Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Fluorimetric Sensor for Detection of One Living Cell

Nowadays, studies of metabolic pathways and processes in living organisms cannot be easily done at the cellular level. That is why the development of a new analytical methods and approaches is needed, to allow detection of different biologically important species at very low concentrations levels and sample volumes, especially in individual cells. In the present work, we suggested a sensor to detect units of living cells by means determination of plant esterases (PE) based on fluorimetric detection of the products of the enzymatic hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate in plant cell cultures (BY-2 tobacco cells and early somatic embryos of Norway spruce, clone 2/32). We standardized the sensor using a readily available esterase from pig liver. The detection limits were approximately 17 to 50 amol in 2 ml (8.5 to 25 femtomolar concentrations of esterases) of the enzyme contained in BY-2 tobacco cells and spruce early somatic embryos, respectively, after re-computation on the amounts of pig liver esterases. We assumed that the optimised sensor for the determination of PE in cell extracts accomplishes all requirements for a sensitive analysis which could be usable for single cell analysis. The detection limit was 1.5 in case of analysing BY-2 tobacco cells and 0.5 in early somatic embryos. Moreover, we were able to detect single protoplasts.
A Model of Transfer Pricing Conflicts Between Revenue Canada and the Internal Revenue Service

Although both Canada and the United States use the ? arm? s length standard? when evaluating transfer prices for tax purposes, they disagree over which transfer pricing methods are acceptable. Both countries accept methods based on comparable transactions and gross margins of comparable products. The U.S. also accepts, and may in practice prefer, methods based on net profits of comparable firms. Canada resists using the comparable profit method. This paper examines the effects of the various transfer pricing methods on the allocation of taxable income in a model in which organization structure affects the level of relationship-specific investments made by vertically integrated groups and comparable independent firms. Analysis of the model shows that the five transfer pricing methods considered are not equivalent. The comparable profit method allocates less income to Canada in cases involving U.S. parents and Canadian subsidiaries, and in cases in which more reliable gross margin data is available for U.S. firms than for Canadian firms.
QUANTITATIVE GENETICS OF CONTINUOUS REACTION NORMS: THERMAL SENSITIVITY OF CATERPILLAR GROWTH RATES

Abstract A continuous reaction norm or performance curve represents a phenotypic trait of an individual or genotype in which the trait value may vary with some continuous environmental variable. We explore patterns of genetic variation in thermal performance curves of short-term caterpillar growth rate in a population of Pieris rapae. We compare multivariate methods, which treat performance at each test temperature as a distinct trait, with function-valued methods that treat a performance curve as a continuous function. Mean growth rate increased with increasing temperatures from 8 to 35°C, was highest at 35°C, and declined at 40°C. There was substantial and significant variation among full-sib families in their thermal performance curves. Estimates of broad-sense genetic variances and covariances showed that genetic variance in growth rate increased more than 30-fold from low (8–11°C) to high (35–40°C) temperatures, even after differences in mean growth rate across temperatures were removed. Growth rate at 35 and 40°C was negatively correlated genetically, suggesting a genetic trade-off in growth rate at these temperatures; this trade-off may represent either a generalist-specialist trade-off and/or variation in the optimal temperature for growth. The estimated genetic variance-covariance function (G function), the function-valued analog of the variance-covariance matrix (G matrix), was quite bumpy compared with the estimated G matrix; and results of principal component analyses of the G function were difficult to interpret. The use of orthogonal polynomials as the basis functions in current function-valued estimation methods may generate artifacts when the true G function has prominent local features, such as strong negative covariances at nearby temperatures (e.g. at 35 and 40°C); this may be a particular issue for thermal performance curves and other highly nonlinear reaction norms.
Loom Data Monitoring using Wireless Technology

Data transmission using wireless technology is undergoing a boom in home and office sector where it is experiencing two figure growth rates. The principal advantages of this technology are its mobility and minimal installation requirements coupled with its availability at low cost thanks to millions of devices in use. It makes obvious sense to also utilize these advantages in industrial automation environments. In the field of industrial communication, it is quite often necessary to transmit time-critical control signals between sensors, actuators and the automation network. This paper compares Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology in industrial communication and describe using it in loom data monitoring
Optic Disc Localization in Retinal Images Based on Cumulative Sum Fields

