Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incorporation of organic fungicides in bindered anthracite bricks for improved storage and performance in iron foundries

Anthracite bricks bound with collagen, lignin, and silicon metals have the potential to be used as an alternative fuel source for metal production in iron foundries. However, humid conditions and prolonged storage may promote fungal growth on the organic binder materials decreasing the strength and performance of the bricks in a cupola furnace. The organic fungicidal neem compounds, azadirachtin, crude neem oil (NO), and clarified neem oil extract (CNO), were examined for their effective growth inhibition of ectomycorrhizal soft-rot fungus Chaetomium globosum. When the most effective neem compound, CNO, was combined with a low dose of copper, a synergistic fungicidal interaction was observed on nutrient media (two-factor ANOVA with triplicate replication: P < 0.05). Interaction was confirmed on lab-scale anthracite briquettes, with identical composition of full-scale foundry bricks, by measuring unconfined compressive (UC) strength at room temperature to primarily quantify collagen degradation. Effective collagen strength was enhanced by applying CNO to the surface of the briquettes. Effective collagen strength increased 28 ± 4.6% when CNO (0.4 mg/cm 2 ) was surfaceapplied or 43 ± 3.0% when CNO and copper (0.14 μg/cm 2 ) were surface-applied, even with fungus present. Effective lignin strength was measured by UC strength after pyrolysis of the briquettes and revealed a decrease in strength; however, pyrolyzed samples still retained an average of 76 ± 13% of the effective lignin strength when CNO was surface-applied. These results indicate that clarified neem oil extract and copper can be combined to prevent fungal growth on bindered anthracite bricks and improve the storage and performance of the bricks in iron foundry metal production.
Monotonic Load and Creep Properties of Carbon Nanotube Sheets

Carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets are a new and promising material with properties such as high tensile strength and low density that are ideal for future applications in the aerospace industry. Before those materials can be implemented in future airand spacecraft, their mechanical properties must be fully understood. Tensile and creep tests are the first and necessary steps to being able to better understand the properties and failure mechanics of any new material. This research is to understand the long term effects and performance of CNT sheets under tensile load, specifically through tensile tests, creep, and tensile tests after exposure in a space like environment. The data was used to create stress vs strain plots in order to mathematically quantify the tensile and creep behavior of the CNT sheets. The sheets were also exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation in order to understand how the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) changes under relevant space like conditions.
Parting ways: parasite release in nature leads to sex‐specific evolution of defence

We evaluated the extent to which males and females evolve along similar or different trajectories in response to the same environmental shift. Specifically, we used replicate experimental introductions in nature to consider how release from a key parasite (Gyrodactylus) generates similar or different defence evolution in male vs. female guppies (Poecilia reticulata). After 4–8 generations of evolution, guppies were collected from the ancestral (parasite still present) and derived (parasite now absent) populations and bred for two generations in the laboratory to control for nongenetic effects. These F2 guppies were then individually infected with Gyrodactylus, and infection dynamics were monitored on each fish. We found that parasite release in nature led to sex‐specific evolutionary responses: males did not show much evolution of resistance, whereas females showed the evolution of increased resistance. Given that male guppies in the ancestral population had greater resistance to Gyrodactylus than did females, evolution in the derived populations led to reduction of sexual dimorphism in resistance. We argue that previous selection for high resistance in males constrained (relative to females) further evolution of the trait. We advocate more experiments considering sex‐specific evolutionary responses to environmental change.
Software Reuse: From Library to Factory

Systematic software reuse is a key business strategy that software managers can employ to dramatically improve their software development processes, to decrease time-to-market and costs, and to improve product quality. Effective reuse requires much more than just code and library technology. We have learned that careful consideration must be given to people, process, and technology. One approach to the systematic integration of these three elements is the concept of the software factory. At Hewlett-Packard Co., we have initiated a multifaceted corporate reuse program to help introduce the best practices of systematic reuse into the company, complemented by multidisciplinary research to investigate and develop better methods for domain-specific, reuse-based software engineering. This essay discusses our experiences. Key aspects include domain-specific kits, business modeling, organization design, and technology infrastructure for a flexible software factory.
MRI evaluation of grey matter atrophy and disease course in multiple sclerosis: an overview of current knowledge

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by chronic inflammation of the central nervous system, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used as both a diagnostic tool and a parameter in the clinical evaluation. Multiple sclerosis was long regarded as a disease of the white matter (WM) in the brain, which can be visualized by the standard MRI used in daily practice. There is an increasing amount of evidence that grey matter (GM) pathology plays a role from the start of the MS disease and throughout the clinical course. Grey matter atrophy, both cortical and central, is present in the early course of MS and is also related above all to cognitive decline, but also to the development of physical disability as measured by EDSS. In this article, we give an overview of GM atrophy in MS evaluated by MRI and the relation to the clinical course in MS.
Dissociation of the trimeric gp41 ectodomain at the lipid–water interface suggests an active role in HIV-1 Env-mediated membrane fusion

