Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison between electrical resistivity tomography and tunnel seismic prediction 303 methods for detecting the water zone ahead of the tunnel face: A case study

Abstract In deep tunnels with hydro-geological conditions, it is paramount to investigate the geological structure of the region before excavating a tunnel; otherwise, unanticipated accidents may cause serious damage and delay the project. The purpose of this study is to investigate the geological properties ahead of a tunnel face using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and tunnel seismic prediction (TSP) methods. During construction of the Nosoud Tunnel located in western Iran, ERT and TSP 303 methods were employed to predict geological conditions ahead of the tunnel face. In this article, the results of applying these methods are discussed. In this case, we have compared the results of the ERT method with those of the TSP 303 method. This work utilizes seismic methods and electrical tomography as two geophysical techniques are able to detect rock properties ahead of a tunnel face. This study shows that although the results of these two methods are in good agreement with each other, the results of TSP 303 are more accurate and higher quality. Also, we believe that using another geophysical method, in addition to TSP 303, could be helpful in making decisions in support of excavation, especially in complicated geological conditions.
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Milk From COVID-19 Positive Mothers and Follow-Up of Their Infants

Background: In the current SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic little is known about SARS-CoV-2 in human milk. It is important to discover if breast milk is a vehicle of infection. Objective: Our aim was to look for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the milk of a group of SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers from North-West Italy. Methods: This is a prospective collaborative observational study where samples of human milk from 14 breastfeeding mothers positive for SARS-CoV-2 were collected. A search of viral RNA in breast milk samples was performed by RT-PCR (Real-Time reverse-transcriptase-Polymerase-Chain-Reaction) methodology tested for human milk. All the newborns underwent a clinical follow up during the first month of life or until the finding of two sequential negative swabs. Results: In 13 cases the search for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in milk samples resulted negative and in one case it was positive. Thirteen of the 14 newborns were exclusively breastfed and closely monitored in the first month of life. Clinical outcome was uneventful. Four newborns tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and were all detected in the first 48 h of life, after the onset of maternal symptoms. Also the clinical course of these 4 infants, including the one who received mother's milk positive for SARS-CoV-2, was uneventful, and all of them became SARS-CoV-2 negative within 6 weeks of life. Conclusion: Our study supports the view that SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers do not expose their newborns to an additional risk of infection by breastfeeding.
PKC Signaling Regulates Drug Resistance of Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae via Divergent Circuitry Composed of the MAPK Cascade, Calcineurin and Hsp90

Treating fungal infections is challenging due to the emergence of drug resistance and the limited number of clinically useful antifungal drugs. To improve clinical outcome it will be necessary to develop new antifungal drugs with different mechanisms of action and to discover drugs that improve the fungicidal activity of current antifungals. This study reveals a new role for fungal protein kinase C (PKC) signaling in resistance to drugs targeting the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway in the pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans, and the model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. PKC signaling enabled survival of antifungal-induced cell membrane stress in part through the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade and through cross-talk with calcineurin signaling in both species. The molecular chaperone Hsp90, which stabilizes client proteins including calcineurin, also stabilized the terminal C. albicans MAPK, Mkc1. This establishes new circuitry connecting PKC with Hsp90 and calcineurin, and suggests that inhibiting fungal Pkc1 can be a promising strategy for treating life-threatening fungal infections.
Autoencoding Improves Pre-trained Word Embeddings

Prior works investigating the geometry of pre-trained word embeddings have shown that word embeddings to be distributed in a narrow cone and by centering and projecting using principal component vectors one can increase the accuracy of a given set of pre-trained word embeddings. However, theoretically, this post-processing step is equivalent to applying a linear autoencoder to minimize the squared L2 reconstruction error. This result contradicts prior work (Mu and Viswanath, 2018) that proposed to remove the top principal components from pre-trained embeddings. We experimentally verify our theoretical claims and show that retaining the top principal components is indeed useful for improving pre-trained word embeddings, without requiring access to additional linguistic resources or labeled data.
A Caption Is Worth A Thousand Images: Investigating Image Captions for Multimodal Named Entity Recognition

