Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic engineering of malaria parasite resistance in vector mosquitoes

Malaria is the most significant vector‐borne disease and mostly affects people living in the lesser developed countries of tropical and sub‐tropical regions. Climate changes, rapid global transportation, immigration and invasion of exotic mosquito vectors bring the threat of introduction of the disease to developed nations. Sustainability of malaria control requires the discovery of therapeutic and prophylactic drugs, development of effective vaccines and control of vector mosquitoes. Drug development and vaccine research have been pursued aggressively over the past 20 years, and progress in novel approaches to vector control is now evident. Our long‐term objective is the production and utilization of strains of vector mosquitoes that are genetically refractory to the transmission of malaria parasites. These insects will be used to test the hypothesis that an increase in the frequency of a gene or allele that confers decreased vector competence to a population of mosquitoes will result in a reduction in the incidence and prevalence of malaria. Completed studies make it possible to develop strains of Anopheles mosquitoes expressing specific effector molecules that interfere completely with the transmission of the most lethal human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Data are reviewed here that support the use of single‐chain monoclonal antibodies (scFv) that disable parasites in the midgut and hemolymph of transgenic mosquitoes.
Mitigation strategies to reduce enteric methane emissions from dairy cows: Update review

Enteric methane (CH4) emission is a major contributor to Canadian greenhouse gas emissions, and also a loss of feed energy during production. The objective of this paper is to provide an update on current management practices and new dietary strategies recently proposed to reduce CH4 emissions from ruminants. Existing mitigation strategies for dairy, e.g., the addition of ionophores, fats, use of high-quality forages, and increased use of grains, have been well researched and applied. These nutritional changes reduce CH4 emissions by manipulating ruminal fermentation, directly inhibiting methanogens and protozoa, or by diverting hydrogen ions away from methanogens. Current literature has identified new CH4 mitigation options. These include the addition of probiotics, acetogens, bacteriocins, archaeal viruses, organic acids, plant extracts (e.g., essential oils) to the diet, as well as immunization, and genetic selection of cows. These new strategies are promising, but more research is needed to validate t.
Novel Use of C-MAC in A Non-Anaesthesia Field

A 56 years old 65 kg male patient with a diagnosis of vocal cord growth was posted for Direct Laryngoscopy biopsy. On airway assessment his Mallampati score was II, mouth opening was adequate, the temporomandibular distance was more than 6.5 cm and neck movement was slightly restricted. After shifting to the operation theatre all the monitors, like 3 lead ECG, NIBP and pulse oximeter were attached. An Intravenous cannula was placed in the left hand with a 20 g cannula. The patient was preoxyginated for 3 minutes with 100% oxygen. Then, induction of anaesthesia was done with intravenous injection Propofol 140 mg and intravenous 50mg rocuronium was given after confirming the adequacy of mask ventilation. Intubation was done with 6 mm ID PVC micro laryngeal endotracheal tube using a bougie. It was an anticipated difficult airway. Two attempts were required, as Cormac Lehane grading was 3a. The situation was harder for head and neck surgeons as they had to take a biopsy as well as excise vocal cord growth which was situated anteriorly. They were not able to see any portion of vocal cord with their direct, rigid, straight laryngoscope. They were about to abandon the procedure. Then, we suggested them to use C-MAC D blade with flexible bronchoscopy biopsy set. With the use of C-MAC visualization of growth was significantly improved but directing the bronchoscope towards the desired area was still difficult as bronchoscope was very flexible, thin and was continuously slipping downwards. Then surgeon was suggested to use the suction catheter of size 16 F and it was directed easily over the tube to the target area (Figure 1). Biopsy wire was then passed through the suction catheter and biopsy was taken successfully (Figure 2). At the end of the procedure, the patient was extubated uneventfully.
Effect of Selenium on Hatchability and Cellular Glutathione Peroxidase mRNA Expression during Embryogenesis in Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica)

