Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic Engineering Strategies for Co-Utilization of Carbon Sources in Microbes

Co-utilization of carbon sources in microbes is an important topic in metabolic engineering research. It is not only a way to reduce microbial production costs but also an attempt for either improving the yields of target products or decreasing the formation of byproducts. However, there are barriers in co-utilization of carbon sources in microbes, such as carbon catabolite repression. To overcome the barriers, different metabolic engineering strategies have been developed, such as inactivation of the phosphotransferase system and rewiring carbon assimilation pathways. This review summarizes the most recent developments of different strategies that support microbes to utilize two or more carbon sources simultaneously. The main content focuses on the co-utilization of glucose and pentoses, major sugars in lignocellulose.
The Effects of Isolation, Habitat Area and Resources on the Abundance, Density and Movement of the Butterfly Parnassius smintheus

Abstract We examined the effects of isolation and site size on the abundance, density, emigration and immigration of the butterfly Parnassius smintheus in a series of sub-alpine meadows. Site size was measured either as habitat area or as number of host plants within each meadow. This distinction allowed us to test the hypothesis that population density measured over area (a generalized individuals-area relationship) should tend to decrease with increasing area due to inclusion of more ‘non-habitat’ in larger areas. In general, area measured either as meadow area or host plant abundance explained little deviance in butterfly abundance or movement. Immigration increased with the connectivity (the inverse of isolation) of meadows. We found that individuals-area relationships defined over meadow area showed patterns of decreasing butterfly density with increasing meadow area. This pattern was partially generated by a trend for host plant density to decrease with increasing meadow area. However, this trend was not universal as some small meadows had similar host plant densities to large meadows. Decreasing density with increasing meadow area primarily arose due to decreasing butterfly density with increasing host plant abundance, indicating that multiple mechanisms can produce decreasing population density with increasing area.
Compact true time delay line with partially shielded coplanar waveguide transmission lines

This paper presents a method to attain a compact true time delay line with a partially shielded coplanar waveguide transmission line. Closely spaced air bridges were utilized to reduce the coupling effects between neighboring coplanar waveguide transmission lines. The proposed method is compatible with foundry's GaAs standard process and allows the transmission line to be compact and achieve a small sized true time delay line circuit. A true time delay line of approximately 85ps was fabricated and tested.
Tensile and flexural creep behaviour of self-reinforced polypropylene composites prepared by compression and injection molding

In this work the creep behavior of self-reinforced polymer composites (SRPC) were investigated. As matrix material olefin based thermoplastic elastomeric (o-TPE), as reinforcement highly oriented polypropylenes were used. The tested self-reinforced composites were prepared by filament winding with subsequent compression molding and injection molding (from new pre-impregnated pre-product material) technique. On the SRPC creep tests were carried out. The tensile and flexural creep tests were performed by universal tensile machine and dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) test. The results revealed that the creep behavior of the self-reinforced materials depended on the matrix material and the reinforcement structure. The highest strain was achieved using woven fabric while the unidirectional structure showed the lowest strain.
Magneto-optical effects in nanostructures with reduced symmetry

Using Yeh's matrix formalism, the approximate formulas for the magneto-optical effects in reflection from semi-infinite orthorhombic crystal with symmetry axes parallel to the Cartesian axes are derived for a general orientation of the magnetization vector. The magneto-optical (MO) effects in such structures are usually calculated numerically, but theoretical formulas give us physical insight into these effects and an good understanding of their symmetry properties. The near normal incidence approximation allows to study effects, which appear in the case of small angle of incidence in the contrast to the normal incidence. Different dependencies of these effects on the sample rotation allow us to distinguish between trigonal, tertragonal and hexagonal structures including and missing two-fold in-plane symmetry axis. The theoretical description of the magneto-optical effects can be applied to the magneto-optical ellipsometry, which is very sensitive nondestructive methods suitable for study of magnetic anisotropy, magnetization reversal properties of nanostructures, and exchange coupling.
The Polycomb Group Protein Suz12 Is Required for Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation

ABSTRACT Polycomb group (PcG) proteins form multiprotein complexes, called Polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs). PRC2 contains the PcG proteins EZH2, SUZ12, and EED and represses transcription through methylation of lysine (K) 27 of histone H3 (H3). Suz12 is essential for PRC2 activity and its inactivation results in early lethality of mouse embryos. Here, we demonstrate that Suz12−/− mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells can be established and expanded in tissue culture. The Suz12−/− ES cells are characterized by global loss of H3K27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and higher expression levels of differentiation-specific genes. Moreover, Suz12−/− ES cells are impaired in proper differentiation, resulting in a lack of repression of ES cell markers as well as activation of differentiation-specific genes. Finally, we demonstrate that the PcGs are actively recruited to several genes during ES cell differentiation, which despite an increase in H3K27me3 levels is not always sufficient to prevent transcriptional activation. In summary, we demonstrate that Suz12 is required for the establishment of specific expression programs required for ES cell differentiation. Furthermore, we provide evidence that PcGs have different mechanisms to regulate transcription during cellular differentiation.
Improvement of viscoelastic effects of dielectric elastomer actuator and its application for valve devices

