Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activity and Composition of the Denitrifying Bacterial Community Respond Differently to Long-Term Fertilization

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to explore the long-term effects of different organic and inorganic fertilizers on activity and composition of the denitrifying and total bacterial communities in arable soil. Soil from the following six treatments was analyzed in an experimental field site established in 1956: cattle manure, sewage sludge, Ca(NO3)2, (NH4)2SO4, and unfertilized and unfertilized bare fallow. All plots but the fallow were planted with corn. The activity was measured in terms of potential denitrification rate and basal soil respiration. The nosZ and narG genes were used as functional markers of the denitrifying community, and the composition was analyzed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of nosZ and restriction fragment length polymorphism of narG, together with cloning and sequencing. A fingerprint of the total bacterial community was assessed by ribosomal intergenic spacer region analysis (RISA). The potential denitrification rates were higher in plots treated with organic fertilizer than in those with only mineral fertilizer. The basal soil respiration rates were positively correlated to soil carbon content, and the highest rates were found in the plots with the addition of sewage sludge. Fingerprints of the nosZ and narG genes, as well as the RISA, showed significant differences in the corresponding communities in the plots treated with (NH4)2SO4 and sewage sludge, which exhibited the lowest pH. In contrast, similar patterns were observed among the other four treatments, unfertilized plots with and without crops and the plots treated with Ca(NO3)2 or with manure. This study shows that the addition of different fertilizers affects both the activity and the composition of the denitrifying communities in arable soil on a long-term basis. However, the treatments in which the denitrifying and bacterial community composition differed the most did not correspond to treatments with the most different activities, showing that potential activity was uncoupled to community composition.
Insecticidal Effects of Two Plant Aqueous Extracts against Second Instar Larvae of Lycoriella Auripila (Diptera: Sciaridae)

The toxicity of aqueous extracts of two plants, Nicotiana tobacum and Eucalyptus globulus were investigated against second instar larvae of Lycoriella auripila, one of the most important pests of button mushroom, using agar dilution technique. Seven concentrations of aqueous extracts of both plants were applied on second instar larvae and their mortality were evaluated after 24, 48 and 72 h. The obtained results revealed that aqueous extracts of N. tabacum and E. globulus caused 77.55 and 72.5% mortality of larvae of L. auripila at concentration of 4000 ppm after 72h, respectively. Toxicities of tobacco extract after 24, 48 and 72 h were 1.52, 1.85 and 1.70 times greather than eucalyptus, respectively. The estimated LC50 after 24, 48 and 72 h were 7316.5, 2468.5 and 2013.1 ppm for tobacco and 64870.0, 6839.5 and 3326.4 ppm for eucalyptus, respectively. These plants merit further study as potential insecticides for the control of L. auripila. Keywords—LC50, Lycoriella auripila, plants extracts, Toxicity
O que determina a intensidade dos fluxos comerciais entre países? O modelo gravitacional

The Gravity Model has been extensively used in the investigation in international trade research for the last five decades due to its high explanatory power of commercial reality. Since it began to be applied in economic theory in the sixties, the gravity equation has been used to assess the implications of trade policy and the effects of free trade agreements, among other things. In this sense, we discuss some of the trade barriers that can act as the international trade barriers, including trade policy imposed by the World Trade Organization by the governments of each country or the economic situation. The objective of this paper is to review the empirical literature since 1962 related to the evolution and development of the Gravity Model and trade flows of goods, highlighting the effects of model variables in international trade.
Differential regulation of platelet‐derived growth factor stimulated migration and proliferation in osteoblastic cells

Osteoblastic migration and proliferation in response to growth factors are essential for skeletal development, bone remodeling, and fracture repair, as well as pathologic processes, such as metastasis. We studied migration in response to platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF, 10 ng/ml) in a wounding model. PDGF stimulated a twofold increase in migration of osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 cells and murine calvarial osteoblasts over 24–48 h. PDGF also stimulated a tenfold increase in 3H‐thymidine (3H‐TdR) incorporation in MC3T3‐E1 cells. Migration and DNA replication, as measured by BrdU incorporation, could be stimulated in the same cell. Blocking DNA replication with aphidicolin did not reduce the distance migrated. To examine the role of mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinases in migration and proliferation, we used specific inhibitors of p38 MAP kinase, extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), and c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK). For these signaling studies, proliferation was measured by carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) using flow cytometry. Inhibition of the p38 MAP kinase pathway by SB203580 and SB202190 blocked PDGF‐stimulated migration but had no effect on proliferation. Inhibition of the ERK pathway by PD98059 and U0126 inhibited proliferation but did not inhibit migration. Inhibition of JNK activity by SP600125 inhibited both migration and proliferation. Hence, the stimulation of migration and proliferation by PDGF occurred by both overlapping and independent pathways. The JNK pathway was involved in both migration and proliferation, whereas the p38 pathway was predominantly involved in migration and the ERK pathway predominantly involved in proliferation. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Recent Land Degradation and Improvement in China

