Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inactivation of Ascaris Eggs in Source-Separated Urine and Feces by Ammonia at Ambient Temperatures

ABSTRACT Sustainable management of toilet waste must prevent disease transmission but allow reuse of plant nutrients. Inactivation of uterus-derived Ascaris suum eggs was studied in relation to ammonia in source-separated urine without additives and in human feces to which urea had been added, in order to evaluate ammonia-based sanitation for production of safe fertilizers from human excreta. Urine was used concentrated or diluted 1:1 and 1:3 with tap water at 4, 14, 24, and 34°C. Fecal material, with and without ash, was treated with 1% or 2% (wt/wt) urea at 24 and 34°C. At 34°C eggs were inactivated in less than 10 days in urine and in amended feces. At 24°C only feces with 2% (wt/wt) urea or 1% (wt/wt) urea at high pH (10) inactivated all eggs within 1 month, and no inactivation was observed after 75 days in urine diluted 1:3 (18 ± 11 mM NH3). At temperatures of ≥24°C, NH3 proved to be an efficient sanitizing agent in urine and feces at concentrations of ≥60 mM. Treating fecal material at 34°C can give a 6-log10 egg inactivation within 1 month, whereas at 24°C 6 months of treatment is necessary for the same level of egg inactivation. At temperatures of 14°C and below, inactivation rates were low, with viable eggs after 6 months even in concentrated urine.
An improved fuzzy rule-based segmentation system

In this paper, we present an improved segmentation process. The presented method is based on the fuzzy rule development obtained from membership functions and applied to roads maps. Features are determined to operate a reliable segmentation. We make use of three features, difference intensity, standard deviation and a measure of the local contrast to classify each pixel to the foreground, which consists of character and line patterns, and to the background. K-means algorithm is used to cluster features vectors. The computed parameters are translated into linguistic variable developing the fuzzy rules system representing segmentation process. Two methods based on k-means algorithm are developed. The first method constitutes a pre-processing for the second method. It permits to select pertinent parameters and adapt their structure for a better detection of information. It doesn't require a training phase.
Jet Engine Coatings for Resisting Volcanic Ash Damage

The severe disruption in air travel and the economic loss caused by the explosive eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland reminds us of the enormous threat posed to aircraft jet engines by volcanic ash clouds over vast airspace. The nature of damage to gas-turbine jet engines flying through ash clouds depends on several factors, one of which is the temperature in the hottest parts of the engine. The maximum achievable operating temperature in modern jet engines has been increasing steadily in response to a strong demand for higher power output which scales with that temperature This is enabled by: (1) improvements in metal-alloys used to make hot-section engine components; (2) advanced air-cooling technologies that cool them; and (3) the use of ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to insulate them. Higher operating temperatures also make modern jet engines more vulnerable to ash damage because ingested ash melts and adheres to TBC surfaces that can be as hot as 1200°C. This can result in buildup of a molten-glass deposit that penetrates into the TBCs causing them to spall-off, exposing the bare metal to dangerously hot gases. In extreme cases where the ash concentration is very high, catastrophic engine failure can occur due to heavy ash blockage of engine components. It is recognized that ingestion of some amount of ash by engines may be inevitable. A similar threat to engines is posed by airborne silicate sand particles which, although lower in concentration at flight altitudes, are more pervasive. There is a growing need to build protective measures within modern jet engines against damage from a broad range of undesirable silicate deposits. Jet engine coatings are discussed in this paper.
Blended learning - an opportunity to take the best of both worlds

The paper presents theoretical foundations for effective ICT supported learning content development and course design. The practical use of these tools is described in the development of blended learning courses for improvement of computer literacy of unemployed people in Slovenia. The results of the survey about the efficiency of learning within these courses and about user satisfaction in the described courses are also presented. Findings indicate that a great majority of the participants of the courses find blended learning a convenient and efficient approach to learning and that most of them plan to use it for learning in the future.
The Crystal Structure of a Five-Stranded Coiled Coil in COMP: A Prototype Ion Channel?

