Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Selection of Key Points for 3D-Face Deformation

— Human face has been an interesting research topic in several fields in terms of both theoretical research and deployment applications. Such real-world problems have contributed to promoting virtual reality studies, computer graphics in general, and 3D face modeling studies in particular. Several studies have shown that different control points are selected based on different applications which need different 3D face models. This study proposes an innovative approach to automatically identify the set based on facial deformations by clustering similar deformations. Its good performance is successfully validated through practical experiments with JAFFE database.
Structure of the Human BK Ion Channel in Lipid Environment

Voltage-gated and ligand-modulated ion channels play critical roles in excitable cells. To understand the interplay among voltage sensing, ligand binding, and channel opening, the structures of ion channels in various functional states and in lipid membrane environments need to be determined. Here, the random spherically constrained (RSC) single-particle cryo-EM method was employed to study human large conductance voltage- and calcium-activated potassium (hBK or hSlo1) channels reconstituted into liposomes. The hBK structure was determined at 3.5 Å resolution in the absence of Ca2+. Instead of the common fourfold symmetry observed in ligand-modulated ion channels, a twofold symmetry was observed in hBK in liposomes. Compared with the structure of isolated hSlo1 Ca2+ sensing gating rings, two opposing subunits in hBK unfurled, resulting in a wider opening towards the transmembrane region of hBK. In the pore gate domain, two opposing subunits also moved downwards relative to the two other subunits.
Effect of supplementation of different level of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) foliage on growth performance of male yearling local goat in Dilla substation, Southern Ethiopia

In accessibility and increase in price of commercial concentrates as a supplement for ruminants laid a way to look for other options in hand. The aim of current study was to identify the optimum level supplementing cassava leaf meal (CLM) as a replacement for protein on growth performance and economic efficiency of local goats. Twenty four intact yearling bucks with an average initial body weight of 13.92 ± 1.03 kg were purchased from Balela local market and assigned to one of the four treatment feeds in a completely randomized block design as: T 1 = Grazing + 100gm WB + 150gm CLM, T 2 = Grazing + 100g WB + 200g CLM, T 4 = Grazing + 100g WB + 250g CLM (T 4 = Grazing + 300g Concentrate mix). All animals were allowed access to water ad libitum and the experiment was undertaken for 90 days live weight gain, DM intake, FCR and cost-benefit analysis were param eters studied during experiment. The chemical composition of feed samples was conducted immediately before commence of actual experiment showed that cassava leaf meal has high protein content which is above the minimum requirement level for optimal rumen microbial activity (22.94%) and low fibres content which are readily digestible (30.37%) indicating that it can be potentially used as supplemental feed for ruminants in areas where other sources are not available and/or are expensive. Supplemental feeding of 250gm of air dried CLM and 100gm of WB in current experiment positively influenced the economic efficiency and growth performance of animals by providing higher feed intake and greater weight gain as compared to T 1 group and T 2 . The results from daily live weight gain were 63.1g, 69.9g, 93.22 and 103.78g for T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 respectively. Bucks in T 3 and T 4 (positive control) gained better than (93.22 and 103.78g/day) bucks in T 1 & T 2 . Whereas the results from DMI were, 3.3kg, 3.0kg, 3.5kg and 3.7kg for T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , and T 4 respectively. Even though goats in T 4 performed relatively better than all other treatment groups, supplementation of air CLM (T 3 ) was economically feasible, profitable. Therefore, supplementing goats those which graze on natural pasture with 250g of dried CLM and 100gm of WB will be feasible for optimum production. Further study on maximum inclusion level of dried cassava leaf meal has to be studied in grazing goats. on of on A.O. Ani. et. al, 2009, they reported that increased body weight, feed intake and FCE in in west African dwarf goats which fed on different level of cassava leaf. This study is in contrary to Ngo et al. (2005) who obtained reduced dry matter intake as the levels of cassava hay increased in the diet. Other study in washara lambs by Mekuriew and Asmare (2018) reported increased DMI and Body weight gain by feeding dried leaves of Ficus thonningii (Chibha).
Effect of Landscape Composition and Invasive Plants on Pollination Networks of Smallholder Orchards in Northeastern Thailand

