Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficiency of Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA to Sequence Characterized Amplified Region Marker Conversion and their Comparative Polymerase Chain Reaction Sensitivity in Cucumber

The conversion of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers to sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers, and the effects of differing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions were studied in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Attempts were made to clone and sequence 75 RAPD PCR products to produce SCAR primers (16 to 22 nucleotides) designed to amplify original RAPD PCR products. The influence of template DNA source, purity, and concentration, MgCl2 concentration, Taq polymerase source, and type of thermocycler upon RAPD and SCAR marker performance was evaluated. Conversion of RAPD to SCAR markers was not universally successful, and SCAR primers reacted differently to varying PCR conditions. Only 48 (64%) of 75 RAPD markers were successfully converted to SCAR markers and 11 (15%) of these reproduced the polymorphism observed with the original RAPD PCR product. Moreover, some SCAR primer pairs produced multiple polymorphic PCR products. The band intensity of SCAR markers were brighter (P = 0.05) than their corresponding RAPD markers with only one exception. The SCAR markers examined were less influenced (P = 0.05) by MgCl2 concentration than their corresponding RAPD markers. However, some SCAR markers were more sensitive to reaction impurities than their RAPD counterparts and SCAR markers tended to be less readily visualized (decrease in frequency of visible PCR product) with low concentrations (1 and 2 m M) of template DNA than their corresponding RAPD markers. Neither the source of Taq nor the type of thermocycler used affected the performance of SCAR and RAPD markers. These data suggest that although SCAR markers may demonstrate enhanced performance over the RAPD markers from which they are derived, careful consideration must be given to both the costs and potential benefits of SCAR marker development in cucumber.
A new genus and species of eyelid-less and limb reduced gymnophthalmid lizard from northeastern Brazil (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae)

Scriptosaura catimbau, a new genus and species of elongate, fossorial, sand swimming eyelid-less gymnophthalmid lizard is described on the basis of specimens obtained at Fazenda Porto Seguro, municipality of Buique, State of Pernambuco, in the Caatingas of northeastern Brazil. The type locality is entirely included within the area of the recently created Parque Nacional do Catimbau. The new lizard lacks external forelimbs, has rudimentary styliform hindlimbs and is further characterized by the absence of prefrontal, frontal, frontoparietal and supraocular scales, and by having one pair of chin shields. A member of the Gymnophthalmini radiation, the new genus is considered to be sister to Calyptommatus from which it differs externally by the absence of an ocular scale and absence of an enlarged temporal scale.
Crowding-induced changes in growth, reproduction and morphology of Daphnia.

1. Daphnia may reach high population densities seasonally, or in patches, in lakes. To test the effects of chemicals released by high daphniid densities on their life-history traits, nine species of Daphnia, D. magna, D. pulicaria, D. pulex, D. hyalina, D. galeata, D. laevis, D. lumholtzi, D. ambigua and D. cucullata, were grown in water from crowded Daphnia cultures in a flow-through system in the presence of abundant food. 2. Water from Daphnia at > 85 L -1 depressed growth rate, and lowered body size and clutch at first reproduction of six species of small-bodied Daphnia (adult body length < 1.8 mm), but had no significant effects on larger species. Two clones of D. pulex differed in their growth rate in response to crowding, indicating that response patterns may vary within species. 3. Chemicals released by crowded D. magna reduced tail spine length in D. lumholtzi and D. cucullata by 37% and 11%, respectively, and induced changes in carapace morphology in D. lumholtzi and D. ambigua. 4. Chemicals released by crowded conspecifics may provide an additional, density-dependent mechanism of population regulation; when large species of Daphnia coexist at a high population density with small species, these chemicals may reinforce the competitive advantage of large species.
A YouTube Dataset with User-level Usage Data: Baseline Characteristics and Key Insights

YouTube is the most popular video sharing platform with more than 2 billion active users and 1 billion hours of video content watched daily. The dominance of YouTube has had a big impact on the performance of Internet protocols, algorithms, and systems. Understanding the interaction of users with YouTube is thus of much interest to the research community. In this context, we collect YouTube watch history data from 243 users spanning a 1.5 year period. The dataset comprises of a total of 1.8 million videos. We use the dataset to analyze and present key insights about user-level usage behavior. We also show that our analysis can be used by researchers to tackle a myriad of problems in the general domains of networking and communication. We present baseline characteristics and also substantiated directions to solve a few representative problems related to local caching techniques, prefetching strategies, the performance of YouTube’s recommendation engine, the variability of user’s video preferences and application specific load provisioning.
Security Performance Analysis for the Downlink NOMA Systems with Outage Constraint

