Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The abundance of arthropods and natural enemies on two growth phases of hybrid corn, Solok District, Indonesia

Abstract. Hervani D, Sari SP. 2022. The abundance of arthropods and natural enemies on two growth phases of hybrid corn, Solok District, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 2966-2972. Solok District, West Sumatra, Indonesia is one of Indonesia's hybrid corn production regions. As yet, the study of arthropods is still limited. This study aimed to study the abundance and diversity of arthropods in the hybrid maize agroecosystem in Solok District, West Sumatra. The research was conducted from May to November 2020 in Tanah Garam Sub-district, Solok District. The sampling was carried out four times in two growth phases of hybrid corn: vegetative (the age of 20 and 40 days after planting/DAP) and the generative phase (the age of 60 and 80 DAP). The arthropod collection was conducted using a yellow trap and a modified vacuum technique. The identification process was carried out at the Insect Bioecology Laboratory, Andalas University. The study found two classes of arthropods in a hybrid cornfield in Solok District, namely Arachnida and Insecta. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index value (H') was 1.383, and the evenness index of species (J') was 0.997. A total of 2,927 individual arthropods, 80 families, 8 orders, and 3 classes, were recorded in the hybrid corn ecosystem in Solok District. Insect class (2,866 individuals) dominated the diversity of arthropods, where the majority of the arthropods found belong to groups of natural enemies such as predators and parasitoids. Conservation of natural enemies (predators and parasitoids) is one of the main factors in supporting the success of pests biologically, so the act of identifying natural enemies in an area is very important.
Staff training to improve participant recruitment into surgical randomised controlled trials: A feasibility study within a trial (SWAT) across four host trials simultaneously

Objective To test the feasibility of undertaking a simultaneous Study Within A Trial (SWAT) to train staff who recruit participants into surgical randomised controlled trials (RCTs), by assessing key uncertainties around recruitment, randomisation, intervention delivery and data collection. Study design and setting Twelve surgical RCTs were eligible. Interested sites (clusters) were randomised 1:1, with recruiting staff (surgeons and nurses) offered training or no training. The primary outcome was the feasibility of recruiting sites across multiple surgical trials simultaneously. Secondary outcomes included numbers/types of staff enrolled, attendance at training, training acceptability, confidence in recruiting and participant recruitment rates six months later. Results Four RCTs (33%) comprising 91 sites participated. Of these, 29 sites agreed to participate (32%) and were randomised to intervention (15 sites, 29 staff) or control (14 sites, 29 staff). Research nurses attended and found the training to be acceptable; no surgeons attended. In the intervention group, there was evidence of increased confidence when pre- and post- training scores were compared (mean difference in change 1.42; 95% CI 0.56, 2.27; p = 0.002). There was no effect on recruitment rate. Conclusion It was feasible to randomise sites across four surgical RCTs in a simultaneous SWAT design. However, as small numbers of trials and sites participated, and no surgeons attended training, strategies to improve these aspects are needed for future evaluations.
Effectiveness of new safeguards and prohibitions to protect audit independence: an empirical research with auditors

ABSTRACT The EU has faced the moral hazard problem of auditors by protecting their independence in two ways, with the formulation of a general principle of independence, and with the implementation of a preventive and sanctioning framework of safeguards and incompatibilities. The latest EU Directive, which reformed the auditing profession, adopted and extended such measures. This research fills a gap in the literature by showing the perception auditors have of the benefits of this new regulatory framework to promote auditor independence. With this purpose, we developed a qualitative study using a questionnaire addressed to a sample of 192 auditors. Following structural equation modelling methodology (SEM), we obtained results showing that the new and more restrictive European regulation of personal and service incompatibilities has a positive effect and improves the perceived independence of auditors.
Mission-Coded Map Icon Decision Aids for Play-Based Multi-Unmanned Vehicle Autonomy Delegation

