Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ant assemblage ( Hymenoptera : Formicidae ) in three wind farms in the State of Paraná , Brazil

The transformation of natural habitats into areas destined to agriculture or projects of energy production has generated a growing concern about the impact on biological diversity. Thus, this study evaluated the diversity of ants in agroecosystems in the area of direct influence of three wind farms in the municipality of Marmeleiro, State of Paraná and examined the association of occurrences with sampling periods. To this end, four samplings were conducted in 2013, one per season. Pitfalls, Malaise trap and Net sweep were used. The assemblages were characterized and compared using richness and number of occurrences of ants. Chao 2 estimates were calculated and a comparison (rarefaction analysis) of the assemblages was performed. The association of the species with the samples was evaluated by a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Altogether, there were 1,576 occurrences of ants, totaling 55 species. The obtained estimate indicated that richness may be up to 35% higher. Our study adds important information about richness and occurrence of ants in a region poorly analyzed for this group. Most of all, it presents a survey of species occurring in agricultural ecosystems that may serve as a parameter for future evaluations when wind farms are installed.
basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factor (MYCN) was upregulated in HB and other pediatric liver tumors, due to the transcriptional activity of its antisense transcript MYCN opposite strand (MYCNOS). Pyrosequencing demonstrated the hypomethylated regions in the promoter of MYCN and MYCNOS, suggest

Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common liver tumor in children under the age of 3 years worldwide. While many patients achieve good outcomes with surgical resection and conventional chemotherapy, there is still a high-risk population that exhibits a poor treatment response and unfavorable prognosis, which warrants the search for novel treatment options. In recent years, it has become clear that genetic events alone are not sufficient to explain the aggressive phenotype of this embryonal malignancy. Instead, epigenetic modifications and aberrant gene expression seem to be key drivers of HB. In the present study, expression analyses such as reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that the oncogene, MYCN proto-oncogene basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factor (MYCN) was upregulated in HB and other pediatric liver tumors, due to the transcriptional activity of its antisense transcript MYCN opposite strand (MYCNOS). Pyrosequencing demonstrated the hypomethylated regions in the promoter of MYCN and MYCNOS, suggesting that an epigenetic mechanism may underlie the induction of aberrant expression. Transient MYCN knockdown in HB cells resulted in growth inhibition over time. In addition, treating HB cells with the MYCN inhibitors JQ1 and MLN8237 led to the significant downregulation of MYCN either at the mRNA or protein levels, respectively. The underlying mechanism of action of the two inhibitors was revealed to be associated with the induction of dose-dependent growth arrest, by arresting cells at either the G1/G0 or G2 phase. Furthermore, MLN8237 and JQ1 were able to cause spindle disturbances and/or apoptosis in HB cells. The present results suggest that MYCN may be a promising biomarker for HB and a potential therapeutic target in patients with tumors overexpressing MYCN.
The Utilization of Bacterial Genes to Modify Domestic Animal Biochemistry

The ability to transfer genes between organisms in a way that maintains their inheritance and their function makes it possible to modify the biochemistry of domestic animals to improve productivity. One example of this is the modification of sheep biochemistry to provide an increased supply of the amino acid cysteine which is the first limiting amino acid in wool growth. The cysE and cysK genes were isolated from Escherichia coli and modified for expression in animals. In transgenic mice, the genes were transcribed and translated to produce two functional enzymes, serine transacetylase and O-acetylserine sulphydrylase which together were able to catalyse the biosynthesis of cysteine in transgenic mice provided that the mice were fed a diet containing a small amount of sodium sulphide. When placed on a diet that was deficient in sulphur-containing amino acids, non-transgenic control mice lost substantial amounts of hair and also lost body weight while the transgenic mice showed no hair loss and continued to grow at normal rates. The modified genes have been transferred to sheep where they have been shown to integrate with the host genome and can be passed to progeny in normal ratios of Mendelian inheritance. However, the genes were only expressed in one animal and this expression was very low. The results are similar to those obtained in parallel experiments carried out in another laboratory and suggest that a functional cysteine biosynthesis pathway might interfere with the intermediary metabolism of sheep whereas apparently it can operate effectively in transgenic mice.
Male functionality in Garcinia celebica L., a candidate ancestor species of mangosteen (G. mangostana L.)

