Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increase of IgE Anti-Encephalitozoon cuniculi Antibody Levels in Septic Patients

Objective: We recently demonstrated that the biggest reduction of T cells in septic patients was produced in the γδ T subset. This depletion was directly proportional to the severity of the septic process, and it was associated with mortality. We hypothesized that microsporidia can harness the deficit of γδ T cells in septic patients to proliferate and contribute to the worsening of the sepsis. Methods: In this retrospective study, we analyzed anti-Encephalitozoon cuniculi antibody levels in sera from 46 septic patients, and compared them with a similar control group of healthy subjects. As a secondary objective we aimed to relate anti-E. cuniculi antibody levels with αβ and γδ T cells in these patients. Results: Forty-eight percent of septic patients were positive for IgE anti-E. cuniculi vs 13.0% of healthy subjects (OR: 3.67, CI95% 1.64-8.20, P=0.001). The frequency of αβ and CD56+ γδ T cell subsets decreased in septic patients with positive anti-E. cuniculi IgE antibodies. This decrease was more potent in the CD3+CD56+ γδ T cell subset. The genitourinary focus (urinary tract infections and pyelonephritis) produced a significant higher percentage of anti-E. cuniculi positive cases (11/13 (84.6%), OR=11.0, CI 95% 2.1-58.5, P=0.003). Conclusion: There was a greater level expression of IgE anti-E. cuniculi in septic patients, reaching almost 50% of positive. The presence of IgE anti-E. cuniculi in septic patients was related to a decrease of αβ and γδ T cells in peripheral blood. This decrease was more potent in the CD3+CD56+ γδ T cell subset. Microsporidia may be heavily involved in the physio-pathological evolution of sepsis.
Improved Training Strategies for End-to-End Speech Recognition in Digital Voice Assistants

The speech recognition training data corresponding to digital voice assistants is dominated by wake-words. Training end-to-end (E2E) speech recognition models without careful attention to such data results in sub-optimal performance as models prioritize learning wake-words. To address this problem, we propose a novel discriminative initialization strategy by introducing a regularization term to penalize model for incorrectly hallucinating wake-words in early phases of training. We also explore other training strategies such as multi-task learning with listen-attend-spell (LAS), label smoothing via probabilistic modelling of silence and use of multiple pronunciations, and show how they can be combined with the proposed initialization technique. In addition, we show the connection between cost function of proposed discriminative initialization technique and minimum word error rate (MWER) criterion. We evaluate our methods on two E2E ASR systems, a phone-based system and a word-piece based system, trained on 6500 hours of Alexa’s Indian English speech corpus. We show that proposed techniques yield 20% word error rate reductions for phone based system and 6% for word-piece based system compared to corresponding baselines trained on the same data.
The Impact of Bitterness on the Viability of Harvested Yeast

Harvested yeast from beers with high levels of bitterness units (BU) exhibited lower methylene blue viability values than did yeast harvested from beers with lower levels of BU. Aside from the hopping level, all other conditions for the fermentations were similar. Several months of production data were examined, and a pattern of lower viability from beers with higher BU was observed. The results of a bench-top fermentation study indicated a loss in viability with increased BU levels. The ASBC slide culture viability method featuring varying levels of hop extract showed that increasing BU levels exerted an adverse effect on the viability of harvested yeast.
Low Level Laser Irradiation Effects on Proliferation and Apoptosis in Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Low level laser irradiationis an effective method in treating some diseases and it could improve regeneration and wound healing. Some studies have reported that low level laser irradiation could enhance proliferation by increasing ATP level in the cells mitochondria.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a kind of stem cells which are capable of differentiating to other cells. Nowadays, MSCs are an appropriate option for regenerative medicine. In this study we want to investigate the optimum protocol for using low level laser irradiation to improve proliferation and make less apoptosis in Mesenchymal stem cells. The Mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from femur and tibia of a male rat and cultured in culture media. The isolated cells were differentiated to adipocyte and osteocyte to confirm their multi potency. The cells were irradiated with different exposure protocols of 808 nm diode laser. After exposure the stem cells markers (CD90, CD44 and CD45), doubling time, colony forming frequency and Caspase 3 activity (for apoptosis evaluation) were assessed.Both 640 mW (8 th group) and 830 mW (14 th group) have best result in colony forming and doubling time; however the 8 th group had the least Caspase 3 activity. The patterns of stem cells markers expression have not changed after laser irradiation.The protocol used in 8 th group could improve Mesenchymal stem cells proliferation more than the rest protocols and also it might make the apoptosis less than the other group. This irradiation protocol could be useful in regenerative medicine due to its effects on Mesenchymal stem cells.
An Innovative Miniscrew-Based Jig for Unilateral Total Arch Mesialization

