Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bacillus megaterium from tea rhizosphere promotes growth and induces systemic resistance in tea against Sclerotium rolfsii

The objectives of the study was to determine how Bacillus megaterium , isolated from tea rhizosphere promotes the growth of tea plants as plant growth promoter, affects sclerotial blight disease and induces systemic resistance in tea plants. Bacillus megaterium , promoted growth of 5 varieties of tea, as evidenced by increase in height, emergence of new leaves, branches and increase in leaf numbers both in potted conditions and in the field. The bacterium was antagonistic to a number of fungal pathogens in vitro and reduced sclerotial blight of tea caused by Sclerotium rolfsii . Significant increases in phenolics along with increase in isomers of catechins as well as peroxidase, chitinase, β-1,3-glucanase and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, were observed in tea plants on application of B. megaterium alone or following challenge inoculation with S. rolfsii . Survival of B. megaterium in soil was determined by ELISA and Dot-Blot using PAb raised against the bacterium. Enhanced expression of chitinase in B. megaterium treated leaves was confirmed by Western Blot and Dot Blot using PAb raised against chitinase. Besides, immunolocalization of chitinase in tea leaves was also done using the chitinase PAb. B. megaterium has been found to be a good plant growth promoter with the ability to increase growth of tea plants along with a reduction of sclerotial blight disease which acts both by direct and indirect mechanisms in the host.
The Relationship of Earnings and Book Values to Equity Values: Evidence from Turkey

In this study, we examine factors associated with equity valuation in a newly emerging market, Turkey. In the United States and other developed countries, research indicates that both earnings and book value are important predictors of equity valuation. In Turkey, earnings appear to have information content, but earnings appear to be declining in importance over time. Book value adjusted for inflation has a stronger association with equity values. In the inflationary and risky environment of Turkey, where future value of earnings is quite uncertain, investors may be paying less attention to earnings. Our study also indicates that, overall, earnings and inflation-adjusted book values combined virtually explain almost 75 percent of the variation in equity prices. This is much higher than results using U.S. data where the maximum R2 for pooled data is 15 percent.
Contributions of Grand Linguistic Theories to Second Language Acquisition Research and Pedagogy

Research on second language acquisition (SLA) and use has always been enriched by linguistic schools and theories. The purpose of the present paper is give readers a snapshot of contributions grand linguistic theories have made to L2 acquisition research and pedagogy. The grand linguistic theories chosen for review in the present study include Structural Linguistics, Nativism, Functional Linguistics, and Cognitive Linguistics. These four linguistics theories have been, and some of them are, paid much more focus in the field of linguistics than other theories. In fact, the areas of SLA research and pedagogy have been highly influenced by these four grand linguistic theories. However, their impacts on these two areas have not been equal and, as a matter of fact, some of linguistic theories have more influenced SLA research while other theories have had implications more for SLA pedagogy. The contributions of the aforementioned grand linguistic theories to SLA research and pedagogy are discussed, along with criticisms against the contributions of each linguistic theory posed by the rival researchers.
University of Padova Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences DOCTORAL COURSE IN PHARMACOLOGICAL SCIENCES CURRICULUM MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR PHARMACOLOGY XXIX SERIES DISMANTLING THE ABERRANT SIGNALING NETWORK IN CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA: PP2A AND SHP-1 AS PROMISING TARGETS FOR DR

