Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inefficient double-strand DNA break repair is associated with increased fasciation in Arabidopsis BRCA2 mutants

BRCA2 is a breast tumour susceptibility factor with functions in maintaining genome stability through ensuring efficient double-strand DNA break (DSB) repair via homologous recombination. Although best known in vertebrates, fungi, and higher plants also possess BRCA2-like genes. To investigate the role of Arabidopsis BRCA2 genes in DNA repair in somatic cells, transposon insertion mutants of the AtBRCA2a and AtBRCA2b genes were identified and characterized. atbrca2a-1 and atbrca2b-1 mutant plants showed hypersensitivity to genotoxic stresses compared to wild-type plants. An atbrca2a-1/atbrca2b-1 double mutant showed an additive increase in sensitivity to genotoxic stresses compared to each single mutant. In addition, it was found that atbrca2 mutant plants displayed fasciation and abnormal phyllotaxy phenotypes with low incidence, and that the ratio of plants exhibiting these phenotypes is increased by γ-irradiation. Interestingly, these phenotypes were also induced by γ-irradiation in wild-type plants. Moreover, it was found that shoot apical meristems of the atbrca2a-1/atbrca2b-1 double mutant show altered cell cycle progression. These data suggest that inefficient DSB repair in the atbrca2a-1/atbrca2b-1 mutant leads to disorganization of the programmed cell cycle of apical meristems.
BATS code with unequal error protection

Batched sparse (BATS) coding is a class of sparse random linear network coding scheme that achieves near-optimal tradeoff between temporal coding length and network throughput for file delivery over erasure networks. Existing BATS codes are mostly designed for equal error protection only. In practice, there are many applications that favor unequal error protection (UEP) for classifying and protecting the packets with different priorities. In this paper, we propose two classes of BATS code with UEP property, named weighted and expanding window BATS code. The asymptotic decoding probabilities of various types of input packets with the proposed coding schemes are analyzed via And-Or tree evaluation. Furthermore, the degree distributions for UEP BATS codes are optimized with linear programming and their performance is verified by computer simulations.
Fusion of Dominant Colour and Spatial Layout Features for Effective Image Retrieval of Coloured Logos and Trademarks

Due to its uniqueness and high value in commercial side, logos and trademarks play a key role in e-business based global marketing. Detecting misused and faked logos need designated and accurate image processing and retrieval techniques. However, existing colour and shape based retrieval techniques, which are mainly designed for natural images, cannot provide effective retrieval of logo images. In this paper, an effective approach is proposed for content-based image retrieval of coloured logos and trademarks. By extracting the dominant colour from colour quantization and measuring the spatial similarity, fusion of colour and spatial layout features is achieved. The proposed approach has been tested on a database containing over 250 logo images. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology yields more accurate results in retrieving relevant images than conventional approaches even with added Gaussian and Salt & pepper noise.
Recognition and tracking of magnetic nanobots using MRI

By switching the gradient fields of a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, magnetic objects may be moved inside the cardiovascular system of the human body. The main field of application is seen in targeted drug therapy or embolization. A successful navigation of such devices requires continuous position determination. The occurrence of magnetic susceptibility artifacts can be exploited for this purpose. This article studies the effect of magnetic microscopic objects and nanoparticles on the process of MRI image formation in several imaging sequences. An MRI simulator based on evaluation of the Bloch equation is presented and applied for the simulation of artifact formation. Also, artifact properties are studied by experiments carried out on clinical MRI scanners, using magnetic objects placed into an agarose gel phantom. The transferability of the results from the gel phantom to a real tissue environment is proven. Based on the results, a two-stage procedure for visual servoing is proposed. It is initialized by object detection, carried out in a 3D scan. Object tracking is performed on fast 2D scans by template matching. The slice position is adjusted automatically in a feedback loop in order to follow object movements perpendicular to the image plane.
Organic diet enhanced the health of rats

Many consumers expect organic food to be healthier than food produced under conventional conditions. But scientifically there is a lack of investigations that could support this view. One reason is that it is difficult to test the influence of foods on health, because a range of other parameters also influences health.We have now examined the importance of food type on the health of rats under standardised experimental conditions and found that for some aspects the rats benefited from eating organically grown food.
A Putative Human Pheromone, Androstadienone, Increases Cooperation between Men

