Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermal Stability and Detonation Characteristics of Pressed and Elastic Explosives on the Basis of Selected Cyclic

bicyclo-hmX (cis-1,3,4,6-tetranitro-octahydroimidazo-[4,5-d] imidazole or bChmX) was studied as a plastic explosive bonded with the C4 matrix and with Viton A. Also a series of nitramines namely rDX (1,3,5-trinitro1,3,5-triazinane), hmX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane) and hNIW (ε-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane, ε-Cl-20) were studied for comparison with the same types of binders. The detonation velocity, D, of all prepared mixtures was measured. Their thermal stability was determined using *) Presented in a part at the 13th Seminar NTrEm, University of Pardubice, April 2010 218 A. Elbeih et al. non-isothermal differential thermal analysis (DTA). While the C4 matrix lowers the thermal stability of the resulting explosives, Viton A enhances this stability. Approximate relationships between the peaks of exothermic decomposition and the D values were found. The detonation parameters were also calculated by means of kamlet & Jacobs method, ChEETAh and improved EXPlO5 code for all the mixtures. From the measured D values and the calculated detonation parameters, it is obvious that the detonation parameters of bChmX-mixtures are very close to hmX-explosives and better than those of rDX-mixtures. It was found that the C4 matrix reduces the difference between the values of energy of detonation in the studied C4 mixtures. As expected, the pressed hNIW-Viton A mixture has the highest detonation parameters of all of the prepared mixtures.
The Correlation between Some Nutritional Components with Total Antioxidant Capacity (Measured with Six Different Assays) in Eight Horticultural Commodities

The contents of total soluble phenolics (TSP), vitamin C, vitamin E, β-carotene and total carotenoids (TC) in eight fruits have been correlated with the antioxidant capacity (AC) of hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts measured by six different antioxidant assays (DMPD, DPPH, FRAP, ORAC, TEAC, TOSC). Guava had the highest TSP content, followed by black sapote, strawberry, prickly pear cladodes (nopal), avocado, prickly pear fruit, and papaya. Guava fruit had the highest vitamin C content, whereas the lower levels were found in black sapote and nopal. Ascorbic acid was the main contributor to the total vitamin C content (>85%), with exception of nopal and avocado. Evaluated fruits showed significant differences in vitamin E content, with the exception of mango and strawberry, without differences between them, and the highest content was in black sapote, followed by avocado, guava, nopal, mango, strawberry, papaya and prickly pear fruit. Mango had the highest β-carotene and TC, and prickly pear fruit, guava, and strawberry had the lowest TC. In relation with AC, values of hydrophilic extracts ranged from 78.9 to 6230.6 mmol of trolox equivalents (TE)/100 g with DPPH assay; 798.4 to 15420.4 mmol TE/100 g with DMPD assay; 257.1 to 7482.9 mmol TE/100 g with FRAP assay; 330.4 to 8591 mmol TE/100 g with ORAC assay; 222.1 to 2243.8 mmol TE/100 g with TEAC assay; and from 2055.5 to 8235.6 mmol TE/100 g with TOSC assay. Lipophilic values ranged from 0 to 91.2 mmol TE/100 g with DPPH assay; 0 to 145.2 mmol TE/100 g with DMPD assay; 8.4 to 31.8 mmol TE/100 g with TEAC assay; and from 13.7 to 61 mmol TE/100 g with TOSC assay. In general, lipophilic values were <5% of the hydrophilic values except for a very few samples. The hydrophilic extract of guava had the major value when evaluated with DMPD, DPPH, FRAP, TEAC and TOSC assays; whereas with the ORAC assay, black sapote was the major one. On the other hand, the hydrophilic extracts of papaya and prickly pear fruit presented the lowest values of AC with all used assays. Regression analysis revealed that the content of TSP and vitamin C were highly correlated with the AC of hydrophilic extracts evaluated by the six assays. On the other hand, only the AC of the lipophilic extracts, evaluated by the DMPD assay, was highly correlated with the content of β-carotene and TC.
Corticotrophin-Releasing Factor Modulates Cerebellar Purkinje Cells Simple Spike Activity in Vivo in Mice

