Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic dissection of two fibre yield-related stem traits in ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud)

Abstract Ramie fibres are harvested from the stem bark of the plant, and thus two stem traits—the stem length (SL) and the stem diameter (SD)—are important components of fibre yield in this crop. A recently developed high-density genetic map using an F2 agamous line population derived from two parents, Qingdaye (QDY) and Zhongzhu 1 (ZZ1) laid the basis for dissection of the genetic basis of fibre yield-related traits. However, the genetic basis of the two fibre yield-related stem traits presented here is still uncharacterized in this population. In this study, quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis for SL and SD traits was performed using the population of QDY/ZZ1, resulting in the identification of four SL and six SD QTLs. Among these 10 QTLs, one was detected in both environments, and six demonstrated a significant environmental correlation. Three DELLA genes were identified to cluster in the region of the stem length QTL qSL11b, and their encoding proteins displayed either amino acid-substitutions or amino acid-insertion/deletion in the functional GRAS domain between two parents. Because the DELLA protein is a negative regulator of the gibberellin signalling pathway and plays a central role in regulating the stem elongation, the mutations in the GRAS domain-encoding region of these three genes potentially influence stem growth. The identification of the QTLs for two stem traits will help improve the fibre yield in ramie breeding programmes by marker-assisted selection. The three identified DELLA genes are candidate genes for cloning the qSL11b locus in future studies.
Gastric transposition as a valid surgical option for esophageal replacement in pediatric patients: experience from three Italian medical centers.

BACKGROUND Esophageal replacement in children is an option that is confined to very few situations including long-gap esophageal atresia and esophageal strictures unresponsive to other therapies (peptic or caustic ingestion). The purpose of our work was to describe the experience of gastric transposition in three Italian centers. METHODS This is a retrospective study. The data were extrapolated from a prospective database. We included all patients who had undergone gastric transposition in the last 15 years. RESULTS In the 15-year period, eight infants and children (3 males and 5 females) underwent gastric transposition for esophageal replacement. Six patients had long-gap esophageal atresia, and two had caustic esophageal stenosis. There were no deaths in the series. Three patients had an early postoperative complication: two had a self-limited salivary fistula at three weeks, and one (a patient with jejunostomy) had a jejunal perforation treated surgically. One late complication, anastomotic stricture, was recorded that required two endoscopic dilatations. The median follow-up was 60 months (range: 18-144 months). At final clinical follow-up, six patients had no eating problems, and two patients had some difficulties with eating (jejunostomy in situ), but they underwent logopedic therapy with improved outcomes. All patients had an increase in body weight and height postoperatively. CONCLUSION Our small study reports the clinical experience of three Italian centers in which gastric transposition was performed with excellent results, both in terms of surgical technique (simplicity, reproducibility, complication rate) and clinical follow-up (good oral feeding of young patients, normal social life and regular growth curves).
Signal enhancement in a near-field MIMO environment through adaptivity on transmit

A technique is presented on how to enhance the received signals in a near field multi-input multi-output (MIMO) environment where beam forming is not possible. This is done through the use of adaptivity on transmit. This technique is based on the principle of reciprocity, is independent of the material medium in which it is transmitting, and incorporates near-field environments and multipath. The objective here is to select a set of weights adapted to each receiver to be applied to each transmitting antenna, which is a function of the user location, so that the transmitted signal at the carrier frequency may be directed to a particular receiver location while simultaneously minimizing the received signal strengths at other receiver locations. Numerical simulations have been made to illustrate the novelty of the proposed approach.
Rapid myelin water imaging in human cervical spinal cord

Myelin water imaging (MWI) using multi‐echo T2 relaxation is a quantitative MRI technique that can be used as an in vivo biomarker for myelin in the central nervous system. MWI using a multi‐echo spin echo sequence currently takes more than 20 min to acquire eight axial slices (5 mm thickness) in the cervical spinal cord, making spinal cord MWI impractical for implementation in clinical studies.
A 32 nm Read Disturb-free 11T SRAM Cell with Improved Write Ability

