Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Repression of FLOWERING LOCUS T Chromatin by Functionally Redundant Histone H3 Lysine 4 Demethylases in Arabidopsis

FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) plays a key role as a mobile floral induction signal that initiates the floral transition. Therefore, precise control of FT expression is critical for the reproductive success of flowering plants. Coexistence of bivalent histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and H3K4me3 marks at the FT locus and the role of H3K27me3 as a strong FT repression mechanism in Arabidopsis have been reported. However, the role of an active mark, H3K4me3, in FT regulation has not been addressed, nor have the components affecting this mark been identified. Mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana Jumonji4 (AtJmj4) and EARLY FLOWERING6 (ELF6), two Arabidopsis genes encoding Jumonji (Jmj) family proteins, caused FT-dependent, additive early flowering correlated with increased expression of FT mRNA and increased H3K4me3 levels within FT chromatin. Purified recombinant AtJmj4 protein possesses specific demethylase activity for mono-, di-, and trimethylated H3K4. Tagged AtJmj4 and ELF6 proteins associate directly with the FT transcription initiation region, a region where the H3K4me3 levels were increased most significantly in the mutants. Thus, our study demonstrates the roles of AtJmj4 and ELF6 as H3K4 demethylases directly repressing FT chromatin and preventing precocious flowering in Arabidopsis.
Land Use/Cover Changes in North Eastern Greece from 1980 to 2000

Routes of transhumance movement as well as both summer and winter destinations are subjected to intense grazing that over the years may shape landscapes. The aim of this study was to investigate land use changes in Aspropotamos area, Trikala from 1985 to 2000 that serves as a summer destination of transhumance flocks. Changes in land cover were explored with the post classification comparison approach within a GIS environment. Two maps of 1985 and 2000 were used. The results of the current paper reveal a dramatic reduction of shrubland (up to 100%) followed by grazed open forest (17.61 %) and grasslands (13.77%), while the higher percentage of increase was recorded in the forest (32.7%) followed by agricultural land (24.88%). It seems that the declining trend of transhumance grazing in mountainous areas in Greece account for both changes in rangelands and forest areas. In conclusion, transhumance serves as a critical element towards maintaining ecosystem productivity to its recent historical equilibria.
Why do developers neglect exception handling?

In this paper, we explore the problems associated with exception handling from a new dimension: the human. We designed a study that evaluates (1) different perspectives of software developers to understand how they perceive exception handling and what methods they adopt to deal with exception handling constructs, and (2) the usefulness of a visualization tool that we developed in previous work for exception handling. We describe the design of our study, present details about the study's participants, describe the interviews we conducted with the participants, present the results of the study, and discuss what we learned from the study. Based on our analysis, we suggest several future directions, including the proposal of a new role for the software-development process---exception engineer, who works closely with software developers throughout all phases of the software-development life cycle and who concentrates on the integration of exception handling into the core functionality of programs.
IT Perspective of Service-Oriented eGovernment Enterprise

 Abstract — The focal aspire of e-Government (eGovt) is to offer citizen-centered service delivery. Accordingly, the citizenry consumes services from multiple government agencies through national portal. Thus, eGovt is an enterprise with the primary business motive of transparent, efficient and effective public services to its citizenry and its logical structure is the eGovernment Enterprise Architecture (eGEA). Since eGovt is IT oriented multifaceted service-centric system, EA doesn’t do much on an automated enterprise other than the business artifacts. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) manifestation led some governments to pertain this in their eGovts, but it limits the source of business artifacts. The concurrent use of EA and SOA in eGovt executes interoperability and integration and leads to Service-Oriented e-Government Enterprise (SOeGE). Consequently, agile eGovt system becomes a reality. As an IT perspective eGovt comprises of centralized public service artifacts with the existing application logics belong to various departments at central, state and local level. The eGovt is renovating to SOeGE by apply the Service-Orientation (SO) principles in the entire system. This paper explores IT perspective of SOeGE in India which encompasses the public service models and illustrated with a case study the Passport service of India.
Je Ne Regrette Rien? Variables Related to the Experience of Regret

This paper reports an empirical study that investigates factors related to post-decisional regret. Regret is viewed as a negative emotion that results from the belief that one could have done better by deciding differently. The rising number of choices available in the Western society creates a conflict of values, which can impair learning through motivational interference and the experienced regret. The postulated model proposes that these effects can be partially mitigated by means of intuition. The study was conducted among German and Australian university students, which allowed also for a cultural comparison.
Efficient FPGA and ASIC Realizations of a DA-Based Reconfigurable FIR Digital Filter

