Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Specific Expression of Anaplasma marginale Major Surface Protein 2 Salivary Gland Variants Occurs in the Midgut and Is an Early Event during Tick Transmission

ABSTRACT Infectivity of Anaplasma spp. develops when infected ticks feed on a mammalian host (transmission feed). Specific Anaplasma marginale major surface protein 2 (MSP2) variants are selected for within the tick and are expressed within the salivary glands. The aims of this study were to determine when and where MSP2 variant selection occurs in the tick, how MSP2 expression is regulated in salivary glands of transmission-feeding ticks, and whether the number of A. marginale organisms per salivary gland is significantly increased during transmission feeding. The South Idaho strain of A. marginale was used, as MSP2 expression is restricted to two variants, SGV1 and SGV2, in Dermacentor andersoni. Using Western blot, real-time PCR, and DNA sequencing analyses it was shown that restriction and expression of MSP2 occurs early in the midgut within the first 48 h of the blood meal, when ticks acquire infection. A. marginale is present in the tick salivary glands before transmission feeding is initiated, but the msp2 mRNA and MSP2 protein levels per A. marginale organism increase only minimally and transiently in salivary glands of transmission-feeding ticks compared to that of unfed ticks. A. marginale numbers per tick increase gradually in salivary glands of both transmission-fed and unfed ticks. It is concluded that MSP2 variant selection is an early event in the tick and that MSP2 variants SGV1 and SGV2 are expressed both in the midgut and salivary glands. While MSP2 may be required for infectivity, there is no strict temporal correlation between MSP2 expression and the development of infectivity.
On determining appropriate aerosol optical depth values for atmospheric correction of satellite imagery for biophysical parameter retrieval: requirements and limitations under Australian conditions

Atmospheric correction of high spatial resolution (10–30 m pixel sizes) satellite imagery for use in large-area land-cover monitoring is difficult due to the lack of aerosol optical depth (AOD) estimates made coincident with image acquisition. We present a methodology to determine the upper and lower bounds of AOD estimates that allow the subsequent calculation of a biophysical variable of interest to a pre-determined precision. Knowledge of that range can be used to identify an appropriate method for estimating AOD. We applied the methodology to Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper data in Queensland (QLD) and New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and determined that AOD must be estimated within approximately 0.05 of actual AOD for retrieval of foliage projective cover (FPC) to a precision of 10%. That knowledge was then used to determine the relative merit of using a fixed constant, Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) climatology, or dense dark vegetation (DDV) method for estimating AOD in QLD and NSW. It was found that using a fixed AOD of 0.05 allows estimates of FPC within 10% of their true value when the true value of AOD is less than 0.1. Such AOD values account for approximately 90% of all inland observations and 65% of coastal observations as determined by analysis of data obtained from AERONET. Using an AERONET climatology to estimate AOD was found to increase the likelihood of accurate FPC retrieval in coastal locations to 83%, although it should be noted that AERONET data are very sparse. DDV has potential in eastern and central areas for retrieving AOD observations with greater precision than fixed values or climatologies. However, more work is needed to understand the temporal variation of vegetation reflectance before the DDV method can be used operationally.
Transitional care for young adult survivors of childhood cancer.

OBJECTIVES To review the obstacles and barriers to providing optimal care to young adult cancer survivors and discuss the transition from pediatric to adult health care system. DATA SOURCES Published articles and textbook chapters. CONCLUSIONS More than 70% of children diagnosed with cancer between birth and 14 years of age will be cured of their primary disease. Because of multiple physical and psychosocial risk factors imposed by their therapy and previous disease, childhood cancer survivors require life-long care. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE Health care providers must be aware of the unique needs of these individuals for life-long follow-up and assist in facilitating this transition process.
Detection and emphatic realization of contrastive word pairs for expressive text-to-speech synthesis

