Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biomonitoring of arsenic in woodworkers exposed to CCA and evaluation of other non-occupational sources in Uruguay

Abstract In Uruguay wood-impregnation plants use chromated copper arsenate (CCA) as preservative applying good manufacture practices (GMP). This study aims a retrospective evaluation of toxicologically relevant species levels in CCA exposed woodworker’s urine (As-U) and an assessment of the effects of work risk factors and non-occupational sources in As-U of workers from a selected plant. From 2014 to 2016, As-U in 212 urine samples (As-U) of 73 woodworkers from six CCA impregnation plants were determined. In one of these plants, 35 workers were interviewed to obtain individual data of work tasks, lifestyles, diet, habits, etc. that may contribute to their overall exposure to Arsenic. Responses were statistically evaluated. Out of the 212 urine samples from 73 woodworkers, 96% showed lower levels of As-U than those established by health regulations (<35μgL−1). According to their work tasks 34% of 35 surveyed workers showed high exposure risk to As and 29% moderate exposure risk. Although they have lower levels of As-U owing to their personal protective equipment, As-U significantly correlate to work risk factors. Consumption of bottled water could also contribute to As-U levels as a non-occupational source. These results confirm that efforts of Uruguayan authorities to promote GMP were successful and justify the importance and frequency of As-U systematic biomonitoring for occupational risk assessment. A significant accomplishment of this work is that non-occupational sources of As-like bottled water consumption should also be considered in future studies.
IoT based Electrical Energy Consumption Monitoring System Prototype: Case study in G4 Building Universitas Negeri Malang

Energy monitoring system becomes an important subject to provide information of electricity usage for the users. Moreover, with rapid development in information technology, especially IoT, it is possible to establish better energy monitoring system by providing real-time consumption data. In this paper, IoT based Electrical Energy Consumption Monitoring System Prototype for G4 Building Universitas Negeri Malang is developed. Real-time measurement of the energy consumption utilizes current and voltage sensors for each wiring phase of the building electrical panel. For the IoT system, data is processed and displayed in Web-based system using Public Subscribe method. This prototype is implemented during work-hours and achieving 95.5% accuracy based on the electrical data of the G4 Building.
Spirotetramat Resistance Selected in the Phenacoccus solenopsis (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae): Cross-Resistance Patterns, Stability, and Fitness Costs Analysis

Abstract The Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) is a major agricultural and horticultural pest of crops throughout the world. To develop a better resistance management strategy for P. solenopsis, we conducted a study on life history parameters of different populations of this pest, one selected with spirotetramat (Spiro-SEL), an unselected (UNSEL) population, and their reciprocal crosses. We also studied the cross-resistance and the stability of spirotetramat resistance. The Spiro-SEL of P. solenopsis exhibited a 328.69-fold resistance compared to the susceptible population (Lab-PK). The Spiro-SEL population also displayed a moderate level of cross-resistance to profenofos and bifenthrin and a high level of cross-resistance to abamectin. Resistance to spirotetramat in Spiro-SEL was unstable in the absence of selection. The study of life history parameters showed that there was a significant reduction in fitness parameters of Spiro-SEL population with a relative fitness value of 0.14. There was a significant decrease in survival rate, pupal weight, fecundity, egg hatching percentage, male and female generation time, intrinsic rate of population increase of males and females, biotic potential, and mean relative growth rate. It is concluded that selection with spirotetramat had marked effect on resistance development in P. solenopsis and upon removal of selection pressure spirotetramat resistance declined significantly, indicating unstable resistance. Development of resistance led to high fitness costs for the spirotetramat-selected population. Our study may provide the basic information on spirotetramat resistance and its mechanism to help develop the resistance management strategies.
Property enhancement through blending

