Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison between avidity test and real-time PCR in diagnosis of recent toxoplasmosis in pregnancy

Diagnosis of recently acquired toxoplasmosis must be improved to avoid its risks during pregnancy. The present study was done to evaluate the using of quantitative real-time PCR assay (qRT-PCR) in diagnosis of recent toxoplasmosis, and compare it with avidity IgG ELISA test. This study was carried out on 120 pregnant women taken from women attending Outpatient Clinics of the Obstetrics & Gynecology Department at Zagazig University Hospital, ranging in age from 2038 years. These women were divided into two groups, a case group of 100 complicated pregnancy and control group of 20 healthy pregnant women. IgM ELISA and Toxoplasma IgG avidity ELISA were performed and qRT-PCR technique was used to confirm the infection with T.gondii Fifty-one cases of the 100 complicated pregnancy women tested positive for IgM antibodies compared with 0% (none) in the normal control pregnancy group. While for avidity IgG antibodies, 29.1% of complicated pregnancy women tested positive compared with 1.6% positive IgG antibodies in the control group. Regarding qRT-PCR technique, (38cases) 31.6% of complicated pregnancy women and only one case from control group were positive for toxoplasmosis. The qRTPCR -assay provides a rapid, sensitive, automated and quantitative way of detecting Toxoplasma DNA. It can detect the infection very early and can be used also in follow up of the treatment. But, it is very expensive and needs technical skills. So routine application of PCR– based methods, especially in developing countries, is difficult. Serological tests especially IgG avidity test are good screening test, cost effective and can be used to exclude recent infection in pregnancy. [Magda A. El-Settawy, Ghada M. Fathyand Mai E. Dahrog. Comparison between avidity test and realtime PCR in diagnosis of recent toxoplasmosis in pregnancy. Life Sci J 2016;13(6):65-71]. ISSN: 1097-8135 (Print) / ISSN: 2372-613X (Online). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 9. doi:10.7537/marslsj13061609.
Hip abductors and thigh muscles strength ratios and their relation to electromyography amplitude during split squat and walking lunge exercises

Background: The hip abductors (HAB), quadriceps (Q) and hamstrings (H) reciprocal strength ratios are predictors of electromyography (EMG) amplitude during load carrying walking at moderate intensity. Therefore, these strength ratios might predict also the EMG during the exercises as walking lunge (WL) or split squat (SSq) at submaximal intensity. Objective: To determine whether the EMG amplitude of vastus mediali (VM), vastus laterali (VL), biceps femoris (BF) and gluteus medius (Gmed) is associated with muscle strength ratio during SSqs and WLs. To determine whether the EMG amplitude differs between individuals with HAB/H ratio above and below one and between individuals with H/Q or HAB/Q ratio above and below 0.5 during SSqs and WLs. Methods: 17 resistance-trained men (age 29.6 ± 4.6 years) with at least 3 years of strength training performed in cross-sectional design 5 s maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) on an isokinetic dynamometer for knee extension, knee flexion, and hip abduction. The MVIC was used to normalize the EMG signal and estimate the individual strength ratios. Than participants performed WL and SSq for a 5 repetition maximum, to find out muscle activity at submaximal intensity of exercise. Results: The H/Q ratio was associated by Kendall's tau (τ) with VM (τ = .33) and BF (τ = -.71) amplitude, HAB/Q ratio was associated with BF (τ = -.43) and Gmed (τ = .38) amplitude, as well as HAB/H was associated with VM (τ = -.41) and Gmed (τ = .74) amplitude. ANOVA results showed significant differences between SSq and WL (F(4, 79) = 10, p 0.5 showed higher VMO amplitude and lower Gmed amplitude. Furthermore, significant difference was found for HAB/H groups (F(4, 29) = 4, p = . 02, ηp2 = . 34) in VM amplitude, where group with HAB/H < 1 showed higher VM amplitude. Conclusions: The ratios of HAB, H and Q are able to predict Gmed, VM and BF activity during WL and SSq. WL resulted in higher activity level of Gmed than SSq, because WL includes the impact forces as part of lunge movement. WL should be used in resistance-training programme, if the strengthening of Gmed or VM is the aim.
Conformational constraints of conserved neutralizing epitopes from a major antigenic area of human respiratory syncytial virus fusion glycoprotein

