Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in quality parameters, antioxidant compounds and enzymes of phenolic metabolism of hot water-treated organic ‘cherry’ peppers

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of hot water treatment on the quality, content of antioxidant compounds and activity of enzymes of the phenolic metabolism of organic ‘cherry’ peppers stored at 10°C for 14 days. The selected hot water treatment (55°C for 60 s) delayed the decay and kept the quality of ‘cherry’ peppers. Immediately after treatment, the concentrations of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives were unchanged, whereas on day 14 they were decreased. No noticeable adverse effects on the content of carotenoids, ascorbic acid, total phenols, and glycosylated flavonoids or anti-radical activity were observed after 14 days. Immediately after the hot water treatment, the activities of phenylalanine-ammonialyase (PAL) and polyphenoloxidase (PPO) decreased significantly, whereas that of peroxidase (POD) increased. Throughout storage, PAL activity in treated peppers remained unchanged, whereas PPO and POD activities increased. Therefore, the treatment at 55°C for 60 s allowed maintaining the quality, inhibited PAL activity and did not markedly affect the content of antioxidant compounds of ‘cherry’ peppers during storage. Our results suggest that this treatment may be used as a nonpolluting and non-chemical technology to extend the shelf life of organic ‘cherry’ peppers.
Nest Success of Black-Backed Woodpeckers in Forests with Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Abstract Black-backed Woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) are burned-forest specialists that rely on beetles (Coleoptera) for food. In the Black Hills, South Dakota, standing dead forests resulting from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks offer food resources for Black-backed Woodpeckers, in addition to providing habitat similar to burned forest. However, data on reproductive rates in these habitats are lacking. We estimated nest success and evaluated factors affecting nest survival of Black-backed Woodpeckers in beetle-killed forests in the Black Hills in 2004 and 2005. Nest success was 78% (n = 12) in 2004 and 44% (n = 31) in 2005. Fledging rates per pair were 2.0 ± 0.3 SE (n = 12) and 1.4 ± 0.3 SE (n = 28) in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Our results showed that temporal effects (e.g., age, date, and year) had the greatest influence on nest survival. Nest age was the most important predictor of daily nest survival; survival was higher in older nests. Nest survival was also lower later in the breeding season. The difference in nest success between the two years requires further study; however, nest success of Black-backed Woodpeckers in beetle-killed forests in the Black Hills was within the range of nest success within postfire habitats in this area. In the Black Hills, forests experiencing beetle outbreaks offer available habitat for Black-backed Woodpeckers.
Automated Recognition of Ultrasound Cardiac Views Based on Deep Learning with Graph Constraint

[Objective] In Transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) examination, it is essential to identify the cardiac views accurately. Computer-aided recognition is expected to improve the accuracy of the TTE examination. [Methods] This paper proposes a new method for automatic recognition of cardiac views based on deep learning, including three strategies. First, A spatial transform network is performed to learn cardiac shape changes during the cardiac cycle, which reduces intra-class variability. Second, a channel attention mechanism is introduced to adaptively recalibrates channel-wise feature responses. Finally, unlike conventional deep learning methods, which learned each input images individually, the structured signals are applied by a graph of similarities among images. These signals are transformed into the graph-based image embedding, which act as unsupervised regularization constraints to improve the generalization accuracy. [Results] The proposed method was trained and tested in 171792 cardiac images from 584 subjects. Compared with the known result of the state of the art, the overall accuracy of the proposed method on cardiac image classification is 99.10% vs. 91.7%, and the mean AUC is 99.36%. Moreover, the overall accuracy is 98.15%, and the mean AUC is 98.96% on an independent test set with 34211 images from 100 subjects. [Conclusion] The method of this paper achieved the results of the state of the art, which is expected to be an automated recognition tool for cardiac views recognition. The work confirms the potential of deep learning on ultrasound medicine.
SARS-CoV-2 Infection Associated Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis: An autopsy series with clinical and laboratory correlation.

