 91.0, p = 0.006) of treatment. In addition, our data confirmed erenumab effectiveness and safety in migraine prevention. Conclusion Our study demonstrated an improvement in both subjective and objective sleep quality in patients treated with a migraine-preventive therapy. Erenumab, in particular, does not cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), thus a direct effect on sleep is unlikely. Future studies are needed to better understand the mutual influence between migraine and sleep disorders.
Neutrophil Recruitment in Pneumococcal Pneumonia

Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) is the primary agent of community-acquired pneumonia. Neutrophils are innate immune cells that are essential for bacterial clearance during pneumococcal pneumonia but can also do harm to host tissue. Neutrophil migration in pneumococcal pneumonia is therefore a major determinant of host disease outcomes. During Spn infection, detection of the bacterium leads to an increase in proinflammatory signals and subsequent expression of integrins and ligands on both the neutrophil as well as endothelial and epithelial cells. These integrins and ligands mediate the tethering and migration of the neutrophil from the bloodstream to the site of infection. A gradient of host-derived and bacterial-derived chemoattractants contribute to targeted movement of neutrophils. During pneumococcal pneumonia, neutrophils are rapidly recruited to the pulmonary space, but studies show that some of the canonical neutrophil migratory machinery is dispensable. Investigation of neutrophil migration is necessary for us to understand the dynamics of pneumococcal infection. Here, we summarize what is known about the pathways that lead to migration of the neutrophil from the capillaries to the lung during pneumococcal infection.
Family Thriving During COVID-19 and the Benefits for Children’s Well-Being

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has raised deserved concern regarding adverse impacts on parents’ and children’s mental health, regulations like “sheltering-in-place” may have afforded parents novel opportunities to foster positive family connections, thereby bolstering well-being. Using latent profile analysis (LPA), we (a) distinguished family thriving during shelter-in-place (May-June 2020) from other patterns of family functioning, (b) tested potential predictors of family functioning profiles, and (c) examined if family thriving predicted subsequent child adjustment (September–October 2020). 449 parents in two-parent U.S. families with children aged 2–18 years completed online surveys assessing (a) parent–child relationship quality, parents’ positive psychological adjustment, children’s emotional well-being, and parenting efficacy and satisfaction as family functioning indicators, (b) financial, marital, parental psychosocial assets, and child (age, gender, and temperament) predictors of family functioning, and (c) child adjustment. LPA identified four family functioning profiles: Thriving, Managing, Struggling, and Distressed. Thriving families evinced higher scores on all functioning indicators. Logistic regressions revealed that parents in Thriving families reported significantly lower financial anxiety, less dissatisfaction with partner’s help, less child emotionality, and greater use of cognitive reappraisal, as well as more positive child adjustment in Fall 2020. These findings underscore the multidimensional nature of coping and well-being during COVID-19. Utilizing these levers to promote mental health in families languishing during comparable future crises could promote resilience, thereby protecting children’s well-being.
Diversification and Functional Evolution of HOX Proteins

Gene duplication and divergence is a major contributor to the generation of morphological diversity and the emergence of novel features in vertebrates during evolution. The availability of sequenced genomes has facilitated our understanding of the evolution of genes and regulatory elements. However, progress in understanding conservation and divergence in the function of proteins has been slow and mainly assessed by comparing protein sequences in combination with in vitro analyses. These approaches help to classify proteins into different families and sub-families, such as distinct types of transcription factors, but how protein function varies within a gene family is less well understood. Some studies have explored the functional evolution of closely related proteins and important insights have begun to emerge. In this review, we will provide a general overview of gene duplication and functional divergence and then focus on the functional evolution of HOX proteins to illustrate evolutionary changes underlying diversification and their role in animal evolution.
Formamide-Based Post-impact Thermal Prebiotic Synthesis in Simulated Craters: Intermediates, Products and Mechanism

