Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rhizospheric Bacillus subtilis Exhibits Biocontrol Effect against Rhizoctonia solani in Pepper (Capsicum annuum)

This study aimed at evaluating the ability of SL-44 to control Rhizoctonia solani and promote pepper (Capsicum annuum) growth. Strain SL-44 was isolated from plant rhizosphere and the pot experiment results indicated that the dry and fresh weights of pepper in SL-44 and Rhizoctonia solani (S-R) treatment were 45.5% and 54.2% higher than those in Rhizoctonia solani (R) treatment and 18.2% and 31.8% higher than those in CK (control, noninoculation) treatment. The plant height in S-R treatment increased by 14.2% and 9.0% compared with those in the R and CK treatments, respectively. In vitro antagonism assay showed that SL-44 exhibited strong antifungal activity against the mycelial growth of Rhizoctonia solani, with an inhibition rate of 42.3%. The amount of phosphorus dissolved by SL-44 reached 60.58 mg·L−1 in broth and 7.5 μg·mL−1 IAA were secreted by SL-44. Strain SL-44 inhibited the growth of R. solani and improved biomass of pepper plants. Mass exchange and information transmission between the pepper plants and SL-44 mutually promoted their development. Bacillus subtilis SL-44 has a great potential as biocontrol agent against Rhizoctonia solani on pepper plants.
Transdermal and Topical Delivery of Anti-inflammatory Agents Using Nanoemulsion/Microemulsion: An Updated Review

Nanoemulsions/microemulsions are thermodynamically stable transparent (translucent) isotropic dispersions of oil and water stabilized by an interfacial film of surfactant and cosurfactant molecules having the droplet size of less than 100 nm. Because of their thermodynamic stability, they can be manufactured without utilizing high input of energy. In an attempt to enhance transdermal/topical drug delivery of anti-inflammatory agents (AIs), nanoemulsions/microemulsions have been more frequently employed over the recent years. Nanoemulsions/microemulsions have been shown to be superior for transdermal/topical delivery of particularly lipophilic compounds as compared to conventional vehicles such as emulsions, suspensions, gels and liposomes. Nanoemulsions/microemulsions exhibit excellent solubility properties. These vehicles also act as transdermal permeation enhancers without utilizing additional permeation enhancers. In this review transdermal and topical delivery of AIs both in vitro as well as in vivo has been summarized and reviewed.
Practical recommendations for the evaluation of improvement initiatives

Abstract A lack of clear guidance for funders, evaluators and improvers on what to include in evaluation proposals can lead to evaluation designs that do not answer the questions stakeholders want to know. These evaluation designs may not match the iterative nature of improvement and may be imposed onto an initiative in a way that is impractical from the perspective of improvers and the communities with whom they work. Consequently, the results of evaluations are often controversial, and attribution remains poorly understood. Improvement initiatives are iterative, adaptive and context-specific. Evaluation approaches and designs must align with these features, specifically in their ability to consider complexity, to evolve as the initiative adapts over time and to understand the interaction with local context. Improvement initiatives often identify broadly defined change concepts and provide tools for care teams to tailor these in more detail to local conditions. Correspondingly, recommendations for evaluation are best provided as broad guidance, to be tailored to the specifics of the initiative. In this paper, we provide practical guidance and recommendations that funders and evaluators can use when developing an evaluation plan for improvement initiatives that seeks to: identify the questions stakeholders want to address; develop the initial program theory of the initiative; identify high-priority areas to measure progress over time; describe the context the initiative will be applied within; and identify experimental or observational designs that will address attribution.
Current indirect fitness and future direct fitness are not incompatible

