Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secreted Glycosyltransferase RsIA_GT of Rhizoctonia solani AG-1 IA Inhibits Defense Responses in Nicotiana benthamiana

Anastomosis group AG-1 IA of Rhizoctonia solani Khün has a wide host range and threatens crop production. Various glycosyltransferases secreted by phytopathogenic fungi play an essential role in pathogenicity. Previously, we identified a glycosyltransferase RsIA_GT (AG11A_09161) as a secreted protein-encoding gene of R. solani AG-1 IA, whose expression levels increased during infection in rice. In this study, we further characterized the virulence function of RsIA_GT. It is conserved not only in Basidiomycota, including multiple anastomosis groups of R. solani, but also in other primary fungal taxonomic categories. RsIA_GT possesses a signal peptide (SP) for protein secretion, and its functionality was proven using yeast and Nicotiana benthamiana. The SP-truncated form of RsIA_GT (RsIA_GT(ΔS)) expressed in Escherichia coli-induced lesion-like phenotype in rice leaves when applied to punched leaves. However, Agrobacterium-mediated transient expressions of both the full-length RsIA_GT and RsIA_GT(ΔS) did not induce cell death in N. benthamiana leaves. Instead, only RsIA_GT(ΔS) suppressed the cell death induced by two reference cell death factors BAX and INF1 in N. benthamiana. RsIA_GT(ΔS)R154A D168A D170A, a mutant RsIA_GT(ΔS) for the glycosyltransferase catalytic domain, still suppressed the BAX- or INF1-induced cell death, suggesting that the cell death suppression activity of RsIA_GT(ΔS) would be independent from its enzymatic activity. RsIA_GT(ΔS) also suppressed the H2O2 production and callose deposition and showed an effect on the induction of defense genes associated with the expression of BAX and INF1. The transient expression of RsIA_GT(ΔS) in N. benthamiana enhanced the lesion area caused by R. solani AG-1 IA. The secreted glycosyltransferase, RsIA_GT, of R. solani AG-1 IA is likely to have a dual role in virulence inside and outside of host cells.
Graphitic surface layer formation on organic substrates for electronics using a concentrated solar simulator

Heat spreading is an important attribute that improves thermal management and operation of high-performance packages, such as those for solid-state power amplifiers. This attribute can be enhanced through direct transformation of polymers into graphitic films. The present work reports a custom vacuum deposition process that synthesizes thin graphitic layers on organic substrates through direct pyrolysis via concentrated irradiation from a xenon lamp to produce a peak heated zone of approximately 3 cm diameter with a maximum heat flux of 3.2 MW/m $$^2$$ 2 . The light source, replaceable with concentrated terrestrial solar power, provides ultrafast heating of substrates through rapid flashes (< 0.5 s) and improves growth rates over relatively larger areas compared to laser processing, mitigating the issue of porosity in graphitic layers that deteriorate heat spreading capabilities. The enhanced organic substrates are analyzed using Raman and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and thermal diffusivity measurements, indicating graphitic conversion. Graphical abstract
Genetic approaches and pathogenic pathways in the clinical management of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is the most common inherited neuromuscular disorder, affecting at least 1 in 2500 individuals. CMT refers to a heterogeneous group of inherited neuropathies from both phenotypic and genetic points of view. Over the last decades, there have been important advances not only in the identification of causative genes but also in understanding the molecular basis for many forms of CMT. In fact, to date, around 100 genes have been related to CMT disease, thanks to next generation sequencing techniques, and they have been proven to affect either the myelin or axon of peripheral nerves. Moreover, its genetic diagnosis has remarkedly improved, although there are still difficulties when it comes to treatment. In this review, we explore in depth the eight most prevalent genes associated with CMT: GDAP1, GJB1, HINT1, MFN2, MPZ, PMP22, SH3TC2, and SORD. We also address the disrupted cellular processes and pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the disease. A better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms responsible for each type of CMT would be essential to identifying molecular targets and therapeutic strategies.
Formulation optimization and evaluation of oral thin film of bilastine for the treatment of allergic conditions

