Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Homology Modeling and Docking Studies of TMPRSS2 with Experimentally Known Inhibitors Camostat Mesylate, Nafamostat and Bromhexine Hydrochloride to Control SARS-Coronavirus-2

The rapid outbreak of SARS-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a serious global public health threat. The spike ‘S’ protein of SARS-CoV-2 and ACE2 of the host cell are being targeted to design and discover new drugs to control Covid-19 disease. Similarly, a transmembrane serine protease, TMPRSS2 of the host cell has been found to play a significant role in proteolytic cleavage of viral spike protein priming to the receptor ACE2 present in human cell. However, three dimensional structure and inhibition mechanism of TMPRSS2 is yet to be explored experimentally. Hence, in the present study we have generated a homology model of TMPRSS2 and studied its binding properties with experimentally studied inhibitors viz. Camostat mesylate, Nafamostat and Bromhexine hydrochloride (BHH) using molecular docking technique. Docking analysis revealed that the Camostat mesylate and its structural analogue Nafamostat interacts strongly with residues His296, Ser441 and Asp435 present in catalytic triad of TMPRSS2. However, BHH interacts with Gln438 and other residues present in the active site pocket of TMPRSS2 through hydrophobic contacts effectively. Thus, these results revealed the inhibition mechanism of TMPRSS2 by known inhibitors Camostat mesylate, Nafamostat and Bromhexine hydrochloride in detail at the molecular level. However, Camostat mesylate shows strong binding as compared to other two inhibitors. This structural information could also be useful to design and discover new inhibitors of TMPRSS2, which may be helpful to prevent the entry to SARS-Coronavirus 2 in human cell.
Max-Min Energy Balance in Wireless-Powered Hierarchical Fog-Cloud Computing Networks

This paper investigates the wireless-powered hierarchical fog-cloud computing networks, where multiple energy-constrained users harvest energy from a hybrid access point (HAP) firstly and then use their harvested energy to offload their computation tasks to fog/cloud servers via the HAP or compute their tasks locally. To pursue multi-user fairness, an optimization problem is formulated to maximize the minimal energy balance among all users by jointly optimizing time assignments, computation central processing unit (CPU) frequencies, and the computing mode selection. Since the problem is mixed-integer combinatorial non-convex, which is intractable, a generalized Benders decomposition (GBD)-based method is proposed, which guarantees the globally optimal solution. To release the high computational complexity of the proposed GBD-based method, a penalized successive convex approximation (P-SCA)-based algorithm is designed as an alternative to obtain a suboptimal solution with low computational complexity. Numerical results show that among different optimizable factors in the system, computing mode selection is the dominant one on affecting the system performance. Moreover, for each user, local computing is a better choice, if it is with relatively poor channel gain and small local computing delay. Otherwise, fog/cloud computing may be a better choice. Additionally, for the users with relatively high channel gains, if their local computing delays are less than those selecting fog computing, cloud computing should be a better choice.
Cryptanalysis and Improvement of a Pairing-Free Certificateless Aggregate Signature in Healthcare Wireless Medical Sensor Networks

The healthcare wireless medical sensor network is gradually changing the traditional mode of medical treatments with the rapid development of Internet of Things. Specifically, patients’ healthcare data can be continuously collected by medical sensor nodes and transmitted to the medical specialists for disease monitoring, diagnosis and treatments. Recently, due to its advantages of low computational and communication overheads in a multiuser environment, the certificateless aggregate signature (CLAS) scheme has been adopted to prevent the sensitive healthcare data from being tampered and damaged, thereby ensuring the integrity and authenticity of data. In order to further improve the efficiency of CLAS schemes for the sensor nodes with limited resources, several CLAS schemes without bilinear pairing have been proposed. However, security issues prevent them from being fully applied in the practical scenarios. In this article, we analyze the security of a pairing-free CLAS scheme proposed by Liu et al. [IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 5256–5266, 2020] by pointing out that their scheme is insecure against adversaries. After that, we introduce an improved scheme to solve the security vulnerability. The security proofs show that our improved scheme is existentially unforgeable against chosen message attacks under the random oracle model. In addition, the length of the aggregate signature in our proposal does not increase with the growth of the number of users, which greatly reduces the communication cost. Finally, the efficiency of our scheme is illustrated through both performance analyses and comparisons of related work.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Alveopora japonica (Scleractinia: Acroporidae)

