Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization of the Clustal X program for the alignment of multicopper oxidase bacterial sequences and their presence in the Bacillus genus

Bioinformatic methods for the alignment of amino acid sequences and function prediction have to be robust, principally in conserved regions bound to enzymatic activity. In order to optimize amino acid sequence alignment in multicopper oxidase conserved sites of a collection of 103 bacterial sequences, modification were made in the weight values in different matrices for amino acid residues from the Clustal X 1.83 program. The results obtained with modified Clustal X program allowed us to identify different multicopper oxidase activity according to the groups from the relationship diagram, identifying two well differentiated groups within the Bacillus genus . This analysis allowed infers multicopper oxidase activity in Bacillus thuringiensis similar to that presented by Bacillus halodurans, but distinct with respect to other laccase type bacterial oxidases. Specific oligonucleotides were designed to amplify through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) the gene that codifies for the B. thuringiensis laccase, finding that this sequence is present in only 6 out of 32 sero varieties of B. thuringiensis analyzed. Key words : Bacterial laccases, protein matrices, conserved motifs, multicopper oxidase.
Personalized Course Recommendation in Formal Learning Based on Logistic Regression

: The term Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is gradually familiar to both researchers in E-Learning and learners. This development aims to facilitate learners in searching for suitable learning resources such as courses, learning contents which can satisfy those learner‟s needs or interests. In general, the current techniques of recommender system (RS) play a major role in developing such education applications. There are currently two remarkable trends in building a recommendation system, including collaborative based RS and content based RS. Particularly, each approach employs some different algorithms for implementation depending on applied domains. In this paper, the logistic regression classification is analyzed to design a collaborative filtering (CF) recommendation system for courses in formal training programs where students could be advised to choose some suitable courses to their preferences in an upcoming semester, basing on ratings from previous students who finish the same training program. In addition, the problem of missing values is discussed in detailed. Generally, the purpose of this study is to propose a suitable method for building a CF recommendation system in course domain.
Molecular Docking Studies, Bioactivity Score Prediction, Drug Likeness Analysis of GSK-3 β Inhibitors: A Target Protein Involved in Alzheimer’s Disease

Glycogen synthase kinase 3 β (GSK-3 Beta) is a potential target for developing an effective therapeutic effect in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Currently, no such drug or molecules has been found till date which can cure AD completely. Few drugs such as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and memantine are ineffective in the later stages of the disease. Therefore, with the advancements in computational biology approaches, it is possible to combat alzheimer’s disease by targeting one of the kinases i.e. GSK-3 β involved in hyper phosphorylation of tau (a reliable marker of neurodegenerative disorders). In this study, we have carried out alzheimer’s structure-based drug designing with GSK-3 β. By applying appropriate docking methodology, we have identified few plant-derived compounds which show enhanced target selectivity than the conventional alzheimer's drug (such as memantine). Here we enumerate the comparison among the current and future AD therapy on the basis of their binding affinities. As a result, a large library of compounds has been screened as potent drug targets. It was also observed that withanolide–A (extracted from roots of withania somnifera) has the potential to emerge as the eventual drug for the AD. Moreover, few other phytocompounds such as celastrol, kenpaullone, quercetin, alsterpaullone have also shown enhanced activity in the decreasing order of their binding affinities.
More Than Clocks and Calendars: The Construction of Timekeepers by Eleven Kindergarten Children in Mexico and the United States

Abstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate timekeeping constructs of 4- and 5-year-old children in Campeche, Mexico, and North Carolina, United States, as well as the sociocultural conditions that shaped changes in their ideas about timekeeping (methods to mark and measure time) before, during, and after their kindergarten year. Eleven children constituted the case studies. The children entered public school kindergarten during the fall of the research period and had no prior long-term institutional experience, such as preschool or child care. Data were collected in three phases over the course of one year through: 1) semi-structured interviews with children, parents, teachers, and education administrators; 2) semi-structured activities with children, including drawings of time-related objects and concepts, verbal descriptions of time-related photographic images from the home and classroom, and problem-solving constructions; 3) observational field notes of the homes, communities, schools, and physical surroundings with a special emphasis on time indicators; 4) classroom observations; 5) the completion of a classroom environmental rating scale focused on time; and 6) a review of national, state, and local education policies affecting time in public schools. Data were analyzed within and across cases, sites, and phases to look for commonalities and differences in the children's timekeeping constructs. Three methods for marking and measuring time emerged from the data: biological, environmental, and conventional timekeepers. Each of these timekeeping methods proved to be relative to individual children, as well as replete with common features across cultural, geographical, and biological boundaries. Environmental cues and activities not ordinarily considered timekeepers proved to be more temporally significant than anticipated, and formal school instruction was sometimes out of step with home and community practices. The results of this research suggest that many critical ideas about timekeeping change during a child's first year of formal schooling as children learn to adhere to external schedules, which may constrain or enhance their ability to fully engage in school activities.
Investigating the Dynamic Interaction between Military Spending and Economic Growth

