Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated effect of planting dates and irrigation regimes on morpho-physiological response, forage yield and quality, and water use efficiency of clitoria (Clitoria ternatea L.) in arid region

ABSTRACT A 2-year field experiment (2015/2016) was conducted on clitoria planted on May 20 as early (PE) and June 20 as late (PL) under 100% = I100%, 80% = I80% and 60% = I60% of allowable soil moisture depletion (ASMD). The objective was to investigate the complementary effect of planting date and deficit irrigation on morpho-physiological responses, forage quantity and quality, and water use efficiency (WUE) of clitoria. Early planting date (PE) significantly improved almost all attributes. Clitoria plants exposed to (I100% or 80%) had higher almost parameters except for leaf/stem ratio (LSR), protein, and WUE in both seasons. Higher cumulative dry forage yield CDFY (6.5 and 6.4 t ha−1) and cumulative protein yield CPY (1.4 and 1.2 t ha−1) resulted from I80% and I100% whereas, highest WUE (1.8 and 1.6 kg m−3) from I60% in both the seasons, respectively. Clitoria planted early and irrigated with I100% or 80% had higher morpho-physiological responses and yields in both cuts of both seasons. Therefore, the adverse effects of drought can be diminished by planting early (PE) and watering with (I100% or 80%), particularly under limited water and could be suggested as a non-monetary practice for upgrade the drought tolerance in clitoria and maximizing yield and quality in arid environments.
Explicit Formula of Koszul-Vinberg Characteristic Functions for a Wide Class of Regular Convex Cones

The Koszul–Vinberg characteristic function plays a fundamental role in the theory of convex cones. We give an explicit description of the function and related integral formulas for a new class of convex cones, including homogeneous cones and cones associated with chordal (decomposable) graphs appearing in statistics. Furthermore, we discuss an application to maximum likelihood estimation for a certain exponential family over a cone of this class.
Patterns of production of collagen‐rich deposits in peripheral nerves in response to injury: A pilot study in a rabbit model

Although collagen‐rich deposits are the main component of neural scars, the patterns of their formation are ill defined. Essential to the biosynthesis of collagen fibrils are enzymes catalyzing posttranslational modifications and chaperones that control the formation of the collagen triple helix. Prolyl‐4‐hydroxylase (P4H) and heat shock protein‐47 (HSP47) play a key role, and their production is upregulated during scar formation in human tissues. Alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA) is also produced during fibrotic processes in myofibroblasts that participate in fibrotic response. In injured peripheral nerves, however, the distribution of cells that produce these markers is poorly understood.
Factors influencing anti-retroviral therapy uptake among HIV positive and exposed children aged below 14 years in Meru North District, Kenya

