Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Separating the Inseparable: the Metabolomic Analysis of Plant–pathogen Interactions

Plant–microbe interactions—whether pathogenic or symbiotic—exert major infl uences on plant physiology and productivity. Analysis of such interactions represents a particular challenge to metabolomic approaches due to the intimate association between the interacting partners coupled with a general commonality of metabolites. We here describe an approach based on co-cultivation of Arabidopsis cell cultures and bacterial plant pathogens to assess the metabolomes of both interacting partners, which we refer to as dual metabolomics. Plant interactions with microbes play a major role in defi ning physiology and development. Plants are continually under attack from pathogens of various species and the deployment of diverse defences represents a substantial cost to the host (1). Equally, pathogens can act as selective agents driving the selection of resistant germplasm (2). From an anthropogenic point of view, pathogen attack represents a considerable source of crop loss (3). However, plant–microbe interactions are not solely pathogenic; many symbiotic relationships exist which improve nutrient assimilation by the plant and hence improve productivity. The interaction between nitrogen-fi xing bacteria and legume plants is especially well characterised (4, 5) , but due to their wider host-species range, interactions with mycorrhizal fungi are possibly more important. Mycorrhizal fungi establish hyphal connections with cells in the root and extend into the surrounding soil, thereby
ADDRESSING IMPAIRED AWARENESS IN CLIENTS WITH CVA 3

It is common for stroke survivors to have cognitive and/or perceptual deficits that negatively impact their participation in meaningful occupations 2011). In addition, many people are unable to recognize these deficits, which decreases the likelihood that they will use strategies needed to overcome deficits and improve occupational performance. In order to successfully teach compensatory and remedial strategies to improve functional performance, occupational therapists must help their clients gain a more realistic understanding of their deficits, also known as awareness (Ekstam, Uppgard, Kottorp, & Tham, 2007). A manual was created to educate occupational therapy students about impaired awareness following a stroke and to provide students with assessments, intervention strategies, and home program ideas to improve self-awareness in clients receiving services at the on-site clinic at University of Puget Sound. A pilot study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the manual; 100 percent of students who piloted the manual demonstrated increased knowledge of awareness deficits and indicated that the manual was helpful to use during intervention sessions.
Investigation of Targeting-Assistance Techniques for Distant Pointing with Relative Ray Casting

Pointing at displays from a distance is becoming a common scenario for controlling computers and entertainment systems. Several devices use direct-pointing methods, where the user points a hand-held device at targets on a screen, but these often suffer from accuracy problems. Many techniques have been explored for improving mousebased pointing, but little is known about targeting assistance for distant pointing. We carried out experiments to test targeting assistance with a relative form of ray casting, common with devices such as the Nintendo Wiimote. We tested two motor-space techniques (sticky targets and target gravity), and three types of sensory-based acquisition feedback (visual, tactile, and aural). We found that the motor-space techniques were significantly more effective than control and that the sensory-based acquisition feedback. Overall, our studies provide initial results on the applicability of several previously uninvestigated targeting assists for distant pointing. Further, it shows the strong potential of motor space assists for improving target selection performance. Author
Down-regulation of Notch-1 contributes to cell growth inhibition and apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells

Pancreatic cancer remains the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Notch signaling plays a critical role in maintaining the balance among cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis, and thereby may contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer. To characterize Notch pathway function in pancreatic cancer cells, we explored the consequences of down-regulation of Notch-1 in BxPC-3, HPAC, and PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells. Using multiple cellular and molecular approaches such as 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, apoptosis assay, flow cytometry, gene transfection, real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), Western blotting, and electrophoretic mobility shift assay for measuring DNA binding activity of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), we found that down-regulation of Notch-1 inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. Notch-1 down-regulation also increased cell population in the G0-G1 phase. Compared with control, small interfering RNA–transfected cells decreased expression of cyclin A, cyclin D1, and cyclin-dependent kinase 2. We found up-regulation of p21 and p27, which was correlated with the cell cycle changes. In addition, Notch-1 down-regulation also induced apoptosis, which could be due to decreased Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL protein expression in pancreatic cancer cells. Because Notch-1 is known to cross-talk with another major cell growth and apoptotic regulatory pathway (i.e., NF-κB), we found that NF-κB is a downstream target of Notch because down-regulation of Notch reduced NF-κB activity. We also found that genistein, a prominent isoflavone, could be an active agent for the down-regulation of the Notch pathway. These findings suggest that Notch-1 down-regulation, especially by genistein, could be a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(3):483–93]
Exploring pre-main-sequence variables of the ONC: the new variables

