Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surface morphology and morphometric analysis of sensilla of Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse): an SEM investigation.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES The sensilla and sensory mechanism play a significant role in hostseeking and oviposition behaviour of mosquitoes, which enable them to transmit various diseases to humans. Aedes albopictus (Skuse) has emerged as a major vector of Chikungunya virus in the recent epidemics in most parts of southern India. Studies on the sensory structures of dengue vector, Aedes aegypti (Linn) are comprehensive; whereas information on the sensillary systems of Asian tiger mosquito, Ae. albopictus is inadequate. Therefore, the present study has been carried out to observe various types of sensilla located on the antenna, maxillary palp, labial palp, tarsi and ovipositor of Ae. albopictus using scanning electron microscopy. METHODS The antennae, maxillary palpi, labellum, tarsi and ovipositor of 10 different female mosquito of Ae. albopictus were fixed individually in 2.5% glutaraldehyde solution, washed twice and dehydrated with ascending grades of ethanol. Samples were cleared with xylene, air-dried, mounted on stubs, gold coated in an ion-sputtering unit and the sensilla were viewed between 5 and 10 KV using FEI-Quanta 400-EDAX scanning electron microscope. ANOVA revealed significant differences in the morphometric features of various sensilla. RESULTS In the antenna Sensilla trichoidea are numerously distributed in all flagellar segments revealed four distinct subtypes. Two types of grooved peg sensilla were observed. Sensilla coeloconica was observed in the terminal flagellum of antenna and tarsomeres with large variation in diameter. Sensilla chaetica are distributed throughout the body and revealed greater variation in morphology and morphometric parameters. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION The significant difference among various types of sensilla would possibly reveal their functions. The porous sensilla are olfactory and contact chemoreceptors while the aporous sensilla would play the role of mechanoreception. Sensilla coeloconica on the antenna, tarsus showed major differences with Ae. aegypti. The ovipositor sensilla revealed three types of chaetica arranged in rows but has not been reported earlier with other mosquito species.
Uncertainty of Line Segments Extracted from Static SICK PLS Laser Scans

Data fusion using Kalman filters requires reasonably good error models. Our intention to fuse line segments, corners and edges obtained from a laser scanner and from advanced sonars provided the motivation on the investigation of Sick PLS laser scanner range measurement reliability, and line segment estimation precision. We present an approach for fitting lines straight in the lasers polar coordinate system, which enables a simple estimation of line parameter covariance. We also develop systematic error models for line parameter estimation. Finally we measure our systematic and random error models experimentally, and show, that systematic errors can be larger than random ones.
Ethnic self-regulation and democratic instability on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast: The case of Ratisuna

