Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antifungal Rhizosphere Bacteria Can increase as Response to the Presence of Saprotrophic Fungi

Knowledge on the factors that determine the composition of bacterial communities in the vicinity of roots (rhizosphere) is essential to understand plant-soil interactions. Plant species identity, plant growth stage and soil properties have been indicated as major determinants of rhizosphere bacterial community composition. Here we show that the presence of saprotrophic fungi can be an additional factor steering rhizosphere bacterial community composition and functioning. We studied the impact of presence of two common fungal rhizosphere inhabitants (Mucor hiemalis and Trichoderma harzianum) on the composition of cultivable bacterial communities developing in the rhizosphere of Carex arenaria (sand sedge) in sand microcosms. Identification and phenotypic characterization of bacterial isolates revealed clear shifts in the rhizosphere bacterial community composition by the presence of two fungal strains (M. hiemalis BHB1 and T. harzianum PvdG2), whereas another M. hiemalis strain did not show this effect. Presence of both M. hiemalis BHB1 and T. harzianum PvdG2 resulted in a significant increase of chitinolytic and (in vitro) antifungal bacteria. The latter was most pronounced for M. hiemalis BHB1, an isolate from Carex roots, which stimulated the development of the bacterial genera Achromobacter and Stenotrophomonas. In vitro tests showed that these genera were strongly antagonistic against M. hiemalis but also against the plant-pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani. The most likely explanation for fungal-induced shifts in the composition of rhizosphere bacteria is that bacteria are being selected which are successful in competing with fungi for root exudates. Based on the results we propose that measures increasing saprotrophic fungi in agricultural soils should be explored as an alternative approach to enhance natural biocontrol against soil-borne plant-pathogenic fungi, namely by stimulating indigenous antifungal rhizosphere bacteria.
Rapid: Rapidly accelerated proximal gradient algorithms for convex minimization

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to speed-up the convergence of accelerated proximal gradient (APG) methods. In order to minimize a convex function f(x), our algorithm introduces a simple line search step after each proximal gradient step in APG so that a biconvex function f(θx) is minimized over scalar variable θ > 0 while fixing variable x. We propose two new ways of constructing the auxiliary variables in APG based on the intermediate solutions of the proximal gradient and the line search steps. We prove that at arbitrary iteration step t(t ≥ 1), our algorithm can achieve a smaller upper-bound for the gap between the current and optimal objective values than those in the traditional APG methods such as FISTA [1], making it converge faster in practice. We apply our algorithm to many important convex optimization problems such as sparse linear regression. Our experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm converges faster than APG, even comparable to some sophisticated solvers.
Strategic Responses to Three Kinds of Uncertainty: Product Line Simplicity at the Hollywood Film Studios

This paper explores the impact of Milliken’s (1987) three kinds of uncertainty on product line simplicity--specifically on the range of product variations a firm offers. Environmental state uncertainty represents an inability to forecast industry or market events; it results in part from the demand and competitive volatility facing aU firms equally in an industry. Organizational effect uncertainty represents an inability to predict the effect of any given environmental state or event on one’s own firm; it results in part from a lack of skills, knowledge and resources that couM help managers understand or influence market reactions. Finally, decision response uncertainty represents an inability to predict the consequences of a specific decision. It derives from the ignorance and risks perceived in making individual decisions. The thesis of this research is that whereas environmental state uncertainty will give rise to product variations, paradoxically, organization effect and decision response uncertainty will discourage such variations. These ideas are explored and largely supported in a study of the film genres of the major Hollywood film studios between the years 1936 and 1965.
No free lunch in data privacy

Differential privacy is a powerful tool for providing privacy-preserving noisy query answers over statistical databases. It guarantees that the distribution of noisy query answers changes very little with the addition or deletion of any tuple. It is frequently accompanied by popularized claims that it provides privacy without any assumptions about the data and that it protects against attackers who know all but one record. In this paper we critically analyze the privacy protections offered by differential privacy. First, we use a no-free-lunch theorem, which defines non-privacy as a game, to argue that it is not possible to provide privacy and utility without making assumptions about how the data are generated. Then we explain where assumptions are needed. We argue that privacy of an individual is preserved when it is possible to limit the inference of an attacker about the participation of the individual in the data generating process. This is different from limiting the inference about the presence of a tuple (for example, Bob's participation in a social network may cause edges to form between pairs of his friends, so that it affects more than just the tuple labeled as "Bob"). The definition of evidence of participation, in turn, depends on how the data are generated -- this is how assumptions enter the picture. We explain these ideas using examples from social network research as well as tabular data for which deterministic statistics have been previously released. In both cases the notion of participation varies, the use of differential privacy can lead to privacy breaches, and differential privacy does not always adequately limit inference about participation.
Positive Self–regard and Claim to Leadership: Two Fundamental Forms of Self–evaluation