Abstract Here, for the first time, we sequenced the complete mitogenome of Alveopora japonica Eguchi, 1968 (Scleractinia: Acroporidae). Genome size was 17,886 bp with 13 protein-coding, two rRNA, and two tRNA genes. This gene composition was identical to the typical scleractinian pattern. Our results strongly support the recent transfer of this coral species to the family Acroporidae.
Intrusive Teaching: The Strain of Care Labor, Identity and the Emerging Majority in Higher Education

United States publicly-funded higher education systems are experiencing increasing pressures (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019). In response, higher education institutions have broadened their appeal to students less likely to attend college as part of their fiscal strategies (Carlson, 2019). This growing student population consists of first-generation students and individuals from marginalized backgrounds who often enter college underprepared (Crissman Ishler, 2005), and higher education must retain these emerging-majority students to ensure fiscal stability (Soria & Stebleton, 2012). When enrollment and retention are viewed from a business model (Kelderman, 2019), faculty duties expand into triage care and student emotional support. This qualitative investigation of faculty in a publicly-funded state university explores intrusive teaching practices marked by monitoring and intervening in their students’ emotional and social issues. United States publicly-funded higher education systems are experiencing increasing pressures to operate under a business model to supplant decreasing legislative funding (Carlson, 2019; Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019; Kelderman, 2019). Mitchell et al. (2018) argue that spending on education in 2018 fell $7 billion below 2008 levels after adjusting for inflation. Legislative decisions, most predominantly cuts 20, l. 3, 49–64
Flotation froth feature analysis using computer vision technology

The possibility of machine vision application in the field of flotation efficiency evaluation was studied. Algorithm for froth image analysis was developed with aim of obtaining bubble’s size distribution. Algorithm consists of two parts: image processing and object detection. Algorithm’s work was verified on the sulfide flotation froth. As result, mathematical correlations for air flow rate, mean bubble diameter and surface area bubble flux were established.
Iterative Doppler Frequency Offset Estimation in Satellite High-Mobility Communications

Satellite communication systems are able to provide diverse services for ground terminals in ubiquitous global coverage, which play a vital role in high-mobility communication environments. Existing technologies developed primarily for satellite communications cannot be readily applied to satellite high-mobility communication scenarios, since high Doppler frequency offset caused by the fast movement of wireless terminals, and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) circumstances caused by limited link budgets in satellites incur more difficulty of the synchronization, especially for short burst transmission. To solve such a problem in satellite high-mobility communications, we propose a novel method named GP-MASO-MLE, which consists of a coarse estimation algorithm based on the Gaussian process (GP) model and Newton-Raphson method, and a fine correction algorithm based on the improved maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) jointly with turbo decoding iterations. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can approach to the bit error rate (BER) performance bound of ideal Doppler frequency offset correction within 0.1 dB, which can be well applied in code-aided (CA) satellite high-mobility communication systems for its good performance. In addition, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is lower than other traditional turbo synchronization algorithms.
Identification of the Holothurian species of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba using DNA barcoding technique.

Holothurians are one of the most dominant taxa in marine communities in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba. However, despite their wide distribution their taxonomic diversity is poorly understood. Recent studies have shown that many species thought to have broad distributions are actually a complex of allied species, with long standing questions regarding the identification of certain sea cucumber species. A total of 140 specimens of sea cucumber tissues were collected for DNA examination. A total of 18 sea cucumber species were identified along the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba; Holothuria spinefra; Holothuria sp. ; Holothuria leucospilota; Holothuria impatiens; Holothuria nobilis; Holothuria fuscogilva; Holothuria scabra; Holothuria atra; Actinopyga mauritiana; Actinopyga sp. Nov; Actinopyga crassa; pearthonthuria graeefei; Bohadchia tenussima; Bohadchia marmorata; Bohadchia cousteaui; stichopus sp. and Synaptula sp. These species were distinguished using morphological techniques. The DNA sequences of COI gene produced 17 different distinctive clades of sea cucumber. The use of DNA barcoding of the mitochondrial COI gene proves to be a good technique in resolving long standing problems in the identification of sea cucumber.
Dual-Wavelength High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar for Profiling Optical Properties of Aerosol and Cloud

A dual-wavelength high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) based on an iodine absorption filter and a field-widened Michelson interferometer (FWMI) has been developed to profile backscatter and extinction coefficients of aerosols and clouds accurately. This instrument was tested and calibrated on multiple observations in Hangzhou and Zhoushan, respectively, from August 2018 to April 2019. This paper discusses the design and the internal calibration method of the lidar system in detail, with several typical cases of observations and the analysis of these data products. The optical properties of urban aerosols in Hangzhou and the evolvement of clouds in Zhoushan are presented, respectively.
Non-Target-Site Based Tolerance to Herbicides in Amaranthus palmeri

