Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ocean warming reduces gastropod survival despite maintenance of feeding and oxygen consumption rates

Short‐term, sublethal response variables are increasingly used to provide rapid indications of whole organism responses to future climate conditions. Accumulating evidence suggests, however, that these response variables may not consistently reflect whole organism responses which manifest over longer time scales. Here, we consider the effect of moderate warming on longer‐term whole organism fitness, as reflected by survival, as well as two shorter‐term response variables, feeding rate and oxygen consumption, for two tropical gastropod species. We found a significant reduction in survival under warming, despite no significant effect of warming on feeding or oxygen consumption rates. This result demonstrates that the maintenance of physiological rates alone is not sufficient to sustain organism survival under elevated temperatures; rather an increase in physiological process rates is likely required. Consequently, isolated short‐term physiological processes may not adequately reflect longer‐term whole organism responses to altered climate. For improved understanding, both short‐ and long‐term responses need to be considered.
Characterisation of Dentatorubrothalamic tract with Diffusion Spectrum Imaging in Patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease

Panagiotis N Papageorgiou (  panagiotis.papageorgiou@uhs.nhs.uk ) University Hospital Southampton https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8696-4457 Frederic Rossi-mossuti CHUV: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois Roland Wiest Inselspital University Hospital Bern: Inselspital Universitatsspital Bern Claus Kiefer Inselspital University Hospital Bern: Inselspital Universitatsspital Bern Martin Zbinden Inselspital University Hospital Bern: Inselspital Universitatsspital Bern Claudio Pollo Inselspital University Hospital Bern: Inselspital Universitatsspital Bern
An Interactive E-Tool for Maintaining and Monitoring Medical Records using Blockchain Technology

Healthcare has become one of India’s largest sectors. The growing concern is to find the right doctor and adhere to medication as prescribed. This brings the necessity for a medium where one could find doctors and book appointments for consultation. The proposed system provides a medium to discover doctors under certain specializations sorted based on user reviews, location, and availability and book appointments for consultation. The doctor will be able to fill in a form replacing the traditional paper prescriptions that can be accessed by the patient at any time. All the other medical reports can also be stored in this application which will be secured with a password known only to the patient. For editing a prescription given, two passwords: 1 - Patient, 1-Doctor will have to be used. In addition to password protection, storing the records through blockchain will ensure data integrity and provide more security. This system also provides a way to make patients get alerted for taking pills, for next reviews, tests to be taken, and surgery dates. These reminders can be very useful to elderly people to ensure medication adherence. This application also comes with some additional features like an emergency button, tapping which a call will be connected to the Doctor.
The influence of phylogeny and life history on telomere lengths and telomere rate of change among bird species: A meta‐analysis

Abstract Longevity is highly variable among animal species and has coevolved with other life‐history traits, such as body size and rates of reproduction. Telomeres, through their erosion over time, are one of the cell mechanisms that produce senescence at the cell level and might even have an influence on the rate of aging in whole organisms. However, uneroded telomeres are also risk factors of cell immortalization. The associations of telomere lengths, their rate of change, and life‐history traits independent of body size are largely underexplored for birds. To test associations of life‐history traits and telomere dynamics, we conducted a phylogenetic meta‐analysis using studies of 53 species of birds. We restricted analyses to studies that applied the telomere restriction fragment length (TRF) method, and examined relationships between mean telomere length at the chick (Chick TL) and adult (Adult TL) stages, the mean rate of change in telomere length during life (TROC), and life‐history traits. We examined 3 principal components of 12 life‐history variables that represented: body size (PC1), the slow–fast continuum of pace of life (PC2), and postfledging parental care (PC3). Phylogeny had at best a small‐to‐medium influence on Adult and Chick TL (r 2 = .190 and .138, respectively), but a substantial influence on TROC (r 2 = .688). Phylogeny strongly influenced life histories: PC1 (r 2 = .828), PC2 (.838), and PC3 (.613). Adult TL and Chick TL were poorly associated with the life‐history variables. TROC, however, was negatively and moderate‐to‐strongly associated with PC2 (unadjusted r = −.340; with phylogenetic correction, r = −.490). Independent of body size, long‐lived species with smaller clutches, and slower embryonic rate of growth may exhibit less change in telomere length over their lifetimes. We suggest that telomere lengths may have diverged, even among closely avian‐related species, yet telomere dynamics are strongly linked to the pace of life.
Discovered, made visible, constructed, and left out: LGBT+ parenting in the Italian sociological debate

