Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exogenous Betaine Enhances the Protrusion Vigor of Rice Seeds under Heat Stress by Regulating Plant Hormone Signal Transduction and Its Interaction Network

Rice is an important food crop. Rice seedlings are mainly composed of root, coleoptile, mesocotyl and euphylla. The elongation of coleoptile and mesocotyl promotes the emergence of rice seedlings. Therefore, analyzing the mechanism of coleoptile and mesocotyl elongation is important for the cultivation of rice varieties. Due to global warming, heat stress is threatening rice yields. Betaine plays an important role in plant resistance to heat stress; however, we lack research on its regulation mechanism of rice seed germination under heat stress. Therefore, we explored the effects of soaking seeds with betaine at different concentrations on rice seed germination under heat stress. According to the results, soaking seeds with 10 mM of betaine could effectively improve the seeds’ germination potential and rate under heat stress to promote the germination of rice seeds. To clarify the mitigation mechanism of betaine in heat stress, we measured the antioxidant enzyme activity, malondialdehyde content, soluble protein content and endogenous hormone content of seed protrusion under heat stress. We constructed the cDNA library for transcriptome sequencing. According to the results, 10 mM of betaine improved the activities of the superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase of seed protrusion under heat stress to reduce the malondialdehyde content and increase the soluble protein content to alleviate the effect of heat stress on rice seed germination. The detection of the endogenous hormone content showed that soaking seeds with 10 mM of betaine increased the content of gibberellin and decreased the contents of auxin and abscisic acid of seed protrusion under heat stress. According to the transcriptome analysis, betaine can induce the expressions of key genes in the biosynthesis and metabolism of auxin, abscisic acid and gibberellins in the seed coleoptile and mesocotyl elongation stage, regulate the signal transduction of three hormones and promote the germination of rice seeds under heat stress. This study revealed, for the first time, the physiological and molecular regulation mechanism of betaine promotion of seed germination under heat stress.
An engineering method for interactive inviscid-boundary layers in three-dimensional hypersonic flows. Ph.D. Thesis - North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh

Christopher J. Riley: An Engineering Method for Interactive Inviscid-Boundary Layers in Three-Dimensional Hypersonic Flows. (Under the direction of Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette.) An engineering method has been developed that couples an approximate threedimensional inviscid technique with the axisymmetric analog and a set of approximate convective-heating equations. The displacement e ect of the boundary layer on the outer inviscid ow is calculated and included as a boundary condition in the inviscid technique. This accounts for the viscous interaction present at lower Reynolds numbers. The method is applied to blunted axisymmetric and three-dimensional elliptic cones at angle of attack for the laminar hypersonic ow of a perfect gas. The method is also applied to turbulent and equilibrium-air conditions. The present technique predicts surface heating rates, pressures, and shock shapes that compare favorably with experimental (ground-test and ight) data and numerical solutions of the NavierStokes and viscous shock-layer equations. In addition, the inclusion of the viscous interaction signi cantly improves results obtained at lower Reynolds numbers. The new technique represents a major improvement over current engineering aerothermal methods with only a modest increase in computational e ort. ii Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Dr. Fred R. DeJarnette, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University, for his guidance during this investigation. It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with him. The author would also like to thank E. Vincent Zoby, Dr. Peter A. Gno o, H. Harris Hamilton, and the entire Aerothermodynamics Branch of the NASA Langley Research Center for their assistance and technical advice. The author is especially grateful to Dr. F. McNeil Cheatwood of Vigyan, Inc. for his suggestions concerning the manuscript. Finally, the author wishes to acknowledge the support given by his family and friends over the last few years. In particular, the love and encouragement from his wife Tina and daughter Corinne were invaluable. iii Table of
Efficient indexing and retrieval of colour image data using a vector-based approach

