Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Independent and interactive effects of incremental heat strain, orthostatic stress, and mild hypohydration on cerebral perfusion.

The purpose of this study was to identify the dose-dependent effects of heat strain and orthostasis [via lower body negative pressure (LBNP)], with and without mild hypohydration, on systemic function and cerebral perfusion. Eleven men (means ± SD: 27 ± 7 y; body mass 77 ± 6 kg), resting supine in a water-perfused suit, underwent progressive passive heating [0.5°C increments in core temperature (Tc; esophageal to +2.0°C)] while euhydrated (EUH) or hypohydrated (HYPO; 1.5-2% body mass deficit). At each thermal state, mean cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAvmean; transcranial Doppler), partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide ([Formula: see text]), heart rate (HR) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP; photoplethysmography) were measured continuously during LBNP (0, -15, -30, and -45 mmHg). Four subjects became intolerant before +2.0°C Tc, unrelated to hydration status. Without LBNP, decreases in [Formula: see text] accounted fully for reductions in MCAvmean across all Tc. With LBNP at heat tolerance (+1.5 or +2.0°C), [Formula: see text] accounted for 69 ± 25% of the change in MCAvmean. The HYPO condition did not affect MCAvmean or any cardiovascular variables during combined LBNP and passive heat stress (all P > 0.13). These findings indicate that hypocapnia accounted fully for the reduction in MCAvmean when passively heat stressed in the absence of LBNP and for two- thirds of the reduction when at heat tolerance combined with LBNP. Furthermore, when elevations in Tc are matched, mild hypohydration does not influence cerebrovascular or cardiovascular responses to LBNP, even when stressed by a combination of hyperthermia and LBNP.
The Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Knowledge and Productivity: A Study of Potato Farmers in the Peruvian Andes

Using survey data from Peru, this article evaluates the impact of a pilot farmer‐field‐school (FFS) program on farmers’ knowledge of integrated pest management (IPM) practices related to potato cultivation. We use both regression analysis controlling for participation and a propensity score matching approach to create a comparison group similar to the FFS participants in observable characteristics. Results are robust across the two approaches as well as with different matching methods. We find that farmers who participate in the program have significantly more knowledge about IPM practices than those in the nonparticipant comparison group. We also find suggestive evidence that improved knowledge about IPM practices has the potential to significantly improve productivity in potato production.
TUNABLE TIME RESOLVED STED MICROSCOPY

Circumventing the limit imposed by diffraction is a major issue in the instrumental development to realize finer resolutions in biological samples. With STED microscopy [1], we exploit the molecular transitions of the fluorescent marker to image well below the Rayleigh criterion. Despite the major resolution improvement demonstrated, the technique isn't easily accessible to a wider community of biologists, mainly due to its apparent complexity, cost and limited tunability of the existing commercial systems. We have implemented a tunable, compact and easy to use STED microscope around a commercially available confocal microscope. The employment of a pulsed supercontinuum source (SC-450 PP-HE, Fianium) offers high tunability in terms of choice of fluorescent probes that can be used while enhancing the simplicity for the end user. The depletion beams’ intensity profiles are shaped with phase plates for the improvement of the lateral and axial resolution [2]. These beams are coupled to a commercially available confocal microscope (Nikon Ti-E) through a customized scan head that allows us to follow the dynamics of living cells. Thus intensity images with resolution below the diffraction limit can be obtained as easily as in a classic confocal mode.
Automatic and robust single-camera specular highlight removal in cardiac images

In computer-assisted beating heart surgeries, accurate tracking of the heart's motion is of huge importance and there is a continuous need to eliminate any source of error that might disturb the tracking process. One source of error is the specular reflection that appears on the glossy surface of the heart. In this paper, we propose a robust solution for the detection and removal of specular highlights. A hybrid color attributes and wavelet based edge projection approach is applied to accurately identify the affected regions. These regions are then recovered using a dynamic search-based inpainting with adaptive windowing. Experimental results demonstrate the precision and efficiency of the proposed method. Moreover, it has a real-time performance and can be generalized to various other applications.
Dual kidney transplantation as a strategy to use expanded criteria donors: a systematic review

