Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual-functional protein for one-step production of a soluble and targeted fluorescent dye

Low water solubility and poor selectivity are two fundamental limitations that compromise applications of near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes. Methods: Here, a simple strategy that can resolve these problems simultaneously was developed by using a novel hybrid protein named RGD-HFBI that is produced by fusion of hydrophobin HFBI and arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide. This unique hybrid protein inherits self-assembly and targeting functions from HFBI and RGD peptide respectively. Results: Boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) used as a model NIR dye can be efficiently dispersed in the RGD-HFBI solution by simple mixing and sonication for 30 min. The data shows that self-assembled RGD-HFBI forms a protein nanocage by using the BODIPY as the assembly template. Cell uptake assay proves that RGD-HFBI/BODIPY can efficiently stain αvβ3 integrin-positive cancer cells. Finally, in vivo affinity tests fully demonstrate that the soluble RGD-HFBI/BODIPY complex selectively targets and labels tumor sites of tumor-bearing mice due to the high selectivity of the RGD peptide. Conclusion: Our one-step strategy using dual-functional RGD-HFBI opens a novel route to generate soluble and targeted NIR fluorescent dyes in a very simple and efficient way and may be developed as a general strategy to broaden their applications.
A low-cost, 30 NG/VHZ noise floor MEMS accelerometers for large sensor network

A capacitive MEMS accelerometer with superior features of low cost, noise and power consumption was developed for a large sensor network. A low noise floor of less than 30 nG/√Hz and a low power consumption of 20 mW with a low-cost getter-less vacuum ceramic package were experimentally demonstrated with our proposed sensor architecture: two layers of perforation for low noise and separated servo mass architecture that enables simultaneous operation of detection and servo control for low power.
A Drosophila pasha Mutant Distinguishes the Canonical MicroRNA and Mirtron Pathways

ABSTRACT Canonical primary microRNA (miRNA) transcripts and mirtrons are proposed to transit distinct nuclear pathways en route to generating mature ∼22 nucleotide regulatory RNAs. We generated a null allele of Drosophila pasha, which encodes a double-stranded RNA-binding protein partner of the RNase III enzyme Drosha. Analysis of this mutant yielded stringent evidence that Pasha is essential for the biogenesis of canonical miRNAs but is dispensable for the processing and function of mirtron-derived regulatory RNAs. The pasha mutant also provided a unique tool to study the developmental requirements for Drosophila miRNAs. While pasha adult somatic clones are similar in many respects to those of dicer-1 clones, pasha mutant larvae revealed an unexpected requirement for the miRNA pathway in imaginal disc growth. These data suggest limitations to somatic clonal analysis of miRNA pathway components.
Discrimination Due to Ethnicity and Gender: How Susceptible are Video‐Based Job Interviews?

Fairness toward job applicants differing in gender and ethnicity in a video‐based assessment interview was explored. For this purpose, 103 female and 105 male participants, including 38 who declared to have a migration background of their own, rated a behavior anchored rating scale after having watched the videotaped answers of a potential applicant. The domains assessed were communication skills and the capacity to work in a team. The videos of the applicants were generated with the help of standardized scripts and semi‐professional actors. Eight videos were made operationalizing a two (Turkish migration background–native German) by two (male–female) by two (more positive applicant answers–moderately good applicant answers) experimental design. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a small to moderate main effect only for migration background of the applicants. Subsequent ANOVAs found that in three of the four dependent variables this effect reached significance of p
On the Inability of Comptonization to Produce the Broad X-Ray Iron Lines Observed in Seyfert Nuclei

It has recently been suggested that Compton downscattering may give rise to the broad iron lines seen in the X-ray spectra of Seyfert 1 galaxies. This challenges the standard model, in which these lines originate from the innermost regions of the black hole accretion disk with Doppler shifts and gravitational redshifts giving rise to the broadened line profile. Here we apply observational constraints to the Compton downscattering model for MCG-6-30-15 and NGC 3516, the two best cases to date of Seyfert galaxies with relativistically broad lines. We show that the continuum source in MCG-6-30-15 required by the constrained model violates the blackbody limit. In the case of NGC 3516, only a very small region of parameter space is compatible with the constraints. Hence, we conclude that the Comptonization model is not a viable one for the broad line seen in these two objects. The accretion disk model remains the best interpretation of these data.
ZINC-FINGER interactions mediate transcriptional regulation of hypocotyl growth in Arabidopsis

