Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seed Dispersal and Spatial Pattern in Tropical Trees

Theories of tropical tree diversity emphasize dispersal limitation as a potential mechanism for separating species in space and reducing competitive exclusion. We compared the dispersal morphologies, fruit sizes, and spatial distributions of 561 tree species within a fully mapped, 50-hectare plot of primary tropical forest in peninsular Malaysia. We demonstrate here that the extent and scale of conspecific spatial aggregation is correlated with the mode of seed dispersal. This relationship holds for saplings as well as for mature trees. Phylogenetically independent contrasts confirm that the relationship between dispersal and spatial pattern is significant even after controlling for common ancestry among species. We found the same qualitative results for a 50-hectare tropical forest plot in Panama. Our results provide broad empirical evidence for the importance of dispersal mode in establishing the long-term community structure of tropical forests.
Phosphate Treatment Strongly Inhibits New Arbuscule Development But Not the Maintenance of Arbuscule in Mycorrhizal Rice Roots1

Intracellular colonization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is rapidly and temporarily inhibited by P and is stabilized by plant symbiotic P transporter. Phosphorus (P) is a crucial nutrient for plant growth, but its availability to roots is limited in soil. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is a promising strategy for improving plant P acquisition. However, P fertilizer reduces fungal colonization (P inhibition) and compromises mycorrhizal P uptake, warranting studies on the mechanistic basis of P inhibition. In this study, early morphological changes in P inhibition were identified in rice (Oryza sativa) using fungal cell wall staining and live-cell imaging of plant membranes that were associated with arbuscule life cycles. Arbuscule density decreased, and aberrant hyphal branching was observed in roots at 5 h after P treatment. Although new arbuscule development was severely inhibited, preformed arbuscules remained intact and longevity remained constant. P inhibition was accelerated in the rice pt11-1 mutant, which lacks P uptake from arbuscule branches, suggesting that mature arbuscules are stabilized by the symbiotic P transporter under high P condition. Moreover, P treatment led to increases in the number of vesicles, in which lipid droplets accumulated and then decreased within a few days. The development of new arbuscules resumed within by 2 d. Our data established that P strongly and temporarily inhibits new arbuscule development, but not intraradical accommodation of AM fungi.
Constructing Genetic Linkage Maps Under a Tetrasomic Model

An international consortium has launched the whole-genome sequencing of potato, the fourth most important food crop in the world. Construction of genetic linkage maps is an inevitable step for taking advantage of the genome projects for the development of novel cultivars in the autotetraploid crop species. However, linkage analysis in autopolyploids, the kernel of linkage map construction, is theoretically challenging and methodologically unavailable in the current literature. We present here a theoretical analysis and a statistical method for tetrasomic linkage analysis with dominant and/or codominant molecular markers. The analysis reveals some essential properties of the tetrasomic model. The method accounts properly for double reduction and incomplete information of marker phenotype in regard to the corresponding phenotype in estimating the coefficients of double reduction and recombination frequency and in testing their significance by using the marker phenotype data. Computer simulation was developed to validate the analysis and the method and a case study with 201 AFLP and SSR markers scored on 228 full-sib individuals of autotetraploid potato is used to illustrate the utility of the method in map construction in autotetraploid species.
Surveillance for Tick-Borne Viruses Near the Location of a Fatal Human Case of Bourbon Virus (Family Orthomyxoviridae: Genus Thogotovirus) in Eastern Kansas, 2015

