Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Jasmonate Pathway Is a Key Player in Systemically Induced Defense against Root Knot Nematodes in Rice1[C]

Complex defense signaling pathways, controlled by different hormones, are involved in the reaction of plants to a wide range of biotic and abiotic stress factors. We studied the ability of salicylic acid, jasmonate (JA), and ethylene (ET) to induce systemic defense in rice (Oryza sativa) against the root knot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola. Exogenous ET (ethephon) and JA (methyl jasmonate) supply on the shoots induced a strong systemic defense response in the roots, exemplified by a major up-regulation of pathogenesis-related genes OsPR1a and OsPR1b, while the salicylic acid analog BTH (benzo-1,2,3-thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid S-methyl ester) was a less potent systemic defense inducer from shoot to root. Experiments with JA biosynthesis mutants and ET-insensitive transgenics showed that ET-induced defense requires an intact JA pathway, while JA-induced defense was still functional when ET signaling was impaired. Pharmacological inhibition of JA and ET biosynthesis confirmed that JA biosynthesis is needed for ET-induced systemic defense, and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction data revealed that ET application onto the shoots strongly activates JA biosynthesis and signaling genes in the roots. All data provided in this study point to the JA pathway to play a pivotal role in rice defense against root knot nematodes. The expression of defense-related genes was monitored in root galls caused by M. graminicola. Different analyzed defense genes were attenuated in root galls caused by the nematode at early time points after infection. However, when the exogenous defense inducers ethephon and methyl jasmonate were supplied to the plant, the nematode was less effective in counteracting root defense pathways, hence making the plant more resistant to nematode infection.
Flush, Gauss, and reload : a cache attack on the BLISS lattice-based signature scheme

We present the first side-channel attack on a lattice-based signature scheme, using the FLUSH+RELOAD cache-attack. The attack is targeted at the discrete Gaussian sampler, an important step in the Bimodal Lattice Signature Schemes (BLISS). After observing only 450 signatures with a perfect side-channel, an attacker is able to extract the secret BLISS-key in less than 2 minutes, with a success probability of 0.96. Similar results are achieved in a proof-of-concept implementation using the FLUSH+RELOAD technique with less than 3500 signatures.
Meta-Analysis of the Turnover of Intestinal Epithelia in Preclinical Animal Species and Humans

Due to the rapid turnover of the small intestinal epithelia, the rate at which enterocyte renewal occurs plays an important role in determining the level of drug-metabolizing enzymes in the gut wall. Current physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models consider enzyme and enterocyte recovery as a lumped first-order rate. An assessment of enterocyte turnover would enable enzyme and enterocyte renewal to be modeled more mechanistically. A literature review together with statistical analysis was employed to establish enterocyte turnover in human and preclinical species. A total of 85 studies was identified reporting enterocyte turnover in 1602 subjects in six species. In mice, the geometric weighted combined mean (WX) enterocyte turnover was 2.81 ± 1.14 days (n = 169). In rats, the weighted arithmetic mean enterocyte turnover was determined to be 2.37 days (n = 501). Humans exhibited a geometric WX enterocyte turnover of 3.48 ± 1.55 days for the gastrointestinal epithelia (n = 265), displaying comparable turnover to that of cytochrome P450 enzymes in vitro (0.96–4.33 days). Statistical analysis indicated humans to display longer enterocyte turnover as compared with preclinical species. Extracted data were too sparse to support regional differences in small intestinal enterocyte turnover in humans despite being indicated in mice. The utilization of enterocyte turnover data, together with in vitro enzyme turnover in PBPK modeling, may improve the predictions of metabolic drug-drug interactions dependent on enzyme turnover (e.g., mechanism-based inhibition and enzyme induction) as well as absorption of nanoparticle delivery systems and intestinal metabolism in special populations exhibiting altered enterocyte turnover.
Passivity-based control of the DC-DC buck converters in high-power applications

In this paper, a novel approach for control of the DC-DC buck converter in high-power and low-voltage applications is proposed. Designed method is developed according to passivity based controller which is able to stabilize output voltage in a wide range of operation. It is clear that in high-power applications, parasitic elements of the converter may become comparable with load value and hence, in this paper all of the converted parasitic elements are modeled during development of the controller. In order to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method, designed controller is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink toolbox. Presented simulation result proves that the developed controller has acceptable dynamic and steady-state responses which are compared with a standard PI controller in high-power applications.
Time Trends in Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Multimorbidity Not Only due to Aging: Data from General Practices and Health Surveys

