Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fate of non O 157 Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli in composted cattle manure

To determine the fate of Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) non-O 157 in composted manure from naturally colonized cattle, fresh manure was obtained from three cows carrying non-O157 STEC strains possessing the stx2 gene. Two composting systems were used: a 0.6m deep cave opened in the soil and an one meter high solid manure heap in a pyramidal architecture. Every day, for the 10 first days, and every five days for a month, one manure sample from three different points in both systems was collected and cultured to determine the presence of E. coli and the presence of the stx 2 gene in the cells. The temperature was verified at each sampling. STEC non-O157 E. coli cells survived for 8, 25 and 30 days at 42, 40 and 38C, respectively, in the deep cave and 4, 4 and 7 days at 65, 58 and 52C, respectively, in the heap, during the composting manure. Temperature and indigenous microorganisms appear to contribute to pathogen disappearance in the composting system. It is concluded that both composting systems were efficient to eliminate STEC cells. Land application of composted manure should minimize environmental risk associated with the dissemination of the pathogen.
Association Between Chronic Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Risk Factor C-Reactive Protein in Blood

Background: Periodontal disease is one of the major reasons for tooth loss. Accumulating evidence suggests that chronic infections, such as periodontitis, are associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) possibly through providing a systemic inflammation and found that 25 to 50% increase in risk of CVD for those with periodontitis when compared to those with no or minimal periodontitis. Aim: To evaluate the association between chronic periodontal disease and cardiovascular risk factors like C reactive protein levels in blood. Materials and methods: A hospital based study was conducted among the patients who came to the out-patient department. Fifty Subjects including both males and females were selected by systematic random method and community periodontal index was recorded on all subjects. Subjects were divided in to healthy group (controls) and chronic periodontitis group (cases) based on present/absent of loss of attachment. Blood samples were collected from all subjects for the measurement of CRP levels in the serum. Results: Mean CRP values in controls and cases were 0.812 and 2.35 respectively which was statistically increased in cases (p=0.001). Conclusion: Chronic periodontitis patients may have high risk of getting cardiovascular diseases since cardiovascular risk factor such as increased levels of CRP are associated with Periodontitis.
Herschel / HIFI : first science highlights Special feature L etter to the E ditor Water production in comet 81 P / Wild 2 as determined by Herschel / HIFI

The high spectral resolution and sensitivity of Herschel/HIFI allows for the detection of multiple rotational water lines and accurate determinations of water production rates in comets. In this Letter we present HIFI observations of the fundamental 110–101 (557 GHz) ortho and 111–000 (1113 GHz) para rotational transitions of water in comet 81P/Wild 2 acquired in February 2010. We mapped the extent of the water line emission with five point scans. Line profiles are computed using excitation models which include excitation by collisions with electrons and neutrals and solar infrared radiation. We derive a mean water production rate of 1.0 × 1028 molecules s−1 at a heliocentric distance of 1.61 AU about 20 days before perihelion, in agreement with production rates measured from the ground using observations of the 18-cm OH lines. Furthermore, we constrain the electron density profile and gas kinetic temperature, and estimate the coma expansion velocity by fitting the water line shapes.
Chiral symmetry breaking and pair-creation mediated Walker breakdown in magnetic nanotubes

Field-driven domain wall (DW) propagation in ferromagnetic nanotubes displays unusual effects, as revealed by a micromagnetic study. The left-right symmetry of the DW dynamics is broken, yielding markedly different DW mobilities for opposite propagation directions. This asymmetry arises from the tubular geometry and its impact on the DW structure. Also, the Walker breakdown field and velocity are found to be asymmetric for opposite directions. In certain cases, the breakdown can even be suppressed in one or both directions. Topological constraint requires a vortex-antivortex pair mediated breakdown, contrary to the single (anti)vortex in flat strips. This results in a higher breakdown velocity.
Recent changes in Arctic Ocean circulation revealed by iodine‐129 observations and modeling

