Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytotoxic Sesquiterpenoid from the Seeds of Amomum xanthioides

As parts of our continuing search for biologically active compounds from medicinal plants, we investigated the constituents of the seeds of Amomum xanthioides and isolated a sesquiterpenoid, a nerolidol derivative from its MeOH extract. The chemical structure was determined by spectroscopic methods, including 1D and 2D NMR to be (,,)-2-(5'-ethenyltetrahydro-5'-methylfuran-2'-yl)-6-methylhept-5en-2-ol (1). Compound 1 was isolated for the first time from nature source. Compound 1 exhibited a good cytotoxicity against SK-OV-3 and SK-MEL-2 cells (: 16.7 and , respectively) using a SRB bioassay. In this study, we also determined the absolute configuration of 2 reported in previous paper.
ADAPTIVE OUTPUT FEEDBACK CONTROL OF NONLINEAR NON-MINIMUM PHASE SYSTEMS USING NEURAL NETWORKS

This paper presents an adaptive output feedback control method for nonlinear non-minimum phase systems. The control is designed based on neural networks and robust control techniques. The inputs to the neural network are the tapped delayed values of the system input-output signals. The adaptation law for the neural network weights is obtained using the Lyapunov’s direct method. In addition, since the controller depends on the output signal, the controller is always accessible and the state estimation is not required. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme will be shown through simulations for a nonlinear non-minimum phase system.
A DEVELOPMENT AND VERIFICATION OF DENSITY BASED SOLVER USING LU-SGS ALGORITHM IN OPENFOAM

A development and verification of density based solver using LU-SGS(Lower Upper Symmetric Gauss Seidel) Algorithm in OpenFOAM(Open Field Operation And Manipulation) was performed. A pressure based solver in OpenFOAM for solving incompressible flow was modified to density based solver for dealing with compressible flows. It was not only developed implicit LU-SGS algorithm instead of an explicit time integration in OpenFOAM but implemented Riemann boundary condition which has not been developed in OpenFOAM. In addition, libraries such as wall shear stress dictionary in OpenFOAM were modified to solve and handle compressible problems. To validate the developed code, some validation models which are widely used were analyzed. Preliminary results showing the comparison between an experiment and computation data indicated that our setup in OpenFOAM was correct.
Tidal elevation and parasitism: patterns of infection by the rhizocephalan parasite Sacculina carcini in shore crabs Carcinus maenas

While the distinct zonation patterns of benthic organisms along intertidal elevation gradients have been extensively documented, relatively little is known about the impact that tidal elevation has on the distribution and abundance of marine parasites that are common in intertidal ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the distribution of shore crabs Carcinus maenas infected with the rhizocephalan parasite Sacculina carcini at 12 locations and in 3 adjacent habitats (intertidal mussel beds, intertidal bare sand flats and subtidal gullies) along a tidal elevation gradient in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Our sampling revealed that of the 27 629 crabs investigated, most infected crabs were found in the subtidal gullies and almost none on intertidal bare sand flats or mussel beds at all of the 12 locations. This probably resulted from a parasite-induced manipulation of infected crabs to behave like egg-bearing females which migrate towards deeper waters, as the same pattern was observed in the distribution of non-infected ovigerous females. The prevalence of both infected crabs and ovigerous females in the gullies was significantly correlated with water depth, and both tended to increase (albeit not significantly) with increasing salinity. As water depth and salinity are expected to affect larval survival of both parasites and crabs, this suggests that the migration into subtidal habitats may result in favourable conditions for reproduction and dispersal. By using a replicated and nested sampling design as well as a large sample size, our study significantly increases the limited understanding of parasite distributions along tidal elevation gradients.
Automatic Extraction of Euclidean Isosurfaces for Visualization of Dysplastic Lesions from Brain MRI

