Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fluid transport and the dimensions of cells and interspaces of living Necturus gallbladder

The volume of the cells and lateral intercellular spaces were measured in living Necturus gallbladder epithelium. Under control conditions, the volume of the lateral spaces was 9% of the cell volume. Replacement of mucosal NaCl by sucrose or tetramethylammonium chloride (TMACl) caused intercellular spaces to collapse. During mucosal NaCl replacement, cell volume decreased to 79% of its control value. When NaCl was reintroduced into the mucosal bath, the intercellular spaces reopened and the cells returned to control volume. The NaCl active transport rate, calculated from the rate of cell volume decrease, was 266 pM/cm2.s, close to the observed rate of transepithelial salt transport. It was calculated from the decrease in cell volume that all of the intracellular NaCl was transported out of the cell during removal of mucosal NaCl. The flux of salt across the apical membrane, calculated from the rate of cell volume increase upon reintroducing mucosal NaCl, was 209 pM/cm2.s, in good agreement with estimates by other methods. The electrical resistance of the tight junctions was estimated to be 83.9% of the total tissue resistance in control conditions, suggesting that the lateral intercellular spaces normally offer only a small resistance to electrolyte movement.
Diversity in locked and unlocked mobile device usage

We analyze locked and unlocked mobile device usage of 1 960 Android smartphones. Based on approximately 10TB of mobile device data logs collected by the Device Analyzer project, we derive 6.9 million usage sessions using a screen power state machine based approach. From these session we examine the number of interactions per day, the average interaction duration as well as the total daily device usage time. Findings indicate that on average users interact with their devices 117 minutes a day, separated over 57 interactions -- while unlocking their device only 43% of the time (e. g. to check for notifications).
When design of everyday things meets lifelong learning…

The present article deals with how the processes of learning and development can be taken into account in the design of everyday things. The objective is to encourage designers to consider the role of appropriation in their work in order to anticipate: (1) the integration of technical tools, objects and devices into a variety of spheres of activity; and (2) the long-range transformations initiated by the use of these things. We hope that this article will encourage exchanges between designers and researchers in the field of lifelong learning, as we are firmly convinced that mutual enrichment is likely and certainly desirable between the fields of design and learning theory. We also assume that making appropriation the basis for design will encourage reforms in the design of training situations.
Problems encountered by future teachers in community service practices course and solution offers

The course titled “Community Service Practices” has been taught since 2006 to 2007 academic year in all of the faculties of education in Turkey. At Marmara University, future teachers of the French Language Teaching Section of the Department of Foreign Language Teaching at the Ataturk Faculty of Education take this course in the first semester of their 3rd year. This study was conducted on 47 future teachers enrolled in the French Language Teaching Section and that have visited various institutions. In this study, qualitative research method was used and an interview form composed of 2 open-ended questions prepared specifically for future teachers was administered. The research data were collected with the technique of interview form in 2012 to 2013 academic year and the data collected were evaluated with coding method. The aim of our study is to identify the problems that future teachers encounter in the institutions that they visit, to classify these problems and to offer solutions, while determining the benefits that this practical course provides to future teachers. One of the most significant problems encountered is that the institutions do not want to host future teachers due to various reasons. Another problem is that these institutions do not sufficiently or effectively derive benefits from the competence of the volunteering future teachers. On the other hand, one of the most important acquisitions at the end of this practical course is that awareness of future teachers towards social problems is raised and the professional experience they gained is another benefit. Key words: Community service practices, future teachers of French, problems encountered, suggestions.
Dynamic partitioning of processing and memory resources in embedded MPSoC architectures

Current trends indicate that multiprocessor-system-on-chip (MPSoC) architectures are being increasingly used in building complex embedded systems. While circuit/architectural support for MPSoC based systems are making significant strides, programming these devices and providing suitable software support (e.g., compiler and operating systems) seem to be a tougher problem. This is because either programmers or compilers will have to make code explicitly parallel to run on these systems. An additional difficulty occurs when multiple applications use an MPSoC at the same time, because MPSoC resources should be partitioned across these applications carefully. This paper explores a proactive resource partitioning scheme for parallel applications simultaneously exercising the same MPSoC system. The proposed approach has two major components. The first component includes an offline preprocessing of applications which gives us an estimated profile for each application. Each application to be executed on our MPSoC is profiled and annotated with the profile information. The second component of our approach is an online resource partitioning, which partitions both the processing cores (i.e., computation resources) and on-chip memory space (i.e., storage resource) among simultaneously-executing applications. Our experimental evaluation with this partitioner shows that it generates much better results than conventional operating system based resource management. The results also reveal that both memory partitioning and processor partitioning are very important for obtaining the best results
Increased voltage endurance of polyolefine insulating materials by means of voltage stabilizers

