Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rats, Mice and Humans

Abstract This paper will introduce the results of a study conducted in 2019 about how humans perceive species they have to live with, despite not wanting to do so—liminal species—, specifically rats and mice. The results presented here are part of a wider study about rats and mice in cities, their relationship with humans, the nuisances they generate as well as the various and important roles they play in the urban ecosystem, introduced at the Gatherings in BIosemiotics 2020. The study originally focused solely on rats, which are in a difficult societal context in France, especially in Paris: due to heat waves, planned works and floods, rats are becoming more and more present on the surface, instead of being invisible underground as they used to be. However, some of the results suggest that a significant number of participants are not completely positive about being able to distinguish between a rat and a mouse. In order to present a more precise and detailed overview, it was decided to study the difference not only between the cohabitation issues humans may have with actual rats and/or mice, but also between the semiotic relationships that humans have with the symbolic rat and symbolic mouse. As such, this paper will present the results for both species, with their similarities and divergences. It shows that a significant part of nuisances and cohabitation issues are more “believed” than factual. The paper focuses on how the cultural and emotional backgrounds of participants influence their semiotic relationship with these species, and how the perceived nuisances, threats or issues can vary according to these parameters. This study aims to develop a better understanding of the different elements that play a part in issues of cohabitation between humans—especially urban humans—and liminal species—especially rodents. It will show how some of the nuisances can be addressed, not by coercive methods on the actual animals, such as extermination, repellents or removal, but through semiotic work and education on the symbolic animal, its related myths, superstitions, fears and phobias.
Do We Stand Together? The Role of Perceived Personal and Group Threats in Predicting the Majority’s (Un)willingness to Confront Injustice on Behalf of a Minority

Purpose: By utilizing data from Estonia, Finland, and Norway, this study explores how the perceptions of personal and group realistic threats, namely perceived ethnic discrimination and economic insecurity among national majorities, predict their unwillingness to confront injustice on behalf of Russian-speaking minority groups. Background: Previous research on collective action to promote minorities’ rights and social standing has focused either on minorities’ own actions or factors promoting the willingness of majority group members to engage in collective action on behalf of minorities. In contrast, factors explaining the reluctance of majority group members to engage in collective action on behalf of minority groups have remained less explored. For example, studies have then ignored that the majority members may also feel threatened and may be economically insecure. Furthermore, the possible discrepancy between perceived personal vs. in-group’s situation may influence majority group members’ (un)willingness to confront injustice on behalf of a minority group. Method: We employed polynomial regression with response surface analysis to analyze data gathered among national majority members in three countries (N = 1,341). Results: Perceived personal and group realistic threats were associated with heightened unwillingness to confront injustice on behalf of the Russian-speaking minority. Furthermore, participants were more unwilling to confront injustice when they perceived more group than personal threat. Conclusion: We found that majority group members’ (un)willingness to confront injustice on behalf of the minority is related to how secure they perceive their own and their group status. Our results contribute to previous research by pointing out the important drawbacks of majorities’ support for minorities’ wish for social change.
Incorporating Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g‐C3N4) Quantum Dots into Bulk‐Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells Leads to Efficiency Enhancement

Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) has been commonly used as photocatalyst with promising applications in visible‐light photocatalytic water‐splitting. Rare studies are reported in applying g‐C3N4 in polymer solar cells. Here g‐C3N4 is applied in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) for the first time by doping solution‐processable g‐C3N4 quantum dots (C3N4 QDs) in the active layer, leading to a dramatic efficiency enhancement. Upon C3N4 QDs doping, power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the inverted BHJ‐PSC devices based on different active layers including poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl):[6,6]‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC61BM), poly(4,8‐bis‐alkyloxybenzo(l,2‐b:4,5‐b′)dithiophene‐2,6‐diylalt‐(alkyl thieno(3,4‐b)thiophene‐2‐carboxylate)‐2,6‐diyl):[6,6]‐phenyl C71‐butyric acid methyl ester (PBDTTT‐C:PC71BM), and poly[4,8‐bis(5‐(2‐ethylhexyl)thiophen‐2‐yl)benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene‐co‐3‐fluorothieno [3,4‐b]thiophene‐2‐carboxylate] (PTB7‐Th):PC71BM reach 4.23%, 6.36%, and 9.18%, which are enhanced by ≈17.5%, 11.6%, and 11.8%, respectively, compared to that of the reference (undoped) devices. The PCE enhancement of the C3N4 QDs doped BHJ‐PSC device is found to be primarily attributed to the increase of short‐circuit current (Jsc), and this is confirmed by external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements. The effects of C3N4 QDs on the surface morphology, optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) properties of the active layer film as well as the charge transport property of the device are investigated, revealing that the efficiency enhancement of the BHJ‐PSC devices upon C3N4 QDs doping is due to the conjunct effects including the improved interfacial contact between the active layer and the hole transport layer due to the increase of the roughness of the active layer film, the facilitated photoinduced electron transfer from the conducting polymer donor to fullerene acceptor, the improved conductivity of the active layer, and the improved charge (hole and electron) transport.
CPI-637 as a Potential Bifunctional Latency-Reversing Agent That Targets Both the BRD4 and TIP60 Proteins