Significance Light coordinates energy production, growth, and survival throughout plant development. In Arabidopsis, light stimulates transcriptional reprogramming during developmental transitions such as photomorphogenesis and flowering through the action of photoreceptors, transcription factors, and signaling components. Here we assign a function to a member of the zinc-finger homeodomain (ZFHD) transcription factor family in regulating light-induced development. Our findings reveal ZFHD10 to be a missing link in understanding how the recently discovered integrator of light and photoperiodic flowering, TANDEM ZINC-FINGER PLUS3 (TZP), controls the expression of growth-promoting transcriptional regulators via direct association with light-regulated promoter elements. Elucidating how such novel protein complexes coordinate gene expression will allow scientists and breeders to optimize plant growth and development in response to unfavorable environmental conditions. Integration of environmental signals and interactions among photoreceptors and transcriptional regulators is key in shaping plant development. TANDEM ZINC-FINGER PLUS3 (TZP) is an integrator of light and photoperiodic signaling that promotes flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we elucidate the molecular role of TZP as a positive regulator of hypocotyl elongation. We identify an interacting partner for TZP, the transcription factor ZINC-FINGER HOMEODOMAIN 10 (ZFHD10), and characterize its function in coregulating the expression of blue-light–dependent transcriptional regulators and growth-promoting genes. By employing a genome-wide approach, we reveal that ZFHD10 and TZP coassociate with promoter targets enriched in light-regulated elements. Furthermore, using a targeted approach, we show that ZFHD10 recruits TZP to the promoters of key coregulated genes. Our findings not only unveil the mechanism of TZP action in promoting hypocotyl elongation at the transcriptional level but also assign a function to an uncharacterized member of the ZFHD transcription factor family in promoting plant growth.
Lifting the veil: richness measurements fail to detect systematic biodiversity change over three decades.

While there is widespread recognition of human involvement in biodiversity loss globally, at smaller spatial extents, the effects are less clear. One reason is that local effects are obscured by the use of summary biodiversity variables, such as species richness, that provide only limited insight into complex biodiversity change. Here, we use 30 yr of invertebrate data from a metacommunity of 10 streams in Wales, UK, combined with regional surveys, to examine temporal changes in multiple biodiversity measures at local, metacommunity, and regional scales. There was no change in taxonomic or functional α-diversity and spatial β-diversity metrics at any scale over the 30-yr time series, suggesting a relative stasis in the system and no evidence for on-going homogenization. However, temporal changes in mean species composition were evident. Two independent approaches to estimate species niche breadth showed that compositional changes were associated with a systematic decline in mean community specialization. Estimates of species-specific local extinction and immigration probabilities suggested that this decline was linked to lower recolonization rates of specialists, rather than greater local extinction rates. Our results reveal the need for caution in implying stasis from patterns in α-diversity and spatial β-diversity measures that might mask non-random biodiversity changes over time. We also show how different but complementary approaches to estimate niche breadth and functional distinctness of species can reveal long-term trends in community homogenization likely to be important to conservation and ecosystem function.
Development of low-power UWB body sensors

Ultra-wide band (UWB) is gaining popularity as a physical layer technique for low power and high data rate wireless applications. Currently most wireless body area network (WBAN) platforms are based on narrowband wireless technology such as ZigBee and Bluetooth. This paper presents hardware implementation of impulse radio ultra-wide band (IR-UWB) based sensor nodes. Two major approaches for the development of an IR-UWB sensor node are discussed herein. A UWB receiver implementation using off-the-shelf components is also described. This communication system is used to evaluate the performance of the UWB sensor nodes in terms of bit error rate (BER). A technique for dynamically varying the pulse repetitive frequency (PRF) of the UWB pulses is also discussed in this paper as a further improvement for the suggested sensor designs.
Track-Following Controller Design for a Compound Disk Drive Actuator

The use of compound actuators in both magnetic and optical disk files has become a means of achieving increased servo actuator bandwidths. A compound actuator, comprised of a fine actuator mounted «piggyback» on a coarse actuator, positions the read/write transducers above a radial track. This paper describes a design methodology for a discrete-time feedback control system for a compound actuator in which the dynamic interaction between the actuator stages is directly considered
Project towards no tobacco use: 1-year behavior outcomes.

OBJECTIVES We present 1-year follow-up data from a school-based tobacco use prevention project designed to test the effectiveness of three main components of social influence programs. The components teach refusal skills, awareness of social misperceptions about tobacco use, and misconceptions about physical consequences. METHODS Four different curricula were developed and tested in a randomized experiment involving 48 junior high schools. The outcome variables examined were changes in initial and weekly cigarette and smokeless tobacco use 1 year after the intervention. RESULTS Analyses indicated that each of the component programs were effective in decreasing both the initial and the weekly use of cigarettes except for the curriculum in which refusal skills were taught. Also, each curriculum was effective in decreasing the initial use of smokeless tobacco except for the one aimed at correcting social misperceptions. Only the combined curriculum showed an effect on the weekly use of smokeless tobacco. CONCLUSIONS The combined intervention was the most effective overall in reducing the initial and weekly use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. This suggests that different reasons for use exist and need to be counteracted simultaneously. However, since single programs were also effective in reducing all but weekly smokeless tobacco use, any of these components may be worthwhile prevention tools.
Characterization of Chikungunya Virus-Like Particles