An extended play-based human-autonomy interface paradigm was designed to support rule-based and knowledge-based behaviors for human operators tasked with managing twelve unmanned vehicles (UVs). The present research evaluates how autonomy might provide additional decision support that helps the operator correlate new mission events with the required tasks/plays to be initiated, along with the locations each play should be initiated. Each of eight participants performed 240 trials in which they designated a location or vehicle on the map in response to mission-related event prompts in a chat window. Experimental manipulations included the presence or absence of pictorial mission-coded icons on the map, the clutter level of the map, and whether or not satellite imagery was presented on the map. Both the objective performance data and subjective ratings indicated that map designations in response to mission event prompts were significantly faster when the mission-coded icons were presented on the map. Additionally, questionnaire ratings were more favorable when the mission icons were used (e.g., higher perceived performance and less workload). Suggestions are made for follow-on research.
Effects of Monochromatic Blue Light on Reducing the Adverse Impact of Induced Cyclic Chronic Heat Stress during the Thermal Manipulation of Broiler Embryos

Objective The aim was to detect effects of blue light on reducing the adverse effect of heat stress in thermal manipulation (TM) of broiler embryos by subjecting embryos to heat stress during incubation development. Methods Eggs were assigned to four treatments in which the TM (thermal manipulation) was exposed to 40°C for 4 h daily during five successive days, if TM was operated. The treatments were (1) normal temperature with white lighting group (37°C+W), (2) normal temperature with blue lighting group (37°C+B), (3) thermal manipulation with white lighting group (40°C+W), and (4) thermal manipulation with blue lighting group (40°C+B). Results Blue light significantly lowered MDA and corticosterone concentrations in the embryonic liver. Additionally, the damage of embryonic liver tissue caused by heat stress could be reduced by blue light. HSPs and HSFs gene expression of chicken liver were modulated by blue light significantly, whereas the effects were different, respectively. Moreover, blue light modulated liver antioxidant enzyme activity and their gene expression in embryonic liver significantly. However, blue light did not exert significant effects on body weight, late hatch rectal temperature and tibia length of hatched chicks. Conclusions The results suggest that monochromatic blue light can reduce the content of MDA and corticosterone of broiler embryos in heat stress and increase the relative expression of SOD and CAT genes. Moreover, the monochromatic blue light may reduce the metabolic heat production of broilers during the embryonic stage, thus reducing the damage of broilers due to heat stress during the embryonic heat acclimation stage.
High‐gain waveguide slot antenna using simple parasitic patch's cover

In this article, a way based on using miniature patch cells has been proposed to increase gain and bandwidth of the waveguide slot antenna. In the presented approach, an array of 3 × 3 metal patches has been used as superstrate to create Fabry Perot theorem resonance cavity. The proposed high‐gain and simple antenna is composed of a conventional waveguide slot antenna with an extended broad wall, and an array of parasitic patches which are symmetrically placed over slot at a distance of about free‐space half wavelength. The slot has been created on a rectangular waveguide WR90 with 22.86 mm × 10.16 mm × 52.5 mm dimension, also extended wall dimension is 2λ0 (67.5 mm) × 3λ0 (107 mm). It has been shown that the proposed structure compared with the conventional waveguide slot antenna improves antenna peak gain from 6.5 to 16.5 dBi and, in the same time, antenna bandwidth from 11% to around 16.2%. More important advantage of the proposed antenna is that unlike to other Fabry Perot antenna with the same gain, there is not any dielectric material in the proposed structure. A prototype antenna was simulated, fabricated, and measured for verification.
Design, Synthesis, and Quorum Quenching Potential of Novel Catechol–Zingerone Conjugate to Find an Elixir to Tackle Pseudomonas aeruginosa Through the Trojan Horse Strategy

