Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pilot plant study on nitrogen and phosphorus removal in marine wastewater by marine sediment with sequencing batch reactor

Effective biological treatment of marine wastewater is not well-known. Accumulation of nitrogen and phosphorus from land-based effluent is a crucial cause of red-tide in marine systems. The purpose of the study is to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in marine wastewater with a pilot plant-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system by using marine sediment as eco-friendly and effective biological materials, and elucidate which bacterial strains in sludge from marine sediment influence the performance of SBR. By applying eco-friendly high efficiency marine sludge (eco-HEMS), the treatment performance was 15 m3 d-1 of treatment amount in 4.5 m3 of the reactor with the average removal efficiency of 89.3% for total nitrogen and 94.9% for total phosphorus at the optimal operation condition in summer. Moreover, the average removal efficiency was 84.0% for total nitrogen and 88.3% for total phosphorus in winter although biological treatment efficiency in winter is generally lower due to bacterial lower activity. These results were revealed by the DNA barcoding analysis of 16s rRNA amplicon sequencing of samples from the sludge in winter. The comparative analysis of the bacterial community composition in sludge at the high efficiency of the system showed the predominant genera Psychromonas (significantly increased to 45.6% relative abundance), Vibrio (13.3%), Gaetbulibacter (5.7%), and Psychroserpens (4.3%) in the 4 week adaptation after adding marine sediment, suggesting that those predominant bacteria influenced the treatment performance in winter.
Game-based vs mulitaleral approach: effects of a 12-week program on motor skill acquisition and physical fitness development in soccer school children.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 12-week- game-based training versus a traditional multilateral approach on motor skills acquisition and physical fitness, in a group of U9 children playing soccer. METHODS 40 Children 9 years old or younger (U9) recruited from a local soccer school were assigned in a 1:1 ratio to a game-based training program (GB) or a multilateral training (MA) approach. The training programs lasted 12 weeks, and players were tested at baseline and at the end of the program (12-week follow-up). The outcomes were: standing long jump test, shuttle dribble test, 10x5 shuttle run test and Mini-Cooper test. RESULTS Within-group comparisons showed statistically-significant improvements in both of the groups: standing long lump (p < 0.0001), shuttle dribble test (p < 0.0001), shuttle run test (p < 0.0001) and Mini-Cooper test (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, the MA group showed better performance in the shuttle run test after 12 weeks of training compared to the GB group (p= 0.0002; +8%). CONCLUSIONS A multilateral approach promotes physical development in U9 soccer players without affecting learning of soccer skills. Therefore, a multilateral approach should be included in soccer training programs to ensure an optimal development in young soccer players.
Dynamic functional connectivity between nucleus accumbens and the central executive network relates to chronic cannabis use

Abstract The neural mechanisms of drug cue‐reactivity regarding the temporal fluctuations of functional connectivity, namely the dynamic connectivity, are sparsely studied. Quantifying the task‐modulated variability in dynamic functional connectivity at cue exposure can aid the understanding. We analyzed changes in dynamic connectivity in 54 adult cannabis users and 90 controls during a cannabis cue exposure task. The variability was measured as standard deviation in the (a) connectivity weights of the default mode, the central executive, and the salience networks and two reward loci (amygdalae and nuclei accumbens); and (b) topological indexes of the whole brain (global efficiency, modularity and network resilience). These were compared for the main effects of task conditions and the group (users vs. controls), and correlated with pre‐ and during‐scan subjective craving. The variability of connectivity weights between the central executive network and nuclei accumbens was increased in users throughout the cue exposure task, and, was positively correlated with during‐scan craving for cannabis. The variability of modularity was not different by groups, but positively correlated with prescan craving. The variability of dynamic connectivity during cannabis cue exposure task between the central executive network and the nuclei accumbens, and, the level of modularity, seem to relate to the neural underpinning of cannabis use and the subjective craving.
Molecular and Functional Characterization of Elovl4 Genes in Sparus aurata and Solea senegalensis Pointing to a Critical Role in Very Long-Chain (>C24) Fatty Acid Synthesis during Early Neural Development of Fish

