Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Soil Properties and Production of Cucumis sativus Irrigated with Treated Wastewater in Gaza Strip

This research aimed to evaluate the impact of treated wastewater (TWW) irrigation on soil properties and production of cucumber. The field experiment was set up in the North zone of the Gaza Strip in the season period from April to July 2015. The Cucumber was planted in a design of one block with randomised treatments plots scattered within. The experiment comprised six treatments: four treatments were above surface drip irrigated; two treatments irrigated with potable water (PW) and two treatments irrigated with TWW, with and without plastic ground cover. The remaining two treatments were sub-surface drip irrigated with TWW, also with and without the cover at a depth of 20 cm below ground. Each treatment was replicated in 5 plots. Samples of PW, TWW and soil were analysed. The weight of harvested cucumber and the plant biomass were determined, SPSS analysed data. Both biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of TWW were higher than the acceptable World Health Organization (WHO) limit. The pH, total alkalinity, phosphorus and potassium levels were significantly increased in TWW compared to PW. Conversely, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved salts (TDS), nitrate, sulfur, chloride, total hardness, calcium, magnesium and sodium were significantly decreased in TWW. However, EC and TDS of both PW and TWW were higher than the WHO permissible limit. Heavy metals were below the detected limit. Total and faecal coliforms in TWW exceeds that of the WHO standards. Irrigation with PW and TWW increased soil EC, TDS, nitrate, sulfur, chloride, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium, particularly with TWW. The weight of harvested cucumber and the plant biomass were higher in plots irrigated with TWW than those irrigated with PW. In conclusion, TWW is a promising candidate to substitute PW irrigation for crops in Gaza Strip in having to low a level of heavy metals and proven to enhance soil fertility and cucumber productivity.
Number, frequency, self‐renewal, and expansion of osteoprogenitor cells (CFU‐O) in subcultured female rat vertebral cell populations

The present study was undertaken to determine whether the frequency and/or number of dexamethasone‐ and progesterone‐responsive osteoprogenitors in cell populations derived from vertebrae of 6‐week‐old female rats could be increased relative to that of other progenitors. Frequencies and numbers of both progenitor types were determined for up to six subcultures using continuous subculturing, limiting dilution analysis, and colony assays. In dexamethasone‐containing medium, subculturing resulted in an eightfold increase in the total number of dexamethasone‐responsive osteoprogenitors and a 14‐fold increase in progesterone‐responsive osteoprogenitors in second subculture cells over first subculture cells without a significant increase in the frequency of these progenitors. From the third subculture onward, the frequency of both classes of osteoprogenitors decreased in a linear manner and none were observed after six subcultures. Similar results were obtained in progesterone‐containing medium. Limiting dilution analysis in the presence of dexamethasone indicated that 2.61 % of cells represented a colony forming unit‐fibroblast and 0.28 % represented an osteoprogenitor in first subculture cells, while in second subculture cells, these frequencies increased to 5.56 % and 0.40 %, respectively. Results show that while the frequency of colony forming unit‐osteoprogenitor is not increased in the second subculture over the first, the total number of osteoprogenitors is greatly increased because of expansion of the total progenitor cell pool.
Predicting the magnitude of short-term CD4+ T-cell recovery in HIV-infected patients during first-line highly active antiretroviral therapy