In primitively eusocial insects, many individuals function as workers despite being capable of independent reproduction. Such altruistic behaviour is usually explained by the argument that workers gain indirect fitness by helping close genetic relatives. The focus on indirect fitness has left open the question of whether workers are also capable of getting direct fitness in the future in spite of working towards indirect fitness in the present. To investigate this question, we recorded behavioural profiles of all wasps on six naturally occurring nests of Ropalidia marginata, and then isolated all wasps in individual plastic boxes, giving them an opportunity to initiate nests and lay eggs. We found that 41% of the wasps successfully did so. Compared to those that failed to initiate nests, those that did were significantly younger, had significantly higher frequency of self-feeding behaviour on their parent nests but were not different in the levels of work performed in the parent nests. Thus ageing and poor feeding, rather than working for their colonies, constrain individuals for future independent reproduction. Hence, future direct fitness and present work towards gaining indirect fitness are not incompatible, making it easier for worker behaviour to be selected by kin selection or multilevel selection.
Effects of Distracting Task with Different Mental Workload on Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential Based Brain Computer Interfaces—an Offline Study

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), independent of the brain's normal output pathways, are attracting an increasing amount of attention as devices that extract neural information. As a typical type of BCI system, the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based BCIs possess a high signal-to-noise ratio and information transfer rate. However, the current high speed SSVEP-BCIs were implemented with subjects concentrating on stimuli, and intentionally avoided additional tasks as distractors. This paper aimed to investigate how a distracting simultaneous task, a verbal n-back task with different mental workload, would affect the performance of SSVEP-BCI. The results from fifteen subjects revealed that the recognition accuracy of SSVEP-BCI was significantly impaired by the distracting task, especially under a high mental workload. The average classification accuracy across all subjects dropped by 8.67% at most from 1- to 4-back, and there was a significant negative correlation (maximum r = −0.48, p < 0.001) between accuracy and subjective mental workload evaluation of the distracting task. This study suggests a potential hindrance for the SSVEP-BCI daily use, and then improvements should be investigated in the future studies.
BRAF Mutation of Hyalinizing Trabecular Adenoma of the Thyroid-A Case Report with Review of the Literature -

Hyalinizing trabecular adenoma (HTA) of the thyroid, characterized by the presence of a trabecular-alveolar growth pattern and marked intratrabecular hyalinization, was initially described 100 years ago. In 1987, Carney et al. introduced the term HTA to describe this rare tumor of the thyroid composed of polygonal, oval, and spindle cells arranged in a trabecular pattern and separated by a hyalinized stroma. The most important aspect of HTA is that it can resemble other thyroid malignancies both cytologically and histopathologically, specifically, papillary and medullary carcinomas. The nuclear characteristics of HTA result in confusion with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), and hyaline material does with that of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). These misinterpretations may result in unnecessary or aggressive surgical management. In practice, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the best tool for preoperatively evaluating the thyroid nodules. Cytological features of HTA have been reported, and Casey et al. described a detailed cytological profile of HTA compared with that of PTC and MTC. However, HTA is frequently misinterpreted by FNAC as PTC and sometimes diagnosed as MTC or atypical cells. In contrast to the cytological similarities between HTA and PTC, there are distinct differences among many studies detailing the prevalence of the BRAF gene. Recently, we experienced a case of HTA in a 49-year-old woman. Here, we report the cytological features of HTA correlated with the histopathological findings and a briefly review of the Korean literature. Additionally, we present results of a BRAF gene mutation analysis for three HTA cases, including another two tumors from a different institution.
Incretin-Modulated Beta Cell Energetics in Intact Islets of Langerhans

Incretins such as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) are released from the gut and potentiate insulin release in a glucose-dependent manner. Although this action is generally believed to hinge on cAMP and protein kinase A signaling, up-regulated beta cell intermediary metabolism may also play a role in incretin-stimulated insulin secretion. By employing recombinant probes to image ATP dynamically in situ within intact mouse and human islets, we sought to clarify the role of GLP-1-modulated energetics in beta cell function. Using these techniques, we show that GLP-1 engages a metabolically coupled subnetwork of beta cells to increase cytosolic ATP levels, an action independent of prevailing energy status. We further demonstrate that the effects of GLP-1 are accompanied by alterations in the mitochondrial inner membrane potential and, at elevated glucose concentration, depend upon GLP-1 receptor-directed calcium influx through voltage-dependent calcium channels. Lastly, and highlighting critical species differences, beta cells within mouse but not human islets respond coordinately to incretin stimulation. Together, these findings suggest that GLP-1 alters beta cell intermediary metabolism to influence ATP dynamics in a species-specific manner, and this may contribute to divergent regulation of the incretin-axis in rodents and man.
Mode I Fracture Surface of Granite: Measurements and Correlations with Mechanical Properties

