Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation Testing of a Portable Kit for Measuring an Active Soil Carbon Fraction

Increasing demands exist for information about properties related to soil quality and human-induced soil change, particularly soil C. To help address this need, the USDA-NRCS Soil Survey Laboratory (SSL) developed a portable kit for rapid and relatively accurate assessment of soil active C (AC), an easily oxidizable soil C fraction. This study determined the accuracy of a hand-held spectrophotometer to measure a colorimetric reaction induced by reduction of a violet-hued KMnO 4 solution by AC. Seven National Cooperative Soil Survey university cooperators analyzed samples for comparison with results obtained at the SSL. Kit results from participants correlated well with SSL results, with 78% of all participant results within ±25% of paired target results. Variations attributed to prevalent mineralogy affirmed the need to separate the soil sample from reactant solution within 10 min for reproducible measures. Seasonal variations were observed, with the most variability being noted in the June to July sampling period (57% agreement, ±25%), attributable to increased soil biological activity. This study confirmed that the kit provides a reliable means of assessing a vital soil C component under field office conditions. The kit will be a valuable tool in assessing a critical soil quality measure, adding needed soil quality data to the national database, and improving the reliability and precision of soil quality interpretations.
BTIarray: A Time-Overlapping Transistor Array for Efficient Statistical Characterization of Bias Temperature Instability

A transistor array has been developed that is capable of efficiently collecting parametric data for a statistical model of bias-temperature instability (BTI) degradation. This BTIarray uses a time-overlapping technique, in which all transistors in the array undergo BTI stress or recovery bias in parallel, which greatly reduces the measurement time for a large number of transistors. An implementation using 65-nm technology validated the time-overlapping concept. The use of this array reduces the time to measure the statistical threshold voltage shifts of 128 transistors from a month to within a day while retaining precision as high as 50 μV (rms). Experiments showed that the statistical distribution of the time exponent for the degradation model of the pMOS transistor was log-normal.
Investigating the Nature of the Left Periphery in Peninsular Spanish wh-Question Intonation

Abstract Background/Aims: In this paper we aim to resolve the phonological status of utterance-initial rises in Spanish wh-questions. Methods/Analysis 1: In analysis 1 we examine the scaling and alignment properties of utterance-initial rises produced by 14 speakers of Peninsular Spanish. Results/Analysis 1: The results provide evidence for a single bitonal pitch accent at the left periphery (L + <H*) despite multiple options at the right periphery. Conclusion/Analysis 1: Our analysis, relying on the notion of sparse tonal specification, helps to explain Sp_ToBI transcribers' past inconsistencies in labeling wh-question initial rises. Methods/Analysis 2: In analysis 2 we tested whether there are scaling differences between the wh-question contours produced in analysis 1 and statement contours produced by the same 14 speakers. Results/Analysis 2: We showed that speakers scale utterance-initial peaks higher in statements, and that they scale utterancefinal peaks higher in wh-questions. Conclusion/Analysis 2: This finding is incompatible with the notion that speakers of Spanish use a higher F0 level from the start of the utterance to distinguish questions from statements.
Catecholamines Inhibit the Antigen-Presenting Capability of Epidermal Langerhans Cells1

The sympathetic nervous system modulates immune function at a number of levels. Within the epidermis, APCs (Langerhans cells (LC)) are frequently anatomically associated with peripheral nerves. Furthermore, some neuropeptides have been shown to regulate LC Ag-presenting function. We explored the expression of adrenergic receptors (AR) in murine LC and assessed their functional role on Ag presentation and modulation of cutaneous immune responses. Both purified LC and the LC-like cell lines XS52-4D and XS106 expressed mRNA for the ARs α1A and β2. XS106 cells and purified LC also expressed β1-AR mRNA. Treatment of murine epidermal cell preparations with epinephrine (EPI) or norepinephrine inhibited Ag presentation in vitro. Furthermore, pretreatment of epidermal cells with EPI or norepinephrine in vitro suppressed the ability of these cells to present Ag for elicitation of delayed-type hypersensitivity in previously immunized mice. This effect was blocked by use of the β2-adrenergic antagonist ICI 118,551 but not by the α-antagonist phentolamine. Local intradermal injection of EPI inhibited the induction of contact hypersensitivity to epicutaneously administered haptens. Surprisingly, injection of EPI at a distant site also suppressed induction of contact hypersensitivity. Thus, catecholamines may have both local and systemic effects. We conclude that specific ARs are expressed on LC and that signaling through these receptors can decrease epidermal immune reactions.
Using molecular biology to develop drugs for renal cell carcinoma

