Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Got Crystals? Try Racemic Protein Crystallography

Verification of bioinformatics structure predictions depends heavily on the protein data bank. The best protein structures are generally acquired through X-ray crystallography, but the main difficulty of this technique is crystallization. One approach to generating crystals is to start with a solution containing one half the original protein and one half the mirror image protein, a racemic mixture. The mirror image protein can be directly synthesized from D-amino acids, up to 50 amino acids long. These molecules can be combined together with a technique called chemical ligation to create larger proteins. Racemic crystals generally form centrosymmetricachiral crystals which is a constraint that aids in the computation of the structure. Achiral racemic crystals are also energetically favored to crystallize relative to chiral crystals. Racemic protein crystallography is an essential approach for proteins that do not form a normal crystal.
Technology use during couples’ bedtime routines, bedtime satisfaction, and associations with individual and relational well-being

In this study, we examined the typical and ideal bedtime routines of 289 Americans in cohabiting relationships who were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants described their bedtime routines, indicated their frequency of sex with their partner, and completed surveys measuring their bedtime, sexual, relationship, and life satisfaction. There were some incongruencies between ideal and typical scenarios, with joint activities (both technological and non-technological) featured more often in the ideal scenarios, and more time alone featured in typical scenarios. Incongruence between the presence of physical intimacy in ideal and typical scenarios was predictive of bedtime satisfaction, as were the presence of emotional intimacy, going to bed together, and shared technology use (e.g., watching television together) during their typical time together. In turn, bedtime satisfaction predicted frequency of sex, and sexual, relationship, and life satisfaction. However, shared time together not engaged in technology and time apart (using technology or not) was not predictive of bedtime satisfaction. As bedtime is an opportunity for leisure together for many couples, going to bed together and engaging in activities that promote emotional intimacy (e.g., conversations) may be beneficial to couples. Additionally, discussions and compromise related to the presence of physical intimacy at bedtime may help couples experience greater bedtime satisfaction. Finally, in contrast to suggestions that technology use has a negative effect on relationships, shared technology use before bed may have a positive impact on individual and relational well-being.
Party competition on climate policy: The roles of interest groups, ideology and challenger parties in the UK and Ireland

This study shows how interest group–party relations, parties’ cross-cutting policy preferences, and competition with challenger parties shape the structure of issue competition on climate policy. It uses the ‘most similar’ cases of the UK and Ireland to show how differences in party systems influence the structure of issue competition. The study takes up the challenge of integrating salience and position in the conceptualisation of climate policy preferences. Empirically, it provides new evidence on factors influencing climate policy preferences and the party politics of climate change, focusing on interest groups, party ideology, and challenger parties. Further, it identifies similarities between the general literature on interest group influence on party preferences and the literature on interest groups in climate politics, and seeks to make connections between them.
Ride Substitution Using Electric Bike Sharing

While ride-sharing has emerged as a popular form of transportation in urban areas due to its on-demand convenience, it has become a major contributor to carbon emissions, with recent studies suggesting it is 47% more carbon-intensive than personal car trips. In this paper, we examine the feasibility, costs, and carbon benefits of using electric bike-sharing---a low carbon form of ride-sharing---as a potential substitute for shorter ride-sharing trips, with the overall goal of greening the ride-sharing ecosystem. Using public datasets from New York City, our analysis shows that nearly half of the taxi and rideshare trips in New York are shorts trips of less than 3.5km, and that biking is actually faster than using a car for ultra-short trips of 2km or less. We analyze the cost and carbon benefits of different levels of ride substitution under various scenarios. We find that the additional bikes required to satisfy increased demand from ride substitution increases sub-linearly and results in 6.6% carbon emission reduction for 10% taxi ride substitution. Moreover, this reduction can be achieved through a hybrid mix that requires only a quarter of the bikes to be electric bikes, which reduces system costs. We also find that expanding bike-share systems to new areas that lack bike-share coverage requires additional investments due to the need for new bike stations and bike capacity to satisfy demand but also provides substantial carbon emission reductions. Finally, frequent station repositioning can reduce the number of bikes needed in the system by up to a third for a minimal increase in carbon emissions of 2% from the trucks required to perform repositioning, providing an interesting tradeoff between capital costs and carbon emissions.
RF-Identity