Crosslinked polyethylene as a cable insulating material up to 110 kV has a steady increasing demand. Nevertheless the desire for higher performance requires further improvement of the insulating material. One objective is to render XLPE more resistant to treeing phenomena by the addition of voltage stabilizing additives. A comprehensive historical review about the subject was given in /l/.
Isolation and Characterization of a Generalized Transducing Bacteriophage for Acinetobacter

A series of bacteriophages which grow in various strains of Acinetobacter have been isolated. One of these, phage P78, which forms turbid plaques on Acinetobacter strain 78 is specific for this particular host and fails to attack 389 other independently isolated strains of Acinetobacter. Phage P78 appears to be a temperate phage which lysogenizes its host. Various agents such as N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, diethyl sulfate, mitomycin C, and ultraviolet light are effective inducers of the lysogen. Phage lysates of wild-type cells are capable of transducing auxotrophs of strain 78 to prototrophy at frequencies ranging from 0.3 × 10−7 to 34 × 10−7 per plaque-forming unit adsorbed. To date, no linkage has been detected between any of the markers studied in two-factor crosses. Donor phage grown in one particular mutant, strain 78 (arg-1), has been shown to give rise to significantly higher transduction frequencies than when phage is grown on wild-type or other auxotrophic strains. Phage P78 is rapidly adsorbed to its bacterial host and has a latent period of 25 min, and infection results in a burst size of approximately 50. Some of the physical properties of phage P78 and its DNA are described.
Low-Income Women Describe Fertility-Related Expectations: Descriptive Norms, Injunctive Norms, and Behavior

Social norms surrounding sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing may help guide women's health-related behaviors. In this study, we explore low-income women's perceptions of fertility-related norms by allowing women to describe their experiences with normative expectations. Semistructured interviews (n = 30) suggested that women in low-income subject positions articulate descriptive norms that generally correspond with mainstream descriptive norms, identify two major sources of injunctive norms concerning fertility and sexuality— authoritative and peer-oriented—and often align their behaviors according to subgroup expectations communicated in the form of peer-oriented injunctive norms. We discuss these results in light of the extant literature on social norms.
Tolerance-weighted L-optimal experiment design for active sensing

The choice of "where to look next" is a special case of an optimal experiment design. The paper proposes the tolerance-optimal experiment design, which is a special instance of the well-known L-optimal design, that minimises the weighted trace of the covariance matrix of the estimated state under Gaussian assumptions. The weighting matrix is chosen such that the design is invariant to transformations with nonsingular Jacobians, and such that the emerging sensing sequence reflects the information needs of the task. This tolerance-optimal design does not require more calculations than existing optimal experiment designs. Existing optimal experiment designs do not reflect the information needs of the task. In addition, some of them physically do not make sense if the estimated state has inconsistent units. The tolerance-optimal design is illustrated with two examples.
A Great Difference Between Sedentary Subspecies of Laniarius atroflavus Shelley, 1887 Suggests on the Base of Molecular Data that Laniarius atroflavus and Laniarius craterum are Two Separate Species

Laniarius atroflavus is a sedentary member of the bush-shrike radiation (family Malaconotidae) and in our first paper, it appeared with strong divergence between its two subspecies. To confirm this divergence and leaning partially on our first obtained results, we investigated a genetic variation of the individuals of Laniarius atroflavus atroflavus (West Africa) and Laniarius atroflavus craterum (West Africa). For the genetic variation, we use two mitochondrial genes (ATPase6 and ND2) to calculate their genetic distances within the Laniarius ingroup and to explore their mutational dif- ferentiation. With our ATPase6 and ND2, a genetic distance of 1.66% and 2.14% has been respectively estimated between individuals of Laniarius atroflavus atroflavus (Cameroon Mountain) and Laniarius atroflavus craterum (Manenguba Mountain) whereas it was, for the same markers, of 0% and 0.57% respectively between specimens of Laniarius atrofla- vus craterum only caught in diverse parts of the Manenguba Mountain. For the mutational differentiation, a total of 34 dif- ferent molecular characters have been observed with the two markers investigated between these two subspecies. Leaning on some dating results, it appears that Laniarius atroflavus atroflavus diverged from Laniarius atroflavus craterum during the Quaternary period and these dates correspond remarkably with those suggested for several polyphased volcanic activi- ties noted in the Cameroon Volcanic Line. For these separate sedentary birds which are marked by their clinal size varia- tion, measures of their wings as well as the variation of the color of their breast and belly, a possible secondary contact will certainly lead to reinforcement. Thus, we suggest resurrecting names Laniarius atroflavus Shelley, 1887 and Lan- iarius craterum Bates, 1926 for individuals of the populations hitherto referred as Laniarius atroflavus atroflavus and Laniarius atroflavus craterum respectively.
Preparing students for college admissions tests

