Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morpho-genetic Characterization of Traditional Aromatic Tulaipanji Rice of North Bengal, India

Tulaipanji is a non-Basmati type aromatic rice landrace of old alluvial region of North Bengal in eastern part of.India, which is presently cultivated in about 7,000 ha. land with production of 14,000–15,000 tonnes paddy every year. With a view to develop the phenotypic and genetic database of the unique variety, its agro-morphological characterization was done at ‘C’ Block Farm, B.C.K.V. , Kalyani, West Bengal during kharif (wet) season of 2011, 2012 and 2013 following the DUS test guidelines of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&FRA). The variety had late heading (110-115 days) and late maturity (140–150 days), which produced long statured plants (125-135 cm height) with no anthocyanin colouration on leaf blade, sheath, nodes and internodes. The flower was bi-sexual including six yellow coloured anthers, and an ovary with white or yellowish-white feathery stigma. The lemma and palea were straw in colour with long awns (mean length 17.3 mm), and the grains were short in length (7.5 mm) with low test weight (15.6 g). The kernels were mediumslender (length 5.27 mm and width 1.91 mm) in shape and white in colour, which had low amylose content (17.2%), medium gelatinization temperature (alkali value 4.3) and medium aroma. 23 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used for DNA amplification profile to develop molecular base-pair length database of Tulaipanji rice against non-aromatic international check variety IR 36 in the study. Among them, one marker (RM 182) recorded similar molecular weights for both the varieties, while two markers (RM 207 and RM 339) made greater genetic distances between Tulaipanji and IR 36 (75.82 vs. 128.48 bp and 182.76 vs. 143.09 bp, respectively).
Application of Some Proteome Analysis Techniques in Animal Reproduction

This chapter focuses on the application of proteome analysis techniques to animal repro- duction and provides general information on one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis, chromatographic methods, and mass spectrometer (MS), widely used in proteomics studies. Proteome consists of an entire complement of proteins expressed by a cell, tissue, or organism. Proteomics reveals functions of proteins encoded in the genome. These functions include posttranslational modifications (PTMs) and alterations in the protein synthesis. Animal reproduction takes a key role in livestock, and increas- ing the reproduction rate in flocks plays an important role in livestock management. Studying the proteins related to reproduction could guide on how to increase fertility. Recent studies addressed the proteome constitution of both male and female reproductive system. Follicular fluid, endometrium, and ovary proteins were analyzed in females by proteomics study, while in males, sperm proteomics was more focused. Information obtained on this issue is also beneficial for the development of reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. Strategies to increase fertility in animals can be revealed by proteomic studies, and a more profound knowledge on proteomics may become helpful to develop and enhance the efficiency of reproductive technologies.
Three cases of combined small cell lung carcinoma with review of the literature

Under the headline of small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), two different categories have been recognized according to the criteria of World Health Organization/International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (WHO/ IASLC) since 1999. These are; SCLC and combined SCLC (1). SCLC accounts for 10-20% of all lung cancers and among them the incidence of combined SCLC has been reported as 1-3%. Affected patients are usually male and heavy smokers (2,3,4,5). Combined SCLC contains any subtypes of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) such as adenocarcinoma (AC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), large cell carcinoma and less commonly spindle cell or giant cell carcinoma in addition to small cell carcinoma ABSTRACT
Aquaregia and Oxygen Plasma Treatments on Fluorinated Tin Oxide for Assembly of PLEDs Devices Using OC1C10-PPV as Emissive Polymer

In this work were carried out treatments with oxygen plasma and aquaregia on fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) films varying the treatment times. After treatments, the samples were analyzed by techniques measurements: sheet resistance, thickness, Hall effect, transmittance and superficial roughness. Devices using FTO/PEDOT:PSS/OC1C10-PPV/Al were assembled. In this experiment some variations were observed by sheet resistance and thickness and Hall effect measurements indicated most elevated carriers concentration and resistivity for aquaregia than that oxygen plasma. The roughness was elevated for the first minutes with treatment by aquaregia too. In the I-V curves the aquaregia devices presented the lowest threshold voltage for 30 minutes and devices treated by oxygen plasma presented a behavior most resistivity different of typical curves for PLEDs devices. Copyright © 2009 IFSA.
Patients and Medical Staff Attitudes Toward the Future Inclusion of eHealth in Tuberculosis Management: Perspectives From Six Countries Evaluated using a Qualitative Framework