Multimodal named entity recognition (MNER) requires to bridge the gap between language understanding and visual context. Due to advances in natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision (CV), many neural techniques have been proposed to incorporate images into the NER task. In this work, we conduct a detailed analysis of current state-of-the-art fusion techniques for MNER and describe scenarios where adding information from the image does not always result in boosts in performance. We also study the use of captions as a way to enrich the context for MNER. We provide extensive empirical analysis and an ablation study on three datasets from popular social platforms to expose the situations where the approach is beneficial.
Associations Between Altered Cerebral Activity Patterns and Psychosocial Disorders in Patients With Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction: A Mediation Analysis of fMRI

Previous studies had illustrated the significant neural pathological changes in patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction (pED), while few works focused on the neural underpinning of the psychosocial status in patients with pED. This study aimed to investigate the associations among the altered cerebral activity patterns, impaired erectile function, and the disrupted psychosocial status in patients with pED. Thirty-two patients with pED and 28 healthy controls (HCs) were included. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), region-of-interest-based functional connectivity (FC), as well as Pearson correlation analyses and mediation analyses between neuroimaging outcomes and clinical outcomes were performed. Compared to HCs, patients with pED manifested lower erectile function, disrupted psychosocial status, as well as decreased ALFF in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and reduced FC between the left dlPFC and left angular gyrus, and left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and precuneus, which belonged to the default mode network (DMN). Moreover, both the ALFF of the left dlPFC and FC between the left dlPFC and left PCC and precuneus were significantly correlated with the sexual function and psychosocial status in patients with pED. The disrupted psychosocial status mediated the influence of atypical FC between dlPFC and DMN on decreased erectile function. This study widened our understanding of the important role of psychosocial disorders in pathological neural changes in patients with pED.
Current Insights Into the Pathology of Canine Intervertebral Disc Extrusion-Induced Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) in dogs is commonly attributed to intervertebral disc extrusion (IVDE). Over the last years substantial progress was made in the elucidation of factors contributing to the pathogenesis of this common canine disease. A detailed understanding of the underlying histopathological and molecular alterations in the lesioned spinal cord represents a prerequisite to translate knowledge on the time course of secondary injury processes into the clinical setting. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge of the underlying pathology of canine IVDE-related SCI. Pathological alterations in the spinal cord of dogs affected by IVDE-related SCI include early and persisting axonal damage and glial responses, dominated by phagocytic microglia/macrophages. These processes are paralleled by a pro-inflammatory microenvironment with dysregulation of cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases within the spinal cord. These data mirror findings from a clinical and therapeutic perspective and can be used to identify biomarkers that are able to more precisely predict the clinical outcome. The pathogenesis of progressive myelomalacia, a devastating complication of SCI in dogs, is not understood in detail so far; however, a fulminant and exaggerating secondary injury response with massive reactive oxygen species formation seems to be involved in this unique neuropathological entity. There are substantial gaps in the knowledge of pathological changes in IVDE with respect to more advanced and chronic lesions and the potential involvement of demyelination. Moreover, the role of microglia/macrophage polarization in IVDE-related SCI still remains to be investigated. A close collaboration of clinical neurologists and veterinary pathologists will help to facilitate an integrative approach to a more detailed understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of canine IVDE and thus to identify therapeutic targets.
Community Feeling and Narcissism as Two Opposite Phenomena

The objective of the current study was to examine the relations between narcissism and Adler’s community feeling. Based on theoretical considerations, we claim that community feeling can be treated as an opposite pole of narcissism and we expected that: (1) both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism would be negatively related to community feeling and that (2) grandiose and vulnerable narcissism would be positively related to anti-community domination and isolation. A sample of 520 university students (Mage = 21.37, SDage = 4.31) completed the Community Feeling Questionnaire (CFQ), the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ) and the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS). Structural equation modeling largely confirmed our expectations. These results suggest that narcissism can be understood in terms of a deficit in community feeling. It turned out that community feeling and narcissism are related constructs but they are not reducible to each other.
X-TaSNet: Robust and Accurate Time-Domain Speaker Extraction Network

