Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Engineered Dwarf Male-Sterile Rice: A Promising Genetic Tool for Facilitating Recurrent Selection in Rice

Rice is a crop feeding half of the world’s population. With the continuous raise of yield potential via genetic improvement, rice breeding has entered an era where multiple genes conferring complex traits must be efficiently manipulated to increase rice yield further. Recurrent selection is a sound strategy for manipulating multiple genes and it has been successfully performed in allogamous crops. However, the difficulties in emasculation and hand pollination had obstructed efficient use of recurrent selection in autogamous rice. Here, we report development of the dwarf male-sterile rice that can facilitate recurrent selection in rice breeding. We adopted RNAi technology to synergistically regulate rice plant height and male fertility to create the dwarf male-sterile rice. The RNAi construct pTCK-EGGE, targeting the OsGA20ox2 and OsEAT1 genes, was constructed and used to transform rice via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The transgenic T0 plants showing largely reduced plant height and complete male-sterile phenotypes were designated as the dwarf male-sterile plants. Progenies of the dwarf male-sterile plants were obtained by pollinating them with pollens from the wild-type. In the T1 and T2 populations, half of the plants were still dwarf male-sterile; the other half displayed normal plant height and male fertility which were designated as tall and male-fertile plants. The tall and male-fertile plants are transgene-free and can be self-pollinated to generate new varieties. Since emasculation and hand pollination for dwarf male-sterile rice plants is no longer needed, the dwarf male-sterile rice can be used to perform recurrent selection in rice. A dwarf male-sterile rice-based recurrent selection model has been proposed.
Measurement of coronary artery calcium with dual-slice helical CT compared with coronary angiography: evaluation of CT scoring methods, interobserver variations, and reproducibility.

OBJECTIVE This study was performed to evaluate new scoring methods for quantitating coronary artery calcifications with helical CT and to compare the results with those of quantitative coronary angiography in patients with suspected coronary artery disease. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Unenhanced dual-slice helical CT and coronary angiography were performed within 24 hr of each other in 101 patients with symptoms of coronary artery disease. Coronary artery calcifications with a density above 90 H were identified on each slice and, with the same regions of interest, quantitative scoring was performed at thresholds of 90 H (new) 130 H (old). Two mathematical algorithms (one new and one old) were evaluated for both thresholds (yielding four scoring systems). By CT imaging, we defined disease as a score of greater than zero. By angiography, we defined disease as a 50% or greater reduction in the luminal diameter of any major vessel. Interobserver variations in calcification scoring were evaluated. Seventeen of our patients. also underwent a second, consecutive CT scan to determine reproducibility. RESULTS With the new threshold and the new algorithm, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of helical CT in predicting disease were 88%, 52%, and 76%, respectively. We found a moderate positive association between the total CT calcification score and the number of stenotic coronary arteries at angiography (Pearson's correlation coefficient, .43; p = .05 [analysis of variance]). The accuracy and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were higher with the new threshold and the new algorithm. Interobserver agreement in calcification scoring was high (intraclass correlation coefficient, .99 [n = 85]), as was reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient, .94 [n = 17]). Reproducibility was higher when scoring was based on the new threshold and the new algorithm. CONCLUSION The quantity of coronary artery calcifications as measured by helical CT correlated positively with obstructive coronary artery disease as measured by angiography. Interobserver agreement and reproducibility were excellent. A new scoring method showed promise.
Power-aware computing

sumption in active mode as a tradeoff to increased performance, but any power consumed when the system is idle is a complete waste and ideally should be avoided by turning the system off. A typical current system is so complex that parts of it will likely be inactive even during active periods, and they can be turned off to reduce power with no impact on performance. The introduction of finer-grained power modes—for example, run at half speed and with lower power supply voltage—can further refine such simple strategies to reduce power in time (turn off the system during idle times) and space (turn off inactive elements), leading to more complex tradeoffs in terms of performance and verification costs. Although such power-aware strategies can be activated either in hardware or software, they usually are activated in software with hardware support. The techniques also can be static (compile-time) or online (runtime), with online methods being more flexible but generally having worse results than those achieved with a profile-guided static method. How to compare such different power-aware computing methods against each other poses an important question. Depending on the application—peak power, dynamic power, average power, energy, energy-delay product, energy-delaysquared product, power density—we can use several figures of merit for this purpose. The two metrics that have proved most useful until now are the energy-delay product (inversely Performance, complexity, cost, and power tradeoffs have created exciting challenges and opportunities in the rapidly changing field of power-aware computing.
Developing Flow in a Pipe