The relationship and interaction of military spending and economic growth have been theoretically and empirically investigated since the 1970s but it still cannot provide conclusive evidence towards the direction and the quantification of the impact between the two magnitudes. The use of different data sets in terms of time periods, and number and geographic location of countries, different theoretical background leading to different econometric specifications, and single type of econometric methodology, make any comparison impossible. This paper looks into the dynamic interaction between military spending and economic growth during the period 1988–2013 that includes the recent years of economic crisis covering 138 countries without making any prior assumptions about the theoretical channels of influence, while not limited to a single estimation method but employing a wide range of methodologies in order to form a complete picture of the long- and short-run interaction. Furthermore, as such interaction might not be linear, we create three groups of countries based on the countries' income developmental stage. Overall we find no evidence of long- and short-run causality from the military spending to economic growth except for the developing countries (positive in the long run). However, from economic growth to military spending we find a positive impact for all groups except the least developed countries. We also notice the interaction was more prominent prior to the start of the economic crisis.
Linking geochemical processes with microbial community analysis: successional dynamics in an arsenic‐rich, acid‐sulphate‐chloride geothermal spring

The source waters of acid‐sulphate‐chloride (ASC) geothermal springs located in Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park contain several reduced chemical species, including H2, H2S, As(III), and Fe(II), which may serve as electron donors driving chemolithotrophic metabolism. Microorganisms thriving in these environments must also cope with high temperatures, low pH (∼3), and high concentrations of sulphide, As(III), and boron. The goal of the current study was to correlate the temporal and spatial distribution of bacterial and archaeal populations with changes in temperature and geochemical energy gradients occurring throughout a newly formed (redirected) outflow channel of an ASC spring. A suite of complimentary analyses including aqueous geochemistry, microscopy, solid phase identification, and 16S rDNA sequence distribution were used to correlate the appearance of specific microbial populations with biogeochemical processes mediating S, Fe, and As cycling and subsequent biomineralization of As(V)‐rich hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) mats. Rapid As(III) oxidation (maximum first order rate constants ranged from 4 to 5 min−1, t1/2 = 0.17 − 0.14 min) was correlated with the appearance of Hydrogenobaculum and Thiomonas–like populations, whereas the biogenesis of As(V)‐rich HFO microbial mats (mole ratios of As:Fe ∼0.7) was correlated with the appearance of Metallosphaera, Acidimicrobium, and Thiomonas–like populations. Several 16S sequences detected near the source were closely related to sequences of chemolithotrophic hyperthermophilic populations including Stygiolobus and Hydrogenobaculum organisms that are known H2 oxidizers. The use of H2, reduced S(–II,0), Fe(II) and perhaps As(III) by different organisms represented throughout the outflow channel was supported by thermodynamic calculations, confirming highly exergonic redox couples with these electron donors. Results from this work demonstrated that chemical energy gradients play an important role in establishing distinct community structure as a function of distance from geothermal spring discharge.
An Analysis on the Effect of Computer Self-Efficacy over Scientific Research Self-Efficacy and Information Literacy Self-Efficacy.

Present research investigates reciprocal relations amidst computer self-efficacy, scientific research and information literacy self-efficacy. Research findings have demonstrated that according to standardized regression coefficients, computer self-efficacy has a positive effect on information literacy self-efficacy. Likewise it has been detected that information literacy self-efficacy positively affects scientific research self-efficacy. It has also been designated that computer self-efficacy has a positive impact on scientific research self-efficacy. It is suggested that the findings of present research shall provide assistance in detecting the sequence of computer, information literacy and scientific research skills development courses that shall be integrated into curriculums. Key words: Computer self-efficacy, information literacy self-efficacy, scientific research self-efficacy, teacher training, teaching and learning
Management Whitepaper: Examining the Development of a Social Media Strategy for a National Sport Organisation: A Case Study of Tennis New Zealand