Abstract Land degradation is a global development and environment issue that afflicts China more than most countries in terms of the extent, economic impact, and number of people affected. Up-to-date, quantitative information is needed to support policy and action for food and water security, economic development, and environmental integrity. Data for a defined, recent period enable us to distinguish the legacy of historical land degradation from what is happening now. We define land degradation as long-term decline in ecosystem function and productivity and measure it by remote sensing of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the greenness index. NDVI may be translated to net primary productivity (NPP). Deviation from the norm serves as a proxy assessment of land degradation and improvement—if other factors that may be responsible are taken into account. These other factors include climate, which may be assessed by rain-use efficiency and energy-use efficiency. Analysis of the 23-year Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI data reveals that, in China over the period 1981–2003, NPP increased overall, but areas of declining climate-adjusted NPP comprise 23% of the country, mainly in south China. About 35% of China's population (457 million out of 1 317 million) depend on the degrading land. Degrading areas suffered a loss of NPP of 12 kgC ha−1 y−1, amounting to almost 60 million tC not fixed from the atmosphere; loss of soil organic carbon from these areas is likely to be orders of magnitude greater. There is no correlation between land degradation and dry lands; it is more of an issue in cropland and forest: 21% of degrading land is cropland and 40% is forest, 24% of the arable and 44% of the forest, respectively. There is no simple statistical relationship between land degradation and rural population density or poverty. Most identified land degradation is in the south and east, driven by unprecedented land-use change.
Cigarette Smoking and Adult Coeliac Disease

Background: While coeliac disease is clearly induced by dietary gluten ingestion in genetically susceptible individuals, other environmental factors may influence the onset of disease. Two studies have suggested that cigarette smoking has a protective role, but a third has not. Methods: We examined the relationship between cigarette smoking and coeliac disease in individuals with coeliac disease diagnosed in adulthood from two large population-based disease registers and age and sex-matched controls from local general practitioner lists. Participants were mailed a three-page lifestyle and general health questionnaire. Smoking habits of coeliacs were compared with controls and with habits reported in the Health Survey for England 1995. Results: An inverse association between current smoking and adult coeliac disease was identified (odds ratio: 0.77 (95% CI 0.56-1.06)) and remained when comparing ever smoked versus never smoked (odds ratio: 0.83 (0.68-1.00)). When the smoking habits of the coeliacs were compared with the national figures, the number of coeliacs who currently smoked was 40% lower than expected (smoking ratio 0.60, 0.46-0.78). This inverse association was accounted for by the behaviour of the 35-54-year age group (odds ratio for ever smoked 0.67 (0.51-0.89)). There was no association with having ever smoked in the younger age group (odds ratio: 1.44 (0.75-2.78)) or the older group (odds ratio: 0.92 (0.67-1.26)). Conclusions: There was an inverse association between adult coeliac disease and cigarette smoking which was accounted for by middle-aged coeliacs having never smoked. These results are consistent with an age-dependent interaction between cigarette smoking and the other environmental factors implicated in coeliac disease, including gluten.
Failure of a noninvasive automated blood pressure monitor to detect the blood pressure after repositioning of the patient's arm.

