Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Potential Role of Flag Leaf Potassium in Conferring Tolerance to Drought-Induced Leaf Senescence in Barley

Terminal drought stress decreases crop yields by inducing abscisic acid (ABA) and premature leaf senescence. As potassium (K) is known to interfere with ABA homeostasis we addressed the question whether there is genetic variability regarding the role of K nutrition in ABA homeostasis and drought tolerance. To compare their response to drought stress, two barley lines contrasting in drought-induced leaf senescence were grown in a pot experiment under high and low K supply for the analysis of flag leaves from the same developmental stage. Relative to the drought-sensitive line LPR, the line HPR retained more K in its flag leaves under low K supply and showed delayed flag leaf senescence under terminal drought stress. High K retention was further associated with a higher leaf water status, a higher concentration of starch and other primary carbon metabolites. With regard to ABA homeostasis, HPR accumulated less ABA but higher levels of the ABA degradation products phaseic acid (PA) and dehydro-PA. Under K deficiency this went along with higher transcript levels of ABA8′-HYDROXYLASE, encoding a key enzyme in ABA degradation. The present study provides evidence for a positive impact of the K nutritional status on ABA homeostasis and carbohydrate metabolism under drought stress. We conclude that genotypes with a high K nutritional status in the flag leaf show superior drought tolerance by promoting ABA degradation but attenuating starch degradation which delays flag leaf senescence. Flag leaf K levels may thus represent a useful trait for the selection of drought-tolerant barley cultivars.
Dynamic speed scaling for energy minimization in delay-tolerant smartphone applications

Energy-delay tradeoffs in smartphone applications have been studied independently in dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) problem and network interface selection problem. We optimize the two problems jointly to quantify how much energy can be saved further and propose a scheme called SpeedControl which jointly manages application scheduling, CPU speed control and wireless interface selection. The scheme is shown to be near-optimal in that it tends to minimize energy consumption for given delay constraints. This paper is the first to reveal energy-delay tradeoffs in a holistic view considering multiple wireless interfaces, DVFS and multitasking in smartphone. We perform real measurements on WiFi/3G coverage and throughput, power consumption of CPU and WiFi/3G interfaces, and CPU workloads. Trace-driven simulations based on the measurements demonstrate that SpeedControl can save over 30% of battery by trading 10 min delay as compared to existing schemes when WiFi temporal coverage is 65%, moreover, the saving tendency increases as WiFi coverage increases.
What do subjective cognitive complaints in persons with aging-associated cognitive decline reflect?

Background: Subjective cognitive complaints have been included in diagnostic concepts such as Aging-Associated Cognitive Decline (AACD) aiming to identify older adults with cognitive impairments at high risk of developing dementia. Although several studies in normal aging have found that subjective cognitive complaints are related to depressive affect and personality factors, little is known as to whether this is also true for older adults with AACD. Methods: In 123 older adults diagnosed with AACD and 291 controls, the role of actual cognitive performance, depressive affect, neuroticism and conscientiousness in predicting subjective cognitive complaints was investigated. In separate ordinary least squares regression analyses for both groups with gender, age, years of schooling, cognitive performance, depressive affect, neuroticism and conscientiousness as predicting variables, in the control participants, gender, age, depressive affect and neuroticism were related to subjective cognitive complaints, whereas in the AACD participants only gender and neuroticism accounted for variance in subjective cognitive complaints. Testing for group differences in predictive power, revealed differential effects for gender, depressive affect and neuroticism. Conclusions: As subjective cognitive complaints in the AACD group were related to neuroticism and gender rather than to cognitive performance, their inclusion in diagnostic concepts such as AACD should be revaluated. However, the nature of subjective cognitive complaints might be qualitatively different in persons diagnosed with AACD compared to those stated by normal older adults.
Hierarchical Subquery Evaluation for Active Learning on a Graph

