Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The construction of an EST database for Bombyx mori and its application

To build a foundation for the complete genome analysis of Bombyx mori, we have constructed an EST database. Because gene expression patterns deeply depend on tissues as well as developmental stages, we analyzed many cDNA libraries prepared from various tissues and different developmental stages to cover the entire set of Bombyx genes. So far, the Bombyx EST database contains 35,000 ESTs from 36 cDNA libraries, which are grouped into ≈11,000 nonredundant ESTs with the average length of 1.25 kb. The comparison with FlyBase suggests that the present EST database, SilkBase, covers >55% of all genes of Bombyx. The fraction of library-specific ESTs in each cDNA library indicates that we have not yet reached saturation, showing the validity of our strategy for constructing an EST database to cover all genes. To tackle the coming saturation problem, we have checked two methods, subtraction and normalization, to increase coverage and decrease the number of housekeeping genes, resulting in a 5–11% increase of library-specific ESTs. The identification of a number of genes and comprehensive cloning of gene families have already emerged from the SilkBase search. Direct links of SilkBase with FlyBase and WormBase provide ready identification of candidate Lepidoptera-specific genes.
Criminogenic Thinking Mediates the Relation Between Violent Media Exposure and Aggression

ABSTRACT For decades researchers have been exploring the connection between exposure to violent media and aggression in adolescents. In this study, we hypothesized that criminogenic thinking would mediate the relationship between violent media exposure and aggression. A sample of 382 undergraduate students completed questionnaires regarding exposure to violent media during their adolescent years, and their current endorsement of criminogenic thinking and level of aggression. Results indicated that criminogenic thinking patterns did, in fact, mediate the relationships between exposure to various forms of violent media and aggression. The implications of these findings toward a better understanding of the relationship between violent media exposure and aggressive behavior are discussed.
Resolution and Parallelizability: Barriers to the Efficient Parallelization of SAT Solvers

Recent attempts to create versions of Satisfiability (SAT) solversthat exploit parallel hardware and information sharing have met withlimited success. In fact,the most successful parallel solvers in recent competitions were basedon portfolio approaches with little to no exchange of informationbetween processors. This experience contradicts the apparentparallelizability of exploring a combinatorial search space. Wepresent evidence that this discrepancy can be explained by studyingSAT solvers through a proof complexity lens, as resolution refutationengines. Starting with theobservation that a recently studied measure of resolution proofs,namely depth, provides a (weak) upper bound to the best possiblespeedup achievable by such solvers, we empirically show the existenceof bottlenecks to parallelizability that resolution proofs typicallygenerated by SAT solvers exhibit. Further, we propose a new measureof parallelizability based on the best-case makespan of an offlineresource constrained scheduling problem. This measureexplicitly accounts for a bounded number of parallel processors andappears to empirically correlate with parallel speedups observed inpractice. Our findings suggest that efficient parallelization of SATsolvers is not simply a matter of designing the right clause sharingheuristics; even in the best case, it can be --- and indeed is ---hindered by the structure of the resolution proofs current SAT solverstypically produce.
Requirements for Simulating Space Radiation With Particle Accelerators

Interplanetary space radiation consists of fully ionized nuclei of atomic elements with high energy for which only the few lowest energy ions can be stopped in shielding materials. The health risk from exposure to these ions and their secondary radiations generated in the materials of spacecraft and planetary surface enclosures is a major limiting factor in the management of space radiation risk. Accurate risk prediction depends on a knowledge of basic radiobiological mechanisms and how they are modified in the living tissues of a whole organism. To a large extent, this knowledge is not currently available. It is a best developed at ground-based laboratories, using particle accelerator beams to simulate the components of space radiation. Different particles, in different energy regions, are required to study different biological effects, including beams of argon and iron nuclei in the energy range 600 to several thousand MeV/nucleon and carbon beams in the energy range of ~100 MeV/nucleon to ~100 MeV/nucleon. Three facilities, one each in the United States, in Germany and in Japan, currently have the partial capability to satisfy these constraints. A facility has been proposed using the Brookhaven National Laboratory Booster Synchrotron in the United States; in conjunction with other on-site accelerators, it will be able to provide the full range of heavy ion beams and energies required. International cooperation in the use of these facilities is essential to the development of a safe international space program.
An approach to QRS complex detection using mathematical morphology

An approach to QRS complex detection based on mathematical morphology is presented. QRS complexes are detected by the application of a simple morphological operator. This operator works as a peak-valley extractor and it is controlled by the shape of the structuring element. A set (horizontal line segment) is used as a structuring element, resulting in very fast execution times. The accuracy of this approach has been tested using a standard ECG library; a sensitivity of 99.38% and a positive predictivity of 99.48% have been achieved. <<ETX>>
Stability Margin Improvement of Vehicular Platoon Considering Undirected Topology and Asymmetric Control