This paper addresses the problem of automatic detection of contrastive word pairs and their acoustic realization in emphasis for expressive text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis in English. Support vector machines (SVMs) have been used to automatically detect contrastive word pairs from lexical features, syntactic dependencies and semantic relations. A much better performance is achieved by adding accent ratio and word identity features. Hidden Markov model (HMM) based speech synthesis is then used to generate emphatic speeches by putting emphasis on the detected contrastive word pairs. Subjective experiments show that most of the listeners consider putting emphasis on contrastive word pairs is more acceptable than on non-contrastive word pairs. This indicates the importance of the accurate detection of contrastive word pairs.
Neural Network-Based Overallocation for Improved Energy-Efficiency in Real-Time Cloud Environments

This paper introduces a dynamic resource provisioning mechanism for over allocating the capacity of Cloud data centers based on customer resource utilization patterns. The proposed mechanism reduces the impact on Real-Time constraints while improvements on the overall energy-efficiency are sought. The main idea is to exploit the resource utilization patterns of each customer for smartly under allocating resources to the requested Virtual Machines. This reduces the waste produced by frequent overestimations and increases the data center availability. Consequently, it creates the opportunity to host additional Virtual Machines in the same computing infrastructure improving its energy-efficiency. In order to mitigate the negative effect on deadlines, the proposed over allocation service implements a multiplayer Neural Network to anticipate the resource usage patterns based on historical data. Additionally, a compensation mechanism for adjusting the resource allocation in cases of unexpected higher demand is also described. The experiments contrast the proposed approach against traditional "Dynamic Resource Resizing" energy-aware mechanisms and also to our previous work that implements Low-Pass-Filter as predictor. Results demonstrate meaningful improvements in energy-efficiency while time constraints are slightly affected.
Moving on to dynamic environments: Visual odometry using feature classification

Visually estimating a robot's own motion has been an active field of research within the last years. Though impressive results have been reported, some application areas still exhibit huge challenges. Especially for car-like robots in urban environments even the most robust estimation techniques fail due to a vast portion of independently moving objects. Hence, we move one step further and propose a method that combines ego-motion estimation with low-level object detection. We specifically design the method to be general and applicable in real-time. Pre-classifying interest points is a key step, which rejects matches on possibly moving objects and reduces the computational load of further steps. Employing an Iterated Sigma Point Kalman Filter in combination with a RANSAC based outlier rejection scheme yields a robust frame-to-frame motion estimation even in the case when many independently moving objects cover the image. Extensive experiments show the robustness of the proposed approach in highly dynamic environments with speeds up to 20m/s.
A Computational Model for Arguments Understanding

This paper presents a computational model for the understanding of arguments in natural language dialogues. Previous work on argumentation in Artificial Intelligence has been mainly focused on the conceptual aspects. But argumentation is also a linguistic phenomenon. Language provides structures to express arguments, to orient the argumentative interpretation of utterances, or to present a new concept or a new piece of information as an argument in favor of or against a certain conclusion, independently of the actual contents of these propositions. Argumentation also affects the discourse structure. The order in which arguments can be uttered is constrained.
Costs of Creating Carbon Offset Credits via Forestry Activities: A Meta-Regression Analysis

The main focus of efforts to mitigate climate change is on the avoidance of fossil fuel emissions. However, the Kyoto rules permit the use of forestry activities that create carbon offset credits. These could obviate the need for lifestyle-changing reductions in fossil fuel use. It is necessary for policy purposes, therefore, to determine the cost effectiveness of creating forest sink carbon credits. In this study, meta-regression analyses with 1047 observations from 68 studies are used to determine factors that affect carbon sequestration costs. Results indicate that soil carbon is not very important, but that forest plantations and use of biomass for energy make forestry activities more attractive. It also turns out that forestry activities are competitive with emissions reduction in tropical regions and, perhaps, boreal regions, but certainly not in Europe. Finally, the regression estimates are used to project the potential costs of carbon uptake for various forest management scenarios.
The Nonlinear trend of runoff and its response to climate change in the Aksu River, western China

