Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Therapeutic and Prophylactic Potential of Vitamin D for Multiple Sclerosis

A plethora of investigations demonstrated that vitamin D (VitD) has a broad immuno‐ modulatory potential. It induces tolerogenic dendritic cells in vitro leading to the development of regulatory T cells that have a key role in immunomodulation of autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS). Studies showed that many MS patients present lower serum levels of VitD than healthy subjects. In addition, VitD supplementation has been associated with a reduced relative risk of developing MS. Considering the alterations in VitD levels in patients and also the immunomodulatory properties of VitD, it would be interesting to evaluate VitD potential as a tolerogenic adjuvant in experimental models of MS. In this context, our research team has been investigating strategies employing VitD to establish an in vivo tolerance state toward central nervous system antigens in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). We observed that the association between a myelin peptide and VitD determined both therapeutic and prophylactic effects on EAE development.
Effect of Different Levels of Mushroom Waste (Agaricus bisporus) with or without Probiotic on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, and Breast Meat Quality in Broiler Chickens

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mushroom waste and probiotic levels on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality in broiler chickens. A 2 × 3 factorial arrangement with two levels of probiotic supplementation (0 and recommended rate) and three levels of mushroom waste inclusion (0%, 3%, and 6%) was used in a completely randomized design using male broiler chickens (Ross 308 strain). Different levels of mushroom waste and probiotic had no significant effect on body weight gain and feed conversion ratio in broiler chickens. Neither different levels of mushroom waste nor probiotic independently had any significant effect on carcass characteristics. However, the use of mushroom waste and probiotics significantly reduced the malondialdehyde content in chicken breast meat 30 days after storage (P). Breast meat pH value was significantly reduced by supplementation with probiotic 1 and 30 days after storage (P). In conclusion, under the conditions of this experiment, inclusion of mushroom waste, particularly at 6% level, numerically improved growth performance and was effective in preventing meat oxidation.
Frailty Syndrome.

multidimensional syndrome of decline in functional reserve, leading to impairment or dysregulation in multiple physiological systems with reduced ability to regain physiological homeostasis after stressful medical and surgical events. Frailty can also be measured using frailty indices based on counting the accumulation of deficits in different systems [2]. The Vulnerable Elders Survey (VES) is another tool, which is easy to perform and highly recommended for identifying frailty in the elderly [3,4]. The diagnosis of frailty is based on the measurement of function and not on precise anatomic or physiologic damage. Medical practice in the 20th century used functional measurements in different fields: e.g., the NYHA (New York Heart Association) staging for heart diseases, and since Karnovski’s functional scale (initiated in New York Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) several additional functional scales have been introduced into cancer program planning. Therefore, functional evaluation is considered an essential part of the medical evaluation of patients at any age. Frailty syndrome is prevalent in the elderly. In a meta-analysis of 24 studies in the community, frailty was defined in 14% of elderly people over 65 years old and in 26% of those over 85 [5]. Frailty is an important if not the most important prognostic factor in the elderly. In all studies the rate of frailty increased with age. In the study by Fried and colleagues [1], frailty was associated with increased hazard ratio for functional decline as reflected by lower independence in activities of daily living (ADL), hospitalizations, falls, and mortality. Frailty is explained by genetic as well as epigenetic influences on different f railty is defined by Fried et al. [1] as a phenotype according to the following criteria. The criteria are both subjective and objective.
Willingness to adopt the vine multiplication technique in seed yam production in the forest savanna transition agro-ecological zone, Ghana

Yam is a vital crop in Ghana both at the domestic and export markets. It contributes about 17% of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and plays a key role in household food security with more than 2 million tons harvested each year. However, the inadequacy of planting materials is a major constraint in yam production. The cost of planting materials alone constitutes about 50% of total cost of production. The newly developed technique of propagating yam through vine cuttings (vine multiplication technique) has been introduced by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI) and its partners to farmers. To assess the willingness of farmers to adopt the vine technology, a study was conducted in the forest-savannah transition zone of Ghana in 2010 involving a total of 375 yam farmers (324 males and 51 females). The study used the probit model to assess framers’ willingness to adopt the vine technique. The results show that age, farm size, experience, yield, cost of adoption, ease of adoption, visits to a demonstration field and the expectation of obtaining more seed yams influenced farmers’ willingness to adopt the vine technique. It is recommended that the technology should be promoted targeting younger experienced farmers with larger farm sizes and higher yields
Nocardia nova identification in a transtracheal wash of a horse with recurrent airway obstruction

