Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Topotype-based redescription of the leech Torix tukubana (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniiformes: Glossiphoniidae)

Abstract. A poorly-known proboscidate leech species, Torix tukubana (Oka, 1935), in which the mid-body somites are biannulate dorsally and triannulate ventrally, is redescribed based on new specimens collected from its type locality, Mt. Tsukubasan in Honshu, Japan. The redescription provides the internal digestive and genital organs of T. tukubana for the first time. Our observation reveals that this species possesses equal-sized 1st–6th pairs of crop ceca that are nondiverticulated and tubular ovisacs running alongside the ventral nerve cord. Additionally, phylogenetic analyses using nuclear 18S rRNA, mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, 12S rRNA, tRNALeu, and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 markers reveal that T. tukubana is closely related to the Palearctic Hemiclepsis Vejdovský, 1884, in which the mid-body somites are triannulate.
Distributed Control of Multi-Energy Storage Systems for Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks: A Back-and-Forth Communication Framework

Distributed storage systems (DESSs) are widely utilized to regulate voltages in active distribution networks with high penetration of volatile renewable energy. In this paper, the distributed multi-energy storage systems (MESSs) are integrated into the active distribution network to enhance the capability of voltage regulation by exploiting interactions among multi-energy loads. A novel distributed control strategy based on back-and-forth communication (BFC) framework is developed to optimally coordinate multiple MESSs for multi-time-step voltage regulation. To achieve the independent control of MESSs at each bus, the BFC is proposed to determine the global sensitivities of voltage violation in the whole network with respect to the power injection at each bus in only one-step iteration. These sensitivities updated in real time during BFC quantify the capability of the single MESS to mitigate voltage fluctuations across all buses, which can be used to individually inform the operation of each MESS. Distinct from traditional distributed control methods that achieve voltage regulation in a single timeslot, the proposed control strategy regulates MESSs in a multi-time-step manner to alleviate anticipated voltage violation in advance. The simulation based on a modified 11-bus radial distribution network demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed distributed control strategy.
RAB6 and microtubules restrict secretion to focal adhesions

To ensure their homeostasis and sustain differentiated functions, cells continuously transport diverse cargos to various cell compartments and in particular to the cell surface. Secreted proteins are transported along intracellular routes from the endoplasmic reticulum through the Golgi complex before reaching the plasma membrane along microtubule tracks. Using a synchronized secretion assay, we report here that exocytosis does not occur randomly at the cell surface but on localized hotspots juxtaposed to focal adhesions. Although microtubules are involved, the RAB6-dependent machinery plays an essential role. We observed that, irrespective of the transported cargos, most post-Golgi carriers are positive for RAB6 and that its inactivation leads to a broad reduction of protein secretion. RAB6 may thus be a general regulator of post-Golgi secretion.
The type of nutrient limitation affects the plant species richness–productivity relationship: Evidence from dry grasslands across Eurasia

The species richness–productivity relationship is one of the most debated patterns in ecology. Species coexistence theory suggests that it could be tightly linked to the type of nutrient limitation (no limitation, single‐nutrient limitation, colimitation by several nutrients). Yet, the effects of nutrient limitation on the species richness–productivity relationship have been rarely studied at the regional and continental scales. Combining the predictions of the humped‐back model and the niche dimension hypothesis, we hypothesized that an increase in plant species richness with the number of different limiting nutrients is detectable only at higher productivity levels, at which competition for nutrients is more intense. Therefore, we expected the shape of the diversity–productivity relationship to differ between sites colimited by nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), sites limited by a single nutrient (either N or P), and sites not limited by any of these nutrients. To test this hypothesis, we used species richness data collected in 10 m × 10 m plots at 694 temperate dry grassland sites across eight regions in northern Eurasia. Productivity ranged from 10 to ~500 g/m2 of above‐ground standing biomass. The type of nutrient limitation was identified by critical nutrient ratios alone and their combination with critical nutrient concentrations measured in the plant tissue. Relationships were analysed using generalized linear and mixed‐effect models. In line with our expectations, species richness of Eurasian temperate dry grasslands increased more steeply and peaked higher under higher productivity levels at N&P‐colimited sites. When nutrient limitation was assessed by both ratios and concentrations, species richness at N&P‐colimited sites continued to increase monotonically until the maximum productivity sampled in this study. In contrast, at sites with a single‐nutrient limitation or no limitation, the peak in species richness was lower and occurred at a lower productivity of about 300–400 g/m2. Synthesis. We provide the first evidence that the species richness–productivity relationship may depend on the type of nutrient limitation as predicted by the species coexistence theory. To generalize these findings, the role of nutrient limitation needs to be tested in other ecosystems, including more productive plant communities.
Understanding and Modeling of WiFi Signal-Based Indoor Privacy Protection

