Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ethylene signal transduction.

BACKGROUND The phytohormone ethylene is a key regulator of plant growth and development. Components of the pathway for ethylene signal transduction were identified by genetic approaches in Arabidopsis and have now been shown to function in agronomically important plants as well. SCOPE This review focuses on recent advances in our knowledge on ethylene signal transduction, in particular on recently proposed components of the pathway, on the interaction between the pathway components and on the roles of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation in ethylene signalling. CONCLUSIONS Data indicate that the site of ethylene perception is at the endoplasmic reticulum and point to the importance of protein complexes in mediating the initial steps in ethylene signal transduction. The expression level of pathway components is regulated by both transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms, degradation of the transcription factor EIN3 being a primary means by which the sensitivity of plants to ethylene is regulated. EIN3 also represents a control point for cross-talk with other signalling pathways, as exemplified by the effects of glucose upon its expression level. Amplification of the initial ethylene signal is likely to play a significant role in signal transduction and several mechanisms exist by which this may occur based on properties of known pathway components. Signal output from the pathway is mediated in part by carefully orchestrated changes in gene expression, the breadth of these changes now becoming clear through expression analysis using microarrays.
The hybrid shopping list: bridging the gap between physical and digital shopping lists

Shopping is one of the most frequently occuring tasks in our daily lives, and creation and management of shopping lists is an important aspect of this task. Given the recent adoption of mobile devices, the process of writing lists is not only limited to the use of pen and paper, as a good number of digital tools and applications are available. The goal of this paper is to study and understand the transition between paper-based and digital shopping lists. We analyze how people interact with paper-based shopping lists and derive design implications for our own hybrid shopping support application, which combines paper-based lists with a mobile application. We contribute the study and the design and implementation of a hybrid (pen-and-paper-based UI and mobile GUI) application for the creation of shopping lists.
Economic valuation of the Emas waterfall, Mogi-Guaçu River, SP, Brazil.

The Emas waterfall in Mogi-Guaçu River is regionally recognized as an important fishing spot and touristic place. The first reports of the professional and sport fishing there date back from the 30's, which is the same period when the tourism took place. The present paper provides an environmental valuation of this place and an assessment of the differences among the major groups of people using the area. During 2006 we interviewed 33 professional fishers, 107 sport fishers, 45 tourists and 103 excursionists in order to estimate the Willingness to Pay (WTP) for each category and to analyze the influence of socioeconomic factors by means of logistic regressions and ANCOVAs. The WTP of professional fisher was significantly influenced by age and education, and the WTP for the sport fishers was influenced by the family income. The variables that influenced the tourists' and excursionists' WTP were sex and education. The total annual aggregated value to maintain the waterfall in the current conditions was estimated in US$ 11.432. 128, and US$ 55.424. 283 to restore it.
N-Symmetry Direction Fields on Surfaces of Arbitrary Genus

In Computer Graphics, a wide class of applications requires to define a smooth direction field over a surface. For instance, such a direction field was used in [Hertzmann and Zorin 2000] to place hatch strokes in a non-photorealistic rendering application. Texture synthesis [Turk 2001] also uses direction fields to steer the placement of features over the surface. Some remeshing methods [Alliez et al. 2003] create cells aligned with a direction field. Other possible applications use a direction field to determine the topology of a shape [Ni et al. 2004].
Role of Presynaptic Glutamate Receptors in Pain Transmission at the Spinal Cord Level

Nociceptive primary afferents release glutamate, activating postsynaptic glutamate receptors on spinal cord dorsal horn neurons. Glutamate receptors, both ionotropic and metabotropic, are also expressed on presynaptic terminals, where they regulate neurotransmitter release. During the last two decades, a wide number of studies have characterized the properties of presynaptic glutamatergic receptors, particularly those expressed on primary afferent fibers. This review describes the subunit composition, distribution and function of presynaptic glutamate ionotropic (AMPA, NMDA, kainate) and metabotropic receptors expressed in rodent spinal cord dorsal horn. The role of presynaptic receptors in modulating nociceptive information in experimental models of acute and chronic pain will be also discussed.
Early bilingualism influences early and subsequently later acquired languages in cortical regions representing control functions

Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals.
Toward Designing A Shadow Perception Experiment

