Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Topical Review on Cuticle Synthesis and Function The Formation and Function of Plant Cuticles 1

The plant cuticle is an extracellular hydrophobic layer that covers the aerial epidermis of all land plants, providing protection against desiccation and external environmental stresses. The past decade has seen considerable progress in assembling models for the biosynthesis of its two major components, the polymer cutin and cuticular waxes. Most recently, two breakthroughs in the long-sought molecular bases of alkane formation and polyester synthesis have allowed construction of nearly complete biosynthetic pathways for both waxes and cutin. Concurrently, a complex regulatory network controlling the synthesis of the cuticle is emerging. It has also become clear that the physiological role of the cuticle extends well beyond its primary function as a transpiration barrier, playing important roles in processes ranging from development to interaction with microbes. Here, we review recent progress in the biochemistry and molecular biology of cuticle synthesis and function and highlight some of the major questions that will drive future research in this field.
Factors Affecting the Acceptance of Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Even if mobile devices are ubiquitous and have been applied in education, research addressing influential factors of mobile devices acceptance in classroom is in short supply. The paper described a hypothesized model, based on the theory of Technology Acceptance Model, which explains factors affecting acceptance of mobile devices in classroom for rural high students. Multiple stepwise regression analysis was used to analyze self-report data from 424 participants using a survey questionnaire. Results indicated that resource needs, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, social influence and perceived enjoyment influence the acceptance of mobile devices in classroom. The results provided valuable implications for ways to improve high school students' acceptance of mobile devices in classroom.
Live-Aboard Dive Boats in the Great Barrier Reef: Regional Economic Impact and the Relative Values of Their Target Marine Species

Using data collected from more than 1,000 tourists on live-aboard dive boats operating in the Cairns/Cooktown management area of the Great Barrier Reef, this paper estimates the regional economic impact of that live-aboard industry. It also uses a subset of these data (247 respondents) to investigate some of the relative ‘values’ of key marine species seen on the trips that included the Coral Sea location of Osprey Reef and which targeted multiple species of wildlife. The authors find that (i) each year, the live-aboard dive boats are directly responsible for generating at least AU$16 million worth of income in the Cairns/Port Douglas region; (ii) visitors participating in different types of trips gain their highest levels of ‘satisfaction’ from interacting with different types of species; and (iii) visitors to Osprey Reef would be willing to pay more for a ‘guaranteed’ sighting of sharks than they would for a ‘guaranteed’ sighting of large fish, marine turtles or a ‘wide variety of species’.
RECIPIENT ABILITY OF SALMONELLA TYPHOSA IN GENETIC CROSSES WITH ESCHERICHIA COLI

Johnson, E. M. (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C.), Stanley Falkow, and L. S. Baron. Recipient ability of Salmonella typhosa in genetic crosses with Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 87:54–60. 1964. —Salmonella typhosa strain 643WSr was mated with Escherichia coli Hfr strains W1895 and Hayes, with single marker selection for the E. coli genes lac+ (lactose utilization) and ara+ (arabinose utilization). Four classes of Salmonella hybrids were obtained, each class possessing one marker derived from one E. coli parent. In a series of eight genetic crosses, in which each hybrid class was remated with each of the Hfr strains, recipient ability of the hybrids was increased only when their substituted E. coli genetic section matched the lead region of the Hfr chromosome. Data obtained from replica plating indicated that the S. typhosa 643WSr population is probably homogeneous with respect to its initial ability to mate with E. coli. Transfer of the F-lac element was found to occur only slightly less efficiently from an E. coli F′ donor to S. typhosa than it did to an E. coli F− strain. This indicated that E. coli is able to conjugate almost as effectively with S. typhosa as it does intraspecifically. However, failure to detect β-galactosidase production by merozygotes derived from an E. coli Hfr W1895 × S. typhosa mating indicated that transfer of chromosomal lac+ may be impaired.
Nuclear Medicine Imaging of Prostate Cancer

Abstract The new tracer Gallium-68 prostate-specific membrane antigen (Ga-68 PSMA) yields new promising options for the PET/CT diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa) and its metastases. To overcome limitations of hybrid imaging, known from the use of choline derivatives, seems to be possible with the use of Ga-68 PSMA for PCa. The benefits of hybrid imaging with Ga-68 PSMA for PCa compared to choline derivatives shall be discussed in this article based on an overview of the current literature. Key Points: • Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT can achieve higher detection rates of PCa lesions than PET/CT performed with choline derivatives • The new tracer Ga-68 PSMA has the advantage of high specificity, independence of PSA-level and low nonspecific tracer uptake in surrounding tissue • The new tracer Ga-68 PSMA seems very suitable for MR-PET diagnostic Citation Format: • Schreiter V, Reimann C, Geisel D et al. Nuclear Medicine Imaging of Prostate Cancer. Fortschr Röntgenstr 2016; 188: 1037 – 1044
An Analysis of the Performance of European Foreign Exchange Forecasters

