Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Arabidopsis Lipid Transfer Protein 2 (AtLTP2) Is Involved in Cuticle-Cell Wall Interface Integrity and in Etiolated Hypocotyl Permeability

Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) belong to a complex multigenic family implicated in diverse physiological processes. However, their function and mode of action remain unclear probably because of functional redundancy. Among the different roles proposed for nsLTPs, it has long been suggested that they could transport cuticular precursor across the cell wall during the formation of the cuticle, which constitutes the first physical barrier for plant interactions with their aerial environment. Here, we took advantage of the Arabidopsis thaliana etiolated hypocotyl model in which AtLTP2 was previously identified as the unique and abundant nsLTP member in the cell wall proteome, to investigate its function. AtLTP2 expression was restricted to epidermal cells of aerial organs, in agreement with the place of cuticle deposition. Furthermore, transient AtLTP2-TagRFP over-expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaf epidermal cells resulted in its localization to the cell wall, as expected, but surprisingly also to the plastids, indicating an original dual trafficking for a nsLTP. Remarkably, in etiolated hypocotyls, the atltp2-1 mutant displayed modifications in cuticle permeability together with a disorganized ultra-structure at the cuticle-cell wall interface completely recovered in complemented lines, whereas only slight differences in cuticular composition were observed. Thus, AtLTP2 may not play the historical purported nsLTP shuttling role across the cell wall, but we rather hypothesize that AtLTP2 could play a major structural role by maintaining the integrity of the adhesion between the mainly hydrophobic cuticle and the hydrophilic underlying cell wall. Altogether, these results gave new insights into nsLTP functions.
Nylon 6 fibers: Changes in structure between moderate and high draw ratios

Abstract The in-phase modulus and coefficient of diffusion of nylon 6 fibers are analyzed in terms of wide-and small-angle X-ray diffraction data. Both properties are examined in directions parallel and perpendicular to the fiber axis. The anisotropy in diffusion and mechanical coupling between the crystalline and amorphous phase reaches its maximum at relatively low draw ratios of about 2.5 to 3.0X. With increasing draw ratio the anisotropy in these properties decreases monotonically and reaches its minimum value with the fibers of the highest draw ratio (5.35X). The diffusion analysis yields a heretofore undetermined structural parameter, the separation of the microfibrils. The results indicate that increases in draw ratio lead to an increase in the distance between the microfibrils, a decrease in the diameter to length of the crystallite, and a decrease in the diffusion constant of the permeable phase. The longitudinal structure of the microfibril is not affected significantly during this phase of draw.
Response surface optimization for efficient dye removal by isolated strain Pseudomonas sp.

Response surface methodology (RSM) involving the central composite design (CCD) was employed to optimize three important process variables for the decolourization of synthetic dye solutions containing Remazol Turquoise Blue (RTB) and Reactive Black 5 (RB5) with isolated bacterial strain Pseudomonas sp. The interaction between three variables i.e. Initial concentration of dye, carbon source and nitrogen source were studied and modeled. According to the Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results the predicted results were found to be in good agreement with experimental results (R2: 0.9726; Adj R2: 0.9480 for RTB and R2: 0.9789; Adj R2: 0.9750 for RB5) which indicated excellent evaluation of experimental data from the second order polynomial regression model. Mathematical models were developed by the proposed system, for each process variable showed the effect of each factor and their interactions on biodecolourization process. The optimum concentrations of Dye, Carbon source, and Nitrogen source were found to be 20 mgL−1, 1.5 g/L and 1.5 g/L, respectively for RTB and RB5 to obtain maximum dye removing capacity. Predicted values were validated with experimental results, which indicated appropriateness of the employed model and the success of RSM.
Constraint-enforcing controller for both autonomous and assisted steering (Invited paper)

