Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arabidopsis RIN4 Negatively Regulates Disease Resistance Mediated by RPS2 and RPM1 Downstream or Independent of the NDR1 Signal Modulator and Is Not Required for the Virulence Functions of Bacterial Type III Effectors AvrRpt2 or AvrRpm1

Bacterial pathogens deliver type III effector proteins into the plant cell during infection. On susceptible (r) hosts, type III effectors can contribute to virulence. Some trigger the action of specific disease resistance (R) gene products. The activation of R proteins can occur indirectly via modification of a host target. Thus, at least some type III effectors are recognized at site(s) where they may act as virulence factors. These data indicate that a type III effector's host target might be required for both initiation of R function in resistant plants and pathogen virulence in susceptible plants. In Arabidopsis thaliana, RPM1-interacting protein 4 (RIN4) associates with both the Resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv maculicola 1 (RPM1) and Resistance to P. syringae 2 (RPS2) disease resistance proteins. RIN4 is posttranslationally modified after delivery of the P. syringae type III effectors AvrRpm1, AvrB, or AvrRpt2 to plant cells. Thus, RIN4 may be a target for virulence functions of these type III effectors. We demonstrate that RIN4 is not the only host target for AvrRpm1 and AvrRpt2 in susceptible plants because its elimination does not diminish their virulence functions. In fact, RIN4 negatively regulates AvrRpt2 virulence function. RIN4 also negatively regulates inappropriate activation of both RPM1 and RPS2. Inappropriate activation of RPS2 is nonspecific disease resistance 1 (NDR1) independent, in contrast with the established requirement for NDR1 during AvrRpt2-dependent RPS2 activation. Thus, RIN4 acts either cooperatively, downstream, or independently of NDR1 to negatively regulate RPS2 in the absence of pathogen. We propose that many P. syringae type III effectors have more than one target in the host cell. We suggest that a limited set of these targets, perhaps only one, are associated with R proteins. Thus, whereas any pathogen virulence factor may have multiple targets, the perturbation of only one is necessary and sufficient for R activation.
Automated Mass Detection from Mammograms using Deep Learning and Random Forest

Mass detection from mammogram plays an crucial role as a pre-processing stage for mass segmentation and classification. In this paper, we present a novel approach for detecting masses from mammograms using a cascade of deep learning and random forest classifiers. The deep learning classifier consists of a multi-scale deep belief network classifier that selects regions to be further processed by a two-level cascade of deep convolutional neural networks. The regions that survive this deep learning analysis is then processed by a two-level cascade of random forest classifiers that use several morphological and texture features extracted from those surviving regions. We show that the proposed cascade of deep learning and random forest classifiers are effective in the reduction of false positive regions, while keeping a high true positive detection, and that the final mass detection produced by our approach achieves the best results in the field on public mammogram datasets.
Post-Translational Modification of Proteins in Toxicological Research: Focus on Lysine Acylation

Toxicoproteomics integrates the proteomic knowledge into toxicology by enabling protein quantification in biofluids and tissues, thus taking toxicological research to the next level. Post-translational modification (PTM) alters the three-dimensional (3D) structure of proteins by covalently binding small molecules to them and therefore represents a major protein function diversification mechanism. Because of the crucial roles PTM plays in biological systems, the identification of novel PTMs and study of the role of PTMs are gaining much attention in proteomics research. Of the 300 known PTMs, protein acylation, including lysine formylation, acetylation, propionylation, butyrylation, malonylation, succinylation, and crotonyla-tion, regulates the crucial functions of many eukaryotic proteins involved in cellular metabolism, cell cycle, aging, growth, angiogenesis, and cancer. Here, I reviewed recent studies regarding novel types of lysine acylation, their biological functions, and their applicationsin toxicoproteomics research.
QoS-Aware Power Control Methods for Two-Way Amplify-and-Forward Relay Systems