The objective of this review was to assess whether dual kidney transplantation (DKT) is better than single KT (SKT) for optimizing the use of expanded criteria donor kidneys. We did a systematic literature search and meta‐analyses when possible, pooling data for calculating relative risks (RR) of major outcomes. Twenty‐five studies met the inclusion criteria. One‐year serum creatinine was better after DKT vs. SKT (mean difference −0.27 [−0.37, −0.17], P < 0.001), with less incidence of acute rejection (RR 0.66 [0.52, 0.85], P < 0.001) and without differences at five years. Less DGF was seen in DKT (RR 0.88 [0.76, 1.02], P = 0.09). Mortality at 1 and 3 years was similar after dual or SKT, but mortality at five years was lower after DKT (RR 0.71 [0.53, 0.94], P = 0.02). One‐year graft loss was similar between dual (n = 4158) and SKT (n = 51 800) (RR 0.97 [0.87, 1.09], P = 0.62). Three‐ and five‐year graft loss was not considered because of high heterogeneity between studies. In conclusion, short‐term graft function and long‐term patient survival are better in recipients receiving DKT vs. SKT. However, these differences are based on few retrospective reports with a relatively low number of cases. Good quality randomized controlled trials are needed to assess whether the investment of two kidneys in one recipient is justified in face of the current organ shortage.
The Contribution of Malodour in Quality of Life of Patients With Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Background: Malodourous discharge in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) has a strong psychosocial impact and is often reported as a source of embarrassment, low self-esteem, social stigma, and barriers to interpersonal relationships. Malodour is a maker of bacterial colonization, and its role in HS is understudied. Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between severity of malodourous discharge and quality-of-life impairment in patients with HS. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 51 patients recruited from the Women’s College Hospital and the York Dermatology Centre. Quality of life was assessed using both the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the Skindex-29 instruments. Results: Severity of odour significantly predicts the total Skindex score after controlling for disease severity as measured by the Hurley stage and Sartorius score (R2 = 0.39, F = 8.11, P < .0001). However, odour severity is not a predictor of DLQI (R2 = 0.17, F = 2.63, P = .064). There was no difference in mean DLQI scores for the low- vs high-odour groups, but patients with high odour had a greater quality of life impairment as measured by the Skindex tool (t = −4.19, df = 43, P < .0001, mean difference = −18.87). Conclusion: Malodour is a common symptom that significantly impairs quality of life in patients with HS. The fact that this effect is captured in Skindex and not the DLQI may be attributed to the nonspecificity of the DLQI in terms of unique disease characteristics. It is important to address odour in the management of patients with HS.
An evaluation of data replication for bioinformatics workflows on NoSQL systems

Many research projects in bioinformatics may be viewed as scientific workflows. Biologists often run multiple times the same workflow with different parameters in order to refine their data analysis. These executions generate a large volume of files with different formats, which need to be stored for future evaluations. New database models, like NoSQL systems, could be considered to deal with large volumes of data, particularly in distributed systems. This work presents a data replication impact assessment from the execution of scientific workflows for two NoSQL database management systems: Cassandra and MongoDB.
cGMP-independent mechanism of airway smooth muscle relaxation induced by S-nitrosoglutathione.

This study tested the hypothesis that the NO donor S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) relaxes canine tracheal smooth muscle (CTSM) in part by a cGMP-independent process that involves reversible oxidation of intracellular thiols. GSNO caused a concentration-dependent relaxation in ACh-contracted strips (EC50 ∼1.2 μM) accompanied by a concentration-dependent increase in cytosolic cGMP concentration ([cGMP]i). The soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor methylene blue prevented the increase in [cGMP]iinduced by 1 and 10 μM GSNO, but isometric force decreased by 10 ± 4 and 55 ± 3%, respectively. After recovery of [cGMP]i to baseline, GSNO-induced relaxation persisted during continuous ACh stimulation. Dithiothreitol caused a rapid recovery of isometric force to values similar to those obtained with ACh alone in these strips. We conclude that GSNO relaxes CTSM contracted by ACh in part by oxidation of intracellular protein thiols.
Vitamin E ameliorates enhanced renal lipid peroxidation and accumulation of F2-isoprostanes in aging kidneys.

Aging results in progressive glomerular sclerosis and reductions in glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Oxidative stress may be an important mechanism for the aging process, but to date the role of oxidative stress on renal aging has not been determined. The present study was performed to determine whether age-related alterations in renal hemodynamics and morphology were associated with oxidative stress and whether this could be attenuated by chronic administration of vitamin E. Rats, aged 13 mo, were given either control diet containing vitamin E 50 IU/kg ( n = 6) or a high-vitamin E diet (5,000 IU/kg; n = 6) for 9 mo. Another group of rats (3-4 mo old; n = 7) served as young controls. Aging was accompanied by a 60% reduction in GFR, a threefold increase in renal F2 isoprostanes, newly discovered vasoconstrictive F2-like prostaglandins generated by free radical-mediated lipid peroxidation. Renal aging was also associated with an increase in oxidant-sensitive heme oxygenase, advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs), and the AGE receptor, RAGE. AGE-RAGE interaction has been shown to induce oxidative stress. With high-vitamin E diet, GFR was increased by 50%, F2 isoprostanes were suppressed, and expression of heme oxygenase and RAGE was attenuated. There was also a tendency for glomerular sclerosis to be attenuated. These data demonstrate that age-related decline in renal function is accompanied by oxidative stress and that administration of antioxidants, such as vitamin E, could attenuate the decline in renal function.
Rat proximal tubule cell line transformed with origin-defective SV40 DNA: autocrine ANG II feedback.

