Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The dynamic surface proteomes of allergenic fungal conidia

Fungal spores and hyphal fragments play an important role as allergens in respiratory diseases. In this study, we performed trypsin shaving and secretome analyses to identify the surface-exposed proteins and secreted/shed proteins of Aspergillus fumigatus conidia, respectively. We investigated the surface proteome under different conditions, including temperature variation and germination. We found that the surface proteome of resting A. fumigatus conidia is not static, but instead unexpectedly dynamic, as evidenced by drastically different surface proteomes under different growth conditions. Knockouts of two abundant A. fumigatus surface proteins, ScwA and CweA, were found to function only in fine-tuning the cell wall stress response, implying that the conidial surface is very robust against perturbations. We then compared the surface proteome of A. fumigatus to other allergy-inducing molds, including Alternaria alternata, Penicillium rubens, and Cladosporium herbarum, and performed comparative proteomics on resting and swollen conidia, as well as secreted proteins from germinating conidia. We detected 125 protein ortholog groups, including 80 with putative catalytic activity, in the extracellular region of all four molds, and 42 nonorthologous proteins produced solely by A. fumigatus. Ultimately, this study highlights the dynamic nature of the A. fumigatus conidial surface and provides targets for future diagnostics and immunotherapy.
Do free-range systems have potential to improve broiler welfare in the tropics?

SUMMARY Much research has been conducted to mitigate the impact of conventional production systems on broilers welfare, but nearly all of these studies are based on the development of strategies to improve performance parameters in temperate regions, making it difficult to implement such approaches in tropical environments. Stocking density is one of the main housing variables that influences the birds’ development. Optimal stocking density ranges from 25 kg to 40 kg liveweight per m2, with no less than 1 m2 of outdoor area per bird in some cases, for a minimum of 8 h of free-range access per day, according to welfare legislations in different jurisdictions worldwide. Several studies with commercial-line broiler chickens have shown that they are adapted to the environmental characteristics of tropical regions if the temperature is below 30°C, relative humidity levels below 80% inside the housing and stocking density does not exceed 30 kg/m2. Therefore, Latin America has great potential for the implementation of a free-range production system. The use of local resources, like forage plants for feed and natural materials with good thermal insulation properties for housing construction could be a good alternative to make this system feasible. C4 plants present in tropical ecosystems have a high rate of water-use efficiency in temperatures between 30-35°C, which may increase the productivity of crops, fodder and pastures. Those plants are a good option to stimulate ranging in chickens, due to both their abilities as covering crop and fast-growing. The review concludes that outdoor access has the potential to improve broiler welfare in tropical regions, but it is still necessary to develop standards and regulations that ensure its proper functioning and, consequently, chicken welfare.
Revisiting memory assignment semantics in imperative programming languages

This thesis studies the semantics of imperative programming languages. In particular, it explores the relationship between the syntax and semantics of memory assignment. The contributions are threefold. First, I developed a theoretical programming language, called the assignment calculus, to uniformly express the assignment semantics of imperative programming languages. Second, I formalized common memory errors (e.g. access to uninitialized memory and memory leaks) in the context of this language, and provided dynamic and static approaches to prevent them. Third, I developed a general purpose programming language called Anzen, based on the theoretical foundation of the assignment calculus.
Predictive significance of myeloperoxidase for the occurrence of postoperative vascular complications

New findings on the activity of myeloperoxidase in the course of an inflammatory process associated with infections and vascular lesions indicate its role in the state of oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction as well as its predictive value for cardiovascular insults. The products of actions by myeloperoxidase represent an integrative mechanism connecting the tissue lesions, infectious, inflammatory processes, oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction and the development of vascular insult (the most common are the arterial and venous thrombosis and consecutive embolism). The most common complications of an operative surgical treatment are vascular. Seen from a conservative standpoint the most common are arterial and venous thrombosis, but more broadly suture dehiscence could be considered as a consequence of the impaired microcirculation. Operational procedures as well as the underlying pathology lead to the activation of inflammatory cascade with the activation of myeloid lineage cells whereby a release and activation of myeloperoxidase, which in addition to antimicrobial exerts multiple vascular operations. Increased concentrations of myeloperoxidase in the plasma up to three months before the clinical expression of vascular insult indicates its predictive value. Current research portrays the possibility of adjusting the successful result of the action of myeloperoxidase and prevention of vascular complications.
99mTc-MPD bone scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging in axial skeleton bone metastasis detection: a comparative study

