Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated Computational Detection of Disease Activity in ANCA-Associated Glomerulonephritis Using Raman Spectroscopy: A Pilot Study

Biospectroscopy offers the ability to simultaneously identify key biochemical changes in tissue associated with a given pathological state to facilitate biomarker extraction and automated detection of key lesions. Herein, we evaluated the application of machine learning in conjunction with Raman spectroscopy as an innovative low-cost technique for the automated computational detection of disease activity in anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated glomerulonephritis (AAGN). Consecutive patients with active AAGN and those in disease remission were recruited from a single UK centre. In those with active disease, renal biopsy samples were collected together with a paired urine sample. Urine samples were collected immediately prior to biopsy. Amongst those in remission at the time of recruitment, archived renal tissue samples representative of biopsies taken during an active disease period were obtained. In total, twenty-eight tissue samples were included in the analysis. Following supervised classification according to recorded histological data, spectral data from unstained tissue samples were able to discriminate disease activity with a high degree of accuracy on blind predictive modelling: F-score 95% for >25% interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (sensitivity 100%, specificity 90%, area under ROC 0.98), 100% for necrotising glomerular lesions (sensitivity 100%, specificity 100%, area under ROC 1) and 100% for interstitial infiltrate (sensitivity 100%, specificity 100%, area under ROC 0.97). Corresponding spectrochemical changes in paired urine samples were limited. Future larger study is required, inclusive of assigned variables according to novel non-invasive biomarkers as well as the application of forward feature extraction algorithms to predict clinical outcomes based on spectral features.
An overview of international genetic evaluations of show jumping in sport horses

Abstract The breeding of sport horses to compete in the Olympic disciplines of show jumping, eventing, and dressage is fast becoming a global industry with the increased use of reproductive technologies, including artificial insemination and embryo transfer. Reproductive technologies have facilitated the dissemination of genetics from elite horses across multiple countries and breeds as breeders are no longer limited by location. Due to this increased level of crossbreeding, there is an increased need for estimated breeding values (EBVs) for sport horse performance that can be compared across breeds and countries. However, the implementation of across-breed or across-country genetic evaluations has been limited by the differences in each studbook’s individual breeding programs and genetic evaluations. Consequently, the aim of this review was to compare the genetic evaluations for show jumping of sport horse studbooks worldwide. The top sport horse studbooks in the world according to the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses Studbook Rankings 2019 were contacted by email to request information on their current breeding programs and genetic evaluations. Twenty-six of the 51 studbooks contacted replied to this request but only 18 of these studbooks conducted their own genetic evaluations or were part of a larger genetic evaluation in their country of origin. The other eight studbooks were not involved in genetic evaluations at present but expressed an interest in the implementation of such in the future. Overall, many differences were identified among the genetic evaluations of each studbook or each country. The definition of show jumping performance differed within each evaluation and the methods and models utilized also differed. Despite some stallions and mares being registered in multiple studbooks or having progeny in multiple studbooks, these differences make comparison of EBVs across studbooks difficult. Further transparency and collaboration of sport horse studbooks with organizations such as Interstallion, will be essential to facilitate any future implementation of international genetic evaluations for show jumping performance.
Mycotoxin Contamination in Livestock Feed and Dairy Products, with Description of their Occurrence in Mediterranean Countries

Mycotoxins are produced by fungi that contaminate livestock feed in many parts of the World and can represent a challenge for human and animal health. The most frequent recovered fungi producing mycotoxins in dairy farms are represented by genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium. Cancerogenic properties were highlighted for mycotoxins, in particular for aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumosin, highlighting the interest in recovery methods for these mycotoxins and focusing on possible mechanisms able to avoid fungal feed contamination and mycotoxins dispersal. Contamination by mycotoxins can thus spread from feed, damage cattle dairy and threaten human health. The countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea showed consolidated traditions in cattle livestock and several studies evidenced the concern of mycotoxins contamination in cattle farms and in dairy products, representing a serious challenge for human health. Moreover, climate change and temperature increase favour fungal production of mycotoxins, thus adding important concerns for human health. This concern assumes more serious aspects if considering that the Mediterranean basin is a hotspot in terms of climate change. This mini review describes the concern of mycotoxins contamination in dairy livestock feed and in dairy products, with a focus on countries bordering the Mediterranean basin.
Apelin Resistance Contributes to Muscle Loss during Cancer Cachexia in Mice

