Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Terrestrial Arthropods as Indicators of Ecological Restoration Success in Coastal Sage Scrub (California, U.S.A.)

Abstract Ecological restoration enjoys widespread use as a technique to mitigate for environmental damage. Success of a restoration project often is evaluated on the basis of plant cover only. Recovery of a native arthropod fauna is also important to achieve conservation goals. I sampled arthropod communities by pitfall trapping in undisturbed, disturbed, and restored coastal sage scrub habitats in southern California. I evaluated arthropod community composition, diversity, and abundance using summary statistics, cluster analysis, and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and investigated influence of vegetation on arthropod communities with multiple regression analysis. Arthropod diversity at undisturbed and disturbed sites was greater than at sites that were 5 and 15 years following restoration ( p < 0.05). Number of arthropod species was not significantly different among undisturbed, disturbed, and restored sites, and two restoration sites had significantly more individuals than other sites. Vegetation at disturbed and undisturbed sites differed significantly; older restorations did not differ significantly from undisturbed sites in diversity, percent cover, or structural complexity. In multiple regression models, arthropod species richness and diversity was negatively related to vegetation height but positively related to structural complexity at intermediate heights. Exotic arthropod species were negatively associated with overall arthropod diversity, with abundance of the earwig Forficula auricularia best predicting diversity at comparison (not restored) sites (r2 = 0.29), and abundance of the spider Dysdera crocata and the ant Linepithema humile predicting diversity at all sites combined (r2 = 0.48). Native scavengers were less abundant at restored sites than all other sites and, with a notable exception, native predators were less abundant as well. DCA of all species separated restored sites from all other sites on the first axis, which was highly correlated with arthropod diversity and exotic arthropod species abundance. Lower taxonomic levels showed similar but weaker patterns, with example families not discriminating between site histories. Vegetation characteristics did not differ significantly between the newly restored site and disturbed sites, or between mature restoration sites and undisturbed sites. In contrast, arthropod communities at all restored sites were, as a group, significantly different from both disturbed and undisturbed sites. As found in other studies of other restoration sites, arthropod communities are less diverse and have altered guild structure. If restoration is to be successful as compensatory mitigation, restoration success standards must be expanded to include arthropods.
Fingerprint Indoor Position System Based

This paper presents a research and a development of a fingerprint-indoor-positioning system using the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). The WSN implementation is based on two different protocol stacks: BitCloud and OpenMAC, a certified ZigBee Compliant Platform (ZCP) and an IEEE 802.15. 4 embedded software implementation respectively, both from Atmel, and the system uses two different fingerprint algorithms, Simple and Centroid. A comparative analysis of both algorithms using both protocol stacks implementations have been performed to ascertain the best WSN protocol stack and the best algorithm for positioning purposes.
Introduction to Expression by Fusion Protein Vectors

This overview discusses issues involved with creating and manipulating vectors for expression of fusion proteins. The requirements for efficient translation include a promoter and a start codon, along with the fact that the mRNA encoding the protein to be expressed must contain a ribosome‐binding site that is not blocked by mRNA secondary structure. The level of expression is also affected by codon preferences, and may be affected by the coding sequence in other ways that are not yet well understood. In virtually all cases, these problems can be solved by altering the sequence preceding the start codon, and/or by making changes in the 5′ end of the coding sequence that do not change the protein sequence, taking advantage of the degeneracy of the genetic code. However, it is often quicker to solve these problems by making fusions between genes. In this approach the cloned gene is introduced into an expression vector 3′ to a sequence (carrier sequence) coding for the amino terminus of a highly expressed protein (carrier protein). The carrier sequence provides the necessary signals for good expression, and the expressed fusion protein contains an N‐terminal region encoded by the carrier. The carrier sequence can also code for an entire functional moiety or even for an entire protein that can be exploited in purifying the protein, either with antibodies or with an affinity purification specific for that carrier protein. Alternatively unique physical properties of the carrier protein (e.g., heat stability) can be exploited to allow selective purification of the fusion protein. Often, proteins fused to these carriers can be separated from the bulk of intracellular contaminants by taking advantage of special attributes.
Fibrin glue in ophthalmology