LAZ Condasa, MG Ribeiroa, G Olivob, MMJ Francoa,T Gonoic, T Matsuzawac, K Yazawac, RC Gonçalvesb, AS Borgesb* aDepartment of Veterinary Hygiene and Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. bDepartment of Veterinary Clinical Science, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. cDepartment of Research at Mycology Medical, Research Center, Chiba University, Inohana, Chuo-ku, Japan.
Segmentation of Melanoma Skin Lesion Using Perceptual Color Difference Saliency with Morphological Analysis

The prevalence of melanoma skin cancer disease is rapidly increasing as recorded death cases of its patients continue to annually escalate. Reliable segmentation of skin lesion is one essential requirement of an efficient noninvasive computer aided diagnosis tool for accelerating the identification process of melanoma. This paper presents a new algorithm based on perceptual color difference saliency along with binary morphological analysis for segmentation of melanoma skin lesion in dermoscopic images. The new algorithm is compared with existing image segmentation algorithms on benchmark dermoscopic images acquired from public corpora. Results of both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the new algorithm are encouraging as the algorithm performs excellently in comparison with the existing image segmentation algorithms.
Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation of Populus deltoides Marsh Clone G48 with gus and npt-II Genes

Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation of Populus deltoides Marsh Clone G48 with gus and npt-II Genes The present investigation had been carried out to standardize a protocol for Agrobacterium- mediated gene transfer in Populus deltoides Marsh. Clone G48 using petiole explants. Reproducibility of already standardized regeneration protocol for clone G48 had been evaluated. High frequency shoot regeneration (72%) from petiole explants was obtained on MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg l-1 BAP, 0.2 mg l-1 IAA and 15 mg l-1 adenine sulphate. Root regeneration (100%) in in vitro developed shoots was obtained on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg l-1 IAA. Increasing concentrations of kanamycin (10-50 mg l-1) were given to find out the minimum dose of kanamycin required for the selection of putative transformed cells during genetic transformation. It was observed that a doze of 50 mg l-1 kanamycin inhibited callus formation and shoot regeneration and the explants turned brown and started dieing. This concentration of kanamycin would be the most useful for selection of npt-II gene transformed petiole cells/ tissues. Disarmed Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA 4404 strain containing a reporter β-glucuronidase (gus) gene in binary vector pBI 121 along with kanamycin resistance gene (npt-II) was used for genetic transformation experiments. Only the transformed cells/ shoots were able to grow on selective shoot regeneration medium containing 50 mg l-1 kanamycin, whereas control explants did not survive. Regenerated putative transgenic shoots were subjected to transient gene expression analysis using spectrophotometric GUS assay and were found positive. This genetic transformation protocol will provide a platform for genetic manipulation of P. deltoides clone G48 for incorporation of genes governing various silviculturally important traits in future.
Difference spectroscopic and reverse phase HPLC methods for the estimation of cefdinir in pharmaceutical dosage forms

Two simple efficient and reproducible difference spectroscopic and reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic methods have been developed for the estimation of cefdinir in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Difference spectroscopic method is based on the measurement of absorbance of cefdinir at maxima 265 nm and minima 230 nm. The measured value is the amplitude of maxima and minima between two eqimolar solutions of the analyte in different chemical forms, which exhibit different spectral characteristics. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 10 to 35 mg/ml. The second method, a High Performance Liquid Chromatography, was developed for the estimation of cefdinir, using 50 mM ammonium acetate (pH 3.0±0.1 adjusted with 10% phosphoric acid) and methanol (80:20% v/v) as the mobile phase with flow rate of 1 ml/min, and measuring the response at 285 nm. An external standard calibration method was employed for quantitation. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 15 to 125 mg/ml. The results obtained in the analysis of dosage forms agree well with the labelled contents.
Dwindling status of Trillium govanianum Wall. ex D. Don - A case study from Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, India

Trillium govanianum Wall. ex D. Don, a lesser known medicinal plant in trade during past decades has gained popularity in commercial utilization these days. This species is locally known as Nagchhatri and distributed between 2,500 to 4,000 m across the Himalayan region. Roots of this taxon are used to cure dysentery. In 2011, due to unscrupulous extraction of this species from wild in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, its population has decreased to a great extent. Such practices have left the species in dwindling condition. Therefore, the present study has been carried out to assess the quantum extraction and income generation from this species. The surveys were conducted in 16 representative villages of Upper Beas, Parbati, Banjar and Lag valleys and Mohal Khad Watershed of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh. Maximum extraction (that is, 607 kg) was done in Upper Beas Valley (UBV) and inhabitants earned Rs. 5.46 crores, whereas minimum extraction was done from Mohal Khad Watershed (that is, 89.5 kg/day) and inhabitants earned Rs. 80.55 lakh during three months. Unsustainable commercial harvesting with other biotic pressures synergistically posed a severe threat to its existence in natural habitats. Therefore, for the conservation and management of species, population assessment using quadrat method, development of conventional and in vitro propagation protocols for mass multiplication, promotion in ex-situ and in-situ environment, and awareness among the inhabitants are suggested. Key words: Biodiversity, Himalayan region, conservation, native, threatened.
Near-optimal quantum tomography: estimators and bounds

