Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GC–MS analysis and anti–mosquito activities of Juniperus virginiana essential oil against Anopheles stephensi (Diptera: Culicidae)

Objective: To investigate phytochemicals present in the essential oil from aerial parts of eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana (J. virginiana) L. (Cupressaceae) and to determine its killing and repellent activities against larvae, pupae, and adults of the Asian malaria mosquito, Anopheles stephensi (Diptera: Culicidae). Methods: J. virginiana essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation, and its chemical composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Seven different logarithmic concentrations of J. virginiana essential oils were used in larvicidal and pupicidal assays. J. virginiana essential oils-impregnated bed nets were applied in a designed animal module to test excito-repellent activity against adult mosquitoes. Results: Fourteen constituents corresponding to 99.98% of J. virginiana essential oils were identified. Five main components were terpinen-4-ol (25.21%), camphor (19.89%), E-3-hexen- 1-ol (13.30%), γ-terpinene (7.86%), and l-menthone (2.27%). The LC50 and LC90 values against larvae of the Anopheles stephensi were 11.693 and 66.140 ppm and for pupae were 9.640 and 40.976 ppm, respectively. In excito-repellency assay, J. virginiana essential oils-impregnated bed nets provided an average of 54.63% protection for guinea pig and 45.37% mortality for the mosquitoes. Conclusions: Four monoterpenes and one leaf alcohol were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. J. virginiana essential oils showed potent larvicidal, pupicidal, adulticidal, and repellent activities against Anopheles stephensi at acceptable concentrations. Evaluation of bioactivity of identified chemicals (alone or in combination) will provide new eco-friendly substances for mosquito-management programs.
Predictive Model Selection

We consider the problem of selecting one model from a large class of plausible models. A predictive Bayesian viewpoint is advocated to avoid the specification of prior probabilities for the candidate models and the detailed interpretation of the parameters in each model. Using criteria derived from a certain predictive density and a prior specification that emphasizes the observables, we implement the proposed methodology for three common problems arising in normal linear models: variable subset selection, selection of a transformation of predictor variables and estimation of a parametric variance function. Interpretation of the relative magnitudes of the criterion values for various models is facilitated by a calibration of the criteria. Relationships between the proposed criteria and other well-known criteria are examined
Genetic diversity and phylogeography of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) across Eurasia

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is one of the world’s oldest cultivated cereals, with several lines of recent evidence indicating that it was grown in northern China from at least 10 000 cal bp. Additionally, a cluster of archaeobotanical records of P. miliaceum dated to at least 7000 cal bp exists in eastern Europe. These two centres of early records could either represent independent domestications or cross‐continental movement of this cereal that would predate that of any other crop by some 2 millennia. Here, we analysed genetic diversity among 98 landrace accessions from across Eurasia using 16 microsatellite loci, to explore phylogeographic structure in the Old World range of this historically important crop. The major genetic split in the data divided the accessions into an eastern and a western grouping with an approximate boundary in northwestern China. A substantial number of accessions belonging to the ‘western’ genetic group were also found in northeastern China. Further resolution subdivided the western and eastern genepools into 2 and 4 clusters respectively, each showing clear geographic patterning. The genetic data are consistent with both the single and multiple domestication centre hypotheses and add specific detail to what these hypotheses would entail regarding the spread of broomcorn millet. Discrepancies exist between the predictions from the genetic data and the current archaeobotanical record, highlighting priorities for investigation into early farming in Central Asia.
Seasonal branch nutrient dynamics in two Mediterranean woody shrubs with contrasted phenology.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Mediterranean woody plants have a wide variety of phenological strategies. Some authors have classified the Mediterranean phanaerophytes into two broad phenological categories: phenophase-overlappers (that overlap resource-demanding activities in a short period of the year) and phenophase-sequencers (that protract resource-demanding activities throughout the year). In this work the impact of both phenological strategies on leaf nutrient accumulation and retranslocation dynamics at the level of leaves and branches was evaluated. Phenophase-overlappers were expected to accumulate nutrients in leaves throughout most of the year and withdraw them efficiently in a short period. Phenophase-sequencers were expected to withdraw nutrients progressively throughout the year, without long accumulation periods. METHODS To test this hypothesis, variations in phenology and leaf NPK in the crown of a phenophase-overlapper Cistus laurifolius and a phenophase-sequencer Bupleurum fruticosum were monitored monthly during 2 years. KEY RESULTS Changes in nutrient concentration at the leaf level were not clearly related with the different phenologies. Nitrogen and phosphorous resorption efficiencies were lower in the phenophase-overlapper, and accumulation-retranslocation seasonality was similar in both species. Changes in the branch nutrient pool agreed with the hypothesis that the phenophase-overlapper accumulated nutrients from summer until the bud burst of the following spring, recovering a large nutrient pool during massive leaf shedding. The phenophase-sequencer did not accumulate nutrients from autumn until early spring, achieving lower nutrient recovery during spring leaf shedding. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that phenological demands influence branch nutrient cycling. This effect is easier to detect by assessing changes in the branch nutrient pool rather than changes in the leaf nutrient concentration.
Authors ’ Response Deconstructing RTK : How to Explicate a Theory of Implicit Knowledge

