Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exogenous abscisic acid application decreases cadmium accumulation in Arabidopsis plants, which is associated with the inhibition of IRT1-mediated cadmium uptake

Cadmium (Cd) contamination of agricultural soils is an increasingly serious problem. Measures need to be developed to minimize Cd entering the human food chain from contaminated soils. We report here that, under Cd exposure condition, application with low doses of (0.1–0.5 μM) abscisic acid (ABA) clearly inhibited Cd uptake by roots and decreased Cd level in Arabidopsis wild-type plants (Col-0). Expression of IRT1 in roots was also strongly inhibited by ABA treatment. Decrease in Cd uptake and the inhibition of IRT1 expression were clearly lesser pronounced in an ABA-insensitive double mutant snrk2.2/2.3 than in the Col-0 in response to ABA application. The ABA-decreased Cd uptake was found to correlate with the ABA-inhibited IRT1 expression in the roots of Col-0 plants fed two different levels of iron. Furthermore, the Cd uptake of irt1 mutants was barely affected by ABA application. These results indicated that inhibition of IRT1 expression is involved in the decrease of Cd uptake in response to exogenous ABA application. Interestingly, ABA application increased the iron level in both Col-0 plants and irt1 mutants, suggesting that ABA-increased Fe acquisition does not depend on the IRT1 function, but on the contrary, the ABA-mediated inhibition of IRT1 expression may be due to the elevation of iron level in plants. From our results, we concluded that ABA application might increase iron acquisition, followed by the decrease in Cd uptake by inhibition of IRT1 activity. Thus, for crop production in Cd contaminated soils, developing techniques based on ABA application potentially is a promising approach for reducing Cd accumulation in edible organs in plants.
Barriers to safe motherhood in Nigeria.

Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world: 1100 maternal deaths for every 100000 live births. Although patterns vary by region high-risk births persist in Nigeria. In both 1990 and 2003 two-thirds of all births were high risk because of the mother’s age parity or spacing of births. More than 40% of women giving birth do not receive prenatal care from a trained health care provider. This proportion did not improve during the 13-year period. It is above average in the North East and North West regions. The proportion of women receiving health care from a trained provider at delivery has increased somewhat -- from 30% in 1990 to 37% in 2003. Even so it is still low and less than that in some other West African countries. Increasing urbanization and education coupled with a drop in the proportion of women who are married have led to declines in fertility desires and childbearing. However the desire for a smaller family appears to be outpacing reductions in fertility. This is evident in the increasing proportion of births that are unplanned which largely reflects a low level of contraceptive use in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has adopted several policies aimed at reducing maternal mortality by 75% by 2015. However they lack effective implementation largely because of the very low level of government spending on health care. Most programming on safe motherhood has been initiated by nongovernmental organizations working with funding from international donors. Some recent programs and policies have the potential to improve the quality of maternal health care in Nigeria. To achieve this goal the Nigerian government must make a commitment to provide adequate resources -- trained providers up-to-date equipment and most importantly sufficient funding -- to end the many needless deaths associated with childbearing among Nigerian women.
Power gating and its repercussions—a review

In this paper, Power gating/ Multithreshold technique for low power circuit design is summarized and compared. Few important and vital parameters such as sizing of sleep transistor, mode transition energy, reduction of noise due to ground bounce, area, delay and noise margin are compared for different techniques. In charge recycling technique upto 43% of mode transition energy is saved and an average of 8.25%, 33.1% of reduction in positive and negative peak ground bounce is obtained respectively. Bin-Packaging technique for clustering gives more leakage saving (84%) with respect to cell-partitioning technique. Considering overall response, Dynamic forward body bias triode MTCMOS technique (DFBBL) is found to be the best for sequential circuit (32-bit shift register) and for combinational circuit (32-bit Brent kung adder), triple phase technique gives the best response. Digital triple phase technique improves the overall electrical quality by 9.15 times and overall tolerance to parameter variations by 183.1 times as compared to other slew rate modulation techniques. DFBBL technique gives ground bounce reduction upto 90% and it also reduces the active power consumption about 47.3%. The data stability of sequential circuits is improved by 16.92%.
Characterization and Comparison of Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase (ESBL) Resistance Genotypes and Population Structure of Escherichia coli Isolated from Franklin's Gulls (Leucophaeus pipixcan) and Humans in Chile