Background: Renal cell carcinoma is a disease marked by a unique biology which has governed its long history of poor response to conventional cancer treatments. The discovery of the signaling pathway activated by inappropriate constitutive activation of the hypoxia inducible factors, transcription factors physiologically and transiently stabilized in response to low oxygen, has provided a basis to devise treatment strategies to target this oncogenic pathway. Objective: A review of the molecular pathogenesis of renal cell cancer (RCC) and molecularly targeted therapies, both those available at present and those in development, is provided. In addition, trials involving combination or sequential targeted therapy are discussed. Method: A detailed review of the literature describing the molecular biology of RCC and novel therapies was performed and summarized. Results/conclusion: Therapeutics targeting angiogenesis constitute the first class of agents that provide clinical benefit in most patients and herald renal cell carcinoma as a solid tumor paradigm for the development of novel therapeutics. Multiple strategies targeting this and other identified pathways in renal cell carcinoma provide numerous potential opportunities to make major improvements in treating this historically devastating cancer.
The Determinants of Interest Rate Spreads in Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation

The paper examines the determinants of interest rate spreads in Nigeria using a panel of 12 commercial banks for the period 1986-2007. The results suggest that cash reserve requirements, average loans to average total deposits, remuneration to total assets and gross domestic product have positive effect on interest rate spreads. However, non-interest income to average total assets, treasury certificate and development stocks have negative relationship with interest rate spreads. In general, the findings that suggest a reduction in cash reserve ratio, high bank overhead costs amongst others will help to moderate the high interest rate spreads in Nigeria.
Dietary fat induces sustained reward response in the human brain without primary taste cortex discrimination

To disentangle taste from reward responses in the human gustatory cortex, we combined high density electro-encephalography with a gustometer delivering tastant puffs to the tip of the tongue. Stimuli were pure tastants (salt solutions at two concentrations), caloric emulsions (two milk preparations identical in composition except for fat content) and a mixture of high fat milk with the lowest salt concentration. Early event-related potentials (ERPs) showed a dose-response effect for increased taste intensity, with higher amplitude and shorter latency for high compared to low salt concentration, but not for increased fat content. However, the amplitude and distribution of late potentials were modulated by fat content independently of reported intensity and discrimination. Neural source estimation revealed a sustained activation of reward areas to the two high-fat stimuli. The results suggest calorie detection through specific sensors on the tongue independent of perceived taste. Finally, amplitude variation of the first peak in the event-related potential to the different stimuli correlated with papilla density, suggesting a higher discrimination power for subjects with more fungiform papillae.
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums

Vorwort I. Einfurhung II. Grammatiker im Irak III. Grammatiker in Persien IV. Grammatiker in Syrien-Arabien V. Grammatiker in Agypten VI. Grammatiker in Nordafrika VII. Grammatiker in Spanien VIII. Anonyme Werke IX. Sprachphilosophie und die Beziehung der Grammatik zur Logik Nachtrage Indices
Protecting Privacy of Health Information through Privacy Broker

Concerns about the protection of personally identifiable information are not unique to the health care industry; however, consumers view their medical records as more "private" than other information because involuntary disclosure can affect jobs or health insurance status. EPAL is a convenient way of capturing privacy policies. This paper presents an EPAL based privacy middleware architecture called Privacy Broker which attempts to reduce privacy violation risk and enforce committed privacy policy in health information system. This paper also provides a translation of SQL queries into Authorization Request in EPAL.
Measurement of large-strain dependence of optical propagation loss in perfluorinated polymer fibers for use in seismic diagnosis

Brillouin scattering in perfluorinated graded-index (PFGI-) polymer optical fibers (POFs) has been extensively studied for structural health monitoring, including seismic diagnosis. Here, we measure the propagation loss of PFGI-POFs at telecom wavelengths as a function of large applied strain (up to 100%) at three optical powers and as a function of strain rate at a constant optical power. The strain dependence of the propagation loss in PFGI-POFs is found to be independent of the incident power (<27 dBm) and the strain rate (<500%s−1), indicating that PFGI-POF-based Brillouin sensors are potentially applicable to actual seismic monitoring.
Surveys of Forest Birds on Puerto Rico, 2015

Background The island of Puerto Rico supports a diverse assemblage of breeding birds, including 16 endemic species (Raffaele et al. 1998), and provides critical wintering habitat for many North American migratory birds (Wunderle and Waide 1994). Despite being a hotspot of avian biodiversity, spatially extensive data on the distribution and abundance of birds on the island are scarce. Breeding-bird assemblages were sampled by the North American Breeding Bird Survey from 1997-2007 (Sauer et al. 2013), but comparable primary data are not available for bird assemblages present during the boreal winter. New information We provide data from one of the few spatially extensive surveys of forest birds on Puerto Rico. We sampled 211 locations in forests across the island during January-March 2015 using repeated point-count surveys. These data are suitable for use in estimating abundance, occupancy, and distribution of forest birds on Puerto Rico during the winter.
A Feature Selection Algorithm Based on Boosting for Road Detection

