Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Afforestation of Land Abandoned by Farmers Poses Threat to Forest Sustainability Due to Heterobasidion spp.

Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. sensu lato (s.l.) is a dangerous forest pathogen causing root and butt rot disease in most conifers of the northern hemisphere. This pathogen is most widespread in the forests of Europe and North America. The economic impact on forestry related to tree mortality, reduction in timber yield, and wood rot is calculated in millions of dollars and euros. The genus Heterobasidion (Basidiomycota; Russulales) has been relatively recently separated into three genetically distinct groups (H. annosum, H. insulare and H. araucariae) comprising a total of 12 species and one newly described hybrid taxon. These species are the best studied in terms of the ecology, the physiology of control methods, and the tree’s resistance to the pathogen. The article gives an overview of the symptoms and the etiology of the disease and provides information on ways to recognize the disease and limit the economic damage.
A Glimpse into Chromatin Organization and Nuclear Lamina Contribution in Neuronal Differentiation

During embryonic development, stem cells undergo the differentiation process so that they can specialize for different functions within the organism. Complex programs of gene transcription are crucial for this process to happen. Epigenetic modifications and the architecture of chromatin in the nucleus, through the formation of specific regions of active as well as inactive chromatin, allow the coordinated regulation of the genes for each cell fate. In this mini-review, we discuss the current knowledge regarding the regulation of three-dimensional chromatin structure during neuronal differentiation. We also focus on the role the nuclear lamina plays in neurogenesis to ensure the tethering of the chromatin to the nuclear envelope.
Diverse Possibilities of Si-Based Agent, a Unique New Antioxidant

Antioxidant therapy is an effective approach for treating diseases in which oxidative stress is involved in the onset of symptoms. This approach aims to rapidly replenish the antioxidant substances in the body when they are depleted due to excess oxidative stress. Importantly, a supplemented antioxidant must specifically eliminate harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) without reacting with physiologically beneficial ROS, which are important to the body. In this regard, typically used antioxidant therapies can be effective, but may cause adverse effects due to their lack of specificity. We believe that Si-based agents are epoch-making drugs that can overcome these problems associated with current antioxidative therapy. These agents alleviate the symptoms of oxidative-stress-associated diseases by generating large amounts of the antioxidant hydrogen in the body. Moreover, Si-based agents are expected to be highly effective therapeutic drug candidates because they have anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and antioxidant effects. In this review, we discuss Si-based agents and their potential future applications in antioxidant therapy. There have been several reports of hydrogen generation from silicon nanoparticles, but unfortunately, none have been approved as pharmaceutical agents. Therefore, we believe that our research into medical applications using Si-based agents is a breakthrough in this research field. The knowledge obtained thus far from animal models of pathology may greatly contribute to the improvement of existing treatment methods and the development of new treatment methods. We hope that this review will further revitalize the research field of antioxidants and lead to the commercialization of Si-based agents.
Analysis of Integration Technologies for High-Speed Analog Neuromorphic Photonics

While the use of graphic processing units fueled the success of artificial intelligence models, their future evolution will likely require overcoming the speed and energy efficiency limitations of current implementations with the use of specialized neuromorphic hardware. In this scenario, neuromorphic photonic processors have recently proved to be a feasible solution. In this paper, we first discuss basic analog photonic processing elements based on Mach-Zehnder modulators and assess their effective bit resolution. Then we evaluate how different photonic integration technologies affect the performance and the scalability of analog optical processors, in order to provide a clearer path toward real-world implementations of such engines. To this aim, we focus our analysis on the silicon on insulator (SOI), lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), and indium phosphide (InP) platforms. In particular, we have numerically evaluated the performance of the Photonic Electronic Multiply- Accumulate Neuron (PEMAN) and its tensorial version, both based on Mach-Zehnder modulators, with the three technologies in terms of resolution, energy efficiency, and footprint efficiency. LNOI modulators achieve the best resolution at high speed, with 4.3 bits at 56 GMAC/s for the single PEMAN and 3.6 bits at 224 GMAC/S for the tensorial version. The energy consumption in InP and LNOI platforms is the lowest, accounting for just 13.2 pJ/MAC and 4.6 pJ/MAC for the single and tensorial PEMAN, respectively. Nonetheless, SOI devices outperform the others in terms of footprint efficiency, reaching 18.6 GMAC/s/mm$^{2}$ in the single-neuron version and 29.6 GMAC/s/mm$^{2}$ in the tensorial version.
Specific Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides from the Black Soldier Fly in the Midgut of Silkworms (Bombyx mori) Regulates Silkworm Immunity

Simple Summary Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are major components of the insect innate immune system and are involved in multiple antimicrobial and antiviral responses. The black soldier fly is an insect that has received substantial attention in recent years; however, few functional studies on its antimicrobial peptides have been performed. In this study, we specifically induced the expression of the antimicrobial peptide genes HiCG13551 and Hidiptericin-1 of the black soldier fly in the midgut of silkworms. Hidiptericin-1 expression in the midgut of silkworms helped to enhance its immune response and imparted superior resistance against Staphylococcus aureus infection, while HiCG13551 expression in silkworms tended to weaken the antimicrobial effect. In addition, we performed transcriptome sequencing of midgut tissues after S. aureus infection to explore the expression of immune-related genes in the overexpressed strain and found that endogenous antimicrobial peptides, reactive-oxygen-species-related genes, pattern recognition receptors, and immunomodulatory factors were up-regulated in the silkworms due to the transgenic overexpression of Hidiptericin-1. All these results indicated that the ov-AMP49 had better antibacterial activity. Abstract Antimicrobial peptides are molecules with strong antimicrobial activity and are of substantial interest for the immunization of insects. As a type of dipteran insect that can turn organic waste into animal feed, the black soldier fly (BSF) can “turn waste into treasure”. In this study, we investigated the antimicrobial activity of the antimicrobial peptide genes, HiCG13551 and Hidiptericin-1, of BSF in silkworms, by overexpressing the genes specifically in the midgut. Changes in the mRNA levels of the transgenic silkworms after infection with Staphylococcus aureus were evaluated using transcriptome sequencing. The results showed that Hidiptericin-1 had stronger antimicrobial activity than HiCG13551. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes in the transgenic overexpressed Hidiptericin-1 silkworm lines from the D9L strain were mainly enriched in the starch and sucrose metabolism, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, drug metabolism (other enzymes), biotin metabolism, platinum drug resistance, galactose metabolism, and pancreatic secretion pathways. In addition, immune-related genes were up-regulated in this transgenic silkworm strain. Our study may provide new insights for future immune studies on insects.
Experimental Multiport Bicone Antenna

Abstract A practical, easily manufactured multiport bicone antenna suitable for many receiving tasks such as direction finding systems can be made by using sharp-edged metal fins on the feeding coax center conductor to provide a tapered transition and connection path to coaxial probes. This construction resembles an arrow's tail. Already four mutually orthogonal fins can give full 360 degree azimuth coverage with suitable −3 dB port pattern overlap. Five experimental constructions working at Ku and Ka bands, each with fractional bandwidths of 23 to 31 per cent, are shown with full dimensional details. Suitable fin tapering is close to the full air gap in the coax and fin thickness should be less than 1/16th of the outer conductor diameter.
Exploring the Emission Mechanisms of Mrk 180 with Long-term X-Ray and γ-Ray Data

Markarian (Mrk) 180 is a BL Lacertae object located at a redshift of 0.045 and is a potential candidate for high-energy cosmic-ray acceleration. We have analyzed the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) γ-ray data of Mrk 180 collected over a period of 12.8 yr and found no significant enhancement in the flux from the long-term γ-ray light curve. We have also analyzed Swift X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical, and X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) data to construct the multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED). The SED has been modeled with one-zone pure leptonic and lepto-hadronic scenarios to explain the underlying physics of multiwavelength emission. The pure leptonic model and the two lepto-hadronic models, viz., (i) line-of-sight interactions of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs; E ≳ 1017 eV) with the cosmic background radiation and (ii) the interactions of relativistic protons with the cold protons in the jet, have been compared in our work. Moreover, an earlier study has associated Mrk 180 with the Telescope Array (TA) hotspot of UHECRs at E > 57 EeV. This speculation motivates us to check whether ultrahigh-energy protons and iron nuclei can reach the Earth from Mrk 180. After comparing the results of our simulation with the current observational data, we find that Mrk 180 is unlikely to be a source of the UHECR events contributing to the TA hotspot for conservative strengths of extragalactic magnetic fields.
Obscuring Environment and X-Ray Variability of Compact Symmetric Objects Unveiled with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR

Compact symmetric objects (CSOs) show radio features such as jets, lobes, and hot spots, which are contained within their host galaxies, and likely represent a recent radio activity. A subpopulation of CSOs with high intrinsic X-ray column densities has been inferred from shallow, soft X-ray band exposures, and observed to cluster in the linear radio size versus 5 GHz radio power plane, which suggests that a dense circumnuclear medium may dramatically influence the growth of compact radio structures. Here, we report on the first detection of two CSOs, 2021+614 and J1511+0518, at energies above 10 keV with NuSTAR. We model the NuSTAR data jointly with the new XMM-Newton data of J1511+0518, and with the archival XMM-Newton data of 2021+614. A toroidal reprocessor model fits the data well and allows us to robustly confirm the X-ray properties of the CSO absorbers and continuum. In both sources, we find intrinsic X-ray absorbing column densities in excess of 1023 cm−2, hard photon indices of the primary emission, Γ ∼ 1.4–1.7, Fe Kα line emission, and variability of the intrinsic X-ray flux density on the timescale of years. The studied X-ray continua are dominated by the primary power-law emission at energies above 3 keV, and by the scattered component at energies below 3 keV. An additional soft X-ray component, modeled with a hot, collisionally ionized plasma with temperature kT ∼ 1 keV, is required by the XMM-Newton data in J1511+0518, which is corroborated by the tentative evidence for the extension in the archival Chandra image of the source.
Parabolic Equation Method

Parabolic equation method (PEM) represents one-way propagation and is widely used in two-dimensional (2D) radio wave/ground wave propagation modeling. It takes the earth's curvature, atmospheric refractivity variations, nonflat terrain scattering, and boundary losses into account. This chapter reviews both split-step PE (SSPE)- and finite element method (FEM)-based numerical solution approaches and introduces MATLAB-based simple routines. Canonical test cases are presented and systematic comparisons between the SSPE and FEMPE methods are made, followed by calibration of both the SSPE and FEMPE tools against analytical exact (reference) solutions. Finally, the chapter introduces several simple MATLAB scripts in 2D propagation modeling.
RTVue Optical Coherence Tomography as an Imaging Modality for Scleral Thickness

Purpose: To examine RTVue (Optovue, Inc) optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a method for measuring scleral thickness. Methods: A prospective, single-center study of eyes with a variety of ocular diseases (no scleral diseases) was performed to image scleral thickness utilizing the RTVue OCT. Repeated measurements of scleral thickness were performed using a line scan 3 mm from the limbus in the inferior nasal and inferior temporal quadrants of each eye. Obtained values were analyzed statistically. Results: A total of 25 eyes in 14 subjects were measured. An average of 3 measurements per location per eye were taken. The mean scleral thickness 3 mm from the limbus was 654.22 μm. The average standard deviation of the measurements from each location was 30.88 μm. The Original Research Article Cramer et al.; OR, 3(4): 95-99, 2015; Article no.OR. 2015.016 96 boundary of the conjunctiva and sclera was easily distinguishable. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that RTVue high-resolution OCT is a user-friendly modality for measuring scleral thickness.
Base-backstepping Continuous Time-varying Feedback Control of Automatic Magazine with Modelling Uncertainty

This paper proposes a continuous time-varying feedback control based on back-stepping for automatic magazine system, in which the control gains depend on the Lyapunov function to ensure the robustness against modelling uncertainty. The Lyapunov function, which is implicit, is differentiable functions of system error variables. Integrated with backstepping control, the performance of the automation magazine system is greatly improved, while retaining the advantage of only needing to ensure the bounds of disturbances. Lyapunov analysis shows tracking errors of the system are asymptotically stable. In addition, this proposed controller is continuous and has the characteristics of simplicity and practicality, which are beneficial to practical applications. Finally, Numerical simulations are provided to verify the high performance of the controller by comparing the simulation experimental results in automation magazine system.
Particular characteristics of double and triple coincidences spectra for radiative neutron decay

To measure the main characteristics of radiative neutron decay, namely its relative intensity BR (branching ratio), it is necessary to measure the spectra of double coincidences between beta-electron and proton as well as the spectra of triple coincidences of electron, proton and radiative gammaquantum. Analysis of double coincidences spectra requires one to distinguish events of ordinary neutron beta decay from the background; analysis of triple coincidences relies on distinguishing radiative neutron decay from background events. As demonstrated in our first experiment [1], these spectra presented a heterogeneous background that included response peaks related to the registration of electrons and protons by our electronic detection system. The NIST experimental group (emiT group) observed an analogous pattern on the spectrum of double coincidences [2]. The current report is dedicated to the analysis of this heterogeneous background. In particular, this report demonstrates that the use of response function methodology allows to clearly identify radiative neutron decay events and to distinguish them from the background. This methodology enabled us to become the first team to measure the relative intensity of radiative neutron decay B.R. = (3.2±1.6)·10 (where C.L.=99.7% and gamma quanta energy exceeds 35 kev) [1]. In addition, the report emphasizes that the background events on the spectrum of double coincidences are caused by ion registration, and demonstrates that one cannot ignore the ionic background, which is why experiment [3, 4] registered the ions and not recoil protons.
Hypersensitivity Reaction to Ustekinumab in Pediatric and Young Adult Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients: A Case Series

Ustekinumab (UST) is a human IgG1K monoclonal antibody that binds to the p40 receptor subunit bound by cytokines IL-12 and IL-23. It is indicated in both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis as a second-line agent. The safety and efficacy of UST in children and young adults has not been thoroughly studied. We report a case series of six pediatric patients and young adults who developed hypersensitivity reactions during intravenous infusion with UST. These reactions ranged from mild allergic reactions to anaphylaxis, with no detectable antibodies if tested. We hypothesize the reaction could be secondary to ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, which is present solely in the intravenous preparation. Patients who experience hypersensitivity reactions during their UST infusion may safely receive subcutaneous preparations of UST, as demonstrated by some patients who received it based on physician discretion. Further investigation is required to establish the etiology of infusion reactions.
Bariatric surgeries: Outcome throughout an annum at a specialist center in Malaysia

Introduction Malaysia has the highest number of obese and overweight individuals in South-east Asia. The 2019 National Health & Morbidity survey found 50.1% of Malaysians to be overweight or obese with 30.4% being overweight and 19.7% being obese. This has led to the high rise of the bariatric surgeries demand and needs within the nation. Aim & objectives To assess the level of fasting blood sugar (FBS), systolic, diastolic blood pressure, stop BANG score for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and BMI (Body Mass Index) for the patients before and after bariatric surgeries (sleeve/gastric bypass) for a one year follow up period. Material & methods The study was conducted among 1000 patients who underwent a single weight reduction surgery (sleeve/gastric bypass) by a single surgeon at the Cengild Medical Centre between January 2019 to January 2020. They were followed up for a one-year period through recording the parameters of fasting blood sugar (FBS), systolic, diastolic blood pressure, stop BANG score for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and BMI (Body Mass Index). Study was conducted using universal sampling including all subjects visited the centre and a written consent was obtained from each participant. Descriptive statistics with mean was used and paired t-test was used for comparison and test the difference. The STOP-BANG acronym stands for: Snoring history, Tired during the day, Observed stop breathing while sleep, High blood pressure, BMI more than 35 kg/m2, Age more than 50 years, Neck circumference more than 40 cm and male Gender. Results The mean age of patients was 38 years old. Mean FBS for the patients one month before the operation was 10.42 mmol/L and 5.84 three months post procedure. The systolic blood pressure one month before the operation and 3 months after was 139.81 mmHg and 123.79 mmHg, while diastolic blood pressure was 86.84 mmHg and 81.07 mmHg respectively. BMI was reduced from 39.69 to 27.99 after one year from the weight reduction operation. All the above parameters showed a significant reduction between one-month pre operation as compared to 3 months and 12 months post operation and that improved the health parameters of the patients significantly. Conclusion The weight reduction operations showed a significant reduction in the FBS, blood pressure, OSA scores and BMI at 3, 12 months after the operation These patients had better overall health after the significant reduction in these parameters.
Comparing different environmental enrichments for improving the welfare and walking ability of male turkeys

This study investigated age-related changes in turkey welfare measures (wounds, feather quality (FQ), feather cleanliness, and footpad condition (FCON)) and walking ability (gait) as influenced by different types of environmental enrichment (EE). Tom turkeys (n = 420) were randomly assigned to: straw bale (S), platform (P), platform + straw bale (PS), pecking block (B), tunnel (T) or control (C; no enrichment) group. Welfare measures and gait were assessed at 8, 12, 16 and 19 wk and analyzed using PROC LOGISTIC with Firth bias-correction. Better wing FQ with age was observed in turkeys in S and T groups. Turkeys in the S group had better wing FQ at 16 (P = 0.028) and 19 wk (P = 0.011) vs. 8 wk. Wing FQ (P = 0.008) was better at 19 vs. 8 wk for T turkeys. FCON worsened over time for turkeys in all treatment groups except for the S group. FCON was worse at 19 vs.8 wk for P (P = 0.024), PS (P = 0.039), B (P = 0.011), T (P = 0.004) and C (P = 0.014) turkeys and was worse at 19 vs. 12 wk for B (P = 0.038), T (P = 0.015) and C (P = 0.045) turkeys. FCON was worse at 19 vs. 16 wk for T (P = 0.007) and C (P = 0.048) turkeys. FCON was also worse at 16 vs. 8 wk for B (P = 0.046) turkeys. Gait worsened with increasing age in all treatment groups. Gait was worse at 19 wk for S (P < 0.001), P (P < 0.001), PS (P < 0.001) and B turkeys (P < 0.001) vs. earlier ages, while gait in T (P < 0.001) and C turkeys (P < 0.001) worsened starting at 16 wk.