The failure of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been largely responsible for the existence of latent human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reservoirs. The “shock and kill” strategy was confirmed to reactivate HIV-1 latent reservoirs by latency-reversing agents (LRAs) for accelerated HIV-1 clearance. However, a single LRA might be insufficient to induce HIV-1 reactivation from latency due to the complexity of the multiple signaling regulatory pathways that establish the HIV-1 latent reservoir. Therefore, combinations of LRAs or dual-mechanism LRAs are urgently needed to purge the latent reservoirs. We demonstrate here for the first time that a dual-target inhibitor with a specific suppressive effect on both BRD4 and TIP60, CPI-637, could reactivate latent HIV-1 in vitro by permitting Tat to bind positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) and assembling Tat-super-elongation complex (SEC) formation. In addition, CPI-637-mediated TIP60 downregulation further stimulated BRD4 dissociation from the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter, allowing Tat to more effectively bind P-TEFb compared to BRD4 inhibition alone. Much more importantly, CPI-637 exerted a potent synergistic effect but alleviated global T cell activation and blocked viral spread to uninfected bystander CD4+ T cells with minimal cytotoxicity. Our results indicate that CPI-637 opens up the prospect of novel dual-target inhibitors for antagonizing HIV-1 latency and deserves further investigation for development as a promising LRA with a “shock and kill” strategy.
Patterns of Anti-Inflammatory and Immunomodulating Drug Usage and Microvascular Endothelial Function in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objectives: Specific anti-inflammatory and/or immunomodulating drugs (AIDs) can influence endothelial function which is often impaired in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We sought to determine whether overall patterns of AID usage are similarly associated with endothelial function. Methods: The reactive hyperaemia index (RHI), a marker of microvascular endothelial function, was measured in 868 RA patients reporting their intake of seven AIDs known to affect endothelial function. Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed to characterise patterns of AID usage. Models for 2–6 classes were compared using the AIC and BIC statistics and Lo-Mendell-Rubin likelihood ratio tests. Associations between the classes and RHI were adjusted for age, gender, body mass index, diabetes, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, family history of ischaemic heart disease, smoking status, RA duration, DAS28 score, steroid dose, existing hypertension, and C-reactive protein. Results: LCA identified five distinct AID usage classes: Class 1, generally low medication usage; Class 2, using either sulfasalazine or non-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors; Class 3, methotrexate users; Class 4, TNF-inhibitor users; and Class 5, hydroxychloroquine users. The geometric mean for the RHI for subjects in classes 1 to 5 was 1.92, 1.81, 1.94, 2.10, and 2.07, respectively, with subjects in classes 4 and 5 having better endothelial function than subjects in class 2 (p = 0.003 for each). The glucocorticoid dosage did not influence the classes formed or the association between the classes and the RHI in sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: There were five broad patterns (classes) of AID usage in RA patients. The RHI was relatively lower in users of either sulfasalazine or non-TNF inhibitors. TNF inhibitors or hydroxychloroquine may counteract the negative effects of RA on endothelial function.
The Scaling and Modeling of Pay and the Robustness of the Effect of Core Self Evaluations on Career Success

A number of recent studies used nominal pay in estimating the effects of individual differences, particularly core-self-evaluation, on career success. We show that this practice may lead to results that are substantively different from the results when the logarithm of pay is used. We conduct three constructive replications of previous studies, and argue that substantive conclusion based on the results of nominal pay are misleading.
Relationship between blood type and outcomes following COVID-19 infection

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a concentrated research effort has been undertaken to elucidate risk factors underlying viral infection, severe illness, and death. Recent studies have investigated the association between blood type and COVID-19 infection. This article aims to comprehensively review current literature and better understand the impact of blood type on viral susceptibility and outcomes.
Phytochemistry and biological activities of Opuntia seed oils: Opuntia dillenii (Ker Gawl.) Haw. and Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. A review

Summary Opuntia species belong to semi-arid and arid regions of Mexico and the United States. O. ficus-indica and O. dillenii are commonly used in alternative medicine to treat various diseases. Up to date, several scientific works have been carried out on the different parts of these plants. However, over the last few years, studies have been focusing on the oil obtained from the fruit seeds of these species. For this reason, this study aims to draw the attention of researchers toward the phytochemical and the pharmacological effects of these two Opuntia oils, which would help set up other scientific projects that promote these products. Phytochemical studies have shown that these oils are rich in biologically active molecules, such as unsaturated fatty acids and phytosterols (mainly linoleic acid and β-sitosterol), as well as vitamin E, which is represented only by the γ-tocopherol. Besides, these oils are rich in polyphenols that protect them from photo-oxidation. Moreover, several studies have shown their antioxidant, anti-diabetic, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and gastroprotective activities, as well as their hypolipidemic properties. The beneficial effects of these oils include also their ability to block the weight loss, and what makes them more interesting is their safety, according to the literature.
Associative Conditioning Is a Robust Systemic Behavior in Unicellular Organisms: An Interspecies Comparison