The platooning of autonomous vehicles has the potential to significantly improve traffic capacity, enhance highway safety, and reduce fuel consumption. This paper studies the scalability limitations of large-scale vehicular platoons moving in rigid formation, and proposes two basic ways to improve stability margins, i.e., enlarging information topology and employing asymmetric control. A vehicular platoon is considered as a combination of four components: 1) node dynamics; 2) decentralized controller; 3) information flow topology; and 4) formation geometry. Tools, such as the algebraic graph theory and matrix factorization technique, are employed to model and analyze scalability limitations. The major findings include: 1) under linear identical decentralized controllers, the stability thresholds of control gains are explicitly established for platoons under undirected topologies. It is proved that the stability margins decay to zero as the platoon size increases unless there is a large number of following vehicles pinned to the leader and 2) the stability margins of vehicular platoons under bidirectional topologies using asymmetric controllers are always bounded away from zero and independent of the platoon size. Simulations with a platoon of passenger cars are used to demonstrate the findings.
Renal response during acute unilateral ureteral obstruction in rats

The early renal response to unilateral ureteral occlusion (UUO) and its mechanism have been extensively studied in dogs but seldom discussed in the most frequently used laboratory animals, rats. The acute phase of the renal response to UUO was studied in female rats weighing 190–236 g. We recorded the ureteral pressure and changes in renal parameters throughout 120 minutes of UUO in control (US, UUO + saline, n = 10), L‐arginine‐treated (UA, n = 10), and right‐nephrectomized rats (UO, UUO in one kidney, n = 9). Ureteral pressure increased in all three groups of rats after complete ureteral obstruction. The extent of the increase was not significantly different between US and UA rats but was significantly higher in the UO rats. In US rats, the cortical microvascular blood flow (CMVBF), measured by a laser Doppler flowmeter, declined significantly, from 321 ± 10 perfusion units (PU) to 260 ± 11 PU. The percentage of drop in CMVBF at 120 minutes of UUO was significantly greater in UO (25.7 ± 3.8 %) than in US (19 ± 2.1%) and in UA (14 ± 2%) rats. Acute UUO reduced the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in US and UO rats, whereas L‐arginine attenuated this decrease. The excretion of nitrate/nitrite was increased after UUO. Giving NG‐nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L‐NAME, 12 mg/kg/h) during UUO did not reduce CMVBF more severely. Western blot analysis of endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression in the renal cortex and medulla protein extracts revealed no differences between US and sham‐operated rats. Acute UUO did not lead to renal hyperemia in rats. Reduction of nitric oxide during UUO might contribute to the decrease of renal circulation during UUO. Neurourol. Urodynam. 20:125–137, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Thermal ecological physiology of native and invasive frog species: do invaders perform better?

Biological invasions are an important threat to biodiversity. We studied the effect of thermal acclimation on thermal tolerance and locomotor performance in the invasive Xenopus laevis and the Chilean native Calyptocephalella gayi. We show that X. laevis is a better performer than C. gayi. Furthermore, thermal tolerance did not differ between the species.
Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Management

En los ultimos anos, la religion ha estado en la agenda de los medios masivos de comunicacion, ya sea como eje central de una serie de conflictos materializados o canalizados por el terrorismo, o como las imposibilidades de una institucion medieval cuyos problemas radican en cierta imposibilidad para dar respuestas a las necesidades de sus feligreses. Durante mucho tiempo se pensaba que la industrializacion capitalista traeria consigo la muerte irreducible de la religion, pero lejos de eso, una mayor cantidad de personas se disponen a viajar a centros de peregrinajes y hacen turismo religioso en todo el mundo. Dean MacCannell enfatizaba en el turismo como una continuacion de la religion. Si para el mundo indigena el totem confiere a la comunidad de cierta proteccion e identidad, misma funcion ejerce el turismo en la sociedad moderna. Empero dentro de este esquema, ? donde ubicamos al turismo religioso? , ? es este fenomeno una prueba de descomposicion social como anticipaba MacCannell (1976) o una realidad insoslayable que la religion aun juega un rol importante en la sociedad?
esearch paper reen infrastructure for urban climate adaptation : How do residents ’ iews on climate impacts and green infrastructure shape adaptation references ?

