Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Delignification of Rice Husk and Production ofBioethanol

Lignocellulose is a generic term for describing the main constituents in most plants, namely cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Lignocellulose is a complex matrix, comprising many different polysaccharides, phenolic polymers and proteins. Cellulose, the major component of cell walls of land plants, is a glucan polysaccharide containing large reservoirs of energy that provide real potential for conversion into biofuels. Lignocellulosic biomass consists of a variety of materials with distinctive physical and chemical characteristics. The conversion of Lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol involves pretreatment followed by polysaccharide hydrolysis to simple sugars followed by sugar fermentation to ethanol. The presence of lignin in cell walls negatively impacts these conversion steps. Sodium hydroxide treatment is one of the highly effective lignin removal methods due to their strong alkanity. The chemical pretreatments of rice husk were carried out with sodium hydroxide and sodium chlorite concentration (1- 5%) with the best results at 5% for both the solutions. This greatly enhanced its susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis at 30 °C. The chemical pretreatments caused deep deacetylation and milder delignification of rice husk and did not cause an apparent loss of cellulose. In addition fungal treatment (Trichoderma reesei) of pretreated samples has been applied to improve the conversion of cellulosic material in sugar. The method of alkali pretreatment and subsequent fungal treatment (in different concentrations) results the highest conversion of lignocelluloses in rice husk to sugar and consequently, highest ethanol yields were 250 mg/gram dry biomass after 6 days fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
SIMILAR PERITONITIS OUTCOME IN CAPD AND APD PATIENTS WITH DIALYSIS MODALITY CONTINUATION DURING PERITONITIS

♦ Background: As few data exist on treatment of peritonitis in patients on automated peritoneal dialysis (APD), and as pharmacokinetics of several antibiotics are reported to be unfavorable in APD, some favor switching to continuous ambulant PD (CAPD) while treating APD-related peritonitis. We explored whether treating peritonitis with patients continuing their usual PD modality had an effect on outcome. ♦ Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the 508 episodes of PD-associated peritonitis seen in 205 patients in our center from January 1993 to January 2007. During this period, the standard initial therapy for PD-related peritonitis was a combination of intraperitoneal gentamicin and rifampicin. ♦ Results: There was no difference in cure rate between CAPD and APD groups. Likewise, initial and maximal leukocyte counts in the PD fluid (PDF), relapse rates, catheter removal rates, and death during treatment of peritonitis were similar in the CAPD and APD groups. Median (interquartile range) duration of elevated leukocyte count in PDF was longer in APD: 5.0 (3.0 – 9.0) days versus 4.0 (2.5 – 7.0) days in CAPD (p <0.001). APD patients were treated with antibiotics longer than CAPD patients: 16.0 (12.5 – 21.0) versus 15.0 (12.0 – 18.0) days (p = 0.036). Also, after correction for possible confounders, odds ratios for death and for the combined end point death or catheter removal showed no difference when patients treated for peritonitis stayed on their own modality. ♦ Conclusion: Regarding rate of relapse, mortality, or the combined end point mortality plus catheter removal, we found no difference between CAPD and APD patients continuing their own PD modality during treatment of PD-related peritonitis. Intermediate end points such as duration of elevated PDF leukocyte count and duration of antibiotic treatment were longer in APD patients.
Characterization of Candidate Live Oral Salmonella typhi Vaccine Strains Harboring Defined Mutations inaroA, aroC, and htrA

ABSTRACT The properties of two candidate Salmonella typhi-based live oral typhoid vaccine strains, BRD691 (S. typhi Ty2 harboring mutations in aroA and aroC) and BRD1116 (S. typhi Ty2 harboring mutations inaroA, aroC, and htrA), were compared in a number of in vitro and in vivo assays. BRD1116 exhibited an increased susceptibility to oxidative stress compared with BRD691, but both strains were equally resistant to heat shock. Both strains showed a similar ability to invade Caco-2 and HT-29 epithelial cells and U937 macrophage-like cells, but BRD1116 was less efficient at surviving in epithelial cells than BRD691. BRD1116 and BRD691 were equally susceptible to intracellular killing within U937 cells. Similar findings were demonstrated in vivo, with BRD1116 being less able to survive and translocate to secondary sites of infection when inoculated into the lumen of human intestinal xenografts in SCID mice. However, translocation of BRD1116 to spleens and livers in SCID mice occurred as efficiently as that of BRD691 when inoculated intraperitonally. The ability of BRD1116 to increase the secretion of interleukin-8 following infection of HT-29 epithelial cells was comparable to that of BRD691. Therefore, loss of the HtrA protease inS. typhi does not seem to alter its ability to invade epithelial cells or macrophages or to induce proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-8 but significantly reduces intracellular survival in human intestinal epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo.
Uncertainty propagation for noise robust speaker recognition: the case of NIST-SRE

