Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Preliminary Study On The Distribution Of Beta Defensins Copy Number Variable Gene In Different Ethnics Of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

The indigenous groups of Sarawak that are well-known for diverse ethnicity featuring different cultures, languages and lifestyles, are among the earliest resident of Malaysian Borneo. The high survivorship of these early inhabitants had triggered an interest on their ability to develop immune or defense mechanisms towards the environment. Beta defensin is one of the well-studied adaptive immune functional gene of human. Beta defensins gene family plays a major role in innate and adaptive immune systems that are located in a cluster of at least seven genes on chromosome 8p23.1 with highly variable copy number. The ability of the indigenous people populating new settlements has been linked to their resistance or susceptibility towards certain disease which is influenced by the effectiveness of beta defensins adaptability. Hence, investigation on the distribution of beta defensins copy number variable gene in ethnics of Sarawak was conducted by investigating two microsatellite regions within the gene cluster. The result from 78 respondents comprising of the Iban, Bidayuh, Selako, Bugis and Jawa on the immediate copy number typing range from 2 to 8 copies. Interestingly, the copy numbers are not unique to the ethnics. They show a broad overview of shared copy number typing between them. All the sampled ethnics showed an agreement of copy number typing with modal copy of four based on EPEV1 and EPEV3 except for the Selako population. Pearson’s correlation shows excellent agreement between the samples with R2=1. The differences in copy number typing between populations were mostly due to genetic drift within the population. Natural selection had caused small populations to develop defence mechanisms and adaptability towards the environment. Furthermore, intercultural marriage within small populations has discouraged gene flow and limits genetic drift which later becomes a mechanism of evolution for beta defensins copy number gene. This study highlights the diversity and distribution of beta defensins copy number variable gene between ethnics and localities. These may serve as the basis for our understanding of the evolution of the beta defensins gene within ethnicities and their ability in expansion of population due to resistant towards the environmental stress and natural selection.
Retrieval practice facilitates learning by strengthening processing in both the anterior and posterior hippocampus

A large number of behavioral studies show that retrieval practice is a powerful way of strengthening learning of new information. Repeated retrieval might support long‐term retention in a quantitative sense by inducing stronger episodic representations or in a qualitative sense by contributing to the formation of more gist‐like representations. Here we used fMRI to examine the brain bases related to the learning effects following retrieval practice and provide imaging support for both views by showing increased activation of anterior and posterior hippocampus regions during a delayed memory test.
Anthelmintic treatment in horses : efficacy and effects on intestinal health.

Cyathostomins are ubiquitous in horses and high strongyle burdens are associated with colic. Parasite control, often using anthelmintic drugs, is an important element of equine healthcare. Anthelmintic dosing is also a risk factor for colic, which may be due to disruption of the mutualistic microbiota within the hindgut. This thesis describes studies to evaluate the current efficacy of equine anthelmintics and interactions with intestinal bacterial populations which may underlie the reported association with colic. Faecal egg count data from horses throughout Great Britain was used to calculate strongyle egg reappearance periods (ERP) for ivermectin and moxidectin. For both drugs reduced ERP was detected compared to earlier studies. The ovicidal efficacy of fenbendazole was evaluated in resistant cyathostomins. Using an in vitro egg hatch viability assay, an 80% reduction of egg hatch rate was detected but this only persisted for three days following treatment. These studies further characterise the growing problem of anthelmintic resistance in equine parasites. Microbiota-anthelmintic interaction was evaluated over three studies: i) In vitro feed fermentation was used to detect a decrease in fermentation rate and gas production following moxidectin administration; ii) 16S rRNA sequencing of faecal microbiota before and after moxidectin treatment revealed no change in bacterial community profile; and iii) 1H NMR metabolomics identified no significant differences in urinary and faecal metabolite profiles pre- and post-moxidectin treatment but in-vitro fermentations did show differences in alanine, ethanol, 5-HT, formate and maltose following moxidectin treatment. These studies further characterise reduced efficacy of anthelmintics against equine cyathostomins and suggest that although moxidectin treatment has no measurable effect on bacterial community profile, it may be associated with functional changes in the gut microbiome.
Refined Prediction of Pharmacokinetic Kratom-Drug Interactions: Time-Dependent Inhibition Considerations

