Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patterns of plant species richness in relation to different environments: An appraisal

We review patterns of plant species richness with respect to variables related to resource availability and vari- ables that have direct physiological impact on plant growth or resource availability. This review suggests that there are a variety of patterns of species richness along environmental gradients reported in the literature. However, part of this diversity may be explained by the different types and lengths of gradients studied, and by the limited analysis applied to the data. To advance in understanding species richness pat- terns along environmental gradients, we emphasise the im- portance of: (1) using variables that are related to the growth of plants (latitudinal and altitudinal gradients have no direct process impact on plant growth); (2) using multivariate gra- dients, not single variables; (3) comparing patterns for dif- ferent life forms; and (4) testing for different shapes in the species richness response (not only linear) and for interaction between variables.
Singularity analysis of three-legged parallel robots based on passive-joint velocities

Focusing on the instantaneous velocities of passive joints, a formulation approach is proposed for the instantaneous kinematics and singularity analysis of a class of three-legged parallel robots. Since only four 3/spl times/3 matrices need to be analyzed, the complexity of singularity analysis is significantly, reduced. Using the product-of-exponentials (POE) formula, the kinematic equations possess well-defined algebraic structures so that the instantaneous kinematics and singularity analysis algorithms can be readily and systematically formulated. Three types of singularities, i.e. the forward, inverse, and combined singularities, have been identified. A unified condition for various singularities is proposed. Significant geometric conditions are also presented for identifying singularity configurations that require simple computations.
Detecting Communities of Authority and Analyzing Their Influence in Dynamic Social Networks

Users in real-world social networks are organized into communities that differ from each other in terms of influence, authority, interest, size, etc. This article addresses the problems of detecting communities of authority and of estimating the influence of such communities in dynamic social networks. These are new issues that have not yet been addressed in the literature, and they are important in applications such as marketing and recommender systems. To facilitate the identification of communities of authority, our approach first detects communities sharing common interests, which we call “meta-communities,” by incorporating topic modeling based on users’ community memberships. Then, communities of authority are extracted with respect to each meta-community, using a new measure based on the betweenness centrality. To assess the influence between communities over time, we propose a new model based on the Granger causality method. Through extensive experiments on a variety of social network datasets, we empirically demonstrate the suitability of our approach for community-of-authority detection and assessment of the influence between communities over time.
Effect of Loading on Permeability of Recycled Aggregate Concrete

In this paper, permeability of concrete after loading at various stress levels, including recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and natural aggregate concrete (NAC) (at W/B ratio of 0.586 and 0.250), is measured by means of surface infiltration experiment and chloride penetrating test to study the effect of loading size on permeability of recycled aggregate concrete. The results show that there exists a critical stress ratio value of around 0.65 to 0.75 for NAC at W/B ratio of 0.586, and among the four types of RAC, the critical stress ratio exists only in 60R50, while the water permeability coefficient increases linearly with the stress ratio for the other 3 types of RAC. The charge passed of RAC increases with the W/B ratio, and the more the recycled aggregates mixed, the higher the charge passed. As the stress ratio increases, the charge passed increases slightly in samples at W/B ratio of 0.25, while the charge passed of samples at W/B ratio of 0.586, whether NAC or RAC, increases almost linearly.
Genotypic and antigenic identification of two new strains of spotted fever group rickettsiae isolated from China

Four isolates of spotted fever group rickettsiae isolated from ticks in China were compared with all known species and strains of spotted fever group rickettsiae by immunofluorescence assay, DNA polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction endonuclease fragment length polymorphism analysis, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and Western immunoblot. The Chinese isolates belonged to three types, including a novel serotype which has not been described before. One isolate obtained from tick ova of Dermacentor nuttallii in Inner Mongolia was antigenically and genotypically identical to Rickettsia sibirica. Two isolates obtained from Dermacentor sinicus collected from Beijing were identical, different from other members of spotted fever group rickettsiae but apparently closely related to R. sibirica. HA-91, a strain isolated from Hyalomma asiaticum bv. kozlovi olenew, was antigenically and genotypically unique among spotted fever group rickettsiae, and we feel that data presented here should prompt consideration of it as a new species on the basis of current rickettsial taxonomy.
Over 5-W Passively Q-Switched Mid-Infrared Fiber Laser With a Wide Continuous Wavelength Tuning Range