The nonlinear trend of runoff and its response to climate change in the Aksu River were identified and evaluated using several selected methods, including grey relation analysis, wavelet analysis, and regression analysis. The time series of runoff and related climate variables from two hydrologic stations and four meteorological stations during 1959–2005 for the Aksu River were used to construct and test empirical models. The key findings of this study indicate that although the time series of the runoff, temperature and precipitation present nonlinear trends, the runoff exhibits a linear correlation with the temperature and precipitation. These results reveal that there is a close relationship between variations in the annual runoff of the Aksu River and regional climate change; in other words, the nonlinear trends of the variations in the runoff is the response to that of regional climate change. The details supporting the key findings are as follows: (1) The annual runoff presented nonlinear trends that depend on time scales, which appeared to have resulted from the regional climate changes that occurred during the study period. (2) The periodicity of changes in runoff, temperature, and precipitation are closely correlated, that of annual runoff occurred on 24‐year cycle, whereas annual average temperature and annual precipitation occurred on 23‐ and 25‐year cycles. (3) The annual runoff exhibited a significant, positive correlation with the temperature and precipitation at the 1‐, 2‐, 4‐, and 8‐year temporal scales. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society
Structural evolution and tectonic significance of the Eastern Highlands shear zone in Cape Breton Island, the Canadian Appalachians

The Eastern Highlands shear zone in Cape Breton Island of the Canadian Appalachians is characterized by an amphibolite-facies deformation zone over 5 km wide overprinted by a greenschist-facies mylonite zone about 1 km wide. Deformation zones in both metamorphic grades dip steeply to the southeast with movement direction pitching steeply to the southwest, and shear sense indicators indicate the same sense of shear, that is, an east-over-west dip-slip movement with minor sinistral strike-slip component. Deformation in both conditions is constrained to the Late Silurian to Early Devonian (mainly Late Silurian). It is suggested that the greenschist-facies deformation represents the last stage of a single episode of deformation that occurred initially under amphibolite-facies conditions. The west-vergent shearing along the shear zone is antithetic to the westward subduction that led to the Silurian continent-continent collision, which is interpreted by tectonic wedging in this part of the Canadian Appalachians.
Multi-Frequency EM Method For Hydrocarbon Detection And For Monitoring Fluid Invasion During Enhanced Oil Recovery

In this work we discuss the results of an experimental study performed with a multi-frequency electromagnetic method over a mature oil field in Reconcavo basin, Bahia – Brazil. Five 1.8 km transects 200m apart and extending over a block of the oil reservoir were surveyed. The processed EM data are represented as cross-sections of apparent resistivity and induced polarization parameter, using a consistent plotting procedure developed by Dias and Sato (1981). All the sections, controlled by seismic and well log data, although showing some distortions in the IP-resistivity configurations, allow to recognize the following geological features: (i) the oil sandstone horizons and their trapping shales; (ii) the oil-water interface and some zones of steam invasion; and (iii) lateral electric contrasts representing fault zones. These results suggest the real possibility of the use of the spectral EM method in the direct detection of hydrocarbons, as well as for monitoring the efficiency of the artificial fluid injection used for secondary recovery.
Learning and the Reflective Journal in Computer Science

This paper describes the use of the reflective journal in a computer programming course at the University of South Australia. We describe rationale for the journal relating it to the contribution it can make to generic skills of lifelong learning, problem-solving, communication and awareness of personal learning strategies. We also relate it to the Personal Software Process (PSP) used by industry to encourage software engineers to improve productivity by 'review', with collation of software productivity metrics and awareness of personal and team level practice.We introduce the detail how students were asked to use the journal and evaluate its influence on learning. We present a selection of student reflections on the journal and summarise attainment comparing attainment in the journal with other more traditional items of assessment. We conclude that there is a place for the reflective journal in programming courses - a number of students reported benefits to their learning along a number of dimensions - and this was supported with evidence both in their journal itself and by their absolute attainment. We also note that the reflective journal is not universally accepted (or even recognised as a 'valid' learning activity by some). However, we recommend further use and development of such reflective techniques in computer science to stimulate good software practice and deep learning.
Basilar Occlusion Syndromes