To address the issue of multidrug resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a novel catechol–zingerone conjugate (1) linked via a non-hydrolyzable 1,2,3-triazole linker was synthesized and subjected to biological evaluation based on the Trojan horse strategy. To enhance the efficacy, catechol, a xenosiderophore, utilized by P. aeruginosa for iron assimilation, and the dietary phytochemical zingerone, known for its anti-virulent activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, were exploited in the present study. Theoretical validation of conjugate (1) was conducted by in silico molecular docking analysis to determine the interaction with outer membrane transport receptor PirA and quorum sensing signal receptors. In addition, nine-fold binding affinity of Conjugate (1) toward PirA (5FP2) in comparison to its natural ligand catechol with D-score −1.13 Å authenticated the designed Trojan horse drug. Conjugate (1) showed stronger anti-virulent activity than zingerone; hence, it exhibited a promising anti-biofilm efficacy as assessed by crystal violet assay and visualized by FESEM toward P. aeruginosa. Encouraging results against P. aeruginosa in terms of quorum sensing regulated virulence factors, motility phenotypes, and biofilm formation with no cell cytotoxicity and could help open hitherto unexplored possibilities of establishing Trojan horse drugs as a successful approach against multidrug resistance in P. aeruginosa.
Severe Vitamin D Deficiency in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT: Background: Decrease in sunlight exposure during periods of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of severe manifestations of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) in a particular “high-risk” population. Our objective was to highlight the importance of vitamin D screening in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and restrictive eating. Case Presentation: We describe 3 adolescent male patients with ASD who developed severe manifestations of VDD and hypocalcemia in late 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. All spent less time outdoors than in prior years because of isolation at home during the pandemic. Presenting symptoms included seizures and atraumatic fractures. All 3 were found to have hypocalcemia and severe VDD. Limited sun exposure because of isolation indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic was a likely contributing factor to the severity of VDD. All 3 were treated with intravenous calcium acutely, followed by oral calcium and vitamin D. Laboratory tests performed post-treatment showed biochemical resolution of hypocalcemia and VDD. Conclusion: These cases highlight the importance of screening “at-risk” youth for VDD. Clinicians should be cognizant that children and adolescents with ASD and restricted eating can have severe manifestations of hypocalcemia and VDD. Decreased sun exposure because of isolating indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic increased their risk for this.
Machine learning techniques in searches for tt̄h in the h → bb̄ decay channel

Study of the production of pairs of top quarks in association with a Higgs boson is one of the primary goals of the Large Hadron Collider over the next decade, as measurements of this process may help us to understand whether the uniquely large mass of the top quark plays a special role in electroweak symmetry breaking. Higgs bosons decay predominantly to bb̄, yielding signatures for the signal that are similar to tt̄ + jets with heavy flavor. Though particularly challenging to study due to the similar kinematics between signal and background events, such final states (tt̄ bb̄) are an important channel for studying the top quark Yukawa coupling. This paper presents a systematic study of machine learning (ML) methods for detecting tt̄h in the h → bb̄ decay channel. Among the eight ML methods tested, we show that two models, extreme gradient boosted trees and neural network models, outperform alternative methods. We further study the effectiveness of ML algorithms by investigating the impact of feature set and data size, as well as the structure of the models. While extended feature set and larger training sets expectedly lead to improvement of performance, shallow models deliver comparable or better performance than their deeper counterparts. Our study suggests that ensembles of trees and neurons, not necessarily deep, work effectively for the problem of tt̄h detection.
Development and Evaluation of a Bicistronic DNA Vaccine against Nervous Necrosis Virus in Pearl Gentian Grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus × Epinephelus fuscoguttatus)

