Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Laser Charging for UAV-based FSO-RF Communication Systems

In this work, the outage performance of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based relaying system is investigated, where an UAV works as a relay to transmit the signal between the source and the destination. More specifically, we assume that an optical equipment with free-space optical (FSO) communication ability which is located at a high building is employed to provide laser charging. Then, the harvested energy is used as the power for the UAV. Based on this setting, an analytical formula of the outage probability is derived by exploiting the bivariate Fox-H function. Numerical results are carried out to validate our analysis.
Acute Imidacloprid Exposure Alters Mitochondrial Function in Bumblebee Flight Muscle and Brain

Mitochondria are intracellular organelles responsible for cellular respiration with one of their major roles in the production of energy in the form of ATP. Activities with increased energetic demand are especially dependent on efficient ATP production, hence sufficient mitochondrial function is fundamental. In bees, flight muscle and the brain have particularly high densities of mitochondria to facilitate the substantial ATP production required for flight activity and neuronal signalling. Neonicotinoids are systemic synthetic insecticides that are widely utilised against crop herbivores but have been reported to cause, by unknown mechanisms, mitochondrial dysfunction, decreasing cognitive function and flight activity among pollinating bees. Here we explore, using high-resolution respirometry, how the neonicotinoid imidacloprid may affect oxidative phosphorylation in the brain and flight muscle of the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris. We find that acute exposure increases routine oxygen consumption in the flight muscle of worker bees. This provides a candidate explanation for prior reports of early declines in flight activity following acute exposure. We further find that imidacloprid increases the maximum electron transport capacity in the brain, with a trend towards increased overall oxygen consumption. However, intra-individual variability is high, limiting the extent to which apparent effects of imidacloprid on brain mitochondria are shown conclusively. Overall, our results highlight the necessity to examine tissue-specific effects of imidacloprid on respiration and energy production.
Herbaria Reveal Herbivory and Pathogen Increases and Shifts in Senescence for Northeastern United States Maples Over 150 Years

Recent studies suggest climate-related delays in the timing of leaf coloration and abscission in maple trees but lack baseline data prior to the late 20th century. To better understand how autumn foliar phenology and late-season damage risks have changed for this genus over the past century, we evaluated 2,972 digitized herbaria specimens of red and sugar maple collected between 1826 and 2016 for the presence of leaves, autumn leaf coloration, and pathogen or herbivore damage. We found that the onset (first appearance) of colored leaves has shifted 0.26 days later each year, leading to a delay of more than a month in autumn phenology since 1880. We find that these shifts are related to precipitation regimes in both the fall and summer seasons and that more severe droughts are associated with higher probabilities of colored leaves. Moreover, we found that the probability of both herbivory and pathogen damage has increased significantly over the study period. In particular, we find a strong association between increasing summer drought conditions and increased probability of herbivory. Furthermore, the presence of foliar damage increased the probability of leaf coloration on herbaria specimens. However, the end-of-season abscission date (last appearance of leaves) was strongly associated with herbivory and climate in a contrary direction: Increasing yearly drought, higher fall temperatures, and the presence of herbivory were associated with earlier abscission. In fact, the last leaf dates for specimens with herbivory were nearly 2 weeks earlier than specimens without herbivore damage. Our study documents significant changes in maple senescence over the last 150 years and suggests that incorporating herbivory into models may improve our ability to predict forest responses to climate shifts.
Teleoperation and Visualization Interfaces for Remote Intervention in Space

Approaches to robotic manufacturing, assembly, and servicing of in-space assets range from autonomous operation to direct teleoperation, with many forms of semi-autonomous teleoperation in between. Because most approaches require one or more human operators at some level, it is important to explore the control and visualization interfaces available to those operators, taking into account the challenges due to significant telemetry time delay. We consider one motivating application of remote teleoperation, which is ground-based control of a robot on-orbit for satellite servicing. This paper presents a model-based architecture that: 1) improves visualization and situation awareness, 2) enables more effective human/robot interaction and control, and 3) detects task failures based on anomalous sensor feedback. We illustrate elements of the architecture by drawing on 10 years of our research in this area. The paper further reports the results of several multi-user experiments to evaluate the model-based architecture, on ground-based test platforms, for satellite servicing tasks subject to round-trip communication latencies of several seconds. The most significant performance gains were obtained by enhancing the operators’ situation awareness via improved visualization and by enabling them to precisely specify intended motion. In contrast, changes to the control interface, including model-mediated control or an immersive 3D environment, often reduced the reported task load but did not significantly improve task performance. Considering the challenges of fully autonomous intervention, we expect that some form of teleoperation will continue to be necessary for robotic in-situ servicing, assembly, and manufacturing tasks for the foreseeable future. We propose that effective teleoperation can be enabled by modeling the remote environment, providing operators with a fused view of the real environment and virtual model, and incorporating interfaces and control strategies that enable interactive planning, precise operation, and prompt detection of errors.
Immersive Virtual Reality: A Safe, Scalable, Non-opioid Analgesic for Military and Veteran Patients