Simple Summary Cancer cachexia is a highly debilitating syndrome involving severe body weight loss. Worldwide around 9–14.5 million cancer patients suffer from cachexia every year and many of them die because of cachexia. Our study aimed to assess the possible role of apelin against muscle loss during cancer growth given its beneficial effects against muscle atrophy during aging. We found apelin exhibiting advantageous effects against atrophy in in vitro models, but not in in vivo models, where we unraveled undesirable apelin resistance that may nullify apelin-based therapy for cancer cachexia. Abstract Cancer cachexia consists of dramatic body weight loss with rapid muscle depletion due to imbalanced protein homeostasis. We found that the mRNA levels of apelin decrease in muscles from cachectic hepatoma-bearing rats and three mouse models of cachexia. Furthermore, apelin expression inversely correlates with MuRF1 in muscle biopsies from cancer patients. To shed light on the possible role of apelin in cachexia in vivo, we generated apelin 13 carrying all the last 13 amino acids of apelin in D isomers, ultimately extending plasma stability. Notably, apelin D-peptides alter cAMP-based signaling in vitro as the L-peptides, supporting receptor binding. In vitro apelin 13 protects myotube diameter from dexamethasone-induced atrophy, restrains rates of degradation of long-lived proteins and MuRF1 expression, but fails to protect mice from atrophy. D-apelin 13 given intraperitoneally for 13 days in colon adenocarcinoma C26-bearing mice does not reduce catabolic pathways in muscles, as it does in vitro. Puzzlingly, the levels of circulating apelin seemingly deriving from cachexia-inducing tumors, increase in murine plasma during cachexia. Muscle electroporation of a plasmid expressing its receptor APJ, unlike apelin, preserves myofiber area from C26-induced atrophy, supporting apelin resistance in vivo. Altogether, we believe that during cachexia apelin resistance occurs, contributing to muscle wasting and nullifying any possible peptide-based treatment.
Effectiveness of Ginseng, Rutin and Moringa for the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction: A Systematic Review

Introduction, The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the current evidence for the effectiveness of ginseng, Rutin and Moringa for treating erectile dysfunction. Methods, A broad search of the Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane and Web of Science databases was performed in complicance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The following criteria were required for articles to be included in the review: English language; observational studies (cohort studies, case control/comparative studies, single-arm studies); randomized controlled trials; non-randomized comparative studies; case series; number of participants: ≥5 for case series or ≥5 patients per group for comparative studies. The Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) assessment tool for RCTs was used to assess the risk of bias of included studies. Results, Seven full-text articles were included in this review. All studies were randomized controlled trials. No studies on Rutin and Moringa alone matched the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the RCTs was variable. In all studies, the group treated with ginseng reported an improvement of erectile function (EF) compared to the control groups. IIEF and IIEF-5 were used to evaluate erectile function in six studies and in four of them, the improvement of the scores in the group treated with ginseng over the control group reached the statistical significance. Conclusion, This review suggests a positive effect of ginseng on EF in men. The association of ginseng along with other nutritional components with potential beneficial effects on ED appears promising and deserves further investigation in large randomized controlled trials.
Gain Function-Based Visual Tracking Control for Inertial Stabilized Platform with Output Constraints and Disturbances

In this paper, a composite control strategy is proposed to deal with output constraints and disturbances of the visual tracking system for an inertial stabilized platform, which combines active disturbance compensation and the variable gain function technique. Firstly, the model of system considering multi-source disturbances is established, where the controlled output is the constrained position of the target in the image plane. Secondly, in order to avoid the tracked target being lost in the field of view of the camera, a control method based on the variable gain function technique is designed to ensure that the controlled output remains within the feasible range. Moreover, the active disturbance estimation and compensation method is introduced to improve the anti-disturbance ability of the system under the situation of small output error, obtaining satisfactory tracking performance. The stability analysis and the proof of constrained output are given following the controller design. Finally, results of simulation and experiments are shown to illustrate the promised advantages of the proposed composite control approach.
Online Customer Reviews and Purchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Brand Image