Background The extent of short-term CD4+ T-cell recovery in patients tolerating first-line highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and attaining undetectable HIV RNA levels is inadequately defined. Methods We retrospectively analysed patients in four Italian cohorts who started HAART between January 1996 and September 2006. All patients had known HCV coinfection status, did not modify the regimen for 6 months and had <50 HIV RNA copies/ml at the end of the sixth month. Results The analysis involved 1,488 patients (1,096 males, 73.7%) with a median age of 43 years (interquartile range [IQR] 39–49); 435 (29.2%) were positive for HCV, 71 (4.8%) were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and 76 (5.1%) had experienced a previous AIDS-defining event. At baseline, patient CD4+ T-cell counts were 226 cells/μl (IQR 99–332), CD4+ T-cell percentages were 14.7% (IQR 8.7–21.2) and HIV RNA levels were 4.91 log10 copies/ml (IQR 4.38–5.34). Overall, 24-week CD4+ T-cell recovery was 144 cells/μl (IQR 70–240). At multivariable analysis, T-cell recovery was positively related to the use of a boosted protease inhibitor (P<0.0001) or thymidine analogues (P<0.0001), baseline HIV RNA levels (P<0.0001), the baseline percentage of CD4+ T-cells (P<0.0001) and the absence of HCV coinfection (P=0.006). Age, gender, baseline CD4+/CD8+ T-cell ratio and a history of AIDS-defining events had no independent effect on CD4+ T-cell recovery. Conclusions Among HIV-infected patients tolerating first-line HAART and with undetectable HIV RNA after 6 months, CD4+ T-cell recovery is significantly greater in those without HCV coinfection, with a high baseline viral load, a high baseline percentage of CD4+ T-cells and in those treated with a boosted protease inhibitor.
Examining the effectiveness of weighted spectral mixture analysis (WSMA) in urban environments

ABSTRACT Spectral mixture analysis (SMA) has been widely applied for estimating fractional land-cover types from remote sensing pixels. SMA typically assumes each spectral band has equal contribution to the unmixing results, which has attracted debates on whether a different weight should be given to each band. Subsequently, a number of weighted SMA (WSMA) approaches have been developed and applied to different research fields. The necessity and applicability of WSMA, however, have not been adequately addressed, especially when applied to urban environments. This paper, therefore, aims to answer two research questions, including 1) whether significantly different results would be generated through applying a WSMA, and 2) which WSMA approach performs better in an urban environment. Specifically, five existing schemes: Shannon Entropy-weighted method (Entropy), reflected energy fixed-weighted vector (REFWV), InStability Index-based weighting method (ISIb), combined weighting vector (WV), and within-class variance (VW), and five potential schemes: between-class variance (VB), total-class variance (VT), inversed Optimum Index Factor (IOIF), mean (Mean), and standard deviation (SD), were employed to construct WSMAs. We tested each weighting scheme 100 times with different endmember classes’ spectra. Performance of each WSMA was evaluated using the mean absolute error (MAE). Paired-samples t-test was applied to indicate if there is a significant difference between the mean of MAEs. Results illustrated that only REFWV, ISIb, and WV in All samples (samples included vegetation, high albedo impervious surface area, and low albedo impervious surface area) outperformed the unweighted scheme significantly. Other weighting schemes, such as IOIF, VB, VT, and SD illustrated unstable performance in different study areas. The rest of weighting schemes weakened the performance compared to the unweighted scheme. We concluded that REFWV, ISIb, and WV in All samples can be applied in analysing urban environments with three-endmember (vegetation – high albedo impervious surface area – low albedo impervious surface area) model to improve the performance of SMA. The construction of future weighting schemes would be better to consider the class variance.
Association of Fluconazole Pharmacodynamics with Mortality in Patients with Candidemia

Recent modiﬁcations to the CLSI susceptibility testing standard M27-A on ﬂuconazole MIC determination highlight the time of incubation (48 or 24 h) and the end point criteria (80% growth inhibition for macrodilution and 50% for microdilution) (2, 4). The use of the 50% inhibition end point after 24 h resulted in one- to twofold-lower MICs than were found after 48 h, as exempliﬁed in Fig. 1. The 24- and 48-h MIC limits for the two recommended quality control strains are lowered correspondingly: for Candida parapsilo- sis ATCC 22019, 0.5 to 4 mg/liter versus 1 to 4 mg/liter, and for Candida krusei ATCC 6258, 8 to 64 mg/liter versus 16 to 128 mg/liter (3). Yet, the authors conclude that this does not give rise to a need for lowering ﬂuconazole breakpoints. A one- to twofold-lower MIC will not alter the classiﬁca- tion susceptibility for the majority of C. albicans isolates, as the MICs are below the breakpoint susceptibility (MIC (cid:1) 8 mg/liter). one- to twofold-lower MICs signiﬁcant on the susceptibility of isolates belonging the naturally more resistant species Candida glabrata and Candida krusei , with typical MICs of 4 to 64 mg/liter, well isolates resistance. 3 isolates et deﬁned resistant mg/liter)
SpaFIND: An Effective and Low-Cost Feature Descriptor for Pedestrian Protection Systems in Economy Cars