English) . 9 ABSTRACT (Italiano) . 10Italiano) . 10 INTRODUCTION . 11 CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA . 12 Etiology, Diagnosis and Staging . 12 Cellular, molecular and functional features of CLL . 13 Mutational status of IgVH . 15 ZAP70 and CD38. 17 The CC chemokine family . 18 Genetic lesions . 18 Signaling in CLL cells: overview . 20 Current pharmacologic treatments . 22 Kinase inhibitors in the treatment of CLL . 23 Lyn and its substrates: anti-apoptotic strategy of CLL cells . 24 PROTEIN PHOSPHATASE 2A: MASTER REGULATOR OF VIRTUALLY ALL CELLULAR PROCESSES . 27 PP2A: structure . 27 PP2AC: the catalytic subunit . 28 PP2AA: the structural subunit . 28 PP2AB: the regulatory subunit. 29 B family (PR55) . 29 B’ family (PR61) . 29 B’’ family (PR72) . 30 B’’’ family . 30 PP2A: function . 30 PP2A as a tumor suppressor . 31 PP2A and apoptosis . 32 PP2A: regulation . 33 Post-translational modifications . 33 Physiological modulators: cellular inhibitors . 33 I1PP2A. 33 I2PP2A (SET) . 34 CIP2A . 35 Physiological modulators: cellular activators . 35 Ceramides . 35 Non-physiological inhibitors . 36 Okadaic acid (OA) . 36 Forskolin . 36 4 Fingolimod (FTY720) . 37 SRC HOMOLOGY 2 DOMAIN-CONTAINING PHOSPHATASE 1 (SHP-1) . 40 SHP-1: structure . 41 SHP-1: function . 42 SHP-1 activators: angiokinase inhibitors doing a front flip? 44 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY . 47 EXPERIMENTAL SECTION . 49 Nintedanib directly activates SHP-1 in the cytosol of CLL cells . 50 Nintedanib induces activation of caspase-8 and PP2A by decreasing tyrosine phosphorylation in CLL cells . 55 Apoptosis of the CLL cells can be induced by indirect activators of SHP-1 . 60 MP07-66 potentiates the pro-apoptotic effect of nintedanib . 62 Discussion . 65 MATERIALS AND METHODS . 70 MATERIALS . 71 METHODS. 71 Ethics Statement . 71 Patients, cell separation and culture conditions . 71 Cell lysis and subcellular fractionation . 72 Immunoprecipitation of SHP-1 . 72 SHP-1 activity assay . 72 [32P]-phospho band 3 preparation . 73 PP2A activity assays . 73 Casp8 activity assay . 73 Apoptosis assays . 73 Western blotting . 74 Cell transfection . 74 In vitro tyrosine kinase assays . 74 Statistical analysis . 75 REFERENCES . 76
“Super-deblended” Dust Emission in Galaxies. I. The GOODS-North Catalog and the Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density out to Redshift 6

We present a new technique to measure multi-wavelength “super-deblended” photometry from highly confused images, which we apply to Herschel and ground-based far-infrared (FIR) and (sub-)millimeter (mm) data in the northern field of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. There are two key novelties. First, starting with a large database of deep Spitzer 24 μm and VLA 20 cm detections that are used to define prior positions for fitting the FIR/submm data, we perform an active selection of useful priors independently at each frequency band, moving from less to more confused bands. Exploiting knowledge of redshift and all available photometry, we identify hopelessly faint priors that we remove from the fitting pool. This approach significantly reduces blending degeneracies and allows reliable photometry to be obtained for galaxies in FIR+mm bands. Second, we obtain well-behaved, nearly Gaussian flux density uncertainties, individually tailored to all fitted priors for each band. This is done by exploiting extensive simulations that allow us to calibrate the conversion of formal fitting uncertainties to realistic uncertainties, depending on directly measurable quantities. We achieve deeper detection limits with high fidelity measurements and uncertainties at FIR+mm bands. As an illustration of the utility of these measurements, we identify 70 galaxies with and reliable FIR+mm detections. We present new constraints on the cosmic star formation rate density at , finding a significant contribution from dusty galaxies that are missed by optical-to-near-infrared color selection. Photometric measurements for 3306 priors, including more than 1000 FIR+mm detections, are released publicly with our catalog.
Economic integration and industry reallocations

