Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of different levels of potassium sulphate on yield, yield components and protein content of wheat cultivars

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of potassium sulphate on yield and yield components of wheat cultivars. An experiment was conducted using split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications at Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Yazd in 2011-12 growing season. Four levels of potassium sulphate (Control, 80 kg/ha, 130 kg/ha and 160 kg/ha) as main plot and four cultivar as sub-plot (Parsi, Sivand, Arg and Bam) was applied. Results showed that effect of potassium sulphate was significant on number of spike per m 2 , number of grain per spike, number of spikelet per spike, protein content, biological yield, grain yield and straw yield. Cultivars had significant different in plant height, spike length, sterile tiller, number of grain per spike, 1000 grain weight, protein content and grain yield. Highest of grain yield (6523 kg/ha) was obtained from 160 kg/ha potassium sulphate application and Bam cultivar had highest grain yield (5555 kg/ha).
Risk of pneumonia with budesonide-containing treatments in COPD: an individual patient-level pooled analysis of interventional studies

Background Concerns have been raised that treatment of COPD with inhaled corticosteroids may increase pneumonia risk. Responding to a request from the European Medicines Agency Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee, a pooled analysis of interventional studies compared pneumonia risk with inhaled budesonide-containing versus non-budesonide-containing treatments and the impact of other clinically relevant factors. Methods AstraZeneca-sponsored, parallel-group, double-blind, randomized controlled trials meeting the following criteria were included: >8 weeks’ duration; ≥60 patients with COPD; inhaled budesonide treatment arm (budesonide/formoterol or budesonide); and non-budesonide-containing comparator arm (formoterol or placebo). Primary and secondary outcomes were time to first pneumonia treatment-emergent serious adverse event (TESAE) and treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAEs), respectively, analyzed using Cox regression models stratified by study. Results Eleven studies were identified; 10,570 out of 10,574 randomized patients receiving ≥1 dose of study treatment were included for safety analysis (budesonide-containing, n=5,750; non-budesonide-containing, n=4,820). Maximum exposure to treatment was 48 months. The overall pooled hazard ratio (HR), comparing budesonide versus non-budesonide-containing treatments, was 1.15 for pneumonia TESAEs (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.83, 1.57) and 1.13 for pneumonia TEAEs (95% CI: 0.94, 1.36). The annual incidence of pneumonia TESAEs was 1.9% and 1.5% for budesonide-containing and non-budesonide-containing treatments, respectively. Comparing budesonide/formoterol with non-budesonide-containing treatment, the HRs for pneumonia TESAEs and TEAEs were 1.00 (95% CI: 0.69, 1.44) and 1.21 (95% CI: 0.93, 1.57), respectively. For budesonide versus placebo, HRs were 1.57 for pneumonia TESAEs (95% CI: 0.90, 2.74) and 1.07 for pneumonia TEAEs (95% CI: 0.83, 1.38). Conclusion This pooled analysis found no statistically significant increase in overall risk for pneumonia TESAEs or TEAEs with budesonide-containing versus non-budesonide-containing treatments. However, a small increase in risk with budesonide-containing treatment cannot be ruled out; there is considerable heterogeneity in study designs and patient characteristics, particularly in the early budesonide studies, and each study contributes <40 pneumonia TESAEs.
Buprenorphine Maintenance Subjects Are Hyperalgesic and Have No Antinociceptive Response to a Very High Morphine Dose.

Objective. Acute pain management in opioid-dependent persons is complicated because of tolerance and opioid-induced hyperalgesia. Very high doses of morphine are ineffective in overcoming opioid-induced hyperalgesia and providing antino-ciception to methadone-maintained patients in an experimental setting. Whether the same occurs in buprenorphine-maintained subjects is unknown. Design. Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled. Subjects were tested on two occasions, at least five days apart, once with intravenous morphine and once with intravenous saline. Subjects were tested at about the time of putative trough plasma buprenorphine concentrations.
Occurrence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in animal- and plant-derived food: results of a survey across Europe

