Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interactive Effects of Nitrogen Deposition and Grazing on Plant Species Composition in a Serpentine Grassland

Abstract The interaction of resource availability and disturbance can strongly affect plant species richness and the spread of exotic plants. Several ecological theories posit that disturbance mediates the richness-reducing effects of increased competition as resource levels rise. In the low-nutrient serpentine grasslands of the San Francisco Bay Area, the fertilizing effects of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition may threaten native species by promoting nitrophilic exotic grasses. Attempts to mitigate these N deposition effects have focused on cattle grazing as a strategy to reduce exotic grass cover. We simulated realistic N deposition increases with low-level fertilization, manipulated grazing with fencing, and monitored grazing intensity using camera traps in a 4 yr factorial experiment to assess the effects of grazing and N deposition on several measures of native and exotic species dynamics in California's largest serpentine grassland. Our results suggest that native species diversity may increase slightly under low-level N deposition with moderate grazing in this system. However, grazing may not be effective at limiting exotic cover as N accumulates in the future. Examination of treatment trajectories using principal response curves indicated that responses to grazing might be determined more by functional group (forb or grass) than origin (native or exotic). Grazing intensity varied dramatically within the single stocking rate used to manage this ecosystem. Given this variation and the contrasting effects of grazing on different functional groups, more targeted management may be required to improve conservation outcomes.
Quercetin Potentiates Doxorubicin Mediated Antitumor Effects against Liver Cancer through p53/Bcl-xl

Background The dose-dependent toxicities of doxorubicin (DOX) limit its clinical applications, particularly in drug-resistant cancers, such as liver cancer. In this study, we investigated the role of quercetin on the antitumor effects of DOX on liver cancer cells and its ability to provide protection against DOX-mediated liver damage in mice. Methodology and Results The MTT and Annexin V/PI staining assay demonstrated that quercetin selectively sensitized DOX-induced cytotoxicity against liver cancer cells while protecting normal liver cells. The increase in DOX-mediated apoptosis in hepatoma cells by quercetin was p53-dependent and occurred by downregulating Bcl-xl expression. Z-VAD-fmk (caspase inhibitor), pifithrin-α (p53 inhibitor), or overexpressed Bcl-xl decreased the effects of quercetin on DOX-mediated apoptosis. The combined treatment of quercetin and DOX significantly reduced the growth of liver cancer xenografts in mice. Moreover, quercetin decreased the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase that were increased in DOX-treated mice. Quercetin also reversed the DOX-induced pathological changes in mice livers. Conclusion and Significance These results indicate that quercetin potentiated the antitumor effects of DOX on liver cancer cells while protecting normal liver cells. Therefore, the development of quercetin may be beneficial in a combined treatment with DOX for increased therapeutic efficacy against liver cancer.
A Novel Evolutionary Strategy Revealed in the Phaeoviruses

Phaeoviruses infect the brown algae, which are major contributors to primary production of coastal waters and estuaries. They exploit a Persistent evolutionary strategy akin to a K- selected life strategy via genome integration and are the only known representatives to do so within the giant algal viruses that are typified by r- selected Acute lytic viruses. In screening the genomes of five species within the filamentous brown algal lineage, here we show an unprecedented diversity of viral gene sequence variants especially amongst the smaller phaeoviral genomes. Moreover, one variant shares features from both the two major sub-groups within the phaeoviruses. These phaeoviruses have exploited the reduction of their giant dsDNA genomes and accompanying loss of DNA proofreading capability, typical of an Acute life strategist, but uniquely retain a Persistent life strategy.
Wavelet-Based Unwanted Traffic Time Series Analysis

Identifying traffic anomalies precisely and instantaneously is critical to network stability. Most studies have focused on analyzing unwanted traffic from a Darknet system. However, conventional methods of detecting anomalous activities from these data are not applicable to detection. We apply discrete wavelet transform (DWT) techniques for traffic signal decomposition and examine unknown anomalous activities from unwanted traffic data. Our work focuses on three unwanted traffic packets: TCP SYNs, TCP SYN/ACKs, and UDP packets and on three intervals: 10-ms, 100-ms and 1-s. Furthermore, we discuss the features of this approach and consider some of its possible realizations. Our goal is to reveal properties when wavelet techniques are used to detect network anormalies behavior.
Hamilton paths in Cayley graphs on generalized dihedral groups

We investigate the existence of Hamilton paths in connected Cayley graphs on generalized dihedral groups. In particular, we show that a connected Cayley graph of valency at least three on a generalized dihedral group, whose order is divisible by four, is Hamiltonconnected, unless it is bipartite, in which case it is Hamilton-laceable.
Is the Twin Deficits Hypothesis a Myth?

