Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen pools and fluxes in diversified cropping systems

Achieving high crop yields requires a large supply of plant available nitrogen (N), yet losses of inorganic N from agriculture are deleterious to environmental quality. A significant portion of agricultural N losses could be prevented if large soil inorganic N pools were not needed to satisfy crop N demand. Alternative N management strategies that consider N fluxes like gross N mineralization in addition to N pools should be investigated, as they could conceivably reduce the size of soil inorganic N pools while still providing sufficient N for crop production. Diversified cropping systems may be able to utilize such alternative N management strategies to reduce N losses and increase crop productivity. Characterization of the effects of cropping systems on crop N uptake, soil inorganic N pools, and N fluxes will enable testing of the importance of N dynamics in diverse compared to simple cropping systems. Understanding the relative rates of crop N uptake and inorganic N production by mineralization of soil organic matter could determine the potential for internal N cycling to fulfill crop N demand. Furthermore, if consistent and easy to measure predictors of N mineralization could be identified, estimations of N mineralization could be widely utilized for both research and agricultural management purposes. The Marsden Farm cropping systems experiment compares diverse and simple corn (Zea mays)-based cropping systems, and is utilized here to investigate the effects of cropping systems on N pools and fluxes. Over a 12-year period, corn grown in diversified cropping systems required 5.7-fold less synthetic N fertilizer than corn grown in a simple cropping system, yet yielded 4% more grain. It is also likely that nitrate leaching was
Origins of the plume hypothesis and some of its implications

In contrast to Sleep I spent considerable time early in my career attempting to prove the existence of plumes and to rationalize the numerous paradoxes and failures of predictions. By 1987, I had found the plume hypothesis to be contrived and wanting (Anderson, 1981-1987) and had started to develop alternative models involving mantle heterogeneity, fertile diapirs (‘chemical plumes’) and an asthenosphere near or above the solidus. Early plume advocates dismissed alternatives but these were mainly propagating crack models, involving homogeneous cold mantle. The mantle was assumed to be isothermal and to require importation of core heat in order to melt, except at ridges and arcs. A complete theory of mantle magmatism requires treatment of both the lithosphere and the underlying mantle. If the mantle is assumed to be homogeneous and isothermal, and to be well below the melting point (standard assumptions in the plume hypothesis) then one’s attention is naturally drawn to the lower mantle and core. But when the effects of pressure are considered (which Sleep ignores) then there are also problems with the deep thermal and bottom-up explanations for surface magmatism. Narrow thermal plumes do not spontaneously form in realistic non-Boussinesq mantles and one is forced to either just assume that they exist, as Sleep does, or to force them to exist by injecting hot fluids into a tank of fluid (in the absence of realistic pressure gradients).
Effect of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Roots on Movement of Atrazine and Alachlor Through Soil

A column leaching study was conducted in a greenhouse to determine the movement of atrazine and alachlor through soil as affected by alfalfa roots in three stages of decay. Alfalfa was grown in soil columns for 6 months and then killed with glyphosate. The 14C-atrazine and 14C-alachlor were applied to soil columns with bromide following 2, 13, or 26 weeks of root decomposition. Most of the herbicide remained in the top 9 cm of soil. However, atrazine and alachlor soil distribution profiles indicated greater preferential movement in columns with roots than in columns without roots. Higher levels of atrazine and alachlor were bound to soil at lower depths in the presence of roots than without roots. Adsorption of atrazine and alachlor on soil with and without alfalfa roots was not significantly different as determined by Freundlich adsorption isotherms. Degradation rates for atrazine and alachlor were not substantially different between soil with and without roots. Although only small amounts of the applied herbicide leached through the columns, preferential flow of herbicides through root-mediated soil macropores and cracks could be a mechanism of herbicide transport through soil under appropriate conditions.
Comparative proteomic analysis of human milk fat globules and paired membranes and mouse milk fat globules identifies core cellular systems contributing to mammary lipid trafficking and secretion