To study the conformational requirements of epitopes from a conserved antigenic area (area II) of respiratory syncytial (RS) virus fusion (F) glycoprotein, peptides of increasing length containing amino acids essential for these epitopes were synthesized. The synthetic peptides were tested for binding to a panel of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for this area as well as to rabbit hyperimmune and human convalescent antisera. Antibody binding was dependent on peptide length; thus, a 61-residue peptide spanning amino acids 215 to 275 of the F 1 subunit (peptide F215-275) reacted with more antibodies than a shorter (41-residue) peptide F235-275, and this one with more than the (21-residue) peptide F255-275. Most human convalescent sera contained antibodies that reacted with peptides F215275 and F235-275 but failed to react with F255-275. The results of antibody binding could be related to the structure adopted by the peptides in solution, as determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy and susceptibility of peptides to trypsin digestion. Pretreatment of peptide F215-275 with SDS abolished reactivity with certain MAbs, supporting the notion that higher order structures were needed for antibody binding. High titre anti-peptide antisera were induced in rabbits inoculated with the peptides; however, these sera failed to react with the native F molecule. In mice, only the largest F215-275 peptide induced an anti-peptide response, but their sera reacted poorly with the native F protein and the animals were not protected against an RS virus challenge. These results illustrate the potential use of synthetic peptides in studies of the F protein physical and antigenic structures as well as the problems in designing synthetic RS virus vaccines.
Optimal Selection and Effort in a Fishery on a Stock with Cannibalistic Behaviour : The Case of the Northeast Arctic Cod Fisheries

This article is part of Arne Eide's doctoral thesis, which is available in Munin at http://hdl.handle. net/10037/2399 This is a manuscript version of the article. Published version is available at http://dx.doi. org/10.3923/jfas.2010. 454.468
Megalake Chad impact on climate and vegetation during the late Pliocene and the mid-Holocene

Abstract. Given the growing evidence for megalakes in the geological record, assessing their impact on climate and vegetation is important for the validation of palaeoclimate simulations and therefore the accuracy of model–data comparison in lacustrine environments. Megalake Chad (MLC) occurrences are documented not only for the mid-Holocene but also for the Mio-Pliocene (Schuster et al., 2009). At this time, the surface covered by water would have reached up to ~350 000 km2 (Ghienne et al., 2002; Schuster et al., 2005; Leblanc et al., 2006), making it an important evaporation source, possibly modifying climate and vegetation in the Chad Basin. We investigated the impact of such a giant continental water area in two different climatic backgrounds within the Paleoclimate Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (PMIP3): the late Pliocene (3.3 to 3 Ma, i.e. the mid-Piacenzian warm period) and the mid-Holocene (6 kyr BP). In all simulations including MLC, precipitation is drastically reduced above the lake surface because deep convection is inhibited by overlying colder air. Meanwhile, convective activity is enhanced around MLC because of the wind increase generated by the flat surface of the megalake, transporting colder and moister air towards the eastern shore of the lake. The effect of MLC on precipitation and temperature is not sufficient to widely impact vegetation patterns. Nevertheless, tropical savanna is present in the Chad Basin in all climatic configurations, even without MLC presence, showing that the climate itself is the driver of favourable environments for sustainable hominid habitats.
Conservation Ecology: Assessing Extinction Risk: Integrating Genetic Information

Risks of population extinction have been estimated using a variety of methods incorporating information from different spatial and temporal scales. We briefly consider how several broad classes of extinction risk assessments, including population viability analysis, incidence functions, and ranking methods integrate information on different temporal and spatial scales. In many circumstances, data from surveys of neutral genetic variability within, and among, populations can provide information useful for assessing extinction risk. Patterns of genetic variability resulting from past and present ecological and demographic events, can indicate risks of extinction that are otherwise difficult to infer from ecological and demographic analyses alone. We provide examples of how patterns of neutral genetic variability, both within, and among populations, can be used to corroborate and complement extinction risk assessments.
Phylogeographical analysis of two cold‐tolerant plants with disjunct Lusitanian distributions does not support in situ survival during the last glaciation

We used a combination of modelling and genetic approaches to investigate whether Pinguicula grandiflora and Saxifraga spathularis, two species that exhibit disjunct Lusitanian distributions, may have persisted through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, c. 21 ka) in separate northern and southern refugia.
Decentralized Power Management for Electrical Power Systems in More Electric Aircrafts

In order to implement reliable and flexible power management among energy sources, a decentralized power management approach for electrical power systems (EPSs) in the more electric aircraft (MEA) is studied. Considering the increased use of electrical power for various functions, the performance of MEA would be determined by the design and operation of the EPS. By using a virtual impedance that includes both a resistive term and an inductive term, autonomous power sharing is realized. Because of the frequency dependence in the virtual impedance, different power sharing ratios between steady state and transient state can be considered. Not only the operation of various power sources is coordinated without supervision of a centralized controller, but also the operation profile of each source can be adjusted to meet output characteristics of each source. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a series of simulations that consider various virtual impedance configurations were conducted. The proposed approach contributes to a higher level of operational flexibility, while enabling reliable and cost-effective management of MEAs.
Lesions of retrosplenial cortex spare immediate-early gene activity in related limbic regions in the rat

