Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activin Receptor Type II Gene Expression is Induced During Embryonic Development and Differentiation of Murine F9 Embryonal Carcinoma Cells

The functional role of activins in mesoderm induction has been shown in early amphibian embryos; however, its role in early mammalian embryogenesis is still unknown. The protein and mRNA for activin subunits are present in mouse preimplantation embryos. In this study we report on the expression of activin receptor type II (ActR‐II) gene in pre‐ and post‐implantation mouse embryos and the regulation of ActR‐II mRNA in F9 embryonal carcinoma cells that served as a model for murine embryonic development. The results show that ActR‐II gene is expressed in ovulated mature oocytes, becomes decreased at 2‐celll stage, and is substantially activated in day‐6 embryo at the stage when ectoderm and endoderm are formed. When F9 cells are treated with retinoic acid (RA) and undergo endodermal differentiation, ActR‐II mRNA is induced. The 6.0 kb transcript is enhanced more than the 3.0 kb transcript. suggesting that these two mRNA species are controlled by different promotors. Addition of cyclic AMP analogue, which further induces differentiation of F9 cells into parietal endoderm, does not further enhance ActR‐II gene expression. The effect of RA on ActR‐II mRNA levels is direct and does not require ongoing protein synthesis. Furthermore, all‐trans‐RA is more effective than 9‐cis‐RA in the induction of ActR‐II gene expression. The results of this study demonstrate that the ActR‐II gene is activated during endodermal differentiation and suggest that activin action in mammalian embryonic development is mediated through increased activin receptor gene expression.
Management of diabetes and hypertension among Zulu traditional health practitioners: A study of focus group interviews

Introduction: On the African continent, the rising cost of Western medication that is accessible for the treatment of both diabetes and hypertension encourages people to rely on traditional medicine assisted by traditional health practitioners to mitigate the effects of these chronic conditions. This study was carried out to explore Zulu traditional health practitioners’ perspectives on managing both diabetes and hypertension. Methods: Five focus group discussions sessions were held in June 2018, using a semi-structured interview guide. Discussions were audiotaped and the content was thematically analysed. Sixty-seven traditional health practitioners (39 females and 28 males) were purposely selected from the three geospatial locations (urban, traditional or tribal, and farm areas) in uMshwathi (UMgungundlovu District) and Emnambithi/Ladysmith (uThukela District), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Results: The majority of Zulu traditional health practitioners regarded diabetes and hypertension as the same condition, since one (having diabetes) leads to the other (hypertension). The following symptoms – weight loss, sweating easily, shortness of breath and eyesight problems – were the most commonly reported clinical features for both diabetes and hypertension by Zulu traditional health practitioners in this study. Although many traditional health practitioners were secretive about the recipes used in their practice, a few indicated using herbal mixtures containing Aloe vera and Allium sativum (garlic) for the management of both diabetes and hypertension. Conclusions: Some similarities exist between Zulu traditional health practitioners and orthodox conventional medicine in terms of the description of clinical features of diabetes and hypertension. Ethnopharmacological preparations consisted mainly of two medicinal plants, Aloe vera and Allium sativum, for the management of both diabetes and hypertension by Zulu traditional health practitioners. Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2019; 33(4):219-228] Keywords: Diabetes,hypertension,polyherbal formulations,herbal mixtures,traditional health practitioners
Correlation of Middle Cerebral Artery Doppler Velocimetry and Perinatal Outcomes in Intra Uterine Growth Restricted Babies: Middle Cerebral Artery Doppler Velocimetry and Perinatal Outcomes in IUGR

