Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic kidney disease among the Iranian-Azari population; a report from pilot phase of AZAR cohort study

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health problem. Most patients with CKD are asymptomatic and unaware of their disease until reaches its latter stages. The worldwide prevalence of CKD is increasing and delayed diagnosis takes from the patients the opportunities for early treatment. Objectives: Our cohort, named AZAR cohort, is a part of a national cohort program and it is aimed to study the major cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, diabetes, and cancers diseases risk factors in East-Azerbaijan province in North West of Iran. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all eligible subjects (35-65 years) were recruited. Information about demographic, medical history, some physical and para-clinical were collected. Here, we report the results of pilot phase of this study. Results: Findings showed that prevalence of CKD (stage 3, eGFR<60 mL/min) among our studied population was 8% (71/898). The studied population was ranged from young adult to pre-elderly (35-65 years). We found a higher proportion of CKD in women (M/F 14/57). The total proportion of diabetics in our study was 126 persons (14%). Distribution of different stages of CKD was as follows: stage 3A (67 persons, M/F; 14/53), stage 3B (4 females), stage 2 (737 persons, M/F; 328/409) and stage 1 (88 persons, M/F; 64/24). There were no cases of CKD stage 4 or 5 in our cohort. Body mass index (BMI), serum triglyceride (TG), and cholesterol levels had a significant correlation with CKD stage 3 (P<0.05). Diabetic patients and female gender were at increased risk of CKD stage 3 (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 0.857-2.861). Conclusion: The prevalence of CKD stage 3 in our cohort was compatible with other previous publications. The higher prevalence of CKD in middle aged to early elderly women population could be explained by the high prevalence of obesity among this population.
DNA Microarray Applied to Data Mining of Bradyrhizobium Elkanii Genome and Prospection of Active Genes

One of the factors responsible for the expansion and competitiveness of soybean crop [Glycine max (L.) Merrill], Fabaceae, is its nitrogen fixation capacity through a symbiotic association with Bradyrhizobium japonicum (Jordan, 1982) and Bradyrhizobium elkanii (Kuykendall et al., 1992) bacteria. Because of this association, N fertilization is usually not required in soybean fields. The genome of Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110 was completely sequenced (Kaneko et al., 2002) while the genome of Bradyrhizobium elkanii SEMIA 587 (Rumjanek et al., 1993) is currently being sequenced at our lab. Results obtained so far allowed the selection of clones from genomic DNA libraries for the development of DNA microarray containing 2654 B. elkanii genes. The potential of high-throughput DNA microarray technology applied to study the transcriptional response of many organisms to genetic and environmental changes has been clearly demonstrated in the past few years (Dhamardi & Gonzalez, 2004). Recently, the design and use of a partial-genome microarray for transcriptome analysis of B. japonicum was reported. This study had focused in regulatory cascade that induces nitrogen fixation (nif) genes (Hauser et al, 2006). During its life cycle, rhizobia face challenges that demand gene expression regulation. The expression of specific genes is followed by the development of plant-bacteria symbiosis. In the soil, the free-living bacteria are saprophytes competing with other bacteria for subsistence. When they eventually reach a plant’s rhizosphere, although rich in nutrients, bacteria must evaluate the host compatibility and compete with other rhizobia and even individuals of the same species before entering roots and establish the symbiosis through nodulation and biological nitrogen fixation. At this stage, the environment is critically altered and bacteria must adapt to a new intracellular life stile in the host plant (Oke and Long, 1999; Loh and Stacey, 2003). These successive environment changes are reflected in metabolic alterations. Rhizobia ecological and physiological studies are important for practical research applied to the commercial inoculants industry. The competition with native bacteria for nodulation is considered the most limiting factor in the use of inoculants in agriculture (Lopez-Garcia et al., 2002). Besides the genetic differences, the physiological status of rhizobia in the inoculant seems to be different from rhizobia in the soil, in different populations. For
The mechanosensory‐motor apparatus of antennae in the Oleander hawk moth (Daphnis nerii, Lepidoptera)

