Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological, anatomical and isozyme variability among taro (Colocasia esculenta) accessions from southeastern part of Central Java, Indonesia

Pitoyo A, Prameta AA, Marsusi, Suratman, Suranto. 2018. Morphological, anatomical and isozyme variability among taro (Colocasia esculenta) accessions from southeastern part of Central Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 19: 1811-1819. The objective of this study was to evaluate morphological, anatomical and isozyme variability among taro accessions from southeastern part of Central Java (Indonesia). A total of 20 taro accessions were collected from a wide range of sites during field surveys. Morphological characters measurements were taken on vegetative structures such as roots, stems, leaves, and corms. Anatomical characters were observed from both paradermal and transverse sections of leaf. Identification of biochemical markers was done by using peroxidase and esterase isozyme system. A UPGMA dendrogram among accessions was constructed based on the genetic similarity matrix by applying a cluster analysis using a computer programme, NTSYS Version 2.00. The analysis of variance for morphological and anatomical characters revealed that there was significant difference for majority of the tested traits indicating that there was a variability among the taro accessions. Polymorphism was observed using isozymes of esterase (12 banding pattern) and peroxidase (8 banding pattern). Based on the dendrogram at a level of 62 % similarity, taro accessions were segregated into two major clusters. In Cluster I, the closest relationship was shown between SKH and SKA accessions that had 96 % coefficient of similarity. The ten accessions from Klaten, Sragen, and Karanganyar were then clustered separately as Cluster II with coefficient of similarity 73.52 %.
Vers des micromousses stimulables

L'etude de materiaux intelligents, capables de s'adapter a des stimuli externes est actuellement en plein developpement. La ligne directrice de cette these est la creation de mousses avec des proprietes optiques particulieres dans le domaine visible et modulables par un champ magnetique. Cela pose deux problemes: parvenir d'une part a realiser une mousse ordonnee constituee de cellules de taille micrometrique et d'autre part a coupler efficacement son arrangement avec un champ magnetique. Ce travail, au cœur des thematiques de la matiere molle, se divise en trois parties. La premiere partie decrit le comportement rheophysique de solutions aqueuses d'alginate de sodium (polyelectrolyte anionique) et de nanoparticules magnetiques, solutions qui gelifient en presence d'ions calcium. La seconde partie concerne les mousses aqueuses et les bulles monodisperses micrometriques: il est d'abord presente l'etude de la pression osmotique et de la transition structurelle en fonction de la fraction liquide d'une mousse cristalline generee par un dispositif microfluidique (diametre des bulles: ~ 100 µm). Puis, une methode originale basee sur le retrecissement de bulles est introduite pour creer des bulles ou des gouttes monodisperses micrometriques. Enfin, la troisieme partie rassemble les differentes connaissances acquises pour acceder aux premieres mousses gelifiees magneto-stimulables.
Baseline human gut microbiota profile in healthy people and standard reporting template

A comprehensive knowledge of the types and ratios of microbes that inhabit the healthy human gut is necessary before any kind of pre-clinical or clinical study can be performed that attempts to alter the microbiome to treat a condition or improve therapy outcome. To address this need we present an innovative scalable comprehensive analysis workflow, a healthy human reference microbiome list and abundance profile (GutFeelingKB), and a novel Fecal Biome Population Report (FecalBiome) with clinical applicability. GutFeelingKB provides a list of 157 organisms (8 phyla, 18 classes, 23 orders, 38 families, 59 genera and 109 species) that forms the baseline biome and therefore can be used as healthy controls for studies related to dysbiosis. The incorporation of microbiome science into routine clinical practice necessitates a standard report for comparison of an individual’s microbiome to the growing knowledgebase of “normal” microbiome data. The FecalBiome and the underlying technology of GutFeelingKB address this need. The knowledgebase can be useful to regulatory agencies for the assessment of fecal transplant and other microbiome products, as it contains a list of organisms from healthy individuals. In addition to the list of organisms and abundances the study also generated a list of contigs of metagenomics dark matter. In this study, metagenomic dark matter represents sequences that cannot be mapped to any known sequence but can be assembled into contigs of 10,000 nucleotides or higher. These sequences can be used to create primers to study potential novel organisms. All data is freely available from https://hive.biochemistry. gwu.edu/gfkb and NCBI’s Short Read Archive.
Variabilité interspécifique et intraspécifique des indices physiologiques chez les diatomées toxiques du genre Pseudo-nitzschia : influence du cycle de vie

