Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AIR QUALITY MONITORING AND ON-SITE COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY ENVIRONMENT STUDIES

This article reviews the development of agricultural air quality (AAQ) research on livestock and poultry environments, summarizes various measurement and control devices and the requirements of data acquisition and control (DAC) for comprehensive AAQ studies, and introduces a new system to meet DAC and other requirements. The first experimental AAQ study was reported in 1953. Remarkable progress has been achieved in this research field during the past decades. Studies on livestock and poultry environment expanded from indoor air quality to include pollutant emissions and the subsequent health, environmental, and ecological impacts beyond the farm boundaries. The pollutants of interest included gases, particulate matter (PM), odor, volatile organic compounds (VOC), endotoxins, and microorganisms. During this period the research projects, scales, and boundaries continued to expand significantly. Studies ranged from surveys and short-term measurements to national and international collaborative projects. While much research is still conducted in laboratories and experimental facilities, a growing number of investigations have been carried out in commercial livestock and poultry farms. The development of analytical instruments and computer technologies has facilitated significant changes in the methodologies used in this field. The quantity of data obtained in a single project during AAQ research has increased exponentially, from several gas concentration samples to 2.4 billion data points. The number of measurement variables has also increased from a few to more than 300 at a single monitoring site. A variety of instruments and sensors have been used for on-line, real-time, continuous, and year-round measurements to determine baseline pollutant emissions and test mitigation technologies. New measurement strategies have been developed for multi-point sampling. These advancements in AAQ research have necessitated up-to-date systems to not only acquire data and control sampling locations, but also monitor experimental operation, communicate with researchers, and process post-acquisition signals and post-measurement data. An on-site computer system (OSCS), consisting of DAC hardware, a personal computer, and on-site AAQ research software, is needed to meet these requirements. While various AAQ studies involved similar objectives, implementation of OSCS was often quite variable among projects. Individually developed OSCSs were usually project-specific, and their development was expensive and time-consuming. A new OSCS, with custom-developed software AirDAC, written in LabVIEW, was developed with novel and user-friendly features for wide ranging AAQ research projects. It reduced system development and operational cost, increased measurement reliability and work efficiency, and enhanced quality assurance and quality control in AAQ studies.
Review of emerging contaminants in aquatic biota from Latin America: 2002–2016

Although it is known that emerging contaminants are widespread all over the globe, there is a gap of information about their distribution in some geographical areas, such as Latin America. The present bibliographic work reviews the available literature about the presence of organic emerging contaminants in Latin American freshwater and marine biota between 2002 and 2016 and includes 23 works from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua. In particular, the present review provides an overview of the occurrence of continuously present contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and pyrethroid insecticides, as well as the new groups of persistent organic pollutants, the halogenated flame retardants and the perfluoroalkyl substances. A wide overview is provided, considering not only occurrence data but also effects and potential transfer through the food chain. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:1716–1727. © 2016 SETAC
Variance in Prominence Levels and in Patterns of Passing Sequences in Elite and Youth Soccer Players: A Network Approach

Abstract The aim of this study was to quantify the prominence levels of elite and highly competitive young soccer players. This study also analyzed the variation in general network properties at different competitive levels and periods of the season. A total of 132 matches, played by 28 teams during the 2015/2016 season, were analyzed. The results revealed significant differences in the composition of general network measures considering the competitive level (p = 0.002; ES = 0.077) and according to the location of the match (p = 0.001; ES = 0.147). There were positive correlations between network density and the final score (ρ = 0.172) and negative correlations between network density and goals conceded (ρ = - 0.300). Significant differences in the composite of centralities were found between positions (p = 0.001; ES = 0.293; moderate effect) and the location of the match (p = 0.001; ES = 0.013; no effect). This revealed that the general properties of cooperation increased with the competitive level, improved during the middle of the season and were better in home matches. Midfielders were most prominent players in elite and U19 teams in the mid-season and central defenders had the most prominent centralities in U17 and U15 during the early and late periods of the season.
A Review on the Rising Prevalence of International Standards: Threats or Opportunities for the Agri-Food Produce Sector in Developing Countries, with a Focus on Examples from the MENA Region