Research Problem The purpose of this paper was to examine the development and maintenance of a social media strategy for a National Sport Organisation (NSO) in New Zealand. This research contains information that highlights a number of issues surrounding the development and effective utilisation of social media for an NSO, in particular applying a “one-size-fits-all” approach to its management. Other issues included constant Facebook-induced changes, lack of current social media knowledge and understanding at an organisational and sector level, and the ability to sustain an online presence. This article would likely be useful to NSOs and other stakeholders of sport organisations, particularly those involved with or considering developing a social media strategy.
Infrared thermometry to schedule irrigation of common bean

The objective of this work was to determine the critical irrigation time for common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Carioca) using infrared thermometry. Five treatments were analyzed. Canopy temperature differences between plants and a well-watered control about 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5±0.5oC were tested. Physiological variables and plant growth were analyzed to establish the best time to irrigate. There was a significant linear correlation between the index and stomatal resistance, transpiration rate, and leaf water potential. Although significant linear correlation between the index and mean values of total dry matter, absolute growth rate, and leaf area index was found, no correlation was found with other growth index like relative growth rate, net assimilation rate, and leaf area ratio. Plants irrigated when their canopy temperature was 3±0.5oC above the control had their relative growth rate mean value increased up to 59.7%, yielding 2,260.2 kg ha-1, with a reduction of 38.0% in the amount of water used. Plants irrigated when their canopy temperature was 4±0.5oC yielded 1,907.6 kg ha-1, although their relative growth rate mean value was 4.0% below the control. These results show that the best moment to irrigate common bean is when their canopy temperature is between 3oC and 4±0.5oC above the control.
The Effect of Holy Quran Recitation on the Physiological Responses of Premature Infants during Phlebotomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: One of the painful procedures in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is phlebotomy. However, the use of non-pharmacological approaches could be helpful in reducing the pain. This study aimed to determine the effect of Quran recitation on the physiological parametersof premature infants during and after phlebotomy. Materials and Methods This randomized, double-blind clinical trial was performed on premature infants admitted to the NICU at Dr. Ganjavian hospital in Dezful, Iran. The infants were randomly divided in two equal groups (n=28). A Quran recitation was started five minutes before blood sampling in the case group and it continued to play for another 20 minutes. The physiological symptoms were documented in both groups starting 10 minutes before blood sampling and continued until 20 minutes after it. The data was analyzed using SPSS software (version18.0). Results: The primary outcomes of this study were the measurement of the heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. The results showed that the heart rate slowed significantly in the intervention group (p<0.05). There was a significant difference in the oxygen saturation between the groups (p<0.05). The respiratory rate showed a significant difference between the groups (p=0.039) only 20 minutes after blood sampling. Conclusion The findings indicated that Quran recitation can help improve physiological parameters and can be used as a routine standard method in NICU.
Capture effects in carbonaceous material: A Stardust analogue study

Abstract— It is reasonable to expect that cometary samples returned to Earth by the Stardust space probe have been altered to some degree during capture in aerogel at 6.1 km/s. In order to help interpret the measured structure of these particles with respect to their original cometary nature, a series of coal samples of known structure and chemical composition was fired into aerogel at Stardust capture velocity. This portion of the study analyzed the surfaces of aerogel‐embedded particles using Raman spectroscopy. Results show that particle surfaces are largely homogenized during capture regardless of metamorphic grade or chemical composition, apparently to include a devolatilization step during capture processing. This provides a possible mechanism for alteration of some aliphatic compound‐rich phases through devolatilization of cometary carbonaceous material followed by re‐condensation within the particle. Results also show that the possibility of alteration must be considered for any particular Stardust grain, as examples of both graphitization and amorphization are found in the coal samples. It is evident that Raman G band (∼1580 cm−1) parameters provide a means of characterizing Stardust carbonaceous material to include identifying those grains which have been subjected to significant capture alteration.
APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEMS IN TECHNICAL PREPARATION OF MACHINE PARTS PRODUCTION

The paper presents problems of technical product preparation tasks aimed at product selection and redesign for particular application supported by AI methods. The identification of customer needs was discussed, as well as the issues of product decomposition were presented. The QFD method was suggested to be applied as the product and process data integration tool, where the engineering characteristic of a product was combined with its trade characteristic. In the industrial product characteristic, the delivery time, which can be fixed with the use of graph based scheduling method, is particularly important. The paper shows that thanks to the application of KBS methods in production preparation it is possible to support decision making connected with product selection for particular use.
Reduction of elliptic curves over imaginary quadratic number fields.

