Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cellular and molecular processes of regeneration, with special emphasis on fish fins

The phenomenon of ‘epimorphic regeneration’, a complete reformation of lost tissues and organs from adult differentiated cells, has been fascinating many biologists for many years. While most vertebrate species including humans do not have a remarkable ability for regeneration, the lower vertebrates such as urodeles and fish have exceptionally high regeneration abilities. In particular, the teleost fish has a high ability to regenerate a variety of tissues and organs including scales, muscles, spinal cord and heart among vertebrate species. Hence, an understanding of the regeneration mechanism in teleosts will provide an essential knowledge base for rational approaches to tissue and organ regeneration in mammals. In the last decade, small teleost fish such as the zebrafish and medaka have emerged as powerful animal models in which a variety of developmental, genetic and molecular approaches are applicable. In addition, rapid progress in the development of genome resources such as expressed sequence tags and genome sequences has accelerated the speed of the molecular analysis of regeneration. This review summarizes the current status of our understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of regeneration, particularly that regarding fish fins.
A Cascaded Inception of Inception Network With Attention Modulated Feature Fusion for Human Pose Estimation

Accurate keypoint localization of human pose needs diversified features: the high level for contextual dependencies and the low level for detailed refinement of joints. However, the importance of the two factors varies from case to case, but how to efficiently use the features is still an open problem. Existing methods have limitations in preserving low level features, adaptively adjusting the importance of different levels of features, and modeling the human perception process. This paper presents three novel techniques step by step to efficiently utilize different levels of features for human pose estimation. Firstly, an inception of inception (IOI) block is designed to emphasize the low level features. Secondly, an attention mechanism is proposed to adjust the importance of individual levels according to the context. Thirdly, a cascaded network is proposed to sequentially localize the joints to enforce message passing from joints of stand-alone parts like head and torso to remote joints like wrist or ankle. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art performance on both MPII and LSP benchmarks.
PARTISAN GOVERNANCE AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: THE POLITICS OF ACADEMY CONVERSION AMONGST ENGLISH SCHOOLS

This article demonstrates that party-political orientations within governance communities can have strong effects on policy implementation. Empirical evidence is drawn from the Academy conversion scheme for secondary schools in England that was recently pursued by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The opt-in nature of the reform makes it possible to discern the impact that nominally apolitical school governors have on the implementation of the policy. Academy conversion is disproportionately found in more Conservative-voting constituencies due to varying school-level propensities to apply to convert, rather than varying propensities for the Department for Education to authorize conversions. Further, applications to convert are significantly more likely from schools in Conservative parliamentary seats that are under the control of Labour local authorities. Thus, nominally apolitical policy participants appear to act in rather political ways, which has implications for our understanding of the involvement of civil society in the provision of public services.
Supplementary information for : One-and two-dimensional photonic crystal micro-cavities in single crystal diamond

1. Universität des Saarlandes, Fachrichtung 7.2 (Experimentalphysik), 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany 2. Universität des Saarlandes, Fachrichtung 8.4 (Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik), 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany 3. University of Freiburg, Departement of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), Cleanroom Service Center, 79110 Freiburg, Germany 4. TU Kaiserslautern, Nano+Bio Center, 67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany 5. Universität Augsburg, Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik IV, 86159 Augsburg, Germany
The Influence of Pleistocene Refugia on the Evolutionary History of the Japanese Hare, Lepus brachyurus

We performed a phylogeographic analysis of the Japanese hare, Lepus brachyurus, using the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (1140 bp). In total, 119 haplotypes were recovered from 197 samples isolated from 82 localities on three main islands of the Japanese archipelago: Honshu, Sikoku, Kyushu, Sado Island and the Oki Islands. Results showed two distinct clades at a genetic distance of 3.5%, equivalent to an estimated 1.2 million years. The two clades, encompassing seven subclades, showed an apparent geographic affinity to Kyushu, Shikoku and the nearby area of Honshu (southern group) by one clade, whereas the other clade covered the remaining area of Honshu (northern group). The landscape shape interpolation analysis exhibited a higher genetic diversity in the southern parts of central Honshu (northern group) and Shikoku and Kyushu regions (southern group), suggesting the existence of multiple geographical origins of population expansion in each clade. The Bayesian skyline plot analysis showed that lineage diversifications occurred about 0.35, 0.20 and 0.05 million years ago (Mya), which coincide closely with the glacial—interglacial cycles during the Pleistocene. Therefore, we suggest that the Japanese hare population once inhabited northern and southern refugia, and subsequently developed several populations through local demographic fluctuations. The present day demarcation in the northern and southern geographic groups is considered to be a temporal remnant of Pleistocene population dynamics and the geographic boundary between them could move or fade away in time.
Broader Distribution of Plasmid-Mediated Quinolone Resistance in the United States