To train good supervised and semi-supervised object classifiers, it is critical that we not waste the time of the human experts who are providing the training labels. Existing active learning strategies can have uneven performance, being efficient on some datasets but wasteful on others, or inconsistent just between runs on the same dataset. We propose perplexity based graph construction and a new hierarchical subquery evaluation algorithm to combat this variability, and to release the potential of Expected Error Reduction. Under some specific circumstances, Expected Error Reduction has been one of the strongest-performing informativeness criteria for active learning. Until now, it has also been prohibitively costly to compute for sizeable datasets. We demonstrate our highly practical algorithm, comparing it to other active learning measures on classification datasets that vary in sparsity, dimensionality, and size. Our algorithm is consistent over multiple runs and achieves high accuracy, while querying the human expert for labels at a frequency that matches their desired time budget.
Secure and Efficient Multiparty Computation on Genomic Data

Large scale biomedical research projects involve analysis of huge amount of genomic data which is owned by different data owners. The collection and storing of genomic data is sometimes beyond the capability of a sole organization. Genomic data sharing is a feasible solution to overcome this problem. These scenarios can be generalized into the problem of aggregating data distributed among multiple databases and owned by different data owners. However, we should guarantee that an adversary cannot learn anything about the data or the individual contribution of each party towards the final output of the computation. In this paper, we propose a practical solution for secure sharing and computation of genomic data. We adopt the Paillier cryptosystem and the order preserving encryption to securely execute the count query and the ranked query. Experimental results demonstrate that the computation time is realistic enough to make our system adoptable in the real world.
Paired spiking robustly shapes spontaneous activity in neural networks in vitro

In vivo, neurons establish functional connections and preserve information along their synaptic pathways from one information processing stage to the next in a very efficient manner. Paired spiking (PS) enhancement plays a key role by acting as a temporal filter that deletes less informative spikes. We analyzed the spontaneous neural activity evolution in a hippocampal and a cortical network over several weeks exploring whether the same PS coding mechanism appears in neuronal cultures as well. We show that self-organized neural in vitro networks not only develop characteristic bursting activity, but feature robust in vivo-like PS activity. PS activity formed spatiotemporal patterns that started at early days in vitro (DIVs) and lasted until the end of the recording sessions. Initially random-like and sparse PS patterns became robust after three weeks in vitro (WIVs). They were characterized by a high number of occurrences and short inter-paired spike intervals (IPSIs). Spatially, the degree of complexity increased by recruiting new neighboring sites in PS as a culture matured. Moreover, PS activity participated in establishing functional connectivity between different sites within the developing network. Employing transfer entropy (TE) as an information transfer measure, we show that PS activity is robustly involved in establishing effective connectivities. Spiking activity at both individual sites and network level robustly followed each PS within a short time interval. PS may thus be considered a spiking predictor. These findings suggest that PS activity is preserved in spontaneously active in vitro networks as part of a robust coding mechanism as encountered in vivo. We suggest that, presumably in lack of any external sensory stimuli, PS may act as an internal surrogate stimulus to drive neural activity at different developmental stages.
Knockdown of Inner Arm Protein IC138 in Trypanosoma brucei Causes Defective Motility and Flagellar Detachment

