Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prochlorococcus growth rates in the central equatorial Pacific: an application of the fmax approach

Minimum daily growth rates of Prochlorococcus were estimated for the central equatorial Pacific (12°S–12°N, 140°W) during El Nino (February-March 1992) and normal upwelling (August-September 1992) conditions. Growth rate estimates were based on the percentages of cells in the S and G2 division phases at dawn (∼0700 LT) and dusk (∼1800 LT) as approximate values for ƒmin and ƒmax, respectively. During both environmental conditions, depth-integrated growth rates of Prochlorococcus were higher in oligotrophic waters at the northern end of the transect (0.36–0.52 d−1) and decreased to a minimum at the equator. The lowest growth rates were found at the equator during El Nino and at 2°N during normal upwelling, where a large biomass of buoyant diatoms had accumulated in the vicinity of a convergent front. Prochlorococcus growth rate reached a high of 0.64 d−1 at 1°S and maintained a moderate rate (0.36–0.49 d−1) throughout the southern end of the transect. An inverse relationship was found between the contribution of Prochlorococcus to the total primary production and nitrate concentration as well as total primary production measured by the 14C method. While Prochlorococcus is a dominant primary producer in tropical and subtropical open-ocean ecosystems generally, it is relatively more important in oligotrophic waters than in the nutrient rich equatorial upwelling zone.
Atmospheric Ammonia Concentration Effects on Broiler Growth and Performance

SUMMARY Atmospheric NH3 in poultry facilities has been linked to damaged respiratory tract lining, reduced resistance to respiratory diseases, and increased ascites. Therefore, the effects of graded NH3 concentration (0, 30, 60 ppm) on performance, tracheal lesions, conjuctival lesion, ascites incidence, hematocrit (HCT), blood uric acid (BUR), and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were investigated using commercial broilers. Final body weight, feed consumption, and body weight gain were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected as NH3 concentration increased from 0 to 60 ppm. In contrast, gain to feed ratio was depressed (P = 0.05) at 60 ppm NH3. Right ventricular weight (RV), HCT, tracheal lesions, and pulmonary lesions increased with age (P < 0.05) to 21 d but was notaffectedbyatmosphericNH3.ThesedataindicatethatNH3inpoultryhouseslowersperformance and may increase disease susceptibility.
Pharmacologic Application of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy: The in vivo Toxic Effect of Carrageenan

Microsomal fractions from rat brain, testes, and liver were examined by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to study the in vivo toxic effect of carrageenan administered by intraperitoneal injection. Comparison between spectra of control and treated samples clearly demonstrated important cellular damages induced by carrageenan. Lipid content was significantly enhanced in the testes and brain. The length of the acyl chains largely increased, and cholesterol ester accumulation occurred as a consequence of lipid peroxidation, particularly in the brain. Absorption intensity in the amide I and II regions was increased in the brain and testes. Conformational structure of membrane proteins was changed as shown by the large decrease in liver β-sheet structures. The phospholipid level was more significantly enhanced in the brain than in the testes. We observed in liver both an important loss in glucidic structures and a noticeable glycogen depletion. Thus, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy appears to be a useful tool to rapidly monitor the chemical alterations induced by carrageenan on different organs. Moreover, a correlation between the spectroscopic method and the biochemical data was discussed. Further experiments should be conducted to investigate the spectral features characteristic of the various tissue types within each organ and to explore new markers for oxidation and/or inflammation.
A Personal Information Security System using Form Recognition and Optical Character Recognition in Electronic Documents

