Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of grazing on the soil properties and C and N storage in relation to biomass allocation in an alpine meadow

Livestock grazing is one of the most important factors influencing the above-ground community composition and structure in a natural grassland ecosystem. Different grazing intensities also have the potential to alter soil C and N storage substantially in grasslands. We conducted a field community study and soil analyses to determine the effects of different grazing intensities on the above-ground community and soil properties in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results showed the following: (i) the vegetation height, coverage, and above-ground biomass significantly declined with increased grazing intensity, but the species richness reached the highest level in a moderate-grazing intensity meadow; (ii) grazing had a significant positive effect on soil properties in that the soil moisture content, soil organic carbon concentration, soil total nitrogen concentration, soil available nitrogen, soil total phosphorus, and soil available phosphorus significantly increased with increased grazing pressure; and (iii) soil C and N storage also significantly increased with increased grazing pressure; altogether, these increases had a significant positive cor relation with the increase of below-ground biomass allocation. Our results indicated that higher grazing intensity might have a potentially positive effect to increase the soil C and N storage in alpine meadows. However, from a long-term perspective, moderate grazing may help to achieve a balance between species diversity protection, livestock production and soil C and N management.
Effects of calcium ionophore A 23187 on oocyte activation , embryo development following intracytoplasmic sperm injection technique and pregnancy rate in bovine

The efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) technique in cattle reproduction is limited by the necessity for additional oocyte activation step before or after the ICSI procedure. Induced activation is required for oocyte to progress beyond the pronuclear stage and subsequent embryo development. Therefore, three experiments were conducted to study the fertilisability and development of oocytes following ICSI. In experiment 1, calcium ionophore A23187 was used to activate oocytes and determine its effect on the subsequent development of oocytes following ICSI. Amongst the treatments, either preor post-oocyte calcium ionophore activation treatment was more effective than a combination of both treatments. In Experiment 2, the status of uncleaved zygotes with or without polar bodies was evaluated following ICSI. The majority of fertilisation and development failures in oocytes with or without polar bodies were related to either the failure of sperm head decondensation and male pronucleus formation despite activation and development of ICSI oocytes. In Experiment 3, the pregnancy rates of recipient dams following transfer of ICSIand in vivo-derived embryos were 25% and 50% respectively. In conclusion, a 5 μM calcium ionophore A23187 treatment before or after ICSI could induce oocytes activation that resulted in pregnancy of recipient dams.
The construction of analytic diffeomorphisms for exact robot navigation on star worlds

The authors consider the construction of navigation functions on configuration spaces whose geometric expressiveness is rich enough for navigation amidst real-world obstacles. They describe a general methodology which extends the construction of navigation functions on sphere worlds to any smoothly deformable space. According to this methodology, the problem of constructing a navigation function is reduced to the construction of a transformation mapping a given space into its model sphere world. The transformation must satisfy certain regularity conditions guaranteeing invariance of the navigation function properties. The authors demonstrate this idea by constructing navigation functions on star worlds: n-dimensional star shaped subsets of E/sup n/ punctured by any finite number of smaller disjoint n-dimensional stars. This construction yields automatically a bounded torque feedback control law which is guaranteed to guide the robot to destination point from almost every initial position without hitting any obstacle. <<ETX>>
Sparse doubly-selective channels: Estimating path parameters unambiguously

Doubly selective channels or time-varying multipath channels occur when communication systems are expected to work in a highly mobile environment. The estimation and the subsequent equalization of such channels is a non-trivial task. Thus, a channel estimation scheme that is robust, precise and works with a complexity that is applicable for consumer applications is vital to overcome the effects of such a channel at the receiver. The Matching Pursuit (MP) algorithm is a Compressed Sensing (CS) scheme that is shown to work well in scenarios of high mobility. However, good performance is achieved only when the right search metric is used. In this paper, an appropriate metric for the estimation of the multipath delays is proposed. It is shown that this metric produces an accurate estimate of the multipath delays under different channel conditions. In addition to this, a novel method that implicitly estimates the Doppler shift is proposed. The results show that the proposed schemes accurately estimate a doubly selective channel as compared to the classical MP and the Least Squares (LS) channel estimate. Moreover, an implicit estimation of the Doppler shift reduces the computational burden at the receiver resulting in a lower complexity when compared to the classical MP algorithm. The proposed scheme is implemented for the IEEE 802.11p standard and is applicable in any Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless system that is expected to work in highly mobile environments, specifically for 5G.
A wideband omnidirectional loaded genetic antenna for receiving vertical, horizontal, right-hand and left-hand circular polarizations