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) is widely cultivated for its prized fruit, but its origins are unclear as this crop has not been found in the wild. Seashore mangosteen (Garcinia celebica L.) has been proposed as a candidate ancestral species for the mangosteen male parent in a hypothesized hybridization event, yet the functionality of the male organs in perfect flowers of G. celebica has not been characterized. The objective of this study was to describe pollen development in G. celebica using light, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Male gametophyte development led to viable pollen at anthesis. The tapetum was of the secretory type, and it started to degrade following meiosis II, which corresponded to the complete encasement of a callose wall around the microspore tetrad. Pollen viability, demonstrated with 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) assays, was 68%. An in-vitro pollen germination assay was developed, and the rate of germination was remarkably similar to the viability (68%). Male functionality was clearly confirmed by both the high rate of pollen viability and germination. The occurrence of stigmatic exudates on pistillode and its pollen features are consistent with biotic pollination. The perfect flower of G. celebica is thus a functional male flower.
How the chemical composition of the pre-storm and inflow regions compare to each other and to the outflow region of deep convection in the upper troposphere [poster]

Ozone in the upper troposphere is considered a greenhouse gas, which can contribute to climate change. Convection in thunderstorms can carry ozone precursors upward from the boundary layer into the upper tropospheric region. Production of nitrogen oxides associated with lightning in the storm can also play a role in the transformation of the upper troposphere chemical composition. Data from the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) Field Campaign were used to compare pre-storm, inflow, and outflow data using four different storm events in diverse regions. Vertical profiles of ozone, its precursors, and other related compounds were used to highlight the inflow and outflow aircraft measurements in relation to pre-storm and near storm concentrations. This comparison allowed us to determine whether the pre-storm data can be used for the analysis of convective transport and scavenging of trace gases in the upper troposphere. It was found that the chemical species’ concentration in the inflow didn’t always match the concentration of other times in the boundary layer. Though some constituents showed similarities, there was variability among the different cases. Despite this variability, it may still be useful to incorporate pre-storm data for future studies. Comparison of the outflow data to the inflow data revealed the degree of scavenging for each constituent trace gas and aerosol for different boundary layer environments and storm types. It was found that while some species consistently either scavenged or didn’t, others showed that they were scavenged in some cases but not all. For the latter situation more detailed analysis of storm location and characteristics would be beneficial. This work was performed under the auspices of the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science Program. SOARS is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and by the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes.
University of Dundee LRH-1 drives colon cancer cell growth by repressing the expression of the CDKN 1 A gene in a p 53-dependent manner

Liver receptor homologue 1 (LRH-1) is an orphan nuclear receptor that has been implicated in the progression of breast, pancreatic and colorectal cancer (CRC). To determine mechanisms underlying growth promotion by LRH-1 in CRC, we undertook global expression profiling following siRNA-mediated LRH-1 knockdown in HCT116 cells, which require LRH-1 for growth and in HT29 cells, in which LRH-1 does not regulate growth. Interestingly, expression of the cell cycle inhibitor p21 (CDKN1A) was regulated by LRH1 in HCT116 cells. p21 regulation was not observed in HT29 cells, where p53 is mutated. p53 dependence for the regulation of p21 by LRH-1 was confirmed by p53 knockdown with siRNA, while LRH-1-regulation of p21 was not evident in HCT116 cells where p53 had been deleted. We demonstrate that LRH-1-mediated p21 regulation in HCT116 cells does not involve altered p53 protein or phosphorylation, and we show that LRH-1 inhibits p53 recruitment to the p21 promoter, likely through a mechanism involving chromatin remodelling. Our study suggests an important role for LRH-1 in the growth of CRC cells that retain
Local Wavelet-Based Spectral "Epsilon" Modification of Ground Motions in Support of Incremental Dynamic Analysis

A novel scaling algorithm for ground motion accelerograms (GMs) is proposed in support of incremental dynamic analysis used to establish dependable statistical relationships between scalable intensity measures (IMs) and engineering demand parameters (EDPs) within a performance based earthquake engineering framework. Specifically, an iterative harmonic wavelet based scheme is employed to accomplish “surgical” changes to the spectral shape of suites of GMs to span various pre-defined levels of the spectral acceleration at the structural fundamental natural period, the most widely adopted IM. Since the target IM values may not be accomplished precisely by the local spectral modifications, a second step involving global uniform GM scaling is further considered. The proposed algorithm requires significantly smaller global (amplitude) scaling factors compared to the currently used scaling approach in which no initial local GM modification is undertaken. A numerical application of the proposed algorithm to elastoplastic structural systems shows the extent to which spectral shape may influence the displacement response of yielding structures and explains the conservative bias introduced by uniform global
From system F to typed assembly language

We motivate the design of a statically typed assembly language (TAL) and present a type-preserving translation from System F to TAL. The TAL we present is based on a conventional RISC assembly language, but its static type system provides support for enforcing high-level language abstractions, such as closures, tuples, and objects, as well as user-defined abstract data types. The type system ensures that well-typed programs cannot violate these abstractions. In addition, the typing constructs place almost no restrictions on low-level optimizations such as register allocation, instruction selection, or instruction scheduling.Our translation to TAL is specified as a sequence of type-preserving transformations, including CPS and closure conversion phases; type-correct source programs are mapped to type-correct assembly language. A key contribution is an approach to polymorphic closure conversion that is considerably simpler than previous work. The compiler and typed assembly language provide a fully automatic way to produce proof carrying code, suitable for use in systems where untrusted and potentially malicious code must be checked for safety before execution.
Neural Network Approach to Predicting

