Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antifungal activity of caffeine against fungal pathogens of tea plant

The effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate(EGCG)and caffeine against the four major fungal pathogens(Gloeosporium theae-sinensis,Colletotrichum camelliae,Pestalotiopsis theae and Phyllosticta theicola)infecting tea leaves was tested.Results showed that caffeine was very effective in suppressing these pathogens while EGCG had no antifungal activities.When caffeine was used with concentrations of 1 mg·mL-1 to 10 mg·mL-1,the inhibition rates of the pathogens were 33.0% to 100.0%. Fifty percent of effective concentration(EC50)of caffeine for the four major fungal pathogens were 0.917,1.860,0.937 and 1.889 mg·mL-1 respectively.In another experiment,three tea leaf pathogenic fungi(P.theae,G.theae-sinensis,and Cercospora sp.)were treated respectively with caffeine,tea powder,water extract from tea,water extract without caffeine and the residues after extraction.This experiment showed that the inhibition ratio of these materials on the pathogens varied from-32% to 70% and caffeine was still the most effective compound in suppressing the tested pathogens.Therefore,caffeine was an effective antifungal substance against tea fungal pathogens and the content of caffeine in tea leaves could be used as an index for evaluating disease resistance of different tea varieties.
Hirzebruch χy-genera modulo 8 of fiber bundles for odd integers y

I. Hambleton, A. Korzeniewski and A. Ranicki have proved that the signature of a fiber bundle F ↪→ E → B of closed, connected, compatibly oriented PL manifolds is always multiplicative mod 4, i.e. σ(E) ≡ σ(F )σ(B) mod 4. In this paper, we consider the Hirzebruch χy-genera for odd integers y for a smooth fiber bundle F ↪→ E → B such that E,F and B are compact complex algebraic manifolds (in the complex analytic topology, not in the Zariski topology). In particular, if y = 1, then χ1 is the signature σ. We show that the Hirzebruch χy-genera of such a fiber bundle are always multiplicative mod 4, i.e. χy(E) ≡ χy(F )χy(B) mod 4. We also investigate multiplicativity mod 8, and show that if y ≡ 3 mod 4, then χy(E) ≡ χy(F )χy(B) mod 8 and that in the case when y ≡ 1 mod 4 the Hirzebruch χy-genera of such a fiber bundle is multiplicative mod 8 if and only if the signature is multiplicative mod 8, and that the non-multiplicativity modulo 8 is identified with an Arf-Kervaire invariant.
Genic heterozygosity and rate of speciation

The hypothesis is proposed that mean level of heterozygosity is functionally related to rate of speciation in evolutionary phylads. Under this hypothesis, phylads which speciate more rapidly do so because of increased level of within-species genetic variability which is then available to conversion to species differences under appropriate ecological or environmental conditions. An important corollary is that rate of speciation could be limited in phylads with low genetic variability, irrespective of environmental considerations. This hypothesis has been tested with respect to electrophoretically detectable variation in products of structural genes in two families of North American fishes characterized by grossly different rates of speciation. Totals of 69 species of the highly speciose Cyprinidae, and 19 species of the relatively depauperate Centrarchidae, were assayed for mean level of heterozygosity at 11–24 genetic loci. Since Cyprinidae and Centrarchidae exhibit on the average nearly identical levels of genic variation (Ĥ = 0.052 ± 0.004, and Ĥ = 0.049 ± 0.009, respectively), the hypothesis that level of heterozygosity affects rate of speciation in these fishes is not supported. Nonetheless, the amount of genic variability in both Cyprinidae and Centrarchidae is large, comparable to mean levels in previously studied vertebrates. The great wealth of genome variability, reflected in the electrophoretic variation present in virtually all outcrossing organisms, apparently can accommodate considerable flexibility in rate and pattern of evolutionary response to the various environmental regimes challenging organisms.
THE ASSESSMENT OF CURVED CENTERLINE GENERATION IN HDMAPS BASED ON POINT CLOUDS

