Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fine Mapping of Virescent Leaf Gene v-1 in Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Leaf color mutants are common in higher plants that can be used as markers in crop breeding or as an important tool in understanding regulatory mechanisms in chlorophyll biosynthesis and chloroplast development. In virescent leaf mutants, young leaves are yellow in color, which gradually return to normal green when the seedlings grow large. In the present study, we conducted phenotypic characterization and genetic mapping of the cucumber virescent leaf mutant 9110Gt conferred by the v-1 locus. Total chlorophyll and carotenoid content in 9110Gt was reduced by 44% and 21%, respectively, as compared with its wild type parental line 9110G. Electron microscopic investigation revealed fewer chloroplasts per cell and thylakoids per chloroplast in 9110Gt than in 9110G. Fine genetic mapping allowed for the assignment of the v-1 locus to a 50.4 kb genomic DNA region in chromosome 6 with two flanking markers that were 0.14 and 0.16 cM away from v-1, respectively. Multiple lines of evidence supported CsaCNGCs as the only candidate gene for the v-1 locus, which encoded a cyclic-nucleotide-gated ion channel protein. A single nucleotide change in the promoter region of v-1 seemed to be associated with the virescent color change in 9110Gt. Real-time PCR revealed significantly lower expression of CsaCNGCs in the true leaves of 9110Gt than in 9110G. This was the first report that connected the CsaCNGCs gene to virescent leaf color change, which provided a useful tool to establish linkages among virescent leaf color change, chloroplast development, chlorophyll biosynthesis, and the functions of the CsaCNGCs gene.
Use of Diagonal Teeth Measurements in Predicting Gender in a Turkish Population *

ABSTRACT: Mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements, commonly used as a means of sex determination from teeth, can sometimes cause difficulties. The aim of this study is to test whether diagonal measurements can make it possible to take more accurate measurements. The results of diagonal measurements of dental casts taken from 30 males and 30 females have been evaluated by discriminant function statistics. Intra‐ and interobserver error tests did not indicate any statistically significant differences between the findings of two observers. Seven of the 14 measurements on the maxilla and 10 of the 14 measurements on the mandible have been found to be significantly greater in males. According to the results of the stepwise discriminant function statistics, the most contributory measurements to the function were upper first incisor mesiobuccal–distolingual (MBDL) and distobuccal–mesiolingual, lower second incisor MBDL, and lower canine MBDL. The highest reliability was obtained in MBDL measurements. It was realized that diagonal measurements of teeth, especially of canines, revealed clear dimorphic differences. Classification accuracy was found to be 83.3% for total sample, 78.3 for upper jaw, and 85.0% for the lower jaw. Accuracy rate was higher in the lower teeth. Commonly seen orthodontic anomalies, such as tooth rotations, crowding, attritions, deep dentin–enamel junction defects, and certain types of fillings, could make it difficult to correctly take width measurements or could cause other mistakes to occur. This explains the reason why this research has been considered to be of some use in diagonal measurements, which is an accurate method, particularly when employed for the front teeth.
Optimal control of switched systems via non-linear optimization based on direct differentiations of value functions

This paper presents an approach for solving optimal control problems of switched systems. In general, in such problems one needs to find both optimal continuous inputs and optimal switching sequences, since the system dynamics vary before and after every switching instant. After formulating a general optimal control problem, we propose a two stage optimization methodology. Since many practical problems only concern optimization where the number of switchings and the sequence of active subsystems are given, we concentrate on such problems and propose a method which uses nonlinear optimization and is based on direct differentiations of value functions. The method is then applied to general switched linear quadratic (GSLQ) problems. Examples illustrate the results.
Design of dual-wideband low noise amplifier base on common gate topology

This paper proposed a active notch filter for an UWB low noise amplifier (LNA) in 0. 18μm CMOS process. The measurement of the input and output reflection coefficient S<sub>11</sub>, S<sub>22</sub> are less than -10 dB, the maximum power gain S<sub>21</sub> gives 18.7dB, the minimum of the noise figure is 4.8dB, the measured IIP<sub>3</sub> is -8.1dBm at 6GHz. It consumes 6.1mW power consumption from a 1-V supply voltage including the output buffer.
Immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis of papillary lesions of the breast

Many immunohistochemical markers have been studied for differentiating papillary lesions. However, their differentiating power has not been evaluated comprehensively. Additionally, assessment of some markers will require the difficult task of identifying different cell types. In the current study, we aimed to devise a simple papillary panel which can aid in diagnosis irrespective of architectural pattern and cell type differentiation.
Undifferentiated (embryonal) sarcoma of the liver in middle-aged adults: smooth muscle differentiation determined by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy.