In this paper we investigated the actuation behavior of the antagonistically driven Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs). The motivation is to improve the viscoelastic creeping behavior that intrinsically exists within most DEAs, since creeping behavior may cause some unwanted effects to the performance of DEAs, especially when we apply the DEAs to some mechanical devices which need to operate stably for a long time. Our experimental results showed that the actuator can generate very stable displacement, make the pattern of actuator's movement more regular and take advantage of mechanical energy in a more efficient way by coating two dielectric elastomers with different area ratios and applying DC voltage to both of them at the same time.
Auditory Cortex tACS and tRNS for Tinnitus: Single versus Multiple Sessions

Tinnitus is the perception of a sound in the absence of an external acoustic source, which often exerts a significant impact on the quality of life. Currently there is evidence that neuroplastic changes in both neural pathways are involved in the generation and maintaining of tinnitus. Neuromodulation has been suggested to interfere with these neuroplastic alterations. In this study we aimed to compare the effect of two upcoming forms of transcranial electrical neuromodulation: alternating current stimulation (tACS) and random noise stimulation (tRNS), both applied on the auditory cortex. A database with 228 patients with chronic tinnitus who underwent noninvasive neuromodulation was retrospectively analyzed. The results of this study show that a single session of tRNS induces a significant suppressive effect on tinnitus loudness and distress, in contrast to tACS. Multiple sessions of tRNS augment the suppressive effect on tinnitus loudness but have no effect on tinnitus distress. In conclusion this preliminary study shows a possibly beneficial effect of tRNS on tinnitus and can be a motivation for future randomized placebo-controlled clinical studies with auditory tRNS for tinnitus. Auditory alpha-modulated tACS does not seem to be contributing to the treatment of tinnitus.
Bufferless Transmission in Complex Networks

Complex bufferless networks such as on-chip networks and optical burst switching networks have not been paid enough attention in network science. In complex bufferless networks, the store and forward mechanism is not applicable, since the network nodes are not allowed to buffer data packets. In this brief, we study the data transmission process in complex bufferless networks from the perspective of network science. Specifically, we use the Price model to generate the underlying network topological structures. We propose a delivery queue based deflection mechanism, which accompanies the efficient routing protocol, to transmit data packets in bufferless networks. We investigate the average deflection times, packets loss rate, average arrival time, and how the network topological structure and some other factors affect these transmission performances. This brief provides some clues for the architecture and routing design of bufferless networks.
Hand Motion Tracking for Alphabet Recognition using ANN

With the Objective of making communication process easy between handicap people and computer this paper describes a very basic method for recognizing the alphabets from hand motion trajectory. This method uses Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for alphabet recognition from gesture path (motion trajectory). This is done in three main stages; preprocessing on video input, feature extraction and classification. In first stage, preprocessing, sticker of particular colour placed on users hand is detected using color information. After detection of required colour to be traced, its motion trajectory which is also called as gesture path will be determined by tracking the sticker placed on hand. In the second stage, features are extracted from hand motion track which can be further used for training & testing ANN. In the final stage alphabet is recognized by using extracted features of gesture path. General Terms Motion Tracking, Human Computer Interaction, Pattern Recognition, Hand Written Character Recognition, Security and Algorithms.
An Extensible Authentication Protocol with Transport Layer Security and One Time Password in the Multi Hop Mesh Network

The multi hop mesh networkan extension of wireless mesh network by ad hoc networkis one promising wireless network architecture in the near future. Securing access network is the first protection against attacker access to network services. Authentication is an essential for securing the access to the network. TLS/SSL (Transport Layer Security/Secure Socket Layer) protocol is one famous secure protocol for secure communication and authentication. However, implementation mutual authentication with client certificate is very complicated and high cost for wireless network. This paper proposed a combination of TLS/SSL and One Time Password (OTP) for mutual authentication and secure communication protocol. TLS/SSL protocol is used to authenticate server and make secure TLS/SSL tunnel between client and server. After that OTP is used to authenticate user over the secure TLS/SSL tunnel. OTP is a good way to protect system from dictionary or brute force attack. The combined model SSL and OTP is a strong authentication and secure communication protocol and it can be applied in the real world. Key-Words: Multi hop mesh network, PANA, EAP, Transport Layer Security, Secure Socket Layer, One Time Password, Secure Communication, and Mutual Authentication
A run-time memory management approach for scratch-pad-based embedded systems

