Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Diversity of Desert Hypolithic Cyanobacteria

Global patterns in diversity were estimated for cyanobacteria-dominated hypolithic communities that colonize ventral surfaces of quartz stones and are common in desert environments. A total of 64 hypolithic communities were recovered from deserts on every continent plus a tropical moisture sufficient location. Community diversity was estimated using a combined t-RFLP fingerprinting and high throughput sequencing approach. The t-RFLP analysis revealed desert communities were different from the single non-desert location. A striking pattern also emerged where Antarctic desert communities were clearly distinct from all other deserts. Some overlap in community similarity occurred for hot, cold and tundra deserts. A further observation was that the producer-consumer ratio displayed a significant negative correlation with growing season, such that shorter growing seasons supported communities with greater abundance of producers, and this pattern was independent of macroclimate. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA and nifH genes from four representative samples validated the t-RFLP study and revealed patterns of taxonomic and putative diazotrophic diversity for desert communities from the Taklimakan Desert, Tibetan Plateau, Canadian Arctic and Antarctic. All communities were dominated by cyanobacteria and among these 21 taxa were potentially endemic to any given desert location. Some others occurred in all but the most extreme hot and polar deserts suggesting they were relatively less well adapted to environmental stress. The t-RFLP and sequencing data revealed the two most abundant cyanobacterial taxa were Phormidium in Antarctic and Tibetan deserts and Chroococcidiopsis in hot and cold deserts. The Arctic tundra displayed a more heterogenous cyanobacterial assemblage and this was attributed to the maritime-influenced sampling location. The most abundant heterotrophic taxa were ubiquitous among samples and belonged to the Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. Sequencing using nitrogenase gene-specific primers revealed all putative diazotrophs were Proteobacteria of the orders Burkholderiales, Rhizobiales, and Rhodospirillales. We envisage cyanobacterial carbon input to the system is accompanied by nitrogen fixation largely from non-cyanobacterial taxa. Overall the results indicate desert hypoliths worldwide are dominated by cyanobacteria and that growing season is a useful predictor of their abundance. Differences in cyanobacterial taxa encountered may reflect their adaptation to different moisture availability regimes in polar and non-polar deserts.
Synthesis, mechanical and thermal properties of carbon black/epoxy composites

In the present work, epoxy/carbon black (CB) composites were made with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt. % of CB. The tensile test, flexural test, and impact test of the epoxy/CB composites and neat epoxy were performed and, their results were compared. Theresults conclude that the tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength of the 4 wt. % of CB composites is better than the other composites and neat epoxy. Thermal graphic analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) of the pure epoxy and composites were calculated and analyzed. The results found that the glass transition (Tg) of the neat epoxy was increased with the addition of CB content up to 4 wt. % and then it was decreased. The decomposition temperature of the composites was increased with the increased in the CB content.Keywords: Carbon black (CB), Epoxy, composites, TGA, DSC, Glass transition temperature (Tg)
Ghostshell: Secure Biometric Authentication using Integrity-based Homomorphic Evaluations

Biometric authentication methods are gaining popularity due to their convenience. For an authentication without relying on trusted hardwares, biometrics or their hashed values should be stored in the server. Storing biometrics in the clear or in an encrypted form, however, raises a grave concern about biometric theft through hacking or man-in-the middle attack. Unlike ID and password, once lost biometrics cannot practically be replaced. Encryption can be a tool for protecting them from theft, but encrypted biometrics should be recovered for comparison. In this work, we propose a secure biometric authentication scheme, named Ghostshell, in which an encrypted template is stored in the server and then compared with an encrypted attempt without decryption. The decryption key is stored only in a user’s device and so biometrics can be kept secret even against a compromised server. Our solution relies on a somewhat homomorphic encryption (SHE) and a message authentication code (MAC). Because known techniques for SHE is computationally expensive, we develop a more practical scheme by devising a significantly efficient matching function exploiting SIMD operations and a one-time MAC chosen for efficient homomorphic evaluations (of multiplication depth 2). When applied to Hamming distance matching on 2400-bit irises, our implementation shows that the computation time is approximately 0.47 and 0.1 seconds for the server and the user, respectively.
Shape Decomposition using Modal Analysis

We introduce a novel algorithm that decomposes a deformable shape into meaningful parts requiring only a single input pose. Using modal analysis, we are able to identify parts of the shape that tend to move rigidly. We define a deformation energy on the shape, enabling modal analysis to find the typical deformations of the shape. We then find a decomposition of the shape such that the typical deformations can be well approximated with deformation fields that are rigid in each part of the decomposition. We optimize for the best decomposition, which captures how the shape deforms. A hierarchical refinement scheme makes it possible to compute more detailed decompositions for some parts of the shape.
Loss of Goosecoid-like and DiGeorge syndrome critical region 14 in interpeduncular nucleus results in altered regulation of rapid eye movement sleep

