Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mycobacterium ulcerans Infection (Buruli Ulcer) in Southwest Nigeria

Objectives: Buruli Ulcer Disease (BUD) caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans is a severe neglected tropical disease of the skin, which has been reported in over 33 countries globally including Nigeria where the disease was first reported in 1967 and later in 1975. Since these reports, there has been no research on BU in the southwest Nigeria. In this study we assessed the presence of BUD in five states of the southwest Nigeria. Method: This was a community-based, cross-sectional study where BU awareness sessions preceded active search for suspected cases. Questionnaires were administered for participants' demography. Swab and fine needle aspirate specimens from suspected BU lesions were subjected to IS2404-based Nested PCR and Real time (qPCR) techniques to confirm BUD. Results: A total of 256 samples were collected and analyzed between April, 2016 and December, 2018. 157 (61.3%) samples were positive to IS2404 of M. ulcerans. Children below 15 years of age and adults constituted 42 cases (26.8%) and 115 cases (73.2%), respectively. Index BU cases were confirmed in Ekiti 4 (2.5%), Lagos 11 (7.3%), Ondo 16 (10.6%), Osun 61 (38.9%) and the remaining 64 (40.4%) were found in Ogun State. Ogun and Osun States accounted for 79.3% of all confirmed BU cases in this study. Conclusions: Conclusion: BU cases, for the first time, were confirmed in five states of SW Nigeria with two of them (Ogun and Osun States) indicating endemic situation, hence the need for those states to be kept under surveillance as potential BU flash points. On a larger scale, a robust BU awareness program nationwide should be embarked upon by the government and other stakeholders. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2020; 10(2):82-88.
Similarities and differences for membranotropic action of three unnatural antimicrobial peptides

Previously, we described the design and synthesis of three nine‐residue AMPs, P9Nal(SS), P9Trp(SS), and P9Nal(SR), showing high stability in serum and broad spectrum antimicrobial activity. The peptides P9Trp(SS) and P9Nal(SR) differ from P9Nal(SS) for the replacement of the two 2Nal residues with Trp residues and for the replacement of the two Cys (StBu) with Cys (tBu) residues, respectively. These changes led to peptides with a lower hydrophobicity respect to the P9Nal(SS). Interestingly, the three peptides have very similar activity against Gram‐negative bacteria. Instead, they exhibit a significant difference towards Gram‐positive bacteria, being P9Nal(SS) the most active. In order to evaluate the impact of amino acids substitution on membranotropic activity and rationalize the observed effects in vivo, here, we report the detailed biophysical characterization of the interaction between P9Nal(SR) and P9Trp(SS) and liposomes by combining differential scanning calorimetry, circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The comparison with the results for the previously characterized P9Nal(SS) peptide reveals similarities and differences on the interaction process and perturbation activities. It was found that the three peptides can penetrate at different extent inside the bilayer upon changing their conformation and inducing lipid domains formation, revealing that the formation of lipid domains is fundamental for the activity against Gram‐negative bacteria. On the contrary, the dissimilar activity against Gram‐positive bacteria well correlate with the different affinity of peptides for the lipoteichoic acid, a component selectively present in the cell wall of Gram‐positive bacteria.
Classification of Eucalyptus plantation Site Index (SI) and Mean Annual Increment (MAI) prediction using DEM-based geomorphometric and climatic variables in Brazil

Abstract Digital elevation model (DEM) data were used with climate data to estimate productivity in 19 Eucalyptus plantations in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Typically, plantation and individual stand growth and productivity estimates, such as Site Index (SI) and Mean Annual Increment (MAI), are based on field measures of height, tree diameter and age. Using a Random Forest modelling approach, SI and MAI were related to: (i) DEM-based geomorphometric variables and (ii) WorldClim historical macro-climatic measures. Three operational SI classes (high, medium and low productivity) in 180 stands were mapped with an overall accuracy of 91.6%. Medium and high productivity sites were the most accurately classified. Low productivity sites had 76.5% producer’s accuracy and 92.9% user’s accuracy, and were the most extensive in the study area. Such sites are considered of high importance from a plantation management perspective since additional forestry operations are likely required to address low productivity and growth.
PCR-RFLP analyses of chloroplast DNA in some cultivated tea (Camellia sp.) genotypes

