Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Allotriploidy in the Evolution of Meconopsis (Papaveraceae): A Preliminary Study of Ancient Polyploid and Hybrid Speciation

Abstract: Also known as the Himalayan Poppy, Meconopsis is a genus of herbaceous plants growing only in the high elevation habits of the Himalaya and its adjacent plateau and mountain areas. The genus exhibits high morphological and ecological diversity, but the major causes of divergence in Meconopsis have not previously been studied. Our recent revised taxonomic classification, based on a molecular phylogeny, divided the genus into four monophyletic sections. Because chromosome number varies among these sections and our previous phylogenetic analyses revealed extensive incongruence between the recovered nrITS and cpDNA trees, possibly due to ancient hybridization, this study focused on evaluating the potential role of ancient polyploidization and hybridization in Meconopsis' evolutionary history. Our investigation based on the results of reconstructed ancestral chromosome numbers using a Maximum Likelihood method implemented in chromEvol showed that two extant Meconopsis sections (sect. Grandes and sect. Primulinae) shared a triploid ancestor. We further examined the pattern of hybridization in Meconopsis by reconstructing a nuclear marker GAPDH (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene) network. The result, along with morphological, phylogenetic, and cytological evidence, all point to a hybrid nature of the triploid ancestor. Based on the resultant GAPDH network, an ancient reticulate evolution scenario in Meconopsis is proposed. Overall, this preliminary study shows how an ancient triploid event promoted polyploid evolution in Meconopsis and also exemplifies how allotriploidization and successive polyploidization played an important role in diversification of the genus.
On the Capacity of the Two-User Symmetric Interference Channel With Transmitter Cooperation and Secrecy Constraints

This paper studies the value of limited rate cooperation between the transmitters for managing interference and simultaneously ensuring secrecy, in the two-user Gaussian symmetric interference channel (IC). First, the problem is studied in the symmetric linear deterministic IC (SLDIC) setting, and achievable schemes are proposed, based on interference cancelation, relaying of the other user's data bits, and transmission of random bits. In the proposed achievable scheme, the limited rate cooperative link is used to share a combination of data bits and random bits depending on the model parameters. Outer bounds on the secrecy rate are also derived, using a novel partitioning of the encoded messages and outputs depending on the relative strength of the signal and the interference. The partitioning helps to bound certain negative entropy terms, leading to a tractable outer bound. The inner and outer bounds are derived under all possible parameter settings. It is found that, for some parameter settings, the inner and outer bounds match, yielding the capacity of the SLDIC under transmitter cooperation and secrecy constraints. In some other scenarios, the achievable rate matches with the capacity region of the two-user SLDIC without secrecy constraints derived by Wang and Tse; thus, the proposed scheme offers secrecy for free, in these cases. Inspired by the achievable schemes and outer bounds in the deterministic case, achievable schemes and outer bounds are derived in the Gaussian case. The proposed achievable scheme for the Gaussian case is based on Marton's coding scheme and stochastic encoding along with dummy message transmission. One of the key techniques used in the achievable scheme for both the models is interference cancelation, which simultaneously offers two seemingly conflicting benefits: it cancels interference and ensures secrecy. Many of the results derived in this paper extend to the asymmetric case also. The results show that limited transmitter cooperation can greatly facilitate secure communications over two-user ICs.
Stationary random graphs onZ with prescribed iid degrees and flnite mean connections

Let F be a probability distribution with support on the non-negative integers. A model is proposed for generating stationary simple graphs on Z with degree distribution F and it is shown for this model that the expected total length of all edges at a given vertex is flnite if F has flnite second moment. It is not hard to see that any stationary model for generating simple graphs on Z will give inflnite mean for the total edge length per vertex if F does not have flnite second moment. Hence, flnite second moment of F is a necessary and su‐cient condition for the existence of a model with flnite mean total edge length.
The dream consultant: Productive fantasies at work

Consultants are known to work extreme hours. We show empirically how consultants fantasize about off-work activities, which are impossible to realize with their work schedule. These fantasies are, however, not obstructing their work, but important to justify the extreme hours and sustain desire for work. We draw on Lacan's notion of desire as the Other's desire and analyze the consultants' desire as controlled by a need for recognition at work. We show how consultants need off-work fantasies to maintain the illusion of wholeness – of being more than work. Only with this illusion of wholeness can they allow themselves to fully direct their desire toward work. The illusion of being more than work paradoxically makes them capable of being all work.
Native actors: a scalable software platform for distributed, heterogeneous environments