Publisher Summary The increase in the production of synthetic fibers in the past few decades can be broadly attributed to two factors: first, lack of availability of natural fibers and second, controllable and superior properties of synthetic fibers like polyester and polyamide. These synthetic fibers have many superior properties; however, they have some negative attributes like proneness to static generation, low moisture regain, etc. In these cases, it becomes essential to blend the fibers with other suitable fibers to enhance their properties. Therefore, the common practice in the textile industry has been to use blended yarns instead of 100% single fiber yarns. Blending of fibers is also carried out in technical uses as well to enhance the properties of the final product or to reduce the cost of the product. The aspect of blending of polyester and polyamide fibers with other fibers can be considered in two different ways: one, for apparel applications and two for production of specialty products like core spun yarns and nonwovens and other related products. Blending needs to be carried out in such a way that the fibers in a blended yarn are thoroughly dispersed and intermingled. Any deficiency in proper blending of fibers results not only in poor yarn properties but also fabric defects like fabric streakiness when dyed.
Fine-tuning of Notch signaling sets the boundary of the organ of Corti and establishes sensory cell fates

The signals that induce the organ of Corti and define its boundaries in the cochlea are poorly understood. We show that two Notch modifiers, Lfng and Mfng, are transiently expressed precisely at the neural boundary of the organ of Corti. Cre-Lox fate mapping shows this region gives rise to inner hair cells and their associated inner phalangeal cells. Mutation of Lfng and Mfng disrupts this boundary, producing unexpected duplications of inner hair cells and inner phalangeal cells. This phenotype is mimicked by other mouse mutants or pharmacological treatments that lower but not abolish Notch signaling. However, strong disruption of Notch signaling causes a very different result, generating many ectopic hair cells at the expense of inner phalangeal cells. Our results show that Notch signaling is finely calibrated in the cochlea to produce precisely tuned levels of signaling that first set the boundary of the organ of Corti and later regulate hair cell development. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.19921. 001
Cool-associated Tyrosine-phosphorylated Protein 1 Is Required for the Anchorage-independent Growth of Cervical Carcinoma Cells by Binding Paxillin and Promoting AKT Activation*

Cool-associated tyrosine-phosphorylated protein 1 (Cat-1) is a signaling scaffold as well as an ADP-ribosylation factor-GTPase-activating protein. Although best known for its role in cell migration, we recently showed that the ability of Cat-1 to bind paxillin, a major constituent of focal complexes, is also essential for the anchorage-independent growth of HeLa cervical carcinoma cells. Here we set out to learn more about the underlying mechanism by which Cat-paxillin interactions mediate this effect. We show that knocking down paxillin expression in HeLa cells promotes their ability to form colonies in soft agar, whereas ectopically expressing paxillin in these cells inhibits this transformed growth phenotype. Although knocking down Cat-1 prevents HeLa cells from forming colonies in soft agar, when paxillin is knocked down together with Cat-1, the cells are again able to undergo anchorage-independent growth. These results suggest that the requirement of Cat-1 for this hallmark of cellular transformation is coupled to its ability to bind paxillin and abrogate its actions as a negative regulator of anchorage-independent growth. We further show that knocking down Cat-1 expression in HeLa cells leads to a reduction in Akt activation, which can be reversed by knocking down paxillin. Moreover, expression of constitutively active forms of Akt1 and Akt2 restores the anchorage-independent growth capability of HeLa cells depleted of Cat-1 expression. Together, these findings highlight a novel mechanism whereby interactions between Cat-1 and its binding partner paxillin are necessary to ensure sufficient Akt activation so that cancer cells are able to grow under anchorage-independent conditions.
Insensitivity to Humidity in Fabry–Perot Sensor With Multilayer Graphene Diaphragm