In this work, an omnidirectional loaded genetic antenna was created that operates from 500 MHz to 2 GHz and receives vertical, horizontal, LHCP and RHCP-polarized signals with less than 10 dB of difference at the horizon. The antenna was built and tested, and was found to match well with predictions.
ATP-dependent/-independent enzymatic ring reductions involved in the anaerobic catabolism of naphthalene.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are among the most hazardous environmental pollutants. However, in contrast to aerobic degradation, the respective degradation pathways in anaerobes are greatly unknown which has so far prohibited many environmental investigations. In this work, we studied the enzymatic dearomatization reactions involved in the degradation of the PAH model compounds naphthalene and 2-methylnaphthalene in the sulfate-reducing enrichment culture N47. Cell extracts of N47 grown on naphthalene catalysed the sodium dithionite-dependent four-electron reduction of the key intermediate 2-naphthoyl-coenzyme A (NCoA) to 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-2-naphthoyl-CoA (THNCoA). The NCoA reductase activity was independent of ATP and was, surprisingly, not sensitive to oxygen. In cell extracts in the presence of various electron donors the product THNCoA was further reduced by a two-electron reaction to most likely a conjugated hexahydro-2-naphthoyl-CoA isomer (HHNCoA). The reaction assigned to THNCoA reductase strictly depended on ATP and was oxygen-sensitive with a half-life time between 30 s and 1 min when exposed to air. The rate was highest with NADH as electron donor. The results indicate that two novel and completely different dearomatizing ring reductases are involved in anaerobic naphthalene degradation. While the THNCoA reducing activity shows some properties of ATP-dependent class I benzoyl-CoA reductases, NCoA reduction appears to be catalysed by a previously unknown class of dearomatizing aryl-carboxyl-CoA reductases.
Cryptococcus neoformans var neoformans Isolated from Droppings of Captive Birds in Nigeria

The yeast, Cryptococcus neoformans, was found in apparently healthy birds at the Jos Wildlife Park and Zoo in Jos, Nigeria. Cryptococcus neoformans var neoformans was isolated from feces of four captive bird species. Five isolates belonged to serotype A while two were serotype D. Serotype A of C. neoformans was isolated from a white face duck (Dendrocygna viduata), eagle owl (Bubo africanus cinerascene) and peacock (Pavo cristatus). The other two (serotype D), were isolated from a spotted eagle owl.
Implementaton aspects of On-line grid data analytics systems

Aligned with significant attention to smart grid, timely and precise analysis of grid data that is continuously reported from a massive number of field devices such as sensors, meters, and so on, is considered a key factor to accelerate smart grid deployment. However, many utilities today have no grid data analytic system, or have grid data analytic systems that are operated in an off-line manner. As a result, today data analytics systems are mostly offline analysis tools and cannot properly and effectively handle impending contingencies such as load surf, sudden voltage drops, etc. Motivated by this need, we have been building an online grid data analytic system, DMAS (Data Mining and Analytics System). In this paper, we describe lessons learned from the DMAS implementation using a set of real utility data. The discussion is focused on trade-offs between diverse implementation choices when faced with the objective of fast processing of a sequence of time series utility data, its correlation with other relevant AMI and SCADA data, and report or alarm generation. Further, we show performance results measured over the real data collected from more than 100k meters, with a grid topology comprising of distribution transformers, feeders, and substations, along with weather data, customer demographic data, and billing data.
Semantic Annotating of Czech Corpus via WSD

We would like to describe the relationship between word sense disambiguation (WSD) and language resources (LR) working with word senses. We discuss the problem of sense division and tagging. Exploiting specific features of the inflectional languages for WSD is encouraged. We present WSD methods for Czech ambiguous nouns. The advantage of these methods consists in reducing the manual work by using a synonym training set. They could be utilized for building a semantically annotated corpus or gaining glosses for Czech WordNet.
Cloning And Characterization Of A Bamboo Leafy Hull Sterile1 Homologous Gene

A cDNA named DlMADS8 was isolated from the young spikelets of the sweet bamboo, Dendrocalamus latiflorus by rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE). DNA sequence analysis showed that DlMADS8 was composed of full ORF and 3′UTR, but without 5′UTR. The cDNA contained 1059 nucleotides and encoded a putative protein of 244 amino acid residues. The gene displayed the structure of a typical plant MADS-box gene, which consisted of a MADS domain, K domain, a short I region, and the C-terminal region. Phylogenetic analysis of plant MADS-box genes based on amino acid sequences revealed that DlMADS8 was grouped into the AGAMOUS-LIKE 2 (AGL2)-like subfamily. It was homologous to the LEAFY HULL STERILE1 (LHS1) genes of grasses. To study the functions of it, DlMADS8 cDNA clone driven by the CaMV 35S promoter was transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana. Transgenic plants of DlMADS8 exhibited the phenotypes of curled leaves and early flowering. After bolting, three novel phenotypes related to inflorescence development were observed in different transgenic plants. No obvious homeotic conversions of floral organs were observed in all of the 35S::DlMADS8 transgenic Arabidopsis plants. These results indicated that DlMADS8 probably plays a role in floral meristem determinacy and is involved in controlling the flowering time of D. latiflorus.
Vector Control, Pest Management, Resistance, Repellents Selective Insecticide Applications Directed Against Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) Affected a Nontarget Secondary Vector of Chagas Disease, Triatoma garciabesi