In this exercise, developing flow in a pipe is modeled. The pipe is represented in two dimensions, assuming axisymmetric flow. The radius and the length of the pipe can be changed. Coarse, medium, and fine mesh types are available. The flow can be solved with or without heat transfer. The material properties for flow without heat transfer (viscosity and density) and for flow with heat transfer (viscosity, density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity) can be specified. Inlet velocity, inlet temperature, heat flux, and wall temperature can be specified as boundary conditions. The exercise reports total pressure drop, wall friction force, total heat flux, and the temperature rise. The plots for centerline velocity, pressure, and temperature distributions, wall friction factor, temperature, and Nusselt number distributions are available. Velocity and temperature profiles at specified axial positions can be displayed. Contours of velocity, pressure, temperature, and stream function can be displayed. A velocity vector plot is also available.
An Intelligent System for Phish Detection, using Dynamic Analysis and Template Matching

— Phishing, or stealing of sensitive information on the web, has dealt a major blow to Internet Security in recent times. Most of the existing anti-phishing solutions fail to handle the fuzziness involved in phish detection, thus leading to a large number of false positives. This fuzziness is attributed to the use of highly flexible and at the same time, highly ambiguous HTML language. We introduce a new perspective against phishing, that tries to systematically prove, whether a given page is phished or not, using the corresponding original page as the basis of the comparison. It analyzes the layout of the pages under consideration to determine the percentage distortion between them, indicative of any form of malicious alteration. The system design represents an intelligent system, employing dynamic assessment which accurately identifies brand new phishing attacks and will prove effective in reducing the number of false positives. This framework could potentially be used as a knowledge base, in educating the internet users against phishing.
The Effects of Alpha Interferon on the Development of Autoimmune Thyroiditis in the NOD H2h4 Mouse

Alpha interferon (αIFN) therapy is known to induce thyroid autoimmunity in up to 40% of patients. The mechanism is unknown, but Th1 switching has been hypothesized. The aim of our study was to examine whether αIFN accelerated the development of thyroiditis in genetically susceptible mice. We took advantage of NOD-H2h4, a genetically susceptible animal model, which develops thyroiditis when fed a high iodine diet. Six to eight week old male NOD H2h4 mice were injected with mouse αIFN (200 units) or with saline three times a week for 8 weeks. All mice drank iodinated water (0.15%). Mice were sacrificed after 8 weeks of injection. Their thyroids were examined for histology and blood was tested for antithyroglobulin antibody levels. T4 and glucose levels were also assessed. In the IFN-injected group, 6/13 (46.2%) developed thyroiditis and/or thyroid antibodies while in the saline-injected group, only 4/13 (30.8%) developed thyroiditis and/or thyroid antibodies (p=0.4). The grade of thyroiditis was not different amongst the two groups. None of the mice developed clinical thyroiditis or diabetes mellitus. Our results showed that αIFN treatment did not accelerate thyroiditis in this mouse model. This may imply that αIFN induces thyroiditis in a non-genetically dependent manner, and this would not be detected in a genetically susceptible mouse model if the effect were small. Alternatively, it is possible that αIFN did not induce thyroiditis in mice because, unlike in humans, in mice αIFN does not induce Th1 switching.
TrendQuery: a system for interactive exploration of trends

The surfacing of trends from data collections such as user-generated content streams and news articles is a popular and important data analysis activity, used in applications such as business intelligence, quantitative stock trading and, social media exploration. Unlike traditional content analysis, trend analysis includes an additional vital time dimension: a trend can be defined as a temporal pattern over a group of semantically related items. The unsupervised discovery of trends is often not sufficient, either due to inadequacies in the trend analysis algorithm, or because the data collection itself does not possess all of the information to identify the trend. Thus, it is necessary for an expert human-in-the-loop to be involved in the process of trend analysis. To this end, we introduce TrendQuery, a system designed towards iterative and interactive surfacing of trends. Our system provides a set of trends to the expert, and enumerates iterative operations to curate the result. This process continues until the expert is satisfied with the surfaced trends. Since the space of possible tweaks to the result can be extremely large, the system continually provides feedback and guidance to the expert to prioritize possible operations. Our system allows interactive curation of trends providing better insights than a purely unsupervised approach.
The relationship between trauma, shame, and guilt: findings from a community-based study of refugee minors in Germany