Oligomerization by the formation of α-helical bundles is common in many proteins. The crystal structure of a parallel pentameric coiled coil, constituting the oligomerization domain in the cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), was determined at 2.05 angstroms resolution. The same structure probably occurs in two other extracellular matrix proteins, thrombospondins 3 and 4. Complementary hydrophobic interactions and conserved disulfide bridges between the α helices result in a thermostable structure with unusual properties. The long hydrophobic axial pore is filled with water molecules but can also accommodate small apolar groups. An “ion trap” is formed inside the pore by a ring of conserved glutamines, which binds chloride and probably other monatomic anions. The oligomerization domain of COMP has marked similarities with proposed models of the pentameric transmembrane ion channels in phospholamban and the acetylcholine receptor.
Rigorous results on valence-bond ground states in antiferromagnets.

We present rigorous results on a phase in antiferromagnets in one dimension and more, which we call a valence-bond solid. The ground state is simply constructed out of valence bonds, is nondegenerate, and breaks no symmetries. There is an energy gap and an exponentially decaying correlation function. Physical applications are mentioned.
Commitment Point during G0→G1 That Controls Entry into the Cell Cycle

ABSTRACT Initiation of T-lymphocyte-mediated immune responses involves two cellular processes: entry into the cell cycle (G0→G1) for clonal proliferation and coordinated changes in surface and secreted molecules that mediate effector functions. However, a point during G0→G1 beyond which T cells are committed to enter the cell cycle has not been defined. We define here a G0→G1 commitment point that occurs 3 to 5 h after CD3 and CD28 stimulation of human CD4 or CD8 T cells. Transition through this point requires cdk6/4-cyclin D, since inhibition with TAT-p16INK4A during the first 3 to 5 h prevents cell cycle entry and maintains both naive and memory T cells in G0. Transition through the G0→G1 commitment point is also necessary for T cells to increase in size, i.e., to enter the cellular growth cycle. However, transition through this point is not required for the induction of effector functions. These can be initiated while cells are maintained in G0 with TAT-p16INK4A. We have termed this quiescent, activated state G0(A). Our data provide proof of the principle that entry of T cells into the cell cycle and cellular growth cycles are coupled at the G0→G1 commitment point but that these processes can be uncoupled from the early expression of molecules of effector functions.
Depresión en niños y adolescentes

Los trastornos del animo siguen siendo los mejores predictores de suicidio en adolescentes. Entre mas temprano se instala el trastorno del humor, mayor es el riesgo de suicidio y de intentos de suicidio. El sintoma depresion no es sinonimo de tristeza o infelicidad, pero ambos son elementos de la depresion. La depresion como sindrome requiere la combinacion de signos y sintomas que en el caso de los ninos, por ser individuos en desarrollo, es de forma y cantidad variables. La depresion de ninos y adolescentes tiene una implicacion profunda en la cultura, la economia, los servicios medicos y psiquiatricos, el desempeno escolar y la familia. En las clasificaciones actuales de la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud y de la Asociacion Psiquiatrica Americana los criterios de depresion son esencialmente los mismos en ninos, adolescentes y adultos. Se ha propuesto que los ninos exhiben sintomatologia depresiva con sintomas no depresivos denominados equivalentes no depresivos. Estos pueden ser trastornos psicosomaticos, trastornos de la conducta y funcionamiento inadecuado en lo social y academico. Los reportes clinicos sobre depresion infantil muestran cambios permanentes en la conducta del nino. Algunos estudios de seguimiento muestran que estos ninos son mas susceptibles a las infecciones y al retrazo en el desarrollo. Entre los siete y diez anos de edad pueden presentar baja autoestima, aislarse voluntariamente, reconocer elementos intimidantes en su ambiente, evitar experiencias potencialmente frustrantes y reaccionar ante ellas con ansiedad, rabia, tristeza o desinteres. En ninos de edad puberal los mecanismos de defensa patologicos se acercan al modelo de la depresion adulta y obliga a los padres a reaccionar con su recurso adulto. Entre las variantes clinicas de la depresion estan el trastorno depresivo mayor que es el mas frecuente y el trastorno bipolar. En cuanto a la comorbilidad, los cuatro diagnosticos mas frecuentes en su orden son: los trastornos de ansi.
Book Review: The Structure of Scientific Articles: Applications to Citation Indexing and Summarization by Simone Teufel

