Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Potential of Temporary Immersion Bioreactors (TIBs) in Meeting Crop Production Demand in Nigeria

Micropropagation, popularly known for large-scale clonal propagation, is the first major and widely accepted practical application of plant biotechnology. The commercial utility of conventional micropropagation of important crop species is limited as a result of the large numbers needed annually to start up new farms in addition to high production costs. These result primarily from high labour cost, low multiplication rate or long duration of multiplication before plantlets are taken to the field , and poor survival rates resulting from contamination risks and during acclimatization. All of these constitute a major setback in the use of Micropropagation for scaling up of the several economic species for commercialization. Temporary Immersion Bioreactor system (TIBs) is a relatively recent micropropagation procedure that employs the use of automated gadgets to control rapid multiplication of plant cultures under adequate conditions. TIBs provide a more precise control of the adequate conditions (gaseous exchange, illumination etc.) required by plants for growth, development and survival than the conventional culture vessels. This bioreactor system incorporates a number of features specifically designed to simplify its operation and reduce production costs. The set-up consists of two vessels, one for the plantlets and the other one for the liquid culture media coupled together through a perforated rubber tubing that permits the flow of the liquid media from one vessel to the other. TIBs consist of three main phases: Multiplication, Elongation and Rooting phase. Plantlets propagated in TIBs have better performance than those propagated by conventional methods of micropropagation. This is as a result of a better handling of the in vitro atmosphere and the nutrition. TIBs provide a rapid and efficient plant propagation system for many agricultural and forestry species, utilizing liquid media to avoid intensive manual handling. In addition to diminishing production costs regarding labour force, Temporary Immersion Bioreactors save energy, augment micropropagation productivity and efficiency.
A role for CD 44 in atherosclerosis ? Studies in mice and humans

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease that can lead to clinical complications such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Expressed in both vascular and inflammatory cells, adhesion molecule CD44 can be cleaved from the cell surface, and soluble CD44 can be detected in blood. CD44 mediates many inflammatory events, some possibly critical for atherogenesis. However, the role of CD44 in atherosclerosis remains incompletely understood. Therefore, this thesis aimed to investigate the role of CD44 in atherogenesis. No association between soluble CD44 in serum and atherosclerosis, cardiovascular risk factors, and diabetes was determined, suggesting that soluble CD44 is not a suitable biomarker for atherosclerosis. In contrast, macrophages from patients with subclinical atherosclerosis showed enhanced levels of CD44 compared to healthy controls. CD44 expression associated with increased interleukin-6 secretion, and macrophages treated with interleukin-6 exhibited augmented CD44 expression. To further examine the potential role of CD44 in atherosclerosis in vivo, low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient (LDLr) mice with or without CD44 expression were used. A bone marrow transplantation in LDLr mice to obtain a mouse model with CD44-deficiency on bone marrow-derived cells was also performed. Surprisingly, and in contrast to published data on CD44 in apolipoprotein-deficient mice, CD44-deficiency in LDLr mice resulted in no or very modest reduction of lesion development. However, both mast cells and T cells, two cell types involved in lesion instability and rupture, decreased due to CD44-deficiency in advanced lesions. Furthermore, altered CD44 expression may influence the extrinsic coagulation cascade and therefore may affect thrombus formation. Taken together, CD44 expression increased in macrophages from subjects with atherosclerosis. However, its soluble counterpart did not associate with subclinical atherosclerosis and did not hold promise as potential biomarker. Since altered CD44 expression affects cell composition, it may contribute to lesion stability.
Geographic Load Balanced Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Recently the application domains of wireless sensor networks have grown exponentially. Traditional routing algorithm generates traffic related to route discovery to destination. Geographic routing algorithms exploit location information well but the problem of congestion and collision throttle its full employment for resource constrained wireless sensor networks. In this paper we present a Geographic Load Balanced Routing (GLBR), explores a technique Load balancing for WSNs which can be a viable solution to the challenges of geographic routing. Load balancing can be realized through two approaches. GLBR defines parameters based on communication overhead at sensor nodes and wireless link status through which load can be balanced across whole network. GLBR approach exploits the existing Geographic Routing approach i.e. Greedy forwarding by considering not only the distance between next hop and destination as single parameter for packet forwarding but also consider overhead at node. When load at a node is high GLBR looks for an alternate option for packet forwarding. Thus GLBR divert traffic to obviate congestion and hence avoid disconnections in the network.
Use of a Nebulizer to Deliver High Frequency High Flow with a Nasal Cannula

