Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histopathology of Corn Plants Infected by Endophytic Fungi

Simple Summary Endophytic fungi are fungi that live all or part of their life cycles within the tissues of their hosts. Although several endophyte-plant interactions are non-pathogenic in nature, it has been reported that upon infection, some endophytic fungi are able to adopt a pathogenic status resulting in disease symptoms in their host plants, ranging in severity from mild to severe. In the present study, light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the tissue colonization and cell damage of corn plants by three endophytic fungi, Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium sacchari, and Penicillium citrinum, causing disease symptoms in the roots, stems, and leaves of infected corn plants. Tissue deterioration and cell collapse were produced by endophytic F. verticillioides, while significant cell proliferation and wall thickening were observed in corn plants infected by endophytic F. sacchari. Corn plants infected by P. citrinum showed reductions in cell diameter of the vascular bundles of infected corn tissues. The ability of endophytic fungi recovered from healthy corn plants to cause disease when inoculated in healthy tissues of other corn plants signifies their importance as determinants of corn health and productivity. Abstract Endophytic fungi inhabiting plant tissues show extensive functional diversity, ranging from mutualism to pathogenicity. The present study evaluated the histological responses of corn plants to colonization by three species of endophytic fungi isolated from corn. Corn seedlings were inoculated with 1 × 106 conidia per mL spore suspensions of endophytic Fusarium verticillioides, Fusarium sacchari, and Penicillium citrinum and observed for 14 days for the emergence of disease symptoms. Histological examination of diseased root, stem, and leaf tissues was conducted using light and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the mean diameters of root phloem, stem vascular bundles, and leaf vascular bundles, of corn plants infected with endophytic P. citrinum (18.91 µm, 146.96 µm, and 107.86 µm, respectively), F. verticillioides (18.75 µm, 85.45 µm, and 118.24 µm, respectively), and F. sacchari (24.15 µm root phloem, and 98.90 µm stem vascular bundle diameters), were significantly lower than the root phloem (33.68 µm), stem vascular bundle (186.77 µm), and leaf vascular bundle (155.88 µm) of the uninfected corn plants (p ≤ 0.05). Endophytic F. verticillioides was the most virulent, resulting in severe degradation and the eventual collapse of infected plant tissues. The study showed that endophytic fungi recovered from corn plants are capable of initiating significant disease responses in infected corn tissues.
Channeling Franchisee Independence: How Personal Initiative and Self-Awareness Mediate the Relationship Between Desire for Autonomy and Franchise Performance

Rooted in self-determination theory (SDT), this paper focuses on the relationship between a franchisee’s desire for autonomy and financial performance. The typical franchise requires system-wide conformity and standardization. Yet, most franchisees are more than merely entrepreneurs with an instruction manual and so they desire independence, and addressing this paradox of desire for autonomy versus the desire for standardization represents a major challenge for franchisors. Utilizing a sample of 274 franchised fitness center locations across the United States, this study reports a negative relationship between a franchisee’s appetite for independence and their center’s financial performance. However, we also report that this adverse relationship is positively mediated when channeled through the franchisee’s personal initiative and self-awareness. These findings suggest that although the desire for autonomy may not be the most desirable franchisee disposition, its detrimental impact on performance may be suppressed if franchisees are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and demonstrate superior initiative and proactive behaviors.
Radar Anti-jamming Technology Status and Development Trend

This article describes the status of the development of the domestic and international radar anti-jamming technology,and introduces domestic research radar anti-jamming technology from time domain,frequency domain,airspace,polarization domain signal processing,as well as anti-jamming circuit.The radar anti-jamming technology trends,as well as the development of a new system of radar and anti-jamming technology development relationship are analyzed.
Analyzing Commute Mode Choice Using the LCNL Model in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Evidence from China

The purpose of this paper is to gain an insight into commuting and travel mode choices in the post-COVID-19 era. The surveys are divided into two waves in Qingdao, China: the first-wave questionnaires were collected under the background of a three-month zero growth of cases; the second wave was implemented after the new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The latent class nested logit (LCNL) model is applied to capture heterogeneous characteristics among the various classes. The results indicate that age, income, household composition, and the frequency of use of travel modes are latent factors that impact users’ attitudes toward mass transit and the private car nests when undergoing the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals’ trepidation regarding health risks began to fade, but this is still a vital consideration in terms of mode choice and the purchase of vehicles. Moreover, economic reinvigoration, the increase in car ownership, and an increase in the desire to purchase a car may result in great challenges for urban traffic networks.
Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials with Meta-Analyses and Trial Sequential Analyses

