Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen recovery and dry matter production of silage maize (Zea mays L.) as affected by subsurface band application of mineral nitrogen fertilizer

In 1991-94 the effects of subsurface band application of mineral N fertilizer on the N recovery and dry matter (DM) yield of silage maize were studied in nine field experiments on sandy and clay soils in the Netherlands. In the early crop stages and especially in the clay soil experiments, banded N had a significant negative effect on the N uptake and DM yield compared to broadcast N, possibly due to salt damage. At final harvest, however, banding significantly increased the N uptake and DM yield in most of the experiments. The apparent N recovery increased by circa 20-25% (absolute). The positive effects indicated that band application improved the efficiency of the N fertilizer. It could be calculated that banding allowed a reduction in the N rate of 20-30% without significant effects on the N uptake and DM yield of the silage maize. Benefits of banding were positively (P<0.001) related to the accumulated precipitation in the whole growing season. When N was broadcast, soil mineral N measurements showed that, initially, N was preferably taken up from soil compartments near the maize row resulting in lateral gradients, that sometimes even persisted until final harvest. Band application resulted in strong lateral gradients in the early crop stages, decreasing during the growing season due to N uptake by the maize crop. Root counting in two experiments showed that banding also seemed to affect root proliferation. Effects were, however, not consistent. Relatively more roots were found near the banded N in 1991 while in 1992 roots tended to avoid soil compartments with high N concentrations.
Socio-political Violence in Cambodia Between 1990 and 2008: An Explanatory Mixed Methods Study of Social Coherence

The relationship between individual and group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program andreductions in social stress, tension, and violence has been the topic of systematic exploration since the 1970s in Canada,India, Israel, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, and United States.Findings from these quantitative studies have been published in leading international conflict resolution and peacestudies journals. However, research in Cambodia has to date only been of a descriptive and qualitative nature with afocus on economic and social variables not violence or crime.The purpose of the present study is therefore to examine socio-political violence in Cambodia between January 1990and December 1992 (the baseline period) and the possible influence of group practice of the Transcendental Meditationand TM-Sidhi program at Maharishi Vedic University (MVU) by 550 undergraduate students beginning in January1993 through December 2008 (the impact-assessment period). This study uses an explanatory mixed methods designto examine socio-political violence using time series analysis of machine-coded news reports (quantitative data) anddocument analysis of national and international media reports, personal statements, and public documents (qualitativedata). Results indicate that beginning in January 1993, when meditating students at MVU began their group practice, amarked downward shift occurred in the trends of socio-political violence and other forms of violent crime in Cambodia,contrary to predicted baseline trends and contrary to widespread community and media expectations. Such aconclusion can be drawn from both the quantitative and qualitative evidence when comparing baseline andimpact-assessment periods, suggesting that the observed decline in socio-political violence during this time wasassociated with an increase in peace, order, and harmony—that is, a rise of social coherence—in the collectiveconsciousness of Cambodia generated by the group of meditating students at MVU.
CD4+NKG2D+ T Cells Exhibit Enhanced Migratory and Encephalitogenic Properties in Neuroinflammation

Migration of encephalitogenic CD4+ T lymphocytes across the blood-brain barrier is an essential step in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). We here demonstrate that expression of the co-stimulatory receptor NKG2D defines a subpopulation of CD4+ T cells with elevated levels of markers for migration, activation, and cytolytic capacity especially when derived from MS patients. Furthermore, CD4+NKG2D+ cells produce high levels of proinflammatory IFN-γ and IL-17 upon stimulation. NKG2D promotes the capacity of CD4+NKG2D+ cells to migrate across endothelial cells in an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier. CD4+NKG2D+ T cells are enriched in the cerebrospinal fluid of MS patients, and a significant number of CD4+ T cells in MS lesions coexpress NKG2D. We further elucidated the role of CD4+NKG2D+ T cells in the mouse system. NKG2D blockade restricted central nervous system migration of T lymphocytes in vivo, leading to a significant decrease in the clinical and pathologic severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of MS. Blockade of NKG2D reduced killing of cultivated mouse oligodendrocytes by activated CD4+ T cells. Taken together, we identify CD4+NKG2D+ cells as a subpopulation of T helper cells with enhanced migratory, encephalitogenic and cytotoxic properties involved in inflammatory CNS lesion development.
Administrative Compensation in Private Nonprofits: The Case of Liberal Arts Colleges