ABSTRACT When, how, and which disciplines started to deal with which forms and aspects of LGBT+ parenthood is not a coincidence but is linked to occasions of discussion as well as to visibility, acceptance, and recognition in the wider social and political contexts. This particularly applies to sociological contributions which look at families and parenting involving relations to social institutions and their impact and shaping of forms, challenges, and meanings of parenting and family life. In Italy, issues about LGBT+ parenting began to appear in the sociological literature some thirty years ago. Since then, the debate has seen different waves and shifts, which show both how external movements, occasions, and discussions influenced the sociological debate and how the latter has, in turn, contributed to the construction and recognition of the phenomenon. Against this background, using a data mining approach, the article presents an analysis of the most recent sociological literature on LGBT+ parenting, highlighting the main dimensions of the debate and outlining expressions, concepts, and words most used on this topic. Using Italian sociology as an example, the critical analysis of these findings shows how issues of topicality and (in)visibility are both reflected and reiterated by contextual sociological discourses and debates.
Scale‐Adaptive Kernel Correlation Filter with Maximum Posterior Probability Estimation and Combined Features for Visual Target Tracking

Although the correlation filtering tracker for visual target tracking has achieved excellent results in both accuracy and robustness, there are still some problems yet to be solved. Obtaining stable scale estimation using traditional trackers is a challenging problem in visual target tracking, and many trackers fail to handle scale change in complex video sequences. In order to solve the problems of scale change, partial occlusion and geometric deformation for target tracking effectively, a new tracker based on kernel correlation filtering is developed in our study. The tracker obtained with maximum posterior probability method has scale adaptive ability and can deal with scale change to improve the tracking ability. In addition, the tracker further enhances the ability to deal with illumination variation, geometric deformation and occlusion by fusing the adaptive color naming feature and the histogram of oriented gradient feature as well. The VOT‐2018 which has 50 video sequences is used as the benchmark data set in this work and the simulation evaluation on this data set have shown that the proposed tracker has achieved stable tracking results in some challenging scenarios and can achieve better tracking performance than other trackers. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
A Deep Look into Extractive Text Summarization

This investigation has presented an approach to Extractive Automatic Text Summarization (EATS). A framework focused on the summary of a single document has been developed, using the Tf-ldf method (Frequency Term, Inverse Document Frequency) as a reference, dividing the document into a subset of documents and generating value of each of the words contained in each document, those documents that show Tf-Idf equal or higher than the threshold are those that represent greater importance, therefore; can be weighted and generate a text summary according to the user’s request. This document represents a derived model of text mining application in today’s world. We demonstrate the way of performing the summarization. Random values were used to check its performance. The experimented results show a satisfactory and understandable summary and summaries were found to be able to run efficiently and quickly, showing which are the most important text sentences according to the threshold selected by the user.
Decision Support Model for Ecological Operation of Reservoirs Based on Dynamic Bayesian Network

In this study, a model was proposed based on the sustainable boundary approach, to provide decision support for reservoir ecological operation with the dynamic Bayesian network. The proposed model was developed in four steps: (1) calculating and verifying the sustainable boundaries in combination with the ecological objectives of the study area, (2) generating the learning samples by establishing an optimal operation model and a Monte Carlo simulation model, (3) establishing and training a dynamic Bayesian network by learning the examples and (4) calculating the probability of the economic and ecological targets exceeding the set threshold from time to time with the trained dynamic Bayesian network model. Using the proposed model, the water drawing of the reservoir can be adjusted dynamically according to the probability of the economic and ecological targets exceeding the set threshold during reservoir operation. In this study, the proposed model was applied to the middle reaches of Heihe River, the effect of water supply proportion on the probability of the economic target exceeding the set threshold was analyzed, and the response of the reservoir water storage in each period to the probability of the target exceeding the set threshold was calculated. The results show that the risks can be analyzed with the proposed model. Compared with the existing studies, the proposed model provides guidance for the ecological operation of the reservoir from time to time and technical support for the formulation of reservoir operation chart. Compared with the operation model based on the designed guaranteed rate, the reservoir operation model based on uncertainty reduces the variation range of ecological flow shortage or the overflow rate and the economic loss rate by 5% and 6%, respectively. Thus, it can be seen that the decision support model based on the dynamic Bayesian network can effectively reduce the influence of water inflow and rainfall uncertainties on reservoir operation.
Image Processing Technique for the Detection of Alberseem Leaves Diseases Based on Soft Computing

Detecting plant diseases using the traditional method such as the naked eye can sometimes lead to incorrect identification and classification of the diseases. Consequently, this traditional method can strongly contribute to the losses of the crop. Image processing techniques have been used as an approach to detect and classify plant diseases. This study aims to focus on the diseases affecting the leaves of al-berseem and how to use image processing techniques to detect al-berseem diseases. Early detection of diseases important for finding appropriate treatment quickly and avoid economic losses. Detect the plant disease is based on the symptoms and signs that appear on the leaves. The detection steps include image preprocessing, segmentation, and identification. The image noise is removed in the preprocessing stage by using the MATLAB features energy, mean, homogeneity, and others. The k-mean-clustering is used to detect the affected area in leaves. Finally, KNN will be used to recognize unhealthy leaves and determines disease types (fungal diseases, pest diseases (shall), leaf minor (red spider), and deficiency of nutrient (yellow leaf)); these four types of diseases will detect in this thesis. Identification is the last step in which the disease will identify and classified.
Clonal Reproduction and Low Genetic Diversity in Northern Australian Santalum lanceolatum (Santalaceae) Populations Highlights the Need for Genetic Rescue of This Commercially Significant Species

