Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors influencing perceptions of local community on 'kelulut' honey as agrotourism product

The purpose of this study was to access local communities’ perception on ‘kelulut’ bee as an agro tourism product. This paper presents the findings of factors affecting local communities’ perception on ‘kelulut’ bee as an agro tourism product in Kampung Sungai Buah, Dengkil, Selangor. Attributes from past studies on impacts of agro tourism to local communities and their attitudes towards agro tourism in general were combined with the research on ‘kelulut’ or stingless bee honey industry. Factor analysis was used as tool in the reduction method. As the result, 41 attributes were identified to have significant contributions to this study and all these attributes were extracted into 13 different groups. Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine which factors were significant to depict local communities’ perception on ‘kelulut’ bee as an agro tourism product and through findings, there were 6 factors found. This study can be used in evaluating local communities’ perception on other new, potentially booming agro tourism products. The findings from this study would also be beneficial to conduct further studies in this area.
C-Reactive Protein and High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein: An Update for Clinicians

Abstract The measurement of C-reactive protein (CRP) using both standard and high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) assays is becoming common in clinical practice. This article addresses the causes of CRP elevation and the use of different CRP assays in internal medicine, including cardiology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, infectious diseases, and oncology. We focus on the recent medical literature on the use of hs-CRP in cardiovascular disease risk stratification and management, including updated screening guidelines on the use of hs-CRP, such as those issued in 2009 by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. We also discuss the Reynolds Risk Score, which incorporates hs-CRP and family history with more standard cardiovascular risk factors (eg, tobacco use, hypertension, and dyslipidemia) and frequently leads to improved recategorization of cardiovascular disease risk levels. As the recently completed Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: An Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER) trial indicated that statin therapy decreases the vascular events among persons with elevated hs-CRP by half, even when cholesterol levels are low, the inclusion of information on hs-CRP values with other cardiovascular risk factors may assist physicians in medical decision making for patients.
Increasing Cognitive Load Reduces Interference from Masked Appetitive and Aversive but Not Neutral Stimuli

Interactions between cognition and emotion are important for survival, often occurring in the absence of awareness. These interactions have been proposed to involve competition between cognition and emotion for attentional resources. Emotional stimuli have been reported to impair performance on cognitive tasks of low, but not high, load if stimuli are consciously perceived. This study explored whether this load-dependent interference effect occurred in response to subliminal emotional stimuli. Masked emotional (appetitive and aversive), but not neutral, stimuli interfered with performance accuracy but not response time on a cognitive task (n-back) at low (1-back), but not high (2-back) load. These results show that a load-dependent interference effect applies to masked emotional stimuli and that the effect generalises across stimulus categories with high motivational value. This supports models of selective attention that propose that cognition and emotion compete for attentional resources. More specifically, interference from masked emotional stimuli at low load suggests that attention is biased towards salient stimuli, while dissipation of interference under high load involves top-down regulation of attention. Our data also indicate that top-down goal-directed regulation of attention occurs in the absence of awareness and does not require metacognitive monitoring or evaluation of bias over behaviour, i.e., some degree of self-regulation occurs at a non-conscious level.
The Impact of the NAO on the Delayed Break-Up Date of Lake Ice over the Southern Tibetan Plateau

The changing characteristics of lake ice phenology over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are investigated using historical satellite retrieved datasets during 2002–15 in this study. The results indicate that the freezing process mainly starts in December, and the ice melting process generally occurs in April for most lakes. However, the changes in lake ice phenology have varied depending on the location in recent years, with delayed break-up dates and prolonged ice durations in the southern TP, but no consistent changes have occurred in the lakes in the northern TP. Further analysis presents a close connection between the variation in the lake ice break-up date/ice duration over the southern TP and the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The positive NAO generally excites an anomalous wave activity that propagates southward from the North Atlantic to North Africa and, in turn, strengthens the African–Asian jet stream at its entrance. Because of the blocking effect of the TP, the enhanced westerly jet can be divided into two branches and the south branch flow can deepen the India–Myanmar trough, which further strengthens the anomalous cyclonic circulation and water vapor transport. Therefore, the increased water vapor transport from the northern Indian Ocean to the southern region of the TP can increase the snowfall over this region. The increased snow cover over the lake acts as an insulating layer and lowers the lake surface temperature in the following spring by means of snow–ice feedback activity, resulting in a delayed ice break-up date and the increased ice duration of the lakes over the southern TP in recent years.
Moisture transport in observations and reanalyses as a proxy for snow accumulation in East Antarctica

