Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sethoxydim performance on torpedograss (Panicum repens) and sand cordgrass (Spartina bakeri) as affected by carrier volume and rate

Abstract Greenhouse experiments were conducted in 2020 to investigate the effects of carrier volume and sethoxydim rate on torpedograss (Panicum repens L.) control and sand cordgrass (Spartina bakeri Merr.) response from a single application. Panicum repens control and biomass reduction generally increased with increasing sethoxydim rates in evaluations at 14, 28, and 42 d after treatment (DAT); however, increasing the rate to 2X the maximum labeled rate did not always result in increased efficacy. In the first experimental run, which consisted of small plants, P. repens control and biomass reductions were largely similar among tested carrier volumes (37, 187, and 935 L ha–1). However, in run 2, which consisted of larger, mature P. repens plants, efficacy increased when carrier volume was reduced. Spartina bakeri injury increased with sethoxydim rate, reaching a maximum of 45% by 42 DAT. However, no differences in S. bakeri injury among carrier volumes were observed at 14 and 28 DAT evaluations. Spartina bakeri aboveground biomass reductions were also largely driven by sethoxydim rate increases rather than reduced carrier volumes, reaching 40% to 50% reduction in initial aboveground biomass. However, S. bakeri belowground biomass was 20% to 32% greater in treatments applied at 37 or 187 L ha–1 compared with those at 935 L ha–1. Overall, these data suggest that selective P. repens control with sethoxydim may be enhanced through reducing carrier volumes from 935 L ha–1 and that native, perennial, caespitose grasses may exhibit greater tolerance to sethoxydim compared with the rhizomatous P. repens. Future research should further test these hypotheses under field conditions at operational scales.
Novel Sources of Resistance to Stagonospora nodorum and Role of Effector-Susceptibility Gene Interactions in Wheat of Russian Breeding

Virulence factors of the pathogen Stagonospora nodorum Berk. are numerous necrotrophic effectors (NEs) (SnTox), which interact with the products of host susceptibility genes (Snn), causing the development of the disease. In this study, 55 accessions of bread spring and winter wheat were screened for sensitivity to NEs SnToxA, SnTox1, and SnTox3 using different isolates of S. nodorum. In the studied panel of wheat, 47 accessions were modern commercial cultivars grown in Russia and 8 cultivars were historic wheat accessions from the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in Russia. In general, our wheat panel differed from other wheat collections with available data in that it was less sensitive to SnToxA and SnTox3, and more sensitive to SnTox1. Six sources of strong SNB resistance were identified in our wheat panel. In addition, during the study, wheat cultivars were identified as appropriate objects in which to study the different effects of SnTox-Snn interactions, which is important for marker-assisted selection for SNB resistance. The current study has shown, for the first time, that the expression level of Snn1 and Tsn1 susceptibility genes and the disease severity of the different wheat cultivars are interconnected. Future work should focus on the deep characterization of SnTox-Snn interactions at the molecular level.
Revisiting the predictive role of 18F‐fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computerized tomography on treatment outcome in early‐stage favorable Hodgkin lymphoma

In the present manuscript Gallamini et al. comment the results of three large, phase III, randomized clinical trials in early‐stage favorable Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL), aimed at exploring the non‐inferiority of ABVD chemotherapy alone compared to combined‐modality treatment with ABVD and Involved Field/Node Radiotherapy (INRT). The authors also report the preliminary results of risk‐stratification in the first 60 enrolled patients in the phase 2, prospective, international study RAFTING: RAdiotherapy Free Treatment IN Good‐prognosis early‐stage HL (National Trial Identifier 04866654). In this trial patients are stratified, before treatment onset, according to the risk of therapy failure in a single patient basis, taking into account non only the results of interim and End‐of‐Therapy PET, but also the value of new metrics extracted from the baseline PET/CT such as the Large Nodal Mass (LNM) and Total Metabolic Tumor Volume (TMTV). Treatment intensity, consisting in ABVD chemotherapy, INRT and Nivolumab maintenance, is modulated on the presence/absence of the above factors, in a personalized‐medicine approach. The most frequently detected factors driving treatment intensity were LNM and TMTV, while the results of interim and end‐of‐treatment PET were also determinant, albeit in a lower percentage of cases.
Comparing the performance of modified Ft statistic with ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis test

ANOVA is a classical test statistics for testing the equality of groups. However this test is very sensitive to nonnormality as well as variance heterogeneity. To overcome the problem of nonnormality, robust method such as Ft test statistic can be used but the test statistic can only perform well when the assumption of homoscedasticity is met. This is due to the biasness of mean as a central tendency measure. This study proposed a robust procedure known as modified Ft method which combines the Ft statistics with one of the popular robust scale estimators, MADn, Tn and LMSn. A simulation study was conducted to compare the robustness (Type I error) of the method with respect to its counterpart from the parametric and non parametric aspects, ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis respectively. This innovation enhances the ability of modified Ft statistic to provide good control of Type I error rates. The findings were in favor of the modified Ft method especially for skewed data. The performance of the method was demonstrated on real education data
Relationships Between foF2 and Various Solar Activity Proxies