Attaining successful outcomes on the SAT can have profound educational and financial consequences for college-bound students. Using archival data from a private tutoring centre, we investigated variables we hypothesised to contribute to SAT score increases. Our analyses revealed significant effects of time on task and rate of SAT homework completion. Starting preparation earlier in the junior year and distributing tutoring sessions over larger intervals contributed to higher SAT score improvements. Testing effects were significant: more frequent practice tests significantly increased SAT scores. Official SAT administrations contributed more to score increases than did unofficial practice tests. Individual tutoring hours yielded greater increases than did group tutoring hours. Student characteristics such as gender, SES, or private or public school attendance were not significant. Implications for improving test preparation for students as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Identification and Genetic Variation among Hibiscus Species (Malvaceae) Using RAPD Markers

Abstract Germplasm identification and characterization is an important link between the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources. Traditionally, species or cultivars identification has relied on morphological characters like growth habit or floral morphology like flower colour and other characteristics of the plant. Studies were undertaken for identification and determination of genetic variation within the two species of Hibiscus and 16 varieties of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. through random amplified polymorphic (RAPD) markers. Primer screening was made by using the DNA of variety “Prolific”. Genetic analysis was made by using ten selected decamer primers. A total of 79 distinct DNA fragments ranging from 0.3 to 2.5 kb were amplified by using ten selected random decamer primers. The genetic similarity was evaluated on the basis of presence or absence of bands. The cluster analysis indicated that the 16 varieties and two species formed one cluster. The first major cluster consisted of three varieties and a second major cluster consisted of two species and 13 varieties. The genetic distance was very close within the varieties and also among the species. Thus, these RAPD markers have the potential for identification of species/varieties and characterization of genetic variation within the varieties. This is also helpful in Hibiscus breeding programs and provides a major input into conservation biology
Applications in Plant Sciences Development of Microsatellite Markers Using Illumina Miseq Sequencing to Characterize Ephedra Gerardiana (ephedraceae) 1

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited and the new work is distributed under the same license as the original. The genus Ephedra L. (Ephedraceae), also referred to as ma huang in Chinese, contains species that are sources of important Chinese traditional and Tibetan medicines (Konno et al., 1985). Ephedra gerardiana Wall. ex C. A. Mey. is distributed at altitudes above 3900 m in the Himalayan ranges (Editorial Committee of Chinese Flora, 1978). Because it is both a drought-resistant plant species (Shen, 1995) and an important Tibetan medicine (Pandey, 2006), E. gerardiana is useful for the study of the adap-tive evolution and maintenance of genetic diversity in Ephedra. Relatively high genetic differentiation and variation are found for plants distributed on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau due to its great geographical variability, in addition to frequent natural hy-bridization and polyploidization events (Wen et al., 2014). Chlo-roplast fingerprints revealed a high level of genetic differentiation as reflected by high levels of genetic diversity (F ST) among populations of Ephedra species on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, such as in E. gerardiana (0.98) and E. saxatilis (Stapf) Royle ex Florin (0.86) (Qin et al., 2013). Microsatellite (also referred to as simple sequence repeat [SSR]) markers are widely used in studies of plant population genetics and genetic diversity because of their high levels of polymor-phism, stability, and codominance. However, traditional methods to develop microsatellite markers are time-consuming and complex. High-throughput and low-cost next-generation sequenc-ing has accelerated the identification of large numbers of micro-satellite markers (Rico et al., 2013). In this paper, we report the development of microsatellite markers for Ephedra species collected from the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau using Illumina MiSeq genome sequencing technology. METHODS AND RESULTS We collected a total of 106 individuals representing three E. gerardiana populations, two E. saxatilis populations, and one E. monosperma C. A. Mey. population from various locations on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Vouchers of the sampled population materials were deposited in the Herbarium of Tibet University , Lhasa, China. The materials and their locality information are listed in Appendix 1. The high-quality DNA sample for Illumina MiSeq sequencing (Illumina, San Diego, California, USA) was isolated from a randomly selected individual in an E. gerardiana population (Eg_QM, Appendix 1) using a DNA extraction kit (Tiangen Biotech, Beijing, China). …
Efficient Localization Schemes in Sensor Networks with Malicious Nodes

According to the apparatus of the present disclosure, dual gate control and dual gain control uses variable voltages on the gates of first stage (302) and a second stage (304) to control the output power. In alternate embodiments, dual drain control is also employed using a variable voltage supply on the drains of the first stage (302) and the second stage (304). In particular, a level shifter circuit (421) is employed to convert a positive voltage gate control signal to negative voltage with respect to ground. Drain current limiting circuits (417, 419) are used to sample drain currents and generate gate voltages to maintain a desired current ratio between stages of a multi-stage amplifier. When dual drain control is also employed, a 1:1 ratio of drain control voltages is employed at low power levels, with a single drain control at higher power levels.
The Institutions of France Under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598-1789.@@@Paris, capitale au temps de Richelieu et de Mazarin.