Chez les diatomees du genre Pseudo-nitzschia, certaines especes produisent une neurotoxine, l’acide domoique responsable chez l’homme d’intoxications amnesiantes suite a la consommation de mollusques contamines. En Baie de Seine, la variabilite interannuelle de ces efflorescences toxiques, qui provoquent certaines annees des fermetures de zones de peche a la coquille Saint-Jacques, est liee a des changements de diversite specifique au sein des communautes de Pseudo-nitzschia. Cette these avait pour objectif de caracteriser la diversite ecophysiologique au sein du genre Pseudo-nitzschia afin de mieux comprendre les facteurs qui influencent les differences de toxicite et de phenologies des efflorescences des principales especes de Pseudo-nitzschia de Baie de Seine. Differents parametres physiologiques, tels que la croissance, la production d’acide domoique, les quotas elementaires, les parametres photosynthetiques, ainsi que les parametres de cinetiques d’absorption du nitrate, du silicate et du phosphate, ont ete etudies chez quatre especes : P. australis, P. pungens, P. fraudulenta et P. delicatissima. De plus, la variabilite intraspecifique a ete evalue en etudiant de nombreuses souches par espece et en estimant l’influence des variations de la taille cellulaire liees au cycle de vie de Pseudo-nitzschia sur les parametres physiologiques. Les resultats montrent une importante diversite intraspecifique de la physiologie des quatre especes, en partie liee a la taille cellulaire et parfois au cycle de vie. La connaissance de cette diversite intraspecifique a permis de caracteriser differents traits physiologiques pour chaque espece. Les resultats apportent des elements de comprehension sur les conditions physiologiques favorables a la production d’acide domoique et le role des elements nutritifs dans le determinisme des efflorescences des especes de Pseudo-nitzschia.
Effective Degrees of Freedom of the Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient under Serial Correlation

The dependence between pairs of time series are commonly quantified by Pearson’s correlation. However, if the time series are themselves dependent (i.e. exhibit temporal autocorrelation), the effective degrees of freedom (EDF) are reduced and the standard error is biased. This issue is vital in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) since the fMRI time series are notoriously autocorrelated and therefore rsFC inferences will be biased if not adjusted. We find that the available EDF estimators make restrictive assumptions that are not supported by the data, resulting in biased rsFC inferences that lead to distorted topological descriptions of the connectome. We propose a practical method that accounts not only for distinct autocorrelation in each time series, but instantaneous and lagged cross-correlation. In addition to extensive synthetic and real data validations, we investigate the impact of this correction on rsFC measures in data from the Young Adult Human Connectome Project.
Characterization of the Scarification and Neolymphangiogenesis in Experimental Mouse Model of Acute and Chronic Myocardial Infarction: the Dual Role of Podoplanin Expressing Cells