To study ionospheric climate, to model the ionosphere (e.g., the International Reference Ionosphere—IRI) and to investigate its long‐term changes and trends, solar activity proxies/indices have been used, because long and homogeneous data series of solar ionizing flux are not available. To identify the optimum solar activity proxies, we use yearly average foF2 data of 11 ionospheric stations from middle and low/equatorial latitudes of four continents over 1976–2014 and six solar activity proxies, F10.7, sunspot numbers, F30, Mg II, He II, and solar H Lyman‐α flux. Mg II and F30 are found to be the best solar proxies for variability of foF2 at middle latitudes, not the usually used F10.7 or sunspot numbers. At equatorial latitudes the situation seems to be different with likely He II as the optimum solar proxy but all low/equatorial results are very preliminary. Solar activity describes 99% of the total variance of yearly foF2 and the foF2 dependence on solar proxies is highly linear at middle latitudes. The dependence of foF2 on F10.7 and sunspot numbers is significantly steeper in 1996–2014 than in 1976–1995, whereas for F30 both intervals provide the same dependence. We recommend for investigating the midlatitude yearly values of foF2 the solar proxy F30 followed by Mg II as the second one, not traditional F10.7 or sunspot numbers.
A Note on the Multiplicity of Cohen-Macaulay Algebras with Pure Resolutions

Let R = k[X 1, …, Xn ] with k a field, and let I ⊂ R be a homogeneous ideal. The algebra R/I is said to have a pure resolution if its homogeneous minimal resolution has the form Some of the known examples of pure resolutions include the coordinate rings of: the tangent cone of a minimally elliptic singularity or a rational surface singularity [15], a variety defined by generic maximal Pfaffians [2], a variety defined by maximal minors of a generic matrix [3], a variety defined by the submaximal minors of a generic square matrix [6], and certain of the Segre-Veronese varieties [1]. If I is in addition Cohen-Macaulay, then Herzog and Kühl have shown that the betti numbers bi are completely determined by the twists di .
Effect of Ultrasound Pre-Treatment on Extraction and Characterization of Collagen from Bactrian Camel Skin

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of ultrasound pre-treatment on the characterization from Bactrian camel skin. It was possible to produce and characterize collagen extracted from Bactrian camel skin. The results showed that the yield of collagen was higher in ultrasound pre-treatment (UPSC) (41.99%) than the pepsin-soluble collagen extraction (PSC) (26.08%). All extracts were identified as type I collagens using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and retained their helical structure, as confirmed through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The scanning electron microscopy analysis of UPSC revealed that some physical changes were caused by sonication. UPSC had smaller particle size than PSC. The viscosity of UPSC always plays a leading role in the range of 0–10 Hz. However, the contribution of elasticity to the solution system of PSC increased in the range of 1–10 Hz. Moreover, ultrasound-treated collagen had superior solubility property at pH 1–4 and at <3% (w/v) NaCl than non-ultrasound treated collagen. Therefore, the utilization of ultrasound for the extraction of pepsin soluble collagen is a good alternative technology to expand the application at industrial level.
Vichai cyanapelou gen. et sp. nov. (Crustacea: Deckeniidae: Hydrothelphusinae), a new genus and new species of freshwater crab from northern Madagascar

ABSTRACT A new genus and new species of freshwater crab, Vichai cyanapelou gen. et sp. nov., is described from the forested Sava Region of northern Madagascar based on morphology and previously obtained molecular data. The new genus superficially resembles several other deckeniid genera from Madagascar. A combination of characters in the carapace, mandible, cheliped, thoracic sternum, third maxilliped and male first gonopod, however, distinguish it from confamilials. Previous phylogenetic analysis using the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene also supports the new monotypic genus and new species and shows that it forms a distinct clade separate from the 12 other Malagasy genera. Vichai cyanalepou sp. nov. is endemic to Madagascar and is here compared to other species and genera of freshwater crabs occurring in that country. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:46218584-43FE-4C05-9537-FFC81EACCFDB http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B5985969-B677-47E4BE59-37C1308B7A66
Chemico-Physical Properties of Some 1,1′-Bis-alkyl-2,2′-hexane-1,6-diyl-bispyridinium Chlorides Hydrogenated and Partially Fluorinated for Gene Delivery

