Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biochemical and Gene Expression Analyses in Different Poplar Clones: The Selection Tools for Afforestation of Halomorphic Environments

Halomorphic soils cover a significant area in the Vojvodina region and represent ecological and economic challenges for agricultural and forestry sectors. In this study, four economically important Serbian poplar clones were compared according to their biochemical and transcriptomic responses towards mild and severe salt stress to select the most tolerant clones for afforestation of halomorphic soils. Three prospective clones of Populus deltoides (Bora-B229, Antonije-182/81 and PE19/66) and one of hybrid genetic background P. nigraxP. deltoides, e.g., P. x euramericana (Pannonia-M1) were hydroponically subjected to NaCl as a salt stress agent in a concentration range from 150 mM to 450 mM. Plant responses were measured at different time periods in the leaves. Biochemical response of poplar clones to salt stress was estimated by tracking several parameters such as different radical scavenging capacities (estimated by DPPH, FRAP and ABTS assays), accumulation of total phenolic content and flavonoids. Furthermore, accumulation of two osmolytes, glycine betaine and proline, were quantified. The genetic difference of those clones has been already shown by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) but this paper emphasized their differences regarding biochemical and transcriptomic salt stress responses. Five candidate genes, two putative poplar homologues of GRAS family TFs (PtGRAS17 and PtGRAS16), PtDREB2 of DREB family TFs and two abiotic stress-inducible genes (PtP5SC1, PtSOS1), were examined for their expression profiles. Results show that most salt stress-responsive genes were induced in clones M1 and PE19/66, thus showing they can tolerate salt environments with high concentrations and could be efficient in phytoremediation of salt environments. Clone M1 and PE19/66 has ABA-dependent mechanisms expressing the PtP5CS1 gene while clone 182/81 could regulate the expression of the same gene by ABA-independent pathway. To improve salt tolerance in poplar, two putative GRAS/SCL TFs and PtDREB2 gene seem to be promising candidates for genetic engineering of salt-tolerant poplar clones.
Crushing of Single-Walled Corrugated Board during Converting: Experimental and Numerical Study

Corrugated cardboard is an ecological material, mainly because, in addition to virgin cellulose fibers also the fibers recovered during recycling process are used in its production. However, the use of recycled fibers causes slight deterioration of the mechanical properties of the corrugated board. In addition, converting processes such as printing, die-cutting, lamination, etc. cause micro-damage in the corrugated cardboard layers. In this work, the focus is precisely on the crushing of corrugated cardboard. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted, in which the different types of single-walled corrugated cardboards were pressed in a fully controlled manner to check the impact of the crush on the basic material parameters. The amount of crushing (with a precision of 10 micrometers) was controlled by a precise FEMat device, for crushing the corrugated board in the range from 10 to 70% of its original thickness. In this study, the influence of crushing on bending, twisting and shear stiffness as well as a residual thickness and edge crush resistance of corrugated board was investigated. Then, a procedure based on a numerical homogenization, taking into account a partial delamination in the corrugated layers to determine the degraded material stiffness was proposed. Finally, using the empirical-numerical method, a simplified calculation model of corrugated cardboard was derived, which satisfactorily reflects the experimental results.
Chlorpyrifos impaired cerebellar oxidative and cholinesterase activities in rats: Mitigating efficacy of Nigella sativa Oil

Introduction: Motor dysfunctions are some of the characteristic symptoms of organophosphate (OP) poisoning and they have been associated with decreased levels of cholinesterase inhibition within motor areas of the brain. The current study aims to investigate the potential neuroprotective effects of Nigella sativa oil (NSO) in alleviating chlorpyrifos (CPF) induced toxicity in the cerebellar and motor cortices of the rat brains using combined behavioural, biochemical and histochemical methods. Methods and Materials: Thirty-two rats were randomly divided into four groups (eight rats per group), exposed to 1ml/kg of normal saline, 14.9 mg/kg of CPF, 14.9 mg/kg of CPF plus 1ml/kg of NSO and 1ml/kg of NSO respectively for 14 consecutive days. The rats were each exposed to a single trial of the Open Field Test (OFT) on day 13 of the experiment. This experimental test measured locomotor activity levels (line crossing frequency (LCF)) and exploratory (rearing frequency (RF)) activities in the rats studied. The rats were euthanized on day 15 of the experiment and the brains were subsequently excised. The cerebellar cortices of five brains were removed and homogenised to analyse for total reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide (NO) levels and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. The motor and cerebellar cortices from three other brains in each group were processed for histology (Nissl stain) and proliferative activity (Ki67 immunohistochemistry). Results: Rats exposed to CPF experienced a significant increase in cerebellar NO and ROS levels, depletion in AChE activity, neurogenic cells loss and subsequent reduction in locomotor and exploratory behaviours respectively (LCF and RF). However, interventional treatment with NSO depleted markers of oxidative damage (NO and ROS), reduced AChE inhibition, preserved neurogenic (Ki67) cells distribution and motor functions. Conclusion: These results demonstrate the potential efficacy of NSO in OP poisoning and the roles of neurogenic and oxidative functions in the pathophysiology and treatment of motor dysfunction in OP neurotoxicity.
What we know and still ignore on COVID‐19 immune pathogenesis and a proposal based on the experience of allergic disorders

