Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolomics Analysis Provides New Insights Into the Molecular Mechanisms of Parasitic Plant Dodder Elongation in vitro

Dodder (Cuscuta spp.) species are obligate parasitic flowering plants that totally depend on host plants for growth and reproduction and severely suppress hosts’ growth. As a rootless and leafless plant, excised dodder shoots exhibit rapid growth and elongation for several days to hunt for new host stems, and parasitization could be reestablished. This is one unique ability of the dodder to facilitate its success in nature. Clearly, excised dodder stems have to recycle stored nutrients to elongate as much as possible. However, the mechanism of stored nutrient recycling in the in vitro dodder shoots is still poorly understood. Here, we found that dodder is a carbohydrate-rich holoparasitic plant. During the in vitro dodder shoot development, starch was dramatically and thoroughly degraded in the dodder shoots. Sucrose derived from starch degradation in the basal stems was transported to the shoot tips, in which EMP and TCA pathways were activated to compensate for carbon demand for the following elongation according to the variations of sugar content related to the crucial gene expression, and the metabolomics analysis. Additionally, antioxidants were significantly accumulated in the shoot tips in contrast to those in the basal stems. The variations of phytohormones (jasmonic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, and abscisic acid) indicated that they played essential roles in this process. All these data suggested that starch and sucrose degradation, EMP and TCA activation, antioxidants, and phytohormones were crucial and associated with the in vitro dodder shoot elongation.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: On the acoustoelectric current in a one-dimensional channel

We report the first observation of the direct current induced by a surface acoustic wave through a quantum point contact defined in a GaAs - AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas by means of a split gate. We have observed giant oscillations in the acoustoelectric current as a function of gate voltage, with minima corresponding to the plateaux in quantum point contact conductivity. A theoretical consideration is presented which explains the observed peaks in terms of the matching of sound velocity with electron velocity in the upper one-dimensional subband of the quantum point contact.
The Effects of Different Induction Chemotherapy Cycles and Adjuvant Chemotherapy on the Survival Outcomes of Patients With Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective This study investigated whether differences in the induction chemotherapy (IC) cycle number and adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) affect survival outcomes in patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC). Methods The survival outcomes of 386 consecutive LA-NPC patients treated between January 2015 and March 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare treatment groups defined by IC< 3 or ≥3 IC cycles followed by radiotherapy with or without AC (i.e., IC<3+AC, IC<3+non-AC, IC≥3+AC, and IC≥3+non-AC groups). Results The median follow-up time was 53 months (range: 2-74 months) and the median number of IC cycles was 2 (range: 1-6 cycles). The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate was significantly higher in patients with IC≥3 cycles compared to IC<3 cycles (95.7% vs. 90.3%, P=0.020). Multivariate analysis indicated that the IC cycle number is an independent factor for OS (hazard ratio=0.326, P=0.007). Furthermore, patients in the IC<3+AC group had a better OS rate than those in the IC<3+non-AC group (91.6% vs. 79.1%, P=0.030), indicating that AC positively affected OS in patients with IC<3. However, no significant difference in the OS rate was found between IC≥3+non-AC and IC≥3+AC groups (92.1% vs. 94.6%, P =0.550). Conclusion The IC cycle number appears to be an independent prognostic factor for higher OS in LA-NPC patients who received ≥3 cycles. Sequential AC after IC plus radiotherapy may improve OS in patients with IC<3 cycles.
Rainfall Runoff Balance Enhanced Model Applied to Tropical Hydrology

The integrative and comprehensive analysis considering the spatial and temporal representation of the hydrological process, such as the distribution of rainfall, land cover and land use, is a challenge for the water resources management. In tropical areas, energy availability throughout the year defines the rainfall distribution and evapotranspiration rate according to vegetation heterogeneity. To quantify water balance in tropical areas including these heterogeneities in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere relationship, we developed a fully distributed hydrological model called the Rainfall Runoff Balance Enhanced Model (RUBEM). The model was developed under a physics-based process structure, using remote sensing data to represent soil-water balance patterns, such as evapotranspiration, interception, baseflow, lateral flow, recharge, and runoff. The calibration procedure was based on nine global parameters. RUBEM could represent the spatio-temporal heterogeneities (soil, land use and land cover (LULC), topography, vegetation, and climate) in three basins in a tropical area. The results showed good adherence between the processes governing the soil-vegetation-atmosphere relationship according to the humidity indicator and the runoff coefficient. Overall, RUBEM can be used to help improve the management and planning of integrated water resources under climate, land use, and land cover changes in tropical regions.
Feature Selection Algorithms for Wind Turbine Failure Prediction

