Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcriptional, Post-Transcriptional, and Post-Translational Mechanisms Rewrite the Tubulin Code During Cardiac Hypertrophy and Failure

A proliferated and post-translationally modified microtubule network underlies cellular growth in cardiac hypertrophy and contributes to contractile dysfunction in heart failure. Yet how the heart achieves this modified network is poorly understood. Determining how the “tubulin code” – the permutations of tubulin isoforms and post-translational modifications - is rewritten upon cardiac stress may provide new targets to modulate cardiac remodeling. Further, while tubulin can autoregulate its own expression, it is unknown if autoregulation is operant in the heart or tuned in response to stress. Here we use heart failure patient samples and murine models of cardiac remodeling to interrogate transcriptional, autoregulatory, and post-translational mechanisms that contribute to microtubule network remodeling at different stages of heart disease. We find that autoregulation is operant across tubulin isoforms in the heart and leads to an apparent disconnect in tubulin mRNA and protein levels in heart failure. We also find that within 4 hours of a hypertrophic stimulus and prior to cardiac growth, microtubule detyrosination is rapidly induced to help stabilize the network. This occurs concomitant with rapid transcriptional and autoregulatory activation of specific tubulin isoforms and microtubule motors. Upon continued hypertrophic stimulation, there is an increase in post-translationally modified microtubule tracks and anterograde motors to support cardiac growth, while total tubulin content increases through progressive transcriptional and autoregulatory induction of tubulin isoforms. Our work provides a new model for how the tubulin code is rapidly rewritten to establish a proliferated, stable microtubule network that drives cardiac remodeling, and provides the first evidence of tunable tubulin autoregulation during pathological progression.
Ventilation-Induced Lung Injury (VILI) in Neonates: Evidence-Based Concepts and Lung-Protective Strategies

Supportive care with mechanical ventilation continues to be an essential strategy for managing severe neonatal respiratory failure; however, it is well known to cause and accentuate neonatal lung injury. The pathogenesis of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) is multifactorial and complex, resulting predominantly from interactions between ventilator-related factors and patient-related factors. Importantly, VILI is a significant risk factor for developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the most common chronic respiratory morbidity of preterm infants that lacks specific therapies, causes life-long morbidities, and imposes psychosocial and economic burdens. Studies of older children and adults suggest that understanding how and why VILI occurs is essential to developing strategies for mitigating VILI and its consequences. This article reviews the preclinical and clinical evidence on the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of VILI in neonates. We also highlight the evidence behind various lung-protective strategies to guide clinicians in preventing and attenuating VILI and, by extension, BPD in neonates. Further, we provide a snapshot of future directions that may help minimize neonatal VILI.
Relative Validity and Reproducibility of a Semi-Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire for Determining Nutrient Intake in Older Adults in New Zealand: The REACH Study

Dietary intake is an important predictor of health and disease outcomes. This cross-sectional study evaluated the relative validity and reproducibility of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for assessing energy and nutrient intake in older adults. Dietary data were collected 2018–2019 in Auckland, New Zealand from a convenience sample of community-dwelling adults (65–74 years, n = 294, 37% male) using a 109-item self-administered FFQ at baseline (FFQ1) and four weeks later to assess reproducibility. FFQ1 was compared to a four-day food record to determine relative validity. Agreement between dietary assessment tools was assessed for both raw and energy-adjusted nutrient intakes using paired t-tests, correlation coefficients, weighted kappa statistic, Bland–Altman plots, and linear regression analysis. Energy adjustments moderately improved the relative validity and reproducibility for most nutrients. For energy and energy-adjusted nutrient intakes, the mean correlation coefficients were 0.38 (validity) and 0.65 (reproducibility); the mean weighted kappa statistics were 0.27 (validity) and 0.51 (reproducibility). A significant slope of bias was present in 54% (validity) and 25% (reproducibility) of Bland–Altman plots. The Researching Eating, Activity, and Cognitive Health (REACH) FFQ has acceptable relative validity and good reproducibility for ranking nutrient intakes in older New Zealand adults, but is less suitable for assessing absolute nutrient intakes.
Active Noise Control of Power Equipments Based on Generalized Finite Impulse Response Filter

In allusion to the problem of power equipment noise,the design method for active noise control is discussed,and based on the optimization of generalized finite impulse response(FIR) filter an active noise feed-forward cancellation algorithm is proposed and a layout scheme of sensors for signal detection is given,meanwhile the effect of noise cancellation is evaluated by error sensors.The noise from two sets of power equipments is collected as primary sound source,and the simulation of active noise control(ANC) is performed.Simulation results show that the low-frequency noise components with frequencies of 50 Hz,100 Hz and 200 Hz are reduced within the range from 12 dB to 18 dB,thus it can be seen that it is an effective approach to implement the control of low-frequency noise from power equipment by ANC technology.
Assessment of climate change impact on wheat crop using MarkSim GCM in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

