Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The recycling rate of atmospheric moisture over the past two decades (1988–2009)

Numerical models predict that the recycling rate of atmospheric moisture decreases with time at the global scale, in response to global warming. A recent observational study (Wentz et al 2007 Science 317 233–5) did not agree with the results from numerical models. Here, we examine the recycling rate by using the latest data sets for precipitation and water vapor, and suggest a consistent view of the global recycling rate of atmospheric moisture between numerical models and observations. Our analyses show that the recycling rate of atmospheric moisture has also decreased over the global oceans during the past two decades. In addition, we find different temporal variations of the recycling rate in different regions when exploring the spatial pattern of the recycling rate. In particular, the recycling rate has increased in the high-precipitation region around the equator (i.e., the intertropical convergence zone) and decreased in the low-precipitation region located either side of the equator over the past two decades. Further exploration suggests that the temporal variation of precipitation is stronger than that of water vapor, which results in the positive trend of the recycling rate in the high-precipitation region and the negative trend of the recycling rate in the low-precipitation region.
Automated Vehicle Detection and Classification

Automated Vehicle Classification (AVC) based on vision sensors has received active attention from researchers, due to heightened security concerns in Intelligent Transportation Systems. In this work, we propose a categorization of AVC studies based on the granularity of classification, namely Vehicle Type Recognition, Vehicle Make Recognition, and Vehicle Make and Model Recognition. For each category of AVC systems, we present a comprehensive review and comparison of features extraction, global representation, and classification techniques. We also present the accuracy and speed-related performance metrics and discuss how they can be used to compare and evaluate different AVC works. The various datasets proposed over the years for AVC are also compared in light of the real-world challenges they represent, and those they do not. The major challenges involved in each category of AVC systems are presented, highlighting open problems in this area of research. Finally, we conclude by providing future directions of research in this area, paving the way toward efficient large-scale AVC systems. This survey shall help researchers interested in the area to analyze works completed so far in each category of AVC, focusing on techniques proposed for each module, and to chalk out strategies to enhance state-of-the-art technology.
Ibutilide decreases defibrillation threshold by the reduction of activation pattern complexity during ventricular fibrillation in canine hearts.

BACKGROUND Ibutilide has been commonly used for pharmacologic cardioversion of atrial fibrillation and flutter in clinical settings. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of ibutilide on the defibrillation threshold (DFT), restitution properties, dispersion of refractoriness and activation patterns during ventricular fibrillation (VF). METHODS Ibutilide was administrated intravenously in six open-chest beagles. Before and after the drug administration, 20-second episodes of VF were electrically induced and recorded with a 10×10 unipolar electrode plaque sutured on the lateral epicardium of the left ventricle. DFT and VF activation patterns, including type of epicardial activation maps, VF cycle length (VF-CL), conduction velocity, wavelength (WL) and reentry incidence, were measured. Restitution properties and dispersion of refractoriness were estimated from activation recovery intervals (ARI) during pacing. RESULTS Compared to baseline, ibutilide markedly decreased the DFT by 31% ((491 ± 14) V vs. (337 ± 59) V, P < 0.01). The drug significantly reduced the maximal slope of the restitution curve (1.34 ± 0.08 vs. 0.76 ± 0.06, P < 0.01) and its epicardial dispersion (0.36 ± 0.09 vs. 0.21 ± 0.06, coefficient of variation, P = 0.03). The dispersion of refractoriness was enhanced at the pacing cycle length of 300 ms to 160 ms by ibutilide. The drug significantly increased the VF-CL ((96 ± 19) ms vs. (112 ± 20) ms, P < 0.01) and the WL ((41 ± 9) mm vs. (52 ± 14) mm, P = 0.02) during VF, and reduced the reentry incidence by 25% (0.08 ± 0.02 vs. 0.06 ± 0.02, P < 0.01). In the epicardial activation maps, ibutilide significantly reduced the percentage of more complex activation maps during VF. CONCLUSIONS Intravenous ibutilide significantly decreased the DFT. It might be due to reduction of activation pattern complexity during VF.
The death rate of Mycobacterium leprae during treatment of lepromatous leprosy with acedapsone (DADDS).

