Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITIES OF BOVINE WHEY PROTEINS HYDROLYSED WITH SELECTED LACTOBACILLUS STRAINS

The present study investigated the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of hydrolysates obtained from bovine whey proteins, after hydrolysis with Lactobacillus plantarum strains isolated from ewe milk and Lactobacillus brevis isolated from camel milk. The aim here was to valorize whey proteins and to constitute local collection of bacteria, with potentially interesting technological and biological features. The protein hydrolysis was determined by degree of hydrolysis (DH) and electrophoresis SDS–PAGE, and then optimized using temperature, pH, cells/whey proteins ratio and time incubation. Antioxidant activity of hydrolysates was evaluated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) free radicals scavenging methods. The antibacterial activity was examined by the agar well diffusion assay. The results revealed that Lb. plantarum LBBS2 and Lb. plantarum LBM2 exhibited an optimum of hydrolysis of whey proteins at pH 7, at 30 °C, with (2/1) as ratio cells/whey proteins and after 48 h of incubation. Under these conditions, the hydrolysates exhibited an antibacterial activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, including some pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. Meanwhile, scavenging radical properties by the same hydrolysates reached a maximum after 24 h. These results suggest that Lb. plantarum LBBS2 and Lb. plantarum LBM2 could be used as new potential adjunct bacteria with interesting proteolytic activity. Moreover, milk whey which is the main by-product of food industry could be used for the production of molecules with a promising interest as antioxidants and antibacterials.
Simultaneous modeling of Binary Responses: A sequence of binary models and Ordinal multinomial with Bayesian estimates impacting HIV/AIDS

Background: In this research, we examined several binary factors impact binary outcomes simultaneous and how the information of HIV/AIDS is perceived by the public is associated with outcomes to HIV/AIDS.Methods: We used polytomous responses through a sequence of binary models and a multinomial logistic regression model with Bayesian estimates to analyze the 2009 Mozambique survey data as it pertains to blood test, heard of HIV/AIDS and heard about campaign.Results: The analysis reveals that both heard about HIV and heard about the campaign are represented differentially in testing positive. Wealth, education and thinking of risk is positively associated with heard about HIV and heard about the campaign regardless of HIV. However, religious is a positive factor for social efforts of hearing of HIV/AIDS and the campaign. Both the polytomous response model and the ordinal model with model gave the same findings in regards to the marginal mean. However, the polytomous (conditional) models gave additional information about education.Conclusions: While knowledge of the disease continues to be important, the future social effort to combat HIV in Mozambique may need different strategies in different subpopulation groups.
Evaluation of the Efficiency of a Combined Adsorption–Ultrafiltration System for the Removal of Heavy Metals, Color, and Organic Matter from Textile Wastewater

In this work an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane system was investigated for the treatment of textile wastewater. UF membranes were assisted by activated sludge and minerals, which were employed as sorbents, to remove Cu(II), Pb(II), Zn(II), Ni(II), color, and organics. Significant variations were observed in metal removal efficiencies among the textile wastewater samples of different origin, even at the same pH (= 6) due to the presence of different compounds in wastewater. At the examined pH range (5.63–9.21), the dominant mechanism for copper and lead removal was the formation of insoluble metals due to precipitation and complexation of metal ions with wastewater compounds, including adsorption of metals on suspended solids and colloidal matter. The adsorption process of metals on minerals and activated sludge was the dominant process for nickel and zinc removal at low pH, while precipitation/complexation prevailed at higher pH. The examined adsorption-UF system could produce a treated effluent having low metal concentrations that could be safely discharged into municipal sewers. COD removal ranged from 76%–92% for the five textile wastewater samples. The color removal accomplished was significant (45%–70%), and depended on the type of dye.
High performance Pd catalyst using silica modified titanate nanotubes (STNT) as support and its catalysis toward hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde at ambient temperature

Titanate nanotubes (TNTs) were coupled with amino-propyl-triethoxy silane (KH550) and calcinated at 400 °C, then the silica modified titanate nanotubes (STNTs) were prepared and used as the support of a Pd catalyst by the method of wet-impregnation. The catalyst was characterized with XRD, Raman spectra, TEM, XPS, and H2-TPR/TPD. The silica modification could effectively resist morphology collapse and crystallization of TNT during calcination, and preserve the high surface area of the TNT support, which contribute to the high metal dispersion of loaded Pd. Moreover, the introduced silica could strengthen the metal–support interaction, causing an electronic effect that facilitates the reduction of Pd ions. The Pd/STNT showed 3 times and 2.5 times higher activity than those of commercial Pd/C and unmodified Pd/TNT catalysts towards the selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde at room temperature, respectively, indicating the enhanced catalytic activity by the addition of silica.
Rapid Screening for Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Beer-Spoilage Firmicutes Using a Real-Time Multiplex PCR