Very long-chain fatty acids (VLC-FA) play critical roles in neural tissues during the early development of vertebrates. However, studies on VLC-FA in fish are scarce. The biosynthesis of VLC-FA is mediated by elongation of very long-chain fatty acid 4 (Elovl4) proteins and, consequently, the complement and activity of these enzymes determines the capacity that a given species has for satisfying its physiological demands, in particular for the correct development of neurophysiological functions. The present study aimed to characterize and localize the expression of elovl4 genes from Sparus aurata and Solea senegalensis, as well as to determine the function of their encoded proteins. The results confirmed that both fish possess two distinct elovl4 genes, named elovl4a and elovl4b. Functional assays demonstrated that both Elovl4 isoforms had the capability to elongate long-chain (C20–24), both saturated (SFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA), fatty acid precursors to VLC-FA. In spite of their overlapping activity, Elovl4a was more active in VLC-SFA elongation, while Elovl4b had a preponderant elongation activity towards n-3 PUFA substrates, particularly in S. aurata, being additionally the only isoform that is capable of elongating docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). A preferential expression of elovl4 genes was measured in neural tissues, being elovl4a and elovl4b mRNAs mostly found in brain and eyes, respectively.
Overexpression of Melon Tonoplast Sugar Transporter CmTST1 Improved Root Growth under High Sugar Content

Sugar allocation is based on the source-to-sink and intracellular transport between different organelles, and sugar transporters are usually involved in these processes. Tonoplast sugar transporters (TST) are responsible for transporting sugar into vacuoles; however, the role of TSTs in root growth and the response to abiotic stress is poorly studied. Here, RNA analysis and promoter-β-glucuronidase staining revealed that a melon TST1 gene (CmTST1) is highly expressed in the roots. The sugar feeding experiment results showed that the expression of CmTST1 in the roots was induced by a relatively high level of sucrose (6%), glucose (3%), and fructose (3%). The ectopic overexpression of CmTST1 in Arabidopsis improved the root and shoot growth of seedlings under high exogenous sugar stress. Furthermore, the ectopic expression of CmTST1 promoted the expression of plasma membrane-located sugar transporters. We proposed that CmTST1 plays a key role in importing sugar transport into the vacuoles of roots in response to metabolic demands to maintain cytosolic sugar homeostasis.
Improving Effectiveness of Measurements for Seed Resistance to Maize Weevil

Grain harvested from a southeastern United States-adapted, full-season corn, Zea mays L. , hybrid, which was allowed to open-pollinate, was separated into 3 kernel sizes (large, medium, and small) and tested at 3 sample weights (15, 25, and 35 g) each under 4 infestation levels (10, 20, 30, and 40) of adult Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky. Seed size did not affect resistance measurements because it appeared that samples of constant weight tended to self-correct for total seed surface area, an important factor affecting oviposition, when seed size varied. Samples infested with only 10 weevils exhibited large sampling errors, which were attributed to the high probability of obtaining few or no female weevils in randomly drawn samples of low weevil number per sample. Both sample weight loss per adult and number of progeny per adult provided consistent measures of resistance and a good separation of treatment means. These 2 characteristics were highly correlated (r = 0.97) which indicated that either would provide an adequate measure of resistance. Based on the experimental results, use of at least 20 adult weevils to infest test samples containing at least 1 g of seed/weevil should produce reliable results when infesting with unsexed weevils.
Physiological disturbances promoted by ozone in five cultivars of Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Plântulas de feijao das cultivares Fepagro 26, Guapo Brilhante, Irai, Macotaco e US pinto 111 foram submetidas aos tratamentos com e sem adicao de ozonio ao ar ambiente, com o objetivo de avaliar os efeitos da exposicao sobre a fotossintese, permeabilidade relativa a eletrolitos, abscisao foliar e biomassa das plântulas. A exposicao ao ozonio causou decrescimos significativos na assimilacao liquida de todas as cultivares, exceto na Irai. Causou tambem um aumento significativo na permeabilidade relativa a eletrolitos da cultivar Pinto, mas apenas quando a AOT40 foi a mais elevada. Alem disso, produziu uma antecipacao significativa no tempo de abscisao foliar nas cultivares Pinto, Fepagro e Guapo. A variabilidade observada nas medidas de biomassa total, refletiu as limitacoes para se executar estudos de longo prazo em condicoes ambientais controladas, um dos principais desafios ainda por ser superado antes que se possa obter dados mais conclusivos sobre os danos em especies cultivadas resultantes do enriquecimento do ozonio toposferico.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Tringa ochropus (Charadriiformes, Scolopacidae)