This paper considers the design of a controller and a constraint-enforcement scheme for application to dualmode, autonomous and manual steering systems. A tracking controller is designed to track a desired pinion angle during autonomous operation, and to provide assistive torque during manual operation. The tracking controller is designed using H∞ synthesis with tracking made possible via the solution to a full-information output regulation problem. A reference governor scheme is implemented in order to enforce constraints. Numerical simulations are presented corresponding to an aggressive step-steer maneuver in autonomous mode and show strict constraint enforcement.
Inferência de tipos com suporte para sobrecarga baseada no sistema CT

Este trabalho aborda o problema da inferencia de tipos com definicoes sobrecarregadas, apresentando uma revisao do sistema de tipos CT. Esse sistema e uma extensao do sistema proposto por Damas-Milner com suporte para sobrecarga de nomes, onde restricoes de tipo sao usadas em tipos polimorficos para indicar restricoes de instanciacao desses tipos, de acordo com definicoes sobrecarregadas existentes. a inferencia de tipos nesse sistema envolve a resolucao para o problema da satisfazibilidade de restricoes, que trata de decidir se um dado conjunto de restricoes de um tipo polimorfico e valido ou nao, em um determinado contexto de tipos. Politicas para resolucao de sobrecarga muito restritirvas tem sido adotadas para garantir a deibilidade deste problemas. O sistema CT adota uma politica de resolucao de sobrecarga muito menos restritiva que as presentes em sistemas de tipos similares. As principais contribuicoes desse trabalho sao: uma definicao formal do problema de satisfazibilidade de restricoes independente das regras de derivacao do sistema de tipos, apresentacao de um algoritmo para a solucao desse problema e a implementacao de um prototipo que demonstra que a adocao de uma politica de sobrecarga menos restritiva pode funcionar bem na pratica. Nos testes realizados com a implementacao desse algoritmo, usando codigo similar a programas implemtnados em Haskell, nao foi encotnrada nenhuma situacao em que a satisfazibilidade das restricoes nao pode ser decidida. Para estes casos e utilizado um limite de iteracao para interromper o processo e rejeitar a expressao, indicando a ocorrencia de um erro de tipo.
Hospital Choices, Hospital Prices and Financial Incentives to Physicians

We estimate an insurer-specific preference function which rationalizes hospital referrals for privately insured births in California. The function is additively separable in: a hospital price paid by the insurer, the distance traveled, and plan- and severity-specific hospital fixed effects (capturing hospital quality). We use an inequality estimator that allows for errors in price and detailed hospital-severity interactions and obtain markedly different results than those from a logit. The estimates indicate that insurers with more capitated physicians are more responsive to price. Capitated plans send patients further to utilize similar quality, lower-priced hospitals; but the cost-quality trade-off does not vary with capitation rates.
GPU accelerate parallel Odd-Even merge sort: An OpenCL method

Odd-Even merge sort is a basic problem in computer supported cooperative work in design area. However, it is not effective because of the high complexity O(nlg2n) in CPU platform. In this paper, we present a novel implementation based on the OpenCL programming model on recent GPU (Graphic Processing Unit). Our implementation was based on Knuth's algorithm and do some change. Due to limitations of OpenCL, we utilize a flag variable to make it avoid the direct backward control flow. As results, our implementation achieves 18× speedups compared with the CPU C++ STL quick sort. And it gets almost linear speedup for next generations of GPU because of the complete parallelism in each iteration process. Meanwhile, our approach makes the odd-even merge sort effectively in practice because of the high performance. Furthermore, the approach used in this paper for cooperating thousands of processing units to parallel process can also be used in other cooperation areas.
Redox Species of Redox Flow Batteries: A Review

Due to the capricious nature of renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar, large-scale energy storage devices are increasingly required to make the best use of the renewable power. The redox flow battery is considered suitable for large-scale applications due to its modular design, good scalability and flexible operation. The biggest challenge of the redox flow battery is the low energy density. The redox active species is the most important component in redox flow batteries, and the redox potential and solubility of redox species dictate the system energy density. This review is focused on the recent development of redox species. Different categories of redox species, including simple inorganic ions, metal complexes, metal-free organic compounds, polysulfide/sulfur and lithium storage active materials, are reviewed. The future development of redox species towards higher energy density is also suggested.
A new framework for output feedback controller design for a class of discrete-time stochastic nonlinear system with quantization and missing measurement