The present article examines the common factor structure of various self–evaluative personality constructs. Consistent with previous research, we found considerable redundancy between constructs. Two basic forms of self–evaluation could be distinguished: Positive Self–regard (PSR) reflects people's contentedness with themselves in comparison with their own standards. Constructs such as depression, self–esteem and neuroticism have very high loadings on this factor. In contrast, Claim to Leadership (CTL) reflects the subjective conviction that one is called to take charge and lead others. This conviction is often called ‘narcissism’. PSR mainly reflects an intra–personal kind of self–evaluation, whereas CTL reflects an inter–personal kind. Both forms of self–evaluation independently predict intellectual self–enhancement, but only one of them (PSR) also predicts self–reported mental health. Moreover, the two forms of self–evaluation are differentially associated with self–reported and peer–reported inter–personal traits (Dominance and Affiliation). Finally, the concepts of ‘Grandiosity’ and ‘Vulnerability’ from narcissism research may easily be reframed in terms of CTL and PSR. The two–dimensional framework may help overcome the conceptual confusion that exists around different forms of self–evaluation and streamline the field for future research. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology
Photosensitive Polymer Thin-Film FETs Based on Poly(3-octylthiophene)

The effects of white light on the electrical performance of polymer thin-film transistors (PTFTs) based on regioregular poly(3-octylthiophene) (P3OT) are investigated. Upon illumination, a significant increase in the PFET's drain current is observed with a maximum photosensitivity of 10/sup 4/ in the subthreshold operation and a broad-band responsivity with a maximum value of 160 mA/W at irradiance of 1.7 mW/cm/sup 2/ and at low gate biases. The photosensitivity decreases with the increase in the absolute gate bias. The simultaneous control of the device with both the gate voltage and illumination is possible at low irradiances of <0.7 mW/cm/sup 2/. It is found that the illumination effectively decreases the threshold voltage of the device, but it does not change the field-effect mobility. Using a trap model, it is shown that the narrow layers close to the drain and source contacts with high concentrations of defects are two possible regions for photogeneration of excitons and separation of charges. Using the theory of space-charge limited conduction, the extracted band mobility for P3OT is 0.08 cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s, while a mobility of 8/spl times/10/sup -5/cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s is found for the regions next to the source and drain contacts. The PTFT's high photosensitivity at zero gate voltage suggests a simple design of low-voltage, high-sensitivity two-terminal photodetectors for applications in large-area flexible optoelectronics.
Selection Tests and Social Justice: A Profile of Applicants Seeking Admission to the Social Work Undergraduate Degree at a South African University

Despite the integration of schools and the introduction of progressive educational policies after South Africa became a non-racial democracy in 1994, many prospective students are still disadvantaged by an unevenly resourced schooling system, and do not meet the requirements for automatic admission to university. Although universities have succeeded in increasing access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the proportion of students able to complete a four-year degree in four years has not increased accordingly. This has important implications for universities as government funding is linked to throughput rates. In 2007 the social work department at a South African university faced possible closure partly due to low student throughput rates. New selection tests and admission criteria were therefore introduced for the 2008 student cohort. The Biographical Questionnaire revealed school experiences made difficult by problems such as poverty, illness and death of a parent, requirements to care for siblings, lack of basic facilities at home and school, language difficulties and the trauma of rape. Despite these experiences, many responses demonstrated resourcefulness in seeking alternate sources of help and approaching learning purposefully. These findings highlight the value of social work biographical questionnaires as an adjunct to the matriculation point system and faculty entrance tests.
Applying Genetic Algorithms for Multiradio Wireless Mesh Network Planning

Two main issues that are involved in the performance of multichannel multiradio wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are channel assignment (CA) and multichannel routing (MCR). The joint CA and MCR problem has been proven to be NP-hard. In this paper, we propose to apply genetic algorithms for the CA problem and tackle MCR using linear-programming techniques. Because CA and MCR tend to interact with each other, to reflect such an interplay property, we evaluate the fitness value of a chromosome (certain CA configuration) in our genetic algorithms (GAs) by computing the linear objective function. Therefore, we successfully decouple the two problems and obtain an optimized CA configuration with a corresponding MCR schedule in polynomial time at the WMN planning stage. We demonstrate the detailed genetic evolution processes for three WMNs with different deployment constraints, which serves as a useful guideline on customizing WMNs under various requirements. Simulation results show that the proposed approach effectively increases the network capacity.
Robust Learning Under Label Noise by Optimizing the Tails of the Loss Distribution

