Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Controlling western corn rootworm larvae with entomopathogenic nematodes: effect of application techniques on plant‐scale efficacy

The three larval instars of western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) feed on the roots of maize, Zea mays (L.). The effects of six application techniques on the plant‐scale efficacy of the entomopathogenic nematode species, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Poinar (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae), in controlling D. v. virgifera populations were assessed in seven field plot experiments in southern Hungary between 2004 and 2007. Approximately 230 000 nematodes were applied per row metre using four different stream spray techniques; or, alternatively 400 000 nematodes per square metre using two different flat spray techniques. Nematode efficacy was assessed by comparing the number of emerging adult D. v. virgifera, and root damage between treatments and untreated controls. All tested nematode application techniques reduced D. v. virgifera density by at least 50% (on average across fields and years). The highest reduction in D. v. virgifera density was 68% and occurred when nematodes were applied into the soil together with maize sowing using a fluid solid stream. Rainfall, the day before application likely increased the control efficacy of H. bacteriophora. Using the 0.00–3.00 node injury damage rating scale, we estimated that potential root damage was prevented by 25–79% when H. bacteriophora was applied. Although, H. bacteriophora can effectively be applied with all of the techniques tested, for optimum performance and minimum costs, it is suggested that the nematodes be applied as follows: (i) as a stream requiring 8–10 times less volume of water than flat sprays, or as a granule requiring no water, and (ii) into the soil when sowing maize, requiring less water than soil surface sprays and avoiding the destruction of nematodes by UV radiation and additional machinery use.
Anthropological Study of the Transition from the Jomon to the Yayoi Periods in the Northern Kyushu Using Morphological and Paleodemographical Features (2)

北部九州において我が国でいち早く起きた縄文時代から弥生時代への変革は，どの様な人々がどの様なかたちで実現したのだろうか。 日本人の起源問題とも関連する残された課題の一つであるこの疑問については，先に人骨形態と集団遺伝学的解析とを組みあわせた論考（中橋・飯塚，1998; Iizuka and Nakahashi, 2002）を発表しているが，その後，AMS炭素14年代測定によって弥生開始期の年代を500年程度遡らせるべきだという見解が発表され，これまでの弥生時代の年代観に大きな修正が加わる可能性が浮上した。 そこで，従来は200～300年に想定した弥生時代早期から前期末までの年代幅を最大800年まで拡張して，改めてこの間の縄文系と渡来系の人々の人口変化について数理解析を行った。 その結果，年代幅が長くなるにつれ，渡来系の人々にとってより緩やかな人口増加率でも弥生時代前期末までに縄文系の人々を圧倒するような人口比の逆転が可能であることが示された。
Antiretroviral drug concentrations in brain tissue of adult decedents.

OBJECTIVE Determine concentrations of antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs in the human brain. DESIGN Cohort study of persons with HIV (PWH) who consented to antemortem assessment and postmortem autopsy. METHODS Eleven PWH who were taking ART at the time of death and had detectable concentrations of at least one ART drug in intracardiac aspirate at autopsy were evaluated. Autopsies were performed within 24 hours of death and brain tissue was stored at -80C. Concentrations of 11 ART drugs were measured in three brain regions [globus pallidus (GP), cortical gray matter (CGM), white matter (WM)] by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry with a lower limit of quantification of 25 ng/mL. RESULTS Participants were mostly men (82%) with a mean age of 40.4 years. Drug concentrations in brain tissue were highly variable and exceeded published concentrations in CSF for several drugs, including for tenofovir, efavirenz, and lopinavir. Drug concentrations correlated most strongly between CGM and GP (rho = 0.70) but less well between GP and WM (rho = 0.43). Combining all drugs and brain regions (n = 89), higher drug concentrations in brain were associated with longer estimated duration of HIV infection (p = 0.015), lower HIV RNA in plasma (p = 0.0001), lower nadir CD4+ T-cell count (p = 0.053), and worse neurocognitive performance (p = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS This is the first analysis of ART drug concentrations in human brain tissue. Concentrations of several drugs in this analysis were similar to published concentrations in CSF but others exceeded published concentrations. The association between higher drug concentrations in the brain and worse neurocognitive performance may indicate ART neurotoxicity.
Is Lumbar Puncture Avoidable in Low-Risk Neonates with Suspected Sepsis?