Influx of matter from impacting meteoroids and hydrothermal crater weathering are important factors modifying the rock and mineral inventory of young planets undergoing heavy bombardment. These processes may have influenced not only the geochemical environment of, e.g., early Mars and other planets, but also the peculiar prebiotic chemistry on early Earth. Here, we present a synergistic experimental and computational investigation of the intermediates of chemical reactions of the formamide-based synthesis of canonical and non-canonical nucleobases by thermochemistry in hot hydrothermal crater environments. We put our findings into context with previously investigated plasma-initiated synthesis occuring directly during impact. Both processes result into the formation of all canonical nucleobases, hypoxanthine, purine, and into the onset of the simplest amino acid glycine. Furthermore, it turns out that radical species such as CN and H play a key role in the plasma-assisted impact chemistry. However, post-impact thermochemistry is essential for the origin of formamidine and 2-aminoacetonitrile, intermediate species detected in this study by means of FTIR spectroscopy.
Public Attitudes Toward Priority Setting Principles in Health Care During COVID-19

What role should cost-effectiveness play in health care priority setting? We assess the level of acceptance toward different priority setting principles in health care during COVID-19 and in general, thereby exploring public support for principles presented at different levels of abstraction. An online survey was distributed to a diverse sample of the Swedish population (n = 1 553). The results show that respondents were generally more supportive of priority setting principles when expressed in general abstract terms than when expressed in more case specific concrete terms. However, prioritization based on cost-effectiveness was deemed as more acceptable when expressed in concrete terms related to health maximization rather than as an abstract principle. Respondents had a general inclination in support of physicians and other health care professionals the primary responsibility for the allocation of scarce resources in the healthcare during COVID-19, while being less supportive of health economists and politicians being involved in these decisions.
A three year long experience of effective fouling inhibition by threshold flux based optimization methods on a nf membrane module for olive mill wastewater treatment

The operation of a spiral-wounded nanofiltration membrane module used continuously for three years in order to purify different pretreated olive mill wastewater streams will be discussed. The membrane module was for the first time used at the beginning of year 2006 on a batch pilot scale plant for critical flux studies and wastewater treatment in our laboratories. The olive mill wastewater is a waste stream produced by the olive oil mill factories, characterized by very high organic matter load and polyphenols concentration. Without fouling inhibition at all, nanofiltration membranes will reach zero-flux conditions within days. This is not the case of this nanofiltration membrane module, which was successfully operated continuously for three years during our laboratory work. This result was reached by proper fouling inhibition control, relaying on both critical flux measurements and the development of an optimized operation method. Although the critical flux theory was successfully applied to this system, it was not capable to explain the observed fouling behavior of the examined membrane system. The doubt to work on a membrane system that does not follow perfectly the critical flux laws grow throughout the years. In year 2011, Field et al. introduced the threshold flux concept as an extension to particular membrane systems treating real wastewater streams, and this latter theory fits to the observations made on olive mill wastewater. In this work, a revision of previously obtained results in terms of critical flux will be performed, using the threshold flux theory as discussion basis. In the examined system, both critical and threshold points were found at 7-8 bar depending of the used feedstock and membrane condition. Moreover, it will be checked why the adopted "critical flux" approach was successful in inhibiting fouling for so many years despite it was not the correct approach.
Zombies Never Die: The Double Life Bub1 Lives in Mitosis

When eukaryotic cells enter mitosis, dispersed chromosomes move to the cell center along microtubules to form a metaphase plate which facilitates the accurate chromosome segregation. Meanwhile, kinetochores not stably attached by microtubules activate the spindle assembly checkpoint and generate a wait signal to delay the initiation of anaphase. These events are highly coordinated. Disruption of the coordination will cause severe problems like chromosome gain or loss. Bub1, a conserved serine/threonine kinase, plays important roles in mitosis. After extensive studies in the last three decades, the role of Bub1 on checkpoint has achieved a comprehensive understanding; its role on chromosome alignment also starts to emerge. In this review, we summarize the latest development of Bub1 on supporting the two mitotic events. The essentiality of Bub1 in higher eukaryotic cells is also discussed. At the end, some undissolved questions are raised for future study.
Knockdown of NRSF Alleviates Ischemic Brain Injury and Microvasculature Defects in Diabetic MCAO Mice