Introduction Chronic diseases and multimorbidity are common and expected to rise over the coming years. The objective of this study is to examine the time trend in the prevalence of chronic diseases and multimorbidity over the period 2001 till 2011 in the Netherlands, and the extent to which this can be ascribed to the aging of the population. Methods Monitoring study, using two data sources: 1) medical records of patients listed in a nationally representative network of general practices over the period 2002–2011, and 2) national health interview surveys over the period 2001–2011. Regression models were used to study trends in the prevalence-rates over time, with and without standardization for age. Results An increase from 34.9% to 41.8% (p<0.01) in the prevalence of chronic diseases was observed in the general practice registration over the period 2004–2011 and from 41.0% to 46.6% (p<0.01) based on self-reported diseases over the period 2001–2011. Multimorbidity increased from 12.7% to 16.2% (p<0.01) and from 14.3% to 17.5% (p<0.01), respectively. Aging of the population explained part of these trends: about one-fifth based on general practice data, and one-third for chronic diseases and half of the trend for multimorbidity based on health surveys. Conclusions The prevalence of chronic diseases and multimorbidity increased over the period 2001–2011. Aging of the population only explained part of the increase, implying that other factors such as health care and society-related developments are responsible for a substantial part of this rise.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in posttraumatic stress disorder: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

OBJECTIVE The efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the right prefrontal cortex was studied in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) under double-blind, placebo-controlled conditions. METHOD Twenty-four patients with PTSD were randomly assigned to receive rTMS at low frequency (1 Hz) or high frequency (10 Hz) or sham rTMS in a double-blind design. Treatment was administered in 10 daily sessions over 2 weeks. Severity of PTSD, depression, and anxiety were blindly assessed before, during, and after completion of the treatment protocol. RESULTS The 10 daily treatments of 10-Hz rTMS at 80% motor threshold over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex had therapeutic effects on PTSD patients. PTSD core symptoms (reexperiencing, avoidance) markedly improved with this treatment. Moreover, high-frequency rTMS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alleviated anxiety symptoms in PTSD patients. CONCLUSIONS This double-blind, controlled trial suggests that in PTSD patients, 10 daily sessions of right dorsolateral prefrontal rTMS at a frequency of 10 Hz have greater therapeutic effects than slow-frequency or sham stimulation.
The impact of anxiety on analogical reasoning

The effect of state anxiety on analogical reasoning was investigated by examining qualitative differences in mapping performance between anxious and non-anxious individuals reasoning about pictorial analogies. The working-memory restriction theory of anxiety, coupled with theories of analogy that link complexity of mapping with working-memory capacity, predicts that high anxiety will impair the ability to find correspondences based on relations between multiple objects relative to correspondences based on overlap of attributes between individual objects. Anxiety was induced in one condition by a stressful speeded subtraction task administered prior to the analogy task. Anxious participants produced fewer relational responses and more attribute responses than did non-anxious participants, both in the absence of explicit instructions to find relational mappings (Experiment 1) and after receiving such instructions (Experiment 2). The findings support the postulated links among anxiety, working memory, and the ability to perform complex analogical mapping.
Frequency selective surface with simple configuration stepped-impedance elements

A novel approach to design a miniaturized frequency selective surface (FSS) is proposed. The miniaturization is achieved by enhancing the inductance of the proposed stepped-impedance array element. This enhancement is done by using a micro-wire and controlling the path of the current which passes through the metallic surface of the element. As a result, the dimensions of the miniaturized element are much smaller than the wavelength at the resonant frequency. The proposed FSS consists of a single metal layer on a dielectric substrate with a simple configuration. Through an example with a pass-band at 3GHz, it is demonstrated that a stable resonant frequency response under various incident of angle (up to 88°) can be achieved, which is the most attractive feature of this design. Also the proposed design has the same response for the Transverse Magnetic (TM) and Transverse Electric (TE) modes. In addition, a single polarized FSS with simple configuration is exhibited. The miniaturized element is much smaller than the wavelength (up to 0.055 λ). It displays insensitive frequency response of different angle of incident wave.
Radiation-Induced Conductivity of Space Used Polymers Under High Energy Electron Irradiation

Polymers are widely used on spacecraft for different specific functions such as thermal and electrical insulation, mechanical support, and adhesion. These polymers are highly sensitive to radiation encountered in space. Their electric properties are especially significantly altered leading to a very specific behavior in terms of charge transport and discharge processes. Different dedicated facilities have been developed at ONERA, with Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales support, for the characterization of space used materials in representative conditions. Thanks to the use of these different facilities, it has indeed been demonstrated that radiation-induced conductivity of space polymers strongly affects the charging surface potential and depends on several parameters (radiation dose rate, total radiation dose, temperature, and on the induced electric field) through complex physical mechanisms that are described in this paper. The sensitivity of polymers on these different parameters strongly depends on the polymer trap distribution and molecular configuration. Experimental and numerical results are presented in this paper, coupled with the different experimental techniques developed and applied to this work.
An objective method of measuring texture preservation for camcorder performance evaluation