Cellular glutathione peroxidase has important antioxidant and detoxification functions by protecting cells from oxidative damage induced by reactive oxygen species. To investigate the expression of cellular glutathione peroxidase mRNA during embryogenesis in Japanese quail, livers were collected at day 6, 9, 12, 15 and 17 of incubation for measurement of mRNA levels by RT-PCR. The result showed that cellular glutathione peroxidase mRNA expresses in all stages during embryonic development. To observe the effect of selenium in maternal diet on the hatchability and cellular glutathione peroxidase mRNA expression in the liver of hatchlings, mother quail were fed regular diet (0.24ppm selenium) with 0, 0.25, 0.5 or 1ppm selenium. After 2 weeks of feeding, fertilized eggs were collected and incubated. Livers of the mothers and the hatchlings were collected for measurement of cellular glutathione peroxidase mRNA expression. The results showed that the hatchability was high in eggs from quail fed 0.25ppm selenium, but it was decreased in eggs from quail fed 0.5 or 1ppm selenium. Cellular glutathione peroxidase mRNA levels of female quail fed 0.25, 0.5 or 1ppm selenium were higher than those fed regular diet. Cellular glutathione peroxidase mRNA levels of the hatchlings originating from the quail fed 0.25ppm selenium were higher than those of the hatchlings from the quail fed regular diet. These results indicated that although selenium is important for embryonic development through antioxidant defense system by cellular glutathione peroxidase, high level of selenium in the maternal diet has an adverse effect on embryonic development.
Improving the Waste Collection Problem using Sensorized Containers.

Waste collection is a difficult problem faced by modern society. Environmental issues and increasing population resulting in more waste production and traffic congestion are examples of negative external effects. This thesis provides two useful models related to the waste collection problem. First, the insertion heuristic is used to solve the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). Second, the results from the VRP are used to determine where sensors should be implemented in order to decrease the number of overflow events. The VRP program creates routes for each borough of the city of Rotterdam separately, for every day in one year. Waste accretion is modelled in order to make lists of locations that are eligible to be emptied. This modelling of waste accretion is done using data of inhabitants, waste production and the locations of the waste bins. Using two thresholds, a list with urgent locations and another list with eligible but not urgent locations is constructed. The starting point for a route is the location with currently the highest (estimated) amount of waste. The nearest insertion heuristic is then used to expand the routes until the vehicle’s capacity is reached. Using different numbers of vehicles, different results are obtained. When there are more vehicles available than needed, the program does not use all of them. Overflow occurs less when more vehicles are available. The overflow events are more likely to take place at locations that are either located very far away from their neighbours, have a high standard deviation or a large daily waste accretion. To improve the results, extensions have been added to the VRP including assigning an alternating number of vehicles to a borough and using the forecast of waste accretion to determine which locations should be visited. Locations with a lot of overflow can be equipped with a sensor, meaning that the actual amount of waste in the bin is known and can be used when creating routes. Results show that significant improvements can be observed when sensors are placed in certain locations, especially when combined with the forecast extension to the VRP. Using the results of this thesis in further work, for example with the addition of a cost-benefit analysis, can lead to useful recommendations for municipalities and waste collection companies.
Indoor Location based on Audio Signals

The vulgarization of smartphones and other mobile devices with great portability in the market, caused the emerge of applications and services that are very coupled to the location of the users. Uber, Google Maps, Waze, Sports Trackers, among many others, are examples of such applications. In open space, Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most used technique to precisely locate a device. However, this technique needs a line of sigh to a set of satellites, therefore it cannot be used in closed spaces. Due to a great diversity of applications for indoor location and their high interest in the market, it became necessary to develop alternative techniques/technologies that are adequate to these specific environments. This work consists on the development of a prototype of a system for locating mobile devices in indoor spaces based on audio signals. The main idea is to have a set of speakers spread around a building, emitting distinct signals that are captured by a mobile device. The location service relies on the difference of travel time between the signal of different speakers and the mobile devices. This allows the system to estimate the distance of the device to each speaker and tell with some margin of error where the device is located. The proposed system was not fully functional due to implementation problems with the GNURadio, but the Multilateration service could effectively determine the position of the device within a margin of error lower than 70cm, assuming that thetime that the GNURadio process took to complete was close to 1ms.
Role of Airway Smooth Muscle Cells in Asthma Pathology

Airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells have been shown to play an important role in bronchial asthma. As the research progresses, the mechanism becomes more and more complex. This chapter reviews the role of ASM in asthma pathological mechanisms including inflammatory reaction, extracellular matrix proteins, cell contraction, cell structure, neuromodulation, airway remodeling, apoptosis, autophagy, miRNA, mitochondria, etc. In brief, ASM is similar to a “processing station. ” It is not only affected by various signals in the body to produce biological effects and secrete various signals to act on downstream target cells but also feeds back to the upstream pathways or receives feedback from downstream pathways to form a complex network. The results summarized in this chapter are expected to provide new targets for the clinical treatment of asthma.
Distributed optimization of enhanced intercell interference coordination and resource allocation in heterogeneous networks

In two‐tier heterogeneous networks (HetNets), the cross‐tier interference caused by spectrum sharing between macrocell and small cells poses obstacle to ideal overall network performance. Both enhanced intercell interference coordination (eICIC) at the macrocell base station (MBS) and resource allocation (RA) at small cell base station (SBS) have been considered as efficient approaches to mitigate the cross‐tier interference. In this paper, we propose a distributed optimization framework to jointly optimize the eICIC and RA schemes at different tiers. In specific, an enhanced almost blank subframe (ABS) scheme is performed by the MBS to encourage SBSs to adopt hybrid access policy and admit the offloaded macrocell users (MUs) so as to guarantee their QoS requirements. To model the intricate interaction between two tiers, we formulate the joint optimization problem as a one‐leader multiple‐follower Stackelberg game. We prove the existence of Stackelberg equilibrium (SE) and obtain the optimal strategies for both tiers. Numerical results are presented to show that the proposed framework with hybrid access policy converges to a unique SE and utilities for both tiers is maximized, which creates a win‐win situation.
A NEW SPECIES OF NEONYMPHA

Neonympha Mitchellii n. sp. Male. —Upper surface grayish wood-brown, rather dark, without spots or marks, except that the spots on the underside of the hind wings and the dark lines bordering the terminal dark yellow line on the same wings show through a little. Fringes concolorus, in certain lights a little smoky tinged. Under surface slightly paler than the upper, a little more of the mouse order of color, sprinkled with buff scales. Both wings are crossed by four transverse brownish-yellow stripes, so dark on the fore wings as to be yellow-brown, occupying the same position as the same lines in its ally, N. Areolatus, the first and second uniting by a rounded end about a tenth of an inch from the inner margin of hind wings, the two outer—one terminal and the other sub-terminal—also uniting before reaching anal angle.
Quality of experience and quality of service‐aware handover for video transmission in heterogeneous networks

Heterogeneous networks offer a wide range of multimedia services, such as entertainment, advertising, and video conferences. In this multimedia scenario, users can access video content via heterogeneous wireless networks, such as LTE macro and small cells. Users also expect to receive real‐time videos with Quality of Experience (QoE) support, which is a challenging task due to the great diversity of radio base stations in such heterogeneous environments. In this article, we introduce a Quality of Service (QoS‐)/QoE‐ and Radio‐aware (SER) handover management algorithm for heterogeneous networks to provide video dissemination with QoS/QoE support. SER algorithm considers the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to adjust the degree of importance of each criterion in order to select the appropriate radio base station that the mobile node must connect, allowing efficient handover decision making for video transmission with high user experience. Simulation results show that the SER algorithm delivered videos with significant improvement on QoE than existing handover algorithms.
Somatic embryogenesis in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.): improving culture initiation rates

