Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Repressing the Expression of the SUCROSE NONFERMENTING-1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE Gene in Pea Embryo Causes Pleiotropic Defects of Maturation Similar to an Abscisic Acid-Insensitive Phenotype1[W]

The classic role of SUCROSE NONFERMENTING-1 (Snf1)-like kinases in eukaryotes is to adapt metabolism to environmental conditions such as nutrition, energy, and stress. During pea (Pisum sativum) seed maturation, developmental programs of growing embryos are adjusted to changing physiological and metabolic conditions. To understand regulation of the switch from cell proliferation to differentiation, SUCROSE NONFERMENTING-1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE (SnRK1) was antisense repressed in pea seeds. Transgenic seeds show maturation defects, reduced conversion of sucrose into storage products, lower globulin content, frequently altered cotyledon surface, shape, and symmetry, as well as occasional precocious germination. Gene expression analysis of embryos using macroarrays of 5,548 seed-specific genes revealed 183 differentially expressed genes in two clusters, either delayed down-regulated or delayed up-regulated during transition. Delayed down-regulated genes are related to mitotic activity, gibberellic acid/brassinosteroid synthesis, stress response, and Ca2+ signal transduction. This specifies a developmentally younger status and conditional stress. Higher gene expression related to respiration/gluconeogenesis/fermentation is consistent with a role of SnRK1 in repressing energy-consuming processes in maturing cotyledons under low oxygen/energy availability. Delayed up-regulated genes are mainly related to storage protein synthesis and stress tolerance. Most of the phenotype resembles abscisic acid (ABA) insensitivity and may be explained by reduced Abi-3 expression. This may cause a reduction in ABA functions and/or a disconnection between metabolic and ABA signals, suggesting that SnRK1 is a mediator of ABA functions during pea seed maturation. SnRK1 repression also impairs gene expression associated with differentiation, independent from ABA functions, like regulation and signaling of developmental events, chromatin reorganization, cell wall synthesis, biosynthetic activity of plastids, and regulated proteolysis.
PAST: accurate instrumentation on fully optimized program

Instrumentation is a powerful technique for monitoring, profiling, debugging, logging and tracing the software. In order to determine the instrumentation location, the user needs to know where the current executed location is in the source code. Previous instrumentation approaches rely on debugging information to find the location in the source code. For fully optimized programs, debugging information is not complete, which limits the application of those approaches. In this paper, we present pattern‐based abstract syntax tree (PAST) instrumentation, an ideal instrumentation methodology that accurately instruments the fully optimized program. The instrumentation location is specified in an intuitive way that matches the source code at the abstract syntax tree level. The program can be instrumented either at the compile time using the ordinary compiling or when it is running using the just‐in‐time compiling. Experimental results show that PAST can accurately instrument the target program. There is negligible run time overhead when the running program is instrumented without any operation. We have implemented PAST on both x86‐32 and x86‐64 to show that PAST is easily portable across different architecture. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Batch-fabricated high dense multi sliders for WDM spectral attenuation

This paper reports MEMS based mechanical dynamic gain equalizer (hereafter DGEQ) which is expected to equalize the nonuniformities of spectral intensity in WDM transportation. Batch-fabricated multisliders for DGEQ are presented as our continuous research on optical application of electrostatic controlled linear inchworm actuator (hereafter ECLIA). 16 multisliders (600 /spl mu/m wide) corresponding to 16 channels are fabricated by DRIE and bonded on a pyrex glass substrate for a reliable electrical isolation. Operating of developed multisliders and their optical attenuation as DGEQ will be reported in succession to design and fabrication of device.
Development and Preliminary Validation of the Shared Professional Leadership Inventory for Teams (SPLIT)

