Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-Omics Analyses Unravel Metabolic and Transcriptional Differences in Tender Shoots from Two Sechium edule Varieties

Chaylte vine, the tender shoot of Sechium edule, is popular among vegetable consumers because of its high nutritional content, crisp texture, and unique flavor. Existing studies on the nutrient composition of chaylte vines are mostly simple chemical determinations, which have limited the breeding of specialized cultivars and the development of related industries. Using metabolomics combined with transcriptomics, this study analyzed the metabolic characteristics and related molecular mechanisms of two common varieties of chaylte vines: green-skinned (SG) and white-skinned (SW). Between the two varieties, a total of 277 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) and 739 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Furthermore, chemical assays demonstrated that the SW exhibited a higher total flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity. In conclusion, it was found that the SG samples exhibited a higher diversity of flavonoid subclasses compared to the SW samples, despite having a lower total flavonoid content. This inconsistent finding was likely due to the differential expression of the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and chalcone synthase (CHS) genes in the two varieties. These results laid the foundation for investigating the mechanisms involved in flavonoid regulation and the breeding of specialized S. edule cultivars for chaylte vine production.
What Drives Land Sales and Rentals in Rural Africa: Evidence from Western Burkina Faso

(english) This paper examines the conditions of emergence of agricultural land markets in the cotton zone of Burkina Faso. I use census data obtained from 454 villages in the Hauts-Bassins region, to estimate the determinants of activity in land sales and rental markets, focusing on the effect of internal in-migration. After controlling for the endogeneity of in-migration using instrumental variables, the results show a significant and positive impact of in-migration on the probability of rentals of agricultural land at the village level. The results also show that the eradication of river blindness in the study area, and rainfall shocks in migrant origin provinces are important determinants of in-migration in this part of Burkina Faso. Furthermore, I find a positive impact of urban proximity on both land sales and rental market activity. These findings suggest that heterogeneity in land endowment and access to (input and output) markets play a crucial role in the emergence of land markets in Western Burkina Faso. _________________________________ (francais) Cet article examine les conditions d’emergence des marches fonciers ruraux dans la region des Hauts-Bassins dans la zone cotonniere du Burkina Faso. J’utilise des donnees de recensement sur 454 villages de la region combinees avec des donnees geo-referencees pour estimer l’impact de la migration sur les ventes et locations de terres agricoles. La premiere contribution de ce papier est de corriger du biais d’endogeneite de la migration en utilisant des variables instrumentales, a savoir les chocs de precipitations dans les regions d’origine des migrants, et la participation au programme de lutte contre l’onchocercose (PLO) lance en 1974 par l’Organisation mondiale de la Sante. En recourant a cette approche par variables instrumentales, je trouve que l’augmentation de la part des migrants dans les villages a un impact positif sur la probabilite d’avoir un marche foncier actif a la location et a la vente. Ces resultats suggerent que la rarete de la terre n’est pas le principal determinant des ventes et locations de terres agricoles; les differences de dotations en terres jouent un role important dans l’emergence et le developpement des marches fonciers.
A Novel 4-Bit U-Shaped Chipless Flexible Substrate RFID Sensor Sensing Characterization Study

Technical method for strain detection using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is characterized by flexibility, low cost and high intelligence. The traditional planar-based rigid sensing antennas are basically made of rigid substrates, which have the disadvantages of poor surface fit and flexibility, so flexible electronics are gradually applied in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) to solve the challenge of non-planar deformation monitoring. In this paper, we propose a flexible reconfigurable strain-gauge RFID sensor with an encoding capability of 4 bits. The encoding structure is based on a coupled U-shaped resonator with strain resonance in the UHF RFID frequency band from 0–4 GHz. Reconfigurability is achieved by introducing a diode with modulated bandstop filtering in the resonator. The proposed antenna uses an FPCB board with total dimensions of 100 mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times71.4$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times0.508$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm. It is subjected to thermal stability experiments, four-point bending strain and strain monitoring inside concrete, and the simulation and measurement results verify the feasibility of the design. This is important for realizing high-performance integrated strain monitoring in structural health monitoring using RFID technology.
Low-Latency PAE: Permutation-Based Address Encryption Hardware Engine for IoT Real-Time Memory Protection