Background Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) can cause chronic pain and seriously affect the quality of patient lives. The continued emergence of high-quality RCTS requires us to update the quality of evidence. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture for KOA patients and calculate the required information size (RIS) to determine whether further clinical studies are required. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, WOS, CBM, CNKI, VIP, WHO ICTRP, ChiCTR, and Grey literature to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for KOA from inception to December 2021. A meta-analysis was performed according to the Cochrane systematic review method by using Review Manager 5.4 and TSA 0.9. 5.10 beta, and GRADE was used to evaluate the quality of the evidence. Trial sequential analysis was used to control random errors and calculate the required information size. Results Eleven RCTs with 2484 patients were included in our meta-analysis, meeting the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis indicated that acupuncture had beneficial effect on knee osteoarthritis in reducing pain [n = 2387; SMD = −0.12, 95% CI (-0.20, -0.04); I2 = 0%] and improved patients function activities [n = 2408; MD = −1.25, 95% CI (-1.97, -0.53); I2 = 0%], but true acupuncture showed no significant effect in relieve patient's stiffness [n = 1337; MD = −0.07, 95% CI (-0.30, 0.15); I2 = 0%]. We pooled the studies which found no significant difference in improving the quality life of mental [n = 1462; SMD = 0.02, 95% CI (-0.23, 0.27); I2 = 78%] and patients physical health (SF-36 or SF-12) [n = 1745; SMD = 1.01, 95% CI (-0.08, 2.11); I2 = 0%] compared with sham acupuncture. The pain and function TSA graphs indicated that cumulative Z-curves intersected with the traditional level of statistical favoring acupuncture, and more RCTs will required in the future studies. Conclusion Acupuncture has beneficial effect on pain relief and improves function activities, and this treatment can be recommended as a beneficial alternative therapy in patients with KOA, particularly for chronic patients and those currently undergoing long-term pain and help them increasing quality of life. But it should be further verified through more RCTs in function. Available studies suggested that acupuncture was superior to sham acupuncture in reduce pain and function as verified by TSA.
‘There is No Future in it’: Pandemic and Ride Hailing Hustle in Africa

This article examines the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on ride‐hailing drivers in Africa. It argues that though ride‐hailing offers paid‐work to some African workers, the commodified and informalised nature of this work results in poor job quality. The effects of which are greatly amplified during the pandemic. Drawing on a mixed methods approach: in‐depth interviews with ride‐hailing drivers in Nairobi and digital ethnography, it also provides a narrative of ‘hustle’ to outline strategies of resilience, reworking, and resistance among informal workers. It concludes by highlighting the need for adequate regulatory frameworks and on‐the‐ground solidarity networks to ensure decent working conditions and to push back against precarity in the gig economy.
Quantitative analysis of Six Sigma, Lean and Lean Six Sigma research publications in last two decades

The purpose of this paper is to extend previous studies to a hybrid analysis of three business improvement practices of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within last two decades and identify the research gaps and focusses in more comprehensive and robust classification framework. ,A secondary data collection and a literature review were conducted to collect information about peer-reviewed journal articles under six dimensions of a tested classification framework. The frequency and distribution analysis was conducted followed by Pearson’s χ2 test to analyse any relationship between dimensions of framework in order to identify the gap. ,Despite a relatively great deal of regular research outputs about Six Sigma, Lean and LSS, academic journal articles have been found mainly limited to a few industries, themes and countries. “General manufacturing”, “healthcare”, “automotive” and “electronic industries” as sectors; and “tools and techniques”, “benefits” and “success factors” as key themes have been mostly approached by LSS, Six Sigma and lean management articles. It was also found that there is still a great disparity amongst researchers and journals to publish about these three business improvement practices. ,The research publications for LSS, Six Sigma and lean management should have wider approach towards various manufacturing and service sectors, countries and journal publications. A greater level of research/enterprise activities has been found in relation to LSS and Six Sigma articles compared to lean management articles. ,This research aims to identify the gaps in research publications during last two decades about three major business improvement practices in one package and through more comprehensive robust classification framework and also through comparative analysis.
Research on the Development of Music Information Retrieval and Fuzzy Search

With the popularization of modern broadband networks, many network resources are serving as media for the public to seek knowledge. In order to help users avoid spending hours searching for music-related information, establishing an efficient multimedia database is the main goal of the music retrieval system. Network music retrieval users are usually unfamiliar with the songs and can only remember a portion of the music track, so it is important to develop a fuzzy algorithm in music search. In this research, the function and frame of various current music retrieval systems are discussed, a comparative analysis is carried out, and a new fuzzy search feedback learning algorithm is proposed as a potential application and the futuristic trend of music retrieval systems, so as to improve the retrieval efficiency.
Morphological and molecular characterization of Austrodiplostomum compactum metacercariae in the eyes and brains of fishes from the Ivaí River, Brazil

