Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell-to-cell movement of potato virus X is associated with a change in the size-exclusion limit of plasmodesmata in trichome cells of Nicotiana clevelandii.

To study the effect of cell-to-cell movement of potato virus X (PVX) on the size-exclusion limit of plasmodesmata we have microinjected virus particles and fluorescently labelled dextrans (F-dextrans) with average molecular mass of 4.4, 10, and 20 kDa into Nicotiana clevelandii trichome cells. A vector construct of PVX expressing GUS (PVX.GUS) moved from the injected cell and modified the plasmodesmata to allow passage of the 4.4- and 10-kDa F-dextrans but not the 20-kDa F-dextran. A mutant PVX with a deletion in the gene for the 25-kDa protein accumulated in inoculated protoplasts to the same level as the wild-type PVX. This mutant virus did not move from the injected cell and did not modify the plasmodesmata to allow passage of the 10-kDa F-dextran. However, the 4.4-kDa F-dextran moved from the cells infected with the mutant virus. These data therefore illustrate that movement of PVX is associated with modification of plasmodesmata. The full plasmodesmatal modification requires a functional 25-kDa protein but partial modification occurs when this protein is present in a mutant form.
Intersections of hate: Exploring the transecting dimensions of race, religion, gender, and family in Ku Klux Klan Web sites

ABSTRACT The United States has a historical legacy of oppression and subjugation spanning an array of social locations, including class, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and others. Contemporary research has documented a growth in themes of prejudice and racism present in popular media, such as the Internet. This study fills a gap in the literature by exploring Internet manifestations of a social group that has been historically organized around an ideology of intolerance, prejudice, and hatred: The Ku Klux Klan. Findings from an intersectional content analysis of KKK Web sites reveal that prejudice exists on multiple axes of hate. Major themes include emphases on white solidarity, the cult of Aryan Christianity, Aryan Klan masculinity and heteronormative nuclear family values. These dimensions intersect to create a complex picture of the Klan’s self-proclaimed social supremacy. Implications regarding the use of the Internet as a vehicle of hate are considered.
Investigating Handedness in Air Signatures for Magnetic 3D Gestural User Authentication

Balancing usability and security in user authentication is essential to the adoption of any authentication method. Magnet-based Around Device Interaction (ADI), in allowing 3D gestural signatures around the device, has been shown to be a secure method for user authentication. In this paper, we further verify the usability and security of this method against video-based shoulder surfing attacks, and test the hypothesis that 2-handed gestural signatures could provide an additional layer of security. Our results showed that while 1-handed signatures are to an extent secure and usable, 2-handed input provides a poor tradeoff between usability and security. We discuss the role of 2-handed gestural input for user authentication on mobile devices.
Subject Concord of Be in Early Black English

IN SPITE OF recent interest in black English, relatively little is known about its earlier history. William A. Stewart and J. L. Dillard have proposed that black English spoken in this country developed from an earlier plantation creole that was related to pidgins and creoles spoken in areas such as Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Stewart (1967) noted grammatical similarities (for example, the absence of be and the possessive suffix -s) between literary attestations of early black English and West African Pidgin English, Surinam Pidgin, and Gullah. J. L. Dillard (1971) agreed with Stewart's claim of an earlier creole period and related the absence of the copula in present-day black English in Washington, D.C., to that earlier system. Although Labov's (1968, 1969) studies of linguistic variation in present-day black English did not provide supporting evidence for the creole hypothesis, he noted (1969: 719, fn. 5) that forms which do not occur frequently enough to be considered part of the regular linguistic patterns in present-day black English could be significant in reconstructing its history. These studies of black English linguistic history have not only helped to generate interest in the study of black English but have also indicated how much research remains to be done. Intriguing questions remain unanswered or at best only partially answered. If earlier pidgin and creole periods are part of black English linguistic history, to what extent does this distinctive history account for structural differences in present-day black English ? Recent descriptive work has tended to support the claim that present-day black English and standard English are so similar that they have the same underlying structure (Labov et al. 1968). Did the two grammatical systems have different underlying structures at an earlier time ? If so, what was the form of that earlier black English grammar ? In Black English (1972), Dillard attempted to show the development of the dialect during earlier pidgin, creole, and decreolization stages; but his work, which is intended for a general audience, is more suggestive than definitive in regard to the questions raised above. Keith Whinnom (1971) has pointed out that a decreolized language can become a dialectal variant of a standard language; that is, languages with significantly different underlying structures can become very similar to each other. If black English had an earlier creole period, then it could have been
RAVE: a real and virtual environment for multiple mobile robot systems

