Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of fungal secondary metabolism and sclerotial biology

Fungal secondary metabolism and morphological development have been shown to be intimately associated at the genetic level. Much of the literature has focused on the co-regulation of secondary metabolite production (e.g., sterigmatocystin and aflatoxin in Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus flavus, respectively) with conidiation or formation of sexual fruiting bodies. However, many of these genetic links also control sclerotial production. Sclerotia are resistant structures produced by a number of fungal genera. They also represent the principal source of primary inoculum for some phytopathogenic fungi. In nature, higher plants often concentrate secondary metabolites in reproductive structures as a means of defense against herbivores and insects. By analogy, fungi also sequester a number of secondary metabolites in sclerotia that act as a chemical defense system against fungivorous predators. These include antiinsectant compounds such as tetramic acids, indole diterpenoids, pyridones, and diketopiperazines. This chapter will focus on the molecular mechanisms governing production of secondary metabolites and the role they play in sclerotial development and fungal ecology, with particular emphasis on Aspergillus species. The global regulatory proteins VeA and LaeA, components of the velvet nuclear protein complex, serve as virulence factors and control both development and secondary metabolite production in many Aspergillus species. We will discuss a number of VeA- and LaeA-regulated secondary metabolic gene clusters in A. flavus that are postulated to be involved in sclerotial morphogenesis and chemical defense. The presence of multiple regulatory factors that control secondary metabolism and sclerotial formation suggests that fungi have evolved these complex regulatory mechanisms as a means to rapidly adapt chemical responses to protect sclerotia from predators, competitors and other environmental stressors.
Broadband Load Torque Estimation in Mechatronic Powertrains Using Nonlinear Kalman Filtering

An important bottleneck in the design, operation, and exploitation of mechatronic powertrains is the lack of accurate knowledge of broadband external loading. This is caused by the intrusive nature of regular torque measurements. This paper proposes a novel nonintrusive approach to obtain torsional load information on mechatronic powertrains. Online coupled state/input estimation is performed through an augmented nonlinear Kalman filter. This estimation approach exploits general lumped-parameter physics-based models in order to create a widely applicable framework. This paper considers both extended (EKF) and unscented Kalman filtering approaches. Contrary to previous works, no considerable difference in accuracy is obtained from experiments, with a considerably lower computational load for the EKF. This paper reveals the benefits of including rotational acceleration measurements from a theoretical perspective, which is demonstrated through the experimental validation. This drastically increases the broadband accuracy. The result of this paper is an accurate and noninvasive virtual torque sensor with a sufficiently broad bandwidth for use in condition monitoring, control, and future design optimization.
Ectoparasite–modulated deposition of maternal androgens in great tit eggs

Maternal yolk androgens can promote growth and competitive abilities of nestling birds but are also suggested to increase susceptibility to parasites or suppress immune function. We tested the hypothesis that females exposed to ectoparasites during egg formation will adjust the content of androgens in the yolk. We predicted that when anticipating high levels of parasitism, females deposit (i) less androgens into all eggs of their clutch and (ii) smaller amounts of androgens in eggs late in the laying sequence to facilitate brood reduction.In a field experiment we exposed female great tits (Parus major) to hen fleas (Ceratophyllus gallinae), or kept them free of ectoparasites prior to egg laying. We collected the eggs and measured yolk concentrations of androstenedione (A4), testosterone (T) and 5∝–dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by radioimmunoassay. Among clutches, eggs of ectoparasite–exposed females contained significantly less A4 and tended to contain less T, whereas DHT content was unaffected. Within clutches, content of A4 and T increased significantly with laying order whereas DHT content significantly decreased. These patterns were unaffected by ectoparasites. In summary, our results provide no evidence for hormone–based facilitation of brood reduction under ectoparasite exposure but support the hypothesis that females exposed to ectoparasites reduce levels of T and its precursor A4 in yolk and might thereby reduce the negative effects of parasites on offspring.
Altered neural responses to heat pain in drug-naïve patients with Parkinson's Disease.

Pain is a frequent but still neglected non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, neural mechanisms underlying pain in PD are poorly understood. Here we explored whether the high prevalence of pain in PD might be related to dysfunctional descending pain control. Using fMRI we explored neural responses during the anticipation and processing of heat pain in 21 PD patients (Hoehn&Yahr I-III) and 23 healthy controls (HC). PD patients were naïve to dopaminergic medication in order to avoid confounding drug effects. Fifteen heat pain stimuli were applied to the participants' forearm. Intensity and unpleasantness ratings were provided for each stimulus. Subjective pain perception was comparable for PD patients and HC. Neural processing, however, differed between groups: PD patients showed lower activity in several descending pain modulation regions (dACC, sgACC, DLPFC) and lower functional connectivity between dACC and DLPFC during pain anticipation. PD symptom severity was negatively correlated with dACC-DLPFC connectivity, indicating impaired functional coupling of pain modulatory regions with disease progression. During pain perception PD patients showed higher MCC activity compared to HC, which also scaled with PD severity. Interestingly, dACC-DLPFC connectivity during pain anticipation was negatively associated with MCC activity during the receipt of pain in PD patients. This study indicates altered neural processing during the anticipation and receipt of experimental pain in drug-naïve PD patients. It provides first evidence for a progressive decline in descending pain modulation in PD, which might be related to the high prevalence of pain in later stages of PD.
LP can be a cure for Parameterized Problems

