Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A framework for the development of STR genotyping in domestic animal species: Characterization and population study of 12 canine X‐chromosome loci

This study reports the methodology used to search, select and characterize STR loci on the canine X chromosome using publicly available genome resources and following the current guidelines for human and non‐human forensic testing. After several rounds of selection, 12 X‐STR markers were optimized for simultaneous co‐amplification in a single PCR, and genetic profiles were determined in a sample of 103 unrelated dogs. Mendelian inheritance was verified and mutation rates were assessed using family groups. Alleles that varied in size were sequenced to create a standardized nomenclature proposal based on the number of repeats. All loci conformed to Hardy–Weinberg expectations. The resulting panel showed high forensic efficiency, presenting high values of power of discrimination (in males and females) and mean exclusion chance, both in trios involving female offspring and in duos composed of dam and male offspring. Its use may complement the information obtained by autosomal STR analysis and contribute to the resolution of complex cases of kinship in dogs. The presented methodology for the de novo construction of an STR multiplex may also provide a helpful framework for analogous work in other animal species. As an increasing number of reference genomes become available, convenient tools for individual identification and parentage testing based on STR loci selected from autosomes or sex chromosomes' sequences may be created following this strategy.
Cities as Coral Reefs: Using Rugosity to Measure Metabolism across the Urban Interface

Drawing from ecology, this research translates the metric of rugosity to urban and agricultural studies. Typically used to estimate the topography of complex ecosystems, rugosity is an important edge proxy and provides simple correlates for total ecosystem metabolism, growth, and resilience. This research uses the perimeter of urban areas to estimate urban rugosity. The relationship between urban rugosity and vitality of both urban and periurban agricultural land uses is empirically explored through spatial multivariate analysis. Findings show that longer urban interfaces are associated with greater population growth and higher agricultural sales. The resulting county-level model predicts that for every kilometer of urban interface, the annual agricultural sales increase by ∼$230,000. Urban areas with interfaces less than 65 km in length tended to lose population, and every kilometer of urban interface corresponded to a county population gain of roughly 250 people over the 2000 to 2010 time period. By showing a statistically significant positive relationship between the urban interface length and both population gain and agricultural productivity, this research lays the groundwork for future studies investigating how longer, less concentric urban interfaces might support the long-term vitality of both urban and agricultural areas alike. Key Words: edge effects, multifunctional agriculture, urban growth, urban morphology, urban planning.
The Exponential Stabilization of a Class of n-D Chaotic Systems via the Exact Solution Method

This paper treats the exponential stabilization of a class of n-D chaotic systems. A new control approach which is called the exact solution method is presented. The most important feature of this method is that the solution of the system under consideration can be carefully designed to converge exponentially to the origin. Based on this method, the exponential stabilization of a class of n-D chaotic systems and its application in controlling chaotic system with unknown parameter are presented. The Genesio-Tesi system is taken to give the numerical simulation which is completely consistent with the theoretical analysis presented in this paper.
Ub on the move

Ubiquitination is an increasingly common post‐translation modification that controls both the expression and activity of numerous proteins in the eukaryotic cell. One frequent target of the ubiquitin (Ub) modification machinery is transcription factors. Although ubiquitination generally modulates their function by inducing proteasome‐dependent degradation, past and recent studies indicate that ubiquitination also regulates nuclear–cytoplasmic trafficking of transcriptional regulators. Ubiquitination is known to modulate transcription factor localization by destroying sequestering proteins and by directly promoting nuclear import and export of modified substrates. This review discusses old and new paradigms relating Ub modification and the control of transcription factor shuttling in and out of the nucleus. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Removal of Iron in Groundwater Using Marble Column Filter