Palmer amaranth, one of the most aggressive and damaging broadleaf weeds in the USA, has evolved resistance to multiple herbicide modes of action. The overall objective of this research was to elucidate the mechanisms by which Palmer amaranth adapt to herbicide selection stress. This research aimed (1) to evaluate the efficacy of fomesafen, glufosinate, glyphosate and trifloxysulfuron to Amaranthus populations; (2) identify candidate genes for endowing tolerance to glufosinate; (3) investigate the involvement of non-target-site resistance (NTSR) mechanism in an ALS-resistant population; and (4) to examine the molecular basis of resistance to PPO inhibitors in Palmer amaranth populations from Arkansas. For objective 1, a total of 124 populations were collected in Arkansas between 2008 and 2015. Overall, 33%, 81%, and 100% of the populations were resistant to fomesafen, glyphosate, and trifloxysulfuron, respectively. Thirty percent of the populations were multiple resistant to fomesafen, glyphosate, and trifloxysulfuron. All populations were controlled >88% by glufosinate. For objective 2, the transcriptomes of glufosinate-tolerant and –sensitive biotypes were assembled using RNA-Seq. Thirteen candidate non-target genes were highly expressed in glufosinate-tolerant biotypes, including glutathione S-transferase (GST), two cytochrome P450, and nine additional genes related to stress signaling and detoxification. Validation of differential gene expression by quantitative real-time PCR revealed increased expression CYP72A219 and GST in glufosinatetreated tolerant biotypes, indicating their involvement in glufosinate tolerance. For objective 3, a population with cross resistance to multiple ALS-inhibiting herbicides was investigated. Two of the nine resistant plants harbored Ser653Asn mutation in the ALS gene. Resistant plants that lacked ALS mutations had elevated levels of CYP81B and GSTF10 genes. This Palmer amaranth population from Arkansas exhibit both target-site (TS) and NTSR to ALS inhibitors. For objective 4, resistance to PPO inhibitors was first detected in a population collected in 2011 with resistance attributed to PPO Gly210 deletion. Several PPO-resistant populations were confirmed in 2014 and 2015; the majority (55%) of the resistant biotypes carried the same mutation. An alternative target-site mutation Arg128Gly was also identified in at least one population. Overall, this research showed that Palmer amaranth has multiple genetic adaptation traits to counteract the lethal effects of herbicides.
Development of a Microfluidic Platform for Cell Migration Studies along Gradients

Cell migration is a cellular fate process essential for embryogenesis, tissue regeneration and wound healing. In vivo cell migration is promoted by soluble chemoattrac-tants which stimulate cell movement, a process called chemotaxis. Migration is also controlled by cell surface interactions where focal adhesions are formed between cell integrins and attachment peptides, such as RGD (Arginine-‐Glycine-‐Aspartic acid), in the extra cellular matrix. It has been shown that by varying the spacing of these attachment peptides on a surface, cell attachment, spreading and focal adhesion formation can be controlled. In addition, varying the spacing of attachment peptides is known to influence cell fate processes, such as apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation. The hypothesis that we wish to investigate is that cell migration is affected by the spacing of attachment peptides. The aim of this project was to design and evaluate an experimental system that could monitor cell migration as a function of attachment peptide spacing by simultaneously exposing cells to a chemotactic gradient in the culture media. Therefore, Au nano‐patterned surfaces, with Au nano-‐dots placed in hexagonal pattern with an inter-particle spacing increasing gradient-‐wise from 65 to 85 nm over 6 mm (Spatz group, MPI Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart) were used to control the spacing of a cyclic RGD attachment peptide, which preferentially binds to the Au nano-‐dots. These surfaces were combined with a microfluidic network capable of generating stable concentration gradients of chemoattractants. The microfluidic chip was designed and evaluated with help of a finite element method (Comsol, Stockholm, Sweden) where simulations were performed and concentration gradient formation, velocity, and flow and shear stress profiles were investigated. Several designs were tested and parameters such as placing of inlets and outlets, channel dimensions and connections, were evaluated. Based on the simulation data, the final microfluidic chip was designed, produced and experimen-tally characterized. The design is a diffusion based gradient generator capable of generating a concentration gradient inside a flow-‐free cell culture chamber, ensuring no shear stress induced migration in the main cell culture channel. The microfluidic chip was further combined with the cRGD functionalized surfaces and it was shown that Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) attach and spread and that they can be cultured in the system for at least five days during static conditions (longest time evaluated). The developed system is able to generate relevant concentration gradients of a chemoattractant factor, the microfluidic channel can be combined with an Au nano-‐dot patterned substrate, and cells can be cultured and monitored in situ, both in live and fixed/stained states, using bright field, phase contrast and fluorescent microscopy. In conclusion, a microfluidic platform was developed in which it is possible to study the effect of attachment peptide spacing during directed cell migration.
Mixed nonlinear models in ruminal in situ degradability trials