GFLD-CM3 model was used to generate weather data under RCPs scenario i.e. RCP 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 and 8.5 for years 2010, 2035, 2065 and 2095 for Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The generated data were used to assess the impact of climate change on phenology and yield of wheat crop using CERES-Wheat model. The results revealed that the impact climate change hastened reproductive stages (anthesis, maturity) and decreased yield in all scenarios. The impact was highest under RCP 8.5. Days to antheis and days to maturity were projected to reduce by 22 days and 24 days, respectively in 2095 whereas, grain yield decreased by 61.0 per cent.
The Cop21 Agreement: A Giant Illusion?

The policy sciences, enquiring into the making and implementation of public decisions, has made several stunning findings that are highly relevant to the COP21 Agreement or Treaty if you so wish. They constitute the so-called “implementation gap” or the “hiatus of policy implementation”, analysed by late American Aaron Wildavsky and also Paul Sabatier. The enormous enthusiasm for the COP21 framework must be dampened when confronted with the lessons from policy implementation, especially in such an extremely decentralised approach taking place over so many years. But the signatories have to decide now how to halt the increase in greenhouse gases (GHG), especially the CO2:s in order to start decreasing them, hopefully (naively) to zero in 80 years. As the emergence of economically viable renewable energy is slow, the only quick solution is to remove coal as an energy source. That would resolve the star economist Jeffrey Sachs dilemma that decarbonisation would result in negative economic growth.
Oxidative and Nitrosative Stress in Major Depressive Disorder: A Case Control Study

Introduction: The role of increased oxidative stress and alterations to the nitric oxide (NO) pathway have been implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD). The two pathways interact closely with each other but have not been studied simultaneously in MDD. This study aimed to assess and compare the levels of oxidative and nitrosative stress in the neutrophils (PMNs) of drug-naive MDD patients and their first-degree relatives. Methods: 29 drug-naive MDD patients and 27 healthy first-degree relatives and healthy controls aged 18–45 years were included in this study. An assessment of the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitrites, neuronal NO synthase (nNOS), and myeloperoxidase in PMNs, and cortisol in serum was carried out. Results: Compared to healthy controls, the generation of free radicals, myeloperoxidase activity, and nNOS mRNA expression in PMNs, and cortisol level in serum were significantly higher in drug-naive depression patients. Indeed, increased levels of myeloperoxidase and serum cortisol were also noted in first-degree relatives. The total nitrite content in the PMNs and plasma however was significantly lower in both patients and first-degree relatives. Interestingly, a positive correlation was established in the ROS levels in the PMNs, plasma and neutrophil nitrite, and the serum cortisol level between MDD patients and their first-degree relatives. Conclusion: The results of this study contribute towards a better understanding of the familial association of depressive disorder, and demonstrate for the first time that neutrophil ROS/RNS, plasma nitrite, and serum cortisol levels are positively correlated between MDD patients and their first-degree relatives. However, further studies in larger, more diverse samples are needed to extend these pathways as potential biomarkers to identify persons at high risk for psychopathology at an early stage.
Antioxidant activity and inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase in fermented black rice bran-based analog rice

Analog rice is an alternative food that can also be a functional food. Analog rice has the same shape as rice grains, can be made from non-rice flour, and can be consumed like white rice. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect as an antidiabetic of the addition of fermented black rice bran (FBB) and non-fermented black rice bran (NFBB) on analog rice based on in vitro assays. This research was conducted in three stages: analog rice was made from the raw materials of sorghum, yellow soybean, black soybean, FBB and NFBB; analysis of the phytochemical characteristics of analog rice; evaluation of DPPH-radical scavenging; and analysis of the inhibitory effects of agents α-amylase and α-glucosidase. Increased phenol, flavonoid, and anthocyanin content were found in analog rice with the addition of FBB. In addition, analog rice with the addition of FBB also had antioxidant activity and higher inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase activity with a range of 54.50–65.52%, 63.16–65.51% and 60.27–62.09% respectively compared to analog rice with the addition of NFBB. The results of this study indicate that analog rice with the raw materials of sorghum, beans and the addition of FBB has potential as an antidiabetic food.
Mucormycosis—Emerging Fungal Threats

