Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of virulence genes and determination of the antimicrobial susceptibility of Escherichia coli isolates with mastitis in Mashhad, Iran – a short communication

The purpose of this study was to determine the virulence genes and antimicrobial resistance patterns of Escherichia coli isolated from milk samples of cows with bovine mastitis. Forty-seven E. coli isolates from clinical mastitis milk samples, from five dairy farms in Northeast of Iran, were subjected to multiplex PCR to determine virulence genes stx1, stx2, eaeA, hlyA, sta, F4, F17, fliC, and rfbE. In addition, antimicrobial susceptibility was assessed by applying disk diffusion methods. The eaeA and stx1 genes were most frequently detected in 42 (89.3%) and 34 (72.3%) isolates, respectively. However, the least frequent gene was F41 as it was found in only one isolate (2.1%). Furthermore, 9 out of 47 isolates were hlyA positive, and four isolates harbored the sta gene. The antimicrobial susceptibility demonstrated the highest resistance against lincomycin (100%) and neomycin (91.4%). Since these bacteria represent a high-risk pathogen on farms, the emergence of multiple antibiotic-resistant and pathogenic E. coli strains should be of great concern for public health.
Stereotactic or Conventional Radiation for Early-Stage Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has been increasingly used for the treatment of inoperable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It has been shown to provide promising local control (LC) and toxicity in prospective trials. However, randomized trials have shown conflicting results in terms of whether SABR confers an overall survival (OS) advantage compared to conventionally fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT). A systematic review of Medline and Embase (inception to December 2020) was performed on early-stage NSCLC patients randomized to SABR versus CFRT. Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts, and manuscripts. A random-effects model was used to estimate treatment effects. Toxicity outcomes were compared by the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test. Individual patient data were digitally approximated and pooled as secondary analysis. The literature search identified 1494 studies, and 16 studies were included for full-text review. Two randomized trials were identified, including a total of 203 patients, of which 115 (57%) received SABR, and 88 (43%) received CFRT. The weighted mean age was 74 years and 48% of patients were male. Most patients had T1 cancers (67%). Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy was not associated with a significant improvement in OS (hazard ratio: 0.84; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.34-2.08, p=0.71). There was no significant difference in LC between SABR and CFRT (relative risk: 0.59; CI 0.28-1.23, p=0.16). Of the commonly reported adverse events, one grade 4 toxicity of dyspnea was reported for SABR, while all others i.e., grade 3 or higher toxicities were similar. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy demonstrated less esophagitis, dyspnea, and skin reaction of any grade. Despite widespread adoption and extensive single-arm prospective and retrospective studies suggesting its benefit, this systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials fail to confirm improvements in LC, OS, and toxicity profile of SABR over CFRT in early NSCLC. This small study is likely underpowered to detect clinically significant differences.
Maxwell-Wanger/Debye Effects and Complex Impedance Studies on Bi4Ti3O12-0.04Fe2O3 Ceramics

Dense ceramics in the solid solution system, Bi4Ti3O12-0.04Fe2O3 (BIT-0.04Fe) ceramics were prepared by conventional solid-state method. And the electrical properties were investigated by the dielectric and impedance spectroscopies. Moreover, the BIT-0.04Fe ceramic exhibit only one loss peak which can be analyzed in terms of the Maxwell-Wagner capacitor model at lower temperature, while the second peak related to the space charge polarization between the ceramic and electrode appeared above 920K. The Arrhenius plot of the total conductivity of BIT-0.04Fe ceramic indicates three different activation energies. The impedance complex plane plots of BIT-0.04Fe ceramic turned into one semicircular arc at 353 K and then to one semicircular arc and a line at 433 K and two single semicircular arcs at 513 K, which were analyzed as three different equivalent circuits.
New insights into the extended and generalised PTT constitutive differential equations: weak flows

This work presents a comparison between the PTT-X (extended Phan-Thien and Tanner (PTT)) and the generalised PTT (gPTT) viscoelastic models. The PTT-X model was derived based on a combination of reptation and network theories, allowing in this way a microstructural justification for the kernel function. The gPTT model is based on the network theory, with an empirical kernel function for the rate of destruction of junctions, that proved to be effective fitting experimental rheological data for polymer melts and solutions. A review on the background of both models is provided and the two models are then compared considering simple flows. This comparison allows one to attribute in some way a microstructural nature to the parameters involved in the gPTT model. Also, a new analytical solution is derived for the Poiseuille flow of the PTT-X model.
MD simulation of the effect of contact area and tip radius on nanoindentation

