Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Role and Auxin Responsiveness of Class III Homeodomain Leucine Zipper Gene Family Members in Rice1[C][W][OA]

Members of the Class III homeodomain leucine zipper (Class III HD-Zip) gene family are central regulators of crucial aspects of plant development. To better understand the roles of five Class III HD-Zip genes in rice (Oryza sativa) development, we investigated their expression patterns, ectopic expression phenotypes, and auxin responsiveness. Four genes, OSHB1 to OSHB4, were expressed in a localized domain of the shoot apical meristem (SAM), the adaxial cells of leaf primordia, the leaf margins, and the xylem tissue of vascular bundles. In contrast, expression of OSHB5 was observed only in phloem tissue. Plants ectopically expressing microRNA166-resistant versions of the OSHB3 gene exhibited severe defects, including the ectopic production of leaf margins, shoots, and radialized leaves. The treatment of seedlings with auxin quickly induced ectopic OSHB3 expression in the entire region of the SAM, but not in other tissues. Furthermore, this ectopic expression of OSHB3 was correlated with leaf initiation defects. Our findings suggest that rice Class III HD-Zip genes have conserved functions with their homologs in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), but have also acquired specific developmental roles in grasses or monocots. In addition, some Class III HD-Zip genes may regulate the leaf initiation process in the SAM in an auxin-dependent manner.
Video segmentation using active contours on a group of pictures

In this paper we address a new method for motion camera video segmentation. Most video segmentation methods use the temporal gradient between two consecutive frames and therefore are not robust to light variations and noise. Thus we present a new region based active contour segmentation on a group of pictures. This new segmentation proceeds in two steps: first a mosaic is computed to generate the background sequence of the video; then color region based active contour segmentation is applied on each video frame, related to its background. Finally, we show experimental results obtained on real sequences after each step of the algorithm i.e. the background mosaic and the final segmented objects.
Association of the APOE ε4 allele with disease activity in multiple sclerosis

OBJECTIVES Allelic variants of the APOE gene are known to influence the course of many neurological diseases and there is increasing evidence that apolipoprotein E (APOE) is a pivotal component in reinnervation and dendritic remodelling after neuronal injury. Previous studies did not show significant differences in the APOE allele frequencies in multiple sclerosis compared with controls but did not examine for correlation with disease severity. This study explores the relation of APOE genotypes with the disease severity. METHODS Ninety five patients with multiple sclerosis were studied. Age of onset, type, and activity of the disease were recorded prospectively and genotyping was performed according to standard protocols. RESULTS APOE allele frequencies of the group as a whole, the relapsing group, or the primary progressive group were not significantly different from those reported from matched historical controls. The ε4 allele was found to be more common in patients with a more aggressive type of multiple sclerosis (odds ratio=2.95, p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS Although APOE does not seem to be implicated in the early pathogenesis of the disease, patients possessing the ε4 allele might have a reduced capacity for neuronal remodelling after relapses.
Urban and Rural Differences in the Relationship between Substance Use and Violence

This article examines the relationship between substance use and violence across rural-urban and Appalachian places of residence. The data come from a larger study on the health service use of 637 men who have a history of chronic substance abuse and who were incarcerated in four Kentucky prisons. The findings generally support previous research on substance use and violence but do not support Fischer’s (1995) subculture theory of urbanism. Contrary to expectations, the population size of the prisoners’residence was not significantly associated with the prisoners’levels of violent victimization, violence toward others, violence toward intimate partners, or overall violence in the year prior to incarceration. Appalachian residency was also not associated with violence. Recognizing that the effect of substance use on violence perpetrated against others does not vary significantly by urban or rural residence may be helpful for designing violence prevention programs and planning law enforcement efforts.
Targeting of both mouse neuropilin-1 and neuropilin-2 genes severely impairs developmental yolk sac and embryonic angiogenesis

