Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Variation, DIMBOA Accumulation, and Candidate Gene Identification in Maize Multiple Insect-Resistance

Maize seedlings contain high amounts of 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (DIMBOA), and the effect of DIMBOA is directly associated with multiple insect-resistance against insect pests such as Asian corn borer and corn leaf aphids. Although numerous genetic loci for multiple insect-resistant traits have been identified, little is known about genetic controls regarding DIMBOA content. In this study, the best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) values of DIMBOA content in two ecological environments across 310 maize inbred lines were calculated; and their phenotypic data and BLUP values were used for marker-trait association analysis. We identified nine SSRs that were significantly associated with DIMBOA content, which explained 4.30–20.04% of the phenotypic variation. Combined with 47 original genetic loci from previous studies, we detected 19 hot loci and approximately 11 hot loci (in Bin 1.04, Bin 2.00–2.01, Bin 2.03–2.04, Bin 4.00–4.03, Bin 5.03, Bin 5.05–5.07, Bin 8.01–8.03, Bin 8.04–8.05, Bin 8.06, Bin 9.01, and Bin 10.04 regions) supported pleiotropy for their association with two or more insect-resistant traits. Within the 19 hot loci, we identified 49 candidate genes, including 12 controlling DIMBOA biosynthesis, 6 involved in sugar metabolism/homeostasis, 2 regulating peroxidases activity, 21 associated with growth and development [(auxin-upregulated RNAs (SAUR) family member and v-myb avian myeloblastosis viral oncogene homolog (MYB)], and 7 involved in several key enzyme activities (lipoxygenase, cysteine protease, restriction endonuclease, and ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme). The synergy and antagonism interactions among these genes formed the complex defense mechanisms induced by multiple insect pests. Moreover, sufficient genetic variation was reported for DIMBOA performance and SSR markers in the 310 tested maize inbred lines, and 3 highly (DIMBOA content was 402.74–528.88 μg g−1 FW) and 15 moderate (DIMBOA content was 312.92–426.56 μg g−1 FW) insect-resistant genotypes were major enriched in the Reid group. These insect-resistant inbred lines can be used as parents in maize breeding programs to develop new varieties.
The rollup of a vortex layer near a wall

The behaviour of an inviscid vortex layer of non-zero thickness near a wall is studied, both through direct numerical simulation of the two-dimensional vorticity equation at high Reynolds numbers, and using an approximate ordinary nonlinear integro-differential equation which is satisfied in the limit of a thin layer under long-wavelength perturbations. For appropriate initial conditions the layer rolls up and breaks into compact vortices which move along the wall at constant speed. Because of the effect of the wall, they correspond to equilibrium counter-rotating vortex dipoles. This breakup can be related to the disintegration of the initial conditions of the approximate nonlinear dispersive equation into solitary waves. The study is motivated by the formation of longitudinal vortices from vortex sheets in the wall region of a turbulent channel.
Compliance with Standard Protocol for the Diagnosis of Barrett’s Oesophagus: Significance of The Complete Audit Cycle

Background: The key to effective therapeutic endoscopic therapy is early dysplastic Barrett's oesophagus (BO) alteration detection. Oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (OGD) technical proficiency is quickly attained, but the diagnosis accuracy is still quite variable, especially in non-specialized endoscopic facilities. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the quality of endoscopic diagnosis and the adherence to guidelines of BO in our unit. Patients and Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was done for 436 eligible endoscopic reports after independent review for confirmation of BO. Cohorts represent the complete audit cycle during the period from 01/01/2018 till 01/07/2022. Group A represented first audit data, and group B represented re-audit data. Results: A total eligible reports of 256 of BO in group A, and 180 reports in group B were reviewed. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding the age (62.7 ± 13.5 and 60.1 ± 15.1 years), male sex (68% and 70 %), and endoscopist specialty respectively. Surveillance was the most common indication (32.4% vs 35.5%), followed by Reflux (16.7% and 15%) in both groups respectively. Compliance with Prague, Paris, and Seattle protocol was significantly higher in group B (P value ≤0.05). Lack of awareness of the new guidelines, surgeon specialty, older age of the endoscopist, long segment of BO were the main factors of poor results in group A. Conclusions: In the absence of local standard protocol for endoscopic diagnosis of BO, the adherence to the guidelines was poor. Compliance with the guidelines after implementing new recommendations results in better outcomes. It is important to complete the audit cycle to ensure that the quality improvement was achieved.
Heated Tobacco Products: Awareness, Beliefs, Use and Susceptibility among US Adult Current Tobacco Users, 2021