The development of very efficient and safe non-viral vectors, constituted mainly by cationic lipids bearing multiple charges, is a landmark for in vivo gene-based medicine. To understand the effect of the hydrophobic chain’s length, we here report the synthesis, and the chemico-physical and biological characterization, of a new term of the homologous series of hydrogenated gemini bispyridinium surfactants, the 1,1′-bis-dodecyl-2,2′-hexane-1,6-diyl-bispyridinium chloride (GP12_6). Moreover, we have collected and compared the thermodynamic micellization parameters (cmc, changes in enthalpy, free energy, and entropy of micellization) obtained by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments for hydrogenated surfactants GP12_6 and GP16_6, and for the partially fluorinated ones, FGPn (where n is the spacer length). The data obtained for GP12_6 by EMSA, MTT, transient transfection assays, and AFM imaging show that in this class of compounds, the gene delivery ability strictly depends on the spacer length but barely on the hydrophobic tail length. CD spectra have been shown to be a useful tool to verify the formation of lipoplexes due to the presence of a “tail” in the 288–320 nm region attributed to a chiroptical feature named ψ-phase. Ellipsometric measurements suggest that FGP6 and FGP8 (showing a very interesting gene delivery activity, when formulated with DOPE) act in a very similar way, and dissimilar from FGP4, exactly as in the case of transfection, and confirm the hypothesis suggested by previously obtained thermodynamic data about the requirement of a proper length of the spacer to allow the molecule to form a sort of molecular tong able to intercalate DNA.
205Tl-NMR on Tl2SeO4

205Tl-NMR absorption lines in the Tl2SeO4 crystal have been measured below room temperature. We have observed the remarkable changes in the resonance position and line width of the 205Tl-NMR absorption line at TII–III = 97 K and TIII–IV = 74 K. It is also found that the large shift of the resonance position and with decreasing temperature the drastic increase of the line width of the 205Tl-NMR absorption line are observed even in the temperature range from 74 K to 97 K (phase III). Moreover below TII–III we have observed the anomalous 205Tl-NMR absorption lines with two peaks in both tails, although above TII–III the NMR absorption line is described by the single Gaussian curve. In addition, it is found that the positions of two peaks change even in the phase III. These results imply that the Tl2SeO4 crystal shows the structural incommensurate modulation in the phase III, as observed in many A2BX4 type crystals (A = K, Rb, Cs, NH4, N(CH3)4; B = Zn, Co, Se, S; X = Br, Cl, O).
Combining multi-typologies landslide susceptibility maps: a case study for the Visso area (central Italy)

ABSTRACT The research proposes a simple but geomorphologically adequate method to produce a combined landslide susceptibility map. In fact, in a logic of real use, offering type-specific landslide susceptibility maps to land use planners and administration could be not a successful solution. On the other hand, the simple grouping of more types of landslides could be misleading for model calibration considering that the relationships between slope failures and geo-environmental predictors should be conveyed by the abundance of each type of landslide resulting not specific and diagnostic for each typology. In this test, after having produced independent models for flow, slide and complex landslide by exploiting MARS (Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines) and a set of type-specific geo-environmental variables, a combined landslide susceptibility map was obtained by combining the scores of the three source maps. The combined map was finally validated with a new unknown archive, showing very good performances.
A homology guide for Pacific salmon genus Oncorhynchus resolves patterns of ohnolog retention, resolution and local adaptation following the salmonid‐specific whole‐genome duplication event

Abstract Salmonid fishes have emerged as a tractable model to study whole‐genome duplications (WGDs) as this group has undergone four rounds of WGDs. While most of the salmonid genome has returned to a diploid state, a significant proportion of genes are maintained as duplicates and are referred to as ohnologs. The fact that much of the modern salmonid gene repertoire is comprised of ohnologs, while other genes have returned to their singleton state creates complications for genetic studies by obscuring homology relationships. The difficulty this creates is particularly prominent in Pacific salmonids belonging to genus Oncorhynchus who are the focus of intense genetics‐based conservation and management efforts owing to the important ecological and cultural roles these fish play. To address this gap, we generated a homology guide for six species of Oncorhynchus with available genomes and used this guide to describe patterns of ohnolog retention and resolution. Overall, we find that ohnologs comprise approximately half of each species modern gene repertoires, which are functionally enriched for genes involved in DNA binding, while the less numerous singleton genes are heavily enriched in dosage‐sensitive processes such as mitochondrial metabolism. Additionally, by reanalyzing published expression data from locally adapted strains of O. mykiss, we show that numerous ohnologs exhibit adaptive expression profiles; however, ohnologs are not more likely to display adaptive signatures than either paralogs or singletons. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of our homology guide by investigating the evolutionary relationship among genes highlighted as playing a role in salmonid life‐history traits or gene editing targets.
The Relationship Between Periodontal Disease (PD) and Recurrent Vascular Events in Ischemic Stroke/Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) Patients: A Hospital-Based Cohort Study

