Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phosphate Amendments to Compost for Improving P Bio-Availability

Abstract This study was conducted to investigate changes in P-fractions, bio-available P (CAL-P), citric acid extractable P, acid phosphatase activity and microbial biomass C and N during incubation of mature biogenic compost (MBC), immature biogenic compost (IBC) or immature sheep manure compost (ISC) not amended with P or amended with rock phosphate (RP, 7.6% P) or triple-superphosphate (TSP, 19.5% P). Incubation was performed at 20 °C in darkness under aerobic conditions. Samples were collected for laboratory analysis at the start of incubation (D-0) and after one, six and 26 days during incubation (D-1, D-6, D-26). Addition of soluble P fertilizer (TSP) led to a threefold increase in all P fractions in comparison to compost without TSP; even a “priming effect” could be observed, promoting conversion of non-labile to labile P. Moreover, addition of TSP lowered biological activity, especially acid phosphatase activity (P-ase), due to already high concentrations of readily available P. In general, P fractions (bicarbonate extractable Pi (NaHCO3-Pi) and bicarbonate extractable Po (NaHCO3-Po) and sodium hydroxide extractable Po (NaOH-Po)) increased during incubation until day 6 at the expense of NaOH-Pi fraction, which decreased. Generally, RP-derived P showed little or no effect on P fractions during the entire incubation period and only led to slightly increased CAL-P and Citric-acid-P levels. Fertilizer effects on labile P fractions were most enhanced with ISC. IBC enhanced microbial growth and P-ase, thereby enhancing conversion of labile into moderate labile NaOH-Po.
Change management in e-government: OntoGov case study

E-government systems are subject to a continual change. The importance of better change management is nowadays, more important due to the evolution of Europe towards a multicultural, more open and international society with changing common values, increasing levels of education, demographic involvement and adoption of new technologies. In this paper, we show how semantic technologies may improve management of changes regarding process knowledge in an e-government system. We consider change management process as a continual improvement process. To improve the usability of e-government services, we propose new methods for the semantic service annotation as well as for semantic service discovery. Particularly, we focus on new level of functionality such as verification of a service annotation and refinement of search results.
Meeting analysis: findings from research and practice

Meeting analysis, that is the study of meeting expenses, productivity, processes, and outcomes, is relevant to GSS practice and research for several reasons. Many reviews and surveys reveal that meetings dominate workers' and managers' time and yet are considered to be costly, unproductive and dissatisfying. Studies show that meetings are essential and that the number of meetings and their duration has been steadily increasing. Studies of managers and knowledge workers reveal that they spend between 25%-80% of their time in meetings, suggesting that meetings are an important part of one's working life. Estimates of meeting expenses range from costs of $30 million to over 100 million per year to losses between $54 million and 3.7 billion annually! Self estimates of meeting productivity by managers in many different functional areas range from 33%-47%.
Pilot Allocation for Distributed-Compressed-Sensing-Based Sparse Channel Estimation in MIMO-OFDM Systems

This paper addresses the sparse channel estimation problem in multiple-input-multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems from the perspective of distributed compressed sensing (DCS). It is focused on deterministic pilot allocation of MIMO-OFDM systems to improve the performance of DCS-based channel estimation. By transforming the problem of DCS-based channel estimation to a problem of reconstructing block-sparse signals, a class of mutual coherence-related criteria is first proposed for optimizing pilot locations. By employing the proposed criteria, a genetic algorithm (GA)-based method of optimizing the pilot locations is then presented. Simulation results show that the DCS-based MIMO channel estimation with optimized pilot locations can improve the spectrum efficiency by nearly 36% and the bit error rate (BER) performance by 1.5 dB, as compared with the least squares (LS) channel estimation with equidistant pilot locations. Moreover, the DCS-based MIMO channel estimation yields a 4.7% improvement in spectrum efficiency under the same BER performance over the compressed sensing (CS)-based channel estimation.
Ecto-5′-Nucleotidase (CD73)-Mediated Adenosine Production Is Tissue Protective in a Model of Bleomycin-Induced Lung Injury1