Sleep and wakefulness are regulated primarily by inhibitory interactions between the hypothalamus and brainstem. The expression of the states of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep also are correlated with the activity of groups of REM-off and REM-on neurons in the dorsal brainstem. However, the contribution of ventral brainstem nuclei to sleep regulation has been little characterized to date. Here we examined sleep and wakefulness in mice deficient in a homeobox transcription factor, Goosecoid-like (Gscl), which is one of the genes deleted in DiGeorge syndrome or 22q11 deletion syndrome. The expression of Gscl is restricted to the interpeduncular nucleus (IP) in the ventral region of the midbrain–hindbrain transition. The IP has reciprocal connections with several cell groups implicated in sleep/wakefulness regulation. Although Gscl−/− mice have apparently normal anatomy and connections of the IP, they exhibited a reduced total time spent in REM sleep and fewer REM sleep episodes. In addition, Gscl−/− mice showed reduced theta power during REM sleep and increased arousability during REM sleep. Gscl−/− mice also lacked the expression of DiGeorge syndrome critical region 14 (Dgcr14) in the IP. These results indicate that the absence of Gscl and Dgcr14 in the IP results in altered regulation of REM sleep.
Syk Inhibition Induces Platelet Dependent Peri-islet Hemorrhage in the Rat Pancreas

Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) is a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase that is an important signaling enzyme downstream of immunoreceptors containing an intracellular immunoreceptor tyrosine activating motif (ITAM). These receptors encompass a wide variety of biological functions involved in autoimmune disease pathogenesis. There has been considerable interest in the development of inhibitors of the Syk pathway for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. We report that Syk inhibition mechanistically caused peri-islet hemorrhages and fibrin deposition in the rat pancreas and that this finding is due to a homeostatic functional defect in platelets. In more limited studies, similar lesions could not be induced in mice, dogs, and cynomolgus monkeys at similar or higher plasma drug concentrations. Irradiation-induced thrombocytopenia caused a phenotypically similar peri-islet pancreas lesion and the formation of this lesion could be prevented by platelet transfusion. In addition, Syk inhibitor-induced lesions were prevented by the coadministration of prednisone. A relatively greater sensitivity of rat platelets to Syk inhibition was supported by functional analyses demonstrating rat-specific differences in response to convulxin, a glycoprotein VI agonist that signals through Syk. These data demonstrate that the Syk pathway is critical in platelet–endothelial cell homeostasis in the peri-islet pancreatic microvasculature in rats.
Efficacy and safety of Carica papaya leaf extract in the dengue: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Dengue is an infectious disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. Being a viral disease, there is no specific drug available for treatment. There are some reports that Carica papaya leaf extract may improve the clinical condition of dengue patients; however, to support this, at present, there is no systematically searched and synthesized evidence available. Objectives: This systematic review and meta-analysis was designed to search the available evidence related to the efficacy and safety of C. papaya leaf extract in dengue and to synthesize the evidence in meaningful form through meta-analysis so that inference can be drawn. Materials and Methods: Randomized controlled trials related to the efficacy and safety of C. papaya leaf extract in dengue were searched from PubMed, Cochrane Clinical Trial Registry and Google Scholar. The primary endpoint was mortality, and secondary endpoints were increase in platelet count, hospitalization days, and Grade 3 and 4 adverse events. Data related to primary and secondary endpoints were pooled together and analyzed by review manager (Review Manager (RevMan) Copenhagen: The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, Denmark) software. The random effect model was used. The bias was analyzed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Results: Total four trials enrolling 439 subjects were included in the analysis. Of 439 subjects, data of 377 subjects were available for analysis. C. papaya leaf extract was found to be associated with increase in platelet count in the overall analysis (mean difference [MD] =20.27 [95% confidence interval (CI) 6.21–34.73; P= 0.005]) and analysis after 4th day (MD = 28.25 [95% CI 14.14–42.37; P< 0.0001]). After 48 h, there was no significant difference between C. papaya and control group (MD = 13.38 [95% CI − 7.71–34.51; P = 0.21]). There was significant decrease in hospitalization days in the C. papaya group (MD = 1.90 [95% CI 1.62–2.18; P< 0.00001]). Because of nonavailability of data in published clinical trials, mortality, and adverse events cannot be pooled. Conclusion: C. papaya leaf extract can be considered as a potential candidate for increase in platelet count in patients of dengue, however; there is need of high-quality evidence in the form of large clinical trials before a decision related to the use of such extract is made.
Complement Action in regard to Surface Tension