We lay out the plans for a series of psychophysics experiments on human shadow perceptions. The Peg in Hole experiments are to find out whether shadows play a role in human 3D perception and how important the role is, compared with other depth cues such as stereoscopy. We also design quantitative experiments to extract the psychometric curves for shadow perception versus various characteristics of scene geometry. The curves will help us to decide different thresholds for our scene reconstruction algorithms. Some background of psychophysics is included for future reference. Expected outputs of the experiments are described. Some implementation details are also discussed. This work is supported by a grant from The National Science Foundation under grant number IIS-9875628, a grant from The National Science Foundation under NSF award number IIS-9977206, and a grant from New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research under award number C020060.
Regional Differences in the Transition to Adulthood

This article examines the living arrangements of people between ages fifteen and thirty-five in Europe and the United States. Three regional patterns emerge in Europe. In southern Europe, young people remain for extended periods in the parental home and tend to make direct transitions from living at home to (formal) marriage and parenthood. In northern Europe, youngsters leave home earlier and more commonly live alone or in cohabiting unions. The Scandinavian countries form an extreme example of northern behavior, with particularly early home leaving and high levels of nonmarital cohabitation. In the United States, there are large differences between young blacks, whites, and Hispanics. Formal marriage is as common among whites as it is in southern Europe; the extended family is common for blacks and Hispanics, and lone motherhood among young black American women far outstrips the highest rates in Europe.
Fast scenario-based decision making in unbalanced distribution networks

In this paper we consider the problem faced by a distribution network operator that is required to guarantee, with high probability, the satisfaction of operational constraints of the grid in the presence of stochastic disturbances caused by fluctuating loads and intermittent microgeneration. We formulate this problem as a chance-constrained decision problem, and we employ a scenario-based approach in order to convert it into a large-scale deterministic decision problem. In order to make this latter problem computationally tractable, we approximate the nonlinear power flow equations via a sparse, implicit linear model. This approach results in an accurate and fast decision making strategy, that we validate in simulations on the IEEE 13-bus three-phase test feeder.
Functional connectivity modelling in fMRI based on causal networks

We apply the principle of causal networks to develop a new tool for connectivity analysis in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The connections between active brain regions are modelled as causal relationships in a causal network. The causal networks are based on the notion of d-separation in a graph-theoretic context or, equivalently, on the notion of conditional independence in a statistical context. Since relationships between brain regions are believed to be nonlinear in nature, we express the conditional dependencies between the brain regions' activities in terms of conditional mutual information. The density estimates needed for computing the conditional mutual information are obtained with topographic maps, trained with the kernel-based maximum entropy rule (kMER).
STUDIES IN SECRET-BALLOT TECHNIQUE

THE SCIENCE of public opinion measurement is still very young, as has been pointed out many times by Dr. George Gallup, Director of the American Institute of Public Opinion. It is true that this scientific research has shown much progress in recent years, as evidenced by the record. In the case of the Institute, an average state-by-state error of 6 per cent in the 1936 Presidential election survey was reduced to an average state error of only 2.4 per cent in the 1940 Presidential election survey. This progress toward an increasingly accurate measurement of public opinion has come about largely because of experimentation which has resulted in improved techniquesexperiments which found the answers to some of the unsolved problems of opinion research. Further experimentation will play an important r6le in improving opinion research methods so that a high degree of accuracy can be maintained. Last fall, during the Presidential election surveys, the Institute conducted a number of experimental studies, several of which are briefly reported here.
Early pathogenesis of equine Streptococcus equi infection (strangles).