We developed a novel open-cavity Fabry–Perot (F–P) interferometer with multilayer graphene diaphragm suspended on the endface of a ferrule. The insensitivity to relative-humidity (RH) ranging from ~20%RH to 70%RH was investigated in terms of the wavelength shift and power change in interference spectrum, along with the balanced air pressure on both sides of the graphene membrane. The measured wavelength shift of 0.02 nm/%RH and maximum power change of 0.02 dB/%RH demonstrated the humidity-insensitive response of at least one order lower than those for previously reported F–P humidity sensors using porous hydrophilic films. Furthermore, the fitted coupled interaction between dominated temperature and minor humidity yielded a good fitting R-square of about 99.5%. These measurements could shed light on the environmental adaptability of F–P sensors using graphene or other 2-D nanomaterials.
Semi-Supervised Algorithms for Approximately Optimal and Accurate Clustering

We study $k$-means clustering in a semi-supervised setting. Given an oracle that returns whether two given points belong to the same cluster in a fixed optimal clustering, we investigate the following question: how many oracle queries are sufficient to efficiently recover a clustering that, with probability at least $(1 - \delta)$, simultaneously has a cost of at most $(1 + \epsilon)$ times the optimal cost and an accuracy of at least $(1 - \epsilon)$? We show how to achieve such a clustering on $n$ points with $O{((k^2 \log n) \cdot m{(Q, \epsilon^4, \delta / (k\log n))})}$ oracle queries, when the $k$ clusters can be learned with an $\epsilon'$ error and a failure probability $\delta'$ using $m(Q, \epsilon',\delta')$ labeled samples in the supervised setting, where $Q$ is the set of candidate cluster centers. We show that $m(Q, \epsilon', \delta')$ is small both for $k$-means instances in Euclidean space and for those in finite metric spaces. We further show that, for the Euclidean $k$-means instances, we can avoid the dependency on $n$ in the query complexity at the expense of an increased dependency on $k$: specifically, we give a slightly more involved algorithm that uses $O(k^4/(\epsilon^2 \delta) + (k^{9}/\epsilon^4) \log(1/\delta) + k \cdot m(\mathbb{R}^r, \epsilon^4/k, \delta))$ oracle queries. We also show that the number of queries needed for $(1 - \epsilon)$-accuracy in Euclidean $k$-means must linearly depend on the dimension of the underlying Euclidean space, and for finite metric space $k$-means, we show that it must at least be logarithmic in the number of candidate centers. This shows that our query complexities capture the right dependencies on the respective parameters.
A Tutorial on Expository Discourse: Structure, Development, and Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

PURPOSE With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, expository texts gain prominence at all grade levels and for all disciplines. Although the linguistic and cognitive complexities of exposition pose challenges for all children, they may create additional challenges for children and adolescents with language difficulties. Therefore, this tutorial provides background information for clinicians regarding the structure, development, and specific difficulties associated with exposition across the 4 modalities of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This background is intended to help direct the attention of researchers and clinicians to needed advances in knowledge and skill if the profession is to adequately support the population of children and adolescents who struggle with language. METHOD This tutorial is based on an extensive narrative review of articles identified using a systematic search process. Cited research studies are discussed qualitatively, but intervention studies are also characterized in terms of the strength of their research designs. This method is undertaken to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of research on these topics. CONCLUSIONS Future research needs are proposed to promote discussion among researchers and to prepare clinicians for the kinds of evidence they should be demanding as a basis for their practice.
Low oxygen eddies in the eastern tropical North Atlantic Implications for N2O cycling

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is a climate relevant trace gas, and its production in the ocean generally increases under suboxic conditions. The Atlantic Ocean is well ventilated, and unlike the major oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, dissolved oxygen and N 2 O concentrations in the Atlantic OMZ are relatively high and low, respectively. This study, however, demonstrates that recently discovered low oxygen eddies in the eastern tropical North Atlantic (ETNA) can produce N 2 O concentrations much higher (up to 115 nmol L − 1 ) than those previously reported for the Atlantic Ocean, and which are within the range of the highest concentrations found in the open-ocean OMZs of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. N 2 O isotope and isotopomer signatures, as well as molecular genetic results, also point towards a major shift in the N 2 O cycling pathway in the core of the low oxygen eddy discussed here, and we report the first evidence for potential N 2 O cycling via the denitrification pathway in the open Atlantic Ocean. Finally, we consider the implications of low oxygen eddies for bulk, upper water column N 2 O at the regional scale, and point out the possible need for a reevaluation of how we view N 2 O cycling in the ETNA.
Transitioning a unidirectional composite computer model from mesoscale to continuum