In recent years immunity reactions have come to be regarded more particularly from the physico-chemical standpoint. Many of the phenomena occurring in immunity reactions are shown to be of the nature of colloidal chemical processes, and the laws which govern such processes have been found to hold, at least partially, for reactions occurring in sera, which belong to the class of colloidal protein solutions. Thus the application to immunity reactions, of such conceptions as viscosity and surface tension, has afforded a more reasonable explanation of these reactions. In the following paper special reference will be made to the surface tension, changes of which play an important part in all immunity reactions.
Additive Routes to Action Learning: Layering Experience Shapes Engagement of the Action Observation Network

The way in which we perceive others in action is biased by one's prior experience with an observed action. For example, we can have auditory, visual, or motor experience with actions we observe others perform. How action experience via 1, 2, or all 3 of these modalities shapes action perception remains unclear. Here, we combine pre- and post-training functional magnetic resonance imaging measures with a dance training manipulation to address how building experience (from auditory to audiovisual to audiovisual plus motor) with a complex action shapes subsequent action perception. Results indicate that layering experience across these 3 modalities activates a number of sensorimotor cortical regions associated with the action observation network (AON) in such a way that the more modalities through which one experiences an action, the greater the response is within these AON regions during action perception. Moreover, a correlation between left premotor activity and participants' scores for reproducing an action suggests that the better an observer can perform an observed action, the stronger the neural response is. The findings suggest that the number of modalities through which an observer experiences an action impacts AON activity additively, and that premotor cortical activity might serve as an index of embodiment during action observation.
Readability Assessment for Text Simplification

We describe a readability assessment approach to support the process of text simplification for poor literacy readers. Given an input text, the goal is to predict its readability level, which corresponds to the literacy level that is expected from the target reader: rudimentary, basic or advanced. We complement features traditionally used for readability assessment with a number of new features, and experiment with alternative ways to model this problem using machine learning methods, namely classification, regression and ranking. The best resulting model is embedded in an authoring tool for Text Simplification.
Deciphering the Arabidopsis Floral Transition Process by Integrating a Protein-Protein Interaction Network and Gene Expression Data1[W]

In a plant, the progression from vegetative growth to reproductive growth is called the floral transition. Over the past several decades, the floral transition has been shown to be determined not by a single gene but by a complicated gene network. This important biological process, however, has not been investigated at a genome-wide network level. We collected Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) protein-protein interaction data from several public databases and compiled them into a genome-wide Arabidopsis interactome. Then, we integrated gene expression profiles during the Arabidopsis floral transition process into the established protein-protein interaction network to identify two types of anticorrelated modules associated with vegetative and reproductive growth. Generally, the vegetative modules are conserved in plants, while the reproductive modules are more specific to advanced plants. The existence of floral transition switches demonstrates that vegetative and reproductive processes might be coordinated by the interacting interface of these modules. Our work also provides many candidates for mediating the interactions between these modules, which may play important roles during the Arabidopsis vegetative/reproductive switch.
Reducing Head CT Use for Children With Head Injuries in a Community Emergency Department

This QI initiative significantly reduced the rate of unnecessary head CTs obtained in a community ED for pediatric patients with head injuries. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Clinical decision rules have reduced use of computed tomography (CT) to evaluate minor pediatric head injury in pediatric emergency departments (EDs). CT use remains high in community EDs, where the majority of children seek medical care. We sought to reduce the rate of CT scans used to evaluate pediatric head injury from 29% to 20% in a community ED. METHODS: We evaluated a quality improvement (QI) project in a community ED aimed at decreasing the use of head CT scans in children by implementing a validated head trauma prediction rule for traumatic brain injury. A multidisciplinary team identified key drivers of CT use and implemented decision aids to improve the use of prediction rules. The team identified and mitigated barriers. An affiliated children’s hospital offered Maintenance of Certification credit and QI coaching to participants. We used statistical process control charts to evaluate the effect of the intervention on monthly CT scan rates and performed a Wald test of equivalence to compare preintervention and postintervention CT scan proportions. RESULTS: The baseline period (February 2013–July 2014) included 695 patients with a CT scan rate of 29.2% (95% confidence interval, 25.8%–32.6%). The postintervention period (August 2014–October 2015) included 651 patients with a CT scan rate of 17.4% (95% confidence interval, 14.5%–20.2%, P < .01). Barriers included targeting providers with variable pediatric experience and parental imaging expectations. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that a Maintenance of Certification QI project sponsored by a children’s hospital can facilitate evidence-based pediatric care and decrease the rate of unnecessary CT use in a community setting.
The Enriched UTAUT Model for the Acceptance of Software Engineering Tools in Academic Education

