Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distinct matrix composition and mechanics in aged and estrogen-deficient mouse skin

Hormone deficiency has been widely linked to accelerated tissue ageing, and increased incidence of chronic degenerative disease. Furthermore, age-associated hormonal dysregulation is thought to be a major contributing factor to the increased fragility of aged skin. The ageing process is driven by an aggregation of damage to cells and extracellular matrix, which can directly influence the mechanical properties of the tissue. Here we report on the correlation between mechanical properties and composition of skin from ovariectomised and aged mice, to assess the extent to which estrogen deprivation drives dermal ageing. We found that age and estrogen abrogation affected skin mechanical properties in contrasting ways: ageing led to increased tensile strength and stiffness while estrogen deprivation had the opposite effect. Mass spectrometry proteomics showed that the quantity of extractable fibrillar collagen-I decreased with ageing, but no change was observed in ovariectomised mice. This observation, in combination with measurements of tensile strength, was interpreted to reflect changes to the extent of extracellular matrix crosslinking, supported by a significant increase in the staining of advanced glycation endpoints in aged skin. Loss of mechanical strength in the skin following ovariectomy was consistent with a loss of elastic fibres. Other changes in extracellular matrix composition broadly correlated between aged and ovariectomised mice, confirming the important role of estrogen-related pathways in ageing. This study offers new insight into the relationship between tissue composition and mechanics, and suggests that the deleterious effects of intrinsic skin ageing are compounded by factors beyond hormonal dysregulation.
Joint Transmit Waveforms and Receive Filters Design for Large-Scale MIMO Beampattern Synthesis

In this paper, the joint design of transmit waveforms and receive filters for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) beampattern synthesis problem is considered. This problem is formulated to approximate a desired transmit beampattern (i.e., an energy distribution in space and frequency) and to minimize the cross-correlation of waveform signals between different spatial angles by considering various practical waveform constraints. The optimization problem is highly nonconvex due to the nonconvexity of the objective function as well as the waveform constraints. To solve this problem, an efficient algorithm is proposed based on the block majorization-minimization (BMM) method. Performance of the proposed algorithm compared to the state-of-the-art is demonstrated through numerical simulations.
Pestivirus spillover effect: molecular detection of bovine viral diarrhea virus in domestic and feral pigs

ABSTRACT: Pestivirus infections are important in the livestock industries, with infection occurring in cattle, sheep and pigs. The Pestivirus genus of the family Flaviviridae, includes four recognized species: bovine viral diarrhea virus 1 (BVDV-1), bovine viral diarrhea virus 2 (BVDV-2), border disease virus (BDV), and classical swine fever virus (CSFV). All pestivirus species can infect pigs, therefore accurate and specific pestivirus detection and differentiation is of great importance to assure control measures in swine populations. The aim of the study was the molecular detection of different pestiviruses in domestic and feral pigs. A total of 527 samples (92 pigs and 435 wild boars) were tested for pestiviruses detection using molecular assays. Eleven positive samples (6 wild boars and 5 domestic pigs) were identified using panpestivirus primers targeting the 5’- UTR region of the pestivirus RNA genome. Further all the positive samples were sequentially tested for detection of CSFV, BVDV-1 and BVDV-2 using specific primers. All RNAs were identified as positives for BVDV-1 and no ampliﬁcation signals were obtained from BVDV-2 and CSFV. The current detection of BVDV-1 in clinical swine specimens highlights the important risk factor of swine population as reservoir and consequently carrier for BVDV.
Pengambilan Data Terbang Quadcopter sebagai Data Latih pada Sistem Kendali Jaringan Saraf Tiruan Propagasi Balik