Indian economy displayed a remarkable degree of resilience in the immediate period following the American financial crisis of 2007 and the subsequent global economic downturn. Countercyclical measures by government and central bank warded off the negative impact of the world recession in the next three year period. However, both external and domestic sectors began to experience considerable stress during the following four years: 2010-13 as slow recovery in the United States and other industrialised countries together with the onset of the Eurozone debt crisis in late 2010 gave rise to another round of contraction in major economies. These two developments led to the deterioration in India’s external accounts, which were reflected in the growing size of annual current account deficits.
High frequency of enterovirus D68 in children hospitalised with respiratory illness in Norway, autumn 2014

An unexpectedly high proportion of children were admitted for severe respiratory infections at the Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, Norway, during September and October, 2014. In light of the ongoing outbreak of enterovirus‐D68 (EV‐D68) in North America a real‐time RT‐PCR for screening of enterovirus and enterovirus D68 was established.
SmartAdP: Visual Analytics of Large-scale Taxi Trajectories for Selecting Billboard Locations

The problem of formulating solutions immediately and comparing them rapidly for billboard placements has plagued advertising planners for a long time, owing to the lack of efficient tools for in-depth analyses to make informed decisions. In this study, we attempt to employ visual analytics that combines the state-of-the-art mining and visualization techniques to tackle this problem using large-scale GPS trajectory data. In particular, we present SmartAdP, an interactive visual analytics system that deals with the two major challenges including finding good solutions in a huge solution space and comparing the solutions in a visual and intuitive manner. An interactive framework that integrates a novel visualization-driven data mining model enables advertising planners to effectively and efficiently formulate good candidate solutions. In addition, we propose a set of coupled visualizations: a solution view with metaphor-based glyphs to visualize the correlation between different solutions; a location view to display billboard locations in a compact manner; and a ranking view to present multi-typed rankings of the solutions. This system has been demonstrated using case studies with a real-world dataset and domain-expert interviews. Our approach can be adapted for other location selection problems such as selecting locations of retail stores or restaurants using trajectory data.
The zebrafish Kupffer's vesicle as a model system for the molecular mechanisms by which the lack of Polycystin-2 leads to stimulation of CFTR

ABSTRACT In autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), cyst inflation and continuous enlargement are associated with marked transepithelial ion and fluid secretion into the cyst lumen via cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Indeed, the inhibition or degradation of CFTR prevents the fluid accumulation within cysts. The in vivo mechanisms by which the lack of Polycystin-2 leads to CFTR stimulation are an outstanding challenge in ADPKD research and may bring important biomarkers for the disease. However, hampering their study, the available ADPKD in vitro cellular models lack the three-dimensional architecture of renal cysts and the ADPKD mouse models offer limited access for live-imaging experiments in embryonic kidneys. Here, we tested the zebrafish Kupffer's vesicle (KV) as an alternative model-organ. KV is a fluid-filled vesicular organ, lined by epithelial cells that express both CFTR and Polycystin-2 endogenously, being each of them easily knocked-down. Our data on the intracellular distribution of Polycystin-2 support its involvement in the KV fluid-flow induced Ca2+-signalling. Mirroring kidney cysts, the KV lumen inflation is dependent on CFTR activity and, as we clearly show, the knockdown of Polycystin-2 results in larger KV lumens through overstimulation of CFTR. In conclusion, we propose the zebrafish KV as a model organ to study the renal cyst inflation. Favouring its use, KV volume can be easily determined by in vivo imaging offering a live readout for screening compounds and genes that may prevent cyst enlargement through CFTR inhibition. Summary: Here, we tested the zebrafish Kupffer's vesicle (KV) as a model organ to study, through in vivo imaging of KV volume, the stimulation of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease ADPKD.
Mentor : A Visualization and Quality Assurance Framework for Crowd-Sourced Data Generation

Crowdsourcing is a feasible method for collecting labeled datasets for training and evaluating machine learning models. Compared to the expensive process of generating labeled datasets using dedicated trained judges, the low cost of data generation in crowdsourcing environments enables researchers and practitioners to collect significantly larger amounts of data for the same cost. However, crowdsourcing is prone to noise and, without proper quality assurance processes in place, may generate low quality data that is of limited value. In this paper we propose a human-in-the-loop approach to deal with quality assurance (QA) in crowdsourcing environments. We contribute various visualization methods and statistical tools that can be used to identify defective or fraudulent data and unreliable judges. Based on these tools and principles we have built a system called Mentor for conducting QA for datasets used in a large commercial search engine. We describe various tools from Mentor and demonstrate their effectiveness through real cases for generating training and test data for search engine caption generation. Our conclusions and the tools described are generalizable and applicable to processes that collect categorical and ordinal discrete datasets for machine learning.
A Decade of Oracle Database Manageability