Mousnier continues his massive and masterly history of France's transition from the Old Regime to the New. Mousnier's subject is the organization of the state, from the Council at the summit to the most humble clerks, guards, and attendants. He traces the gradual transformation of France from a judiciary state to a financial and executive bureaucracy, from a state and society based on hereditary statuses to one based on talents, personal capacities, and achievements, from the might of the sword to the power of the pen.
Design and Analysis of Closed-Loop Decoder Adaptation Algorithms for Brain-Machine Interfaces

Closed-loop decoder adaptation (CLDA) is an emerging paradigm for achieving rapid performance improvements in online brain-machine interface (BMI) operation. Designing an effective CLDA algorithm requires making multiple important decisions, including choosing the timescale of adaptation, selecting which decoder parameters to adapt, crafting the corresponding update rules, and designing CLDA parameters. These design choices, combined with the specific settings of CLDA parameters, will directly affect the algorithm's ability to make decoder parameters converge to values that optimize performance. In this article, we present a general framework for the design and analysis of CLDA algorithms and support our results with experimental data of two monkeys performing a BMI task. First, we analyze and compare existing CLDA algorithms to highlight the importance of four critical design elements: the adaptation timescale, selective parameter adaptation, smooth decoder updates, and intuitive CLDA parameters. Second, we introduce mathematical convergence analysis using measures such as mean-squared error and KL divergence as a useful paradigm for evaluating the convergence properties of a prototype CLDA algorithm before experimental testing. By applying these measures to an existing CLDA algorithm, we demonstrate that our convergence analysis is an effective analytical tool that can ultimately inform and improve the design of CLDA algorithms.
TransCom 3 inversion intercomparison: Impact of transport model errors on the interannual variability of regional CO2 fluxes, 1988–2003

Monthly CO2 fluxes are estimated across 1988–2003 for 22 emission regions using data from 78 CO2 measurement sites. The same inversion (method, priors, data) is performed with 13 different atmospheric transport models, and the spread in the results is taken as a measure of transport model error. Interannual variability (IAV) in the winds is not modeled, so any IAV in the measurements is attributed to IAV in the fluxes. When both this transport error and the random estimation errors are considered, the flux IAV obtained is statistically significant at P ≤ 0.05 when the fluxes are grouped into land and ocean components for three broad latitude bands, but is much less so when grouped into continents and basins. The transport errors have the largest impact in the extratropical northern latitudes. A third of the 22 emission regions have significant IAV, including the Tropical East Pacific (with physically plausible uptake/release across the 1997–2000 El Niño/La Niña) and Tropical Asia (with strong release in 1997/1998 coinciding with large‐scale fires there). Most of the global IAV is attributed robustly to the tropical/southern land biosphere, including both the large release during the 1997/1998 El Niño and the post‐Pinatubo uptake.
Faster Principal Component Regression via Optimal Polynomial Approximation to sgn(x)

We solve principle component regression (PCR) by providing an efficient algorithm to project any vector onto the subspace formed by the top principle components of a matrix. Our algorithm does not require any explicit construction of the top principle components, and therefore is suitable for large-scale PCR instances. Specifically, to project onto the subspace formed by principle components with eigenvalues above a threshold $\lambda$ and with a multiplicative accuracy $(1\pm \gamma) \lambda$, our algorithm requires $\tilde{O}(\gamma^{-1})$ black-box calls of ridge regression. In contrast, previous result requires $\tilde{O}(\gamma^{-2})$ such calls. We obtain this result by designing a degree-optimal polynomial approximation of the sign function.
Wearable Computer Vision Systems for a Cortical Visual Prosthesis

Cortical visual prostheses produce bionic vision by translating data from a head worn sensor into spatial-temporal patterns of electrical stimulation of a patient's Primary Visual Cortex (V1). The resulting bionic vision has low resolution, poor dynamic range and other limitations. These limitations are unlikely to change in the next decade due to the combined constraints of technology and biology as well as the slow process of medical device certification. This paper discusses ongoing research on Wearable Computer Vision Systems (WCVS) designed for two purposes: Improving the utility of bionic vision and non-invasive evaluation of visual prosthesis on sighted subjects using Simulated Prosthetic Vision (SPV).