Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and Characterization of Differentially Expressed Genes in Inferior and Superior Spikelets of Rice Cultivars with Contrasting Panicle-Compactness and Grain-Filling Properties

Breeding programs for increasing spikelet number in rice have resulted in compactness of the panicle, accompanied by poor grain filling in inferior spikelets. Although the inefficient utilization of assimilate has been indicated as responsible for this poor grain filling, the underlying cause remains elusive. The current study utilized the suppression subtractive hybridization technique to identify 57 and 79 genes that overexpressed in the superior and inferior spikelets (with respect to each other), respectively, of the compact-panicle rice cultivar Mahalaxmi. Functional categorization of these differentially expressed genes revealed a marked metabolic difference between the spikelets according to their spatial location on the panicle. The expression of genes encoding seed storage proteins was dominant in inferior spikelets, whereas genes encoding regulatory proteins, such as serine-threonine kinase, zinc finger protein and E3 ligase, were highly expressed in superior spikelets. The expression patterns of these genes in the inferior and superior spikelets of Mahalaxmi were similar to those observed in another compact-panicle cultivar, OR-1918, but differed from those obtained in two lax-panicle cultivars, Upahar and Lalat. The results first suggest that the regulatory proteins abundantly expressed in the superior spikelets of compact-panicle cultivars and in both the superior and inferior spikelets of lax-panicle cultivars but poorly expressed in the inferior spikelets of compact-panicle cultivars promote grain filling. Second, the high expression of seed-storage proteins observed in the inferior spikelets of compact-panicle cultivars appears to inhibit the grain filling process. Third, the low expression of enzymes of the Krebs cycle in inferior spikelets compared with superior spikelets of compact-panicle cultivars is bound to lead to poor ATP generation in the former and consequently limit starch biosynthesis, an ATP-consuming process, resulting in poor grain filling.
Cosmological perturbations and the reionization epoch

We investigate the dependence of the epoch of reionization on the properties of cosmological perturbations, in the context of cosmologies permitted by WMAP. We compute the redshift of reionization using a simple model based on the Press-Schechter approximation. For a power-law initial spectrum we estimate that reionization is likely to occur at a redshift z reion = 17 +10 -7, consistent with the WMAP determination based on the temperature-polarization cross power spectrum. We estimate the delay in reionization if there is a negative running of the spectral index, as weakly indicated by WMAP. We then investigate the dependence of the reionization redshift on the nature of the initial perturbations. We consider chi-squared probability distribution functions with various degrees of freedom, motivated both by non-standard inflationary scenarios and by defect models. We find that in these models reionization is likely to occur much earlier, and to be a slower process, than in the case of initial Gaussian fluctuations. We also consider a hybrid model in which cosmic strings make an important contribution to the seed fluctuations on scales relevant for reionization. We find that in order for that model to agree with the latest WMAP results, the string contribution to the matter power spectrum on the standard 8 h -1 Mpc scale is likely to be at most at the level of 1 per cent, which imposes tight constraints on the value of the string mass per unit length.
Comparison of the NCAR LSM1 land surface model with BOREAS aspen and jack pine tower fluxes

