Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prednisone and Its Active Metabolite Prednisolone Attenuate Lipid Accumulation in Macrophages

Background: Synthetic forms of glucocorticoids (GCs; eg, prednisone, prednisolone) are anti-inflammatory drugs that are widely used in clinical practice. The role of GCs in cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, is highly controversial, and their impact on macrophage foam cell formation is still unknown. We investigated the effects of prednisone and prednisolone on macrophage oxidative stress and lipid metabolism. Methods and Results: C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with prednisone or prednisolone (5 mg/kg) for 4 weeks, followed by lipid metabolism analyses in the aorta and peritoneal macrophages. We also analyzed the effect of serum samples obtained from 9 healthy human volunteers before and after oral administration of prednisone (20 mg for 5 days) on J774A.1 macrophage atherogenicity. Finally, J774A.1 macrophages, human monocyte-derived macrophages, and fibroblasts were incubated with increasing concentrations (0-200 ng/mL) of prednisone or prednisolone, followed by determination of cellular oxidative status, and triglyceride and cholesterol metabolism. Prednisone and prednisolone treatment resulted in a significant reduction in triglyceride and cholesterol accumulation in macrophages, as observed in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro. These effects were associated with GCs’ inhibitory effect on triglyceride- and cholesterol-biosynthesis rates, through downregulation of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 and HMG-CoA reductase expression. Glucocorticoid-induced reduction of cellular lipid accumulation was mediated by the GC receptors on the macrophages, because the GC-receptor antagonist (RU486) abolished these effects. In fibroblasts, unlike macrophages, GCs showed no effects. Conclusion: Prednisone and prednisolone exhibit antiatherogenic activity by protecting macrophages from lipid accumulation and foam cell formation.
Evaluation of Evapotranspiration Methods for Rice Yield Simulation in a Tropical River Basin

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the key factors that influences the crop growth, dry biomass production, and yield. To improve the crop water productivity, accurate estimation of ET during the crop growing phases is of utmost importance. Hence, advanced techniques of ET estimation continue to draw the attention of meteorology, hydrology, agronomy, and ecology community. Rice is the staple food of more than half of the world's population which consumes large amount of water due to the presence of shallow ponding water throughout its growing period (Dash et al., 2018).
Ruptured Ectopic Pregnancy in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital: What has Changed?

s: Background : Ruptured ectopic pregnancy continues to be a major surgical emergency in gynecology. Due to the contribution of ectopic pregnancy in maternal mortality indices in Nigeria, an intervallic review of it has become very necessary. Objectives : This is to determine the prevalence, clinical presentation, risk factors, and the management outcomes of ectopic pregnancies. Methods : This is a retrospective study of cases of ectopic gestations managed in the gynecological unit of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, South-east Nigeria from January 1st 2013 to December 31st, 2017. Information was obtained from the case files, theatre and labor ward registers. We only included women with ruptured ectopic pregnancy that were managed surgically. Cases that were managed medically or conservatively were excluded. The proforma was initially used for retrieving data from case files obtained from the Medical Record department of the hospital. The data was later transferred to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Results : During the period, there were a total of 5301 deliveries, 901 gynecological admissions and 67 ectopic pregnancies recorded. This gives a prevalence of 1.3% of total deliveries and 6.7 of gynecological admissions. However, only 56 case files were available with complete information for the study, and could be used for further analysis. The majority were in the age group of 25-29 years. The prevalence was highest among the secundigravida 17, (30.4%) followed by and primigravidas, 13(23.2%). Previous pelvic inflammatory disease 30(53.6%), previous induced abortion 16(35.7%), and previous abdominopelvic surgery 10(26.8%) were the most common associated risk factors. Lower abdominal pain 54(96.4%), amenorrhea 50(89.3%), vaginal bleeding 40(71.4%) and syncope/shock attack 38(67.9%) were the predominant symptoms at presentation. Majority 34(60.7%) of the tubal rupture occurred at gestational age of 8-10weeks. Thirty (53.6%) cases occurred at the right tubes. Most, 71.4% (40) of the tubal ectopic gestations were ampullary. Majority of the patients 51(91.1%) had unilateral salpingectomy, 14(25.0%) had total salpingectomy while 5(8.9%) had cornual repair. Forty six (85.7%) women received blood transfusion. The case fatality rate was 1.8% which was exclusively due to anesthetic complication. Conclusion : The prevalence of ruptured ectopic pregnancy is still high in Nigeria with pelvic infection being the most common associated risk factor. Only tubal ectopic pregnancy was reported. There are no reported cases for abdominal pregnancies, ovarian pregnancies and heterotopic pregnancies within the last half decade, although with first mortality from ectopic pregnancy being recorded, which appears to signify a changing pattern.
Frequency dependence of pollinator visitation rates suggests that pollination niches can allow plant species coexistence

