Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Winter wheat yield response to climate variability in Denmark

SUMMARY Data on grain yield from field trials on winter wheat under conventional farming, harvested between 1992 and 2008, were combined with daily weather data available for 44 grids covering Denmark. Nine agroclimatic indices were calculated and used for describing the relation between weather data and grain yield. These indices were calculated as average temperature, radiation and precipitation during winter (1 October–31 March), spring (1 April–15 June) and summer (16 June–31 July), and they were included as linear and quadratic covariates in a mixed regression model. The model also included an effect of year to describe the change in yield caused by unrecorded variables such as management changes. The final model included all effects that were significant for at least one of the two soil types (sandy and loamy soils). Seven of the nine agroclimatic indices were included in the final model that was used to predict the wheat grain yield under five climate scenarios (a baseline for 1985 and two climate change projections for 2020 and 2040) for two soil types and two locations in Denmark. The agroclimatic index for summer temperature showed the strongest effect causing lower yields with increasing temperature, whereas yield increased with increasing radiation during summer and spring. Winter precipitation and spring temperature did not affect grain yield significantly. Grain yield responded non-linearly to mean winter temperature with the highest yield at 4·4°C and lower yields both below and above this inflection point. The application of the model predicted that the average yield would decrease under projected climate change. The average decrease varied between 0·1 and 0·8 t/ha (comparable to a relative reduction of 1·6–12.3%) depending on the climate projection, location and soil type. On average, the grain yield decreased by about 0·25 t/ha (c. 3.6%) from 1985 to 2020 and by about 0·55 t/ha (c. 8·0%) from 1985 to 2040. The predicted yield decrease depended on climate projection and was larger for wheat grown in West Zealand than in Central Jutland and in most cases also larger for loamy soils than for sandy soils. The inter-annual variation in grain yield varied greatly between climate projections. The coefficient of variation (CV) varied between 0·16 and 0·46 and was smallest for wheat grown on loamy soils in Central Jutland in the baseline climate and largest for winter wheat grown under one of the 2040 climate projections. The increase in CV is not so much an effect of increased climatic variability under the climate change projections, but more an effect of increased winter temperature, where more extreme winter temperatures (lower or higher than the inflection point at 4·4°C) increased the effect of winter temperatures.
Teacher professional development and change: Evidence of compliance, redefinition, and reflection in the use of Sport Education

En utilisant la theorie du changement (Fullan, 1992 ; Guskey, 2002) et la theorie de la socialisation (Lacey, 1977 ; Zeichner and Gore, 1990), notre groupe de recherche s’est centre sur le developpement professionnel d’enseignant du secondaire a propos de leur apprentissage du modele d’education par le sport (Sidentop, Hastie & van der Mars, 2004). Les donnees ont ete collectees a la fois de facon quantitative et qualitative a l’aide d’un test psychometrique et d’interviews. Dans l'ensemble, le niveau d’adhesion des enseignants et d’engagement a l'education par le sport varie selon les niveaux scolaires. Cet article commente le processus de changement par rapport aux donnees empiriques et aux connexions theoriques a travers les quatre principaux resultats obtenus a ce jour.
Cold tolerance in flour beetle species differing in body size and selection temperature

Cold tolerance is an important trait directly related to survival and hence fitness. In the present study, the link is addressed between cold tolerance and body size, which is associated with many key fitness traits, at both the intra‐ and interspecific levels. Specifically, chill coma recovery time, as a metric of cold tolerance, is examined in five related flour beetle species (four of them belonging to the genus Tribolium), two additional Tribolium castaneum Herbst populations selected for higher temperatures, and a mutant showing reduced body size. Recovery times are negatively correlated with the species average body size but not within each species. Females usually recover faster than males, although this difference is significant in only a single species, and is unrelated to body size. Repeating the experimental procedure with the same individuals, after 2 days in isolation with a limited amount of food, results in longer recovery times. Therefore, even if cold acclimation takes place, its influence appears to be diminished by the deleterious effects associated with the experimental procedure. Hence, the findings provide evidence for an association between body size and cold tolerance in the genus Tribolium, with larger species recovering faster from chill than smaller species. By contrast, the smalleyed flour beetle Palorus ratzeburgii Wissmann does not follow this pattern. Additionally, a population of T. castaneum selected for the highest temperature takes longer to recover from chill coma, indicating a trade‐off between cold and heat adaptations and not to a cross‐protection effect, as sometimes demonstrated.
Sequence Analyses of MHC Class II DQB Gene in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops spp.) and the Other Delphinid Species from the Western Pacific