Oracle took on the challenge of ever-increasing management complexity for the database server beginning some eleven years ago with Oracle 10g and continuing through the 11g release. The Oracle RDBMS offers numerous services and features that share infrastructure and resources to enable a rich portfolio of industry-leading data management capabilities. Oracle Database Server Manageability refers to a cross-organization effort across various RDBMS core teams to deliver a coherent feature suite that enables customers to manage an Oracle database with consistency, confidence and relative ease through the Enterprise Manager UI. Our efforts to improve database manageability can be classified into three levels of increasing sophistication: • Statistics and reporting level– where key workload performance statistics and run-time data are continuously and efficiently collected by default, persisted into a self-managing repository, and exposed through reports and interactive UI • Advisory level – where instrumentation level performance data are periodically analyzed using a time-based methodology that makes findings and recommendations about sub-optimal performance, its root cause, and opportunities for improvement • Automated implementation level – where advisory level recommendations that can be implemented with low and well-understood risk are automatically put in place (given prior consent of administrators) Each layer builds upon the ones below it, and each plays a part in satisfying the key customer use cases – it is only through exposing features at all three levels that the solution becomes complete. In this paper we will discuss our key offerings at each level, review motivating use cases and lessons learned, and conclude by looking forward to some problems that excite us in the near future.
Automated indexing of design concepts for information management

This study explores ways to increase both the usability and accuracy of design information retrieval and reuse. The DedalAI system attempts to achieve these goals by automatically indexing design concepts in electronic notebooks. DedalAI relies on a two part query structure: a descriptor, which is a generic design concept, and a subject, which is a specific part of a design model. DedalAI builds on the Dedal system [Baudin, et al 1993] by automating the indexing of the descriptor half of a query. It is assumed that a descriptor concept can be signaled by words in text related to the descriptor. This paper discusses the development of thesauri for descriptor detection and its application to two types of design documentation: electronic design notebooks and patents. This useful but simple approach can increase both precision and recall over Boolean keyword searches.
R&D Gaps in the Philippines

Based on the chain of causality, R&D translates to innovation and to productivity/ technological progress, which ultimately leads to economic growth and prosperity. There exists a strong empirical support to positive relationship between effort levels in R&D and productivity. The objective of this paper is to determine and estimate the gaps in the Philippine R&D. Given the causality chain, the paper tries to identify the amount of corresponding/mandatory increase in research and development. It estimates the investment gaps using growth regression model involving total factor productivity of different countries on the one hand and the research and development expenditure and research and development manpower, on the other. On the basis of the frontier generated from the regression, Philippine R&D gap is computed. Results support the general conclusion of high rate of return to research and development. Results generated in this paper provide some policy insights regarding R&D in investments.
Graded quality of 30-year-old Norway spruce grown on agricultural and forest land

Six 30-year-old, fast-grown Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst. ) stands in Sweden, comprising a total of 700 stems, were examined. Four had been planted on agricultural land and two on very fertile forest land. The characteristics studied were branch properties, defects and basic density as well as the graded quality of timber, assessed by Swedish export grading, and the modulus of elasticity, assessed by machine strength grading (EJ. Our aim was to determine how the wood properties of Norway spruce grown on agricultural land differ from those of spruce grown on fertile forest land. The only differences found between the two sites concerned defects, especially spike knots. These were more common in the agricultural stands, where the frequency of logs with at least one spike knot was 33.7%, whereas the corresponding figure in the forest stands was 6.9%. The graded quality was low for boards from all stands according to both export and strength gradings. Only 7.1% of the boards were considered to be of highest export grade, u/s. Eighty-two per cent were approved for structural use, i.e., strength grade T18 or better. Basic density and annual ring width were the only characters that explained significant amounts of variation in EM. A model for predicting the EM of boards from a stand is presented. Wood properties could be improved silviculturally by thinning regimes and technically by cross-cutting and using the butt part of the tree for purposes other than sawing.
Magnetostriction and Field Stiffening of Magneto-Active Elastomers