Extracting the speech of a target speaker from mixed audios, based on a reference speech from the target speaker, is a challenging yet powerful technology in speech processing. Recent studies of speaker-independent speech separation, such as TasNet, have shown promising results by applying deep neural networks over the time-domain waveform. Such separation neural network does not directly generate reliable and accurate output when target speakers are specified, because of the necessary prior on the number of speakers and the lack of robustness when dealing with audios with absent speakers. In this paper, we break these limitations by introducing a new speaker-aware speech masking method, called X-TaSNet. Our proposal adopts new strategies, including a distortion-based loss and corresponding alternating training scheme, to better address the robustness issue. X-TaSNet significantly enhances the extracted speech quality, doubling SDRi and SI-SNRi of the output speech audio over state-of-the-art voice filtering approach. X-TaSNet also improves the reliability of the results by improving the accuracy of speaker identity in the output audio to 95.4%, such that it returns silent audios in most cases when the target speaker is absent. These results demonstrate X-TaSNet moves one solid step towards more practical applications of speaker extraction technology.
Antibiotic Resistance Profiles and Molecular Mechanisms of Campylobacter From Chicken and Pig in China

The purpose of this research was to characterize the antibiotic resistance profiles of Campylobacter spp. derived from chicken and pig feces collected from farms in Jiangsu Province, China, and to analyze the relevant resistance mechanisms among antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacter spp. isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility to nine antibiotic agents was tested with the microdilution method in 93 Campylobacter spp. (45 C. jejuni and 25 C. coli from chickens; 23 C. coli from pigs). High rates of resistance were observed to nalidixic acid (79.6%), erythromycin (75.3%), tetracycline (68.8%), azithromycin (66.7%), ciprofloxacin (64.5%), and gentamicin (35.5%), with a lower resistance rate to florfenicol (8.6%). The prevalence of the tested antibiotic resistance in C. coli was higher than in C. jejuni from chickens. The rate of antimicrobial resistance to ciprofloxacin in C. coli isolates from chickens was 100.0%, and the C. coli isolates from pigs were all resistant to erythromycin (100%). Most of C. jejuni (64.4%) and C. coli (64.5%) isolates displayed multi-drug resistance. All the Campylobacter spp. isolates resistant to fluoroquinolones had the C257T mutation in the gyrA gene. All 64 tetracycline-resistant Campylobacter spp. isolates were positive for the tetO gene. The tetA gene was also amplified in 6.5% of Campylobacter spp. isolates, whereas tetB was not detected among the isolates. The A2075G point mutation in the 23S rRNA gene occurred in 86.1% (62/72) of the macrolides-resistant Campylobacter spp. isolates, and the ermB gene was identified in 49 Campylobacter spp. isolates (30 C. jejuni and 19 C. coli). Amino acid insertions or mutations in the L4 and L22 ribosomal proteins were not linked to macrolide resistance. These results highlight the high prevalence of resistance to multiple antibiotics, particular macrolides, among Campylobacter spp. from chickens and pigs in Jiangsu Province, China, which is probably attributable to the overuse of antimicrobials in chicken and pig production. These findings recommend the more cautious use of critical antimicrobial agents in swine and poultry production. Stringent and continuous surveillance is required to reduce the drug-resistant campylobacteriosis in food animals and humans.
HLA-B27-specific Immune Response to Influenza is Critically Dependent on ERAP-1 and on MHC-I Allelic Co-dominant Expression

Genetic studies have demonstrated that both the HLA-B27 and endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase (ERAP) are contributing factors to the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In my studies I have used HLA transgenic (Tg) mice to examine the contribution of HLAB7 and ERAP1 to the HLA-B27-mediated immune response to influenza (flu) infection, results of which could be used as proof of principle for AS. Influenza infection affects millions of individuals worldwide annually. Because of the well-established HLA allele-specific epitope recognition, I used flu infection in HLA Tg mice deficient of endogenous MHC-I expression; i.e., H2-D, H2-K or double knock out (DKO) in a proof-of-concept strategy to define the details of first, the interaction of HLA-B7 and HLA-B27 and secondly, the contribution of ERAP to allele-specific immunodominance. Immunodominance during a viral infection is influenced by many factors. To assess whether co-expression of HLA-B7 and HLA-B27 would influence the immune response in double HLA Tg mice, I created double Tg B7/B27 mice with intact ERAP expression on a DKO
Connecting hillslope and runoff generation processes in the Ethiopian Highlands: The Ene-Chilala watershed

