Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Rab1 mutant affecting guanine nucleotide exchange promotes disassembly of the Golgi apparatus

The Golgi apparatus is a dynamic organelle whose structure is sensitive to vesicular traffic and to cell cycle control. We have examined the potential role for rab1a, a GTPase previously associated with ER to Golgi and intra-Golgi transport, in the formation and maintenance of Golgi structure. Bacterially expressed, recombinant rab1a protein was microinjected into rat embryonic fibroblasts, followed by analysis of Golgi morphology by fluorescence and electron microscopy. Three recombinant proteins were tested: wild-type rab, mutant rab1a(S25N), a constitutively GDP-bound form (Nuoffer, C., H. W. Davidson, J. Matteson, J. Meinkoth, and W. E. Balch, 1994. J. Cell Biol. 125: 225- 237), and mutant rab1a(N124I) defective in guanine nucleotide binding. Microinjection of wild-type rab1a protein or a variety of negative controls (injection buffer alone or activated ras protein) did not affect the appearance of the Golgi, as visualized by immunofluorescence of alpha-mannosidase II (Man II), used as a Golgi marker. In contrast, microinjection of the mutant forms promoted the disassembly of the Golgi stacks into dispersed vesicular structures visualized by immunofluorescence. When S25N-injected cells were analyzed by EM after immunoperoxidase labeling, Man II was found in isolated ministacks and large vesicular elements that were often surrounded by numerous smaller unlabeled vesicles resembling carrier vesicles. Golgi disassembly caused by rab1a mutants differs from BFA-induced disruption, since beta- COP remains membrane associated, and Man II does not redistribute to the ER. BFA can still cause these residual Golgi elements to fuse and disperse, albeit at a slower rate. Moreover, BFA recovery is incomplete in the presence of rab1 mutants or GTP gamma S. We conclude that GTP exchange and hydrolysis by GTPases, specifically rab1a, are required to form and maintain normal Golgi stacks. The similarity of Golgi disassembly seen with rab1a mutants to that occurring during mitosis, may point to a molecular basis involving rab1a for fragmentation of the Golgi apparatus during cell division.
Adverse reaction to ipratropium bromide.

bronchiolectasis per se would increase intrapulmonary shunts, though destruction of the pulmonary capillary bed might possibly cause pulmonary hypertension with opening of arteriovenous shunts, as shown by Niden and Aviado after pulmonary embolisation.7 It is reasonable to believe, however, that there would be a major increase in the pulmonary dead space since the volume of the terminal conducting air passages is substantially increased relative to gas-exchange tissue. An association between bronchiolectasis and dead space is clearly shown in fig 4 and it seems probable that the relation is causal. It is unlikely that the use of high inspired concentrations of oxygen is a factor in the development of bronchiolectasis. Comparisons of ventilation with air and oxygen were made in a series of patients with irreversible head injury.8 At necropsy no differences in histological appearances of the lung were seen
Diversity of Cooperation in the Tragedy of the Commons

Common-pool resources are of fundamental importance in bi-ology and the social sciences. The use of a shared limitedresource is an exemplar of a situation in which individualscan behave cooperatively, through modest consumption, orselﬁshly, through excessive consumption (Hardin 1968, 1998;Berkes et al. 1989; Ostrom et al. 1999; Ostrom 1999; Frank1989; Foster 2004). The essential paradox concerning the useof such common-pool resources is paraphrased by Hardin’scelebrated
Countering anti-forensics of image resampling

Image resampling leaves behind periodical artifacts which are used as fingerprints for the forensics. A knowledgeable anti-forensic method erases such artifacts by irregular sampling. We observe that the irregular sampling followed by interpolation causes changes in local linear correlations, and propose a novel method to detect the anti-forensic method of resampling via partial autocorrelation coefficients. Experimental results on a large set of images show that the proposed method could effectively detect the anti-forensics of resampling with a low dimensional feature set.
Confined Compression Tests of Cement Paste and Concrete up to 300 ksi

Tests of cylindrical specimens of O. 75 in. diameter up to 300.000 psi axial compression stress have been conducted for hardened portland cement paste as well as concrete with ! Is in. aggregate. The specimens tightly fit into a cylindrical cavity in a pressure vessel and are loaded axially by a hard piston. The pressure vessel is very stiff, forcing the lateral expansion of specimens to be so small that the strain is almost uniaxial. Sophisticated analysis is used to evaluate material proper­ ties from measurements of force and displacement on the loading piston outside the test cavity. The results indicate [hat an initial de­ crease of the tangent modulus is followed by a continuous increase reaching values that exceed the initial modulus. This stiffening is at­ tributed to pore closure; however. not all pores can yet be closed at the peak pressure. Unloading and reloading reveals relatively low hysteresis at these high pressures. Reloading beyond the previous maximum strain returns the response to the virgin diagram. Creep is found to exist at these high press ures. with a similar value of creep coefficient as that applicable for the service stress range. The results are presented in the form of diagrams as well as smoothing formulas. The tests reproduce well and the scatter is small.
ICT-Pedagogy Integration in Teacher Training: Application Cases Worldwide