In this work, we investigate the relationship between the reliability and security of a typical two-user downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) communication system. The level of successive interference cancellation (SIC) on NOMA user is considered. The impact of various key parameters on transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the NOMA users with the reliability outage probability (ROP) constraint is discussed. Taking the minimum of transmit SNR for ROP into account, the secrecy outage performance of the downlink NOMA systems is studied and the analytical expressions of the secrecy outage probability of the NOMA system are derived under two cases of eavesdropping capability. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to verify the accuracy of our analysis.
Molecular Evidence for the Nonmonophyly of the Asian Natricid Genus Xenochrophis (Serpentes, Colubroidea) as Inferred from Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genes

Abstract Unresolved phylogenetic relationships within the subfamily Natricinae continue to exist, including the position of the genus Xenochrophis. In the present study, two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b, 12S rRNA) and one nuclear gene (c-mos) were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships among the members of Natricinae, with a special emphasis on the position of the genus Xenochrophis. Two statistical methods, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference, were used for phylogenetic reconstruction. Both the mitochondrial and nuclear datasets produced sufficiently resolved and congruent topologies. Our findings placed the genus Xenochrophis within Natricinae consistently with strong nodal support. Findings also revealed a close association between two Indian natricid snakes, Xenochrophis piscator and Xenochrophis schnurrenbergeri. However Xenochrophis vittatus, from Indonesia, does not cluster with the remaining species of Xenochrophis, suggesting a nonmonophyly of this genus. Overall Natricinae was found to be monophyletic because the two genera, Psammodynastes pulverulentus and Amplorhinus multimaculatus, are now known to be members of the Lamprophiidae. This study also finds a close relationship between the endemic species Lycognathophis seychellensis with the African natricids.
Is apparent instability a guiding feature in visual search?

ABSTRACT Humans are quick to notice if an object is unstable. Does that assessment require attention or can instability serve as a preattentive feature that can guide the deployment of attention? This paper describes a series of visual search experiments, designed to address this question. Experiment 1 shows that less stable images among more stable images are found more efficiently than more stable among less stable; a search asymmetry that supports guidance by instability. Experiment 2 shows efficient search but no search asymmetry when the orientation of the objects is removed as a confound. Experiment 3 independently varies the orientation cues and perceived stability and finds a clear main effect of apparent stability. Experiment 4 shows converging evidence for a role of stability using different stimuli that lack an orientation cue. However, here both search for stable and unstable targets is inefficient. Experiment 5 is a control for Experiment 4, showing that the stability effect in Experiment 4 is not simple side-effects of the geometry of the stimuli. On balance, the data support a role for instability in the guidance of attention in visual search. (184 words)
Analysis and prediction of the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan

In this study, we estimate the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan prior to and after lockdown restrictions were eased. We also project the epidemic curve considering realistic quarantine, social distancing and possible medication scenarios. The pre-lock down value of is estimated to be 1.07 and the post lock down value is estimated to be 1.86. Using this analysis, we project the epidemic curve. We note that if no substantial efforts are made to contain the epidemic, it will peak in mid-September, 2020, with the maximum projected active cases being close to 700, 000. In a realistic, best case scenario, we project that the epidemic peaks in early to mid-July, 2020, with the maximum active cases being around 120, 000. We note that social distancing measures and medication will help flatten the curve; however, without the reintroduction of further lock down, it would be very difficult to make .
Chemical compositions, cytotoxicity and antioxidant activity of the endophytic fungus Fusarium napiforme isolated from Psidium guajava

The bioactive secondary metabolites from the endophytic fungus Fusarium napiforme was evaluated for the cytotoxic effect and antioxidant activity. The total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of the extract was determined by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), phosphomolybdate, and reducing power assay methods. The cytotoxicity of the extract was evaluated against lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells and mouse embryo fibroblast (NIH3T3) cells by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method. The major composition of the crude extract was identified by the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Estimation of the endophyte crude extract revealed a high amount of the total flavonoid content (TFC) and total phenolic content (TPC). The extract showed high cytotoxic activity against the A549 cell line with the mean cytotoxicity of 69.74 ± 0.49%. The extract did not show any cytotoxic effect against the NIH3T3 cell line. The extract exhibited high antioxidant activity as a function of the concentrations. At a test concentration of 1 mg ml-1, the extract showed the highest inhibition against DPPH radical at 75.4607%±0.47688, ferric ion reducing power at 0.882±0.0120, and 255.434±21.404 AAE/g of the extract by phosphomolybdenum assay (PMA). There is a significant correlation between TPC and antioxidant activity at p < 0.05. The correlation between reducing power and DPPH is significant at p < 0.01. The major types of bioactive compounds identified by the GC-MS have shown the presence of nine major compounds. This result strongly exhibits that the endophyte F. napiforme can be a potential source for the formulation of natural anticancer drugs and protecting the body from oxidative damages.
Differential regression testing for REST APIs