Introduction: Human milk delivers critical nutritional and immunological support to human infants. Milk fat globules (MFGs) and their associated membranes (MFGMs) contain the majority of milk lipids and many bioactive components that contribute to neonatal development and health, yet their compositions have not been fully defined, and the mechanisms responsible for formation of these structures remain incompletely understood. Methods: In this study, we used untargeted mass spectrometry to quantitatively profile the protein compositions of freshly obtained MFGs and their paired, physically separated MFGM fractions from 13 human milk samples. We also quantitatively profiled the MFG protein compositions of 9 pooled milk samples from 18 lactating mouse dams. Results: We identified 2,453 proteins and 2,795 proteins in the majority of human MFG and MFGM samples, respectively, and 1,577 proteins in mouse MFGs. Using paired analyses of protein abundance in MFGMs compared to MFGs (MFGM-MFG; 1% FDR), we identified 699 proteins that were more highly abundant in MFGMs (MFGM-enriched), and 201 proteins that were less abundant in MFGMs (cytoplasmic). MFGM-enriched proteins comprised membrane systems (apical plasma membrane and multiple vesicular membranes) hypothesized to be responsible for lipid and protein secretion and components of membrane transport and signaling systems. Cytoplasmic proteins included ribosomal and proteasomal systems. Comparing abundance between human and mouse MFGs, we found a positive correlation (R 2 = 0.44, p < 0.0001) in the relative abundances of 1,279 proteins that were found in common across species. Discussion: Comparative pathway enrichment analyses between human and mouse samples reveal similarities in membrane trafficking and signaling pathways involved in milk fat secretion and identify potentially novel immunological components of MFGs. Our results advance knowledge of the composition and relative quantities of proteins in human and mouse MFGs in greater detail, provide a quantitative profile of specifically enriched human MFGM proteins, and identify core cellular systems involved in milk lipid secretion.
Positive Association of TEAD1 With Schizophrenia in a Northeast Chinese Han Population

Objective Schizophrenia is a complex and devastating psychiatric disorder with a strong genetic background. However, much uncertainty still exists about the role of genetic susceptibility in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. TEA domain transcription factor 1 (TEAD1) is a transcription factor associated with neurodevelopment and has modulating effects on various nervous system diseases. In the current study, we performed a case–control association study in a Northeast Chinese Han population to explore the characteristics of pathogenic TEAD1 polymorphisms and potential association with schizophrenia. Methods We recruited a total of 721 schizophrenia patients and 1,195 healthy controls in this study. The 9 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene region of TEAD1 were selected and genotyped. Results The genetic association analyses showed that five SNPs (rs12289262, rs6485989, rs4415740, rs7113256, and rs1866709) were significantly different between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls in allele or/and genotype frequencies. After Bonferroni correction, the association of three SNPs (rs4415740, rs7113256, and rs1866709) with schizophrenia were still evident. Haplotype analysis revealed that two strong linkage disequilibrium blocks (rs6485989-rs4415740-rs7113256 and rs16911710-rs12364619-rs1866709) were globally associated with schizophrenia. Four haplotypes (C-C-C and T-T-T, rs6485989-rs4415740-rs7113256; G-T-A and G-T-G, rs16911710-rs12364619-rs1866709) were significantly different between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Conclusion The current findings indicated that the human TEAD1 gene has a genetic association with schizophrenia in the Chinese Han population and may act as a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia.
Contingent negative variation as an evaluation indicator of neurocognitive disorder after traumatic brain injury

Introduction Neurocognitive disorders are commonly observed in patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods to assess neurocognitive disorders have thus drawn the general attention of the public, especially electrophysiology parameter such as contingent negative variation (CNV), which has been given more emphasis as a neurophysiological marker in event-related potentials (ERPs) for diagnosing a neurocognitive disorder and assessing its severity. The present study focused on the correlations between CNV parameters and levels of daily living activities and social function to explore the potential of CNV as an objective assessment tool. Methods Thirty-one patients with a diagnosis of neurocognitive disorder after a TBI according to ICD-10 were enrolled as the patient group, and 24 matched healthy volunteers were enrolled as the control group. The activity of daily living scale, functional activities questionnaire, social disability screening schedule, and scale of personality change following TBI were used to assess daily living activity and social function. Results The scale scores in patients were significantly higher than those in controls. Maximum amplitudes before S2 and during the post-imperative negative variation (PINV) period were also significantly higher in the patient group compared to the control group and were positively correlated with four scale scores. The duration of PINV at Fz and Cz was significantly shorter in the patient group than in the control group. The CNV return to baseline from a positive wave at electrode Fz and Cz occurred significantly earlier in the control group than in the patient group, while at Pz, the result showed the opposite. Conclusion Lower amplitudes of CNV were associated with more severe neurocognitive disorder and greater impairments in daily life abilities and social function. The duration of PINV and the latency of returning to baseline from a positive wave were correlated with the neurocognitive disorder to some extent. CNV could be used as an objective, electrophysiology-based parameter for evaluating the severity of the neurocognitive disorder and personality changes after TBI.
Dietary Strategies to Reduce Triglycerides in Women of Reproductive Age: A Simulation Modelling Study

Many women of reproductive age have poor diet quality and are at higher risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes. Triglycerides are a critical risk factor for chronic diseases, and although they can be influenced by diet, there are minimal dietary intervention studies identifying key foods/food groups that reduce triglycerides. We performed data simulation modelling to estimate the potential reductions in fasting triglycerides that could be achieved by different dietary strategies in reproductive age women. The model was created using data from the 2011–2013 Australian Health Survey and incorporated various factors such as demographics, nutrient intake, and plasma biomarkers. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to estimate triglyceride levels, considering nutrient intake and pre-determined covariates. Dietary scenarios were developed, reducing the consumption of processed/ultra-processed foods, while increasing the intake of minimally processed foods like fruits, vegetables, fish, and nuts. A total of 606 women were included. Reducing processed foods by 50% plus increasing intakes of fruits (75–225 g/day), vegetables (75–225 g/day), or nuts (10–40 g/day) decreased triglycerides by up to 4.3%. Additionally, incorporating 80 g/day of omega 3 fish (>800 mg long-chain omega 3/100 g) decreased triglycerides by 8.2%. The clinical relevance of lowering triglycerides for cardiometabolic disease management should be tested in dietary intervention studies in women.
A Novel Framework to Use Association Rule Mining for classification of traffic accident severity

Introduction: Traffic accidents are an undesirable burden on society. Every year around one million deaths and more than ten million injuries are reported due to traffic accidents. Hence, traffic accidents prevention measures must be taken to overcome the accident rate. Different countries have different geographical and environmental conditions and hence the accident factors diverge in each country. Traffic accident data analysis is very useful in revealing the factors that affect the accidents in different countries. This article was written in the year 2016 in the Institute of Technology & Science, Mohan Nagar, Ghaziabad, up, India. Methology: We propose a framework to utilize association rule mining (arm) for the severity classification of traffic accidents data obtained from police records in Mujjafarnagar district, Uttarpradesh, India. Results: The results certainly reveal some hidden factors which can be applied to understand the factors behind road accidentality in this region. Conclusions: The framework enables us to find three clusters from the data set. Each cluster represents a type of accident severity, i.e. fatal, major injury and minor/no injury. The association rules exposed different factors that are associated with road accidents in each category. The information extracted provides important information which can be employed to adapt preventive measures to overcome the accident severity in Muzzafarnagar district.
Application of remote sensing to the study of oak decline in Aragón, Spain

In the early nineties, a case of oak decline was detected in several parts of southern Aragon (Spain). This phenomenon, locally known as seca, has received some attention from foresters and ecologists and different explanations have been proposed: severe climatic episodes, stand ageing or fungal attacks. To analyse the process of oak decline in this region, two Landsat TM-5 images have been used, from 20 August 1993 and 29 September 1996. The first coincides with the period of maximal expression of the decline syndrome. The second, coinciding with an excellent vegetative period, was used as a reference because of the good recovering shown by trees during this year. The study area (400 km2) includes the whole woodlands dominated by Mediterranean and submediterranean oak species, namely Quercus ilex, Q. coccifera, Q. faginea and Q pyrenaica. The comparison of the spectral signature values between the two images, of vegetation index (NDVI) and of green vegetation cover estimated from scaled NDVI has allowed us to confirm that a difference in the stands performance can be clearly detected, showing the critical condition reached by some woodlands during 1993. Although the NDVI values for 1996 are in average higher than in 1993, showing that oak woodland got better through this period, significant differences are found among the different species studied. The syndrome did not reach the same magnitude through the whole area, showing that the seca in this region must be analysed as a local phenomenon.
Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks

A classi er for discrete-valued variable classi cation problems is presented. The system utilizes an information-theoretic algorithm for constructing informative rules from example data. These rules are then used to construct a neural network to perform parallel inference and posterior probability estimation. The network can be `grown' incrementally, so that new data can be incorporated without repeating the training on previous data. It is shown that this technique performs comparably with other techniques such as back-propagation while having unique advantages in incremental learning capability, training e ciency, knowledge representation, and hardware implementation suitability.
The Role of NKG2D and Its Ligands in Autoimmune Diseases: New Targets for Immunotherapy

Natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T cells can clear infected and transformed cells and generate tolerance to themselves, which also prevents autoimmune diseases. Natural killer group 2 member D (NKG2D) is an important activating immune receptor that is expressed on NK cells, CD8+ T cells, γδ T cells, and a very small percentage of CD4+ T cells. In contrast, the NKG2D ligand (NKG2D-L) is generally not expressed on normal cells but is overexpressed under stress. Thus, the inappropriate expression of NKG2D-L leads to the activation of self-reactive effector cells, which can trigger or exacerbate autoimmunity. In this review, we discuss the role of NKG2D and NKG2D-L in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), type I diabetes (T1DM), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and celiac disease (CeD). The data suggest that NKG2D and NKG2D-L play a pathogenic role in some autoimmune diseases. Therefore, the development of strategies to block the interaction of NKG2D and NKG2D-L may have therapeutic effects in some autoimmune diseases.
Decoupling Control of Six-Pole Radial Hybrid Magnetic Bearing Based on Least Square Support Vector Machine Inverse System

In order to solve the problems of the influence of nonlinearity and strong coupling on the control performance of six-pole radial hybrid magnetic bearing (HMB) system, a decoupling control strategy based on least square support vector machine (LSSVM) inverse system is proposed. The structure and operation principle of six-pole radial HMB are introduced, the mathematical model of its suspension force is deduced, and the reversibility of mathematical model is proved. The regression principle of LSSVM is used to approximate the inverse system of the six-pole radial HMB, and the inverse system is connected in series with the original system to form a pseudolinear system, which realizes the linearization and decoupling of six-pole radial HMB system. For the problems of difficulty in tuning the regularization parameter and kernel width of LSSVM, the improved quantum particle swarm optimization (IQPSO) algorithm is proposed to optimize the above parameters. The decoupling simulation system of six-pole radial HMB system is constructed, and the rotor floating, anti-interference, and decoupling performance experiments are conducted to verify the feasibility and reliability of the proposed decoupling control method.
Remote Sensing of Landscape Change in Permafrost Regions

Amplification of global warming in Arctic and boreal regions is causing significant changes to permafrost‐affected landscapes. The nature and extent of the change is complicated by ecological responses that take place across strong gradients in environmental conditions and disturbance regimes. Emerging remote sensing techniques based on a growing array of satellite and airborne platforms that cover a wide range of spatial and temporal scales increasingly allow robust detection of changes in permafrost landscapes. In this review, we summarise recent developments (2010 − 15) in remote sensing applications to detect and monitor landscape changes involving surface temperatures, snow cover, topography, surface water, vegetation cover and structure, and disturbances from fire and human activities. We then focus on indicators of degrading permafrost, including thermokarst lakes and drained lake basins, thermokarst bogs and fens, thaw slumps and active‐layer detachment slides, thermal erosion gullies, thermokarst pits and troughs, and coastal erosion and flooding. Our review highlights the expanding sensor capabilities, new image processing and multivariate analysis techniques, enhanced public access to data and increasingly long image archives that are facilitating novel insights into the multi‐decadal dynamics of permafrost landscapes. Remote sensing methods that appear especially promising for change detection include: repeat light detection and ranging, interferometric synthetic aperture radar and airborne geophysics for detecting topographic and subsurface changes; temporally dense analyses at high spatial resolution; and multi‐sensor data fusion. Remotely sensed data are also becoming used more frequently as driving parameters in permafrost model and mapping schemes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Earth-to-satellite laser long-path absorption measurement of atmospheric trace gases

Laser long-path absorption measurements using ground-based laser transmitters and a receiver on a geosynchronous satellite can be an effective method for observing of atmospheric trace gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) that complement passive satellite sensors and space-borne integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidars. It can be also useful for calibration and validation of passive satellite sensors. The authors conducted experiments using a retroreflector on a polar orbit satellite in 1996. The absorption spectrum of ozone in the 9-μm region was successfully measured using TEA CO2 lasers. However, the optical efficiency of the system and the efficiency of operation were very low, and it was not practical as an operational observation system. One way long-path absorption method to a receiver on a geosynchronous satellite is highly efficient. It does not require a large aperture high-speed satellite-tracking telescope that was required in the retroreflector experiment. Also, the laser power required for the measurement is much lower. In the method using a geosynchronous satellite, the laser transmitters similar to pulsed IPDA lidars can be used for the ground stations. Multiplexing of the measurements from multiple ground stations is possible using time sharing. It would be also possible to apply dual comb spectroscopy, though multiplexing of the measurements is not possible. In this paper, we review the studies on earth-to-satellite laser long-path absorption methods and discuss the feasibility of the method using a geosynchronous satellite.
A Wideband Dual-Polarized Endfire Antenna Array for 5G mm-Wave Smartphones

In this article, a dual-polarized (DP) endfire antenna array is proposed for the 5G smartphone applications. The antenna covers all five defined millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency bands, namely n257, n258, n259, n260, and n261, which are used for mobile communications. Electrical dipole antenna is used to achieve the horizontal polarization (HP), and a parasitic element is included for bandwidth enhancement. A shorted-patch antenna functions as a magnetic dipole facilitating the vertical polarization (VP). Additionally, the broadband operation is realized by a novel stacked structure consisting of two different shorted patches. A four-element antenna array is implemented with overall size of $22.6\times 5\times1.6$ mm3. The operating frequency band of the proposed antenna array spans from 24 to 44 GHz with −10-dB reflection coefficient for both polarizations. The isolation between the array elements remains above 13 dB across the entire frequency band of interest. The peak realized gain varies from 8.4 to 10 dBi, and the spherical coverage at cdf = 100% and cdf = 50% of EIRP are 22.5 and 12.5 dBm, respectively. The measurement results of the fabricated antenna array agree well with the simulation results.