Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterologous Expression of the Wheat Aquaporin Gene TaTIP2;2 Compromises the Abiotic Stress Tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana

Aquaporins are channel proteins which transport water across cell membranes. We show that the bread wheat aquaporin gene TaTIP2;2 maps to the long arm of chromosome 7b and that its product localizes to the endomembrane system. The gene is expressed constitutively in both the root and the leaf, and is down-regulated by salinity and drought stress. Salinity stress induced an increased level of C-methylation within the CNG trinucleotides in the TaTIP2;2 promoter region. The heterologous expression of TaTIP2;2 in Arabidopsis thaliana compromised its drought and salinity tolerance, suggesting that TaTIP2;2 may be a negative regulator of abiotic stress. The proline content of transgenic A. thaliana plants fell, consistent with the down-regulation of P5CS1, while the expression of SOS1, SOS2, SOS3, CBF3 and DREB2A, which are all stress tolerance-related genes acting in an ABA-independent fashion, was also down-regulated. The supply of exogenous ABA had little effect either on TaTIP2;2 expression in wheat or on the phenotype of transgenic A. thaliana. The expression level of the ABA signalling genes ABI1, ABI2 and ABF3 remained unaltered in the transgenic A. thaliana plants. Thus TaTIP2;2 probably regulates the response to stress via an ABA-independent pathway(s).
Decomposition techniques for temporal resource allocation

We consider the problem of allocating a set of heterogeneous resources with availability constraints to maximize a given value function. The problem arises in a wide variety of military and industrial situations. We formulate the problem as a discrete-state decision process. We consider two instances of the problem that are applicable in situations where persistent coverage over all stages is desired. While we were able to solve the first example using dynamic programming, the computational requirements are significant and not scalable to larger instances. We consider an approximate technique using decomposition combined with dynamic programming. Our experiments show that this approach requires very little computation time and produces near-optimal results for the examples considered.
Identification of a bacterial sensing protein and effects of its elevated expression

The Escherichia coli flaA gene product (also called cheC) plays a crucial role in switching flagellar rotational direction during chemotactic responses. Wild-type and mutant alleles have been cloned onto plasmid vectors, and the gene product has been identified as a 37,000-dalton protein. The flaA product appeared as a soluble protein in the cytoplasm when overproduced in minicells and maxicells. The protein could not be detected in flagellar basal structures purified from a wild-type strain. To assess the effects of altered flaA expression, the gene was fused to a synthetic tac promoter that could be regulated by the addition of an inducer. Overproduction resulted in strong counterclockwise flagellar rotational bias and partial paralysis of flagellar motors. These results suggest that the flaA protein provides the interface between the flagellar machinery and the chemotaxis signaling system in a motor structure external to the basal body.
An iterative channel estimation method using superimposed training for IEEE 802.16E based OFDM systems

An iterative least squares (LS) based channel estimation method for superimposed training (ST) based OFDM systems is proposed. The performance of the method is analyzed in terms of the mean squared estimation error (MSEE) and its impact on the bit error rate (BER) of the OFDM system is studied. A training sequence selection criterion that jointly optimizes the MSEE and the BER of the OFDM system also proposed. The effectiveness of the mathematical analysis presented is demonstrated through a comparison with the simulation studies. Also, the proposed scheme is applied to the IEEE 802.16e OFDM standard and a case is made with the required design of the sequence.
Cost-Effectiveness of Apixaban Compared With Aspirin for Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation Among Patients Unsuitable for Warfarin

Background— Compared with aspirin, apixaban reduces stroke risk in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients unsuitable for warfarin by 63% but does not increase major bleeding. We sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of apixaban versus aspirin. Methods and Results— Using the Apixaban versus Acetylsalicylic Acid to Prevent Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation Patients Who Have Failed or Are Unsuitable for Vitamin-K Antagonist Treatment (AVERROES) trial and other studies, we constructed a Markov model to evaluate the costs (2011US$), quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness of apixaban versus aspirin from the Medicare perspective. Our base-case assumed a 70-year-old AF patient cohort with a CHADS2 score=2 and a lower-risk of bleeding. We used a 1-month cycle-length and ran separate base-case analyses assuming a trial-length (1-year) and a longer-term (10-year) follow-up. Total costs/patient were $3454 and $1805 for apixaban and aspirin in the trial-length and $44 232 and $50 066 in the 10-year model. Corresponding QALYs were 0.96 and 0.96 in the trial-length and 6.87 and 6.51 in the 10-year model, making apixaban inferior in the first model but dominant in the latter. Conclusions were sensitive to baseline stroke rate in both models, and the monthly cost of major stroke, relative risk of stroke, and prior vitamin-K antagonist use in the life-time model. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis suggested apixaban would only be a cost-effective alternative (<$50 000/QALY) to aspirin 11% of the time in the trial-length model, but cost-effective or dominant 96.7% and 87.5% of iterations in the 10-year model. Conclusions— In our trial-length model, apixaban was more costly and no more effective than aspirin; however, as follow-up was extended, apixaban became cost-effective and eventually dominant.
Potential benefits of dry direct seeded rice culture : A Review -

Puddled transplanting is the major system of rice cultivation in many parts of the world. Transplanting system provides a high and stable yield. It is labour intensive and requires huge amount of irrigation water (1500 -2000mm). The increasing scarcity of irrigation water and labour acted as a major driver to the adoption of the wet direct seeding system in many Asian countries. Wet direct seeding saves substantial amount of labour but it has very low water saving potential. Dry direct seeding is another rice establishment method that has potential to save both water and labour in rice culture. Seedling raising, puddling and transplanting of seedling into the puddle are omitted in the dry direct seeding system, rather primed seeds are directly sown on the dry cultivated land by hand or seeder or directly by seeder without tillage. Direct seeding contributes to saving of 50% labour requirement in crop establishment. The labour saving could be even more if seeding is done by machineries. Dry direct seeding gives comparable or even higher yield than that of puddle transplanted rice. It reduces greenhouse gas emission, buildup of arsenic and other heavy metals and improves soil health compared with the conventional system. Dry direct seeded rice based cropping system offers the scope of increasing cropping intensity and diversity and farm income. Yield decline in dry direct seeded system has been reported elsewhere and the reduction of yield was mainly related with inadequate agronomic management and under continuous mono-crop upland condition. However, trials at farmersÂ’ field in Bangladesh proved that dry direct seeded rice can give better harvest than the conventional puddle transplanted rice with proper agronomic management. The adoption of dry direct seeded rice culture in Bangladesh is mainly constrained by the present irrigation water sharing system and unavailability of good quality seeding machineries. The present review focuses on the effect of dry direct seeded rice on water requirement, yield performance, cropping intensity and diversity, soil physical and chemical properties, greenhouse gas emission, labour and economic issue so that dry direct seeding can be used as a tool for increasing crop productivity with less water with minimal adverse effect on soil and environment.
Towards Carrier Grade Wireless Mesh Networks for Broadband Access

Broadband wireless access networks have the potential to fulfil the vision of high-speed ubiquitous Internet access. Due to the unreliability and heterogeneity of the network, operators are particularly challenged to provide "carrier grade" services that ensure a secure, efficient and reliable access to users. This paper provides an overview of these challenges and presents network architecture and overarching services that form a unified and reliable carrier grade wireless access network. Particular focus of the paper is on wireless mesh multihop networks as they are a viable solution to realise broadband wireless access flexibly and cost efficiently. Moreover, we describe a next-generation wireless access network testbed where the architecture and services will be deployed and provide initial simulation and measurement results
Towards a new model of nursing research

ROLFE G (1994) Journal of Advanced Nursmg 19, 969-975 Towards a new model of nursing research Nursing research is generally located v^thin the paradigm of the social saences, and therefore reflects the concerns and agenda of sociai research In particular, nursing has become embroiled in the ongoing dispute between the advocates of qualitative and quantitative methodologies However, it is argued in this paper that whereas the aim of social research is to develop knowledge, the aim of nursmg research is pnmanly to advance practice This paper offers an alternative model of nursing research which categonzes approaches to research not according to the methodology employed but on the extent to which the research process is likely to bnng about change These approaches are termed level 1, level 2 and level 3 research, where level 1 researchers are concemed with generating information for others to conceptualize and implement, while level 3 researchers see their aun as directly bringing about cbmcai change Two approaches to level 3 research are suggested, and examples of projects at all three levels are examined Fmally, it is contended that only by adoptmg an appropnate model of research for a practice-based disciplme can nursmg address the real issues of relevance to nurses and patients m clmical settmgs
Exploiting Resource Overloading Using Utility Accrual Approach for Parallel Data Processing in Cloud

Parallel Data processing has emerged to be one of the killer applications for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds. One of an IaaS cloud’s key feature is the provisioning of compute resources on demand. The computer resources available in the cloud are highly dynamic and possibly heterogeneous. Nephele is the first data processing framework to explicitly exploit the dynamic resource allocation offered by today’s IaaS clouds for both, task scheduling and execution. Particular tasks of a processing job can be assigned to different types of virtual machines which are automatically instantiated and terminated during the job execution. However, Nephele is not considering resource overload or underutilization during the job execution. In this paper, a novel utility accrual scheduling algorithm is proposed for scheduling the real-time cloud computing services. The most unique characteristics of this approach is that, different from traditional utility accrual approach that works under one single Time Utility Function (TUF), which have two different TUF’s, a profit TUF and a penalty TUF – associated with each task at the same time, to model the real-time applications for cloud computing, that need not only to reward the early completions and also to penalize the missing abortions or deadline misses of realtime tasks. To improve the performance of cloud computing, the traditional Utility Accrual (UA) approach is deployed in both Non-Preemptive and Preemptive scheduling. The experimental results shows that the proposed algorithm can outperform the existing Nephele framework and also compare the performance between Non-Preemptive and Preemptive scheduling
Programming Languages as Mathematical Theories

That computer science is somehow a mathematical activity was a view held by many of the pioneers of the subject, especially those who were concerned with its foundations. At face value it might mean that the actual activity of programming is a mathematical one. Indeed, at least in some form, this has been held. But here we explore a different gloss on it. We explore the claim that programming languages are (semantically) mathematical theories. This will force us to discuss the normative nature of semantics, the nature of mathematical theories, the role of theoretical computer science and the relationship between semantic theory and language design
ICRCS at Intent2: Applying Rough Set and Semantic Relevance for Subtopic Mining

The target of the subtopic mining subtask of NTCIR-10 Intent-2 Task is to return a ranked list of subtopics. To this end, this paper proposes a method to apply the rough set theory for redundancy reduction in subtopic mined from webpages. Besides, semantic similarity is used for subtopic relevance measure in the re-ranking process, computed with semantic features extracted by NLP tools and semantic dictionary. By using the reduction concept of rough set, we first construct rough set based model (RSBM) for subtopic mining. Next, we combine the rough set theory and semantic relevance into a new model (RS&SRM). Evaluation results show the effectiveness of our approach compared with a baseline frequency term based model (FTBM). The best performance is achieved by RS&SRM, with I-rec of 0.4046, D-nDCG of 0.4413 and D#-nDCG of 0.4229 on the subtask of Chinese subtopic mining.
On Modeling and Querying of Text Corpora

This article proposes a novel data model for text corpora and discusses the issues on corpus query. First, a formalized definition of the corpus data is presented. Second, a data model is proposed in terms of the relational model, which is also proved to be complete. On this basis, we extend the query semantics of the traditional corpus query that generates KWIC (Keyword in Context) concordances and define the query problems. Finally, we investigate the data complexity of these querying problems and an experiment is also presented. These conclusions lay a theoretical foundation for the study of the modeling and querying of text corpora.
Integrating speaker and speech recognizers: Automatic identity claim capture for speaker verification

This paper presents a novel approach to the integration of a speech and speaker recognizer for the purpose of automatically capturing an identity claim of a user. The approach integrates the speaker recognition score into the search process of the speech recognizer resulting in a best hypothesis that jointly optimizes the probability of the word sequence and the speaker. This facilitates the use of a natural speech-based interface, where the identity claim can be ambiguous and relatively difficult to recognize (e.g., names). This paper presents a theoretical framework for the integration of speech and speaker recognition systems. In addition, experimental results are presented that show a 35% reduction in the NL-error rate of an over-the-telephone speech recognition task, where the testset consists of users from a US city of size 1 million identifying themselves by simply speaking their name.
Scent of danger : floc formation of a freshwater bacterium induced 1 by supernatants from a predator-prey coculture 2 3

We investigated predator-prey interactions in a model system consisting of the bacterivorous flagellate Poterioochromonas sp. strain DS and the freshwater bacterium Sphingobium sp. strain Z007. This bacterial strain tends to form a subpopulation of grazing-resistant microscopic flocs, presumably by aggregation. Enhanced formation of such flocs could be demonstrated in static batch culture experiments in the presence of the predator. The ratio of aggregates to single cells reached >0.1 after 120 h of incubation in an oligotrophic growth medium. The inoculation of bacteria into supernatants from cocultures of bacteria and flagellates (grown in oligotrophic or in rich media) also resulted in a substantially higher level of floc formation than that in supernatants from bacterial monocultures only. After separation of supernatants on a C(18) cartridge, the aggregate-inducing activity could be assigned to the 50% aqueous methanolic fraction, and further separation of this bioactive fraction could be achieved by high-pressure liquid chromatography. These results strongly suggest the involvement of one or several chemical factors in the induction of floc formation by Sphingobium sp. strain Z007 that are possibly released into the surrounding medium by flagellate grazing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01455-10 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-46441 Accepted Version Originally published at: Blom, J F; Zimmermann, Y S; Ammann, T; Pernthaler, J (2010). Scent of danger: floc formation by a freshwater bacterium is induced by supernatants from a predator-prey coculture. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 76(18):6156-6163. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01455-10
A legal safety concept for highly automated driving on highways

This paper discusses the design of an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that ensures safety when traffic rules are respected by all road users. This concept, referred to as legal safety, is proposed as a basis that permits human and automated drivers to share the road infrastructure. It is illustrated for a Highly Automated driving System with speed keeping, distance keeping and lane changing functionalities on highways (HAS). The requirements legal safety places upon HAS components are presented, with a special focus on the co-pilot which calculates a safe trajectory for the vehicle based on perception of lanes and traffic signs and prediction of the trajectories of objects in the environment. A lane coordinate system is proposed as a powerful reference for the trajectory calculations of the co-pilot. The system controls the vehicle and communicates with the driver, according to an automation mode scheme inspired by the horse-rider metaphor (H-metaphor).
Land-use competition between energy and food – the case of climate change mitigation Ireland.

Alessandro Chiodi, University College Cork, +353 21 4901983, a.chiodi@ ucc.ie James Breen, University College Dublin, james.breen@ucd.ie Trevor Donnellan, Teagasc, trevor.donnellan@teagasc.ie Maurizio Gargiulo, E4SMA S.r. l. , +39 011 2257351, maurizio.gargiulo@e4sma.com Paul Deane, University College Cork, +353 21 4901983, jp.deane@ ucc.ie Brian Ó Gallachóir, University College Cork, +353 21 4903037, b.ogallachoir@ucc.ie
An Automated Model-Based Adaptive Architecture in Modern Games

