Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exceptional subgenome stability and functional divergence in allotetraploid teff, the primary cereal crop in Ethiopia

Teff (Eragrostis tef) is a cornerstone of food security in the Horn of Africa, where it is prized for stress resilience, grain nutrition, and market value. Despite its overall importance to small-scale farmers and communities in Africa, teff suffers from low production compared to other cereals because of limited intensive selection and molecular breeding. Here we report a chromosome-scale genome assembly of allotetraploid teff (variety ‘Dabbi’) and patterns of subgenome dynamics. The teff genome contains two complete sets of homoeologous chromosomes, with most genes maintained as syntenic gene pairs. Through analyzing the history of transposable element activity, we estimate the teff polyploidy event occurred ∼1.1 million years ago (mya) and the two subgenomes diverged ∼5.0 mya. Despite this divergence, we detected no large-scale structural rearrangements, homoeologous exchanges, or bias gene loss, contrasting most other allopolyploid plant systems. The exceptional subgenome stability observed in teff may enable the ubiquitous and recurrent polyploidy within Chloridoideae, possibly contributing to the increased resilience and diversification of these grasses. The two teff subgenomes have partitioned their ancestral functions based on divergent expression patterns among homoeologous gene pairs across a diverse expression atlas. The most striking differences in homoeolog expression bias are observed during seed development and under abiotic stress, and thus may be related to agronomic traits. Together these genomic resources will be useful for accelerating breeding efforts of this underutilized grain crop and for acquiring fundamental insights into polyploid genome evolution.
A real-time home power resource management method

In this work, a real time Home Power Resource Management system is presented. This system includes grid with time-of-use pricing, photovoltaic panels and storage battery as power resources, and uses a main controller and the developed rule based algorithm to manage these resources for reducing the electricity cost and avoiding high peak demand simultaneously. In the prescribed time intervals, the algorithm is executed and it selects power resource(s) to cater the power demand during the current time interval according to prescribed priorities and without exceeding certain limits on power drawn from the grid. Furthermore, a simulation program implementing the proposed algorithm is developed using software tools Matlab and AgilentVee. Obtained numerical results showed that the algorithm significantly reduces the electricity cost and high peak demand.
Glutamine modulates the changes of intestinal intraepithelial γδT lymphocyte expression in mice with ischemia/reperfusion injury

This study investigated the effect of glutamine (GLN) on small intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) γδT‐cell proinflammatory cytokines and apoptotic regulatory factor genes expression in a mouse model of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Mice were assigned to a normal (NC) group and 3 I/R groups. Mice in the NC group had no ischemia treatment, whereas I/R groups had hindlimb ischemia 90 min with 0 h or 24 h reperfusion afterwards. IR0 group was sacrificed immediately after reperfusion. IR24S group was injected with saline and IR24G group was given 0.75 g GLN/kg body weight once via tail vein before reperfusion. IR24 groups were sacrificed 24 h after reperfusion. The small intestinal IEL γδT‐cells of the animals were isolated for further analysis. Results showed that IR injury resulted in lower small intestinal IEL γδT‐cells percentage and higher proinflammatory cytokines messenger (m)RNA expressions of interleukin (IL)‐1β, IL‐6, tumor necrosis factor‐α by IEL γδT‐cells. Compared to the IR24S group, the IR24G group had higher IEL γδT‐cells percentage. The fold changes of mRNA of anti‐apoptosis Bcl‐xl and proliferation gene IL‐7R expression in IR24G were higher in IEL γδT‐cells. Histological findings also showed that damage to the intestinal mucosa was less severe in the IR group with GLN.These results indicated that a single dose of GLN administered before reperfusion maintained small intestinal IEL γδT‐cell population and reduced the intestinal inflammatory cytokine expressions, which may consequently have ameliorated the severity of IR‐induced small intestinal epithelial injury.
Prevalence and mitigation of aflatoxins in Kenya (1960-to date)

