Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Terminal Drought-priming Improves the Drought Tolerance in Desi and Kabuli Chickpea

Drought stress is one of the principal factors responsible for low productivity of chickpea. In this study, the influence of terminal drought-priming in improving the drought tolerance in desi and kabuli chickpea types was evaluated. During first season, both chickpea types were grown in soil filled pots under well-watered conditions (75% water holding capacity). At flowering, half of the pots were kept under well-watered conditions while rest half were maintained under drought (50% water holding capacity). Terminal drought stress significantly affected the seed composition of both chickpea types as indicated by increase in total proteins (10%), zinc (9.5%), potassium (3.2–0.9%), calcium (2.5–1.3%), and total soluble phenolics (4–57%) compared with the plants raised under well-watered conditions. During second season, chickpea seeds collected from wellwatered and droughted source were planted in soil filled pots under drought (50% water holding capacity) and well-watered conditions (75% water holding capacity). Drought stress suppressed the stand establishment, seedling growth, carbon assimilation, PSII efficiency, total chlorophyll contents, α-amylase activity, sugar metabolism, and trehalose contents of both chickpea types. Chickpea types also differed in their response to drought; kabuli chickpea type was more affected by drought than the desi type. The desi chickpea type had better stand establishment and growth than the kabuli chickpea type. However, terminal drought-priming improved the performance of both chickpea types under drought; nonetheless the improvement was more pronounced in desi chickpea types. Terminal drought-priming improved the germination metabolism and accumulation of free proline, total phenolics and trehalose contents, which assisted desi chickpea to perform well under drought. In conclusion, changes in seed composition induced by drought-priming improved drought tolerance in chickpea are owed to better germination, carbon assimilation and accumulation of free proline, total soluble phenolics and trehalose. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers
In vitro Effectiveness of Commercial Bacteriophage Cocktails on Diverse Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase Producing Escherichia coli Strains

The objective of this study is to determine the in vitro susceptibility of Georgian bacteriophage cocktails on multidrug resistant (MDR) extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) isolated from patients’ blood and urine cultures. A total of 615 E. coli isolates were included in this study. Phene Plate (PhP)-typing and phylogenetic grouping were used for the typing. Antimicrobial resistance profiles and ESBL production of all isolates were confirmed according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) criteria. The activities of four bacteriophage cocktails (Enko-phage, SES-bacteriophage, Pyo-bacteriophage, and Intesti-bacteriophage) were determined against 142 ESBL-EC using in vitro spot tests. According to this, Enko-phage were active against 87.3% of the tested strains while that ratio was 81.7% for Intesti-bacteriophage, 81.7% for Pyo-bacteriophage, and 59.2% for SES-bacteriophage cocktails. Based on the contingency tests, the phage cocktails were observed to be statistically significantly (p < 0.001) more effective on ESBL-EC strains belonging to phylogenetic groups D and B2. The employed phage cocktails were found to be affective against all tested resistant types. These results are promising especially for the infections that are caused by MDR pathogens that are difficult to treat. As this is a preliminary step to the potential clinical trials to be designed for the country, in vitro confirmation of their success on a MDR ESBL-EC collection should be accepted as an initial action, which is encouraging to consider clinical trials of phage therapy especially in countries which are not introduce phage therapy.
Serum IGF-1 concentrations following pituitary desensitization do not predict the ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation prior to IVF.

