Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New mutational trends in the HA protein of 2009 H 1 N 1 pandemic influenza virus from May 2010 to February 2011

As we enter the year of 2011, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus is in the news again. At least 20 people have died of this virus in China since the beginning of 2011 and it is now the predominant flu strain in the country. Although this novel virus was quite stable during its run in the flu season of 2009-2010, a genetic variant of this virus was found in Singapore in early 2010, and then in Australia and New Zealand during their 2010 winter influenza season. Several critical mutations in the HA protein of this variant were uncovered in the strains collected from January 2010 to April 2010. Moreover, a structural homology model of HA from the A/Brisbane/10/2010(H1N1) strain was made based on the structure of A/California/04/2009 (H1N1). The purpose of this study was to investigate mutations in the HA protein of 2009 H1N1 from sequence data collected worldwide from May 2010 to February 2011. A fundamental problem in bioinformatics and biology is to find the similar gene sequences for a given gene sequence of interest. Here we proposed the inverse problem, i.e., finding the exemplars from a group of related gene sequences. With a clustering algorithm affinity propagation, six exemplars of the HA sequences were identified to represent six clusters. One of the clusters contained strain A/Brisbane/12/2010(H1N1) that only differed from A/Brisbane/10/2010 in the HA sequence at position 449. Based on the sequence identity of the six exemplars, nine mutations in HA were located that could be used to distinguish these six clusters. Finally, we discovered the change of correlation patterns for the HA and NA of 2009 H1N1 as a result of the HA receptor binding specificity switch, revealing the balanced interplay between these two surface proteins of the virus.
Morphological variation in selected rice (Oryza sativa L.) germplasm of Sri Lanka

Abstract : Genetic improvement of rice for increased grain yield has changed plant height and canopy architecture of the rice ( Oryza sativa L.). Under such circumstances, selection based on grain yield only can lead to the loss of other important characteristics of the low-yielding traditional rice varieties. In this context, morphological variation among traditional and improved Sri Lankan rice varieties using important vegetative and reproductive characteristics was studied. Principal component (PC) and cluster analyses were used to assess the patterns of morphological variation. The first five PCs explained over 90% of the total variation. PC1 and PC4 represented vegetative characteristics (i.e. plant height, leaf dry weight, leaf area, stem dry weight), and PC2, PC3 and PC5 represented reproductive characteristics (i.e. number of filled and total grains panicle-1, number of panicles m-2, number of tillers hill-1 and hundred grain weight). PC1 was found to be not important to explain the variability of grain yield among rice varieties in the presence of PC2-PC5. Based on both vegetative and reproductive characteristics, two clusters in each of the improved and traditional variety groups were identified and the existence of those clusters were proved by Wilks’ lambda under multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Traditional varieties had a comparatively higher variation in their vegetative and reproductive characteristics. The implications of the results for rice improvement and germplasm conservation are also discussed. Keywords : Improved and traditional varieties, morphological variation, multivariate methods, rice, vegetative and reproductive characteristics. Doi: 10.4038/jnsfsr.v39i2. 3173 J.Natn. Sci.Foundation Sri Lanka 2011 39 (2): 129 - 137
ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF SUGAR BEET PULP

Marijana B. Sakac, Draginja M. Pericin, Anamarija I. Mandic and Sandor M. Kormanjos The ethanolic extract of sugar beet pulp at 100% exibited good antioxidant activity of 69.74%. It showed an excellent scavenging activity on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (84.94%) and was a mild chelator for ferrous and cupric ions. On the basis of some identified phenolic acids in ethanolic extract from sugar beet pulp it is concluded that predominant acids (ferulic, gentisic and p-coumaric acid), which have been previously evidented as relatively potent antioxidants, contribute to the antioxidant properties of the investigated extract. Antioxidative nature of ethanolic extract from sugar beet pulp, that is sugar beet pulp itself, indicate that it could be used as antioxidative component for decreasing oxidative changes in foods.
Improving University Students’ Writing Skills in Pakistan

The education system of Pakistan is not unified. Students mainly attend three types of schools with different languages as medium of instruction; private schools, public schools and religious schools (called locally madrassas). Even though mother tongue education is emphasized in education and literacy circles, Pakistan has not been able to implement policies that would allow all students to be taught in their mother tongue. Since mother tongue education (MLE) is not a reality, students have been facing many issues, especially in those regions of the country where Urdu is not spoken at home, rather a different regional language, dialect or language variety. A conference was held in Karachi, where data about the language situation of the country was collected at level one of the data collection and at level two, eighteen experts were interviewed, who provided a list of recommendations to address the matters found at level one, for the improvement of the writing skills of the students all over the country. The most important of these recommendations were to ensure that the students engage on enough writing practice and proper programs of instruction are set into place with properly trained instructors.
The Components of the Bid-Ask Spread: The Case of the Athens Stock Exchange