Saat ini sistem kendali yang populer digunakan pada quadcopter adalah kendali proportional, integral, derivate (PID) karena algoritme tersebut sederhana. Namun pada implementasinya, PID membutuhkan penyetelan parameter yang memakan waktu dan rentan terhadap kesalahan. Oleh karena itu, sistem kendali jaringan saraf tiruan propagasi balik untuk quadcopter saat ini mulai banyak dikembangkan karena menawarkan stabilisasi yang lebih baik dari faktor-faktor yang tidak diketahui dan data sensor yang mengandung noise. Akan tetapi, sistem kendali jaringan saraf tiruan propagasi balik memerlukan data latih yang akurat dan dapat mewakili seluruh kemungkinan kondisi terbang quadcopter. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh data terbang quadcopter dari data log sensor dan aktuator yang ada di quadcopter, yaitu giroskop, akselerometer, magnetometer, barometer, GPS, dan pulse width modulation output. Pengambilan data dilakukan dengan menerbangkan quadcopter secara otomatis dengan koordinat awal dan akhir yang telah ditentukan untuk mengisi data log terbang. Data log terbang diambil menggunakan perangkat lunak Mission Planner. Data log akan dipraproses untuk kemudian dilakukan sinkronisasi time sampling. Sinkronisasi dilakukan dengan mengikuti data sensor yang time sampling-nya paling besar. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah data terbang dari sensor dan pulse width modulation output quadcopter yang telah disinkronisasi untuk menjadi data latih jaringan saraf tiruan propagasi balik. Kata Kunci: data terbang quadcopter, jaringan saraf tiruan propagasi balik, quadcopter, sistem kendali
Machine learning techniques and the identification of new potentially active compounds against Leishmania infantum.

Leishmaniasis is defined as a set of diseases of very varied clinical presentation produced by obligate intracellular parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania. They have been classified by the World Health Organization in category I of infectious diseases and are part of neglected tropical pathologies. Leishmania infantum mainly affects children under five years of age and has been associated with an increase in the appearance of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis. The search for new therapeutic alternatives remains a challenge and in silico studies are alternative tools to solve this problem. With the main objective of identify potentially effective compounds against Leishmania infantum through in silico studies, artificial Intelligence techniques implemented in the WEKA program and molecular descriptors 0D-2D of DRAGON software are used in this research. A new database was created and the clusters analysis (AC) k-means was used to design the training and prediction series. Four models were obtained with the following techniques: IBk, J48, MLP and SMO that reached percentages of classification higher than 80% for training and prediction series, whose predictive power was confirmed through external and internal validation procedures. The use of the models obtained in the virtual screening of the international database DrugBank and synthesis compounds allowed the optimal identification of 120 new potentially active compounds against Leishmania infantum amastigote form.
Investigation of Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) severity and cropping systems mapping in agro-ecological maize systems in Bomet, Kenya utilizing RapidEye and Landsat-8 Imagery

ABSTRACT Spatiotemporal information on crops and cropping systems can provide useful insights into disease outbreak mechanisms in croplands. In September 2011, a severe outbreak of Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) disease was reported in Bomet County, Kenya. We aimed to detect severely MLN-infected fields and discriminate mono, inter, and continuous maize cropping systems. We collected in-situ MLN severity observations and acquired multi-date and multi-sensor data viz., RapidEye (RE), Sentinel-1 (S1), digital elevation model (DEM), and Landsat-8 (L8) imagery. A hierarchical classification approach was used to map the cropping systems and severely MLN-infected fields during the short rainy season (September 2014–February 2015) using the random forest (RF), one-class support vector machine (OCSVM) and biased SVM (BSVM) classifiers. RF showed better performance when a balanced multi-class dataset was available. Both OCSVM and BSVM did not lead to an accurate high severity MLN class separation. Moreover, the BSVM classifier was able to separate the mono and intercropping systems. During the long rainy season (March–August 2015), only maize crop data were available, hence the BSVM as one class classifiers (OCC) was used and maize fields were successfully mapped even with high confusion rate. Furthermore, the distribution of maize intercropping system increased in low rainfall sites, and the continuous cropping system limited to only 31% of total maize cropland.
Carcaça e componentes corporais de cordeiros lactentes em pastejo de azevém suplementados com leguminosa ou concentrado

