Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving Environmental Loading Assessments of Cry Protein from GM Plants Based on Experimentation in Cotton~!2008-09-12~!2008-11-15~!2008-12-05~!

Transgenic Bt-cotton expresses insecticidal Cry proteins via Cry genes, introduced from the soil bacterium Ba- cillus thuringiensis (Bt). Data on levels of Cry proteins expressed in transgenic Bt-crops is important for assessing levels of environmental exposure. During investigations into the rhizosphere impacts of Cry proteins from GM cotton we found that Cry1Ac expression throughout the season was significantly lower in roots of glasshouse-reared cotton plants (average of 0.03 � g/g in the roots) compared to the same Bt-cotton varieties grown in the field (0.14 � g/g in the roots). We subse- quently undertook a whole plant field assessment of both Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab expression in stem, leaves, root, and flow- ers, squares and bolls of Australian cotton varieties Sicot 289 Bollgard ® II (289B) and Sicot 289 Bollgard ® II Roundup Ready (289BR) over an entire season. Significant differences in the expression levels of Cry1Ac versus Cry2Ab occurred in the whole plant throughout the season. Cry1Ac levels remained relatively constant at an average of 6.1 � g/g whilst Cry2Ab levels averaged 29.0 � g/g, but decreased over time. Analysis of whole plant expression levels, plant stand densi- ties, and aspects of crop management, estimated that levels of Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab deposited in the soil at the end of the season were 0.26 and 0.16 � g/g soil, respectively. The undertaken experiments highlight that assessments of environ- mental loading of proteins from GM plants would be improved with the use of field grown plants, whole plant assess- ments, increased knowledge on fate and persistence of GM proteins in the soil, and refinement of current ELISA method- ologies.
Body condition and habitat use by Hermann's tortoises in burnt and intact habitats

Herman tortoises can maintain their mean body condition in similar range of inter-annual variations in severely burnt versus intact habitats. Therefore, burnt areas provide sufficient food, shelter, and thermally buffered habitats to meet the eco-physiological requirements of the tortoises. Burnt habitats are thus suitable for population reinforcement programs.
Socialization of Disabled People with Sports Activities and Their Problem Encountered in Participating in Sports Activities

The purpose of this research is to determine the encountered problems of people with disabilities who live in Malatya and participate in sportive activities the aged 10-15 years. For this purpose, a total of 35 parents of individuals 11 diagnosed with autism, 6 diagnosed with physical disability, 10 diagnosed with Down’s syndrome and 8 diagnosed with mild mental disability participated in the study. This study was a qualitative study and it was provided that face-to-face interviews with parents of disabled individuals were made, considering that disabled people would not be able to give correctly answers. In the process of obtaining the data, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with the parents through semi-structured open-ended questions. Parents of people with Down's syndrome and mild mental disability have expressed a positive view of the fitness of sports facilities, while the parents of autistic and physically handicapped individuals indicate that their facilities and equipment are insufficient. In addition, all parents have expressed that their children willingness to participate in sports activities but they stated that the trainers were inadequate in terms of knowledge, competence and equipment. As a result, the parents are satisfied with participation of their children with disability in sports activities and they are socialized with sports, there are positive changes in their clothing, walking and talking, the facilities are partly sufficient but children’s coaches are inadequate knowledge, experience and equipment, suffer from the communication problems with the municipality staff in the vehicle when traveling.
Characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolated from iranian and afghani patients by spoligotyping method

Designing newer drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic techniques is dependent on better understanding of M. tuberculosis virulence mechanism. In this study the prevalence of pcaA gene was determined in M. tuberculosis strains typed by spoligotyping. The associated risk factors among patients with different nationalities residing in Iran were also determined. The isolated M. tuberculosis strains have been characterized by performing susceptibility tests against four first-line antituberculosis drugs and were then subjected to spoligotyping characterization. PCR was used for detection of pcaA gene and its nucleotide sequence was also determined. Spoligotyping of M. tuberculosis strains resulted in 140 different patterns. One hundred twenty two (87.1%) of these spoligotype isolates were unique and reported for the first time. The remaining18 (12.8%) spoligotype patterns were previously reported from other geographical regions of the world. Haarlem family was most prevalent than other genotype. Antibiotic resistances were higher in those isolated from the Iranian patients. The pcaA gene was detected in M. tuberculosis clinical isolates but not in saprophyte strains such as M. kansasi. The results showed that, spread of M. tuberculosis strains belonging to the Beijing family among Iranian patients has to be considered seriously. This study confirmed the widespread existence of pcaA gene in almost all the clinical isolates. It is also important to undertake studies to identify which factors are the most significant to consider in tuberculosis control program.
Differential expression of cell proliferation and apoptosis markers in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue in young and old patients

