Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phenology and Vegetative Growth in a New Production Region of Grapevines: Case Study in São Joaquim, Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil

In Brazil winemaking is expanding not only in the renewal of vineyards in traditional production areas, but also in the introduction of new crops in the newer winemaking regions. Promising cha- racteristics were observed in the quality of the grapes and wines produced in altitude regions of Santa Catarina. The aim of this study is to characterize the geographic and climatic conditions which affect the phenology and vegetative growth of grapevine in Sao Joaquim, in the mountains region of Santa Catarina. The vineyards are located in areas with undulated and strongly undu- lated relief, predominantly in soils originating from basaltic rocks, in climate conditions classified as Cfb according to the Koppen, as Region I according to Winkler classification. The phenological stage of the grapevines in the Sao Joaquim region begins later and lasts longer in comparison to other winegrowing regions in Brazil. Decrease in photoperiod and low temperatures (<10˚C) were the determining factors for the induction of growth cessation of the shoots in Sao Joaquim. The geographic location in a lower latitude and its high altitude results in a distinct growing climate compared to the other winegrowing regions in Brazil.
The association of postoperative subjective visual function with acuity, glare, and contrast sensitivity in patients with early cataract.

BACKGROUND It has been shown in our previous studies that early cataracts affect vision in ways that can be measured by objective means and that this objective impairment in visual acuity, glare, and contrast sensitivity can be successfully reversed by cataract surgery. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of subjective visual function with objective measures of acuity, glare, and contrast sensitivity in patients who were symptomatic from early cataract. METHODS We administered a task-oriented questionnaire prior to and 4 months after cataract surgery to patients who were symptomatic from early cataract (median preoperative ETDRS [Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study] visual acuity of 20/40 [range, 20/20 to 20/80]); ETDRS visual acuity, disability glare, and contrast sensitivity were also measured at those times. RESULTS Uncomplicated cataract surgery resulted in resolution or improvement of subjective symptoms for the great majority of subjects, and in a few subjects new symptoms developed or current symptoms worsened. We found a positive association between postoperative improvement in subjective visual function (as measured by the questionnaire) and postoperative improvement in objective visual function (as measured by visual acuity and contrast sensitivity). We also found that the greater the degree of preoperative impairment in objective visual function (as measured by visual acuity and contrast sensitivity), the greater the postoperative improvement in subjective visual function (as measured by the questionnaire). No such association was found for our disability glare test. CONCLUSIONS Cataract surgery for symptomatic individuals with mild impairment in visual acuity does relieve visual symptoms, and preoperative measurement of contrast sensitivity can help determine who with early cataract is most likely to report subjective improvement in vision.
The Effect of Two-Dimensional Learning Style on Interactive Multimedia Learning to the Learning Result

In the learning process, there are some elements that have to be noticed in order to make it effective and optimal. The elements are; the objective of the learning process, the type of content, the learning method, the delivery media, and the learning style of the students. The focus of this research was the learning style of the students, in the learning context with interactive multimedia (animation) which was needed to be accommodated, since that one of the characteristics of multimedia learning which was developed to create selflearning. This research aims to investigate the effect of those different two-dimensional learning style (input [visual vs verbal] and understand [sequential vs global]) on the computer based interactive multimedia learning to the learning result. The learning process with multimedia learning was conducted in a class with the research subject is the fourth-semester students of STMIK STIKOM Bali in academic year of 2011/2012. The experimental design used factorial univariate ANOVA 2x2 designs with the size of sample was 79 students divided into three different classes. Based on the result of the analysis, it can be concluded that the students learning result of the learning style for each dimension was equal. It is also the same with the learning result that was combined learning style type of both dimensions. This shows that the interactive multimedia learning developed has been successful to accommodate the students learning style and therefore learning process with multimedia can be concluded as effective and optimal.
‘Forced to Friendship’? Russian (Mis-)Understandings of Soft Power and the Implications for Audience Attraction in Ukraine

This article argues that for all its efforts to implement soft power techniques, the Kremlin still fails to grasp the subtle, voluntaristic essence of soft power. This is reflected in a style of public interaction that has practical implications for how Russian soft power overtures are received by the audience. This is demonstrated through the findings of mixed-method empirical research from four Ukrainian regions. Thus, while surveys show that the worldview promoted by Russian public diplomacy resonates to some extent, insights from focus groups indicate that potential attraction is nevertheless limited by Russia's ‘hard’ and obtrusive approach to cultural influence.
Atorvastatin is beneficial for muscle reinnervation after complete sciatic nerve section in rats

