Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Broken Sheets—On the Numbers and Areas of Tectonic Plates

The sizes and numbers of tectonic plates are thought to record the importance of plate division, amalgamation, and destruction at divergent and convergent margins. Changes in slope apparent on log area versus log frequency plots have been interpreted as evidence for discrete populations of plate sizes, but the sizes of lithospheric plates are also closely approximated by a continuous density function in which diameters of individual plates are exponentially distributed; such size frequencies are dependent only on the total area and number of designated elements. This implies that the spatial locations of plate boundaries are controlled by a myriad of complicated and interrelated processes such that the geographic occurrence of any particular boundary is largely indeterminate and thus spatially independent of the proximity of other plate boundaries. Observed breaks in slope on linearized size versus frequency plots are merely coincidental and of themselves do not support an interpretation of discrete tectonic processes operating over distinct length scales. Although a purely random distribution of plate boundaries also implicates a similar chance distribution of plate sizes, some smaller plates are indeed clustered along convergent boundaries in the southwestern Pacific. Such association of plates of similar (small) sizes suggests that locations of plate boundaries are best described as reflecting nonhomogeneous Poisson processes wherein probabilities of reaching some plate boundary vary along any Earth-surface transect. Size frequencies of continents, calderas, and many other geologic entities where dimensions are expressed as areal extent exhibit similar size-frequency distributions, suggesting that lateral occurrences of their boundaries are also largely unpredictable, thus reflecting the inherently complicated nature of processes associated with their formation.
Purification and characterization of a human membrane protein that activates the alternative complement pathway and allows the deposition of homologous complement C3

A human myeloid cell subline, P39+, is found to be a target for human complement (C) via the alternative pathway and to allow the deposition of multiple C3 fragments on its membranes, though expressing the complement regulatory proteins decay-accelerating factor and membrane cofactor protein. The parent cell line, P39-, which is phenotypically similar to the P39+ subline, does not allow the deposition of homologous C3 fragments. In this study, we established a monoclonal antibody, M161 Ab, which reacted with P39+ but not P39- cells. This Ab recognized a 43-kD protein in P39+ cell lysate transblotted onto nitrocellulose. Using this Ab as a probe, we purified the 43-kD protein, namely, M161 antigen (Ag). M161 Ag had a basic isoelectric point (pI), 9.3-9.4 by chromatofocusing, and was precipitated as an insoluble material at the pI point. The purified M161 Ag was a single- chain protein and did not possess N- or O-linked carbohydrates. When the purified M161 Ag was transblotted onto nitrocellulose and incubated with Mg(2+)-EGTA serum, human C3 fragments were efficiently deposited on M161 Ag. The major species of the deposited C3 fragments was C3b. Furthermore, the C3 fragments bound to the M161 Ag were detached by 1 M hydroxylamine, suggesting that a covalent ester linkage sustains M161 Ag-C3b interaction. NH2-terminal amino acid analysis revealed that M161Ag is a novel membrane protein. Hence, it appeared that M161 Ag is a potent activator of human alternative complement pathway on human cells that activates homologous C3 and allows the deposition of C3b on itself. Thus, under some conditions, homeostasis of complement is maintained even on human cells, not only by the complement regulatory proteins, but also by membrane C3-activating molecules on which C3b is deposited.
A hexahistidine-Zn2+-dye label reveals STIM1 surface exposure

Site-specific fluorescent labeling of proteins in vivo remains one of the most powerful techniques for imaging complex processes in live cells. Although fluorescent proteins in many colors are useful tools for tracking expression and localization of fusion proteins in cells, these relatively large tags (>220 aa) can perturb protein folding, trafficking and function. Much smaller genetically encodable domains (<15 aa) offer complementary advantages. We introduce a small fluorescent chelator whose membrane-impermeant complex with nontoxic Zn2+ ions binds tightly but reversibly to hexahistidine (His6) motifs on surface-exposed proteins. This live-cell label helps to resolve a current controversy concerning externalization of the stromal interaction molecule STIM1 upon depletion of Ca2+ from the endoplasmic reticulum. Whereas N-terminal fluorescent protein fusions interfere with surface exposure of STIM1, short His6 tags are accessible to the dye or antibodies, demonstrating externalization.
Policy based intrusion detection and response system in hierarchical WSN architecture