Curvilinear reformatting of MR images has been very useful in epilepsy research for detecting dysplastic lesions in the human brain. However, the method requires careful manual delineation and introduces artifacts. We present a fully automated approach to extract an “envelope” of the brain and obtain surfaces of same Euclidean distance to the envelope. The visualization of the voxel intensities on these isosurfaces substitute the previous procedure, eliminating its artifacts. The new approach was successfully evaluated over 40 controls and 10 patients with dysplastic lesions.
PROTEASE: AN ENZYME WITH MULTIPLE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Proteases or peptidases constitute the largest group of enzymes in bioindustry with a long array of uses. They play an invincible role in industrial biotechnology, especially in detergent, food and pharmaceutical arena. Interest has been growing in microbial proteases which has eco-friendly as well as commercial importance. This focused review encompasses an overview on proteases, mainly of microbial sources in a handy module. Its classification with evolutionary insight, major sources of proteases (animal, plant and microbial including fungal, bacterial), and their general properties are discussed. In addition to this, an overview on the applications of proteases in detergent, tannery, food, metal recovery and waste treatment industries is also addressed briefly.
Modeling the Ecosystem Services Provided by Trees in Urban Ecosystems: Using Biome-BGC to Improve i-Tree Eco

As the world becomes increasingly urban, the need to quantify the effect of trees in urban environments on energy usage, air pollution, local climate and nutrient run-off has increased. By identifying, quantifying and valuing the ecological activity that provides services in urban areas, stronger policies and improved quality of life for urban residents can be obtained. Here we focus on two radically different models that can be used to characterize urban forests. The i-Tree Eco model (formerly UFORE model) quantifies ecosystem services (e.g., air pollution removal, carbon storage) and values derived from urban trees based on field measurements of trees and local ancillary data sets. Biome-BGC (Biome BioGeoChemistry) is used to simulate the fluxes and storage of carbon, water, and nitrogen in natural environments. This paper compares i-Tree Eco's methods to those of Biome-BGC, which estimates the fluxes and storage of energy, carbon, water and nitrogen for vegetation and soil components of the ecosystem. We describe the two models and their differences in the way they calculate similar properties, with a focus on carbon and nitrogen. Finally, we discuss the implications of further integration of these two communities for land managers such as those in Maryland.
A NEW VALIDATED STABILITY-INDICATING RP-HPLC METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ENTECAVIR

INTRODUCTION: [4-5] BARACLUDE® is the tradename for entecavir, a guanosine nucleoside analogue with selective activity against HBV. The chemical name for entecavir is 2-amino-1,9-dihydro-9-[(1S,3R,4S)-4hydroxy-3(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylenecyclopentyl]-6H-purin-6one, monohydrate. Its molecular formula is C12H15N5O3•H2O, which corresponds to a molecular weight of 295.3. Entecavir has the following structural formula:
1 Rex 1 - 36 #6CBCC

The community of authors in this volume share the good fortune of having found an intellectual and methodological home for pursuit of their research interests. That home is interactional ethnography. The ensuing chapters present beginning researchers’ initial explorations in using this approach for researching issues of deep concern to them and to society, often what drew them to graduate school. These chapters reflect work in the process of evolving into professional scholarship, work its authors hope will eventually make a difference. Although they drew sustenance from the publications of senior researchers and scholars, especially interactional ethnographers, the authors did not imitate that work. Rather, they strove to emulate it in order to find their own ways of conceptualizing and designing studies that inform important issues in their fields. This collection of studies reflects different commitments, frameworks, and designs for research, and yet all of them began with interactional ethnography. All the chapters share the same question: How do the practices and processes of teaching and learning create and constrain opportunities for teaching and for learning? All the researchers want to study and represent these processes in action, that is, the practices of
Efficacy of Intracellular Immune Checkpoint-SilencedDendritic Cell Vaccine