To focus on the research issues surrounding collaborative behavior in multiple mobile-robotic systems, a great amount of low-level infrastructure is required. To facilitate our on-going research into multi-robot systems, we have developed RAVE, a software framework that provides a real and virtual environment for running and managing multiple heterogeneous mobile-robot systems. This framework simplifies the implementation and development of collaborative robotic systems by providing the following capabilities: the ability to run systems off-line in simulation, user-interfaces for observing and commanding simulated and real robots, transparent transference of simulated robot programs to real robots, the ability to have simulated robots interact with real robots, and the ability to place virtual sensors on real robots to augment or experiment with their performance.
Climate dynamics of a hard snowball Earth

[1] The problem of deglaciating a globally ice-covered (“hard snowball”) Earth is examined using a series of general circulation model simulations. The aim is to determine the amount of CO2 that must be accumulated in the atmosphere in order to trigger deglaciation. Prior treatments of this problem have been limited to energy balance models, which are incapable of treating certain crucial physical processes that turn out to strongly affect the conditions under which deglaciation can occur. CO2 concentrations up to . 2 bars are considered in the general circulation model simulations, and even at such high CO2 content the model radiation code is found to perform well in comparison with codes explicitly designed for high CO2. In contrast to prevailing expectations, the hard snowball Earth is found to be nearly 30 K short of deglaciation, even at . 2 bars. The very cold climates arise from a combination of the extreme seasonal and diurnal cycle, lapse rate effects, snow cover, and weak cloud effects. Several aspects of the atmospheric dynamics are examined in detail. The simulations indicate that the standard scenario, wherein snowball termination occurs after a few tenths of a bar of CO2 has built up following cessation of weathering, is problematic. However, the climate was found to be sensitive to details of a number of parameterized physical processes, notably clouds and heat transfer through the stable boundary layer. It is not out of the question that other parameterization suites might permit deglaciation. The results should not be construed as meaning that the hard snowball state could not have occurred, but only that deglaciation requires the operation of as-yet undiscovered processes that would enhance the climate sensitivity. A brief survey of some of the possibilities is provided.
RobOKoD: microbial strain design for (over)production of target compounds

Sustainable production of target compounds such as biofuels and high-value chemicals for pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and chemical industries is becoming an increasing priority given their current dependency upon diminishing petrochemical resources. Designing these strains is difficult, with current methods focusing primarily on knocking-out genes, dismissing other vital steps of strain design including the overexpression and dampening of genes. The design predictions from current methods also do not translate well-into successful strains in the laboratory. Here, we introduce RobOKoD (Robust, Overexpression, Knockout and Dampening), a method for predicting strain designs for overproduction of targets. The method uses flux variability analysis to profile each reaction within the system under differing production percentages of target-compound and biomass. Using these profiles, reactions are identified as potential knockout, overexpression, or dampening targets. The identified reactions are ranked according to their suitability, providing flexibility in strain design for users. The software was tested by designing a butanol-producing Escherichia coli strain, and was compared against the popular OptKnock and RobustKnock methods. RobOKoD shows favorable design predictions, when predictions from these methods are compared to a successful butanol-producing experimentally-validated strain. Overall RobOKoD provides users with rankings of predicted beneficial genetic interventions with which to support optimized strain design.
Prioritized epidemic routing for opportunistic networks

We describe PRioritized EPidemic (PREP) for routing in opportunistic networks. PREP prioritizes bundles based on costs to destination, source, and expiry time. Costs are derived from per-link "average availability" information that is disseminated in an epidemic manner. PREP maintains a gradient of replication density that decreases with increasing distance from the destination. Simulation results show that PREP outperforms AODV and Epidemic Routing by a factor of about 4 and 1.4 respectively, with the gap widening with decreasing density and decreasing storage. We expect PREP to be of greater value than other proposed solutions in highly disconnected and mobile networks where no schedule information or repeatable patterns exist.
Incorporating Individual and Collective Ethics into Phase I Cancer Trial Designs

Summary A general framework is proposed for Bayesian model based designs of Phase I cancer trials, in which a general criterion for coherence (Cheung, 2005, Biometrika 92, 863–873) of a design is also developed. This framework can incorporate both “individual” and “collective” ethics into the design of the trial. We propose a new design that minimizes a risk function composed of two terms, with one representing the individual risk of the current dose and the other representing the collective risk. The performance of this design, which is measured in terms of the accuracy of the estimated target dose at the end of the trial, the toxicity and overdose rates, and certain loss functions reflecting the individual and collective ethics, is studied and compared with existing Bayesian model based designs and is shown to have better performance than existing designs.
Slack Exploitation for Aggressive Dynamic Power Reduction in SoC