Abstract Nerve regeneration and functional recovery are often incomplete after peripheral neurotmetic lesion. Atorvastatin has been shown to be neuroprotective after transient ischaemia or traumatic injury. The aim of this study was to establish if systemic administration of Atorvastatin could improve functional muscle reinnervation after complete sciatic nerve section. Sixteen female Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. After a complete right sciatic nerve section, end-to-end microsuture repair was performed and fibrin glue was added. Three groups were studied: (1) sutures (S) + fibrin glue (F) only + saline administration for 14 days; (2) S+F+Atorvastatin administration for 14 days; and (3) uninjured nerve. Five months later, the sciatic nerve and the gastrocnemius muscle were isolated to perform in vivo electrophysiological measurements. Better kinematics was observed in atorvastatin-treated rats 5 months after its administration. Indeed, a larger excursion of the hip-ankle-toe angle during walking was observed. This effect was associated with the preservation of electromyographic activity (2.91 mV vs 0.77 mV) and maximal muscle force (85.1 g vs 28.6 g) on stimulation of the proximal nerve section. Five months after a neurotmetic lesion, the recovery is incomplete when using suture and fibrin glue only. Furthermore, the systemic administration of Atorvastatin for 14 days after lesion was beneficial in improving locomotion capability associated with the re-establishment of muscle strength and EMG activity.
Measurements of HIV viral loads from different levels of the respiratory tract.

BACKGROUND The lung is a common site of disease in HIV infection. Virus has been detected in BAL fluid (BALF) and saliva. However, the relationship between viral loads detected at different levels of the respiratory tract is unknown. METHOD We measured simultaneous HIV viral loads in parotid saliva (PS), bronchial fluid (BF), BALF, and plasma by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in 20 HIV-infected individuals. RESULTS HIV was detected in 53% of BALF samples, 15% of BF samples, 5% of PS samples, and 88% of plasma samples. Viral loads in plasma and BALF samples were positively correlated. There were significantly higher levels of HIV viral load in both plasma and BALF in subjects with CD4 counts of < 200 cells/ microL compared to those with higher counts. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was associated with lower BALF and plasma viral loads, and the effect in BALF was independent of the plasma viral load. Interestingly, smoking also was associated with lower levels of both BAL and BF viral loads, independent of the plasma viral load. CONCLUSION These data demonstrate that while HIV can be detected in the respiratory tract, the viral load is influenced by both local factors (ie, level of the respiratory tree and cigarette smoking) and systemic factors (ie, ART and peripheral CD4 count).
Towards End-to-End Reinforcement Learning of Dialogue Agents for Information Access

This paper proposes KB-InfoBot - a multi-turn dialogue agent which helps users search Knowledge Bases (KBs) without composing complicated queries. Such goal-oriented dialogue agents typically need to interact with an external database to access real-world knowledge. Previous systems achieved this by issuing a symbolic query to the KB to retrieve entries based on their attributes. However, such symbolic operations break the differentiability of the system and prevent end-to-end training of neural dialogue agents. In this paper, we address this limitation by replacing symbolic queries with an induced “soft” posterior distribution over the KB that indicates which entities the user is interested in. Integrating the soft retrieval process with a reinforcement learner leads to higher task success rate and reward in both simulations and against real users. We also present a fully neural end-to-end agent, trained entirely from user feedback, and discuss its application towards personalized dialogue agents.
Mutable checkpoints: a new checkpointing approach for mobile computing systems

Mobile computing raises many new issues such as lack of stable storage, low bandwidth of wireless channel, high mobility, and limited battery life. These new issues make traditional checkpointing algorithms unsuitable. Coordinated checkpointing is an attractive approach for transparently adding fault tolerance to distributed applications since it avoids domino effects and minimizes the stable storage requirement. However, it suffers from high overhead associated with the checkpointing process in mobile computing systems. Two approaches have been used to reduce the overhead: First is to minimize the number of synchronization messages and the number of checkpoints; the other is to make the checkpointing process nonblocking. These two approaches were orthogonal previously until the Prakash-Singhal algorithm (28) combined them. However, we (8) found that this algorithm may result in an inconsistency in some situations and we proved that there does not exist a nonblocking algorithm which forces only a minimum number of processes to take their checkpoints. In this paper, we introduce the concept of "mutable checkpoint," which is neither a tentative checkpoint nor a permanent checkpoint, to design efficient checkpointing algorithms for mobile computing systems. Mutable checkpoints can be saved anywhere, e.g., the main memory or local disk of MHs. In this way, taking a mutable checkpoint avoids the overhead of transferring large amounts of data to the stable storage at MSSs over the wireless network. We present techniques to minimize the number of mutable checkpoints. Simulation results show that the overhead of taking mutable checkpoints is negligible. Based on mutable checkpoints, our nonblocking algorithm avoids the avalanche effect and forces only a minimum number of processes to take their checkpoints on the stable storage.
PLAC4 and β‐HCG mRNA levels are not altered in the maternal circulation of pregnancies with trisomy 21