We investigate the parameterized complexity of Vertex Cover parameterized above the optimum value of the linear programming (LP) relaxation of the integer linear programming formulation of the problem. By carefully analyzing the change in the LP value in the branching steps, we argue that even the most straightforward branching algorithm (after some preprocessing) results in an O (2.6181 r ) algorithm for the problem where r is the excess of the vertex cover size over the LP optimum. We write O (f(k)) for a time complexity of the form O(f(k)n O(1) ), where f(k) grows exponentially with k.
Douleur, affectivité, personnalité et fonctionnement attentionnel suite à un traumatisme craniocérébral léger

The main goal of this thesis is to study the multifactorial nature of attentional difficulties presented by individuals having sustained a mild traumatic brain injury. Specifically, we sought to determine how pain symptoms, emotional factors, and personality variables impact attentional functioning following mild traumatic brain injury. To achieve this, the present thesis describes the findings of three articles. In the first article we reviewed studies that had investigated the cognitive/neuropsychological impact of pain symptoms, and of psychological variables related to chronic pain. The second article presents the findings of an experimental study in which we explored the relationships between symptoms of pain, emotional factors, and attentional functioning in individuals with mild traumatic brain injury in different phases of recovery. A third article describes the results of another experimental study exploring the associations between personality variables, and attentional efficacy in both normal individuals and in those having sustained a mild traumatic brain injury. Findings of the studies described in this thesis demonstrate that mild traumatic brain injury can decrease attentional efficacy, as attentional deficits can be observed on certain neuropsychological tasks that precisely measure reaction times. Variables concomitant to mild traumatic brain injury can also negatively impact attention; the presence of pain symptoms is associated with decreased performance on attention tasks, and certain personality traits are associated with attentional efficacy or with post-concussion symptoms. This thesis thus demonstrates that various factors contribute to the attentional difficulties presented by persons with mild traumatic brain injury. The neuropsychologist should opt to use cognitive tasks sensitive to mild brain injury when exploring the attentional complaints of these individuals. As well, a thorough evaluation of variables related to pain, and of
Planar Swarming Motion under Single Leader as Nash Equilibrium Aykut Yıldız and

Two dimensional foraging swarms are modeled as a dynamic noncooperative game played by swarm members, each one of which minimizes its total effort during the journey by controlling its velocity. It is assumed that each member monitors its distance only to the member that starts the journey up front, called the leader. The leader is only concerned with minimizing its total control effort. The foraging location is assumed to be known by all members. It is shown that a unique Nash equilibrium exists under certain assumptions on the nature of relative weighing between the motions along the two coordinates in the plane. The Nash equilibrium displays a number of observed characteristics of biological swarms; for instance, a V-shape formation is preserved during the whole journey. Keywords—Differential game, dynamic multi-agent system, Nash equilibrium, rendezvous problem.
Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscript images: a review of handwritten text line segmentation methods and new challenges

Abstract. Due to their specific characteristics, palm leaf manuscripts provide new challenges for text line segmentation tasks in document analysis. We investigated the performance of six text line segmentation methods by conducting comparative experimental studies for the collection of palm leaf manuscript images. The image corpus used in this study comes from the sample images of palm leaf manuscripts of three different Southeast Asian scripts: Balinese script from Bali and Sundanese script from West Java, both from Indonesia, and Khmer script from Cambodia. For the experiments, four text line segmentation methods that work on binary images are tested: the adaptive partial projection line segmentation approach, the A* path planning approach, the shredding method, and our proposed energy function for shredding method. Two other methods that can be directly applied on grayscale images are also investigated: the adaptive local connectivity map method and the seam carving-based method. The evaluation criteria and tool provided by ICDAR2013 Handwriting Segmentation Contest were used in this experiment.
Efficient nonlinear acoustic echo cancellation by partitioned-block Significance-Aware Hammerstein Group Models