Preparations from the leaves of the kratom plant (Mitragyna speciosa) are consumed for their opioid-like effects. Several deaths have been associated with kratom used concomitantly with some drugs. Pharmacokinetic interactions are potential underlying mechanisms of these fatalities. Accumulating in vitro evidence has demonstrated select kratom alkaloids, including the abundant indole alkaloid mitragynine, as reversible inhibitors of several cytochromes P450 (CYPs). The objective of this work was to refine the mechanistic understanding of potential kratom-drug interactions by considering both reversible and time-dependent inhibition (TDI) of CYPs in the liver and intestine. Mitragynine was tested against CYP2C9 (diclofenac 4′-hydroxylation), CYP2D6 (dextromethorphan O-demethylation), and CYP3A (midazolam 1′-hydroxylation) activities in human liver microsomes (HLMs) and CYP3A activity in human intestinal microsomes (HIMs). Comparing the absence to presence of NADPH during preincubation of mitragynine with HLMs or HIMs, an ∼7-fold leftward shift in IC50 (∼20 to 3 μM) toward CYP3A resulted, prompting determination of TDI parameters (HLMs: KI, 4.1 ± 0.9 μM; kinact, 0.068 ± 0.01 min−1; HIMs: KI, 4.2 ± 2.5 μM; kinact, 0.079 ± 0.02 min−1). Mitragynine caused no leftward shift in IC50 toward CYP2C9 (∼40 μM) and CYP2D6 (∼1 μM) but was a strong competitive inhibitor of CYP2D6 (Ki, 1.17 ± 0.07 μM). Using a recommended mechanistic static model, mitragynine (2-g kratom dose) was predicted to increase dextromethorphan and midazolam area under the plasma concentration-time curve by 1.06- and 5.69-fold, respectively. The predicted midazolam area under the plasma concentration-time curve ratio exceeded the recommended cutoff (1.25), which would have been missed if TDI was not considered. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Kratom, a botanical natural product increasingly consumed for its opioid-like effects, may precipitate potentially serious pharmacokinetic interactions with drugs. The abundant kratom indole alkaloid mitragynine was shown to be a time-dependent inhibitor of hepatic and intestinal cytochrome P450 3A activity. A mechanistic static model predicted mitragynine to increase systemic exposure to the probe drug substrate midazolam by 5.7-fold, necessitating further evaluation via dynamic models and clinical assessment to advance the understanding of consumer safety associated with kratom use.
Candida auris: Epidemiology, biology, antifungal resistance, and virulence

First described in 2009 in Japan, the emerging multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen Candida auris is becoming a worldwide public health threat that has been attracting considerable attention due to its rapid and widespread emergence over the past decade. The reasons behind the recent emergence of this fungus remain a mystery to date. Genetic analyses indicate that this fungal pathogen emerged simultaneously in several different continents, where 5 genetically distinct clades of C. auris were isolated from distinct geographical locations. Although C. auris belongs to the CTG clade (its constituent species translate the CTG codon as serine instead of leucine, as in the standard code), C. auris is a haploid fungal species that is more closely related to the haploid and often multidrug-resistant species Candida haemulonii and Candida lusitaniae and is distantly related to the diploid and clinically common fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis. Infections and outbreaks caused by C. auris in hospitals settings have been rising over the past several years. Difficulty in its identification, multidrug resistance properties, evolution of virulence factors, associated high mortality rates in patients, and long-term survival on surfaces in the environment make C. auris particularly problematic in clinical settings. Here, we review progress made over the past decade on the biological and clinical aspects of C. auris. Future efforts should be directed toward understanding the mechanistic details of its biology, epidemiology, antifungal resistance, and pathogenesis with a goal of developing novel tools and methods for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of C. auris infections.
Rhynchophorus Palmarum L. Larva, an Edible Insect in Côte D'ivoire : Nutritional Value and Characterization of the Lipid Fraction

There is a very serious worldwide nutritional problem due to foodstuff deficiency affecting low income groups living in rural areas and slum zones in urban cities, however there are many sources of underused staple not enough investigated on in spite of their enormous importance for a very large group of people. The aim of this study is to assess nutritional quality of the palm tree grub called Rhynchophorus palmarum L. (larva) edible insects available and consume at Cote d'Ivoire, to inform the population about the benefits of health they provide and promote their intake on a daily diet basis. Proximate and chemical analysis was carried out on the larva, larval protein and oil of Rhynchophorus palmarum L. Chemical score of proteins was also evaluated. The following data were obtained: crude proteins 7.1%, lipids 21.8%, carbohydrates 9.0%, Ash 0.8%. Proteins were rich in the essential amino acids (with histidine, threonine, lysine, phenylalanine) with a high protein score (from 90% to 172%). The limiting amino acids were leucine, valine and methionine, with a score ranging from 53% to 74%. The oil had a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids (52.4%), part of which were essential fatty acids, linoleic and linolenic acids. Results suggested that Rhynchophorus palmarum larva could be a basis of new food or feed products to improve their nutritional value and to highlight the health status of people of Cote d'Ivoire.
Autoantibodies in Japanese patients with ocular myasthenia gravis

