Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New roller crimper concepts for mechanical termination of cover crops in conservation agriculture

Abstract Rollers crimpers have been used in conservation agriculture to terminate cover crops; however, excessive vibration generated by the original straight-bar roller design has delayed adoption of this technology in the United States. To avoid excessive vibration, producers generally reduce operating speeds that increase the time needed to perform the field operation. The objectives of this research were to identify roller crimper designs that terminated rye cover crops consistently, resulted in soil moisture conservation after use, and minimized vibrations when operated in the field. Six different roller types were developed and tested at 3.2 and 6.4 km h−1 in Alabama field experiments during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 growing seasons. All roller types were used alone and one also in combination with glyphosate. Rye mortalities were evaluated 1, 2 and 3 weeks after rolling and compared with the check (non-rolled standing rye). Soil volumetric moisture content (VMC) was measured at the day of rolling, and then at 1, 2 and 3 weeks after rolling. Vibration was measured on the rollers' and tractor's frames during operation. Mortality for rolled rye 2 weeks after rolling was at least 98% compared with 96% for the check in 2006, 93% for rolling compared with 75% for the check in 2007, and 94% for rolling compared with 60% for the check in 2008 (P<0.10). There were no consistent differences in rye mortality across roller types (without glyphosate) and speeds. VMC for soil in non-rolled rye plots was consistently lower than in rolled rye plots, averaging 3% compared with 7% 2 weeks after rolling in 2006, and 4% compared with 8% in 2008. During 2007, VMC was affected by severe drought conditions, and differences between roller treatments were detected but minor. The straight-bar roller generated the highest vibration on the tractor's frame at 6.4 km h−1 (0.71 m s−2, RMS), which exceeded International Standards (International Standard Office (ISO)). At 6.4 km h−1, new roller designs generated significantly lower acceleration levels from 0.12 to 0.32 m s−2 on the tractor's frame and were below detrimental effects on health ‘health limits’ classified by ISO. Overall, 2 weeks after rolling, all roller designs effectively terminated rye above 90%, which is the recommended termination level of rye to plant a cash crop into residue mat, while protecting soil surface from water loss. New roller designs generate less vibration than the original design and can be used safely at higher operating speeds.
The Role of Galaxy Interactions and Mergers in Star Formation at z ≤ 1.3: Mid-Infrared Properties in the Spitzer First Look Survey

By combining the 0.12 deg2 F814W Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer MIPS 24 μm imaging in the First Look Survey (FLS), we investigate the properties of interacting and merging mid-infrared bright and faint sources at 0.2 ≤ z ≤ 1.3. We find a marginally significant increase in the pair fraction for MIPS 24 μm detected, optically selected close pairs, with a pair fraction of 0.25 ± 0.10 at z ~ 1, in contrast to 0.11 ± 0.08 at z ~ 0.4, while galaxies below our 24 μm MIPS detection limit show a pair fraction consistent with zero at all redshifts. In addition, 24 μm detected galaxies with fluxes ≥0.1 mJy are on average 5 times more likely to be in a close galaxy pair in the range 0.2 ≤ z ≤ 1.3 than galaxies below this flux limit. Using the 24 μm flux to derive the total far-IR luminosity, we find that paired galaxies (early-stage mergers) are responsible for 27% ± 9% of the IR luminosity density resulting from star formation at z ~ 1, while morphologically classified (late stage) mergers make up 34% ± 11%. This implies that 61% ± 14% of the infrared luminosity density and, in turn, ~40% of the star formation rate density at z ~ 1 can be attributed to galaxies at some stage of a major merger or interaction. We argue that close pairs/mergers in a LIRG/ULIRG phase become increasingly important contributors to the IR luminosity and star formation rate density of the universe at z > 0.7.
A Drone Agent to Support a Clean Environment

