Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization and isolation of oil palm lipid transfer protein (EgLTP) gene putatively responsible for defense against fungal infection (Ganoderma boninense) during basal stem rot infection

Lipid transfer protein (LTP) is essential for the activation of plant defence responses. One of the LTP roles is to involve in the defence against fungal infection in plant cell. In this study, our aim was to isolate the LTP gene from oil palm based on LTP gene sequence from other monocot gene databases and to get insight to the function of this gene during fungal-plant infection. Four model plants were selected which are Oryza sativa, Zea mays, Triticum aestivum and Lilium longiflorum. Five degenerate primer pair combinations for conserved amino acid based on LTP gene sequence using these three model plants were designed. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using these degenerate primers has resulted in amplification of various sizes of fragments, which are currently being cloned and sequenced. All products are subsequently characterized and compared using BLAST in NCBI. The result showed similarity about 100% with O. sativa, 68% with Sorghum bicolor, 66% with Z. mays, and 64% with Zea diploperennis,. Interestingly, we found that the expression of Elaies guineensis Lipid transfer protein (EgLTP) gene measured using Real-Time PCR showed that the expression level of EgLTP in infected oil palm was temporally down regulated. The results suggest that, down regulation of the EgLTP is related to the establishment of infection by Ganoderma boninense.
Enhancing teachers' ICT capacity for the 21st century learning environment: Three cases of teacher education in Korea

Korean teachers are generally considered well trained to integrate ICT into their teaching since the inception of the first IT Master Plan of Korea in 1996. However, the emergence and adoption of cutting-edge technologies create demands for evolving roles and competencies of teachers in the new knowledge society. Given this changing landscape of teacher education, the purpose of this paper is to explore new educational approaches to enhance teachers' ICT capabilities in the 21st century learning environment in Korea. The literature indicates that the new roles of teachers include new media literacy skills and adaptive expertise with efficiency and innovation. From this perspective, we examined three cases: (1) learning Scratch for computational and creative thinking, (2) learning robotics as emerging technology for convergent and divergent thinking, and (3) learning by design with ICT for systems thinking. The new approaches, such as focusing on thinking skills rather than technical skills, and providing various contexts different from ordinary classroom lessons, help teachers to develop adaptive expertise. On the other hand, participants in all three cases indicated difficulties in integrating new ideas, dealing with various course activities, and understanding unfamiliar design contexts in their comprehensive projects. For further studies, it is necessary to investigate learning processes and outcomes of teachers' learning with more depth and a larger number of cases and multiple sources of data to verify the potentials and challenges of these approaches more rigorously.
Freeze Drying of Grape Raw Materials in Red Winemaking

The aim of this research was the development of technology, which is based on the winemaking from freeze dried grape raw materials. Results of research on the drying of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were shown. The regimes of preparation of grape raw materials and its subsequent freeze-drying are offered, providing the possibility of successful use in the dried state in the technologies of winemaking. The main feature is the use as a raw material of whole grape berries with skin. The physicochemical analyses, the content of phenolic compounds and sensorial analyses of wine produced by traditional technology, and wine produced from freeze-dried grape raw materials were done. Their comparative evaluation was carried out. It is shown that freeze drying provides a high level of preservation of properties both in raw materials and in the red wine. The sensorial analyses showed that the wine produced by the proposed technology had a more intensive colour and had a slightly more pronounced taste of sweetness and acidity compared to traditional wine. The advantage of this technology is the ability to transport the freeze-dried grape raw materials to any point close to the consumer and to make wine there.
Detection of verotoxin producing strain of E. coli in buffalo calves.

Production of verotoxin (Shigatoxin) is the most important criteria for the detection of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. There is a paucity of data about the prevalence, burden of disease and complications associated with verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) in animals in India. The main reservoir for EHEC is the feces of cattle, sheep and goats. In the present studies the verotoxin rapid test for the detection of verotoxin was performed for all the bacterial isolates obtained from faeces of buffalo calves. It is an immunochromatographic rapid test utilizing monoclonal antibodies which are labeled by red colored gold particles.The faecal sample was collected directly from the rectum of each calf by using sterile swabs. The microorganism was cultured on MacConkey agar and eosin methylene blue agar medium for preliminary characterization. On MacConkey agar lactose fermenting smooth colonies and on EMB agar dark centered blue black colonies with metallic shine were identifi ed as E. coli. Dacron swabs were taken from the 32 isolates of E. coli on MacConkey agar plates obtained from diarrhoeic buffalo calves. The swab was suspended in 0.5 ml distilled water containing 50 μg/ml polymyxin B to enhance the release of toxin and the mixture was incubated for 30 minutes a 35 o C. Using a micropipette 200 μl of the sample was dispensed into the circular sample port of the test device. The reading was taken after 10 minutes incubation at room temperature. In a positive reaction a distinct red line appears on test zone. Out of 32 isolates of E. coli, only 19 (59.37%) showed a positive reaction for presence of verotoxin.
The Construction of Masculinity in African American Music and Sports