Suturing is a time consuming task in ophthalmology and suture induced irritation and redness are frequent problems. Postoperative wound infection and corneal graft rejection are examples of possible suture related complications. To prevent these complications, ophthalmic surgeons are switching to sutureless surgery. A number of recent developments have established tissue adhesives like cyanoacrylate glue and fibrin glue as attractive alternatives to sutures. A possible and promising new application for tissue adhesives is to provide a platform for tissue engineering. Currently, tissue glue is being used for conjunctival closure following pterygium and strabismus surgery, forniceal reconstruction surgery, amniotic membrane transplantation, lamellar corneal grafting, closure of corneal perforations and descematoceles, management of conjunctival wound leaks after trabeculectomy, lid surgery, adnexal surgery and as a hemostat to minimise bleeding. The purpose of this review is to discuss the currently available information on fibrin glue.
Understanding the Effects of Process-Focused versus Outcome-Focused Thought in Response to Advertising

Research on mental simulation finds differential effects for process versus outcome focus. We manipulate the focus of participants' thoughts while viewing advertisements and find that under low to moderate involvement, argument strength has a greater effect on behavioral intentions when participants focus on the process versus the outcome of product use. This differential advantage of process-focused thought reverses under conditions of high involvement. The apparent reason for the sensitivity of process-focused thought to argument strength under low to moderate involvement is that a process focus leads to the relatively spontaneous formulation of a plan to purchase given strong, but not weak, ad arguments.
A control system analysis for a potential small geostationary satellite for South Africa

The availability of an indigenous communications satellite helps in driving down communication and entertainment costs of services obtained through such a satellite. The design and implementation of a small GEO satellite will also act as a stepping stone for missions of greater complexity and stringent specifications [2]. This paper presented is based on a simulation study with real world and worst case scenarios modelled as accurately as possible keeping in mind the trade-off between computational burden and accuracy. An overall control system analysis comprising of the Attitude Control and Determination system is performed, keeping actuator failure in mind. An analytical Orbit Control evaluation is also performed which gives an estimate of the propellant requirement for an average GEO lifetime of 10 years.
Antibody response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa surface protein antigens in a rat model of chronic lung infection.

For an animal model of infection to be useful in immunological studies it is necessary to establish that the surface antigens expressed by bacteria growing in vivo in the experimental infection mimic those expressed by bacteria in the human infection. In this study, chronic infection was induced by inoculating the lungs of rats with agar beads containing mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa was obtained from the lungs 14 days after infection and studied without subculture. Several high-mol. -wt proteins were expressed in the outer membranes (OM) of the bacteria from the rat lungs which could be induced by cultivating the same isolate in iron-depleted conditions in vitro. The pattern of iron-regulated membrane proteins (IRMP) was similar to that obtained in an earlier study with another mucoid isolate of P. aeruginosa examined directly, without subculture, from the sputum of a cystic fibrosis patient. Immunoblotting with LPS-absorbed serum from infected rats and also with serum from CF patients showed that IgG in these fluids reacted with the IRMPs and other major OM proteins (OMPs) of P. aeruginosa. Antisera from rats immunised with whole cells of P. aeruginosa grown in iron-depleted media reacted with all the major OMPs of P. aeruginosa, including the IRMPs, confirming their immunogenicity.
Pesticide Analysis in Vegetables Using QuEChERS Extraction and Colorimetric Detection

