Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of salinity on sodium and chloride uptake, proline and soluble carbohydrate contents in three alfalfa varieties.

Salinity stress affected severely plant growth and production. Indeed, soil salinity represented one of the most important environmental stresses, which caused serious threats to agriculture and also results in the deterioration of environment. Accumulation of sodium, chloride, proline and soluble sugars was investigated in leaves, stems and roots of three alfalfa varieties (Hunterfield, Hyb.555 and Gabes) at the late bloom-early pod stage. The study was conducted in a greenhouse for 90 days of salt stress in whole-plants. Plants were irrigated with top water with four NaCl concentrations: (0 - 2.5 - 5 and 10g.l -1 ). Results showed that all varieties accumulated high Na + and Cl - contents in leaves and stems. Gabes variety differed from Hunterfield and Hyb.555 with Na + and Cl - contents significantly lower in leaves at the stressful treatments. Furthermore, Gabes proline content at 5 and 10g.l -1 NaCl in three organs was significantly higher than in the introduced varieties. Proline content in leaves, stems and roots increased with the rise of salt in pots, reaching a significantly higher level for Gabes at the stressful treatment (10g.l -1 ). Soluble sugar content in leaf tissue was higher in Gabes than those in the introduced varieties at the stressful treatments (5 and 10g.l -1 ). Contrary to the air parts (leaves and stems), soluble sugar contents in roots for Hunterfield and Hyb.555 are significantly higher, compared to Gabes variety, at the stressful treatment. This could be probably related to the difficulty in generating new leaves in Hunterfield and Hyb.555 varieties. Keyword: Alfalfa; chloride; proline; Salinity; sodium; soluble carbohydrate.
Prognostic role of ABO blood group in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma after transarterial chemoembolization

Background The association of ABO blood group with prognosis of several malignancies has been established. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. Patients and methods In this study, we investigated the prognostic role of ABO blood group in unresectable HCC patients receiving transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) as an initial treatment. Medical records of 2,611 HCC patients were collected, and clinical data of 282 unresectable HCC patients receiving TACE were ultimately analyzed retrospectively. A prognostic nomogram was generated for predicting 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival (OS) probability. A total of 114 (40.4%), 69 (24.5%), 64 (22.7%), and 35 (12.4%) HCC patients had blood groups O, A, B, and AB, respectively. Results The median OS times for patients with blood groups O, A, B, and AB were 24, 23, 20, and 20 months, respectively. Patients with blood group AB (hazard ratio [HR]=2.050, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.331–3.157, P=0.001) or group non-O (HR=1.479, 95% CI, 1.110–1.972, P=0.008) had a poorer OS than those with blood group O. The prognostic nomogram, with a c-index of 0.701, was modest in predicting OS of unresectable HCC patients. Conclusion Patients with non-O blood group, particularly blood group AB, had a worse OS compared with those having blood type O. ABO blood group can predict the prognosis in patients with unresectable HCC undergoing TACE as an initial therapy. Further external validation in larger cohorts is necessary to confirm their usefulness in clinical practice.
Impacts of quality antecedents on faculty members' acceptance of electronic resources

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether quality antecedents and individual characteristics can influence faculty members’ continued usage intention of electronic resources (e-resources) in selected public universities in Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach A total of 204 faculty members participated in the study from three public universities in Tanzania. The study used structural equation modelling, ANOVA and t-tests to perform analyses. Findings Better educated and middle-aged faculty members with a wide experience of using e-resources are more likely to continue using e-resources. Information quality had positive relationship with continued usage intention of e-resources while service quality had indirect impact to continued usage intention through information quality and system quality. Originality/value Based on the DeLone and McLean information systems success model, this study integrates quality factors (information, service and system quality) and individual characteristics as antecedents to the continued usage intention of e-resources. The study comprehensively documents empirical findings on impacts of quality factors and individual characteristics on e-resources in a developing country. The study reveals results that are useful for enhancing usage of e-resources by faculty in other institutions with similar conditions.
Decentralized predictive controller for delivery canals

