Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of virulence genes in isolates of Shigellaspecies from Fujian,2005-2010

Investigation on the prevalence of virulence genes among Shigella spp.will reveal current circulating mode of different groups and serotypes.In this study,virulence genes,i.e.,ipaH,set1(set1A and set1B),sen and ial,in 104 Shigella isolates from Fujian,2005-2010,were detected by PCR.The positive rates of these genes and their distribution modes were analyzed.It was revealed that positive rates for ipaH,set1,sen,and ial genes were 100%,36.54%,66.35%,and 64.42%,respectively.Notably,the positive rates of set1 were 85% and 6.25% for S.flexneri and S.sonnei,respectively.Based on their virulence gene distribution mode,the 104 Shigella strains were divided into 8 groups.Group IV was the dominant mode(67.5%)for S.flexneri,while Group VI was the dominant mode(39.06%)for S.sonnei. Meanwhile,the distribution modes of Group I,VII and V were relatively common in S.sonnei. These results indicated that ipaH could be used as a target gene for identification of Shigella spp. ,and that set1 was the mainly harbored virulence gene in S.flexneri. The observation that Group IV was the unique dominant circulating mode in S.flexneri and there were more relatively clustered modes in S.sonnei,suggested that the evolution process of Shigella spp.involved complicated differentiation,and that insertion and deletion of virulence genes was associated with variation and differentiation of Shigella spp.
Disconnecting for the good: A network-oriented model for social contagion of opinions and social network interventions to increase adherence to social distancing

The pandemic of the new COVID-19 has raised many questions to a very connected society as to how to best respond to such a challenge at this current time. The best response so far is to call people for following the instructions from the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a way of reducing the spread of the virus and thus relieving the health system, striving to avoid a collapse. This work studies the spread of positive opinion on adhering to social distancing based on network topology and metrics using a network-oriented model for social contagion. It is shown that interventions based on social network measurements can be used to boost the spread of positive opinion about adhering to these measures. It is also shown that our model accounts for the relevance the health authorities have on encouraging people to partake in social distancing voluntarily. Resumo. A recente pandemia do COVID-19 gerou questionamentos sobre como melhor responder à este desafio em uma sociedade conectada. A melhor resposta até o momento é convocar as pessoas para seguirem as recomendações da Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) de modo a reduzir o espalhamento do vı́rus e evitar um colapso do sistema de saúde. Este trabalho estuda o espalhamento de opiniões favoráveis à adesão ao distanciamento social baseado em métricas e topologias de redes usando um modelo baseado em redes de contágio social. É mostrado que intervenções baseadas em métricas de redes sociais podem ser usadas para aumentar o espalhamento de opiniões positivas sobre a adesão a essas medidas. Também é mostrado que o modelo considera a relevância que os orgãos de saúde possuem ao convencer a população de que o distanciamento social voluntário é importante.
Screening des microorganismes à potentialités fermentaires pour le manioc

Resume Les processus de transformation artisanale du manioc pour l’alimentation humaine passe dans la plupart des cas, par une etape de fermentation spontanee non controlee. Ceci a pour consequence une mauvaise qualite des derives. Afin d’ameliorer ces procedes artisanaux, et par la les qualites nutritionnelle, toxicologique et hygienique des derives du manioc consommes sous les tropiques, une centaine de microorganismes ont ete isoles des cossettes de manioc fermente, ceci dans l’optique d’elaborer un ferment destine a la fermentation du manioc. Parmi ces souches, 80% produisent des amylases; 66,66% de la linamarase; 26,6% de la pectinemethylesterase; 3,33% de la pectate lyase et 26,6% de la pectine lyase. La plupart des microorganismes ont indique des reelles potentialites a produire les enzymes importantes pour la bioconversion de la pulpe du manioc. Ces microorganismes ont ete selectionnes pour la mise au point d’un ferment de rouissage du manioc. Summary Screening for Properties of some Strains of Lactobacilli with Potentials Applications as Starter Culture for Cassava Fermentation
Winter diet of wolf (Canis lupus) after the outbreak of African swine fever and under the severely reduced densities of wild boar (Sus scrofa)