A novel combination of extraction and detection methods is demonstrated for pesticide residue analysis in vegetable samples. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition was used as a simple colorimetric test for organophosphates/carbamates (OP/C), and was tested with extracts from the widely-used QuEChERS extraction method. In the absence of pesticide, diluted (50% with water) acetonitrile did not inhibit enzyme activity, demonstrating the compatibility of this extraction solvent with the AChE inhibition test. QuEChERS extraction of chlorpyrifos-spiked tomato, spinach and lettuce samples indicated a high sensitivity to OP/C, with AChE inhibition occurring in the ppb range. The applicability of this method combination was tested by screening tomatoes from 18 different sources, including private gardens, farmer’s market venders, and local supermarkets. Tomatoes from one private garden, three “certified naturally grown” farmer’s market venders and two “organic” supermarket source had AChE inhibition significantly above nominally pesticide-free controls, suggesting the presence of OP/C residue. These residues were likely below levels of health concern, as indicated by lack of complete AChE inhibition, and the absence of inhibition upon sample dilution. This study demonstrates that the combination of QuEChERS extraction and AChE-inhibition detection provides a relatively simple and inexpensive alternative for detection of OP/C in vegetable samples.
Glycerol gluconeogenesis in fasting humans.

The contribution of glycerol to glucose production has been measured in healthy volunteers by the simultaneous primed constant infusion of 1-[13C]glycerol and 3-[3H]glucose and the determination of the rates of appearance (Ra) of glycerol, glucose, and glycerol-derived glucose. In the postabsorptive state, glycerol Ra was 3.11 +/- 0.44 mumol.kg-1.min-1, of which 36% was converted to glucose, accounting for 4.5% of total glucose production. After 62-86 h of starvation, glycerol Ra rose to 5.32 +/- 0.58 mumol.kg-1.min-1, and 68% of glycerol was converted to glucose. This accounted for 21.6% of total glucose production. Glycerol Ra was closely correlated with its conversion and contribution to glucose. These findings confirm that the contribution of glycerol to glucose production is directly correlated to its release as a consequence of lipolysis and support the notion that the central physiological role of accelerated lipolysis in fasting is the provision of gluconeogenic precursor.
Isolation, Characterization, and Differentiation to Hepatocyte‐Like Cells of Nonparenchymal Epithelial Cells from Adult Human Liver

Activation and proliferation of human liver progenitor cells has been observed during acute and chronic liver diseases. Our goal was to investigate the presence of these putative progenitors in the liver of patients who underwent lobectomy for various reasons but did not show any hepatic insufficiency. Hepatic lesions were evaluated by histological analysis. Nonparenchymal epithelial (NPE) cells were isolated from samples of human liver resections located at a distance from the lesion that motivated the operation and were cultured and characterized. These cells exhibited a marked proliferative potential. They did not express the classic set of stem cell/progenitor markers (Oct‐4, Rex‐1, α‐fetoprotein, CD90, c‐kit, and CD34) and were faintly positive for albumin. When cultured at confluence in the presence of hepatocyte growth factor and either epidermal growth factor or fibroblast growth factor‐4, they entered a differentiation process toward hepatocytes. Their phenotype was quantitatively compared with that of mature human hepatocytes in primary culture. Differentiated NPE cells expressed albumin; α1‐antitrypsin; fibrinogen; hepatobiliary markers such as cytokeratins 7, 19, and 8/18; liver‐enriched transcription factors; and genes characterized by either a fetal (cytochrome P4503A7 and glutathione S‐transferase π) or a mature (tyrosine aminotransferase, tryptophan 2,3‐dioxygenase, glutathione S‐transferase α, and cytochrome P4503A4) expression pattern. NPE cells could be isolated from the liver of several patients, irrespective of the absence or presence of lesions, and differentiated toward hepatocyte‐like cells with an intermediate hepatobiliary and mature/immature phenotype. These cells are likely to represent a resident progenitor population of the adult human liver, even in the absence of hepatic failure.
A Notch Prefilter for Three-Phase PLL under Adverse Grid Conditions