Ballistic impact on composites has been a challenging problem as seen in the abundant literature about the subject. Continuum models usually cannot properly predict deflection history on the back of the target while at the same time giving reasonable ballistic limits. According to the authors the main reason is that, while continuum models are very good at reproducing the elastic characteristics of the laminate, the models do not capture the behaviour of the “failed” material. A “failed” composite can still be very effective in stopping a projectile, because it can behave very similar to a dry woven fabric. The failure aspect is much easier to capture realistically with a mesoscale model. These models explicitly contain yarns and matrix allowing the matrix to fail while the yarns stay intact and continue to offer resistance to the projectile. This paper summarizes the work performed by the authors on the computationally expensive mesoscale models and, using them as benchmark computations, describes the first steps towards obtaining more computationally effective models that still keep the right physics of the impact.
Impaired Glucose Tolerance in Pediatric Burn Patients at Discharge From the Acute Hospital Stay

Hyperglycemia, secondary to the hypermetabolic stress response, is a common occurrence after thermal injury. This stress response has been documented to persist up to 9 months postburn. The purpose of this study was to measure insulin sensitivity in severely burned children before discharge when wounds are 95% healed. Twenty-four children, aged 4 to 17 years, with burns ≥40% TBSA underwent a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test before discharge from the acute pediatric burn unit. Plasma glucose and insulin levels as well as the Homeostasis Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMAIR) were compared with published oral glucose tolerance test data from healthy, nonburned children. There was a significant difference between severely burned children and nonburned, healthy children with respect to the HOMAIR. Severely burned children had a HOMAIR of 3.53 ± 1.62 compared with the value in nonburned, healthy children of 1.28 ± 0.16 (P < .05). Insulin resistance secondary to the hypermetabolic stress response persists in severely burned children when burn wounds are at least 95% healed. The results of this study warrant future investigations into therapeutic options for the burned child during the rehabilitative phase of their care after injury.
Major role of adipocyte prostaglandin E2 in lipolysis-induced macrophage recruitment[S]

Obesity induces accumulation of adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs), which contribute to both local and systemic inflammation and modulate insulin sensitivity. Adipocyte lipolysis during fasting and weight loss also leads to ATM accumulation, but without proinflammatory activation suggesting distinct mechanisms of ATM recruitment. We examined the possibility that specific lipid mediators with anti-inflammatory properties are released from adipocytes undergoing lipolysis to induce macrophage migration. In the present study, we showed that conditioned medium (CM) from adipocytes treated with forskolin to stimulate lipolysis can induce migration of RAW 264.7 macrophages. In addition to FFAs, lipolytic stimulation increased release of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostaglandin D2 (PGD2), reflecting cytosolic phospholipase A2 α activation and enhanced cyclooxygenase (COX) 2 expression. Reconstituted medium with the anti-inflammatory PGE2 potently induced macrophage migration while different FFAs and PGD2 had modest effects. The ability of CM to induce macrophage migration was abolished by treating adipocytes with the COX2 inhibitor sc236 or by treating macrophages with the prostaglandin E receptor 4 antagonist AH23848. In fasted mice, macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue coincided with increases of PGE2 levels and COX1 expression. Collectively, our data show that adipocyte-originated PGE2 with inflammation suppressive properties plays a significant role in mediating ATM accumulation during lipolysis.
Emotional side-effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: qualitative study.