Abstract. Atmospheric moisture convergence on ice sheets provides an estimate of snow accumulation, which is critical to quantifying sea-level changes. In the case of East Antarctica, we computed moisture transport from 1980 to 2016 in five reanalyses and in radiosonde observations. Moisture convergence in reanalyses is more consistent than net precipitation but still ranges from 72 to 96 mm yr−1 in the four most recent reanalyses, ERA-Interim, NCEP CFSR, JRA 55 and MERRA 2. The representation of long-term variability in reanalyses is also inconsistent, which justified resorting to observations. Moisture fluxes are measured on a daily basis via radiosondes launched from a network of stations surrounding East Antarctica. Observations agree with reanalyses on the major role of extreme advection events and transient eddy fluxes. Although assimilated, the observations reveal processes that reanalyses cannot model, some due to a lack of horizontal and vertical resolution, especially the oldest, NCEP DOE R2. Additionally, the observational time series are not affected by new satellite data unlike the reanalyses. We formed pan-continental estimates of convergence by aggregating anomalies from all available stations. We found statistically significant trends neither in moisture convergence nor in precipitable water.
Motor conduction parameters in recently diagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism

Background The severity of neuromuscular symptoms and signs in hypothyroidism is known to be related to the duration and degree of hormone deficiency. Purpose The present study was aimed to assess whether recently diagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism affects peripheral nervous system. Methods The study included a total of 120 female subjects with age ranging from 20 to 45 years. The motor nerve conduction parameters viz. Distal latency (DL), amplitude of compound muscle action potential (CMAP) and motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) were recorded bilaterally in median, ulnar and posterior tibial nerves using standard protocols and settings. Results The observations revealed significantly prolonged distal motor latencies, reduced CMAP amplitudes and slowed MNCV in the peripheral nerves in hypothyroid. Conclusion The results indicated that the alteration in motor conduction parameters in recently diagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism might be due to various functional and structural changes in peripheral nerves associated with deficiency of thyroid hormones.
Determination of Sample Entropy and Fuzzy Measure Entropy Parameters for Distinguishing Congestive Heart Failure from Normal Sinus Rhythm Subjects

Entropy provides a valuable tool for quantifying the regularity of physiological time series and provides important insights for understanding the underlying mechanisms of the cardiovascular system. Before any entropy calculation, certain common parameters need to be initialized: embedding dimension m, tolerance threshold r and time series length N. However, no specific guideline exists on how to determine the appropriate parameter values for distinguishing congestive heart failure (CHF) from normal sinus rhythm (NSR) subjects in clinical application. In the present study, a thorough analysis on the selection of appropriate values of m, r and N for sample entropy (SampEn) and recently proposed fuzzy measure entropy (FuzzyMEn) is presented for distinguishing two group subjects. 44 long-term NRS and 29 long-term CHF RR interval recordings from http://www.physionet. org were used as the non-pathological and pathological data respectively. Extreme (>2 s) and abnormal heartbeat RR intervals were firstly removed from each RR recording and then the recording was segmented with a non-overlapping segment length N of 300 and 1000, respectively. SampEn and FuzzyMEn were performed for each RR segment under different parameter combinations: m of 1, 2, 3 and 4, and r of 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25 respectively. The statistical significance between NSR and CHF groups under each combination of m, r and N was observed. The results demonstrated that the selection of m, r and N plays a critical role in determining the SampEn and FuzzyMEn outputs. Compared with SampEn, FuzzyMEn shows a better regularity when selecting the parameters m and r. In addition, FuzzyMEn shows a better relative consistency for distinguishing the two groups, that is, the results of FuzzyMEn in the NSR group were consistently lower than those in the CHF group while SampEn were not. The selections of m of 2 and 3 and r of 0.10 and 0.15 for SampEn and the selections of m of 1 and 2 whenever r (herein, rL = rG = r) are for FuzzyMEn (in addition to setting nL = 3 and nG = 2) were recommended to yield the fine classification results for the NSR and CHF groups.
Analgesics, sedatives and neuromuscular blockers as part of end-of-life decisions in Dutch NICUs