Molecular dynamics simulations of nanoindentation are performed on monocrystal copper. A new “contact atoms” method is presented for calculating the contact area. Compared with conventional methods, this method can provide the contact area more accurately not only for sink-in but also for pile-up situation. The effect of tip radius on indentation is investigated too. The results indicate that the measured hardness of the material will become higher as the tip radius increases.
Analysis of Acousto-Optic Phenomenon in SAW Acoustofluidic Chip and Its Application in Light Refocusing

This paper describes and analyzes a common acousto-optic phenomenon in surface acoustic wave (SAW) microfluidic chips and accomplishes some imaging experiments based on these analyses. This phenomenon in acoustofluidic chips includes the appearance of bright and dark stripes and image distortion. This article analyzes the three-dimensional acoustic pressure field and refractive index field distribution induced by focused acoustic fields and completes an analysis of the light path in an uneven refractive index medium. Based on the analysis of microfluidic devices, a SAW device based on a solid medium is further proposed. This MEMS SAW device can refocus the light beam and adjust the sharpness of the micrograph. The focal length can be controlled by changing the voltage. Moreover, the chip is also proven to be capable of forming a refractive index field in scattering media, such as tissue phantom and pig subcutaneous fat layer. This chip has the potential to be used as a planar microscale optical component that is easy to integrate and further optimize and provides a new concept about tunable imaging devices that can be attached directly to the skin or tissue.
Five-Year Changes in Inflammatory, Metabolic, and Oxidative Biomarkers and 10-Year Cardiovascular Disease Incidence: The REGICOR Cohort Study

Ischemic cardiovascular diseases (CVD) originate from an imbalance between atherosclerotic plaque formation, instability, and endothelial healing dynamics. Our aim was to examine the relationship between 5-year changes in inflammatory, metabolic, and oxidative biomarkers and 10-year CVD incidence in a population without previous CVD. This was a prospective cohort study of individuals aged 35–74 years (n = 419) randomly selected from 5263 REGICOR participants without CVD recruited in 2005. Biomarkers were measured at baseline and in 2010. Participants were followed up until 2020 for a composite CVD endpoint including coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease. We used Cox regression to analyze the effect of biomarker levels on the occurrence of the composite endpoint, adjusted for traditional CVD risk factors and baseline levels of each biomarker. Individuals with elevated IL-6 or insulin after 5 years had a higher independent risk of CVD at 10 years, compared to those with lower levels. Each rise of 1 pg/mL of IL-6 or 10 pg/mL of insulin increased the 10-year risk of a CVD event by 32% and 2%, respectively. Compared to a model with traditional CVD risk factors only, the inclusion of IL-6 and insulin improved continuous reclassification by 51%. Elevated serum levels of IL-6 and insulin were associated with a higher risk of CVD at 10 years, independently of traditional CVD risk factors.
Effect of Processing Temperature on Crystallization, Phase Morphology and Mechanical Property of a Linear Low Density Polyethylene/Ethylene-Octene Copolymer Blend

Abstract Temperature is one of the key parameters to determine the structures and properties of polymers during processing, but the effect of processing temperature on similar-structured polymer blends has rarely been reported. In this work, a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)/ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC) blend with similar-structured components was chosen as a model system to study the effect of processing temperature (including compounding temperature and molding temperature) on its crystallization, phase morphology, and tensile behavior. It was found that the blends presented evenly distributed rubbery domains at lower processing temperatures, whereas a special, EOC-rich phase domain consisting of a less stable crystalline phase and a rubbery phase was observed at higher processing temperatures. The phase morphology was mainly determined by the final processing temperature, which had a major effect on the yield stress of the material. This work not only reports novel results on processing-structure-performance relations of similar-structured blends but can also guide the design and production of LLDPE-based products with tailored properties.
An ABCC9 Missense Variant Is Associated with Sudden Cardiac Death and Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Juvenile Dogs

Sudden cardiac death in the young (SCDY) is a devastating event that often has an underlying genetic basis. Manchester Terrier dogs offer a naturally occurring model of SCDY, with sudden death of puppies as the manifestation of an inherited dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). We performed a genome-wide association study for SCDY/DCM in Manchester Terrier dogs and identified a susceptibility locus harboring the cardiac ATP-sensitive potassium channel gene ABCC9. Sanger sequencing revealed an ABCC9 p.R1186Q variant present in a homozygous state in all SCDY/DCM-affected dogs (n = 26). None of the controls genotyped (n = 398) were homozygous for the variant, but 69 were heterozygous carriers, consistent with autosomal recessive inheritance with complete penetrance (p = 4 × 10−42 for the association of homozygosity for ABCC9 p.R1186Q with SCDY/DCM). This variant exists at low frequency in human populations (rs776973456) with clinical significance previously deemed uncertain. The results of this study further the evidence that ABCC9 is a susceptibility gene for SCDY/DCM and highlight the potential application of dog models to predict the clinical significance of human variants.
Novel Symplectic Discrete Singular Convolution Method for Hamiltonian PDEs