Abstract Classical methods of analysis of nonlinear models are widely used in studies of ruminal degradation kinetics. As this type of study involves repeated measurements in the same experimental unit, the use of mixed nonlinear models (MNLM) is proposed, in order to solve problems of heterogeneity of variances of the responses, correlation among repeated measurements and consequent lack of sphericity in the covariance matrix. The aims of this work are to present an evaluation of the applicability of MNLM in the estimation of parameters to describe the in situ ruminal degradation kinetics of the dry matter of Tifton 85 hay and to compare the results with those obtained from the usual analysis in two-phases. The steers used in the trial were fed diets composed of three different combinations of roughage and concentrate and two hays with different nutritional qualities. The proposed approach was proven as effective as the traditional one for estimating model parameters. However, it adequately models the correlation among the longitudinal data, which can affect the estimates obtained, the standard error associated with them and potentially change the results of the inferences. It is quite attractive when the research seeks to understand the behavior of the process of food degradation throughout the incubation times.
COVID-19 Pandemic: How Artificial Intelligence can help us / COVID-19 Pandemia: Como a Inteligência Artificial pode nos ajudar

The current pandemic of COVID-19 – Coronavirus Disease-19, caused by the pathogen SARS-CoV-2, has already killed thousands of people in the year of 2020. We did a review of literature to understand the potential use of AI to respond to COVID-19. The search strategy used five descriptors: (i) “Artificial Intelligence” , (ii) “Deep Learning ”, (iii) “ Machine Learning ”, (iv) “ COVID-19 ” and (v) “ SARS-CoV-2 ”, which have been combined to search for articles in the PubMed and ResearchGate databases. The bibliographic search has been complemented with texts of previous knowledge of the authors. The subjects covered in the chosen bibliography have been organized into two main study categories: (i) AI for diagnosis; and (ii) AI for controlling dissemination. The final considerations point out the main complications for the proper use of AI and the possibilities of its application to support decision making of health professionals and at managerial levels of public health.
PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION IN MECHANICAL AND MANAGEMENT ENGINEERING MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAMS. ANALOGIES AND DIFFERENCES

Mechanical and Management Engineering are some of the stakeholders involved in product development, with different competencies. They must share the responsibility for best solution identification to accordingly answer the customer needs and to authorize the production of products that can have success with a positive economic return. Higher education curricula should prepare such professionals, and this is the reason because courses of product design are proposed to such classes. Even the programmes of the corresponding courses are necessarily different the part related to concept generation is similar. The work aims is to identify analogies and differences between the classes of Mechanical Engineering and Management Engineering, both in the way of leading the generation of concepts and in how the concepts generated have eventually reached the goals of innovation. BrainWriting is a method that can allow students to be productive in concept generation and is based on the two steps of sketching and gallery. This ability must be conjointly employed with the functional study of the problem to be solved. These aspects must be learned by students to avoid fixation, the inconvenience to repeat indefinitely only what is already known. The design alternatives generated by teams of students will be assessed by teachers and experts in the field, following the method proposed by Shah. After such classification, further comparison between the two classes will be done to identify the aspects of the cultural imprinting of such future professionals.
Explaining Changes in Supplier Involvement in Complex New Product Development: A Resource Orchestration Perspective

The purpose of this article is to explain the forces that change supplier involvement aimed at developing complex new product generations over a period of time longer of about 15 years. Using innovation and supply chain management literature on buyer–supplier relationships and alliances, we describe the theoretical background of supplier involvement and changes therein. Results from exploratory cases show that a different pattern of factors drives firms to decrease the level of supplier involvement across consecutive generations of complex new products compared to an increase in the level of supplier involvement. Taking a research orchestration perspective on consecutive new complex product development projects and depending on the starting conditions, firms may not only aim at getting complementary technological resource access enabled by pioneering relationship capabilities in order to shift from Whitebox to Blackbox supplier involvement. They may also aim at technology enrichment bundling processes that require divesting complementary resource access in order to shift from Blackbox to Whitebox supplier involvement. By accounting for changes through time across generations of new products, this article contributes to the literature on supplier involvement in new product development that investigates the drivers of changes in supplier involvement in new product development and their interplay.