In this response, we start from first principles building up our theory to show more precisely what assumptions we do and do not make about the representational nature of implicit and explicit knowledge (in contrast to the target article, where we started our exposition with a description of a fully fledged RTK). Along the way, we indicate how our analysis does not rely on linguistic representations but it does imply that implicit knowledge is causally efficacious; we discuss the relationship between property structure implicitness and conceptual and nonconceptual content; then we consider the factual, fictional and functional uses of representations, and how we go from there to consciousness. Having shown how the basic theory deals with foundational criticisms, we indicate how the theory can elucidate issues commentators raised in the particular application areas of explicitation, voluntary control, visual perception, memory, development (with discussion on infancy, TOM and executive control, and gestures), and finally models of learning.
On the Feasibility of Profiling, Forecasting and Authenticating Internet Usage Based on Privacy Preserving NetFlow Logs

Understanding Internet user behavior and Internet usage patterns is fundamental in developing future access networks and services that meet technical as well as Internet user needs. User behavior is routinely studied and measured, but with different methods depending on the research discipline of the investigator, and these disciplines rarely cross. We tackle this challenge by developing frameworks that the Internet usage statistics used as the main features in understanding Internet user behaviors, with the purpose of finding a complete picture of the user behavior and working towards a unified analysis methodology. In this dissertation we collected Internet usage statistics via privacy-preserving NetFlow logs of 66 student subjects in a college campus was recorded for a month long period. Once the data is cleaned and split into different groups based on different timw windows, we have used Statistical Analysis and we found that Internet usage of each user exhibits statistically-strong correlation with the same user’s Internet usage for the same day over multiple weeks while it is statistically different from that of other Internet users. In another attempt we have used Time Series Forecasting in order to forecast future Internet usage based on the previous statistics. Subsequently, using state-of-the-art Machine Learning algorithms, we demonstrate the feasibility of profiling Internet users by looking at their Internet traffic. Specifically, when profiled over a time window of 227-second, subjects can be classified by 93.21% precision accuracy. We conclude that understanding Internet usage behavior is valuable and can help in developing future access networks and services.
The influence of leaders' verbal and nonverbal behavior on perceived leadership effectiveness

The aim of this MSc thesis is to examine what verbal and nonverbal human behaviors, displayed by leaders in regularly held staff meetings, influence perceived leadership effectiveness. In order to do so, the verbal and nonverbal behaviors of 45 leaders in regularly held staff meeting of a Dutch public organisation were video-recorded and coded. The degree of perceived effectiveness of the leaders was measured by followers and experts, using items from the so-called MLQ. Findings indicate differences in the types of behaviors that influence follower and expert ratings of leadership effectiveness. The followers' perceptions of their leadership effectiveness seem influenced by the leaders' gazing behavior and the frequency of displaying so-called adaptors. Expert ratings of leadership effectiveness appeared influenced by hand gestures, facial expressions and adaptors. The thesis ends with four major recommendations for future research in this area.
Out-of-order execution in master/slave speculative parallelization architecture for computer clusters

The use of parallelism, either at the instruction level (ILP) or at the execution thread level (TLP), mean the processors perform better. The main impairment in the continuous improvement of processors is mainly due to existing data and control dependencies. In this paper, speculation techniques to overcome this problem are proposed. However the main drawback of speculation is the access to previous records. When this information is not available, the system has to stop the execution of any new instructions until the dependency is solved. To improve the execution performance we propose allowing the processors an unordered execution. Therefore, when a dependency arises and it is not possible to speculate, the only instructions stopped would be those directly affected by said dependency. In this paper we use a platform called "Master/Slave Speculative Parallelization Architecture for Computer Clusters" allowing us to apply speculation techniques in a distributed environment. This platform applies data and control speculation. We have made changes to the platform to allow execution in out-of-order. To observe the behavior of the system, we have created a series of synthetic programs and we have applied them using speculation with ordered and with disordered execution.
Functional Pearls