Abstract. Over the decades, autonomous driving technology has attracted a lot of attention and is under rapid development. However, it still suffers from inadequate accuracy in a certain area, such as the urban area, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) hostile area, due to the multipath interference or Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) reception. In order to realize fully autonomous applications, High Definition Maps (HD Maps) become extra assisted information for autonomous vehicles to improve road safety in recent years. Compared with the conventional navigation maps, the accuracy requirement in HD Maps, which is 20 cm in the horizontal direction and 30 cm in 3D space, is considerably higher than the conventional one. Additionally, HD Maps consist of rich and high accurate road traffic information and road elements. For the requirement of high accuracy, conducting a Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) system is an appropriate method to collect the geospatial data accurately and efficiently. Nowadays, digital vector maps are constructed by digitalizing manually on the collected data. However, the manual process spends a lot of manpower and is not efficient and practical for a large field. Therefore, this paper proposes to automatically construct the crucial road elements, such as road edge, lane line, and centerline, to generate the HD Maps based on point clouds collected by the MMS from the surveying company. The RMSEs in the horizontal direction of the road edge, lane line, and centerline are all lower than 30 cm in 3D space.
In vitro Inhibitory Activities of Lauraceae Aporphine Alkaloids

The in vitro anti-inflammatory effect of eight aporphine alkaloids isolated from the leaves of two Lauraceae plants (Pleurothyrium cinereum and Ocotea macrophylla) was evaluated through inhibition of two isozymes of cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2), 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), and platelet aggregation induced by PAF, AA and ADP. All alkaloids exhibited inhibitory activities against COX-2 (IC50 25.9-116 μM range) and PAF- and AA-induced platelet aggregation, while only four and three of them were good COX-1 and 5-LOX inhibitors, respectively. (+)-N-acetyl-nornantenine 6 was the most potent COX-2, 5-LOX, AA and PAF inhibitor.
Effect of Psychological Well-Being, Compensation, and Physical Work Environment towards Employee Satisfaction at PT. Gracia Multi Moda Medan

The purpose of this research is to test and analyze the effect of psychological well-being, compensation and physical work environment towards employee satisfaction at PT. Gracia Multi Moda Medan. This type of research is causal research with a quantitative approach. This research uses a method of saturated samples, i.e. all employees amounting to 33 people are used as samples of research. The analysis of this study used multiple linear regression. Results showed that simultaneously psychological well-being, compensation and physical work environment have significant effect on employee satisfaction at PT. Gracia Multi Moda Medan. Partial psychological well-being, compensation and physical work environment positively and significantly effect on employee satisfaction. Compensation is a more dominant factor effect on employee satisfaction. PT. Gracia Multi Moda Medan should increase compensation and pay attention to employee satisfaction, so that employees work better.
Electronic voting and Social Spending: The impact of enfranchisement on municipal public spending in Brazil

This article studies the effect of introducing electronic voting in Brazil on municipal level public spending. A theoretic, political economy model suggests that, by de facto enfranchising the poor, electronic voting increased social spending. This prediction is then empirically tested using as instrument the gradual introduction to electronic voting (EV), which affects voting enfranchisement without directly influencing public spending. We apply two different methodologies: a 2SLS regression and a differences-in-differences methodology to show that municipalities using EV spend more on health, education and public employment compared to the ones that did not, which confirmed the hypothesis presented in our model.
A Miniaturized EHT Platform for Accurate Measurements of Tissue Contractile Properties

