Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outdoor Atmospheric Microbial Diversity Is Associated With Urban Landscape Structure and Differs From Indoor-Transit Systems as Revealed by Mobile Monitoring and Three-Dimensional Spatial Analysis

Microbes are abundant inhabitants of the near-surface atmosphere in urban areas. The distribution of microbial communities may benefit or hinder human wellbeing and ecosystem function. Surveys of airborne microbial diversity are uncommon in both natural and built environments and those that investigate diversity are stationary in the city, thus missing continuous exposure to microbes that covary with three-dimensional urban structure. Individuals in cities are generally mobile and would be exposed to diverse urban structures outdoors and within indoor-transit systems in a day. We used mobile monitoring of microbial diversity and geographic information system spatial analysis, across Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in outdoor and indoor-transit (subways and train cars) environments. This study identifies to the role of the three-dimensional urban landscape in structuring atmospheric microbiomes and employs mobile monitoring over ~1,920 kilometers to measure continuous biodiversity. We found more diverse communities outdoors that significantly differ from indoor-transit air in microbial community structure, function, likely source environment, and potentially pathogenic fraction of the community. Variation in the structure of the urban landscape was associated with diversity and function of the near-surface atmospheric microbiome in outdoor samples.
Native Grass Substitution Using Jengkol ( Archidendron jiringa ) Peel and Leaves Powder on in vitro

Agricultural by-products are abundant in Indonesia. Many farmers have been using these by-products as the main source of livestock feed, especially for ruminants. Azevêdo et al. (2012) reported that ruminants are able to convert renewable natural resources, such as agricultural and agroindustrial by-products into high-quality feed for ruminants. Several reasons for using agricultural by-products as feed, among others include helping farmers to reduce feed costs, utilizing and optimizing by-products, and minimize the environmental impacts of this by-products. Kasapidou et al. (2015) reported that the utilization of agricultural wastes in farm animal nutrition has a significant effect on environmental, economic, and social factors. Van Dyk et al. (2013) stated that various by-products from agricultural and food processing, based on the nutrient content, it had potential as animal feeds. Many researches have been reported that the use of various by-products as an animal feed can improve rumen fermentation. The in vitro study by Jeon et al. (2016) showed that substitution of annual ryegrass straw with by-products of pickled radish improved ruminal fermentation that increased dry matter (DM) degradability, volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentration, and total gas production. Research by Tona (2014) reported that 10% cassava peels combination with 60 % Panicum maximum + 30 % Gliricidia sepium made efficient rumen fermentation and optimize feed utilization. The effect of substituting native grass with jengkol (Archidendron jiringa) by-product on fermentation characteristics, rumen microbial profile, methane production, and hydrogen balance using in vitro method was investigated. Seven treatments (different composition of native grass, jengkol peel, jengkol leaves, and concentrate) with five replications in a block randomized design were used. Substitution of native grass with jengkol peel powder up to 22.5% decreased rumen pH and protozoa, increased N-NH3, did not change feed digestibility (dry matter digestibility (DMD) and organic matter digestibility (OMD)), total and proportional volatile fatty acid (VFA) production, microbial protein synthesis, methane production, and hydrogen balance. The use of jengkol leaves powder up to 45% decreased rumen pH, increased N-NH3, feed digestibility (DMD and DMO) and microbial protein synthesis, but did not affect total and proportional VFA production, protozoa population, hydrogen balance, and methane production. It is concluded that native grass can be substituted with jengkol peel powder up to 22.5% and leaves powder up to 45%.
Cloud and Edge Computing Security Challenges, Demands, Known Threats, and Vulnerabilities

In recent years, Cloud and edge computing have got much attention because of the ever-increasing demands. There are many future technologies and advantages for systems to move towards clouds based on information keep methods. This includes a simple IT substructure and administration, and an effective distant approach from anyplace in the global with the steady computer network connections and efficient cost that cloud engineering can give. The privateness and security situations associated with the cloud need additional search. Scientists have presented prospective methods to these situations in antecedently published researches. This proposed paper makes a study of cloud and edge security challenges and demands, known threats, and vulnerabilities. The paper's purpose is to investigate the various elements of cloud and edge computing with the recent developments in edge computing, the current privacy and security issues these schemes aspect. Then provides a novel categorization of the modern security methods that be in these fields. This examination introduces different security threats to the cloud and edge computing services also discusses open issues and suggests future directions.
Do Indirect Taxes Bite? How Hiding Taxes Erases Accountability Demands from Citizens