RESUMO O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar o efeito da suplementação privativa, com concentrado ou leguminosa, sobre as características da carcaça e dos componentes corporais de cordeiros lactentes mantidos em pastejo de azevém. Foram utilizados 27 cordeiros lactentes, distribuídos nos tratamentos que corresponderam aos sistemas de alimentação: cordeiros lactentes mantidos em pasto de azevém, cordeiros lactentes mantidos em pasto de azevém e suplementados com concentrado em comedouro privativo (creep feeding) e cordeiros lactentes mantidos em pasto de azevém e suplementados com leguminosa no pasto privativo (creep grazing). O concentrado era composto por milho, farelo de soja e calcário calcítico, e a leguminosa utilizada foi o trevo-branco. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente ao acaso. Os resultados foram submetidos à análise de variância, e as médias comparadas pelo teste de Tukey a 5% de significância. O conteúdo do trato gastrintestinal juntamente com bile e urina e a proporção de esôfago foram maiores (P<0,05) nos cordeiros mantidos em pasto de azevém. As proporções de fígado e intestino grosso foram maiores (P<0,05) nos cordeiros suplementados com concentrado. Os sistemas alimentares testados produzem carcaças com características semelhantes. A suplementação, com leguminosa ou concentrado, altera os componentes corporais de cordeiros lactentes mantidos em azevém.
Research on Methods for Complex Chinese Entity Recognition

Named entity recognition(NER), as a key task of natural language processing, is of great significance in relational capture, information retrieval, knowledge mapping, machine translation, and question and answer systems. In the neural network-based Chinese named entity recognition method, the vectorized word representation only maps words into one vector, which cannot represent the above problem, In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a Cascading model based on the character vectorization, This method uses BERT to represent the ambiguity of the word. In the agile BIGRU model, the initial entity recall is completed to increase the entity recall rate. Then the output of this layer is input into the high-level bilstm model of self attention mechanism to further filter and improve the accuracy of the final recognition. Finally, the CRF is used to complete the output of the final recognition result. Experiments show that the model can effectively improve the accuracy, accuracy and recall rate of complex Chinese entity recognition. The f1 value has increased by about 2% overall.
Sharing Feedback, Sharing Screens: Videoconferencing as a Tool for Stakeholder-Driven Web Design

Videoconferencing is a low-cost, high-reward tool for engaging stakeholders in participatory design and usability testing for online Extension products. This article details how we used the videoconference program BlueJeans to facilitate the redesign of the Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System database and highlights the benefits of this technique along with the methods we used for stakeholder interviews in the project.
Target Reflectivity Characterization for FDA Radar

As an emerging array processing technique, frequency diverse array (FDA) differs from conventional phased-array in that it employs a frequency increment across the array elements. The use of frequency increment provides FDA with an array factor with joint range-angle dependency, which finds wide applications in joint range-angle target localization and range-dependent interference/clutter suppression. In the open literature, an ideal point-like target in far field is generally assumed for FDA signal modelling. However, the reflectivity characterization for more realistic targets, which are not ideally point-like and even extended in range and azimuth angle, has not been reported for FDA radar. In this paper, we establish an echo signal model of FDA radar for a general target, and then analyze the statistics of the echo signal amplitude. More specifically, we reveal the amplitude decorrelation property between different FDA elements due to the use of frequency increment, which provides useful insight into frequency increment design. The target reflectivity characteristic analysis is validated by numerical results.
Why market actors fuel the carbon bubble. The agency, governance, and incentive problems that distort corporate climate risk management

ABSTRACT Similar to the housing bubble, a carbon bubble is being fueled by misaligned corporate governance structures and market incentives that distort capital allocation. Science indicates that a rapid energy transition is needed. However, oil and gas reserves already vastly exceed what can be consumed and continue to increase. A significant portion of fossil fuel assets will eventually become ‘stranded’ – prematurely obsolete over their expected lives. This article examines the various market actors and motivations that are distorting corporate and financial climate risk management. Incentives and structural impediments among key market participants such as short-termism/myopia, long-term arbitrage costs, agency costs / career self-interest, and analytical and cognitive limitations (e.g. bounded rationality), exacerbate the problem. Recognition of these motivations is a ‘heads up’ for shareholders, investors and others to better manage risk.
Analysis of Graphite FinFET

