Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A chlorogenic acid esterase from a metagenomic library with unique substrate specificity and its application in caffeic and ferulic acid production from agricultural byproducts

Abstract Soil microbes are an abundant source of enzymes with unique properties that may be useful for industrial applications. As most wild-type strains show low chlorogenic acid esterase expression and activity, and most microbes cannot be cultured in the laboratory, a metagenomic approach provides methods of identifying new enzymes. In this study, a gene encoding a chlorogenic acid esterase, named Tan410, was isolated from a soil metagenomic library and overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The recombinant enzyme, with a predicted molecular weight of 54.88 kDa, was purified to homogeneity. The K m and V max values for Tan410 were 1.26 mM and 0.33 mM min–1, respectively, with chlorogenic acid as the substrate. Its optimum temperature and pH for reaction were 30 °C and 7.5, respectively. The enzyme exhibited moderate thermostability and broad pH stability (3.0–10.0). Tan410 was also able to hydrolyse ethyl ferulate, methyl caffeate, propyl gallate, ethyl gallate, methyl vanillate, methyl benzoate, ethyl benzoate, methyl 2,5-dihydroxybenzoate, and methyl 3,5-dihydroxybenzoate, and it released caffeic and ferulic acids from agricultural byproducts (destarched wheat bran and coffee pulp). Tan140 has potential for industrial application in biomass valorization.
Islamic Fintech: A Solution for Financial Problem

This research aims to examine the role of Islamic fintech in solving users’ financial problem. Furthermore, technology acceptance model (TAM) construct is used to explain individual acceptance on Islamic fintech. This research use self-administered survey including 185 Islamic fintech users spread all over Indonesia. This research provides empirical insights about user satisfaction on Islamic fintech product. It show that almost predictors have significant positive effect on user satisfaction. The TAM’s construct can predict and assess user perceptions on the use of new technologies or products. Furthermore, Islamic fintech makes it easy for users to solve their financial problems. This research proves that Islamic fintech product can be an option in solving financial problem without worrying about halal status.
Extreme temperatures and mortality in 326 Latin American cities

Background: Climate change and urbanization are rapidly increasing human exposure to extreme ambient temperatures, yet few studies have examined the impact of temperature on mortality across Latin America, where 80% of residents live in urban areas. Methods: We used distributed lag nonlinear conditional Poisson models to estimate city-specific associations between daily temperatures above (heat) and below (cold) each city-specific minimum mortality temperature and all-cause mortality, overall and stratified by age and cause of death. We estimated the percentage of total deaths attributable to heat or cold (excess death fraction [EDF]) and the difference in mortality per 1{degrees}C higher daily mean temperature above the 95th percentile of observed daily temperature. Results: We analyzed data from 326 cities in nine Latin American countries between 2002-2015, representing 15,431,532 deaths from 249 million residents. The EDF of total deaths from heat was 0.67% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.58%, 0.74%), and from cold was 5.09% (95% CI 4.64%, 5.47%). EDFs from heat and cold were particularly high among individuals aged 65+ years (0.81% [95% CI 0.75%, 0.86%] and 6.82% [95% CI 6.41%, 7.18%], respectively). The relative risk of death per 1{degrees}C increase above the city-specific 95th percentile daily temperature was 1.057 (95% CI 1.046, 1.067). Conclusions: In Latin American cities, a substantial proportion of deaths are attributable to non-optimal ambient temperatures. Older populations are particularly vulnerable. Marginal increases in observed hot temperatures are associated with steep increases in mortality risk. Projected increases in temperature from climate change may have a substantial impact on mortality.
Dynamic Stability Analysis of the Laminated Composite Curved Frame Structures

: In this study, the dynamic stability analysis of the laminated composite single-bay and two-bay curved frame structures has been investigated. For this purpose, a computer code is written in MATLAB to evaluate the natural frequency values, critical buckling load, and first unstable regions of the laminated composite curved frames. The effects of radii of curvature and stacking order on the static and dynamic stability of both single and two bay arch frame structures are investigated. Besides, the effects of the stacking order are investigated by considering five different stacking sequences. The results of the present study are compared with the results obtained numerically via ANSYS for validation. It is concluded that the radius of curvature has a small effect on the first five natural frequency values, buckling loads, first unstable regions of the structure, whereas the fiber orientation considerably has a considerable impact on such static and dynamic properties.
In Silico Study of the Influence of Various Substrates on the Electronic Properties and Electrical Conductivity of Mono- and Bilayer Films of Armchair Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

