Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Rare and Endangered Plant Species Pulsatilla patens (L.) Mill in East Central Europe

Pulsatilla patens s.s. is a one of the most endangered plant species in Europe. The present range of this species in Europe is highly fragmented and the size of the populations has been dramatically reduced in the past 50 years. The rapid disappearance of P. patens localities in Europe has prompted the European Commission to initiate active protection of this critically endangered species. The aim of this study was to estimate the degree and distribution of genetic diversity within European populations of this endangered species. We screened 29 populations of P. patens using a set of six microsatellite primers. The results of our study indicate that the analyzed populations are characterized by low levels of genetic diversity (Ho = 0.005) and very high levels of inbreeding (FIS = 0.90). These results suggest that genetic erosion could be partially responsible for the lower fitness in smaller populations of this species. Private allelic richness was very low, being as low as 0.00 for most populations. Average genetic diversity over loci and mean number of alleles in P. patens populations were significantly correlated with population size, suggesting severe genetic drift. The results of AMOVA point to higher levels of variation within populations than between populations.The results of Structure and PCoA analyses suggest that the genetic structure of the studied P. patens populations fall into three clusters corresponding to geographical regions. The most isolated populations (mostly from Romania) formed a separate group with a homogeneous gene pool located at the southern, steppic part of the distribution range. Baltic, mostly Polish, populations fall into two genetic groups which were not fully compatible with their geographic distribution.Our results indicate the serious genetic depauperation of P. patens in the western part of its range, even hinting at an ongoing extinction vortex. Therefore, special conservation attention is required to maintain the populations of this highly endangered species of European Community interest.
The spirituality of Soelle’s liberation theology in social innovation: empirical research into a ‘via transformativa’ for organizations

Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with five Dutch socially innovative pioneers we find that there is a significant match between the actions and the experiences of the pioneers and the spirituality of Soelle’s liberation theology. Studying actual processes of social innovation in organizations from the perspective of Dorothee Soelle’s liberation theology may thus provide various issues for triggering mystagogic development. Mystagogic counseling inspired by Soelle’s liberation theology may help organizations to deepen their understanding of the processes of social innovation they are involved in.
M-ATCP: Modified-ATCP for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

In TCP/IP suite transport layer protocol Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was initially used for secure connectionoriented host-to-host transmission of the packet over wired networks. When this TCP is implement over wireless mobile networks environments, its leads to reduced throughput. It has been observed that when the wired TCP is apply in wireless environments, problems are not always due to network congestion state, but rather they are mostly because of high bit error rates, frequency of route failure, and topological network changes. Researchers have suggested a solution to inset a layer employment, a new layer between network and transport layer called ATCP (ad-hoc TCP). ATCP works over the sender node only and assuming that the sender node being always reachable: which is not always possible to meet in wireless mobile networks environments. Authors proposed an approach based on the local route request (LRREQ) packet, which is capable of mitigating ATCP, the assumption is that the sender node is always in the reachable state as well as intermediate link failure, which is also repaired with LRREQ mechanism.
Explicating race privilege: examining symbolic barriers to Aboriginal and non-indigenous partnership

Processes of racialisation and patterns of privilege continue to structure relations between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australia. This study explored the everyday ways race is reinscribed and unequal relations of power expressed, constituted and legitimised in a context marked by a history of oppressive colonisation. Conceptualising barriers to partnership as ideologically reproduced through discourse, critical discourse analysis was utilised to examine non-Indigenous and Aboriginal participants' understandings of the history of poor relations between groups. Participants were four male and three female non-Indigenous local government representatives and five female and four male Aboriginal community members, recruited for semi-structured interviews or a focus group. We focus the first part of our analysis on the discourse of ‘abstract liberalism’, which was identified in local government representatives' talk. Arguably, this hegemonic discourse, which reflects a monological conception of the world, is indicative of the circuits and consequences of dispossession within this particular local context. The discourse of ‘disregard’, mobilised by Aboriginal participants, demonstrates the continuity of coloniality and offers a counter story to the dominant ideological narrative. Explicating the reproduction of race privilege, while engaging with Indigenous knowledge as a space of critique and resistance is discussed as central to decolonisation and anti-racism praxis.
Region of Cameroon Antigens in a Malaria-Endemic falciparum Plasmodium Fetal Immune Responses to