Water shortage during dry season has become a big issue affecting the daily activities of the public as well as the world’s attention. The potential of groundwater as a secondary water source can ease the situation of water shortage since the current water supply comes from surface water. However, groundwater pollution is inevitable because of human induced and natural occurrence. Therefore, this project studies to overcome excessive iron from the groundwater using marble in pebble size based on previous studies of calcium carbonate and sand size is in this study. Both sizes are compared to investigate the highest efficiency in removing iron without chemical use. The filtration is run with 4 different flow rates which are 0.017 ls-1, 0.011 ls-1, 0.008 ls-1 and 0.007 ls-1. The highest removal percentage of iron, 93.83% is for the sand size marble column filter when the flow rate is 0.007 ls-1. The marble is possible to be a cheap and effective filter media for iron removal in development of groundwater pre-treatment.
Divergent effects of oxytocin on (para-)limbic reactivity to emotional and neutral scenes in females with and without borderline personality disorder

Abstract Borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients’ hypersensitivity for emotionally relevant stimuli has been suggested be due to abnormal activity and connectivity in (para-)limbic and prefrontal brain regions during stimulus processing. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to modulate activity and functional connectivity in these brain regions, thereby optimizing the processing of emotional and neutral stimuli. To investigate whether oxytocin would be capable of attenuating BPD patients’ hypersensitivity for such stimuli, we recorded brain activity and gaze behavior during the processing of complex scenes in 51 females with and 48 without BPD after intranasal application of either oxytocin or placebo. We found divergent effects of oxytocin on BPD and healthy control (HC) participants’ (para-)limbic reactivity to emotional and neutral scenes: Oxytocin decreased amygdala and insula reactivity in BPD participants but increased it in HC participants, indicating an oxytocin-induced normalization of amygdala and insula activity during scene processing. In addition, oxytocin normalized the abnormal coupling between amygdala activity and gaze behavior across all scenes in BPD participants. Overall, these findings suggest that oxytocin may be capable of attenuating BPD patients’ hypersensitivity for complex scenes, irrespective of their valence.
Application of geological methods for dating of stone labyrinths on the White Sea coast

The geological and geomorphological methods of the investigation of the relative sea level changes during the Late Holocene jointly with traditional methods of archeology have been used for determining age of the archaeological monuments - the stone labyrinths known on the Kandalaksha coast of the White Sea. Аннотация. Методы геологического и геоморфологического изучения перемещения береговой линии моря в позднем голоцене в комплексе с традиционными методами археологии были использованы для определения возраста археологических памятников - каменных лабиринтов, известных на Кандалакшском берегу Белого моря.
Tutorial on NK Model

NK model, proposed by Kauffman (1993), is a strong simulation framework to study competing dynamics. It has been applied in some social science fields, for instance, organization science. However, like many other simulation methods, NK model has not received much attention from Management Information Systems (MIS) discipline. This tutorial, thus, is trying to introduce NK model in a simple way and encourage related studies. To demonstrate how NK model works, this tutorial reproduces several Levinthal’s (1997) experiments. Besides, this tutorial attempts to make clear the relevance between NK model and agent-based modeling (ABM). The relevance can be a theoretical basis to further develop NK model framework for other research scenarios. For example, this tutorial provides an NK model solution to study IT value cocreation process by extending network structure and agent interactions.
Micro- and nano-capsulated fungal pectinase with outstanding capabilities of eliminating turbidity in freshly produced juice

The present study aimed to compare the pectinase forms produced from Trichoderma viride—free, micro-capsule, and nano-capsule—in sodium alginate to analyze the pectin that causes the turbidity of orange juice. This was performed along with an estimation of viscosity, residual of pectin, and turbidity. The extracted and purified enzyme was 24.35-fold better than that of the crude enzyme. After application of free one, it loses most of the activity on low degrees of acidity and remains constant on the temperatures of pasteurization. Therefore, the tested enzyme was encapsulated by two different ways using the same polymer. The morphology of the three pectinase forms was obtained by transmission electron microscopy, and the micrographs clearly showed the pores on the surface of sodium alginate matrix after encapsulation. The size of the wall (sodium alginate) ranged from 3.24 to 3.76 µm diameter but was 3.15 µm for core of enzyme. Micro-capsuled and nano-capsuled pectinase can be used in the hydrolysis of pectic substances in orange juice with natural ways and maintaining the quality of final product. Consequently, the cost of juice clarifying can be reduced due to reusing the enzyme several times.
The ristretto255 Group