The control of nondomiciliated triatomine species adapted to peridomestic habitats represents a challenge because they are connected to sylvatic colonies, and pyrethroid insecticides have limited effects outdoors. The effects of residual insecticide spraying have rarely been assessed on secondary triatomines. Triatoma garciabesi (Carcavallo, Martinez, Cichero, Prosen & Ronderos, 1967) is a nontarget vector that inhabits the dry western Chaco region, and a member of the Triatoma sordida Stål 1859 complex. Little is known on the capacity of T. garciabesi to invade and establish viable domestic or peridomestic colonies, and on its response to residual insecticide sprays directed against Triatoma infestans Klug 1834. The presence and abundance of triatomines were assessed by timed manual collections annually or biannually (spring and fall) during 10 yr after a community-wide insecticide spraying campaign and selective insecticide sprays directed against T. infestans in a rural village of northwestern Argentina. T. garciabesi mainly occupied peridomestic habitats associated with chickens, and was unable to colonize human sleeping quarters. Trees with chickens occurred in nearly all houses and were infested in >25% of the occasions. The abundance of bugs at house-compound level was best explained by a generalized estimating equation model that included selective insecticide sprays during the previous semester (negative effects), chicken abundance (positive effects), seasonality, and their interactions. Our results suggest that insecticide applications targeting T. infestans affected the abundance of T. garciabesi, and reduced the likelihood of future infestation.
Cerebral vasospasm following transsphenoidal removal of a pituitary adenoma

We report a case of pituitary macroadenoma that developed symptomatic vasospasm 12 days after transsphenoidal removal, but showed an excellent recovery following active treatment identical to those for vasopasm following aneurysmal subarachonid haemorrhage. Subarachnoid haematoma in the basal cisterns secondary from postoperative intracapsular haemorrhage was the most probable cause of the vasopasm.
Interactions of Murine APOBEC 3 and Human APOBEC 3 G with Murine Leukemia Viruses

Interactions of Murine APOBEC3 and Human APOBEC3G with Murine Leukemia Viruses Samuel J. Rulli, Jr.,† Jane Mirro, Shawn A. Hill, Patricia Lloyd, Robert J. Gorelick, John M. Coffin, David Derse, and Alan Rein* HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute—Frederick, and Basic Research Laboratory and AIDS Vaccine Program, SAIC Frederick, Inc., Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201, and Department of Microbiology, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts 02111
A Pattern-Based Problem-Solving Process for Novice Programmers

Learning to program involves the application of programming language features to the solving of novel problems, and the experience of educators suggests that it is this factor that causes novice programmers the most difficulty. Because software patterns are descriptions of common problems and their solution written in a standardised format that facilitates reuse, their use in the novice context is indicated. This paper suggests a process for applying patterns to problems that derives from the relationships between patterns in a pattern language, and demonstrates its use in a simple problem. This approach suits the pedagogical model based on Bloom's taxonomy as it enables the required knowledge to be partitioned and dealt with in stages.
A GENERALIZED PARTICLE FILTERING BASED SENSOR SCHEDULING ALGORITHM FOR TARGET TRACKING

One of the critical components of a multisensor system is the constraint on system resources such as sensor-lifetime, bandwidth, computation etc. Sensor scheduling, which is the allocation of sensing resources over time, can serve to minimize the cost of resources, and improve the performance of the system under such constraints. Sensor scheduling is a stochastic control problem that involves optimization of expected cost function over time. In principle, solutions to this problem can be computed using dynamic programming [1, 2], however in practice computing optimal solutions may be prohibitively expensive, and sub-optimal algorithms are used instead [3–5]. Cost functions that can be used to schedule the sensors include sensor usage cost, mean squared state estimate error [6], desired estimate covariance [7], information theoretic costs [3, 4, 8] etc. In this paper, we propose a generalized scheduling algorithm by computing expected costs one or multiple steps ahead using a particle filter and the unscented transform (UT). The proposed algorithm is an extension of the sensor management approach in [8], in which an information theoretic measure (Kullbach-Leibler distance) is used to schedule sensors. It is also an improvement over the one in [6], as it (unlike the latter) can be applied to different cost functions including the information theoretic cost. For this paper, we implement the scheduling algorithm in the context of the following target tracking scenario. A target moves in a 2-dimensional plane whose kinematics are unknown to us. At the origin are located an infrared (IR) sensor and a radar sensor. We assume that we can use only one sensor at any given time . We schedule the infrared and radar sensors to obtain measurements, and track the target based on the measurements using a particle filter. The sensors are scheduled by predicting multiple steps
A challenging entity: multiple sclerosis or collagen tissue disorders: A case series of 6 patients

