Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calcium specificity signaling mechanisms in abscisic acid signal transduction in Arabidopsis guard cells

A central question is how specificity in cellular responses to the eukaryotic second messenger Ca2+ is achieved. Plant guard cells, that form stomatal pores for gas exchange, provide a powerful system for in depth investigation of Ca2+-signaling specificity in plants. In intact guard cells, abscisic acid (ABA) enhances (primes) the Ca2+-sensitivity of downstream signaling events that result in activation of S-type anion channels during stomatal closure, providing a specificity mechanism in Ca2+-signaling. However, the underlying genetic and biochemical mechanisms remain unknown. Here we show impairment of ABA signal transduction in stomata of calcium-dependent protein kinase quadruple mutant plants. Interestingly, protein phosphatase 2Cs prevent non-specific Ca2+-signaling. Moreover, we demonstrate an unexpected interdependence of the Ca2+-dependent and Ca2+-independent ABA-signaling branches and the in planta requirement of simultaneous phosphorylation at two key phosphorylation sites in SLAC1. We identify novel mechanisms ensuring specificity and robustness within stomatal Ca2+-signaling on a cellular, genetic, and biochemical level. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.03599. 001
Proteomic Fingerprints for Potential Application to Early Diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Abstract Background: Definitive early-stage diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is important despite the number of laboratory tests that have been developed to complement clinical features and epidemiologic data in case definition. Pathologic changes in response to viral infection might be reflected in proteomic patterns in sera of SARS patients. Methods: We developed a mass spectrometric decision tree classification algorithm using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Serum samples were grouped into acute SARS (n = 74; <7 days after onset of fever) and non-SARS [n = 1067; fever and influenza A (n = 203), pneumonia (n = 176); lung cancer (n = 29); and healthy controls (n = 659)] cohorts. Diluted samples were applied to WCX-2 ProteinChip arrays (Ciphergen), and the bound proteins were assessed on a ProteinChip Reader (Model PBS II). Bioinformatic calculations were performed with Biomarker Wizard software 3.1. 1 (Ciphergen). Results: The discriminatory classifier with a panel of four biomarkers determined in the training set could precisely detect 36 of 37 (sensitivity, 97.3%) acute SARS and 987 of 993 (specificity, 99.4%) non-SARS samples. More importantly, this classifier accurately distinguished acute SARS from fever and influenza with 100% specificity (187 of 187). Conclusions: This method is suitable for preliminary assessment of SARS and could potentially serve as a useful tool for early diagnosis.
An Empirical Analysis of Cyber Security Incidents at a Large Organization

Every day, security engineers cope with a flow of cyber security incidents. While most incidents trigger routine reactions, others require orders of magnitude more effort to investigate and resolve. How security operation teams in organizations should tune their response to tame extreme events remains unclear. Analyzing the statistical properties of sixty thousand security events collected over six years at a large organization, we find that the distribution of costs induced by security incidents is in general highly skewed, following a power law tail distribution. However, this distribution of incident severity becomes less skewed over time, suggesting that the organization under scrutiny has managed to reduce the impact of large events. We illustrate this result with a case study focused on the empirical effects of full disk encryption on the severity of incidents involving lost or stolen devices.
STUDENTS’ OPINION TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PEER ASSESMENT

As alternative assessment, peer assessment offers some advantages for teaching and learning process. Some experts believe that it can enhance students’ motivation, autonomy, and responsibility. This study aims to investigate students’ opinion to the implementation of peer assessment. This study was qualitative. The respondents of this study are second semester students at one of University in Bandung. The collected data is obtained through questionnaire. The data gained is categorized and analyzed based on the some theories relating to peer assessment. Regarding the result, it is found that basically the students have positive response to the implementation of peer assessment. This is because of the potential benefits offered from peer assessment. Students perceive that it helps them to evaluate their ability in speaking English, enhance their intrinsic motivation, improve their critical thinking, and recognize the assessment criteria. This finding indicates that peer assessment is worthwhile to be conducted in assessing students’ oral skill. Keywords: students' opinion, peer assessment, oral skill
Pressure-Induced Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 1/2 in Small Arteries