ABSTRACT The plasmid-encoded quinolone resistance gene qnrA confers low-level quinolone resistance, facilitating selection of higher-level resistance. Epidemiologic surveys for qnrA were extended to isolates of Enterobacter spp. and to quinolone-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae. Two (10%) of 20 ceftazidime-resistant quinolone-susceptible Klebsiella pneumoniae strains carried the gene, as did 12 (17%) of 71 ceftazidime-resistant Enterobacter strains from across the United States. One of these Enterobacter isolates was quinolone susceptible. Thus, qnrA is present in quinolone-resistant and quinolone-susceptible Enterobacter and Klebsiella strains in the United States.
How much do we lose on non-quality?

The economic basis of national quality efforts is now seen as natural and beyond argument by most quality people. In order to obviate the fact that quality work is an essential contributor to national prosperity, we must incorporate quality indices into the current national economic indices. The national cost of non-quality is a natural index. The cost of waste caused by inadequate designing, planning and working practices in the economy are taking their toll from our treasury; in fact, as much as 30 percent of the gross national product is (carefully) estimated as cost of non-quality. One way of measuring and controlling this waste is to define and implement a national cost of non-quality index. Another approach, proposed here, is the creation of a simpler index, one that measures losses incurred to the public due to faulty products and services. This index is easy to measure and may serve as an indicator of the quality of products and services produced and provided to the population. Data collected in a.
Random walks on the lamplighter group

Kaimanovich and Vershik described certain finitely generated groups of exponential growth such that simple random walk on their Cayley graph escapes from the identity at a sublinear rate, or equivalently, all bounded harmonic functions on the Cayley graph are constant. Here we focus on a key example, called G 1 by Kaimanovich and Vershik, and show that inward-biased random walks on G 1 move outward faster than simple random walk. Indeed, they escape from the identity at a linear rate provided that the bias parameter is smaller than the growth rate of G 1 . These walks can be viewed as random walks interacting with a dynamical environment on Z. The proof uses potential theory to analyze a stationary environment as seen from the moving particle.
Becoming a ‘player’: Ireland and Aid Conditionality with Reference to Sudan

This article examines changes in the application of conditionality to Irish development policy with particular reference to Irish aid policy towards Sudan. It considers development in policy in relation to both first generation (or economic) conditionality and second generation (or political) conditionality. The article demonstrates a clear trend in Irish policy towards the norms of other larger western states during the 1990s. It concludes that the Irish Government should closely re-examine this trend in policy, examining the validity of the norms being applied, the effectiveness of mechanisms currently in place to implement the policies of aid conditionality and the appropriate balance between pressure for reform and the needs of vulnerable populations. Finally it concludes that the decision by the Irish Government to close it's bilateral aid programme in Sudan was flawed and should be reviewed.
All in the family: proneural bHLH genes and neuronal diversity

ABSTRACT Proneural basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) proteins are required for neuronal determination and the differentiation of most neural precursor cells. These transcription factors are expressed in vastly divergent organisms, ranging from sponges to primates. Here, we review proneural bHLH gene evolution and function in the Drosophila and vertebrate nervous systems, arguing that the Drosophila gene atonal provides a useful platform for understanding proneural gene structure and regulation. We also discuss how functional equivalency experiments using distinct proneural genes can reveal how proneural gene duplication and divergence are interwoven with neuronal complexity. Summary: This Review discusses how gene duplication and divergence are interwoven with neuronal complexity in Drosophila and vertebrates, highlighting atonal as a platform for understanding proneural gene structure and regulation.
The determination of the optimal safety stock of the (s, Q) inventory system for slow moving items

Abstract This article explores the (s, Q) inventory system for slow moving items. It is assumed that the lead time demand will follow Laplace distributions. At first, this article shows that the total relevant cost function is convex. Then, with the convexity, a solution procedure is developed to determine the optimal reorder point and the optimal order quantity. Numerical examples are also given to illustrate the solution procedure.
Wearable antennas for FM reception

The effect of human body on wearable 100 MHz antennas is studied by measurements. At that frequency, the body is very thin compared to the wavelength, but about half a wavelength tall. Antenna performance is most affected by the posture of the antenna wearer, second matter being antenna position on body. Physical traits of the wearer have only a slight effect on the antenna performance. A ¿13 dBi gain was achieved by the constructed dipole-like antennas, and letting one¿s arms hang down reduces this by 5 to 15 dB. Most of the power delivered to the antennas is absorbed by the human body, but some is radiated not only by the antenna but also by the body. Wearable antennas need to be shortened by 15 to 25 % from the free-space length to achieve the desired resonance frequency.
Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase intrinsically located in the chloroplast of rice plays a crucial role in ammonium assimilation