Adenosine signaling has diverse actions on inflammation and tissue injury. Levels of adenosine are rapidly elevated in response to tissue injury; however, the mechanisms responsible for adenosine production in response to injury are not well understood. In this study, we found that adenosine levels are elevated in the lungs of mice injured by the drug bleomycin. In addition, increased activity of ecto-5′-nucleotidase (CD73) was found in the lungs in conjunction with adenosine elevations. To determine the contribution of CD73 to the generation of adenosine in the lung, CD73−/− mice were subjected to bleomycin challenges. Results demonstrated that CD73−/− mice challenged with bleomycin no longer accumulated adenosine in their lungs, suggesting that the primary means of adenosine production following bleomycin injury resulted from the release and subsequent dephosphorylation of adenine nucleotides. CD73−/− mice challenged with bleomycin exhibited enhanced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis as well as exaggerated expression of proinflammatory and profibrotic mediators in the lung. Intranasal instillations of exogenous nucleotidase restored the ability of lungs of CD73−/− mice to accumulate adenosine following bleomycin challenge. Furthermore, these treatments were associated with a decrease in pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis. CD73+/+ animals challenged with bleomycin and supplemented with exogenous nucleotidase also exhibited reduced inflammation. Together, these findings suggest that CD73-dependent adenosine production contributes to anti-inflammatory pathways in bleomycin-induced lung injury.
Successful preimplantation genetic diagnosis for sex linked Lesch–Nyhan syndrome using specific diagnosis

Lesch–Nyhan syndrome (LN) is a severe X‐linked recessive disorder caused by a deficiency of the enzyme hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT). Clinical features displayed by affected boys are particularly severe and disturbing and include hyperuricaemia, characteristic neurological features including self‐mutilation, choreothetosis, spasticity and mental retardation. A couple with an boy diagnosed with LN and a history of pregnancy termination was referred to the Hammersmith Hospital. Their affected son was born in 1982 after an uncomplicated pregnancy and vaginal delivery. Eight subsequent pregnancies had been unsuccessful. There were five therapeutic terminations and three spontaneous abortions, one at least directly caused by the sampling procedure during amniocentesis. From 1989 to 1991 two unsuccessful preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) cycles by sexing were performed by DNA amplification. The mutation was characterized and a nested PCR protocol was designed which allowed the efficient amplification of the affected loci followed by the detection of the mutant allele by restriction digestion. Three PGD cycles were performed using this specific diagnostic test before a successful pregnancy was achieved resulting in the birth of a healthy unaffected baby girl. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stimulation of hair follicle stem cell proliferation through an IL-1 dependent activation of γδT-cells

The cutaneous wound-healing program is a product of a complex interplay among diverse cell types within the skin. One fundamental process that is mediated by these reciprocal interactions is the mobilization of local stem cell pools to promote tissue regeneration and repair. Using the ablation of epidermal caspase-8 as a model of wound healing in Mus musculus, we analyzed the signaling components responsible for epithelial stem cell proliferation. We found that IL-1α and IL-7 secreted from keratinocytes work in tandem to expand the activated population of resident epidermal γδT-cells. A downstream effect of activated γδT-cells is the preferential proliferation of hair follicle stem cells. By contrast, IL-1α-dependent stimulation of dermal fibroblasts optimally stimulates epidermal stem cell proliferation. These findings provide new mechanistic insights into the regulation and function of epidermal cell–immune cell interactions and into how components that are classically associated with inflammation can differentially influence distinct stem cell niches within a tissue.
An Efficient Approach for Secure Message Dissemination with HDL based Wireless Control Protocol over VANET