Objective: To correlate foetal Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) Doppler velocimetry indices in clinically diagnosed cases of Intra Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) with perinatal outcomes. Materials and Methods: A Doppler MCA study was carried in 120 consecutive clinically suspected cases of singleton IUGR pregnancies at 34-40 weeks of gestation and were followed up until delivery. The mode of delivery and any adverse perinatal outcome; asphyxia, hypoglycemia, perinatal death or stay in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was recorded. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 16.0. Result: Among these 120 women, three babies were born with congenital malformations were excluded from the study. In 117 study women, the Doppler revealed abnormal MCA PI (<1.5), abnormal MCA S/ D ratio (<4) and abnormal MCA RI (<0.59) in 81 (69.2%), 69 (58.9%) and eight (6.8%) antenatal mothers respectively. Statistically significant correlations were observed with MCA PI and low birth weight (P<0.001), MCA S/D ratio and mode of delivery by caesarean section (P<0.05). Forty-three neonates required admission to NICU, the main cause being respiratory distress syndrome (49%) and there were six perinatal mortalities. Conclusion: MCA Doppler parameters offer an important non-invasive tool to assess the fetal well-being in utero and can help to reduce the risk of prenatal mortality by timely intervention at delivery.
Clostridium perfringens BETA2 TOXIN: A POTENTIAL ACCESSORY TOXIN IN GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES OF HUMANS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive, anaerobic, spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium that causes histotoxic infections and enterotoxaemias in humans and domestic animals. This bacterium owes its pathogenicity to the production of a large arsenal of toxins, including the C. perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) and beta2 toxin (CPB2). Type A, cpe-chromosomal isolates cause human food-poisoning (FP), whereas type A, cpe-plasmid isolates cause human antibiotic associated diarrhea (AAD). Symptoms of AAD are more severe and longer in duration than symptoms of FP. We hypothesized that AAD isolates may produce an accessory toxin, which would contribute to pathogenesis, as an explanation for these symptomatic differences. Consequently, the goal of this dissertation was to determine; 1) whether the recently discovered, plasmid-encoded, CPB2 toxin was produced by AAD isolates, 2) how this toxin functions in vitro, and 3) its role in vivo (in the context of human and animal disease). PCR analysis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis/Southern blotting, and DNA sequencing determined that the cpb2 gene is preferentially associated with AAD isolates (but not FP isolates), in part, due to its presence on some cpe-encoding plasmids. Sequencing of cpe and cpe/cpb2 plasmids found a large region of plasmid DNA, encoding a conjugal-gene cluster, which appears conserved amongst most C. perfringens virulence plasmids. Subsequent sequencing of a number of cpb2 genes identified two CPB2 variants, both of which are produced (detected using Western blot). Neutral red cytotoxicity assays using purified CPB2 demonstrated that CPB2h1 is more cytotoxic for Caco-2 cells than CPB2h2 and this activity is heat labile. Further in vitro work (using 86Rubidium release assays and osmotic stabilizers) suggested that CPB2 acts by disrupting membrane permeability. In vivo experiments confirmed that our CPB2 preparations also were lethal using a mouse intravenous injection model. However, efforts to develop a more realistic model of pathogenesis (which initiates in the intestines) should be continued to furtheranalyze the role of CPB2 in pathogenesis. Ultimately, the production of CPB2 by most AAD isolates, as opposed to FP isolates, could provide an explanation for the more severe symptoms associated with AAD cases and suggests that CPB2 may be involved in human gastrointestinal disease.
Temperature Sensitivity of a Hybrid between Two Species of Sea Urchin Differing in Thermotolerance

Eggs of Dendraster excentricus can be fertilized with sperm of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus at a high success rate according to Whiteley and Baltzer's method. The resulting hybrids are well suited for investigations of the factors determining embryonic thermosensitivity, because the embryos of both the above species differ significantly with regard to egg size, blastula shape, and particularly thermotolerance and the temperature dependence of their developmental rate. Morphologically, the hybrids show some paternally inherited traits, but their thermosensitivity is strictly determined by the egg cytoplasm.
Evaluation of Water Quality of the Surface Water of the Damietta Nile Branch, Damietta Governorate, Egypt