Communication through word of mouth has been recognized to have a significant influence on consumer behavior and purchase intention. Due to the rapid growth of internet usage, a non-personal but global form of communication known as online word of mouth or online customer reviews was created. It has been considered as a new version of the traditional word of mouth, where customers could use several sources on the internet to have hands-on information created by others about the products/services they intend to buy. Moreover, Brand image has also been recognized as a key driver that positively influences consumers’ purchase intention. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of online customer reviews on purchase intention, as well as to examine the moderating role of brand image in the relationship between customer online reviews and purchase intention. The selected brand sector was the mothers who purchase diapers for their children, focusing on Pampers as a well-known brand. Data was gathered through online self-administered questionnaires from a sample of 294 mothers who purchase the brand Pampers for their children. Statistical analysis was conducted to analyze the gathered data whereby appropriate statistical techniques and tests were employed. Results revealed that online consumers’ reviews have a significant positive effect on brand image and that brand image was significantly and positively related to purchase intention. Furthermore, online consumers’ reviews had no significant impact on purchase intention. Additionally, brand image moderates the relationship between online consumers’ reviews and purchase intention. It was also revealed that online customer reviews have a significant positive indirect effect on purchase intention. Research findings were discussed to reflect on the researchers’ interpretation and perception of the outcomes addressed.
Permissions-Based Detection of Android Malware Using Machine Learning

Malware applications (Apps) targeting mobile devices are widespread, and compromise the sensitive and private information stored on the devices. This is due to the asymmetry between informative permissions and irrelevant and redundant permissions for benign Apps. It also depends on the characteristics of the Android platform, such as adopting an open-source policy, supporting unofficial App stores, and the great tolerance for App verification; therefore the Android platform is destined to face such malicious intrusions. In this paper, we propose a permissions-based malware detection system (PerDRaML) that determines the App’s maliciousness based on the usage of suspicious permissions. The system uses a multi-level based methodology; we first extract and identify the significant features such as permissions, smali sizes, and permission rates from a manually collected dataset of 10,000 applications. Further, we employ various machine learning models to categorize the Apps into their malicious or benign categories. Through extensive experimentations, the proposed method successfully identifies the 5× most significant features to predict malicious Apps. The proposed method outperformed the existing techniques by achieving high accuracies of malware detection i.e., 89.7% with Support Vector Machine, 89.96% with Random Forest, 86.25% with Rotation Forest, and 89.52% with Naïve Bayes models. Moreover, the proposed method optimized up to ~77% of the feature set as compared to the recent approaches, while improving the evaluation metrics such as precision, sensitivity, accuracy, and F-measure. The experimental results show that the proposed system provides a high level of symmetry between irrelevant permissions and malware Apps. Further, the proposed system is promising and may provide a low-cost alternative for Android malware detection for malicious or repackaged Apps.
Latent Fingerprint Matching

Inadvertent impressions of fingerprints left on surfaces like wall, tables, etc. are called Latent Fingerprints. These latent prints are usually of poor quality, when compared to that of the fingerprint images obtained from a fingerprint sensor. So, the Latent fingerprint matching process is challenging, as we need to match the partial latent prints with the full prints in the databases. So, we now propose a reconstruction technique, to transform the partial latents into full images, with available minutiae and the ridge flow pattern. The general method for latent fingerprint identification involves four stepshg#usually termed as ACE-V (Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation and Verification) process in fingerprint literature. The reconstruction technique is introduced immediately after analysis step of the Latent fingerprint matching process. This method enhances the quality of the fingerprint image such that we can extract even the level 3 features (pore, incipient ridges, ridge contours, etc.) from the latent image. This method is also sure to increase the identification rate, when compared to the normal ACE-V process.
The Preferential Use of Anakinra in Various Settings of FMF: A Review Applied to an Updated Treatment-Related Perspective of the Disease

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), the most frequent monogenic autoinflammatory disease, is manifested with recurrent and chronic inflammation and amyloid A (AA) amyloidosis, driven by overproduction of interleukin 1 (IL-1) through an activated pyrin inflammasome. Consequently, non-responsiveness to colchicine, the cornerstone of FMF treatment, is nowadays addressed by IL-1- blockers. Each of the two IL-1 blockers currently used in FMF, anakinra and canakinumab, has its own merits for FMF care. Here we focus on anakinra, a recombinant form of the naturally occurring IL-1 receptor antagonist, and explore the literature by using PubMed regarding the utility of anakinra in certain conditions of FMF. Occasionally we enrich published data with our own experience. To facilitate insights to anakinra role, the paper briefs some clinical, genetic, pathogenetic, and management aspects of FMF. The clinical settings of FMF covered in this review include colchicine resistance, AA amyloidosis, renal transplantation, protracted febrile myalgia, on- demand use, leg pain, arthritis, temporary suspension of colchicine, pediatric patients, and pregnancy and lactation. In many of these instances, either because of safety concerns or a necessity for only transient and short-term use, anakinra, due to its short half-life, is the preferred IL-1 blocker.
THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT MARINATION PROCEDURES ON THE QUALITY OF DRIED BLUE WHITING (Micromesistius poutassou)