Presents the design of a predictive controller for decentralized control of an irrigation delivery canal. The overall canal is decomposed into single subsystems (pools) separated by a control structure (gate). The subsystems are inter-dependent because flow through the structures depends on both upstream and downstream water level. In the paper, predictive control theory is used to formulate a set of local controllers for the automatic operation of gates of each pool. The control scheme presented takes into account explicitly the interactions among subsystems. The objective of each controller is to maintain the downstream end water level of each pool at a constant target value under external perturbation. To evaluate the controller performance in realistic conditions, it is tested on an open-canal flow nonlinear model.
Causal Interventions for Fairness

Most approaches in algorithmic fairness constrain machine learning methods so the resulting predictions satisfy one of several intuitive notions of fairness. While this may help private companies comply with non-discrimination laws or avoid negative publicity, we believe it is often too little, too late. By the time the training data is collected, individuals in disadvantaged groups have already suffered from discrimination and lost opportunities due to factors out of their control. In the present work we focus instead on interventions such as a new public policy, and in particular, how to maximize their positive effects while improving the fairness of the overall system. We use causal methods to model the effects of interventions, allowing for potential interference--each individual's outcome may depend on who else receives the intervention. We demonstrate this with an example of allocating a budget of teaching resources using a dataset of schools in New York City.
THE EFFECT OF CONSISTENT PRACTICE OF YOGIC BREATHING EXERCISES ON THE HUMAN CARDIORESPIRATORY SYSTEM

Yogic breathing exercises (YBE) are complex breathing patterns that can include hyperventilation, hypoventilation, and apnea. Some YBE can significantly alter blood gases and result in hypoxic hypercapnia. The consequence of consistent practice of these breathing exercises is unknown. Thus, the purpose of this Master’s thesis was to quantify the cardiovascular, respiratory, and cerebrovascular effects of two common YBE: bhastrika and chaturbhuj; and, to determine the effect of their consistent practice on chemosensitivity. The first study was cross-sectional and compared experienced yogic breathers (YB) with matched controls in the above categories. It determined three things. First, bhastrika and chaturbhuj result in significant hypoxic hypercapnia. Second, the increase in blood pressure during their practice was higher in experienced yogic breathers. Third, experienced YB had reduced chemosensitivity compared to controls. The second was a controlled, longitudinal training study where experimental subjects practiced yogic breathing exercises for 6 weeks. This study had three major findings. First, after 6 weeks of training, bhastrika and chaturbhuj produced hypercapnia and mild hypoxia. Second, chaturbhuj resulted in cyclic oscillation of cardiovascular variables including blood pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, and cerebral blood flow velocity with inspiration and expiration. Third, post intervention there was no change in chemosensitivity measures. The findings from these two studies demonstrate that YBE significantly alter end-tidal gases, resulting in complex oscillations of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular variables, and if practiced for the long term, may reduce
Surgical injury: comparing open surgery and laparoscopy by markers of tissue damage