How do many species coexist within a trophic level? Resource niches are the classical answer, but in plants which share a small set of abiotic resources, the possibilities for resource partitioning are limited. One possible explanation is that plant species have different pollination niches, with each species specialized to a subset of the available animal species. If this pollinator partitioning results in negative frequency dependence such that each plant species’ reproduction is reduced when it becomes abundant, pollination niches could maintain plant diversity, provided that the strength of negative frequency dependence is sufficient to overcome fitness inequalities between species. We tested this idea by quantifying the effect of species relative abundance on pollinator visitation rate in a 7,000 m2 plot of South African Fynbos vegetation. In addition, we quantified the effect of intraspecific abundance variation at a smaller spatial scale (9 m2 plots), documented species’ pollination niches, and tested the importance of pollinators for seed set in a subset of the plant species. We found that visitation rate indeed declined sharply across the 33 plant species with increasing abundance, but visitation rate was also somewhat depressed in very rare species such that the resulting relationship between visitation rate and relative abundance was hump‐shaped. Pollinator niche partitioning among plant species was evident, but less pronounced than in many other studies. Visitation rate was slightly higher in more generalized species, suggesting that they have access to a larger pollination resource. At the intraspecific level and smaller spatial scale, results were less clear and varied among species. Pollinators enhanced seed set in most species. Synthesis. The results imply that, above an abundance threshold, intraspecific competition for pollination could limit the reproduction of common species, thus promoting plant species coexistence. However, the rarest plant species could become extinct due to pollen limitation, that is, an Allee effect. In addition, interactions with pollinators may introduce frequency‐independent fitness differences between plant species, thereby increasing the strength of negative frequency dependence required for stable coexistence. These findings shed new light on the role of the pollination niche in plant coexistence.
Regression Test cases selection using Natural Language Processing

Regression Testing is one of the important phases to detect the effects of new development or modifications done in the already existing product. As the product grows, the number of regression test cases also increases to manifold. In an agile world, it is very important to extract test cases which are having very high potential to find defects to reduce the overall release cycle. In practice, there are many ways to select test cases based on different criteria. Many of them are based on historical defects in the product as historical defect clusters can be one of defect prone areas because of defect fixes. However, considering the high number of historical defects it becomes difficult to select test cases merely based on defect clusters or any other static techniques. In this paper, we propose our approach to find the high potential regression test cases from the master test suite using Natural Language Processing by selecting a test case based on its intent match with defects. The application developed from this solution has helped us in reducing the regression cycle and enhanced the exploratory productivity for our product. This method also opens the door for new concepts like generating test cases automatically based on its learnings from the product's historical defects, existing test cases, and new feature development.
Pulsatile Stretch–Induced Extracellular Signal–Regulated Kinase 1/2 Activation in Organ Culture of Rabbit Aorta Involves Reactive Oxygen Species

Abstract—Increased steady intraluminal pressure in blood vessels activates the extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 pathway. However, signal transduction of pulsatile stretch has not been elucidated. Using an organ culture model of rabbit aorta, we studied ERK1/2 activation by pulsatility in vessels maintained at 80 mm Hg for 24 hours. ERK1/2 activity was evaluated by in-gel kinase assays and by Western blot. Compared with control aortas without pulsatility, aortas submitted to a pulsatile 10% variation in vessel diameter displayed a significant increase in ERK1/2 activity (207±12%, P<0.001), which remained high after removal of the endothelium. Unlike steady overstretch, pulsatile stretch–induced activation of ERK1/2 was not modified by herbimycin A, a Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor, but was reduced by other tyrosine kinase inhibitors, tyrphostin A48 and genistein (162±27% and 144±14%, respectively). Conversely, ERK1/2 activity was markedly decreased in pulsatile vessels treated with stau.
HDCDS-CDG: A Hierarchically Diffused Connected Dominating Sets based Compressed Data Gathering Scheme

How to reduce the energy consumption and prolong the network lifetime is one of the most important issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This paper proposed a Compressed Data Gathering (CDG) scheme based on Hierarchically Diffused Connected Dominating Sets (HDCDS). In the proposed scheme, a connected dominating set was constructed as the backbone of the network. All of the other nodes, i.e., non-backbone nodes, are connected to the backbone. Nodes in the backbone collect data from non-backbone nodes using the traditional data collection scheme. Data within the backbone are transmitted to the base station in CDG manner. Theoretical analysis and simulations showed that, when compared to the LEACH methods and traditional compressive sensing-based data collection methods, HDCDS-CDG not only reduces the consumption of network resources but also increases the lifetime of the network.
A novel analytical model for a circularly-polarized, ferrite-based slot antenna by solving an integral equation for the electric field on the circular slot