"We analyse the components of the bid-ask spread in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), which was recently characterised as a developed market. For large and medium capitalisation stocks, we estimate the adverse selection and the order handling component of the spreads as well as the probability of a trade continuation on the same side of either the bid or the ask price, using the" "Madhavan et al. (1997)""model. We extend it by incorporating the traded volume and we find that the adverse selection component exhibits U-shape patterns, while the cost component pattern depends on the stock price. For high priced stocks, the usual U-shape applies, while for low-priced ones, it is an increasing function of time, mainly due to the order handling spread component. Furthermore, the expected price change and the liquidity adjustment to Value-at-Risk that is needed are higher in the low capitalisation stocks, while the most liquid stocks are the high priced ones. Moreover, by estimating the" "Madhavan et al. (1997)""model for two distinct periods we explain why there are differences in the components of the bid-ask spread. " Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Interactions of bioactive quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) extract with biomolecules

The study is concerned with biological activity of quince (Q) fruit extract (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) towards the phosphatidylcholine liposome and the natural lipid-protein erythrocyte membrane, as well as will explaining the40 way of interaction of the extract with the membrane. The results showed that Q extract protects lipids against oxidation induced by AAPH compound to a similar extent in two models of membrane. Studies with probes (Laurdan and DPH) located at different depths within the membrane lipid bilayer showed that extract caused an increase of the packing order of the polar heads of lipids and a slight decrease in mobility of the acyl chains. Such results suggest that extract molecules associate with the lipid and lipid-protein membrane and can stop the propagation of free radicals within the bilayer by modifying the membrane fluidity. Furthermore, Q extract resulted in the inhibition of the activity of enzymes (cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2) probably involved in inflammatory reactions in the body. The experimental results proved that extract components can bind to the main plasma protein – human serum albumin, and the quenching mechanism was suggested as static. The obtained quince–albumin binding constants show that the extract probably can be transported from the circulatory system to reach its target organ.
Determination of evapotranspiration and water use efficiency in crop production.

The main concern in cultivating crops has always been water availability. To increase food production, water plays a major role after securing a large portion of land area. Knowledge of the factors influencing crop water use efficiency and hope to increase the efficiency has continued to be an objective in many modern studies. The gap between irrigation supply and demand is increasing from year to year as a result of an increase in population growing rate and people moving from place to place. Searching for new water may be a too difficult and very expensive process, so the shortest and easiest way is to maximize the water use efficiency throughout optimizing water use efficiency and the first step on that is determination of the actual crop water requirements.
Isotope effects in N 2 O photolysis from first principles

Abstract. For the first time, accurate first principles potential energy surfaces allow N 2 O cross sections and isotopic fractionation spectra to be derived that are in agreement with all available experimental data, extending our knowledge to a much broader range of conditions. Absorption spectra of rare N- and O-isotopologues ( 15 N 14 N 16 O, 14 N 15 N 16 O, 15 N 2 16 O, 14 N 2 17 O and 14 N 2 18 O) calculated using wavepacket propagation are compared to the most abundant isotopologue ( 14 N 2 16 O). The fractionation constants as a function of wavelength and temperature are in excellent agreement with experimental data. The study shows that excitations from the 3rd excited bending state, (0,3,0), and the first combination state, (1,1,0), are important for explaining the isotope effect at wavelengths longer than 210 nm. Only a small amount of the mass independent oxygen isotope anomaly observed in atmospheric N 2 O samples can be explained as arising from photolysis.
Study of a V-shape flame based on IR spectroscopy and IR imaging

Applicability of an IR imaging/spectroscopy diagnostic was tested on a laboratory- scale flame. For this purpose, measurements were carried out on a V-shape flame developed along a wall, with the aim of evaluating the wall temperature and of identifying the flame properties (temperature and species concentrations). Infrared measurements with a multiband camera and a spectrometer were post-processed and compared, in particular, with thermocouple measurements carried out for the wall temperature. Simple evaluation involving a correction for the emissivity showed a quite good agreement when assessed against experimental data. An attempt to reconstruct a flame emission spectrum was also carried out, expecting a possible inverse identification of the flame properties. The method showed a promising behaviour on synthetic data built with a radiative transfer model for gas and wall radiation. However, the spectrum reconstruction method is not yet accurate enough to allow an identification of the flame properties in full confidence when applied to actual experimental data. First tests showed a correct qualitative behaviour, but model refinements are required at least for the flame radiation, before getting accurate flame properties.
Large Deviations of a Spatially-Stationary Network of Interacting Neurons