The capacity to learn new efficient systemic behavior is a fundamental issue of contemporary biology. We have recently observed, in a preliminary analysis, the emergence of conditioned behavior in some individual amoebae cells. In these experiments, cells were able to acquire new migratory patterns and remember them for long periods of their cellular cycle, forgetting them later on. Here, following a similar conceptual framework of Pavlov’s experiments, we have exhaustively studied the migration trajectories of more than 2000 individual cells belonging to three different species: Amoeba proteus, Metamoeba leningradensis, and Amoeba borokensis. Fundamentally, we have analyzed several relevant properties of conditioned cells, such as the intensity of the responses, the directionality persistence, the total distance traveled, the directionality ratio, the average speed, and the persistence times. We have observed that cells belonging to these three species can modify the systemic response to a specific stimulus by associative conditioning. Our main analysis shows that such new behavior is very robust and presents a similar structure of migration patterns in the three species, which was characterized by the presence of conditioning for long periods, remarkable straightness in their trajectories and strong directional persistence. Our experimental and quantitative results, compared with other studies on complex cellular responses in bacteria, protozoa, fungus-like organisms and metazoans that we discus here, allow us to conclude that cellular associative conditioning might be a widespread characteristic of unicellular organisms. This new systemic behavior could be essential to understand some key principles involved in increasing the cellular adaptive fitness to microenvironments.
Imitation as Mechanism for Mimicry

Abstract The neo-Darwinian paradigm is unable to account for the resilient, complex forms that evolve in nature and persist across time. Random mutations do not explain the occurrence of organisms that mimic complex forms in often astonishing detail. In the absence of God as creator, or random mutations as the basis for adaptive traits, there is something else going on. The case that I present in this article is that the only possible mechanism for mimicry in nature is imitation.
Recent Developments in the Use of Glyconanoparticles and Related Quantum Dots for the Detection of Lectins, Viruses, Bacteria and Cancer Cells

Carbohydrate-coated nanoparticles—glyconanoparticles—are finding increased interest as tools in biomedicine. This compilation, mainly covering the past five years, comprises the use of gold, silver and ferrite (magnetic) nanoparticles, silicon-based and cadmium-based quantum dots. Applications in the detection of lectins/protein toxins, viruses and bacteria are covered, as well as advances in detection of cancer cells. The role of the carbohydrate moieties in stabilising nanoparticles and providing selectivity in bioassays is discussed, the issue of cytotoxicity encountered in some systems, especially semiconductor quantum dots, is also considered. Efforts to overcome the latter problem by using other types of nanoparticles, based on gold or silicon, are also presented.
IntSplice2: Prediction of the Splicing Effects of Intronic Single-Nucleotide Variants Using LightGBM Modeling

Prediction of the effect of a single-nucleotide variant (SNV) in an intronic region on aberrant pre-mRNA splicing is challenging except for an SNV affecting the canonical GU/AG splice sites (ss). To predict pathogenicity of SNVs at intronic positions −50 (Int-50) to −3 (Int-3) close to the 3’ ss, we developed light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM)-based IntSplice2 models using pathogenic SNVs in the human gene mutation database (HGMD) and ClinVar and common SNVs in dbSNP with 0.01 ≤ minor allelic frequency (MAF) < 0.50. The LightGBM models were generated using features representing splicing cis-elements. The average recall/sensitivity and specificity of IntSplice2 by fivefold cross-validation (CV) of the training dataset were 0.764 and 0.884, respectively. The recall/sensitivity of IntSplice2 was lower than the average recall/sensitivity of 0.800 of IntSplice that we previously made with support vector machine (SVM) modeling for the same intronic positions. In contrast, the specificity of IntSplice2 was higher than the average specificity of 0.849 of IntSplice. For benchmarking (BM) of IntSplice2 with IntSplice, we made a test dataset that was not used to train IntSplice. After excluding the test dataset from the training dataset, we generated IntSplice2-BM and compared it with IntSplice using the test dataset. IntSplice2-BM was superior to IntSplice in all of the seven statistical measures of accuracy, precision, recall/sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, negative predictive value (NPV), and matthews correlation coefficient (MCC). We made the IntSplice2 web service at https://www.med.nagoya-u.ac. jp/neurogenetics/IntSplice2.
Identifying Interaction Patterns of Tangible Co-Adaptations in Human-Robot Team Behaviors

