Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of diffuse fraction on gross primary productivity and light use efficiency in a warm-temperate mixed plantation

Diffuse radiation (I f) is one of important variables determining photosynthetic rate and carbon uptake of forest ecosystems. However, the responses of gross primary productivity (GPP) and light use efficiency (LUE) to diffuse fraction (DF) are still poorly understood. We used a 6-year dataset of carbon flux at a warm-temperate mixed plantation site in North China to explore the impacts of DF on GPP and LUE. During 2011-2017, ecosystem apparent quantum yield (α) and photosynthesis at photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) of 1800 µmol m-2 s-1 (P 1800) on cloudy days were 63% and 17% higher than on clear days, respectively. Under lower vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and air temperature (T a) conditions, canopy photosynthesis was significantly higher on cloudy skies than on clear skies. On half-hourly scale, increased DF enhanced α and P 1800. Daily GPP peaked at a median DF (=0.5), while daily LUE significantly increased with DF (p<0.01). Both GPP and LUE were mainly controlled directly by DF and PAR. DF had an indirect effect on LUE and GPP mainly through PAR. At high DF levels (>0.5), the increase in LUE did not make GPP enhancement. The direct effect of DF on GPP and LUE under lower T a and VPD was more sensitive than under higher T a and VPD. When DF was incorporated into the Michaelis-Menten model, it performed well in the GPP estimation, and the determination coefficient increased by 32.61% and the root mean square error decreased by 25.74%. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating DF into carbon sequestration estimation in North China.
How do MNEs shape their international strategic alliances to facilitate higher alliance performance? Absorptive capacity as an antecedent

The international strategic alliance in international marketing is international social network to realize superior performance. This requires firms to increasingly consolidate international relationship with foreign partners. Knowledge acquisition and integration by absorptive capacity (AC) as an antecedent for international strategic alliance is understudied. This study aims to explore the relationship between AC and international strategic alliance, and their impact on the international performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs). This study empirically verifies the research framework from 223 Taiwanese MNEs. In terms of structural model, researchers conduct PLS-SEM to verify the hypotheses in this study. The results confirm previous studies that indicate a positive relationship among AC, international strategic alliance, and international performance. The results also indicate that international explorative and exploitative alliance fits mediate the relationship between AC and international performance.
The neuroprotective effects of fisetin, a natural flavonoid in neurodegenerative diseases: Focus on the role of oxidative stress

Oxidative stress (OS) disrupts the chemical integrity of macromolecules and increases the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Fisetin is a flavonoid that exhibits potent antioxidant properties and protects the cells against OS. We have viewed the NCBI database, PubMed, Science Direct (Elsevier), Springer-Nature, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar databases to search and collect relevant articles during the preparation of this review. The search keywords are OS, neurodegenerative diseases, fisetin, etc. High level of ROS in the brain tissue decreases ATP levels, and mitochondrial membrane potential and induces lipid peroxidation, chronic inflammation, DNA damage, and apoptosis. The subsequent results are various neuronal diseases. Fisetin is a polyphenolic compound, commonly present in dietary ingredients. The antioxidant properties of this flavonoid diminish oxidative stress, ROS production, neurotoxicity, neuro-inflammation, and neurological disorders. Moreover, it maintains the redox profiles, and mitochondrial functions and inhibits NO production. At the molecular level, fisetin regulates the activity of PI3K/Akt, Nrf2, NF-κB, protein kinase C, and MAPK pathways to prevent OS, inflammatory response, and cytotoxicity. The antioxidant properties of fisetin protect the neural cells from inflammation and apoptotic degeneration. Thus, it can be used in the prevention of neurodegenerative disorders. Graphical Abstract
Serum peptidomic screening identified circulating peptide biomarkers predictive for preeclampsia