Finding a particular scientific document amid a sea of thousands of other documents can often seem like an insurmountable task. "The Structure of Scientific Articles" shows how linguistic theory can provide a solution by analyzing rhetorical structures to make information retrieval easier and faster. Through the use of an improved citation indexing system, this indispensable volume applies empirical discourse studies to pressing issues of document management, including attribution, the author's stance towards other work, and problem-solving processes.
Circulating MicroRNAs as a Novel Class of Diagnostic Biomarkers in Gastrointestinal Tumors Detection: A Meta-Analysis Based on 42 Articles

Objective MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have become the focus of most recent efforts in cancer research. However, there have been inconsistencies in the literature regarding the suitability of circulating miRNAs for early detection of gastrointestinal cancers. This study aims to assess the diagnostic performance of circulating miRNAs in detection of gastrointestinal cancer through a meta-analysis. Methods Eligible studies were selected by conducting a systematic literature search of public databases. The sensitivity and specificity were used to plot the summary receiver operator characteristic (SROC) curve and calculate the area under the SROC curve (AUC). The between-study heterogeneity was evaluated by Q test and I 2 statistics. Subgroup analyses and meta-regression were further performed to explore the potential sources of heterogeneity. All analyses were performed using the STATA 12.0 software. Results A total of 107 studies from 42 articles were included for the meta-analysis according to the inclusion criteria. The overall analysis of all gastrointestinal cancers showed that circulating miRNAs have a relatively good diagnostic performance in gastrointestinal cancers, with a sensitivity of 0.75, a specificity of 0.81 and an AUC of 0.85. In addition, subgroup analyses based on different type of miRNA assay suggested that single-miRNA assay displayed a relatively low diagnostic performance with the AUC values of 0.84 for gastric cancer (GC) and 0.79 for colorectal cancer (CRC), while multiple-miRNAs assay significantly improved the diagnosing accuracy with AUC rising to 0.92 for GC and 0.89 for CRC. Another interesting finding was that plasma-based miRNA assay reach a higher accuracy compared with serum-based one for GC, while opposite conclusion was drawn for CRC. Conclusions In conclusion, circulating miRNAs, particularly the combination of multiple miRNAs, may present as promising biomarkers for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers. Further large-scale prospective studies are necessary to validate their potential applicability in human cancer diagnosis.
he long polar fimbriae of STEC O 157 : H 7 induce expression f pro-inflammatory markers by intestinal epithelial cells

Infection with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is characterized by acute inflammation of the colonic mucosa. STEC O157:H7 contains two non-identical loci encoding long polar fimbriae (Lpf), which play a role in the STEC colonization of the intestinal epithelial cells. However, no information is available regarding the involvement of Lpf in the STEC-induced host inflammatory response. Hence, in this study we assess the role of Lpf as an inducer of inflammation on intestinal epithelial cells. Secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in response to STEC wild type and lpf isogenic mutants was evaluated on intestinal T84 cells. Of the 27 cytokines assayed, IL-6, IL-8, IL-15, FGF, GM-CSF and IP-10 were significantly reduced, when compared to the wild-type strain, in the lpfA1 lpfA2 double mutant. Further, the host intracellular signaling pathways activated in response to Lpf were determined by using an array containing genes representative of 18 different signal transduction pathways. The analysis indicated that the NFB pathway is activated in response to Lpfexpressing STEC. Therefore, our study supports the role of Lpf as a STEC factor mediating intestinal inflammation.
Corvallis, Oregon, crustal and upper mantle receiver structure from teleseismic P and S waves

