Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
175 ESTABLISHMENT OF PORCINE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL LINE DERIVED FROM IN VIVO BLASTOCYSTS

A porcine embryonic stem (ES) cell line was established from an in vivo-flushed blastocyst. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of IVP, parthenotes and in vivo-produced embryos on establishment of an ES cell line. IVP blastocysts were produced from slaughterhouse ovaries based on the previously reported protocols (2000 Theriogenology 54, 787–797) with minor modifications. Parthenote blastocysts were produced by activation of oocytes matured in vitro with electric stimulation of 2 DC pulses at 2.0 kV/cm for 30 μsec in 0.3 M mannitol solution containing 100 μM CaCl2 and 100 μM MgCl2 in vivo blastocysts were recovered on Day 7 after AI (Day = 0) by flushing the uterus with D-PBS containing 10% FBS from three females. After removal of zona pellucida with 0.2% pronase, the blastocysts were subjected to immunosurgical treatment with 10% rabbit anti-pig serum to isolate the inner cell mass (ICM) as previously reported (1975 PNAS 72, 5099–5102). The ICM was seeded onto the feeder layer of STO which was inactivated by treatment with 10 μg/mL mitomycin for 2.5 h and cultured in DMEM with 0.1 mM β-mercaptoethanol, 100 IU/mL penicillin, 0.05 mg/mL streptomycin, 0.1 mM MEM non-essential amino-acid, 20 ng/mL rh-bFGF, 40 ng/mL rh-LIF, 0.03 mM adenosine, 0.03 mM guanosine, 0.03 mM cytidine, 0.03 mM uridine, 0.01 mM thymidine, and 15% FBS. The culture was maintained by changing the medium every day after initiation of ICM attachment onto the feeder layer. Any ES-like colonies were individually picked off the feed layer, dissected with 0.25% trypsin-0.02% EDTA for 3–5 min and reseeded on to new STO feed layer. Out of 140 blastocysts (25, in vivo; 55, IVF; 60, parthenotes) used, attaching rates of the ICMs onto the feeder layer were 88% (22/25, in vivo), 56.4% (31/55, IVF), and 58.3% (35/60, parthenotes). A total of 15 primary ES-like colonies was formed in in vivo (3, 12%), IVF (5, 9.1%), and parthenote (7, 11.7%). However, only one ES cell line from in vivo blastocyst was established, which was confirmed as positive by AP activity (Promega, Madison, WI, USA), and was maintained through four passages. In conclusion, for establishment of an ES cell line in pig, the in vivo blastocyst method is superior to currently available methods utilizing IVF or parthenotes. This work was supported by grant No. 1000520040020000 from Biogreen 21, Republic of Korea.
SARS‐CoV‐2 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients and risk for transfusion transmission

Oral swabs, sputum, and blood samples from 18 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection were examined using RT‐PCR testing in order to assess the risk of transfusion‐related transmission. In asymptomatic patients as well as patients with flu‐like symptoms and fever, no SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA could be detected in the blood or serum despite a clearly positive result in all throat swabs. As patients with symptoms of infectious disease will not be admitted to blood donation, the risk for transfusion transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 seems to be negligible.
Cross-linguistic influence and plural marking: enhancing error recognition and written accuracy among Japanese EFL learners through web-based awareness-raising

Abstract The present study investigated the interface between explicit instruction and computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in an effort to reduce plural marking errors among Japanese EFL learners. The instruction involved raising contrastive awareness of cross-linguistic and conceptual features, and was delivered via an online medium. A total of 180 students from a university in Western Japan participated in the study, in which two points of enquiry were examined: (1) the extent to which such an instructional composite would affect Japanese learners’ ability to (a) recognize plural omission errors in L2 reading, and (b) produce obligatory plural forms in L2 writing; and (2) the extent to which online instruction would be sufficient to facilitate change in subsequent performance related to plural accuracy. In contrast with the control condition, the findings from the experimental condition indicated that positive learning outcomes had taken place with regard to both error recognition and plural production, and that web-based instruction was therefore effective in this instance. Theoretical reflections, practical implications, and future avenues of research are discussed.
Agreement and Classification Performance of Malnutrition Tools in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