The outbreak of the African swine fever (ASF) in Estonia in 2014 caused heavy hunting pressure on wild boar issued by authorities to stop further spread of the virus. To investigate the effects of wild boar shortage to wolf diet, we analysed 120 wolf scats from November to April in 2017-2018 from five Estonian counties and compared the results with the wolf dietary data from 1998. To eliminate possible dog scats from the material collected from areas close to settlements, genetic analysis was used. We found that ungulates still formed the bulk of the wolf diet, however, the occurrence of moose, wild boar, small rodents and hares has dropped considerably. The proportion of the roe deer and mammalian predators has increased from 51% to 55% and 4% to 10%, respectively. Moreover, plants, being totally absent in the previous study, were found in 25% of scats, in many cases representing the only food item. Food niche breadth has widened from 1.54 to 2.3. While roe deer was found to be a highly preferred, moose was still an avoided prey species.
Kinetics of Ascorbic acid degradation in asceptically packaged commercial orange juice produced locally in Nigeria

The recent ban on importation of fruit juices into Nigeria led to increase in production of locally - made orange juice. Degradation kinetics of ascorbic acid at refrigeration (70C ± 20C) and ambient temperature (280C ± 20C) were evaluated by the application of zero-order reaction kinetic. Results showed satisfactory correlation coefficients (R2 = 0.902 and 0.941) for refrigerated and samples stored at ambient temperature respectively. The reaction rate constant revealed that degradation was higher at ambient relative to refrigeration temperature. It is suggested that kinetic models for destruction of food components are required to improve products by minimizing quality changes especially for a new product and to predict shelf-life during storage. Keywords : Kinetics; ascorbic acid; orange juice; Nigeria. Bowen Journal of Agriculture Vol. 5 (1&2) 2008: pp. 1-7
Predicting the 2-dimensional airfoil by usingmachine learning methods

In this paper, we develop models to design the airfoil using Multilayer Feed-forward Artificial Neural Network (MFANN) and Support Vector Regression model (SVR). The aerodynamic coefficients corresponding to series of airfoil are stored in a database along with the airfoil coordinates. A neural network is created with aerodynamic coefficient as input to produce the airfoil coordinates as output. The performance of the models have been evaluated. The results show that the SVR model yields the lowest prediction error.
Designing a Fantasy Bike-based Exergame to Foster Physical Activity

Authorities recommend the practice of moderate physical activity to improve health and quality of life. "Play’n Ride" is a bike-based exergame aimed at promoting and controlling physical activity. This paper presents the usefulness of using extrinsic fantasy and a commonplace real bike to address a wide audience. It depicts the interactive universe in which the player pedals a bike equipped with sensors to control the flight altitude of an imaginary character. During a ’Tour de France 2019’ stage, one hundred and seventy-eight fan park visitors from youths to retirees tested the exergame. Data were collected from an online questionnaire composed of SUS questionnaire items and from a digital tracking system attached to the game-engine in order to assess the usability, the learnability and the acceptability of the system. Analysis shows that using extrinsic fantasy makes exercising fun and it engages people of all ages regardless of their interest in video games or sports.
Cortical Lesions in a Sample of Egyptian Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Background: multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease with a neurodegenerative component mainly characterized by progressive accumulation of focal white matter (WM) lesions. The degree of cortical damage at baseline was associated with the progression of disability. Cognitive deficits could be better explained by cortical lesions (CLs) than by WM lesions. Fatigue in MS could be due to damage to the cortico striato thalamo cortical circuit. Aim of the Work: to detect (CLs) in MS patients and correlate these lesions with physical disability, cognitive dysfunction and fatigue. Subjects and Methods: a case-control study on 64 subjects including 44 known multiple sclerosis patients diagnosed according to revised McDonald's criteria 2017. Results: we observed a statistically significant difference between MS patients and healthy controls as regard number of (CLs), Symbol Digit Modality Test (SDMT), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and P300 wave latencies and amplitudes. Secondary progressive (SPMS) subgroup was affected more than relapsing remitting (RRMS) subgroup. (CLs) were located mainly in temporal lobes. Conclusion: This study suggested that cortical affection is directly associated with physical and cognitive disability progression.
Voluntary scuba diving as a method for monitoring invasive exotic marine species