We report efficient high-average-power, high-energy passively Q-switched operation of an Er<sup>3+</sup>-doped fluoride fiber laser at room temperature with wavelength-tunable resonator configuration utilizing a plane ruled grating for wavelength selection. The fiber laser produced stable Q-switched pulses with a maximum average output power of 5.16 W at 2811.7 nm and a maximum pulse energy of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$27.7~\mu \text{J}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 2834.6 nm for 30.5-W launched pump power and could be tuned over a wavelength range of 90 nm from 2762.5 to 2852.5 nm, with > 4-W average power over the range of 76.1 nm. Our results present fivefold increase in output power over previously published values directly attained from ~3-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> passively Q-switched fiber lasers and firmly establish a fiber laser as a compact, wavelength-tunable, multiwatt, tens of microjoules mid-infrared pulse source with large scope of both industrial and scientific applications.
Trap closure and prey retention in Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) temporarily reduces photosynthesis and stimulates respiration.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The carnivorous plant Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) produces a rosette of leaves: each leaf is divided into a lower part called the lamina and an upper part, the trap, with sensory trigger hairs on the adaxial surface. The trap catches prey by very rapid closure, within a fraction of a second of the trigger hairs being touched twice. Generation of action potentials plays an important role in closure. Because electrical signals are involved in reduction of the photosynthetic rate in different plant species, we hypothesized that trap closure and subsequent movement of prey in the trap will result in transient downregulation of photosynthesis, thus representing the energetic costs of carnivory associated with an active trapping mechanism, which has not been previously described. METHODS Traps were enclosed in a gas exchange cuvette and the trigger hairs irritated with thin wire, thus simulating insect capture and retention. Respiration rate was measured in darkness (RD). In the light, net photosynthetic rate (AN), stomatal conductance (gs) and intercellular CO2 concentration (ci) were measured, combined with chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. Responses were monitored in the lamina and trap separately. KEY RESULTS Irritation of trigger hairs resulted in decreased AN and increased RD, not only immediately after trap closure but also during the subsequent period when prey retention was simulated in the closed trap. Stomatal conductance remained stable, indicating no stomatal limitation of AN, so ci increased. At the same time, the effective quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII) decreased transiently. The response was confined mainly to the digestive zone of the trap and was not observed in the lamina. Stopping mechanical irritation resulted in recovery of AN, RD and PSII. CONCLUSIONS We put forward the first experimental evidence for energetic demands and carbon costs during insect trapping and retention in carnivorous plants, providing a new insight into the cost/benefit model of carnivory.
Novel Synthesis of Hydrazide-Hydrazone Derivatives and Their Utilization in the Synthesis of Coumarin, Pyridine, Thiazole and Thiophene Derivatives with Antitumor Activity

The reaction of cyanoacetyl hydrazine (1) with 3-acetylpyridine (2) gave the hydrazide-hydrazone derivative 3. The latter compound undergoes a series of heterocyclization reactions to give new heterocyclic compounds. The antitumor evaluation of the newly synthesized products against three cancer cell lines, namely breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H460) and CNS cancer (SF-268) was performed. Most of the synthesized compounds showed high inhibitory effects.
Limitations of specific reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction markers in the detection of metastases in the lymph nodes and blood of breast cancer patients.

PURPOSE This study was performed to evaluate the potential of specific mRNA markers to detect micrometastases by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Southern blot analysis of sentinel lymph nodes (SNs) and blood from patients with breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS We assessed the specificity of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin-19 (CK-19), CK-20, gastrointestinal tumor-associated antigen-733.2 (GA733.2), and mucin-1 (MUC-1) in the blood of healthy donors (n = 13) and lymph nodes from patients without cancer (n = 3) by RT-PCR assay. The sensitivity of the RT-PCR assay for the target mRNA markers was assessed in breast cancer cell lines (n = 4), primary breast tumors (n = 8), and the frozen sections of SNs (n = 22) from 22 patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stages I to IIIA breast cancer. RESULTS CK-20 was the only mRNA marker not detected in lymph nodes or blood from patients without cancer. Both the blood and lymph nodes from patients without cancer expressed CEA, CK-19, GA733.2, and MUC-1 mRNA. All four breast cancer cell lines and six of eight primary breast tumors expressed all five mRNA markers. Expression of mRNA by the RT-PCR assay in the frozen-section SNs (n = 12) without metastases by conventional histopathology ranged from 8% (CK-20) to 92% (GA733.2). Detection of RT-PCR cDNA products in frozen-section SNs was increased with Southern blot analysis compared with ethidium bromide gel electrophoresis (EtBr) for all mRNA markers except CK-19. CONCLUSION CEA, CK-19, GA733.2, and MUC-1 show no diagnostic value as mRNA markers for the detection of micrometastases by the RT-PCR assay because they are expressed in the blood and lymph nodes of patients without cancer. Further studies are needed to assess the sensitivity of CK-20 to detect micrometastases by the RT-PCR assay in the blood and frozen-section SNs of patients with breast cancer.
On maintenance models in severely and long‐term limited membrane bioreactor cultivations