It is well known that each year the wind sector has profit losses due to wind turbine failures and operation and maintenance costs. Therefore, operations related to these actions are crucial for wind farm operators and linked companies. One of the key points for failure prediction on wind turbine using SCADA data is to select the optimal or near optimal set of inputs that can feed the failure prediction (prognosis) algorithm. Due to a high number of possible predictors (from tens to hundreds), the optimal set of inputs obtained by exhaustive-search algorithms is not viable in the majority of cases. In order to tackle this issue, show the viability of prognosis and select the best set of variables from more than 200 analogous variables recorded at intervals of 5 or 10 min by the wind farm’s SCADA, in this paper a thorough study of automatic input selection algorithms for wind turbine failure prediction is presented and an exhaustive-search-based quasi-optimal (QO) algorithm, which has been used as a reference, is proposed. In order to evaluate the performance, a k-NN classification algorithm is used. Results showed that the best automatic feature selection method in our case-study is the conditional mutual information (CMI), while the worst one is the mutual information feature selection (MIFS). Furthermore, the effect of the number of neighbours (k) is tested. Experiments demonstrate that k = 1 is the best option if the number of features is higher than 3. The experiments carried out in this work have been extracted from measures taken along an entire year and corresponding to gearbox and transmission systems of Fuhrländer wind turbines.
Performance Feedback with Team Incentive: A Field Experiment in Chinese Factories

ABSTRACT This paper employs a field experiment to investigate in which information environment team-based incentives work better. The experiment was conducted in two spinning factories in Henan, China. We focus on workers who were doing the same individualistic task but still were paid according to team performances. For about three months, we have given three different types of performance feedback, baseline, intra-team, and inter-team feedbacks. We find that workers’ productivity was highest with the intra-team feedback and lowest with the baseline feedback, which suggests that peer pressure and group status concern are of importance in making team incentives work.
Isolation and Characterization of Lytic Proteus Virus 309

Proteus mirabilis is frequently associated with complicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) and is the main cause of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Treatment of such infections is complicated and challenging due to the biofilm forming abilities of P. mirabilis. If neglected or mistreated, infections may lead to life-threating conditions such as cystitis, pyelonephritis, kidney failure, and bacteremia that may progress to urosepsis. Treatment with antibiotics, especially in cases of recurring and persistent infections, leads to the development of resistant strains. Recent insights into phage therapy and using phages to coat catheters have been evaluated with many studies showing promising results. Here, we describe a highly lytic bacteriophage, Proteus_virus_309 (41,740 bp), isolated from a wastewater treatment facility in Cape Town, South Africa. According to guidelines of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), bacteriophage 309 is a species within the genus Novosibovirus. Similar to most members of the genus, bacteriophage 309 is strain-specific and lyse P. mirabilis in less than 20 min.
Factors Associated with Dysfunctional Low Back Pain in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background:An estimated one-tenth of the population suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), the most prevalent chronic inflammatory arthritis. The purpose of this study is to identify the risk factors for dysfunctional low back pain in RA patients, as well as to examine the relationship between these variables and the severity, activity, and clinical symptoms of the illness. Methods: This study included 40 RA patients and 40 age and sex matched healthy individuals with low back discomfort. All patients were subjected to back examination, assessment of RA disease activity using the disease activity score (DAS28), clinical assessment of RA disease severity using RA severity score (RASS) and the modified Larsen score (MLS). Structural radiographic changes were evaluated by plain radiograph and magnetic resonance image (MRI) on lumbar spine. Results: RA patients had higher DAS, visual analogue score (VAS), RASS, increased Platelet count, low Hemoglobin percentage and total leukocyte count, vertebral endplate and/or facet erosion, disc bulge and disc prolapse in MRI of the back which are linked to dysfunctional lower back pain. Conclusion: Radiological lumbar abnormalities, particularly lumbar spondylolisthesis, are common among RA patients. Furthermore, despite the fact that LBP in RA patients was effectively managed, the activity of daily living may be more influenced by LBP, which was higher among patients with active disease status. These findings show that RA patients' lumbar therapy should focus on disease management as well.
IMPACT OF RUMEN PROTECTED L-ARGININE AND EQUINE CHORIONIC GONADOTROPIN ON THE OVARIAN ACTIVITY, FERTILITY RATE, LAMB'S BIRTH WEIGHT AND BLOOD BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF SYNCHRONIZED EWES IN UPPER EGYPT

1Department of Animal Productions, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, 71524 Egypt, 2Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt, 3Department of Animal Productions, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo Egypt. *Corresponding author E-mail: montaser_elsayd@azhar.edu. eg; ORCID No: https://orcid.org/0000-00030868-7073.
Optimal Shielding to Guarantee Region-Based Connectivity under Geographical Failures