Feature selection is very important for road detection. Generally, optimal feature set is very hard to be determined manually by prior-knowledge. In this paper, a feature selection algorithm based on boosting is proposed. To fully utilize potential feature correlations, the features are combined. The feature vector is enlarged by the combined features, and the new feature vector is called raw feature vector. In this paper, the classify power of each feature is evaluated by the error rate and converge speed of boosting classifier which is based on single feature. After that, the features are selected according to itpsilas classify power. The selected features are reassembled to B-feature vector. Then features are weighted according to its power in classification. The weighted B-feature vector is called B-W-Feature Vector. Three classifiers are used to evaluate the raw feature vector, the B-Feature and the B-W-Feature. The experiment results show selected and weighted feature vector can improve the classification performance.
Restricting the above ground sink corrects the root/shoot ratio and substantially boosts the yield potential per panicle in field-grown rice (Oryza sativa L.).

Rice has shallow, weak roots, but it is unknown how much increase in yield potential could be achieved if the root/shoot ratio is corrected. Removing all tillers except the main one, in a japonica (Sakha 101) and an indica (IR64) rice cultivar, instantly increased the root/shoot ratio from 0.21 to 1.16 in Sakha 101 and from 0.16 to 1.46 in IR64. Over 30 days after detillering, the root/shoot ratios of the detillered plants decreased to 0.49 in Sakha 101 and 0.46 in IR64 but remained significantly higher than in the controls. The detillered plants showed two- or fourfold increase in the main tiller fresh weight, as a consequence of more positive midday leaf relative water content (RWC), and consistently higher rates of stomatal conductance and photosynthesis, but not transpiration, compared with the controls. The enhanced photosynthesis in Sakha 101 after detillering resulted from both improved water status and higher Rubisco contents whereas in IR64, increasing the Rubisco content did not contribute to improving photosynthesis. Detillering did not increase the carbohydrate contents of leaves but prevented starch depletion at the end of grain filling. The leaf protein content during vegetative and reproductive stages, the grain filling rate, the number of filled grains per panicle were greatly improved, bringing about 38.3 and 35.9% increase in the harvested grain dry weight per panicle in Sakha 101 and IR64, respectively. We provide evidence that improving the root performance by increasing the root/shoot ratio would eliminate the current limitations to photosynthesis and growth in rice.
Codon usage tabulated from the GenBank Genetic Sequence Data.

Codon usages in 22361 genes can be analyzed using the nucleotide sequence data obtained from the GenBank Genetic Sequence Data Bank (Release 69.0, Sept.,1991). The database is called as the CUTG Database (1-4), and is distributed on EMBL CD-ROM (December 1991; CODON by Wada et al.) as a member of NAR Sequence Supplement Databases (5). The CUTG codon database is also available for on-line access to DDBJ (DNA DATA BANK OF JAPAN): Please, with DDBJ (Mail
Non-Nested Models and the Likelihood Ratio Statistic: A Comparison of Simulation and Bootstrap Based Tests

We consider an alternative use of simulation in the context of using the Likelihood-Ratio statistic to test non-nested models. To date simulation has been used to estimate the Kullback-Leibler measure of closeness between two densities, which in turn 'mean adjusts' the Likelihood-Ratio statistic. Given that this adjustment is still based upon asymptotic arguments, an alternative procedure is to utilise bootstrap procedures to construct the empirical density. To our knowledge this study represents the first comparison of the properties of bootstrap and simulation-based tests applied to non-nested tests. More specifically, the design of experiments allows us to comment on the relative performance of these two testing frameworks across models with varying degrees of nonlinearity. In this respect although the primary focus of the paper is upon the relative evaluation of simulation and bootstrap-based nonnested procedures in testing across a class of nonlinear threshold models, the inclusion of a similar analysis of the more standard linear/log-linear models provides a point of comparison.
2016 Endocrine Society guidelines update for the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism: are the proposed aldosterone-to-renin ratio cut-off values relevant in the era of fully automated immunoassays?

