Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Azuki bean cells are hypersensitive to cadmium and do not synthesize phytochelatins.

Suspension-cultured cells of azuki bean (Vigna angularis) as well as the original root tissues were hypersensitive to Cd (<10 microM). Repeated subculturings with a sublethal level of Cd (1-10 microM) did not affect the subsequent response of cells to inhibitory levels of Cd (10-100 microM). The azuki bean cells challenged to Cd did not contain phytochelatin (PC) peptides, unlike tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) cells that have a substantial tolerance to Cd (>100 microM). Both of the cell suspensions contained a similar level of reduced glutathione (GSH) when grown in the absence of Cd. Externally applied GSH to azuki bean cells recovered neither Cd tolerance nor PC synthesis of the cells. Furthermore, enzyme assays in vitro revealed that the protein extracts of azuki bean cells had no activity converting GSH to PCs, unlike tomato. These results suggest that azuki bean cells are lacking in the PC synthase activity per se, hence being Cd hypersensitive. We concluded that the PC synthase has an important role in Cd tolerance of suspension-cultured cells.
Cloned Human and Rat Galanin GALR3 Receptors

The neuropeptide galanin has been implicated in the regulation of processes such as nociception, cognition, feeding behavior, and hormone secretion. Multiple galanin receptors are predicted to mediate its effects, but only two functionally coupled receptors have been reported. We now report the cloning of a third galanin receptor distinct from GALR1 and GALR2. The receptor, termed GALR3, was isolated from a rat hypothalamus cDNA library by both expression and homology cloning approaches. The rat GALR3 receptor cDNA can encode a protein of 370 amino acids with 35% and 52% identity to GALR1 and GALR2, respectively. Localization of mRNA by solution hybridization/RNase protection demonstrates that the GALR3 transcript is widely distributed, but expressed at low abundance, with the highest levels in the hypothalamus and pituitary. We also isolated the gene encoding the human homologue of GALR3. The human GALR3 receptor is 90% identical to rat GALR3 and contains 368 amino acids. Binding of porcine 125I-galanin to stably expressed rat and human GALR3 receptors is saturable (rat K D = 0.98 nm and human K D = 2.23 nm) and displaceable by galanin peptides and analogues in the following rank order: rat galanin, porcine galanin ≃ M32, M35 ≃ porcine galanin-(−7 to +29), galantide, human galanin > M40, galanin-(1–16) > [d-Trp2]galanin-(1–29), galanin-(3–29). This profile resembles that of the rat GALR1 and GALR2 receptors with the notable exception that human galanin, galanin-(1–16), and M40 show lower affinity at GALR3. InXenopus oocytes, activation of rat and human GALR3 receptors co-expressed with potassium channel subunits GIRK1 and GIRK4 resulted in inward K+ currents characteristic of Gi/Go-coupled receptors. These data confirm the functional efficacy of GALR3 receptors and further suggest that GALR3 signaling pathways resemble those of GALR1 in that both can activate potassium channels linked to the regulation of neurotransmitter release.
Effect of Antenatal Corticosteroid and Antibiotics in Pregnancies Complicated by Premature Rupture of Membranes between 24 and 28 weeks of Gestation

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of active intervention with antenatal maternal corticosteroid and antibiotics therapy in infants delivered between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation after premature rupture of membrane. This retrospective study included pregnant women complicated by preterm delivery at the Dong-A University Hospital from 1998 to 2002. Patients were divided into labor induction group 1 (n=20), observation group 2 (n=19), and medication group 3 (n=20). We evaluated the effects of prolongation of pregnancy and intervention with maternal corticosteroids and antibiotics therapy on perinatal and neonatal outcomes. Each group did not have a significant difference (p<0.05) in neonatal outcomes, such as respiratory distress syndrome, intraventricular hemorrhage, necrotizing enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity, pneumonia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and sepsis. The mean latency period was 4.7 days and 7.6 days in groups 2 and 3, respectively. Therefore, this study was unable to demonstrate any beneficial effects of corticosteroids in improving neonatal outcomes and prolongation of the latency period with antibiotics.
Challenges experienced by nurses in the implementation of a healthcare reform plan in Iran