This paper explores the discrete singular convolution method for Hamiltonian PDEs. The differential matrices corresponding to two delta type kernels of the discrete singular convolution are presented analytically, which have the properties of high-order accuracy, bandlimited structure and thus can be excellent candidates for the spatial discretizations for Hamiltonian PDEs. Taking the nonlinear Schrodinger equation and the coupled Schrodinger equations for example, we construct two symplectic integrators combining this kind of differential matrices and appropriate symplectic time integrations, which both have been proved to satisfy the square conservation laws. Comprehensive numerical experiments including comparisons with the central finite difference method, the Fourier pseudospectral method, the wavelet collocation method are given to show the advantages of the new type of symplectic integrators.
Expanding the applicability of remotely sensed soil evaporation transfer coefficient to the estimation of soil moisture over bare soil and partially vegetated areas

ABSTRACT Soil evaporation transfer coefficient (ha) is an effective means of estimating surface soil moisture from moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery. This coefficient is a function of three variables: air temperature, land surface temperature and dry soil temperature. The first two variables can easily be obtained from different sources, whereas dry soil temperature cannot be determined as easily as the other ones, particularly over partially vegetated areas. In this paper, to enhance the capability of ha in estimating soil moisture, we propose to use the combination of land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to estimate dry soil temperature over partially vegetated areas as well as bare soil areas; this combination is known as LST-NDVI feature space in the literature. The underlying assumption of the proposed method is that at any given pixel over partially vegetated or bare soil areas, dry soil temperature is approximately equivalent to the maximum LST derived from LST-NDVI triangle space. The results showed that calculating ha using dry soil temperature derived from the triangle space can result in more reliable estimation of soil moisture over bare soil and partially vegetated areas.
A User-Centered Approach to Analyze Public Service Apps Based on Reviews

: User reviews often contain complaints or suggestions which are valuable for app developers to improve user experience and satisfaction. In this paper, we introduce the Br-APPS (Brazilian Analytics of Public Posts in App Stores), an automated framework for mining opinions from user reviews of mobile apps. The purpose of Br-APPS is to assist developers by identifying the causes of negative user reviews in three levels of detail. As it is not possible to accurately estimate the number of active users of the app, Br-APPS adopts two indicators based on the number of issues reported by users and the number of app downloads. This approach allows estimating the proportion of causes of complaints, so it is possible to prioritize the issues most complained about. The performance of Br-APPS was evaluated on the gov.br app, which is the most accessed mobile application in the Brazilian government. The use of Br-APPS made it possible to quickly identify the main causes of user complaints and made it easier for developers to direct efforts to improve the app. Interviews with stakeholders of the gov.br service reported that the technique proposed is a valuable asset to ensure that government agencies can drive the creation of public services using a user-centered support technique.
Police unions and police fatalities in the United States, 1990−2018

As of 2018, thirty-one states granted collective bargaining rights to police officers that require local government management to recognize and collectively bargain in good faith with police unions. Although scholars have identified factors related to police fatalities, the influence of police unions has gone understudied. Research in other occupational areas shows that union strength is associated with fewer workplace injuries and fatalities. This research analyzes the influence of union strength and collective bargaining rights on police fatalities. Using state-level data from 1990 to 2018, a rare-event analysis of police fatalities indicates that states with strong public employee unions experience fewer accidental line-of-duty deaths of police officers. Further, this analysis shows that states which grant collective bargaining rights to police officers have fewer felonious line-of-duty deaths of police officers compared with those that do not grant police collective bargaining rights. This article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications and the role of collective bargaining in police safety.
Block-Fading Channels with Delayed CSIT at Finite Blocklength

—In many wireless systems, the channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) can not be learned until after a transmission has taken place and is thereby outdated. In this paper, we study the benefits of delayed CSIT on a block-fading channel at finite blocklength. First, the achievable rates of a family of codes that allows the number of codewords to expand during transmission, based on delayed CSIT, are characterized. A fixed-length and a variable-length characterization of the rates are provided using the dependency testing bound and the variable-length setting introduced by Polyanskiy et al. Next, a communication protocol based on codes with expandable message space is put forth, and numerically, it is shown that higher rates are achievable compared to coding strategies that do not benefit from delayed CSIT.
Mismatch: Grammar distortion and grammaticalization