Format recognition and OCR techniques are widely used as methods for detecting and protecting personal information from electronic documents. However, due to the poor recognition rate of the OCR engine, personal information cannot be detected or false positives commonly occur. It also takes a long time to analyze a large amount of electronic documents. In this paper, we propose a method to improve the speed of image analysis of electronic documents, character recognition rate o f the OCR engine, and detection rate of personal information by improving the existing method. The analysis speed was increased using the format recognition method while the analysis speed and character recognition rate of the OCR engine was improved by image correction. An algorithm for analyzing personal information from images was proposed to increase the reconnaissance rate of personal information. Through the experiments, 1755 image format recognition samples were analyzed in an average time of 0.24 seconds, which was 0.5 seconds higher than the conventional PAID system format recognition method, and the image recognition rate was 99%. The proposed method in this paper can be used in various fields such as public, telecommunications, finance, tourism, and security as a system to protect personal information in electronic documents.
Immunopeptidomic Data Integration to Artificial Neural Networks Enhances Protein-Drug Immunogenicity Prediction

Recombinant DNA technology has, in the last decades, contributed to a vast expansion of the use of protein drugs as pharmaceutical agents. However, such biological drugs can lead to the formation of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs) that may result in adverse effects, including allergic reactions and compromised therapeutic efficacy. Production of ADAs is most often associated with activation of CD4 T cell responses resulting from proteolysis of the biotherapeutic and loading of drug-specific peptides into major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II on professional antigen-presenting cells. Recently, readouts from MHC-associated peptide proteomics (MAPPs) assays have been shown to correlate with the presence of CD4 T cell epitopes. However, the limited sensitivity of MAPPs challenges its use as an immunogenicity biomarker. In this work, MAPPs data was used to construct an artificial neural network (ANN) model for MHC class II antigen presentation. Using Infliximab and Rituximab as showcase stories, the model demonstrated an unprecedented performance for predicting MAPPs and CD4 T cell epitopes in the context of protein-drug immunogenicity, complementing results from MAPPs assays and outperforming conventional prediction models trained on binding affinity data.
Adaptive Offloading for Time-Critical Tasks in Heterogeneous Internet of Vehicles

With the recent development of wireless communication, sensing, and computing technologies, Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has attracted great attention in both academia and industry. Nevertheless, it is challenging to process time-critical tasks due to unique characteristics of IoV, including heterogeneous computation and communication capacities of network nodes, intermittent wireless connections, unevenly distributed workload, massive data transmission, intensive computation demands, and high mobility of vehicles. In this article, we propose a two-layer vehicular fog computing (VFC) architecture to explore the synergistic effect of the cloud, the static fog, and the mobile fog on processing time-critical tasks in IoV. Then, we give a motivational case study by implementing a prototype of a traffic abnormity detection and warning system, which demonstrates the necessity and urgency of developing adaptive task offloading mechanisms in such a scenario and gives insight into the problem formulation. Furthermore, we formulate the offloading model, aiming at maximizing the completion ratio of time-critical tasks. On this basis, we propose an adaptive task offloading algorithm (ATOA). Specifically, it adaptively categorizes all tasks into four types of pending lists by considering the dynamic requirements and resource constraints, and then tasks in each list will be cooperatively offloaded to different nodes based on their features. Finally, we build the simulation model and give a comprehensive performance evaluation. The results demonstrate the superiority of ATOA.
Concept of LIF Neuron Circuit for Rate Coding in Spike Neural Networks

This brief presents a concept of leaky integrate-and-fire neuron (LIF) based on oscillator circuit for a spike neural network with firing rate coding. The circuit contains a switching element with an S-shaped current-voltage characteristic and two capacitors; a control resistor shunts one of the capacitors. The circuit is characterized by a strong dependence of the frequency of relaxation oscillations on the magnitude of the control resistor. The dependence has a sigmoid-like form, and we present an analytical method for dependence calculation. The circuit provides theoretical perspectives for the pairing of resistive sensors with a neural network and for creating neuromorphic devices with artificial intelligence.
PENGARUH pH TERHADAP PRODUKSI ANTIBAKTERI OLEH BAKTERI ASAM LAKTAT DARI USUS ITIK