Tower fluxes measured at the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study southern study area old aspen (SSA-OA), southern study area old jack pine (SSA-OJP), and northern study area old jack pine (NSA-OJP) sites during the three 1994 intensive field campaigns (IFCs) (May 24 to June 16 (IFC-1), July 19 to August 10 (IFC-2), and August 30 to September 19 (IFC-3)) were compared to fluxes simulated by a land surface model for the same period. Comparisons were limited to the average diurnal cycle for these periods to mitigate large day-to-day variability in the observations and problems with missing data. For consistency with the global implementation of the model, vegetation and soil parameters were not set to site-specific values but rather were the generic needleleaf evergreen and broadleaf deciduous vegetation and the generic sandy and loamy soil used in the global model. Despite the use of generic vegetation and soil, the model reasonably simulated the diurnal cycle of sensible heat, latent heat, net radiation, and CO2 fluxes for the SSA-OJP and SSA-OA sites. The main errors were that the model did not reproduce the midday reduction in latent heat seen at the SSA-OJP site during IFC-1 and IFC-2 and had less photosynthetic CO2 uptake than observed at the SSA-OA site. Differences in vegetation structure and physiology between the two sites were important to accurately simulate the fluxes. The needleleaf evergreen vegetation resulted in higher net radiation and a higher Bowen ratio than the broadleaf deciduous vegetation. Soil differences were less important. The NSA-OJP site was not so well simulated: midday latent heat flux was overestimated, and photosynthetic CO2 uptake was underestimated during each IFC. The only difference in the simulated southern and northern jack pine sites was in their atmospheric forcings; vegetation structure and soil types were the same. These results suggest the model is able to reproduce variability between vegetation types but not within vegetation types.
The role of omalizumab or rhuMAb‐E25 in the treatment of allergic rhinitis

To the Editor: I read with interest the recent article by Hanf et al. 1, demonstrating the significant inhibition of both allergen challenge-induced nasal symptoms and the increase of human serum albumin in nasal lavage fluid after allergen challenge, in addition to the significant reduction in tumour necrosis factor‐α levels in basal nasal lavage fluid, following …
Java Memory Allocation with Lazy Worst Fit for Small Objects

Memory allocation is an important part of modern programming languages, including garbage-collected languages such as Java. We propose a fast memory allocation scheme for Java using lazy worst fit (LWF), where pointer increment is used as the primary allocation method and worst fit is used as a backup. We evaluated LWF on a working Java virtual machine with non-moving garbage collection, and the results show that LWF is practically useful since the overhead of fit allocation and the amount of fragmentation are low.
AIB1/SRC-3 Deficiency Affects Insulin-Like Growth Factor I Signaling Pathway and Suppresses v-Ha-ras-induced Breast Cancer Initiation and Progression in Mice

Although the amplified in breast cancer 1 (AIB1) coactivator is amplified and overexpressed in breast cancers, its role in mammary carcinogenesis remains unknown. We demonstrate that during mammary development and tumorigenesis, the elevation of AIB1 level and its nuclear localization correlate with normal and transformed mammary epithelial proliferation, whereas its lower expression and cytoplasmic localization correlate with mammary epithelial quiescence and differentiation. In this study, the role of AIB1 in breast tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis was studied by generating AIB1+/+, AIB1+/−, and AIB1−/− mice harboring the mouse mammary tumor virus/v-Ha-ras (ras) transgene that induces breast tumors. Breast tumor incidence was reduced dramatically in the intact AIB1−/−-ras virgin mice and inhibited completely in the ovariectomized AIB1−/−-ras mice. Breast tumor latency was delayed significantly in AIB1−/−-ras virgin mice with natural estrous cycles, multiparous mice with cyclically elevated reproductive hormones, and virgin mice bearing pituitary isografts with persistently elevated hormones. Although AIB1 deficiency significantly suppressed mammary tumorigenesis under all of the concentrations of ovarian hormones, it did not affect the promotional role of ovarian hormones on mammary tumorigenesis, suggesting that AIB1 and ovarian hormones contribute to mammary carcinogenesis through different pathways. AIB1 deficiency did not alter the expression of estrogen and progesterone-responsive genes in the mammary gland, but it caused partial resistance to the insulin-like growth factor I because of a significant reduction in the insulin receptor substrates. The impaired insulin-like growth factor I pathway in AIB1−/−-ras mammary epithelium and tumor cells was responsible in part for the suppression of mammary tumorigenesis and metastasis caused by inhibition of cell proliferation and migration. These results suggest that a more effective strategy to control breast cancer is to target AIB1-mediated and ovarian hormone-initiated pathways.
Determination of Sex for the 12th Thoracic Vertebra by Morphometry of Three‐dimensional Reconstructed Vertebral Models