In Iraq and Afghanistan over 75% of the combat casualties suffered by U.S. troops have involved explosive devices. Improvements in body armor and advances in military medicine have significantly reduced the number of combat-related fatalities, but have greatly increased the number of U.S. active component personnel suffering painful trauma injuries. Unfortunately, so far, advances in pharmacologic analgesia pain medications have not kept pace with advances in survivability. For many active component personnel and Veterans, pain is a top health complaint from patients. The opioid epidemic has increased the urgency of developing powerful non-pharmacologic approaches for the management of pain. Immersive VR is proving to be a powerful non-opioid pain management technique for acute pain. However, the cost and usability limitations of pre-2016 VR clinical products resulted in limited treatment adoption rates for clinical use. In recent years, VR technology has become increasingly immersive, portable, and miniaturized, requiring minimal technical expertise to operate, and low-cost, factors that are likely contributing to the recent increase in the clinical use of VR analgesia. VR is greatly benefitting from a growing string of major technological breakthroughs and VR treatment improvements that will likely continue to increase the effectiveness and suitability of VR analgesia for military and VA patients. Regarding acute pain, we propose that the next revision to the current Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines consider including VR as an effective and hemodynamically safe approach to the current management of acute trauma pain in military personnel during medical procedures. With recent miniaturization and ruggedization, VR can potentially be used closer to the battlefield in the future. Beyond distraction, innovative VR therapy techniques designed to help reduce chronic pain are discussed. Recent breakthroughs in the mass production of inexpensive, highly immersive lightweight stand alone VR systems and augmented reality systems increase the potential for widespread dissemination of VR analgesia for acute and potentially for chronic pain. For example, the U.S. military recently purchased 22 billion dollar’s worth of Microsoft Hololens mixed reality systems (e.g., for training). Expanded research and development of VR analgesia customized for the unique needs of military and VA patients is recommended.
Does the Enron Case Study Provide Valuable Lessons in the Early Detection of Corporate Fraud & Failure?

The company that came to be known as Enron underwent an extensive transformation in terms of name, and scope of activities. By the time of its collapse, it had a massive number of subsidiaries and was considered one of the most successful companies in the world partly because financial analysts were not paying attention to the very basic financial metrics. The large size and, until 2001, exquisite reputation of Enron appeared to have made financial analysts and other investigators lax and devoid of vigilance when it came to scrutinising its financial performance. However, several financial analysis done after the demise of Enron showed that its collapse could have been predicted much earlier. In this paper, the Beneish ratios, the Modified Altman Z-Score, Chanos Algorithm and the Grove and Cook ratios have all shown that the Enron collapse was predictable, had analysts done what they were supposed to do and not considered the company to be too big to fail. The Enron case study also highlights the importance of qualitative analysis in reviewing corporate performance, which as things turned out was instrumental in drawing the public’s attention to the company’s dubious accounting practices.
Serratia plymuthica MBSA-MJ1 Increases Shoot Growth and Tissue Nutrient Concentration in Containerized Ornamentals Grown Under Low-Nutrient Conditions