Purpose: A significant number of genetic resources of Camellia sinensis and its allied genotypes have been collected and preserved in Iran TRC. Information about them is mostly based on morphological data. Research method: PCR-RFLP technique and morphological characters were used for the identification of organelle DNA (cpDNA) diversity in 25 tea genotypes. Twenty-one qualitative and quantitative characteristics were evaluated. Findings: A pair-wise similarity among the samples ranged from 0.14 to 0.66 based on morphological data. The dendrogram was designed, and samples were grouped into three main clusters at 0.38 similarity. Using three universal primer pairs which introduced for chloroplast amplified about 4070bp of cpDNA, following the digestion of fragments with three restriction endonucleases (HinfI, AluI and PstI) and the result of this method was introduced six haplotypes. The most significant and widespread haplotype was H2 (frequency ≈ 28%). All of the detected mutations were insertion-deletions and they ranged from 30 to 60 bp. The calculated total cpDNA diversity in populations (hT), a major portion of it was within populations were (hS) and genetic differentiation among populations (GST) were 0.43, 0.17 and 0.61, respectively. It should have been noted that the calculated GST was low and no structure could be identified. Limitations: Applying allied species and using more potent markers such as cpSSR and sequencing can lead to more accurate results. Originality/Value: The results of this study indicate that the PCR-RFLP method and morphological characters are applicable in the identification of tea genotypes and cultivars. In studying Camellia genus phylogeny, the polymorphism in cpDNA has to be considered carefully.
An Evaluation of the Systems of Transition to Secondary Education in Turkey

This study aims to evaluate the systems of transition to secondary education that have been practiced in Turkey to place students to secondary education institutions and to put forth to what degree these systems conform with the goals in Ministry of National Education (MoNE) 2023 Vision Document. In the study, the lessons in the systems of transition to secondary education that have been in practice so far are assessed with regard to distribution of questions, weight coefficients, the factors used in exam practices and evaluations, the grade levels of exams and years. The study employs the method of document analysis, which is a qualitative method. The data obtained were analyzed through content analysis. It was found out that though there is not a difference in the total number of questions in the transition to secondary education examinations through the years, the number of lessons that the students are responsible for increased. The numbers of questions in the Math, Science and Turkish lessons have reduced in the recent years, but their weight coefficients are still higher. The students were subjected to relative evaluation system except for the examinations of Transition from Primary to Secondary Education (TEOG). All the examinations were carried out at eighth grade Except for Placement Test (SBS). MoNE have reduced the number of questions in Social Studies lesson as well as its weight coefficient in evaluation system. MoNE included English lesson in the last three central transition systems and Education of Religion and Ethics lesson in the last two central transition systems. The questions of these two lessons were based on interpretation. This shows that MoNE tends to develop higher order thinking skills rather than knowledge level in the transition examinations. In the Entrance to High Schools Examination, put into practice in 2018 by MoNE, the obligation to participation to central examinations was abolished. The results of the study reveal that MoNE tries to increase content validity through holding students responsible for more lessons in the systems of transition to secondary education.
Automatic building footprint extraction from very high-resolution imagery using deep learning techniques

Abstract Building footprint maps are useful for urban planning, infrastructural development, population estimation and disaster management. With the availability of very-high resolution satellite imagery, remote sensing community is pursuing automatic techniques for extracting building footprints for cities with varried building types. Recently, CNNs (Convolutional Neural Network) have been successfully applied for extraction of building footprint from satellite imagery. In this paper, we propose a novel CNN architecture termed UNet-AP inspired by UNet and the concept of Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling, for automatic extraction of building footprint from very-high resolution satellite imagery. We demonstrate extraction of building footprints from Cartosat-2 series 4-band (Blue, Green, Red and Near-Infrared) multispectral satellite imagery, pan-sharpened using the panchromatic image with less than 1-meter resolution. We also compare the performance of our proposed architecture with baseline implementation of recently proposed UNet and SegNet architectures. We present a comparative assessment of the architecture performance across different types of urban settlement classes such as dense built-up areas, slums and isolated buildings. We demonstrate that our proposed architecture outperforms SegNet and UNet in terms of overall mean intersection over union (0.75 vs 0.70 and 0.68 for UNet and SegNet respectively) and delivers consistent improvement across all three settlement classes.
Multiplex Tetra-Primer Amplification Refractory Muta- tion System PCR to Detect 6 Common Germline Muta- tions of the MUTYH Gene Associated with Polyposis

tion System PCR to Detect 6 Common Germline Mutations of the MUTYH Gene Associated with Polyposis and Colorectal Cancer, Patrizia Piccioli, Martina Serra, Viviana Gismondi, Simona Pedemonte, Fabrizio Loiacono, Sonia Lastraioli, Lucio Bertario, Maria De Angioletti, Liliana Varesco, and Rosario Notaro [ Laboratory of Human Genetics, Medical Oncology C, and 2 Hereditary Tumors Unit, IST, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genoa, Italy; 3 Preventive-Predictive Medicine Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy; 4 Istituto di Genetica e Biofisica “Adriano Buzzati Traverso” (Istituto di Genetica e Biofisica-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Naples, Italy; † these authors contributed equally to this work; * address correspondence to this author at: Laboratory of Human Genetics, Medical Oncology C, IST, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Largo R. Benzi, 10, 16132 Genova, Italy; fax 39-560-0066, e-mail rosario. notaro@istge.it]
High-order coefficients of second-order ODE$\text{s}$ in relation to pre-factors for complex parameter

