Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Substrate-Binding Site of Endo-1,4-β-Xylanase of the Yeast Cryptococcus albidus

: The substrate-binding site of endo-1,4-beta-xylanase of the yeast Cryptococcus albidus was investigated using, 1,4-beta-xylooligosaccharides (1-3H)-labelled at the reducing end. Evaluation of the affinities of ten imaginary subsites by the method of Suganuma et al. [1978, J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 84, 293--316] pointed out that the substrate-binding site of the enzyme is composed of four subsites and that the catalytic groups are localized in the centre. The imaginary subsites on the left-hand side of the binding site ('non-reducing-end' side) showed little or no affinity to bind xylosyl residues. For the subsites on the right-hand side of the binding site ('reducing-end' side) negative values of affinity were obtained, which means this region of the enzyme is unfavourable for complexing with xylosyl residues. As a consequence of the asymmetric distribution of negative values of affinity around the binding site, the enzyme displays a strong preference for attacking near the reducing end of the substrate. Regardless of the length of [1-3H]xylooligosaccharides, [1-3H]xylobiose was the prevailing reaction product at an early stage of hydrolysis, and frequency distribution of bond cleavage decreased from the second glycosidic bond towards the non-reducing end. Additional information on the substrate-binding site of C. albidus beta-xylanase was obtained by evaluating the efficiency of xylose, xylobiose, methyl beta-D-xyloside and phenyl beta-D-xyloside to serve as glycosyl acceptors in the transglycosylic reactions proceeding at high concentrations of xylotriose.
Cytokinin Oxidase from Phaseolus vulgaris Callus Tissues : Enhanced in Vitro Activity of the Enzyme in the Presence of Copper-Imidazole Complexes.

The effects of metal ions on cytokinin oxidase activity extracted from callus tissues of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv Great Northern have been examined using an assay based on the oxidation of N6-(Δ2-isopentenyl)-adenine-2,8-3H (i6 Ade) to adenine (Ade). The addition of cupric ions to reaction mixtures containing imidazole buffer markedly enhanced cytokinin oxidase activity. In the presence of optimal concentrations of copper and imidazole, cytokinin oxidase activity was stimulated more than 20-fold. The effect was enzyme dependent, specific for copper, and observed only in the presence of imidazole. The substrate specificity of the copper-imidazole enhanced reaction, as judged by substrate competition tests, was the same as that observed in the absence of copper and imidazole. Similarly, in tests involving DEAE-cellulose chromatography, elution profiles of cytokinin oxidase activity determined using a copper-imidazole enhanced assay were identical to those obtained using an assay without copper and imidazole. On the basis of these results, the addition of copper and imidazole to reaction mixtures used to assay for cytokinin oxidase activity is judged to provide a reliable and specific assay of greatly enhanced sensitivity for the enzyme. The mechanism by which copper and imidazole enhance cytokinin oxidase activity is not certain, but the reaction catalyzed by the enzyme was not inhibited by anaerobic conditions when these reagents were present. This observation suggests that copper-imidazole complexes are substituting for oxygen in the reaction mechanism by which cytokinin oxidase effects cleavage of the N6-side chain of i6Ade.
State of the art on daily rhythms of physiology and behaviour in horses

This article reviews the literature on the daily rhythm in horses. Many physiological processes have been studied in horses to investigate their daily rhythmicity. In horses many rhythms are driven by an endogenous pacemaker, some of them endogenously generated, others influenced by external stimuli. It then addresses the influence of maturation and ageing, physical exercise and jet lag on these rhythms. The study of daily rhythms in horses is of considerable importance in all aspects of horse management to maintain the natural physiological behaviours of this species, necessary to guarantee the good welfare in breeding and athlete horses. Chronophysiology in horses also has clinical implications, it can influence disease occurrence, diagnostic tests and the effect of medical treatments.
Military reform, militarily-connected firms and auditor choice

One of the strongest connections in politics in developing countries is through military links. This study aims to examine the auditor choice preference of the militarily-connected firms in Indonesia, an emerging country where there is a strong influence from the military on political decision-making. ,The analysis used 3,473 firms-year observations listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange spanning from 2003 to 2017 using regression and other statistical tests. ,The results reveal that firms with a militarily-connected director are less likely to appoint one of the Big 4 auditors. Using the military reform as a natural experiment, the finding shows that militarily-connected firms did not change their auditor choice preference even after the military reform. Interestingly, I find that connected firms are associated with high earnings management. In addition, the different retirement position level and military affiliations of the connected directors generate different outcomes related to the auditor choice decision. Overall, the results indicate that militarily-connected firms were less likely to appoint one of the Big 4 auditors both before and after the military reforms. These results are robust, even after the author controlled for political connections, year fixed effects and industry fixed effects. ,Because of the limitations of the prior literature on military connections, this study is developed based on the assumption that the militarily-connected directors have identical behavior whether they serve in either public or private companies. However, this assumption could be invalid which potentially affects the interpretation of some of the results in this study. ,This paper provides direct evidence of the auditor choice preference of firms with a military connection. The evidence builds on the existing literature on the difference in auditor choice preference between politically and militarily-connected firms.
Investigation of the relationship between seed leachate conductivity and the germination of Brassica seed