In this paper, we are concerned with the problem of analysis and synthesis for a class of output feedback control system. The system under consideration is a discrete-time stochastic system with time-varying delay. It is assumed that the measurement of system is quantized via a logarithmic quantizer before it is transmitted, and the measurement data would be missing from time to time which can be described by a Bernoulli distributed white sequence. In addition, the nonlinearities are assumed to satisfy the sector conditions. The problem addressed is to design an output feedback controller such that the resulting closed-loop system is exponentially stable in the mean square. By employing Lyapunov theory and some new techniques, a new framework is established to cope with the design of output feedback controller for nonlinear systems involving quantization and missing measurement. Sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the existence of the desired controllers, and the controller parameters are given in an explicit expression as well. A numerical example is exploited to show the usefulness of the results obtained.
An Evaluation of a Service-Oriented Platform for Indexing Media Collections

Nowadays, many industries own large media archives that need to be efficiently indexed, a process that very often implies the integration of legacy applications with newly developed software. In such scenarios, an SOA development approach allows addressing the correspondent needs for integration, data sharing and interoperability. However, the key technologies on top of which a typical SOA-based deployment is built today still face some challenges in terms of performance and scalability when compared to the communication performance of other distributed applications. With the goal of evaluating the real performance of XML Web Services and ESB, this paper presents a SOA-based approach for enabling a distributed media indexing platform, and compares it to other approaches in terms of performance and overhead. Additionally, it provides a set of guidelines for the construction of a performing and scalable SOA.
Microstructural and flow characteristics of friction stir welded aluminium 6061-T6 extrusions

Tin plated 6061-T6 Al extrusions were friction stir welded in a 90° butt weld configuration. A banded microstructure of interleaved layers of particle rich and particle poor material comprised the weld nugget. Transmission electron microscopy revealed the strong presence of tin within the particle rich bands, but TEM foils taken from other microstructural regions showed no indication of Sn containing phases. Since tin is limited to the surface of the preweld extrusions, surface material flowed into the nugget region to form the particle rich bands, while the particle poor bands originated from material within the extrusion thickness. The morphology of the principle strengthening phases indicated the relative temperature profile across the welded joint, and hardness profiles of as welded specimens consistently displayed the lowest hardness on the retreating side. Specimens that were solution heat treated and aged after welding revealed a normalised hardness profile across the weld.
Inflammatory Cytokine and Osmolarity Changes in the Tears of Dry Eye Patients Treated with Topical 1% Methylprednisolone

Purpose To evaluate changes in clinical outcomes, inflammatory cytokine levels, and tear osmolarity in the tears of patients with moderate to severe dry eye syndrome before and after the application of topical 1% methylprednisolone. Materials and Methods Thirty-two patients with moderate to severe dry eye unresponsive to previous aqueous enhancement therapy were enrolled. Five patients were lost to follow up, and twenty-seven patients were eligible for analysis. Patients were instructed to apply topical 1% methylprednisolone four times per day, as well as to continue applying their current therapy of preservative-free 0.1% sodium hyaluronate four times per day. Corneal and conjunctival staining scores, tear film breakup time (TFBUT), Schirmer test, and tear osmolarity were assessed at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks. Tear samples were collected at every visit for cytokine analysis. Results Corneal and conjunctival staining scores and TFBUT showed significant improvement at 4 (p<0.001, <0.001, <0.001 respectively) and 8 (p<0.001, <0.001, <0.001 respectively) weeks. Tear osmolarity decreased significantly at 8 weeks (p=0.008). Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 were significantly decreased at 8 weeks compared with those at baseline (p=0.041, 0.001, 0.008 respectively). Conclusion Short-term treatment with topical 1% methylprednisolone not only improved clinical outcomes, but also decreased tear osmolarity and cytokine levels. By measuring the changes in cytokine levels and tear osmolarity, we could objectively evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of topical methylprednisolone applied in the treatment of patients with moderate to severe dry eye syndrome.
Selection of faculty member in a professional colleges using RST