Insect antennae are sensory organs of great importance because they can sense diverse environmental stimuli. In addition to serving as primary olfactory organs of insects, antennae also sense a wide variety of mechanosensory stimuli, ranging from low‐frequency airflow or gravity cues to high‐frequency antennal vibrations due to sound, flight or touch. The basal segments of the antennae house multiple types of mechanosensory structures that prominently include the sensory hair plates, or Böhm's bristles, which measure the gross extent of antennal movement, and a ring of highly sensitive scolopidial neurons, collectively called the Johnston's organs, which record subtle flagellar vibrations. To fulfill their multifunctional mechanosensory role, the antennae of insects must actively move thereby enhancing their ability to sense various cues in the surrounding environment. This tight coupling between antennal mechanosensory function and antennal movements means that the underlying mechanosensory‐motor apparatus constitutes a highly tuned feedback‐controlled system. Our study aims to explore how the sensory and motor components of this system are configured to enable such functional versatility. We describe antennal mechanosensory neurons, their central projections in the brain relative to antennal motor neurons and the internal morphology of various antennal muscles that actuate the basal segments of the antenna. We studied these in the Oleander hawk moth (Daphnis nerii) using a combination of techniques such as neural dye fills, confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray tomography. Our study thus provides a detailed anatomical picture of the antennal mechanosensory‐motor apparatus, which in turn provides key insights into its multifunctional role.
Enhancing Thermal Exchange in Humans and Practical Applications

Abstract Normal human core body temperature is regulated within a narrow range. Deviations from this range can have serious consequences in both health and disease. However, it is difficult to efficiently manipulate body heat content because of the high heat capacity of the body and the low thermal conductance of the body surface. Mammals have evolved vascular adaptations of the nonhairy skin to enable enhanced heat loss. These include arteriovenous anastomoses that bypass the nutritive capillary beds to shunt the blood into retia venosa which serve as radiators. We have quantified the area-specific heat loss from glabrous skin (palms and face) and nonglabrous skin (upper arm, back, thigh, and abdomen). Results show that the heat loss from the nonglabrous skin does not change appreciably over the course of exercise in the heat, whereas the heat loss from the glabrous skin rises to values more than five times that of the nonglabrous skin. The application of a mild vacuum increases the heat loss from the gl.
MRSA spa type t899 from food animals in the UK

We report on the detection of a strain of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria with zoonotic potential identified in the UK for the first time. Livestock-associated meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA), clonal complex (CC) 398 is predominantly asymptomatic in livestock, with infrequent reports of opportunistic infections in farm workers.1 LA-MRSA CC398, spa type t899, was detected from UK animals, harbouring prophage φSa3-immune evasion cluster (IEC) genes, sak , scn and chp , markers for human adaptation, which have been absent from previously reported UK CC398 animal strains. 2, 3 In 2016, …
‘Your thrust is to understand’ – how academically successful students learn

The article sets out to understand how academically successful students learn. Self-regulated learning theory is used as a lens to explicate the learning strategies adopted by a cohort of academically successful dentistry students. Data were collected from self-report interviews, observations of individual student's learning in a quasi-realistic context, and post-observation interviews. Discussion focuses on the cognitive and metacognitive strategies adopted by these students, and highlights the way in which positive motivation supported their use of these strategies, especially when learning was challenging. The paper concludes by drawing on these findings to argue for appropriate ways to support effective learning for all students.
MR Brain Image Edge Detection Guided with Distribution of Noise and Artifact

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revolutionized radiology in past four decades. MR image edge detection can identify anatomy boundaries and extract features for image analysis applications like segmentation and recognition of anatomy structures. Traditional MR image edge detection methods directly identify discontinuities in MR image domain without considering distribution of noise and aliasing artifact produced from MR scanner and reconstruction. It is difficult to suppress effects of noise and aliasing artifact during the edge detection process. In this project, a novel MR brain image edge detection method is proposed, which is based on parallel MRI reconstruction method. Distribution of noise and aliasing artifact is characterized by geometry factor map that also guides edge detection process for avoiding detection of noise and aliasing artifact. A collaborative learning strategy is applied on voting edges for producing the final edge detection. Experimental results show that the proposed method not only keep anatomy structure boundaries without missing edge components, but also avoid detection of noise and artifact with wrong edges.
Physicochemical properties and chemical composition of Seinat ( Cucumis melo var. tibish ) seed oil and its antioxidant activity

