What's on your plate? Collecting multimodal data to understand commensal behavior

Eating is a fundamental part of human life and is, more than anything, a social activity. A new field, known as Computational Commensality has been created to computationally address various social aspects of food and eating. This paper illustrates a study on remote dining we conducted online in May 2021. To better understand this phenomenon, known as Digital Commensality, we recorded 11 pairs of friends sharing a meal online through a videoconferencing app. In the videos, participants consume a plate of pasta while chatting with a friend or a family member. After the remote dinner, participants were asked to fill in the Digital Commensality questionnaire, a validated questionnaire assessing the effects of remote commensal experiences, and provide their opinions on the shortcomings of currently available technologies. Besides presenting the study, the paper introduces the first Digital Commensality Data-set, containing videos, facial landmarks, quantitative and qualitative responses. After surveying multimodal data-sets and corpora that we could exploit to understand commensal behavior, we comment on the feasibility of using remote meals as a source to build data-sets to investigate commensal behavior. Finally, we explore possible future research directions emerging from our results

Ensilaje de forraje de vegas naturales en Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

722-728Livestock activity in the Argentinian «Tierra del Fuego» island is based on highly variable natural grasslands (NG). The conservation of fodder, despite the unfavorable environment, is restricted to hay; conservation as silage could be constrained by fodder quality and low temperatures. The objective was to assess the quality of NG silages fermented under contrasting storing conditions. Typical meadow forage was ensiled in minisilos and stored under shelter (Shelter) or in the field (Field) in a complete block design with repeated measures in time (t). Forage was chopped and inoculated with lactic acid bacteria plus enzymes, and harvested with 420 g dry matter (DM) kg-1 fresh matter, 111 g crude protein kg-1 DM, 665 g ash-free neutral detergent fibre kg-1 DM, and 64 g water soluble carbohydrates kg-1 DM. Shelter minisilos had higher metabolizable energy concentration at 236 d (PTrat×t = 0.03; Shelter = 10.2 ; Field = 9.6 MJ kg-1 DM, P = 0.01), and lower DM losses (Shelter = -0.2; Campo = 22 percent, P = 0.02) and values of pH and N-NH3/total N (Field: 5.6 and 12 percent and Shelter: 4.4 and 6.8 percent, P = 0.01). Fermentation acids concentration was similar for both treatments with preponderance of lactic acid, but acetic acid concentration increased over time (Pt = 0.01). It was concluded that in «Tierra del Fuego», natural meadow forage quality is compatible with ensiling, but environmental conditions can limit the fermentation process. Additional key words: forage conservation, natural grasslands, Patagonia, silage

Ensilaje de forraje de vegas naturales en Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

722-728Livestock activity in the Argentinian «Tierra del Fuego» island is based on highly variable natural grasslands (NG). The conservation of fodder, despite the unfavorable environment, is restricted to hay; conservation as silage could be constrained by fodder quality and low temperatures. The objective was to assess the quality of NG silages fermented under contrasting storing conditions. Typical meadow forage was ensiled in minisilos and stored under shelter (Shelter) or in the field (Field) in a complete block design with repeated measures in time (t). Forage was chopped and inoculated with lactic acid bacteria plus enzymes, and harvested with 420 g dry matter (DM) kg-1 fresh matter, 111 g crude protein kg-1 DM, 665 g ash-free neutral detergent fibre kg-1 DM, and 64 g water soluble carbohydrates kg-1 DM. Shelter minisilos had higher metabolizable energy concentration at 236 d (PTrat×t = 0.03; Shelter = 10.2 ; Field = 9.6 MJ kg-1 DM, P = 0.01), and lower DM losses (Shelter = -0.2; Campo = 22 percent, P = 0.02) and values of pH and N-NH3/total N (Field: 5.6 and 12 percent and Shelter: 4.4 and 6.8 percent, P = 0.01). Fermentation acids concentration was similar for both treatments with preponderance of lactic acid, but acetic acid concentration increased over time (Pt = 0.01). It was concluded that in «Tierra del Fuego», natural meadow forage quality is compatible with ensiling, but environmental conditions can limit the fermentation process. Additional key words: forage conservation, natural grasslands, Patagonia, silage

Social Interaction Data-sets in the Age of Covid-19: a Case Study on Digital Commensality