Abstract Patients with previously untreated lepromatous leprosy were treated by injections of acedapsone (DADDS), a repository sulfone given at 77-day intervals. The response to therapy was evaluated primarily by the results of inoculation of mice with Mycobacterium leprae from serially obtained skin punch biopsy specimens. In 3 of 10 patients, infectivity for mice was lost in less than 100 days; in the others the infectivity was lost more slowly, and in the slowest more than 300 days were required. The results were compared with those in 14 patients treated with dapsone (DDS) in dosages of 50 mg daily; in 12 of these, infectivity of the bacilli was not demonstrable after 100 days. Tests of the M. leprae isolates for DDS-sensitivity in mice showed that drug-resistance, in the usual sense, was not involved in the slower loss of infectivity. The implications of this slower response for the long-term therapeutic response to acedapsone are not yet clear.
Increase of the trophoblast giant cells with prolactin‐releasing peptide (PrRP) receptor expression in p53‐null mice

Trophoblast giant cells in the mouse placentas are polyploid cells that form as a result of endoreduplication. The giant cells form the outermost layer of the extraembryonic compartment and produce a number of pregnancy‐specific hormones, including prolactin family members. Here we demonstrate that trophoblast giant cells are increased, and display upregulation of prolactin releasing peptide (PrRP) receptor in the p53‐null (p53−/−) embryonic placentas. At day 13.5 of gestation, the weight of p53−/− placentas was less than that of both wild‐type and p53+/− placentas. In p53−/− placentas, the spongiotrophoblast layer was significantly decreased in thickness, and the trophoblast giant cells were observed not only in the outer layer of placentas but in both the spongiotrophoblast layer and the labyrinthine layer. The giant cells spread over the spongiotrophoblast and labyrinthine layer in p53−/− placentas displayed more intensive expression of immunoreactive PrRP receptor than in wild‐type placentas. Previous studies indicated that the association between PrRP and PrRP receptor physiologically involves in the expression and secretion of the peptide hormones, including prolactin and growth hormones. These results suggest that p53 may regulate the differentiation of trophoblast giant cells, and may control the physiological PrRP stimuli in mouse placentas. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 1089–1094, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Tight Hamilton cycles in random hypergraphs

We give an algorithmic proof for the existence of tight Hamilton cycles in a random r‐uniform hypergraph with edge probability p=n−1+ε for every ε>0 . This partly answers a question of Dudek and Frieze (Random Struct Algor 42 (2013), 374–385), who used a second moment method to show that tight Hamilton cycles exist even for p=ω(n)/n (r≥3) where ω(n)→∞ arbitrary slowly, and for p=(e+o(1))/n (r≥4) . The method we develop for proving our result applies to related problems as well. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 46, 446–465, 2015
A Hybrid Method for Human Interaction Recognition Using Spatio-temporal Interest Points

This paper proposes an innovative and effective hybrid way to recognize human interactions, which incorporates the advantages of both global feature (Motion Context, MC) and Spatio-Temporal (S-T) correlation of local Spatio-Temporal Interest Points (STIPs). The MC feature, which also derives from STIPs, is used to train a random forest where Genetic Algorithm (GA) is applied to the training phase to achieve a good compromise between reliability and efficiency. Besides, we design an effective and efficient S-T correlation based match to assist the MC feature, where MC's structure and a biological sequence matching algorithm are employed to calculate the spatial and temporal correlation score, respectively. Experiments on the UT-Interaction dataset show that our GA search based random forest and S-T correlation based match achieve better performance than some other prevalent machine leaning methods, and that a combination of those two methods outperforms most of the state-of-the-art works.
Transients of perforin pore formation observed by fluorescence microscopic single channel recording.

A new type of single channel recording is described. Large pores were generated in the membranes of resealed human erythrocyte ghosts by incubation with perforin (cytolysin). The flux of the polar fluorescent probe Lucifer Yellow was measured in single ghosts by the fluorescence microphotolysis (photobleaching) technique. The distribution of flux rates for ghosts treated with a limiting perforin concentration showed equidistantly spaced peaks suggesting that subpopulations of ghosts with 0, 1 and 2 pores were resolved. Furthermore, distributions obtained for very different perforin concentrations could be well simulated by using one common value for the flux rate of the single pore (k = 4.65 x 10(‐3) s) and assuming a Poisson distribution of pores among ghosts. The flux rate of the single pore corresponds to a pore radius of approximately 50 A, a value which is much smaller than that obtained previously by electron microscopic studies but which agrees well with recent electrical single channel recordings. Mature perforin pores were observed to be very stable. No closing events were detected at a time resolution of 0.2 s for a wide range of temperatures and Ca2+ concentrations. However, the formation of new pores was an unexpectedly slow process. Fluorescence microscopic single channel recording as introduced by this study is applicable to a variety of cellular systems and fluorescent probes and thus may complement the information obtainable by electrical single channel recording of anorganic ion fluxes.
Evolution, Expression, and Function of Nonneuronal Ligand-Gated Chloride Channels in Drosophila melanogaster

