Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CO2 -Responsive CCT Protein interacts with 14-3-3 proteins and controls the expression of starch synthesis-related genes.

CO2 responsive CCT protein (CRCT) is a positive regulator of starch synthesis related genes such as ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase large subunit 1 and starch branching enzyme I particularly in the leaf sheath of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The promoter GUS analysis revealed that CRCT expressed exclusively in the vascular bundle, whereas starch synthesis related genes were expressed in different sites such as mesophyll cell and starch storage parenchyma cell. However, the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) using a FLAG-CRCT overexpression line and subsequent qPCR analyses showed that the 5'-flanking regions of these starch synthesis-related genes tended to be enriched by ChIP, suggesting that CRCT can bind to the promoter regions of these genes. The monomer of CRCT is 34.2 kDa, however CRCT was detected at 270 kDa via gel filtration chromatography, suggesting that CRCT forms a complex in vivo. Immunoprecipitation and subsequent MS analysis pulled down several 14-3-3-like proteins. A yeast two-hybrid analysis and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays confirmed the interaction between CRCT and 14-3-3-like proteins. Although there is an inconsistency in the place of expression, this study provide important findings regarding the molecular function of CRCT to control the expression of key starch synthesis-related genes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Identification of Lipid Biomarkers for Skeletal Tuberculosis Using an Untargeted Metabolomics Approach

BackgroundThe identification of novel biomarkers in the human body is urgently needed to improve diagnosis and the clinical management of skeletal tuberculosis (STB). This study aimed to identify potential lipid markers to differentiate Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection from other infections, and establish a metabolite biomarker panel suitable for STB diagnosis from abscess samples.MethodsParticipants were recruited from Beijing Chest Hospital between January 2018 and December 2019. Abscess specimens were collected from STB patients and patients diagnosed with other skeletal infections. Then we comparatively explored the lipid metabolomes of abscess specimens from STB and non-STB patients using untargeted lipid metabolomics approach.ResultsA total of 957 features in ESI + mode and 584 in ESI– mode were extracted from the lipidomic data. Among 1541 lipid metabolites, 55 lipid metabolites were significantly changed in STB patients compared to the control group. Significant up-regulation was clearly visualized in phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, lysophatidylinositols, lysophosphatidylcholines and lysophosphatidylethanolamine. Concomitantly, triacylglycerols and phosphatidylcholines were significantly down-regulated in patients affected by STB. It is worth noting that the two down-regulated monoacyl chain phosphatidylcholine, triacylglycerols and one up-regulated LPE showed excellent diagnostic potential, the AUC values of which were higher than 0.9 and the highest value was 1.0. Conclusions﻿To conclude, our data firstly characterize the lipid signatures of abscess specimens from STB patients. The LPEs are significantly upregulated in the STB cases than those in non-STB control, whereas phosphocholines and triacylglycerol are markedly downregulated in the STB cases. The panel of five lipid biomarkers exhibits great capacity for differential diagnosis of STB and non-TB cases.
Toward the widespread application of low-cost technologies in coastal ocean observing (Internet of Things for the Ocean)

The ability to access user-friendly, low-cost instrumentation remains a limiting factor in coastal ocean observing. The majority of currently available marine observation equipment is difficult to deploy, costly to operate, and requires specific technical skills. Moreover, a harmonized observation program for the world’s coastal waters has not yet been established despite the efforts of the global ocean organizations. Global observational systems are mainly focused on open ocean waters and do not include coastal and shelf areas, where models and satellites require large data sets for their calibration and validation. Fortunately, recent technological advances have created opportunities to improve sensors, platforms, and communications that will enable a step-change in coastal ocean observing, which will be driven by a decreasing cost of the components, the availability of cheap housing, low-cost controller/data loggers based on embedded systems, and low/no subscription costs for LPWAN communication systems. Considering the above necessities and opportunities, POGO’s OpenMODs project identified a series of general needs/requirements to be met in an Open science development framework. In order to satisfy monitoring and research necessities, the sensors to be implemented must be easily interfaced with the data acquisition and transmission system, as well as compliant with accuracy and stability requirements. Here we propose an approach to co-design a cost-effective observing modular instrument architecture based on available low-cost measurement and data transmission technologies, able to be mounted/operated on various platforms. This instrument can fit the needs of a large community that includes scientific research (including those in developing countries), non-scientific stakeholders, and educators.
Key Role of the Cation in the Crystallization of Chiral Tris(Anilato)Metalate Magnetic Anions