We consider power control methods for two-way amplify-and-forward (AF) relay systems. Traffics with different quality-of-service (QoS) requirements are exchanged between two transmit nodes where one of the traffics is a rate-constrained (RC) traffic and the other is a best-effort (BE) traffic. Based on the QoS feasibility of RC traffic, we propose two types of power control methods to maximize the transmission rate of BE traffic. In case QoS requirement of RC traffic is satisfied, we derive a power control method that maximizes the transmission rate of BE traffic. On the contrary, when QoS requirement of RC traffic is not feasible, we propose a power control method to maximize the transmission rate of BE traffic considering the automaticrepeat-request (ARQ) protocols. Through the analysis and numerical results, we verify the performance improvement of the proposed method. Compared with the equal power allocation method, the overall transmission rate of the BE traffic is increased up to 30 % depending on the relay location and the QoS requirement of the RC traffic. Key-Words: Amplify-and-Forward, quality of service, power control, relay, outage.
Magnesium Isotopic Abundance Ratios in Cool Stars

From high-resolution spectra of 61 cool dwarfs and giants, Mg isotopic abundance ratios 24Mg : 25Mg : 26Mg are derived from spectral synthesis of the MgH A-X lines near 5140 Å. Our sample spans the range -2.5 ≤ ≤ 0.1, including the first measurements of Mg isotope ratios in stars with metallicities below = -2.0. We confirm the decrease in 25Mg/24Mg and 26Mg/24Mg with decreasing [Fe/H], as predicted by recent models of Galactic chemical evolution in which the Mg isotopes are produced in massive stars. A subset of kinematically identified thin-disk stars have Mg isotope ratios in excellent agreement with the predictions. Within the measurement uncertainties, these thin-disk stars show no scatter about the predictions. Several of our stars are likely members of the thick disk, and their high Mg isotopic ratios may reflect the nucleosynthetic history of the thick disk, which is distinct from the predictions for, and observations of, the thin disk. For thick-disk and halo stars we find a scatter in 25Mg/24Mg and 26Mg/24Mg exceeding our measurement uncertainties and increasing with increasing metallicity. Our data suggest that an additional source of 25Mg and 26Mg is required. Intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch stars are likely candidates.
Is Random Network Coding Helpful in WiMAX?

The IEEE 802.16 standard, or WiMAX, has emerged to facilitate high-bandwidth wireless access in real- world metropolitan areas, commonly referred to as 4G. In WiMAX, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) is adopted to transmit data packets reliably. However, it sacrifices resilience in time varying channels, and it may under-utilize the wireless medium in the cases of multi-path and multi-hop transmissions. On the other hand, random network coding has been shown to be effective towards improving throughput in multi-hop wireless networks, when deployed above the physical and MAC layers. It would be encouraging to observe that network coding is also helpful at the MAC layer in practice, especially within the emerging WiMAX standard. Is random network coding beneficial in WiMAX at the MAC layer? In this paper, we seek to answer this question by evaluating network coding in three cases: single-hop transmissions, handovers, and multi-hop transmissions. We show that random network coding has indeed offered important advantages as compared to traditional HARQ. Our observations may lead to the use of random network coding at the MAC layer in practical WiMAX systems.
Adaptive Music News Recommendations based on Large Semantic Datasets