Introduction The Healthcare Reform Plan is counted as a plan for improving healthcare services in Iran. Undoubtedly pros and cons can be seen either in plan or implementation. This study was conducted to describe nurses’ challenges in implementing healthcare reform in Iran. Methods A qualitative method centered upon conventional content analysis was applied. We used purposive sampling and data saturation was obtained by 30 participants. Data were analyzed using MAXQDA software. Results Challenges experienced by nurses in the implementation of this reform include; unsuitable infrastructure, unfavorable vision, a complicated challenge, the necessity of monitoring, control plan outcomes, the impact on nurses, people’s misconceptions and solutions. Conclusions The Healthcare Reform Plan in Iran is a solution to establish equality in the health system, however, to eliminate these challenges, revision and appropriate foundation of infrastructures is called for.
Development of a Robust Indoor 3 D SLAM Algorithm

Mobile robots need to continuously navigate their environment. Doing so necessitates using sensor data to both map that environment and locate their position. A 3D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm for use with indoor robots has been developed that addresses these problems. It is based upon using a Microsoft Kinect sensor, extracting features and keypoints, matching the resulting features and keypoints, and finally using the matched keypoints to compute transformations that produce a consistent global map consisting of aligned point clouds. The algorithm aligns RGB-D point clouds in an efficient manner; however encounters problems for visually sparse environments (small or no color differentiation). The current results of the algorithm are presented with comparisons to other frequently used techniques and include possibilities for extensions to the algorithm. This paper includes specifics about the implementation using the Point Cloud Library (PCL), OpenCV, and the actual experimental robot, Turtlebot 2.0.
Non‐organ‐specific and anti‐endothelial antibodies in relation to CMV infection and acute rejection in renal transplant recipients

Costa C, Touscoz GA, Bergallo M, Terlizzi ME, Astegiano S, Sidoti F, Sinesi F, Segoloni GP, Cavallo R. Non‐organ‐specific and anti‐endothelial antibodies in relation to CMV infection and acute rejection in renal transplant recipients. Clin Transplant 2010: 24: 488–492. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
A Robust 3-D IVUS Transducer Tracking Using Single-Plane Cineangiography

During an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) intervention, a catheter with an ultrasound transducer is introduced in the body through a blood vessel, and then, pulled back to image a sequence of vessel cross sections. Unfortunately, there is no 3-D information about the position and orientation of these cross-section planes, which makes them less informative. To position the IVUS images in space, some researchers have proposed complex stereoscopic procedures relying on biplane angiography to get two X-ray image sequences of the IVUS transducer trajectory along the catheter. To simplify this procedure, we and others have elaborated algorithms to recover the transducer 3-D trajectory with only a single view X-ray image sequence. In this paper, we present an improved method that provides both automated 2-D and 3-D transducer tracking based on pullback speed as a priori information. The proposed algorithm is robust to erratic pullback speed and is more accurate than the previous single-plane 3-D tracking methods.
Spanning Trees of Bounded Degree

Dirac's classic theorem asserts that if ${\bf G}$ is a graph on $n$ vertices, and $\delta({\bf G})\ge n/2$, then ${\bf G}$ has a hamilton cycle. As is well known, the proof also shows that if $\deg(x)+\deg(y)\ge(n-1)$, for every pair $x$, $y$ of independent vertices in ${\bf G}$, then ${\bf G}$ has a hamilton path. More generally, S. Win has shown that if $k\ge 2$, ${\bf G}$ is connected and $\sum_{x\in I}\deg(x)\ge n-1$ whenever $I$ is a $k$-element independent set, then ${\bf G}$ has a spanning tree ${\bf T}$ with $\Delta({\bf T})\le k$. Here we are interested in the structure of spanning trees under the additional assumption that ${\bf G}$ does not have a spanning tree with maximum degree less than $k$. We show that apart from a single exceptional class of graphs, if $\sum_{x\in I}\deg(x)\ge n-1$ for every $k$-element independent set, then ${\bf G}$ has a spanning caterpillar ${\bf T}$ with maximum degree $k$. Furthermore, given a maximum path $P$ in ${\bf G}$, we may require that $P$ is the spine of ${\bf T}$ and that the set of all vertices whose degree in ${\bf T}$ is $3$ or larger is independent in ${\bf T}$.
Insulin-induced translocation of glucose transporters to the plasma membrane precedes full stimulation of hexose transport.