Shared leadership is viewed as an effective management form to encounter increased complexity in modern work life. However, the lack of reliable and valid instruments to assess shared leadership behaviors has limited empirical research. Based on literature in leadership and team work research a questionnaire was developed to assess four different aspects of shared leadership behavior—task-, relation-, change- and micropolitic-oriented leadership. The final version consisted of 20 items. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the theoretically hypothesized model in two independent German samples. Significant correlations with related scales support convergent and criterion validity. This study therefore provides researchers with a valid and reliable instrument to assess different aspects of shared leadership behavior and its advantages for research and human resource development are discussed.
The Cilician God Sandas and the Greek Chimaera: Features of Near Eastern and Greek Mythology Concerning the Plague

A gem in the Museum of Castelvecchio (Verona) depicts the god Sandas of Tarsos with his terrible animal: the lion-goat. On the reverse side there is the inscription YOYO. The epigraphical and archaeological evidence from Anatolia, from Hittite to Hellenistic times, proves that Sandas was a underworld god protecting tombs and sending pestilences when angry. He was appeased by offerings to his terrible ministers, who were usually seven. Similarly Nergal or Erra (similar to Sandas) in Mesopotamia, and Sekhmet in Egypt had seven animal-headed terrible ministers, who were able to bring pestilences and death. A Hittite inscription mentions Yaya as Sandas' female partner. Her name is very similar to the Yoyo on the Verona gem. Sandas was identified with Heracles because of his relations with the underworld realms and his warlike features. The lion-goat of Tarsus was the model of Greek Chimaera. In fact the myth of Bellerophon took its place in Lycia and Cilicia. In Hellenistic age the original form of this monster was better known and therefore we find its typical features in Hellenistic and Roman sculptures and reliefs.
Synthesis and Structural Evaluation of Organo-Ruthenium Complexes with β-Diketonates

Four novel ruthenium organometallic complexes: [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-bromophenyl)-1,3-butanedione)Cl] (1), [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-bromophenyl)-1,3-butanedione)pta]PF6 (2), [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-iodophenyl)-1,3-butanedione)Cl] (3) and [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-iodophenyl)-1,3-butanedione)pta]PF6 (4) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, infrared (IR), UV-Vis, NMR and mass spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structures and spectroscopic data were compared to the previously published complexes [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-chloro-phenyl)-1,3-butanedione)Cl] (5) and [(η6-p-cymene)Ru(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-chlorophenyl)-1,3-butanedione)pta]PF6 (6). The pairs of complexes 1 and 3 as well as 2 and 4 are isostructural, with the former crystallizing in triclinic P-1 and the latter in monoclinic P21/c. The ruthenium(II) ion is found in a pseudo-octahedral “piano-stool” geometry in all compounds. Bond lengths and angles are consistent with other complexes of this type. Complexes 2 and 4 exhibit some moderate dynamic disorder. The lack of hydrogen bonding and major π-π interactions means that most of intramolecular interactions are fairly weak and involve halogen atoms present. This was further confirmed by 1H-NMR spectra, where a significant difference is observed only on the ligand near the halogen atom, following an expected trend. The combined data show that the difference in any activity depends substantially on the type of the ligand′s substituted halogen atom.
An O(bn/sup 2/) time algorithm for optimal buffer insertion with b buffer types

Buffer insertion is a popular technique to reduce interconnect delay. The classic buffer insertion algorithm of L.P.P.P. van Ginneken (see ISCAS, p.865-8, 1990) has time complexity O(n/sup 2/), where n is the number of buffer positions. J. Lillis et al. (see IEEE Trans. Solid-Slate Circuits, vol.31, no.3, p.437-47, 1996) extended van Ginneken's algorithm to allow b buffer types in time O(b/sup 2/n/sup 2/). For modern design libraries that contain hundreds of buffers, it is a serious challenge to balance the speed and performance of the buffer insertion algorithm. We present a new algorithm that computes the optimal buffer insertion in O(bn/sup 2/) time. The reduction is achieved by the observation that the (Q, C) pairs of the candidates that generate the new candidates must form a convex hull. On industrial test cases, the new algorithm is faster than the previous best buffer insertion algorithms by orders of magnitude.
Functional role of GTPase-activating protein in cell transformation by pp60v-src