This paper proposed a bulk Si-FinFET for different digital applications. The proposed device has been analyzed for different gate dielectric material such as SiO2 as low-K dielectric and HfO2 as high-K dielectric. It is observed that by using high-K dielectric, ON Current is slightly enhanced. Further the comparative study of a device for silicon material and graphite material is also performed. It is observed that when body thickness is 12 nm, the ON Current of the device is high for Silicon at higher gate voltage as compared to graphite.
Settling in or passing through: differentiating between wood‐boring beetle visitation and colonization after a dead wood pulse

To determine the effect of resource pulses on animal communities, it is important to differentiate the species colonizing the resource substrate from the ones simply moving through the system. In a manipulative field study, we surveyed the response of wood‐boring beetles (Coleoptera) to the small debris produced by commercial thinning operations in white spruce plantations using two methods. First, we sampled the wood‐boring beetles visiting the plantations using flight intercept traps. Then, at the end of the resource pulse in fresh woody debris, we documented the abundance of beetle emergence holes on vertical and horizontal woody debris, which indicate wood‐boring beetle colonization. Results demonstrated that the small horizontal debris generated by commercial thinning were used by saproxylic beetles but were not a preferred resource for colonization, by contrast with vertical dead wood. Only small‐body beetles colonized the horizontal debris and most debris were not colonized. Vertical dead wood, even if present in relatively small quantity when compared to horizontal dead wood, was a major determinant of beetle colonization and community composition. Biomass removal was shown to have a strong detrimental impact on beetle colonization rates. Based on these results, we suggest that most of the saproxylic species trapped after commercial thinning operations were attracted in response to the initial pulse of resource but did not actually colonize the debris from thinning. Thus, we stress the importance of distinguishing between species visitation and colonization following a resource pulse when sampling relies on indirect trapping methods.
Four complete mitochondrial genomes of living wild-type chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus (Amphibia: Cryptobranchidae)

Abstract The Chinese giant salamander (CGS), Andrias davidianus (Amphibian, Caudata, Cryptobranchidae), is endemic to China. After overhunting in the 1990’s, it is very difficult to find the CGS in the wild. Due to mating disorder, the captive breeding population is genetically confounded. The genetic backgrounds of all wild-release individuals in China are not explicit. Herein, we reported four living wild-type complete mitochondrial genomes of this species. The gene order and contents are identical to those found in typical vertebrates. Thirteen protein-coding genes (PCGs) of 7 A. davidianus (4 from this study, 3 retrieved from GenBank) and 11 other closely species retrieved from GenBank were used to reconstruct phylogenetic tree. The Maximum likelihood (ML) topology shown that the clade of CGS has two subclades with a high support (100%). This study provides partial fundamental information for further exploring the true genetic background of whole population of A. davidianus.
Runge-Kutta Methods

It is a classical theorem of Liouville that Hamiltonian syst ems preserve volume in phase space. Any symplectic Runge-Kutta method will respect this property for s uch systems, but it has been shown that no B-Series method can be volume preserving for all volume pres erving vector fields (BIT 47 (2007) 351–378 & IMA J. Numer. Anal. 27 (2007) 381–405). In this paper we show that despite this result, symplectic Runge-Kutta methods can be volume preserving for a much larg er class of vector fields than Hamiltonian systems, and discuss how some Runge-Kutta methods can prese rve a modified measure exactly.
Climate Change Adaptation Undertaken by Small-scale Farmers in Nepal: A Reference from Tinau River Basin