Background Digitally delivering healthcare services is very attractive for tuberculosis (TB) management as this disease has a complex diagnosis and lengthy management and involves multiple medical and nonmedical specialists. Especially in low- and middle-income countries, eHealth could potentially offer cost-effective solutions to bridge financial, social, time, and distance challenges. Objective The goal of the research is to understand what would make eHealth globally applicable and gain insight into different TB situations, opportunities, and challenges. Methods We performed focus group interviews with TB experts and patients from 6 different countries on 4 different continents. The focus group interviews followed the theory of planned behavior framework to offer structured recommendations for a versatile eHealth solution. The focus group interviews were preceded by a general demographic and technology use questionnaire. Questionnaire results were analyzed using basic statistics in Excel (Microsoft Corporation). Focus group interview data were analyzed using ATLAS.ti 8 (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH) by assigning codes to quotations and grouping codes into the 5 domains within the framework. Results A total of 29 patients and 32 medical staff members were included in our study. All medical staff had used the internet, whereas 31% (9/61) of patients had never been online. The codes with the most quotations were information in relation to eHealth (144 quotations) and communication (67 quotations). The consensus among all participants from all countries is that there are important communication and information gaps that could be bridged by an eHealth app. Participants from different countries also highlighted different challenges, such as a majority of asylum-seeker patients or lack of infrastructure that could be addressed with an eHealth app. Conclusions Within the 6 countries interviewed, there is high enthusiasm toward eHealth in TB. A potential app could first target information and communication gaps in TB, with additional modules aimed at setting-specific challenges.
Android Browser Exploit Prevention Using NFC Tag Filtering

Near Field Communication (NFC) is one of the prominent and popular communication technologies used for transmitting information between two devices within a limited range with the help of radiofrequency. The integration of this technology into smartphones has led manufacturers, developers and the end-users to a growing interest in this technology and its use cases. This technology is widely adopted in various application domains such as contactless payment systems, ticketing, access control, identity management, device tracking etc. Even though the range of NFC is limited to a few centimetres, the NFC Forum has not made sufficient effort in securing all aspects of this technology. The NFC tag is one such area. Unlike other types of NFC embedded devices such as contactless smart card, debit/credit cards that use authentication, encryption and other forms of security measures, these tags can easily be read, written, spoofed, intercepted or altered by anyone with a valid NFC reader such as a smartphone. Overwriting these tags with malicious content could jeopardize the security of the system since these devices are designed to execute actions automatically without any user intervention. In this research paper, we evaluate this security issue and propose a secure middleware interface between the NFC reader and the tag so that only valid tag content gets executed by the reader. Our middleware application explicitly focuses on identifying malicious URL’s within the tag since they have the peak chance of compromising the security of the device. This will ultimately add an extra layer of security while reading information from the tag.
MDPRP: A Q-Learning Approach for the Joint Control of Beaconing Rate and Transmission Power in VANETs

Vehicular ad-hoc communications rely on periodic broadcast beacons as the basis for most of their safety applications, allowing vehicles to be aware of their surroundings. However, an excessive beaconing load might compromise the proper operation of these crucial applications, especially regarding the exchange of emergency messages. Therefore, congestion control can play an important role. In this article, we propose joint beaconing rate and transmission power control based on policy evaluation. To this end, a Markov Decision Process (MDP) is modeled by making a set of reasonable simplifying assumptions which are resolved using Q-learning techniques. This MDP characterization, denoted as MDPRP (indicating Rate and Power), leverages the trade-off between beaconing rate and transmission power allocation. Moreover, MDPRP operates in a non-cooperative and distributed fashion, without requiring additional information from neighbors, which makes it suitable for use in infrastructureless (ad-hoc) networks. The results obtained reveal that MDPRP not only balances the channel load successfully but also provides positive outcomes in terms of packet delivery ratio. Finally, the robustness of the solution is shown since the algorithm works well even in those cases where none of the assumptions made to derive the MDP model apply.
Role of Acute Phase Proteins in Pathogenicity of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

The role of cytokine mediated acute phase response is observed to be closely involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes but in case of type 1 diabetes mellitus this role is contradictory. Since in world adolescent population, frequency of developing type 1 diabetes is not negligible, we tested this hypothesis by estimating circulating acute phase proteins in type 1 (T-1) patients. The acute phase proteins named α1antitrypsin, α1acid glycoprotein; ceruloplasmin and fibrinogen were estimated in the plasma in newly diagnosed 12 T-1. Thirty normal controls to match the age and sex of the test groups were also studied. The levels of these proteins were correlated with their BMI and random plasma glucose values.T-1 cases showed significantly higher levels of the acute phase proteins (except α1acid glycoprotein) in comparison to control group. From these findings we can predict a hypothesis that low grade inflammatory process is definitely implicated in the pathogenesis of type1 diabetic patient though results were contradictory in previous studies. This line of pathological basis should be further explored for diagnosis, management and follow up.
Robust Blind Speech Watermarking via FFT-Based Perceptual Vector Norm Modulation With Frame Self-Synchronization

