Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Positive and negative regulation of the bgl operon in Escherichia coli

We have analyzed the functions encoded by the bgl operon in Escherichia coli K-12. Based on the ability of cloned regions of the operon to complement a series of Bgl- point mutations, we show that the three bgl structural genes, bglC, bglS, and bglB, are located downstream of the regulatory locus bglR in the order indicated. Using a bgl-lacZ transcriptional fusion, we show that bglC and bglS are involved in regulating operon expression. The presence of the bglC gene in trans is absolutely required for the expression of the fusion, which is constitutive when only the bglC gene is present. When the bglC and the bglS genes are both present in the cell, expression of the fusion requires a beta-glucoside inducer. From these observations, we conclude that (i) the bglC gene encodes a positive regulatory of bgl operon expression and (ii) the bglS gene encodes a negative regulator of operon expression, causing the requirement for a beta-glucoside inducer. These conclusions are supported by our observations that (i) a majority of bglC mutants exhibits a Bgl- phenotype, whereas rare trans-dominant mutations in bglC result in constitutive expression of the bgl operon and the fusion, and (ii) mutations in the bglS gene lead to constitutive expression of the fusion. Based on several lines of evidence presented, we propose that the bglS gene product has an additional role as a component of the beta-glucoside transport system.
Role of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Motor Neuron Degeneration in ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which was described since 1869 by Jean Martin Charcot, is a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by the selective and progressive loss of upper and lower motor neurons of the cerebral cortex, brainstem and the spinal cord. Progressive motor neuron loss causes muscle weakness, spasticity and fasciculation, eventually paralysis and finally death by respiratory failure 3 to 5 years after diagnosis. ALS worldwide prevalence is about 2 to 8 people per 100,000, and presents two important differences with respect to other neurogenerative diseases: the cognitive process is not affected and is not merely the result of aging because may occur at young ages (Chancellor & Warlow, 1992; Huisman et al., 2011). Two forms of ALS are known, the familial type (FALS), associated with genetic mutations, mainly in the gene encoding superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1, enzyme responsible for superoxide dismutation to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide), and the sporadic form (SALS), of unknown origin. FALS represents only about 5-10% of cases (Rosen et al., 1993; Rowland & Shneider, 2001), and SALS comprises the remaining 90%. Despite having different origins, both ALS types develop similar histopathological and clinical characteristics.
Performance Constraint and Power-Aware Allocation For User Requests In Virtual Computing Lab

Cloud computing is driven by economies of scale. A cloud system uses virtualization technology to provide cloud resources (e.g. CPU, memory) to users in form of virtual machines. Virtual machine (VM), which is a sandbox for user application, fits well in the education environment to provide computational resources for teaching and research needs. In resource management, they want to reduce costs in operations by reducing expensive cost of electronic bill of large-scale data center system. A lease-based model is suitable for our Virtual Computing Lab, in which users ask resources on a lease of virtual machines. This paper proposes two host selection policies, named MAP (minimum of active physical hosts) and MAP-H2L, and four algorithms solving the lease scheduling problem. FF-MAP, FF-MAP-H2L algorithms meet a trade-off between the energy consumption and Quality of Service (e.g. performance). The simulation on 7-day workload, which converted from LLNL Atlas log, showed the FF-MAP and FF-MAP-H2L algorithms reducing 7.24% and 7.42% energy consumption than existing greedy mapping algorithm in the leasing scheduler Haizea. In addition, we introduce a ratio \theta of consolidation in HalfPI-FF-MAP and PI-FF-MAP algorithms, in which \theta is \pi/2 and \pi, and results on their simulations show that energy consumption decreased by 34.87% and 63.12% respectively.
Depressive Disorder Associated with Mycophenolate Mofetil