It is shown that an elliptic curve defined over a complex quadratic field K, having good reduction at all primes, does not have a global minimal (Weierstrass) model. As a consequence of a theorem of Setzer it then follows that there are no elliptic curves over K having good reduction everywhere in case the class number of K is prime to 6.
Cryptographic Cloud Storage with Hadoop Implementation

Cloud storage enables users to remotely store their data and enjoy the on-demand high quality cloud applications without the burden of local hardware and software management. Though the benefits are clear, it inevitably poses new security risks toward the correctness of the data in cloud. To address this problem, the proposed design allows users to audit the cloud storage with very lightweight communication and computation cost by utilizing the new cryptographic technique like homomorphic token and distributed erasure-coded data. By introducing the notion of parallel homomorphic encryption (PHE) schemes, which are encryption schemes that support computation over encrypted data via evaluation algorithms that can be efficiently executed in parallel. In addition, we can hide the function being evaluated with the MapReduce model runnable on Hadoop framework for element testing and keyword search. Analysis shows the proposed scheme is highly efficient and resilient against Byzantine failure, malicious data modification attack, and even server colluding attacks and attempting to strike a balance between security, efficiency and functionality using Kerberos protocol and HDFS system.
Molecular markers in Chinese carps and their interspecific hybrids

A sample consisting of 2 Ctenopharyngodon idella (grass carp) females, 2 Aristichthys nobilis (bighead carp) males, and 10 interspecific hybrids was analyzed using a multidisciplinary approach. The 10 hybrids were the only surviving specimens of a crossbreeding experiment. The cytological approach, involving the measurement of the largest axis of the erythrocytes, revealed that the parental species were diploid, whereas, among the hybrids, eight individuals were triploid, and two were diploid. Two of the triploid individuals were analyzed cytogenetically and showed 2n = 3X = 72 chromosomes. Using the biochemical and molecular approaches, it was possible to confirm that one of the C. idella specimens was the true mother of the hybrids. Those data also allowed to rule out both males from parenthood. The molecular analyses also indicated the absence of gynogenetic individuals among the hybrids. We discuss the use of a multidisciplinary approach as an efficient tool in the monitoring of aquaculture programs.
A CONDITIONAL FEATURE UTILIZATION APPROACH TO ITEMSET RETRIEVAL IN ONLINE SHOPPING SERVICES

Due to the increasing number of items with a variety of descriptions for a product type, itemset retrieval is considered as an essential function for enhancing shopping experiences of customers in online malls. This paper considers an itemset retrieval problem to construct an itemset consisting of items belonging to the same product type against a query item in which a customer is interested. In contrast to the previous approaches that require additional prior information such as itemset memberships and the known number of itemsets, we propose a semi-supervised itemset retrieval model that can automatically find a target itemset for a query item based on two item features, namely textual description and price. Specifically, in order to precisely identify itemsets, the proposed model conditionally utilizes price feature of an item only when its textual description feature is relevant to that of a query item. Experiment results based on two real-world datasets show that the proposed model outperformed the other alternatives.
Differing responses of marine N2 fixers to warming and consequences for future diazotroph community structure

The globally distributed colonial cyanobacterium Trichodesmium and unicellular diazotrophs including Crocosphaera together carry out the majority of marine biological nitrogen (N2) fixation. Future sea surface warming is predicted to influence their abundance and distribution, but temperature reaction norms have been determined for very few representatives of each genus. We compared thermal responses within and between the 2 genera Trichodesmium and Crocosphaera by measuring reaction norms for growth, N2 fixation, carbon fixation, and elemental ratios in 7 strains from a global culture collection. Temperature reaction norms of Trichodesmium and Crocosphaera were remarkably similar for all isolates within each genus, regardless of their geographic origin. Thermal limits of Trichodesmium and Crocosphaera ranged from 18 to 32°C and 24 to 32°C, and optimum growth temperatures were ~26 and ~30°C, respectively. The highest cellular ratios of nitrogen to phosphorus and carbon to nitrogen were found at optimum growth temperatures, and the lowest ratios near their thermal limits. In a mixed competition experiment, Trichodesmium growth rates were ~25% higher than those of Crocosphaera at 24°C, while those of Crocosphaera were ~50% higher at 28°C. Comparison of these results to current and projected seasonal temperature regimes in the subtropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suggests that predicted warmer temperatures may favor Crocosphaera over Trichodesmium, but that both genera may be excluded where future temperatures consistently exceed 32°C. Sea surface warming could profoundly alter the community structure and stoichiometry of marine N2-fixing cyanobacteria, thus fundamentally changing the biogeochemical cycling of this globally significant source of new nitrogen.