Filled with certain amount of magnetic particles, an elastomer can be made magneto active for numerous applications. When a magneto-active elastomer (MAE) is subject to a homogeneous magnetic field, both magnetostriction and field-stiffening effect can be observed. Inspired by experimental observations and microstructure simulations in the literature, this paper presents a simplified phenomenological model for MAEs by considering a uniaxial deformation state. The model hypothesizes the field-stiffening effect to be a direct consequence of the inverse magnetostriction, i.e., the strain-dependent magnetization, in the context of finite deformation. By taking the elastic energy to be independent of magnetic field and the magnetization energy to be strain dependent, the model can capture both magnetostriction and field stiffening of an MAE. The functional form of the strain-dependent magnetization energy is determined by the underlying microstructure. MAEs with different microstructures exhibit different magnetostriction and field-stiffening behaviors. To predict the behavior of a specific MAE, one only needs to measure the effective permeability of an MAE as a function of the axial strain. The mathematical simplicity of the model could enable simulation and optimization of MAE-based devices under complex loading conditions.
Enhancing Web-Based Configuration with Recommendations and Cluster-Based Help

In a collaborative project with Tacton AB, we have investigated new ways of assisting the user in the process of on-line product configuration. A web-based prototype, RIND, was built for ephemeral users in the domain of PC configuration. Two mechanisms were added to a commercial configurator produced by Tacton: i) automated recommendations that display social trails associated with the configuration; and ii) a help system based on term clustering. Recommendations based on previous customer selections are made on separate attributes as well as full configurations, i.e. complete PCs. The early rater problem is solved using a probabilistic bootstrapping approach. The help system supports novice users browsing for help information, as well as experienced users able to pose exact queries.
Approximation algorithms for computing partitions with minimum stabbing number of rectilinear and simple polygons

Let P be a rectilinear simple polygon. The stabbing number of a partition of P into rectangles is the maximum number of rectangles stabbed by any axis-parallel line segment inside P. We present a 3-approximation algorithm for the problem of finding a partition with minimum stabbing number. It is based on an algorithm that finds an optimal partition for histograms. We also study Steiner triangulations of a simple (non-rectilinear) polygon P. Here the stabbing number is defined as the maximum number of triangles that can be stabbed by any line segment inside P. We give an O(1)-approximation algorithm for the problem of computing a Steiner triangulation with minimum stabbing number.
Perfluorinated Compounds in Umbilical Cord Blood and Adverse Birth Outcomes

Background Previous animal studies have shown that perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have adverse impacts on birth outcomes, but the results have been inconclusive in humans. We investigated associations between prenatal exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctyl sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUA) and birth outcomes. Methods In total, 429 mother-infant pairs were recruited from the Taiwan Birth Panel Study (TBPS). Demographic data were obtained by interviewing mothers using a structured questionnaire and birth outcomes were extracted from medical records. Cord blood was collected for PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, and PFUA analysis by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Results The geometric mean (standard deviation) levels of PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, and PFUA in cord blood plasma were 1.84 (2.23), 5.94 (1.95), 2.36(4.74), and 10.26 (3.07) ng/mL, respectively. Only PFOS levels were found to be inversely associated with gestational age, birth weight, and head circumference [per ln unit: adjusted β (95% confidence interval, CI) = −0.37 (−0.60, −0.13) wks, −110.2 (−176.0, −44.5) gm and −0.25 (−0.46, −0.05) cm]. Additionally, the odds ratio of preterm birth, low birth weight, and small for gestational age increased with PFOS exposure [per ln unit: adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95%CI) = 2.45 (1.47, 4.08), 2.61(0.85, 8.03) and 2.27 (1.25, 4.15)]. When PFOS levels were divided into quartiles, a dose-response relation was observed. However, PFOA, PFNA, and PFUA were not observed to have any convincing impact on birth outcomes. Conclusions An adverse dose-dependent association was observed between prenatal PFOS exposure and birth outcomes. However, no associations were found for the other examined PFCs.
Technical visualizations in VLSI design

Visualization techniques were applied to several different types of VLSI design and simulation data. A number of different visualizations have been tried, with varying results. Examples include 3D visualization of voltage and currents from full-wave interconnect analysis, on-chip clock distribution networks, chip/package power supply noise analysis, wire congestion, chip layout imaging, and static circuit tuning. The goals, successes, and failures of these examples will be discussed, along with some unexpected benefits from our ability to easily see patterns in complex visualizations.
Parallel Computing of Semiconductor Laser Equations

Parallel Hopscotch's and implicit, linearized-methods have been developed to solve the two{dimensional equations of multi{striped semiconductor lasers. For the latter, a BiCGSTAB algorithm has been used and, in both methods, an eecient technique which overlaps the communications and the computations has been developed. Such a technique also reduces the number of messages to be communicated to other processors and yields an almost perfect speed{up for the Hopscotch's method which is much more eecient than implicit, linearized techniques. It is also shown that the speed{up of the latter increases almost linearly as the number of processors increases.