As networks and their inter-connectivity grow and become complex, failures in the networks impact society and industries more than ever. In these networks the notion of connectedness is the key to understanding and reasoning about these failures. Traditional studies in improving edge/node connectivity assume that failures occur at random. However, in many scenarios (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and human-designed attacks on networks) failures are not random, and most traditional methods do not always work. To address this limitation, we consider region-based connectivity to capture the local nature of failures under the geographical failure model, where failures may happen only on edges in a sub-network (region) and we want to shield some edges in regions to protect the connectivity. There may be several regions and in different regions the failures occur independently. Firstly, we establish the NP-hardness of the problem for regions, answering a question proposed in previous papers. Secondly, we propose a polynomial-time algorithm for the special case of two regions based on the matroid techniques. Furthermore, we design an ILP-based algorithm to solve the problem for regions. Experimental results on random and real networks show that our algorithms are much faster than previously known algorithms.
Assessing runoff and erosion on woodland‐encroached sagebrush steppe using the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model

The transition of sagebrush-dominated ( Artemisia spp.) shrublands to pinyon ( Pinus spp.) and juniper ( Juniperus spp.) woodlands markedly alters resource-conserving vegetation structure typical of these landscapes. Land managers and scientists in the western United States need knowledge and predictive tools for assessment and effective targeting of tree-removal treatments to conserve or restore sagebrush vegetation and associated hydrologic function. This study developed modeling approaches to quantify the hydrologic vulnerability and erosion potential of sagebrush rangelands in the later stages of woodland encroachment and in response to commonly applied tree-removal treatments. Using experimental data from multiple sites in the Great Basin Region, USA, and process-based knowledge from decade-long vegetation and rainfall simulation studies at those sites
Classifying Beers With Memristor Neural Network Algorithm in a Portable Electronic Nose System

Quality control and counterfeit product detection have become exceedingly important due to the vertical market of beers in the global economy. China is the largest producer of beer globally and has a massive problem with counterfeit alcoholic beverages. In this research, a modular electronic nose system with 4 MOS gas sensors was designed for collecting the models from four different brands of Chinese beers. A sample delivery subsystem was fabricated to inject and clean the samples. A software-based data acquisition subsystem was programmed to record the time-dependent chemical responses in 28 different models. A back-propagation neural network based on a memristor was proposed to classify the quality of the beers. Data collected from the electronic nose system were then used to train, validate, and test the created memristor back-propagation neural network model. Over 70 tests with changes in the setup parameters, feature extraction methods, and neural network parameters were performed to analyze the classification performance of the electronic nose hardware and neural network. Samples collected from 28 experiments showed a deviation of 9% from the mean value. The memristor back-propagation network was able to classify four brands of Chinese beers, with 88.3% of classification accuracy. Because the memristor neural network algorithm is easy to fabricate in hardware, it is reasonable to design an instrument with low cost and high accuracy in the near future.
A Novel Flavi-like Virus in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Crops along the Snake River Valley

Alfalfa is an important perennial forage crop in Idaho supporting dairy and cattle industries that is typically grown in the same field for as many as 4 years. Alfalfa stands of different ages were subjected to screening for viruses using high-throughput sequencing and RT-PCR. The two most common viruses found were alfalfa mosaic virus and bean leafroll virus, along with Medicago sativa amalgavirus, two alphapartitiviruses, and one deltapartitivirus. Additionally, a new flavi-like virus with an unusual genome organization was discovered, dubbed Snake River alfalfa virus (SRAV). The 11,745 nt, positive-sense (+) RNA genome of SRAV encodes a single 3835 aa polyprotein with only two identifiable conserved domains, an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) and a predicted serine protease. Notably, unlike all +RNA virus genomes in the similar size range, the SRAV polyprotein contained no predicted helicase domain. In the RdRP phylogeny, SRAV was placed inside the flavi-like lineage as a sister clade to a branch consisting of hepaci-, and pegiviruses. To the best of our knowledge, SRAV is the first flavi-like virus identified in a plant host. Although commonly detected in alfalfa crops in southern Idaho, SRAV sequences were also amplified from thrips feeding in alfalfa stands in the area, suggesting a possible role of Frankliniella occidentalis in virus transmission.
Shimizu et al. Microarray and FISH-based Genotype-Phenotype Analysis of 22 Japanese Patients with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome

Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a contiguous gene deletion syndrome of the distal 4p chromosome, characterized by craniofacial features, growth impairment, intellectual disability, and seizures. Although genotype-phenotype correlation studies have previously been published, several important issues remain to be elucidated including seizure severity. We present detailed clinical and molecular-cytogenetic findings from a microarray and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-based genotype-phenotype analysis of 22 Japanese WHS patients, the first large non-Western series. 4p deletions were terminal in 20 patients and interstitial in two, with deletion sizes ranging from 2.06–29.42 Mb. The new Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome critical region (WHSCR2) was deleted in all cases, and duplication of other chromosomal regions occurred in four. Complex mosaicism was identified in two cases: two different 4p terminal deletions, a simple 4p terminal deletion and an unbalanced translocation with the same 4p breakpoint. Seizures began in infancy in 33% (2/6) of cases with small (<6 Mb) deletions and in 86% (12/14) of cases with larger deletions (>6 Mb). Status epilepticus occurred in 17% (1/6) with small deletions and in 87% (13/15) with larger deletions. Renal hypoplasia or dysplasia and structural ocular anomalies were more prevalent in those with larger deletions. A new susceptible region for seizure occurrence is suggested between 0.76–1.3 Mb from 4pter, encompassing CTBP1 and CPLX1, and distal to the previously-supposed candidate gene LETM1. The usefulness of bromide therapy for seizures and additional clinical features including hypercholesterolemia are also described.
Sensor characterization by comparative measurements using a multi-sensor measuring system

Abstract. Typical 3-D topography sensors for the measurement of surface structures in the micro- and nanometre range are atomic force microscopes (AFMs), tactile stylus instruments, confocal microscopes and white-light interferometers. Each sensor shows its own transfer behaviour. In order to investigate transfer characteristics as well as systematic measurement effects, a multi-sensor measuring system is presented. With this measurement system comparative measurements using five different topography sensors are performed under identical conditions in a single set-up. In addition to the concept of the multi-sensor measuring system and an overview of the sensors used, surface profiles obtained from a fine chirp calibration standard are presented to show the difficulties of an exact reconstruction of the surface structure as well as the necessity of comparative measurements conducted with different topography sensors. Furthermore, the suitability of the AFM as reference sensor for high-precision measurements is shown by measuring the surface structure of a blank Blu-ray disc.
On metric of quantum channel spaces

So far, there have been plenty of literatures on the metric in the space of probability distributions and quantum states. As for channels, however, only a little had been known. In this paper, we impose monotonicity by concatenation of channels before and after the given channel families, and invariance by tensoring identity channels. Under these axioms, we identify the largest and the smallest metrics. Also, we studied asymptotic theory of metric in parallel and adaptive repetition settings, and applied them to the study of channel estimation. First we express the achievable lower bound of the mean square error (MSE) of an estimate by a monotone channel metric, and show this equals O(1/n) for noisy channels, where n is the number of times of channel use. This result shows Heisenberg rate, or O(1/n^2)-rate of the MSE observed in case of estimation of unitary, collapses with very small arbitrary noise.
A Cheating Detection System in Online Examinations Based on the Analysis of Eye-Gaze and Head-Pose

The devastating effect of COVID-19 ensued the closing of educational institutes throughout the world and led to a shift in the education mode from offline to online. Online exams became the new way of testing the academic knowledge of a student. The major concern which arises in an online exam is the apparent risk of malpractices emerging due to the remote invigilation. Therefore, cheating in online exams is widespread regardless of the levels of development. In this paper, our main goal is to propose a smart system which can automatically detect cheating in online exam. For this, the students’ webcam is used to perceive his/her eye-gaze and head-pose. Based on the analysis of eye-gaze and head-pose, we have followed the students’ intension to indulge in cheating.
ANALYSING GROWTH PATTERNS OF SELECTED TURKISH OAT CULTIVARS USING SIGMOIDAL MODELS

Increasing popularity of oat were accompanied with the introductions of many new cultivars for the last few decades. Aim of this study were to characterize the growth and developments of Kahraman, Küçükyayla, Yeniçeri, Sebat, Otağı and Diriliş oat cultivars using sigmoidal growth models. Growth data comprised of weekly observations of dry weights and growth stages with three samplings for two consecutive years. Results indicated that the growing season were the determining factor for the dry matter accumulation until the stem elongation stage since genotype differences became apparent only in the later stages. Sigmoidal growth models successfully fitted to the growth data and allowed for further evaluations. Goodness of fit statistics implied that Logistic, Logistic Power and Ratkowsky models were the best fitting growth models to explain dry matter accumulations of oat cultivars. Analysis also showed that Otağı, Yeniçeri and Sebat cultivars reached the highest dry matter accumulations. Point of inflections on the Logistic models indicated that Küçükyayla and Kahraman were the earliest cultivars in the Marmara region. Comparison of cultivars by using the growth models proved to be informative in terms of understanding the genotypic variation.
Fabrication of Metallic Far-Infrared Filters

A far-infrared filter is fabricated by creating metallic squares on a dielectric substrate. This capacitive metallic filter is fabricated using direct write laser ablation consisting of a femtosecond laser in combination with a high numerical aperture objective. A representative capacitive filter is fabricated on sodalime glass substrate with a period of 100 μm and separation width of 30 μm. A partial capacitive filter was also fabricated on a thin film polyethylene substrate with similar dimensions.