Food safety standards are a necessity to protect consumers’ health in today’s growing global food trade. A number of studies have suggested safety standards can interrupt trade, bringing financial and technical burdens on small as well as large agri-food producers in developing countries. Other examples have shown that economical extension, key intermediaries, and funded initiatives have substantially enhanced the capacities of growers in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to meet the food safety and quality requirements, and improve their access to international markets. These endeavors often compensate for the weak regulatory framework, but do not offer a sustainable solution. There is a big gap in the food safety level and control systems between countries in the MENA region and those in the developed nations. This certainly has implications for the safety of fresh produce and agricultural practices, which hinders any progress in their international food trade. To overcome the barriers of legal and private standards, food safety should be a national priority for sustainable agricultural development in the MENA countries. Local governments have a primary role in adopting the vision for developing and facilitating the implementation of their national Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards that are consistent with the international requirements and adapted to local policies and environment. Together, the public and private sector’s support are instrumental to deliver the skills and infrastructure needed for leveraging the safety and quality level of the agri-food chain.
Micromechanical Modeling of Failure in Fiber Reinforced Intermetallic Matrix Composites

Various failure modes observed in fiber reinforced intermetallic matrix composites are analyzed by using a micromechanical analytical model based on the con sistent shear lag theory. Stress distribution is examined for a number of damage configura tions such as interface split, fiber bridging and secondary cracking. Based on the point stress failure criterion, prediction of failure mode is made for a fiber reinforced unidirec tional composite with central transverse crack and subjected to a remote uniform stress.
Tandem hidden Markov models using deep belief networks for offline handwriting recognition

Unconstrained offline handwriting recognition is a challenging task in the areas of document analysis and pattern recognition. In recent years, to sufficiently exploit the supervisory information hidden in document images, much effort has been made to integrate multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) in either a hybrid or a tandem fashion into hidden Markov models (HMMs). However, due to the weak learnability of MLPs, the learnt features are not necessarily optimal for subsequent recognition tasks. In this paper, we propose a deep architecture-based tandem approach for unconstrained offline handwriting recognition. In the proposed model, deep belief networks are adopted to learn the compact representations of sequential data, while HMMs are applied for (sub-)word recognition. We evaluate the proposed model on two publicly available datasets, i.e., RIMES and IFN/ENIT, which are based on Latin and Arabic languages respectively, and one dataset collected by ourselves called Devanagari (an Indian script). Extensive experiments show the advantage of the proposed model, especially over the MLP-HMMs tandem approaches.
The interplay of type I and type II interferons in murine autoimmune cholangitis as a basis for sex‐biased autoimmunity

We have reported on a murine model of autoimmune cholangitis, generated by altering the AU‐rich element (ARE) by deletion of the interferon gamma (IFN‐γ) 3' untranslated region (coined ARE‐Del−/−), that has striking similarities to human primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) with female predominance. Previously, we suggested that the sex bias of autoimmune cholangitis was secondary to intense and sustained type I and II IFN signaling. Based on this thesis, and to define the mechanisms that lead to portal inflammation, we specifically addressed the hypothesis that type I IFNs are the driver of this disease. To accomplish these goals, we crossed ARE‐Del−/− mice with IFN type I receptor alpha chain (Ifnar1) knockout mice. We report herein that loss of type I IFN receptor signaling in the double construct of ARE‐Del−/− Ifnar1−/− mice dramatically reduces liver pathology and abrogated sex bias. More importantly, female ARE‐Del−/− mice have an increased number of germinal center (GC) B cells as well as abnormal follicular formation, sites which have been implicated in loss of tolerance. Deletion of type I IFN signaling in ARE‐Del−/− Ifnar1−/− mice corrects these GC abnormalities, including abnormal follicular structure. Conclusion: Our data implicate type I IFN signaling as a necessary component of the sex bias of this murine model of autoimmune cholangitis. Importantly these data suggest that drugs that target the type I IFN signaling pathway would have potential benefit in the earlier stages of PBC. (Hepatology 2018;67:1408‐1419)
Mechanical tuning and amplification within the apex of the guinea pig cochlea