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are combinations of common bioreactors and membrane separation units for biomass retention. Through increased biomass concentration, they allow increased productivity (or smaller reactor volume, respectively). Besides high biomass concentrations, operation at very low growth rates is typical for MBRs. In this regime, maintenance metabolism where substrate uptake only yields energy for cell survival becomes of higher importance than in processes run at higher growth rates. While thermodynamically based correlations for the prediction of maintenance coefficients are available for chemostat or other medium growth rate processes, some authors have mentioned a change in energy demand in MBRs and a dependence of maintenance parameters on operating conditions. Due to the fact that often mixed cultures are used and resulting from the different evaluation methods used by different authors, views on the possible influences on maintenance parameters differ. However, it is accepted that common models describing microbial growth and production of metabolites or degradation of pollutants do not consider the effects caused by severe limitations and therefore cannot sufficiently be applied to MBRs. In this study, maintenance parameters were determined for a model organism (Ustilago maydis) and results from different evaluation methods were compared. A continuous fit of respiration data gave more consistent results than the traditional method of plotting specific uptake versus growth rate. They suggest that below μ = 10% μmax the maintenance coefficient drops to a third of the value in short‐term limited cultures. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;96:892–903. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Comparative efficacy of PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) & multiplex PCR for glycoprotein B (gB) genotyping of human cytomegalovirus.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Glycoprotein B (gB), involved in cell-to-cell transmission of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), is a critical factor in tissue tropism and viral pathogenesis. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficiency of PCR-based RFLP and multiplex nested PCR for gB gene of HCMV to determine their genotype in clinical specimens from patients with HCMV. METHODS The PCR based RFLP and the multiplex nested PCR were applied on standard strain of HCMV AD169, 4 clinical HCMV isolates and 70 clinical specimens positive for HCMV by pp65 antigenaemia assay or nested PCR for mtr II region or both. RESULTS Three of the four clinical isolates were genotyped as gB1 and the other as gB3 by both the methods. HCMV genome in all the 70 clinical specimens were genotyped by multiplex nested PCR whereas only 65 were genotyped by PCR-based RFLP. Forty one of 65 clinical specimens, gave concordant results by both methods. In the remaining 24, mixed infection with multiple genotypes was identified by multiplex nested PCR whereas single genotypes were identified by PCR-based RFLP. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION Multiplex nested PCR provided a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective assay for gB genotyping of HCMV and allowed detection of multiple gB genotypes of HCMV in clinical samples compared to PCR-based RFLP.
Productive and Non-productive Pathways for Synaptotagmin 1 to Support Ca2+-Triggered Fast Exocytosis

Ca2+-triggered SNARE-mediated membrane fusion is essential for neuronal communication. The speed of this process is of particular importance because it sets a time limit to cognitive and physical activities. In this work, we expand the proteoliposome-to-supported bilayer (SBL) fusion assay by successfully incorporating synaptotagmin 1 (Syt1), a major Ca2+ sensor. We report that Syt1 and Ca2+ together can elicit more than a 50-fold increase in the number of membrane fusion events when compared with membrane fusion mediated by SNAREs only. What is remarkable is that ~55% of all vesicle fusion events occurs within 20 ms upon vesicle docking. Furthermore, pre-binding of Syt1 to SNAREs prior to Ca2+ inhibits spontaneous fusion, but intriguingly, this leads to a complete loss of the Ca2+ responsiveness. Thus, our results suggest that there is a productive and a non-productive pathway for Syt1, depending on whether there is a premature interaction between Syt1 and SNAREs. Our results show that Ca2+ binding to Syt1 prior to Syt1's binding to SNAREs may be a prerequisite for the productive pathway. The successful reconstitution of Syt1 activities in the physiological time scale provides new opportunities to test the current mechanistic models for Ca2+-triggered exocytosis.
Olfactory nerve stimulation-induced calcium signaling in the mitral cell distal dendritic tuft.