Cloud services are programmatically accessed through REST APIs. Since REST APIs are constantly evolving, an important problem is how to prevent breaking changes of APIs, while supporting several different versions. To find such breaking changes in an automated way, we introduce differential regression testing for REST APIs. Our approach is based on two observations. First, breaking changes in REST APIs involve two software components, namely the client and the service. As such, there are also two types of regressions: regressions in the API specification, i.e., in the contract between the client and the service, and regressions in the service itself, i.e., previously working requests are "broken" in later versions of the service. Finding both kinds of regressions involves testing along two dimensions: when the service changes and when the specification changes. Second, to detect such bugs automatically, we employ differential testing. That is, we compare the behavior of different versions on the same inputs against each other, and find regressions in the observed differences. For generating inputs (sequences of HTTP requests) to services, we use RESTler, a stateful fuzzer for REST APIs. Comparing the outputs (HTTP responses) of a cloud service involves several challenges, like abstracting over minor differences, handling out-of-order requests, and non-determinism. Differential regression testing across 17 different versions of the widely-used Azure networking APIs deployed between 2016 and 2019 detected 14 regressions in total, 5 of those in the official API specifications and 9 regressions in the services themselves.
Bacteria and phytoplankton production rates in eight river stretches of the middle Rio Doce hidrographic basin (southeast Brazil)

Estudos das taxas de producao secundaria bacteriana (PSB), junto com as de producao primaria fitoplanctonica (PPF) em ecossistemas loticos sao escassos na literatura. Estimativas de PSB e de PPF foram realizadas durante os periodos de chuva e seca em 8 rios de diferentes ordens e submetidos a diferentes graus de impactos antropicos (diferentes graus de trofia). O objetivo foi quantificar e comparar PSB, PPF e as taxas PSB/PPF para inferir sobre a importância destas comunidades na fixacao de carbono nestes ecossistemas loticos. Os resultados deste estudo permitem concluir que o rio Ipanema e o ambiente mais alterado pelo aporte de efluentes de origem antropica, e que este aporte altera o grau de trofia em todos os ambientes, refletindo diretamente nas estimativas da PSB.
The Meritocratic Organizational Behavior for Management in Educational Organizations

It is proposed to analyze here the interaction between the essential factors of organizational behavior and the principles of meritocracy, aiming to guide the improvement of the merit system for governance in the campi of the Instituto Federal do Mato Grosso. The instrument of collection was applied in 19 campi and grouped in 3 for analysis. We sought to identify the interrelationships between the variables of human behavior and the merits in the conception of the managers. A quantitative methodology was used, applying inferential statistics techniques (Cronbach's alpha) and exploratory factorial analysis (Kruskal-Wallis test and Wilcoxon's test). The exploratory factorial analysis showed two interactive factors. Factor 1: politics, perception, structure, changes, communication, leadership, conflict, equity and transparency; and factor 2: motivation, culture, attitude, group and recognition. It is concluded that there is a correlation between the variables, and it can be used as a strategy to valorize the campi employees and generate the organizational effectiveness.
Role of Te lone-pair electrons in structure and properties of layered GeTe-Sb2Te3 phase-change memory materials

Usually, discussions of the mechanism of phase-change are centered around the movement of Ge atoms, the role of Sb and Te is usually not discussed. At the same time, Ge-Sb-Te alloys possess properties that are different from those of the binary GeTe material clearly demonstrating that inclusion of Sb has an important effect on materials properties. In this work, the role of Sb and Te atoms in the phase-change process is discussed and an important role of Te lone-pair electrons is demonstrated.
Neuroscience-Informed Psychoeducation for Recovery: A Program to Promote Metacognition in People With Substance Use Disorders

Introduction: A brief neuroscience-informed psychoeducation program (Neuroscience-Informed Psychoeducation for Recovery [NIPER]) was developed to promote awareness (metacognition) in the main cognitive domains affected by drug and alcohol use to increase willingness to invest time and effort in the brain and cognition recovery process. The primary aim of this pilot study was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the NIPER program and its potential effectiveness in increasing metacognition, psychological wellbeing, and willingness for the brain and cognition recovery programs among patients with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs). Methods: A total of 56 patients with SUDs were recruited from four outpatient treatment centers in Tehran City, Iran. They participated in four 90-min weekly sessions delivered adjunct to their routine treatment. The program’s effectiveness was measured in terms of metacognition and psychological wellbeing at baseline and the end of the program. The rate of adherence and participation and willingness to continue with brain and cognition recovery programs were measured as feasibility outcomes. Results: A total of 51 participants completed the study. Compared to the baseline assessments, patients reported more problems in dimensions of attention, memory, inhibitory control, decision making, motor/speech, interoception, insight, and a higher level of psychological wellbeing (t=4.66; P<0.001). In terms of feasibility outcomes, the adherence and participation rates were found above 85%. Most participants expressed their high willingness to continue the brain and cognition recovery programs (86.2%) and would introduce NIPER to their peers (98%). Conclusion: Considering the pilot results in terms of feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of NIPER in the clinical context of addiction treatment, we think that NIPER is a potentially beneficial intervention to be offered to people with SUD. It would increase their awareness and engage them in the brain and cognition recovery process. However, the clinical efficacy of the intervention should be tested in future randomized clinical trials.
Phenomenology and networked learning: mobilage glimpsed from the inside through an online focus group