Introduction: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common malignant neoplasm of tongue. Some investigations show that tongue SCC (TSCC) in young patients has a more aggressive behavior. Tumor progression is believed to be influenced by tumor cell proliferation as well as anti-apoptotic activity. The present study was conducted to assess ki-67 and bcl-2 expression in TSCC between young and older patients. Materials and Methods: Thirty paraffin block sections of TSCC were stained with monoclonal antibodies against bcl-2 and Ki-67. Data were analyzed by Mann–Whitney and Spearman correlation coefficient test. Results: Samples from 19 men and 11 women, with a mean age of 56 years, were evaluated. The patients were divided into two groups, A (>45 years) and B (≤45 years). Clinical and microscopic data such as tumor size, grade, and muscle invasion were extracted. Bcl-2 expression was negative for all the samples except one. Ki-67 expression was assessed as a percentage of Ki-67-positive neoplastic cells and scored subsequently. There was a significant association between the expression of ki-67 with microscopic grade and age (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the more aggressive behavior of TSCC in younger age may be related with ki-67 expression and may serve as a valuable prognostic factor.
Stock trading using PSEC and RSPOP: a novel evolving rough set-based neuro-fuzzy approach

This paper presents a novel evolving rough-set based neuro-fuzzy approach in stock trading using the method of forecasting stock price difference. The proposed pseudo self-evolving cerebellar (PSEC) algorithm and the rough set-based pseudo outer-product (RSPOP) algorithm are used to construct a novel evolving rough set-based neuro-fuzzy system as the underlying forecast modeling tool to identify the fuzzy sets and fuzzy rules respectively. The proposed price difference forecast model is then incorporated with a forecast bottleneck free trading decision model to investigate achievable trading profit. Experimental results on real world stock market data showed that the proposed stock trading model with the evolving rough set-based neuro-fuzzy price difference forecast yielded significantly higher profits than the trading model without forecast.
Understanding Mid-Air Hand Gestures: A Study of Human Preferences in Usage of Gesture Types for HCI

In this paper we present the results of a study of human preferences in using mid-air gestures for directing other humans. Rather than contributing a specific set of gestures, we contribute a set of gesture types, which together make a set of the core actions needed to complete any of our six chosen tasks in the domain of human-to-human gestural communication without the speech channel. We observed 12 participants, cooperating to accomplish different tasks only using hand gestures to communicate. We analyzed 5,500 gestures in terms of hand usage and gesture type, using a novel classification scheme which combines three existing taxonomies in order to better capture this interaction space. Our findings indicate that, depending on the meaning of the gesture, there is preference in the usage of gesture types, such as pointing, pantomimic acting, direct manipulation, semaphoric, or iconic gestures. These results can be used as guidelines to design purely gesture driven interfaces for interactive environments and surfaces.
Black (pyrogenic) carbon in boreal forests: a synthesis of current knowledge and uncertainties

The carbon (C) cycle in boreal regions is strongly influenced by fire, which converts biomass and detrital C mainly to gaseous forms (CO2 and smaller proportions of CO and CH4), and some 1? 7% of mass to pyrogenic C (PyC). PyC is mainly produced as solid charred residues, including visually-defined charcoal, and a black carbon (BC) fraction chemically defined by its resistance to laboratory oxidation, plus much lower proportions of volatile soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). All PyC is characterized by fused aromatic rings, but varying in cluster sizes, and presence of other elements (N, O) and functional groups. There are several reasons for current interest in defining more precisely the role of PyC in the C cycle of boreal regions. First, PyC is resistant to decomposition, and therefore contributes to very stable C pools in soils and sediments. Second, it influences soil processes, mainly through its sorption properties and cation exchange capacity, and third, soot aerosols absorb solar radiation and may contribute to global warming. However, there are large gaps in the basic information needed to address these topics. While charcoal is commonly defined by visual criteria, analytical methods for BC are mainly based on various measures of oxidation resistance, or on yield of benzenepolycarboxylic acids. These methods are still being developed, and capture different fractions of the PyC "continuum". There are few quantitative reports of PyC production and stocks in boreal forests (essentially none for boreal peatlands), and results are difficult to compare due to varying experimental goals and methods, as well as inconsistent terminology. There are almost no direct field measurements of BC aerosol production from boreal wildfires, and little direct information on rates and mechanisms for PyC loss. Structural characterization of charred biomass and forest floor from wildfires generally indicates a low level of thermal alteration, with the bulk of the material having H/C ratios still >0.2, and small aromatic cluster sizes. For the more chemically-recalcitrant BC fraction, a variety of mainly circumstantial evidence suggests very slow decomposition, with turnover on a millennium timescale (5000? 10 000 y), depending on environmental conditions and PyC properties, but the main limitation to PyC storage in soil is likely consumption by subsequent fires. Degraded, functionalized PyC is also incorporated into humified soil organic matter, and is transported to sediments in dissolved and particulate form. Boreal production is estimated as 7? 17 Tg BC y? 1 of solid residues and 2? 2.5 Tg BC y? 1 as aerosols. Primary research needs include basic field data on PyC production and stocks in boreal forests and peatlands, suitable to support C budget modeling, and development of standardized analytical methods and of improved approaches to assess the chemical recalcitrance of typical chars from boreal wildfires. To accomplish these goals effectively will require much greater emphasis on interdisciplinary cooperation.
Brand equity no agronegócio: Percepção do consumidor brasileiro de carne suína

