Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of Excised-Bud (EB) and Half-Corm (HC) at Four Physiological Growth Stages on Plantlet Regeneration of Musa genotypes

Aims: This study was conducted to determine whether excised buds (EB) or half corms (HC) from 3 Musa genotypes at four growth stages of mother plants would produce the most plantlets and to find out the effects of scarification on number of plantlets regenerated. Study Design: Treatments comprised three Musa genotypes at four growth stages and two macropropagation methods – excised bud and half-corm in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. Place and Duration of Study: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) High Rainfall Station, Onne (4°51’N, 7° 03’E, 10 m above sea level), Rivers State, Nigeria for eighteen months. Methodology: Propagules, excised buds and half corms from a tetraploid cooking banana hybrid BITA 3; tetraploid plantain hybrid PITA 14, and a cooking banana landrace Cardaba, at 6-month Original Research Article Wilson and Tenkouano; AJRIB, 2(4): 1-9, 2019; Article no.AJRIB. 52684 2 vegetative, pre-flowering, post-flowering and bunch harvest stages were planted to regenerate plantlets. At bunch harvest growth stage, additional excised buds and half corms were scarified to find out the effect on regeneration of plantlets. Results: Excised buds and half corms did not differ significantly (P = .05) in number of plantlets produced in PITA 14 irrespective of growth stage but bunch harvest stage was best. In BITA 3, excised buds produced significantly more plantlets than half corms at the 6-month vegetative and bunch harvest stages. However, at the pre-flowering stage, half corms produced significantly more plantlets than excised buds. In Cardaba, half corms were significantly better at all growth stages especially bunch harvest stage. In all Musa genotypes, scarification increased significantly the number of plantlets. Conclusion: This study found that PITA 14 is best propagated by excised buds or half corms irrespective of growth stage. For BITA 3, excised buds either at 6-month vegetative or bunch harvest stage; or use of half corm at pre-flowering stage was best. Half corm at any stage is best for Cardaba.
Living donor transplantation -outcome and risk

Live organ donors undergo extensive surgery to provide an organ that can be lifesaving or improve the health and quality of life for the recipient. The thesis seeks important knowledge that may be used to further reduce the donor risk for the live kidney donor as well as for an entirely new group of living donors, the uterus donor. The general aims were to investigate the outcome for the living kidney and uterus donor in both organ specific measurements and quality of life in the recovery after donation, as well as to investigate if there are markers indicating elevated risk for the donor. Living kidney donors at the Department of Transplantation Surgery at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the live uterus donors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, were recruited. The study types used herein included a cross-sectional study on long-term kidney function, analysis of internal quality register data and prospective studies on both living kidney and uterus donors. Both objective and quantified subjective data (Patient-Reported Outcome) were used for statistical analysis. After an initial decrease, followed by the removal of one kidney at donation, the kidney function increased over time after donation for years while later on it decreased with donor age. The number of arteries did not seem to affect the initial increasing capacity of the remaining kidney. The kidney donor was typically recovered both physically and mentally after three months following donation and socioeconomic factors may have influenced the recovery. The entirely new donor group, living uterus donors, returned to their previous physical health and well-being after the donation. In conclusion, implementation of the current guidelines on living donor evaluation and care provides safe selection and minimize the donor risk although psychosocial and socioeconomic factors may influence the recovery.
Statement on the validity of the conclusions of a mouse carcinogenicity study on sucralose (E 955) performed by the Ramazzini Institute

Abstract The Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS) was requested from the European Commission to provide a statement on the validity of the conclusions of a mouse study on the carcinogenic potential of sucralose (E 955) performed by the Ramazzini Institute (Soffritti et al., 2016). Sucralose (E 955) is authorised as a food additive in the EU in accordance with Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives. According to Commission Regulation (EU) No 257/2010, the full re‐evaluation of sucralose shall be completed by December 2020. Taking into consideration the publication from Soffritti et al. (2016), the technical report and additional information provided by the Ramazzini Institute and other information available for sucralose (E 955), the Panel noted: (i) the design of the bioassay that considers exposure from gestation up to natural death of animals implies an increase in background pathology that results in the possibility of misclassifications and a difficult interpretation of data, especially in the absence of both an appropriate concurrent control group and a recent historical database; (ii) the lack of a dose–response relationship between the exposure to sucralose and incidence of lymphomas and leukaemias (combined); (iii) the lack of a mode of action and failure to meet all the Bradford‐Hill considerations for a cause–effect relationship between intake of sucralose and the development of tumours in male mice only; (iv) a comprehensive database was available for sucralose and no carcinogenic effect was reported in adequate studies in rats and mice. Moreover, there was no reliable evidence of in vivo genotoxicity. Therefore, the Panel concluded that the available data did not support the conclusions of the authors (Soffritti et al., 2016) that sucralose induced haematopoietic neoplasias in male Swiss mice.
Effects of a decade of selenium emission reductions on mercury accumulation in aquatic biota in the Sudbury region of Ontario