Background: Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) is a major intervention for children infected and exposed to HIV infection and it influences their morbidity and mortality. Objective: To investigate factors influencing ARV uptake in HIV positive and exposed children aged below 14 years in Meru North District. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: The Nyambene District Hospital, Miathene Sub - District Hospital and Maua Methodist Hospital paediatrics comprehensive care clinics (PCCC) in Meru North District. Subjects: Parents or guardians with children less than 14 years of age exposed or infected with HIV who visited the selected health facilities. Results: About 222 caregivers were interviewed with mean age of 38.4 + 10.3 years ranging from 21 to 70 years. About 120 (54.0%) were aged between 30 to 39 years, Most of the caregivers 106 (47.7%) had acquired education up to primary level. Marital status of the caregivers revealed that 104 (46.8%) were married while 16 (6.3%) were cohabiting. Relationship between children ARV uptake and marital status of caregiver was significant (OR= 2.1, 95% C.I= 1.0 – 4.6, P=0.050). Significant association between source of medical advice and children ARV uptake (P<0.05) was evident. Conclusion: Achieving widespread public health benefits of ARV roll-out requires community - level interventions in marriages and information distribution to ensure local acceptability of antiretroviral drugs. Better management and improvement of health status of HIV exposed and infected children will be enhanced by improved ARV uptake. Recommendation: The study recommends integration and decentralization of ARV services through social supports, encouraging disclosure of HIV statuses for positive living and enhanced ARV uptake and enhanced awareness creation on ARVs and HIV information to caregivers at all levels.
Dehydration-Stress Resistance in Two Sister, Cryptic Rhodnius Species—Rhodnius prolixus and Rhodnius robustus Genotype I (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Abstract Rhodnius prolixus Stål, a major Chagas disease vector, often colonizes in houses, whereas its sister species, Rhodnius robustus Larrousse genotype I, does not colonize in houses and has little medical relevance. Factors potentially underlying this crucial difference remain largely uncharted. The ‘microclimate-adaptation hypothesis' notes that R. prolixus is adapted to the dry microclimate of small-crowned Copernicia palms, whereas R. robustus I exploits the high-moisture microclimate of large-crowned Attalea and Acrocomia. Hence, R. prolixus, but not R. robustus I, would be (pre)adapted to the relatively dry microclimate typical of man-made habitats. This hypothesis predicts that, while severe dehydration should harm both species similarly, R. prolixus should withstand moderate-to-mild dehydration stress better than R. robustus I. To test this prediction, we compared fitness metrics of genotyped R. prolixus and R. robustus I kept at 28°C and under severe (20% relative humidity, RH), moderate (40% RH), or mild dehydration stress (75% RH). Egg-hatching success increased with decreasing dehydration stress in R. robustus I (0% → 19% → 100%), but was high across treatments in R. prolixus (78% → 100% → 100%). Both species underwent high, early mortality under severe dehydration; under moderate and mild stress, R. prolixus experienced less mortality and survived longer than R. robustus I. Our results suggest that adaptation to distinct palm-crown microclimates may partly underlie the so far unexplained differences in house-colonization ability among Rhodnius Stål species. Experimental replication across additional species/populations will be required to further probe this adaptive hypothesis—which, if supported, may also provide insight into the likely responses of Chagas disease vectors to climate change.
Modulation of Type 1 Diabetes Susceptibility by Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha −308 G/A and Lymphotoxin Alpha +249 A/G Haplotypes and Lack of Linkage Disequilibrium with Predisposing DQB1-DRB1 Haplotypes in Bahraini Patients

ABSTRACT Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) −308 G/A and lymphotoxin alpha (LTα) +249 A/G single-nucleotide polymorphisms were investigated in 228 type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients and 240 controls. Only LTα +249G allele and +249G/+249G genotype frequencies were higher among patients, and no linkage disequilibrium was found between TNF-α/LTα alleles and susceptible/protective DRB1-DQB1 haplotypes. TNF-α/LTα T1DM-susceptible (−308G/+249G) and protective (−308G/+249A) haplotypes were identified.
Discovery of a novel splice variant of Fcar (CD89) unravels sequence segments necessary for efficient secretion: A story of bad signal peptides and good ones that nevertheless do not make it

ABSTRACT The IgA receptor, Fcar (CD89) consists of 5 sequence segments: 2 segments (S1, S2) forming the potential signal peptide, 2 extracellular EC domains that include the IgA binding site, and the transmembrane and cytoplasmic tail (TM/C) region. Numerous Fcar splice variants have been reported with various combinations of the sequence segments mentioned above. Here, we report a novel splice variant termed variant APD isolated from a healthy volunteer that lacks only the IgA-binding EC1 domain. Despite possessing the complete signal peptide S1+S2, the variant APD is only found in the intracellular space whereas the wild-type variant 1 is efficiently secreted and variant 4 leaks to the extracellular space. Further mutational experiments involving signal peptide replacements, cleavage site modifications, and studies on alternative isoforms demonstrate that despite the completeness of the signal peptide motif, the presence of the EC1 domain is essential for efficient extracellular export.
A new twist on the legend of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in acute lung injury?