Person identification plays a critical role in a large range of applications. Recently, RF based person identification becomes a hot research topic due to the contact-free nature of RF sensing that is particularly appealing in current COVID-19 pandemic. However, existing systems still have multiple limitations: i) heavily rely on the gait patterns of users for identification; ii) require a large amount of data to train the model and also extensive retraining for new users and iii) require a large frequency bandwidth which is not available on most commodity RF devices for static person identification. This paper proposes RF-Identity, an RFID-based identification system to address the above limitations and the contribution is threefold. First, by integrating walking pattern features with unique body shape features (e.g., height), RF-Identity achieves a high accuracy in person identification. Second, RF-Identity develops a data augmentation scheme to expand the size of the training data set, thus reducing the human effort in data collection. Third, RF-Identity utilizes the tag diversity in spatial domain to identify static users without a need of large frequency bandwidth. Extensive experiments show an identification accuracy of 94.2% and 95.9% for 50 dynamic and static users, respectively.
Investigating the Effect of Sensory Concurrency on Learning Haptic Spatiotemporal Signals

A new generation of multimodal interfaces and interactions is emerging. Drawing on the principles of Sensory Substitution and Augmentation Devices (SSADs), these new interfaces offer the potential for rich, immersive human-computer interactions, but are difficult to design well, and take time to master, creating significant barriers towards wider adoption. Following a review of the literature surrounding existing SSADs, their metrics for success and their growing influence on interface design in Human Computer Interaction, we present a medium term (4-day) study comparing the effectiveness of various combinations of visual and haptic feedback (sensory concurrencies) in preparing users to perform a virtual maze navigation task using haptic feedback alone. Participants navigated 12 mazes in each of 3 separate sessions under a specific combination of visual and haptic feedback, before performing the same task using the haptic feedback alone. Visual sensory deprivation was shown to be inferior to visual & haptic concurrency in enabling haptic signal comprehension, while a new hybridized condition combining reduced visual feedback with the haptic signal was shown to be superior. Potential explanations for the effectiveness of the hybrid mechanism are explored, and the scope and implications of its generalization to new sensory interfaces is presented.
Full-Dimension Relative Positioning for RFID-Enabled Self-Checkout Services

Self-checkout services in today's retail stores are well received as they set free the labor force of cashiers and shorten conventional checkout lines. However, existing self-checkout options either require customers to scan items one by one, which is troublesome and inefficient, or rely on deployments of massive sensors and cameras together with complex tracking algorithms. On the other hand, RFID-based item-level tagging in retail offers an extraordinary opportunity to enhance current checkout experiences. In this work, we propose Taggo, a lightweight and efficient self-checkout schema utilizing well-deployed RFIDs. Taggo attaches a few anchor tags on the four upper edges of each shopping cart, so as to figure out which cart each item belongs to, through relative positioning among the tagged items and anchor tags without knowing their absolute positions. Specifically, a full-dimension ordering technique is devised to accurately determine the order of tags in each dimension, as well as to address the negative impacts from imperfect measurements in indoor surroundings. Besides, we design a holistic classifying solution based on probabilistic modeling to map each item to the correct cart that carries it. We have implemented Taggo with commercial RFID devices and evaluated it extensively in our lab environment. On average, Taggo achieves 90% ordering accuracy in real-time, eventually producing 95% classifying accuracy.
Determinants of Longitudinal Adherence in Smartphone-Based Self-Tracking for Chronic Health Conditions

The use of interactive mobile and wearable technologies for understanding and managing health conditions is a growing area of interest for patients, health professionals and researchers. Self-tracking technologies such as smartphone apps and wearable devices for measuring symptoms and behaviours generate a wealth of patient-centric data with the potential to support clinical decision making. However, the utility of self-tracking technologies for providing insight into patients' conditions is impacted by poor adherence with data logging. This paper explores factors associated with adherence in smartphone-based tracking, drawing on two studies of patients living with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), a chronic rheumatological condition. In Study 1, 184 axSpA patients used the uMotif health tracking smartphone app for a period of up to 593 days. In Study 2, 108 axSpA patients completed a survey about their experience of using self-tracking technologies. We identify six significant correlates of self-tracking adherence, providing insight into the determinants of tracking behaviour. Specifically, our data provides evidence that adherence correlates with the age of the user, the types of tracking devices that are being used (smartphone OS and physical activity tracker), preferences for types of data to record, the timing of interactions with a self-tracking app, and the reported symptom severity of the user. We discuss how these factors may have implications for those designing, deploying or using mobile and wearable tracking technologies to support monitoring and management of chronic diseases.
Design and synthesis of carbonized polypyrrole-coated graphene aerogel acting as an efficient metal-free catalyst for oxygen reduction

