Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of microRNA158 from Anthurium andraeanum and Its Function in Cold Stress Tolerance

Anthurium andraeanum is a tropical flower with high ornamental and economic value. Cold stress is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting the quality and value of A. andraeanum; thus, improving the cold tolerance of this species is an important breeding objective. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have a critical role in plant abiotic stress responses, but their specific molecular regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown, including those related to the cold stress response in A. andraeanum. Here, we identified and cloned the precursor of miR158 from A. andraeanum (Aa-miR158). Both Aa-miR158 and its target gene (c48247) had higher expression levels in strong leaves than in other tissues or organs. Further study revealed that the transcript level of Aa-miR158 was increased by cold stress. Heterologous overexpression of Aa-miR158 improved cold stress tolerance in Arabidopsis, which was associated with decreases in the malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and relative electrical conductivity (REC) as well as increases in peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activity. Moreover, overexpressing Aa-miR158 significantly increased the expression of endogenous genes related to cold stress tolerance and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in transgenic Arabidopsis under cold stress. Overall, our results demonstrate that Aa-miR158 is significantly involved in the cold stress response and provide a new strategy for cold tolerance breeding of A. andraeanum.
Preparation, Characterization, Wound Healing, and Cytotoxicity Assay of PEGylated Nanophytosomes Loaded with 6-Gingerol

Background: Nutrients are widely used for treating illnesses in traditional medicine. Ginger has long been used in folk medicine to treat motion sickness and other minor health disorders. Chronic non-healing wounds might elicit an inflammation response and cancerous mutation. Few clinical studies have investigated 6-gingerol’s wound-healing activity due to its poor pharmacokinetic properties. However, nanotechnology can deliver 6-gingerol while possibly enhancing these properties. Our study aimed to develop a nanophytosome system loaded with 6-gingerol molecules to investigate the delivery system’s influence on wound healing and anti-cancer activities. Methods: We adopted the thin-film hydration method to synthesize nanophytosomes. We used lipids in a ratio of 70:25:5 for DOPC(dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine): cholesterol: DSPE/PEG2000, respectively. We loaded the 6-gingerol molecules in a concentration of 1.67 mg/mL and achieved size reduction via the extrusion technique. We determined cytotoxicity using lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer cell lines. We performed gene expression of inflammation markers and cytokines according to international protocols. Results: The synthesized nanophytosome particle sizes were 150.16 ± 1.65, the total charge was −13.36 ± 1.266, and the polydispersity index was 0.060 ± 0.050. Transmission electron microscopy determined the synthesized particles’ spherical shape and uniform size. The encapsulation efficiency was 34.54% ± 0.035. Our biological tests showed that 6-gingerol nanophytosomes displayed selective antiproliferative activity, considerable downregulation of inflammatory markers and cytokines, and an enhanced wound-healing process. Conclusions: Our results confirm the anti-cancer activity of PEGylated nanophytosome 6-gingerol, with superior activity exhibited in accelerating wound healing.
Interplanetary gas. XXII - Interaction of comet Kohoutek's ion tail with the compression region of a solar-wind corotating stream

An apparently successful identification of a comet-tail feature with a solar-wind event is presented. Photographs of comet Kohoutek 1973f show a large-scale disturbance in the middle and outer regions of the ion tail early on January 20 of 1974. On the previous and succeeding days the comet had, however, a 'normal' and less active appearance. The peculiar tail structure is linked to an encounter with rapidly changing solar-wind conditions on the forward edge of the high-velocity solar-wind stream which encountered the earth late on January 24. The stream produced a geomagnetic storm of the recurrent type. The high-speed stream appears to have been associated with a large near-equatorial coronal hole which underwent central meridian passage on January 22. It is proposed that the comet was in the compression region on the stream forward edge at the time of formation of the tail disturbance. The accuracy of the time delays is actually tested by an application of the wind shock theory of ionic tail orientations.
Dry Etching Characteristics of AlGaN/GaN Heterostructures Using Inductively Coupled H2/Cl2, Ar/Cl2 and BCl3/Cl2 Plasmas

In this paper, the etching properties of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures were studied by using inductively coupled H2/Cl2, Ar/Cl2 and BCl3/Cl2 plasmas. Atomic force microscope (AFM) measurement showed that distinct surface morphology were obtained using different gas chemistries. Ultra-smooth etched surface with the root-mean-square roughness of 0.851 nm has been achieved using BCl3/Cl2 chemistry, which is the best result for the etching of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) to our knowledge. Surface analysis was then performed to understand the etching characteristics by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). We find that the effective removal of oxygen from the etched surface of AlGaN layer during the etching process was a crucial factor in enhancing the surface morphology of the etched samples.
Variational methods applied to the study of symmetric flows in laval nozzles