This paper arises from doctoral studies which adopted a multi-methods design which aimed to disclose being healthcare students using a mobile phone for academic work: the student and mobile phone, i.e. mobilage, was the unit of analysis. This paper picks up on a long-term but sparse conversation about the use of phenomenology to investigate networked learning. Reasons for the paucity of work in this area are explored, including the nature of questions that phenomenology seeks to engage: to unveil and convey pre-reflective human consciousness. I seek to supplement this gap, as I see it, in the literature by contrasting two arms of my thesis project: one relied on ten in-person encounters with informants and another an online focus group designed to gather information from within the informant's lifeworld. These two methods frame a discussion of the merits, weaknesses and fidelity of my approach to gathering data pursuant to hermeneutic phenomenology, i.e. considering the difference between methods where the researcher is or is not in the informant'simmediate co-presence. Gadamer's horizon fusion metaphor is arguably easier to conceive of with informant and researcher co-located, where the setting and conversation is informal, perhaps typical of everyday mobile phone use. Ten such encounters were undertaken and analysed through repeated listening to audio recordings and phenomenological writing. In contrast, the online focus group lasted for three months with seven informants who never met physically. Informed by experience sampling methods, weekly trigger messages were posted for the group to respond to, ideally in situ. Acknowledging that all data is mediated in need of interpretation, the paper reflects on the possible effects of data gathering at varying levels of temporal and interpretive proximity, or 'hermeneutic shades', between the researcher and the phenomena carried within data gathered, helping to condition what weight to afford information from different media. Van Manen's analytical method and goal of writing vocative anecdotes to convey aspects of the essence of a lived experience is considered against examples of direct accounts from the online focus group, one of which, it is argued, fulfils his criteria for phenomenological anecdotes. It is proposed that this demonstrates the potential worth of an online medium to not only supply data for phenomenological writing but arguably even represent phenomena without passing through the hermeneutic/analytical writing process.
Behavioral changes before lockdown, and decreased retail and recreation mobility during lockdown, contributed most to the successful control of the COVID-19 epidemic in 35 Western countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a lockdown in many countries to control the exponential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This resulted in curbing the epidemic by reducing the time-varying basic reproduction number (Rt) to below one. Governments are looking for evidence to balance the demand of their citizens to ease some of the restriction, against the fear of a second peak in infections. More details on the specific circumstances that promote exponential spread (i.e. Rt>1) and the measures that contributed most to a reduction in Rt are needed. Here we show that in 33 of 35 Western countries (32 European, plus Israel, USA and Canada), Rt fell to around or below one during lockdown (March - May 2020). One third of the effect happened already on average 6 days before the lockdown, with lockdown itself causing another major drop in transmission. Country-wide compulsory usage of masks was implemented only in Slovakia 10 days into lockdown, and on its own reduced transmission by half. During lockdown, decreased mobility in retail and recreation was an independent predictor of lower Rt during lockdown, while changes in other types of mobility were not. These results are consistent with anecdotal evidence that large recreational gatherings are super-spreading events, and may even suggest that infections during day-to-day contact at work are not sufficient to spark exponential growth. Our data suggest measures that will contribute to avoiding a second peak include a tight control on circumstances that facilitate massive spread such as large gatherings especially indoors, physical distancing, and mask use.
Small Innovative Launcher for Europe: achievement of the H2020 project SMILE

Today’s market for small satellites is expanding, but there is little availability of affordable launches. Launch costs of around €50,000 per kg are required to compete with ride-shares. Hence, production and operation costs are considered essential. Fourteen European companies and institutes have joined forces in a Horizon2020 project called “SMall Innovative Launcher for Europe” (SMILE). The project aims at designing a launcher for satellites of about 50 kg and a European launch facility in northern Norway. Critical technologies on propulsion, avionics, and manufacturing of cost-effective solutions are developed in order to increase the readiness level of a future European launcher.