Motility in the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei is conferred by a single flagellum, attached alongside the cell, which moves the cell forward using a beat that is generated from tip-to-base. We are interested in characterizing components that regulate flagellar beating, in this study we extend the characterization of TbIC138, the ortholog of a dynein intermediate chain that regulates axonemal inner arm dynein f/I1. TbIC138 was tagged In situ-and shown to fractionate with the inner arm components of the flagellum. RNAi knockdown of TbIC138 resulted in significantly reduced protein levels, mild growth defect and significant motility defects. These cells tended to cluster, exhibited slow and abnormal motility and some cells had partially or fully detached flagella. Slight but significant increases were observed in the incidence of mis-localized or missing kinetoplasts. To document development of the TbIC138 knockdown phenotype over time, we performed a detailed analysis of flagellar detachment and motility changes over 108 hours following induction of RNAi. Abnormal motility, such as slow twitching or irregular beating, was observed early, and became progressively more severe such that by 72 hours-post-induction, approximately 80% of the cells were immotile. Progressively more cells exhibited flagellar detachment over time, but this phenotype was not as prevalent as immotility, affecting less than 60% of the population. Detached flagella had abnormal beating, but abnormal beating was also observed in cells with no flagellar detachment, suggesting that TbIC138 has a direct, or primary, effect on the flagellar beat, whereas detachment is a secondary phenotype of TbIC138 knockdown. Our results are consistent with the role of TbIC138 as a regulator of motility, and has a phenotype amenable to more extensive structure-function analyses to further elucidate its role in the control of flagellar beat in T. brucei.
RANDOMIZED ANTICANCER AND CYTOTOXICITY ACTIVITIES OF GUIBOURTIA COLEOSPERMA AND DIOSPYROS CHAMAETHAMNUS

Background: Plants have consistently proven to be a reliable and yet not fully explored source of medicines. In light of this, there is a constant demand for new treatment regimens for cancer. Namibia has a rich diversity of plant species of over 4300 with 17 % of them being endemic to Namibia. Plants growing in Namibia’s diverse climatic zones produce many secondary metabolites as part of adaptation to their environment. This article focused on the screening of such phytochemicals and their cytotoxic and anticancer properties in vitro. Two Namibian plants Diospyros chamaethamnus and Guibourtia coleosperma were randomly selected for this purpose. Materials and Methods: The plants were screened for the presence of coumarins, alkaloids, flavonoids, anthraquinones, steroids and terpenoids using thin layer chromatography. Anticancer screening was performed on a panel of three cancer cell lines, while cytotoxicity was determined using a human fibroblast cell line, both using the SRB method. Results: Alkaloids, anthraquinones, flavonoids and steroids were detected in both organic and aqueous extracts of the two plants. The organic plant extracts had a greater anti-proliferative effect on the cancer cell lines than the aqueous extracts; the D. chamaethamnus organic root extract was the most potent with an IC50 of 16.08, 29.12 and 24.67 µg/mL against TK10, UACC62 and MCF7 cells, respectively. Furthermore, cytotoxicity analysis revealed the non-toxic nature of the extracts, except for the organic root extract of D. chamaethamnus that showed significant cytotoxicity (IC50 13.03 µg/mL). Conclusion: D. chamaethamnus is a potential candidate for the development of a plant based cancer treatment. The study showed the value of random screening in drug discovery from plants for pharmacological activity that is unrelated to their ethnomedicinal uses.
Toward Lossless Video Transport

Temporary outages in IP packet delivery can occur during network reconvergence events, and conventional error-control methods that end points use can't effectively deal with such extended blocks of packet loss. Service providers can employ a number of network technologies to minimize the IP packet loss during such outages, ultimately resulting in lossless video transport.
P2X2 knockout mice and P2X2/P2X3 double knockout mice reveal a role for the P2X2 receptor subunit in mediating multiple sensory effects of ATP