Abstract—Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) may play a central signaling role in vascular remodeling. We investigated a possible combined role for the renin-angiotensin system and platelet-derived growth factor &bgr;-receptor (PDGF-&bgr;-R) in pressure-induced ERK1/2 activation in intact rat mesenteric small arteries. In an organ culture model, vessels were pressurized (70 mm Hg) for 1 hour plus a 5-minute intervention period. The intervention was either a rise in intraluminal pressure (up to 140 mm Hg) or challenge with angiotensin II (Ang II, 0.1 &mgr;mol/L) or PDGF-BB (30 &mgr;g/L). ERK1/2 activation was determined by Western blotting as formation of phosphorylated ERK1/2. All interventions caused ERK1/2 activation that was inhibited by the MEK inhibitor PD98059. The response to pressure was inhibited by an ACE inhibitor (perindoprilat), an Ang II receptor type 1 (R-AT1) antagonist (candesartan), and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (genistein, herbimycin A). An R-AT2 antagonist (PD123319) had no significant effect. Both a PDGF-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (RPR101511A) and a neutralizing PDGF-&bgr;-R antibody (AF385) inhibited the activation of ERK1/2 caused by PDGF-BB, Ang II, and pressure. That the latter interventions could indeed inhibit the PDGF-&bgr;-R was supported by experiments with unmounted vessels in which PDGF-&bgr;-R activation was measured by Western blot; both PDGF-BB and Ang II–mediated PDGF-&bgr;-R activation were inhibited by RPR101511A and AF385. Immunohistochemistry showed that ERK1/2 and PDGF-&bgr;-R was located in the adventitia, tunica media, and intima. The results suggest that pressure in rat mesenteric small arteries causes acute activation of ERK1/2 through pathways involving Ang II and PDGF-&bgr;-R.
Why do we look at people's eyes?

We have previously shown that when observers are presented with complex natural scenes that contain a number of objects and people, observers look mostly at the eyes of the people. Why is this? It cannot be because eyes are merely the most salient area in a scene, as relative to other objects they are fairly inconspicuous. We hypothesized that people look at the eyes because they consider the eyes to be a rich source of information. To test this idea, we tested two groups of participants. One set of participants, called the Told Group, was informed that there would be a recognition test after they were shown the natural scenes. The second set, the Not Told Group, was not informed that there would be a subsequent recognition test. Our data showed that during the initial and test viewings, the Told Group fixated the eyes more frequently than the Not Told group, supporting the idea that the eyes are considered an informative region in social scenes. Converging evidence for this interpretation is that the Not Told Group fixated the eyes more frequently in the test session than in the study session.
Dynamic Reconfiguration in Reservation-Based Scheduling: An Optimization Approach

Reservation-based scheduling mechanisms have successfully been used for supporting real-time applications whose tasks exhibit high variability in their execution or release times. Indeed, such mechanisms are able to preallocate system bandwidth to the application tasks so that temporal isolation between them is ensured. However, bandwidth allocation is usually based on off-line policies, which may not be suitable for real-time applications that are structured as having several modes of operation, each one requiring a distinct level of system bandwidth. Variations in light conditions, the changing of energy levels, error-detection, or operator commands are examples of events that may trigger a different mode of operation in multi-mode adaptive real-time applications. In this paper we address the problem of dynamically reconfiguring scheduling parameters of reservation-based mechanisms, offering support for multi-mode adaptive real-time applications. Assuming that each reconfiguration option gives a benefit for the system, reconfiguration is seen as an optimization problem whose objective is to maximize the overall system benefit. Two different models for the problem are formulated, the Integer Programming (IP) and the Linear Programming (LP) formulations. The IP formulation gives rise to an NP-Hard problem for which we give efficient approximate solutions. Also, an optimal and polynomial solution to the LP formulation is derived. Results obtained from extensive simulation indicate the good performance of the proposed reconfiguration mechanisms.
Dexamethasone Alleviates Tumor-Associated Brain Damage and Angiogenesis

Children and adults with the most aggressive form of brain cancer, malignant gliomas or glioblastoma, often develop cerebral edema as a life-threatening complication. This complication is routinely treated with dexamethasone (DEXA), a steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with pleiotropic action profile. Here we show that dexamethasone reduces murine and rodent glioma tumor growth in a concentration-dependent manner. Low concentrations of DEXA are already capable of inhibiting glioma cell proliferation and at higher levels induce cell death. Further, the expression of the glutamate antiporter xCT (system Xc −; SLC7a11) and VEGFA is up-regulated after DEXA treatment indicating early cellular stress responses. However, in human gliomas DEXA exerts differential cytotoxic effects, with some human glioma cells (U251, T98G) resistant to DEXA, a finding corroborated by clinical data of dexamethasone non-responders. Moreover, DEXA-resistant gliomas did not show any xCT alterations, indicating that these gene expressions are associated with DEXA-induced cellular stress. Hence, siRNA-mediated xCT knockdown in glioma cells increased the susceptibility to DEXA. Interestingly, cell viability of primary human astrocytes and primary rodent neurons is not affected by DEXA. We further tested the pharmacological effects of DEXA on brain tissue and showed that DEXA reduces tumor-induced disturbances of the microenvironment such as neuronal cell death and tumor-induced angiogenesis. In conclusion, we demonstrate that DEXA inhibits glioma cell growth in a concentration and species-dependent manner. Further, DEXA executes neuroprotective effects in brains and reduces tumor-induced angiogenesis. Thus, our investigations reveal that DEXA acts pleiotropically and impacts tumor growth, tumor vasculature and tumor-associated brain damage.
A study of the community structure of a complex software network

