Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Thiamethoxam in Papaya Cultivation (Carica papaya Linnaeus) in Rotation with Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) Crops

Thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid with systemic and contact action, used in Mexico for the care of different traditional fruit crops, mainly in the cultivation of papaya. Soils of agroecosystems with papaya in the Gulf of Mexico area, the main producers of this fruit, are currently characterized as 45% of the producers organize papaya cultivation in rotation with watermelon at different sowing dates. The objective of this study was to determine the presence and concentration of thiamethoxam in soil and water during the rotation of papaya crop with watermelon culture in the central zone of Veracruz, Mexico. An analysis was carried out to know the management of thiamethoxam in different types of soil and in the region; and in an experimental plot. Soil and water samples were taken at different stages during the rotation of both crops. Those samples were taken systemically, starting with the watermelon culture cycle and then, during the phenological stages in the papaya crop cycle. Soil and water samples were analyzed using HPLC-UV equipment for its determination. The design was random blocks with six repetitions and the software used for data analysis was the Statistica 2007 program. Thiamethoxam was concentrated in amounts of ≥0.40 mg/L in 79% of the samples in water and ≥0.55 mg/kg in 75% of the samples in soil. The highest values of thiamethoxam in soil were in the stage of watermelon culture with 0.4 mg/kg and in the soil preparation of the papaya crop with concentrations of 0.8 mg/kg. Whereas irrigation water from the watermelon cultivation and the soil preparation for the papaya showed concentrations of 0.5 and 0.7 mg/L, respectively. The presence of thiamethoxam was identified in 100% of the samples analyzed in the stage of preparation of soil and water of the cultivation area, concluding a possible risk of residuality of thiamethoxam in fruits that exceed the maximum limits of tolerance established by the EPA, EFSA and FAO.
Phosphoprotein-based biomarkers as predictors for cancer therapy

Significance This study validates a path toward personalized medicine that utilizes a survey of the effective signaling state of tumors via posttranslational modification analysis as a diagnostic alternative to direct examination of genetic mutations. Here, this approach is utilized to identify biomarkers for Cdk5-driven tumors. The same approach could be adapted to identify markers of other tumor drivers. As the number of cancer types in which Cdk5 is implicated is rising and as drugs with the potential to selectively target Cdk5 are moved toward the clinic, the translational potential of this diagnostic–therapeutic coupled system will be broad. Disparities in cancer patient responses have prompted widespread searches to identify differences in sensitive vs. nonsensitive populations and form the basis of personalized medicine. This customized approach is dependent upon the development of pathway-specific therapeutics in conjunction with biomarkers that predict patient responses. Here, we show that Cdk5 drives growth in subgroups of patients with multiple types of neuroendocrine neoplasms. Phosphoproteomics and high throughput screening identified phosphorylation sites downstream of Cdk5. These phosphorylation events serve as biomarkers and effectively pinpoint Cdk5-driven tumors. Toward achieving targeted therapy, we demonstrate that mouse models of neuroendocrine cancer are responsive to selective Cdk5 inhibitors and biomimetic nanoparticles are effective vehicles for enhanced tumor targeting and reduction of drug toxicity. Finally, we show that biomarkers of Cdk5-dependent tumors effectively predict response to anti-Cdk5 therapy in patient-derived xenografts. Thus, a phosphoprotein-based diagnostic assay combined with Cdk5-targeted therapy is a rational treatment approach for neuroendocrine malignancies.
Research on undergraduate students adoption of mobile learning: An emerging learning mode

Student acceptance of mobile learning is critical to the success of mobile learning implement. The current study examined factors that influence the undergraduate student’s intention to use mobile learning. Based on extant literature on technology adoption and social interaction, an adoption model that reflects the social interaction, utilitarian values and hedonic values of mobile learning was developed and empirically tested against data collected from 148 undergraduate students in China. The results indicate that two utilitarian values factors (perceived usefulness and perceived convenience), one hedonic values factor (perceived enjoyment) have significant influences on intention to use mobile learning. Perceived social interaction only has indirect impact on the intention to use mobile learning.
Homochiral and racemic MicroED structures of a peptide from the ice nucleation protein InaZ