Extracellular ATP plays a role in nociceptive signalling and sensory regulation of visceral function through ionotropic receptors variably composed of P2X2 and P2X3 subunits. P2X2 and P2X3 subunits can form homomultimeric P2X2, homomultimeric P2X3, or heteromultimeric P2X2/3 receptors. However, the relative contribution of these receptor subtypes to afferent functions of ATP in vivo is poorly understood. Here we describe null mutant mice lacking the P2X2 receptor subunit (P2X2−/−) and double mutant mice lacking both P2X2 and P2X3 subunits (P2X2/P2X3Dbl−/−), and compare these with previously characterized P2X3−/− mice. In patch‐clamp studies, nodose, coeliac and superior cervical ganglia (SCG) neurones from wild‐type mice responded to ATP with sustained inward currents, while dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurones gave predominantly transient currents. Sensory neurones from P2X2−/− mice responded to ATP with only transient inward currents, while sympathetic neurones had barely detectable responses. Neurones from P2X2/P2X3Dbl−/− mice had minimal to no response to ATP. These data indicate that P2X receptors on sensory and sympathetic ganglion neurones involve almost exclusively P2X2 and P2X3 subunits. P2X2−/− and P2X2/P2X3Dbl−/− mice had reduced pain‐related behaviours in response to intraplantar injection of formalin. Significantly, P2X3−/−, P2X2−/−, and P2X2/P2X3Dbl−/− mice had reduced urinary bladder reflexes and decreased pelvic afferent nerve activity in response to bladder distension. No deficits in a wide variety of CNS behavioural tests were observed in P2X2−/− mice. Taken together, these data extend our findings for P2X3−/− mice, and reveal an important contribution of heteromeric P2X2/3 receptors to nociceptive responses and mechanosensory transduction within the urinary bladder.
Comparison of Rabbit and Pig Plasma in the Tube Coagulase Test

A total of 627 clinical isolates of Micrococcaceae were characterized accoridng to their ability to coagulate rabbit and pig plasma, produce thermostable nuclease, and anaerobically ferment glucose and mannitol. By using these characteristics, 416 of the isolates were classified as Staphylococcus aureus and 211 as non-S. aureus. All 416 strains produced a 3 to 4+ clot formation in heparinized pig plasma, whereas 415 isolates produced a similar reaction in citrated rabbit plasma. All of the S. aureus strains possessed a thermostable nuclease, whereas only four of the non-S. aureus isolates exhibited this characteristic. The results obtained using heparinized pig plasma were almost identical to those obtained with commercial rabbit plasma.
Mobile Localization And Tracking With Los And Nlos Identification In Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of mobile sensor localization and tracking in an obstructed environment. To solve this problem, a combination of three approaches is proposed: a nonlinear Kalman Filter to estimate the mobile position, a sub filter used jointly with the nonlinear filter to estimate the bias due to the Non-Line Of Sight (NLOS) effect and a low complexity method for Line Of Sight (LOS) and NLOS identification. Based on hypothesis testing, this method discriminates between the LOS and NLOS situations using a sequence of estimated biases. Simulation results show that the proposed method provides good positioning accuracy
Hypoxia preconditioned human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells enhance angiogenic potential via secretion of increased VEGF and bFGF

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are adult multipotent cells found in bone marrow, adipose tissue, and other adult tissues. MSCs improve regeneration of injured tissues in vivo, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Typically, MSCs are cultured under ambient or normoxic conditions (21% O2). However, the physiological niches of MSCs have much lower oxygen tension. When used as a therapeutic tool to repair tissue injuries, MSCs cultured in standard conditions must adapt from 21% O2 in culture to <1% O2 in ischemic tissue. We have examined the effects of hypoxia preconditioning (1% O2) in human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD‐MSCs) to discover the conditions that best enhance their tissue regenerative potential. We demonstrate that AD‐MSCs respond positively to hypoxia compared with normoxia preconditioning, show decreased apoptosis even in severe microenvironmental conditions (such as a low‐serum medium), and an increased expression of the angiogenic factors, vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells have higher vitality and lower apoptosis when cultured in medium taken from hypoxia‐preconditioned AD‐MSCs, as well as significantly increased capillary‐like structures with this medium on Matrigel. The data suggest that hypoxia preconditioned AD‐MSCs can improve tissue regeneration.
On Construction of Gene-PDB Structure Mapping with Applications in Functional Annotation of Human Genes