In this paper we introduce and evaluate a concept of a drone agent that can support us to keep the environment clean. The drone has four main functions: (1) find a waste item, (2) persuade the user to pick up the item, (3) lead the user to the nearest trash bin, (4) communicate with the user when the job is done. We prototyped three types of persuasion effects with the drone (Visual, Audio, and Visual+Audio) and evaluated them through an online study with eighty two participants. The results reveal that interest in the drone technology varied significantly between developed and developing countries, with individuals in developing countries having higher ratings for drone related persuasion, compliance, pleasantness and sensibility; gender differences also emerged. Finally, evaluation results led to many design recommendations that will increase the functionality and attractiveness and usage potential of the proposed technology.
Origin of Langerhans cells in normal skin and chronic GVHD after hematopoietic stem‐cell transplantation

Chronic graft‐versus‐host disease (cGVHD) is a common complication following allogeneic stem‐cell transplantation (SCT). Past studies have implicated the persistence of host antigen‐presenting cells (APCs) in GVHD. Our objective was to determine the frequency of host Langerhans cells (LCs) in normal skin post‐SCT and ask if their persistence could predict cGVHD. Biopsies of normal skin from 124 sex‐mismatched T‐cell‐replete allogenic SCT recipients were taken 100 days post‐transplant. Patients with acute GVHD and those with <9 months of follow‐up were excluded and prospective follow‐up information was collected from remaining 22 patients. CD1a staining and X and Y chromosome in‐situ hybridization were performed to label LCs and to identify their host or donor origin. At 3 months, 59 ± 5% of LCs were host derived. The density of LCs and the proportion of host‐derived LCs were similar between patients that did or did not develop cGVHD. Most LCs in the skin remained of host origin 3 months after SCT regardless of cGVHD status. This finding is in line with the redundant role of LCs in acute GVHD initiation uncovered in recent experimental models.
How Income Changes During Unemployment: Evidence from Tax Return Data

We use a panel of tax returns spanning 1999 to 2011 to provide evidence on household experiences during unemployment. A period of unemployment is associated with a 20 percent reduction in annual household wage earnings. Unemployment insurance (U.I.) compensates for half of lost wages. Households also partially compensate using a variety of income sources. Distributions from retirement accounts increase in the short run. Self-employment income and disability insurance payments increase over longer periods. More generous U.I. benefits crowd out wage income and are associated with increased retirement account distributions. This combination of responses is consistent with U.I. benefits lengthening unemployment spells.
COMPENDIUM: a text summarisation tool for generating summaries of multiple purposes, domains, and genres

Abstract In this paper, we present a Text Summarisation tool, compendium, capable of generating the most common types of summaries. Regarding the input, single- and multi-document summaries can be produced; as the output, the summaries can be extractive or abstractive-oriented; and finally, concerning their purpose, the summaries can be generic, query-focused, or sentiment-based. The proposed architecture for compendium is divided in various stages, making a distinction between core and additional stages. The former constitute the backbone of the tool and are common for the generation of any type of summary, whereas the latter are used for enhancing the capabilities of the tool. The main contributions of compendium with respect to the state-of-the-art summarisation systems are that (i) it specifically deals with the problem of redundancy, by means of textual entailment; (ii) it combines statistical and cognitive-based techniques for determining relevant content; and (iii) it proposes an abstractive-oriented approach for facing the challenge of abstractive summarisation. The evaluation performed in different domains and textual genres, comprising traditional texts, as well as texts extracted from the Web 2.0, shows that compendium is very competitive and appropriate to be used as a tool for generating summaries.
Provable Subspace Clustering: When LRR Meets SSC

