Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ADM1 simulation of the thermophilic mono-fermentation of maize silage – Use of an uncertainty analysis for substrate characterization

The Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) was applied for the mathematical simulation of the thermophilic mono-fermentation of maize silage. Data from a period of 140 days of pilot plant operation were used for model calibration. The substrate characterization in terms of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and inert matter was based on data derived from fodder analysis. The model was capable of adequately simulating the total biogas production, biogas composition, pH values and the concentrations of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen and volatile fatty acids. An uncertainty analysis was conducted considering variations in substrate composition in terms of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. An uncertainty range of ± 20% for the measured feedstock composition in terms of proteins, lipids and lignin was used to calculate the main ADM1 inflow fractions. Within this uncertainty range the simulation results for the total biogas production and biogas composition showed only low variations. The simulated concentrations of propionic, butyric and valeric acids varied to a medium degree. Significant higher variations in model output were calculated for the parameters ammonium nitrogen and acetic acids, which in turn implies that model calibration is strongly correlated to the characterisation of the substrate.
Variants of the Monoamine Oxidase A Gene (MAOA) Predict Free-riding Behavior in Women in a Strategic Public Goods Experiment

Laboratory experiments have documented substantial heterogeneity in social preferences, but little is known about the origins of such behavior. Previous research on public goods experiments suggests that individual-level demographic and psychological variables correlate with player types. However, the key question about biological sources of variation in these preferences remains open. The aim of this study is to uncover genetic variations that influence differences in cooperative behavior. For this reason, we identify types of players within a strategic public goods experiment. We explicitly test for an association between individual variance in strategy choice and the functional promoter-region repeat of the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA). Our experimental findings suggest a link between MAOA and the occurrence of free-riding in females. Females with MAOA-L are less likely to behave like weak free-riders than MAOA-H carriers, whereas among males, our results did not support a significant relation between genotype and player type. Furthermore, MAOA-L female carriers contribute more than MAOA-H subjects to the public good if they know that others contribute nothing, and they showed slightly lower scores on the Machiavellianism scale. This is the first piece of evidence that genotype might predict player type within a public goods setting. It contributes to our understanding of biological drivers of economic decision-making and points to the need for further exploration.
Neural machine translation for low-resource languages

Neural machine translation (NMT) approaches have improved the state of the art in many machine translation settings over the last couple of years, but they require large amounts of training data to produce sensible output. We demonstrate that NMT can be used for low-resource languages as well, by introducing more local dependencies and using word alignments to learn sentence reordering during translation. In addition to our novel model, we also present an empirical evaluation of low-resource phrase-based statistical machine translation (SMT) and NMT to investigate the lower limits of the respective technologies. We find that while SMT remains the best option for low-resource settings, our method can produce acceptable translations with only 70000 tokens of training data, a level where the baseline NMT system fails completely.
Identification of ElpA, a Coxiella burnetii Pathotype-Specific Dot/Icm Type IV Secretion System Substrate

ABSTRACT Coxiella burnetii causes human Q fever, a zoonotic disease that presents with acute flu-like symptoms and can result in chronic life-threatening endocarditis. In human alveolar macrophages, C. burnetii uses a Dot/Icm type IV secretion system (T4SS) to generate a phagolysosome-like parasitophorous vacuole (PV) in which to replicate. The T4SS translocates effector proteins, or substrates, into the host cytosol, where they mediate critical cellular events, including interaction with autophagosomes, PV formation, and prevention of apoptosis. Over 100 C. burnetii Dot/Icm substrates have been identified, but the function of most remains undefined. Here, we identified a novel Dot/Icm substrate-encoding open reading frame (CbuD1884) present in all C. burnetii isolates except the Nine Mile reference isolate, where the gene is disrupted by a frameshift mutation, resulting in a pseudogene. The CbuD1884 protein contains two transmembrane helices (TMHs) and a coiled-coil domain predicted to mediate protein-protein interactions. The C-terminal region of the protein contains a predicted Dot/Icm translocation signal and was secreted by the T4SS, while the N-terminal portion of the protein was not secreted. When ectopically expressed in eukaryotic cells, the TMH-containing N-terminal region of the CbuD1884 protein trafficked to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), with the C terminus dispersed nonspecifically in the host cytoplasm. This new Dot/Icm substrate is now termed ElpA (ER-localizing protein A). Full-length ElpA triggered substantial disruption of ER structure and host cell secretory transport. These results suggest that ElpA is a pathotype-specific T4SS effector that influences ER function during C. burnetii infection.
Precision versus Approximation: The Trade Off in Assessing Kidney Function and Drug Dosing