To describe the management of a case with skewed dental arches and midlines deviation using a novel approach based on temporary anchorage devices (TADs) to derogate the deviated arches by unilateral total arch mesialization. This study presents the treatment course of a 25-year-old man undergone a previous improper orthodontic treatment with unnecessary extraction of the upper and lower right first premolar teeth leading to asymmetric dental arches. The patient complained of dental crowding, an unaesthetic smile arch, and the maxillary and mandibular dental midline deviation. The proposed treatment plan goals were decrowding and correction of both arches asymmetry and achievement of coincident upper and lower dental midlines. The corrective treatment plan consisted of total arch mesialzation in both dental arches using an innovative TAD assisted jig. The overall treatment was accomplished in 28 months with significant improvement in facial aesthetic and reasonable periodontal status. This innovative clinical biomechanical setup of miniscrew-anchored sliding jig helped us achieve all the treatment goals (total dental arches mesialization, dental midline deviation correction, and ideal final aesthetic and occlusion) in a reasonable period of time. With proper planning, innovative designs based on TADs are effective alternatives in challenging cases such as uni or bilateral dental arches mesialization, and dental asymmetry correction.
Petaloid Male-sterile Plants from Carrot Cell Cultures

An experiment was conducted to determine the types, extent, and heritability of new phenotypic variants recovered from carrot cell cultures initiated from mature tap-root explants of the male-fertile carrot (Daucus carota L.) 'Slendero'. Embryogenic callus was transferred to plant-growth-regulator-free medium 66 days after culture initiation, and regenerated plantlets were harvested and eventually planted in a field. The tap roots of mature regenerated plants were vernalized at 5C for 9 weeks and replanted. Of 31 flowering regenerants, 25 exhibited some form of petaloid male sterility ; the remaining six regenerants were male fertile. All plants from the same original explant were either all sterile or all fertile. Three generations of sterile regenerant x petaloid cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) maintainer (M) progeny tests showed that the new CMS behaved in a similar manner to that previously reported. Comparison of mitochondrial DNA restriction patterns of sterile and fertile regenerants with those of 'Slendero', petaloid CMS, petaloid M, and brown anther CMS lines resulted in the following conclusions : 1) the sterile regenerants exhibited patterns identical to the known petaloid CMS and 2) the fertile regenerants were different from the original 'Slendero' and the sterile regenerants and nearly identical to a known petaloid CMS M line. The high frequency of CMS among regenerants from 'Slendero' carrot cell cultures may provide an efficient method to develop sterile M tandem lines and corresponding new hybrid varieties.
Spawning and Exploitation of Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus) at Escuminac in the Southwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Spring 1983

An Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus L.) spawning bed at Escuminac, Miramichi Bay, in the southwestern Gulf of S1.Lawrence was surveyed by scuba divers in May 1983. The bed extended 2,200 m along the shore with a mean offshore width of 400 m. Herring were distributed over a depth range of 0.8-3.3 m. The substrate consisted of bedrock and rubble, with Irish moss (Chondrus crispus) and, to a lesser extent, rockweed (Fucus sp.) being the major macrophytes. Bottom temperature ranged from 6.5 0 to 9.3 0 C during the incubation period which lasted for 14-16 days. Non-viable herring eggs constituted about 5% of those examined for stage of development in late May. Intensity of egg deposition varied from a few scattered eggs to patches which were 4-5 layers deep and was significantly correlated with algal abundance. Mean density of eggs overthe entire bed about 10 days after spawning was nearly 25,000 eggs per m • After adjustment of the estimated deposition of eggs for loss due to predation by fish, use of mean fecundity and mean weight values indicated that the total number of eggs on the spawning bed were produced by approximately 930,400 mature herring (or about 210 tons). The catch of mature herring off Escuminac from the prespawning and spawning concentrations in 1983 was about 4,400 tons, which implies an exploitation rate of 95%. Aerial photographic surveys of fishing activity off Escuminac in 1983 indicated very large concentrations of herring gillnets on and around the spawning ground, and it is believed that these nets caught most of the mature herring before they could spawn.
Heparin interference with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction of RNA extracted from lungs after ischemia‐reperfusion

