Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of a chemically induced point mutation mediating herbicide tolerance in annual medics (Medicago spp.).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Sulfonylurea (SU) herbicides are used extensively in cereal-livestock farming zones as effective and cheap herbicides with useful levels of residual activity. These residues can persist beyond the cropping year, severely affecting legumes in general, and annual medics in particular, resulting in reduced dry matter production, lower seed yields and decreased nitrogen fixation. A strand medic cultivar, Medicago littoralis 'Angel', has been developed via chemical mutagenesis with tolerance to SU soil residues. Identifying the molecular basis of the observed tolerance was the aim of this study. METHODS Two F(2) populations were generated from crosses between 'Angel' and varieties of intolerant M. truncatula, the male-sterile mutant tap and the cultivar 'Caliph'. Genetic mapping with SSR (single sequence repeat) and gene-based markers allowed identification of the trait-defining gene. Quantitative gene expression studies showed the activity of the respective alleles. KEY RESULTS Segregation ratios indicated the control of SU-herbicide tolerance by a single dominant gene. SU herbicides inhibit the biosynthesis of the branched-chain amino acids by targeting the acetolactate synthase enzyme, allowing the choice of a mapping approach using acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene homologues as candidates. SSR-marker analysis suggested the ALS-gene homologue on chromosome 3 in M. truncatula. The ALS-gene sequences from 'Angel' and intolerant genotypes were sequenced. In 'Angel', a single point mutation from C to T translating into an amino acid change from proline to leucine was identified. The polymorphism was used to develop a diagnostic marker for the tolerance trait. Expression of the mutant ALS allele was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR and showed no differences at various seedling stages and treatments to the corresponding wild-type allele. CONCLUSIONS The identification of the trait-defining gene and the development of a diagnostic marker enable efficient introgression of this economically important trait in annual medic improvement programs.
Procollagen‐III peptide identifies adipose tissue‐associated inflammation in type 2 diabetes with or without nonalcoholic liver disease

Procollagen‐III peptide (PIIINP) is a marker of fibrosis associated with increased cardiometabolic risk and progression of chronic liver diseases such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and steatohepatitis; its association with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has not been elucidated yet. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship among circulating PIIINP levels, metabolic traits, and body fat distribution in subjects with T2DM with or without NAFLD.
Structural performance of R/C structures under mechanical and environmental action

Rebar corrosion in concrete is the most important degrading phenomenon involving a growing number of structures. In addition, in some structures such as bridge decks, significant stress variation due to traffic actions is present. In order to investigate the coupled effects of the two phenomena, an experimental campaign on reinforced concrete elements subjected to simultaneous loading and corrosion have been established. The cycling action is chosen in order to simulate in terms of stress peak and stress variation the effect of the passage of vehicles under fatigue design situations. The environmental action is simulated by means of corrosion induced with an electrochemical procedure. Furthermore, static tests were conducted in order to have a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the deterioration processes. Transversal crack openings, due to loading and longitudinal corrosion cracks evolution are monitored. Results highlight the differences in terms of corroded and uncorroded specimens, static and cycling test and also different loading amplitude. Finally it can be observed as the growing of the damage is significantly different when a cycling action, combined with a chemical attack, is present.
Investigating the effects of cervical collar design and fit on the biomechanical and biomarker reaction at the skin

Background Research has shown that up to 33% of pressure ulcers (PUs) acquired in hospitals result from the application of a medical device. Cervical collars (C-collars) have been implicated in causing PUs, due to the mechanical force they apply to the skin. In order to improve our understanding of collar-related PUs, the present study aimed to assess the biomechanical, biochemical, and microclimate effects of C-collar design and fitting tension. Methods A cohort of 15 healthy volunteers was fit with two different C-collars according to the manufacturer guidelines. Two further collar tensions were also defined as loose and tight for each device. Each collar condition was applied for 15 minutes, with a 10 minute refractory period. Measurements at the device–skin interface included interface pressures, inflammatory biomarkers, microclimate, range of cervical motion, and comfort scores. Results The interface pressures at each tissue site increased monotonically with greater collar tension (p<0.01), irrespective of collar design. Biomarker analysis revealed that inflammatory cytokines (IL-1a) were elevated during collar application, with the highest increase during the tight fit condition, representing over a fourfold increase from unloaded conditions. Regardless of collar tension or type, there was an increase in temperature 1.5°C ±0.8°C compared to baseline values. Range of motion significantly decreased with greater strap tension (p<0.05), with an associated increase in discomfort. Conclusion The present findings revealed that increasing C-collar tensions caused elevated contact pressures at the device–skin interface, with a corresponding inflammatory response at the skin. These peak contact pressures were highest at the occiput, corresponding with reported PU locations. Devices should be designed to uniformly distribute pressures, and appropriate guidance is needed for their application.
Mercury concentrations in Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) and sediments in the Columbia River basin