Structure under Corvallis, Oregon, was examined using long-period Ps and Sp conversions and P reverberations from teleseismic events as recorded at the WWSSN station COR. A distinct low-velocity zone in the uppermost mantle is inferred by modeling these phases in the time domain using a data set composed of six deep and intermediate-depth earthquakes. The lower boundary occurs at 45-km depth and has S and P velocity contrasts of 1.3 and 1.4 km/sec, respectively. The material comprising the low-velocity zone has a Poisson ratio of at least 0.33 and is constrained by the average P and S travel times determined from the converted phases. The top of the earth model conforms to previously published refraction results.
Micro-and meiobiota patterns in glacier driven stream habitats

Glacier-fed rivers are among the most sensitive and endangered habitat types nowadays. Their upper reaches are located within areas of economic interest (e.g. skiing and glacier skiing, hydropower generation), but also within protected areas such as, for example, National Parks worldwide (e.g. Hohe Tauern, Pyrenees, Rocky Mountains). The majority of glacial river studies has focused on the macrozoobenthos. Thus, this study presents a comparison of the widely neglected stream microand meiobenthos (MMB) among different glacial-fed stream reaches driven by two different glacier catchments: the Möll River Catchment (MC) and the Kleinelendbach stream catchment (KC). The catchments differ in catchment and glacier area, and glacier retreat patterns. The stream reaches comprised different habitat types such as the glacier source and extreme harsh glacial stream main channels, but also benign, less glacier influenced side channels. Their ages (years since deglacierization) ranged from 0 to ~ 150 years. They were within the protected area of the Hohe Tauern National Park. The regional diversity of the MMB (taxa numbers of fungi, algae, protists, nematodes, rotifers, invertebrates) was generally high in both catchments (MC: 270; KC: 291). The local (stream reach) diversity was also relatively high, but taxa numbers varied considerably between reaches and ranged from 64 – 195. Highest taxa numbers were recorded for benign stream habitats of the KC (195) and the MC (172). The latter was within the Sandur area downstream the margin of the Pasterze glacier. The benign sites represented not only local hot spots of diversity but also hot spots of ecological functionality with regard to the broad spectrum of abundant organisms, comprising primary producers (autotrophic flagellates, cyanobacteria, diatoms and other algae), decomposers (bacteria, fungi) and diverse consumers (heterotrophic flagellates, protists, nematodes, rotifers, copepods, tardigrades). ANOSIM resemblance analysis revealed similarity of fungi, protists and rotifers, and dissimilarity of bacteria, flagellates, diatoms and nematodes between the different stream reaches. The perspectives of ongoing glacier retreat and expected alterations of glacial-fed rivers may have various consequences for the MMB: thermal and hydrological changes along main river channels will represent adaptive challenges to these organisms, whereas drying of side arms and surrounding wetlands will lead to regional extinctions. The latter would represent an enormous loss of diversity that may affect ecological processes and services of alpine areas. But actual habitat changes and their effects on biodiversity as well as on ecological processes and services of alpine glacier catchments clearly need further investigations.
Carotid intimal medial thickness in human immunodeficiency virus-infected women: effects of protease inhibitor use, cardiac risk factors, and the metabolic syndrome.