Colour is the most important low-level feature which is used to build image indices, for retrieval of images from a database. Specifically, the colour histogram remains the most popular method for building such indices, due primarily to its simplicity and fast computation. It has many drawbacks and limitations, however, which degrade its effectiveness. In this thesis, a new framework is proposed for indexing and retrieving images by colour, using representative RGB colour vectors and a perceptually-tuned vector angular-based measure of colour similarity. The feature extraction and indexing stage incorporates a new recursive HSV-based segmentation scheme which identifies pixels based on perceptual prominence and classifies them as bright chromatic, chromatic, black and white. For each of these classes, hue histogram thresholding is performed, while taking into consideration the multi-modal nature of the saturation histogram. Post-processing operations follow the segmentation to arrive at an accurate low-level representation of the colour image. The average colour of all the extracted regions we then stored in an index, along with the added information of colour categorization, number of regions, and colour amount. For the retrieval process, a new technique is proposed using a multidimensional query distance space, whose dimension is determined by the number of query colours. All images which exhibit similarity to the query colours occupy a position in this space and it is this position, and its relation to the origin and the equidistant line, that determines the overall similarity and ranking of a given image to a colour query. The concept proves to be quite flexible in how queries can be structured, allowing any number of query colours, query-by-example, and also effectively allows the exclusion of a specific colour in a query. An exclusion colour adds an additional component to the multidimensional query distance space which affects the overall position of a given image in the space. Through extensive testing, it is shown that the proposed colour image retrieval scheme and measure exhibit very high performance in terms of retrieval rate, precision, and recall, especially over common colour histogram techniques and IBM's QBIC system. This was established through Human Query Sets obtained from 25 human volunteers. These sets of images represent the retrieval results containing images judged by humans to best fit a specified query and are used to analyze and compare the retrieval results of the system. Furthermore, the proposed scheme and measure exhibit high resistance to gamma nonlinearity. Retrieval results show that the retrieval rate is the highest over a wider range of gamma nonlinearity values than all other vector measures investigated, and also colour histogram techniques.
Atmospheric aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory : characterization and effect on the energy estimation for ultra-high energy cosmic rays

Atmospheric aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory: characterization and effect on the energy estimation for ultra-high energy cosmic rays.The Pierre Auger Observatory, located in the Province of Mendoza in Argentina, is making good progress in understanding the nature and origin of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Using a hybrid detection technique, based on surface detectors and fluorescence telescopes, it provides large statistics, good mass and energy resolution, and solid control of systematic uncertainties.One of the main challenges for the fluorescence detection technique is the understanding of the atmosphere, used as a giant calorimeter. To minimize as much as possible the systematic uncertainties in fluorescence measurements, the Auger Collaboration has developed an extensive atmospheric monitoring program. The purpose of this work is to improve our knowledge of the atmospheric aerosols, and their effect on fluorescence light propagation.Using a modelling program computing air mass displacements, it has been shown that nights with low aerosol concentrations have air masses coming much more directly from the Pacific Ocean. For the first time, the effect of the aerosol size on the light propagation has been estimated. Indeed, according to the Ramsauer approach, large aerosols have the largest effect on the light scattering. Thus, the dependence on the aerosol size has been added to the light scattering parameterizations used by the Auger Collaboration. A systematic overestimation of the energy and of the maximum air shower development Xmax is observed.Finally, a method based on the very inclined laser shots fired by the Auger central laser has been developed to estimate the aerosol size. Large aerosol sizes ever estimated at the Pierre Auger Observatory can now be probed. First preliminary results using laser-shot data collected in the past have identified a population of large aerosols.
Can Adjuvant HPV Vaccination Be Helpful in the Prevention of Persistent/Recurrent Cervical Dysplasia after Surgical Treatment?—A Literature Review

Simple Summary Primary prophylactic, early detection and the treatment of precancerous lesions are the main goals of cervical cancer screening. Despite effective surgical treatment methods, using loop electrosurgical excision procedures and conization, the overall risk of the recurrence of HSIL lesions remains at approximately 6.6%. There is increasing evidence of the potential role of HPV vaccines in the adjuvant setting and their impact on the reduction of disease recurrence. This review aims to analyze the up-to-date research concerning the use and efficacy of secondary human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination as an adjuvant method to surgical treatment in patients diagnosed with cervical HSILs. Abstract Cervical cancer formation is preceded by precursor lesions, including low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs), which are usually diagnosed in women of reproductive age. Despite the recent advanced diagnostic and treatment methods, including colposcopy, the loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP), and surgical conization, the recurrence or residual disease affects as many as 6.6% of patients. The lesions are often associated with human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. As HPV persistence is the leading and only modifiable factor affecting the risk of progression of CIN lesions into high-grade cervical dysplasia and cancer, it has been proposed to conduct adjuvant vaccination in patients treated for high-grade cervical dysplasia. To date, no vaccine has been approved for therapeutic use in patients diagnosed with HSILs; however, attempts have been made to determine the use of HPV prophylactic vaccination to reduce recurrent HSILs and prevent cervical cancer. The aim of this review was to analyze the up-to-date literature concerning the possible use of secondary human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination as an adjuvant method to surgical treatment in patients diagnosed with cervical HSILs. Adjuvant HPV vaccination after surgical treatment may reduce the risk of recurrent cervical dysplasia.
Indigenous Perceptions of Factors Influencing Behavioral Intentions Towards Climate Change Mitigation: An Assessment

