Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct conversion of Bi nanospheres into 3D flower-like BiOBr nanoarchitectures with enhanced photocatalytic properties

Herein, we demonstrate for the first time the direct conversion of metallic Bi nanospheres into three-dimensional (3D) flower-like BiOBr nanoarchitectures at room temperature, which exhibited much higher photocatalytic performance for the photodegradation of organic dyes than 2D BiOBr nanoplates under visible light irradiation.
mRNA expression analysis confirms CD44 splicing impairment in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Background Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a complex chronic autoimmune disease characterized by several immunological alterations. T cells have a peculiar role in SLE pathogenesis, moving from the bloodstream to the peripheral tissues, causing organ damage. This process is possible for their increased adherence and migration capacity mediated by adhesion molecules, such as CD44. Ten different variant isoforms of this molecule have been described, and two of them, CD44v3 and CD44v6 have been found to be increased on SLE T cells compared to healthy controls, being proposed as biomarkers of disease and disease activity. The process of alternative splicing of CD44 transcripts is not fully understood. We investigated the mRNA expression of CD44v3 and CD44v6 and also analyzed possible CD44 splicing regulators (ESRP1 molecule and rs9666607 CD44 polymorphism) in a cohort of SLE patients compared to healthy controls. Methods This study involved 18 SLE patients and 18 healthy controls. Total RNA and DNA were extracted by peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The expression study was conducted by quantitative RT-polymerase chain reaction, using SYBR Green protocol. Genotyping of rs9666607 SNP was performed by direct sequencing. Results CD44v6 mRNA expression was higher in SLE patients compared to healthy controls (p = 0.028). CD44v3/v6 mRNA ratio in healthy controls was strongly unbalanced towards isoform v3 compared to SLE patients (p = 0.002) and decreased progressively from healthy controls to the SLE patients in remission and those with active disease (p = 0.015). The expression levels of CD44v3 and CD44v6 mRNA correlated with the disease duration (p = 0.038, Pearson r = 0.493 and p = 0.038, Pearson r = 0.495, respectively). Splicing regulator ESRP1 expression positively correlated with CD44v6 expression in healthy controls (p = 0.02, Pearson r = 0.532) but not in SLE patients. The variant A allele of rs9666607 of CD44 was associated with higher level of global CD44 mRNA (p = 0.04) but not with the variant isoforms. Conclusions In SLE patients, the increase in CD44v6 protein correlates with a higher transcript level of this isoform, confirming an impairment of CD44 splicing in the disease, whose regulatory mechanisms require further investigation.
Removal of oxytetracycline (OTC) in a synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater by sequential anaerobic multichamber bed reactor (AMCBR)/completely stirred tank reactor (CSTR) system: biodegradation and inhibition kinetics

BACKGROUND: The antibiotics in industrial and munipical wastewaters could not be removed effectively in conventional anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment plants. Few studies have been performed to investigate the biodegradation and inhibition kinetics of oxytetracycline (OTC) on methanogens and total volatile fatty acids (TVFA). RESULTS: A high rate anaerobic multichamber bed reactor (AMCBR) was effective in removing the molasses-chemical oxygen demand (COD), and the OTC antibiotic with yields as high as 96% at an influent OTC loading rate of 133.33 gOTC m−3 day−1 at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2.25 days. Increasing the OTC loading rates from 22.22 gOTC m−3 day−1 to 133.33 gOTC m−3 day−1 improved both hydrolysis and specific utilization of molasses-COD. The inhibition constants of TVFA (KI−TVFA−meth) and OTC (KI−OTC−meth) on methanogens decreased at OTC loadings > 133.33 gOTC m−3 day−1. The direct effect of OTC loadings > 133.3 gOTC m−3 day−1 on acidogens and methanogens was evaluated using the Haldane inhibition kinetic. CONCLUSION: OTC antibiotic was effectively removed in a sequential AMCBR/completely stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The Haldane inhibition constant (KID) decreased significantly at high OTC loads indicating the increase in toxicity. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry
The uptake of nutrients by sunflower plants (Helianthus annum) growing in a continuous flowing culture system, supplied with nitrate or ammonium as nitrogen source