Undifferentiated (embryonal) sarcoma of the liver (UESL) is a rare pediatric liver malignancy that is extremely uncommon in middle-aged individuals. We studied 2 cases of UESL in middle-aged adults (1 case in a 49-year-old woman and the other in a 62-year-old man) by histology, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy to clarify the cellular characteristics of this peculiar tumor. One tumor showed a mixture of spindle cells, polygonal cells, and multinucleated giant cells within a myxoid matrix and also revealed focal areas of a storiform pattern in a metastatic lesion. The other tumor was composed mainly of anaplastic large cells admixed with few fibrous or spindle-shaped components and many multinucleated giant cells. In both cases, some tumor cells contained eosinophilic hyaline globules that were diastase resistant and periodic acid-Schiff positive. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells showed positive staining for smooth muscle markers, such as desmin, alpha-smooth muscle actin, and muscle-specific actin, and also for histiocytic markers, such as alpha-1-antitrypsin, alpha-1-antichymotrypsin, and CD68. Electron microscope examination revealed thin myofilaments with focal densities and intermediate filaments in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. Our studies suggest that UESL exhibits at least a partial smooth muscle phenotype in middle-aged adults, and this specific differentiation may be more common in this age group than in children. Tumor cells of UESL with smooth muscle differentiation in middle-aged adults show phenotypic diversity comparable to those of malignant fibrous histiocytoma with myofibroblastic differentiation.
A Bicriteria Approach Identifying Nondominated Portfolios

We explore a portfolio constructive model, formulated in terms of satisfaction of a given set of technical requirements, with the minimum number of projects and minimum redundancy. An algorithm issued from robust portfolio modeling is adapted to a vector model, modifying the dominance condition as convenient, in order to find the set of nondominated portfolios, as solutions of a bicriteria integer linear programming problem. In order to improve the former algorithm, a process finding an optimal solution of a monocriteria version of this problem is proposed, which is further used as a first feasible solution aiding to find nondominated solutions more rapidly. Next, a sorting process is applied on the input data or information matrix, which is intended to prune nonfeasible solutions early in the constructive algorithm. Numerical examples show that the optimization and sorting processes both improve computational efficiency of the original algorithm. Their limits are also shown on certain complex instances.
Cultivating and Assessing an Organizational Information Security Culture; an Empirical Study

An information security-aware culture will minimize internal threats to information assets through the construction of appropriate information security beliefs and values that guide employee behavior when interacting with information assets and information technology systems. This paper aims to illustrate the application of the Information Security Culture Framework (ISCF) to asses and cultivate an information security aware culture within an organization through an empirical study. The ISCF is a comprehensive framework that consists of five dimensions (Strategy, Technology, Organization, People, and Environment) and integrates change management and the human factor in information security. The empirical study includes three case studies, selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of ISCF in describing and explaining the organizational information security culture. A sequential mixed method, to collect quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data, is used to demonstrate the validity and reliability of the framework. The ISCF therefore could be used by all types of organizations in order to assess whether an acceptable level of information security culture has been implemented and, if not, corrective actions are suggested.
Evaluation of Multi-threaded Processor Designs for Energy Efficient Embedded Systems

Multi-threaded processor designs enable high performance of a single processor core by exploiting both the thread-level and instruction-level parallelism. The performance gain is, however, at the cost of increasing energy consumption, which is not desirable to embedded systems. This paper investigates the energy efficiency of varied multi-threaded processor designs (with the coarse-grained and fine-grained thread switching schemes and different thread numbers). Our experiments, based on a six-stage PISA processor, show that in terms of potential energy saving the coarse-grained design is better than the fine-grained design. Furthermore, for the coarse-grained design, the thread number for the optimal energy efficiency is closely related to the memory access delay. When the memory access latency is small, the low-thread processor appears more energy efficient, When the memory delay increases the high-thread processor becomes superior.
On the relevance of high-level features for speaker independent emotion recognition of spontaneous speech

In this paper we study the relevance of so called high-level speech features for the application of speaker independent emotion recognition. After we give a brief definition of highlevel features, we discuss for which standard feature groups high-level features are conceivable. Two groups of high-level features are proposed within this paper: a feature set for the parametrization of phonation called voice quality parameters and a second feature set deduced from music theory called harmony features. Harmony features give information about the frequency interval and chord content of the pitch data of a spoken utterance. Finally, we study the gain in classification rate by combining the proposed high-level features with the standard low-level features. We show that both high-level feature sets improve the speaker independent classification performance for spontaneous emotional speech. Index Terms: emotion recognition, high-level features, harmony features, voice quality parameters
Coffee and Caffeine Protect against Liver Injury Induced by Thioacetamide in Male Wistar Rats