Poster: "ECR 2015 / C-0368 / 99mTc-MPD bone scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging in axial skeleton bone metastasis detection: a comparative study" by: "S. Lucic1, A. Peter2, D. Petkovic1, I. Djan2, M. A. Lucic2; 1Sremska Kamenica/RS, 2Novi Sad/RS"
High correlation of species diversity patterns between specialist herbivorous insects and their specific hosts

The relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the species diversity of temperate organisms has been debated for a long time. Here, we used drepanosiphine aphids as a model group to validate the ‘resource‐dependent hypothesis’ based on the biotic interactions for specialist herbivorous insects, a hypothesis stating that their intricate relationship with host plants for resources might constrain their species diversity from being positively correlated with the species diversity of their hosts, and to assess the role of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the global species diversity pattern of temperate organisms.
Construction of a religious identity status questionnaire

This study presents a construction and psychometric evaluation of the Religious Identity Status Questionnaire ? RISQ for the assessment of the religious identity status according to Marcia? s ego identity status approach. The initial item pool was generated based on Erikson? s theory of psychosocial development, Marcia? s ego identity status approach and interviews with adolescents and young adults. A factor analysis of the initial item pool was performed on data obtained from a sample of 394 secondary school and university students from Serbia to select items for the questionnaire. Validity of the questionnaire was examined on a sample of 1155 subjects. The results of the CFA suggest that subscales of the RISQ measure four factors corresponding to the identity statuses of Marcia? s model. Correlations with ideological identity subscales of the EOM? EIS? 2 suggest the convergent validity of the questionnaire. Configural measurement invariance was established for gender and denominational groups. Metric invariance was established for gender and among orthodox and catholic participants, whereas scalar invariance was established for gender, but not for denominational groups.
O impacto dos choques do preço do petróleo sobre os mercados acionários latino-americanos: uma abordagem comportamental

O objetivo desta pesquisa e analisar o impacto dos choques do preco do petroleo sobre o retorno das acoes dos mercados acionarios latino-americanos. Diferentemente das analises tradicionais, a abordagem adotada neste artigo considera que o mercado de acoes pode reagir de forma assimetrica a choques positivos e negativos do preco do petroleo nos diferentes estados de mercado. Considerando que a existencia destas assimetrias pode estar relacionada a aspectos comportamentais dos investidores e do mercado, utilizamos um metodo com capacidade de detectar os aspectos comportamentais existentes na relacao entre o preco do petroleo e o mercado de acoes. Os resultados indicam que os choques positivos e negativos do preco petroleo impactam de formas diferentes o retorno das acoes nos paises latino-americanos. Mostramos ainda que as exposicoes ao preco do petroleo sao homogeneas nos mercados acionarios da america latina apresentando caracteristicas especificas em mercados de alta e baixa. Esses resultados estao de acordo com a Teoria do Prospecto e confirmam empiricamente a ideia intuitiva de que a assimetria existente entre o preco do petroleo e o retorno das acoes pode estar relacionada a aspectos comportamentais.
Proposal of an Automated Mission Manager for Cooperative Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for ocean interventions. Typical operations imply the pre-loading of a pre-generated mission plan into the AUV before being launched. Once deployed, the AUV waits for a start command to begin the execution of the plan. An onboard mission manager is responsible for handling the events that may prevent the AUV from following the plan. This approach considers the management of the mission only at the vehicle level. However, the use of a mission-level manager in coordination with the onboard mission manager could improve the handling of exogenous events that cannot be handled fully at the vehicle level. Moreover, the use of vehicle virtualization by the mission-level manager can ease the use of older AUVs. In this paper, we propose a new mission-level manager to be run at a control station. The proposed mission manager, named Missions and Task Register and Reporter (MTRR), follows a decentralized hierarchical control pattern for self-adaptive systems, and provides a basic virtualization in regard to the AUV’s planning capabilities. The MTRR has been validated as part of the SWARMs European project. During the final trials we assessed its effectiveness and measured its performance. As a result, we have identified a strong correlation between the length of mission plan and the time required to start a mission ( ρ s = 0.79 , n = 45 , p 0.001 ). We have also identified a possible bottleneck when accessing the repositories for storing the information from the mission. Specifically, the average time for storing the received state vectors in the relational database represented only 18.50% of the average time required for doing so in the semantic repository.
Text Analytics of Customers on Twitter: Brand Sentiments in Customer Support