ABSTRACT In this study, an attempt is made to understand the behavioral intentions towards climate change mitigation using Ajzen’s framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior. It examines the factors that influence mitigation behavioral intentions among local people in Ghana. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique, the analysis finds that climate change knowledge, and the perceived risk of climate change have statistically significant impacts on attitudes towards mitigation of climate change. Subsequently, the study findings also show that mitigation attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have a statistically significant influence on behavioral intentions towards climate change mitigation. Moreover, the results illustrate that the strength of the significant association between perceived behavioral control and behavioral intentions is greater compared with the significant association between subjective norms, attitude and behavioral intentions. The study findings will support government in the formulation of climate change mitigation policies and programs, ultimately aiding sustainable development. Finally, the study, through its limitations, offers suggestions for future studies.
Productivity of three sweet potato cultivars: BRS Amélia, BRS Cuia and BRS Rubissol

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is a vegetable of great economic importance since it can be used for in natura consumption, for processing in agribusiness and/or biofuel production. The objective of this work was to evaluate the yield of three sweet potato cultivars: BRS Amelia, BRS Cuia and BRS Rubissol in the Northwest Region of Rio Grande do Sul. The experiment was conducted in the field for two consecutive years (harvests 2014/2015 and 2015/2016). The experimental design was in randomized blocks, evaluating 3 sweet potato cultivars for 2 agricultural years, with 4 replications. As results, it was observed that potato weights in the first year of study ranged from 272.0 g to 320.2 g. In the second year of evaluation, it ranged from 133.9 g to 247.1 g. In relation to the average productivity, the values obtained in the first year were 15.2 t ha-1 for BRS Amelia, 19.8 t ha-1 for BRS Cuia and 16.2 t ha-1 for BRS Rubissol. In the second year of evaluation, the values were 12.3 t ha-1 for BRS Amelia, 16.1 t ha-1 for BRS Cuia and 13.1 t ha-1 for BRS Rubissol. Cultivars presented yields higher than the national average from Brazil in the two evaluated years.
Detection of malfunctions in sensor networks

Due to the increasing availability of sensors of moderate cost, large scale sensor networks are currently considered for different tasks. One of these is the monitoring of air quality with several, possibly hundreds of sensors that may cover an extensive area, or may be difficult to access. In this paper, we consider the detection of sensor malfunctions in sensor networks. A change in the statistics of a particular sensor can be either due to local variability or a malfunction, and thus simple change detection approaches do not necessarily apply. Here, we estimate the output of each sensor based on all the other sensors using approximate Wiener filters. The approach focuses on the variance of the related prediction errors and also facilitates the control of the trade‐off between the probability of detecting a potential sensor malfunction and the related degree of errors. As a case study, we consider daily ozone data from the Houston air quality monitoring network. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mechanism of Antifungal Action of Monoterpene Isoespintanol against Clinical Isolates of Candida tropicalis

The growing increase in infections by Candida spp. , non-albicans, coupled with expressed drug resistance and high mortality, especially in immunocompromised patients, have made candidemia a great challenge. The efficacy of compounds of plant origin with antifungal potential has recently been reported as an alternative to be used. Our objective was to evaluate the mechanism of the antifungal action of isoespintanol (ISO) against clinical isolates of Candida tropicalis. Microdilution assays revealed fungal growth inhibition, showing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values between 326.6 and 500 µg/mL. The eradication of mature biofilms by ISO was between 20.3 and 25.8% after 1 h of exposure, being in all cases higher than the effect caused by amphotericin B (AFB), with values between 7.2 and 12.4%. Flow cytometry showed changes in the permeability of the plasma membrane, causing loss of intracellular material and osmotic balance; transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the damage to the integrity of the plasma membrane. Furthermore, ISO induced the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (iROS). This indicates that the antifungal action of ISO is associated with damage to membrane integrity and the induction of iROS production, causing cell death.
The Struggle For Health: Medical Brokerage and the Power of Care in Brazil’s Amazon Estuary