The accumulation of mercury was investigated in Pacific lamprey and stream sediments in the Columbia River basin. Mercury concentrations in larval lamprey differed significantly among sample locations (p < 0.001) and were correlated with concentrations in sediments (r2 = 0.83). Adult concentrations were highly variable (range, 0.1–9.5 μg/g) and unrelated to holding time after collection. The results suggest that Pacific lamprey in the Columbia River basin may be exposed to mercury levels that have adverse ecological effects. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2571–2576. © 2016 SETAC
Smart Enough to Talk With Us? Foundations and Challenges for Dialogue Capable AI Systems

I am deeply grateful for the honor of this award, all the more so for its being completely unexpected. I am especially pleased by the recognition this award gives to our early attempts to build computational models of dialogue and to develop algorithms that would enable computer systems to converse sensibly with people. ACL was my ﬁrst academic home. I presented my ﬁrst paper, the paper that laid out the basics of a computational model of discourse structure, at the 1975 ACL meeting. Then, after several decades of research centered on dialogue systems, my research focus shifted to modeling collaboration. This shift was driven in part by the need for computational models of collaborative activities to support dialogue processing, a topic which I explore brieﬂy below, and in part by limitations in speech processing and semantics capabilities. Research in these areas has advanced signiﬁcantly in the last decade, enabling advances in dialogue as well, and I have recently returned to investigating computer system dialogue capabilities and challenges. I am glad to be back in my intellectual home.
Human scleral structural stiffness increases more rapidly with age in donors of African descent compared to donors of European descent.

PURPOSE We tested the hypothesis that the variation of peripapillary scleral structural stiffness with age is different in donors of European (ED) and African (AD) descent. METHODS Posterior scleral shells from normal eyes from donors of European (n = 20 pairs; previously reported) and African (n = 9 pairs) descent aged 0 and 90 years old were inflation tested within 48 hours post mortem. Scleral shells were pressurized from 5 to 45 mm Hg and the full-field, 3-dimensional (3D) deformation of the outer surface was recorded at submicrometric accuracy using speckle interferometry (ESPI). Mean maximum principal (tensile) strain of the peripapillary and midperipheral regions surrounding the optic nerve head (ONH) were fit using a functional mixed effects model that accounts for intradonor variability, same-race correlation, and spatial autocorrelation to estimate the effect of race on the age-related changes in mechanical scleral strain. RESULTS Mechanical tensile strain significantly decreased with age in the peripapillary sclera in the African and European descent groups (P < 0.001), but the age-related stiffening was significantly greater in the African descent group (P < 0.05). Maximum principal strain in the peripapillary sclera was significantly higher than in the midperipheral sclera for both ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS The sclera surrounding the ONH stiffens more rapidly with age in the African descent group compared to the European group. Stiffening of the peripapillary sclera with age may be related to the higher prevalence of glaucoma in the elderly and persons of African descent.
Stance Detection on Tweets: An SVM-based Approach

Stance detection is a subproblem of sentiment analysis where the stance of the author of a piece of natural language text for a particular target (either explicitly stated in the text or not) is explored. The stance output is usually given as Favor, Against, or Neither. In this paper, we target at stance detection on sports-related tweets and present the performance results of our SVM-based stance classifiers on such tweets. First, we describe three versions of our proprietary tweet data set annotated with stance information, all of which are made publicly available for research purposes. Next, we evaluate SVM classifiers using different feature sets for stance detection on this data set. The employed features are based on unigrams, bigrams, hashtags, external links, emoticons, and lastly, named entities. The results indicate that joint use of the features based on unigrams, hashtags, and named entities by SVM classifiers is a plausible approach for stance detection problem on sports-related tweets.
Describing the healthcare experiences and strategies of women survivors of violence