Though they are too often considered in isolation from each other, music and sports connect in a number of ways: aesthetics, marketing approaches, and performance strategies? the last of which, according to theorists such as bell hooks and Judith Butler, is one of the ways by which we construct gender and racial identity.1 This essay examines the connections between these two forms of enter tainment and leisure culture and their synergetic roles in the formation of African American masculine identity. Outlining general links among sports, music, and masculinity in North American society the essay ex plores some notable connections between sports and music in the African American community, particularly as manifest in individual performers and historical relationships between jazz, boxing, basketball and baseball. The links between musical and athletic performance and improvisation and their relationship to black masculinity will also be analyzed.
Computer Vision Techniques Applied for Reconstruction of Seafloor 3D Images from Side Scan and Synthetic Aperture Sonars Data

The Side Scan Sonar and Synthetic Aperture Sonar are well known echo signal processing technologies that produce 2D images of the seafloor. Both systems combines a number of acoustic pings to form a high resolution image of seafloor. It was shown in numerous papers that 2D images acquired by such systems can be transformed into 3D models of seafloor surface by algorithmic approach using intensity information, contained in a grayscaled images. The paper presents the concept of processing the Side Scan Sonar and Synthetic Aperture Sonar records for detailed reconstruction of 3D seafloor using Shape from Shading techniques. Shape from Shading is one of the basic techniques used in computer vision for the objects reconstruction. The algorithms proposed in the paper use the assumed Lambert model of backscattering strength dependence on incident angle and utilize additionally the information from shadow areas for solving obtained set of equations. The idea was verified by simulation study. The obtained results .
Whose story is this? The selective retelling of organizational change

Organizational change is a multi-authored process in which respondent and research narratives have causal as well as documentary and explanatory properties, shaping reputations and seeking to colour the nature and direction of future actions. We argue that academic case study narratives are too readily excluded from analysis and regarded as unproblematic solutions to logistical questions of data analysis. However, intervention narratives typically rely on respondent accounts that exhibit inconsistencies and are attributable to personal sense making, impression management, and political agendas. By drawing on processual and narrative approaches, we show how coherent narratives of change are achieved despite such inconsistencies through the related processes of audiencing and discoursing, and that research producers and consumers must therefore be ‘genre aware’.
Multi-objective Optimization as a Methodology for evaluating Success Factors for Start-ups

This study proposes a methodology for the analysis of newly created ventures. Based on previous research, 15 parameters covering the behavior of young ventures are introduced. These parameters enable the analysis of young ventures regarding the three success criteria growth in employees, growth in sales and growth in earnings before interest and taxes. A pre-study is conducted to derive characteristic patterns in the behavior of successful ventures according to the defined parameters. The used sample consists of ventures from a former study at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. We analyze the first four years of these firms, which have different industry backgrounds. We found that ventures with relatively high spendings on research and development and a high share of full-time employees in this field are more successful than those ventures which show less commitment in research and development. We also conclude that a high market growth is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for the success of a newly created company. We additionally give an outlook on implications for succeeding research in this area and practical applications of this work.
Preparation of long aligned carbon nanotubes and study its physical properties

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of about 6 µm long have been successfully prepared by a simple pyrolysis technique. The precursors used for the synthesis of nanotubes through pyrolysis technique are pyridine (carbon source material) and ferrocene (catalyst). The synthesized CNTs have been characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Raman Spectroscopy. The aligned carbon nanotubes were dissolved in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer in a solution and silver contacts were made to study the effect of CNTs on electrical properties of PMMA. The I-V characterization of the PMMA-CNTs was performed to study its electrical properties. A linear current-voltage characteristic was obtained. The change in resistance with and without diffusion of polymer in carbon nanotubes were calculated from the I-V curve.
Splice Junction Discovery in RNA-Seq Data

RNA-Seq has become the method of choice to study gene expression and has been dubbed as a revolutionary tool to study transcriptomics, and it has been used to detect splice junctions since its first days. Splice Junctions are the key to conduct research on alternative splicing, which is related to some complex human diseases. In this article, we review research on methods for finding splice junctions in RNA-Seq datasets. We come to the conclusion that there is a high similarity between the approaches reviewed in this survey. Along with improving the sensitivity and specificity of these approaches, computing power and memory consumption optimization is the other way of progress for the splice junction discovery approaches.
Histological and Functional Alteration in the Liver and Kidney and the Response of Antioxidants in Japanese quail Exposed to Dietary Cadmium