Destruction of natural habitat, land-use changes and biological invasion are some of the major threats to biodiversity. Both habitat alteration and biological invasions can have impacts on pollinator communities and pollination network structures. This study aims to examine the effect of an invasive plant, praxelis (Praxelis clematidea; Asteraceae), and land-use types on pollinator communities and the structure of pollination networks. We conducted the study in smallholder orchards which are either invaded or non-invaded by P. clematidea. We estimated the pollinator richness, visitation rates, and pollinator diversity and evaluated the network structures from 18 smallholder orchards in Northeastern Thailand. The effect of landscape structure in the vicinity of the orchards was investigated, with the proportion of agricultural, forest, and urban landscape within a 3 km radius analyzed. The invasive species and land-use disturbance influence the pollinator communities and pollination network structure at species level was affected by the presence of P. clematidea. Bees were the most important pollinator group for pollinator communities and pollination networks of both invaded or non-invaded plots, as bees are a generalist species, they provide the coherence of both the network and its own module. The urban landscape had a strong negative influence on pollinator richness, while the proportions of agriculture and forest landscape positively affected the pollinator community.
Mesh editing with curvature flow laplacian operator

Recently, differential information as local intrinsic feature descriptors has been used for mesh editing. Given certain user input as constraints, a deformed mesh is reconstructed by minimizing the changes in the differential information. Since the differential information is encoded in the global coordinate system, it must somehow be transformed to fit the orientation of details in the deformed surface, otherwise distortion will appear. We observe that visually desired deformed meshes should preserve both local parameterization and geometry details. To find suitable representations for these two types of information, we exploit certain properties of the curvature flow Laplacian operator. Specifically, we consider the coefficients of Laplacian operator as the parametrization information and the magnitudes of the Laplacian coordinates as the geometry information. Both sets of information are non-directional and non-linearly dependent on the vertex positions. Thus, we propose a new editing framework that iteratively updates both the vertex positions and the Laplacian coordinates to reduce distortion in parametrization and geometry. Our method can produce visually pleasing deformation with simple user interaction, requiring only the handle positions, not the local frames at the handles. In addition, since the magnitudes of the Laplacian coordinates approximate the integrated mean curvatures, our framework is useful for modifying mesh geometry via updating the curvature field. We demonstrate this use in spherical parameterization and non-shrinking smoothing.
Parity-violating asymmetry in the He3 ( n⃗,p ) H3 reaction

The longitudinal asymmetry induced by parity-violating (PV) components in the nucleon-nucleon potential is studied in the charge-exchange reaction 3He(~n, p)3H at vanishing incident neutron energies. An expression for the PV observable is derived in terms of T-matrix elements for transitions from the 2S+1LJ = 1S0 and 3S1 states in the incoming n-3He channel to states with J = 0 and 1 in the outgoing p-3H channel. The T-matrix elements involving PV transitions are obtained in first-order perturbation theory in the hadronic weak-interaction potential, while those connecting states of the same parity are derived from solutions of the strong-interaction Hamiltonian with the hyperspherical-harmonics method. The coupled-channel nature of the scattering problem is fully accounted for. Results are obtained corresponding to realistic or chiral two- and three-nucleon strong-interaction potentials in combination with either the DDH or pionless EFT model for the weak-interaction potential. The asymmetries, predicted with PV pion and vector-meson coupling constants corresponding (essentially) to the DDH ? best values? set, range from ? 9.44 to ? 2.48 in units of 10? 8, depending on the input strong-interaction Hamiltonian. This large model dependence is a consequence of cancellations between long-range (pion) and short-range (vector-meson) contributions, and is of course sensitive to the assumed values formore » the PV coupling constants. « less
In Utero Exposure to Caffeine and Acetaminophen, the Gut Microbiome, and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Pregnant individuals are exposed to acetaminophen and caffeine, but it is unknown how these exposures interact with the developing gut microbiome. We aimed to determine whether acetaminophen and/or caffeine relate to the childhood gut microbiome and whether features of the gut microbiome alter the relationship between acetaminophen/caffeine and neurodevelopment. Forty-nine and 85 participants provided meconium and stool samples at 6–7, respectively, for exposure and microbiome assessment. Fecal acetaminophen and caffeine concentrations were quantified, and fecal DNA underwent metagenomic sequencing. Caregivers and study staff assessed the participants’ motor and cognitive development using standardized scales. Prenatal exposures had stronger associations with the childhood microbiome than concurrent exposures. Prenatal acetaminophen exposure was associated with a trend of lower gut bacterial diversity in childhood [β = −0.17 Shannon Index, 95% CI: (−0.31, −0.04)] and was marginally associated with differences in the relative abundances of features of the gut microbiome at the phylum (Firmicutes, Actinobacteria) and gene pathway levels. Among the participants with a higher relative abundance of Proteobacteria, prenatal exposure to acetaminophen and caffeine was associated with lower scores on WISC-IV subscales. Acetaminophen during bacterial colonization of the naïve gut is associated with lasting alterations in childhood microbiome composition. Future studies may inform our understanding of downstream health effects.
Drug delivery system based on nanobubbles