Abstract Effective watershed planning requires an understanding of the hydrology. In the humid tropical monsoon climates and especially in volcanic highland regions such as the Ethiopian Highlands, the understanding of watershed processes is incomplete. The objective is to better understand the hydrology of the volcanic regions in the humid highlands by linking the hillslope processes with the discharge at the outlet. The Ene-Chilala watershed was selected for this study. The infiltration rate, piezometric water levels and discharge from two nested sub watersheds and at the watershed outlet were measured during a four-year period. Infiltration rates on the hillsides exceeded the rainfall intensity most of the time. The excess rain recharged a perched hillside aquifer. Water flowed through the perched aquifer as interflow to rivers and outlet. In addition, saturation excess overland flow was generated in the valley bottoms. Perched water tables heights were predicted by summing up the recharge over the travel time from the watershed divide. Travel times ranged from a few days for piezometers close to the divide to 40 days near the outlet. River discharge was simulated by adding the interflow from the upland to overland flow from the saturated valley bottom lands. Overland flow accounted only for one-fourth of the total flow. There was good agreement between predicted and observed discharge during the rain phase therefore the hillslope hydrologically processes were successfully linked with the discharge at the outlet.
Effect of the supplementation with a ruminal protein activator on weight gain of steers fed rice straw

In order to evaluate the animal response to supplementation with a ruminal protein activator to steers consuming rice straw rolls, an amount of 27 animals of 160 kg were used, distributed into three treatments (rice straw, rice straw + 200g of ruminal protein activator and rice straw + 400 g of ruminal protein activator. animal.d-1). A random blocks design was applied, with three animals per treatment and three repetitions. Mean composition was 4.9 and 45.2 % of crude protein and 61.5 and 20.3 % of neutral detergent fiber for rice straw rolls and the ruminal protein activator, respectively. The control animals, fed only rice straw rolls, lost weight (-0.09 kg.animal.d-1). Treated groups gained 0.242 and 0.325 kg.animal.d-1 (P <0.001) for low and high doses, respectively, although without differences among them. The intake of rice straw rolls increased in 16 % in the treatments supplemented with the activator (P < 0.01), but not between doses. Final efficiency of the use of the activator was 1 g of ruminal protein activator per 1 g of daily weight gain. It is recommended the doses of 1.16 g of ruminal protein activator per kilogram of liveweight. Key words: protein supplementation, low quality forages, protein activator
USING POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION TECHNIQUE (PCR) FOR DETECTION BRUCELLA MELITENSIS IN ABORTED EWES’ MILK IN NINEVEH, IRAQ/