This brief presents efficient distributed arithmetic (DA)-based approaches for high-throughput reconfigurable implementation of finite-impulse response (FIR) filters whose filter coefficients change during runtime. Conventionally, for reconfigurable DA-based implementation of FIR filter, the lookup tables (LUTs) are required to be implemented in RAM and the RAM-based LUT is found to be costly for ASIC implementation. Therefore, a shared-LUT design is proposed to realize the DA computation. Instead of using separate registers to store the possible results of partial inner products for DA processing of different bit positions, registers are shared by the DA units for bit slices of different weightage. The proposed design has nearly 68% and 58% less area-delay product and 78% and 59% less energy per sample than the DA-based systolic structure and the carry save adder (CSA)-based structure, respectively, for the ASIC implementation. A distributed-RAM-based design is also proposed for the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of the reconfigurable FIR filter, which supports up to 91 MHz input sampling frequency and offers 54% and 29% less the number of slices than the systolic structure and the CSA-based structure, respectively, when implemented in the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA device (XC5VSX95T-1FF1136).
Complexity, contradictions, and conundrums: studying post‐proteasomal proteolysis in HLA class I antigen presentation

Summary: The vast majority of the peptides produced during protein degradation by the cytosolic proteasome‐ubiquitin system are consecutively hydrolyzed to single amino acids by multiple cytosolic peptidases preferring intermediate length or short substrates. The small fraction of peptides surviving the aggressive cytosolic environment can be recruited for presentation by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. However, such peptides may frequently have to be adapted to the strict MHC class I‐binding requirements by one or several N–terminal‐trimming steps. A recent model proposes that an initial step, in which peptides of 15 or more residues are shortened by cytosolic tripeptidylpeptidase II, is followed by additional trimming by cytosolic or endoplasmic reticulum (ER) aminopeptidases. In humans, at least two ER resident aminopeptidases, ERAP1 and ERAP2, contribute to trimming of human leukocyte antigen class I ligands. These interferon‐γ‐regulated metallopeptidases show distinct substrate preferences and may have to act in a concerted fashion to remove some complex or longer N‐terminal extensions and to trim the full spectrum of precursor peptides. This task is likely facilitated by the formation of presumably heterodimeric ERAP1‐2 complexes. RNA interference experiments suggest that both enzymes are important for normal antigen presentation, but precise determination of the extent and the cellular context of their requirement will be left to future experimentation.
Exogenous recombinant adiponectin improves survival in experimental abdominal sepsis.

BACKGROUND Adiponectin, which has anti-inflammatory features, is an important substance in several metabolic mechanisms. AIMS The aim of this study is to evauate the effects of exogenous intraperitoneal administration of adiponectin on the survival, intrabdominal adhesion and inflammatory cytokine levels in an experimental sepsis model. STUDY DESIGN Animal experimentation. METHODS Ninety rats were divided into a control group, adiponectin group and sham group. A cecal puncture abdominal sepsis model was performed in the adiponectin and control groups. Every three hours, exogenous adiponectin was administrated to the adiponectin group. At the 3(rd) and 24(th) hours, 10 rats were sacrified in each group in order to measure plasma tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL) 10, soluble intracellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, IL-6 and macrophage inhibitory factor levels, and the activity of nuclear factor (NF)-kB. The remaining rats were followed for survival. RESULTS The plasma levels of TNF-α, soluable ICAM-1, IL-6, and macrophage inhibitory factor were significantly higher in the control group than in the adiponectin and sham group (p<0.05). The increase in inflammatory cytokines with time was more prominent in the control group. The activity of NF-kB in the control group was higher than in the adiponectin group (p<0.05). The survival rate of the adiponectin group was higher than in the control group. CONCLUSION Administration of exogenous adiponectin to the peritoneum in abdominal sepsis increased survival and decreased intrabdominal adhesions by decreasing the inflammatory response.
A re-sequencing based assessment of genomic heterogeneity and fast neutron-induced deletions in a common bean cultivar

A small fast neutron (FN) mutant population has been established from Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Red Hawk. We leveraged the available P. vulgaris genome sequence and high throughput next generation DNA sequencing to examine the genomic structure of five P. vulgaris cv. Red Hawk FN mutants with striking visual phenotypes. Analysis of these genomes identified three classes of structural variation (SV); between cultivar variation, natural variation within the FN mutant population, and FN induced mutagenesis. Our analyses focused on the latter two classes. We identified 23 large deletions (>40 bp) common to multiple individuals, illustrating residual heterogeneity and regions of SV within the common bean cv. Red Hawk. An additional 18 large deletions were identified in individual mutant plants. These deletions, ranging in size from 40 bp to 43,000 bp, are potentially the result of FN mutagenesis. Six of the 18 deletions lie near or within gene coding regions, identifying potential candidate genes causing the mutant phenotype.
Visual Metaphors for Modeling Metacognitive Strategies that Support Memory During the Information Search Process

