Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Midface Morphology and Growth in Syndromic Craniosynostosis Patients Following Frontofacial Monobloc Distraction

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Background: Facial advancement represents the essence of the surgical treatment of syndromic craniosynostosis. Frontofacial monobloc distraction is an effective surgical approach to correct midface retrusion although someone consider it very hazardous procedure. The authors evaluated a group of patients who underwent frontofacial monobloc distraction with the aim to identify the advancement results performed in immature skeletal regarding the midface morphologic characteristics and its effects on growth. Methods: Sixteen patients who underwent frontofacial monobloc distraction with pre- and postsurgical computed tomography (CT) scans were evaluated and compared to a control group of 9 nonsyndromic children with CT scans at 1-year intervals during craniofacial growth. Three-dimensional measurements and superimposition of the CT scans were used to evaluate midface morphologic features and longitudinal changes during the craniofacial growth and following the advancement. Presurgical growth was evaluated in 4 patients and postsurgical growth was evaluated in 9 patients. Results: Syndromic maxillary width and length were reduced and the most obtuse facial angles showed a lack in forward projection of the central portion in these patients. Three-dimensional distances and images superimposition demonstrated the age did not influence the course of abnormal midface growth. Conclusion: The syndromic midface is hypoplastic and the sagittal deficiency is associated to axial facial concavity. The advancement performed in mixed dentition stages allowed the normalization of facial position comparable to nonsyndromic group. However, the procedure was not able to change the abnormal midface architecture and craniofacial growth.
Soil compaction affects sunflower and Paiaguas palisadegrass forage productivity in the Brazilian savanna

Integrated crop-livestock systems maximize land use, infrastructure and labor; diversify production; and minimize costs, thereby reducing risks and adding value to agricultural products. However, growing mechanically harvested crops can negatively affect soil structure, reducing plant biomass productivity. The present study aimed to evaluate soil compaction and its effects on the forage productivity of sunflower and Brachiaria brizantha cv. BRS Paiaguas during the second cropping period. The experiment was conducted as a split-plot randomized complete block design with four replications. Four compaction levels represented by traffic from an agricultural tractor were established: 0 (absence of compaction), 2, 10 and 30 passes over the same spot. Two forage systems were established in the subplots: sunflower grown solely as a monocrop (40,000 plants ha -1 ) or intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass (10 plants linear m -1 ). The following parameters were quantified: soil bulk density, plant height, capitulum diameter and 1000-achene weight for sunflower; stem length and the leaf/stem ratio for Paiaguas palisadegrass; and total and partitioned forage productivity. The results showed that sunflower was highly sensitive to soil compaction and that the development and productivity of this species decreased in response to the greatest bulk density, which in turn affected the Paiaguas palisadegrass. Overall, intercropping is recommended for increased forage productivity.
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF PMMA/ZnO NANOCOMPOSITES

Organophillic zinc oxide, ZnO, nanoparticles and nanorods were synthesized in various diols and were used for the preparation of ZnO/poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites. Nano ZnO quantitatively absorbs UV light between 290 and 380 nm in very low concentrations (0.05 – 0.1%). Besides extraordinary UV absorption properties it also increases the storage modulus of resulting nanocomposites by 25% in the temperature region between 35 and 75 °C. Reinforcing effect is dependent on the ZnO particle size and concentration. At low concentrations (up to 0.1 %) nano ZnO increases the modulus while at higher concentrations this effect is deteriorated due to aggregation of nano ZnO. DMA measurements showed that ZnO particle size (specific surface – interface) is the most important factor influencing the storage modulus of nanocomposites, while particle shape (ZnO nanorods) is less important.
Competition, Productivity and Trade, Reconsidered

