Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Catálogo de la liquenobiota de la región La Libertad, Perú

Resumen Se presenta el catalogo de 192 especies de liquenes, ordenadas en 28 familias y 60 generos, existentes en la region La Libertad, Peru. El estudio estuvo basado en la revision de material depositado preferentemente en el Herbarium Truxillense de la Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (HUT), la determinacion de especialistas, y en la contrastacion con las especies documentadas en estudios oficiales de la liquenobiota para esta region. El material examinado para cada especie incluye la distribucion geografica segun las provincias y altitudes, y un ejemplar representativo signado por el nombre y numero del colector principal, seguido del acronimo del herbario donde se encuentra depositado, asi como, el nombre vulgar si existiera. La informacion presentada servira para continuar con estudios taxonomicos, ecologicos y ambientales en estos organismos. Palabras clave: liquenes, distribucion, provincias, region La Libertad. Abstract We provide a catalogue of 192 species of lichens, arranged in 28 families and 60 genera existing in La Libertad Region, Peru. The study was based on a review of material preferably deposited in the Herbarium Truxillense of the National University of Trujillo (HUT), the determination of specialists, and the contrast with species documented in official studies of lichenobiota of this region. The material examined for each species includes the geographical distribution according to provinces and altitudes, and a representative specimen marked by the name and number of the main collector, followed by the acronym of the herbarium where it is deposited, as well as the common name if it exists. The information presented will serve to continue with taxonomic, ecological and environmental studies in these organisms. Keywords: lichens, distribution, provinces, La Libertad Region.
A New Configuration of Vertically Connecting Solar Cells: Solar Tree

Solar energy is a renewable type, clean, and inexhaustible which is sufficiently available on the Algerian territory. The energy received daily on a horizontal surface of 1 m2 is in the order of 5 kWh over almost the whole Algerian territory; the duration of sunshine surpasses 2000 hours annually and can reach 3900 hours on the highlands and the Sahara. The importance of this work is based on exploiting solar energy to produce electricity. This study is based on the experimental exploitation of solar energy using solar tree’s prototype suggestion. This new model is focused to replace the leaf of a tree by the solar cell, starting by examining the solar field and physical phenomenon related with it; the description of cell photovoltaic comes after; and finally, the dimension of the solar system and the experimental studies are virtually released in the University of M’sila. In this work, a prototype of new artificial solar tree is proposed experimentally by using material available in the local market: 25 solar panels, metal support, electrical queues, regulator, and battery. The results highlight a power improvement in the case of the proposed new model (solar tree) compared to the traditional one provided (solar panel), for the specified time range between 8 am and 2:30 pm. On the other hand, the traditional model values improve if the time dimension is extended from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm. This is due to the temperature of the region and the presence of interstellar spaces between the cells of the solar tree.
Diversity of gut bacteria in developmental stages of whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius)

A notorious pest whitefly, Bemisia tabaci as a sap sucker and vector of plant disease distributed throughout the world. To supplement their suboptimal diet they are documented to harbour symbiotic bacterial community which also play pivotal role in their development, insecticide resistance etc. Gut bacterial community was studied in this insect for two Indian populations Asia II1 and Asia I of Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, respectively. Total 72 of Asia II1 and 43 of Asia I strains were isolated on different microbiological media from six developmental stages of both the populations. Out of all these strains, 17 genera with 32 species belonging to Firmicutes, Alpha-, Beta-, Gammaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria were identified through amplification of 16S rDNA region. Among these, six genera viz., Bacillus, Lysinibacillus, Kocuria, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus were common in both the populations. Bacillus was found to be associated across all the stages of the selected populations while, in Asia I Lysinibacillus was also present all over the developmental stages. Shannon -Wiener diversity index of 3.13 and 2.41 were estimated for Asia II1 and Asia I respectively. It is revealing that there is more diversity in Asia II1 as compared to Asia I. From Whittaker rank abundance curve, it is clear that Ralstonia and Bacillus safensis for Asia II1 and Lysinibacillus fusiformis for Asia I are abundant species indicating their close association with host insect. Manipulation of these closely associated species may open up an alternate novel approach for managing this noxious pest.
Predicting the Sensitivity of Avian Species to the Embryotoxic Effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Using 'in vitro' Approaches

ii Résumé . iii Table of contents . iv List of tables . vi List of figures . ix List of abbreviations . xi Statement of contributions . xiii Publications . xiv Acknowledgements . xv Chapter 1: General Introduction . 1 1.
Molecular identification of virulence genes in clinical Salmonella typhimurium strains using the multiplex- PCR method and their antibiotic resistance profile