We present our recent work on recommending music news articles to users based on their music preferences and large scale semantic datasets. In today’s online world, people are overwhelmed with the amount of available information. Therefore, we exploit the fact that semantically linked and structured information becomes more and more available driven by a strong research community. Our solution combines these semantic, encyclopedic knowledge sources and a large news article dataset. In a rst step we compute semantically related entities of interest, like similar artists or genres, based on a user model using graph-based algorithms. In a second step, we utilize these entities to compute best matching news article recommendations.
The use of text messaging to improve attendance in primary care: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Non-attendance is common in primary care and previous studies have reported that reminders were useful in reducing broken appointments. OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of a text messaging reminder in improving attendance in primary care. DESIGN Multicentre three-arm randomized controlled trial. SETTING Seven primary care clinics in Malaysia. Participants. Patients (or their caregivers) who required follow-up at the clinics between 48 hours and 3 months from the recruitment date. Interventions. Two intervention arms consisted of text messaging and mobile phone reminders 24-48 hours prior to scheduled appointments. Control group did not receive any intervention. Outcome measures. Attendance rates and costs of interventions. RESULTS A total of 993 participants were eligible for analysis. Attendance rates of control, text messaging and mobile phone reminder groups were 48.1, 59.0 and 59.6%, respectively. The attendance rate of the text messaging reminder group was significantly higher compared with that of the control group (odds ratio 1.59, 95% confidence interval 1.17 to 2.17, P = 0.005). There was no statistically significant difference in attendance rates between text messaging and mobile phone reminder groups. The cost of text messaging reminder (RM 0.45 per attendance) was lower than mobile phone reminder (RM 0.82 per attendance). CONCLUSIONS Text messaging reminder system was effective in improving attendance rate in primary care. It was more cost-effective compared with the mobile phone reminder.
Properties of conditioned abducens nerve responses in a highly reduced in vitro brain stem preparation from the turtle.

Previous work suggested that the cerebellum and red nucleus are not necessary for the acquisition, extinction, and reacquistion of the in vitro classically conditioned abducens nerve response in the turtle. These findings are extended in the present study by obtaining conditioned responses (CRs) in preparations that received a partial ablation of the brain stem circuitry. In addition to removing all tissue rostral to and including the midbrain and cerebellum, a transection was made just caudal to the emergence of the IXth nerve. Such ablations result in a 4-mm-thick section of brain stem tissue that functionally eliminates the sustained component of the unconditioned response (UR) while leaving only a phasic component. We refer to this region of brain stem tissue caudal to the IXth nerve as the "caudal premotor blink region. " Neural discharge was recorded from the abducens nerve following a single shock unconditioned stimulus (US) applied to the ipsilateral trigeminal nerve. When the US was paired with a conditioned stimulus (CS) applied to the posterior eighth, or auditory, nerve using a delay conditioning paradigm, a positive slope of CR acquisition was recorded in the abducens nerve, and CR extinction was recorded when the stimuli were alternated. Resumption of paired stimuli resulted in reacquisition. Quantitative analysis of the CRs in preparations in which the caudal premotor blink region had been removed and those with cerebellar/red nucleus lesions showed that both types of preparations had abnormally short latency CR onsets compared with preparations in which these regions were intact. Preparations with brain stem transections had significantly earlier CR offsets as more CRs terminated as short bursts when compared with intact or cerebellar lesioned preparations. These data suggest that a highly reduced in vitro brain stem preparation from the turtle can be classically conditioned. Furthermore, the caudal brain stem is not a site of acquisition in this reduced preparation, but it contributes to the sustained activity of both the UR and CR. Finally, the unusually short CR onset latencies following lesions to the cerebellum are not further exacerbated by removal of the caudal brain stem. These studies suggest that convergence of CS and US synaptic inputs onto the abducens nerve reflex circuitry may underlie acquisition in this reduced preparation, but that mechanisms that control learned CR timing arise from the cerebellorubral system.
Hugginess: encouraging interpersonal touch through smart clothes

Physical contact has an important role in human well-being. In this paper, we present Hugginess, a concept of interactive system that encourages people to hug by augmenting this gesture with digital information exchange. As a proof of concept, we developed two t-shirts that reciprocally send information to the hugged person through the conductive fabric.
A PCE-based architecture for the management of virtualized infrastructures

The emerging Network Function Virtualization paradigm (NFV) is a disruptive change that creates new business opportunities for vendors and carriers. By exploiting virtualization technologies, it allows the dynamic creation of logically isolated infrastructures over abstracted physical networks. To be able to offer Virtualized Services efficiently, service providers need a new class of Management systems able to manage and orchestrate both network and IT virtualized resources. In this paper, we propose an enhanced network Control Plane, based on the standard Path Computation Element (PCE) architecture, which is able to jointly make network routing and IT server provisioning decisions and that can be used in an NFV environment.
Heart rate response and technical demands of different small-sided game formats in young female basketballers. [Respuesta de la frecuencia cardíaca y demanda técnica en diferentes formatos de juegos reducidos realizados por jugadoras jóvenes de baloncesto].