We introduce a novel optimization strategy that combines empirical risk minimization (ERM) with a sample weighting scheme to decrease the bias induced by training with noisy labels. We accomplish this by penalizing the tails of the loss distribution, as samples associated with the right tail (high loss values) are more likely to be mislabeled. We implement the proposed sample weighting scheme by minimizing a discriminatory risk that downweighs mislabeled samples. Moreover, we show that the proposed method enables us to optimize the location and shape of the loss distribution simultaneously. In addition, we couple our method with a distributionally robust optimization stage. The goal of this coupling is to increase the weight of correctly labeled but hard-to-Iearn samples that exhibit a high loss value. This coupling also improves model accuracy on underrepresented minority subsets when training with imbalanced classes. Experimental results show that for 60% noise contamination, our method, when compared to the ERM, improves the final accuracy on both Fashion-MNIST and CIFAR-10 by 18.4% and 8.5%, respectively.
Effect of Light Environment on Growth and Phenylpropanoids of Yarrow (Achillea collina cv. SPAK) Grown in the Alps

A 2‐year field study on the effect of different light environments, obtained by using cladding materials (polyethylene films and shade net) able to cut off specific regions of the photosynthetically active radiation and ultraviolet wavebands, on the growth and phenylpropanoids content of Achillea collina grown in the Alps was conducted. Overall the plant growth was strongly enhanced in the second growing season irrespective of radiation treatment. The light environment did not affect total biomass accumulation, but only carbon allocation to leaves or inflorescences. Indeed the phenylpropanoid levels in inflorescences appeared to be more sensitive to the light environment than leaves as the latter showed high constitutive amounts of these compounds. However, the use of polyethylene films improved to some extent the content of caffeic acid derivatives in leaves. Our results showed that yarrow production, in the alpine situation considered, is influenced by the growing season and the light environment, providing a basis to optimize its quality, depending on the concentration of bioactive compounds, by means of proper agronomic practices.
Robust Fault-tolerant Control of Periodic Piecewise Time-varying Systems Based on Matrix Polynomials

This paper investigates the robust fault-tolerant control issue for a type of periodic piecewise time-varying systems (PPTVSs). The PPTVS is modeled considering the coexistence of external disturbances, structural parameter perturbations, and actuator failures in the system. Stability analysis is conducted for the considered PPTVS, and a sufficient condition concerning the exponential stability of the closed-loop system is given. Through a matrix polynomial approach capable of decoupling time-varying parameters, the robust fault-tolerant controller synthesis is transformed into a convex optimization problem. Flexible controller gains are enabled through selectable subinterval partitioning parameters. A sufficient condition is presented for maintaining the exponential stability, achieving $H_{\infty}$ disturbance attenuation, and obtaining a tractable robust fault-tolerant controller. Simulation verification using a multi-input multi-output PPTVS model shows that the designed controller can maintain the exponential stability under actuator failures, satisfy the $H_{\infty}$ performance index, and exhibiting robustness against structural parameter perturbations.
The Embedded Epistemologist: Dispatches from the Legal Front

In ordinary circumstances, we can assess the worth of evidence well enough without benefit of any theory; but when evidence is especially complex, ambiguous, or emotionally disturbing - as it often is in legal contexts - epistemological theory may be helpful. A legal fact‐finder is asked to determine whether the proposition that the defendant is guilty, or is liable, is established to the required degree of proof by the [admissible] evidence presented; i.e., to make an epistemological appraisal. The foundherentist theory developed in Evidence and Inquiry can help us understand what this means; and reveals that degrees of proof cannot be construed as mathematical probabilities: a point illustrated by comparing the advantages of a foundherentist analysis with the disadvantages of probabilistic analyses of the evidence in the Sacco and Vanzetti case (1921), and of the role of the statistical evidence in Collins (1968).
Progressive Provisioning by the Females of the Earwig, Anisolabis maritima, Increases the Survival Rate of the Young

Abstract Provisioning the young is an important form of insect parental care and is believed to improve the survival and growth of the young. Anisolabis maritima Bonelli (Dermaptera: Anisolabididae) is a cosmopolitan species of earwig that shows sub-social behavior in which the females tend clutches of eggs in soil burrows. The defensive and provisioning behaviors of these females were examined in this study. When disturbed, maternal individuals abandoned the nest less than non-maternal individuals. Females brought food to the nest after their eggs hatched, and the survival of the nymphs was increased by provisioning. Even when mothers were removed, providing food to the nymphs increased survival as well as when the nymphs were provisioned by the mother. These results show that A. maritima mothers provision the nymphs and that this provisioning improves their survival.
Whose Reality is it Anyway? Consumers/Survivors/Ex-Patients Can Speak for Themselves

