Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fungal Root Endophytes from Musa spp. as Biological Control Agents against the Plant Pathogen Fusarium oxysporum

Endophytic fungi as biological control agents pose a novel and promising alternative for plant disease management. Thus, our research study aimed to test whether locally isolated banana root endophytes (BRE) can be used as potential biocontrol agents against Fusarium oxysporum (Foc). Seventy-five BREs were isolated from roots samples of banana cultivars collected from different sites in Manila and Quezon City. High species richness was observed from the plants collected in Quezon City. Twenty-five selected isolates were screened for their antagonistic interactions against F. oxysporum using the dual-culture method, but only three of them inhibited the test fungus either on contact (BRE 18 & BRE 71) or at a distance (BRE 14). Morphocultural characterization identified them as belonging to the genus Aspergillus . Further antagonistic testing showed that the three BREs significantly reduced the colony radial growth of F. oxysporum , particularly when the BREs were grown 15 days prior to Foc inoculation. Extraction of secondary metabolites was done to test the antifungal properties of the three BREs. The crude culture extracts failed to inhibit the fungus using the paper disk diffusion assay, though they were able to remarkably decrease spore germination. Thus, the isolated banana root endophytes showed potential application for biological control. Keywords: fungal root endophytes, biocontrol agent, antagonistic activities, Musa spp. , Fusarium oxysporum , Aspergillus sp. DOI: 10.3860/acta.v56i0. 1491 Acta Manilana 56 (2008) pp.27-35
Water and soil management for Drought Rice

Rice is an economically important and widely consumed cereal that achieves high yields under submerged condition. Moreover, due to degradation in physical properties of calcareous soils it is difficult to apply flood irrigation for sowing rice crop. So, the soil and water management is favorites. Whether, Draught rice with different levels of organic manure and water depletion used to achieve this target. The obtained results revealed that increasing organic addition (sheep dung) increased soil heat capacity and air permeability by 23.7% and 65% respectively, and decreased soil impedance by 21%. Whilst, increasing moisture depletion raised soil impedance and air permeability by 2.5 and 6.8% respectively while the feeble effect was for heat capacity (0.05%). When the two factors coupled together gave the major effects on previous properties. Also, roots weight increased by increasing soil heat capacity and air permeability and by decreasing soil impedance. Moreover, improving root growth and soil organic matter resulted in increasing rice cereal and straw yield while moisture depletion show a negative significant relation with cereal and negative non significant relation with straw, but when coupled with other factors it show a highly significant relation. Water consumption increase by increasing plant livetime and moisture depletion by144% (181.27m3) and 1.5 % ( 53.38m3) respectively. While, increasing roots weight and organic addition resulted in decreased water consumption by 5.3% (189.8m3) and 3.95% (140.4m3). Finally, by increasing organic additions and roots weight increased both cereal and straw water use efficiency by (21, 23%) and (35, 36%) respectively, While it decreased to (9.4%) and 5.6% as increasing of moisture depletion.
On the Use of High-resolution Time-frequency Distribution Based on a Polynomial Compact Support Kernel for Fault Detection in a Two-level Inverter

Quadratic Time-Frequency Distributions (TFDs) become a standard tool in many fields producing nonstationary signatures. However, these representations suffer from two drawbacks: First, bad time-frequency localization of the signal's autoterms due to the unavoidable crossterms generated by the bilinear form of these distributions. This results on bad estimation of the Instantaneous Frequency (IF) laws and decreases, in our case, the ability to precisely decide the existence of a motor fault. Secondly, the TFD's parameterization is not always straightforward. This paper deals with faults' detection in two-level inverter feeding induction motors, in particular open-circuit Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) faults. For this purpose, we propose the use of a recent high-resolution TFD, referred as PCBD for Polynomial Cheriet-Belouchrani Distribution. The latter is adjusted using only a single integer that is automatically optimized using the Stankovic concentration measure, otherwise, no external windows are needed to perform the highest time-frequency resolution. The performance of the PCBD is compared to the best-known quadratic representations using a test bench. Experimental results show that the frequency components characterizing open-circuit faults are best detected using the PCBD thanks to its ability to suppress interferences while maintaining the signal's proper terms.
Grid Electricity Expansion in Tanzania: Findings from a Rigorous Impact Evaluation (Issue Brief)