Ligand-gated chloride channels have established roles in inhibitory neurotransmission in the nervous systems of vertebrates and invertebrates. Paradoxically, expression databases in Drosophila melanogaster have revealed that three uncharacterized ligand-gated chloride channel subunits, CG7589, CG6927, and CG11340, are highly expressed in nonneuronal tissues. Furthermore, subunit copy number varies between insects, with some orders containing one ortholog, whereas other lineages exhibit copy number increases. Here, we show that the Dipteran lineage has undergone two gene duplications followed by expression-based functional differentiation. We used promoter-GFP expression analysis, RNA-sequencing, and in situ hybridization to examine cell type and tissue-specific localization of the three D. melanogaster subunits. CG6927 is expressed in the nurse cells of the ovaries. CG7589 is expressed in multiple tissues including the salivary gland, ejaculatory duct, malpighian tubules, and early midgut. CG11340 is found in malpighian tubules and the copper cell region of the midgut. Overexpression of CG11340 increased sensitivity to dietary copper, and RNAi and ends-out knockout of CG11340 resulted in copper tolerance, providing evidence for a specific nonneuronal role for this subunit in D. melanogaster. Ligand-gated chloride channels are important insecticide targets and here we highlight copy number and functional divergence in insect lineages, raising the potential that order-specific receptors could be isolated within an effective class of insecticide targets.
The Epidemiological and Clinical Aspects of Nasal Polyps that Require Surgery

Introduction: The objective of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to obtain epidemiological data from the charts of 297 patients with nasal polyposis who were operated on in a referral hospital in Mashhad and to determine the frequency of the presenting symptoms of nasal polyps. Materials and Methods: The variables recorded included age, gender, the presence of asthma or allergic rhinitis, family history, and previous treatments. We studied the main symptoms of nasal polyposis (nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea, anosmia, headache, epistaxis, snoring, and so on), as well as ear problems and facial deformity. Results: Nasal polyposis affects men (60.3%) more frequently, at a mean age of 39.5 years. The most frequent symptom was nasal blockage (81.1 %) followed by rhinorrhea (37.7%). A total of 11.1% of the patients had a history of epistaxis. Asthma was found in 10.4% of patients with nasal polyposis and the ears were affected in 5.1% of patients. In all, 7.4% of patients had first-degree relatives who suffered from asthma or allergic rhinitis. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for large-scale epidemiologic research exploring the prevalence and incidence of nasal polyposis in Iran.
Visualization of coupled protein folding and binding in bacteria and purification of the heterodimeric complex

During overexpression of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli, misfolded proteins often aggregate and form inclusion bodies. If an aggregation-prone recombinant protein is fused upstream (as an N-terminal fusion) to GFP, aggregation of the recombinant protein domain also leads to misfolding of the downstream GFP domain, resulting in a decrease or loss of fluorescence. We investigated whether the GFP domain could fold correctly if aggregation of the upstream protein domain was prevented in vivo by a coupled protein folding and binding interaction. Such interaction has been previously shown to occur between the E. coli integration host factors α and β, and between the domains of the general transcriptional coactivator cAMP response element binding protein (CREB)-binding protein and the activator for thyroid hormone and retinoid receptors. In this study, fusion of integration host factor β or the CREB-binding protein domain upstream to GFP resulted in aggregation of the fusion protein. Coexpression of their respective partners, on the other hand, allowed soluble expression of the fusion protein and a dramatic increase in fluorescence. The study demonstrated that coupled protein folding and binding could be correlated to GFP fluorescence. A modified miniintein containing an affinity tag was inserted between the upstream protein domain and GFP to allow rapid purification and identification of the heterodimeric complex. The GFP coexpression fusion system may be used to identify novel protein–protein interactions that involve coupled folding and binding or protein partners that can solubilize aggregation-prone recombinant proteins.
Socially desirable responding and sexuality self‐reports

We assessed the impact of two distinct forms of socially desirable responding—self‐deceptive enhancement and impression management—on sexuality self‐reports (n = 504) under anonymous testing conditions. Results revealed significant positive relationships between self‐deceptive enhancement and sexual adjustment variables for both sexes. Impression management was significantly negatively related to a number of intrapersonal (e.g., unrestricted sexual fantasies, sexual drive) and interpersonal (e.g., sexual experience, virginity status) sexual behaviors for females, and to unrestricted sexual attitudes and fantasies for males. We calculated correlations were first calculated between self‐deceptive enhancement, impression management, and personality and conservatism scores. Self‐deceptive enhancement and impression management were significantly associated with personality for males and females, and with conservatism for females only. When personality and conservatism variance were partialed out, associations .
Three-dimensional bioprinting of complex cell laden alginate hydrogel structures