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) is a key enzyme of primary metabolism in bacteria, algae, and vascular plants, and is believed to be cytosolic. Here we show that rice (Oryza sativa L.) has a plant-type PEPC, Osppc4, that is targeted to the chloroplast. Osppc4 was expressed in all organs tested and showed high expression in the leaves. Its expression in the leaves was confined to mesophyll cells, and Osppc4 accounted for approximately one-third of total PEPC protein in the leaf blade. Recombinant Osppc4 was active in the PEPC reaction, showing Vmax comparable to cytosolic isozymes. Knockdown of Osppc4 expression by the RNAi technique resulted in stunting at the vegetative stage, which was much more marked when rice plants were grown with ammonium than with nitrate as the nitrogen source. Comparison of leaf metabolomes of ammonium-grown plants suggested that the knockdown suppressed ammonium assimilation and subsequent amino acid synthesis by reducing levels of organic acids, which are carbon skeleton donors for these processes. We also identified the chloroplastic PEPC gene in other Oryza species, all of which are adapted to waterlogged soil where the major nitrogen source is ammonium. This suggests that, in addition to glycolysis, the genus Oryza has a unique route to provide organic acids for ammonium assimilation that involves a chloroplastic PEPC, and that this route is crucial for growth with ammonium. This work provides evidence for diversity of primary ammonium assimilation in the leaves of vascular plants.
Review of Rural Development Instruments: DG Agri project 2006-G4-10. Final Report

The aim of the study was to review the policy instruments under the framework of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), 2007-13, by: • reviewing intervention rationales and instruments and their use against the objectives, priorities and key actions in the EU Strategic Guidelines; • assessing whether and how RD rationales and instruments should be adapted to deliver these more effectively. The study involved 8 tasks, grouped into 3 themes of analysis: 1) the targeting of EU-27 rural development expenditure, 2000-13, including the development of databases of EU-27 rural area characteristics and ‘indicators of need’ for RD; 2) consideration of the adequacy of the current EAFRD framework, based upon an evaluation of instruments’ cost-effectiveness; the a priori development of a typology of RD interventions and catalogue of instruments; an analysis of delivery mechanisms; and assessment of instruments in ‘fiches’; 3) conclusions and recommendations. In the event, progress in finalising national and/or regional RDPs 2007-13 was delayed,over the study period. Thus, the approach was modified to incorporate more qualitative analysis and the expenditure analysis was made using incomplete figures (July 2007), so 4% of total EAFRD planned expenditure was missing.
An algorithmic approach towards the tracing procedure of Harsanyi and Selten

Ilarsanyi and Selten (198ë) propc~ed an eqnilibrium selection theory for N-person nonc'ooperative I;ames. 'I'hcir rnain subrouline (or ru~lectinR the appropriate cyuilibrium is thc tracin~ proccdnrc which e.onverts :u~y Rivcn prior into an cyui-librium. In this paper wc show that the linear tracing procedure is equivaJent, up Lo projection,to a pivoting procedure presented by the authors. As a consequence of this equivalence we dc~rive Lhat the linear tracing procedure always Renerates a perfect equilibrium whenever it is started from a cornpletely mixed prior. Oar procedure also works in some cascs in which the linear Lracing procedure is not well-defincd. l~urthermorc, it has Lhc additional advantagc that it is e:u;ily implc-rnentable on a computer when applicd to bi-matrix ~amex.
Energy Economics: A Place for Energy Poverty in the Agenda?

The global energy system faces three major strategic challenges in the coming decades: the growing risk of disruptions to energy supply; the threat of environmental damage caused by energy production and use; and persistent energy poverty. The first two challenges have attracted a lot of attention from the energy-economics community, much less so the need to address the problem of energy under-development. On current trends, the number of people in poor countries relying primarily on traditional biomass for their energy needs will continue to rise, while the number lacking access to electricity will barely fall. To change this course, decisive policy action is needed urgently as part of the broader process of human development. Meeting basic human needs, such as food and shelter, must be at the heart of any strategy to alleviate poverty. Modern energy services help enable those needs to be met. In practice, concrete improvements in human welfare can be realised quickly at modest short-term cost. Strong political will and commitment on the part of the governments of the world’s poorest countries will be crucial. Rich industrialised countries have an important role to play in this process too. In addition to moral issues involved, we have obvious long-term economic, political and energy-security interests in helping developing countries along the path to energy development. The cost of providing assistance to poor countries may turn out to be far less than that of dealing with the instability and insecurity that poverty creates.
Simulación en tiempo real del campo magnético terrestre para una misión orbital