Abstract Bourbon virus (Family Orthomyxoviridae: Genus Thogotovirus) was first isolated from a human case-patient residing in Bourbon County, Kansas, who subsequently died. Before becoming ill in late spring of 2014, the patient reported several tick bites. In response, we initiated tick surveillance in Bourbon County and adjacent southern Linn County during spring and summer of 2015. We collected 20,639 host-seeking ticks representing four species from 12 sites. Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae) and Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae) accounted for nearly all ticks collected (99.99%). Three tick pools, all composed of adult A. americanum ticks collected in Bourbon County, were virus positive. Two pools were Heartland virus (Family Bunyaviridae: Genus Phlebovirus) positive, and one was Bourbon virus positive. The Bourbon virus positive tick pool was composed of five adult females collected on a private recreational property on June 5. Detection of Bourbon virus in the abundant and aggressive human-biting tick A. americanum in Bourbon County supports the contention that A. americanum is a vector of Bourbon virus to humans. The current data combined with virus detections in Missouri suggest that Bourbon virus is transmitted to humans by A. americanum ticks, including both the nymphal and adult stages, that ticks of this species become infected as either larvae, nymphs or both, perhaps by feeding on viremic vertebrate hosts, by cofeeding with infected ticks, or both, and that Bourbon virus is transstadially transmitted. Multiple detections of Heartland virus and Bourbon virus in A. americanum ticks suggest that these viruses share important components of their transmission cycles.
Cryptanalysis of an Improved Smartcard-based Remote Password Authentication Scheme

In recent years, several dynamic identity-based two-factor user authentication using password and smartcard have been proposed to provide mutual authentication between the user and server over unreliable networks. However, the design of secure cryptographic schemes is still notoriously hard, and there have been several instances of detected flaws in published schemes. For example in 2010, Hao and Yu demonstrated that Wang et al.'s user authe ntication scheme is insecure against off-line password guessing and server masquerade attacks, and proposed an improved scheme. Subsequently in 2012, Chao pointed out that the improved scheme of Hao and Yu is, unfortunately, susceptible to off-line password guessing and server masquerade attacks, and prone to password backward security problem; and proposed an enhanced scheme. In this paper, we demonstrated that Chao's enhanced scheme is not secure against user masquerade attack, server masquerade attack, insider attack and off-line password guessing attack in violation of its security claim as well as it fails to achieve users' anonymity.
The Adaptive Significance of Avian Mobbing

Three experiments were performed to test information carried by mobbing of European blackbirds (Turdus merula). They showed that mobbing alerts conspecifics as well as the mobber itself, supporting the “alerting others” hypothesis. Mobbing gives directional information about the predator's location. Mobbing is enhanced by the predator's movement in agreement with the “perception advertisement” hypothesis. Several other aspects of relations between the mobber and conspecifics were studied and discussed.
The Nuclear Factor kappaB Inhibitor Pyrrolidine Dithiocarbamate Prevents Cardiac Remodelling and Matrix Metalloproteinase‐2 Up‐Regulation in Renovascular Hypertension

Imbalanced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity is involved in hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy. Pharmacological inhibition of nuclear factor kappaB (NF‐кB) with pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) can prevent MMP up‐regulation. We suggested that treatment with PDTC could prevent 2‐kidney, 1‐clip (2K1C) hypertension‐induced left ventricular remodelling. Sham‐operated controls or 2K1C rats with hypertension received either vehicle or PDTC (100 mg/kg/day) by gavage for 8 weeks. Systolic blood pressure was monitored every week. Histological assessment of left ventricles was carried out with haematoxylin/eosin sections, and fibrosis was quantified in picrosirius red‐stained sections. Oxidative stress was evaluated in heart samples with the dihydroethidium probe. Cardiac MMP activity was determined by in situ zymography, and cardiac MMP‐2 was assessed by immunofluorescence. 2K1C surgery significantly increased systolic blood pressure in the 2K1C vehicle. PDTC exerted antihypertensive effects after 2 weeks of treatment. Histology revealed increased left ventricular and septum wall thickness associated with augmented myocyte diameter in hypertensive rats, which were reversed by treatment with PDTC. Hypertensive rats developed pronounced cardiac fibrosis with increased interstitial collagen area, increased cardiac reactive oxygen species levels, gelatinase activity and MMP‐2 expression. PDTC treatment decreased these alterations. These findings show that PDTC modulates myocardial MMP‐2 expression and ameliorates cardiac remodelling in renovascular hypertension. These results suggest that interfering with MMP expression at transcriptional level may be an interesting strategy in the therapy of organ damage associated with hypertension.
Improve Parsing Performance by Self-Learning