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Little is known about entry and subsequent multiplication of Streptococcus equi following exposure of a susceptible horse. This information would have value in design of intranasal vaccines and understanding of shedding and protective immune responses. OBJECTIVES To determine entry points and sites of subsequent replication and dispersion of S. equi at different times after intranasal infection or commingling exposure. METHODS Previously unexposed horses and ponies were subjected to euthanasia 1, 3, 20 or 48 h following intranasal inoculation with biotin labelled or unlabelled S. equi CF32. Some ponies were inoculated with suspensions of equal numbers of CF32 and its mutants lacking capsule, S. equi M-like protein or streptolysin S. Others were infected by commingling exposure and subjected to euthanasia after onset of fever. Tonsils and lymph nodes were cultured for S. equi and tissues sectioned for histopathological examination and fluorescent microscopy. RESULTS Tonsillar tissues of both the oro- and nasopharynx served as portals of entry. Entry was unexpectedly rapid but involved few bacteria. Small numbers of organisms were detected in tonsillar crypts, in adjacent subepithelial follicular tissue and draining lymph nodes 3 h after inoculation. By 48 h, clumps of S. equi were visible in the lamina propria. At onset of fever, tonsillar tissues and one or more mandibular and retropharyngeal lymph nodes were heavily infiltrated by neutrophils and long chains of extracellular S. equi. Mutant S. equi lacking virulence factors were not seen in draining lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS Although very small numbers of S. equi entered the lingual and nasopharyngeal tonsils, carriage to regional lymph nodes occurred within hours of inoculation. This observation, together with visual evidence of intracellular and extracellular multiplication of S. equi in tonsillar lymphoid tissue and lymph nodes over the following days, indicates involvement of potent antiphagocytic activity and failure of innate immune defences. RELEVANCE Future research should logically address the tonsillar immune mechanisms involved including identification of effector cell(s) and antigens.
Left Ventricular Thrombus Formation After ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Insights From a Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Multicenter Study.

BACKGROUND Data on left ventricular (LV) thrombus formation after primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are scarce. The aims of this study were to assess the (1) incidence of LV thrombi using cardiac magnetic resonance in a multicenter cohort of STEMI patients and (2) prognostic relevance of LV thrombi at 1-year follow-up. METHODS AND RESULTS In total, 738 STEMI patients reperfused by primary angioplasty were enrolled in 8 centers. Cardiac magnetic resonance was completed within 1 week after infarction. Central core laboratory-masked analyses for the presence of LV thrombi were performed. The primary clinical end point was the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events within 1 year. LV thrombi were detected in 26 patients (3.5%) in the overall cohort and in 7.1% in anterior STEMI patients. The presence of thrombi was associated with larger infarcts (P<0.001), less myocardial salvage (P<0.01), impaired LV ejection fraction (P<0.001), and more pronounced late microvascular obstruction (P=0.002). The presence of thrombi was independently associated with the incidence of major adverse cardiac events at 12 months (hazard ratio, 2.73; 95% confidence interval, 1.11-6.73; P=0.03). CONCLUSIONS In this multicenter cohort of patients with STEMI, thrombus prevalence assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance was 3.5% and associated with decreased myocardial salvage, larger infarcts, and more pronounced reperfusion injury. Importantly, LV thrombus was independently associated with major adverse cardiac events at 1-year follow-up. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00712101.
Inference of concise DTDs from XML data

We consider the problem to infer a concise Document Type Definition (DTD) for a given set of XML-documents, a problem which basically reduces to learning of concise regular expressions from positive example strings. We identify two such classes: single occurrence regular expressions (SOREs) and chain regular expressions (CHAREs). Both classes capture the far majority of the regular expressions occurring in practical DTDs and are succinct by definition. We present the algorithm iDTD (infer DTD) that learns SOREs from strings by first inferring an automaton by known techniques and then translating that automaton to a corresponding SORE, possibly by repairing the automaton when no equivalent SORE can be found. In the process, we introduce a novel automaton to regular expression rewrite technique which is of independent interest. We show that iDTD outperforms existing systems in accuracy, conciseness and speed. In a scenario where only a very small amount of XML data is available, for instance when generated by Web service requests or by answers to queries, iDTD produces regular expressions which are too specific. Therefore, we introduce a novel learning algorithm CRX that directly infers CHAREs (which form a subclass of SOREs) without going through an automaton representation. We show that CRX performs very well within its target class on very small data sets. Finally, we discuss incremental computation, noise, numerical predicates, and the generation of XML Schemas.
Robust Detection of Ionospheric Irregularities