BACKGROUND Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is known to play a role in ovarian follicular development augmenting the action of FSH. Low intrafollicular concentrations have been detected in women who respond poorly to gonadotrophins. This study addresses the relationship between serum IGF-1 levels following pituitary desensitization and ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation. METHODS This is a case-control study of 78 patients undergoing IVF-embryo transfer treatment. Thirty-nine strictly-defined poor responder patients requiring 50 or more ampoules (75 IU FSH) to reach oocyte retrieval were compared with 39 age-matched normal responders, requiring fewer than 50 ampoules. IGF-1 concentrations were determined by extraction radioimmunoassay on serum samples obtained after pituitary desensitization but prior to gonadotrophin stimulation. RESULTS Despite highly significant differences in measures of ovarian response between groups, the mean serum IGF-1 concentration was not statistically significantly different between poor and normal responders [(31.5 nmol/l [95% confidence interval (CI) 28.5-34.5] versus 34.5 nmol/l (95% CI 31.8-37.2)] respectively. No correlation between oocyte number or total gonadotrophin used and serum IGF-1 concentration was observed. CONCLUSION Whilst IGF-1 influences ovarian follicular development this study suggests that serum IGF-1 does not predict ovarian response and does not differentiate between critically-defined poor and normal responders.
Characterizing patterns of interaction in knowledge building discourse

This paper reports the analysis of the online discourse of 44 sixth-grade students on an online platform in a Hong Kong primary school in the academic year of 2005-2006. A framework of two-step categorization is adopted to identify the patterns in a sustained knowledge building discourse, which integrates a category of four basic types of notes and SOLO taxonomy assessing the structural complexity in students’ written discourse. This paper puts emphasis on the effect of argumentation in knowledge building processes, and provides insight on patterns of interaction in elementary students’ online threaded discussions.
Improved clock synchronization start-up time for Ethernet AVB-based in-vehicle networks

Clock synchronization is a necessary feature in in-vehicle time- and safety-critical networks. The reason is that exact timing information has to be maintained in nodes, for instance for time stamps of messages that are important for safety-critical functions. A common time base has to be established at start-up time before time-sensitive data handling can begin. In vehicular applications, this clock initialization phase is only one part of tasks that have to be finished before the vehicle is fully functional. To avoid lengthy delays after vehicle ignition, this start-up phase has to be very short depending on the requirements of functions. Advanced driver assistance systems require high-bandwidth communication such as Ethernet Audio Video Bridging (AVB). Its corresponding IEEE 802.1 AS time synchronization protocol is, however, not able to guarantee fast synchronization start-up in conformance with automotive applications. This paper thus proposes and analyzes several variants of the time synchronization protocol to achieve a shorter start-up time. Simulation-based performance analysis shows that start-up times can be reduced by a factor of 40 compared to the standard IEEE 802.1 AS with the proposal, without considerably affecting synchronization error.
Simulating the development of Fraxinus pennsylvanica shoots using L-systems

that Empire, the Cartographer's art achieved such a degree of perfection that the Map of a single Province occupied an entire City, and the map of the Empire, an entire Province. In time, these vast Maps were no longer sufficient. The Guild of Cartographers created a Map of the Empire, which perfectly coincided with the Empire itself. But Succeeding Generations, with diminished interest in the Study of Cartography, believed that this immense Map was of no use.
Languages and Frameworks for Big Data Analysis

clear the programming model underneath these tools and the expressiveness they to some To some order in the of Big Data processing, a toolkit of models to identify their common features is introduced, starting from data layout. Data-processing applications are divided into batch vs. stream processing. Batch programs one or more ﬁnite datasets to produce a resulting ﬁnite output dataset, whereas stream programs process possibly unbounded sequences of data, called streams , so in an incremental manner. Operations over streams may also have to respect a total data ordering—for instance, to represent time ordering. in which the JobVertex con-tains ExecutionVertexes (actors), one per parallel sub-task. A key difference com-Big
Coaching and demonstration of evidence-based book-reading practices: Effects on Head Start teachers’ literacy-related behaviors and classroom environment