 Abstract — Water quality and heavy metals pollution of the Damietta Nile Branch at Damietta governorate were investigated in the current work. Fourteen different sampling points were selected along the Damietta Nile branch from Ras EL-Bar (sample 1) to Sheremsah (sample 14). Physical and chemical parameters and the concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Fe, Al, Hg, Pb and Zn were investigated for water quality assessment of Damietta Nile Branch at Damietta Governorate. Most of the samples show that the water is suitable for drinking and irrigation purposes. All locations of samples near the sea are unsuitable water but the samples in the south direction away from the sea are suitable or good water for drinking and irrigation.
Caprylic, capric and/or fumaric acids as antibiotic replacements in piglet feed

the aim of the experiment was to compare the effect of dietary fumaric acid and fumaric acid mixed with caprylic or capric acid on performance and changes in the digestive system of piglets. the experiment was performed on 242 piglets (24 litters) from 7 to 84 days of age. piglets were allocated to 4 groups with 6 litters per group. group i (control) received standard feed mixture, group ii received the same mixture supplemented with fumaric acid (15 g kg–1). groups iii and iV were fed the same diets as group ii but they additionally received 2 g kg–1 of caprylic (group iii) or capric acid (group iV). body weight gains and feed consumption were measured, and apparent digestibility of nutrients was estimated. microbiological and histological analyses were also performed in the small intestine. piglets receiving fumaric and caprylic acids had significantly higher body weight gains (276 g) than those receiving fumaric and capric acids (251 g) and the control piglets (234 g). duodenal contents of experimental piglets had lower pH compared to that of control piglets, but this difference was significant only for the fumaric and caprylic acid group. mixture of fumaric and caprylic acids improved apparent protein and fibre digestibility but there were no significant differences between experimental groups. these acids also reduced piglet mortality. all acids significantly decreased the amount of Escherichia coli in the small intestinal digesta but fumaric acid was the most active. fumaric acid also reduced the Clostridium population but to a lesser extent than E. coli. all acids affected the structure of jejunal epithelium. Villi in the experimental groups were higher and crypts deeper than those in control animals. it can be stated that the mixture of fumaric and caprylic acids significantly improves performance of piglets. this improvement may result from changes in acidity in the upper part of the digestive tract and from structural changes of the small intestinal mucosa.
Helicobacter pylori outer membrane vesicles and the host-pathogen interaction

Lipids play a central role in numerous biological events, ranging from normal physiological processes to host−pathogen interactions. The proposed semiconstant-time 31P,1H−COSY NMR experiment provides identification of known and structural characterization of unknown phospholipids in complex membrane extracts with high sensitivity, based on the combination of their 1H and 31P chemical shifts and coupling patterns. Furthermore, the spectra allow quantification of phospholipid composition. Analysis of the phospholipid composition of Helicobacter pylori, the causative agent of peptic ulcer disease, showed the presence of uncommon phospholipids. This novel NMR approach allows the study of changes in membrane composition in response to biological stimuli and opens up the possibility of identifying soluble phosphorus species in a number of research fields.
Drought resistance of willow short rotation coppice genotypes

This thesis reports on an investigation of drought resistance of willow SRC genotypes. Experiments were conducted at Silsoe, Bedfordshire, in pots and field trials in 2002 and in lysimeters in 2003 to evaluate the range of water use efficiency (WUE) of 50 willows varieties (Salix sp.) and isolate morpho-physiological traits related to WUE and drought resistance. Within the genotype pool tested there was a wide range of responses. The results depict the morpho-physiology of an ideal candidate that plant breeding could produce for drier area of UK, which are summarised below. Its cuttings do not develop calluses when stored in darkness at +4°C. After planting, the candidate does not grow rapidly but has an early exponential phase of stem elongation, after a year of growth it has few stems per stool ( 8) hairless leaves are characterised by small adaxial epidermal cells (AECS < 330μm). The ideal candidate prioritises less biomass to its root system (root/shoot < 0.8) mainly in the top 0.2 m. When grown under optimum condition, the large leaf area has high stomatal conductance and leaf temperature. As water stress progresses, the leaf area decreases leaving little time for leaves to senesce and few yellow leaves remain on the stems. The stomatal conductance decreases slowly and the leaf temperature is almost unaffected. If water stress occurs before August the candidate is able to recover faster the initial physiological state and grow new leaves when re-watered. The results indicate that the best parents to produce such candidate are S. viminalis and S. schwerinii or their related hybrids. Water use (WU) of high yielding willow short rotation coppice hybrids is similar which indicates that the opportunity to reduce WU is limited and that productivity can be only improved by increasing WUE to produce above ground biomass and drought resistance. The current willow breeding programme has great chance to produce hybrids with high WUE however the production of a progeny population from high yielding hybrids that contrast widely in resistance to water stress is recommended. In theory, from such a population, valuable data on morpho-physiological traits related to drought resistance and high WUE can be collected and help genomics to develop quantitative trait loci to the condition that reference hybrids are grown along to quantify the level of water stress experienced by the planting.
Unraveling Mobile Health Exercise Interventions for Adults: Scoping Review on the Implementations and Designs of Persuasive Strategies