This paper describes an automatic method for the optic disc localization in retinal images, which is effective and reliable with multiple datasets. Particularly, the described method reveals very effective dealing with retinal images with large pathological signs. The algorithm begins with a new vessel enhancement method based on a modified corner detector. Subsequently, a weighted version of the vessel enhancement is combined with morphological operators, to detect the four main vessels orientations {0°, 45°, 90°, 135°}. These four image functions have all the necessary information to determine an initial optic disc localization, resulting in two images that are respectively divided along the vertical or horizontal orientations with different division sizes. Each division is averaged creating a 2-D step function, and a cumulative sum of the different sizes step functions is calculated in the vertical and horizontal orientations, resulting in an initial optic disc position. The final optic disc localization is determined by a vessel convergence algorithm using its two most relevant features; high vasculature convergence and high intensity values. The proposed method was evaluated in eight publicly available datasets, including the STARE and DRIVE datasets. The optic disc was localized correctly in 1752 out of the 1767 retinal images (99.15%) with an average computation time of 18.34 s.
Effects of star-formation stochasticity on the Lyα and Lyman continuum emission from dwarf galaxies during reionization

Observations of distant galaxies play a key role in improving our understanding of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The observed Ly emission line strength { quantied by its restframe equivalent width (EW) { provides a valuable diagnostic of stellar populations and dust in galaxies during and after the EoR. In this paper we quantify the eects of star formation stochasticity on the predicted Ly EW in dwarf galaxies, using the publicly available code SLUG (used to 'Stochastically Light Up Galaxies'). We compute the number of hydrogen ionizing photons, as well as ux in the Far UV for a set of models with star formation rates (SFR) in the range 10 3 -1 M yr 1 . From these uxes we compute the luminosity, L , and the EW of the Ly line. We nd that stochasticity alone induces a broad distribution in L and EW at a xed SFR, and that the widths of these distributions decrease with increasing SFR. We parameterize the EW probability density function (PDF) as an SFR{dependent double power law. We
Parallel search for Ramsey grid colorings

Monochromatic-square-free grid coloring is a challenging computational problem with connections to Ramsey-theoretic combinatorics and multiparty communication complexity for which no polynomial time algorithm is known. In this paper, we report on a parallel search for exact grid coloring solutions and its implementation on a large-scale cluster computer. We obtain the first-known 2-color solution for the 14x14 grid.
Lazy Assertions — Draft —

Assertions test expected properties of run-time values without dissrupting the normal working of a program. So in a lazy functional language assertions should be lazy — not forcing evaluation, but only examining what is evaluated by other parts of the program. We describe two different ways of embedding lazy assertions in Haskell, one sequential and the other concurrent. Examples illustrate the relative merits of the two approaches. We also show that timely failure of lazy assertions may require assertions in assertions!
Enhancing recovery using an SSD buffer pool extension

Recent advances in solid state technology have led to the introduction of solid state drives (SSDs). Today's SSDs store data persistently using NAND flash memory and support good random IO performance. Current work in exploiting flash in database systems has primarily focused on using its random IO capability for second level bufferpools below main memory. There has not been much emphasis on exploiting its persistence. In this paper, we describe a mechanism extending our previous work on a SSD Bufferpool on a DB2 LUW prototype, to exploit the SSD persistence for recovery and normal restart. We demonstrate significantly shorter recovery times, and improved performance immediately after recovery completes. We quantify the overhead of supporting recovery and show that the overhead is minimal.
Immunosuppression Induced by Chronic Inflammation and the Progression to Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an aggressive, invasive malignancy of epithelial origin. The progression from premalignant lesions—oral leukoplakia (OLK) and oral lichen planus (OLP)—to OSCC involves complex inflammatory processes that have not been elucidated. We investigated the roles of inflammatory mediators and infiltrating immunocytes in the pathogenic progression of OLK and OLP to OSCC. The occurrence of regulatory T-cells (Tregs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines and proinflammatory cytokines were investigated in OLK, OLP, and OSCC tissues. Immunohistochemical staining of CD4, FOXP3, CD68, TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-4, IFN-γ, and MCP-1 showed that the occurrence of Tregs and TAMs increased in parallel with disease progression in OLK and OSCC. IL-10 gradually increased during the early stages of OLK and in OSCC. Infiltrating IL-4+ macrophages were seen with increasing frequency in OLK tissue during the progression of oral dysplasia. Fewer TGF-β1+ macrophages were seen in OSCC than in OLK and OLP. The expression of IFN-γ decreased gradually with the OLK development and had the lowest expression in OSCC. MCP-1 expression did not change significantly during the development of OSCC. The results suggested that the immunosuppression induced by chronic inflammation promotes tumorigenesis in OSCC, rather than initiating it.
The extended split index to efficiently store and retrieve spatial data with standard databases

Geometric and geographic data have special demands on the database query mechanism. To store and retrieve huge amounts of geo data, special spatial databases thus offer geometric column types and spatial indexes. Even though spatial databases are getting more and more available, spatial operations are not standardized, thus applications cannot easily switch between different databases. Moreover, spatial databases are not available for all platforms. Mobile device platforms, e.g., usually only support standard databases without any spatial extensions. Our approach is thus based on relational standard databases and we introduce a spatial add-on that translates geometric queries to standard SQL. It provides a new spatial index, the Extended Split Index, which is optimized for the add-on. It especially avoids any index reorganization, makes use of one-dimensional non-spatial indexes available in SQL databases and heavily reduces the number of candidates that have to undergo further geometric checks. We demonstrate the strength of our approach with a performance evaluation based on more than 200 000 geo objects.
Improving Grid-Based Methods for Estimating Value at Risk of Fixed-Income Portfolios