Abstract: Thirty‐three linear measurements and two ratios were derived from 102 12th thoracic vertebrae of the Digital Korean database at the Catholic Institute for Applied Anatomy. Of 35 linear traits, 23 were sexually dimorphic. We created 23 discriminant function equations that predicted sex with 62.7–85.3% accuracy. The analysis using combinations of two factors gave higher accuracies: most equations with accuracies over 80% included at least one measurement involving the coronal diameter of the vertebral endplate. Using stepwise method of discriminant function analysis, three variables predicted sex with 90.0% accuracy: the coronal diameter of the superior endplate of the vertebral body, the ratio of anterior to middle height of the body, and the length of the left mammillary process and pedicle. Coronal dimensions of the vertebral body represented the major sex difference. These equations will help forensic discrimination of the sex of this vertebra among Koreans.
SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT: in-flight optical performance and first results

The Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) is a contribution to the ENVISAT-1 satellite, which has been launched in March 2002. The SCIAMACHY instrument measures sunlight transmitted, reflected and scattered by the Earth's atmosphere or surface simultaneously from the UV to the SWIR spectral region (214 - 2380 nm) in nadir, limb, and occultation viewing geometry. SCIAMACHY allows the characterisation of the composition of the Earth atmosphere from the ground to the mesosphere. This paper gives an overview of the SCIAMACHY instrument and its in-flight detector, spectral and radiometric performance. Furthermore first results on trace gas retrieval from limb and nadir measurement mode will be summarised.
An accurate worst case timing analysis technique for RISC processors

An accurate and safe estimation of a task's worst case execution time (WCET) is crucial for reasoning about the timing properties of real-time systems. In RISC processors, the execution time of a program construct (e.g., a statement) is affected by various factors such as cache hits/misses and pipeline hazards, and these factors impose serious problems in analyzing the WCETs of tasks. To analyze the timing effects of RISC's pipelined execution and cache memory, this paper proposes extensions of the original timing schema (Shaw, 1989) where the timing information associated with each program construct is a simple time-bound. We associate with each program construct what we call a WCTA (Worst Case Timing Abstraction), which contains detailed timing information of every execution path that might be the worst case execution path of the program construct. This extension leads to a revised timing schema that is similar to the original timing schema except that concatenation and pruning operations on WCTAs are newly defined to replace the add and max operations on time-bounds in the original timing schema. Our revised timing schema accurately accounts for the timing effects of pipelined execution and cache memory not only within but also across program constructs. This paper also reports on preliminary results of WCET analyses for a pipelined processor. Our results show that up to 50% tighter WCET bounds can be obtained by using the revised timing schema. <<ETX>>
Tectonic and eustatic control on deposition and preservation of Upper Cretaceous ooidal ironstone and associated facies: Peace River Arch area, NW Alberta, Canada