This study aimed to determine the effect of pH on the production of antibacterial by lactic acid bacteria. This study uses a completely randomized design factorial 3X 5 (3 X 5 treatment of bacterial isolates pH) with three replications. The first factor consisted of pH 4, pH 5, pH 6, pH 7, pH 8, and the second factor that isolates B2, B7, B8, whereas the parameters consists of a clear zone. The amount of production is determined by the size of the diameter of antibacterial inhibition zone against Salmonella sp. Differences in the production of antibacterial determined based on the results of analysis of variance. The treatment significantly further test BNT at 5% level. The results showed that the effect of media pH test based on the potential for the production of antibacterial effect. The diameter of the largest clear zone produced by B7 isolates at pH 6 was 17.2 mm, 17.1 mm B8 and B2 at pH 7 at 16.7 mm. The smallest diameter of the clear zone produced by B8 at pH 4 was 15.1 mm, B2 at pH 6 there is a clear zone of 12.7 mm and isolate B7 at pH 5 of 11.5 mm Keywords : A ntibacterial , Lactic Acid Bacteria , pH, Salmonella sp, Clear zone
Determining an optimal release site for juvenile winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum) in the Great Bay Estuary, NH, USA

One of the main elements in developing an optimal release strategy for an enhancement effort is to evaluate and select release sites that will support growth and survival of newly released, cultured fish. Three potential release sites (New Castle (NC), Broad Cove (BC) and Oyster River (OR)) in the Great Bay Estuary, NH, USA were evaluated for pilot-scale releases of winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus Walbaum). Cultured juvenile flounder were placed in cages at each of the three sites. Sites were evaluated based on growth and survival of the fish in relation to water temperature, prey availability and sediment composition. Fish grew faster in the two upper estuarine sites BC (0.54 mm day(-1)) and OR (0.56 mm day(-1)) than at the site at the mouth of the estuary (NC = 0.37 mm day(-1)). Fish survival (44-53%) and water temperature (17.8-19.7 degrees C) did not vary between sites. Benthic samples showed that prey was available to, and eaten by, the flounder. Sediment composition was the main difference between the three sites, with one site (NC) characterized by gravel whereas the other two sites were sandy. These results corroborate other studies showing the importance of sediment quality for the distribution of flatfish populations. From these results, we can confidently eliminate NC as a potential release area and recommend that sandy sites are better for stocking cultured juvenile winter flounder than gravely sites.
3D Joint Estimation of Position and Velocity for a Moving Target in Multistatic Radar System by VHC-2WLS Algorithm

In this letter, a three-dimensional (3D) joint estimation algorithm which is the variable-step hill-climbing algorithm based on two-step weighted least squares (VHC-2WLS) is proposed. The VHC-2WLS combines bistatic range (BR), time difference of arrival (TDOA) and Doppler shift (DS) to improve the estimation accuracy of the position and velocity of a moving target in the multistatic radar system (MRS). First, the position of a moving target is estimated by utilizing two-step weighted least squares (2WLS) method. Second, the estimated position from the first step is optimized by variable-step hill-climbing (VHC) method. Finally, the velocity is calculated through the optimized position value from the second step and least squares (LS) approach. The proposed method is corroborated by simulations to be able to reach the Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) accuracy under mild noise conditions. Numerical simulations demonstrate the superiority in the estimation accuracy of the proposed algorithm over state-of-the-art methods.
Mitogen-activated protein kinases and transcription factors during increased cardiac workload and remodelling