We propose and analyze a circularly polarized slot antenna built on a ferrite substrate which is saturated normal to its plane and metalized on both sides. The antenna is built by etching a circular slot in the top metal layer. The antenna operates in the frequency range where the effective permeability of ferrite is negative. An accurate analytical model is derived for the antenna by solving the integral equation for the electric field on the circular slot. The results obtained are in good agreement with numerical simulations. Using the analytical results, a practical antenna is designed that uses a microstrip feed line. For an antenna with inner and outer radii of 4.9 and 5.9 mm, the results show a 3 dB axial ratio (AR) beam width of 2000 which is highly desirable in mobile or fixed satellite communication systems such as GPS. Furthermore, the operating frequency can be tuned in the 3.78–3.98 GHz range by changing the magnetic bias field from 15 to 30 kA/m. Compared to other CP antennas, our proposed antenna is compact, has at least twice 3-dB AR beamwidth (2000), and is tunable.
Spatial Gradient of Microstructural Changes in Normal-Appearing White Matter in Tracts Affected by White Matter Hyperintensities in Older Age

Brain white matter hyperintensities (WMH), common in older adults, may contribute to cortical disconnection and cognitive dysfunction. The presence of WMH within white matter (WM) tracts indicates underlying microstructural WM changes that may also affect the normal-appearing WM (NAWM) of a tract. We performed an exploratory study using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging of 52 healthy participants from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (age 72.2 ± 0.7 years) selected to include a range of WMH burden, to quantify microstructural changes of tracts intersecting WMH. We reconstructed tracts using automated tractography and identified intersections with WMH. Tissue volumes and water diffusion tensor parameters (mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA)) were established for tract-WMH and tract-NAWM. MD and FA were also measured for tract-NAWM at 2 mm incremental distances from the tract-WMH edge, and from the edge of nearby, non-intersecting, WMH. We observed microstructural changes in tract-WMH suggestive of tissue damage. Tract-NAWM also showed a spatial gradient of FA and MD abnormalities, which diminished with distance from the tract-WMH. Nearby WMH lesions, not directly crossed by the tract, also affected tract microstructure with a similar pattern. Additionally, both FA and MD changes in tract-NAWM were predicted by FA and MD changes respectively in tract-WMH. FA was also predicted by tract-WMH overlap volume, whereas MD was better predicted by whole-brain WMH load. These results suggest that tract-NAWM microstructure is affected by the pathological process underlying WMH, when WMH are either within or near to the tract. The changes in NAWM tract tissue may indicate future lesion progression and may play an important role in cognitive ageing.
A Qualitative Study on Local Individual- or Family-Owned Casual Chinese Restaurants Marketing Communication Strategies

Abstract A qualitative study was conducted to examine individual- or family-owned casual Chinese restaurant’s marketing communication strategies. Findings revealed that the owners of individual- or family-owned casual Chinese restaurants are highly aware of the importance of advertising for their business. They have adopted at least one marketing strategies to promote their business. Three external factors and one internal factor were found to influence those Chinese restaurant owners’ selection of marketing strategies. In addition, the Chinese restaurant owners’ personality shapes food and service quality. The findings also suggested that advertising on new media is easier for business owners to measure its effectiveness.
Developing PC-Based Driving Simulator System for Driver Behavior Analysis Research

Driving simulator is one of important system for driving behavior studies. It offers a replicable virtual driving environment and it has possibility to create a various scenarios to carry out in real environment. The problem in development of this simulator is how to reduce a prices in certain point areas have made it possible to create low-cost driving simulators, but with the features that are usually found only in expensive driving simulators. This article is presented a low cost PC-based driving simulator. The aim is to use the simulator as a platform for studies of the driver’s behavior. The complete simulator is using three 27” LED screen, handle by a standard PC, typically used for computer games. As Input we using steering, pedal and shifter G29, with force feedback. For software we using city car home edition as tools to measure validity user and developing simulator to driver’s behavior study.
Automatic Medical Images Segmentation Based on Deep Learning Networks