An important problem in analyzing big data is subspace clustering, i.e., to represent a collection of points in a high-dimensional space via the union of low-dimensional subspaces. Sparse subspace clustering (SSC) and Low-rank representation (LRR) are the state-of-the-art methods for this task. These two methods are fundamentally similar in that both are based on convex optimization exploiting the intuition of “Self-Expressiveness”. The main difference is that the SSC minimizes the vector $\ell _{1}$ norm of the representation matrix to induce sparsity while LRR minimizes the nuclear norm (aka trace norm) to promote a low-rank structure. Because the representation matrix is often simultaneously sparse and low-rank, we propose a new algorithm, termed Low-rank sparse subspace clustering (LRSSC), by the combining SSC and LRR, and develop theoretical guarantees of the success of the algorithm. The results reveal interesting insights into the strengths and the weaknesses of SSC and LRR, and demonstrate how the LRSSC can take advantage of both methods in preserving the “Self-Expressiveness Property” and “Graph Connectivity” at the same time. A byproduct of our analysis is that it also expands the theoretical guarantee of SSC to handle cases when the subspaces have arbitrarily small canonical angles but are “nearly independent”.
A New Resource for Cereal Genomics: 22K Barley GeneChip Comes of Age1

In recent years, access to complete genomic sequences, coupled with rapidly accumulating data related to RNA and protein expression patterns, has made it possible to determine comprehensively how genes contribute to complex phenotypes. However, for major crop plants, publicly available, standard platforms for parallel expression analysis have been limited. We report the conception and design of the new publicly available, 22K Barley1 GeneChip probe array, a model for plants without a fully sequenced genome. Array content was derived from worldwide contribution of 350,000 high-quality ESTs from 84 cDNA libraries, in addition to 1,145 barley (Hordeum vulgare) gene sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information nonredundant database. Conserved sequences expressed in seedlings of wheat (Triticum aestivum), oat (Avena strigosa), rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and maize (Zea mays) were identified that will be valuable in the design of arrays across grasses. To enhance the usability of the data, BarleyBase, a MIAME-compliant, MySQL relational database, serves as a public repository for raw and normalized expression data from the Barley1 GeneChip probe array. Interconnecting links with PlantGDB and Gramene allow BarleyBase users to perform gene predictions using the 21,439 non-redundant Barley1 exemplar sequences or cross-species comparison at the genome level, respectively. We expect that this first generation array will accelerate hypothesis generation and gene discovery in disease defense pathways, responses to abiotic stresses, development, and evolutionary diversity in monocot plants.
Parental eating attitudes and indicators of healthy eating in a longitudinal randomized dietary intervention trial (the STRIP study)

Abstract Objective To examine the effects of child-oriented dietary intervention on parental eating attitudes and dietary behaviour. Design In the prospective, randomized Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project for Children (the STRIP study), a cohort of Finnish families took part in a nutritional intervention trial focused on the quality of their children's fat intake since the age of 8 months. Health-related and hedonic eating attitudes of the parents were measured after 10 years of dietary intervention using a validated Health and Taste Attitude Scales (HTAS) questionnaire (n 660). Parents’ eating behaviour was studied using a 1 d food record (n 491). Setting Finland. Subjects Mothers and fathers (n 660) of the STRIP children. Results The parents of the intervention families had a higher level of interest in healthy eating compared with control parents. The interest in natural products or hedonic eating attitudes did not differ between the groups. The parents’ general health interest was associated with low saturated fat intake, fruit and vegetable consumption, fibre intake and seeking pleasure in eating, but it was not associated with BMI. The intervention also improved the quality of dietary fat among parents with the lowest level of interest in healthy eating. Conclusions Parents’ general health interest was associated with regular dietary counselling as well as with healthier food choice behaviour. However, the dietary intervention that focused especially on the quality of the child's fat intake also enhanced specific changes in the family's fat consumption without a high level of interest in healthy eating.
Medial Frontal Cortex Motivates But Does Not Control Movement Initiation in the Countermanding Task

