Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shaping agricultural innovation systems responsive to food insecurity and climate change

Climate change and variability present new challenges for agriculture, particularly for smallholder farmers who continue to be the mainstay of food production in developing countries. Recent global food crises have exposed the structural vulnerability of globalized agri‐food systems, highlighting climate change as just one of a complex set of environmental, demographic, social and economic drivers generating instability and food insecurity, the impacts of which disproportionately affect poorer groups in marginal environments. Rather than search for single causes, there is a need to understand these changes at a systemic level. Improved understanding of and engagement with the adaptive strategies and innovations of communities living in conditions of rapid change provides an appropriate starting point for those seeking to shape agricultural innovation systems responsive to food insecurity and climate change. This paper draws lessons from selected country experiences of adaptation and innovation in pursuit of food security goals. It reviews three cases of systems of innovation operating in contrasting regional, socio‐economic and agro‐ecological contexts, in terms of four features of innovation systems more likely to build, sustain or enhance food security in situations of rapid change: (i) recognition of the multifunctionality of agriculture and opportunities to realize multiple benefits; (ii) access to diversity as the basis for flexibility and resilience; (iii) concern for enhancing capacity of decision makers at all levels; and (iv) continuity of effort aimed at securing the well‐being of those who depend on agriculture. Finally, implications for policymakers and other stakeholders in agricultural innovation systems are presented.
New criteria for determining improved perforation patterns for variable-rate convolutional codes

This paper presents a new efficient algorithm for determining the perforation patterns yielding variable-rate convolutional coding schemes with improved performance. Given a particular code rate, the new criteria optimize the code for a specific bit error rate, compared to existing techniques searching codes with good asymptotical performance. As an example, the patterns to be used in ultra-wideband systems following the upcoming IEEE standard 802.15. 3a were evaluated for different error rates. The new patterns improve the performance of the currently suggested patterns by up to 0.4 dB without changing the structure and complexity of the encoder-decoder.
Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) hydroponic monitoring system based on wireless sensor network

Hydroponic is one of the farming method without soil, but it uses water that contain nutrition. Nutrient solution is very important to define the successful of hydroponic cultivation. One of hydroponic technique is Nutrient Film Technique (NFT). System NFT uses nutrient solution to drain on the root area. pH level which is good for lettuce is 6.0–6.5, meanwhile the Electrical Conductivity (EC) level which is suggested is 0.8–1.2. Factor of pH and EC need to monitor 24 hours during the growth period. Hydroponic system requires wide area. However, in urban areas, the hydroponic green house can't get a wide area only in one place. This system is used to solve the problem in the real time monitoring lettuce cultivation hydroponic NFT. The method in this system contains communication, planning, modelling, construction, and socialization. The result of experiment shows that pH sensor has an error level of difference is 0.4. There is an error of sensor Analog Electrical Conductivity Meter, that is 5.1 ms/cm.
Comparative Genomics of Multidrug Resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii

Acinetobacter baumannii is a species of nonfermentative gram-negative bacteria commonly found in water and soil. This organism was susceptible to most antibiotics in the 1970s. It has now become a major cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide due to its remarkable propensity to rapidly acquire resistance determinants to a wide range of antibacterial agents. Here we use a comparative genomic approach to identify the complete repertoire of resistance genes exhibited by the multidrug-resistant A. baumannii strain AYE, which is epidemic in France, as well as to investigate the mechanisms of their acquisition by comparison with the fully susceptible A. baumannii strain SDF, which is associated with human body lice. The assembly of the whole shotgun genome sequences of the strains AYE and SDF gave an estimated size of 3.9 and 3.2 Mb, respectively. A. baumannii strain AYE exhibits an 86-kb genomic region termed a resistance island—the largest identified to date—in which 45 resistance genes are clustered. At the homologous location, the SDF strain exhibits a 20 kb-genomic island flanked by transposases but devoid of resistance markers. Such a switching genomic structure might be a hotspot that could explain the rapid acquisition of resistance markers under antimicrobial pressure. Sequence similarity and phylogenetic analyses confirm that most of the resistance genes found in the A. baumannii strain AYE have been recently acquired from bacteria of the genera Pseudomonas, Salmonella, or Escherichia. This study also resulted in the discovery of 19 new putative resistance genes. Whole-genome sequencing appears to be a fast and efficient approach to the exhaustive identification of resistance genes in epidemic infectious agents of clinical significance.
Multiplex stress resistance in cells from long‐lived dwarf mice