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a key role in the initiation of immune responses in vertebrates. The sequence variation of the exon 2 region of MHC DQB locus is analyzed using 20 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops adnucus) and 3 Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis) collected from strandings in Taiwanese waters for better understanding the immunologic diversity in thriving marine mammal species. The 172 bp sequences amplified show no more than two alleles in each individual. The high proportion of non-synonymous nucleotide substitutions and moderate amount of variation suggest positive selection pressure on this locus. The phylogenetic relationship among DQB exon 2 sequences of these two coastal species and other 3 pelagic delphinid species from the western Pacific does not coincide with taxonomic relationship, indicating habitatspecific allele existence resulting from pathogen-driven directional selection.
Adenoviral Vector-Based Vaccines and Gene Therapies: Current Status and Future Prospects

Adenoviruses are one of the most genetically diverse DNA viruses and cause non-life- threatening infections in the ocular, respiratory, or gastrointestinal epithelium of a diverse range of hosts. Adenoviruses are excellent vectors for delivering genes or vaccine antigens to the target host tissues and are being tested in several vaccine and gene therapy studies. Adenovirus-based vectors offer several advantages over other viral vectors such as broad range of tissue tropism, well-characterized genome, ease of genetic manipulation including acceptance of large transgene DNA insertions, inherent adjuvant properties, ability to induce robust transgene-specific T cell and antibody responses, non-replicative nature in host, and ease of production at large scale. However, several studies have highlighted major drawbacks to using adenovirus as vaccine and gene therapy vectors. These include pre-existing immunity in humans, inflammatory responses, sequestering of the vector to liver and spleen, and immunodominance of the vector genes over transgenes. In the same vein, recently discovered protein sequence homology and heterologous immunity between adenoviruses and hepatitis C virus have significant implications in the use of adenoviral vectors for vaccine development, especially for hepatitis C virus. This chapter focuses on the current scope and challenges in using adenoviral vector-based vaccines and gene therapies.
Investigating Treatment Effects of Participating Jointly in Snap and WIC When the Treatment is Validated Only for Snap

USDA operates several food assistance programs aimed at alleviating food insecurity. We study whether participation in both SNAP and WIC alleviates food insecurity compared with participation in SNAP alone. We bound underlying causal effects by applying nonparametric treatment effect methods that allow for endogenous selection and underrepresented program participation when validation data are available for one program (treatment) but not the other. We estimate average treatment effects using data from the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS). FoodAPS includes administrative data to validate SNAP participation. Information on local food prices allows us to construct a food expenditure-based monotone instrumental variable that does not require a typical IV exclusion restriction. Under relatively weak monotonicity assumptions, we identify that the impact of participating in both programs relative to SNAP alone is strictly positive, suggesting that the programs are nonredundant. This evidence can support improved design and targeting of food programs.
The Role of Lysophosphatidylcholine Acyltransferase (LPCAT) 3 in Macrophage Inflammatory Responses