The Late Coniacian, shallow‐marine Bad Heart Formation of the Western Canada foreland basin is very unusual in that it contains economically significant ooidal ironstone. Deposition of shallow‐water and iron‐rich facies appears to have been localized over the crest and flanks of a subtle intrabasinal arch, in part interpreted as a forebulge and partly attributed to reactivation of the long‐lived Peace River Arch. The formation comprises two upward‐shoaling allomembers, typically 5–10 m thick, that are bounded by regionally mappable ravinement surfaces. The lower unit, allomember 1, grades up from laminated mudstone to bioturbated silty sandstone, which is abruptly overlain by bioturbated ooidal silty sandstone grading into an almost clastic‐free ooidal ironstone up to 7 m thick. Ooidal ironstone was concentrated into NW‐ to SE‐trending ridges, kilometres wide and tens of kilometres long. Ironstone formation appears to have been promoted by: (a) drowning of the arch, which progressively curtailed sediment supply; and (b) enhanced reworking over the shallowly submerged arch and over a fault‐bounded block that underwent episodic vertical movement of 10–20 m during Bad Heart deposition. Allomember 2 also shoals upwards from mudstone to bioturbated and laminated silty sandstone but lacks ooids, apparently reflecting a rejuvenated supply of detrital sediment from the arch. The marine ravinement surface above allomember 2 is a Skolithos firmground, above which is developed a regional blanket of ooidal sediment. In the east, ooids are dispersed in a bioturbated silty sandstone with abundant evidence of repeated reworking and early siderite and phosphate cements. Westwards, this facies grades, over about 40 km, into almost clastic‐free ooidal ironstone about 5 m thick; the lateral facies change may reflect progressive clastic starvation distal to a low‐relief source area. The two allomembers are interpreted to reflect eustatic oscillations of about 10 m, superimposed on episodic tectonic warping and block‐faulting events. The development of ooidal ironstone immediately above initial marine flooding surfaces indicates a close relationship to marine transgression, reflecting sediment‐starved conditions. Ironstone does not appear to be related to either sequence boundaries or maximum flooding surfaces. The Bad Heart Formation is blanketed by marine mudstone deposited in response to major flexural subsidence and rejuvenation of clastic sources in the Cordillera to the SW.
The Effect of the Crosstalk between Photoperiod and Temperature on the Heading-Date in Rice

Photoperiod and temperature are two important environmental factors that influence the heading-date of rice. Although the influence of the photoperiod on heading has been extensively reported in rice, the molecular mechanism for the temperature control of heading remains unknown. This study reports an early heading mutant derived from tissue culture lines of rice and investigates the heading-date of wild type and mutant in different photoperiod and temperature treatments. The linkage analysis showed that the mutant phenotype cosegregated with the Hd1 locus. Sequencing analysis found that the mutant contained two insertions and several single-base substitutions that caused a dramatic reduction in Hd1mRNA levels compared with wild type. The expression patterns of Hd1 and Hd3a were also analyzed in different photoperiod and temperature conditions, revealing that Hd1 mRNA levels displayed similar expression patterns for different photoperiod and temperature treatments, with high expression levels at night and reduced levels in the daytime. In addition, Hd1 displayed a slightly higher expression level under long-day and low temperature conditions. Hd3a mRNA was present at a very low level under low temperature conditions regardless of the day-length. This result suggests that suppression of Hd3a expression is a principle cause of late heading under low temperature and long-day conditions.
Decision making in healthy participants on the Iowa Gambling Task: new insights from an operant approach

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has contributed greatly to the study of affective decision making. However, researchers have observed high inter-study and inter-individual variability in IGT performance in healthy participants, and many are classified as impaired using standard criteria. Additionally, while decision-making deficits are often attributed to atypical sensitivity to reward and/or punishment, the IGT lacks an integrated sensitivity measure. Adopting an operant perspective, two experiments were conducted to explore these issues. In Experiment 1, 50 healthy participants completed a 200-trial version of the IGT which otherwise closely emulated Bechara et al.'s (1999) original computer task. Group data for Trials 1–100 closely replicated Bechara et al.'s original findings of high net scores and preferences for advantageous decks, suggesting that implementations that depart significantly from Bechara's standard IGT contribute to inter-study variability. During Trials 101–200, mean net scores improved significantly and the percentage of participants meeting the “impaired” criterion was halved. An operant-style stability criterion applied to individual data revealed this was likely related to individual differences in learning rate. Experiment 2 used a novel operant card task—the Auckland Card Task (ACT)—to derive quantitative estimates of sensitivity using the generalized matching law. Relative to individuals who mastered the IGT, persistent poor performers on the IGT exhibited significantly lower sensitivity to magnitudes (but not frequencies) of rewards and punishers on the ACT. Overall, our findings demonstrate the utility of operant-style analysis of IGT data and the potential of applying operant concurrent-schedule procedures to the study of human decision making.
The final warming and polar vortex disappearance during the Southern Hemisphere spring

