Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combined Effects of Induced Water Deficit and Foliar Application of Silicon on the Gas Exchange of Tomatoes for Processing

The beneficial effects of silicon (Si) on plants have been widely reported for its fruit qualitative improvements, growth gains, and protection against abiotic and biotic stresses. This study aimed to evaluate the combined effect of soil water potential (Ψs) (−30 and −60 kPa) and the foliar application of Si (0.0 (control), 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 g L−1) in the development of tomatoes grown in a greenhouse. We evaluated the biometric parameters and gas exchange in three periods (20, 34, and 48 days after planting). The rates of transpiration (E), stomatal conductance (gs), and net photosynthesis assimilation (An) were lower when the plants were subjected to water deficit. The foliar application of Si attenuated the effect of the water deficit in both levels applied to the crop. A high response was observed at −60 kPa, regardless of the evaluated period. However, a significant effect was not observed on the relative chlorophyll index and biomass accumulation when Si was applied. A foliar application up to 2.8 g L−1 promotes increases in An,gs, and E. It is highlighted that Si can promote improvements in gas exchange when plants are affected by a water deficit.
Predictors of New-Onset Epilepsy in People With Younger-Onset Neurocognitive Disorders

Objective: People with neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) have an increased risk of epilepsy. However, most studies investigating the risk of seizures in people with NCDs are limited to those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD), and those who developed dementia after age 65 years. A knowledge gap exists regarding factors associated with development of epilepsy in people with younger-onset NCD, and those with non-AD and non-VD dementia subtypes. In this study, we aimed to identify the factors associated with the development of epilepsy in people with younger-onset NCDs of varied etiologies, the majority of whom had symptom onset prior to age 65 years. Participants and Methods: This was a retrospective study reviewing the medical records of consecutive people admitted with cognitive impairment to a tertiary neuropsychiatry unit between 1 January 2004 and 30 April 2019. People diagnosed with primary NCDs were included in the analysis. The prevalence and characteristics of epilepsy were described. The factors associated with developing epilepsy were identified in a binary logistic regression model. Results: A total of 427 people were included. One hundred fourteen had Alzheimer's disease, 104 frontotemporal dementia, 51 vascular dementia, 69 movement disorder-associated dementia, and 89 unspecified NCD. The median age on admission was 59 years (range 33–86) and 75.2% (n = 321/427) had young-onset NCD with onset before 65 years of age. 40/427 (9.4%) people had epilepsy, and epilepsy onset clustered between 2 years before and 6 years after the onset of cognitive decline in 80% (n = 32/40). The most frequent seizure type was focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizure (35%, n = 14/40). Most of the people (94.7%, n = 36/38) achieved seizure freedom with one or two antiseizure medications. People with unspecified NCD (compared to frontotemporal dementia and movement disorder-associated dementia, age of onset of NCDs ≤50 years, and current smoking status were independently associated with higher risk of developing epilepsy. Conclusion: Epilepsy is common in people with younger-onset NCDs, and a high index of suspicion is warranted particularly for those with unspecified subtype and smoking status. Smoking reduction or cessation should be further investigated as a potentially modifiable factor for risk reduction.
Determinants of Residents’ Support for Sustainable Tourism Development: Implications for Rural Communities

One of the key factors for success of sustainable tourism industry in all areas, including rural, is the support of community members. The paper aims to analyze how rural residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism development (expressed through economic, social, environmental, and physical benefits) can affect residents’ intentions to support tourism. The second aim was to determine if attachment to the particular community and perceived quality of life can have influence on attitudes towards sustainable development of tourism in rural communities. Using a sample of 881 residents living in rural areas of the Republic of Serbia, the results highlighted that perceived values of tourism were important for evaluating how tourism is developed, if it is sustainable for a community, and how it affects quality of residents’ life. The study provided better understanding of factors that can have impact on residents’ attitudes in relation to tourism and highlighted the importance of paying attention to local community as significant player for tourism development, especially in those regions that want to boost its economy by developing sustainable tourism.
Antibacterial antioxidant and phenolic fractions analysis of Caesalpinia crista seed coat extract and its different fractions