We investigated the general level of antibiotic resistance with further analysis of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) prevalence, as well as the population structure of E. coli in fecal flora of humans and Franklin’s gulls (Leucophaeus pipixcan) in central parts of Chile. We found a surprisingly high carriage rate of ESBL-producing E. coli among the gulls 112/372 (30.1%) as compared to the human population 6/49 (12.2%.) Several of the E. coli sequence types (STs) identified in birds have previously been reported as Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) human pathogens including the ability to produce ESBLs. This means that not only commensal flora is shared between birds and humans but also STs with pathogenic potential. Given the migratory behavior of Franklin’s gulls, they and other migratory species, may be a part of ESBL dissemination in the environment and over great geographic distances. Apart from keeping the antibiotic use low, breaking the transmission chains between the environment and humans must be a priority to hinder the dissemination of resistance.
Current State and Challenges of Automatic Planning in Web Service Composition

This paper gives a survey on the current state of Web Service Compositions and the difficulties and solutions to automated Web Service Compositions. This first gives a definition of Web Service Composition and the motivation and goal of it. It then explores into why we need automated Web Service Compositions and formally defines the domains. Techniques and solutions are proposed by the papers we surveyed to solve the current difficulty of automated Web Service Composition. Verification and future work is discussed at the end to further extend the topic.
Einsatz virtueller Prototypen bei der akausalen Modellierung und Simulation von permanenterregten Synchronmaschinen. Application of virtual prototypes of permanent magnet synchronous machines by acausal modeling and simulation

Um elektrische Maschinen zeiteffizient entwickeln zu konnen, ist es notwendig, bereits vor dem Aufbau eines ersten Musters moglichst genaue Aussagen uber das Betriebsverhalten treffen zu konnen. Zu diesem Zweck werden Maschinenmodelle eingesetzt, die je nach Modellierungstiefe unterschiedliche Effekte berucksichtigen oder vernachlassigen. Im Folgenden wird eine Methode vorgestellt, mit der durch Verbindung moderner Simulationswerkzeuge ein universelles Modell einer permanenterregten Synchronmaschine erstellt werden kann. Das dynamische Maschinenmodell berucksichtigt die magnetische Anisotropie des Rotors, die Eisensattigung, die Kreuzverkopplung, die Einflusse der Nutung sowie die daraus resultierende Drehmomentwelligkeit und Oberschwingungen der Bewegungsspannung. Die benotigten Parameter werden automatisiert aus Finite-Element-Berechnungen gewonnen. Ein solches Modell kann fur beliebige Untersuchungen in virtuellen Prufumgebungen verwendet werden. Beispielhaft werden die Vorteile des Ansatzes fur einen Traktionsmotor fur Automobilanwendungen anhand der Simulation der Stromoberschwingungen, der Erprobung eines Stromregelkonzeptes, der Untersuchung des aktiven Kurzschlusses und der Berechnung der Spannungswelligkeit im Generatorbetrieb aufgezeigt. Durch automatische Parametrierung und akausale Modellierung steht so eine Toolkette zur Verfugung, die aus den Geometriedaten der Maschine das Verhalten umfassend beschreibt und sich damit wie ein virtueller Prototyp verhalt.
Socioeconomic Interest Groups in Greece and Enlargement : Views and Inputs of the Greek Industry and Agriculture in the National Policy-Making Process