1 List of Tables and Illustrations . 7 List of Abbreviations . 9 Acknowledgments . 14 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION . 16 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 17 SEPSIS . 17 1.1.1 Pathophysiology of Sepsis: The role of LPS and Toll-like Receptor 4 (TLR4) . 18 1.1.2 Pathophysiology of Sepsis: The role of Macrophages . 24 1.2 LYSOPHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE ACYLTRANSFERASES (LPCAT) . 24 1.2. 1 Brief description, activities and specificities of the LPCAT enzymes . 26 1.2. 2 Enzyme activity: the acyl transferase function . 27 1.2. 3 Enzyme activity: the acetyltransferase function . 29 1.3 RESEARCH PROGRESS IN THE DISCOVERY OF THE LPCAT ENZYMES . 31 1.4 EXPRESSION AND BIOLOGICAL ROLES OF THE LPCAT ENZYMES IN MAMMALIAN CELLS AND TISSUES . 32 1.4. 1 Inflammatory cells . 32 1.4. 2 Platelets . 33 1.4. 3 Metabolic tissues . 33 1.4. 4 Lungs and surfactant production . 34 1.4. 5 Brain . 35 1.5 LPCAT ENZYMES AND DISEASE PROCESSES . 35 1.5. 1 Brain injury . 35 1.5. 2 Barth Syndrome . 35 1.5. 3 Endometriosis . 36 1.5. 4 Cancer . 36 1.5. 5 Chronic inflammatory disorders . 37 1.5. 6 Diabetic retinopathy . 37 1.5. 7 Sepsis . 38 1.6 THE LPCAT ENZYMES AS NOVEL TARGETS FOR ANTI-SEPSIS THERAPIES . 38 1.7 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 40 1.8 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY . 42 1.8. 1 Aim. 42 1.8. 2 Objectives . 42 CHAPTER 2: MATERIALS AND METHODS . 43
Application of the Model of Oscillations in a Chain System to the Solar System

A numerical analysis revealed that masses, radii, distances from the sun, orbital periods and rotation periods of celestial bodies can be expressed on the logarithmic scale though a systematic set of numbers: 4e, 2e, e, e 2 , e 4 , e 8 and e 16 . We analyzed these data with a fractal scaling model originally published by Müller in this journal, interpreting physical quantities as proton resonances. The data were expressed in continued fraction form, where all numerators are Euler’s number. From these continued fractions, we explain the volcanic activity on Venus, the absence of infrared emission of Uranus and why Jupiter and Saturn emit more infrared radiation than they receive as total radiation energy from the Sun. We also claim that the Kuiper cliff was not caused by a still unknown planet. It can be understood why some planets have an atmosphere and others not, as well as why the ice on dwarf planet Ceres does not evaporate into space through solar radiation. The results also suggest that Jupiter and Saturn have the principal function to capture asteroids and comets, thus protecting the Earth, a fact which is well-reflected in the high number of their irregular satellites.
SWeG: Lossless and Lossy Summarization of Web-Scale Graphs

Given a terabyte-scale graph distributed across multiple machines, how can we summarize it, with much fewer nodes and edges, so that we can restore the original graph exactly or within error bounds? As large-scale graphs are ubiquitous, ranging from web graphs to online social networks, compactly representing graphs becomes important to efficiently store and process them. Given a graph, graph summarization aims to find its compact representation consisting of (a) a summary graph where the nodes are disjoint sets of nodes in the input graph, and each edge indicates the edges between all pairs of nodes in the two sets; and (b) edge corrections for restoring the input graph from the summary graph exactly or within error bounds. Although graph summarization is a widely-used graph-compression technique readily combinable with other techniques, existing algorithms for graph summarization are not satisfactory in terms of speed or compactness of outputs. More importantly, they assume that the input graph is small enough to fit in main memory. In this work, we propose SWeG, a fast parallel algorithm for summarizing graphs with compact representations. SWeG is designed for not only shared-memory but also MapReduce settings to summarize graphs that are too large to fit in main memory. We demonstrate that SWeG is (a) Fast: SWeG is up to 5400 × faster than its competitors that give similarly compact representations, (b) Scalable: SWeG scales to graphs with tens of billions of edges, and (c) Compact: combined with state-of-the-art compression methods, SWeG achieves up to 3.4 × better compression than them.
An analysis on the usage of E-banking services in coimbatore city