Genetic diversity and the extent of clonality in a plant species can significantly influence its reproductive success. Whilst clonality can be an effective life-history strategy, in harsh environments it can lead to low levels of diversity and sexual reproductive failure. Santalum lanceolatum (Santalaceae) is a hemi-parasitic shrub endemic to the monsoonal dry tropics of northern Australia, which was harvested for its oil-rich heartwood from natural populations in Cape York, Australia. Despite wild harvesting ending over 70 years ago, populations in the region are currently declining. The aims of this study were to examine genetic variation, population genetic structure, inbreeding and clonality of six S. lanceolatum populations from this northern margin of the species range. Analyses of twelve microsatellite markers showed S. lanceolatum had low genetic diversity (AR = 2.776, HE = 0.409), evidence of regional differentiation (FST = 0.307–0.424) and negligible inbreeding levels (F = −0.052). Clonality investigations revealed 135 genets among 200 samples, suggesting that the clonal structure of S. lanceolatum may be limiting the potential for sexual reproduction and natural recruitment. We recommend a conservation strategy involving genetic rescue to prevent the further decline and potential local extinction from a variety of environmental pressures and human activities.
The Usefulness of Mixtures with Festulolium braunii for the Regeneration of Grassland under Progressive Climate Change

The climate warming and changes in weather patterns in Europe are negatively affecting the structure of grassland swards. The disappearance of valuable forage grasses can be observed. Therefore, in order to keep grassland productivity high, high-yielding grasses of good quality that are resistant to changes in the weather are being sought. At the moment there are few publications which present the long-term influence of changing weather conditions on meadow sward structure and its fodder value. This study aimed to assess the suitability of grass mixtures with Festulolium braunii for grassland renewal by full tillage on organic soil, taking into account atmospheric conditions. The experiments were carried out in the years 2009–2018 on a meadow complex located on organic soil in the Randow river valley, near Ramin (Germany). Grassland restoration was carried out by the method of full cultivation in three experiments with different proportions of Festulolium braunii and Lolium perenne (the existing grassland was eliminated and seeds of a new grass mix were sown). The meadow experiments were established using the method of random blocks in four repetitions Detailed studies included: floristic composition of meadow sward, fresh and dry mass yields, and content of: crude protein, soluble sugars, raw fiber, and net energy NEL (net energy lactation) concentration. Festulolium braunii, Poa pratensis, Dactylis glomerata, and Phleum pratense proved to be more resistant to low temperatures in winter and excess water in spring than Lolium perenne. The largest production potential of fresh and dry mass was found in mixtures with a high content of Festulolium braunii Festulolium braunii tolerates varied and unfavorable weather conditions (frosts during snowless winters, spring frosts and waterlogging, and droughts) very well and provides a stable good quality sward yield (favourably affected the carbohydrate and protein content of the sward). Lolium perenne, on the other hand, decreases its share in the sward under unfavorable weather conditions.
Forensic Genetic Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Hypervariable Region III Sequences in Muslims from South India

The absence of recombination, high rate of mutation, and maternal inheritance of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome makes it a valuable tool in many fields including evolutionary anthropology, genetic genealogy, population history, and forensic science. The mtDNA genome can be separated into two parts: a large coding region and a smaller fragment called the control region or non-coding region that generally referred to as displacement loop (D loop). The mtDNA D-loop region was highly polymorphic and has proven a precious marker in forensic identification. The study aims to examine and suggests polymorphism of the HVRIII region as a power marker along with HVRI and HVRII in forensic investigations. Within the control region of the mtDNA genome, the sequences of hypervariable region III (HVR III) (nucleotide position 438-574) were obtained from 60 unrelated Muslims of Shrirangapattana town, located in Karnataka state of South India. The complete mtDNA control region was amplified and sequenced by the Sanger sequencing method. The study provided the identification of 18 different haplotypes and 17 polymorphic nucleotide positions. The most common haplotype (H.18) was consistent with the Anderson sequence which occurred fourteen times. The distribution of nucleotide substitutions, insertions, and deletions was computed and determined that transitions made up the majority of the variations (58%) in this region. The genetic diversity was estimated at 0.89939 and the random match probability at 0.1155. The power of discrimination was found to be 0.8844 and the rest of the statistical parameters such as the mean of pair-wise differences and nucleotide diversity were established as 2.255932 ± 1.25884 and 0.010071± 0.00623, respectively. Consequently, the discovery of high genetic, haplotype, and nucleotide diversity, and high power of discrimination impart the use of hypervariable region III (HVR III) as an important marker in forensic investigations.
Treat and extend paradigm in management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration: current practice and future directions