Research focusing on social interaction often leverages data-sets, allowing annotation, analysis, and modeling of social behavior. When it comes to commensality, researchers have started working on computational models of food and eating-related activities recognition. The growing research area known as Digital Commensality, has focused on meals shared online, for instance, through videochat. However, to investigate this topic, traditional data-sets recorded in laboratory settings may not be the best option in terms of ecological validity. Covid-19 restrictions and lock-downs have increased in online gatherings, with many people becoming used to the idea of sharing meals online. Following this trend, we propose the concept of collecting data by recording online interactions and discuss the challenges related to this methodology. We illustrate our approach in creating the first Digital Commensality data-set, containing recordings of food-related social interactions collected online during the Covid-19 outbreak

Cattle production under intensive silvopastoral management at ranch level and complete production cycle in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Los sistemas bovinos extensivos de Tierra del Fuego incorporan escasa tecnología de manejo por lo que poseen bajos niveles de producción por unidad de superficie. No obstante, hoy existen tecnologías disponibles como la evaluación de pastizales, la separación de ambientes y el pastoreo rotativo que permitirían un mejor manejo del pastoreo. En el presente estudio se ha puesto a prueba una propuesta de manejo que incorpora estas tecnologías, evaluando diversos indicadores (porcentaje de preñez y destete, evolución de peso, hábitos dietarios, comportamiento animal, incidencia de parásitos, compactación de suelos y cambios en la composición botánica del pastizal) a escala de establecimiento y ciclo completo. Los resultados han mostrado la viabilidad de la propuesta de manejo y sus ventajas: Preñez: 94,4%, Destete: 93,1%, Producción de carne: hasta 1,22 Kg/animal/día y 73 Kg/ha, y mayor mansedumbre del ganado. No obstante, se advierte la importancia de monitorear constantemente la evolución de los pastizales a fin de lograr un uso sustentable del recurso pastoril.The extensive bovine systems of Tierra del Fuego incorporate little management technology so they have low production levels per unit area. However, there are technologies available such as grassland assessment, vegetation type separation, and rotational grazing system that would allow better grazing management. In the present study, a management proposal that incorporates these technologies has been tested by evaluating various indicators (percentage of pregnancy and weaning, weight development, dietary habits, animal habits, parasite incidence, soil compaction and changes in composition botany of the pasture) at ranch level and complete production cycle. The results shown the viability of the proposed intensive management and its advantages: Pregnancy: 94.4%, Weaning: 93.1%, Meat production: up to 1.22 kg/animal/day and 73 kg/ha, and better tameness of cattle. However, monitoring the evolution of grasslands in order to achieve a sustainable use of the pastoral resource is needed.Fil: Ormaechea, S.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional.patagonia Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz.; ArgentinaFil: Gargaglione, Veronica Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional.patagonia Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz.; ArgentinaFil: Bahamonde, Héctor Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional.patagonia Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz.; ArgentinaFil: Escribano, Cecilia Soledad. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional.patagonia Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz.; ArgentinaFil: Ceccaldi, E.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional.patagonia Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz.; ArgentinaFil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Regional.patagonia Sur. Estacion Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz.; Argentin

Timed inhibition of CDC7 increases CRISPR-Cas9 mediated templated repair.

Repair of double strand DNA breaks (DSBs) can result in gene disruption or gene modification via homology directed repair (HDR) from donor DNA. Altering cellular responses to DSBs may rebalance editing outcomes towards HDR and away from other repair outcomes. Here, we utilize a pooled CRISPR screen to define host cell involvement in HDR between a Cas9 DSB and a plasmid double stranded donor DNA (dsDonor). We find that the Fanconi Anemia (FA) pathway is required for dsDonor HDR and that other genes act to repress HDR. Small molecule inhibition of one of these repressors, CDC7, by XL413 and other inhibitors increases the efficiency of HDR by up to 3.5 fold in many contexts, including primary T cells. XL413 stimulates HDR during a reversible slowing of S-phase that is unexplored for Cas9-induced HDR. We anticipate that XL413 and other such rationally developed inhibitors will be useful tools for gene modification

GAMER MRI: Gated-attention mechanism ranking of multi-contrast MRI in brain pathology.

