Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overexpressing the H‐protein of the glycine cleavage system increases biomass yield in glasshouse and field‐grown transgenic tobacco plants

Summary Photorespiration is essential for C3 plants, enabling oxygenic photosynthesis through the scavenging of 2‐phosphoglycolate. Previous studies have demonstrated that overexpression of the L‐ and H‐proteins of the photorespiratory glycine cleavage system results in an increase in photosynthesis and growth in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we present evidence that under controlled environment conditions an increase in biomass is evident in tobacco plants overexpressing the H‐protein. Importantly, the work in this paper provides a clear demonstration of the potential of this manipulation in tobacco grown in field conditions, in two separate seasons. We also demonstrate the importance of targeted overexpression of the H‐protein using the leaf‐specific promoter ST‐LS1. Although increases in the H‐protein driven by this promoter have a positive impact on biomass, higher levels of overexpression of this protein driven by the constitutive CaMV 35S promoter result in a reduction in the growth of the plants. Furthermore in these constitutive overexpressor plants, carbon allocation between soluble carbohydrates and starch is altered, as is the protein lipoylation of the enzymes pyruvate dehydrogenase and alpha‐ketoglutarate complexes. Our data provide a clear demonstration of the positive effects of overexpression of the H‐protein to improve yield under field conditions.
No gene-by-environment interaction of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and childhood maltreatment on anxiety sensitivity in a mixed race adolescent sample

ABSTRACT Background: Anxiety disorders in youth are attributable to multiple causal mechanisms, comprising biological vulnerabilities, such as genetics and temperament, and unfavourable environmental influences, such as childhood maltreatment (CM). Objective: A gene-environment (G x E) interaction study was conducted to determine the interactive effect of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and CM to increase susceptibility to anxiety sensitivity (AS) in a sample of mixed race adolescents. Method: Participants (n = 308, mean age = 15.8 years) who were all secondary school students and who completed measures for AS and CM were genotyped for the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess G x E influences on AS. Age and gender were included in the models as covariates as age was significantly associated with AS total score (p < .05), and females had significantly higher AS scores than males (p < .05). Results: A main effect of CM on AS was evident (p < .05), however, no main effect of BDNF genotype on AS was observed (p > .05). A non-significant G x E effect on AS was revealed (p < .05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that CM does not have a moderating role in the relationship between the BDNF Val66Met genotype and the increased risk of anxiety-related phenotypes, such as AS. Given the exploratory nature of this study, findings require replication in larger samples and adjustment for population stratification to further explore the role of BDNF Val66Met and CM on AS in mixed race adolescents.
A RELAÇÃO ENTRE AS MUDANÇAS NO AMBIENTE INSTITUCIONAL DO SETOR DE EDUCAÇÃO E AS ESTRATÉGIAS DE UMA INSTITUIÇÃO DE ENSINO SUPERIOR PRIVADA

Este artigo teve como objetivo analisar a relação d as mudanças no ambiente institucional do setor de educação superior nas estratégias de cresc imento de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior. A pesquisa é um estudo de caso da mantene dora CEAMA que abrange de 1996, mudanças na lei e expansão de IES privadas, e, de 2 000 a 2010 – 10 anos de funcionamento da Instituição de Ensino Superior, seu processo de mudanças e crescimento. Utilizou-se de dados primários junto às pessoas relacionadas diret amente com o ambiente pesquisado, através de um roteiro de entrevista, o que permitiu compreender em profundidade o tema e o cenário pesquisado e, também, de dados secundários disponibilizados pela própria IES e normas da educação superior. Os resultados da análi se entre a relação das mudanças no ambiente institucional do setor de educação superio r com as estratégias de crescimento da Instituição de Ensino Superior CEAMA indicaram que existe uma relação de influência, visto que o ambiente é composto de regras que determinam como as IES devem se comportar no ambiente.
WETLANDS AND PUBLIC HEALTH

SUMMARY Various facets of public health involvement with wetlands in South Africa are considered. Emphasis is however given to the role of these systems in human disease transmission. With the possible exception of bilharzia, too little is known of the biology of either the pathogens or their intermediate vectors (if they have one) in the aquatic environment for transmission to be adequately understood and for the most cost-effective control strategies to be developed. Insufficient liaison between limnologists and the public health authorities is seen as contributing to this difficulty.
Gender differences in takeoff techniques of non-elite Russian long jumpers