Aristotle(384–322BC)Caringforpatientsrequiresdata. Somedataderivefrommeasurement(i.e.,precision),somefrom estimates (i.e., an approximation), andsomefromexperienceorjudgment. Whengiventhechoicebetweenameasurementandanestimate,clinicianspreferthemeasuredvalue. However,itisoftennotfeasibletoobtainameasurement. Inthosecases,anestimateorapproximationispre-ferredtofaultyinformationortonoinformationat all. These principles apply to evaluatingkidneyfunction.Thegoldstandardtoevaluatekidneyfunctionhaslongbeentomeasureglomerularfiltrationrate(GFR)usingafiltrationmarker(e.g.,inulin,iothalamate). However,measuringGFRisnotclinically feasible. It requires expertise andspecialtrainingtoperform,istimeconsuming,andisexpensive. Surrogatemarkershavebeenusedtocompensatefortheinherentdifficultiesin measuring GFR. Serum creatinine (S
Performance analysis of resilient dynamic feedback H2 controllers for discrete-time systems

In this work, a procedure is presented for performance analysis intended to evaluate the resilience and H2 norm bound of discrete-time systems controlled by full-order dynamic feedback compensators. Acceptable performance is specified by disks in the complex plane within which the eigenvalues of the controller and the observer remain in the presence of perturbations in the controller and observer gains. Maximum gain perturbation bounds can be obtained based on the designer's choices of controller and observer eigenvalue regions and the resulting H2-norm bound is calculated. The linear matrix inequality technique is used throughout the analysis process. Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
A Computationally Efficient Delayless Frequency-Domain Adaptive Filter Algorithm

In acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) systems, the partitioned block frequency-domain adaptive filter (PBFDAF) algorithm is commonly adopted to improve the computational efficiency and convergence rate. However, the PBFDAF algorithm introduces an inherent delay. Delayless PBFDAF algorithms have been proposed to tackle this issue. However, the complexity of the existing delayless PBFDAF algorithms is high. Some have high average complexity, but others have high peak complexity. A computationally efficient delayless PBFDAF algorithm is proposed in this letter to reduce both the average and peak complexity. Moreover, a delay compensation method is presented to compensate the error path delay and thus speed up the convergence rate. Simulation results demonstrate that the convergence and tracking performance of the new algorithm with delay compensation is comparable with that of the PBFDAF algorithm.
Use of hydroxyethyl starch for inducing red blood cell aggregation.

UNLABELLED Aggregation of human red blood cells (RBC) remains of biological and clinical interest. Replacement of plasma proteins by polymers to induce RBC aggregation may help to unravel the fundamentals of the aggregation process. Two theories exist to explain RBC aggregation mechanisms: a depletion and a bridging theory. RBC aggregation induced by hydroxyethyl starch (HES) increases with polymer size, which suggests that aggregation is induced via the bridging theory. In this study, the electrophoretic mobility (EPM) was measured to investigate RBC aggregation induced by 200 kDa HES polymers. Also, we evaluated if these polymers were useful for demonstrating aggregation differences between RBCs from healthy and type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) subjects. Our results demonstrate that EPM values of RBCs in 200 kDa HES solutions were less negative than could be predicted by the viscosity of the suspension, supporting the bridging theory. Furthermore, aggregation analysis using the LORCA demonstrated that 200 kDa HES solution enhanced RBC aggregation of healthy and diabetic subjects similarly as standard 500 kDa dextran solutions. IN CONCLUSION our data supports the bridging mechanism underlying 200 kDa HES induced RBC aggregation. In addition, both polymers are useful for demonstrating cellular induced aggregation differences between RBCs from healthy and T1DM subjects.
A Double-Layer Shaped-Beam Traveling-Wave Slot Array Based on SIW