Mucormycosis is an opportunistic fungal infection due to organisms of the Zygomycetes class and the order of Mucorales that can cause various types of infections. In recent years, an increasing phenomenon has been observed—invasive fungal infections especially in the healthcare setting. Among immucompromised patients, an important clinical emergency could be represented by mucormycosis. The epidemiology of mucormycosis has shown an alarming trend and its incidence is rising globally. Four elements are fundamental for a successful treatment: rapid diagnosis, reduction of predisposing factors (if possible), surgical debridement of infected tissues, and appropriate antifungal therapy.
Genome Characterization and Probiotic Potential of Corynebacterium amycolatum Human Vaginal Isolates

The vaginal microbiome of healthy women contains nondiphtheria corynebacteria. The role and functions of nondiphtheria corynebacteria in the vaginal biotope are still under study. We sequenced and analysed the genomes of three vaginal C. amycolatum strains isolated from healthy women. Previous studies have shown that these strains produced metabolites that significantly increased the antagonistic activity of peroxide-producing lactic acid bacteria against pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms and had strong antimicrobial activity against opportunistic pathogens. Analysis of the C. amycolatum genomes revealed the genes responsible for adaptation and survival in the vaginal environment, including acid and oxidative stress resistance genes. The genes responsible for the production of H2O2 and the synthesis of secondary metabolites, essential amino acids and vitamins were identified. A cluster of genes encoding the synthesis of bacteriocin was revealed in one of the annotated genomes. The obtained results allow us to consider the studied strains as potential probiotics that are capable of preventing the growth of pathogenic microorganisms and supporting colonisation resistance in the vaginal biotope.
Bio-Inspired Collision Avoidance in Swarm Systems via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Autonomous vehicles have been highlighted as a major growth area for future transportation systems and the deployment of large numbers of these vehicles is expected when safety and legal challenges are overcome. To meet the necessary safety standards, effective collision avoidance technologies are required to ensure that the number of accidents are kept to a minimum. As large numbers of autonomous vehicles, operating together on roads, can be regarded as a swarm system, we propose a bio-inspired collision avoidance strategy using virtual pheromones; an approach that has evolved effectively in nature over many millions of years. Previous research using virtual pheromones showed the potential of pheromone-based systems to maneuver a swarm of robots. However, designing an individual controller to maximise the performance of the entire swarm is a major challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based approach that is able to train a controller that introduces collision avoidance behaviour. To accelerate training, we propose a novel sampling strategy called Highlight Experience Replay and integrate it with a Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient algorithm with noise added to the weights and biases of the artificial neural network to improve exploration. To evaluate the performance of the proposed DRL-based controller, we applied it to navigation and collision avoidance tasks in three different traffic scenarios. The experimental results showed that the proposed DRL-based controller outperformed the manually-tuned controller in terms of stability, effectiveness, robustness and ease of tuning process. Furthermore, the proposed Highlight Experience Replay method outperformed than the popular Prioritized Experience Replay sampling strategy by taking 27% of training time average over three stages.
Analysis of Communication Channels for the Organization of Control and Interaction of UAVs from the Security Viewpoint

This article considers the issues of increasing the level of security of wireless communication channels between UAVs. The topic is quite relevant, since UAVs can be used to solve critical tasks, such as search operations, reconnaissance, and relaying communications. At the same time, wireless communication channels are not physically protected, and their security can easily be compromised. The article also discusses the main vulnerabilities of communication channels for UAVs, attacks, and threats to information security. Possibilities of increasing the level of security of UAV communication channels are considered. The methods and developments suggested on this topic by the authors are briefly presented.
Estimating Congestion in a Fixed-Route Bus by Using BLE Signals

Information on congestion of buses, which are one of the major public transportation modes, can be very useful in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Because it is unrealistic to manually monitor the number of riders on all buses in operation, a system that can automatically monitor congestion is necessary. The main goal of this paper’s work is to automatically estimate the congestion level on a bus route with acceptable performance. For practical operation, it is necessary to design a system that does not infringe on the privacy of passengers and ensures the safety of passengers and the installation sites. In this paper, we propose a congestion estimation system that protects passengers’ privacy and reduces the installation cost by using Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) signals as sensing data. The proposed system consists of (1) a sensing mechanism that acquires BLE signals emitted from passengers’ mobile terminals in the bus and (2) a mechanism that estimates the degree of congestion in the bus from the data obtained by the sensing mechanism. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, we conducted a data collection experiment on an actual bus route in cooperation with Nara Kotsu Co., Ltd. The results showed that the proposed system could estimate the number of passengers with a mean absolute error of 2.49 passengers (error rate of 38.8%).
Comparative Study of Chemical Composition, Pasting, Thermal and Functional properties of Teff (Eragrostis tef) Flours Grown in Ethiopia and South Africa