β‐Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and pregnancy‐associated plasma protein (PAPP‐A) are placentally produced proteins whose levels are altered in pregnancies with trisomy 21. PLAC4 is located on chromosome 21 and its expression is restricted to the placenta. Here we investigated whether the levels of β‐HCG‐, PAPP‐A‐ and PLAC4 mRNA could be able to discriminate pregnancies whose fetus is affected by trisomy 21.
RNA-Seq Analysis and De Novo Transcriptome Assembly of Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus Linne)

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) has long been cultivated as a vegetable and as a source of fructans (inulin) for pharmaceutical applications in diabetes and obesity prevention. However, transcriptomic and genomic data for Jerusalem artichoke remain scarce. In this study, Illumina RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was performed on samples from Jerusalem artichoke leaves, roots, stems and two different tuber tissues (early and late tuber development). Data were used for de novo assembly and characterization of the transcriptome. In total 206,215,632 paired-end reads were generated. These were assembled into 66,322 loci with 272,548 transcripts. Loci were annotated by querying against the NCBI non-redundant, Phytozome and UniProt databases, and 40,215 loci were homologous to existing database sequences. Gene Ontology terms were assigned to 19,848 loci, 15,434 loci were matched to 25 Clusters of Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups classifications, and 11,844 loci were classified into 142 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways. The assembled loci also contained 10,778 potential simple sequence repeats. The newly assembled transcriptome was used to identify loci with tissue-specific differential expression patterns. In total, 670 loci exhibited tissue-specific expression, and a subset of these were confirmed using RT-PCR and qRT-PCR. Gene expression related to inulin biosynthesis in tuber tissue was also investigated. Exsiting genetic and genomic data for H. tuberosus are scarce. The sequence resources developed in this study will enable the analysis of thousands of transcripts and will thus accelerate marker-assisted breeding studies and studies of inulin biosynthesis in Jerusalem artichoke.
A new existence proof of the Monster by VOA theory

We use uniqueness of a VOA (vertex operator algebra) extension of (V + EE8) 3 to a Moonshine type VOA to give a new existence proof of a finite simple group of Monster type. The proof is relatively direct. Our methods depend on VOA representation theory and are free of many special calculations which traditionally occur in theory of the Monster.
Computational power of quantum many-body states and some results on discrete phase spaces

This thesis consists of two parts. The main part is concerned with new schemes for measurementbased quantum computation. Computers utilizing the laws of quantum me chanics promise an exponential speed-up over purely classical devi ces. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to the measurement-ba sed p radigm of quantum computers. It has been realized that local measur ments on certain highly entangled quantum states are computational ly as powerful as the well-established model for quantum computation based o n controlled unitary evolution. Prior to this thesis, only one family of quantum states was kn own to possess this computational power: the so-called cluster state and s ome very close relatives. Questions posed and answered in this thesis incl ude: Can one find families of states different from the cluster, which con stitute universal resources for measurement-based computation? Can the high ly s ngular properties of the cluster state be relaxed while retaining u iversality? Is the quality of being a computational resource common or rare among pure states? We start by establishing a new mathematical tool for underst anding the connection between local measurements on an entangled quantum state and a quantum computation. This framework – based on finitely corr elated states (or matrix product states) common in many-body physics – is t he first such tool general enough to apply to a wide range of quantum states beyond the family of graph states. We employ it to construct a variety of new universal resource states and schemes for measurement-based c omputation. It is found that many entanglement properties of universal sta te may be radically different from those of the cluster: we identify state s which are locally arbitrarily close to a pure state, exhibit long-ranged corr elations or cannot be converted into cluster states by means of stochastic loca l operations and classical communication. Flexible schemes for the compens ation of the inherent randomness of quantum measurements are introduce d. W proceed to provide a complete classification of a natural class o f tates which can take the role of a single logical qubit in a measurement-b ased quantum computer. Lastly, it is demonstrated that states can be too e ntangled to be useful for any computational purpose. Concentration of mea sure arguments show that this problem occurs for the dramatic majority of al l pure states. The second part of the thesis is concerned with discrete quan tum phase spaces. We prove that the only pure states to possess a non-ne gative Wigner function are stabilizer states. The result can be seen as a fin ite-dimensional analogue of a classic theorem due to Hudson, who showed that G aussian states play the same role in the setting of continuous variab le systems. The quantum phase space techniques developed for this argument are subsequently used to quantize a well-known structure from classi cal computer science: the Margulis expander.
Attention, instruction, and response representation