The paper investigates the potentially distorting impact of grammaticalization on grammar through the analysis of different types of synchronic form-meaning mismatches which may result from the expansion of a grammaticalization process. Grammaticalization may induce mismatches as a consequence of the development of abnormal structures or new constructions incompatible with the general patterns of the language. Mismatches may also be due to an unchanged residue of grammaticalization, which may derive either from inertial resistance or from a superordinate restriction which prevents the grammaticalization wave from extending to specific domains. Finally, mismatches may also be the result of language contact, either by making use of alternative devices of a foreign origin or by preventing the grammaticalization of native structures due to the introduction of ready-made borrowed constructions.
Effects of Folic Acid Supplementation on Liver Enzymes, Lipid Profile, and Insulin Resistance in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Previous evidence revealed an association between folate deficiency and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study is the first one investigating the effects of folic acid on hepatic steatosis grade, liver enzymes, insulin resistance, and lipid profile in NAFLD cases. Materials and Methods: Sixty-six participants with NAFLD were allocated randomly to take either a placebo or one oral tablet of folic acid (1 mg) on a daily basis within eight weeks. Serum folate, homocysteine, glucose, aminotransferases, insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and lipids were assessed. Ultrasonography was used for assessing the liver steatosis grade. Results: The serum alanine transaminase, grade of hepatic steatosis, and aspartate transaminase significantly were decreased within both study groups; however, the between-group comparison was not statistically significant. Of note, the decrease in ALT was more pronounced in folic acid compared with the placebo group (-5.45 ± 7.45 vs. -2.19 ± 8.6 IU/L). The serum homocysteine was decreased after receiving folic acid compared to the placebo (-0.58 ± 3.41 vs. +0.4 ± 3.56 μmol/L; adjusted P = 0.054). Other outcomes did not significantly change. Conclusion: Supplementation with folic acid (1 mg/d) for eight weeks among cases with NAFLD did not change significantly the serum levels of liver enzymes, the hepatic steatosis grade, insulin resistance and lipid profile. However, it was able to prevent the increase in homocysteine in comparison with the placebo. Conducting further research is suggested with the longer duration and different doses of folic acid, adjusted to the genotypes of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase polymorphism, among NAFLD patients.
Multiresidue Determination of 26 Quinolones in Poultry Feathers Using UPLC-MS/MS and Their Application in Residue Monitoring

As a non-traditional sample matrix, feather samples can be used to effectively monitor antibiotic addition and organismal residue levels in poultry feeding. Therefore, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed to simultaneously determine the residue levels of 26 quinolones in poultry feathers. The feather samples were extracted by sonication with a 1% formic acid and acetonitrile mixture in a water bath at 50 °C for 30 min, purified by the adsorption of multiple matrix impurities, dried with nitrogen, redissolved, and analyzed by UPLC-MS/MS. The linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), recovery and precision were calculated. The 26 antibiotics demonstrated good linearity in the linear range. The recoveries and coefficients of variation were 78.9–110% and <13.7% at standard spiked levels of 10, 100 and 200 μg/kg, respectively. The LOD and LOQ were 0.12–1.31 and 0.96–2.60 μg/kg, respectively. The method also successfully identified quinolone residues in 50 poultry feather samples. The results showed that quinolones can accumulate and stabilize for a certain period of time after transferring from the body to the feathers of poultry.
Pesticide Exposure among Latinx Children in Rural Farmworker and Urban Non-Farmworker Communities: Associations with Locality and Season

This study uses repeated measures to document the pesticide exposure of rural and urban Latinx children (age eight at baseline), and to compare these children in terms of the frequency and concentration of their exposure to a large set of pesticides, accounting for season. We used silicone wristbands worn for one week up to ten times at quarterly intervals from 2018 to 2022 to assess pesticide exposure in children from rural farmworker (n = 75) and urban non-farmworker (n = 61) families. We determined the detection and concentrations (ng/g) of 72 pesticides and pesticide degradation products in the wristbands using gas chromatography electron capture detection and gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The most frequently detected pesticide classes were organochlorines, pyrethroids, and organophosphates. Controlling for season, organochlorine or phenylpyrazole detections were less likely for rural children than for urban children. Detections of organochlorines, pyrethroids, or organophosphates were lower in spring and summer versus winter. Controlling for season, urban children had greater concentrations of organochlorines, while rural children had greater concentrations of pyrethroids and Chlorpyrifos. Pesticide concentrations were lower in winter and spring compared with summer and fall. These results further document that pesticides are ubiquitous in the living environment for children in vulnerable, immigrant communities.
Natural disasters and audit fees

This paper investigates the impact of natural disasters on the pricing of audit services. Using a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) design and a sample of 1481 firm-year observations over the period 2014–2019 in China, we find that firms headquartered in areas affected by natural disasters are charged lower fees by auditors. This fee discount is not likely to be driven by a decrease in audit efforts exerted by auditors. We document that the negative relation between natural disasters and audit fees is more pronounced among (i) client firms that are audited by top domestic audit firms, (ii) client firms that are economically and politically important to auditors, and (iii) larger and more complex client firms.