Since 2004, we have been engaged in a long-term observing programme to monitor young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). We have collected about 2000 frames in V, R and I broad-band filters on more than 200 nights distributed over five consecutive observing seasons. The high-quality and time-extended photometric data give us an opportunity to address various phenomena associated with young stars. The prime motivations of this project are (i) to explore various manifestations of stellar magnetic activity in very young low-mass stars, (ii) to search for new pre-main-sequence eclipsing binaries and (iii) to look for any EXor and FUor-like transient activities associated with YSOs. Since this is the first paper on this programme, we give a detailed description of the science drivers, the observation and the data reduction strategies as well. In addition to these, we also present a large number of new periodic variables detected from our first 5 yr of time-series photometric data. Our study reveals that about 72 per cent of classical T Tauri stars (CTTS) in our field of view are periodic, whereas only 32 per cent of weak-lined T Tauri stars (WTTS) are periodic. This indicates that inhomogeneity patterns on the surface of CTTS of the ONC stars are much more stable than on WTTS. From our multiyear monitoring campaign, we found that the photometric surveys based on single season are incapable of identifying all periodic variables. And any study on evolution of angular momentum based on single-season surveys must be carried out with caution.
Effective Use of Dynamic Page Migration on NUMA Platforms: The Gaussian Chemistry Code on the SunFire X4600M2 System

In this work we study the effect of data locality on the performance of Gaussian 03 code running on a multi-core Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) system. A user-space protocol which affects runtime data locality, through the use of dynamic page migration and interleaving techniques, is considered. Using this protocol results in a significant performance improvement. Results for parallel Gaussian 03 using up to 16 threads are presented. The overhead of page migration and effect of dual-core contention are also examined.
Computational analysis of variability of recombination rates in mice

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those people who have helped with this research project. I sincerely thank my advisor, Dr. Nikola Stojanovic for providing an opportunity to work with him as a research student. I would also like to thank him for his continual support and valuable guidance throughout the course of the project, without which it would not have materialized. I also thank Dr. Elena de la Casa-Esperon from the UTA Biology Department for providing an opportunity to work on the computational aspects of her ambitious project. I would like to thank her for all the support and patience in providing all the biological inputs much needed for the work, and also for serving on my committee. I thank Dr. J.C. Loredo-Osti for providing all the inputs pertaining to the statistical analysis. I also thank Mr. David Levine for serving on my committee and for being a very helpful guide. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of my family, without whose support and patience this endeavor would have been unfruitful. I thank my friends for their valuable support and help Rapid advances in engineering and technology have fueled research in areas such as molecular biology and genetics to a new level and thus have given birth to multidisciplinary fields like bioinformatics and computational biology. These fields involve the application of one's expertise in one or more areas including computer science, information science, statistics, chemistry and mathematics to solve problems related to biology in general and molecular biology and genetics in particular. It is a challenging research area which requires one to grasp diverse fields at almost equal rigor and at the same time provides new insights into the fascinating field of biology. Recombination is a natural phenomenon which occurs in germ cells during meiotic division in higher organisms. Much about meiotic recombination is already known, however, the genetic mechanism of its regulation remains elusive. Our research team was interested in studying the genetic control of this phenomenon by analyzing the variability of rates of recombination between several strains of inbred mice. To meet that goal we have assembled a v large amount of data and performed computational analysis of linkage maps of different mice strains. Genome data are available from various public databases which are complex and geographically dispersed. These databases tend to evolve rapidly, due …
An energy harvesting circuit for self-powered sensors

In this work we present a prototype circuit to harvest energy from radio waves or through magnetic coupling based on a stack of full-wave rectifiers with transistors working on sub-threshold region. This circuit will use as an input a field-to-voltage converter capable of outputting a 200mV waveform and is able to self-start without any other energy sources. The circuit presented here is a proof of concept energy-harvesting circuit powering a low frequency ring oscillator which acts as the load. The circuit is designed and simulated in a standard CMOS process, AMS CMOS 0.35 µm.
A First Characterization of Anycast Traffic from Passive Traces