Background The relationships between traumatic stress and self-conscious emotions, such as shame and guilt, remain to be fully explored, especially in refugees, who frequently are exposed to a multitude of stressors. Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate shame and guilt in refugee minors and to assess to what extent a greater cumulative exposure to traumatic stressors would result not only in more severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms but also in higher levels of shame and guilt. Methods Thirty-two male refugee minors, who were all below the age of 18 when they sought asylum in Germany, agreed to participate. At the time of the assessment, the age ranged from 11 to 20 years. Eighteen refugees had arrived without relatives in their host country (“unaccompanied minors”). In structured diagnostic interviews, a PTSD diagnosis was established using the UCLA PTSD Index. Posttraumatic guilt was assessed by means of the Trauma-related Guilt Inventory, and the Shame Variability Questionnaire was used to record the intensity, duration, and frequency of shame episodes. Results Feelings of guilt and shame as well as trauma symptoms were all associated with the number of traumatic event types subjects had experienced. Posttraumatic guilt and shame were both correlated with PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions The findings indicate that cumulative stress such as exposure to multiple traumatic events poses a risk factor for the mental health including greater suffering and functional impairment due to shame and guilt.
Photo summary: automated selection of representative photos from a digital collection

This work presents a showcase on automated selection of photos from a digital photo collection. The Photo Summary technology considers content-based information and photo metadata to determine the most relevant photos in a given collection. The key contribution is the rating scheme for relevance which is based on criteria such as the diversity of photos, the importance of the photo motifs, the technical quality and aesthetics of photos and the interdependence of photos concerning the represented events. The summarization system further considers user preferences and visualizes the selected photos as event staples.
DESIGN OF REAL-TIME COMBUSTION FEEDBACK SYSTEM AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF AN RCCI ENGINE FOR CONTROL

Premixed compression ignition (PCI) technologies offer high efficiency and low emissions but are usually confined by limited operation range as well as high pressure rise and heat release rate. In this work, a more recently developed PCI mode is explored where in-cylinder blending of two fuels with different auto-ignition characteristics (diesel and gasoline) is utilized to create reactivity stratification such that heat release rate and combustion timing can be controlled. This mode has been defined as Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI). As part of this thesis, the main aim is to study various parameters that can be used to control combustion phasing. Also, steady state mapping of the engine is done so as to explore the operating range for the current engine setup. Best efficiencies as well as highest loads are obtained for higher Premixed Ratio (PR) values and advanced Start of Injection (SOI) timings, where as lower PR fuel blends are needed to achieve low load limit. The analysis is also extended to transient RCCI operation for observing various dynamics involved and their effects on combustion phasing. As part of realizing full-load range operation, switching to conventional Spark-Ignition (SI) combustion mode is also carried out. Various dynamics involved in the switching process are captured. A cycle-by-cycle closed loop combustion controller is designed and implemented on the engine to achieve optimum combustion phasing during transient engine operation. xxvii To provide feedback of combustion parameters like engine load and combustion phasing to the closed loop controller, a real-time combustion feedback system is designed and implemented utilizing Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
A Double-Edged Sword: The Effects of Challenge and Hindrance Time Pressure on New Product Development Teams

Bringing new products to market requires team effort. New product development teams often face demanding schedules and high deliverable expectations, making time pressure a common experience at the workplace. Past literature have generally associated the relationship between time pressure and performance based on the inverted-U model, where low and high levels of time pressure are related to poor performance. However, teams do not necessarily perform worse when the levels of time pressure are high. In contrast, there are numerous examples of high-performance teams in intense time-pressure situations. The purpose of this study is to reconcile some of the discrepancies concerning the effects of time pressure by considering the nature of stress. This study is also designed to investigate time pressure at team level-an area that is not well investigated. A model of 2-D time pressure, i.e., challenge and hindrance time pressure, was developed. Data are collected based on a two-part electronic survey from 81 new product development teams (500 respondents) in Western Europe. The results showed challenge and hindrance time pressure to improve and deteriorate team performance, respectively. At the same time, we also found team coordination to partially mediate the time-pressure-team-performance relationships. Furthermore, team identification is found to sustain team coordination, especially for teams facing hindrance time pressure. This indicates that teams that possess strong team identification could be positioned strategically in projects where time pressure is intense and where the stakes are high. Other implications with respect to theory and practice are discussed.
The compensatory renin–angiotensin system in the central regulation of arterial pressure: new avenues and new challenges