The ice nucleation protein InaZ of Pseudomonas syringae contains a large number of degenerate repeats that span more than a quarter of its sequence and include the segment GSTSTA. We determine ab initio structures of this repeat segment, resolved to 1. 1Å by microfocus x-ray crystallography and 0. 9Å by the cryoEM method MicroED, from both racemic and homochiral crystals. We evaluate the benefits of racemic protein crystals for structure determination by MicroED and confirm that phase restriction introduced by crystal centrosymmetry increases the number of successful trials during ab initio phasing of electron diffraction data. Both homochiral and racemic GSTSTA form amyloid-like protofibrils with labile, corrugated antiparallel beta sheets that mate face to back. The racemic GSTSTA protofibril represents a new class of amyloid assembly in which all left-handed sheets mate with their all right-handed counterparts. Our determination of racemic amyloid assemblies by MicroED reveals complex amyloid architectures and illustrates the racemic advantage in macromolecular crystallography, now with sub-micron sized crystals. Synopsis The atomic asymmetry, left or right handedness, present in macromolecules and first described by Pasteur in his experiments with tartaric acid, is evident even in complex molecular assemblies like amyloid fibrils. Here, using the cryoEM method MicroED, we show that a segment from the ice nucleation protein InaZ assembles into homochiral and racemic water-binding amyloid protofibrils.
Routing and propagation in urban vehicular ad hoc networks

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are distributed, infrastructure-independent wireless networks that are formed between both stationary and moving vehicles. Despite over a decade of research, there exist few practical deployments of largescale vehicle to vehicle networks. The area of routing protocols is of particular interest since it forms the basis of inter-node communications in a distributed infrastructure-less network. Simulations are an important means of evaluating new VANET protocols and architectures since physical experiments require a large investment in resources and are beyond the reach of most researchers. Simulations rely on approximations of reality; the better the approximation, the more confidence may be placed in the results. The physical propagation model is one of the fundamental aspects of any network simulation since it defines how signals travel between nodes. A review of urban routing protocols revealed that minimal consideration has previously been given to the selection of a realistic propagation model when evaluating routing protocol performance. The use of simplistic propagation models was found to lead to a very inaccurate representation of performance, especially the relative performance difference between protocols. This thesis presents a series of experiments intended to characterise the propagation model in urban environments. The CORNER propagation model is studied and enhanced based on the data obtained from the experiments. A new greedy routing approach is then introduced, which uses knowledge of the signal propagation environment to make better routing decisions. Analytical results demonstrate the improved route-finding capabilities of the new approach over existing greedy and source-based routing protocols, with the new approach resulting in the selection of shorter paths in almost every situation. Simulation results establish an improvement of between 90% and 300% over GPSR, a well known stateless greedy routing protocol. A semi-stateful fall-back mechanism is then proposed to augment the greedy routing approach when it fails and is found to result in a further 10-15% improvement in packet delivery ratios over the purely greedy approach.
Performance analysis of algorithms for detecting roof faces in airborne laser scanner data

Over the past years, several algorithms have been proposed for extracting planar roof faces from airborne laser point clouds. These roof patches are used for automatic reconstruction of three dimensional building models. The models are useful in applications such as cadastral, urban planning, tourism, facility management, telecommunication network planning, real estate, vehicle and pedestrians’ navigation, and upcoming applications such as location based services and augmented reality. The intention of this research was to evaluate performance of different algorithms proposed for detecting roof faces. Analysis was done for performance in terms of completeness and accuracy of extracted faces, and for processing speed. The approaches to roof faces detection from laser data were reviewed and a selection made for two algorithms that were analysed. These are Plane growing of points using 3DHough Transform seed selection and Plane growing using TINmeshes. A working software was obtained for the former and literature transformed to a working software tool for the latter. Parameters of the algorithms were tuned to the optimum, used in experiments with data at different levels of point spacing to extract roof faces of varying complexity and then results analysed. Reference data sets were created interactively and a methodology, involving performance matrices, for comparing reference to detected faces was developed. A software tool was prepared for computing these matrices and then determining the number of correctly segmented roof faces, over segmented, under segmented, missed faces and noise segmentations. The tool also computes accuracy of the correctly detected faces in terms of angle and distance between the detected and corresponding faces in reference. All large faces can be detected by both algorithms. Faces with small objects such as chimneys and dormers are correctly detected by the 3D Hough algorithm while they are over segmented by the TIN algorithm. The geometric accuracy of the detected faces is high for both algorithms, a little higher for Hough than TIN. The performance for both algorithms gradually decreases with increase in point spacing. The speed of processing is in the tune of seconds for Hough while TIN takes longer up to hours depending on data size. The developed methodology can be used for other analyses while already, with the 3D Hough algorithm, roof faces can be reliably detected. Three dimensional building models can thus be more accurately and automatically constructed.
Control of multiple exponential servers with application to computer systems