This article examines some of the negative impacts of ethnic self-regulation on the processes of democratization in Nicaragua. Based on a case study of a small Miskitu community on the Atlantic Coast the article argues that self-regulatory practices do not automatically forge the integration of civil society. On the contrary, these practices lead to an exclusionary development process that reinforces existing divisions and deepens ongoing conflicts. This argument is based on a distinction between three different, yet interrelated, expressions of neo-liberal change on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua: First, in the absence of state institutions the political influence of the ethnic minorities lies not in the ability to mobilize against the state, but in the fact that they fill the vacuum created by a state in retreat. Community members thus execute political authority and create social and political space. Second, the execution of political authority may contribute to the formation of community and the creation of space and social rights. But in this process other vulnerable groups are excluded, marginalized and denied access to basic rights. Thirdly, self-help practices lead to an exaggerated fragmentation of society into secluded and autonomous spatial and social units based on inward-looking principles. Resumen: Auto-regulacion etnica e inestabilidad democratica en la costa atlantica de Nicaragua: El caso de Ratisuma En este articulo se estudian algunos de los efectos negativos de la auto-regulacion etnica sobre los procesos de democratizacion en Nicaragua. Basandome en un caso de estudio de una pequena comunidad miskito en la costa atlantica, en el articulo sostengo que las practicas autoregulatorias no forjan automaticamente la integracion de la sociedad civil. Al contrario, estas practicas conducen a un proceso de desarrollo excluyente que refuerza las divisiones existentes y acentua los conflictos en curso. Esta interpretacion se basa en la distincion entre tres expresiones diferentes, aunque interrelacionadas, del cambio neo-liberal en la costa atlantica de Nicaragua: Primero, en la ausencia de instituciones estatales, la influencia politica de las minorias etnicas no reposa en la capacidad de movilizacion contra el estado, sino en el hecho de que estas minorias llenan el vacio dejado por un estado en retirada. De este modo los miembros de la comunidad ejercen autoridad politica y crean espacios sociales y politicos. Segundo, el ejercicio de autoridad politica puede contribuir a la formacion de la comunidad y a la creacion de espacio y derechos sociales. Pero en este proceso se excluye a otros grupos vulnerables, marginandolos y negandoles el acceso a derechos basicos. Tercero, las practicas de auto-ayuda conducen a una exagerada fragmentacion de la sociedad en unidades espaciales y sociales recluidas y autonomas, centradas en si mismas.
The Effect of Rumor Spreading in Reputation Systems for Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Mobile ad-hoc networks rely on the cooperation of nodes for routing and forwarding. For individual nodes there are however several advantages resulting from noncooperation, the most obvious being power saving. Nodes that act selfishly or even maliciously pose a threat to availability in mobile adhoc networks. Several approaches have been proposed to detect noncooperative nodes. In this paper, we investigate the effect of using rumors with respect to the detection time of misbehaved nodes as well as the robustness of the reputation system against wrong accusations. We propose a Bayesian approach for reputation representation, updates, and view integration. We also present a mechanism to detect and exclude potential lies. The simulation results indicate that by using this Bayesian approach, the reputation system is robust against slander while still benefitting from the speed-up in detection time provided by the use of rumors.
Which Context Matters?

Abstract What influences how people taste the food they eat? This paper investigates how sensual engagements with food, particularly tasting it, become contextualized in everyday life practices and social science theories. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Swiss hospital, the Kantonsspital Graubünden, the paper analyzes what doctors, patients and nurses bring up as shaping sensual engagements with food. It also investigates how sensual engagements with food become contextualized in three social scientific studies on “taste,” “eating” and “tasting. ” The paper argues that the three different contexts developed in these studies, namely “society,” “food culture” and “in practice,” do not help to make sense of what was observed and was brought up by the people working and living in the hospital as shaping sensual engagements with food: what happens before, after and around eating. The paper therefore adds “mundane goings-on” as a fourth context and concludes that contexualizing tasting allows the addressing of social issues. It recommends further investigation of the relation between contexts.
External threats, US bases, and prudent voters in Okinawa

A number of US overseas bases were deployed around the world to protect allies and maintain regional peace. Some bases have been stationed in the partner countries for the long term, whereas others were withdrawn from their partners’ territories in the face of strong local opposition. Understanding local support for US overseas bases is indispensable for managing alliance politics and pursuing US grand strategy. This article addresses the 1972–2006 Okinawa gubernatorial elections where the US base issue had been chronically politicized and locals supported pro-base candidates six out of ten times contrary to their anti-base preferences. This article addresses external threats as a determinant of vote
Modulatory Effects of Sex Steroids Progesterone and Estradiol on Odorant Evoked Responses in Olfactory Receptor Neurons

