Original Target Research Articles

Vertebrate predation in the Late Devonian evidenced by bite traces and regurgitations: implications within an early tetrapod freshwater ecosystem

AbstractThe terrestrialization process by vertebrates occurred during the Devonian period, with fully land‐dwelling tetrapods recorded in the Carboniferous. Thus, the Late Devonian is an important period for deciphering the ecological pressures that applied during the water‐to‐land transition. Higher predation pressures in the underwater environment have been suggested as an influential biotic evolutionary factor in this key habitat shift. Direct evidence of ancient predation on Palaeozoic vertebrates is seen in the form of rare traces preserved on fossils, and these range from trauma observed on the skeleton (such as attack marks) to ingested food remains (bromalites). The late Famennian freshwater ecosystem of Strud (Belgium) consists of a rich assemblage of many coeval gnathostomes or jawed fishes (placoderms, ‘acanthodians’, actinopterygians, and various sarcopterygian groups including tetrapods). Here we analyse the record of direct evidence for predation in the Strud vertebrate fossil assemblage. We recognize 12 regurgitalites and 13 bite traces, including a rare case of a tooth embedded in its original prey body target. Fossils from regurgitalites were imaged using scanning electron microscopy and chemically analysed to test for their possible ingestion signature by comparison with other isolated skeletal remains from the same locality. From this evidence, tristichopterid tetrapodomorphs are inferred to be the highest consumers of the trophic network, targeting small placoderms, and porolepiforms, and probably congeners. We observe two possible prey patterns in regurgitalites, for sarcopterygians and actinopterygians, both of which are associated with acanthodians. In Strud, no trophic position can be deduced for tetrapods from direct fossil evidence of predation.

New binaries from the SHINE survey

We present the multiple stellar systems observed within the SpHere INfrared survey for Exoplanet (SHINE). SHINE searched for sub-stellar companions to young stars using high contrast imaging. Although stars with known stellar companions within the SPHERE field of view (< 5.5 arcsec) were removed from the original target list, we detected additional stellar companions to 78 of the 463 SHINE targets observed so far. Twenty-seven per cent of the systems have three or more components. Given the heterogeneity of the sample in terms of observing conditions and strategy, tailored routines were used for data reduction and analysis, some of which were specifically designed for these datasets. We then combined SPHERE data with literature and archival data, TESS light curves, and Gaia parallaxes and proper motions for an accurate characterisation of the systems. Combining all data, we were able to constrain the orbits of 25 systems. We carefully assessed the completeness of our sample for separations between 50–500 mas (corresponding to periods of a few years to a few decades), taking into account the initial selection biases and recovering part of the systems excluded from the original list due to their multiplicity. This allowed us to compare the binary frequency for our sample with previous studies and highlight interesting trends in the mass ratio and period distribution. We also found that, when such an estimate was possible, the values of the masses derived from dynamical arguments were in good agreement with the model predictions. Stellar and orbital spins appear fairly well aligned for the 12 stars that have enough data, which favours a disk fragmentation origin. Our results highlight the importance of combining different techniques when tackling complex problems such as the formation of binaries and show how large samples can be useful for more than one purpose.

고등교육재정에 대한 새 정부의 과제

The purpose of this study is to propose a new government task on higher education finance. For the study, related literature, financial data, and media reports were analyzed.
 The results are as follows: First, the cost per student in the higher education stage is lower than in OECD countries, and even lower than the elementary level. Despite the increase in the higher education budget over the past decade, the government's financial investment has been mainly on the National Scholarship and universities' tuition income has been effectively decreasing. Second, as a result of evaluating the 10-year basic plan for higher education financial investment, it was analyzed that the government's overall fiscal investment in higher education was quite close to the original target. However, most indicators failed to achieve their goals as the method of financing was achieved through restructuring of existing budgets. Finally, as a plan to expand higher education finances, it was proposed to improve the legal suitability of tuition policies and to prepare a legal basis for stable securing higher education finances.
 Despite the inadequate level of financial investment in higher education, discussions on higher education finances have mainly focused on the allocation issues, and practical efforts have been insufficient to expand the size of finance itself. According to the 2021-2025 National Financial Management Plan, the government's investment in higher education is unlikely to be improved. Based on the results of the 10-year basic plan for higher education, the government needs to set specific level of financial investment goals in the basic plan for higher education and implement stable higher education finances with a legal foundation beyond securing restructuring levels.