This memo specifies a prime-order group, ristretto255, suitable for implementing complex cryptographic protocols such as zero-knowledge proofs. The ristretto255 group can be implemented using Curve25519, allowing existing Curve25519 implementations to be reused and extended to provide a prime-order group.
Crystal structure of 2-cyano-1-methylpyridinium perchlorate

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, C7H7N2 +·ClO4 −, comprises two independent formula units. The solid-state structure comprises corrugated layers of cations and of anions, approximately parallel to (010). The supramolecular layers are stabilized and connected by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonding to consolidate a three-dimensional architecture. A close pyridinium–perchlorate N⋯O contact [2.867 (5) Å] is noted. The crystal was refined as an inversion twin.
Design & analysis of a novel IGBT package with double-sided cooling

Conventional IGBT modules with bonding wires have been suffered from relatively high thermal resistance from junction to case (Rthjc) due to unavoidable single-sided cooling (SSC), and also suffered from uneven current distribution due to unsymmetrical electrical interconnection. A novel IGBT package with double-sided cooling (DSC) geometry was proposed in this paper to overcome these problems. A comprehensive comparative study between the DSC geometry and the SSC geometry has been conducted by simulations. The analytical results demonstrate that the DSC geometry is well superior to the conventional SSC geometry in both electrical and thermal behavior, which predicts a brighter future in various key applications for this emerging package.
Characterization of the Lightning Safety Education Programs in the World as a First Step for the Creation of a Lightning Safety Policy in Colombia

En este proyecto de investigacion-innovacion se presentan los resultados de un estudio sobre los programas de educacion en prevencion contra rayos que han sido implementados en el mundo. La importancia del estudio de estos programas se fundamenta en las multiples lesiones asociadas a las descargas electricas atmosfericas que se han observado en Colombia durante los ultimos anos. Una investigacion primaria es llevada a cabo para determinar cuales podrian ser los medios de difusion mas pertinentes para transmitir el mensaje de la prevencion contra rayos a la poblacion rural, con el fin de tener los elementos necesarios para plantear una metodologia educativa que pueda ser el primer paso para la creacion de una politica publica en prevencion y proteccion contra rayos en Colombia.
Position-based Energy-Efficient Greedy Forwarding in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSNs) is one of the rising technologies for numerous areas of application, such as environmental monitoring, industrial sensing and diagnostics and battlefield awareness. Such wireless sensor nodes are often deployed in remote locations. Thus, energy efficient and reliable data forwarding is important because each node has limited resources. In this paper we propose a position-based energy-efficient greedy forwarding scheme to reduce the energy consumption while increasing the packet delivery ratio for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSNs). In our paper, each node decides whether or not to be a relay node by itself considering the remaining energy and mobility. Simulation results show that the energy consumption and the average end-to-end delay can be reduced by selecting relay node considering the energy and mobility.
Obesity increases stroke risk in young adults: opportunity for prevention.

See related article, p 1690. A debate has been smoldering over the meaning of obesity in reducing the world burden of stroke. Like so many debates in medicine, it begins with disagreements about the interpretation of evidence, the meaning of statistical test results, and the role of bias. In one camp, are those who see that obesity is associated with increased risk for stroke and say that it as an important target for primary and secondary prevention. In the other, are those who agree that obesity increases stroke but say that it is more effective to treat the consequence of obesity that are responsible for stroke risk (ie, hypertension and dyslipidemia) than obesity itself. What everyone can agree on is that obesity is epidemic. In the United States, the prevalence of obesity (ie, body mass index [BMI] > 30 kg/m2) increases with age from 17% for children aged 30 kg/m2 have about a 70% increased risk for ischemic stroke compared with patients with a BMI <25 kg/m2.4,5 In this issue of Stroke , Mitchell et al6 raise further concern about obesity by showing an association with increased stroke risk in a study composed exclusively of young adults. Mitchell et al6 studied men and women …
End-Organ Disease in Hypertension: What Have We Learned?