Abstract The reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) is a rapid and sensitive method for detecting gene expression. However, when we used this technique to study gene expression of cytokines in ischemic and ex‐vivo‐reperfused rat lungs as a model for transplantation, significant inhibition of RT‐PCR reaction was observed. To optimize RT‐PCR conditions, RNA was extracted from rat lungs after flushing, preservation, and reperfusion. RNA was further purified and PCR conditions were modified with various strategies. We found that heparinase I pretreatment completely overcame the inhibitory effects of RT‐PCR using RNA extracted from lung tissues after ischemia‐reperfusion. With this treatment, a dramatic increase in tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) mRNA was revealed from lung tissues after ischemia‐reperfusion. This result suggests that residual heparin in lung tissue interferes with RT‐PCR. Because heparinization is routinely used during clinical and experimental organ transplantation, we recommend the treatment of RNA samples with heparinase prior to RT‐PCR.
Crosstalk between signaling pathways in hormonal progression of prostate cancer

As the most frequently diagnosed cancer in North American man, prostate cancer can progress to the androgen independent stage after initial response to androgen ablation therapy. The molecular mechanisms involved in the hormonal progression of prostate cancer are not completely understood. Here, we analyze changes in the transcriptome of prostate cancer cells at different stages of progression to reveal potential mechanisms. Applying Affymetrix GeneChip technology, we identified the transcriptomes in response to stimulation of androgen and PKA pathways in human prostate cancer cells. In addition to PSA, other common target genes were identified. Genes differentially expressed in response to androgen and stimulation of the PKA pathway in vitro were also differentially expressed during hormonal progression in vivo. Upon androgen stimulation, androgen receptor binds to a functional androgen response element within the promoter region of SESN1, a p53 targeted gene, and represses its expression. The expression of SESN1 was induced by castration in LNCaP xenografts, but the expression was eventually suppressed again in the androgen independent stage of prostate cancer. Knockdown of SESN1 promoted the proliferation of prostate cancer cells. Expression patterns of androgen-regulated genes in androgen independent tumours were revealed to be more similar to that from before castration than to the tumors under androgen ablation. The β-catenin, a potent coactivator of the androgen receptor, and Wnt pathway was deregulated in androgen-independent tumours. There was increased nuclear colocalization and interaction of androgen receptor and β-catenin with hormonal progression of prostate cancer. This study provides insight into hormonal effects on prostate cancer and possible pathways involved in the development of androgen independent disease, as well as potential therapeutic targets.
High environmental temperature potentiated marker of oxidative cellular damage and renal expression of p38 MAPK in male rats fed a high salt diet

Aim: Oxidative stress, heat shock protein (HSP70) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) are important functional cellular signals involved in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. This study investigated the effect of high environmental temperature (HET) and high salt diet (HSD) respectively and together on systemic oxidative stress, nitric oxide (NO), HSP70 and renal p38 MAPK. Methods: Thirty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups with eight rats in each group: Control rats (C) fed a normal diet; salt-loaded rats (S) fed a HSD (8%NaCl); normal diet rats (H) exposed to HET (38.5 ± 0.5oC 4h daily for 8weeks); and salt-loaded rats (SH), fed a HSD and exposed to HET. Circulatory oxidative stress parameters (SOD: superoxide dismutase; GSH: glutathione; CAT: catalase; MDA: malondialdehyde), HSP70 and renal p38 MAPK were determined by colorimetric, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods and immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques respectively. Results: Plasma GSH concentration and CAT activity decreased significantly, with significant increase in MDA concentration in all the rat groups compared to control. However, MDA in SH rats was significantly higher than in either S or H rats. Circulatory HSP70 and NO were significantly raised in S and H rats but unchanged in SH rats compared to control. Conversely, renal expression of p38 MAPK was significantly increased in H and SH rats compared to control, but SH rats had significantly higher level than either S or H rats. SH rats also had weight gain slowing compared to control. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that prolonged exposure to HET and HSD intakes synergistically increased renal p38 MAPK and circulatory product of oxidative cellular damage without alteration in circulatory HSP70 and NO.
Corrigendum