The Vortan Percussive NEBTM (P-NEB) is a compact single patient, multiple use and disposable high frequency percussive nebulizer intended for the clearance of endobronchial secretions in adult patients. According to the manufacturer’s specification, “During exhalation the pneumatic capacitor and pulmonary modulator cycle to deliver high frequency (typically 11-30Hz) pressure bursts to provide an effective intrapulmonary percussion treatment. ” According to the product user guide, “the high frequency pressure bursts are identical to those delivered by a high frequency ventilator. ” There no studies to support whether this device could be used to provide high frequency ventilation for infants. We demonstrated the potential for HFV using this device previously [1], but noted that the PEEP levels produced may be insufficient to support its use in situations greater PEEP greater than 6cm H2O. We hypothesized that P-NEB produced adequate flow to use as a high frequency nasal cannula ((HF)2NC) for infants. Methods
Impacts of restricted feeding and realimentation on bone development and plasma concentrations of bone-specific biomarkers in lambs

Livestock enterprises in Saudi Arabia are likely to depend almost entirely on imported feed ingredients. To mitigate the increasing costs of feeds and to make lamb production profitable, efforts have started to create possible strategies to reduce the costs of production through the phases of feed restriction and realimentation without compromising future growth performance. Several studies have reported the impact of different levels of feed restriction on body weight (Abouheif et al., 2013; Sami et al., 2013), but attention has hardly been paid to bone growth, despite the intimate association of ABSTRACT. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of feed restriction levels followed by realimentation on long bone growth and concentrations of growth hormone, osteocalcin, bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (ALP), calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) in plasma. Thirty-six Najdi ram lambs weighing 30.1 ± 0.3 kg were randomly allotted to one of three feeding regimens. The first group was fed ad libitum throughout the trial (AD group). Other groups were subjected to 5-week feed restriction at either 0.75 or 0.60 of ad libitum intake (0.75AD and 0.60AD groups, respectively). Following the restriction period, lambs were returned to ad libitum feeding (realimentation) for 7 weeks. Feed restriction suppressed (P < 0.01) the growth of bone lengths in proportion to the restriction level. After the realimentation, bone lengths of animals from either 0.75AD or 0.60AD groups did not recover to the lengths of AD group. Plasma concentrations of inorganic P and osteocalcin decreased (P < 0.01) as the level of feed restriction increased. Concentration of plasma bone-specific ALP increased (P < 0.01) by 39.6 and 72.7% in 0.75AD and 0.60AD groups, respectively. After 4 weeks of realimentation, plasma concentrations of osteocalcin, ALP and P did not differ between all groups. The ulna, humerus and femur linear lengths were directly correlated with the level of osteocalcin and P; however, they showed a negative correlation with the level of ALP. Therefore, plasma concentration of P, osteocalcin and ALP appeared to be suitable bone markers for detecting changes in bone length due to variation in feed restriction levels. Received: 15 July 2014 Revised: 11 January 2017 Accepted: 1 June 2017
Parallel Performance Analysis of Two Infrastructure Frameworks for GMI Chemistry

A generalized Chemistry Transport Model (CTM) named the Goddard Earth Observing System CTM (GEOS CTM), developed to facilitate the integration of several Chemistry modules within a single code base [3], will be evaluated here in terms of computational performance. GEOS CTM was designed to leverage the infrastructure development of the GEOS General Circulation Model (GCM) and the GEOS Chemisty Climate Model (CCM) [5]. It relies on the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) [2] and includes the advection only segment (AdvCore) of the Putman and Lin dynamical core [6] based on a cubed-sphere grid and as well as a software component (called ExtData) that has the ability to read external files at any resolution (horizontal and temporal) and from any source (as long as the data are on a latitudelongitude grid). In particular, the GEOS CTM experiments to be discussed here are configured to run with the software components that comprise the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) CTM (Emission, Deposition, Diffusion, Convection and Chemistry). GMI has been in general use in the community for a long time [1], and is driven by a multi-dimensional flux form semiLagrangian advection scheme (named LL-TpCore) [4] on a latitude-longitude grid. The use of such a grid formulation has shown some limitations at high spatial resolutions and with increasing number of transported tracers in GMI. The GMI configuration of GEOS CTM (that we now refer to as GEOS CTM) contains the components (Emission, Deposition, Diffusion, Convection and Chemistry) that originated in GMI. GMI has 124 tracers (of which 69 are advected), whereas GEOS CTM has 122 tracers (72 of which are advected). GEOS CTM has fewer tracers because the GMI Chemistry is also used in the GEOS CCM which does not require the full set of tracers (as in GMI). Overall, GMI and GEOS CTM share 121 identical tracers and associated chemical reactions. We carry out a series of one-day numerical integrations of GMI (at 1◦×1.25◦horizontal resolution or 288×181 grid points) and GEOS CTM (at C90 horizontal resolution or 90×90×6 grid points) to analyze the parallel performance of both implementations. We are interested in comparing the computational speed of GEOS CTM with respect to GMI and in particular the performance of their most computationally intensive components. All the experiments described here were performed on Intel Xeon Haswell processor nodes where each node has 28 cores (2.6 GHz each) and 128 Gb of available memory. In Figure 1, we plot the total wall clock times for both models as the number of processors varies. The integration with GEOS CTM is faster than that of GMI, and the wall clock time steadily decreases as the number of processors increases. If we examine the distribution of the
Letting the briber go free : an experiment on mitigating harassment bribes