Abstract Objective Performing lumbar punctures (LP) in all clinically suspected neonatal sepsis, as per current recommendations, results in many “negative” LPs. LPs are not without their own risks. With the intention of minimizing unnecessary LPs among neonates, we aimed to identify a subgroup at extremely low risk of developing possible meningitis so that an LP could be safely avoided in it. Study Design This was a prospective, observational, and cross-sectional study in a level III neonatal unit. We included 300 episodes, in which LP was performed for suspected sepsis. We recorded a comprehensive set of clinico-demographic variables, laboratory parameters, sickness score, organ dysfunction score, and organ localization and studied association of these factors with “definite (culture positive) or possible meningitis. ” “Possible” meningitis was defined with liberal criteria, intending not to miss any meningitis. A subgroup without a single factor associated with “definite or possible meningitis” was analyzed for incidence of meningitis. Results There were 121 episodes of “definite or possible meningitis” among 300 episodes of sepsis. On unadjusted analysis, apnea, irritability, high-pitched cry, seizures, neutrophilia, high C-reactive protein (CRP), score for acute neonatal physiology and perinatal extension II (SNAPPE-II), urine output, and leukomalacia were associated with “definite or possible” meningitis (p < 0.05). On multivariate analysis, no apneas, no neutrophilia, and normal CRP were independently associated with “no definite or possible meningitis. ” Nevertheless, the subgroup that had a combination of no apneas, no neutrophilia, and normal CRP (n = 118) had a 29% probability of “definite or possible meningitis. ” Conclusion The lowest risk subgroup had a 29% chance of having “definite or possible” meningitis. There is no subgroup that we could identify among neonates with suspected sepsis, in which it is safe to avoid an LP. Key Points LP are performed in all cases of late onset neonatal sepsis. Previous authors unsuccessfully tried to identify high-risk groups for performing LP. We were unable to identify an extremely low-risk group in which LP could be safely avoided.
Laboratory bioassay of selected plant extracts for the control of brown cocoa mirid, Sahlbergella singularis Haglund (Hemiptera: Miridae)

Laboratory bioassays were conducted on five-selected aqueous plant extracts for contact toxicity and residual action on the brown cocoa mirid, Sahlbergella singularis. The extracts wereMangifera indica (leaf), Anacardium occidentale (leaf), Ocimiun gratissimun (leaf), Azadirachta indica (stem bark) and Acalypha wilkesiana (leaf). Leaf extracts of M. indica, A. wilkesiana and stem bark extract of A. indica applied at 1:5% w/v gave an effective kill of 100, 80 and 80%, respectively, for contact toxicity. M. indica aqueous extract recorded a 100% mirid mortality at the three concentrations tested for 24 h post treatment for residual action, while A. indica gave 89% mortality of mirids at 1:5% w/v. Neem extract was observed to be slow acting. Extracts ofA. occidentale was not efficacious and treatment was not significantly different from that of control (water) at 5% probability level. Key words: Laboratory bioassay, brown cocoa mired, aqueous plant extracts, toxicity.
Comparative performance of the laboratory assays used by a diagnostic laboratory hub for opportunistic infections in people living with HIV.

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the comparative performance of different assays used in a Diagnostic Laboratory Hub that linked 13 HIV health care facilities for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, histoplasmosis, and cryptococcosis, and describing its functions in Guatemala compared with other National Reference Laboratories. METHODS The following diagnostic techniques were analyzed in 24 months (2017-2018) in a cohort of patients with HIV: smear microscopy, mycobacterial and fungal cultures, isolator blood culture, PCR assays, and antigen detection tests. RESULTS A total of 4,245 patients were included, 716 (16.2%) had an opportunistic infection: 249 (34.7%) tuberculosis (TB), 40 (5.6%) NTM, 227 (31.7%) histoplasmosis, 138 (19.3%) cryptococcosis, and 62 (8.6%) had multiple OIs. Two hundred sixty-three (92.6%; 95%CI, 89-95.1) of TB cases were diagnosed by PCR. Urine antigen assay detected 94% (95%CI, 89-96) of the disseminated histoplasmosis cases. A lateral flow assay to detect cryptococcal antigen (CrAg) diagnosed 97% (95%CI, 93.3%-98.7%) of the cryptococcal cases. In 85 patients (51.5%) with a CSF sample, cryptococcal meningitis was diagnosed in 55 (64.7%), of which 18 (32.7%) were only detected by CrAg. CONCLUSIONS Validated commercial antigen tests, as used in this program, should be the new gold standard for histoplasmosis and cryptococcosis diagnosis. In their absence, 35% of disseminated histoplasmosis and 32.7% of cryptococcal meningitis cases would have been missed. Patients with multiple OIs were frequently diagnosed and strategies should be designed to screen patients irrespective of their clinical presentation. In low resource settings, Diagnostic Laboratory Hubs can deliver quality diagnostics services in record time at affordable prices.
Deep neural networks capture texture sensitivity in V2

