Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Identification Based on Chloroplast Sequences and Anti-complementary Activity Comparison of Juniperus Samples from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract Juniperus (Cupressaceae, Pinales) plants are widely distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. The leaves and twigs of at least 8 Juniperus species (J. pingii, J. pingii var. wilsonii, J. squamata, J. recurva var. coxii, J. saltuaria, J. indica, J. tibetica and J. convallium var. microsperma) have been used as the Tibetan medicine Xuba. At present, it is difficult to distinguish among the original species of Xuba based only on their similar morphological characteristics. However, in our previous studies, 4 Xuba samples from different Juniperus species exhibited significant differences in both anticomplementary activity in vitro and anti-inflammatory effects on acute lung injury in vivo. To identify the effective original species of Xuba reliably, in this study, we developed a sequencing-based DNA molecular technology to distinguish 14 populations of 8 Juniperus species collected from Tibet region, using trnS-G, trnD – T, and petN-psbM genomic regions to build phylogenetic trees. In addition, their anticomplementary activities were evaluated. The results showed that combined sequence of these 3 genomic regions could identify 8 Juniperus species clearly and clustered individuals of one species but from different locations, whichever phylogenetic tree was constructed. Moreover, the anticomplementary activities of the 8 species were clustered into 2 groups. Among them, J. saltuaria and J. recurva var. coxii, which formed an independent branch apart from the other 6 species in phylogenetic trees, were the most potent (CH50: 0.029 – 0.032 mg/mL). Consequently, DNA identification of Juniperus using the combined sequence could provide beneficial guidance for further efficacy evaluation and quality control of Xuba.
Corynebactin, a Cyclic Catecholate Siderophore from

Abstract From cultures of Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 14067 (Brevibacterium sp. DSM 20411) a catecholate sid erophore could be isolated. It comprises three identical units consisting of L-Thr, Gly and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid which form a tri-lactonic macrocycle -the second example of this structural type.
Indoor Relative Positioning Method and Experiment Based on Inertial Measurement Information/Human motion model/UWB Combined System

Navigation and positioning services are related to national security, economic development and social livelihood, they're playing a decisive and indispensable role in both military and civilian fields. Urbanization is accelerating and indoor sites are increasing. People spend more than 80% of their time living and working in the indoor environments (including large buildings, underground sites, mines, tunnels, etc.), How to achieve high-precision navigation and positioning in such a complex navigation environment? This is not only an urgent social problem but also a technical problem. Based on the introduction of indoor navigation background, an inertial measurement information/UWB combined indoor positioning method is proposed in this paper, to solve the problem of long-term positioning in a complex indoor environment, and the experimental researches have been performed. Firstly, based on the research of human motion model, the method extracts motion parameters related to navigation and establishes the mapping model between human motion parameters and navigation parameters in order to implement autonomous pedestrian navigation which is based on inertial measurement information/human motion model. Then, using the position information provided by UWB as the measurement, the Kalman filter based on inertial measurement information/ human motion model/UWB combined system is designed to integrate positioning information from the combined system of inertial measurement information/human motion model and UWB, so that it can provide long-term and high-precision relative navigation for indoor pedestrians. The paper develops a prototype of the inertial measurement information/human motion model/UWB combined system, which provides a physical platform for the experimental verification of the proposed method. What's more, it also optimizes and verifies the proposed method referring to experiments under the environment of NOKOV high-precision indoor 3D-motion capture system by Beijing measurement technology co., LTD. There are bright application prospects that the method can be extended in single-soldier system, urban anti-terrorism operations and pedestrian positioning in the field of emergency rescue.
Automatic Extraction of Road Points from Airborne LiDAR Based on Bidirectional Skewness Balancing

Road extraction from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) has become a hot topic over recent years. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to perform this task in a fully automatic way. Experiments are often carried out over small datasets with a focus on urban areas and it is unclear how these methods perform in less urbanized sites. Furthermore, some methods require the manual input of critical parameters, such as an intensity threshold. Aiming to address these issues, this paper proposes a method for the automatic extraction of road points suitable for different landscapes. Road points are identified using pipeline filtering based on a set of constraints defined on the intensity, curvature, local density, and area. We focus especially on the intensity constraint, as it is the key factor to distinguish between road and ground points. The optimal intensity threshold is established automatically by an improved version of the skewness balancing algorithm. Evaluation was conducted on ten study sites with different degrees of urbanization. Road points were successfully extracted in all of them with an overall completeness of 93%, a correctness of 83%, and a quality of 78%. These results are competitive with the state-of-the-art.
A comparative study to improve rooting of English lavender stems cuttings

