Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein source in maturation media affects gene expression in cumulus cells and embryo development in cattle

Abstract We aimed to evaluate if protein source (PS) alterations during IVM affect embryo sex/development and gene expression profile in cumulus cells (CCs). Bovine oocytes were matured and cultured in the presence of FBS or BSA. Then, the PS effect during IVM on gene expression (GPC4, VCAN, GHR, PTGS2, and ALCAM) was determined. CC biopsy was removed before and after IVM treatments. After fertilization and cultured, CCs were grouped according to their fate into CCs from immature COCs, CCs from COCs that did or did not result in embryos (according to PS). Results showed that when the culture was performed in FBS presence, blastocyst rate was higher (p < 0.05) than BSA. However, when embryos were cultured with BSA, no effect (p > 0.05) of PS during IVM was observed. PS used during IVM did not affect embryos sex (p > 0.05) but changed VCAN, GHR, PTGS2, and ALCAM genes expression. No differences (p > 0.05) were observed between immature and mature CCs groups in gene expression, regardless of their fate. Only the GHR gene was related to embryo production but just with FBS on IVM. In conclusion, PS can affect embryo development when using the serum on IVM and IVC, influences CCs gene expression, and has to be considered when studying oocyte quality markers.
A UWB-2PPM Reconstruction Algorithm without a Priori Knowledge of Pilot

Compressed Sensing is very efficient in reducing the relatively high sampling rate. But when it comes to the channel estimation of uncooperative communication, the common CS reconstruction algorithms seem impractical to implement since a pilot is required, which is difficult for uncooperative communication. In this paper, we combine the sparsity transform dictionary, which is formed by a sequence of delays of the template signal, together with the idea of alternative minimization to improve the traditional CoSaMP algorithm to reconstruct under-sampled UWB-2PPM signal transmitted by unkown complex channel without a knowledge of pilot. The theoretical analysis and simulations show that the proposed algorithm is capable of reconstructing the original transmitted signal without a pilot.
Lessons from transmissible cancers for immunotherapy and transplant

Abstract The emergence of horizontal transmission of cancer between vertebrates is an issue that interests scientists and medical society. Transmission requires: (i) a mechanism by which cancer cells can transfer to another organism and (ii) a repressed immune response on the part of the recipient. Transmissible tumors are unique models to comprehend the responses and mechanisms mediated by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which can be transposed for transplant biology. Here, we discuss the mechanisms involved in immune-mediated tissue rejection, making a parallel with transmissible cancers. We also discuss cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in cancer immunotherapy and anti-rejection therapies.
Escherichia coli SymE is a DNA‐binding protein that can condense the nucleoid

Type I toxin‐antitoxin (TA) systems typically consist of a protein toxin that imbeds in the inner membrane where it can oligomerize and form pores that change membrane permeability, and an RNA antitoxin that interacts directly with toxin mRNA to inhibit its translation. In Escherichia coli, symE/symR is annotated as a type I TA system with a non‐canonical toxin. SymE was initially suggested to be an endoribonuclease, but has predicted structural similarity to DNA binding proteins. To better understand SymE function, we used RNA‐seq to examine cells ectopically producing it. Although SymE drives major changes in gene expression, we do not find strong evidence of endoribonucleolytic activity. Instead, our biochemical and cell biological studies indicate that SymE binds DNA. We demonstrate that the toxicity of symE overexpression likely stems from its ability to drive severe nucleoid condensation, which disrupts DNA and RNA synthesis and leads to DNA damage, similar to the effects of overproducing the nucleoid‐associated protein H‐NS. Collectively, our results suggest that SymE represents a new class of nucleoid‐associated proteins that is widely distributed in bacteria.
Optimal joint power allocation and sub-carrier pairing in amplify-and-forward SC-FDMA relaying networks

Optimal power allocation (PA) and sub-carrier pairing (SP) strategies for a dual-hop amplify-and-forward single-carrier frequency division multiple access network are derived. Frequency domain equalisers based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) and zero forcing (ZF) criteria are considered. For each equaliser, the problem of joint PA and SP is solved to maximise the system capacity subject to the total network power constraint. The optimality of ordered SP (OSP) and reverse OSP scenarios for MMSE and ZF equalisers, respectively, is proved.
Once-Daily Topical Phosphosulindac Is Efficacious in the Treatment of Dry Eye Disease: Studies in Rabbit Models of Its Main Clinical Subtypes

