Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surface Protein Dispersin of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Binds Plasminogen That Is Converted Into Active Plasmin

Dispersin is a 10.2 kDa-immunogenic protein secreted by enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC). In the prototypical EAEC strain 042, dispersin is non-covalently bound to the outer membrane, assisting dispersion across the intestinal mucosa by overcoming electrostatic attraction between the AAF/II fimbriae and the bacterial surface. Also, dispersin facilitates penetration of the intestinal mucus layer. Initially characterized in EAEC, dispersin has been detected in other E. coli pathotypes, including those isolated from extraintestinal sites. In this study we investigated the binding capacity of purified dispersin to extracellular matrix (ECM), since dispersin is exposed on the bacterial surface and is involved in intestinal colonization. Binding to plasminogen was also investigated due to the presence of conserved carboxy-terminal lysine residues in dispersin sequences, which are involved in plasminogen binding in several bacterial proteins. Moreover, some E. coli components can interact with this host protease, as well as with tissue plasminogen activator, leading to plasmin production. Recombinant dispersin was produced and used in binding assays with ECM molecules and coagulation cascade compounds. Purified dispersin bound specifically to laminin and plasminogen. Interaction with plasminogen occurred in a dose-dependent and saturable manner. In the presence of plasminogen activator, bound plasminogen was converted into plasmin, its active form, leading to fibrinogen and vitronectin cleavage. A collection of E. coli strains isolated from human bacteremia was screened for the presence of aap, the dispersin-encoding gene. Eight aap-positive strains were detected and dispersin production could be observed in four of them. Our data describe new attributes for dispersin and points out to possible roles in mechanisms of tissue adhesion and dissemination, considering the binding capacity to laminin, and the generation of dispersin-bound plasmin(ogen), which may facilitate E. coli spread from the colonization site to other tissues and organs. The cleavage of fibrinogen in the bloodstream, may also contribute to the pathogenesis of sepsis caused by dispersin-producing E. coli.
SiMYB56 Confers Drought Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Rice by Regulating Lignin Biosynthesis and ABA Signaling Pathway

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) originated in China and is generally cultivated in arid and barren soil. Through long-term harsh environmental selection, foxtail millet has acquired significant drought resistance. However, the molecular mechanism of foxtail millet drought resistance is still unknown. Here, we identified a drought-induced R2R3-MYB transcription factor SiMYB56 in foxtail millet. Overexpression of SiMYB56 significantly enhances tolerance to drought stress in transgenic rice plants at both the vegetative and the reproductive stage and has no adverse effect on its normal growth. Compared with wild-type controls, SiMYB56-overexpressing rice plants had lower MDA content and higher lignin content under drought conditions. Quantitative real-time PCR and Transcriptional activity assays demonstrated that SiMYB56 could activate expression of lignin biosynthesis genes under drought conditions. Also, we found that overexpression of SiMYB56 can led to ABA accumulation in the seeds transgenic rice plants. Further experiments showed that Overexpression of SiMYB56 can upregulate the expression of ABA synthesis and response related genes under drought conditions. In conclusion, SiMYB56 may enhance the drought resistance of transgenic rice plants by regulating lignin biosynthesis and ABA signaling pathway, making SiMYB56 a candidate gene for drought resistance improvement in gramineous crops.
Time-Optimal Trajectories for Steered Agent With Constraints on Speed and Turning Rate

Through application of Pontryagin’s maximum principle we derive minimum-time optimal trajectories for a “steered particle” agent with constraints on speed and turning rate to reach a point on the plane with free terminal heading. We also present a formulation of the optimal trajectories in the form of a state-feedback control law that is applicable to real time motion planning on a robotic system with these motion constraints.
Assessment of Major

Major Neurocognitive Disorders describe the symptoms of a large group of diseases causing a progressive decline in individual’s functioning. It is an umbrella term describing a decline in memory, intellectual ability, reasoning, and social skills, as well as changes in normal emotional reactions. The general practitioner is instrumental in the early diagnosis of Major Neurocognitive Disorder. Individual risk factors act as contributing variables affecting the probability of someone developing a Major Neurocognitive Disorder and may be considered predictive factors. This study aimed (i) to show the utility of using the Global Deterioration Scale in primary health care settings as a measure to assess the stage of cognitive function for individuals identified with Major Neurocognitive Disorders and (ii) to identify predictors of severe Major Neurocognitive Disorders. Potential predictors of Major Neurocognitive Disorders considered in this study were: sex, age, years of education, social isolation, hearing impairment, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, physical activity, hand strength, and nutritional status. The sample comprised 250 adults, 30.4% were classified as having probable Major Neurocognitive Disorder. The variables significantly associated with probable Major Neurocognitive Disorder were age, years of education, hearing impairment, cardiovascular disease, hand strength, nutritional status, and physical activity. In the multivariable model, only age, education, physical activity and hand strength remained significant predictors of probable Major Neurocognitive Disorder. The Global Deterioration Scale seems to be a usefull instrument in primary healthcare settings, as it guides the general practitioner in observing the patients’ cognitive functioning. Advanced age, lower education, lower hand strength and absence of physical activities should be taken into account as they increase the chance of severe Major Neurocognitive Disorders. Primary health care providers, including general practitioners are very important in the diagnosis and follow up of Major Neurocognitive Disorder. The general practitioner is in most cases the patients’ first and for many patients the only contact, thus having a critical role in evaluating with caution what is part of normal or pathological aging, and the individual factors that can increase the likelihood of developing Major Neurocognitive Disorder to further support patients in the course of the disease.
Application Research of the Parallel System Theory and the Data Engine Approach in Wind Energy Conversion System