Data stability, write ability and leakage power are major concerns in submicron static random access memory (SRAM) cell design. This paper presents an 11T SRAM cell with differential write and single-ended read. Proposed cell offers improved write ability by interrupting its ground connection during write operation. Separate read buffer provides disturb-free read operation. Characteristics are obtained from HSPICE simulation using 32[Formula: see text]nm high-performance predictive technology model. Simulation results show that the proposed cell achieves 4.5[Formula: see text] and 1.06[Formula: see text] higher read static noise margin (RSNM) as compared to conventional 6T (C6T) and PNN-based 10T cells, respectively, at 0.4[Formula: see text]V. Write static noise margin (WSNM) of the proposed design is 1.65[Formula: see text], 1.71[Formula: see text] and 1.77[Formula: see text] larger as compared to those of C6T, PPN-based 10T and PNN-based 10T cells, respectively, at 0.4V. Write “1” delay of the proposed cell is 0.108[Formula: see text] and 0.81[Formula: see text] as those of PPN10T and PNN10T cells, respectively. Proposed circuit consumes 1.40[Formula: see text] lesser read power as compared to PPN10T cell at 0.4[Formula: see text]V. Leakage power of the proposed cell is 0.35[Formula: see text] of C6T cell at 0.4[Formula: see text]V. Proposed 11T cell occupies 1.65[Formula: see text] larger area as compared to that of conventional 6T.
Computational Modeling of Human Language Acquisition

The nature and amount of information needed for learning a natural language, and the underlying mechanisms involved in this process, are the subject of much debate: is it possible to learn a language from usage data only, or some sort of innate knowledge and/or bias is needed to boost the process? This is a topic of interest to (psycho)linguists who study human language acquisition, as well as computational linguists who develop the knowledge sources necessary for largescale natural language processing systems. Children are a source of inspiration for any such study of language learnability. They learn language with ease, and their acquired knowledge of language is flexible and robust.
Environmental Strategy and Competitive Advantage in Mezcal Businesses in Oaxaca, Mexico

In this article we examine the relationship between environmental strategy and competitive advantage using natural-resource-based theory. We did a transverse-cut quantitative analysis on a sample of 80 small mezcal (distilled alcoholic beverage made from agave angustifolia haw) businesses in Oaxaca, Mexico. We used structural equations modeling for hypothesis testing; our results reveal a direct and positive relationship between environmental strategy and future positioning, and between environmental strategy and business partnerships. This implies that environmental strategies implemented by the palenquero (the owner or manager of a mezcal business) can generate competitive advantages in future positioning and partnerships, which improve business productivity and help preserve the natural environment.
Management Procedures for Greenland Halibut

This document expands upon the baseline and sensitivity SCAA assessments of the Greenland halibut resource by Rademeyer and Butterworth (2017). First, projections under different levels of a constant catch are reported. These suggest that for all the cases of assessments (operating models – OMs) considered, an annual TAC of 20000t would be sustainable, but for most of these cases 30000t would not. Some variants of a simple target-based Management Procedure (MP) are applied purely as examples to illustrate the performance trade-offs and robustness considerations involved in selecting an MP.
Effect of NOx on 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene (TMB) oxidation product distribution and particle formation

Abstract. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) represents a significant fraction of the tropospheric aerosol and its precursors are volatile organic compounds (VOC). Anthropogenic VOCs (AVOC) dominate the VOC budget in many urban areas with 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene (TMB) being among the most reactive aromatic AVOCs. TMB formed highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOM) in NOx free environment, which could contribute to new particle formation (NPF) depending on oxidation conditions were elevated OH oxidation enhanced particle formation. The experiments were performed in an oxidation flow reactor, the Go : PAM unit, under controlled OH oxidation conditions. By addition of NOx to the system we investigated the effect of NOx on particle formation and on the product distribution. We show that the formation of HOM and especially HOM accretion products, strongly varies with NOx conditions. We observe a suppression of HOM and particle formation with increasing NOx / ΔTMB and an increase in the formation of organonitrates (ON) mostly at the expense of HOM accretion products. We propose reaction mechanisms/pathways that explain the formation and observed product distributions with respect to oxidation conditions. We hypothesize that, based on our findings from TMB oxidation studies, aromatic AVOCs may not contribute significantly to NPF under typical NOx / AVOC conditions found in urban atmospheres.
Implementation of an analytically based scatter correction in SPECT reconstructions

Photon scattering is one of the main effects contributing to the degradation of image quality and to quantitative inaccuracy in nuclear imaging. We have developed a scatter correction based on the analytic photon distribution (APD) method, and implemented it in an iterative image reconstruction algorithm. The performance of the method was evaluated using computer simulated projection data, experimental data obtained from physical phantoms, and patient data. The scatter corrected images were compared to images that were only corrected for attenuation and collimator blurring. In the simulation studies our results could also be compared to an ideal scatter correction in which images were reconstructed only from unscattered photon data. In all cases, our scatter corrected images demonstrate improved image contrast. In the simulated data the contrast for images only corrected for attenuation and collimator blurring were on average 29% poorer than the ideal correction. Images for which our scatter correction was applied had contrast that was on average within 3% of the ideal correction. The scatter corrected reconstruction requires between 4 to 5 hours of total CPU time, on a 1.7 GHz processor with 1Gb RDRAM, using clinical data.
Design, package, and hardware verification of a high voltage current switch

