Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From microbial sprays to insect-resistant transgenic plants: history of the biospesticide Bacillus thuringiensis. A review

Bacillus thuringiensis, known as Bt, is a spore-forming bacterium that occurs naturally in soil and that produces highly specific insecticidal proteins called Cry proteins. These proteins are stomach poisons that specifically affect insects. Today, Bt preparations are considered as the most effective, specific and environmentally-friendly bioinsecticides; they have been used as biological pesticides in agriculture, forestry and in human health for the elimination of vectors of diseases for more than 60 years and their implementation far exceeds other microbial agents such as fungi, protozoa or viruses. This review on the use of this entomopathogenic bacterium in crop protection is not intended to be a compilation of the results of all the investigations made in this field. Instead, it is an attempt to provide an overview of the major trends and developments of Bt for the control of agricultural insect pests and to describe the main approaches that have been used to improve this natural bioinsecticide. Bt-based insecticides are considered safe for mammals and birds, and are safer for non-target insects than conventional insecticides; they have become the most widely used microbial insecticides. However, Bt products have several limitations, such as a narrow activity spectrum, instability in rain and sunlight, and inefficiency against pest feeding on internal tissues of the plants. The first step towards improving Bt has involved the isolation of new strains with higher and broader insecticidal activity against targeted insect pests and the cloning of cry genes encoding new insecticidal crystal proteins. A second strategy was to increase the persistence of its toxins in the field by encapsulation in recombinant asporogenic Bt strains or other heterologous recombinant microbial hosts; this protected the toxins against UV degradation and had the advantage that the transgenic microorganisms released into the environment were non-viable. Bt has also become a key source of genes for transgenic expression to provide pest resistance in plants and in so-called genetically modified plants. The engineering of plants to express Bt cry genes has been especially helpful against pests that attack parts of the plant that are usually not well protected by conventional insecticide application. The potential effects on human health and the environment of the large-scale use of these Bt crops are also in the scope of this review.
Simulating I-Space (SimISpace): An agent-based approach to modeling knowledge flows

La gestio del coneixement produeix sovint teories que son massa generiques o abstractes per a poder-les verificar sense dificultat. En alguns casos, els models de simulacio poden facilitar aquesta tasca. En aquest article desenvolupem un model de simulacio basat en agents intel·ligents i derivat d’un marc conceptual, l’espai d’informacio o I-Space, que utilitzem per a explorar les diferencies entre un entorn d’informacio schumpeteria i un de neoclassic. Aixi, despres d’introduir els temes relatius a la gestio del coneixement amb els quals treballarem, presentem en primer lloc i de manera breu el marc conceptual. A continuacio presentem el model basat en agents intel·ligents i desenvolupem una serie d’hipotesis dissenyades per a ajudar a validar el model. Posteriorment presentem unes quantes execucions del model ideades per a provar aquestes hipotesis de manera preliminar. Una vegada demostrades ampliament les hipotesis, arribem a la conclusio que el model es prou coherent perque es pugui continuar desenvolupant.
Substantia nigra neuromelanin‐MR imaging differentiates essential tremor from Parkinson's disease

Essential tremor (ET) is a very common movement disorder that has no diagnostic markers. Differentiation with Parkinson's disease (PD) can be clinically challenging in some cases, with a high rate of misdiagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have been able to identify neuromelanin changes in the substantia nigra (SN) of PD patients, but they have thus far not been investigated in ET. In this study, we aimed to characterize neuromelanin‐MR signal changes in ET and evaluate its diagnostic accuracy in the differential diagnosis with PD.
The Passage of State Fair Employment Legislation, 1945-1964: An Event-History Analysis with Time-Varying and Time-Constant Covariates

From 1945 to 1964, two-dozen states outside the South passed enforceable fair employment practice (FEP) laws. Yet some states passed such laws far earlier than others. Reviewing several bodies of research, I derive economic, political, institutional, and social hypotheses to explain their diffusion. Discrete-time, logit analysis of a newly assembled data set-containing both time-constant and time-varying covariates-offer mixed support for most theories but strong support for theories stressing electoral politics. Wealth, political competition, and unified Democratic control are positively associated with the likelihood of passage, while percentage black is negatively associated with the likelihood of passage. I infer that Democrats were the party of fair employment in the urban North and that FEP laws passed earliest in politically competitive states in which whites did not perceive blacks as an economic threat. I conclude with suggestions for future research.
Monitoring Therapeutical Intervention with Ezetimibe Using Targeted Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging in Experimental Atherosclerosis

