Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chemical constituents of the seeds of Atriplex centralasiatica

Objective To study the chemical constituents of the seeds of Atriplex centralasiatica.Methods The constituents were isolated by a combination of silica gel,polyamide and sephadex LH-20 column chromatography.The chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of physicochemical constants and spectral data.Results Five compounds were obtained and identified as tricin(1),isorhamnetin-7-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside(2),isorhamnetin-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-7-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside(3),β-sitosterol(4),daucosterol(5). Conclusions Compounds 2 and 3 are isolated from the genus for the first time.
H2O Collisional Broadening Coefficients at 1.37 µm and Their Temperature Dependence: A Metrology Approach

We report selfand air collisional broadening coefficients for the H2O line at 7299.43 cm−1 and corresponding temperature coefficients for a temperature range spanning 293–573 K. New laser spectroscopic setups specifically designed for this purpose have been developed and are described. The line parameters reported here are in good agreement with those values reported in the HITRAN 2020 database, but the uncertainties have been reduced by factors of about 4, 1.3 and 4.4 for the self-broadening coefficient, air broadening coefficient and the temperature exponent of air broadening, respectively. Further, we combined our measurement approach with metrological data quality objectives, addressing the traceability of the results to the international system of units (SI) and evaluated the uncertainties following the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM).
Mesoporous CuO–ZnO p–n heterojunction based nanocomposites with high specific surface area for enhanced photocatalysis and electrochemical sensing

We report the synthesis and characterization of p-CuO/n-ZnO heterojunction nanocomposites and their application as a broad spectrum photocatalyst. The different systems were also found to serve significantly as an electrode material for electrochemical (amperometric) sensing of H2O2 and NH3 (in μM or ppm level). To investigate their photochemical activities, three dyes, viz. Alizarin Red S, Methylene Blue and Rose Bengal, were chosen. The 60 hour milled composite gave better photocatalytic activity than the unmilled and 30 hour milled systems due to homogeneous mixing, formation of appropriate p–n junction, significant lowering of particle size and enhanced specific surface area. The defect level of ZnO, which also increases with increasing milling duration, again helps in better catalytic performance by trapping the photogenerated electrons and holes and also by raising the valance band edge and thus narrowing the band gap. The 60 hour milled sample took 55, 60 and 70 minutes to degrade the ARS, MB and RB dyes, respectively, which are better than many previous reports. The degradation rate was 0.01931, 0.04663 and 0.02318 min−1 for the ARS, MB and RB dyes, respectively.
Fracture of the Physically Cross-Linked First Network in Hybrid Double Network Hydrogels

Fundamental understanding of the fracture process and toughening mechanisms of double network (DN) hydrogels is critical for rational design of the next generation of tough DN gels with desirable mechanical properties. However, current knowledge of DN gels from synthesis methods to toughening mechanisms mainly comes from chemically cross-linked DN gels. Little is known about hybrid physically chemically cross-linked DN gels. Herein, we synthesize tough DN hydrogels by combining two types of cross-linked polymer networks: a physically cross-linked first network of agar and a covalently cross-linked second network of polyacrylamide (PAM). The resulting Agar/PAM DN gels achieved high toughness of 500–1000 J/m2. More importantly, we reveal several differences and similarities between hybrid Agar/PAM DN gels and chemically linked PAMPS/PAM DN gels. First, different from the nearly velocity-independent mechanical properties in chemically linked DN gels, hybrid Agar/PAM DN gels show velocity-dependent fracture b.
Sales Forecasting Model Based on BP Neural Network Optimized by Improved Immune Genetic Algorithm

A new sales forecasting model based on an Improved Immune Genetic Algorithm (IIGA), IIGA that optimizes the BPNN (IIGA-BP) has been proposed. The IIGA presents a new way of population initialization, a regulatory mechanism of antibody concentration, and a design method of adaptive crossover operator and mutation operator, which effectively improved the convergence ability and optimization anility of IIGA. And IIGA can optimize the BPNN’s initial weights and threshold and improve the randomness of network parameters as well as the drawbacks that lead to output instability of BPNN and easiness into local minimum value. It taking the past records of sales figures of a certain steel enterprise as an example, utilizing the Matlab to construct the BP neural network, Immune Genetic Algorithm that optimizes the BPNN (IGA-BP), IGA-BP neural network, and IIGA-BP neural network prediction models for simulation and comparative analysis. The experiment demonstrates that IIGA-BP neural network prediction model possessing a higher prediction accuracy and more stable prediction effects.
Exploring the Perceptions of Omani School Principals About Their Leadership Preparation: A Mixed-Methods Study

ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore school leadership preparation and development in Oman. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected through surveys and focus group interviews, the study investigated how a sample of public school principals perceived their principalship preparation. The investigation included leadership learning experiences, adequacy of leadership preparation, problematic leadership areas, and conceptions of effective preparation. The study findings showed that while Omani principals felt they were adequately prepared for principalship, certain leadership aspects have remained problematic for them. Participants expressed their preference for organized training combining theoretical and practical elements but specifically valued experiential learning activities.
Evaluation of A Simultaneous Adsorption Device For Cytokines And Neutrophil-Platelet Complexes In Vitro And In A Lung-Protective Ventilated Rabbit Acute Lung Injury Model

Background: Neutrophil-platelet complexes (NPCs) readily migrate into tissues and induce tissue damage via cytokine or other pathogenic factors release. These actions are involved in onset and progression of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Thus, simultaneous removal of cytokines and activated neutrophils that includes NPCs by blood purification may prevent development of ARDS and enhance drug effects. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of a newly developed adsorption column (NOA-001) that eliminates cytokines and activated neutrophils in a lung injury model.Results: Adsorption of cytokines such as IL-8, IL-6 and HMGB-1, and NPCs was first measured in vitro. Lung injury was induced by HCl and lipopolysaccharide intratracheal infusion in rabbits ventilated at a low tidal volume (7-8 mL/kg) and PEEP (2.5 cmH2O) for lung protection. Arterial blood gas, hematologic values, plasma IL-8, blood pressure and heart rate were measured, and lung damage was evaluated histopathologically in animals treated with 8-hour direct hemoperfusion with or without use of NOA-001. The in vitro adsorption rates for IL-8, IL-6, HMGB-1, activated granulocytes and NPCs were 99.4 ± 0.0164%, 63.6 ± 0.367%, 59.0 ± 1.58%, 7.05 ± 9.63% and 55.7 ± 12.7%, respectively. Absorption of NPCs onto fibers was confirmed microscopically. These adsorption effects were associated with several improvements in the rabbit model. In respiratory function, the PaO2/FIO2 ratios at 8 h were 314 ± 55.3 mmHg in the NOA-001 group and 134 ± 40.8 mmHg in the sham group. The oxygenation index and PaCO2 also differed significantly between the two groups (p<0.05). Acidosis was observed in the sham group, whereas blood pH was maintained within the normal range in the NOA-001 group (p<0.05). In lung histopathology, fewer hyaline membrane and inflammatory cells were observed in the NOA-001 group.Conclusion: A column for simultaneous removal of cytokines and NPCs showed efficacy for improvement of pulmonary function in an animal model. This column may be effective in support of treatment of ARDS.
UKF vision-based mobile platform kinematic parameters calibration

Calibrating the kinematic parameters of a mobile robot is a time consuming and mandatory procedure, since the mechanical tolerances and the assembly procedures may introduce a large inaccuracy in the nominal parameters. A small error in the calibration might lead to severe inconsistencies in tasks that rely on precise positioning, such as localization, mapping and navigation in general. In a wheeled mobile robot this consists of estimating the odometry parameters, that are required to convert wheel encoder ticks in a relative motion of the mobile base on a local plane, for then computing its position. To tackle this problem, we propose the use of the unscented Kalman filter for estimating the geometrical kinematic parameters of the dynamic model of the mobile robot, while using an external camera, to precisely measure the mobile robot positions in the environment, via a visual tag fixed to the robot. The inclusion of the visual tag in the model corresponds to an eye-to-eye problem, where the fixed transform between the visual tag frame and mobile robot frame is identified. The usage of the unscented version of the Kalman filter, compared to the extended Kalman filter, assures robustness in the estimation of parameters and state in strongly nonlinear system, and to parameters initial values, due to the usage of the unscented transform to propagate the state uncertainty, rather than employing linearization. We validate this method on a 4 mecanum-wheel mobile robot internally developed using a Kinect2 to track the mobile robot movement trough a reference chessboard. The experiments has shown a great improvement in the odometry computation of the two platforms, and a fast convergence of the estimated parameters, furthermore the fixed transform of the visual tag, which corresponds to ah hand-to-eye problem is well identified
Effects of Y chromosome Microdeletions on Male Fertility