Infor-proflt institutions executive compensation often is theorized to reflect the profit maximizing objectives of the institution. The executive is an agent of the principal. In nonprofits the objective of the principal is much more difficult to define or quantify. This paper examines the link between compensation and nonprofit institutions. The test case is private liberal arts colleges. The findings are that college presidents ' compensation depends positively on the academic reputation of the institution, faculty salaries, and the net price of the product, and negatively on the alumni giving rate. Financial success is not as important as academic prowess in determining payment and academic prowess is multidimensional. Neither hierarchy nor credentialing seems important. Applying the model to other administrators proves problematic because of the way the data are reported. Numerous estimation techniques are applied to the censured sample. For academic deans the most important determinant of payment is faculty salary. Development officers ' compensation depends on faculty salaries, net price, and enrollment and depends weakly on the institution's reputation. Overall, the model proves least effective in explaining the payments for finance officers; the same determinants that proved effective in determining the president's compensation determine those of finance officers.
Surface Chemistry in Nanoscale Materials

Although surfaces or, more precisely, the surface atomic and electronic structure, determine the way materials interact with their environment, the influence of surface chemistry on the bulk of the material is generally considered to be small. However, in the case of high surface area materials such as nanoporous solids, surface properties can start to dominate the overall material behavior. This allows one to create new materials with physical and chemical properties that are no longer determined by the bulk material, but by their nanoscale architectures. Here, we discuss several examples, ranging from nanoporous gold to surface engineered carbon aerogels that demonstrate the tuneability of nanoporous solids for sustainable energy applications.
Predictors of Academic Procrastination: Coping with Stress, Internet Addiction and Academic Motivation

The present study aims to examine the extent to which coping with stress,Internet addiction and academic motivation among university students explain their academic procrastination behaviors within a framework of a model. The study used a relational survey model; the sample group consisted of 407 students enrolled in the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Sciences and Letters at Kirikkale University. Research data were obtained using the "Aitken Academic Procrastination Scale," "Coping with Stress Scale," "Internet Addiction Scale," and "Academic Motivation Scale. "The Path analysis modeling was used to test the hypothesis models. The results of the study indicated that the academic procrastination behaviors of students are significantly predictable through coping with stress, Internet addiction and academic motivation within a framework of a model. "Academic motivation" was found to be the most important predictor of academic procrastination. The research results were compared to and discussed with regard to the literature of academic procrastination and relevant variables.
On Measurement and Analysis of Software Changes

Software becomes better or worse because of the changes made to it. Each change to legacy software is expensive and risky but it also has potential for generating revenues because of desired new functionality or cost savings in future maintenance. Hence it is important to understand and quantify change properties in order to make good business decisions. Particularly good sources of historical information about changes, especially for legacy software, are generated by change management systems used by most large software organizations. This paper describes how to measure change properties and how to use that information to identify cost and quality drivers in software production. The methodology is codiied in a system called SoftChange. SoftChange was developed for use with the 5ESS TM switch at Lucent Technologies , but can also be used with other software projects using the same, widespread version control systems. SoftChange deenes, constructs and presents essential measures of software change size, complexity, and developer expertise. Also, it provides tools for imputing the purpose and eeort required for a change, and generates predictions of the quality of a change. This methodology uses measurements of changes to beneet the software development process and to generate insights about software evolution.
Application of Optical Flow Techniques in the Restoration of Non-Uniformly Warped Images

When viewing a scene through a turbulent atmosphere, received images will be non-uniformly distorted. A major component of this distortion is a random x and y shift at each point in the received image. A motion blurred but geometrically accurate prototype is obtained by averaging a large number of individual frames. Previous efforts to remove the motion blur utilised cross-correlation techniques to estimate a warping function for each individual frame, allowing the random shifts to be removed. We are currently investigating the implementation of an alternative method where gradient techniques are used to estimate the warping function. Results obtained from both simulated and real data are presented. Current activities are refining the implementation of the gradient techniques and evaluating the performance of the gradient based approach against the cross-correlation approach.
Adaptive sensor-fusion of depth and color information for cognitive robotics

The presented work goes one step further than only combining data from different sensors. The corresponding points of an image and a 3D point cloud are determined through calibration. Color information is thereby assigned to every voxel in the overlapping area of a stereo camera system and a laser range finder. Then we analyze the image and search for the locations, which are especially susceptible to errors by both sensors. Depending on the ascertained situation, we try to correct or minimize errors. By analyzing and interpreting the images as well as removing errors we create an adaptive tool which improves multi-sensor fusion. This allows us to correct the fused data and to perfect the multi-modal sensor fusion or to predict the locations where the sensor information is vague or defective. The presented results demonstrate a clear improvement over standard procedures and show that other progress based on our work is possible.
Information, Meaning, and Intellectual Organization in Networks of Inter-Human Communication