Monitoring surveys provide data needed to assess ecosystem conditions in places where bioinvasion occurs. The collection of data by volunteer researchers (citizen science) is an alternative for scientists and research agencies that lack information but do not have sufficient financial resources. The objective of this study was to evaluate marine monitoring using voluntary recreational scuba diving to identify invasive exotic marine species at eight diving sites distributed between the north of Ilha Grande and the municipality of Angra dos Reis in the Central Channel of Ilha Grande Bay, Rio de Janeiro state. During the three months of study, 207 questionnaires were evaluated. The results showed that the group of volunteer divers with more experience identified a greater number of invasive exotic species compared to the group of divers with less experience. No statistical difference was found in the number of species identified between the groups of volunteer divers with and without a species identification chart. As a recommendation for the use of citizen science, it is necessary to use divers with greater diving experience. Developing stricter protocols for the identification of invasive exotic marine species is essential for the collection of quality data. The improvement of monitoring programs based on citizen science can provide useful information for research on biodiversity in marine environments, significantly reducing financial costs and time in the field, in addition to contributing to the ecological knowledge, awareness and environmental education of participants
Reliability of Postoperative Radiographies in Ankle Fractures.

Background The accuracy of reduction of ankle fractures using postoperative plain radiographies (x-ray) remains widely controversial. Some authors have demonstrated that postoperative computed tomography (CT) scan can be useful for these patients. In current study, the efficacy of x-rays after fixation of ankle fractures was investigated based on the CT scan findings. Methods A total of 73 patients with ankle fractures who were subjected to open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) were enrolled. After surgery, if the reduction was acceptable based on the x-rays according to standard measurements, the patient was referred for CT scanning. Forty four patients were included in the study. Undesirable CT scan findings including malreduction of fragments or articular surfaces, device malpositioning, missed fractures, and undetected intra-articular fragments were documented. Results Undesirable CT findings were seen in 25 patients (56.8%). CT scan showed acceptable reduction without device malpositioning in 19 patients. The most prevalent findings in CT images were malreduction and device malpositioning in 17 and 16 patients, respectively. There was no abnormal finding in CT imaging of lateral malleolar fractures. In two thirds of the injured syndesmosis, device malpositioning, and malreduction were detected in CT scan. Conclusion Despite acceptable postoperative x-rays, a considerable number of patients with ankle fractures had inappropriate reduction or undesirable findings in their postoperative CT scan. It seems necessary to use CT scan after ORIF of ankle fractures in order to examine the accuracy of reduction. Further validation of postoperative CT scan in ankle fracture surgery should be investigated.
Intraspecific Trait Plasticity in Coffee Agroforestry Systems of Costa Rica

