Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Galactinol synthase transcriptional profile in two genotypes of Coffea canephora with contrasting tolerance to drought

Increased synthesis of galactinol and raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) has been reported in vegetative tissues in response to a range of abiotic stresses. In this work, we evaluated the transcriptional profile of a Coffea canephora galactinol synthase gene (CcGolS1) in two clones that differed in tolerance to water deficit in order to assess the contribution of this gene to drought tolerance. The expression of CcGolS1 in leaves was differentially regulated by water deficit, depending on the intensity of stress and the genotype. In clone 109A (drought-susceptible), the abundance of CcGolS1 transcripts decreased upon exposure to drought, reaching minimum values during recovery from severe water deficit and stress. In contrast, CcGolS1 gene expression in clone 14 (drought-tolerant) was stimulated by water deficit. Changes in galactinol and RFO content did not correlate with variation in the steady-state transcript level. However, the magnitude of increase in RFO accumulation was higher in the tolerant cultivar, mainly under severe water deficit. The finding that the drought-tolerant coffee clone showed enhanced accumulation of CcGolS1 transcripts and RFOs under water deficit suggests the possibility of using this gene to improve drought tolerance in this important crop.
Non-diarrhoeal increased frequency of bowel movements (IFoBM-ND): enterovirus association with the symptoms in children

Objective Infectious and non-infectious causes are associated with increased frequency of bowel movements (IFoBM). But, a viral aetiology to non-diarrhoeal IFoBM (IFoBM-ND) has not been described. Owing to an accidental infection by an echovirus 19 strain, persistent diarrhoea-associated virus, isolated from a child with persistent diarrhoea, DCR experienced persistent IFoBM-ND with an urgency to pass apparently normal stools more than once each day for about 3 months. A follow-up study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of IFoBM-ND, and association of non-polio enteroviruses (NPEVs) with the symptom in infants from birth to 2 years. Design A cohort of 140 newborns was followed for 6 months to 2 years from birth for IFoBM-ND. Stool samples collected every 14 days were examined for NPEVs, rotavirus and other viral/bacterial agents for their possible association with IFoBM-ND and diarrhoea. Results Of 403 NPEV infection episodes among 4545 oral polio vaccine strains-negative stool samples, approximately 29% were associated with IFoBM-ND (15% acute and 14% persistent), including resolution of 74% of constipation episodes, and 18% with diarrhoea, suggesting that about 47% of NPEV infection episodes in children below 2 years of age are associated with gastrointestinal symptoms. About 83% of IFoBM-ND episodes are associated with the NPEV infection and 17% of the episodes are of unknown aetiology. Conclusions NPEV is the single most frequently detected viral agent in children with IFoBM-ND and its association with the symptom is highly significant, warranting detailed investigations on the role of NPEVs in gastrointestinal diseases.
The current state of ptosis repair: a comparison of internal and external approaches

Purpose of review Posterior approach ptosis repair has made a resurgence over the last decade. The purpose of this review is to examine the history of posterior approach ptosis repair and the events that have led to its current favorable status. Recent findings The evolution of the posterior and anterior approach ptosis surgeries has resulted in two favored techniques for involutional ptosis repair: the Müller muscle-conjunctiva resection (MMCR) and the external levator advancement. Each procedure has strong and prominent proponents in the oculoplastic surgery community. Recently, the MMCR has converted surgeons who have previously favored the external levator advancement. A number of factors have influenced this recent elevation of the MMCR including differing opinions on the cause of involutional ptosis, the mechanism by which the MMCR works, the predictability and speed of the MMCR, and the current reimbursements for ptosis repair by insurance companies. Summary The recent preference for posterior approach ptosis surgery, in particular the MMCR, is multifactorial. In order to understand the evolution of opinions about the procedure, a historical knowledge of involutional ptosis and ptosis repair is necessary.
Robust Spectrum Sensing With Crowd Sensors