In Internet of Things (IoT) endpoint devices, some data or address ciphers are used for real-time memory protection to mitigate some side-channel attacks against memories. To better meet the requirements of real-time memory protection, this article proposes a hardware engine of permutation-based address encryption (PAE) to implement memory address encryption with flexible width adaptation, low latency, and low hardware overhead. When evaluated with TSMC’s 40-nm standard CMOS technology, PAE features lightweight characteristics with a gate count of 0.589 KGates, which is only 0.37% of advanced encryption standard (AES) and 33.50% of address cipher Galois field encryption (GF-Enc). The security of PAE in memory protection is quantitatively proven through both logic cryptanalysis and side-channel attacks. The results show that PAE performs effective mitigation in some side-channel attacks and provides better security than other address ciphers in resisting the brute-force attack, chosen-plaintext attack, and the differential attack. A RISC-V system with PAE and AES is deployed on an field-programmable gate array platform to analyze the impact on performance. The evaluation data show that PAE has no impact on system throughput in the case analysis, while AES reduces system throughput by 89.47%.
Isolation, Evaluation, and In-Vitro Characterization of Lactobacillus Isolated from Traditional Fermented Food Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana) Batter for Their Probiotic Attributes

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate and characterize lactic acid bacteria for their probiotic attributes from traditional fermented food, Finger millet batter, and to explore the ability of probiotic lactic acid bacteria to inhibit food borne pathogens. Among all 40 isolates, five bioactive isolates Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MYSRD57, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei MYSRD68, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MYSDS3, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MYSDS4 and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum MYSDVN3 with best probiotic attributes were selected and presented in this study. The antimicrobial efficacy of Lactobacillus and their cell free supernatant were effective in controlling pathogens all the foodborne pathogens in vitro. Furthermore, these strains exhibited important probiotic characteristics, such as antibiotics susceptibility, anti-hemolytic activity, tolerance to acidic pH, phenol, sodium chloride, 0.3% bile and survival ability at different temperatures. All the strains were also exhibited high auto-aggregation and cell surface hydrophobicity. Therefore, our findings demonstrated important probiotic features of lactic acid bacteria , while inhibiting multiple pathogens, suggesting possible applications of these potential probiotics strains.
Molecular Regulatory Mechanism of Exogenous Hydrogen Sulfide in Alleviating Low-Temperature Stress in Pepper Seedlings

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is sensitive to low temperatures, with low-temperature stress affecting its plant growth, yield, and quality. In this study, we analyzed the effects of exogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on pepper seedlings subjected to low-temperature stress. Exogenous H2S increased the content of endogenous H2S and its synthetase activity, enhanced the antioxidant capacity of membrane lipids, and protected the integrity of the membrane system. Exogenous H2S also promoted the Calvin cycle to protect the integrity of photosynthetic organs; enhanced the photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), and photosynthesis; and reduced the intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci). Moreover, the activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and anti-cyclic glutathione (ASA-GSH) oxidase were improved to decompose excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), enhance the oxidative stress and detoxification ability of pepper seedlings, and improve the resistance to low-temperature chilling injury in ‘Long Yun2’ pepper seedlings. In addition, the H2S scavenger hypotaurine (HT) aggravated the ROS imbalance by reducing the endogenous H2S content, partially eliminating the beneficial effects of H2S on the oxidative stress and antioxidant defense system, indicating that H2S can effectively alleviate the damage of low temperature on pepper seedlings. The results of transcriptome analysis showed that H2S could induce the MAPK-signaling pathway and plant hormone signal transduction; upregulate the expression of transcription factors WRKY22 and PTI6; induce defense genes; and activate the ethylene and gibberellin synthesis receptors ERF1, GDI2, and DELLA, enhancing the resistance to low-temperature chilling injury of pepper seedlings. The plant–pathogen interaction was also significantly enriched, suggesting that exogenous H2S also promotes the expression of genes related to plant–pathogen interaction. The results of this study provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms and genetic modifications of H2S that mitigate the hypothermic response.
The Neuroscience of Team Dynamics: Exploring Neurophysiological Measures for Assessing Team Performance

Assessment of team performance has become increasingly important in recent years, prompting the exploration of innovative approaches to enhance our understanding of the underlying cognitive and neural processes involved. This review examines the application of neuroimaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and other brain imaging techniques in assessing team performance. It specifically emphasises the investigation of team aspects using neuroimaging techniques and their relationship to teamwork. By conducting a thorough analysis of the literature, the review highlights the unique capabilities, advantages, and limitations of brain imaging techniques. It also explores different research paradigms, including simulated tasks and real-world team interactions, to provide insights into the methodological landscape of studying team performance using neurophysiological measures. Moreover, the review underscores the significance of team aspects such as cooperation, workload, engagement, and decision-making, which have been investigated through neuroimaging techniques. By synthesising existing research, the review identifies associations between neurophysiological measures and specific indicators of team performance, shedding light on the underlying neural mechanisms that contribute to effective teamwork. Overall, this review highlights the value of neurophysiological measures in assessing team performance, emphasising the exploration of team aspects using neuroimaging techniques and identifying future research directions to advance our understanding of team dynamics and optimise performance in various domains.
Time Perception and Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Preliminary Study