A complete study of the role played by the usually considered “innocent” cation in the synthesis of chiral tris(anilato)metalate magnetic complexes is presented. This study is based on the rational synthesis of the family of compounds formulated as A3[MIII(C6O4X2)3] with A+ = [PPh3Et]+, [PPh3Pr]+, [PBu4]+, [NHep4]+, and [PPh4]+; MIII = CrIII, FeIII, and GaIII; and [C6O4X2]2– (X = Cl, Br, and NO2; [C6O4X2]2– = dianion of the 3,6-disubstituted derivatives of 2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone, H4C6O4). We show and explain the unexpected key role played by the cations in isolating chiral or achiral crystals of these [MIII(C6O4X2)3]3– anions with D3 point group symmetry. Thus, among the 18 new compounds prepared and characterized, the six obtained with the cation [PPh3Et]+, formulated as [PPh3Et]3[MIII(C6O4X2)3]3– [M/X = Cr/Cl (1), Fe/Cl (2), Ga/Cl (3), Cr/Br (4), Fe/Br (5), and Ga/Br (6)] are chiral and crystallize in the chiral and polar R3 space group. These mixtures of enantio-pure chiral crystals are obtaine.
Flexible habitat choice by aphids exposed to multiple cues reflecting present and future benefits

Mothers choose suitable habitats for laying offspring to maximize fitness. Because habitat quality varies in space and time, mothers gather information to choose among available habitats through multiple cues reflecting different aspects of habitat quality at present and in the future. However, it is unclear how females assess and integrate different cues associated with current rewards and future safety to optimize oviposition/larviposition decisions, especially across small spatial scales. Here, we tested the individual and interactive effects of leaf surface, leaf orientation, and leaf bending direction on larviposition site choice and fitness benefits of wheat aphids (Metopolophium dirhodum) within individual leaves. We found that females preferred upper over lower surfaces for gaining current food-related rewards, downward- over upward-facing surfaces for avoiding potential abiotic risks, and sunken over protruding surfaces for avoiding potential biotic risks. When facing conflicting cues during larviposition, females preferred downward-facing/sunken surfaces over upper surfaces, suggesting that females prioritize potential safety at the cost of current rewards during decision making. Most importantly, our combined-cue experiments showed females still assessed secondary cues (i.e., the upper surface) when first-ranked cues (i.e., the downward-facing/sunken surface) are available, even though females only gained relatively small fitness rewards through secondary cues, and females can integrate different cues associated with current rewards and potential safety in a multiplicative way to make flexible and complex larviposition decisions. Overall, our findings provide new insights into how animals collect and process multi-cue information associated with current rewards and potential safety to maximize fitness at small spatial scales.
Analytic Solution for the Drainage of Sisko Fluid Film Down a Vertical Belt

This paper deals with the drainage of Sisko fluid film down a vertical belt. It provides an approximate solution of the resulting non-linear and inhomogeneous ordinary differential equation using perturbation method (PM) and Adomian decomposition method (ADM). Comparison of the results obtained by both methods demonstrate that these series solutions are strictly identical but ADM is easy to compute and can be extended to any higher order. The important physical quantities like velocity profile, volume flow rate, average film velocity, shear stress, force exerted by the fluid film and vorticity vector are derived. The effects of fluid behaviour index, Stokes number and Sisko fluid parameter on some of these physical quantities are observed. Furthermore, we also made a comparison between the Sisko fluid film and Newtonian fluid film.
An approach to achieve directional low‐profile antenna of quintuple stable pattern band by utilising dipole with compound concave corrugated reflector

