Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stable and Consistent Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation in Pinus roxburghi ( Chir Pine )

This paper highlights an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation protocol, developed for embryogenic cell cultures derived from vegetative shoot apices of mature, 14 years-old trees of Pinus roxburghii. The plasmid pBI121, containing the neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) gene providing kanamycin resistance as a selectable marker and the -glucuronidase (uidA/GUS) reporter gene, was used as a binary vector. Transformation frequencies were dependent on the species, genotype and post-cocultivation procedure. The highest transformation efficiency was obtained in the embryogenic line PR105 (37 transformed lines/g fresh wt) than with the embryogenic lines PR11 and PR521. The transgenic state of the embryogenic tissue was initially confirmed by histochemical GUS assay. Stable integration of the nptII gene in the plant genome of P. roxburghii was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Southern and Northern blot analyses. These results demonstrated that a stable and enhanced transformation system has been established in chir pine, and that this system would provide an opportunity to transfer economically important genes into other genotypes of P. roxburghii. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Efficacy of corticosteroids in oral lesion treatment associated with Steven-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis in HIV patient ( A Case Report )

The useof steroids in an immunosuppressive patientiscontroversial,but steroidshave beneficial effects on correlations of HIV disease. The aim is to discuss the efficacy of corticosteroids in thetreatment of oral lesion associated with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermalnecrolysis (TEN). A 23 year old male HIV patient was referred from the Dermatology and Venereology Department with the diagnosis of drug-induced SJS/TEN due to nevirapine or paracetamol. The patient’schief complaint was painful ulcers in the mouth and swallowing difficulty. Extraoral examination revealed erosion and serosanguinous crust on the lips. Intraoral examination revealed erosion of upper and lower labialmucosa, the white plaqueon the dorsal of the tongue. Based on anamnesis and clinical examination, the HIV patient was diagnosedwithSJS/TEN and oral candidiasis. He was prescribed hydrocortisone 1%, chlorhexidine gluconate 0.1%, vitamin B12, folic acid, and nystatin oral suspension for nine days. Hydrocortisone 1% alone was substituted with hydrocortisone 1% in combination with miconazole nitrate 2% after two weeks of treatment. All oral lesions healed within three weeks but the sore on the tongue persisted. At the next visit, the patient was given a corticosteroid locally and systemicly at different times because to speed of healingand the condition was improving effectively. The effectiveness of corticosteroids depends on severity, vehicle, the frequency of administration, and duration of treatment. An appropriate administration of steroid is the key to successful treatment of SJS/TEN in HIV patients. Case report (J Int Dent Med Res 2019; 12(2): 709-715)
Approved by Major Professor(s): Approved by Head of Graduate Program: Date of Graduate Program Head's Approval: Aaron J. Patton Characterizing the Growth and Cold Hardiness of Zoysia spp. Doctor of Philosophy

Patton, Aaron J. Ph.D., Purdue University, December, 2006. Characterizing the Growth and Cold Hardiness of Zoysia spp. Major Professor: Zachary J. Reicher. Zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp.) is a warm-season grass well-adapted to lawns and golf turfs that requires minimal inputs. Key barriers to widespread zoysiagrass use are slow establishment rate and poor cold hardiness. Therefore, my objective was to determine the physiological basis for differences in growth and cold hardiness of zoysiagrass. Field studies first quantified differences in establishment rate and winter injury among zoysiagrass cultivars and the underlying factors associated with differential growth rates and freeze tolerances were examined in ensuing growth/freeze chamber studies. Mean establishment rate and coverage in field studies were greater for Zoysia japonica Steud. than Z. matrella (L.) Merr. ‘El Toro’, ‘Chinese Common’ and ‘Palisades’ were among the cultivars that produced more coverage than the mean whereas the industry standard ‘Meyer’ produced less coverage than the mean. Growth analysis indicated cultivars that partition more dry matter to stems instead of leaves establish the quickest. Zoysia japonica cultivars had less winter injury than Z. matrella cultivars. Meyer, Chinese Common and ‘Zenith’ exhibited the least winter injury (<6%) among commercially available cultivars, whereas ‘Victoria’, ‘DeAnza’, ‘Diamond’, and ‘Empress’ had the most winter injury (>88%). Freeze tolerance (LT50) of cold acclimated plants, as determined using a cold stress simulator, ranged from -8.4oC (Diamond) to -11.5oC (Meyer and Zenith). SDS-PAGE indicated that cultivars had similar polypeptide composition irrespective of cold acclimation.
Production performance of over-wintered freshwater giant prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in polyculture with common carp (Cyprinus carpio) for an early crop