covariates might have strengthened the model, it also might have made the regression equation difficult to use clinically. However, we really will not know this until specific analyses such as these are done. At the end of the day, the value of this study is borne out in the prospective validation of the SF-derived SOFA scores in subsequent ICU patients. In this phase of the study, the respiratory component of the SOFA score and the total SOFA were calculated in a cohort of 100 trauma and surgical ICU patients using both the SF and PF ratio thresholds. Both approaches yielded similar correlations with important outcomes, such as ICU length of stay and ventilator-free days. The authors thus reasonably conclude that SF ratios provide an alternative method for calculating the respiratory component of the SOFA score when the PF ratios are unavailable because of the lack of arterial blood gas data. Extension of this work would allow the SF–PF correlation to be applied to other clinical scoring systems that also require a PF ratio for their calculation. This should not be the end of the story. Although one of the strengths of this study is its large, heterogeneous group of patients (and thus its generalizability), the statistically significant r values for the SF and PF correlations are still lower than clinicians would like to see in surrogate data. As noted earlier, more in-depth analyses of factors affecting SpO2–PaO2 may further enhance the utility of the SF ratio in clinical scoring systems. Neil MacIntyre, MD Department of Respiratory Care Duke University Medical Center Durham, NC
Reduction theory of point clusters in projective space

In this paper, we generalise results obtained earlier by John Cremona and the author on the reduction theory of binary forms, which describe positive zero-cycles in P^1, to positive zero-cycles (or point clusters) in projective spaces of arbitrary dimension. This should have applications to more general projective varieties in P^n, by associating a suitable positive zero-cycle to them in an PGL(n+1)-invariant way. We discuss this in the case of (smooth) plane curves.
Zinc‐finger paralogues tsh and tio are functionally equivalent during imaginal development in Drosophila and maintain their expression levels through auto‐ and cross‐negative feedback loops

teashirt (tsh) and tiptop (tio) are two Drosophila gene paralogues encoding zinc‐finger transcription factors. While tsh is an important developmental regulator, tio null individuals are viable and fertile. Here, we show that tio and tsh have coincident expression domains in the imaginal discs, the precursors of the adult body, and that both genes show similar functional properties when expressed ectopically. Furthermore, tio is able to rescue the development of tsh mutants, indicating that both genes are functionally equivalent during imaginal development. Of interest, the transcriptional regulation of tio and tsh is linked by a negative feedback loop. This mechanism might be required to maintain a tight control on the total levels of tio/tsh and could help explaining why Drosophila keeps an apparently dispensable gene. Developmental Dynamics 238:19–28, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evaluation of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) applied to ASTER imagery with flux-measurements at the SPARC 2004 site (Barrax, Spain)

Abstract. Accurate quantification of the amount and spatial variation of evapotranspiration is important in a wide range of disciplines. Remote sensing based surface energy balance models have been developed to estimate turbulent surface energy fluxes at different scales. The objective of this study is to evaluate the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) model on a landscape scale, using tower-based flux measurements at different land cover units during an overpass of the ASTER sensor over the SPARC 2004 experimental site in Barrax (Spain). A sensitivity analysis has been performed in order to investigate to which variable the sensible heat flux is most sensitive. Taking into account their estimation errors, the aerodynamic parameters (hc, z0M and d0) can cause large deviations in the modelling of sensible heat flux. The effect of replacement of empirical derivation of these aerodynamic parameters in the model by field estimates or literature values is investigated by testing two scenarios: the Empirical Scenario in which empirical equations are used to derive aerodynamic parameters and the Field Scenario in which values from field measurements or literature are used to replace the empirical calculations of the Empirical Scenario. In the case of a homogeneous land cover in the footprints of the measurements, the Field Scenario only resulted in a small improvement, compared to the Empirical Scenario. The Field Scenario can even worsen the result in the case of heterogeneous footprints, by creating sharp borders related to the land cover map. In both scenarios modelled fluxes correspond better with flux measurements over uniform land cover compared to cases where different land covers are mixed in the measurement footprint. Furthermore SEBS underestimates sensible heat flux especially over dry and sparsely vegetated areas, which is common in single-source models.
Combined relay selection and cooperative beamforming for physical layer security