In this study, the influence of marinates containing different combinations of soy sauce, sorbitol, sucrose, and citric acid on blue whiting before and after drying were studied. The effects on sensory attributes (odour, flavour and texture), microbial quality (Total Viable Counts, Listeria and coliforms), physico-chemical profile (pH, aw and Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen) and proximate composition (moisture, protein, sodium chloride and fat) were evaluated. For comparison, fresh (not marinated) blue whiting was used as a control. The results showed that the different marinade ingredients and amounts exerted distinct effect on the sensory attributes of dried blue whiting. The sweetness flavour was significantly intensified by the sucrose combined with soy sauce, whilst citric acid enhanced significantly the intensity of sour flavour. Soy sauce also had a slight influence on odour attributes. Rubbery texture was found in the marinated fish, whilst the control ended with more dry texture, as well as more dried fish odour and flavour. The marinade ingredients also had an effect on colour; soy sauce enhanced the red colour whilst the citric acid decreased the redness in the products. After drying, lower level of TVB-N was found in the dried marinated fish compared with the control-dried sample. Higher counts of bacteria were found in the control group after drying than in the marinated groups; this may have been caused by the marination but also that the washing may have reduced the amount of bacteria. Citric acid reduced the pH of the fish at the marination stage leading to substantially lower pH in the dried fish compared with the control. The aw and moisture content was found to be the lowest in the dried control sample, suggesting that the carbohydrates which were taken up during the marination in the other fish samples bound some water.
Quantification and Immunolocalization of Auxin in Prunus

Almond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D. A. Webb) is a traditional culture in Portugal, which gained a renewed interest due to the installation of new orchards. Grafting remains the main method used for almond propagation. The successful establishment of a graft union between two parts (scion and rootstock), requires auxins, which are involved in wound response and vascular regeneration. This work aimed at the quantification and immunolocalization of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in almond micrografts before micrografting (T0) and 21 days after micrografting (T2). The results are a step forward to understand of how auxin is involved in graft compatibility in almond.
EFFECT OF LITTER SIZE ON PLASMA AMINO ACIDS IN PREPARTUM RABBIT DOES

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the litter size on the plasma amino acid profile in rabbit does. The blood of 30 pregnant does was sampled 4 days before parturition. The does were retrospectively grouped according to number of offspring in a high litter-size group (HI, does with > 11.6 kits; n=16) and a low litter-size group (LO, does with ≤ 11.6 kits; n=14). Data were subjected to ANOVA studies using the MIXED procedure of SAS. The HI group had lower concentrations of threonine, glycine, lysine and tryptophan and a higher level of glutamic acid (p < 0.05) compared with the LO group. The exclusively ketogenic amount of amino acids was lower in the HI does compared with the LO does (p < 0.06). These results show that a few days before delivery the plasma amino acid profile had points out that rabbit does that gave birth to a higher number of offspring showed an exacerbated catabolic condition; it was likely related to the greater energy demand needed to support the pregnancy.
A Simple Monte Carlo Transport and Multiplication Simulation Method for the Analysis of a SPAD with a Spherically Uniform Electric Field Peak

A Monte Carlo simulation method for the transport and multiplication of carriers in electric fields is presented. The method is based on the stochastic scattering and free flight of electrons and holes in silicon. The simulation technique employs a nonparabolic singleband model for the energy dispersion relation, providing good accuracy for high electric fields while keeping the complexity of the simulator low. Phonon scattering and impact ionization scattering are considered. The tool is used to estimate the photon detection efficiency, temporal response, noise, and crosstalk of a near-infrared enhanced single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) with a spherically uniform electric field peak. Since the field is not laterally uniform, methods that do not consider the stochastic dynamics of individual carriers prove inaccurate. Good agreement is found between measurements and Monte Carlo simulation results of the device, indicating that the tool is useful for the ab initio design and optimization of SPADs.