We study unilateral trade liberalization and unilateral market expansion and their impact on optimal tariffs in a heterogeneous firm model with a general productivity distribution and an endogenous wage. We show that unilateral trade liberalization entails selection effects, but unilateral market expansion entails anti-selection effects in a country of origin. Conditional on the two sufficient statistics for welfare, the optimal level of import tariffs is the same across different trade models with a constant trade elasticity, but more generally the optimal level depends on the micro structure that makes the trade elasticity variable.
Field measurement of re-suspension in a tailings pond by acoustic and optical backscatter instruments

Wind induced re-suspension of bed tailings is an important consideration in the design and implementation of water cover technology for reactive tailings management. Field measured acoustic and optical backscatter data were used to obtain suspended solids concentrations in water. Acoustic backscatter data were correlated with suspended solids concentration obtained from two field calibrated optical backscatter sensors. The optical backscatter results showed the re-suspension up to 25 mg/L. The results also showed that the acoustic backscatter data were relatively less sensitive to small variations in the concentrations than optical backscatter data for the range of re-suspension measured in the tailings pond. RÉSUMÉ La remise en suspension des résidus miniers par le vent est in facteur important dans la conception de la technologie de couvert d’eau pour la gestion des résidus réactifs. Des données mesurées au champ de rétrodiffusion acoustique et optique ont été utilisées pour obtenir des concentrations de matières solides en suspension dans l’eau. Des données de rétrodiffusion acoustique ont été corrélées avec la concentration de matières solides en suspension obtenu de deux capteurs de rétrodiffusion optique calibrée au champ. Les résultats optique ont montré la remise en suspension jusqu’à 25 mg/L. Aussi les résultants montrent que les données acoustiques ont été relativement mois sensibles à les petites variations dans les concentrations pour résidus en suspension comparé à données optique pour la gamme mesurées dans le bassin de résidus.
Soil compaction affects the silage quality of sunflower and Paiaguas palisadegrass (Brachiaria brizantha) grown on a Latosol in the Brazilian savanna

On the basis of the natural seasonality of pastures during the dry season, preservation of forage, especially silage, is necessary. However, the effects of soil compaction within sunflower and grass crop fields on the nutritional quality of the silage produced are unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the fermentation and nutritional quality characteristics of sunflower silage under both monocropping and intercropping systems [with Paiaguas palisadegrass (Brachiaria brizantha)] under various degrees of soil compaction. A split-plot randomized complete block design was adopted. In the main plots, the treatments were bulk density values affected by the following traffic intensities: 0, 2, 10 or 30 passes of a tractor with tire wheels weighing 4.9 Mg. The subplots involved forage systems composed of sunflower as a monocrop or intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass. The fermentation, nutritional characteristics and in vitro digestibility of the silage were evaluated. Under the various aforementioned conditions, the agronomic characteristics of the forage were affected by increased soil compaction, resulting in changes in the fermentation and nutritional characteristics of the silage. The results showed that intercropping with Paiaguas palisadegrass and adequate proportions of sunflower allow good fermentation. This study recommends the adoption of practices that mitigate soil compaction and intercropping because of the increased forage productivity and the possibility of indirect renewal of the pasture.
Smoking Cessation Rapidly Increases Circulating Progenitor Cells in Peripheral Blood in Chronic Smokers

Objective— Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) contribute to postnatal angiogenesis. The number of circulating EPCs has an inverse correlation with coronary risk scores. However, the effect of smoking on the number of circulating EPCs is not well-known. Methods and Results— We examined the effects of chronic smoking and of smoking cessation on EPC levels. Circulating EPCs were quantified by flow cytometry as CD45lowCD34+CD133+ (progenitor cells [PCs]) or CD45lowCD34+CD133+VEGFR2+ (EPCs) in 14 nonsmokers and in 15 smokers. All smokers quit smoking. Eight quit smoking with nicotine patch and 7 without nicotine patch. PC/EPC levels were inversely correlated with the number of cigarettes smoked. Circulating PCs/EPCs increased rapidly after cessation (P<0.0001) and decreased again after resumption of smoking to the level similar to that before cessation (P=0.0031). The magnitude of increase in EPCs was greater in light smokers than in heavy smokers. Conclusions— The number of circulating PCs/EPCs w.
Multi-Facet Recommender Networks with Spherical Optimization

