Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in energy crop species cultivated on arable land contaminated with heavy metals

Arbuscular mycorrhiza is a widespread terrestrial symbiosis, involving 80 – 85% of vascular plants in almost all ecosystems. AM fungi increase plant tolerance to heavy metals by developing mechanisms allowing immobilization metals within or near the root and preventing their translocation to the shoot. Therefore, AMF could be involved in phytostabilization of heavy metals contaminated soils. The aim of the presented study was to explore the effect of heavy metals on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) root colonization of selected energy crop species: Miscanthus x giganteus, Panicum virgatum and Spartina pectinata cultivated on heavy metals contaminated arable land under different fertilisation (NPK vs. microbial inoculation). All examined plant species formed arbuscular mycorrhizal associations and differences in degree of mycorrhizal colonization among experimental variants were found. Influence of soil fertilization on AMF root colonization wasspecies-dependent. Both NPK fertilization and microbial inoculation resulted in reduction of mycorrhizal colonization in Miscanthus x giganteus, whereas in Panicum virgatum degree of AMF root colonisation was increased. Soil fertilisation had no effect on degree of Spartina pectinata root mycorrhization, sincethey were almost fully colonized independly on fertilization. In conclusions, contamination with heavy metals did not result in restriction of mycorrhizal colonization, which could be a consequence of AMF adaptation to such conditions. Nevertheless, among tested species, higher level of mycorrhizal colonization was found for Spartina pectinata roots. It indicates the highest susceptibility of this species to development of mycorrhizal structures regardless of heavy metal pollution and fertilization.
Tactile feedback for mobile interactions

We present a study investigating the use of vibrotactile feedback for touch-screen keyboards on PDAs. Such key-boards are hard to use when mobile as keys are very small. We conducted a laboratory study comparing standard but-tons to ones with tactile feedback added. Results showed that with tactile feedback users entered significantly more text, made fewer errors and corrected more of the errors they did make. We ran the study again with users seated on an underground train to see if the positive effects trans-ferred to realistic use. There were fewer beneficial effects, with only the number of errors corrected significantly im-proved by the tactile feedback. However, we found strong subjective feedback in favour of the tactile display. The results suggest that tactile feedback has a key role to play in improving interactions with touch screens.
Groundwater Depletion and Associated CO2 Emissions in India

India, the world's largest groundwater user, withdraws about 230‐billion‐m3 groundwater annually for irrigation. Excessive groundwater pumping in India leads to rapid groundwater depletion and CO2 emissions. Here using multiple data sources (observation wells and Gravity Recovery Climate Experiment) to estimate groundwater depletion in India, as well as the associated chemistry and the pumping energy requirements, we provide the first estimate of the potential CO2 emissions due to bicarbonate extraction (CO2 release due to lowering of groundwater table) and groundwater pumping. We show that combined annual CO2 release due to bicarbonate extraction and pumping in India is approximately 32.01–131.74 million tons (31.29–131.02 million tons for pumping and 0.72 million tons for bicarbonate). The total estimated groundwater depletion in India is in the range of 122 to 199 billion m3 from the observation wells (1996–2016) and Gravity Recovery Climate Experiment (2002–2016). The CO2 emissions due to bicarbonate (~0.72 million tons/year) are dominated by those due to groundwater pumping (31.29–131.02 million tons/year) in India. However, the total (pumping and bicarbonate) estimated annual CO2 emission from groundwater is less than 2–7% of the total (annual) CO2 emission from India. Based on our unique data set collected from more than 500 farmers in Punjab, we show that a low‐cost intervention for irrigation scheduling based on soil moisture information can provide a sustainable solution by reducing groundwater pumping and CO2 emissions. The environmental problem of groundwater depletion in India is much more serious than the associated CO2 emissions, and hence, there is an urgent need for a regulation of groundwater use.
Discrete fractional Hilbert transform