Significance Infection by HIV-1 requires fusion of viral and host cell membranes, a process mediated by viral protein gp41. Although extensive structural detail on both pre- and postfusion gp41 states is available from X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM studies, little is known about the actual transition. This NMR study of a trimeric gp41 ectodomain, which connects viral and host cell membranes in the prefusion state, suggests a fusion model, where this domain unzippers from opposite ends because of the affinity of its two α-helices for viral and host cell membranes. In this model, the change in orientation of the ectodomain helices, which is associated with membrane binding, provides the driving force that pulls the membranes into the close juxtaposition required for fusion. The envelope glycoprotein gp41 mediates the process of membrane fusion that enables entry of the HIV-1 virus into the host cell. The actual fusion process involves a switch from a homotrimeric prehairpin intermediate conformation, consisting of parallel coiled-coil helices, to a postfusion state where the ectodomains are arranged as a trimer of helical hairpins, adopting a six-helix bundle (6HB) state. Here, we show by solution NMR spectroscopy that a water-soluble 6HB gp41 ectodomain binds to zwitterionic detergents that contain phosphocholine or phosphatidylcholine head groups and phospholipid vesicles that mimic T-cell membrane composition. Binding results in the dissociation of the 6HB and the formation of a monomeric state, where its two α-helices, N-terminal heptad repeat (NHR) and C-terminal heptad repeat (CHR), become embedded in the lipid–water interface of the virus and host cell. The atomic structure of the gp41 ectodomain monomer, based on NOE distance restraints and residual dipolar couplings, shows that the NHR and CHR helices remain mostly intact, but they completely lose interhelical contacts. The high affinity of the ectodomain helices for phospholipid surfaces suggests that unzippering of the prehairpin intermediate leads to a state where the NHR and CHR helices become embedded in the host cell and viral membranes, respectively, thereby providing a physical force for bringing these membranes into close juxtaposition before actual fusion.
Prevalence and Characteristics of Probable Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder within UK Biobank: Cross-Sectional Study of 172,751 Participants

Objectives UK Biobank is a landmark cohort of over 500,000 participants which will be used to investigate genetic and non-genetic risk factors for a wide range of adverse health outcomes. This is the first study to systematically assess the prevalence and validity of proposed criteria for probable mood disorders within the cohort (major depression and bipolar disorder). Methods This was a descriptive epidemiological study of 172,751 individuals assessed for a lifetime history of mood disorder in relation to a range of demographic, social, lifestyle, personality and health-related factors. The main outcomes were prevalence of a probable lifetime (single) episode of major depression, probable recurrent major depressive disorder (moderate), probable recurrent major depressive disorder (severe), probable bipolar disorder and no history of mood disorder (comparison group). Outcomes were compared on age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, functioning, self-reported health status, current depressive symptoms, neuroticism score, smoking status and alcohol use. Results Prevalence rates for probable single lifetime episode of major depression (6.4%), probable recurrent major depression (moderate) (12.2%), probable recurrent major depression (severe) (7.2%) and probable bipolar disorder (1.3%) were comparable to those found in other population studies. The proposed diagnostic criteria have promising validity, with a gradient in evidence from no mood disorder through major depression and probable bipolar disorder in terms of gender distribution, socioeconomic status, self-reported health rating, current depressive symptoms and smoking. Significance The validity of our proposed criteria for probable major depression and probable bipolar disorder within this cohort are supported by these cross-sectional analyses. Our findings are likely to prove useful as a framework for a wide range of future genetic and non-genetic studies.
Antimicrotubule benzimidazoles inhibit in vitro growth of Pneumocystis carinii

Nine antimicrotubule benzimidazole derivatives tested in a Pneumocystis carinii culture system with human embryonic lung fibroblast monolayers inhibited organism proliferation. The concentrations of drugs inhibitory in culture ranged from 10 to 0.1 micrograms/ml, with thiabendazole being the least effective (10 micrograms/ml) and parbendazole being the most effective (0.1 microgram/ml). The parent compound, benzimidazole, was inactive at 10 micrograms/ml. Demonstration that this group of compounds has activity against P. carinii provides a new potential target that can be exploited, the microtubules. Also, the variability in the effectiveness of the compounds provides the basis for studies of structure-activity relationships, which were initiated in this study.
AN AUTOMATIC DIALOG SIMULATION TECHNIQUE TO DEVELOP AND EVALUATE INTERACTIVE CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS

During recent years, conversational agents have become a solution to provide straightforward and more natural ways of retrieving information in the digital domain. In this article, we present an agent-based dialog simulation technique for learning new dialog strategies and evaluating conversational agents. Using this technique, the effort necessary to acquire data required to train the dialog model and then explore new dialog strategies is considerably reduced. A set of measures has also been defined to evaluate the dialog strategy that is automatically learned and to compare different dialog corpora. We have applied this technique to explore the space of possible dialog strategies and evaluate the dialogs acquired for a conversational agent that collects monitored data from patients suffering from diabetes. The results of the comparison of these measures for an initial corpus and a corpus acquired using the dialog simulation technique show that the conversational agent reduces the time needed to complete the dialogs and improve their quality, thereby allowing the conversational agent to tackle new situations and generate new coherent answers for the situations already present in an initial model.
Enhanced Topical Delivery of Tetrandrine by Ethosomes for Treatment of Arthritis

The purpose of this work was to explore the feasibility of ethosomes for improving the antiarthritic efficacy of tetrandrine by topical application. It was found that tetrandrine was a weak base (pK a = 7.06) with pH-dependent partition coefficient. The spherical-shaped ethosomes were prepared by pH gradient loading method. Ex vivo permeation and deposition behavior demonstrated that the drug flux across rat skin and deposition of the drug in rat skin for ethosomes was 2.1- and 1.7-fold higher than that of liposomes, respectively. Confocal laser scanning microscopy confirmed that ethosomes could enhance the topical delivery of the drug in terms of depth and quantity compared with liposomes. The ethosomes were shown to generate substantial enhancement of therapeutic efficacy of tetrandrine on Freund's complete adjuvant-induced arthritis with regard to liposomes. These results indicated that ethosomes would be a promising carrier for topical delivery of tetrandrine into and across the skin.
Resilience options for provisioning anycast cloud services with virtual optical networks

Optical networks are crucial to support increasingly demanding cloud services. Delivering the requested quality of services (in particular latency) is key to successfully provisioning end-to-end services in clouds. Therefore, as for traditional optical network services, it is of utter importance to guarantee that clouds are resilient to any failure of either network infrastructure (links and/or nodes) or data centers. A crucial concept in establishing cloud services is that of network virtualization: the physical infrastructure is logically partitioned in separate virtual networks. To guarantee end-to-end resilience for cloud services in such a set-up, we need to simultaneously route the services and map the virtual network, in such a way that an alternate routing in case of physical resource failures is always available. Note that combined control of the network and data center resources is exploited, and the anycast routing concept applies: we can choose the data center to provide server resources requested by the customer to optimize resource usage and/or resiliency. This paper investigates the design of scalable optimization models to perform the virtual network mapping resiliently. We compare various resilience options, and analyze their compromise between bandwidth requirements and resiliency quality.
Preparation and characterization of PVA/SA/HA composite hydrogels for wound dressing

Abstract A composite hydrogel based on, by introducing, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium alginate, and hyaluronic acid was fabricated using CaCl2 as a cross-linker. The physical properties including morphology, water vapor transmission rate, and hydrophilicity were investigated. All PVA/SA/HA composite hydrogels with different compositions had highly homogeneous and interconnected pores, and the morphologies of the PVA/SA/HA hydrogels ranged from fibrous structure to irregular structure with increasing content of SA. The introduction of sodium alginate enhanced the hydrophilicity and water vapor transmission capacity of the hydrogel; however, the hydrophilicity of the composite hydrogels decreased with the increasing cross-linker content.
Evaluation of an automated microbiologic blood culture device for detection of bacteria in platelet components

BACKGROUND:Automated culture methods have been used by several investigators to detect bacterial contamination of cellular blood components. We investigated several factors affecting detection by automated culture of bacteria in platelet concentrates (PCs). These factors included the initial contamination level in PCs, the PC sample volume, the PC sample time, and the white cell level in relation to bacteria levels in the PCs.
Regulation of monoamine oxidase A by the SRY gene on the Y chromosome

Monoamine oxidase A (MAO A), encoded by the X chromosome, catalyzes the oxidative deamination of monoamine neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, and plays a critically important role in brain development and functions. Abnormal MAO A activity has been implicated in several neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which show sexual dimorphism. However, the molecular basis for these disease processes is unclear. Recently, we found that MAO A was a putative target gene directly regulated by a transcription factor encoded by the sex‐determining region Y (SRY) gene located on the Y chromosome. We demonstrated that SRY activates both MAO A‐promoter and catalytic activities in a human male neuroblastoma BE(2)C cell line. A functional SRY‐binding site in the MAO A core promoter was identified and validated by electrophoretic mobility shift and chromatin immuno‐precipitation (ChIP) analyses. Coimmunoprecipitation and ChIP assays showed that SRY and Spl form a transcriptional complex and synergistically activate MAO A transcription. This is the first study demonstrating that the Y‐encoded transcription factor SRY is capable of regulating an X‐located gene, suggesting a novel molecular mechanism for sexual dimorphism in neural development, brain functions, and initiation/ progression of neural disorders associated with MAO A dysfunction. —Wu, J. B. , Chen, K. , Li, Y. , Lau, Y. ‐F. C. , Shih, J. C. Regulation of monoamine oxidase A by the SRY gene on the Y chromosome. FASEB J. 23, 4029–4038 (2009). www.fasebj. org
Promoter specificity of sigma G-containing RNA polymerase from sporulating cells of Bacillus subtilis: identification of a group of forespore-specific promoters