High fertilizer rates are often applied to horticulture crop production systems to produce high quality crops with minimal time in production. Much of the nutrients applied in fertilizers are not taken up by the plant and are leached out of the containers during regular irrigation. The application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can increase the availability and uptake of essential nutrients by plants, thereby reducing nutrient leaching and environmental contamination. Identification of PGPR can contribute to the formulation of biostimulant products for use in commercial greenhouse production. Here, we have identified Serratia plymuthica MBSA-MJ1 as a PGPR that can promote the growth of containerized horticulture crops grown with low fertilizer inputs. MBSA-MJ1 was applied weekly as a media drench to Petunia×hybrida (petunia), Impatiens walleriana (impatiens), and Viola×wittrockiana (pansy). Plant growth, quality, and tissue nutrient concentration were evaluated 8weeks after transplant. Application of MBSA-MJ1 increased the shoot biomass of all three species and increased the flower number of impatiens. Bacteria application also increased the concentration of certain essential nutrients in the shoots of different plant species. In vitro and genomic characterization identified multiple putative mechanisms that are likely contributing to the strain’s ability to increase the availability and uptake of these nutrients by plants. This work provides insight into the interconnectedness of beneficial PGPR mechanisms and how these bacteria can be utilized as potential biostimulants for sustainable crop production with reduced chemical fertilizer inputs.
Air-Fluidized Aggregates of Black Soldier fly Larvae

Black soldier fly larvae are a sustainable protein source and play a vital role in the emerging food-waste recycling industry. One of the challenges of raising larvae in dense aggregations is their rise in temperature during feeding, which, if not mitigated, can become lethal to the larvae. We propose applying air-fluidization to circumvent such overheating. However, the behavior of such a system involves complex air-larva interactions and is poorly understood. In this combined experimental and numerical study, we show that the larval activity changes the behavior of the ensemble when compared to passive particles such as dead larvae. Over a cycle of increasing and then decreasing airflow, the states (pressure and height) of the live larva aggregates are single-value functions of the flow speed. In contrast, dead larva aggregates exhibit hysteresis characteristic of traditional fluidized beds, becoming more porous during the ramp down of airflow. This history-dependence for passive particles is supported by simulations that couple agent-based dynamics and computational fluid dynamics. We show that the hysteresis in height and pressure of the aggregates decreases as the activity of simulated larvae increases. To test if air fluidization can increase larval food intake, we performed feeding trials in a fluidization chamber and visualized the food consumption via x-ray imaging. Although the food mixes more rapidly in faster airflow, the consumption rate decreases. Our findings suggest that providing moderate airflow to larval aggregations may alleviate overheating of larval aggregations and evenly distribute the food without reducing feeding rates.
Comparative Evidence for Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy Treatment With Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy: A Network Meta-Analysis

Background: Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) seriously threatens the health of pregnant women and newborns. A various number of Chinese prescriptions and patent medicines combined with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) are used for treating ICP in China. However, there are still many doubts in choosing the suitable therapeutic drugs for the treatment of ICP in clinical practice. Methods: Several electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), Wanfang, and VIP, were comprehensively searched from the database inception to February 22, 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting the use of UDCA only, Chinese prescriptions plus UDCA, and patent medicine plus UDCA for the treatment of ICP were collected according to their inclusion and exclusion criteria. Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook version 5.2 was applied for the risk assessment of the included trials. STATA 16.0 software was used for network meta-analysis (NMA). The pruritus score and the serum levels of total bile acid (TBA), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate transaminase (AST) in ICP patients served as the primary outcomes. Moreover, this study had been registered in PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/#joinuppage), and the registration number is CRD42020188831. Results: Thirty-eight RCTs comprising 3,841 patients meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the network meta-analysis. The NMA results showed that compared with UDCA used alone, Yinchenhao decoction (seven different Chinese prescriptions or patent medicines) plus UDCA dramatically alleviated the primary outcomes of ICP, including the pruritus score, as well as the serum levels of TBA, ALT, and AST. The NMA results showed that the optimal drug ratio for the treatment of ICP was different from the dosage ratio of traditional Yinchenhao decoction. Significantly, the intervention plan f (IP-f) group [the similar prescription of Yinchenhao decoction 2 (Artemisia capillaris Thunb >15 g, Gardenia >9 g, and Rhubarb <5 g) + UDCA] was the best therapeutics among the eight therapies. Conclusion: Overall, the combined use of Chinese prescriptions or patent medicine with UDCA was generally better than UDCA used alone. The dose of IP-f might be a beneficial therapeutic method for the clinical medication of ICP. Clinical Trail Registration: https://www.crd. york.ac. uk/, identifier CRD42020188831.
Hierarchical Spatiotemporal Electroencephalogram Feature Learning and Emotion Recognition With Attention-Based Antagonism Neural Network