The article by Redman et al. (2009) contained an error in the Methods section under the Electrophysiological Measurements heading. The text describing recording solutions should appear as follows. The intracellular electrode solution contained (in mM): 100 potassium gluconate, 11 EGTA, 10 KCl, 1 MgCl2, 1 CaCl2·2H2O, 10 Hepes; pH was adjusted to 7.2 with concentrated KOH; 0.22 mM ATP was added and osmolarity was adjusted to 280 mosmol l−1 with sucrose. The extracellular solution contained (in mM): 115 NaCl, 2.5 KCl, 2.0 MgCl2, 10 Hepes, 10 D-glucose, 0.1 tetrodotoxin; pH was adjusted to 7.2.
Mécanismes de résistance aux antibiotiques de Pseudomonas aeruginosa en motilité de type swarming et sa fonction écologique

Le swarming est un type de motilite tres bien decrit au sein de diverses especes bacteriennes, mais plus particulierement chez la bacterie modele Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Plusieurs facteurs permettant d’activer ce comportement sont connus, entre autres, la necessite pour la bacterie de posseder un ou des flagelles fonctionnels et sa capacite a produire un agent mouillant, typiquement un surfactant. Toutefois, la fonction du swarming reste a ce jour indeterminee. De plus, lorsque ces bacteries adoptent la motilite de type swarming, elles acquierent une resistance augmentee, mais transitoire envers plusieurs classes d’antibiotiques. En regard a ces deux phenomenes, le role du swarming chez P. aeruginosa dans un contexte environnemental doit etre clarifie, ainsi que le mecanisme menant a l’augmentation de la resistance envers differentes classes d’antibiotiques. Puisque plusieurs especes bacteriennes ont la capacite de se deplacer sur les hyphes de mycetes pour atteindre des nutriments, nous avons emis l’hypothese que le swarming pourrait etre le type de motilite permettant ce deplacement. Differents mycetes ont ete testes afin de determiner sur quels types d’hyphes P. aeruginosa avait le plus de facilite a se deplacer. Par ailleurs, differentes motilites de P. aeruginosa, telles que le twitching et le swimming, ont ete testees afin de determiner si l’une d’entre-elles favorise la translocation sur les hyphes de mycete. Les resultats obtenus lors des differentes experimentations vont a l’encontre de l’hypothese de travail. Par ailleurs, il en ressort que les structures cellulaires permettant le deplacement bacterien sur les surfaces, comme les pili de type IV et les flagelles, ne sont pas impliques dans la translocation de P. aeruginosa sur les hyphes de mycetes. Pour elucider les raisons de l’augmentation de la resistance aux antibiotiques chez P. aeruginosa en motilite swarming, un criblage selectif a ete entreprit sur 267 mutants ainsi que des analyses proteomiques permettant de cibler des proteines qui sont exprimees differemment lorsque les colonies en swarming de P. aeruginosa sont exposees a un antibiotique, la tobramycine. Le criblage selectif n’a pas permis d’identifier un mutant faisant du swarming montrant une sensibilite a la tobramycine. Toutefois, les resultats des analyses proteomiques indiquent que certaines proteines de la membrane externe sont surexprimees lorsque P. aeruginosa adopte la motilite de type swarming en presence d’antibiotique.
Identification and Evaluation of Salt Tolerance of Jute Germplasm during Germination and Seedling Periods

Twelve jute accessions were used to evaluate their salt tolerance at the stages of germination and seedling by using the methods of the germination trial and the tank agriculture,respectively.Results indicated that the salt-tolerance of jute materials could be identified and graded according to the relative salt harm rate at the stage of germination and the average salt harm index at the stage of seedling.Markedly significant correlation(r=0.8432**,n=10)was found between the salt-tolerances of germination stage and of seedling stage.Three high salt-tolerant materials(Grade 1),9511,Zhonghuangma No.1 and 93fan-13,and one salt-sensitive material( Grade 4),Mengyuan,were screened out.
Detrimental role of donor‐recipient HLA‐DQ5 and ‐DQ6 disparities on cadaver kidney graft survival