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic started in March 2020 and caused over 5 million confirmed deaths worldwide as far August 2021. We have been recently overwhelmed by a wide literature on how the immune system recognizes severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) and contributes to COVID‐19 pathogenesis. Although originally considered a respiratory viral disease, COVID‐19 is now recognized as a far more complex, multi‐organ‐, immuno‐mediated‐, and mostly heterogeneous disorder. Though efficient innate and adaptive immunity may control infection, when the patient fails to mount an adequate immune response at the start, or in advanced disease, a high innate‐induced inflammation can lead to different clinical outcomes through heterogeneous compensatory mechanisms. The variability of viral load and persistence, the genetic alterations of virus‐driven receptors/signaling pathways and the plasticity of innate and adaptive responses may all account for the extreme heterogeneity of pathogenesis and clinical patterns. As recently applied to some inflammatory disorders as asthma, rhinosinusitis with polyposis, and atopic dermatitis, herein we suggest defining different endo‐types and the related phenotypes along COVID‐19. Patients should be stratified for evolving symptoms and tightly monitored for surrogate biomarkers of innate and adaptive immunity. This would allow to preventively identify each endo‐type (and its related phenotype) and to treat patients precisely with agents targeting pathogenic mechanisms.
Study of inspiratory lung function parameters in Indian children

Background: The inspiratory parameters of pulmonary function test commonly used for various purposes in clinical practice including diagnosing airway obstruction. Expiratory portion of the flow volume loop of the pulmonary function test is studied in detail. The prediction equations for expiratory parameters are available for different population. However, the reference equation for inspiratory parameters is not available in Indian context. The current study derived the prediction equation for inspiratory parameters of pulmonary function test. Methods: The current study was carried out in school going 732 healthy girls and 1377 boys aged 6-15 years in India. The children who meet the inclusion criteria were recruited in the study after detailed medical examination by registered medical practitioner. The lung function parameters were recorded by spirometry. The multivariate regression analysis was done to develop the prediction model. Results: The prediction equation for predicting inspiratory parameter were developed. This study revealed gender-wise and geographical variation in the inspiratory parameters. Hence this study recommends to derive gender wise prediction equations. The reference equations derived in this study can be used in population with similar background. Conclusions: Use of these equations for population having similar backgrounds will help for early and accurate diagnosis of the airway abnormalities in children. The inspiratory parameter assessment shall be included in the routine assessment of respiratory patient.
Artificial Neural Networks in Agriculture

Artificial neural networks are one of the most important elements of machine learning and artificial intelligence. They are inspired by the human brain structure and function as if they are based on interconnected nodes in which simple processing operations take place. The spectrum of neural networks application is very wide, and it also includes agriculture. Artificial neural networks are increasingly used by food producers at every stage of agricultural production and in efficient farm management. Examples of their applications include: forecasting of production effects in agriculture on the basis of a wide range of independent variables, verification of diseases and pests, intelligent weed control, and classification of the quality of harvested crops. Artificial intelligence methods support decision-making systems in agriculture, help optimize storage and transport processes, and make it possible to predict the costs incurred depending on the chosen direction of management. The inclusion of machine learning methods in the “life cycle of a farm” requires handling large amounts of data collected during the entire growing season and having the appropriate software. Currently, the visible development of precision farming and digital agriculture is causing more and more farms to turn to tools based on artificial intelligence. The purpose of this Special Issue was to publish high-quality research and review papers that cover the application of various types of artificial neural networks in solving relevant tasks and problems of widely defined agriculture.
Particle-Resolved Computational Fluid Dynamics as the Basis for Thermal Process Intensification of Fixed-Bed Reactors on Multiple Scales

Process intensification of catalytic fixed-bed reactors is of vital interest and can be conducted on different length scales, ranging from the molecular scale to the pellet scale to the plant scale. Particle-resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to characterize different reactor designs regarding optimized heat transport characteristics on the pellet scale. Packings of cylinders, Raschig rings, four-hole cylinders, and spheres were investigated regarding their impact on bed morphology, fluid dynamics, and heat transport, whereby for the latter particle shape, the influence of macroscopic wall structures on the radial heat transport was also studied. Key performance indicators such as the global heat transfer coefficient and the specific pressure drop were evaluated to compare the thermal performance of the different designs. For plant-scale intensification, effective transport parameters that are needed for simplified pseudo-homogeneous two-dimensional plug flow models were determined from the CFD results, and the accuracy of the simplified modeling approach was judged.
Novel Rapid Protein Coating Technique for Silicon Photonic Biosensor to Improve Surface Morphology and Increase Bioreceptor Density

