Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of 11 polymorphic microsatellite markers in a macrophyte of conservation concern, Vallisneria americana Michaux (Hydrocharitaceae)

Vallisneria americana Michaux (wild celery) is currently a target of submersed aquatic vegetation restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. To aid these efforts, we have developed 11 polymorphic microsatellite markers to assess the distribution and degree of genetic diversity in both restored and naturally occurring populations in the Chesapeake Bay. In 59 individuals from two populations, we detected two to 10 total alleles per locus. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.125 to 0.929, and two loci exhibited significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in at least one of the populations assayed.
ICT influence on foreign wives' social integration into Singaporean society

This research aims to understand the factors that lead to social exclusion among foreign wives in Singapore and the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) plays in social inclusion and empowerment. There has been a rising trend of migration through marriage in Singapore, especially between foreign brides and Singaporean men. Present literature shows that ICTs can be a source of social support to help migrants adapt to life in their host country [4]. We found that, although not a direct cause of empowerment, ICTs act as an agent to enhance social, political and economic inclusion. Through our paper we provide a starting point for discussion of recommendations.
Neovascularization induced growth of implanted C6 glioma multicellular spheroids: magnetic resonance microimaging.

Magnetic resonance imaging has been used to follow noninvasively tumor neovascularization and tumor growth in a model system of multicellular C6 rat glioma spheroids implanted s.c. in nude mice. By positioning a single spheroid approximately 1 cm from the site of incision both the vascularization of the tumor and the wound healing processes were spatially separated and could be simultaneously followed. The model proposed here provides defined initial conditions of tumor geometry and cell proliferative status and separation of initial tumor growth from neovascularization. Magnetic susceptibility relaxation provided an intrinsic marker for blood containing vessels. The implanted spheroid induced vessel growth within 4 days after implantation that was geometrically oriented toward the spheroid and distinct from wound healing at the site of incision. Volume measurements showed a corresponding 4-day lag in growth followed by Gompertz progression. Sham implantation of agarose beads of similar diameter showed no induction of vessel growth, ruling out a direct effect of wound healing. The new vessels penetrating the tumor were highly permeable to the contrast reagent gadolinium-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid. This permeability may be due to the action of vascular endothelial growth factor, a major angiogenic growth factor in this system, and a potent permeability factor.
RK 1 / 2 MAP kinases : Structure , function , and regulation

ERK1 and ERK2 are related protein-serine/threonine kinases that participate in the Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK signal transduction cascade. This cascade participates in the regulation of a large variety of processes including cell adhesion, cell cycle progression, cell migration, cell survival, differentiation, metabolism, proliferation, and transcription. MEK1/2 catalyze the phosphorylation of human ERK1/2 at Tyr204/187 and then Thr202/185. The phosphorylation of both tyrosine and threonine is required for enzyme activation. Whereas the Raf kinase and MEK families have narrow substrate specificity, ERK1/2 catalyze the phosphorylation of hundreds of cytoplasmic and nuclear substrates including regulatory molecules and transcription factors. ERK1/2 are proline-directed kinases that preferentially catalyze the phosphorylation of substrates containing a Pro-Xxx-Ser/Thr-Pro sequence. Besides this primary structure requirement, many ERK1/2 substrates possess a D-docking site, an F-docking site, or both. A variety of scaffold proteins including KSR1/2, IQGAP1, MP1, -Arrestin1/2 participate in the regulation of the ERK1/2 MAP kinase cascade. The regulatory dephosphorylation of ERK1/2 is mediated by protein-tyrosine specific phosphatases, protein-serine/threonine phosphatases, and dual specificity phosphatases. The combination of kinases and phosphatases make the overall process reversible. The ERK1/2 catalyzed phosphorylation of nuclear transcription factors including those of Ets, Elk, and c-Fos represents an important function and requires the translocation of ERK1/2 into the nucleus by active and passive processes involving the nuclear pore. These transcription factors participate in the immediate early gene response. The activity of the Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK cascade is increased in about one-third of all human cancers, and inhibition of components of this cascade by targeted inhibitors represents an important anti-tumor strategy. Thus far, however, only inhibition of mutant B-Raf (Val600Glu) has been found to be therapeutically
Achieving higher-level learning through adaptable Semantic Web applications

