Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Responses of Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) and Maize (Zea Mays L.) Plants to Cadmium Toxicity in Relation to Magnesium Nutrition

Abstract The influence of cadmium (Cd) on physiological processes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) plants exposed to either optimal mineral nutrition or the absence of magnesium (Mg) as well as the accumulation of cadmium and magnesium in plant organs were studied using the method of water culture in a greenhouse. Cd treatment reduced shoot fresh mass more strongly in Mg-supplied than in Mg-deficient plants. Negative effect of Cd on photosynthetic activity was more pronounced in T. aestivum than in Z. mays plants. Cd treatment decreased leaf chlorophyll and carotenoid concentration in both Z. mays and T. aestivum, irrespective of the Mg supply. Cd was preferentially accumulated in the roots of both species. Catalase activity in T. aestivum leaves and roots was unaffected by Cd and Mg supply. Cd treatment did not affect Fe accumulation in the leaves of either species, while in the roots a considerable increase occurred, irrespective of the Mg nutrition. Higher tolerance of Z. mays and T. aestivum plants to Cd toxicity exposed to Mg deficiency could partly be ascribed to the preservation of Fe nutrition.
“And I Am Also Gay”: Illiberal Pragmatics, Neoliberal Homonormativity and LGBT Activism in Singapore

For decades, members of Singapore’s LGBT communities have been unsuccessfully advocating for rights. However, since the state introduction of the Internet, there has been a profound shift in the relationship between LGBT Singaporeans and their nation. In this article I examine recent Internet-influenced developments in LGBT activism and position them within the framework of illiberal pragmatics, which highlights the ambivalent logic employed by Singaporean authorities when formulating social and legal policy. I describe how illiberal pragmatism, in combination with a Singaporean-specific neoliberal homonormativity, has changed strategies of LGBT activism and provided new ways to think about rights.
STRONG GENETIC DIVERGENCE AMONG POPULATIONS OF A MARINE FISH WITH LIMITED DISPERSAL, ACANTHOCHROMIS POLYACANTHUS, WITHIN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF AND THE CORAL SEA

Abstract Acanthochromis polyacanthus is an unusual tropical marine damselfish that uniquely lacks pelagic larvae and has lost the capacity for broad-scale dispersal among coral reefs. On the modern Great Barrier Reef (GBR), three color morphs meet and hydridize at two zones of secondary contact. Allozyme electrophoreses revealed strong differences between morphs from the southern zone but few differences between morphs from the northern counterpart, thus suggesting different contact histories. We explore the phylogeography of Acanthochromis polyacanthus with mitochondrial cytochrome b region sequences (alignment of 565 positions) obtained from 126 individuals representing seven to 12 fish from 13 sites distributed over 12 reefs of the GBR and the Coral Sea. The samples revealed three major clades: (1) black fish collected from the southern GBR; (2) bicolored fish collected from the GBR and one reef (Osprey) from the northern Coral Sea; (3) black and white monomorphs collected from six reefs in the Coral Sea. All three clades were well supported (72–100%) by bootstrap analyses. Sequence divergences were very high between the major clades (mean = 7.6%) as well as within them (2.0–3.6%). Within clades, most reefs segregated as monophyletic assemblages. This was revealed both by phylogenetic analyses and AMOVAs that showed that 72–90% of the variance originated from differences among groups, whereas only 5–13% originated within populations. These patterns are discussed in relation to the known geological history of coral reefs of the GBR and the Coral Sea. Finally, we ask whether the monospecific status of Acanthochromis should be revisited because the sequence divergences found among our samples is substantially greater than those recorded among well-recognized species in other reef fishes. Corresponding Editor: L. Bernatchez
Imaging Biomarkers for Adult Medulloblastomas: Genetic Entities May Be Identified by Their MR Imaging Radiophenotype