[1] Anthropogenic radionuclides released into European coastal waters from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield (UK) and La Hague (France) flow northward through the Nordic Seas and label Atlantic Water (AW) entering the Arctic Ocean. Transport of the soluble radionuclide 129I through the Arctic Ocean has been simulated using a numerical model for the period from 1970 to 2010. The simulated tracer distributions closely conform to 129I measurements made across the Arctic Ocean during the mid-1990s and 2000s and clearly illustrate the dramatic changes in oceanic circulation which occurred during this time. The largest changes in surface circulation were associated with the transition from a negative to a positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation in the early 1990s and the subsequent return to a weak positive phase in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Model and experimental results indicate that a new circulation regime evolved after 2004 when a period of intense, anti-cyclonic surface stress led to a strengthening of the Beaufort Gyre. We submit that this resulted in a suppression of the cyclonic boundary current of mid-depth Atlantic Water (AW) below the Beaufort Gyre, with upper AW in the Canada Basin showing signs of a reversal from cyclonic to anti-cyclonic flow. These results are consistent with the development of a new AW circulation scheme involving a separation between flow at intermediate depths in the Eurasian and Canada Basins which could eventually result in modification of the Arctic intermediate water which feeds the overflows.
Highly efficient four-wave mixing in an optical fiber with intensity dependent phase matching

Wavelength conversion via four-wave mixing in an optical fiber is investigated under a pump intensity dependent phase-matching condition. To obtain a high conversion gain, we use a fiber with a small mode-field diameter (4.2 /spl mu/m) and a small dispersion slope (0.0307 ps/km/nm/sup 2/). When the signal wavelength is set so that it is 9.2 nm longer than the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber, we obtain a wavelength conversion gain of greater than 5 dB over a pump wavelength region of more than 8 nm.
The impact of resolution on the representation of southeast Greenland barrier winds and katabatic flows

Southern Greenland is characterized by a number of low‐level high wind speed weather systems that are the result of topographic flow distortion. These systems include barrier winds and katabatic flow that occur along its southeast coast. Global atmospheric reanalyses have proven to be important tools in furthering our understanding of these orographic winds and their role in the climate system. However, there is evidence that the mesoscale characteristics of these systems may be missed in these global products. Here we show that the Arctic System Reanalysis, a higher‐resolution regional reanalysis, is able to capture mesoscale features of barrier winds and katabatic flow that are missed or underrepresented in ERA‐I, a leading modern global reanalysis. This suggests that our understanding of the impact of these wind systems on the coupled‐climate system can be enhanced through the use of higher‐resolution regional reanalyses or model data.
THE IMPACT OF PRODUCT RECOVERY ON LOGISTICS NETWORK DESIGN

Efficient implementation of closed‐loop supply chains requires setting up appropriate logistics structures for the arising flows of used and recovered products. In this paper we consider logistics network design in a reverse logistics context. We present a generic facility location model and discuss differences with traditional logistics settings. Moreover, we use our model to analyze the impact of product return flows on logistics networks. We show that the influence of product recovery is very much context dependent. While product recovery may efficiently be integrated in existing logistics structures in many cases, other examples require a more comprehensive approach redesigning a company's logistics network in an integral way.
Polycythemia Vera and Acute Coronary Syndromes: Pathogenesis, Risk Factors and Treatment

Polycythemia vera is a chronic myeloproliferative disorder marked by significant thrombotic complications. Myocardial infarction and heart failure is the most common cause of death. Mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of these complications are not yet well elucidate; erythrocytosis and quantitative platelet abnormalities may play a major role in the development of thrombosis and ischemia. Age older than 60 years and prior history of thrombosis are the two main risk factors. Evidence for the prevention and treatment of specific cardiovascular complications in PV is too scarce. However, current evidence supports the use of hydroxyurea as the initial choice of cytoreductive agent in PV patients with acute coronary syndrome.
Influence of Bragg diffraction on perfect crystal neutron phase shifters and the exact solution of the two-beam case in the dynamical diffraction theory

The phase shift of neutrons passing through a sample is usually determined by the sample's index of refraction based on the coherent neutron scattering length. If the sample has a perfect crystal structure there are, however, additional phase effects due to Bragg diffraction. While Bragg peaks in the diffracted direction are very sharp on the angular scale, the phase of the transmitted beam is influenced on a much wider angular range in the order of degrees around the Bragg condition. The magnitude of this effect is in the order of 10−4 of the refractive phase and clearly visible in interferometry measurements on a perfect silicon sample. In order to calculate the effect, the exact solution is derived for the two-beam case of the dynamical diffraction theory for arbitrary Bragg-plane orientation and arbitrary deviations from the Bragg condition. Even far off any Bragg condition, a residual phase correction remains which is identified as a local field correction.
TRICHODERMA IN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

Biocontrol, or Biological Control, can be defined as the use of natural organisms, or genetically modified, genes or gene products, to reduce the effects of undesirable organisms to favour organisms useful to human, such as crops, trees, animals and beneficial microorganisms. This strategy of control is ecologicaly clean and compatible with different models of agriculture: organic, biological and IPM programmes.
2 Molecular Mechanisms of Pluripotency in Murine Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent cells, which can be isolated from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst stage embryos. They are defined by two properties: they can indefinitely self-renew in vitro and contribute to the formation of all cells of an adult organism, including functional gametes for genome transmission. Due to their pluripotent state ESCs can be used for various applications, like the generation of knockout or transgenic animals, and potentially as a cell source for cell therapy in regenerative medicine. Alternatively self-renewing cells with pluripotent potential can also be generated by specifying germ cells with extrinsic factors (Matsui, 1992) or by reprogramming somatic cells using gene transfection to generate the so called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) (Takahashi and Yamanaka, 2006). Due to the fundamental characteristics of ESCs, developmental biology, regenerative medicine and cancer biology are more and more interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling stem cells. Even though a lot of efforts have been made in the past years to elucidate the factors that regulate stem cell self-renewal and pluripotency, the precise mechanism of how these processes are regulated remains largely unknown. In this chapter we will give an overview on the known molecular pathways and transcription factors involved in maintaining pluripotency, by especially focusing on the core transcription factors OCT3/4, SOX2, Nanog, and STAT3. Subsequently we will discuss the epigenetics of ESCs and iPSCs and finally conclude this chapter with remarks and discussions.
Arithmetic Progressions on Conics Abdoul Aziz Ciss

In this paper, we look at long arithmetic progressions on conics. By an arithmetic progression on a curve, we mean the existence of rational points on the curve whose x-coordinates are in arithmetic progression. We revisit arithmetic progressions on the unit circle, constructing 3-term progressions of points in the first quadrant containing an arbitrary rational point on the unit circle. We also provide infinite families of three term progressions on the unit hyperbola, as well as conics ax2 + cy2 = 1 containing arithmetic progressions as long as 8 terms.
VISFATIN BETWEEN FACT AND FICTION; A MARKER OF OBESITY OR A NEW PLAYER IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF TYPE 2