STRATEGIES FOR ADVANCING REGIONAL ORIGINAL INCOME DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE OFFICE OF COOPERATIVES, MSMES, INDUSTRY AND TRADE IN BOALEMO REGENCY

The study aimed to develop a strategy for increasing regional original income during the Covid-19 pandemic at the Boalemo Regency's Office of Cooperatives, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Industry, and Trade (Diskumperindag). The descriptive research method is combined with a qualitative approach in this study.
 The sample size for this study was 43 individuals. The study's findings indicated that; (1) The Office of Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises, Industry and Trade of Boalemo Regency possesses several strengths, including the potential for significant regional retributions in the form of Regional Original Income, regional retribution rates that support Regional Original Income (PAD), local government and community support for Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises, Industry and Trade, and the existence of a regional regulation that promotes regional original income. 2) Weaknesses that must be addressed include the absence of regional taxes, ineffective market management, and failure to attain the regional original income target. (3) Possibilities These include growing economic activity, government commitment and support, and the involvement and cooperation of multiple agencies in collecting Regional Original Revenue. 4) The threats include the following: Regional Original Income during the Covid-19 Pandemic, the installation of Large-Scale Social Restrictions during the Pandemic era I community awareness and support services, and community knowledge.

Risk Factors for Nephrotoxicity due to Tacrolimus Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis

Background and Aims: The calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus is reportedly effective for moderate/severe ulcerative colitis (UC); however, it is also reportedly associated with nephrotoxicity. We investigated the risk factors for tacrolimus-induced nephrotoxicity and whether renal impairment adversely affected the outcomes of tacrolimus treatment in patients with UC. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 93 patients with UC who were administered tacrolimus leading to high trough levels (10–15 ng/mL) for 2 weeks and low trough levels (5–10 ng/mL) for 3 months. Results: Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurred in 44 patients (47.3%) during tacrolimus treatment. Of these patients, 34 (36.6%) developed AKI during the high trough phase and 17 (18.3%) developed AKI when the trough value exceeded the original target value of 15 ng/mL. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the male sex was significantly associated with AKI (p = 0.002, AOR = 4.38, 95% CI [1.69–11.3]). Clinical remission rate after 4, 8, 12, and 24 weeks of tacrolimus treatment in patients with AKI was lower than that in patients without AKI. Six patients (6.5%) had chronic kidney disease (CKD) after tacrolimus treatment completion, and all patients with CKD developed AKI during treatment. The median duration of treatment with no improvement in AKI was significantly longer in patients with CKD than in those without CKD (p = 0.016). Conclusion: We revealed the risk factors for tacrolimus-induced nephrotoxicity. Renal impairment occurrence adversely affected the tacrolimus treatment outcome; therefore, it is important to carefully administer tacrolimus to prevent renal impairment.

Catastrophic disruption by hypervelocity impact of multi-layered spherical ice targets

The catastrophic disruption of tri-layered spherical icy bodies is reported. The bodies are 19 cm in total diameter, with a central core, an intermediate water layer and an icy surface (each layer respectively approximately 25, 55 and 20% of the total radius). Their response to high-speed impact is investigated at laboratory scales by firing 1.5 mm diameter glass spheres at the targets at speeds in the range 0.9 – 3.2 km s−1 and an ice layer thickness normalised to projectile diameter of typically 20 – 30. The energy density to just break apart such a body (defined as an event where the mass of the largest fragment post-impact is ½ the original target mass) is (3.1±0.1) J kg−1. This is significantly less than that found for similar sized solid ice spheres (18 ± 0.7) J kg−1, water filled ice spheres (16.25 ± 1.35) J kg−1 or hollow ice spheres (25.5 ± 0.5) J kg−1 indicating that the presence of a solid layer beneath an internal ocean, can influence disruption, effectively weakening the body.

Effect of surface treatment on microstructure and chemical composition of indium tin oxide targets

In order to deepen understanding of oxide targets, high-density indium tin oxide (ITO) targets are prepared via oxygen sintering. ITO targets are subjected to different etching treatments, namely acid etching and thermal etching. Effects of different etching treatments on microstructure, composition, and chemical state of targets are studied. Results show that different treatments result in different microstructural characteristics of the target, i.e., grain boundaries, secondary phases, precipitated phase particles, and pores. Due to decomposition of In4Sn3O12 phase grains during thermal etching, grain size of secondary phase (2.5 μm) obtained after thermal etching is smaller than that obtained after acid etching (3.13 μm). After acid etching, fine particles in primary phase grains are precipitated from supersaturated solid solution. After thermal etching, quadratic grains characteristics of SnO2 phase are observed alongside low proportion of In4Sn3O12 phase due to eutectoid decomposition reaction of In4Sn3O12 phase during thermal etching. Compositional characteristics of original target can be more easily retained via acid etching than thermal etching. These findings are meaningful for understanding material characteristics of ITO targets to improve their microstructure and performance.