Abstract The green sandpiper Tringa ochropus (Charadriiformes, Scolopacidae) is completely migratory with an extremely large distribution range. However, its habitat ecology, and disease spreading are relatively understudied, and the molecular genetics is relatively unclear. In this study, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of T. ochropus, which is a circular molecule of 16,906 bp in length and the A + T content of overall base of the composition of H-strand is 54.88% (A: 31.62%, T: 25.53%, C: 29.47%, G: 13.38%). This study strongly supports the monophyly of Charadriiformes, and division of the order into three major clades, including Lari, Scolopaci, and Charadrii.
Systematic Analysis of Kelch Repeat F-box (KFB) Protein Family and Identification of Phenolic Acid Regulation Members in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge

S. miltiorrhiza is a well-known Chinese herb for the clinical treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Tanshinones and phenolic acids are the major secondary metabolites and significant pharmacological constituents of this plant. Kelch repeat F-box (KFB) proteins play important roles in plant secondary metabolism, but their regulation mechanism in S. miltiorrhiza has not been characterized. In this study, we systematically characterized the S. miltiorrhiza KFB gene family. In total, 31 SmKFB genes were isolated from S. miltiorrhiza. Phylogenetic analysis of those SmKFBs indicated that 31 SmKFBs can be divided into four groups. Thereinto, five SmKFBs (SmKFB1, 2, 3, 5, and 28) shared high homology with other plant KFBs which have been described to be regulators of secondary metabolism. The expression profile of SmKFBs under methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment deciphered that six SmKFBs (SmKFB1, 2, 5, 6, 11, and 15) were significantly downregulated, and two SmKFBs (SmKFB22 and 31) were significantly upregulated. Tissue-specific expression analysis found that four SmKFBs (SmKFB4, 11, 16, and 17) were expressed preferentially in aerial tissues, while two SmKFBs (SmKFB5, 25) were predominantly expressed in roots. Through a systematic analysis, we speculated that SmKFB1, 2, and 5 are potentially involved in phenolic acids biosynthesis.
Physical Activity Dynamically Regulates the Hippocampal Proteome along the Dorso-Ventral Axis

The hippocampus is central for higher cognition and emotions. In patients suffering from neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative diseases, hippocampal signaling is altered causing cognitive defects. Thus, therapeutic approaches aim at improving cognition by targeting the hippocampus. Enhanced physical activity (EPA) improves cognition in rodents and humans. A systematic screen, however, for expression changes in the hippocampus along the dorso-ventral axis is missing, which is a prerequisite for understanding molecular mechanisms. Here, we exploited label free mass spectrometry to detect proteomic changes in the hippocampus of male mice upon voluntary wheel running. To identify regional differences, we examined dorsal and ventral CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus hippocampal subregions. We found metabolic enzymes and actin binding proteins, such as RhoA, being upregulated in the hippocampus upon EPA suggesting a coordination between metabolism and cytoskeleton remodeling; two pathways essential for synaptic plasticity. Strikingly, dorsal and ventral hippocampal subregions respond differentially to EPA. Together, our results provide new insight into proteomic adaptations driven by physical activity in mice. In addition, our results suggest that dorsal and ventral hippocampus, as well as hippocampal subregions themselves, contribute differently to this process. Our study therefore provides an important resource for studying hippocampal subregion diversity in response to EPA.
A near full-length HIV-1 genome from 1966 recovered from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue

Significance Inferring the precise timing of the origin of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is of great importance because it offers insights into which factors did—or did not—facilitate the emergence of the causal virus. Previous estimates have implicated rapid development during the early 20th century in Central Africa, which wove once-isolated populations into a more continuous fabric. We recovered the first HIV-1 genome from the 1960s, and it provides direct evidence that HIV-1 molecular clock estimates spanning the last half-century are remarkably reliable. And, because this genome itself was sampled only about a half century after the estimated origin of the pandemic, it empirically anchors this crucial inference with high confidence. With very little direct biological data of HIV-1 from before the 1980s, far-reaching evolutionary and epidemiological inferences regarding the long prediscovery phase of this pandemic are based on extrapolations by phylodynamic models of HIV-1 genomic sequences gathered mostly over recent decades. Here, using a very sensitive multiplex RT-PCR assay, we screened 1,645 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens collected for pathology diagnostics in Central Africa between 1958 and 1966. We report the near-complete viral genome in one HIV-1 positive specimen from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), from 1966 (“DRC66”)—a nonrecombinant sister lineage to subtype C that constitutes the oldest HIV-1 near full-length genome recovered to date. Root-to-tip plots showed the DRC66 sequence is not an outlier as would be expected if dating estimates from more recent genomes were systematically biased; and inclusion of the DRC66 sequence in tip-dated BEAST analyses did not significantly alter root and internal node age estimates based on post-1978 HIV-1 sequences. There was larger variation in divergence time estimates among datasets that were subsamples of the available HIV-1 genomes from 1978 to 2014, showing the inherent phylogenetic stochasticity across subsets of the real HIV-1 diversity. Our phylogenetic analyses date the origin of the pandemic lineage of HIV-1 to a time period around the turn of the 20th century (1881 to 1918). In conclusion, this unique archival HIV-1 sequence provides direct genomic insight into HIV-1 in 1960s DRC, and, as an ancient-DNA calibrator, it validates our understanding of HIV-1 evolutionary history.
Adrenalectomy for Secondary Malignancy: Patients, Outcomes, and Indications

Objective: The goal of this study was to examine a multi-institutional experience with adrenal metastases to describe survival outcomes and identify subpopulations who benefit from adrenal metastasectomy. Background: Adrenalectomy for metastatic disease is well-described, although indications and outcomes are incompletely defined. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed of patients undergoing adrenalectomy for secondary malignancy (2002–2015) at 6 institutions. The primary outcomes were disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Analysis methods included Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards. Results: Of 269 patients, mean age was 60.1 years; 50% were male. The most common primary malignancies were lung (n = 125, 47%), renal cell (n = 38, 14%), melanoma (n = 33, 12%), sarcoma (n = 18, 7%), and colorectal (n = 12, 5%). The median time to detection of adrenal metastasis after initial diagnosis of the primary tumor was 17 months (interquartile range: 6–41). Post-adrenalectomy, the median DFS was 18 months (1-year DFS: 54%, 5-year DFS: 31%). On multivariable analysis, lung primary was associated with longer DFS [hazard ratio (HR): 0.49, P = 0.008). Extra-adrenal oligometastatic disease at initial presentation (HR: 1.84, P = 0.016), larger tumor size (HR: 1.07, P = 0.013), chemotherapy as treatment of the primary tumor (HR: 2.07 P = 0.027) and adjuvant chemotherapy (HR: 1.95, P = 0.009) were associated with shorter DFS. Median OS was 53 months (1-year OS: 83%, 5-year OS: 43%). On multivariable analysis, extra-adrenal oligometastatic disease at adrenalectomy (HR: 1.74, P = 0.031), and incomplete resection of adrenal metastasis (R1 margins; HR: 1.62, P = 0.034; R2 margins; HR: 5.45, P = 0.002) were associated with shorter OS. Conclusions: Durable survival is observed in patients undergoing adrenal metastasectomy and should be considered for subjects with isolated adrenal metastases.
FILTERING APPROACH AND SYSTEM COMBINATION FOR ARABIC NEWS CLASSIFICATION