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a major neuromodulator that modulates cerebellar neuronal activity via CRF receptors during stress responses. In the cerebellar cortex, CRF dose-dependently increases the simple spike (SS) firing rate of Purkinje cells (PCs), while the synaptic mechanisms of this are still unclear. We here investigated the effect of CRF on the spontaneous SS activity of cerebellar PCs in urethane-anesthetized mice by in vivo electrophysiological recording and pharmacological methods. Cell-attached recordings from PCs showed that micro-application of CRF in cerebellar cortical molecular layer induced a dose-dependent increase in SS firing rate in the absence of GABAA receptor activity. The CRF-induced increase in SS firing rate was completely blocked by a nonselective CRF receptor antagonist, α-helical CRF-(9–14). Nevertheless, application of either a selective CRF-R1 antagonist, BMS-763534 (BMS, 200 nM) or a selective CRF-R2 antagonist, antisauvagine-30 (200 nM) significantly attenuated, but failed to abolished the CRF-induced increase in PCs SS firing rate. In vivo whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from PCs showed that molecular layer application of CRF significantly increased the frequency, but not amplitude, of miniature postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs). The CRF-induced increase in the frequency of mEPSCs was abolished by a CRF-R2 antagonist, as well as protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitors. These results suggested that CRF acted on presynaptic CRF-R2 of cerebellar PCs resulting in an increase of glutamate release through PKA signaling pathway, which contributed to modulation of the cerebellar PCs outputs in Vivo in mice.
In vitro evaluation of decontamination effects on mechanical properties of fibrin membrane

Background: Tissue engineering has been investigated as a potential method for healing traumatized tissues. Biomaterials are material devices or implants used to repair or replace native body tissues and organs. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of decontamination methods on biological/mechanical properties and degradation/adhesion test of the platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) membranes to compare these properties with intact membranes as a biological biomaterial. Methods: The in vitro degradation tests were conducted by placing the equal sizes of (i) intact PRF membrane, (ii) PRF membrane sterilized by autoclave (iii), ultraviolet (UV), and (iiii) gamma irradiation in phosphate buffer solution on a shaker. The degradation profiles were expressed. Adhesion test was performed by counting adhered mouse fibroblast and sterilized fibrin membrane was compared to normal fibrin membrane by different sterilization methods. Results: The preliminary findings of sterilized PRF membranes showed that UV exposure (p<0.05) and autoclaved fibrin membranes (p<0.01) have significantly lower degradability compared to normal fibrin membranes. Gamma irradiation is similar to normal membrane in degradability. Cell adherence in all groups of fibrin membrane was significantly lower than the group without membrane, but there was no significant difference between intact and sterilized groups of fibrin membranes. Conclusion: Sterilization of fibrin membrane with different protocols does not have any adverse effects on cell adhesion; however, cell adherence is naturally very weak even in normal membranes. Also, it seems that ultraviolet ray polymerizes fibrin filaments and merges them to each other and increases the ability of fibrin membrane against degradation. Autoclaved fibrin membrane content proteins are denatured because of pressure and heat and show an increase in hardness and stability against degradation.
Serial dependence in the perception of visual variance

The recent history of perceptual experience has been shown to influence subsequent perception. Classically, this dependence on perceptual history has been examined in sensory-adaptation paradigms, wherein prolonged exposure to a particular stimulus (e.g., a vertically oriented grating) produces changes in perception of subsequently presented stimuli (e.g., the tilt aftereffect). More recently, several studies have investigated the influence of shorter perceptual exposure with effects, referred to as serial dependence, being described for a variety of low- and high-level perceptual dimensions. In this study, we examined serial dependence in the processing of dispersion statistics, namely variance—a key descriptor of the environment and indicative of the precision and reliability of ensemble representations. We found two opposite serial dependences operating at different timescales, and likely originating at different processing levels: A positive, Bayesian-like bias was driven by the most recent exposures, dependent on feature-specific decision making and appearing only when high confidence was placed in that decision; and a longer lasting negative bias—akin to an adaptation aftereffect—becoming manifest as the positive bias declined. Both effects were independent of spatial presentation location and the similarity of other close traits, such as mean direction of the visual variance stimulus. These findings suggest that visual variance processing occurs in high-level areas but is also subject to a combination of multilevel mechanisms balancing perceptual stability and sensitivity, as with many different perceptual dimensions.
Physiological responses to acute hypoxia and indictors of acute mountain sickness in males