Background Major abdominal surgery (MAS) is high-risk intervention usually accompanied by tissue injury leading to a release of signaling danger molecules called alarmins. This study evaluates the surgical injury caused by two fundamental types of gastrointestinal surgical procedures (open surgery and laparoscopy) in relation to the inflammation elicited by alarmins. Patients and methods Patients undergoing MAS were divided into a mixed laparoscopy group (LPS) and an open surgery group (LPT). Serum levels of alarmins (S100A8, S100A12, HMGB1, and HSP70) and biomarkers (leukocytes, C-reactive protein [CRP], and interleukin-6 [IL-6]) were analyzed between the groups. The secondary objectives were to compare LPT and LPS cancer subgroups and to find the relationship between procedure and outcome (intensive care unit length of stay [ICU-LOS] and hospital length of stay [H-LOS]). Results A total of 82 patients were analyzed. No significant difference was found in alarmin levels between the mixed LPS and LPT groups. IL-6 was higher in the LPS group on day 2 (p=0.03) and day 3 (p=0.04). Significantly higher S100A8 protein levels on day 1 (p=0.02) and day 2 (p=0.01) and higher S100A12 protein levels on day 2 (p=0.03) were obtained in the LPS cancer subgroup. ICU-LOS and H-LOS were longer in the LPS cancer subgroup. Conclusion The degree of surgical injury elicited by open MAS as reflected by alarmins is similar to that of laparoscopic procedures. Nevertheless, an early biomarker of inflammation (IL-6) was higher in the laparoscopy group, suggesting a greater inflammatory response. Moreover, the levels of S100A8 and S100A12 were higher with a longer ICU-LOS and H-LOS in the LPS cancer subgroup.
Optimal estimation of suspended‐sediment concentrations in streams

Optimal estimators are developed for computation of suspended‐sediment concentrations in streams. The estimators are a function of parameters, computed by use of generalized least squares, which simultaneously account for effects of streamflow, seasonal variations in average sediment concentrations, a dynamic error component, and the uncertainty in concentration measurements. The parameters are used in a Kalman filter for on‐line estimation and an associated smoother for off‐line estimation of suspended‐sediment concentrations. The accuracies of the optimal estimators are compared with alternative time‐averaging interpolators and flow‐weighting regression estimators by use of long‐term daily‐mean suspended‐sediment concentration and streamflow data from 10 sites within the United States. For sampling intervals from 3 to 48 days, the standard errors of on‐line and off‐line optimal estimators ranged from 52·7 to 107%, and from 39·5 to 93·0%, respectively. The corresponding standard errors of linear and cubic‐spline interpolators ranged from 48·8 to 158%, and from 50·6 to 176%, respectively. The standard errors of simple and multiple regression estimators, which did not vary with the sampling interval, were 124 and 105%, respectively. Thus, the optimal off‐line estimator (Kalman smoother) had the lowest error characteristics of those evaluated. Because suspended‐sediment concentrations are typically measured at less than 3‐day intervals, use of optimal estimators will likely result in significant improvements in the accuracy of continuous suspended‐sediment concentration records. Additional research on the integration of direct suspended‐sediment concentration measurements and optimal estimators applied at hourly or shorter intervals is needed. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Physiological Responses to Swimming Repetitive "Ice Miles".

Knechtle, B, Stjepanovic, M, Knechtle, C, Rosemann, T, Sousa, CV, and Nikolaidis, PT. Physiological responses to swimming repetitive "Ice Miles. " J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-"Ice Mile" swimming (i.e., 1,608 m in water of below 5° C) is becoming increasingly popular. Since the foundation of the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) in 2009, official races are held as World Cup Races and World Championships. Ice swimming was a demonstration sport at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. This case study aimed to identify core body temperature and selected hematological and biochemical parameters before and after repeated "Ice Miles. " An experienced ice swimmer completed 6 consecutive Ice Miles within 2 days. Three Ice Miles adhered to the strict criteria for the definition of Ice Miles, whereas the other 3 were very close (i.e., 5.2, 6.1, and 6.6° C) to the temperature limit. Swimming times, changes in core body temperatures, and selected urinary and hematological parameters were recorded. The athlete showed after each Ice Mile a metabolic acidosis (i.e., an increase in lactate and TCO2; a decrease in base excess and HCO3) and an increase in blood glucose, cortisol, and creatine kinase concentration. The decrease in pH correlated significantly and negatively with the increase in cortisol level, indicating that this intense exercise causes a metabolic stress. The change in core body temperature between start and finish was negatively associated with metabolic acidosis. The increase in creatine kinase suggests skeletal muscle damages due to shivering after an Ice Mile. For athletes and coaches, swimming in cold water during Ice Miles leads to a metabolic acidosis, which the swimmer tries to compensate with a respiratory response. Considering the increasing popularity of ice swimming, the findings have practical value for swimmers and practitioners (e.g., coaches, exercise physiologists, and physicians) working with them because our results provide a detailed description of acute physiological responses to repeated swimming in cold conditions. These findings are of importance for athletes and coaches for National Championships and World Championships in Ice Swimming following the IISA rules.
Framework for Rumors Detection in Social Media