Background: A subset of COVID-19 patients exhibit clinical features of cytokine storm. However, clinicopathologic features diagnostic of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) have not been reported. Pathologic studies to date have largely focused on the pulmonary finding of diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). To this aim, we study the reticuloendothelial organs of four consecutive patients dying of COVID-19 and correlate with clinical and laboratory parameters to detect HLH. Methods: Autopsies restricted to chest and abdomen were performed on four patients who succumbed to COVID-19. Spleen, liver, and multiple pulmonary hilar/mediastinal lymph nodes were sampled in all cases. Bone marrow was obtained by rib squeeze in a subset of cases. Routine H&E staining as well as immunohistochemical staining for CD163 was performed to detect hemophagocytosis. Clinical and laboratory results from pre-mortem blood samples were used to calculate H-scores. Findings: All four cases demonstrated DAD within the lungs. Three of the four cases had histologic evidence of hemophagocytosis within pulmonary hilar/mediastinal lymph nodes. One case showed hemophagocytosis in the spleen but none showed hemophagocytosis in liver or bone marrow. Lymphophagocytosis was the predominant form of hemophagocytosis observed. One patient showed diagnostic features of HLH with an H-score of 217 while a second patient was likely HLH with a partial H-score of 145 due to missing triglyceride level. Both patients exhibited high fever and early onset rise in serum ferritin; however, neither bicytopenia, pancytopenia, nor hypofibrinogenemia were observed in either. The remaining two patients had H-scores of 131 and 96. Interpretation: This is the first report of SARS-CoV-2 associated HLH. Identification of HLH in a subset of patients with severe COVID-19 will inform clinical trials of therapeutic strategies.
COVID-19: Predictive Mathematical Models for the Number of Deaths in South Korea, Italy, Spain, France, UK, Germany, and USA

We have recently introduced two novel mathematical models for characterizing the dynamics of the cumulative number of individuals in a given country reported to be infected with COVID-19. Here we show that these models can also be used for determining the time-evolution of the associated number of deaths. In particular, using data up to around the time that the rate of deaths reaches a maximum, these models provide estimates for the time that a plateau will be reached signifying that the epidemic is approaching its end, as well as for the cumulative number of deaths at that time. The plateau is defined to occur when the rate of deaths is 5% of the maximum rate. Results are presented for South Korea, Italy, Spain, France, UK, Germany, and USA. The number of COVID-19 deaths in other counties can be analyzed similarly.
Logging practices and subsequent development of aspen stands in east-central Saskatchewan

A study was started in 1965 to quantify the effect of logging variables on initial sucker stand density and subsequent development of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.). The study found excellent stocking and density of sucker regeneration after both summer and winter logging of 70- to 80-year-old stands in east-central Saskatchewan. Logging slash on the ground reduced suckering but the density of regeneration even with heavy slash cover was similar to that found in fire-origin stands. Winter logging resulted in more uniform and less dense sucker regeneration. Large initial differences in stand density diminished to a 30% range or less by 5 years of age. This suggests that flexibility may be exercised in harvest scheduling and method of logging.
Lactate Arterial-Central Venous Gradient among COVID-19 Patients in ICU: A Potential Tool in the Clinical Practice

Objective. In physiological conditions arterial blood lactate concentration is equal or lower than central venous. The aim of this study was to explore if the COVID-19 induced lung cells damage was mirrored by an arterial lactatemia higher than the central venous one; then if the administration of immunosuppressant drugs (i.e. canakinumab) could normalize such abnormal lactate a-cv difference. Methods. Prospective cohort study started on March 25th 2020 for a duration of 10 days, enrolling 21 patients affected by severe COVID-19 pneumonia undergoing mechanical ventilation consecutively admitted to the ICU of the Rimini Hospital, Italy. Arterial and central venous blood samples were contemporary collected to calculate the difference between arterial and central venous lactate (Delta a-cv lactate) concentration within 24 h from tracheal intubation (T0), and 24 hours after canakinumab administration (T1). Results. At the T0 19/21 (90.5%) patients showed a pathologic Delta a-cv lactate (median 0.22 mmol/L; IQR 0.07-0.36), suggesting severe inflammation. In the 13 patients undergoing canakinumab administration, at the T1 Delta a-cv lactate decreased in 92.3% of cases, being the decrease statistically significant (T0: median 0.15, IQR 0.07-0.25 mmol/L; T1: median -0.01, IQR -0.09-0.04 mmol/L; p=0.002). Conclusion. A reversed Delta a-cv lactate is likely to be one of the effects of COVID-19 related cytokine storm, that could reflect a derangement in the lung cells mitochondrial metabolism induced by inflammation or other uncoupling mediators. Delta a-cv lactate decrease may reflect the anti-inflammatory activity of canakinumab. Our preliminary findings need to be confirmed by larger outcome studies.
A subaltern middle class: The case of the missing “Black bourgeoisie” in America

