Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Micro-Electrical Stimulation on Regulation of Behavior of Electro-Active Stem Cells

Purpose: Stem cells provide new opportunities in the regenerative medicine for human or animal tissue regeneration. In this study, we report an efficient method for the modulating behaviors of electro-active stem cells by micro-electric current stimulation (mES) without using chemical agents, such as serum or induction chemicals. Methods: Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) were cultured on the tissue culture dish in the mES system. To find a suitable mES condition to promote the DPSC functions, the response surface analysis was used. Results: We found that a working micro-current of 38 showed higher DPSC proliferation compared with other working conditions. The mES altered the expressions of intracellular and extracellular proteins compared to those in unstimulated cells. The mES with 38 significantly increased osteogenesis of DPSCs compared with ones without mES. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that mES may induce DPSC proliferation and differentiation, resulting in applying to DPSCs-based human or animal tissue regeneration.
Surface decoration of selenium nanoparticles by mushroom polysaccharides–protein complexes to achieve enhanced cellular uptake and antiproliferative activity

By using mushroom polysaccharides–protein complexes (PSP) as the capping agent, size controllable and highly stable selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have been successfully created in a simple redox system of sodium selenite and ascorbic acid. SeNPs were capped with PSP through strong physical adsorption of hydroxyl groups of polysaccharides and imino groups of proteins on the surface of SeNPs. PSP surface decoration significantly enhanced the cellular uptake of SeNPs through endocytosis. Treatment with PSP–SeNPs significantly inhibited the growth of MCF-7 human breast cacinoma cells through induction of apoptosis with the involvement of PARP cleavage and caspase activation. Moreover, PSP–SeNPs not only significantly induced dose-dependent disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential in MCF-7 cells after 24 h treatment, but it also enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation as early as 15 min, indicating that ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction may play an important role in PSP–SeNPs-induced apoptosis. Our results suggest that PSP–SeNPs may be a candidate for further evaluation as a chemopreventive agent for human cancers, and the strategy to use PSP as a surface decorator could be a highly efficient way to enhance the cellular uptake and anticancer efficacy of nanomaterials.
How Can Government Promote Technology Diffusion in Manufacturing Paradigm Shift? Evidence From China

Traditional technology diffusion literature focuses on the diffusion of technologies within the extant manufacturing paradigm. By contrast, few studies have explored the determinants and mechanisms of technology diffusion when moving across manufacturing paradigms. In this article, therefore, we aim to explore the intrinsic and institutional factors, as well as the impact mechanism on technology diffusion in the context of manufacturing paradigm shift. Specifically, this article investigates the role of the government in this scenario. A firm-level survey is conducted to investigate the National Programme “Made in China 2025” and its first demonstration city Quanzhou. The data comes from multiple sources, including questionnaires, official statistics data, and patent databases. Logistical regression is used to analyze 236 valid observations. Results reveal that besides the intrinsic factors including the characteristics of general purpose technology (GPT) and economic expectation, GPT-oriented service platforms also have significant impacts on technology diffusion in a manufacturing paradigm shift. In addition, government interventions, especially indirect ones, have significant moderating effects on this influential mechanism. This study provides insight into how government can promote technology diffusion in a manufacturing paradigm shift. These results will be of interest to policy makers, industrialists, and academics.
Tracking and Detection System for Law Enforcement of Helmet Wearing

: Two-wheeler is a very popular mode of transportation in almost every country. However, there is a high risk involved because of less protection. To reduce the involved risk, it is highly desirable for bike-riders to use helmet. Observing the usefulness of helmet, Government has made it a punishable offense to ride a bike without helmet and have adopted manual strategies to catch the violators. However, the existing video surveillance based methods are passive and require significant human assistance. In general, such systems are infeasible due to involvement of humans, whose efficiency decreases over long duration. Automation of this process is highly desirable for reliable and robust monitoring of these violations as well as it also significantly reduces the amount of human resources needed. Also, many countries are adopting systems involving surveillance cameras at public places. So, the solution for detecting violators using the existing infrastructure is also cost-effective. The proposed approach first detects bike riders from surveillance video using background subtraction and object segmentation. Then it determines whether bike-rider is using a helmet or not using visual features and binary classifier. Also, we present a consolidation approach for violation reporting which helps in improving reliability of the proposed approach.
Development of endosperm cells and starch granules in common wheat

