Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Y137H mutation in the cytochrome P450 FgCYP51B protein confers reduced sensitivity to tebuconazole in Fusarium graminearum.

BACKGROUND Fusarium graminearum is the main pathogen of Fusarium head blight (FHB), a worldwide plant disease and one of the most significant wheat diseases in China. Demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicides, such as tebuconazole (TEC), are widely used to control FHB, but long-term use leads to low efficacy against FHB. Earlier studies showed that DMI resistance is associated with the fungal sterol 14α-demethylase (cytochrome P450 CYP51) gene, and that point mutations in the CYP51 gene are the primary mechanism of resistance to DMI fungicides. The aims of this study were to clarify the molecular mechanisms of resistance to TEC and identify the binding sites on the FgCYP51B protein. RESULTS Site-directed mutagenesis was used to change the FgCYP51B gene of wild-type strain PH-1 from tyrosine to histidine at residue 137 (Y137H) to generate a mutant transformant, which was confirmed to be resistant to TEC compared with the parental strains. A three-dimensional FgCYP51B model was constructed, and molecular docking simulation studies were conducted to identify the optimum binding mode with TEC. The wild-type FgCYP51B protein displayed stronger affinity to TEC than that of the mutated FgCYP51B in the molecular docking analysis. CONCLUSION These results indicate that a Tyr137 amino acid mutation in the cytochrome P450 FgCYP51B could lead to resistance to TEC and that Y137 forms part of the tebuconazole-binding pocket. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.
Efficient Sulfide Assimilation in Methanosarcina acetivorans Is Mediated by the MA1715 Protein

ABSTRACT Conserved genes essential to sulfur assimilation and trafficking in aerobic organisms are missing in many methanogens, most of which inhabit highly sulfidic, anaerobic environmental niches. This suggests that methanogens possess distinct pathways for the synthesis of key metabolites and intermediates, including cysteine, homocysteine, and protein persulfide groups. Prior work identified a novel tRNA-dependent two-step pathway for cysteine biosynthesis and a new metabolic transformation by which sulfur is inserted into aspartate semialdehyde to produce homocysteine. Homocysteine biosynthesis requires two of the three proteins previously identified in our laboratory by a comprehensive bioinformatics approach. Here, we show that the third protein identified in silico, the ApbE-like protein COG2122, facilitates sulfide assimilation in Methanosarcina acetivorans. Knockout strains lacking the gene encoding COG2122 are severely impaired for growth when sulfide is provided as the sole sulfur source. However, rapid growth is recovered upon supplementation with cysteine, homocysteine, or cystathionine, suggesting that COG2122 is required for efficient biosynthesis of both cysteine and homocysteine. Deletion of the gene encoding COG2122 does not influence the extent of sulfur modifications in tRNA or the prevalence of iron-sulfur clusters, indicating that the function of COG2122 could be limited to sulfide assimilation for cysteine and homocysteine biosynthesis alone. IMPORTANCE We have found that the conserved M. acetivorans ma1715 gene, which encodes an ApbE-like protein, is required for optimal growth with sulfide as the sole sulfur source and supports both cysteine and homocysteine biosynthesis in vivo. Together with related functional-genomics studies in methanogens, these findings make a key contribution to elucidating the novel pathways of sulfide assimilation and sulfur trafficking in anaerobic microorganisms that existed before the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis. The data suggest that the MA1715 protein is particularly important to sustaining robust physiological function when ambient sulfide concentrations are low. Phylogenetic analysis shows that MA1715 and other recently discovered methanogen sulfur-trafficking proteins share an evolutionary history with enzymes in the methanogenesis pathway. The newly characterized genes thus likely formed an essential part of the core metabolic machinery of the ancestral euryarchaeote.
An in-network service system based on smart routers and edge devices

Watching and downloading of the online highdefinition video has become one of our daily needs. The user experience of traditional service system based on content delivery network (CDN) and peer to peer (P2P) is limited by the bandwidth and the service ability. These technologies mostly concentrate on content servers and personal computers rather than routers and devices in the network. In this paper, we propose an in-network service system by taking full advantage of the smart routers and edge devices to relieve the load of CDN. We mainly do the following works. 1) We propose the basic architecture of the in-network service system and deploy it on a real network environment. 2) We introduce a hybrid node management algorithm for large scale, flexible, high churn network to manage the smart routers with the edge devices. 3) We design a file self-diffusion algorithm for content delivery. The evaluation shows the high performance of the hit rate of service using the proposed system. In the experiment, up to half of the user requests can be serviced by the proposed system without accessing the CDN.
Atmospheric corrosion of electro-electronics metals in urban desert simulated indoor environment