This paper presents a notch prefilter (NP) for phase locked loop (PLL). Similar to traditional notch filter (NF) and delayed signal cancellation (DSC) operator, the proposed NP can be easily tailored to completely eliminate harmonics. When the second order NF is used as in-loop filter, it may cause a delay time in the PLL control loop. The NP can overcome these drawbacks and achieve a better dynamic performance. For digital implementation, DSC operator may subject to delay time error. Moreover, the controller often needs to store many samples and may suffer from memory overflow. The NP does not cause such delay time error and the stored samples are greatly reduced. The proposed NP is analyzed and the effectiveness is verified by experiment in the paper.
Improved Maximum Margin Clustering via the Bundle Method

Maximum margin clustering (MMC) is an effective clustering algorithm, which first extends a large margin principle into unsupervised learning. This paper revisits the MMC problem and points out the potential problems encountered by a cutting plane approach. We propose an improved MMC algorithm via the bundle method (BMMC). Specifically, the constrained convex–concave procedure algorithm is first applied to decompose the MMC problem into a series of convex sub-problems, and then, the bundle method is adopted to efficiently solve each sub-problem. Moreover, a simpler formulation for the multi-class MMC is presented. In addition to clustering problems, the BMMC is also extended to the semi-supervised case by incorporating the pairwise constraints, which reveals its high scalability. Compared with the previous works, the proposed solution is much simpler and faster. The experiments on several data sets are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.
The upstream sequence -537 to -278 is necessary for transcription of the human nucleolar antigen p120 gene

Two cis-acting elements in the p120 gene play important roles in transcription; the region from -537 to -278 is necessary for initiation of transcription, and the region from -1426 to -1223 is necessary for efficient transcription. The distal element(s) which lies upstream of -278 is required for initiation of transcription.
Acute promyelocytic leukemia (AML-M3)--Part 1: Pathophysiology, clinical diagnosis, and differentiation therapy.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this review paper are to: Compare acute leukemia with chronic leukemia and other forms of cancer. Review the pathophysiology and discuss the clinical and diagnostic features of M3. Describe the variant of M3 (M3m or M3v). Compare conventional chemotherapy with all-trans retinoic acid differentiation therapy (ATRA) in the treatment of M3. Discuss the future direction of differentiation therapy. DATA SOURCES Current literature. DATA SYNTHESIS Until the late 1970s, the methods of diagnosis and treatment of AML-M3 were similar to the other forms of acute myelocytic leukemia. One notable difference between M3 and other acute myelocytic leukemias involved the common occurrence of life-threatening consumptive coagulopathies in M3 patients that dramatically affected patient outcomes. In 1977 the method of diagnosis confirmation was altered by the identification of a consistent chromosomal translocation involving the long arms of chromosomes 15 and 17. Reports in the 1970s and 1980s indicated that certain types of active metabolites of vitamin A, collectively termed retinoids, could induce differentiation in a variety of cancer derived cell lines, in vitro. It was shown in the early 1980s that 13-cis-retinoic acid (13cRA) could stimulate differentiation in bone marrow cells collected from patients with various acute leukemias, including M3. The first clinical trial of a retinoid, given as a remission induction therapeutic regimen, involved all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) administered to M3 patients in 1988. Since then, ATRA therapy has been shown to reduce tumor burden by stimulating differentiation of the leukemic cells, induce long-term clinical remission when administered in conjunction with chemotherapy, and lower the incidence of consumptive coagulopathies in patients with AML-M3. CONCLUSION The diagnosis and treatment of AML-M3 has improved dramatically in the past decade, which has greatly enhanced the prognosis of patients with this disease. First remission rates have increased to greater than 85% world wide, the incidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) has declined dramatically, and 60% to 70% of patients with AML-M3 have achieved long term survival and are potentially cured.
Insights to Substrate Binding and Processing by West Nile Virus NS3 Protease through Combined Modeling, Protease Mutagenesis, and Kinetic Studies*