An experiment was conducted to compare the ability of two bacteria strains from Agrobacterium rhizogenes (DSM30200 and A4), yeast extract (0.5, 1 and 2 g/L) and indole butyric acid (IBA) (50, 100 and 150 mg/L) on rooting of the terminal cuttings of Lavandula angustifolia L plant. A . rhizogenes strains were more effective than most of the other treatments in increasing rooting percentage, roots number and increase of cuttings length except using IBA at 100 and 150 mg/L, as no significant differences were found between them. In contrast, the controls cuttings and cuttings treated with yeast at higher concentrations produced the lowest rooting percentage. Same trend treatments which showed higher rooting characteristics also recorded higher percentage of total carbohydrates, phenol and N percentage. On commercial scale use of two examined strains of A. rhizogenes for rooting of terminal cuttings of L. angustifolia can reduce the use of synthetic auxins like IBA. Key words: Agrobacterium, yeast extract, IBA, lavender, stem cutting.
Control of Waterborne Human Viruses by Indigenous Bacteria and Protists Is Influenced by Temperature, Virus Type, and Microbial Species

Waterborne human viruses can persist in the environment, causing a risk to human health over long periods of time. In this work, we demonstrate that in both freshwater and seawater environments, indigenous bacteria and protists can graze on waterborne viruses and thereby reduce their persistence. We furthermore demonstrate that the efficiency of the grazing process depends on temperature, virus type, and protist species. These findings may facilitate the design of biological methods for the disinfection of water and wastewater. ABSTRACT Human viruses are ubiquitous contaminants in surface waters, where they can persist over extended periods of time. Among the factors governing their environmental persistence, the control (removal or inactivation) by microorganisms remains poorly understood. Here, we determined the contribution of indigenous bacteria and protists to the decay of human viruses in surface waters. Incubation of echovirus 11 (E11) in freshwater from Lake Geneva and seawater from the Mediterranean Sea led to a 2.5-log10 reduction in the infectious virus concentration within 48 h at 22°C, whereas E11 was stable in sterile controls. The observed virus reduction was attributed to the action of both bacteria and protists in the biologically active matrices. The effect of microorganisms on viruses was temperature dependent, with a complete inhibition of microbial virus control in lake water at temperatures of ≤16°C. Among three protist isolates tested (Paraphysomonas sp., Uronema marinum, and Caecitellus paraparvulus), Caecitellus paraparvulus was particularly efficient at controlling E11 (2.1-log10 reduction over 4 days with an initial protist concentration of 103 cells ml−1). In addition, other viruses (human adenovirus type 2 and bacteriophage H6) exhibited different grazing kinetics than E11, indicating that the efficacy of antiviral action also depended on the type of virus. In conclusion, indigenous bacteria and protists in lake water and seawater can modulate the persistence of E11. These results pave the way for further research to understand how microorganisms control human viral pathogens in aquatic ecosystems and to exploit this process as a treatment solution to enhance microbial water safety. IMPORTANCE Waterborne human viruses can persist in the environment, causing a risk to human health over long periods of time. In this work, we demonstrate that in both freshwater and seawater environments, indigenous bacteria and protists can graze on waterborne viruses and thereby reduce their persistence. We furthermore demonstrate that the efficiency of the grazing process depends on temperature, virus type, and protist species. These findings may facilitate the design of biological methods for the disinfection of water and wastewater.
Compact Millimeter and Submillimeter-Wave Photonic Radiometer for Cubesats

In this paper we present a room temperature radiometer that can eliminate the need of using cryostats in satellite payload reducing its weight and improving reliability. The proposed radiometer is based on an electro-optic upconverter that boosts up microwave photons energy by upconverting them into an optical domain what makes them immune to thermal noise even if operating at room temperature. The converter uses a high-quality factor whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonator providing naturally narrow bandwidth and therefore might be useful for applications like microwave hyperspectral sensing. The upconversion process is explained by providing essential information about photon conversion efficiency and sensitivity. To prove the concept, we describe an experiment which shows state-of-the-art photon conversion efficiency $\eta =10^{-5}$ per mW of pump power at the frequency of 80 GHz.
Employees' Problematic Behavior of Using Enterprise Social Media: Role of Visibility Affordance and Perspective of Uses and Gratifications Theory

As an emerging information technology (IT) platform, Enterprise social media (ESM) facilitates communication and collaboration among employees. However, recent studies indicate that some employees may use ESM excessively, resulting in the problematic behavior that can cause serious consequences for employees and organizations. This paper aims to explore the role of visibility affordance in leading to employees' problematic behavior of using ESM. Adopting the uses and gratifications theory (UGT), this paper proposes a model construction to explore how the visibility affordance of ESM that satisfies different demands of employees can trigger their problematic behavior of using ESM, while the gratifications of employees' needs are reflected through their perceived value. In addition, this research will explore how employees' individual factors (i.e., self-regulation) moderate the development of their problematic behavior of using ESM. This research helps practitioners to effectively prevent such behavior of employees by understanding the mechanism and factors that account for its formation.
A MIMO Joint Communication-Radar Measurement Platform at the Millimeter-Wave Band : (Invited Paper)