Seven years (1979-1985) of NMC data are used to analyze Southern Hemisphere middle stratosphere winter-to-summer circulation transitions. These transitions are classified into two extreme categories: 1) a mid-October final warming accompanied by a major mid-October wave event (1979 and 1982), and 2) a mid-November final warming with no strong October wave event (1980 and 1981). After the final warming a wave event in late November-early December results in the disappearance of the polar vortex. All of these wave events in conjunction with zonal mean mass motions act to reduce zonal mean gradients of potential vorticity and ozone through horizontal mixing, and hence they act to destroy the vortex and fill the ozone hole. Additionally, it is noted that the final warming and the vortex breakdown are two distinct events separated by 15-40 days. Finally, past studies show that the time of these events has not radically changed.
Love & Loans: The Effect of Beauty and Personal Characteristics in Credit Markets

I find that beauty, race, age, and personal characteristics affect lenders' decisions, once credit and employment history, homeownership, and other hard financial information are taken into account. Beautiful applicants have 1.59% higher probability of getting loans, pay 60bps less, but have similar default rates than average looking borrowers who get worse terms. Blacks are less likely to get loans, pay higher rates than similar Whites, but default more. The findings are consistent with taste-based discrimination/misperception against the ugly, and with statistical discrimination against Blacks, although lenders specialization in borrowers from the same ethnicity and racial prejudice also play a role.
Intra-Arterial Infusion of Autologous Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells in Patients with Moderate to Severe Middle Cerebral Artery Acute Ischemic Stroke

Transplantation of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) has been proven safe in animal and human studies. However, there are very few studies in stroke patients. In this study, intra-arterial autologous BMMCs were infused in patients with moderate to severe acute middle cerebral artery infarcts. The subjects of this study included 20 patients with early or late spontaneous recanalization but with persistent deficits, in whom treatment could be initiated between 3 and 7 days after stroke onset. Mononuclear cells were isolated from bone marrow aspirates and infused at the proximal middle cerebral artery of the affected hemisphere. Safety analysis (primary endpoint) during the 6-month follow-up assessed death, any serious clinical events, neurological worsening with ≥ 4-point increase in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, seizures, epileptogenic activity on electroencephalogram, and neuroimaging complications including new ischemic, hemorrhagic, or neoplastic lesions. Satisfactory clinical improvement (secondary endpoint) at 90 days was defined according to the pretreatment NIHSS scores as follows: modified Rankin Scale score of 0 in patients with NIHSS <8, modified Rankin Scale scores of 0–1 in patients with NIHSS 8–14, or modified Rankin Scale scores 0–2 in patients with NIHSS >14. Good clinical outcome was defined as mRS ≤2 at 90 days. Serial clinical, laboratory, electroencephalogram, and imaging evaluations showed no procedure-related adverse events. Satisfactory clinical improvement occurred in 6/20 (30%) patients at 90 days. Eight patients (40%) showed a good clinical outcome. Infusion of intra-arterial autologous BMMCs appears to be safe in patients with moderate to severe acute middle cerebral artery strokes. No cases of intrahospital mortality were seen in this pilot trial. Larger prospective randomized trials are warranted to assess the efficacy of this treatment approach.
The San Nicolás Formation: A Proto-Gulf Extensional-Related New Lithostratigraphic Unit at Bahía San Nicolás, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Abstract A detailed study and mapping of the Neogene volcanosedimentary rocks cropping at the Bahía San Nicolás, Baja California Sur, was carried out, allowing reconnaissance and formal description of the San Nicolás Formation (a lithostratigraphic unit constituted from older to younger by the lower Toba San Antonio, Los Volcanes, Arroyo Amarillo, and the upper El Saucito members). These units reflect syn-to-postextensional episodes associated to the Gulf of California Province that show initial high subsidence onto dry land associated with low rates of sedimentation followed by shallow marine water deposition dominated by storm and macro tidal processes. The maximum age assigned to the units is 3.3 ± 0.5 Ma.