Teaching is becoming one of the most challenging professions in our society where knowledge is expanding rapidly and modern technologies are demanding teachers to learn how to use these technologies in their teaching. While new technologies increase teachers’ training needs, they also offer part of the solution. Information and communication technology (ICT) can provide more flexible and effective ways for professional development for teachers, improve pre- and in-service teacher training, and connect teachers to the global teacher community. This paper analyses and organizes a variety of approaches found in ICT uses in teacher training into a four-cell matrix. Based on the analysis of those approaches, it discusses new possibilities and challenges that ICT has brought to teacher training and professional development. It concludes with discussion of emerging research issues with respect to ICT integration into teacher training and networking.
Foraging Behavior of Spring Bees and Their Agricultural Implications

FORAGING BEHAVIOR OF SPRING BEES AND THEIR AGRICULTURAL IMPLICATIONS Michael D. Gregory Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. Lisa Horth Colony Collapse Disorder has greatly reduced honey bee populations in the last decade. Native bees have been largely neglected in research, and their floral preferences may have agricultural implications because native bees ameliorate the demand to rely solely on nonnative bees. In this work, pollinator visitation to flowers with manipulated ultraviolet floral patterns was monitored. Populations of wild showy golden-eye in Colorado, plus cultivar populations of black-eyed Susan and lawn populations of buttercups in Virginia were monitored for pollinator landings to compare preference for unmanipulated ultraviolet-absorptive floral guide preferences. Anther number, a proxy for pollen load, was manipulated on strawberry flowers to determine whether this treatment affected mason bee visitation frequency. Three mason bee densities (three, six and nine bees in ≈2.33 m2) were compared in three greenhouses, each stocked with 10 strawberry plants. Bee visitations were monitored and berry size and symmetry were measured. Mason bee emergence rates were compared in two environments (natural conditions and temperature-controlled conditions) for cocoons. Field surveys was conducted to evaluate which native pollinators naturally recruited to field blackberries. Higher visitation rates were found for flowers with larger ultraviolet-absorptive floral guides and stamen manipulations. Mason bees did visit flowers but did not demonstrate any preference for flowers with more stamen. Bee density did not affect berry weight or berry symmetry. High emergence rates were observed in both natural and controlled environments and more bees emerged in the controlled environment. Sweat bees and bumble bees were the major visitors to blackberry flowers but honey bees were not present. This work builds upon earlier findings that pollinators prefer larger ultraviolet patterns and supports a more generalizable phenomenon. This study further suggests that mason bees may be commercially valuable given their peak of in mid-summer, coinciding with the pollination period of fruiting crops. Native pollinators may play an important role in blackberry pollination because of their relatively high abundance relative to honey bees.
Content analysis of random cell injection in ATM networks

This paper presents an analysis of random bitstream content segmented into fixed-length "cells" similar to those used in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. This bitstream is generated by randomly interleaving cells from a source with deterministic character with those of white-noise character. The autocorrelation function of this bitstream is derived using a hidden Markov model (HMM). Simulations are presented for a range of injected cell to valid data cell ratios. Noticeable changes in content can be observed for ratios as low as one random cell to one hundred valid data cells.
Antibody Immunity Induced by H7N9 Avian Influenza Vaccines: Evaluation Criteria, Affecting Factors, and Implications for Rational Vaccine Design

Severe H7N9 avian influenza virus (AIV) infections in humans have public health authorities around the world on high alert for the potential development of a human influenza pandemic. Currently, the newly-emerged highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H7N9) virus poses a dual challenge for public health and poultry industry. Numerous H7N9 vaccine candidates have been generated using various platforms. Immunization trials in animals and humans showed that H7N9 vaccines are apparently poorly immunogenic because they induced low hemagglutination inhibition and virus neutralizing antibody titers. However, H7N9 vaccines elicit comparable levels of total hemagglutinin (HA)-reactive IgG antibody as the seasonal influenza vaccines, suggesting H7N9 vaccines are as immunogenic as their seasonal counterparts. A large fraction of overall IgG antibody is non-neutralizing antibody and they target unrecognized epitopes outside of the traditional antigenic sites in HA. Further, the Treg epitope identified in H7 HA may at least partially contribute to regulation of antibody immunity. Here, we review the latest advances for the development of H7N9 vaccines and discuss the influence of serological criteria on evaluation of immunogenicity of H7N9 vaccines. Next, we discuss factors affecting antibody immunity induced by H7N9 vaccines, including the change in antigenic epitopes in HA and the presence of the Treg epitope. Last, we present our perspectives for the unique features of antibody immunity of H7N9 vaccines and propose some future directions to improve or modify antibody response induced by H7N9 vaccines. This perspective would provide critical implications for rational design of H7N9 vaccines for human and veterinary use.
Spoken and Written News Story Segmentation Using Lexical Chains