The retrosplenial cortex forms part of a network of cortical and subcortical structures that have particular importance for spatial learning and navigation in rodents. This study examined how retrosplenial lesions affect activity in this network by visualising the expression of the immediate-early genes c-fos and zif268 after exposure to a novel location. Groups of rats with extensive cytotoxic lesions (areas 29 and 30) and rats with lesions largely confined to area 30 (dysgranular cortex) were compared with their respective control animals for levels of c-fos expression measured by immunohistochemistry. These cortical lesions had very limited effects on distal c-fos activity. Evidence of a restricted reduction in c-fos activity was seen in the septal dentate gyrus (superior blade) but not in other hippocampal and parahippocampal subareas, nor in the anterior cingulate and prelimbic cortices. Related studies examined zif268 activity in those cases with combined area 29 and 30 lesions. The only clear evidence for reduced zif268 activity following retrosplenial cell loss came from the septal CA3 area. The confined impact of retrosplenial tissue loss is notable as, by the same immediate-early gene measures, retrosplenial cortex is itself highly sensitive to damage in related limbic areas, showing a marked c-fos and zif268 hypoactivity across all of its subareas. This asymmetry in covert pathology may help to explain the apparent disparity between the severity of learning deficits after retrosplenial cortex lesions and after lesions in either the hippocampus or the anterior thalamic nuclei.
Optimal choice of state tomography quorum formed by projection operators

A minimal set of measurement operators for quantum state tomography has in the non-degenerate case ideally eigenbases which are mutually unbiased. This is different for the degenerate case. Here, we consider the situation where the measurement operators are projections on individual pure quantum states. This corresponds to maximal degeneracy. We present numerically optimized sets of projectors and find that they significantly outperform those which are taken from a set of mutually unbiased bases.
The Nature of Emotional Expression in Social Media : Measurement , Inference and Utility

Today, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook enable in-the-moment reflection of people's attitudes, attention, and emotions in a scale that was never available before. In this paper, we present and explore how we can measure, infer and utilize expression of human moods from social media activity (e.g., Twitter). Motivated by literature in psychology, we first measure more than 200 nuanced human moods at scale on Twitter, through a popular representation, known as the ‘circumplex model’ that characterizes affective experience through two dimensions: valence and activation. Second, moving beyond explicit mood signals, we develop an automated classifier to infer several human affective states in social media. Starting with moods, we derive naturalistic signals from Twitter posts about a variety of affects of individuals and deploy them in a classification framework with promising results. Finally, we illustrate the utility of emotion exploration in social media via a case study that tracks behavioral change of new mothers post child-birth. Our findings provide at-scale naturalistic assessments and extensions of existing conceptualizations of human mood, as well as indicate their utility in domains of societal interest, such as public health. Author
Overconfidence and the Attainment of Status in Groups

Individuals who occupy positions of high status and authority tend to engage in overconfidence more than others. While prior work suggests that this excessive overconfidence is partly a product of their elevated status, the current research tested whether overconfidence can also lead to status: Are individuals with overly positive self-perceptions of ability more likely to attain status in the first place? Three studies of task-focused dyads and groups involving laboratory and field settings found support for this hypothesis. Further, the relation between overconfidence and status was consistently mediated by peer-perceived competence: overconfident individuals attained status because others inaccurately perceived them as more competent. An experimental manipulation established the causal priority of overconfidence, and a longitudinal study found the effects of overconfidence endured over time. This research contributes to our understanding of status distribution systems in groups and organizations, the consequences of overconfidence, and the psychology of status.
The Effect of the Main Workload for Leisure TimeLecturer through the Take Home Pay in Makassar

This research is intended to know how much the influence of the main workload the items on leisure time, either directly or indirectly through a take home pay of lecturers in Makassar Indonesia. The data used are primary data obtained by the respondent lecturers. The unit of analysis is a cross section of 100 lecturers in Makassar Indonesia. The method of analysis employed is a method of estimation of simultaneous equations. The research findings indicate that the principal the main workload has negative and significant effect of on leisure time being if the main workload of goods through the take home pays towards leisure time and significant positive effect.
Thermal Properties Of Chitin Whiskers Reinforced Poly(Acrylic Acid)