The Hilbert transform plays an important role in signal processing. A generalization of the Hilbert transform, the fractional Hilbert transform, was recently proposed, and it presents a physical interpretation in the definition. In this paper, we develop the discrete fractional Hilbert transform, and apply the proposed transform to edge detection applications.
Primary lymphomas of the lung: morphological, immunohistochemical and clinical features

Sixty‐two cases of primary malignant lymphoma of the were investigated. Fifty‐eight lymphomas were of B‐ and two of T‐cell type. Two cases of high‐grade homa could not be further classified. The largest group (43 cases) consisted of low‐grade B‐cell lymphoma of the bronchus‐associated lymphoid tissue. These showed features similar to low‐grade B‐cell lymphomas of the mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue of the stomach. The low‐grade lymphomas showed a peak occurrence in the sixth decade, the high‐grade lymphomas in venth decade. Males predominated slightly. Three‐quarters of the patients with low‐grade B‐cell lymphoma of the bronchus‐associated lymphoid tissue showed solitary or multiple sharply defined nodules of the lung. The prognosis of the B‐cell‐derived lung lymphomas without constitutional symptoms was relatively favourable, regardless of whether they were of low‐ or high‐grade malignancy, whereas patients with constitutional symptoms and the two patients with T‐cell lymphomas showed a bad prognosis. However, recurrences and metastases in the lung, stomach, lymph nodes and salivary glands were seen in about 46% of the cases of low‐grade B‐cell lymphoma of the bronchus‐associated lymphoid tissue.
Antenatal detection of single umbilical artery: what does it mean?

Introduction: The presence of a single umbilical artery (SUA) is recognised as a soft marker for congenital anomalies, aneuploidy, earlier delivery and intra-uterine growth restriction and/or low birth weight. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of SUA in a selected population. And secondly, to examine the clinical signiÞ cance of this soft marker. Material and methods: A retrospective analysis, over a 36-month period, of all cases of pregnancy interruption due to medical causes, up to 16 weeks of gestation, with prenatal diagnosis of SUA; cases of live born with a prenatal diagnosis of SUA or after delivery, at the routine examination of the placenta. Fetal growth and the risk of preterm labor are also to consider in the surveillance of these pregnancies. Results: Thirty nine cases of SUA were identiÞ ed during the study period. Incidence of SUA in live born was 0.32% (n=30) and in pregnancy interruption due to medical causes was 12.9% (n=9). The antenatal detection rate was 77%. This ecographic soft marker was an isolated Þ nding in 27 live born (90%). In live born with SUA and associated malformations (13.3%), urinary abnormalities were identiÞ ed in three cases (75%), and a skeletal with esophageal malformation was identiÞ ed in one case (25%). Preterm birth occurred in seven cases (23.3%) and birth weight below 10 th percentile in four cases (13.3%). Discussion and conclusions: The presence of SUA in antenatal period should alert the sonographer and clinician for the need of a detailed examination of the fetus to exclude other anomalies. Fetal growth and the risk of preterm labor are also to consider in the surveillance of these pregnancies.
Tele-rehabilitation: present and future.

SUMMARY During the last decade we assisted to relevant progress in rehabilitation studies and in technological development. From the combination of these issues rises the tele-rehabilitation--a subfield of telemedicine consisting of a system to control rehabilitation "at distance"--as an actual possibility of application and a promising development in the future. The present paper offers a short review of the state of the art in the field of tele-rehabilitation, with a special focus on upper limb tele-rehabilitation. The experience is also briefly reported of the preliminary application of the H-CAD (home care activity desk) system and the HELLODOC (Healthcare service linking tele-rehabilitation to disabled people and clinicians) tele-rehabilitation service, conducted by the authors within two European projects in the period 2003-2005 and 2005-2007 respectively.
Body segment position reconstruction and posture classification by smart textiles