Abstract This article describes the application of functional programming techniques to a problem previously studied by imperative programmers, that of drawing general trees automatically. We first consider the nature of the problem and the ideas behind its solution (due to Radack), independent of programming language implementation. We then describe a Standard ML program which reflects the structure of the abstract solution much better than an imperative language implementation. We conclude with an informal discussion on the correctness of the implementation and some changes which improve the algorithm's worst-case time complexity.
CSON-D: An Ambient Network Aware Context Dissemination Scheme towards Ubiquitous Networking

Ambient Networks enable co-operation between heterogeneous networks, on demand, in order to provide ubiquitous connectivity to end-users. We focus on the part of disseminating context information to enable context-based applications (for e.g., resource update and management) and systems in ambient and ubiquitous networks. Our pure overlay space architecture acts as a base for the development and maintenance of application-layer context-aware dissemination protocols. Our multi-level overlay network based dissemination protocol exhibits dynamic and fair context dissemination. In this paper, we first overview this 'pure overlay' and 'multi-level overlay' combined context dissemination scheme and discuss its constraints in autonomous and heterogeneous environments. We then focus on proposing techniques for improving this dissemination scheme towards ubiquitous networking which satisfies our goals with regard to creating a user-friendly data model. The proposed optimizations include: local transformations, personalized extensions, and hybrid customizations. This paper is complemented with case study evaluation and simulation study results.
An Arginine-Glycine-Rich RNA Binding Protein Impacts the Abundance of Specific mRNAs in the Mitochondria of Trypanosoma brucei

ABSTRACT In kinetoplastid parasites, regulation of mitochondrial gene expression occurs posttranscriptionally via RNA stability and RNA editing. In addition to the 20S editosome that contains the enzymes required for RNA editing, a dynamic complex called the mitochondrial RNA binding 1 (MRB1) complex is also essential for editing. Trypanosoma brucei RGG3 (TbRGG3) was originally identified through its interaction with the guide RNA-associated proteins 1 and 2 (GAP1/2), components of the MRB1 complex. Both the arginine-glycine-rich character of TbRGG3, which suggests a function in RNA binding, and its interaction with MRB1 implicate TbRGG3 in mitochondrial gene regulation. Here, we report an in vitro and in vivo characterization of TbRGG3 function in T. brucei mitochondria. We show that in vitro TbRGG3 binds RNA with broad sequence specificity and has the capacity to modulate RNA-RNA interactions. In vivo, inducible RNA interference (RNAi) studies demonstrate that TbRGG3 is essential for proliferation of insect vector stage T. brucei. TbRGG3 ablation does not cause a defect in RNA editing but, rather, specifically affects the abundance of two preedited transcripts as well as their edited counterparts. Protein-protein interaction studies show that TbRGG3 associates with GAP1/2 apart from the remainder of the MRB1 complex, as well as with several non-MRB1 proteins that are required for mitochondrial RNA editing and/or stability. Together, these studies demonstrate that TbRGG3 is an essential mitochondrial gene regulatory factor that impacts the stabilities of specific RNAs.
Measuring and Allocating Marcom Budgets : Seven Expert Points of View

This report, prepared with the support of MSI and the Yaffe Center, is being sent to you for your information and review. It is not to be reproduced or published, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the Institute and the author. Introduction This joint report of the Marketing Science Institute and the University of Michigan's Yaffe Center for Persuasive Communication contains the points of view of seven experts in the area of marketing communication, responding to the question , How should companies think through the challenge of how to use marketing communication resources most effectively? The seven experts are Paul Farris of the thank them all for their insightful contributions. The idea for this project came from a challenge posed to Rajeev Batra, director of the Yaffe Center, by Jan Valentic, vice president of global marketing at Ford, who sits on the Yaffe Center's industry advisory board, and many of the other Yaffe board members. Ford, like most other companies, is faced with the challenge of deciding how to best allocate its marketing communication dollars across not merely the traditional media of print, television, radio, and outdoor, but also across such media as event marketing, public relations, database and direct marketing , and the Web. If it is hard to measure marcom effectiveness within one medium , it is even harder to do so in many different media, especially in a way that allows comparisons of relative efficiencies and returns, postulating some kind of optimal allocation. How then might companies think through this task? That is, what metrics, tools, and criteria might be the most appropriate in making these allocations? Since this question involved both marketing metrics and marketing communications efficiency, which are priority topics for MSI, Rajeev approached Dave Reibstein, then MSI's executive director, with the suggestion that MSI and the Yaffe Center launch a joint research initiative in this area. MSI's traditional approach to promoting research in any priority area is to solicit and fund single studies in that topic area. While this is obviously useful, we thought it might be interesting at this early, exploratory phase to try something very different: to approach experts and ask them for their " orienting perspectives " on this broad, somewhat unstructured, question, and to then use their responses to target future research funding more tightly. We invited academic experts with well-established credentials …
Distributed Adaptive Control of Synchronization in Complex Networks