In this work we determine a process-level Large Deviation Principle (LDP) for a model of interacting neurons indexed by a lattice Z d. The neurons are subject to noise, which is modelled as a correlated martingale. The probability law governing the noise is strictly stationary, and we are therefore able to find a LDP for the probability laws Π n governing the stationary empirical measure µ n generated by the neurons in a cube of length (2n + 1). We use this LDP to determine an LDP for the neural network model. The connection weights between the neurons evolve according to a learning rule / neuronal plasticity, and these results are adaptable to a large variety of neural network models. This LDP is of great use in the mathematical modelling of neural networks, because it allows a quantification of the likelihood of the system deviating from its limit, and also a determination of which direction the system is likely to deviate. The work is also of interest because there are nontrivial correlations between the neurons even in the asymptotic limit, thereby presenting itself as a generalisation of traditional mean-field models.
Availability Aspects Through Optimization Techniques Based Outlier Detection Mechanism in Wireless and Mobile Networks

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are the two most prominent wireless technologies for implementing a complete smart environment for the Internet of Things (IoT). Both RFID and WSN are resource constraint devices, which forces us to go for lightweight cryptography for security purposes. Security in terms of confidentiality, integrity, authentication, authorization, and availability. Key management is one of the major constraints for resource constraint mobile sensor devices. This work is an extension of the work done by Kumar et al. using efficient error prediction and limit of agreement for anomaly score. This work ensures cryptographic property, availability, in RFID-WSN integrated network through outlier detection mechanism for 50 to 5000 nodes network. Through detection ratios and anomaly scores system is tested against outliers. The proposed outlier detection mechanism identifies the inliers and outliers through anomaly score for protection against Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. Intruders can be detected in few milliseconds without giving any conflict to the access rights. In terms of throughput, a minimum improvement of 6.2% and a maximum of 219.9% is observed for the proposed protocol as compared to Kumar et al. Protocol and in terms of percentage of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), a minimum improvement of 8.9% and a maximum of 19.5% is observed for the proposed protocol as compared to Kumar et al. protocol.
Glacial geomorphology of Marguerite Bay Palaeo-Ice stream, western Antarctic Peninsula

This paper presents a glacial geomorphological map of over 17,000 landforms on the bed of a major palaeo-ice stream in Marguerite Bay, western Antarctic Peninsula. The map was compiled using various geophysical datasets from multiple marine research cruises. Eight glacial landform types are identified: mega-scale glacial lineations, crag-and-tails, whalebacks, gouged, grooved and streamlined bedrock, grounding-zone wedges, subglacial meltwater channels, gullies and channels, and iceberg scours. The map represents one of the most complete marine ice-stream signatures available for scrutiny, and these data hold much potential for reconstructing former ice sheet dynamics, testing numerical ice sheet models, and understanding the formation of subglacial bedforms beneath ice streams. In particular, they record a complex bedform signature of palaeo-ice stream flow and retreat since the last glacial maximum, characterised by considerable spatial variability and strongly influenced by the underlying geology. The map is presented at a scale of 1: 750,000, designed to be printed at A2 size, and encompasses an area of 128,420 km2.
Distracted Students: A Comparison of Multiple Types of Distractions on Learning in Online Lectures

Unique distractions are present in nonclassroom environments, and many students attempt to multitask while learning online. This study examines the effect of six distractions (folding laundry, playing a computer video game, texting on a cell phone, engaging in conversation, watching a low-arousal video, and watching a high-arousal video) on learning and subsequent recall as assessed by a posttest. Compared to a baseline no-distraction condition, all six of the distractions significantly impaired posttest performance, from a baseline average of 87% correct to a distraction average of 62% correct, t(202) = 15.30, p < . 001, Cohen’s d = 1.30. In addition to objective measurements of learning, students self-reported their own assessments of learning during the distractions. Judgments of learning were poor for the high-arousal video. We discuss these findings both theoretically and for their practical application to learning in online environments.
RELIABLE VEHICULAR CONSUMPTION PREDICTION BASED ON MACHINE LEARNING

A robust prediction model is developed for reliably estimating vehicular consumption. This model is distinguished from other models proposed so far for the following reasons: it detects the factors contributing into vehicular consumption, it applies machine learning functionality for approximating the nonlinearities and the specificities between the contributing factors, and it is capable of implicitly adapting to the characteristics of the vehicle, the road network and the contextual conditions through its learning process. The authors validated its efficiency by applying it on measurements collected during a data acquisition campaign, which was performed by a fully electric vehicle (FEV) in an urban road network.
A Proton Recoil Telescope for Neutron Spectroscopy