Background It is unclear why some physical activity (PA) mobile health (mHealth) interventions successfully promote PA whereas others do not. One possible explanation is the variety in PA mHealth interventions—not only do interventions differ in the selection of persuasive strategies but also the design and implementation of persuasive strategies can vary. However, limited studies have examined the different designs and technical implementations of strategies or explored if they indeed influenced the effectiveness of the intervention. Objective This scoping review sets out to explore the different technical implementations and design characteristics of common and likely most effective persuasive strategies, namely, goal setting, monitoring, reminders, rewards, sharing, and social comparison. Furthermore, this review aims to explore whether previous mHealth studies examined the influence of the different design characteristics and technical operationalizations of common persuasive strategies on the effectiveness of the intervention to persuade the user to engage in PA. Methods An unsystematic snowball and gray literature search was performed to identify the literature that evaluated the persuasive strategies in experimental trials (eg, randomized controlled trial, pre-post test). Studies were included if they targeted adults, if they were (partly) delivered by a mobile system, if they reported PA outcomes, if they used an experimental trial, and when they specifically compared the effect of different designs or implementations of persuasive strategies. The study methods, implementations, and designs of persuasive strategies, and the study results were systematically extracted from the literature by the reviewers. Results A total of 29 experimental trials were identified. We found a heterogeneity in how the strategies are being implemented and designed. Moreover, the findings indicated that the implementation and design of the strategy has an influence on the effectiveness of the PA intervention. For instance, the effectiveness of rewarding was shown to vary between types of rewards; rewarding goal achievement seems to be more effective than rewarding each step taken. Furthermore, studies comparing different ways of goal setting suggested that assigning a goal to users might appear to be more effective than letting the user set their own goal, similar to using adaptively tailored goals as opposed to static generic goals. This study further demonstrates that only a few studies have examined the influence of different technical implementations on PA behavior. Conclusions The different implementations and designs of persuasive strategies in mHealth interventions should be critically considered when developing such interventions and before drawing conclusions on the effectiveness of the strategy as a whole. Future efforts are needed to examine which implementations and designs are most effective to improve the translation of theory-based persuasive strategies into practical delivery forms.
A Corpus and Evaluation for Predicting Semi-Structured Human Annotations

A wide variety of tasks have been framed as text-to-text tasks to allow processing by sequence-to-sequence models. We propose a new task of generating a semi-structured interpretation of a source document. The interpretation is semi-structured in that it contains mandatory and optional fields with free-text information. This structure is surfaced by human annotations, which we standardize and convert to text format. We then propose an evaluation technique that is generally applicable to any such semi-structured annotation, called equivalence classes evaluation. The evaluation technique is efficient and scalable; it creates a large number of evaluation instances from a comparably cheap clustering of the free-text information by domain experts. For our task, we release a dataset about the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve. On this corpus, our evaluation shows larger differences between pretrained models than standard text generation metrics.
The diurnal flight activity and influential factors of Frankliniella occidentalis in the greenhouse