West Nile Virus is becoming a widespread pathogen, infecting people on at least four continents with no effective treatment for these infections or many of their associated pathologies. A key enzyme that is essential for viral replication is the viral protease NS2B-NS3, which is highly conserved among all flaviviruses. Using a combination of molecular fitting of substrates to the active site of the crystal structure of NS3, site-directed enzyme and cofactor mutagenesis, and kinetic studies on proteolytic processing of panels of short peptide substrates, we have identified important enzyme-substrate interactions that define substrate specificity for NS3 protease. In addition to better understanding the involvement of S2, S3, and S4 enzyme residues in substrate binding, a residue within cofactor NS2B has been found to strongly influence the preference of flavivirus proteases for lysine or arginine at P2 in substrates. Optimization of tetrapeptide substrates for enhanced protease affinity and processing efficiency has also provided important clues for developing inhibitors of West Nile Virus infection.
Efficient genetic programming based on binary decision diagrams

The performance of genetic programming can be dramatically improved by using a data structure coded by binary decision diagrams (BDDs). BDDs are a compact representation of Boolean functions using directed acyclic graphs. Efficient BDD-based crossover, mutation, and evaluation algorithms have been developed that allow all genetic operations to be performed on BDDs throughout the search. BDD-based GP reduces storage requirements by sharing isomorphic sub-graphs among individuals, and saves computational power by using a hashbased cache to make calculation more efficient. The proposed approach is powerful enough to solve the 20-multiplexer problem, which has never been reportedly achieved before.
How Do The Periodontal Tissues React During The Orthodontic Alignment and Leveling Phase ?

Introduction: orthodontic tooth alignment and leveling are usually the first two stages when an orthodontic treatment is to be initiated. The process of alignment is accomplished by uncontrolled tipping of teeth into a smooth arch and the process of leveling is accomplished by intrusion or extrusion of the teeth so that the upper and lower teeth come together. The aim of this study was to find out whether the orthodontic tooth alignment and leveling phase has negative effects on the periodontal tissues. Subjects and Methods: 10 patients having simple to moderate front teeth crowding were recruited in the study with a total of 120 teeth (10 groups of upper and 10 groups of lower front teeth). The frontal crowded teeth were subjected to a conventional orthodontic alignment and leveling movements by means of a round 16 NiTi wire for the first step and gradually into a rectangular 18 NiTi wire for the second step. The status of the periodontal tissues around the examined teeth was determined by clinical periodontal assessments including Plaque Index (PI), Papillary Bleeding Index (PBI), Probing Depth (PD) and Gingival Index (GI). After 6 months, the orthodontic tooth alignment and leveling phase was completed. Results: in the upper jaw, the Plaque Index increased significantly after 6 months at the buccal, mesial and distal sites of the teeth. The probing depth also increased significantly after 6 months at the buccal site. In the lower jaw, the Plaque Index increased significantly after 6 months at the vestibular, mesial and distal sites. The probing depth also increased significantly after 1, 3 and 6 months at the lingual sites and after 1 and 6 months at the mesial sites. The Gingival Index showed an increase after 6 months only at the distal sites. All the periodontal parameters have been shown to be normal, reflecting a healthy status of the periodontal tissues. Conclusions: during the orthodontic tooth alignment and leveling phase, no considerable negative effects on the periodontal tissues could be noted. The good oral hygiene of the patients during the period of study played an important role in keeping the periodontal parameters within normal limits. Further histological studies are needed to examine the tissue alterations during different phases of the orthodontic treatment. Correspondence to:
Dynamic Contribution of DFIG-Based Wind Plants to System Frequency Disturbances

The paper investigates contribution of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) to system frequency responses. Impact of different governor settings and system inertia are investigated. Three distinct cases are simulated in order to illustrate the influence of DFIG penetration on frequency regulation. Provision of inertial response by DFIG through artificial speed coupling is also presented. The effects of the inertial response on the machine behavior and its significance for frequency regulation are discussed. The influence of converter current limits and auxiliary loop parameters on the inertial response are illustrated and a novel control algorithm is developed for extracting maximum energy from the turbine in a stable manner. The results of the study are illustrated on the example of an isolated power system consisting of a diesel generator and a DFIG.