Methanolic crude extract from the seed coat of Caesalpinia crista was purified into different polyphenolic fractions. Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) was used for the purification of crude extract using C18 cartridges. Non-anthocyanin (fraction I) and anthocyanin (fraction II) are the two main fractions that were collected from crude extract and Fraction Ia (Phenolic acid), Fraction Ib (flavanols etc) and Ic (flavonols etc) are the three sub fractions collected from non-anthocyanin fractions. It was shown by the HPLC analysis of separated fractions that among the ten polyphenolic standards that were taken i.e. vanillic acid, syringic acid, coumaric acid, caffeic acid, delphinidin, myricetin, epicatechin, kaempferol, pelargonidin, cyanidin and their other derivatives were not the main constituent of the C. crista seed coat. Activity against the bacteria was determined against two Gram-positive and three Gram-negative bacteria by an agar well diffusion method. It was found that against a panel of bacteria the seed coat of C. crista was found active. Gram positive bacteria was more sensitive towards fraction Ic while fraction Ia was more active against gram negative bacteria. Antioxidant screening was carried out by using different methods such as reducing power, diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and lipoxygenase assay. Study showed that the seed coat of C. crista has considerable antioxidant properties. Phenolic fractions’s order of antioxidant activity was in accordance to their whole flavonoid and phenolic contents (except of anthocyanin fraction) i.e. Non anthocyanin>flavonols>flavanol> phenolic acid. The significant (p<0.01) correlation was found between the antioxidant activity and the total phenolic content. Current study suggests that along with the content of polyphenols, the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities depend also on the structure of polyphenols. Moreover, the seed coat of C. Crista is a potential source of antibacterial and antioxidant compounds.
SARTRES: a semi-autonomous robot teleoperation environment for surgery

ABSTRACT Teleoperated surgical robots can provide immediate medical assistance in austere and hostile environments. However, such scenarios are time-sensitive and require high-bandwidth and low-latency communication links that might be unavailable. The system presented in this paper has a standard surgical teleoperation interface, which provides surgeons with an environment in which they are trained. In our semi-autonomous robotic framework, high-level instructions are inferred from the surgeon’s actions and then executed semi-autonomously on the robot. The framework consists of two main modules: (i) Recognition Module – which recognises atomic sub-tasks (i.e., surgemes) performed at the operator end, and (ii) Execution Module – which executes the identified surgemes at the robot end using task contextual information. The peg transfer task was selected for this paper due to its importance in laparoscopic surgical training. The experiments were performed on the DESK surgical dataset to show our framework’s effectiveness using two metrics: user intervention (in the degree of autonomy) and success rate of surgeme execution. We achieved an average accuracy of 91.5% for surgeme recognition and 86% success during surgeme execution. Furthermore, we obtained an average success rate of 53.9% for the overall task, using a model-based approach with a degree of autonomy of 99.33%.
Quantification of Non-linearities in the Consequential Life Cycle Assessment of the Use Phase of Battery Electric Vehicles