Given the priority of foreign policy considerations in the national enlargement policymaking, the inputs of the socio-economic interest groups have been to a large extent neglected. Hence, the overarching aim of the paper is to contribute to the better understanding of Greek policy-making on enlargement focusing primarily on the 1993-99 period. The paper examines the views of the Greek industry and agriculture and assesses their contribution in the process. The main argument is that the input of these two groups has been limited. This is due not only to the institutional framework of policy-making, the political culture of participation of interest groups in policy formation and the particular nature of the topic with due consideration paid to Cyprus and security issues, but also due to sectorspecific reasons. The Greek industry has supported enlargement at macro-level because of the economic and business opportunities it has presented. Hence, there has been a broad convergence of views about the positive potential of enlargement, which did not let any minor frictions escalate to major domestic crises. Participation has been on a reactive rather than proactive way. As regards agricultural interest groups, the agricultural production structure of the first ten new members did not pose significant challenges to the Greek agricultural sector. Hence, attention was not paid directly to enlargement. The initial broad and abstract terms of the discussion even after the presentation of the Agenda 2000 document contributed to this diffused interest. Attention has been paid to the proposed CAP reforms instead (which were of course heavily influenced by the prospect of enlargement).
Symmetric Mesomechanical Model for Failure Analysis of Heterogeneous Materials

This manuscript provides a novel reduced-order multiscale modeling methodology for failure analysis of heterogeneous materials. The proposed methodology is based on the computational homogenization method for bridging multiple spatial scales and the eigendeformation-based model reduction method to incorporate failure in the microconstituents and interfaces. This computationally-efficient modeling methodology leads to symmetric reduced-order algebraic systems for evaluation of the microscale boundary value problem. The order and coarse graining for the reduced-order system are systematically identified by a novel model development strategy. Verification studies reveal that the proposed methodology efficiently and accurately models the failure response. The proposed approach eliminates the spurious residual stress effect observed in reduced-order models, which pollutes the post-failure stress field at the macroscale.
Study on the Strategy for Hierarchical Speech Recognition

A novel strategy for hierarchical speech recognition is proposed in this paper. Based on space partition, it takes the advantage of each recognizer on subspace. It organizes recognizers in a manner of nested recursion. Experiment results show that the final performance of the new method can reach an error reduction about 33% compared with the best recognizer.
Development of an autonomous helicopter for aerial powerline inspections

Autonomous mini-helicopters have been seen as a viable option for aerial-based powerline inspections, however there are numerous research and engineering challenges in developing a system capable of achieving this task in a dependable manner. We have developed an autonomous helicopter as a research platform which will allow us to demonstrate proof-of-concept capabilities for powerline inspections. Through numerous development cycles and from flight test experience we have gained insights into the key challenges in this area. We discuss these insights, describe the helicopter platform and present our research progress in the area of obstacle avoidance for mini-helicopters.
Singular Classical Solutions of Euclidean Field Theories*

The classical solutions of the equations of motion are studied in some Euclidean field theory models either conformal invariant or non-invariant. In the conformal invariant models a virial theorem for merons is derived which is of the same form as the known one for instantons. Some examples of singular solutions are discussed. An interesting relation seems to hold between the local symmetry properties of the singular solutions and the degree of divergence of the Euclidean action. (Submitted to Physical Review D) *Supported by the Department of Energy under contract number EY-76-03-0515 t On leave from Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano, Italy 4-t On leave from Istituto di Fisica, Universita di Milano, Italy-2
T cell receptor-mediated negative selection of autoreactive T lymphocyte precursors occurs after commitment to the CD4 or CD8 lineages

To identify the maturational stage(s) during which T cell receptor (TCR)-mediated positive and negative selection occurs, we followed the development of CD4+8- and CD4-8+ T cells from TCRlo CD4+8+ thymic blasts in the presence of different positive and negative selecting (major histocompatibility complex or Mls) elements. We describe novel lineage-committed transitional intermediates that are TCRmed CD4+8lo or TCRmed CD4lo8+, and that show evidence of having been positively selected. Furthermore, negative selection is not evident until after cells have attained one of the TCRmed transitional phenotypes. Accordingly, we propose that negative selection in normal mice occurs only after TCRlo CD4+8+ precursors have been positively selected into either the CD4 or CD8 lineage.
Involvement of Peripheral Nerves in the Transgenic PLP-α-Syn Model of Multiple System Atrophy: Extending the Phenotype