Cities are particularly prone to the effects of climate change. One way for cities to adapt is by enhancing their green infrastructure (GI) to mitigate the impacts of heat waves and flooding. While alternative GI design options exist, there are many unknowns regarding public support for the various options. This study aims to fill this gap by performing a socio-cultural valuation of urban GI for climate adaptation that encompasses multiple dimensions: people’s notion of and concerns about climate impacts, the degree to which people acknowledge the benefits of GI to alleviate such impacts, and people’s preferences for different GI measures, including their willingness to pay (WTP). Data were collected through photo-assisted face-to-face surveys (n = 200) with residents in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and linked to GI GIS data. Respondents had a notion of and concerns about climate impacts, but did not necessarily acknowledge that GI may help tackle these issues. Yet, when residents were informed about the adaptation capacity of different GI measures, their preferences shifted towards the most effective options. There was no information effect, however, on people’s WTP for GI, which was mostly related to income and ethnicity. Our study shows that economic valuation alone would miss nuances that socio-cultural valuation as applied in this paper can reveal. The method revealed preferences for particular adaptation designs, and assists in detecting why policy for climate adaptation may be hampered. Understanding people’s views on climate impacts and adaptation options is crucial for prioritizing effective policy responses in the face of climate change. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Phosphate Starvation Triggers Distinct Alterations of Genome Expression in Arabidopsis Roots and Leaves1[w]

Arabidopsis genome expression pattern changes in response to phosphate (Pi) starvation were examined during a 3-d period after removal of Pi from the growth medium. Available Pi concentration was decreased after the first 24 h of Pi starvation in roots by about 22%, followed by a slow recovery during the 2nd and 3rd d after Pi starvation, but no significant change was observed in leaves within the 3 d of Pi starvation. Microarray analysis revealed that more than 1,800 of the 6,172 genes present in the array were regulated by 2-fold or more within 72 h from the onset of Pi starvation. Analysis of these Pi starvation-responsive genes shows that they belong to wide range of functional categories. Many genes for photosynthesis and nitrogen assimilation were down-regulated. A complex set of metabolic adaptations appears to occur during Pi starvation. More than 100 genes each for transcription factors and cell-signaling proteins were regulated in response to Pi starvation, implying major regulatory changes in cellular growth and development. A significant fraction of those regulatory genes exhibited distinct or even contrasting expression in leaves and roots in response to Pi starvation, supporting the idea that distinct Pi starvation response strategies are used for different plant organs in response to a shortage of Pi in the growth medium.
TLM: Tracking-learning-matching of keypoints

In this work, we present an approach for improving the long-term association of keypoints in videos by exploiting the unlabeled parts of the video on-the-fly. Towards this end, we track keypoints from frame to frame by using a method for estimating optic flow. As long as this method is successful (according to certain criteria), we update an ensemble classifier with training data stemming from newly discovered views of the keypoint as well as from false matches. In each frame, we match candidate keypoints to the original keypoint by classifying them and re-initialise the tracking mechanism after failure. Neither a-priori knowledge about the keypoint nor a training stage is required. Our method avoids the use of an expensive sliding-window approach used by a similar method and instead embraces a highly efficient keypoint detection and matching stage, making our method suitable for the use in embedded devices. We show experimentally that our approach is able to provide both accurate and robust results on several sequences.
Criterion Validity and Practical Utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2–Restructured Form (MMPI–2–RF) in Assessments of Police Officer Candidates

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2–Restructured Form scores for 145 male police officer candidates were compared with supervisor ratings of field performance and problem behaviors during their initial probationary period. Results indicated that the officers produced meaningfully lower and less variant substantive scale scores compared to the general population. After applying a statistical correction for range restriction, substantive scale scores from all domains assessed by the inventory demonstrated moderate to large correlations with performance criteria. The practical significance of these results was assessed with relative risk ratio analyses that examined the utility of specific cutoffs on scales demonstrating associations with performance criteria.
Ontology-based model for Arabic lexicons: An application of the Place Nouns in the Holy Quran

Ontology is an explicit specification of conceptualization. It defines the terms with specified relationships between them and can be interpreted by both humans and computers. In general, there are scare semantic resources for Arabic language especially in Arabic ontologies. These semantic resources are very essential components in both Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing applications like search engines, question answering, machine translation, etc. In recent years, many researchers are interested in building Arabic sematic resources, which are then can be exploited by others to build Arabic sematic applications. Recently, a proposed ontological model for “Time Nouns” vocabulary in the Holy Quran was introduced. To share towards building an integrated and unified ontology for Arabic language, in this paper, we are proposing an ontology-based model for Arabic language vocabulary associated with “Place Nouns” in the Holy Quran. This ontology is represented by the Web Ontology Language (OWL), which is the standard language for the semantic web. The ontology will be useful in the knowledge of the Islamic learning, linguistics researches, and Semantic Web applications.
Voluntary control of neural oscillations in the human brain