Writing concurrent software is challenging, especially with low-level synchronization primitives such as threads or locks in shared memory environments. The actor model replaces implicit communication by an explicit message passing in a 'hared-nothing' paradigm. It applies to concurrency as well as distribution, but has not yet entered the native programming domain. This paper contributes the design of a native actor extension for C++, and the report on a software platform that implements our design for (a) concurrent, (b) distributed, and (c) heterogeneous hardware environments. GPGPU and embedded hardware components are integrated in a transparent way. Our software platform supports the development of scalable and efficient parallel software. It includes a lock-free mailbox algorithm with pattern matching facility for message processing. Thorough performance evaluations reveal an extraordinary small memory footprint in realistic application scenarios, while runtime performance not only outperforms existing mature actor implementations, but exceeds the scaling behavior of low-level message passing libraries such as OpenMPI.
High performance thin layer chromatography qualitative densitometry as a sensitive method to assess shelf life of polyherbal formulations: A study on Hutabhugadi Churna

Introduction: Measuring chemical stability of polyherbal formulations is very challenging due to diversity in phytochemical composition. As there are no comprehensive guidelines for stability testing of herbal products, there is a need for a sensitive tool to detect how the quality of herbal products varies with time under the influence of environmental conditions. Aims: To validate the employability of high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) for real-time stability of Hutabhugadi Churna (HC). Materials and Methods: The chromatograms were developed using toluene/ethyl acetate/formic acid (10:5:1) and ethyl acetate/formic acid (10:1) as a mobile phase for chloroform and ethanolic extract, respectively. The plates were scanned under 254, 366, 540 (pre-derivatization) and 540 nm (post-derivatization). Samples were analyzed immediately after preparation and after 3rd and 6th months of storage. Alteration of fingerprint profiles from the initial pattern, in terms of number of peaks, was employed as diagnostic tools. Percentage variation in composition at given period was calculated. Results: HC is found to be stable at room temperature up to 1.3 months using the method of calculation of 10% degradation period employing slope and intercept values for the initial, 3rd and 6th months' deviation in number of bands. The data obtained were subjected to regression analysis in context to number of bands obtained. The curve was found to be linear with R2 value of 0.89–0.96 supported by their tolerance range of 0.04–0.11. Conclusion: The proposed model is a new logic with prospects to become working method for stability assessment of polyherbal formulations under controlled conditions.
Lung microdialysis—A powerful tool for the determination of exogenous and endogenous compounds in the lower respiratory tract (mini-review)

In vivo measurement of concentrations of drugs and endogenous substances at the site of action has become a primary focus of research. In this context the minimal invasive microdialysis (MD) technique has been increasingly employed for the determination of pharmacokinetics in lung. Although lung MD is frequently employed to investigate various drugs and endogenous substances, the majority of lung MD studies were performed to determine the pharmacokinetic profile of antimicrobials that can be related to the importance of respiratory tract infections. For the lower respiratory tract various methods, such as surgical collection of whole lung tissue and bonchoalveolar lavage (BAL), are currently available for the determination of pharmacokinetics of antimicrobials. Head-to-head comparison of pharmacokinetics of antibiotics in lung revealed high differences between MD and conventional methods. MD might be regarded as a more advantageous approach because of its higher anatomical resolution and the ability to obtain dynamic time-vs-concentration profiles within one subject. However, due to ethical objections lung MD is limited to animals or patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery. From these studies it was speculated that the concentrations in healthy lung tissue may be predicted reasonably by the measurement of concentrations in skeletal muscle tissue. However, until now this was only demonstrated for β-lactam antibiotics and needs to be confirmed for other classes of antimicrobials. In conclusion, the present review shows that MD is a promising method for the determination of antimicrobials in the lung, but might also be applicable for measuring a wide range of other drugs and for the investigation of metabolism in the lower respiratory tract.
Application of Optical Biosensors in Small-Molecule Screening Activities

The last two decades have seen remarkable progress and improvements in optical biosensor systems such that those are currently seen as an important and value-adding component of modern drug screening activities. In particular the introduction of microplate-based biosensor systems holds the promise to match the required throughput without compromising on data quality thus representing a sought-after complement to traditional fluidic systems. This article aims to highlight the application of the two most prominent optical biosensor technologies, namely surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and optical waveguide grating (OWG), in small-molecule screening and will present, review and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different assay formats on these platforms. A particular focus will be on the specific advantages of the inhibition in solution assay (ISA) format in contrast to traditional direct binding assays (DBA). Furthermore we will discuss different application areas for both fluidic as well as plate-based biosensor systems by considering the individual strength of the platforms.
Mobile interaction does not exist