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funded a large energy sector project in Tanzania between 2008 and 2013. The investment was made in part because electrification was seen as key for economic development and because few households in Tanzania were connected to the national grid. Only about 18 percent of households in mainland Tanzania were connected to the grid in 2011–2012, and the rate was under 4 percent in rural areas (NBS 2014).
Experimental Study of the Effect of Fluid Jet Swirl on Circular Hydraulic Jump

When an axially symmetrical fluid jet impacts on a horizontal plate vertically, a hydraulic jump is formed. Numerous studies are conducted on circular hydraulic jumps. However, the effect of the important and key parameter of fluid jet swirl on hydraulic jumps is not investigated. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of this parameter on the circular hydraulic jump. The results of this study, achieved by using experimental method, show that the higher the angular velocity, the higher the increase in the radius of the jump. Drawing the diagram of the dimensionless radius of jump based on the dimensionless number of swirl shows two categories of lines. The first category is the constant angular velocity lines with a negative slope and the second category is the constant flow rate lines with a positive slope. The results showed that increasing the angular velocity of the swirling jet has less effect on increasing jump radius than increasing the flow rate. Experiments also showed that the hydraulic jumps created by a swirling jet follow the trend results of modified Watson’s theory with a nonsignificant difference.
Roscovitine use for the delay of meiotic progression in prepubertal sheep oocytes

The objective of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of roscovitine on reversibly inhibiting oocytes from prepubertal sheep at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage, and to investigate the kinetics of meiosis progression after inhibitor removal. Cumulus-oocyte complexes, recovered from Sarda breed lambs aged 30–40 days, were cultured for 6 hours in a maturation medium (control) containing 75 μmol L-1 roscovitine (Rosco) at 38.5°C and 5% CO2. Then, the complexes were subjected to in vitro maturation (IVM) for 18 or 23 hours, in an inhibitor-free medium supplemented with gonadotropins. The evaluation of nuclear configuration by Hoescht staining, under a fluorescence-inverted microscope, showed that 88.7% of the lamb oocytes treated with roscovitine remained at the GV stage, as observed for the immature ones (97.3%) stained after collection. The inhibitory action was reversible; however, the proportion of oocytes (83.3%) at the metaphase-II stage, after 23 hours of IVM, was significantly higher than that observed after 18 hours (29.5%), in which meiosis was still in progression with 34.2% oocytes at metaphase-I, 11.6% oocytes at anaphase-I, and 18.5% oocytes at telophase-I. Roscovitine is efficient to arrest the nuclear maturation in oocytes from prepubertal sheep; however, despite the reversibility, meiosis progression is delayed, requiring more time to be completed.
Genomic analysis of 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductase genes of Zea mays

Genomic Analysis of 12-Oxo-Phytodienoic Acid Reductase Genes of Zea mays. (December 2004) Jinglan Zhang, B.S., Wuhan University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Michael Kolomiets The 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductases (OPRs) are enzymes of the octadecanoid pathway which converts linolenic acid to a phytohormone, jasmonic acid. Bioinformatics analysis of ESTs and genomic sequences from available private and public databases revealed that the maize genome encodes eight different OPR genes. This number of maize OPR genes has been independently confirmed by Southern blot analysis and by mapping of individual OPR genes to maize chromosomes using oat maize chromosome addition lines. Survey of massively parallel signature sequencing (MPSS) assays revealed that transcripts of each OPR gene accumulate differentially in diverse organs of maize plants. This data suggested that individual OPR genes may have a distinct function in development. Similarly, RNA blot analysis revealed that distinct OPR genes are differentially regulated in response to stress hormones, wounding or pathogen infection. ZmOPR1 and ZmOPR2 appear to have important functions in defense responses to pathogens because they are transiently induced by salicylic acid (SA), chitooligosaccharides and by infection with Cochliobolus carbonum, Bipolaris maydis and Fusarium verticillioides and not by wounding. In contrast to these two genes, ZmOPR6 and ZmOPR7/8 are highly induced by wounding and treatments
Constrained CoeMcient Component Regression Analysis and Its Application