This paper investigates the issue of cooperative spectrum sensing with a crowd of low-end personal spectrum sensors (such as smartphones, tablets, and in-vehicle sensors), where the sensing data from crowd sensors that may be unreliable, untrustworthy, or even malicious. Moreover, due to either unexpected equipment failures or malicious behaviors, every crowd sensor could sporadically and randomly contribute with abnormal data, which makes the existing cooperative sensing schemes ineffective. To tackle these challenges, we first propose a generalized modeling approach for sensing data with an arbitrary abnormal component. Under this model, we then analyze the impact of general abnormal data on the performance of the cooperative sensing, by deriving closed-form expressions of the probabilities of global false alarm and global detection. To improve sensing data quality and enhance cooperative sensing performance, we further formulate an optimization problem as stable principal component pursuit, and develop a data cleansing-based robust spectrum sensing algorithm to solve it, where the under-utilization of licensed spectrum bands and the sparsity of nonzero abnormal data are jointly exploited to robustly cleanse out the potential nonzero abnormal data component from the original corrupted sensing data. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed robust sensing scheme performs well under various abnormal data parameter configurations.
Sexual Violence Victimization and Condom Use in Relation to Exchange of Sexual Services by Female Methamphetamine Prisoners: An Exploratory Study of HIV Prevention

Objectives: In Taiwan, the street term ”sugar girl” refers to an individual who performs a sex act in exchange for drugs or money. This study aimed to determine factors associated with exchange of sexual services by female methamphetamine offenders in Taiwan. Methods: Given the personal nature of the collected data, eligible participants were asked to indicate their willingness to participate by signing consent forms. Surveys were conducted on 270 literate female prisoners aged over 18 with a history of methamphetamine offense. Results: Of the 270 participants, 86 (32%) had previously exchanged sex for drugs or money. Only 15% had used a condom during their last sexual intercourse. The results showed that women who exchanged sex were more likely to be older, have used illicit substances at an earlier age, have multiple partners, and have been raped. Conclusions: The findings provide evidence that exchanging sex and sexual violence were common, and condom use rates are low enough to encourage transmission of HIV and other STDs. Intervention programs need to not only promote condom use but also need to provide counseling to victims of rape.
Practice of rational drug uses in a rural area of 24 pgs(s) in West Bengal

Rational drug use is a function of prescription practices having medical, social, and economic implications. A household level cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prescribing practices and extent of rational therapy in the rural area of 24 pgs (s) South district. Following multistage stratified random sampling, 250 households were selected for the study from 24 pgs South, West Bengal, India. Medical care received by morbid persons was noted as per prescription details, wherever available. The results indicate that of the total of 485 morbid episodes, 302 were treated at some healthcare facility and prescriptions were available for 137 (45.36%) only. Injection use was seen in 9.49% of the prescriptions. In all, 29.20% prescriptions contained at least one antibiotic. This observation was more or less the same among the private and public practitioners (34%). The average number of drugs found was 3.153 per prescription. Overall 63.51% prescriptions were found to be irrational. The prescribing practices and use of drugs have been found to be truly unsatisfactory.
Pulse Methylprednisolone Therapy in Severe Idiopathic Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome

ABSTRACT. The effect of methyl prednisolone therapy (PM) was studied in 18 children with severe idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (NS). Eight patients were defined as “corticosteroid‐resistant” because there was no response to treatment after a minimum of 4 weeks of 2 mg/kg/day of prednisone; 10 patients had a corticosteroid‐dependent NS with frequent relapses which occurred under a high threshold dose of prednisone (1 mg/kg/day). Each patient received 4–6 pulses of 1 g/1.73 m2 methylprednisolone. Tolerance was generally good. PM therapy permitted a more rapid remission than oral prednisone (average 9±4 days vs. 22±9 days). Remission occurred in 5 of the 8 corticosteroid‐resistant patients three of these 5 patients developed corticosteroid‐dependent NS. For the children with a corticosteroid‐dependent nephrotic syndrome, PM therapy did not affect the threshold dose of prednisone.
Rajni Kothari’s Ideas of Freedom: ‘Rethinking’ State, Democracy, Development and ‘New’ Social Movements in India