Plasmodium falciparum infection during pregnancy can lead to the transplacental passage of malarial Ags that are capable of inducing acquired immune responses in the fetus. Studies have identiﬁed cytokines produced by malaria-speciﬁc cord blood (CB) T cells, but information on fetal B cells is limited. Thus, CB mononuclear cells from 120 Cameroonian newborns were cultured for 7 days in vitro and supernatants were assessed by ELISA for Abs to an extract of malarial schizonts (MA), recombinant apical merozoite Ag 1 (AMA-1), the 42-kDa C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP-1 42 ), a B epitope of ring-infected erythrocyte surface Ag (RESA), and the dominant B epitope of the circumsporozoite protein (CSP). Only 12% of supernatants contained IgM to MA but 78% had IgG to one or more malarial Ags, with 53% having IgG to AMA-1, 38% to MSP-1 42 , 3% to RESA, and 0% to CSP. The Abs to AMA-1 and MSP-1 42 were predominantly IgG1 and IgG3. CB mononuclear cells were also tested for the ability to secrete cytokines in response to MA and a pool of conserved MSP-1 T cell epitopes. Among the Ag-reactive samples, 39.3% produced only Th2-type cytokines, whereas 60.6% produced a combination of Th1- and Th2-type cytokines. Although a Th2 bias was observed, the in utero cytokine environment was adequate to support isotype switching to cytophilic IgGs, the isotypes that are protective in adults . Because many infants living in a low transmission area are born with malaria-speciﬁc B and T cells, the inﬂuence
An Investigation of Performance Bottlenecks in a Main-Memory Database Management System

The rise of Internet-based applications means that database management systems (DBMSs) need to support a large number of concurrent clients issuing transaction requests. But the speed in which traditional DBMS are able to access data is insufficient because of the limited bandwidth of disk storage devices. Main memory database management systems (MMDBMS) [16] store data entirely in memory to overcome the high latency of these storage devices. Furthermore, a DBMS running on a single-core processor system reaches the computation limitation to process multiple requests efficiently because of the contention overhead from many concurrent requests. The arrival of multi-core processors makes parallel computing possible in a single system. But although multi-core processors have more computational power, executing transactions in the correct order makes it difficult for a DBMS to take advantage of them. In this paper, we explore the different types of bottlenecks found in MMDBMS when it is running on a multi-core system. Particularly, we use the H-Store MMDBMS as our test bed for this work. We identify three key issues, namely, excessive allocated objects, lock contentions, and recovery logging overhead as the main factors in preventing H-Store from scalability. We describe how to fix these issues, evaluate the performance of H-Store before and after these fixes, and show that we are able to improve throughput by 70%.
Impact of Glucose Tolerance Status, Sex, and Body Size on Glucose Absorption Patterns During OGTTs

OBJECTIVE We studied whether patterns of glucose absorption during oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) were abnormal in individuals with impaired glucose regulation and whether they were related to sex and body size (height and fat-free mass). We also examined how well differences in insulin sensitivity and β-cell function measured by gold-standard tests were reflected in the corresponding OGTT-derived estimates. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS With validated methods, various aspects of glucose absorption were estimated from 12-point, 3-h, 75-g OGTTs in 66 individuals with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), isolated impaired fasting glucose (i-IFG), or isolated impaired glucose tolerance (i-IGT). Insulin sensitivity and β-cell function were measured with the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp and intravenous glucose tolerance tests, respectively. Surrogate markers of both conditions were calculated from OGTTs. RESULTS More rapid glucose absorption (P ≤ 0.036) and reduced late glucose absorption (P ≤ 0.039) were observed in the i-IFG group relative to NGT and i-IGT groups. Women with i-IGT had a lower early glucose absorption than did men with i-IGT (P = 0.041); however, this difference did not persist when differences in body size were taken into account (P > 0.28). Faster glucose absorption was related to higher fasting (P = 0.001) and lower 2-h (P = 0.001) glucose levels and to greater height and fat-free mass (P < 0.001). All OGTT-derived measures of insulin sensitivity, but only one of three measures of β-cell function, reflected the differences for these parameters between those with normal and impaired glucose regulation as measured by gold-standard tests. CONCLUSIONS Glucose absorption patterns during an OGTT are significantly related to plasma glucose levels and body size, which should be taken into account when estimating β-cell function from OGTTs in epidemiological studies.
Atypical Manifestation of LRBA Deficiency with Predominant IBD-like Phenotype