Implicit feedback is widely explored by modern recommender systems. Since the feedback is often sparse and imbalanced, it poses great challenges to the learning of complex interactions among users and items. Metric learning has been proposed to capture user-item interactions from implicit feedback, but existing methods only represent users and items in a single metric space, ignoring the fact that users can have multiple preferences and items can have multiple properties, which leads to potential conflicts limiting their performance in recommendation. To capture the multiple facets of user preferences and item properties while resolving their potential conflicts, we propose the novel framework of Multi-fAcet Recommender networks with Spherical optimization (MARS). By designing a cross-facet similarity measurement, we project users and items into multiple metric spaces for fine-grained representation learning, and compare them only in the proper spaces. Furthermore, we devise a spherical optimization strategy to enhance the effectiveness and robustness of the multi-facet recommendation framework. Extensive experiments on six real-world benchmark datasets show drastic performance gains brought by MARS, which constantly achieves up to 40% improvements over the state-of-the-art baselines regarding both HR and nDCG metrics.1
Genital histomorphometrical evaluation and survey on reproductive traits of male camel (Camelus dromedarius) in relation to the pubertal age under extreme arid conditions

The present study consists on age-related analysis of reproductive activity in male dromedary camel from extreme arid area. Five reproductive traits of 20 bull camels were recorded and computer-assisted histomorphometric evaluation of 48 paired testes were performed to establish quantitative developmental pattern in relation to their respective age. The pubertal changes were displayed mainly at 4 to 5 years old with increased sperm reserves, seminiferous tubules volume, diameter and total length, high relative volume of interstitial tissue components, high individual Leydig cells volume and total number Leydig cells. At this age the first reductional miotic splits and first spermatids and spermatozoa in the seminiferous lumen tubules were significantly developed leading to increase the mean germ cells number and tubular fertility indexes. Animals in this age category showed the highest proportion of first mating (50%), while mating frequency and time were relatively higher. These reproductive traits were improved significantly with spermatogenesis efficiency in mature animals aged > 6 years old. The testicular spontaneous degeneration was observed in animals ages ≥13 years old. Our data showed long postnatal duration to onset spermatogenesis and endocrine compartment proliferation, that lead to delayed puberty (4 to 5 years), short duration of maximum activity (8 to10 years) and early genital degenerative involution ( from 13 years).
Reviewing the effectiveness of artificial intelligence techniques against cyber security risks

The rapid increase in malicious cyber-criminal activities has made the field of cybersecurity a crucial research discipline. Over the areas, the advancement in information technology has enabled cybercriminals to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks that can endanger cybersecurity. Due to this, traditional cybersecurity solutions have become ineffective against emerging cyberattacks. However, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – particularly Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) – and cryptographic techniques have shown promising results in countering the evolving cyber threats caused by adversaries. Therefore, in this study, AI's potential in enhancing cybersecurity solutions is discussed. Additionally, the study has provided an in-depth analysis of different AI-based techniques that can detect, analyse, and prevent cyber threats. In the end, the present study has also discussed future research opportunities that are linked with the development of AI systems in the field of cybersecurity.
COVID-19 Lockdowns Improve Air Quality in the South-East Asian Regions, as Seen by the Remote Sensing Satellites