Ideas of freedom have been an integral part of the discourses on nationalism and national movements in most of the post-colonial societies, including especially India. These ideas of freedom and anti-colonial movement in India can be looked at from diverse perspectives—it may be liberal, Marxist, neo-Marxist, revolutionaries and even pacifists like Gandhi. This article makes a modest attempt to understand Rajni Kothari’s ideas of freedom, essentially through the prisms of his critical reflections and intervention on state, democracy, development and ‘new’ social or grass-roots movements. Kothari argued that freedom meant both ‘autonomy of man’ as well as ‘autonomy of states’. Embedded in Kothari’s ideas of freedom was the idea of a strong, deep and decentralized democratic structure, politics as a form of social transformation and rather an indigenous, autonomous, self-reliant and an ‘alternative’ model of economic development. However, contemporary India represents and reflects none of these ideas of freedom, whether it will be individual freedom or community freedom. With the decline of the welfare state as an agency pursuing socio-economic development, Kothari invents a ‘new’ idea of freedom as articulated by the grass-roots or ‘new’ social movements, which are essentially ‘non-class’, ‘non-materialistic’, ‘humanist’ and ‘universalist’ in their outlook and approach.
The humanism of reconstruction: African intellectuals, decolonial critical theory and the opposition to the ‘posts’ (postmodernism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism)

This article traces the mixed fortunes of what intellectuals like Paul Tiyambe Zeleza refer to as the ‘posts’ (poststructuralism, postmodernism and postcolonialism) in African studies. It documents the historical processes and intellectual developments that, starting from the 1980s, laid the ground for an integration of deconstructive elements in the thought of African scholars. Despite the support garnered from scholars like Achille Mbembe, the ‘posts’ have encountered in African studies a high degree of opposition, if not outright hostility. Deconstructionism was perceived by many theorists to dangerously depart from the pressing ethico-political concerns and humanistic imperatives of the African intellectual agenda. Mbembe's concept of Afropolitanism is similarly being criticized for magnifying some of the theoretical prejudices and weaknesses of which the ‘posts’ (and particularly postcolonial studies) had already been accused. The article concludes by discussing some theoretical solutions put forward by African scholars to move away from rigid conceptions of cultural essentialism while retaining a notion of identity stable enough to be mobilized politically and ideologically.
Effect of weaning age on growth rates of lambs infected by gastrointestinal parasites

Gastrointestinal parasitism is one of the most important challenges facing low chemical or organic livestock production systems but also conventional farmers as resistance to anthelmintics becomes more widespread. Young twin-born and reared lambs were challenged for 5 days (Experiment 1) or trickle infected with parasites (Experiment 2) and not weaned (Expt. 1. only) or early (8 and 7 weeks) or late weaned (16 and 14 weeks; Expt. 1 & 2 respectively). Liveweight gain was measured until lambs were 19 weeks of age (Expt. 1) or 25 weeks of age (Expt. 2). Early weaning (7-8 weeks) reduced liveweight gain by at least 25% in both years and lambs remained 5 kg lighter at the completion of the experiments. Parasite infection had modest effects on lamb performance and there was no interaction between weaning age and parasite infection in either year. Infected lambs generally grew well, gaining at least 90 g/d possibly due to the relatively young age of the lambs limiting their ability to mount an immune response.
Standing United or Falling Divided? High Stakes Bargaining in a TV Game Show

Bargaining is ubiquitous in our professional and private lives. Not surprisingly, bargaining has received considerable research attention. Because real-world settings generally entail a lack of control, most empirical insights derive from laboratory experiments. The external validity of laboratory findings is, however, still an open question (Levitt and List 2007; Camerer 2015; Baltussen, van den Assem, and van Dolder 2015). Two of the grounds for concern are the frequent use of student subjects and the small or hypothetical stakes. In the present study, we use data from the British TV show Divided. This game show combines high stakes and a diverse subject pool within a controlled setting. We find that individual behavior and outcomes are strongly influenced by equity concerns: those
Calcium intake, calcium bioavailability and bone health