The corrosion of pure Ag, Cu, Ni, and Sn specimens exposed for 1 to 24 months in a simulated indoor environment, consisting of a rain sheltered atmospheric corrosion test chamber placed in an urban desert environment (Baja California) has been measured. The corrosion rates of the metals were determined by mass loss measurement and the environment was thus classified in the low to medium indoor corrosivity category (IC2–IC3) according to ISO. Silver and copper weight losses were found to be very similar, while the nickel and tin weight losses were several times lower. The silver surface was tarnished in a non-uniform manner, presenting Ag2S and AgCl corrosion products, while the copper specimens corrode uniformly, being covered with Cu2O corrosion product. Owing to the presence of chloride contamination, the nickel and tin oxide corrosion films show fracture and pitting corrosion, developed over the first few months of exposure.
SBPG: Secure Better Portable Graphics for Trustworthy Media Communications in the IoT

Smart Healthcare is envisioned as the combination of traditional healthcare augmented by smart bio-sensors, wearable devices, and a plethora of on-body sensors that communicate with smart hospitals, smart emergency response systems, and ambulances, through advanced information and communication technologies. The vision of smart healthcare as part of a smart city relies on the framework of the Internet of Things (IoT) as the underlying core technology that enables the design and operation of a city, whereby smart technology, energy grids, transportation, buildings, communication, and information technology, are all interconnected. This paper addresses some of the challenges faced in the IoT infrastructure, specifically secure communication and user authentication in the context of automated analysis of biomedical images and communication of the analysis results and related metadata in a smart healthcare framework. A hardware architecture for a secure digital camera integrated with the secure better portable graphics (SBPG) compression algorithm, suitable for applications in the IoT, is proposed in this paper. The focus of this paper is on patient data protection and authentication. The proposed SBPG architecture offers two layers of protection, concurrent encryption and watermarking, which address all issues related to security, privacy, and digital rights management. The experimental results demonstrate that the new compression technique BPG outperforms JPEG in terms of compression quality and compressed file size while providing increased image quality. High performance requirements of BPG have been met by employing two techniques: 1) insertion of an encrypted signature in the center portion of the image and 2) frequency-domain watermarking using blockwise DCT of size $8\times 8$ pixels. These approaches optimize the proposed architecture by decreasing computational complexity while maintaining strong protection, with concomitant increase of the speed of the watermarking and compression processes. A Simulink® prototype for the proposed architecture has been built and tested. To the best of our knowledge, the hardware architecture for BPG compression with built-in image authentication capability for integration with a secure digital camera is the first one ever proposed.
An On-Chip and Inter-Chip Communications Network for the SpiNNaker Massively-Parallel Neural Net Simulator

SpiNNaker is a scalable, multichip system designed for the purpose of real-time modelling of spiking neurons with an efficient multicast communications infrastructure inspired by neurobiology. SpiNNaker uses a GALS packet-switched network to emulate the very high connectivity of biological systems. This paper presents the on-chip and inter-chip communications network for SpiNNaker.
Identifying Security Requirements Based on Linguistic Analysis and Machine Learning

Eliciting security requirements in early stage of system development has been widely recognized as an efficient way for minimizing security cost and avoiding recurring security problems. However, in many projects, security requirements are not explicitly specified but rather mixed with other requirements, requiring precise and fast identification of such security requirements. Although several probability-based approaches have been proposed to tackle this problem, they are either imprecise or domain-dependent. In this paper, we propose a tool-supported method to efficiently identify security requirements, which combines linguistic analysis with machine learning techniques. In particular, we apply a systematic approach to identify linguistic features of security requirements based on existing security requirements ontologies and linguistic knowledge. We automatically extract such features from textual requirements, which are then used to train security requirements classifiers using typical machine learning techniques. We have implemented a prototype tool to support our approach, and have systematically evaluated our approach based on three realistic requirements specifications. The evaluation results show that our approach has promising potential to train classifiers that can classify requirements specifications from different application domains.
Experimental study of integrated tunable transformer

A new tunable integrated transformer topology together with its tuning method is presented. The proposed tunable topology consists of a conventional tapped transformer and a coupled inductor. The phase shift between the input power into the primary winding and that into the coupled inductor was used to control the electrical characteristics such as maximum stable gain, input impedance and quality factor. The new tunable transformer achieved about 3dB higher maximum stable gain and 2.8 times higher quality factor compared to the conventional transformer.
A jammer-resilient cognitive radio network using evolutionary game theory

Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) is an emerging technology that holds promises for solving the wireless spectrum scarcity problem by allowing secondary users (SU), also called unlicensed users, to coexist with primary user (PU), also called licensed users, without causing any interference to the PU's communication. However, similar to any networking technology, CRNs are susceptible to many attacks, one of which is the jamming attack. A jamming attack can be referred to as an intentional interference attack on wireless channels with an intent to either interfere with the transmissions of SUs or to gain access to the channel for selfish utilization of the channel. This paper presents an evolutionary game theoretic approach to mitigate such a jamming attack. The proposed evolutionary game helps normal secondary users gain fair utilization of channels even though a malicious SU (jammer) could be present in those channels. Results obtained from this study establishes the fact that the proposed algorithm works.
Neural network dimension selection for dynamical system identification

Choosing an appropriate size of a network is an important issue for any neural network applications. The common practice is to start with an ldquoover-sizedrdquo network, then gradually reduces its size to find the optimal solution. In this paper, a new hybrid neural network pruning algorithm for multi-layer feedforward neural networks is investigated. Computer simulation results on system identification and pattern classification problems show this algorithm can significantly reduce the network dimension while still maintaining satisfactory identification and classification accuracy.
Vicariously touching products through observing others' hand actions increases purchasing intention, and the effect of visual perspective in this process: An fMRI study

The growth of online shopping increases consumers' dependence on vicarious sensory experiences, such as observing others touching products in commercials. However, empirical evidence on whether observing others' sensory experiences increases purchasing intention is still scarce. In the present study, participants observed others interacting with products in the first‐ or third‐person perspective in video clips, and their neural responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We investigated (1) whether and how vicariously touching certain products affected purchasing intention, and the neural correlates of this process; and (2) how visual perspective interacts with vicarious tactility. Vicarious tactile experiences were manipulated by hand actions touching or not touching the products, while the visual perspective was manipulated by showing the hand actions either in first‐ or third‐person perspective. During the fMRI scanning, participants watched the video clips and rated their purchasing intention for each product. The results showed that, observing others touching (vs. not touching) the products increased purchasing intention, with vicarious neural responses found in mirror neuron systems (MNS) and lateral occipital complex (LOC). Moreover, the stronger neural activities in MNS was associated with higher purchasing intention. The effects of visual perspectives were found in left superior parietal lobule (SPL), while the interaction of tactility and visual perspective was shown in precuneus and precuneus‐LOC connectivity. The present study provides the first evidence that vicariously touching a given product increased purchasing intention and the neural activities in bilateral MNS, LOC, left SPL and precuneus are involved in this process. Hum Brain Mapp 39:332–343, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Triptolide suppresses the in vitro and in vivo growth of lung cancer cells by targeting hyaluronan-CD44/RHAMM signaling

Higher levels of hyaluronan (HA) and its receptors CD44 and RHAMM have been associated with poor prognosis and metastasis in NSCLC. In the current study, our goal was to define, using cellular and orthotopic lung tumor models, the role of HA-CD44/RHAMM signaling in lung carcinogenesis and to assess the potential of triptolide to block HA-CD44/RHAMM signaling and thereby suppress the development and progression of lung cancer. Triptolide reduced the viability of five non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, the proliferation and self-renewal of pulmospheres, and levels of HA synthase 2 (HAS2), HAS3, HA, CD44, RHAMM, EGFR, Akt and ERK, but increased the cleavage of caspase 3 and PARP. Silencing of HAS2, CD44 or RHAMM induced similar effects. Addition of excess HA to the culture media completely abrogated the effects of triptolide and siRNAs targeting HAS2, CD44, or RHAMM. In an orthotopic lung cancer model in nude rats, intranasal administration of liposomal triptolide (400 μg/kg) for 8 weeks significantly reduced lung tumor growth as determined by bioluminescence imaging, lung weight measurements and gross and histopathological analysis of tumor burden. Also, triptolide suppressed expressions of Ki-67, a marker for cell proliferation, HAS2, HAS3, HA, CD44, and RHAMM in lung tumors. Overall, our results provide a strong rationale for mitigating lung cancer by targeting the HA-CD44/RHAMM signaling axis.
Equational approach to formal verification of SET

We have formally verified that a payment protocol, which is an abstract SET payment protocol but retains the essential part of the SET payment protocol, has several desired properties. Among the properties are that, if the payment gateway authorizes a payment, then both cardholder and merchant concerned always agree on the payment, and at this time, the two principals also agree on the transaction amount.
Co-creation strategies for learning analytics