Taxation is fundamental to citizen-government relations. Seminal accounts attribute democratization to direct taxation’s rise, and recent evidence shows that direct taxes increase citizens’ accountability demands. However, today many governments rely heavily on indirect taxes; evidence is mixed on whether they have similar effects. We present cross-national data demonstrating that indirect taxes are associated with lower levels of government accountability than direct taxes. We argue that the visibility of taxes affects their accountability consequences. We further posit that, on average, indirect taxes become less visible than direct once citizens have acclimated to higher prices. We combine lab-in-the-field experiments with survey experiments in a developing country to demonstrate that less visible taxes provoke less willingness to punish leaders politically and that established indirect taxes are not highly visible to citizens. The findings suggest that the growing reliance on indirect taxes may limit taxation’s accountability dividends and impair democratic representation.
Impact of Weather on the Stock Market Returns of Different Industries in Germany

Weather affects people’s mood, according to psychological studies. For example, low temperature can cause aggression, whereas high temperature can induce apathy. Therefore, it may be possible that weather-influenced mood, driven by mood’s impact on decision-making, exerts an influence on investment decisions and risk-taking behaviour. Thereby, it might also impact stock market returns. I examine market returns of nine industries in Germany. Empirical results illustrate two findings. First, a statistically significant, negative correlation between market returns and temperature, second, a different effect of weather on industrial sectors is identified. A significant correlation can be found for six out of nine sectors.
OP-CVRE200049 2055..2068

As nanotechnologies advance into clinical medicine, novel methods for applying nanomedicine to cardiovascular diseases are emerging. Extensive research has been undertaken to unlock the complex pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. However, this complexity presents challenges to develop effective imaging and therapeutic modalities for early diagnosis and acute intervention. The choice of ligand-receptor system vastly influences the effectiveness of nanomedicine. This review collates current ligand-receptor systems used in targeting functionalized nanoparticles for diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. Our focus is on the binding affinity and selectivity of ligand-receptor systems, as well as the relative abundance of targets throughout the development and progression of atherosclerosis. Antibody-based targeting systems are currently the most commonly researched due to their high binding affinities when compared with other ligands, such as antibody fragments, peptides, and other small molecules. However, antibodies tend to be immunogenic due to their size. Engineering antibody fragments can address this issue but will compromise their binding affinity. Peptides are promising ligands due to their synthetic flexibility and low production costs. Alongside the aforementioned binding affinity of ligands, the choice of target and its abundance throughout distinct stages of atherosclerosis and thrombosis is relevant to the intended purpose of the nanomedicine. Further studies to investigate the components of atherosclerotic plaques are required as their cellular and molecular profile shifts over time.
Development of Fusarium oxysporum species complex (FOC) specific primers using Topoisomerase-II gene

Fusarium is widely regarded as one of the most destructive and species-rich groups of phytopathogens. Most of the important crops affected by Fusarium leads to great loss to global agricultural economy. Members of the Fusarium oxysporum complex (FOC) are common soil-borne fungi which are known to cause wilt, crown rot and root rot in a number of crops. Therefore, accurate identification of the FOC pathogens is required for disease management in crops. In this study, 75 Fusarium isolates were recovered from 20 wilted plant and soil samples were taken from NBAIM fields and identified using conventional morphological techniques. Twelve representative strains of Fusarium spp. were identified using 28SrDNA and topoisomerase-II (topo-II) gene sequencing. Sequence analysis of both the genes were made by examining conserved sequences within species and variable sequence in different species in which no species specific sequences were found in 28S rDNA but, were present in topo-II gene sequences. FOC specific forward primer (FO-F) and reverse primer (FO-R) were designed by selecting the specific regions of topo-II gene sequence and tested with five F. oxysporum isolates along with some nonF. oxysporum isolates. The results revealed a single band size of 495 bp in all tested F. oxysporum isolates which was absent in other isolates. The specificity of the primer was validated by taking 23 Fusarium isolates from wilted plants and soil samples. The results showed positive amplification in Fusarium oxysporum isolates whereas no amplification observed in related species. The developed primers were able to identify and discriminate FOC from related species and can be used in ecological studies, disease diagnostics and in screening of infected plants. Date of Submission : 09/02/2017 Date of Acceptance : 02/03/2017 Date of Publication : 28/03/2017 Type of article : Research article ©Copyright 2016 : Mukesh Yadav Corresponding address: Department of Microbiology, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India, Email ID: mukiyadav@gmail.com
Metabolic markers distinguish COVID-19 from other intensive care patients and show potential to stratify for disease risk