Neuropilins (NP1 and NP2) are vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors that mediate developmental and tumor angiogenesis. Transgenic mice, in which both NP1 and NP2 were targeted (NP1−/−NP2−/−) died in utero at E8.5. Their yolk sacs were totally avascular. Mice deficient for NP2 but heterozygous for NP1 (NP1+/−NP2−/−) or deficient for NP1 but heterozygous for NP2 (NP1−/−NP2+/−) were also embryonic lethal and survived to E10–E10.5. The E10 yolk sacs and embryos were easier to analyze for vascular phenotype than the fragile poorly formed 8.5 embryos. The vascular phenotypes of these E10 mice were very abnormal. The yolk sacs, although of normal size, lacked the larger collecting vessels and had less dense capillary networks. PECAM staining of yolk sac endothelial cells showed the absence of branching arteries and veins, the absence of a capillary bed, and the presence of large avascular spaces between the blood vessels. The embryos displayed blood vessels heterogeneous in size, large avascular regions in the head and trunk, and blood vessel sprouts that were unconnected. The embryos were about 50% the length of wild-type mice and had multiple hemorrhages. These double NP1/NP2 knockout mice had a more severe abnormal vascular phenotype than either NP1 or NP2 single knockouts. Their abnormal vascular phenotype resembled those of VEGF and VEGFR-2 knockouts. These results suggest that NRPs are early genes in embryonic vessel development and that both NP1 and NP2 are required.
Lower airways inflammation in allergic rhinitics: a comparison with asthmatics and normal controls

Background Allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma represent a continuum of atopic disease. AR is believed to pre‐dispose an individual to asthma. Compared with asthmatics and normal controls, the inflammatory response in the lower airways of rhinitics is not fully elucidated. To test the hypothesis that the inflammatory response in the airways of subjects with AR is at a level intermediate between that in normal controls and asthmatics, we have characterized bronchial inflammation and cytokine mRNA levels in non‐asthmatic allergic rhinitics and compared it with subjects with allergic asthma and with normal controls.
High‐Throughput Quantitative Real‐Time PCR

Recent technical advances in quantitative real‐time PCR (qRT‐PCR) have allowed for extensive miniaturization, thereby rendering the technique amenable to high‐throughput assays. Large numbers of different nucleic acids can now rapidly be measured quantitatively. Many investigations can benefit from this approach, including determination of gene expression in hundreds of samples, determination of hundreds of genes in a few samples, or even quantification of nucleic acids other than mRNA. A simple technique is described here to quantify 1880 transcripts of choice from any number of starting RNA samples. Curr. Protoc. Hum. Genet. 58:11.10. 1–11.10. 11. © 2008 by JohnWiley & Sons, Inc.
Detection of loop-mediated isothermal amplification reaction by turbidity derived from magnesium pyrophosphate formation.

The loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a novel nucleic acid amplification method that uses only one type of enzyme. One of the characteristics of the LAMP method is its ability to synthesize extremely large amount of DNA. Accordingly, a large amount of by-product, pyrophosphate ion, is produced, yielding white precipitate of magnesium pyrophosphate in the reaction mixture. Judging the presence or absence of this white precipitate allows easy distinction of whether nucleic acid was amplified by the LAMP method. Since an increase in the turbidity of the reaction mixture according to the production of precipitate correlates with the amount of DNA synthesized, real-time monitoring of the LAMP reaction was achieved by real-time measurement of turbidity.
"Experiências em Relações Próximas", um questionário de avaliação das dimensões básicas dos estilos de vinculação nos adultos: Tradução e validação para a população Portuguesa

Este artigo apresenta o desenvolvimento do questionario “Experiencias em Relacoes Proximas”, versao Portuguesa do “Experiences in Close Relationships” (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998), bem como dados relativos a sua precisao e validade. Este questionario pretende avaliar as duas dimensoes basicas das diferencas individuais no estilo de vinculacao dos adultos, a evitacao e a preocupacao, as quais emergiram da analise factorial de um conjunto abrangente de itens em uso corrente na avaliacao da vinculacao nos adultos. Os dados relativos a versao Portuguesa mostram que, embora se verifiquem alguns problemas no ajustamento dos dados ao modelo de medida pressuposto, os resultados revelam elevados niveis de precisao por consistencia interna e relacoes significativas com outras variaveis, tal como seria de prever a partir da teoria da vinculacao. Estas variaveis incluem nao so medidas de auto-relato, como tambem variaveis de outros tipos, mostrando que as correlacoes encontradas nao correspondem apenas a factores de metodo.
TLC densitometric quantification of picrosides (picroside-I and picroside-II) in Picrorhiza kurroa and its substitute Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora and their antioxidant studies.