ABSTRACT This study examined the effects of coaching with versus without demonstrations of evidence-based book-reading practices on teachers’ use of strategies during independent book-reading periods. A total of 22 Head Start teachers were randomly assigned to one of two cohorts. One cohort (n = 12) participated in biweekly coaching sessions that included having coaches demonstrate how to incorporate a focus on key literacy skills while reading books aloud to students (C + D); the other cohort (n = 10) participated in coaching sessions that did not include explicit demonstration and modeling of evidence-based book-reading practices (C-only). Postintervention observations revealed that teachers in the C + D cohort engaged in behaviors and interactions during their book reading that focused on phonological awareness, alphabet and word knowledge, and print and book awareness to a greater extent than did teachers in the C-only cohort. Cohort differences were also found during an observed small-group activity and on the language and literacy items of a general measure of the classroom literacy environment. Results lend support for the importance of demonstration and observational learning as dimensions of coaching to bring about significant change in teachers’ literacy-enhancing practices.
Photoabsorption of the molecular IH cation at the iodine 3 d absorption edge

Stephan Klumpp,1,2,* Alexander A. Guda,3 Kaja Schubert,4,2 Karolin Mertens,2 Jonas Hellhund,5 Alfred Müller,5 Stefan Schippers,6 Sadia Bari,4 and Michael Martins2,† 1FS-FLASH-D, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany 2Department Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany 3International Research Center“Smart Materials”, Southern Federal University, ul. Andreya Sladkova 178/24,344090 Rostov-on-Don, Russia 4FS-SCS, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany 5Institut für Atomund Molekülphysik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Leihgesterner Weg 217, 35392 Giessen, Germany 6I. Physikalisches Institut, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 35392 Giessen, Germany
INTUITEL and the Hypercube Model-Developing Adaptive Learning Environments

In this paper we introduce an approach for the creation of adaptive learning environments that give human-like recommendations to a learner in the form of a virtual tutor. We use ontologies defining pedagogical, didactic and learner-specific data describing a learner’s progress, learning history, capabilities and the learner’s current state within the learning environment. Learning recommendations are based on a reasoning process on these ontologies and can be provided in real-time. The ontologies may describe learning content from any domain of knowledge. Furthermore, we describe an approach to store learning histories as spatio-temporal trajectories and to correlate them with influencing didactic factors. We show how such analysis of spatiotemporal data can be used for learning analytics to improve future adaptive learning environments.
Diet assessment of the Atlantic Sea Nettle Chrysaora quinquecirrha in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, using next‐generation sequencing

Next‐generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies have proven useful in deciphering the food items of generalist predators, but have yet to be applied to gelatinous animal gut and tentacle content. NGS can potentially supplement traditional methods of visual identification. Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Atlantic sea nettle) has progressively become more abundant in Mid‐Atlantic United States’ estuaries including Barnegat Bay (New Jersey), potentially having detrimental effects on both marine organisms and human enterprises. Full characterization of this predator's diet is essential for a comprehensive understanding of its impact on the food web and its management. Here, we tested the efficacy of NGS for prey item determination in the Atlantic sea nettle. We implemented a NGS ‘shotgun’ approach to randomly sequence DNA fragments isolated from gut lavages and gastric pouch/tentacle picks of eight and 84 sea nettles, respectively. These results were verified by visual identification and co‐occurring plankton tows. Over 550 000 contigs were assembled from ~110 million paired‐end reads. Of these, 100 contigs were confidently assigned to 23 different taxa, including soft‐bodied organisms previously undocumented as prey species, including copepods, fish, ctenophores, anemones, amphipods, barnacles, shrimp, polychaete worms, flukes, flatworms, echinoderms, gastropods, bivalves and hemichordates. Our results not only indicate that a ‘shotgun’ NGS approach can supplement visual identification methods, but targeted enrichment of a specific amplicon/gene is not a prerequisite for identifying Atlantic sea nettle prey items.
Folate, vitamin B12, homocysteine status and DNA damage in young Australian adults.