Immunosuppressive pharmacologic agents are associated with a diverse array of adverse drug reactions. One of these agents, mycophenolate mofetil, is indicated for prevention of allogeneic organ transplant rejection and has recently been evaluated for treatment of autoimmune disease states, including myasthenia gravis. Although the prescribing information for mycophenolate mofetil reports depression as an adverse event, no descriptions of the onset or manifestation of this idiosyncratic reaction have been published. This case report describes a 64‐year‐old woman with myasthenia gravis who received mycophenolate mofetil and developed a severe depressive disorder requiring hospitalization 4 days after the start of therapy. The drug was discontinued, and she was treated with sertraline, quetiapine, and clonazepam. Within 2 days after mycophenolate mofetil discontinuation, the patient's depressive symptoms had markedly improved. Eight days later, mycophenolate mofetil was reintroduced under direct observation. After day 2 of this rechallenge, the patient reported a substantial increase in her depressive symptoms. Treatment was discontinued again, with improvement in the patient's symptoms within 2 days. Use of the Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale indicated a probable relationship between the patient's development of depression and mycophenolate mofetil therapy. Future evaluations of mycophenolate mofetil should include an assessment of psychological adverse effects. In addition, postmarketing surveillance should be encouraged to further delineate the association between depression and mycophenolate mofetil therapy.
Popular modes of evaluating teachers are fraught with inaccuracies and inconsistencies, but the field has identified better approaches.

Practitioners, researchers, and policy makers agree that most current teacher evaluation systems do little to help teachers improve or to support personnel decision making. There’s also a growing consensus that evidence of teacher contributions to student learning should be part of teacher evaluation systems, along with evidence about the quality of teacher practices. “Value-added models” (VAMs), designed to evaluate student test score gains from one year to the next, are often promoted as tools to accomplish this goal. Value-added models enable researchers to use statistical methods to measure changes in student scores over time while considering student characteristics and other factors often found to influence achievement. In large-scale studies, these methods have proved valuable for looking at factors affecting achievement and measuring the effects of programs or interventions. Using VAMs for individual teacher evaluation is based on the belief that measured achievement gains for a specific teacher’s students reflect that teacher’s “effectiveness. ” This attribution, however, assumes that student learning is measured well by a given test, is influenced by the teacher alone, and is independent from the growth of classmates and other aspects of the classroom context. None of these
Self-reported and measured weight, height and body mass index (BMI) in Italy, the Netherlands and North America.

BACKGROUND Self-reported values of height and weight are used increasingly despite warnings that these data-and derived body mass index (BMI) values-might be biased. The present study investigates whether differences between self-reported and measured values are the same for populations from different regions, and the influences of gender and age. METHODS Differences between self-reported and measured weights, heights and resulting BMIs are compared for representative samples of the adult population of Italy, the Netherlands and North America. RESULTS We observed that weight is under-reported (1.1 ± 2.6 kg for females and 0.4 ± 3.1 kg for males) and height over-reported (1.1 ± 2.2 cm for females and 1.7 ± 2.1 cm for males), in accordance with the literature. This leads to an overall underestimation of BMI values (0.7 ± 1.2 kg/m(2) or 2.8% for females and 0.6 ± 1.1 kg/m(2) or 2.3% for males). When BMI values are assigned to four categories (from 'underweight' to 'obesity'), 11.2% of the females and 12.0% of the males are categorized too low when self-reported weights and heights are used, with an extreme of 17.2% for Italian females. Older people tend to relatively over-report height and under-report weight, but the magnitude differs between countries and gender. CONCLUSION We conclude that, apart from a general overestimation of height and underestimation of weight resulting in an underestimation of BMI, substantial differences are observed between countries, between females and males and between age groups.
Rice Germplasm in Korea and Association Mapping

Rice is a traditional staple food crop in Korea and many other countries. Although the center of rice origin is still unclear, it is believed to be introduced from China to the Korean Peninsula in the early Bronze Age via one of two possible routes—across the West Sea or along the northeastern seashore from China according to Hammer (2005) and Vavilov (1935). Rice germplasm has evolved through several millennia of cultivation and selection by our farming ancestors. An important consequence of the domestication of both plants and animals is a reduction of genetic variability (Hancock, 2004). Maintaining biodiversity is an important worldwide problem and different countries have various policies intended to preserve biodiversity. Because conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems is closely linked to the quality of human life, the preservation and improvement of ecosystems are problematic for agriculture.
Control of a Supercapacitor Energy Storage System for Microgrid Applications