Brand community interactions and online customer support have become major platforms of brand sentiment strengthening and loyalty creation. Rapid brand responses to each customer request though inbound tweets in twitter and taking proper actions to cover the needs of customers are the key elements of positive brand sentiment creation and product or service initiative management in the realm of intense competition. In this research, there has been an attempt to collect near three million tweets of inbound customer requests and outbound brand responses of international enterprises for the purpose of brand sentiment analysis. The steps of CRISP-DM have been chosen as the reference guide for business and data understanding, data preparation, text mining, validation of results as well as the final discussion and contribution. A rich phase of text pre-processing has been conducted and various algorithms of sentiment analysis were applied for the purpose of achieving the most significant analytical conclusions over the sentiment trends. The findings have shown that the sentiment of customers toward a brand is significantly correlated with the proper response of brands to the brand community over social media as well as providing the customers with a deep feeling of reciprocal understanding of their needs in a mid-to-long range planning.
Rotwurzelsalbei und Cryptotanshinon: spezifische Inhibitoren der Keratinisierung von Hautzellen

Die getrockneten Rhizome und Wurzeln von Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge sind eine in der Traditionellen Chinesischen Medizin (TCM) – dort als Danshen oder Dan Shen bezeichnete – sehr häufig verwendete Droge. Die Droge ist mittlerweile auch im Europäischen Arzneibuch monografiert. S. miltiorrhiza gehört ebenso wie unsere heimischen Salbeiarten zur Familie der Lamiaceae. Typische Merkmale für diese Familie lassen sich auch bei dieser im asiatischen Raum beheimateten Art wiederfinden. Die 30–70 cm hohe Sprossachse ist deutlich vierkantig und behaart Abb. 1a, 1b. Die dekussiert angeordneten Blätter sind bis zu 8 cm lang und weisen einen gesägten bis gebuchteten Blattrand auf. Die für die Familie charakteristischen Lippenblüten sind violett gefärbt und haben den typischen viergeteilten Fruchtknoten, aus dem sich später die Klausenfrüchte bilden. Das Wurzelwerk, welches diesem Salbei seinen deutschen Namen gibt, ist rötlich bis rostig orange gefärbt Abb. 1c. Im mikroskopischen Querschnitt wird dabei deutlich, dass die für die rote Farbe verantwortlichen Substanzen vorrangig in der Wurzelrinde lokalisiert sind Abb. 1d.
IPC-related pleural infection vs. colonisation - to treat or not to treat?