SUMMARY Large differences in the leachate conductivities of single seeds after 24 h soaking were observed in five Brussels sprout cultivars. Within each cultivar non-germinable seeds tended to have higher conductivities than germinable seeds, but the conductivity above which seeds failed to germinate varied between cultivars. No conductivity reading or partition value could therefore be considered as an absolute boundary between germinable and non-germinable seeds to allow the prediction of seed germination for all seed lots of the same species. However, the mean conductivity for each sample was significantly correlated with germination (r = 0.83, P < 0.05) and was clearly higher for samples with lower germinations. Differences in the partition values for the five cultivars may have been attributable to the natural age of the seeds. Seeds of Asmer Aries artificially aged rapidly at 20% moisture content for up to 48 h at 45° C showed increasing leachate conductivity with increased time of ageing (r = 0.97, P < 0.01) and decreased germination (r = - 0.88, P < 0.05). Again however the values for germinable and non-germinable seeds of different artificial ages varied. Leakage from seeds was limited by the testa in the first 6 h of imbibition. Solute leakage from embryos of the five cultivars was therefore greater than those for intact seeds but a clear separation of germinable and non-germinable seeds was still not possible from the conductivity readings. The implications of the observed increases in conductivity with increased seed age and decreased germination for the development of a rapid vigour test for small seeded vegetables in conjunction with controlled deterioration are discussed.
Nitrosospira, an important ammonium-oxidizing bacterium in fertilized coniferous forest soil

Among ammonium-oxidizing autotrophic nitrifiers only Nitrosospira was found in two pine forest soils fertilized with urea or wood ash in southern Finland. A strain isolated from an ash-treated soil was partially characterized. The cells were spirals, mostly of one to three turns; they were either flagellated or not and pili were found. The strain grew best at 20–27 °C at Po2 of 0.21 (shortest doubling time, 29 h). Km(O2) at 27 °C was 0.20 mg/L. Activity per cell during exponential growth ranged from 0.0060 to 0.0085 pmol and growth yield from 2.53 × 106 to 3.60 × 106 cells/μmol . Pure cultures could not be isolated from urea-fertilized soils. Hyphomicrobium- and seliberia-like bacteria were frequent contaminants of enrichment cultures in these soils. Reasons for the persistence of Nitrosospira in forest soil were discussed.
The origin and genetic diversity of the causal agent of Asian soybean rust, Phakopsora pachyrhizi, in South America

A sequence-based approach was used to investigate molecular genetic variations in Phakopsora pachyrhizi, an obligate biotrophic pathogen that causes Asian soybean rust. In Argentina, the samples came from uredinium-bearing leaves taken from 11 soybean fields; in Brazil, the samples comprised urediniospores from leaves of 10 soybean genotypes that had been grown in three experimental stations during two growing seasons. PCR-based cloning techniques were used to generate DNA sequences for two gene regions and alignments were supplemented with data from GenBank. A total of 575 sequences for the internal transcribed spacer region (18 ribotypes) and 160 partial sequences for a housekeeping gene encoding ADP-ribosylation factor (10 haplotypes) were obtained. Ribotype accumulation curves predicted that about 20 bacterial clones would recover 5–6 ribotypes (c. 70–80% of the total molecular variation) per locality. The samples from the three experimental stations in Brazil displayed most (14 out of 16) ribotypes found worldwide; the lack of genetic structure and differentiation at a diverse geographic scale suggests that both local and distant sources provide airborne inoculum during disease establishment. Soybean genotypes with resistance genes for the Asian soybean rust did not decrease the molecular genetic variation of fungal populations.
Impact of Spiritual Meditation on Drug Addiction Recovery and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

It is well recognized throughout the history that religiosity, spirituality and the meditation practice have significant effects to the physical and mental health. Hence, this paper interested to evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual meditation on drug addiction recovery and its effects on psychological and mental health aspects. Three main databases in medicinal and psychology field were screened to identify the eligible studies which are PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus by using Boolean expression. Fourteen papers were included in this review. Standardized mean differences were calculated based on the intergroup mean difference and standard deviation followed by Cochran’s Q and I 2 determination for heterogeneity analysis. The mean differences were statistically pooled in the meta-analysis and presented as a forest plot. The risk of bias was high for each study and assessed using the Jadad scale. The meta-analysis showed significant differences in across studies for addiction related outcome (I 2 =27%, 95% CI: -1.703, -0.454), anxiety (I 2 =0%, 95% CI: -0.874, -0.634) and stress (I 2 =100%, 95% CI: -0.874, -0.634). In general, spiritual meditation may promote the addiction recovery as well as improve the psychological and mental health outcomes by reducing the depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. In conclusion, randomized control trial on spiritual meditation gave positive impact on the addiction behavior as well as mental health and clarifies its reliability on addiction therapy problems. International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 04 No. 04 October’20 Page : 237-250
Feasibility Study of In-Field Phenotypic Trait Extraction for Robotic Soft-Fruit Operations