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) is one of the most important commercial trees in the U.S. To be successful for commercial use, soma- tic embryogenesis technology must work with a variety of genetically diverse seeds. Initiation rates of loblolly pine were improved through a combination of modified 1/2 P6 salts, activated carbon at 50-100 mgL -1 , Cu and Zn added to compensate for adsorption by activated carbon, 1.5% maltose, 2% myo-inositol, (to raise osmotic level partially simulating the ovule environment), 500 mg L -1 case amino acids, 450 mg L -1 glutamine, 2 mg L -1 NAA, 0.45 mg L -1 BAP, 0.43 mg L -1 kinetin, and 1.6-2 g L -1 Gelrite. Across 10 open-pollinated families, initiation rates ranged from 3-33%, averaging 16%.
Kentucky Bluegrass Responses to Mowing Practice and Nitrogen Fertility Management

ABSTRACT The practice of leaving clippings on the lawn recycles nutrients and reduces yard-waste but the residue of unsightly clippings deters widespread adoption. An experiment was conducted on a Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) turf to evaluate mowing practice in combination with various fertilizer types and application rates. The main objective was to minimize clipping yield while achieving acceptable turfgrass quality. The return of clippings, as compared to clipping removal, was associated with fewer weeds and a darker green more luxuriant turf. Furthermore, the benefits of clipping return were achieved using half (97.6 kg ha□ 1 yr□ 1) as much N as is typically applied (195.2 kg ha□ 1 yr□ 1) for high maintenance turf. Slow-release N fertilizers were shown to reduce spring clipping yield and thereby make the practice of clipping return a more acceptable mowing practice.
Fungicidal Effect and Oral Acute Toxicity of Psophocarpus tetragonolobus. Root Extract

Abstract The methanol extract of Psophocarpus tetragonolobus. (L.) DC (Leguminosae) root was screened for antimicrobial activity against Candida albicans. (Berkhout). The extract showed a favorable antimicrobial activity against C. albicans. with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 3.13 mg/mL. Apart from the fungicidal effects, imaging using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was done to determine the major alterations in the microstructure of C. albicans. The main abnormalities noted via SEM studies were the alterations in morphology and complete collapse of the yeast cells after 36 h of exposure to the extract. The effect of the extract on the growth profile of the yeast was also examined. It changed the normal growth profile of C. albicans. , thus confirming the fungicidal effect of the extract on C. albicans. In an acute toxicity study using rats, death was not observed, so the acute minimum fatal dose of the extract was greater than 2000 mg/kg, and we found no pathologic changes in macroscopic examination by necropsy of rats treated with extract. We conclude that the extract may be safely used as an antimicrobial agent.
Embodied Habitus

of populations. Foucault’s study of the body was thus organized around the notions of discipline and regulatory controls or ‘governmentality’ (Foucault, 1991). The new genetics provide enhanced opportunities for governmentality as a strategy of political surveillance and economic production. The government of the body, as a consequence, remains a critical issue in the management and regulation of individuals and populations in contemporary society.
Performance of Broilers Fed Normal and Waxy Corn Diets Formulated with Chick and Rooster Derived Apparent Metabolizable Energy Values for the Grains