Carbonized polypyrrole (PPy)-coated graphene aerogel (CPGA) was synthesized using graphene oxide and fresh pyrrole (Py) as raw materials in a hydrothermal process without any oxidant. After annealing at a high temperature, the as-prepared aerogel had a porous 3D network, contained a high percentage of nitrogen, and delivered a promising electrochemical catalytic activity. Most importantly, the annealing temperature had a significant impact on the electrochemical performance of the obtained materials. Among these products, CPGA-600 displayed the most positive onset potential and the highest peak current density for an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The electrocatalytic mechanism of the as-prepared materials for ORR in an alkaline electrolyte was also analyzed in detail. The results indicated that pyrrolic-N and highly graphitized carbon structures are mainly responsible for the enhanced ORR activity of metal-free N-doped carbon materials.
Oxidative degradations of oxodegradable LDPE enhanced with thermoplastic pea starch: Thermo‐mechanical properties, morphology, and UV‐ageing studies

The abiotic UV-degradation behavior of oxodegradable LDPE was investigated in the presence of thermoplastic pea starch (TPPS) in this study. Oxodegradable LDPE was first melt-blended with thermoplastic pea starch (TPPS) using an internal mixing chamber to enhance the abiotic oxidative degradation of oxodegradable LDPE. Because of their different affinity, maleated polyethylene was added as compatibilizer. Tensile properties, thermal properties, and morphology of resulting melt-blends were determined at different content in TPPS. High content in TPPS (40 wt %) could be readily added to oxodegradable LDPE without affecting the tensile properties of resulting melt-blends. UV-ageing studies on compatibilized TPPS/oxodegradable LDPE melt-blends were carried out by Attenuated Total Reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Dynamic Thermomechanical Analyses (DMTA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) under abiotic conditions. These results suggested a synergistic effect on the UV-ageing of TPPS-based melt-blends provided by both components during the first stage of UV-irradiation. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011.
Beneficial Neglect

Smartphone notifications inform users of events to prompt timely engagement. However, there are growing concerns about messaging behaviors in schools because frequent in-class checking and responding may hinder students' learning. This study analyzed a large-scale smartphone usage dataset collected from 81 first-year college students for 14 weeks. We quantified notification arrival and checking patterns in classrooms and analyzed how notification handling behaviors were correlated with students' smartphone usage and academic performance. Our results showed that receiving messages and frequent checking occur during class. Frequent checking behaviors were positively related to longer app usage, while willful neglect of incoming messages was positively related to overall academic performance. Our work demonstrates that problematic behaviors exist related to instant messaging in learning contexts and recommends further study to devise effective intervention mechanisms.
Outliers in Smartphone Sensor Data Reveal Outliers in Daily Happiness

Enabling smartphones to understand our emotional well-being provides the potential to create personalised applications and highly responsive interfaces. However, this is by no means a trivial task - subjectivity in reporting emotions impacts the reliability of ground-truth information whereas smartphones, unlike specialised wearables, have limited sensing capabilities. In this paper, we propose a new approach that advances emotional state prediction by extracting outlier-based features and by mitigating the subjectivity in capturing ground-truth information. We utilised this approach in a distinctive and challenging use case - happiness detection - and we demonstrated prediction performance improvements of up to 13% in AUC and 27% in F-score compared to the traditional modelling approaches. The results indicate that extreme values (i.e. outliers) of sensor readings mirror extreme values in the reported happiness levels. Furthermore, we showed that this approach is more robust in replicating the prediction model in completely new experimental settings.
Compatibility and thermal properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/poly(glycidyl methacrylate) blends

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB)/poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) blends were prepared by a solution-precipitation procedure. The compatibility and thermal decomposition behavior of the PHB/PGMA blends was studied with differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The blends were immiscible in the as-blended state, but for the blends with PGMA contents of 50 wt % or more, the compatibility was dramatically changed after 1 min of annealing at 200 °C. In addition, PHB/PGMA blends showed higher thermal stability, as measured by maximum decomposition temperatures and residual weight during thermal degradation. This was probably due to crosslinking reactions of the epoxide groups in the PGMA component with the carboxyl chain ends of PHB fragments during the degradation process, and the occurrence of such reactions can be assigned to the exothermic peaks in the DTA thermograms. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 351–358, 2002
The Use of Academic Social Networking Sites in Scholarly Communication: Scoping Review