A database of individual forecasters' exchange rate predictions is analyzed. We demonstrate that only a small minority can be classed as rational, that most forecasts are inferior to easily available alternatives, and that relatively good performance in one period is not a reliable indicator of relatively good performance in subsequent periods.
Evidence for the expression and enzymatic activity of haem oxygenase-1 in the lungs of horses

The aim of this study was to characterise the expression of haem oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in healthy lung tissue from horses and to measure its activity. Samples of lung tissue were collected from six horses euthanased for reasons other than respiratory disease. HO-1 expression and activity were detected in type II alveolar epithelial cells, macrophages and neutrophils in all the samples examined. The activity was dependent on the presence of NADPH and inhibited quantitatively by the addition of increasing concentrations of a competitive inhibitor of HO-1, tin mesoporphyrin IX.
North-South Trade and the Global Environment

Differences in property rights create a motive for trade among otherwise identical regions. Two regions with identical technologies, endowments, and preferences will trade if one, the South, has ill-defined property rights on environmental resources. Trade with a region with well-defined property rights transmits and enlarges the problem of the commons: the North overconsumes underpriced resource-intensive products imported from the South. This occurs even though trade equalizes all prices, of goods and factors, worldwide. Taxing the use of resources in the South is unreliable as it can lead to more overextraction. Property-rights policies may be more effective. Copyright 1994 by American Economic Association.
The Quest for Legitimacy in EU Secondary Legislation

Abstract According to classic democratic theory legislative decision-making presupposes some involvement of the people or their representatives. Their involvement is a prerequisite for the legitimacy of enacted legislation. At the same time, however, the lack of public involvement is a weak spot of EU legislative decision-making. This represents a growing problem because the European Union (EU) is built on and predominantly governed by EU law that is enacted in EU-legislation without direct input from the people. In fact more than 75% of EU legislation is currently enacted by the European Commission (EC). This lack of democratic pedigree of so-called ‘EU secondary legislation’ allegedly causes various legitimacy-related problems at the EU level. With the introduction of a new system on delegated and implementing acts by the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU however aims to address the apparent democratic deficit. This contribution takes up this call and against this backdrop answers the question whether the Lisbon ‘arrangements’ have, indeed, changed ‘things for the better’. It presents a legitimacy review of the post-Lisbon regime on delegated and implementing acts of the last four years. We first look into the concept of legitimacy of EU secondary legislation to assess the post-Lisbon developments. After focusing on the question of whether the legitimacy of secondary legislation has increased since the Lisbon Treaty and in what respect we then turn to the Lisbon institutional and procedural empowerment of the European Parliament in the legislative procedure to see whether it has, in reality, increased the Parliament's influence and control of EU legislation vis vis the Council and the Commission. Our findings suggest that the high expectations for improving the legitimacy of EU secondary legislation have not (yet) materialized. Furthermore, facts and figures give cause for doubt as to the feasibility of achieving this objective in the near future.
Optimization of Unit Selection Speech Synthesis

This paper reports on the improvement of Polish speech synthesis obtained by applying new techniques to BOSS (The Bonn Open Synthesis System) for Polish. In order to enhance the system's performance a variety of set-ups for the cost function, types of units used for concatenation (uniform vs. non-uniform unit selection) and the corpus alignment were tested. Three configurations for segment duration weights were chosen and tested with a mean opinion score perception test to investigate the impact of the applied segmental duration model on the perceived speech quality.
A norovirus intervariant GII.4 recombinant in Victoria, Australia, June 2016: the next epidemic variant?

A norovirus recombinant GII. P4_NewOrleans_2009/GII. 4_Sydney_2012 was first detected in Victoria, Australia, in August 2015 at low frequency, and then re-emerged in June 2016, having undergone genetic changes. Analysis of 14 years’ surveillance data from Victoria suggests a typical delay of two to seven months between first detection of a new variant and occurrence of a subsequent epidemic linked to that variant. We consider that the current recombinant strain has the potential to become a pandemic variant.
Liquidity and real estate asset pricing: a pan-European study

Purpose – Understanding the pricing of real estate equities is a central objective of real estate research. This paper aims to investigate the impact of liquidity on European real estate equity returns, after accounting for well-documented systematic risk factors. Design/methodology/approach – Based on risk factors derived from general equity data, the authors extend the Fama-French time-series regression approach by a liquidity factor, using a pan-European sample of 272 real estate equities. Findings – The empirical results indicate that liquidity is a significant pricing factor in real estate stock returns, even after controlling for market, size and book-to-market factors. In addition, the authors detect that real estate stock returns load predominantly positively on the liquidity risk factor, suggesting that real estate equities tend to behave like illiquid common equities. These findings are underpinned by a series of robustness checks. Running a comparative analysis with alternative factor models, t.
Camera self-calibration from tracking of moving persons