There is disclosed a hand-held labeler having a print head with electrically selectable printing elements for printing and applying pressure sensitive labels. The labeler has a housing with a handle and structure for mounting a roll of pressure sensitive labels releasably carried on a carrier web. The labeler has a movable section which mounts a keyboard and a control circuit on a circuit board. The control circuit controls the printing elements. Labels are printed by the printing elements as the carrier web is advanced, and labels are delaminated at a delaminator and dispensed into label applying relation to an applicator. The print head is mounted on a support and is continuously spring-urged toward the platen. Movement of the print head toward the platen is limited to prevent damage. The support and the print head can be moved away from the platen from the outside of the labeler to facilitate threading of the web. The print head support can be skewed to provide uniform pressure contact of the printing elements with the labels. An electrical energy source, for example a battery, can be located in a hole in the label roll. Electrical energy from the battery terminals passes to the control circuit via contacts associated with the label roll mounting structure. In another embodiment, the handle can comprise a rechargeable battery. The drive includes an electrical stepping motor and in another embodiment, the drive is mechanically accomplished. Printing is accomplished by a plurality of individually controllable printing elements, preferably arranged in a single line array disposed on the print head in a direction transverse to the direction of advancement of the web. The array may be only one character width or height long, or may extend across the entire width of the web, in order to permit any size characters of any font and any orientation to be printed. When a long array is used, a serial-to-parallel converter may be incorporated in the print head to reduce the number of connections that need the made to the head. By utilizing thermal printing elements, the characters can be made to appear as if they were formed of individual print elements, or as if they were continuously printed simply by controlling the length of time that the printing elements are engaged to thereby control the amount of smear and burn produced on the web.
Neonatal activation of the nuclear receptor CAR results in epigenetic memory and permanent change of drug metabolism in mouse liver

Aberrant epigenetic alterations during development may result in long‐term epigenetic memory and have a permanent effect on the health of subjects. Constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) is a central regulator of drug/xenobiotic metabolism. Here, we report that transient neonatal activation of CAR results in epigenetic memory and a permanent change of liver drug metabolism. CAR activation by neonatal exposure to the CAR‐specific ligand 1,4‐bis[2‐(3,5‐dichloropyridyloxy)] benzene (TCPOBOP) led to persistently induced expression of the CAR target genes Cyp2B10 and Cyp2C37 throughout the life of exposed mice. These mice showed a permanent reduction in sensitivity to zoxazolamine treatment as adults. Compared with control groups, the induction of Cyp2B10 and Cyp2C37 in hepatocytes isolated from these mice was more sensitive to low concentrations of the CAR agonist TCPOBOP. Accordingly, neonatal activation of CAR led to a permanent increase of histone 3 lysine 4 mono‐, di‐, and trimethylation and decrease of H3K9 trimethylation within the Cyp2B10 locus. Transcriptional coactivator activating signal cointegrator‐2 and histone demethylase JMJD2d participated in this CAR‐dependent epigenetic switch. Conclusion: Neonatal activation of CAR results in epigenetic memory and a permanent change of liver drug metabolism. (HEPATOLOGY 2012)
Using hypothesis margin to boost centroid text classifier

Centroid Classifier is a simple and yet efficient method for text categorization. However it often suffers from the inductive bias or model misfit incurred by its assumption. In order to address this issue, training-set errors as well as training-set margins are regarded as training criterions. Based on these two criterions, an overall (or global) objective function over all training examples is constructed, and optimized to produce a refined Centroid classification model. The empirical assessment conducted on four benchmark collections evidence that proposed method performs comparably to state-of-the-art SVM classifier in classifying performance, as well as beats it in running time.
Robot-Assisted Maintenance of Wireless Sensor Networks Using Wireless Energy Transfer