Basilar artery occlusions (BAOs) are a subset of posterior circulation strokes. Particular issues relevant to BAOs include variable and stuttering symptoms at onset resulting in delays in diagnosis, high morbidity and mortality, and uncertain best management. Despite better imaging techniques, diagnosis, and therefore treatment, is often delayed. We will present the most common signs and symptoms of posterior circulation strokes. Data on optimal treatment strategies are gathered from multiple case series, registries, and one randomized trial, which was stopped early. Possible etiologies of BAOs, acute, and subacute treatment strategies and special topics in neuroimaging of the posterior fossa are discussed. This review may be helpful to neurohospitalists who are managing patients with acute stroke as well as emergency room physicians and neurologists.
The first detection of Toxoplasma gondii DNA in environmental air samples using gelatine filters, real-time PCR and loop-mediated isothermal (LAMP) assays: qualitative and quantitative analysis

SUMMARY Toxoplasma gondii infections are acquired through the ingestion of oocysts present in the environment. However, there is no data about their occurrence in the air or about airborne transmission of these infections. In the present paper, we report on the identification of T. gondii using rapid molecular detection methods, supported by microscopic analysis, in environmental air samples. A total of 71 samples were collected, using gelatine filters, from kitchen gardens, recreational areas and sandpits located in northern and north-eastern Poland. Material recovered from the filters was analysed using real-time PCR and loop-mediated isothermal assays targeting the T. gondii B1 gene. Toxoplasma gondii DNA was found in two samples, as confirmed by both molecular assays. Genotyping at the SAG2 locus showed Toxoplasma SAG2 type I. Moreover, the presence of T. gondii oocysts was confirmed in one of the positive samples with the use of microscopy. The results showed that T. gondii may be present in environmental air samples and that respiratory tract infections may play a role in the high prevalence of toxoplasmosis in humans and animals. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first epidemiological evidence that oro-fecal and foodborne toxoplasmosis may be traceable to an airborne respiratory origin and that this may represent a new, previously unknown transmission route for this disease.
Antiosteoporotic activity of phytoestrogen-rich fraction separated from ethanol extract of aerial parts of Cissus quadrangularis in ovariectomized rats

Objective: Cissus quadrangularis L. (C. quadrangularis L.) (Vitaceae) has been reported in Ayurveda for its antiosteoporotic activity. The study separated the phytoestrogen-rich fraction (IND-HE) from aerial parts of C. quadrangularis L. and evaluated its effect on osteoporosis caused by ovariectomy in rats. Materials and Methods: IND-HE was separated from the ethanol extract of C. quadrangularis. Ovariectomized female Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 6). Group 1: Control (distilled water), Group II: IND-HE (75 mg/kg p.o.), Group III: IND-HE (100 mg/kg p.o.) were treated once daily for 8 weeks and Group IV: standard estradiol group, received estrogen (1 mg/kg, s.c. bi-weekly). The effects on body weight were determined. DEXA (Dual energy-emission X-ray absorptimatory analysis) of whole body bone and femur was carried out. Blood was removed and analyzed for biochemical parameters. After sacrificing the animals, biomechanical study of right tibia and histopathology of pelvic bone was carried out. Results: IND-HE showed presence of phytoestrogen-rich fraction. IND-HE (75 and 100 mg/ kg) and estrogen treatment showed statistically significant increase in bone thickness, bone density and bone hardness. IND-HE (75 and 100 mg/kg) and estrogen treatment significantly increased serum estradiol. IND-HE (100 mg/kg) (P<0.05) and estrogen treatment increased serum vitamin D3 and serum calcium compared to control. Alkaline phosphatase was significantly reduced by IND-HE (100 mg/kg p.o.) and estrogen treatment. Histopathology and DEXA results indicated that IND-HE (75 and 100 mg/kg) prevented bone loss. Discussion and Conclusion: These findings confirm that phytoestrogen-rich fraction (IND- HE) possess good antiosteoporotic activity.
Velocity-dependent friction in a large direct shear experiment on gabbro