A convention, particularly in economics and sociology, for empirical identification of the “ middle class ” has been to mark off a segment of the population above a lower bound with respect to income, occupational status, and/or educational attainment. Instead, we argue here that wealth constitutes a superior standard for demarcation of the middle class. Wealth is an especially useful standard for identification of the middle class from subaltern communities, communities that have a generally marginalized status. We illustrate the value of the wealth criteria by examining the specific case of America's Black middle class. This alternative approach enables us to demonstrate that the Black middle class is proportionately much smaller than the White middle class and to demonstrate the limitations of several proposals recently advanced to close the racial wealth gap.
Unreported Cases for Age Dependent COVID-19 Outbreak in Japan

We investigate the age structured data for the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan. We consider epidemic mathematical model with unreported infectious patient with and without age structure. In particular, we build a new mathematical model which allows to take into account differences in the response of patients to the disease according to their age. This model also allows for a heterogeneous response of the population to the social distancing measures taken by the local government. We fit this model to the observed data and obtain a snapshot of the effective transmissions occurring inside the population at different times, which indicates where and among whom the disease propagates after the start of the public measures.
MP3604_04_Carlson 390..405

THE CURRENT STUDY EXPLORES HOW INDIVIDUALS’ tendency to empathize with others (trait empathy) modulates interaction and social entrainment in dyadic dance in a free movement context using perceptual and computationally derived measures. Stimuli consisting of 24 point-light animations were created using motion capture data selected from a sample of 99 dyads, based on self-reported trait empathy. Individuals whose Empathy Quotient (EQ) scores were in the top or bottom quartile of all scores were considered to have high or low empathy, respectively, and twelve dyads comprised of four high-high, four low-low, and four highlow empathy combinations were identified. Animations of these dyads were presented to 33 participants, who rated the degree of interaction and movement similarity for each stimulus. Results showed a significant effect of empathy combination on perceived interactivity and perceived similarity. High-low stimuli were rated as significantly more interactive than either high-high or low-low stimuli, while high-high stimuli were rated as significantly less similar than high-low and low-low. Dyads’ period-locking, bodily orientation and amount of hand movement were all significantly correlated with rated amount of interaction, while rated similarity only related significantly to period-locking. Results suggest that period-locking is important for social entrainment to be perceived, but that other signals such as bodily orientation and hand movement also signal social entrainment during free dance movement.
Dietary arginine requirement of fingerling hybrid Clarias (Clarias gariepinus×Clarias macrocephalus)

