Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling and optimisation of a micro-brewery production process

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Stopping Spam

From the Publisher: This is a book for people whose mailboxes are full of junk messages. It's a book for people who are upset that they can't find the on-topic postings in their once-helpful Usenet newsgroups and fear that the community of newsgroup readers will dissolve in disgust. And it's a book for system and network administrators, and Internet service providers (ISPs) who are concerned about the growing toll that spam is taking on their systems - and are looking for a way to put an end to it once and for all. "In addition to technical details, you'll find entertaining stories of the Green Card Lottery, the "Spam King," famous Internet chain letters, and court cases.
Nanchangmycin regulates FYN, PTK2, and MAPK1/3 to control the fibrotic activity of human hepatic stellate cells

Chronic liver injury causes fibrosis, characterized by the formation of scar tissue resulting from excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Hepatic stellate cell (HSC) myofibroblasts are the primary cell type responsible for liver fibrosis, yet there are currently no therapies directed at inhibiting the activity of HSC myofibroblasts. To search for potential anti-fibrotic compounds, we performed a high-throughput compound screen in primary human HSC myofibroblasts and identified 19 small molecules that induce HSC inactivation, including the polyether ionophore nanchangmycin (NCMC). NCMC induces lipid re-accumulation while reducing collagen expression, deposition of collagen in the extracellular matrix, cell proliferation, and migration. We find that NCMC increases cytosolic Ca2+ and reduces the phosphorylated protein levels of FYN, PTK2 (FAK), MAPK1/3 (ERK2/1), HSPB1 (HSP27), and STAT5B. Further, depletion of each of these kinases suppress COL1A1 expression. These studies reveal a signaling network triggered by NCMC to inactivate HSC myofibroblasts and reduce expression of proteins that compose the fibrotic scar. Identification of the antifibrotic effects of NCMC and the elucidation of pathways by which NCMC inhibits fibrosis provide new tools and therapeutic targets that could potentially be utilized to combat the development and progression of liver fibrosis.
Wideband H-plane dielectric horn antenna

By flaring a dielectric waveguide in the H-plane, an H-plane dielectric horn is formed, which could be directly excited by an SIW feed. However, matching and radiation performances are poor due to the thinness of the substrate. To improve these performances, some periodic parallel strips are printed both on the top and bottom planes of the dielectric horn. These strips guide and leak the electromagnetic waves gradually along the horn, finally enhancing the end-fire radiation both in H-plane and E-plane. Moreover, they increase the impedance bandwidth up to 38% in Ka-band, and improve the realised gain by around 2 dB. Indeed, a gain of 14.3 dBi is achieved at the centre frequency, with a front-to-back ratio of 27 dB, a side-lobe level of −22 dB in the H-plane, and the narrowed E-plane and H-plane half-power beamwidth of about 20°. The measured and simulated results agree with each other very well. In addition, the proposed H-plane horn antenna is very compact, low cost, and could be easily integrated.
Integrated bioinformatics and statistical approaches to explore molecular biomarkers for breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis and therapies