A class of dynamic control policies is defined for scheduling customers from a Poisson source on a set of exponential servers with dissimilar service rates. A fastest-to-slowest ordering is imposed on the servers, and they are invoked in response to instantaneous system loading as measured by the length of the queue of waiting customers. Markov chain analysis is employed to analyze the performance of the control policies and to develop optimality criteria. It is shown for the two-server case, and believed to be true in general, that probabilistic control policies are suboptimal to minimize the mean number of customers in the system, and that the optimal policy is in a restricted class of policies referred to as "threshold queueing" policies. In a threshold queueing policy, specific queue lengths are identified as "thresholds" beyond which an additional (fastest idle) server is invoked. A new server remains busy until it completes service on a customer and the queue length is less than its invocation threshold. Optimality conditions are derived, and an approximation to the optimum policy is analyzed. For most operational applications, a very simple approximation of the optimal threshold value suffices. Extensions to the basic policy involving different objectives are considered, including a treatment of the n-server case, the finite queue situation, and inverse ordering (slowest-to-fastest) of servers. Several applications of threshold queueing policies in computer and communications systems are presented. It is concluded that threshold queueing policies with easily approximated thresholds provide near-optimal control of multiple exponential servers with dissimilar service rates, and that these policies can be readily applied to improve the performance of contemporary computer and communications systems.
Fibronectin receptor integrin α5β1 regulates assembly of PP2A complexes through PDE4D: modulation of vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis

Fibronectin in the vascular wall promotes inflammatory activation of the endothelium during vascular remodeling and atherosclerosis. These effects are mediated in part by fibronectin binding to integrin α5, which recruits and activates phosphodiesterase 4D5 (PDE4D5) by inducing its dephosphorylation on an inhibitory site Ser651. Active PDE then hydrolyzes anti-inflammatory cAMP to facilitate inflammatory signaling. To test this model in vivo, we mutated the integrin binding site in PDE4D5 in mice. This mutation reduced endothelial inflammatory activation in athero-prone regions of arteries, and, in a hyperlipidemia model, reduced atherosclerotic plaque size while increasing markers of plaque stability. We then investigated the mechanism of PDE4D5 activation. Proteomics identified the PP2A regulatory subunit B55α as the factor recruiting PP2A to PDE4D5. The B55α-PP2A complex localized to adhesions and directly dephosphorylated PDE4D5. This interaction also unexpectedly stabilized the PP2A-B55α complex. The integrin-regulated, pro-atherosclerotic transcription factor Yap is also dephosphorylated and activated through this pathway. PDE4D5 therefore mediates matrix-specific regulation of EC phenotype via an unconventional adapter role, assembling and anchoring a multifunctional PP2A complex with other targets. These results are likely to have widespread consequences for control of cell function by integrins.
Memory chip for 24-port global register file

The design of 256*32 bit 24-port global register file is discussed. An eight-read- and eight-write-port SRAM (static random-access memory) chip is proposed as a building block of such a global register file. Design trade-offs and performance measurements obtained from a 65 K+transistor, experimental, CMOS implementation of this SRAM chip are reported in detail. <<ETX>>
Coordination of leaf and stem traits in 25 species of Fagaceae from three biomes of East Asia

It has been debated whether leaf and stem economics spectra are coordinated across species, because previous studies have provided contradictory results. These studies have been restricted to single biomes, and we hypothesize that climate seasonality may determine the strength of coordination between leaf and stem trait combinations. Herein, using 25 Fagaceae species from East Asia, we investigated the coordination of 16 leaf traits and 5 stem traits across and within three biomes (cool temperate, warm temperate, and tropical forests). The traits were chosen to reflect multiple aspects of plant adaptive strategies, such as water, carbon, and nutrient use. The leaf and stem traits of species that reflect resource-use strategies for different resources were functionally coordinated, forming a single axis of trait variation across biomes. This axis represents the trade-off between fast and slow resource-use strategies. We found the trend that the coordination between leaf and stem traits was the strongest in cool temperate forests after removing two Fagus species, followed by warm temperate forests, but was not observed in tropical forests. Our results support the proposed model that plants vary from slow to fast resource exploitation, using closely related species, and suggest that temperature modulates the coordination of leaf and stem economics spectra.
The Classification and Arts of Open Source Cloud Computing: A Review

Cloud computing refers to the concept of dynamic processing and optimization of storage allocation of computational resources in the “cloud”. This system allows users to obtain and release the resources on demand and gain access to data by providing the relegation of the physical location and accurate parameters of the resources. Cloud computing systems are either proprietary or dependent on infrastructure software, which is the focus of this research. Open source (OS), which is a cloud infrastructure software, is popular in particular fields, such as operating systems, programming languages and software application, and, most importantly, cloud computing. However, public administrations, commercial enterprises, and other institutions have yet to incorporate Open source software in the cloud infrastructure of their organizations because of the lack of information and comprehension of such technology. This paper, therefore, will examine the principles of cloud computing, compare proprietary cloud computing and open source cloud computing, examine the OSCC platforms, and examine the open stack platform usage.
Bioinspired hierarchical helical nanocomposite macrofibers based on bacterial cellulose nanofibers