Insulin stimulation of hexose transport in 3T3-L1 adipocytes was studied at 27 degrees C. At this temperature, the transport of 2-deoxyglucose was stimulated 8-fold, with a half-time of 9.5 min. Under the same conditions, the increase in cell surface glucose transporters, as measured by labeling in the intact cell with galactose oxidase and tritiated borohydride, was only 2.6-fold. Moreover, the half-times for the increase in cell surface glucose transporters and for the decrease in transporter number in the intracellular pool were both 4 min. Thus, these processes clearly precede the full stimulation of transport. These data are in agreement with immunolocalization studies of the glucose transporter in this cell line and further support the hypothesis that a second mechanism besides translocation is involved in the stimulation of hexose transport by insulin [Blok, J., Gibbs, E. M. , Lienhard, G. E. , Slot, J. W. , & Gueze, H. J. (1988) J. Cell Biol. 106, 69-76]. The findings presented here indicate that neither the translocation of glucose transporters to, nor their subsequent insertion into, the plasma membrane is the rate-limiting step in the stimulation of hexose transport by insulin. Rather, there is a second mechanism of activation, which is rate limiting and occurs after the transporter is in the plasma membrane.
WHEN NOT TO AVOID INBREEDING

Abstract Avoidance of incestuous matings is widely reported across many animal taxa, and the adaptive value of such behavior is explained through inbreeding depression. However, an old and somewhat neglected theoretical result predicts that inbred matings offer another, positive effect on the inclusive fitness of parents: an individual who mates with a relative will help that relative to spread genes identical by descent. This benefit can be substantial, if the additional mating achieved by the relative does not harm his mating success otherwise, and in the context of selfing in plants the phenomenon is well known. Here, we develop a model that derives expected values of inbreeding tolerance, that is, the magnitude of inbreeding depression that is required to make individuals avoid inbreeding, for different animal life histories and parental investment patterns. We also distinguish between simultaneous and sequential mate choice, and show that inbreeding tolerance should often be remarkably high in the latter scenario in particular, although egalitarian parental care will lead to lower tolerance. There is a mismatch between theory and data: the almost complete lack of cases where individuals prefer to mate incestuously is at odds with a large overlap between the predicted range of inbreeding tolerance and estimates of inbreeding depression found in nature. We discuss four different solutions to this enigma, and suggest that inbreeding tolerance, where it is found, should not always be attributed to a simple constraint that has prevented finding any other mate.
A Novel Approach for Retrieval System for Plant Leaves Images

Image identification of plant leaves based on human vision is difficult task as well as plant identification based on keywords retrieval. It requires the domain knowledge in the botanist field. This work proposes the image texture analysis using Discrete Wavelet Transformation (DWT) and combined with an entropy measurement to identify a query image to one of seven classes that consists of 280 plant leaves images. The experimental r e s u l t s s h o w t h a t t h e proposed m e t h o d y i e l d s higher correctness retrieval accuracy rate which reaches up to 92% compared to the Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) that gives 49.28%. Keywords––content based image retrieval; discrete wavelet transformation; texture retrieval
Phonotactically well-formed onset clusters as processing units in word recognition

Phonotactic well-formedness has an effect on speech processing. This is likely due to an independent sub-lexical representation of phonotactics. Researching that knowledge requires isolating it from indirect effects. A prominent indirect effect comes via lexical neighbourhood. The better phonotactically a word is, the more neighbours it has, the harder it is to recognise it. The present study examined the sublexical effect for phonotactically good word onsets with auditory priming. Word recognition was facilitated for good clusters, in spite of the larger number of lexical competitors. Word recognition latency is corrected for the effect of lexical neighbourhood, additional effects have their origin in the processing differences of the auditory primes. We found that words with good phonotactic onsets are recognised quicker, but that (destructive) manipulation of the prime onset destroys the benefit of good onsets, and can even revert it.
Model-based Resource Selection for Efficient Virtual Cluster Deployment