A double-layer shaped-beam traveling-wave slot array based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) at X-band is presented. The double-layer SIW longitudinal slot-coupled cavity slot is proposed as the array element, which has an improved bandwidth performance due to the double-resonant feature. By using this kind of slots, a planar nonuniformly spaced shaped-beam traveling-wave array is constructed. To achieve the desired distribution for the shaped-beam pattern, an efficient optimization method, with the mutual coupling effect being considered, is proposed to optimize the array structure parameters. Experimental results show that the array achieves good shaped-beam pattern in a 4.8% frequency band and low-loss characteristic.
Effect of lacidipine on fatty and proliferative lesions induced in hypercholesterolaemic rabbits

1 The in vivo antiatherogenic activity of the calcium antagonist, lacidipine, was investigated in two different types of atherosclerotic lesions (proliferative and fatty lesions) induced in rabbits. 2 The proliferative lesion was obtained by positioning a hollow silastic collar around one carotid artery, while aortic fatty lesions were induced by cholesterol feeding. Cholesterol (1%) and lacidipine (1,3, and 10 mg kg−1) were given daily mixed with standard diet for 8 weeks to White New Zealand rabbits. The intimal hyperplasia (proliferative lesion) was induced 6 weeks after dietary and drug treatment started. 3 The neointimal formation was determined by measuring cross sectional thickness of intimal (I) and medial (M) tissue of fixed arteries. In untreated animals (n=5), 14 days after collar positioning an intimal hyperplasia was clearly detectable: the arteries with no collar (sham) showed an I/M tissue ratio of 0.03±0.02, whereas in the carotid with collar the ratio was 0.62±0.12. In lacidipine‐treated animals a significant and dose‐dependent effect on proliferative lesions at all three doses tested, was observed. I/M ratios were 0.47±0.02, 0.40±0.09, 0.32±0.02 for doses 1, 3, and 10 mg kg−1 day−1, respectively (P<0.05). 4 The fatty lesion extent was significantly reduced by lacidipine at the 10 mg kg−1 day−1 dose, although a trend was also observed with lower dosage. 5 These results suggest a direct antiatherosclerotic effect of lacidipine, independent of modulation of risk factors such as hypercholesterolaemia and/or hypertension. Furthermore, the proliferative lesions are apparently more sensitive to lacidipine than are lipid‐rich lesions.
The Psychology of Rumour

THE subject of "rumour," though at all times a fascinating field for the psychologist, possesses to-day an exceptional importance and interest. Recent history hasfurnished an overwhelming demonstration of the fallibility of human evidence, and has provided a mass of material which should yield a rich harvest to the scientific investigator. The aim of the present paper is to indicate the results which in the past psychology has already achieved in this field, and the bearing of those results upon the problems of the present day. Rumour is a complex phenomenon consisting essentially in the transmission of a report through a succession of individuals. It may *be provisionally regarded as the product of a series of witnesses, each of whom bears testimony to a statement imparted to him by his predecessor in the series. ' The reliability of a rumour depends, therefore, upon the accuracy with which each such statement is transmitted, and ultimately upon the accuracy of the report furnished by the first member of the series, who is assumed actually to have seen or heard the event in question. This latter factor, the testimony of the actual witness of an event, is what the law-terms "evidence," and it is clear that an examination of its psychology must precede any attempt to attack the more complicated problem of rumour.
CT-Angiographic Collateralization Predicts Final Infarct Volume after Intra-Arterial Thrombolysis for Acute Anterior Circulation Ischemic Stroke

