Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Randomized, Prospective, Double-Masked, Controlled Phase 2b Trial to Evaluate the Safety & Efficacy of ALG-1001 (Luminate®) in Diabetic Macular Edema

Purpose : Currently, there is only one predominant treatment paradigm for diabetic macular edema (DME): anti-VEGF agent as first line, followed by corticosteroids as second line. We performed a double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomized multi-center phase 2b trial to evaluate the safety & efficacy of ALG-1001, a novel first-in-class integrin inhibitor, as compared to bevacizumab in DME. Methods : 80 subjects were randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups: 1.25mg bevacizumab control arm of 5 monthly injections (Group 1); single treatment of 1.25mg bevacizumab at week 0 followed by three ALG-1001 injections (1.0mg or 0.5mg) at weeks 1, 4 and 8 (Groups 2 & 3); ALG-1001 (1.0mg or 0.5mg) given in direct combination with bevacizumab 1.25mg at weeks 1, 4 and 8 (Groups 4 & 5). Efficacy outcomes were change from baseline in BCVA and OCT CMT at week 20. Results : 65 subjects were included in the per protocol population. Group 2 demonstrated the best efficacy among the ALG-1001 groups. Mean change in BCVA were 6.7 and 7.1 letters for 1.25mg bevacizumab and ALG-1001 1.0mg in sequential treatment, respectively. BCVA improved earlier than CMT improvements suggesting a new mechanism of action unlike anti-VEGF. There were no drug related SAEs in ALG-1001 groups. Conclusions : Primary endpoint of non-inferiority in BCVA was met with sequential dosing of a single bevacizumab treatment plus 3 doses of 1.0mg ALG-1001 vs 6 doses of 1.25 mg bevacizumab (≤3 letters difference) at week 20. ALG-1001 showed 12-week durability in all study subjects in sequential therapy arms.
SSD-Assisted Ransomware Detection and Data Recovery Techniques

As ransomware attacks have been prevalent, it becomes crucial to make anti-ransomware solutions that defend against ransomwares. In this article, we propose a new ransomware defense system, called <italic>SSD-Insider++</italic>, which prevents users’ files from being damaged by ransomware attacks. SSD-Insider++ is embedded into an SSD controller as a form of firmware. By being separated from a host machine, it not only provides more robust data protection than software-based ones which are vulnerable to evasion attacks, but also offers interoperability with various platforms. SSD-Insider++ is composed of two novel features, ransomware detection and perfect data recovery, which are tightly integrated with each other. The detection algorithm observes I/O patterns of a host system and decides whether the host is being attacked by ransomwares in an early stage. Once an encryption attack is detected, the recovery algorithm is triggered to recover original files by leveraging a delayed deletion feature of an SSD at a low cost. Our experimental results show that SSD-Insider++ achieves high accuracy of detecting ransomwares with 0 percent FRR/FAR in most cases and provides an instant data recovery with 0 percent data loss. The overhead of running SSD-Insider++ is negligible – only 80 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="lee-ieq1-3011214.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>s and 226 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="lee-ieq2-3011214.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>s are spent more for handling 4-KB reads and writes, respectively.
Is Massive MIMO Robust Against Distributed Jammers?

In this paper, we evaluate the uplink spectral efficiency (SE) of a single-cell massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system with distributed jammers. We define four different attack scenarios and compare their impact on the massive MIMO system as well as on a conventional single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) system. More specifically, the jammers attack the base station (BS) during both the uplink training phase and data phase. The BS uses either least squares (LS) or linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimators for channel estimation and utilizes either maximum-ratio-combining (MRC) or zero-forcing (ZF) decoding vectors. We show that ZF gives higher SE than MRC but, interestingly, the performance is unaffected by the choice of the estimators. The simulation results show that the performance loss percentage of massive MIMO is less than that of the SIMO system. Moreover, we consider two types of power control algorithms: jamming-aware and jamming-ignorant. In both cases, we consider the max-min and proportional fairness criteria to increase the uplink SE of massive MIMO systems. We notice numerically that max-min fairness is not a good option because if one user is strongly affected by the jamming, it will degrade the other users’ SE as well. On the other hand, proportional fairness improves the sum SE of the system compared with the full power transmission scenario.
Plant Hydraulic Trait Covariation: A Global Meta-Analysis to Reduce Degrees of Freedom in Trait-Based Hydrologic Models