The renal proximal tubule (PT) is a major site for a complete tissue renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and produces endogenous angiotensin II (ANG II). The present studies demonstrate autocrine RAS feedback in a line of origin-defective SV40 plasmid transformed immortalized rat PT cells (IRPTC) designated as line 93-p-2-1, which are highly differentiated and express all RAS components. Receptor competition assays and Southern blot following RT-PCR demonstrated that these IRPTC express AT1 and AT2 angiotensin receptor subtypes. Autocrine RAS feedback was examined following exposure to ANG II (10-8 M), and it was noted that angiotensinogen mRNA increases significantly by 1 h and remains elevated through 24 h. The AT1 blocker losartan prevents this increase. Moreover, ANG II upregulates expression of ANG II receptor mRNA (both AT1 and AT2). Thus the present studies demonstrate positive ANG II feedback with angiotensinogen and ANG II receptors in PTC, suggesting that the main site of such intrarenal feedback in vivo is within PT. ANG II secreted by line 93-p-2-1 is increased by isoproterenol, suggesting β-adrenergic regulation in IRPTC.
Experimental Characterisation of Fuel Blends

In the quest to mitigate demand for conventional petroleum derived transportation fuels and reduce their associated CO2 emissions, there are an increasing number of alternative fuels being proposed. Blending of such alternatives necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their combustion behaviour for effective and efficient commercial deployment. Therefore, characterisation of such blends fundamental combustion parameters relative to their constituents, under different operational conditions, is of essential importance. Two key parameters are that of laminar burning velocity and ignition delay time. The present work predominately focused on investigations of the former and the theoretical development of a universal predictive laminar burning velocity blending law, suitable for all commercial fuel types and those from chemically dissimilar families, such as methane and hydrogen. Aiding this development, an array of pure fuel/air mixtures and their blends burning velocities were measured by means of a constant volume combustion vessel, at a temperature of 360K, for pressures of 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 MPa, at equivalence ratios from 0.8 to 1.3. Blends comprised of pure fuels representative of the major chemical families found within Fischer-Tropsch synthetic gasoline, namely, iso-octane, n-heptane, toluene, 1-hexene, and that of promising bio-derived alcohols, namely, ethanol and n-butanol. A proposed laminar burning velocity blending law was evaluated against existing laws, using the measured blend data, and existing data from other researchers, and on average, outperformed all. The acquired data also allowed investigations into linear and nonlinear flame speed/stretch relationships, and correlations between the critical Peclet and Karlovitz numbers with Markstein numbers, as a function of fuel type, pressure and equivalence ratio. Furthermore, during the present work, considerable efforts were made towards commissioning a rapid compression machine, which served to allow the concurrent collection of ignition delay data for the same blends by other researchers. This gave the opportunity for a conjoint investigation into the comparative effects of ethanol and n-butanol addition to a TRF gasoline surrogates burning velocity and ignition delay behaviour.
Unsupervised Separation of Transliterable and Native Words for Malayalam

Differentiating intrinsic language words from transliterable words is a key step aiding text processing tasks involving different natural languages. We consider the problem of unsupervised separation of transliterable words from native words for text in Malayalam language. Outlining a key observation on the diversity of characters beyond the word stem, we develop an optimization method to score words based on their nativeness. Our method relies on the usage of probability distributions over character n-grams that are refined in step with the nativeness scorings in an iterative optimization formulation. Using an empirical evaluation, we illustrate that our method, DTIM, provides significant improvements in nativeness scoring for Malayalam, establishing DTIM as the preferred method for the task.
Weak visibility queries of line segments in simple polygons and polygonal domains

ABSTRACT In this paper we consider the problem of computing the weak visibility polygon of a query line segment pq (or ) inside a given polygon . Our first algorithm runs in simple polygons and needs time and space in the preprocessing phase to report of any query line segment pq in time . We also give an algorithm to compute the weak visibility polygon of a query line segment in a non-simple polygon with pairwise-disjoint polygonal obstacles with a total of n vertices. Our algorithm needs time and space in the preprocessing phase and in query time of , in which is an output sensitive parameter of at most , and is the output size.
Enhancement of spontaneous baroreflex by antisense c- fos oligonucleotide treatment in the NTS of the rat.