CONTEXT Little is known regarding carotid intimal medial thickness (IMT) in HIV-infected women and the risk factors for subclinical atherosclerosis in this population, including antiretroviral therapy and the metabolic syndrome. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to assess carotid IMT in relationship to HIV status and antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected women in comparison with healthy age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched control subjects. SETTING AND SUBJECTS The study took place at an academic medical center and included 97 HIV-infected women compared with 86 age- and BMI-matched healthy control subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES We assessed carotid IMT, metabolic syndrome, and risk factors for increased IMT. RESULTS Carotid IMT was not increased in HIV-infected women [0.62 mm (0.57-0.68); median (IQR)] compared with non-HIV-infected women [0.61 mm (0.55-0.68)] matched for age and BMI (P = 0.07) but was increased significantly among HIV patients receiving a protease inhibitor (PI) [0.65 (0.59-0.71) mm] vs. non-PI-treated patients [0.61 (0.57-0.66) mm] (P < 0.05) and vs. control subjects [0.61 (0.55-0.68) mm] (P < 0.05). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was significantly increased among the HIV-infected women compared with control subjects and particularly in PI- vs. non-PI-treated HIV patients (45 vs. 19%, P = 0.001). Metabolic syndrome score correlated with IMT among non-HIV patients but not among the HIV group. Individual risk factors most strongly associated with IMT in multivariate regression modeling in the control group were age and waist-to-hip ratio, and among the HIV group age and waist circumference. CONCLUSIONS These data demonstrate increased carotid IMT in HIV-infected women receiving PI therapy, which may be due to associated metabolic abnormalities related to PI therapy or more direct effects of this medication class on the vasculature. Additional studies of the mechanisms by which PI uses results in subclinical atherosclerosis are needed.
Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate-dependent Oscillations of Luminal [Ca2+] in Permeabilized HSY Cells*

Oscillations in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) are thought to play an important role in phosphoinositide-linked Ca2+ signaling events. We demonstrate corresponding inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-dependent oscillations of Ca2+ concentration within the lumen of the IP3-sensitive stores ([Ca2+]L) of saponin-permeabilized HSY cells by monitoring [Ca2+]L with the fluorescent Ca2+ indicator Mag-fura-2. The associated openings and closings of the IP3-sensitive Ca2+ release channel were detected via quenching of Mag-fura-2 fluorescence due to the entry of Mn2+, a Ca2+ surrogate, into the stores. Evidence for complimentary Ca2+ oscillations at the external surface of the stores was provided by the membrane-bound Ca2+ probe Calcium Green C18. The permeabilization of saponin-treated HSY cells to macromolecules was confirmed by demonstrating that permeabilized cells readily took up and lost (t1/2 ≈ 46 s) a fluorescently tagged 70-kDa dextran. Our results impose a number of constraints on possible mechanisms for [Ca2+]i oscillations. In addition, they support recent proposals that [Ca2+]i oscillations arise directly from the (biphasic) effects of Ca2+ itself on IP3-sensitive Ca2+ channel activity.
Limits to Speculation and Nonlinearity in Deviations from Uncovered Interest Parity: Empirical Evidence and Implications for the Forward Bias Puzzle

We examine empirically the hypothesis that limits to speculation in the foreign exchange market may induce nonlinearities in the spot-forward relationship and in the process driving the deviations from the uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) condition. Our empirical results provide strong evidence of nonlinearities which are consistent with a model of deviations from UIP with two extreme regimes: one regime with persistent but tiny deviations from UIP, and another regime where UIP holds. In a battery of Monte Carlo experiments, we show that if the true data generating process of UIP deviations were of the nonlinear form we consider, estimation of conventional spot-forward regressions would generate the well known forward bias puzzle and the predictability of foreign exchange excess returns documented in the literature. In turn, these findings have implications for the economic significance of the statistical rejection of foreign exchange market efficiency.
Improving Legal Information Retrieval by Distributional Composition with Term Order Probabilities

Legal professionals worldwide are currently trying to get up-to-pace with the explosive growth in legal document availability through digital means. This drives a need for high efficiency Legal Information Retrieval (IR) and Question Answering (QA) methods. The IR task in particular has a set of unique challenges that invite the use of semantic motivated NLP techniques. In this work, a two-stage method for Legal Information Retrieval is proposed, combining lexical statistics and distributional sentence representations in the context of Competition on Legal Information Extraction/Entailment (COLIEE). The combination is done with the use of disambiguation rules, applied over the rankings obtained through n-gram statistics. After the ranking is done, its results are evaluated for ambiguity, and disambiguation is done if a result is decided to be unreliable for a given query. Competition and experimental results indicate small gains in overall retrieval performance using the proposed approach. Additionally, an analysis of error and improvement cases is presented for a better understanding of the contributions.