There are many methods to improve performance of statistical parsers. Resolving structural ambiguities is a major task of these methods. In the proposed approach, the parser produces a set of n-best trees based on a feature-extended PCFG grammar and then selects the best tree structure based on association strengths of dependency word-pairs. However, there is no sufficiently large Treebank producing reliable statistical distributions of all word-pairs. This paper aims to provide a self-learning method to resolve the problems. The word association strengths were automatically extracted and learned by parsing a giga-word corpus. Although the automatically learned word associations were not perfect, the constructed structure evaluation model improved the bracketed f-score from 83.09% to 86.59%. We believe that the above iterative learning processes can improve parsing performances automatically by learning word-dependence information continuously from web.
Inactivation of Tristetraprolin in Chronic Hypoxia Provokes the Expression of Cathepsin B

ABSTRACT Macrophages play important roles in many diseases and are frequently found in hypoxic areas. A chronic hypoxic microenvironment alters global cellular protein expression, but molecular details remain poorly understood. Although hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is an established transcription factor allowing adaption to acute hypoxia, responses to chronic hypoxia are more complex. Based on a two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) approach, we aimed to identify proteins that are exclusively expressed under chronic but not acute hypoxia (1% O2). One of the identified proteins was cathepsin B (CTSB), and a knockdown of either HIF-1α or -2α in primary human macrophages pointed to an HIF-2α dependency. Although chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments confirmed HIF-2 binding to a CTSB enhancer in acute hypoxia, an increase of CTSB mRNA was evident only under chronic hypoxia. Along those lines, CTSB mRNA stability increased at 48 h but not at 8 h of hypoxia. However, RNA stability at 8 h of hypoxia was enhanced by a knockdown of tristetraprolin (TTP). Inactivation of TTP under prolonged hypoxia was facilitated by c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and inhibition of this kinase lowered CTSB mRNA levels and stability. We postulate a TTP-dependent mechanism to explain delayed expression of CTSB under chronic hypoxia.
Increased childhood incidence of narcolepsy in western Sweden after H1N1 influenza vaccination

Objectives: To assess the incidence of narcolepsy between January 2000 and December 2010 in children in western Sweden and its relationship to the Pandemrix vaccination, and to compare the clinical and laboratory features of these children. Methods: The children were identified from all local and regional pediatric hospitals, child rehabilitation centers, outpatient pediatric clinics, and regional departments of neurophysiology. Data collection was performed with the aid of a standardized data collection form, from medical records and telephone interviews with patients and parents. The laboratory and investigational data were carefully scrutinized. Results: We identified 37 children with narcolepsy. Nine of them had onset of symptoms before the H1N1 vaccination and 28 had onset of symptoms in relationship to the vaccination. The median age at onset was 10 years. All patients in the postvaccination group were positive for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)–DQB1*0602. Nineteen patients in the postvaccination group, compared with one in the prevaccination group, had a clinical onset that could be dated within 12 weeks. Conclusion: Pandemrix vaccination is a precipitating factor for narcolepsy, especially in combination with HLA-DQB1*0602. The incidence of narcolepsy was 25 times higher after the vaccination compared with the time period before. The children in the postvaccination group had a lower age at onset and a more sudden onset than that generally seen.
An examination of the responsibility model in a New Zealand secondary school physical education program

This study examined a six-month implementation of the Responsibility Model in a New Zealand secondary school. Data were collected through interviews, observations and student self-assessments. The implementation was found to be successful in developing positive, supportive and well-behaved classes in physical education. The majority of students developed a greater understanding of personal and social responsibility and became more personally and socially responsible in class. For most students, however, this understanding was firmly associated with physical education and they generally showed little understanding of the potential for the transfer of learning to other contexts. © 2010 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Glycated Haemoglobin in Diabetic Women with and without HIV Infection: Data from the Women's Interagency HIV Study