Characterization of the cellular composition of the scar after myocardial infarction (MI) is poorly investigated; new insights in the biology of wound healing and inflammation post MI may establish undiscovered interactome in the infarcted heart that will lead new approaches for cardioprotective or regenerative therapies. Using a mouse model of permanent coronary artery ligation, we examined spatiotemporal changes in the expression of endothelial, lymphendothelial and mesenchymal markers in the acutely and chronically infarcted myocardium in order to analyze the cellular composition of the scar. We found that at the time of wound granulation, a three-fold increase in the frequency of podoplanin-labeled cells occurred in the infarcted hearts compared to non-operated and sham-operated counterparts. Podoplanin immunoreactivity detected LYVE-1-positive lymphatic vessels, as well as masses of LYVE-1-negative cells dispersed between myocytes, predominantly in the vicinity of the infarcted region. Podoplanin-carrying populations displayed a mesenchymal progenitor marker PDGFRα, and intermittently expressed Prox-1, a master regulator of the lymphatic endothelial fate. At the stages of scar formation and maturation, concomitantly with the enlargement of lymphatic network in the injured myocardium, the podoplanin-rich LYVE-1-negative multicellular assemblies were apparent in the fibrotic area, aligned with extracellular matrix deposits, or located in immediate proximity to activated blood vessels with high VEGFR-2 content. Of note, these podoplanin-containing cells acquired the expression of PDGFRβ or a hematoendothelial epitope CD34. Although Prox-1 labeling was abundant in the area affected by MI, the podoplanin-presenting cells were not consistently Prox-1-positive. The concordance of podoplanin with VEGFR-3 similarly varied. The role of podoplanin in the healing heart was never investigate, our data reveal previously unknown phenotypic and structural heterogeneity within the podoplanin-positive cell compartment in the infarcted heart, and suggest an alternate ability of podoplanin-presenting cardiac cells to generate lymphatic endothelium and pro-fibrotic cells, contributing to scar development.
Implementation of General Under-frequency Load Shedding Scheme in European Network: challenges and opportunities

This paper analyzes the regulatory document “Continental Europe Operation Handbook Policy 5: Emergency Operations”, which was prepared by experts of the European Network of Electricity Transmission System Operators (ENTSO - E) to focus national networks on a single conceptual model for creating (and fine tuning) an automatic under frequency load shedding (UFLS) scheme. The ENTSO-E proposed for the Regional Group Continental Europe a general under frequency load shedding scheme, which must be implemented taking into account the individual features (properties) of the national network. Given that Policy 5 is an important document, the implementation of which is a prerequisite of security and system stability not only of a separate national grid, but also adjacent power systems, the authors aimed to test perspectives for UFLS development according to Policy 5 binding requirements in a case study for Ukrainian power system.
The effect of reduced unemployment duration on the unemployment rate: a Synthetic Control Approach

This paper examines the impact of the fourth partial revision of the law of unemployment insurance (AVIG) on unemployment dynamics in Switzerland at a cantonal level. The authors apply the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), a matching method for comparative case studies. A counterfactual analysis of the cases studied is performed by combining a control group of several untreated units, which provides a better comparison to the treatment group than a single unit. The control unit is designed as a weighted average of the available cantons in the donor pool, taking into account the similarities between the chosen controls and the treated unit. Once policy changes are controlled, the results suggest a significant effect on the unemployment rate at a cantonal level: the reform had a discernible impact on lowering the unemployment rate in the Italian- and French-speaking cantons in Switzerland.
Quantifying point-mutations in shotgun metagenomic data

Metagenomics has emerged as a central technique for studying the structure and function of microbial communities. Often the functional analysis is restricted to classification into broad functional categories. However, important phenotypic differences, such as resistance to antibiotics, are often the result of just one or a few point mutations in otherwise identical sequences. Bioinformatic methods for metagenomic analysis have generally been poor at accounting for this fact, resulting in a somewhat limited picture of important aspects of microbial communities. Here, we address this problem by providing a software tool called Mumame, which can distinguish between wildtype and mutated sequences in shotgun metagenomic data and quantify their relative abundances. We demonstrate the utility of the tool by quantifying antibiotic resistance mutations in several publicly available metagenomic data sets. We also identified that sequencing depth is a key factor to detect rare mutations. Therefore, much larger numbers of sequences may be required for reliable detection of mutations than for most other applications of shotgun metagenomics. Mumame is freely available from http://microbiology.se/software/mumame
Effective Use of Typography in Print Media Advertising, Case Study: Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana

illustrated typography as the art, or skill, of designing communication by means of the printed word. To them these letters are used to communicate ideas therefore it can take on a variety of forms due to its variation in the elements of the letter’s design. The import of these definitions stems from Abstract: The primary focus of the study was on the effective use of typography in print media advertising. It has been observed that the visual perception of the use of typography in most communication design materials is sometimes overlooked by majority of graphic designers. In view of this, the study sought to examine, analyse and interpret the effective use of typography in print media advertising. Similarly, it sought to study and analyse the visual perception and emotional response to typography in print media advertising. The research approach was qualitative that generated narrative or textual descriptions of the study. Mixed methods research was employed and the instruments used in gathering data were direct observation and interview. Population for the study therefore was print media adverts found or mounted on the streets of Takoradi market-circle, Effia-Kwesimintim, and Sekondi in Western Region of Ghana. The findings of the study revealed that typography is an effective discipline with basic guidelines, elements, principles and factors to follow when designing to enhance effective communication in print media for an outdoor advertising. However, when designers resort to making decisions on typography and do not adhere to the basic rules, principles and factors for designing it has a negative impact on the use of typography for effective communication. It is recommended that contemporary graphic designers should explore and understand innovative mechanisms and basic principles for typographic design when developing print media for outdoor advertisement in order to positively draw attention of the viewer to a particular advertisement and also convey a particular message for effective communication.
Changes in leaf morphological and anatomical characters of some plant species in response to gemstone mining in southwestern Nigeria

The responses of seven selected plant species to gemstone mining activities were investigated based on data obtained from exo- and endo- morphology of the leaves with the aim of establishing the responses of the plant species to gemstone mining pollution and the underlining mechanism which could possibly explain such responses. Both qualitative and quantitative methods, using visual and microscopic assessment were adopted. Results of the foliar morphology showed that most of the plant species had significant increase (p<0.05) in the leaf area and petiole length in polluted sites compared to those from unpolluted site though with noted variations in others. The observed morphological responses are associated with corresponding significant increase (p<0.05) in stomata frequency, epidermal cell number, glandular and non-glandular trichome frequency and length, cuticle thickness, upper and lower epidermis. However, characters such as stomata size and palisade mesophyll tissue were significantly (p<0.05) reduced. We conclude based on the data obtained in this study that plants generally respond differently to pollution due to mining through either increase or reduction in some of their external (leaf area and petiole length) and internal features. These depict adaptive mechanisms employed by the plants in order to cope with polluted environments. Keywords: Plant morphology, Plant anatomy, Mining pollution, Leaf area, Petiole
Ginkgo biloba Extract Inhibits Tumor Necrosis Factor-α–Induced Reactive Oxygen Species Generation, Transcription Factor Activation, and Cell Adhesion Molecule Expression in Human Aortic Endothelial Cells

Objective— This study was conducted to examination whether Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE), a Chinese herb with antioxidant activity, could reduce cytokine-induced monocyte/human aortic endothelial cell (HAEC) interaction, a pivotal early event in atherogenesis. Methods and Results— Pretreatment of HAECs with GBE (50 and 100 μg/mL for 18 hours) significantly suppressed cellular binding between the human monocytic cell line U937 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-stimulated HAECs by using in vitro binding assay (68.7% and 60.1% inhibitions, respectively). Cell enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblot analysis showed that GBE (50 μg/mL for 18 hours) significantly attenuated TNF-α–induced cell surface and total protein expression of vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (63.5% and 69.2%, respectively; P<0.05). However, pretreatment with probucol (5 μmol/L for 18 hours) reduced the expression of vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 but not intracellular adhesion mol.
Quantitative MR-Bildgebung zur Charakterisierung der Skelettmuskulatur