Picroside-I and picroside-II are known bioactive metabolites in Picrorhiza species. In the present study a simple, precise method has been established for the simultaneous determination of picrosides (picroside-I and picroside-II) in two different Picrorhiza species, P. kurroa and P. scrophulariiflora. This method was also validated for accuracy, precision, robustness, limit of detection and quantification, repeatability and recovery, according to International Conference of Harmonization guidelines. Separation and quantification was achieved by HPTLC using as the mobile phase chloroform-methanol (88:12, v/v) on precoated silica gel 60F(254) aluminum plates. Densitometric determination was carried out at wavelength λ(max) 254 nm in UV absorbance mode. Comparative study also revealed that picroside-I and picroside-II are higher in P. scrophulariiflora than P. kurroa. Picroside-I content was found to be 1.258 and 1.611%, and picroside-II was estimated as 0.481 and 0.613% in P. kurroa and P. scrophulariiflora, respectively. Antioxidant potential of these two Picrorhiza species was also studied using DPPH. At a concentration of 0.1 mg/mL the scavenging activities of P. kurroa and P. scrophulariiflora were found to 37.70 and 34.30%, respectively.
Researches and experiments on reflective TFBG — SPR biosensor

This thesis puts forward a kind of reflective tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) surface plasma resonance (SPR) biosensor, which is stable, corrosion-resistant and label-free, and has the advantage of simple operation and field-based test. At first, the biosensor was used to monitor the bacterial density, which has laid a foundation for the subsequent biological experiments. Then we applied the reflective TFBG — SPR biosensor to the protein molecule experiment, taking cysteamine hydrochloride as an intermediate to make rabbit IgG antigen molecules fixed on the surface of golden layer, so as to make a protein molecule probe, which can specifically recognize corresponding goat anti-rabbit IgG antibodies. Finally, the resonance peak wavelength of reflection spectrum in hybridization experiments was offset for 9.5nm. And the good results have verified the practicable of the reflective TFBG — SPR biosensor.
A Wideband Noise-Cancelling Receiver Front-End Using a Linearized Transconductor

A wideband noise-cancelling receiver front-end is proposed in this brief. As a basic architecture, a low-noise transconductance amplifier, a passive mixer, and a transimpedance amplifier are employed to compose the wideband receiver. To achieve wideband input matching for the transconductor, a global feedback method is adopted. Since the wideband receiver has to minimize linearity degradation if a large blocker signal exists out-of-band, a linearization technique is applied for the transconductor circuit. The linearization cancels third-order intermodulation distortion components and increases linearity; however, the additional circuits used in linearization generate excessive noise. A noise-cancelling architecture that employs an auxiliary path cancels noise signals generated in the main path. The designed receiver front-end is fabricated using a 65-nm CMOS process. The receiver operates in the frequency range of 25 MHz–2 GHz with a gain of 49.7 dB. The in-band input-referred third-order intercept point is improved by 12.3 dB when the linearization is activated, demonstrating the effectiveness of the linearization technique. key words: wideband receiver, transconductor linearization, noisecancelling
Genome Sequence of the Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Strain NCCP15657

ABSTRACT Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli causes bloody diarrhea and hemolytic-uremic syndrome and serious outbreaks worldwide. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of E. coli NCCP15657 isolated from a patient. The genome has virulence genes, many in the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) island, encoding a metalloprotease, the Shiga toxin, and constituents of type III secretion.
Multimodal registration of MR images with a novel least-squares distance measure

In this work we evaluate a novel method for multi-modal image registration of MR images. The key feature of our approach is a new distance measure that allows for comparing modalities that are related by an arbitrary gray-value mapping. The novel measure is formulated as least square problem for minimizing the sum of squared differences of two images with respect to changing gray-values of one of the images. It turns out that the novel measure can be computed explicitly and allows for very simple and efficient implementation. We compare our new approach to rigid registration with cross-correlation, mutual information, and normalized gradient fields as distance measure.
Nosocomial clonal dissemination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Elucidation by plasmid analysis.

• An outbreak of methicillin sodium-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection and colonization, mainly centered in the vascular surgery service, occurred in a 1000-bed tertiary care center between December 1983 and December 1984. Methicillin-resistant S aureus isolated before and during the outbreak was studied by both bacteriophage typing and by restriction endonuclease digestion of bacterial plasmid DNA. Bacteriophage typing was discrepant in nine (56%) of the 17 repeated analyses compared with one (3.4%) of the 29 for plasmid profiling. These typing methods revealed that the epidemic strain was introduced to the hospital from the community 15 months before the outbreak. The outbreak was caused by cross-transmission of the epidemic strain by health care personnel and was controlled by treatment of colonized personnel, education of personnel, and institution of barrier precautions for colonized or infected patients. Plasmid profiling with restriction endonuclease digestion was easier, more rapid, and more specific than bacteriophage typing in the evaluation of this outbreak. ( Arch Intern Med 1987;147:521-524)
Self-curved diaphragms by stress engineering for highly responsive pMUT