Functional characterization of piggyBac-like elements from Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae).

PiggyBac is a transposable DNA element originally discovered in the cabbage looper moth (Trichoplusia ni). The T. ni piggyBac transposon can introduce exogenous fragments into a genome, constructing a transgenic organism. Nevertheless, the comprehensive analysis of endogenous piggyBac-like elements (PLEs) is important before using piggyBac, because they may influence the genetic stability of transgenic lines. Herein, we conducted a genome-wide analysis of PLEs in the brown planthopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), and identified a total of 28 PLE sequences. All N. lugens piggyBac-like elements (NlPLEs) were present as multiple copies in the genome of BPH. Among the identified NlPLEs, NlPLE25 had the highest copy number and it was distributed on five chromosomes. The full length of NlPLE25 consisted of terminal inverted repeats and sub-terminal inverted repeats at both terminals, as well as a single open reading frame transposase encoding 546 amino acids. Furthermore, NlPLE25 transposase caused precise excision and transposition in cultured insect cells and also restored the original TTAA target sequence after excision. A cross-recognition between the NlPLE25 transposon and the piggyBac transposon was also revealed in this study. These findings provide useful information for the construction of transgenic insect lines.

Tumor-related Molecular Regulatory Mechanisms of Long Non-coding RNA RMST: Recent Evidence.

Long non-coding RNA rhabdomyosarcoma 2-associated transcript (LncRNA RMST) can affect every aspect of tumor progressions, such as proliferation, translocation, and apoptosis. As a result, RMST can be used as an attractive biomarker for early diagnosis and clinical therapies of different disease states. This article aims to review pathophysiological functions, molecular mechanisms as well as promising biotherapies of RMST in multiple tumors. Through the systematic induction and summary of 46 papers published in PubMed concerning this study, the molecular mechanisms of RMST in all kinds of tumors have been reviewed. LncRNA RMST is a tumor-related regulatory mediator, aberrantly expressed in diverse tumors, including medullary thyroid cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, endometrial carcinoma, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, glioma, Wilm's tumor, and breast cancer. Furthermore, as a mechanismbased player, RMST probably guides the translation and post-translation modification, containing DNA methylation and SUMOylation. It is capable of regulating distinct tumor cells and stem cells of biological behaviors via various molecular pathways. LncRNA RMST, potentially as an original therapeutic target, is valuable in the occurrence, development, and apoptosis of different tumors.

Theoretically quantifying the direct and indirect benefits of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in terms of avoided deaths

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID)-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressures on societies around the world. Successful vaccines, developed against the spike protein of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, offer hope that new hospitalisations and new deaths will subside. However, vaccination takes place in a dynamic environment. For example, new variants of the disease may occur where the effectiveness of a vaccine lies below that of the original target of the vaccine, while changes in the behaviour of a population are accompanied by a changed basic reproduction number. Here, we aim to understand how changes in values of basic parameters affect the benefits of vaccination at the direct level, of the individuals vaccinated, and at the indirect level, of the wider, unvaccinated community. We work within the framework of a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered model, and produce a metric for the benefits of vaccination, at both direct and indirect levels, in terms of the number of avoided deaths. Taking into account the initial prevalence of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, the mortality rate of the disease, the basic reproduction number, the vaccination rate, and the effectiveness of a vaccine, we explore how these basic parameters affect the benefits of vaccination. We find a range of situations where indirect benefits of vaccination outweigh direct benefits. This especially occurs at lower rates of vaccination (20% – 40%) and intermediate values of the basic reproduction number (1–1.5). The indirect benefits can be substantial, in some cases being more than 400% of the direct benefits. For an initial prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection of 2%, a basic reproduction number of 1.2, a mortality rate of 2%, and a vaccine effectiveness of 95%, our findings show, for a population of 500,000 people, where 100,000 susceptible individuals are vaccinated, that approximately 2200 deaths are avoided. However, approximately 600 of these deaths are avoided amongst vaccinated individuals, while approximately 1600 deaths are avoided in the wider, unvaccinated community.

Featured Cover

ImmunologyVolume 166, Issue 2 p. i-i FEATURED COVERFree Access Featured Cover First published: 19 May 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/imm.13513AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Graphical Abstract Cover illustration: The cover image is based on the Original Article Targeting glycolysis in Th2 cells by pterostilbene attenuates clinical severities in an asthmatic mouse model and IL-4 production in peripheral blood from asthmatic patients by Chuan-Teng Liu et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/imm.13469. Volume166, Issue2June 2022Pages i-i RelatedInformation

Arabic version of the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form (IKDC): Translation and validation.