We present a wafer-scale fabricated, PDMS-based platform for culturing miniaturized engineered heart tissues (EHTs) which allows highly accurate measurements of the contractile properties of these tissues. The design of the platform is an anisometrically downscaled version of the Heart-Dyno system, consisting of two elastic micropillars inside an elliptic microwell with volume ranging from 3 down to $1\mu \text{L}$ which supports EHT formation. Size downscaling facilitates fabrication of the platform and makes it compatible with accurate and highly reproducible batch wafer-scale processing; furthermore, downscaling reduces the cost of cell cultures and increases assay throughput. After fabrication, the devices were characterized by nanoindentation to assess the mechanical properties of the pillars and transferred to 96-well plates for cell seeding. Regardless the size of the platform, cell seeding resulted in successful formation of EHTs and all tissues were functionally active (i.e. showed cyclic contractions). The precise characterization of the stiffness of the micropillars enabled accurate measurements of the contractile forces exerted by the cardiac tissues through optical tracking of micropillar displacement. The miniature EHT platforms described in this paper represent a proper microenvironment for culturing and studying EHTs. [2020-0130]
Merozoite Surface Protein-1 (MSP-1) dan Merozoite Surface Protein-2 (MSP-2) Plasmodium Falciparum sebagai Kandidat Vaksin Malaria

Plasmodium falciparumâ€” parasit malaria â€” menginfeksi miliaran dan membunuh jutaan orang setiap tahun. Rangkaian Â usaha pengendalian malaria; kelambu berinsektisida, indoor residual spraying , dan kemoterapi dibayangi oleh ancaman resistensi. Karenanya, vaksin malaria yang efektif sangat dibutuhkan. Pengembangan vaksin dihambat oleh kompleksitas parasit dengan ribuan antigen berbeda yang diekspresikan di masing-masing tahap dalam siklus hidupnya. Bagaimanapun, penelitian selama beberapa dekade tidaklah sia-sia. RTS,S, vaksin stadium pre-eritrositik, mungkin akan menjadi vaksin pertama yang mendapat lisensi, terlepas dari efikasinya yang hanya sekitar 30-50% . Antigen-antigen pada stadium lainnya juga diteliti sebagai kandidat vaksin, termasuk Merozoite Surface Protein /MSP-1 dan MSP-2, yang terbukti menginduksi respon imun yang protektif terhadap malaria, baik secara alamiah maupun eksperimental. Namun, keragaman genetik menjadi penghalang dalam pengembangan vaksin berbasis kedua antigen ini. Pemahaman yang menyeluruh tentang struktur MSP-1 dan MSP-2 P. falciparum serta mekanisme imun hospes terhadap keduanya akan memandu kepada tersedianya vaksin MSP-1 dan MSP-2 dengan efikasi yang optimal.
PHGDH as a mechanism for resistance in metabolically-driven cancers

At the forefront of cancer research is the rapidly evolving understanding of metabolic reprogramming within cancer cells. The expeditious adaptation to metabolic inhibition allows cells to evolve and acquire resistance to targeted treatments, which makes therapeutic exploitation complex but achievable. 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) is the rate-limiting enzyme of de novo serine biosynthesis and is highly expressed in a variety of cancers, including breast cancer, melanoma, and Ewing’s sarcoma. This review will investigate the role of PHGDH in normal biological processes, leading to the role of PHGDH in the progression of cancer. With an understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which PHGDH expression advances cancer growth, we will highlight the known mechanisms of resistance to cancer therapeutics facilitated by PHGDH biology and identify avenues for combatting PHGDH-driven resistance with inhibitors of PHGDH to allow for the development of effective metabolic therapies.
Project “ Tiefsee ” Optical detection and visualization of diffuse vent in the deep sea

Through diffuse hydrothermal seafloor vents water flows out of the seafloor. Though the inflowing water is transparent, it often has a different temperature or different dissolved substances than the surrounding water. This leads to a difference in the refractive indices between the various water types. This causes an optical effect, called Schlieren. Therefore, Schlieren are a way to visually detect seafloor vents. We created a software for optical detection of Schlieren. The software is based on the Horn-Schunck algorithm. It is capable of highlighting Schlieren in a video and to process live stream video data. To provide test data for the detection software a raytracer was developed, where rays get refracted based on a data from a Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The raytracer supports 2Das well as 3D-simulation data. The underlying CFD simulation software is Ansys. Additionally, an experiment was conducted in a tank. Its footage was used to evaluate the simulation software through side by side comparison and provide additional test data for the detection software. The detection software performed well on the footage from the simulation and the experiment, as well as on real deep sea footage with little noise and movement. Though there are still issues with the robustness of the results and with camera movements.
Mean Expression Value Normalized and Absolute Quantified miR-21 Found to be a Potential Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker for IgA Nephropathy