The Shannon-Weaver model of linear information transmission is extended with two loops potentially generating redundancies: (i) meaning is provided locally to the information from the perspective of hindsight, and (ii) meanings can be codified differently and then refer to other horizons of meaning. Thus, three layers are distinguished: variations in the communications, historical organization at each moment of time, and evolutionary self-organization of the codes of communication over time. Furthermore, the codes of communication can functionally be different and then the system is both horizontally and vertically differentiated. All these subdynamics operate in parallel and necessarily generate uncertainty. However, meaningful information can be considered as the specific selection of a signal from the noise; the codes of communication are social constructs that can generate redundancy by giving different meanings to the same information. Reflexively, one can translate among codes in more elaborate discourses. The second (instantiating) layer can be operationalized in terms of semantic maps using the vector space model; the third in terms of mutual redundancy among the latent dimensions of the vector space. Using Blaise Cronin's {\oe}uvre, the different operations of the three layers are demonstrated empirically.
Antibiotic Treatment for First Episode of Acute Otitis Media Is Not Associated with Future Recurrences

Objective Antibiotic treatment of acute otitis media (AOM) has been suggested to increase the risk of future AOM episodes by causing unfavorable shifts in microbial flora. Because current evidence on this topic is inconclusive and long-term follow-up data are scarce, we wanted to estimate the effect of antibiotic treatment for a first AOM episode occurring during infancy on AOM recurrences and AOM-related health care utilization later in life. Methods We obtained demographic information and risk factors from data of the Wheezing Illnesses Study Leidsche Rijn, a prospective birth cohort study in which all healthy newborns born in Leidsche Rijn (between 2001 and 2012), The Netherlands, were enrolled. These data were linked to children’s primary care electronic health records up to the age of four. Children with at least one family physician-diagnosed AOM episode before the age of two were included in analyses. The exposure of interest was the prescription of oral antibiotics (yes vs no) for a child’s first AOM episode before the age of two years. Results 848 children were included in analyses and 512 (60%) children were prescribed antibiotics for their first AOM episode. Antibiotic treatment was not associated with an increased risk of total AOM recurrences (adjusted rate ratio: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.78–1.13), recurrent AOM (≥3 episodes in 6 months or ≥4 in one year; adjusted risk ratio: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.57–1.11), or with increased AOM-related health care utilization during children’s first four years of life. Conclusions Oral antibiotic treatment of a first AOM episode occurring during infancy does not affect the number of AOM recurrences and AOM-related health care utilization later in life. This information can be used when weighing the pros and cons of various AOM treatment options.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene Transfer Inhibits Neointimal Macrophage Accumulation in Hypercholesterolemic Rabbits

Objective—This study aims to determine the effects of periadventitial vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene transfer on neointima formation and macrophage accumulation induced by collar placement around the carotid artery in hypercholesterolemic rabbits. Methods and Results—Collar placement around the carotid artery in cholesterol-fed rabbits induced intimal thickening with increased neointimal macrophage content. Liposome-mediated VEGF gene transfer, confirmed by transgene-specific RT-PCR, caused a marked inhibition of both intimal thickening and macrophage accumulation compared with a lacZ control gene. VEGF gene transfer was not accompanied by a significant increase in adventitial neovascularization. Collaring of carotid arteries in hypercholesterolemic rabbits also upregulated endothelial VCAM-1 expression. Inhibition of neointimal macrophage infiltration in VEGF-transduced, collared arteries was associated with decreased endothelial VCAM-1. Conclusions—VEGF gene transfer inhibits collar-induced intimal thickening, macrophage accumulation, and VCAM-1 expression in cholesterol-fed rabbits. These findings support the concept that low-level VEGF expression can exert arterioprotective effects in the presence of high blood cholesterol.
TRAPPABILITY AND DENSITIES OF STOATS (MUSTELA ERMINEA) AND SHIP RATS (RATTUS RATTUS) IN A SOUTH ISLAND NOTHOFAGUS FOREST, NEW ZEALAND

Stoat (Mustela erminea) density was estimated by live-trapping in a South Island Nothofagus forest, New Zealand, at 8-9 (Jan/Feb 1996) and 15-16 (Aug/Sep 1996) month intervals after significant beech seedfall in autumn 1995. Absolute densities were 4.2 stoats km (2.9-7.7 stoats km, 95% confidence intervals) in Jan/Feb 1996 and 2.5 stoats km (2.1-3.5 stoats km) in Aug/Sep 1996. Trappability of stoats increased in the latter sampling period, probably because mice (Mus musculus) had become extremely scarce. Accordingly, trapping rates of stoats may vary temporally and spatially with food supply rather than only with absolute abundance. Ship rats (Rattus rattus) capture rates doubled between Jan/Feb 1996 and Aug/Sep 1996, but rapidly declined shortly afterwards. Trappability of ship rats also increased in the latter sampling period. These factors must be considered when planning methods of indexing relative densities of stoats and rats. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chitosan for Gene Delivery and Orthopedic Tissue Engineering Applications