ABSTRACT Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are secondary metabolites of plant families such as Asteraceae or Boraginaceae and are suspected to be genotoxic carcinogens. Recent investigations revealed their frequent occurrence in honey and particularly in tea. To obtain a comprehensive overview of the PA content in animal- and plant-derived food from the European market, and to provide a basis for future risk analysis, a total of 1105 samples were collected in 2014 and 2015. These comprised milk and milk products, eggs, meat and meat products, (herbal) teas, and (herbal) food supplements collected in supermarkets, retail shops, and via the internet. PAs were detected in a large proportion of plant-derived foods: 91% of the (herbal) teas and 60% of the food supplements contained at least one individual PA. All types of (herbal) teas investigated were found to contain PAs, with a mean concentration of 460 µg kg−1 dry tea (corresponding to 6.13 µg L−1 in [herbal] tea infusion). The highest mean concentrations were found in rooibos tea (599 µg kg−1 dry tea, 7.99 µg L−1 tea infusion) and the lowest in camomile tea (274 µg kg−1 dry tea, 3.65 µg L−1 tea infusion). Occurrence of PAs in food supplements was found to be highly variable, but in comparable ranges as for (herbal) tea. The highest concentrations were present in supplements containing plant material from known PA-producing plants. In contrast, only 2% of the animal-derived products, in particular 6% of milk samples and 1% of egg samples, contained PAs. Determined levels in milk were relatively low, ranged between 0.05 and 0.17 µg L−1 and only trace amounts of 0.10–0.12 µg kg−1 were found in eggs. No PAs were detected in the other animal-derived products.
Heparanase Promotes Glioma Progression and Is Inversely Correlated with Patient Survival

Malignant glioma continues to be fatal, despite improved insight into its underlying molecular mechanisms. The most malignant form, glioblastoma (GBM), is characterized by aberrant activation of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and infiltrative growth. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPG), integral components of the extracellular matrix of brain tumors, can regulate activation of many RTK pathways. This prompted us to investigate heparanase (HPSE), which cleaves HSPGs, for its role in glioma. This hypothesis was evaluated using tissue microarrays, GBM cells derived from patients, murine in vitro and in vivo models of glioma, and public databases. Downregulation of HPSE attenuated glioma cell proliferation, whereas addition of HPSE stimulated growth and activated ERK and AKT signaling. Using HPSE transgenic and knockout mice, it was demonstrated that tumor development in vivo was positively correlated to HPSE levels in the brain. HPSE also modified the tumor microenvironment, influencing reactive astrocytes, microglia/monocytes, and tumor angiogenesis. Furthermore, inhibition of HPSE reduces tumor cell numbers, both in vitro and in vivo. HPSE was highly expressed in human glioma and GBM cell lines, compared with normal brain tissue. Indeed, a correlation was observed between high levels of HPSE and shorter survival of patients with high-grade glioma. In conclusion, these data provide proof-of-concept for anti-HPSE treatment of malignant glioma, as well as novel insights for the development of HPSE as a therapeutic target. Implications: This study aims to target both the malignant brain tumor cells per se and their microenvironment by changing the level of an enzyme, HPSE, that breaks down modified sugar chains on cell surfaces and in the extracellular space. Mol Cancer Res; 14(12); 1243–53. ©2016 AACR.
Effects of sulfur and tin contents on hardness of copper-tin alloy under reduced atmosphere in sintering process