This paper deals with the experimental characterization of the fracture surface of granite, obtained from direct tensile tests. The objective is to address the dependence of Mode I fracture energy on the fracture surface's roughness, as well as to analyze the fracture propagation process based on the surface features. In addition, the influence of microstructural aspects on the fracture surface is also discussed. Different types of granites were studied, similar to the ones used in the fabric of ancient buildings, with distinct petrographical characteristics. The fracture surfaces were inspected with a novel 3D laser topographical inspection system aiming at acquiring the texture of fracture surface profiles at various locations on the surface. The relief of the fracture surfaces was characterized by means of classical parameters, namely, mean roughness and root-mean-square roughness. A deeper analysis was carried out by the separation of micro- and macroroughness regimes. This study reveals a clear linear trend between fracture energy and mean microroughness. Additionally, it was found that microstructural aspects, like planar anisotropy and grain size, as well as weathering state, influence the fracture surface. The results allow further understanding of the fracture process in quasi-brittle materials and contribute to the assessment of the mechanical characterization of granite under tension.
Propylene based systems for high voltage cable insulation applications

Crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) remains the material of choice for extruded high voltage cables, possessing excellent thermo-mechanical and electrical properties. However, it is not easily recyclable posing questions as to its long term sustainability. Whilst both polyethylene and polypropylene are widely recycled and provide excellent dielectric properties, polypropylene has significantly better mechanical integrity at high temperatures than polyethylene. However, while isotactic polypropylene is too stiff at room temperature for incorporation into a cable system, previous studies by the authors have indicated that this limitation can be overcome by using a propylene-ethylene copolymer. Whilst these previous studies considered unrelated systems, the current study aims to quantify the usefulness of a series of related random propylene-ethylene co-polymers and assesses their potential for replacing XLPE.
Random Walks on Small World Networks

We study the mixing time of random walks on small-world networks modelled as follows: starting with the 2-dimensional periodic grid, each pair of vertices {u,v} with distance d> 1 is added as a “long-range” edge with probability proportional to d-r, where r≥ 0 is a parameter of the model. Kleinberg [33{ studied a close variant of this network model and proved that the (decentralised) routing time is O((log n)2) when r=2 and nΩ (1) when r≠ 2. Here, we prove that the random walk also undergoes a phase transition at r=2, but in this case, the phase transition is of a different form. We establish that the mixing time is ϴ (log n) for r< 2, O((log n)4) for r=2, and nΩ (1) for r> 2.
Pathogens and atherosclerosis: Update on the potential contribution of multiple infectious organisms to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis

Summary It is currently unclear what causes the chronic inflammation within atherosclerotic plaques. One emerging paradigm suggests that infection with bacteria and/or viruses can contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis either via direct infection of vascular cells or via the indirect effects of cytokines or acute phase proteins induced by infection at non-vascular sites. This paradigm has been supported by multiple epidemiological studies that have established positive associations between the risk of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality and markers of infection. It has also been supported by experimental studies showing an acceleration of the development of atherosclerosis following infection of hyperlipidaemic animal models. There are now a large number of different infectious agents that have been linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. These include: Chlamydia pneumoniae, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Helicobacter pylori, influenza A virus, hepatitis C virus, cytomegalovirus, and human immunodeficiency virus. However, there are significant differences in the strength of the data supporting their association with cardiovascular disease pathogenesis. In some cases, the infectious agents are found within the plaques and viable organisms can be isolated suggesting a direct effect. In other cases, the association is entirely based on biomarkers. In the following review, we evaluate the strength of the data for individual or groups of pathogens with regard to atherosclerosis pathogenesis and their potential contribution by direct or indirect mechanisms and discuss whether the established associations are supportive of the infectious disease paradigm. We also discuss the failure of antibiotic trials and the question of persistent infection.
Multiple Functions for ORF75c in Murid Herpesvirus-4 Infection