E-Banking is a major invention that has changed the business of banking. World over banks are reorienting their strategies towards new opportunities offered by e-banking. The recent trend shows that most ‘brick and mortar’ banks are shifting from a ‘product-centric’ model as they develop their new e-banking capabilities. With this background an attempt was made with the Objectives; to present an overview of e-banking services offered by both public and private sector banks in Coimbatore city; to examine the socio-economic profile of e-banking user; to study the extent awareness and the usage of e-banking Services and to ascertain the customer's satisfaction about various e-banking services. The data was collected with the help of a well structured and pre-tested interview schedule, administered to 100 e-banking users during the period November 2008 to January 2009. The data collected was tabulated and analyzed by using simple percentages, Chi-square test and Garrett ranking technique. From the findings of the study, it was revealed that customers are satisfied with the services provided by the public sector banks than the private sector banks. The study suggests that, Customers have to be educated in the use of every new technology. On the whole e-banking increased operational efficiencies and reduces costs, besides giving a platform for offering valued added services to the customer, thereby fulfilling all the essential prerequisites for a flourishing banking industry. In a nutshell, to meet the emerging challenges banks have to undertake a series of changes in original, structure, functions, practices and marketing to popularize e-banking.
Effects of Chronic Gastritis on Sleep and Quality of Life in Adolescents

Ad dress for Cor res pon den ce Yeliz Çağan Appak MD, University of Health Sciences, İzmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Pediatric Gastroenterology, İzmir, Turkey Phone: +90 505 598 52 29 E-mail: yelizcagan@yahoo.com ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4330-9281 Re cei ved: 12.01. 2019 Ac cep ted: 21.01. 2019 1University of Health Sciences, İzmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Pediatric Gastroenterology, İzmir, Turkey 2İzmir Katip Çelebi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; University of Health Sciences, Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry İzmir, Turkey 3Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, İzmir, Turkey 4İzmir Katip Çelebi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, İzmir, Turkey Yeliz Çağan Appak1, Gonca Özyurt2, Miray Karakoyun3, Maşallah Baran1,4
Framework for a Mixed-Culture Biofilm Model to Describe Oxidized Nitrogen, Sulfur, and Selenium Removal in a Biofilm Reactor

Biofilm reactors are an emerging environmental biotechnology used for the removal of selenium from industrial wastewater. Bioreactor models for selenium removal that are based on the mechanistic description of biofilms are few in number, but a dynamic model that is based on mechanistic principles (chemical and biochemical) and is capable of describing selenium removal is needed for efficient and more rigorous process design and optimization. This paper summarizes variables, processes, and rate expressions for both chemical and biochemical conversions inside a mixed-culture biofilm containing facultative heterotrophs, sulfate reducing bacteria, and autotrophic denitrifiers. Chemical and biochemical processes in the biofilm model are based on theoretical considerations. Chemical processes include acid-base equilibria reactions primarily to describe substrate. The proposed mathematical description of our multispecies selenium removal biofilm is based on the general one-dimensional model of Wanner and Gujer (1985) and Wanner and Reichert (1995). It is assumed that ions do not undergo chemical or biological transformation, but the ions do not maintain a constant concentration profile across the one-dimensional biofilm. State variables, processes, and kinetic expressions in the biofilm model are structured using (Peterson) matrix notation. The framework for a mechanistic mathematical model describing a dynamic one-dimensional biofilm has been developed and presented.
Academic Performance among Student Library Employees: How Library Employment Impacts Grade Point Average and Perception of Success

The study of college student employment and its effects on retention, academics, and student satisfaction is not new and yet has come to varying conclusions; also, very little has been reviewed on what impact a student’s place of employment may have on their academics. This research examines student employees at a college library and how that specific type of employment has impacted the academic success of those employees. The study used a combination of data, comparing their cumulative grade point average with survey results asking about their perception of the effect library employment had on their academics. The overwhelming majority of students felt that library employment had a positive impact on their academics and this perception was confirmed by their collective, average GPAs when compared to that of their peers. This research expands the knowledge not only in the potential impact of place on academics but also in how college libraries perceive their impact upon student employees and the benefits of such employment.
Secret-Key Capacity Regions for Multiple Enrollments With an SRAM-PUF