Background In this cohort study, the association between periodontal disease (PD) and recurrent vascular events was determined among the subjects with ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA), and the extent and severity of periodontal disease were estimated among these subjects. Methods This prospective, longitudinal, hospital-based cohort study included 153 individuals who had a stroke or TIA. They were divided into two groups: high periodontal disease (HPD) (N=55, mean age: 59.40±12.21) and low periodontal disease (LPD) (N=98, mean age: 53.03±12.82). Clinical attachment loss (CAL) and probing pocket depth (PPD) were used to measure the severity of the periodontal disease. TOAST criteria were used to determine the ischemic stroke etiology, and the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) was used to determine the ischemic stroke severity. A follow-up survey found that vascular incidents recurred. Results HPD individuals exhibited a higher median NIHSS (eight) than LPD patients (seven) in a subset of stroke population (N=23). Thirty-eight cardiovascular events occurred in the first three months after enrollment, including 23 strokes and seven TIAs, and five myocardial infarctions(MIs). There were three deaths from vascular causes. There was a non-significant association between PD and composite vascular events (HR 1.06, 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.09, p=0.71). Compound vascular events were not related to severe HPD (HR 1.31, 95 % CI 0.54 to 3.16, p=0.07). Conclusion In stroke/TIA patients, there is no link between high periodontal disease and recurrent vascular episodes. The proportions of stroke subtypes were not substantially different between HPD and LPD.
Long-term follow-up after invasive or conservative management of stable coronary disease: the ISCHEMIA-EXTEND study

Abstract The ISCHEMIA trial found no statistical difference in the primary endpoint between initial invasive and conservative management of patients with chronic coronary disease and moderate-to-severe ischaemia on stress testing. However, an invasive strategy increased peri-procedural myocardial infarction (MI) but decreased spontaneous MI with continued separation of curves over time. Thus, in order to assess the long-term effect of invasive management strategy on mortality, the ISCHEMIA-EXTEND observational study was planned including surviving participants from the initial phase of the ISCHEMIA trial with a projected median follow-up of nearly 10 years. Recently, an interim report of 7-year all-cause, cardiovascular (CV), and non-CV mortality rates has been published showing no difference in all-cause mortality between the two strategies, but with a lower risk of CV mortality and higher risk of non-CV mortality with an initial invasive strategy over a median follow-up of 5.7 years. The trade-offs in CV and non-CV mortality observed in ISCHEMIA-EXTEND raise many important questions regarding the heterogeneity of treatment effect, the drivers of mortality, and the relative importance and reliability of CV vs. all-cause mortality. Overall, findings from ISCHEMIA and ISCHEMIA-EXTEND trials might help physicians in shared decision-making as to whether to add invasive management to guideline-directed medical management in selected patients with chronic coronary artery disease and moderate or severe ischaemia.
Monoclonal antibodies and amyloid removal as a therapeutic strategy for cardiac amyloidosis

Abstract Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is an infiltrative disease caused by progressive deposition of amyloid fibres in the heart. The most common forms include immunoglobulin light-chain and transthyretin amyloidosis. Current therapies for CA either stabilize or block the production of amyloidogenic precursors, preventing further amyloid deposition. This approach, while reducing cell damage and disease progression, does not target pre-existing amyloid deposits. Conversely, amyloid removal might stimulate functional recovery of the affected organ, thus improving quality of life and survival. A therapeutic strategy based on monoclonal antibodies capable of selectively binding amyloid deposits and inducing their removal has recently been tested in various clinical trial, with promising results, and could represent a key treatment for CA in the near future.
Progress in the treatment of acute pulmonary embolism and chronic thrombo-embolic pulmonary hypertension/disease

Abstract The combination of an initial clinical approach aimed at evaluating the early risk of mortality with subsequent diagnostic and therapeutic approaches articulated on the overall patient’s profile is recommended in acute pulmonary embolism (PE). The presence of pulmonary hypertension associated with the persistence of chronic vascular obstructions in the pulmonary arteries after one or more acute thrombo-embolic events identifies a condition defined as chronic thrombo-embolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). The evolution of technology and knowledge in the field of imaging has allowed us to qualify the computed tomography angiography of the pulmonary arteries as the gold standard for the diagnostic confirmation of both acute PE and CTEPH. In both these conditions, the first therapeutic step is the immediate initiation of anticoagulant therapy. In acute high-risk PE, in addition to anticoagulant therapy, thrombolytic therapy is recommended; in the event of contraindications to thrombolysis, surgical embolectomy or percutaneous catheter-directed treatment represents viable treatment options. In CTEPH, the combination of data collected from cardiac catheterization, computed tomography angiography, and conventional angiography of pulmonary arteries allows a team of experts to identify candidates for pulmonary endarterectomy surgery. Inoperable patients should be considered for percutaneous balloon angioplasty of the pulmonary arteries which can improve patients’ symptoms, quality of life, and prognosis.