In this paper we propose refocusing the research from knowledge portals towards frameworks, which the end user can apply in many decision-making scenarios and which we call "personal portals". Rather than pouring resources into a centralised access to knowledge repository, we suggest a more distributed approach to accessing knowledge. The core facets of such approach include: choice from multiple ontologies; dynamic selection of ontological frames; customisation of user interaction and knowledge-level inference results; and decoupling the content from a variety of contexts using the principles of conceptual (re-)framing. A prototype of such approach Magpie is described to illustrate some of these tenets. Magpie is our "zero-overhead" suite of tools facilitating three distinct perspectives on the Semantic Web: as a methodology for supporting the interpretation of web resources through "ontological lenses", as a tool kit for supporting and realising Semantic Web browsing, and as a framework for building semantic web applications.
Integrated knowledge-based tools for documenting and monitoring damages to built heritage

Abstract. The advancements of information technologies as applied to the most diverse fields of science define a breakthrough in the accessibility and processing of data for both expert and non-expert users. Nowadays it is possible to evidence an increasingly relevant research effort in the context of those domains, such as that of cultural heritage protection, in which knowledge mapping and sharing constitute critical prerequisites for accomplishing complex professional tasks. The aim of this paper is to outline the main results and outputs of the MONDIS research project. This project focusses on the development of integrated knowledge-based tools grounded on an ontological representation of the field of heritage conservation. The scope is to overcome the limitations of earlier databases by the application of modern semantic technologies able to integrate, organize and process useful information concerning damages to built heritage objects. In particular MONDIS addresses the need for supporting a diverse range of stakeholders (e.g. administrators, owners and professionals) in the documentation and monitoring of damages to historical constructions and in finding related remedies. The paper concentrates on the presentation of the following integrated knowledgebased components developed within the project: (I) MONDIS mobile application (plus desktop version), (II) MONDIS record explorer, (III) Ontomind profiles, (IV) knowledge matrix and (V) terminology editor. An example of practical application of the MONDIS integrated system is also provided and finally discussed.
The Allometry of Coarse Root Biomass: Log-Transformed Linear Regression or Nonlinear Regression?

Precise estimation of root biomass is important for understanding carbon stocks and dynamics in forests. Traditionally, biomass estimates are based on allometric scaling relationships between stem diameter and coarse root biomass calculated using linear regression (LR) on log-transformed data. Recently, it has been suggested that nonlinear regression (NLR) is a preferable fitting method for scaling relationships. But while this claim has been contested on both theoretical and empirical grounds, and statistical methods have been developed to aid in choosing between the two methods in particular cases, few studies have examined the ramifications of erroneously applying NLR. Here, we use direct measurements of 159 trees belonging to three locally dominant species in east China to compare the LR and NLR models of diameter-root biomass allometry. We then contrast model predictions by estimating stand coarse root biomass based on census data from the nearby 24-ha Gutianshan forest plot and by testing the ability of the models to predict known root biomass values measured on multiple tropical species at the Pasoh Forest Reserve in Malaysia. Based on likelihood estimates for model error distributions, as well as the accuracy of extrapolative predictions, we find that LR on log-transformed data is superior to NLR for fitting diameter-root biomass scaling models. More importantly, inappropriately using NLR leads to grossly inaccurate stand biomass estimates, especially for stands dominated by smaller trees.
Expelling Policy Based Buffer Control during Congestion in Differentiated Service Routers

In this paper a special kind of buffer management policy is studied where the packet are preempted even when sufficient space is available in the buffer for incoming packets. This is done to congestion for future incoming packets to improve QoS for certain type of packets. This type of study has been done in past for ATM type of scenario. We extend the same for heterogeneous traffic where data rate and size of the packets are very versatile in nature. Typical example of this scenario is the buffer management in Differentiated Service Router. There are two aspects that are of interest. First is the packet size: whether all packets have same or different sizes. Second aspect is the value or space priority of the packets, do all packets have the same space priority or different packets have different space priorities. We present two types of policies to achieve QoS goals for packets with different priorities: the push out scheme and the expelling scheme. For this work the scenario of packets of variable length is considered with two space priorities and main goal is to minimize the total weighted packet loss. Simulation and analytical studies show that, expelling policies can outperform the push out policies when it comes to offering variable QoS for packets of two different priorities and expelling policies also help improve the amount of admissible load. Some other comparisons of push out and expelling policies are also presented using simulations. Keywords—Buffer Management Policy, Diffserv, ATM, Pushout Policy, Expeling Policy.
Image Segmentation Using Two Weighted Variable Fuzzy K Means