Sunflower plants (Helianthus annuus) were grown in a continuous flow nutrient system, in which nitrogen was supplied, under controlled pH conditions, in either the NO3-or NH4-form. Nutrient uptake and distribution, as well as dry matter production of the plants, was followed over the growth period. The results obtained may be summarized as follows: 1. At all stages in development, growth was somewhat greater in the plants of the NO3-treatment, but the difference between the two treatments was not large. The similarity in the behaviour of plants in the two nitrogen treatments is discussed in relation to the maintenance of a high pH in the nutrient medium. 2. The mean rates of uptake of Ca, Mg, K, and Na, expressed per unit root length, were all higher in the NO3-fed plants. For P, the mean rate of uptake was higher in the NH4-fed plants. 3. The levels of K, Ca, Mg, and Na, per unit dry weight, were higher in the NO3-fed plants, but for P the converse was true. 4. The higher uptake of Ca and Mg by NO3-fed plants was reflected in the higher concentrations of these elements in the leaves. In the case of K, accumulation occurred in the roots. 5. From the results of selected harvests, it was found that total nitrogen uptake was higher in the NO3-fed plants. Nahrstoffaufnahme von Sonnenblumen (Helianthus annuus) in Flieskultur bei Nitrat-und Ammonium-N-Ernahrung Sonnenblumenpflanzen wurden in standig fliesender Nahrlosung bei NH4-oder NO3-N-Ernahrung herangezogen. Der pH-Wert wurde im Bereich von 6,5–6,8 konstant gehalten. Wahrend der gesamten Vegetationsperiode wurden Aufnahme und Verteilung der Nahrstoffe und die Trockenmassebildung verfolgt. Die Ergebnisse lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: 1. In allen Entwicklungsstadien war der Ertrag bei Nitraternahrung groser als bei Ammonium-N-Ernahrung. Die Unterschiede waren jedoch gering. Die Ahnlichkeit des Verhaltens der Pflanzen unter dem Einflus der beiden N-Formen wird mit der Einhaltung eines hohen pH-Wertes der Nahrlosung in Verbindung gebracht. 2. Die mittleren Aufnahmeraten von Ca, Mg, K und Na waren pro Einheit Wurzellange bei den NO3-N-ernahrten Pflanzen, die P-Aufnahmeraten dagegen bei den NH4-N-ernahrten Pflanzen groser. 3. Entsprechend waren die Gehalte an K, Ca, Mg und Na bei NO3-N-Ernahrung, die P-Gehalte dagegen bei NH4-Ernahrung hoher. 4. Die hohere Ca-und Mg-Aufnahme der NO3-ernahrten Pflanzen zeigte sich an hoheren Gehalten dieser Elemente in den Blattern, die Wurzeln wiesen dagegen eine starkere K-Akkumulation auf. 5. Aus den Ergebnissen einzelner Ernten ergab sich, das die Gesamt-N-Aufnahme der Pflanzen bei NO3-N-Ernahrung groser als bei NH4-N-Ernahrung war.
ReCiter: An open source, identity-driven, authorship prediction algorithm optimized for academic institutions

Academic institutions need to maintain publication lists for thousands of faculty and other scholars. Automated tools are essential to minimize the need for direct feedback from the scholars themselves who are practically unable to commit necessary effort to keep the data accurate. In relying exclusively on clustering techniques, author disambiguation applications fail to satisfy key use cases of academic institutions. Algorithms can perfectly group together a set of publications authored by a common individual, but, for them to be useful to an academic institution, they need to programmatically and recurrently map articles to thousands of scholars of interest en masse. Consistent with a savvy librarian’s approach for generating a scholar’s list of publications, identity-driven authorship prediction is the process of using information about a scholar to quantify the likelihood that person wrote certain articles. ReCiter is an application that attempts to do exactly that. ReCiter uses institutionally-maintained identity data such as name of department and year of terminal degree to predict which articles a given scholar has authored. To compute the overall score for a given candidate article from PubMed (and, optionally, Scopus), ReCiter uses: up to 12 types of commonly available, identity data; whether other members of a cluster have been accepted or rejected by a user; and the average score of a cluster. In addition, ReCiter provides scoring and qualitative evidence supporting why particular articles are suggested. This context and confidence scoring allows curators to more accurately provide feedback on behalf of scholars. To help users to more efficiently curate publication lists, we used a support vector machine analysis to optimize the scoring of the ReCiter algorithm. In our analysis of a diverse test group of 500 scholars at an academic private medical center, ReCiter correctly predicted 98% of their publications in PubMed.
A dynamic goal adapted task oriented dialogue agent

