Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cellulose-Pectin Spatial Contacts Are Inherent to Never-Dried Arabidopsis Primary Cell Walls: Evidence from Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance1[OPEN]

Subnanometer pectin-cellulose contacts are an inherent organizational feature of the Arabidopsis primary cell wall. The structural role of pectins in plant primary cell walls is not yet well understood because of the complex and disordered nature of the cell wall polymers. We recently introduced multidimensional solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to characterize the spatial proximities of wall polysaccharides. The data showed extensive cross peaks between pectins and cellulose in the primary wall of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), indicating subnanometer contacts between the two polysaccharides. This result was unexpected because stable pectin-cellulose interactions are not predicted by in vitro binding assays and prevailing cell wall models. To investigate whether the spatial contacts that give rise to the cross peaks are artifacts of sample preparation, we now compare never-dried Arabidopsis primary walls with dehydrated and rehydrated samples. One-dimensional 13C spectra, two-dimensional 13C-13C correlation spectra, water-polysaccharide correlation spectra, and dynamics data all indicate that the structure, mobility, and intermolecular contacts of the polysaccharides are indistinguishable between never-dried and rehydrated walls. Moreover, a partially depectinated cell wall in which 40% of homogalacturonan is extracted retains cellulose-pectin cross peaks, indicating that the cellulose-pectin contacts are not due to molecular crowding. The cross peaks are observed both at −20°C and at ambient temperature, thus ruling out freezing as a cause of spatial contacts. These results indicate that rhamnogalacturonan I and a portion of homogalacturonan have significant interactions with cellulose microfibrils in the native primary wall. This pectin-cellulose association may be formed during wall biosynthesis and may involve pectin entrapment in or between cellulose microfibrils, which cannot be mimicked by in vitro binding assays.
The Occurrence and Toxicity of Indospicine to Grazing Animals

Indospicine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid which occurs in Indigofera species with widespread prevalence in grazing pastures across tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. It accumulates in the tissues of grazing livestock after ingestion of Indigofera. It is a competitive inhibitor of arginase and causes both liver degeneration and abortion. Indospicine hepatoxicity occurs universally across animal species but the degree varies considerably between species, with dogs being particularly sensitive. The magnitude of canine sensitivity is such that ingestion of naturally indospicine-contaminated horse and camel meat has caused secondary poisoning of dogs, raising significant industry concern. Indospicine impacts on the health and production of grazing animals per se has been less widely documented. Livestock grazing Indigofera have a chronic and cumulative exposure to this toxin, with such exposure experimentally shown to induce both hepatotoxicity and embryo-lethal effects in cattle and sheep. In extensive pasture systems, where animals are not closely monitored, the resultant toxicosis may well occur after prolonged exposure but either be undetected, or even if detected not be attributable to a particular cause. Indospicine should be considered as a possible cause of animal poor performance, particularly reduced weight gain or reproductive losses, in pastures where Indigofera are prevalent.
Teaching mathematics in geography degrees: Motivation, necessities and approach

Abstract Within the constraints of viewing geography as an applied discipline with a large number of arts‐based students, the primary problem of teaching mathematics in a geography degree is argued to be one of contending the motivation for a symbolic and analytical approach. This paper explores ways in which motivation for mathematics can be impressed on students and then discusses those areas of mathematics necessary in geography. The final section explores an applied approach to mathematics teaching based on the concept of systems.
Stability of Source Localization with LORETA of Visual Target Processing

Abstract This study investigates whether LORETA, a method of source localization of EEG data, reveals replicable and valid sources of event-related potentials (ERPs), which are supposed to be generated in a widespread cortical network. For that purpose, the ERPs in a rare primer (= target) and a frequent distractor condition (= nontarget) of a visually presented Continuous Performance Test (CPT) were analyzed in two independent samples of healthy subjects (n1 = 49, n2 = 38). At about 420ms significantly higher global field power values (GFP) were observed in the target condition as compared to the nontarget condition. For both samples the LORETA source localization revealed significantly higher activation for the target-condition as compared to the nontarget condition in the anterior cingulum, the precuneus and superior-posterior parietal cortex (parietal lobe), the insula, and the fusiform gyrus (temporal lobe). Only in the second sample were widespread areas in the frontal cortex also activated. The res.
NONUNIFORM SPARSE RECOVERY WITH FUSION FRAMES

