Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nanopore MinION Sequencing Generates a White Spot Syndrome Virus Genome from a Pooled Cloacal Swab Sample of Domestic Chickens in South Africa

White spot syndrome virus is a highly contagious pathogen affecting shrimp farming worldwide. The host range of this virus is primarily limited to crustaceans, such as shrimps, crabs, prawns, crayfish, and lobsters; however, several species of non-crustaceans, including aquatic insects, piscivorous birds, and molluscs may serve as the vectors for ecological dissemination. The present study was aimed at studying the faecal virome of domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The cloacal swab specimens (n = 35) were collected from domestic chickens in December 2022. The cloacal swab specimens were pooled—each pool containing five cloacal swabs—for metagenomic analysis using a sequence-independent single-primer amplification protocol, followed by Nanopore MinION sequencing. While the metagenomic sequencing generated several contigs aligning with reference genomes of animal viruses, one striking observation was the presence of a White spot syndrome virus genome in one pool of cloacal swab specimens. The generated White spot syndrome virus genome was 273,795 bp in size with 88.5% genome coverage and shared 99.94% nucleotide sequence identity with a reference genome reported in China during 2018 (GenBank accession: NC_003225.3). The Neighbour-Joining tree grouped South African White spot syndrome virus genome with other White spot syndrome virus genomes reported from South East Asia. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a White spot syndrome virus genome generated from domestic chickens. The significance of White spot syndrome virus infection in domestic chickens is yet to be determined.
Average-case complexity of a branch-and-bound algorithm for maximum independent set, under the $\mathcal{G}(n, p)$ random model

We study average-case complexity of branch-and-bound for maximum independent set in random graphs under the $\mathcal{G}(n,p)$ distribution. In this model every pair $(u,v)$ of vertices belongs to $E$ with probability $p$ independently on the existence of any other edge. We make a precise case analysis, providing phase transitions between subexponential and exponential complexities depending on the probability $p$ of the random model.
Evaluation of best management practices to reduce nutrients runoff in watersheds in Arkansas

There are many non point sources (NPS) of pollution issues across the state of Arkansas. Each region of the state has different concerns. Many watersheds have been included in the Arkansas’s 2008 303(d) list for NPS impairments with sediment and nutrients being the primary causes of concern. This research hypothesized that there are no cost or net returns risks when adopting best management practices (BMPs) to control nutrients runoff and that selection, timing, placement and cost have no impact on the implementation of BMPs. Using two priority watersheds, the L’Anguille River and the Lincoln Lake, as examples, the environmental benefits and the cost-effectiveness of several BMPs were compared to representative systems that producers currently use. Current systems were rice and soybeans production under various tillage, buffers and nutrient management practices. Also analyzed were alternative pasture management systems, buffers and poultry litter applications for bermudagrass production. For each system, total phosphorous (TP) loss estimates were linked with production costs, BMP costs and risk premiums within a watershed to create an environmental-economic model. The model was used to analyze the impact of BMPs in reducing nutrient runoff while minimizing the producers’ exposure to additional risk. To accomplish this goal, two mathematical techniques were used: stochastic dominance and genetic algorithm. Findings showed that BMPs have the potential for reducing nutrient pollutant losses from agricultural land areas. However, ranking BMPs solely in terms of their effectiveness to reduce nutrient runoff can lead to cost-prohibited recommendations. Since producer’s risk aversion level matters, for producers to adopt any of the BMPs analyzed in this study, they would have to receive a risk premium. This is true for both row crop and forage producers. Still, there are some BMPs that can reduce nutrient runoff, maintain agricultural production and improve water quality without affecting producers’ cost or net returns dramatically. Consequently, decision makers need to weight trade-offs between nutrient runoff reduction and net cost increase when selecting BMPs. Cost-savings from selecting BMPs become evident when critical factors for reducing TP runoff are analyzed using an environmental-economic model. This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council Dissertation Director: ____________________________________ Dr. Jennie Popp Dissertation Committee: ____________________________________ Dr. Indrajeet Chaubey ____________________________________ Dr. Edward Gbur ____________________________________ Dr. Brinck Kerr DISSERTATION DUPLICATION RELEASE I hereby authorize the University of Arkansas Libraries to duplicate this dissertation when needed for research and/or scholarship. Agreed __________________________________________ Héctor Germán Rodríguez Díaz Refused __________________________________________ Héctor Germán Rodríguez Díaz
Multiple Roles of dXNP and dADD1—Drosophila Orthologs of ATRX Chromatin Remodeler