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The occurrence of medulloblastomas in adults is rare; nevertheless, these tumors can be subdivided into genetic and histologic entities each having distinct prognoses. This study aimed to identify MR imaging biomarkers to classify these entities and to uncover differences in MR imaging biomarkers identified in pediatric medulloblastomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligible preoperative MRIs from 28 patients (11 women; 22–53 years of age) of the Multicenter Pilot-study for the Therapy of Medulloblastoma of Adults (NOA-7) cohort were assessed by 3 experienced neuroradiologists. Lesions and perifocal edema were volumetrized and multiparametrically evaluated for classic morphologic characteristics, location, hydrocephalus, and Chang criteria. To identify MR imaging biomarkers, we correlated genetic entities sonic hedgehog (SHH) TP53 wild type, wingless (WNT), and non-WNT/non-SHH medulloblastomas (in adults, Group 4), and histologic entities were correlated with the imaging criteria. These MR imaging biomarkers were compared with corresponding data from a pediatric study. RESULTS: There were 19 SHH TP53 wild type (69%), 4 WNT-activated (14%), and 5 Group 4 (17%) medulloblastomas. Six potential MR imaging biomarkers were identified, 3 of which, hydrocephalus (P = .03), intraventricular macrometastases (P = .02), and hemorrhage (P = .04), when combined, could identify WNT medulloblastoma with 100% sensitivity and 88.3% specificity (95% CI, 39.8%–100.0% and 62.6%–95.3%). WNT-activated nuclear β-catenin accumulating medulloblastomas were smaller than the other entities (95% CI, 5.2–22.3 cm3 versus 35.1–47.6 cm3; P = .03). Hemorrhage was exclusively present in non-WNT/non-SHH medulloblastomas (P = .04; n = 2/5). MR imaging biomarkers were all discordant from those identified in the pediatric cohort. Desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastomas were more rarely in contact with the fourth ventricle (4/15 versus 7/13; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: MR imaging biomarkers can help distinguish histologic and genetic medulloblastoma entities in adults and appear to be different from those identified in children.
Connecting behaviour and performance: the evolution of biting behaviour and bite performance in bats

Variation in behaviour, performance and ecology are traditionally associated with variation in morphology. A neglected part of this ecomorphological paradigm is the interaction between behaviour and performance, the ability to carry out tasks that impact fitness. Here we investigate the relationship between biting behaviour and performance (bite force) among 20 species of ecologically diverse bats. We studied the patterns of evolution of plasticity in biting behaviour and bite force, and reconstructed ancestral states for behaviour and its plasticity. Both behavioural and performance plasticity exhibited accelerating evolution over time, and periods of rapid evolution coincided with major dietary shifts from insect‐feeding to plant‐feeding. We found a significant, positive correlation between behavioural plasticity and bite force. Bats modulated their performance by changing their biting behaviour to maximize bite force when feeding on hard foods. The ancestor of phyllostomids was likely a generalist characterized by high behavioural plasticity, a condition that also evolved in specialized frugivores and potentially contributed to their diversification.
Is there a "low-risk" drinking level for youth? : exploring the harms associated with adolescent drinking patterns

Is there a low-risk drinking level for youth? The likelihood of engaging in risk behaviors (e.g. drinking and driving) as a function of alcohol use was examined in 540 youth from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, age 16-23 (M=19.5; 245 Males, 294 females). Logistic regression revealed that both the frequency and quantity of alcohol use matter in terms of determining one’s risk. Quantity of consumption in excess of the recommended ≤2 drinks/occasion (CAMH guidelines) substantially increases ones risk of harm; as does consumption >once a week. However, for those consuming at low quantity (≤ 2 drinks/occasion) and low or moderate frequency levels (≤ once a week) the risk did not exceed that experienced by abstainers and may be considered “low-risk”. It is suggested that youth require a special set of drinking guidelines that focus on quantity consumed/occasion followed by clear limits on the number of drinking days (frequency).
Analysis of drain Current and Switching Speed for SPDT Switch and Dpdt Switch with the Proposed DP4T RF CMOS Switch

Conventional CMOS switch uses NMOS as transistors in its main architecture requiring a control voltage of 5.0 V and a large resistance at the receivers and antennas (ANTs) to detect the signal. A CMOS integrated circuit switch uses FET transistors to achieve switching between multiple paths, because of its high value of control voltage. Hence it is not suitable for modern portable devices which demand lesser power consumption. Therefore, we proposed a new Double-Pole Four-Throw (DP4T) switch by using RF CMOS technology and analyzed its performance. Further, main objective is to provide a plurality of such switches arranged in a densely configured switch array, where the power and area could be reduced as compared to already existing switch configuration as SPDT and Double-Pole Double-Throw (DPDT) transceiver switches, which is simply a reduction of signal strength during transmission of the RF signals. The presented result for the proposed DP4T switch reveals the peak output currents (drain current) around 0.116–0.387 mA and a switching speed of 19–36 ps.
Utilizing Microblogs for Automatic News Highlights Extraction

Story highlights form a succinct single-document summary consisting of 3-4 highlight sentences that reflect the gist of a news article. Automatically producing news highlights is very challenging. We propose a novel method to improve news highlights extraction by using microblogs. The hypothesis is that microblog posts, although noisy, are not only indicative of important pieces of information in the news story, but also inherently “short and sweet” resulting from the artificial compression effect due to the length limit. Given a news article, we formulate the problem as two rank-then-extract tasks: (1) we find a set of indicative tweets and use them to assist the ranking of news sentences for extraction; (2) we extract top ranked tweets as a substitute of sentence extraction. Results based on our news-tweets pairing corpus indicate that the method significantly outperform some strong baselines for single-document summarization.
Correction of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Using Thoracic Pedicle Screw Fixation Versus Hook Constructs