The development of social networks has led the public in general to find easy accessibility for communication with respect to rapid communication to each other at any time. Such services provide the quick transmission of information which is its positive side but its negative side needs to be kept in mind thereby misinformation can spread. Nowadays, in this era of digitalization, the validation of such information has become a real challenge, due to lack of information authentication method. In this paper, we design a framework for the rumors detection from the Facebook events data, which is based on inquiry comments. The proposed Inquiry Comments Detection Model (ICDM) identifies inquiry comments utilizing a rule-based approach which entails regular expressions to categorize the sentences as an inquiry into those starting with an intransitive verb (like is, am, was, will, would and so on) and also those sentences ending with a question mark. We set the threshold value to compare with the ratio of Inquiry to English comments and identify the rumors. We verified the proposed ICDM on labeled data, collected from snopes.com. Our experiments revealed that the proposed method achieved considerably well in comparison to the existing machine learning techniques. The proposed ICDM approach attained better results of 89% precision, 77% recall, and 82% 𝐹-measure. We are of the opinion that our experimental findings of this study will be useful for the worldwide adoption.
The Infectiousness of Crowds: Crowding Experiences Are Amplified by Pathogen Threats

People sometimes perceive social environments as unpleasantly crowded. Previous work has linked these experiences to incidental factors such as being hungry or hot and to the relevance of the social environment for an individual’s current goals. Here, we demonstrate that crowding perceptions and evaluations also depend on specific, active threats for perceivers. Eight studies test whether infectious disease threats, which are associated with crowded conditions, increase such reactions. Across studies, pathogen threat made dense social environments seem more crowded and generated more negative affect toward these environments. These perceptions and negative feelings were more influenced by pathogen threat relative to other threats of physical danger. Finally, reactions to pathogen threat affected people’s choice of crowded versus uncrowded environments to inhabit. This research suggests that interpretations of social environments depend on the unique threats and opportunities those environments afford to individuals.
Network meta-analysis of patent foramen ovale management strategies in cryptogenic stroke

Objective To compare the outcomes of patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure vs antiplatelet agent (APA) vs oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) for secondary prevention of stroke in patients with cryptogenic stroke, using direct and indirect evidence from existing randomized data. Methods Relevant randomized controlled trials were identified by a systematic review. The efficacy outcome was stroke recurrence, and safety outcomes were atrial fibrillation and bleeding complications at the end of follow-up. Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed to calculate risk estimates and the rank probabilities using APA therapy as the reference. Results In a network meta-analysis of 6 randomized controlled trials consisting of 3,497 patients (1,732 PFO closure, 1,252 APA, 513 OAT), PFO closure and OAT were associated with lower rates of recurrent stroke (odds ratio [OR] 0.30, 95% credibility interval [CrI] 0.17–0.49 and OR 0.42, 95% CrI 0.22–0.78, respectively) with equal efficacy of OR 0.70 (95% CrI 0.37–1.49). PFO closure had the highest top rank probability of atrial fibrillation and OAT had the highest risk of bleeding complications. Conclusions These findings suggest that closure and OAT may be equally effective in recurrent stroke prevention in patients with PFO. There is an increased risk of atrial fibrillation and bleeding with closure and OAT therapy, respectively. A randomized trial is needed to identify patients who would benefit most from each strategy.
Sordaria fimicola-like ascomycete isolated from Pinus coulteri needles in Slovakia

