Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of landscape structure and land-use intensity on similarity of plant and animal communities

Aim Species richness in itself is not always sufficient to evaluate land management strategies for nature conservation. The exchange of species between local communities may be affected by landscape structure and land-use intensity. Thus, species turnover, and its inverse, community similarity, may be useful measures of landscape integrity from a diversity perspective. Location A European transect from France to Estonia. Methods We measured the similarity of plant, bird, wild bee, true bug, carabid beetle, hoverfly and spider communities sampled along gradients in landscape composition (e.g. total availability of semi-natural habitat), landscape configuration (e.g. fragmentation) and land-use intensity (e.g. pesticide loads). Results Total availability of semi-natural habitats had little effect on community similarity, except for bird communities, which were more homogeneous in more natural landscapes. Bee communities, in contrast, were less similar in landscapes with higher percentages of semi-natural habitats. Increased landscape fragmentation decreased similarity of true bug communities, while plant communities showed a nonlinear, U-shaped response. More intense land use, specifically increased pesticide burden, led to a homogenization of bee, bug and spider communities within sites. In these cases, habitat fragmentation interacted with pesticide load. Hoverfly and carabid beetle community similarity was differentially affected by higher pesticide levels: for carabid beetles similarity decreased, while for hoverflies we observed a U-shaped relationship. Main conclusions Our study demonstrates the effects of landscape composition, configuration and land-use intensity on the similarity of communities. It indicates reduced exchange of species between communities in landscapes dominated by agricultural activities. Taxonomic groups differed in their responses to environmental drivers and using but one group as an indicator for 'biodiversity' as such would thus not be advisable.
A Functional Phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-Trisphosphate/Phosphoinositide Binding Domain in the Clathrin Adaptor AP-2 α Subunit. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ENDOCYTIC PATHWAY*

Clathrin-coated pits are sites of concentration of ligand-bound signaling receptors. Several such receptors are known to recruit, bind, and activate the heterodimeric phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, resulting in the generation of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate. We report here that dioctanoyl-phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-P3 binds specifically and saturably to soluble AP-2 and with greater affinity to AP-2 within assembled coat structures. Soluble D-myo-inositol hexakisphosphate shows converse behavior. Binding to bovine brain clathrin-coated vesicles is evident only after detergent extraction. These observations and evidence for recognition of the diacylglyceryl backbone as well as the inositol phosphate headgroup are consistent with AP-2 interaction with membrane phosphoinositides in coated vesicles and with soluble inositol phosphates in cytoplasm. A discrete binding domain is identified near the N terminus of the AP-2 α subunit, and an expressed fusion protein containing this sequence exhibits specific, high affinity binding that is virtually identical to the parent protein. This region of the AP-2 α sequence also shows the greatest conservation between a Caenorhabditis elegans homolog and mammalian α, consistent with a function in recognition of an evolutionarily unchanging low molecular weight ligand. Binding of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate to AP-2 inhibits the protein's clathrin binding and assembly activities. These findings are discussed in the context of the potential roles of phosphoinositides and AP-2 in the internalization and trafficking of cell surface receptors.
Multiwfn: A multifunctional wavefunction analyzer

Multiwfn is a multifunctional program for wavefunction analysis. Its main functions are: (1) Calculating and visualizing real space function, such as electrostatic potential and electron localization function at point, in a line, in a plane or in a spatial scope. (2) Population analysis. (3) Bond order analysis. (4) Orbital composition analysis. (5) Plot density‐of‐states and spectrum. (6) Topology analysis for electron density. Some other useful utilities involved in quantum chemistry studies are also provided. The built‐in graph module enables the results of wavefunction analysis to be plotted directly or exported to high‐quality graphic file. The program interface is very user‐friendly and suitable for both research and teaching purpose. The code of Multiwfn is substantially optimized and parallelized. Its efficiency is demonstrated to be significantly higher than related programs with the same functions. Five practical examples involving a wide variety of systems and analysis methods are given to illustrate the usefulness of Multiwfn. The program is free of charge and open‐source. Its precompiled file and source codes are available from http://multiwfn.codeplex. com. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011
Social Change and Education in Greece: A Study in Class Struggle Dynamics by Spyros Themelis (review)