We investigate electronic and electro-physical properties of mono- and bilayer armchair single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films located on substrates of different types, including substrates in the form of crystalline silicon dioxide (SiO2) films with P42/mnm and P3121 space symmetry groups. The SWCNT films interact with substrate only by van der Waals forces. The densities of electronic states (DOS) and the electron transmission functions are calculated for SWCNT films with various substrates. The electrical conductivity of SWCNT films is calculated based on the electron transmission function. It is found that the substrate plays an important role in the formation of DOS of the SWCNT films, and the surface topology determines the degree and nature of the mutual influence of the nanotube and the substrate. It is shown that the substrate affects the electronic properties of monolayer films, changing the electrical resistance value from 2% to 17%. However, the substrate has practically no effect on the electrical conductivity and resistance of the bilayer film in both directions of current transfer. In this case, the values of the resistances of the bilayer film in both directions of current transfer approach the value of ~6.4 kΩ, which is the lowest for individual SWCNT.
Competing Crises? Media Coverage and Framing of Climate Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic emerged against the backdrop of the longer-term climate change crisis and increasing global awareness of the imperative for climate action, disrupting the post-Paris trajectory of climate policy and media coverage of climate change. We examine news media coverage from Canadian legacy newspapers and answer three questions. First, did the COVID-19 pandemic work as a critical event in its impacts on news media coverage of climate change, and if so, in what ways? Second, did media framing of climate change shift in response to this critical event, and if so, in what ways? Third, are there notable differences between national and subnational media frames? We find that COVID-19 is a critical event linked to a period of reduced media coverage of climate change. However, this critical event also opened new spaces for news framing that connects environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability.
OIL PRICES SHOCKS AND GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE

This study employs the vector autoregressive model (VAR), impulse response function and variance decomposition to study the impact of oil price shocks on components of government spending on both oil-exporting and oil importing countries over the period from 1980 to 2018. While the vast majority of previous studies focused on the impact of oil price shocks on government spending, this study emphasized the impact of these shocks on the current and capital government expenditure. It was found that oil price shocks affect government current expenditure positively in the two groups of countries. While it affects government capital expenditure positively in oil-exporting countries and negatively in oil-importing countries.
Predigestion as an Evolutionary Impetus for Human Use of Fermented Food

Fermented foods are an important part of the human diet. While the types of fermented foods consumed as well as the processes used to create them vary regionally, the majority of human populations globally deliberately produce and consume fermented foods as a central part of their diets. This pattern is in contrast to that of other vertebrates, including nonhuman primates. However, it remains unclear when and why humans began to include high amounts of fermented foods in their diets. Here, we review existing knowledge regarding the timing and impetus for the emergence of fermented food use by humans and put forth a new hypothesis that fermented food use began as a “predigestion” strategy to increase nutrient availability in harsh, terrestrial environments with physically and chemically defended food resources. We explore support for this hypothesis in comparative behavioral and physiological data from extant nonhuman primates. Together the data presented in this paper suggest that food fermentation may have had an impact on human evolutionary trajectories via interactions with human biology and health. Future work should build on this foundation to interrogate these processes in more detail.
Women’s Safety Concerns and Academia: How Safety Concerns Can Create Opportunity Gaps

The present work documents the safety concerns of men and women in academia and how these concerns can create opportunity gaps. Across five samples including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty (N = 1,812), women reported greater concerns about their safety than did men, and these concerns were associated with reduced work hours in libraries, offices, and/or labs afterhours. Additionally, although we were unable to manipulate safety concerns among women, in an experiment with men (N = 117), increasing safety concerns decreased willingness to use the library afterhours. Finally, in an archival study of swipe access data (N = 350,364 swipes), a crime event that made safety concerns salient for women was associated with a decreased likelihood that women worked in their office afterhours and a decreased likelihood that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics women worked in their labs later at night. Collectively, these data suggest that women’s safety concerns can restrict their work.
New dominant design and knowledge management; a reversed U curve with long head and tail

ABSTRACT After more than 100 years since the emergence of the dominant design of the bicycle, diverse electronic bicycles are emerging in the e-bike industry. We aim to answer two questions: 1) How is the electronic bicycle evolving and what is its dominant design? 2) What is the difference in the evolution and appearance of the dominant design of the electronic bicycles in Daegu (Korea), Naples (Italy), and Nagoya (Japan)? We used the participatory observation and intensive interview methods for this study. Three cities were located at different points on the dominant design curve with long head and tail. Naples is in the business model-based new market creation step, with the fat-tire electronic bicycle as dominant design. Daegu is in the technology-based new market creation step, with the electronic quick board as dominant design. Nagoya is undergoing technology-based existing market expansion with the electronic bicycle design, which is the same as the traditional dominant design.
An Agent-Based Ship Firefighting Model