Abstract Austrodiplostomum spp. (Platyhelminthes: Digenea) are endoparasites with a broad geographic distribution in South America. During the larval stage, they parasitize the eyes, brains, muscles, gill, kidneys and swim bladder of a wide variety of fishes. The metacercariae of Austrodiplostomum spp. have several morphological characteristics during development, but are very similar among species, which makes it necessary to use molecular tools to contribute to the elucidation during the larval stage. The objective of this study was to perform morphological and molecular analyses of Austrodiplostomum sp. found in specimens of Hypostomus sourced from the Ivaí River in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Of the 93 analyzed specimens (H. hermanni [n = 50], H. albopunctatus [n = 9], Hypostomus sp. 1 [n = 24], and Hypostomus sp. 2 [n = 10]), 60 were parasitized. A total of 577 Austrodiplostomum sp. metacercariae was collected from the infected hosts; DNA from seven of these samples was extracted, amplified, and sequenced. The morphological data associated with the genetic distance values and the relationships observed in the COI gene tree, indicate that all metacercariae were A. compactum. This is the first record of A. compactum parasitizing H. hermanni, H. albopunctatus, Hypostomus sp. 1, and Hypostomus sp. 2 in the Ivaí River.
Competitive Influence Minimization in Multi-Group Social Networks: An Opinion-Based Solution

Misinformation control has been a vibrant subject of research in online social networks (OSNs). With the diversity of OSNs, we observe that the emergence of group has also notably increased the exposure rate of misinformation. In the process of misinformation dissemination, the opinions adopted by an individual not only depend on the choices made by individuals’ peers, but also highly depend on the individuals’ own knowledge. However, we find that individuals’ opinions are not consistent in the misinformation dissemination, and they are transferred dynamically. Motivated by these facts, we do some novel works on the problem of competitive influence minimization in multi-group OSNs. Firstly, we propose a novel dynamic competitive diffusion model. Secondly, a spontaneous mechanism and a contact mechanism are introduced to analyze users’ opinion transfer processes, based on probabilistic discrete-time Markov chains. Thirdly, in order to make negative opinions be minimized, we use this model to work on a new Opinion Minimization (OM) problem. To quantitatively analyze this problem, a greedy algorithm of Equilibrium Opinion Minimization (EOM) is performed to select seed nodes. Furthermore, the experiments show that our proposed EOM algorithm outperforms the state of the arts, e.g., classical heuristic algorithms and local greedy algorithms of Influence Minimization in terms of minimizing opinion in steady-state opinion distribution.
Overexpression of GATA5 Inhibits Prostate Cancer Progression by Regulating PLAGL2 via the FAK/PI3K/AKT Pathway

Simple Summary Prostate cancer (PCa) has the highest incidence of malignant tumors and is the second-ranked tumor-causing death of men. GATA binding protein 5 (GATA5) belongs to the GATA gene family and we found that GATA5 was downregulated in PCa tissues, but the function of GATA5 in PCa remains elusive. We found overexpression GATA5 inhibited tumor proliferation, migration, invasion and the process of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), and upregulation of GATA5 promoted PCa cell apoptosis. In addition, we disclosed that GATA5 could interact with pleomorphic adenoma gene-like-2 (PLAGL2) to regulate PCa cell growth via FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Hence, these findings suggested that GATA5 could serve as a new therapeutic target in the future. Abstract Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is a malignancy with high incidence and the principal cause of cancer deaths in men. GATA binding protein 5 (GATA5) belongs to the GATA gene family. GATA5 has a close association with carcinogenesis, but the role of GATA5 in PCa remains poorly understood. The aim of our present study was to probe into the effect of GATA5 on PCa progression and to elucidate the involved mechanism. Methods: The expression of GATA5 was detected in both PCa samples and PCa cell lines. GATA5 overexpression, PLAGL2 knockdown, and overexpression cell models were generated, then Western blotting experiments were utilized to validate the efficiency of transfection. The effects of GATA5 on PCa cell proliferation, metastasis, apoptosis, cell cycle progression, and EMT were detected in vitro or in vivo. Furthermore, the mechanism by which GATA5 inhibits prostate cancer progression through regulating PLAGL2 via the FAK/PI3K/AKT pathway was also explored. Results: GATA5 expression was downregulated in PCa samples and cell lines. GATA5 overexpression inhibited PCa cell proliferation and metastasis but increased the rate of apoptosis. In addition, we confirmed that GATA5 inhibited prostate cancer progression, including EMT, by regulating PLAGL2 via the FAK/PI3K/AKT pathway. Conclusion: We demonstrated that GATA5, as a tumor suppressor in PCa, inhibits PCa progression by regulating PLAGL2. These results showed that the GATA5/PLAGL2/FAK/PI3K/AKT pathway may become a new therapeutic direction for the treatment of PCa.
Data fusion for cylindrical form measurements