Cardiac hypertrophy and remodelling are mechanisms of adaptation to increased workload and acute injuries of the heart. In the long-term, these initially beneficial mechanisms become detrimental and ultimately lead to the development of heart failure. The molecular determinant of myocardial remodelling and heart failure is altered intracellular signal transduction and a modified gene expression pattern in the individual cardiomyocyte. This study was aimed at characterising the changes in mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and their nuclear effector, GATA-4, and their functional significance and interaction in experimental models of increased cardiac workload and remodelling. To study the effects of increased cardiac workload on MAPKs and GATA-4, isolated perfused rat hearts were subjected to increased left ventricular wall stress and their activities were determined using western blot and gel mobility shift assays. Left ventricular wall stress rapidly activated the DNA binding of GATA-4, and this activation was abolished in the presence of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and angiotensin II receptor antagonists. Furthermore, the activation of GATA-4 DNA binding was significantly attenuated by p38 MAPK and extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) inhibition. To gain further insights into the role of p38 MAPK as a regulator of cardiac transcription factors, gene expression and remodelling, a gene transfer protocol of increased p38 MAPK activity was established. Direct adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of wild-type p38α and constitutively active upstream kinase mitogen-activated kinase kinase 3b (MKK3b) selectively increased p38 MAPK activity in the left ventricle, which was followed by up-regulation of cardiac gene expression, myocardial inflammation and fibrosis. Using a DNA microarray approach, the cardiac target genes of p38 MAPK were identified, including several cell division, inflammation and signal transductionassociated genes. Furthermore, p38 MAPK over-expression was found to increase the DNA binding activities of several transcription factors, including GATA-4. Finally, the functional role of p38 MAPK was determined using adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in an experimental model of myocardial infarction. Post-infarction remodelling was characterised by a sustained down-regulation of p38 MAPK, while rescue of p38 MAPK activity attenuated post-infarction remodelling through anti-apoptotic and angiogenic mechanisms. These results indicate that p38 MAPK is a key regulator of GATA-4 transcription factor and cardiac gene expression during left ventricular wall stress and remodelling. They demonstrate that p38 MAPK, being cardioprotective in the infarcted heart but promoting inflammation and fibrosis in the normal heart, has a unique dual role in the myocardium.
Resilience and Vulnerability: Neurodevelopment of Very Preterm Children at Four Years of Age

Children born very preterm (VPT) are at high-risk for altered brain development and impaired neurodevelopmental outcomes but are not well-studied before school-age. We investigated 64 four-year-olds: 37 VPT children [<32 weeks gestational age [GA]; 22 males; mean GA: 28.8 weeks ± 1.6], 25 full-term (FT) children (12 males), plus two VPT cases with ventriculomegaly and exceptionally resilient outcomes. All children underwent high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging and developmental assessments. Measures of brain volume, cortical thickness, and surface area were obtained. Children born VPT demonstrated reduced cerebral and cerebellar white matter volumes yet increased cerebral gray matter, temporal lobe, occipital lobe and ventricle volumes after adjusting for total brain volume. Cortical thickness was greater in the VPT children compared to FT children across all lobes. On developmental assessments, the VPT children scored lower on average than FT children while the two cases had intact cognitive abilities. In addition to larger ventricle volumes, the two cases had white matter and gray matter volumes within the ranges of the FT children. The VPT children displayed distinct differences in structural brain volumes at 4 years of age, consistent with delayed maturation. The cases with persistent ventriculomegaly and good cognitive outcomes displayed typical gray matter and increased white matter volumes, indicating a potential protective developmental phenomenon contributing to their intact cognitive abilities.
Effect of exogenous proline and de-acclimation treatment on cold tolerance in Brassica napus shoots cultured in vitro

Winter rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is one of the most important oil crop in Lithuania. Winter hardiness is a complex trait limiting cultivation of winter rapeseed in the region of temperate climate. Changes in cold tolerance in response to exogenous proline and de-acclimation treatment were monitored in vitro in winter rapeseed shoots. The experiments were performed during 2009-2010 in the laboratory of Agrobiotechnology of Aleksandras Stulginskis University. Shoots of cultivar ‘Sunday’ were acclimated at 4°C for 14 days and subjected to de-acclimation under temperatures of 18/16oC, photoperiod 16/8 h (day/night) for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days. The membrane injury for leaf discs under freezing stress (at -10°C for 24 h) was estimated by the electrolyte leakage test. Exposure of cold-acclimated shoots to normal growth temperature (18/16oC) significantly reduced cold tolerance as well as soluble sugars and proline contents. The degree of cold tolerance of the shoots was substantially decreased with increasing deacclimation duration. Exogenous proline caused significant increase endogenous proline content in winter rapeseed shoots. The addition of exogenous proline to culture medium resulted in significant increase in rapeseed shoots cold tolerance. On the medium supplemented with exogenous proline after 7 days of de-acclimation electrolyte leakage of proline-treated shoots was 4.2-17.88% lower in comparison with non-treated shoots.
Identifying details that matter: fruit fly development, genetic regulation, and microbial ecology