The majority of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) initially present with ocular symptoms, but it is difficult to predict which cases will remain as ocular MG (OMG) or will progress to generalized MG. Herein we evaluated the serologic profile of Japanese OMG and its relationship with clinical features.
Photonic RF Arbitrary Waveform Generator Based on a Soliton Crystal Micro-Comb Source

We report a photonic-based radio frequency (RF) arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) using a soliton crystal micro-comb source with a free spectral range (FSR) of 48.9 GHz. The comb source provides over 80 wavelengths, or channels, that we use to successfully achieve arbitrary waveform shapes including square waveforms with a tunable duty ratio ranging from 10% to 90%, sawtooth waveforms with a tunable slope ratio of 0.2 to 1, and a symmetric concave quadratic chirp waveform with an instantaneous frequency of sub GHz. We achieve good agreement between theory and experiment, validating the effectiveness of this approach towards realizing high-performance, broad bandwidth, nearly user-defined RF waveform generation.
Epibiont populations associated with Diporeia spp. (amphipoda) from Lake Michigan

The benthic amphipod Diporeia spp. is the dominant benthic macroinvertebrate in the offshore region (>30m) ofthe Laurentian Great Lakes and, as a detritivore, plays a critical role in the offshore food web. Diporeia feed on organic material that settles from the water colurnn and, in turu, are fed upon by many fish species. This organism, therefore, serves as an important trophic link between lower and upper trophic levels (GARDNER et al. 1990). Diporeia are currently declining in all the Great Lakes except Lake Superior (DERMOTT & KEREc 1997, NALEPA et al. 1998, LOZANO et al. 2001, DERMOTI 2001). While declines have been coincidental with the introduction and spread of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and the quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis), exact mechanisms for the negative response have not been clearly defined (NALEPA et al. 2004).
Accelerating Chip Design With Machine Learning

Recent advancements in machine learning provide an opportunity to transform chip design workflows. We review recent research applying techniques such as deep convolutional neural networks and graph-based neural networks in the areas of automatic design space exploration, power analysis, VLSI physical design, and analog design. We also present a future vision of an AI-assisted automated chip design workflow to aid designer productivity and automate optimization tasks.
Structural Damage Recognition Based on the Finite Element Method and Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Structural damage recognition is always the concerned focus in many fields like aerospace, petroleum and petrochemical industry, industrial production and civil life. For damage recognition in complex structure or structural interior, especially somewhere sensors can’t go, minor damage is often hard identified by not only traditional nondestructive testing methods like ultrasonic testing, radiographic testing, magnetic particle testing, penetrant testing, eddy current testing, but also the current popular ultrasonic guided wave based on the piezoelectric wafer, electromagnetic acoustic transducer or magnetostrictive sensor, which is mainly because the response signals are always affected by many structural features. In this article, the advanced global search algorithm, quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm is first combined with the finite element method to accurately recognize the structural damage based on the conductance-frequency spectrum resulted from electromechanical impedance method. Meanwhile, the objective function is designed to compare the difference of peak frequency variations in the experiment and finite element calculation respectively. By adopting the stiffness reduction method of the elements near the structural damage, the identification efficiency is largely improved for no need to repeatedly partition the model grid. And after multiple iteration optimization of the artificial intelligence algorithm - quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm, the identification error of damage parameters including location and degree can be reduced to below 4 percent. Therefore, the combination of finite element method and quantum particle swarm optimization algorithm is quite effective for guaranteeing high accuracy and efficiency for damage parameters’ recognition in complex structures
Transforming Triple Cropping System to Four Crops Pattern: An Approach of Enhancing System Productivity through Intensifying Land Use System in Bangladesh

Changing three crops pattern to four crops can play a potential role for achieving countries food security. With this view to increase crop productivity, production efficiency, land use efficiency, and economic return through intensifying cropping intensity as well as crop diversity by transforming three crops pattern to four crops, the experiment was conducted in High Ganges River Floodplain Soils under the Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ) 11 at Pali, Durgapur, under the Multilocation Testing Site, Puthia, Rajshahi, for two consecutive years 2014-15 and 2015-16. Four crops pattern mustard-onion/maize-T. Aman rice was tested at on-farm condition over the existing three crops pattern mustard-onion-T. Aman rice. Maize was introduced here as a relay crop with onion to fit it in the four crops pattern. The experiment was laid out in RCB design with six dispersed replications. Two-year crop cycles were completed, and data regarding component crops yield were considered for assessing the performance of the two cropping patterns for making a sense of comparing productivity. Although there was no significant difference in component crops yield between four crops and three crops pattern, as an additional crop, maize tremendously increased the system productivity and economic return of the four crops pattern. Higher rice equivalent yield 28.96 t·ha−1 in 2013-14 and 30.95 t·ha−1 in 2014-15 was recorded from the four crops pattern with a mean rice equivalent yield (REY) 29.95 t·ha−1 over the existing pattern with a mean value 21.76 t·ha−1. However, four crops pattern resulted in higher cultivation cost due to growing maize as an additional crop; nevertheless, it gave the higher gross return, marginal return, marginal benefit cost ratio, and production efficiency. The four crops pattern resulted averagely 37.63% higher production (REY) compared to the existing three crops pattern. Production as well as land use efficiency were increased by 9.33% and 19.18%, respectively, from the intensified alternate pattern.
Automated Test Selection for Android Apps Based on APK and Activity Classification