There are many agricultural applications that would benefit from robotic monitoring of soft-fruit, examples include harvesting and yield forecasting. Autonomous mobile robotic platforms enable digitisation of horticultural processes in-field reducing labour demand and increasing efficiency through con- tinuous operation. It is critical for vision-based fruit detection methods to estimate traits such as size, mass and volume for quality assessment, maturity estimation and yield forecasting. Estimating these traits from a camera mounted on a mobile robot is a non-destructive/invasive approach to gathering qualitative fruit data in-field. We investigate the feasibility of using vision- based modalities for precise, cheap, and real time computation of phenotypic traits: mass and volume of strawberries from planar RGB slices and optionally point data. Our best method achieves a marginal error of 3.00cm3 for volume estimation. The planar RGB slices can be computed manually or by using common object detection methods such as Mask R-CNN.
Concerns about Rehabilitation of Oiled Wildlife *

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a precedent-setting event because of the seemingly limitless resources invested in environmental cleanup, rehabilitation of oiled wildlife, and a host of related post-spill activities. Sea otters were the centerpiece of rehabilitation efforts, in large part because of their vulnerability, local abundance, and public appeal. In an earlier commentary I questioned whether this effort was in the best interest of conservation (Estes 1991). Eight years have passed since the Exxon Valdez spill, during which time concern over marine oil spills has grown to the point of creating its own culture. Our society's need for cheap energy has made spill prevention an elusive goal, thereby elevating rehabilitation to a position of considerable importance in spill response programs. But just what are the benefits of rehabilitation and what are its likely costs? The developing polarity of views on wildlife rehabilitation makes this a timely issue. There are several reasons to question the wisdom of rehabilitating oiled wildlife. The majority of marine birds and mammals that came in contact with oil following the Exxon Valdez spill went untreated, not so much because facilities were unavailable but because these animals
Measurement of a UHF RFID-Based Battery-Less Vibration Frequency Sensitive Sensor Tag Using Tilt/Vibration Switches

This paper presents a UHF RFID-based vibration frequency sensitive tag using tilt/vibration switches and a proposed new measurement metric, the number of reads per second. The tilt/vibration sensors comprise an internal metal ball and two electrodes; the metal ball changes the short circuited and open circuited status of the two electrodes. The effectiveness of the proposed measurement metric was confirmed by experimental results that showed the metric is sensitive to vibration frequency. Furthermore, the operational mechanism of the proposed vibration frequency sensitive RFID tag was demonstrated using a transparent plastic cylinder and colored plastic balls. This demonstration simulates metal ball movement in the tilt/vibration sensors and confirms the relationship between the vibration parameters (frequencies and amplitudes) and the proposed metric.
Do Predators Always Capture Substandard Individuals Disproportionately From Prey Populations

Predators are commonly thought to capture substandard individuals (those in poorer condition than the average individual) in higher than expected proportions, but evidence for this paradigm is scant, biased, and inconsistent. I describe the outcomes of 447 attacks by a trained Red—tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) on three species of typical mammalian prey (eastern chipmunks, cottontail rabbits, and gray squirrels). A strong correlation existed between the difficulty the hawk had capturing individuals of each species and the difference between the proportions of substandard individuals in the hawk's diet and the prey populations. The degree to which substandard individuals of a particular prey species are taken disproportionately by a predator seems to be a direct function of how difficult it normally is for the predator to capture and kill individuals of that species. A review of other studies shows a similar relationship between vertebrate predators and their prey. See full-text article at JSTOR
Transport and Retention of Particulate Organic Matter in Two Low-Gradient Headwater Streams