Olfactory receptor neuron axons form the olfactory nerve (ON) and project to the glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb, where they form excitatory synapses with terminal arborizations of the mitral cell (MC) tufted primary dendrite. Clusters of MC dendritic tufts define olfactory glomeruli, where they involve in complex synaptic interactions. The computational function of these cellular interactions is not clear. We used patch-clamp electrophysiology combined with whole field or two-photon Ca2+ imaging to study ON stimulation-induced Ca2+ signaling at the level of individual terminal branches of the MC primary dendrite in mice. ON-evoked subthreshold excitatory postsnaptic potentials induced Ca2+ transients in the MC tuft dendrites that were spatially inhomogeneous, exhibiting discrete "hot spots. " In contrast, Ca2+ transients induced by backpropagating action potentials occurred throughout the dendritic tuft, being larger in the thin terminal dendrites than in the base of the tuft. Single ON stimulation-induced Ca2+ transients were depressed by the NMDA receptor antagonist D-aminophosphonovaleric acid (D-APV), increased with increasing stimulation intensity, and typically showed a prolonged rising phase. The synaptically induced Ca2+ signals reflect, at least in part, dendrodendritic interactions that support intraglomerular coupling of MCs and generation of an output that is common to all MCs associated with one glomerulus.
Illness beliefs and adherence in diabetes mellitus: a comparison between Tongan and European patients.

AIM The aim of this study was to determine whether there are cultural differences in the way in which Tongan and European people with Type 2 diabetes conceptualise their illness and treatment. The relationships between patients' illness and treatment perceptions and their adherence to self-care regimens were also assessed. METHODS Participants completed either a Tongan or English version of a questionnaire, which included standardised measures of personal beliefs about diabetes and medication, and self-reported adherence. Information about the severity of patients' diabetes was obtained from patients' notes. RESULTS Comparisons of glycosylated haemoglobin levels showed that Tongan patients had significantly poorer control over their diabetes than did European patients. They were also significantly more likely than European patients to perceive their diabetes as acute and cyclical in nature, uncontrollable, and caused by factors such as God's will, pollution in the environment, and poor medical care in the past. Tongan patients perceived less necessity for medication, and exhibited higher emotional distress related to their diabetes. The beliefs that characterised the Tongan patients tended to be associated with poorer adherence to diet and medication taking. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the need for assessment of patients' personal and cultural beliefs about their illness. Understanding patients' perceptions may provide an avenue for improving adherence to self-care regimens.
Perceiving Political Polarization in the United States

An important component of political polarization in the United States is the degree to which ordinary people perceive political polarization. We used over 30 years of national survey data from the American National Election Study to examine how the public perceives political polarization between the Democratic and Republican parties and between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. People in the United States consistently overestimate polarization between the attitudes of Democrats and Republicans. People who perceive the greatest political polarization are most likely to report having been politically active, including voting, trying to sway others’ political beliefs, and making campaign contributions. We present a 3-factor framework to understand ordinary people’s perceptions of political polarization. We suggest that people perceive greater political polarization when they (a) estimate the attitudes of those categorized as being in the “opposing group”; (b) identify strongly as either Democrat or Republican; and (c) hold relatively extreme partisan attitudes—particularly when those partisan attitudes align with their own partisan political identity. These patterns of polarization perception occur among both Democrats and Republicans.
Visuospatial Working Memory Deficits and Visual Pursuit Impairments are Not Directly Related in Schizophrenia

Objective: Patients with schizophrenia show deficits in visuospatial working memory and visual pursuit processes. It is currently unclear, however, whether both impairments are related to a common neuropathological origin. The purpose of the present study was therefore to examine the possible relations between the encoding and the discrimination of dynamic visuospatial stimuli in schizophrenia. Method: Sixteen outpatients with schizophrenia and 16 control subjects were asked to encode complex disc displacements presented on a screen. After a delay, participants had to identify the previously presented disc trajectory from a choice of six static linear paths, among which were five incorrect paths. The precision of visual pursuit eye movements during the initial presentation of the dynamic stimulus was assessed. The fixations and scanning time in definite regions of the six paths presented during the discrimination phase were investigated. Results: In comparison with controls, patients showed poorer task performance, reduced pursuit accuracy during incorrect trials and less time scanning the correct stimulus or the incorrect paths approximating its global structure. Patients also spent less time scanning the leftmost portion of the correct path even when making a correct choice. The accuracy of visual pursuit and head movements, however, was not correlated with task performance. Conclusions: The present study provides direct support for the hypothesis that active integration of visuospatial information within working memory is deficient in schizophrenia. In contrast, a general impairment of oculomotor mechanisms involved in smooth pursuit did not appear to be directly related to lower visuospatial working memory performance in schizophrenia.