Mutations that extend nematode longevity by interference with IGF‐I/insulin sensing pathways also lead to resistance to multiple forms of stress. Here, we report that skin‐derived fibroblasts from Snell dwarf mice, already known to show increased longevity and delayed aspects of aging, are resistant to multiple forms of cellular stress, including UV light, heat, paraquat, H2O2, and the toxic metal cadmium. The findings suggest that increases in cellular resistance to stress may mediate extended longevity in mammals.
Activation of the Adenosine A3 Receptor in RAW 264.7 Cells Inhibits Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Release by Reducing Calcium-Dependent Activation of Nuclear Factor-κB and Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 1/2

Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activates the immune system and promotes inflammation via Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, which regulates the synthesis and release of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and other inflammatory cytokines. Previous studies have shown that the nucleoside adenosine suppresses LPS-stimulated TNF-α release in human UB939 macrophages by activating an adenosine A3 receptor (A3AR) subtype on these cells. In this study, we examined the mechanism(s) underlying A3AR-dependent inhibition of TNF-α release in a mouse (RAW 264.7) cell line. Treatment of RAW 264.7 cells with LPS (3 μg/ml) increased TNF-α release, which was reduced in a dose-dependent manner by adenosine analogs N6-(3-iodobenzyl)-adenosine-5′-N-methyluronamide (IB-MECA) and R-phenylisopropyladenosine and reversed by selective A3AR blockade. The increase in TNF-α release was preceded by an increase in intracellular Ca2+ levels. Inhibition of intracellular Ca2+ release by IB-MECA, a selective agonist of the A3AR, or with BAPTA-AM, an intracellular Ca2+ chelator, reduced LPS-stimulated TNF-α release. Activation of the A3AR or inhibition of intracellular Ca2+ release also reduced LPS-stimulated nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation. Similar inhibition by A3AR was observed for LPS-stimulated inducible nitric-oxide synthase. These data support the contention that inhibition of LPS-stimulated release of inflammatory molecules, such as TNF-α and NO via the A3AR, involves suppression of intracellular Ca2+signaling, leading to suppression of NF-κB and ERK1/2 pathways.
Something more to say about calcium homeostasis: the role of vitamin K2 in vascular calcification and osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND Vascular calcification and osteoporosis share similar etiopathogenetic mechanisms. Vitamin K2 deficiency could be responsible of the so called "calcium paradox", that is the lack of calcium in the bone and its storage in the vessel wall. These events may have clinically relevant consequences, such as cardiovascular accidents, and bone fractures. AIM To review the biological function of vitamin K2 metabolism, the main factors related to its deficiency and the consequent clinical significance. DISCUSSION Vitamin K2 is essential for the function of several proteins, involved in the maintenance of the normal structure of arterial wall, osteoarticular system, teeth, and for the regulation of cell growth. It has been demonstrated to have a pivotal role in the inhibition of vascular foci of calcification, and in the regulation of calcium deposition in the bone. Vitamin K2 deficiency is often subclinic in a large part of healthy population. This deficiency is related to the interaction of various factors, such as the reduced dietary intake, the alteration of intestinal absorption or production, with a possible role of intestinal microbiota and the increased consumption at the vessel wall. CONCLUSIONS Vitamin K2 deficiency has recently been recognized as a protagonist in the development of vascular calcification and osteoporosis. Data reported so far are promising and, dietary supplementation seems a useful tool to contrast these diseases. However, large studies or solid clinical correlations regarding vitamin K2 deficiency and its pathologic consequences are needed to confirm these preliminary experiences.
An analysis of communication induced checkpointing

Communication induced checkpointing (CIC) allows processes in a distributed computation to take independent checkpoints and to avoid the domino effect. This paper presents an analysis of CIC protocols based on a prototype implementation and validated simulations. Our result indicate that there is sufficient evidence to suspect that much of the conventional wisdom about these protocols is questionable.
Sustainable land and water management : a GEF agenda for combating environmental degradation and promoting sustainable livelihoods

The place of land degradation in the range of global problems has been a matter for discussion and debate at least since the 1972 Conference on the Environment in Stockholm. It was the first world forum on environmental issues, and its agenda reflected what were regarded as ‘first world’ themes; acid rain, cross boundary pollution in international rivers, loss of tropical rainforest and international ocean issues. However, the developing countries (Group of 77) worked hard to bring desertification, as it was then coined, onto the world agenda. It was a time of severe drought in Africa and problems of land degradation were perceived as critical in many of the affected countries. Not only was desertification placed on the agenda but the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) became the first of the UN organizations to be located in a developing country. Its location in Kenya and the leadership of Mustafa Tolba kept land degradation high on the agenda for many years, with a particular focus on Africa. This volume reports on progress made since 2002 and charts the way forward for the GEF in this area. The material is largely from the special GEF Sustainable Land and Water Management Forum and its High Level Round Table held in conjunction with the third GEF Assembly.
Linking Bistable Dynamics to Metabolic P Systems