Even sectors that usually offer similar products, such as agribusiness, can develop brand strategies that are potentially capable of promoting a greater perceived value in the eyes of consumers. This paper discusses how the origin of the product, perceptions, and attitudes of Brazilian high-income consumers concerning food production processes, and brand equity assigned by consumers to certification processes affect the formation of brand equity in agricultural commodities.
Soluble CD163 as a Marker of Macrophage Activity in Newly Diagnosed Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Background Soluble CD163 (sCD163) is a macrophage specific protein known to be up-regulated in serum from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective To investigate sCD163 in serum and CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) from patients undergoing MS diagnostic work-up and analyse its potential as a diagnostic biomarker. Methods After a full MS diagnostic work-up, including collection of paired samples of CSF and serum, 183 patients were evaluated for inclusion in this study. Patients were divided into groups based on their diagnosis. Patients with normal clinical and paraclinical findings were grouped as symptomatic controls. Serum and CSF levels of sCD163 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results sCD163 could be measured in all serum and CSF samples. A high sCD163 CSF/serum ratio in relation to molecular weight was found, strongly indicating local production in the CNS. Median levels of sCD163 were significantly decreased in serum and significantly elevated in CSF in patients with relapsing-remitting, and primary- progressive MS. There were, however, some overlaps of the measures between groups. In a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis sCD163 CSF/serum ratio had an area under the curve of 0.72. Conclusion The sCD163 CSF/serum ratio was significantly increased in patients with MS and may reflect macrophage activation in MS lesions. These results suggest that primary progressive MS also is driven by inflammation in which the innate immune system plays a pivotal role.
Profiling Moving Objects by Dividing and Clustering Trajectories Spatiotemporally

An object can move with various speeds and arbitrarily changing directions. Given a bounded area where a set of objects moving around, there are some typical moving styles of the objects at different local regions due to the geography nature or other spatiotemporal conditions. Not only the paths that the objects move along, we also want to know how different groups of objects move with various speeds. Therefore, given a set of collected trajectories spreading in a bounded area, we are interested in discovering the typical moving styles in different regions of all the monitored moving objects. These regional typical moving styles are regarded as the profile of the monitored moving objects, which may help reflect the geoinformation of the observed area and the moving behaviors of the observed moving objects. In this paper, we present DivCluST, an approach to finding regional typical moving styles by dividing and clustering the trajectories in consideration of both the spatial and temporal constraints. Different from the existing works that consider only the spatial properties or just the interesting regions of trajectories, DivCluST focuses more on typical movements in local regions of a bounded area and takes the temporal information into account when designing the criteria for trajectory dividing and the distance measurement for adaptive $(k)$-means clustering. Extensive experiments on three types of real data sets with specially designed visualization are presented to show the effectiveness of DivCluST.
Apolipoprotein C-I Is Crucially Involved in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Atherosclerosis Development in Apolipoprotein E-Knockout Mice

Background— Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which is released from Gram-negative bacteria on multiplication or lysis, aggravates atherosclerosis in humans and rodents by inducing inflammation via toll-like receptors. Because apolipoprotein C-I (apoCI) enhances the LPS-induced inflammatory response in macrophages in vitro and in mice, we investigated the effect of endogenous apoCI expression on LPS-induced atherosclerosis in mice. Methods and Results— Twelve-week-old apoe−/−apoc1−/− and apoe−/−apoc1+/+ mice received weekly intraperitoneal injections of LPS (50 &mgr;g) or vehicle for a period of 10 weeks, and atherosclerosis development was assessed in the aortic root. LPS administration did not affect atherosclerotic lesion area in apoe−/−apoc1−/− mice but increased it in apoe−/−apoc1+/+ mice. In fact, apoCI expression increased the LPS-induced atherosclerotic lesion area by 60% (P<0.05), concomitant with an increase in LPS-induced plasma levels of fibrinogen and E-selectin. This indicated that apoCI increased the LPS-induced inflammatory state, both systemically (ie, fibrinogen) and at the level of the vessel wall (ie, E-selectin). In addition, both macrophage-derived apoCI and HDL-associated apoCI increased the LPS-induced tumor necrosis factor-&agr; response by macrophages in vitro. Conclusions— We conclude that apoCI is crucially involved in LPS-induced atherosclerosis in apoe−/− mice, which mainly relates to an increased inflammatory response toward LPS. We anticipate that apoCI plasma levels contribute to accelerated atherosclerosis development in individuals who have chronic infection.
Convex Relaxation Regression: Black-Box Optimization of Smooth Functions by Learning Their Convex Envelopes