Pedestrian protection systems (PPSs) are crucial for reducing road traffic fatalities. However, the relatively high cost of today's PPSs prevents the majority of economy cars from receiving their benefits. In this paper, we propose an effective and low-cost sparse feature interaction descriptor (SpaFIND) that is designed for real-time pedestrian detection with limited computational power in economy cars. SpaFIND extends the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) feature and selectively computes the pairwise relationships between neighboring components of the HOG. Therefore, SpaFIND can capture the second-order properties of object appearance while maintaining a low computational load, which is the main contribution of this paper. During the experiments, we performed comparative evaluations of the proposed system against several baseline methods on the Caltech Pedestrian Detection Benchmark in terms of detection accuracy and computational load. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed low-cost SpaFIND feature, which can meet the requirements for implementing a PPS with limited computational power, thereby contributing to the massive deployment of PPSs in economy cars in the immediate future.
Effect of Cryotherapy after Spine Surgery

Study Design Historical controlled trial. Purpose To clarify the usefulness of cryotherapy after spine surgery. Overview of Literature Cryotherapy has generally been performed subsequent to surgery on joints and in this application its clinical effects are well understood. However, cryotherapy has yet to be used following spine surgery. Its clinical efficacy in this context is unknown. Methods Thirty six patients had undergone one level microendoscopic surgery. Sixteen were enrolled into the cooling group, with the remaining 20 making up the no postoperative cryotherapy control group. Cryotherapy was performed at 5℃ using an icing system. A silicone balloon catheter with a thermo sensor on the tip was placed in the surgical wound. The temperature in the wound was recorded every 30 minutes until the next morning. The relationship between the depth of the sensor and the temperature in the wound were investigated using simple linear regression analysis. Laboratory data, visual analogue scale (VAS) for wound pain and postoperative bleeding were investigated. Results The mean temperature in the surgical wound was 37.0 in the control group and 35.0℃ in the cooling group (p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between the depth of the thermo sensor and the temperature in the wound in the cooling group (y=0.91x+30.2, r=0.67, p=0.004). There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of laboratory data, VAS or postoperative bleeding. Conclusions The temperature in the wound was decreased significantly by spinal surgery cryotherapy.
Innate and adaptive immunity in female genital tract: cellular responses and interactions

Summary: The mucosal immune system in the female reproductive tract (FRT) has evolved to meet the unique requirements of dealing with sexually transmitted bacterial and viral pathogens, allogeneic spermatozoa, and the immunologically distinct fetus. Analysis of the FRT indicates that the key cells of the innate and adaptive immune systems are present and functionally responsive to antigens. Acting through Toll‐like receptors in the Fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, and in the vagina, epithelial cells, macrophages, natural killer cells, and neutrophils confer protection through the production of chemokines and cytokines, which recruit and activate immune cells, as well as bactericidal and virucidal agents, which confer protection at times when adaptive immunity is downregulated by sex hormones to meet the constraints of procreation. The overall goal of this paper is to define the innate immune system in the FRT and, where possible, to define the regulatory influences that occur during the menstrual cycle that contribute to protection from and susceptibility to potential pathogens. By understanding the nature of this protection and the ways in which innate and adaptive immunity interact, these studies provide the opportunity to contribute to the foundation of information essential for ensuring reproductive health.
Using Ecological Momentary Assessment in Testing the Effectiveness of an Alcohol Intervention: A Two-Arm Parallel Group Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Alcohol consumption of college students has a fluctuating nature, which might impact the measurement of intervention effects. By using 25 follow-up time-points, this study tested whether intervention effects are robust or might vary over time. Methods Data were used from a two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial applying ecological momentary assessment (EMA) with 30 data time-points in total. Students between 18 and 24 years old who reported heavy drinking in the past six months and who were ready to change their alcohol consumption were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 456: web-based brief alcohol intervention) and control condition (n = 451: no intervention). Outcome measures were weekly alcohol consumption, frequency of binge drinking, and heavy drinking status. Results According to the intention-to-treat principle, regression analyses revealed that intervention effects on alcohol consumption varied when exploring multiple follow-up time-points. Intervention effects were found for a) weekly alcohol consumption at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 weeks follow-up, b) frequency of binge drinking at 1, 2, 7, and 12 weeks follow-up, and c) heavy drinking status at 1, 2, 7, and 16 weeks follow-up. Conclusions This research showed that the commonly used one and six month follow-up time-points are relatively arbitrary and not using EMA might bring forth erroneous conclusions on the effectiveness of interventions. Therefore, future trials in alcohol prevention research and beyond are encouraged to apply EMA when assessing outcome measures and intervention effectiveness. Trial registration Netherlands Trial Register NTR2665
On directed Steiner trees

