Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cover Cropping May Alter Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics Under Long-Term Fertilizer Addition

Use of cover crops in an integrated agricultural system can reduce demand of inorganic phosphorus (P) fertilizers, where the subsequent crops can take up P accumulated in cover crops biomass after the decomposition. In this research we hypothesized that some cover crops can take up P from less labile fractions and recycle it back to the soil through plant residues resulting in better P use efficiency of the system; cover crops are capable of P uptake from subsurface layers which leads to the accumulation of this P on the surface after the decomposition of their residues; and cover crop species respond differently to distinct inorganic P sources. To examine these hypotheses, a field experiment was conducted over nine successive years in South Brazil. The experimental treatments were established as a split-plot randomized block design, in a 3 × 6 factorial scheme, considering three P treatments [no-P, single superphosphate (SSP), and rock phosphate (RP)] as main plot and six cover crop treatments (common vetch, white lupin, fodder radish, ryegrass, black oat, and a fallow) as subplots. Soil samples were collected from the depths of 0–5, 5–10, and 10–15 cm and analyzed by Hedley P fractionation. In P-unfertilized cropping system, the amounts of labile and mod-labile P fractions were not modified by cover crops related to fallow. When inorganic P fertilizers were applied, the amount of labile and mod-labile P pools under fallow were higher than under cover crops in 5–10 cm depth. Black oat and common vetch cycled more labile P under SSP and RP, respectively. Common vetch and ryegrass resulted in the highest accumulation of organic P on the surface under SSP and RP, respectively. Black oat was capable to change P extracted by 1.0 M HCl to more labile forms. Fodder radish showed the highest P uptake in comparison with other cover crops. The higher P balance efficiency of the system was achieved under SSP in comparison with RP application but it seems that cover crops are more effective at improving the efficiency under RP compared to SSP.
Both JNK1 and JNK2 Are Indispensable for Sensitized Extracellular Matrix Mineralization in IKKβ-Deficient Osteoblasts

Extracellular matrix mineralization is critical for osteogenesis, and its dysregulation could result in osteoporosis and vascular calcification. IKK/NF-κB activation inhibits differentiation of osteoblasts, and reduces extracellular matrix mineralization, however the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, we used CRISPR/Cas9 system to permanently inactivate IKKβ in preosteoblast cells and confirmed that such cells displayed dramatic increase in extracellular matrix mineralization associated with JNK phosphorylation. Such observation was also found in our study using IKKβ-deficient primary murine osteoblasts. Interestingly, we found that in Ikbkb−/− Mapk8−/− or Ikbkb−/− Mapk9−/− double knockout cells, the enhanced mineralization caused by IKKβ deficiency was completely abolished, and deletion of either Mapk8 or Mapk9 was sufficient to dampen c-Jun phosphorylation. In further experiments, we discovered that absence of JNK1 or JNK2 on IKKβ-deficient background resulted in highly conserved transcriptomic alteration in response to osteogenic induction. Therefore, identification of the indispensable roles of JNK1 and JNK2 in activating c-Jun and promoting osteoblast differentiation on IKKβ-deficient background provided novel insights into restoring homeostasis in extracellular matrix mineralization.
Political Economy Determinants of Carbon Pricing

Carbon pricing is widely considered a key policy instrument for achieving substantial climate change mitigation. However, implementation remains patchy and price levels vary significantly across countries and regions. In this article, we analyze the structural social, political, and economic conditions under which carbon prices have been implemented so far. We estimate a Tobit regression model to investigate variations in explicit carbon prices over 262 national and subnational jurisdictions. Our results highlight well-governed institutions and public attitudes as the most important conditions for carbon pricing and characterize fossil fuel consumption as a barrier to the implementation of carbon prices. The results suggest that governance and public attitude need to be integrated into political economy analysis. Policy makers should take regulatory capacities and public attitudes seriously when designing carbon pricing policies.
Successes and Challenges of Improved Biomass Cooking Stoves Adoption along the Product Value Chain in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania

The aim of this study was to assess the adoption of ICS along the value chain. The existing studies have focused much on measuring adoption based on the user’s installation or purchase of the ICS and few have gone to the level of assessing other aspects along the ICS value chain. The argument of this paper is that adoption is a multidimensional concept that goes beyond the initial acquisition of the stove to the sustained use of the same. Using a cross-sectional study design data were collected from 294 households in two Districts of Kilimanjaro regions and were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings show that at the lower levels of value chain i.e. promotion and distributions the efforts have been somehow successful since people are aware of ICS benefits and negative effects of using traditional fuels and stoves. In addition, various stove distributors and technicians are in place. On the other hand, the uptake is limited since only 26% of all households had ICS in place of which only 22.1% had functional stoves. The intensity of ICS use is very limited and households have not integrated the stove into household cooking behavior. The study concludes that the stoves program implementers have adopted a disintegrated approach that disconnects various levels of the value chain. The efforts are much concentrated at lowers levels with limited interventions to address challenges limiting uptake, the intensity of use and sustained Original Research Article Massawe; JENRR, 3(4): 1-12, 2019; Article no.JENRR. 52563 2 adoption. The study recommends that a holistic and integrated approach that will facilitate ICS adoption along the value chain should be adopted. This approach will facilitate forward and backward communications on challenges facing each level of the value chain.
Comparing endometrial hysteroscopic and histological findings of infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome and unexplained infertility: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Infertility is a critical condition in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), caused not only by anovulation but also by endometrial abnormality. Objective This study aimed to evaluate and compare the hysteroscopic and histological findings of endometrial biopsies in infertile women with PCOS and normal endometrial thickness and women with unexplained infertility (UI). Materials and Methods This cross-sectional study compared the initial hysteroscopy and endometrial histological findings of 70 infertile women with PCOS and normal endometrial thickness with those of 35 women with UI. The relationship between endometrial histology and clinical parameters such as including luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, thyroid-stimulating hormone, testosterone, prolactin, fasting blood sugar, body mass index (BMI), and infertility duration was analyzed. Results The mean age of women with PCOS was significantly lower than that of women with UI (27.5 ± 4.1 vs. 30 ± 4.5 years, respectively) (p < 0.001). The mean BMI was higher in women with PCOS than in women with UI (28.7 ± 4.4 vs. 25.1 ± 3 kg/m2) (p < 0.001). The hysteroscopic findings of all women with PCOS were normal, whereas 91.4% of women with UI had normal hysteroscopic findings, 2.9% had a polyp, and 5.7% had endometrial thickening. The histological findings of women with PCOS revealed proliferative endometrium in 54.3%, disordered proliferative endometrium in 17.1%, secretory endometrium in 8.6%, and endometrial polyp in 17.1%, whereas these percentages in women with UI were 28.6%, 0%, 54.3%, and 20%, respectively. Conclusion The hysteroscopic evaluation alone of infertile women might not detect all probable endometrial pathologies in women with PCOS.
The Politics of Taxes for Health: An Analysis of the Passage of the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax in Mexico

ABSTRACT This article explores the politics of passage of the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax in Mexico, using published documents, media articles, and interviews with key stakeholders. The article examines first the period of agenda setting when the tax was included in the President’s fiscal reform package; and second, the period of legislative passage, when the bill was introduced in Congress and was passed. The analysis uses Kingdon’s three streams theory of agenda setting, to explain how the tax emerged on the agenda and how agenda setting shaped and enabled legislative passage. The article offers five lessons related to the politics of passing the SSB tax in Mexico. First, passing an SSB tax was difficult and required high-level organization, cooperation, planning, and effort. Second, supporters needed an understanding of how to manage the political and economic context, facilitated by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Third, framing the tax as generating revenue helped get the proposal onto the policy agenda and enabled buy-in from the powerful Ministry of Finance (Hacienda). Fourth, forming networks within the legislature early on allowed tax proponents to have a network of allies within Congress ready when the SSB tax was introduced as a bill. Finally, early public relations campaigns helped shape public perception that Mexico’s obesity epidemic was driven in part by SSB consumption. This is the first paper that uses political science theory and primary data collection and interviews with a broad range of stakeholders, to explain how Mexico passed an SSB tax despite opposition from a strong national SSB industry.
Impact of age on bladder cancer management practices: a general population study

Sandrine D. Plouvier, Jean-Louis Bonnal, François Machuron, Pierre Colin, Olivier Vankemmel, Xavier Leroy, Alain Duhamel, Arnauld Villers, Fabien Saint and David Pasquier General Cancer Registry of Lille and its Area, GCS C2RC, Lille, France; Service d’Urologie, Groupement des hôpitaux de l’Institut Catholique de Lille, Universit e nord de France; Univ. Lille, CHU Lille, ULR 2694 METRICS: Evaluation des technologies de sant e et des pratiques m edicales, Lille, France; Service d’urologie, Hôpital priv e La Louvi ere, Lille, France; Service d’urologie, Hôpital priv e Le Bois, Lille, France; Department of Pathology, University of Lille, CHU Lille, Lille, France; Department of Urology, University of Lille, CHU Lille, Lille, France; Academic department of radiation oncology, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France
Etv transcription factors functionally diverge from their upstream FGF signaling in lens development