Background: Multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating processes are sometimes difficult to differentiate from the neurological involvement in autoimmune diseases. Distinguishing multiple sclerosis from other lesions due to autoimmune diseases is crucial to avoid unsuitable or delayed treatments. Methods: Charts of 6 patients diagnosed with mimicking multiple sclerosis between 1996 and 2014 were retrospectively assessed. Results: The mean age at diagnosis was 35±7 years. The most commonly neurological manifestation at onset was paraparesis due to transverse myelopathy and uni/bilateral optic neuropathy. All our patients suffered from recurrent episodes of optic neuritis with a mean lag time of 12 months. Other initial presenting neurological manifestations in our patients included ataxic gait and pyramidal syndrome. Systemic symptoms occurred a long time before or after their initial neurological presentation. All patients had numerous T2 hyperintense lesions in the periventricular white matter and spinal cord with contrast enhancement. The antibodies tests revealed the presence of significant amounts of anti-nuclear antibodies. The anti-phospholipid antibodies were negative in all patients. All patients were treated with corticosteroid therapy and neurological features were cleared in all cases. Conclusion: Multiple sclerosis, other myelitis and optic neuritis, are sometimes difficult to differentiate from CNS involvement in autoimmune disease. Indeed, the clinical presentation, immunological profile and MRI lesions may be similar.
Effects of electromagnetic field emitted by cellular phones on the EEG during an auditory memory task: A double blind replication study

The effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by cellular phones on the event related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) of the 4–6, 6–8, 8–10, and 10–12 Hz electroencephalogram (EEG) frequency bands were studied in 24 normal subjects performing an auditory memory task. This study was a systematic replication of our previous work. In the present double blind study, all subjects performed the memory task both with and without exposure to a digital 902 MHz field in a counterbalanced order. We were not able to replicate the findings from our earlier study. All eight of the significant changes in our earlier study were not significant in the present double blind replication. Also, the effect of EMF on the number of incorrect answers in the memory task was inconsistent. We previously reported no significant effect of EMF exposure on the number of incorrect answers in the memory task, but a significant increase in errors was observed in the present study. We conclude that EMF effects on the EEG and on the performance on memory tasks may be variable and not easily replicable for unknown reasons. Bioelectromagnetics 25:33–40, 2004. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Experience in The Development of a Postmarketing Surveillance Network: The Pharmacy Medication Monitoring Program

Objective: To describe the pilot and early implementation phase of a system for assembling and recruiting cohorts of patients taking selected prescription medications and prospectively monitoring them for new health events. Design: Prospective observational study, based on telephone interviews, of 1475 patients filling prescriptions for a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID). Patients were interviewed by telephone using trained interviewers at a central site. Hospitalizations and deaths were followed up and reviewed by an independent physician. Setting: Community setting in a region of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Participants: All consenting patients filling new or repeat prescriptions for NSAIDs at participating pharmacies. Main Outcome Measures: The authors report on the development and assessment of systems for: (1) ongoing recruitment of patients through community pharmacies; (2) data transfer from pharmacies to the coordinating center; (3) surveying patients; (4) classifying, coding, and evaluating new health events; and (5) following up on new serious adverse events. Results: Fifty-one percent of patients approached were recruited, and 83% of these provided completed interviews. For patients picking up their own medications, pharmacy workload varied from 4 to 10 minutes per patient approached. Nineteen percent of patients reported having a new health problem or unusual symptom at the initial telephone interview. Reported health-related events were similar to those described in other studies of NSAIDs. Conclusions: Most aspects of the monitoring system performed well. One limitation was the low recruitment rate for patients who did not directly drop off or pick up their own prescriptions. Even so, this method of patient accrual may complement alternative monitoring programs.
Autoimmune Retinopathy in a Patient with Autoimmune Polyendocrine Syndrome Type I

Abstract Purpose: To present a case of autoimmune retinopathy resulting from a mutation in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene. Design: Case Study Methods: Case Review Results: Mild improvement of goldmann visual field following treatment with systemic and local immunosuppression. Conclusions: There are a limited number of cases linking autoimmune retinopathy with a mutation in the AIRE gene. Further research is needed to find more effective treatment and to prevent tissue damage.