Background and Purpose Episodic memory is a system that receives and stores information about temporally dated episodes and their interrelations. Our study aimed to investigate the relevance of episodic memory to time perception, with a specific focus on simultaneity/order judgment. Methods Experiment 1 employed the simultaneity judgment task to discern differences in time perception between patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and age-matched normals. A mathematical analysis capable of estimating subjects’ time processing was utilized to identify the sensory and decisional components of temporal order and simultaneity judgment. Experiment 2 examined how differences in temporal perception relate to performance in temporal order memory, in which time delays play a critical role. Results The temporal decision windows for both temporal order and simultaneity judgments exhibited marginal differences between patients with episodic memory impairment, and their healthy counterparts (p = 0.15, t(22) = 1.34). These temporal decision windows may be linked to the temporal separation of events in episodic memory (Pearson’s ρ = −0.53, p = 0.05). Conclusions Based on our findings, the frequency of visual events accumulated and encoded in the working memory system in the patients’ and normal group appears to be approximately (5.7 and 11.2) Hz, respectively. According to the internal clock model, a lower frequency of event pulses tends to result in underestimation of event duration, which phenomenon might be linked to the observed time distortions in patients with dementia.
Multi-year simulation of Mediterranean forest transpiration by the integration of NOAA-AVHRR and ancillary data

The estimation of transpiration fluxes through wide vegetated land surfaces is of great importance for the proper planning and management of environmental resources, particularly in areas where water is a main limiting factor during at least part of the growing cycle. While remotely sensed techniques cannot directly measure these fluxes, they can provide useful information on vegetation variables such as Leaf Area Index (LAI), which are functionally related to the mentioned processes. The aims of the present work were: (a) to illustrate the use of multi-temporal LAI profiles derived from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data as input for a biogeochemical model (Forest-BGC) which simulates the main processes of forest vegetation (transpiration and photosynthesis); and (b) to analyse the sensitivity of the calibrated model to its main driving variables (meteorological data and NDVI-derived LAI profiles) in order to assess their relative importance for operational transpiration monitoring. In particular, the model was applied to two oak stands in the Tuscany Region (central Italy), which are representative of Mediterranean forests and for which a calibration phase had already been performed. Simulations were carried out for a 15-year period (1986–2000) using as inputs daily meteorological data and NDVI-derived monthly LAI profiles. The sensitivity of the model to both input types was then assessed through other model runs with fixed values of the two variables. The results of these experiments indicated that the remotely sensed LAI estimates are the main determinant of simulated transpirations, especially during the Mediterranean arid season (summer) when water resources are the primary limiting factor for vegetation development.
Potencializando a classificação de imagens com eficiência e robustez através da FiberNet.

Um modelo baseado em CNN que utiliza umpequeno número de parâmetros treináveis pode trazer váriosbenefícios importantes para diferentes domínios deaplicação. Entre eles, podemos mencionar o processo detreinamento mais rápido, o que significa que suaimplementação pode ser feita de forma mais eficiente erápida. Além deste, nós podemos citar também a reduçãosignificativa na probabilidade de overfitting e a redução noconsumo dos recursos computacionais necessários para aexecução, o que pode ser muito útil em sistemas embarcadose outros dispositivos com hardware limitado. Portanto, nesteartigo, nós propomos o modelo FiberNet, que é uma redeneural convolucional (CNN) simples e eficiente que produzum pequeno número de parâmetros treináveis e altavelocidade de inferência. O objetivo principal é fornecer umaalternativa eficiente para aplicações móveis, bem comoaplicações que requerem modelos compactos. Para avaliar aeficácia da FiberNet, nós realizamos um estudo empíricocomparativo entre os resultados do nosso modelo e oresultado de outros modelos que são considerados como oestado da arte. Essa comparação foi realizada em doisconjuntos de dados de imagens diferentes, um dos quais é oconhecido conjunto de dados CIFAR10. Como resultado, omodelo FiberNet obteve uma precisão de 96,25% noconjunto de dados Sisal, 74,90% no conjunto de dadosCIFAR10 e foi o primeiro em total de parâmetros treináveiscom 754.345 (39,57% menor em relação ao segundocolocado)
Parametric Analysis of Horizontal Static and Dynamic Behavior in Different Types of Masonry Structures