Fusion frames are generalizations of classical frames that provide a richer description of signal spaces where subspaces are used in the place of vectors as signal building blocks. The main idea of this work is to extend ideas from Compressed Sensing (CS) to a fusion frame setup. We use a sparsity model for fusion frames and then show that sparse signals under this model can be compressively sampled and reconstructed in ways similar to standard CS. In particular we invoke a mixed `1/`2 norm minimization in order to reconstruct sparse signals. The novelty of our research is to exploit an incoherence property of the fusion frame which allows us to reduce the number of measurements needed for sparse recovery.
Coping experience among students in higher education

The study examines the coping strategies among 130 undergraduate college and university students with learning disabilities (LD) and 146 students without learning disabilities (NLD). Students completed self‐reported instruments designed to measure stress, support and strategies. The findings revealed that students without LD reported higher work stress, higher combined stress and more social support than did students with LD. Students without LD were more task orientated and perceived more support than students with LD, while students with LD used more emotional coping strategies than NLD students. Differences were also obtained regarding age and gender. The study highlights the importance of further investigations with a larger sample and the support sources of students with LD, and suggests developing task‐oriented coping strategies designed especially for students with LD. Background variables of participants Students with LD Students without LD Variables (n=130) (n=146) Gender Male, 62, 60 Female, 68, 86 Area of studies: Humanities1, 10, 4 Social Sciences2, 88, 83 Natural Sciences3, 10, 16 Exact Sciences4, 15, 25 Not reported, 7, 18 Personal status: Single, 89, 93 Married, 41, 50 Divorced, 0, 3 Notes: 1Humanities: Literature, Judaic Studies, History, Art, Music. 2Social Sciences: Psychology, Education, Economics, Management, Sociology, Communication Studies. 3Natural Sciences: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology. 4Exact Sciences: Mathematics, Computer Science. Notes: aRanged from 1 to 4; c ranged from 1 to 5; branged from 1 to 7. , *p <0.05; **p <0.01; ***p <0.001
Elimination of exposure artifacts in predicted images by means of an adaptive circular median filter

A post-processing algorithm for the elimination of exposure artifacts in predicted images based on an adaptive circular median filter (ACMF) is presented. Such problems arise in the context of predicted based image generation for virtual environments. The ACMF processes pixels stemming from the neighborhood of the artifact areas. The filter mask takes only such pixels into account which represent correct color information and belong to objects which have been affected by exposure artifacts.
The impact of educational policy on headship in primary schools in England, 1994‐2001

This article traces the impact of educational policy on the role of primary head teachers in Britain spanning the end of the New Right and the start of the New Left policy implementation processes. It is based on the reported perceptions of a sample of primary school head teachers who have been in post over the entire seven year period. It is argued that the conceptual framework derived from the early work on headship in the UK is still appropriate to an analysis of the role of the primary school head as both leading professional and chief executive but that the emphasis has shifted from one in which heads are selected from aspects of their role to one in which heads are now required to extend their involvement in school management across the main aspects of both parts of their role.
An Evaluation of Saxon’s Algebra Text

AbstractAn alternative teaching strategy for mathematics has been proposed and developed by John Saxon. Saxon has widely proclaimed that his product, based on his “incremental development” model, is superior to conventional methods. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the Saxon approach using Algebra I students. Students were divided into two groups for one academic year. One group (n = 136) received instruction from a traditional text; the other group (n = 140) used Saxon’s text. The groups were then compared using a quasi-experimental design on criterion variables from the cognitive (achievement) and the affective (attitude) domains. Saxon’s text was no more effective in the cognitive domain (and was less effective in one area); however, it was the more popular text from the perspective of teachers and students.
Learning Policies for Reliable Mobile Robot Localization

Cameras are a useful sensor for mobile robot localization because they are relatively cheap, compact, and lightweight. This makes them attractive for robots with payload limitations, such as humanoid robots or small unmanned aerial vehicles. However, fast movements typically reduce the ability to use a vision-based localization due to motion blur. In this thesis, we present a reinforcement learning approach for a robot learning a vision-based navigation policy. The learned policy minimizes the time to reach the destination and implicitly takes the impact of motion blur on landmark observations and thus on localization into account. Extensive simulated and real-world experiments show that our learned policy significantly outperforms any policy of moving with a constant velocity and is generally applicable to different environments. We experimentally determined the most relevant state features for the learning task. Additionally, we present a method for compressing the learned policy with a clustering approach. While the size of the policy representation is drastically reduced, our experiments show that there is no loss of performance. This is especially valuable for memory-constrained systems.
Development of a Novel Optical Biosensor for Detection of Organophoshorus Pesticides Based on Methyl Parathion Hydrolase Immobilized by Metal-Chelate Affinity