Purpose: Dry eye disease (DED) is classified as aqueous deficient, evaporative, or mixed. We investigated the therapeutic effect of the novel anti-inflammatory drug phosphosulindac (PS) in rabbit models of DED encompassing its pathogenesis, and its transition to chronicity. Methods: We treated three rabbit models of DED with PS (hydrogel formulation) or vehicle topically applied 1 × /day. We induced aqueous-deficient DED (acute and chronic) by injecting Concanavalin A into lacrimal glands; evaporative DED by injecting into the upper eyelid inactivated Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complete Freund's adjuvant; and mixed DED through desiccative stress, induced by holding open the eye for 3 h. We determined corneal sensitivity, tear break-up time (TBUT), Schirmer's tear test (STT), tear osmolality, and fluorescein staining of the ocular surface. Results: PS reversed all abnormal DED parameters. In acute DED, PS dose dependently normalized corneal sensitivity and tear osmolality; and improved TBUT, STT, and fluorescein staining. PS normalized corneal sensitivity and improved all other parameters in chronic aqueous-deficient DED. In evaporative DED, PS normalized corneal sensitivity and improved TBUT and fluorescein staining (osmolality and STT were not significantly changed in this model). In the desiccative stress model, PS improved TBUT and fluorescein staining but had no effect on STT or tear osmolality. Conclusions: PS rapidly reversed almost all DED parameters in its three subtypes. The normalization of the suppressed corneal sensitivity suggests the possibility of marked symptomatic relief by PS. The hydrogel formulation allows once-daily dosing. PS merits further development as a potential treatment for DED.
Support Vector Machine Modelling for COVID-19 Prediction based on Symptoms using R Programming Language

SVM has been used in several studies in bioinformatics concerning disease classification. Currently, the world is experiencing a pandemic called COVID-19 which is a contagious disease that can be transferred through droplets in the air from the infected person. Individuals who carry this virus demand to be diagnosed promptly to prevent the virus from spreading which can cause danger to human lives, but COVID-19 testing kits were not easily accessible, and laboratory tests cannot be done right away. In line with this, the authors utilized Support Vector Machine supervised machine learning algorithm in building a model to analyze and predict the presence of COVID-19 in a person based on symptoms experienced by the person. Hyperparameters such as degree, cost, gamma, and kernels including Linear, Radial, Polynomial, and Sigmoid were tuned through R Studio to attain the best possible performance of the model. The model was evaluated using 10 – fold cross validation and results show that polynomial kernel with optimized hyperparameters yielded the best accuracy of 98.02%.
Monitoring System of Safe Adult-child Ratio in Childcare Institutions Based on Image Recognition

According to the seventh census, the birth rate of Chinese population is falling and, the aging is heavily faster. Childcare services have become an important part of the improvement of public services by governments at all levels, in order to enhance the willingness of young people to bear children and nurture carefully each child. However, our country’s childcare services are currently facing many struggles and challenges, especially the safety supervision of childcare institutions, which is one of the focuses of attention of parents. In this paper, we propose a monitoring system of safe adult-child ratio based on image recognition, which plays a role in assisting safety monitoring. It can reflect the actual status of child in a timely manner, monitor the adult-child ratio, and activate the alarm when the adult is out of work, the child is unattended, or the adult-child ratio does not satisfy the predetermined value. The image recognition model is built based on deep learning and trained on a self-made dataset, and its test results show that the accuracy of the monitoring system of safe adult-child ratio can reach 91.66% for identifying adult and child, which proves that the monitoring system has comparatively higher practical value to a certain extent.
A possible interspecific feeding event of two hummingbird species in southeast Mexico

ABSTRACT We documented a potential interspecies feeding event between 2 species of hummingbirds in southeastern Mexico in 2019. We used morphological and behavioral traits to identify the hummingbirds as an adult female White-bellied Emerald (Chlorestes candida) and a juvenile Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl). We ruled out the possibility of hybridization due to a lack of intermediate traits in the juvenile hummingbird, which allowed for the speculation of 4 interspecies behavioral mechanisms: brood parasitism, courtship feeding, simultaneous multiple nesting, or alloparental care of young. Due to the complexity of the first 3 mechanisms and lack of documented evidence of the behaviors between the 2 species of hummingbirds, the most likely mechanism to explain the observed behavior is alloparental care of young by an inexperienced adult female White-bellied Emerald.
Location based adaptive routing protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks

By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of existing routing protocol of underwater acoustic sensor network, combining with underwater acoustic channel model, the author proposes a novel adaptive routing protocol based on the location of the nodes (LARP). The routing protocol can select forward route adaptively according to the level of data packets and the dynamic characteristics of underwater environment. Therefore, it can reduce the delay of network transmission, save the network energy consumption and improve the quality of the network communication effectively. Finally, through the simulation of four different routing mechanism: HH-VBF, VBF, MPR and LARP, our routing protocol's superiority is verified.
Novel solar cell power supply system using the multiple-input DC-DC converter