Silicon photonic devices with either silicon or silicon nitride waveguides have increasingly been used in many applications besides communications, especially as sensors in label-free biosensing, where guided light signals are affected by biorecognition molecules immobilized on the surface. The coating of protein (i.e., bioreceptors) by biochemical process on the waveguide surface is a crucial step in creating a functionalized device that can be used for biosensing. As a conventional method that uses 3-aminopropryltriethoxysilane (APTES) and glutaraldehyde (GA), the APTES-GA method has the limitation of using a GA crosslink, of which the two functional groups can bind to nonspecific proteins, causing irregular binding. In this study, we proposed a new coating technique to avoid such problem by applying APTES silanization with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC)-N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) protein crosslink, denoted by the APTES-(EDC/NHS) method. The EDC/NHS reaction was shown to be able to immobilize protein in ordered orientation due to consistent arrangement between a carboxylic group of protein molecules and an amine group of covalent-linked APTES on surface. By applying APTES silanization, we circumvented the use of hazardous cleaning agent in the conventional EDC/NHS technique. Several surface characterization techniques were carried out to assess and compare the two biocoating techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). On silicon, the results of antihuman TNF-alpha antibody coating showed that the proposed APTES-(EDC/NHS) technique has better repeatability in terms of less roughness of the coated protein at 1.5 nm compared with 6.3 nm, due to the ordered arrangement of coated antibody molecules. On a silicon nitride waveguide device, the proposed APTES-(EDC/NHS) technique exhibits dense antibody immobilization on a waveguide in SEM images due to stable amide bond formation via EDC/NHS crosslink mechanism. The specificity of the immobilized antibodies was confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), with an average optical density at 450 nm of 0.175 ± 0.01 compared with 0.064 ± 0.009 of negative control. The proposed technique also reduced the overall process time since proteins are crosslinked to the silanized waveguide surface in a single step.
Characterization of Alignment Correlation between LC Molecules and Chemical Groups on/in the Surface of Polyimide Films with Biphenyl Side Chains

In this study, the surface chemical structure and molecular conformation of one kind of PI alignment film achieving vertical alignment were investigated by XPS, ATR-FTIR, and polarized ATR-FTIR, and the LC alignment on PI film was studied by transmission polarized FTIR. It was found that some chemical groups, such as biphenyl and imide ring, oriented perpendicular to the plane of alignment film while the molecular backbones took the conformation parallel to the plane of film. At the same time, the biphenyl groups of LC molecules in LC cell were aligned perpendicular to the alignment film. Thus, the alignment consistency between the biphenyl in the surface and LC molecules was proved first, which powerfully indicated that the chemical groups in the surface taking a vertical conformation on the surface play an essential role in producing a vertical LC alignment and the conformation of groups in the surface determines the size of pretilt angle.
Designing cycling and running garments to increase conspicuity

ABSTRACT Poor conspicuity increases the risk of cyclists and pedestrians being involved in collisions with vehicles under low light conditions. Retroreflective strips in biomotion configuration significantly increases conspicuity. This study explored how to design biomotion garments that will appeal to cyclists and pedestrians. Nine focus groups involving 50 participants who ran/cycled under low light conditions. Participants discussed their experiences of choosing and wearing garments for cycling/running, and barriers to wearing biomotion garments. Using thematic analysis, we identified three themes. Design describes how biomotion garments should be attractive and practical. Function describes how they should be comfortable and convenient. Promotion describes participant’s beliefs regarding cost and how to best explain the safety benefits of biomotion garments. Our user-centre research identified how to make biomotion garments appealing. Safety should not compromise design and function: users are unlikely to wear poorly designed and uncomfortable biomotion garments regardless of how much they increase conspicuity.
Lower Back Pain Among Neurological and Neurosurgical Adult Patients at an Armed Forces Hospital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Lower back pain differs in prevalence with respect to gender, time, occupation and nations and little is known about it on military professionals in Ethiopia who are exposed to more workload, psychological disorders and regular physical exercise hence we aimed in this study to assess the magnitude of lower back pain and its determinants among neurological and neurosurgical adult patients at Armed Forces Comprehensive Specialized Hospital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from December 16, 2017 to March 23, 2018. For this aim a comparative crossectional study was carried out, and using single and two population proportion formulas, sample size of 585 was calculated. Every third participants aged more than or equal to 18 years were included in the study. Descriptive statics and bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was done for variables. The study results showed response rate of the study is 99.7% and the median age is 42 years with interquartile range of 14 years, 447 (76.7%) of them are male and 441 (75.6%) are military. The magnitude of low back pain is 65.9% with 95% Confidence Interval (62.1, 69.8); and previous recommended spinal surgery, tender point, comorbidities, and numbness and tingling sensation have significant association in multivariable logistic regression with adjusted odds ratio (95% Confidence Interval) 2.18 (1.06, 4.45), 4.36 (2.17, 8.77), 0.57 (0.35, 0.95), and 2.92 (1.71, 4.96); respectively. Finally, we concluded that the magnitude of lower back pain is high neurological and neurosurgical adult military patients at study settings and determinants are recommended spinal surgery, and numbness and tingling sensation, tender point and comorbidities; and strengthening neurological and neurosurgical services are recommended.
The Effects of Competence-Based, Expressive and Collaborative Service Performance on the B2B Service Relationship