During the last decade, a multitude of novel quantitative and semiquantitative MRI techniques have provided new information about the pathophysiology of neurological diseases. Yet, selection of the most relevant contrasts for a given pathology remains challenging. In this work, we developed and validated a method, Gated-Attention MEchanism Ranking of multi-contrast MRI in brain pathology (GAMER MRI), to rank the relative importance of MR measures in the classification of well understood ischemic stroke lesions. Subsequently, we applied this method to the classification of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions, where the relative importance of MR measures is less understood. GAMER MRI was developed based on the gated attention mechanism, which computes attention weights (AWs) as proxies of importance of hidden features in the classification. In the first two experiments, we used Trace-weighted (Trace), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR), and T1-weighted (T1w) images acquired in 904 acute/subacute ischemic stroke patients and in 6,230 healthy controls and patients with other brain pathologies to assess if GAMER MRI could produce clinically meaningful importance orders in two different classification scenarios. In the first experiment, GAMER MRI with a pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN) was used in conjunction with Trace, ADC, and FLAIR to distinguish patients with ischemic stroke from those with other pathologies and healthy controls. In the second experiment, GAMER MRI with a patch-based CNN used Trace, ADC and T1w to differentiate acute ischemic stroke lesions from healthy tissue. The last experiment explored the performance of patch-based CNN with GAMER MRI in ranking the importance of quantitative MRI measures to distinguish two groups of lesions with different pathological characteristics and unknown quantitative MR features. Specifically, GAMER MRI was applied to assess the relative importance of the myelin water fraction (MWF), quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), T1 relaxometry map (qT1), and neurite density index (NDI) in distinguishing 750 juxtacortical lesions from 242 periventricular lesions in 47 MS patients. Pair-wise permutation t-tests were used to evaluate the differences between the AWs obtained for each quantitative measure. In the first experiment, we achieved a mean test AUC of 0.881 and the obtained AWs of FLAIR and the sum of AWs of Trace and ADC were 0.11 and 0.89, respectively, as expected based on previous knowledge. In the second experiment, we achieved a mean test F1 score of 0.895 and a mean AW of Trace = 0.49, of ADC = 0.28, and of T1w = 0.23, thereby confirming the findings of the first experiment. In the third experiment, MS lesion classification achieved test balanced accuracy = 0.777, sensitivity = 0.739, and specificity = 0.814. The mean AWs of T1map, MWF, NDI, and QSM were 0.29, 0.26, 0.24, and 0.22 (p < 0.001), respectively. This work demonstrates that the proposed GAMER MRI might be a useful method to assess the relative importance of MRI measures in neurological diseases with focal pathology. Moreover, the obtained AWs may in fact help to choose the best combination of MR contrasts for a specific classification problem

DNA Repair in Prostate Cancer: Biology and Clinical Implications

CONTEXT: For more precise, personalized care in prostate cancer (PC), a new classification based on molecular features relevant for prognostication and treatment stratification is needed. Genomic aberrations in the DNA damage repair pathway are common in PC, particularly in late-stage disease, and may be relevant for treatment stratification. OBJECTIVE: To review current knowledge on the prevalence and clinical significance of aberrations in DNA repair genes in PC, particularly in metastatic disease. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A literature search up to July 2016 was conducted, including clinical trials and preclinical basic research studies. Keywords included DNA repair, BRCA, ATM, CRPC, prostate cancer, PARP, platinum, predictive biomarkers, and hereditary cancer. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: We review how the DNA repair pathway is relevant to prostate carcinogenesis and progression. Data on how this may be relevant to hereditary cancer and genetic counseling are included, as well as data from clinical trials of PARP inhibitors and platinum therapeutics in PC. CONCLUSIONS: Relevant studies have identified genomic defects in DNA repair in PCs in 20-30% of advanced castration-resistant PC cases, a proportion of which are germline aberrations and heritable. Phase 1/2 clinical trial data, and other supporting clinical data, support the development of PARP inhibitors and DNA-damaging agents in this molecularly defined subgroup of PC following success in other cancer types. These studies may be an opportunity to improve patient care with personalized therapeutic strategies. PATIENT SUMMARY: Key literature on how genomic defects in the DNA damage repair pathway are relevant for prostate cancer biology and clinical management is reviewed. Potential implications for future changes in patient care are discussed