The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) will provide real-time differential GPS corrections and integrity information for aircraft navigation use. The most stringent application of this system will be precision approach, where the system guides the aircraft to within a few hundred feet of the ground. Precision approach operations require the use of differential ionospheric corrections. WAAS must incorporate information from reference stations to create a correction map of the ionosphere. More importantly, this map must contain confidence bounds describing the integrity of the corrections. The confidence bounds must be large enough to describe the error in the correction, but tight enough to allow the operation to proceed. The difficulty in generating these corrections is that the reference station measurements are not co-located with the aviation user measurements. For an undisturbed ionosphere over the Conterminous United States (CONUS), this is not a problem as the ionosphere is nominally well behaved. However, a concern is that irregularities in the ionosphere will decrease the correlation between the ionosphere observed by the reference stations and that seen by the user. Therefore, it is essential to detect when such irregularities may be present and adjust the confidence bounds accordingly. The approach outlined in this paper conservatively bounds the ionospheric errors even for the worst observed ionospheric conditions to date, using data sets taken from the operational receivers in the WAAS reference station network. As we progress through the current solar cycle and gather more data on the behavior of the ionosphere, many of our pessimistic assumptions will be relaxed. This will result in higher availability while maintaining full integrity.
Integrative Modeling of Emotions in Virtual Agents

To develop a robot that is able to recognize and show affective behavior, it should be able to regulate simultaneously occurring tendencies of positive and negative emotions. To achieve this, the current paper introduces a computational model for involvement-distance trade-offs, based on an existing theoretical model. The main mechanisms of this model have been represented as regression equations, using the LEADSTO modeling environment. A number of simulation experiments have been performed, which indicated that the model is adequate for simulating the dynamics of involvement-distance trade-offs and their influence on satisfaction. More specifically, the experiments confirmed the empirical finding that positive features do not exclusively increase involvement.
Rapid Oligonucleotide-Based Recombineering of the Chromosome of Salmonella enterica

ABSTRACT Recombinant engineering using Red recombinase-based approaches offers efficient and rapid approaches to deletion and modification of genes. Here we describe a novel application of Red recombinant engineering that enables direct manipulation of chromosomal loci by electroporation with short synthetic DNA molecules. We demonstrate the use of this approach for the generation of scarless in-frame deletions in chromosomal genes of Salmonella enterica. Furthermore, we describe rapid site-directed mutagenesis within bacterial chromosomes without any requirement for cloning and mutating genes in vitro or for reintroducing mutant alleles into the chromosome. This approach can be expected to facilitate mutational analysis in S. enterica and in other bacterial species able to support Red-mediated recombination.
The relationship between carotenoids and sunlight response in members of the family Micrococcaceae

The aim of this study was to compare the photoprotective effect of carotenoids in phylogentically related bacteria, which synthesize structurally different pigments. Two organisms were isolated from the same environment. Their 16S rDNA sequences and phenotypic characteristics identified them as members of the family Micrococcaceae. Reverse phase HPLC and absorption spectroscopy revealed that one of them, designated RMB40, synthesized 3 carotenoids with 9 conjugated double bonds, whilst the other, designated RMB42, synthesized a single and more hydrophobic pigment carrying 11 conjugated double bonds. Survival curves were obtained during sunlight exposure for both organisms and for carotenoid deficient mutants derived from them. Increased sunlight sensitivity was found in the carotenoidless mutant derived from RMB42. In contrast, pigment depletion had no appreciable effect on the sunlight response of RMB40. It is concluded that the structure of bacterial carotenoid probably exert an important influence on the effectiveness of these compounds to provide photoprotection in vivo. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
An OT account of the precedence relationship between perception and production in the acquisition of English stress

Abstract This paper examined the relationship between perception and production by conducting experiments on 20 Japanese learners’ acquisition of English word stress. Specifically, the paper investigated whether Japanese EFL learners’ acquisition of English word stress was affected by factors such as syntactic category (noun vs. adjective) and suffix type (level 1 vs. level 2 suffixes), as well as word type (real vs. nonce word). Overall, Japanese learners’ perception accuracy was higher than their production accuracy, confirming the precedence of perception over production across the factors examined, similar to the results of Korean EFL learners in Lee (2006, 2007). However, rather different learner variation patterns emerged between Japanese and Korean EFL learners. The precedence relationship as well as different learner variation patterns was accounted for by the perception-production model proposed by Pater (2004) within Optimality Theory. Implications of the proposed analysis for language acquisition and lexical representations were further discussed.