In this paper we describe a novel approach to lexical chain based segmentation of broadcast news stories. Our segmentation system SeLeCT is evaluated with respect to two other lexical cohesion based segmenters TextTiling and C99. Using the Pk and WindowDiff evaluation metrics we show that SeLeCT outperforms both systems on spoken news transcripts (CNN) while the C99 algorithm performs best on the written newswire collection (Reuters). We also examine the differences between spoken and written news styles and how these differences can affect segmentation accuracy.
Hexavalent chromium induces reactive oxygen species and impairs the antioxidant power of human erythrocytes and lymphocytes: Decreased metal reducing and free radical quenching ability of the cells

The toxicity of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] in biological systems is thought to be closely associated with the generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species. These species are produced when Cr(VI) is reduced to its trivalent form in the cell. This process results in oxidative stress due to an imbalance between the detoxifying ability of the cell and the production of free radicals. We have studied the effect of potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7), a [Cr(VI)] compound, on the antioxidant power of human erythrocytes and lymphocytes under in vitro conditions. Incubation of erythrocytes and lymphocytes with different concentrations of K2Cr2O7 resulted in a marked dose-dependent decrease in reduced glutathione and an increase in oxidized glutathione and reactive oxygen species levels. The antioxidant power of the cells was decreased, as determined by metal reducing and free radical quenching assays. These results show that [Cr(VI)] upregulates the generation of reactive oxygen species and, as a consequence, the cellular antioxidant defences are compromised. The resulting oxidative stress may contribute to Cr(VI)-induced cellular damage.
Sequential Posted-Price Mechanisms with Correlated Valuations

We study the revenue performance of sequential posted-price mechanisms and some natural extensions for a setting where the valuations of the buyers are drawn from a correlated distribution. Sequential posted-price mechanisms are conceptually simple mechanisms that work by proposing a “take-it-or-leave-it” offer to each buyer. We apply sequential posted-price mechanisms to single-parameter multiunit settings in which each buyer demands only one item and the mechanism can assign the service to at most k of the buyers. For standard sequential posted-price mechanisms, we prove that with the valuation distribution having finite support, no sequential posted-price mechanism can extract a constant fraction of the optimal expected revenue, even with unlimited supply. We extend this result to the case of a continuous valuation distribution when various standard assumptions hold simultaneously (i.e., everywhere-supported, continuous, symmetric, and normalized (conditional) distributions that satisfy regularity, the MHR condition, and affiliation). In fact, it turns out that the best fraction of the optimal revenue that is extractable by a sequential posted-price mechanism is proportional to the ratio of the highest and lowest possible valuation. We prove that a simple generalization of these mechanisms achieves a better revenue performance; namely, if the sequential posted-price mechanism has for each buyer the option of either proposing an offer or asking the buyer for its valuation, then a Ω (1/max { 1,d}) fraction of the optimal revenue can be extracted, where d denotes the degree of dependence of the valuations, ranging from complete independence (d=0) to arbitrary dependence (d = n-1).
Gravitational waves by gamma-ray bursts and the Virgo detector: the case of GRB 050915a

In the framework of the expected association between gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave signals, we present the preliminary results of an analysis aimed to search for bursts of gravitational waves associated with the long GRB 050915a. GRB 050915a was detected by the Swift satellite in 2005, when the Virgo detector was engaged in one of its science runs, namely the C7 run, during which the best sensitivity attained in 2005 was exhibited. This offered the opportunity for the first coincident analysis between a gamma-ray burst and the Virgo gravitational wave detector. Here we give an overview of this ongoing analysis, which at the end will play the role of a prototype, crucial in defining a methodology for gamma-ray burst triggered searches with Virgo. The final results of our analysis will also allow us to evaluate up to which level Virgo will be able to constrain the amplitude of the gravitational wave signal from a typical long gamma-ray burst.
L’altération des minéraux dans les sols forestiers du Bouclier Canadien : quels facteurs environnementaux affectent la variabilité spatiale et temporelle de la mise en solution des cations basiques?