: Background: Salmonella as an enteric, gram negative, facultative anaerobic, obligate parasite causes food poisoning in human. The aim of present study was to identify the virulence genes stn , sopB , slyA , spvc and Phop/Q in Salmonella typhimurium strains isolated from clinical specimens using multiplex PCR method and also the determination of their antibiotic resistance profile. Material and methods: In this cross-sectional study during a 12 month period (April to March 2015) a total of 60 Salmonella typhimurium isolates were collected from Shariati hospital (Tehran, Iran). After the identification of strains, the antimicrobial susceptibility test was done using the disk diffusion agar test on Müller-Hinton agar media according to the Clinical and laboratory standards institute (CLSI) guidelines. Then the presence of virulence genes (e.g. stn , sopB , slyA , spvc and Phop/Q ) were identified using multiplex PCR method. Results: These findings obtained from isolates showed the highest sensitivity to the Imipenem, Gentamicin, and Trimethoprim antibiotics . Distribution analysis of virulence for genes slyA , stn , sopb , Phop / Q showed the frequency of 23.3%, 30%, 3.33%5 and 43.3%, respectively. The spvC gene is not seen in any isolates. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the prevalence of virulence genes in clinical Salmonella Typhimurium isolates can serve as an alarm for the prevalence of these genes to the other Salmonella serotypes. As the Salmonella virulence genes are located on the Salmonella pathogenicity islands, so the high prevalence of these genes can help to the dissemination of islands among the Salmonella strains.
Improvement of Sickle Cell Disease Morbi-Mortality in Children: Experience Gained in a Remote Area of an African Country

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a public health problem in the Democratic Republic of Congo. If reference sickle cell centers have been implemented in capital-cities of African countries and have proven to be beneficial for SCD patients, it has never been set up ina rural area for families with very low sources of income. Method: A cohort of 143 children with SCD aged 10 years old (IQR [inter quartile range]: 6–15 years) (sex ratio male: female = 1.3) were clinically followed for 12 months without any specific intervention, outside management of acute events ,and then 12 months with a monthly medical visit , a biological follow-up and regular prophylaxis. Results: The median age of patients at the diagnosis of SCD was 2 years (IQR: 1–5). The implementation of standardized and regular follow-up in a new sickle cell referral center in a remote city showed an increase in the annual mean hemoglobin level from 50 to 70 g/L (p = 0.001), and a decrease of the lymphocytes count and spleen size (p < 0.001). A significant decrease (p < 0.001) in the average annual number of hospitalizations and episodes of vaso-occlusive crises, blood transfusions, infections, and acute chest syndromes were also observed. Conclusions: Creation of a sickle cell referral center and a regular follow-up of children with SCD are possible and applicable in the context of a remote city of an African country. Those simple and accessible measures can reduce the morbimortality of the sickle cell children.
A red tide forming dinoflagellate Prorocentrum triestinum: identification, phylogeny and impacts on St Helena Bay, South Africa

Abstract: A non-toxic red tide with resulting anoxia was the cause of a major harmful algal bloom in St Helena Bay, South Africa, in February and March 2015. The red tide was observed along approximately 200 km of the Namaqua coastline extending well north of the Olifants River and southward into the bay. A maximum cell concentration of 14.32 × 106 cells l−1 was recorded in the southern reaches of the bay, and oxygen concentrations declined to as low as 0.06 ml l−1 in the shallow waters off Dwarskersbos. The hypoxia induced ecological fallout was significant with massive marine mortalities, including an estimated 415 tons of rock lobster (Jasus lalandii). The causative organism was identified morphologically, ultrastructurally and phylogenetically (using partial sequences of the 18S small subunit rDNA and the 28S large subunit rDNA) as Prorocentrum triestinum (Dinophyceae). Light and electron microscopy (both scanning and transmission) also facilitated identification of P. triestinum and addressed possible confusion with similar taxa. The global incidence of P. triestinum blooms is low, with hot spots limited to coastal areas in eastern China and the Mediterranean Sea, where blooms are sometimes associated with anthropogenic nutrient pollution. The harmful bloom documented here is the first exceptional bloom event with anoxic-related marine mortalities induced by P. triestinum in a major eastern boundary upwelling system such as the Benguela.
A New Type of Soft Pneumatic Torsional Actuator With Helical Chambers for Flexible Machines

Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) that can twist dominantly provide a promising solution for the design of soft robots due to their flexibility, compliance, and easy fabrication. However, the torsional SPAs also face challenges such as overpressure risk and small torsion angle. To tackle those challenges, a new type of torsional SPAs is designed based on the reversible, cooperative buckling of elastomer, which yields a torsion angle of 1.94 deg/mm and an output torque of 26 N . mm with a secure operation pressure. Moreover, this actuator can achieve a wide range of torsional motion by varying the structure parameters, including the height of actuators and the pitch of helical chambers. The relationship between structure parameters and actuator performance is investigated experimentally, and experimental results show that the torsion angle and output torque increase with the height growing from 20 to 44 mm, while decrease with the pitch rising from 75 to 150 mm. The effect of different materials used for constructing the actuator is also studied numerically, and results show that the output torque can be improved by changing the materials. Additionally, several soft machines constructed by utilizing the actuators as a torsional joint are able to perform different manipulating tasks, such as screwing the light bulb, grasping and rotating objects. The actuator developed in this paper is capable of extending the researches on SPAs and offering an alternative for the actuation of soft machines.
A checklist of the genus Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera: Pipunculidae) from the Middle East with the description of a new species