The objective of the present study was to understand the developmental regularity of wheat endosperm cells at different Days After Pollination (DAP) using microscopic and histochemical methods. Resin semi-thin sections of the endosperm and the enzymatically dissociated Starchy Endosperm Cells (SECs) were observed under a light microscope. The results showed that: (1) SECs were irregular-shaped and had two types of starch granules: large oval-shaped A-type starch granules and small spherical B-type starch granules. (2) The growth shape of SECs was referred to as S-curve and the fastest cell growth period was at 16–24 DAP. (3) The largest increase and growth of A-type starch granules were mainly at 4–16 DAP. B-type starch granules increased rapidly after 16 DAP and made up over 90% of the total starch granules in SEC during the late stage of endosperm development. (4) The nuclei of SEC deformed and degenerated during the middle and late stages of endosperm development and eventually disappeared. However, starch granules still increased and grew after the cell nuclei had degenerated. The investigations showed the development regularity of starch endosperm cells and starch granules, thereby improving the understanding of wheat endosperm development.
Necessary Components of Economic Surplus in Fisheries Economics

There are four main types of economic surpluses that can be achieved when exploiting a fishery. They are rent to the productive nature of the fish stock, normal factor rents to inputs, consumer surplus, and what is called here, worker satisfaction bonus, WSB. The latter refers to nonmonetary benefits individuals can obtain from participating in commercial fishing and, to be complete, in other occupations as well. It is discussed frequently, but has never received any formal treatment in the literature. In this paper the logic behind WSB in the fishing industry is discussed and its implications on policy is shown. A detailed model is developed which can show how all of the components of economic surplus relate to one another and how they will vary at different levels of output.Key words: fisheries economics, economic surplus, worker satisfaction bonus, maximum economic yield
Possibilidade de transmissão de Fusarium solani f.sp. glycines, agente causal da podridão vermelha da raiz da soja, através da semente

Um isolado de Fusarium solani f.sp. glycines, coletado em plantas de soja (Glycine max) na regiao de Cruz Alta - RS, foi utilizado em experimentos conduzidos com o objetivo de avaliar a possibilidade de a semente ser um veiculo eficiente de disseminacao da podridao vermelha da raiz na cultura da soja. A transferencia de propagulos do patogeno para sementes de soja, armazenada durante um, seis e 12 meses, foi realizada atraves da mistura de graos de sorgo (Sorghum bicolor), solo e residuos de colheita, previamente esterilizados e posteriormente infetados, em condicoes de laboratorio, com F. solani f.sp. glycines. As evidencias de que sementes de soja podem ser uma das fontes de inoculo primario de Podridao Vermelha da Raiz relacionaram-se a presenca de clamidosporos aderidos externamente as sementes, apos seis meses de armazenamento. As sementes apresentando crescimento do fungo apos 12 meses de armazenamento, um minimo de 75 unidades formadoras de colonias/ml removidas do tegumento das sementes de soja e plântulas formadas a partir das sementes infetadas apos 12 meses de armazenamento mostrando sintomas da doenca.
Allozyme variation and population structure of Chimaphila japonica in Korea

Enzyme electrophoresis was used to estimate genetic diversity and population structure of Chimaphila japonica Miquel in Korea. The percent of polymorphic loci within the enzymes was 66.7%. Genetic diversity at the species level and at the population level was high (Hes = 0.279; Hep = 0.256, respectively), whereas the extent of the population divergence was relatively low (GST = 0.086). FIS, a measure of the deviation from random mating within the 16 populations, was 0.374. An indirect estimate of the number of migrants per generation (Nm = 2.65) indicates that gene flow is high among Korean populations of the species. In addition, analysis of fixation indices revealed a substantial heterozygosity deficiency in some populations and at some loci. Mean genetic identity between populations was 0.973. It is highly probable that directional toward genetic uniformity in a relatively homogenous habitat is thought to be operated among Korean populations of C. japonica.
Reducing the abundance of leafhoppers and thrips in a northern California organic vineyard through maintenance of full season floral diversity with summer cover crops

1 Maintenance of floral diversity throughout the growing season in vineyards in the form of summer cover crops of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) and sunflower (Helianthus annus Linnaeus), had a substantial impact on the abundance of western grape leafhoppers, Erythroneura elegantula Osborn (Homoptera: Cicadellidae), and western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), and associated natural enemies.
Echinoderes rex n. sp. (Kinorhyncha: Cyclorhagida), the largest Echinoderes species found so far

A new kinorhynch species, Echinoderes rex n. sp. , is described from the Korea Strait. The new species is characterized by a pair of diminutive lateral terminal spines (19-23 μm) and a trunk length of 482-528 μm, making it the largest Echinoderes described so far. Unique for the new species is also the presence of a type of putative glandular cell outlets that have not been described previously. This paper presents light and scanning electron micrographs of the new structure. In addition, E. rex n. sp. is characterized by having a single middorsal spine on segment 4, lateroventral tubules on segment 5 and 8 and lateroventral acicular spines on segments 6 and 7. A pair of distinct and conspicuously large sieve plates, only described from two other species of the genus, is present on segment 9 in E. rex n. sp. A comparison is made with other species of Echinoderes and the similarities are discussed.
Using free radial forearm flap in the repair of different soft tissue defects in the head and neck region