The influence of the sex steroid hormones progesterone and estradiol on physiology and behavior during menstrual cycles and pregnancy is well known. Several studies indicate that olfactory performance changes with cyclically fluctuating steroid hormone levels in females. Knowledge of the exact mechanisms behind how female sex steroids modulate olfactory signaling is limited. A number of different known genomic and non-genomic actions that are mediated by progesterone and estradiol via interactions with different receptors may be responsible for this modulation. Next generation sequencing-based RNA-Seq transcriptome data from the murine olfactory epithelium (OE) and olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) revealed the expression of several membrane progestin receptors and the estradiol receptor Gpr30. These receptors are known to mediate rapid non-genomic effects through interactions with G proteins. RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining results provide evidence for progestin and estradiol receptors in the ORNs. These data support the hypothesis that steroid hormones are capable of modulating the odorant-evoked activity of ORNs. Here, we validated this hypothesis through the investigation of steroid hormone effects by submerged electro-olfactogram and whole cell patch-clamp recordings of ORNs. For the first time, we demonstrate that the sex steroid hormones progesterone and estradiol decrease odorant-evoked signals in the OE and ORNs of mice at low nanomolar concentrations. Thus, both of these sex steroids can rapidly modulate the odor responsiveness of ORNs through membrane progestin receptors and the estradiol receptor Gpr30.
Processor caches with multi-level spin-transfer torque ram cells

It has been predicted that a processor's caches could occupy as much as 90% of chip area for technology nodes from the current. In this paper, we study the use of multi-level spin-transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM) cells in the design of processor caches. Compared to the traditional SRAM caches, a multi-level cell (MLC) STT-RAM cache design is denser, fast, and consumes less energy. However, a number of critical issues remains to be solved before MLC STT-RAM technology can be deployed in processor caches. In this paper, we shall offer solutions to the issue of bit encoding as well as tackle the write endurance problem. The latter has been neglected in previous works on STT-RAM caches. We propose a set remapping scheme that can potentially prolong the lifetime of a MLC STT-RAM cache by 80X on average. Furthermore, a method for recovering the performance that may be lost in some applications due to set remapping is introduced.
Compressing the graph structure of the Web

A large amount of research has recently focused on the graph structure (or link structure) of the World Wide Web. This structure has proven to be extremely useful for improving the performance of search engines and other tools for navigating the Web. However, since the graphs in these scenarios involve hundreds of millions of nodes and even more edges, highly space-efficient data structures are needed to fit the data in memory. A first step in this direction was done by the DEC connectivity server, which stores the graph in compressed form. We describe techniques for compressing the graph structure of the Web, and give experimental results of a prototype implementation. We attempt to exploit a variety of different sources of compressibility of these graphs and of the associated set of URLs in order to obtain good compression performance on a large Web graph.
Operationalizing Trance II: Clinical Application Using a Psychophenomenological Approach

Abstract Although many clinicians use the word “trance” to describe the subjective effects associated with being hypnotized, heretofore there has been no means to operationalize that concept. In a prior paper (Pekala & Kumar, 2000) the authors operationalized the notion of trance by using a retrospective, self-report instrument, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), to quantify the subjective experience of being hypnotized. Trance was operationalized in terms of: hypnotic depth via a pHGS (predicted Harvard Group Scale) score (derived from regression analysis using subdimensions of the PCI) that gives a quantitative measure of subjective trance depth; and trance typology profiles (derived from cluster and discriminant analyses of the PCI dimensions and subdimensions) that give a qualitative measure of empirically derived clusters of subjective trance experiences. These measures, when used in conjunction with data on the individual PCI dimensions and subdimensions, provide the clinician with specific information on phenomenological events experienced by the client during hypnosis which can be used in better adapting hypnotic suggestions to the client's phenomenological world. Two clinical cases are presented in which use of the above approach has been helpful in facilitating treatment planning.
Sphingosine 1-Phosphate (S1P) Receptor Subtypes S1P1 and S1P3, Respectively, Regulate Lymphocyte Recirculation and Heart Rate*