The diffusion of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) is projected to influence the electricity grid operation, potentially offering opportunities for load-shifting policies aimed at higher integration of renewable energy technologies in the electricity system. Moreover, the examined literature emphasizes electricity as a relevant driver of BEVs Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results. To evaluate LCA impacts associated to future BEVs diffusion scenarios in Italy, we adopt the Consequential Life Cycle Assessment (CLCA) methodology. LCA conventionally assumes a proportional relation between environmental impact indicators and the functional unit. However, such relation may not be representative if the electricity system is significantly affected by the large-scale diffusion of BEVs. Our study couples the conventional CLCA methodology with the EnergyPLAN model through three different approaches, which progressively include BEV-specific dynamics, to capture correlations between additional BEVs fleets and the electricity grid operation, that affectthe mix of electricity consumed in the use phase by BEVs, in Italy in 2030. Here we show that if renewables capacity is not additionally installed in response to additional BEVs electricity demand, the marginal Climate change total indicator of BEVs may increase up to ~40%, with respect to a business-as-usual scenario. Moreover, we quantitatively support the literature indications on how to properly estimate BEVs LCA impacts. Indeed, we weight electricity LCA impacts on hourly BEV charge profiles, finding that this approach best captures BEVs interdependence with the electricity system. At low BEVs diffusion, this approach clearly shows the potential BEVs capability to increase exploitation of renewable energy, whereas at high BEVs diffusion, it fully highlights potential responses of fossil fuel power plants to additional electricity demand. Due to these dynamics, we find that linearly scaling the business-as-usual scenario results would lead to an underestimation of 12.45 Mton CO2-eq of the total impacts of an additional BEVs fleet, under a 100% BEV diffusion scenario. Our methodology could be replicated with different energy system models, or at various geographical scales. Our framework could be coupled with comprehensive assessments of transport systems, to further provide robustness to policymakers by including non-linearities in the mix of electricity consumed during the use phase of BEVs.
Machine learning approach in exploring the electrolyte additives effect on cycling performance of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathode and graphite anode‐based lithium‐ion cell

LiNi0.5Mn1. 5O4 (LNMO), a high‐voltage spinel, has attracted great attention owing to its low cost and high operating voltage. Many great efforts have been devoted to developing full‐cell of LNMO/graphite because of electrolyte oxidation issues at such high voltage. In this work, the effect of additives including vinylene carbonate (VC) and lithium bis(oxalate)borate (LiBOB) in carbonate‐based electrolytes was investigated on LNMO/Li and graphite/Li to find out the optimized electrolyte composition. The use of additives in 1.0 M LiPF6 in EC:DMC (1:1 v/v) seemed not to give any improvement on the electrochemical behavior of the cell. In the case of 1.2 M LiPF6 in EC:EMC (3:7 v/v), however, both half‐cells of LNMO and graphite exhibited stability of discharge capacity during long cycling with the presence of LiBOB or VC additives. Based on the artificial neural network (ANN) simulation, the best electrochemical performance would obtain for LNMO/Li in the electrolyte of 0.67 M LiPF6 in EC:DMC:EMC (2.9:3.5:3.6 (v/v) with 0.41 wt% LiBOB and 1.17 wt% VC additives cell, which delivered 141.1 mAh.g−1 and remained 90% capacity after 100 cycles when using. Also, it predicted that the graphite/Li in the electrolyte of 1.34 M LiPF6 in EC:DMC:EMC (6.2:1.2:2.6) (v/v) with a 0.08 wt% LiBOB additive would achieve 342.2 mAh.g−1 and 85% of capacity retention after 100 cycles. The machine learning approach is efficient in exploring the effect of additive and simultaneously searching an optimization of many design parameters and thus saving the significant cost of time‐consuming experiments.
Seasonal Cycle of Isotope‐Based Source Apportionment of Elemental Carbon in Airborne Particulate Matter and Snow at Alert, Canada