Watermarking is an important measure for protecting proprietary digital multimedia data. This paper presents a novel approach to achieving robust and imperceptible blind speech watermarking on a frame-by-frame basis. The proposed method employs two modules operating in the fast Fourier transform (FFT) domain. The first module is referred to as downward progressive quantization index modulation. It modulates the vector norms drawn from FFT coefficients according to a guideline deduced from human auditory masking properties. The second module is referred to as boundary-constrained iterative adjustment. It provides a smooth transition across frames in the resulting speech waveform. Experiment results confirm the imperceptibility of the proposed modulation scheme in terms of the mean opinion score – listening quality objective (MOS–LQO) based on the perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) metric. The proposed watermarking method matched and exceeded the performance of five state-of-the-art methods in terms of robustness against common speech processing attacks.
Behavioral adaptations of a large carnivore to human activity in an extremely arid landscape

Driven by the availability of food subsidies and landscape transformation, large carnivore populations are increasingly inhabiting the vicinity of humans. To persist in human proximity, while avoiding conflict and mortality, they must make adjustments in their spatial behavior. Understanding such behavioral adaptations can be crucial to formulate conservation strategies. We used GPS location data to study the movement and space use of protected Arabian wolves in the extremely arid Negev Desert (Israel), where natural prey densities are reduced. We examined wolf preference for the proximity of human infrastructure, while testing the hypothesis that wolves would use areas where ungulates were more likely to occur. Wolves showed a strong spatial association with humans, spending a large proportion of their time in proximity of human infrastructure and moving primarily along roads. Wolves also increased their movement during the night. In addition, wolves that had higher availability of human infrastructure in their home ranges showed increased selection for such features, suggesting a positive functional response. Finally, wolves did not show preference for areas of high ungulate occurrence at either spatial scale. These findings, combined with recent diet analyses, indicate that wolves rely on human subsidies, proportioned by the availability of garbage and agricultural produce. Our results demonstrate that wolves fine‐tune their space use to persist in the vicinity of humans. Additional conditions that enable such persistence include effective legal protection and positive local attitudes toward wolves. We conclude that such circumstances can promote spatial coexistence of humans and large carnivores. The strong observed spatial association and evident dietary dependence of wolves on subsidies from a low‐density human population may also reflect the conditions that led to dog domestication.
In Vitro Preservation of Potato Plants

Abstract Potato plants free of viruses, bacteria and viroid could be maintained in vitro for a long time. Proper preparation of potato plants for in vitro culture provide its long-term storage in good condition. First step is to establish in vitro culture from young greenhouse grown plants in early developmental stage. Explants are maintained and propagated by nodal subculture on hormone-free Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium at temperature 20-22°C. After rooting, for longer preservation plants are maintained at temperature 8-10°C.
Tissue-Specific Enrichment Analysis (TSEA) to decode tissue specificity

Motivation Diseases and traits are under dynamic tissue-specific regulation. However, heterogeneous tissues are often collected in biomedical studies, which reduce the power in the identification of disease-associated variants and gene expression profiles. Results We present TSEA, an R package to conduct Tissue-Specific Enrichment Analysis (TSEA) with two built-in reference panels. Statistical methods are developed and implemented for detecting tissue-specific genes and for enrichment test of different forms of query data. Our applications using multi-trait genome-wide association data and cancer expression data showed that TSEA could effectively identify the most relevant tissues for each query trait or sample, providing insights for future studies. Availability https://github.com/bsml320/TSEA Contact peilin.jia@uth.tmc. edu or zhongming.zhao@uth.tmc. edu
Selectivity of geraniol synthase in aromatic species to control of cotton ramulosis

Ramulosis (Colletotrichum gossypii South var. cephalosporioides Costa) is a fungal disease of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) that causes damage to leaves, stems, and bolls by reducing fiber production; it can be controlled by chemical fungicides. Geraniol is a monoterpenoid produced by some aromatic plant species whose fungicidal properties have been widely reported. Geraniol synthase (GES; EC 3.1.7.11) is the precursor enzyme involved in the biosynthetic chain of geraniol. Geraniol synthase (ges) gene transcripts were prospected in 11 aromatic species with molecular and phytopathological tools to identify promising accessions for further use in in vitro and in vivo assays involving the control of cotton ramulosis. Mentha pulegium L. oil highly expressed ges and inhibited fungal growth at 1000 uL L-1 in an in vitro assay. Validation assays were carried out in two environments and M. pulegium at 2000 uL L-1 reduced the initial and final severity indices of the disease to 48% and 52%, respectively, in preventive treatments; in curative assays, indices were 44% and 54%, respectively. This indicates that it is a promising bioactive compound to control cotton ramulosis.
Step Detection through Ultra-Low Complexity Zero Crossing Analysis