: Allergic rhinitis or allergic conditions are associated with the symptoms such as running nose, frequent headache, sore throat, watering of eye, and sometimes coughing as well as eczema also. The delay in the treatment or ignorance may leads to severe health problems like asthma, inability to sleep, severe redness, etc. Bilastine is potent H1 antihistaminic agents used in the therapy of allergic conditions and rhinitis without inducing drowsiness. The current research focused on developing oral thin film of Bilastine for all the allergic conditions. The hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) was selected as film former and the physical interaction with Bilastine was confirmed with FTIR. The 3 3 Box-Behnken design was applied in the designing of oral thin film which predicted 17 possible runs in Design of Expert (Version 11). The film former (HPMC E15: X1) plasticizer (PEG 400: X2) and superdisintegrants (CCS: X3) were selected as independent parameters and disintegration time (Y1), folding endurance (Y2) and in-vitro dissolution release (Y3) as dependable parameters in the development of oral thin film. The film was prepared by solvent casting method and evaluated. The optimized batch F10 tested for weight variation, folding endurance (135), disintegration time (12 sec), percentage of dissolution (98.70%) and found stable during accelerated stability studies. The fast-dissolving oral thin film of Bilastine (F10) was developed which showed prompt relief from the allergic conditions.
Molecular Characterization by Whole-Genome Sequencing of Clinical and Environmental Serratia marcescens Strains Isolated during an Outbreak in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

The whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of eighteen S. marcescens clinical strains isolated from 18 newborns hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Pescara Public Hospital, Italy, was compared with that of S. marcescens isolated from cradles surfaces in the same ward. The identical antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factors were found in both clinical and environmental S. marcescens strains. The aac(6′)-Ic, tetA(41), blaSRT-3, adeFGH, rsmA, and PBP3 (D350N) genes were identified in all strains. The SRT-3 enzyme, which exhibited 10 amino acid substitutions with respect to SST-1, the constitutive AmpC β-lactamase in S. marcescens, was partially purified and tested against some β-lactams. It showed a good activity against cefazolin. Both clinical and environmental S. marcescens strains exhibited susceptibility to all antibiotics tested, with the exception of amoxicillin/clavulanate.
ANALYTICAL ROLE OF TRUST IN MICROFINANCE SUCCESS IN EAST AFRICAN COUNTRIES

: East Africa is an emerging market that has the potential to position the sub-Saharan Africa in the global context through the diverse and robust resources. One of the core drivers of economic feasibility and market metrics in the region is the effective development of microfinance across such countries as Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. The region’s economic environment is characterized with increased value-addition approaches to its agricultural sector and having the significant approaches to instill the relevant success connotations to diversify the industries including the informal sectors. The microfinance borrowers and users have the definite and expanded market in east Africa that conform to the needs of the people and align to the policies in the context of sustainable outcomes. Trust is a crucial virtue in understanding the effectiveness of microfinance in east African countries, including the critical assessment of the challenges and solutions. A publication on the subject requires that the roles of trust among the microfinance institutions and the stakeholders such as consumers and the government agencies are crucial part of the sustainable management practices (Odera, 2013). The focus of the discussion is on the roles of trust in ascertaining the success of microfinance in east African countries.
The Magnetic Field of the NGC 2024 Molecular Cloud