Control of smelting emissions in the Sudbury (Ontario, Canada) area has dramatically decreased the amount of selenium (Se) deposited onto the surrounding landscape. Historically, Se emissions in Sudbury correlated with lower total mercury (Hg) and methylmercury levels (MeHg) in tissues of zooplankton, amphipods (Hyalella azteca), mayflies (Stenonema femoratum), and young-of-the-year perch (Perca flavescens). In 2017, ten years following emission reductions, we evaluated whether changes in Se deposition affected total Hg and MeHg burden in lake biota. We show that total Se concentrations in the water of the majority of lakes have increased despite decreases in Se depositions, most likely due to the long residence time of Se in the watershed and the water column. As a result, Se in water continues to correlate with lower total Hg and MeHg accumulation in tissues of zooplankton, amphipods, mayflies, and perch. These results suggest that Se continues to exhibit a protective effect on Hg accumulation in biota, even years after emissions have greatly decreased. We expect this work to inform efforts aiming at long-term recovery of aquatic environments affected by smelter emissions and aid in designing remediation strategies involving Se additions.
Phylogenetic relationship of roe deer Capreolus capreolus mantschurivus revealed by complete mitochondrial genome

Abstract The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus mantschurivus) is the main prey of the Amur tigers and leopards in the northeast of China. The population genetics of roe deer is closely related to the conservation and management of the endangered species. We first determined and annotated the whole mtDNA genome of the C. capreolus mantschurivus to better understand the evolutionary relationship of these subspecies. The complete mitogenome is 16 355 bp in length, includes 37 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 1 control region. We built the phylogenetic tree of C. capreolus mantschurivus and other 11 most closely related Cervidae species.
Topologically Dependent Abundance of Spontaneous DNA Damage in Single Human Cells

In the studies of single-cell genomics, the large endeavor has been focused on the detection of the permanent changes in the genome. On the other hand, spontaneous DNA damage frequently occurs and results in transient single-stranded changes to the genome until they are repaired. So far, successful profiling of these dynamic changes has not been demonstrated by single-cell whole-genome amplification methods. Here we reported a novel single-cell WGA method: Linearly Produced Semiamplicon based Split Amplification Reaction (LPSSAR), which allows, for the first time, the genome-wide detection of the DNA damage associated single nucleotide variants (dSNVs) in single human cells. The sequence-based detection of dSNVs allows the direct characterization of the major damage signature that occurred in human cells. In the analysis of the abundance of dSNVs along the genome, we observed two modules of dSNV abundance, instead of a homogeneous abundance of dSNVs. Interestingly, we found that the two modules are associated with the A/B topological compartments of the genome. This result suggests that the genome topology directly influences genome stability. Furthermore, with the detection of a large number of dSNVs in single cells, we showed that only under a stringent filtering condition, can we distinguish the de novo mutations from the dSNVs and achieve a reliable estimation of the total level of de novo mutations in a single cell.
REGION-WISE PAGE DIFFICULTY ANALYSIS USING EYE MOVEMENTS

In this study, we investigated which section of a page was difficult for students to read, based on eye movement data and subjective impressions of the page’s difficulty, with the aim of helping teachers revise teaching materials. It is problematic to manually model relationships between eye movements and subjective impressions of the page’s difficulty. Therefore, in this study, we used a neural network to model the relationships automatically. Our method generated relevance maps representing locations where students found difficulty, in order to visualize region-wise page difficulty. To evaluate the quality of the relevance maps, we compared them with a distribution of gaze points and highlights added by the students. In addition, we administered a questionnaire to evaluate whether the relevance maps were useful to teachers when revising teaching materials. Results imply that our method can provide useful information for teachers making revisions to teaching materials.
The Solitary Pulmonary Nodule

A solitary pulmonary nodule is a finding on chest X-ray showing a single circumscribed mass in the lung. This finding is usually not associated with any other abnormality or any Symptoms and is often first noticed on routine examination. Many disease processes, particularly lung cancer, tuberculosis, and fungal infections of the lung may cause such a nodule. Though biopsy with a fine needle may be used to establish the nature of the nodule, often this technique is unavailable, or yields no definite result. In this case thoracotomy is needed to obtain a diagnosis. The advantages of surgery are that it assures a definite diagnosis and is also the best treatment for lung cancer which presents as a solitary nodule. However, the potential long-term benefit of surgery must be balanced against both the immediate risk of the operation and the advantage of not operating on those patients who have a benign nodule. At present the physician must decide the case before surgery. Without the benefit of precise quantitative data or the formal techniques to apply such data to an individual patient.
Exploring the experiences of domestic abuse survivors working in the field of domestic abuse support: assisting recovery or re-victimisation revisited?