We performed a cross-sectional study (n = 49 males, 57 females) and a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled dietary intervention study (n = 31/32 per group) to determine the effect of folate and vitamin B12 (B12) on DNA damage (micronucleus formation and DNA methylation) and plasma homocysteine (HC) in young Australian adults aged 18-32 years. None of the volunteers were folate deficient (i.e. red blood cell folate <136 nmol/l) and only 4.4% (all females) were vitamin B12 deficient (i.e. serum vitamin B12 <150 pmol/l). The cross-sectional study showed that (i) the frequency of micronucleated cells (MNCs) was positively correlated with plasma HC in males (R = 0.293, P < 0.05) and (ii) in females MNC frequency was negatively correlated with serum vitamin B12 (R = -0.359, P < 0.01) but (iii) there was no significant correlation between micronucleus index and folate status. The results also showed that the level of unmethylated CpG (DNA) was not significantly related to vitamin B12 or folate status. The dietary intervention involved supplementation with 3.5x the recommended dietary intake (RDI) of folate and vitamin B12 in wheat bran cereal for three months followed by ten times the RDI of these vitamins via tablets for a further three months. In the supplemented group, MNC frequency was significantly reduced during the intervention by 25.4% in those subjects with initial MNC frequency in the high 50th percentile but there was no change in those subjects in the low 50th percentile for initial MNC frequency. The reduction in MNC frequency was significantly correlated with serum vitamin B12 (R = -0.49, P < 0.0005) and plasma HC (R = 0.39, P < 0.006), but was not significantly related to red blood cell folate. DNA methylation status was not altered in the supplemented group. The greatest decrease in plasma HC (by 37%) during the intervention was observed in those subjects in the supplemented group with initial plasma HC in the high 50th percentile, and correlated significantly with increases in red blood cell folate (R = -0.64, P < 0.0001) but not with serum vitamin B12. The results from this study suggest that (i) MNC frequency is minimized when plasma HC is below 7.5 micromol/l and serum vitamin B12 is above 300 pmol/l and (ii) dietary supplement intake of 700 microg folic acid and 7 microg vitamin B12 is sufficient to minimize MNC frequency and plasma HC. Thus, it appears that elevated plasma HC, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, may also be a risk factor for chromosome damage.
Transcriptome Analysis of Rhizoctonia solani Anastomosis Group 5 Early Invasion in Potato

Rhizoctonia solani (R. solani) is a destructive soil-borne root infecting fungus which impaired quality and production of potato. This study was performed to investigate the response to R. solani AG-5 infection in potato. Minitubers (cv. Favorita) were inoculated by the R. solaniAG-5 strain. Four days after emergence of R. solani AG-5 infection on the young stem of potato, samples were collected and prepared for the Illumina sequencing. The Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between infected and control plants were performed. Functional analysis of these DEGs indicated a total of 338 DEGs, including 216 up-regulated (63.91%) and 122 downregulated DEGs (36.09%), were identified between the control and R. solani infected potato plants. These DEGs were associated with the plant growth, defense, fungal resistance by modulating the oxidative response (including NB-ARC domain-containing disease resistance proteins, ankyrin repeat-containing proteins, ANKs; and peroxidases), ion exchange/transportation (including calcineurin B-like proteins, CBLs; CBL-interacting protein kinase, CIPKs; calmodulin-like proteins, CMLs; and K channel, KAT1) and plant hormone-mediated signaling (MYB44, ANKs). Some essential transcription factors including WRKY45 and MYB4 were significantly upregulated by R. solani infection. The R. solani infection triggered DEGs were related to plant growth, defense, oxidative response, and hormone-mediated signaling. The genes of CBL4, KAT1, ANKs, and MYBs might promote potato adjustment or resistance against R. solani infection. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers
On-line estimation of the parameters of long-range dependence

An on-line version of the Abry-Veitch (see IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, vol.44, p.2-15, 1998) wavelet based estimator of the Hurst parameter is presented. It has very low memory and computational requirements and scales naturally to arbitrarily high data rates, enabling its use in real-time applications such as admission control, and avoiding the need to store huge data sets for off-line analysis. An implementation for Ethernet based on standard hardware supporting sampling rates of 1000 data points per second is described, and results of its operation presented. The performance of the estimator as a function of the length of data processed is demonstrated using simulated data.
Integration of Proteomics and Metabolomics in Exploring Genetic and Rare Metabolic Diseases