We distill the main insights from recent trade models on firms’ responses to globalisation. Our primary aim is to assess the economic impact and the welfare implications of the resulting reallocation of resources across firms and countries. In so doing, we bring theory into life through the numerical implementation of a theoretical framework calibrated on European data, which encompasses aspects of economic geography, firm heterogeneity, and firms’ organizational choices. Our final purpose is to provide a comprehensive background for empirical investigations and to stimulate further theoretical research.
Estimates of Price Elasticities of Pharmaceutical Consumption for the Elderly

This paper estimates the price-elasticity of prescription drugs exploiting three unique features of the Spanish health system (1) the co-payment of prescription drug drops from 40% (10% for chronic diseases drugs) to 0% upon retirement, while the copayment for the rest of health care services remains constant; (2) retirement jumps discontinuously at age 65, the legal retirement age, which allows us to use a Regression Discontinuity design to disentangle price from selection effects; and (3) absence of deductibles or caps in yearly or monthly out-of-pocket expenditure, which simplifies the computation of elasticities. We use administrative data from all individuals aged 63-67 covered by the National Health System in Catalonia (Spain) from 2004-2006. We find that the price-elasticity of prescription drugs is -0.20 for non-chronic condition drugs, and -0.08 or -0.03 for chronic conditions drugs. Given the size of our estimates, they remain informative even if we interpret them as being possibly biased away from zero (for reasons discussed in the paper). We also find a small increase in the expenditure on medically inappropriate drugs due to the decrease in co-payments.
Influence of Scale Specific Features on the ProgressiveDamage ofWoven Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs)

It is well known that failure of a material is a locally driven event. In the case of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), significant variations in the microstructure of the composite exist and their significance on both deformation and life response need to be assessed. Examples of these variations include changes in the fiber tow shape, tow shifting/nesting and voids within and between tows. In the present work, the influence of many of these scale specific architectural features of woven ceramic composite are examined stochastically at both the macroscale (woven repeating unit cell (RUC)) and structural scale (idealized using multiple RUCs). The recently developed MultiScale Generalized Method of Cells (MSGMC) methodology is used to determine the overall deformation response, proportional elastic limit (first matrix cracking), and failure under tensile loading conditions and associated probability distribution functions. Prior results showed that the most critical architectural parameter to account for is weave void shape and content with other parameters being less in severity. Current results show that statistically only the post-elastic limit region (secondary hardening modulus and ultimate tensile strength) is impacted by local uncertainties both at the macro and structural level.
Modeling association in microbial communities with clique loglinear models

There is a growing awareness of the important roles that microbial communities play in complex biological processes. Modern investigation of these often uses next generation sequencing of metagenomic samples to determine community composition. We propose a statistical technique based on clique loglinear models and Bayes model averaging to identify microbial components in a metagenomic sample at various taxonomic levels that have significant associations. We describe the model class, a stochastic search technique for model selection, and the calculation of estimates of posterior probabilities of interest. We demonstrate our approach using data from the Human Microbiome Project and from a study of the skin microbiome in chronic wound healing. Our technique also identifies significant dependencies among microbial components as evidence of possible microbial syntrophy. KEYWORDS: contingency tables, graphical models, model selection, microbiome, next generation sequencing
Scrub typhus in children: Clinical profile and complications at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Uttarakhand