One of the biggest challenges in higher education faces today is selecting the faculty members. With incorrect decision, the efficiency and effectiveness of an institution is a critical issue and moreover the characteristics of a faculty member may influence the possible success rate of an educational institution. Generally, professional institution are in need of selecting the good faculty member by conducting the written test, group discussion, interviews, language proficiency, subject skills etc. Without these parameters the selection of faculty member will affect institutional growth. P. Ramasubramanian et al [6] investigated the problem of ranking the professional colleges using partial order generalization of rough set theory. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate the selection of faculty member using Rough Set Theory [RST].
MECHANICAL AND MICROSTRUCTURAL STUDY OF SILICON CARBIDE AND PYROLYTIC CARBON COATINGS IN TRISO FUEL PARTICLES

TRISO fuel particles have been developed as nuclear fuels used for a generation IV nuclear reactor: high temperature reactor. Such particle consists of a fuel kernel, pyrolytic carbon (PyC) and silicon carbide (SiC) coatings. This study has been carried out to establish a relationship between mechanical properties and microstructures of SiC coating and PyC coatings produced by fluidized bed chemical vapour deposition. Indentations were used to measure hardness, Young? s modulus and fracture behaviour of SiC and PyC coatings. Fracture strength of SiC coatings was measured by crush test. Microstructure of SiC and PyC was mainly characterised by transmission/ scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. For SiC coatings produced at 1300 �C, Young? s modulus is an exponential function of relative density. Hardness of SiC coatings is higher than the bulk SiC produced by CVD, and it is attributed to the high density of dislocations and their interactions. The deformation mechanism of SiC coatings under indentation is explained by presence of defects, such as grain boundaries and nano-pores. The fracture of these coatings beneath the Vickers indentation is the Palmqvist cracks, and indentation fracture toughness was in the range of 3.5-4.9 MPa m1/2. The stress-induced micro-cracks are assumed to be the mechanism for the high indentation fracture toughness. Different hardness and fracture toughness in these SiC coatings are attributed to influences of defects and grain morphology.Measurement of fracture strength was carried out on SiC coatings deposited at 1300-1500 �C. Weibull modulus and fracture strength of the full shell are dominated by the ratio of radius to thickness of coatings, and decrease linearly with the increase of this ratio. The influence of SiC/PyC interfacial roughness on fracture strength of the SiC was quantified by self-affine theory. The fracture strength decreases linearly with the increase of the roughness ratio, which is the long-wavelength roughness characteristic. After thermal treatment at 2000 �C, fracture strength decreased in SiC coatings due to the formation of pores, which are results of diffusion of native defects in as-deposited SiC coatings, and the change of Weibull modulus is related to the size and distribution of pores.For low density PyC coatings, Young? s modulus and the mean pressure increase with the increase of the density; however, for high density PyC coatings, they are determined by interstitial defects. The hysteresis deformation behaviour under nano-indenation has been found be affected by density variation and thermal treatment, which is proposed to be due to the disorder structure in PyC coatings.
Differential microarray analysis of Drosophila mushroom body transcripts using chemical ablation

Mushroom bodies (MBs) are the centers for olfactory associative learning and elementary cognitive functions in the Drosophila brain. As a way to systematically elucidate genes preferentially expressed in MBs, we have analyzed genome-wide alterations in transcript profiles associated with MB ablation by hydroxyurea. We selected 100 genes based on microarray data and examined their expression patterns in the brain by in situ hybridization. Seventy genes were found to be expressed in the posterodorsal cortex, which harbors the MB cell bodies. These genes encode proteins of diverse functions, including transcription, signaling, cell adhesion, channels, and transporters. Moreover, we have examined developmental functions of 40 of the microarray-identified genes by transgenic RNA interference; 8 genes were found to cause mild-to-strong MB defects when suppressed with a MB-Gal4 driver. These results provide important information not only on the repertoire of genes that control MB development but also on the repertoire of neural factors that may have important physiological functions in MB plasticity.
Predictive value of early molecular response in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with first-line dasatinib.