Introduction: Reported rates of Indwelling Pleural Catheter (IPC)-related pleural infection range from 0-12%, but it can be difficult to distinguish infection from colonisation. The latter is of critical importance with intra-pleural immunotherapies entering trials, e.g. in Mesothelioma (MPM). We report the rate of antibiotic receipt for suspected infection, and patterns potentially suggestive of colonisation. Methods: IPC cases were reviewed retrospectively (2010-2018). Cases who received antibiotics were dichotomised into ‘early/’late’ (antibiotic receipt ≤/>4 weeks). ‘Late’ cases were further dichotomised into those with/without post hoc criteria for likely true infection: fever, frank pus or >50% CRP rise. Underlying tumour type, cultures and treatment were compared. Results: 19/80 (24%) cases received antibiotics. 89% had positive cultures; 0% had fever or frank pus. Surgery and mortality rates were 0%. Median time to treatment was 13 (IQR 5 – 39) weeks. 15/19 (79%) cases were classified as ‘late’. 3/4 (75%) cultures in ‘early’ cases yielded Staphylococci. ‘Late’ case cultures yielded various organisms. MPM was more common in ‘late’ (60%) than ‘early’ cases (25%). 11/19 (58%) met post hoc criteria for likely true infection, all based on CRP rise. 5/8 (63%) of cases not meeting these criteria cultured gram negative organisms or coagulase negative Staphylococci, in whom treatment was often conservative (50% oral antibiotics only). Conclusion: Rates of antibiotic receipt were higher than in previous series. Positive culture rate was high, suggesting most patients were treated for positive cultures. ‘Late’ cases commonly had MPM and potentially non-pathogenic organisms. IPC colonisation rates require prospective study.
Extended cervicoplasty: assessment of long-term results

Introduction: Introduction: Extended cervicoplasty is used to treat the aging stigmas of the lower third of the face, especially in cases of severe tissue sagging. However, the maintenance of its long-term results has been little studied in the literature. Objective: To assess the maintenance of the results of extended cervicoplasty in the long-term. Methods: Twenty-three patients with severe tissue sagging underwent extended cervicoplasty, having been followed up for five years. The postoperative results in the first and fifth year were evaluated by 8 plastic surgeons. The analysis of the results was performed using the McNemar and paired t-student tests. Results: In the first year, 12 (52.2%) patients had the outcome rated as very good, 9 (39.1%) as moderate and 2 (8.7%) as poor. In the fifth year, 9 (39.1%) had the outcome classified as very good, 11 (47.8%) as moderate and 3 (13.1%) as poor. None of the patients had the outcome rated as excellent or bad in any of the analyzed periods. There was no significant difference regarding the classification (p = 0.450); and the total score (p = 0.373) during the study period. Conclusion: Even in difficult cases, extended cervicoplasty provided good results that were maintained in the long-term.
NFC/RFID Patch Coil Curvature Effect and Shielding for Medical Applications Wirelessly Powered

This paper presents the design of a flexible $4\times 4$ cm2 square coil for a medical wearable NFC/RFID patch. In such application, the coil is connected to an IC which can power supply an embedded medical sensor. This energy harvesting ability is achieved by inductive resonant coupling using NFC technology at 13.56 MHz. As the patch is fixed on human body (arm), the influence of the human tissue, the need of patch flexibility as well as the interest of a shielding must be investigated. This work focuses herein on the influence of the patch curvature on the coil ability to capture magnetic fields and thus on the recovered energy. This influence, related to the mistuning of the coil, is studied with and without shielding, by means of magnetic and conductive material layers. Measurements show the possible recoverable power level using a NFC chip (NXP NT3H) as the dedicated IC.
Desarrollo de una herramienta de software para la gestión del mantenimiento de infraestructura en el SENA regional Antioquia

This article describes the development of a software tool to solve the problem of management for the processes of infrastructure maintenance of the National Training Service - SENA Regional Antioquia. Previously, those maintenance tasks were requested through cumbersome procedures using Excel formats, Word documents, and e-mail messages. The sheer quantity of transactions and communications involved difficulted the traceability of the tasks and the optimal allocation of human and technical resources to perform the corrective measures. The web management tool developed minimizes downtime of the staff, allowing the organization to optimize human resources. Also, the software affects economic and environmental factors through effective and appropriate maintenance management of equipment. Besides, this tool contributes to sustainable development minimizing the use of paper by the offering of alerts and notifications online and preventing the physical impression of the formats for each stage of the process. Developed software also simplifies the calculation of statistics, since it can be known with certainty the number of executed operations a given time. The precise tracking and control of maintenance processes are fundamental for management in any organization or company owning goods or properties in need of periodic maintenance.
A two steps method of resources utilization predication for large Hadoop data center