In recent years, wireless sensor network becomes popular both in civil and military jobs. However, security is one of the significant challenges for sensor network because of their deployment in open and unprotected environment. As cryptographic mechanism is not enough to protect sensor network from external attacks, intrusion detection system (IDS) needs to be introduced. In this paper we propose a policy based IDS for hierarchical architecture that fits the current demands and restrictions of wireless ad hoc sensor network. In this proposed IDS architecture we followed clustering mechanism to build four level hierarchical network which enhance network scalability to large geographical area and use both anomaly and misuse detection techniques for intrusion detection that concentrates on power saving of sensor nodes by distributing the responsibility of intrusion detection among different layers. We also introduce a policy based intrusion response system for hierarchical architecture.
Analysis of the Catecholaminergic Phenotype in Human SH-SY5Y and BE(2)-M17 Neuroblastoma Cell Lines upon Differentiation

Human cell lines are often used to investigate cellular pathways relevant for physiological or pathological processes or to evaluate cell toxicity or protection induced by different compounds, including potential drugs. In this study, we analyzed and compared the differentiating activities of three agents (retinoic acid, staurosporine and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate) on the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and BE(2)-M17 cell lines; the first cell line is largely used in the field of neuroscience, while the second is still poorly characterized. After evaluating their effects in terms of cell proliferation and morphology, we investigated their catecholaminergic properties by assessing the expression profiles of the major genes involved in catecholamine synthesis and storage and the cellular concentrations of the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenaline. Our results demonstrate that the two cell lines possess similar abilities to differentiate and acquire a neuron-like morphology. The most evident effects in SH-SY5Y cells were observed in the presence of staurosporine, while in BE(2)-M17 cells, retinoic acid induced the strongest effects. Undifferentiated SH-SY5Y and BE(2)-M17 cells are characterized by the production of both NA and DA, but their levels are considerably higher in BE(2)-M17 cells. Moreover, the NAergic phenotype appears to be more pronounced in SH-SY5Y cells, while BE(2)-M17 cells have a more prominent DAergic phenotype. Finally, the catecholamine concentration strongly increases upon differentiation induced by staurosporine in both cell lines. In conclusion, in this work the catecholaminergic phenotype of the human BE(2)-M17 cell line upon differentiation was characterized for the first time. Our data suggest that SH-SY5Y and BE(2)-M17 represent two alternative cell models for the neuroscience field.
Nanoscale behavior of 90 domains in ferroelectric films

Title of dissertation: NANOSCALE BEHAVIOR OF 90◦ DOMAINS IN FERROELECTRIC FILMS Zhengkun Ma, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Alexander L. Roytburd Department of Materials Science and Engineering Professor John Melngailis Department of Materials Science and Engineering Investigation of ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of ferroelectric films at nanoscale is not only of fundamental interest, but also critical to their applications as non-volatile ferroelectric memories and as microsensors and microactuators for microelectromechanical systems. Both intrinsic and extrinsic effects play a role in determining film properties. Although the extrinsic contribution from non-180◦ domain wall motion can be comparable to the intrinsic lattice contribution in bulk materials, this effect is largely suppressed in polycrystalline films because of film clamping by a substrate and pinning of 90◦ domain walls by defects. Taking into account that integration of high quality ferroelectric films onto silicon based substrate is very important for the microelectronic industry, we choose the PbZr0.2Ti0. 8O3 film epitaxially grown on Si substrate by pulsed laser deposition to study the 90◦ domain behavior in the continuous films as well as in patterned islands, which can be used as nanodevices. The goal is to investigate the mobility of 90◦ domain walls and to determine their extrinsic contribution to the piezoelectric response of the epitaxial islands with reduced substrate clamping depending on island geometry. The cubic and the strip-like islands have been fabricated from sub-micron films by focused ion beam milling. Ferroelectric and piezoelectric measurements on patterned structures with top electrodes have demonstrated the dramatic enhancement of their piezoresponse in comparison with a continuous film. Piezoelectric force microscopy has revealed highly mobile two-domain structure in the striplike islands which show the maximumal piezoresponse. The intrinsic piezoelectric response of the patterned structure with an immobile polydomain structure is modelled using finite element analysis. The difference between the experimental measured and calculated piezoeffect has allowed us to estimate a large extrinsic contribution from the domain walls movement in the patterned structures. The study of patterned structures together with additional observations of the domain wall movement under local electric field in continuous films allow us to conclude that a relative small extrinsic effect in the continuous films is a result of the elastic substrate clamping rather than the domain wall pinning. Thus, the contribution of domain wall movement can be increased by engineering special domain architectures, for example, the plane-parallel domains in a film, which are patterned into the thin strips. NANOSCALE BEHAVIOR OF 90◦ DOMAINS IN FERROELECTRIC FILMS
Simultaneous selection by object-based attention in visual and frontal cortex