Background: Scrub typhus is an acute febrile illness caused by rickettsia Orientia tsutsugamushi. Rickettsial infections are grossly underdiagnosed in India because of their non-specific clinical presentation, low index of suspicion among clinicians, and lack of diagnostic facilities. Objective: Objective of the study is to study the clinical profile, complications, and outcome of pediatric scrub typhus. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, SGRR Institute of Medical and Health Sciences, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, over a period of 2 years from November 2013 to October 2015. Children up to 18 years of age with signs and symptoms compatible with scrub typhus along with serological confirmation were included in the study. Serological study was conducted using rapid immunochromatographic assay and/or immunoglobulin M enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. Clinical presentation, laboratory findings, complications, and outcome of these children were recorded on a performa. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 for windows. Results: About 115 children were diagnosed as scrub typhus during the study period. All children presented with fever. Other common symptoms were myalgia (56%), vomiting (50.5%), abdominal pain (26%), headache (28%), facial puffiness (15%), and seizures (8.7%). Pallor was present in 48% of children. Other common signs were hepatomegaly (29%), splenomegaly (28%), hypotension (24%), edema (21%), oliguria (17%), maculopapular rash (10%), meningeal signs (10.4%), and conjunctivitis (3%). Thrombocytopenia (67%), anemia (51%), pleural effusion (23%), shock (16%), hepatitis (23%), acute kidney injury (17%), meningoencephalitis (10%), myocarditis (7%), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (7%) were the complications observed. Azithromycin, doxycycline or chloramphenicol were used for the treatment. Overall mortality rate was 12.2%. Conclusion: A high degree of suspicion and knowledge of geographical distribution of rickettsial diseases is crucial for its early diagnosis and favorable outcome. The presence of an eschar is a valuable clinical clue in the diagnosis of scrub typhus; however, its absence does not rule out the disease.
Family Caregiver’s Experiences Using Community Mental Health Services in Malaysia

Many studies of family caregiving have found mixed findings in evaluating the effectiveness of community services in reducing family caregiver stress. In addition, the study also showed that some of the caregiver has limited experience in obtaining care. The purpose of this article was to describe the experience of the use of community mental health services, including benefits and barriers, by family caregivers of schizophrenic patients in Malaysia. Community mental health services included assistance with caregiving and educational as well as emotional support by community mental health professionals. In this qualitative descriptive study, a purposive sample of 24 family caregivers was interviewed. Semi-structured interview technique was used to explore the caregivers' experiences with community mental health services. Transcribed data were analysed using qualitative frameworkanalysis techniques. Results indicated that family caregivers received benefits of personal respite,sense of community, financial and emotional supports as well as gained practical knowledge and believed that their family also benefited from the community services used. Barriers to service use included lack of attention, accessibility issues and concerns over quality. All the findings in this study provide direction for mental health workers in targeting interventions that will meet the caregivers’ needs and desires.
Life History of the Hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, in a West Virginia Stream

Abstract Though locally abundant throughout the high mountains of West Virginia, intensive studies on the natural history and population structure of the hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, have not been conducted in the state. From 1998–2000 we conducted a mark-recapture study within a 216 × 18 m stream section in east-central West Virginia using diurnal and nocturnal survey methods. Ninety-nine captures of 44 individuals were recorded. Density estimates ranged from 0.8–1.2 individuals/100 m2. The sex ratio was 1.2:1. Sexual dimorphism was apparent, as females were longer and heavier than males. However, the longest males were underweight compared to their predicted mass. This population was highly skewed toward large adults, and larvae and juveniles were not encountered. The mean inter-capture distance was 35.8 m and 95% MCP home range estimates averaged 198 m2. Water depth where hellbenders were captured ranged from 16–56 cm and individuals were never captured in heavily silted areas. Hellbender size was not correlated to rock size and not more than one individual was found beneath a single rock. We suggest that more thorough searches focusing on larval and juvenile habitat are needed before accurate assessments of population health can be made in this and other streams in West Virginia.
Design and implementation of a communication strategy for agricultural research in Uganda - experiences and lessons learnt

Effective and planned communication is paramount at all stages in the production, testing, adaptation and delivery of agricultural services, whether a physical technology or a management practice. This paper reports experiences and lessons learnt in the development and implementation of a communications strategy for the Uganda National Agricultural Research Organisation’s Client-oriented Agricultural Research and Dissemination Project. End-users information and media preferences and needs were assessed, and scientists’ and intermediary-users’ communications practises and abilities reviewed and strengthened in a series of workshops and surveys. Lessons and issues for the institutionalisation of effective communications and dissemination in a service-oriented farmer-demanded paradigm are developed.
The demand for lottery expenditure in Taiwan: a quantile regression approach