In this paper, an attempt has been made to demonstrate various package design considerations to accommodate series connection of high voltage Si-IGBT (6500V/25A die) and SiC-Diode (6500V/25A die). The effects of connecting the cathode of the series diode to the collector of the IGBT versus connecting the emitter of the IGBT to the anode of the series diode have been analyzed in regards to parasitic line inductance of the structure. Various simulation results have then been used to redesign and justify the optimized package structure for the final current switch design. The package is fabricated using the optimized parameters. A double pulse test-circuit has been assembled. Initial hardware results have been shown to verify functioning. The main motivation of this work is to enumerate detailed design considerations for packing a high voltage current switch package.
Research on super-resolution reconstruction algorithm of infrared images of compressive coded aperture

To address the problem of low resolution of infrared imaging system, this paper combined compression coded aperture imaging to study infrared imaging, which can break through the imaging limit of infrared detectors and achieve super-resolution imaging. Compression coded aperture imaging mainly utilizes the sparsity of images, and solves mathematical models through reconstruction algorithms and reconstructs target images with high resolution. Reconstruction algorithm is a vital procedure in the process of compression coded aperture imaging, which determines the reconstruction accuracy and reconstruction speed of the image to some extent. In this paper, the existing compression coded aperture imaging reconstruction algorithms are classified and summarized. In the infrared imaging, the typical algorithm is simulated and verified, which can provide reference for future research in the field of infrared imaging.
A REVISIT TO α-FRACTAL FUNCTION AND BOX DIMENSION OF ITS GRAPH

One of the tools offered by fractal geometry is fractal interpolation, which forms a basis for the constructive approximation theory for nondifferentiable functions. The notion of fractal interpolation function can be used to obtain a wide spectrum of self-referential functions associated to a prescribed continuous function on a compact interval in [Formula: see text]. These fractal maps, the so-called [Formula: see text]-fractal functions, are defined by means of suitable iterated function system which involves some parameters. Building on the literature related to the notion of [Formula: see text]-fractal functions, the current study targets to record the continuous dependence of the [Formula: see text]-fractal function on parameters involved in its definition. Furthermore, the paper attempts to study the box dimension of the graph of the [Formula: see text]-fractal function.
Status of Superconducting Magnet System for the J-PARC Neutrino Beam Line

The superconducting magnet system for the J-PARC neutrino beam line for the T2K experiment has been served for the beam operation without serious disturbance since April 2009. Present most concern of the system is the operational current limit of superconducting corrector magnets for beam steering due to systematic quenches at lower currents. Operational experience of the magnet system and examples of troubleshoot including countermeasures against the corrector magnet quenches are presented.
PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND THEIR CHILDREN´S ABILITY

Background. It is well known that parents influence physical activity of their children. Determining the factors related to parents’ perception of the importance of physical activity and physical fitness enables enhancing the promotion of physical activity among children in the future. Methods. A total of 237 parents of children aged between 5 and 10 years participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate factor structure of the questionnaire “Parents Perceptions of the Importance of Physical Activity and Their Children´s Ability Questionnaire”. To investigate the differences between groups Independent-sample t- test was used. Cohen’s d was used to estimate effect size. Results. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the eight-issue two-factorial model psychometric parameters were acceptable in order to assess parents’ perception of the importance of physical activity and ability ( RMSEA = .072; NFI = .97; CFI = .98; NNFI = .98). Parents who were physically active in the past and were active in the present evaluated the importance of physical activity more than inactive parents. Parents’ assessments of the importance of physical activity and ability were not significantly different depending on parents’ education, university or secondary/ high education. Conclusion. The questionnaire used is a valid measure of parents´ assessments of the importance of physical activity and physical ability of the Estonian school students. The questionnaire enables us to identify parents’ assessments of the importance of physical activity and physical ability, which may be considered as one of the factors related to children’s physical activity.
First-principles calculations of Na and K impurities in CuInSe2 and their effect on Cd incorporation

Recent experimental work has revealed the distinct and beneficial role of K incorporation on the fabrication of increasingly efficient thin-film photovoltaic devices with Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layers. This has been attributed, in part, to improved CdS/CIGS heterojunction quality due to the enhanced diffusion of Cd into the near-interface region of CIGS. In this work, we try to distinguish the role of K compared to Na in enhancing Cd incorporation in CuInSe2 (CIS) based on first-principles calculations. Using a canonical method for calculating defect concentrations as a function of temperature and material stoichiometry, we identify experimentally relevant conditions under which a simple model for Na and K kinetics can lead to such an effect. We argue that a sufficiently low migration barrier for K diffusion mediated by Cu vacancies can lead to Cu-depletion near the CdS interface, allowing Cd to occupy greater numbers of vacant Cu sites.
Coronavirus Cell Entry Occurs through the Endo-/Lysosomal Pathway in a Proteolysis-Dependent Manner