Nervous necrosis virus (NNV) can cause enormous economic losses in mariculture. Vaccines are promising ways to control the disease. In this study: the interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) gene of pearl gentian grouper was cloned and functionally analyzed; then a bicistronic DNA vaccine encoding both capsid protein (CP) and IRF3 was constructed; then the cellular, humoral, and local immune responses in the grouper after immunization were investigated; and then the protective effects after the NNV challenge were investigated. The results showed that the vaccine successfully expressed CP and IRF3. After immunization, the lymphocytes were recruited at the injection site in the muscles. The percentage of sIgM+ lymphocytes in the head, kidney, and spleen significantly increased and peaked at 28.8 ± 3.1% and 42.6 ± 4.2% at the 3rd to 4th weeks. Six immune-related genes were significantly up-regulated. In the meantime, the total antibodies, anti-NNV specific antibodies, and neutralizing antibody titers in serum increased. After the challenge with 105, 106 or 107 TCID50/fish, the relative percent survival rate was 81.25%, 73.91%, and 66.67%, respectively. In 106 TCID50/fish groups, the percentages of sIgM+ lymphocytes, antibodies, and the viral load were investigated. In conclusion, the bicistronic vaccine significantly induced humoral and cellular responses in pearl gentian grouper and provided effective protection against NVV infection.
MIR4435-2HG Is a Potential Pan-Cancer Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis

The lncRNA MIR4435-2 host gene (MIR4435-2HG) is located on human chromosome 2q13, and its expression is up-regulated in 18 tumors. MIR4435-2HG participates in 6 signaling pathways to promote tumorigenesis, including the TGF-β signaling pathway, Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, MDM2/p53 signaling pathway, PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, Hippo signaling pathway, and MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. MIR4435-2HG competitively binds with 20 miRNAs to form a complex ceRNA network, thereby regulating the expression of downstream target genes. The high expression of MIR4435-2HG is also closely related to the clinicopathological characteristics and poor prognosis of a variety of tumors. Also, the high expression of MIR4435-2HG in peripheral blood or serum has the value of predicting the risk of 9 tumors. In addition, MIR4435-2HG participates in the mechanism of action of three cancer drugs, including resveratrol for the treatment of lung cancer, cisplatin for non-small cell lung cancer and colon cancer, and carboplatin for triple-negative breast cancer. This article systematically summarizes the diagnostic and prognostic value of MIR4435-2HG in a variety of tumors and outlines the ceRNA network and signaling pathways related to MIR4435-2HG, which will provide potential directions for future MIR4435-2HG research.
The Avatar’s Gist: How to Transfer Affective Components From Dynamic Walking to Static Body Postures

Dynamic virtual representations of the human being can communicate a broad range of affective states through body movements, thus effectively studying emotion perception. However, the possibility of modeling static body postures preserving affective information is still fundamental in a broad spectrum of experimental settings exploring time-locked cognitive processes. We propose a novel automatic method for creating virtual affective body postures starting from kinematics data. Exploiting body features related to postural cues and movement velocity, we transferred the affective components from dynamic walking to static body postures of male and female virtual avatars. Results of two online experiments showed that participants coherently judged different valence and arousal levels in the avatar’s body posture, highlighting the reliability of the proposed methodology. In addition, esthetic and postural cues made women more emotionally expressive than men. Overall, we provided a valid methodology to create affective body postures of virtual avatars, which can be used within different virtual scenarios to understand better the way we perceive the affective state of others.
Some results on the telegraph process driven by gamma components

Abstract We study the integrated telegraph process $X_t$ under the assumption of general distribution for the random times between consecutive reversals of direction. Specifically, $X_t$ represents the position, at time t, of a particle moving U time units upwards with velocity c and D time units downwards with velocity $-c$ . The latter motions are repeated cyclically, according to independent alternating renewals. Explicit expressions for the probability law of $X_t$ are given in the following cases: (i) (U, D) gamma-distributed; (ii) U exponentially distributed and D gamma-distributed. For certain values of the parameters involved, the probability law of $X_t$ is provided in a closed form. Some expressions for the moment generating function of $X_t$ and its Laplace transform are also obtained. The latter allows us to prove the existence of a Kac-type condition under which the probability density function of the integrated telegraph process, with identically distributed gamma intertimes, converges to that of the standard Brownian motion. Finally, we consider the square of $X_t$ and disclose its distribution function, specifying the expression for some choices of the distribution of (U, D).
The Burden of Diabetes-Related Chronic Kidney Disease in China From 1990 to 2019