Integrated bioinformatics and statistical approaches are now playing the vital role in identifying potential molecular biomarkers more accurately in presence of huge number of alternatives for disease diagnosis, prognosis and therapies by reducing time and cost compared to the wet-lab based experimental procedures. Breast cancer (BC) is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths for women worldwide. Several dry-lab and wet-lab based studies have identified different sets of molecular biomarkers for BC. But they did not compare their results to each other so much either computationally or experimentally. In this study, an attempt was made to propose a set of molecular biomarkers that might be more effective for BC diagnosis, prognosis and therapies, by using the integrated bioinformatics and statistical approaches. At first, we identified 190 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between BC and control samples by using the statistical LIMMA approach. Then we identified 13 DEGs (AKR1C1, IRF9, OAS1, OAS3, SLCO2A1, NT5E, NQO1, ANGPT1, FN1, ATF6B, HPGD, BCL11A, and TP53INP1) as the key genes (KGs) by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. Then we investigated the pathogenetic processes of DEGs highlighting KGs by GO terms and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Moreover, we disclosed the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory factors of KGs by their interaction network analysis with the transcription factors (TFs) and micro-RNAs. Both supervised and unsupervised learning’s including multivariate survival analysis results confirmed the strong prognostic power of the proposed KGs. Finally, we suggested KGs-guided computationally more effective seven candidate drugs (NVP-BHG712, Nilotinib, GSK2126458, YM201636, TG-02, CX-5461, AP-24534) compared to other published drugs by cross-validation with the state-of-the-art alternatives top-ranked independent receptor proteins. Thus, our findings might be played a vital role in breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis and therapies.
RSRJ, a ras-Like Gene Homologous to Krev-1 (smg21AIraplA): Role in the Development of Cell Polarity and Interactions with the Ras Pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae ras-like gene RSR1 is particularly closely related to the mammalian gene Krev-1 (also known as smg2lA and raplA). RSRI was originally isolated as a multicopy suppressor of a cdc24 mutation, which causes an inability to bud or establish cell polarity. Deletion of RSR1 itself does not affect growth but causes a randomization of bud position. We have now constructed mutant alleles of RSRI encoding proteins with substitutions of Val for Gly at position 12 (analogous to constitutively activated Ras proteins) or Asn for Lys at position 16 (analogous to a dominant-negative Ras protein). rsrlvaIl2 could not restore a normal budding pattern to an rsrl deletion strain but could suppress a cdc24 mutation when overexpressed. rsrlAsn l6 could randomize the budding pattern of a wild-type strain even in low copy number but was not lethal even in high copy number. These and other results suggest that Rsrlp functions only in bud site selection and not in subsequent events of polarity establishment and bud formation, that this function involves a cycling between GTP-bound and GDP-bound forms of the protein, and that the suppression of cdc24 involves direct interaction between Rsrlp[GTP] and Cdc24p. Functional homology between Rsrlp and Krev-1 p21 was suggested by the observations that expression of the latter protein in yeast cells could both suppress a cdc24 mutation and randomize the budding pattern of wild-type cells. As Krev-1 overexpression can suppress ras-induced transformation of mammalian cells, we looked for effects of RSR1 on the S. cerevisiae Ras pathway. Although no suppression of the activated RAS2Va-l9 allele was observed, overexpression of rsrl Val-12 suppressed the lethality of strains lacking RAS gene function, apparently through a direct activation of adenylyl cyclase. This interaction of Rsrlp with the effector of Ras in S. cerevisiae suggests that Krev-1 may revert ras-induced transformation of mammalian cells by affecting the interaction of ras p21 with its effector.
Comparison of Two Nicotine Dependence Measures for Use with Korean American Women: The FTND and AUTOS

This study compares psychometric properties of the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and Autonomy over Tobacco Scale (AUTOS), which are measures of nicotine dependence. This study is a secondary analysis of data obtained from a smoking cessation study conducted with 49 Korean American women. We compared the FTND and AUTOS assessed at baseline regarding their internal consistency reliability and concurrent and predictive validities. The AUTOS outperformed the FTND in reliability and concurrent validity by yielding a higher Cronbach’s alpha and having significant relationships with smoking-related variables such as age at smoking onset, perceived risks of quitting, and self-efficacy in quitting. In contrast, there was no relationship between the FTND and any of the variables. Both measures had a significant relationship with post-quit nicotine withdrawal symptoms but failed to predict abstinence at follow-ups. The AUTOS seems to be a better assessment tool for Korean American women than the FTND. Before fully adopting the AUTOS as a measure of nicotine dependence for this group, factor structure of the scale should be tested with a larger sample of Korean American women.
“Interplay between subjective norm, emotions, and purchase intention towards foreign brands: Evidence from Vietnam”

Understanding the mechanisms through which social groups impact consumers’ pur- chase decisions is of particular interest to scholars and practitioners. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the cognitive-affective model by examining the roles of the subjective norm and its contingency factors in the cognitive-affective model and the indigenous consumers’ purchase intention towards a foreign footwear brand. The va- lidity of the model is tested using data collected from 257 Vietnamese consumers. The results of PLS-SEM and SPSS Macro PROCESS reveal that subjective norm positively influences the emotional value (β = 0.219, p = 0.002) and perceived quality (β = 0.239, p = 0.000) for the foreign brand. In addition, face consciousness positively moderates the indirect effects of subjective norm on purchase intention through emotional value (β = 0.08; LLCI = 0.02; ULCI = 0.13) while the moderating effect of perceived behav- ioral control is significantly negative (β = –0.1074; LLCI = -0.182; ULCI = –0.05). In conclusion, this study can offer insight into the roles of social groups and their contin- gency factors in the cognitive-affective model and purchase intention. On this ground, managers of foreign brands are advised to focus on the impacts of social groups in their marketing campaigns, together with underlining the social status and superbness of their offerings to attract new consumers.
Structure optimization and annual performance analysis of the lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator

ABSTRACT The primary lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator (lens-walled CPC) has a significant advantage of a larger half acceptance angle as a static solar concentrator, but it also has a drawback of a low optical efficiency. In order to overcome this drawback, in this article, series of structure parameters were investigated and compared to further improve the optical efficiency within the half acceptance angle combined with the material properties. The average optical efficiencies of the improved lens-walled CPCs could achieve more than 82% within the half acceptance angle of 35ᵒ. Experiments were adopted to verify the credibility and validity of the simulation. Moreover, annual performance of the lens-walled CPCs comparison with that of the mirror CPC for Nottingham was analyzed. Results show that the improved lens-walled CPC has a higher optical performance for actual building application.
INTERACTIVE TV USER EXPERIENCE IN BEHAVIORAL SITUATIONS