Summary: The major target organs that suffer from sustained hypertension are the heart, kidneys, and brain. Cardiac adaptation to arterial hypertension consists of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) of the concentric type, that is, an increase in wall thickness at the expense of chamber volume. However, LVH can no longer be considered a simple adaptive myocardial process serving to compensate for the increase in afterload and bring left ventricular wall stress back to normal. Data from the Framingham cohort have shown that the occurrence of LVH drastically increases the risk of sudden death and other cardiovascular morbidity and mortality irrespective of the levels of arterial pressure. Renal adaptation to arterial hypertension consists of a decrease in renal blood flow with elevations in filtration fraction and renal vascular resistance. With progressive hypertensive cardiovascular disease, glomerular filtration rate will fall as well. Recent data in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension demonstrate that despite “efficacious” antihypertensive therapy, one-third to one-half of hypertensive patients may experience a significant decline in renal function. Cerebrovascular adaptation to hypertension consists of micro- and macrovascular disease leading to vascular dementia, or ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Cerebrovascular autoregulation, the mechanism by which cerebral blood flow is maintained, despite changes in arterial pressure, may be altered in hypertension.
Learning abstractions for model checking

Learning is a process that causes a system to improve its performance through experience. Inductive learning is the process of learning by examples, i.e. the system learns a general rule from a set of sample instances. Abstraction techniques have been successful in model checking large systems by enabling the model checker to ignore irrelevant details. The aim of abstraction is to identify a small abstract model on which the property holds. Most previous approaches for automatically generating abstract models are based on heuristics combined with the iterative abstraction-refinement loop. These techniques provide no guarantees on the size of the abstract models. We present an application of machine learning to counterexample-guided abstraction refinement, and to abstraction without refinement. Our work formulates abstraction as an inductive learner that searches through a set of abstract models. The machine learning techniques precisely identify the information in the design that is relevant to the property. Our approach leverages recent advances in Boolean satisfiability and integer linear programming techniques. We provide better control on the size of the abstract models, and our approach can generate the smallest abstract, model that proves the property. Most previous work has focused on applying abstraction to model checking, and bounded model checking is used as a subroutine in many of these approaches. We also present an abstraction technique that speeds up bounded model checking. We have implemented our techniques for the verification of safety properties on hardware circuits using localization abstraction. Our experimental evaluation shows a significant improvement over previous state-of-the-art approaches.
Entropy Analysis of Short-Term Heartbeat Interval Time Series during Regular Walking

Entropy measures have been extensively used to assess heart rate variability (HRV), a noninvasive marker of cardiovascular autonomic regulation. It is yet to be elucidated whether those entropy measures can sensitively respond to changes of autonomic balance and whether the responses, if there are any, are consistent across different entropy measures. Sixteen healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Each subject undertook two 5-min ECG measurements, one in a resting seated position and another while walking on a treadmill at a regular speed of 5 km/h. For each subject, the two measurements were conducted in a randomized order and a 30-min rest was required between them. HRV time series were derived and were analyzed by eight entropy measures, i.e., approximate entropy (ApEn), corrected ApEn (cApEn), sample entropy (SampEn), fuzzy entropy without removing local trend (FuzzyEn-g), fuzzy entropy with local trend removal (FuzzyEn-l), permutation entropy (PermEn), conditional entropy (CE), and distribution entropy (DistEn). Compared to resting seated position, regular walking led to significantly reduced CE and DistEn (both p ≤ 0.006; Cohen’s d = 0.9 for CE, d = 1.7 for DistEn), and increased PermEn (p < 0.0001; d = 1.9), while all these changes disappeared after performing a linear detrend or a wavelet detrend (<~0.03 Hz) on HRV. In addition, cApEn, SampEn, FuzzyEn-g, and FuzzyEn-l showed significant decreases during regular walking after linear detrending (all p < 0.006; 0.8 < d < 1), while a significantly increased ApEn (p < 0.0001; d = 1.9) and a significantly reduced cApEn (p = 0.0006; d = 0.8) were observed after wavelet detrending. To conclude, multiple entropy analyses should be performed to assess HRV in order for objective results and caution should be paid when drawing conclusions based on observations from a single measure. Besides, results from different studies will not be comparable unless it is clearly stated whether data have been detrended and the methods used for detrending have been specified.
Generalized scale length for two-dimensional effects in MOSFETs