boards of trustees, and many fellow faculty members—to see “knowledge as product rather than process” [194]). I would then argue that, where human dignity matters, scientists ought not to treat humanity in the same ways that they treat billiard balls: positivist social science, modeled on the natural sciences, offers a kind of predictability and control over humanity that ethnography cannot. (Whether it actually delivers is another story.) But even the most well-intentioned offer of scientistic prediction and/or control of humans is always already a violation of human dignity in a way that careful ethnographic inquiry need not be. So, yes, for the social sciences, more nuance does mean better. At the very least, more nuance can help problematize, if not pull the rug out from under, certain generalizations—utilized for social prediction-and-control— posing as Truths. In choosing to conduct careful ethnography instead of positivist research, Sutton (wittingly or unwittingly) models the analogy of careful ethnography to Kalymnian cooking as “really addressing questions of what kind of person we want to be and what kind of society we want to live in” (47). One soon gets the impression that good ethnographic inquiry is, like Kalymnian cooking, inefficient; that it, too, involves Pye’s “workmanship of risk” (193), does not take “convenience” as one of its “core values” (45), and is “an imperfect pursuit” (196) and “a project without an end point” (23). Although this is only a short review (by an academic generalist influenced by schizoanalysis) of but one good ethnography, my take on Sutton’s book leaves me wondering about recent academic books in general: What if much of today’s (peer-reviewed) humanities and social science scholarship—supporting, to be sure, in myriad little ways, the value of democratic-knowledge-construction-and-evaluation—is also some sort of collective defense mechanism that helps repress the mounting evidence that institutional space for democratic-knowledge-construction-and-evaluation that values human dignity (that is, the academy at its best) is being, or is about to be, crushed like a juicy heirloom tomato by neoliberalist forces much closer to home than we are usually prepared to acknowledge? (What if my review here amounts to little more than my own coping strategy? )
Towards automatic generation of domain-specific mathematical input support

Providing input when solving a mathematical problem in a technology-enhanced learning system is often a challenging task for a learner. Input editors either provide clickable palettes to construct terms, or require knowledge of some linear syntax. To alleviate this problem, the learning environment ActiveMath was extended with a new interface supporting learners with providing a stepwise solution in the fraction domain. The interface allows learners to insert intermediate steps using pre-defined templates such as “The least common multiple of and is ”, where a blank can be filled in using a dedicated simple input field. Developing similar interfaces for other mathematical domains is labor intensive and error prone. In this article, we investigate how the Ideas domain reasoners can be used to derive the necessary information for the automatic generation of such templates, by making the structure of domain rules explicit using OpenMath expressions.
Casein and whey exert different effects on plasma amino acid profiles, gastrointestinal hormone secretion and appetite

Protein, generally agreed to be the most satiating macronutrient, may differ in its effects on appetite depending on the protein source and variation in digestion and absorption. We investigated the effects of two milk protein types, casein and whey, on food intake and subjective ratings of hunger and fullness, and on postprandial metabolite and gastrointestinal hormone responses. Two studies were undertaken. The first study showed that energy intake from a buffet meal ad libitum was significantly less 90 min after a 1700 kJ liquid preload containing 48 g whey, compared with an equivalent casein preload (P<0·05). In the second study, the same whey preload led to a 28 % increase in postprandial plasma amino acid concentrations over 3 h compared with casein (incremental area under the curve (iAUC), P<0·05). Plasma cholecystokinin (CCK) was increased by 60 % (iAUC, P<0·005), glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 by 65 % (iAUC, P<0·05) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide by 36 % (iAUC, P<0·01) following the whey preload compared with the casein. Gastric emptying was influenced by protein type as evidenced by differing plasma paracetamol profiles with the two preloads. Greater subjective satiety followed the whey test meal (P<0·05). These results implicate post-absorptive increases in plasma amino acids together with both CCK and GLP-1 as potential mediators of the increased satiety response to whey and emphasise the importance of considering the impact of protein type on the appetite response to a mixed meal.
Initial Contour Automatic Selection of Geometric Active Contour Model

Image segmentation and boundary extraction are very important in the fields of image understanding, image analysis, pattern recognition and computer vision etc., and geometric active contour model (GACM) is one of the most important tools in the areas of image segmentation and boundary extraction. While before using this model initial contour must be selected. In order to realize initial contour automatic selection of geometric active contour model, marker-based watershed algorithm is adopted to extract object contour in the paper, and then the extracted object contour is taken as initial contour of geometric active contour model for precise segmentation. The result from comparative experiments shows that using watershed algorithm not only can realize the automatic selection of initial contour, reduce manual intervention, but also can reduce iteration numbers of curve evolution, improve segmentation efficiency of the model. It also can segment images of complex background efficiently.
Causality : Is it profitable to solve problems associated with visual data ?