Textile-based transducers are an innovative category of devices that use conductive fibres meshed with elastic textile fabrics. Within this paper, a new class of strain sensors, which represents an excellent trade-off between figures of merit in mechano-electrical transduction and possibility of integration in textiles, is presented. Electrically conductive elastomer composites show piezo-resistive properties when a deformation is applied. Conductive elastomer can be applied to fabric or to other flexible substrate and they can be employed as strain sensors. We integrated conductive elastomer sensors into fabrics to realize wearable kinaesthetic garments able to detect posture and movement of a user. This paper deals with the design, the development and realization of a set of sensing garments, from the characterization of innovative textile-based sensors to the methodologies employed to gather information on the posture and movement from the entire garments. Data deriving from the prototypes are analysed and compared with those deriving from a traditional movement tracking system. The realized kinaesthetic garments have shown very promising performance in terms of body segment position reconstruction and posture classification.
Incidence and Short-Term Outcome of Cerebral Infarction in Young Adults in Western Norway

Background and Purpose— We sought to determine the incidence and short-term outcome of people aged 15 to 49 years with first-ever cerebral infarction in 1988–1997 in Hordaland County, Norway. Methods— Cases were found from computer search of hospital registries and detailed review of patient records. Stroke subtype was classified according to the major intracranial artery affected. Short-term outcome was evaluated by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Results— A total of 96 women and 136 men met the inclusion criteria. The average annual incidence was 11.4/100 000. Women outnumbered men among those aged <30 years (P =0.059); men predominated among those aged ≥30 years (P =0.004). A total of 148 patients had anterior circulation infarction (64%), and 84 had posterior circulation infarction (36%) (P <0.001). Patients with posterior circulation infarction had better mRS score at discharge (P =0.005). Eighty percent had favorable outcome (mRS score ≤2). The 30-day case fatality rate was 3.4%. The recurrence rate in hospital was 2.2%. Conclusions— The incidence was in the lower range compared with other reports from western Europe. Although men predominated, there was a strong trend toward more women among patients aged <30 years. Short-term outcome was generally good. Patients with posterior circulation infarction had significantly better short-term outcome.
Critical thinking ability and its associated factors among preclinical students in Yazd Shaheed Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences (Iran)

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of Iranian medical and dental students in thinking critically and to assess their ability in using definite components of critical thinking (CT). Methods Multistage cluster sampling was utilized to recruit 125 preclinical (1st, 2nd and 3rd year of study) students in Yazd Shaheed Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd, Iran. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) was applied to collect data. The statistical analysis of the data included One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test and bivariate correlations. Results The mean total score for this sample was 45.33±5.4. Significant differences were found in total critical thinking score by gender (p= 0.022), residency (p= 0.026) and the year of education (p= 0.01). A significant correlation was found between the total CT score and the student's number of passed credits (r= 0.297, p= 0.003). Also, a significant difference was found in the students’ scores on the WGCTA evaluation subtest by passing any research method courses (p= 0.04). Conclusion The CT ability in medical and dental students in the present study was weak overall. Medical educators and clinical instructors should try to develop the ability of CT by teaching methods and techniques like purposeful planning and problem-based teaching to promote the components of CT in their students. The improving of CT in medical students has implications for medical education and promotion of medical profession.
Risk Factors For Hepatitis B Virus Transmission In Nigerians: A Case-Control Study

This was a case-control study carried out at gastroenterology unit of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Ituku/Ozalla from January 2008 to April 2010. The cases were consecutive patients with various forms of liver disease who tested positive for Hepatitis B surface (HBsAg). Asymptomatic individuals referred to the unit during the study period after testing positive for HBsAg during screening for blood donation or routine medical examination were also included as cases. The control subjects were age and sex-matched, HBsAgnegative individuals referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.This case-control study of adults with HBV infection revealed that several high risk behaviors and practices for the transmission of this infection are significantly more prevalent among the patients compared to the controls. This means that parenteral transmission of HBV through these high-risk activities may have substantial contribution to disease burden.
How to Calculate Sample Size for Different Study Designs in Medical Research?