Seinat ( Cucumis melo var. tibish ) seeds were analyzed for their physiochemical properties and chemical composition of the oil in addition to antioxidant activity. The crude oil content was 31.1%, while the moisture, fiber, protein, ash and total sugar contents were 4.2%, 24.7%, 28.5%, 4.3%, and 6.9%, respectively. The main fatty acids were linoleic, oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids (61.10%, 18.75%, 10.37% and 9.18%, respectively). The total phenolic content was 28.17 mg·g –1 oil. Seinat seed oil also contained a good level of tocopherols; of which δ-tocopherol (63.43%) showed the highest content. β-sitosterol was found at 289 mg·100g –1 oil of total sterols (302 mg·100g –1 ) in the oil. The crude oil showed a good antioxidant activity in four assays including reducing power, β-carotene bleaching inhibition activity, ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activities.
Clinical Relevance of Viable Circulating Tumor Cells detected by PSA-EPISPOT prior Trans-rectal Prostate Biopsy

Background: Accurate new tools are advocated to help clinical decisions from screening to follow-up and salvage-treatment of prostate cancer. We report here the clinical relevance of the PSA-EPISPOT assay for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection prior to immediate prostate biopsy. Patients and Methods: One hundred and eleven patients selected to undergo prostate biopsy based on conventional triggering markers were recruited between 2002 and 2006. CTCs in the peripheral blood were detected by the fluoroPSA-EPISPOT assay. Peripheral blood was sampled before prostate biopsy. CTC enumeration was performed with an EpCAM-independent enrichment method followed by the fluoroPSAEPISPOT assay that detects only viable PSA-secreting CTCs. Results: Sixty-three patients were negative biopsy and 48 were positive. Median follow-up was 69.5 months [0.8 – 115.8]. Viable CTCs were detected in 12/63 negative biopsy patients (19%) and 23/48 positive biopsy patients (47.9%). CTC mean count was significantly higher in positive biopsy patients (2 ± 3.1) than in negative biopsy patients (0.7 ± 1.9; p=0.0015). PSA-EPISPOT characteristics were respectively 47.92%, 80.95%, 65.71%, 67.11%, 66.67% for sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and accuracy. PSAEPISPOT was better than random to predict positive biopsy but not different from total PSA. Its relation to other markers made the PSA-EPISPOT assay not eligible to multivariate logistic regression. Conclusion: This report indicates that PSA-EPISPOT technique was able to detect CTCs in patients screened for prostate cancer. Despite interesting characteristics, it was not sensitive enough to prevent each unnecessary prostate biopsy. Further analyses are mandatory to assess the prognosis value of the PSA-EPISPOT assay in positive biopsy patients.
Bioreactor Performance, Hydrolysis and Microbial Community Development During Anaerobic Treatment of Synthetic Sewage

Long-term (732 days) anaerobic treatment of synthetic domestic sewage was studied in a hybrid EGSB reactor, which contained a fixed-film filter section, in addition to a granular sludge bed. The reactor was operated at 12 ̊C and optimum operating conditions were observed at a hydraulic retention time of 18 hours and an organic loading rate of 0.625 kg COD m d, when chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, based on total, suspended, colloidal and soluble fractions, reached 80%, 71%, 45% and 85%, respectively. Carbohydrate and protein removal rates routinely reached 100%. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microscopy analysis revealed that the significant phosphate (P) removal recorded during the trial (up to 78%) was as a result of P accumulation by the biomass fraction of the fixed-film section. Specific methanogenic activity profiles of the biomass with propionate as substrate increased by 90% at 12°C during the trial, suggesting a degradation pathway via propionate. A 6-fold increase of the protein hydrolysis rate at 12°C during the trial demonstrated the successful development of an active proteolytic community over time. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of the bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA gene sequences (based on both extracted DNA and RNA) highlighted community changes over time, and specifically within the active fraction of the community.
Neural Network Meets DCN