Abstract This research provides a systematic analysis of 115 previous literatures on the use of academic social networking sites (ASNs) in scholarly communication. Previous research on the subject has mainly taken a disciplinary and user perspective. This research conceptualizes the use of ASNs in scholarly communication in the space between social interactions and the technologies themselves. Keyword analysis and scoping review approaches have been used to analyze the comprehensive literature in the field. The study found a geographic variation in what motivates academics to use ASNs. Scholar discovery and sharing are the primary driving factors identified in the literature. Four main themes within the research literature are proposed: motivation and uses, impact assessment, features and services, and scholarly big data. The study found that there has been an increase in scholarly big data research in recent years. The paper also discusses the key findings and concepts stated in each theme. This gives academics a better understanding of what ASNs can do and their weaknesses, and identifies gaps in the literature that are worth addressing in future investigations. We suggest that future studies may also extend the existing theoretical framework and epistemological approaches to better predict and clarify the socio-technical dimensions of ASNs use in scholarly communication. In addition, this study has implications for academic and research institutions, libraries and information literacy programs, and future studies on the topic.
Some Biases in Sampling Multilevel Piezometers for Volatile Organics

Multilevel piezometers are cost-effective monitoring devices for determining the three-dimensional distribution of solutes in ground water. Construction includes flexible tubing (plastic or Teflon®). Their sampling is subject to a number of'potential biases, particularly: (1) losses of volatile organic solutes via volatilization, (2) sorption onto the flexible tubing of the piezometers, (3) leaching of organics from this tubing, and (4) collection of unrepresentative samples due to inadequate piezometer flushing. It is shown that these biases are minimal or are easily controlled in most situations. Another source of bias has been recognized. Organic solutes present in ground water above the screened level can penetrate the flexible plastic or Teflon tubing and contaminate the sampled water being drawn through this tubing. Laboratory tests and field results indicate this transmission causes low organic contaminant concentrations to be erroneously attributed to ground water which is free of such contaminants. The transmitted organics apparently desorb from the plastic tubing during flushing of even 40 piezometer volumes. Recognition of this transmission problem provides for a better interpretation of existing organic contaminant distribution data. Caution is advised when considering the use of these monitoring devices in organic solute contaminant studies.
Characterization of Chicken Skin Yellowness and Exploration of Genes Involved in Skin Yellowness Deposition in Chicken

Skin color is an important economic trait in meat-type chickens. A uniform bright skin color can increase the sales value of chicken. Chickens with bright yellow skin are more popular in China, especially in the broiler market of South China. However, the skin color of chickens can vary because of differences in breeds, diet, health, and individual genetics. To obtain greater insight into the genetic factors associated with the process of skin pigmentation in chickens, we used a colorimeter and high-resolution skin photographs to measure and analyze the skin color of chickens. By analyzing 534 chickens of the same breed, age, and feed condition, we found that the yellowness values of the chickens varied within this population. A significant positive correlation was found between the cloacal skin yellowness values before and after slaughter, and the cloacal skin yellowness value of live chickens was positively correlated with the overall body skin yellowness value. Additionally, chicken skin yellowness exhibited low heritability, ranging from 0.07 to 0.27. Through RNA sequencing, 882 genes were found to be differentially expressed between the skin with the highest and lowest yellowness values. Some of these differentially expressed genes may play an important role in yellow pigment deposition in chicken skin, which included TLR2B, IYD, SMOC1, ALDH1A3, CYP11A1, FHL2, TECRL, ACACB, TYR, PMEL, and GPR143. In addition, we found that the expression and variations of the BCO2 gene, which is referred to as the yellow skin gene, cannot be used to estimate the skin yellowness value of chickens in this population. These data will help to further our understanding of chicken skin yellowness and might contribute to the selection of specific chicken strains with consistent skin coloration.
Editorial: From Meristems to Floral Diversity: Developmental Options and Constraints

Meristems provide growth and shape in flowering plants. They are composed of undifferentiated cells whose fates depend on specific genetic and epigenetic processes. On the molecular level, differential gene expression, and hormone-mediated regulatory feedbacks play key roles, while on the morphogenetic level meristem geometry, mechanical pressure, meristem expansion and the timing of organ initiation and growth processes influence development. Combining the different aspects results in a deeper understanding of the developemental constraints and options underlying growth processes and the genesis of form in plant evolution.
Crystalloid and Colloid Compositions and Their Impact

This manuscript will review crystalloid (hypo-, iso-, and hyper-tonic) and colloid (synthetic and natural) fluids that are available for intravenous administration with a focus on their electrolyte, acid-base, colligative, and rheological effects as they relate to each solution's efficacy and safety. The goal is for the reader to better understand the differences between each fluid and the influence on plasma composition, key organ systems, and their implications when used therapeutically in animals with critical illness.