Purpose Existing virtual agents (VAs) present in dialogue systems are either information retrieval based or static goal-driven. However, in real-world situations, end-users might not have a known and fixed goal beforehand for the task, i.e., they may upgrade/downgrade/update their goal components in real-time to maximize their utility values. Existing VAs are unable to handle such dynamic goal-oriented situations. Methodology Due to the absence of any related dialogue dataset where such choice deviations are present, we have created a conversational dataset called Deviation adapted Virtual Agent(DevVA), with the manual annotation of its corresponding intents, slots, and sentiment labels. A Dynamic Goal Driven Dialogue Agent (DGDVA) has been developed by incorporating a Dynamic Goal Driven Module (GDM) on top of a deep reinforcement learning based dialogue manager. In the course of a conversation, the user sentiment provides grounded feedback about agent behavior, including goal serving action. User sentiment appears to be an appropriate indicator for goal discrepancy that guides the agent to complete the user’s desired task with gratification. The negative sentiment expressed by the user about an aspect of the provided choice is treated as a discrepancy that is being resolved by the GDM depending upon the observed discrepancy and current dialogue state. The goal update capability and the VA’s interactiveness trait enable end-users to accomplish their desired task satisfactorily. Findings The obtained experimental results illustrate that DGDVA can handle dynamic goals with maximum user satisfaction and a significantly higher success rate. The interaction drives the user to decide its final goal through the latent specification of possible choices and information retrieved and provided by the dialogue agent. Through the experimental results (qualitative and quantitative), we firmly conclude that the proposed sentiment-aware VA adapts users’ dynamic behavior for its goal setting with substantial efficacy in terms of primary objective i.e., task success rate (0.88). Practical implications In real world, it can be argued that many people do not have a predefined and fixed goal for tasks such as online shopping, movie booking & restaurant booking, etc. They tend to explore the available options first which are aligned with their minimum requirements and then decide one amongst them. The DGDVA provides maximum user satisfaction as it enables them to accomplish a dynamic goal that leads to additional utilities along with the essential ones. Originality To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort towards the development of A Dynamic Goal Adapted Task-Oriented Dialogue Agent that can serve user goals dynamically until the user is satisfied.
Characterisation of Starch from Durum Wheat (Triticum durum)

Starches from 3 common wheats and 10 durum wheats were isolated using a method causing little starch damage and annealing. Durum wheat starches contained 0.21–0.29 % ash, 0.44–0.57 % protein, 0.39–0.54 % lipid, and 26.2–28.5 % amylose. Wide angle X-ray diffraction measurements revealed A-type diffraction patterns. Durum wheat starches gelatinised over a broad temperature range (12.5 °C) around 55.5 °C (peak temperature), as measured with Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) (starch/water = 1/2; heating rate = 4 °C/min). Under the experimental conditions, swelling power was typically 11.3 g/g and amylose leaching during gelatinisation was ca. 17.2 %. The granule size distributions showed a large heterogeneity within the starches of the durum wheat family. Clear differences were found in the gelatinisation behaviour of durum and common wheat starches. Earlier swelling of the common wheat starches during gelatinisation and the larger enthalpy of amylose-lipid endothermic transition (ca. 1.3 mJ/mg) in the DSC for durum wheat starches can be explained in terms of true lipid contents and levels of amylose-lipid inclusion complexes. Other findings, such as the earlier gelatinisation behaviour of durum wheat starches revealed by DSC, cannot be explained in that way. Differences in starch double helix content between the two wheat families were found.
Oxygen and reactive oxygen species-dependent regulation of plant growth and development.