Ezetimibe (EZE), an inhibitor of cholesterol absorption, reduces atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E–deficient (apo–/–) mice. The matrix protein ED-B fibronectin (ED-B) is upregulated in atherosclerotic lesions. Using a novel conjugate for near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging targeting ED-B, we studied the effect of EZE on plaque lesion formation in apoE–/– mice. ApoE–/– mice received EZE (5 μg/kg/d) or chow up to the age of 4, 6, and 8 months. NIRF imaging of aortic lesions was performed 24 hours after intravenous application ex vivo and in vivo. Plaque lesion formation was analyzed by histology and immunohistochemistry. Aortic lesion formation detected by Sudan staining and NIRF imaging was significantly reduced at 6 and 8 months (p < .001). Plaque areas determined by NIRF imaging significantly correlated with Sudan staining (p < .001). EZE treatment resulted in a significant reduction in plaque macrophage and ED-B immunoreactivity (both p < .05) in brachiocephalic lesions. There was a significant reduction in plaque size in brachiocephalic arteries in 8-month-old mice treated with EZE compared with mice during short-term treatment (p < .05), indicating EZE plaque regression. Targeted NIRF imaging showed a correlation to histologic lesion extension during therapeutical intervention in experimental atherosclerosis.
An efficient approach to unbiased identification of noisy FIR systems

The problem of parameter estimation of finite impulse response (FIR) systems from noisy input-output data is investigated. An auxiliary matrix is introduced to formulate an eigen problem. The input noise variance is then estimated by solving the constructed eigen problem for a particular eigenvalue. With this, unbiased estimates of the FIR coefficients as well as the output noise variance can be readily obtained. The developed approach can be implemented at a low numerical cost. Computer simulations are given to demonstrate the good performance of the developed approach in comparison with other existing methods.
Usefulness of Positron Emission Tomography to Detect Cerebral Amyloid as a Means to Diagnose Neurodegenerative Disease

Alzheimer's disease is characterized histologically by the accumulation of a subtype of amyloid protein—beta amyloid—in the brain parenchyma in the form of amyloid plaques. In another neurodegenerative disorder, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, the accumulation of beta amyloid occurs within the walls of the cerebral vessels. With recent advances in imaging technology, we can not only image amyloid plaques in the brain parenchyma at an earlier stage of disease, but can also often correlate the presence of Alzheimer's disease with cerebral amyloid angiopathy. We present a case of suspected Alzheimer's disease and discuss the association in this patient between cerebral amyloid angiopathy and Alzheimer's disease, as well as the benefits of a unique nuclear imaging modality, amyloid positron emission tomography, in diagnosing dementia.
Fault ride-through capability enhancement of DFIG-based wind turbine with supercapacitor energy storage

High penetration of wind power into the power grids is subjected to a great limitation due to power fluctuations as well as fault ride-through (FRT) performance of wind turbines. Recently, supercapacitor energy storage devices are successfully used to mitigate the issue of power fluctuations. However, for increasing the effectiveness of using supercapacitors with wind turbine generators, it is proposed in this paper to use them for enhancing FRT capability. The considered wind turbine generator is the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). The supercapacitor is connected at the dc link of the DFIG converters. Simulation studies are performed using PSCAD/EMTDC software. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated through the voltage profile, the stator current, and the active and reactive powers. Results verify the superior effect of supercapacitors in improving FRT capability and dynamic behavior of the DFIG-based wind turbine.
A new volunteer computing model for data‐intensive applications

Volunteer computing is a type of distributed computing in which ordinary people donate computing resources to scientific projects. BOINC is the main middleware system for this type of distributed computing. The aim of volunteer computing is that organizations be able to attain large computing power thanks to the participation of volunteer clients instead of a high investment in infrastructure. There are projects, like the ATLAS@Home project, in which the number of running jobs has reached a plateau, due to a high load on data servers caused by file transfer. This is why we have designed an alternative, using the same BOINC infrastructure, in order to improve the performance of BOINC projects that have reached their limit due to the I/O bottleneck in data servers. This alternative involves having a percentage of the volunteer clients running as data servers, called data volunteers, that improve the performance of the system by reducing the load on data servers. In addition, our solution takes advantage of data locality, leveraging the low network latencies of closer machines. This paper describes our alternative in detail and shows the performance of the solution, applied to 3 different BOINC projects, using a simulator of our own, ComBoS.
A second-order sigma-delta ADC using MOS capacitors for smart sensor applications [smart temperature sensor]