An adipose-tissue-derived protein termed visfatin was described recently with putative key role in pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. It turns out, though, that the molecule was previously identified as a growth factor for early B-lymphocytes termed pre-B cell colony enhancing factor (PBEF). Visfatin was reported to be expressed almost exclusively in visceral adipose tissue and has insulin-like metabolic effects. These findings are very attractive and could provide a hot point of medical research to answer if visfatin provide a novel mechanism by which visceral fat accumulation can promote the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, its patho-physiological role in humans remains largely unknown. The Aim of this study is to investigate the role of plasma visfatin as a missing link between obesity and type 2 DM patients. Methods: Plasma visfatin concentrations were measured through ELISA in forty obese patients and compared to forty age and sex matched healthy non-obese subjects. Obese patients further subdivided into two subgroups according to presence of diabetes mellitus. Results: Plasma visfatin was found to be elevated in obese (38.7±13.3 ng/ml) compared to lean subjects (20.8±3.8 ng/ml), (P < 0.01). In obese patients no significant difference was found in diabetic obese patients (39.1± 7.3 ng/ml) in comparison to non diabetic patients (36.9±7.4 ng/ml) . In the other hand; no significant differences between diabetic patients according to diabetic control and line of treatments. Only waist to hip ratio was correlated with plasma visfatin level. Conclusion: Our results indicate that visfatin is elevated in obese patients apart from the presence of diabetes, diabetes control and line of treatments. Visfatin more reasonably to be a marker of obesity as a product of visceral fat cells rather than a new key in pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus . It seems that visfatin could not be one of the missing links between type 2 diabetes mellitus and its Journal of Asian Scientific Research journal homepage: http://aessweb.com/journal-detail.php? id=5003 Journal of Asian Scientific Research 2(12):949-957 950 relation to visceral obesity. Further large scale studies are needed to determine its relation to immune status of obese patients and other adipo-cytokines and the effect of weight loss on its level.
LMKL-Net: A Fast Localized Multiple Kernel Learning Solver via Deep Neural Networks

In this paper we propose solving localized multiple kernel learning (LMKL) using LMKL-Net, a feedforward deep neural network. In contrast to previous works, as a learning principle we propose {\em parameterizing} both the gating function for learning kernel combination weights and the multiclass classifier in LMKL using an attentional network (AN) and a multilayer perceptron (MLP), respectively. In this way we can learn the (nonlinear) decision function in LMKL (approximately) by sequential applications of AN and MLP. Empirically on benchmark datasets we demonstrate that overall LMKL-Net can not only outperform the state-of-the-art MKL solvers in terms of accuracy, but also be trained about {\em two orders of magnitude} faster with much smaller memory footprint for large-scale learning.
Subsidizing Consumption to Signal Quality of Workers

A firm whose profits increase when outsiders believe that it pays high wages may induce its workers to over-consume goods that signal high compensation. One implication is that firms may lobby government to subsidize fringe benefits with high signaling value, such as company cars, to their employees. We show that under plausible conditions the provision of fringe benefits indeed can signal the firm's type. Moreover, we demonstrate the existence of multiple equilibria---one equilibrium has no firm providing certain fringe benefits, whereas another equilibrium has fringe benefits signal the firm's type. The paper further shows that a firm that provides the fringe benefit may oppose a government subsidizing it too heavily, because a large subsidy could destroy the signaling value of the benefit. The analysis shows that an employer may even provide a fringe benefit to employees who place no value on it. Our results are consistent with many stylized facts on the provision of fringe benefits by firms. More generally, we the model highlights how and why a firm may engage in behavior which signals the type of workers it hires.
A Review and Characterization of ICP-based Symmetry Plane Localisation in 3 D Face Data

Symmetry plane localisation in 3D facial scans may be used in a variety of applications ranging from biometric recognition to medical facial reconstruction. Often the key component of this process is a 3D surface alignment technique, the most common of which is iterative closest points (ICP). This work aims to review and comprehensively evaluate several variants of ICP-based 3D symmetry plane localisation, with particular emphasis on the problems of self-occlusion associated with single viewpoint 3D scans. A variety of metrics are defined to evaluate the performance of symmetry plane localisation. Variants of ICP are evaluated with the goal of improving the accuracy, robustness and efficiency of the algorithm under synthesised self occlusion and noise.
Carcinoma Of The Urinary Bladder In Maiduguri: The Schistosomiasis Connection