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is becoming a global concern due to the increasing number of outbreaks throughout the world and the absence of any CHIKV-specific vaccine or treatment. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are multistructured proteins that mimic the organization and conformation of native viruses but lack the viral genome. They are noninfectious and potentially safer vaccine candidates. Recent studies demonstrated that the yield of CHIKV VLPs varies depending on the strains, despite the 95% amino acid similarity of the strains. This might be due to the codon usage, since protein expression is differently controlled by different organisms. We optimized the region encoding CHIKV structural proteins, C-E3-E2-6k-E1, inserted it into a mammalian expression vector, and used the resulting construct to transfect 293 cells. We detected 50-kDa proteins corresponding to E1 and/or E2 in the cell lysate and the supernatant. Transmission electron microscopy revealed spherical particles with a 50- to 60-nm diameter in the supernatant that resembled the native CHIKV virions. The buoyant density of the VLPs was 1.23 g/mL, and the yield was 20 µg purified VLPs per 108 cells. The VLPs aggregated when mixed with convalescent sera from chikungunya patients, indicating that their antigenicity is similar to that of native CHIKV. Antibodies elicited with the VLPs were capable of detecting native CHIKV, demonstrating that the VLPs retain immunogenicity similar to that of the native virion. These results indicated that CHIKV VLPs are morphologically, antigenically, and immunologically similar to the native CHIKV, suggesting that they have potential for use in chikungunya vaccines.
Social democrats and the new partisan politics of public investment in education

This paper studies the impact on public education spending of social democratic participation in government. By means of a pooled time-series analysis of spending in OECD democracies, it is shown that social democrats have increased public spending primarily on higher education. This finding is at odds with simple class-based models of partisan preferences (Boix) that predict a preference for non-tertiary education. As an alternative, the notion of a ‘new politics of public investment in education’ (Iversen) is presented. From this perspective, political parties are not merely transmission belts for the economic interests of social classes, but use policies and spending strategically to attract and consolidate voter groups. By increasing public investment in tertiary education, social democrats cater to their core electoral constituencies (for example, by expanding enrolment) and, at the same time, new middle-class constituencies to escape electoral dilemmas and reforge the cross-class alliance with the middle class.
Mechanisms of three-dimensional (3D) path integration in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis - odometry and slope detection

Desert ants, Cataglyphis, navigate in their vast desert habitat by path integration. They continuously integrate directions steered as determined by their celestial compass and distances travelled gauged by as yet unknown mechanisms. Here we test the hypothesis that navigating ants measure distances travelled by using some kind of step integrator, or “step counter”. We manipulated the lengths of the legs, and hence the stride lengths, in freely walking ants. Animals with elongated (“stilts”) or shortened legs (“stumps”) take larger or shorter strides, respectively, and concomitantly misgauge travel distance. Travel distance is overestimated by experimental animals walking on stilts, and underestimated by animals walking on stumps.
A Firefly Optimization for a Connected Dominating Set in a Sensor Network

In the sensor network, a set of connected sensors that dominates all other sensors is called the connected dominating set. The minimum connected dominating set is a computationally difficult problem proved to be NP hard, and a number of approximation algorithms have been proposed. In the present paper, we propose an approximation algorithm for the minimum connected dominating set using firefly optimization, which is an optimization technique based on behaviors of fireflies. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves a smaller number of sensors than the existing algorithm.
Guided by Flow Velocity Measurement Randomized Comparison of Primary Stenting and Provisional Balloon

Copyright © 2000 American Heart Association. All rights reserved. Print ISSN: 0009-7322. Online 72514 Circulation is published by the American Heart Association. 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 2000;102;2930-2937 Circulation Es, Eric Boersma, Marie-Angèle Morel and Ben van Hout Simpson, Vasilis Voudris, Olivier Gurné, Nico Pijls, Jorge Belardi, Gerrit-Anne van Piek, Toshiya Muramatsu, Chris Vrints, Peter Probst, Ricardo Seabra-Gomes, Ian Patrick W. Serruys, Bernard de Bruyne, Stéphane Carlier, José Eduardo Sousa, Jan Angioplasty Guided by Flow Velocity Measurement Randomized Comparison of Primary Stenting and Provisional Balloon http://circ.ahajournals. org/cgi/content/full/102/24/2930 located on the World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is
Magnetic and magnetoresistance behaviors of particulate iron/vinyl ester resin nanocomposites