ABSTRACT Introduction: With neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) being a leading cause of irreversible vision loss and its implications as a major health care burden, treatment regimens that offer practicable and sustainable approaches in the real-world setting are being explored for their efficacy. The treat and extend (TREX) approach to nAMD management allows for personalization of treatment based on patient variability of response. This has been shown to provide a superior, proactive treatment model which achieves acceptable maintenance of visual acuity and anatomical disease stability. Areas covered: Aspects of a TREX treatment approach are described based on evidence from clinical trials and real-world settings. Gaps in the current understanding of how a TREX regime is enabled are also explored. Expert opinion: A TREX approach to patients with nAMD is associated with greater visual gains compared to reactive treatment regimens. It shows potential superior outcomes in community settings compared to fixed-dosing regimens which do not allow for individualization of treatment. The chronic, progressive nature of nAMD pathogenesis requires a sustainable management strategy that is able to be further refined and applied to the use of existing, new and upcoming agents being developed for control of neovascularization.
Predicting abundance indices in areas without coverage with a latent spatio-temporal Gaussian model

A general spatio-temporal abundance index model is introduced and applied on a case study for North East Arctic cod in the Barents Sea. We demonstrate that the model can predict abundance indices by length and identify a significant population density shift in northeast direction for North East Arctic cod. Varying survey coverage is a general concern when constructing standardized time series of abundance indices, which is challenging in ecosystems impacted by climate change and spatial variable population distributions. The applied model provides an objective framework that accommodates for missing data by predicting abundance indices in areas with poor or no survey coverage using latent spatio-temporal Gaussian random fields. The model is validated, and no violations are observed.
Power Quality Improvement in Distribution Grids via Real-Time Smart Exploitation of Electric Vehicles

Integration of electric vehicles into electric power system brings both challenges and solutions in the operation of power grids. On the one hand, simultaneously charging a large number of electric vehicles causes branch congestion or large voltage drop. Operating the electric vehicles in the discharging mode, on the other hand, introduces the provision of several ancillary services like peak power shaving and spinning reserves. From the electric vehicles operation point of view, thus, the distribution system operators require a real-time monitoring infrastructure to capture the states of electric vehicle chargers and accordingly operate their grids in the safe mode with respect to the power quality standards (e.g., EN 50160). In this context, the real-time smart charging and storage platform of the EU Horizon 2020 “MEISTER” project, based on the information and communication technology, manages the availability of electric vehicles as a potential source of energy in the need of one or more flexibility services demanded by low voltage distribution system operators. In addition to the implemented information and communication technology platform, this paper presents how the smart use of the electric vehicle resources supports the power quality of the distribution system in terms of system voltage support, bidirectional power flow management, harmonic alleviation and power factor control.
Evaluation of the Binding Kinetics of RHEB with mTORC1 by In-Cell and In Vitro Assays

The mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is activated by the small G-protein, Ras homolog enriched in brain (RHEB–GTPase). On lysosome, RHEB activates mTORC1 by binding the domains of N-heat, M-heat, and the focal adhesion targeting (FAT) domain, which allosterically regulates ATP binding in the active site for further phosphorylation. The crucial role of RHEB in regulating growth and survival through mTORC1 makes it a targetable site for anti-cancer therapeutics. However, the binding kinetics of RHEB to mTORC1 is still unknown at the molecular level. Therefore, we studied the kinetics by in vitro and in-cell protein–protein interaction (PPI) assays. To this end, we used the split-luciferase system (NanoBiT®) for in-cell studies and prepared proteins for the in vitro measurements. Consequently, we demonstrated that RHEB binds to the whole mTOR both in the presence or absence of GTPγS, with five-fold weaker affinity in the presence of GTPγS. In addition, RHEB bound to the truncated mTOR fragments of N-heat domain (∆N, aa 60–167) or M-heat domain (∆M, aa 967–1023) with the same affinity in the absence of GTP. The reconstructed binding site of RHEB, ∆N-FAT-M, however, bound to RHEB with the same affinity as ∆N-M, indicating that the FAT domain (∆FAT, aa 1240–1360) is dispensable for RHEB binding. Furthermore, RHEB bound to the truncated kinase domain (∆ATP, aa 2148–2300) with higher affinity than to ∆N-FAT-M. In conclusion, RHEB engages two different binding sites of mTOR, ∆N-FAT-M and ∆ATP, with higher affinity for ∆ATP, which likely regulates the kinase activity of mTOR through multiple different biding modes.