This paper presents a case study of a large software system, Netbeans 6.0, made of independent subsystems, which are analyzed as complex software networks. Starting from the source code we built the associated software graphs, where classes represent graph nodes and inter-class relationships represent graph edges. We computed various metrics for the software systems and found interdependences with various quantities computed by mean of the complex network analysis. In particular we found that the number of communities in which the software networks can be partitioned and their modularity, average path length and mean degree can be related to the amount of bugs detected in the system. This result can be useful to provide indications about the fault proneness of software clusters in terms of quantities related to the associated graph structure.
Leveraging Structural Holes For Innovation: The Moderating Effects Of IT-Enabled Absorptive Capacity

Innovation has been a topic of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners. Particularly, the networks within which firms operate and their properties (e.g., structural holes) are suggested to affect firms’ innovation performance. One stream of research finds that structural holes are conducive to firms’ innovation because of the heterogeneous information about alternatives that firms can obtain through spanning structural holes. Another stream of research finds that structural holes inhibit knowledge transfer from knowledge sources and hence deter firms to innovate. This study aims to reconcile the two conflicting streams of research by identifying the conditions under which structural holes will be conducive to organizational innovation. Based on structural holes theory and absorptive capacity literature, this paper constructs a model to explain the moderating effects of ITenabled absorptive capacity on the relationship between structural holes and organizational innovation performance. This paper proposes that independently, structural holes may not influence innovation performance. However, when the exploration and transformation dimensions of ITenabled absorptive capacity are high, structural holes should positively affect innovation performance. Also, the exploitation dimension should positively affect innovation performance. The proposed methodology, measurement, and potential contributions of the study are discussed.
Sparse Hidden Markov Models for Exemplar-based Speech Recognition Using Deep Neural Network Posterior Features

Statistical speech recognition has been cast as a natural realization of the compressive sensing and sparse recovery. The compressed acoustic observations are sub-word posterior probabilities obtained from a deep neural network (DNN). Dictionary learning and sparse recovery are exploited for inference of the high-dimensional sparse word posterior probabilities. This formulation amounts to realization of a \textit{sparse} hidden Markov model where each state is characterized by a dictionary learned from training exemplars and the emission probabilities are obtained from sparse representations of test exemplars. This new dictionary-based speech processing paradigm alleviates the need for a huge collection of exemplars as required in the conventional exemplar-based methods. We study the performance of the proposed approach for continuous speech recognition using Phonebook and Numbers'95 database.
Decoding Lower Limb Muscle Activity and Kinematics from Cortical Neural Spike Trains during Monkey Performing Stand and Squat Movements

Extensive literatures have shown approaches for decoding upper limb kinematics or muscle activity using multichannel cortical spike recordings toward brain machine interface (BMI) applications. However, similar topics regarding lower limb remain relatively scarce. We previously reported a system for training monkeys to perform visually guided stand and squat tasks. The current study, as a follow-up extension, investigates whether lower limb kinematics and muscle activity characterized by electromyography (EMG) signals during monkey performing stand/squat movements can be accurately decoded from neural spike trains in primary motor cortex (M1). Two monkeys were used in this study. Subdermal intramuscular EMG electrodes were implanted to 8 right leg/thigh muscles. With ample data collected from neurons from a large brain area, we performed a spike triggered average (SpTA) analysis and got a series of density contours which revealed the spatial distributions of different muscle-innervating neurons corresponding to each given muscle. Based on the guidance of these results, we identified the locations optimal for chronic electrode implantation and subsequently carried on chronic neural data recordings. A recursive Bayesian estimation framework was proposed for decoding EMG signals together with kinematics from M1 spike trains. Two specific algorithms were implemented: a standard Kalman filter and an unscented Kalman filter. For the latter one, an artificial neural network was incorporated to deal with the nonlinearity in neural tuning. High correlation coefficient and signal to noise ratio between the predicted and the actual data were achieved for both EMG signals and kinematics on both monkeys. Higher decoding accuracy and faster convergence rate could be achieved with the unscented Kalman filter. These results demonstrate that lower limb EMG signals and kinematics during monkey stand/squat can be accurately decoded from a group of M1 neurons with the proposed algorithms. Our findings provide new insights for extending current BMI design concepts and techniques on upper limbs to lower limb circumstances. Brain controlled exoskeleton, prostheses or neuromuscular electrical stimulators for lower limbs are expected to be developed, which enables the subject to manipulate complex biomechatronic devices with mind in more harmonized manner.
Age-Related Changes of Intraocular Pressure in Elderly People in Southern China: Lingtou Eye Cohort Study

