Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cyclic electron flow, NPQ and photorespiration are crucial for the establishment of young plants of Ricinus communis and Jatropha curcas exposed to drought.

Although plant physiological responses to drought have been widely studied, the interaction between photoprotection, photorespiration and antioxidant metabolism in water-stressed plants is scarcely addressed. This study aimed to evaluate the physiological adjustments preserving photosynthesis and growth in two plant species with different tolerance to drought: Jatropha curcas and Ricinus communis. We measured stress indicators, gas exchange, photochemistry of PSII and PSI, antioxidant enzymes, cyclic electron flow and photorespiration. Physiological stress indicators associated with reduction in growth confirmed R. communis as sensitive and J. curcas as tolerant to drought. Drought induced loss of photosynthesis in R. communis, whereas J. curcas maintained higher leaf gas exchange and photochemistry under drought. In addition, J. curcas showed higher dissipation of excess energy and presented higher cyclic electron flow when exposed to drought. Although none of these mechanisms have been triggered in R. communis, this species showed increases in photorespiration. R. communis displayed loss of Rubisco content while the Rubisco relative abundance did not change in J. curcas under drought. Accordingly, the in vivo maximum Rubisco carboxylation rate (Vcmax ) and the maximum photosynthetic electron transport rate driving RuBP regeneration (Jmax ) were less affected in J. curcas. Both species displayed an efficient antioxidant mechanism by increasing activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Overall, we suggest that the modulation of different photoprotective mechanisms is crucial to mitigate the effects caused by excess energy, maintaining photosynthetic apparatus efficiency and promoting the establishment of young plants of these two species under drought.
Stress response during development predicts fitness in a wild, long lived vertebrate

Short-term elevation of circulating glucocorticosteroids (GCs) in vertebrates facilitates the adoption of a distinct emergency life history state, which allows individuals to cope with perturbations and recover homeostasis at the expense of temporarily suppressing nonessential activities. Although GC responses are viewed as a major evolutionary mechanism to maximize fitness through stress management, phenotypic variability exists within animal populations, and it remains unclear whether interindividual differences in stress physiology can explain variance in unequivocal components of fitness. We show that the magnitude of the adrenocortical response to a standardized perturbation during development is negatively related to survival and recruitment in a wild population of long lived birds. Our results provide empirical evidence for a link between stress response, not exposure to stressors, and fitness in a vertebrate under natural conditions. Recent studies suggest that variability in the adrenocortical response to stress may be maintained if high and low GC responders represent alternative coping strategies, with differential adaptive value depending on environmental conditions. Increased fitness among low GC responders, having a proactive personality, is predicted under elevated population density and availability of food resources, conditions that characterize our study population.
Properties of glycans that activate the human alternative complement pathway and interact with the human monocyte beta-glucan receptor.

The glycans used in an earlier study to define the ligand specificity of the human monocyte phagocytic receptor for unopsonized particulate activators were assessed for their capacities to activate the proteins of the human alternative complement pathway. Normal human serum was preincubated with glycans under conditions of chelation to prevent activation of the classical complement pathway, and the activation-depletion of the alternative complement pathway was determined by the subsequent capacity of the serum to lyse rabbit erythrocytes (Er). When serum was preincubated at a 1/2 dilution in 8 mM EGTA/2 mM Mg with increasing numbers of yeast glucan or zymosan particles, and was evaluated at final serum dilutions of 1/8, its capacity to lyse Er was found to be reduced by 50% with 1.9 X 10(6)/ml yeast glucan particles and 1.4 X 10(6)/ml zymosan particles. At 2 mg/ml of serum diluted 1/2 in 8 mM EGTA/2 mM Mg, nonturbid preparations of mannan, laminarin, or pyrogen-free inulin and turbid suspensions of cellulose, Sephadex, agarose, or purified inulin failed to activate the alternative complement pathway. In contrast, activation-depletion of the alternative pathway was induced by turbid preparations of crude inulin, nigeran, pachyman, barley beta-glucan, and pustulan, which at 700 micrograms/ml, 500 micrograms/ml, 350 micrograms/ml, 60 micrograms/ml, and 27 micrograms/ml, respectively, effected 50% reductions in the subsequent lysis of Er. After centrifugation of 2 mg/ml suspensions of barley beta-glucan at 1100 X G for 5 min and at 15,000 X G for 15 min, the supernatants contained 90 to 92% and 65% of the barley beta-glucan, respectively, as determined by the anthrone method. On a weight basis, the 1100 X G supernatant exhibited the same capacity to activate the alternative pathway as the corresponding original suspension, whereas the 15,000 X G supernatants had less than 3% of the original anti-complementary activity. Preincubation of adherent human monocytes with increasing concentrations of barley beta-glucan suspensions, 100,000 X G supernatants containing 64% of the original beta-glucan, and laminarin all decreased subsequent ingestion of 1.25 X 10(6) zymosan particles in a dose-related fashion. The numbers of monocytes from three different donors phagocytosing zymosan were reduced by 50% after pretreatment with 30 to 65 micrograms/ml, 25 to 48 micrograms/ml, and 12 to 15 micrograms/ml of barley beta-glucan suspensions, 100,000 X G supernatants of barley beta-glucan, and laminarin, respectively, even though the latter two preparations were fully soluble and had no capacity to activate the alternative pathway. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Ieee Transactions on Mobile Computing an Efficient Auction-based Mechanism for Mobile Data Offloading