Background: The aim of the present study was to find the effects of cadmium (Cd) on Japanese quail on the role of an animal model in order to understand the toxicity of Cd in creatures presented, within the environment. Methods: One hundred 30-day-old male Japanese quails were equally divided into the control group and Cd group. The control group received no Cd while the Cd group was given formula feed comprised of 100 ppm of Cd (CdCl2, Merck, Germany) for sixty days. The histological and functional alteration in the liver and kidneys and the response of antioxidants were determined. Results: Histological changes in the liver increased the number of kuppfer cells, vacuolar degeneration, and hepatocytes single cell necrosis in the Cd group. The renal histopathological changes were hyaline cast in renal tubules and necrosis and swelling of tubular epithelial cells. The level of aminotransferases (ALT and AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine rose significantly in the Cd group toward the control group (P<0.05). The antioxidants (SOD, CAT and GSH) levels considerably diminished, while lipid peroxidation proliferated substantially in the hepatic and renal tissues of Japanese quails in the CD group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Presentation to dietary Cd (100mg/kg diet) for 60 reduces the body weights gain and induces the histological and functional alteration in the liver and kidneys of Japanese quail as well as cellular antioxidant alterations.
Exact Controllability of a Linear Korteweg-de Vries Equation by the Flatness Approach

We consider a linear Korteweg-de Vries equation on a bounded domain with a left Dirichlet boundary control.The controllability to the trajectories of such a system was proved in the last decade by using Carleman estimates.Here, we go a step further by establishing the exact controllability in a space of analytic functions with the aid of the flatness approach.
The negotiation styles of overseas Chinese: A comparison of Taiwanese and Indonesian Chinese patterns

Cross cultural negotiation has been an active area of study for a decade. A number of cross-cultural negotiation studies have been conducted using subjects from two diametrically different cultures (such as the US and Japan). However, a substantial amount of international trade takes place between geographically close countries, where cultural differences are more subtle, but still make an important difference. Indonesian-Chinese and Taiwanese both have Chinese backgrounds; however, due to their different histories and development – most Indonesian-Chinese are the second or third generation of Chinese immigrants who are born and raised locally. Due to environmental and cultural differences, Indonesian-Chinese and Taiwanese have different styles of negotiation. This study is a questionnaire survey with quantitative analysis. The design of questionnaire based on the “Dual Concern Model” by Pearson (1995), covering the tendencies of negotiations which measures a respondent’s attitude towards five negotiation category styles: “accommodation,” “collaboration,” “avoidance,” “competition,” and “consultation. ” The results indicate that generally both Taiwanese and Indonesian-Chinese college students are influenced by their cultural areas, scenarios of conflicts, and the beliefs. Among which, the cultural area has direct and indirect influences on all types of negotiation, indicating the existence of large cultural and negotiation differences between Taiwanese and Indonesian-Chinese. Key words: Negotiation styles, sub-culture negotiation, dual concern model, Taiwanese, Indonesian-Chinese.
Interference effects in rotational state distributions: Propensity and inverse propensity

Semiclassical scattering theory has been used to investigate interference effects in rotational state distributions for inelastic atom–diatom collisions. The Δj=even selection rule for homonuclear molecules is seen semiclassically to be an interference effect, and when this symmetry is weakly broken—i.e., an ’’almost homonuclear’’ molecule, one for which the odd anisotropy is much smaller than the even anisotropy—the interference persists in the form of a propensity rule, σ (odd Δj) ≪σ (even Δj). If the odd anisotropy is sufficiently large, however, one can see an inversion of the normal propensity, i.e., it can happen that σ (odd Δj) ≳σ (even Δj). It is suggested that rotationally state‐selected experiments which resolve this interference structure would be an extremely sensitive measure of the anisotropy in the interaction potential.
Arrowroot ( Maranta arundinacea ) Extract Increases the Survival of Probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus

Probiotics are live microorganisms that benefit a host by sustaining healthy micro flora in the gut. However several factors including pH, metabolites and dissolved oxygen limit the growth and survival of probiotic organisms. Prebiotics are selectively fermented ingredients that may increase the survival and activity of probiotics. Arrowroot is rich in prebiotics and may increase the biomass of probiotics. This study was aimed at determining the prebiotic potential of water extractable carbohydrates of local yam arrowroot. Arrowroot carbohydrates were extracted by wet milling and recovery was 14.32% (w/w). The results of the proximate analysis revealed that the percentages of moisture, ash, protein and fat were 10.15%, 4.91%, 0.13% and 0.32% respectively. The contents of starch and low molecular weight carbohydrates were 79.65% and 1.93% respectively. No reducing sugars were detected. 12% (w/v) of arrowroot carbohydrates were incorporated into 12% skim milk and distilled water along with an inoculum of 109 colony forming units (CFU)/g of Lactobacillus acidophilus in order to test the growth performances. 12% skim milk was used as a control. Treatments were incubated at 37°C anaerobically for 12 h followed by storage at 4°C for 14 days. The pH, titrable acidity and colony counts of L. acidophilus were determined throughout the storage period. Media added with arrowroot gave a significantly (p<0.05) higher pH compared to the control although there was no significant difference (p>0.05) among the two media where arrowroot was added. Similar results were observed for titrable acidity as well. Results showed that arrowroot carbohydrates significantly (p<0.05) increased the CFU (log 10)/g of L. acidophilus compared to the control (6.71) in both distilled water (9.34) and skim milk (9.01) media. It was revealed that water extractable arrowroot carbohydrates shows significant prebiotic effect by maintaining a higher viability of probiotics.
UNDERSTANDING LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AS AN EMERGENT PROPERTY OF INDIVIDUAL AND CREW INTERACTIONS ON A CONSTRUCTION SITE

The construction site is a complex system composed of interactions in space between individual crewmembers and crews. Congestion often leads to lowered productivity. Lean construction research has shown that effective work flow management can improve construction labour performance, and labour flow contributes to lean work flow. The existing body of research in the study of construction labour productivity has primarily used a top-down approach to modelling and understanding the impacts of space congestion on labour productivity. In this paper, we propose a bottom-up approach and explore whether labour productivity on a construction site can be treated as an emergent property resulting from interactions between individual crewmembers and different crews. We present our pilot implementation and initial results depicting the relative value of various areas of space and the effect of the number of available tasks on congestion.
Invited review: Graphite and its hidden superconductivity

We review experimental results, from transport to magnetization measurements, on different graphite samples, from bulk oriented graphite, thin graphite films to transmission electron microscope lamellae, that indicate the existence of granular superconductivity at temperatures above 100~K. The accumulated evidence speaks for a localization of the superconducting phase(s) at certain interfaces embedded in semiconducting crystalline regions with Bernal stacking order. Received: 25 January 2013, Accepted: 10 October 2013; Reviewed by: E. M. Forgan, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, U.K.; Edited by: S. A. Grigera; DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.4279/PIP.050007 Cite as: P Esquinazi, Papers in Physics 5, 050007 (2013)
Distributed Robust Consensus Control of Multiagent Systems with Communication Errors Using Dynamic Output Feedback Protocol

This paper studies robust consensus problem for multiagent systems modeled by an identical linear time-invariant system under a fixed communication topology. Communication errors in the transferred data are considered, and only the relative output information between each agent and its neighbors is available. A distributed dynamic output feedback protocol is proposed, and sufficient conditions for reaching consensus with a prescribed performance are presented. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the theoretical results.
Schelling, Ellsberg and the Theory of conflict

Il est connu dans le domaine de la theorie des jeux que le livre The Strategy of Conflict a influence un grand nombre de chercheurs et d'hommes de decisions depuis sa publication en 1960. Le but de ce projet de recherche est d'examiner ce que Thomas C. Schelling appelle la theorie des decisions interdependantes (mutuaI dependance games) mieux connue sous le nom de jeux a somme non-nulle; ce qui a pousse a la creation d'un nouveau concept de solution ainsi qu'un grand bagage de concepts qui permet de dire qu'une nouvelle theorie prenant le nom de theorie des conflits a ete creee. Nous examinerons aussi les impacts (qu'on ressent encore aujourd'hui) de celle-ci. Il appert que ce qui a motive Tom Schelling a ecrire le livre en question The Strategy of Conflict prend naissance dans son insatisfaction par rapport au cadre d'analyse qu'offrait la theorie des jeux a la fin des annees 50 et au debut des annees 60, pour la resolution de jeux d'interdependances (mutuaI dependance games). Daniel Ellsberg, etait lui aussi insatisfait avec la theorie des jeux a cette periode Ellsberg et Schelling etaient aussi interesses aux applications militaires Ce projet de recherche soutient; egalement que c'est, d'une certaine facon, l'interaction entre les deux hommes qui a rendu possible la creation de ce qu'on connait sous le nom de la theorie des conflits. Selon Schelling, cette nouvelle theorie pourrait permettre l'analyse et la prediction de comportements durant une situation de conflit et permettrait de sortir gagnant de cette situation. Les applications potentielles de cette theorie sont tres grandes, elles vont des comportements a adopter durant un conflit arme a l'art d'elever les enfants. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLES DE L’AUTEUR : Thomas C. Schelling, Daniel Ellsberg, Theorie des Conflits, Theorie des Jeux.