A popular conception of mammalian cochlear physiology is that tuned mechanical vibration of the basilar membrane defines the frequency response of the innervating auditory nerve fibres However, the data supporting these concepts come from vibratory measurements at cochlear locations tuned to high frequencies (>7 kHz). Here, we measured the travelling wave in regions of the guinea pig cochlea that respond to low frequencies (<2 kHz) and found that mechanical tuning was broad and did not match auditory nerve tuning characteristics. Non‐linear amplification of the travelling wave functioned over a broad frequency range and did not substantially sharpen frequency tuning. Thus, the neural encoding of low‐frequency sounds, which includes most of the information conveyed by human speech, is not principally determined by basilar membrane mechanics.
Improving Unsupervised Keyphrase Extraction using Background Knowledge

Keyphrase is an efficient representation of the main idea of documents. While background knowledge can provide valuable information about documents, they are rarely incorporated in keyphrase extraction methods. In this paper, we propose WikiRank, an unsupervised method for keyphrase extraction based on the background knowledge from Wikipedia. Firstly, we construct a semantic graph for the document. Then we transform the keyphrase extraction problem into an optimization problem on the graph. Finally, we get the optimal keyphrase set to be the output. Our method obtains improvements over other state-of-art models by more than 2% in F1-score.
β-Adrenergic regulation of constitutive nitric oxide synthase in cardiac myocytes.

Nitric oxide (NO) has been implicated in endogenous control of myocardial contractility. However, NO release has not yet been demonstrated in cardiac myocytes. Accordingly, endogenous NO production was measured with a porphyrinic microsensor positioned on the surface of individual neonatal or adult rat ventricular myocytes ( n > 6 neonatal and adult cells per experiment). In beating neonatal myocytes, there was no detectable spontaneous NO release with each contraction. However, norepinephrine (NE; 0.25-1 μM) elicited transient NO release from beating neonatal (149 ± 11 to 767 ± 83 nM NO) and noncontracting adult (157 ± 13 to 791 ± 89 nM NO) cells. NO was released by adrenergic agonists with the following rank order of potency: isoproterenol (β1β2) > NE (α/β1) > dobutamine (β1) ≈ epinephrine (α/β1β2) > tertbutylene (β2); NO was not released by phenylephrine (α). NE-evoked NO release was reversibly blocked by N G-monomethyl-l-arginine, trifluoperazine, guanosine 5'- O-(2-thiodiphosphate), and nifedipine but was enhanced by 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (0.5 mM = 14.5 ± 1.6%) and BAY K 8644 (10 μM = 11.9 ± 1%). NO was also released by A-23187 (10 μM = 884 ± 88 nM NO), guanosine 5'- O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (1 μM = 334 ± 56 nM NO), and dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (10-100 μM = 35 ± 9 to 284 ± 49 nM NO) but not by ATP, bradykinin, carbachol, 8-bromoguanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate, or shear stress. This first functional demonstration of a constitutive NO synthase in cardiac myocytes suggests its regulation by a β-adrenergic signaling pathway and may provide a novel mechanism for the coronary artery vasodilatation and enhanced diastolic relaxation observed with adrenergic stimulation.
Scrub typhus point-of-care testing: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Diagnosing scrub typhus clinically is difficult, hence laboratory tests play a very important role in diagnosis. As performing sophisticated laboratory tests in resource-limited settings is not feasible, accurate point-of-care testing (POCT) for scrub typhus diagnosis would be invaluable for patient diagnosis and management. Here we summarise the existing evidence on the accuracy of scrub typhus POCTs to inform clinical practitioners in resource-limited settings of their diagnostic value. Methodology/principal findings Studies on POCTs which can be feasibly deployed in primary health care or outpatient settings were included. Thirty-one studies were identified through PubMed and manual searches of reference lists. The quality of the studies was assessed with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2). About half (n = 14/31) of the included studies were of moderate quality. Meta-analysis showed the pooled sensitivity and specificity of commercially available immunochromatographic tests (ICTs) were 66.0% (95% CI 0.37–0.86) and 92.0% (95% CI 0.83–0.97), respectively. There was a significant and high degree of heterogeneity between the studies (I2 value = 97.48%, 95% CI 96.71–98.24 for sensitivity and I2 value = 98.17%, 95% CI 97.67–98.67 for specificity). Significant heterogeneity was observed for total number of samples between studies (p = 0.01), study design (whether using case-control design or not, p = 0.01), blinding during index test interpretation (p = 0.02), and QUADAS-2 score (p = 0.01). Conclusions/significance There was significant heterogeneity between the scrub typhus POCT diagnostic accuracy studies examined. Overall, the commercially available scrub typhus ICTs demonstrated better performance when ‘ruling in’ the diagnosis. There is a need for standardised methods and reporting of diagnostic accuracy to decrease between-study heterogeneity and increase comparability among study results, as well as development of an affordable and accurate antigen-based POCT to tackle the inherent weaknesses associated with serological testing.
Mean Platelet Volume as a Predictor for Restenosis After Carotid Angioplasty and Stenting