SUMMARY An experiment was conducted to compare the feeding value of a normal yellow dent corn (YDC) and its waxy variant (WXC) under practical conditions. Isocaloric and nutritionally equivalent cornsoybean meal diets were formulated to satisfy NRC (1994) requirements by using the actual nutrient profile of each corn hybrid in the ingredient matrix. Starting diet formulation for live performance from 0 to 18 d of age compared AMEn values for the grains that had been measured using chicks at 14 d of age (YDC = 2.79 kcal/g; WXC = 2.86 kcal/g) versus measurements with adult roosters (YDC = 3.27 kcal/g; WXC = 3.23 kcal/g). Subsequent growing and finishing diets from 14 to 42 and 42 to 49 d of age relied exclusively on values for both corns that had been determined with roosters. Inclusion of WXC improved pellet durability and increased overall particulate size of the complete feeds as compared to YDC diets (P ≤ 0.05). Broilers fed WXC rations showed greater body weight gains than those on YDC diets, although feed efficiency was generally poorer (P ≤ 0.05). Birds provided WXC had an advantage for chilled carcass weight and for meat yield after deboning (P ≤ 0.05). Performance and yield differences in response to altering corn hybrid AMEn values for starter diet formulation were negligible. Based upon benefits to pelleted feed characteristics, measures of broiler production, and processing yields, WXC is a favorable ingredient for practical broiler diets.
Effects of phytase on growth and slaughter performance, digestibility and nitrogen and mineral balance in heavy pigs

The study aimed at evaluating the effects of phytase (Ronozyme® NP) to the diet of fattening pigs. In comparison with a control diet (C) which included 0.5% calcium salt (CaHPO4), two diets without CaHPO4 were tested: 150Phy and 300Phy, which contained 150 and 300 mg phytase/kg, respectively. Sixty barrows of about 47 kg body weight (BW) each were randomly divided into 3 groups of 20 animals each, every group split into 5 pens. Average daily gain (ADG), feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were registered. The trial was divided into 2 phases: 0 to 68 days (47 to 100 kg BW) and 69 to116 days (100 to 140 kg BW). During phase II, 6 pigs/diet were housed in individual metabolic cages for the digestibility-balance trial. Addition of phytase resulted in higher ADG (723, 783 and 772 g/d for C, 150Phy and 300Phy, respectively) and improved FCR (2.84, 2.64 and 2.65) in phase I. No differences were registered in phase II, though a better FCR was overall observed. All slaughter parameters and the total tract apparent digestibility (TTAD) of nutrients – except for calcium (Ca) and sodium (Na) –, were similar among treatments. Likewise, total nitrogen (N) excretion did not differ across treatments. Phosphorous (P) excreted for C, 150Phy and 300Phy was 47.1, 53.3 and 52.5% of the PI. Trace-minerals showed similar retentions among diets. Phytase effectively improved growth performance until 100 kg BW at both inclusion levels. Yet, it did not improve growth performance, digestibility, N and P balance in heavier animals.
Aphanomyces infection in dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia).

A disease due to lower fungus was found in pet fish, dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia). In almost all cases, swelling of the abdomen due to swollen internal organs without accumulation of ascitic fluid was characteristic external sign of infected fish. Histopathological examination showed fungal hyphae and many granulomas present in the internal organs and musculature. Fungi were isolated from the lesions and were identified as a member of the genus Aphanomyces. The fungus had high pathogenicity to goldfish (Carassius auratus). No oogonia were produced in hemp seed cultures. This fungal infection closely resembled in pathology the mycotic granulomatosis which is known in cultured ayu in Japan.
Typography 101

part of the visual design of the page as well. While the computer screen is also a medium for visual design, its principles differ from those that apply to paper. The differences between paper and screen discussed here are by no means exhaustive. They merely indicate some of the basic changes. The point is simply that students quickly recognize the need to reexamine the communication problem and to revise text and visuals accordingly. They also recognize that the rhetorical skills that have served them so well during the composition process can serve them equally well during the design process. yfi
Investigating the Fate of Pre-neoplastic Cells in a Mouse Model of Medulloblastoma

Investigating the Fate of Pre-neoplastic Cells in a Mouse Model of Medulloblastoma by Jessica Dawn Kessler Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Robert J. Wechsler-Reya, Ph.D. Supervisor ___________________________ Dennis Thiele, Ph.D. ___________________________ Fan Wang, Ph.D. ___________________________ Xiao-Fan Wang, Ph.D. ___________________________ Sally Kornbluth, Ph.D. An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology in the Graduate School of Duke University