The proper operation of a microgrid requires storage devices that increase the inertia and avoid instability of the system. This paper presents the control of an energy storage system (ESS) based on supercapacitor in the context of grid-connected microgrids. The ESS is composed of AC/DC and DC/DC converters tied by a dc link. A single sliding mode strategy is proposed to control a bidirectional dc/dc converter, capable of working properly under all operating conditions. The switching devices are commanded by a single sliding function, dynamically shaped by references sent from the microgrid central controller. This feature facilitates the implementation and design of the control law and simplifies the stability analysis over the entire operating range. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is illustrated by experimental results.
A surface partitioning spectrum (SPS) for retrieval and indexing of 3D CAD models

Manual indexing of large databases of geometric information is costly and often impracticable. Because of this research into retrieval and indexing schemes has focused on the development of various 3D to 2D mappings that characterise a shape as a histogram with a small number of parameters. Many methods of generating such 2D signatures (i.e. histograms) have been proposed, generally based on geometric measures of say curvature or distance. However these geometric signatures lack information about topology and tend to become indistinct as the complexity of the shape increases. This work describes a new method for characterising both the geometry and topology of shapes in a single 2D graph, the surface partitioning spectrum (SPS). We evaluate the effectiveness of using the SPS with a neural network to assess the similarity of shapes within a test set.
Uncertain recovery of the North Atlantic right whale in a changing ocean

Human activities have placed populations of many endangered species at risk and mitigation efforts typically focus on reducing anthropogenic sources of mortality. However, failing to recognize the additional role of environmental factors in regulating birth and mortality rates can lead to erroneous demographic analyses and conclusions. The North Atlantic right whale population is currently the focus of conservation efforts aimed at reducing mortality rates associated with ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. Consistent monitoring of the population since 1980 has revealed evidence that climate‐associated changes in prey availability have played an important role in the population's recovery. The considerable interdecadal differences observed in population growth coincide with remote Arctic and North Atlantic oceanographic processes that link to the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. Here, we build capture‐recapture models to quantify the role of prey availability on right whale demographic transitional probabilities and use a corresponding demographic model to project population growth rates into the next century. Contrary to previous predictions, the right whale population is projected to recover in the future as long as prey availability and mortality rates remain within the ranges observed during 1980–2012. However, recent events indicate a northward range shift in right whale prey, potentially resulting in decreased prey availability and/or an expansion of right whale habitat into unprotected waters. An annual increase in the number of whale deaths comparable to that observed during the summer 2017 mass mortality event may cause a decline to extinction even under conditions of normal prey availability. This study highlights the importance of understanding the oceanographic context for observed population changes when evaluating the efficacy of conservation management plans for endangered marine species.
Distribution of Alzheimer's Neurofibrillary Tangles in the Basal Ganglia and Brain Stem of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Alzheimer's Disease

The authors studied the distribution of neurofibrillary tangles in the basal ganglia and brain stem of progressive supranuclear palsy and Alzheimer's disease, with the result that almost no similarity in the distribution and frequency of neurofibrillary tangles exists between both diseases. In two cases with progressive supranuclear palsy, neurofibrillary tangles were found most numerously in the subthalamic nucleus. Next in order came the globus pallidus, reticular formation of midbrain, pons and medulla oblongata, pontine nuclei, locus coeruleus, red nucleus, substantia nigra, periaqueductal grey matter and olivary nuclei. Neurofibrillary tangles were rare in the thalamus. In two cases with Alzheimer's disease, neurofibrillary tangles were found most numerously in the nucleus mamilloinfundibularis, nucleus basilaris, nucleus dorsalis raphe, nucleus centralis superior, and next in order came the thalamus. They were found scarcely in the lenticular nuclei and reticular formation of the pons. In both diseases, almost no neurofibrillary tangles were found in the nucleus supraopticus, nucleus paraventricularis, nuclei tuberales and nuclei corporis mamillare.
Moderate fetal alcohol exposure impairs the neurogenic response to an enriched environment in adult mice.