Dasatinib is effective therapy for newly diagnosed patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, but not all patients respond well. We analyzed the outcome of patients treated with dasatinib as first-line therapy to identify patients who are more likely to fare poorly. The 8.6% of patients who at 3 months had a BCR-ABL1/ABL1 ratio > 10% had a significantly worse 2-year cumulative incidence of complete cytogenetic response (58.8% vs 96.6%, P < .001) and molecular responses than the remaining patients with a lower transcript levels. The predictive value of the 3-month transcript level could be improved using the dasatinib-specific transcript level cut-offs, namely, 2.2%, 0.92%, and 0.57% for complete cytogenetic response, 3 log and 4.5 log reductions in the transcript level, respectively. The study was registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov as #NCT01460693.
Monitoring ALA‐induced PpIX Photodynamic Therapy in the Rat Esophagus Using Fluorescence and Reflectance Spectroscopy

The presence of phased protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) bleach kinetics has been shown to correlate with esophageal response to 5‐aminolevulinic acid‐based photodynamic therapy (ALA‐PDT) in animal models. Here we confirm the existence of phased PpIX photobleaching by increasing the temporal resolution of the fluorescence measurements using the therapeutic illumination and long wavelength fluorescence detection. Furthermore fluorescence differential pathlength spectroscopy (FDPS) was incorporated to provide information on the effects of PpIX and tissue oxygenation distribution on the PpIX bleach kinetics during illumination. ALA at a dose of 200 mg kg−1 was orally administered to 15 rats, five rats served as control animals. PDT was performed at an in situ measured fluence rate of 75 mW cm−2 using a total fluence of 54 J cm−2. Forty‐eight hours after PDT the esophagus was excised and histologically examined for PDT‐induced damage. Fluence rate and PpIX photobleaching at 705 nm were monitored during therapeutic illumination with the same isotropic probe. A new method, FDPS, was used for superficial measurement on saturation, blood volume, scattering characteristics and PpIX fluorescence. Results showed two‐phased PpIX photobleaching that was not related to a (systematic) change in esophageal oxygenation but was associated with an increase in average blood volume. PpIX fluorescence photobleaching measured using FDPS, in which fluorescence signals are only acquired from the superficial layers of the esophagus, showed lower rates of photobleaching and no distinct phases. No clear correlation between two‐phased photobleaching and histologic tissue response was found. This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring fluence rate, PpIX fluorescence and FDPS during PDT in the esophagus. We conclude that the spatial distribution of PpIX significantly influences the kinetics of photobleaching and that there is a complex interrelationship between the distribution of PpIX and the supply of oxygen to the illuminated tissue volume.
Changes in Energy Metabolism, Structure and Function in Alveolar Macrophages under Anaerobic Conditions

To determine whether the change in energy metabolism of guinea‐pig alveolar macrophages (AM) would alter their function to resemble peritoneal macrophages (PM), AM were exposed to strict anaerobic environments for 96 h. Exposure of cultivated AM to hypoxic conditions resulted in a decreased activity of cytochrome oxidase, a key enzyme in oxidative phosphorylation, whereas pyruvate kinase activity, a key enzyme in glycolysis, increased to levels observed in PM. Under hypoxic conditions the total mitochondrial structure available for respiratory activity also decreased in the glycolytic energy‐dependent AM.