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) influences heart rate, coronary artery caliber, endothelial integrity, and lymphocyte recirculation through five related high affinity G-protein-coupled receptors. Inhibition of lymphocyte recirculation by non-selective S1P receptor agonists produces clinical immunosuppression preventing transplant rejection but is associated with transient bradycardia. Understanding the contribution of individual receptors has been limited by the embryonic lethality of the S1P1 knock-out and the unavailability of selective agonists or antagonists. A potent, S1P1-receptor selective agonist structurally unrelated to S1P was found to activate multiple signals triggered by S1P, including guanosine 5′-3-O-(thio)triphosphate binding, calcium flux, Akt and ERK1/2 phosphorylation, and stimulation of migration of S1P1- but not S1P3-expressing cells in vitro. The agonist also alters lymphocyte trafficking in vivo. Use of selective agonism together with deletant mice lacking S1P3 receptor reveals that agonism of S1P1 receptor alone is sufficient to control lymphocyte recirculation. Moreover, S1P1 receptor agonist plasma levels are causally associated with induction and maintenance of lymphopenia. S1P3, and not S1P1, is directly implicated in sinus bradycardia. The sustained bradycardia induced by S1P receptor non-selective immunosuppressive agonists in wild-type mice is abolished in S1P3-/- mice, whereas S1P1-selective agonist does not produce bradycardia. Separation of receptor subtype usage for control of lymphocyte recirculation and heart rate may allow the identification of selective immunosuppressive S1P1 receptor agonists with an enhanced therapeutic window. S1P1-selective agonists will be of broad utility in understanding cell functions in vitro, and vascular physiology in vivo, and the success of the chemical approach for S1P1 suggests that selective tools for the resolution of function across this broad lipid receptor family are now possible.
The Deasibility and Properties of Dividing Virtual Machine Resources using the Virtual Machine Cluster as the Unit in Cloud Computing

In the dynamic cloud computing environment, to ensure, under the terms of service-level agreements, the maximum efficiency of resource utilization, it is necessary to investigate the online dynamic management of virtual machine resources and their operational application systems/components. In this study, the feasibility and properties of the division of virtual machine resources on the cloud platform, using the virtual machine cluster as the management unit, are investigated. First, the definitions of virtual machine clusters are compared, and our own definitions are presented. Then, the feasibility of division using the virtual machine cluster as the management unit is described, and the isomorphism and reconfigurability of the clusters are proven. Lastly, from the perspectives of clustering and cluster segmentation, the dynamics of virtual machines are described and experimentally compared. This study aims to provide novel methods and approaches to the optimization management of virtual machine resources and the optimization configuration of the parameters of virtual machine resources and their application systems/components in large-scale cloud computing environments.
A cre recombinase transgene with mosaic, widespread tamoxifen‐inducible action

Summary: Cre‐mediated site‐specific recombination allows conditional transgene expression or gene knockouts in mice. Inducible Cre recombination systems have been developed to bypass initial embryonic lethal phenotypes and provide access to later embryonic or adult phenotypes. We have produced Cre transgenic mice in which excision is tamoxifen inducible and occurs in a widespread mosaic pattern. We utilized our Cre excision reporter system combined with an embryonic stem (ES) cell screen to identify ES cell clones with undetectable background Cre activity in the absence of tamoxifen but efficient excision upon addition of tamoxifen. The CreER™ transgenic mouse lines derived from the ES cells were tested using the Z/AP and Z/EG Cre reporter lines. Reporter gene expression indicated Cre excision was maximal in midgestation embryos by 2 days after tamoxifen administration, with an overall efficiency of 5–10% of cells with Cre excision. At 3 days after tamoxifen treatment most reporter gene expression marked groups of cells, suggesting an expansion of cells with Cre excision, and the proportion of cells with Cre excision was maintained. In adults, Cre excision was also observed with varying efficiencies in all tissues after tamoxifen treatment. genesis 32:8–18, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Parent and adolescent distribution of responsibility for diabetes self-care: links to health outcomes.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relation of adolescent and parent responsibility distribution for diabetes self-care to psychological and physical health. METHODS We interviewed children (mean age 12 years) annually for 3 years and asked parents to complete a questionnaire. Both reported how diabetes self-care was distributed in the family. Amount of responsibility held by the child only, the parent only, and shared between child and parent was calculated. Psychological distress, competence, and diabetes outcomes were assessed at each wave. RESULTS In both cross-sectional and longitudinal (lagged) analyses, multilevel modeling showed that shared responsibility was consistently associated with better psychological health, good self-care behavior, and good metabolic control, whereas child and parent responsibility were not. In some cases, links of shared responsibility to health outcomes were stronger among older adolescents. CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight the importance of shared responsibility for diabetes self-care through early to middle adolescence.
Effects of Enterococcus faecalis fsrGenes on Production of Gelatinase and a Serine Protease and Virulence