In recent years, radiography systems have become more used in medical fields, where they are used for diagnosing many diseases. The size of the radiographs differs, as well as the size of the body parts for each patient. So many researchers crop the radiographs manually to facilitate the diagnosis and make it more reliable. Currently, the trend toward deep learning was commended where the deep learning proved its effectiveness in many fields, especially in the medical field, in which it achieves good results in diagnosing the most types of diseases. Deep learning performance increases significantly when the training process is focused on the region of interest. In this paper, segmentation is implemented by used deep learning model on the thoracic region of the radiograph in order to be cropped later. The proposed model provided automatic cropping of the radiographs where a semantic segmentation network is provided by Vgg19 model. A comparison is done with semantic segmentation network provided by Vgg16. The segmentation based on Vgg19 model outperforms Vgg16 model in cropping Chest x-ray images dataset automatically and quickly.
Synergistic Effects of Plant-Growth-Promoting Rhizobacterium and Growth-Regulating Small Molecules on Drought Mitigation and Yield Sustainability of Rice

Plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria are considered as eco-friendly and sustainable inputs for providing nutrients and to ameliorate the crops from abiotic and biotic stresses. The present work was aimed to assess the stimulatory effects of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria in association with plant-growth regulating hormonal small molecules on drought mitigation and yield of rice. The multifunctional PGPR strain Pseudomonas chlororaphis (ZSB15) was inoculated in rice (cultivar Co51) and assessed its synergistic impacts with three different plant-growth regulating hormonal small molecules under field conditions. The cell extracts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, cell extract of Corynebacterium glutamicum, salicylic acid were sprayed on the foliage of rice plant under water-sufficient and water-deficit conditions. Application of cell extracts of Corynebacteria as a foliar spray at the seedling stage and the panicle initiation stage significantly combat the drought-induced physiological stresses of rice. It reduced the mean canopy temperature (10%), catalase activity (21%) and proline content (13.6%) of rice compared to water-sprayed control under water-deficit condition. The spray of the cell extract of Corynebacteria also improved the relative water content (15%) of the rice as compared to control under water-deficit conditions. It also improved the yield attributes and yield of rice both under water-sufficient and water-deficit conditions. The cell extract of yeast and salicylic acid are at par performance and relatively lower than Corynebacterial cell extract in terms of drought mitigation and synergistic impacts with PGPR in rice. Hence, combining the plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria and plant-growth regulating hormonal small molecules could be a sustainable and profitable approach to increase the drought tolerance in rice to mitigate the yield losses.
Effects of seasonal variation, group size and sex on the activity budget and diet composition of the addax antelope

Behaviour and diet composition are critical elements in conservation biology within the scope of reintroduction programs. Here we focused on addax (Addax nasomaculatus), a Critically Endangered antelope species, in the Jbil National Park, Tunisia. In this study, we advanced the hypothesis that season, day period, sex and social structure have an effect on the activity budgets and diet composition of addax. Three groups were selected (large group, adult pair and solitary male). Resting, moving, grazing, vigilance and other behaviours were recorded during two seasons (dry and wet) and in the morning and the afternoon. In addition, faecal samples were collected. The results indicate that season and day period were the main factors affecting the activity budgets. The resting behaviour increased from the wet to the dry season, and from morning to afternoon. The grazing and moving behaviours increased during the wet season and decreased from morning to afternoon. Addax select a mixed diet composed of perennial and herbaceous plant species notably during the wet season. In addition, we observed that addax modify their behaviour according to the season and forage availability. This represents an adaptive strategy to survive in a desert climate with a stochastic low-resource environment and depending on ambient climatic conditions.
A Modeling Approach to Evaluating Potential Applications of Emerging Fertility Control Technologies in the UK

Author(s): Cowan, David P.; Massei, Giovanna; Mellows, Robert J. B. | Abstract: There is increasing demand for benign approaches to the resolution of conflicts between human interests and wildlife. One non-lethal method to reduce the growth and expansion of overabundant wildlife populations is fertility control. Significant progress has been made in recent years on the development of fertility control agents, culminating in the availability of single-dose injectable immunocontraceptive vaccines that inhibit the fertility of individuals for several years. The potential application of such technology is explored here using the European rabbit, gray squirrel, wild boar, and European badger as examples of species that pose problems of damage to agricultural and forestry interests, disease transmission and threats to biodiversity. A simple model is developed that predicts the likely general population consequences of varying levels of infertility for species with differing demographic characteristics. This suggests that low levels of fertility control will have little impact on population size in species with high reproductive rates and high population turnover rates. Modest levels of infertility can significantly reduce the populations of species with relatively low intrinsic rates of increase. However, these reductions may take longer than those arising from high levels of imposed infertility in species with rapid population turnover rates. The modeling approach, as outlined here, could be used to inform future field studies by identifying suitable target species and making predictions about population responses that can be tested empirically. These studies will be necessary to realize the potential of the emerging fertility control technologies in the form of practical wildlife management applications.