The directed Steiner tree problem is the following: given a directed graph <i>G</i> = (<i>V, E</i>) with weights on the edges, a set of terminals <i>S</i> ⊆ <i>V</i>, and a root vertex <i>r,</i> find a minimum weight out-branching <i>T</i> rooted at <i>r,</i> such that all vertices in <i>S</i> are included in <i>T</i>. This problem is known to be NP-hard. Recently, non-trivial polynomial time approximation algorithms have been developed for this problem with worst case approximation guarantees of <i>O</i>(<i>k<sup>ε</sup></i>) for any fixed ε > 0. We consider a natural LP relaxation of this problem. Using a dual formulation we construct a simple deterministic (<i>D</i> + 1)-approximation algorithm for a special case when the subgraph induced by <i>V</i> \ <i>S</i> is a tree with depth <i>D</i> (for example, this can be shown to include the group Steiner tree problem as a special case, by the loss of poly-log factors in the approximation guarantee). We also show that this LP has an integrality gap of Θ(√<i>k</i>) for the general problem.
Dral Is a P53-Responsive Gene Whose Four and a Half Lim Domain Protein Product Induces Apoptosis

DRAL is a four and a half LIM domain protein identified because of its differential expression between normal human myoblasts and the malignant counterparts, rhabdomyosarcoma cells. In the current study, we demonstrate that transcription of the DRAL gene can be stimulated by p53, since transient expression of functional p53 in rhabdomyosarcoma cells as well as stimulation of endogenous p53 by ionizing radiation in wild-type cells enhances DRAL mRNA levels. In support of these observations, five potential p53 target sites could be identified in the promoter region of the human DRAL gene. To obtain insight into the possible functions of DRAL, ectopic expression experiments were performed. Interestingly, DRAL expression efficiently triggered apoptosis in three cell lines of different origin to the extent that no cells could be generated that stably overexpressed this protein. However, transient transfection experiments as well as immunofluorescence staining of the endogenous protein allowed for the localization of DRAL in different cellular compartments, namely cytoplasm, nucleus, focal contacts, as well as Z-discs and to a lesser extent the M-bands in cardiac myofibrils. These data suggest that downregulation of DRAL might be involved in tumor development. Furthermore, DRAL expression might be important for heart function.
Determination of lipid oxidation products in vegetable oils and marine omega-3 supplements

Background There is convincing evidence that replacing dietary saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) decreases risk of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, PUFA rich foods such as vegetable oils, fatty fish, and marine omega-3 supplements are recommended. However, PUFA are easily oxidizable and there is concern about possible negative health effects from intake of oxidized lipids. Little is known about the degree of lipid oxidation in such products. Objective To assess the content of lipid oxidation products in a large selection of vegetable oils and marine omega-3 supplements available in Norway. Both fresh and heated vegetable oils were studied. Design A large selection of commercially available vegetable oils and marine omega-3 supplements was purchased from grocery stores, pharmacies, and health food stores in Norway. The content of lipid oxidation products were measured as peroxide value and alkenal concentration. Twelve different vegetable oils were heated for a temperature (225°C) and time (25 minutes) resembling conditions typically used during cooking. Results The peroxide values were in the range 1.04–10.38 meq/kg for omega-3 supplements and in the range 0.60–5.33 meq/kg for fresh vegetable oils. The concentration range of alkenals was 158.23–932.19 nmol/mL for omega-3 supplements and 33.24–119.04 nmol/mL for vegetable oils. After heating, a 2.9–11.2 fold increase in alkenal concentration was observed for vegetable oils. Conclusions The contents of hydroperoxides and alkenals in omega-3 supplements are higher than in vegetable oils. After heating vegetable oils, a large increase in alkenal concentration was observed.
Reducing Storage Management Costs via Informed User-Based Policies