We have carried out Very Large Array (VLA) Zeeman observations of absorption lines of H I and OH toward the molecular cloud associated with the NGC 2024 (Orion B) H II region. The synthesized beam diameters are 68″ × 52″, p.a. =38°, and 81″ × 65″, p.a. =-6°, for OH and H I, respectively. The absorption lines could be mapped over the NGC 2024 continuum source, which has an extent (at the 1 Jy beam−1 level) of Δα≈7′ by Δδ≈5′. The maps of the magnetic field, together with comparisons with additional data from the published literature, lead to the following conclusions: (1) The magnetic field comes from a line subcomponent at vLSR≈10.2 km s-1, which corresponds in velocity and in spatial morphology with the northern dense molecular ridge in NGC 2024. (2) Blos varies from 0 to the northeast of the northern molecular ridge to almost 100 μG to the southwest. The variation in Blos may be due to the field being mainly in the plane of the sky to the northeast but having a significant line-of-sight component to the southwest. (3) Velocities in the cloud are supersonic but approximately equal to the Alfvén velocity, which is consistent with motions being dominated by magnetohydrodynamical waves rather than thermal motion or hydrodynamical turbulence. (4) The mass-to-magnetic flux ratio is supercritical, which suggests that the static magnetic field does not support the cloud against collapse. Simple virial estimates of the relative importance of gravitational, kinetic, and magnetic energies show that the ratio of kinetic/gravitational energy is about 0.5, while the magnetic/gravitational energy ratio is less than 0.1. At face value, these results imply that the cloud is supported mainly by nonthermal motions rather than by the static magnetic field. However, since we only measure directly the line-of-sight component of B, this result is not conclusive.
Gossamer: Securely Measuring Password-based Logins

Passwords remain the primary way to authenticate users on-line. Yet little is known about the characteristics of login requests submitted to login systems due to the sensitivity of monitoring submitted passwords. This means we don’t have answers to basic questions, such as how often users submit a password similar to their actual password, whether users often resubmit the same incorrect password, how many users utilize passwords known to be in a public breach, and more. Whether we can build and deploy measurement infrastructure to safely answer such questions is, itself, an open question. We offer a system, called Gossamer , that enables securely logging information about login attempts, including carefully chosen statistics about submitted passwords. We provide a simulation-based approach for tuning the security-utility trade-offs for storing different password-derived statistics. This enables us to gather useful measurements while reducing risk even in the unlikely case of complete compromise of the measurement system. We worked closely with two large universities and deployed Gossamer to perform a measurement study that observed 34 million login requests over a seven month period. The measurements we gather provide insight into the use of breached credentials, password usability, and other characteristics of the submitted login requests.
Adaptive maximization of social welfare

We consider the problem of repeatedly choosing policies to maximize social welfare. Welfare is a weighted sum of private utility and public revenue. Earlier outcomes inform later policies. Utility is not observed, but indirectly inferred. Response functions are learned through experimentation. We derive a lower bound on regret, and a matching adversarial upper bound for a variant of the Exp3 algorithm. Cumulative regret grows at a rate of $T^{2/3}$. This implies that (i) welfare maximization is harder than the multi-armed bandit problem (with a rate of $T^{1/2}$ for finite policy sets), and (ii) our algorithm achieves the optimal rate. For the stochastic setting, if social welfare is concave, we can achieve a rate of $T^{1/2}$ (for continuous policy sets), using a dyadic search algorithm. We analyze an extension to nonlinear income taxation, and sketch an extension to commodity taxation. We compare our setting to monopoly pricing (which is easier), and price setting for bilateral trade (which is harder).
A free boundary problem related to singular stochastic control

It is desired to control a multi-dimensional Brownian motion by adding a (possibly singularly) continuous process to its n — components so as to minimize an expected infinite-horizon discoursed running cost. The Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman characterization of the value function is a variational inequality which hks a unique twice continuously differentiable solution. The optimal process is constructed by solving the Skorokhod problem of reflecting the Brownian motion along a free boundary in the (0,0,., -1) direction.
Production components of lettuce grown on drilocompost-based substrates of detritivorous earthworms