While it has been shown that coffee-shade agroforestry systems require fewer inputs and achieve greater coffee yield stability, little work has focused on the shade tree and environmental processes that control intraspecific leaf trait variation of coffee crops. It has been observed in natural plant communities that functional leaf traits are modified along environmental gradients. Accordingly, we would expect plasticity in coffee leaf traits along a: i) local scale gradient (light and nutrients) induced by shade tree diversity and ii) large scale gradient (climato-edaphic) induced by altitude. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of such environmental gradients on coffee plant response in multiple on-farm research sites of variable shade tree diversity and altitude in the Cartago and San Jose regions of Costa Rica. We analysed coffee under full sun and shade for leaf-level photosynthetic rates (infrared gas analysis), leaf traits (morphological/nutritional) and light transmittance (hemispherical photographs) above coffee strata. Our results show large variability of coffee leaf traits, coffee photosynthetic rates, specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry mass deviated with shade tree richness and climato-edaphic conditions. Mean leaf mass and SLA tended to increase with increasing shade tree diversity, with maximal net photosynthesis at 60% total light transmittance under shade canopies. This positive shade tree effect was minimized with increasing altitude where full sun coffee photosynthesized at higher rates than shaded coffee at high altitudes. Concurrently, other coffee leaf traits strongly differentiated between full sun and shaded agroforestry with increasing altitude. Results suggest greater plasticity toward leaf-level resource acquiring traits as shade tree diversity increases, but only in nutrient and climate-limiting environments. These findings help predict coffee performance across environments, whether induced by natural (climato-edaphic) or managed (shade tree presence) phenomenon, contributing to the growing literature on trait variability to environmental change in agroforestry systems. (Resume d'auteur)
Towards operational phytoplankton recognition with automated high-throughput imaging and compact convolutional neural networks

Abstract. Plankton communities form the basis of aquatic ecosystems and elucidating their role in increasingly important environmental issues is a constantly present research question. The concealed plankton community dynamics reflect changes in environmental forcing, growth traits of competing species, and multiple food web interactions. Recent technological advances have led to the possibility of collecting real-time big data opening new horizons for testing core hypotheses in planktonic systems, derived from macroscopic realms, in community ecology, biodiversity research, and ecosystem functioning. Analyzing the big data calls for computer vision and machine learning methods capable of producing interoperable data across platforms and systems. In this paper we apply convolutional neural networks (CNN) to classify a brackish-water phytoplankton community in the Baltic Sea. For solving the classification task, we utilize compact CNN architectures requiring less computational capacity and creating an opportunity to quickly train the network. This makes it possible to (1) test various modifications to the classification method, and (2) repeat each experiment multiple times with different training and test set combinations to obtain reliable results. We further analyze the effect of large class imbalance to the CNN performance, and test relevant data augmentation techniques to improve the performance. Finally, we address the practical implications of the classification performance to aquatic research by analyzing the confused classes and their effect on the reliability of the automatic plankton recognition system, to guide further development of plankton recognition research. Our results show that it is possible to obtain good classification accuracy with relatively shallow architectures and a small amount of training data when using effective data augmentation methods even with a very unbalanced dataset.
Association of Higher Circulating Insulin Antibody with Increased Mean Amplitude Glycemic Excursion in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional, Retrospective Case-Control Study

Insulin antibody (IA) may potentially affect a patient's glycemic control due to its variability in both binding and/or releasing insulin. However, the association between IA titer and daily glycemic variability (GV) is still unknown. We thus performed this cross-sectional, retrospective case-control study to assess the relationship between IA titer and mean amplitude glycemic excursion (MAGE) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients using a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system. We recruited 100 eligible patients (IA > 5%, IA positive) and divided them into two groups—a low (L) group and a high (H) group—based on their IA titer. The control (C) group consisted of 47 patients (IA ≤ 5%, IA negative) matched for age, BMI, gender, and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). The CGM determined the GV of enrolled patients. The primary outcome was the relationship between the IA titer and the MAGE, and the secondary outcome was the differences of GV among the three groups. We found that patients in the H group had higher levels of blood glucose fluctuation parameters than those in the L and C groups. The Ln(IA) was positively correlated with Ln(MAGE) even after adjusting for age, gender, BMI, HbA1c, and fasting and postprandial C-peptide(r = 0.423, p < 0.001). Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis revealed that Ln(IA) was an independent factor of Ln(MAGE) (beta = 0.405, p < 0.001). In conclusion, the higher circulating IA titer was associated with increased MAGE in T2DM patients, indicating that those patients with elevated IA titer should receive GV assessment and individualized treatment.
Evaluation of Antimitotic Activity of Momordica Dioica Fruits on Allium Cepa Root Meristamatic Cells