Background Reliable biomarkers are needed to improve preeclampsia (PE) prediction accuracy. With the investigational tool of peptidomics, we aimed to identify and validate potential serum peptide biomarkers in cohorts suspected for PE development in middle or late pregnancy. Methods Totally 195 serum samples were prospectively collected from pregnant women with PE-related syndromes who were followed up for PE development until delivery. Serum peptidomic analysis was performed in the discovery cohort of 115 samples using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight coupled with Linear Trap Quadropole Orbitrap mass spectrometry. The candidate biomarkers were further validated using an in-house developed liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method in an independent validation cohort of 80 serum samples. Results We identified 8 peptides that were differentially expressed and originated from fibrinogen alpha chain (FGA), inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain H4 (ITIH4) and complement component 3. In the subsequent LC-MS/MS quantitation analysis, the levels of the three peptides (FGA-1033.4, ITIH4-2026.9, ITIH4-2051.1) exhibited a significant difference between the PE-positive and PE-negative groups. Further, the three-peptide panel yielded an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.985 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.965–1.000] and 0.923 (95% CI 0.845–1.000) in the discovery and validation cohorts respectively, with negative predictive values of 98.1–98.8% and positive predictive values of 73.1–85.3% that were much improved when compared with that of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1/placental growth factor (sFlt-1/PlGF) ratio. Conclusions We have discovered and validated a novel three-peptide biomarker panel predictive for the occurrence PE in pregnant women.
Identification of energy metabolism-related biomarkers for risk prediction of heart failure patients using random forest algorithm

Objective Energy metabolism plays a crucial role in the improvement of heart dysfunction as well as the development of heart failure (HF). The current study is designed to identify energy metabolism-related diagnostic biomarkers for predicting the risk of HF due to myocardial infarction. Methods Transcriptome sequencing data of HF patients and non-heart failure (NF) people (GSE66360 and GSE59867) were obtained from gene expression omnibus (GEO) database. Energy metabolism-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened between HF and NF samples. The subtyping consistency analysis was performed to enable the samples to be grouped. The immune infiltration level among subtypes was assessed by single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). Random forest algorithm (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) were applied to identify diagnostic biomarkers, and the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) was plotted to validate the accuracy. Predictive nomogram was constructed and validated based on the result of the RF. Drug screening and gene-miRNA network were analyzed to predict the energy metabolism-related drugs and potential molecular mechanism. Results A total of 22 energy metabolism-related DEGs were identified between HF and NF patients. The clustering analysis showed that HF patients could be classified into two subtypes based on the energy metabolism-related genes, and functional analyses demonstrated that the identified DEGs among two clusters were mainly involved in immune response regulating signaling pathway and lipid and atherosclerosis. ssGSEA analysis revealed that there were significant differences in the infiltration levels of immune cells between two subtypes of HF patients. Random-forest and support vector machine algorithm eventually identified ten diagnostic markers (MEF2D, RXRA, PPARA, FOXO1, PPARD, PPP3CB, MAPK14, CREB1, MEF2A, PRMT1) for risk prediction of HF patients, and the proposed nomogram resulted in good predictive performance (GSE66360, AUC = 0.91; GSE59867, AUC = 0.84) and the clinical usefulness in HF patients. More importantly, 10 drugs and 15 miRNA were predicted as drug target and hub miRNA that associated with energy metabolism-related genes, providing further information on clinical HF treatment. Conclusion This study identified ten energy metabolism-related diagnostic markers using random forest algorithm, which may help optimize risk stratification and clinical treatment in HF patients.
Vitamin D categories and postpartum thyroid function in women with hypothyroidism