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral infection affecting multiple organ systems of great significance for metabolic processes. Thus. there is increasing interest in metabolic and lipoprotein signatures of the disease and early analyses have demonstrated metabolic pattern typical for atherosclerotic and hepatic damage in COVID-19 patients. However, it remains unclear whether these are specific for COVID-19 or a general marker of critical illness. To answer this question, we have analyzed 276 serum samples from 92 individuals using NMR metabolomics, including longitudinally collected samples from 5 COVID-19 and 11 cardiogenic shock intensive care patients, 18 SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positive individuals, and 58 healthy controls. COVID-19 patients showed a distinct metabolic serum profile, including changes typical for severe dyslipidemia and a deeply altered metabolic status compared to healthy controls. Specifically, VLDL parameters, IDL particles, large-sized LDL particles, and the ApoB100/ApoA1 ratio were significantly increased, whereas HDL fractions were decreased. Moreover, a similarly perturbed profile was apparent, even when compared to other ICU patients suffering from cardiogenic shock, highlighting the impact of COVID-19 especially on lipid metabolism and energy status. COVID-19 patients were separated with an AUROC of 1.0 when compared to both healthy controls and cardiogenic shock patients. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody-positive individuals without acute COVID-19 did not show a significantly perturbed metabolic profile compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls, but SARS-CoV-2 antibody-titers correlated significantly with metabolic parameters, including levels of glycine, ApoA2, and small-sized LDL and HDL subfractions. Our data suggest that NMR metabolic profiles are suitable for COVID-19 patient stratification and post-treatment monitoring.
Total lesion glycolysis in oral squamous cell carcinoma as a biomarker derived from pre-operative FDG PET/CT outperforms established prognostic factors in a newly developed multivariate prediction model

Purpose: Retrospective study to investigate the impact of image derived biomarkers from [18F]FDG PET/CT prior to surgical resection in patients with initial diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), namely SUVmax, SUVmean, metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of the primary tumor to predict overall survival (OS). Materials and Methods: 127 subsequent patients with biopsy-proven OSCC were included who underwent [18F]FDG PET/CT before surgery. SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV and TLG of the primary tumor were measured. OS was estimated according to Kaplan-Meier and compared between median-splitted groups by the log-rank test. Prognostic parameters were analyzed by uni-/multivariate Cox-regression. Results: During follow-up 52 (41%) of the patients died. Median OS was longer for patients with lower MTV or lower TLG. SUVmax and SUVmean failed to be significant predictors for OS. Univariate Cox-regression identified MTV, TLG, lymph node status and UICC stage as prognostic factors. By multivariate Cox-regression MTV and TLG turned out to be independent prognostic factors for OS. Conclusions: The pre-therapeutic [18F]FDG PET/CT parameters MTV and TLG in the primary tumor are prognostic for OS of patients with an initial diagnosis of OSCC. TLG is the strongest independent prognostic factor for OS and outperforms established prognostic parameters in OSCC.
The noradrenergic profile of plasma metanephrine in neuroblastoma patients is reproduced in xenograft mice models and arise from PNMT downregulation

Metanephrines (MNs; normetanephrine (NMN), metanephrine (MN) and methoxytyramine (MT)) detected in urine or plasma represent the best biomarker for neuroblastoma (NB) diagnosis, however the metabolism of both catecholamine (CAT) and MNs remains enigmatic in NB. Using patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models derived from primary NB cells, we observed that the plasma levels of MNs in NB-PDX-bearing mice were comparable as in patients. Interestingly, murine plasma displayed an elevated fraction of glucuronidated forms of MNs relative to human plasma where sulfonated forms prevail. In tumors, the concentration ranges of MNs and CAT and the expression levels of the main genes involved in catecholamine metabolism were similar between NB-PDX and human NB tissues. Likewise, plasma and intratumoral profiles of individual MNs, with increased levels of MT and NMN relative to MN, were also conserved in mouse models as in patients. We further demonstrated the downregulation of the Phenylethanolamine N-Methyltransferase gene in NB biopsies and in NB-PDX explaining this biochemical phenotype, and giving a rational to the low levels of epinephrine and MN measured in NB affected patients. Thus, our subcutaneous murine NB-PDX models not only reproduce the phenotype of primary NB tumors, but also the metabolism of catecholamine as observed in patients. This may potentially open new avenues in preclinical studies for the follow up of novel therapeutic options for NB through the quantification of plasma MNs.
Feasibility of Frailty Assessment Integrated with Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Clinic Follow-up: A Pilot Investigation