Existing WiFi recognition schemes are capable of discovering patterns of indoor semantics, such as human activity, identity, indoor environment, and so on. We note that channel state information (CSI) presents an opportunity for hackers to learn indoor privacy, however, currently there is a lack of security research on CSI. In this article, we are the first to discuss and define the security problem of CSI signals, which is further extended to the problems of nontargeted protection and targeted protection. To solve them, we present two types of adversarial autoencoder networks (AAENs). Through replacing the original signals with the generated adversarial ones, the protected semantic features are modified, and the significant features of the other semantics required to be recognized are reserved. Intensive evaluations demonstrate that with the proposed AAENs, the recognition accuracy of the protected semantic can be significantly decreased, while still maintaining the other semantics to be identified correctly.
Wearable Dual-Band Dual-Polarization Button Antenna for WBAN Applications

This letter proposes a wearable dual-band dual-mode button antenna for wireless body-area network applications. It covers the 2.45 and 5.8 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical bands. The two operating modes of the antenna are designed to share a common radiator with different functionalities for distinctive communication requirements. The antenna operates from 2.32 to 2.57 GHz as a top-loaded monopole antenna with linear polarization, which is applicable for on-body communications due to its omnidirectional radiation pattern. In contrast, it works as a crossed-dipole antenna in its higher operation band extending from 5.72 to 7.85 GHz, in which it exhibits broadside radiation with circular polarization suitable for off-body communications. The experimental characterization on the fabricated antenna prototype, both in free space and proximity to the human body, proves that the antenna operates as anticipated with dual-band and dual-polarization characteristics for wearable applications.
Doxxing, Privacy and Gendered Harassment. The Shock and Normalization of Veillance Cultures

We conducted 15 in-depth interviews with women and men in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, and the United States who were victims of doxxing. The goal was to understand their experiences, their responses, and the consequences they faced. We understand doxxing as a complex, gendered communicative process of harassment. Doxxers use digital media technologies to expose personal information without consent given by those to whom the personal information belongs. We apply a feminist approach to surveillance studies to doxxing, focusing on the constructions of daily, habitual, and ubiquitous assemblages of veillances that disproportionately impact vulnerable individuals. We found that gendered aspects shaped the flow and suspected intent of doxxing and subsequent harassment. Victims experienced uncertainty, loss of control, and fear, while law enforcement and social media providers only helped in a few cases to pursue doxxers or remove unwanted personal information. We ultimately extend the definition of doxxing by considering the ubiquitous nature of information shared online in gendered veillance cultures. Our findings lead us to advocate for protecting the contextual integrity of entering personal information into expected, intentional, or desired spaces.
Neural circuit robustness to acute, global physiological perturbations

Neural function depends on underlying physiological processes that are highly sensitive to physical variables such as temperature. However, some robustness to perturbations in these variables manifests at the circuit level, suggesting that circuit properties are organized to tolerate consistent changes in underlying parameters. We show that a crustacean pacemaker circuit is robust to two global perturbations - temperature and pH - that differentially alter circuit properties. Consistent with high variability in underlying circuit parameters, we find that the critical temperatures and pH values where circuit activity breaks down vary widely across animals. Despite variability in critical points the network state transitions at these critical points are consistent, implying that qualitative circuit dynamics are preserved across animals, in spite of high quantitative parameter variability. Surprisingly, robustness perturbations in pH only moderately affect temperature robustness. Thus, robustness to a global perturbation does not necessarily imply sensitivity to other global perturbations.
Factors Determining Perceived Retail Crowding and Word of Mouth Evidence from Vietnam

The goal of this paper is to essentially determine the multiple factors that affect and influence retail outcomes through a study of evidences found in the retail industry of Vietnam. This agenda is relatively new and has not been delved into much yet. Nevertheless, the effect it has on the retail industry is evident, and a constructive view of these factors can lead one to understanding how consumerism plays out in a typical retail setting. This study explores the variables that affect the retail crowding. The data has been collected from the customers that regularly visit the retail stores. In the present study judgement sampling has been used and only those respondents were approached who at least visit four times in a month in the retail store. The sample size of the study is 278. The data analysis tools applied were factor analysis and mean value. Exploratory factor analysis with Principal component analysis and Varimax rotation was applied to derive the factors.
Comparison of the Intensity of Postoperative Pain Between Open and Laparoscopic Access of Ventral Hernioplasty with IPOM (Intraperitoneal Onlay Mesh) Technique