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using external indicators, such as commodity prices and currency exchange rates, in predicting movements in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index. The performance of each technique is evaluated using different domain specific metrics. A comprehensive evaluation procedure is described, involving the use of trading simulations to assess the practical value of predictive models, and comparison with simple benchmarks that respond to underlying market growth. In the experiments presented here, basing trading decisions on a neural network trained on a range of external indicators resulted in a return on investment of 23.5% per annum, during a period when the DJIA index grew by 13.03% per annum. A substantial dataset has been compiled and is available to other researchers interested in analysing financial time series.
SE4SEE: A grid-enabled search engine for South-East Europe

- Search Engine for South-East Europe (SE4SEE) is an application project aiming to develop a grid-enabled search engine that specifically targets the countries in the South-East Europe. It is one of the two selected regional applications currently implemented in the SEE-GRID FP6 project. This paper describes the design details of SE4SEE and provides an architectural overview of the application.
Mean curvature flow

Mean curvature flow is the negative gradient flow of volume, so any hypersurface flows through hypersurfaces in the direction of steepest descent for volume and eventually becomes extinct in finite time. Before it becomes extinct, topological changes can occur as it goes through singularities. If the hypersurface is in general or generic position, then we explain what singularities can occur under the flow, what the flow looks like near these singularities, and what this implies for the structure of the singular set. At the end, we will briefly discuss how one may be able to use the flow in low-dimensional topology.
Achieving Highly Efficient Atmospheric CO2 Uptake by Artificial Upwelling

Artificial upwelling (AU) is considered a potential means of reducing the accumulation of anthropogenic CO2. It has been suggested that AU has significant effects on regional carbon sink or source characteristics, and these effects are strongly influenced by certain technical parameters, the applied region, and the season. In this study, we simulated the power needed to raise the level of deep ocean water (DOW) to designated plume trapping depths in order to evaluate the effect of changing the source DOW depth and the plume trapping depth on carbon sequestration ability and efficiency. A carbon sequestration efficiency index (CSEI) was defined to indicate the carbon sequestration efficiency per unit of power consumption. The results suggested that the CSEI and the carbon sequestration ability exhibit opposite patterns when the DOW depth is increased, indicating that, although raising a lower DOW level can enhance the regional carbon sequestration ability, it is not energy-efficient. Large variations in the CSEI were shown to be associated with different regions, seasons, and AU technical parameters. According to the simulated CSEI values, the northeast past of the Sea of Japan is most suitable for AU, and some regions in the South China Sea are not suitable for increasing carbon sink.
Fast Bilateral Filtering Using Recursive Gaussian Filter for Tone Mapping Algorithm

In this paper, we propose a fast implementation of Bilateral filter for tone mapping algorithm. Bilateral filter is able to preserve detail while at the same time prevent halo-ing artifacts because of improper scale selection by ensuring image smoothed that not only depend on pixel closeness, but also similarity. We accelerate Bilateral filter by using a piecewise linear approximation and recursive Gaussian filter as its domain filter. Recursive Gaussian filter is scale independent filter that combines low cost 1D filter which makes this filter much faster than conventional convolution filter and filtering in frequency domain. The experiment results show that proposed method is simpler and faster than previous method without mortgaging the quality
Hemolytic Anemia: Sneaky Cause, Leaky Valve

Intravascular hemolysis is a known complication of prosthetic heart valves. Severe hemolysis is rare (<1%) with the use of newer generation prosthetic valves. This usually occurs due to paravalvular leaks (PVLs). We present a case of hyperbilirubinemia and hemolytic anemia occurring as a result of a PVL of a prosthetic mechanical mitral valve. The patient was a 49-year-old female with a past medical history of rheumatic heart disease status following two mitral valve replacements each with a mechanical prosthesis; she presented with a complaint of worsening fatigue, epigastric pain, nausea, and vomiting. On examination, she had scleral icterus. Heart auscultation revealed a crisp mechanical S1 click and a soft 2/6 systolic murmur in the left lower sternal border. Her abdomen was soft with mild epigastric and right upper quadrant tenderness, and no Murphy’s sign. Her labs revealed a white blood cell count of 7.0 x 103/microliter, hemoglobin 10.5 g/dL, hematocrit 29.7%, total bilirubin 6.9 mg/dL, direct bilirubin 0.8 mg/dL, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) 62 U/L, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) 79 U/L, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 56 U/L. An ultrasound of the abdomen revealed cholelithiasis without pericholecystic fluid collection and no ultrasonographic Murphy’s sign. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography ruled out acute cholecystitis or intra- or extra-hepatic biliary ductal dilatation. A transesophageal echocardiogram showed a well-seated mitral valve prosthesis with a significant PVL and likely moderate mitral regurgitation. The patient was evaluated for possible hemolysis. Lactate dehydrogenase was 1155 U/L, haptoglobin was <30 mg/dL, and reticulocyte count was 5.2%. She underwent a mitral valve re-replacement with a mechanical prosthesis. An echocardiogram after the surgery showed the mechanical prosthesis mitral valve with no residual PVL.
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL HERITAGE ASSESSMENT USING GIS ANALYSIS FOR GEOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN MĂCIN MOUNTAINS, DOBROGEA, ROMANIA