National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Numbers: 61571289, 61571298, and 61471240 Abstract An approach to achieve directional low‐profile UWB antenna by omnidirectional source with a reflector, is proposed. The general theoretical model about the direction and the phase conditions between the upward and reflected field are developed. A bow‐tie dipole source antenna is investigated first. To modify its radiation defect, proper phase equations between the original upward field and the reflected downward field are derived so that the aperture field becomes uniform enough to guarantee directional radiation. The concave‐ shaped reflector is primarily adopted to satisfy the phase conditions. Then the concave‐ shaped reflector is decorated with corrugated structure to realize good impedance matching within the wide band. Consequently, the split beams caused by multiple long linear currents with phase difference at high frequency is focussed while the directivity at low frequency is also improved. The prototype antenna was fabricated with a profile of 20.5 mm, about 0.156 λmax (maximum wavelength in the work band), and the measured impedance bandwidth of VSWR ≤ 2.2 is over 2.27–26 GHz. Both simulated and measured results demonstrate the stable directional patterns within the quintuple band (2–10.5 GHz). The realised gain is over 7 dBi within the band (2–10.5 GHz) and peak is over 12 dBi.
Analysis of subspace clustering of molecules using chameleoclust, an evolutionary algorith

'Subspace clustering' has been successfully applied to different datasets, especially those characterized by a high dimensionality. However most of the traditional state-of-the-art 'subspace clustering' algorithms have usually many parameters that are hard to tune. Recently, it has been proposed a new evolutionary 'subspace clustering' that takes advantage of its evolvable genome structure to adapt to different datasets without any complicated parameters tuning. In this paper we apply this new technique to study 36 chemical molecules characterized by a large number of molecular descriptors in order to determine clusters with distinctive characteristics likely to be adsorbed on activated carbon BPL.
Effect of finishing diet on carcass characteristics and meat quality of Mos cockerel

Aim of study: To evaluate the effect of different diets on carcass characteristics and meat quality from Mos free-ranged cockerel.Area of study: Galicia (NW Spain). Material and methods: Cockerels (n=75) were allocated to 3 groups (n=25) according to finishing diets: commercial fodder (CF), 50% wheat and 50% corn (WH) and 33% wheat and 66% corn (CR). Meat quality was assessed in terms of physicochemical, and nutritional features.Main results: The highest live and carcass weight were obtained in CF group. Meat from CF and CR groups were similar in moisture, protein and cholesterol content in drumstick cut, meanwhile in breast piece there were no significant differences (p>0.05) in intramuscular fat (IMF), ash, and lightness (L*). On the other hand, finishing diet affected L* and redness (a*) values, showing the highest L* values in meat samples from CF treatment (49.94 for drumstick) (p<0.01), whereas a* was superior in WH samples (11.30 and 4.61, for drumstick and breast, respectively) (p<0.001). Meat shear force test was not affected (p>0.05) by diets. Finally, the finishing feed affected (p<0.05) the fatty acid and amino acid profile in both cuts (drumstick and breast). Research highlights: Present study allowed to characterize for the first time Mos cockerels fed with different diets. Some carcass features obtained were higher than previous studies with other Mos categories, and some autochthonous and industrial breeds. Meat from cockerels was characterized by a high protein percentage and lower IMF.
Contribution of Essential Oils to the Fight against Microbial Biofilms—A Review