In this paper we propose a new appraach to regression analysis. In the proposed approach the basic model ls transformed into seveTal indepellde]t partial models tlll]ough orthogonal transformatiens of dependent variable and regression coeMcients. In the transformed model, we treat the caeMcient components, which are defined in a set of linear cembinations of the regression coeMcients, as the parameters instead of the regression ceeMcients. Because every coeficient component is included in an independerrt partial model, each can be manipulated independelltly. Hence, mode! building no longer rnust be considered a combinatien of coeMcient components, This not only reduces the number of conceivable candidate modeis, making model selection easier, but it also leads to an imprevement in estimates of parameters and the passibility of finding better models. We also analyze the relationship between the pToductivity of rice farming and the ternperature in Hokkaido as all illustrative application of the proposed method. The estimation results suggest the advantages of the proposed apprDach.
Evaluation of Different Varieties of Brachioplasty

Background: There has been a renewed interest in upper arm contouring secondary to recent advances in plastic surgery that have made it safer and more appealing to both the plastic surgeon and the patient. Objectives: the aim of the work was to describe the aesthetic outcome of different techniques used for correction of arm ptosis to try to obtain a new treatment-based algorithm for management of brachioplasty. Patients and Methods: This prospective study included a total of 40 patients with different degrees of arm ptosis, requesting arm contouring attending at Al-Hussein and Bab Al-Shairia, Al-Azhar University Hospitals. Different techniques used for brachioplasty as liposuction or skin excision by different types of skin incision according to the degree of fat deposit, redundancy and skin ptosis, or both were used in this study. Results: Patient's satisfaction within clothes was 100% in all techniques used in brachioplasty while patients' satisfaction without wearing clothes or light clothes was 84.6% in surgical resection due to the presence of complications in the form of wound dehiscence in 5 patients (19%) and hypertrophic scar in 4 patients (15.4%) and it was 100% in liposuction patients and it was 83.3 in combined method patients due to the resent of wound dehiscence with ugly scar in 1 patient (16.7%). Conclusion: Brachioplasty operation whether liposuction alone or surgical excision or combined methods is a good method to treat patients with arm obesity or post massive weight loss skin ptosis. The proper method was selected according to the degree of fat deposit, redundancy and skin ptosis.
Tropical bryophyte floras: a homogeneous assemblage of highly mobile species? Insights from their spatial patterns of beta diversity

The impact of Pleistocene climate changes substantially varied between tropical regions, resulting in striking differences in angiosperm species richness caused by post-glacial recolonization delays. Tropical bryophytes, which have been perceived as extremely good dispersers due to biased rates of monoecy and hence spore production, differ strikingly from angiosperms in their similar patterns of species richness among tropical regions. Here, we analyse the patterns of beta diversity of tropical bryophytes to determine whether their high dispersal capacities have balanced patterns of species richness and erased any difference of post-glacial recolonization patterns between tropical regions. The partitioning of beta diversity for 7485 tropical moss species among 164 operational geographical units (OGUs) and 3276 liverwort and hornwort species in 154 OGUs revealed a slight, but significantly higher beta diversity among than within tropical regions. The nestedness component of beta diversity did not significantly differ between tropical regions. This indicates that, although regional migration rates were sufficient to erase differences of the impact of Pleistocene climate changes between tropical regions, the similar bryophyte species richness of tropical regions cannot be interpreted in terms of unrestricted migrations and that oceans act as a barrier to routine dispersal, which is sufficient to shape large-scale floristic patterns.
GABAergic hub neurons orchestrate synchrony in developing hippocampal networks