All gamma-herpesviruses encode at least one homolog of the cellular enzyme formyl-glycineamide-phosphoribosyl-amidotransferase. Murid herpesvirus-4 (MuHV-4) encodes 3 (ORFs 75a, 75b and 75c), suggesting that at least some copies have acquired new functions. Here we show that the corresponding proteins are all present in virions and localize to infected cell nuclei. Despite these common features, ORFs 75a and 75b did not substitute functionally for a lack of ORF75c, as ORF75c virus knockouts were severely impaired for lytic replication in vitro and for host colonization in vivo. They showed 2 defects: incoming capsids failed to migrate to the nuclear margin following membrane fusion, and genomes that did reach the nucleus failed to initiate normal gene expression. The latter defect was associated with a failure of in-coming virions to disassemble PML bodies. The capsid transport deficit seemed to be functionally more important, since ORF75c− MuHV-4 infected both PML+ and PML− cells poorly. The original host enzyme has therefore evolved into a set of distinct and multi-functional viral tegument proteins. One important function is moving incoming capsids to the nuclear margin for viral genome delivery.
Gapless chiral spin liquid in a kagome Heisenberg model

Motivated by recent experiments on the Heisenberg S = 1=2 quantum spin liquid candidate material kapellasite, we classify all possible chiral (time-reversal symmetry breaking) spin liquids with fermionic spinons on the kagome lattice. We obtain the phase diagram for the physically relevant extended Heisenberg model, comparing the energies of a wide range of microscopic variational wave functions. We propose that, at low temperature, kapellasite exhibits a novel gapless chiral spin liquid phase with spinon Fermi surfaces. This two-dimensional state inherits many properties of the nearby one-dimensional phase of decoupled anti-ferromagnetic spin chains, but also shows some remarkable dierences. We discuss the spin structure factors and other physical properties.
Ellipsometric measurement of the optical properties and electrical conductivity of indium tin oxide thin films

Films of indium tin oxide (ITO) are ubiquitous in display applications as they combine optical transparency and good electrical conductivity. Thin ITO films are often difficult to characterize optically as they are often inhomogeneous and have complicated optical absorption spectra. In this work, we have used variable angle of incidence spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) to gauge the thickness, grading, and surface roughness of ITO films ranging from a few tens of nm to hundreds of nm thick on glass substrates. A two Lorentz oscillator model is used, with one oscillator representing the interband absorption in the UV end of the spectrum, and the second oscillator modeling the Drude-like free carrier absorption in the infrared. The Drude parameters obtained from the analysis of the films can be used to estimate the electrical (D.C.) conductivity of the film from the simple Drude model for free carriers. We present results for several films from 7 to 40 nm thick, and compare the nominal electrical resistivity of these films to the resistivity derived from the VASE measurements.
Studies on the central and peripheral dopaminergic control of PRL secretion in man: failure to demonstrate the existence of a dopamine-mediated prolactin-inhibiting factor.