The parallel system is a kind of scientific research method based on an artificial system and computational experiments, which can not only reflect the dynamic process of the real system but also optimize its control process in real time. Given the rapid development of wind energy technology, how to shorten the development and deployment cycle and decrease the programming difficulties of wind energy conversion system (WECS) are major issues for improving the utilization of this form of energy. In this paper, the Data Engine is used as a computing environment to form a parallel WECS for studying the engineering application of WECS. With the support of the programming methods of graphical component configurations, visualization technology and dynamic reconfiguration technology, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) computing experiment of the parallel WECS is carried out. After comparing with MATLAB simulation results, the parallel WECS is verified as having good performance. The Data Engine is an ideal computing unit for modeling and computation of the parallel system and can establish a parallel relationship between the artificial system and the real system so as to achieve the optimal control of WECS.
Influence of regional-scale anthropogenic emissions on CO2 distributions over the western North Pacific

[1] We report here airborne measurements of atmospheric CO2 over the western North Pacific during the March–April 2001 Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) mission. The CO2 spatial distributions were notably influenced by cyclogenesis-triggered transport of regionally polluted continental air masses. Examination of the CO2 to C2H2/CO ratio indicated rapid outflow of combustion-related emissions in the free troposphere below 8 km. Although the highest CO2 mixing ratios were measured within the Pacific Rim region, enhancements were also observed further east over the open ocean at locations far removed from surface sources. Near the Asian continent, discrete plumes encountered within the planetary boundary layer contained up to 393 ppmv of CO2. Coincident enhancements in the mixing ratios of C2Cl4, C2H2, and C2H4 measured concurrently revealed combustion and industrial sources. To elucidate the source distributions of CO2, an emissions database for Asia was examined in conjunction with the chemistry and 5-day backward trajectories that revealed the WNW/W sector of northeast Asia was a major contributor to these pollution events. Comparisons of NOAA/CMDL and JMA surface data with measurements obtained aloft showed a strong latitudinal gradient that peaked between 35° and 40°N. We estimated a net CO2 flux from the Asian continent of approximately 13.93 Tg C day−1 for late winter/early spring with the majority of the export (79%) occurring in the lower free troposphere (2–8 km). The apportionment of the flux between anthropogenic and biospheric sources was estimated at 6.37 Tg C day−1 and 7.56 Tg C day−1, respectively.
Are Personality Traits Really Fixed and Does it Matter?

A nascent but burgeoning literature examines the importance of non-cognitive skills in determining success across many facets of life. The majority of these papers treat these skills as fixed traits for adults. We estimate the impact of a number of life events on the Big Five personality traits and locus of control. A subset of life events have large impacts on these non-cognitive skills, especially on locus of control. For some events, these impacts persist in the medium-run. We then demonstrate that treating personality traits as fixed can lead to biased estimates of their relationship with socioeconomic outcomes.
Darkening of interwell excitons in coupled quantum wells due to a stress-induced direct-to-indirect transition

In previous studies, an inhomogeneous strain field was used as a trapping mechanism for interwell excitons in coupled GaAs/Al0.45Ga0. 55As quantum wells. Photoluminescence measurements in this system demonstrated the presence of a dark population of excitons at trap center in the low-temperature, high-stress, high-density regime. The dramatic appearance of this effect at low temperature and high density initially suggested that it may be indicative of a Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition. Further experiments revealed that this effect appears more readily in wider quantum wells and occurs at strain values near the heavy-hole/light-hole crossover point. In this paper, it will be shown that this effect occurs in a regime where the heavy-hole valence band maximum shifts away from k|| = 0, which is expected to strongly suppress the recombination rate at low temperatures. Simulations based on this assumption will be shown to match the experimentally observed behavior, without requiring the appearance of a Bose-Einstein condensate.
The high velocity, high adiabat, ``Bigfoot'' campaign and tests of indirect-drive implosion scaling