Protein 3D structure is one of the key factors in recognizing gene functions. The availability of protein structure data in Protein Data Bank (PDB) enables us to conduct gene function analysis. However, the molecules in the PDB, whose structures have been determined, are always not corresponding to a unique gene. That is to say, the mapping from gene to PDB is not one-to-one. Thus this uncertain property complicates the analysis and increases the difficulty of gene function analysis. In this paper, we attempt to tackle this challenging issue and we study the problem of predicting gene function from protein structures based on the gene-PDB mapping. We first obtain the gene- PDB mapping, which is important in representing a gene by the structure set of all its corresponding PDB molecules. We then define a new gene-gene similarity measurement based on the structure similarity between PDB molecules. We further show that this new measurement matches with gene functional similarity nicely. This means that the measurement we introduced here can be useful for gene function prediction. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate our claim.
Proceedings of the 2002 Usenix Annual Technical Conference Bridging the Information Gap in Storage Protocol Stacks

The functionality and performance innovations in file systems and storage systems have proceeded largely independently from each other over the past years. The result is an information gap: neither has information about how the other is designed or implemented, which can result in a high cost of maintenance, poor performance, duplication of features, and limitations on functionality. To bridge this gap, we introduce and evaluate a new division of labor between the storage system and the file system. We develop an enhanced storage layer known as Exposed RAID (E×RAID), which reveals information to file systems built above; specifically, E×RAID exports the parallelism and failure-isolation boundaries of the storage layer, and tracks performance and failure characteristics on a fine-grained basis. To take advantage of the information made available by E×RAID, we develop an Informed Log-Structured File System (I·LFS). I·LFS is an extension of the standard log-structured file system (LFS) that has been altered to take advantage of the performance and failure information exposed by E×RAID. Experiments reveal that our prototype implementation yields benefits in the management, flexibility, reliability, and performance of the storage system, with only a small increase in file system complexity. For example, I·LFS/E×RAID can incorporate new disks into the system on-the-fly, dynamically balance workloads across the disks of the system, allow for user control of file replication, and delay replication of files for increased performance. Much of this functionality would be difficult or impossible to implement with the traditional division of labor between file systems and storage.
A generalization of the sparse iterative covariance-based estimator

In this work, we extend the popular sparse iterative covariance-based estimator (SPICE) by generalizing the formulation to allow for different norm constraint on the signal and noise parameters in the covariance model. For any choice of norms, the resulting generalized SPICE method enjoys the same benefits as the regular SPICE method, including being hyperparameter free, although the choice of norm is shown to govern the sparsity in the resulting solution. Furthermore, we show that there is a connection between the generalized SPICE and a penalized regression problem, both for the case were one allows the noise parameters to differ for each sample, and when treating each noise parameter as being equal. We examine the performance of the method for different choices of norms, and compare the results to the original SPICE method, showing the benefits of using the generalized version. We also provide a way of solving the generalized SPICE using a gridless method, which solves a semi-definite programming problem.
Global collaboration on road traffic injury prevention

Worldwide, nearly 1.2 million people are killed in road traffic crashes every year and 20 million to 50 million more are injured or disabled. These injuries account for 2.1% of global mortality and 2.6% of all disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. Low- and middle-income countries account for about 85% of the deaths and 90% of the DALYs lost annually. Without appropriate action, by 2020, road traffic injuries are predicted to be the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease. The economic cost of road traffic crashes is enormous. Globally it is estimated that US$518 billion is spent on road traffic crashes with low- and middle-income countries accounting for US$65 billion – more than these countries receive in development assistance. But these costs are just the tip of the iceberg. For everyone killed, injured or disabled by a road traffic crash there are countless others deeply affected. Many families are driven into poverty by the expenses of prolonged medical care, loss of a family breadwinner or the added burden of caring for the disabled. There is an urgent need for global collaboration on road traffic injury prevention. Since 2000, WHO has stepped up its response to the road safety crisis by firstly developing a 5-year strategy for road traffic injury prevention and following this by dedicating World Health Day 2004 to road safety and launching the WHO/World Bank World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention at the global World Health Day event in Paris, France. This short article highlights the main messages from the World Report and the six recommendations for action on road safety at a national and international level. It goes on to briefly discuss other international achievements since World Health Day and calls for countries to take up the challenge of implementing the recommendations of the World Report.