Donor‐recipient incompatibility (D + R −) for HLA‐DQ1, but not for ‐DQ2 or ‐DQ3, is associated with an adverse effect on cadaver kidney graft survival. Until now, however, DQ1 recipients of DQ1‐negative kidneys (D − R +) have not been differentiated from DQ1‐identical donor‐recipient pairs (D + R +) and splits of DQ1, DQ5 and DQ6, have not been studied in that respect. From our data (480 transplantations performed from January 1980 to December 1990), three donor‐recipient DQ combinations (D + R +, D − R +, D + R −) were formed for each of four DQ specificities (DQ2, DQ3, DQ5, DQ6). As DR−DQ linkage disequilibrium is well conserved in caucasoid individuals, DQ specificities were inferred from the associated DR specificities. Graft survival rate (%) was significantly lower for the DQ5 D + R − and the DQ6 D − R + combinations when compared with the other corresponding DQ combinations, whereas no significant difference was observed between the DQ2 and DQ3 combinations. In conclusion, if DQ1 plays a prominent role in kidney graft survival, the effects of its splits appear dissociated: DQ5 could be a marker of high antigenicity and DQ6 a marker of high responsiveness.
The potential cost of environmental certification to vegetation management in plantation forests: a New Zealand case study

Plantation forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council have restrictions on herbicide use. Since certified plantations are dependant on herbicides for cost-effective vegetation management, compliance requires a shift from current chemical practices. Using New Zealand plantation forests as a case study, discounted cash flow analyses were used to esti- mate the cost of certification-compliant vegetation control regimes compared with current non-compliant methods. We ex- amined methods that (i) reduce the quantity of herbicides by using spot control and (ii) avoid the use of herbicides by using weed mats, manual, and mechanical control. Cost analyses were undertaken for low-, medium-, and high-productivity sites. The internal rate of return of the non-compliant regime was between 5% and 5.8% across the productivity range. Spot con- trol was cheaper than current non-compliant practice. However, spot control is limited by site suitability and the availability of labour. Non-chemical control methods were expensive relative to other regimes. Reductions in the internal rate of return varied across low- and high-productivity sites between 0.8% and 0.5% for manual control, 1.3% and 0.8% for mechanical control, and 1.7% and 1.0% for weed mats. Meeting the goals of certification while retaining cost-effective vegetation con- trol presents a challenge to the plantation forestry sector.
Vulvovaginal Candidiasis and its Antifungal Susceptibility Pattern: Single center experience

Introduction: Candidiasis is the most common vaginal infection affecting about 70% of women. Our aim was isolation and identification of Candida from high vaginal swabs and in vitro antifungal activity of Fluconazole, Voriconazole, Nystatin, Amphotericin B. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in NIMS Medical College, Jaipur during June 2013 to May 2014. The study group consisted of 100 women of reproductive age having symptomatic vaginal discharge, vulval purities or lower abdominal pain. High vaginal swabs were collected from each and processed by Gram Staining, culture on Sabroud’s dextrose agar & CHROM agar. Antifungal susceptibility was performed by disc diffusion method as per CLSI guidelines. Results: Vulvovaginal candidiasis accounted for 22 % of cases. Species distribution is as follows: C.albicans 12, C tropicalis 7, C krusei 2, C glabrata 1. Senstivity to Voriconazole was 91.6% for C albicans, 71.42 % for C.tropicalis, 50% for C.krusei. Senstivity to Fluconazole was seen in 91.6 % of C.albicans & 42.85 % of C.tropicalis. C. glabrata was resistant to both Voriconazole & Fluconazole. Senstivity to Amphotericin B was 75 % for C. albicans, 100 % for C.tropicalis, 100% for C.krusei & C. glabrata. Senstivity to Nystatin was 91.6% for C.albicans & 100% for C.tropicalis, C.krusei & C.glabrata. Conclusions: There is an increase in non-albicans Candida infection and few like C.krusei are intrinsically resistant to azoles. This signifies the need of species identification & antifungal susceptibility as a routine laboratory procedure in diagnosis of vaginal candidiasis.