Gene therapy involves the introduction of foreign genetic material into cells in order exert a therapeutic effect. The application of gene therapy to the field of orthopaedic tissue engineering is extremely promising as the controlled release of therapeutic proteins such as bone morphogenetic proteins have been shown to stimulate bone repair. However, there are a number of drawbacks associated with viral and synthetic non-viral gene delivery approaches. One natural polymer which has generated interest as a gene delivery vector is chitosan. Chitosan is biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic. Much of the appeal of chitosan is due to the presence of primary amine groups in its repeating units which become protonated in acidic conditions. This property makes it a promising candidate for non-viral gene delivery. Chitosan-based vectors have been shown to transfect a number of cell types including human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293) and human cervical cancer cells (HeLa). Aside from its use in gene delivery, chitosan possesses a range of properties that show promise in tissue engineering applications; it is biodegradable, biocompatible, has anti-bacterial activity, and, its cationic nature allows for electrostatic interaction with glycosaminoglycans and other proteoglycans. It can be used to make nano- and microparticles, sponges, gels, membranes and porous scaffolds. Chitosan has also been shown to enhance mineral deposition during osteogenic differentiation of MSCs in vitro. The purpose of this review is to critically discuss the use of chitosan as a gene delivery vector with emphasis on its application in orthopedic tissue engineering.
Image annotation by semi-supervised clustering constrained by SIFT orientation information

Methods developed for image annotation usually make use of region clustering algorithms. Visual codebooks are generated from the region clusters of low level features. These codebooks are then, matched with the words of the text document related to the image, in various ways. In this paper, we supervise the clustering process by using the orientation information assigned to each interest point of Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features to generate a visual codebook. The orientation information provides a set of constraints in a semi-supervised k-means region clustering algorithm. Consequently, in clustering of regions not only SIFT features are normalized along the dominant orientation, but also orientation information itself is used. Experimental results show that image annotation with added orientation information by semi-supervised clustering is more successful compared to the one that uses SIFT features alone. The proposed algorithm is implemented in a parallel computation environment.
Ubc13: the Lys63 ubiquitin chain building machine

Ubc13 is an ubiquitin E2 conjugating enzyme that participates with many different E3 ligases to form lysine 63-linked (Lys63) ubiquitin chains that are critical to signaling in inflammatory and DNA damage response pathways. Recent studies have suggested Ubc13 as a potential therapeutic target for intervention in various human diseases including several different cancers, alleviation of anti-cancer drug resistance, chronic inflammation, and viral infections. Understanding a potential therapeutic target from different angles is important to assess its usefulness and potential pitfalls. Here we present a global review of Ubc13 from its structure, function, and cellular activities, to its natural and chemical inhibition. The aim of this article is to review the literature that directly implicates Ubc13 in a biological function, and to integrate structural and mechanistic insights into the larger role of this critical E2 enzyme. We discuss observations of multiple Ubc13 structures that suggest a novel mechanism for activation of Ubc13 that involves conformational change of the active site loop.
Association between the SERPING1 Gene and Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy in Japanese

Purpose Recently, a complement component 1 inhibitor (SERPING1) gene polymorphism was identified as a novel risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Caucasians. We aimed to investigate whether variations in SERPING1 are associated with typical AMD or with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) in a Japanese population. Methods We performed a case-control study in a group of Japanese patients with typical AMD (n = 401) or PCV (n = 510) and in 2 independent control groups—336 cataract patients without age-related maculopathy and 1,194 healthy Japanese individuals. Differences in the observed genotypic distribution between the case and control groups were tested using chi-square test for trend. Age and gender were adjusted using logistic regression analysis. Results We targeted rs2511989 as the haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for the SERPING1 gene, which was reported to be associated with the risk of AMD in Caucasians. Although we compared the genotypic distributions of rs2511989 in typical AMD and PCV patients against 2 independent control groups (cataract patients and healthy Japanese individuals), SERPING1 rs2511989 was not significantly associated with typical AMD (P = 0.932 and 0.513, respectively) or PCV (P = 0.505 and 0.141, respectively). After correction for age and gender differences based on a logistic regression model, the difference in genotypic distributions remained insignificant (P>0.05). Our sample size had a statistical power of more than 90% to detect an association of a risk allele with an odds ratio reported in the original studies for rs2511989 for developing AMD. Conclusions In the present study, we could not replicate the reported association between SERPING1 and either neovascular AMD or PCV in a Japanese population; thus, the results suggest that SERPING1 does not play a significant role in the risk of developing AMD or PCV in Japanese.