Background: The concept of frailty was originally created to explain why individuals of the same age have differing risk of disease, and it has since been found to be negatively associated with outcomes for a wide range of medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease and cardiac procedures. Although numerous risk scores and assessment tools have been proposed, opportunities for practical assessment of frailty remain limited. In this pilot study, we examine the feasibility of using routine follow-up of patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) for assessment of frailty. Methods: From September 2017 through March 2018, 49 consecutive patients seen in CIED clinic were enrolled. Among the frailty assessments performed at the clinic visit included a 4-meter walk time, FRAIL scale calculation, Rockwood Frailty score assessment by another treating provider, mini-cog assessment, and analysis of daily activity measures on the CIED. Results: Among the three device manufacturers of patients’ CIEDs, only Boston Scientific released analyzable activity time series data. On nine patients in whom daily activity data could be analyzed, there was no difference in mean daily activity (148.3 ± 31.9 vs. 100.1 ± 25.1 min/day, p = .27) between patients with and without an abnormal frailty or cognitive assessment, although interestingly, those with an abnormal assessment had a higher standard deviation of activity per day (52.6 ± 5.9 vs. 31.4 ± 4.7 min/day, p = .03). Conclusion: It is possible that a higher variation in daily activity over the course of a year could be a better indicator of frailty or cognitive impairment than average daily activity.
Low‐temperature dry etching

Low‐temperature electron‐cyclotron‐resonance microwave plasma etching and reactive ion etching are described for ULSI device fabrication. Highly selective anisotropic etching at a high rate, which implies dry etching without tradeoffs, is performed without changing the discharge parameters. This etching is only achieved at reduced wafer temperatures. The etching mechanism and the model are discussed based on the etching yield results obtained by the mass‐selected reactive ion beam etching experiments. The new etching system and the etching properties obtained for the low‐temperature etching are reviewed comparing those obtained in the conventional reactive ion etching and electron‐cyclotron‐resonance microwave plasma etching.
Ameliorative effects of African walnut on nicotine-induced reproductive toxicity in rat model

Objective: Walnuts are widely consumed nut by men in Nigeria and it has been connected to improving male reproductive health. This study evaluated the effect of African walnut on sperm parameters and testicular architecture of nicotine (NIC)-induced reproductive toxicity in male Wistar rats. Methods: Wistar rats were randomly assigned into four groups, that is, GN0 (1 ml/day normal saline and normal rat chow), GN1 (1 ml/day NIC and normal rat chow), and GN1W6 and GN1W12 (1 ml/day of NIC daily fed with 6% and 12% walnut-rich feed), respectively. This continued for 28 days. The animals were euthanized and their sperm was collected and its parameters were analyzed. The testis was harvested and prepared for histological examination. Results: NIC significantly reduced sperm motility (P = 0.0006) and sperm count (P = 0.0001), induced mild apoptosis of Leydig cells and caused moderate spermatogenic arrest in GN1. However, walnut-supplemented diet significantly increased the NIC-induced reduction in sperm motility (P = 0.04) and sperm count (P = 0.0001) and its consumption was effective in attenuating testicular damage caused by NIC administration in GN1W6 and GN1W12. Conclusion: African walnut could exert therapeutic effect in the reduction of the adverse effect of NIC on the sperm motility, sperm count, and testicular architecture. It is worthwhile to consider it as a useful and affordable supplement to be added to the diet of males with infertility problems.
Influence of zinc on the growth, distribution of elements, and metabolism of one‐year old American ginseng plants

Abstract Using a water culture technique, 0.05 ppm zinc (Zn) was found to be the critical deficiency concentraction for one‐year American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium L) plants, 0.3 ppm was optimum, 0.5 ppm the critical Zn‐toxicity concentration, and 10 ppm the concentration when severe toxicity occurs. Therefore, the optimum Zn concentration for the growth of American ginseng plants was between 0.1 ppm ‐ 0.3 ppm. Zinc deficiency symptoms of one‐year old American ginseng plants were indicated by the inhabition of root growth, with little fibrous root development, and smaller leaves compared to normal leaves. The symptoms of toxicity were also indicated by the inhibition of root growth, and when seedlings were suffering from an acute toxicity, no fibrous roots appeared, and eventually the roots yellowed and leaves grew slowly or even entirely ceased to grow, the final result being very small leaves which are also chlorotic. Zinc maintained within the 0.1 ppm to 0.3 ppm sufficiency range promoted the synthe.