Background: Final infarct volume after thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke depends on time to, and degree of reperfusion and residual blood flow, which is influenced by leptomeningeal collateralization. We evaluated the role of collateralization in the ischemic territory as a predictor of infarct size. Methods: Twenty-five patients (17 women, 8 men, mean age: 67.6 ± 12.4 years) selected by non-contrast-enhanced CT and CT angiography (CTA) underwent intra-arterial thrombolysis (iaT) within 6 h after symptom onset (mean 4.1 ± 1.3 h) for middle cerebral and terminal internal carotid artery (MCA/ICA) stroke. CTA was evaluated for collateralization using thick-slice coronal and axial maximum-intensity projection reconstructions according to a simple score, the CTA collateralization score (CTA-cs): 0 = no collateral filling, 1 = ≤50%, 2 = >50% but <100%, and 3 = 100% collateral filling. We analyzed the association between the final infarct volume on CT 5 days after the intervention and the CTA-cs, successful reperfusion (Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction, TIMI, grades 2 and 3) and time to treatment in a prospective study approved by our institutional review board, with informed consent from all patients. Results: Reperfusion was achieved in 72%. Asymptomatic and symptomatic parenchymal hemorrhage occurred in 2 patients (8%) each and hemorrhagic transformation in 4 (16%). CTA-cs (r = –0.63; p < 0.001) and postinterventional TIMI grade (r = –0.403; p = 0.046) were inversely associated with final infarct volume. After multiple regression analysis, CTA-cs and reperfusion remained as independent predictors of final infarct volume whereas time to treatment and initial stroke severity did not. Conclusion: The extent of collateralization and reperfusion are independent predictors of final infarct volume in acute MCA/ICA stroke treated with iaT. Time to treatment and stroke severity had no independent effect on final infarct volume.
The ribosomal translocase homologue Snu114p is involved in unwinding U4/U6 RNA during activation of the spliceosome

Snu114p is a yeast U5 snRNP protein homologous to the ribosomal elongation factor EF‐2. Snu114p exhibits the same domain structure as EF‐2, including the G‐domain, but with an additional N‐terminal domain. To test whether Snu114p in the spliceosome is involved in rearranging RNA secondary structures (by analogy to EF‐2 in the ribosome), we created conditionally lethal mutants. Deletion of this N‐terminal domain (snu114ΔN) leads to a temperature‐sensitive phenotype at 37°C and a pre‐mRNA splicing defect in vivo. Heat treatment of snu114ΔN extracts blocked splicing in vitro before the first step. The snu114ΔN still associates with the tri‐snRNP, and the stability of this particle is not significantly impaired by thermal inactivation. Heat treatment of snu114ΔN extracts resulted in accumulation of arrested spliceosomes in which the U4 RNA was not efficiently released, and we show that U4 is still base paired with the U6 RNA. This suggests that Snu114p is involved, directly or indirectly, in the U4/U6 unwinding, an essential step towards spliceosome activation.
The dependency of vitamin d status on anthropometric data.

BACKGROUND Hypovitaminosis D appears to parallel several cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. However, previous findings cannot be considered conclusive, since the association may have been confounded by different anthropometric variables that were not accounted for. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the association between important explanatory variables and circulation levels of vitamin D. METHODS A total of 553 individuals attending the metabolic and medical lifestyle management clinic of the Burdwan district of India were selected from 1289 people by simple random sampling, and information regarding relevant variables and their blood was obtained. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin (OH) D level and forced expiratory volume in 1 second were measured. Associations between different explanatory variables and circulatory 25(OH) D were analysed in linear regression models. RESULTS Of the population studied, 53% had insufficient vitamin D levels, while approximately 9% were vitamin D deficient. Variables that significantly associated with lower 25(OH)D levels were obesity, current smoking, forced expiratory volume 1 and depression. CONCLUSION Lower serum levels of vitamin D were associated with different variables that should be explored in several diseases before a conclusion of hypovitaminosis D is drawn.
Genomic Reassortants of Pandemic A (H1N1) 2009 Virus and Endemic Porcine H1 and H3 Viruses in Swine in Japan

ABSTRACT From 2010 to 2013 in Japan, we isolated 11 swine influenza viruses (SIVs) from pigs showing respiratory symptoms. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses showed that 6 H1N1 viruses originated from the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (pdm 09) virus and the other 5 viruses were reassortants between SIVs and pdm 09 viruses, representing 4 genotypes. Two H1N2 viruses contained H1 and N2 genes originated from Japanese H1N2 SIV together with internal genes of pdm 09 viruses. Additionally, 1 H1N2 virus contained a further NP gene originating from Japanese H1N2 SIV. One H1N1 virus contained only the H1 gene originating from Japanese H1 SIV in a pdm 09 virus background. One H3N2 virus contained H3 and N2 genes originating from Japanese H3N2 SIV together with internal genes of pdm 09 virus. The results indicate that pdm 09 viruses are distributed widely in the Japanese swine population and that several reassortments with Japanese SIVs have occurred.
The G191R variant in the PRSS2 gene does not play a role in protection against tropical calcific pancreatitis