In this paper, we propose combined relay selection and cooperative beamforming schemes for physical layer security. Generally, high operational complexity is required for cooperative beamforming with multiple relays because of the required information exchange and synchronization among the relays. On the other hand, while it is desirable to reduce the number of relays participating in cooperative beamforming because of the associated complexity problem, doing so may degrade the coding gain of cooperative beamforming. Hence, we propose combined relay selection and cooperative beamforming schemes, where only two of the available relays are selected for beamforming and data transmission. The proposed schemes introduce a selection gain which partially compensates for the decrease in coding gain due to limiting the number of participating relays to two. Both the cases where full and only partial channel state information are available for relay selection and cooperative beamforming are considered. Analytical and simulation results for the proposed schemes show improved secrecy capacities compared to existing physical layer security schemes employing cooperative relays.
Muller’s Ratchet and the Long-Term Fate of Chromosomal Inversions

Chromosomal inversions contribute widely to adaptation and speciation, yet they present a unique evolutionary puzzle as both their allelic content and frequency evolve in a feedback loop. In this simulation study, we quantified the role of the allelic content in determining the long-term fate of the inversion. Recessive deleterious mutations accumulated rapidly on both arrangements with most of them being private to a given arrangement. The emerging overdominance led to maintenance of the inversion polymorphism and strong non-adaptive divergence between arrangements. The accumulation of mutations was mitigated by gene conversion but nevertheless led to the fitness decline of at least one homokaryotype. Surprisingly, this fitness degradation could be permanently halted by the branching of an arrangement into multiple highly divergent haplotypes. Our results highlight the dynamic features of inversions by showing how the non-adaptive evolution of allelic content can play a major role in the fate of the inversion.
Incorporating Speaker and Discourse Features into Speech Summarization

We have explored the usefulness of incorporating speech and discourse features in an automatic speech summarization system applied to meeting recordings from the ICSI Meetings corpus. By analyzing speaker activity, turn-taking and discourse cues, we hypothesize that such a system can outperform solely text-based methods inherited from the field of text summarization. The summarization methods are described, two evaluation methods are applied and compared, and the results clearly show that utilizing such features is advantageous and efficient. Even simple methods relying on discourse cues and speaker activity can outperform text summarization approaches.
Realistic Species Losses Disproportionately Reduce Grassland Resistance to Biological Invaders

Consequences of progressive biodiversity declines depend on the functional roles of individual species and the order in which species are lost. Most studies of the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relation tackle only the first of these factors. We used observed variation in grassland diversity to design an experimental test of how realistic species losses affect invasion resistance. Because entire plant functional groups disappeared faster than expected by chance, resistance declined dramatically with progressive species losses. Realistic biodiversity losses, even of rare species, can thus affect ecosystem processes far more than indicated by randomized-loss experiments.
Early detection of macular changes in patients with diabetes using Rarebit Fovea Test and optical coherence tomography

Aim: To evaluate central retinal thickness and foveal function using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and the Rarebit Fovea Test (RFT) in patients with diabetes without previously known retinopathy or maculopathy. Method: Forty-two patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) were selected from the screening records at St Erik Eye Hospital. Inclusion criteria were absence of macular or other retinal changes at previous screening examination and best corrected visual acuity ⩾1.0. These patients and 42 healthy controls were examined with the recently developed RFT, and retinal thickness was measured using OCT. Lens thickness and light scatter were evaluated by Scheimpflug photography. Results: Significantly more DM subjects (12/42) had a subnormal RFT result compared with the controls (2/42) (p = 0.007). None of the 12 DM subjects had maculopathy, one had mild non proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and five had minimal non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The retinal thickness in the pericentral zone was significantly (p<0.05) thinner in DM patients with subnormal RFT compared with the controls. Conclusion: Decreased RT and subnormal RFT results were found in a subgroup of diabetes patients, despite normal screening results. Prospective studies are under way to evaluate the prognostic implications.
Comment: Will Competition-Winning Methods for Causal Inference Also Succeed in Practice?