Currently, acute hypoxia and the underlying mechanisms of acute mountain sickness (AMS) have not been characterized. Here, we investigated the responses of the cardiopulmonary system and cerebral blood flow (CBF) to acute hypoxia and the related compensatory factors for AMS. A total of 123 healthy young male subjects were recruited in Chengdu (500 m) and arrived in Lhasa (3700 m) by plane. Demographic information was recorded within 24 h after their arrival. Physiological parameters and AMS symptoms were measured at resting conditions. The incidence of AMS was 58.5% (72/123) after acute exposure to 3700 m. The AMS group had significant increases in cardiac output (CO), heart rate (HR), epinephrine, norepinephrine and lower oxygen saturation (SaO2) and significant differences in electrocardiographic parameters and tricuspid regurgitation pressure compared with the non-AMS group (all P-values < 0.05). Combining indicators including HR ≥ 85/min, MCAv (Middle cerebral artery flow velocity) ≥ 66 cm/s, SaO2 ≤ 88% and tricuspid regurgitation (TR) pressure ≥ 25 mmHg can contribute to AMS diagnosis, with a positive predictive value and specificity of 97.87% and 98.04%, respectively. HR (≥ 85/min), MCAv (≥ 66 cm/s), SaO2 (≤ 88%) and TR pressure (≥ 25 mmHg) are the key compensatory factors for DO2 (oxygen delivery) and may play a key role in the physiological responses involved in the acclimatization to acute hypoxia. These factors may be related to the mechanism of AMS development and can be used as objective indicators for AMS diagnosis.
Occurrence of Ochratoxin a in Animal Tissues and Feeds in Poland in 2014–2016

Abstract Introduction: Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a toxic metabolite mainly produced by Aspergillus spp. and Penicillum spp. fungi. Research on the contamination of cereals, complete feeds, and tissues with this mycotoxin has indicated that it can be a toxicological problem impacting animal health and food safety in temperate climes. OTA contamination mainly besets the global pig industry, necessitating the monitoring of feeds and animal tissues. The aim of the study was to present the results of the official monitoring of OTA in animal tissues and feeds in Poland in 2014–2016 and determine the possible correlation between the presence of OTA in different types of samples. Material and Methods: The presence of ochratoxin A was determined using accepted procedures based on liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection after immunoaffinity column clean-up. Determination of OTA was afforded in the range of 0.3 μg/kg to 300 μg/kg in complete feeds and from 0.2 μg/kg to 150 μg/kg in the kidneys, liver, and muscles. Results: Over the three year span, about 23.5% of the animal tissues samples were contaminated by ochratoxin A. In the 2014 survey, 10% of the sample tissues contained 5–10 μg/kg (only one sample above 10 μg/kg), and in 2015 and 2016, 24% of samples showed levels above the limit of quantification 0.2 μg/kg, while none of the samples exceeded the established provisional action level of 5 μg/kg for animal tissues. The animal feed analysis showed that 9% was contaminated with ochratoxin A above the limit of quantification of 0.3μg/kg. In 2% of feed samples the OTA concentration was greater than 50 μg/kg. Conclusion: The results confirm the appropriacy of OTA contamination monitoring and help to increase food safety.
Spatial Modulation for Molecular Communication