This report is a literature survey on causality with special emphasis on exploiting visual sensory information. It also discusses philosophical aspects of causality to establish common grounds with causal theory of perception. Current research on causal modeling involves such fields as social sciences, epidemiology, econometrics and artificial intelligence. Computer vision, or profiting from visual sensory data in general, constitutes a candidate niche of application for causal modeling. The survey supports this claim.
Chemical constituents and biological activities of species of Justicia: a review

The Acanthaceae family is an important source of therapeutic drugs, and the ethnopharmacological knowledge of this family requires urgent documentation as several of its species are near extinction. Justicia is the largest genus of Acanthaceae, with approximately 600 species. The present work provides a review addressing the chemistry and pharmacology of the genus Justicia. In addition, the biological activities of compounds isolated from the genus are also covered. The chemical and pharmacological information in the present work may inspire new biomedical applications for the species of Justicia, considering atom economy, the synthesis of environmentally benign products without producing toxic by-products, the use of renewable sources of raw materials, and the search for processes with maximal efficiency of energy.
Output feedback sliding mode control for robot manipulators

SUMMARY In this work, we propose an output feedback sliding mode control (SMC) method for trajectory tracking of robotic manipulators. The design process has two steps. First, we design a stable SMC controller by assuming that all state variables are available. Then, an output feedback version of this SMC design is presented, which incorporates a model-free linear observer to estimate unknown velocity signals. We then show that the tracking performance under the output feedback design can asymptotically converge to the performance achieved under state-feedback-based SMC design. A detailed stability analysis is given, which shows semi-global uniform ultimate boundedness property of all the closed-loop signals. The proposed method is implemented and evaluated on a robotic system to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical development.
Bitcoin Pricing, Adoption, and Usage: Theory and Evidence

This paper develops a model of user adoption and use of virtual currency (such as Bitcoin), and focusing on the dynamics of adoption in the presence of frictions arising from exchange rate uncertainty. The theoretical model can be used to analyze how market fundamentals determine the exchange rate of fiat currency to Bitcoin. Empirical evidence from Bitcoin prices and utilization provides mixed evidence about the ability of the model to explain prices. Further analysis of the history of all individual transactions on Bitcoin's public ledger establishes patterns of adoption and utilization across user types, transaction type, and geography. We show that as of mid-2015, active usage was not growing quickly, and that investors and infrequent users held the majority of Bitcoins. We document the extent to which the attributes of the anonymous users of Bitcoin can be inferred through their behavior, and we find that users who engage in illegal activity are more likely to try to protect their financial privacy.
Cell death of corticospinal neurons is induced by axotomy before but not after innervation of spinal targets

The response of corticospinal neurons to axotomy at postnatal ages from 5 days to adulthood was studied in the golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus). Corticospinal neurons were retrogradely labeled with flourescent rhodamine latex beads injected into the cervical or lumbar spinal cord. A unilateral lesion of the medullary pyramidal tract was made 1–2 days later and the brains fixed 1–30 days after axotomy. Comparisons of labeled axotomized corticospinal neurons with labeled normal corticospinal neurons in the contralateral cortex showed that axotomy at 14 days or later caused cell shrinkage but not cell death. Axotomy prior to 14 days caused cell death of corticospinal neurons. More neurons died the earlier the lesion was made, culminating in virtual complete cell death of corticospinal neurons following axotomy at 5 days. Axotomy at a given age did not affect all corticospinal neurons uniformly. Lumbar projection neurons underwent cell death ranging from slight to complete following axotomy at 13 and 9 days, respectively. Cervical projection neurons, in contrast, survived axotomy after a lesion at 9 days but underwent complete cell death if the lesion occurred at 5 days. Since corticospinal axons innervate the cervical cord from postnatal days 4–8 and the lumbar cord from 10–14 days (Reh and Kalil, '81; J. Comp. Neurol. 200:55–67), the ability of corticospinal neurons to survive axotomy appears to be temporally well correlated with their innervation of spinal targets. These neurons die if their axons are cut prior to target innervation but are able to survive if axotomy occurs after their axons innervate spinal targets. The results show that plasticity in the corticospinal pathway documented in previous reports cannot take the form of regrowth of severed axons, since early lesions cause extensive corticospinal cell death. Aberrant corticospinal pathways resulting from early lesions must therefore arise from undamaged axons. Additional retrograde labeling experiments showed that the opposite cortex responded to contralateral pyramidotomy by sprouting into denervated areas of the spinal cord. Thus another source of plasticity after early pyramidal tract lesions is sprouting from corticospinal axons arising from the intact cortex.
Modelling germ cell development in vitro

Germ cells have a critical role in mediating the generation of genetic diversity and transmitting this information across generations. Furthermore, gametogenesis is unique as a developmental process in that it generates highly-specialized haploid gametes from diploid precursor stem cells through meiosis. Despite the importance of this process, progress in elucidating the molecular mechanisms underpinning mammalian germ cell development has been retarded by the lack of an efficient and reproducible system of in vitro culture for the expansion and trans-meiotic differentiation of germline cells. The dearth of such a culture system has rendered the study of germ cell biology refractory to the application of new high-throughput technologies such as RNA interference, leaving in vivo gene-targeting approaches as the only option to determine the function of genes believed to be involved in gametogenesis. Recent reports detailing the derivation of gametes in vitro from stem cells may provide the first steps in developing new tools to solve this problem. This review considers the developments made in modelling germ cell development using stem cells, and some of the challenges that need to be overcome to make this a useful tool for studying gametogenesis and to realize any future clinical application.
Induction of Mitochondrial Alternative Oxidase in Response to a Cell Signal Pathway Down-Regulating the Cytochrome Pathway Prevents Programmed Cell Death1