Storage consumption continues to grow rapidly, especially with the popularity of multimedia files. Storage hardware costs represent a small fraction of overall management costs, which include frequent maintenance and backups. Our key approach to reducing total storage management costs is to reduce actual storage consumption. We achieve this in two ways. First, we classify files into categories of importance. Based on these categories, files can be backed up with various frequencies, or even not at all. Second, the system may also reclaim space based on a file’s importance (e.g., transparently compress old files). Our system provides a rich set of policies. We allow users to tailor their disk usage policies, offloading some of the management burdens from the system and its administrators. We have implemented the system and evaluated it. Performance overheads under normal use are negligible. We report space savings on modern systems ranging from 25% to 76%, which result in extending storage lifetimes by 72%.
Rapid transmembrane diffusion of ceramide and dihydroceramide spin-labelled analogues in the liquid ordered phase

In order to study the basic physical phenomena underlying complex lipid transbilayer movement in biological membranes, we have measured the transmembrane diffusion of spin-labelled analogues of sphingolipids in phosphatidylcholine (PC) large unilamellar vesicles in the absence or presence of cholesterol, going from a fluid ( liquid disordered) ld, phase to a more viscous, liquid ordered (lo), phase. We have found cholesterol to reduce the transverse diffusion of glucosylceramide (GlcCer) and galactosylceramide (GalCer) in a concentration-dependent manner. However, surprisingly, we could neither detect any influence of cholesterol on the rapid flip-flop of ceramide nor on the flip-flop of dihydroceramide, for which the τ1/2 of flip-flop remains in the order of 1 minute at 20°C in the presence of cholesterol. As a consequence of rapid flip-flop of ceramide in both the lo and the ld phase, ceramide is likely to distribute between the two monolayers of a membrane, and could in principle partition into segregated domains in each side of the plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells.
Epithelial Cells Dependent Invasion by Breast Cancer and Mammary − Integrin Fibronectin Receptors in Matrix Metalloproteinase-1

Integrins contribute to progression in many cancers, including breast cancer. For example, the interaction of 5 1 with plasma fibronectin causes the constitutive invasiveness of human prostate cancer cells. Inhibition of this process reduces tumorigenesis and prevents metastasis and recurrence. In this study, naturally serum-free basement membranes were used as invasion substrates. Immunoassays were used to compare the roles of 5 1 and 4 1 fibronectin receptors in regulating matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1–dependent invasion by human breast cancer and mammary epithelial cells. We found that a peptide consisting of fibronectin PHSRN sequence, Ac-PHSRN-NH2, induces 5 1-mediated invasion of basement membranes in vitro by human breast cancer and mammary epithelial cells. PHSRN-induced invasion requires interstitial collagenase MMP-1 activity and is suppressed by an equimolar concentration of a peptide consisting of the LDV sequence of the fibronectin connecting segment, Ac-LHGPEILDVPST-NH2, in mammary epithelial cells, but not in breast cancer cells. This sequence interacts with 4 1, an integrin that is often down-regulated in breast cancer cells. Immunoblotting shows that the PHSRN peptide stimulates MMP-1 production by serum-free human breast cancer and mammary epithelial cells and that the LDV peptide represses PHSRN-stimulated MMP-1 production only in mammary epithelial cells. Furthermore, PHSRN stimulates MMP-1 activity in breast cancer cells and mammary epithelial cells with a time course that closely parallels invasion induction. Thus, down-regulation of surface 4 1 during oncogenic transformation may be crucial for establishment of the 5 1-induced, MMP-1–dependent invasive phenotype of breast cancer cells.