The signal regulated transcription factors (SRTFs) control the ultimate transcriptional output of signaling pathways. Here, we examined a family of FGF-induced SRTFs – Etv1, Etv 4, and Etv 5 – in murine lens development. Contrary to FGF receptor mutants that displayed loss of ERK signaling and defective cell differentiation, Etv deficiency augmented ERK phosphorylation without disrupting the normal lens fiber gene expression. Instead, the transitional zone for lens differentiation was shifted anteriorly as a result of reduced Jag1-Notch signaling. We also showed that Etv proteins suppresses mTOR activity by promoting Tsc2 expression, which is necessary for the nuclei clearance in mature lens. These results revealed the functional divergence between Etv and FGF in lens development, demonstrating that these SRTFs can operate outside the confine of their upstream signaling.
Reconstitution of Circulating Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Its Association with the Riboflavin Synthetic Pathway of Gut Microbiota in Cord Blood Transplant Recipients

Key Points The number of MAIT cells significantly correlated with time after CBT. Significantly decreased numbers of circulating MAIT cells were observed in patients with cGVHD. The riboflavin pathway of microbiomes correlated with MAIT cell reconstitution. Visual Abstract Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are a type of innate lymphocyte and recognize riboflavin (vitamin B2) synthesis products presented by MHC-related protein 1. We investigated long-term reconstitution of MAIT cells and its association with chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) in a cross-sectional cohort of 173 adult patients after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. According to donor source, the number of MAIT cells significantly correlated with time after cord blood transplantation (CBT) but not with time after bone marrow transplantation or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The number of MAIT cells was significantly lower in patients with cGVHD compared with patients without cGVHD. We also examined the association between MAIT cell reconstitution and gut microbiota as evaluated by 16S ribosomal sequencing of stool samples 1 mo post-CBT in 27 adult patients undergoing CBT. The diversity of gut microbiota was positively correlated with better MAIT cell reconstitution after CBT. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States analysis indicated that amounts of ribB and ribA genes were significantly higher in the microbiomes of patients with subsequent MAIT cell reconstitution after CBT. In conclusion, long-term MAIT cell reconstitution is dependent on the type of donor source. Our data also unveiled an important role for the interaction of circulating MAIT cells with gut microbiota in humans.
Elevated Expression of LYPD3 Is Associated with Lung Adenocarcinoma Carcinogenesis and Poor Prognosis.

Aberrant expression of LYPD3 plays an oncogenic role in several types of cancer. However, the functions of LYPD3 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remain unclear. Here, we investigated the regulatory function, clinical value, and prognostic significance of LYPD3 in LUAD patients. The gene expression and DNA methylation data of LUAD tumor and paracancerous tissues were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The association between LYPD3 expression and clinicopathological variables was analyzed. The results showed that LYPD3 was highly expressed in LUAD tumor compared with paracancerous tissues, which was positively correlated with the race (p = 0.0448), tumor stage (p = 0.0191), and survival status (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the expression of LYPD3 was able to be regulated by the methylation in LYPD3 promoter region, which was positively associated with the overall survival. Furthermore, we explored the related pathways through which LYPD3 affects the pathogenesis and prognosis of LUAD by gene set enrichment analysis, and found that LYPD3 might affect the clinical manifestations of LUAD by regulating the P53 signaling pathway. In the future, we would focus on exploring the molecular mechanism of LYPD3 in the regulation of the occurrence and development of LUAD to provide a research basis for the screening of methylation markers related to the treatment and prognosis.
The global-scale distributions of soil protists and their contributions to belowground systems

We studied the dominant protists found in soils across the globe and their contributions to belowground food webs. Protists are ubiquitous in soil, where they are key contributors to nutrient cycling and energy transfer. However, protists have received far less attention than other components of the soil microbiome. We used amplicon sequencing of soils from 180 locations across six continents to investigate the ecological preferences of protists and their functional contributions to belowground systems. We complemented these analyses with shotgun metagenomic sequencing of 46 soils to validate the identities of the more abundant protist lineages. We found that most soils are dominated by consumers, although parasites and phototrophs are particularly abundant in tropical and arid ecosystems, respectively. The best predictors of protist composition (primarily annual precipitation) are fundamentally distinct from those shaping bacterial and archaeal communities (namely, soil pH). Some protists and bacteria co-occur globally, highlighting the potential importance of these largely undescribed belowground interactions. Together, this study allowed us to identify the most abundant and ubiquitous protists living in soil, with our work providing a cross-ecosystem perspective on the factors structuring soil protist communities and their likely contributions to soil functioning.
How Do ImPACT Quick Test Scores Compare with ImPACT Online Scores in Non-Concussed Adolescent Athletes?