In this study, we asymptotically reconsider the relations between the pre-factors of a general inhomogeneous second-order ordinary differential equation and the high-order coefficients of its asymptotic power series for complex values of the asymptotic parameter $ \epsilon_{1} $. The study provides a general formula for its generic high-order coefficients with the associated pre-factors for complex $ \epsilon_{1} $ based on the use of a well-known factorial divided by a power approach.
Surface Albedo Assimilation and Its Impact on Surface Radiation Budget in Beijing

Surface albedo is a crucial parameter in land surface radiation budget. As bias exists between the model simulated and observed surface albedo, data assimilation is an important method to improve the simulation results. Moreover, surface albedo is associated with the wavelength of the sunlight. So, solar radiation partitioning is important to parameterize the surface albedo. In this paper, the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer- (MODIS-) retrieved direct visible, direct near-infrared, diffuse visible, and diffuse near-infrared surface albedos were assimilated into the integrated urban land model (IUM). The solar radiation partitioning method was introduced to parameterize the surface albedo. Based on the albedo data from MODIS and the solar radiation partitioning method, the surface albedo data set for the Beijing municipal area was generated. Based on the surface albedo data set and the IUM, the impacts of the surface albedo on the surface radiation budget were discussed quantitatively. Surface albedo is inversely proportional to the net radiation. For urban areas, after assimilation, the annual average net radiation decreases about 5.6%. For cropland, grassland, and forest areas, after assimilation, the annual average net radiations increase about 20.2%, 24.3%, and 18.7%, respectively.
Controlling tractor‐semitrailer vehicles in automated highway systems: Adaptive robust and Lyapunov minimax approach

In this paper, we design a coordinated steering and braking control scheme to ensure the tractor‐semitrailer vehicle system is practically stable. The tractor's steering input is designed to realize lane tracking and the semitrailer's differential braking torque is designed to improve the stability of the semitrailer. This control methodology is developed in two steps. Firstly, the expected steering input and the expected differential braking force are derived by introducing a set of given tracking constraints and considering the possible initial condition derivation from the constraints based on the Udwadia‐Kalaba approach. Secondly, we develop an adaptive robust control law to tackle the parameter uncertainty, which may be (possibly) time‐varying, and design the required braking torques, which are the actual inputs, to generate the desired braking forces. Furthermore, this control methodology can deal with nonlinear mechanical systems with both holonomic constraints and nonholonomic constraints. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the control algorithm could guarantee the vehicle dynamics are practically stable and achieve lane following maneuvering.
Parametrized reduced order modeling for cracked solids

A parametrized reduced order modeling methodology for cracked two dimensional solids is presented, where the parameters correspond to geometric properties of the crack, such as location and size. The method follows the offline‐online paradigm, where in the offline, training phase, solutions are obtained for a set of parameter values, corresponding to specific crack configurations and a basis for a lower dimensional solution space is created. Then in the online phase, this basis is used to obtain solutions for configurations that do not lie in the training set. The use of the same basis for different crack geometries is rendered possible by defining a reference configuration and employing mesh morphing to map the reference to different target configurations. To enable the application to complex geometries, a mesh morphing technique is introduced, based on inverse distance weighting, which increases computational efficiency and allows for special treatment of boundaries. Applications in linear elastic fracture mechanics are considered, with the extended finite element method being used to represent discontinuous and asymptotic fields.
Políticas educacionais para o ensino médio: implicações e perspectivas para com a garantia desse direito à educação

Este articulo es parte de las discusiones que marcan los primeros tres anos de implementacion del nuevo plan de estudios de secundaria en Brasil. Siguiendo el paradigma cualitativo, realizamos una investigacion documental sobre los instrumentos legales que apoyan su idealizacion, cuyo objetivo era comprender las interfaces de esta reformulacion en la politica educativa con otros cambios politicos, vinculados al mercado y la regulacion del Estado. Como resultado, la critica del modelo adoptado, que parece mas una readaptacion del modelo tecnico de los anos 70, debilita en la coyuntura actual no solo el derecho de los estratos populares a la Educacion Basica, sino tambien la continuidad de estudios adicionales, ademas de abrir precedentes para la precariedad del trabajo docente.
Surface sterilization of Ocimum seeds and tissues with biosynthesized nanosilver and its effects on callus induction