Several vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) have focused on specific techniques in perspective of IEEE 802.11p, which outlines the standard for remote access for vehicular conditions. A wide combination of employments for road security and movement profitability are relied upon to answer the desperate call for all the more sharp, greener, and increasingly secure adaptability. Regardless of the way that IEEE 802.11p is considered as the genuine standard for all over the place correspondences in vehicular condition, accomplices have starting late inquired about the usability of Long haul Development (LTE) to encourage vehicular applications. Secure correspondence among vehicle and Framework/Street side unit (V to I/R) over VANET and distinguishing exact assailant vehicle is a noteworthy test over VANET in current age. In this paper, executing productive encryption systems i.e. AES and RSA calculation and plan Equipment portrayal dialect based remote control convention in Xilinx condition. In remote control likewise incorporate ODMRP convention arrangement model for VANET simulation. Throughput, time, packet delivery ratio etc, are main parameter of this work.
The yeast CWH41 gene encodes glucosidase I.

N-Glycosylation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae entails the synthesis of a Glc3Man9GlcNAc2 oligosaccharide precursor which is subsequently transferred to suitable protein acceptors, a process which is conserved among all eukaryotes. Processing of the oligosaccharide occurs immediately following this transfer, the first step being the removal of the terminal alpha-1,2-linked glucose by glucosidase I in the endoplasmic reticulum. Although yeast glucosidase I has been isolated, the yeast gene encoding this enzyme has not yet been identified. In the present work, it is shown that Cwh41p, a yeast endoplasmic reticulum protein previously identified as being required for normal cell wall beta-1,6-glucan synthesis (Jiang, Sheraton, Ram, Dijkgraaf, Klis, and Bussey (1996) J. Bacteriol. , 178, 1162-1171), has significant amino acid similarity to the product of the human glucosidase I cDNA. Tetrad analysis for glucosidase I activity in vitro and in vivo was done on the progeny from the spores obtained from the heterozygous diploid, cwh41 delta::HIS3. It is shown that, unlike CWH41 cells, cell extracts obtained from cwh41 delta null mutants are unable to release glucose residues from the synthetic trisaccharide substrate alpha-D-Glc 1-->2 alpha-D-Glc 1-->3 alpha-D-Glc-O(CH2)8 COOCH3 in vitro. Following 1 h labeling of cells with [3H]mannose, analysis by high pressure liquid chromatography of the labeled N-linked oligosaccharides, combined with treatment with jack bean alpha mannosidase and yeast glucosidase I, shows that the oligosaccharides isolated form a cwh41 delta null mutant are fully glucosylated, retaining the three terminal glucose residues, whereas the oligosaccharides from CWH41 cells do not have any glucose residues. These results showing a lack of glucosidase I activity in cwh41 delta null mutants both in vitro and in vivo are consistent with the structural evidence that CWH41 encodes the yeast glucosidase I.
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-Anchored Ecm33p Influences Conidial Cell Wall Biosynthesis in Aspergillus fumigatus

ABSTRACT ECM33 encodes a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein whose orthologs in yeast are essential for sporulation. Aspergillus fumigatus Ecm33p is unique and has an apparent mass of 55 kDa. Disruption of A. fumigatus ECM33 results in a mutant with several morphogenetic aberrations, including the following: (i) a defect in conidial separation, (ii) an increase in the diameter of the conidia of the mutant associated with an increase in the concentration of the cell wall chitin, (iii) conidia that were sensitive to the absence of aeration during long-term storage, and (iv) conidia that were more resistant to killing by phagocytes, whereas the mycelium was more easily killed by neutrophils.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in infancy

Infant ALL is uncommon, biologically distinctive from the disease in older children, and associated with a relatively poor prognosis. Adverse prognostic factors include the presence of an MLL gene rearrangement (observed in up to 80% of infants with ALL), younger age at diagnosis, high presenting leukocyte counts, and slow early response to therapy. The role of stem cell transplant in first remission remains controversial. Current research efforts to improve the outcome of MLL‐rearranged ALL in infants include clinical trials testing cytarabine‐intensive regimens and translational investigations of novel, targeted therapies, such as FLT3‐inhibitors. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2007;49:1070–1073. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Diet and nutritional status during pregnancy