OBJECTIVE To compare neurocognitive scores between the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) Quick Test (QT) and Online Versions in non-concussed high school athletes. METHODS A sample of 47 high school athletes completed the ImPACT Online Version pre-season and the ImPACT QT approximately 3 months later. Paired sample t-tests and Pearson's correlations examined differences and relationships between the ImPACT batteries. RESULTS The ImPACT QT scores were significantly higher for performance on the Three Letters: Average Counted (p < .001, d = .88), Three Letters: Average Counted Correctly (p < .001, d = .80), and Symbol Match: Correct RT Visible (p < .001, d = .72), and Symbol Match: Correct RT Hidden (p = .002, d = .50) subtests. There were significant relationships for Three Letters: Average Counted (r = .85, p < .001), Three Letters: Average Counted Correctly (r = .82, p < .001), and Symbol Match: Total Correct Hidden (r = .40, p = .006) subtests. CONCLUSIONS Post-injury evaluation data using ImPACT QT should be compared to normative referenced data, and not to pre-season data from the ImPACT Online Version.
A Vision-Based Odometer for Localization of Omnidirectional Indoor Robots

In this paper we tackle the problem of indoor robot localization by using a vision-based approach. Specifically, we propose a visual odometer able to give back the relative pose of an omnidirectional automatic guided vehicle (AGV) that moves inside an indoor industrial environment. A monocular downward-looking camera having the optical axis nearly perpendicular to the ground floor, is used for collecting floor images. After a preliminary analysis of images aimed at detecting robust point features (keypoints) takes place, specific descriptors associated to the keypoints enable to match the detected points to their consecutive frames. A robust correspondence feature filter based on statistical and geometrical information is devised for rejecting those incorrect matchings, thus delivering better pose estimations. A camera pose compensation is further introduced for ensuring better positioning accuracy. The effectiveness of proposed methodology has been proven through several experiments, in laboratory as well as in an industrial setting. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluations have been made. Outcomes have shown that the method provides a final positioning percentage error of 0.21% on an average distance of 17.2 m. A longer run in an industrial context has provided comparable results (a percentage error of 0.94% after about 80 m). The average relative positioning error is about 3%, which is still in good agreement with current state of the art.
Neonatal Thrombocytopenia and the Role of the Platelet Mass Index in Platelet Transfusion in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Background: Neonatal thrombocytopenia is a common hematological abnormality that occurs in 20–35% of all newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit. Platelet transfusion is the only known treatment; however, it is the critical point to identify neonates who are really at risk of bleeding and benefit from platelet transfusion as it also has various potential harmful effects. Aims: To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of neonatal thrombocytopenia and its relationship to intraventricular hemorrhage in the neonatal intensive care unit and to determine whether the use of platelet mass index-based criteria could reduce the rate of platelet transfusion. Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: This study was conducted in the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary university hospital. The medical records of neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit with platelet counts <150×109/L between January 2013 and July 2016 were analyzed. Results: During the study period, 2,667 patients were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, and 395 (14%) had thrombocytopenia during hospitalization. The rate of intraventricular hemorrhage was 7.3%. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that although lower platelet counts were associated with a higher intraventricular hemorrhage rate, the effects of respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, and patent ductus arteriosus were more prominent than the degree of thrombocytopenia. Thirty patients (7%) received platelet transfusion, and these patients showed a significantly higher mortality rate than their non-platelet transfusion counterparts (p<0.001). In addition, it was found that the use of platelet mass index-based criteria for platelet transfusion in our patients would reduce the rate of platelet transfusion by 9.5% (2/21). Conclusion: Neonatal thrombocytopenia is usually mild and often resolves without treatment. As platelet transfusion is associated with an increased mortality rate, its risks and benefits should be weighed carefully. The use of platelet mass index-based criteria may reduce platelet transfusion rates in the neonatal intensive care unit, but additional data from prospective studies are required.
The Effect of a Maternal Mediterranean Diet in Pregnancy on Insulin Resistance is Moderated by Maternal Negative Affect

There is inconsistent evidence that healthy dietary interventions can effectively mitigate the risk of adverse outcomes associated with elevated insulin resistance in pregnancy, suggesting that other moderating factors may be at play. Maternal psychological state is an important factor to consider in this regard, because stress/mood state can directly influence glycemia and a bidirectional relationship may exist between nutrition and psychological state. The objective of this study was to examine the interaction between maternal negative affect and diet quality on third trimester insulin resistance. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study of N = 203 women with assessments in early and mid-pregnancy, which included an ecological momentary assessment of maternal psychological state, from which a negative affect score (NAS) was derived, and 24-h dietary recalls, from which the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) was computed. The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was computed from third trimester fasting plasma glucose and insulin values. Early pregnancy MDS was inversely associated with the HOMA-IR, but this did not maintain significance after adjusting for covariates. There was a significant effect of the mid-pregnancy MDS*NAS interaction term with the HOMA-IR in the adjusted model, such that a higher negative affect was found to override the beneficial effects of a Mediterranean diet on insulin resistance. These results highlight the need to consider nutrition and affective state concurrently in the context of gestational insulin resistance.