The N2P research program funded by the INFN committee for Experimental Nuclear Physics (CSNIII) has among his goals the construction of a Proton Recoil Telescope (PRT), a detector to measure neutron energy spectra. The interest in such a detector is primarily related to the SPES project for rare beams production at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro. For the SPES project it is, in fact, of fundamental importance to have reliable information about energy spectra and yield for neutrons produced by d or p projectiles on thick light targets to model the "conversion target" in which the p or d are converted in neutrons. These neutrons, in a second stage, will induce the Uranium fission in the "production target". The fission products are subsequently extracted, selected and re-accelerated to produce the exotic beam. The neutron spectra and angular distribution are important parameters to define the final production of fission fragments. In addition, this detector can be used to measure neutron spectra in the field of cancer therapy (this topic is nowadays of particular interest to INFN, for the National Centre for Hadron therapy (CNAO) in Pavia) and space applications.
Business Process Reengineering of academic R&D organizations in the Republic of Moldova: opportunities and risks

This article reviews the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) vision, focusing on the importance of information systems/information technologies (IS/IT) in BPR project. Although there is a lack of experience in implementing BPR in R&D organization, the key elements as necessary resources, the methodology containing possible scheme of IS/IT reengineering is proposed. Opportunities and risks of BPR project in R&D organization are highlighted in the paper.
On Technology in Innovation Systems and Innovation-Ecosystem Perspectives: A Cross-Linking Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of technology as it has been framed within Innovation System (IS) and Innovation Ecosystem (IE) literature research streams. The methodological choice is a systemic review that allows to focus on theoretical proposals by scholars and the identification of the commonalities regarding the pivotal role of technology and the differences in describing innovation-based mechanisms in both literatures. Results show that the key elements are the overall idea of technology as pivotal in driving innovation, the actors affecting technology and contributing to reach innovation-based goals, and the decisional process emerging because of technology. Furthermore, emerging features on evolution through time and knowledge-transforming mechanisms favored by technology in IE show an opportunity to learn in-depth from specific insights generated in both the literatures and to delineate a more comprehensive approach to technology related to innovation in wider interconnected contexts.
Teachers’ Rooms Environmental Assessment Scale: Development and Psychometric Evaluation

Teachers’ rooms [Editor1] are important parts of educational environments, as the quality of the physical-spatial and psychosocial conditions may affect the personal and occupational developments of teachers as well as the education processes. In Study 1 (n = 245), a Teachers’ Rooms-Environmental Assessment Scale (TREAS) measure of the current conditions of teachers’ rooms and the determination of the teachers’ opinions on such conditions was developed, and the initial validity evidence is presented. In Study 2 (n = 443) a confirmatory factor analyses showed support for the scale’s two-factor approach. The scale factor conclusions were that the first factor should be labelled ‘communication’; the second factor labelled ‘physical environment’ as sub-scales. The internal consistency reliability was . 95. The corrected item-total correlations ranged from . 49 to . 81. All studies of the analysis indicated that TREAS was a valid and reliable measurement for the teacher sample. [Editor1] Remark: Please note that as per British English conventions, this is called a ‘Staff room. ’ Please check if this needs to be revised.
Inhibition inDiffuse Intrinsic PontineGlioma

Purpose: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a highly aggressive pediatric brain tumor, for which no effective therapeutic options currently exist. We here determined the potential of inhibition of the maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) for the treatment of DIPG. Experimental Design:We evaluated the antitumor efficacy of the small-molecule MELK inhibitor OTSSP167 in vitro in patient-derived DIPG cultures, and identified the mechanism of action of MELK inhibition in DIPG by RNA sequencing of treated cells. In addition, we determined the blood–brain barrier (BBB) penetration of OTSSP167 and evaluated its translational potential by treating mice bearing patientderived DIPG xenografts. Results: This study shows that MELK is highly expressed in DIPG cells, both in patient samples and in relevant in vitro and in vivo models, and that treatment with OTSSP167 strongly decreases proliferation of patient-derived DIPG cultures. Inhibition of MELK in DIPG cells functions through reducing inhibitory phosphorylation of PPARg , resulting in an increase in nuclear translocation and consequent transcriptional activity. Brain pharmacokinetic analyses show that OTSSP167 is a strong substrate for both MDR1 and BCRP, limiting its BBB penetration. Nonetheless, treatment ofMdr1a/b;Bcrp1 knockout mice carrying patient-derived DIPG xenografts with OTSSP167 decreased tumor growth, induced remissions, and resulted in improved survival. Conclusion: We show a strong preclinical effect of the kinase inhibitor OTSSP167 in the treatment of DIPG and identify the MELK–PPARg signaling axis as a putative therapeutic target in this disease. Clin Cancer Res; 1–13. 2018 AACR.