We derive a new scale length for two-dimensional (2-D) effects in MOSFETs and discuss its significance. This derivation properly takes into account the difference in permittivity between the Si channel and the gate insulator, and thus permits an accurate understanding of the effects of using insufficiently scaled oxide or thicker higher permittivity gate insulators. The theory shows that the utility of higher dielectric constant insulators decreases for /spl epsiv///spl epsiv//sub 0/>-20, and that in no event should the insulator be thicker than the Si depletion depth. The approach is also applied to double-gated FET structures, resulting in a new more general scale length formula for them, too.
Targeting of Arabidopsis KNL2 to Centromeres Depends on the Conserved CENPC-k Motif in Its C Terminus[OPEN]

AtKNL2 possesses a conserved CENPC-k motif that is required for its centromeric localization and enables sequence-independent interaction with DNA in vitro but preferential binding with the centromeric repeat pAL1 in vivo. KINETOCHORE NULL2 (KNL2) is involved in recognition of centromeres and in centromeric localization of the centromere-specific histone cenH3. Our study revealed a cenH3 nucleosome binding CENPC-k motif at the C terminus of Arabidopsis thaliana KNL2, which is conserved among a wide spectrum of eukaryotes. Centromeric localization of KNL2 is abolished by deletion of the CENPC-k motif and by mutating single conserved amino acids, but can be restored by insertion of the corresponding motif of Arabidopsis CENP-C. We showed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay that the C terminus of KNL2 binds DNA sequence-independently and interacts with the centromeric transcripts in vitro. Chromatin immunoprecipitation with anti-KNL2 antibodies indicated that in vivo KNL2 is preferentially associated with the centromeric repeat pAL1. Complete deletion of the CENPC-k motif did not influence its ability to interact with DNA in vitro. Therefore, we suggest that KNL2 recognizes centromeric nucleosomes, similar to CENP-C, via the CENPC-k motif and binds adjoining DNA.
Size and surrounding medium effects on plasmonic response of Au-Ag-Cu nanospheres

The possible synthesis of multimetallic nanostructures formed by combining the individual noble metals has attracted a considerable attention because of their improved optical response and cost-effectiveness. In this study, the plasmonic response of Au-Ag-Cu trimetallic nanospheres has been investigated by using discrete dipole approximation (DDA). The size, and surrounding medium-dependent optical parameters such as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength, relative contribution of scattering in the extinction (scattering yield), and full width at half maximum (FWHM), have been calculated for their possible use in cost-effective plasmonic applications. These optical parameters can be tuned from 400 to 600 nm in the visible region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum through change in size and surrounding medium. The calculated FWHM is enhanced more by trimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) than by individual and bimetallic NPs and, therefore, may be preferred for plasmonic solar cells in the visible region.
Modeling and simulation with augmented reality

In applications such as airport operations, military simulations, and medical simulations, conducting simulations in accurate and realistic settings that are represented by real video imaging sequences becomes essential. This paper surveys recent work that enables visually realistic model constructions and the simulation of synthetic objects which are inserted in video sequences, and illustrates how synthetic objects can conduct intelligent behavior within a visual augmented reality.