Current methods for detection and identification of beer-spoilage bacteria can be time-consuming and may not encompass all beer-spoilage isolates due to targeting of specific species. As such, a rapid method that targets a broader spectrum of beer-spoilage bacteria is likely to be more efficient for initial detection of contamination. Building on our previous real-time PCR (rltPCR) that detects Firmicutes, we created a system that enables concurrent detection and differentiation of gram-negative and -positive brewery-associated Firmicutes. Our two previously described rltPCR hydrolysis probes, which are able to detect all bacteria and Firmicutes, were used in combination with a newly developed probe (GmNeg) that detects only gramnegative brewery-associated Firmicutes. In silico analysis performed to determine the specificity of the GmNeg probe predicted that the probe would detect all gram-negative brewery-associated Firmicutes. This was confirmed by rltPCR analysis of brewery-associated bacteria, with the GmNeg probe showing specificity for gram-negative Firmicutes but not for gram-positive Firmicutes or any non-Firmicutes. The sensitivity of this rltPCR system was 35 fg of DNA per reaction, corresponding to approx. 10–20 bacteria. This multiplex rltPCR will enable brewery quality control laboratories to rapidly screen for brewery-associated Firmicutes, with identification of a contaminant as either a gram-negative or -positive bacterium.
Efficient Filtering Algorithm with Fused Constraint

Sparse modeling is an effective machine-learning method to analyze missing and sparse data. The fused LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) is one of the tech-niques used in sparse modeling. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective optimization technique for the fused LASSO problem based on the method [1]. We then show the main advantage of the proposed technique: the proposed update formula monotonically decreases the objective function.
Fit of Edlen formulae to measure values of the refractive index of air

For accurate interferometric length measurements, the accurately determined value of the refractive index of air is required. In many cases the refractive index is evaluated from measured air parameters. A widely applied set of formulae for this evaluation has been provided by Edlen who fitted existing experimental data. Modified Edlen's formulae are presented which were fitted to values obtained by an air refractometer situated in an environmental chamber. This chamber allows stabilization of the air parameters. A new series of measurements has been performed with three laser wavelengths at 543 nm, 633 nm, and 780 nm and good agreement with the results previously reported has been obtained.
Assessing distillate fuel storage stability by oxygen overpressure

A new oxygen overpressure method has been used to purposely accelerate the reactions leading to insoluble sediments formation by forcing oxygen into solution in the fuel at a pressure of 100 psig and then stressing the fuel under conditions of accelerated storage at various temperatures from 43 to 100˚C. The method makes use of gravimetric determination of the total insolubles formed. In order to test the reliability of this higher temperature method, a mini-round robin was conducted using five middle-distillate fuels tested at four different laboratories at the same 90˚C/16 hr/100 psig conditions. Also, stability data for 26 marine gasoil and for 22 F-76 fuels from a world-wide fuel survey were obtained. The results are compared to results obtained from other standard tests. All results are tabulated in gravimetric form in mg of total insoluble sediment per 100 ml of fuel
LIMITATIONS IN ISOTOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF LABILE PHOSPHATE IN SOILS

Summary Methods used for measuring labile P and assessing the phosphate-fertility status of soils by isotopic dilution as well as assumptions involved in applying the isotope dilution technique were critically evaluated. In the presence of high phosphate-fixing compounds, e.g. reactive iron oxide, labile P may be erroneously overestimated; especially when carrier-free 32P is used. At the end of the isotopic-exchange reaction period, high phosphate-fixing soils may have a higher specific activity in the solid phase than in the solution phase. Methods involving the use of a 0·2 ppm P carrier solution or the addition of an unlabelled carrier to a labelled soil may give satisfactory labile P measurements in low and in medium phosphate-fixing soil. All the methods tried (carrier-free, carrier, and inverse dilution), however, failed to give satisfactory results for the high phosphate-fixing soils.
Nondestructive and Rapid Estimation of Leaf Chlorophyll and Nitrogen Status of Peace Lily Using a Chlorophyll Meter