Aim: Radial forearm flap (RFF) is a reliable flap that can be easily used to repair tissue defects in all parts of the body, especially in the areas such as the oral cavity, cheek mucosa and the tongue. It is used for the repair of soft tissue defects as a fasciocutaneous flap, and it is also used as osteofasciocutaneous flap, with the radius bone being split into the flap. In this study, we retrospectively examined the cases in which tissue defect repair was performed with free radial forearm flaps in our clinic between the years of 2008and 2018. The purpose of this study; is the determination of the results of the use of the radial forearm flap in the reconstruction of different soft tissue defects belonging to the head and neck region. Material and Methods: RFF repair was conducted in 24 patients who were included in our study. 15 of the patients were male and 9 were female. The mean age of the patients was 49. The cause of tissue defect was tumoral invasion in 17 patients, trauma (traffic accident, fall) in 6 patients and gunshot wound in 1 patient. Results: Total flap loss was observed in 1 patient and partial flap loss was seen in 1 patient. No post-operative infection, bleeding or similar complications were observed. Donor site problems were observed in 4 patients, while the donor area of 2 patients recovered after secondary treatment, while the donor area of the other 2 patients was repaired with additional partial thickness skin grafts. Conclusion: Radial forearm flap with free transfer is an option that has been used safely for many years in many regions, especially in intraoral soft tissue defects such as tongue, inner cheek, and the floor of the mouth. Although harvesting of this flap is slightly easier than other flaps, it is a procedure that requires meticulousness and patience similar to every area where microsurgery exists. Although sacrificing one of the main vessels of the upper limb with this flap is a serious disadvantage, the advantages it offers, especially in the intraoral defects, still keeps the radial forearm flap popular over the years.
Vulnerability of vegetation activities to drought in Central Asia

Central Asia (CA) is a continental region that is sensitive to water conditions. Hence, drought has one of the primary effects on the vegetation activities in CA and could vary with climate change. However, it is still unclear how the drought vulnerability of vegetation differs among vegetation types and varies with drought scales in CA. Therefore, this paper studied the drought vulnerability of vegetation in CA from 1982–2015. Droughts were detected by using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), and the vegetation activities were represented by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Only the areas with no change in vegetation types were analyzed, in order to avoid interference with changes in land use. Results showed that both the duration and intensity of droughts were higher in the central, southwestern, and northeastern CA. The growing season (April–October) NDVI decreased by −0.0095 ± 0.0065 per decade in response to drying trends of 0.21 ± 0.22 unit aridity index per decade in these drought-concentrated regions. Forests and savannas/woody savannas were more vulnerable to drought from July–September, and their vulnerabilities were higher to droughts with longer time scales. Shrublands and grasslands were more vulnerable to drought from April–May and May–September, respectively, and the vulnerabilities during these months were higher for the droughts at 6–12 months scales. Twelve months was the optimal (most vulnerable) drought scale for the shrublands and grasslands and the secondary drought scale for the savannas/woody savannas. Further analysis of the vulnerability of vegetation to 12 months drought found that it generally increased with the increase of the drought magnitude (duration or intensity) to some peak values and then decreased. However, the vulnerability of forests and savannas/woody savannas increased with the drought intensity. Results would help for the drought risk assessment of vegetation in CA.
Open Systems: A Double Categorical Perspective

Author(s): Courser, Kenny | Advisor(s): Baez, John C | Abstract: Fong has developed a compositional framework by the name of \emph{decorated cospans} that is well-suited for modeling `open' networks and systems. In this framework, open networks are seen as the morphisms of a category and can be composed as such allowing larger open networks to be built up from smaller ones. Much work has already been done in this direction, and is where the story of this dissertation starts. During the process of my first work to promote Fong's theory of decorated cospan categories to decorated cospan \emph{bicategories}, it was noticed that the morphisms which made up these decorated cospan categories had a certain unexpected and stringent characterization to them. From this observation, one of the main frameworks of the present thesis, namely `structured cospans', was conceived by John Baez. The main version of the Structured cospans framework utilizes `double categories' which are similar in flavor to bicategories in that they have a 2-dimensional structure to them. Shortly thereafter, we decided to revisit Fong's decorated cospan machinery also from the perspective of double categories to improve the original decorated cospans framework. Much work in this thesis is built on the foundations of double categories, and while working with both the structured cospans and decorated cospans frameworks, a double category of open Markov processes was also built in which `coarse-grainings' appear as 2-morphisms and are shown to be compatible with `black-boxing'.
Protein Engineering of Dihydrofolate Reductase. Improved Catalytic Step of Mutant-Enzymes