Morphological transformation of NIH 3T3 cells was observed following coexpression of a portion of the ras GTPase-activating protein (GAP) comprising the amino terminus (GAP-N) and a mutant of v-src (MDSRC) lacking the membrane-localizing sequence. Cells expressing either of these genes alone remained nontransformed. Coexpression of GAP-N with MDSRC did not alter the subcellular localization, kinase activity, or pattern of cellular substrates phosphorylated by the MDSRC product. In contrast to SHC, phospholipase C-gamma 1, and the p85 alpha phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase subunit, the endogenous GAP product (p120GAP) was highly tyrosine-phosphorylated only in cells transformed by wild-type v-src. Furthermore, for transformation induced by wild-type v-src as well as by coexpression of MDSRC and GAP-N, a strict correlation was observed between cell transformation, elevated tyrosine phosphorylation of p62, p190, and a novel protein of 150 kDa, and complex formation between these proteins and p120GAP. As with cells transformed by wild-type v-src, the MDSRC plus GAP-N transformants remained dependent on endogenous Ras. The results suggest that tyrosine phosphorylation and complex formation involving p120GAP represent critical elements of cell transformation by v-src and that complementation of the cytosolic v-src mutant by GAP-N results, at least in part, from the formation of these complexes.
A method for studying variability in fricatives using dynamic measures of spectral mean.

This paper presents a new method for studying within-speaker variability in fricative spectra. In this method, nonlinear regression is used to predict values of the spectral mean of a 10-ms window of frication noise from its position in the fricative. The resulting measure of model fit, R2, is used as an index of within-speaker variability. This method was applied to a corpus of /s/ and /∫/ tokens spoken by three groups of participants: 3–4-year-old children, 7–8-year-old children, and adults. Results indicated that fricatives were more variable when produced before the stop consonant /p/ than before /t/. No difference in variability was noted between adults and children, although a nonsignificant trend of decreased variability in adults was noted.
GPU volume rendering in 3D echocardiography: Real-time pre-processing and ray-casting

Since real-time acquisition of 3D echocardiographic data is achievable in practice, many volume rendering algorithms have been proposed for visualization purposes. However, due to the large amounts of data and computations involved a tradeoff between image quality and computational efficiency has to be made. The main goal of our study was to generate high quality volume renderings in real-time, by implementing preprocessing and ray-casting algorithms directly on the GPU. Furthermore the advantage of combining a-priori anatomic and functional information with the volume rendered image was also investigated. The proposed algorithms were implemented both in CUDA and OpenCL and validated on patient datasets acquired using a GE Vivid7 Dimensions system. Assuming a 512×512 pixels output resolution, average running times of 4.2 ms/frame are achievable on high-end graphics systems. Furthermore a good correspondence between wall thickening and segmental longitudinal strain values was visually observed. By implementing ray-casting on the GPU, the overall processing time is significantly reduced, thus making real-time interactive 3D volume rendering feasible. Combining anatomical and functional information allows for a quick visual assessment of a given case.
Finding Axis-Parallel Rectangles of Fixed Perimeter or Area Containing the Largest Number of Points

Abstract Let P be a set of n points in the plane in general position, and consider the problem of finding an axis-parallel rectangle with a given perimeter, or area, or diagonal, that encloses the maximum number of points of P. We present an exact algorithm that finds such a rectangle in O ( n 5 / 2 log ⁡ n ) time, and, for the case of a fixed perimeter or diagonal, we also obtain (i) an improved exact algorithm that runs in O ( n k 3 / 2 log ⁡ k ) time, and (ii) an approximation algorithm that finds, in O ( n + n k e 5 log 5 / 2 ⁡ n k log ⁡ ( 1 e log ⁡ n k ) ) time, a rectangle of the given perimeter that contains at least ( 1 − e ) k points of P, where k is the optimum value. We then show how to turn this algorithm into one that finds, for a given k, an axis-parallel rectangle of smallest perimeter (or area, or diagonal) that contains k points of P. We obtain the first subcubic algorithms for these problems, significantly improving the current state of the art.
El Llano en llamas