In order to construct a recombinant replication-deficient adenoviral vector, designated as AdsiSSF, which coexpresses a small hairpin human SOCS1-siRNA (siSOCS1), dominant negative (DN) survivin and MUC1 fusion protein, and a secretory flagellin, the TLR5 ligand (SupplementaryFig. 1A), we first modified survivin, MUC1, and flagellin genes, as well as identified siRNA that can effectively silence human SOCS1 (5’-CACGCACTTCCGCACATTC3’). Because of the anti-apoptotic biological activity of survivin for the potential promotion of malignant cell survival and transformation, two mutations were introduced into the survivin gene to generate a DN survivin mutant. A substitution mutation of Thr with Ala in position 34 was made to eliminate the p34-cyclin B1 phosphorylation site and anti-apoptotic activity, as described previously(1). Moreover, to avoid possible reverse mutation of the survivin mutant back to a functional phosphorylation site, a 16 amino acid truncation at the N-terminus of survivin was further made since the N-terminal sequence is required for its inhibition of apoptosis (2). We used a short human mucin 1 (MUC1) fragment containing only a three 20 amino acid tandem repeat sequence, because a known dominant T cell epitope is located within the 20 amino acid repeat(3)and full-length or lengthyMUC1 protein was found to have immune suppressive activity by inhibiting a Th1-type CTL response(4). To generate a DN survivinMUC1 fusion gene (DN SM) as target tumor-associated antigens for the Ad-siSSF vector, the double mutated DN survivin was genetically linked in-frame to the three 20 amino acid repeat fragment of MUC1. For facilitating the secretion and subsequent interaction with surface TLR5 on DCs of flagellin by transfected DCs, a signal leader sequence derived from human tyrosinase was genetically linked to the N-terminus of the flagellin gene. We also identified siRNA with the ability to specifically downregulate human SOCS1 (SupplementaryFig. 1B).
The Forgotten Leader In Agricultural Education: Rufus W. Stimson

In a recen t article in The Jou rna l o f t he Amer i can Assoc ia t i on o f Teacher Educa to rs i n Ag r i cu l t u re , t he 10 i nd i v idua l s who had con t r i bu ted the mos t t o t he deve lopmen t o f agricultural educa t i on we re i den t i f i ed (Camp & Crunk i l ton , 1985) . T h i s e f f o r t t o d o c u m e n t t h e h i s t o r i c a l l y impo r tan t peop le i n t he p ro fess lon I s t o be commended . The men i den t i f i e d i n t h e a r t i c l e h a v e p r o v i d e d l e a d e r s h i p t o t h e p r o f e s s l o n a n d deserve the recogn i t i on accorded them. However, fo r those who are we l l g r o u n d e d i n t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e p r o f e s s i o n , o n e n a m e w a s n o t i c e a b l y absent--Rufus W. S t imson .
Extraction of coherent clusters and grid adaptation in particle-laden turbulence using wavelet filters

In this study, a wavelet-based method for extraction of clusters of inertial particles in turbulent flows is presented that is based on decomposing Eulerian particle-number-density fields into the sum of coherent (organized) and incoherent (disorganized) components. The coherent component is associated with the clusters and is extracted by filtering the wavelet-transformed particle-number-density field based on an energy threshold. The method is applied to direct numerical simulations of homogeneous-isotropic turbulence laden with small Lagrangian particles. The analysis shows that in regimes where the preferential concentration is important, the coherent component representing the clusters can be described by just 1.6% of the total number of wavelet coefficients, thereby illustrating the sparsity of the particle-number-density field. On the other hand, the incoherent portion is visually structureless and much less correlated than the coherent one. An application of the method, motivated by particle-laden radiative-heat-transfer simulations, is illustrated in the form of a grid-adaptation algorithm that results in nonuniform meshes with fine and coarse elements near and away from particle clusters, respectively. In regimes where preferential concentration in clusters is important, the grid adaptation leads to a significant reduction of the number of control volumes by one to two orders of magnitude.
Genetic relationships among objectively and subjectively assessed traits measured on crossbred (Mule) lambs