espanolEl objetivo del presente estudio fue describir las respuestas fisiologicas y tecnico-tacticas en mujeres jovenes durante juegos reducidos (SSG) de baloncesto 3 contra 3 con y sin el estimulo verbal del entrenador y el bote. Seis jugadoras de baloncesto (edad: 14.3 ± 0.5 anos; altura: 167.8 ± 0.8 cm; peso: 56.5 ± 5.7 kg) tomaron parte del estudio piloto. Los juegos fueron grabados en video y despues las demandas tecnicas fueron registradas con software ad hoc de observacion. El pico de frecuencia cardiaca maxima se incremento de la serie 1 a la 3 durante el SSG con bote y estimulo del entrenador, asi como en el SSG sin bote y presencia del entrenador. Con el estimulo del entrenador se produjo mayores respuestas de frecuencia cardiaca y esfuerzo percivido que sin bote y estimulo del entrenador. No hubo diferencias en las acciones tecnicas, excepto en el numero de rebotes ofensivos que fue mayor en la tarea con estimulo del entrenador. En conclusion, el SSG con estimulo verbal deberia elegirse para centrarse en la carga fisiologica, mientras que el que se realiza sin el, puede ser util para mejorar el comportamiento colectivo, sin limitaciones en la carga fisiologica. EnglishThe aim of the present study was to describe the physiological and technical responses in young female during a basketball 3 vs. 3 small-sided games (SSG) with and without verbal coach encouragement and dribbling. Six young female basketball players (age: 14.3 ± 0.5 years; height: 167.8 ± 0.8 cm; body mass: 56.5 ± 5.7 kg) were recruited to participate in the present pilot study. The games were video recorded and afterwards the technical demands were notated with observational ad hoc software. The peak of maximum heart rate was increased from set 1 to set 3 during both the SSG with dribble and coach encouragement, as well as in the SSG without dribble and coach presence. With coach encouragement caused greater responses of heart rate and rate of perceived exertion than without both dribble and coach encouragement. There were no differences in technical actions, exception of the number of offensive rebounds showing a higher number in the coach encouragement task. In conclusion, the SSG with verbal encouragement should be selected to focus in physiological load, and SSG without might be useful to enhance collective behavior, without limitations in physiological load.
In Economics and Social Sciences Working Papers Series Tax Rates, Governance, and the Informal Economy in High-income Countries

Approximately 16.7% of output in high-income OECD countries is produced informally. Across these countries, the size of the informal economy is positively related to tax rates and negatively related to governance quality. While existing models of the informal economy mostly focus on developing countries, this paper studies the mechanisms behind the informal economy in high-income countries. I build a model economy where agents can become workers or entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs decide how much of their production to declare as formal and to report for tax purposes and how much to keep informal and hidden. Informal economic activity carries a risk of getting caught, taxed, and fined. Simulations show that differences in tax rates alone can only account for approximately 23% of informality across high-income countries while differences in governance quality, the extent to which tax rates are enforced seem to play a more important role. Taking into account both, governance quality and tax rates, the model can account for 72% of informality in high-income countries. I run a policy experiment that raises gover-nance quality in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal to Finish standards. Informality across these countries is reduced by an average 13 percentage points and in case tax collection costs increase less than five fold, the policy also implies higher tax revenues. and Max Gillman, for their comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank Gregorio Mednik for continuous questions and ideas. António Antunes and Tiago Cavalcanti have provided very useful comments for this version of the paper. I am also thankful for comments and suggestions by two anonymous referees. Funding from the Bank of Spain Excellence Program is gratefully acknowledged.
A corpus-based analysis of Filipino writing errors