Juan Rulfo fue uno de los grandes escritores latinoamericanos del siglo XX, que pertenecieron al movimiento literario denominado "realismo mágico", y en sus obras se presenta una combinación de realidad y fantasía, cuya acción se desarrolla en escenarios americanos, y sus personajes representan y reflejan el tipismo del lugar, con sus grandes problemáticas socio-culturales entretejidas con el mundo fantástico.
In-vivo Biomedical Application of Antennas

In-body implanted antennas are surrounded by materials (muscle, fat tissue, skin, etc.), which have special electromagnetic parameters. The effects of these near-field mediums on the implanted antenna are unknown. The objective of this study was to empirically model these effects in case of using monopole or dipole antennas embedded in cylindrically stratified mediums, and to determine the total wavelength shortening and the effective dielectric constant sensed by the antenna. The study connects to biomedical development projects, as well as to RF technique principles.
Sympathetic neuroeffector transmission in the rat anococcygeus muscle

1 When intracellular recordings were made from preparations of rat anococcygeus muscle, transmural nerve stimulation evoked noradrenergic excitatory junction potentials (EJPs) made up of two distinct components. Both components were abolished by either guanethidine or α‐adrenoceptor antagonists, indicating that they resulted from the release of transmitter from sympathetic nerves and the subsequent activation of α‐adrenoceptors. 2 The first component was associated with a transient increase in the intracellular concentration of calcium ions ([Ca2+]i) and a contraction. Although the second component was often associated with a long lasting increase in [Ca2+]i it was not associated with a contraction unless the second component initiated an action potential. 3 The increase in [Ca2+]i associated with the first component resulted from Ca2+ release from an intracellular store and from entry of Ca2+ through voltage‐dependent Ca2+ channels. The increase in [Ca2+]i associated with the second component resulted only from the entry of Ca2+ through L‐type Ca2+ channels (CaL channels). The depolarization associated with the initial increase in [Ca2+]i was abolished by reducing the external concentration of chloride ions ([Cl−]o), suggesting that it involved the activation of a Cl− conductance. 4 When the relationships between changes in [Ca2+]i, membrane depolarization and contraction produced by an increasing number of sympathetic nerve stimuli were determined in control, and caffeine‐ and nifedipine‐containing solutions, it was found that an increase in [Ca2+]i recorded in nifedipine produced a larger contraction and larger membrane depolarization than did a similar increase in [Ca2+]i recorded in either control or caffeine‐containing solutions. These observations indicate that Ca2+ released from stores more readily triggers contraction and membrane depolarization than does Ca2+ entry via CaL channels.
Tumor necrosis factor-α mediates hyperglycemia-augmented gut barrier dysfunction in endotoxemia*

Objective:To examine whether hyperglycemia would augment gut barrier dysfunction and inflammatory responses in endotoxemic rats, and simultaneously to clarify the roles of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in alterations of gut mucosal permeability associated with hyperglycemia. Design:Prospective randomized animal study. Setting:University research laboratory. Subjects:Male Wistar rats treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection. Interventions:After LPS injection (4 mg/kg), rats were randomly allocated into group S (n = 6), group G (n = 7), or group GI (n = 8) with continuous infusion of different fluid solutions: normal saline, 40% glucose or 10% glucose mixed with insulin, respectively. Blood glucose, insulin, and proinflammatory cytokines, accompanied by gut mucosal permeability using an in situ loop preparation of gut with fluorescence isothiocyanate-conjugated dextran, were measured. Bacterial growth or alterations in mesenteric lymph nodes and cecal contents were also assessed. We further determined the roles of TNF-α using an inhibitor of TNF-α converting enzyme in gut barrier dysfunction under the same experimental settings. Measurements and Main Results:Hyperglycemia over 400 mg/dL was achieved and kept in group G during the study period whereas normoglycemia was preserved in group S and GI, the latter of which showed the similar extent of hyperinsulinemia to group G. Plasma concentrations of fluorescence-labeled dextran and TNF-α in group G were significantly higher vs. group S and GI, and the number of bacteria found in mesenteric lymph nodes in group G was greater compared with group S. Intestinal environments including microflora and organic acids were not altered by blood glucose or insulin level. Inhibiting conversion of membrane-bound to soluble type of TNF-α restored gut mucosal permeability augmented by hyperglycemia. Conclusions:These findings indicate that hyperglycemia deteriorates LPS-elicited gut barrier dysfunction and bacterial translocation independently of plasma insulin level, and that TNF-α mediates such mucosal dysfunction of gut in endotoxemia.
In vitro reconstitution of a trimeric complex of DivIB, DivIC and FtsL, and their transient co‐localization at the division site in Streptococcus pneumoniae