We give bounds on the average fidelity achievable by any quantum state estimator, which is arguably the most prominently used figure of merit in quantum state tomography. Moreover, these bounds can be computed online—that is, while the experiment is running. We show numerically that these bounds are quite tight for relevant distributions of density matrices. We also show that the Bayesian mean estimator is ideal in the sense of performing close to the bound without requiring optimization. Our results hold for all finite dimensional quantum systems.
Formulation of nitric oxide donors and antibiotic against typhoid

Typhoid fever remains a major health problem in India and other developing countries. It often becomes difficult to precisely estimate the global impact of typhoid, as clinical symptoms resemble many other febrile infections. Salmonella, gram negative bacilli, are facultative intra cellular bacteria and can survive during certain stages of host parasite interaction. There are a number of drugs being used for the treatment of typhoid, but increasing occurrence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strain of Salmonella typhi has complicated its management; thus, it has necessitated the search of formulated drugs for its treatments. Nitric oxide (NO) is a versatile molecule produced in a biological system, it regulates divers array of physiological function and acts as an inter and extra-cellular messenger in most mammalian organ in host’s defense functions for many bacterial infections. Previous studies have suggested that, exogenous administration of L-arginine results in increased NO production, indicating that endogenous substrate is insufficient for maximal NO production. Taking these facts into consideration, it was thought pertinent to see the effect of oral administration of NO donors that is L-arginine, which is one of the semi essential amino acids used as food supplement. Formulation of NO donors and ciprofloxacin are used in low concentrations to reduce toxicity which shows better therapeutic results against experimentally induced Salmonellosis. Key words: Typhoid, nitric oxide, MDR.
Image Fusion with Contrast Improving and Feature Preserving

The goal of image fusion is to obtain a fused image that contains most significant information in all input images which were captured by different sensors from the same scene. In particular, the fusion process should improve the contrast and keep the integrity of significant features from input images. In this paper, we propose a region-based image fusion method to fuse spatially registered visible and infrared images while improving the contrast and preserving the significant features of input images. At first, the proposed method decomposes input images into base layers and detail layers using a bilateral filter. Then the base layers of the input images are segmented into regions. Third, a region-based decision map is proposed to represent the importance of every region. The decision map is obtained by calculating the weights of regions according to the gray-level difference between each region and its neighboring regions in the base layers. At last, the detail layers and the base layers are separately fused by different fusion rules based on the same decision map to generate a final fused image. Experimental results qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the contrast of fused images and preserve more features of input images than several previous image fusion methods.
Preliminary Study in diagnosis and early prediction of Preeclampsia by Using FTIR Spectroscopy Technique

Background: Preeclampsia is a heterogeneous condition, potentially involving several separate pathophysiological pathways; currently no clinical screening test is useful for prediction of preeclampsia development. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) holds great promise for clinical chemistry measurements. Methods: FT-IR spectra of serum samples from pregnant women -14 patients and 31 normotensive were obtained. Absorbance ratios, second derivative spectra, ANOVA test and personal correlation statistical analysis were tacking in comparison studies. The parameters studied were proteins and lipids. Results: Different absorbance ratios for specific bands were calculated and plotted versus the patient samples. These ratios yielded statistically significant increase/decrease among the groups under investigation. The results showed that among the normotensive control group three subjects later developed preeclampsia. The results obtained from the IR-measured (amide A/amide B) ratio of serum confirmed, with 92.9 % confidence level, the effectiveness of this technique for the diagnosis of preeclampsia. Normotensive pregnant women who developed preeclampsia were considered as subjects at high risk. Conclusion: This study suggests, for the first time that FT-IR spectroscopy can be successfully used as an accurate and rapid test, for diagnosis and early prediction of preeclampsia, starting from 20 week of gestation. (Gehan A. Raouf, Abdel-Rahman L. Al-Malki, Nesma Mansouri, Rogaia M. Mahmoudi. T. Preliminary Study in diagnosis and early prediction of Preeclampsia by Using FTIR Spectroscopy Technique. Life Science Journal. 2011;8(2):453-464) (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com .
Tidal Downsizing model - III. Planets from sub-Earths to brown dwarfs: structure and metallicity preferences