Most mobile systems are 'stop-to-interact'; designed for active interaction only when a user is standing still, paying visual and mental attention to the device. However, people are increasingly carrying and using devices while undertaking a wide range of movement activities, such as walking, cycling, running. Some existing systems such as Apple's Siri aim for hands and eyes free use, but they do not consider the wider challenges of interaction during movement. We describe the challenges of system design for active mobile interaction. These 'interaction in motion' challenges are discussed with reference to an extreme movement interaction situation - cold water swimming.
Study of nonlinear Alfven waves in an electron--positron plasma with a three-dimensional electromagnetic particle code

Results from three‐dimensional (3‐D) electromagnetic particle simulations of Alfven waves generated by an electron beam in a nonrelativistic electron–positron plasma are presented. The results show that electrostatic modes are excited due to the beam instability. The bunches of the particles (electrons and positrons) caused by electrostatic waves are directly involved in the generation of Alfven waves. The Alfven waves propagate along the beam as damped solitons accelerating the background particles. The simulation results are in good agreement with theoretical analysis.
Ultra-Wideband Sensors for Improved Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cardiovascular Monitoring and Tumour Diagnostics

The specific advantages of ultra-wideband electromagnetic remote sensing (UWB radar) make it a particularly attractive technique for biomedical applications. We partially review our activities in utilizing this novel approach for the benefit of high and ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other applications, e.g., for intensive care medicine and biomedical research. We could show that our approach is beneficial for applications like motion tracking for high resolution brain imaging due to the non-contact acquisition of involuntary head motions with high spatial resolution, navigation for cardiac MRI due to our interpretation of the detected physiological mechanical contraction of the heart muscle and for MR safety, since we have investigated the influence of high static magnetic fields on myocardial mechanics. From our findings we could conclude, that UWB radar can serve as a navigator technique for high and ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging and can be beneficial preserving the high resolution capability of this imaging modality. Furthermore it can potentially be used to support standard ECG analysis by complementary information where sole ECG analysis fails. Further analytical investigations have proven the feasibility of this method for intracranial displacements detection and the rendition of a tumour’s contrast agent based perfusion dynamic. Beside these analytical approaches we have carried out FDTD simulations of a complex arrangement mimicking the illumination of a human torso model incorporating the geometry of the antennas applied.
Sortilin Is the Major 110-kDa Protein in GLUT4 Vesicles from Adipocytes*

Vesicles containing the glucose transporter GLUT4 from rat adipocytes contain a major protein of 110 kDa. We have isolated this protein, obtained the sequences of peptides, and cloned a large portion of its cDNA. This revealed that the protein is sortilin, a novel membrane protein that was cloned in another context from a human source while this work was in progress. Subcellular fractionation of rat and 3T3-L1 adipocytes, together with GLUT4 vesicle isolation, showed that sortilin was primarily located in the low density microsomes in vesicles containing GLUT4. Insulin caused a 1.7-fold increase in the amount of sortilin at the plasma membranes of 3T3-L1 adipocytes, as assessed by cell surface biotinylation. The expression of sortilin in 3T3-L1 cells occurred only upon differentiation. Previous characterization of sortilin has led to the suggestion that it functions to sort lumenal proteins from the trans Golgi. The significance of its insulin-stimulated increase at the cell surface and of its expression upon differentiation will require definitive delineation of its function.
An Experimental Determination of Su cient Mutant Operators

Mutation testing is a technique for unit testing software that, although powerful, is computationally expensive. The principal expense of mutation is that many variants of the test program, called mutants, must be repeatedly executed. This paper quanti es the expense of mutation in terms of the number of mutants that are created, then proposes and evaluates a technique that reduces the number of mutants by an order of magnitude. Selective mutation reduces the cost of mutation testing by reducing the number of mutants. This paper reports experimental results that compare selective mutation testing with standard, or non-selective, mutation testing, and results that quantify the savings achieved by selective mutation testing. The results support the hypothesis that selective mutation is almost as strong as non-selective mutation; in experimental trials selective mutation provides almost the same coverage as non-selective mutation, with a four-fold or more reduction in the number of mutants.
Predicting the Popularity of Social News Posts

This project demonstrates that machine learning can be used to accurately predict a post’s popularity. After collecting several thousand posts from HackerNews over several weeks, basic machine learning techniques were applied to a generic set of features. After analyzing trends in the data and refining the learning processes, our model predicted a post’s popularity with 85% accuracy. These results demonstrate that basic machine learning models can be used to predict the popularity of social media posts Keywords—Social News; Machine Learning
Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguides: Toward the Slowing and Storage of Light

The development of a simple, solid-state-based technology to slow the propagation of light could prove an important step in the realization of the high-bit-rate communication systems of the future. The use of coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) as practical elements to slow and store light pulses is one possibility.
Transparent encryption for HEVC using bit-stream-based selective coefficient sign encryption