This paper proposes an automatic model-based approach that enables adaptive decision making in modern virtual games. It builds upon the Integrated MDP and POMDP Learning AgeNT (IMPLANT) architecture which has shown to provide plausible adaptive decision making in modern games. However, it suffers from highly time-consuming manual model specification problems. By incorporating an automated priority sweeping based model builder for the MDP, as well as using the Tactical Agent Personality for the POMDP, the work in this paper aims to resolve these problems. Empirical proof of concept is shown based on an implementation in a modern game scenario, whereby the enhanced IMPLANT agent is shown to exhibit superior adaptation performance over the old IMPLANT agent whilst eliminating manual model specifications and at the same time still maintaining plausible speeds.
TOWARD ToRI , A MANUAL TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM OF RUSSIAN INTONATION

The aim of research project ToRI (2002−2006) is a description of phonetic, phonological and functional properties of Russian intonation with a manual transcription system using unambiguous symbols that will be adapted for and implemented on the Internet as a free interactive research tool and learning module ToRI: Transcription of Russian Intonation. The intended result is a reliable and reproducible transcription system for spoken corpora of Russian (Moscow and St Petersburg varieties). To our knowledge, ToRI will be the first transcription of its kind in which experimentally verified relations between form and contextual function are expressed in unambiguous symbols. ToRI will be designed in such a way that it can be used as a learnable system for linguists and advanced students, as a research tool for (field)work on Russian dialects and intonational contact phenomena of Russian dialects with local languages in Russia, and for comparative and language typology studies. It might also be useful for the development of speech synthesis and, possibly, speech recognition. In this paper some aspects and some first results in the process toward ToRI will be discussed.
Polydimethylsiloxane‐Based Self‐Healing Materials

posites can be engineered to chemically self-heal. However, the chemistry of previous systems possesses inherent shortcomings due to the potential side reactions with the polymer matrix and air. Here we present a new, chemically stable selfhealing materials system based on the tin-catalyzed polycondensation of phase-separated droplets containing hydroxy end-functionalized polydimethylsiloxane (HOPDMS) and polydiethoxysiloxane (PDES). The catalyst, di-n-butyltin dilaurate (DBTL), is contained within polyurethane microcapsules embedded in a vinyl ester matrix and is released when the capsules are broken by mechanical damage. This system possesses a number of important advantages over the previous self-healing methodology, including a) the healing chemistry remains stable in humid or wet environments, b) the chemistry is stable to an elevated temperature (>100°C), enabling healing in higher-temperature thermoset systems, c) the components are widely available and comparatively low in cost, and d) the concept of phase separation of the healing agent greatly simplifies processing, as the healing agent can now be simply mixed into the polymer matrix. Although inspired by our previous self-healing methodology, [2] in which the monomeric healing agent was encapsulated and the catalyst was dispersed as particulate throughout an epoxy matrix, this new system contains a number of distinct differences. Thesiloxane-basedhealingagentmixtureisnotencapsulated, rather it is phase-separated in the matrix while the catalyst is encapsulated. The low solubility of siloxane-based polymers enables the HOPDMS–PDES mixture and catalystcontaining microcapsules to be directly blended with the vinyl ester prepolymer, forming a distribution of stable phase-separated droplets and protected catalyst. No reactions take place betweenthe HOPDMS and PDES prior to exposureto the catalyst. When the matrix cracks, a mixture of catalyst released from microcapsules and the healing agent wets the entire crack plane. Addition of an adhesion promoter to the matrix optimizes wetting and bonding of the crack faces. After the healing agent mixturecures, the crack is self-healed(Figs. 1a–c). The polycondensation of HOPDMS with PDES occurs rapidly at room temperature in the presence of amine and carboxylic acid organotin catalysts. [7] Because side reactions are limited, organotin catalysts are highly desirable for curing PDMS-based systems, even in open air. [7,8] This stability to