In order to further the field of learning analytics (LA), researchers and experts may need to look beyond themselves and their own perspectives and expertise to innovate LA platforms and interventions. We suggest that by co-creating with the users of LA, such as educators and students, researchers and experts can improve the usability, usefulness, and draw greater understanding from LA interventions. Within this article we discuss the current LA issues and barriers and how co-creation strategies can help address many of these challenges. We further outline the considerations, both pre- and during interventions, which support and foster a co-created strategy for learning analytics interventions.
Achievements and Challenges in Facial Transplantation

&NA; The first facial transplantation in 2005 ushered in a new era in reconstructive surgery, offering new possibilities for the repair of severe disfigurements previously limited by conventional techniques. Advances in allograft design, computerized preoperative planning, surgical technique, and postoperative revisions have helped push the boundaries in this new frontier of vascularized composite allotransplantation. Over the past 12 years, 40 of these procedures have been performed across the world, offering the field the opportunity to reflect on current outcomes. Successes achieved in the brief history of facial transplantation have resulted in a new set of obstacles the field must now overcome. In this review, we aim to highlight the achievements, major challenges, and future directions of this rapidly evolving field.
Brain dynamics in ASD during movie‐watching show idiosyncratic functional integration and segregation

To refine our understanding of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), studies of the brain in dynamic, multimodal and ecological experimental settings are required. One way to achieve this is to compare the neural responses of ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals when viewing a naturalistic movie, but the temporal complexity of the stimulus hampers this task, and the presence of intrinsic functional connectivity (FC) may overshadow movie‐driven fluctuations. Here, we detected inter‐subject functional correlation (ISFC) transients to disentangle movie‐induced functional changes from underlying resting‐state activity while probing FC dynamically. When considering the number of significant ISFC excursions triggered by the movie across the brain, connections between remote functional modules were more heterogeneously engaged in the ASD population. Dynamically tracking the temporal profiles of those ISFC changes and tying them to specific movie subparts, this idiosyncrasy in ASD responses was then shown to involve functional integration and segregation mechanisms such as response inhibition, background suppression, or multisensory integration, while low‐level visual processing was spared. Through the application of a new framework for the study of dynamic experimental paradigms, our results reveal a temporally localized idiosyncrasy in ASD responses, specific to short‐lived episodes of long‐range functional interplays.
Hsp90 activator Aha1 drives production of pathological tau aggregates

Significance The accumulation of toxic tau protein, as in Alzheimer’s disease, is regulated by the 90-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp90) chaperone system. Inhibition of Hsp90 has been shown to reduce tau levels. However, Hsp90 inhibition can be problematic due to a lack of blood–brain barrier permeability and established toxicities. Here, we demonstrate that the Hsp90 cochaperone, ATPase homolog 1 (Aha1), dramatically increases the production of aggregated tau in vitro and in a mouse model of neurodegenerative disease. Moreover, inhibition of Aha1 reduced tau accumulation in cultured cells. These data identify Aha1 as a target for the treatment of tauopathies. The microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT, tau) forms neurotoxic aggregates that promote cognitive deficits in tauopathies, the most common of which is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The 90-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp90) chaperone system affects the accumulation of these toxic tau species, which can be modulated with Hsp90 inhibitors. However, many Hsp90 inhibitors are not blood–brain barrier-permeable, and several present associated toxicities. Here, we find that the cochaperone, activator of Hsp90 ATPase homolog 1 (Aha1), dramatically increased the production of aggregated tau. Treatment with an Aha1 inhibitor, KU-177, dramatically reduced the accumulation of insoluble tau. Aha1 colocalized with tau pathology in human brain tissue, and this association positively correlated with AD progression. Aha1 overexpression in the rTg4510 tau transgenic mouse model promoted insoluble and oligomeric tau accumulation leading to a physiological deficit in cognitive function. Overall, these data demonstrate that Aha1 contributes to tau fibril formation and neurotoxicity through Hsp90. This suggests that therapeutics targeting Aha1 may reduce toxic tau oligomers and slow or prevent neurodegenerative disease progression.
Research on spatio-temporal context learning based on Harris-Surf

Object tracking algorithm via Spatial-temporal Context(STC) suffers from feature point deficiency, so this paper proposes an improved object tracking algorithm via STC based on Harris-Surf. Make use of the existing Weighted spatiotemporal context (WSTC) algorithm to improve. Firstly, it extracted image corners using Harris algorithm and detected image feature points using SURF algorithm, then it merged corner points and feature points and eliminated duplicate points to obtain a new feature point set. The two operations can obviously increase the number of feature points. Finally, we used RANSAC to elimina errors and achieve the accurate matching. Experiments show that the improved algorithm can obviously solve the collection and matching of feature points, and effectively improve the tracking effect.