A fully-digital wideband joint communication-radar (JCR) at the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band will simultaneously enable high communication and radar performances with enhanced design flexibility. In this paper, we present a measurement platform with a software-defined architecture to evaluate and demonstrate the performance of these JCR systems using real channel measurements. We develop this platform by extending a mmWave communication set-up with an additional full-duplex radar receiver and by capturing the MIMO JCR channel using a moving antenna on a sliding rail. To characterize the JCR performance, we conduct indoor experiments and apply traditional/advanced processing algorithms on the measured data. The results demonstrate that our testbed at 73 GHz with 2 GHz bandwidth can capture the JCR channel with high range/direction estimation accuracy. The comparison between the communication and radar channel shows the potential for improving JCR performance by exploiting the antenna diversity due to widely-separated communication and radar receivers.
Electromagnetic Field Modeling for Wireless Power Transfer in Biological Tissue

The authors present a mathematical model that can be used to model the electromagnetic (EM) fields generated by a vertically oriented magnetic dipole (VMD) located above a conductive half-space, such as biological tissue. The model was compared to a full-wave simulation in CST. The difference is shown to be below 8.1% on average for frequencies ranging from 13 MHz to 5 GHz. It executes over 800 times faster than a full-wave solver, using more than 20 times less memory, and can be adapted to model more realistic magnetic sources without much extra effort. This model can improve the design process of inductive or radiative links significantly, enabling rapid design iteration. It is well suited for biomedical applications. Extension to magnetic sources with arbitrary orientation, as well as electric sources, is possible.
P-i-n Diode Based Electronically Steerable Transmitarrays for SOTM at Ka-Band

In this contribution, we present a preliminary assessment of the capabilities of electronically steerable transmitarray antennas (TAs) for Ka-band satellite communications, with emphasis on SatCom-on-the-move (SOTM) up-link terminals. These studies build on a novel linearly-polarized four-state (2-bit) unit cell (UC) comprising four p-i-n diodes. The enhanced phase resolution allows one to increase the directivity by 2.5 dB with respect to state-of-the-art 1-bit TA designs and to reduce the sidelobe levels (SLLs). Several configurations based on a $50 \times 50-$ element transmitarray are analyzed to show the design trade-offs in terms of gain, bandwidth, scanning performance and antenna size, in the case of linear polarization. The achieved gain patterns are also compared to stringent radiation envelopes defined by regulations for SOTM. Switchable circular polarization is demonstrated combining two sets of unit cells radiating orthogonal linear polarizations. In this case, as per simulations, the -3-dB gain bandwidth spans from 28 GHz to 31 GHz, with peak gain of 31.3 dBiC at broadside.
Incentive Mechanism Design for EVs Participate in Distribution System Voltage Regulation

The increasing load demand and distributed generations make node voltage fluctuation frequently, which may break the security constraints. Instead of using centralized dispatch method, demand response is a good and economical way to support network voltage. Electric vehicles are appropriated for demand response because they disperse in whole systems, and they could charge and discharge through vehicle-to-grid technology to adjust the load demand curve. However, taking part in voltage regulation may disturb the travel plan of vehicles’ owner and depreciate the battery. Therefore, we need design an effective incentive mechanism to compensate those entities for the loss. We analyze the economic benefit of distributed system operator and electric vehicles using the Nash bargaining theory, and divide the whole problem into several subproblems using alternating direction method of multipliers. The case studies show that our method is effective for achieving benefits of operator and electric vehicles.
Local- versus landscape-scale effects on the demography of three forest-breeding songbirds in Ontario, Canada

Reproductive success of songbirds breeding in forest fragments can be influenced by local habitat characteristics and by anthropogenic land uses in the surrounding matrix such as exurban development and agriculture. Effectively managing these songbirds requires an understanding of which spatial scales most strongly influence their demography. We conducted a multiscale study to investigate the relative influence of local vegetation characteristics and landscape composition at two spatial scales (100 and 2000 m) in a predominantly agricultural landscape on songbird demography. Density, pairing success, nest success, and productivity were assessed for Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla (L., 1766)), Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina (J.F. Gmelin, 1789)), and American Robins (Turdus migratorius L., 1766) in 16 deciduous forest fragments in southeastern Ontario. Demography of Ovenbirds was most strongly associated with local vegetation characteristics, while demography of Wood Thrush and American Robins was most st.
Metasurface-Based Circularly-Polarized Multibeam Reflect-/Transmit-Arrays