Elemental carbon (EC) is a major light‐absorbing component of atmospheric aerosol particles. Here, we report the seasonal variation in EC concentrations and sources in airborne particulate matter (PM) and snow at Alert, Canada, from March 2014 to June 2015. We isolated the EC fraction with the EnCan‐Total‐900 (ECT9) protocol and quantified its stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) and radiocarbon content (∆14C) to apportion EC into contributions from fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning (wildfires and biofuel combustion). Ten‐day backward trajectories show EC aerosols reaching Alert by traveling over the Arctic Ocean from the Russian Arctic during winter and from North America (>40°N) during summer. EC concentrations range from 1.8–135.3 ng C m−3 air (1.9–41.2% of total carbon [TC], n = 48), with lowest values in summer (1.8–44.5 ng C m−3 air, n = 9). EC in PM (Δ14C = ‐532 ± 114‰ [ave. ± SD, n = 20]) and snow (−257 ± 131‰, n = 7) was depleted in 14C relative to current ambient CO2 year‐round. EC in PM mainly originated from liquid and solid fossil fuels from fall to spring (47–70% fossil), but had greater contributions from biomass burning in summer (48–80% modern carbon). EC in snow was mostly from biomass burning (53–88%). Our data show that biomass burning EC is preferentially incorporated into snow because of scavenging processes within the Arctic atmosphere or long‐range transport in storm systems. This work provides a comprehensive view of EC particles captured in the High Arctic through wet and dry deposition and demonstrates that surface stations monitoring EC in PM might underestimate biomass burning and transport.
Body size in beef cows and its influence on calf production

Cattle farming becomes more intensive when the productive efficiency of the cows is increased, and nutrition is adjusted to the animal biotype. Eighty purebred Charolais and Nellore cows and their crosses between 3 and 7 years of age, were grouped for body weight at calving into Light (332.6 kg), Moderate (385.3 kg) and Heavy (444.6 kg). Cows and their calves were weighed at calving, at 63 days (early weaning) and at 210 days. The estimated milk production of the cows was evaluated by manual milking at 21, 42 and 63 days postpartum. The difference in the weight of the cows at calving was maintained during lactation and at 210 days postpartum. The body size of the cow did not influence milk production. Heavier cows produce heavier calves up to 365 days of age compared to lighter cows. The reproductive performance of the cows is not affected by their weight. The production of kilograms of calf for every 100 kilograms of cow at calving and weaning is higher in Light cows. The production of kilograms of calf adjusted for the pregnancy rate of the cows is higher in Heavy cows. Production efficiency in kilograms of calf per area is lower in Heavy cows.
Strategies for the Immobilization of Antibodies

Abstract The immobilization of antibodies in two-dimensional (physical adsorption and immobilization via binding proteins) and that in three-dimensional (chemical binding to polypeptide strands) coverage of solid matrices have been compared. Methods of optimizing exposure of the immunoglobulin paratope after binding to surfaces to permit unimpaired antibody-antigen complex formation have been investigated. At comparable antibody densities, a larger number of paratopes are available for complex formation when antibodies are immobilized by means of binding protein (Protein A, Protein G, secondary antibodies, and F(ab)2 fragments of secondary antibodies) compared to physical adsorption. Using a primary coat of binding protein, reproducible immobilization of antibodies at densities up to two orders of magnitude lower than densities produced by physical adsorption and chemical immobilization is achieved. Binding of antibodies by means of polypeptide strands can be used to obtain multi-layers of IgG molecules. This method of immobilization gives the IgG molecules some flexibility in lateral positioning which leads to formation of clusters and increased attachment to the solid matrix, impairing the paratopes′ ability to form complexes. However, flexible attachment can permit separation of the IgG molecules by treatment with detergents (e.g., Tween) or with charged molecules (e.g., fluorescein) or by introducing binding proteins as spacers. The implications for engineering organized multilayers of antibodies for optical biosensors are reviewed.
Online at Will: A Novel Protocol for Mutual Authentication in Peer-to-Peer Networks for Patient-Centered Health Care Information Systems

Patient-centered health care information systems (PHSs) on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks promise decentralization benefits. P2P PHSs, such as decentralized personal health records or interoperable Covid-19 proximity trackers, can enhance data sovereignty and resilience to single points of failure, but the openness of P2P networks introduces new security issues. We propose a novel, simple, and secure mutual authentication protocol that supports offline access, leverages independent and stateless encryption services, and enables patients and medical professionals to establish secure connections when using P2P PHSs. Our protocol includes a virtual smart card (software-based) feature to ease integration of authentication features of emerging national health-IT infrastructures. The security evaluation shows that our protocol resists most online and offline threats while exhibiting performance comparable to traditional, albeit less secure, password-based authentication methods. Our protocol serves as foundation for the design and implementation of P2P PHSs that will make use of P2P PHSs more secure and trustworthy. © 2021 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
Effect of major tumor metabolites on release of doxorubicin from Doxil – implications for precision nano-medicine.