An existence theorem for a subsonic syrmnetric potential flow of a compressible fluid in a syrmnetric plane channel with convex boundaries is obtained by means of solving a variational inequality in the hodograph plane The method used may be applied to obtain existence theorems for other plane flow problems.
B4GALT1 as a New Biomarker of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disease characterized by progressive scarring of the lung that involves the pulmonary interstitium. The disease may rapidly progress, leading to respiratory failure, and the long-term survival is poor. There are no accurate biomarkers available so far. Our aim was to evaluate the expression of the B4GALT1 in patients with IPF. Analysis of B4GALT1 gene expression was performed in silico on two gene sets, retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Expression of B4GALT1 was then evaluated, both at the mRNA and protein levels, on lung specimens obtained from lung biopsies of 4 IPF patients, on one IPF-derived human primary cell and on 11 cases of IPF associated with cancer. In silico re-analysis demonstrated that the B4GALT1 gene was overexpressed in patients and human cell cultures with IPF (p = 0.03). Network analysis demonstrated that B4GALT1 upregulation was correlated with genes belonging to the EMT pathway (p = 0.01). The overexpression of B4GALT1 was observed, both at mRNA and protein levels, in lung biopsies of our four IPF patients and in the IPF-derived human primary cell, in other fibrotic non-lung tissues, and in IPF associated with cancer. In conclusion, our results indicate that B4GALT1 is overexpressed in IPF and could represent a novel marker of this disease.
CCD Photometry and Optical Variability of Gamma-Ray-loud BL Lacertae Object OJ 287 in a Low, Fainter State

We present optical photometry (V, R, and I) of the BL Lac object OJ 287 (0851+203, z = 0.306), which was observed in a low, fainter state with the 1 m telescope at Yunnan Astronomical Observatory. Our results show significant short-term variability in the R band over 31 minutes. We find a strong correlation between the V - R color index and the magnitude in the R band. Our CCD photometry of OJ 287 is in good agreement with the prediction of Sillanpää and coworkers of an optical variability period of about 11.6 yr.
The Effect of Reynolds Number on Microfan Performance

Miniaturisation of modern electronics means that future compact electronic systems are likely to be too hot to be held in the users hand. Simultaneous increases in heat dissipation will also require the development of novel compact cooling technologies. In systems such as mobile phones and palmtop computers, macro scale fans cannot be used to overcome this problem, as they are too large. As a solution, the implementation of micro fan technology is proposed. Previous investigators have shown that reduction of the Reynolds number of turbomachinery results in reduced efficiency. To experimentally investigate this predicted phenomenon, a series of geometrically similar axial flow fans have been fabricated. These range in size from the macro to the micro scale with the Reynolds numbers varying linearly with fan dimensions. Through detailed Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements and pressure flow characterization of these fans, this investigation aims to quantify the reduction in efficiency, which occurs as the Reynolds number is reduced. This paper concludes that the extent to which fan efficiency is reduced by Reynolds number is in surprisingly good agreement with relatively simple predictions developed by the authors in previous investigations. Reduced Reynolds number was also seen to alter the velocity distribution at the fan outlet. This is an important point as it indicates a change in the physics of the flow with reducing scale.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
Dust acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized electron depleted superthermal dusty plasma

A theoretical investigation has been made on the oblique propagation of arbitrary dust-acoustic solitary waves in an electron depleted magnetized dusty plasma which consists of kappa distributed ions and negatively charged warm dust fluid. The electron number density is assumed to be sufficiently depleted owing to the electron attachment during the dust charging process, i.e., ne≪ni. The propagation properties of two possible modes (in the linear regime) are investigated. It is found that deviation of ions from thermodynamic equilibrium leads to a decrease of the phase velocity of both modes. A nonlinear pseudopotential approach is employed to derive an energy-like equation which admits to investigate the occurrence of stationary solitary wave solution for the propagation of arbitrary amplitude. The effects of superthermality, obliqueness, and external magnetic field on the existence domain and nature of these solitary waves are discussed. Only negative polarity of solitary waves is found to exist. It is .
Improved YOLOV3 Surveillance Device Object Detection Method Based on Federated Learning

In the process of smart city construction, a large number of video monitoring devices are used for urban security. However, these devices produce a large amount of monitoring data, which will make the task of retrieving specific goals difficult to achieve. At the same time, as people attach importance to privacy protection, it is difficult for data interaction between different enterprise devices. In this paper, in order to speed up the operation efficiency and break the data island of the IoT devices, we make the edge device of video surveillance for object detection based on federated learning, and improve YOLOv3. In order to simplify the model, Resnet50 is used to replace Darkent-53. We propose Multi-Dimensional and Multi-Scale (MDMS) feature pyramid to better use features to detect objects at different scales. We design the Improved OutLook Attention (IOA) module to make the network perform better in fine-grained feature. The final experimental results show that our network has greatly improved video surveillance object detection. Our method improves the mapping of the model and reduces the number of model parameters. The model size is compressed from 469.64 MB to 180.39 MB. However, the map is increased from 83.5% to 85.8%, which makes the video monitoring equipment more intelligent and enhances the ability of privacy protection.
Perceived legitimacy can moderate the effect of proscriptive versus prescriptive injunctions on intentions to comply with UK government COVID‐19 guidelines and reactance