Limited data exist on the awareness, beliefs, and use of heated tobacco products (HTPs). Data from 1583 U.S. adult (age ≥ 21 years) current tobacco users were collected in 2021. Participants self-reported HTP awareness, beliefs, use, and susceptibility, as well as current tobacco product use and sociodemographics. We used weighted logistic and multinomial regression models to explore their associations. Overall, 23.6% were aware of, 8.9% had ever used, and 3.0% currently used HTPs. Younger individuals (vs. 61+ years), those with annual income $50,000+ (vs. <$50,000), and those currently using electronic vaping products (vs. non-users) were more likely to be aware of, to have ever used, and to currently be using HTPs (p < 0.05). Black individuals (vs. White) were more likely to report ever and current HTP use (p < 0.05). Current cigarette smoking was not associated with HTP awareness and use (p > 0.05). Holding favorable HTP beliefs was associated with susceptibility to and more advanced HTP use statuses (p < 0.05). Sociodemographics associated with HTP use may reflect HTP marketing strategies. The lack of association with cigarette smoking suggests HTPs may be unlikely cigarette substitutes. Addressing favorable HTP-related beliefs may prevent dual use.
Parametric Study of an Oscillating Airfoil in a Power-Extraction Regime

A wing that is heaving and pitching simultaneously may extract energy from an oncoming flow, thus acting as a turbine. The theoretical performance of such a concept is investigated here through unsteady two-dimensional laminar-flow simulations using the commercial finite volume computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT. Computations are performed in the heaving reference frame of the airfoil, thus leaving only the pitching motion of the airfoil to be dealt with through a rigid-body mesh rotation and a circular nonconformal sliding interface. Unsteady aerodynamics basics of the oscillating airfoil are first exposed, with a description of the operating regimes. Effects of unsteadiness are stressed and the inadequacy of a quasi-steady approach to take them into account is exposed. We present a mapping of power-extraction efficiency for a single oscillating airfoil in the frequency and pitching-amplitude domain: 0 55deg in which efficiencies are higher than 20%. Results from a parametric study are then provided and discussed. It is found that motion-related parameters such as heaving amplitude and frequency have the strongest effects on airfoil performances, whereas geometry and viscous parameters turn out to play a secondary role.
Effect of Climate Change on Health and Critical Care Nurses Practice

Background: Extreme weather events brought on by climate change have an impact on human health both directly and indirectly. Increased temperatures and heat domes can exacerbate heart, lung, and renal diseases as well as cause heat stress and heat stroke. Nurses are essential in assisting communities in adapting to climate change and in fighting for a more sustainable future on behalf of patients and the environment. Objective: The current study aimed to explore the effect of climate change on health and critical care nurse’s practice. Subjects and methods: Design: Descriptive exploratory design was used. Setting: The study was conducted at the New Elkasr ElAini Teaching Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Sampling: A convenient sample of 84 nurses working in ICUs and Emergency Unit was used for conduction of this study. Tools: Two tools, 1 st one structured interview questionnaire, 2 nd tool, observational guide about the effect of climate change on health and nursing practice. Results : The majority of the studied nurses think that climate change causes harm for people and patients. Three quarters of the studied nurses think that climate change causes malnutrition or hunger due to rising food prices. About two-third of the studied nurses thinks that climate change causes violence, physical and mental harm respectively. Conclusion : Nurses' awareness of climate change and how it relates to health and practice varied. The role of nursing in combating climate change remained unclear. The study made clear that critical nurses did not immediately understand their responsibility in combating climate change. Include climate change in nursing courses so that future nurses will have the right attitudes toward environmental sustainability.
Magnesium Administration in Chronic Kidney Disease

Awareness of the clinical relevance of magnesium in medicine has increased over the last years, especially for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), due to magnesium’s role in vascular calcification and mineral metabolism. The inverse association between serum magnesium and clinically relevant, adverse outcomes is well-established in people with CKD. Subsequent intervention studies have focused on the effect of magnesium administration, mainly in relation to cardiovascular diseases, mineral bone metabolism, and other metabolic parameters. The most commonly used routes of magnesium administration are orally and by increasing dialysate magnesium. Several oral magnesium formulations are available and the daily dosage of elemental magnesium varies highly between studies, causing considerable heterogeneity. Although data are still limited, several clinical studies demonstrated that magnesium administration could improve parameters of vascular function and calcification and mineral metabolism in people with CKD. Current clinical research has shown that magnesium administration in people with CKD is safe, without concerns for severe hypermagnesemia or negative interference with bone metabolism. It should be noted that there are several ongoing magnesium intervention studies that will contribute to the increasing knowledge on the potential of magnesium administration in people with CKD.
The Formulation of Curcumin: 2-Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin Complex with Smart Hydrogel for Prolonged Release of Curcumin