This article examines the relationship between medicine and the aviamento, a system of debt-peonage that structured exchange along the Brazilian Amazon during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Under the aviamento, merchant elites leveraged control over health resources to broker an unequal exchange between generalized suffering and limited access to care. In the 1980s, health activists mobilized to overturn the aviamento’s care regime and institutionalize health care as a universal right and state obligation. Despite subsequent growth in medical infrastructure, interviews with contemporary health-seekers demonstrate the public system’s increasing susceptibility to private appropriation, as well as the limitations of biopolitics as a framework for understanding medicine’s relationship to power under the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than a diffuse instrument of social control, medicine is conceptualized here as a perpetual interchange, one in which brokers’ ability to direct health-seekers’ pathways from affliction to cure situates day-to-day health struggles within a regional history of social conflict. RESUMO Este artigo aborda a relação entre a saúde e o aviamento: um sistema de servidão por dívida que estruturou a economia mercantil ao longo do rio Amazonas durante os séculos XIX e XX. Sob o aviamento, comerciantes usavam controle sob medicamentos para manter uma troca desigual entre o sofrimento generalizado e o acesso limitado às curas. Durante a década de 1980 militantes da reforma sanitária brasileira se mobilizaram para derrubar o regime curatorial dos comerciantes e instituir a saúde como um direito universal e obrigação do estado. Apesar do crescimento subsequente do sistema sanitário, entrevistas com trabalhadores rurais mostram a crescente susceptibilidade do sistema público aos interesses particulares e as limitações de biopolítica como uma ferramenta analítica para interpretar a relação entre medicina e poder debaixo da pandemia de COVID-19. Mais do que um instrumento difuso de controle social, a medicina é conceituada aqui como um intercâmbio perpétuo, no qual a capacidade dos agentes de direcionar os caminhos dos buscadores de saúde da aflição à cura situa as lutas cotidianas pela saúde dentro de uma história regional de conflito social.
Search for Jovian decametric emission induced by Europa on the extensive Nançay Decameter Array catalog

Context. The electrodynamic interaction between the Galilean satellites and the Jovian magnetosphere generates Alfvén wings that connect the satellites to the polar atmosphere of Jupiter and induce auroral radiation through the cyclotron-maser instability. The satellite control of the Jovian decametric emission is widely known and has been studied since the 1960s, being first discovered with regard to Io and, more recently, Ganymede. The partial control of these emission by Europa and Callisto, however, has not yet been confirmed, however, hints of this control have already been found. Aims. The goal of this work is to search for evidence of control of the Jovian decametric emission by the satellite Europa. Methods. For this purpose, we analyzed the extensive digital catalog of Jovian decametric emission detected by the Nançay Decameter Array from 1990 to 2020. We analyzed distributions of the occurrence probability of the emission not induced by Io nor by Ganymede as a function of Europa phase and of the Array’s longitude with regard to the Jovian central meridian of longitude. Results. As a result, we selected 267 possible Europa-induced emission, from which 186 are from source A (Eu-A), 56 are from source C (Eu-C), and 25 are from source D (Eu-D). The general maximum frequency and duration of these emission are presented and compared to those of the other emission in the catalog and their average power is estimated as a function of the average power of the Io-induced emission. Conclusions. We conclude that Europa, just as in the case of Io and Ganymede, induces a portion of the Jovian decametric emission.
Host preference of the tree‐killing bark beetle Polygraphus proximus across a geographic boundary separating host species

The life cycles of bark beetles are intimately linked to their host species. Therefore, bark beetle species are expected to show traits that vary among host species and across geographic ranges. The taxonomic proximity of host tree species can also influence host selection. Abies species (Pinaceae) native to Japan are genetically classified into three phylogenetic groups. Their natural distributions are separated by a distinct biogeographic boundary in Japan (i.e., the Tsugaru Strait, also referred to as Blakiston's Line). Therefore, I investigated the host preference of Polygraphus proximus Blandford (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) within four allopatrically distributed Abies species across north and south of the Tsugaru Strait through field surveys and field choice experiments. Abies sachalinensis (F. Schmidt) Mast. is the only species native to Hokkaido, north of the Tsugaru Strait. Field observations and field host‐choice bioassays showed that A. sachalinensis was less severely attacked by P. proximus than was Abies veitchii Lindl. on both sides of the Tsugaru Strait. The beetles also preferred to attack Abies firma Siebold & Zucc. – which belongs to a genetically distinct group (i.e., section Momi) from that of A. veitchii and A. sachalinensis (i.e., section Balsamea) – over A. sachalinensis in both Hokkaido and Honshu. Although Abies homolepis Siebold & Zucc. also belongs to the section Momi, A. firma and A. veitchii had more attacks than A. homolepis. The results provide evidence that P. proximus does not show specialization across the various parts of their geographic range where the host species are different, and there is no positive correlation between taxonomic proximity and host preference for P. proximus.