The dietary arginine requirement of fingerling hybrid Clarias (Clarias gariepinusxClarias macrocephalus) (4.2±0.03 cm, 0.56±0.04 g) was determined by feeding six isonitrogenous (400 g kg⁻¹ crude protein) and isocaloric (17.9 kJ g⁻¹) amino acid test diets containing casein, gelatin and [smallcapital l]-crystalline amino acids with graded levels of arginine (10.0, 12.5, 15.0, 17.5, 20.0 and 22.5 g kg⁻¹) for 4 weeks to triplicate groups. Diets were fed twice a day at 09:00 and 16:00 hours at 8% body weight day⁻¹. Maximum weight gain (523%), best feed conversion ratio (FCR, 1.41), protein efficiency ratio (1.78) and specific growth rate (6.53%) were recorded in fish fed the diet containing arginine at 20.0gkg⁻¹ of the diet. Second-degree polynomial regression analysis of live weight gain and FCR values indicated the dietary arginine requirement at 17.8 and 20.0 g kg⁻¹ of dry diet respectively. Significantly higher carcass protein and protein deposition values were recorded at the requirement level (20.0 g kg⁻¹). Higher fat and lower moisture values were obtained in carcass of fish fed the diet with 15.0g kg⁻¹ arginine. The maximum carcass ash value was noticed in the fish fed at 20.0 g kg⁻¹ dietary arginine. We recommend that the diet for hybrid Clarias (C. gariepinusxC. macrocephalus) should contain arginine in the range of 17.8-20.0 g kg⁻¹ of the dry diet, corresponding to 44.5 and 50 g kg⁻¹ of dietary protein respectively.
STUDY ON PREVALENCE OF HYPONATREMIA IN HEPATIC CIRRHOSIS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH COMPLICATIONS AND SEVERITY

Aims and Objective cirrhosis. The aim of the present study is to study the prevalence of hyponatremia in c evaluate the association between serum sodium level and complications with severity of cirrhosis. Materials and Method: 2014 to October 2015. The patients were evaluated w relevant investigations. Results: between hyponatremia There was also a significant association between degree of hyponatremia and severity of cirrhosis as judged by modified Child Conclusion: detection can prevent complications and improve the quality of life.
Automatic Verification of non-silent Population Protocols

Population protocols are a model of distributed computation by anonymous, identical, finite-state agents. A population protocol computes a predicate if all fair executions starting in some initial configuration converge to the lasting consensus that is determined by the predicate. Deciding if a protocol computes a given predicate has non-elementary complexity. In an earlier work Blondin et al. have given an algorithm to automatically verify silent population protocols that has lower (DP) complexity. In this work we introduce stage graphs, a structure describing all possible fair executions from all possible initial configurations of a population protocol. We show that stage graphs can be used to automatically verify silent and non-silent protocols. We present an incomplete constraint-based algorithm that automatically computes a stage graph for a given protocol. If successful, the resulting stage graph is a certificate for the correctness of the protocol. This approach can verify all silent protocols tested by Blondin et al. as well as many other non-silent protocols from the literature. Additionally, our algorithm can compute state-of-the-art upper bounds for the expected number of interactions needed until a protocol terminates. Furthermore, we show how to verify linear temporal logic (LTL) specifications like liveness.
Genetic Diversity among Oil Palm Parental Genotypes Revealed by Microsatellite Polymorphism and its Relationship to Progeny Performance

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is a perennial crop and one complete cycle of selection takes about 10 to 15 years. As such breeding and selection of the crop is slow. By developing marker assisted selection for this species, the time needed for breeding and selection could be decreased by almost half the time required through conventional method. This study involves investigating the genetic relationship between the parental palms (dura and pisifera) and the performance of their progenies based on microsatellite markers. Nine microsatellite markers were used to screen selected parental palms (15 parental dura and 4 parental pisifera) and their progenies (16 DxP crosses). Data were scored and analysed using Biosys-1 software to calculate the genetic distance values. The performance of 16 dura x pisifera progenies was evaluated for quantitative characters such as yield components and vegetative characters. Correlation analysis between genetic distances and hybrids performance were estimated by simple correlation coefficient. The correlation values of genetic distances with hybrid performance were non-significant, except for mean nut weight (MNW) and leaf number (LN). However, the correlation of genetic distances with these characters is low to be used as predictive value. These results indicated that genetic distances based on the microsatellite markers in this study may not be useful for predicting hybrid performance.
Envelhecimento acelerado como teste de vigor para sementes de milho e soja