In order to administer the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form (IKDC) questionnaire to Arabic speakers, a rigorous process of cross-cultural adaptation and validation is required in order to reach equivalence between the original publication and target version of the questionnaire. The main aim of this study is to translate and culturally adapt the IKDC into Arabic to suit the Arabic population. The secondary aim is to assess the Arabic version of the IKDC in order to test the psychometric characteristics (reliability, validity and dimensionality). The translation process has been carried out according to cross-cultural adaptation guidelines in accordance with the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine guidelines with forward/backward translations and pre-testing. The Arabic IKDC, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), RAND-36-Item Health Survey (RAND-36) questionnaire, and visual analogue scales (VAS) of pain were tested in 105 ACLR patients. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, construct validity and content validity were evaluated. The test-retest reliability proved excellent with a high value for the intraclass correlation coefficient (r= 0.95). The internal consistency was strong (Cronbach's α= 0.91). Good construct validity by the strong correlations between similar component of the KOOS subscales, Rand-36 subscales and VAS, and good content validity with absence of floor and ceiling effects. The Arabic version of the IKDC is a valid and reliable instrument for Arabic patients with ACLR. However, further research is required with a more varied knee sample in order to enable generalisation to a wider population.

Infrared Small Target Detection Based on Weighted Local Coefficient of Variation Measure.

Robust infrared (IR) small target detection is critical for infrared search and track (IRST) systems and is a challenging task for complicated backgrounds. Current algorithms have poor performance on complex backgrounds, and there is a high false alarm rate or even missed detection. To address this problem, a weighted local coefficient of variation (WLCV) is proposed for IR small target detection. This method consists of three stages. First, the preprocessing stage can enhance the original IR image and extract potential targets. Second, the detection stage consists of a background suppression module (BSM) and a local coefficient of variation (LCV) module. BSM uses a special three-layer window that combines the anisotropy of the target and differences in the grayscale distribution. LCV exploits the discrete statistical properties of the target grayscale. The weighted advantages of the two modules complement each other and greatly improve the effect of small target enhancement and background suppression. Finally, the weighted saliency map is subjected to adaptive threshold segmentation to extract the true target for detection. The experimental results show that the proposed method is more robust to different target sizes and background types than other methods and has a higher detection accuracy.

Neural network based autonomous control of a speech synthesis system

• Control of composite tasks by adaptive heuristically enhanced gradient approximation. • Training an artificial neural network (ANN) to control the parameters of a speech synthesizer. • The training error is estimated from the “quality” of the produced speech and not at the outputs of the ANN. • Currently used ANN training algorithms cannot cope with the above requirement. • The presented methodology may be applied to other applications too, e.g., coordination of robotic manipulators. This work is inspired by the ability of neural systems to control the behavior of specialized actuator mechanisms in living organisms by monitoring the end-effect of their actions. We consider as an example of such an actuator mechanism the human vocal tract where neurons learn to activate its muscles that move the velum, jaw, tongue and the lips, in order to exhibit desired phonetic activity. As a technical approximation to such a setup, we use an artificial neural network (ANN) and a speech synthesizer and we study the capability of the ANN to estimate the synthesizer’s parameters targeting desired speech activity. In this setup, we assume that the training error is obtained by measuring the “perceived distance” between the original (target) and the synthesized speech signals. Thus, the training error needs to be measured after processing the output of the speech synthesizer, instead of measuring it directly at the outputs of the ANN. This operational requirement on error measurement restricts the application of widely used ANN training algorithms that are based on back propagation of gradients but can be met by our earlier proposed “Heuristically Enhanced Gradient Approximation” (HEGA) algorithm. We also propose enhancements to HEGA that further optimize its performance in this demanding application.

Predicting Psychosis: Field Moves From Assessment of Clinical Risk to Search for Biomarkers

Predicting Psychosis: Field Moves From Assessment of Clinical Risk to Search for Biomarkers

Translation of Shaanxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Based on Optimal Relevance

The intangible cultural heritage in Shaanxi, which reflects the life and culture of the people in Shaanxi, contains rich cultural connotations with Shaanxi characteristics. Therefore, the translation of Shaanxi intangible cultural heritage (Shaanxi ICH) plays a significant role in the spread of Chinese culture. Translation is seen as a communication activity among different cultures, and the quality of translation has a great influence on communication effect. The optimal relevance between the original text and target readers’ cognitive context, as the core of relevance theory, can be used as a standard to criticize translation. Based on these understandings, this study applies optimal relevance to the translation of Shaanxi ICH in order to explore its translation and propose several Shaanxi ICH translation strategies that achieve optimal relevance and effective communication, so as to improve the spread of Shaanxi ICH to the outside world.