This paper presents a method for evaluating the performance of camcorders in terms of texture preservation, taking into account the contrast sensitivity function of human visual system. A quality metric called texture preservation ratio (TPR) is the outcome of the method. It quantifies to what extent texture structures are preserved in a video recorded by a camcorder. In our experiments, we used the dead leaves chart to simulate a scene with textures of different scales. The dead leaves chart is known as a good target for testing purposes because it is invariant to scaling, translation, rotation, and contrast (exposure) adjustment. Experimental results have shown the following observations on five tested camcorders from three different vendors: 1) the TPR value decreases monotonically with respect to the motion speed; 2) the TPR value increases monotonically with respect to the lossy compression bitrates. Thereby, our study has confirmed TPR as a useful indicator for measuring a camcorder's performance in terms of preserving textures.
Engaging Students via Social Media

This article explores for the first time the moderating effect of students’ readiness for cocreation on the student social media engagement and perceived value relationship. Ping’s and Cadogan et al.’s procedures for assessing the structural model with interaction terms were followed. Results based on a sample of 353 university students demonstrated that students who are ready to participate in value creation tend to perceive more value from social media engagement. In particular, when the students perceive role clarity, have higher ability, and are motivated to take active part in creating value, they report high functional, social, and emotional value. This research is expected to impart key insights for scholars, as well as educators and policy makers in tertiary institutions seeking to further understand the nascent student social media engagement concept, and the nature of the student social media engagement/perceived value nexus. A series of recommendations are offered to assist faculty efforts to enhance students’ willingness to take active part in value creation. The article concludes with an overview of key research limitations and implications.
Grammar Constraints : Combining Expressiveness with Efficiency

Constraints based on formal languages represent variables as a string to be derived from a given grammar. Such representations hold promise for solving combinatorial problems in scheduling and rostering. In this thesis, we devise a time-and space-efficient incremental arcconsistency algorithm for constraints based on context-free grammars. Our experiments on a shift-scheduling problem show massive speed-ups for the incremental algorithm compared to its non-incremental counterpart. We further compare our results against an alternative algorithm based on AND/OR decomposition.
HPV-Positive Oropharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective Human papillomavirus-positive (HPV+) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is increasing in incidence and appears to exhibit improved response to treatment and better survival than that of HPV– head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the current literature regarding treatment and prognosis of HPV+ oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and identify whether type of treatment (primarily surgery vs primarily radiation) significantly affects survival rates. Data Sources PubMed and Cochrane Library databases. Review Methods A computerized search of the PubMed and Cochrane Library databases was performed to identify English-language articles published between January 1, 2000, and October 21, 2014. Studies were included only if they were prospective or retrospective observational series of OPSCC patients that reported HPV status, treatment regimen, and survival outcomes. Outcomes were determined for HPV+ and HPV– OPSCC patients, with subanalyses according to the type of treatment received. Results Fifty-six articles were eligible for this review. In the HPV+ analysis, the unadjusted hazard rate ratio (HR) for surgery vs radiation treatment was 1.33 (P = .114). Nine confounders were considered, and HRs were adjusted for each covariate. While HRs were almost all >1 for all covariates, none of the HRs was statistically significant at P < . 05. The HR for HPV– OPSCC was higher for radiation than surgery. Conclusions HPV+ OPSCC has an improved prognosis and lower rates of adverse events when compared with HPV– OPSCC. HPV– OPSCC had significantly worse outcomes when treated with primary radiation as compared with primary surgery. There was no statistically significant difference in HRs for HPV+ OPSCC with primary radiation vs primary surgery treatment.
11 implementation of arbitrary-rank tensors for high-performance computing

This article discusses an efficient implementation of tensors of arbitrary rank by using some of the idioms introduced by the recently published C++ ISO Standard (C++11). With the aims at providing a basic building block for high-performance computing, a single Array class template is carefully crafted, from which vectors, matrices, and even higher-order tensors can be created. An expression template facility is also built around the array class template to provide convenient mathematical syntax. As a result, by using templates, an extra high-level layer is added to the C++ language when dealing with algebraic objects and their operations, without compromising performance. The implementation is tested running on both CPU and GPU.
CUE WEIGHTING OF STATIC AND DYNAMIC VOWEL PROPERTIES BY ADULTS AND CHILDREN WITH NORMAL LANGUAGE AND SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children with and without language impairment give more perceptual weight than do adults to dynamic spectral cues versus static cues, when identifying vowel sounds. Three experimental stimulus sets were presented, each with 30 ms stimuli. The first consisted of unchanging formant onset frequencies ranging in value from frequencies for [i] to those for [], corresponding to a bilabial stop consonant. The second two consisted of either an [i] or [] onset frequency with a 25 ms portion of a formant transition whose trajectory was toward one of a series of target frequencies ranging from those for [i] to those for []. Ten typically developing children between the ages of 3;8 and 4;1, seven children with specific language impairment (SLI) between the ages of 5;1 and 6;11, and a control group of 10 adults identified each stimulus as [bi] or [b]. The results showed developmental effects: the typically developing children relied more heavily than the adults did on the static formant onset frequency cue to identify the vowels. The SLI children followed one of two perceptual profile patterns: 1) nonrandom perception of [] onset stimuli, but random perception of [i] onset stimuli; and 2) nonrandom perception of both [i] onset and [] onset stimuli, but phonetic boundaries different from typically developing children and adults. The results will be discussed in regard to the Developmental Perceptual Weighting Shift theory, and perceptual profile differences in SLI children.
Potential immunogenicity of adult T cell leukemia cells in vivo