ABSTRACT This article provides an enriched technology acceptance model explaining the impact of both classic and additional variables on software engineering tools acceptance within Information Systems Development courses. Two novel, domain-specific variables were identified (i.e., Professional Training Diffusion and Model Interchange). Statistical verification of the proposed model and study regarding the influence of the variables on students’ intention to use specific tools were conducted—providing users with enhanced means of selecting optimal software for real-life projects.
The Face-Processing Network Is Resilient to Focal Resection of Human Visual Cortex

Human face perception requires a network of brain regions distributed throughout the occipital and temporal lobes with a right hemisphere advantage. Present theories consider this network as either a processing hierarchy beginning with the inferior occipital gyrus (occipital face area; IOG-faces/OFA) or a multiple-route network with nonhierarchical components. The former predicts that removing IOG-faces/OFA will detrimentally affect downstream stages, whereas the latter does not. We tested this prediction in a human patient (Patient S.P.) requiring removal of the right inferior occipital cortex, including IOG-faces/OFA. We acquired multiple fMRI measurements in Patient S.P. before and after a preplanned surgery and multiple measurements in typical controls, enabling both within-subject/across-session comparisons (Patient S.P. before resection vs Patient S.P. after resection) and between-subject/across-session comparisons (Patient S.P. vs controls). We found that the spatial topology and selectivity of downstream ipsilateral face-selective regions were stable 1 and 8 month(s) after surgery. Additionally, the reliability of distributed patterns of face selectivity in Patient S.P. before versus after resection was not different from across-session reliability in controls. Nevertheless, postoperatively, representations of visual space were typical in dorsal face-selective regions but atypical in ventral face-selective regions and V1 of the resected hemisphere. Diffusion weighted imaging in Patient S.P. and controls identifies white matter tracts connecting retinotopic areas to downstream face-selective regions, which may contribute to the stable and plastic features of the face network in Patient S.P. after surgery. Together, our results support a multiple-route network of face processing with nonhierarchical components and shed light on stable and plastic features of high-level visual cortex following focal brain damage. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Brain networks consist of interconnected functional regions commonly organized in processing hierarchies. Prevailing theories predict that damage to the input of the hierarchy will detrimentally affect later stages. We tested this prediction with multiple brain measurements in a rare human patient requiring surgical removal of the putative input to a network processing faces. Surprisingly, the spatial topology and selectivity of downstream face-selective regions are stable after surgery. Nevertheless, representations of visual space were typical in dorsal face-selective regions but atypical in ventral face-selective regions and V1. White matter connections from outside the face network may support these stable and plastic features. As processing hierarchies are ubiquitous in biological and nonbiological systems, our results have pervasive implications for understanding the construction of resilient networks.
Urinary Biomarkers of Oxidative Status in a Clinical Model of Oxidative Assault

Background: We used doxorubicin-based chemotherapy as a clinical model of oxidative assault in humans. Methods: The study recruited newly diagnosed breast cancer patients (n = 23). Urine samples were collected immediately before (T0) and at 1 hour (T1) and 24 hours (T24) after i.v. administration of treatment. Measurements included allantoin and the isoprostanes iPF(2α)-III, iPF(2α)-VI, and 8,12-iso-iPF(2α)-VI along with the prostaglandin 2,3-dinor-iPF(2α)-III, a metabolite of iPF(2α)-III. All biomarkers were quantified using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Results: In all subjects, the levels of the biomarkers increased at T1: allantoin by 22% (P = 0.06), iPF(2α)-III by 62% (P < 0.05), iPF(2α)-VI by 41% (P < 0.05), 8,12-iso-iPF(2α)-VI by 58% (P < 0.05), and 2,3-dinor-iPF(2α)-III by 52% (P < 0.05). At T24, the F2-isoprostanes returned to their baseline levels; the levels of allantoin continued to increase, although the T24-T0 difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions: These results indicate that urinary F2-isoprostanes are valid biomarkers and allantoin is a promising biomarker of oxidative status in humans. Impact: The levels of biomarkers change quickly in response to oxidative assault and can be used to monitor oxidative status in humans in response to treatments related either to generation of free radicals (chemotherapy and radiation therapy) or to antioxidants (inborn metabolic diseases and Down syndrome). Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(6); 1506–10. ©2010 AACR.
The Existence of Homomorphisms to Oriented Cycles

We discuss the existence of homomorphisms of arbitrary digraphs to a fixed oriented cycle $C$. Our main result asserts that if the cycle $C$ is unbalanced then a digraph $G$ is homomorphic to $C$ if and only if (1) every oriented path homomorphic to $G$ is also homomorphic to $C$, and (2) the length of every cycle of $G$ is a multiple of the length of $C$. This answers a conjecture from an earlier paper with H. Zhou and generalizes a result proved there. We also show that this characterization does not hold for balanced cycles. We relate these results to work on the complexity of homomorphism problems.