Magnetoresistance (MR) behavior of vinyl ester monomer stabilized iron nanoparticles and heat-treated vinyl ester resin nanocomposites reinforced with iron nanoparticles were investigated. Vinyl ester monomer serves as a coupling agent with one side covalently bound onto the nanoparticle surface by a displacement reaction and the other end copolymerized with extra vinyl ester resin to form a robust entity. The particle loading and type of material (polymer or carbonized polymer) have a significant effect on the magnetic and MR properties. The heat-treated nanocomposites follow a tunneling conduction. After reduction annealing, the obtained nanocomposites possess a room temperature MR of 8.3 % at a field of 90 kOe.
A synthesizable IP core for DVB-S2 LDPC code decoding

The new standard for digital video broadcast DVB-S2 features low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes as their channel coding scheme. The codes are defined for various code rates with a block size of 64800 which allows a transmission close to the theoretical limits. The decoding of LDPC is an iterative process. For DVB-S2 about 300000 messages are processed and reordered in each of the 30 iterations. These huge data processing and storage requirements are a real challenge for the decoder hardware realization, which has to fulfill the specified throughput of 255 Mbit/s for base station applications. In this paper we show, to the best of our knowledge, the first published IP LDPC decoder core for the DVB-S2 standard. We present a synthesizable IP block based on ST Microelectronics 0.13 /spl mu/m CMOS technology.
Resource allocation scheme for wireless powered wiretap channel

This paper considers a fast fading wireless powered wiretap channel, where an energy constrained information source, powered by a dedicated power beacon, sends a secret message to a legitimate user using the artificial noise (AN) scheme in the presence of a passive eavesdropper. Based on a two-phase time division protocol, the ergodic secrecy throughput is derived. Furthermore, the optimal time-switching factor and power-allocation factor are studied for maximizing the ergodic secrecy throughput. Numerical results are presented to validate our theoretical results.
Optimizing Energy Efﬁciency for Minimum Latency Broadcast in Low-Duty-Cycle Sensor Networks

Multi-hop broadcasting in low-duty-cycle wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a very challenging problem, since every node has its own working schedule. Existing solutions usually use unicast instead of broadcast to forward packets from a node to its neighbors according to their working schedules, which is, however, not energy efﬁcient. In this paper, we propose to exploit the broadcast nature of wireless media to further save energy for low-duty-cycle networks, by adopting a novel broadcasting communication model. The key idea is to let some early wake-up nodes postpone their wake-up slots to overhear broadcasting message from its neighbors. This model utilizes the spatiotemporal locality of broadcast to reduce the total energy consumption, which can be essentially characterized by the total number of broadcasting message transmissions. Based on such model, we aim at minimizing the total number of broadcasting message transmissions of a broadcast for low-duty-cycle WSNs, subject to the constraint that the broadcasting latency is optimal. We prove that it is NP-hard to ﬁnd the optimal solution, and design an approximation algorithm that can achieve a polylogarithmic approximation ratio. Extensive simulation results show that our algorithm out-performs the traditional solutions in terms of energy efﬁciency.
Consumer's Involvement in the use of Vending Machines

Vending machines have been increasing rapidly as result of our lifestyle. Using qualitative methodology, two focus groups were defined for data collection and analysis. This study aims to achieve not only the lived experience but also realize the importance of the existence, or not, of these machines in the university context. The participants, consumers of products available in vending machines, even having lived negative experiences, consider their involvement useful, important, advantageous, necessary and interesting. From the attributes of vending machines the importance of both marketing and operations management was identified in the performance of this type of machines. The performance, efficiency, level of service, flexibility and availability for the need of consumers were also identified.
On the Modeling of CO2 EUA and CER Prices of EU-ETS for the 2008-2012 Period

Increased consumption of fossil fuels in industrial production has led to a significant elevation in the emission of greenhouse gases and to global warming. The most effective international action against global warming is the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce carbon emissions to desired levels in a certain time span. Carbon trading is one of the mechanisms used to achieve the desired reductions. One of the most important implications of carbon trading for industrial systems is the risk of uncertainty about the prices of carbon allowance permits traded in the carbon markets. In this paper, we consider stochastic and time series modeling of carbon market prices and provide estimates of the model parameters involved, based on the European Union emissions trading scheme carbon allowances data obtained for 2008-2012 period. In particular, we consider fractional Brownian motion and autoregressive moving average-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic modeling of the European Union emissions trading scheme data and provide comparisons with benchmark models. Our analysis reveals evidence for structural changes in the underlying models in the span of the years 2008-2012. Data-driven methods for identifying possible change-points in the underlying models are employed, and a detailed analysis is provided. Our analysis indicated change-points in the European Union Allowance EUA prices in the first half of 2009 and in the second half of 2011, whereas in the Certified Emissions Reduction CER prices three change-points have appeared, in the first half of 2009, the middle of 2011, and in the second half of 2012. These change-points seem to parallel the global economic indicators as well. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.