Objective: Natural occurring phenolic compounds play an important role in cancer prevention and shows antimitotic activity. Number of active constituents like phenolic acid, curcuminoids, coumarine, ligans, quinones, etc. is showing antimitotic activity of Momordica dioica. The present work is on phytochemical investigation and examines antimitotic activity of aqueous extract of fruits Momordica dioica at concentration of 15 mg/ml on Allium cepa root meristamatic cells.Methods: The fruits are air dried and extracted with solvents like water by maceration method. The evaluation of antimitotic activity is done by using Allium cepa root meristamatic cells parameters where and methotrexate was used as a standard drugs. Result and discussion: In Allium assay, aqueous extract of fruits of Momordica diocia (15 mg/ml) and methotrexate act against cells of allium roots and lesser the growth of root and mitotic index when compared with distilled water as control group. The result indicated that cytotoxic property is due to presence of phenolic, alkaloids and flavonoids compounds in 15 mg/ml concentration of aqueous extract of Momordica diocia fruits extract.Conclusion: On the basis of result, we concluded that, 15 mg/ml concentration of Momordica dioica fruits shows good antimitotic activity on the Allium cepa root tip assay.
Influence of irrigation and fertility levels on yield and uptake of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill)

Fieid experiments were conducted in loamy sand soils to study the effect of different levels of irrigations (0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 IW/CPE ratios) nitrogen (60,90 and 120 kg/ha) and phosphorus (30,45 and 60 kg/ha) on yield and uptake of nutrients of fennel. Significant increase in seed and stover yields as well as nitrogen and phosphorus uptake by crops were recorded up to 0.80 IW/CPE ratio. Seed and stover yields as well as removal of phosphorus by crop were increased with increased nitrogen levels, but significant increase was observed up to 90 kg Niha. However, removal of nitrogen by plant increased significantly with each successive increase in nitrogen level. Phosphorus fertilization had no significant effect on yield and uptake of nutrients by crop.
Considering various consumers profiles in a smart-grid

In this paper we address the question of the role of electricity consumers in a smart grid for a day-ahead scheduling. We aim to understand them on a technical but also a socio-economical level. For this purpose, we based our work on a multidisciplinary approach to define involvement profiles among electricity consumers we can then use in a management strategy of a smart grid. Considering that a real consumer behaviour is a combination of various objectives and constraints, the final number of elementary profiles is here limited to five. The goal is to be able to manage the energy efficiently while helping both part (consumer and utility) to reach their objectives, respecting these profiles.
Molecular phylogeny based on its sequences of nrDNA of some species belonging to dodder (Cuscuta L.) genus from various ecological sites of Turkey

Nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) sequence data of the Cuscuta genus, which have been considered as one of the most popular sequences for phylogenetic inference in plants, have been studied from a phylogenetic perspective in agricultural and non-agricultural lands of Turkey. The samples of Cuscuta spp. were collected from different geographical regions of Turkey between the years of 2013-2015. Some other species, not available locally, were taken from the herbarium samples of some research units. In order to study the phylogenetic relations of collected species, DNA isolations were made from body tissue samples. Conserved regions on ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were amplified by universal primers via PCR method and cloned into a proper cloning vector. The cloned DNA fragments were sequenced and analysed by web-based and computer programs. DNA sequences of certain species were recorded to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. Based on the morphological examination and molecular analyses of fresh and the herbarium specimen, 8 species were identified. The identified species were C. hyalina (Gene bank accession no. KY020420), C. monogyna (KY020421), C. europaea (KY020422), C. palaestina (KY020423), C. approximata (KY020424), C. kurdica (KY020427), C. kotschyana (KY020430) and C. babylonica (KY020431). The ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) region contains several indels in identified Cuscuta species with the length varying from 668 to 730 bp. Sequence divergence ranges from 1.00% to 8.00% within Cuscuta spp. Based on our findings, the ITS sequences provided phylogenetically informative results in combination with the secondary structures.