BACKGROUND Prenatal ethanol exposure results in a spectrum of cognitive and behavioral deficits and affects an estimated thirteen percent of children born in the United States. The basis of prenatal ethanol-induced impairment of brain function has been widely studied in animal models, where significant changes in the physiological and structural plasticity of hippocampal function have been documented. Here, we explored the possibility that exposure to moderate levels of alcohol in utero might also result in long-lasting impairment of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, a novel form of plasticity that occurs throughout adulthood. METHODS Female mice were trained to voluntarily consume 10% EtOH throughout pregnancy using the two-bottle choice paradigm, which results in moderate blood alcohol levels of approximately 121 mg/dl, as previously described (Allan et al., 2003). Offspring were exposed to standard or enriched living conditions for 8-12 weeks post-weaning. BrdU was administered at 50 mg/kg for 12 consecutive days. Mice in each housing condition were sacrificed at either 24 hrs or four weeks following the final BrdU injection, and BrdU cells within the dentate gyrus were evaluated using immuno-histochemical methods. RESULTS Neither fetal alcohol exposure (FAE) nor enriched environment affected the number of proliferating progenitors within the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus. However, FAE severely impaired the neurogenic response to enriched environment. Control mice housed in enriched environment displayed a two-fold increase in hippocampal neurogenesis, whereas FAE mice responded to enriched environment with neither enhanced progenitor survival nor enhanced neuronal differentiation. CONCLUSIONS These observations indicate that moderate FAE results in a long-term, persistent defect in neurogenic responses to behavioral challenge.
Sélection de variables en apprentissage d'ordonnancement. Évaluation des SVM pondérés

Selectionner les caracteristiques les plus utiles et les moins redondantes au sein des fonctions d’ordonnancement et reduire les temps d’execution sont des enjeux en apprentissage d’ordonnancement. Les algorithmes de selection de variables bases sur les SVM regularises sont des approches prometteuses dans ce cadre. Dans cet article, nous proposons de nouvelles methodes de selection de variables en apprentissage d’ordonnancement basees sur des approches de ponderation des SVM en norme l2. Nous proposons une adaptation d’une methode l2-AROM qui resout des SVM en norme l0 et un algorithme de ponderation de la norme l2 qui resout les problemes en norme l0 et l1. Nos evaluations sur des jeux de donnees industriels et de reference montrent que les methodes proposees sont jusqu’a 7 fois plus rapides et 10 fois plus parcimonieuses que l’etat de l’art, pour des qualites d’ordonnancement equivalentes.
Monte Carlo Methods for Portfolio Credit Risk

The financial crisis of 2007 – 2009 began with a major failure in credit markets. The causes of this failure stretch far beyond inadequate mathematical modeling (see Donnelly and Embrechts [2010] and Brigo et al. [2009] for detailed discussions from a mathematical finance perspective). Nevertheless, it is clear that some of the more popular models of credit risk were shown to be flawed. Many of these models were and are popular because they are mathematically tractable, allowing easy computation of various risk measures. More realistic (and complex) models come at a significant computational cost, often requiring Monte Carlo methods to estimate quantities of interest.
The effects of day‐time exogenous melatonin administration on cardiac autonomic activity