Virtual clusters on Grids can greatly extend the current scale and efficiency of high-performance Grid computing through more flexible usage of distributed heterogeneous resources. However, the overhead due to installing virtual clusters often precludes their applicability only to long-running applications. This is especially problematic on heterogeneous Grid environments, since installation time of each virtual node can vary greatly, and the total installation time of a virtual cluster is bottlenecked by the slowest node. To achieve fast virtual cluster installation even on such heterogeneous Grid environments, we propose a model-based resource selection policy that automatically identifies a near-optimal node combination to assemble each virtual cluster. We divide the VM setup process into five logical steps and construct a performance model for each step. The model represents the execution time of each step as a linear combination of hardware and software parameters, including CPU frequency, disk I/O performance, and installed package size. To evaluate the proposed resource selection policy, we have extended our own virtual cluster installer, VPC, to select nodes in the increasing order of predicted installation time. Experimental results show that the model-based selection policy is indeed effective, especially when the package size differs depending on sites. The proposed policy has shown to reduce the installation time by up to 68% compared to the most naïve policy that selects nodes in a random order, 60% and 58% to the policies considering either CPU speed or disk I/O performance, respectively.
Thunderwire: a field study of an audio-only media space

To explore the potential of using audio by itself in a shared media system, we studied a workgroup using an audio-only media space. This media space, called Thunderwire, combined high-quality audio with open connections to create a shared space for its users. The two-month field study provided a richly nuanced understanding of this audio space's social use. The system afforded rich sociable interactions. Indeed, within the field study, audio by itself afforded a telepresent environment for its users. However while a usable media space and a useful social space, Thunderwire required its users to adapt to many audio-only conditions.
Analysis of postural control and muscular performance in young and elderly women in different age groups

BACKGROUND: muscle strength and power are two factors affecting balance. The impact of muscle strength and power on postural control has not been fully explored among different age strata over sixty. OBJECTIVES: the aim of the present study was to assess the muscle strength and power of elderly women in different age groups and determine their correlation with postural control. METHOD: eighty women were divided into four groups: the young 18-30 age group (n=20); the 60-64 age group (n=20); the 65-69 age group (n=20); and the 70-74 age group (n=20). The participants underwent maximum strength (one repetition maximum or 1-RM) and muscle power tests to assess the knee extensor and flexor muscles at 40%, 70%, and 90% 1-RM intensity. The time required by participants to recover their balance after disturbing their base of support was also assessed. RESULTS: the elderly women in the 60-64, 65-69, and 70-74 age groups exhibited similar muscle strength, power, and postural control (p>0.05); however, these values were lower than those of the young group (p<0.05) as expected. There was a correlation between muscle strength and power and the postural control performance (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: despite the age difference, elderly women aged 60 to 74 years exhibited similar abilities to generate strength and power with their lower limbs, and this ability could be one factor that explains the similar postural control shown by these women.
Quantification of the Impact of Feature Selection on the Variance of Cross-Validation Error Estimation