Abstract The daily flight activity of western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) was examined using color, yellow‐light and chemical attractant traps in a cucumber greenhouse and under controlled laboratory conditions. In the greenhouse, flying thrips were most abundant between hours 08:00–10:00, declined at mid‐day, and then slightly increased during hours 14:00–16:00; however they decreased to a very low level at 18:00. The use of light traps showed no thrip flight activity during the night. The total number of thrips that flew onto cards on rainy or cloudy days was higher than that on sunny days. We reconfirmed that traps treated with attractant attracted 4.0–9.4 times more thrip than the untreated traps. Under laboratory controlled conditions, thrip flight activity was highest under light intensity between 4 000 and 6 000 lux, air temperature of 28°C, and RH of 70%. In addition, starved thrips flew more readily than non‐starved thrips.
Bio-accumulation of Heavy Metal in Silver Catfish Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus , Tilapia zillii and Macrobrachium macrobrachion Caught in Badagry Creek, Lagos Nigeria

The people of Lagos state depends on fishes and other aquatic products for their source of protein. Thus, the need to verify the safety of the fishes for consumption by the people. The sampling, handling and process were as directed by American Public Health Association (APHA). The species checklist indicated that the Bagrids, Chrysicthys nigrodigitatus ; Cichlids , Tilapia zillii and fresh water prawn of genus Macrobrachium were the dominant fin and shell fish species in the Creek. Results of the analysis of trace metals in the organs of Tilapia zillii indicated that the metals were differentially accumulated in different organs of the fish. In the tissue, the orders of accumulation were gills (52.360±25.964 Fe), Gut (2.180±0.480 Zn), Gills (0.300±0.056 Mn), Bone (0.091±0.125 Pb), Bone, gills, Gut and flesh (0.010±0.00 Cr) and 0.001±0.000 Cd) i s uniform for all the organs under investigation in mg/kg respectively.While the order of metals bioaccumulation in the Macrobrachium macrobrachion (most dominant freshwater prawn) the order of bioaccumulation is Cu > Zn > Mn > Fe > Cr > Pb > Cd with the value of 26.100±6.280, 21.250±1.744, 14.585±28.277, 6.067±3.608, 0.257±0.049, 0.023±0.009, 0.002±0.000 respectively with all values in Mg/Kg. However, the general trend of accumulations in all the organisms were Tilapia zillii > Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus > Macrobrachium macrobrachion . The results of analysis of variance showed that different organisms accumulate different metals in their organs differently (P<0.05). The observed level of metals in the sediments and different organisms analyzed were below the WHO standards. Therefore, there is no foreseeable adverse health problem that may arise from the consumption of the analyzed fish species.
The Learner’ Levels of Collocation Knowledge and Idiomatic Expressions: Exploring the Relationship of Acquisition of Two Items of Phraseology

Whilst there is an ever growing bulk of research focused solely on either single word items or idioms (formulaic sequences as they are usually known) through explicit instruction, this article contributes towards a somewhat severely under-researched field in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context: the importance of incidental learning of collocation knowledge in comprehending idiomatic expressions within an authentic classroom setting in Saudi Arabia. To test this assertion, the study comprised a sample of 34 Arabic-speaking learners of English taking summer BA English courses. Learners’ familiarity of idiom was measured by a means of a background questionnaire which was administered at the beginning of the study. In addition, they were tested by examining the comprehension of the figurative meanings of 15 collocations and the non-compositionality meanings of 15 idiomatic expressions occurring in their EFL coursebook. Learners completed a cloze receptive task and an active recognition task in which each contained short texts composed of 15 collocations and 15 idiomatic expressions respectively. A closer examination of the data reveals that the learning of idiomatic expressions was significantly lower than that of collocations even when target idiomatic expressions were supplemented by contextualized information. It is argued that most learners’ attitudes towards the identification of idioms indicated that they are not familiar with multiword items such as idioms. Interestingly, the results demonstrated that the knowledge of collocations was effective in the learning of idioms. The article concludes by a thorough discussion of these results in relation to their pedagogical implications.