We propose a selective encryption scheme for HEVC which allows for transparent encryption in a wide range of quantization parameters. Our approach focusses on the AC coefficient signs, since they can be altered directly in the bit stream without entropy reencoding. This allows for fast encryption and decryption while retaining full format-compliance and length-preservation. Furthermore, we show our approach's applicability for a number of use cases by evaluating the quality degradation and robustness against attacks.
When your errors make me lose or win: Event-related potentials to observed errors of cooperators and competitors

Monitoring one's own errors is a fundamental ability in terms of guiding and improving behavior, with specific neural substrates in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Similarly, we can monitor others' actions and learn by observing their errors. The mirror neuron system may subserve the formation of shared representations for self-generated and observed actions, and recent research suggests that monitoring mechanisms also react to errors made by others. However, it remains unknown how these responses are modified when interpersonal context implies different goals for the actor and the observer. To investigate whether differences in social context can influence brain response to observed action errors, we manipulated competition vs. cooperation between two participants taking turns in a go/no-go task. Event-related potentials simultaneously recorded from both participants showed a typical negativity over frontocentral regions to self-generated errors, irrespective of interpersonal context, but early differential responses to other-generated errors only during cooperation, with sources in precuneus and medial premotor areas. Competition produced a distinct error-related negativity in ACC at later latencies. We conclude that error monitoring for others' actions depends on their congruence with personal goals, and recruits brain systems involved in self-referential processing specifically during cooperation.
A Novel Human Ghrelin Variant (In1-Ghrelin) and Ghrelin-O-Acyltransferase Are Overexpressed in Breast Cancer: Potential Pathophysiological Relevance

The human ghrelin gene, which encodes the ghrelin and obestatin peptides, contains 5 exons (Ex), with Ex1-Ex4 encoding a 117 amino-acid (aa) preproprotein that is known to be processed to yield a 28-aa (ghrelin) and/or a 23-aa (obestatin) mature peptides, which possess biological activities in multiple tissues. However, the ghrelin gene also encodes additional peptides through alternative splicing or post-translational modifications. Indeed, we previously identified a spliced mRNA ghrelin variant in mouse (In2-ghrelin-variant), which is regulated in a tissue-dependent manner by metabolic status and may thus be of biological relevance. Here, we have characterized a new human ghrelin variant that contains Ex0-1, intron (In) 1, and Ex2 and lacks Ex3-4. This human In1-ghrelin variant would encode a new prepropeptide that conserves the first 12aa of native-ghrelin (including the Ser3-potential octanoylation site) but has a different C-terminal tail. Expression of In1-variant was detected in 22 human tissues and its levels were positively correlated with those of ghrelin-O-acyltransferase (GOAT; p = 0.0001) but not with native-ghrelin expression, suggesting that In1-ghrelin could be a primary substrate for GOAT in human tissues. Interestingly, levels of In1-ghrelin variant expression in breast cancer samples were 8-times higher than those of normal mammary tissue, and showed a strong correlation in breast tumors with GOAT (p = 0.0001), ghrelin receptor-type 1b (GHSR1b; p = 0.049) and cyclin-D3 (a cell-cycle inducer/proliferation marker; p = 0.009), but not with native-ghrelin or GHSR1a expression. Interestingly, In1-ghrelin variant overexpression increased basal proliferation of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Taken together, our results provide evidence that In1-ghrelin is a novel element of the ghrelin family with a potential pathophysiological role in breast cancer.
A Plague of Viruses: Biological, Computer and Marketing

The article analyses the transfer of biological, computer and marketing viruses. Despite differences between these three types of viruses, network structure affects their spread in similar ways. The authors distinguish between two forms of networks - densely knit and ramified - and show that biological, computer and marketing viruses all behave in similar ways depending on the form of network. Densely knit networks promote the quick dissemination of a virus, and increase the odds that many of the members will become infected. Ramified networks allow a virus to disperse widely, jumping between different milieux. In the end, the spread of viruses in the real world involves a combination of both densely knit and ramified networks, which the authors call ‘glocalization’.
Self-Reported Parenting Behavior and Child Temperament in Families of Toddlers With and Without Speech—Language Delay

This study examined self-reported parenting behaviors, and child temperament and behavior, based on parental perceptions of 47 toddlers ages 25 to 31 months. Data were obtained via parental reports and direct assessment. Children were identified as having a speech—language delay (SLD, n = 17) or as typically developing (n = 30) based on standardized testing. The results indicated that parents of toddlers with SLD reported themselves as being significantly less nurturing and more punitive in their discipline than parents of children who were typically developing. Parental accounts also revealed that children with SLD were more detached and underreactive than children without a delay. The implications of these findings are considered with regard to providing intervention to children with early speech—language delay.