ABSTRACT The present study compared whole grain teff flours grown in Ethiopia (ETF) and South Africa (STF) for their chemical composition (proximate, mineral, and amino acid) and pasting, thermal, and functional properties. The proximate composition of flours was determined using methods of the European Commission Regulation (152/2009). Atomic Spectrometer, ion-exchange chromatography, Rapid Visco-Analyzer (RVA), and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) were used to measure minerals, amino acids, pasting, and thermal properties, respectively. The inter-relationships of the measured attributes were determined using Pearson correlation and principal component analysis (PCA). Significant (p < .05) differences in most of the evaluated properties were found between ETF and STF. However, several significant (p < .01) correlations were observed among the measured attributes of flours as revealed by Pearson correlation and PCA. Significantly (p < .05) higher contents of moisture (11.2 g/100 g flour), protein (13.3 g/100 g flour), and zinc (34.6 mg/kg) were found in STF, whereas significantly (p < .05) higher contents of calcium (1306 mg/kg) and iron (363 mg/kg) were perceived in ETF. The ETF was observed to have higher foam stability (71 mL/100 mL initial foam), water absorption capacity (1.1 g/g), oil absorption capacity (0.9 g/g), and swelling power (6.4 g/g) as compared to STF. Observations from thermal and pasting properties revealed that onset, peak and end temperatures, trough, final and set back viscosities, including peak time (6.3 min), and pasting temperature (90 °C) were found to be higher in the case of STF. In conclusion, findings of this study would contribute to the selection of teff for the development of healthier food products to meet the current consumer preferences .
Coffee Powder Antioxidant and Acrylamide Activity in Different Processing and Roasting Methods

This research aimed to analyze the antioxidant activity of processed ground coffee and the levels of acrylamide in roasted ground coffee at different temperature levels. The research method is a descriptive qualitative method by calculating antioxidant activity with UV-Vis spectrophotometer and acrylamide content by HPLC. The results showed that the levels of acrylamide produced from processing with different roasting levels were still below the tolerance limit and had strong antioxidant activity at various roasting levels with different processing methods. Keywords: Antioxidant, acrylamide, coffee powder
Architectural visualisation toolkitfor 3D Studio Max users

Architectural Visualisation has become a vital part of the design process for architects and engineers. The process of modelling and rendering an architectural visualisation can be complex and time consuming with only a few tools available to assist novice modellers. This paper looks at available solutions for visualisation specialists including AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max and Google SketchUp as well as available solutions which attempt to automate the process including Batzal Roof Designer. This thesis details a new program which has been developed to automate the modelling and rendering of the architectural visualisation process. The tool created for this thesis is written in MAXScript and runs along side 3D Studio Max. N.B.: Audio files were attached to this thesis at the time of its submission. Please refer to the author for further details.
Developing PTS Device (pH, TDS, and Salinity) to Determine the Water Quality for Cultivating Milkfish (Chanos chanos Forsk) in Pati District

The importance of water management for milkfish cultivation determines the yields. This research aims to find the performance specification and pH, TDS, and Salinometer measurement (PTS) design validity and relevance. These tools are combinations from various sensors connected by Arduino nano 328 system, pH meter analogue, turbidity, and salinity measurement sensors complemented by Liquid Crystal Display and battery. They are connected by data cable. The findings showed that 1) the system’s performance specification was applying copper electrodes as the salinity, turbidity, and pH meter sensors. The Arduino system did the readings of the data. 2) the device-design specification was valid and relevant to measure the pond water quality for cultivating milkfish (Chanos chanos Forsk).
Organic Manure Increases Carbon Sequestration Far beyond the “4 per 1000 Initiative” Goal on a Sandy Soil in the Thyrow Long-Term Field Experiment DIV.2

Carbon sequestration has been proposed as a way to mitigate the impact of CO2 on the climate. At the COP21, the ‘4 per 1000 Soils for Food Security and Climate’ initiative was launched with the goal to increase global soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks by 4‰ per year. The Thyrow long-term field experiment DIV.2 was chosen to determine the feasibility of this 4 per 1000 goal under the dry and sandy conditions in Eastern Germany. The effects of different fertilizing regimes on SOC contents and winter rye yields were investigated. Winter rye is a representative crop for the region and grown as a monoculture in the experiment. The 4 per 1000 goal was achieved in all treatments including the unfertilized control, although ploughing takes place and straw is removed every year. The highest carbon sequestration of up to 0.5 t ha−1 a−1 was provided by a combination of mineral and manure fertilization. In three out of four years, no yield difference was observed between mineral-only fertilization (120 kg ha−1 N) and a combination of mineral and organic N (97.4 kg ha−1 plant available N) fertilization. Yields increased over the years in the treatment with pure organic N and decreased in all other treatments.