Melatonin has a functional role in the nocturnal regulation of sleep and thermoregulation. In addition to its action on peripheral receptors, melatonin may act by altering autonomic activity. To determine the effect of melatonin on cardiac autonomic activity, 5 mg of melatonin or placebo was orally administered to 12 young subjects at 14:00 hr, in a repeated measures design. Melatonin decreased sleep onset latency to Stage 2 sleep by 4.92±1.81 min (measured by Multiple Sleep Latency Tests), rectal temperature by 0.19±0.05°C, and increased foot temperature by 0.74±0.45°C (all P<0.05). Melatonin decreased heart rate by 3.66±1.68 beats/min (P<0.05) and pre‐ejection period (measure of cardiac sympathetic activity) by 16.48±4.28 ms (P<0.05), but had no effect on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (measure of cardiac parasympathetic activity) (P>0.05). As the decrease in pre‐ejection period is likely to have resulted from a decrease in blood pressure, these results do not confirm an effect of melatonin on cardiac sympathetic activity. However, the results do clearly indicate that melatonin is unlikely to drive the previously observed presleep increase in cardiac parasympathetic activity.
Synchronization from Pulse-Coupled Integrate-and-Fire Chaotic Oscillators

This paper studies mutually coupled integrateand-fire type chaotic oscillators. The coupling is realized by impulsive switchings and the system exhibits various synchronous and asynchronous phenomena. We give a basic classification of the chaos synchronization phenomena and their breakdown patterns. The stability of the synchronous states can be confirmed using the piecewise exact solutions, and the basic mechanism of the phenomena can be elucidated by a simple geometric consideration. The typical phenomena are confirmed in the laboratory. key words: integrate-andre model, chaos, synchronization,
Second Language Acquisition and Autism

Current research on language development and bilingual development suggests that good proficiency in the first language (L1) is a prerequisite for acquiring a second language (L2). Documentation from the Icelandic State's Diagnostic and Counselling Centre seems to challenge this assumption, as a number of children who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and that have delayed or impaired L1 development, seems to have very good proficiency in English, which is their L2. This study examined the data available for three ASD teenagers that fit in this group. The subjects have a history of delayed or impaired L1 acquisition and their L2 proficiency was determined to be significantly better than their typical development (TD) peers. These findings call for further study using more rigorous tests and evaluation measures with a larger number of participants. The findings of this study either challenge contemporary language acquisition theories or call into question the assumption that ASD children have delayed L1 development; or thirdly that only the L1 production facility (the L2 language production) in the brain might be affected by the disorder and not the area in the brain that is thought to be common to both L1 and L2 which processes language reception. Second Language Acquisition and Autism 5
Nanotechnology, Big things from a Tiny World: a Review

The purpose of this paper is to look into the present aspects of “Nanotechnology”. This paper gives a brief description of what Nanotechnology is? And its application in various fields viz. computing, medicine, food technology, Robotics, Solar cells etc. It also deals with the future perspectives of Nanotechnology, risks in advanced nanotechnology.
Probabilistic Unification Grammars

Recent research has shown that unification grammars can be adapted to incorporate statistical information, thus preserving the processing benefits of stochastic context-free grammars while offering an efficient mechanism for handling dependencies. While complexity studies show that a probabilistic unification grammar achieves an appropriately lower entropy estimate than an equivalent PCFG, the problem of parameter estimation prevents results from reflecting the empirical distribution. This paper describes how a PUG can be implemented as a Prolog DCG annotated with weights, and how the weights can be interpretted to give accurate entropy estimates. An algorithm for learning correct weights is provided, along with results from some complexity analyses.
Steady-state propagation of a crack in a viscoelastic strip.

The theory of steady-state propagation of a crack in a viscoelastic solid is reexamined in light of recent developments in ostensibly similar free-boundary problems, specifically, dendritic crystal growth and viscous fingering. We find that, at least within the conventional formulation of fracture dynamics, the problem of predicting the growth rate and the shape of a crack does not involve mathematical subtleties analogous to those which have been found in the previously mentioned situations. We derive some general formulas for the variation of the shape of the cohesive zone at the crack tip as a function of driving force, and we compute specific shapes, growth rates, and dissipation patterns for a simple model of the cohesive stresses.