DivIB, DivIC and FtsL are bacterial proteins essential for cell division, which show interdependencies for their stabilities and localization. We have reconstituted in vitro a trimeric complex consisting of the recombinant extracellular domains of the three proteins from Streptococcus pneumoniae. The extracellular domain of DivIB was found to associate with a heterodimer of those of DivIC and FtsL. The heterodimerization of DivIC and FtsL was artificially constrained by fusion with interacting coiled‐coils. Immunofluorescence experiments showed that DivIC is always localized at mid‐cell, in contrast to DivIB and FtsL, which are co‐localized with DivIC only during septation. Taken together, our data suggest that assembly of the trimeric complex DivIB/DivIC/FtsL is regulated during the cell cycle through controlled formation of the DivIC/FtsL heterodimer.
Design and analysis of target‐sensitive real‐time systems

A significant number of real‐time control applications include computational activities where the results have to be delivered at precise instants, rather than within a deadline. The performance of such systems significantly degrades if outputs are generated before or after the desired target time. This work presents a general methodology that can be used to design and analyze target‐sensitive applications in which the timing parameters of the computational activities are tightly coupled with the physical characteristics of the system to be controlled. For the sake of clarity, the proposed methodology is illustrated through a sample case study used to show how to derive and verify real‐time constraints from the mission requirements. Software implementation issues necessary to map the computational activities into tasks running on a real‐time kernel are also discussed to identify the kernel mechanisms necessary to enforce timing constraints and analyze the feasibility of the application. A set of experiments are finally presented with the purpose of validating the proposed methodology. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Investment Strategies and Compensation of a Mean-Variance Optimizing Fund Manager

This paper introduces a general continuous-time mathematical framework for solution of dynamic mean–variance control problems. We obtain theoretical results for two classes of functionals: the first one depends on the whole trajectory of the controlled process and the second one is based on its terminal-time value. These results enable the development of numerical methods for mean–variance problems for a pre-determined risk-aversion coefficient. We apply them to study optimal trading strategies pursued by fund managers in response to various types of compensation schemes. In particular, we examine the effects of continuous monitoring and scheme’s symmetry on trading behavior and fund performance.
Estimando la demanda residencial por electricidad en Chile: a doña Juanita le importa el precio (Calculating the residential demand for electricity in Chile: Mrs. Jones does care about the price)

En este trabajo estimamos la demanda residencial por energia electrica con un panel de 18 distribuidoras de electricidad con datos mensuales entre enero de 1995 y diciembre de 2001. La elasticidad—precio de la demanda residencial por energia electrica es -0 ,0548 en un mes y -0 ,39 en el largo plazo. Vale decir si el precio aumenta permanentemente en 10%, al mes siguiente la cantidad demandada disminuye 0 ,548% y 3 ,9% en el largo plazo. Mediante dos ejercicios practicos mostramos que economicamente estas elasticidades son “grandes”. La contribucion metodologica del trabajo consiste en proponer una metodologia para estimar paneles dinamicos con datos mensuales y procesos de ajuste no instantaneos donde el numero de individuos como el de periodos es “pequeno”.