Background Limited data suggest that glycated haemoglobin (haemoglobin A1c; A1C) values might not reflect glycaemic control accurately in HIV-infected individuals with diabetes. Methods We evaluated repeated measures of paired fasting glucose and A1C values in 315 HIV-infected and 109 HIV-uninfected diabetic participants in the Women's Interagency HIV Study. Generalized estimating equations used log A1C as the outcome variable, with adjustment for log fasting glucose concentration in all models. Results An HIV-infected woman on average had 0.9868 times as much A1C (that is, 1.32% lower; 95% confidence interval 0.9734–0.9904) as an HIV-uninfected woman with the same log fasting glucose concentration. In multivariate analyses, HIV serostatus was not associated, but White, other non-Black race, and higher red blood cell mean corpuscular volume (MCV) were statistically associated with lower A1C values. Use of diabetic medication was associated with higher A1C values. In multivariate analyses restricted to HIV-infected women, White and other race, higher MCV, and HCV viraemia were associated with lower A1C values, whereas older age, use of diabetic medications and higher CD4+ T-cell count were associated with higher A1C values. Use of combination antiretroviral therapy, protease inhibitors, zidovudine, stavudine or abacavir was not associated with A1C values. Conclusions A1C values were modestly lower in HIV-infected diabetic women relative to HIV-uninfected diabetic women after adjustment for fasting glucose concentration. The difference was abrogated by adjustment for MCV, race and diabetic medication use. Our data suggest that in clinical practice A1C gives a reasonably accurate refection of glycaemic control in HIV-infected diabetic women.
Memory Encoding and Retrieval in the Aging Brain

Decline in episodic memory, the encoding and retrieval of autobiographical events, is a hallmark of normal cognitive aging. Although the primary causes of this decline remain elusive, event-related brain potential (ERP) studies have contributed to an understanding of age-related episodic memory failure. These data reveal that, although the retrieval-based episodic memory (EM) effect does not differ dramatically between young and older adults, the acquisition-related data suggest a decline in episodic encoding (i.e., semantic elaboration) with increasing age. We conclude that, at the current state of knowledge, encoding deficiencies are more important than retrieval deficits in understanding the causes of episodic memory decline in the older adult.
South African management development in the twenty‐first century

Discusses the challenges of management development in post‐apartheid South Africa. The main issue is how to compensate for apartheid’s negative legacy and bring large numbers of the previously disfranchised black majority into the corporate mainstream. Achieving this goal will require South African firms to develop aggressive affirmative action programs and to embrace leadership and training approaches that better reflect African values. Clearly, this will not be easy. Examples of South African companies that have taken these steps are presented as well as a conceptual framework that can help companies develop more Africanized approaches to management development.
Japanese Kisha clubs and the Canberra Press Gallery: Siblings or strangers

The press gallery system that developed in the British parliament in the 18th and 19th centuries has become the basis upon which the political media systems have developed in Australia and Japan. Despite cultural differences, the formal and informal mechanisms by which the galleries operate are similar, as are the criticisms and controversies that arise. The Japanese kisha (press) club system is not a unique aberration, but rather a more extreme version of the Australian, British and United States' press club systems. This paper argues that, at its core, the Japanese kisha club system operates formally and informally in a similar manner to the Australian and British press club systems, but a combination of cultural characteristics and 50 years of almost uninterrupted rule by one political party have resulted in it developing some unique, and from a liberal perspective, concerning traits.
Analysis and Processing of Nadir and Stereo VHR Pleiadés Images for 3D Mapping and Planning the Land of Nineveh, Iraqi Kurdistan