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a fatal, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease with (oligodendro-)glial cytoplasmic α-synuclein (α-syn) inclusions (GCIs). Peripheral neuropathies have been reported in up to 40% of MSA patients, the cause remaining unclear. In a transgenic MSA mouse model featuring GCI-like inclusion pathology based on PLP-promoter driven overexpression of human α-syn in oligodendroglia motor and non-motor deficits are associated with MSA-like neurodegeneration. Since α-syn is also expressed in Schwann cells we aimed to investigate whether peripheral nerves are anatomically and functionally affected in the PLP-α-syn MSA mouse model. Results To this end, heat/cold as well as mechanical sensitivity tests were performed. Furthermore, in vivo and ex vivo nerve conduction and the G-ratios of the sciatic nerve were analyzed, and thermosensitive ion channel mRNA expression in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) was assessed. The presence of human α-syn in Schwann cells was associated with subtle behavioral impairments. The G-ratio of the sciatic nerve, the conduction velocity of myelinated and unmyelinated primary afferents and the expression of thermosensitive ion channels in the sensory neurons, however, were similar to wildtype mice. Conclusion Our results suggest that the PNS appears to be affected by Schwann cell α-syn deposits in the PLP-α-syn MSA mouse model. However, there was no consistent evidence for functional PNS perturbations resulting from such α-syn aggregates suggesting a more central cause of the observed behavioral abnormalities. Nonetheless, our results do not exclude a causal role of α-syn in the pathogenesis of MSA associated peripheral neuropathy.
An 860 to 960MHz RFID Reader IC in CMOS

A UHF RFID reader IC in 0.18 mum CMOS covering the entire 860 MHz to 960 MHz RFID band is presented in this paper. The IC meets the EPC Class-1 Generation-2 and ISO-18000 standards. The transmitter output is +10 dBm and the receiver sensitivity is -96 dBm in listen-before-talk mode (LBT) and -85 dBm in talk-mode (TM). The IC contains 10-bit DACs, pulse-shaping filters, IQ modulator and power amplifier in transmit chain and receive front-end with IQ down converter, channel-select filters with variable-gain amplifiers and 10-bit ADCs. The frequency resolution of 50 kHz is achieved with the on-chip dual-loop synthesizer with phase noise of -101 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. The chip incorporates ASK demodulators. The chip has a die area of 6 mm times 6 mm and draws 300 mA current from 1.8 V supply and operates over a temperature range from -25degC to +75degC.
Virtue Ethics

The discipline of philosophy is not given to hyperbole, so it would probably be a mistake to say that the 1958 publication of Elizabeth Anscombe’s essay, “Modern Moral Philosophy,” touched off a “revolution” in moral philosophy. Perhaps we might say more accurately that the publication of Anscombe’s essay represented if not a revolution, then at the very least a recovery of an ethical tradition that had long been in eclipse: virtue ethics. In her essay, Anscombe critiqued long-standing ethical theories such as those of deontology and consequentialism, which were grounded in concepts of duty and obligation—the ethics of “should” and “ought. ” Anscombe argued that such theories historically derived their authority from God as a lawgiver, a conception that modern moral philosophy no longer assumed, thus rendering doctrines of duty and obligation unintelligible. “It is as if the notion of ‘criminal’ were to remain,” Anscombe wrote, “when criminal law and criminal courts had been forgotten” (176). Anscombe recommended that philosophers discard such language and look instead to the ancient ethical writings of Plato and Aristotle and, in particular, to their conceptions of character and virtue. Alasdair MacIntyre, writing some two decades after Anscombe, made a similar critique of the state of modern moral philosophy in the West. In his celebrated book After Virtue, MacIntyre argued that, following the rejection of the Aristotelian teleological tradition that provided a rational account of morality, the moral theories of Western societies were profoundly incoherent, borrowing from multiple ethical theories but having no means of deciding among incommensurable moral claims. Contemporary debates on such topics as war and peace, the right to an abortion, or the role of government in citizen’s lives, Macintyre asserted, were argued in Western culture on the basis of seemingly arbitrary premises with no shared moral language or “rational way of weighing the claims of one against the other” (8). The result was that such arguments were reduced to a cycle of assertions and counter-assertions, unproductive and interminable. “Hence perhaps,” MacIntyre Rhetoric Review, Vol. 37, No. 4, 321–392, 2018 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0735-0198 print / 1532-7981 online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2018. 1497882
Induction of Cell Cycle Arrest in Lymphocytes by Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Cytolethal Distending Toxin Requires Three Subunits for Maximum Activity1