Background: Inherited metabolic disorders or inborn errors of metabolism are caused by deficiency of enzymatic activities in the catabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, or lipids. These disorders include aminoacidopathies, urea cycle defects, organic acidemias, defects of oxidation of fatty acids, and lysosomal storage diseases. Inborn errors of metabolism constitute a significant proportion of genetic diseases, particularly in children; however, they are individually rare. Clinical phenotypes are very variable, some of them remain asymptomatic, others manifest metabolic decompensation in neonatal age, and others encompass mental retardation at later age. The clinical manifestation of these disorders can involve different organs and/or systems. Some disorders are easily managed if promptly diagnosed and treated, whereas in other cases neither diet, vitamin therapy, nor transplantation appears to prevent multi-organ impairment. Summary: Here, we discuss the principal challenges of metabolomics and proteomics in inherited metabolic disorders. We review the recent developments in mass spectrometry-based proteomic and metabolomic strategies. Mass spectrometry has become the most widely used platform in proteomics and metabolomics because of its ability to analyze a wide range of molecules, its optimal dynamic range, and great sensitivity. The fast measurement of a broad spectrum of metabolites in various body fluids, also collected in small samples like dried blood spots, have been facilitated by the use of mass spectrometry-based techniques. These approaches have enabled the timely diagnosis of inherited metabolic disorders, thereby facilitating early therapeutic intervention. Due to its analytical features, proteomics is suited for the basic investigation of inborn errors of metabolism. Modern approaches enable detailed functional characterization of the pathogenic biochemical processes, as achieved by quantification of proteins and identification of their regulatory chemical modifications. Key Message: Mass spectrometry-based “omics” approaches most frequently used to study the molecular mechanisms underlying inherited metabolic disorders pathophysiology are described.
Urban Perception of Commercial Activeness from Satellite Images and Streetscapes

People can percept social attributes from streetscapes such as safety, richness, and happiness by means of visual perception, which inspires the research in terms of urban perception. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work focused on revealing the relationship between visual patterns of satellite images as well as streetscapes and commercial activeness. We propose to make use of bag of features (BoF) in the context of computer vision and sparse representation in the sense of machine learning to predict commercial activeness of urban commercial districts. After obtaining the urban commercial districts via clustering, we predict the commercial activeness degrees of them using four image features, namely, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG), Autoencoder, GIST, and multifractal spectra for satellite images and street view images, respectively. The performance evaluation with four large-scale datasets demonstrates that the presented computational framework can not only predict the commercial activeness with satisfactory precision compared with that based on Point of Interest (POI) data but also discover the visual patterns related.
Thrombolytic use in the region around Amarillo, Texas, in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction

ABSTRACT Appropriate administration of thrombolytic therapy is particularly important for ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients who are unable to access primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a timely manner. We evaluated the current state of thrombolytic therapy in the Panhandle region of West Texas where access to primary PCI is poor. The medical records of 79 patients transferred from 20 outlying facilities to the two hospitals in Amarillo, Texas, for STEMI in 2016 were retrospectively evaluated for time of onset of chest pain, initial electrocardiogram findings, medication reconciliation, and any contraindications to thrombolytic therapy. Medical record review allowed the patients to be sorted into one of five predefined categories based on our findings. The most common error discovered was failure to deliver the appropriate accompanying medications with thrombolytic therapy, noted in 43% of patients. Other errors included failure to deliver thrombolytic therapy in patients who met no clear contraindications to thrombolytic therapy (21%) and administering thrombolytic therapy to patients who had not suffered STEMI (4%). Thirteen percent of patients were appropriately treated with thrombolytic therapy and 19% of patients met a contraindication to thrombolytic therapy and were not treated with thrombolytic therapy, as was appropriate.