Objective To analyze the trends in disease burden of diabetes-related chronic kidney disease (CKD) by year, age, gender and types of diabetes in China from 1990 to 2019. Methods Data on prevalence, deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for diabetes-related CKD were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 study. Analyses were performed by year, age, gender and types of diabetes. Results In China, the numbers of deaths and DALYs of diabetes-related CKD continuously increased but the age-standardized rates (per 100,000 population) decreased over 30 years, in which the numbers of deaths and DALYs attributable to type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM)-related CKD barely changed and the age-standardized rates decreased over the years; and the number of deaths and DALYs attributable to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)-related CKD continuously increased, but the age-standardized rates also decreased. In 2019, 76.03 (58.24-95.61) thousand deaths and 2.13 (1.65–2.67) million DALYs were attributable to diabetes-related CKD, of which, T2DM accounted for 83.32% and 77.0% respectively, and T1DM accounted for the rest. Increasing gender disparity was seen, with males being more heavily impacted. The burden of diabetes-related CKD varied among different age groups, with the numbers of deaths and DALYs attributable to T1DM-related CKD peaking between 45 and 54 years of age and T2DM-related CKD peaking between 75 and 79 years of age; and the crude rates of deaths and DALYs attributable to T1DM-related CKD peaking between 70 and 79 years of age and 40 to 54 years of age, respectively, and T2DM-related CKD peaking over 90 years of age. Among neighboring and G20 countries, the burden of diabetes-related CKD in China was relatively controlled reflected by the ranking of adjusted death and DALYs rates. Conclusions The burden of diabetes-related CKD in China worsens and shows gender disparities and different age distribution. Greater efforts are needed to improve the health outcomes of these patients, especially among males.
Optimal fixed charge–rate coordination of plug‐in electric vehicle incorporating capacitor and OLTC switching to minimize power loss and voltage deviation

Integration of plug‐in electric vehicles (PEVs) in a smart grid largely deteriorates the performances of the system. This paper proposes a two‐stage optimization approach to optimize customer satisfaction as well as grid performances when fixed charge–rate PEV coordination, switching capacitor and on‐load tap charger (OLTC) are coordinated simultaneously. To coordinate PEV charging, capacitor and OLTC, an efficient binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) has been applied. The main consideration in this optimal coordination is to minimize the daily power loss and voltage deviation while maximizing customer satisfaction. Simulation results are compared with the variable charge–rate coordination that is proposed previously. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy: A Focus on Definitions for Clinical Nephrologists

About 5–10% of pregnancies are complicated by one of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The women who experience these disorders have a greater risk of having or developing kidney diseases than women with normotensive pregnancies. While international guidelines do not provide clear indications for a nephrology work-up after pregnancy, this is increasingly being advised by nephrology societies. The definitions of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy have changed greatly in recent years. The objective of this short review is to gather and comment upon the main definitions of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy as a support for nephrologists, who are increasingly involved in the short- and long-term management of women with these disorders.
Electron Beam-Based Rapid Prototyping - State of the Art

Fast prototyping involving the use of an electron beam and a deposited material in the form of a wire is an efficient method enabling the making of elements having complicated shapes and made of expensive technical alloys, e.g. alloy steels, nickel or titanium alloys. The demand for fast prototyping results from the development of new technologies in the automotive, aviation and machine-building industries. The article discusses the advantages of fast prototyping methods confronted with conventional prototyping methods as well as presents ideas behind the fast prototyping and primary process parameters. The fast prototyping technology involving the use of a wire and an electron beam as the source of energy should gain recognition among Polish entrepreneurs intended to implement innovative solutions in their companies.