This study presents the common grammatical and spelling errors made by Filipino native speakers through corpus-based analysis. A total of 8,000 sentences of student translation exercises were collected and analyzed using manual and computational means. A total of 1,413 errors surfaced that were categorized into eight error types namely: use of ligatures, spelling error, use of enclitics, translation errors, hyphenation, use of function words “nang” and “ng”, morphophonemic errors, and word repetition. The study concludes that the top 3 common errors are the use of ligatures such as “na”, /-ng/ and /-g/ (46.6%), spelling errors such as incorrectly merging of different words (19.5%), and use of enclitics such as “daw” and “raw” (16.1%). For future works, theoretical framework will be considered when analyzing the errors.
Bacterial Dormancy Is More Prevalent in Freshwater than Hypersaline Lakes

Bacteria employ a diverse array of strategies to survive under extreme environmental conditions but maintaining these adaptations comes at an energetic cost. If energy reserves drop too low, extremophiles may enter a dormant state to persist. We estimated bacterial dormancy and identified the environmental variables influencing our activity proxy in 10 hypersaline and freshwater lakes across the Western United States. Using ribosomal RNA:DNA ratios as an indicator for bacterial activity, we found that the proportion of the community exhibiting dormancy was 16% lower in hypersaline than freshwater lakes. Based on our indicator variable multiple regression results, saltier conditions in both freshwater and hypersaline lakes increased activity, suggesting that salinity was a robust environmental filter structuring bacterial activity in lake ecosystems. To a lesser degree, higher total phosphorus concentrations reduced dormancy in all lakes. Thus, even under extreme conditions, the competition for resources exerted pressure on activity. Within the compositionally distinct and less diverse hypersaline communities, abundant taxa were disproportionately active and localized in families Microbacteriaceae (Actinobacteria), Nitriliruptoraceae (Actinobacteria), and Rhodobacteraceae (Alphaproteobacteria). Our results are consistent with the view that hypersaline communities are able to capitalize on a seemingly more extreme, yet highly selective, set of conditions and finds that extremophiles may need dormancy less often to thrive and survive.
Economic and subjective measures of the perceived value of aesthetics and usability

The assessment of the relative value of different design features for users is of great interest for software designers. Users' evaluations are generally measured through questionnaires. We suggest that other evaluation methods, including economic measures, may provide different estimates of the relative value of features. In a laboratory experiment we created four versions of a data-entry application by independently manipulating the system's usability and aesthetics. Users' evaluations of the four experimental systems were obtained in a within-subjects design. In addition, five between-subjects experimental conditions were created, based on the evaluation method (questionnaire alone or auction and questionnaire), monetary incentives (present or absent), and experience in using the system (present or absent). In questionnaire-based responses, the systems' usability affected evaluations of usability as well as aesthetics. Similarly, the systems' aesthetics affected evaluations of both aesthetics and usability. Questionnaire-based evaluations of usability and aesthetics were not affected by experience with the system or by monetary performance incentives. Auction bids were only influenced by the system's usability: bids corresponded to the objective performance levels that could be attained with the different systems. The results suggest that by using economic methods, researchers and practitioners can obtain system evaluations that are strongly related to performance criteria and that may be more valid when the evaluation context favors task-oriented performance.
Evaluating Trigger Conditions on Streaming Time Series with User-given Quality Requirements

For many applications, it is important to evaluate trigger conditions on streaming time series. In a resource constrained environment, users' needs should ul- timately decide how the evaluation system balances the competing factors such as evaluation speed, result precision, and load shedding level. This paper presents a ba- sic framework for evaluation algorithms that takes user-specified quality requirements into consideration. Three optimization algorithms, each under a different set of user- defined probabilistic quality requirements, are provided in the framework: (1) minimize the response time given accuracy requirements and without load shedding; (2) min- imize the load shedding given a response time limit and accuracy requirements; and (3) minimize one type of accuracy errors given a response time limit and without load shedding. Experiments show that these optimization algorithms effectively achieve their optimization goals while satisfying the corresponding quality requirements.