In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient spatial modulation-based molecular communication (SM-MC) scheme, in which a transmitted symbol is composed of two parts, i.e., a space derived symbol and a concentration derived symbol. The space symbol is transmitted by embedding the information into the index of a single activated transmitter nanomachine. The concentration symbol is drawn according to the conventional concentration shift keying (CSK) constellation. Benefiting from a single active transmitter during each symbol period, SM-MC can avoid the inter-link interference problem existing in the current multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) based MC schemes, which hence enables low-complexity symbol detection and performance improvement. Correspondingly, we propose a low-complexity scheme, which first detects the space symbol by energy comparison, and then detects the concentration symbol by the maximum ratio combining assisted CSK demodulation. In this paper, we analyze the symbol error rate (SER) of the SM-MC and of its special case, namely the space shift keying-based MC (SSK-MC), where only space symbol is transmitted and no CSK modulation is invoked. Finally, the analytical results are validated by computer simulations. Our studies demonstrate that both the SSK-MC and SM-MC are capable of achieving better SER performance than the conventional MIMO-MC and single-input single-output-based MC, when given the same symbol rate.
Variational Bayesian dropout: pitfalls and fixes

Dropout, a stochastic regularisation technique for training of neural networks, has recently been reinterpreted as a specific type of approximate inference algorithm for Bayesian neural networks. The main contribution of the reinterpretation is in providing a theoretical framework useful for analysing and extending the algorithm. We show that the proposed framework suffers from several issues; from undefined or pathological behaviour of the true posterior related to use of improper priors, to an ill-defined variational objective due to singularity of the approximating distribution relative to the true posterior. Our analysis of the improper log uniform prior used in variational Gaussian dropout suggests the pathologies are generally irredeemable, and that the algorithm still works only because the variational formulation annuls some of the pathologies. To address the singularity issue, we proffer Quasi-KL (QKL) divergence, a new approximate inference objective for approximation of high-dimensional distributions. We show that motivations for variational Bernoulli dropout based on discretisation and noise have QKL as a limit. Properties of QKL are studied both theoretically and on a simple practical example which shows that the QKL-optimal approximation of a full rank Gaussian with a degenerate one naturally leads to the Principal Component Analysis solution.
Metabolomics Usefulness in Mosquito Borne Infectious Disease

Metabolism is an important biological process in any living things. The normal physiology links to normal metabolism whereas the disease and pathology is usually related to abnormal metabolism. Hence, understanding metabolism is a basic step for understanding any disease. To study metabolism, the classical way is based on the classical physiological and biochemical approach. That approach requires times and attempt in in vitro and in vivo studies. Due to the influx of new biomedical technology, in silico approach becomes the new approach in medicine. The bioinformatics is the approach based on computational approach and is the direct way for the in silico study. There are many new bioinformatics techniques such as genomics and proteomics. Of several new bioinformatics, the metabolomics is the new omics science focusing on metabolism via computational analysis of metabolome. Metabolomics is an important new bioinformatics technology that can be applied in medicine. The tracking on metabolism is the main approach of metabolomics that can be useful for diagnostic and therapeutic purpose. The application in tropical medicine is possible. The usefulness of metabolomics in mosquito borne infectious disease should be mentioned. Birungi et al., mentioned for the “application of metabolomics to improve understanding of the effect of dengue infection on endothelial cells’ metabolome [1]. ” With use of metabolomics, “expressive predominancy of amino acids, organic acids, carbohydrates, nucleosides, lipids, fatty acids, and derivatives” can be studied [2].
A Bayesian Probabilistic Approach to Hybrid Localization with GNSS and LTE-OTDOA in Multipath Channels

For time-of-arrival (TOA) localization, the channel bias introduced by unresolvable multipath and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) reflections severely degrades the performance. To address this impairment, Perez-Cruz et al. proposed a Bayesian probabilistic approach, which characterizes the channel bias with a probability distribution such that it can be robustly compensated, and illustrated its effectiveness for Long Term Evolution (LTE) - observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning. In this work, we generalize this Bayesian probabilistic approach to hybrid positioning with both global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and LTE-OTDOA. Using actual over-the-air measurement data in mixed indoor and outdoor scenarios, we demonstrate that based on some robust channel bias distributions the proposed hybrid localization algorithm achieves better positioning accuracy compared with the probabilistic algorithm considering LTE-OTDOA or GNSS only. It also significantly outperforms a baseline hybrid positioning algorithm using the well-known nonlinear least squares (NLS) techniques.
Motivated Cognition: Neural and Computational Mechanisms of Curiosity, Attention, and Intrinsic Motivation

Based on a synthesis of findings from psychology, neuroscience, and machine learning, we propose a unified theory of curiosity as a form of motivated cognition. Curiosity, we propose, is comprised of a family of mechanisms that range in complexity from simple heuristics based on novelty, salience, or surprise, to drives based on reward and uncertainty reduction and finally, to self-directed metacognitive processes. These mechanisms, we propose, have evolved to allow agents to discover useful regularities in the world ! steering them toward niches of maximal learning progress and away from both random and highly familiar tasks. We emphasize that curiosity arises organically in conjunction with cogni- tion and motivation, being generated by cognitive processes and in turn, motivating them. We hope that this view will spur the systematic study of curiosity as an integral aspect of cognition and decision making during development and adulthood.
Sparse Channel Estimation for Massive MIMO-OFDM Systems Over Time-Varying Channels

For downlink orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-based massive multiple-input-multiple-output transmission over the time-varying channel, channel estimation is very challenging due to numerous channel coefficients to be estimated. To track this problem, this paper proposes a novel sparse channel estimation scheme, exploiting the sparsity in the delay domain and the high correlation in the spatial domain. By utilizing the basis expansion model (BEM) to model the time variation and the generalized-spatial BEM to model the spatial correlation, we are able to significantly reduce the number of the coefficients to be estimated. Then, the channel estimation is formulated into a compressive sensing problem with a quasi-block-sparse matrix to be recovered. Motivated by the quasi-block sparsity, a novel quasi-block simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit (QBSO) algorithm is developed to recover the channel, which seeks nonzero channel tap positions at the first stage and calculates the channel coefficients at the second stage. Moreover, an adaptive-QBSO algorithm is further designed to improve the recovery accuracy, where the measurement matrix is adaptively designed based on the estimated virtual angle of departure, and thus, the sparsity representation can be strengthened. We also discuss the design of pilot pattern including pilot values and positions. Simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of our proposed channel estimation scheme.
Endophytic bacteria from tomato and their efficacy against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, the wilt pathogen

Endophytic bacteria have been found in virtually every plant studied, in which they are reported to help in plant growth promotion and fight against plant pathogens in addition to contribution to yield of crop plants. The colonies of endophytes in the internal tissues also produce a variety of natural products which could be exploited for potential pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial use. Bacterial endophytes were isolated from surface sterilized root, stem, leaves and fruits of healthy tomato plants. Several isolates belonging to four bacterial genera viz., Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella and Citrobacter were obtained and identified using standard biochemical methods. Of the bacterial endophytes isolated in the study, only 50% of the isolates showed antagonistic activity against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, the pathogen causing wilt disease in tomato. Bacterial metabolites like siderophore, hydrogen cyanide, indole acetic acid and salicylic acid in the culture media were studied. The result showed that comparatively the maximum quantity of siderophore (53.6%), hydrogen cyanide (45%), and salicylic acid (48.7%) was produced by Pseudomonas and indole acetic acid (48.2%) by Bacillus. Among the isolated endophytes, Pseudomonas was found to exhibit superior antagonistic activity against the test pathogen.
Spatial Distribution Pattern of The Fruit Fly, Bactrocera Dorsalis Complex (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Mango Orchard

The spatial distribution of Bactrocera dorsalis complex in the mango orchard that was analyzed using various mathematical indices dispersion and regression models showed an aggregated distribution. Taylor’s power law and Iwao’s regression model fitted well to all data sets. However, Iwao’s regression model fitted the data better, yielding higher values of R 2 than Taylor’s power law. As the regression of the reciprocal of k of negative binomial (1/ k ) on x [ k = ( x 2 – s 2 /n) / ( s 2 – x )] was not significant, the calculation of a common k was justified to be 1.30. This implies that the grade of aggregation of the fruit flies population was relatively constant throughout the time despite the variation in sample means. Since the clump size (λ) value was more than 2, the aggregated distribution might be due to the behavior and environmental factors working together. Keywords: Bactrocera dorsalis complex, spatial, distribution, trapping, mango