Brain function operates through the coordinated activation of neuronal assemblies. Graph theory predicts that scale-free topologies, which include " hubs " (superconnected nodes), are an effective design to orchestrate synchronization. Whether hubs are present in neuronal assemblies and coordinate network activity remains unknown. Using network dynamics imaging, online reconstruction of functional connectivity, and targeted whole-cell recordings in rats and mice, we found that developing hippocampal networks follow a scale-free topology, and we demonstrated the existence of functional hubs. Perturbation of a single hub influenced the entire network dynamics. Morphophysiological analysis revealed that hub cells are a subpopulation of g-aminobutyric acid–releasing (GABAergic) interneurons possessing widespread axonal arborizations. These findings establish a central role for GABAergic interneurons in shaping developing networks and help provide a conceptual framework for studying neuronal synchrony. T he coordinated activation of neuronal assemblies features in most physiological brain functions and influences proper network wiring during development (1–3). In addition to cellular excitability, synaptic efficacy, and the balance of excitation and inhibition, the architecture of network connectivity may be central to the production of synchronous neuronal activity (4–7). The relationship between network dynamics and topology has been studied using concepts from graph theory and statistical physics (7–9). Small-world and scale-free organizations are particularly appealing models for brain connectivity because they offer a compromise between computational needs, wiring economy, and robustness (1, 10–14). These complex topologies have been found in contexts as diverse as the Internet, social sciences, or biology (8, 15). When applied to neuronal circuits, both models share one common feature: Although most neurons are connected locally, a few " hub " neurons possess long-range connections that link large numbers of cells, thereby bestowing network-wide synchronicity. It has been proposed that neuronal hubs orchestrate behaviorally relevant activity in cortical assemblies, as well as being causal in producing pathological oscillations (4–6, 16). However, the existence of neuronal hubs is still speculative, perhaps because of the conceptual and technical difficulties of investigating them, including the rarity of high-connectivity (HC) as compared to low-connectivity (LC) cells. Additionally, definitive functional confirmation that neuronal hubs play a key role in synchroni-Fig. 1. Analysis of multineuron calcium activity reveals a scale-free topology in the developing hip-pocampus. (A) (1) Two-photon calcium fluorescence image of a rat hippocampal slice loaded with Fura-2AM and visualized with multibeam excitation at ×10 magnification. Scale bar, 100 mm. DG, dentate gyrus. (2) Detected contours of the cells from the …
Deep Stacked Residual Neural Network and Bidirectional LSTM for Speed Prediction on Real-life Trafﬁc Data

Forecasting accurate trafﬁc speed is of great importance to advanced trafﬁc management systems but challenging problem as it is affected by many complex factors, such as events, inter-road traf-ﬁc, trafﬁc lights, period and weather conditions. Trafﬁc speed prediction based on deep learning techniques has received much attention in recent years. However, the power of deep learning methods has not yet fully been exploited in trafﬁc prediction in terms of the depth of the model architecture. This paper designs a deep-learning-based structure, called BiRNet, to forecast accurate trafﬁc speed in each and every region in a city. More speciﬁcally, we employ the residual neural network and the bi-directional recurrent neural network to model the spatial and temporal closeness, respectively. A look-up layer is introduced to model the spatial scale of the prediction area. BiRNet learns to dynamically aggregate the output of these neural networks which is further combined with external factor learning to improve the spatially correlated time series data forecasting. Our extensive experiments on real-world trip data-sets generated in NYC’s road network, show that our proposed deep learning algorithm sig-niﬁcantly outperforms the state-of-the-art learning algorithms.
The control of muscle protein turnover in patients on peritoneal dialysis