Abstract Bio-sourced nanocellulosic materials are promising candidates for spinning high-performance sustainable macrofibers for advanced applications. Various strategies have been pursued to gain nanocellulose-based macrofibers with improved strength. However, nearly all of them have been achieved at the expense of their elongation and toughness. Inspired by the widely existed hierarchical helical and nanocomposite structural features in biosynthesized fibers exhibiting exceptional combinations of strength and toughness, we report a design strategy to make nanocellulose-based macrofibers with similar characteristics. By combining a facile wet-spinning process with a subsequent multiple wet-twisting procedure, we successfully obtain biomimetic hierarchical helical nanocomposite macrofibers based on bacterial cellulose nanofibers, realizing impressive improvement in their tensile strength, elongation and toughness simultaneously. The achievement certifies the validity of the bioinspired hierarchical helical and nanocomposite structural design proposed here. This bioinspired design strategy provides a potential platform for further optimizing or creating many more strong and tough nanocomposite fiber materials for diverse applications.
Perturbation of the titin/MURF1 signaling complex is associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in a fish model and in human patients

ABSTRACT Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a hereditary disease characterized by cardiac hypertrophy with diastolic dysfunction. Gene mutations causing HCM have been found in about half of HCM patients, while the genetic etiology and pathogenesis remain unknown for many cases of HCM. To identify novel mechanisms underlying HCM pathogenesis, we generated a cardiovascular-mutant medaka fish, non-spring heart (nsh), which showed diastolic dysfunction and hypertrophic myocardium. The nsh homozygotes had fewer myofibrils, disrupted sarcomeres and expressed pathologically stiffer titin isoforms. In addition, the nsh heterozygotes showed M-line disassembly that is similar to the pathological changes found in HCM. Positional cloning revealed a missense mutation in an immunoglobulin (Ig) domain located in the M-line–A-band transition zone of titin. Screening of mutations in 96 unrelated patients with familial HCM, who had no previously implicated mutations in known sarcomeric gene candidates, identified two mutations in Ig domains close to the M-line region of titin. In vitro studies revealed that the mutations found both in medaka fish and in familial HCM increased binding of titin to muscle-specific ring finger protein 1 (MURF1) and enhanced titin degradation by ubiquitination. These findings implicate an impaired interaction between titin and MURF1 as a novel mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of HCM. Summary: The authors identified and characterized a medaka mutation in titin that leads to a phenotype similar to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Similar mutations were also observed in human patients.
Effects of Statins on Gut Microbiota (Microbiome)

Statins are the inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A, which are extensively used to decrease the concentration of cholesterol in patients with hyperlipidemia. Statins are divided into two categories based on their own unique properties. Considering the pleiotropic effects of statins, they are applied as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic, immunomodulatory, and plaque-stabilizing agents. In addition, statins affect the diversity and population of gut microbiota, which is a complicated microbial community remarkably involved in the regulation of metabolic responses, immune system, and human health. This community is also associated with age-related health problems, allergy, asthma, and inflammatory intestinal diseases. Therefore, evaluation of the interactions between statins and gut microbiota is essential to predicting the outcomes of these agents. The present study aimed to review the properties and pleiotropic effects of statins. Furthermore, the role of gut microbiota in health was discussed, and the significant effects of statins on gut microbiota and their interactions were described based on clinical and animal studies.
Successful forecasting of harmful cyanobacteria blooms with high frequency lake data

Cyanobacterial blooms are causing increasing issues across the globe. Bloom forecasting can facilitate adaptation to blooms. Most bloom forecasting models depend on weekly or fortnightly sampling, but these sparse measurements can miss important dynamics. Here we develop forecasting models from five years of high frequency summer monitoring in a shallow lake (which serves as an important regional water supply). A suite of models were calibrated to predict cyanobacterial fluorescence (a biomass proxy) using measurements of: cyanobacterial fluorescence, water temperature, light, and wind speed. High temporal autocorrelation contributed to relatively strong predictive power over 1, 4 and 7 day intervals. Higher order derivatives of water temperature helped improve forecasting accuracy. While traditional monitoring and modelling have supported forecasting on longer timescales, we show high frequency monitoring combined with telemetry allows forecasting over timescales of 1 day to 1 week, supporting early warning, enhanced monitoring, and adaptation of water treatment processes.
Monocular Visual SLAM of Unmanned Helicopter Based on 2-point RANSAC

The 1-point random sample consensus(RANSAC) algorithm is a data association algorithm with high accuracy and low compaction cost.However,it fails when angular velocities around multiple axes of the camera change quickly,and causes the risk of filter divergence when applied to the monocular visual simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM) of unmanned helicopter.For this problem,2-point RANSAC algorithm is proposed,which incorporates a priori information from the EKF(extended Kalman filter) motion model,and uses RANSAC,in which only 2 matched points are used for sampling,to remove the outliers.Monocular visual SLAM based on 2-point RANSAC algorithm is performed on a mini unmanned helicopter(MUH) platform.The field-experiment results show that 2-point RANSAC algorithm works reliably, and the SLAM's pose estimation is precise enough for autonomous flight.