Ultrasound (US) medical technology is widely used due to its advantages of safety, speed, and low cost. With the rapid development of biomedical nanotechnology, micro/nanobubbles, as US contrast agents, are not only valuable in US imaging diagnosis but also show broad application prospects in drug delivery. Nanobubbles (NBs) have more advantages as drug delivery systems (DDSs) due to their smaller size and longer circulation time compared with microbubbles. In this review, the fundamentals of NBs, including classification, stability mechanism, and preparation methods are summarized. Then, the strategies of a DDS based on NBs, including direct delivery, codelivery, target delivery, and stimuli‐responsive delivery are reviewed and discussed. The three main applications of NBs‐based DDSs, namely tumor theranostics, brain drug delivery, and vascular disease theranostics were highlighted. The challenges and future directions of the NBs‐based DDSs are also considered and discussed.
Health risk behaviour and persistent and incident depression among middle-aged and older adults in South Africa

The aim of this study was to assess the association between five health risk behaviours and persistent and incident depressive symptoms in a longitudinal study in South Africa. The sample included 5059 men and women (⩾40 years) in 2014/2015, and 4176 in 2018/2019 of the ‘Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa’. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the associations between five health risk behaviours and persistent and incident depressive symptoms. Results indicate that 5.0% of participants had depressive symptoms at both wave 1 and 2 (persistent depressive symptoms), and 27.9% had incident depressive symptoms in wave 2. Higher education and moderate baseline physical activity were negatively associated and those with cardiovascular disease were positively associated with persistent depressive symptoms. Middle wealth index was negative, and being HIV positive and baseline tobacco use were positively associated with incident depressive symptoms. In conclusion, of five health risk behaviours assessed (inadequate fruit/vegetable intake, alcohol dependence, tobacco use, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour), only moderate physical activity was protective against persistent depressive symptoms, and tobacco use was associated with incident depressive symptoms.
Exogenous Melatonin Improves Seed Germination of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under Salt Stress

Melatonin (MT) can effectively reduce oxidative damage induced by abiotic stresses such as salt in plants. However, the effects of MT on physiological responses and molecular regulation during wheat germination remains largely elusive. In this study, the response of wheat seeds to MT under salt stress during germination was investigated at physiological and transcriptome levels. Our results revealed that application of MT significantly reduced the negative influence of salt stress on wheat seed germination. The oxidative load was reduced by inducing high activities of antioxidant enzymes. In parallel, the content of gibberellin A3 (GA3) and jasmonic acid (JA) increased in MT-treated seedling. RNA-seq analysis demonstrated that MT alters oxidoreductase activity and phytohormone-dependent signal transduction pathways under salt stress. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that MT participates in enhanced energy metabolism and protected seeds via maintained cell morphology under salt stress during wheat seed germination. Our findings provide a conceptual basis of the MT-mediated regulatory mechanism in plant adaptation to salt stress, and identify the potential candidate genes for salt-tolerant wheat molecular breeding.
On Assessing Inter-observer Agreement Independent of Variables' Measuring Units

Investigators use either Euclidean distance or volume of a simplex defined composed of data points as agreement index to measure chance-corrected agreement among observers for multivariate interval data. The agreement coefficient proposed by Um(2004) is based on a volume of a simplex and does not depend on the variables' measuring units. We consider a comparison of Um(2004)'s agreement coefficient with others based on two unit-free distance measures, Pearson distance and Mahalanobis distance. Comparison among them is made using hypothetical data set.
Immunology Meets Bioengineering: Improving the Effectiveness of Glioblastoma Immunotherapy

Simple Summary Glioblastoma (GBM) is the main malignant brain tumor in adults. It has a poor survival rate and a short disease-free life in spite of all available treatments. The science of cancer immunotherapy is constantly adapting to address the particular needs and problems of a wide range of cancers, including GBM. As of yet, most immunotherapeutic approaches have been unsuccessful, and conventional treatments have been of little effect. Genetically engineered oncolytic viruses (OV) with immunomodulatory transgene expression are now a research focus in the treatment of GBM. There are various challenges that must be addressed in order for immunotherapies to be effective, including physical limitations to medication delivery (e.g., BBB). The present research suggests that nanomedicine and immunotherapy may be a step toward personalized medicine for GBM. Abstract Glioblastoma (GBM) therapy has seen little change over the past two decades. Surgical excision followed by radiation and chemotherapy is the current gold standard treatment. Immunotherapy techniques have recently transformed many cancer treatments, and GBM is now at the forefront of immunotherapy research. GBM immunotherapy prospects are reviewed here, with an emphasis on immune checkpoint inhibitors and oncolytic viruses. Various forms of nanomaterials to enhance immunotherapy effectiveness are also discussed. For GBM treatment and immunotherapy, we outline the specific properties of nanomaterials. In addition, we provide a short overview of several 3D (bio)printing techniques and their applications in stimulating the GBM microenvironment. Lastly, the susceptibility of GBM cancer cells to the various immunotherapy methods will be addressed.
Identification of the Key Pathways and Genes Involved in the Wax Biosynthesis of the Chinese White Wax Scale Insect (Ericerus pela Chavannes) by Integrated Weighted Gene Coexpression Network Analysis