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained on visual objects have shown intriguing ability to predict some response properties of visual cortical neurons. However, the factors (e.g., if the model is trained or not, receptive field size) and computations (e.g., convolution, rectification, pooling, normalization) that give rise to such ability, at what level, and the role of intermediate processing stages in explaining changes that develop across areas of the cortical hierarchy are poorly understood. We focused on the sensitivity to textures as a paradigmatic example, since recent neurophysiology experiments provide rich data pointing to texture sensitivity in secondary (but not primary) visual cortex (V2). We initially explored the CNN without any fitting to the neural data and found that the first two layers of the CNN showed qualitative correspondence to the first two cortical areas in terms of texture sensitivity. We therefore developed a quantitative approach to select a population of CNN model neurons that best fits the brain neural recordings. We found that the CNN could develop compatibility to secondary cortex in the second layer following rectification and that this was improved following pooling but only mildly influenced by the local normalization operation. Higher layers of the CNN could further, though modestly, improve the compatibility with the V2 data. The compatibility was reduced when incorporating random rather than learned weights. Our results show that the CNN class of model is effective for capturing changes that develop across early areas of cortex, and has the potential to help identify the computations that give rise to hierarchical processing in the brain (code is available in GitHub).
Optimal Portfolio Choice in Real Terms: Measuring the Benefits of TIPS

In this paper we solve an optimal portfolio choice problem to measure the benefits of Treasury Inflation Indexed Securities (TIPS) to investors concerned with maximizing real wealth. We show how the introduction of a real riskless asset completes the investor asset space, by contrasting optimal portfolio allocations with and without such assets. We use historical data to quantify gains from availability of TIPS in the presence of other asset classes such as equities, commodities, and real estate. We draw a distinction between buy-and-hold long-term investors for whom TIPS fully displace nominal risk-free assets and short-term investors for whom TIPS improve the investment opportunity set of real returns. Finally, we show how gains from TIPS are tempered by the availability of alternative assets that covary with inflation, such as gold and real estate.
Effect of temperature, seeding date, fungicide seed treatment and inoculation with Fusarium avenaceum on seedling survival, root rot severity and yield of lentil

Early seeding of lentil is necessary on the northern prairies to ensure that the crop has time to mature. However, planting into cold soils in spring results in slow germination, which may predispose seedlings to infection by soil-borne pathogens. In a controlled-environment study of the impact of temperature on infection of lentil seedlings (cv. Eston) byFusarium avenaceum, root rot symptoms were most severe at warm temperatures (20° to 27.5 °C) and declined in warmer or cooler soils. Field plots were seeded on three dates, which were spaced about 2 wk apart between early May and early June in four station years. Seedling emergence was most consistent and seed yield was highest in three of four sites at the second seeding date. Emergence and yield were substantially lower for the latest seeding date. Inoculation with F. avenaceum reduced establishment and seed yield. Seed treatment with Crown (thiabendazole and carbathiin) improved seedling survival, reduced root rot severity and increased seed yield rel.
Sexual Dimorphism and Life History of Keichousaurus hui (Reptilia: Sauropterygia)

ABSTRACT A large collection of recently prepared, complete specimens of Keichousaurus hui provides a wealth of new anatomical data for this taxon. Sexual dimorphism can be unambiguously quantified by proportions of the humerus as well as ratios of humerus length to standard length and femoral length. Multivariate (principal components and discriminant) analysis identified ratios most useful in distinguishing the sexes. Sexual maturity was reached in males at approximately 126 mm snout-vent length (SVL), and in females by 122 mm SVL. Mean SVL for mature males is approximately 161 SVL, and for mature females, at most 149 mm SVL. Although the last dimension predicts a mean hatchling SVL of approximately 50 mm based on data from extant squamates, the relationship between mean SVL of mature females and mean SVL of hatchling/neonate in squamates is quite variable. As a result, a mean value of 40.4 mm SVL for several tiny isolated individuals of Keichousaurus is well within the 95 percent confidence ellipse calculated from data from extant squamates. Therefore, there is not reason to postulate that the common occurrence of tiny individuals of between 33.5 mm and 48.2 mm SVL is the result of spontaneous abortions.
Effect of Body Form and Response Threshold on the Vulnerability of Four Species of Teleost Prey Attacked by Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)

Experiments were performed using four prey species (fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas, largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus, and tiger musky, Esox sp.) with various body and fin forms attacked by largemouth bass predators to determine how body and fin morphology, performance, and response thresholds influenced prey vulnerability. Prey differed in three factors that could affect the outcome of predator–prey interactions: body depth, the presence of spiny rays, and locomotor performance capability. Captures were only successful for strikes near the center of mass. The presence of spines was not shown to substantially affect predator strike targets on prey, but large body depth misdirected strikes from the center of mass area and increased the probability of prey escaping. Prey escape speeds were variable and not maximum. Acceleration rates in the startle response varied among the prey species. Tiger musky had the highest acceleration rates (11.7–12.2 m∙s−2). Acceleration r.
The effect of Nd:YAG laser therapy on cutaneous leishmaniasis compared to intralesional meglumine antimoniate