Voluntary control of behavior implies the ability to select what action is performed. The supplementary motor area (SMA) and pre-SMA are widely considered to be of central importance for this ability because of their role in movement initiation and inhibition. To test this hypothesis, we recorded from neurons in SMA and pre-SMA of monkeys performing an arm countermanding task. Temporal analysis of neural activity and behavior in this task allowed us to test whether neural activity is sufficient to control movement initiation or inhibition. Surprisingly, 99% (242 of 243) of movement-related neurons in SMA and pre-SMA failed to exhibit time-locked activity changes predictive of movement initiation in this task. We also found a second group of neurons that was more active during successful response cancelation. Of these putative inhibitory cells, 18% (7 of 40) responded early enough to be able to influence the cancelation of the movement. Thus, when tested with the countermanding task, the SMA/pre-SMA region may play a role in movement inhibition but does not appear to control movement initiation. However, the activity of 76% (202 of 267) of movement-related neurons was contingent on the expectation of reward and 42% of them reflected the amount of expected reward. These findings suggest that the movement-related activity in pre-SMA and SMA might represent the motivation for a specific action but does not determine whether or not that action is performed. This motivational signal in pre-SMA and SMA could provide an essential link between reward expectation and motor execution.
Hepatitis B and HIV co-infection in pregnant women: indication for routine antenatal hepatitis B virus screening in a high HIV prevalence setting.

BACKGROUND Sub-Saharan Africa is endemic for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. HBV/HIV co-infection in women of reproductive age is of clinical and public health importance because these women constitute a significant reservoir for horizontal and perinatal HBV transmission. Childhood HBV vaccination from 6 weeks of age protects most children against chronic HBV infection. However, infants born to HBV/HIV co-infected women are more likely to be infected perinatally, with an increased risk of chronic hepatitis, than infants born to HBV mono-infected women. OBJECTIVES The aim of our study was to establish the prevalence of HBV infection and HBV/HIV co-infection in pregnant women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to inform antenatal HBV screening and childhood immunisation policies in South Africa. METHODS Stored plasma specimens obtained from 570 pregnant women were tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and HBV infectivity, as characterised by the presence of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and/or HBV DNA load. RESULTS The antenatal HIV prevalence and HBsAg prevalence in this study were 41.6% and 5.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.4 - 7.1), respectively. Overall, 3.1% (95% CI 1.7 - 4.6) of pregnant women were HBV/HIV co-infected, with HBeAg positivity and the HBV DNA load being significantly higher in co-infected women. CONCLUSION We report a 5.3% HBV prevalence and a 3.1% HBV/HIV co-infection prevalence in pregnant women from this HIV-endemic region. Routine antenatal HBV screening will allow early identification of neonates who require HBV active-passive immunoprophylaxis at birth. This strategy, together with antenatal antiretrovirals, will reduce the risk of perinatal HBV transmission, especially in high-risk HBV/ HIV co-infected pregnant women.
How is the level of free arachidonic acid controlled in mammalian cells?

Over the last 25 years a considerable research effort has concentrated on the eicosanoids, and great progress has been made in the elucidation of the chemical structure of these compounds, of their physiological roles, and of the ways in which their synthesis is controlled. It is on the last of these that this Review will concentrate, for it is now established that in most tissues the synthesis of eicosanoids is limited by the availability of their common precursor, free arachidonic acid, which must be liberated from esterified stores in complex lipids (van Dorp et al., 1964; Bergstrom et al., 1964; Vogt et al., 1966; Lands & Samuelsson, 1968; Vonkeman & van Dorp, 1968). Control of the subsequent metabolism of the free acid will not be discussed here, nor will the original derivation of arachidonate from dietary sources (reviewed by Willis, 1981). The purposes of this Review are twofold: firstly, it is useful to summarize briefly the present state of knowledge in order to help newcomers in the field; secondly, and more importantly, in order to move forward both conceptually and experimentally it is necessary to take a critical look at the complexities and problems associated with studying arachidonate liberation. Liberation of arachidonate, as defined here, must involve hydrolysis of an ester bond i.e. lipase activity. The three essential questions concerning the control of arachidonate availability are therefore: (1) Which lipases are involved? (2) How are they controlled? (3) Which substrates are hydrolysed?
Infections after Heart Transplantation