Aflatoxins are highly toxic metabolites of several Aspergillus species widely distributed throughout the environment. These toxins have adverse effects on humans and livestock at a few micrograms per kilogram (μg/kg) concentrations. Strict regulations on the concentrations of aflatoxins allowed in food and feed exist in many nations in the developing world. Loopholes in implementing regulations result in the consumption of dangerous concentrations of aflatoxins. In Kenya, where ‘farm-to-mouth’ crops become severely contaminated, solutions to the aflatoxins problem are needed. Across the decades, aflatoxins have repeatedly caused loss of human and animal life. A prerequisite to developing viable solutions for managing aflatoxins is understanding the geographical distribution and severity of food and feed contamination, and the impact on lives. This review discusses the scope of the aflatoxins problem and management efforts by various players in Kenya. Economic drivers likely to influence the choice of aflatoxins management options include historical adverse health effects on humans and animals, cost of intervention for mitigation of aflatoxins, knowledge about aflatoxins and their impact, incentives for aflatoxins safe food and intended scope of use of interventions. It also highlights knowledge gaps that can direct future management efforts. These include: sparse documented information on human exposure; few robust tools to accurately measure economic impact in widely unstructured value chains; lack of long-term impact studies on benefits of aflatoxins mitigation; inadequate sampling mechanisms in smallholder farms and grain holding stores/containers; overlooking social learning networks in technology uptake and lack of in-depth studies on an array of aflatoxins control measures followed in households. The review proposes improved linkages between agriculture, nutrition and health sectors to address aflatoxins contamination better. Sustained public awareness at all levels, capacity building and aflatoxins related policies are necessary to support management initiatives.
Towards the quantitative characterization of piglets’ robustness to weaning: A modelling approach

Weaning is a critical transition phase in swine production in which piglets must cope with different stressors that may affect their health. During this period, the prophylactic use of antibiotics is still frequent to limit piglet morbidity, which raises both economic and public health concerns such as the appearance of antimicrobial-resistant microbes. With the interest of developing tools for assisting health and management decisions around weaning, it is key to provide robustness indexes that inform on the animals capacity to endure the challenges associated to weaning. This work aimed at developing a modelling approach for facilitating the quantification of piglet resilience to weaning. We monitored 325 Large White pigs weaned at 28 days of age and further housed and fed conventionally during the post-weaning period without antibiotic administration. Body weight and diarrhoea scores were recorded before and after weaning, and blood was sampled at weaning and one week later for collecting haematological data. We constructed a dynamic model based on the Gompertz-Makeham law to describe live weight trajectories during the first 75 days after weaning following the rationale that the animal response is partitioned in two time windows (a perturbation and a recovery window). Model calibration was performed for each animal. Our results show that the transition time between the two time windows, as well as the weight trajectories are characteristic for each individual. The model captured the weight dynamics of animals at different degrees of perturbation, with an average coefficient of determination of 0.99, and a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.99. The utility of the model is that it provides biological parameters that inform on the amplitude and length of perturbation, and the rate of animal recovery. Our rationale is that the dynamics of weight inform on the capability of the animal to cope with the weaning disturbance. Indeed, there were significant correlations between model parameters and individual diarrhoea scores and haematological traits. Overall, the parameters of our model can be useful for constructing weaning robustness indexes by using exclusively the growth curves. We foresee that this modelling approach will provide a step forward in the quantitative characterization of robustness. Implications The quantitative characterization of animal robustness at weaning is a key step for management strategies to improve health and welfare. This characterization is also instrumental for the further design of selection strategies for productivity and robustness. Within a precision livestock farming optic, this study develops a mathematical modelling approach to describe the body weight of piglets from weaning with the rationale that weight trajectories provide central information to quantify the capability of the animal to cope with the weaning disturbance.
SEM AND HRTEM ANALYSIS OF CARBON NANOSTRUCTURES SYNTHESIZED WITH A NEW PULSED ELECTRIC ARC DISCHARGE TECHNIQUE