We have developed a novel optical biosensor device using recombinant methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH) enzyme immobilized on agarose by metal-chelate affinity to detect organophosphorus (OP) compounds with a nitrophenyl group. The biosensor principle is based on the optical measurement of the product of OP catalysis by MPH (p-nitrophenol). Briefly, MPH containing six sequential histidines (6× His tag) at its N-terminal was bound to nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) agarose with Ni ions, resulting in the flexible immobilization of the bio-reaction platform. The optical biosensing system consisted of two light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and one photodiode. The LED that emitted light at the wavelength of the maximum absorption for p-nitrophenol served as the signal light, while the other LED that showed no absorbance served as the reference light. The optical sensing system detected absorbance that was linearly correlated to methyl parathion (MP) concentration and the detection limit was estimated to be 4 μM. Sensor hysteresis was investigated and the results showed that at lower concentration range of MP the difference got from the opposite process curves was very small. With its easy immobilization of enzymes and simple design in structure, the system has the potential for development into a practical portable detector for field applications.
Empathy Fatigue: Healing the Mind, Body, and Spirit of Professional Counselors

Empathy fatigue results from a state of emotional, mental, physical, and occupational exhaustion that occurs as the counselor's own wounds are continually revisited by the client's life stories of chronic illness, disability, trauma, grief, and loss. Fundamental to the emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of professional counselors are the self-care strategies that promote resiliency for the prevention of empathy fatigue. This type of “fatigue reaction” and its consequences has been recognized as “counselor impairment” by the American Counseling Association's (ACA) Task Force on Counselor Wellness and Impairment. This article: (a) provides an analysis of empathy fatigue from a mind, body, and spiritual perspective, and (b) delineates variables that should be helpful in the prevention and self-care strategies for professional counselors.
Freedom's Web: Student Activism in an Age of Cultural Diversity

From the Mills College strike of 1990 to the Chicano Studies movement at UCLA, from African-American student unrest at Rutgers University in 1995 to student protest in California against the passage of propositions 187 and 209, issues of cultural diversity have rocked college campuses for much of this decade. The author of this study locates the key to understanding renewed student activism in the 1990s within the struggle over multiculturalism. He focuses on how students have utilized what many scholars describe, both affectionately and pejoratively, as "identity politics" to advance various concerns tied to diversity issues. While the 1970s and much of the 1980s were relatively quiet decades in comparison to the 1960s, the divestment movement of the mid-1980s served as a catalyst for multicultural reform of the American campus. Thus, in the 1990s, students once again began to turn to campus demonstration as a means to advance social change. Through illustrative case studies, Rhoads reveals the connections between contemporary student activism and the campus unrest of the 1960s and the effors of a previous generation of student activists to advance participatory democracy and civil rights.
Positive and Negative Affect in Social Interactions as a Function of Partner Familiarity, Quality of Communication, and Social Anxiety

Socially anxious people often report high negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA). This mood state may be associated with elevated or undesired social evaluation, such as interactions with unfamiliar people or poor quality communication. In this study, high and low anxious undergraduates completed structured diaries assessing interaction partner familiarity, quality of communication, PA, and NA after conversations in their natural environment. Results supported hypotheses of higher NA and lower quality of communication intheanxiousgroup. In addition, quality of communication and familiarity were differently related to NA in the high versus low anxious groups. Results suggest that social-interaction parameters affect high anxious individuals' mood. Implications of the current social interaction based results are contrasted with time-interval diary research.
Political Process Sequencing in the Institutionalisation of Human Rights in Taiwan