Image segmentation is the first step in image analysis and pattern recognition. Image segmentation is the process of dividing an image into different regions such that each region is homogeneous. The accurate and effective algorithm for segmenting image is very useful in many fields, especially in medical image. This paper presents a new approach for image segmentation by applying k-means algorithm with two level variable weighting. In image segmentation, clustering algorithms are very popular as they are intuitive and are also easy to implement. The K-means and Fuzzy k-means clustering algorithm is one of the most widely used algorithms in the literature, and many authors successfully compare their new proposal with the results achieved by the k-Means and Fuzzy k-Means. This paper proposes a new clustering algorithm called TWfuzzy k-means, an automated two-level variable weighting clustering algorithm for segmenting object. In this algorithm, a variable weight is also assigned to each variable on the current partition of data. This could be applied on general images and/or specific images (i.e., medical and microscopic images). The proposed TWFuzzy k-means algorithm in terms of providing a better segmentation performance for various type of images. Based on the results obtained, the proposed algorithm gives better visual quality as compared to several other clustering methods. Keyword —Fuzzy-K-means Clustering (FKM), image segmentation, W-k-Means, variable weighting
Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, August 24-27, 2008

We welcome you to the Fourteenth ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD'08) being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on August 24 - 27, 2008. We are pleased to present the proceedings of the conference as its published record. As the flagship conference in the field, KDD provides a highly competitive forum for reporting the latest and the best developments in the research and application of data mining and knowledge discovery worldwide. KDD'08 received a record number of 693 total submissions. The Research Track received 510 submissions from 30 different countries and the Industrial Track received 83 submissions from 10 different countries. For the Research Track, the program committee accepted 95 papers, of which, 50 (9.8% of the total) were chosen for a 25 minute oral presentation and 45 (8.8% of the total) were chosen for a 15 minute oral presentation. The corresponding numbers for the Industrial Track were 13 (15.7% of the total) and 10 (12.0% of the total) respectively. All accepted papers are given a presentation length of up to 9 pages in the proceedings, and all accepted papers are also given poster presentation opportunities in one of the two evening poster sessions during the conference. Apart from the paper presentations, the conference also features seven tutorials, thirteen workshops, one panel, the KDD-Cup competition, a demo session, and three invited talks by Trevor Hastie (Stanford University), Jitendra Malik (UC Berkeley) and Michael Schwarz (Yahoo! Research). The Industrial Track includes two additional invited presentations by Thore Graepel (Microsoft Research Cambridge, U.K.) and Udo Miletzki (Siemens, Germany).
A lightweight linked data implementation for modeling the Web of Things

In recent years, common-use devices' equipment has seen a leap transition in terms of shipped technology, introducing the so called “smart things” to the consumer market. To take full advantage of opportunities arising from connectivity, smart things approached the application realm bringing the novel Web of Things vision to life. In this paper, we propose an approach for modeling and implementing the Web of Things for a Smart City environment that relies on a lightweight implementation of Linked Data. We represent a smart thing as a graph of granular and individually addressable information pieces called IDN-Document. IDN-Documents are structured web resources that can be aggregated, reused and combined to build collaboration oriented services. IDN-Documents can be managed by the InterDataNet (IDN) middleware, which allows to easily publish and handling resources on the web by leveraging the Linked Data and Representational State Transfer paradigms. We also provide a tool suite for supporting developers with easy-to-use tools in designing and developing web applications according to our Web of Things implementation approach. These technologies are currently under experimentation in the real smart city of Santander, Spain, in the context of the SmartSantader European project.
Statins Increase the Frequency of Circulating CD4+FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells in Healthy Individuals

Statins have been shown to modulate the number and the suppressive function of CD4+FOXP3+ T cells (Treg) in inflammatory conditions. However, it is not well established whether statin could also affect Treg in absence of inflammation. To address this question, eighteen normocholesterolemic male subjects were treated with lovastatin or atorvastatin daily for 45 days. The frequency and phenotype of circulating Treg were evaluated at days 0, 7, 30, and 45. mRNA levels of FOXP3, IDO, TGF-β, and IL-10 were measured in CD4+ T cells. We found that both statins significantly increased Treg frequency and FOXP3 mRNA levels at day 30. At day 45, Treg numbers returned to baseline values; however, TGF-β and FOXP3 mRNA levels remained high, accompanied by increased percentages of CTLA-4- and GITR-expressing Treg. Treg Ki-67 expression was decreased upon statin treatment. Treg frequency positively correlated with plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), suggesting a role for HDL-c in Treg homeostasis. Therefore, statins appear to have inflammation-independent immune-modulatory effects. Thus, the increase in Treg cells frequency likely contributes to immunomodulatory effect of statins, even in healthy individuals.
Adaptive Sampling-Based Information Collection for Wireless Body Area Networks