Finding efficient and provable methods to solve non-convex optimization problems is an outstanding challenge in machine learning and optimization theory. A popular approach used to tackle non-convex problems is to use convex relaxation techniques to find a convex surrogate for the problem. Unfortunately, convex relaxations typically must be found on a problem-by-problem basis. Thus, providing a general-purpose strategy to estimate a convex relaxation would have a wide reaching impact. Here, we introduce Convex Relaxation Regression (CoRR), an approach for learning convex relaxations for a class of smooth functions. The main idea behind our approach is to estimate the convex envelope of a function $f$ by evaluating $f$ at a set of $T$ random points and then fitting a convex function to these function evaluations. We prove that with probability greater than $1-\delta$, the solution of our algorithm converges to the global optimizer of $f$ with error $\mathcal{O} \Big( \big(\frac{\log(1/\delta) }{T} \big)^{\alpha} \Big)$ for some $\alpha> 0$. Our approach enables the use of convex optimization tools to solve a class of non-convex optimization problems.
Investigating the Role of Assessment Method on Reports of Déjà Vu and Tip-of-the-Tongue States during Standard Recognition Tests

Déjà vu and tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) are retrieval-related subjective experiences whose study relies on participant self-report. In four experiments (ns = 224, 273, 123 and 154), we explored the effect of questioning method on reported occurrence of déjà vu and TOT in experimental settings. All participants carried out a continuous recognition task, which was not expected to induce déjà vu or TOT, but were asked about their experiences of these subjective states. When presented with contemporary definitions, between 32% and 58% of participants nonetheless reported experiencing déjà vu or TOT. Changing the definition of déjà vu or asking participants to bring to mind a real-life instance of déjà vu or TOT before completing the recognition task had no impact on reporting rates. However, there was an indication that changing the method of requesting subjective reports impacted reporting of both experiences. More specifically, moving from the commonly used retrospective questioning (e.g. “Have you experienced déjà vu? ”) to free report instructions (e.g. “Indicate whenever you experience déjà vu.”) reduced the total number of reported déjà vu and TOT occurrences. We suggest that research on subjective experiences should move toward free report assessments. Such a shift would potentially reduce the presence of false alarms in experimental work, thereby reducing the overestimation of subjective experiences prevalent in this area of research.
Multiaccess Memory System for Attached SIMD Computer

In order to reduce the memory access time for a Single-Instruction Multiple-Data stream (SIMD) computer with pq processing elements attached to a host computer, a multiaccess memory system is proposed. The proposed memory system supports simultaneous access to pq data elements within a 4-directional block (p /spl times/ q), a row (1 /spl times/ pq), a column (pq /spl times/ 1), a forward-diagonal, and a backward-diagonal subarray with a constant interval in an arbitrary position in an M /spl times/ N array of data elements, where the number of memory modules, m, is a prime number greater than pq. For the simple and fast address calculation and routing circuit, the address differences between the pq addresses and the base address are arranged in ascending order according to the index numbers of m memory modules from the index number of memory module of the first element. The proposed multiaccess memory system provides more subarray types and more constant intervals than the previous memory systems.
Beyond the Cholesterol-Lowering Effect of Soy Protein: A Review of the Effects of Dietary Soy and Its Constituents on Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease

The hypocholesterolemic effect of soy is well-documented and this has led to the regulatory approval of a health claim relating soy protein to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, soybeans contain additional components, such as isoflavones, lecithins, saponins and fiber that may improve cardiovascular health through independent mechanisms. This review summarizes the evidence on the cardiovascular benefits of non-protein soy components in relation to known CVD risk factors such as hypertension, hyperglycemia, inflammation, and obesity beyond cholesterol lowering. Overall, the available evidence suggests non-protein soy constituents improve markers of cardiovascular health; however, additional carefully designed studies are required to independently elucidate these effects. Further, work is also needed to clarify the role of isoflavone-metabolizing phenotype and gut microbiota composition on biological effect.
Synthesis of antenna arrays using genetic algorithms

The synthesis of the radiation pattern of linear antenna arrays is an interesting problem in radiating systems. When the synthesis of antennas is subject to many restrictions the problem is very complex and becomes difficult to solve by classical optimization techniques because they are vulnerable to local minima problems. One relatively novel technique which could be used for the antenna synthesis is the use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs). In this article two methods for the synthesis of the radiation pattern of a linear array antenna based on GAs are presented. With these techniques it is possible to synthesize a radiation pattern specified by shaped beams and nulls in given directions. Results for different cases are presented.