Current vegetation modeling strategies use broad categorizations of plants to estimate transpiration and biomass functions. A significant source of model error stems from vegetation categorizations that are mostly taxonomical with no basis in plant hydraulic strategy and response to changing environmental conditions. Here, we compile hydraulic traits from 355 species around the world to determine trait covariations in order to represent hydraulic strategies. Simple and stepwise regression analyses demonstrate the interconnectedness of multiple vegetative hydraulic traits, specifically, traits defining hydraulic conductivity and vulnerability to embolism with wood density and isohydricity. Drought sensitivity is strongly (Adjusted R2 = 0.52, p < 0.02) predicted by a stepwise linear model combining rooting depth, wood density, and isohydricity. Drought tolerance increased with increasing wood density and anisohydric response, but with decreasing rooting depth. The unexpected response to rooting depth may be due to other tradeoffs within the hydraulic system. Rooting depth was able to be predicted from sapwood specific conductivity and the water potential at 50% loss of conductivity. Interestingly, the influences of biome or growth form do not increase the accuracy of the drought tolerance model and were able to be omitted. Multiple regression analysis revealed 3D trait spaces and tradeoff axes along which species’ hydraulic strategies can be analyzed. These numerical trait spaces can reduce the necessary input to and parameterization of plant hydraulics modules, while increasing the physical representativeness of such simulations.
Correntropy-Based Spatial-Spectral Robust Sparsity-Regularized Hyperspectral Unmixing

Hyperspectral unmixing (HU) is a crucial technique for exploiting remotely sensed hyperspectral data, which aims at estimating a set of spectral signatures, called endmembers and their corresponding proportions, called abundances. The performance of HU is often seriously degraded by various kinds of noise existing in hyperspectral images (HSIs). Most of existing robust HU methods are based on the assumption that noise or outlier only exists in one kind of formulation, e.g., band noise or pixel noise. However, in real-world applications, HSIs are unavoidably corrupted by noisy bands and noisy pixels simultaneously, which require robust HU in both the spatial dimension and spectral dimension. Meanwhile, the sparsity of abundances is an inherent property of HSIs and different regions in an HSI may possess various sparsity levels across locations. This article proposes a correntropy-based spatial-spectral robust sparsity-regularized unmixing model to achieve 2-D robustness and adaptive weighted sparsity constraint for abundances simultaneously. The updated rules of the proposed model are efficient to be implemented and carried out by a half-quadratic technique. The experimental results obtained by both synthetic and real hyperspectral data demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared to the state-of-the-art methods.
Growth and slaughtering performance, carcase fleshiness and meat quality according to the plumage colour in Padovana male chickens slaughtered at 18 weeks of age

Abstract The aim of this trial was to investigate on the growth and meat quality of Padovana male chickens with different plumage varieties, chamois (PC - light brown feathers with white edge), silver (PS - white feathers with black edge), and their cross. The body weight of PC during the growth period was higher (p < .01) than PS, and it was 1.7 and 1.5 kg, respectively, at 126 d of age. At slaughter, PC showed higher weight of carcase (p < .05), breast and total fleshiness (breast, wings and legs) (p < .01), and thigh meat:bone ratio (p < .05). PS showed higher shanks weight on carcase weight (p < .01), Ilio tibialis a* value (p < .01), water losses (p < .01) and shear force (p < .05) in breast meat than PC. Crossing PC males to PS females gave birds with white (Cross-W) and silver (Cross-S) plumage (3:1 ratio, respectively). The offspring genotypes showed similar body weight, and almost all slaughtering, carcase and meat quality traits studied. Cross-W and Cross-S showed significantly higher final body weight, breast and leg weight, total fleshiness and thigh meat:bone ratio than PS. For the Padovana breed, the plumage colour can involve productive and slaughtering performance, and carcase and meat quality, throughout the growing period. At 18 weeks of age, the Padovana male chickens show body weight and carcase fleshiness similar to that of a hybrid laying hen belonging to a light strain. Highlights Padovana is an historic Italian chicken breed with a slow growth rate; it is slaughtered broadly later than hybrid strains and it is important to know the age for achieving favourable slaughtering performance and good carcase quality. Padovana chicken breed has been selected in some plumage colours and the growth rate, slaughtering performance and carcase quality can significantly differ according to them. Crossing chickens with two different plumage colours can exert a positive heterosis effect on productive and carcase quality traits.
DETECÇÃO DE ISOLADOS DE SALMONELLA DOS SOROTIPOS ENTERITIDIS E HEIDELBERG POR TÉCNICA DE DIAGNÓSTICO MOLECULAR ISOTÉRMICA