✦ Abstract—The opportunistic utilization of third party WiFi access devices to offload customer traffic from the mobile network has recently gained momentum as a promising approach to increase the network capacity and simultaneously reduce the energy consumption of the Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure. To foster the opportunistic utilization of unexploited Internet connections, we propose a new and open market where a mobile operator can lease the bandwidth made available by third parties (residential users or private companies) through their access points to increase dynamically (and adaptively) the network capacity. We formulate the offloading problem as a reverse auction considering the most general case of partial covering of the traffic to be offloaded. We discuss the conditions (i) to offload the maximum amount of data traffic according to the capacity made available by third party access devices, (ii) to foster the participation of access point owners (individual rationality), and (iii) to prevent market manipulation (incentive compatibility). Finally, we propose three alternative greedy algorithms that efficiently solve the offloading problem, even for large-size network scenarios.
Effects of epinephrine infusion on expression of calpastatin in porcine cardiac and skeletal muscle.

beta-Adrenergic agonists induce muscle hypertrophy in mammalian species and alter the extractable activity of calpain proteinase and its specific endogenous inhibitor calpastatin. The effects on skeletal and cardiac muscle calpastatin of continuously infusing a group of pigs for 7 days with the physiological agonist epinephrine (0.15 microg/kg/min) were examined and compared with a placebo group. Basal levels of extractable calpastatin activity were higher in cardiac than skeletal muscle and epinephrine infusion increased the extractable activity in both muscle types (P < 0.05). An anti-recombinant porcine calpastatin antiserum detected a 135-kDa band and a 145/135-kDa doublet on Western blots of skeletal and cardiac extracts, respectively. Epinephrine infusion increased the 135-kDa band in skeletal muscle (P < 0.05), while the ratio of 145/135 kDa in cardiac muscle was decreased (P < 0.05). From Northern blots, the patterns of calpastatin mRNA species were similar in the two muscle types, two major transcripts at 5.8 and 3. 2 kb in cardiac muscle, with equivalent bands in skeletal muscle of 5.4 and 2.8 kb. A faint 7.9-kb band was also detected in skeletal muscle. Epinephrine infusion had no effect on skeletal calpastatin mRNA but tended to increase the 5.8-kb mRNA in cardiac muscle (P = 0. 053). These data indicate a differential response of the two muscle types to mildly elevated plasma epinephrine concentration and the response to elevated epinephrine may be at the translational or posttranslational level. Therefore, this type of stimulus appears to be less effective at perturbing calpastatin gene transcription than certain orally administered synthetic beta-adrenergic agonists.
Therapeutic Down-Modulators of Staphylococcal Superantigen-Induced Inflammation and Toxic Shock

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) and related superantigenic toxins are potent stimulators of the immune system and cause a variety of diseases in humans, ranging from food poisoning to toxic shock. These toxins bind directly to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules on antigen-presenting cells and specific Vβ regions of T-cell receptors (TCR), resulting in hyperactivation of both monocytes/macrophages and T lymphocytes. Activated host cells produce massive amounts of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, activating inflammation and coagulation, causing clinical symptoms that include fever, hypotension, and shock. This review summarizes the in vitro and in vivo effects of staphylococcal superantigens, the role of pivotal mediators induced by these toxins in the pathogenic mechanisms of tissue injury, and the therapeutic agents to mitigate the toxic effects of superantigens.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Nonhuman Short-te4?m Memory: a Quantitative Reanalysis of Selected Findings