Different bioprinting techniques have been used to produce cell-laden alginate hydrogel structures, however these approaches have been limited to 2D or simple three-dimension (3D) structures. In this study, a new extrusion based bioprinting technique was developed to produce more complex alginate hydrogel structures. This was achieved by dividing the alginate hydrogel cross-linking process into three stages: primary calcium ion cross-linking for printability of the gel, secondary calcium cross-linking for rigidity of the alginate hydrogel immediately after printing and tertiary barium ion cross-linking for long-term stability of the alginate hydrogel in culture medium. Simple 3D structures including tubes were first printed to ensure the feasibility of the bioprinting technique and then complex 3D structures such as branched vascular structures were successfully printed. The static stiffness of the alginate hydrogel after printing was 20.18 ± 1.62 KPa which was rigid enough to sustain the integrity of the complex 3D alginate hydrogel structure during the printing. The addition of 60 mM barium chloride was found to significantly extend the stability of the cross-linked alginate hydrogel from 3 d to beyond 11 d without compromising the cellular viability. The results based on cell bioprinting suggested that viability of U87-MG cells was 93 ± 0.9% immediately after bioprinting and cell viability maintained above 88% ± 4.3% in the alginate hydrogel over the period of 11 d.
PRODUCTION OF SINGLE CELL PROTEIN FROM PINEAPPLE WASTE USING YEAST

The worldwide food protein deficiency is becoming alarming day to day and with the fast growing population of world, pressure is exerted on the feed industry to produce enough animal feed to meet the region's nutritional requirements. Single-Cell Protein (SCP) represents microbial cells (primary) grown in mass culture and harvested for use as protein sources in foods or animal feeds. In the present study, pineapple waste was used as sole carbon source in five concentrations for preparation of fermentation media on which two strains of yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida tropicalis were grown. The increased concentration of pineapple hydrolysate enhanced the biomass yield and the protein formation within the yeast cells. Lower carbon utilization by the two yeast strains occurred in the waste- containing media, as compared to control, increasing the economic value of the waste obtained after 7-day fermentation. The present finding helps in SCP production from cheap, inexpensive agro waste material.
Nonlinear modeling of elastic cables : experimental data-based tension identification via static inverse problem

La connaissance de la tension dans les câbles de pont est un element de diagnostic important, tant a l'echelle du câble qu'a celle de l'ouvrage dont il fait partie.Le present travail de these propose une methode d'evaluation de la tension parmethode inverse a partir d'une formulation variationnelle mixte de câble geometriquement exact permettant de coupler simplement et a bas cout un modele universel de câble et des capteurs d'utilisation courante tels que des jauges de deformation et des capteurs de deplacement. Contrairement a de nombreuses methodes existantes, la methode pesentee ne necessite pas une connaissance fine des parametres du câble pour evaluer sa tension.Les choix de modelisation faits sont motives par une etude approfondie des differentes typologies des câbles presents sur ouvrage et par une etude bibliographique qui tente de synthetiser l'immense litterature disponible dans le domaine des câbles. La modelisation retenue est issue de la theorie des lignes deformables des freres Cosserat, dont nous presentons les variantes avec et sans rigidite de flexion.Les moyens d'essai utilises pour la validation experimentale de la methode mise au point ont ete concus et realises au cours du present travail. Le montage experimental imagine permet d'appliquer la methode inverse sur un câble montoron multicouches de 21 m de long et 22 mm de diametre. Les essais sont realises a 6 differents niveaux de tension echelonnes par paliers de 30 kN de 55 kN a 205 kN. Ils montrent l'efficacite de la methode sur le câble teste et la pertinence de son deploiement a venir sur d'autres typologies de câbles
Recombinant Soluble CD14 Reduces Severity of Intramammary Infection by Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT The interaction among gram-negative bacteria, the innate immune system, and soluble CD14 (sCD14) has not been well documented. The effect of recombinant bovine sCD14 (rbosCD14) on milk somatic cell count (SCC), bacterial clearance, and cytokine production was investigated by using a bovine intramammary Escherichia coli infection model. We first determined whether rbosCD14 would increase the SCC during a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. Three quarters of each of six healthy lactating cows were injected with either 0.3 μg of LPS, 0.3 μg of LPS plus 100 μg of rbosCD14, or saline. In comparison with quarters injected with LPS alone, the SCC was twofold higher (P < 0.05) in quarters injected with LPS plus rbosCD14 after the challenge. We therefore hypothesized that when E. coli bacteria invade the mammary gland, sCD14 in milk would interact with LPS and rapidly recruit neutrophils from the blood to eliminate the bacteria before establishment of infection. To test this hypothesis, two quarters of each of nine healthy cows were challenged with either 50 CFU of E. coli plus saline or 50 CFU of E. coli plus 100 μg of rbosCD14. Quarters challenged with E. coli plus rbosCD14 had a more rapid recruitment of neutrophils, which was accompanied by a faster clearance of bacteria, lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-8 in milk, and milder clinical symptoms, than challenged quarters injected with saline. Results indicate that increasing the concentration of sCD14 in milk may be a potential strategy with which to prevent or reduce the severity of infection by coliform bacteria.