We introduce the multiple enrollment scheme for SRAM-physical unclonable functions (PUFs). During each enrollment, the binary power-on values of the SRAM are observed, and a corresponding key and helper data are generated. Each key can later be reconstructed from an additional observation and the helper data. The helper data do not reveal information about the keys to an attacker. It is our goal to use the additional enrollments to consecutively increase the entropy of the generated key material. We analyze two alternative settings. First, we present a regular setting, where each additional key is independent of all previous keys. Second, we introduce a key-replacement setting, where instead of an additional independent key, a new key (of increased length) is generated that replaces the old key. We characterize the capacity regions for both the settings. We show that the total achievable secret-key rate is equal to the mutual information between all enrollment observations and a single (reconstruction) observation. We derive our results based on a statistical model for the SRAM-PUF that has been proposed in the literature. This model implies a permutation symmetry property of the SRAM-PUF which plays a key role in our proofs.
An integrative module analysis of DNA methylation landscape in aging

To investigate the molecular mechanism of aging, the combination of module analysis and DNA methylation data was used to detect dynamically controlled modules for aging. Multiple differential expression networks (DENs) were constructed based on the microarray profiles across different aging groups (<70 years, 70–80 years, and >80 years). Next, a module-based approach was utilized to extract the common candidate modules across all age groups. We used Module Connectivity Dynamic Score (MCDS) to quantify the connectivity change of the common modules among the different age groups. Functional analyses were implemented for the genes in the common modules to further identify the significant biological processes. A total of two DENs were constructed. Overall 657 informative genes were screened out. When false discovery rate (FDR) was set as 0.05, we found that 148 modules were significant. Only 1 significant 2-differential modules (DMs) (module 493) with dynamic changes was discovered. Significantly, the genes in the module 493 participated in 7 significant pathways, including pentose phosphate pathway, carbon metabolism, and citrate cycle (TCA cycle). In conclusion, pathway functions [pentose phosphate pathway, carbon metabolism, citrate cycle (TCA cycle), chromosomal instability, ateroid biosynthesis, PPAR signaling pathway, and immune response] may serve as potential therapeutic targets in aging.
Construction of a novel recombinant vector as Brucella melitensis vacB gene knockout candidate

Brucella melitensis is a Gram negative coccobacillus bacterium from the Brucellaceae family. Brucellosis is an infectious zoonotic disease affecting most species of domestic animals, but sheep and goats, particularly milking breeds, are the most susceptible. Cattle may occasionally be affected and the disease may appear in pigs. vacB gene is one important gene of B. melitensis that encoded a protein (RNase R) and in B. melitensis and Brucella abortus has no impact on bacterial virulence. The aim of the present study was to construct a novel recombinant vector as B. melitensis vacB gene knockouts candidate. B. melitensis were collected from Microbiology laboratory of Islamic Azad University of Shahrekord Branch and cultured into Brucella agar. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed using designed primers for amplification of upstream and downstream regions of vacB gene of B. melitensis and kan gene of pET28 vector. Then, amplified fragments were cloned using T/A cloning technique and the construction was transformed into competent Escherichia coli Top10F' strain in LB media. The final construction was confirmed by digestion with XhoI, KpnI, XbaI, and BamHI restriction enzymes. PCR amplified products for flanking regions of vacB gene and kan gene on 1% agarose gel revealed 609, 595, and 870 bp, fragments, respectively. The results showed that vacB gene and kan gene were cloned in E. coli successfully. Sub-cloning of all fragment into pET-32 vector were done successfully and pET-32-UpKan-Down recombinant vector was generated. The findings of this study showed that the designed novel recombinant construct (pET-32-Up-Kan-Down recombinant plasmid) is useful for genetic engineering and for manipulate of vacB gene from B. melitensis.