Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional differences in presence of Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli virulence‐associated genes in the environment in the North West and East Anglian regions of England

Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli is carried in the intestine of ruminant animals, and outbreaks have occurred after contact with ruminant animals or their environment. The presence of STEC virulence genes in the environment was investigated along recreational walking paths in the North West and East Anglia regions of England. In all, 720 boot sock samples from walkers’ shoes were collected between April 2013 and July 2014. Multiplex PCR was used to detect E. coli based on the amplification of the uidA gene and investigate STEC‐associated virulence genes eaeA, stx1 and stx2. The eaeA virulence gene was detected in 45·5% of the samples, where stx1 and/or stx2 was detected in 12·4% of samples. There was a difference between the two regions sampled, with the North West exhibiting a higher proportion of positive boot socks for stx compared to East Anglia. In univariate analysis, ground conditions, river flow and temperature were associated with positive boot socks. The detection of stx genes in the soil samples suggests that STEC is present in the English countryside and individuals may be at risk for infection after outdoor activities even if there is no direct contact with animals.
Parsimonious Models for Predicting Mortality from Choroidal Melanoma

Purpose To develop parsimonious models for estimating metastasis mortality in patients with choroidal melanoma for situations where use of the Liverpool Uveal Melanoma Prognosticator Online (LUMPO) or Tumor, Node, Metastasis (TNM) staging system is not possible. Methods A backward-selection algorithm identified largest basal tumor diameter (LBTD) and chromosome 3 status (C3S) as the most informative predictors of metastatic death. We defined two prognostic models, based on LBTD with or without known C3S, that took into account competing risks of death from other causes by using the Aalen estimator. The bootstrap procedure was used to estimate discrimination accuracy, expressed by the C-index. Results The cohort was comprised of 8348 patients with choroidal melanoma, 4174 of whom had known chromosome 3 status; of the 1553 deaths that occurred among these patients, 956 were attributed to metastasis. For LBTD with or without known C3S, the metastatic-death-specific C-indices at 2, 5, and 10 years were 0.85, 0.85, and 0.84 and 0.79, 0.77, and 0.74, respectively, as compared with 0.81, 0.79, and 0.76 for Kaplan–Meier prognostication using the 8th edition of the TNM staging system. Conclusions We have developed parsimonious models for predicting the absolute risks of metastatic death from choroidal melanoma that take into account competing causes of death and which compare favorably with the current version of the TNM staging system. There is a need for further studies to validate the use of these models in situations where use of the TNM or LUMPO is not possible.
Purification of human dna for dna profiling from body fluid contaminated soil using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (spions).

Extraction of good quality DNA from soil samples is difficult due to the co-extraction of humic acid and phenolic compounds which can inhibit downstream DNA profiling of samples. Several methods are available for DNA extraction from soil including a number of commercially available kits. We used varying amounts (5 mg to 250 mg) of soil contaminated with human body fluid (saliva, semen and blood) to compare commercial kits (Powersoil® and PrepFiler™), a standard phenol/chloroform extraction method, and a method employing superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) generated in-house. Extraction success and level of purity of the human DNA extracted using these methods were assessed by quantifying the amount of DNA recovered using a Nanodrop 2000 and the amount of humic acid recovered using UV-Vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, successful human DNA profiling was assessed using an in-house generated four-plex PCR assay amplifying fragments of 70 bp, 194 bp, 305 bp and 384 bp, as well as the commercial Powerplex® 16 DNA profiling kit amplifying 16 different amplicons. Our results indicate that the PrepFiler™ kit and phenol/chloroform whilst successful at extracting DNA, contained very high levels of humic acid in the extracted DNA greatly impairing DNA profiling even after dilution of DNA (1 in 10) and addition of higher amounts of Taq (5U). The PowerSoil® kit in contrast, performed best by recovering the most DNA whilst removing the most humic acid, and good quality DNA profiles were obtained without the requirement for dilution of the DNA or addition of extra Taq. However, using extensive optimisation procedures using SPIONs, we have developed a protocol that is able to achieve results very similar to those achieved using Powersoil®, thereby greatly reducing the cost per sample.
Rye bread and other rye products

Publisher Summary Among the cereal grains, rye (Secale cereale, L.) is quite similar to wheat despite important differences in its chemical composition and technological properties. Rye is mainly grown and consumed as food in northern Europe; the major producers are Russia, Poland, Germany, Belarus, and Ukraine. Rye is an important source of Dietary Fiber (DF) in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. The main rye foods include dark and sour breads, loaf bread with sifted rye flour, crisp bread, and flakes for porridges and breakfast cereals. Currently, there is also a growing interest in including rye in convenience and snack foods. The rye grain is one potential candidate raw material for functional and healthy foods. It has the potential to add variety to the cereal foods available for human consumption and to increase the level of DF and associated bioactive compounds. This chapter reviews the chemistry of the rye grain, its nutrients and bioactive compounds, rye food products, and the technologies involved in their production. It describes bioavailability of various bioactive compounds in rye and discusses the health benefits of rye foods. Rye food products, mostly bread, are made of whole, steel cut, and crushed or milled rye kernels that can also be malted.
Brefeldin A and mannose 6-phosphate regulation of acrosomic related vesicular trafficking.

: Acrosomal biogenesis represents a unique system for the molecular analysis of the various processes involved in vesicular membrane transport. To assess the basic membrane trafficking mechanisms used in spermatids, we have used two fluorescent lipid compounds that label: a) the Golgi and Golgi-derived vesicles (C5-DMB-Cer), and b) endocytic vesicles (FM4-64). Incubation of mouse testicular germ cells at 33 degrees C for 1.5 h with C5-DMB-Cer revealed that C5-DMB-Cer labeling is localized in the Golgi and acrosome of early-maid round spermatid stages, with no labeling of the acrosome in late round spermatid stages. Culturing germ cells with FM4-64 for 1.5 h at 33 degrees C, showed that FM4-64 labeling in spermatids was localized in endocytic vesicles and Golgi of early-mid round spermatid stages, whereas in a small population of late round spermatid stages, FM4-64 was also localized in the apex region of the acrosome. Incubation with brefeldin A (BFA) (5 micrograms/ml) inhibited the distribution of C5-DMB-Cer and FM4-64 to the acrosome, however, it did not affect the localization of acrosin-an acrosome-specific protein-indicating that there was no apparent acrosome disassembly in the presence of BFA. Localization of FM4-64 in late round spermatids in the presence of 2.5 mM mannose 6-phosphate was found in endocytic vesicles and the Golgi, but not the acrosome. These results show that there are at least two sources of vesicular transport to the acrosome derived from the Golgi and plasma membrane.
Dietary supplementation of artificial sweetener and capsicum oleoresin as a strategy to mitigate the negative consequences of heat stress on pig performance.

Pigs exposed to elevated ambient temperatures exhibit reduced daily gain, alterations in muscle and fat deposition, and decreased health. Negative aspects of gastrointestinal (GI) function, integrity and permeability also occur. High intensity sweeteners can ameliorate the negative effects of heat stress (HS) by increasing GI glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-2 production while capsicum oleoresin has been shown to reduce inflammatory response. Effects of an artificial high intensity sweetener and capsicum oleoresin (CAPS-SUC; TakTik X-Hit, Pancosma, Switzerland) on growth performance of pigs were examined. Forty-eight pigs (12 weeks of age, 43.2 kg ± 4.3 kg) were assigned to six treatments: thermoneutral conditions (21°C ± 1.1°C; 40% to 70% relative humidity) fed ad libitum with (TN+) or without supplement (TN-), heat stress (35°C ± 1°C; 20% to 40% relative humidity) fed ad libitum with (HS+) or without supplement (HS-), and thermoneutral conditions pair-fed to HS intake with (PFTN+) or without supplement (PFTN-). Supplementation (0.1g/kg feed) began 2 days prior to the 3-day environmental treatment period. Body weights and blood samples were collected on day -1 and day 3. Rectal temperature (RT) and respiration rate (RR) were measured thrice daily and feed intake (FI) was recorded daily. Intestinal sections were collected for histology. Pigs in HS conditions exhibited increased RT (~1.2°C) and RR (~2.7-fold) compared to TN and PFTN groups (P < 0.01). HS+ animals had increased RR when compared to HS- animals (P < 0.02). Heat stress decreased FI compared to TN. HS and PFTN decreased (P < 0.05) average daily gain (ADG) compared to TN. Supplement did not alter body weight gain. HS and PFTN decreased (P < 0.05) Gain:Feed compared to TN during environmental treatment. Supplementation with CAPS-SUC increased Gain:Feed by 0.12 (P < 0.05). Circulating glucose concentrations tended to decrease in CAPS-SUC vs. non-supplemented HS and PFTN animals (P ≤ 0.1). Circulating insulin concentrations as well as monocyte count increased in HS compared to PFTN (P < 0.04) but did not differ from TN and likely linked to altered feed intake. CAPS-SUC increased basophil count (P < 0.02), irrespective of environment. Ileal villus height tended to decrease during HS and PFTN compared to TN (P < 0.08), indicating an effect of intake. Overall, CAPS-SUC supplementation increased pig feed efficiency and may improve immune response.
Retrospective Analysis of Eighty-Nine Caesarean Section Cases with Abnormal Placental Invasion.

Objective Abnormal placental invasion (API) is defined as an abnormal adherence of the placenta to the underlying uterine wall. Undiagnosed API may result in catastrophic maternal haemorrhage during delivery. In the present retrospective analysis, anaesthetic and surgical records were evaluated in patients with API who had undergone caesarean delivery (CD). Methods Clinical records of 89 patients with API who had undergone CD were retrospectively reviewed in our clinic between April 2010 and February 2017. Results Amongst the patients, 87 (97.8%) had a history of previous CD and 68 (76.4%) had placenta previa. In regression analysis, weak positive correlation was found between an increase in packed red blood cell (PRBC) (r=0.420, p=0.001) and fresh frozen plasma (FFP) (r=0.476, p=0.022) transfusions and time of hospital stay. PRBC and FFP consumptions were significantly greater in intensive care unit (ICU) patients than in non-ICU patients (p<0.001). ICU requirement were significantly greater in patients who had more than average crystalloid (p=0.004) and colloid (p<0.001) infusions. Elective CD was performed in 81 (91%) patients and emergency CD in 8 (9%). PRBC transfusions were 7±4.3 U in patients undergoing emergency CD and 3.85±3 U in patients undergoing elective CD (p=0.034). The number of patients requiring care in ICU was 4 (50%), who underwent emergency CD and 12 (14%) who underwent elective CD, (p=0.032). Conclusion It is crucial that the anaesthesiologist should be familiar with the risk factors and diagnosis of API because of the potential risk of massive haemorrhage. Multidisciplinary approach with surgery and blood bank decreases the amount of bleeding, blood transfusion requirement, ICU and hospital stay in patients with API.
Patellar Tendinopathy: A Review of Literature

IntRoductIon Patellar Tendinopathy (PT), also known as jumper’s knee, is common in athletes who participate in sports that require jumping and running activities, such as soccer, volleyball, basketball, and tennis, among others. It is characterised by progressive activity related anterior knee pain and tenderness in the patellar tendon. These symptoms may lead to limited activity and reduced sports participation in recreational athletes and impaired performance among professional players that may even impair their athletic career [1]. A survey conducted by Victorian Institute revealed that one third of athletes with PT was unable to continue their training and competition for at least six months despite the treatment strategies applied [2]. Once the symptoms become aggravated, even the activities of daily living, such as stair climbing, squatting, and prolonged sitting, may be affected. Several theories on its pathogenesis have been formulated. Most authors and clinicians support a conservative management, such as modification of training and activities, eccentric exercises, Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS), and stretching. However, if conservative management is not beneficial, a surgical approach should be considered.
Evaluation of Mogroside V as a Promising Carrier in Drug Delivery: Improving the Bioavailability and Liver Distribution of Silybin

The objective of this work was to investigate the capacity of mogroside V (MOG-V), a food additive, as a novel carrier to improve the bioavailability and liver distribution of silybin (SLY). Solid dispersion particles (SDPs) of SLY/MOG-V were prepared utilizing the solvent evaporation method. The physicochemical characterizations of SDPs were evaluated by using dynamic light scattering (DLS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements. DLS results demonstrated the formation of nanoparticles (206 nm) of SDPs in water. DSC and PXRD analysis revealed that SLY was in amorphous form or molecularly dispersed in SDPs. SDPs also exhibited a major increase in both dissolution rate and saturation solubility, as evidenced by a 1931-fold improvement (2201 μg/mL) in solubility compared with pure SLY (1.14 μg/mL). The pharmacokinetic study in rats showed that oral absorption of SLY/MOG-V SDPs was dramatically increased. The mean value of AUC until 12 h for SLY/MOG-V SDPs (27,481 ng·min/mL) was 24.5-fold higher than that of pure SLY (1122 ng·min/mL). In vivo tissue distribution experiment in mice confirmed that the major distribution tissue was changed from lungs to liver after SLY was loaded into MOG-V. In addition, even orally administrated to mice at a high dose (4.2 g/kg), MOG-V exhibited no undesirable effect on the plasma glucose concentrations. Thus, MOG-V may have the applicability to serve as an ideal excipient for solubilization or as a novel liver targeting carrier for the delivery of SLY.
Improving wheat protein quality for breadmaking: The role of biotechnology

Abstract: Biotechnology offers an opportunity to improve the breadmaking quality of wheat by changing the amounts of endogenous proteins, by expressing proteins from related species or by designing novel forms of proteins with specific properties. The major determinants of breadmaking performance are gluten proteins which account for about 80% of the total protein in white flour. Manipulation of high molecular weight (HMW) glutenin subunit genes by up- and down-regulation results in changes to functional properties.
Efficacy of composts on nitrogen fixation, dry root rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) intensity and yield of legumes.

An experiment was conducted during 1995-97 to study the disease suppressive characteristics of composts. The efficacy of three composts prepared from residues of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. emend. Stuntz), neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) and weeds was ascertained on nitrogen fixation, dry root rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolin a and seed yield of clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub. ) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp). Amendment of soil with pearl millet and weed composts for two consecutive years' reduced resident population of M. phaseolina by 20-40% compared with the non-amended plots. Associated increase in antagonistic actinomycetes (28-50%) and lytic bacteria (60-70%) accounted for 20-60% reduction in plant mortality due to dry root rot in both the crops in amended plots. This resulted in higher seed yield of clusterbean (23-46%) and cowpea (13-70%). Further, amendment with composts, in general was beneficial for both the arid legumes in termS of nodulation and nitrogenase activity.
From the Theory of Aging to Loneliness Policies

The social exclusion of older people challenges the notion of aging well, both from a scientific and a political perspective. In this context, the responses brought to this issue through public policies may vary depending on the diverse scientific theories they are built upon. In France, the first political response to the social exclusion of older people has been the social inclusion policies of the 1960s. In later years, the growing medicalization of old-age policies contributed to relegating this issue to the background, until it resurfaced in the early 2000s with the abnormally high death toll of the 2003 heat wave. The notion of loneliness then replaced social exclusion, highlighting a lack of social cohesion where older people are concerned. The fight against isolation and loneliness became a national cause and was handed over to local stakeholders. This paper analyzes the design and implementation of projects and initiatives targeting older people, and discusses a survey of older people examining feelings of loneliness and/or uselessness. We will begin with a brief overview of theories on successful aging, to show how the question of social exclusion eventually came to the forefront. We will then examine the evolution of this notion in French old-age policies. Finally, we will present the findings of the VIEU project, offering avenues of reflection to consider social inclusion from a new perspective. Citation: Balard F, Miron A, Botteau T (2019) The Social Inclusion of Older People in France: Social Participation, Loneliness and Giving. J Gerontol Geriatr Med 5: 040.
The Opportunity Structure for the Local Employment of Japanese Workers in Hong Kong: A Perspective from Staffing Agencies

In this paper, we investigate the career opportunity structure of Japanese self-initiated expatriates (SIE) who live in Hong Kong. Many Japanese people feel familiarity with Hong Kong, and it remains one of the major destinations for Japanese migrants. In the field of migration studies, there are mainly two research frameworks, namely the economic model and the lifestyle migration model. Pointing out the limitations of these conceptual frameworks, we highlight the importance of placing further emphasis on the structural aspects. After the literature review that examines previous findings, we pose the following questions: first, the reason their opportunity for upward mobility does not expand, and second, whether there is any SIE’s career process which we can positively evaluate. To investigate these questions, we propose tentative hypotheses which focus on the relationships between individual and organizational factors. Based on these research interests, we conducted interviews with staffing agencies in August 2018 and utilized the interview data to obtain tentative answers. Through our interviews, we found that the interdependent relationships between Japanese firms and SIEs might be to the disadvantage of the latter group. Japanese SIEs have to remove themselves from the Japanese working context if they are to find opportunities for upward mobility. We also describe the ways in which the socioeconomic circumstances surrounding both Japanese firms and SIEs have changed, and how its change has affected the labor supply-demand relationship in the Hong Kong labor market. Under the structural change in labor market situations in Hong Kong, staffing agencies as intermediaries will keep playing an essential role in the Japanese SIE’s opportunity structure. 1 This work is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18H00922. We thank Prof. Leng Leng Thang for her helpful comments and advice on our project. We also appreciate our informants in Hong Kong for their interviews.
Piecewise smooth reconstruction of normal vector field on digital data

We propose a novel method to regularize a normal vector field defined on a digital surface (boundary of a set of voxels). When the digital surface is a digitization of a piecewise smooth manifold, our method localizes sharp features (edges) while regularizing the input normal vector field at the same time. It relies on the optimisation of a variant of the Ambrosio‐Tortorelli functional, originally defined for denoising and contour extraction in image processing [ AT90 ]. We reformulate this functional to digital surface processing thanks to discrete calculus operators. Experiments show that the output normal field is very robust to digitization artifacts or noise, and also fairly independent of the sampling resolution. The method allows the user to choose independently the amount of smoothing and the length of the set of discontinuities. Sharp and vanishing features are correctly delineated even on extremely damaged data. Finally, our method can be used to enhance considerably the output of state‐of‐the‐art normal field estimators like Voronoi Covariance Measure [ MOG11 ] or Randomized Hough Transform [ BM12 ].
Identification of Leishmania tropica by PCR and RFLP Techniques in Kohat Region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a worldwide public health and a social problem in many developing countries. This disease is also found in Pakistan in general and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular. A total of 100 samples were examined from clinically suspected Cutaneous Leishmaniasis patients under sterilized conditions in village Sordag, District Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The DNA was extracted and amplified through PCR and reconfirmed by RFLP technique. The PCR showed the result 53% (53/100) were positive, in which 67.30% (35/100) were female while 37.50% (18/100) male positive. These results were reconfirmed through RFLP which also showed 186bp amplified fragment. It is concluded that PCR-RFLP appears to be most sensitive and appropriate techniques for the detection of Leishmania tropica.
Audio Translation Tasks with Conditional Adversarial Networks

—This paper explores the applicability of conditional generative adversarial networks in audio-to-audio translation problems and proposes a neural network architecture capable of doing so. Recent advances have shown than causal convolutions can be effective for modeling raw audio when their kernel is dilated by many factors, in contrast to previous techniques that utilized recurrent approaches. Embedding such convolutions within a conditional GAN architecture allows the targeted generation of raw audio given a certain input. This architecture can then be used to learn and simulate certain translative operations applied to an input signal. This creates the deﬁned problem of havving to converting one audio signal into another which has different characteristics. We also propose a novel discriminator structure for the evaluation of generated audio.