This article introduces the "Pre-seismic Survey Form for Masonry" (PRISM), a simplified tool for evaluating masonry structures. It aims to be user-friendly for both experienced surveyors and beginners. The primary objective is to develop PRISM as an efficient means of gathering relevant data that influences the diverse behaviors exhibited by masonry structures, covering both structural and non-structural aspects. PRISM's development involves a parametric method for identifying critical parameters by analyzing drift results from the response spectrum and horizontal static analyses. These analyses are performed on common masonry structures in European Mediterranean nations. The study investigates various factors, including facade openings, materials around openings, wall thickness, ground type, ground acceleration (g), and principal structural material. By examining 300 2D models created in SAP2000, correlations in structural responses are established. The findings of the parametric analysis significantly enrich the qualitative and quantitative comprehension of structural responses. This advancement contributes to the contemporary knowledge of prevalent masonry structures within European Mediterranean regions. The PRISM survey form employs a numeric rating scale format. Notably, PRISM enables surveyors to access field results, minimizing reliance on computers quickly. The form's design also ensures accessibility and data reliability, making it universally applicable while maintaining simplicity. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-10-015 Full Text: PDF
Two approaches to compute unsteady compressible two-phase flow models with stiff relaxation terms

The paper deals with the numerical modeling of two-phase flows while using Baer-Nunziato type models. Focus is given here on the numerical treatment of source terms that involve three (or four) relaxation time scales. A new coupled approach relying on the continuous analysis of the system of ODEs is compared with a more widely used strategy grounded on the fractional step approach. Properties of schemes are given in both cases. Several numerical applications show that the coupled approach should be prefered for both stability and accuracy reasons.
ISP Agent: A Generalized In-Storage-Processing Workload Offloading Framework by Providing Multiple Optimization Opportunities

As solid-state drives (SSDs) with sufficient computing power have recently become the dominant devices in modern computer systems, in-storage processing (ISP), which processes data within the storage without transferring it to the host memory, is being utilized in various emerging applications. The main challenge of ISP is to deliver storage data to the offloaded workload. This is difficult because of the information gap between the host and storage, the data consistency problem between the host and offloaded workloads, and SSD-specific hardware limitations. Moreover, because the offloaded workloads use internal SSD resources, host I/O performance might be degraded due to resource conflicts. Although several ISP frameworks have been proposed, existing ISP approaches that do not deeply consider the internal SSD behavior are often insufficient to support efficient ISP workload offloading with high programmability. In this paper, we propose an ISP agent, a lightweight ISP workload offloading framework for SSD devices. The ISP agent provides I/O and memory interfaces that allow users to run existing function codes on SSDs without major code modifications, and separates the resources for the offloaded workloads from the existing SSD firmware to minimize interference with host I/O processing. The ISP agent also provides further optimization opportunities for the offloaded workload by considering SSD architectures. We have implemented the ISP agent on the OpenSSD Cosmos+ board and evaluated its performance using synthetic benchmarks and a real-world ISP-assisted database checkpointing application. The experimental results demonstrate that the ISP agent enhances host application performance while increasing ISP programmability, and that the optimization opportunities provided by the ISP agent can significantly improve ISP-side performance without compromising host I/O processing.
Extracting Earth's Elastic Wave Response from Noise Measurements

Recent research has shown that noise can be turned from a nuisance into a useful seismic source. In seismology and other fields in science and engineering, the estimation of the system response from noise measurements has proven to be a powerful technique. To convey the essence of the method, we first treat the simplest case of a homogeneous medium to show how noise measurements can be used to estimate waves that propagate between sensors. We provide an overview of physics research—dating back more than 100 years—showing that random field fluctuations contain information about the system response. This principle has found extensive use in surface-wave seismology but can also be applied to the estimation of body waves. Because noise provides continuous illumination of the subsurface, the extracted response is ideally suited for time-lapse monitoring. We present examples of time-lapse monitoring as applied to the softening of soil after the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, the detection of a precursor to a landslide, and temporal changes in the lunar soil.
The Role of Antibody-Based Therapies in Neuro-Oncology

This review explores the evolving landscape of antibody-based therapies in neuro-oncology, in particular, immune checkpoint inhibitors and immunomodulatory antibodies. We discuss their mechanisms of action, blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration, and experience in neuro-oncological conditions. Evidence from recent trials indicates that while these therapies can modulate the tumor immune microenvironment, their clinical benefits remain uncertain, largely due to challenges with BBB penetration and tumor-derived immunosuppression. This review also examines emerging targets such as TIGIT and LAG3, the potential of antibodies in modulating the myeloid compartment, and tumor-specific targets for monoclonal antibody therapy. We further delve into advanced strategies such as antibody–drug conjugates and bispecific T cell engagers. Lastly, we explore innovative techniques being investigated to enhance antibody delivery, including CAR T cell therapy. Despite current limitations, these therapies hold significant therapeutic potential for neuro-oncology. Future research should focus on optimizing antibody delivery to the CNS, identifying novel biological targets, and discovering combination therapies to address the hostile tumor microenvironment.