A process to make self-curved diaphragms by engineering residual stress in thin films has been developed to construct highly responsive piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (pMUT). This process enables high device fill-factor for better than 95% area utilization with controlled formation of curved membranes. The placement of a 0.65 μm-thick, low stress silicon nitride (SiN) film with 650 MPa of tensile residual stress and a low temperature oxide (LTO) film with 180 MPa of compressive stress sitting on top of a 4 μm-thick silicon film has resulted in the desirable self-curved diaphragms. A curved pMUT with 200 μm in nominal radius, 2 μm-thick aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layer, and 50% SiN coverage has resulted in a 2.7 μm deflection at the center and resonance at 647 kHz. Low frequency and resonant deformation responses of 0.58 nm/V and 40nm/V at the center of the diaphragm have been measured, respectively. This process enables foundry-compatible CMOS process and potentially large fill-factor for pMUT applications.
The Impact of Reprography on the Copyright System

This is a report performed for the Canadian government in 1981 on the impact of copying (photocopying) on copyright holders. As far as I know, it was the first theoretical claim that copying might not hurt copyright holders, and might even benefit them, due to the concept of indirect appropriability. Although some of this material later appeared in articles in the JPE and AER, this is a more complete treatment focused on the copying issue. This report proposes a fairly simple model to explain what happens in markets where copying occurs. The key parameters turn out to be the variability in the number of copies made from each original, the degree of substitutability between the original and the copy, and whether or not the copyright holder can engage in price discrimination. Anyone interested in the issue of copying in the Internet era, or who wants to and be able to analyze behavior such as that associated with Napster, will want to read this.
Estimates for the Upscaling Error in Heterogeneous Multiscale Methods for Wave Propagation Problems in Locally Periodic Media

This paper concerns the analysis of a multiscale method for wave propagation problems in microscopically nonhomogeneous media. A direct numerical approximation of such problems is prohibitively expensive as it requires resolving the microscopic variations over a much larger physical domain of interest. The heterogeneous multiscale method (HMM) is an efficient framework to approximate the solutions of multiscale problems. In HMM, one assumes an incomplete macroscopic model which is coupled to a known but expensive microscopic model. The micromodel is solved only locally to upscale the parameter values which are missing in the macromodel. The resulting macroscopic model can then be solved at a cost independent of the small scales in the problem. In general, the accuracy of the HMM is related to how good the upscaling step approximates the right macroscopic quantities. The analysis of the method, that we consider here, was previously addressed only in purely periodic media although the method itself is numerically shown to be applicable to more general settings. In the present study, we consider a more realistic setting by assuming a locally-periodic medium where slow and fast variations are allowed at the same time. We then prove that HMM captures the right macroscopic effects. The generality of the tools and ideas in the analysis allows us to establish convergence rates in a multi-dimensional setting. The theoretical findings here imply an improved convergence rate in one-dimension, which also justifies the numerical observations from our earlier study.
Flexible and semi-transparent thermoelectric energy harvesters from low cost bulk silicon (100).

Silicon electronics are at the heart of today’s digital world. Silicon based micro-fabrication technology has unparalleled performance, cost, and yield advantages. However, silicon is brittle and cannot be used for many healthcare and electronic applications. Most living organs are intrinsically of irregular shapes and thus medical electronics intended for implantation on host features such as eye balls or ears need to be fl exible. [ 1 ] Therefore, exploration for a low-cost, simple solution using plastic as substrate and organic materials to fabricate fl exible electronics, like displays and sensors, is on the rise. [ 2–5 ] The basic challenges associated with fl exible electronics compared to precision silicon technology are high thermal budget process incompatibility and inherently low electron mobility. [ 6 ] These two major challenges hinder their potential to integrate high performance devices on a traditional plastic based fl exible platform. With increased world population and concerns about health care, it is important to develop technologies which will be integrated in a benign way to humans or garments capable of collecting and transmitting necessary real-time data to address issues like seizure, heart attacks, etc. [ 7 ] This means high performance silicon-based transistors are required to be implemented on fl exible platforms. Simultaneously, such systems would require ultralow power consumption sourced conveniently from the surrounding environment. Thermoelectric energy harvesters (generators or TEGs) are one of the most pragmatic options to serve as a mobile power source. [ 8 ] Some micrometer-sized TEGs are even commercially available. [ 9–11 ] A few efforts have been made to fabricate them on fl exible substrates like polymide sheet and SU-8 based polymers. [ 12–15 ] Major challenges with these materials are (i) their low melting point making them incompatible for high temperature operation; (ii) their incompatibility for thick fi lm deposition using electrochemical deposition and iii) due to low thermal conductivity ( < 1 W/mK), the temperature cannot drop across the thermocouples. Energy harvesters like TEGs have not