The increasing clinical use of artificial medical devices raises the issue of microbial contamination, which is a risk factor for the occurrence of biofilm-associated infections. A huge amount of scientific data highlights the promising potential of essential oils (EOs) to be used for the development of novel antibiofilm strategies. We aimed to review the relevant literature indexed in PubMed and Embase and to identify the recent directions in the field of EOs, as a new modality to eradicate microbial biofilms. We paid special attention to studies that explain the mechanisms of the microbicidal and antibiofilm activity of EOs, as well as their synergism with other antimicrobials. The EOs are difficult to test for their antimicrobial activity due to lipophilicity and volatility, so we have presented recent methods that facilitate these tests. There are presented the applications of EOs in chronic wounds and biofilm-mediated infection treatment, in the food industry and as air disinfectants. This analysis concludes that EOs are a source of antimicrobial agents that should not be neglected and that will probably provide new anti-infective therapeutic agents.
Spotlight on voices from the community: The importance of empowerment through the Erasmus+ Nefeli Project for Roma women

The Erasmus+ Nefeli Project held a weeklong training (September 21-25, 2020) for women from all walks of life and welcomed over 25 participants. Women from the UK, Europe and abroad attended the training and engaged in lifelong learning using the arts and intangible cultural heritage practice, learning about techniques that they can apply in their contexts. Nefeli's training was an exchange of know-how and material of Non-Formal Learning activities between organisations of the consortium and focussed on offering the participants a way to improve their methods and quality of work and gain more results in terms of agency for women from vulnerable communities.The participants all gained a Europass Mobility certificates as well CPD certificates. Prior to the training the team held a social media campaign where we asked Roma and migrant women to answer three questions around what lifelong learning means.
OBESIDADE, DESNUTRIÇÃO E POBREZA: A INSEGURANÇA ALIMENTAR E NUTRICIONAL NA ÓTICA DO ESPAÇO SOCIAL ALIMENTAR

O presente trabalho busca analisar a inseguranca alimentar e nutricional (IAN) atraves de uma abordagem objetiva. Entendendo a multidimensionalidade do tema, o trabalho o mensura considerando tres aspectos: ingestao calorica insuficiente, obesidade e proporcao da renda gasta com alimentacao. Essas medidas sao escolhidas a fim de se entender as diferentes dimensoes da IAN, aliadas as mudancas de habito alimentar da populacao brasileira e aos diferentes impactos no bem-estar domiciliar. Utiliza-se, para tal, os dados da Pesquisa de Orcamento Familiar (2008). Os resultados sao estimados a partir de tres distintas regressoes logisticas. As evidencias mostram que as caracteristicas do ambiente e do domicilio estao especialmente ligadas a IAN quando medida pela vulnerabilidade de renda, evidenciando a provisao de servicos publicos de qualidade, alem da estrutura urbana/rural, como fatores que impactam na IAN. Conclui-se que o tema possui um carater multidimensional e, portanto, aponta-se a necessidade de uma analise a partir de suas particularidades, exigindo esforcos para uma metodologia mais complexa.
Insight on to Mechanical, Thermal, Long-Term, Hydrothermal, and Chemical Stability of PSf Based Membrane Systems for Separation of O2 /N2

MMMs have been opened up a new window in gas separation and purification applications, but the actual viability can be reckoned on the basis of performance achieved in realistic feed conditions. This research highlights the selection of silica decorated graphene for the first time to prepare nanocomposite membranes. In the study, XRD, Raman, and UV validated the existence of the different fillers within the host Polysulfone (PSf), while TEM authenticated their distribution. The burst strength and thermal properties were also investigated. Besides, it covered a prudent step towards resolving the dominant ingredients, which routinely appraise the stability and durability of the membranes. These indexes are long-term gas permeation up to 120 hours coupled with sustainability against hydrothermal and chemical resistance under various conditions similar to real-life separation applications. Finally, the report demonstrated that the nanohybrid integrated membrane systems displayed optimum separation performance and stability than their parent counterparts: PSf/mSiO2, PSf/GO.
Topological Reconfiguration Planning for a Variable Topology Truss