Background and Purpose— Platelet aggregation plays a vital role in the development of in-stent restenosis (ISR) after carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS). Mean platelet volume (MPV) has been suggested as an index of platelet reactivity. This study aimed to investigate the association between MPV and ISR in CAS patients. Methods— A total of 261 patients with CAS were enrolled. MPV was measured before CAS procedure. Digital subtraction angiography, computed tomographic angiography, or duplex ultrasonography was performed at 6 months and annually after the procedure. ISR was defined as ≥50% stenosis in the treated lesion. Cox regression was used to identify predictors of ISR after CAS. Results— Of the 261 patients with CAS, 46 (17.6%) were determined with ISR during a mean follow-up of 12.1±16.1 months (range, 2.1–120.7). On multivariate analysis, baseline MPV >10.1 fL (hazard ratio, 3.20; 95% confidence interval, 1.28–8.03), lesion length (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% confidence interval, 1.02–1.08), residual stenosis (hazard ratio, 1.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.05–1.10), and baseline glucose (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.00–1.02) were associated with ISR. Conclusions— Elevated MPV may be associated with ISR after CAS. Patients with high preprocedural MPV may benefit from an intensified antiplatelet therapy after CAS.
Induction of fibrogenic mediators by fine and ultrafine titanium dioxide in rat tracheal explants.

Respirable ambient particles [particulate matter <10 μm (PM10)] are associated with both acute and chronic adverse health effects including chronic airflow obstruction. PM10 can induce expression of inflammatory and fibrogenic mediators, but there is controversy about the types and/or sizes of particles involved and, in particular, whether ultrafine particles are the major toxic agents. To examine whether particle size affects mediator generation, we exposed rat tracheal explants, an inflammatory cell-free model of the airway wall, to various concentrations up to 500 μg/cm2 of fine (0.12 μm) or ultrafine (0.021 μm) titanium dioxide (anatase), maintained the explants in an organ culture in air for 1-7 days, and used RT-PCR to examine the expression of fibrogenic mediators and procollagen. No increase in gene expression was seen at 1 or 3 days, but at 5 days, ultrafine dust induced a small increase in procollagen. At 7 days, fine titanium dioxide produced significantly greater increases for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-B, transforming growth factor-α, and transforming growth factor-β compared with those by ultrafine dust; both dusts produced similar increases for PDGF-A; and ultrafine dust produced increases in procollagen expression, whereas fine dust had no effect. Expression levels were dose related. Both dusts produced a similar decrease in expression of PDGF receptor-α and a similar increase in PDGF receptor-β. These observations suggest that ultrafine particles are intrinsically able to induce procollagen expression even in the absence of inflammatory cells; that chronic exposure to PM10 may result in chronic airflow obstruction, in part because of ultrafine particle-mediated increases in airway wall fibrosis; and that chemically identical dusts of differing size can produce quite different patterns of gene expression in the airway wall. Differential upregulation of PDGF receptors does not appear to explain dust-induced fibrosis in this model.
Structure and mechanism of human PrimPol, a DNA polymerase with primase activity