Women’s domestic abuse support services have developed over the past decades with the inclusion of women surviving abuse as practitioners themselves (Mullender and Hague, 2001; Slattery and Goodman, 2009; Bemiller and Williams, 2011). Following a literature review of this area, women ‘survivor support workers’ or ‘peer support/mentors’ have rarely been given the opportunity to articulate what it is that they are gaining personally and the impact in undertaking this emotionally challenging work. This small-scale study considers the voice of women survivors working in the field of domestic abuse support work, affording them the opportunity to explore the benefits and the costs to them as survivors of domestic abuse when working in this practice area. Twelve women ‘survivor support workers’ from five distinct English organisations took part in this research. Qualitative interviews were then analysed thematically within a feminist paradigm. Findings indicate that there are both highly positive aspects for survivors of abuse working in the domestic abuse sector, and equally, that there are areas of risk where re-victimisation and vicarious trauma could occur.
Substructure Flexibility and Member-Level Load Capabilities for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines in OpenFAST

OpenFAST is an open-source, physics-based engineering tool applicable to the load analysis of land-based and offshore wind turbines, including floating offshore wind turbines. The substructure for a floating wind turbine has historically been modeled in OpenFAST as a rigid body with hydrodynamic loads lumped at a point, which enabled the tool to predict the global response of the floating substructure but not the structural loads within its individual members. This limitation is an impediment to designing floating substructures — especially newer designs that are more streamlined, flexible, and cost-effective. This paper presents the development plan of new capabilities in OpenFAST to model floating substructure flexibility and member-level loads, including the functional requirements and modeling approaches needed to understand and apply them correctly.
A Bourdieusian analysis of the multilingualism in a poverty-stricken ethnic minority area: can linguistic capital be transferred to economic capital?

ABSTRACT Indigenous languages in poverty-stricken areas are often threatened by competition from the majority languages driving economic progress. Within the framework of the economics of linguistic exchanges, this paper discusses the possibility of transferring linguistic capital into economic capital, and the revaluation of minority languages to promote multilingualism in underdeveloped regions. A mixed-method approach (questionnaires, focused interviews, ethnographic observations) was adopted to investigate the linguistic use of and attitudes towards Hani, Mandarin and English among 142 Hani participants in Yuanyang County, China, and the dispositions of 1,395 participants outside Yuanyang towards four types of objectified linguistic products used in two submarkets. The qualitative and quantitative data from Yuanyang show that with a conservative monolingual attitude, young Hani are shifting from Hani to the national lingua franca, Mandarin, for socioeconomic reasons. However, outsiders favour the utilisation of multilingual resources in the submarkets of local tourism and sales of regionally specific products. The findings demonstrate that there is room for the revaluation of indigenous language in these submarkets, implying that minority and majority languages may coexist and develop in harmony if the local Hani and poverty alleviation workers can begin to transfer multilingual resources into economic capital in the submarkets.
Polyurethane Biomaterial-based Strategies toward Anti-infective Gingival Tissue Constructs

Gingival recession is found in 58% of adults over 30 years old regardless of oral hygiene. Tissue engineering strategies have the potential to overcome the limitations of the current standard of treatment, autologous grafts, among which include tissue shortage and co-morbidity. It is proposed that the gingival connective tissues may be tissue engineered using polyurethane-based scaffold platforms. Polyurethane biomaterials have adaptable chemistry, diverse mechanical properties and suitable biocompatibility and biodegradation characteristics for tissue engineering applications. However, the use of a synthetic material in the infectious oral environment has the potential to lead to biomaterial-associated infections. As such, two different anti-infective scaffold systems will be evaluated in this thesis. In the first system, a degradable polycarbonate urethane (PCNU) was co-electrospun with an antimicrobial oligomer (AO) containing the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CF) to generate antimicrobial nanofibres. Scaffolds with a higher loading of AO were found to have CF localized on the fibre surfaces which led to a fast release of AO (~100% released within 7 days). Loaded drug was found to slow hydrolysis kinetics of the PCNU scaffolds, and the form of CF loaded was found to significantly affect fibroblast cell attachment, wherein CF incorporated in free form increased cell attachment and spreading on the scaffolds relative to scaffolds with AO. In the second system, a polyurethane-based random pore hydrogel sponge, D-PHI, was used as a scaffold for generating prevascularized gingival constructs via perfusion co-culture of gingival fibroblasts and human vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) in D-PHI. These constructs are potentially anti-infective in that they will be readily perfused upon implantation so that host defense mechanisms can fight colonization of the
Transition-related social support of high school students with emotional and behavioral disorders