Jamshidian and Zhu (1997) propose a discrete grid method for simplifying the computation of Value at Risk (VaR) for fixed-income portfolios. Their method relies on two simplifications. First, the value of fixed income instruments is modeled as depending on a small number of risk factors chosen using principal components analysis. Second, they use a discrete approximation to the distribution of the portfolio's value. We show that their method has two serious shortcomings which imply it cannot accurately estimate VaR for some fixed-income portfolios. First, risk factors chosen using principal components analysis will explain the variation in the yield curve, but they may not explain the variation in the portfolio's value. This will be especially problematic for portfolios that are hedged. Second, their discrete distribution of portfolio value can be a poor approximation to the true continuous distribution. We propose two refinements to their method to correct these two shortcomings. First, we propose choosing risk factors according to their ability to explain the portfolio's value. To do this, instead of generating risk factors with principal components analysis, we generate them with a statistical technique called partial least squares. Second, we compute VaR with a ``Grid Monte Carlo'' method that uses continuous risk factor distributions while maintaining the computational simplicity of a grid method for pricing. We illustrate our points with several example portfolios where the Jamshidian-Zhu method fails to accurately estimate VaR, while our refinements succeed.
Kinesin-4 KIF21B is a potent microtubule pausing factor

Microtubules are dynamic polymers that in cells can grow, shrink or pause, but the factors that promote pausing are poorly understood. Here, we show that the mammalian kinesin-4 KIF21B is a processive motor that can accumulate at microtubule plus ends and induce pausing. A few KIF21B molecules are sufficient to induce strong growth inhibition of a microtubule plus end in vitro. This property depends on non-motor microtubule-binding domains located in the stalk region and the C-terminal WD40 domain. The WD40-containing KIF21B tail displays preference for a GTP-type over a GDP-type microtubule lattice and contributes to the interaction of KIF21B with microtubule plus ends. KIF21B also contains a motor-inhibiting domain that does not fully block the interaction of the protein with microtubules, but rather enhances its pause-inducing activity by preventing KIF21B detachment from microtubule tips. Thus, KIF21B combines microtubule-binding and regulatory activities that together constitute an autonomous microtubule pausing factor. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.24746. 001
Psychosocial Aspects of Tobacco Use and Nicotine Dependence among Mentally ill Patients Pertaining to Education & Income Coming to Psychiatry O.P.D.

Nicotine dependence is a very rampant problem among population in general but specially in mentally ill patients as they are generally vulnerable to this due to various reasons, there have been many studies done on this in the west but very few studies in India, so we conducted a study in the O.P.D. of our hospital, collected sociodemographic data & applied Modified Fagerstrom’s Test of smoking & smokeless tobacco for Nicotine Dependence, calculated statistical correlates by applying Chi Square test, Mann Whitney scale, Spearman’s Coeffecient.
Small Untranslated RNA Antitoxin in Bacillus subtilis

ABSTRACT Toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules are pairs of genes in which one member encodes a toxin that is neutralized or whose synthesis is prevented by the action of the product of the second gene, an antitoxin, which is either protein or RNA. We now report the identification of a TA module in the chromosome of Bacillus subtilis in which the antitoxin is an antisense RNA. The antitoxin, which is called RatA (for RNA antitoxin A), is a small (222 nucleotides), untranslated RNA that blocks the accumulation of the mRNA for a toxic peptide TxpA (for toxic peptide A; formerly YqdB). The txpA and ratA genes are in convergent orientation and overlap by ca. 75 nucleotides, such that the 3′ region of ratA is complementary to the 3′ region of txpA. Deletion of ratA led to increased levels of txpA mRNA and lysis of the cells. Overexpression of txpA also caused cell lysis and death, a phenotype that was prevented by simultaneous overexpression of ratA. We propose that the ratA transcript is an antisense RNA that anneals to the 3′ end of the txpA mRNA, thereby triggering its degradation.
Predicting physiologically relevant SH3 domain mediated protein–protein interactions in yeast