Wasting is observed in a large percentage of patients receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD) and it is associated with functional impairment and worse outcome. In this article, we review the current state of our knowledge regarding the effects of PD on protein metabolism and their possible interactions with the uremia-induced and comorbidity-induced alterations in protein metabolism. Available evidence shows that glucose-based PD induces a new state in muscle protein dynamics which is characterized by decreased turnover rates and a reduced efficiency of protein turnover, a condition which may be harmful in stress conditions, when nutrient intake is diminished or during superimposed catabolic illnesses. The effects of PD on protein turnover may overlap with the effects of aging and comorbidities to promote net catabolism. There is a need to develop more effective treatments to enhance the nutritional and functional status of PD patients. New approaches include the use of icodextrin to maintain extracellular volume, amino acids/keto acidscontaining supplements combined with physical exercise, vitamin D, myostatin antagonism, and ghrelin agonism for malnourished patients refractory to standard nutritional therapy.
EFFECT OF PARAINFLUENZA VIRUS INFECTION ON HUMAN IMMUNO- INFLAMMATORY GENES EXPRESSION AND GENE ONTOLOGY ANALYSIS

Parainfluenza virus (PIV) causes respiratory infections with high rates of morbidity and mortality in Children and immune-deficiency patients worldwide. The aim of this study is to detect the changes of mRNA expression of 84 human inflammatory genes and gene ontology analysis. From 90 patients only 2 gave positive IgM –PIV test. PIV infection caused over expression of 25 prominent genes (from 168 genes) affect functional pathways, ten of these genes regard as proinflammatory genes. Three genes were down-regulated; this suggests that the host-viral interaction is a cellular response against viral infection. In conclusion: Gene ontology analysis revealed that PIV stimulated 4 different key role immunological pathways represented by cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, NOD-like receptor signaling, Toll-like receptor signaling, and asthma pathway. The patients are mostly infected with related subtypes of PIV. These results may help in further analysis of viral-host interaction.
ASSOCIATION OF ENDOSTATIN D 104 N WITH LEUKEMIA

The bone marrow and/or peripheral blood from 126 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 57 with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), 91 with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), and 178 normal controls were analyzed using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay to evaluate the association of the endostatin polymorphisms D104N (nucleotide 4349G→A) with leukemia. In the 178 normal Taiwanese, the allele frequency of 4349G was 98% (348/356) and that of 4349A was 2% (8/356). The frequencies of homozygous 4349G (104D/D) and heterozygous 4349G/A (104D/N) were 95. 5% (170/178) and 4.5% (8/178), respectively. However, no individuals were homozygous 4349A (104N/N). Among the leukemia patients, 124/126 with AML (98.4%), 55/57 with CML (94.9%), and 89/91 with ALL (97.9%) were homozygous 4349G. In addition, 2/126 with AML (1.6%), 2/57 with CML (5.1%), and 2/91 with ALL (2.1%) were heterozygous 4349G/A. No patients were homozygous 4349A. Similar frequencies of endostatin polymorphisms were observed in leukemic patients and normal controls. This suggests that the endostatin polymorphism is not associated with the risk of leukemia.
Earth Resistivity as Affected by the Presence of Underground Water

Resistance to the passage of a current of electricity is a property of all inert materials, including metals, ores, rocks, soil and the so-called nonconductors or insulators. When a convenient unit volume is considered, usually the cubic centimeter, this property is known as specific resistance or resistivity. The unit of resistivity is the ohm, which is the resistance offered by a column of mercury 106.3 cm. long, weighing 14,4521 gm. at 0? C. Reciprocal terms corresponding to resistivity and resistance are conductivity and conductance. It is considered at the present time that degree of conductivity is dependent upon the number of free elections drifting about within a material when it is under normal temperature conditions and unaffected by external electrical fields or potentials. Good conductors possess a large number of free electrons, while poor conductors have few, and those materials of such low conductivity as to be classed as insulators have almost no unattached electrons under normal conditions. Much difficulty arises in determining the resistivity of different kinds of rock and soils and there has been considerable variation in the results of tests made at different times and places, probably largely due to variations in moisture content as well as to less important differences in the exact chemical composition of the samples taken. In their work entitled "Applied Geophysics," A. S. Eve and D. A. Keys give some interesting values of resistivity for certain types of rocks, soils and minerals as follows: Ohms per cubic cm. Granite 109 to 1011 Limestone 6.8 x104 Sandstone 5.0 to 100 x 109 Coal . 109 to 1017