Androstadienone, a component of male sweat, has been suggested to function as a human pheromone, an airborne chemical signal causing specific responses in conspecifics. In earlier studies androstadienone has been reported to increase attraction, affect subjects' mood, cortisol levels and activate brain areas linked to social cognition, among other effects. However, the existing psychological evidence is still relatively scarce, especially regarding androstadienone's effects on male behaviour. The purpose of this study was to look for possible behavioural effects in male subjects by combining two previously distinct branches of research: human pheromone research and behavioural game theory of experimental economics. Forty male subjects participated in a mixed-model, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment. The participants were exposed to either androstadienone or a control stimulus, and participated in ultimatum and dictator games, decision making tasks commonly used to measure cooperation and generosity quantitatively. Furthermore, we measured participants' salivary cortisol and testosterone levels during the experiment. Salivary testosterone levels were found to positively correlate with cooperative behaviour. After controlling for the effects of participants' baseline testosterone levels, androstadienone was found to increase cooperative behaviour in the decision making tasks. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that androstadienone directly affects behaviour in human males.
Realisability semantics of parametric polymorphism, general references and recursive types

We present a realisability model for a call-by-value, higher-order programming language with parametric polymorphism, general first-class references, and recursive types. The main novelty is a relational interpretation of open types that include general reference types. The interpretation uses a new approach to modelling references. The universe of semantic types consists of world-indexed families of logical relations over a universal predomain. In order to model general reference types, worlds are finite maps from locations to semantic types: this introduces a circularity between semantic types and worlds that precludes a direct definition of either. Our solution is to solve a recursive equation in an appropriate category of metric spaces. In effect, types are interpreted using a Kripke logical relation over a recursively defined set of worlds. We illustrate how the model can be used to prove simple equivalences between different implementations of imperative abstract data types.
A fast randomized Kaczmarz algorithm for sparse solutions of consistent linear systems

The Kaczmarz algorithm is a popular solver for overdetermined linear systems due to its simplicity and speed. In this paper, we propose a modification that speeds up the convergence of the randomized Kaczmarz algorithm for systems of linear equations with sparse solutions. The speedup is achieved by projecting every iterate onto a weighted row of the linear system while maintaining the random row selection criteria of Strohmer and Vershynin. The weights are chosen to attenuate the contribution of row elements that lie outside of the estimated support of the sparse solution. While the Kaczmarz algorithm and its variants can only find solutions to overdetermined linear systems, our algorithm surprisingly succeeds in finding sparse solutions to underdetermined linear systems as well. We present empirical studies which demonstrate the acceleration in convergence to the sparse solution using this modified approach in the overdetermined case. We also demonstrate the sparse recovery capabilities of our approach in the underdetermined case and compare the performance with that of $\ell_1$ minimization.
Reconfigurable Loaded Planar Inverted-F Antenna Using Varactor Diodes

This letter presents a compact reconfigurable multiband microstrip antenna. The multiplicity of bands is achieved by the use of concentric external metallic semirings around a central internal semicircular microstrip patch. These are all shorted to the ground plane via a vertical metallic wall through the common diametric plane, thereby adopting the concept of the planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) for size reduction and thus compactness. The operation frequencies are tuned by varactor diodes placed between the inner semicircular patch and the outer half-rings. In addition to tunability, the overall bandwidth may also be widened by combining the tunable range. Theoretical simulations and measurements of manufactured prototypes agree well with each other.
SurfNoC: a low latency and provably non-interfering approach to secure networks-on-chip

As multicore processors find increasing adoption in domains such as aerospace and medical devices where failures have the potential to be catastrophic, strong performance isolation and security become first-class design constraints. When cores are used to run separate pieces of the system, strong time and space partitioning can help provide such guarantees. However, as the number of partitions or the asymmetry in partition bandwidth allocations grows, the additional latency incurred by time multiplexing the network can significantly impact performance. In this paper, we introduce SurfNoC, an on-chip network that significantly reduces the latency incurred by temporal partitioning. By carefully scheduling the network into waves that flow across the interconnect, data from different domains carried by these waves are strictly non-interfering while avoiding the significant overheads associated with cycle-by-cycle time multiplexing. We describe the scheduling policy and router microarchitecture changes required, and evaluate the information-flow security of a synthesizable implementation through gate-level information flow analysis. When comparing our approach for varying numbers of domains and network sizes, we find that in many cases SurfNoC can reduce the latency overhead of implementing cycle-level non-interference by up to 85%.
Social Dynamics: Signals and Behavior

Nonlinguistic social signals (e.g., `tone of voice’) are often as important as linguistic content in predicting behavioural outcomes [1,2]. This paper describes four automated measure of such social signalling, and shows that they can be used to form powerful predictosr of objective and subjective outcomes in several important situations. Finally, it is argued that such signals are important determinants of social position.
Genetic Elements Associated With Antimicrobial Resistance Among Intestinal Bacteria