We present population synthesis calculations of the Tidal Downsizing (TD) hypothesis for planet formation. Our models address the following observations: (i) most abundant planets being super-Earths; (ii) cores more massive than ∼5–15M⊕ are enveloped by massive atmospheres; (iii) the frequency of occurrence of close-in gas-giant planets correlates strongly with metallicity of the host star; (iv) no such correlation is found for sub-Neptune planets; (v) presence of massive cores in giant planets; (vi) gas-giant planets are overabundant in metals comparedtotheirhoststars;(vii)thisoverabundancedecreaseswithplanet’smass;(viii)adeep valley in the planet mass function between masses of ∼10–20M⊕ and ∼100M⊕. A number of observational predictions distinguish the model from Core Accretion: (a) composition of the massive cores is always dominated by rocks not ices; (b) the core mass function is smooth with no minimum at ∼3M⊕ and has no ice-dominated cores; (c) gas giants beyond 10 au are insensitive to the host-star metallicity; (d) objects more massive than ∼10MJ do not correlate or even anticorrelate with metallicity. The latter prediction is consistent with observations of low-mass stellar companions. TD can also explain formation of planets in close binary systems. TD model is a viable alternative to the Core Accretion scenario in explaining many features of the observed population of exoplanets.
Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme is the first international cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide and the largest carbon pricing regime in the world. A significant concern over the Emissions Trading Scheme has been the potential impact on the competitiveness of industry. Using data on 5,873 firms in ten European countries during 2001-2009, this paper assesses the impact on three variables through which the effects on firm competitiveness may manifest -- unit material costs, employment and revenue. The analysis focuses on the three most heavily-emitting industries under the program -- power, cement, and iron and steel. Empirical results indicate that the Emissions Trading Scheme has had different impacts across these three sectors. Although no impacts are found on any of the three variables in the cement and iron and steel industries, a positive effect is found on both material costs and revenue in the power sector. The effect on material costs likely reflects fuel-switching to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while that on revenue may be partly due to cost pass-through to consumers in a market that is less exposed to competition outside the Europen Union. Overall the findings do not substantiate concerns over carbon leakage, job loss or industry competitiveness during the study period.
Impact of secondary transformation of peat-moorsh soils on the decrease of nitrogen and carbon compounds in ground water

The study of peatland is used to show the water quality functioning with respect to different forms of nitrogen and carbon. In this paper, the purification of ground water by the transect of 4.5 km length consisting of organic soils (peat-moorsh soils) was investigated. The transect is located in the Agroecological Landscape Park in Turew, 40 km South-West of Poznan, West Polish Lowland, along the Wyskoc ditch. In the study, pH, the contents of total and dissolved organic carbon, total nitrogen, N-NO3 - , N-NH4 + were measured. Additionally C/N factors of peats were estimated. The investigation has shown the impact of the peatland located on the secondary transformed peat-moorsh soils on the changes of total nitrogen, ammonium, and nitrates as well as total and dissolved organic carbon in ground water. Peatland decreases the concentration of the following compounds in ground water: nitrates 38.5%, N-organic 10%, N-total 24.5%, ammonium 38.7%, dissolved total carbon 33.1%, dissolved total inorganic carbon 10%, dissolved organic carbon 57.5%.
Analysis of Rumen Microbial Population of Cattle Given Silage and Probiotics Using Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism

Rumen ecology is an important observation in evaluating the effectivity of silage and probiotic additives relating to their roles in cattle productivity. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of silage and probiotics on ruminal ecosystems in vivo using a molecular approach. Terminal-restriction fragment-length-polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis was used to detect changes of ecological communities based on 16S-ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (16S-rDNA). Two rumen canulated PO cattle were fed several diets i.e.; (R0) basal diet dry matter basis (Pennisetum purpureum 70% and commercial concentrate 30%), (R1) silage (basal diet fermented using Lactobacillus plantarum BTCC570), (R2) silage + probiotics (L. plantarium Str BTCC531), (R3) Basal diet + probiotics (L. plantarium Str BTCC531). Digesta samples were collected 3 h after feeding for pH and T-RFLP analysis. T-RFLP analysis was performed using the 16S-rDNA amplified from each sample. The lengths of the terminal restriction fragments were analysed after digestion with HhaI, HaeIII and MspI. Results showed the effectivenes of silage and probiotics, given together, on the index of Smith and Wilson evenness applied to T-RFLP ecology data (Evar) with 0.89±0.04 being the highest. The diversity of rumen microorganisms is influenced by individual differences of each animal. T-RFLP analysis has a potency to be used for comparisons of complex bacterial communities, especially to detect changes in community structure in response to different variables and to show rumen bacteria diversity in the rumen. Keywords: silage, probiotics, rumen ecology, Evar, T-RFLP, 16S-rDN