BACKGROUND Some people who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants report that their experience of emotions is 'blunted'. This phenomenon is poorly understood. AIMS To understand patients' experiences of this phenomenon. METHOD Qualitative study, gathering data through individual interviews, a group interview and validation interviews; and searching patient websites for relevant posts. RESULTS There was strong evidence that some people taking SSRIs experience significant emotional symptoms that they strongly attribute to their antidepressant. These emotional symptoms can be described within six key themes. A seventh theme represents the impact of these side-effects on everyday life, and an eighth represents participants' reasons for attributing these symptoms to their antidepressant. Most participants felt able to distinguish between emotional side-effects of antidepressants and emotional symptoms of their depression or other illness. CONCLUSIONS Emotional side-effects of SSRIs are a robust phenomenon, prominent in some people's thoughts about their medication, having a demonstrable impact on their functioning and playing a role in their decision-making about antidepressant adherence.
Development and testing of a stepwise thaw and dilute protocol for cryopreserved umbilical cord blood units

It is clinically important to maintain high viability and potency of umbilical cord blood units (CBUs) for transplantation during thawing. In the absence of a standard thawing protocol, this study was designed to develop one based on the consensus practice of transplant centers and address the shortage of dextran 40 thawing solution.
Generalized Task-Parameterized Skill Learning

Programming by demonstration has recently gained much attention due to its user-friendly and natural way to transfer human skills to robots. In order to facilitate the learning of multiple demonstrations and meanwhile generalize to new situations, a task-parameterized Gaussian mixture model (TP-GMM) has been recently developed. This model has achieved reliable performance in areas such as human-robot collaboration and dual-arm manipulation. However, the crucial task frames and associated parameters in this learning framework are often set by the human teacher, which renders three problems that have not been addressed yet: (i) task frames are treated equally, without considering their individual importance, (ii) task parameters are defined without taking into account additional task constraints, such as robot joint limits and motion smoothness, and (iii) a fixed number of task frames are pre-defined regardless of whether some of them may be redundant or even irrelevant for the task at hand. In this paper, we generalize the task-parameterized learning by addressing the aforementioned problems. Moreover, we provide a novel learning perspective which allows the robot to refine and adapt previously learned skills in a low dimensional space. Several examples are studied in both simulated and real robotic systems, showing the applicability of our approach.
The recognition of mango varieties based on the leaves shape and texture using back propagation neural network method

At this time, the demand of Indonesian mango is in great demand by the society especially for the superior quality mango like Manalagi and Gadung. However, many people are still wrong in distinguishing mango varieties. At this moment, the identification or introduction of mango varieties is done by eye. Some people may be expert in identifying mango varieties based on leaves by eye, but not all mango varieties they can identify. Until now, there are several methods to identify mango varieties, but the accuracy got is less than 80%. In research before, the extraction feature used is either shape or texture feature of the leaf images. In this research, we use Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) by using mango leaf shape and texture feature. A Dataset used are 300 images of mango leaves consisting of 150 images of mango leaves of Manalagi varieties and 150 images of leaves Gadung. By using this method, we obtain that the most optimal BPNN model got by using hidden layer = 19, learning rate = 0.9, momentum = 0.9, and epoch = 100 with root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.0018. The accuracy rate that we obtain is 96%
Gesture and Voice-Based Natural User Interface for Electronic Whiteboard System in a Medical Emergency Department

Electronic Whiteboards are introduced in critical hospital environments, such as emergency rooms, to manage tasks developed by the multidisciplinary health team. However, the users interaction with such equipment, generally touch sensitive or by keyboard and mouse, has raised discussions about the possibility of disease transmission by hands contact. The main objective of this research was the implementation and user evaluation of a gesture and voice-based natural interaction module to the electronic whiteboard system, named SHAVI, developed for the emergency department of the University Hospital of Maringá. The use evaluation was performed with ten professionals from different health areas who work in the hospital. The evaluation method used was the observation in a controlled environment. The evaluation results has revealed the need to improve the prototype and suggest that users consider this type of interaction useful, therefore, they are interested in learning and using them.