Alloys based on copper (Cu) and tin (Sn), i.e. bronzes, are useful materials. For example, sliding bearings made of bronze are common in industrial applications. These bearings are often manufactured using a sintering process. In particular, 90Cu–10Sn (mass%) bronze is widely used in bearing components. There are several ways to produce the 90Cu–10Sn alloy. Mixing electrolytic copper powders and tin powders is a well known and long-standing approach. Following the development of suitable atomized copper powders, these became useful candidates for mixing with tin powders. The historical background is well described by Berry (Berry, 1972). Price and Oakley (Price and Oakley, 1965) examined partially alloyed powders and pre-alloyed atomized bronze powders with a view to their possible use in high-density bronze components. If sintered bronze is to be used to make a sliding component, it must satisfy certain requirements regarding predetermined size, mechanical properties, heat conductivity and antifriction capability. However, there are many variable factors affecting these properties. First of all, there is a choice among different powder species, as described above. At the compacting stage, the die size and compacting pressure are selectable. There is also the well-known method of cladding steel with this alloy during the production of bimetallic strips by rolling. At the sintering stage, sintering temperature, heating rate, cooling rate and atmosphere are selectable. From these complex conditions, a suitable Effects of sulfur and tin contents on hardness of copper-tin alloy under reduced atmosphere in sintering process
Voice Level: Autophonic Scale, Perceived Loudness, and Effects of Sidetone

The speaker's numerical estimation of his own vocal level, the autophonic response, was found to grow as the 1.1 power of the actual sound pressure produced. When listeners judged the loudness of another speaker's vocalization (the phoneme [a]), the exponent was 0.7. The disparity between these exponents suggests that the speaker does not rely solely upon his perception of loudness in judging his own relative vocal level. The minor role played by loudness in the autophonic judgment is further demonstrated by the fact that the form and exponent of the subjective scale for autophonic responses remain relatively invariant under wide changes in auditory feedback.The power laws governing the autophonic response (exponent 1.1) and loudness (exponent 0.6) were used to predict successfully the outcome of cross‐modality comparisons in which subjects tried to match their vocal level to sounds of various intensities presented either by loudspeaker or by earphone. The slope of the matching function, relating the crit.
Letter: extensive intestinal metaplasia is associated with the presence of incomplete intestinal metaplasia subtype and could be an easier marker for high risk of gastric cancer

1. Teich N, Bruns T, Stallmach A. Letter: predicting azathioprine-associated pancreatitis in IBD–phenotype or genotype? Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2018;47:1042-1043. 2. Wilson A, Jansen LE, Rose RV, et al. HLA-DQA1-HLA-DRB1 polymorphism is a major predictor of azathioprine-induced pancreatitis in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2018;47:615-620. 3. Teich N, Mohl W, Bokemeyer B, et al. Azathioprine-induced acute pancreatitis in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases—a prospective study on incidence and severity. J Crohn’s Colitis. 2015;10:61-68. 4. Teich N, Bokemeyer B, Mohl W, et al. Blood group B is associated with azathioprine-induced acute pancreatitis in patients with IBD. Gut. 2016;66:1531-1532. 5. Dubinsky MC, Reyes E, Ofman J, et al. A cost-effectiveness analysis of alternative disease management strategies in patients with Crohn’s disease treated with azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine. Am J Gastroenterol. 2005;100:2239-2247. 6. Payne K, Newman WG, Gurwitz D, et al. TPMT testing in azathioprine: a ‘cost-effective use of healthcare resources’? Personalized Med. 2009;6:103-113. 7. Thompson AJ, Newman WG, Elliott RA, et al. The cost-effectiveness of a pharmacogenetic test: a trial-based evaluation of TPMT genotyping for azathioprine. Value Health. 2014;17:22-33. 8. Newman WG, Payne K, Tricker K, et al. A pragmatic randomized controlled trial of thiopurine methyltransferase genotyping prior to azathioprine treatment: the TARGET study. Pharmacogenomics. 2011;12:815-826. 9. Coenen MJH, de Jong DJ, van Marrewijk CJ, et al. Identification of patients with variants in tpmt and dose reduction reduces hematologic events during thiopurine treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. Gastroenterology. 2015;149:e7. 10. Bressler B, Marshall JK, Bernstein CN, et al. Clinical practice guidelines for the medical management of nonhospitalized ulcerative colitis: the toronto consensus. Gastroenterology. 2015;148:1035-1058.e3. 11. Marshall JK, Otley AR, Afif W, et al. Canadian association of gastroenterology position statement regarding the use of thiopurines for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. Can J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014;28:371-372. 12. Mowat C, Cole A, Windsor A, et al. Guidelines for the management of inflammatory bowel disease in adults. Gut. 2011;60:571-607. 13. Lichtenstein GR, Hanauer SB, Sandborn WJ. Management of Crohn’s disease in adults. Am J Gastroenterol. 2009;104:465-483. 14. Relling M, Gardner E, Sandborn W, et al. Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium guidelines for thiopurine methyltransferase genotype and thiopurine dosing. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2011;89:387-391.
Influence of the Semi-dwarf Growth Type on Seed Yield and Agronomic Parameters at Low and High Nitrogen Fertilization in Winter Oilseed Rape