Software-controlled caches, often called scratch-pad memories (SPM), are being increasingly used due to their efficiency. And to exploit all the advantages of SPMs an efficient allocation must be done in software. In this work we propose a runtime operating system management approach for SPMs that do not require compiler support, application profiling or hardware support. The OS will use annotations, inserted into the code by the programmer, as hints to choose the most appropriate level in the memory hierarchy to allocate the data. The results showed that we were able to implement a run-time SPM allocation technique without adding any significant overhead to the system when compared with manual allocation.
Fish Responses to Experimental Fragmentation of Seagrass Habitat

Abstract: Understanding the consequences of habitat fragmentation has come mostly from comparisons of patchy and continuous habitats. Because fragmentation is a process, it is most accurately studied by actively fragmenting large patches into multiple smaller patches. We fragmented artificial seagrass habitats and evaluated the impacts of fragmentation on fish abundance and species richness over time (1 day, 1 week, 1 month). Fish assemblages were compared among 4 treatments: control (single, continuous 9‐m2 patches); fragmented (single, continuous 9‐m2 patches fragmented to 4 discrete 1‐m2 patches); prefragmented/patchy (4 discrete 1‐m2 patches with the same arrangement as fragmented); and disturbance control (fragmented then immediately restored to continuous 9‐m2 patches). Patchy seagrass had lower species richness than actively fragmented seagrass (up to 39% fewer species after 1 week), but species richness in fragmented treatments was similar to controls. Total fish abundance did not vary among treatments and therefore was unaffected by fragmentation, patchiness, or disturbance caused during fragmentation. Patterns in species richness and abundance were consistent 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after fragmentation. The expected decrease in fish abundance from reduced total seagrass area in fragmented and patchy seagrass appeared to be offset by greater fish density per unit area of seagrass. If fish prefer to live at edges, then the effects of seagrass habitat loss on fish abundance may have been offset by the increase (25%) in seagrass perimeter in fragmented and patchy treatments. Possibly there is some threshold of seagrass patch connectivity below which fish abundances cannot be maintained. The immediate responses of fish to experimental habitat fragmentation provided insights beyond those possible from comparisons of continuous and historically patchy habitat.
Mechanism of Non-metallic Inclusion Formation and Modification and Their Deformation during Compact Strip Production (CSP) Process for Aluminum-Killed Steel

The formation and modification of non-metallic inclusions for Al-killed steel during Compact Strip Production Process (CSP Process) was studied by industrial experiments. The thermodynamics for the formation of Al2O3, MgO·Al2O3 spinel, various calcium aluminates and CaS bearing inclusion were analyzed with the help of calculation software FactSage. It is found that the oxygen activity in liquid steel during LF (Ladle Furnace) refining is confirmed to be determined by the equilibrium between dissolved Al and Al2O3 in inclusion. There are two manners for Al2O3 inclusion modification during LF refining: the first route is followed by Al2O3-low modified calcium aluminates-liquid calcium aluminates; and the other is as Al2O3– MgO·Al2O3 spinel-CaO–MgO–Al2O3 multi-component inclusion. In addition, the liquid calcium aluminates have the tendency to be multi-component inclusion. Two types of CaS bearing inclusion could precipitate in a slab during solidification. The favorable modified inclusions deform very well along with steel matrix during rolling process even if they are associated with CaS bearing layer, while the no or low modified Al2O3 based inclusion would be rolled into pieces and the micro-cracks might be generated around the inclusions.
Age Related Changes in the Histoarchitecture of Seminiferous Epithelium in Mice

1 Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai600 007, India 2 Centre for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai600 007, India 3 Central Clinical Laboratory, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai600 007, India *Corresponding author
CoScribe: Integrating Paper and Digital Documents for Collaborative Knowledge Work

This paper presents CoScribe, a concept and prototype system for the combined work with printed and digital documents, which supports a large variety of knowledge work settings. It integrates novel pen-and-paper-based interaction techniques that enable users to collaboratively annotate, link and tag both printed and digital documents. CoScribe provides for a very seamless integration of paper with the digital world, as the same digital pen and the same interactions can be used on paper and displays. As our second contribution, we present empirical results of three field studies on learning at universities. These motivated the design of CoScribe and were abstracted to a generic framework for the design of intuitive pen-and-paper user interfaces. The resulting interaction design comprising collaboration support and multiuser visualizations has been implemented and evaluated in user studies. The results indicate that CoScribe imposes only minimal overhead on traditional annotation processes and provides for a more efficient structuring and retrieval of documents.
Enhanced Stat3 Activation in POMC Neurons Provokes Negative Feedback Inhibition of Leptin and InsulinSignaling in Obesity