Salmonella e uma bacteria responsavel por doencas entericas (salmoneloses) pela ingestao de alimentos, principalmente de origem avicola. Esta bacteria e classificada em sorotipos. Entre estes, Enteritidis e tradicionalmente associado com infeccoes entericas em alimentos de origem avicola. Recentemente, Heidelberg tem sido demonstrado com elevada ocorrencia em produtos desta mesma origem. A deteccao tradicional de sorotipos engloba etapas microbiologicas (isolamento bacteriano e caracterizacao bioquimica) e testes sorologicos. Tecnicas de diagnostico molecular, como a reacao em cadeia da polimerase (PCR de Polymerase Chain Reaction ), possibilitam a deteccao direta de Salmonella e dos principais sorotipos. Recentemente, tecnicas de amplificacao isotermica por LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) foram desenvolvidas, apresentando a grande vantagem de nao necessitarem de equipamentos sofisticados (como termocicladores). Este estudo objetivou estabelecer a deteccao dos sorotipos Enteritidis e Heidelberg de Salmonella pela tecnica de LAMP. Foram obtidos 29 isolados de Salmonella de amostras humanas (n=10) e de alimentos (n=17), previamente sorotipados, no Laboratorio Central do Estado do RS (LACEN-RS) e pertencentes aos seguintes sorotipos: Enteritidis (n=10), Typhimurium (n=8), Heidelberg (n=2), Braenderup (n=1), Bredeney (n=1), Infantis (n=1), Newport (n=1), Panama (n=1), Schwarzengrund (n=1), Indeterminado (n=3). Primeiramente, foram realizados ensaios de PCR em tempo real para deteccao especifica de Enteritidis ( safA ) e Heidelberg ( ACF69659 ). Apos foram realizados os ensaios de amplificacao isotermica pela tecnica de LAMP utilizando os mesmos genes alvo. A analise comparativa demonstrou total concordância entre os metodos de PCR e LAMP. Os dados preliminares do presente trabalho indicam um excelente desempenho analitico da tecnica LAMP.
Accumulation of phytoene and astaxanthin and related genes expression in Haematococcus pluvialis under sodium acetate stress

Phytoene and astaxanthin are 2 important carotenoids in the green alga Haematococcus pluvialis. Under environmental stress, the synthesis of phytoene in H. pluvialis increases significantly, and phytoene is converted to astaxanthin through enzymatic catalysis. This paper analyzes the relationship between astaxanthin and phytoene accumulation in carotenoid synthesis pathways under different concentrations of sodium acetate (NaAc) by high-performance liquid chromatography. The highest concentrations of phytoene and astaxanthin were observed at the NaAc concentration of 6 g l−1 on the 12th day of induction. The highest astaxanthin concentration achieved was 2.26 ± 0.28%. Therefore, we concluded that 6 g l−1 NaAc and induction for 12 d provided the optimal inducing conditions for astaxanthin accumulation in H. pluvialis. psy, pds, lcyB, β-carotene ketolase crtw, and crtz, which are genes related to phytoene and astaxanthin synthesis, were cloned and studied at the transcriptional level. crtw and crtz were continuously up-regulated since the first day of induction, while psy, pds, and lcyB were continuously up-regulated starting on the 3rd day of induction. These findings are important for enhancing our understanding of the mechanism of accumulation of phytoene and astaxanthin in H. pluvialis and provide a foundation for identifying the induction conditions necessary for optimizing astaxanthin production and increasing astaxanthin yields.
Identification of different isolated fungi from scaly debris of Colocasia corm with potential production of cellulase