Sheep farming in the UK is characterized by a crossbreeding system where ‘Longwool’ sire breeds are mated with hill dam breeds, with the crossbred (F 1 ) ewe lambs retained for mating to terminal sires. The F 1 wether and terminal-sire cross lambs are marketed for meat. At selection, F 1 females are typically assessed visually for type traits relevant to dam lines, and these traits could be considered as goal traits. Their offspring and their male sibs derive their value from carcass traits. This study investigated the genetic relationships between type (subjective) and carcass (objective) traits in F 1 lambs, and their potential impact on genetic improvement within this production system. Bluefaced Leicester rams were crossed with Scottish Blackface and Hardy Speckled Face ewes to produce F 1 (‘Mule’) lambs. The wether lambs (no.=2197) were selected for slaughter at a target condition (a carcass fat score of 2/3L) and a number of live and carcass traits were measured. Carcass dissection data were collected on approximately one-third of these wether lambs. The ewe lambs (no.=2423) were measured for similar live traits but at a fixed age (195±5·5 days). In addition, they were subjectively assessed for a number of functional and type traits. Genetic parameters among these traits were then estimated. Heritabilities for the ewe traits were generally moderate (0·18 to 0·31) and genetic correlations between the traits were variable, with some moderate to high correlations (favourable in direction) of growth/carcass traits with overall type traits. Live weight at slaughter in wethers was highly correlated to live weight at constant age in ewes ( r =0·72). In the wethers, live, cold carcass and lean weight had moderately high heritabilities (between 0·26 and 0·46), and were positively correlated with slaughter age (≥0·79). However, age at slaughter in wethers was highly negatively correlated with growth/carcass and overall type traits in ewes (between −0·45 and −0·97), perhaps reflecting differences in maturity in lambs measured at a target fatness versus age. The correlations of most other type traits in ewes with wether traits were non-significant. These results show that the subjectively assessed type traits (at least as measured in this study) will not deteriorate, and some will in fact be improved, in a selection programme aiming to improve carcass merit.
RECOGNITION OF PANEL STRUCTURE IN COMIC IMAGES USING FASTER R-CNN

For efficient e-comics creation, automatic extracting technique for comic components such as panel layout, speech balloon, and characters is necessary. In the conventional methods, comic components are extracted using geometrical characteristics such as line drawings or connected pixels. However, it is difficult to extract all comic components by focusing on a particular geometric feature, since the components are drawn in various expressions. In this paper, we extract comic components using Faster R-CNN regardless of various comic expressions, and recognize panel structure. Experimental results show proposed method succeed to recognize 67.5% of panel structures on average.
Explicit output-feedback boundary control of reaction-diffusion PDEs on arbitrary-dimensional balls

This paper introduces an explicit output-feedback boundary feedback law that stabilizes an unstable linear constant-coefficient reaction-diffusion equation on an n -ball (which in 2-D reduces to a disk and in 3-D reduces to a sphere) using only measurements from the boundary. The backstepping method is used to design both the control law and a boundary observer. To apply backstepping the system is reduced to an infinite sequence of 1-D systems using spherical harmonics. Well-posedness and stability are proved in the L 2 and H 1 spaces. The resulting control and output injection gain kernels are the product of the backstepping kernel used in control of one-dimensional reaction-diffusion equations and a function closely related to the Poisson kernel in the n -ball.
Functional nerve recovery after bridging a 15 mm rat sciatic nerve gap with a biodegradable nerve guide