Background/objectives: miR-21 has been linked to renal fibrosis and miR-155 too has shown different expression in IgAN whose pathogenesis is partially understood. In this study, we explored the utility of miR-21 and miR-155 in IgA nephropathy. Methods: We recruited 40 IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients and 15 healthy controls (HC). 2 ml blood sample was collected from each study participant. Mean expressed value normalization and absolute and relative quantification methods were used for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiment for miRNA expression. Logistic regression analysis was performed for diagnostic and prognostic value of miR-21. Findings: Mean expressed value normalization reduced the variation in groups and between groups without changing the mean value. miR-155 showed similar expression in IgAN and healthy controls. There was three-fold increases in miR-21 in IgAN than the HC. miR-21 was able to differentiate the mesangial hypercellularity and tubular atrophy/interstitial fibrosis stages with sensitivity 84 and 70 percent, respectively. Applications: miR-155 can be used as a reference control gene for IgAN on quantitative PCR-based experiments. miR-21 can be used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for IgAN.
Mass transport analysis of a showerhead MOCVD reactor

The mass transport process in a showerhead MOCVD reactor is mathematically analyzed. The mathematical analysis shows that the vertical component velocity of a point over the substrate is only dependent on vertical distance and is independent of radial distance. The boundary layer thickness in stagnation flow is independent of the radial position too. Due to the above features, the flow field suitable for film growth can be obtained. The ceiling height of the reactor has important effects on residence time and the mass transport process. The showerhead MOCVD reactor has a short residence time and diffusion plays an important role in axial transport, while both diffusion and convection are important in radial transport.
Analysing the Evolution of FinTech Research Topics in Academia

The FinTech or financial technology industry has burgeoned in the past decade and has emerged as one of the hottest industries in recent times thanks to a myriad of innovations and disruption. New technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, regulatory technology (RegTech), robotic process automation (RPA), insurance technology (InsurTech), internet of things (IoT), cloud computing and many more have been implemented in various different industries in unprecedented ways thereby disrupting the status quo. KPMG indicates that investment in the FinTech industry has doubled from 2017 to 2018, hitting a record $111.8 billion. Owing to the enormous global investment in the FinTech sector and its rapid expansion, it becomes imperative to analyse the research topics directing the growth of the FinTech sector. This research analyses FinTech research done in the past decade to determine the hot topics and provide an overview of how these topics have changed over time. Abstracts of journals articles and conferences are taken and a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model using Gibbs sampling is trained to extract topics from them using topic modelling. The trends of the extracted topics are also identified including the positive or negative linear trends as well as non-linear trends.
Optimizing Artiﬁcial Neural Network Hyperparameters and Architecture

The process of successfully creating and training an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to solve a domain-specific task is highly dependent on the skill set of the researcher, which would typically be various experience gained from repetitive trying and failing of ANN modeling as well as domain knowledge from previous tasks. See Figure 1 to get an impression of the complexity in the field. In the deep learning community, architectures such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Autoencoders with many hidden layers have been proven to work well on large datasets [1], but limitations of architectures initially created with few layers, such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have also inspired researchers to create completely new architectures such as highway networks [2]. Another example is Squeeze-and-Excitation networks, networks that better learn interdependencies between channels of convolutional features compared to traditional CNNs [3]. There exist great potential to learn from previous neural network research [4] to try to extend earlier ideas into Deep Neural Network (DNN) design, particulary those who are more biologically inspired than today’s networks. One example is the Transformer network, which incorporates attention mechanisms [5]. Regardless of the number of layers, it can be hard to efficiently specify good non-learnable parameters of the ANN. In fact, how deep the network is should rather be regarded as a hyperparameter that is automatically tuned based on the problem at hand as well as available data. See Table 1 for an extensive list of ANN hyperparameters as well as various techniques to perform a successful ANN training. The goal of this essay is to show that the researcher should not only rely on previous experiences when defining hyperparameters, but also on ANN hyperparameter optimisation (HPO) and Neural Architecture Search (NAS) techniques such as Bayesian and Gradient-based Sequential
Sand losses out the pens in barn with free-stall housing system