Introduction. Animals and humans are capable to modulate their own brain activity if they are provided with real-time sensory feedback thereof. The range of controllable neural activities reaches from oscillatory brain rhythms, over hemodynamic response function to the firing of single neurons or even action-potential associated calcium signals. The voluntary control of neural activity facilitated by this ‘closed-loop’ experimental paradigm is at the very heart of the mind-body interaction and can be used to address philosophical questions. But as numerous successful applications of neurofeedback and brain-computer interfaces have demonstrated, it is also a powerful tool in motor rehabilitation, pain management, emotion regulation or memory improvement. Because most previous studies were conducted on humans using non-invasive recordings techniques, the neurophysiological mechanisms of neural self-regulation remained obscure. The main objective of the present work was thus to provide a better understanding of its underlying principles. Objectives. Following a multiscale theoretical framework of neural oscillations, the present investigation was largely guided by the following questions: 1) What are the physiological markers of successful control? 2) Are some regions or spatiotemporal scales more easily controllable than others? 3) Are training effects specific or generalized? and 4) What are subject-invariant successful cognitive strategies of neural self-control? To address these questions, we took advantage of intracerebral macro- and micro-electrode recordings in epileptic patients undergoing long-term monitoring in the presurgical context.
Site and Strain-Specific Variation in Gut Microbiota Profiles and Metabolism in Experimental Mice

Background The gastrointestinal tract microbiota (GTM) of mammals is a complex microbial consortium, the composition and activities of which influences mucosal development, immunity, nutrition and drug metabolism. It remains unclear whether the composition of the dominant GTM is conserved within animals of the same strain and whether stable GTMs are selected for by host-specific factors or dictated by environmental variables. Methodology/Principal Findings The GTM composition of six highly inbred, genetically distinct strains of mouse (C3H, C57, GFEC, CD1, CBA nu/nu and SCID) was profiled using eubacterial –specific PCR-DGGE and quantitative PCR of feces. Animals exhibited strain-specific fecal eubacterial profiles that were highly stable (c. >95% concordance over 26 months for C57). Analyses of mice that had been relocated before and after maturity indicated marked, reproducible changes in fecal consortia and that occurred only in young animals. Implantation of a female BDF1 mouse with genetically distinct (C57 and Agoutie) embryos produced highly similar GTM profiles (c. 95% concordance) between mother and offspring, regardless of offspring strain, which was also reflected in urinary metabolite profiles. Marked institution-specific GTM profiles were apparent in C3H mice raised in two different research institutions. Conclusion/Significance Strain-specific data were suggestive of genetic determination of the composition and activities of intestinal symbiotic consortia. However, relocation studies and uterine implantation demonstrated the dominance of environmental influences on the GTM. This was manifested in large variations between isogenic adult mice reared in different research institutions.
Challenges faced when teaching how to write a user scenario

The importance of the scenarios in the user-centered design process of low complexity interactive systems is well documented in various academic and professional articles. The aim of this study is to reveal the undocumented properties that distinguish useful (rich) scenarios from uninteresting (poor) ones. Two student projects, involving scenario writing, were used to detect the aspects that define the quality of a user scenario. A total of 298 scenarios were individually and blindly graded by three experts in user-centered design and then analyzed following a grounded approach. A number of aspects that distinguish the "rich" from the "poor" scenarios were identified.
UNTOLD STORY OF HIGH-DENSITY LIPOPROTIEN (HDL) CHOLESTEROL

Majority of patients in both the primary and secondary prevention settings continue to experience significant residual risk for acute cardiovascular events even when their LDL cholesterol is lowered aggressively with combinations of lifestyle modification and pharmacologic intervention. As a result, there has been increased focus on targeting and treating low serum levels of highdensity lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in an effort to further reduce risk for cardiovascular events . But now UNTOLD STORY OF HIGH-DENSITY LIPOPROTIEN (HDL) CHOLESTEROL
A MANAGEMENT CIRCUIT FOR VIBRATING ENERGY HARVESTER

A piezoelectric/magnetostrictive composite vibrating energy generator is introduced, and its output characteristic is analyzed. In order to increase the maximum output power of the vibrating energy harvester, a new up-conversion matching circuit is proposed, which can change the low frequency vibrating signal into a narrow bandwidth signal focused on a higher frequency. The matching circuit with a small-size permalloy transformer has a stronger capacitor charging power due to up-conversion. It can obviously improve the charging time and the storing energy at capacitor. In order to increase the output power, a power management circuit can release the energy for driving power load in a short time. Experiments show that the management circuit can drive a WSN node with an output power of 75mW at a distance of over 60m.