The Drosophila melanogaster dADD1 and dXNP proteins are orthologues of the ADD and SNF2 domains of the vertebrate ATRX (Alpha-Thalassemia with mental Retardation X-related) protein. ATRX plays a role in general molecular processes, such as regulating chromatin status and gene expression, while dADD1 and dXNP have similar functions in the Drosophila genome. Both ATRX and dADD1/dXNP interact with various protein partners and participate in various regulatory complexes. Disruption of ATRX expression in humans leads to the development of α-thalassemia and cancer, especially glioma. However, the mechanisms that allow ATRX to regulate various cellular processes are poorly understood. Studying the functioning of dADD1/dXNP in the Drosophila model may contribute to understanding the mechanisms underlying the multifunctional action of ATRX and its connection with various cellular processes. This review provides a brief overview of the currently available information in mammals and Drosophila regarding the roles of ATRX, dXNP, and dADD1. It discusses possible mechanisms of action of complexes involving these proteins.
A Study on Sentiment Analysis on Airline Quality Services: A Conceptual Paper

Airline quality service is crucial for airlines to remain competitive in the industry. The quality of the services of these airlines must meet customer satisfaction and other aspects of the overall service experience. The levels of service quality in an airline service may impact satisfaction and loyalty which may influence customer sentiment. Concerning the importance of airline quality service, customer sentiment towards the service must be investigated and one of the ways to analyze it is by using sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis is the chosen tool nowadays to analyze comments or reviews made on these services, which may be positive, negative, or neutral. Using sentiment analysis, will not only help potential customers to view the overall sentiment portrayed, but organizations can also use the findings to improve their organization to be more competitive. Thus, this paper will focus on reviewing several recent works related to sentiment analysis as a tool for assisting organizations in assessing the quality of services in the airline industry. As a result, a new framework for assessing the quality of service for the organizations, especially the airline company will be proposed.
Transit proximity and car parking demand at medium/high density residential developments

Theory suggests that the demand for private vehicle travel is inversely proportional to the utility of the alternative modes available and by extension, the demand for car parking is directly related to the demand for private vehicle travel. Because transit utility is enhanced by proximity to major public transport nodes (ie bus and rail stations), the opportunity exists to better match parking supply to demand, based on proximity to major public transport nodes. Doing so yields wider benefits to the community in terms of reducing automobile dependency, traffic congestion, urban sprawl and development costs, while at the same time improving active transport, the viability of public transport and liveability in urban spaces. This study examines the relationship between car parking demand and proximity to major public transport nodes, using a sample of medium/high density residential developments in Brisbane, Queensland. Qualitative data was gathered by interviewing a number of local property developers and industry bodies. There is evidence from these interviews that the unique characteristics of a development in conjunction with its proximity to major public transport nodes provide opportunities to reduce the amount of car parking supplied. Quantitative data was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for a sample of 150 Census Collector Districts (CCD) in Brisbane, close to major public transport nodes. Car parking demand was regressed against a range of independent variables, including distance to transit, land use diversity, population density and a range of socio-economic parameters. We found that distance to transit has a significant effect on residential car parking demand. This effect was found to be strongest when residential development was within 1,500 metres of a major public transport node, with the most significant effect evident for developments situated within 400 metres. The result of this research has the potential to deliver more sustainable and more affordable land use and transport solutions for major urban areas.
Culturological analysis of “The Culture Test” and The 3D Gospel

Jayson Georges’ The Culture Test has over 40,000 respondents from over 200 countries. The test is based on Georges’ three culture types from his book The 3D Gospel: guilt–innocence, shame–honor, and fear–power. Using the discipline of Culturology (also called hologeistic cross-cultural analysis), The Culture Test is analyzed and compared with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Minkov and Kaasa’s objective cultural dimensions, and various societal measures. A three-dimensional plot and culture map show how The Culture Test clusters countries and regions. These comparisons, plot, and map highlight the culturological strengths of The Culture Test and The 3D Gospel—correlated to societal measures related to individualism versus collectivism. They also demonstrate the weaknesses of The Culture Test and The 3D Gospel—which measures only one cultural dimension and regions and countries cluster poorly.
The emerging role of digital health in the management of asthma

The most common reasons seen for lack of asthma control include misconceptions about disease control, low controller treatment adherence, poor inhaler technique, and the resulting underuse of controllers and overuse of short-acting beta2 agonists (SABAs). Narrowing these care gaps may be achieved through well-designed patient education that considers the patient’s motivation, beliefs, and capabilities regarding their asthma and its management and empowers the patient to become an active participant in treatment decisions. Digital health technologies (DHTs) and digital therapeutic (DT) devices provide new opportunities to monitor treatment behaviors, improve communication between healthcare providers and patients, and generate data that inform educational interactions. DHT and DT have been proven effective in enhancing patient self-management in other chronic conditions, particularly diabetes. Accelerated integration of DHT and DT into the management of asthma patients is facilitated by the use of digital inhalers that employ sensor technology (“smart” inhalers). These devices efficiently provide real-time feedback on controller adherence, SABA use, and inhaler technique that have the strong potential to optimize asthma control.
Luminance-contrast transfer based fusion algorithm for infrared and color visible images

With the particular research on infrared and color visible images,a color image fusion algorithm based on Luminance-contrast Transfer(LCT) technique is presented.Firstly,the method employs a grayscale fusion approach to fuse the infrared image and the luminance component of the color visible image.Then,it uses the LCT technique to improve the luminance and contrast of the grayscale fused result.Finally,the color fused image is generated directly in the RGB space with the fast YCBCR transform fusion scheme.Two different strategies which employ the pixel averaging fusion approach and the multiresolution fusion approach as the grayscale fusion solution are proposed to implement the high real-time and high fusion quality,respectively.Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can produce a color fused image not only with the natural color appearance similar as that of the input color visible image,but with pleasing luminance and contrast,and can also provide a good result even using the pixel averaging scheme to implement the grayscale fusion.
Microbial community assembly and functional profiles along the soil-root continuum of salt-tolerant Suaeda glauca and Suaeda salsa

Developing and planting salt-tolerant plants has become a promising way to utilize saline-alkali land resources and ensure food security. Root-associated microbes of salt-tolerant plants have been shown to promote plant growth and alleviate high salt stress, yet very little is known about the salt resistance mechanisms of core microbes in different niches. This study characterized the microbial community structures, assembly processes, and functional profiles in four root-related compartments of two salt-tolerant plants by amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. The results showed that both plants significantly altered the microbial community structure of saline soils, with greater microbial alpha diversity in the rhizosphere or rhizoplane compared with bulk soils. Stochastic process dominated the microbial assembly processes, and the impact was stronger in Suaeda salsa than in S. glauca, indicating that S. salsa may have stronger resistance abilities to changing soil properties. Keystone species, such as Pseudomonas in the endosphere of S. glauca and Sphingomonas in the endosphere of S. salsa, which may play key roles in helping plants alleviate salt stress, were identified by using microbial co-occurrence network analysis. Furthermore, the microbiomes in the rhizoplane soils had more abundant genes involved in promoting growth of plants and defending against salt stress than those in bulk soils, especially in salt-tolerant S. salsa. Moreover, microbes in the rhizoplane of S. salsa exhibited higher functional diversities, with notable enrichment of genes involved in carbon fixation, dissimilar nitrate reduction to ammonium, and sulfite oxidation. These findings revealed differences and similarities in the microbial community assembly, functional profiles and keystone species closely related to salt alleviation of the two salt-tolerant plants. Overall, our study provides new insights into the ecological functions and varied strategies of rhizosphere microbes in different plants under salt stress and highlights the potential use of keystone microbes for enhancing salt resistance of plants.
The Status of the Persian Leopard in Bamu National Park, Iran

The Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor is the largest member of eight felid species surviving today in Iran, after the extinction of the Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica and the Caspian tiger Panthera tigris virgata in the past 70 years. The stronghold of this endangered subspecies is Iran. Over the past 25 years the Persian leopard was exterminated in many areas of its global range and in the others its numbers have plummeted. Bamu National Park (BNP) has long been one of the best habitats for the subspecies in southern Iran, but leopards there face severe threats nowadays.
Numerical Study on the Estimation of the Shut-in Pressure in Hydraulic Fracturing Test