During sporulation in Bacillus subtilis, expression of the genes sspA, sspB, sspC, sspD, and sspE, which encode a family of small, acid-soluble spore proteins, as well as of the spoVA and gdh operons is transcriptionally activated at stage III of sporulation only in the forespore compartment. Transcription of these genes is mediated by RNA polymerase containing sigma G (E sigma G), the product of the sigG gene, which is itself expressed at stage III in the developing forespore. We have determined the 5' ends of transcripts generated both in vivo and in vitro by the action of E sigma G on various genes of B. subtilis and other bacilli. The 5' ends of the in vivo and in vitro mRNAs were found to coincide and were therefore considered to define the transcription initiation sites for the genes examined. We identified highly homologous DNA sequences centered at 35 and 10 base pairs preceding the transcriptional start sites of the genes examined. Consequently, we propose that these sequences define a class of promoters recognized only by E sigma G which allow transcription of genes expressed uniquely at stage III in the developing forespore.
Magnitude of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Leak

Modeling videos suggest that around 4.4 million barrels of oil escaped from the broken Deepwater Horizon well. To fully understand the environmental and ecological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, an accurate estimate of the total oil released is required. We used optical plume velocimetry to estimate the velocity of fluids issuing from the damaged well both before and after the collapsed riser pipe was removed. We then calculated the volumetric flow rate under a range of assumptions. With a liquid oil fraction of 0.4, we estimated that the average flow rate from 22 April 2010 to 3 June 2010 was 5.6 × 104 ± 21% barrels/day (1.0 × 10−1 meter3/second), excluding secondary leaks. After the riser was removed, the flow was 6.8 × 104 ± 19% barrels/day (1.2 × 10−1 meters3/second). Taking into account the oil collected at the seafloor, this suggests that 4.4 × 106 ± 20% barrels of oil (7.0 × 105 meters3) was released into the ocean.
Becoming a mother versus maternal role attainment.

PURPOSE To present evidence for replacing the term maternal role attainment (MRA), with becoming a mother (BAM). METHODS A review of the evolution of MRA and a synthesis of research emanating from the theory was done, followed by synthesis of current research on the transition to motherhood. FINDINGS A woman establishes maternal identity as she becomes a mother through her commitment to and involvement in defining her new self. Maternal identity continues to evolve as the mother acquires new skills to regain her confidence in self as new challenges arise. CONCLUSIONS BAM more accurately encompasses the dynamic transformation and evolution of a woman's persona than does MRA, and the term MRA should be discontinued.
Epidural analgesia for pain relief in labour and childbirth - a review with a systematic approach.

BACKGROUND Clinical ambiguity concerning effects of epidural analgesia for pain relief in labour seems to reflect a need for evidence-based knowledge for midwives. AIMS This study aimed to review, with a systematic approach, the literature about effects and risks associated with the use of epidural analgesia for pain relief in labour and childbirth. DESIGN A structured question was formulated and used for deriving search terms, establishing the inclusion of certain criteria and retrieving articles, i.e. what are the effects of epidural analgesia for pain relief in labour and childbirth? References were obtained through searches using MeSH-terms in Medline and Subheadings (SH) in CINAHL (e.g. Obstetrical Analgesia combined either with psychology or adverse effects and together with, Dystocia, Caesarean Section, Infant Newborn and Breastfeeding). The articles were divided into prospective randomized trials (C), non-randomized prospective studies (P) and retrospective studies (R). Scientific quality of the studies was assessed on a three-grade scale: high scientific quality (I), moderate scientific quality (II) or low scientific quality (III). RESULTS Twenty-four articles were retrieved and systematically assessed. Seven studies were judged as high quality, 15 as moderate quality and two as low quality. The majority of studies appraised in this review failed to obtain or establish a cause and effect relationship. According to the data, it seems clear that the use of epidural analgesia is considered to be an effective method of pain relief during labour and childbirth from the perspective of women giving birth. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Midwives and doctors can recommend this form of pain relief. However, information about possible associations with adverse effects in mothers and infants must be provided to expectant couples.