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have proven to be an effective and dynamic paradigm for many applications, including structural health monitoring and tracking systems. However, the supply of energy to the sensors plays a key role in the success of these applications as well as the design and deployment of these networks. Currently, most WSNs are powered by batteries, which must be replaced frequently, increasing maintenance costs and operational complexity. In this paper, we propose a practical framework, called wirelessly energy-charged (WINCH), for battery maintenance; it involves recharging sensor batteries using mobile robots. This framework integrates a routing process in which the cluster heads are selected optimally, as in the low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy–centralized protocol (LEACH-C), and the robots visit the sites frequently based on need and place themselves in the optimal positions with respect to the selected cluster heads. This approach considerably reduces overhead compared with existing methods. Moreover, we have developed an empirical model of the energy charging rate for sensor nodes. We use this model to compute the amount of energy harvested by each sensor in the proximity of the mobile charger. Simulation experiments for a wide range of design parameters and using several metrics, such as energy consumption, network throughput, and coverage, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework compared with an existing work.
Using rhetorical annotations for generating video documentaries

We use rhetorical annotations to specify a generation process that can assemble meaningful video sequences with a communicative goal and an argumentative progression. Our annotation schema encodes the verbal information contained in the audio channel, identifying the claims the interviewees make and the argumentation structures they use to make those claims. Based on this schema, we construct a semantic graph which is traversed by rhetoric-based strategies selecting video segments. The selected video segments are edited to form a meaningful video sequence.
Surface layer CO 2 budget and advective contributions to measurements of net ecosystem – atmosphere exchange of CO 2

The aim of this case study is to examine the surface layer CO2 budget and possible impacts of advection on the 20 km scale on estimates of net ecosystem–atmosphere exchange (NEE) of CO2 under windy conditions. The advection terms in the CO2 mixing ratio conservation equation are computed using data from two flux towers 20 km apart in a forested area in Wisconsin, USA. The data are analyzed when the winds blow continuously from the southeast (SE) or from the northwest (NW) under windy conditions for 5 h or longer during the months of May through September of 1999 and 2000. Compared to the vertical turbulent flux, the contribution of horizontal flux divergence is negligible on the scale of 20 km at all times. The contributions of both horizontal and vertical advection terms to NEE estimates are negligible in the day. The mean nocturnal vertical and horizontal components of the advective fluxes have opposite signs and are of the same order of magnitude. Considering only one of the two advection terms in NEE calculation would be inappropriate. On the spatial scale specified, the contribution of horizontal advection is negative and can be 10% of NEE at night under sustained SE winds. The contribution of vertical advection is positive and is about 20% of NEE for the same wind direction. The contribution of nocturnal advection is negligible for most cases with sustained NW winds. The evaluation of the advective effects is still incomplete only from this dataset and significant contribution of advection on the scales smaller than 20 km is not ruled out because the 20-km scale may not be the primary scale of the heterogeneous distributions of land cover and soils. Nevertheless, the analyses suggest that significant errors due to the neglect of the impacts of the land cover and soil heterogeneity at larger scales (than local) are possible in one-dimensional eddy-covariance NEE measurements under windy conditions; these measurements are usually selected to describe nighttime NEE at this site and, therefore, the likely errors may deserve attention. The analyses also suggest that impacts of both advection terms within the surface layer on NEE estimates from the atmospheric boundary budget method could be negligible in the day but significant at night. More comprehensive experiments are needed to completely assess the advection issue. # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
International Migration Decision-Making and Destination Selection Among Skilled Migrants

This research explored how skilled, self-selected migrants make a decision to leave their country of origin and choose a destination. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 20 pre-departure and 26 post-arrival migrants to New Zealand from the United Kingdom/Ireland, India and South Africa. A thematic analysis was conducted separately for each country's data. For these migrants, the decision process contained three major decisions: whether, where and when to go. Regarding the question of whether to go, key factors were both intrapersonal and social. New Zealand was selected as a destination of choice due to quality of life, safety, environment, cultural similarity, job opportunities and the perception that migrants were wanted. On the question of when to go, the decision process was a negotiation between partners, and often extended family, which occurred over a long period of time.
The Voronoi Diagram of Curved Objects

Abstract Voronoi diagrams of curved objects can show certain phenomena that are often considered artifacts: The Voronoi diagram is not connected; there are pairs of objects whose bisector is a closed curve or even a two-dimensional object; there are Voronoi edges between different parts of the same site (so-called self-Voronoi-edges); these self-Voronoi-edges may end at seemingly arbitrary points not on a site, and, in the case of a circular site, even degenerate to a single isolated point. We give a systematic study of these phenomena, characterizing their differential-geometric and topological properties. We show how a given set of curves can be refined such that the resulting curves define a “well-behaved” Voronoi diagram. We also give a randomized incremental algorithm to compute this diagram. The expected running time of this algorithm is O(n log n).