Maritime safety is an ongoing process in shipping that is constantly being improved by the modernization of equipment and constant improvements in operators’ safety procedures and training. However, human error remains a significant factor in maritime accidents, as it contributes to 75% of incidents. Addressing this problem, the current paper shows a proof of principal for on-board fire monitoring and extinguishing software agents that may be used to upgrade present systems and contribute to an autonomous ship design. Agent technology that engages fire detection and firefighting equipment while minimizing human intervention will reduce the risks of human error and increase maritime safety.
Structure‐PoseNet for identification of dense dynamic displacement and three‐dimensional poses of structures using a monocular camera

This study proposesStructure‐PoseNet to recognize three‐dimensional (3D) poses and dense dynamic displacement of a structure with known geometry using a monocular camera. The 3D poses are employed to calculate the structural displacement of both visible and invisible elements in videos. The proposed framework consists of two consecutive deep learning modules, CompNet and ParaNet, to provide semantic image segmentation and extract pose parameters, respectively. CompNet converts natural video images into semantic classification masks. ParaNet uses the recognized masks from CompNet as input and outputs the pose parameters. The dense dynamic displacement at measurement points with an intervaldistance of 2% of the size of the structure (along the direction with the maximum size) is then obtained using the coordinates of each 3D model vertex. The identification accuracy is discussed for different cases. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed method was validated through the shaking table test results of the two scale models. Finally, the proposed method was applied to a full‐scale suspension bridge and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940) using Internet videos.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Pavement Damage Reduces Traffic Safety and Speed

Road maintenance constitutes a significant component of public transportation spending at all levels of government. Formulation of efficient transportation infrastructure policy requires information about factors affecting road and traffic conditions. We generate the first causal evidence that decreasing pavement quality impacts vehicle crash rates and decreases average speed. Results from Instrumental Variable models using spatially and temporally disaggregated data from Federal-Aid Highway System (FAHS) roads in California show statistically and economically significant increases in vehicle crash rates and decreases in average vehicle speed caused by road damage. These impacts imply significant increases in social costs attributable to road damage. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber. org.
The Effect of Immersion Corrosion Time on Electrochemical Corrosion Behavior and the Corrosion Mechanism of EH47 Ship Steel in Seawater

In this paper, electrochemical corrosion tests and full immersion corrosion experiments were conducted in seawater at room temperature to investigate the electrochemical corrosion behavior and the corrosion mechanism of high-strength EH47. The polarization curve, EIS (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy), SEM (scanning electron microscope), and EDS analyses were employed to analyze the results of the electrochemical corrosion process. The electrochemical corrosion experiments showed that the open circuit potential of EH47 decreases and then increases with an increase in total immersion time, with the minimum value obtained at 28 days. With an increase in immersion time, the corrosion current density (Icorr) of EH47 steel first decreases and then increases, with the minimum at about 28 days. This 28-day sample also showed the maximum capacitance arc radius, the maximum impedance and the minimum corrosion rate. In the seawater immersion test in the laboratory, the corrosion mechanism of EH47 steel in the initial stage of corrosion is mainly pitting corrosion, accompanied by a small amount of crevice corrosion with increased corrosion time. The corrosion products of EH47 steel after immersion in seawater for 30 days are mainly composed of FeOOH, Fe3O4 and Fe2O3.
Taking Roll: College Students’ Views of Their Formerly Incarcerated Classmates

Abstract For those with a criminal history, higher education can facilitate successful reentry and desistance from crime. Still, a number of obstacles discourage the pursuit of higher education by the formerly incarcerated. One such obstacle is the prevalence of stigmatization and discrimination toward those with criminal justice system involvement on college campuses. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on how college students conceive of their formerly incarcerated counterparts, leaving those with a criminal history to wonder about the prejudices and biases they may encounter once enrolled. Drawing on a random sample of 185 respondents, this study explores the attitudes of undergraduate students toward their formerly incarcerated classmates. Findings reveal that students who have had frequent, close contact with the formerly incarcerated are more likely to express favorable views of that population, supporting prior research suggesting that proximity can mitigate negative views of stigmatized populations.
Sensitivity of Photosynthesis to Warming in Two Similar Species of the Aquatic Angiosperm Ruppia from Tropical and Temperate Habitats