Thermal analysis(TGA) of samples of Chitin, PAA and Chitin-PAA complexes, containing different weight fractions of chitin whiskers were investigated. The activation energies (Ea) and other kinematic parameters; ΔS, ΔH, and ΔG for the filler, matrix and blend were calculated using the Coats and Redfern, Broido and Horowitz and Metzger methods at the second and third stages of decomposition. The study showed that the kinetic parameters for the composites lie between the matrix and the filler. At each filler loading level, the activation energies, changes in enthalpies, entropies and Gibbs functions obtained using all three methods are comparable for the second region of decomposition. The pattern is such that the value of these energy parameters gradually decreased as filler loading decreases. The gradual increase in activation energy as filler increases is attributed to even dispersion of the whiskers and interfacial adhesion between the matrix and the chitin whiskers. decomposition steps for NaCMC are less than those of PVA and the blend samples. In the same vain the values of E, ΔS, ΔH, and ΔG in the first decomposition step were less than those of the second decomposition step in the filler, the matrix and the blend. Using the modified Dharwadhar and Kharkhanawala's equation to determine the thermodynamic parameters of PAA, PVP, PAA-PVP complexes, at different weight fractions of PAA, Moharram and Khafagi, (2006) report shows that the activation energies for decarboxylation reaction, anhydride formation and thermal degradation of polyacrylic anhydride were 0.70, 1.06 and 3.97 kcal/mol respectively. In this work the Coats and Redfern, Broido and Horowitz and Metzger methods are employed to evaluate the kinetic parameters for chitin, PAA and chitin whiskers reinforced PAA at the second and third stages of thermal degradation.
Process based model sheds light on climate signal of mediterranean tree rings

We would like to thank you for your suggestions and comments. We believe your comments and suggestions will improve and enhance our manuscript. In the paper we demonstrate the use of a process-based tree-growth model, the VS-model, for ecophysiological research in Mediterranean environments. The results are encouraging in adequate simulation of integral tree-ring growth in the sample application. Most of published papers concerning the VS model using are devoted to simulation of tree-ring growth in boreal zones. Our paper goes beyond this in demonstrating the potential of the model for semiarid regions of the Mediterranean. Authors’ response to specific comments: C5482
Implementing a Secured E-Payment Authorisation System Using Two-Factor Authentication (T-FA)

Most of the current payment methods that can be used in conducting transactions on the Internet have major drawbacks either in terms of functionality, usability, costs or security. The only widely accepted way of securely and reliably authorizing electronic payment transactions is through the use of digital signatures in a public key infrastructure (PKI) framework which is computationally expensive. This paper presents an electronic payment(E-Payment) authorization system where two factor authentication (T-FA) was utilized for the authorization of payment transactions. The description approach is based on UML notation ,the functional processes are presented as use cases, the classes that make up the system structures were presented and the system was implemented on java technology with MS ASP for the web presentation and MS SQL for the DBMS. The system enables securely authorizing payment transactions using the Internet channel. Keyword:E-Payment, E-payment Security, E-payment System, PKI, T-FA.
Influence of both media carbon source and strains variety on the Biofilms formation ability by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The ability of biofilms formation was studied by utilizing fifty Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from both environmental and hospital samples. The support utilized for strains fixation was in polystyrene and contained two liquid media: Luria-Bertani and Mineral Medium supplemented with Hexadecane as the sole source of carbon and energy. The results obtained showed that the Bioﬁlms-forming ability depend on both media carbon source and the P. aeruginosa strain variety. When the carbon source is hard to degrade or toxic, like hexadecane or derived substrates, the formed biofilms presented a high density; however, when the carbon is easy to degrade by the strains; like that one of L.B medium, the formed biofilms have a slight density. Furthermore, this density is also influenced by the strains although they belonged to the same species; at this purpose, the ERIC - PCR analysis, showed that P. aeruginosa strains studied are various because their profil ERIC present a percentage of similarity which not exceeds 60%.
Application of Decision-making Support, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Computational Linguistics Methods during Detection of Information Operations

The paper describes application of decision-making support, nonlinear dynamics, and computational linguistics methods to detection of information operations. The term information operation denotes a complex of information measures meant to change public opinion about a certain object or process. Dynamics of the number of publications about the target object during a given period is represented as a time series. In order to define peculiar features of such series we are using Morlet and “Mexican Hat” wavelets. Besides that, we check the correlation between the time series and the respective information operation template. In addition to the listed approaches, we are also using ΔL-method based on Detrended Fluctuation Analysis. Linguistic analysis of publications on the target object is another important aspect of information operations detection. Using sentiment analysis, the emotional coloring of these publications texts is determined. For detection of sub-topics related to the basic topic, a collection of publications is used as text corpus, to which TF-IDF and visibility graphs approaches are applied for determination of keywords. The keywords defined in this way are used for clarification of queries in content-monitoring systems. Decision-making support system tools are used for decomposition of information operation topics and evaluation of efficiency rating of these topics in dynamics. During information operation topics decomposition, knowledge obtained from expert group is used. As a result of decomposition, the goal hierarchy graph of information operation topics is built. Based on this graph, recommendations for decision-makers are produced (using the method of target-oriented dynamic evaluation of alternatives) in the form of dynamic efficiency ratings of information operation topics. The recommendations produced in this way are used to evaluate the damage caused by the information operation, as well as to form the information counteractions. A concept of the information-analytical system for the detection of information operations is proposed.