This is the first report of Sordaria fimicola-like ascomycete which was encountered during a diversity study of injured tissues of coulter pine in Slovakia. The fungus was identified as Sordaria fimicola by morphological analyses. Sequence analysis of internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) showed that the fungus is highly related to the ITS sequences of several S. fimicola isolates documenting wide ecological valence and geographical distribution of S. fimicola-like ascomycetes.
Double asymmetric-latency storage class memories (SCMs) for fast-write SCM, fast-read SCM & NAND flash hybrid SSDs

This paper proposes heterogeneously-integrated double asymmetric-latency storage class memories (SCMs) for SCM/NAND flash hybrid SSDs. Fast-Write SCM (W-SCM) achieves the fast write, while Fast-Read SCM (R-SCM) realizes the fast read. By the mix & match of two SCMs with asymmetric write/read latency, the performance of W-SCM/R-SCM/NAND flash hybrid SSD is improved by 86% compared with a conventional SCM/NAND flash hybrid S SD. The data management techniques for effectively controlling three types of memories, W-SCM, R-SCM and NAND flash, are implemented in the SSD controller. By changing the ECC strength and the maximum set/reset verify cycles of SCMs by the SSD controller, W-SCM and R-SCM are realized without changing circuits of SCMs.
Understanding Batch Normalization

Batch normalization (BN) is a technique to normalize activations in intermediate layers of deep neural networks. Its tendency to improve accuracy and speed up training have established BN as a favorite technique in deep learning. Yet, despite its enormous success, there remains little consensus on the exact reason and mechanism behind these improvements. In this paper we take a step towards a better understanding of BN, following an empirical approach. We conduct several experiments, and show that BN primarily enables training with larger learning rates, which is the cause for faster convergence and better generalization. For networks without BN we demonstrate how large gradient updates can result in diverging loss and activations growing uncontrollably with network depth, which limits possible learning rates. BN avoids this problem by constantly correcting activations to be zero-mean and of unit standard deviation, which enables larger gradient steps, yields faster convergence and may help bypass sharp local minima. We further show various ways in which gradients and activations of deep unnormalized networks are ill-behaved. We contrast our results against recent findings in random matrix theory, shedding new light on classical initialization schemes and their consequences.
PN68 Final Report. Improving water productivity, reducing poverty and enhancing equity in mixed crop-livestock systems in the Indo-Gangetic Basin.

This CGIAR-CPWF Project was designed and conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in partnership with international and national partners, to address the relative neglect of livestock water needs of crop-livestock farming systems. The primary objective of this project was to optimize the productive use of water in the crop-livestock farming systems of semi-arid areas to enhance livelihoods, reduce poverty, contribute to gender equity, and protect the environment. This was addressed through an integrated approach led by a multi-disciplinary team across three States of the Ganga Basin.
Age-Associated Changes in the Respiratory Epithelial Response to Influenza Infection

Older adults suffer a disproportionate burden of influenza-related morbidity and mortality typically attributed to defects in the aging immune system collectively known as immunosenescence. While the age-related decline in the adaptive immune system has been well characterized, little is known about how aging affects the principal site of influenza infection-the nasal epithelium. In human nasal epithelial cell cultures (hNECs) from older adults, we found similar or increased levels of cytokines during influenza infection compared with hNECs from younger individuals. However, hNECs from older individuals demonstrated decreased mRNA expression for several key proteins that affect clearance of infected cells, including MHC-I and transporter associated with antigen presentation (TAP). These findings were confirmed at the level of protein expression. In vivo studies corroborated the in vitro differences in MHC-I and TAP gene expression and also revealed important decreases in the expression of key influenza-specific antiviral mediators MX1 and IFITM1. Furthermore, epithelial cell-cytotoxic T lymphocyte co-cultures demonstrate that CTL cytotoxic activity is dose-dependent on MHC-I antigen presentation. Taken together, these results indicate that aging is associated with important changes in the nasal epithelium, including antigen presentation and antiviral pathways, which may contribute to increased severity of disease in older adults through impaired clearance of infected cells.