Introduction Nd:YAG laser is one of the commonly used lasers in dermatology. Aim This study aimed to investigate the effect of Nd:YAG laser therapy (NDY) on cutaneous leishmaniasis in comparison with meglumine antimoniate (MA). Therefore, researchers are seeking to use a more effective, faster and less complicated method. Material and methods This study was conducted as a clinical trial on 16 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis treated simultaneously as follows: one lesion with Glucantime and another with NDY laser in the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2016–2017. Then, the demographic data, number of treatment sessions, mean duration of illness before the start of treatment, post inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), and scars, and recovery in two methods were recorded and compared using SPSS-21. Results The mean age was 14.37 ±29.68. The mean duration of disease before the study was 1.84 ±0.50 months. The mean number of Glucantime injections was 7.31 ±4.01 and the mean number of laser therapy sessions was 2.56 ±0.89; this was significantly less than that of injections of the MA group (p < 0.001). Moreover, the MA scars were observed in 10 subjects and laser scars were seen in 3 subjects. Scars in patients treated with laser were significantly smaller than in those treated with Glucantime injections (p = 0.03). 13 subjects had MA therapy-induced PIH and 15 had laser therapy-induced PIH. Conclusions The alternative method of laser use in the treatment of patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis can lead to complete recovery of patients in shorter time and with less complications.
Habitat selection by large herbivores in a southern African savanna : the relative roles of bottom-up and top-down forces

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of the United States (DEB 0516094 to A. Knapp and DEB 0516145 to M. Smith). Support from the James S. McDonnell Foundation and a United States National Science Foundation Grant (DEB 0090323) to W. Getz at the University of California, Berkeley funded the collars and field component on lion predation. D. Burkepile and C. Burns were supported, in part, by the Brown Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Yale University.
Trans-saccadic adaptation of perceived size independent of saccadic adaptation

Systematic shortening or lengthening of target objects during saccades modifies saccade amplitudes and perceived size of the objects. These two events are concomitant when size change during the saccade occurs asymmetrically, thereby shifting the center of mass of the object. In the present study, we asked whether or not the two are necessarily linked. We tested human participants in symmetrical systematic shortening and lengthening of a vertical bar during a horizontal saccade, aiming to not modify the saccade amplitude. Before and after a phase of trans-saccadic changes of the target bar, participants manually indicated the sizes of various vertically oriented bars by open-loop grip aperture. We evaluated the effect of trans-saccadic changes of bar length on manual perceptual reports and whether this change depended on saccade amplitude. As expected, we did not induce any change in horizontal or vertical components of saccade amplitude, but we found a significant difference in perceived size after the lengthening experiment compared to after the shortening experiment. Moreover, after the lengthening experiment, perceived size differed significantly from pre-lengthening baseline. These findings suggest that a change of size perception can be induced trans-saccadically, and its mechanism does not depend on saccadic amplitude change.
COVID-19 and persons with substance use disorders: Inequities and mitigation strategies

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately disrupts the daily lives of marginalized populations. Persons with substance use disorders are a particularly vulnerable population because of their unique social and health care needs. They face significant harm from both the pandemic itself and its social and economic consequences, including marginalization in health care and social systems. Hence, we discuss: (1) why persons with substance use disorders are at increased risk for infection with COVID-19 and a severe illness course; (2) anticipated adverse consequences of COVID-19 in persons with substance use disorders; (3) challenges to health care delivery and substance use treatment programs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; and (4) the potential impact on clinical research in substance use disorders. We offer recommendations for clinical, public health, and social policies to mitigate these challenges and to prevent negative outcomes.
A four fuel drum boiler combustion control system study and redesign

The development and use of a nonlinear dynamical mathematical model of a four-fuel steam boiler combustion control system are described. The 140 ton/h drum boiler can burn four fuels simultaneously. The combustion control system includes the fuel control system and the air control system. A 13th order combustion control system model was developed to study the plant combustion control system behavior in normal operating conditions. The model was developed and validated using actual power plant data. The simulation revealed the need for important modifications in both fuel and air control systems. The modifications, after being tested in the model, were proposed to the plant personnel and some of them have been successfully implemented in the actual plant. A reduced-order SISO linear model was developed for the fuel control system. The linearized model helps tune the fuel control system global controller and runs five times faster than the nonlinear one. <<ETX>>
CAR T cell therapy

Abstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is generated by fusing a cancer-specific antibody’s antigen recognition site with costimulatory molecules such as CD28 and CD3ζ. T cells transduced with CAR recognizes cancer-specific antigens and kill cancer cells. The effect of CD19-targeted CAR T cells on B-cell hematologic cancer is surprising and has already been approved in many countries including Japan. More targets for several kinds of cancers are being searched now. We have also shown that CAR T cells specific for activated integrin β7 are highly effective for multiple myeloma in pre-clinical tests.