Verhagen et al 1 describe the use of analgesics, sedatives and neuromuscular blockers (NMBs) during reorientation of care to compassionate measures in Groningen, the Netherlands. The authors draw attention to the fact that NMBs were used in 16% of such events. In some cases, NMBs were used to eliminate gasping after the …
Factors controlling pCO2 variability in the eastern Gulf of Cádiz (SW Iberian Península)

Abstract. Spatiotemporal variations of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) were studied during 8 oceanographic cruises conducted between March 2014 and February 2016 in surface waters of the eastern shelf of the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Iberian Península) between the Guadalquivir River and Cape Trafalgar. pCO2 presented a range of variation between 320.6 and 513.6 µatm, with highest values during summer and autumn and lowest during spring and winter, showing a linear dependence between pCO2 and temperature. The distributions of pCO2 were not homogeneous. Spatially, there was a general decrease from coastal to off-shore stations associated with continental inputs and presented an increase in the zones deeper than 400 m due to the influence of the eastward branch of the Azores Current. On the other side, the study area acted as source of CO2 to the atmosphere during summer and autumn and as a sink in spring and winter, with a mean value for the study period of −0.18 ± 1.32 mmol m−2 d−1. In the Guadalquivir and Sancti Petri sections, the CO2 fluxes decreased towards offshore, whereas in the Trafalgar section increased due to the presence of an upwelling. These results highlighted the Gulf of Cádiz as a CO2 sink, with a capture capacity of 14.9 Gg year−1.
A Sensitive Urinary Lipoarabinomannan Test for Tuberculosis

We have previously developed a diagnostic test for tuberculosis based on detection of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in urine. The method depended on a laborious concentration step. We have now developed an easy to perform test based on a magnetic immunoassay platform, utilizing high avidity monoclonal antibodies for the detection of LAM in urine. With this method the analytical sensitivity of the assay was increased 50-100-fold compared to conventional ELISA. In a pilot study of HIV-negative patients with microbiologically verified TB (n=17) and healthy controls (n=22) the sensitivity of the test was 82% and the specificity 100%. This is in stark positive contrast to a range of studies using available commercial tests with polyclonal anti-LAM Abs where the sensitivity of the tests in HIV-negative TB patients was very low.
Early Top–Down Control of Visual Processing Predicts Working Memory Performance

Selective attention confers a behavioral benefit on both perceptual and working memory (WM) performance, often attributed to top–down modulation of sensory neural processing. However, the direct relationship between early activity modulation in sensory cortices during selective encoding and subsequent WM performance has not been established. To explore the influence of selective attention on WM recognition, we used electroencephalography to study the temporal dynamics of top–down modulation in a selective, delayed-recognition paradigm. Participants were presented with overlapped, “double-exposed” images of faces and natural scenes, and were instructed to either remember the face or the scene while simultaneously ignoring the other stimulus. Here, we present evidence that the degree to which participants modulate the early P100 (97–129 msec) event-related potential during selective stimulus encoding significantly correlates with their subsequent WM recognition. These results contribute to our evolving understanding of the mechanistic overlap between attention and memory.
Increased leukocyte elastase of the tracheal aspirate at birth and neonatal pulmonary emphysema.