Results: All but 13 of the 65 confirmed cases were males, giving a male to female ratio of 4 to 1. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the bladder (n=46) was significantly commoner than transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) cases (n=15), in those with past history of Schistosomiasis (p< 0.001), with a Relative Risk (RR) of 4.06. Also 65.2% of SCC showed Schistosomiasis in the histology specimen compared with 13.3% of TCC cases (P < 0.001) Four patients had undifferentiated carcinoma, 3 (75%) of which showed Schistosoma ova in their specimen. Patients with SCC were significantly younger (45.26 +/- SD13.5years) than those with TCC (P< 0.001). Our patients were mostly farmers of low socio-economic class. Most presented with advanced disease, thus treatment was mostly palliative and the outcome quite poor. Conclusion: This result clearly shows that carcinoma of the bladder in Maiduguri, North East of Nigeria, is mainly SCC and strongly associated with Schistosomiasis. Therefore, a deliberate policy and effort to control Schistosomiasis in this region will lead to a reduction in the incidence of bladder cancer and the attendant morbidity and mortality.
Numerical Solution for Coupled MHD Flow Equations in a Square Duct in the Presence of Strong Inclined Magnetic Field

A steady two dimensional MHD flow through a square duct under the action of transverse magnetic field acting with inclination to the duct walls has been investigated. The problem is described by coupled partial differential equations for velocity and induced magnetic field. These equations are transformed into nondimensional equations by introducing non-dimensional quantities, and then these equations have been solved numerically using finite difference method. The solutions for velocity and induced magnetic field distribution are analyzed for different values of parameters: inclination parameter ) and Hartmann number ( ) and presented graphically.
Disturbance effect on time-dependent yield stress measurement of bentonite suspensions

Disturbance effect on time-dependent yield stress measurement of bentonite suspension was investigated using vane and cone and plate geometry. With cone and plate geometry, the disturbance occurs as a result of the large strains the suspensions are subjected to when placed on the lower plate and when the cone is lowered to the testing position before the actual shear stress is applied. As an alternative, vane ge- ometry has been used to measure yield stress in bentonite suspension to (1) minimize the placing disturbance, and (2) eliminate the loading disturb- ance. Even though a minimal amount of disturbance was still induced by vane geometry, it was assumed that the amount of disturbance was small enough to be ignored compared to that with cone and plate geometry. Yield stresses of bentonite suspensions at different weight fractions and vari- ous resting times were determined from stress ramp tests. Linear relationships were developed between yield stresses measured with the different geometries. Disturbance rapidly increased up to approximately 50 % with resting times, then converged at long resting times (60 % at 10 days). This indicates that cone and plate geometry significantly underestimated the actual yield stress of the tested material because of disturbance. Based on the quantified disturbance, a method to predict the undisturbed yield stress from disturbed one was proposed. The observations were interpreted with structural kinetics.
Recombination is associated with the evolution of genome structure and worker behavior in honey bees

The rise of insect societies, marked by the formation of reproductive and sterile castes, represents a major unsolved mystery in evolution. Across several independent origins of sociality, the genomes of social hymenopterans share two peculiar attributes: high recombination and low but heterogeneous GC content. For example, the genome of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, represents a mosaic of GC-poor and GC-rich regions with rates of recombination an order of magnitude higher than in humans. However, it is unclear how heterogeneity in GC content arises, and how it relates to the expression and evolution of worker traits. Using population genetic analyses, we demonstrate a bias in the allele frequency and fixation rate of derived C or G mutations in high-recombination regions, consistent with recombination’s causal influence on GC-content evolution via biased gene conversion. We also show that recombination and biased gene conversion actively maintain the heterogeneous GC content of the honey bee genome despite an overall A/T mutation bias. Further, we found that GC-rich genes and intergenic regions have higher levels of genetic diversity and divergence relative to GC-poor regions, also consistent with recombination’s causal influence on the rate of molecular evolution. Finally, we found that genes associated with behavior and those with worker-biased expression are found in GC-rich regions of the bee genome and also experience high rates of molecular evolution. Taken together, these findings suggest that recombination acts to maintain a genetically diverse and dynamic part of the genome where genes underlying worker behavior evolve more quickly.