Calculation of exact sample size is an important part of research design. It is very important to understand that different study design need different method of sample size calculation and one formula cannot be used in all designs. In this short review we tried to educate researcher regarding various method of sample size calculation available for different study designs. In this review sample size calculation for most frequently used study designs are mentioned. For genetic and microbiological studies readers are requested to read other sources.
A dynamic clustering and energy efficient routing technique for sensor networks

In the development of various large-scale sensor systems, a particularly challenging problem is how to dynamically organize the sensors into a wireless communication network and route sensed information from the field sensors to a remote base station. This paper presents a new energy-efficient dynamic clustering technique for large-scale sensor networks. By monitoring the received signal power from its neighboring nodes, each node estimates the number of active nodes in realtime and computes its optimal probability of becoming a cluster head, so that the amount of energy spent in both intra- and inter-cluster communications can be minimized. Based on the clustered architecture, this paper also proposes a simple multihop routing algorithm that is designed to be both energy-efficient and power-aware, so as to prolong the network lifetime. The new clustering and routing algorithms scale well and converge fast for large-scale dynamic sensor networks, as shown by our extensive simulation results.
Focusing the view on nature's water-splitting catalyst

Nature invented a catalyst about 3 Gyr ago, which splits water with high efficiency into molecular oxygen and hydrogen equivalents (protons and electrons). This reaction is energetically driven by sunlight and the active centre contains relatively cheap and abundant metals: manganese and calcium. This biological system therefore forms the paradigm for all man-made attempts for direct solar fuel production, and several studies are underway to determine the electronic and geometric structures of this catalyst. In this report we briefly summarize the problems and the current status of these efforts and propose a density functional theory-based strategy for obtaining a reliable high-resolution structure of this unique catalyst that includes both the inorganic core and the first ligand sphere.
Genetic profiling of Klebsiella pneumoniae: comparison of pulsed field gel electrophoresis and random amplified polymorphic DNA

In this study, the discriminatory power of pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) methods for subtyping of 54 clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae were compared. All isolates were typeable by RAPD, while 3.6% of them were not typeable by PFGE. The repeatability of both typing methods were 100% with satisfying reproducibility (≥ 95%). Although the discriminatory power of PFGE was greater than RAPD, both methods showed sufficient discriminatory power (DI > 0.95) which reflects the heterogeneity among the K. pneumoniae isolates. An optimized RAPD protocol is less technically demanding and time consuming that makes it a reliable typing method and competitive with PFGE.
Proterozoic VanDieland in Central Victoria: ages, compositions and source depths for late devonian silicic magmas

Abstract The Proterozoic to Cambrian VanDieland microcontinent was accreted to mainland Australia at ca 400 Ma, and its northern tip, the Selwyn Block, forms the basement in central Victoria. Here, mainly Late Devonian, silicic magmas were derived from the Selwyn Block and intruded into the shallow crust. We use the phase petrology of Late Devonian, S-type rhyolitic ignimbrites and a xenolith of pelitic migmatite, together with Nd-model ages for the silicic magmatic rocks to constrain the lithological characteristics of the metasedimentary component of the Selwyn Block, to infer minimum depths and temperature conditions here in the Late Devonian, and the likely ages of the source rocks for the S-type magmas. The most abundant source rocks are inferred to be volcaniclastic metagreywackes, with minor metadacites, meta-andesites and metapelites. The metapelitic xenolith cannot have been the source for any of the silicic magmas but constrains the upper amphibolite-facies part of the Selwyn Block to depths around 17 km, where temperatures reached ∼775 °C. The older ignimbrite magma was formed by partial melting at perhaps 770 °C and a depth of at least 33 km, while the younger ignimbrite magma formed at ∼23 km and 900 °C. These depths suggest source rocks in the Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic lower parts of the Selwyn Block. Nd-model ages of the silicic magmatic rocks confirm a dominance of Mesoproterozoic to Paleoproterozoic sources. If the inferred rock types in the Mesoproterozoic formations were as current correlations suggest, the sources for the Late Devonian silicic magmas would have to lie in the undocumented Paleoproterozoic basement of the Selwyn Block. Rock types here must include andesitic to dacitic volcanic components as well as volcaniclastic greywackes and minor pelites, which suggests a continental arc setting. The Late Devonian magmatism in the region may record the progression from amphibolite- to granulite-facies conditions during post-orogenic extension, with heat advected to the crust by mantle-derived mafic magmas. These processes would have resulted in mafitisation of the deep Selwyn Block.
Leishmania Exosomes Modulate Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses through Effects on Monocytes and Dendritic Cells