Proper sand management can be a critical aspect in the selection and successful use of sand as a bedding material for dairy cows. In many regions and countries, use of sand as a bedding material is considered as a useful alternative solution in dairy farms, where non-organic matter can serve as an equivalent of straw and other organic materials, e.g. sawdust. Assessment of sand management in the barn with dairy cows involves numerous problems, such as sand consumption, frequency of filling in the sand, quality of sand, as well as cows’ response to comfort conditions created by lying stalls covered with sand. This paper presents results of some investigations concerning sand losses in the barn with dairy cows. In practice, sand consumption is a result of natural occurrences, when cows leave lying stalls. Moreover, part of sand, together with faeces, is taken out of the stall when the lying area is handled by persons responsible for cleanliness and hygiene in the stall. This paper indicates, based on the authors’ own observations and investigations, that an improper construction of lying stalls can result in the increased losses of the sand in the barn, which translates into financial losses. In addition, a number of methods of measurement, together with the details of the structure of sand losses in the barn with a free-stall housing system, were presented. The discussion develops the issue of effective use of sand as a bedding material in the barn with dairy cows, including the need to use technical equipment in order to keep the barn floors clean and ensure the cows’ comfort.
We Need Robust Nomenclature for Orthobiologics: Response

Address correspondence to Chih-Hao Chiu, MD, PhD (email: joechiu0115@gmail.com). Submitted June 7, 2020; accepted June 9, 2020. The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest in the authorship and publication of this contribution. AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (OPD). AOSSM has not conducted an independent investigation on the OPD and disclaims any liability or responsibility relating thereto.
Variation of feed intake in broiler chickens in case of sequential feeding

Sequential feeding (SF) is a cyclic feeding program with two diets for one or several days which can partially recreate the conditions of a more varied diet. The aim of this present study was to understand better how the chicken in SF adapts feed intake, depending on the time, and energy and protein contents. Four experiments were conducted with male broiler chickens. SF was carried out during 48h-cycles with pairs of diets varying in energy (2800 (E-) and 3200 kcal / kg (E +)) and / or protein contents (230 (P +) and 150 g / kg (P-)). SF schedules were compared to C diet (3000 kcal / kg and 190 g / kg crude protein). The 1st experience indicates that the chicken does not adapt its consumption to the energy content over 24 h since it eats more of the concentrated diet, and it is very slow to adjust its feed intake to protein content (more than one week). The age at which SF (D10 and D18) was introduced did not affect these reactions. The two following experiments aimed at evaluate if feed intake reactions depend on feed preferences. Experimented chickens showed a clear preference for the energy-rich diet compared to naive chickens, which preferred the energy-poor diet. However, preferences for protein seemed to be not very clear. Interactions between the nutritional properties and sensorial cues of feed could explain these results. We observed that, even if the chicken expressed a preference for the harder pellets, the feed recognition of energy content was not related to this characteristic. The modern chicken quickly develops a preference for energy, which is not spontaneous but acquired over successive exposures. This preference drives feed intake from one day to another, resulting in a balance due to the symmetry of the inputs. The variation of protein content leads to lower effects on feed intake and this after a longer exposure. To adapt their feed intake chickens learn to recognize feed, by associating sensory characteristics to post-ingestive effects. These cues, which involve visual and tactile elements, are still difficult to evaluate accurately and require further investigation.