Background: Integrons are the major reasons of multidrug resistance (MDR) among enteropathogenic bacteria. Occurrence of horizontal gene transfer between integron-carrying microorganisms and other enteric bacteria may increase the rate of emergence of integron-associated antibiotic resistance. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate class 1 integrons among members of enteropathogenic bacteria isolated from patients in Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 enteropathogenic bacterial isolates from diarrhoeal patients were included in this study. Identities of the isolates were investigated by biochemical tests and confirmed by genus or species specific PCRs. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Presence of class 1 integron among the isolates was investigated using primers specific for the integrase gene conserved region. Results: The result of this study showed the highest resistance to trimethoprim and cotrimoxazole, especially in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) (100%), Shigella sonnei (93.7%) and Vibrio cholerae (95%). The results showed that 16 (57.1%) of the 28 EPEC, 9 (25%) of the 36 Salmonella enterica, 32 of the 13 (40.6%) Sh. sonnei, and only 1 (4.2%) of the 24 V. cholerae isolate harbored class 1 integron. Conclusions: The data obtained in the present study suggested that class 1 integrons are widely distributed among members of Enterobacteriaceae. The resistance patterns of our E. coli, S. sonnei, and S. enterica isolates were nearly identical, suggesting the same genetic elements involved in attainment of multi-drug resistance.
Off-Center Mergers of Clusters of Galaxies and Nonequipartition of Electrons and Ions in the Intracluster Medium

We investigate the dynamical evolution of clusters of galaxies and their observational consequences during off-center mergers, explicitly considering the relaxation process between ions and electrons in the intracluster medium by N-body and hydrodynamical simulations. In the contracting phase, a bow shock is formed between the two subclusters. The observed temperature between two peaks in this phase depends on the viewing angle, even if the geometry of the system seems to be very simple like head-on collisions. Around the most contracting epoch, when we observe merging clusters nearly along the collision axis, they look like spherical relaxed clusters with large temperature gradients. In the expanding phase, spiral bow shocks occur. As in head-on mergers, the electron temperature is significantly lower than the plasma mean one, especially in the postshock regions in the expanding phase. When the systems have relatively large angular momentum, double-peak structures in the X-ray images can survive even after the most contracting epoch. Morphological features in both X-ray images and electron temperature distribution characteristic to off-center mergers are seriously affected by the viewing angle. When the clusters are observed nearly along the collision axis, the distribution of galaxies' line-of-sight (LOS) velocities is a good indicator of mergers. In the contracting phase, a negative kurtosis and a large skewness are expected for nearly equal mass collisions and rather different mass ones, respectively. To obtain statistically significant results, about 1000 galaxies' LOS velocities are required. For nearby clusters (z < 0.05), large redshift surveys such as the Two-Degree Field will enable us to study merger dynamics.
STUDIES ON THE NATURE AND THE PURIFICATION OF THE COAGULASE-REACTING FACTOR AND ITS RELATION TO PROTHROMBIN

The coagulase-reacting factor (CRF) of human plasma has been purified, concentrated, and largely freed of prothrombin activity by Seitz filtration, absorbtion on hyflo-amphogel columns, controlled phosphate buffer elution, and fractional ammonium sulfate precipitation. The purified CRF preparations localized between the beta and the gamma globulin position on paper electrophoresis, and the principal of two components observed on analytical ultracentrifugation gave sedimentation rates between 2.75 and 3.07. Highly purified prothrombin preparations of Seegers effectively react with staphylocoagulase to lead to the coagulation of plasma. The electrophoretic and ultracentrifugal properties of the human prothrombin preparations examined differ significantly from those of the purified CRF. Derivatives of prothrombin, involving a loss of prothrombin activity, such as thrombin and "autoprothrombin," do not correspondingly lose in CRF function. The hypothesis is proposed that CRF activity is resident in some component or components of the prothrombin molecule not involved in prothrombin function per se, and that therefore prothrombin and CRF activity may either parallel each other when the molecule is intact or diverge when the smaller units only are involved.
An intelligent multimodal biometric system for high security access

The interface of computer technologies and biology is having a huge impact on society. Human recognition technology research projects promises new life to many security consulting firms and personal identification system manufacturers. The physiological or biological features of an individual, called biometrics, are unique to each human and remain unaltered during a person's lifetime and give a promising solution for security management. This paper presents an intelligent multimodal biometric verification system for physical access control, based on fusion of iris, face and fingerprint patterns. Feature vectors are created independently for query images and are then compared with the enrolled templates of each biometric trait to compute the matching score. The final decision is made by fusion at this matching score level. The proposed system is designed to suit embedded solutions for high security access in pervasive environments using biometric features.
Syntactic and semantic constraints on the formation and interpretation of-ung-nouns