We propose and investigate a new method for the synthesis of carbon nanostructures by electric arc discharge, which consists of a sharp cathode and a rotating anode specially designed to create a discontinuous and periodic discharge over block-shaped compacted powders of catalytic mixture. With this design it is possible to control the pulse time width and frequency of discharge by variation of the size of the catalytic blocks and of the anode angular speed. This arrangement imposes important changes to conventional growth conditions of carbon nanostructures which are of central relevance in nucleation and growth models, such as the stability of the plasma jet plume, and gradients in temperature and in carbon concentration, among others. To illustrate the type of structures that can be obtained with this method we present some results under the following conditions: catalytic mixture of C (graphite), Ni, Co, Fe and S powders in 95/0.5/2.8/1.4/0.3 % molar fraction concentrations, respectively, 200 torr hydrogen atmosphere, 360 rpm anode angular velocity, 13.8 ms discharge pulse time width and 24 Hz pulse repetition rate. Under these conditions we are able to synthesize double wall carbon nanotubes. Other carbon nanostructures obtained under diverse preparation conditions are described. The synthesized structures are analyzed with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy as well as with Raman spectroscopy.
The occurrence of disinfection by-products in U

alpha -Naphthol is prepared by dehydrogenating alpha -Tetralone in the presence of a catalyst comprising (1) platinum or a platinum compound, (2) an alkali metal salt, and (3) a manganese compound and/or a chromium compound supported on a gamma-type alumina carrier. By using such catalyst, the conversion of alpha -Tetralone is markedly increased, and the catalyst life is very much prolonged.
Design and Optimization of a Wind System Using a Genetic Algorithm

Aims: The aim sought is to design a wind energy system can meet the energy needs of a rural household in minimizing both the economic cost and the energy cost of the system over its life cycle while ensuring continuity in the provision of electrical energy. Study Design: Design of a wind system study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy, Laboratory Energy and Applied Mechanics, between September 2012 and March 2013. Methodology: We have adopted an approach that requires a combination of field work and scientific work. A survey has been conducted in the locality chosen to know the equipment used to determine the consumption profile; some players were involved in determining the weight we assigned to different criteria. The NSGA-II algorithm, evolutionary genetic type was used in the context of determining the set of optimal solutions of compromise. Design variables used are the wind turbines number, batteries number, wind turbine type, battery type and height of the mast of the wind. The various programs developed have been implemented in Matlab. The method proposed has been applied to a rural household locality of Benin, named Dekin to ensure its power supply. Results: The design made it possible to generate several candidate solutions that are Research Article Physical Review & Research International, 3(4): 367-384, 2013 368 available to the user. There is also the implementation of solutions and promoting the shedding of solutions providing continuous coverage of consumer needs. Conclusion: The multi-objective design of a wind system is not an easy task since antagonistic criteria are taken into account. To this end, we found a compromise by assigning different weight goals. Solutions to economic and energy low cost are found while improving the sevice delivered to the consumer.
Cell/Battery Testing by Calculated Discharge Curve Method Initial Algorithm

Calculated Discharge Curve Method was developed to assist battery engineers in cell/battery characterisation. Cell/battery discharging is defined by both: (1) unobservable open-circuit voltages (thermodynamical way), and (2) observable discharge voltages, (kinetic way). Cell/battery exploitation characteristics (discharge time, capacity, energy on load, and energy losses) were related to the closed discharge voltage interval as the independent variable. Cell/battery exploitation characteristics were generated, using either: (a) automatically (high frequency) or (b) manually (low frequency) monitored data. Calculated Discharge Curve Method may be applied to any cell/battery test, without investment. Cell/battery standard and new exploitation characteristics dependencies may be analysed on: temperature, discharge mode, load intensity, cell/battery design. Cell/battery polarisation curves, battery’s cells classification, secondary battery history, battery specification, stationary battery specification and test, may be performed and analysed by appropriate form of Initial Algorithm.Alkaline manganese cell LR 20-VARTA, load 10 Ohm, was used to represent Initial Algorithm. The mathematical calculations were conducting on IBM PC using Microsoft Exel software.
Privicy in Social Networks: An Analysis of Facebook