ABSTRACT Background Malnutrition is common in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and is associated with adverse outcome, but few data exist. Objectives The objective of this study was to compare the agreement and classification performance of 6 malnutrition tools in patients with CHF. Methods We evaluated the performance of 6 malnutrition tools: COntrolling NUTritional Status Index (CONUT), Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI), Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Mini Nutritional Assessment–Short Form (MNA-SF), and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), in 467 consecutive patients with CHF who attended our clinic for follow-up. We used Venn diagrams and Kappa statistics to study the agreement of different tools. Because there is no “gold standard” for malnutrition evaluation, for each of the malnutrition tools, we used the results of the other 5 tools to produce a standard combined index for evaluating at least moderate malnutrition. Subjects were considered as having at least moderate malnutrition if so identified by ≥3/5 tools. We evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of different tools in identifying significant malnutrition as defined by the combined index. Results Men comprised 67% of patients, median age was 76 years, and median N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) was 1156 ng/L. The prevalence of any degree and at least moderate malnutrition ranged between 6–60% and 3–9%, respectively, with CONUT classifying the highest proportion of subjects as malnourished. Malnourished patients tended to be older and have worse symptoms, higher NTproBNP, and more comorbidities. CONUT had the highest sensitivity (80%), MNA-SF and SGA had the highest specificity (99%), and MNA-SF had the lowest misclassification rate (2%) in identifying at least moderate malnutrition as defined by the combined index. Conclusions Malnutrition is common in patients with CHF. The prevalence of malnutrition varies depending on the tool used. Among the 6 malnutrition tools studied, MNA-SF has the best classification performance in identifying significant malnutrition as defined by the combined index.
Estimating spatiotemporal focus of documents using entropy with PMI

Many text documents are spatiotemporal in nature, i.e. contents of a document can be mapped to a specific time period or location. For example, a news article about the French Revolution can be mapped to year 1789 as time and France as place. Identifying this time period and location associated with the document can be useful for various downstream applications such as document reasoning or spatiotemporal information retrieval. In this paper, temporal entropy with pointwise mutual information PMI is proposed to estimate the temporal focus of a document. PMI is used to measure the association of words with time expressions. Moreover, a word's temporal entropy is considered as a weight to its association with a time point and a single time point with the highest overall score is chosen as the focus time of a document. The proposed method is generic in the sense that it can also be applied for spatial focus estimation of documents. In the case of spatial entropy with PMI, PMI is used to calculate the association between words and place entities. The effectiveness of our proposed methods for spatiotemporal focus estimation is evaluated on diverse datasets of text documents. The experimental evaluation confirms the superiority of our proposed temporal and spatial focus estimation methods.
Developing critical reading module using integrated learning content and language approach

The purpose of this research is to compile a teaching material in the form of critical reading modules that are effective, valid, and practical for English major students. Teaching materials developed are based on CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) learning and are oriented towards students’ critical thinking skills. CLIL not only emphasizes language skills but also on how learning content can provide a stimulus to think and understand the goals of learning. This study uses a Research and Development (R&D) approach. The development model used is the ADDIE (Analyse, Design, Development, Implement, Evaluation). The results of the study show that the module that has been developed is valid, practical and effective. The validity of the module reaches a very good category based on the expert’s and validator’s evaluation. The practicability of the module is categorized as very good according to the students’ responses, observation on the implementation, and lecturer’s evaluation. The module effectivity reaches a very good category based on the students’ achievement on the tests.
PALYNOLOGICAL ORIGIN, PHENOLIC CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF GEOPROPOLIS COLLECTED BY MANDAÇAIA (MELIPONA MANDACAIA) STINGLESS

The stingless bee Melipona mandacaia (Smith 1863) (mandaçaia) is found only in the region of Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil, in the states of Bahia and Pernambuco, near to São Francisco river. The aim of the present work was to determine the botanical origin and to evaluate the phenolic content and antioxidant properties (β-carotene/linoleic acid system, DPPH and ABTS scavenging) of mandaçaia geopropolis. 25 pollen types from 15 families were identified from the 9 geopropolis samples analyzed. Phenolic compounds content varied between all the geopropolis EtOH extracts, hexane, EtOAc and MeOH:H2O fractions. The main pollens found in the geopropolis samples were from the Leguminoseae family. This identification of meliponicultural plants is extremely important because it indicates the food sources used for the collection of nectar and pollen. Our results revealed that there is a strong relation between the phenolic compounds and the antioxidant activity. These results showed that total phenols of mandaçaia geopropolis may be responsible for the antioxidant activity with evidence that it's a rich source of phenols bioactive compounds with potential health benefits.
Combining designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs and neuroimaging in experimental models: A powerful approach towards neurotheranostic applications