Mineral weathering is an important nutrient provider for plants, and these processes play a key role in the neutralization of acid inputs in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Silicate weathering and its coupling with the vegetation also constitutes a carbon sink and controls the long-term evolution of the climate. Despite the central role of mineral weathering processes in the overall biogeochemical cycle of elements, there is no standard method for quantifying the rates at which minerals weather. Moreover, the impact of environmental changes on these processes remains difficult to anticipate in natural environments. Mineral weathering results from the complex interaction of hydro-climatic (precipitation, temperature, soil moisture), biochemical (pH, organic matter, biological activities) and physical factors with soils or parental material. However, the multidimensional nature of mineral weathering has rarely been considered in studies aiming at analyzing the impacts of environmental variables on these processes in the natural environments. Furthermore, approaches that allow to analyze the integrated effects of several simultaneously acting factors have been little explored. Through this thesis, we have: 1) analyzed the spatial variability of historical and contemporary weathering rates of base cations (Ca, Mg, Na and K) in a wide geographical area in Quebec; 2) evaluated the agreement between three methods for estimating mineral weathering rates; 3) developed a new approach for estimating base cation weathering rates on an annual time scale in order to analyze temporal variability in mineral weathering rates; and 4) examined the impact of the watershed characteristics and environmental factors on the variability of weathering rates. The results show that climate-related variables accounted for up to 51.6% of the spatial variation in contemporary weathering rates of base cations. Variables related to ion sources (lithology, sulphate deposition and soil properties) also explained a significant proportion of the variation. As for historical base cation weathering rates, soil properties, such as surface area and mineralogical composition, were the main determinants of their spatial variability in the study area. Regarding the temporal variability of base cation weathering rates, the results of this research show that they depend essentially on the evolution of hydro-climatic conditions. Overall, base cation weathering rates are positively affected by temperature, percent deciduous canopy cover, precipitation as rain, sulphate
Designing multiple types of spatial and non spatial databases integration model using formal specification approach

Most developer prefers not to use formal specification (FS) approach in designing a database system. In recent years, these approaches have been seen as rivals, a new consensus has been developed in which software developers are agreed it as complementary. Theoretically this approach can reduce the overall development time, use to provide an unambiguous and precise supplement to natural language descriptions. Focus to this point, it can be rigorously validated and verified leading to the early detection of specification errors or debugs during software development process. Correcting errors at the early development stage is cheaper than modifying a delivered system. A FS could be verified in order to explore the consequences of this specification and potentially find mistakes. After it was done, we have greater confidence that the testing of such system against the actual user requirement specification. This paper discusses the FS of spatial and non spatial Information Databases Integration (SIDIF) model as a case study.
Approaching on Colorimetric Change of Porous Calcareous Rocks Exposed in Urban Environmental Conditions from Iasi – Romania

According to the scientific literature, the pollution phenomenon is strongly related by the urban activity from the last decades, with direct effects on the state of conservation of the stone constructions also. This paper presents a preliminary study on the colorimetric evolution of the lithic surfaces exposed under strongly traffic influence from the urban microclimate conditions. The analysed lithic surfaces are similar with the building stone from the structure of an historical monument (from 19th century), such as the Stone Bridge in Iasi-Romania, located in the immediate vicinity of the roadside loop with the same name. The colour change monitoring for the above-mentioned geomaterials aims at anticipating the effects of postponing the decongestion of car traffic and implicitly initiating the assessment of the effects of pollution over this historic monument, which is in an advanced state of deterioration and degradation.
Transcriptome Analysis of an Insecticide Resistant Housefly Strain: Insights about SNPs and Regulatory Elements in Cytochrome P450 Genes

Background Insecticide resistance in the housefly, Musca domestica, has been investigated for more than 60 years. It will enter a new era after the recent publication of the housefly genome and the development of multiple next generation sequencing technologies. The genetic background of the xenobiotic response can now be investigated in greater detail. Here, we investigate the 454-pyrosequencing transcriptome of the spinosad-resistant 791spin strain in relation to the housefly genome with focus on P450 genes. Results The de novo assembly of clean reads gave 35,834 contigs consisting of 21,780 sequences of the spinosad resistant strain. The 3,648 sequences were annotated with an enzyme code EC number and were mapped to 124 KEGG pathways with metabolic processes as most highly represented pathway. One hundred and twenty contigs were annotated as P450s covering 44 different P450 genes of housefly. Eight differentially expressed P450s genes were identified and investigated for SNPs, CpG islands and common regulatory motifs in promoter and coding regions. Functional annotation clustering of metabolic related genes and motif analysis of P450s revealed their association with epigenetic, transcription and gene expression related functions. The sequence variation analysis resulted in 12 SNPs and eight of them found in cyp6d1. There is variation in location, size and frequency of CpG islands and specific motifs were also identified in these P450s. Moreover, identified motifs were associated to GO terms and transcription factors using bioinformatic tools. Conclusion Transcriptome data of a spinosad resistant strain provide together with genome data fundamental support for future research to understand evolution of resistance in houseflies. Here, we report for the first time the SNPs, CpG islands and common regulatory motifs in differentially expressed P450s. Taken together our findings will serve as a stepping stone to advance understanding of the mechanism and role of P450s in xenobiotic detoxification.