The Endocrine Society guidelines for the management of primary aldosteronism (PA) have been updated recently. As before, determination of the aldosterone-renin ratio (ARR) is advocated as the most reliable tool to screen for PA in high-risk groups of hypertensive patients; this recommendation echoes a widely held view. The guidelines provide a list of ARR cut-off values, reflecting the use of plasma renin activity (PRA) or direct renin concentration (DRC), and on multiple different units respectively for PRA, DRC and plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC). The proposed ARR cut-off values are a useful starting point. However, it is essential that individual laboratories carefully select the appropriate ARR cut-off value. This varies substantially (by as much as two-fold), depending on the analytical methods used; for example, aldosterone methods with or without extraction provide one source of variation. This problem affects renin methods to a lesser extent. Variation between methods should prompt examination of the clinical validity of the proposed ARR cut-off values in terms of test performance parameters like sensitivity and specificity. The ARR cut-off values proposed in the current guidelines are similar to those previously advocated in the 2008 guidelines. However, in the interim, several methods have been developed, including liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and immunoassays. The proposed ARR cut-off values require clinical validation against these new methods. In particular, two new fully automated chemiluminescent assays for DRC and PAC on, respectively, Liaison (Diasorin, Dartford, UK) and iSYS (IDS, Tyne & Wear, UK) platforms are now being promoted on the basis of their technical feasibility, high throughput and lower cost in comparison with LC-MS/MS. A methodspecific ARR cut-off with direct, automated chemiluminescence immunoassays for PAC and DRC has recently been validated in a large cohort of hypertensive patients, allowing discrimination between PA and essential hypertension. In this study, an ARR cut-off of 1.12 (with PAC in ng/dL and DRC in mIU/L) was reported to offer 99% sensitivity and 79% specificity for diagnosis of PA; the corresponding cut-off proposed in the recent guidelines is 3.7 ng/dL/mIU/L. With the Liaison automated chemiluminescent immunoassay system, an ARR cut-off of 2.7 ng/dl/ mIU/L has been reported to offer 78% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the diagnosis of PA. The findings of these studies demonstrate the risk of false negative classification if laboratories using these automated methods apply the proposed ARR cut-off of 3.7 ng/dL/mIU/L. Individual laboratories should select an ARR cut-off value (for their combination of renin and aldosterone methods) that is based on the literature, on method comparison studies and, ideally, on validation in their local population.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci from rock shell, Thais clavigera

Imposex (superimposition of male genital organs on female phenotype) of the rock shell or whelk, Thais clavigera, shows typical evidence of endocrine disruption by organotin compounds within inter‐tidal zones polluted by such compounds. It will be informative to see how low fertility caused by imposex of this species finally affects the genetic diversity of polluted populations. For future use in population genetic research of the rock shell, we report the isolation and characteristics of 11 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers with a mean of 11.7 alleles per locus. We observed heterozygosities of these sequences ranging from 0.43 to 0.95. These markers will be useful for future ecological genetic studies of rock shell.
An Approach to Parallel Algorithm Design

L'effort dedie a l'analyse du calcul parallele a surtout vise la recherche d'algorithmes paralleles pour des problemes particuliers. Cependant, il est necessaire de developper des outils generaux pour l'allocation «automatique» de tâches complexes a des machines paralleles (voir par exemple le cas de compilateurs pour machines paralleles). Nous presentons ici une approche qui permet de trouver une politique optimale, dans un sens, pour allouer des tâches a un ensemble de processeurs paralleles. Il s'agit d'un probleme NP-complet au cas general, mais notre definition permet de le resoudre en temps polynomial pour une large categorie de graphes de tâches et pour une large categorie d'architectures. Les graphes symetriques et leur generalisation jouent un role important et nous en discutons certaines proprietes
Impact of human milk bacteria and oligosaccharides on neonatal gut microbiota establishment and gut health.

Neonatal gut microbiota establishment represents a crucial stage for gut maturation, metabolic and immunologic programming, and consequently short- and long-term health status. Human milk beneficially influences this process due to its dynamic profile of age-adapted nutrients and bioactive components and by providing commensal maternal bacteria to the neonatal gut. These include Lactobacillus spp. , as well as obligate anaerobes such as Bifidobacterium spp. , which may originate from the maternal gut via an enteromammary pathway as a novel form of mother-neonate communication. Additionally, human milk harbors a broad range of oligosaccharides that promote the growth and activity of specific bacterial populations, in particular, Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides spp. This review focuses on the diversity and origin of human milk bacteria, as well as on milk oligosaccharides that influence neonatal gut microbiota establishment. This knowledge can be used to develop infant formulae that more closely mimic nature's model and sustain a healthy gut microbiota.
Extracting threads from concurrent objects for the design of embedded systems

As a result of the increasing size and complexity of embedded systems, object-oriented techniques are going to be adopted in the embedded software development. In embedded software developments, we have to consider non-functional requirements such as real-time properties and resource requirements. To deal with these requirements, some methodologies design the system using a thread-based approach. In such approach, we need to extract threads from the concurrent objects defined in the analysis model. However, current methodologies do not provide enough support to do so. We propose a formal approach to extract threads from concurrent objects. We also present an experimental application of the proposed approach to the development of a device driver.