In this study, polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) used to detect Brucella melitensis in aborted ewes’ milk in Nineveh Province, Iraq using species specific primers of Br. melitensis. Fifty aborted ewes were involved. Blood and milk samples were taken from each ewe. Blood samples used to detect Brucella antibodies in serum using Rose-Bengal plate test (RBPT), whereas PCR were applied on the milk samples to detect Br. melitensis using one pairs of specific primers for the strain of Br. melitensis. Results indicate 35 out of 50 samples (70%) positive reaction by RBPT. from these 35 samples: 26 samples (74.3%) were positive by PCR, while 9 samples (25.7%) were negative. Samples that showed negative reaction by RBPT (15 out of 50 ”30%”) revealed 8 samples (53.3%) positive by PCR and 7 samples (46.7%) were negative. The total number of milk samples that gave positive reaction by PCR (Br. melitensis) were 34 out of 50 (68%) distributed on Nineveh’s regions between 50–100%. The study concluded that using an accurate tests, such as species-specific PCR technique, is an important for reflecting an accurate incidence; since PCR revealed that Br. melitensis existed in aborted ewe’s milk in a high percentage in Nineveh, Iraq, which has a public health importance. ,في هذه الدراسة تم استخدام تقنية تفاعل البلمرة المتسلسل (PCR) للكشف عن جرثومة البروسيلا المعزية في حليب النعاج المجهضة ” في محافظة نينوى وباستخدام بادئات نوعية متخصصة لجرثومة البروسيلا المعزية. تضمنت الدراسة فحص خمسون نعجة مجهضة ، أخذت عينات الدم والحليب من كل نعجة من هذه النعاج المجهضة ، استخدمت عينات الدم للكشف عن الأجسام المضادة بعد الحصول على مصل الدم بواسطة اختبار الروز بنغال (RBPT)، في حين تم تطبيق تقنية PCR على عينات الحليب بعد استخلاص دنا جرثومة البروسيلا وتضاعفه باستخدام زوج من البادئات المتخصصة. وتشير النتائج أن 35 من مجموع 50 عينة (70٪) أعطت نتيجة إيجابية بواسطة اختبار RBPT. من هذه العينات 35 الموجبة كان هناك 26 عينة موجبة (74.3٪) باستخدام تقنية الـ PCR ، في حين كانت هناك تسعة عينات سالبة وشكلت نسبة (25.7٪). العينات التي أظهرت نتيجة سالبة في فحص RBPT وهي بحدود (15 من أصل 50 ”30٪”) طبقت عليها تقنية الـ PCR كان منها ثمانية عينات (53.3٪) موجبة في فحص الـ PCR و 7 عينات (46.7٪) كانت سالبة. العدد الكلي للعينات الحليب التي أعطت نتيجة إيجابية بفحص الـ PCR كان 34 من أصل 50 (68٪) موزعة على مناطق نينوى بين 50-100٪. استنتجت الدراسة إلى أن استخدام اختبارات دقيقة ، تقنية تفاعل البلمرة المتسلسل للنوع المتخصصSpecies-specific PCR مهم جدا ليعكس نسبة حدوث الإصابة الدقيقة ، وأن كشف تواجد هذه الجراثيم في حليب النعاج المجهضة وبنسبة عالية في نينوى والعراق له أهمية كبيرة على الصحة العامة.
Spinal Cord Infarction: A Single Center Experience and the Usefulness of Evoked Potential as an Early Diagnostic Tool

Background: Spinal cord infarction (SCI) is a rare disease and its early diagnosis is challenging. Here, we described the clinical features and imaging findings of SCI, and assessed the results of evoked potential (EP) studies to elucidate their diagnostic role in the early stage of SCI. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 14 patients who had spontaneous SCI. The demographic, neurological, and temporal profiles of the SCI patients were identified. We reviewed the imaging findings and assessed the changes in them over time. To review EP, central motor conduction time (CMCT) and somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) values were obtained. We also enrolled 15 patients with transverse myelitis (TM), and compared the clinical, radiological and electrophysiological features between SCI and TM patients. Results: The ages of the SCI patients ranged from 54 to 73 years. Nine patients (64.3%) showed nadir deficits within 6 h. The most common type of clinical visit was via the emergency center. Nine patients (64.3%) presented with peri-onset focal pain. The median initial modified Rankin scale score was 3. For 9 patients (64.3%), initial T2 imaging findings were negative, but subsequent diffusion weighed imaging (DWI) showed diffusion restriction. Vertebral body infarction was observed in 5 patients (35.7%). EP data were available for 10 SCI patients. All 8 patients who had their CMCT measured showed abnormalities. Among them, motor evoked potentials were not evoked in 6 patients at all. SEP was measured in 10 patients, and 9 of them showed abnormalities; one of them showed no SEP response. For 5 patients, the EP studies were done prior to DWI, and all the patients showed definite abnormalities. The abnormalities in the EP findings of the SCI patients were more profound than those of the TM patients, even though the duration from the onset to the start of the study was much shorter for SCI patients. Conclusion: SCI can be diagnosed based on typical clinical manifestations and appropriate imaging studies. Our study also indicates that immediate sensory and motor EP study can have an adjuvant diagnostic role in the hyperacute stage of SCI, and can improve the accuracy of diagnosis.