Abstract Proscriptive injunctions (i.e., telling people what they should not do) have been found in research to elicit greater perceptions of a threat to freedom, and greater reactance (anger, irritation and annoyance), than prescriptive injunctions (i.e., telling people what they should do), across several health and social behaviors. The current research investigated the effects of Injunction Type (proscriptive vs. prescriptive) and perceived legitimacy of the injunction, on intentions to comply with UK government behavioral guidelines during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and on reactance. In two online experimental studies (Study 1: N = 142; Study 2: N = 307), UK participants were presented with information about UK government COVID‐19 guidelines that included either a proscriptive injunction or prescriptive injunction and reported their perceptions of the legitimacy of the injunction, their intentions to comply with government guidelines, and their reactance. In both Study 1 and Study 2, the effect of Injunction Type on intentions to comply and reactance was moderated by perceived legitimacy. In both studies, when perceived legitimacy was low, participants exposed to the proscriptive injunction indicated lower intentions to comply with UK government COVID‐19 guidelines than did participants exposed to the prescriptive injunction. The findings imply that using a prescriptive injunction frame can elicit greater intentions to comply than using a proscriptive injunction frame when people perceive the injunction to be unreasonable. The results are discussed in relation to the role of legitimacy in determining the effectiveness of different types of injunctions on compliance with rules and guidelines.
Gender role stereotypes at work in humanoid robots

ABSTRACT Research on gender role stereotypes activated in interactions with humanoid robots has yet to produce conclusive knowledge. To analyse how much, and in which way, gender role stereotypes used in interactions with humans are also called into play in interactions with humanoid robots, a study was conducted with 240 participants. The study was an online survey in which a scale was used for determining the appropriateness for performing four stereotypically masculine and four feminine by humans and robots. Overall, eight humanoid robots – four judged feminine and four masculine – were considered. Results showed that gender role stereotypes are activated for both genders, but men most strongly activate those pertaining to male roles. These stereotypes are also adopted in reference to humanoid robots, though robots are generally considered less suitable for performing female roles. Furthermore, an increased degree of similarity of robots to humans has a positive effect in assessing the appropriateness to perform female roles only for female robots. The same does not happen with male robots. These results suggest that male and female robots are not categorised in the same way. Robots are essentially perceived as male entities, a particularly relevant hypothesis for the gender-sensitive design of humanoid robots.
The Role of Empathic Traits in the Interaction With Virtual Humans

Nowadays, individuals experience social interactions largely via virtual reality, such as, virtual chat rooms, virtual social and gaming communities (e.g., Second life, World of Warcraft or the more recent Metaverse) and so forth. The venue of new live digital worlds poses new challenges for experts in the field of virtual reality and cognitive and social sciences: how users interact with virtual humans, and whether individual characteristics (e.g., empathy traits) could influence the way people treat virtual humans. To address this issue, here, participants were asked to complete the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (assessing empathic traits) and determine the interpersonal distance (i.e., comfort distance) from virtual humans (who exhibited happy, neutral, or angry facial expressions) while being approached (passive approach) or approached them (active approach). Results showed that overall, the distance was larger with angry virtual agents than the others. More importantly, the higher empathic concern the shorter the distance with happy and neutral virtual humans in the active approach condition; the higher the personal distress the larger the distance with happy and neutral virtual humans in the passive approach condition. These results suggest that individual empathic traits may modulate virtual social interactions affecting the way people treat and respond to virtual humans.
A POWER PENALTY METHOD FOR THE GENERAL TRAFFIC ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM WITH ELASTIC DEMAND

This paper established some new convergence results for the power penalty method for the nonlinear complementarity problem(NCP), and then applied the method to solve the general traffic assignment problem with elastic demand. The power penalty method approximates the NCP by a nonlinear equation containing a power penalty term. We prove that this method can handle general monotone NCPs. This result is important for the general traffic assignment problem with elastic demand because the associated NCP is often not $\xi$ monotone. This study considered the traffic assignment problem with symmetric and asymmetric link costs, as well as additive and non-additive route costs. We propose to use a column generation scheme based on the proposed power penalty method to solve this problem. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the method.
CRISPR-Cas System: A Tool to Eliminate Drug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria

Rapidly emerging drug-resistant superbugs, especially Gram-negative bacteria, pose a serious threat to healthcare systems all over the globe. Newer strategies are being developed to detect and overcome the arsenal of weapons that these bacteria possess. The development of antibiotics is time-consuming and may not provide full proof of action on evolving drug-resistant pathogens. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) systems are promising in curbing drug-resistant bacteria. This review focuses on the pathogenesis of Gram-negative bacteria, emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance, and their treatment failures. It also draws attention to the present status of the CRISPR-Cas system in diagnosisand treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections.
Study of an Automatic Picking Method for Multimode Dispersion Curves of Surface Waves Based on an Improved U-Net

Surface wave exploration has been increasingly used in near-surface geophysical investigations. However, the accuracy and efficiency of picking dispersion curves are the key to surface wave inversion. Traditional dispersion curve extraction requires manual picking, and the extraction accuracy and efficiency depend on the experience and knowledge of the interpreters. Therefore, developing a fast, high-precision, and intelligent dispersion curve extraction method is urgent. This article improves the structure and output of the U-Net neural network and regards the picking process of dispersion curves as an image classification problem, which quickly and accurately extracts dispersion curves from dispersion energy images. After combining the dispersion energy images of synthetic seismic data with the manually extracted dispersion curve and the theoretical dispersion curve obtained by the Schwab–Knopoff algorithm, the energy image and dispersion curve extracted manually (ICM) training set and the energy image and dispersion curve calculated by the Schwab–Knopoff algorithm (ICS) training set are created. The synthetic data tests verify the feasibility of the improved U-Net neural network for automatically picking multimode dispersion curves. The dispersion curve picking results corresponding to two different training sets reveal that the U-Net network model obtained from the ICS training sets exhibits better extraction accuracy. Additionally, we analyze the influence of the sample number of the training set on the dispersion curve picking effect of the improved U-Net and conclude that the improved U-Net network has the advantages of a low training set size requirement and a high dispersion curve extraction accuracy. Finally, the trained network extracts the dispersion curves of two groups of measured surface wave data and obtains plausible extraction results, further proving the proposed method’s effectiveness.
Global Unsupervised Assessment of Multifrequency Vegetation Optical Depth Sensitivity to Vegetation Cover

Vegetation optical depth (VOD) has contributed to monitor vegetation dynamics and carbon stocks at different microwave frequencies. Nevertheless, there is a need to determine which are the appropriate frequencies to monitor different vegetation types. Also, as only a few VOD-related studies use multifrequency approaches, it is needed to evaluate their applicability. Here, we analyze the sensitivity of VOD at three frequencies (L-, C-, and X-bands) to different vegetation covers by applying a global-scale unsupervised classification of VOD. A combination of these frequencies (LCX-VOD) is also studied. Two land cover datasets are used as benchmarks and, conceptually, serve as proxies of vegetation density. Results confirm that L-VOD is appropriate for monitoring the densest canopies but, in contrast, there is a higher sensitivity of X-, C-, and LCX-VOD to the vegetation cover in savannahs, shrublands, and grasslands. In particular, the multifrequency combination is the most suited to sense vegetation in savannahs. Also, our study shows a vegetation–frequency relationship that is consistent with theory: the same canopies (e.g., savannahs and some boreal forests) are classified as lighter ones at L-band due to its higher penetration (e.g., as shrublands), but labeled as denser ones at C- and X-bands due their saturation (e.g., boreal forests are labeled as tropical forests). This study complements quantitative approaches investigating the link between VOD and vegetation, extends them to different frequencies, and provides hints on which frequencies are suitable for vegetation monitoring depending on the land cover. Conclusions are informative for upcoming multifrequency missions, such as the Copernicus Multifrequency Image Radiometer.
Effect of cardiac rehabilitation on the nociceptive threshold increased of hypertensive subjects

Objectives: Hypertensive subjects have an increased nociceptive threshold, which may contribute to the pain perception reduction. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a cardiac rehabilitation program (CRP) on the increased nociceptive threshold of hypertensive subjects. Methods: Forty-one participants were divided into two groups: a normotensive group and hypertensive group. In both groups, the body mass index, abdominal circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, nociceptive threshold and functional capacity by six-minute walking test (6MWT) were evaluated. The CRP was composed of aerobic exercises on a treadmill for 30 min, 3 times a week for 7 weeks. Results: After the CRP, there was a reduction (p < 0.001) in the mechanical nociceptive threshold and an increase in the distance walked during the 6MWT (p < 0.001) in the hypertensive group. No differences were found in the body mass index between the groups. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggested that aerobic exercise is an important modality to normalize the nociceptive threshold and improved the functional capacity of the hypertensive subjects.