Experimental vaccines targeting human T cell leukemia virus type‐I (HTLV‐I) Tax have been demonstrated in a rat model of HTLV‐I‐induced lymphomas. However, the scarcity of HTLV‐I‐expression and the presence of defective HTLV‐I‐proviruses in adult T cell leukemia (ATL) cells have raised controversy about the therapeutic potential of HTLV‐I‐targeted immunotherapy in humans. We investigated the expression of HTLV‐I antigens in fresh ATL cells by using both in vitro and in vivo assays. In flow cytometric analysis, we found that 3 of 5 acute‐type and six of fifteen chronic‐type ATL patients tested showed significant induction of HTLV‐I Tax and Gag in their ATL cells in a 1‐day culture. Concomitantly with HTLV‐I‐expression, these ATL cells expressed co‐stimulatory molecules such as CD80, CD86 and OX40, and showed elevated levels of antigenicity against allogeneic T cells and HTLV‐I Tax‐specific cytotoxic T‐lymphocytes (CTL). Representative CTL epitopes restricted by HLA‐A2 or A24 were conserved in 4 of 5 acute‐type ATL patients tested. Furthermore, spleen T cells from rats, which had been subcutaneously inoculated with formalin‐fixed uncultured ATL cells, exhibited a strong interferon gamma‐producing helper T cell responses specific for HTLV‐I Tax‐expressing cells. Our study indicated that ATL cells from about half the patients tested readily express HTLV‐I antigens including Tax in vitro, and that ATL cells express sufficient amounts of Tax or Tax‐induced antigens to evoke specific T cell responses in vivo. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Micrometric control of a mechatronic linear servo system with NPID and adaptive approximation

This paper proposes a scheme for position control of a mechatronic servo-system based on gain-scheduled PIDs (known as NPID in related literature) and adaptive approximation of uncertainties. NPID and adaptive approximation are combined in a constructive way to inherit advantages and overcome limitations of the single methods. In particular, NPID is used to stabilize the nominal plant, and its gains are scheduled so as to minimize the effects of friction and other uncertainties. Adaptive approximation is used to compensate further effects of nonlinearities, and obtain a better overall tracking accuracy. A report on an extensive experimental investigation is provided to illustrate the practical advantages of the proposed scheme.
cis modification of the steroid 21-hydroxylase gene prevents its expression in the Y1 mouse adrenocortical tumor cell line.

The Y1 mouse adrenocortical tumor cell line retains the ability to synthesize and secrete steroids, but does not express steroid 21-hydroxylase (C21) and, therefore, does not produce 21-hydroxylated steroids. In this investigation the mechanisms underlying the loss of C21 activity in the Y1 cell line were explored. A 9-kilobase BglII fragment containing the C21 gene was cloned from the Y1 genome. This genomic clone directed the synthesis of C21 transcripts and 21-hydroxylated steroid products when transfected back into the Y1 cell line. As determined by restriction endonuclease digestions with MspI and HpaII, enzymes that distinguish between unmethylated and methylated CCGG sites, the endogenous C21 gene was extensively methylated in Y1 adrenal cells and in cells from other mouse tissues that do not normally express this gene. In contrast, the C21 gene was hypomethylated in primary cultures of mouse adrenal cells which normally synthesize large amounts of C21. The cloned C21 gene transfected into Y1 cells initially was unmethylated, but became extensively methylated with prolonged culture of the cells; prolonged culture of these transfectants also resulted in a loss of C21 expression. Loss of C21 expression in Y1 transfectants, however, temporally preceded the extensive methylation of the transfected C21 gene. Furthermore, treatment of Y1 cells with 5-azacytidine caused a demethylation of the endogenous C21 gene, but did not result in the recovery of C21 expression. These results indicate that Y1 cells contain a functional C21 gene that has been silenced by a reversible cis-modification event. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)