The white wax secreted by the male insects of the Chinese white wax scale (CWWS) is a natural high-molecular-weight compound with important economic value. However, its regulatory mechanism of wax biosynthesis is still unclear. In this study, a weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to analyze transcriptome data of first- and second-instar females, early and late female adults, and first- and second-instar males. A total of 19 partitioned modules with different topological overlaps were obtained, and three modules were identified as highly significant for wax secretion (p < 0.05). A total of 30 hub genes were obtained through screening, among which elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids protein (ELOVL) and fatty acyl-CoA reductase (FAR) are important catalytic enzymes of fatty acid metabolism. Furthermore, their metabolic catalytic products are involved in the synthesis of wax biosynthesis. The results demonstrate that WGCNA can be used for insect transcriptome analysis and effectively screen out the key genes related to wax biosynthesis.
Comparison of Fixed Point Methods and Krylov Subspace Methods Solving Convection-Diffusion Equations

The paper first introduces two-dimensional convection-diffusion equation with boundary value condition, later uses the finite difference method to discretize the equation and analyzes positive definite, diagonally dominant and symmetric properties of the discretization matrix. Finally, the paper uses fixed point methods and Krylov subspace methods to solve the linear system and compare the convergence speed of these two methods.
Sulforaphane Increase Mitochondrial Biogenesis-Related Gene Expression in the Hippocampus and Suppresses Age-Related Cognitive Decline in Mice

Sulforaphane (SFN) is a potent activator of the transcriptional factor, Nuclear Factor Erythroid 2 (NF-E2)-Related factor 2 (NRF2). SFN and its precursor, glucoraphanin (sulforaphane glucosinolate, SGS), have been shown to ameliorate cognitive function in clinical trials and in vivo studies. However, the effects of SGS on age-related cognitive decline in Senescence-Accelerated Mouse Prone 8 (SAMP8) is unknown. In this study, we determined the preventive potential of SGS on age-related cognitive decline. One-month old SAMP8 mice or control SAM resistance 1 (SAMR1) mice were fed an ad libitum diet with or without SGS-containing broccoli sprout powder (0.3% w/w SGS in diet) until 13 months of age. SGS significantly improved long-term memory in SAMP8 at 12 months of age. Interestingly, SGS increased hippocampal mRNA and protein levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC1α) and mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), which are master regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis, both in SAMR1 and SAMP8 at 13 months of age. Furthermore, mRNAs for nuclear respiratory factor-1 (NRF-1) and mitochondrial DNA-encoded respiratory complex enzymes, but not mitochondrial DNA itself, were increased by SGS in SAMP8 mice. These results suggest that SGS prevents age-related cognitive decline by maintaining mitochondrial function in senescence-accelerated mice.
Progress in Prophylactic and Therapeutic EBV Vaccine Development Based on Molecular Characteristics of EBV Target Antigens

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) was discovered in 1964 in the cell line of Burkitt lymphoma and became first known human oncogenic virus. EBV belongs to the Herpesviridae family, and is present worldwide as it infects 95% of people. Infection with EBV usually happens during childhood when it remains asymptomatic; however, in adults, it can cause an acute infection known as infectious mononucleosis. In addition, EBV can cause wide range of tumors with origins in B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes, and NK cells. Its oncogenicity and wide distribution indicated the need for vaccine development. Research on mice and cultured cells as well as human clinical trials have been in progress for a few decades for both prophylactic and therapeutic EBV vaccines. The main targets of the vaccines are EBV envelope glycoproteins such as gp350 and EBV latent genes. The long wait for the EBV vaccine is due to the complexity of the EBV replication cycle and the wide range of its host cells. Although some strategies such as the use of dendritic cells and recombinant Vaccinia viral vectors have shown success, ongoing clinical trials using mRNA-based vaccines as well as new delivery systems as nanoparticles are yet to show the best choice of vaccine target and its production strategy.