Coffee intake has been inversely related to the incidence of liver diseases, although there are controversies on whether these beneficial effects on human health are because of caffeine or other specific components in this popular beverage. Thus, this study evaluated the protective effects of coffee or caffeine intake on liver injury induced by repeated thioacetamide (TAA) administration in male Wistar rats. Rats were randomized into five groups: one untreated group (G1) and four groups (G2–G5) treated with the hepatotoxicant TAA (200 mg/kg b.w., i.p.) twice a week for 8 weeks. Concomitantly, rats received tap water (G1 and G2), conventional coffee (G3), decaffeinated coffee (G4) or 0.1% caffeine (G5). After 8 weeks of treatment, rats were killed and blood and liver samples were collected. Conventional and decaffeinated coffee and caffeine intake significantly reduced serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (p < 0.001) and oxidized glutathione (p < 0.05), fibrosis/inflammation scores (p < 0.001), collagen volume fraction (p < 0.01) and transforming growth factor β‐1 (TGF‐β1) protein expression (p ≤ 0.001) in the liver from TAA‐treated groups. In addition, conventional coffee and caffeine intake significantly reduced proliferating cellular nuclear antigen (PCNA) S‐phase indexes (p < 0.001), but only conventional coffee reduced cleaved caspase‐3 indexes (p < 0.001), active metalloproteinase 2 (p ≤ 0.004) and the number of glutathione S‐transferase placental form (GST‐P)‐positive preneoplastic lesions (p < 0.05) in the liver from TAA‐treated groups. In conclusion, conventional coffee and 0.1% caffeine intake presented better beneficial effects than decaffeinated coffee against liver injury induced by TAA in male Wistar rats.
Towards a causal realist theory of causal understanding

Within a limited domain, humans can perceive causal relations directly. The term causal realism is used to denote this psychological hypothesis. The domain of causal realism is in actions upon objects and haptic perception of the effects of those actions: When we act upon an object we cannot be mistaken about the fact that we are acting upon it and perceive the causal relation directly through mechanoreceptors. Experiences of actions upon objects give rise to causal knowledge that can be used in the interpretation of perceptual input. Phenomenal causality, the occurrence of causal impressions in visual perception, is a product of the application of acquired causal knowledge in the automatic perceptual interpretation of appropriate stimuli. Causal realism could constitute the foundation on which all causal perception, judgment, inference, attribution, and knowledge develop.
Modelos de crescimento em diâmetro de árvores individuais de Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze em Floresta Ombrófila Mista

This work aims to model the diameter growth for individual trees of Araucaria angustifolia , present in the Mixed Ombrophylous Forest in the northeast of Rio Grande do Sul. Thus, 251 araucaria individuals located on the permanent plots of the Project PELD – CNPq were remeasured after a period of 8 years. A yield model was built, having as dependent variable the future diameter, using regression and analysis of covariance. As independent variables, the dimensional and social characteristics of the individuals and distance independent competition indices were used. The most correlated variable with the future diameter was the current diameter. The competition indices showed high correlation with the dependent variable, representing the competitive pressure exerted on the tree, but they were not selected in the regression model. Only the current diameter, multiplied by a coefficient, plus a constant value which differed according to the sociological position of the individuals was effective to predict the future diameter. Three variations of the production model were built. The models showed better estimates for emerging individuals of Araucaria angustifolia, however, its use in the individual tree growth prognosis should be cautious due to the magnitude of the errors it presented.
A reflection suppression technique for far field antenna measurements

This paper presents a reflection suppression technique for far field antenna measurements. The technique is based on a source reconstruction over a surface greater than the antenna itself. To be able to perform the reflection construction the next steps are required: the complete far field antenna pattern is obtained through interpolation of the acquired cuts, the currents are obtained through a holographic technique, the field out of the antenna area is filtered, and the pattern is reconstructed. The algorithm is used with measurements in the LEHA-UPM antenna measurement facilities and in the outdoor far field facility of LIT INPE in Brazil.
A Geometric Approach to Aggregate Flexibility Modeling of Thermostatically Controlled Loads

Coordinated aggregation of a large population of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) presents a great potential to provide various ancillary services to the grid. One of the key challenges of integrating TCLs into system-level operation and control is developing a simple and portable model to accurately capture their aggregate flexibility. In this paper, we propose a geometric approach to model the aggregate flexibility of TCLs. We show that the set of admissible power profiles of an individual TCL is a polytope, and their aggregate flexibility is the Minkowski sum of the individual polytopes. In order to represent their aggregate flexibility in an intuitive way and achieve a tractable approximation, we develop optimization-based algorithms to approximate the polytopes by the homothets of a given convex set. As a special application, this set is chosen as a virtual battery model, and the corresponding optimal approximations are solved efficiently by equivalent linear programming problems. Numerical results show that our algorithms yield significant improvement in characterizing the aggregate flexibility over existing modeling methods. We also conduct case studies to demonstrate the efficacy of our approaches by coordinating TCLs to track a frequency regulation signal from the Pennsylvania–New Jersey–Maryland Interconnection.
Security Vulnerabilities In Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