Background: In the process of human reproduction, spermatogenesis is one of the most important stages, which is controled by special genes on Y chromosome. Previous studies show that some infertile men have microdeletions on Y chromosome, which cause the reduction of sperm count. Three prominent spermatogenesis loci have been identified on the Y chromosome and entitled “azoospermia factors” (AZFa, b, and c). Hereby, this review article aimed to investigate the content of the Y chromosome microdeletions and their importance in male fertility. Methods: Data and information were collected on English-language articles from PubMed and MEDLINE databases. For Persian articles, Persian-language databases, including SID Scientific Database, IranMedex Medical Articles Database, IranDoc (Iran Scientific Information and Documents Research Institute), Magiran Publication Information, and MedLib were investigated. More than 50 articles on Y chromosome microdeletions and infertility published during 2000-2020 were studied. Results: Previous studies implicated that Y chromosome microdeletions in AZFa, AZFb, and AZFc regions are accompanied by defect in spermatogenesis, leading to oligo / azoospermia. Patients with AZFa and AZFb microdeletions present secretory azoospermia and do not have sperm in their seminiferous tubules. Complete AZFc deletion involves region b2/b4, which contains a total of 12 genes. Incomplete deletion of AZFc includes b1/b3, b2/b3 and gr/gr. The most common of which are gr/gr. In men with gr/gr deletion, sperm count and motility were lower than control group. Conclusion: Y chromosomal microdeletions emerged as the most frequent structural chromosome anomaly associated with the quantitative reduction of sperm. The development of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) like intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and testicular sperm extraction (TESE) helps to bypass the natural barriers of fertilization.
Deconstructing precipitation variability: Rainfall event size and timing uniquely alter ecosystem dynamics

Water‐limited ecosystems are highly sensitive to not only precipitation amount, but also precipitation pattern, particularly variability in the size and timing of growing season rainfall events. Both rainfall event size and timing are expected to be altered by climate change, but the relative responses of dryland ecosystems to changes in rainfall event size versus timing have not been resolved. Here, we disentangle the effects of these different aspects of precipitation pattern on ecosystem dynamics. We experimentally assessed how these two aspects of rainfall variability impacted a semi‐arid grassland ecosystem by altering an ambient precipitation pattern to eliminate variability in (a) rainfall event size (all events were made the same size), (b) rainfall event timing (all events were uniformly spaced in time) and (c) both. Total precipitation amount was constant for all treatments. We measured responses of soil moisture, ecosystem carbon flux (e.g. net primary production and soil CO2 flux), plant community composition and physiological responses of the dominant C4 grass, Bouteloua gracilis. Removing variability in rainfall event size altered ecosystem dynamics more than a pattern of uniform event timing, but the largest impact occurred when variability in both were removed. Notably, eliminating variability in both event size and timing increased above‐ground net primary productivity by 23%, consistent with reduced water stress in the dominant C4 grass, while also reducing seasonal variability in soil CO2 flux by 35%, reflecting lower seasonal variability in soil moisture. Synthesis. Unique responses to different aspects of precipitation variability highlight the complexity of predicting how dryland ecosystems will be affected by climate change‐induced shifts in rainfall patterns. Our results provide novel support for the key roles of rainfall event size and timing, in addition to total precipitation amount, as determinants of ecosystem function.
Incorporating the clinical and radiomics features of contrast-enhanced mammography to classify breast lesions: a retrospective study.

Background Contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) is a promising breast imaging technique. A limited number of studies have focused on the radiomics analysis of CEM. We intended to explore whether a model constructed with both clinical and radiomics features of CEM can better classify benign and malignant breast lesions. Methods This retrospective, double-center study included women who underwent CEM between August 2017 and February 2020. The data from Center 1 were used as training set and the data from Center 2 were used as external testing set (training: testing =2:1). Models were constructed with the clinical, radiomics, and clinical + radiomics features of CEM. The clinical features included patient age and clinical image features interpreted by the radiologists. The radiomics features were extracted from high-energy (HE), low-energy (LE), and dual-energy subtraction (DES) images of CEM. The Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson correlation and Boruta's approach were used to select the radiomics features. Random Forest (RF) and logistic regression were used to establish the models. For the testing set, the areas under the curve (AUCs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were employed to evaluate the performance of the models. For the training set, the mean AUCs were obtained by performing internal validation for 100 iterations and then compared by the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results A total of 226 women (mean age: 47.4±10.1 years) with 226 pathologically proven breast lesions (101 benign; 125 malignant) were included. For the external testing set, the AUCs were 0.964 (95% CI: 0.918-1.000) for the combined model, 0.947 (95% CI: 0.891-0.997) for the radiomics model, and 0.882 (95% CI: 0.803-0.962) for the clinical model. In the internal validation process, the combined model achieved a mean AUC of 0.934±0.030, which was significantly higher than those of the radiomics (mean AUC =0.921±0.031, adjusted P<0.050) and clinical models (mean AUC =0.907±0.036; adjusted P<0.050). Conclusions Incorporating both clinical and radiomics features of CEM may achieve better classification results for breast lesions.
Evolution of 49 Phenolic Compounds in Shortly-aged Red Wines Made from Cabernet Gernischt (Vitis vinifera L. cv.)