Oxygen and reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been co-opted during evolution into the regulation of plant growth, development and differentiation. ROS and oxidative signals arising from metabolism or phytohormone-mediated processes control almost every aspect of plant development from seed and bud dormancy, liberation of meristematic cells from the quiescent state, root and shoot growth and architecture, to flowering and seed production. Moreover, the phytochrome and phytohormone-dependent transmission of ROS waves is central to the systemic whole plant signaling pathways that integrate root and shoot growth. The sensing of oxygen availability through the Cys/Arg N-degron pathway functions alongside ROS production and signaling but how these pathways interact in developing organs remains poorly understood. Considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the nature hydrogen peroxide sensors and the role of thiol-dependent signaling networks in the transmission of ROS signals. Reduction/oxidation (redox) changes in the glutathione pool (GSH), glutaredoxins (GRX) and thioredoxins (TRX) are important in the control of growth mediated by phytohormone pathways. Although, it is clear that the redox states of proteins involved in plant growth and development are controlled by the NADPH/NADPH thioredoxin reductase (NTR)/thioredoxin (TRX) and reduced GSH/GRX systems of the cytosol, chloroplasts, mitochondria and nucleus, we have only scratched the surface of this multilayered control and how redox-regulated processes interact with other cell signaling systems.
Anal cancer screening and prevention: a review for dermatologists

The incidence of and mortality from anal cancer, predominantly squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), have been increasing since the 1980s, during an era when many common malignancies have seen decreases in mortality. Dermatologists may be more likely to see patients at an increased risk for anal SCC, such as those living with HIV, MSM and those presenting for management of anogenital warts, yet there is little guidance in the field on how to manage these patients. We underwent a project to review the evidence surrounding screening and prevention of anal SCC. HPV vaccination, the main preventative measure for anal SCC, is often underutilized and may not be effective for those most at risk. Screening methods currently include high‐risk HPV and anal cytology testing, with high‐resolution anoscopy (HRA) reserved for biopsy and confirmatory testing. High‐risk HPV testing has been associated with high sensitivity for intraepithelial neoplasia, but low specificity in high‐risk groups. Recent meta‐analyses examining AIN detection using anal cytology estimate a similarly high sensitivity of 74–87%, with a relatively higher specificity (44–66%) for identifying high‐grade AIN. HRA is the gold standard for diagnosis, but its accessibility and cost are deterrents from its use as a screening tool. Cervical cancer screening, initially adopted without significant evidence of its impact, has significantly decreased cervical cancer rates. The argument can be made that rates of anal SCC may also benefit from appropriate screening methods, particularly anal cytology. It is prudent for dermatologists to be aware of the methods available to them in the management of at‐risk patients, the data supporting them, and the potential benefits of screening in order to counsel patients appropriately and address the increasing burden of disease.
Rate of Immunohistochemistry Utilization in the Diagnosis of Cutaneous Melanocytic Lesions

Abstract: Melanocytic lesions represent a large portion of the workload in many laboratories. Although many melanocytic nevi can be confidently diagnosed based on routine hematoxylin and eosin light microscopy, ancillary testing is often warranted. Various immunohistochemical (IHC) stains are routinely used in the diagnosis of melanocytic lesions. Because melanocytic lesions are frequently encountered in skin specimens, the use of IHC is likely to represent a significant area of resource utilization in dermatopathology laboratories. Our study investigates the rate of IHC utilization in the diagnosis of melanocytic lesions in a high-volume, government-funded, not-for-profit laboratory. Of the 1230 cases of melanocytic lesions investigated, including benign as well as malignant entities, 300 cases involved the utilization of IHC. IHC was used in a larger percentage of melanomas than nevi and in a larger percentage of melanoma in situ cases than invasive melanomas. SOX10 was overwhelmingly the most frequently used IHC.
New answers to the old RIDDLE: RNF168 and the DNA damage response pathway