Background: Climate change is an emerging challenge that the global society will have to deal with over the coming decades. The task is particularly daunting to developing societies as they are considered more susceptible to climate change because of their exposures and sensitivities to climate-related extremes, and especially because of their restricted adaptive capabilities to deal with the effects of hazardous events. Objectives: This research attempts to seek evidence of adaptation undertaken as a result of climate change-induced impacts and analyze the factors affecting the capability and strategies of climate change adaptation by small scale farmers in Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cum correlational research design was employed in the study following a quantitative approach. Using a convenience sampling method, primary data for each variable was collected from 67 small scale farmers of Tinau River Basin located in the Western region of Nepal. 5-Point Likert Scale questions were prepared and pilot testing was conducted to collect the responses. Descriptive statistics, Kendall Rank Correlation and Cronbach’s Alpha (α) Test were used while analyzing the data and testing the hypotheses. The inferences were made at 5% and 1% level of significance. Results: The findings indicate that the small scale farmers in the Tinau River Basin are experiencing the varied level of changes in climate. It revealed the existence of some barring factors for adaptation, further, insisting that farmers are prone to suffer from capability losses due to climate change. Conclusion: The study concludes that small scale farmers are prone to suffer from capability losses due to climate change. Climate change effects are hampering their ability to cultivate the land, increasingly damaging their production, and causing lower yields of harvests. Implications: This study suggests that such influencing factors should be taken into prime consideration (while developing additional intervention) to enhance farmers’ capabilities to better cope with climate change effects; thus improving their adaptation measures for maintaining a flourishing relationship with the changing climate.
Research on Flight Trajectory Optimization Based on Quantum Genetic Algorithm

Taking the passenger aircraft A320 as the research object, the trajectory optimization of the aircraft climbing section under wind disturbance is carried out. Through the analysis of the aircraft’s descent process, the kinematics model, fuel consumption model and atmospheric model of the aircraft are established, and the objective function and constraints of the problem are obtained. The quantum genetic algorithm is used to transform the optimal control problem into a nonlinear programming problem. The optimal trajectory of the aircraft’s shortest descent time is obtained by simulation. The effects of different cost indices on the fall time and fuel consumption are discussed.
Métodos de Avaliação Pós-ocupação (APO) Sob a Ótica da Acessibilidade Universal

A fair society is one that provides all its citizens with an accessible and barrier-free environment, independent of any kind of diversity. Thus, the importance of discussing improvements in spatial orientation becomes fundamental to the accessibility of the built environment. In this context, this research had as objective to study the usefulness of the methods of Post-Occupancy Assessment (APO), specifically the Visual Mapping and the accompanied Walk technique, in view of the accessibility concepts. The methodology used to obtain the research data followed the PRISMA guidelines, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes. The articles found were searched through the SCOPUS database. The keywords used in English for comprehensiveness were: "universal design", "architecture", "universal accessibility", "accessibility", "post occupation evaluation" and "visual mapping". It was verified that, for an effective Post-Occupancy Assessment, the accompanying method of walking and visual mapping when combined simulates in a real way the difficulties experienced by each group of people with disabilities, both in displacement and in spatial orientation, so that everyone can have their skills equated to the diversity of users. Key-words: Accessibility; Post-occupation Evaluation;Integral accessibility. Métodos de avaliação pós ocupação sob a ótica da acessibilidade universal
In Vitro Assessment of Probiotic Properties for
 Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Korean Traditional Fermented Food,
 Kimchi

In this study, thirty-eight lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were isolated from Kimchi (Korean traditional fermented food) and screened for probiotic characterization in a series of in vitro tests, including resistance to low pH, tolerance to bile salts, hydrophobicity, antibiotic resistance and antioxidant activity. Firstly, twenty-two strains displayed survival in acid and bile passage conditions. Secondly, the strains KCCP 11349 and KCCP 11356 were observed to have high cell surface hydrophobicity with 63.9 and 98.8 %, respectively. Functionality of these potential probiotic isolates was supported by their antioxidant activity. Altogether, the strain KCCP 11349 showed characteristics similar to or even better than reference strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Finally, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was conducted to identify potential probiotic strains and KCCP 11349 was identified as Lactobacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum.