Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of S-RNase fragments for identification of S-genotypes of Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia)

Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) exhibits gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI) controlled by a complex and multiallelic S locus. The pistil-part product of the S locus is the polymorphic ribonuclease, S-RNase. Information on S-genotypes is important for the production and breeding of Japanese pears. Molecular analyses of S-genotypes of Japanese pear have been conducted with the CAPS (cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence) system; PCR amplification of S-RNase fragments by a common primer pair followed by digestion with restriction enzymes each of which cleaves a specific S haplotype. Here, we show that the separation of S-RNase fragments by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) distinguishes four out of nine S haplotypes of Japanese pear without restriction digestion. S3-, S5-, S6- and S8-RNases were identified as distinct bands by PAGE. S3- and S5-RNases were separated by PAGE despite their identical fragment sizes. Using this system, three Japanese pear lines with unknown S-genotypes were analyzed. The newly determined S-genotypes of the lines were confirmed by CAPS analysis.
Hybrid Resiliency-Stressor Conceptual Framework for Informing Decision Support Tools and Addressing Environmental Injustice and Health Inequities

While structural factors may drive health inequities, certain health-promoting attributes of one’s “place” known as salutogens may further moderate the cumulative impacts of exposures to socio-environmental stressors that behave as pathogens. Understanding the synergistic relationship between socio-environmental stressors and resilience factors is a critical component in reducing health inequities; however, the catalyst for this concept relies on community-engaged research approaches to ultimately strengthen resiliency and promote health. Furthermore, this concept has not been fully integrated into environmental justice and cumulative risk assessment screening tools designed to identify geospatial variability in environmental factors that may be associated with health inequities. As a result, we propose a hybrid resiliency-stressor conceptual framework to inform the development of environmental justice and cumulative risk assessment screening tools that can detect environmental inequities and opportunities for resilience in vulnerable populations. We explore the relationship between actual exposures to socio-environmental stressors, perceptions of stressors, and one’s physiological and psychological stress response to environmental stimuli, which collectively may perpetuate health inequities by increasing allostatic load and initiating disease onset. This comprehensive framework expands the scope of existing screening tools to inform action-based solutions that rely on community-engaged research efforts to increase resiliency and promote positive health outcomes.
Temporal and Spatial Patterns of West Nile Virus Transmission in Saginaw County, Michigan, 2003–2006

ABSTRACT The dynamics of West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) infection in mosquitoes, sentinel pheasants, and wild dead birds were evaluated during 2003–2006 in Saginaw Co., MI. Mosquitoes were collected by New Jersey Light Traps at 22 sites during May–September, pooled by species and sample location, and tested for presence of WNV RNA by using a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. Oral swabs from wild dead birds submitted by the public were tested by Vec-Test assay. Sentinel pheasants were bled weekly, and serum was tested for antibodies with an inhibition enzyme immunoassay. In total, 37,225 mosquitoes [Aedes vexans (Meigen), Culex pipiens L. , and Culex restuans Theobald] were tested in 5,429 pools, of which 59 (1.1%) were positive. Ae. vexans was most abundant but had a comparatively low infection rate (0.06–2.11) compared with Cx. pipiens (1.75–4.59) and Cx. restuans (1.22–15.67). Mosquito abundances were temporally related to variations in 2-wk average weather variables. Infected dead crows appeared earlier each transmission season than blue jays, but infection prevalence for both peaked approximately mid-August. Space-time clusters were found in different locations each year. Sentinel pheasant seroprevalence was 19.3% (16/83), 12.7% (10/79), and 7.7% (5/65) during 2003–2005, respectively. We demonstrated temporal patterns of WNV activity in corvid birds and Culex spp. mosquitoes during the study period, suggesting virus transmission within an enzootic cycle. Despite the absence of human case reports nearby, this surveillance system demonstrated WNV transmission and possible human risk. Maintained surveillance using more appropriate gravid traps and CDC CO2 light traps could improve sensitivity of vector collection and virus detection.
High-performance Disk Imaging With Deduplicated Storage

Infrastructures such as clouds and network testbeds need to provide a large collection of “disk images”. These disk images require significant resources to store. On the other side, these disk images need to be distributed to physical hosts and installed quickly. To satisfy both of these requirements, we design a new storage service to improve the storage efficiency for storing disk images, with a specific goal to distribute and install them quickly. “Data deduplication” is the technique that we utilize to reduce storage consumption. We also discuss several design tradeoffs we make for a fast disk image distribution. Evaluations of our new system demonstrate that deduplication saves more than 60% of disk space and by keeping the overall disk imaging pipeline balanced, our new system introduces a negligible performance overhead.
Pathology of Acute Henipavirus Infection in Humans and Animals

Zoonoses as causes of human infections have been increasingly reported, and many of these are viruses that cause central nervous system infections. This paper focuses on the henipaviruses (family Paramyxoviridae, genus henipavirus) that have recently emerged to cause severe encephalitis and systemic infection in humans and animals in the Asia-Pacific region. The pathological features in the human infections comprise vasculopathy (vasculitis, endothelial multinucleated syncytia, thrombosis, etc.) and parenchymal cell infection in the central nervous system, lung, kidney, and other major organs. Most animals naturally or experimentally infected show more or less similar features confirming the dual pathogenetic mechanism of vasculopathy-associated microinfarction and direct extravascular parenchymal cell infection as causes of tissue injury. The most promising animal models include the hamster, ferret, squirrel monkey, and African green monkey. With increasing evidence of infection in the natural hosts, the pteropid bats and, hence, probable future outbreaks in many more countries, a greater awareness of henipavirus infection in both humans and animals is imperative.
Personality Disorder in Primary Care: Factors Associated with Therapist Views of Process and Outcome

Assessment and treatment of personality disorder (PD) is a key issue in UK mental health service provision (NIMH report, 2003), but there is limited information on individuals with personality disorder presenting to primary care mental health services. This study investigates the characteristics of PD in individuals receiving cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) following GP referral and its relationship with therapist ratings of treatment process and outcome. One hundred and forty-eight participants completed the Millon Multiaxial Clinical Inventory (MCMI-III: Millon, Davis and Millon, 1997). Therapists completed a measure of therapy process and outcome (TPOQ) on 100 participants. Key therapy and process questions were answered for 60 participants who attended a minimum of five therapy sessions. MCMI- III indicated a rate of PD of 56.4%. Factor analysis of PD scales identified two factors: inward looking/emotionally distanced, and aggressive/acting out. For clinical syndromes (CLS), the factors were general psychopathology and substance abuse. TPOQ had two factors: therapeutic alliance and complexity in therapy. Regression analyses indicated that only those PDs contributing to the inward looking/emotionally distanced scale score were associated with therapeutic alliance problems. Conversely, complexity in therapy was only predicted by general psychopathology and not by personality disorder. This study identified high rates of personality disorder in primary care referrals to a clinical psychology service. It also indicated that relationships between the presence of personality disorder and therapist ratings of treatment difficulties were only associated with certain types of personality disorder. These findings are discussed in relation to service and therapy planning in mental health.
Stand-Level Status of Blue Oak Sapling Recruitment and Regeneration

We assessed blue oak (Quercus douglasii) sapling recruitment and regeneration at 15 locations distributed throughout the range of blue oak. Overall, 15.3 percent of the 1500 plots surveyed contained blue oak saplings. Four locations had moderate numbers of saplings, and the remaining locations had few to no saplings. Seedling-origin saplings were far more common than stump-sprout saplings. Most saplings were shorter than the browse line (1.4 m). At 13 of the 15 locations, sapling recruitment is inadequate to offset recent losses in blue oak density and canopy cover. There is a widespread belief that blue oak (Quercus douglasii Hook. & Arn.) is not regenerating well over much of its range. Several researchers have shown that flushes of blue oak recruitment coincided with the influx of settlers into California in the period from the 1850’s through the 1890’s (McClaran and Bartolome 1989, Mensing 1992, Vankat and Major 1978), but that little recruitment has occurred in the latter half of this century. Data from two surveys (Bolsinger 1988, Muick and Bartolome 1987) have been interpreted to indicate that blue oak sapling populations are insufficient to maintain current stand densities. However, these surveys do not provide a clear picture of recent recruitment, because they include blue oaks up to 12.7 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) in the sapling size class. Oaks of diameters approaching 12.7 cm are functionally in the tree size class and could easily range from 30 to more than 90 years old (McClaran 1986). We conducted a study to examine the distribution of small blue oak saplings at the stand level and assess net blue oak regeneration in these stands. We studied oaks in the transitional stage between seedling and small-diameter tree, during which height growth can be limited by browsing animals. No previous surveys of California oak woodlands have focused on oaks in this size class. We sampled many plots spread over a large area in each stand to determine how sapling recruitment and regeneration are distributed at the landscape level. Previous blue oak surveys are based on data collected from single plots or clusters of up to five subplots at widely separated locations (Bolsinger 1988, Muick and Bartolome 1987) and do not show how saplings are distributed at the stand or landscape level. Additional results of this project are presented elsewhere (Swiecki and others 1993, Swiecki and others, these proceedings).
Incident Management Capability Metrics Version 0.1

Abstract : Successful management of incidents that threaten an organization's cyber security is a complex endeavor. Frequently an organization's primary focus on the response aspects of security incidents results in its failure to manage incidents beyond simply reacting to threatening events. The metrics presented in this document are intended to provide a baseline or benchmark of incident management practices. The incident management functions provided in a series of questions and indicators define the actual benchmark. The questions explore different aspects of incident management activities for protecting, defending, and sustaining an organization's computing environment in addition to conducting appropriate response actions. This benchmark can be used by an organization to assess how its current incident management capability is defined, managed, measured, and improved. This will help assure the system owners, data owners, and operators that their incident management services are being delivered with a high standard of quality and success, and within acceptable levels of risk.
Nonclairvoyant scheduling to minimize the total flow time on single and parallel machines

Scheduling a sequence of jobs released over time when the processing time of a job is only known at its completion is a classical problem in CPU scheduling in time sharing operating systems. A widely used measure for the responsiveness of the system is the average flow time of the jobs, that is, the average time spent by jobs in the system between release and completion.The Windows NT and the Unix operating system scheduling policies are based on the Multilevel Feedback algorithm. In this article, we prove that a randomized version of the Multilevel Feedback algorithm is competitive for single and parallel machine systems, in our opinion providing one theoretical validation of the goodness of an idea that has proven effective in practice along the last two decades.The randomized Multilevel Feedback algorithm (RMLF) was first proposed by Kalyanasundaram and Pruhs for a single machine achieving an O(log n log log n) competitive ratio to minimize the average flow time against the on-line adaptive adversary, where n is the number of jobs that are released. We present a version of RMLF working for any number m of parallel machines. We show for RMLF a first O(log n log n/m) competitiveness result against the oblivious adversary on parallel machines. We also show that the same RMLF algorithm surprisingly achieves a tight O(log n) competitive ratio against the oblivious adversary on a single machine, therefore matching the lower bound for this case.
Toward Usable Evidence: Optimizing Knowledge Accumulation in HCI Research on Health Behavior Change

Over the last ten years, HCI researchers have introduced a range of novel ways to support health behavior change, from glanceable displays to sophisticated game dynamics. Yet, this research has not had as much impact as its originality warrants. A key reason for this is that common forms of evaluation used in HCI make it difficult to effectively accumulate-and use-knowledge across research projects. This paper proposes a strategy for HCI research on behavior change that retains the field's focus on novel technical contributions while enabling accumulation of evidence that can increase impact of individual research projects both in HCI and the broader behavior-change science. The core of this strategy is an emphasis on the discovery of causal effects of individual components of behavior-change technologies and the precise ways in which those effects vary with individual differences, design choices, and contexts in which those technologies are used.
Beta-Propiolactone Vapor as a Disinfectant

Despite recently revived interest in gaseous disinfection or sterilization, only two compounds, formaldehyde and ethylene oxide, have been used to any great extent for this purpose. As discussed by Phillips (1957) in a review of gaseous sterilization, several other compounds have been mentioned in the literature as possessing bactericidal properties in the vapor state but have been put to little, if any, practical application. Formaldehyde had widespread application in the early part of this century for disinfecting sick rooms following occupancy by a person suffering from a contagious disease. It is seldom used for this purpose now, although it still has certain industrial applications as a vapor-phase disinfectant, particularly for large inclosed spaces. Ethylene oxide has come into use only within the last decade. The use of this compound, usually contained in mixtures with carbon dioxide or fluorinated hydrocarbons to reduce its flammability, has permitted the sterilization of many types of materials hitherto considered nonsterilizable because of heat or moisture sensitivity. These materials include plastics, wool, leather, pharmaceuticals, and articles such as notebooks, delicate laboratory equipment, and medical instruments among many others. In general, gaseous disinfection techniques are not proposed to displace other routine standard methods such as steam or chemical solution sterilization, but rather to meet many peculiar problems arising when sensitive materials, for one reason or another, need to be sterilized. Recent activity in gaseous sterilization has been confined largely to the exploitation of new applications of formaldehyde and ethylene oxide, particularly the latter, rather than to a search for additional compounds with different physical or chemical properties. A continuing program of search has been conducted in these laboratories; out of this program f8-propiolactone has emerged as a compound with high biological activity in the vapor state. ,B-Propiolactone more nearly resembles formaldehyde than ethylene oxide in its germicidal properties and possesses a number of advantages over formaldehyde as a gaseous sterilant, particularly with respect to increased antimicrobial activity and lessened per-
Changes in the ovarian stromal blood flow in patients treated with laparoscopic salpingostomy for ectopic pregnancy

This study is aimed to evaluate the impact of laparoscopic salpingostomy on ovarian stromal blood flow indices in patients with ectopic pregnancy, and to compare the ovarian stromal blood flow indices with matched paired healthy women. We included 37 patients who underwent laparoscopic salpingostomy and 37 age- and parity-matched women as controls. The main outcome was the differences in ovarian volume, antral follicle count (AFC), and ovarian stromal blood flow indices between the study group participants after the surgery and the healthy controls. Comparison of the ovarian parameters between the study group after the surgery and the control group revealed no significant differences in terms of ovarian volume (p = 0.783), AFC (p = 0.253), ovarian stromal S/D ratios (p = 0.054), pulsatility index (PI; p = 0.938) and resistance index (RI; p = 0.041). In addition, comparison of the ovarian parameters before and after the surgical treatment revealed no significant differences in the ovarian volume (p = 0.141), AFC (p = 0.084), ovarian stromal S/D ratios (p = 0.187), PI (p = 0.102) and RI (p = 0.108). In conclusion, laparoscopic salpingostomy does not affect ovarian function in terms of ovarian stromal blood flow indices, ovarian volume, and AFC.
A randomized, controlled, double‐blind study of the effect of wearing coated pH 5.5 latex gloves compared with standard powder‐free latex gloves on skin pH, transepidermal water loss and skin irritation

Hand dermatitis is a common occupational disease. Altered skin pH plays an important role in the development of skin irritation. A glove that maintains tight control over skin pH may reduce hand dermatitis in glove users. The purpose of the study was to characterize the effect of glove wearing on skin pH, investigate the impact of study glove on skin pH compared with standard gloves and determine whether wearing study gloves reduced irritation. 20 healthy volunteers enrolled in a 4‐week double‐blind comparison of study and control gloves and served as their own controls. Gloves were worn 8 hr per day for 5 days per week. Skin pH and transepidermal water loss were measured during and 2 days after the glove‐wearing period. The subject and an observer assessed the skin for irritation. The study glove maintained lower skin pH than the control glove (P < 0.05) and trended towards having less irritation. Observers noted increases in dryness and scale in both hands after 4 weeks but significantly less dryness in the study hand at week 4 (P = 0.006). Glove wearing increased skin pH and dryness. The pH 5.5 glove maintained lower skin pH levels than the control glove and may reduce irritation in long‐term glove wearers.
Coadministration of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 During Glucagon Infusion in Humans Results in Increased Energy Expenditure and Amelioration of Hyperglycemia

Glucagon and glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 are the primary products of proglucagon processing from the pancreas and gut, respectively. Giving dual agonists with glucagon and GLP-1 activity to diabetic, obese mice causes enhanced weight loss and improves glucose tolerance by reduction of food intake and by increase in energy expenditure (EE). We aimed to observe the effect of a combination of glucagon and GLP-1 on resting EE and glycemia in healthy human volunteers. In a randomized, double-blinded crossover study, 10 overweight or obese volunteers without diabetes received placebo infusion, GLP-1 alone, glucagon alone, and GLP-1 plus glucagon simultaneously. Resting EE—measured using indirect calorimetry—was not affected by GLP-1 infusion but rose significantly with glucagon alone and to a similar degree with glucagon and GLP-1 together. Glucagon infusion was accompanied by a rise in plasma glucose levels, but addition of GLP-1 to glucagon rapidly reduced this excursion, due to a synergistic insulinotropic effect. The data indicate that drugs with glucagon and GLP-1 agonist activity may represent a useful treatment for type 2 diabetes and obesity. Long-term studies are required to demonstrate that this combination will reduce weight and improve glycemia in patients.
Exploiting locality of interaction in factored Dec-POMDPs

Decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes (Dec-POMDPs) constitute an expressive framework for multiagent planning under uncertainty, but solving them is provably intractable. We demonstrate how their scalability can be improved by exploiting locality of interaction between agents in a factored representation. Factored Dec-POMDP representations have been proposed before, but only for Dec-POMDPs whose transition and observation models are fully independent. Such strong assumptions simplify the planning problem, but result in models with limited applicability. By contrast, we consider general factored Dec-POMDPs for which we analyze the model dependencies over space (locality of interaction) and time (horizon of the problem). We also present a formulation of decomposable value functions. Together, our results allow us to exploit the problem structure as well as heuristics in a single framework that is based on collaborative graphical Bayesian games (CGBGs). A preliminary experiment shows a speedup of two orders of magnitude.