Hypertension is a widespread condition that affects millions of people around the world and has a major impact in public health. The classic renin–angiotensin system is a complex system comprised of multiple peptides and pathways that have been the driver of drug development over the years to control hypertension. However, there are still patients whose hypertension is very difficult to control with current drugs and strategies, thus motivating further research in this field. In the past two decades, important discoveries have expanded our knowledge of this system and new pathways are emerging that are helping us understand the complex interaction taking place not only in the periphery, but also in the central nervous system where the renin–angiotensin system is also very active. A new arm, called the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/Mas receptor axis, was shown to exert antihypertensive properties and serve as a counterbalance to the classic ACE/angiotensin II/AT1 receptor axis, in this way modulating or even counteracting the negative effects of angiotensin II in blood pressure regulation and water retention. Modulation of this new axis through ACE2 activation, ADAM17 regulation or AT1 receptor internalization are some of the novel avenues and challenges that have the potential to become a target for new drug research and development for the treatment of hypertension.
Can we beat google translate?

This paper presents a machine translation evaluation study for Croatian-English language pair. In-domain and out-of-domain translations from Croatian into English have been obtained from Google Translate, our own statistical machine translation system LegTran, and from a professional translator. These translations have been evaluated by six different automatic metrics. The gains obtained from increasing the number of reference translations have been explored and measured. System level correlation between automatic evaluation metrics is given and the significance of the results is discussed. Bootstrapping, approximate randomization and the sign test have been used for confidence intervals and hypothesis testing.
Post-completion errors in problem solving : a study

A post-completion error is a specific form of omission error occurring after some task goal has been accomplished – for example, forgetting to collect your original after photocopying. Using a novel experimental paradigm, this study demonstrates the cognitive robustness of postcompletion error: that it occurs not only in routine procedural tasks but also in problem-solving situations. The effect of a simple static visual cue to mitigate the error was also assessed by testing two different interfaces through which users engaged in problem-solving. The findings suggest that even a simple static cue can reduce the error rate, though not eliminate it.
A New Efficient Authentication Scheme for Session Initiation Protocol

Today, the efficiency and security of session initiation protocol is becoming more and more important. In 2005, Yang et al. proposed a secure authentication scheme for session initiation protocol. However, it is not suitable for the limited computation capacities of users such as smart cards or mobile units. To guarantee the quality of the growing communication services, we propose an efficient authentication scheme for session initiation protocol. In our scheme, only seven hash functions are performed in the procedure. It is efficient and convenient for both the hardware-limited users and the authentication server.
INCREASED NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE ACTIVITY in GASTRIC FUNDAL MUSCLES from RATS with DIABETES

This study was conducted in diabetic rats after 8 weeks of streptozotocin-induced diabetes. The rats were sacrificed and gastric fundus portion was cut away. Longitudinal gastric fundal muscle strips were prepared by cutting parallel to the greater curvature to examine the relaxant responses to electrical field stimulation (EFS), and the citrulline assay and Western blot analysis were the techniques used to investigate the amount of nitric oxide production and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) proteins.The results showed that the nitric oxide production and pharmacological action of nitric oxide were increased despite neuronal NOS (nNOS) and endothelial NOS (eNOS) proteins in diabetic gastric fundal muscles being significantly decrease. These findings suggested that there is an increased NOS active in streptozotocin diabetic rat gastric fundal muscles.
Detecting junk mails by implementing statistical theory

Bayesian filter works efficiently by comparing email content (phrases or tokens) against stored database. This paper presents a discussion about the implementation of binomial distribution and Poisson distribution in Bayesian spam filter. This approach is beneficial for calculating the probability of a mail being spam, containing words that are not stored in database (i.e., encountered by the filter for the first time) or rare words (less frequent words) and for reducing and controlling false positive.
Reliable Collective Communications With Weighted SRLGs in Optical Networks

In this paper, we study the problem of reliable collective communication (broadcast or gossip) with the objective of maximizing the reliability of the collective communication. The need for collective communication arises in many problems of parallel and distributed computing, including Grid or cloud computing and database management. We describe the network model, formulate the reliable collective communication problem, prove that the maximum reliable collective communication problem is NP-hard, and provide an integer linear program (ILP) formulation for the problem. We then provide a greedy approximation algorithm to construct collective communication (through a spanning tree) that achieves an approximation ratio of 1 + ln(|V|+α|E|-1) , where α is the average number of shared link risk groups (SRLGs) along links, and |V| and |E| are the total number of vertices and edges of the network, respectively. Simulations demonstrate that our approximation algorithm achieves good performance in both small and large networks and that, in almost 95% of total cases, our algorithm outperforms the modified minimum spanning tree algorithms.