Climate change-related events, such as marine heatwaves, are increasing seawater temperatures, thereby putting pressure on marine biota. The cosmopolitan distribution and significant contribution to marine primary production by the genus Ruppia makes them interesting organisms to study thermal tolerance and local adaptation. In this study, we investigated the photosynthetic responses in Ruppia to the predicted future warming in two contrasting bioregions, temperate Sweden and tropical Thailand. Through DNA barcoding, specimens were determined to Ruppia cirrhosa for Sweden and Ruppia maritima for Thailand. Photosynthetic responses were assessed using pulse amplitude-modulated fluorometry, firstly in short time incubations at 18, 23, 28, and 33 °C in the Swedish set-up and 28, 33, 38, and 43 °C in the Thai set-up. Subsequent experiments were conducted to compare the short time effects to longer, five-day incubations in 28 °C for Swedish plants and 40 °C for Thai plants. Swedish R. cirrhosa displayed minor response, while Thai R. maritima was more sensitive to both direct and prolonged temperature stress with a drastic decrease in the photosynthetic parameters leading to mortality. The results indicate that in predicted warming scenarios, Swedish R. cirrhosa may sustain an efficient photosynthesis and potentially outcompete more heat-sensitive species. However, populations of the similar R. maritima in tropical environments may suffer a decline as their productivity will be highly reduced.
Tissue scale agent-based simulation of premalignant progressions in Barrett’s esophagus

Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is a benign condition of the distal esophagus that initiates a multistage pathway to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Short of frequent intrusive (and costly) surveillance, effective screening for neoplasia in BE populations is yet to be established since progressors are rare and virtually undetectable without routine biopsies, which often sample only a small portion of the BE tissue. As a result, reliable estimation of the true prevalence of dysplasia in a BE population and evidence-based optimization of screening for at-risk individuals is challenging. Data-driven microsimulations, i.e., model-generated instances of disease history in a predefined virtual population, have found utility in the EAC screening literature as low-overhead alternatives to real-world hypothesis testing of optimal interventions for dysplasia. Despite the successes, computational limitations, paucity of knowledge and data on Barrett’s dysplasia, and the complexities of disease progression as a multiscale multiphysics process have hindered the treatment of disease progression in BE as a spatial process. Agent-based modeling of nucleation and proliferation processes in dysplasia warrants exploration in this context as an approximation that operates at a trade-off between computational tractability and precise representation of the composition and physics of the substrate (tissue). In this study, we describe spatially resolved simulations of premalignant progression toward EAC in a coarse-grained model of Barrett’s tissue that resolves the metaplastic tissue at a length scale of 0.42 mm (~3300 crypts/mm2). The model is calibrated to reproduce historical high-grade dysplasia prevalence when model-generated patients are screened using the Seattle protocol.
VaCRK2 Mediates Gray Mold Resistance in Vitis amurensis by Activating the Jasmonate Signaling Pathway

Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) are ubiquitous plant receptor-like kinases, which play a significant role in plant disease resistance. Gray mold is an economically important disease of grapes caused by Botrytis cinerea. However, CRK genes and their function in gray mold disease resistance in grapes have not been elucidated. This study aimed to identify and characterize CRKs in grapes and determine their role in gray mold resistance. Four CRKs were identified in Vitis amurensis and named VaCRK1–VaCRK4 according to their genomic distribution. The four VaCRKs were ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana to study their function in defense response against B. cinerea. Heterologous expression of VaCRK2 in A. thaliana conferred resistance to B. cinerea. VaCRK2 expression in gray mold-resistant grape cultivar increased significantly after B. cinerea inoculation and methyl jasmonate treatment. Furthermore, the expression of jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway-related genes in VaCRK2 overexpression lines of A. thaliana was significantly increased after B. cinerea inoculation, leading to the upregulation of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. Overall, these results suggest that VaCRK2 confers resistance to B. cinerea by activating PR gene expression and oxidative burst through the JA signaling pathway.
Genome-wide association study for morphological, phenological, quality, and yield traits in einkorn (Triticum monococcum L. subsp. monococcum)

Abstract Einkorn (Triticum monococcum L. subsp. monococcum, 2n = 2× = 14, AmAm) is a diploid wheat whose cultivation was widespread in the Mediterranean and European area till the Bronze Age, before it was replaced by the more productive durum and bread wheats. Although scarcely cultivated nowadays, it has gained renewed interest due to its relevant nutritional properties and as source of genetic diversity for crop breeding. However, the molecular basis of many traits of interest in einkorn remain still unknown. A panel of 160 einkorn landraces, from different parts of the distribution area, was characterized for several phenotypic traits related to morphology, phenology, quality, and yield for 4 years in two locations. An approach based on co-linearity with the A genome of bread wheat, supported also by that with Triticum urartu genome, was exploited to perform association mapping, even without an einkorn anchored genome. The association mapping approach uncovered numerous marker-trait associations; for 37 of these, a physical position was inferred by homology with the bread wheat genome. Moreover, numerous associated regions were also assigned to the available T. monococcum contigs. Among the intervals detected in this work, three overlapped with regions previously described as involved in the same trait, while four other regions were localized in proximity of loci previously described and presumably refer to the same gene/QTL. The remaining associated regions identified in this work could represent a novel and useful starting point for breeding approaches to improve the investigated traits in this neglected species.