The combination of chemogenetics targeting specific brain cell populations with in vivo imaging techniques provides scientists with a powerful new tool to study functional neural networks at the whole‐brain scale. A number of recent studies indicate the potential of this approach to increase our understanding of brain function in health and disease. In this review, we discuss the employment of a specific chemogenetic tool, designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs, in conjunction with non‐invasive neuroimaging techniques such as PET and MRI. We highlight the utility of using this multiscale approach in longitudinal studies and its ability to identify novel brain circuits relevant to behaviour that can be monitored in parallel. In addition, some identified shortcomings in this technique and more recent efforts to overcome them are also presented. Finally, we discuss the translational potential of designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs in neuroimaging and the promise it holds for future neurotheranostic applications.
Efficacy of sulphur on Tuta absoluta and its side effects on the predator Nesidiocoris tenuis

The South American tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), is one of the major pests of tomato crop. Since its detection in the Mediterranean basin, it has been commonly controlled using chemical insecticides. However, inoculation and conservation of predatory mirids, integrated with sprays of selective insecticides, has been demonstrated to be a cost‐effective strategy for controlling this pest. In this work, we tested the efficacy of two sulphur formulations, dustable and wettable powder, for controlling T. absoluta on tomato under greenhouse and open‐field conditions. In addition, the side effects of both sulphur formulations on the predator, Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter), were evaluated under laboratory conditions. Dustable sulphur, applied weekly on tomato seedlings artificially infested with T. absoluta in greenhouse conditions, significantly reduced the infestation levels and was demonstrated to have a repellent effect on oviposition. Wettable sulphur was not effective for controlling T. absoluta populations in both greenhouse and open‐field experiments. In the side effect trials conducted with N. tenuis, only dustable sulphur resulted in being moderately harmful as a fresh residue and slightly harmful as a 7‐day‐old residue; no effects were recorded exposing the predator to 14‐day‐old sulphur residues. In contrast, wettable sulphur was classified as harmless to N. tenuis. Our results suggest that the use of sulphur, especially as dustable powder, could be considered as a tool in T. absoluta management strategies, although its side effects on N. tenuis should be taken into account. The implications of these results for the use of sulphur formulations in pest and disease management programmes in tomato crops are discussed.
Increasing the Profit of Cloud Providers through DRAM Operation at Reduced Margins

Energy reduction is a key objective in cloud computing, and DRAM memories are responsible for an important amount of the energy consumption of data center nodes. Vendors adopt very conservative margins for DRAM operating parameters, such as the refresh rate and supply voltage, to guarantee correct operation even under the worst process variation and operating conditions. In this paper, we investigate the exploitation of DRAM margins to improve the energy efficiency of data center nodes, without triggering penalties due to service level agreement (SLA) violations. We introduce a model that captures the most important aspects of job management and system configuration. We also introduce RM-DRAM, a scheduling and node configuration policy that exploits the extended margins of DRAMs to reduce the operator’s cost, considering the tradeoff between the cost of energy consumption and potential SLA violations. RM-DRAM also employs cost-aware (rather than threshold-based) VM consolidation. We extract the parameters used in the simulation (particularly power consumption and error rates) by characterizing a commercial ARM-based server. We perform simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, showing that significant gains, up to 34.84% and 29.53% in energy and cost, respectively, can be achieved compared with a state-of-the-art policy.
KNOWLEDGE OF HEPATITIS PREVENTION AMONG REPRODUCTIVE AGE GROUP WOMEN FROM PAKISTAN DEMOGRAPHIC HEALTH SURVEY DATA 2012-13

Background: Pakistan and Egypt bear more than 80% of the burden of disease as more than 12 million people are suffering from hepatitis B or C infection and there is addition of about 150000 new cases each year.Methods: We have used secondary data PDHS - Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, DHS has become the gold standard of survey data in developing countries, a project by ORC Macro with financial support from the USAID for the International Development carried out as multistage, cluster sampling for its data collection on multiple questions, most pertinent from our study point view the maternal and child health related to knowledge attitude and practices of hepatitis and its prevention. Results:The final multivariate model six variables came out to be statistically significant with their adjusted odd's ration p-value and 95% confidence interval i.e., use of new disposable syringe every time for therapeutic injection purpose, the respondent being rich as wealth index, reading newspapers and magazines, watching television as source of information, area of residence being urban and with higher educational level came out to be most important variable which are making statistically significant difference for prevention of hepatitis among females of reproductive age group as our study population from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13. Conclusion: It is quite evident from the results of our study that use of new disposal syringes, being rich , being educated, having access to information resources like watching television, listening radio, reading newspaper & magazine and being as an urban dwellers are significant factor among women of reproductive age groups for prevention of hepatitis.
Local earthquake tomography at the Los Humeros geothermal field, Mexico