Calcium accounts for 1–2 % of adult human body weight. Over 99 % of total body Ca is found in the teeth and bones. Therefore, in addition to the obvious structural role of the skeleton, it also serves as a reservoir for Ca. Dietary Ca intake has an important impact on bone metabolism and bone health. Chronic Ca deficiency resulting from inadequate intake or poor intestinal absorption is one of several important causes of reduced bone mass and osteoporosis. It is vital, therefore, that adequate dietary Ca is consumed at all stages of life — in early life so that the genetically programmed peak bone mass can be reached and in later adulthood so that the skeletal mass can be maintained and age-related bone loss minimised. Unfortunately, there is wide variation in the estimates of daily Ca requirements made by different expert authorities. Furthermore, there is evidence that many individuals are not consuming these recommended levels. The consequence of this for bone health will be discussed in the present review. Besides the amount of Ca in the diet, the absorption of dietary Ca in foods is also a critical factor in determining the availability of Ca for bone development and maintenance. Thus, there is a need to identify food components and/or functional food ingredients that may positively influence Ca absorption in order to ensure that Ca bioavailability from foods can be optimised. This approach may be of particular value in individuals who fail to achieve the dietary recommended level of Ca.
A New and Efficient Method for the Synthesis of 3,4-Disubstituted Pyrrolidine-2,5-diones

A newly found reaction for the synthesis of 3,4-disubstituted 1-hydroxy-pyrrolidine-2,5-diones from 3-substituted coumarins and nitromethane has been elaborated. The reaction involved a simple and convenient experimental procedure. The applicability of the rearrangement reaction is determined.
Phage_Finder: Automated identification and classification of prophage regions in complete bacterial genome sequences

Phage_Finder, a heuristic computer program, was created to identify prophage regions in completed bacterial genomes. Using a test dataset of 42 bacterial genomes whose prophages have been manually identified, Phage_Finder found 91% of the regions, resulting in 7% false positive and 9% false negative prophages. A search of 302 complete bacterial genomes predicted 403 putative prophage regions, accounting for 2.7% of the total bacterial DNA. Analysis of the 285 putative attachment sites revealed tRNAs are targets for integration slightly more frequently (33%) than intergenic (31%) or intragenic (28%) regions, while tmRNAs were targeted in 8% of the regions. The most popular tRNA targets were Arg, Leu, Ser and Thr. Mapping of the insertion point on a consensus tRNA molecule revealed novel insertion points on the 5′ side of the D loop, the 3′ side of the anticodon loop and the anticodon. A novel method of constructing phylogenetic trees of phages and prophages was developed based on the mean of the BLAST score ratio (BSR) of the phage/prophage proteomes. This method verified many known bacteriophage groups, making this a useful tool for predicting the relationships of prophages from bacterial genomes.
Current Development Status of MEK Inhibitors

The current development status of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors, including the preclinical data and clinical study progress, has been summarized in this review. Different MEK inhibitors, possessing specific physicochemical properties and bioactivity characteristics, may provide different options for patients seeking treatment for cancer. Moreover, the combination of the MEK inhibitors with other therapies—such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy—may be a promising approach for clinical use.
Conceptualizing Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society 1

This article explores the social theory and consequent methodology that underpins studies of transnational migration. First, we propose a social field approach to the study of migration and distinguish between ways of being and ways of belonging in that field. Second, we argue that assimilation and enduring transnational ties are neither incompatible nor binary opposites. Third, we highlight social processes and institutions that are routinely obscured by traditional migration scholarship but that become clear when we use a transnational lens. Finally, we locate our approach to migration research within a larger intellectual project, taken up by scholars of transnational processes in many fields, to rethink and reformulate the concept of society such that it is no longer automatically equated with the boundaries of a single nation-state.
Perianal disease, small bowel disease, smoking, prior steroid or early azathioprine/biological therapy are predictors of disease behavior change in patients with Crohn's disease.