Intense interest in the experimental analysis of nonhuman short-term memory was occasioned by the "cognitive revolution" in the early 1970s. As researchers tested and refined their theoretical models, a sizable empirical literature on the subject rapidly emerged. Generally missing from that literature, however, is an integrated account of the empirical laws of delayed stimulus control. In its absence, cognitive theories have grown increasingly complex and their connection to established principles of learning more remote. The present article reviews a representative segment of the nonhuman memory literature in an effort to identify and tentatively quantify empirical laws that may underlie some of the major findings. Specifically, a delay-reduction principle adapted from the conditioned reinforcement literature and a proposed principle of serial stimulus compounds were evaluated against data from delayed matching to sample, serial probe recognition, differential outcome, directed forgetting, and surprisingness preparations. Although by no means offering a complete description of the data, the proposed analysis organizes an apparently disparate collection of empirical results and suggests several new lines of inquiry into the subject. Empirical inquiry into the subject of non-human short-term memory has proceeded at a rapid pace since the emergence of cogni-tive theories approximately 20 years ago. Throughout this period, efforts to test a variety of cognitive models have generated a number of innovative methods of investigation as well as a host of interesting behavioral findings. Nevertheless, the ratio of theory to data often seems unacceptably high, and efforts to identify common empirical principles of memory are relatively rare. In their absence, individual cognitive theories have grown in number and complexity, perhaps occasionally exceeding reasonable limits of parsimony (cf. Branch, 1977; Grant, 1981a). An analysis of short-term memory in terms of basic empirical principles , as opposed to cognitive models, may help to condense what is now a large and diverse empirical literature and suggest fruitful lines of inquiry not readily derived from current accounts. In addition, for those who prefer theoretical models, such an analysis may provide boundary conditions within which those models must operate. In view of these consid-I thank Jack McDowell for his comments on an earlier version of this paper and Ben Williams for his thoughts and reactions to the position advanced. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to erations, the present article offers one possible functional analysis of some of the more important findings from the nonhuman memory literature. BACKGROUND For the …
Quantitative analysis of a new method for real-time generation of SNR estimates for digital phase modulation signals

A new method of estimating the signal-to-noise ratio for M-PSK receivers was presented previously, which derives that estimate from the locked-state value of a new family of carrier lock detectors. A quantitative analysis is undertaken in which it is shown that this method requires significantly less hardware and/or software resources than estimation from the received signal's error rate, is irrespective of the data sequence, and necessitates far fewer symbols in order to arrive at an equally accurate estimate.
Distribution of terrestrially derived dissolved organic matter on the southeastern U.S. continental shelf

Dissolved lignin-derived compounds in seawater indicate the presence of organic matter originating from vascular plants and therefore from terrestrial (upland and coastal marsh) ecosystems. We used a hydrophobic resin to concentrate lignin-rich humic substances and to determine concentrations of lignin oxidation products (vanillyl lignin phenols) for waters of the continental shelf of the southeastern U.S. Lignin phenol concentrations ranged from 0.05 to 4.2 pg liter-’ and accounted for 0.002-O. 13% of the total dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool in continental shelf waters. Dissolved lignin concentrations were generally highest near the shore and in those areas receiving greatest river and marsh discharge. Concentrations varied on both short-term (weekly) and seasonal time scales, however, indicating that the contribution of terrestrially derived dissolved organic matter to the C budget of the shelf is quite variable. Salinity (>~~YcQ) was significantly correlated (negatively) with lignin phenol concentrations during three of four cruises, suggesting largely conservative mixing of lignin-derived material on the shelf. In selected rivers and salt marshes contributing terrestrially derived organic matter to the continental shelf, lignin phenol C accounted for 0.14-l . O% of the DOC. A simple mixing model which assumes no biological or physical sinks oflignin-derived material during transport from terrestrial sources to the shelf predicts that an average of 6-36% of nearshore DOC derives from terrestrial ecosystems, depending on whether the terrestrial end-member (lignin source) is assumed to be a river or a salt marsh. while 5-26% of inner shelf DOC and 3-l 8% of mid- to outer-shelf DOC is of terrestrial origin.
Outdoor scene segmentation and object classification Using cluster based perceptual Organization