This paper presents a second-order sigma-delta ADC designed for use in a smart temperature sensor. It is operated in a 'one-shot' mode, i.e. the converter is powered up, produces a single conversion result, and powers down again. This paper discusses the implications of this mode of operation for the design of the modulator and the decimation filter. A sinc/sup 2/ decimation filter is used, which is shown to provide a higher resolution then a more complex sinc/sup 3/ with the same conversion time. Through continuous-time integration of the input and reference voltages, the use of a linear sampling capacitor at the input is avoided. The modulator was implemented in a 0.5 /spl mu/m digital CMOS process using MOS capacitors. An effective resolution of 15.5 bits was measured with a conversion time of 25 ms.
Total lipids and fatty acids of strains of Metarhizium anisopliae

Dois estagios de desenvolvimento a saber: conidio (C) e micelio (M) em 10 linhagens de Metarhizium anisopliae var. anisopliae e 2 M. anisopliae var. majus, foram estudados em dois diferentes meios de cultivos, minimo (MM) e completo (MC). As linhagens apresentaram-se similares quanto a porcentagem de lipidios totais, porem submetidas ao teste de Tukey, as medias dos conteudos de lipidios do conidio (C) e do micelio (M) cultivados em meio MM e CM respectivamente, mostraram diferenca significativa ao nivel de 5% , indicando assim variabilidade para a producao de lipidios totais. As linhagens 5 e 7, ambas da var. majus, nao apresentam diferencas mensuraveis da variedade anisopliae. Com os acidos graxos C18:1 e C18:2 oleico e linoleico respectivamente, as diferencas foram todas altamente significativas (p= 1%) com a mais alta media de C18:1 para conidio e C18:2 para micelio.
Glutathione‐S‐transferase‐green fluorescent protein fusion protein reveals slow dissociation from high site density beads and measures free GSH

Glutathione, a ubiquitous tripeptide, is an important cellular constituent, and measurement of reduced and oxidized glutathione is a measure of the redox state of cells. Glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST) fusion proteins bind naturally to beads derivatized with glutathione, and elution of such bead‐bound fusion proteins with buffer containing millimolar glutathione is a commonly used method of protein purification. Many protein–protein interactions have been established by using GST fusion proteins and measuring binding of fusion protein binding partners by GST pulldown assays, usually monitored by Western blot methodology.
BencanaVis visualization and clustering of disaster readiness using K Means with R Shiny A case study for Disaster, Medical Personnel and Health Facilities data at Province level in Indonesia

The open data movement has led us into immensely useful applications and innovations for decision making, both for individual citizen as well as government. This study aims to create a web application called BencanaVis which provide innovative visualization of disaster government open data using Shiny, a web framework from R programming language. The datasets being used are available from Indonesian National Disaster Management Authority agency (or BNPB), the official Indonesian Open Data government portal and the Indonesian National Statistical Bureau (or BPS) website. We create three types of scenarios or experiments for the dataset. After that, we normalize the data using min-max use normalization. Then, we employ PCA (principal component analysis) to reduce feature dimensionality. Furthermore, we apply K-Means clustering techniques and calculate the cluster validity using Sum of Square Error (SSE), Davis-Bouldin Index (DBI), Dunn Index, Connectivity Index and Silhouettes Index. The cluster member from optimal number of k are then being analyzed to create a score for disaster readiness. We shall analyze this disaster readiness using the scoring produced by weighting the attributes values with weights from the AHP methods. Furthermore, we provide two visualizations; they are 3D scatter plot and cluster distribution using leaflet library from R. There are two other visualizations provided in the web application use heatmap and streamgraph library. The heatmap visualization shows the pattern distribution of all attributes and streamgraph visualization which refers to stacked area chart shows the number of 21 types disaster which recorded from BNPB data in 16 years during the year 2000 – 2016.
THE EFFECT OF RABBIT’S AGE ON IN VITRO FERMENTATION OF STARCH, COMPOUND FEED AND ITS FIBRE DJELOVANJE STAROSTI KUNI A NA IN VITRO FERMENTACIJU

In vitro gas production movement for three different substrates, starch, standard compound feed (20 % crude protein, 33 % NDF/kg DM) and neutral detergent fibre prepared from the standard compound feed (NDF), were determined using the caecum content of weaned rabbits (36 days of age) and of rabbits of slaughter age (78 days) as inoculum. Gas produced was fitted with the Gompertz model and the differences between parameters were calculated. The differences in fermentation kinetic parameters between older and weaned rabbits were significant within each substrate. In rabbits at slaughter weight the fermentation was more intensive, more rapid and, with the exception of compound feed, the production of gas was higher than in weaned rabbit. In first 10 hours of fermentation that correspond to the normal retention time in the caecum (Gidenne et al., 2000), the highest amount of gas was produced from compound feed. Only in this substrate the time of maximum fermentation rate was short enough (TMFR: 36 days 9.5, 78 days 6.6 hours, P<0.05) that it could be fermented in vivo. In accordance with published results it could be suggested that the majority of gas derived from pectins, which are important ingredients of compound feeds.
Radiographic Resolution of Community‐Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia in the Elderly