A powerful and efficient model for nonlinear echo paths of hands-free communication systems is given by the recently proposed Significance-Aware Hammerstein Group Model (SA-HGM). Such a model learns memoryless loudspeaker nonlinearities on a small temporal support of the echo path (preferably the direct-sound region) and extrapolates the nonlinearities for the entire echo path afterwards. In this contribution, an efficient frequency-domain realization of the significance-aware concept for nonlinear acoustic echo cancellation is proposed. The proposed method exploits the benefits of partitioned-block frequency-domain adaptive filtering and will therefore be referred to as Partitioned-Block Significance-Aware Hammerstein Group Model (PBSA-HGM). This allows to efficiently model a long nonlinear echo path by a linear partitioned-block frequency-domain adaptive filter after a parametric memoryless nonlinear preprocessor, the parameters of which are estimated via a nonlinear Hammerstein Group Model (HGM) with the short temporal support of a single block only.
Comparing Paper-and-Pencil and Internet Survey Methods Conducted in a Combat-Deployed Environment

The Unit Behavioral Health Needs Assessment Survey (UBHNAS) is a tool used to aid behavioral health providers in assessing the needs of service members of a military unit. Traditionally, the survey has been administered by paper-and-pencil; however, implementing the survey via the Internet may be a faster and easier way to administer the survey. There are, however, potential drawbacks to Internet survey administration, and previous studies comparing the 2 methods have yielded inconsistent findings. Using a between-subjects design with a combat-deployed military sample, the present study compared the 2 survey administration methods. Specifically, we assessed comparability for (a) psychological constructs, (b) auxiliary measures (such as completion time, frequency of missing data, and length of written comments), and (c) ratings and perceptions of the UBHNAS, and preference in methodology. The method of survey administration did not predict differences in the psychological outcome variables. However, participants in the paper-and-pencil condition reported higher rates of comfort answering questions, belief that responses would remain anonymous, and frankness and honesty in answering questions. Nevertheless, participants in both conditions preferred to take the survey via the Internet as opposed to paper-and-pencil in the future. Finally, participants in the Internet condition completed the survey faster and tended to write longer comments, although in terms of the comments being informative, there was no difference between the groups. Based on our findings, we recommend the use of the Internet for administering the UBHNAS; however, we caution that there may be tradeoffs regarding concerns about comfort, honesty, and anonymity.
Building Thesaurus from Manual Sources and Automatic Scanned Texts

This paper describes the work done in the TIPS project about the construction of a thesaurus base. This construction is a merge from a thesaurus manually built and one automatically extracted from large text corpora. Several manually built thesaurus have been semi-formatted to be merged in a consistent common base. The automatic extraction is based on both syntax and statistics. We present in this paper the way thesaurus are built and the results on Scientific corpus in the context of the TIPS project.
Quantitative analysis of total β-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin concentration in urine by immunomagnetic reduction to assist in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy

Background The initial diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy depends on physical examination, ultrasound, and serial measurements of total β-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCGβ) concentrations in serum. The aim of this study was to explore the possibility of using quantitative analysis of total hCGβ in urine rather than in serum by immunomagnetic reduction (IMR) assay as an alternative method to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy. Methods We established a standard calibration curve of IMR intensity against total hCGβ concentration based on standard hCGβ samples, and used an IMR assay to detect total hCGβ concentrations in the urine of pregnant women with lower abdominal pain and/or vaginal bleeding. The final diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy was based on ultrasound scans, operative findings, and pathology reports. In this prospective study, ten clinical samples were used to analyze the relationship of total hCGβ IMR signals between urine and serum. Furthermore, 20 clinical samples were used to analyze the relationship between urine IMR signals and serum levels of total hCGβ. Results The calibration curve extended from 0.01 ng/mL to 10,000 ng/mL with an excellent correlation (R2=0.999). In addition, an excellent correlation of total hCGβ IMR signals between urine and serum was noted (R2=0.994). Furthermore, a high correlation between urine IMR signals and serum levels of total hCGβ was noted (R2=0.862). Conclusion An IMR assay can quantitatively analyze total hCGβ concentrations in urine, and is a potential candidate for point-of-care testing to assist in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy.
Synaptic Transmission from Horizontal Cells to Cones Is Impaired by Loss of Connexin Hemichannels