This paper examines the effectiveness of using asymmetric liability to combat harassment bribes. Basu (2011) advocates legal immunity for bribe-givers, while retaining culpability for bribe-takers. Results from our experiment indicate that while this policy has the potential to significantly reduce corrupt practices, weak economic incentives for the bribe-giver, or retaliation by bribe-takers can mitigate the positive disciplining effect of such an implementation. As a result, asymmetric liability on its own may face challenges in the field.
Structural Determinants of the Total Loans Volume in the Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to analyze the structural determinants of the total loans volume in the Czech banking sector. Analysis of five selected characteristics is realized in period 2000-2008. It used the OLS regression analysis for estimate of model. The regression analysis showed that the concentration of the credit market and the profitability calculated as the return on assets (ROA) has positive impact to total loans and the quality of portfolio has negative impact to total loans. If the share of classified loans to total loans is decreasing, total loans volume is rising and if concentration ratio of the credit market and return of assets are rising, total loans volume is also rising.
New Record of “Bathymodiolus” Mauritanicus Cosel 2002 from the Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic) Mud Volcanoes

Abstract The “Bathymodiolus” childressi group is the most geographically diverse assemblage of deep-sea mussel species. In this paper we consider several possible hypotheses to explain the present biogeographic distribution of the “B. ” childressi species complex. Mussels were collected for the first time from mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic Ocean) during the training through research (TTR) 16 research expedition in 2006. Preliminary observations of the shell features indicate that they belong to the “B. ” childressi species complex, which has been recognized as morphologically and genetically distinct from other Bathymodiolus species. Molecular analyses of two mitochondrial genes (COI-5 and ND4) were used to characterize the new mussel population from the Gulf of Cadiz (GOC) and to determine their phylogenetic relationships with other members of the “B. ” childressi group. The results indicate that the GOC mussels are conspecific with “Bathymodiolus” mauritanicus Cosel (2002), described from West Africa margin, and support a previous hypothesis that “B. ” mauritanicus is an amphi-Atlantic species
Heterogeneous Variances in Multi-Environment Yield Trials for Corn Hybrids

Recent developments in statistics and comput- ing have enabled much greater levels of com- plexity in statistical models of multi-environ- ment yield trial data. One particular feature of interest to breeders is simultaneously modeling heterogeneity of variances among environments and hybrids. Our objective was to estimate the level of heterogeneity of genotype by environ- ment interaction variance and error variance in the Iowa Crop Performance Test for Corn. A Bayesian approach was used to estimate vari- ance components in a hierarchical model that allows for heterogeneous error and genotype- by-environment interaction (GEI) variances applied to corn yield data from the Iowa Crop Performance Test performed between 1995 and 2005. An average of 508 hybrids were tested per year with very little overlap between locations and years, which resulted in a very unbalanced data set. We divided the data into 16 subsets to study the effect of variability across locations and years. We found GEI and error variances to be heterogeneous among both environments and genotypes. Our results for corn contrasted previous work on oat (Avena sativa L.) in which very little heterogeneity was found for error vari- ance among cultivars suggesting that different corn (Zea mays L.) hybrids can have different genotype by environment interaction variances and different error variances.
Met raad en daad : de geschiedenis van de Gezondheidsraad 1902-1985

textabstractDeze studie beeft onder meer tot doel na te gaan in hoeverre de (Centrale) Gezondheidsraad invloed op het beleid beeft uitgeoefend. Belangrijk onderzoeksmateriaal voor beantwoording van deze vraag zijn de Handelingen der Staten-Generaal, die voor aile besproken onderwerpen geraadpleegd zijn. Tot slot vormden medische tijdschriften en secundaire literatuur een bron van informatie, waardoor de adviezen die door de (Centrale) Gezondheidsraad in de loop van negen decennia zijn uitgebracht in een breder perspectief konden worden geplaatst.
A Dual Condition for the Convex Subdifferential Sum Formula with Applications

In this paper we present a simple dual condition for the convex subdifferential sum formula. We show that if f and g : X → R ∪ {+∞} are proper lower semi-continuous convex functions then ∂(f + g)(x) = ∂f(x) + ∂g(x), for each x ∈ dom f ∩ dom g, whenever Epi f ∗ + Epi g∗ is weak ∗ closed, where Epi f ∗ denotes the epigraph of the conjugate function f ∗ of f. This dual closure condition, which is shown to be weaker than the well known primal interior point like conditions, is completely characterized by the subdifferential sum formula in the case where f and g are sublinear. It also provides a simple global condition for the strong conical hull intersection property (CHIP), which is a key regularity condition in the study of constrained interpolation and approximation problems. The subdifferential sum formula is then used to derive necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for a general cone-constrained convex optimization problem under a much weaker dual constraint qualification, and to obtain a generalized Clarke-Ekeland dual least action principle.
Assessment of cytogenetic damages on human peripheral lymphocytes following gamma rays local cutaneous exposures.