The emerging optical/wireless topology reconfiguration technologies have shown great potential in improving the performance of data center networks. However, it also poses a big challenge on how to find the best topology configurations to support the dynamic traffic demands. In this work, we present xWeaver, a traffic-driven deep learning solution to infer the high-performance network topology online. xWeaver supports a powerful network model that enables the topology optimization over different performance metrics and network architectures. With the design of properly-structured neural networks, it can automatically derive the critical traffic patterns from data traces and learn the underlying mapping between the traffic patterns and topology configurations specific to the target data center. After offline training, xWeaver generates the optimized (or near-optimal) topology configuration online, and can also smoothly update its model parameters for new traffic patterns. We build an optical-circuit-switch-based testbed to demonstrate the function and transmission efficiency of our proposed solution. We further perform extensive simulations to show the significant performance gain of xWeaver, in supporting higher network throughput and smaller flow completion time.
Towards Fast-Convergence, Low-Delay and Low-Complexity Network Optimization

Distributed network optimization has been studied for well over a decade. However, we still do not have a good idea of how to design schemes that can simultaneously provide good performance across the dimensions of utility optimality, convergence speed, and delay. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a new algorithmic framework with all these metrics approaching optimality. The salient features of our new algorithm are three-fold: (i) fast convergence: it converges with only O(\log(1/\epsilon)) iterations that is the fastest speed among all the existing algorithms; (ii) low delay: it guarantees optimal utility with finite queue length; (iii) simple implementation: the control variables of this algorithm are based on virtual queues that do not require maintaining per-flow information. The new technique builds on a kind of inexact Uzawa method in the Alternating Directional Method of Multiplier, and provides a new theoretical path to prove global and linear convergence rate of such a method without requiring the full rank assumption of the constraint matrix.
Decreased cell wall galactosaminogalactan in Aspergillus nidulans mediates dysregulated 1 inflammation in the CGD host . 2 3 Running title : Dysregulated inflammation by A . nidulans in CGD 4 5

25 Invasive aspergillosis is a major threat to patients suffering from impaired neutrophil function, with 26 Aspergillus fumigatus being the most common species causing this life-threatening condition. Patients 27 with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) not only develop infections with A. fumigatus, but also 28 exhibit a unique susceptibility to infection with the normally nonpathogenic species Aspergillus 29 nidulans. In this study, we compared the inflammatory cytokine response of peripheral blood 30 mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy and CGD patients to these two fungal species. CGD patients 31 displayed evidence for a chronic hyper-inflammatory state as indicated by elevated plasma IL-1β and 32 TNF-α levels. PBMCs isolated from CGD patients secreted higher levels of IL-1β and TNF-α in 33 response to A. nidulans as compared with A. fumigatus. The presence or absence of melanin in the cell 34 wall of A. nidulans did not alter the cytokine release by healthy or CGD PBMCs. In contrast, A. 35 fumigatus mutants lacking melanin stimulated higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine release from 36 healthy, but not CGD PBMCs. Purified cell wall polysaccharides of A. nidulans induced a much 37 higher level o f I L-1β secretion by CGD PBMCs than did cell wall polysaccharides isolated from A. 38 fumigatus. Using modified A. nidulans strains overexpressing galactosaminogalactan, we were able to 39 show that the increased secretion of inflammatory cytokines by CGD PBMCs in response to A. 40 nidulans are a consequence of low levels of cell wall associated galactosaminogalactan in this species. 4
28-Homobrassinolide alleviates oxidative stress in salt-treated maize (Zea mays L.) plants