A two-dimensional Simon-type task was devised to investigate the impact of task requirements and explicit instructions on spatial action coding. Subjects performed actions that were defined on two spatial dimensions: horizontal (left-right) or vertical (top-bottom). The relevant stimulus feature was nonspatial but the stimuli varied on the horizontal and the vertical dimension, so that horizontal and vertical S-R compatibility effects could be measured separately. Implicit task requirements were manipulated by having the subjects perform an unrelated task before the Simon task—a task in which only one of the two spatial dimensions was relevant. Instructions were varied by describing the responses in the unrelated priming task and/or in the Simon task in spatial terms or by referring to nonspatial features of the response keys. Priming a particular dimension increased the Simon effect on that dimension, whereas instructions had no differential effect. These findings suggest that, first, drawing attention to a particular dimension leads to a stronger contribution to event representation of those features defined on that dimension (intentional weighting) and, second, that instructions do not affect action coding if the manipulation does not change the task goal.
Pair Analytics: Capturing Reasoning Processes in Collaborative Visual Analytics

Studying how humans interact with abstract, visual representations of massive amounts of data provides knowledge about how cognition works in visual analytics. This knowledge provides guidelines for cognitive-aware design and evaluation of visual analytic tools. Different methods have been used to capture and conceptualize these processes including protocol analysis, experiments, cognitive task analysis, and field studies. In this article, we introduce Pair Analytics: a method for capturing reasoning processes in visual analytics. We claim that Pair Analytics offers two advantages with respect to other methods: (1) a more natural way of making explicit and capturing reasoning processes and (2) an approach to capture social and cognitive processes used to conduct collaborative analysis in real-life settings. We support and illustrate these claims with a pilot study of three phenomena in collaborative visual analytics: coordination of attention, cognitive workload, and navigation of analysis.
Thinking Like a Chemist: Development of a Chemistry Card-Sorting Task To Probe Conceptual Expertise

An underlying goal in most chemistry curricula is to enable students to think like chemists, yet there is much evidence to suggest that students can learn to solve problems without thinking conceptually like a chemist. There are few tools, however, that assess whether students are learning to think like Ph.D. faculty, putative experts in the field. Here, we present a card-sorting task that probes how individuals organize information about problems in chemistry. Chemistry faculty tend to organize around “deep” features centered on fundamental ideas in chemistry while novices tend to organize around “surface” features such as problem presentation or specific vocabulary. We used established statistical techniques from card-sorting tasks in other fields and introduce a new quantitative measure that compares individual performance on the sorting task to faculty and novices that is hypothesis-independent. Initial results indicate that the card-sorting task is effective at distinguishing between populations of f.
Learning Word Segmentation Representations to Improve Named Entity Recognition for Chinese Social Media

Named entity recognition, and other information extraction tasks, frequently use linguistic features such as part of speech tags or chunkings. For languages where word boundaries are not readily identified in text, word segmentation is a key first step to generating features for an NER system. While using word boundary tags as features are helpful, the signals that aid in identifying these boundaries may provide richer information for an NER system. New state-of-the-art word segmentation systems use neural models to learn representations for predicting word boundaries. We show that these same representations, jointly trained with an NER system, yield significant improvements in NER for Chinese social media. In our experiments, jointly training NER and word segmentation with an LSTM-CRF model yields nearly 5% absolute improvement over previously published results.
Helical fields and filamentary molecular clouds — I

We study the equilibrium of pressure truncated, filamentary molecular clouds that are threaded by rather general helical magnetic fields. We first apply the virial theorem to filamentary molecular clouds, including the effects of non-thermal motions and the turbulent pressure of the surrounding ISM. When compared with the data, we find that many filamentary clouds have a mass per unit length that is significantly reduced by the effects of external pressure, and that toroidal fields play a significant role in squeezing such clouds. We also develop exact numerical MHD models of filamentary molecular clouds with more general helical field configurations than have previously been considered. We examine the effects of the equation of state by comparing ‘isothermal’ filaments, with constant total (thermal plus turbulent) velocity dispersion, with equilibria constructed using a logatropic equation of state. Our theoretical models involve three parameters: two to describe the mass loading of the toroidal and poloidal fields, and a third that describes the radial concentration of the filament. We thoroughly explore our parameter space to determine which choices of parameters result in models that agree with the available observational constraints. We find that both equations of state result in equilibria that agree with the observational results. Moreover, we find that models with helical fields have more realistic density profiles than either unmagnetized models or those with purely poloidal fields; we find that most isothermal models have density distributions that fall off as r−1.8 to r−2, while logatropes have density profiles that range from r−1 to r−1.8. We find that purely poloidal fields produce filaments with steep radial density gradients that are not allowed by the observations.