Diabetes is one of the well-established risk factors of stroke and is associated with a poor outcome in patients with stroke. Previous studies have shown that the expression of neuron restrictive silencer factor (NRSF) is elevated in diabetes as well as ischemic stroke. However, the role of NRSF in regulating an outcome of diabetic ischemic stroke has not been completely understood. Here, we hypothesized that diabetes-induced NRSF elevation can aggravate brain injury and cognition impairment in ischemic stroke. The diabetic ischemic stroke mice model was established by 8 weeks of high-fat-diet feeding and 5 days of streptozotocin injection followed by 30 min of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). We found that diabetes enhanced the MCAO-induced elevation of NRSF in the hippocampus in accompany with an elevation of its corepressors, HDAC1, and mSin3A, and decrease of β-TrCP. By using histological/immunofluorescence staining and neurobehavioral testing, our results showed that the brain damage and learning/memory impairment were aggravated in diabetic ischemic mice but significantly attenuated after stereotaxic injection of NRSF-shRNA. Meanwhile, by performing whole-brain clearing with PEGASOS, microvascular reconstruction, western blotting, and ELISA, we found that NRSF-shRNA markedly alleviated the vasculature disorders and rescued the suppression of NRP-1, VEGF, and VEGFR2 in the hippocampus of diabetic ischemic mice. Therefore, our results demonstrated for the first time that the elevation of hippocampal NRSF plays an important role in alleviating brain injury and cognitive disabilities in diabetic ischemic mice, potentially via the reduction of NRP-1/VEGF signaling.
Cellulose Nanofibers Extracted From Natural Wood Improve the Postharvest Appearance Quality of Apples

To prolong the shelf life of perishable food with a simple and environmentally friendly postharvest preservation technology is one of the global concerns. This study aimed to explore the application value of biological macromolecule natural cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) in extending the postharvest fruit shelf life. In this study, 0.5% (wt%) CNFs were prepared from natural wood and coated on the surface of early-ripening apple fruits. After 10 days of storage at room temperature, the results revealed that the shelf life of apple fruits with CNF coating was significantly prolonged, and the fruit appearance quality improved. The invisible network structure of CNFs in the fruit epidermis was observed under an atomic force microscope (AFM). The gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis showed that CNFs significantly promoted the formation of epidermal wax, especially fatty alcohols, during storage. In addition, the CNFs remarkably promoted the upregulation of genes related to the synthesis of cuticular wax of apple. In conclusion, this study provides an environmentally sustainable nanomaterial for post-harvest preservation of horticultural products, and also provides a new insight into the effect of CNFs on postharvest storage of apple fruits.
S-1 Maintenance Therapy After First-Line Treatment With Nab-Paclitaxel Plus S-1 for Advanced Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: A Real-World Study

Background In our previous phase II study, nab-paclitaxel plus S-1 (NPS) showed encouraging objective response rate (ORR) as first-line treatment for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma (APAC). This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of S-1 maintenance after NPS in APAC and to explore factors predicting survival benefits when using S-1 maintenance. Methods Between 2014 and 2018 a total of 182 patients with APAC, who were primarily treated with NPS, were included. For patients without progression or with treatment discontinuation due to any reasons within 4 months during NPS treatment, S-1 monotherapy was administrable as maintenance therapy at the physicians’ discretion based on the patients’ preference and performance status. Efficacy and safety of S-1 maintenance were investigated. Results In 123 patients without progression within 4 months during NPS treatment, 74 received S-1 maintenance and had median progression-free survival of 9.6 months and median overall survival of 16.7 months. Multivariable analysis showed that in patients receiving S-1 maintenance after first-line NPS therapy, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status score of 0, non-metastatic disease, and complete or partial response as best response to NPS chemotherapy were independently associated with better survival. The most common all-grade hematological and non-hematological adverse events were neutropenia (82.4%) and peripheral neurotoxicity (66.2%), respectively, and the most common ≥Grade 3 hematological and non-hematological adverse events were neutropenia (40.5%) and peripheral neurotoxicity (6.8%), respectively in patients who received S-1 maintenance. Conclusions Our real-world study showed that S-1 maintenance after tumor response or stable disease induced by first-line NPS treatment was effective and well-tolerated for some patients with APAC, which offers a promising alternative treatment strategy with encouraging survival for APAC.