There are obviously controversies about the possible effect of several anesthetics on platelet aggregation, perhaps due to the different technical approaches and interpretations of the results from study to study. Our investigation was in vitro. In no part of our paper do we extrapolate directly to in vivo conditions. Our results only describe a different behavior of propofol in vitro between two types of samples: isolated platelets and whole blood. In whole blood, erythrocytes and/or leukocytes play an important role in platelet function and in its inhibition by drugs. The in vitro effect of propofol is influenced by the nitric oxide-cGMP pathway interaction with platelet-leukocyte (1). For that reason, we think that whole blood aggregometry could demonstrate better than isolated platelets the inhibitory effect of propofol. Even more, we obtained recent in vivo results in whole blood aggregometry in patients who received a bolus of propofol (1). In these patients, platelet function in isolated platelets was not modified statistically, but using whole blood aggregometry, we observed an inhibitory effect 5 min after the propofol bolus (50% effective dose for collagen 0.5 pg/mL before bolus, 1.9 pg/mL after bolus); moreover, plasma nitrites (as indicators of nitric oxide production) were increased after the propofol bolus. In conclusion, our study is the first step of an investigation that requires other consecutive steps to obtain a definitive conclusion.
Whether or not prophylactic excision of the extrahepatic bile duct is appropriate for patients with pancreaticobiliary maljunction without bile duct dilatation.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The standard treatment for patients with a pancreaticobiliary maljunction (PBM) without bile duct dilatation remains controversial. METHODOLOGY We followed up 29 patients with such PBM who mainly underwent a cholecystectomy alone. The ages of the patients ranged from 3 to 76 years (average age 47.3 years) and the ratio of males to females was 8 vs. 21. When the diameter of the common bile duct was less than 10mm, such bile ducts were diagnosed to have no dilatation. The main clinical indications for surgery were cholecystolithiasis in 15 patients, choledocholithiasis in 3, cholecystocholedocholithiasis in 2, gallbladder polyp in 2, adenomyomatosis in 2, cholecystitis in 2, and protein plug in 1. RESULTS The amylase levels of gallbladder bile in 20 patients ranged from 115 to 460,200 IU/mL (a mean of 191,698 IU/mL). One patient died of gastric cancer 182 months after surgery and two patients died of other diseases 153, 171 months after surgeries, respectively. The remaining 26 patients have all been doing well for 36 months to 326 months after surgery (a median follow-up period, 160.5 months). The 10- and 15-year survival rates were 100% and 89.7%. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, a prophylactic resection of the extrahepatic bile duct and biliary diversion could be unnecessary for patients with PBM without bile duct dilatation.
My Bank Already Gets this Data: Exposure Minimisation and Company Relationships in Privacy Decision-Making

This paper explores how individuals' privacy-related decision-making processes may be influenced by their pre-existing relationships to companies in a wider social and economic context. Through an online role-playing exercise, we explore attitudes to a range of services including home automation, Internet-of-Things and financial services. We find that individuals do not only consider the privacy-related attributes of applications, devices or services in the abstract. Rather, their decisions are heavily influenced by their pre-existing perceptions of, and relationships with, the companies behind such apps, devices and services. In particular, perceptions about a company's size, level of regulatory scrutiny, relationships with third parties, and pre-existing data exposure lead some users to choose an option which might otherwise appear worse from a privacy perspective. This finding suggests a need for tools that support users to incorporate these existing perceptions and relationships into their privacy-related decision making.
Products for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: a patent review (2013 – 2014)

Introduction: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) consists of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and an unspecific IBD. The unclear etiology of IBD is a limiting factor that complicates the development of new pharmacological treatments and explains the high frequency of refractory patients to current drugs, including both conventional and biological therapies. In view of this, recent progress on the development of novel patented products to treat IBD was reviewed. Areas covered: Evaluation of the patent literature during the period 2013 – 2014 focused on chemical compounds, functional foods and biological therapy useful for the treatment of IBD. Expert opinion: Majority of the patents are not conclusive because they were based on data from unspecific methods not related to intestinal inflammation and, when related to IBD models, few biochemical and molecular evaluations that could be corroborating their use in human IBD were presented. On the other hand, methods and strategies using new formulations of conventional drugs, guanylyl cyclase C peptide agonists, compounds that influence anti-adhesion molecules, mAbs anti-type I interferons and anti-integrin, oligonucleotide antisense Smad7, growth factor neuregulin 4 and functional foods, particularly fermented wheat germ with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are promising products for use in the very near future.
Mandatory Retirement and Older Worker Employment Decisions: Evidence from a Matched Difference‐In‐Differences Estimator

In 2008, the minimum age at which private‐sector workers in Taiwan could be forced by their employers to retire from their jobs was raised from 60 to 65 years. In this study, we evaluate the effects of the increase in the mandatory retirement age on the labour supply trend among the elderly using a nationally‐representative Taiwanese panel data set. Based upon the application of a combination of matching and difference‐in‐differences approaches, we find that postponing mandatory retirement has a significant effect, in terms of slowing down the withdrawal of the elderly from the labour force. Among elderly workers affected by the 2008 amendment, particularly those retiring from the public sector, the likelihood of re‐entering the labour market is found to be 3 to 4% higher than that for their counterparts who were not subject to such a constraint, a finding that clearly suggests that an increase in the mandatory retirement age helps to alleviate the problems associated with an aging population in countries where long‐term labour contracts are prevalent.
Synchronizing the Linux system time to a PTP hardware clock

As computer and embedded systems are becoming more complex and distributed, keeping accurate time throughout the whole system becomes a challenging task. The IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol was designed to achieve very accurate synchronization in distributed environments. Linux is becoming the leading operating system for embedded devices, but little attention has been paid to the issue of how to internally synchronize the Linux system clock with the PTP hardware clock. Our paper presents the current status in this area, highlights possible solutions for this problem, and describes our efforts to address this key issue.
Microbial translocation is associated with sustained failure in CD4+ T-cell reconstitution in HIV-infected patients on long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy

Patients with inefficient CD4+ T-cell recovery on virogically suppressive highly active antiretroviral therapy constitute a major clinical hurdle given the threat of HIV/AIDS disease progression. We show heightened circulating lipopolysaccharide associated with plasma enterobacterial DNA and highly activated Ki67+CD4+CD8+ in 24 immunologic-nonresponders (CD4+ T-cell ≤ 200; HIV-RNA ≤ 50) compared with 11 full responders (CD4+ T-cell ≥ 400; HIV-RNA ≤ 50). These data provide novel insight into INRs pathogenesis, since they correlate augmented systemic translocation of microbial bioproducts with T-cell hyperactivation.
Software requirement traceability analysis using text mining methods

In this study, text mining based methods are proposed for requirement traceability analysis which is one of the most essential steps in the software life cycle. It is aimed to automate the requirements traceability process of the software architecture, which is conducted by a data analyst manually, with the proposed methods. For this purpose, besides the tf-idf and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSI/LSA) based approaches which are commonly used in the literature, requirement and design matching activities are realized by using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) title modelling technique and word2vec models. While the tf-idf based LSI approach achieve the highest classification accuracy, the LDA based approach produces relatively lower classification accuracy than LSI models. The word2vec + tf-idf method which has better classification accuracy than both of the word2vec + BOW and BOW alone models is the method producing the third highest performance.
Medium‐chain fatty acids inhibit mitochondrial metabolism in astrocytes promoting astrocyte‐neuron lactate and ketone body shuttle systems

Medium‐chain triglycerides have been used as part of a ketogenic diet effective in reducing epileptic episodes. The health benefits of the derived medium‐chain fatty acids (MCFAs) are thought to result from the stimulation of liver ketogenesis providing fuel for the brain. We tested whether MCFAs have direct effects on energy metabolism in induced pluripotent stem cell‐derived human astrocytes and neurons. Using single‐cell imaging, we observed an acute pronounced reduction of the mitochondrial electrical potential and a concomitant drop of the NAD(P)H signal in astrocytes, but not in neurons. Despite the observed effects on mitochondrial function, MCFAs did not lower intracellular ATP levels or activate the energy sensor AMP‐activated protein kinase. ATP concentrations in astrocytes were unaltered, even when blocking the respiratory chain, suggesting compensation through accelerated glycolysis. The MCFA decanoic acid (300 μM) promoted glycolysis and augmented lactate formation by 49.6%. The shorter fatty acid octanoic acid (300 μM) did not affect glycolysis but increased the rates of astrocyte ketogenesis 2.17‐fold compared with that of control cells. MCFAs may have brain health benefits through the modulation of astrocyte metabolism leading to activation of shuttle systems that provide fuel to neighboring neurons in the form of lactate and ketone bodies. —Thevenet, J., De Marchi, U. , Santo Domingo, J., Christinat, N. , Bultot, L. , Lefebvre, G. , Sakamoto, K. , Descombes, P., Masoodi, M. , Wiederkehr, A. Medium‐chain fatty acids inhibit mitochondrial metabolism in astrocytes promoting astrocyte‐neuron lactate and ketone body shuttle systems. FASEB J. 30, 1913–1926 (2016). www.fasebj. org
Physical and functional characterization of transcriptional control elements in the equine infectious anemia virus promoter

Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a lentivirus that causes a chronic disease of horses characterized by cyclic episodes of fever, anemia, and viremia. Although the genome and promoter of EIAV are much less complex than those of its relatives the primate immunodeficiency viruses, the cellular proteins that activate and regulate transcription of EIAV have not yet been identified. In this report, we show by electrophoretic mobility shift assays and DNase I footprinting that the EIAV promoter contains multiple binding sites for ubiquitous, cell type-specific, and inducible cellular proteins. Functional analysis by transient transfection of canine osteosarcoma (D17) and human epithelial carcinoma (HeLa) cells with EIAV promoters containing deletions or individually mutated DNA-binding sites demonstrated that these DNA-binding elements cooperatively regulate transcriptional activity. A methylated DNA-binding site (MDBP; also designated EF-C or EP) acts as either a positive or negative regulator of promoter activity, depending on the cell type or condition. Two PEA2 elements, an AP-1 site, and an ets/PEA3 motif confer a positive effect on promoter activity. The EIAV promoter is shown to be activated by treatment of HeLa cells with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). DNA-binding activities were induced in PMA-treated HeLa cells and formed complexes on oligonucleotides that contain the EIAV AP-1 and ets/PEA3 elements. Functional analysis of mutated promoters indicated that the ets/PEA3 motif was the principal mediator of PMA activation.