Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DECOMPOSITION OF THE LEAVES OF SOME FOREST TREES UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS.

In the main the few studies that have been made on the decomposition of leaves have either been made under highly artificial conditions (5) or else over a short period of time (1, 3, 4). Therefore an experiment intended to supply natural conditions as nearly as possible and lasting a number of years was set up in the fall of 1934. Leaves of sugar maple, hickory (several species), white oak and black oak (several species) were collected from the ground during the period of leaf fall; needles from the red pine were collected from the tree, using needles ready to fall. Weighed quantities of air dry leaves were placed in wire baskets 24 x 24 x 6 inches made from galvanized wire. Half-inch mesh wap used for all leaves except pines for which quarter-inch mesh was used to keep the needles from falling out. All baskets were supplied with a cover made from the same material as the rest of the basket. The baskets were placed in the field on November 17. The pine needles were placed under the trees from which they had been collected. The others were placed in a mixed hardwood stand. Before the baskets with the leaves were put in place all fresh leaves were removed from the ground so that they rested on partly decayed leaves. The baskets were placed on level ground to insure that all parts came in intimate contact with the soil. Besides the single species or mixture of species as indicated above, the oak leaves and pine needles were mixed in the order of 72 per cent. of the former to 28 per cent. of the latter. This was done to simulate mixed stands of hardwood and conifers, and to discover whether there is any foundation for the general belief among foresters that there is more rapid decomposition when pine and hardwood leaves occur together than when alone. The amount of leaves placed in each basket was not the same except in pine, because the leaves were put in weighed baskets first and then weighed. The pine needles were weighed separately and 400 grams put into each basket. The amount of the other leaves varied from about 200 to 300 grams per basket. This quantity of leaves was undoubtedly larger than that which would normally have accumulated on an area of four square feet during one season. The oven dry weight of corresponding samples of leaves were made so that every year comparisons could be made between oven dry leaves. At the time of setting up the experiments it was thought that maple and hickory leaves would decay very rapidly and therefore only four baskets were made up of these leaves, whereas eight baskets of the others were prepared. The original intention was to remove a basket each spring and fall, 1 Paper from the Department of Botany of the University of Michigan, no. 822. 704
Physical human phantoms for evaluation of implantable antennas

In recent years, body-centric wireless communications (BCWCs) are paid attention a lot in medical applications, because it has the ability to reduce malpractice and to ameliorate the quality of life of the patients. Interactions between the human body and electromagnetic (EM) waves radiated from an antenna are generally estimated by numerical calculation and experiments. In here, interactions mean the influence of the human body on the antenna performance and an influence of EM waves on the human body. Moreover, a realistic human body is represented by numerical or tissue-equivalent human phantom. In this paper, we talk about what role would tissue-equivalent phantom play in evaluation of implantable antennas by embedding a dipole antenna (0.953 GHz) into whole-body voxel human models and three simple phantoms (layered, rectangular and cylindrical structures). Calculation is completed by the finite-different time domain (FDTD) method.
School of Business Administration The Effect of Word of Mouth on Services Switching Decisions : Perceived Influence and Actual Choice

The effects of word of mouth (WOM) on the receiver’s attitudes and intentions have been studied at length, but behavioral outcomes have received less attention. In this paper, we study the effects of WOM in the context of service provider switching. We conduct an empirical study in which we research whether perceived influence of a switching referral is related to subsequent switching behavior, and whether the variables that have an effect on perceived influence of the switching referral also predict switching.
Gp120 activates children’s brain endothelial cells via CD4

Encephalopathy represents a common and serious manifestation of HIV-1 infection in children, but its pathogenesis is unclear. We demonstrated that gp120 activated human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) derived from children in up-regulating ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression, IL-6 secretion and increased monocyte transmigration across monolayers. Another novel observation was our demonstration of CD4 in isolated HBMEC and on microvessels of children’s brain cryosections. Gp120-induced monocyte migration was inhibited by anti-gp120 and anti-CD4 antibodies. This is the first demonstration that gp120 activates HBMEC via CD4, which may contribute to the development of HIV-1 encephalopathy in children.
Stable myoelectric control of a hand prosthesis using non-linear incremental learning