Text classification is one of the important research in text mining applications because of the increasing growth of digital data from different resources. It became urgent need to find systems that help users to get information from this large number of texts easily and faster. One of the most significant challenges facing the text classification is how to reduce the number of features in high dimensional data spaces without reduced the performance. The objective of this research is to design an automatic text classification system and improve its performance with less number of features. Two approaches are proposed in this paper: N-gram features filtering and system combination. The main aim of using different N-gram types is to use deep semantics and less number of features. Three classification systems based on SVM algorithm are applied with different N-gram filtering to reduce the number of features. These systems were compared with conventional classification approaches, cosine similarity and SVM. The system combination fusion the hypotheses produced by the above classification systems in order to select the best class label via voting. These systems are applied on Arabic corpus. The filtering approach reduced the number of features from (5,799) and (12,474) for cosine and SVM systems to roughly (3,400) by using N-gram types representation without reduce the performance. The performance of text classification is enhanced from (81.6) and (91.2) for cosine and SVM respectively to (94.2) for system combination.
Similarity Between Cerrado Localities in Central and Southeastern Brazil Based on the Dry Season Bait Visitors Ant Fauna

To investigate whether similar physiognomic areas support similar faunas, the richness, similarity, and community structure of the ant fauna attracted to baits in an area of the Brazilian Cerrado sensu stricto at the core of the domain and in two Cerrado 'islands' (one of sensu stricto and another of 'cerradão') were compared. In each locality, four collecting events were performed (two during the day and two at night) capturing ants attracted to 400 sardine baits (200 in soil, 200 in vegetation). Ants of six subfamilies, 33 genera, and 121 species were identified visiting baits in the three areas (180 species estimated). The most speciose genera were Camponotus (27 species), Pheidole (13), Solenopsis (11), and Crematogaster (8). The similarity values between pair sites can be considered medium in relation to other studies. The highest value was recorded for the core area and the 'island' of Cerrado sensu stricto (Morisita-Horn = 0.57). The two Cerrado 'islands' were found to be 0.44 similar and the core area and the 'cerradão' 0.41 similar. The ordination analysis (non-metric multidimensional scaling) revealed discontinuities in species distributions between areas of Cerrado sensu stricto and 'cerradão,' and distinctive ant faunas relative to the temporal (nocturnal and diurnal) and foraging niches (ground and vegetation). The ant fauna at ground level in the 'cerradão' and Cerrado sensu stricto showed the greatest dissimilarity. The data suggest that areas of Cerrado are characterized by relatively high local ant fauna richness, and that community structure is influenced by the distance between sites and the diversity of vegetation.
Enhancement of Superconductivity by Amorphizing Molybdenum Silicide Films Using a Focused Ion Beam

We have used focused ion beam irradiation to progressively cause defects in annealed molybdenum silicide thin films. Without the treatment, the films are superconducting with critical temperature of about 1 K. We observe that both resistivity and critical temperature increase as the ion dose is increased. For resistivity, the increase is almost linear, whereas critical temperature changes abruptly at the smallest doses and then remains almost constant at 4 K. We believe that our results originate from amorphization of the polycrystalline molybdenum silicide films.
Complete mitochondrial genome of the Japanese bumblebee, Bombus hypocrita hypocrita (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Abstract In the present report, we describe the complete mitochondrial genome of the common bumblebee, Bombus hypocrita hypocrita, from the Otome Plateau, in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The mitochondrial genome of B. h. hypocrita is a circular molecule of 15,795 bp. It contains 13 protein-coding, 22 tRNA and two rDNA genes. The protein-coding genes had ATA, ATG or ATT as the initiation codon and were terminated by the typical stop codon TAA, except for ND4 and Cytb. All the tRNA genes typically formed a cloverleaf secondary structure, except for trnE and trnS1.
Water balance and nitrogen excretion of two introduced frogs (Litoria raniformis and L. ewingi)

Abstract Rates of dehydration, rehydration and hydrated water uptake were measured in the hylid frogs Litoria raniformis and L. ewingi. The more terrestrial L. ewingi generally has a lower rate of dehydration caused by the adoption of a more water-conserving posture and reduced activity. Both species show a well developed water balance response (rapid rehydration) and ventral skin appears specialised for rapid water uptake. The predominant form of excreted nitrogen changes during development in the two species. The aquatic tadpoles are ammonotelic and metamorphosed frogs strongly ureotelic. Diet appears to have a large effect on absolute (but not relative) levels of ammonia and urea nitrogen excreted by metamorphosed L. raniformis. Despite its semi-aquatic habitat, L. raniformis displays some features (rapid rehydration and strong ureotelism) characteristic of a more terrestrial existence.