THE AIM of the present work is to isolate and identify the different fungi from the debris of the brown outer scaly leaves of Colocasia corm. The isolated fungi were tested for cellulase producing activity. The species were primarily recognized on morphological bases and then identified on molecular level. The Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) domain of the ribosome large subunit (LSU)-comprising the ITS1/5.8S/ITS2 regions (≥ 500bp) was subjected to Sanger sequencing for the new isolates using primer pair ITS1/ITS4. BLAST analysis indicated entities of the eight-isolated fungal isolates. Among the isolates, three of the species were found-closely related to Fusarium solani whereas, the other five isolations were found to be closely related to F. proliferatum, F. fujikuroi, F. equiseti, Penicillium lanosum and P. flavigenum. Screening of the fungal species for cellulase production”was performed on cellulose-agar plates using clear zone technique. The results showed that out of theses isolates, the maximum zone of clearance was obtained for isolate that is closely related to P. lanosum, whereas, the minimum-zone of clearance was recorded for isolates closely related to Fusarium solani. Penicillium isolate showing significant-potentiality in cellulase production will be a subject for a detailed investigation.
Spatial Panel Econometric Analyses of the Effects of Jobs-Housing Balance on Commuting Time

‧ 주거지의 교외화는 주거지와 직장의 공간적 분리를 심화시켜 교통체증 및 교통비용 증가 등의 문제를 야기하게 된다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위하여 다양한 논의가 이루어지고 있으며 그중에서도 통근패턴과 직주균형의 관계에 대한 논의는 중요한 이슈중에 하나이다. ‧ 따라서 본연구는 연구지역에 대한 동태적인 분석이 가능한 공간패널계량경제학 기법을 적용하여 수도권의 통근시간과 직주균형과의 관계 및 통근시간에 미치는 사회경제적 요인을 분석하였다. ‧ 분석결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. ‧ 첫째, 직주비와 통근시간의 관계는 U자 형태의 함수관계를 가지는 것으로 나타났다. 즉 직장이 많은 곳이나 주거지가 많은 곳에서는 통근시간이 증가하고 있으며 직주비가 균형인 지점에서 통근시간이 짧아지는 것으로 나타났다. ‧ 둘째, 통근시간을 결정하는 요인은 다양하게 나타났다. 고등학교 수, 주택가격, 전세가격, 재정자립도 등의 사회경제적 요인이 통근시간의 증감에 영향을 미치고 있다. ‧ 셋째, 그린벨트는 직·간접적으로 통근시간에 영향을 미치고 있음을 보여주고 있다. 그린벨트 면적은 통근시간의 증가에 직접적인 영향을 미친다. 그러나 그린벨트의 안쪽 지역은 간접적으로 인접지역의 통근시간을 감소시키는 역할을 하고 있어 그린벨트가 통근에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다고 할 수 있다. ‧ 따라서 지자체는 직주균형정책에 관심을 기울이면서 크게 공간적 차원과 사회경제적 차원(소득, 환경, 교통인프라 등)을 종합적으로 고려해 도시관리(urban management) 및 도시체계(urban system) 차원에서 토지이용과 도시성장문제를 이해할 필요가 있다.
Nutritional characterization and use of DDGS in growing and finishing pig diets - analytical approach.

Alternative ingredients such as dried distiller’s grains with soluble (DDGS) are constantly being studied in order to replace corn and soybean meal, due to similarity in the amount of nutrients and less costly. Articles between the years 2002 and 2015 published in international journals were reviewed contained on the Science Direct and Animal Science Publications platforms, in which the diets for finishing pigs showed the levels of inclusion 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% of corn’s DDGS. With a database compiled in Excel spreadsheet a descriptive analysis was performed using the significance levels obtained from the results of the referenced works. The expressive amounts of energy, crude protein and digestible phosphorus, makes it very attractive for partial replacement of animal nutrition. Was observed that with increasing concentration of corn’s DDGS in the diet feed intake and consequently weight gain decreases. In conclusion, DDGS can be included in diets for pigs in the growing and finishing phases up to 20% of inclusion without negatively affecting performance.
The Role of Individual Values, Authoritarian Attitudes and Social Identity in the General Discriminatory Orientation of the Personal in Russia