The wealth and complexity of the known microscopic detail of biological processes and pathways make the search for universality particularly challenging and appealing for a physicist. This dissertation investigates several examples drawn from three different biological contexts. First, I discuss the gene regulatory network responsible for segment patterning in the fruit fly. The fruit fly embryo is one of the best-studied examples of precision in biological processes. However, a novel technique I developed with my collaborators demonstrates that even in this system transcription is intrinsically noisy, as previously observed in bacteria. Using single-molecule-precision measurements of the transcriptional activity of four critical patterning genes, we exhibit universality of expression noise parameters and show how precision is recovered through spatiotemporal averaging. On a theoretical level, I demonstrate how these experimental findings help understand the multi-tier architecture of the patterning network: the diffusionmediated non-locality of transcriptional response makes a cascade of readouts the optimal gradient response strategy, even if each readout is intrinsically noisy. Second, I investigate the importance of microscopic parameters of networks at the scale of their global function. The fields of neural and genetic networks have exactly opposite assumptions on the matter, the former concentrating on synapse strength and the latter solely on network topology. I present a class of simple perceptron-based Boolean models within which the relative importance of topology vs. interaction strengths becomes a well-posed problem. I show that optimizing interaction strengths is a better strategy of achieving high complexity, defined as the number of fixed points the network can accommodate, and comment on the implications for real networks and their evolution. Third, I discuss the so-called 16S tag sequencing method of studying microbial communities. The standard approach to 16S data, which relies on clustering reads iii by sequence similarity into Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), underexploits the accuracy of modern sequencing technology. I present a novel, clustering-free approach that exploits cross-sample comparisons to achieve sub-OTU resolution, and demonstrate that this new level of detail can provide new insight into factors shaping community assembly. Finally, I discuss some common themes in the conclusions from these projects.
AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF GLAZED FLAT PLATE PV/T HYBRID SOLAR COLLECTOR SYSTEM IN DUHOK CITY

This studycomprises anexperimental investigation of the hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PV/T)solar collector system. The performance of the photovoltaic(PV) panel is enhanced by reducing the temperature of the PV panel by passing cold water through copper pipes welded on a copper sheet plate as a heat exchanger behind the PV panel. The present work uses a flat metal plate of copper as an absorbent plate on the backside of the mono-crystalline PV solar panel. The present work has been validated by comparing the obtained results with previous experimental results from the literature, where fair agreement has been noted. The results display theperformance of the PV/T solar collector during the 2ndof November 2018 and it is achieved a maximum thermal efficiency 40.3%, with a commensurateelectrical efficiency of 14%,and the overall efficiency reached to 54.3%.
Tracking Performance of Model-Based Thruster Control of a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle

This article compares output feedback control strategies for an underwater thruster. There are a variety of dynamic models for thrusters, some of which can account for fluid-velocity dynamics and others that account for propeller angular velocity dynamics. Here, the contributions of both fluid and propeller velocities are modeled with three levels of complexity: simplified, hydrodynamic linear, and hydrodynamic quadratic models. Multiple methods are presented to estimate axial flow velocity, which is handled as an unmeasured state. The performance of controllers based on these models and estimators is compared for a single thruster as well as for an underwater vehicle with a nonorthogonal multithruster layout. All models, controllers, and estimators are experimentally evaluated in closed-loop experiments using a load cell to measure the tracking performance of an individual thruster. Full vehicle simulations using experimentally characterized models provide additional insights into the control and estimation strategies and their relative merits.