Uncertainty propagation is an established approach to handle noisy and reverberant conditions in automatic speech recognition (ASR), but it has little been studied for speaker recognition so far. Yu et al. recently proposed to propagate uncertainty to the Baum-Welch (BW) statistics without changing the posterior probability of each mixture component. They obtained good results on a small dataset (YOHO) but little improvement on the NIST-SRE dataset, despite the use of oracle uncertainty estimates. In this paper, we propose to modify the computation of the posterior probability of each mixture component in order to obtain unbiased BW statistics. We show that our approach improves the accuracy of BW statistics on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) corpus, but yields little or no improvement on NIST-SRE again. We provide a theoretical explanation for this that opens the way for more efficient exploitation of uncertainty on NIST-SRE and other large datasets in the future.
How moving objects become animated: The human mirror neuron system assimilates non-biological movement patterns

Abstract The so-called mirror neuron system (MNS) responds when humans observe actions performed by a member of their own species. This activity is understood as an internal motor representation of the observed movement pattern. By contrasting meaningless human hand movements with meaningless artificial movements of objects in space, we tested the claim that exclusively movements belonging to the human motor repertoire have direct access to the MNS. Eighteen participants observed video clips of moving hands and objects while the hemodynamic response was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Second-level analysis of the hemodynamic response revealed substantially overlapping activation patterns for both types of movements including relevant structures of the MNS (bilateral premotor and parietal areas, occipito-temporal junction, postcentral gyrus and the right superior temporal sulcus). This suggests that perceptual processing of moving hands and objects recruits similar and overlapping cortical networks. Direct comparison of the two movement types revealed stronger activations for hand movements mainly in structures of the MNS suggesting an “expertise effect”. Overall, our results provide evidence that observing movements not explicitly belonging to the human motor repertoire can activate the human MNS, most likely because an association with a biological movement is evoked.
Creation retold: Use of Scripture and tradition in Sirach 16:24–17:14

This article examines the use of Scripture and tradition in Sirach 16:24–17:14, which is a retelling of the creation stories. Ben Sira as an interpreter of Scripture utilised interpretive traditions or exegetical motifs that were in circulation during his time to provide instruction for his generation. His indebtedness to Scripture is evident from the quotations from Scripture and his use of scriptural language. In his retelling of the creation stories, he made use of the exegetical motifs that were in circulation, adapting them within the wisdom interpretive framework. He also rejected the tendency to blame evil on external agencies such as fallen angels and downplayed the gap between the creation process and the giving of the law at Sinai. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article is an exegetical inquiry of the extra-biblical text of Ben Sira in dialogue with Scripture and with other exegetical traditions which were in circulation in the Second Temple period. The article highlights the indebtedness of Ben Sira to both Scripture and tradition, and also noting Ben Sira’s own creativity in the use of Scripture and tradition in his retelling of creation story
Substrate Dependent Microbially Derived Plant Hormones for Improving Growth of Maize Seedlings

Ten Azotobacter cultures were isolated from the maize rhizosphere and their auxin producing ability was measured colourimetrically. The auxin production by three efficient Azotobacter cultures (Z1, Z3, Z4) was also measured in the presence of filter sterilized L-tryptophan (at 10G, 10G and 10G M). Azotobacter culture Z4 gave relatively higher auxin production and was selected for further experiments. Azotobacter inoculation in combination with 10G M L-TRP gave maximum length and weight of maize roots, which was 117 and 60 percent higher than control, respectively. Leonard Jar experiments were conducted to study the response of shoot growth to Azotobacter inoculation and L-TRP application at 10G M separately and in combination with each other. Results showed that maximum length and weight of shoots were recorded by applying Azotobacter in combination with 10G M L-TRP which was 45.3 and 36.5 percent higher than control, respectively. The possible mechanisms of action are discussed.
Multi operators-based partial connected parallel evolutionary algorithm

With the increase of dimensions and complexity of current engineering problems, parallel evolutionary algorithm which take advantage of population division and information exchange among processors has been introduced for years. However, low solution ability of each sub-group and high communication load between them are always seen as the biggest bottlenecks which hinder parallel evolutionary algorithm to be more efficient. To overcome this two problems, a multi operators-based partial connected parallel evolutionary algorithm, i.e. MO-PCPEA is proposed. By combining multiple evolutionary operators, an adaptive strategy for operator configuration inside each parallel group is designed to ensure the searching ability of the algorithm for wider range of problems. More importantly, a partial connection topology is proposed to guide the periodic communication between each group. Computational results in two typical permutation combinatorial optimization benchmarks and one practical case study demonstrate that MO-PCPEA is highly competitive compared with most tailored serial and parallel evolutionary algorithms in terms of not only searching time, but also solution quality.
Effect of acute and chronic red wine consumption on lipopolysaccharide concentrations.