It has been widely assumed that -ung-nominalisation in German is — to some extent — productive. But how productive is it? Which -ung-nouns can be regarded as the products of general principles and whi ch can only be seen as idiosyncratic — remains, perhaps, of some earlier stage of the language? And what, most importantly, are the -ung-formation rules that are productive in German as it is spoken today, and how do they ope rate, and on what? Among-ung-nouns that suggest themselves as likely candidates for a systematic account in terms of general principles are thos e derived from prefix verbs with prefixes likebe-, er-,ver-. It seems that such nouns can be formed freely; and new ones can be formed as soon as the corres p nding verb has made it into the vocabulary. These nouns, one might s ay, cry out for an account in terms of productive rules. At the other extreme we find nouns like Böschung(embankment). It seems extremely unlikely that any general principles could account for the existence and meaning of a n un like this. The problem that German -ung-nominalisation raises is not, however, just how to distinguish between ’productive’ and ’non-producti ve’ -ung-nouns and to provide rules for the former. The problem is also to exp lain why certain -ung-nouns arenot possible: What is it about a verb that makes it unfit
Physico-chemical and microbiological investigation of the lipid from Bangladeshi fresh water fish Mystus vittatus

This study dealt with physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics of the lipid obtained from Mystus vittatus and some nutritional properties of the fish. The fish was found to contain moisture 76.98%, calcium 521.072 mg / 100gm, vitamin C 11.276 mg / 100 gm. , lipid 1.89%, and protein 10.94% respectively. The specific gravity, refractive index and co-efficient of viscosity of this lipid were recorded as 0.935 at 30°c, 1.4662 at 30°c and 409.26 millipoise at 30°C respectively. The saponification value, iodine value, peroxide value, acid value, percentage of free fatty acid, percentage of unsaponifiable matter , Reicher-Meissel value, Polenske value and Acetyl value were found to be 218.12, 96.17, 1.79, 1.92, 0.968, 0.632, 0.932, 0.652 and 11.97 respectively. The GLC analysis revealed that the lipid is composed of palmitic acid (30.79%), oleic acid (29.50%), palmotelic acid (15.97%), stearic acid (11.89%), linoliec acid (5.43%), myristic acid (5.15%), lauric acid (1.07%), arachidic acid (.57%). The chloroform extract of this lipid showed some microbiological actively. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the extract was 0.5 μl/ ml against Staphylococcus aureus (107 cells/ ml) and 0. 125μl/ ml against Shigella dysenteriae (107 cells/ ml). Key words: Physico-chemical, fish nutrition, M. vittatus Univ. j. zool. Rajshahi Univ. Vol. 26, 2007. pp. 21-25
Modeling of Suspended Particulate Matter in the Algerian Coast Using Neural Networks and Mathematical Morphology

In this paper, we propose a methodology for the characterization of the suspended particulate matter along the Algiers’s bay. An approach by multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with training by back propagation of the gradient optimized by the algorithm of Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) is used. The accent was put on the choice of the components of the base of training where a comparative study made for four methods: Random and three alternatives of classification by K-Means. The samples are taken from suspended matter image, obtained by an analytical model based on polynomial regression by taking account of in situ measurements. The mask which selects the region of interest (water in our case) was done by using a multi spectral classification with ISODATA algorithm. To improve the result of classification, a cleaning of this mask was carried out using the mathematical morphology tools.
Induction of human papillomavirus type 18 late gene expression and genomic amplification in organotypic cultures from transfected DNA templates

The genetic analysis of human papillomavirus (HPV) functions during the vegetative viral life cycle is dependent upon the ability to generate human keratinocyte cell lines which maintain episomal copies of transfected viral genomes. We have previously demonstrated that lipofection of normal human foreskin keratinocytes with recircularized cloned HPV-31 genomic sequences resulted in a high frequency of cell lines which maintained viral genomes as extrachromosomal elements (M.G. Frattini, H. Lim, and L.A. Laimins, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:3062-3067, 1996). Following the growth of these cell lines in organotypic (raft) cultures, the differentiation-dependent expression of viral late genes, the amplification of viral genomes, and virion biosynthesis were observed. In the present study, we demonstrate that these methodologies are not restricted to HPV-31 but are applicable to other HPV types, including the oncogenic HPV-18. HPV-18 genomes were purified from bacterial vector sequences, religated, and transfected into normal human foreskin keratinocytes together with a neomycin-selectable marker. Following drug selection, resistant cells were expanded and examined for the state of the viral DNA. All cell lines examined were found to contain approximately 100 to 200 episomal copies of HPV-18 DNA per cell. Growth of these cell lines in raft cultures resulted in the differentiation-dependent expression of the E1 [symbol: see text] E4 and L1 capsid genes. In addition, viral genome amplification was observed in suprabasal cells following DNA in situ hybridization analysis of differentiated raft cultures. The induction of these late viral functions has previously been shown to be directly associated with differentiation-dependent virion biosynthesis. Our studies indicate the ability to perform a detailed genetic analysis of the various phases of the viral life cycle, including control of the differentiation-dependent late viral functions, using a second oncogenic HPV type.