For high-precision form measurements of cylindrical workpieces form profiles such as roundness and straightness profiles are independently acquired via a bird-cage strategy. The 3D point cloud reconstructed by fusing these intersected profiles is meaningful in dimension and form assessment for cylinder, since enhanced accuracy can be achieved by fusion results. Moreover, it plays an important role as the input to other calculations. However, these data cannot be accurately aligned in form reconstruction, due to random absolute offsets in profiles and a lack of absolute positions. Therefore, we propose an approach to data fusion of these profiles to reconstruct cylindrical form. The uncertainties of the fused profile are evaluated, taking an individual contribution of a single profile and a global contribution of all profiles into account. The associated uncertainties are propagated using the Monte Carlo method. Experimental study results indicate that the data fusion procedure improves the accuracy of available datasets. After fusion, all available data points are capable of being used in the form assessment.
Bone Progenitors Pull the Strings on the Early Metabolic Rewiring Occurring in Prostate Cancer Cells

Simple Summary Almost 90% of prostate cancer metastases occur in bone. The arrival of tumor cells to the homing organ requires a metabolic adaptation to different nutrients and oxygen availability in the new microenvironment to fulfill sustained growth and proliferation rates. In this study, we characterized the alterations in tumor metabolism occurring in human prostate cancer cells when they interact with bone cells. We hypothesized that elucidating how these cells obtain their energy and “building blocks”, and that identifying key determinants underlying this phenomenon, could be a promising strategy to halt disease progression. Accordingly, we discovered five genes related to the metabolism of lipids that play a critical role in the survival of metastatic patients, and we established a communication axis between tumor and bone cells that includes bone-secreted collagen and the tumor Protein Kinase A, which drives the early metabolic reprogramming of metastatic cells. Abstract Metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) cells soiling in the bone require a metabolic adaptation. Here, we identified the metabolic genes fueling the seeding of PCa in the bone niche. Using a transwell co-culture system of PCa (PC3) and bone progenitor cells (MC3T3 or Raw264.7), we assessed the transcriptome of PC3 cells modulated by soluble factors released from bone precursors. In a Principal Component Analysis using transcriptomic data from human PCa samples (GSE74685), the altered metabolic genes found in vitro were able to stratify PCa patients in two defined groups: primary PCa and bone metastasis, confirmed by an unsupervised clustering analysis. Thus, the early transcriptional metabolic profile triggered in the in vitro model has a clinical correlate in human bone metastatic samples. Further, the expression levels of five metabolic genes (VDR, PPARA, SLC16A1, GPX1 and PAPSS2) were independent risk-predictors of death in the SU2C-PCF dataset and a risk score model built using this lipid-associated signature was able to discriminate a subgroup of bone metastatic PCa patients with a 23-fold higher risk of death. This signature was validated in a PDX pre-clinical model when comparing MDA-PCa-183 growing intrafemorally vs. subcutaneously, and appears to be under the regulatory control of the Protein Kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway. Secretome analyses of conditioned media showcased fibronectin and type-1 collagen as critical bone-secreted factors that could regulate tumoral PKA. Overall, we identified a novel lipid gene signature, driving PCa aggressive metastatic disease pointing to PKA as a potential hub to halt progression.
Contacting Inkjet-Printed Silver Structures and SMD by ICA and Solder

Digitally printed conductive structures often need to be electrically connected to batteries, microcontrollers, or other devices. A consensus of industry and research is that such hybrid printed electronics will play a major part in the future of printed electronics. To promote the technology of hybrid printed electronics, surface mount technologies for electronic components using isotropic conductive adhesives (ICAs) and low melting tin bismuth solders on inkjet-printed silver structures on injection molded liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrates were investigated in this publication. The special needs for inkjet-printed electronics were considered as well as the reliability of assembled surface mounted devices (SMDs) and their failure mechanisms. Connected 0603 and 1206 SMD components achieved a characteristic fatigue life of more than 3500 cycles during thermal cycling at +125 °C/−40 °C and withstood over 1000 h under a damp-heat atmosphere of +85 °C/85% RH. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the substrate and the selection of solder have major impacts on the reliability of the assemblies.