This paper is a pioneering attempt to apply the quantile regression method (QRM) to the demand for lottery expenditure in order to consider the extreme behavior of lottery expenditure as well as clarify the diverse results obtained from previous studies on lottery expenditure. The results of this study reveal that there exists a complementary correlation both between benevolent donations and lottery expenditure, and between entertainment expenditure and lottery expenditure. By contrast, the results from using OLS reveal that benevolent donations do not have a significant impact on lottery expenditure and that entertainment expenditure does not have a negative impact on lottery expenditure. Besides, expenditure on cigarettes and alcohol is found to have a positive impact on lottery expenditure, which coincides with the results of Balabanis (2002).
Gray whales may increase feeding opportunities for avian benthivores

Feeding by gray whales Eschrichtius robustus along the eastern Pacific coast between the Bering Sea and Baja, Mexico, appears to be increasing. Gray whale feeding can disturb large fractions of intertidal and shallow subtidal sediments, altering the distributions of benthic inverte- brates for many months. Increased gray whale feeding may be modifying foraging profitability for other bottom-feeding vertebrates along the coast, but such effects have not been documented. This paper is the first report of a feeding association between a cetacean and bottom-feeding birds, namely a migrating gray whale and diving sea ducks. Local counts and condition of surf scoters Melanitta perspicillata in Puget Sound, Washington, suggest that gray whale feeding can provide important foraging opportunities for scoters during spring, when other foods may have declined and requirements to prepare for migration and reproduction are high. Complementary data are needed to evaluate the importance to scoters of this seasonal interaction with gray whales. However, given the large and protracted impacts of gray whales on benthic communities, our observations suggest that whale feeding may have increasing influence on the foraging patterns and trophic relations of a range of bottom-feeding vertebrates.
Analytical Hierarchy Process for Developing a Building Performance-Risk Rating Tool

The need to optimize the performance of buildings has increased consequently due to the expansive supply of facilities in higher education building (HEB). Proper performance assessment as a proactive measure may help university building in achieving performance optimization. However, the current maintenance programs or performance evaluation in the HEB is a systemic and cyclic process where maintenance is considered as an operational issue and not as opposed to a strategic issue. Hence, this paper proposed a Building Performance Risk Rating Tool (BPRT) as an improved measure for building performance evaluation by addressing the users' risk in health and safety aspects. The BPRT is developed from the result of a rating index using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. 12 facilities management (FM) experts and practitioners were involved in the rating process. The subjective weightings are analysed using the AHP computer software, the Expert Choice 11 . The establishment of the BPRT was introduced as an aid of improvement towards the current performance assessment of HEB by emerging the concept of building performance and risk into a numerical strategic approach
Can El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events modulate intraseasonal oscillations of Indian summer monsoon?

[1] Prediction of interannual variability (IAV) of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall is limited by “internal” dynamics, and the monsoon intraseasonal oscillations (MISOs) seems to be at the heart of producing internal IAV of the ISM. If one could find an identifiable way through which these MISOs are modulated by slowly varying “external” forcing, such as El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the uncertainty in the prediction of IAV could be reduced, leading to improvement of seasonal prediction. Such efforts, so far, have been inconclusive. In this study, the modulation of MISOs by ENSO is assessed by using a nonlinear pattern recognition technique known as the Self‐Organizing Map (SOM). The SOM technique is efficient in handling the nonlinearity/event‐to‐event variability of the MISOs and capable of identifying various shades of MISO from large‐scale dynamical/thermodynamical indices, without providing information on rainfall. It is shown that particular MISO phases are preferred during ENSO years, that is, the canonical break phase is preferred more in the El Nino years and the typical active phase is preferred during La Nina years. Interestingly, if the SOM clustering is done by removing the ENSO effect on seasonal mean, the preference for the break node remains relatively unchanged; whereas, the preference reduces/vanishes for the active node. The results indicate that the El Nino–break relationship is almost independent of the ENSO‐monsoon relationship on seasonal scale whereas the La Nina–active association seems to be interwoven with the seasonal relationship.