Stable myoelectric control of hand prostheses remains an open problem. The only successful human–machine interface is surface electromyography, typically allowing control of a few degrees of freedom. Machine learning techniques may have the potential to remove these limitations, but their performance is thus far inadequate: myoelectric signals change over time under the influence of various factors, deteriorating control performance. It is therefore necessary, in the standard approach, to regularly retrain a new model from scratch. We hereby propose a non-linear incremental learning method in which occasional updates with a modest amount of novel training data allow continual adaptation to the changes in the signals. In particular, Incremental Ridge Regression and an approximation of the Gaussian Kernel known as Random Fourier Features are combined to predict finger forces from myoelectric signals, both finger-by-finger and grouped in grasping patterns. We show that the approach is effective and practically applicable to this problem by first analyzing its performance while predicting single-finger forces. Surface electromyography and finger forces were collected from 10 intact subjects during four sessions spread over two different days; the results of the analysis show that small incremental updates are indeed effective to maintain a stable level of performance. Subsequently, we employed the same method on-line to teleoperate a humanoid robotic arm equipped with a state-of-the-art commercial prosthetic hand. The subject could reliably grasp, carry and release everyday-life objects, enforcing stable grasping irrespective of the signal changes, hand/arm movements and wrist pronation and supination.
Evolving Dynamic Gaits on a Physical Robot

Here we introduce a method for the evolution of dynamic gaits on a physical robot requiring no prior assumptions about the locomotion pattern beyond the fact that it should be rhythmic. The dynamic gaits were physically evolved in hardware using a parallel-actuated pneumatic robot. We have formulated a genetic algorithm that evolves open-loop controllers; the encoding allows evolution to shape both the speed and pattern of locomotion while ensuring rhythmicity. In future, we plan to evolve closed-loop controllers for the physical robot and integrate our previously developed methods to reduce the number of hardware trials.
A classification approach for DNA methylation profiling with bisulfite next-generation sequencing data

MOTIVATION With the advent of high-throughput sequencing technology, bisulfite-sequencing-based DNA methylation profiling methods have emerged as the most promising approaches due to their single-base resolution and genome-wide coverage. However, statistical analysis methods for analyzing this type of methylation data are not well developed. Although the most widely used proportion-based estimation method is simple and intuitive, it is not statistically adequate in dealing with the various sources of noise in bisulfite-sequencing data. Furthermore, it is not biologically satisfactory in applications that require binary methylation status calls. RESULTS In this article, we use a mixture of binomial model to characterize bisulfite-sequencing data, and based on the model, we propose to use a classification-based procedure, called the methylation status calling (MSC) procedure, to make binary methylation status calls. The MSC procedure is optimal in terms of maximizing the overall correct allocation rate, and the false discovery rate (FDR) and false non-discovery rate (FNDR) of MSC can be estimated. To control FDR at any given level, we further develop an FDR-controlled MSC procedure, which combines a local FDR-based adaptive procedure with the MSC procedure. Both simulation study and real data application are carried out to examine the performance of the proposed procedures. It is shown in our simulation study that the estimates of FDR and FNDR of the MSC procedure are appropriate. Simulation study also demonstrates that the FDR-controlled MSC procedure is valid in controlling FDR at a prespecified level and is more powerful than the individual binomial testing procedure. In the real data application, the MSC procedure exhibits an estimated FDR of 0.1426 and an estimated FNDR of 0.0067. The overall correct allocation rate is >0.97. These results suggest the effectiveness of our proposed procedures. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The proposed procedures are implemented in R and are available at http://www.stat.purdue.edu/*cheng70/code.html.
Facebook Influence Among Incoming College Freshmen

Alcohol displays on Facebook are ever present and can be socially desirable for college students. Because problematic drinking is a concern for college students, this research sought to understand how different types of information on a Facebook page influence first year college student likelihood to drink. Telephone interviews were conducted with 338 incoming college freshmen from two large national universities. Data were obtained from a vignette prompt that presented a scenario in which a senior college student’s Facebook profile displayed wall posts, pictures, and status updates that were drinking related or prosocial in nature. Participants were asked to report intention to drink alcohol with that student if they were together at a party. Findings supported the following hypotheses: Wall posts were most influential (the stickiest), followed by pictures, followed by status updates. Findings provide additional empirical support for established online impression formation patterns, and also provide evidence that virtual cues are being ingrained as schemas in interpersonal communication. These results are discussed in relation to the concept of sticky cues in impression formation.
Increased synthesis but decreased processing of neuronal proCCK in prohormone convertase 2 and 7B2 knockout animals