Several techniques exist for mobile test automation, from script-based techniques to automated test generation based on GUI models. Most techniques fall short in being adopted extensively by practitioners because of the very costly definition (and maintenance) of test cases. We present a novel testing framework for Android apps that allows a developer to write effective test scripts without having to know the implementation details and the user interface of the app under test. The main goal of the framework is to generate adaptive tests that can be executed on a significant number of apps, or different releases of the same app, without manual editing of the tests. The frameworks consists of: (1) a Test Scripting Language, that allows the tester to write generic test scripts tailored to activity and app categories; (2) a State Graph Modeler, that creates a model of the app’s GUI, identifying activities (i.e., screens) and widgets; (3) an app classifier that determines the type of application under test; (4) an activity classifier that determines the purpose of each screen; (5) a test adapter that executes test scripts that are compatible with the specific app and activity, automatically tailoring the test scripts to the classes of the app and the activities under test. We evaluated empirically the components of our testing framework. The classifiers were able to outperform available approaches in the literature. The developed testing framework was able to correctly adapt high-level test cases to 28 out of 32 applications, and to reduce the LOCs of the test scripts of around 90%. We conclude that machine learning can be fruitfully applied to the creation of high-level, adaptive test cases for Android apps. Our framework is modular in nature and allows expansions through the addition of new commands to be executed on the classified apps and activities.
Double-Mode Energy Management for Multi-Energy System via Distributed Dynamic Event-Triggered Newton-Raphson Algorithm

The islanded and network-connected modes are expected to be modeled into a unified form as well as in a distributed fashion for multi-energy system. In this way, the adaptability and flexibility of multi-energy system can be enhanced. To this aim, this paper establishes a double-mode energy management model for the multi-energy system. It is formed by many energy bodies. With such a model, each participant is able to adaptively respond to the change of mode switching. Furthermore, a novel distributed dynamic event-triggered Newton-Raphson algorithm is proposed to solve the double-mode energy management problem in a fully distributed fashion. In this method, the idea of Newton descent along with the dynamic event-triggered communication strategy are introduced and embedded in the execution of the proposed algorithm. With this effort, each participant can adequately utilize the second-order information to speed up convergence. The optimality is not affected. Meanwhile, the proposed algorithm can be implemented with asynchronous communication and without needing special initialization conditions. It exhibits better flexibility and adaptability especially when the system modes are changed. In addition, the continuous-time algorithm is executed with discrete-time communication driven by the proposed dynamic event-triggered mechanism.It results in reduced communication interaction and avoids needing continuous-time information transmission. It is also proved that each participant can asymptotically converge to the global optimal point. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and illustrate the faster convergence feature of the proposed algorithm.
Electrically Erasable Optical I/O for Wafer Scale Testing of Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits

A technique for realizing electrically erasable photonics devices using micro-heaters for localized annealing of lattice defects in silicon is presented. The lattice defects have previously been introduced by ion implantation in order to cause a refractive index change. This technique can be used to fabricate electrically erasable on-chip directional couplers (DCs) and Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) switches. These devices can be used for wafer scale testing of photonics circuits, allowing testing of individual optical components in a complex photonic integrated circuit, or components for programmable optical circuits, whilst inducing negligible additional optical loss when erased electrically. In this paper, we report the designs and experimental results of fully, rapidly annealing of these devices.
Comparative Study of Howland Current Source Configurations for Accurate Biomedical Devices

Embedded bioimpedance devices are in high demand for the improvement of the healthcare systems. These devices require an accurate and stable current source with a high output impedance in the frequency range from 5 kHz to 1 MHz for a load range from 100 Ω to 10 kΩ. The output impedance should be higher than 10 MΩ at 5kHz and 1 MΩ at 1 MHz. In this paper, a comparison between the inverting single configuration and the inverting dual configuration of the Howland current source is discussed. For the evaluation of the circuit performances, two parameters are considered: resistor configurations and amplifier characteristics. The results shows that the inverting dual configuration using the operational amplifier AD8021 with a very high bandwidth has the highest output impedance values (higher than 1 MΩ at 1 MHz).