ABSTRACT The appearance of COVID-19 in December, 2019 in China and its rapid spread all over the globe, forced the governments to severely curb the social and economic activities of their respective countries. Barring the essential services, most of the business activities and transport sectors have been suspended and an unprecedented lockdown imposed over major economies in the world. South-East Asian regions, such as India and China, were no different. As a result, the pollutant level has gone down over these regions, and the air quality improved somewhat better than it was before the lockdown. This study uses satellite retrievals and attempts to estimate the extent of the reduction of major pollutants, like carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in India and China during January to April, 2020. We have calculated anomalies of pollutants during the lockdown period relative to their long-term records. NO2, which has significant emissions from the transport sector, is reduced on an average by 17% over India and 25% over China. SO2, which mainly emits from power plants, shows significant reductions (approx. 17%) especially over the Eastern sector of India. CO is found to be reduced by 6.5% over north-central China. The differential reduction was attributed to man made versus natural activities. This study is helpful to policy makers in mitigating the air-pollution on a long-term perspective.
Cell surface mobility of GABAB receptors

Type-B γ-aminobutyric acid receptors (GABABRs) are important for mediating slow inhibition in the central nervous system and the kinetics of their internalisation and lateral mobility will be a major determinant of their signalling efficacy. Functional GABABRs require R1 and R2 subunit co-assembly, but how heterodimerisation affects the trafficking kinetics of GABABRs is unknown. Here, an α-bungarotoxin binding site (BBS) was inserted into the N-terminus of R2 to monitor receptor mobility in live cells. GABABRs are internalised via clathrin- and dynamin-dependent pathways and recruited to endosomes. By mutating the BBS, a new technique was developed to differentially track R1a and R2 simultaneously, revealing the subunits internalise as heteromers and that R2 dominantly-affects constitutive internalisation of GABABRs. Notably, the internalisation profile of R1aR2 heteromers, but not R1a homomers devoid of their ER retention motif (R1ASA), is similar to R2 homomers in heterologous systems. The internalisation of R1aASA was slowed to that of R2 by mutating a di-leucine motif in the R1 C-terminus, indicating a new role for heterodimerisation, whereby R2 subunits slow the internalization of surface GABABRs. R1a and R1b are the predominant GABABR1 isoforms in the brain, differing by the two Sushi Domains (SDs) in R1a. Introduction of a BBS into the N-terminus of R1b and comparison with R1a revealed that R1bR2 internalises faster than R1aR2. Introduction of the SDs into the BBS-tagged metabotropic glutamate receptor-2 also conferred a decrease in internalisation. Finally, the lateral surface mobility of GABABRs was studied by extending the BBS-tagging method to single-particle tracking using quantum dots. R1aR2 and R1bR2 exhibited different mobility profiles on hippocampal neurons and differentially responded to baclofen. In conclusion, this study provides new and important insight into the mobility of cell surface GABABRs and the underlying mechanisms that ensure they provide efficacious slow synaptic inhibition.
K&C Science Report – Phase 2 Using ALOS/PALSAR, RADARSAT-2 and ENVISAT/ASAR Imagery to Define Threatened Species Habitats in the Pantanal

The Brazilian Pantanal is a large continuous tropical wetland with large biodiversity and many threatened habitats. The interplay between the distribution of vegetation, the hydrology, the climate and the geomorphology nourishes and sustains the large diversity of flora and fauna in this wetland, but it is poorly understood at the scale of the entire Pantanal. This study uses multi-temporal L-band ALOS/PALSAR and C-band RADARSAT-2 and ENVISAT/ASAR data to map ecosystems and create a lake distribution map of the Nhecolandia region in the Brazilian Pantanal. A Level 1 object-based image analysis (OBIA) classification defining fresh and brackish lakes was achieved with accuracy results of 98%. A Level 2 classification separating two types of fresh lakes and brackish lakes achieved with accuracy results of 81%. The preliminary analysis of distribution of lakes in relationship to the marsh deer distribution showed that d7uring the dry season, the the marsh deer are in close proximity to permanent waterways such as the Rio Negro (Southern border of Nhecolândia) and the Rio Taquari (North-western border of Nhecolândia). During the flood season the deer begin to migrate away from the more deeply flooded low-lying areas and into the shallower, seasonally flooded areas, following the flooded/dry interface. However, the deer do not migrate into the central part of Nhecolândia, suggesting that the aquatic vegetation found in the baías alone is not enough to sustain the deer’s diet, regardless of season.
OF AGRICULTURAL 2008 XIX 2