IP anycast routes packets to the topologically nearest server according to BGP proximity. In the last years, new players have started adopting this technology to serve web content via Anycast-enabled CDNs (A-CDN). To the best of our knowledge, in the literature, there are studies that focus on a specific A-CDN deployment, but little is known about the users and the services that A-CDNs are serving in the Internet at large. This prompted us to perform a passive characterization study, bringing out the principal A-CDN actors in our monitored setup, the services they offer, their penetration, etc. Results show a very heterogeneous picture, with A-CDN empowered services that are very popular (e.g., Twitter or Bing), serve a lot of different contents (e.g., Wordpress or adult content), and even include audio/video streaming (e.g., Soundcloud, or Vine). Our measurements show that the A-CDN technology is quite mature and popular, with more than 50% of web users that access content served by a A-CDN during peak time
A Heuristic Genetic Algorithm Based on Schema Replacement for 0-1 Knapsack Problem

This paper investigates the 0-1 knapsack problem using genetic algorithms. The work is based on heuristic strategies that takes into account the characteristics of 0-1 knapsack problem. In this article, a heuristic Genetic Algorithms(GA) is proposed to solve the 0-1 knapsack problem, in each generation, populations are divided into two sections: superior clan and inferior clan, and excellent schema in superior clan are pick up to replace the chromosomes in inferior clan. This approach of schema replacement will promote individual evolution effectively and achieve best solution of the problem. Simulations show that the proposed method can obtain the best solution and convergence fast than conventional GA and Greedy algorithms.
A Model For Self-similar Search In Image Database With Scars

In Thailand, the entire Thai citizens are required to carry a national identity card. Therefore, a personal data of each person such as date of birth, weight, height, blood type, religion, occupation, registered address and individual photograph image are kept in the Central Registration Database Systems (CRDS) operated by the Department of Local Administration under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior. And in order to increase the efficiency of the internal administration, this Central Registration Database can be utilized and shared by other authorized government agencies at their best interest. The Thai Royal Police Department and the Crime Combat Section are one of the government agencies that share the information from the CRDS. Frequently, individual registration database and photographs are needed for the crime investigation. In previous research, the author proposed a method called “self-similarity search” to handle searching for photographs image database (PID) to support police officers when searching criminal records [18]. By using the proposed method in comparison with the sequential search employed a database search. As a result the proposed method is faster than sequential searching and requires less space. In this research, it is aimed at the refinement of attribute, which will guarantee much faster result when using our proposed searching method provided that scars of suspected person has been earlier found.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF GLOBAL SOURCES OF ATMOSPHERIC SOIL DUST IDENTIFIED WITH THE NIMBUS 7 TOTAL OZONE MAPPING SPECTROMETER (TOMS) ABSORBING AEROSOL PRODUCT

We use the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) sensor on the Nimbus 7 satellite to map the global distribution of major atmospheric dust sources with the goal of identifying common environmental characteristics. The largest and most persistent sources are located in the Northern Hemisphere, mainly in a broad “dust belt” that extends from the west coast of North Africa, over the Middle East, Central and South Asia, to China. There is remarkably little large‐scale dust activity outside this region. In particular, the Southern Hemisphere is devoid of major dust activity. Dust sources, regardless of size or strength, can usually be associated with topographical lows located in arid regions with annual rainfall under 200–250 mm. Although the source regions themselves are arid or hyperarid, the action of water is evident from the presence of ephemeral streams, rivers, lakes, and playas. Most major sources have been intermittently flooded through the Quaternary as evidenced by deep alluvial deposits. Many sources are associated with areas where human impacts are well documented, e.g., the Caspian and Aral Seas, Tigris‐Euphrates River Basin, southwestern North America, and the loess lands in China. Nonetheless, the largest and most active sources are located in truly remote areas where there is little or no human activity. Thus, on a global scale, dust mobilization appears to be dominated by natural sources. Dust activity is extremely sensitive to many environmental parameters. The identification of major sources will enable us to focus on critical regions and to characterize emission rates in response to environmental conditions. With such knowledge we will be better able to improve global dust models and to assess the effects of climate change on emissions in the future. It will also facilitate the interpretation of the paleoclimate record based on dust contained in ocean sediments and ice cores.
Perfect sampling for infinite server and loss systems

We present the first class of perfect sampling (also known as exact simulation) algorithms for the steady-state distribution of non-Markovian loss systems. We use a variation of dominated coupling from the past. We first simulate a stationary infinite server system backwards in time and analyze the running time in heavy traffic. In particular, we are able to simulate stationary renewal marked point processes in unbounded regions. We then use the infinite server system as an upper bound process to simulate the loss system. The running time analysis of our perfect sampling algorithm for loss systems is performed in the quality-driven (QD) and the quality-and-efficiency-driven regimes. In both cases, we show that our algorithm achieves subexponential complexity as both the number of servers and the arrival rate increase. Moreover, in the QD regime, our algorithm achieves a nearly optimal rate of complexity.
Deconvolution‐based nonlinear filtering for incompressible flows at moderately large Reynolds numbers

We consider a Leray model with a deconvolution‐based indicator function for the simulation of incompressible fluid flow at moderately large Reynolds number (in the range of a few thousands) with under‐resolved meshes. For the implementation of the model, we adopt a three‐step algorithm called evolve–filter–relax that requires (i) the solution of a Navier–Stokes problem, (ii) the solution of a Stokes‐like problem to filter the Navier–Stokes velocity field, and (iii) a final relaxation step. We take advantage of a reformulation of the evolve–filter–relax algorithm as an operator‐splitting method to analyze the impact of the filter on the final solution versus a direct simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations.
Use of remote sensing for evapotranspiration monitoring over land surfaces

Abstract Monitoring evapotranspiration (ET) at large scales is important for assessing climate and anthropogenic effects on natural and agricultural ecosystems. This paper describes techniques used in evaluating ET with remote sensing, which is the only technology that can efficiently and economically provide regional and global coverage. Some of the empirical/statistical techniques have been used operationally with satellite data for computing daily ET at regional scales. The more complex numerical simulation models require detailed input parameters that may limit their application to regions containing a large database of soils and vegetation properties. Current efforts are being directed towards simplifying the parameter requirements of these models. Essentially all energy balance models rely on an estimate of the available energy (net radiation less soil heat flux). Net radiation is not easily determined from space, although progress is being made. Simplified approaches for estimating soil heat flux a.
Assessment of Hemodynamic Response during Focal Neural Activity in Human Using Bolus Tracking, Arterial Spin Labeling and BOLD Techniques

In this study, the hemodynamic response and changes in oxidative metabolism during functional activation were measured using three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques: the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) technique, flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR), and bolus tracking (BT) of an MR contrast agent. With these three techniques we independently determined changes in BOLD signal, relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and cerebral blood volume (rCBV) associated with brain activation in eight healthy volunteers. In the motor cortex, the BOLD signal increased by 1.8 +/- 0.5%, rCBF by 36.3 +/- 8.2% (FAIR), and 35.1 +/- 8.6% (BT), and rCBV by 19.4 +/- 4.1% (BT) in response to simultaneous bilateral finger tapping. In the visual cortex, BOLD signal increased by 2.6 +/- 0.5%, rCBF by 38.5% +/- 7.6 (FAIR), and 36.9 +/- 8.8% (BT), and rCBV by 18.8 +/- 2.8% (BT) during flickering checkerboard stimulation. Comparing the experimentally measured rCBV with the calculated rCBV using Grubb's power-law relation, we conclude that the use of power-law relationship results in systematic underestimate of rCBV.
Differences in Visuo-Motor Control in Skilled vs. Novice Martial Arts Athletes during Sustained and Transient Attention Tasks: A Motor-Related Cortical Potential Study

Cognitive and motor processes are essential for optimal athletic performance. Individuals trained in different skills and sports may have specialized cognitive abilities and motor strategies related to the characteristics of the activity and the effects of training and expertise. Most studies have investigated differences in motor-related cortical potential (MRCP) during self-paced tasks in athletes but not in stimulus-related tasks. The aim of the present study was to identify the differences in performance and MRCP between skilled and novice martial arts athletes during two different types of tasks: a sustained attention task and a transient attention task. Behavioral and electrophysiological data from twenty-two martial arts athletes were obtained while they performed a continuous performance task (CPT) to measure sustained attention and a cued continuous performance task (c-CPT) to measure transient attention. MRCP components were analyzed and compared between groups. Electrophysiological data in the CPT task indicated larger prefrontal positive activity and greater posterior negativity distribution prior to a motor response in the skilled athletes, while novices showed a significantly larger response-related P3 after a motor response in centro-parietal areas. A different effect occurred in the c-CPT task in which the novice athletes showed strong prefrontal positive activity before a motor response and a large response-related P3, while in skilled athletes, the prefrontal activity was absent. We propose that during the CPT, skilled athletes were able to allocate two different but related processes simultaneously according to CPT demand, which requires controlled attention and controlled motor responses. On the other hand, in the c-CPT, skilled athletes showed better cue facilitation, which permitted a major economy of resources and “automatic” or less controlled responses to relevant stimuli. In conclusion, the present data suggest that motor expertise enhances neural flexibility and allows better adaptation of cognitive control to the requested task.