In the vertebrate retina, horizontal cells generate the inhibitory surround of bipolar cells, an essential step in contrast enhancement. For the last decades, the mechanism involved in this inhibitory synaptic pathway has been a major controversy in retinal research. One hypothesis suggests that connexin hemichannels mediate this negative feedback signal; another suggests that feedback is mediated by protons. Mutant zebrafish were generated that lack connexin 55.5 hemichannels in horizontal cells. Whole cell voltage clamp recordings were made from isolated horizontal cells and cones in flat mount retinas. Light-induced feedback from horizontal cells to cones was reduced in mutants. A reduction of feedback was also found when horizontal cells were pharmacologically hyperpolarized but was absent when they were pharmacologically depolarized. Hemichannel currents in isolated horizontal cells showed a similar behavior. The hyperpolarization-induced hemichannel current was strongly reduced in the mutants while the depolarization-induced hemichannel current was not. Intracellular recordings were made from horizontal cells. Consistent with impaired feedback in the mutant, spectral opponent responses in horizontal cells were diminished in these animals. A behavioral assay revealed a lower contrast-sensitivity, illustrating the role of the horizontal cell to cone feedback pathway in contrast enhancement. Model simulations showed that the observed modifications of feedback can be accounted for by an ephaptic mechanism. A model for feedback, in which the number of connexin hemichannels is reduced to about 40%, fully predicts the specific asymmetric modification of feedback. To our knowledge, this is the first successful genetic interference in the feedback pathway from horizontal cells to cones. It provides direct evidence for an unconventional role of connexin hemichannels in the inhibitory synapse between horizontal cells and cones. This is an important step in resolving a long-standing debate about the unusual form of (ephaptic) synaptic transmission between horizontal cells and cones in the vertebrate retina.
Analysis of SQL Injection Detection Techniques

SQL Injection is one of the vulnerabilities in OWASPs Top Ten List for Web Based Application Exploitation.These types of attacks takes place on Dynamic Web applications as they interact with the databases for the various operations.Current Content Management System like Drupal, Joomla or Wordpress have all the information stored in their databases. A single intrusion into these types of websites can lead to overall control of websites by the attacker. Researchers are aware of the basic SQL Injection attacks but there are numerous SQL Injection attacks which are yet to be Prevented and Detected. Over here, we present the extensive review for the Advanced SQL Injection attack such as Fast Flux Sql Injection, Compounded SQL Injection and Deep Blind SQL Injection. We also analyze the detection and prevention using the classical methods as well as modern approaches. We will be discussing the Comparative Evaluation for prevention of SQL Injection.
Combining CMA-ES and MOEA/DD for many-objective optimization

Multi-objective Estimation of Distribution Algorithms (MOEDAS) have been successfully applied to solve Multi-objective Optimization Problems (MOPs) since they are able to model dependencies between variables of the problem and then sample new solutions to guide the search to promising areas. A state-of-the-art optimizer for single-objective continuous functions that also uses probabilistic modeling is the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES). Different variants of CMA-ES have been proposed for MOPs however most of them are based on Pareto dominance as the main selection criterion. Recently, a new multi-objective CMA-ES called MOEA/D-CMA was proposed combining the strengths of CMA-ES with those of the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D). Nowadays, however, researchers on MOEAs agree that combining Pareto and decomposition can be beneficial for the search on MOPs. As a result, a new MOEA has been proposed, called MOEA/DD. This algorithm modifies the MOEA/D by including a new Pareto dominance update mechanism that brings more diversity into the search. In this study, we extend the MOEA/D-CMA by replacing its update mechanism by the one of MOEA/DD. The hypothesis is that this update mechanism will improve the performance of MOEA/D-CMA as it improved MOEA/D. MOEA/D-CMA and MOEA/DD-CMA are implemented and evaluated through an experimental study. The experimental study involves two well-known families of benchmark problems whose objective numbers scale from two to fifteen. Then, an extensive statistical analysis of the results is made to extract sound, statistically supported conclusions about the performance of the algorithms as the number of objectives scales.
The Expression of the Kallikrein Gene Family in the Rat Pituitary: Oestrogen Effects and the Expression of an Additional Family Member in the Neurointermediate Lobe

Using a series of oligonucleotide probes (18 to 21 mers) specific for members of the rat kallikrein/tonin gene family (PS, S1, S2, S3, K1, P1), we have shown by Northern blot analysis that the oestrogen‐dependent kallikrein gene expressed in the male and female rat anterior pituitary is true kallikrein (PS). In addition, we have demonstrated that oestrogen treatment may also induce PS gene expression in the male and female rat neurointermediate lobe. None of the other five rat arginyl‐esteropeptidase genes so far described (S1, S2, S3, K1, P1) was found to be expressed in the anterior pituitary or neurointermediate lobe under these conditions. However, the demonstration of an additional hybridization signal in the male neurointermediate lobe using a relatively non‐specific PS gene probe suggests the expression of another, as yet uncharacterized, kallikrein gene family member in this tissue.
Reducing refusal rates in the case of threatening questions : the 'door-in-the-face' technique

In this article we examine under wnich conditions personally threatening questions produce sufficient response rates. The income question serves as an example to demonstrate that question format may increase the threatening impact of the question topic. Based on the compliance gaining mechanisms operating in the ‘door-in-the-face ' technique an income question sequence was designed. Tested in two nationwide German surveys this question sequence achieved extremely low refusal rates.