Enveloped viruses need to fuse with a host cell membrane in order to deliver their genome into the host cell. While some viruses fuse with the plasma membrane, many viruses are endocytosed prior to fusion. Specific cues in the endosomal microenvironment induce conformational changes in the viral fusion proteins leading to viral and host membrane fusion. In the present study we investigated the entry of coronaviruses (CoVs). Using siRNA gene silencing, we found that proteins known to be important for late endosomal maturation and endosome-lysosome fusion profoundly promote infection of cells with mouse hepatitis coronavirus (MHV). Using recombinant MHVs expressing reporter genes as well as a novel, replication-independent fusion assay we confirmed the importance of clathrin-mediated endocytosis and demonstrated that trafficking of MHV to lysosomes is required for fusion and productive entry to occur. Nevertheless, MHV was shown to be less sensitive to perturbation of endosomal pH than vesicular stomatitis virus and influenza A virus, which fuse in early and late endosomes, respectively. Our results indicate that entry of MHV depends on proteolytic processing of its fusion protein S by lysosomal proteases. Fusion of MHV was severely inhibited by a pan-lysosomal protease inhibitor, while trafficking of MHV to lysosomes and processing by lysosomal proteases was no longer required when a furin cleavage site was introduced in the S protein immediately upstream of the fusion peptide. Also entry of feline CoV was shown to depend on trafficking to lysosomes and processing by lysosomal proteases. In contrast, MERS-CoV, which contains a minimal furin cleavage site just upstream of the fusion peptide, was negatively affected by inhibition of furin, but not of lysosomal proteases. We conclude that a proteolytic cleavage site in the CoV S protein directly upstream of the fusion peptide is an essential determinant of the intracellular site of fusion.
Human TLR8 senses UR/URR motifs in bacterial and mitochondrial RNA

Toll‐like receptor (TLR) 13 and TLR2 are the major sensors of Gram‐positive bacteria in mice. TLR13 recognizes Sa19, a specific 23S ribosomal (r) RNA‐derived fragment and bacterial modification of Sa19 ablates binding to TLR13, and to antibiotics such as erythromycin. Similarly, RNase A‐treated Staphylococcus aureus activate human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) only via TLR2, implying single‐stranded (ss) RNA as major stimulant. Here, we identify human TLR8 as functional TLR13 equivalent that promiscuously senses ssRNA. Accordingly, Sa19 and mitochondrial (mt) 16S rRNA sequence‐derived oligoribonucleotides (ORNs) stimulate PBMCs in a MyD88‐dependent manner. These ORNs, as well as S. aureus‐, Escherichia coli‐, and mt‐RNA, also activate differentiated human monocytoid THP‐1 cells, provided they express TLR8. Moreover, Unc93b1−/−‐ and Tlr8−/−‐THP‐1 cells are refractory, while endogenous and ectopically expressed TLR8 confers responsiveness in a UR/URR RNA ligand consensus motif‐dependent manner. If TLR8 function is inhibited by suppression of lysosomal function, antibiotic treatment efficiently blocks bacteria‐driven inflammatory responses in infected human whole blood cultures. Sepsis therapy might thus benefit from interfering with TLR8 function.
The Hype Cycle of Working Memory Training

Seventeen years and hundreds of studies after the first journal article on working memory training was published, evidence for the efficacy of working memory training is still wanting. Numerous studies show that individuals who repeatedly practice computerized working memory tasks improve on those tasks and closely related variants. Critically, although individual studies have shown improvements in untrained abilities and behaviors, systematic reviews of the broader literature show that studies producing large, positive findings are often those with the most methodological shortcomings. The current review discusses the past, present, and future status of working memory training, including consideration of factors that might influence working memory training and transfer efficacy.
Automatic control education using FlightGear and MATLAB based virtual lab

In this paper, a virtual lab based on MATLAB and FlightGear flight simulator is discussed and developed. The virtual lab consists of number of experiments that enhances the understanding of fundamental concepts of classical control forundergraduate students. The objective of the virtual lab is to design a stability augmentation system for C310 aircraft model according to known flying qualities then implement a hold autopilot for the aircraft. This objective is achieved through a series of experiments, animation and simulation to illustrate main concepts of classical control like modeling, time domain analysis, frequency domain Analysis, non-minimum phase systems, root locus, feedback design and PID compensation. These concepts are demonstrated in four experiments through the analysis and design of a flight controlsystem for Cessna 310 aircraft on FlightGear flight simulator. The developed virtual lab can be used easily by students to study and visualize classical control principles using FlightGear and MATLAB GUI with an attractive case study of a flight control system.