Objective To analyze the related factors of the postpartum thyroid function in women with overt hypothyroidism (OH)/subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and explore the effects of vitamin D categories. Methods Thyroid hormones, thyroid autoantibody, and serum 25OHD levels were continuously recorded from the first trimester of pregnancy (T1) to the 12th postpartum month. Logistic regression analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to screen the related factors of postpartum thyroid function, and the Latent Class Growth Model was performed to analyze the trajectory characteristics of serum 25OHD levels. Results Totally, 252 pregnant women with OH/SCH were enrolled in the study. In the 12th month postpartum, 36.5% of the patients improved thyroid function, 37.3% continued hypothyroidism, and 26.2% developed thyroid dysfunction. Vitamin D sufficiency, positive TPOAb, and positive TgAb in T1 were independent prognostic factors of postpartum thyroid function. Vitamin D sufficiency in T1 was illustrated as an independent factor of the improved postpartum thyroid function, but the protective effect for the developed postpartum thyroid dysfunction was only confirmed in TPOAb-positive patients. Cox regression analysis further confirmed the effects of vitamin D categories. Notably, the high-level 25OHD trajectory during pregnancy and postpartum could predict improved postpartum thyroid function and decrease the risk of developed postpartum thyroid dysfunction. Conclusion Appropriate vitamin D nutrition during pregnancy and postpartum may be beneficial to postpartum thyroid function.
Delivery of the selenoprotein thioredoxin reductase 1 to mammalian cells

Over-expression of genetically encoded thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) TrxR1 can be toxic to cells due to the formation of a truncated version of the enzyme. We developed a new mammalian cell-based model to investigate TrxR1 activity. Fusion of the HIV-derived cell penetrating peptide (TAT) enabled efficient cellular uptake of purified TrxR1 containing 21 genetically encoded amino acids, including selenocysteine. The TAT peptide did not significantly alter the catalytic activity of TrxR1 in vitro. We monitored TrxR1-dependent redox activity in human cells using a TrxR1-specific red fluorescent live-cell reporter. Using programmed selenocysteine incorporation in Escherichia coli, our approach allowed efficient production of active recombinant human selenoprotein TrxR1 for delivery to the homologous context of the mammalian cell. The delivered TAT-TrxR1 showed robust activity in live cells and provided a novel platform to study TrxR1 biology in human cells.
Sterile Neutrinos and Light Dark Matter Save Each Other

Short baseline neutrino experiments such as LSND and MiniBooNE seem to suggest the existence of light sterile neutrinos. Meanwhile, current cosmic microwave background (CMB) and big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) measurements place an upper bound on the effective number of light neutrinos, Neff and the PLANCK satellite will measure Neff to a much higher accuracy and further constrain the number of sterile neutrinos allowed. We demonstrate that if an MeV dark matter particle couples more strongly to electrons and/or photons than to neutrinos, then p-wave annihilation after neutrino decoupling can reduce the value of Neff inferred from BBN and PLANCK. This mechanism can accommodate two eV sterile neutrinos even if PLANCK observes Neff as low as the standard model theoretical value of 3.046, and a large neutrino asymmetry is not needed to obtain the correct primordial element abundances. The dark matter annihilation also weakens the cosmological upper bounds on the neutrino masses, and we derive a relationship between the change in these bounds and the corresponding change in Neff. Dark matter with an electric dipole moment or anapole moment is a natural candidate that exhibits the desired properties for this mechanism. Coincidentally, a dark matter particle with these properties and lighter than 3 MeV is precisely one that can explain the 511 keV gamma-ray line observed by INTEGRAL. We show that the addition of two eV sterile neutrinos allows this kind of dark matter to be lighter than 3 MeV, which is otherwise ruled out by the CMB bound on Neff if only active neutrinos are considered.
DIRECTED DIFFUSION APPLIED TO ACTUATOR NETWORK IN IOT

By collecting and analyzing various data from things connected to the Internet, IoT can create new valuable information. Then, such obtained information is transmitted to an actuator, which can perform suitable operation to the situation and condition on the spot. However, there are only a few case studies focusing on how information obtained by data collection and analysis is given to each actuator. Therefore, in this research, we aim at achieving a network that distributes information according to requirements of actuators. To achieve this purpose, we considered applying Directed Diffusion, which is a Publish / Subscribe communication model. However, when the conventional Directed Diffusion is applied to the assumed environment of this research, there are issues that many interest and exploratory packets are generated, and that the data packet transfer route is frequently disconnected due to the movement of IoT devices. Therefore, we propose a method to connect the new data packet transfer route to the existing data packet transfer route used by another actuator. In this method, when there is a reinforced gradient corresponding to interest, transfer of interest packet is stopped, and exploratory packet is transferred from that node. In this case, since transfer of these packets is performed between the actuator and the intermediate node, the number of these transfers is suppressed. Further, it is possible to re-establish the data packet transfer route in a short time.
A pursuit-evasion differential game in relative polar coordinates with state estimation