Television (TV) is one of the most familiar products in our lives. As TVs evolve into interactive products, the user experience (UX) surrounding TV is also changing. Interactive TV attributes provide new capabilities; however, it is not clear how this affects the TV viewer’s experience. The perceived quality of interactive products has two sub-dimensions: ergonomic attributes and hedonic attributes. Users perceive the quality of interactive products differently according to behavioral situations, and have overall experiences through a combination of those sub-dimensions. We hypothesize that a match between an individual's behavior and a particular product’s attributes (i.e., ergonomic, hedonic) determine the perceived value of interactive products. Subsequently, we conducted a study with eighty TV viewers, in which half were asked to perform goal-directed tasks with interactive TV and the other half were asked to perform experiential tasks. The results obtained show that interactive TV viewers find interactive TV more appealing when they perform goal-directed behaviors. Regardless of the purpose of use, hedonic attributes were higher than ergonomic attributes on the perceived value of interactive TV. This implies the fundamental purpose of the user-TV interaction is to experience pleasure and achieving the goal is also the pleasure-seeking process as part of the fun. This also implies that hedonic aspect is the important factor than the ergonomic aspect on the TV-viewing experience regardless of the situation. The results demonstrate the potential value of hedonic quality as a measurement factor of interactive TV user experience evaluation and provide implications that interactive TV UX should be designed to enhance the enjoyable experience.
Separation and Characterization of Inositol Phospholipids from the Pulvini of Samanea saman 1

To supplement current thin-layer chromatographic methods for separation and quantitation of plant phospholipids, an altemative method, high-performance liquid chromatography was developed. The major inositol-containing lipids from the pulvini of Samanea saman Merr. were identified as phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol phosphate, and phosphafidylinositol bisphosphate based on comigration with authentic standards on high-performance liquid chromatography and on thin-layer chromatography. The patterns of incorporation of radioactivity into the putative phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol phosphate were consistent with these identifications when pulvini were labeled with [3H]glycerol, [3H]inositol, or [32P]orthophos- phate. Analysis of the products of enzymic hydrolysis, of chemical deacylation, and of 'fingerprint' methanolysis of these phospholipids confirmed the identifications.
A hospital-based study to assess various biomarkers for prognostic prediction of clinical outcome in COVID-19 disease.

Abstract: COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a painful unforgettable number of deaths throughout the world. Hematological inflammatory and organ-specific biomarkers are universally practiced in helping clinical decisions in various infectious diseases. Accordingly, their role in predicting progression and severity, and fatal outcome of COVID-19 was investigated to take initial appropriate treatment measures to reduce associated mortality. Methods: The retrospective analysis of a total of 126 COVID-19 cases representing mild, moderate, severe, and succumbed cases were assessed for the pattern of hematological, inflammatory, and organ-specific biomarkers. Results: A total of 126 proven cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were retrospectively analyzed for the association of various biomarkers with the COVID-19 disease progression. The CBC analysis showed that the median TLC was high for the severe group of both males (12.49 x 103/mcl) and females (14.23 x103/mcl). Similarly, the neutrophil count was also found high in the severe group, whereas the monocytes count showed low median values in severe cases, but both these parameters had no significant difference among the males and the females. The platelet count showed a significant difference (p=0.018) among the non-severe and severe groups between males and females. Among inflammatory markers, D-dimer, CRP, LDH, and APTT showed a higher median value in severe cases among both the males and females while ESR value was higher in non-severe cases and ferritin showed similar values in both severe and non-severe cases. The liver and kidney function parameters were also analyzed and a significant P-value was found for ALP (p=0.004), ALT (p=0.032), and AST (p=0.009) in the non-severe vs. severe category of COVID-19 patients. Discussion: High TLC, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, and eosinopenia are the potential risk factor for the progression of COVID-19 disease for severe and fatal outcomes. Inflammatory markers of D-dimer, CRP, LDH, APTT, and ferritin above normal range also carries the potential risk of severe and fatal outcome in COVID-19 disease. Higher ALT, AST, and serum creatinine may also carry a poor prognosis.
Shared within-host SARS-CoV-2 variation in households