The Bigfoot approach is to intentionally trade off high convergence, and therefore areal-density, in favor of high implosion velocity and good coupling between the laser, hohlraum, shell, and hotspot. This results in a short laser pulse that improves hohlraum symmetry and predictability, while the reduced compression reduces hydrodynamic instability growth. The results thus far include demonstrated low-mode symmetry control at two different hohlraum geometries (5.75 mm and 5.4 mm diameters) and at two different target scales (5.4 mm and 6.0 mm hohlraum diameters) spanning 300–405 TW in laser power and 0.8–1.6 MJ in laser energy. Additionally, by carefully scaling the 5.4 mm design to 6.0 mm, an increase in target scale of 13%, equivalent to 40% increase in laser energy, has been demonstrated.
Reconstruction of morphosyntactic function: Nonspatial usage of spatial case marking in Tsezic

Abstract:The reconstruction of genealogical relationships between languages is traditionally performed through lexical comparison and the establishment of regular sound changes. The historical analysis of other aspects of linguistic structure, like syntactic patterns or the function of grammatical elements, is normally understood to depend on a previously established thorough understanding of the genealogical structure of the family. In this article we show that it is possible to reconstruct historical changes in morphosyntactic function without assuming detailed knowledge about the genealogical developments of the languages involved. Even more surprisingly, we are able to accurately reconstruct the genealogical structure of a language family using only a limited amount of morphosyntactic variation.As a case study, this article focuses on the nonspatial usage of spatial case marking in the Tsezic languages, a subgroup of Nakh-Daghestanian, spoken in the Caucasus. A new semantic-map-like visualization is developed to represent functional differences in case marking between the various Tsezic languages. Using MAXIMUM PARSIMONY, a reconstruction is proposed for the historical development of the case marking, and the same visualization is used to present the reconstructed historical developments in an insightful manner. Besides various new insights regarding the development of Tsezic case marking, the approach used in this article presents a generally applicable method for the reconstruction of morphosyntactic function.
Feasibility of Monochromatic X-ray Imaging of the Near-Field Region of an Airblast Atomizer

The characterization of the atomization process in a spray is critical to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of sprays across a wide variety of industries. The near-field region of the spray is particularly important in this characterization as it provides insight into the mechanisms that drive droplet formation. Unfortunately, this region is also difficult to image due to its inaccessibility to optical techniques and the high speed of the events of interest. X-ray measurement techniques, such as white beam and focused beam radiography measurements, have been used to penetrate this dense liquid region and provide useful information. This paper presents a modification of the white beam measurement technique and investigates the feasibility of completing monochromatic X-ray radiography using the 7-BM beamline at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Monochromatic X-ray radiography allows for the direct calculation of the effective path length at any location in the imaging area, but typically has a very low intensity, which has traditionally limited its use to point measurements (e.g., focused beam measurements). In order to demonstrate the potential and challenges of monochromatic beam radiography, time-resolved monochromatic X-ray images of a simple liquid stream and a low velocity spray from an airblast atomizer were acquired. Using these representative test data, it is shown that the monochromator used to generate the monochromatic beam introduced a non-uniform, time-varying, systematic imaging error. This error and its effect on the measurements will be demonstrated and discussed.
Behavioral state detection of newborns based on facial expression analysis

Prematurely born infants are observed at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for medical treatment. Whereas vital body functions are continuously monitored, their incubator is covered by a blanket for medical reasons. This prevents visual observation of the newborns during most time of the day, while it is known that the facial expression can give valuable information about the presence of discomfort. This prompted the authors to develop a prototype of an automated video survey system for the detection of discomfort in newborn babies by analysis of their facial expression. Since only a reliable and situationindependent system is useful, we focus at robustness against non-ideal viewpoints and lighting conditions. Our proposed algorithm automatically segments the face from the background and localizes the eye, eyebrow and mouth regions. Based upon measurements in these regions, a hierarchical classifier is employed to discriminate between the behavioral states sleep, awake and cry. We have evaluated the described prototype system on recordings of three healthy newborns, and we show that our algorithm operates with approximately 95% accuracy. Small changes in viewpoint and lighting conditions are allowed, but when there is a major reduction in light, or when the viewpoint is far from frontal, the algorithm fails.
Carrots, Sticks, and the Multiplication Effect

Although a punishment can be applied only once, the threat to punish can be repeated several times. This is possible because, when parties comply, the punishment is not applied and can thus be used to support a new threat. We refer to this feature of sticks as the "multiplication effect". The same is not possible with promises to reward, since carrots are used up every time a party complies; hence, at each round a new reward is needed. We show that the multiplication effect of sticks has pervasive consequences in economics and law, and provides a unified explanation for seemingly unrelated phenomena such as comparative negligence, legal aid, the dynamics of riots and revolutions, the use of property rules, the commons problem, and the most-favorednation clause in settlement negotiations.
Collective Bargaining and Within-Firm Wage Dispersion in Spain