This paper introduces a new class of self-reconfigurable robot: the variable topology truss (VTT), which is an extension of an existing class of robots: the variable geometry truss (VGT). Variable topology trusses have the additional capability to change the topology of the truss through self-reconfiguration by merging and splitting the nodes of the truss. We first introduce a hardware platform that enables this reconfigurability. We give a procedure to compute all possible distinct reconfiguration actions for a given robot topology. We show that 18 members are required for a minimal reconfigurable VTT, and we exhaustively enumerate all possible reconfigurable topologies for VTTs up to 29 members. Lastly, we introduce the topology network, which describes the relationship between these reconfigurable topologies. The topology network concept enables some high-level planning and provides insights into the design of truss topologies.
p16 Expression Represses DNA Damage Repair via a Novel Ubiquitin-Dependent Signaling Cascade.

Squamous cell carcinoma driven by human papillomavirus (HPV) is more sensitive to DNA-damaging therapies, such as radiation, than its HPV-negative counterpart. Here we show that p16, the clinically utilized surrogate for HPV positivity, renders cells more sensitive to radiation via a ubiquitin-dependent signaling pathway, linking high levels of this protein to increased activity of the transcription factor SP1, increased HUWE1 transcription and degradation of ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7). Activation of this pathway in HPV-positive disease leads to an absence of TRIP12, decreased DNA damage repair as well as improved clinical outcomes. Conversely, repression of this pathway in HPV-negative disease is druggable via USP7 inhibitors under clinical development, resulting in potentiation of radiation response. Our findings may lead to improved outcomes for patients with HPV-negative radioresistant tumors, while allowing decreased intensity of therapy for patients with HPV-positive tumors.
Testing for measurement error in regression with autoregressive innovations

Abstract This paper analyses the effect of measurement errors in the linear regression model with auto-correlated errors using a Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test. The asymptotic distribution of test statistic is shown to be standard normal under the null hypothesis. Finite sample properties of the test are examined briefly by simulations. It is found that the power of the test depends on the variance of the measurement error as well as the autoregressive parameter of the model.
Study on Ecological Threshold of Groundwater in Typical Salinization Area of Qian’an County

A suitable groundwater level is an important condition to maintain the stability of the vegetation community, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. The surface of Qian’an County in Western Jilin Province is often accompanied by salinization due to the influence of natural and human factors. In order to maintain the healthy development of ecological vegetation and reduce the risk of soil salinization, the concept of an ecological threshold of groundwater level is proposed, and two methods are used to determine the reasonable ecological threshold of groundwater. (1) Based on field investigation and indoor experiment, the data layer of soil texture, land use type and groundwater mineralization degree in the research area was established by using remote sensing technology and GIS technology. According to the thickness of vegetation root layer and the height of capillary rise of different soil and water types, the influence of groundwater salinity is considered, and the sum of the two is taken as the ecological threshold of groundwater in the study area. The reasonable threshold value of suitable growth of various vegetation crops is 3.76~5.66 m. (2) According to the relationship between the normalized vegetation index (NDVI) and the groundwater buried depth and phreatic salt, the groundwater buried depth and the mineralization degree under the best vegetation cover are analyzed as follows: the buried depth of groundwater is between 4.8 m and 6.1 m, and the salinity of groundwater is between 0.37 and 1.25 g/L, which are reasonable groundwater properties in the study area of the ecological threshold. This result not only enriches and broadens the content of groundwater research, but also helps to predict the prospect of water resource development.
Distinguishability of discrete‐time linear systems

This article introduces the notion of absolutely distinguishable discrete‐time dynamic systems, with particular applicability to linear time‐invariant and linear parameter‐varying systems. The motivation for this novel type of distinguishability stems, in particular, from the stability and performance requirements of worst‐case adaptive control methodologies. The main results presented herein show that, in most practical cases, a persistence of excitation type of condition and a minimum number of iterations are required to properly distinguish two dynamic systems. We also demonstrate that the former constraint can be written as a lower bound on the intensity of the exogenous disturbances. The applicability of the developed theory is illustrated with a set of examples.