The present investigation was undertaken to study the effects of 28-homobrassinolide on the activities of antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1), guaiacol peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7), catalase (EC 1.11.1.6), glutathione reductase (EC 1.6.4.2) and ascorbate peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.11), as well as protein and malondialdehyde concentrations in 30d-old plants of Zea mays L. grown under salt stress. The seeds were soaked in 28-homobrassinolide solutions (0, 10-8, 10-6 and 10-4 mM) for 12 h and then sown in the field in a randomized block layout. The blocks were salinised with NaCl at concentrations of 0, 25, 50 and 75 mM. The activities of antioxidative enzymes and protein concentration increased in 28homobrassinolide-treated plants. Despite the enhancement of enzyme activities under salt stress alone, lipid peroxidation increased and protein concentration decreased. However, pre-sowing treatments of 28-homobrassinolide further enhanced the activities of antioxidative enzymes in addition to lowering lipid peroxidation and increasing protein concentration, thus suggesting that 28-homobrassinolide can alleviate oxidative stress in salt-treated maize plants.
The Effect of Musical Therapy on Postoperative Pain after Caesarean Section (Müzik Terapisinin Postoperatif Sezaryen Ağrisina Etkisi)

SUMMARY AIM: We reasoned that addition of musicotherapy -a simple and convenient method with no adverse effects- in the preoperative period would have favorable effects pertaining to postoperative pain. METHODS: One hundred patients, between the ages of 20-40 years, who were undergoing elective caesarean delivery under general anaesthesia, were enrolled. The patients were randomly allocated into two groups (with 50 patients in each) and in group 1, patients listened to music through a headphone for one hour immediately before surgery whereas in group 2, patients did not listen to any music during the same period. The anaesthetic technique was standardized. All neonates were also assessed and Apgar scores were recorded. In the postanaesthesia care unit, patients were connected to i.v. -PCA device when they were able to respond to commands. The patient’s level of satisfaction with perioperative care was assessed by a 10-cm visual analogue scale and the severity of postoperative pain was assessed with VAS. RESULTS: Postoperative tramadol consumption, total amount of tramadol consumption, additional analgesic use and all VAS values were lower in group 1 (p<0.05). Apgar scores were significantly greater in group 1. CONCLUSION: We imply that music therapy given before surgery decreases postoperative pain and analgesic requirement. OZET
Box2Pix: Single-Shot Instance Segmentation by Assigning Pixels to Object Boxes

The task of semantic instance segmentation has gained a large interest within academia as well as industry, especially in the context of autonomous driving. While several published approaches achieve very strong results, only few of them achieve frame rates that are sufficient for the automotive domain. We present an approach that achieves competitive results on the Cityscapes [1] and KITTI [2] datasets, while being twice as fast as any other existing approach. Our method relies on a single fully-convolutional network (FCN [3]) predicting object bounding boxes, as well as pixel-wise semantic object classes and an offset vector pointing to corresponding object centers. Using those outputs, we present an efficient and simple post-processing that assigns each object pixel to its best matching object detection, resulting in an instance segmentation obtained at real-time speeds.
PARAMETERIZATION OF INVARIANT MANIFOLDS BY REDUCIBILITY FOR VOLUME PRESERVING AND SYMPLECTIC MAPS

We prove the existence of certain analytic invariant manifolds associated with fixed points of analytic symplectic and volume preserving diffeomorphisms. The manifolds we discuss are not defined in terms of either forward or backward asymptotic convergence to the fixed point, and are not required to be stable or unstable. Rather, the manifolds we consider are defined as being tangent to certain "mixed-stable" linear invariant subspaces of the differential (i.e linear subspace which are spanned by some combination of stable and unstable eigenvectors). Our method is constructive, but has to face small divisors. The small divisors are overcome via a quadratic convergent scheme which relies heavily on the geometry of the problem as well as assuming some Diophantine properties of the linearization restricted to the invariant subspace. The theorem proved has an a-posteriori format (i.e. given an approximate solution with good condition number, there is one exact solution close by). The method of proof also leads to efficient algorithms.