Recently, clean electric power generation systems have attracted a great deal of social attention to exploit clean energy resources such as solar arrays, wind generators, fuel cells, etc. In this case, the multiple-input DC-DC power converter is useful to combine the several input power sources and to supply the regulated output voltage for the load. The novel solar cell power supply system using the buck-boost type two-input DC-DC converter is proposed, in which the solar array and the commercial AC line are exploited as power sources and they are combined by the two input windings of the energy-storage reactor. Also, its operation principle and performance characteristics are discussed. Furthermore, the solar cell optimum operating point tracker is proposed and examined. It is confirmed by the experiment that the proposed solar cell power supply system has the excellent performance characteristics.
Modeling and analysis guidelines for slow transients. III. The study of ferroresonance

The ability to predict or confirm ferroresonance depends primarily on the correctness of the transformer model used by the computer simulation. Ferroresonance is introduced and a general modeling approach is given. An overview of available literature and contributors to this area is provided. A simple ease of ferroresonance in a single phase transformer is used to illustrate this "phenomenon". Three phase transformer core structures are discussed. Ferroresonance in three phase grounded-wye distribution systems is described and illustrated with waveform data obtained from laboratory simulations. Representation of the study zone is discussed, modeling techniques are presented, and implementation suggestions are made. Three case studies are presented. Transformer representation is critical to performing a valid simulation. The direction of ongoing research is discussed, and the reader is advised to monitor the literature for ongoing rapid improvements in transformer modeling techniques.
In the Pursuit of Justice: Moving Past Color-Evasive Efforts

In this issue, titled “In the Pursuit of Justice: Moving Past Color-Evasive Efforts” we focus on educational efforts that were conceived of to improve and expand equity in U.S. public schools, but rather than interrupting injustice, they have often resulted in harm. Our orientation to this tension is grounded in Critical Race Theory, and its central tenet of racial realism (Bell, 1992), meaning the awareness that race and racism are omnipresent even when unnamed. Our work with educators in various spaces and roles has deepened our awareness that educators are, writ large, deeply committed to their students’ well-being. However, the impact of their commitments is variable and vulnerable to the sway of racist systems––especially when educators do not attend to the role of race and racism; or, even worse, when they deliberately obscure or evade the constructs of race and racism. The harmful pervasiveness of colorblindness in schools is well-documented (Milner, 2010, 2012). Annamma et al. (2017) challenged critical scholars to build upon understandings of colorblindness and advocates for a racial ideology of color-evasiveness. We take up the construct of color-evasion in this volume. Annamma (2017) extended Gotanda’s (1991) critique of colorblindness, pointing in particular to its ableist underpinnings and to the passivity implied by the term. These scholars elaborate how, historically, colorblindness has been hailed as a moral highroad for policymaking and designing. Elaborating these points, they provided multiple examples, from the U.S. Constitution’s insistence that all men are created equal to the standards-based movement in educational reform efforts. Wells (2014), for example, critiqued NCLB as “a reflection of the most ‘colorblind’ approach to addressing racial disparities in education: Ignore glaring racial inequality when implementing policies and then bemoan stark racial inequalities in educational outcomes” (p. 1). Annamma and colleagues (2017) thus advocate for a shift to recognizing and intervening upon color-evasiveness to directly confront these tendencies:
Heal the Healers: A pilot study evaluating the feasibility, acceptability, and exploratory efficacy of a Transcendental Meditation intervention for emergency clinicians during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Emergency clinicians face elevated rates of burnout that result in poor outcomes for clinicians, patients, and health systems. The objective of this single‐arm pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of a Transcendental Meditation (TM) intervention for emergency clinicians during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and to explore the potential effectiveness in improving burnout, sleep, and psychological health.
Design of smart power synchronous rectifier

In low-output-voltage DC/DC power converters, power losses due to the conduction of rectifying devices are significant. Using synchronous rectifiers instead of the conventional fast recovery diodes or Schottky diodes is an effective solution to this problem in most topologies. However, for synchronous rectifiers to perform effectively, this requires an external gate drive with proper sensing and timing control circuits. This can increase the complexity and cost in power converter hardware implementation. For the first time, a smart power synchronous rectifier (SPSR), which is a two-terminal MOS rectifier, is designed to overcome this difficulty. The SPSR integrates a simple control unit with a power MOSFET into a smart module to form a self-controlled synchronous rectifier. It has great advantages over the conventional discrete circuit composition, such as integrated gate control, precise timing switching and fast transient response, which are suitable for applications in high-frequency pulsewidth modulation (PWM) power converter circuits.
Multiple types of genomic variation contribute to adaptive traits in the mustelid subfamily Guloninae