The existence of a putative central prolactin-inhibiting factor (PIF) distinct from dopamine (DA) but dependent on DA mechanisms for release has been suggested from recent animal studies. We investigated the possibility of the existence of such a PIF in man by combining the use of monoiodotyrosine (MIT), an inhibitor of central DA synthesis, domperidone, a DA receptor antagonist that does not enter the blood-brain barrier and DA itself. 6 normal volunteers underwent three sets of studies: (1) PRL stimulation test to 400 micrograms TRH i.v. , 1 g MIT orally or 5 mg domperidone i.v. , (2) peripheral DA receptor blockade study in which either domperidone, MIT or TRH was administered at 120 min during a 240-min domperidone infusion (50 micrograms/min) which was preceded by a 5-mg bolus dose of domperidone i.v. and, (3) DA infusion study in which MIT was administered at 120 min during a 240-min infusion of DA in a dose (0.5 microgram/kg X min) known to elevate peripheral DA concentration to levels reported for pituitary portal plasma. In the PRL stimulation tests, the mean +/- SE peak response was significantly greater (p less than 0.002) with domperidone (3,900 +/- 840 mIU/l) than with MIT (1,880 +/- 400 mIU/l) or TRH (2,094 +/- 450 mIU/l). In the peripheral DA receptor blockade study the initial domperidone-induced PRL response was not sustained during the domperidone infusion. Neither a second dose of domperidone nor MIT administration at 120 min resulted in a significant release of PRL. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Audiological Monitoring in Children Treated with Platinum Chemotherapy

Platinum compounds constitute the standard treatment for solid tumors in pediatric oncology. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of platinum compounds in the development of ototoxicity in children following chemotherapy. This study included 160 patients treated with cisplatin and carboplatin for malignant solid diseases from 2007 to 2014. Their audiograms were classified according to the Boston SIOP ototoxicity scale. Twenty-five percent of the children treated with platinum compounds developed ototoxicity. The incidence of ototoxicity was correlated with the type of platinum derivative (i.e. cisplatin vs. carboplatin), coadministration of both drugs and concomitant cranial radiotherapy, but not with sex and age. Cumulative dose was correlated only with the cisplatin administration. Nine patients (8.6%) showed further progression of hearing impairment after the end of chemotherapy. The low rate of ototoxicity suggests the pivotal role of auditory monitoring in children treated with platinum compounds in order to be able to identify hearing loss at an early stage and to provide, jointly with pediatric oncologists, strategies to reduce further progression of cochlear toxicity.
Visualization of the aneurysm wall: a 7.0-tesla magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND Risk prediction of rupture of intracranial aneurysms is poor and is based mainly on lumen characteristics. However, characteristics of the aneurysm wall may be more informative predictors. The limited resolution of currently available imaging techniques and the thin aneurysm wall make imaging of wall thickness challenging. OBJECTIVE To introduce a novel protocol for imaging wall thickness variation using ultra--high-resolution 7.0-Tesla (7.0-T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS We studied 33 unruptured intracranial aneurysms in 24 patients with a T1-weighted 3-dimensional magnetization-prepared inversion-recovery turbo-spin-echo whole-brain sequence with a resolution of 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 mm. We performed a validation study with a wedge phantom and with 2 aneurysm wall biopsies obtained during aneurysm treatment using ex vivo MRI and histological examination and correlating variations in MRI signal intensity with variations in actual thickness of the aneurysm wall. RESULTS In vivo, the aneurysm wall was visible in 28 of the 33 aneurysms. Variation in signal intensity was observed in all visible aneurysm walls. Ex vivo MRI showed variation in signal intensity across the wall of the biopsies, similar to that observed on the in vivo images. Signal intensity and actual thickness in both biopsies had a linear correlation, with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.85 and 0.86. CONCLUSION Unruptured intracranial aneurysm wall and its variation in thickness can be visualized with 7.0-T MRI. Aneurysm wall thickness variation can now be further studied as a risk factor for rupture in prospective studies.
The hermite and fourier transforms in sparse reconstruction of sinusoidal signals

The paper observes the Hermite and the Fourier Transform domains in terms of Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum signals sparsification. Sparse signals can be recovered from a reduced set of samples by using the Compressive Sensing approach. The under-sampling and the reconstruction of those signals are also analyzed in this paper. The number of measurements (available signal samples) is varied and reconstruction performance is tested in all considered cases and for both observed domains. The signal recovery is done using an adaptive gradient based algorithm. The theory is verified with the experimental results.