Bistability, or more generally multistability, is an important recurring theme in biological systems. In particular, the discovery of bistability in signal pathways of genetic networks, prompts strong interest in understanding both the design and function of these networks. Therefore, modelling these systems is crucial to understand their behaviors, and also to analyze and identify characteristics that would otherwise be difficult to realize. Although different classes of models have been used to study bistable dynamics, there is a lag in the development of models for bistable systems starting from experimental data. This is due to the lack of detailed knowledge of biochemical reactions and kinetic rates. In this work, we propose a procedure to develop, starting from observed dynamics, Metabolic P models for multistable processes. As a case study, a mathematical model of the Schlogel’s dynamics, which represents an example of a chemical reaction system that exhibits bistability, is inferred starting from observed stochastic bistable dynamics. Since, recent experiments indicate that noise plays an important role in the switching of bistable systems, the success of this work suggests that this approach is a very promising one for studying dynamics and role of noise in biological systems, such as, for example, genetic regulatory networks.
Whole-Genome Analysis Reveals That Active Heat Shock Factor Binding Sites Are Mostly Associated with Non-Heat Shock Genes in Drosophila melanogaster

During heat shock (HS) and other stresses, HS gene transcription in eukaryotes is up-regulated by the transcription factor heat shock factor (HSF). While the identities of the major HS genes have been known for more than 30 years, it has been suspected that HSF binds to numerous other genes and potentially regulates their transcription. In this study, we have used a chromatin immunoprecipitation and microarray (ChIP-chip) approach to identify 434 regions in the Drosophila genome that are bound by HSF. We have also performed a transcript analysis of heat shocked Kc167 cells and third instar larvae and compared them to HSF binding sites. The heat-induced transcription profiles were quite different between cells and larvae and surprisingly only about 10% of the genes associated with HSF binding sites show changed transcription. There were also genes that showed changes in transcript levels that did not appear to correlate with HSF binding sites. Analysis of the locations of the HSF binding sites revealed that 57% were contained within genes with approximately 2/3rds of these sites being in introns. We also found that the insulator protein, BEAF, has enriched binding prior to HS to promoters of genes that are bound by HSF upon HS but that are not transcriptionally induced during HS. When the genes associated with HSF binding sites in promoters were analyzed for gene ontology terms, categories such as stress response and transferase activity were enriched whereas analysis of genes having HSF binding sites in introns identified those categories plus ones related to developmental processes and reproduction. These results suggest that Drosophila HSF may be regulating many genes besides the known HS genes and that some of these genes may be regulated during non-stress conditions.
Creating green incentives and mechanisms through packet-level energy accounting

We explore the idea of accounting energy consumption of networks on packet-level. IP packets would collect the information of energy that they consumed at each hop and convey it further when travelling through the network. We describe a mechanism to do this accounting and analyze a few use cases including one where packets are given priorities based on how energy efficiently they have travelled the network. Our conclusion is that it would create incentives for Internet service providers (ISPs) to provide a more energy efficient service. In addition to creating incentives, the energy counters in packets could also be used in mechanisms to reduce the energy consumption. We also discuss the limitations and challenges in implementing and deploying such a scheme.
Succession of lignocellulolytic bacterial consortia bred anaerobically from lake sediment

Anaerobic bacteria degrade lignocellulose in various anoxic and organically rich environments, often in a syntrophic process. Anaerobic enrichments of bacterial communities on a recalcitrant lignocellulose source were studied combining polymerase chain reaction–denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and culturing. Three consortia were constructed using the microbiota of lake sediment as the starting inoculum and untreated switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) (acid or heat) or treated (with either acid or heat) as the sole source of carbonaceous compounds. Additionally, nitrate was used in order to limit sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. Bacterial growth took place, as evidenced from 3 to 4 log unit increases in the 16S rRNA gene copy numbers as well as direct cell counts through three transfers on cleaned and reused substrate placed in fresh mineral medium. After 2 days, Aeromonas bestiarum‐like organisms dominated the enrichments, irrespective of the substrate type. One month later, each substrate revealed major enrichments of organisms affiliated with different species of Clostridium. Moreover, only the heat‐treated substrate selected Dysgonomonas capnocytophagoides‐affiliated bacteria (Bacteroidetes). Towards the end of the experiment, members of the Proteobacteria (Aeromonas, Rhizobium and/or Serratia) became dominant in all three types of substrates. A total of 160 strains was isolated from the enrichments. Most of the strains tested (78%) were able to grow anaerobically on carboxymethyl cellulose and xylan. The final consortia yield attractive biological tools for the depolymerization of recalcitrant lignocellulosic materials and are proposed for the production of precursors of biofuels.
Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association and Difficult Airway Society guidelines for the management of difficult and failed tracheal intubation in obstetrics*

The Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association and Difficult Airway Society have developed the first national obstetric guidelines for the safe management of difficult and failed tracheal intubation during general anaesthesia. They comprise four algorithms and two tables. A master algorithm provides an overview. Algorithm 1 gives a framework on how to optimise a safe general anaesthetic technique in the obstetric patient, and emphasises: planning and multidisciplinary communication; how to prevent the rapid oxygen desaturation seen in pregnant women by advocating nasal oxygenation and mask ventilation immediately after induction; limiting intubation attempts to two; and consideration of early release of cricoid pressure if difficulties are encountered. Algorithm 2 summarises the management after declaring failed tracheal intubation with clear decision points, and encourages early insertion of a (preferably second‐generation) supraglottic airway device if appropriate. Algorithm 3 covers the management of the ‘can't intubate, can't oxygenate’ situation and emergency front‐of‐neck airway access, including the necessity for timely perimortem caesarean section if maternal oxygenation cannot be achieved. Table 1 gives a structure for assessing the individual factors relevant in the decision to awaken or proceed should intubation fail, which include: urgency related to maternal or fetal factors; seniority of the anaesthetist; obesity of the patient; surgical complexity; aspiration risk; potential difficulty with provision of alternative anaesthesia; and post‐induction airway device and airway patency. This decision should be considered by the team in advance of performing a general anaesthetic to make a provisional plan should failed intubation occur. The table is also intended to be used as a teaching tool to facilitate discussion and learning regarding the complex nature of decision‐making when faced with a failed intubation. Table 2 gives practical considerations of how to awaken or proceed with surgery. The background paper covers recommendations on drugs, new equipment, teaching and training.
Spatial Transferability of Vegetation Types in Distribution Models Based on Sample Surveys from an Alpine Region

Vegetation mapping using field surveys is expensive. Distribution modelling, based on sample surveys, might overcome this challenge. We tested if models trained from sample surveys could be used to predict the distribution of vegetation types in neighbourhood areas, and how reliable the spatial transferability was. We also tested whether we should use ecological dissimilarity or spatial distance to foresee modelling performance. Maximum entropy models were run for three vegetation types based on a vegetation map within a mountain range. Environmental variables were selected backwards, model complexity was kept low. The models are based on points from a small part of each study site, transferred into the entire sites, and then tested for performance. Environmental distance was tested using principle component analysis. All models had high uncorrected AUC values. The ability to predict presences correctly was low. The ability to predict absences correctly was high. The ability to transfer the distribution model depended on environmental distance, not spatial distance.
The role of verbal and nonverbal memory in the Family Pictures Subtest: Data from children with specific language impairment

This study examined the contribution of verbal and visual memory to performance on the Family Pictures subtest of the Children’s Memory Scale. This subtest purports to assess declarative memory functioning in the visual/nonverbal domain. A total of 115 nine-year-old children participated in this study. Fifty-eight had specific language impairment (SLI), whilst the remaining 57 were typically developing (TD), with no history of language difficulties. Results showed that the children with SLI, who had intact declarative memory for visual but not verbal information, obtained significantly lower scores on the Family Pictures subtest when compared to the TD group. Regression analyses revealed that across the entire sample, individual differences on the Family Pictures subtest was best predicted by a measure of verbal working memory. These results question whether the Family Pictures subtest can be considered a measure of visual memory in pediatric populations. These results have implications for the interpretation of scores on this subtest regarding the nature of the types of neurocognitive difficulties children may exhibit.
School of Computer Science

Carnegie Mellon founded one of the first Computer Science departments in the world in 1965. As research and teaching in computing grew at a tremendous pace at Carnegie Mellon, the university formed the School of Computer Science (SCS) at the end of 1988. Carnegie Mellon was one of the first universities to elevate Computer Science into its own academic college at the same level as the Mellon College of Science and the College of Engineering. Today, SCS consists of seven departments and institutes, including the Computer Science Department that started it all, along with the Computational Biology Department, the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, the Language Technologies Institute, the Machine Learning Department, the Robotics Institute and the Software and Societal Systems Department (formerly the Institute for Software Research). Together, these units make SCS a world leader in research and education. Over the last six years, SCS has launched four new primary undergraduate majors in Computational Biology, Artificial Intelligence (the first of its kind in the United States), Human-Computer Interaction, and Robotics. This year, we will launch a new primary major in Robotics. These new majors, along with the highly-ranked Computer Science major, give students in SCS distinct paths in the field of computing with ample opportunities in industry and advanced research.