BACKGROUND Chronic red wine (RW) consumption has been associated with decreased cardiovascular disease risk, mainly attributed to an improvement in lipid profile. RW intake is also able to change the composition of gut microbiota. High fat intake has recently been reported to increase metabolic endotoxemia. The gut microbiota has been proposed as the main resource of plasma lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) in metabolic endotoxemia. OBJECTIVE We analyzed the effect on LPS concentrations of chronic RW consumption and acute RW intake in relation to high fat intake in middle-aged men. DESIGN For the chronic study, 10 middle-aged male volunteers were randomly assigned in a crossover trial, and after a washout period, all subjects received RW, dealcoholized red wine (DRW), or gin for 20 d. Serum endotoxin and LPS-binding protein (LBP) concentrations were determined after the washout period and after each of the treatments, and changes in fecal microbiota were quantified. For the acute study, 5 adult men underwent a fat overload or a fat overload together with the consumption of RW, DRW, or gin. Baseline and postprandial serum LPS and LBP concentrations and postprandial chylomicron LPS concentrations were measured. RESULTS There were no significant differences in the change in LPS or LBP concentrations between chronic RW, DRW, and gin consumption. Bifidobacterium and Prevotella amounts were significantly increased by RW and correlated negatively with LPS concentrations. There were no differences in postprandial serum LPS, LBP, or chylomicron LPS concentrations between acute RW, DRW, or gin intake together with a fatty meal. CONCLUSION Chronic RW consumption increases Bifidobacterium and Prevotella amounts, which may have beneficial effects by leading to lower LPS concentrations. This trial was registered at controlled-trials.com as ISRCTN88720134.
Control of magma flow in dykes on cyclic lava dome extrusion

Lava dome eruptions are commonly characterized by large fluctuations in discharge rate with cyclic behaviour on time‐scales ranging from hours to decades. Examples include Bezymianny volcano (Russia), Merapi (Java), Santiaguito (Guatemala), Mt St Helens (USA), Mt Unzen (Japan), and Soufrière Hills volcano (Montserrat). Previous models have assumed simple cylindrical conduits for magma transport, but extrusions are mainly fed by dykes, with cylindrical geometries developing only at shallow levels. The widths of dykes embedded in an elastic medium are influenced by local magma pressure, affecting flow rates and system dynamics strongly. We develop a model for magma flow in dykes, which predicts intense pulsations of magma extrusion for the case of a constant source pressure. The period time scale is determined by the elastic deformation of the dyke walls and the length‐to‐width ratio of the dyke. The dyke acts like a volumetric capacitor, storing magma as pressure increases and then releasing magma in a pulse of extrusion. For the Soufrière Hills volcano, cyclic extrusions with time‐scales of a few weeks are predicted for dykes 300–500 m long and 3–6 m wide, matching observations. The model explains the sharp onset of tilt pulsations and seismic swarms.
Re: "Identification of patients with nonmelanoma skin cancer using health maintenance organization claims data".

I read with interest the recent contribution by Eide et al. (1). As in many previous studies including our own studies on nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) (2, 3), Eide et al. restricted their International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM)-based case identification of NMSC to the codes 173.0–173.9. With that approach, NMSC of the male (penile cancer, ICD-9-CM codes 187.1–187.4; scrotal cancer, ICD-9-CM code 187.7) and female (vulvar cancer, ICD-9-CM codes 184.0–184.9) genitals and cutaneous lymphoma (ICD-9-CM codes 202.1 and 202.2) are excluded and, consequently, the total burden of NMSC in the population is underestimated (4, 5). Furthermore, the exclusion of genital skin cancers and cutaneous lymphoma may have negatively influenced the agreement between the ICD-9-CM-based and Current Procedural Terminology-based ascertainment approach of Eide et al. (1). To illustrate my point, I reanalyzed the nationwide German hospitalization file of the year 2003 that documented 17.3 million hospitalizations (3). The number of hospitalizations with a main diagnosis of NMSC including skin cancer of the genitals and cutaneous lymphoma was 24,969 among men and 24,072 among women. Overall, 10.4% and 18.8% of these hospitalizations among men and women, respectively, had a main diagnosis of genital skin cancer or cutaneous lymphoma that would have been excluded by the approach of Eide et al. (1) (Table 1). Eide et al. (1) observed virtually 0 inpatient cases of NMSC. Despite health-care system differences between the United States and Germany, this observation appears to be unusual, as a fraction of NMSC patients usually suffers from advanced stages, necessitating systemic chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and sometimes quite invasive surgical therapy frequently done among inhospital patients (2). Furthermore, a fraction of NMSC patients usually dies because of NMSC, and these critically ill patients are frequently hospitalized before death. Eide et al. (1) compared the findings of their ascertainment methodology with other cancer ascertainment results. For the interest of the reader, we recently used nationwide hospitalization data (diagnosis-related group statistics) to estimate the incidence of testicular cancer (6). We identified incident testicular cancer cases by the combination of a diagnosis of testicular cancer and an orchiectomy during the same hospitalization and compared the estimated incidence rates with those provided by the regional population-based cancer registries. The results that we obtained were very much in line with the incidence estimates based on the regional population-based cancer registries.
Cytokine gene expression in neoplastic B cells from human mantle cell, follicular, and marginal zone lymphomas and in their postulated normal counterparts.