Step detection is a common application in battery driven wearables. It enables fitness tracking as well as indoor localization. However, current state of the art approaches heavily rely on spectral properties of the acceleration signal or decision-strees comparing peaks and valleys, using various thresholds and timings. This requires accurate AD conversion as well as complex calculations to the disadvantage of battery life. Consequently, an ultra-low complexity step detector with competitive accuracy is desirable. We propose a zero-crossing interval and Bayesian-analysis based step detection algorithm which requires minimal computation at runtime, using a-priori knowledge from pre-computed statistical analysis. We compare our approach to a classifier that uses the more accurate but costly spectral properties of the data. The statistical analysis for pre-computation as well as evaluation is done using the annotated sensor data of the OU-ISIR Gait Database. Our evaluation shows the presented method outperforms classification with spectral features and delivers a step count accuracy that is competitive with state of the art commercial products.
Population persistence under high mutation rate: from evolutionary rescue to lethal mutagenesis

Populations may genetically adapt to severe stress that would otherwise cause their extirpation. Recent theoretical work, combining stochastic demography with Fisher’s geometric model of adaptation, has shown how evolutionary rescue becomes unlikely beyond some critical intensity of stress. Increasing mutation rates may however allow adaptation to more intense stress, raising concerns about the effectiveness of treatments against pathogens. This previous work assumes that populations are rescued by the rise of a single resistance mutation. However, even in asexual organisms, rescue can also stem from the accumulation of multiple mutations in a single genome. Here, we extend previous work to study the rescue process in an asexual population where the mutation rate is sufficiently high so that such events may be common. We predict both the ultimate extinction probability of the population and the distribution of extinction times. We compare the accuracy of different approximations covering a large range of mutation rates. Moderate increase in mutation rates favors evolutionary rescue. However, larger increase leads to extinction by the accumulation of a large mutation load, a process called lethal mutagenesis. We discuss how these results could help design “evolution-proof” anti-pathogen treatments that even highly mutable strains could not overcome.
Bone Marrow Morphology in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms – Relevance in the Molecular Era

Background: Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are clonal hematopoietic disorders. The mutation BCR-ABL is sine qua non for diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukemia and JAK2 V617F is present in majority of cases of polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and primary myelofibrosis (MF). Recent 2016 classification consigns importance to BM morphology as mutations are not universal. Identification of specific features would aid diagnosis of JAK2V617F negative MPN. This study aims to assess utility of peripheral blood and bone marrow morphology in myeloproliferative neoplasms in correlation with BCR-ABL and JAK2V617F. Methods: A retrospective 7 years study of peripheral blood, bone marrow aspirate (BMA) and bone marrow biopsy (BMB) of 44 cases of myeloproliferative neoplasms with BCR-ABL and JAK2 V617F mutation analysis. Results: Forty four cases of MPNs including 24 (54.5%) cases of CML, 7 (15.9% ) cases of PV, 5 (11.3%) cases of MF, 3 (6.8%) cases of ET, and 5 (11.3%) cases of MPN-U. MPV and LDH were significantly higher in MF in comparison to PV and ET. Higher haemoglobin (Hb) and platelets were seen in PV and ET. Dwarf MKs with hypolobated, cloud like nuclei in CML (fig 1), large MKs with staghorn nuclei were seen in ET. normal sized MKs with cloud like hypolobated forms in PV(fig2) and cloud like atypical dysmorphic nuclei with dense clustering were seen in MF. Conclusion: Hb, mean platelet volume (MPV), and LDH in conjunction with MK morphology aids in the diagnosis of MPNs. These findings will enable accurate diagnosis in JAK2 negative MPNs and benefit low resource center.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Echiniscus testudo (Heterotardigrada: Echiniscidae)

Abstract The complete mitchondrial genome of Echiniscus testudo, a cosmopolitan heterotardigrade collected in Japan, has been sequenced using a single molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing long read after whole genome amplification from a single individual. The genome has a total length of 15,817 bp, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 20 tRNA, 2 rRNA genes, and an AT-rich control region. The nucleotide composition was extremely AT-rich, with 78.41% AT. Being in a different class of the phylum Tardigrada, there is a large sequence divergence from the previously reported mitochondrial genome of the eutardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus, but the gene order of protein-coding genes are mostly conserved. This is the first report of a complete mitochondrial genome of a heterotardigrade.