First, we would like to congratulate the authors for successfully hosting the causal inference data competition (referred to as Competition henceforth) and contributing a unique and thought-provoking article to the literature. The authors have provided a comprehensive and timely platform to evaluate the ever-growing number of methods used for covariate adjustment in observational studies. In our comment, we don’t generally question the results of the competition, but we do wish to emphasize several other key elements about the role statistics plays in causal inference and observational studies.
Significant Outcome Of Biliary Anastomosis In Living Related Donor Liver Transplantation

Variations in the anatomy of the intrahepatic bile ducts have long been recognized. Serious consideration of the surgical anatomy of the liver began, however, with the advent of minimally invasive therapeutic intervention for bile duct or hepatic resection, or partial liver transplantation. Thus, accurate knowledge of the anatomy of IHDs is critical. 30 cases were included in this study. Right lobe donation in 27 cases and left lobe donation in 3 cases. The main indication for transplantation was end stage liver disease: hepatitis C end stage liver cirrhosis in 29 cases, while hepatocellular carcinoma on top of liver cirrhosis was the remaining case. Pretransplantation preparation of both donors and recipients was done.No mortality was reported to either any of the donors or the recipients. Postoperative donor biliary complications occurred in 1 case and conservative treatment was followed with complete resolution of the condition . Postoperative recipient biliary complicatioins occurred in eleven cases in the form of biloma, biliary leakage, biliary stricture, cholangitis and peritonitis, six of them with two ducts anastomosis. They were managed and cured without residual pathology.
Allele Frequencies of Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphisms in the Protein Coding Region and Promoter Region (-491a/T) in a Healthy Norwegian Population

This study examines the distribution of apolipoprotein E (APOE) alleles in a population of healthy male and female Norwegians (n = 798) below the age of 40. The -491A/T polymorphism of the promoter region of the APOE gene was also examined. A seminested polymerase chain reaction was applied in the genotyping. The results showed that the E3 allele had the highest frequency (0.744), followed by E4 (0.198) and E2 (0.058). The APOE frequencies found in this study differ significantly from those obtained in earlier Norwegian APOE phenotypings. The allele frequencies in the -491 site of the promoter region were 0.845 for the A allele and 0.155 for the T allele. The genotype frequency was highest for AA (0.707), followed by AT (0.277) and TT (0.016). Moreover, the A allele was in linkage disequilibrium to E4.
The origin and evolution of a recent agricultural weed: population genetic diversity of weedy populations of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) in Spain and France

The recurrent evolution of crop‐related weeds during agricultural history raises serious economic problems and challenging scientific questions. Weedy forms of sunflower, a species native from America, have been reported in European sunflower fields for a few decades. In order to understand their origin, we analysed the genetic diversity of a sample of weedy populations from France and Spain, and of conventional and ornamental varieties. A crop‐specific maternally inherited marker was present in all weeds. At 16 microsatellite loci, the weedy populations shared most of their diversity with the conventional varieties. But they showed a large number of additional alleles absent from the cultivated pool. European weedy populations thus most probably originated from the unintentional pollination of maternal lines in seed production fields by wild plants growing nearby, resulting in the introduction of crop‐wild hybrids into the farmers’ fields. The wide diversity and the low population structure detected were indicative of a multiplicity of introductions events rather than of field‐to‐field propagation. Further studies are required to understand the local evolutionary dynamics of a weedy population, and especially the respective roles of crop‐to‐weed gene flow and selection in the fate of an initial source of crop‐wild hybrids.