In addition to its role as a gut hormone, cholecystokinin (CCK) is a widespread and potent neurotransmitter. Its biosynthesis requires endoproteolytic cleavage of proCCK at several mono‐ and dibasic sites by subtilisin‐like prohormone convertases (PCs). Of these, PC1 and PC2 are specific for neuroendocrine cells. We have now examined the role of PC2 and its binding protein, 7B2, in the neuronal processing of proCCK by measurement of precursor, processing‐intermediates and bioactive end‐products in brain extracts from PC2‐ and 7B2‐null mice and from corresponding controls. PC2‐null mice displayed a nine‐fold increase of cerebral proCCK concentrations, and a two‐fold increase in the concentrations of the processing‐intermediate, glycine‐extended CCK, whereas the concentrations of transmitter‐active (i.e. α‐amidated and O‐sulfated) CCK peptides were reduced (61%). Chromatography showed that O‐sulfated CCK‐8 still is the predominant transmitter‐active CCK in PC2‐null brains, but that the fraction of intermediate‐sized CCK‐peptides (CCK‐58, ‐33 and ‐22) was eight‐fold increased. 7B2‐null brains displayed a similar pattern but with less pronounced precursor accumulation. In contrast with the cerebral changes, PC2 deficiency was without effect on proCCK synthesis and processing in intestinal endocrine cells, whereas 7B2 deficiency halved the concentration of bioactive CCK in the intestine. The results show that PC2 plays a major neuron‐specific role in the processing of proCCK.
The Effect of the Energy Crop 'Helianthus Annuus L.' to Soil Quality Improvement

The objective of this work had two scopes. First of all to investigate the effect of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cultivation to soil quality improvement and secondly to investigate the effect of a zeolite-bentonite 3:1 mix soil improvement to its growth. For this purpose, a greenhouse pot experiment was established in central Greece (city of Volos). 24 pots contained 1 kg of peat each; were prepared receiving NO3-N up to a concentration of 44 ppm. In the half pots, a zeolite-bentonite 3:1 mix was added (total 10 gr per pot). Sunflower was sown on July 20, and a three level of ammonium nitrate nutrient solution was supplied to correspond to N dressings of 0, 80 and 200 kg N/ha. During the harvest date (56 days after the emergence) the average sunflower height and dry weight to the pots where were not included the zeolite-bentonite mix was 87.1 cm and 5.9 gr, respectively. On the other hand, the average sunflower height and dry weight to the pots with the zeolite-bentonite mix which was included was 80.2 cm and 5.8 gr, respectively. Sunflower was to the stage of flowering in every treatment. Nitrogen uptake was 432.2 mg/kg biomass (134.7, 288.1, 9.3 and 0.1 mg/kg per leaves, stems, flowers and roots respectively). The conclusions of all the above are firstly that sunflower can be a soil improvement cultivation with high NO3 -N adsorption rate and secondly that the zeolite-bentonite mix has a reductive effect to plant growth.
Relational Learning and Network Modelling Using Infinite Latent Attribute Models

Latent variable models for network data extract a summary of the relational structure underlying an observed network. The simplest possible models subdivide nodes of the network into clusters; the probability of a link between any two nodes then depends only on their cluster assignment. Currently available models can be classified by whether clusters are disjoint or are allowed to overlap. These models can explain a “flat” clustering structure. Hierarchical Bayesian models provide a natural approach to capture more complex dependencies. We propose a model in which objects are characterised by a latent feature vector. Each feature is itself partitioned into disjoint groups (subclusters), corresponding to a second layer of hierarchy. In experimental comparisons, the model achieves significantly improved predictive performance on social and biological link prediction tasks. The results indicate that models with a single layer hierarchy over-simplify real networks.
Data and error rate bounds for binary data gathering wireless sensor networks

The goal of this paper is to provide analytical assessment that justifies the performance tendencies of practical encoding/decoding techniques for a binary data gathering wireless sensor network (WSN). The theoretical rate region of the WSN is approximately analyzed based on the Slepian-Wolf theorem. We also derive the bit error rate (BER) floor given the observation error probability by using the Poisson-binomial distribution approximation. The simulation results show that the BER performance of our proposed technique is close to theoretical limits supported by the Slepian-Wolf theorem. The extrinsic information transfer chart analysis is also used to verify the BER performance. Moreover, the simulation results show that the bit error probability floor is matched with the Poisson-binomial approximation.
Effects of Downscattering on the Continuum and Line Spectra in a Powerful Wind Environment: Monte Carlo Simulations, Analytical Results, and Data Analysis