Background:Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) denote a heterogeneous group of disorders associated with an imbalance of gut microbiome and the immune system. Importance of the immune system in the gut is endorsed by the presence of IBD-like symptoms in several primary immunodeficiencies. A fraction of early-onset IBDs presenting with more severe disease course and incomplete response to conventional treatment is assumed to be inherited in a Mendelian fashion, as exemplified by the recent discovery of interleukin (IL)-10 (receptor) deficiency. Methods:We analyzed a patient born to consanguineous parents suffering from severe intestinal manifestations since 6 months of age and later diagnosed as IBD. Eventually, she developed autoimmune manifestations including thyroiditis and type I diabetes at the age of 6 and 9 years, respectively. Combined single-nucleotide polymorphism array-based homozygosity mapping and exome sequencing was performed to identify the underlying genetic defect. Protein structural predictions were calculated using I-TASSER. Immunoblot was performed to assess protein expression. Flow cytometric analysis was applied to investigate B-cell subpopulations. Results:We identified a homozygous missense mutation (p.Ile2824Pro) in lipopolysaccharide-responsive and beige-like anchor (LRBA) affecting the C-terminal WD40 domain of the protein. In contrast to previously published LRBA-deficient patients, the mutant protein was expressed at similar levels to healthy controls. Immunophenotyping of the index patient revealed normal B-cell subpopulations except increased CD21low B cells. Conclusions:We describe a patient with a novel missense mutation in LRBA who presented with IBD-like symptoms at early age, illustrating that LRBA deficiency should be considered in the differential diagnosis for IBD(-like) disease even in the absence of overt immunodeficiency.
Implementing SAP R/3 in a Multi-Cultural Organization

Enterprise Resource Planning systems allow multi -cultural organizations to harmonize and coordinate their business processes across functional departments and geographical boundaries. However, in spite of multi -language support and configuration flexibilit y, the technology itself cannot ensure that the implemented system satisfies all parts of the organization. In this paper, we present some of the experiences from implementing SAP R/3 in Hydro Agri Europe (HAE). Represented with plants and front off ices in nine European countries, HAE needed a deliberate strategy for dealing with multiple cultures, legal systems, and languages when they decided to reengineer the organization and implement SAP. The strategy as a whole was successful, though there were culture-dependent issues coming up during the project that led to more expensive solutions and a less harmonized organization. We discuss the approach taken by HAE and sum up the positive and negative experiences from the project.
Skeeter Buster: A Stochastic, Spatially Explicit Modeling Tool for Studying Aedes aegypti Population Replacement and Population Suppression Strategies

Background Dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease affecting humans. The only prevention measure currently available is the control of its vectors, primarily Aedes aegypti. Recent advances in genetic engineering have opened the possibility for a new range of control strategies based on genetically modified mosquitoes. Assessing the potential efficacy of genetic (and conventional) strategies requires the availability of modeling tools that accurately describe the dynamics and genetics of Ae. aegypti populations. Methodology/Principal findings We describe in this paper a new modeling tool of Ae. aegypti population dynamics and genetics named Skeeter Buster. This model operates at the scale of individual water-filled containers for immature stages and individual properties (houses) for adults. The biology of cohorts of mosquitoes is modeled based on the algorithms used in the non-spatial Container Inhabiting Mosquitoes Simulation Model (CIMSiM). Additional features incorporated into Skeeter Buster include stochasticity, spatial structure and detailed population genetics. We observe that the stochastic modeling of individual containers in Skeeter Buster is associated with a strongly reduced temporal variation in stage-specific population densities. We show that heterogeneity in container composition of individual properties has a major impact on spatial heterogeneity in population density between properties. We detail how adult dispersal reduces this spatial heterogeneity. Finally, we present the predicted genetic structure of the population by calculating FST values and isolation by distance patterns, and examine the effects of adult dispersal and container movement between properties. Conclusions/Significance We demonstrate that the incorporated stochasticity and level of spatial detail have major impacts on the simulated population dynamics, which could potentially impact predictions in terms of control measures. The capacity to describe population genetics confers the ability to model the outcome of genetic control methods. Skeeter Buster is therefore an important tool to model Ae. aegypti populations and the outcome of vector control measures.
Illustrating surface shape in volume data via principal direction-driven 3D line integral convolution

Abstract : The three dimensional shape and relative depth of a smoothly curving layered transparent surface may be communicated particularly effectively when the surface is artistically enhanced with sparsely distributed opaque detail. This paper describes how the set of principal directions and principal curvatures specified by local geometric operators can be understood to define a natural 'flow' over the surface of an object, and can be used to guide the placement of the lines of a stroke texture that seeks to represent 3D shape information in a perceptually intuitive way. The driving application for this work is the visualization of layered isovalue surfaces in volume data, where the particular identity of an individual surface is not generally known a priori and observers will typically wish to view a variety of different level surfaces from the same distribution, superimposed over underlying opaque structures. By advecting an evenly distributed set of tiny opaque particles, and the empty space between them, via 3D line integral convolution through the vector field defined by the principal directions and principal curvatures of the level surfaces passing through each gridpoint of a 3D volume, it is possible to generate a single scan-converted solid stroke texture that may intuitively represent the essential shape information of any level surface in the volume. To generate longer strokes over more highly curved areas, where the directional information is both most stable and most relevant, and to simultaneously downplay the visual impact of directional information in the flatter regions, one may dynamically redefine the length of the filter kernel according to the magnitude of the maximum principal curvature of the level surface at the point around which it is applied.
Party pills and drug-drug interactions.