This study was undertaken to investigate some technical issues and commercial feasibilities of raising an early aquaculture crop with over-wintered late season freshwater prawn, Macro brachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) and common carp, Cyprinus carpio juveniles found early first half of the year. From that point of view, an experiment was conducted for optimizing freshwater prawn and common carp stocking density considering production performance evaluation and economic feasibility. A factorial design of 6×3 (treatment×replicate) experimental setup was employed using eighteen earthen ponds measuring 81 m 2 each for a culture period of 170 days in between March, 2013 to August, 2013. Essential water quality parameters were found in the suitable range. Among the six treatments, T2 (60 prawn and 15 common carp/decimal density combination) showed highest result in respect of production performance viz. weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, survival, total yield. Again, in case of economic feasibility, T2 (60 prawn and 15 common carp/decimal density combination) further showed most profitable venture which was economically feasible than the other treatments and real farmers net profit. The experiment suggested to stock 60 no/decimal of prawn with 15no/decimal of common carp for the success of the study objective.
Management of concomitant hepatocellular carcinoma and chronic hepatitis C: a review

Our comprehensive review focuses on the treatment of hepatitis C virus in the context of hepatocellular carcinoma and vice versa, highlighting the ongoing complexity of this clinical scenario. There remain multiple unanswered questions when considering the management of these complex patients and, with a rapidly-changing treatment landscape for both chronic hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma, these questions are only going to grow. Treatment timing, interactions and the impact of one disease condition on the other are vitally important, though guidance generally remains non-specific, suggesting that we make these decisions on a case-by-case basis. We focus on the current evidence for managing these cases, depending on disease stage and treatment type.
Preliminary results of a survey for Johne ’ s disease in the Antwerp

In this study, the presence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map) in the animal collection of the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp was investigated. The specific situation of zoo facilities (limited space for different animals) is a cause of concern. Up to one third of zoos accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium assocation have reported the occurrence of at least one paratuberculosis infection since 1995. Faecal and post mortem samples of a total of 38 ruminants were tested using bacteriological and molecular methods. Samples were cultured on Löwenstein-Jensen (+ mycobactin J) solid medium and in BACTEC 12B radiometric medium after decontamination with the double incubation method described by Whitlock and Rosenberger (14). DNA templates of all samples were also subjected to PCR using primers for IS900. A modified Boom-extraction was used for the post mortem samples whereas faecal samples were extracted using a newly developed protocol based on sequence-capture. No evidence of paratuberculosis was found in the animal collection using both detection tests. One sample in culture was positive for Mycobacterium avium. Accurate diagnosis of Map is very difficult by current tests. Negative isolation of Map from animals may be due to the limited distributions of focal lesions, sporadic excretion of the organism or the detection limit of the faecal culture methods. Faeces are a lot easier to sample in a zoo than blood or biopsy material. For these practical reasons, a faecal DNA extraction was developed and used in this study. Faeces contain a lot of PCRinhibitors and difficulties are experienced in recovering DNA from such a complex matrix. Negative PCR results may be due to inhibition or the low detection limit of the PCR. The conclusion was that we could not detect a positive animal in the RZSA with the diagnostic tests used.
APE 1 / Ref-1 regulates 5-FU resistance in colon cancer cells through its redox and endonuclease activity

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the most widely used drugs for treatment of patients with advanced colon cancers. However, recurrence of colorectal cancer is frequent due to the development of drug resistance. The understanding of drug resistance is still limited now. Here in this study, we showed that the dual-functional protein APE1/Ref-1 (APE1 in short) was upregulated in 5-FU resistance HCT116 colon cancer cell lines. Inhibiting APE1 protein by siRNA sensitized cells to 5-FU again. By deactivating the DNA repair and redox activity respectively, we found inhibiting either DNA repair activity or the redox activity enhanced 5-FU’s effect in both cell model and xenograft animal model. Moreover, inhibiting the redox activity showed a more robust effect on reversing the drug resistance. Inhibiting endonuclease activity of APE1 increased sensitivity to 5-FU in a p53 dependent manner. A major implication of our studies is that inhibition of APE1 may have considerable therapeutic potential to overcome drug resistance in colorectal cancer cells.
Synchronization in complex systems with multiple time scales