The dynamics of formation of tubers depending on the thermal treatment of seed potato. Thermal shock and pre-sprouting increased the formation of tubers per plant, particularly at the beginning of tuber formation until 60 day after planting, whereas the maximum number of tubers was formed at 93–94 day after planting (12.6 and 14.0 tubers, respectively). In untreated variant, the respective value was 13.2 and it formed at 95 day after planting.Pre-sprouting increased the number of tubers with the cultivar ‘Piret’ and only at the beginning of tuber initation. Throughout the entire vegetation period the number of tubers of the cultivar ‘Ants’ was higher due to the thermal shock treatment then in other variants, in the cultivars ‘Piret’ and ‘Varajane kollane’, until 50 day after planting and 60 day after planting, respectively.The cultivars‘Piret’ and ‘Varajane kollane’ started to form tubers early but had a lower average numbers of tubers per plant compared to ‘Ants’. In ‘Varajane kollane’ the maximum number of tubers was formed at 92 day after planting (12.8 tubers), in ‘Ants’ (14.6 tubers) and ‘Piret’ (12.1 tubers), respectively, at 93 and 97 day after planting.
Microstructural Development in Fly Ash-Lime-Metakaolin Mix

Microstructural developments of fly ash stabilized with lime and modified with small percentages of metakaolin were studied through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy tests.Specimens were cured using jute bag method for 7, 14 and 28 days. Xray diffraction test results showed the appearance of new peaks, some of which are not so important.The graphs revealed that extension of curing period leads to an increase in intensity peaks of ettringite and CSH which leads to enhancement of strength of mix. The addition of metakaolin enhances the early strength of mix that promotes the pozzolanic reaction leading to early formation of calcium silicate hydrate. The scanning electron micrographs of the mix provide the conformation of the formation of calcium silicate hydrate (CSH). The micrographs reveal the fact that as the curing period increases the bond between the particles increases, which is developed by the formation of CSH due to pozzolanic activity.
Clinical, pathologico-anatomic and mycological studies of aspergillosis in ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Aspergillosis is known as the most commonly occurring mycotic infection in variety of avian species causing significant economic losses in terms of poor growth, decrease in overall production and/or mortality in different species of birds including ostrich throughout the world due to aspergillosis. This study describes clinical, histopathological and mycological findings in an adult ostrich. An adult ostrich with history of simultaneous occurrence of blocked bladder associated with penile protrusion, proventriculus impaction and testicular ailments died of aspergillosis infection. Different clinical signs such as anorexia, dyspnea and coughing were observed prior to death. Necropsy findings showed significant enlargement of urinary bladder impacted with yellow color and amorphous material. Spherical grayish white raised areas of caseous necrotic foci of variable diameter were sparsely spread over the air sacs. Proventriculus was full of gravel; iron bars corn cobs and plastic bottles. Multiple solitary well circumscribed nodules with hard consistency, hanging with fibrous threads in air sacs were packed with yellow cheesy material. Grossly the testes were smaller in size and hard in consistency. Histologically, the in testes atrophy seminerous tubules, increased connective tissue proliferation and chronic inflammatory cell infiltration was observed. Moreover, the seminerous tubules were lined by one to two layers of germinal epithelial cells exhibiting degenerative and necrotic changes and reduced process of spermatogenesis. Some tubules showed obliterated lumen and multinucleated giant cells with engulfed necrotic cells were also observed. Results on mycological examination, staining with lactophenol, Giemsa’s and florescent stain revealed presence of prominent fungal hyphae and sporangium. Histologically, the lungs tissue revealed multiple areas of caseous necrosis. The current study describes novel finding of blocked bladder and fungus infection in an ostrich that died of aspergillosis.