Analysis of crystal structure elucidates the mechanism by which a human enzyme acts as both a primase and a DNA polymerase. PrimPol is a novel human enzyme that contains both DNA primase and DNA polymerase activities. We present the first structure of human PrimPol in ternary complex with a DNA template-primer and an incoming deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP). The ability of PrimPol to function as a DNA primase stems from a simple but remarkable feature—almost complete lack of contacts to the DNA primer strand. This, in turn, allows two dNTPs to bind initiation and elongation sites on the enzyme for the formation of the first dinucleotide. PrimPol shows the ability to synthesize DNA opposite ultraviolet (UV) lesions; however, unexpectedly, the active-site cleft of the enzyme is constrained, which precludes the bypass of UV-induced DNA lesions by conventional translesion synthesis. Together, the structure addresses long-standing questions about how DNA primases actually initiate synthesis and how primase and polymerase activities combine in a single enzyme to carry out DNA synthesis.
Estrogen reduces myogenic tone through a nitric oxide-dependent mechanism in rat cerebral arteries.

Gender differences in the incidence of stroke and migraine appear to be related to circulating levels of estrogen; however, the underlying mechanisms are not yet understood. Using resistance-sized arteries pressurized in vitro, we have found that myogenic tone of rat cerebral arteries differs between males and females. This difference appears to result from estrogen enhancement of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) production. Luminal diameter was measured in middle cerebral artery segments from males and from females that were either untreated, ovariectomized (Ovx), or ovariectomized with estrogen replacement (Ovx + Est). The maximal passive diameters (0 Ca2++ 1 mM EDTA) of arteries from all four groups were identical. In response to a series of 10-mmHg step increases in transmural pressure (20-80 mmHg), myogenic tone was greater and vascular distensibility less in arteries from males and Ovx females compared with arteries from either untreated or Ovx + Est females. In the presence of N G-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME; 1 μM), an NO synthase inhibitor, myogenic tone was increased in all arteries, but the differences among arteries from the various groups were abolished. Addition ofl-arginine (1 mM) in the presence of l-NAME restored the differences in myogenic tone, suggesting that estrogen works through an NO-dependent mechanism in cerebral arteries. To determine the target of NO-dependent modulation of myogenic tone, we used tetraethylammonium (TEA; 1 mM) to inhibit large-conductance, calcium-activated K+(BKCa) channels. In the presence of TEA, the myogenic tone of arteries from all groups increased significantly; however, myogenic tone in arteries from males and Ovx females remained significantly greater than in arteries from either untreated or Ovx + Est females. This suggests that activity of BKCa channels influences myogenic tone but does not directly mediate the effects of estrogen. Estrogen appears to alter myogenic tone by increasing cerebrovascular NO production and/or action.
Vote Buying and Social Desirability Bias: Experimental Evidence from Nicaragua

Qualitative studies of vote buying find the practice to be common in many Latin American countries, but quantitative studies using surveys find little evidence of vote buying. Social desirability bias can account for this discrepancy. We employ a survey‐based list experiment to minimize the problem. After the 2008 Nicaraguan municipal elections, we asked about vote‐buying behavior by campaigns using a list experiment and the questions traditionally used by studies of vote buying on a nationally representative survey. Our list experiment estimated that 24% of registered voters in Nicaragua were offered a gift or service in exchange for votes, whereas only 2% reported the behavior when asked directly. This detected social desirability bias is nonrandom and analysis based on traditional obtrusive measures of vote buying is unreliable. We also provide systematic evidence that shows the importance of monitoring strategies by parties in determining who is targeted for vote buying.