A checklist of 39 species of the genus Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera, Pipunculidae) known from the Middle East is provided. A new species, T. hamata Majnon Jahromi & Kehlmaier sp. n. is described from southern Iran and diagnostic characters of male and female terminalia are illustrated. Tomosvaryella dentiterebra (Collin, 1949) is redescribed and male and female terminalia are illustrated for the first time. A phylogenetic maximum-likelihood analysis and uncorrected pairwise genetic distances of 18 out of 22 Iranian species of Tomosvaryella based on DNA barcodes of the mitochondrial COI gene are presented and also discussed. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FF8C116D-0C92-431A-B52C-11F3711B6A62
Fetal and Neonatal Cholesterol Metabolism

Cholesterol is essential for mammalian development. It is a structural component in every cellular membrane, is involved with various signaling events, and is the precursor for key steroid hormones required for normal development. Fetuses have two sources of cholesterol, endogenous and exogenous, as do adults and children. An endogenous source of cholesterol comes from de novo synthesis. Cholesterol is synthesized in all tissues of all individuals, whether pre- or post-partum. In adults and children, diet is the exogenous source. In contrast, the fetus is protected from direct contact with external factors in the maternal circulation. As such, fetal exogenous cholesterol is obtained from the maternal circulation after being transported across the placenta and possibly the secondary yolk sac. In this review we will discuss fetal cholesterol metabolism and the potential impact of maternal cholesterol on fetal cholesterol. We will also cover the impact of diet on neonatal cholesterol metabolism. Alterations in fetal and neonatal cholesterol metabolism are important not only during infancy, but for the long-term health of the individual as cardiovascular disease has been proposed to be linked to abnormal cholesterol metabolism in the fetus and newborn. For complete coverage of all related areas of Endocrinology, please visit our on-line FREE web-text, WWW.ENDOTEXT. ORG.
Measuring memetic algorithm performance on image fingerprints dataset

Personal identification has become one of the most important terms in our society regarding access control, crime and forensic identification, banking and also computer system. The fingerprint is the most used biometric feature caused by its unique, universality and stability. The fingerprint is widely used as a security feature for forensic recognition, building access, automatic teller machine (ATM) authentication or payment. Fingerprint recognition could be grouped in two various forms, verification and identification. Verification compares one on one fingerprint data. Identification is matching input fingerprint with data that saved in the database. In this paper, we measure the performance of the memetic algorithm to process the image fingerprints dataset. Before we run this algorithm, we divide our fingerprints into four groups according to its characteristics and make 15 specimens of data, do four partial tests and at the last of work we measure all computation time.
Neurocysticercosis and hippocampal damage: a causal link favored by epileptogenesis or neuroinflammation?

Cysticercosis is a frequent parasitic infection of the nervous system that occurs when humans become intermediate hosts of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium (T. solium), after ingesting its eggs. The disease is usually transmitted person-to-person, from Taenia carriers to healthy individuals, through non-hygienic handling of food or by direct contact with human feces. Ingestion of undercooked pork contaminated with cysticerci as the cause of human cysticercosis is a common misconception, since the role of pigs is to maintain the infection cycle by causing human taeniasis. [1]
A robot and comedian walk into a bar, and. . . AHA!

In New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest (CCC), people compete to write the funniest caption for a given cartoon each week. We’ve been running this contest for several years, and have recorded people’s ratings on the funniness of nearly 900,000 captions. Using these data, we propose the AI Humor Assistant (AHA) to help people write funnier captions. AHA does this by automatically judging which captions are funnier based on our historical rating data. AHA mirrors human performance in determining the funnier of two cartoon captions.
Block Distributed 3MG Algorithm and its Application to 3D Image Restoration

Modern 3D image recovery problems require powerful optimization frameworks to handle high dimensionality while providing reliable numerical solutions in a reasonable time. In this perspective, asynchronous parallel optimization algorithms have received an increasing attention by overcoming memory limitation issues and communication bottlenecks. In this work, we propose a block distributed Majorize-Minorize Memory Gradient (BD3MG) optimization algorithm for solving large scale non-convex differentiable optimization problems. Assuming a distributed memory environment, the algorithm casts the efficient 3MG scheme [1] into smaller dimension subproblems where blocks of variables are addressed in an asynchronous manner. Convergence of the sequence built by the proposed BD3MG method is established under mild assumptions. Application to the restoration of 3D images degraded by a depth-variant blur shows that our method yields significant computational time reduction compared to several synchronous and asynchronous competitors, while exhibiting great scalability potential.
Metabolomics and Proteomics Reveal the Variation of Substances in Apheresis Platelets during Storage and Their Effects on Cancer Cell Proliferation