Adequate nutritional status and good dietary intake during preconception and pregnancy have been recognized as major contributors to healthy birth outcomes. On the other hand, undernutrition and suboptimal diets with poor energy and micronutrients during pregnancy have been associated with poor fetal growth, pre-term delivery, poor infant survival and increased risk of chronic diseases in later life. Suboptimal prenatal diets have also been associated with gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia in the mother and increased risk of stillbirth and largefor-gestational age in the baby. While the global prevalence of low birth weight is declining slowly, the current prevalence of low birth weight is still estimated to be 15? 5 % worldwide or more than 20 million infants worldwide. Nearly 96 % of these low-birth-weight babies are born in developing countries. One of the major goals in ‘A World Fit for Children’, the Declaration and Plan of Action adopted by the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children in 2002, was to reduce low birth weight incidence by at least one-third – by two-thirds by 2015. And while some progress has been made, it has not been enough. To achieve this goal, it is of paramount importance that women commence their pregnancies healthy and well nourished and that they continue good diets throughout pregnancy. In this issue we highlight ten articles focusing on pregnancy nutrition that span across continents and include lowto high-income countries.
Traceability to national standards for S-parameter measurements in waveguide at frequencies from 140 GHz to 220 GHz

This paper describes a new facility that has been introduced recently to provide high precision traceable scattering parameter measurements of waveguide devices in the frequency range 140 GHz to 220 GHz (i.e. in waveguide size WR-05). The facility comprises measurement instrumentation situated at the University of Leeds and associated primary reference standards provided by the National Physical Laboratory. The instrumentation consists of a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and the standards are precision sections of waveguide that are used to calibrate the VNA. Traceability to national standards and the International System of units (SI) is achieved via precision dimensional measurements of the waveguide sections. Typical measurements, with uncertainties, are given to illustrate the current state-of-the-art for traceable measurements of this type.
Multi-channel model for sonar image segmentation

This work deals with unsupervised segmentation of images supplied by high resolution Sonar. Image is segmented into three kinds of regions: echo, shadow, and sea-bottom reverberation. Sonar image is passed through a bank of Gabor filters and the filtered images that possess a significant component of the original image are selected. The selected filtered images are then subjected to a non-linear transformation. An energy measure is defined on the transformed images in order to compute texture features. The texture energy features are used as input to k-means clustering algorithm. Results of the proposed method are presented for different sonar images to demonstrate the robustness of this method.
Evaluation of the AMPLICOR CMV test for direct detection of cytomegalovirus in plasma specimens

We evaluated the AMPLICOR CMV test (PCR) for the direct detection of cytomegalovirus in plasma. Sixty-eight specimens were involved for the comparison between the AMPLICOR test and the antigenemia assay. The sensitivities, specificities, and positive and negative predictive values were 97.1, 100, 100, and 97.1%, respectively, for the AMPLICOR test and 79.4, 100, 100, and 82.9%, respectively, for the antigenemia assay.
Mismatch effects in time-interleaved oversampling converters

Recently, a new architecture was proposed which utilizes the concept of time-interleaving in oversampling converters. Using this architecture, one is theoretically able to achieve higher resolutions by using an array of interconnected modulators without increasing the oversampling ratio or order of the modulators. Alternatively, the same resolution can be maintained with wider bandwidth input signals. This paper presents the first experimental results on this new family of modulators. As well, the practical issue of component mismatch for these converters are studied and some suggestions are made to alleviate the effects of this problem. <<ETX>>
The role of IgE in allergen‐induced inflammation and the potential for intervention with a humanized monoclonal anti‐IgE antibody

IgE plays a key role in allergic reactions, particularly the early phase response. A humanized monoclonal anti-IgE antibody (omalizumab) that prevents IgE from binding to receptors on mast cells and basophils is undergoing clinical trials in a number of allergic diseases. Following intravenous or subcutaneous administration in humans, omalizumab has a long plasma elimination half-life (1± 4 weeks) and decreases free IgE levels in serum. Omalizumab is well tolerated and shows promise in the treatment of asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis.
SUSCEPTIBILITY OF WOOD DUCKS TO H5N1 HIGHLY PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA VIRUS