In cereals like wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) or rice (Oryza sativa L.), a short-straw ideotype is characteristic for all modern cultivars, mainly due to the use of genes affecting the dwarf genotype. In oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), several dwarf mutants are known but so far not widely used. An interesting approach is the production of semi-dwarf hybrids from dwarf and normal-type parents, which might have an increased harvest index (HI) and a higher grain yield, especially when nitrogen (N) availability is restricted. To this point, no systematic comparison using a large number of semi-dwarf and normal-type hybrids has been published. A double haploid (DH) population was developed that was segregating for the bzh dwarf locus with 54 dwarf and 54 normal-type lines. By crossing with a normal-type tester, 108 testcrosses were produced with 54 hybrids each of semi-dwarf and normal types. These were evaluated under high and zero N fertilization in five and seven environments, respectively, for yield and agronomic parameters. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) were estimated for yield-relevant traits. Semi-dwarf hybrids had a significantly higher yield compared with normal types in N-deficient conditions (2.24 and 2.05 Mg ha-1). At an optimal N supply, no significant difference between growth types was found for seed yield. Oil content was slightly lower in semi-dwarfs under both N treatments, whereas this was compensated by oil yield. All major QTL for plant height, straw yield, HI, and seed yield co-segregated with the bzh dwarf locus on linkage group A06, indicating that the dwarf gene is not only reducing plant height but also causing increased HI and higher yield under N limitation for semi-dwarf hybrids. We conclude that semi-dwarf hybrids are of high interest for the N-balanced oilseed rape production, especially when N is scarce. S. Miersch, A. Schierholt, and H.C. Becker, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Dep. of Crop Sciences, Von Siebold Strasse 8, 37075 Göttingen, Germany; A. Gertz, and F. Breuer, KWS SAAT SE, Grimsehlstrasse 31, 37555 Einbeck, Germany. Received 16 Sept. 2015. Accepted 7 Mar. 2016. Assigned to Associate Editor Seth Murray. *Corresponding author: (hbecker1@gwdg.de). Abbreviations: DH, double haploid; HI, harvest index; LG, linkage group; N0, zero N fertilization; N1, high N fertilization; QTL, quantitative trait loci. Published in Crop Sci. 56:1573–1585 (2016). doi: 10.2135/cropsci2015.09. 0554 © Crop Science Society of America | 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Published May 27, 2016
Deep Pain: Exploiting Long Short-Term Memory Networks for Facial Expression Classification

Pain is an unpleasant feeling that has been shown to be an important factor for the recovery of patients. Since this is costly in human resources and difficult to do objectively, there is the need for automatic systems to measure it. In this paper, contrary to current state-of-the-art techniques in pain assessment, which are based on facial features only, we suggest that the performance can be enhanced by feeding the raw frames to deep learning models, outperforming the latest state-of-the-art results while also directly facing the problem of imbalanced data. As a baseline, our approach first uses convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to learn facial features from VGG_Faces, which are then linked to a long short-term memory to exploit the temporal relation between video frames. We further compare the performances of using the so popular schema based on the canonically normalized appearance versus taking into account the whole image. As a result, we outperform current state-of-the-art area under the curve performance in the UNBC-McMaster Shoulder Pain Expression Archive Database. In addition, to evaluate the generalization properties of our proposed methodology on facial motion recognition, we also report competitive results in the Cohn Kanade+ facial expression database.
Changes in Natural Killer Cell Activation and Function during Primary HIV-1 Infection