Transport and retention of particulate organic matter (POM) were examined in the channels and on the floodplains of two low-gradient headwater streams on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia. During base discharge, POM was primarily retained as it settled onto the sediment surface, but during high discharge, debris dams became primary retainers. During overbank flooding much of the coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) moved from the channels onto the floodplains. The mean distance that wood moved over a year at Colliers Creek, which had low current velocity and a broad, frequently inundated floodplain, was 23 m in the channel and 46 m on the floodplain; at Buzzards Branch, with higher current velocity and a smaller, less-frequently inundated floodplain, wood moved a mean distance of 136 m in the channel and only 2 m on the floodplain. Mean leaf transport distances in the channels ranged from 1.6 m in Colliers Creek during summer base discharge to 156 m at Buzzards Branch during a winter spate; mean leaf transport distances on the floodplains were 0.5-1.7 m. Fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) transport, studied only during base discharge, was farther than that of wood or leaves and varied from 1.8 m during summer base discharge in the Colliers Creek channel to 84.0 m during winter base discharge in the Buzzards Branch channel. Over one year, 97% and 27% of the marked wood placed in the channels was transported into the Colliers Creek and Buzzards Branch floodplains, respectively; only 4-9% of the marked wood placed in the floodplains moved into the channels. Base flow flux of POM was 24,000 kg/yr and 1700 kg/yr on the floodplains, and 7000 kg/yr and 13,000 kg/yr in the channels, at Colliers Creek and Buzzards Branch, respectively. Retention, transport distance, and magnitude of POM exchange between the channels and floodplains were dependent on the timing, frequency and extent of spates, and floodplain inundation, which thus were critical determinants of POM dynamics and hence system structure and function.
A 245-mA Digitally Assisted Dual-Loop Low-Dropout Regulator

A digitally assisted high-current low-dropout (LDO) regulator is proposed in this article. The LDO architecture combines two main types of regulators: digital LDOs and analog LDOs. The proposed architecture uses the digital loop for tracking large output current variations and the analog loop for steady-state operation. The dual loops have a loop controller for coherent operation. Hence, the proposed LDO inherits some advantages from both sides. It achieves high power supply rejection (PSR) from the analog part without ripples at the output. Compared with the analog loop, the digital loop has a faster settling time while consuming minimum static power. In this design, the maximum load is 245 mA. The PSR is −42 dB at 1 MHz for heavy loading conditions. The quiescent current (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}{Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) is 300 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. When the 300-/100-ns (rising/falling) current step is applied at the load, the voltage peak is 71/37 mV, respectively. The proposed LDO achieves a competitive 7.4-ps figure of merit (FOM). The active area is approximately 0.056 mm<sup>2</sup> in a TSMC40-nm process.
Design and Characterization of a 10 × 10 Pixel Array THz Camera in 350 nm CMOS Technology

In this paper, a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10\times 10$ </tex-math></inline-formula> pixel array camera for room-temperature THz imaging application in 350 nm CMOS technology is presented. The camera consists of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10\times 10$ </tex-math></inline-formula> focal-plane array (FPA) of THz detectors, on-chip column amplifiers, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and on-chip memory for per-pixel calibration. High performance THz detectors are realized by integrating on-chip antennas and sub-threshold Si MOSFETs. The detectors are biased with a current source for increased responsivity and improved NEP. Our designed detector improves responsivity and NEP by a factor of 900 and 7, respectively, compared to conventional photo-voltaic (cold) FET-based detector in the same technology node and detection settings. Additionally, we proposed a successive-approximation (SA) calibration scheme to adjust the operating point of the pixels to maximize the THz response and improve uniformity, in the presence of pixel-to-pixel process variation. At 200 GHz illunimation frequency, the average responsivity and NEP of the 2D imager are measured as 16.4 kV/W and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$216~\frac {nW}{\sqrt {Hz}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively, with an image acquisition rate of 2 Hz. The responsivity and NEP of a representative pixel are extrapolated to 10 KHz (where 1/f noise has substantially decreased) for comparison with literature. The extrapolated values are 19 kV/W and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$535~\frac {pW}{\sqrt {Hz}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. By placing the THz camera in an optical setup, we were able to acquire images of concealed metal objects in a cardboard box at 200 GHz illumination frequency.
Age Factor and its Role in the Readers’ Comprehension of Stylistic Heterogeneity: Evidence from Eye Movements and Default Responses

The article discusses the role of the age factor in the readers’ comprehension of stylistically heterogeneous texts, here the text fragments containing figurative noun groups of salient and non-salient character. The salience effects on eye movement and default responses are studied in the oculographic experiment where the secondary school children had to read the sentences displaying figurativeness. The earlier detected statistically significant corpus salience indices of referential, linguistic and discourse parameters in figurativeness construal get verified experimentally. In accordance with the Graded Salience and Defaultness hypotheses I assumed that the interpretation of figurative noun groups of varied referential, linguistic and discourse salience will require different cognitive effort in terms of both eye movement reactions and default inferences. Several eye-tracking experiments with adult participants sufficed to prove the dependency, however, the results obtained with children did not support the Salience hypothesis in the part of visual perception. The eye movements of children facing figurative noun groups did not show steady correlation patterns with the salience effects of these groups, whereas the default interpretations correlated strongly with referential, linguistic, and discourse salience. The results show evidence in favor of Mixed-Effects Model of interpretation