Treatment of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Petit Havana SR1) cells with cysteine (Cys) triggers a signal pathway culminating in a large loss of mitochondrial cytochrome (cyt) pathway capacity. This down-regulation of the cyt path likely requires events outside the mitochondrion and is effectively blocked by cantharidin or endothall, indicating that protein dephosphorylation is one critical process involved. Generation of reactive oxygen species, cytosolic protein synthesis, and Ca2+ flux from organelles also appear to be involved. Accompanying the loss of cyt path is a large induction of alternative oxidase (AOX) protein and capacity. Induction of AOX allows the cells to maintain high rates of respiration, indicating that the lesion triggered by Cys is in the cyt path downstream of ubiquinone. Consistent with this, transgenic (AS8) cells unable to induce AOX (due to the presence of an antisense transgene) lose all respiratory capacity upon Cys treatment. This initiates in AS8 a programmed cell death pathway, as evidenced by the accumulation of oligonucleosomal fragments of DNA as the culture dies. Alternatively, wild-type cells remain viable and eventually recover their cyt path. Induction of AOX in response to a chemical inhibition of the cyt path (by antimycin A) is also dependent upon protein dephosphorylation and the generation of reactive oxygen species. Common events required for both down-regulation of the cyt path and induction of AOX may represent a mechanism to coordinate the biogenesis of these two electron transport paths. Such coordinate regulation may be necessary, not only to satisfy metabolic demands, but also to modulate the initiation of a programmed cell death pathway responsive to mitochondrial respiratory status.
White blood cell count is associated with some features of metabolic syndrome in a very old population.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although the association between white blood cell (WBC) counts and the risk of cardiovascular disease has been repeatedly described, its biological mechanism is still unclear. A significant correlation has been demonstrated in adults between WBC counts and some risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD), including insulin resistance. The aims of this study were: 1) to investigate the association between WBC count and some risk factors for atherosclerosis in a sample of octo-nonagenarians; and 2) to test the hypothesis of an association between WBC count and "metabolic syndrome", a clinical condition mediated by insulin resistance. METHODS AND RESULTS The study involved 160 free-living healthy octo-nonagenarians participating in the Val Vibrata Aging Project, whose WBC count, and anthropometric and metabolic parameters were measured using standardised methods. WBC count correlated positively with the logarithm of triglyceride, apoprotein B and glucose levels, and negatively with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol: the subjects with low high-density lipoprotein and high triglyceride levels had higher WBC count than normal subjects. The WBC count were significantly higher in the subjects with four or more of six features of metabolic syndrome than in those with three or less. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study support the existence of a significant association between WBC count and some of the typical features of metabolic syndrome in very old subjects.
Analysing factors affecting ability of students' oral English

The author analyzes the factors that hamper students' oral expression,and divides them into two categories:linguistic and non-linguistic,which consist of phonetics,intonation,vocabulary,grammar,education system,culture,and personality etc.On the basis of these author suggests countermeasures for teachers and students.
CLAMP: differentiated capacity allocation in access networks

The paper presents a solution for providing differentiated capacity allocation in an access network. The system is based on CLAMP (curtailing the large TCP advertised window to maximize performance), an algorithm that can differentiate between flows sharing the same FIFO queue. The system is suitable for access networks, such as those based on DSL and HFC modems and wireless LAN access points. The deployment of CLAMP is completely contained within the access network; no changes to the remainder of the network are required. CLAMP provides the opportunity to enforce local policies on TCP flows that originate from sources distributed globally. The performance of CLAMP is verified by both simulation and analysis.
ESTIMATION IMPLEMENTATION FOR DIFFE RENT BLOCK MATCHING ALGORITHMS ONTO GPGPU

This work presents an efficient method to map Motion Estimation (ME) algorithms onto General Purpose Graphic Processing Unit (GPGPU) architectures using CUDA programming model. Our method jointly exploits the massive parallelism available in current GPGPU devices and the parallelization potential of ME algorithms: Full Search (FS) and Diamond Search (DS). Our main goal is to evaluate the feasibility of achieving real-time high-definition video encoding performance running on GPUs. For comparison reasons, multi-core parallel and distributed versions of these algorithms were developed using OpenMP and MPI (Message Passing Interface) libraries, respectively. The CUDA-based solutions achieve the highest speed-up in comparison with OpenMP and MPI versions for both algorithms and, when compared to the state-of-the-art, our FS and DS solutions reach up to 18x and 11x speed-up, respectively.