Abstract Timely and nondestructive detection of leaf nitrogen (N) status could greatly improve nutrient management practices for greenhouse ornamental production. This study evaluated the feasibility of using a SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter for estimating leaf chlorophyll and nitrogen contents of the peace lily (Spathiphyllum Schott). Three cultivars ‘Claudia’, ‘Double Take’, and ‘Petite’ were grown in a soilless substrate and sub-irrigated with solutions containing N at 50, 100, 200, or 400 mg L−1 through an ebb-and-flow system. The SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter was used to measure leaf greenness. Chlorophyll contents of leaves were also analyzed using the dimethyl sulphoxide extraction method. Total N was determined by a CNS Auto-Analyzer. Correlation analyses showed that coefficients (r 2) between SPAD values and leaf chlorophyll contents were 0.83, 0.77, and 0.73 for ‘Claudia’, ‘Double Take’, and ‘Petite’, respectively, and coefficients (r 2) between SPAD values and leaf N contents of ‘Claudia’, ‘Double Take’, and ‘Petite’ were 0.84, 0.82, and 0.91, respectively. These results suggest that the readings from a SPAD meter can be used for rapidly and nondestructively estimating leaf chlorophyll and N status of the peace lily. As high quality Spathiphyllum were produced at the N concentration of 200 mg L−1, the corresponding SPAD values established in this study could facilitate in situ decision-making on N application for the production of the peace lily. #This research was supported by the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station and approved for publication as Journal Series No. R-09531.
Binding and Sulfonation of Poly(acrylic acid) on Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: a Novel, Magnetic, Strong Acid Cation Nano‐Adsorbent

Summary: A novel, magnetic, strong acid cation nano-adsorbent has been developed by the covalent binding of poly(acrylic acid) on the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles followed by sulfonation using sulfanilic acid via carbodiimide activation. The nano-absorbent can be easily recovered or manipulated with an external magnetic field and shows a good capacity for the rapid and efficient adsorption of multivalent metal cations from aqueous solutions. An illustration for the binding and sulfonation of PAA on Fe3O4 nanoparticles to produce a magnetic, strong acid cation nano-adsorbent.
Effects of Mg Local Structure on Mg K-edge XANES Spectra of MgxZn1-xO Alloy: A First-principles Study

Previously, the measured synchrotron x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) spectra of MgxZn1-xO alloy (MZO) samples were fitted by using two crystal structure models, i.e., four-fold wurtzite and six-fold rocksalt, with limited success [Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 261901 (2011)]. For Zn K-edge, the two bases were sufficient for fitting the XANES spectra of intermediate alloy compositions; indicating that majority of the Zn atoms are either four-fold or six-fold coordinated. However, for Mg K-edge, clear deficiency of the fitting can be detected for the intermediate alloy compositions. In this work, first-principles calculations based on density functional theory were carried out to examine other plausible forms of Mg in the alloy. Based on our results, we suggested that the deficiency of the fitting results on Mg K-edge could be attributed to the formation of an unbuckled wurtzite (HX) structure, where Mg atoms are five-fold coordinated. For pure MgO, the HX structure was predicted to be stable under certain tensile strain conditions [Phys. Rev. B 77, 024104 (2008)].
The Changing Nature of Childhood Environments: Investigating Children’s Interactions with Digital Voice Assistants in Light of a New Paradigm

— Based on the theoretical framework of the New Ontological Category Hypothesis (NOCH), this piece of doctoral research (work in progress) investigates the nature of children’s interactions with commercial Digital Voice Assistants (DVAs), such as Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. In a nutshell, NOCH challenges the notion of anthropomorphism and argues that intelligently behaving machines, such as voice assistants, could become ontological categories in their own right within children’s emerging understanding of the world. A methodological strategy is briefly outlined in order to explore NOCH with respect to children’s relative self-disclosure, that is, how children self-disclose personal insights when they interact with DVAs, on the one hand, and humans, on the other hand.
AI – Based Approach for Mobile User Interface Adaptation

— The technological evolution and the advent of smart mobile devices have profoundly changed the daily lives of users. Indeed, users are particularly focused on their smartphones in order to manage their activities, check their e-mails, follow the news, connect to social networks, etc. Despite the impressive technological evolution of smartphones, the user interface remains below expectations of users, especially in terms of adaptation. Parallel to the technological evolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also progressed very significantly. This discipline can improve user-smartphone interaction. Indeed, Machine Learning (ML), for example, offers effective means to adapt the interface according to the habits and changes in the behavior of the user. The goal here is to dynamically reorganize the mobile interfaces by grouping the frequently used applications so they will be more efficiently accessible by users. In this sense, the smartphone’s log files are used to make better data-driven decisions. These logs will be exploited in a ML approach to model the user's behavior and to propose adaptations. In this paper, we discuss the user feedback for the first results of grouping icons.
A Hartree–Fock interaction potential between a rigid asymmetric top and a spherical atom: (H2CO,He)

A basis set of better than ’’triple zeta plus polarization’’ quality is used to compute the interaction potential between a rigid H2CO(1A1) and He(1S). The highly anisotropic energy surface has a slight attraction arising from induction effects at intermolecular separations around 9 a.u. It is fitted to a spherical harmonic expansion to facilitate scattering applications.
U-Net-Based Multispectral Image Generation From an RGB Image