We investigated the properties of leishmania exosomes with respect to influencing innate and adaptive immune responses. Exosomes from Leishmania donovani modulated human monocyte cytokine responses to IFN-γ in a bimodal fashion by promoting IL-10 production and inhibiting that of TNF-α. Moreover, these vesicles were inhibitory with respect to cytokine responses (IL-12p70, TNF-α, and IL-10) by human monocyte-derived dendritic cells. Exosomes from wild-type (WT) L. donovani failed to prime monocyte-derived dendritic cells to drive the differentiation of naive CD4 T cells into IFN-γ–producing Th1 cells. In contrast, vesicles from heat shock protein (HSP)100−/− L. donovani showed a gain-of-function and proinflammatory phenotype and promoted the differentiation of naive CD4 lymphocytes into Th1 cells. Proteomic analysis showed that exosomes from WT and HSP100−/− leishmania had distinct protein cargo, suggesting that packaging of proteins into exosomes is dependent in part on HSP100. Treatment of C57BL/6 mice with WT L. donovani exosomes prior to challenge with WT organisms exacerbated infection and promoted IL-10 production in the spleen. In contrast, HSP100−/− exosomes promoted spleen cell production of IFN-γ and did not adversely affect hepatic parasite burdens. Furthermore, the proparasitic properties of WT exosomes were not species specific because BALB/c mice exposed to Leishmania major exosomes showed increased Th2 polarization and exacerbation of disease in response to infection with L. major. These findings demonstrate that leishmania exosomes are predominantly immunosuppressive. Moreover, to our knowledge, this is the first evidence to suggest that changes in the protein cargo of exosomes may influence the impact of these vesicles on myeloid cell function.
Interpreting postmortem drug analysis and redistribution in determining cause of death: a review

: Multiple interacting factors alter the measured concentration of almost all drugs after death. The ratio of centrally to peripherally collected samples provides an indication of this redistribution. At present, there are no reliable markers from which to accurately predict how much an individual drug has redistributed. Knowledge of antemortem factors is essential for the interpretation of the effects of any measured drug or toxin.
Human Brain Activity Related to the Perception of Spatial Features of Objects

The role of the parietal cortex in visuospatial analysis of object was investigated by cerebral blood flow measurements in seven objects using positron emission tomography. Data were acquired while subjects performed a matching task requiring the discrimination of simultaneously presented objects based on one of their spatial properties. Three properties were studied separately during three scanning conditions repeated twice:surface orientation, principal axis orientation, and size. Scans were also obtained during a sensorimotor control task (similar visual stimulation, same motor action, voluntary saccades toward each object) as well as during rest (no stimulation, eyes closed). Compared to rest, the three property matching tasks showed the same pattern of activation: the whole occipital lobe, the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and the right occipitotemporal (OT) junction. Compared to the control condition, only right IPS and OT junction were significantly activated during discrimination of the spatial properties. The IPS focus was located between the superior parietal lobule and the angular gyrus, and the OT activation overlapped the posterior part of the inferior temporal gyrus and the middle occipital gyrus. These results indicate that discrimination of spatial attributes requires the activation of both the parietal and the temporal cortices of the right hemisphere and provide further evidence that the IPS plays a critical role in visuospatial analysis of objects.