The application and usefulness of solutions to pursuit-evasion differential games depend upon a player's knowledge of the states of the system. In most practical cases, a player will not have exact knowledge of the states of the system, but will need to estimate them based on noisy measurements. To prevent implementation difficulties it is important that the game be played and the subsequent state estimates be obtained in the same coordinate system that the measurements are made in. Typical measurements are range, range rate; and bearing. These are made in a relative polar coordinate system. Therefore, a solution to the pursuit-evasion differential game needs to be developed in a relative polar coordinate system. This paper presents a closed-form solution to this game. The pursuit-evasion differential game is solved in relative polar coordinates using a feedback linearization technique. Measurement models and an extended Kalman filter are developed to obtain the state estimates. The solution is demonstrated by use of simulation results.
BlockFW - Towards Blockchain-based Rule-Sharing Firewall

Central-managed security mechanisms are often utilized in many organizations, but such server is also a security breaking point. This is because the server has the authority for all nodes that share the security protection. Hence if the attackers successfully tamper the server, the organization will be in trouble. Also, the settings and policies saved on the server are usually not cryptographically secured and ensured with hash. Thus, changing the settings from alternative way is feasible, without causing the security solution to raise any alarms. To mitigate these issues, in this work, we develop BlockFW - a blockchain-based rule sharing firewall to create a managed security mechanism, which provides validation and monitoring from multiple nodes. For BlockFW, all occurred transactions are cryptographically protected to ensure its integrity, making tampering attempts in utmost challenging for attackers. In the evaluation, we explore the performance of BlockFW under several adversarial conditions and demonstrate its effectiveness.
Critical Buckling Load Optimization of a Filament Wound Composite Cylindrical Underwater Structure

: Filament wound composite structures have high resistance to water corrosion which makes them popular for military underwater applications besides their high strength to weight ratio. The main loading condition for an underwater structure is hydrostatic external pressure which generally causes structural instability or buckling rather than rupture of the structure. In this study, a military underwater cylindrical Glass/Epoxy filament wound structure was analyzed in terms of buckling. Abaqus/CAE and Isight tool with Response Surface Method were used. Helical winding angle and thickness of helical and hoop layers with constant total thickness were used as main variables to investigate the effects of them on the critical buckling pressure. However, cylinder diameter, cylinder length, total thickness and material were kept constant as design constraints. It is seen that the critical buckling pressure can be increased 5.5% by changing the helical winding angle. Critical buckling pressure increases with increasing helical winding angle from 30° to 58° and decreases with further increasing of helical winding angle from 58° to 80°. Also, it is seen that the critical buckling pressure can be raised maximum 21% by changing the thickness of helical layers with constant total thickness. Critical buckling pressure increases with increasing of helical layer thickness from 2 mm to a certain value and falls after that certain value up to 4 mm. In addition to individual effects, interaction effects of variables on the critical buckling pressure were demonstrated. Also, optimum design point was determined, and structural strength of optimized design was checked with Tsai-Wu failure criteria.
Dynamical structure of fields in light cone coordinates

It is well-known that additional constraints emerge in light cone coordinates. We enumerate the number of physical modes in light cone coordinates and compare it with conventional coordinates. We show that the number of Schrodinger modes is divided by two in light cone coordinates. We study the effect of this reduction in the number ladder operators acting on physical states of a system. We analyse the scaler, spinor and vector field theories carefully to see the effect of changes in the dynamical structure of these theories from the view point of the reduction of Schrodinger modes in light-cone coordinates.
Effect of exogenous salicylic acid on growth of olive seedling irrigated with saline water