<p>The GEMex<sup>*</sup> project is a recently finalized European-Mexican collaboration that aimed to improve the understanding of two geothermal fields: Acoculco and Los Humeros Volcanic Complex . These sites are located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, a region that hosts numerous active volcanoes and is favorable for geothermal exploitation. Currently, the &#160;Los Humeros Volcanic Complex is one of Mexico&#8217;s main geothermal systems with an installed capacity of ~95MW. Many studies have been performed at this site since the 70s highlighting several features and characteristics of the shallow subsurface. However a thorough knowledge of structures and behavior of the system at greater depths is still quite sparse. Hence one main objective of the GEMex project was to conduct several geological, geochemical, and geophysical experiments to investigate deeper structures for future development of local and regional geothermal resources. </p><p>In this framework, for the period of one year (September 2017 to September 2018), a seismic array consisting of 45 seismic stations was set to record continuously at the Los Humeros Volcanic Complex. In this study we analyzed the continuous seismic records to detect the micro-seismicity mainly related to exploitation activities. After applying a recursive STA/LTA detection algorithm, we assembled and manually picked P- and S- phases of a catalog of about 500 local events. The detected events were mostly clustered around injection wells, with fewer events located close to known structures. We use the retrieved catalog to derive a new minimum 1D velocity model for the Los Humeros site. We then performed a joint inversion to obtain the 3D Vp and Vp/Vs structures of the geothermal field. A post-processing averaging of several inversions was also computed to increase resolution of the investigated region. In this study we will show the derived Vp and Vp/Vs models for the &#160;Los Humeros Volcanic Complex to emphasize various underground structures and potentially identify possible variations due to changes in temperature, fluid content, and rock porosity. </p><p>&#160;</p><p>*This project has received funding from the European Union&#8217;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 727550 and the Mexican Energy Sustainability Fund CONACYT-SENER, project 2015-04-68074. We thank the Comisi&#243;n Federal de Electricidad (CFE) for kindly granting the access to the geothermal field for installation and maintenance of seismic stations. </p>
IL-4 Inhibits the Expression of Mouse Formyl Peptide Receptor 2, a Receptor for Amyloid β1–42, in TNF-α-Activated Microglia12

Microglia are phagocytic cells in the CNS and actively participate in proinflammatory responses in neurodegenerative diseases. We have previously shown that TNF-α up-regulated the expression of formyl peptide receptor 2 (mFPR2) in mouse microglial cells, resulting in increased chemotactic responses of such cells to mFPR2 agonists, including amyloid β1–42 (Aβ42), a critical pathogenic agent in Alzheimer’s disease. In the present study, we found that IL-4, a Th2-type cytokine, markedly inhibited TNF-α-induced expression of mFPR2 in microglial cells by attenuating activation of ERK and p38 MAPK as well as NF-κB. The effect of IL-4 was not dependent on Stat6 but rather required the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) as demonstrated by the capacity of PP2A small interfering RNA to reverse the effect of IL-4 in TNF-α-activated microglia. Since both IL-4 and TNF-α are produced in the CNS under pathophysiological conditions, our results suggest that IL-4 may play an important role in the maintenance of CNS homeostasis by limiting microglial activation by proinflammatory stimulants.
Reduction of truncation artifacts in fan beam transmission by using parallel beam emission data

We describe a method to reduce the truncation artifacts in the fan beam transmission image reconstruction of a simultaneous transmission and emission SPECT system. Parallel hole collimation is adopted for the measurement of both emission photopeak and Compton scatter photons, which are also used to obtain the body and lung outlines. The lung outlines can be refined using attenuation coefficient (/spl mu/) estimates from within the fully sampled region (FSR) of the attenuation map computed using the truncated transmission data. The regions of the lungs and other soft tissues are assigned appropriate attenuation coefficients to create the attenuation map with no truncation, which are then reprojected to augment the transmission projection data. A match of the total attenuation between the real and reprojected data is made at each projection angle in each slice to account for the different attenuation coefficients in different slices. Finally, a reconstruction of the combined measured and augmented data is performed. We demonstrate that this method can significantly reduce the truncation artifacts using two phantom studies. When some portion of the heart falls outside the FSR, the attenuation map estimated from this method can more effectively correct for the attenuation in the emission data than the truncated map. <<ETX>>
Combining ability analysis for fruit yield, capsaicin and other quantitative traits in chillies (Capsicum annum L.) over environments

Ten parents and their 45 F1's of chillies from a half diallel cross were evaluated for fruit yield and its components over three environments. Highly significant variation was observed due to genotypes and environments for aq the ten traits studied. The genotype x environment interactions were significant for all the characters except days to initiation of flowering. The genotypes Pant C-1, Arka lohit, RHRC 16-5 and X-235 were found to be good general combiners and 15 crosses have been identified as specific combiners for fruit yield and other related traits.