In a video surveillance system with a single static camera, tracking results of moving persons can be effectively used for camera self-calibration. However, the current methods need to depend on robustness of both tracking and segmentation procedures. RANSAC has been widely used to remove outliers in finding the vertical vanishing point and the horizon line, but the performance is degraded when the proportion of outliers is high. Last but not least, all of them require excessive simplifications in the algorithmic procedures resulting in increasing reprojection error. In this paper, a robust segmentation and tracking system is applied to provide accurate estimation of head and foot locations of moving persons. The noise in the computation of vanishing points is handled by mean shift clustering and Laplace linear regression through convex optimization. We also propose to use the estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) to search for the local optimal solution for camera calibration that minimizes average reprojection error on the ground plane, while relaxing the assumptions on camera parameters. Promising evaluations of the performance of our proposed method on real scenes are presented.
Alternate Assessments for Students With Disabilities

Preface Meet Lara Audience Acknowledgments About the Authors 1. Alternate Assessment What and Why 2. Inclusive Standards High Expectations for All Students 3. Alternate Assessment Partners 4. Assessment Participation Decisions 5. Standards-Based IEPs, Transition Plans, and Alternate Assessments 6. The Nuts and Bolts of Alternate Assessment Administration 7. Scoring, Reporting, and Using Alternate Assessment Data 8. Tying It All Together Resource A Legal References Resource B Resources for Information and Assistance References Recommended Reading Index
Mannose‐binding lectin and gastric cancer

Daniel L. Worthley*, Peter G. Bardy, David L. Gordon and Charles G. Mullighan Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia, Australia Division of Hematology, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, South Australia, Australia Department of Hematology–Oncology, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, South Australia, Australia Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia, Australia Department of Pathology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
Distinct carbohydrate and lipid-based molecular patterns within lipopolysaccharides from Burkholderia cepacia contribute to defense-associated differential gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana

Lipopolysaccharides are structural components within the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria. The LPSs as microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP) molecules can trigger defense-related responses involved in MAMP-triggered immunity and basal resistance in plants, presumably from an initial perception event. LPS from Burkholderia cepacia as well as two fragments, the glycolipid, lipid A and the polysaccharide (OPS-core) chain, were used to treat Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings to evaluate the eliciting activities of the individual LPS sub-domains by means of Annealing Control Primer-based Differential Display transcript profiling. Genes found to be up-regulated encode for proteins involved in signal perception and transduction, transcriptional regulation and defense – and stress responses. Furthermore, genes encoding proteins involved in chaperoning, secretion, protein–protein interactions and protein degradation were differentially expressed. It is concluded that intact LPS, as well as the two sub-components, induced the expression of a broad range of genes associated with perception and defense as well as metabolic reprogramming of cellular activities in support of immunity and basal resistance. Whilst the lipid A and OPS moieties were able to up-regulate sub-sets of defense-associated genes over the same spectrum of categories as intact LPS, the up-regulation observed with intact LPS was the more comprehensive, suggesting that the lipid A and glycan molecular patterns of the molecule act as partial agonists, but that the intact LPS structure is required for full agonist activity.
Leading cancer hospital resumes some services after major fire

England needs a new body to oversee and champion postgraduate medical education to overcome the “many deficiencies” of the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme, recommends the inquiry into the failed attempt to reform junior doctors’ training. A new body would be key to ensuring that specialist training in England gets back on track, says the report. It should be “rapidly formed to redefine the guiding principles that should govern the nature and conduct of postgraduate medical education and training in the future”—something that MMC lacked, it says. The final report of John Tooke’s inquiry says that the new body, which would be called NHS Medical Education England, should have ringfenced funding and be outside the control of the Department of Health. The inquiry was ordered in April 2007 by the then health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, after one of the …
Social institutions and access to resources

Opening Paragraph For over a decade African economies have been plagued by recurrent food shortages, economic decline and growing disparities between the living standards of rich and poor. To a large extent food shortages and rural impoverishment may be attributed to external shocks—world recession, oil price shocks, deteriorating terms of trade and mounting debt service obligations—compounded in the 1970s and early 1980s by drought and war. In addition government policies have exacerbated the effects of adverse environmental and world market trends, aggravating rather than alleviating food shortages and depressing rural output and incomes. Résumé Institutions sociales, accès aux ressources et changements agraires en Afrique Pendant plus d'une décennie, les économies africaines ont périodiquement souffert de pénuries alimentaires, du déclin économique et des disproportions croissantes du niveau de vie entre les pauvres et les riches. Cet article décrit quelques unes des stratégies employées par les fermiers pour enrayer la crise et explore leurs implications en matière de performance agricole. On soutient que 1) la prolifération des voies d'accès développe la diversification, l'investissement dans les relations sociales et une préférence pour la rapidité de rendement et les liquidités tout en étant renforcée par ceux-ci; et que 2) la perpétuation des accès grâce à l'identité sociale entraîne un autre investissement dans les institutions comme voies d'accès potentielles.
Determinants of book reading and library attendance in Colombia. A microeconometric approach