As robots become more ubiquitous, they will increasingly need to behave as our team partners and smoothly adapt to the (adaptive) human team behaviors to establish successful patterns of collaboration over time. A substantial amount of adaptations present themselves through subtle and unconscious interactions, which are difficult to observe. Our research aims to bring about awareness of co-adaptation that enables team learning. This paper presents an experimental paradigm that uses a physical human-robot collaborative task environment to explore emergent human-robot co-adaptions and derive the interaction patterns (i.e., the targeted awareness of co-adaptation). The paradigm provides a tangible human-robot interaction (i.e., a leash) that facilitates the expression of unconscious adaptations, such as “leading” (e.g., pulling the leash) and “following” (e.g., letting go of the leash) in a search-and-navigation task. The task was executed by 18 participants, after which we systematically annotated videos of their behavior. We discovered that their interactions could be described by four types of adaptive interactions: stable situations, sudden adaptations, gradual adaptations and active negotiations. From these types of interactions we have created a language of interaction patterns that can be used to describe tacit co-adaptation in human-robot collaborative contexts. This language can be used to enable communication between collaborating humans and robots in future studies, to let them share what they learned and support them in becoming aware of their implicit adaptations.
Title : A continental scale validation of ecosystem service models 1 Shortened Title : Validation of ecosystem service models 2

47 Faced with environmental degradation, governments world-wide are developing policies to safeguard 48 ecosystem services (ES). Many ES models exist to support these policies, but they are generally poorly 49 validated, especially at large scales, which undermines their credibility. To address this gap, we 50 describe a study of multiple models of five ES, which we validate at an unprecedented scale against 51 1,675 data points across sub-Saharan Africa. We find that potential ES (biophysical supply of carbon 52 and water) are reasonably well predicted by existing models. These potential ES models can also be 53 used as inputs to new models for realised ES (use of charcoal, firewood, grazing resources and water), 54 by adding information on human population density. We find that increasing model complexity can 55 improve estimates of both potential and realised ES, suggesting that developing more detailed models 56 of ES will be beneficial. Furthermore, in 85% of cases, human population density alone was as good or 57 a better predictor of realised ES than ES models, suggesting that it is demand, rather than supply that 58 is predominantly determining current patterns of ES use. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of ES 59 model validation, even in data-deficient locations such as sub-Saharan Africa. Our work also shows 60 the clear need for more work on the supply-side of ES models, and the importance of model validation 61 in providing a stronger base to support policies which seek to achieve sustainable development in 62 support of human well-being. 63
Solar integration in the UK and India: technical barriers and future directions

The technology of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has seen remarkable boom the past decade and remains central in the decarbonization and post-COVID19 recovery plan of many countries worldwide. However, global experience shows that PV installations start to level off in networks with certain solar integration levels. Among the various reasons, such as financing, regulations, markets etc., this report focuses and takes a deep look on technical challenges that act as barriers against further solar integration and develops a roadmap with technology innovations and transformations that will allow a high-solar future. The UK and India are the focal points of this investigation, examining closely how the challenges and future directions relate or differ between the two countries. This report arises out of the UK-India Joint Virtual Clean Energy Centre (JVCEC), which is a research consortium that involves ten UK universities and thirteen Indian institutes within three virtual centres namely, the Joint UK-India Clean Energy Centre (JUICE), the India-UK Centre for Education and Research in Clean Energy (IUCERCE) and the UK India Clean Energy Research Institute (UKICERI).
Feasibility of the Spectre attack in a security-focused language

We present a functioning proof-of-concept implementation of the Spectre Variant 1 attack in the Rust programming language. We prove the feasibility of the attack in this security-focused language with our modified algorithm and compare its viability to that in unsafe languages. We show its impact on the security of the Rust platform, its mathematical properties and theoretical assumptions.
Web interface for the deployment and monitoring of Nomad jobs

This master thesis deals with the design and development process of an alternative user interface (UI) for HashiCorp Nomad. This UI is meant to be used by users without deeper understanding of IT operations. The resulting product called Bedouin is a fullstack web application, published as an open-source under the MIT license.
Animal models of vertical bone augmentation (Review)

Vertical bone augmentation is an important challenge in dental implantology. Existing vertical bone augmentation techniques, along with bone grafting materials, have achieved certain clinical progress but continue to have numerous limitations. In order to evaluate the possibility of using biomaterials to develop bone substitutes, medical devices and/or new bone grafting techniques for vertical bone augmentation, it is essential to establish clinically relevant animal models to investigate their biocompatibility, mechanical properties, applicability and safety. The present review discusses recent animal experiments related to vertical bone augmentation. In addition, surgical protocols for establishing relevant preclinical models with various animal species were reviewed. The present study aims to provide guidance for selecting experimental animal models of vertical bone augmentation.