The impressive hydraulic system built by the Assyrian King Sennacherib is composed by different archaeological areas, displaced along the Land of Nineveh, in Iraqi Kurdistan. The extensive project we are working on has the aim of mapping and geo-referencing any kind of documentation in order to design an archaeological-environmental park able to preserve and enhance the archaeological complex. Unfortunately, the area is failing a topographic documentation and the available cartography is not sufficient for planning and documentation purposes. The research work presented in these pages moves towards this direction, by exploiting Pleiades Very High Resolution (VHR) images (in both nadir and stereo configuration) for an accurate mapping of the site. In more depth, Pleiades nadir VHR images have been used to perform a pansharpening procedure used to enhance the visual interpretation of the study area, whilst stereo-pair have been processed to produce the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the study area. Statistical evaluations show the high accuracy of the processing and the reliability of the outputs as well. The integration of different products, at different Levels of Detail within a unique GIS environment, besides protecting, preserving and enhancing the water system of Sennacherib’s, paves the way to allow the Kurdistan Regional Government to present a proposal for the admission of the archaeological complex in the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (WHTL).
Estrogen Regulates Transcription Factors STAT-1 and NF-κB to Promote Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase and Inflammatory Responses1

Estrogen regulation of inflammatory responses has broad physiological and pathological consequences. However, the molecular mechanism of estrogen regulation of inflammation is still poorly understood. In this study, we report that activation of both STAT-1 and NF-κB signaling is essential for Con A-induced inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and NO in murine splenocytes. Estrogen enhances STAT-1 DNA-binding activity without increasing the expression of phosphorylated and total STAT-1 protein. We have recently reported that estrogen blocks the nuclear expression of NF-κB p65 and modifies nuclear NF-κBp50. Here, we demonstrated that both nuclear STAT-1 and NF-κB are modified by serine protease-mediated proteolysis, which resulted in altered STAT-1 and NF-κB activity/signaling in splenocytes from estrogen-treated mice. Inhibition of serine protease activity with 4-(2-aminoethyl)benzenesulfonyl fluoride hydrochloride (AEBSF) restores the nuclear expression of full-length STAT-1 and NF-κB proteins, and resulted in decreased STAT-1 DNA-binding activity and formation of NF-κB p65/p50 binding complexes in nuclei of splenocytes from estrogen-treated mice. Consequently, there is significantly decreased iNOS and IFN-γ production in AEBSF-treated splenocytes from estrogen-treated mice, which suggests a positive regulatory role of truncated STAT-1 and/or NF-κB. Interestingly, there is increased production of MCP-1 in STAT-1 or NF-κB small interfering RNA-transfected cells, as well as in AEBSF-treated splenocytes from estrogen-treated mice. These data suggest a differential role of truncated STAT-1 and NF-κB in regulation of various inflammatory molecules in splenocytes from estrogen-treated mice. Together, our data reveal a novel molecular mechanism of estrogen-mediated promotion of inflammatory responses, which involves posttranslational modification of STAT-1 and NF-κB proteins.
Map++: A crowd-sensing system for automatic map semantics identification

Digital maps have become a part of our daily life with a number of commercial and free map services. These services have still a huge potential for enhancement with rich semantic information to support a large class of mapping applications. In this paper, we present Map++, a system that leverages standard cell-phone sensors in a crowdsensing approach to automatically enrich digital maps with different road semantics like tunnels, bumps, bridges, footbridges, crosswalks, road capacity, among others. Our analysis shows that cell-phones sensors with humans in vehicles or walking get affected by the different road features, which can be mined to extend the features of both free and commercial mapping services. We present the design and implementation of Map++ and evaluate it in a large city. Our evaluation shows that we can detect the different semantics accurately with at most 3% false positive rate and 6% false negative rate for both vehicle and pedestrian-based features. Moreover, we show that Map++ has a small energy footprint on the cell-phones, highlighting its promise as a ubiquitous digital maps enriching service.