A total of 49 phenolic compounds were identified from the aged red wines made from Cabernet Gernischt (Vitis vinifera L. cv.) grapes, a Chinese characteristic variety, including 13 anthocyanins, 4 pryanocyanins, 4 flavan-3-ol monomers, 6 flavan-3-ol polymers, 7 flavonols, 6 hydroxybenzoic acids, 5 hydroxycinnamic acids, 3 stilbenes, and 1 polymeric pigment. Evolution of these compounds was investigated in wines aged 1 to 13 months. Variance analysis showed that the levels of most phenolics existed significant difference in between wines aged 3 and 9 months. Cluster analysis indicated that 2 groups could be distinguished, one corresponding to wines aged 1 to 3 months and the other to wines aged 4 to 13 months. It was thus suggested that there were 2 key-stages for the development of fine wine quality, at the aged 3 and 9 months, respectively. This work would provide some helpful information for quality control in wine production.
Warming drives sustained plant phosphorus demand in a humid tropical forest

Phosphorus (P) is often one of the most limiting nutrients in highly weathered soils of humid tropical forests and may regulate the responses of carbon (C) feedback to climate warming. However, the response of P to warming at the ecosystem level in tropical forests is not well understood because previous studies have not comprehensively assessed changes in multiple P processes associated with warming. Here, we detected changes in the ecosystem P cycle in response to a 7‐year continuous warming experiment by translocating model plant‐soil ecosystems across a 600‐m elevation gradient, equivalent to a temperature change of 2.1°C. We found that warming increased plant P content (55.4%) and decreased foliar N:P. Increased plant P content was supplied by multiple processes, including enhanced plant P resorption (9.7%), soil P mineralization (15.5% decrease in moderately available organic P), and dissolution (6.8% decrease in iron‐bound inorganic P), without changing litter P mineralization and leachate P. These findings suggest that warming sustained plant P demand by increasing the biological and geochemical controls of the plant‐soil P‐cycle, which has important implications for C fixation in P‐deficient and highly productive tropical forests in future warmer climates.
Improved Antifouling Properties of Poly(Ether Sulfone) Membrane by Incorporating the Amphiphilic Comb Copolymer with Mixed Poly(Ethylene Glycol) and Poly(Dimethylsiloxane) Brushes

In this study, a novel amphiphilic comb copolymer P(poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-r-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)) with mixed hydrophilic and low surface energy side chains was synthesized by the free radical polymerization method. The microstructure of the synthesized amphiphilic copolymers was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and the nuclear magnetic resonance proton spectra (1H NMR). The copolymers were blended with poly(ether sulfone) (PES) to fabricate low-fouling ultrafiltration membranes through nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS). The surface distribution of the hydrophilic PEG segments and hydrophobic PDMS segments on the membranes via surface segregation during the NIPS process was confirmed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the wetting property, and the surface energy measurements. The multidefense mechanisms from fouling resistant to fouling release for the membranes modified by amphiphilic copolymers P(PEG-r-PDMS) were investigated with bovine serum albumin.
HOXB9 Promotes Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression by Upregulating MMP12

Background：The HOX family transcription factor HOXB9 is a crucial element in the progression of various cancers. In the previous study conducted by the investigators, a drastically higher HOXB9 expression was reported in laryngeal squamous cell cancer (LSCC), when compared to adjacent normal laryngeal squamous tissues. Furthermore, a high level of HOXB9 was closely correlated with histological grade and overall survival in LSCC patients. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been fully elucidated.Results: The present study explored the molecular mechanisms of HOXB9 in LSCC progression. Furthermore, the in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that the gene knockout of HOXB9 using the CRISPR/CAS9 system inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and promoted cell apoptosis. Mechanistic studies in LSCC cell lines and human LSCC specimens demonstrated that HOXB9 promotes LSCC progression by directly upregulating the MMP12 expression at the level of its transcription.Conclusions: Collectively, the present study is the first to demonstrate the role of HOXB9 in the regulation of LSCC progression by enhancing the upregulation of MMP12.
A Novel Approach for Protecting RPL Routing Protocol against Blackhole Attacks in IoT Networks

Nowadays, we are witnessing an increasing trend towards interconnected devices. This process of connecting devices instead of people is called the Internet of Things (IoT). The main concept of IoT is to connect heterogeneous objects separately and centrally in different places using standard protocols. The general idea is to create an independent world using intelligent objects that have the ability to exchange information and make decisions. Connected objects allow users to monitor and track remotely and in real-time. IoT relies on the development of a low-power, high-throughput network to support communication between objects and their connection to the Internet. These networks are characterized by limited resources in terms of energy, memory, and processing. In the true sense of the Internet of Things, networks called 6LoWPAN were created, and a new routing protocol compatible with these networks, called RPL, was introduced. Due to the limited nature of RPL-based networks, they may be exposed to a variety of internal attacks. Neighbor attacks and DIS are specific attacks in this protocol. This study proposes a trust-based RPL routing protocol which deals with blackhole threats. Besides, it is shown that while our recommended system is secure against blackhole attacks, it doesn’t incur any unwanted expenses in terms of network traffic.