Introduction: Despite the numerous advantages of laparoscopic ventral hernioplasty over the open access hernioplasty, described in the literature, the general clinical experience is that patients have severe pain in the first few days, hence early postoperative pain is a challenge in this procedure.The aim of this study was to compare early postoperative pain and whether there was statistically significant difference in the intensity of postoperative pain among patients operated with open and laparoscopic approach with IPOM hernioplasty during resting and activity. Material and methods: A randomized, prospective, comparative study was performed on 63 patients who met the inclusion criteria, operated with the IPOM technique and divided into two groups: open access in 32 patients and laparoscopic approach in 31 patients. In both groups, postoperative pain was compared at eight time intervals during rest and activity, quantified using VAS. The statistical processing and analysis of the data was done in the statistical programme SPSS version 23.0. Results: The results of the study showed that at rest and activity, patients in both groups had significantly different pain intensities on the day of the intervention, the first and second day after the intervention (p<0.0001). At these time points, the intensity of pain was significantly stronger in patients undergoing laparosopic hernioplasty. On the third and seventh postoperative days, as well as one and six months after the intervention, there was no significant difference in pain intensity between the two methods during rest and activity. Discussion: The general clinical experience confirmed in our study is that patients after laparoscopic ventral hernioplasty suffer from severe pain in the early postoperative period and it is the biggest challenge and problem after these operations. The explanation is that it is the result of transfascial sutures for mesh fixation in both groups and additionally multiple lesions of the parietal peritoneum in the laparoscopic method due to the numerous fixations of the mesh with tackers. Future research should focus on developing new non-traumatic methods for mesh fixation (Fibrin Glue) and studies that will analyse in detail the impact of postoperative pain on quality of life. Keywords: Laparoscopic IPOM technique, open IPOM technique, absorbable tackers, transfascial sutures, postoperative pain. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/80-08 Publication date: September 30 th 2020
SERINC5: Its Sensitivity to Nef and Restriction of HIV-1

Recent studies have identified the multipass transmembrane proteins SERINC3 and SERINC5 as antiviral proteins that are incorporated into Nefdeficient HIV-1 virions and counteracted by Nef (Rosa et al., 2015; Usami et al., 2015). SERINC5, in particular, can dramatically inhibit the infectivity of Nefdeficient HIV-1. HIV-1 Nef removes SERINC3 and SERINC5 from the cell surface and prevents their incorporation into progeny virions. In contrast, Nef increases the cell surface expression of SERINC1, indicating that SERINC3 and SERINC5 are selectively downregulated (Matheson et al., 2015). We now report that the anti-HIV-1 activity but not the sensitivity to Nef is conserved among vertebrate SERINC5 proteins. However, a Nef-resistant SERINC5 became Nefsensitive when its intracellular loop 4 (ICL4) was replaced by that of Nef-sensitive human SERINC5. Conversely, human SERINC5 became resistant to Nef when its ICL4 was replaced by that of a Nef-resistant SERINC5. In general, ICL4 regions from SERINCs that exhibited resistance to a given Nef conferred resistance to the same Nef when transferred to a sensitive SERINC, and vice versa. Importantly, our results establish that human SERINC5 can be modified to restrict HIV-1 infectivity even in the presence of Nef.
Development of Cost-Effective, Selective and Stable Room Temperature Methanol Sensor

In the present work, the structural and morphological of 5, 10, 15, 20 tetratoloylphenylporphyrinato Zinc (II) (ZnTTP) thin films prepared by spin coating on low cost glass substrate have been investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). At room temperature, the electrical responses of ZnTTP thin films were measured under five reducing volatile organic compounds, including toluene, acetone, methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol. The obtained results indicate that the ZnTTP behaves as a p-type semiconductor. The developed sensor exhibits the highest linear response with methanol vapor. The selective methanol sensor based on ZnTTP thin film reveals a good reproducibility, great stability for more than 28 days, and a limit of detection as low as 2 ppm. At 260 ppm, it has fast response and recovery times of 51 s and 92 s, respectively. The principal component analysis (PCA) treatment was successfully used to discriminate methanol vapor.
Exploring the Representativity of Art Paintings

Art painting evaluation is sophisticated for a novice with no or limited knowledge on art criticism, and history. In this study, we propose the concept of representativity to evaluate paintings instead of using professional concepts, such as genre, media, and style, which may be confusing to non-professionals. We define the concept of representativity to evaluate quantitatively the extent to which a painting can represent the characteristics of an artists creations. We begin by proposing a novel deep representation of art paintings, which is enhanced by style information through a weighted pooling feature fusion module. In contrast to existing feature extraction approaches, the proposed framework embeds painting styles, and authorship information, and learns specific artwork characteristics in a single framework. Subsequently, we propose a graph-based learning method for representativity learning, which considers intra-category, and extra-category information. In view of the significance of historical factors in the art domain, we introduce the creation time of a painting into the learning process. User studies demonstrate our approach helps the public effectively access the creation characteristics of artists through sorting paintings by representativity from highest to lowest.
A Peptide-Based Platform for Displaying Antibodies to Engage T Cells

iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . vi LIST OF FIGURES . x ABBREVIATIONS . xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 CHAPTER 2: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH . 6 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REIVEW . 13 T CELLS IN HEALTH AND DISEASES . 13 BETA STRUCTURE-ΒASED SELF-ASSEMBLING PEPTIDE SCAFFOLDS . 21 CHAPTER 4: PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF EAK-EAKH6 COMPOSITE . 40 INTRODUCTION . 40 MATERIALS AND METHODS . 43 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . 48 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . 65 CHAPTER 5: FUNCTIONALIZATION OF EAK-EAKH6 COMPOSITE WITH PROTEIN A/G AS THE ADAPTOR . 66 INTRODUCTION . 66 MATERIALS AND METHODS . 69 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. 72 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . 83
Information Technology for Big Data Sensor Networks Stability Estimation

Sensors and sensor networks are widely used in various industries and human activities and main components of the Internet of Things and Industrial Internet of Things concepts. Nowadays, huge amounts of data, called Big Data, can be transported and collected using sensor networks. This article presents approaches for providing sensor networks’ stability estimation for transporting Big Data and collecting respective use cases. The proposed estimation method allows to detect sensor network’s components that decrease data transport system stability. Consequently, additional connections or sensors can be added to increase stability. In the case of data collection, the solution consists of finding the most vulnerable sensor and an optimal position for the additional sensor with given intersection levels with other sensors. Simulation results confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approaches
System-Level Large-Signal Stability Analysis of Droop-Controlled DC Microgrids

In the literature, many studies on stability analysis of dc microgrids have been conducted. However, most of them mainly focus on small-signal stability. On the other hand, few works analyze large-signal stability, but the major part of these works is based on a single unit or a simple cascaded system as a case study. Different from those, this article aims to address the large-signal stability analysis of a dc microgrid from a system-level perspective. First, the equivalent model of a droop-controlled dc microgrid is developed. Subsequently, the Lyapunov-based large-signal stability analysis and the stability criterion are derived, and mixed potential theory is used to make comparisons to verify the effectiveness of the derived criterion. The equilibrium point stability for different operation stages was obtained by means of theoretical calculation. Furthermore, the instabilities principle as well as their physical interpretation is revealed. In this article, the bus voltage is used as the only index to assess the microgrid power balance. Hence, the power load limit can be obtained by taking into consideration the stability and voltage deviation constraints. Finally, simulation and experimental results from a four-converter dc microgrid system verify the feasibility of the proposed theoretical analysis.
Advances in Fiber Optic DNA-Based Sensors: A Review

DNA is becoming increasingly important in the domain of optical fiber sensors, either as a tool for biosensing, or as a target to detect. In this review the main contributions of the last years are presented both in the domain of wavelength and intensity based configurations. This review comprises the use of natural single strand DNA (ssDNA) sequences as receptors for the detection of ssDNA sequences through hybridization, synthetic nucleic acids receptors for detection of complementary ssDNA sequences, and sensors based on natural and synthetic ssDNA receptors used for the detection of non-DNA targets. Parameters such as sensitivity, detection range and limit of detection are analyzed and discussed in detail to the purpose of comparing the different technologies and knowing the future lines to follow in the domain of fiber optic DNA-based sensors.
Finding Hope: Student Empowerment in a Segregated School District

This study seeks to understand how students are self-empowered in a racially and economically diverse school. A literature review revealed a body of peer reviewed research in relation to student empowerment through educational, sociological, and psychological theories. Within the literature review, the need for restructure of teacher/student relationships became apparent across a range of theories and frameworks. Yet, insufficient studies have been conducted to understand student empowerment and identity from a student perspective, or to what extent they are able to empower themselves and what methods or support they seek to feel more empowered. Through collecting and coding in-depth writing prompt responses and student interviews, this study examines strategies students have for empowering themselves in a unique school environment. This study utilized a phenomenological approach to triangulate qualitative data that collected the responses of fifty students in addition to four students who were asked open-ended questions in personal interviews. The interviews were detailed case studies into the lives of student participants that lasted approximately twenty-five minutes. Findings suggest that students thrive in environments where the learning is at a slower pace, where they can connect to the learning on deeper levels, and are empowered through surprising networks of support. These findings have implications for all students, with special consideration to students that face higher levels of inequity, systemic racism, and trauma. This study proposes that administrators and school districts rethink policies surrounding fast-paced learning, abiding only by state standards, and how educators can support students in unconventional ways.