With the increase of data processing and Hadoop data center construction requirements, the performance of Hadoop data center is limited by inappropriate resources utilization. This paper introduces a new method to predict utilization for large‐scale Hadoop clusters. The new method adopts a two steps model, which includes Hadoop applications' performance simulation and resources utilization prediction. For performance simulation, a new simulator, which integrates baseline test and multilayered network model, is introduced and implemented. A resources utilization predictor is proposed in the second step. By analyzing the pattern of resources utilization, a single task model is proposed. A parallel‐batch‐task‐based (PBT) model, which represents the behavior of real Hadoop applications by integrating the single task model, is introduced. Two test scenarios are configured to verify the performance of our method. For the data center scenario, Terasort, Wordcount, and Hive are selected as benchmarks. In the virtual machines scenario, Terasort is used as benchmark. The experiments show that the error comparing between the simulator results and experimental environment results in most cases is less than 10%. The results confirm that we can locate the resource bottleneck for Hadoop clusters, meanwhile we can agilely configure clusters for applications with massive data.
Improved Water Repellency and Dimensional Stability of Wood via Impregnation with an Epoxidized Linseed Oil and Carnauba Wax Complex Emulsion

Natural wood is susceptible to moisture during its practical use, limiting not only service life but also the range of uses. In this study, plant extracts, specifically linseed oil and carnauba wax (both environmentally friendly and water-repellent substances), were examined as a means to mitigate limitations of natural wood. Stable and homogenous epoxidized linseed oil/carnauba wax emulsions with an average particle size less than 230 nm were used as a modifier to enhance the performance of wood. Weight percentage gain, bulking coefficient, micromorphology, chemical structure, moisture adsorption, contact angle, water repellency, and dimensional stability of treated wood were measured. Using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), it was observed that carnauba wax and epoxidized linseed oil acted as a mechanical barrier and could partially cover or block vessels, pits, and wood rays. Furthermore, the hydrophobicity of wood increased significantly after emulsion impregnation. However, there was no obvious chemical reaction between epoxidized linseed oil and the main components of wood in the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results. The combined effect of epoxidized linseed oil and carnauba wax was apparent in both decreased water absorption and dimensional deformation. Poplar wood impregnated with an epoxidized linseed oil/carnauba wax complex emulsion shows potential for improving water-related properties. Thus, the complex emulsion modification can improve the inherent shortcoming of poplar wood effectively.
Obecność przedstawicieli polskiej informatologii i bibliologii w serwisach społecznościowych dla naukowców Academia.edu i Researchgate

Teza/Cel – Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie obecności grupy polskich specjalistów z zakresu informatologii i bibliologii w serwisach Academia.edu i ResearchGate oraz określenie jej struktury według wieku, płci, wykształcenia, zajmowanego stanowiska i zainteresowań badawczych. W kontekście tego badania słowo ‘obecność’ jest rozumiane jako założenie konta, niezależnie od formy i stopnia zaangażowania w działania prowadzone w jego obrębie. Metody – Zgodnie z założoną metodyką wyszukiwania kont pracowników naukowych z dziedziny informatologii i bibliologii w portalach Academia.edu i ResearchGate została stworzona baza danych zawierająca informacje na temat zmiennych wieku, płci, statusu naukowego i zainteresowań badawczych osób, których konta zostały rozpoznane w badanych serwisach. Następnie przy użyciu metod ilościowych ukazano strukturę demograficzną polskich specjalistów z zakresu informatologii i bibliologii, posiadających konta w Academia.edu i ResearchGate. Wyniki i wnioski – Badania umożliwiły ukazanie portretu przedstawiciela informatologii i bibliologii jako użytkownika mediów społecznościowych dla naukowców ograniczonego do zakresu cech wieku, płci, statusu naukowego i zainteresowań badawczych. Obraz badacza, zarejestrowanego w serwisie Academia.edu i ResearchGate, który wyłonił się jako wynik przeprowadzonych badań, pokazuje, że w większości skończył on 35 lat, jest kobietą, ze stopniem naukowym doktora, zatrudnionym na stanowisku adiunkta, specjalizującym się w sposób porównywalny w informatologii lub bibliologii.