Cytokines may promote tumor growth by paracrine and/or autocrine pathways. Little information is available because malignant cells differ from their normal counterparts for the cytokine repertoire they express. Here we have investigated by reverse transcription-PCR the expression of 22 cytokine genes in neoplastic B lymphocytes from six patients with mantle cell lymphoma, 10 with follicular lymphoma, and 5 with marginal zone lymphoma and in their normal counterparts, i.e., naive, germinal center, and memory B cells, purified from tonsils. The overall profiles of cytokine gene expression in neoplastic B cells and in the corresponding normal B-cell subsets were similar, but some "holes" in the repertoire of malignant versus normal B lymphocytes were detected. Different "hole" combinations were identified consistently in mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and marginal zone lymphoma, thus representing molecular fingerprints of each individual lymphoma entity.
S–Te Interdiffusion within Grains and Grain Boundaries in CdTe Solar Cells

At the CdTe/CdS interface, a significant Te-S interdiffusion has been found a few nanometers into the CdTe grain interiors with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy. This interdiffusion happens on both as-grown and CdCl2-treated CdTe. S substitution at Te sites has been directly resolved in CdTe with STEM Z-contrast images, which further confirms the S diffusion into CdTe grain interiors. Moreover, when a sufficient amount of S substitutes for Te, a structural transformation from zinc-blende to wurtzite has been observed. In the CdCl2-treated CdTe, Cl segregation has also been found at the interface. STEM electron-beam-induced current shows that the p-n junction occurs a few namometers into the CdTe grains, which is consistent with the S diffusion range we observe. The shift of the p-n junction suggests a buried homojunction which would help reduce nonradiative recombination at the junction. Meanwhile, long-range S diffusion in CdTe grain boundaries (GBs) has been detected, as has Te and Cl diffusion in CdS GBs.
The economics of global tobacco control

Few people now dispute that smoking is damaging human health on a global scale.1 However, many governments have avoided taking action to control smoking—such as higher taxes—because of concerns that their interventions might have harmful economic consequences, such as permanent job losses. In 1997 the World Bank, in partnership with the World Health Organization, began a global study on the economics of tobacco control. A team of over 40 economists, epidemiologists, and tobacco control experts critically examined the current state of knowledge about tobacco control. The aim was to provide a sound and comprehensive evidence base for the design of effective tobacco control policies in any country, with an emphasis on the needs of the low income and middle income countries, where most smokers live. A synopsis of this work, including interim results, was published in 1999.2 Final results, including 19 chapters and a statistical appendix, are now available.3 This article presents the key findings from this study. #### Summary points Tax increases are the single most effective intervention to reduce demand for tobacco (tax increases that raise the real price of cigarettes by 10% would reduce smoking by about 4% in high income countries and by about 8% in low income or middle income countries) Tax comprises about two thirds of retail price of cigarettes in most high income countries but is less than half of the total price on average in lower income countries Improvements in the quality and extent of information, comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising and promotion, prominent warning labels, restrictions on smoking in public places, and increased access to nicotine replacement treatments are effective in reducing smoking Reducing the supply of tobacco is not effective in reducing tobacco consumption Comprehensive tobacco control policies are unlikely to harm economies Each chapter of the study relied on …
Complement in Different Stages of HIV Infection and Pathogenesis

The complement system is one of the most important weapons of innate immunity and is involved in all infectious processes. It is not only a mechanism for direct protection against an invading pathogen but it also interacts with the adaptive immunity to optimize the pathogen-specific humoral and cellular defence cascade in the body. One of the greatest challenges for the complement system is infection by HIV with its chronic course and sequential destruction of immune cells and immune organs. Due to its dual role as direct effector and as fine tuner of adaptive immunity, we focussed on complement in this review and analysed in detail the contribution of complement to the antiviral defence and to HIV pathogenesis on the one hand and the complement evasion strategies of the virus on the other hand. In the present review, this interplay between complement and the virus is illuminated for the three different stages of HIV pathogenesis and for events during therapy: (1) the acute infection process with the early events in mucosa and serum; (2) the asymptomatic stage with the complex interplay between complement-induced lysis and viral evasion strategies; (3) the symptomatic infection and AIDS stage with progressive destruction of the lymph nodes, opportunistic infections and development of neuropathogenesis, and (4) finally, during highly active antiretroviral therapy and in vaccination approaches.