Recovery of nerve function was evaluated after bridging a 15 mm sciatic nerve gap in the rat with a biodegradable poly(DL-lactide- e -caprolactone) nerve guide. Nerve recovery was investigated by analyzing the foot prints, by analyzing videorecordings of gait, by electrically eliciting the withdrawal reflex, nerve conduction velocity and electromyography (EMG). Sensory nerve function recovered as measured by the electrostimulation. Motor nerve function partly recovered but electromyograms remained highly abnormal throughout the study. It is concluded that functional reinnervation by regenerating axons occurs after bridging a 15 mm nerve gap with a biodegradable poly(DL-lactide- e -caprolac-tone) nerve guide, but the walking patterns remain abnormal. The use of video analysis is a useful tool to record and analyze the walking patterns of the rat. Further studies are necessary to investigate the possibility of obtaining selective reinnervation of specific muscles.
Standard Lattice-Based Key Encapsulation on Embedded Devices

Lattice-based cryptography is one of the most promising candidates being considered to replace current public-key systems in the era of quantum computing. In 2016, Bos et al. proposed the key exchange scheme FrodoCCS, that is also a submission to the NIST post-quantum standardization process, modified as a key encapsulation mechanism (FrodoKEM). The security of the scheme is based on standard lattices and the learning with errors problem. Due to the large parameters, standard latticebased schemes have long been considered impractical on embedded devices. The FrodoKEM proposal actually comes with parameters that bring standard lattice-based cryptography within reach of being feasible on constrained devices. In this work, we take the final step of efficiently implementing the scheme on a low-cost FPGA and microcontroller devices and thus making conservative post-quantum cryptography practical on small devices. Our FPGA implementation of the decapsulation (the computationally most expensive operation) needs 7,220 look-up tables (LUTs), 3,549 flip-flops (FFs), a single DSP, and only 16 block RAM modules. The maximum clock frequency is 162 MHz and it takes 20.7 ms for the execution of the decapsulation. Our microcontroller implementation has a 66% reduced peak stack usage in comparison to the reference implementation and needs 266 ms for key pair generation, 284 ms for encapsulation, and 286 ms for decapsulation. Our results contribute to the practical evaluation of a post-quantum standardization candidate.
Promoting Cycling and Health In a Disadvantaged Area Of North East Dublin City

Poor health has been identified as an issue for people who live in areas affected by structural disadvantage and social exclusion. One area in the North East of Dublin City has been identified for the development of a project addressing health inequality and promoting a “Healthy Community” by Northside Partnership, a local development company established in 1991 to address social exclusion in designated disadvantaged neighbourhoods. DIT have engaged with Northside Partnership since 2013 in a Students Learning with Communities Initiative to research levels of mobility and the potential for sustainable transportation as a means to promote health within the study area. This paper describes a stage in this ongoing research process, specifically an audit of cycling infrastructure and potential barriers to cycling in the study area. The overall cycling mode share of the pilot area was 3% at the time of the most recent census in 2011. This figure is below the average percentage of cycle modal share of Dublin City and Suburbs (5.4%) and further behind Dublin City Council aspirations to achieve 20-25% of trips by bike by 2022. The study identifies physical barriers to cycling, including poor cycle-ways and cycle parking infrastructure. Proposals for a citywide cycle network, as part of the National Transport Authority’s (NTA) Cycle Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), were reviewed. The proposed NTA network is extensive and comprehensively thought out and will provide good access to the study area if implemented. The project team made certain supplementary recommendations, including greater use of open spaces as a means to both improve the spaces themselves and provide greater connectivity. Some additional feeder routes were recommended within the study area. Additional and improved cycle parking facilities are warranted in strategic locations. The study is strongly supportive of the development of the Santry River Greenway, a proposed greenway that links the area to significant amenity, employment and adjacent neighbourhoods. The development of the Greenway, not just as a physical piece of green infrastructure but as a socially connected community space, is recommended. The study also highlights the need to address pervasive social barriers to cycling uptake which are evident in the area. To successfully deliver projects such as the Santry River Greenway will require investment in community collaborative planning. Ideally meaningful participatory projects to promote cycling and develop community cohesion around the greenway would form part of its investment package. Doing so will yield wider social and economic returns including increased social inclusion and labour market access, supporting the aims and mission of the community partner organisation.