Curcumin comes from the plant species Curcuma longa and shows numerous pharmacological activities. There are numerous curcumin formulations with gels or cyclodextrins in order to increase its solubility and bioavailability. This paper presents the formulation of complex of curcumin with 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin in a thermosensitive hydrogel, based on N-isopropylmethacrylamide and N-isopropylacrylamide with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinker. The product was characterized by chemical methods and also by FTIR, HPLC, DSC, SEM, XRD. The results show that synthesis was successfully done. With an increase in the quantity of crosslinker in the hydrogels, the starting release and the release rate of curcumin from the formulation of the complex with hydrogels decreases. The release rate of curcumin from the gel complex formulation is constant over time. It is possible to design a formulation that will release curcumin for more than 60 days. In order to determine the mechanism and kinetics of curcumin release, various mathematical models were applied by using the DDSolver package for Microsoft Excel application. The Korsmeyer-Peppas model best describes the release of curcumin from the gel formulation of the complex, while the values for the diffusion exponent (0.063–0.074) shows that mechanism of the release rate is based on diffusion.
Microscopic Properties of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

The fractional quantum Hall e↵ect occurs when an extremely clean 2-dimensional fermion gas is subject to a magnetic field. This simple set of circumstances creates phenomena, such as edge reconstruction and fractional statistics, that remain subjects of experimental study 30 years after the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall e↵ect. This thesis investigates the properties of excitations of the fractional quantum Hall e↵ect. The first set of experiments studies the interaction between fractional quantum Hall quasiparticles and nuclei in a quantum point contact (QPC). Following the application of a DC bias, fractional plateaus in the QPC shift symmetrically about half filling of the lowest Landau level, ⌫ = 1/3, suggesting an interpretation in terms of composite fermions. Mapping the e↵ects from the integer to fractional regimes extends the composite fermion picture to include hyperfine coupling. The second set of experiments studies the tunneling of quasiparticles through an antidot in the integer and fractional quantum Hall e↵ect. In the integer regime, we conclude that oscillations are of the Coulomb type from the scaling of magnetic field period with the number of edges bound to the antidot. Generalizing this picture to the fractional regime, we find (based on magnetic field and gate-voltage periods) at ⌫ = 2/3 a tunneling charge of (2/3)e and a single charged edge. Further unpublished data related to this experiment as well as alternative theoretical explanations are also
Variability in surface atmospheric electric field measurements

An electrical current of the order one picoamp per metre squared flows vertically in the Earth's atmosphere, between the ionosphere at approximately 50km altitude and the surface. This current is generated by global thunderstorm activity and is modulated by galactic cosmic rays and atmospheric aerosol. In fair weather conditions, this current cause a vertical atmospheric electric field, commonly measured as a potential gradient. For circumstances other than fair weather conditions, the potential gradient varies, from small steady enhancements in fog to large fluctuations in thunderstorms. The atmospheric potential gradient is continuously monitored at the Reading University Atmospheric Observatory. An account of the variability of the potential gradient on a variety of time scales will be presented.
The Second Most Distant Cluster of Galaxies in the Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey

We report on our ASCA, Keck, and ROSAT observations of MS 1137.5+6625, the second most distant cluster of galaxies in the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS), at redshift 0.78. We now have a full set of X-ray temperatures, optical velocity dispersions, and X-ray images for a complete, high-redshift sample of clusters of galaxies drawn from the EMSS. Our ASCA observations of MS 1137.5+6625 yield a temperature of 5.7 keV and a metallicity of 0.43 solar, with 90% confidence limits. Keck II spectroscopy of 22 cluster members reveals a velocity dispersion of 884 km s-1. This cluster is the most distant in the sample with a detected iron line. We also derive a mean abundance at z = 0.8 by simultaneously fitting X-ray data for the two z = 0.8 clusters, and obtain an abundance of ZFe = 0.33 ±. Our ROSAT observations show that MS 1137.5+6625 is regular and highly centrally concentrated. Fitting of a β model to the X-ray surface brightness yields a core radius of only 71 h-1 kpc (q0 = 0.1) with β = 0.70 ±. The gas mass interior to 0.5 h-1 Mpc is thus 1.2 ± ×1013 h-5/2 M☉ (q0 = 0.1). If the cluster's gas is nearly isothermal and in hydrostatic equilibrium with the cluster potential, the total mass of the cluster within this same region is 2.1 ± ×1014 h-1 M☉, giving a gas fraction of 0.06 ± 0.04 h-3/2. This cluster is the highest redshift EMSS cluster showing evidence for a possible cooling flow (~20-400 M☉ yr-1). The velocity dispersion, temperature, gas fraction, and iron abundance of MS 1137.5+6625 are all statistically the same as those properties in lower redshift clusters of similar luminosity. With this cluster's temperature now in hand, we derive a high-redshift temperature function for EMSS clusters at 0.5 < z < 0.9 and compare it with temperature functions at lower redshifts, showing that the evolution of the temperature function is relatively modest. Supplementing our high-redshift sample with other data from the literature, we demonstrate that neither the cluster luminosity-temperature relation, nor cluster metallicities, nor the cluster gas fraction has detectably evolved with redshift. The very modest degree of evolution in the luminosity-temperature relation inferred from these data is inconsistent with the absence of evolution in the X-ray luminosity functions derived from ROSAT cluster surveys if a critical density structure formation model is assumed.
NEW DIRECTIONS IN CONCRETE HEALTH MONITORING TECHNOLOGY