Abstract Velocity-stepping sliding experiments on a 0.1 m2 interface between two gabbro blocks under 0.5–2.0 MPa normal stress have shown consistent velocity-weakening behaviour. The parameter values are in a similar range to those measured on other materials in other laboratories. However, simulation of the complete transient behaviour requires a second state-variable which has a characteristic decay distance c. 100 × longer than the first, and with the opposite sign (velocity-strengthening). The second delayed effect is not sufficient to cancel out the short period effect, and is not expected to control the onset of unstable stick-slip sliding. These experiments extend the observed realm of velocity-weakening behaviour to larger interfaces and lower normal stresses than has been previously reported.
Whodunit... and to Whom? Subjects, Objects, and Actions in Research Articles on American Labor Unions

This paper investigates whether sentence structure analysis—examining who appears in subject versus object position— can illuminate who academic articles portray as having agency in labor relations. We extract subjects and objects from a corpus of 3,800 academic articles, and compare both the relative occurrence of different groups (workers, women, employers) in each position and the verbs that most commonly attach to each group. We conclude that agency, while elusive, can potentially be modeled by sentence structure analysis.
Divert visual angle through eyeball recognition

Thanks to the development of network, video devices are used in various aspects of our lives such as video conference, video call, etc. It is, however, very common that people tend to look at the computer screen instead of the video capture device, which can affect the communication. We present a novel approach to solve this problem. Through estimating the divert head angle and eyeball location recognition, we can estimate the visual angle. By moving the eyeball to adjust visual line, it looks like that we're looking at each other. Our work is on the basis of face alignment and there is a geometric 3D model and novel R -α, K -β relationship analysis methods adopted in this paper.
COSMIC TRANSPARENCY: A TEST WITH THE BARYON ACOUSTIC FEATURE AND TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

Conservation of the phase-space density of photons plus Lorentz invariance requires that the cosmological luminosity distance be larger than the angular diameter distance by a factor of (1 + z)2, where z is the redshift. Because this is a fundamental symmetry, this prediction—known sometimes as the “Etherington relation” or the “Tolman test”—is independent of the world model, or even the assumptions of homogeneity and isotropy. It depends, however, on Lorentz invariance and transparency. Transparency can be affected by intergalactic dust or interactions between photons and the dark sector. Baryon acoustic feature (BAF) and type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) measures of the expansion history are differently sensitive to the angular diameter and luminosity distances and can therefore be used in conjunction to limit cosmic transparency. At the present day, the comparison only limits the change Δτ in the optical depth from redshift 0.20 to 0.35 at visible wavelengths to Δτ < 0.13 at 95% confidence. In a model with a constant comoving number density n of scatterers of constant proper cross section σ, this limit implies nσ < 2 × 10−4 h Mpc−1. These limits depend weakly on the cosmological world model. Assuming a concordance world model, the best-fit value of Δτ to current data is negative at the 2σ level. This could signal interesting new physics or could be the result of unidentified systematics in the BAF/SNeIa measurements. Within the next few years, the limits on transparency could extend to redshifts z ≈ 2.5 and improve to nσ < 1.1 × 10−5 h Mpc−1. Cosmic variance will eventually limit the sensitivity of any test using the BAF at the nσ ∼ 4 × 10−7 h Mpc−1 level. Comparison with other measures of the transparency is provided; no other measure in the visible is as free of astrophysical assumptions.