Objectives: To investigate the radiographic clearance of proven community‐acquired nontuberculous bacterial pneumonia in nonimmunocompromised older patients to provide working estimates of the rate of radiographic resolution as a function of the patient cumulative comorbidities, extent of initial radiographic involvement, functional status, and causative pathogens.
Quantitative assessment of parkinsonian and essential tremor

Triaxial accelerometry was used to study various motion characteristics in 10 patients with Parkinson disease and 11 patients with essential tremor. The smoothness of motion factor (SPMEF) and the acceleration waveform factor (TIPAR) were frequently and consistently abnormal. When both factors were analyzed together and compared with a control population, 100% of the left arm and 88% of the right arm values were abnormal in the Parkinson disease group, and 82% of the left arm and 91% of the right arm values were abnormal in the essential tremor patients. Repeat evaluation revealed consistent intrapatient results. Therefore, this technique may provide an objective assessment of movement disorders.
Design and Development of Low-Cost Low Sidelobe Level Slotted Waveguide Antenna Array in X-Band

This paper presents a low-cost low-profile compact waveguide-fed slotted antenna array with very low average sidelobe level (ASLL) in X-band. The desired current distribution on the antenna array's aperture is synthesized using Schelkunoff's unit circle technique combined with genetic algorithm technique. The antenna array design based on the synthesized current distribution is carried out using finite integration technique-based commercial EM simulator. The designed antenna is fabricated using a low-cost fabrication process. The measured results obtained are in good agreement with the simulated results. This work is extremely useful for the radar applications.
FERMENTATION , ISOLATION AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES

Screening of new insecticidal and acaricidal antibiotics was carried out with reference to anti-brine shrimp activity from actinomycete strains isolated from marine environments. Of 200 actinomycete isolates, one isolate was found to produce a newsubstance, altemicidin. The strain was isolated from sea mudcollected at Gamo, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, and identified as Streptomyces sioyaensis SA-1758.
Face virtual pose generation using multi resolution subspaces

In this paper a new method for face virtual pose generation is presented. The proposed method uses subspace image representation. The general problem of blurring is addressed by introducing a multi resolution time-frequency analysis to subspace image representation. The training gallery contains face images in two different poses. Undecimated Wavelet Transform is applied on all training face images in first pose and the corresponding images in the second pose to produce image subbands. Then, a new subspace is constructed for each subband in both poses. The mapping between two corresponding subbands of two poses is learnt using linear regression. The resulted mapping matrix is used to generate virtual pose of a new given face. Experimental results with ICA as the subspace method on CMU PIE database show that the proposed method has a better performance on complex areas of face such as eyes, eyebrows and noses compared to global regression methods such as PCA and state-of-the-art methods such as Locally linear regression (LLR).
ESD-TR-71-105 MTR-2050 THE APPLICATION OF MICROPROGRAMMING TECHNOLOGY

This report surveys promising applications of microprogramming. Emphasis is on the value of microprogramming as a tool which permits computer users to modify the architecture of a general-purpose machine to better match a particular set of requirements. Factors are discussed which affect the choice of microprogramming over hardware and software in the design and implementation of computer-based systems. Actual and potential examples of its application are given to illustrate its relevance to the solution of implementation and performance problems arising in typical Air Force systems. Finally, research and development tasks are proposed which lead to the realization of the benefits of this technology in operational command control and communications systems. Methods are described for integrating the results into existing and future systems in the next several years.
Traffic Aware Placement of Interdependent NFV

Network function virtualization enables flexible implementation of network functions, or middleboxes, as virtual machines running on standard servers. However, the flexibility also creates a challenge for efficiently placing such middleboxes, due to the availability of multiple hosting servers, capability of middleboxes to change traffic volumes, and dependency between middleboxes. In this paper, we address the optimal placement challenge of NFV middleboxes, and propose solutions for middleboxes of different traffic changing effects and with different dependency relations. First, we formulate the Traffic Aware Placement of Interdependent Middleboxes problem as a graph optimization problem. When the flow path is predetermined, we design optimal algorithms to place a non-ordered or totallyordered middlebox set, and propose an efficient heuristic for the general scenario of a partially-ordered middlebox set after proving its NP-hardness. When the flow path is not predetermined, we show that the problem is NP-hard even for a non-ordered middlebox set, and propose a traffic and space aware routing heuristic. We have evaluated the proposed algorithms using large scale simulations and prototype experiments, and present extensive evaluation results to demonstrate the effectiveness of our design.