The author uses personal narrative to vividly describe his entry into the mental health system with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Based on his experience, he describes and criticizes a mental health system that forces people to endure oppressive treatments in the name of help. Interweaving first-hand experience as a patient with his later training as a psychologist, he challenges the biomedical brain disease model and advocates for self-help, empowerment, and peer-run alternatives. The history of the almost 30-year-old movement of activist consumers/survivors/ex-patients is described and introduced as offering promising possibilities for creating innovative options for services. Questions are raised as to why mental health professionals have absented themselves from speaking out against the obvious abuses, rights violations, discrimination, and social injustices faced by people who are diagnosed and treated for madness. An invitation is extended for professionals to modify and reconsider the usefulness of the expert role and instead to form new partnerships of collaboration and advocacy.
Evolving standards in the complaints branch

It is well known that dispute resolution schemes in the complaints branch, including ombudsman schemes and complaint-handlers, operate a very different dispute resolution methodology to that typically applied in the courts and tribunals. This methodology is widely accepted, but concerns have always existed regarding the fairness of the procedural safeguards deployed in the complaints branch. This article investigates two specific areas of procedural practice in the complaints branch: the openness of the sector in terms of the decisions that it makes and the grounds upon which they are made; and the capacity to review decisions made in the sector. The article argues that there is evidence that, whilst further refinement could be introduced, procedural safeguards in the sector are more robust than hitherto has been understood.
An active phased array with optical input and beam-scanning capability

An active antenna array with optical input and beam scanning capability was developed. The phase shift between antenna elements is controlled by means of unilateral injection locking. The reference signal for injection locking is launched into an optical fiber by a multiquantum-well InGaAs-InGaAsP distributed feedback laser. The RF signal is recovered by a photodetector at the other end of the link and fed to the RF circuit. Experimental results are presented and discussed. <<ETX>>
Differential gene expression in skeletal muscle cells after membrane depolarization

Skeletal muscle is a highly plastic tissue with a remarkable capacity to adapt itself to challenges imposed by contractile activity. Adaptive response, that include hypertrophy and activation of oxidative mechanisms have been associated with transient changes in transcriptional activity of specific genes. To define the set of genes regulated by a depolarizing stimulus, we used 22 K mouse oligonucleotide microarrays. Total RNA from C2C12 myotubes was obtained at 2, 4, 18, and 24 h after high K+ stimulation. cDNA from control and depolarized samples was labeled with cyanine 3 or 5 dyes prior to microarray hybridization. Loess normalization followed by statistical analysis resulted in 423 differentially expressed genes using an unadjusted P‐value ≤ 0.01 as cut off. Depolarization affects transcriptional activity of a limited number of genes, mainly associated with metabolism, cell communication and response to stress. A number of genes related to Ca2+ signaling pathways are induced at 4 h, reinforcing the potential role of Ca2+ in early steps of signal transduction that leads to gene expression. Significant changes in the expression of molecules involved in muscle cell structure were observed; K+‐depolarization increased Tnni1 and Acta1 mRNA levels in both differentiated C2C12 and rat skeletal muscle cells in primary culture. Of these two, depolarization induced slow Ca2+ transients appear to have a role only in the regulation of Tnni1 transcriptional activity. We suggest that depolarization induced expression of a small set of genes may underlie Ca2+ dependent plasticity of skeletal muscle cells. J. Cell. Physiol. 210: 819–830, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Influence of forest roads and BMPs on soil erosion

Mitigating sediment export from the forest road prism and potential delivery to forest streams will require a more complete prospective on forest road erosion and benefit of BMPs in reducing the risk of degrading environmental impacts. Sediment control systems have clearly been presented as effective in minimizing sediment travel distances downslope and are likely the key to reducing the environmental impact of road systems. In an attempt to address the questions related to the impact of forest roads and the effectiveness of BMPs to control sediment and its introduction to the forest floor downslope, a study was installed in northeast Georgia within the Chattooga River Ranger District of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. This paper reports the storm runoff and sediment loading results of a 6-year study that evaluates the effectiveness of road BMPs in controlling sediment movement from the road prism. The three sediment control treatments investigated were hay bale barrier, sediment basin, and sediment basin with riser control. The mean runoff reduction ratios (P=0.634) and runoff coefficients (P>0.098) for road sections was not detected as significantly different for the treatments. Outlet runoff volume from the sediment basin with riser control was found to be significantly less than the other treatments. Mean trap efficiency for the sediment basin with riser control, haybale, and sediment basin treatments were 99, 97, and 94 percent, respectively. Based on this analysis, no differences were detected in the haybale and sediment basin with riser control and sediment basin treatment. The fact that the haybale treatment was not different from the other treatments likely indicates that runoff reductions found for all treatments resulted in significant reductions in sediment transport.