Alternative plant growing inputs have been increasingly sought out to reduce the economic-environmental impacts of intensive use of synthetic fertilizers in conventional agriculture. This study aimed to evaluate the production components of lettuce in response to the use of earthworm compost in substrate compositions. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse using a completely randomized design in a 3 x 5 factorial scheme, with six replications, testing three earthworm species ( Eisenia andrei , Eudrilus eugeniae , and Perionyx excavatus ) and five drilocompost ratios (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%), produced by these species and added to the composition of substrates by mixing them with soil. Production components evaluated comprised total and commercial numbers of leaves, commercial fresh weight, as well as shoot and total fresh and dry weights. Lettuce production components increased as the drilocompost ratio in substrates was raised, regardless of the earthworm species. Moreover, the addition of 25% this drilocomposted material in the dystrophic soil was enough to improve its fertility condition. In general, substrates prepared with worm castings from Perionyx excavatus and Eudrilus eugeniae were more efficient in increasing lettuce production components than that from Eisenia andrei .
Third-Party Logistic Selection for Logistic Aggregator Company using Multi-Criteria Decision Making

: The customer of Aggregator Company for Logistics (ACL) faces a problem when creating an order in the aggregator logistics platform. They have difficulty making an order as there are a lot of third-Party Logistic (3PL) alternatives available but they do not have any references for which 3PL they should select. This study helps the customer to choose the best 3PL by determining the suitable criteria. The study's objective is to build a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model for 3PL assessment based on historical data. To construct the model in doing the assessment, a combined model based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) Was methodically operated. F-AHP was used to weigh the criteria and TOPSIS functioned to rank and score the 3PL alternatives. Sensitivity analysis is also performed to verify the robustness of the proposed model. This study was taken place in one of the Indonesian ACLs and the model could be beneficial for Indonesian ACL in evaluating, selecting, and recommending the best 3PL partner.
Teaching and Supervision in Counseling Teaching and Supervision in Counseling Racial Mislabeling in Multiracial Individuals: Implications for Racial Mislabeling in Multiracial Individuals: Implications for Professional Counseling and Education Professional Counseling and Education

With the extreme growth of people who identify as Biracial or Multiracial, it is evident that their unique racial experiences need to be better understood, especially within the field of professional counseling, to underscore competent practice (Charmaraman, Woo, Quach, & Erkut, 2014; Jackson, Yoo, Guevarra, & Harrington, 2012; Tran, Miyake, Martinez-Mo-rales, & Csizmadia, 2016). As a result, the researchers in this study investigated the lived experiences of racial mislabeling for Multiracial individuals. The participants of this study were 14 (n=14) individuals who identified as Multiracial and said they experienced racial mislabeling , a form of racial invalidation. Data were collected through individual, semi-struc-tured interviews. The data was analyzed using phenomenological methods within Moustakas’ (1994) transcendental approach, which led to themes that described the essence of the participants’ experience. These themes are discussed in de-tail, and recommendations for researchers and counselor educators to improve training and education are provided.
The Relation between the Mass Accretion Rate and the Disk Mass in Class I Protostars

Evidence of a relation between the mass accretion rate and the disk mass is established for young, Class II pre-main-sequence stars. This observational result opened an avenue to test theoretical models and constrain the initial conditions of disk formation, fundamental in the understanding of the emergence of planetary systems. However, it is becoming clear that planet formation starts even before the Class II stage, in disks around Class 0 and I protostars. We show for the first time evidence for a correlation between the mass accretion rate and the disk mass for a large sample of Class I young stars located in nearby (<500 pc) star-forming regions. We fit our sample, finding that the Class I object relation has a slope flatter than Class II stars, and the former have higher mass accretion rates and disk masses. The results are put in context of disk evolution models.
Elastic RAID: When RAID Meets SSDs with Built-in Transparent Compression