Inspired by the neuroscience research results that the human brain can produce dynamic responses to different emotions, a new electroencephalogram (EEG)-based human emotion classification model was proposed, named R2G-ST-BiLSTM, which uses a hierarchical neural network model to learn more discriminative spatiotemporal EEG features from local to global brain regions. First, the bidirectional long- and short-term memory (BiLSTM) network is used to obtain the internal spatial relationship of EEG signals on different channels within and between regions of the brain. Considering the different effects of various cerebral regions on emotions, the regional attention mechanism is introduced in the R2G-ST-BiLSTM model to determine the weight of different brain regions, which could enhance or weaken the contribution of each brain area to emotion recognition. Then a hierarchical BiLSTM network is again used to learn the spatiotemporal EEG features from regional to global brain areas, which are then input into an emotion classifier. Especially, we introduce a domain discriminator to work together with the classifier to reduce the domain offset between the training and testing data. Finally, we make experiments on the EEG data of the DEAP and SEED datasets to test and compare the performance of the models. It is proven that our method achieves higher accuracy than those of the state-of-the-art methods. Our method provides a good way to develop affective brain–computer interface applications.
Reprogramming of Histone H3 Lysine Methylation During Plant Sexual Reproduction

Plants undergo extensive reprogramming of chromatin status during sexual reproduction, a process vital to cell specification and pluri- or totipotency establishment. As a crucial way to regulate chromatin organization and transcriptional activity, histone modification can be reprogrammed during sporogenesis, gametogenesis, and embryogenesis in flowering plants. In this review, we first introduce enzymes required for writing, recognizing, and removing methylation marks on lysine residues in histone H3 tails, and describe their differential expression patterns in reproductive tissues, then we summarize their functions in the reprogramming of H3 lysine methylation and the corresponding chromatin re-organization during sexual reproduction in Arabidopsis, and finally we discuss the molecular significance of histone reprogramming in maintaining the pluri- or totipotency of gametes and the zygote, and in establishing novel cell fates throughout the plant life cycle. Despite rapid achievements in understanding the molecular mechanism and function of the reprogramming of chromatin status in plant development, the research in this area still remains a challenge. Technological breakthroughs in cell-specific epigenomic profiling in the future will ultimately provide a solution for this challenge.
Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis Identifies Heat Shock Factor 2 as a Prognostic Biomarker Associated With Immune Cell Infiltration in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies and ranks as the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Heat shock factor 2 (HSF2) is a transcription factor that plays a critical role in development, particularly corticogenesis and spermatogenesis. However, studies examining the expression and prognostic value of HSF2 and its association with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in HCC are still rare. In the present study, we found that HSF2 expression was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues compared with normal liver tissues using the TCGA, ICGC, GEO, UALCAN, HCCDB and HPA databases. High HSF2 expression was associated with shorter survival of patients with HCC. Cox regression analyses and nomogram were used to evaluate the association of HSF2 expression with the prognosis of patients with HCC. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that HSF2 was associated with various signaling pathways, including the immune response. Notably, HSF2 expression was significantly correlated with the infiltration levels of different immune cells using the TIMER database and CIBERSORT algorithm. HSF2 expression also displayed a significant correlation with multiple immune marker sets in HCC tissues. Knockdown of HSF2 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation ability of HCC cells. In summary, we explored the clinical significance of HSF2 and provided a therapeutic basis for the early diagnosis, prognostic judgment, and immunotherapy of HCC.
Steroid-Induced Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head: Novel Insight Into the Roles of Bone Endothelial Cells in Pathogenesis and Treatment

Steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (SONFH) is a disease characterized by the collapse of the femoral head. SONFH occurs due to the overuse of glucocorticoids (GCs) in patients with immune-related diseases. Among various pathogenesis proposed, the mechanism related to impaired blood vessels is gradually becoming the most convincing hypothesis. Bone endothelial cells including bone microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a crucial role in the maintenance of vascular homeostasis. Therefore, bone endothelial cells are key regulators in the occurrence and progression of SONFH. Impaired angiogenesis, abnormal apoptosis, thrombosis and fat embolism caused by the dysfunctions of bone endothelial cells are considered to be the pathogenesis of SONFH. In addition, even with high disability rates, SONFH lacks effective therapeutic approach. Icariin (ICA, a flavonoid extracted from Epimedii Herba), pravastatin, and VO-OHpic (a potent inhibitor of PTEN) are candidate reagents to prevent and treat SONFH through improving above pathological processes. However, these reagents are still in the preclinical stage and will not be widely used temporarily. In this case, bone tissue engineering represented by co-transplantation of bone endothelial cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) may be another feasible therapeutic strategy.