This paper reports on a study that models the metacognitive thinking of users in relation to memory and refinding information. Twenty-seven participants, in five separate groups ranging in age from 13 to early 30's, sketched visual metaphors representing strategies and interventions that the participants thought would remind them to remember before information was lost, in order to better relocate information. Nine themes emerged: embeddedness, fear and anxiety, interruptions, messiness and discomfort, locked doors and barriers, proximity and adjacency, signs and tattoos, scripts, and finally, the voice. This study started from the premise that design should begin with the user's metaphor as a way to describe the user's mind and ways of thinking and end with the designer mapping the metaphor to the artifact. The long term goal of this work is to move from ideation to implementation, using the users' metaphors of the mind as a basis for the design of information environments that scaffold metacognition during the search process.
Retinal and choroidal biometry in highly myopic eyes with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

PURPOSE Morphologic changes in the retina and choroid are closely related with high myopia-related diseases. This study was conducted to evaluate the morphologic characteristics of normal highly myopic eyes. METHODS Thirty-one phakic highly myopic eyes with no posterior abnormalities (18 patients; mean +/- SD age, 51.7 +/- 11.4 years) were enrolled. Retinal-choroidal thickness at the fovea 1.5 mm superiorly, inferiorly, nasally, and temporally and the choroidal curvature were measured in the 512 x 128 three-dimensional scan mode with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. The degree of posterior staphyloma was determined as the sum of the vertical distance from the retinal pigment epithelial line beneath the fovea to the nasal, temporal, superior, and inferior edge of the image, including the fovea. The association of clinical data with these parameters was evaluated. RESULTS The mean +/- SD central retinal thickness was 200.9 +/- 39.3 microm. The mean choroidal thickness at the fovea (100.5 +/- 56.9 microm) was significantly different from the temporal (125.4 +/- 59.7 microm), nasal (81.9 +/- 35.0 microm), and superior (129.4 +/- 57.5 microm) thicknesses (P < 0.01). Central retinal thickness did not correlate with age, sex, refractive error, axial length, or central choroidal thickness. Central choroidal thickness was significantly associated with refractive error (P < 0.05) and posterior staphyloma height (P < 0.01). Posterior staphyloma height was significantly correlated with refractive error and axial length (P < 0.01). Stepwise analysis indicated that choroidal thickness correlated significantly with age and posterior staphyloma height (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Posterior staphyloma formation was a key factor in choroidal thinning in highly myopic eyes. Choroidal thickness had a greater effect than retinal thickness in highly myopic eyes.
Effect of using an echogenic catheter for ultrasound-guided embryo transfer in an IVF programme: a prospective, randomized, controlled study.

BACKGROUND Recent evidence showed that ultrasound-guided embryo transfer significantly increases successful implantation compared to the clinical touch method. It has been postulated that new echodense catheters which are more readily detectable by ultrasound may refine transfer techniques even more, thus improving IVF outcome. METHODS A prospective, randomized, controlled trial comparing IVF outcome for women undergoing embryo transfer under ultrasound guidance by a single healthcare provider with random assignment according to a computer-generated randomization table to either standard soft Wallace catheter (standard catheter group, n=95) or the new echogenic soft Wallace catheter (echogenic catheter group, n=98). RESULTS The use of the echodense catheter facilitated catheter identification under ultrasound, and thus the duration of the embryo transfer procedure since the loaded catheter was handed to the physician and up to embryo discharge was significantly shorter in the echogenic catheter group as compared with the standard catheter group. There were 39 and 53 clinical pregnancies in the standard catheter (41%) and echogenic catheter (54.1%) groups, respectively. This was not statistically significant (P=0.08) according to the OR (0.6) and CIs (0.33-1.04). However, twin pregnancy rate was significantly increased (P<0.01) with the use of the new catheter which was the underlying source for obtaining significant increase in implantation rate in this group (37.1%) as compared with the standard catheter group (23.2%). CONCLUSION This pilot study suggests that the use of the echogenic Wallace catheter simplifies ultrasound-guided embryo transfer but not definite benefit in terms of pregnancy rates was obtained. In contrast, the use of the new catheter was associated with a significant increase in the number of twin pregnancies.
Efficient Generalized Conditional Gradient with Gradient Sliding for Composite Optimization

Generalized conditional gradient method has regained increasing research interest as an alternative to another popular proximal gradient method for sparse optimization problems. For particular tasks, its low computation cost of linear subproblem evaluation on each iteration leads to superior practical performance. However, the inferior iteration complexity incurs excess number of gradient evaluations, which can counteract the efficiency gained by solving low cost linear subproblem. In this paper, we therefore propose a novel algorithm that requires optimal graduate evaluations as proximal gradient. We also present a refined variant for a type of gauge regularized problem where approximation techniques are allowed to further accelerate linear subproblem computation. Experiments of CUR-like matrix factorization problem with group lasso penalty on four real-world datasets demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Spectral fits to the 1999 Aql X-1 outburst data