Background: The limited variation observed among SARS-CoV-2 consensus sequences makes it difficult to reconstruct transmission linkages in outbreak settings. Previous studies have recovered variation within individual SARS-CoV-2 infections but have not yet measured the informativeness of within-host variation for transmission inference. Methods: We performed tiled amplicon sequencing on 307 SARS-CoV-2 samples from four prospective studies and combined sequence data with household membership data, a proxy for transmission linkage. Results: Consensus sequences from households had limited diversity (mean pairwise distance, 3.06 SNPs; range, 0-40). Most (83.1%, 255/307) samples harbored at least one intrahost single nucleotide variant (iSNV; median: 117; IQR: 17-208), when applying a liberal minor allele frequency of 0.5% and prior to filtering. A mean of 15.4% of within-host iSNVs were recovered one day later. Pairs in the same household shared significantly more iSNVs (mean: 1.20 iSNVs; 95% CI: 1.02-1.39) than did pairs in different households infected with the same viral clade (mean: 0.31 iSNVs; 95% CI: 0.28-0.34), a signal that increases with increasingly liberal thresholds. Conclusions: Although only a subset of within-host variation is consistently shared across likely transmission pairs, shared iSNVs may augment the information in consensus sequences for predicting transmission linkages.
Effect of thyme essential oil on rumen parameters, nutrient digestibility, and nitrogen balance in wethers fed high concentrate diets

 ABSTRACT This trial aimed to evaluate the effects of thyme essential oils (EO) on rumen parameters, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance in wethers fed with high-concentrate diet. Twenty rumen-cannulated wethers were blocked according to body weight (BW= 64.0±2.1kg), and received one of the following treatments: 25mg of monensin/kg of dry matter (DM; MON) or doses of thyme EO (1.25, 2.50 or 3.75g/kg of DM). The diet was composed of 90% concentrate. Thyme EO was composed mainly by thymol (46.6% of DM) and p-cymene (38.9% of DM). The nutrient intake and apparent digestibility were similar among treatments. The inclusion of 3.75g of thyme EO tended (P= 0.07) to increase butyrate compared to MON and 1.25OE and wethers fed with 1.25g of thyme EO tended (P= 0.07) to decrease ruminal pH on the 14 th day compared to MON. The treatments did not affect acetate:propionate ratio, total short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and nitrogen retention. Results from this study suggest that adding thyme EO to high-concentrate diets may be used as an alternative to monensin as feed additive in feedlot
Insertion/deletion (Indel) variant of the goat RORA gene is associated with growth traits

Abstract RAR related orphan receptor A (RORA), which encodes the retinoid-acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORα), is a clock gene found in skeletal muscle. Several studies have shown that RORα plays an important role in bone formation, suggesting that RORA gene may take part in the regulation of growth and development. The purpose of this research is to study the insertion/deletion (indel) variations of the RORA gene and investigate the relationship with the growth traits of Shaanbei white cashmere (SBWC) goats. Herein, the current study identified that the P4-11-bp and P11-28-bp deletion sites are polymorphic among 12 pairs of primers within the RORA gene in the SBWC goats (n = 641). Moreover, the P11-28-bp deletion locus was significantly related to the body height (p = 0.046), height at hip cross (p = 0.012), and body length (p = 0.003). Both of P4-11-bp and P11-28-bp indels showed the moderate genetic diversity (0.25<PIC < 0.5). Thus, the study results indicated that the P11-28-bp deletion site should be used as a molecular marker to select excellent goat individuals with superior growth performance.
Dynamic Contrast Microscopic Optical Coherence Tomography As a Novel Method for Assessing Corneal Epithelium During Exposure to Benzalkonium Chloride

Purpose Microscopic optical coherence tomography (mOCT) has an imaging resolution of 1 µm in all voxel dimensions, but individual epithelial cells are difficult to resolve due to lack of scattering contrast. Adding dynamic contrast processing to mOCT (dmOCT) results in color images that enable visualization of individual cells and possibly give information on cellular function via the calculation of a motility coefficient. We propose this technique as a novel method of evaluating the ocular surface after exposure to a toxic chemical, benzalkonium chloride (BAK). Methods Ex vivo cross-section images were acquired with a custom-built, frequency-domain mOCT system. Eyes were explanted from healthy adult C57BL/6 mice and imaged every 30 minutes with five sets of dmOCT scans at each imaging time. Total epithelium and stroma thicknesses were measured from a single mOCT B-scan, and measures of color changes (hue) and the motility coefficient were acquired from dmOCT scans. Results After 30-minute exposures to 0.005% BAK, local motility decreased and total epithelium thickness increased compared to controls. For basal epithelium cells, local motility decreased after 60-minute exposures, and the hue shifted red after 90-minute exposures. Stroma thickness did not significantly swell until 150-minute exposures to BAK. Conclusions dmOCT allows us to view the behavior of the cornea epithelium under toxic stress due to BAK, revealing parallel swelling of the extracellular matrix and changes in local subcellular motion. Translational Relevance The evaluation of the cornea epithelium using dmOCT is helpful to our understanding of the toxic effects of BAK.