OBJECTIVE The authors have previously shown the association of elevated neonatal serum IgM and chorioamnionitis in infants in whom pulmonary emphysema characteristic of Wilson-Mikity syndrome subsequently developed. This paper extends the observation to the measurement of polymorphonuclear leukocyte elastase-alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor complex (PMN elastase-alpha 1-PI) in tracheal aspirates of infants with chronic lung disease. PATIENTS Tracheal aspirates were obtained from 90 very low birth weight neonates within 24 hours of birth. Serum also was collected within 72 hours of birth, and placentas were examined for signs of inflammation. RESULTS The mean PMN elastase-alpha 1-PI was significantly elevated (21.8 micrograms/mg albumin) in infants with a pulmonary emphysema syndrome like that designated by Wilson-Mikity compared either with those with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (1.5 micrograms/mg albumin, P < .01) or those with respiratory distress syndrome in whom bronchopulmonary dysplasia did not develop (2.3 micrograms/mg albumin, P < .01). Infants with pulmonary emphysema had a significantly elevated mean serum IgM and a high incidence of chorioamnionitis. CONCLUSIONS The level of PMN elastase-alpha 1-PI was increased in the tracheal aspirates of newborns in whom pulmonary emphysema developed. Intrauterine inflammation may increase the level of PMN elastase in the fetal respiratory tract. This increase in PMN elastase-alpha 1-PI in fetal lung tissue may cause lung injury in utero, resulting in postnatal pulmonary emphysema consistent with the Wilson-Mikity syndrome following ventilation.
Discovery and validation of genic single nucleotide polymorphisms in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

The economic and ecological importance of the oyster necessitates further research on the molecular mechanisms, which both regulate the commercially important traits of the oyster and help it to survive in the variable marine environment. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been widely used to assess genetic variation and identify genes underlying target traits. In addition, high‐resolution melting (HRM) analysis is a potentially powerful method for validating candidate SNPs. In this study, we adopted a rapid and efficient pipeline for the screening and validation of SNPs in the genic region of Crassostrea gigas based on transcriptome sequencing and HRM analysis. Transcriptomes of three wild oyster populations were sequenced using Illumina sequencing technology. In total, 50–60 million short reads, corresponding to 4.5–5.4 Gbp, from each population were aligned to the oyster genome, and 5.8 × 105 SNPs were putatively identified, resulting in a predicted SNP every 47 nucleotides on average. The putative SNPs were unevenly distributed in the genome and high‐density (≥2%), nonsynonymous coding SNPs were enriched in genes related to apoptosis and responses to biotic stimuli. Subsequently, 1,671 loci were detected by HRM analysis, accounting for 64.7% of the total selected candidate primers, and finally, 1,301 polymorphic SNP markers were developed based on HRM analysis. All of the validated SNPs were distributed into 897 genes and located in 672 scaffolds, and 275 of these genes were stress inducible under unfavourable salinity, temperature, and exposure to air and heavy metals. The validated SNPs in this study provide valuable molecular markers for genetic mapping and characterization of important traits in oysters.
Purification and proteomics of pathogen-modified vacuoles and membranes

Certain pathogenic bacteria adopt an intracellular lifestyle and proliferate in eukaryotic host cells. The intracellular niche protects the bacteria from cellular and humoral components of the mammalian immune system, and at the same time, allows the bacteria to gain access to otherwise restricted nutrient sources. Yet, intracellular protection and access to nutrients comes with a price, i.e., the bacteria need to overcome cell-autonomous defense mechanisms, such as the bactericidal endocytic pathway. While a few bacteria rupture the early phagosome and escape into the host cytoplasm, most intracellular pathogens form a distinct, degradation-resistant and replication-permissive membranous compartment. Intracellular bacteria that form unique pathogen vacuoles include Legionella, Mycobacterium, Chlamydia, Simkania, and Salmonella species. In order to understand the formation of these pathogen niches on a global scale and in a comprehensive and quantitative manner, an inventory of compartment-associated host factors is required. To this end, the intact pathogen compartments need to be isolated, purified and biochemically characterized. Here, we review recent progress on the isolation and purification of pathogen-modified vacuoles and membranes, as well as their proteomic characterization by mass spectrometry and different validation approaches. These studies provide the basis for further investigations on the specific mechanisms of pathogen-driven compartment formation.
The effects of thrombopoietin on megakaryocyte-cfc, megakaryocytes, and thrombopoiesis: with studies of ploidy and platelet size.