This paper analyses the effect of collective bargaining on within-firm wage dispersion for the case of Spain. What is relevant in the Spanish case is to compare the effect of the two basic levels of bargaining (firm and sector) on wage dispersion. By using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, this paper concludes that collective agreements at firm level have a negative effect on wage dispersion. At the same time, firms that have signed these types of agreements show greater wage dispersion than those covered by agreements at the sector level, owing to the positive and compensating effect of firms' and workers' features.
Generating Random Structurally Rich Algebraic Data Type Values

Automatic generation of random values described by algebraic data types (ADTs) is often a hard task. State-of-the-art random testing tools can automatically synthesize random data generators based on ADTs definitions. In that manner, generated values comply with the structure described by ADTs, something that proves useful when testing software which expects complex inputs. However, it sometimes becomes necessary to generate structural richer ADTs values in order to test deeper software layers. In this work we propose to leverage static information found in the codebase as a manner to improve the generation process. Namely, our generators are capable of considering how programs branch on input data as well as how ADTs values are built via interfaces. We implement a tool, responsible for synthesizing generators for ADTs values while providing compile-time guarantees about their distributions. Using compile-time predictions, we provide a heuristic that tries to adjust the distribution of generators to what developers might want. We report on preliminary experiments where our approach shows encouraging results.
Alternative Paths to College Completion: The Effect of Attending a Two-Year School on the Probability of Completing a Four-Year Degree

Recent research indicates that college students who transfer from community colleges are significantly less likely to complete a four-year college degree than students who begin at four-year institutions. This paper estimates models of college completion for both types of students. Based on these results, an Oaxaca decomposition indicates that students who attend two-year colleges are at a disadvantage due primarily to lower individual quality rather than the lower quality of two-year colleges. This result has implications for public policies that seek to increase the role of two-year colleges as a means to increase the number of students completing four-year degrees.
RGB-D Tracking and Reconstruction for Live TV Broadcast

In this work, a real-time image-based camera tracking solution is developed for television broadcasting studio environments. An affordable vision-based system is proposed which can compete with expensive matchmov-ing systems. The system requires merely commodity hardware: a low cost RGB-D sensor and a standard laptop. The main contribution is avoiding time-evolving drift by tracking relative to a pre-recorded keyframe model. Camera tracking is defined as a registration problem between the current RGB-D measurement and the nearest keyframe. The keyframe poses contain only a small error and therefore the proposed method is virtually driftless. Camera tracking precision is compared to KinectFusion, which is a recent method for simultaneous camera tracking and 3D reconstruction. The proposed method is tested in a television broadcasting studio, where it demonstrates driftless and precise camera tracking in real-time.
Nano-grained SnO 2 / Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 composite hollow fi bers via sol-gel / electrospinning as anode material for Li-ion batteries

The high capacity of SnO2 (tin oxide) and high rate capability of Li4Ti5O12 (lithium titanate, LTO) were pooled together for engineering a composite Li ion anode material in hollow fiber edifice by sol-gel/ electrospinning. The electrospun porous precursor composite hollow fibers (CHFs) were heat treated either in air (SnO2/LTOA) or argon (SnO2/LTOAr) atmosphere to control grain size, porosity and presence of Ti3þ content. The morphological study performed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy revealed smaller grain size (5e10 nm) for SnO2/LTOAr CHFs. Further, X-Ray Diffraction and XRay Photoelectron Spectroscopy studies illustrated a significant variation in the crystallinity and the elemental oxidation states in these CHFs respectively. BrunauerEmmett-Teller measurements exposed the presence of high surface area and pore volume in SnO2/ LTOAr CHFs. Further, the half-cell galvanostatic charge-discharge performances of SnO2/LTOAr CHFs at 1 C rate revealed a stable specific capacity of 300 mA h/g for 110 cycles with 90% capacity retention. The stable and high capacity of SnO2/LTOAr CHFs were corroborated to the presence of smaller grain size, high porosity and conductive Ti3þ providing faster lithium ion diffusion when compared to SnO2/LTOA CHFs. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy study confirmed low impedances in SnO2/LTOAr CHFs due to low charge transfer and electrolyte resistances. Moreover, Li ion full-cell study performed using LiFePO4 (LFP) cathode (3 V), delivered a specific capacity of 230 mAh/g at 0.1 C rates. The excellent electrochemical performance of SnO2/LTOAr CHFs in both half-cell and full-cell modes illustrated the significance of sol-gel/electrospinning in synthesizing high performance Lithium ion batteries in a cost effective