AIM This study aimed to explore the potential for drug-drug interactions involving benzylpiperazine (BZP) and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP). This was achieved by determining the effects of BZP and TFMPP on the metabolism of drugs commonly found in the clinical setting by using pooled human liver microsomes. METHOD Incubations consisted of a probe substrate (drug of interest), a potential inhibitor (BZP or TFMPP), a suitable enzyme co-factor (NADPH), and pooled human liver microsomes. Loss of substrate was determined by analysing pre- and post-incubation concentrations in the samples by using HPLC/UV analysis. RESULTS Both TFMPP and BZP were found to inhibit the metabolism of dextromethorphan, caffeine, and ethinyloestradiol. These are reported substrates of CYP2D6, CYP1A2, and CYP3A4 respectively. Greater enzyme inhibition was observed in TFMPP microsomal assays in comparison to those using BZP. The metabolism of omeprazole was not affected, suggesting that BZP and TFMPP do not have a significant inhibitory effect on CYP2C19. CONCLUSION The inhibitory effects of BZP and TFMPP observed in this study are of potential significance to clinical practice because CYP2D6, CYP1A2, and CYP3A4 are involved in the metabolism of many commonly used drugs. Knowledge about the observed inhibitory effects will be a useful aid in preventing toxicity when drugs metabolised by these isoenzymes are taken with party pills.
The neural cell adhesion molecule L1 is distinct from the N‐CAM related group of surface antigens BSP‐2 and D2.

The neural cell adhesion molecule L1 and the group of N‐CAM related molecules, BSP‐2 and D2 antigen, are immunochemically distinct molecular species. The two groups of surface molecules are also functionally distinct entities, since inhibition of Ca2+‐independent adhesion among early post‐natal mouse cerebellar cells by Fab fragments of both antibodies are at least additive, when compared with equal concentrations of the individual antibodies.
ODMBP: Behavior Forwarding for Multiple Property Destinations in Mobile Social Networks

The smartphones are widely available in recent years. Wireless networks and personalized mobile devices are deeply integrated and embedded in our lives. The behavior based forwarding has become a new transmission paradigm for supporting many novel applications. However, the commodities, services, and individuals usually have multiple properties of their interests and behaviors. In this paper, we profile these multiple properties and propose an Opportunistic Dissemination Protocol based on Multiple Behavior Profile, ODMBP, in mobile social networks. We first map the interest space to the behavior space and extract the multiple behavior profiles from the behavior space. Then, we propose the correlation computing model based on the principle of BM25 to calculate the correlation metric of multiple behavior profiles. The correlation metric is used to forward the message to the users who are more similar to the target in our protocol. ODMBP consists of three stages: user initialization, gradient ascent, and group spread. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed multiple behavior profile and correlation computing model are correct and efficient. Compared to other classical routing protocols, ODMBP can significantly improve the performance in the aspect of delivery ratio, delay, and overhead ratio.
Relayed Multicast Scheme in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Systems

We propose a novel multicast scheme that can provide quality-of-service (QoS) to multicast service over IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs by utilizing MAC layer relay. We develop the distributed relay node selection algorithm and the relay channel selection algorithm. The effectiveness of proposed scheme is examined by simulation. Simulation results show that the proposed relayed multicast significantly improves throughput and delay performance.
Millimeter wave thin metasurface enabling polarization-controlled beam shaping

This paper presents a novel Metasurface exhibiting different beam shaping characteristics according to the polarization of incident waves. The Metasurface is composed of numerous unit cells operating as a spatial phase filter providing different phase shifts depending to the incident polarization. Metallic patterns constituting the unit cell are designed to have different geometry along the two dimensional direction utilizing the proposed design methodologies. It is demonstrated that this structure can have different reactance value depending on the polarized direction of the incident waves. The proposed Metasurface is designed by arranging combinations of the unit cells having passband characteristic but different phase variations as a function of the incident polarization at 28 GHz. Finally, it is demonstrated that for x-polarized waves the proposed Metasurface operates as a convex lens achieving 13 dB gain enhancement while for y-polarized waves the Metasurface operates as frequency selective surface (FSS) just providing passband property without any gain enhancement.