Given the relatively small number of microarrays typically used in gene-expression-based classification, all of the data must be used to train a classifier and therefore the same training data is used for error estimation. The key issue regarding the quality of an error estimator in the context of small samples is its accuracy, and this is most directly analyzed via the deviation distribution of the estimator, this being the distribution of the difference between the estimated and true errors. Past studies indicate that given a prior set of features, cross-validation does not perform as well in this regard as some other training-data-based error estimators. The purpose of this study is to quantify the degree to which feature selection increases the variation of the deviation distribution in addition to the variation in the absence of feature selection. To this end, we propose the coefficient of relative increase in deviation dispersion (CRIDD), which gives the relative increase in the deviation-distribution variance using feature selection as opposed to using an optimal feature set without feature selection. The contribution of feature selection to the variance of the deviation distribution can be significant, contributing to over half of the variance in many of the cases studied. We consider linear-discriminant analysis, 3-nearest-neighbor, and linear support vector machines for classification; sequential forward selection, sequential forward floating selection, and the -test for feature selection; and -fold and leave-one-out cross-validation for error estimation. We apply these to three feature-label models and patient data from a breast cancer study. In sum, the cross-validation deviation distribution is significantly flatter when there is feature selection, compared with the case when cross-validation is performed on a given feature set. This is reflected by the observed positive values of the CRIDD, which is defined to quantify the contribution of feature selection towards the deviation variance.
Environmental Radionuclide Analyses around Nuclear Installations in Northern Switzerland

Beside on-line dose rate measurements, various radiochemical methods are applied at the Paul Scherrer Institute for immission measurements around nuclear facilities in Northern Switzerland. The radioanalytical procedures are carried out on soil and grass samples mainly for determination of the activity concentrations of pure anthropogenic αand β-emitters such as fissiogenic Sr, Sr and isotopes of transuranium elements such as Pu, Pu, Am, Cm and Cm. In particular, for rapid determination of Pu-isotopes, a simple and fast method was developed based on anion exchange chromatography and α-spectrometry. After leaching and addition of Pu yield tracer the Pu-fraction is directly purified on a BIO-RAD AG 1-X2 anion exchange column. The eluted fraction of Pu is evaporated, electrolysed and counted via low-level α-spectrometry. With this method a detection limit of < 3 mBq/kg is obtained for 30g soil aliquots in a three days count interval. This value is sufficiently low enough to meet typical environmental levels of even Pu in top-soil layers in Central Europe. Analyses of about 50 soil samples yielded typical Pu activity concentrations of about 0.5 Bq/kg and fairly constant Am/Pu and Pu/Pu activity ratios of 0.36 + 0.03 and 0.03 + 0.01, respectively. The value obtained for Am/Pu can be well explained by production of Am from decay of pure β-emitting, short-lived Pu (T1/2 = 14 years) taking the average initial atmospheric Pu/Pu ratio of about 13 at the peak of the nuclear weapon testing period about 40 years ago. With additional measurements of Sr, Cs and Cs rough estimates were performed to calculate the relative contributions of α-emitting hot particles, Sr and Cs resulting from the Chernobyl reactor accident on the total inventory of these isotopes measured in top soil layers from Central Europe. While Pu, Am and Sr from the Chernobyl source turned out to be insignificant with respect to the atomic bomb derived component, more than 80% of surface bound Cs in Swiss soil was deposited from fallout of fine grained aerosols that were released into the atmosphere during the Chernobyl supergau 15 years ago.
Information seeking in a "socio-semantic web" application

Information Seeking gives users a wider range of access methods when retrieving business items (e.g. projects, products, skills, people, deliverables …) using (intra-) Web applications. The Information Seeking approach we propose is based on the concept of the "Item", as defined in the Hypertopic model that we propose for mediating various "socio-semantic Web" applications. We show on an example, in the case of a sustainable development projects cooperative e-catalogue, how items can be viewed "semiotically", depending on various tags, topics and points of view.
Joint minimization of power and area in scan testing by scan cell reordering

This paper describes a technique for re-ordering of scan cells to minimize power dissipation that is also capable of reducing the area overhead of the circuit compared to a random ordering of the scan cells. For a given test set, our proposed greedy algorithm finds the (locally) optimal scan cell ordering for a given value of /spl lambda/, which is a trade-off parameter that can be used by the designer to specify the relative importance of area overhead minimization and power minimization. The strength of our algorithm lies in the fact that we use a novel dynamic minimum transition fill (MT-fill) technique to fill the unspecified bits in the test vector. Experiments performed on the ISCAS-89 benchmark suite show a reduction in power (70% for s13207, /spl lambda/ = 500) as well as a reduction in layout area (6.72% for s13207, /spl lambda/ = 500).