the effects of these dimensions on the buyer-supplier relationship and analyzes their mediated impact on customer repurchasing intentions. In so doing, we establish a structural equation model and test multiple hypotheses with a sample of 141 purchasing professionals from 23 countries. The findings indicate that expressive and collaborative service performance are more significant determinants of successful business relationships and influence business relationship continuity more than competence-based service performance. Also, relationship performance was found to fully mediate the links between expressive and collaborative service performance with customer repurchase intentions. The study underscores that service providers can ensure business continuity with their customers by investing in expressive and collaborative service performance. Whether the use of complexity research will fundamentally improve firm performance will depend on the effect on success derived from its application.
Quantitative compaction trends of Miocene to Holocene carbonates off the west coast of Australia

Abstract In this paper, we describe porosity variations in Miocene to Holocene carbonates off the west coast of Australia and assess their compaction trends. The porosity values were measured using discrete samples of Sites U1459–U1464 obtained by the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 356. The carbonate deposits have been influenced by a range of textures and diagenetic conditions throughout a nearly continuous sequence of geological ages from the Miocene to Holocene and at core depths from 0 to 1100 m below the seafloor. The collected samples were mostly grainstone, packstone, wackestone and mudstone textures. Dolostones and dolomitic carbonates were described at the Miocene intervals. Compaction trends were estimated exponentially and linearly based on cored sites, carbonate textures and dominant mineralogies (dolomite, calcite/aragonite). At all six sites, porosity distribution and reduction were generally depth-dependent. The porosity converged to about 30% between 750 and 1100 m, which suggests that the carbonates were close to the densest packing by mechanical compaction at a burial depth of ∼750 m. The porosity deviations are associated with textures and dominant mineralogies. Increasing mud content from grainstone to mudstone is a controlling factor for initial porosity and porosity reduction rate. Dolomitisation, dolomitic cementation, aragonite needle-rich mud and non-skeletal grains cause deviations from the depth-dependent compaction trends. Reflux-related cementation generally decreases porosity in Miocene dolomitic intervals. Higher porosity values of the Quaternary wackestone and mudstone at Site U1461 resulted from the presence of aragonite needle-rich mud hosting abundant micropores and from a high sedimentation rate. The occurrence of non-skeletal grains, such as ooids and peloids, as well as occasional meteoric exposure led to porosity inversion, occluding interparticle permeability and the creation of moldic pores. KEY POINTS Porosity variations of Miocene–Holocene carbonates off the west Australian coast are primarily depth-dependent. Mechanical compaction affected porosity reduction down to a value of ∼30% at a burial depth of ∼750 m. Differences in texture-based compaction trends were affected by increasing mud content. Major porosity deviations are associated with dolomitisation, dolomitic cementation, aragonite needle-rich mud and non-skeletal grains.
Homelessness and discrimination among US adults: the role of intersectionality

ABSTRACT Discrimination may contribute to experiencing homelessness. Additionally, individuals who occupy multiple marginalized statuses may be at particular risk. Identifying the relationship of discrimination and homelessness through an intersectional perspective may lead to improved health outcomes and better quality of life for vulnerable populations. Among our sample of US adult respondents (N = 34,366) from Wave 2 of the 2004–2005 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), those who reported discrimination had a higher likelihood of experiencing homelessness compared to those who did not report discrimination, even after adjusting for additional sociodemographics and depression. Experiencing discrimination attributed to multiple characteristics was associated with an increased odds of homelessness. Among African American, Native American, and Latinx adults, the predicted probability of homelessness increased to a greater degree as the experiences of discrimination attributed to different characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, gender, and religion, also increased. Discrimination may be related to homelessness in various ways such as through limited housing, few education and employment opportunities, criminalized behaviors and unhealthy coping behaviors. The present study provides support for an intersectional perspective, which recognizes the role of systemic forms of oppression and the ways in which multiple systems of oppression overlap.