In the present work synchronization phenomena in complex dynamical systems exhibiting multiple time scales have been analyzed. Multiple time scales can be active in different manners. Three different systems have been analyzed with different methods from data analysis. The first system studied is a large heterogenous network of bursting neurons, that is a system with two predominant time scales, the fast firing of action potentials (spikes) and the burst of repetitive spikes followed by a quiescent phase. This system has been integrated numerically and analyzed with methods based on recurrence in phase space. An interesting result are the different transitions to synchrony found in the two distinct time scales. Moreover, an anomalous synchronization effect can be observed in the fast time scale, i.e. there is range of the coupling strength where desynchronization occurs. The second system analyzed, numerically as well as experimentally, is a pair of coupled CO2 lasers in a chaotic bursting regime. This system is interesting due to its similarity with epidemic models. We explain the bursts by different time scales generated from unstable periodic orbits embedded in the chaotic attractor and perform a synchronization analysis of these different orbits utilizing the continuous wavelet transform. We find a diverse route to synchrony of these different observed time scales. The last system studied is a small network motif of limit cycle oscillators. Precisely, we have studied a hub motif, which serves as elementary building block for scale-free networks, a type of network found in many real world applications. These hubs are of special importance for communication and information transfer in complex networks. Here, a detailed study on the mechanism of synchronization in oscillatory networks with a broad frequency distribution has been carried out. In particular, we find a remote synchronization of nodes in the network which are not directly coupled. We also explain the responsible mechanism and its limitations and constraints. Further we derive an analytic expression for it and show that information transmission in pure phase oscillators, such as the Kuramoto type, is limited. In addition to the numerical and analytic analysis an experiment consisting of electrical circuits has been designed. The obtained results confirm the former findings.
Xerostomia and salivary flow rates in methamphetamine abusers in Jakarta, Indonesia

Methamphetamine (MA) abuse appears to have an impact on oral health. No studies have reported on the salivary flow among MA abusers in Indonesia. The aim of this study was to examine associations between subjective xerostomia perception and the actual hyposalivation among MA abusers compared to nonusers. This cross-sectional study included 43 MA abusers and 43 controls matched for sex and age. Interviews were conducted to acquire data on the subjective self-assessment dry mouth (xerostomia) and drug use. Bivariate analysis was used to examine the associations between xerostomia and objective measurements of the salivary flow rate (SFR) among the 86 subjects. The SFR was determined using the spitting method. There was no significant reduction in the stimulated SFR among MA abusers compared with nonusers (1.42 vs. 1.15 mL/min). The stimulated SFR among MA abusers and nonusers were in the normal range (88%) and the remaining were in the low category (12%). Moreover, xerostomia was reported in 84% of users and 7% of nonusers (p < 0.05). No significant association was found between xerostomia and hyposalivation (p = 1.000). Furthermore, only 12% MA abusers had a low SFR but 84% reported xerostomia compared to 3% of nonusers. Xerostomia is a subjective perception, the dentists need to pay more attention to comprehensive oral health education and treatment for MA abusers. Clinical article (J Int Dent Med Res 2019; 12(2): 645-649)
Grav it y ∗

A large empirical literature has estimated the effects of international agreements on trade flows, but these estimates may not be very informative for individual policymakers as they are averages of potentially very different impacts across country-pairs. We investigate this issue using quarterly data from 20 advanced economies over the past 55 years. Our empirical implementation adopts a Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimation technique and estimates a reduced-form gravity relationship at the pair-level using new insights from the common factor model literature to capture multilateral resistance and globalisation effects. We find an average effect of entering regional trade agreements of just over 20%. However, we demonstrate that this average hides substantial heterogeneity across countries, with direct consequence for heterogeneity across time periods. This heterogeneity is also prevalent in the common currency effect. Beyond these findings, our empirical approach offers solutions to issues currently discussed in frontier gravity model research.
The ecosystem approach to fisheries 2 . 1 Best practices in ecosystem modelling for informing an ecosystem approach to fisheries

Awareness of the limitations of a single-species approach to fisheries management has led to global acceptance of the need to adopt a wider ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) assessment and management. Applying EAF in management requires the application of scientific methods and tools that also go beyond the single-species approaches which used to be, to a large extent, the exclusive sources of scientific advice. Managers and decision-makers must now find management solutions that take into account the wider range of societal objectives that must be explicitly considered under EAF and the interactions in the ecosystem. Ecosystem models, i.e. models that represent a wider range of technological and ecological processes affecting the species in the ecosystem (including multispecies and whole ecosystem models), are potentially important tools for providing this wider scientific information. There are many different types of ecosystem models and they can vary enormously in terms of complexity. They can be used in different ways, ranging from contributing to conceptual understanding, providing information for strategic decisions through to making tactical decisions, although they are rarely used as yet for the last purpose. These guidelines were developed by a group of leading practioners in aquatic ecosystem modelling as a tool for provision of management advice. They are intended to assist users in the construction and application of ecosystem models for EAF. The guidelines address all steps of the modelling process, encompassing scoping and specifying the model, implementation, evaluation and advice on how to present and use the outputs. The overall goal of the guidelines is to assist in ensuring that the best possible information and advice is generated from ecosystem models and used wisely in management.
POS Tagging for Improving Code-Switching Identification in Arabic