We have previously shown that Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans produces an immunosuppressive factor encoded by the cytolethal distending toxin (cdt)B gene. In this study, we used rCdt peptides to study the contribution of each subunit to toxin activity. As previously reported, CdtB is the only Cdt subunit that is capable of inducing cell cycle arrest by itself. Although CdtA and CdtC do not exhibit activity alone, each subunit is able to significantly enhance the ability of CdtB to induce G2 arrest in Jurkat cells; these effects were dependent upon protein concentration. Moreover, the combined addition of both CdtA and CdtC increased the ED50 for CdtB >7000-fold. In another series of experiments, we demonstrate that the three Cdt peptides are able to form a functional toxin unit on the cell surface. However, these interactions first require that a complex forms between the CdtA and CdtC subunits, indicating that these peptides are required for interaction between the cell and the holotoxin. This conclusion is further supported by experiments in which both Jurkat cells and normal human lymphocytes were protected from Cdt holotoxin-induced G2 arrest by pre-exposure to CdtA and CdtC. Finally, we have used optical biosensor technology to show that CdtA and CdtC have a strong affinity for one another (10−7 M). Furthermore, although CdtB is unable to bind to either CdtA or CdtC alone, it is capable of forming a stable complex with CdtA/CdtC. The implications of our results with respect to the function and structure of the Cdt holotoxin are discussed.
Towards a Generalized Approach for Correction of the BRDF Effect in MODIS Directional Reflectances

We propose a new method for the estimation and the correction of directional effect on satellite derived surface reflectance time series. The correction assumes that the shape of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) varies much more slowly than the reflectance magnitude. The BRDF shape is quantified by two parameters R and V which account primarily for surface scattering and volume (canopy) scattering processes. Assuming a constant shape throughout the year permits an easy inversion of the two parameters that are used for a normalization of the reflectance time series to a standard observation geometry. Using this method, the corrected time series of data from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer show much less high frequency variability than the original input data. A refinement of the method accounts for a slow variation of R and V, linearly with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) accounting for vegetation dynamics, and produces an even better correction of directional effects and noise reduction in the time series. The nonlinear short-term variations in the reflectances, which are interpreted as ldquonoise,rdquo are strongly reduced, by a factor of two to four. The reduction in noise in the NDVI time series is less, as the index already implicitly corrects for the directional effects. Nevertheless, the noise in the NDVI time series is reduced by typically 30%-40%. Although the main output of processing using the method is the corrected reflectance, estimates of R and V are also generated. Global and regional map of these parameters show coherent patterns consistent with landcover.
Impact of exclusion region and spreading in spectrum-sharing ad hoc networks

In wireless ad hoc network medium access control (MAC) protocol design, it is important to incorporate an exclusion region around a receiver, such that nodes inside the exclusion region are not allowed to transmit, to limit the interference caused to the receiver. In this paper, we investigate the performance trends of a spread-spectrum-based network with respect to outage constraints and derive its relationship with the size of the exclusion region and the spreading factor. A non-spread-spectrum-based network is a special case with a spreading factor of one. We show that there exists an optimal size for the exclusion region with respect to maximizing the performance of the network which depends upon the spreading factor used in the network. It is also shown that the throughput of the network degrades while the throughput of individual users improves with an increase in spreading factor. These results are used to show that spectrum-sharing (SS) schemes based on interference-avoidance are desirable from a network performance perspective while interference-averaging-based SS schemes are desirable from the perspective of the performance of individual users.