This paper studies how RAID (redundant array of independent disks) could take full advantage of modern SSDs (solid-state drives) with built-in transparent compression. In current practice, RAID users are forced to choose a specific RAID level (e.g., RAID 10 or RAID 5) with a fixed storage cost vs. speed performance trade-off. Commercial market is witnessing the emergence of a new family of SSDs that can internally perform hardware-based lossless compression on each 4KB LBA (logical block address) block, transparent to host OS and user applications. Beyond straightforwardly reducing the RAID storage cost, such modern SSDs make it possible to relieve RAID users from being locked into a fixed storage cost vs. speed performance trade-off. The key idea is simple: RAID systems opportunistically leverage higher-than-expected runtime user data compressibility to enable dynamic RAID level conversion to improve the speed performance without compromising the effective storage capacity. This paper presents design techniques to enable and optimize the practical implementation of such elastic RAID systems. For the purpose of demonstration, we implemented a Linux software-based elastic RAID prototype that supports dynamic conversion between RAID 5 and RAID 10. Compared with a baseline software-based RAID 5, under sufficient runtime data compressibility that enables the conversion from RAID 5 to RAID 10 over 60% user data, the elastic RAID could improve the 4KB random write IOPS (IO per second) by 42% and 4KB random read IOPS in degraded mode by 46%, while maintaining the same effective storage capacity.
Energy-shaping control of a muscular octopus arm moving in three dimensions

Flexible octopus arms exhibit an exceptional ability to coordinate large numbers of degrees of freedom and perform complex manipulation tasks. As a consequence, these systems continue to attract the attention of biologists and roboticists alike. In this article, we develop a three-dimensional model of a soft octopus arm, equipped with biomechanically realistic muscle actuation. Internal forces and couples exerted by all major muscle groups are considered. An energy-shaping control method is described to coordinate muscle activity so as to grasp and reach in three-dimensional space. Key contributions of this article are as follows: (i) modelling of major muscle groups to elicit three-dimensional movements; (ii) a mathematical formulation for muscle activations based on a stored energy function; and (iii) a computationally efficient procedure to design task-specific equilibrium configurations, obtained by solving an optimization problem in the Special Euclidean group SE(3). Muscle controls are then iteratively computed based on the co-state variable arising from the solution of the optimization problem. The approach is numerically demonstrated in the physically accurate software environment Elastica. Results of numerical experiments mimicking observed octopus behaviours are reported.
Joint Non-parametric Point Process model for Treatments and Outcomes: Counterfactual Time-series Prediction Under Policy Interventions

Policy makers need to predict the progression of an outcome before adopting a new treatment policy, which deﬁnes when and how a sequence of treatments aﬀecting the outcome occurs in continuous time. Commonly, algorithms that predict interventional future outcome trajectories take a ﬁxed sequence of future treatments as input. This either neglects the dependence of future treatments on outcomes preceding them or implicitly assumes the treatment policy is known, and hence excludes scenarios where the policy is unknown or a counterfactual analysis is needed. To handle these limitations, we develop a joint model for treatments and outcomes, which allows for the estimation of treatment policies and eﬀects from sequential treatment–outcome data. It can answer interventional and counterfactual queries about interventions on treatment policies, as we show with real-world data on blood glucose progression and a simulation study building on top of this.
Mediation Analysis with Multiple Exposures and Multiple Mediators

A mediation analysis approach is proposed for multiple exposures, multiple mediators, and a continuous scalar outcome under the linear structural equation modeling framework. It assumes that there exist orthogonal components that demonstrate parallel mediation mechanisms on the outcome, and thus is named P rincipal C omponent M ediation A nalysis (PCMA). Likelihood-based estimators are introduced for simultaneous estimation of the component projections and eﬀect parameters. The asymptotic distribution of the estimators is derived for low-dimensional data. A bootstrap procedure is introduced for inference. Simulation studies illustrate the superior performance of the proposed approach. Applied to a proteomics-imaging dataset from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the proposed framework identiﬁes protein deposition – brain atrophy – memory deﬁcit mechanisms consistent with existing knowledge and suggests potential AD pathology by integrating data collected from diﬀerent modalities.