Abstract This article explores the roles of potential transition team members as expressed by students via a social support survey and semi-structured interviews. The sample included eight male students with EBD served primarily in self-contained special education settings at three high schools. Results from the survey indicated that students received most support from teachers and close friends even though support from parents was rated as most important. Additional themes emerged from interviews, including the overarching theme that students tended to prefer support from individuals who were caring, motivational, and personal. In many cases, students had negative perceptions or limited interaction with potential transition team members. Implications for practice and future research related to student-centered planning and stakeholder coordination are discussed.
Profit-oriented distributionally robust chance constrained flowshop scheduling considering credit risk

Customer credit risk or payment probability, influenced by factors such as financial conditions and bank policies, has hindered fast Asia-Pacific economic growth. Besides, the working time is usually limited due to regulations and limited resources. Driven by profit, some jobs may be rejected on tactical level and the accepted jobs are scheduled on operational level, respecting the allowed working time. This paper studies a stochastic flowshop scheduling problem, assuming that only the mean and covariance matrix of uncertain payment probabilities and processing times are known. The objective is to maximise the profit level, i.e. the probability of the profit no less than the planned one, while controlling the risk of surpassing the limited working time. A new distributionally robust chance constrained model is proposed. The sample average approximation (SAA) method, the robust SAA method and a hierarchical approach, based on an approximated mixed integer second-order conic program, are developed. Numerical experiments show that the hierarchical approach is more efficient. Moreover, some managerial insights are drawn.
On the theory of constructing a numerical-analytical solution of a cantilever beam bend nonlinear differential equation of the first order

We consider a first-order nonlinear differential equation with a movable singular point. For this equation, we built an analytical approximate solution of the special form. The theorem allowing obtaining an a priori estimation of such solution is proved. To illustrate theorem and our constructive approach we give the example. The given method may be generalized to nonlinear differential equations of the higher orders.
Variation among Strawberry Cultivars in Bruising Susceptibility Related to Wound Ethylene Production and Sensitivity

Bruising of strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) fruit is a common mechanical injury that reduces product value. Wound-induced ethylene may accelerate deterioration or decay, affecting strawberry quality and shelf life. However, bruising susceptibility varies among strawberry cultivars. In this study, cultivars Monterey, Sweet Sensation, Radiance, and two proprietary cultivars (Cultivar A and Cultivar B) from a private breeding program were investigated to evaluate their bruising susceptibility and wound response. Bruising consisted of dropping a 28-g steel ball from 27 cm onto individual fruit; unbruised fruit were the primary control, while fruit exposed to 1 μL·L−1 ethylene were used as a check for ethylene response. All fruit were stored at 20 °C, 90% relative humidity (RH), with respiration and ethylene production measured at 2-hour intervals for 24 hours. Appearance observations were recorded daily until decay onset. Peak respiration rates of 30–40 mL CO2·kg−1·h−1 mostly occurred within 4 hours (‘Cultivar B’) to 6 hours (‘Cultivar A’ and ‘Sweet Sensation’) after bruising, except ‘Monterey’, which peaked at 60 mL CO2·kg−1·h−1 in 2 hours, and ‘Radiance’, which reached 70 mL CO2·kg−1·h−1 in 6 hours. Maximum ethylene production rates after bruising were 0.05 to 0.06 μL·kg−1·h−1 for ‘Monterey’, ‘Cultivar A’, and ‘Cultivar B’, 0.10 μL·kg−1·h−1 for ‘Sweet Sensation’, and 0.20 to 0.37 μL·kg−1·h−1 for ‘Radiance’. ‘Cultivar B’, with the lowest ethylene production, exhibited the lowest overall bruising severity, whereas ‘Radiance’, with the highest ethylene production, exhibited the most severe bruising-induced water soaking, and the other cultivars were intermediate, although ‘Monterey’ bruises were more discolored than those of the other cultivars. ‘Monterey’, ‘Radiance’, and ‘Sweet Sensation’ showed more yellowing and browning of the calyx in response to both bruising and ethylene exposure than ‘Cultivar A’ and ‘Cultivar B’. Except for ‘Cultivar B’, bruising and ethylene exposure increased decay severity.
Auroral Classification Ergonomics and the Implications for Machine
Learning

The machine-learning research community has focused greatly on bias in algorithms and have identified different manifestations of it. Bias in training samples is recognised as a potential source of prejudice in machine learning. It can be introduced by the human experts who define the training sets. As machine-learning techniques are being applied to auroral classification, it is important to identify and address potential sources of expert-injected bias. In an ongoing study, 13 947 auroral images were manually classified with significant differences between classifications. This large dataset allowed for the identification of some of these biases, especially those originating as a result of the ergonomics of the classification process. These findings are presented in this paper to serve as a checklist for improving training data integrity, not just for expert classifications, but also for crowd-sourced, citizen science projects. As the application of machine-learning techniques to auroral research is relatively new, it is important that biases are identified and addressed before they become endemic in the corpus of training data.