Our previous studies demonstrate that ammonia induces doxorubicin release from Doxil® in a concentration-dependent manner. Because ammonia that results from glutaminolysis is continu-ously generated in tumors at high enough concentration to induce doxorubicin release of Doxil in tumors, this may explain why doxorubicin release in interstitial tumor fluids is much faster and higher than in the plasma, in which release is minimal. This unique activity of tumor ammo-nia may explain, at least in part, the therapeutic efficacy of Doxil, which in practice does not re-lease doxorubicin in animal and human plasma. Our current study aims to evaluate if tumor-specific metabolites other than ammonia (such as lactate and pyruvate) are also involved in doxorubicin release from Doxil. Also, we studied levels of ammonia in other mouse organs. Our data shows that these other metabolites do not affect doxorubicin release. Furthermore, using the Metabolic gEne RApid Visualizer database (MERAV), we computationally explored the relation-ships of glutaminase (GLS) 1 and 2, glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUD)1 and 2, as well as gluta-mine transporters the glutaminolysis levels found in different cancers. This result could not be achieved without the upregulation of glutamine transporters. Indeed, our queries to MERAV showed that SLC38A1, SLC38A2, and especially SLC38A6, are upregulated in cancerous tis-sues. We discuss how the information on the upregulation of enzymes related to glutaminolysis could be used for “precision medicine” to determine if Doxil is an appropriate choice for a spe-cific cancer patient. Our computational exploration shows that glutaminolysis is heightened in some cancerous tissues as instead of their normal counterparts, but not in all cases. It would be possible and perhaps advantageous to test individual patient tissues to determine glutaminolysis, and therefore likely, ammonium levels in cancerous tissues, and to use this to ascertain if Doxil would be a good treatment choice.
Deciphering Epitranscriptome: Modification of mRNA Bases Provides a New Perspective for Post-transcriptional Regulation of Gene Expression

Gene regulation depends on dynamic and reversibly modifiable biological and chemical information in the epigenome/epitranscriptome. Accumulating evidence suggests that messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are generated in flashing bursts in the cells in a precisely regulated manner. However, the different aspects of the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Cellular RNAs are post-transcriptionally modified at the base level, which alters the metabolism of mRNA. The current understanding of epitranscriptome in the animal system is far ahead of that in plants. The accumulating evidence indicates that the epitranscriptomic changes play vital roles in developmental processes and stress responses. Besides being non-genetically encoded, they can be of reversible nature and involved in fine-tuning the expression of gene. However, different aspects of base modifications in mRNAs are far from adequate to assign the molecular basis/functions to the epitranscriptomic changes. Advances in the chemogenetic RNA-labeling and high-throughput next-generation sequencing techniques are enabling functional analysis of the epitranscriptomic modifications to reveal their roles in mRNA biology. Mapping of the common mRNA modifications, including N6-methyladenosine (m6A), and 5-methylcytidine (m5C), have enabled the identification of other types of modifications, such as N1-methyladenosine. Methylation of bases in a transcript dynamically regulates the processing, cellular export, translation, and stability of the mRNA; thereby influence the important biological and physiological processes. Here, we summarize the findings in the field of mRNA base modifications with special emphasis on m6A, m5C, and their roles in growth, development, and stress tolerance, which provide a new perspective for the regulation of gene expression through post-transcriptional modification. This review also addresses some of the scientific and technical issues in epitranscriptomic study, put forward the viewpoints to resolve the issues, and discusses the future perspectives of the research in this area.