When speakers code-switch between their native language and a second language or language variant, they follow a syntactic pattern where words and phrases from the embedded language are inserted into the matrix language. This paper explores the possibility of utilizing this pattern in improving code-switching identification between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian Arabic (EA). We try to answer the question of how strong is the POS signal in word-level code-switching identification. We build a deep learning model enriched with linguistic features (including POS tags) that outperforms the state-of-the-art results by 1.9% on the development set and 1.0% on the test set. We also show that in intra-sentential code-switching, the selection of lexical items is constrained by POS categories, where function words tend to come more often from the dialectal language while the majority of content words come from the standard language.
Manager or Professional Politician? Local Fiscal Autonomy and the Skills of Elected Officials

Abstract We provide a theoretical and empirical assessment of why local fiscal autonomy can affect the skills of elected officials in sub-national governments. We first develop a model of politics with different types of politicians and show that – following a tax decentralization reform increasing local fiscal autonomy – politicians with high administrative skills are elected in rich jurisdictions while politicians with high political skills are elected in poor ones. As a result, voter welfare increases only, or mainly, in rich jurisdictions. We then look for empirical support to these predictions by exploiting the decentralization reforms affecting Italian municipalities in the '90s. These reforms introduced both the direct election of the mayor and new autonomous tax tools for municipalities characterized by large differences in their tax bases. Our estimates – robust to several alternative stories – emphasize a differential change in elected officials at the municipal level between rich and poor jurisdictions. These findings provide a new explanation for the observed poor performance of local governments largely financed by grants.
Expropriation Risk vs. Government Bailout: Implications for Minority Shareholders of State-Owned Banks

We investigate the implications of government versus private ownership for bank minority shareholders. Specifically, we use unique data to examine whether the stock prices of government-owned and family-owned banks, equally engaged in related lending, differently react to loan announcements. Our empirical findings show that the expected negative market reaction due to minority shareholder expropriation driven by related lending ("grabbing hand" effect), is offset by shareholders' expectations of future support from the government ("helping hand" effect). Positive announcement returns are also larger for new loans to state-owned firms than for those to private firms. Our findings support the view that in countries with weak shareholder protection, shareholders of state-owned banks rationally anticipate expropriation, but are willing to accept it in exchange for higher expectations of government support to state-owned banks and to state-owned firms. JEL Classification: G21, G28
STEADY-STATE SOLUTIONS FOR SCHRÖDINGER EQUATIONS IN PHOTONIC LATTICE

In this article, we study a nonlinear Schrödinger equation arising in optics. Firstly we prove the existence of multiple solutions of this equation. Secondly, we consider a nonlinear Schrödinger system which is intimately related to the Schrödinger equation. We obtain the existence of nontrivial solutions to this system and we also get some results on its positive solutions. Finally, assuming Dirichlet or Neumann boundary condition, we show the existence and uniqueness of positive solution to the Schrödinger equation.
Effect of Mineral Fertilizater on Sweet Potatoes [ Ipomoea Batatas ( L . ) ] Yield in the Sudan Savannah Agro-Ecological Zone of Ghana

Sweet potatoes [Ipomoea batatas (L.)] is a major non-traditional export crop in the Upper regions of Ghana. One major constraint to achieving higher tuber yields is inherent low fertility status of these soils. A study to look at effective ways of increasing sweet potatoes production through the use of mineral fertilizer was conducted. Treatments were designed to establish the most limiting nutrient for sweet potatoes production and responses to increasing rates of N, P and K. Results showed that both tuber and vine production were significantly reduced when P was limiting. At 45 kg P2O5/ha, tuber, vine production and number of tubers/ha were significantly higher than when P was not applied. Both tuber and vine yields increased significantly over 0 kg N ha at 75 kg N ha. Tuber yield significantly declined when N was increased to 90 kg N ha. Increasing K levels from 0 to 90 kg ha significantly reduced number of tubers produced and /or tuber size resulting in significant decrease in tuber production. In order of importance phosphorus is the most limiting nutrient in these soils for sweet potatoes production (P>>N>K). The following nutrient combinations gave comparable yields: 30-45-60, 7560-90 and 90-45-90 kg/ha N-P2O5-K2O. Tentatively 30-45-60 kg/ha NP2O5, -K2O, is recommended.