Received: Revised: Accepted: April 19, 2013 June 17, 2013 July 28, 2013 The purpose of this paper is to establish the cytogenetic analyses of human peripheral blood samples caused by simulation of partial-body exposures. Either accidental or occupational partial-body exposure to ionizing radiation poses significant health hazards that are indicated by induction of chromosome aberrations (CA). The percentages of mixtures of blood samples irradiated in vitro with 2 Gy of gamma rays were 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100.0%. Lymphocytes were cultured for 48 hr, harvested with standard procedures and then first-division metaphase cells were analyzed. It showed that the frequencies of unstable CA depend on the proportion of the irradiated blood. All frequencies of the observed CA was lower than that of predicted or calculated from 100% exposed blood, except in one case, indicating a phenomenon of “dilution” of the un-irradiated into irradiated lymphocytes that may take place a bystander effects. Our data showed that the quantification of CA in human peripheral blood lymphocytes may be an important tool of dose assessment for partial-body exposure to ionizing radiation. ©2013 PVJ. All rights reserved
Clustering Uncertain Graphs with Node Attributes

Graph clustering has attracted much attention in recent years, which has wide applications in social and biological networks. Recent approaches on graph clustering mainly focus on either certain graphs with node attributes or uncertain graphs without node attributes. However, many real-world graphs have both uncertainty on the edges and attributes on the nodes. We refer to such networks as attributed uncertain graphs. Different from conventional graphs, attributed uncertain graphs post two major challenges for graph clustering: 1) uncertainty on the edges, which makes it difficult to extract reliable clusters; 2) high dimensional attributes on the nodes, which contain irrelevant and noisy information. In this paper, we study the problem of node clustering on attributed uncertain graphs, where we exploit both the uncertain edges and a set of important attributes for graph clustering. The uncertain edges can help identify the set of relevant attributes in the nodes, which are called focus attributes. While the focus attributes can help reduce the uncertainty in edges for graph clustering. We propose two novel approaches: AUG-I based upon integrated attribute induced graphs and AUG-U based upon the unified partition over possible worlds of a uncertain graph. Extensive empirical studies on real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches for clustering tasks on attributed uncertain graphs.
Exploring Flow Theory in TOEFL Texts: Expository and Argumentative Genre

The present study attempts to examine optimal experience of test takers in Expository and Argumentative Genres of TOEFL texts. Flow theory was originally used by Csikszentmihalyi in 1970 to represent “optimal experience” that is characterized by intense focus, control, interest and skill challenge balance which leads to enhanced performance on a task, and provides the basis for peak performance. Different researchers have examined Flow in different fields of studies as sports, music and surgery but there has been less attention toward International proficiency tests like TOEFL. This study tries to examine the role of genre which creates more flow in text readers of TOEFL. So, two different texts from a TOEFL actual test with different genres were chosen. Then, 33 participants who were MA English students were asked to read the texts and fill out the Flow perception Questionnaire (Egbert, 2003) in the Likert format to report their perceptions of flow. By calculating mean of both texts, it was indicated that the Expository genre creates more flow in readers. In addition, to get more information, two participants were interviewed to shed more lights into findings.
Sonic anemometry of planetary atmospheres

[1] The application of a recently developed model of sonic anemometers measuring process has revealed that these sensors cannot be considered as absolute ones when measuring spectral characteristics of turbulent wind speed since it is demonstrated that the ratios of measured to real spectral density functions depend on the composition and temperature of the considered planetary atmosphere. The new model of the measuring process of sonic anemometers is applied to describe the measuring characteristics of these sensors as fluid/flow dependent (against the traditional hypothesis of fluid/flow independence) and hence dependent on the considered planetary atmosphere. The influence of fluid and flow characteristics (quantified via the Mach number of the flow) and the influence of the design parameters of sonic anemometers (mainly represented by time delay between pulses shots and geometry) on turbulence measurement are quantified for the atmospheres of Mars, Jupiter, and Earth. Important differences between the behavior of these sensors for the same averaged wind speed in the three considered atmospheres are detected in terms of characteristics of turbulence measurement as well as in terms of optimum values of anemometer design parameters for application on the different considered planetary atmospheres. These differences cannot be detected by traditional models of sonic anemometer measuring process based on line averaging along the sonic acoustic paths.