Humans may be using high-level image understanding and object recognition skills to produce more meaningful segmentation while most computer applications depend on image segmentation and boundary detection to achieve some image understanding or object recognition. The high level and low level image segmentation model may generate multiple segments for the single object within an image. Thus, some special segmentation technique is required which is capable to group multiple segments and to generate single objects and gives the performance close to human visual system. Therefore, this paper proposes the perceptual organization model to perform the above task. This paper addresses the outdoor scene segmentation and object classification using cluster based perceptual organization. Perceptual organization is the basic capability of the human visual system is to derive relevant grouping and structures from an image without prior knowledge of its contents . Here, Gestalt laws (Symmetry, alignment and attachment) are utilized to find the relationship between patches of an object obtained using K-means algorithm. The model mainly concentrated on the connectedness and cohesive strength based grouping. The cohesive strength represents the nonaccidental structural relationship of the constituent parts of a structured part of an object. The cluster based patches are classified using boosting technique. Then the perceptual organization based model is applied for further classification. The experimental result shows that, it works well with the structurally challenging objects, which usually consist of multiple constituent part and also gives the performance close to human vision. 1.Introduction: Image segmentation is considered to be one of the fundamental problems for computer vision[Gonzalvez&Woods]. A primary goal of image segmentation is to partition or division of an image into regions which has coherent properties so that each region corresponds to an object or area of interest [Shah,2008]. The outdoor scenes can be divided into two categories, namely, unstructured objects (e.g., skies, roads, trees, grass, etc.) and structured objects (e.g., cars, buildings, people, etc.). Unstructured objects usually comprise the backgrounds of images. The background objects usually have nearly homogenous surfaces and are distinct from the structured objects in images. Many recent appearances-based Neha Dabhi et al , International Journal of Computer Science & Communication Networks,Vol 3(4),240-264
Constructivist learning environments inviting computer technology for problem solving: new junctures for female students

While complex problem solving has been traditionally an area in which females have not excelled, there is increased emphasis in the development of problem solving for all learners in the Information Age, Concern exists regarding the gap between male and female competencies in using computer technology. Therefore, the possibility of intervention using computer technology as a tool for learning holds promise for females to develop competencies necessary to become better problem solvers. Interventions assisting female students in using technology to restructure or alter their conceptions of problem solving may prove to be effective in developing of problem-solving skills and computer use strategies. In a series of three articles designed to institute new junctures for females to use computer technology for problemsolving, this research suggests constructiLvist learning environments invite effective use of technology. The first paper chronicles existing computer technologies in American education making the case that invention, policy-making, and administration of educational leadership are provided predominantly by men in government, military and higher education. This study explores the development of technology in school practice and the role of women influencing these changes. The second paper, a concise literature review of problem solving, describes theoretical implications of problem solving with attention to learning environments where educational computing using multimedia technology is used to develop problem-solving skills. Impact of student motivation, attribution, self-e£5cacy, and self-regulation on problem-solving is amplified through the voice of gifted adolescents. The third paper, the result of a research study of gifted adolescent students using multimedia technology, advances the importance of females using computers for problem solving activity. Moreover, this paper describes an "engendered" adolescent computer culture limiting full participation of females in computerrelated experiences. Appendices contains relevant research materials plus an accompanying CD-ROM containing raw data from individual and focus group interviews, e-maU. communications, and evaluations of student work.
REPORTING THE EUROPEAN UNION

This article sketches a picture of the journalists involved in European Union (EU) reporting. Firstly, it presents an overview of the entire body of EU-accredited journalists, examining how they are distributed across the various nationalities, the different forms of media and whether an historical evolution can be traced in either distribution. Secondly, the mechanisms influencing the news flow on EU topics are described, using information gathered from numerous interviews with EU journalists from 10 European countries. The researchers distinguish structural, geographical, economical and policy-related obstacles influencing the EU newsflow. As an example of a media-related obstacle the authors focus on the privileged position of the Financial Times.
Jab1 Induces the Cytoplasmic Localization and Degradation of p53 in Coordination with Hdm2*

The biological mechanisms for maintaining the basal level of p53 in normal cells require nuclear exclusion and cytoplasmic degradation. Here, we showed that Jab1 facilitates p53 nuclear exclusion and its subsequent degradation in coordination with Hdm2. p53 was excluded from the nucleus in the presence of Jab1; this exclusion was prevented by leptomycin B treatment. Nuclear export of p53 was accompanied by a decrease in the levels of p53, as well as of its target proteins, which include p21 and Bax. Domain analyses of Jab1 showed that the N-terminal domain, 1-110, was capable of inducing cytoplasmic translocation of p53. Furthermore, 110-191 was required to facilitate the degradation of p53. Neither of these mutants incorporated into the CSN complex, indicating that Jab1 could affect the levels of p53 independent of intact CSN complex. Conversely, Jab1 was incapable of translocating and degrading two p53 mutants, W23S and 6KR, neither of which could be modified by Hdm2. Moreover, Jab1 did not affect the cellular localization or protein levels of p53 in p53 and Hdm2 double-null mouse embryo fibroblasts. We further observed that the ablation of endogenous Jab1 by small interfering RNA prevented Hdm2-mediated p53 nuclear exclusion. Under stressed conditions, which could sequester Hdm2 in its inactive state, Jab1 did not affect p53. Our studies implicate that Jab1 is required to remove post-translationally modified p53 and provide a novel target for p53-related cancer therapies.