Two site-specific mutations on dihydrofolate reductase from Escherichia coli have been carried out at the Phe-31 site. From the crystallographic structure the Phe-31 is located at the dihydrofolate binding site and interacts with both the pteridine ring and the p-aminobenzoyl moiety of the substrate. Two mutant enzymes (Phe-31→Tyr and Val) have been purified to homogeneity and characterized by steady-state kinetics. The two mutations are aimed at assessing the hydrophobic interaction between the phenyl ring and the aromatic ring moiety of the substrate. Despite the fact that the first mutation has introduced a polar Tyr-group into a hydrophobic binding site, the Michaelis constant KDHF (KM with saturating NADPH and varying dihydrofolate) has increased only five-fold. The second mutation (Phe-31 →Val-31) results in a 25-fold increase in KDHF. More importantly, the maximum velocity of both mutant enzymes has increased more than 100%, indicating that these are better enzymes under the condition of [substrate.
Intermediate features are not useful for tone perception

Many theories assume that speech perception is done by first extracting features like the distinctive features, tonal features or articulatory gestures before recognizing phonetic units such as segments and tones. But it is unclear how exactly extracted features can lead to effective phonetic recognition. In this study we explore this issue by using support vector machine (SVM), a supervised machine learning model, to simulate the recognition of Mandarin tones from F 0 in continuous speech. We tested how well a five-level system or a binary distinctive features system can identify Mandarin tones by training the SVM model with F 0 trajectories with reduced temporal and frequency resolutions. At full resolution, the recognition rates were 97% and 86% based on the semitone and Hertz scales, respectively. At reduced temporal resolution, there was no clear decline in recognition rate until two points per syllable. At reduced frequency resolution, the recognition rate dropped rapidly: by the level with 5 bands, the accuracy was around 40% based on both Hertz and semitone scales. These results suggest that intermediate featural representations provide no benefit for tone recognition, and are unlikely to be critical for tone perception.
Nanotechnological Approaches in Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Disease Management

Every year approximately 30–50% of crops suffer with different kinds of biotic stresses. Rapidly growing agrochemical industries and their diverse products make the environment more toxic and simultaneously hazardous for plant heath and soil health. Such types of agrochemicals are toxic, hazardous, carcinogenic, non-eco-friendly. Therefore, this is the ideal time to think about some more effective alternatives against those problems. Nanotechnological approaches bring the alternatives in the form of decreasing toxicity, improving shelf-life, increasing solubility for poorly water-soluble agrochemicals, minimum use with maximum effect, slow leaching efficiency with long-term effect with coupling of eco-friendly naturalistic way. The way of nanoparticle application in agriculture, specifically disease management, is unique, where it can be used singly or by coupling with fungicidal, herbicidal, insecticidal, RNA-interference molecules. Though it has such a positive impact, very few products will be commercially available in our market due to high price of particular products and well-established long field trial efficacy detection among insect, pest-pathogen, and environment. Application of nanomolecules in other progressive fields has been emerging, whereas advancement in agricultural applications needs to be boosted up through skilled knowledge transfer and basic understanding of its fundamental aspect.
Neutral Lipids Present in Starch of Uruchi and Mochi Rice

The total lipid contents of rice starch were 1.30 and 0.92%, and the ratios of neutral lipid to polar lipid were 56:44, and 77:23 in the case of Urichi and Mochi, respectively. The main classes of neutral lipids were free fatty acids, triglycerides, free sterols and sterolesters. The major components of free fatty acids and triglycerides were linoleic, palmitic and oleic acids. Among the component fatty acids of rice starch triglycerides, palmitic acid occupied almost exclusively 1-C and 3-C positions, 2-C position was rich in linoleic acid, and oleic acid was equally distributed in 1-C, 2-C and 3-C positions. The fatty acids in Uruchi triglycerides were symmetrically distributed in 1-C and 3-C positions, but Mochi triglycerides were of asymmetrical distribution. There was no appreciable difference in the sterol compositions of free sterols and sterolesters.
Feed efficiency, ruminal activity, and effects on some blood constituents of early weaned calves.

Abstract Twenty-seven three-day-old bull calves were distributed among two groups: 1) Control calves were weaned at 87 days and received 270kg whole milk and 2) calves in Group 2 were weaned at 31 days and given 115kg whole milk plus a calf starter ration consisting mainly of sorghum seeds, sesame cake, dry alfalfa leaves, and cane sugar. The control calves made more efficient gains than the early weaned ones. The system of early weaning saved about $25.50 per calf compared with the cost of rearing the control calves for the same period. The early weaned calves were superior to those normally weaned in utilizing roughage after weaning. The results of rumen microbial activity and blood constituents showed: 1) Total volatile fatty acids increased with age in the two groups and were higher in the early weaned calves; 2) there were no differences between the two groups in concentrations of ruminal ammonia and blood urea and ammonia nitrogen. Some parallelism was evident between changes in ammonia N in the rumen and blood urea and ammonia N; and 3) inoculation with rumen contents resulted in establishing active populations of ciliate protozoa in only the early weaned calves.