Significance Visual attention allows us to focus on information that is relevant to our goals and to discard irrelevant information. The brain mechanisms that steer attention are only partially understood, but previous research suggested that the frontal cortex controls activity in the visual cortex. We here demonstrate that attentional signals in visual and frontal cortex of the macaque monkey emerge at the same time in a curve-tracing task, suggesting a more active participation of visual cortex. If attentional signals in visual cortex were weak, frontal cortex took the lead, but errors were likely. In these error trials, frontal cortex imposed its decision on visual cortex. Our results reveal how visual and frontal cortex interact to control attention. Models of visual attention hold that top-down signals from frontal cortex influence information processing in visual cortex. It is unknown whether situations exist in which visual cortex actively participates in attentional selection. To investigate this question, we simultaneously recorded neuronal activity in the frontal eye fields (FEF) and primary visual cortex (V1) during a curve-tracing task in which attention shifts are object-based. We found that accurate performance was associated with similar latencies of attentional selection in both areas and that the latency in both areas increased if the task was made more difficult. The amplitude of the attentional signals in V1 saturated early during a trial, whereas these selection signals kept increasing for a longer time in FEF, until the moment of an eye movement, as if FEF integrated attentional signals present in early visual cortex. In erroneous trials, we observed an interareal latency difference because FEF selected the wrong curve before V1 and imposed its erroneous decision onto visual cortex. The neuronal activity in visual and frontal cortices was correlated across trials, and this trial-to-trial coupling was strongest for the attended curve. These results imply that selective attention relies on reciprocal interactions within a large network of areas that includes V1 and FEF.
Nuclear transport of paxillin depends on focal adhesion dynamics and FAT domains

ABSTRACT The nuclear transport of paxillin appears to be crucial for paxillin function but the mechanism of transport remains unclear. Here, we show that the nuclear transport of paxillin is regulated by focal adhesion turnover and the presence of FAT domains. Focal adhesion turnover was controlled using triangular or circular fibronectin islands. Circular islands caused higher focal adhesion turnover and increased the nuclear transport of paxillin relative to triangular islands. Mutating several residues of paxillin had no effect on its nuclear transport, suggesting that the process is controlled by multiple domains. Knocking out FAK (also known as PTK2) and vinculin caused an increase in nuclear paxillin. This could be reversed by rescue with wild-type FAK but not by FAK with a mutated FAT domain, which inhibits paxillin binding. Expressing just the FAT domain of FAK not only brought down nuclear levels of paxillin but also caused a large immobile fraction of paxillin to be present at focal adhesions, as demonstrated by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) studies. Taken together, focal adhesion turnover and FAT domains regulate the nuclear localization of paxillin, suggesting a possible role for transcriptional control, through paxillin, by focal adhesions. Summary: We find that nuclear translocation of paxillin is tuned by focal adhesion maturation. This could provide a method for mechanosensing signals to be used by cells to control transcription.
Predicting the effect of environmental change on wading birds: insights from individual-based models.

With the pressures that today’s ecosystems are being placed under, from both environmental change and anthropogenic developments, the speed at which management decisions need to be made has increased. Coastal development means that estuaries are particularly affected and their characteristic species, like wading birds (Charadrii), are now experiencing worldwide declines. In such situations there is a need for predictive ecology to understand in advance how species might react to future changes. This thesis looks into how we can use individual-based models (IBM) to make accurate predictions of how wading birds are affected by environmental change. Starting with previously validated models I show the importance of measuring size of invertebrates though an IBM investigation into regime shifts and wading birds responses. The models show that by altering their diet preferences, birds adapt to regime shifts in their prey but that this maintenance of population size masks the true changes in the system and limits the use of waders as direct bio-indicators of ecosystem health. Using the current literature, an analysis on empirical responses of wader populations to environmental change revealed the lack of comparability between studies and the scarcity of studies on small scale events. Data from literature and fieldwork was used to develop a comparable suite of individual-based models for five UK estuaries with up to eleven wading bird species. These models were validated using current BTO Wetland Bird Surveys data to increase confidence in final results. Using these new models, investigations of population thresholds and environmental change were carried out. Increases to current populations revealed that several estuaries are no longer able to support the number of birds around the time of Special Protection Area designation. This, alongside higher populations currently seen since the years of designation, indicates the need for re-assessment of SPA species numbers. When looking at the impacts of two types of environmental change, habitat loss and sea-level rise, certain species declined predictably across sites whilst the individual make up of each estuary had particular impacts on some waders more than others. The work of this thesis further indicates the great potential of using individual-based models to predict the effects of a wide range of environmental changes. With the new models and a quicker and systematic way of developing IBMs for additional areas, we can aid the conservation and management of estuarine systems for wading birds.
Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism

Plagiarism appears to be a common problem among college students, yet there is little evidence on the effectiveness of interventions designed to minimize plagiarism. This study presents the results of a field experiment that evaluated the effects of a web-based educational tutorial in reducing plagiarism. We found that assignment to the treatment group substantially reduced the likelihood of plagiarism, particularly among student with lower SAT scores who had the highest rates of plagiarism. A followup survey suggests that the intervention reduced plagiarism by increasing student knowledge rather than by increasing the perceived probabilities of detection and punishment.
The impact of routing schemes on group communication throughput in scalable networks

Multicast communication has been a major avenue for many studies in interconnection networks. However, such a communication pattern has been studied under either limited operating conditions or within the context of deterministic routing algorithms. This paper investigates the impact of routing algorithms, both deterministic and adaptive routing on the multicast communication over interconnection network. In particular, we focus on the provision of efficient multicast communication algorithms in interconnection networks. Using detailed simulation experiments, different multicast algorithms have been compared for a range of system sizes, traffic loads, and destination nodes. For the case of multicast latency, our proposed algorithms exhibit the best performance when the traffic load is high and the start-up overhead does not dominates the propagation overhead. The results also highlight the impact of adaptive routing on both latency and throughput when designing efficient multicast algorithms. Thus, these results demonstrate significant potential to be applied to current and future generation interconnection networks.
Deciduous tree species classification using object-based analysis and machine learning with unmanned aerial vehicle multispectral data

ABSTRACT Object-based image analysis and machine-learning classification were applied to multispectral camera array data acquired by a small rotating blade unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over a hardwood forest in eastern Ontario. White birch, aspen, and two species of maple were surveyed in the field. Images were segmented and the resulting objects were visually confirmed to correspond with the sampled tree crowns. Following the application of machine-learning classification using the Random Forest algorithm, an independent validation sample of 23 tree crowns was, overall, approximately 78% correct. Aspen and birch were the most distinct species; the two maples appeared to be confused with each other and with immature trees and understory shrubs. Classification accuracy, commission errors, and variable importance were interpreted to be consistent with experience documented in aerial photointerpretation selection and elimination keys for northern hardwoods. Additional tests are recommended to more fully analyse the accuracy of deciduous tree species classification using digital analysis of high spatial resolution multispectral UAV imagery.
A Comparative Study of Modified Animal Horns in Ancient Egypt & Modern African Tribes

The phenomenon of modifying an animal’s horn was widespread in ancient and modern cultures, especially in African tribes. The modification was typically to one horn whilst the second was allowed to grow naturally, but occasionally both horns were adapted. The Ancient Egyptian undertook the modification to distinguish the animal intended for similarly, modern African tribes follow this tradition and their cattle selected for horn modification have a very important role in both religious and economic lives of north and northeastern African citizens. Their economic dependency is a result of the religious and symbolic importance of the cattle. Such African communities are not breeding cattle for the benefit of their milk, but to increase the length of their horns, which represents a special religious significance. The important religious and symbolic role of modified horns can be clarified by observing the traditions of contemporary African tribes who still worship cattle; a tradition that has a close similarity with that of a similar practice by the Ancient Egyptians. This Ancient Egyptian phenomenon, and its continuity in some African areas, is described by Anthropologists as “Cultural Survival”, and its study is the aim of this paper.
What did Hadropithecus eat, and why should paleoanthropologists care?

Over 40 years ago, Clifford Jolly noted different ways in which Hadropithecus stenognathus converged in its craniodental anatomy with basal hominins and with geladas. The Malagasy subfossil lemur Hadropithecus departs from its sister taxon, Archaeolemur, in that it displays comparatively large molars, reduced incisors and canines, a shortened rostrum, and thickened mandibular corpus. Its molars, however, look nothing like those of basal hominins; rather, they much more closely resemble molars of grazers such as Theropithecus. A number of tools have been used to interpret these traits, including dental microwear and texture analysis, molar internal and external morphology, and finite element analysis of crania. These tools, however, have failed to provide support for a simple dietary interpretation; whereas there is some consistency in the inferences they support, dietary inferences (e.g., that it was graminivorous, or that it specialized on hard objects) have been downright contradictory. Cranial shape may correlate poorly with diet. But a fundamental question remains unresolved: why do the various cranial and dental convergences exemplified by Hadropithecus, basal hominins, and Theropithecus exist? In this paper we review prior hypotheses regarding the diet of Hadropithecus. We then use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data to elucidate this species' diet, summarizing earlier stable isotope analyses and presenting new data for lemurs from the central highlands of Madagascar, where Hadropithecus exhibits an isotopic signature strikingly different from that seen in other parts of the island. We offer a dietary explanation for these differences. Hadropithecus likely specialized neither on grasses nor hard objects; its staples were probably the succulent leaves of CAM plants. Nevertheless, aspects of prior hypotheses regarding the ecological significance of its morphology can be supported. Am. J. Primatol. 78:1098–1112, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.