The NSF-sponsored Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials is actively involved in research aimed at the development of technologies for health monitoring and nondestructive evaluation of the concrete infrastructure. This paper summarizes pertinent research performed at the center. Basic findings from several new laboratory-based nondestructive evaluation techniques for concrete are reported. The described techniques are based on measurements of mechanical waves that propagate in the concrete. First, ultrasonic longitudinal wave (also called the L-wave or P-wave) signal transmission (attenuation) measurements are shown to be sensitive to the presence of damage in the form of distributed cracking in concrete. Next, experimental procedures that enable practical one-sided wave signal transmission measurements to be performed on concrete structures are described. The utility of the signal transmission measurement is demonstrated by two experimental test series; the depths of surface-opening cracks in concrete slabs are estimated and the extent and nature of autogenous healing in concrete disks are studied. Finally, an approach by which fatigue-induced damage in concrete structures is nondestructively monitored is described. Vibration frequencies are shown to be sensitive to the presence of fatigue-induced cracking in concrete specimens; changes in the vibration frequency of a concrete specimen during fatigue tests are related to the remaining fatigue life of the test specimens.
Lysosomes as a Target of Anticancer Therapy

Lysosomes are organelles containing acidic hydrolases that are responsible for lysosomal degradation and the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. They play an important role in autophagy, as well as in various cell death pathways, such as lysosomal and apoptotic death. Various agents, including drugs, can induce lysosomal membrane permeability, resulting in the translocation of acidic hydrolases into the cytoplasm, which promotes lysosomal-mediated death. This type of death may be of great importance in anti-cancer therapy, as both cancer cells with disturbed pathways leading to apoptosis and drug-resistant cells can undergo it. Important compounds that damage the lysosomal membrane include lysosomotropic compounds, antihistamines, immunosuppressants, DNA-damaging drugs, chemotherapeutics, photosensitizers and various plant compounds. An interesting approach in the treatment of cancer and the search for ways to overcome the chemoresistance of cancer cells may also be combining lysosomotropic compounds with targeted modulators of autophagy to induce cell death. These compounds may be an alternative in oncological treatment, and lysosomes may become a promising therapeutic target for many diseases, including cancer. Understanding the functional relationships between autophagy and apoptosis and the possibilities of their regulation, both in relation to normal and cancer cells, can be used to develop new and more effective anticancer therapies.
Nematode-Induced Growth Factors Related to Angiogenesis in Autoimmune Disease Attenuation

Simple Summary Helminths are parasitic worms that influence their host in a variety of ways, including the production of growth factors and the creation of blood vessels (angiogenesis). Parasites are used to control autoimmune diseases and parasite-derived molecules are widely studied for their therapeutic potential. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of parasitic nematode infection on growth factors related to angiogenesis in murine colitis and multiple sclerosis. We observed significant changes in both models of autoimmune disorders. In addition, parasitic infection remodeled the creation of vessels in the brains of mice with multiple sclerosis. Nematode-derived factors are promising tools to fight autoimmune diseases and to study angiogenesis. Abstract Accumulating data suggest an important role of growth factors in autoimmune diseases and parasitic nematode infections. Nematodes are used in clinical studies of autoimmune diseases and parasite-derived molecules are widely studied for their therapeutic potential in various types of disorders. However, the effect of nematode infection on growth factors in autoimmune disorders has not been studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of infection with the intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus in murine autoimmune models on the production of growth factors. Here, the level of a variety of growth factors related mainly to angiogenesis was evaluated by protein array in the intestinal mucosa of C57BL/6 dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitic mice and in cerebral spinal fluid of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice infected with nematodes. In addition, vessel formation was evaluated in the brains of EAE mice infected with H. polygyrus. A significant influence of nematode infection on the level of angiogenic factors was observed. Parasitic infection of colitic mice resulted in upregulation of mucosal AREG, EGF, FGF-2, and IGFBP-3 in the intestine of the host and better adaptation (infectivity). In EAE mice, infection increased the level of FGF-2 and FGF-7 in CSF. In addition, remodeling of brain vessels was observed, with a higher density of long vessels. Nematode-derived factors are promising tools to fight autoimmune diseases and to study angiogenesis.