Our study follow the assessment of geomorphological heritage of the Măcin Mountains for geotourism development in the area. In order to analyze geomorphological features of this area and to achieve a digital map, we created a GIS databases comprising topographic map sheets, digital ortophotos and satellite images. Using these datasets the main geomorphologic features were extracted. As a result of this study we combined the most representative elements of the topography and we realized a digital map of landforms with geotouristic potential.
Sequential Inference For Dynamical Systems

Sequential inference methods have played a crucial role in many of the technological marvels that we use today, from GPS and navigation systems [1] to machine learning [2]. Most current methods, such as the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) make several, occasionally crippling assumptions which allow them to work efficiently and accurately for approximately linear dynamics. The problem with this is that the majority of systems are not linear. Inference methods fully representing the dynamics and probability distributions were considered infeasible in the early days of sequential inference [3]. However, with the capabilities of modern computers this is no longer the case. In this thesis we propose a method to evolve a probability distribution on a dynamical system explicitly. This is done by using a finite volume partial differential equation solver to solve the continuity equation, combined with Bayesian observations. We present an example case of the simple pendulum and compare this with the UKF to examine several advantages.
The diffusive overshooting approach to Li abundance in clusters

Helioseimic investigation shows that convective overshooting can penetrate 0.37H(P) to the location where the temperature is 2.5 x 10(6) K, which is the typical temperature of the reaction Li-7(p, alpha) He-4. This indicates that overshooting mixing should be involved in investigating the solar Li abundance problem. Observations of the Li abundance of solar twins show that the Sun is not very peculiar. Overshooting mixing should also be involved in investigating Li abundance in clusters. However, fully overshooting mixing with a length of 0.37H(P) results in too much Li depletion to fit the observations in the solar case. Therefore, using the diffusive process to describe the overshooting is more suitable. The diffusive overshooting approach requires the turbulent root-mean-square velocity in the overshooting region in order to calculate the diffusion coefficient. Turbulent convection models (TCMs), which are suggested by helioseimic investigation, can provide the turbulent properties in the overshooting region. However, TCMs are often too complex to be applied in calculations of stellar evolution. There is an easier way to use the asymptotic solution of TCMs. In this paper the asymptotic solution of Li & Yang's TCM, which results in agreement in both solar sound speed and solar Li abundance, is used to investigate the Li abundance in clusters (Hyades, Praesepe, NGC6633, NGC752, NGC3680 and M67). It is found that overshooting mixing leads to significant Li depletion in old clusters (t > 1Gyr) and has little effect in young clusters (t < 1Gyr).
Identification of Active Compounds of Mahuang Fuzi Xixin Decoction and Their Mechanisms of Action by LC-MS/MS and Network Pharmacology

The decoction is an important dosage form of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) administration. The Mahuang Fuzi Xixin decoction (MFXD) is widely used to treat allergic rhinitis (AR) in China. However, its active compounds and therapeutic mechanisms are unclear. The aim of this study was to establish an integrative method to identify the bioactive compounds and reveal the mechanisms of action of MFXD. LC-MS/MS was used to identify the compounds in MFXD, followed by screening for oral bioavailability. TCMSP, BindingDB, STRING, DAVID, and KEGG databases and algorithms were used to gather information. Cytoscape was used to visualize the networks. Twenty-four bioactive compounds were identified, and thirty-seven predicted targets of these compounds were associated with AR. DAVID analysis suggested that these compounds exert their therapeutic effects by modulating the Fc epsilon RI, B-cell receptor, Toll-like receptor, TNF, NF-κB, and T-cell receptor signaling pathways. The PI3K/AKT and cAMP signaling pathways were also implicated. Ten of the identified compounds, quercetin, pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, β-asarone, methylephedrine, α-linolenic acid, cathine, ferulic acid, nardosinone, and higenamine, seemed to account for most of the beneficial effects of MFXD in AR. This study showed that LC-MS/MS followed by network pharmacology analysis is useful to elucidate the complex mechanisms of action of TCM formulas.