ABSTRACT Three agr-like genes (fsrA,fsrB, and fsrC, for Enterococcus faecalis regulator) were found upstream of the previously reported gelatinase gene (gelE) and a downstream putative serine protease gene (sprE; accession number Z12296 ) ofEnterococcus faecalis OG1RF. The deduced amino acid sequence of fsrA shows 26% identity and 38% similarity toStaphylococcus aureus AgrA (the response regulator of the accessory gene regulator system in the agr locus), FsrB shows 23% identity and 41% similarity to S. aureus AgrB, and FsrC shows 23% identity and 36% similarity to S. aureus AgrC (the sensor transducer of Agr system). Northern blot analysis suggested that gelE and sprE are cotranscribed and that fsrB and fsrC are also cotranscribed in OG1RF. Northern blot analysis of fsrA,fsrB, fsrC, gelE, andsprE insertion mutants showed that fsrB,fsrC, gelE, and sprE are not expressed in fsrA, fsrB, and fsrCmutants, while insertion in an open reading frame further upstream offsrA did not effect the expression of these genes, suggesting that agr-like genes may be autoregulated and that they regulate gelE and sprE expression, as further confirmed by complementation of fsr gene mutations with a 6-kb fragment which contains all three fsr genes in the shuttle vector, pAT18. Testing of 95 other isolates of E. faecalis showed that 62% produced gelatinase (Gel+), while 91% (including all Gel+ strains) hybridized to agelE probe; 71% (including all Gel+ strains) hybridized to an fsr probe, corroborating the conclusion that both gelE and fsr are necessary for gelatinase production. Testing of fsrA, fsrB, and sprE mutants in a mouse peritonitis model showed that sprE and agr-like gene mutants resulted in highly significantly prolonged survival compared to the parent strain OG1RF, a finding similar to what we had previously shown for agelE mutant. These results suggest that sprEand agr-like genes contribute to the virulence of E. faecalis OG1RF in this model.
An Enhanced Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm with Solution Acceptance Rule and Probabilistic Multisearch

The artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is a popular swarm based technique, which is inspired from the intelligent foraging behavior of honeybee swarms. This paper proposes a new variant of ABC algorithm, namely, enhanced ABC with solution acceptance rule and probabilistic multisearch (ABC-SA) to address global optimization problems. A new solution acceptance rule is proposed where, instead of greedy selection between old solution and new candidate solution, worse candidate solutions have a probability to be accepted. Additionally, the acceptance probability of worse candidates is nonlinearly decreased throughout the search process adaptively. Moreover, in order to improve the performance of the ABC and balance the intensification and diversification, a probabilistic multisearch strategy is presented. Three different search equations with distinctive characters are employed using predetermined search probabilities. By implementing a new solution acceptance rule and a probabilistic multisearch approach, the intensification and diversification performance of the ABC algorithm is improved. The proposed algorithm has been tested on well-known benchmark functions of varying dimensions by comparing against novel ABC variants, as well as several recent state-of-the-art algorithms. Computational results show that the proposed ABC-SA outperforms other ABC variants and is superior to state-of-the-art algorithms proposed in the literature.