Leptin-stimulated Stat3 activation in proopiomelanocortin (POMC)-expressing neurons of the hypothalamus plays an important role in maintenance of energy homeostasis. While Stat3 activation in POMC neurons is required for POMC expression, the role of elevated basal Stat3 activation as present in the development of obesity has not been directly addressed. Here, we have generated and characterized mice expressing a constitutively active version of Stat3 (Stat3-C) in POMC neurons (Stat3-CPOMC mice). On normal chow diet, these animals develop obesity as a result of hyperphagia and decreased POMC expression accompanied by central leptin and insulin resistance. This unexpected finding coincides with POMC-cell-specific, Stat3-mediated upregulation of SOCS3 expression inhibiting both leptin and insulin signaling as insulin-stimulated PIP3 (phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5 triphosphate) formation and protein kinase B (AKT) activation in POMC neurons as well as with the fact that insulin's ability to hyperpolarize POMC neurons is largely reduced in POMC cells of Stat3-CPOMC mice. These data indicate that constitutive Stat3 activation is not sufficient to promote POMC expression but requires simultaneous PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase)-dependent release of FOXO1 repression. In contrast, upon exposure to a high-fat diet, food intake and body weight were unaltered in Stat3-CPOMC mice compared with control mice. Taken together, these experiments directly demonstrate that enhanced basal Stat3 activation in POMC neurons as present in control mice upon high-fat feeding contributes to the development of hypothalamic leptin and insulin resistance.
User Selection and Precoding Schemes Based on Partial Channel Information for Broadcast MIMO Systems

Due to the large number of users and the time-varying characteristics of wireless channels, it is very tough to inform the transmitter of full channel information in real multi-user MIMO broadcast systems. On the other hand, the capacity of multi-user systems greatly depends on the knowledge of the channel at the transmitter while this is not always the case in single-user MIMO systems. In this paper, we investigate combined user selection and zero-forcing precoding schemes that use partial channel information, i.e., very low amount of channel information at the base station. We show that while greatly reducing the complexity and channel knowledge feedback load, the proposed schemes preserve the optimality of zero-forcing scheme in term of achievable ergodic sum capacity in limit of large number of active users.
Preparation of textured zinc oxide ceramics by extrusion and spark plasma sintering

Abstract Since texture was confirmed to improve the properties of ZnO ceramics in various applications, an extrusion–spark plasma sintering (SPS) process was utilised to obtain a textured bulk ZnO ceramics. Rod-like, anisotropic ZnO particles were utilised as the original powder. The particles were aligned in such a position where c axes of the particles were parallel to the extrusion direction after the extrusion process. By spark plasma sintering method, a textured, near full dense homogeneous bulk ZnO ceramics with fine grains was obtained, sintering at relatively low temperature and within short time. Since the orientation was only controlled in one particular direction, i.e. c axis direction, it was a fibre texture that was achieved in this bulk ZnO. The extrusion–SPS process was confirmed to be an effective technique to induce texture in bulk ZnO ceramics.
Globalization of Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a global public health crisis that threatens the economies of all nations, particularly developing countries. Fueled by rapid urbanization, nutrition transition, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles, the epidemic has grown in parallel with the worldwide rise in obesity. Asia's large population and rapid economic development have made it an epicenter of the epidemic. Asian populations tend to develop diabetes at younger ages and lower BMI levels than Caucasians. Several factors contribute to accelerated diabetes epidemic in Asians, including the “normal-weight metabolically obese” phenotype; high prevalence of smoking and heavy alcohol use; high intake of refined carbohydrates (e.g., white rice); and dramatically decreased physical activity levels. Poor nutrition in utero and in early life combined with overnutrition in later life may also play a role in Asia's diabetes epidemic. Recent advances in genome-wide association studies have contributed substantially to our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology, but currently identified genetic loci are insufficient to explain ethnic differences in diabetes risk. Nonetheless, interactions between Westernized diet and lifestyle and genetic background may accelerate the growth of diabetes in the context of rapid nutrition transition. Epidemiologic studies and randomized clinical trials show that type 2 diabetes is largely preventable through diet and lifestyle modifications. Translating these findings into practice, however, requires fundamental changes in public policies, the food and built environments, and health systems. To curb the escalating diabetes epidemic, primary prevention through promotion of a healthy diet and lifestyle should be a global public policy priority.