The chromatin‐based DNA damage response pathway is tightly orchestrated by histone post‐translational modifications, including histone H2A ubiquitination. Ubiquitination plays an integral role in regulating cellular processes including DNA damage signaling and repair. The ubiquitin E3 ligase RNF168 is essential in assembling a cohort of DNA repair proteins at the damaged chromatin via its enzymatic activity. RNF168 ubiquitinates histone H2A(X) at the N terminus and generates a specific docking scaffold for ubiquitin‐binding motif‐containing proteins. The regulation of RNF168 at damaged chromatin and the mechanistic implication in the recruitment of DNA repair proteins to the damaged sites remain an area of active investigation. Here, we review the function and regulation of RNF168 in the context of ubiquitin‐mediated DNA damage signaling and repair. We will also discuss the unanswered questions that require further investigation and how understanding RNF168 targeting specificity could benefit the therapeutic development for cancer treatment.
Optimizing defibrillation during cardiac arrest

Purpose of review Current cardiac arrest guidelines are based on a fixed, time-based defibrillation strategy. Rhythm analysis and shock delivery (if indicated) are repeated every 2 min requiring cyclical interruptions of chest compressions. This approach has several downsides, such as the need to temporarily stop cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for a variable amount of time, thus reducing myocardial perfusion and decreasing the chance of successful defibrillation. A tailored defibrillation strategy should identify treatment priority for each patient, that is chest compressions (CCS) or defibrillation, minimize CCs interruptions, speed up the delivery of early effective defibrillation and reduce the number of ineffective shocks. Recent findings Real-time ECG analysis (using adaptive filters, new algorithms robust to chest compressions artifacts and shock-advisory algorithms) is an effective strategy to correctly identify heart rhythm during CPR and reduce the hands-off time preceding a shock. Similarly, ventricular fibrillation waveform analysis, that is amplitude spectrum area (AMSA) represents a well established approach to reserve defibrillation in patients with high chance of shock success and postpone it when ventricular fibrillation termination is unlikely. Both approaches demonstrated valuable results in improving cardiac arrest outcomes in experimental and observational study. Summary Real-time ECG analysis and AMSA have the potential to predict ventricular fibrillation termination, return of spontaneous circulation and even survival, with discretely high confidence. Prospective studies are now necessary to validate these new approaches in the clinical scenario.
Brain‐wide mapping of presynaptic inputs to basolateral amygdala neurons

The basolateral amygdala (BLA), a region critical for emotional processing, is the limbic hub that is connected with various brain regions. BLA neurons are classified into different subtypes that exhibit differential projection patterns and mediate distinct emotional behaviors; however, little is known about their presynaptic input patterns. In this study, we employed projection‐specific monosynaptic rabies virus tracing to identify the direct monosynaptic inputs to BLA subtypes. We found that each neuronal subtype receives long‐range projection input from specific brain regions. In contrast to their specific axonal projection patterns, all BLA neuronal subtypes exhibited relatively similar input patterns. This anatomical organization supports the idea that the BLA is a central integrator that associates sensory information in different modalities with valence and sends associative information to behaviorally relevant brain regions.
A New Approach To the Determination of the External Surface and Micropore Volume of Zeolites From the Nitrogen Adsorption-isotherm At 77-k

Nitrogen adsorption isotherms have been carried out on Y zeolites and dealuminated Y zeolites, mordenites and dealuminated mordenites, and ZSM-5 zeolites. The treatment of these isotherms by the Dubinin-Radushkevich method has led to a first estimation of the microporous volume of these zeolites. The t method has been used to determine their external surface and to obtain estimation of the microporous volumes. It is shown that the Dubinin-Radushkevich method overestimates the microporous volume of solids with important external surface. It is also shown that the choice of the standard t function and the part of the V-t curve considered for the Linear fitting may drastically influence the microporous volume and the external surface obtained by the t method. A new way of treating the N-2 adsorption isotherm to establish the microporous volume and the external surface of zeolites is proposed. This method assumes that the experimental adsorption isotherm may be decomposed into two parts corresponding, respectively, to the adsorption on the external surface and to the adsorption in the micropores. It is considered that the BET equation governs the adsorption on the external surface, while the adsorption in the micropores can be described by the Dubinin-Radushkevich equation. The correlation coefficient of the BET curve obtained from the experimental isotherm corrected for the adsorption in the micropores is optimized by adjusting the limiting adsorption volume and the adsorption energy of the Dubinin-Radushkevich equation. The C-BET, the microporous volumes, and the energy of adsorption in the micropores obtained in this way are consistent with the data of the literature.