Scholarly works on Taiwan’s transformations have usually followed either an exclusive state-centred or society-centred approach in the study of the instutionalisation of human rights on the island. Using a state–society framework, this article investigates the extent of institutionalisation of human rights in Taiwan’s transitional society. Covering origin, transformation, impediments and espousals, creation of governmental and non-governmental institutions and re-institutionalisation, as junctures in the sequence of institutionalisation of human rights, this work helps to generate a better understanding of the transition and of the social and political forces that have contributed to this process in contemporary Taiwan. The inclusions and exclusions with respect to the societal factors and an inquiry into the nature of power distribution and state legitimacy could divulge the inputs for such an inquiry. Multiple factors influence the institutionalisation process and the transformation is necessarily a gradual and often pain-ful one, since efforts have to be geared towards both promoting and preserving the gains and preventing any backsliding.
The Effect of Couple Disagreement about Child-Timing Intentions: A Parity-Specific Approach

type="main"> Using couple data from a longitudinal study conducted in Italy, a country with persistently low fertility levels, we examined the effect of partners' discrepant child-timing intentions on reproductive behavior. We found that the effect of couple disagreement on subsequent fertility is parity-specific and does not depend on whether only the male or the female partner intends to have a(nother) child. The disagreement tends to produce an intermediate childbearing outcome at parities zero and one, while the outcome is shifted more toward agreement on not having a(nother) child at parity two. The empirical evidence suggests that gender equality in reproductive decisionmaking is not driven by partners' equal bargaining power or partners' equal access to economic resources. The findings indicate that the predictive power of child-timing intentions strongly improves if both partners' views are considered in fertility models, and thus support the adoption of couple analysis in fertility research.
Early Visual Word Processing Is Flexible: Evidence from Spatiotemporal Brain Dynamics

Visual word recognition is often described as automatic, but the functional locus of top–down effects is still a matter of debate. Do task demands modulate how information is retrieved, or only how it is used? We used EEG/MEG recordings to assess whether, when, and how task contexts modify early retrieval of specific psycholinguistic information in occipitotemporal cortex, an area likely to contribute to early stages of visual word processing. Using a parametric approach, we analyzed the spatiotemporal response patterns of occipitotemporal cortex for orthographic, lexical, and semantic variables in three psycholinguistic tasks: silent reading, lexical decision, and semantic decision. Task modulation of word frequency and imageability effects occurred simultaneously in ventral occipitotemporal regions—in the vicinity of the putative visual word form area—around 160 msec, following task effects on orthographic typicality around 100 msec. Frequency and typicality also produced task-independent effects in anterior temporal lobe regions after 200 msec. The early task modulation for several specific psycholinguistic variables indicates that occipitotemporal areas integrate perceptual input with prior knowledge in a task-dependent manner. Still, later task-independent effects in anterior temporal lobes suggest that word recognition eventually leads to retrieval of semantic information irrespective of task demands. We conclude that even a highly overlearned visual task like word recognition should be described as flexible rather than automatic.
Study on target tracking algorithm integrating color and contour features

Aiming at the instability of traditional color feature tracking algorithm in some complex scenes, an object tracking algorithm with integrating color and contour features is proposed. The algorithm still uses the traditional particle filter to predict the target, but in iteration every time, when searching the best position of the target, the color and contour information of the target can be adaptively combined. Experiments show that it shows good effectiveness and robustness compared with the traditional algorithms when the target is interfered between similar colors or the target is partially obscured.
Two-Level QR Code for Private Message Sharing and Document Authentication

The quick response (QR) code was designed for storage information and high-speed reading applications. In this paper, we present a new rich QR code that has two storage levels and can be used for document authentication. This new rich QR code, named two-level QR code, has public and private storage levels. The public level is the same as the standard QR code storage level; therefore, it is readable by any classical QR code application. The private level is constructed by replacing the black modules by specific textured patterns. It consists of information encoded using q-ary code with an error correction capacity. This allows us not only to increase the storage capacity of the QR code, but also to distinguish the original document from a copy. This authentication is due to the sensitivity of the used patterns to the print-and-scan (P&S) process. The pattern recognition method that we use to read the second-level information can be used both in a private message sharing and in an authentication scenario. It is based on maximizing the correlation values between P&S degraded patterns and reference patterns. The storage capacity can be significantly improved by increasing the code alphabet q or by increasing the textured pattern size. The experimental results show a perfect restoration of private information. It also highlights the possibility of using this new rich QR code for document authentication.
Semantic Graphs for Mathematics Word Problems based on Mathematics Terminology

We present a graph-based approach to discover and extend semantic relationships found in a mathematics curriculum to more general network structures that can illuminate relationships within the instructional material. Using words representative of a secondary level mathematics curriculum we identified in separate work, we constructed two similarity networks of word problems in a mathematics textbook, and used analogous random walks over the two networks to discover patterns. The two graph walks provide similar global views of problem similarity within and across chapters, but are affected differently by number of math words in a problem and math word frequency.