Plant tissue culture is a basic and fundamental component of plant biotechnology. Nowadays, nanomaterials especially nanosilver (NS) are being used as an antimicrobial agents for surface sterilization of explants in tissue culture. In this study, biosynthesized nanosilver (BNS) was used for the surface sterilization of Ocimum seeds and tissues and its effects on callus induction were evaluated. The seeds and tissues were exposed to different concentrations of BNS (10, 50 and 100 mg/l) as well as 5% Clorox for five exposure times (5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 min) and effects on germination, callus induction and surface sterilization were determined. The BNS was found very effective on surface sterilization as 100% decontamination was achieved with no adverse effect on explant viability and callus formation but rather had stimulating effect on formation of callus. The study concluded that BNS can be used as an antimicrobial agent in surface disinfection of explants therefore extending the frontiers of the potential application of biosynthesized nanosilver in tissue culture.
Estudo do sucesso reprodutivo, dos padrões de cruzamento e do fluxo de pólen em Aechmea winkleri, uma espécie endêmica do sul do Brasil

14 Reproduction investment and plant fertility are the central subject of many questions in 15 plant evolutionary and conservation biology. Clonal and sexual reproduction has direct 16 consequences for the population structure. In this study we aim to investigate the 17 investment in sexual and clonal reproduction, and fitness components of Aechmea 18 winkleri. We accessed the proportion of clonal and sexual investment by counting the 19 number of ramets and genets in sampling plots. Measures of plant fitness and 20 reproductive success were taken, and fertility was accessed considering plant and 21 inflorescence size, flower production, fruit and seed set, seed viability and germination 22 rate. Open-pollination and pollen supplementation studies were used to estimate pollen 23 limitation in natural population of the narrow endemic bromeliad Aechmea winkleri. 24 The results showed high investment in clonal reproduction, with an average of 16,0 25
Relationship between Texture and Cell Wall Polysaccharides of Fruit Flesh in Various Species of Citrus

Various species and cultivars of citrus were studied to determine the relationship between texture and cell wall polysaccharide content of fruit flesh. Among those tested cultivars, navel orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) and hassaku (C. hassaku Hort. ex Tanaka) were firmest, 'Fukuhara orange' (C. sinensis Osbeck) was intermediate, and satsuma mandarin (C. unshiu Marc.) was softest. There was a 3-fold difference in firmness among the 12 citrus cultigens measured. Cohesiveness values ranged from 0.30 to 0.49 and were not correlated with fruit firmness. Sugar content in each cell wall fraction was highest in the water and EDTA fractions, followed by the hemicellulose fraction, and was lowest in the cellulose fraction. Correlation coefficients between firmness and sugar content ranged from 0.69 to 0.88 and were highest in the cellulose fraction. This study suggests that firmness of fruit flesh among the cultigens is influenced by cell wall polysaccharide composition. Chemical name used : ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA).
Phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of spined loaches (Cobitidae, Cobitis and Sabanejewia) as indicated by variability of mitochondrial DNA

Abstract For sequence analysis of the 12S rRNA gene in spined loaches, specimens of the following taxa were usedSabanejewia balcanica , Cobitis paludica, C. bilineata, C. fahireae, C. elazigensis,C. elongata , two different sub-populations of C. taenia and four different sub-populations of C. turcica. Phylogenetic relationships among taxa were estimated using parsimony, neighbor-joining, and maximum likelihood algorithms. The calculation of the transition-tranversion ratio indicated that the taxa analysed were rather distantly related. Our analyses using the genus Sabanejewia as an outgroup suggest that C. bilineata is separated from the subgenusCobitis sensu stricto and placed together with C. elongata as basal to all other species of the genusCobitis . Support for the placement of C. paludica as basal to both the subgenera Bicanestrinia andCobitis s.s. (without C. bilineata) is given by outcomes from three independent methods of phylogenetic reconstruction. A sister-taxon relationship for the subgenera Bicanestrinia and Cobitis s.s. without C. bilineata was consistently found. C. elazigensis was closely related to the population of C. turcica from Lake Beysehir in Turkey. Both formed a sister-group to the remaining populations of C. turcica, while C. fahireae was basal to C. taenia. A molecular clock was calculated based on sequence divergence values and palaeogeographical data. This suggests that different historical colonization routes must have been used by different clades of spined loaches.
How does gender affect indoor wayfinding under time pressure?

ABSTRACT Indoor wayfinding is an important and complex daily activity. In this study, we aimed to explore the indoor wayfinding performance of pedestrians of different genders under time pressure. We conducted a wayfinding experiment in a real-world subway station in Beijing using eye-tracking and verbal protocol methods and analyzed wayfinding efficiency, strategies and eye movement data from 38 participants. The results indicated that both male and female participants experienced more difficulty reading maps under time pressure. We also found that males consistently had higher efficiency when they searched for information and could extract information from signage more efficiently than females when they were not under time pressure. Males were more adventurous and preferred to take risks under time pressure, while females consistently maintained a conservative strategy. These findings contribute to the understanding of gender differences in indoor wayfinding and cognition.