The significant advances of hardware manufacturing technology and the development of efficient software algorithms make technically and economically feasible a network composed of numerous, small, low-cost sensors using wireless communications, that is, a wireless sensor network (WSN). Security is becoming a major concern for WSN protocol designers because of the wide security-critical applications of WSNs. In this article, how WSN differs from wired network and other wireless network and also basic information about the WSN and its security issues compared with wired network and other wireless networks is discoursed. Summarization of typical attacks on sensor networks and survey about the literatures on several important security issues relevant to the sensor networks are also dissertated .
Linking the Central Office and Its Schools for Reform

Purpose: This study investigates how linkages between a central office and its schools served as administrative controls while fostering professional accountability and organizational learning. Method: Using qualitative data sources (interviews, focus groups, observations, field notes, and document reviews), the study examines how resource, structural, communication, relational, and ideological linkages interacted in response to three reform efforts as perceived by 45 school leadership team members, 5 principals, and 10 central office leaders. Findings: Attending to relational linkages was central to initiating reform. Introducing external resources served to link central office leaders and schools enhancing relational and communication linkages but also increased controls. Initially, teachers viewed many of the structural linkages as constraining their ability to provide good instruction, and there was a lack of ideological agreement on instructional approaches. Central office leaders, principals, and school leadership teams recognized the important role that teams, with professional development, could play in supporting the district’s efforts to improve teaching and learning. Conclusions: A major contribution of this research is that it begins to clarify how linkages need to be coordinated and which ones may need to be in place for reform success. Relational and ideological linkages are essential for enhancing commitment and professional accountability and for ensuring a coherent instructional focus and organizational learning. In contrast, the structural linkage was the primary vehicle used by the district to exert control, complete organizational tasks, and enforce desired changes. The communication and resource linkages can be seen as boundary spanners between these two theories of organizational change.
Absence of Epithelial Immunoglobulin a Transport, with Increased Mucosal Leakiness, in Polymeric Immunoglobulin Receptor/Secretory Component–Deficient Mice

Mucosal surfaces are protected specifically by secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) and SIgM generated through external translocation of locally produced dimeric IgA and pentameric IgM. Their active transport is mediated by the epithelial polymeric Ig receptor (pIgR), also called the transmembrane secretory component. Paracellular passive external transfer of systemic and locally produced antibodies also provides mucosal protection, making the biological importance of secretory immunity difficult to assess. Here we report complete lack of active external IgA and IgM translocation in pIgR knockout mice, indicating no redundancy in epithelial transport mechanisms. The knockout mice were of normal size and fertility but had increased serum IgG levels, including antibodies to Escherichia coli, suggesting undue triggering of systemic immunity. Deterioration of their epithelial barrier function in the absence of SIgA (and SIgM) was further attested to by elevated levels of albumin in their saliva and feces, reflecting leakage of serum proteins. Thus, SIgA did not appear to be essential for health under the antigen exposure conditions of these experimental animals. Nevertheless, our results showed that SIgA contributes to maintenance of mucosal homeostasis. Production of SIgA might therefore be a variable in the initiation of human immunopathology such as inflammatory bowel disease or gluten-sensitive enteropathy.
HER2 signaling enhances 5′UTR‐mediated translation of c‐Myc mRNA

The increased levels of c‐Myc protein observed previously in an ovarian carcinoma cell line stably transfected to express HER2 has suggested a role for the HER2 pathway in c‐Myc expression. Analysis of HER2‐transfected cells stimulated with heregulin β1 (HRG) revealed increased c‐Myc protein levels but not a corresponding increase in c‐Myc mRNA expression or any change in c‐Myc protein half‐life. Transfection of HER2‐overexpressing cells with a construct containing the 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) of c‐Myc mRNA originated from the P2 promoter and placed upstream of the Renilla luciferase gene, enhanced reporter expression upon stimulation with HRG. The HRG‐mediated increase in reporter activity correlated with the HRG‐mediated induction observed for c‐Myc protein, identifying the P2‐derived leader (P2L) of c‐Myc mRNA as the cis‐element involved in c‐Myc translational induction. Both the increase in c‐Myc protein levels and P2L‐enhanced translational activity were inhibited by the PI3K inhibitor wortmannin. Together, these results demonstrate that HRG stimulation of HER2 overexpressing cells leads to enhanced c‐Myc protein synthesis through activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway and that the P2L of c‐Myc mRNA is the element responsible for induction of c‐Myc translation. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.