AIM To assess the combined effect of disease phenotype, smoking and medical therapy [steroid, azathioprine (AZA), AZA/biological therapy] on the probability of disease behavior change in a Caucasian cohort of patients with Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS Three hundred and forty well-characterized, unrelated, consecutive CD patients were analyzed (M/F: 155/185, duration: 9.4 +/- 7.5 years) with a complete clinical follow-up. Medical records including disease phenotype according to the Montreal classification, extraintestinal manifestations, use of medications and surgical events were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were interviewed on their smoking habits at the time of diagnosis and during the regular follow-up visits. RESULTS A change in disease behavior was observed in 30.8% of patients with an initially non-stricturing, non-penetrating disease behavior after a mean disease duration of 9.0 +/- 7.2 years. In a logistic regression analysis corrected for disease duration, perianal disease, smoking, steroid use, early AZA or AZA/biological therapy use were independent predictors of disease behavior change. In a subsequent Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and a proportional Cox regression analysis, disease location (P = 0.001), presence of perianal disease (P < 0.001), prior steroid use (P = 0.006), early AZA (P = 0.005) or AZA/biological therapy (P = 0.002), or smoking (P = 0.032) were independent predictors of disease behavior change. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that perianal disease, small bowel disease, smoking, prior steroid use, early AZA or AZA/biological therapy are all predictors of disease behavior change in CD patients.
Conserved noncoding genomic sequences associated with a flowering-time quantitative trait locus in maize

Flowering time is a fundamental trait of maize adaptation to different agricultural environments. Although a large body of information is available on the map position of quantitative trait loci for flowering time, little is known about the molecular basis of quantitative trait loci. Through positional cloning and association mapping, we resolved the major flowering-time quantitative trait locus, Vegetative to generative transition 1 (Vgt1), to an ≈2-kb noncoding region positioned 70 kb upstream of an Ap2-like transcription factor that we have shown to be involved in flowering-time control. Vgt1 functions as a cis-acting regulatory element as indicated by the correlation of the Vgt1 alleles with the transcript expression levels of the downstream gene. Additionally, within Vgt1, we identified evolutionarily conserved noncoding sequences across the maize–sorghum–rice lineages. Our results support the notion that changes in distant cis-acting regulatory regions are a key component of plant genetic adaptation throughout breeding and evolution.
Prevalence of Chemokine and Chemokine Receptor Polymorphisms in Seroprevalent Children With Symptomatic HIV-1 Infection in the United States

Several chemokines and chemokine receptors are involved in HIV-1 infection, disease progression, and transmission. We studied the prevalence of genetic variations in CCR2, SDF1, and the CCR5 gene and its promoter region at positions 59029, 59353, and 59356 in a seroprevalent cohort of 1057 children with symptomatic HIV-1 infection in the United States. The percentage of children with the CCR5-wt/&Dgr;32 genotype was significantly higher for white, non-Hispanic children (15%) than for Hispanic (6%) or black, non-Hispanic children (4%). For the CCR5-59029-G/A, CCR5-59353-T/C, and CCR5-59356-C/T polymorphisms, there were significant or marginally significant differences in genotype frequencies across race/ethnicity groups. For the CCR2-wt/64I polymorphism, both black, non-Hispanic and Hispanic children had a higher frequency of the CCR2-wt/64I genotype (24% and 21%, respectively) and CCR2-64I/64I genotype (4% and 3%, respectively) than white, non-Hispanic children (14% and 2%, respectively). For the SDF1-3´-G/A polymorphism, black, non-Hispanic children had a lower combined frequency of the SDF1-3´-G/A and SDF1-3´-A/A genotypes (15%) than did Hispanic children (33%) and white, non-Hispanic children (37%). These analyses show that the distribution of chemokine receptor and chemokine genetic polymorphisms varies significantly across race/ethnicity subgroups of HIV-1–infected children in the United States.