Motivation: Many intracellular signaling processes are mediated by interactions involving peptide recognition modules such as SH3 domains. These domains bind to small, linear protein sequence motifs which can be identified using high-throughput experimental screens such as phage display. Binding motif patterns can then be used to computationally predict protein interactions mediated by these domains. While many protein–protein interaction prediction methods exist, most do not work with peptide recognition module mediated interactions or do not consider many of the known constraints governing physiologically relevant interactions between two proteins. Results: A novel method for predicting physiologically relevant SH3 domain-peptide mediated protein–protein interactions in S. cerevisae using phage display data is presented. Like some previous similar methods, this method uses position weight matrix models of protein linear motif preference for individual SH3 domains to scan the proteome for potential hits and then filters these hits using a range of evidence sources related to sequence-based and cellular constraints on protein interactions. The novelty of this approach is the large number of evidence sources used and the method of combination of sequence based and protein pair based evidence sources. By combining different peptide and protein features using multiple Bayesian models we are able to predict high confidence interactions with an overall accuracy of 0.97. Availability and implementation: Domain-Motif Mediated Interaction Prediction (DoMo-Pred) command line tool and all relevant datasets are available under GNU LGPL license for download from http://www.baderlab. org/Software/DoMo-Pred. The DoMo-Pred command line tool is implemented using Python 2.7 and C ++. Contact: gary.bader@utoronto.ca Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A novel approach for personalizing the web using user profiling ontologies

Web personalization has become the recent trend in the internet era. There are various means for web personalization. On such approach is by creating ontologies and personalizing the web. Ontologies play an important role in the creation of the semantic web. In this paper a novel approach has been proposed for creation of user profiling ontologies(UPO) which is useful for personalizing the web. In this approach a cross ontology mechanism has been applied. The user queries are continuously monitored. Then the stemming process takes place and important keywords are extracted and the frequently visited web pages are ranked. Based on this UPO is automatically generated. Here ontology mapping mechanism is followed for mapping the UPO with that of the global ontology and thus the web pages are personalized which are compatible to user queries. Data samples are collected and the results show a good improvement using this approach.
Heart Rate Variability: Stress and Psychiatric Conditions

levels of central control. Although Walter Cannon clearly articulated the impact of emotion and other psychological processes on autonomic states (Cannon 1928), he viewed the autonomic nervous system largely as a homeostatic regulatory mechanism (Cannon 1929). Recent research, however, has revealed a re-representation and layering of autonomic functions from the spinal cord to rostral brain networks sufficiently similar reminiscent of those for somatomotor control that they suggest a common evolutionary heritage. Homeostatic functions of the autonomic nervous system are illustrated by the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex, through which a perturbation in blood pressure triggers a tightly coupled, reciprocal change in the activities of the autonomic branches. Postural hypotension, for example, results in a reflexive decrease in parasympathetic control of the heart, together with a reciprocal withdrawal of sympathetic cardiac control, which synergistically increase heart rate (and contractility). Together with vascular components, these changes serve to compensate for the hypotensive perturbation and normalize blood pressure (e.g. Cacioppo et al. 1994). Baroreceptor reflexes are prototypic homeostatic mechanisms, and are organized largely within lower central autonomic substrates at brainstem levels. Through evolutionary development of rostral brain systems, however, these lower autonomic circuits become integrated with higher neural networks (Berntson & Cacioppo 2000). Limbic and forebrain areas implicated in behavioural processes, including the hypothalamus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex, have been shown to issue monosynaptic projections to brainstem reflex networks as well as to autonomic source Introduction
Inhibiting Spinal Neuron-Astrocytic Activation Correlates with Synergistic Analgesia of Dexmedetomidine and Ropivacaine

Background This study aims to identify that intrathecal (i.t.) injection of dexmedetomidine (Dex) and ropivacaine (Ropi) induces synergistic analgesia on chronic inflammatory pain and is accompanied with corresponding “neuron-astrocytic” alterations. Methods Male, adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham, control and i.t. medication groups. The analgesia profiles of i.t. Dex, Ropi, and their combination detected by Hargreaves heat test were investigated on the subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of complete Freund adjuvant (CFA) induced chronic pain in rat and their synergistic analgesia was confirmed by using isobolographic analysis. During consecutive daily administration, pain behavior was daily recorded, and immunohistochemical staining was applied to investigate the number of Fos-immunoreactive (Fos-ir) neurons on hour 2 and day 1, 3 and 7, and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) within the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) on day 1, 3, 5 and 7 after s.c. injection of CFA, respectively, and then Western blot to examine spinal GFAP and β-actin levels on day 3 and 7. Results i.t. Dex or Ropi displayed a short-term analgesia in a dose-dependent manner, and consecutive daily administrations of their combination showed synergistic analgesia and remarkably down-regulated neuronal and astrocytic activations indicated by decreases in the number of Fos-ir neurons and the GFAP expression within the SDH, respectively. Conclusion i.t. co-delivery of Dex and Ropi shows synergistic analgesia on the chronic inflammatory pain, in which spinal “neuron-astrocytic activation” mechanism may play an important role.