The only way to beware of the risks and threads of Facebook, the most commonly used social networking site in the world and Turkey, is to be a conscious user changing the default settings or simply not to have a Facebook account. In Turkey, there is still not any study in which personal information shared though social networking sites has been evaluated in terms of privacy in the literature. For this reason, the findings obtained as a result of this study have a great importance in the sense of displaying the general picture of the current situation and drawing attention to the risks of the issue in Turkey where there are not legal arrangements efficiently protecting the users. This study aims to investigate the Facebook privacy of information professionals who are members of KUTUP-L, and to determine the sensitivity and level of awareness of the information professionals in Turkey. Facebook user profiles of 400 information professionals each of whom are KUTUP-L members have been analyzed in the study considering 32 different privacy settings. A privacy score has been calculated for each user, and the relations between all privacy results have been analyzed. The findings at the end of the study show that information professionals in Turkey pay attention to privacy, and most of the users change the default settings in order to protect their personal information.
An ESR Study of Titanium(III) Exchanged Zeolite A.

A comparison of the chemical reactivity of Ti(III) cations in A-type and Y-type zeolite lattices has been performed by the use of electron spin resonance. While the state of the Ti(III) cation, as observed by ESR spectroscopy, appears similar in the two types of lattices, the reactions of adsorbed gases with the two types of titanium(III)-exchanged zeolites are strikingly different. The adsorption of sulfur dioxide leads to the formation of Ti(IV)-SO/sub 2//sup -/ in the zeolite Y lattice while Ti(IV)-SO/sub 3//sup -/ is formed in the A-type lattice. Adsorption of oxygen results in the formation of Ti(IV)-O/sub 2//sup -/ in the Y-type lattice, as it does in the A-type lattice at low pressures. However, at elevated oxygen pressure a new radical is formed in the A-type lattice which ESR and ESCA evidence strongly suggests is of the form Ti(IV)-O/sub 4//sup -/.
Slimy worms or sticky kidsHow caregiving tasks and gender identity attenuate disgust response

Abstract. Disgust is derived from evolutionary processes to avoid pathogen contamination. Theories of gender differences in pathogen disgust utilize both evolutionary psychological and sociocultural perspectives. Drawing on research that suggests that masculine and feminine gender identities are somewhat orthogonal, we examine how gender identity intersects with pathogen disgust. In addition, building on evolutionary psychological and sociocultural accounts of how caregiving and parental investment affect pathogen disgust, we present a new measure of caregiving disgust and compare its properties across gender, parental status, and political ideology with those of a conventional pathogen disgust measure. This registered report finds that how masculinity and femininity affect disgust varies by gender, disgust domain, and their intersection; that parental status effects vary by disgust domain but not gender; that reframing disgust in terms of caregiving eliminates the gender gap in disgust; and that the caregiving frame unexpectedly strengthens the relationship between disgust and political ideology.
Evaluation of tissue levels of glutathione S-transferases (GST) isoenzymes in patients with discoid lupus erythematosus -

Aim: Cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) has a multifactorial pathogenesis involving genetic and environmental triggers and congenital and acquired immune response. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Glutathione S-Transferases (GST) isoenzymes including GSTT1, GSTM1, and GSTP1 in the CLE patients with an etiology of solar radiation exposure. Material and Methods: Paraffin-embedded skin biopsy sections from the patients were stained by immunohistochemical methods. The results were evaluated under a light microscope by a pathologist. The pattern, localization, and distribution of the immunohistochemical staining were recorded for each patient. Staining of the nucleus or cytoplasm was considered as positive staining. The accuracy of staining was determined based on the intensity and percentage of staining. Results: No significant difference was found between the patient and control groups regarding staining intensity. In terms of staining percentage, the prevalence of GSTP1-3 genotype was significantly lower in the patient group compared to the control group (25% vs. 63.33%) (p=0.002). Conclusion: No significant difference was observed in the staining intensity of GSTP1, GSTT1, and GSTM1 between the patient and control groups and the staining percentage in some genotypes was even higher in the control group compared to the patient group.
River Microbiome Composition Reflects Macroscale Climatic and Geomorphic Differences in Headwater Streams