We evaluated the hypothesis that basal Fos protein at the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS), the primary terminal site for baroreceptor afferents, exerts a tonic inhibitory modulation on the spontaneous baroreceptor reflex (BRR) control machinery, which is responsible for beat-to-beat regulation of resting systemic arterial pressure (SAP). In adult male Sprague-Dawley rats anesthetized and maintained with pentobarbital sodium, microinjection bilaterally into the caudal NTS of a 15-mer antisense oligonucleotide that targets against the initiation codon of c- fosmRNA (5'-129 to 143-3') significantly enhanced the spontaneous BRR response, as determined by transfer function analysis of SAP and heart rate signals. The same treatment also diminished baseline Fos-like immunoreactivity in the absence of acute cardiovascular perturbation. Control treatments with artificial cerebrospinal fluid, sense cDNA, or antisense oligonucleotides that either target against a different site of the c- fos mRNA (5'-135 to 149-3') or with three mismatched nucleotides in the antisense sequence, were ineffective. These observations support the notion that, under minimal cardiovascular perturbation, basal expression of Fos protein in the NTS may represent an early step in the cascade of intracellular events that leads to long-term inhibitory modulation of beat-to-beat baroreflex control of blood pressure.
Biological Applications of Plants and Algae Lectins: An Overview

More than 120 years ago, Peter Hermann Stillmark in his doctoral thesis presented in 1888 to the University of Dorpat, gave the earliest step in the study of proteins that have a very interesting feature: the ability to agglutinate erythrocytes. These proteins were initially referred as to hemagglutinins or phytoagglutinins, since they were originally isolated from extracts of plants [1]. The first hemagglutinin isolated by Stillmark was extracted from seeds of the castor tree (Riccinus communis) and was named ricin [2]. This hemagglutinin was strongly used by Paul Ehrlich as model antigens for immunological studies [2,3].
A review of multiple hypothesis testing in otolaryngology literature

Multiple hypothesis testing (or multiple testing) refers to testing more than one hypothesis within a single analysis, and can inflate the type I error rate (false positives) within a study. The aim of this review was to quantify multiple testing in recent large clinical studies in the otolaryngology literature and to discuss strategies to address this potential problem.
On Having Search Engines Deliver Hierarchies of Web Pages

There is large room for improving the usefulness of today’s Internet search engines. There are various ways. One of the ways is, when given a sub-directory (subWeb) of a Web site in a certain domain, to automatically retrieve, or mine, corresponding subdirectories of other Web sites in a similar domain. In this article, we outline a methodology for doing this.
Special considerations for the diagnosis and treatment of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis

ABSTRACT Introduction: The diagnosis and treatment of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) are ongoing challenges in clinical practice. While important advances have recently been made, including enhanced diagnostic modalities as well as novel therapeutic and prophylactic options, more effective options are urgently needed as the population of immunocompromised patients continues to expand. Areas covered: In this paper, we review novel approaches to diagnosis of IPA, including multiplex PCR, Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry and provide a detailed review of the extended-spectrum triazole isavuconazole, which was approved in 2015 to treat IPA. Expert commentary: We explore burgeoning approaches to diagnosis, including the lateral flow assay, volatile organic compounds, and artificial olfactory technology, as well as novel antifungal agents to treat IPA such as SCY-078 and F901318.
Status of defect investigations

The origin of sensor deterioration in silicon tracking detectors in high energy physics experiments is to a large proportion a result of crystal defects in the silicon bulk. These defects can be analysed and identified with the aim to eventually find the best possible material or even a "cure" for the impact of these defects. In the recent years, these studies have been performed on n-type silicon sensors that were irradiated with neutrons, pions, protons, electrons and 60Co-γ . This work’s main focus is set on neutrons and charged hadrons, since these particles are the dominant source of radiation damage in future large hadron collider (LHC) experiments. To date, two defects were found to be responsible for the generation of the leakage current. Several donors and acceptors which are charged at room temperature could be identified. These defects are mainly produced in heavily damaged regions with high defect concentrations (cluster). The origin of trapping has not been found until today, but recent results show a possible correlation to the same cluster related defects. This article describes the approaches and measurement methods which are used in the present defect investigations. In addition, an overview is given about the results of defect investigations.
Automatic Minimisation of Masking in Multitrack Audio using Subgroups

The iterative process of masking minimisation when mixing multitrack audio is a challenging optimisation problem, in part due to the complexity and non-linearity of auditory perception. In this article, we first propose a multitrack masking metric inspired by the MPEG psychoacoustic model. We investigate different audio processing techniques to manipulate the frequency and dynamic characteristics of the signal in order to reduce masking based on the proposed metric. We also investigate whether or not automatically mixing using subgrouping is beneficial or not to perceived quality and clarity of a mix. Evaluation results suggest that our proposed masking metric when used in an automatic mixing framework can be used to reduce inter-channel auditory masking as well as improve the perceived quality and perceived clarity of a mix. Furthermore, our results suggest that using subgrouping in an automatic mixing framework can be used to improve the perceived quality and perceived clarity of a mix.
The Use of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization in Bacterial Detection in Mycorrhizal Networks

1 Health Impacts & Exposure Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 2 Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 3 Division of Plant Sciences, National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 4 BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota