Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Binding mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein with human ACE2 receptor

SARS-CoV-2 virus interacts via C-terminal domain of spike protein to human cell receptor protein hACE2. Amino acid residues residing at the interface play vital role in binding of SARS-CoV-2 CTD to hACE2. The detailed atomic level inves- tigation of interactions at binding interface of SARS-CoV-2 CTD/hACE2 provides indispensable information on better understanding of location for drug target. In the present work, we have studied the dynamical behaviour of the complex by ana- lyzing the molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories. The major interacting residues of SARS-CoV-2 CTD and hACE2 have been identiﬁed by analyzing the non-bonded interactions such as hydrogen bondings, salt bridges, hydrophobic interactions, van der Waals interactions etc. Umbrella sampling method has been used to estimate the binding free energy for in-depth understanding of binding mechanism between virus protein and host receptor. The binding free energy diﬀerence, key residues at the interface, important atomic interactions and contact surface areas have been compared with the molecular complex of SARS-CoV and hACE2. Relatively larger contact surface area, more non-bonded interactions as well as greater binding free energy provide the evidence for favorable binding of SARS-CoV-2 with hACE2 receptor than SARS-CoV.
Attitudes of Arkansas Daily Newspaper Editors Toward Agriculture

The primary purpose of this study was to determine Arkansas daily newspaper editors' attitudes toward agriculture that might affect their decision to print, or not to print, agricultural news. Specifically, this study sought to describe the demographic characteristics of editors of Arkansas daily newspapers; determine editors’ self-reported knowledge level of agriculture, experience in agriculture, and perception of the importance of agricultural issues; and to determine the attitudes of Arkansas daily newspaper editors toward agriculture. The study used a Web-delivered instrument developed by the researcher. The population of the study consisted of the primary editor of each daily newspaper in Arkansas, as identified by Burrelle’s Information Services. Of the editors responding to the questionnaire, 81% were male. The mean reported age was 44.8, with a range of 31 – 59 years. Most editors lived in a rural area, worked for newspapers that were corporately owned, had 10 or more years experience in journalism, and had considerable experience in writing agricultural news stories. Most were well educated, but had completed only a few college agriculture courses. Two-thirds of Arkansas’ daily newspapers published an agricultural section, but less than one- fourth employed an agricultural reporter. For the most part, editors believed that their readers’ interests coincided with their own. Health, food safety, and environmental issues were viewed as the areas of greatest interest. Editors possessed positive attitudes toward the agricultural industry, although they were less positive about the image of agriculture or about agriculture’s performance in educating the public about the agricultural industry. Editors agreed that journalists should receive instruction in agriculture and that K-12 students should be required to take at least one course in agriculture. It was recommended that university faculty in journalism and agriculture collaborate to provide a course for students and/or young journalists about agricultural issues, and be encouraged to continue positive, open relationships with journalists to ensure open lines of communication to disseminate information about agricultural issues. Workshops should be conducted for college of agriculture faculty, extension personnel, and university researchers on how to work with, and give appropriate responses to, media representatives.
OPSAID improvements and capabilities report.

Process Control System (PCS) and Industrial Control System (ICS) security is critical to our national security. But there are a number of technological, economic, and educational impediments to PCS owners implementing effective security on their systems. Sandia National Laboratories has performed the research and development of the OPSAID (Open PCS Security Architecture for Interoperable Design), a project sponsored by the US Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE/OE), to address this issue. OPSAID is an open-source architecture for PCS/ICS security that provides a design basis for vendors to build add-on security devices for legacy systems, while providing a path forward for the development of inherently-secure PCS elements in the future. Using standardized hardware, a proof-of-concept prototype system was also developed. This report describes the improvements and capabilities that have been added to OPSAID since an initial report was released. Testing and validation of this architecture has been conducted in another project, Lemnos Interoperable Security Project, sponsored by DOE/OE and managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).
Kadmiuminnehåll i matpotatis

I faltforsok, krukforsok samt i radioaktiva upptagsforsok i naringslosning har betydelsen av pH, kvavekoncentration och kvaveform undersokts med avseende pa kadmiuminnehallet i potatis. Forsoken gjordes pa tva matpotatissorter som tar upp lite respektive mycket kadmium. Forsoken visade att ammoniumkvave gav lagt mark-pH och hog kadmiumkoncentration i potatis jamfort med NPK. Detta beror pa en okad tillganglighet av kadmium da upptagsforsoken visade att sjalva upptaget av kadmium faktiskt var hogre vid pH 6,5 an vid 4,5 da tillgangligheten var densamma. Kalksalpeter gav ocksa en okad kadmiumkoncentration jamfort med NPK, vilket kan bero pa en okad tillgang pa kalciumjoner, som tranger ut kadmiumjoner till markvatskan. Bade faltforsok och upptagsforsok visade attkadmiumkoncentration/upptag minskade med okad kvavekoncentration. Intressant var ocksa den linjara korrelationen som fanns mellan kadmiumkoncentrationen i tredje bladet och kadmiumkoncentrationen i knolen vid skord for de tva ingaende sorterna. Enligt denna studie ar det bast att godsla med ett pH-neutralt kvavegodselmedel balanserat med avseende pa ammonium- och nitratkvave- for att begransa kadmiuminnehallet i potatis.
Speed Control Law for Precision Terminal Area In-Trail Self Spacing

This document describes a speed control law for precision in-trail airborne self-spacing during final approach. This control law was designed to provide an operationally viable means to obtain a desired runway threshold crossing time or minimum distance, one aircraft relative to another. The control law compensates for dissimilar final approach speeds between aircraft pairs and provides guidance for a stable final approach. This algorithm has been extensively tested in Monte Carlo simulation and has been evaluated in piloted simulation, with preliminary results indicating acceptability from operational and workload standpoints.
Anti-Stiction And Self-Recovery Active Mechanisms For High Reliability RF-MEMS Switches

Reliability of RF-MEMS devices is one of the main concerns of the engineers and scientists dealing with such type of devices. In particular, there are plenty of studies and investigations devoted to protection of devices from dierent kind of failures related to their operating conditions. The adhesion of movable parts of switches onto the actuation electrode, also referred to as stiction, due to accumulated charge or to micro-welding phenomenon, are the most common types of RF-MEMS failures. This work presents a novel effective heat-based mechanism that enables to release a stuck component. Such mechanism can be embedded within the switches of any topology and it has no influence on the normal behavior of the device.
Gold open access: the future of the academic journal?

Abstract: The growth in reach, importance and impact of open access (OA) publishing over the last few years has been dramatic. Increasing and accelerating governmental and funder pressure towards OA and more liberal licensing have led to a sea change in publishing. However, despite efforts to the contrary, OA remains very much an STM phenomenon, and very real questions remain as to whether an OA transition could ever take hold in the humanities and social sciences. Five key elements driving the growth and future development of OA publishing are explored: the mega journal concept, the rationalities of the cascade journal, the pursuit of free and more liberal licensing by funders and governments, the reaction against hybrid open access, and the foreseeable consolidation of the OA industry in future.
Software Reuse: Methods, Models, and Costs

From the Publisher: Software reuse offers great cost-cutting potential,and this book spells out the methods,tools,and tradeoffs to realize these cost savings. Guaranteed to attract a vast audience,this book covers cost models for reuse,certification of reusable components,and reuse-driven requirements engineeering-as well as a discussion on reuse in dynamic systems.
The has architecture: a highly available and scalable cluster architecture for web servers

This dissertation proposes a novel architecture, called the HAS architecture, for highly available and scalable web server clusters. The proof-of-concept of the HAS architecture was validated for performance and scalability, tested for its failover mechanisms, and externally modeled and simulated to study the failure and repair behavior and to calculate the availability of the cluster. The HAS architecture is able to maintain the base line performance per cluster processor, for up to 16 traffic processors in the cluster, achieving close to linear scalability. The architecture supports dynamic traffic distribution, supports heterogeneous cluster nodes, provides a mechanism to keep track of available cluster nodes, and offers connection synchronization to ensure that web connections survive software or hardware failures. Furthermore, the architecture supports different redundancy models and high availability capabilities such as Ethernet and NFS redundancy, and node level redundancy that contribute in increasing the availability of the service, and in eliminating single points of failure. This dissertation presents current methods for scaling web servers, discusses their limitations, and investigates how clustering technologies can help overcome some of these challenges and enable the design of scalable web servers based on a cluster of workstations. It examines various ongoing research projects in the academia and the industry that are investigating scalable and highly available architectures for web servers. It discusses their scope, architecture, provides a critical analysis of their work, and presents their contributions to this dissertation. This dissertation contributes the HAS architecture, a highly available and scalable architecture for web servers, and offers contributions in areas of scalability, maintaining baseline performance, and availability.
Exome sequencing identified two novel COL10A1 heterozygous mutations in two irregular dominance Chinese pedigrees with Schmid-type metaphyseal chondrodysplasia

Background Schmid-type metaphyseal chondrodysplasia (MCDS) is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by COL10A1 mutations, which is characterized by short stature, waddling gait, coxa vara and bowing of the long bones. However, the research about unusual phenotype features of MCDS is rare. Methods Two probands and available family members affected with MCDS were subjected to clinical and radiological examination. Genomic DNA of all affected individuals underwent whole-exome sequencing, and candidate mutations were verified by Sanger sequencing in all available family members and 250 donors. Then the spatial model of type X collagen (α1) C-terminal noncollagenous (NC1) domain was further constructed. Results We found that the affected family members exhibited evident irregular dominance. Mutation analysis indicated that there were two novel heterozygous missense mutations [c.1765T>A (p.Phe589Ile)] and [c.1846A>G (p.Lys616Glu)] in the COL10A1 gene in family 1 and 2, respectively. The two novel substitution sites were highly conserved and the mutations were predicted to be remarkably deleterious in silico analysis. Furthermore, protein modeling revealed that the two substitutions located in the NC1 domain of collagen X (α1), which potentially impacted the trimerization of collagen X (α1) and combination with molecules in pericellular matrix. Conclusion Two novel mutations were identified in the present study, which facilitated to diagnose MCDS and further expanded the spectrum of the COL10A1 mutations associated with MCDS patients. In addition, our research preliminarily elaborated the phenotype features and heredity characteristics of MCDS based on the two Chinese pedigrees.
The Business Internet and Intranets: A Manager's Guide to Key Terms and Concepts

From the Publisher: Peter Keen delivers another comprehensive guide for managers, bringing clarity to the muddled vocabularies of the Internet and intranets. "A useful, lucid explanation of how to use the Net in business to deliver actual service and create real value--rather than hype and image". --Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure Holdings.
The sustainable water-energy nexus: Life-cycle impacts and feasibility of regional energy and water supply scenarios

Water and energy are critical, interdependent, and regional resources, and effective planning and policies around which sources to use requires combining information on environmental impacts, cost, and availability. Questions around shifting energy and water sources towards more renewable options, as well as the potential role of natural gas from shale formations are under intense discussion. Decisions on these issues will be made in the shadow of climate change, which will both impact and be impacted by energy and water supplies. This work developed a model for calculating the life-cycle environmental impacts of regional energy and water supply scenarios (REWSS). The model was used to discuss future energy pathways in Pennsylvania, future electricity impacts in Brazil, and future water pathways in Arizona. To examine energy in Pennsylvania, this work also developed the first process-based life-cycle assessment (LCA) of shale gas, focusing on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy consumption, and water consumption. This LCA confirmed results that shale gas is similar to conventional gas in GHG emissions, though potentially has a lower net energy due to a wide range of production rates for wells. Brazil’s electricity-related impacts will rise as development continues. GHG emissions are shown to double by 2020 due to expanded natural gas (NG) and coal usage, with a rise of 390% by 2040 posssible with tropical hydropower reservoirs. While uncertainty around reservoir impacts is large, Brazil’s low GHG emissions intensity and future carbon emissions targets are threatened by likely electricity scenarios. Pennsylvania’s energy-related impacts are likely to hinge on whether NG is used as a replacement for coal, allowing GHG emissions to drop and then plateau at 93% of 2010 values; or as a transition fuel to expanded renewable energy sources, showing a steady decrease to 86% in 2035. Increased use of biofuels will dominate land occupation and may dominate water consumption impacts, depending on irrigation – water consumption for energy rises from 7% to 18% under the base case. Arizona is further from major shale basins, but aims to reduce unsustainable groundwater usage. Desalination by itself will increase annual impacts by at least 2% in all impact categories by 2035, and prioritizing renewable energy sources along with desalination was found to lower GHGs by 1% from BAU, but increase 2035 impacts in all other categories by at least 10% from new construction or operation. In both PA and AZ, changes in impacts and shifting sources have interconnected tradeoffs, making the water-enegy nexus a key part of managing environmental problems such as climate change. Future energy and water supplies are also likely to show higher interdependencies, which may or may not improve regional sustainability. This work offers a way to combine four important sets of information to enable the generation of answers to key regional planning questions around these two key resources.
Towards a Robust Electronic Agriculture Platform Development

This study identified that the calls to go back to agriculture has reached high decibels and in response several individuals and institutions have shown inclinations towards these calls. The study also identified that agriculture has become knowledge intensive, such that timely, accurate and specifically tailored information have become critical determinant success factors. To aid those disposed to responding to these calls as well as the requisite critical information needs germane to achieving success, the study looked in the direction of Electronic agriculture (Electronic -Agriculture), an emerging research area. And in specific terms, the study analyzed the requirement specifications incidental to meeting the information needs of the identified challenges. And based on the insights gained, the study modeled and simulated a system whose features and functionalities met the requirements for a desirable conceptual framework for setting up an Electronic -Agriculture platform.
The relationship between academic library usage and perceived personal performance in Kuwait

Academic libraries around the world often have to justify high maintenance costs. High maintenance costs of university libraries are often justified by the belief that regular use of an academic library improves the grades of students. However, this is a difficult statement to support, therefore demonstrating the link between library use and student outcomes is critical to ensuring that library investment continues. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted and the findings were analysed to derive users’ perceptions. The findings revealed interesting results regarding how users make use of the library and how users feel the library improves their personal performance. Overall, the perception of all three groups of the academic libraries within Kuwait is positive, however many users are dissatisfied with some academic library services. Students answered positively regarding their grades and use of the academic library. Academics and administrators were generally positive and offered an experienced insight into the quality of the library. This study offers the first perception based results in Kuwait. The inclusion of administrators’ perceptions is also novel in terms of the Gulf States. A refined model was designed based on the overall findings within the study. This model can be applied to any academic library, regardless of size or collection type. Based on findings, the researcher recommends taking the following points into consideration in order to improve library services and facilities for all users. Improvements could be made in the structure of library training courses and academic libraries should be providing flexible spaces for individuals and group study as well as social activities.
Romanian Consumer Behaviour and Payment Choice in Online Shopping. A Marketing Perspective

Nowadays, online migration is a fact, thus offering efficiency and ease-of-use to customers is a mandatory requirement for all steps within the purchasing process, starting from the moment of need recognition or creation all the way to closing the deal, thus paying for the desired products or services. In order to make this process as fast as possible, most commercial websites offer the opportunity for online payment. However, although worldwide this type of payment represents the normality, there are economies in which people are still reluctant, one of these being the Romanian market. Having this context, we have conducted a national survey on a representative sample of 4,000 respondents in order to analyse consumer behaviour and payment choice in online shopping, with focus on enhancer and inhibitor factors for card credit payment. The research results showed us that convenience and availability are the main reasons for which people are choosing online payment, whereas lack of trust still represents the main barrier. The data was collected before the Covid-19 pandemic period; thus, this research is showing a normal consumer behaviour trend for Romania, which can be taken into consideration when developing new marketing strategies for the post-pandemic recovery period.
Susceptibility of different life stages of Callosobruchus maculatus and Callosobruchus chinensis to ECO2FUME gas and its impact on cowpea seeds quality

ECO2FUME® phosphine fumigant was used to fumigate stored cowpea piles under gas-proof sheets to assess its performance against different developmental stages of Callosobruchus maculatus and Callosobruchus chinensis. The mortality was determined on four developmental stages of C. maculatus and C. chinensis, employing ECO2FUME at different concentrations 25, 30, 40, and 50 g/m3 (2% PH3 and 98% CO2 by weight) for 3-days. All stages of both insect species in packed cowpea stacks were completely controlled at 3-days when applied with an ECO2FUME application rate of 50 g/m3. Cases of pupae of C. maculatus and C. chinensis exhibit the highest resistance than other stages, with 78.2 and 73.93% mortality respectively, at 40 g/m3 after 3-days post-exposure to ECO2FUME. Suppression of F1 generation was obtained after fumigation with the same concentration (50 g/m3). Quality (in terms of cowpea germination) and all chemical constituents of cowpea seeds were non significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by the fumigation concentration of 50 g/m3.
Eletromyographic Activities of Trunk and Lower Extremity Muscles During Bridging Exercise in Whole Body Vibration and Swiss Ball Condition in Elderly Women

Abstract 1)The purpose of this study was to compare the trunk and lower extremity muscle activity induced by six different conditions floor, intensity 0, 1, 3, 5 of whole body vibration (WBV), and Swiss ball during bridging exercise. Surface electromyography (EMG) was used to measure trunk and lower extremity muscles activity. Ten elderly women were recruited from Hong-sung Senior Citizen Welfare Center. The collected EMG data were normalized using reference contraction (during floor bridging) and expressed as a percentage of reference voluntary contraction (%RVC). To analyze the differences in EMG data, the re-peated one-way analysis of variance was used. A Bonferroni’s correction was used for multiple comparisons. The study showed that EMG activity of the rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal ob-lique, erector spinae and rectus abdominis muscles were not significantly different between six different conditions of during bridging exercise (p>.05). However, there were significantly increased EMG activity of the rectus femoris (p=.034) in the WBV intensity 0, 1, 3, and 5 conditions compared with the floor bridging condition. EMG activity of the medial gastrocnemius were significantly increased in the WBV intensity 0, 1, 3, 5 and Swiss ball conditions compared with the floor bridging condition. Future studies are required the dynamic instability condition such as one leg lifting in bridging.Key Words: Bridging exercise; Elderly; Electromyography; Swiss ball; Whole body vibration.