Multispectral images have lower spatial resolution than RGB images. It is difficult to obtain multispectral images with both high spatial resolution and high spectral resolution because of expensive capture setup and sophisticated acquisition processes. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network structure based on U-Net to convert ordinary RGB images into multispectral images with high spectral resolution. Our variant U-Net neural network structure not only preserves detailed features of RGB images, but also promotes the fusion of different feature scales, enhancing the quality of multispectral image generation. Apart from the training stage, our proposed method does not require low-resolution multispectral images, as do some earlier learning-based methods; multispectral images can be obtained using only the corresponding RGB high-resolution images. We also employ the Inception block to achieve richer image features and the feature loss function to optimize the non-local features. Our proposed algorithm achieves state-of-the-art visual effects and quantitative measurements such as RMSE and rRMSE on several different public datasets.
Cross‐sectional TEM investigation of nickel‐catalysed carbon nanotube films grown by plasma‐enhanced CVD

Nickel‐catalysed multiwall carbon nanotubes synthesized by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposition on a silicon substrate with acetylene and ammonia at 700 °C have been characterized by high‐resolution and analytical transmission electron microscopy. The nucleation of the carbon nanotubes occurs as a consequence of the carburization and dusting of supported preformed nickel‐ and silicon‐rich particles. This process yields disintegrated silicon‐containing nickel particles dispersed in dome‐shaped carbon islands adherent to the substrate. The particles act as catalysts for tube growth, resulting in aligned multiwall carbon nanotubes with a bamboo‐like structure anchored to the dome‐shaped carbon islands. The bottom part of the carbon islands contains bundles of graphene sheets orientated parallel to the substrate. The nanotubes are capped with fcc nickel particles containing dissolved silicon. Most of these particles have a conical shape orientated with a <110> direction along the tube growth axis, and with {110} and {111} planes as exposed faces.
HAIROWorldPlugin: a Choreonoid plugin for virtually configuring decommissioning task environment for the robots

This paper describes the HAIROWorldPlugin which is a plugin for Choreonoid. We have developed the plugin functions to virtually conFigure decommissioning task environments and situations for remotely operated robots by referring decommissioning works have conducted in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (FDNPS). HAIROWorldPlugin is a package of our previous development results such as Fluid Dynamics Simulator, Visual Effect Simulator, Communication Traffic Simulator, Motion Recorder, Model File Explorer, Crawler Robot Builder, Terrain Builder, and Operation Command Manager. Each function is explained, and the examples of demonstrations are presented.
Morphine-activated opioid receptors elude desensitization by β-arrestin

μ opioid receptors are targets of native opioid peptides and addictive analgesic drugs. A major clinical liability of opiate drugs is their ability to cause physiological tolerance. Individual opiates, such as morphine and etorphine, differ both in their ability to promote physiological tolerance and in their effects on receptor regulation by endocytosis. Here, we demonstrate that arrestins play a fundamental role in mediating this agonist-selective regulation and that morphine-activated μ receptors fail to undergo arrestin-dependent uncoupling from cognate G proteins. Thus, highly addictive opiate drugs elude a fundamental mode of physiological regulation that is mediated by agonist-specific interaction of opioid receptors with arrestins.
A review of the effects of static stretching in human mobility and strength training as a more powerful alternative: Towards a different paradigm

Flexibility is a measurable physical capacity considered as a key component of physical fitness. Poor flexibility is usually attributed to excessive tension exerted by the antagonist muscles of the movement and, supported by weak scientific evidence, passive stretching is considered as the most effective intervention in the promotion of the muscle extensibility, in attempting to improve mobility. The proposal of this paper is a review of the effects of static stretching in human movement and a presentation of strength training as a more robust alternative based on scientific evidence. First, we try to define which factors influence the ability of the human body to move into their functional safety range of motion. Second, we present a critical scientific literature review of the effects of static stretching in the promotion of range of motion, injury prevention, and sports performance. Third, we propose alternatives to static stretching such as proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, dynamic stretching, and especially strength/resistance training, in the promotion of a better range of motion. Finally, we conclude that perhaps problems of flexibility/mobility should not be addressed with static processes, but with movement.
Convergence analysis of coarse mesh finite difference method applied to two-group three-dimensional neutron diffusion problem

This article presents the convergence analysis of the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) method applied to two-group (2-G) three-dimensional (3D) neutron diffusion problem. Two CMFD algorithms are examined: one-node (1-N) CMFD and two-node (2-N) CMFD. Two test problems are used for the study of the convergence behavior: a model problem of homogeneous 2-G 3D eigenvalue problem and the NEACRP LWR transient benchmark problem. The convergence rates of the 1-N and 2-N CMFD algorithms are numerically measured in terms of the convergence of current correction factors (CCFs). The numerical test results are presented as well as the comparison with the previous analytical study. Overall, 1-N CMFD with the CCF relaxation shows a comparable performance to 2-N CMFD for the realistic 3D rod ejection transients.