We present analysis and spectral fits of the RXTE data from the May/June 1999 outburst of Aql X-1. These data include observations in the rising portion of the hard state, in the soft state, and in the falling portion of the hard state. We show that the data can be fit by a purely thermal Comptonization model for all the observations, but that more complicated models cannot be ruled out. Up to 60% of the corona's power in the soft state may be injected into non-thermal electrons. The soft state data show approximately constant optical depth and coronal temperatures over a range of ∼10 in luminosity, while they show evidence for a reduction of seed photon temperature with reduced luminosity and indicate that the characteristic size of the seed photon emitting region is roughly constant throughout the soft state. The hard state before the soft state shows a higher luminosity, higher optical depth, and lower electron temperature than the hard state after the soft state. We find a reduction of the hard (30-60 keV) X-ray flux during a type I burst and show that it requires a total corona energy reservoir of less than ∼10 3 8 ergs.
The radiation dosimetry of 2 [F-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose in man.

Bladder and brain time-activity measurements in humans were performed after the intravenous administration of 2-[F-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose. Radiation doses were calculated using the MIRD schema. The bladder wall received an average of 440 mrad/mCi (s.e. 76) in ten subjects who voided at 2 hr after administration of tracer. If these subjects had voided at 1 hr, the bladder-wall dose would have been reduced to 220 mrad/mCi. The brain received an average of 81 mrad/mCi in eight subjects. The doses to other organs, calculated from published dog biodistribution data, are between 50 and 85 mrad/mCi except for spleen and heart, which both received 160 mrad/mCi. These time-activity measurements for the critical organ in the human avoid the assumptions made in using animal biodistribution data for human dosimetry calculations.
Wound healing‐like immune program facilitates postpartum mammary gland involution and tumor progression

Women diagnosed with breast cancer within 5 years postpartum have poor survival rates. The process of postpartum mammary gland involution, whereby the lactating gland remodels to its prepregnant state, promotes breast cancer progression in xenograft models. Macrophage influx occurs during mammary gland involution, implicating immune modulation in the promotion of postpartum breast cancer. Herein, we characterize the postpartum murine mammary gland and find an orchestrated influx of immune cells similar to that which occurs during wound healing. Further, the normal involuting gland may be in an immunosuppressed state as discerned by the transient presence of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells and IL‐10+ macrophages with T cell suppressive function. To determine the influence of the postpartum immune microenvironment on mammary tumor promotion, we developed an immune‐competent model. In this model, mammary tumors in the involution group are sixfold larger than nulliparous group tumors, have decreased CD4+ and CD8+ T cell infiltrates and contain a greater number of macrophages with the ability to inhibit T cell activation. Targeting involution with a neutralizing antibody against the immunosuppressive cytokine IL‐10 reduces tumor growth in involution group mice but not in nulliparous mice, implicating the involution microenvironment as the primary target of αIL‐10 treatment. Relevance to women is implicated, as we find postlactational human breast tissue has transient high IL‐10+ and Foxp3+ immune cell infiltrate. These data show an immune modulated microenvironment within the normal involuting mammary gland suggestive of immunosuppression, that when targeted reduces tumor promotion, revealing possible immune‐based strategies for postpartum breast cancer.
Physical Activity and Risk of Endometrial Cancer: A Report from the Shanghai Endometrial Cancer Study

We evaluated the type and amount of physical activity associated with risk of endometrial cancer. In this population-based case-control study, in-person interviews were completed among 832 incident endometrial cancer cases and 846 age-matched controls. Physical activity from exercise, household activities, and transportation was assessed in adolescence and adulthood, as was lifetime occupational activity. Logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence limits (95% CL). Women reporting exercise participation in both adolescence and adulthood were at nearly a 40% reduced risk (OR, 0.63; 95% CL, 0.42-0.95), compared with women reporting no exercise in either life period. Postmenopausal women who initiated exercise in adulthood were also at reduced risk (OR, 0.76; 95% CL, 0.56-1.02). Reductions in risk were also observed for common lifestyle activities, including household activity (both life periods) and walking for transportation (adulthood). Examination of the independent and combined effect of exercise and lifestyle activities revealed that women with less active lifestyles but who reported exercise were at 35% reduced risk (OR, 0.65; 95% CL, 0.41-1.02), whereas nonexercisers with more active lifestyles were at 40% to 45% reduced risk. These findings suggest that both lifestyle activities of lower intensity (e.g., walking and doing household chores) and intentional exercise can reduce endometrial cancer risk.