Introduction: Apheresis platelets (APs) are clinically and crucially important in the prevention and treatment of bleeding in patients with thrombocytopenia or cancer. However, few researchers have addressed the variation of supernatant metabolites and exosome proteins in APs during storage and their effects on cancer cell proliferation. Objective: This study was designed to explore the change rules of the metabolites and exosomal proteins of APs during storage and their effects on cancer cell proliferation. Methods: Metabolomics and proteomics were separately applied to analyze the variation of AP supernatant metabolites and exosomal proteins between freshly prepared day-0 and day-5 terminal-stored APs. Cell counting kit (CCK)-8 assay was performed to detect the effects of AP supernatants and exosomes on the proliferation of cancer cells. Results: We found that the supernatant metabolites and exosomal proteins in APs were significantly different on day 0 and day 5, and that many differential metabolites and exosomal proteins were associated with cancer characteristics. Furthermore, the day-5 AP supernatants had a greater inhibition of the proliferation of K562, HepG2, and HCT116 cancer cells, but the day-5 AP exosomes had no significant effect on the proliferation of these cancer cells. Conclusion: The variant terminal-stored AP supernatants may inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells but the variant terminal AP exosomes have no effect on cancer cell proliferation.
Theoretical study of ionization proles of molecular clouds near supernova remnants

Context: Since a few years, signatures of supernova remnants have been detected in gamma rays, particularly those that are known to be associated with molecular clouds. Whether these gamma rays are generated by cosmic ray electrons emitting bremsstrahlung or experiencing inverse Compton scattering, or by cosmic ray protons interacting with ambient hydrogen is usually not known. The detection of hadronic ionization signatures in spatial coincidence with gamma ray signatures can help to unambiguously identify supernova remnants as sources of cosmic ray protons. Aims: The central aim is to develop a method to investigate whether the gamma rays are formed by cosmic ray protons. To achieve this goal, the position-dependent cosmic ray-induced and photoinduced ionization rates are derived. Methods: In order to calculate hadronic signatures from cosmic ray-induced ionization for an examination of the origin of the observed gamma rays from molecular clouds associated with supernova remnants, the transport equation for cosmic ray protons propagating in a molecular cloud, including the relevant momentum loss processes, is solved analytically and the proton ux at any penetration depth into the cloud is determined. Results: Since the solution of the transport equation is obtained for arbitrary source functions, it can be used for a variety of supernova remnants. The corresponding theoretical ionization rate, as a function of the penetration depth, is derived from the position-dependent proton ux, and, for available X-ray data, compared to photoinduced ionization proles in a case study with four supernova remnants associated with molecular clouds. Three of the remnants show a clear dominance of the hadronically induced ionization rate, while for one remnant, X-ray emission seems to dominate by a factor of 10. Conclusions: This is the rst derivation of position-dependent proles for cosmic ray-induced ionization with an analytic solution for arbitrary cosmic ray source spectra. The cosmic ray-induced ionization has to be compared to X-ray ionization for strong X-ray sources. For this purpose, measurements of X-ray spectra from SNR shocks in the sub-keV to keV domain are necessary for a proper comparison. For sources dominated by cosmic ray ionization (e.g., W49B), the ionization proles can be used in the future to map the spatial structure of hadronic gamma rays and rotation-vibrational lines induced by cosmic ray protons. With instruments like ALMA for the line signatures and CTA for the gamma ray detection, such a correlation study will help to identify sources of hadronic cosmic rays.
Estudio de biomarcadores de daño cardiopulmonar en la dirofilariosis canina por Dirofilaria immitis

Cardiopulmonary biomarkers are biological parameters that can be objectively measured and quantified as indicators of pathogenic processes (heartworm disease) or as indicators of response to therapeutic intervention. To determine levels of cardiopulmonary biomarkers in canine dirofilariasis, measurements of cardiac troponin T, cardiac troponin I, myoglobin, and D-dimer concentrations were performed for dogs with and without evidence of adult heartworm infection. The results showed that levels of cardiac troponin T were undetectable in all dogs studied while levels of cardiac troponin I were higher in dogs infected with Dirofilaria immitis. In healthy dogs, levels of myoglobin and D-dimer were below detection limits of the instrument and were significantly higher in heartworm-infected dogs, notably in microfilaremic dogs. The results suggest the possibility of using troponin I and myoglobin as markers for cardiac damage and the D-dimer as a supportive tool for a diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism in dogs with cardiopulmonary dirofilariasis. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.