This retrospective study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness and cost of thoracic pedicle screws versus laminar and pedicle hooks in patients undergoing surgical correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Immediate preoperative and 6-week postoperative radiographs were examined in 25 consecutive cases of children with AIS who were divided into two groups, those with thoracic pedicle screw constructs and those with thoracic hook constructs. Endpoints collected included radiographic measures, complications, surgical time, implant cost, and quality-of-life measures. Ten children underwent spinal fusion using thoracic pedicle screw fixation and 15 underwent thoracic constructs composed of hooks. Similar sex and age distribution were noted in both groups, and among the 20 girls and 5 boys the average age was 14.5. The mean preoperative Cobb angle was 53.5 degrees for the screw group and 52.5 degrees for the hook group. Correction averaged 70.2% for the screw group and 68.1% for the hook group. There were no significant differences between the two patient groups in terms of percentage of or absolute curve change after surgery. The apical vertebral translation, end vertebral tilt angle, and coronal balance did not differ significantly between the two patient groups. Comparison of operative time and quality of life revealed no significant differences. Screw constructs were significantly more expensive than hook constructs. The correction obtained from thoracic pedicle screw fixation is comparable to traditional hook constructs in AIS. Surgery using either construct effectively corrects AIS.
Primary cilia are highly oriented with respect to collagen direction and long axis of extensor tendon

Skeletal tissues adapt to their mechanical environments by modulating gene expression, cell metabolism, and extracellular matrix (ECM) architecture; however, the mechanosensory mechanisms for these processes are incompletely understood. Primary cilia have emerged as critical components of the cellular mechanosensory apparatus and have been hypothesized to participate in establishment of cellular and ECM orientation, but their function in skeletal tissues is just beginning to be examined. Here we focused on tendon, a tissue with an oriented matrix that is ideal for analysis of spatial relationships between primary cilia and the ECM. The objective of this study was to characterize the incidence and orientation of tenocyte primary cilia in their native ECM. Primary cilia, nuclei, and collagen were analyzed three‐dimensionally in immunofluorescently labeled rat extensor tendon using multiphoton microscopy and semiautomated morphometry. Primary cilia were observed in 64% of tenocytes. The cilia were highly oriented with respect to the ECM: cilia were aligned parallel to the collagen fibers and the long axis of the tendon. This study represents the first quantification of the in situ incidence and orientation of primary cilia in tendon. © 2009 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 28:77–82, 2010
The histochemistry of the saccus vasculosus of Notopterus chitala ( Teleostei ) By

The saccus vasculosus of Notopterus chitala is situated posteriorly to the pituitary gland. It consists of a number of loculi surrounded by blood sinusoids. The loculi open into a number of collecting channels which unite and ultimately drain into the third ventricle of the brain. The loculi are lined by a layer of pear-shaped 'coronet cells'. The coronet cell has an apical protrusion provided with hairs, each ending in a globule. The coronet cells contain glycogen, especially in the apical protrusions and in the globules. Phospholipid, alkaline phosphatase, and mitochondria are concentrated in the apical protrusion and globules. There are also mitochondria round the nucleus. The Golgi element is not only present in the characteristic Golgi zone but occasionally round the nucleus as well. It has been stated by other authors that acid mucopolysaccharides are synthesized in the coronet cells of the rainbow trout and 'secreted' into the lumen of saccus vasculosus. However, acid mucopolysaccharides are not histochemically demonstrable in the coronet cells of Notopterus. The observations recorded in this paper indicate that the coronet cells in the saccus vasculosus of Notopterus are secretory and that glycogen is abundant in them.
Outcome, Process & Power in Direct Democracy

Based on survey data for Switzerland, new empirical findings on direct democracy are presented. In the first part, we show that, on average, public employees receive lower financial compensation under more direct democratic institutions. However, top bureaucrats are more constrained in direct democracies and have to be compensated by higher wages for that loss of power. In the second part, we demonstrate that reported subjective well-being of the population is much higher in jurisdictions with stronger direct democratic rights. This is not only the case because people value political outcomes higher but they derive utility from the political process itself.
Current measurements by airborne along-track InSAR: measuring technique and experimental results