ABSTRACT A definite shut-in pressure in hydraulic fracturing techniques is needed for obtaining the correct information on the in-situ stress regimes in rock masses. The relation between the behaviour of hydraulically induced fractures and the condition of remote stress is considered to be major reasons of an ambiguous shut-in pressure in hydraulic fracturing pressure-time history curves. This paper describes the results of a series of numerical analyses carried out using UDEC (Universal Distinct Element Code, Itasca), which is based on the discrete element method, to compare several methods for determining the shut-in pressure during hydraulic fracturing. The fully coupled hydraulic and mechanical analysis was applied, and the effects of four different discontinuity geometries in numerical modelling have been investigated for this purpose. The effects of different remote stress regimes and different physical properties on hydraulic fracture propagation have been also analyzed. Several methods for obtaining shut-in pressure from the ambiguous shut-in curves have been applied to all the numerical models. The graphical intersection methods, such as (P vs. t) method, (P vs. log(t)) method, (log(P) vs. log(t)) method, give smaller values of the shut-in pressure than the statistical method, (dP/dt vs. P). Care should be taken in selecting a method for shut-in pressure, because there can exist a stress anomaly around the wellbore and fracturing from the wellbore by a constant flow rate may have a more complicate mechanism.
Unveiling Disrupted Lipid Metabolism in Benign Prostate Hyperplasia, Prostate Cancer, and Metastatic Patients: Insights from a Colombian Nested Case–Control Study

Simple Summary Prostate cancer represents a substantial global health issue, and its intricacies continue to pose challenges for complete comprehension. In this study, an untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic approach was employed to analyze plasma samples obtained from patients diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer (PCa), and metastatic prostate cancer (Met). The results revealed significant changes in lipid metabolism when comparing patients with prostate cancer to those with benign prostatic hyperplasia and patients with metastasis. These findings support the fundamental importance of lipid metabolism in the development and progression of prostate cancer. Abstract Prostate cancer is a significant global health concern, and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. Despite extensive research efforts, the complexity of the disease remains challenging with respect to fully understanding it. Metabolomics has emerged as a powerful approach to understanding prostate cancer by assessing comprehensive metabolite profiles in biological samples. In this study, metabolic profiles of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer (PCa), and metastatic prostate cancer (Met) were characterized using an untargeted approach that included metabolomics and lipidomics via liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry. Comparative analysis among these groups revealed distinct metabolic profiles, primarily associated with lipid biosynthetic pathways, such as biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, fatty acid degradation and elongation, and sphingolipid and linoleic acid metabolism. PCa patients showed lower levels of amino acids, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, and carnitines compared to BPH patients. Compared to Met patients, PCa patients had reduced metabolites in the glycerolipid, glycerophospholipid, and sphingolipid groups, along with increased amino acids and carbohydrates. These altered metabolic profiles provide insights into the underlying pathways of prostate cancer’s progression, potentially aiding the development of new diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies.
Authentic Leadership on Work Engagement with Psychological Capital as a Mediating Variable

The purpose of this study was to test and analyze: (1) the effect of authentic leadership on work engagement (2) the effect of authentic leadership on psychological capital (3) the effect of psychological capital on work engagement (4) the effect of authentic leadership on work engagement through psychological capital. This research is causal research. The population of this study were all employees in the finance department of PT SP Manufacturing Padang City with a total of 46 people. The sampling technique was taken using total sampling with the number of samples equal to the population of 46 people. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire using a Likert scale. Data analysis was carried out using SmartPLS 4 software. The findings obtained from data processing in this study reveal that: (1) authentic leadership has a positive and significant effect on work engagement in the finance department employees of PT SP Manufacturing Padang City (2) authentic leadership has a positive and significant effect on psychological capital in the finance department employees of PT SP Manufacturing Padang City (3) psychological capital has a positive and significant effect on work engagement in the finance department employees of PT SP Manufacturing Padang City (4) authentic leadership has a positive and significant effect on work engagement through psychological capital in the finance department employees of PT SP Manufacturing Padang City.