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über Magnetresonanztomographie-basierte (MRT-basierte) Methoden zur Quantifizierung der Muskeldegeneration. Neben Muskelvolumen kann mit Dixon-Bildgebung insbesondere der prozentuale Fettgehalt bestimmt werden. Daneben gibt es Ansätze, frühe Anzeichen einer Degeneration über die Verteilung des Entzündungsgrades oder der Natriumkonzentration in der Muskulatur zu visualisieren und quantifizieren. Bis auf die Natrium-Bildgebung werden diese Methoden bei Muskelerkrankungen routinemäßig zur Diagnose und Verlaufskontrolle eingesetzt. Im Bereich der Osteologie und Gerontologie wird zwar die Bedeutung der Muskel-Knochen-Einheit unter anderem für Frakturprädiktion und Gebrechlichkeit im Alter immer wieder betont, Degeneration der Muskulatur wird aber im Wesentlichen über extrinsische Parameter wie Muskelkraft und -funktion erfasst. Häufig benutzte intrinsische Parameter wie DXA Lean Mass oder Muskelvolumen, bestimmt mit CT oder MRT, korrelieren nur mäßig mit extrinsischen Parametern. Eine genauere Charakterisierung von Muskelqualität sollte dieses Manko aber beseitigen. Mit CT und MRT stehen entsprechende Methoden zur Verfügung, die jetzt aber in Studien zur altersassoziierten Muskeldegeneration, in Interventionsstudien und in Studien zur Frakturrisikoprognostik auch eingesetzt werden müssen.
Architectures moléculaire et supramoléculaires à base de Lanthanides Luminescents

La construction de complexes polymetalliques de lanthanides preprogrammes et sophistiques, de taille nanometrique, pour le developpement de materiaux luminescents presentant des proprietes photophysiques nouvelles ou ameliorees (double emission, transfert d'energie intermetallique, etc.) est un des sujets de la chimie supramoleculaire des lanthanides suscitant enormement d'interet. La comprehension, le controle et la programmation de l'auto-assemblage de complexes de lanthanides est un defi majeur en raison de la difficulte a controler l'environnement de coordination de ces ions qui se caracterise par des nombres de coordinations importants et variables et peu de preferences stereochimiques. Ainsi, la plupart des complexes polynucleaires de lanthanides decrits dans la litterature sont formes de facon fortuite plutot que par conception rationnelle. Afin d'inclure les ions lanthanides dans des architectures polymetalliques de haute nuclearite tout en ameliorant leurs proprietes photophysiques, nous nous sommes concentres sur des etudes de complexation de ligands dissymetriques (tridentates anioniques, tetradentates chiraux) permettant de promouvoir la formation des assemblages. Nous avons par ailleurs commence a explorer le potentiel d'une methode synthetique originale de clusters oxo par reactivite redox de complexes divalents de lanthanides. Nous presentons ici la synthese et les proprietes photophysiques de complexes stables emettant dans le proche infrarouge bases sur des ligands anioniques hydroxyquinoleine fonctionnalise par des groupes carboxylates ou tetrazolates. En outre, nous pouvons montrer que l'utilisation de ligands chiraux possedant un groupement oxazoline favorise l'auto-assemblage diastereoselectif de complexes de lanthanides homo- et hetero-polymetalliques enantiopures emettant dans le visible et le proche infrarouge. Un complexe trinucleaire d'europium enantiopure a ete caracterise par cristallographie, celui-ci presentant une forte activite en polarisation circulaire de luminescence (CPL). Le ligand chiral oxazoline a permis d'obtenir une roue heptanucleaire d'europiums, le plus important assemblage polymetallique enantiopure. Enfin, nous avons pu preparer et caracteriser des complexes de lanthanides divalents hautement reactifs bases sur un ligand tripode neutre possedant des groupements pyridine (tpa). Des resultats preliminaires montrent que ces complexes peuvent etre des precurseurs tres utiles pour isoler des clusters oxo polymetalliques. En particulier, la reaction d'un complexe de neodyme hautement reactif a conduit a isoler un cluster oxo volumineux et tres interessant par clivage de THF en presence de tpa.