Recently, the G191R variant in anionic trypsinogen (coded by PRSS2 ) was reported to be strongly associated with chronic pancreatitis (CP) (odds ratio (OR) = 0.37, p = 1.1×10−8) in European patients with CP1 and subsequently replicated in Hungarian and Japanese patients with CP.2 3 We and others have earlier shown that CP in tropical countries such as India and Bangladesh, especially tropical calcific pancreatitis (TCP), has a variable genetic basis compared to that in Europeans and rather than cationic trypsinogen (coded by PRSS1 ) mutations,3 4 variants in SPINK1 encoding the pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor or cathepsin B ( CTSB ) or chymotrypsin C predict susceptibility to TCP.3–7 We, therefore, investigated using a case–control approach whether G191R PRSS2 variant also confers protection against TCP. We analysed the G191R variant in the PRSS2 gene by direct sequencing in 700 patients with CP including 500 patients with TCP, 155 patients having idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (ICP) and 45 with alcoholic pancreatitis (see supplementary material). On initial screening of 299 patients with TCP and 277 control subjects, the minor allele frequency (MAF) of the G191R variant was significantly lower compared to Europeans1 and was similar in both the groups (0.3%). Genotyping and pooled analysis of additional patients with CP and normal subjects showed comparable frequency of …
First Report of Myrothecium roridum Causing Leaf and Stem Rot Disease on Peperomia quadrangularis in Korea

Abstract In 2010, symptoms of leaf and stem rot were observed on potted plants (Peperomia quadrangularis) in a greenhouse in Yongin, Korea. The causative pathogen was identified as Myrothecium roridum based on morphological data, internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis, and pathogenicity test. To our knowledge, this is the first report of M. roridum causing leaf and stem rot disease on P. quadrangularis in Korea and elsewhere worldwide.
Mortality in women of reproductive age in rural South Africa

Objective To determine causes of death and associated risk factors in women of reproductive age in rural South Africa. Methods Deaths and person-years of observation (pyo) were determined for females (aged 15–49 years) resident in 15,526 households in a rural South African Demographic and Health Surveillance site from 2000 to 2009. Cause of death was ascertained by verbal autopsy and ICD-10 coded; causes were categorized as HIV/TB, non-communicable, communicable/maternal/perinatal/nutrition, injuries, and undetermined (unknown). Characteristics of women were obtained from regularly updated household visits, while HIV and self-reported health status was obtained from the annual HIV surveillance. Overall and cause-specific mortality rates (MRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. The Weibull regression model (HR, 95% CI) was used to determine risk factors associated with mortality. Results A total of 42,703 eligible women were included; 3,098 deaths were reported for 212,607 pyo. Overall MRwas 14.6 deaths/1,000 pyo (95% CI: 14.1–15.1), peaking in 2003 (MR 18.2/1,000 pyo, 95% CI: 16.4–20.1) and declining thereafter (2009: MR 9.6/1,000 pyo, 95% CI: 8.4–10.9). Mortality was highest for HIV/TB (MR 10.6/1,000 pyo, 95% CI: 10.2–11.1), accounting for 73.1% of all deaths, ranging from 61.2% in 2009 to 82.7% in 2002. Adjusting for education level, marital status, age, employment status, area of residence, and migration, all-cause mortality was associated with external migration (adjusted hazard ratio, or aHR), 1.70, 95% CI: 1.41–2.05), self-reported poor health status (aHR 8.26, 95% CI: 2.94–23.15), and HIV-infection (aHR 7.84, 95% CI: 6.26–9.82); external migration and HIV infection were also associated with causes of mortality other than HIV/TB (aHR 1.62, 95% CI: 1.12–2.34 and aHR 2.59, 95% CI: 1.79–3.75). Conclusion HIV/TB was the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, although rates declined with the rollout of HIV treatment in the area from 2004. Women's age, external migration status and HIV-positive status were significantly associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.