The article explores the determinants of the decision to read books and visit libraries in a developing country, Colombia, based on data from the Encuesta de Consumo Cultural 2008 [Cultural Consumption Survey] (ECC2008). For this purpose, multilevel logistic regressions are estimated, results showing that a high level of education and a greater socioeconomic status have a positive and significant effect on the decision to read, whereas socioeconomic status does not prove significant vis-a-vis library visits. Moreover, the VPC (Variance Partition Coefficient), 5.33% (6.58%) of the residual variation in the propensity to read at least one book (visit a library), can be attributed to unobserved features of the neighbourhood
Cigarette Smoking as a Risk Factor for Chronic Pancreatitis: A Case-Control Study in Japan

We conducted a hospital-based, case-control study to examine the association of cigarette smoking with chronic pancreatitis. Ninety-one male patients with chronic pancreatitis newly diagnosed from July 1997 to December 1998 were recruited as cases, and 175 controls were individually matched to each case for gender, age (±5 years), hospital, and time of the first visit to a hospital (±1 year). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and other factors. The odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by multiple conditional logistic models, adjusting for body mass index, education level, and alcohol consumption. Compared with nonsmokers, the ORs (95% CIs) were 7.8 (2.2–27.3) for all current smokers, and 14.7 (3.1–69.9), 5.5 (1.5–20.1), 12.2 (2.4–71.0) for those consuming <20, 20–39, and ≥40 cigarettes per day, respectively. Much greater risk was observed for those who had smoked for ≥25 years. Risk of chronic pancreatitis significantly increased with increasing cumulative amount of smoking (p < 0.05). Analysis for the effect of combined use of tobacco and alcohol showed that cigarette smoking was associated with the higher risk in both of the two alcohol consumption levels. Our findings indicated that cigarette smoking may be an independent and significant risk factor for chronic pancreatitis.
Price Transmission in the Spanish Fresh Wild Fish Market

This article presents the results of a price transmission analysis in the fresh wild fish market in Spain. Value chains of hake, anchovy and mackerel, were studied and two alternative methodologies were undertaken, one based in structural models for agricultural markets and the other analyzing cointegration across the prices at the different levels of the value chain. For domestic seafood production, a perfect competitive framework could be rejected, and no price transmission along the chain was found. For imports, price transmission increased due to the power exercised by traders on producers in the origin countries. In species where the supply is dominated by local product, the margin of traders depends on origin prices. However, traders can influence producer prices in international markets, what increase their margins. Consequently, traders are interested in those species where the supply is dominated by imports, which provides more possibilities to increase their margins.
Distortion Minimization in Wireless Sensor Networks With Energy Harvesting

In this letter, we investigate the distortion minimization problem by jointly optimizing the sleep-wake scheduling and the transmit power in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks. A mean square error minimization problem with a more efficient harvest-use-store architecture and limited available channels taken into account is formulated. To tackle this mixed-integer non-linear programming, we first transform it into a tractable convex problem through the integer relaxation. Subsequently, a low-complexity sleep-wake scheduling and power control algorithm is proposed to solve the transformed problem. Specifically, we uncover the special structure of the transformed problem and employ it to obtain the optimal sleep-wake policy and power allocation for each sensor node.
Ergebnisse aus Untersuchungen zum Wildtiereinfluss auf die Waldverjüngung in der Schweiz | Results of various studies on the influence of wildlife on forest regeneration in Switzerland

Ten years ago the working group “Forest and Wildlife” of the Swiss Forestry Society described the situation at the time regarding forest and game in Switzerland. Since then data collection and evaluation methods for assessing browsing damage, but also forest and wildlife management concepts have evolved. A selection of the many activities in this field are presented in this article, namely the cantonal overviews of Cantons Glarus, Schwyz and Berne, the surveys on browsing intensity on indicator plots in Cantons St. Gallen, Glarus, Zurich, Schwyz and in the Bernese Oberland, as well as the Forest and Wildlife Reports and the Silver Fir Action Program of Canton Grisons. Furthermore the results of the Effor2 pilot program “forest and wildlife” and of the studies on the development of natural regeneration and the behaviour of wild ungulates in areas damaged by storm Lothar are presented, together with results from the 3rd National Forest Inventory. The results show: the proportion of forest area in the canton.