The effects of partially purified thrombopoietin (TPO). prepared from the plasma of thrombocytopenic rabbits, upon megakaryocyte colony-forming cells (Meg-CFC), megakaryocytes, and platelets were evaluated. The thrombopoiesis-stimulating activity of both types of preparations of TPO used was established by their ability to increase the levels of selenomethionine-75Se (75SeM) in the circulating platelets of mice, as described previously. TPO did not increase the frequency or total numbers of Meg-CFC or granulocyte-macrophage-CFC (GM-CFC) in the bone marrow or spleen of recipient mice. Similarly, the addition of TPO directly to 0.3% agar cultures of bone marrow or splenic cells did not alter the frequency of either Meg-CFC or GM-CFC, although in some experiments. concentrations greater than required to stimulate thrombopoiesis in vivo were used. TPO did not enhance the ability of suboptimal concentrations of spleen conditioned medium to support colony growth. Human erythropoietin (EPO) at concentrations from 0.6 U/mI to 8 U/mI, in vitro, did not increase the frequency of bone marrow or splenic Meg-CFC or GM-CFC. As previously reported, two types of megakaryocyte
Beltway: getting around garbage collection gridlock

We present the design and implementation of a new garbage collection framework that significantly generalizes existing copying collectors. The Beltway framework exploits and separates object age and incrementality. It groups objects in one or more increments on queues called belts, collects belts independently, and collects increments on a belt in first-in-first-out order. We show that Beltway configurations, selected by command line options, act and perform the same as semi-space, generational, and older-first collectors, and encompass all previous copying collectors of which we are aware. The increasing reliance on garbage collected languages such as Java requires that the collector perform well. We show that the generality of Beltway enables us to design and implement new collectors that are robust to variations in heap size and improve total execution time over the best generational copying collectors of which we are aware by up to 40%, and on average by 5 to 10%, for small to moderate heap sizes. New garbage collection algorithms are rare, and yet we define not just one, but a new family of collectors that subsumes previous work. This generality enables us to explore a larger design space and build better collectors.
How can clinician-educator training programs be optimized to match clinician motivations and concerns?

Background Several medical schools have implemented programs aimed at supporting clinician-educators with formal mentoring, training, and experience in undergraduate medical teaching. However, consensus program design has yet to be established, and the effectiveness of these programs in terms of producing quality clinician-educator teaching remains unclear. The goal of this study was to review the literature to identify motivations and perceived barriers to clinician-educators, which in turn will improve clinician-educator training programs to better align with clinician-educator needs and concerns. Methods Review of medical education literature using the terms “attitudes”, “motivations”, “physicians”, “teaching”, and “undergraduate medical education” resulted in identification of key themes revealing the primary motivations and barriers involved in physicians teaching undergraduate medical students. Results A synthesis of articles revealed that physicians are primarily motivated to teach undergraduate students for intrinsic reasons. To a lesser extent, physicians are motivated to teach for extrinsic reasons, such as rewards or recognition. The key barriers deterring physicians from teaching medical students included: decreased productivity, lack of compensation, increased length of the working day, patient concerns/ethical issues, and lack of confidence in their own ability. Conclusion Our findings suggest that optimization of clinician-educator training programs should address, amongst other factors, time management concerns, appropriate academic recognition for teaching service, and confidence in teaching ability. Addressing these issues may increase the retention of clinicians who are active and proficient in medical education.