Maintaining the quality and quantity of water resources in light of complex changes in climate, human land use, and ecosystem composition requires detailed understanding of ecohydrologic function within catchments, yet monitoring relevant upstream characteristics can be challenging. In this study, we investigate how variability in riverine microbial communities can be used to monitor the climate, geomorphology, land-cover, and human development of watersheds. We collected streamwater DNA fragments and used 16S rRNA sequencing to profile microbiomes from headwaters to outlets of the Willamette and Deschutes basins, two large watersheds prototypical of the U.S. Pacific Northwest region. In the temperate, north-south oriented Willamette basin, microbial community composition correlated most strongly with geomorphic characteristics (mean Mantel test statistic r = 0.19). Percentage of forest and shrublands (r = 0.34) and latitude (r = 0.41) were among the strongest correlates with microbial community composition. In the arid Deschutes basin, however, climatic characteristics were the most strongly correlated to microbial community composition (e.g., r = 0.11). In headwater sub-catchments of both watersheds, microbial community assemblages correlated with catchment-scale climate, geomorphology, and land-cover (r = 0.46, 0.38, and 0.28, respectively), but these relationships were weaker downstream. Development-related characteristics were not correlated with microbial community composition in either watershed or in small or large sub-catchments. Our results build on previous work relating streamwater microbiomes to hydrologic regime and demonstrate that microbial DNA in headwater streams additionally reflects the structural configuration of landscapes as well as other natural and anthropogenic processes upstream. Our results offer an encouraging indication that streamwater microbiomes not only carry information about microbial ecology, but also can be useful tools for monitoring multiple upstream watershed characteristics.
Simultaneous Detection and Viral DNA Load Quantification of Different Human Papillomavirus Types in Clinical Specimens by the High Analytical Droplet Digital PCR Method

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are small DNA tumor viruses that mainly infect mucosal epithelia of anogenital and upper respiratory tracts. There has been progressive demand for more analytical assays for HPV DNA quantification. A novel droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) method was developed to simultaneously detect and quantify HPV DNA from different HPV types. DdPCR was initially tested for assay sensitivity, accuracy, specificity as well as intra- and inter-run assay variation employing four recombinant plasmids containing HPV16, HPV18, HPV11, and HPV45 DNAs. The assay was extended to investigate/quantify HPV DNA in Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN, n = 45) specimens and human cell lines (n = 4). DdPCR and qPCR data from clinical samples were compared. The assay showed high accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, with low intra-/inter- run variations, in detecting/quantifying HPV16/18/11/45 DNAs. HPV DNA was detected in 51.1% (23/45) CIN DNA samples by ddPCR, whereas 40% (18/45) CIN tested HPV-positive by qPCR. Five CIN, tested positive by ddPCR, were found to be negative by qPCR. In CIN specimens, the mean HPV DNA loads determined by ddPCR were 3.81 copy/cell (range 0.002–51.02 copy/cell), whereas 8.04 copy/cell (range 0.003–78.73 copy/cell) by qPCR. DdPCR and qPCR concordantly detected HPV DNA in SiHa, CaSki and Hela cells, whereas HaCaT tested HPV-negative. The correlation between HPV DNA loads simultaneously detected by ddPCR/qPCR in CINs/cell lines was good (R2 = 0.9706, p < 0.0001). Our data indicate that ddPCR is a valuable technique in quantifying HPV DNA load in CIN specimens and human cell lines, thereby improving clinical applications, such as patient management after primary diagnosis of HPV-related lesions with HPV-type specific assays.