In this paper, we present an overview of recent progress on metasurface-based circularly-polarized reflect- and transmit-arrays for millimeter-wave applications. The reflect- and transmit-arrays are composed of sub-wavelength unit cells containing multiple cascaded layers of anisotropic impedance surfaces. By utilizing either the Berry phase and/or dynamic phase, highly-directive circularly-polarized multibeams can be generated with a single feed or a cluster of feeds. Three proof-of-concept examples are showcased, which are all validated by experimental measurements.
Mapping Winter Wheat with Combinations of Temporally Aggregated Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 Data in Shandong Province, China

Winter wheat is one of the major cereal crops in China. The spatial distribution of winter wheat planting areas is closely related to food security; however, mapping winter wheat with time-series finer spatial resolution satellite images across large areas is challenging. This paper explores the potential of combining temporally aggregated Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data available via the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for mapping winter wheat in Shandong Province, China. First, six phenological median composites of Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI reflectance measures were generated by a temporal aggregation technique according to the winter wheat phenological calendar, which covered seedling, tillering, over-wintering, reviving, jointing-heading and maturing phases, respectively. Then, Random Forest (RF) classifier was used to classify multi-temporal composites but also mono-temporal winter wheat development phases and mono-sensor data. The results showed that winter wheat could be classified with an overall accuracy of 93.4% and F1 measure (the harmonic mean of producer’s and user’s accuracy) of 0.97 with temporally aggregated Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data were combined. As our results also revealed, it was always good to classify multi-temporal images compared to mono-temporal imagery (the overall accuracy dropped from 93.4% to as low as 76.4%). It was also good to classify Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI imagery combined instead of classifying them individually. The analysis showed among the mono-temporal winter wheat development phases that the maturing phase’s and reviving phase’s data were more important than the data for other mono-temporal winter wheat development phases. In sum, this study confirmed the importance of using temporally aggregated Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data combined and identified key winter wheat development phases for accurate winter wheat classification. These results can be useful to benefit on freely available optical satellite data (Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI) and prioritize key winter wheat development phases for accurate mapping winter wheat planting areas across China and elsewhere.
An Estimation of Top-Down NOx Emissions from OMI Sensor Over East Asia

This study focuses on the estimation of top-down NOx emissions over East Asia, integrating information on the levels of NO2 and NO, wind vector, and geolocation from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) observations and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations. An algorithm was developed based on mass conservation to estimate the 30 km × 30 km resolved top-down NOx emissions over East Asia. In particular, the algorithm developed in this study considered two main atmospheric factors—(i) NOx transport from/to adjacent cells and (ii) calculations of the lifetimes of column NOx (τ). In the sensitivity test, the analysis showed the improvements in the top-down NOx estimation via filtering the data (τ ≤ 2 h). The best top-down NOx emissions were inferred after the sixth iterations. Those emissions were 11.76 Tg N yr−1 over China, 0.13 Tg N yr−1 over North Korea, 0.46 Tg N yr−1 over South Korea, and 0.68 Tg N yr−1 over Japan. These values are 34%, 62%, 60%, and 47% larger than the current bottom-up NOx emissions over these countries, respectively. A comparison between the CMAQ-estimated and OMI-retrieved NO2 columns was made to confirm the accuracy of the newly estimated NOx emission. The comparison confirmed that the estimated top-down NOx emissions showed better agreements with observations (R2 = 0.88 for January and 0.81 for July).
Assimilation of Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) Using Satellite Remote Sensing Data in Budhi Gandaki River Basin, Nepal

The Himalayan region, a major source of fresh water, is recognized as a water tower of the world. Many perennial rivers originate from Nepal Himalaya, located in the central part of the Himalayan region. Snowmelt water is essential freshwater for living, whereas it poses flood disaster potential, which is a major challenge for sustainable development. Climate change also largely affects snowmelt hydrology. Therefore, river discharge measurement requires crucial attention in the face of climate change, particularly in the Himalayan region. The snowmelt runoff model (SRM) is a frequently used method to measure river discharge in snow-fed mountain river basins. This study attempts to investigate snowmelt contribution in the overall discharge of the Budhi Gandaki River Basin (BGRB) using satellite remote sensing data products through the application of the SRM model. The model outputs were validated based on station measured river discharge data. The results show that SRM performed well in the study basin with a coefficient of determination (R2) >0.880. Moreover, this study found that the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover data and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) meteorological datasets are highly applicable to the SRM in the Himalayan region. The study also shows that snow days have slightly decreased in the last three years, hence snowmelt contribution in overall discharge has decreased slightly in the study area. Finally, this study concludes that MOD10A2 and ECMWF precipitation and two-meter temperature products are highly applicable to measure snowmelt and associated discharge through SRM in the BGRB. Moreover, it also helps with proper freshwater planning, efficient use of winter water flow, and mitigating and preventive measures for the flood disaster.