Since 2002, H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have caused mortality in numerous species of wild birds; this is atypical for avian influenza virus (AIV) infections in these avian species, especially for species within the order Anseriformes. Although these infections document the susceptibility of wild birds to H5N1 HPAI viruses and the spillover of these viruses from infected domestic birds to wild birds, it is unknown whether H5N1 HPAI viruses can persist in free-living avian populations. In a previous study, we established that wood ducks (Aix sponsa) are highly susceptible to infection with H5N1 HPAI viruses. To quantify this susceptibility and further evaluate the likelihood of H5N1 HPAI viral maintenance in a wild bird population, we determined the concentration of virus required to produce infection in wood ducks. To accomplish this, 25 wood ducks were inoculated intranasally at 12–16 wk of age with decreasing concentrations of a H5N1 HPAI virus (A/Whooper Swan/Mongolia/244/05 [H5N1]). The median infectious dose and the lethal dose of H5N1 HPAI virus in wood ducks were very low (100.95 and 101.71 median embryo infectious dose [EID50]/ml, respectively) and less than that of chickens (102.80 and 102.80 EID50/ml). These results confirm that wood ducks are highly susceptible to infection with H5N1 HPAI virus. The data from this study, combined with what is known experimentally about H5N1 HPAI virus infection in wood ducks and viral persistence in aquatic environments, suggest that the wood duck would represent a sensitive indicator species for H5N1 HPAI. Results also suggest that the potential for decreased transmission efficiency associated with reduced viral shedding (especially from the cloaca) and a loss of environmental fitness (in water), may be offset by the ability of this virus to be transmitted through a very low infectious dose.
Lag Quasi-Synchronization of Coupled Delayed Systems With Parameter Mismatch

This paper is concerned with lag synchronization of two coupled delayed systems with parameter mismatch. Due to parameter mismatch, complete lag synchronization can not be achieved. Therefore, a new lag quasi-synchronization scheme is proposed to ensure that coupled systems are in a state of lag synchronization with an error level. Several simple criteria are derived and the error level is estimated by applying a generalized Halanary inequality and matrix measure. Three examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed lag quasi-synchronization scheme. It is shown that as the coupling strength increases, the estimated error level is close to the simulated one, which well supports theoretical results.
An Optimal Adaptation Framework for Streaming Multiple Video Objects

With multi-angle video contents available at a user terminal, the user can select his/her preferred alternate views among the given multiple video streams captured at different view angles for a same event. This enhanced experience often entails streaming problems in real-time over the network. In order to cope with this problem, multi-angle video contents are encoded at different bit rates and the appropriate video streams are then selected or transcoded for delivery to meet such bandwidth constraints. Therefore, the selection and transcoding operations become essential processing steps to adapt to the time-varying bandwidth of the network. In this paper, we propose an optimal adaptation framework for streaming multiple video streams by jointly formulating the selection and transcoding problems into a unified optimization problem.
Advertising and Expectations : The Effectiveness of Pre-Release Advertising for Motion Pictures

What is the effect of pre-release advertising on the demand for a product? And does the magnitude of that effect vary according to the quality of the good? We empirically examine these questions in the context of the motion picture industry. We make use of a unique, proprietary data set that covers weekly television advertising expenditures, weekly expectations of the market performance, and quality measures for a sample of nearly 300 movies. The focus on expectations creates a valuable advantage: our measure of expectations, which is derived from a stock market simulation, is an accurate predictor of sales; however, while sales data are only available after the product launch, we can observe the dynamic nature of expectations before the release, and relate those to dynamics in the advertising allocation process. We find that advertising affects the updating of market-wide expectations prior to release, and that this effect is stronger the higher the product quality. The latter suggests that advertising plays an informative—and not simply a persuasive—role.