Background Recent reports suggest that Natural Killer (NK) cells may modulate pathogenesis of primary HIV-1 infection. However, HIV dysregulates NK-cell responses. We dissected this bi-directional relationship to understand how HIV impacts NK-cell responses during primary HIV-1 infection. Methodology/Principal Findings Paired samples from 41 high-risk, initially HIV-uninfected CAPRISA004 participants were analysed prior to HIV acquisition, and during viraemic primary HIV-1 infection. At the time of sampling post-infection five women were seronegative, 11 women were serodiscordant, and 25 women were seropositive by HIV-1 rapid immunoassay. Flow cytometry was used to measure NK and T-cell activation, NK-cell receptor expression, cytotoxic and cytokine-secretory functions, and trafficking marker expression (CCR7, α4β7). Non-parametric statistical tests were used. Both NK cells and T-cells were significantly activated following HIV acquisition (p = 0.03 and p<0.0001, respectively), but correlation between NK-cell and T-cell activation was uncoupled following infection (pre-infection r = 0.68;p<0.0001; post-infection, during primary infection r = 0.074;p = 0.09). Nonetheless, during primary infection NK-cell and T-cell activation correlated with HIV viral load (r = 0.32'p = 0.04 and r = 0.35;p = 0.02, respectively). The frequency of Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptor-expressing (KIRpos) NK cells increased following HIV acquisition (p = 0.006), and KIRpos NK cells were less activated than KIRneg NK cells amongst individuals sampled while seronegative or serodiscordant (p = 0.001;p<0.0001 respectively). During HIV-1 infection, cytotoxic NK cell responses evaluated after IL-2 stimulation alone, or after co-culture with 721 cells, were impaired (p = 0.006 and p = 0.002, respectively). However, NK-cell IFN-y secretory function was not significantly altered. The frequency of CCR7+ NK cells was elevated during primary infection, particularly at early time-points (p<0.0001). Conclusions/Significance Analyses of immune cells before and after HIV infection revealed an increase in both NK-cell activation and KIR expression, but reduced cytotoxicity during acute infection. The increase in frequency of NK cells able to traffic to lymph nodes following HIV infection suggests that these cells may play a role in events in secondary lymphoid tissue.
Association of Osteopontin, Neopterin, and Myeloperoxidase With Stroke Risk in Patients With Prior Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attacks: Results of an Analysis of 13 Biomarkers From the Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels Trial

Background and Purpose— Established risk factors do not fully identify patients at risk for recurrent stroke. The SPARCL trial (Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels) evaluated the effect of atorvastatin on stroke risk in patients with a recent stroke or transient ischemic attack and no known coronary heart disease. This analysis explored the relationships between 13 plasma biomarkers assessed at trial enrollment and the occurrence of outcome strokes. Methods— We conducted a case–cohort study of 2176 participants; 562 had outcome strokes and 1614 were selected randomly from those without outcome strokes. Time to stroke was evaluated by Cox proportional hazards models. Results— There was no association between time to stroke and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, resistin, matrix metalloproteinase-9, N-terminal fragment of pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1, or soluble CD40 ligand. In adjusted analyses, osteopontin (hazard ratio per SD change, 1.362; P<0.0001), neopterin (hazard ratio, 1.137; P=0.0107), myeloperoxidase (hazard ratio, 1.177; P=0.0022), and adiponectin (hazard ratio, 1.207; P=0.0013) were independently associated with outcome strokes. After adjustment for the Stroke Prognostic Instrument-II and treatment, osteopontin, neopterin, and myeloperoxidase remained independently associated with outcome strokes. The addition of these 3 biomarkers to Stroke Prognostic Instrument-II increased the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve by 0.023 (P=0.015) and yielded a continuous net reclassification improvement (29.1%; P<0.0001) and an integrated discrimination improvement (42.3%; P<0.0001). Conclusions— Osteopontin, neopterin, and myeloperoxidase were independently associated with the risk of recurrent stroke and improved risk classification when added to a clinical risk algorithm. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique Identifier: NCT00147602.