A main goal in the follow-up of patients after heart-transplantation (HTX) is the prevention and effective treatment of infections, one of the most common life threatening complications of longterm immunosuppressive therapy [1] (Figure 1). After solid organ transplantation a certain pattern of infections can be observed [1] (Figure 2). This helps developing a differential diagnosis in transplant recipients who present with infectious diseases and establishing effective preventive strategies. However, infections after heart transplantation should not only be recognized as an isolated problem. Especially regarding the impact on long term outcome negative effects of infections on the immune status of the recipient and the development of malignancies or cardiac transplant vasculopathy (TVP) have to be considered as well.
ADX71743, a Potent and Selective Negative Allosteric Modulator of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 7: In Vitro and In Vivo Characterization

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGlu7) has been suggested to be a promising novel target for treatment of a range of disorders, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, drug abuse, and schizophrenia. Here we characterized a potent and selective mGlu7 negative allosteric modulator (NAM) (+)-6-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)-2-ethyl-6,7-dihydrobenzo[d]oxazol-4(5H)-one (ADX71743). In vitro, Schild plot analysis and reversibility tests at the target confirmed the NAM properties of the compound and attenuation of l-(+)-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid–induced synaptic depression confirmed activity at the native receptor. The pharmacokinetic analysis of ADX71743 in mice and rats revealed that it is bioavailable after s.c. administration and is brain penetrant (cerebrospinal fluid concentration/total plasma concentration ratio at Cmax = 5.3%). In vivo, ADX71743 (50, 100, 150 mg/kg, s.c.) caused no impairment of locomotor activity in rats and mice or activity on rotarod in mice. ADX71743 had an anxiolytic-like profile in the marble burying and elevated plus maze tests, dose-dependently reducing the number of buried marbles and increasing open arm exploration, respectively. Whereas ADX71743 caused a small reduction in amphetamine-induced hyperactivity in mice, it was inactive in the mouse 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine–induced head twitch and the rat conditioned avoidance response tests. In addition, the compound was inactive in the mouse forced swim test. These data suggest that ADX71743 is a suitable compound to help unravel the physiologic role of mGlu7 and to better understand its implication in central nervous system diseases. Our in vivo tests using ADX71743, reported here, suggest that pharmacological inhibition of mGlu7 is a valid approach for developing novel pharmacotherapies to treat anxiety disorders, but may not be suitable for treatment of depression or psychosis.
Impact of instrument schedule growth on mission cost and schedule growth for recent NASA missions

This study explores instrument schedule delays and their impacts on mission development schedule and cost growth for recent NASA missions. This study examines 86 instruments across 32 NASA missions. First, the relationship between instrument schedule growth and mission development cost growth is examined. It is found that instrument development delays have a prominent role in contributing to mission development schedule and cost growth. Second, instrument developments are analyzed in order to explore specific trends related to schedule growth and to determine potential contributing factors. Instrument schedule growth is examined as a function of mass, power, instrument type, and spacecraft destination. The results are then used to establish schedule rules-of-thumb that can be used for planning purposes by project and program managers in charge of future NASA development efforts.
The accessory subunit B of DNA polymerase γ is required for mitochondrial replisome function

The mitochondrial replication machinery in human cells includes the DNA polymerase γ holoenzyme and the TWINKLE helicase. Together, these two factors form a processive replication machinery, a replisome, which can use duplex DNA as template to synthesize long stretches of single-stranded DNA. We here address the importance of the smaller, accessory B subunit of DNA polymerase γ and demonstrate that this subunit is absolutely required for replisome function. The duplex DNA binding activity of the B subunit is needed for coordination of POLγ holoenzyme and TWINKLE helicase activities at the mtDNA replication fork. In the absence of proof for direct physical interactions between the components of the mitochondrial replisome, these functional interactions may explain the strict interdependence of TWINKLE and DNA polymerase γ for mitochondrial DNA synthesis. Furthermore, mutations in TWINKLE as well as in the catalytic A and accessory B subunits of the POLγ holoenzyme, may cause autosomal dominant progressive external ophthalmoplegia, a disorder associated with deletions in mitochondrial DNA. The crucial importance of the B subunit for replisome function may help to explain why mutations in these three proteins cause an identical syndrome.