Since the first demonstration of high-resolution mapping of surface currents by airborne along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (along-track InSAR) in the late 1980s, theoretical models of the along-track InSAR imaging mechanism and recommendations for ideal instrument parameters, measuring strategies, and data processing and interpretation techniques have been discussed in a number of publications. However, due to the experimental nature of existing instruments and algorithms and a very limited reference database from actual experiments, potential users have not recognized the along-track InSAR as a readily available tool for current measurements until now. In order to promote the use of InSAR and to validate and demonstrate current measurements on the basis of instrument parameters and data processing techniques proposed earlier, the authors have carried out experiments with an airborne X-band along-track InSAR over spatially varying current fields at two test sites in the German Bight of the North Sea. In this paper, an overview of the experimental scenarios and the acquired data is given, and the newly implemented algorithms for the retrieval of two-dimensional (2-D) surface current fields from the InSAR raw data are described. Using acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data and predictions of a numerical circulation model as reference, a root mean square (rms) error of spatial variations in the InSAR-derived current fields on the order of 0.1 m/s at an effective resolution of about 100 m is obtained, which is consistent with theoretical expectations. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed iterative correction scheme for nonlinearities of the InSAR imaging mechanism on the basis of numerical simulations works well and leads to a significant improvement. Altogether, it is concluded that the proposed technique for current measurements by along-track InSAR is efficient, robust, and sufficiently mature for applications that require high-resolution snapshots of surface current fields within areas of some square kilometers, such as the monitoring of bathymetric changes in coastal waters.
Linking visual response properties in the superior colliculus to saccade behavior

Here we examined the influence of the visual response in the superior colliculus (SC) (an oculomotor control structure integrating sensory, motor and cognitive signals) on the development of the motor command that drives saccadic eye movements in monkeys. We varied stimulus luminance to alter the timing and magnitude of visual responses in the SC and examined how these changes correlated with resulting saccade behavior. Increasing target luminance resulted in multiple modulations of the visual response, including increased magnitude and decreased response onset latency. These signal modulations correlated strongly with changes in saccade latency and metrics, indicating that these signal properties carry through to the neural computations that determine when, where and how fast the eyes will move. Thus, components of the earliest part of the visual response in the SC provide important building blocks for the neural basis of the sensory–motor transformation, highlighting a critical link between the properties of the visual response and saccade behavior.
Auxiliary Selection in Spanish: Gradience, Gradualness, and Conservation

Although usage-based linguistics emphasises the need for studies of language change to take frequency effects into account, there is a lack of research that tries to systematically model frequency effects and their relation to diffusion processes in language change. This monograph offers a diachronic study of the change in Spanish perfect auxiliary selection between Old and Early Modern Spanish that led to the gradual replacement of the auxiliary ser ‘be’ with the auxiliary haber ‘have’. It analyses this process in terms of the interaction between gradience, gradualness, and the conserving effects of frequency and persistence in language change. The study contributes to the theory and methodology of diachronic linguistics, additionally offering insights on how to explain synchronic grammatical variation both within a language and between languages. The book is of interest to the fields of Spanish and Romance linguistics, syntax, as well as historical and variationist linguistics.
Fair Game?: The Use of Standardized Admissions Tests in Higher Education

Despite the onslaught of editorials and articles on the subject of standardized admissions tests, few people outside the rarefied world of psychometrics-the statistical analysis of test scores-know about the procedures used to develop, score, and evaluate these tests. Rebecca Zwick demystifies these procedures to present a common-sense view of the politics of education. Highly informed and convincingly argued,Fair Game? connects the mechanics of assessment to broader issues raised by test critics and supporters alike. Do accusations of race- and gender-based test discrimination hold up to the statistics? Do tests favor those who can afford expensive preparatory programs? Can tests reliably measure our nation's educational achievement? Zwick slices through the incendiary rhetoric that surrounds these controversial questions, and offers solid and straightforward recommendations for more equitable educational policy.
Robotic systems for percutaneous needle-guided interventions

Abstract Several groups have developed robotic systems for invasive medical procedures. In this article we will focus on selected robotic systems for percutaneous needle-guided interventions using CT or MR imaging. We present six interventional robotic systems designed to work with imaging modalities such as CT, Cone-beam CT and MRI. The details of each system are given along with any phantom, animal, or human trials performed with each particular robot. Although each of these systems has specific features, they are all of great clinical value since they provide very stable needle guidance -- even for angulated approaches, they may allow access to lesions when the width of the CT- or MR- gantry would limit the access for a biopsy needle or other interventional tools such as thermal ablation probes. Then, such a robot may be able to guide the needle into the most promising region of the lesion without the need for a second contrast injection. Thus, more efficacious characterization and treatment, particularly for lesions that are difficult to target, can be anticipated. Although more research and clinical trials are certainly needed, it is, however, our belief that robotic systems will be an important part of future interventions.