Infrared Small Target Detection Using Regional Feature Difference of Patch Image

Aiming at a thorny issue, that conventional small target detection algorithm using local contrast method is not sensitive for residual background clutter, robustness of algorithms is not strong. A Gaussian fusion algorithm using multi-scale regional patch structure difference and Regional Brightness Level Measurement is proposed. Firstly, Regional Energy Cosine (REC) is constructed to measure the structural discrepancy among a small target with neighboring cells. At the same time, Regional Brightness Level Measurement (RBLM) is constructed utilizing the brightness difference characteristics between small target and background areas. Then, a brand new Gaussian fusion algorithm is proposed for the generated saliency map in multi-scale space to characterize the overall heterogeneity in original infrared small target and local neighborhood. Finally, a self-adapting separation algorithm is adopted with the objective to obtain a small target from background interference. This method is able to utmostly restrain background interference and enhance the target. Extensive qualitative and quantitative testing results display that the desired algorithm has remarkable performance in strengthening target region and restraining background interference compared with current algorithms.

Joint generative and camera-aware clustering for unsupervised domain adaptation on person re-identification

Existing supervised person re-identification (Re-ID) methods demonstrate excellent performance. However, their performances suffer degradation when tested on an unseen different distributed domain. Generative adversarial network-based (GAN-based) and clustering- or pseudolabel-based methods are proposed to alleviate this problem. Due to the transfer scheme and the ignorance of correlations between the style-transferred and the original target images, the performance of GAN-based methods is unsatisfactory. We resolve these problems by jointly employing a generative strategy and performing camera-aware clustering for the target domain. Style-transferred images are generated from source cameras to target cameras, and then they are merged into the target domain selectively after exploiting their domain-specific discriminative information. To reduce the noise in generated images, we propose a domain-level boundary separation loss to group the transferred images and push them away from the original target images. The camera-level neighborhood-based clustering is proposed to learn well-clustered features in a camera-aware manner. Extensive experiments on two commonly used person Re-ID datasets demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art performance.

Isolation and molecular characterization of circulating extracellular vesicles from blood of chronic Chagas disease patients

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid bilayer envelopes that encase several types of molecules. Their contents mostly reflect their cell origin and possible targets at other locations in the organism and can be modified in pathological conditions to interfere with intercellular communication, thus promoting disease establishment and development. These characteristics, in addition to their presence in virtually all body fluids, make such vesicles ideal for biomarker discovery in human diseases. Here, we describe the effect of different anticoagulants and the combination of two purification methods for isolation and characterization of circulating EVs from blood of chronic Chagas disease (CCD) patients. We illustrated this procedure by studying a population of patients with Chagas disease at the indeterminate chronic stage, in which the Trypanosoma cruzi is very scarce in circulation. EVs were harvested from blood collected without or with different anticoagulants. Protein and nanoparticle tracking analysis was used to measure EVs size and concentration. The EVs were purified by ultracentrifugation, followed by size-exclusion chromatography and characterized by chemiluminescent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and dot blot using antibodies that recognized parasite-derived EVs, such as hyperimmune sera, polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against trans-sialidase and mucins. In parallel, antibodies against classical human EV markers CD9, CD63, CD81, and CD82, were also analyzed. The results showed that anticoagulants did not interfere with the analyzed parameters and circulating EVs from CCD patients contain T. cruzi antigens and classical human exosomal markers. Overall, our protocol is adequate for the isolation of the total circulating EVs and can serve as an important basis for further studies on biomarker discovery in Chagas' disease.

Remanufacturing of the waste refractory Mo–10Nb sputtering target by spark plasma sintering technology

Mo–10Nb refractory sputtering targets used in the flat panel display industry have attracted extensive attention, whereas the shortcoming of low target utilization is now urgently needed to be solved. This work is to repair the waste Mo–10Nb target by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1550 °C and 10 min, and the feasibility is demonstrated. It is shown that the repaired target retains identical phases and high purity. Clean and strong bonds are found at the repair interface. Regardless of the position, the repaired target exhibits finer grains as well as higher density, microhardness, and thermal conductivity compared with the original target. The two targets are then sputtered to obtain relevant films. Both films consist of the same phases and show columnar appearances. Mo, Nb, O, and C are present in both films, where Mo and Nb exist in the form of pure Mo, MoO2, MoO3, pure Nb, and Nb2O5. A higher sputtering rate, smaller film thickness deviation, grain size and surface roughness, less oxidation, and larger elastic modulus and nano-hardness are obtained from the film prepared by the repaired target. SPS is proven to be a well-suited method for producing the regenerated target.