AIM AND OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop knowledge on women survivors' healthcare experiences and strategies. BACKGROUND Survivors of traumatic life events are at an increased risk for an array of negative health consequences, which can be complicated when distressing healthcare experiences act as a barrier to accessing needed care. Implications for trauma-informed and sensitive practice are well established, but evidence to date on survivors' healthcare experiences and patient engagement is limited. DESIGN This study utilized individual interviews and qualitative description methods. METHODS Fourteen participants completed a demographic questionnaire and one semistructured interview focused on their exposure to violence, healthcare experiences and strategies for navigating health care. Thematic analysis in alignment with qualitative description methods was used to analyse interview transcripts and identify themes. RESULTS Participants in this study reported a variety of traumatic life experiences, ranging from childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence to severe car accidents. Experiencing a multiplicity of trauma sometimes complicated participants' later healthcare experiences. Although participants described ways in which providers helped them attain positive care experiences, they also acknowledged that limitations of the healthcare system could make trauma-informed practices difficult to implement. Participants described strategies they use to prepare for, navigate and recover after healthcare encounters including selecting providers, bringing support persons to appointments and engaging in relaxing activities after appointments. CONCLUSIONS Participants emphasised the importance of trusting and equitable provider-patient relationships and described several ways they prepare for, cope with and care for themselves after difficult healthcare experiences. Descriptive data on the patient engagement behaviours of survivors of violence is a unique contribution of this study to existing research. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Findings from this study indicate the importance of comprehensive trauma history screening during health assessments, development of trusting and mutually respectful provider-patient relationships and provider training programmes focused on trauma-informed care practices.
UKnowledge UKnowledge

: The purpose of this review is to describe research over the past 10 years on the role of support services in promoting medication adherence in mental health consumers diagnosed with schizophrenia. A literature search was conducted using the terms “medication adherence,” “schizophrenia,” and “support services,” using Medline, PubMed, and CINAHL. Reference lists from published studies were also reviewed to identify additional research studies. Twenty-two articles focused on support-service intervention studies, and these were selected for review. Available support-service interventions include adherence therapy, electronic reminders via text messages and telephones, cognitive–behavioral and motivational strategies, and financial incentives. Support-service intervention strategies need to be tailored to the specific needs of mental health consumers with schizophrenia. More research is needed to investigate effective support services to enhance long-term adherence and adherence to medications for medical illnesses in this population.
From Neoliberalism to Neoliberalisation: Consolations, Confusions, and Necessary Illusions

Of late, I have been conducting a review of empirical research that analyses the relationships between neoliberalism and the nonhuman world.When published, the review will, I hope, be a useful way-station in advancing our understanding of these relationships. In a short space of time there has been a proliferation of research into the `nature of neoliberalism and the neoliberalisation of nature' (McCarthy and Prudham, 2004). Until recently neoliberalism had been the topical preserve of critically minded urban, economic, and development geographers. Now, though, a cohort of environmental geographersoalso critically mindedohave turned their attention to how the nonhuman world affects and is affected by neoliberal programmes. For instance, the journals Capitalism, Nature, Socialism and Geoforum have both devoted whole issues to the topic in the last twelve months. Much of the research I am surveying is Marxist or neo-Marxist in its explanatory and evaluative approach. Although theoretically informed, it is also insistently empirical: it attempts to trace the environmental logics and effects of neoliberalism contextually. My aim has been to parse it so that we can see the proverbial woodsoin diagnostic and normative termsofor the empirical trees. In the absence of a systematic review of the empirical literature I suspect that we will remain unclear what gains are being made in terms of concepts, evidence, or critique.
Evolutionary Epigenomics of Retrotransposon-Mediated Methylation Spreading in Rice

&NA; Plant genomes contain numerous transposable elements (TEs), and many hypotheses on the evolutionary drivers that restrict TE activity have been postulated. Few models, however, have focused on the evolutionary epigenomic interaction between the plant host and its TE. The host genome recruits epigenetic factors, such as methylation, to silence TEs but methylation can spread beyond the TE sequence and influence the expression of nearby host genes. In this study, we investigated this epigenetic trade‐off between TE and proximal host gene silencing by studying the epigenomic regulation of repressing long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons (RTs) in Oryza sativa. Results showed significant evidence of methylation spreading originating from the LTR‐RT sequences, and the extent of spreading was dependent on five factors: 1) LTR‐RT family, 2) time since the LTR‐RT insertion, 3) recombination rate of the LTR‐RT region, 4) level of LTR‐RT sequence methylation, and 5) chromosomal location. Methylation spreading had negative effects by reducing host gene expression, but only on host genes with LTR‐RT inserted in its introns. Our results also suggested high levels of LTR‐RT methylation might have a role in suppressing TE‐mediated deleterious ectopic recombination. In the end, despite the methylation spreading, no strong epigenetic trade‐off was detected and majority of LTR‐RT may have only minor epigenetic effects on nearby host genes.
Prognostic Value of Serial N‐Terminal Pro‐B‐Type Natriuretic Peptide Measurements in Adults With Congenital Heart Disease