In an earlier paper, the general formulation and results for photon reprocessing (downscattering) that included recoil and Comptonization effects due to divergence of the flow were presented. In a second paper we showed the Monte Carlo (MC) simulated continuum and line spectra. We also provided an analytical description of the simulated continuum spectra using the diffusion approximation. We have simulated the propagation of monochromatic and continuum photons in a bulk outflow from a compact object. Electron scattering of the photons within the expanding flow leads to a decrease of their energy, which is of first order in V/c (where V is the outflow velocity). The downscattering effect of first order in V/c in the diverging flow is explained by semianalytical calculations and confirmed by MC simulations. We conclude that redshifted lines and downscattering bumps are intrinsic properties of the powerful outflows for which the Thomson optical depth is greater than 1. We fitted our model line profiles to the observations using four free parameters, β = V/c, the optical depth of the wind τ, the wind temperature kTe, and the original line photon energy E0. We show how the primary spectrum emitted close to the black hole is modified by reprocessing in the warm wind. In the framework of our wind model, the fluorescent iron line Kα is formed in the partly ionized wind as a result of illumination by central source continuum photons. The demonstrated application of our outflow model to the XMM-Newton observations of MCG -6-30-15 and to the ASCA observations of GRO J1655-40 points out a potential powerful spectral diagnostic for probes of the outflow-central object connection in Galactic and extragalactic black hole sources.
Towards a Better Understanding of Testing if Conditionals

Fault based testing is a technique for choosing test cases to reveal certain classes of faults. Due to limited resources and time, testing professionals use their personal experience to (1) "guess" which fault classes are most likely to be present and, then, (2) select appropriate testing methods to reveal such fault classes. The quality of the software depends on whether they can make a good "guess" about the type of faults present and then choose the right testing methods to reveal those faults. However, there is little empirical evidence available in the open literature to support these intuitions. For example, there is no empirical evidence about which types of faults are most commonly made by software developers. By examining the source code changes when faults were fixed in seven open source software artifacts, we propose to classify bug fix patterns into fault classes, and recorded the relative frequencies of those fault classes. This paper reports our findings related to "ifconditional" fixes.
Optimization, formulation, and characterization of multiflavonoids-loaded flavanosome by bulk or sequential technique

This study involves adaptation of bulk or sequential technique to load multiple flavonoids in a single phytosome, which can be termed as “flavonosome”. Three widely established and therapeutically valuable flavonoids, such as quercetin (Q), kaempferol (K), and apigenin (A), were quantified in the ethyl acetate fraction of Moringa oleifera leaves extract and were commercially obtained and incorporated in a single flavonosome (QKA–phosphatidylcholine) through four different methods of synthesis – bulk (M1) and serialized (M2) co-sonication and bulk (M3) and sequential (M4) co-loading. The study also established an optimal formulation method based on screening the synthesized flavonosomes with respect to their size, charge, polydispersity index, morphology, drug–carrier interaction, antioxidant potential through in vitro 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl kinetics, and cytotoxicity evaluation against human hepatoma cell line (HepaRG). Furthermore, entrapment and loading efficiency of flavonoids in the optimal flavonosome have been identified. Among the four synthesis methods, sequential loading technique has been optimized as the best method for the synthesis of QKA–phosphatidylcholine flavonosome, which revealed an average diameter of 375.93±33.61 nm, with a zeta potential of −39.07±3.55 mV, and the entrapment efficiency was >98% for all the flavonoids, whereas the drug-loading capacity of Q, K, and A was 31.63%±0.17%, 34.51%±2.07%, and 31.79%±0.01%, respectively. The in vitro 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl kinetics of the flavonoids indirectly depicts the release kinetic behavior of the flavonoids from the carrier. The QKA-loaded flavonosome had no indication of toxicity toward human hepatoma cell line as shown by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide result, wherein even at the higher concentration of 200 µg/mL, the flavonosomes exert >85% of cell viability. These results suggest that sequential loading technique may be a promising nanodrug delivery system for loading multiflavonoids in a single entity with sustained activity as an antioxidant, hepatoprotective, and hepatosupplement candidate.
New methods to constrain the radio transient rate: results from a survey of four fields with LOFAR.

We report on the results of a search for radio transients between 115 and 190 MHz with the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR). Four fields have been monitored with cadences between 15 min and several months. A total of 151 images were obtained, giving a total survey area of 2275 deg2. We analysed our data using standard LOFAR tools and searched for radio transients using the LOFAR Transients Pipeline. No credible radio transient candidate has been detected; however, we are able to set upper limits on the surface density of radio transient sources at low radio frequencies. We also show that low-frequency radio surveys are more sensitive to steep-spectrum coherent transient sources than GHz radio surveys. We used two new statistical methods to determine the upper limits on the transient surface density. One is free of assumptions on the flux distribution of the sources, while the other assumes a power-law distribution in flux and sets more stringent constraints on the transient surface density. Both of these methods provide better constraints than the approach used in previous works. The best value for the upper limit we can set for the transient surface density, using the method assuming a power-law flux distribution, is 1.3 × 10-3 deg-2 for transients brighter than 0.3 Jy with a time-scale of 15 min, at a frequency of 150 MHz. We also calculated for the first time upper limits for the transient surface density for transients of different time-scales. We find that the results can differ by orders of magnitude from previously reported, simplified estimates.