Continuing efforts to improved olive seedling growth under salt stress conditions by using antioxidant substance, one–year old olive (picual cv.) seedlings grown in shade house of Pomology Dept, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt) were been subjected during two growth seasons (2016-2017) to current study that. In this context, the effect of salicylic acid (SA) which applied as foliar application at three concentrations (0, 200, and 400 ppm) on olive seedlings cv. Picual grown under three levels of salinity (0, 2000, 4000 ppm). Treatments were replicated 5 times and each one contained three olive seedlings. At the end of each growth season different vegetative growth parameters (plant height increment, leaf dry weight, leaves moist percentage, leaves no., shoots no.) were been determined. Moreover, leaf nutrient status were been estimated. Obtained results indicated that, olive seedlings cv. Picual vegetative growth parameters did not show any negative response when irrigated with saline water up to 2000 ppm and increasing salinity in irrigation water from 2000 to 4000 ppm tended to significantly decrease vegetative growth parameters. Where, sparing seedlings with 200 ppm salicylic acid improved most vegetative studied parameters. Also, current study concluded that, spraying salicylic acid on saline stressed picual olive seedling increased nitrogen content in leaves than untreated once. Whereas, no effect noticed of exogenous salicylic acid on the percentage of phosphor and potassium content on leaves of saline stressed picual olive seedling.
SXDF-ALMA 2-arcmin^2 Deep Survey: Stacking of Rest-Frame Near-Infrared Selected Objects

We present stacking analyses on our ALMA deep 1.1 mm imaging in the SXDF using 1.6 {\mu}m and 3.6 {\mu}m selected galaxies in the CANDELS WFC3 catalog. We detect a stacked flux of ~0.03-0.05 mJy, corresponding to LIR<10^11 Lsun and a star formation rate (SFR) of ~ 15 Msun/yr at z = 2. We find that galaxies brighter in the rest-frame near-infrared tend to be also brighter at 1.1 mm, and galaxies fainter than m[3.6um] = 23 do not produce detectable 1.1 mm emission. This suggests a correlation between stellar mass and SFR, but outliers to this correlation are also observed, suggesting strongly boosted star formation or extremely large extinction. We also find tendencies that redder galaxies and galaxies at higher redshifts are brighter at 1.1 mm. Our field contains z ~ 2.5 H-alpha emitters and a bright single-dish source. However, we do not find evidence of bias in our results caused by the bright source. By combining the fluxes of sources detected by ALMA and fluxes of faint sources detected with stacking, we recover a 1.1 mm surface brightness of up to 20.3 +/- 1.2 Jy/deg, comparable to the extragalactic background light measured by COBE. Based on the fractions of optically faint sources in our and previous ALMA studies and the COBE measurements, we find that approximately half of the cosmic star formation may be obscured by dust and missed by deep optical surveys, Much deeper and wider ALMA imaging is therefore needed to better constrain the obscured cosmic star formation history.
PERTURBATION OF FRW SPACETIME IN NP FORMALISM

Jacobi polynomials appear to play a very important role in describing all the spin field (s = 0, 1/2, 1, 2) perturbation of the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) spacetime. The formulation becomes very transparent when done in Newman–Penrose (NP) formalism. All the variables are separable, and the spatial eigenfunctions turn out to be Jacobian polynomials in different forms. In particular, the angular ones are expressible as spin weighted spherical harmonics which are just the spherical harmonics formed with Jacobi polynomials. The radial eigenfunctions are also Jacobi polynomials but with unconventional parameters. Various properties of these polynomials are used to describe the scalar, vector and tensor modes of the perturbation. The Green's function of the scalar perturbations and also its Lienard–Wiechert type potentials are derived, and are shown to reduce to the familiar ones in the limit to flat FRW case. Some of the components of the perturbed metric tensor hμν have also been calculated.