This technical note studies distributed adaptive control of synchronization in complex networks. An effective distributed adaptive strategy to tune the coupling weights of a network is designed based on local information of node dynamics. The analysis is then extended to the case where only a small fraction of coupling weights can be adjusted. A general criterion is derived and it is found that synchronization can be reached if the subgraph consisting of the edges and nodes corresponding to the updated coupling weights is connected. Finally, simulation examples are given to illustrate the theoretical analysis.
CCAAT box binding protein NF‐Y facilitates in vivo recruitment of upstream DNA binding transcription factors.

NF‐Y binds a CCAAT motif found in many eukaryotic polymerase II‐dependent promoters. In the HLA‐DRA promoter it has been demonstrated that stereo‐specific alignment between this motif and the upstream elements X1 and X2 is required for activation. To study the underlying mechanism for this requirement, a panel of transfected cell lines that maintained integrated, wild‐type and mutant promoters were analyzed by in vivo genomic footprinting. Cell lines harboring a mutated CCAAT element exhibited a loss of interactions at the CCAAT site, as expected, and no transcriptional activity. Most importantly, mutation of the CCAAT sequence nearly abolished in vivo binding at the X1 and X2 sites, while mutations of X1 and X2 had little effect on CCAAT box binding. However, X1 and X2 binding was interdependent. In vitro, X1 binding activities are known to be stabilized by NF‐Y binding. Interaction between NF‐Y and X box binding proteins was demonstrated by reciprocal co‐immunoprecipitation in the absence of DNA and co‐affinity purification in the presence of DNA. Collectively, these studies indicate that occupancy of the CCAAT element represents an early event affecting other protein‐DNA interactions and suggest that NF‐Y stabilizes and interacts with X box factors to mediate this function. These findings may represent a common theme among promoters containing a CCAAT element.
Extracellular ATP and Toll-Like Receptor 2 Agonists Trigger in Human Monocytes an Activation Program That Favors T Helper 17

Strategically-paired Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands induce a unique dendritic cell (DC) phenotype that polarizes Th1 responses. We therefore investigated pairing single TLR ligands with a non TLR-mediated danger signal to cooperatively induce distinct DC properties from cultured human monocytes. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the TLR2 ligand lipoteichoic acid (LTA) selectively and synergistically induced expression of IL-23 and IL-1β from cultured monocytes as determined by ELISA assays. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that a sizable sub-population of treated cells acquired DC-like properties including activated surface phenotype with trans-well assays showing enhanced migration towards CCR7 ligands. Such activated cells also preferentially deviated, in an IL-23 and IL-1-dependent manner, CD4pos T lymphocyte responses toward the IL-22hi, IL-17hi/IFN-γlo Th17 phenotype in standard in vitro allogeneic sensitization assays. Although pharmacological activation of either ionotropic or cAMP-dependent pathways acted in synergy with LTA to enhance IL-23, only inhibition of the cAMP-dependent pathway antagonized ATP-enhanced cytokine production. ATP plus atypical lipopolysaccharide from P. gingivalis (signaling through TLR2) was slightly superior to E. coli-derived LPS (TLR4 ligand) for inducing the high IL-23-secreting DC-like phenotype, but greatly inferior for inducing IL-12 p70 production when paired with IFN-γ, a distinction reflected in activated DCs’ ability to deviate lymphocytes toward Th1. Collectively, our data suggest TLR2 ligands encountered by innate immune cells in an environment with physiologically-relevant levels of extracellular ATP can induce a distinct activation state favoring IL-23- and IL-1β-dependent Th17 type response.
Estimating the validity of the guilty knowledge test from simulated experiments: the external validity of mock crime studies.

This experiment was designed to examine the external validity of the standard mock-crime procedure used extensively to evaluate the validity of polygraph tests. The authors manipulated the type of mock-crime procedure (standard vs. a more realistic version) and the time of test (immediate vs. delayed) and examined their effects on the validity of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) and the recall rate of the relevant items. The results indicated that only the type of mock-crime affected the 2 outcome variables. The realistic procedure was associated with a lower recall rate and weaker detection efficiency than the standard procedure. However, these effects were mediated by the type of GKT questions used. Practical implications of these results are discussed.