This paper includes the earth magnetic field simulation for two established orbital missions; this representation will be done using software linked to a magnetic field generator device, acting like Hardware in the Loop (HiL). Firstly, the software is briefly described and the instrumentation required for the tests will be introduced. The results obtained by the six-degree-of-freedom simulator must be reproduced and compared with those acquired by the real time tests of the on-site magnetic field generation. For such purpose, the test results obtained by a sensor mounted on a low-earth-orbit micro-satellite functional prototype must be carefully studied.
Personalized question recommendation for English grammar learning

Learning English grammar is a very challenging task for many students especially for nonnative English speakers. To learn English well, it is important to understand the concepts of the English grammar with lots of practise on exercise questions. Previous recommendation systems for learning English mainly focused on recommending reading materials and vocabulary. Different from reading material and vocabulary recommendations, grammar question recommendation should recommend questions that have similar grammatical structure and usage to the question of interest. The content similarity calculation methods used in existing recommendation methods cannot represent the similarity between grammar questions effectively. In this paper, we propose a content‐based approach for personalized grammar question recommendation, which recommends similar grammatical structure and usage questions for further practising. Specifically, we propose a novel structure named parse‐key tree to capture the grammatical structure and usage of grammar questions. We then propose 3 measures to compute the similarity between the question query and database questions for grammar question recommendation. Additionally, we incorporated the proposed recommendation method into a Web‐based English grammar learning system and presented its performance evaluation in this paper. The experimental results have shown that the proposed approach outperforms other classical and state‐of‐the‐art methods in recommending relevant grammar questions.
Time to Keep Going: The Role and Structure of U.S. Forces in a Unified Korea

This year Korea and the U.S. celebrate 50 years of their alliance, which has seen many ups and downs since it came into existence. Today a very intense debate is going on in the USA and Korea about the future role of the U.S. in both the re-unification process and a post-unified Korea. Anti-Americanism is on the rise in South Korea, and demand for withdrawal of American forces is gaining ground in Korean society. An American withdrawal from Korea, however, would be very destabilizing for Korea and the whole of the East Asian region. Since the Korean war, the factors that have made it possible for South Korea, and other countries in the region, to economically prosper are the combination of sound economic polices and hard work by the peoples of these countries, and of the U.S. policies of reopening international markets to the countries of the region. While the presence of the U.S. forces in a post-unified Korea would be a positive factor, the actual structure of these forces would depend on the ground realities and threat perceptions at that time. It would be determined by complex issues of peace and stability inside Korea, its economic situation, and the external situation outside Korea's borders, including Korea's threat perceptions from China. Despite great improvements in technology in the Naval and Air forces, almost all military contingencies still require the use of ground forces to fight or to deter wars. Thus even if U.S. air and naval forces remained stationed in Korea, the absence of the U.S. ground forces would seriously undermine the deterrent and fighting power of the United States in the country and the region as whole. Given the terrain of the Korean peninsula, any possible future military conflict involving Korea would almost certainly be won or lost on land. Accordingly, infantrymen and tanks must remain an essential component of the American forces in Korea. What is more, dependence on air and naval forces for the protection of Korea would weaken traditional alliances and deterrence as well as American support for the very values and political principles that make other countries respect and trust the United States.
Structural and Functional Properties of an Unusual Internal Fusion Peptide in a Nonenveloped Virus Membrane Fusion Protein

ABSTRACT The avian and Nelson Bay reoviruses are two of only a limited number of nonenveloped viruses capable of inducing cell-cell membrane fusion. These viruses encode the smallest known membrane fusion proteins (p10). We now show that a region of moderate hydrophobicity we call the hydrophobic patch (HP), present in the small N-terminal ectodomain of p10, shares the following characteristics with the fusion peptides of enveloped virus fusion proteins: (i) an abundance of glycine and alanine residues, (ii) a potential amphipathic secondary structure, (iii) membrane-seeking characteristics that correspond to the degree of hydrophobicity, and (iv) the ability to induce lipid mixing in a liposome fusion assay. The p10 HP is therefore predicted to provide a function in the mechanism of membrane fusion similar to those of the fusion peptides of enveloped virus fusion peptides, namely, association with and destabilization of opposing lipid bilayers. Mutational and biophysical analysis suggested that the internal fusion peptide of p10 lacks alpha-helical content and exists as a disulfide-stabilized loop structure. Similar kinked structures have been reported in the fusion peptides of several enveloped virus fusion proteins. The preservation of a predicted loop structure in the fusion peptide of this unusual nonenveloped virus membrane fusion protein supports an imperative role for a kinked fusion peptide motif in biological membrane fusion.