Species of the mustelid subfamily Guloninae inhabit diverse habitats on multiple continents, and occupy a variety of ecological niches. They differ in feeding ecologies, reproductive strategies and morphological adaptations. To identify candidate loci associated with adaptations to their respective environments, we generated a de novo assembly of the tayra (Eira barbara), the earliest diverging species in the subfamily, and compared this with the genomes available for the wolverine (Gulo gulo) and the sable (Martes zibellina). Our comparative genomic analyses included searching for signs of positive selection, examining changes in gene family sizes and searching for species‐specific structural variants. Among candidate loci associated with phenotypic traits, we observed many related to diet, body condition and reproduction. For example, for the tayra, which has an atypical gulonine reproductive strategy of aseasonal breeding, we observed species‐specific changes in many pregnancy‐related genes. For the wolverine, a circumpolar hypercarnivore that must cope with seasonal food scarcity, we observed many changes in genes associated with diet and body condition. All types of genomic variation examined (single nucleotide polymorphisms, gene family expansions, structural variants) contributed substantially to the identification of candidate loci. This argues strongly for consideration of variation other than single nucleotide polymorphisms in comparative genomics studies aiming to identify loci of adaptive significance.
Arext: Automatic Regular Expression Testing Tool Based on Generating Strings With Full Coverage

This paper introduces a testing tool for regular expressions (regexes) named AREXT. AREXT can automatically extract regexes from C++ source files and visually represent them as DFA graphs. Given a regex, AREXT can generate a set of positive and negative strings with 100% coverage of nodes, edges, and edge pairs. We leverage prior works of synthesizing regexes from natural language to create benchmarks for evaluating AREXT. Some current tools, i.e., EGRET and MUTREX, are also being evaluated and compared. Experiments show that AREXT can outperform EGRET as AREXT can detect more unexpected synthesized regexes in almost all benchmarks. The evaluation results indicate that strings with 100% coverage metrics (generated by AREXT) or strings with maximum mutation score (generated by MUTREX) are not enough to ensure the correctness of regexes under test. Experiments also show that combining AREXT, EGRET, and MUTREX can detect a majority of unwanted synthesized regexes (87–91%).
Multi-Package Delivery Optimization with Drone

Drones are used in many areas, from military fields to the medical sector, from search and rescue activities to delivery of cargo packages. The usage areas of drones are many and they are increasing day by day. Therefore, in order to determine the routes to be used by the drones, some optimization studies such as route optimizations, optimization of the battery and the load it carries, and improvement of usage safety are required. In this study, QR code generation and QR code reading modules were created in order to improve the delivery of the order to the right user while multi-package delivery is made by drone. In addition, an optimization study was carried out on the use of the traveling salesman algorithm in order to optimize the package delivery route. Name, surname, phone and address information was requested from each user through the application. With this information, a special QR code was created for each user and sent via the application. The route was created using the traveling salesman algorithm according to the address information. The method was tested for different routes and the outputs of the method were given in the experimental results.
Influence of Demand Response Programs in Microgrids Facing Photovoltaic and Battery Integration

Yearly, the number of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) integrated into the power grid increases has increased, having a large impact on power generation globally, promoting the introduction of renewable energy resources (RER). To increase the flexibility of the power system with integrated RER, the introduction of energy storage systems (ESS) is essential. Demand response (DR) programs also help to increase grid flexibility, resulting in increased grid reliability as grid congestion and losses decrease. However, this new paradigm shift needs further research and careful analysis. In this work, two types of DR programs are addressed to promote greater participation by different consumers features. To interconnect the different consumers, DR aggregators are inserted to ensure that individual consumers have influence on the power market. All these aspects, if accompanied by information, measurement, communication, and control systems, give rise to the smart grids, playing an essential role. The results show, considering the worst uncertainty case scenario, that there is a suitable total RER of 2151.50 kW, against 3227.30 kW, by not considering the RER uncertainty.
Failure Prediction and Wear State Evaluation of Power Shift Steering Transmission

Within the vehicle transmission, the friction surfaces of mechanical parts were consecutively worn-out and ultimately up to the degradation failures. For assessing the wear progress effectively, wear particles should be generally monitored by measuring the element concentration through Atomic emission (AE) spectroscopy. Herein, the spectral data sampled from life-cycle test has been processed by both the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and further Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA). Results show that KPCA acts more effectively in variable-dimensions reduction due to fewer principle components and higher cumulative contributing rate. To detect the threshold point at where the wear-stage upgraded, the Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm was applied to process the eigenvalues of principle components. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the principle components relate to the worn-out state of friction pairs or transmission parts. In general, the introduction of KPCA has contributed to assess the wear-stage at where the machine situates and the accurate worn-out state of various transmission parts.