To collect important health information, WBAN applications typically sense data at a high frequency. However, limited by the quality of wireless link, the uploading of sensed data has an upper frequency. To reduce upload frequency, most of the existing WBAN data collection approaches collect data with a tolerable error. These approaches can guarantee precision of the collected data, but they are not able to ensure that the upload frequency is within the upper frequency. Some traditional sampling based approaches can control upload frequency directly, however, they usually have a high loss of information. Since the core task of WBAN applications is to collect health information, this paper aims to collect optimized information under the limitation of upload frequency. The importance of sensed data is defined according to information theory for the first time. Information-aware adaptive sampling is proposed to collect uniformly distributed data. Then we propose Adaptive Sampling-based Information Collection (ASIC) which consists of two algorithms. An adaptive sampling probability algorithm is proposed to compute sampling probabilities of different sensed values. A multiple uniform sampling algorithm provides uniform samplings for values in different intervals. Experiments based on a real dataset show that the proposed approach has higher performance in terms of data coverage and information quantity. The parameter analysis shows the optimized parameter settings and the discussion shows the underlying reason of high performance in the proposed approach.
Sphingolipids: membrane microdomains in brain development, function and neurological diseases

Sphingolipids are highly enriched in the nervous system where they are pivotal constituents of the plasma membranes and are important for proper brain development and functions. Sphingolipids are not merely structural elements, but are also recognized as regulators of cellular events by their ability to form microdomains in the plasma membrane. The significance of such compartmentalization spans broadly from being involved in differentiation of neurons and synaptic transmission to neuronal–glial interactions and myelin stability. Thus, perturbations of the sphingolipid metabolism can lead to rearrangements in the plasma membrane, which has been linked to the development of various neurological diseases. Studying microdomains and their functions has for a long time been synonymous with studying the role of cholesterol. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that microdomains are very heterogeneous, which among others can be ascribed to the vast number of sphingolipids. In this review, we discuss the importance of microdomains with emphasis on sphingolipids in brain development and function as well as how disruption of the sphingolipid metabolism (and hence microdomains) contributes to the pathogenesis of several neurological diseases.
From Security Protocols to Systems Security: Making a case for systems security modeling +

When applying information security, we need to go beyond the analysis of individual security protocols and consider how they are used within distributed systems, software applications and services. Important as they are, security protocols only form a part of the overall security engineering design for a particular distributed system. The effective use of any security protocol will typically depend upon certain structural data such as key information being available for use by some and at the same time made unavailable to others. Systems need to be designed with requirements like these in mind ([1–4]).
Data Compression of Neural Signaling in an Implantable Microchip

Intracellular neural recording is a technique that has been under development for many years, yet still remains fragile and difficult, and requires immobilization of the neurons being recorded. We are developing a system of implantable silicon chips that will intracellularly record, and locally store, the neural signaling. The principal reason we are doing this is to record from intact, mobile animals. We determined that data storage would be one of the major limiting factors in the implantable electronics. In this paper, I present an algorithm for data compression of intracellular neuron recordings that accomplishes a compression ratio of over 800:1 (0.01 bits/sample at a 2.5Khz sampling rate) with acceptable signal error (approximately 8% PRD). At this rate, we can record from ten intracellular electrodes for over 30 hours. The algorithm uses a combination of run length encoding and template matching.
PROTEIN STRUCTURE REPORT Crystal structure of the UBR-box from UBR6/FBXO11 reveals domain swapping mediated by zinc binding

The UBR-box is a 70-residue zinc finger domain present in the UBR family of E3 ubiquitin ligases that directly binds N-terminal degradation signals in substrate proteins. UBR6, also called FBXO11, is an UBR-box containing E3 ubiquitin ligase that does not bind N-terminal signals. Here, we present the crystal structure of the UBR-box domain from human UBR6. The dimeric crystal structure reveals a unique form of domain swapping mediated by zinc coordination, where three independent protein chains come together to regenerate the topology of the monomeric UBR-box fold. Analysis of the structure suggests that the absence of N-terminal residue binding arises from the lack of an amino acid binding pocket.