Purpose To study age-related changes of intraocular pressure (IOP) and assess the cohort effect in both cross-sectional and longitudinal settings among elderly Chinese adults. Methods Participants were enrolled from the Lingtou Eye Cohort Study with Chinese government officials aged 40 years and older at baseline and received physical check-up and ocular examinations from 2010 to 2012. IOP was measured using a non-contact tonometer according to standardized protocols, as well as systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and body mass index (BMI). Participants who had attended IOP measurements in both 2010 and 2012 were included in this study. Cross-sectional association of IOP with age was assessed using multivariate liner regression analyses and based on the data of 2010. Longitudinal changes in IOP were assessed by paired t-test. Results A total of 3372 subjects were enrolled in the current analysis (2010 mean [SD] age, 61.9 [7.1] years; 60.2% men). The mean IOP in 2010 was 15.4±2.3 mmHg for women and 15.2±2.3 mmHg for men with an intersex difference (P = 0.029). Cross-sectional analysis showed that IOP was negatively associated with age (P = 0.003, β = -0.033 for women and P<0.001, β = -0.061 for men) adjusted for baseline SBP, DBP and BMI. Paired t-test suggested that IOP was higher in the year 2012 than 2010 in women (P = 0.006) but did not change significantly in men within 2 years (P = 0.345). In addition, the 2-year changes of IOP were not associated with age adjusted for baseline IOP in 2010 (P = 0.249). Conclusion Cross-sectional data suggests that IOP is lower in people with older age. Longitudinal data does not support such findings and thus the identified decreasing pattern with age in cross-sectional analysis is likely caused by cohort effects.
More than princess girls and “grrr” heterosexual dudes: An exploration of space, text, performativity, gender and becoming in senior secondary drama classrooms

Late adolescence is a critical time in the formation of a young person’s sense of self with studies pointing to the senior secondary drama classroom as a generative space for this to occur. What is not yet clear is the importance of context, and particularly the powerful forces of neoliberal times, in shaping and potentially delimiting young people’s explorations of gender and life trajectories. More specifically, through the texts students study and the characters they embody, personality and desires are moulded by capital in ways hidden from individual control. Drawing on 15 drama teachers and 13 of their post compulsory students from government, Catholic and independent schools in Western Australia from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, this dissertation examines the formation of identity/ies in the context of students’ embodiment of characters from proscribed texts in the senior secondary drama classroom and asks: how does the embodiment of characters in texts in year 12 drama empower and constrain adolescent becomings in contemporary times? Year 12 is the final year of schooling for students in Australia. Framed through a critical, post-humanist ethnographic methodology, the theories of Butler, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari are utilised to examine how these forces and “becoming,” as a process of change and resistance, interact to create something new. Second, embodiment is considered through a neoliberal culture of competitive performativity, with gender considered third. Fourth, drama education and creativity are highlighted and linked in generative ways, with consideration then given to the ways that the contemporary zeitgeist impacts on drama education itself in uncertain times. The study contributes to our understanding of neoliberal education systems, whilst focusing specifically on adolescent becomings in drama. The research revealed evidence of a culture of performativity in Western Australian drama education. This is manifest in fewer subject choices offered in schools that limit drama’s availability, “data-driven” curriculum implementation, mechanisms of surveillance of teachers, and deleterious effects on students and teachers in schools from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds. Nevertheless, despite a pervasive culture of performative neoliberalism, teachers and students find creative lines of flight from normative educational structures and gender binaries in the safe and open space of the drama classroom.
Primary Angle Closure and Sequence Variants within MicroRNA Binding Sites of Genes Involved in Eye Development

Purpose The formation of primary angle closure (PAC) and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) is regulated by a tissue remodeling pathway that plays a critical role in eye development. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are powerful gene expression regulators and may exert their effects on tissue remodeling genes. This study investigated the associations between gene variants (single-nucleotide polymorphism, SNP) in miRNA binding sites in the 3’-UTR region of genes involved in eye development and PAC. Methods The sample consisted of 232 PAC subjects and 306 controls obtained from a population-based cohort in the Funing District of Jiangsu, China. The markers include 9 SNPs in the COL11A1, PCMTD1, ZNRF3, MTHFR, and ALPPL2 genes respectively. SNP genotyping was performed with a TaqMan-MGB probe using an RT-PCR system. Results Of the 9 SNPs studied, the frequency of the minor A allele of COL11A1 rs1031820 was higher in the PAC group than in the control group in allele analysis (p = 0.047). The genotype analysis indicated that MTHFR rs1537514 is marginally associated with PAC (p = 0.014). The CC genotype of rs1537514 was present solely in the PAC group. However, the differences lost significance after Bonferroni correction. Conclusion Our study reveals a possible association of COL11A1 and MTHFR with PAC in the Han Chinese population. These results will contribute to an improved understanding of the genetic basis of PACG.