Background A single NT‐proBNP (N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide) measurement is a strong prognostic factor in adult congenital heart disease. This study investigates NT‐proBNP profiles within patients with adult congenital heart disease and relates these to cardiovascular events. Methods and Results In this prospective cohort, 602 patients with adult congenital heart disease were enrolled at the outpatient clinic (years 2011–2013). NT‐proBNP was measured at study inclusion in 595 patients (median age 33 [IQR 25–41] years, 58% male, 90% NYHA I) and at subsequent annual visits. The primary end point was defined as death, heart failure, hospitalization, arrhythmia, thromboembolic event, or cardiac intervention; the secondary end point as death or heart failure. Repeated measurements were analyzed using linear mixed models and joint models. During a median follow‐up of 4.4 [IQR 3.8–4.8] years, a total of 2424 repeated measurements were collected. Average NT‐proBNP increase was 2.9 pmol/L the year before the primary end point (n=199, 34%) and 18.2 pmol/L before the secondary end point (n=58, 10%), compared with 0.3 pmol/L in patients who remained end point‐free (P‐value for difference in slope 0.006 and <0.001, respectively). In patients with elevated baseline NT‐proBNP (>14 pmol/L, n=315, 53%), repeated measurements were associated with the primary end point (HR per 2‐fold higher value 2.08; 95% CI 1.31–3.87; P<0.001) and secondary end point (HR 2.47; 95% CI 1.13–5.70; P=0.017), when adjusted for the baseline measurement. Conclusions NT‐proBNP increased before the occurrence of events, especially in patients who died or developed heart failure. Serial NT‐proBNP measurements could be of additional prognostic value in the annual follow‐up of patients with adult congenitive heart disease with an elevated NT‐proBNP.
Obesity does not affect peri- and postoperative outcomes of transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy

ABSTRACT Laparoscopic adrenalectomy is the gold standard procedure for most adrenal tumors. Obesity is considered as a risk factor for surgical complications. This study aimed to evaluate whether obesity affects peri- and postoperative outcomes of transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy using body mass index (BMI). This retrospective study included 98 patients who underwent transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy between January 2011 and December 2016. We divided the patients into 2 groups: non-obese group (BMI < 25 kg/m2) and obese group (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2). We assessed perioperative outcomes and postoperative complications between the groups. A total of 98 patients were analyzed (70 without obesity and 28 with obesity). There were no significant differences between the non-obese and obese groups regarding operative time (111 vs 107 min; p = 0.795), blood loss (3.5 vs 3.5 ml; p = 0.740), rate of placement of additional trocars (14.3% vs 17.9%; p = 0.657), rate of open conversion (2.6% vs 3.6%; p = 0.853), and postoperative length of hospital stay (6 vs 5 days; p = 0.237). Furthermore, obesity was not a significant risk factor for postoperative complications (postoperative bleeding, wound infection, and pneumonia). There are no significant differences in peri- and postoperative outcomes of transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy in patients with obesity compared with those without obesity. Transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy is feasible and safe for patients with obesity.
On the Stress to Strain Transfer Ratio and Elastic Deflection Behavior for Al/SiC Functionally Graded Material

The stress to strain transfer ratio for aluminium-silicon carbide (Al/SiC) composite system is experimentally determined from the flexural load-deflection behavior of single-layer beams of different compositions (10, 20 and 30% of SiC). This ratio can be used for predicting the elastic modulus of the Al/SiC functionally graded material using an intermediate rule of mixtures. Using this data, the static flexural response of a layered functionally graded beam of Al/SiC with five layers of equal thickness with SiC content varying from 0 to 40%, is predicted employing a third-order zigzag theory. The predicted deflection is found to be in fairly close agreement with the experimental results.
A block based encoding approach for improving sliding window network coding in wireless networks

The theory of Network Coding (NC) has been studied in recent years and makes significant benefits to the performance of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in lossy and/or dynamic wireless networks. However, due to the asynchronous packet transmission between the transport layer and the network coding layer of the protocol stack, sliding window mechanism with a fixed size of coding window may lead to network delay and thus the performance gain of network coding cannot be fully exploited. In this paper, we propose to use an advanced architecture named Encoding Block Manager (EBM) to optimize packet encoding and scheduling process in a parallel manner. Further, a dynamic encoding algorithm is introduced in EBM to adjust the size of encoding block adaptively according to the Round Trip Time (RTT). To demonstrate the performance of EBM, simulation works are implemented with Network Simulation (NS) 2. In comparison with TCP/NC, the results certified the effectiveness of the system.