Objective. Study of the role of individual values, authoritarian attitudes and social identity in the expression of discriminatory orientation of the personal in Russia. Background. Discriminatory attitudes not only hinder social development, but also negatively affect interpersonal and intergroup relationships, creating social and humanitarian problems. Therefore, finding out and explaining the reasons for the formation of a discriminatory attitude and determining how to eliminate them are the most important tasks of modern social psychology. Study design. The paper studied the relationship between the degree of dislike for representatives of various discriminated groups and the areas of discrimination by calculating the Pearson correlation. Predictors of discriminatory attitudes are established using regression analysis (step-by-step method). Structural modeling of the determinants of discriminatory attitudes of the individual by area (sphere) of discrimination and subject (discriminated group) using the SEM method is carried out. Participants. The study involved 217 people (the average age is 28.9±11.2 years, 36% of men). Measurements. We used the developed questionnaire and scales of discriminatory attitudes, the method of assessing values of Sh. Schwartz, a short version of the scales of the method of J. Dukkit. All scales are checked for meaningful validity and reliability. Results. It was found that the discriminatory attitude is most pronounced in the sphere of sports, education and career. Biases and rejection of representatives of different groups in various spheres of life are associated with the high significance of the values of personal and social security, power — resources, traditions (positive); values of interpersonal conformity and independence — thoughts (negative) and reputation as a desire to maintain a public image (ambivalent in different areas). The directions of relations between values, authoritarian attitudes, social identity and discriminatory attitudes are established. Сonclusions. It is shown that civil identity is a factor of institutional discrimination rather than domestic one. Adherence to an ethnic group affects the strength of a domestic discriminatory attitude directly, and institutional attitudes indirectly, through civic identity. As a result of structural equation modeling, a suitable model has been determined that explains up to 24% of variations in the outgroup discriminatory attitude and up to 25% of variations in the manifestation of biases in various spheres of life.
Molecular Mechanisms of Atherosclerosis in Metabolic Syndrome

Objective— The mechanisms underlying accelerated atherosclerosis in metabolic syndrome (MetS) patients remain poorly defined. In the mouse, complete disruption of insulin receptor substrate-2 (Irs2) causes insulin resistance, MetS-like manifestations, and accelerates atherosclerosis. Here, we performed human, mouse, and cell culture studies to gain insight into the contribution of defective Irs2 signaling to MetS-associated alterations. Methods and Results— In circulating leukocytes from insulin-resistant MetS patients, Irs2 and Akt2 mRNA levels inversely correlate with plasma insulin levels and HOMA index and are reduced compared to insulin-sensitive MetS patients. Notably, a moderate reduction in Irs2 expression in fat-fed apolipoprotein E-null mice lacking one allele of Irs2 (apoE−/−Irs2+/−) accelerates atherosclerosis compared to apoE-null controls, without affecting plaque composition. Partial Irs2 inactivation also increases CD36 and SRA scavenger receptor expression and modified LDL uptake in macro.
IMPORTANT HISTOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS FOR CLASSIFICATION OF CANINE MAST CELL TUMORS

Mast cell tumors (MCTs) are one of the most common neoplasms indogs. They originate from the bone marrow. Several criteria have been proposedfor their classification, including histological grading and cell proliferation markers.The mitotic index, multiple nuclei, cells with bizarre nuclei and karyomegaly are themost important parameters for the classification of MCTs on high and low-grademalignancy. For the confirmation of MCT malignancy grade it is also important todetermine the expression of the transmembrane kinase (KIT) receptor that has asignificant role in the growth and differentiation of mast cell tumors. In high-grademalignancy MCTs in addition to membrane expression of the KIT receptor, aberrantcytoplasmic expression can be also observed. Fifty-two MCTs and 12 controlsamples of skin from dogs without MCTs were examined. Routinely processed tissuesamples were stained with hematoxylin-eosin. Expression of KIT receptor wastested immunohistochemically. The classification of MCTs on high and low-grademalignancy was performed according to the Kiupel’s 2-tier classification and theexpression of KIT receptors. Sixteen of 52 MCTs were of a low-grade malignancy,while thirty-six were classified as a high-grade malignancy of which 19 MCTsshowed aberrant cytoplasm labelling of KIT receptor. All 16 low-grade malignancyMCTs had only membrane expression of KIT receptor. Most high-grade malignancyMCTs showed cytoplasmic KIT expression indicating the link between aberrantKIT expression and increased cell proliferation. The presence of mitotic figures,multinucleated cells, bizarre nuclei and karyomegaly, as well as KIT receptorexpression pattern are the most important prognostic factors in dogs with mast celltumor.