The evaluation of the seed vigor has been a fundamental tool of quality control program and the accelerated aging test an important procedure for that. This work was carried out in order to search for specific methodologies of evaluation of seed vigor, in laboratory, based on the accelerated aging test. The research was conducted using six seed lots of corn and soybean species, with commercially accepted quality patterns (germination). The prior established conditions for aging were 42oC/96h and 45oC/72h for corn and 41oC/48 and 72h and 42oC/48 and 72h for soybean. For each combination of temperature and aging periods, the seeds were placed into plastic boxes (gerbox), with 40mL of distilled water, distributed on the screen, using single layer and based on the seed weight. For the aging, two chamber types, BOD and water jacketed were used. The moisture content and germination of seed lots, after aging, were determined. The water uptake considering the combinations of temperature/exposure period, the two chamber types and the two procedures of determining seed moisture content was higher when the seeds were conditioned in a single layer compared to weight (constant mass). For the corn, the combination of 45oC/72h with the conditioning of the seeds in only layer was the most efficient method for the separation of the lots with relationship to the vigor. For soybean, the combination 42oC/48h was more efficient in the separation of the lots, not having interference of the method of conditioning of the seeds, in the screen. Considering the results it can be concluded that the single layer distribution should be used for corn and soybean and the BOD chambers should also be used for accelerated aging test for both species.
Orchidaceous rhizoctonias in pot cultures of vesicular–arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

The paper reports that previously undescribed, sterile, septate fungi (Rhizoctonia) with affinity to and attributes of orchid mycorrhizal fungi, commonly occur in pot cultures of vesicular–arbuscular (V–A) mycorrhizal fungi. Seventeen pot cultures of V–A endophytes from several sources were studied. The endophytes included unidentified organisms as well as species of Glomus, Acaulospora, and Gigaspora. A Rhizoctonia was present in every pot culture. In different cases, Rhizoctonia isolates were obtained from sporelike cells in intramatrical vesicles, extramatrical hyphae, and chlamydospores or roots of pot culture plants. In pure culture, the rhizoctonias formed pale or yellow–brown, submerged colonies composed of narrow, irregularly septate hyphae. Monilioid hyphae and terminal or intercalary, spherical chlamydospores about 12 μm in diameter developed in older mycelia. Fruiting experiments by J. H. Warcup indicated that the teleomorph of three Rhizoctonia isolates is related to Sebacina vermifera Oberwin.
Effect of moisture content and temperature on some aspects of nonenzymatic browning in dehydrated apple

Dehydrated apple was heat-damaged at various constant moisture contents and constant temperatures and the optical density at 282 nm (OD282) of its methanol-water extracts subsequently determined. Moisture and temperature ranges studied simulate the conditions that usually would prevail during air dehydration of apple. It was found that the rate of increase of OD282 which is associated with the presence of 5-hydroxy-methyl-furfural—followed a zero order reaction kinetics m the range of variables studied. The rates of OD282 increase were determined and correlated with moisture content and temperature. The effect of temperature on the rates is reported as apparent activation energies. It was found that the apparent energy of activation increased with decreasing moisture content.
Long-term evolution of a magnetic massive merger product

About 10% of stars more massive than ${\approx}\,1.5\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ have strong, large-scale surface magnetic fields and are being discussed as progenitors of highly-magnetic white dwarfs and magnetars. The origin of these fields remains uncertain. Recent 3D magnetohydrodynamical simulations have shown that strong magnetic fields can be generated in the merger of two massive stars. Here, we follow the long-term evolution of such a 3D merger product in a 1D stellar evolution code. During a thermal relaxation phase after the coalescence, the merger product reaches critical surface rotation, sheds mass and then spins down primarily because of internal mass readjustments. The spin of the merger product after thermal relaxation is mainly set by the co-evolution of the star-torus structure left after coalescence. This evolution is still uncertain, so we also consider magnetic braking and other angular-momentum-gain and -loss mechanisms that may influence the final spin of the merged star. Because of core compression and mixing of carbon and nitrogen in the merger, enhanced nuclear burning drives a transient convective core that greatly contributes to the rejuvenation of the star. Once the merger product relaxed back to the main sequence, it continues its evolution similar to that of a genuine single star of comparable mass. It is a slow rotator that matches the magnetic blue straggler $\tau$ Sco. Our results show that merging is a promising mechanism to explain some magnetic massive stars and it may also be key to understand the origin of the strong magnetic fields of highly-magnetic white dwarfs and magnetars.