The objective of this study was to determine gender differences in takeoff techniques of Russian male and female long jumpers. The competitive performances of twenty-six male and twenty-one female athletes were videotaped with a high-speed digital camcorder for further two-dimensional analysis. It has been found that male jumpers had significantly larger takeoff velocity including its horizontal (7.96 ± 0.44 and 7.06 ± 0.32 m · s -1 ) and vertical (3.35 ± 0.44 and 2.75 ± 0.37 m · s -1 ) components, takeoff angle (22.8 ± 2.5 and 21.3 ± 2.4°), the centre of gravity (CG) height at touchdown (0.92 ± 0.04 and 0.88 ± 0.04 m) and takeoff (1.18 ± 0.06 and 1.09 ± 0.04 m), and CG to heel distance at touchdown (0.44 ± 0.06 and 0.39 ± 0.05 m). Female long jumpers demonstrated significantly larger leg angles at touchdown (59.6 ± 2.8 and 57.7 ± 3.0° for female and male athletes respectively). The study has revealed that effective jump distance has a strong correlation with takeoff velocity and ground contact time, and a medium correlation with horizontal and vertical takeoff velocity, leg angle and CG height at takeoff for female jumpers and only one medium correlation with vertical takeoff velocity for male jumpers.
Variation in minimum desired cardiovascular disease-free longevity benefit from statin and antihypertensive medications: a cross-sectional study of patient and primary care physician perspectives

Objective Expressing therapy benefit from a lifetime perspective, instead of only a 10-year perspective, is both more intuitive and of growing importance in doctor–patient communication. In cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention, lifetime estimates are increasingly accessible via online decision tools. However, it is unclear what gain in life expectancy is considered meaningful by those who would use the estimates in clinical practice. We therefore quantified lifetime and 10-year benefit thresholds at which physicians and patients perceive statin and antihypertensive therapy as meaningful, and compared the thresholds with clinically attainable benefit. Design Cross-sectional study. Settings (1) continuing medical education conference in December 2016 for primary care physicians;(2) information session in April 2017 for patients. Participants 400 primary care physicians and 523 patients in the Netherlands. Outcome Months gain of CVD-free life expectancy at which lifelong statin therapy is perceived as meaningful, and months gain at which 10 years of statin and antihypertensive therapy is perceived as meaningful. Physicians were framed as users for lifelong and prescribers for 10-year therapy. Results Meaningful benefit was reported as median (IQR). Meaningful lifetime statin benefit was 24 months (IQR 23–36) in physicians (as users) and 42 months (IQR 12–42) in patients willing to consider therapy. Meaningful 10-year statin benefit was 12 months (IQR 10–12) for prescribing (physicians) and 14 months (IQR 10–14) for using (patients). Meaningful 10-year antihypertensive benefit was 12 months (IQR 8–12) for prescribing (physicians) and 14 months (IQR 10–14) for using (patients). Women desired greater benefit than men. Age, CVD status and co-medication had minimal effects on outcomes. Conclusion Both physicians and patients report a large variation in meaningful longevity benefit. Desired benefit differs between physicians and patients and exceeds what is clinically attainable. Clinicians should recognise these discrepancies when prescribing therapy and implement individualised medicine and shared decision-making. Decision tools could provide information on realistic therapy benefit.
SOFT‐SLAM: Computationally efficient stereo visual simultaneous localization and mapping for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles

Autonomous navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in GPS‐denied environments is a challenging problem, especially for small‐scale UAVs characterized by a small payload and limited battery autonomy. A possible solution to the aforementioned problem is vision‐based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), since cameras, due to their dimensions, low weight, availability, and large information bandwidth, circumvent all the constraints of UAVs. In this paper, we propose a stereo vision SLAM yielding very accurate localization and a dense map of the environment developed with the aim to compete in the European Robotics Challenges (EuRoC) targeting airborne inspection of industrial facilities with small‐scale UAVs. The proposed approach consists of a novel stereo odometry algorithm relying on feature tracking (SOFT), which currently ranks first among all stereo methods on the KITTI dataset. Relying on SOFT for pose estimation, we build a feature‐based pose graph SLAM solution, which we dub SOFT‐SLAM. SOFT‐SLAM has a completely separate odometry and mapping threads supporting large loop‐closing and global consistency. It also achieves a constant‐time execution rate of 20 Hz with deterministic results using only two threads of an onboard computer used in the challenge. The UAV running our SLAM algorithm obtained the highest localization score in the EuRoC Challenge 3, Stage IIa–Benchmarking, Task 2. Furthermore, we also present an exhaustive evaluation of SOFT‐SLAM on two popular public datasets, and we compare it to other state‐of‐the‐art approaches, namely ORB‐SLAM2 and LSD‐SLAM. The results show that SOFT‐SLAM obtains better localization accuracy on the majority of datasets sequences, while also having a lower runtime.
The Role of Caching in Future Communication Systems and Networks

This paper has the following ambitious goal: to convince the reader that content caching is an exciting research topic for the future communication systems and networks. Caching has been studied for more than 40 years, and has recently received increased attention from industry and academia. Novel caching techniques promise to push the network performance to unprecedented limits, but also pose significant technical challenges. This tutorial provides a brief overview of existing caching solutions, discusses seminal papers that open new directions in caching, and presents the contributions of this special issue. We analyze the challenges that caching needs to address today, also considering an industry perspective, and identify bottleneck issues that must be resolved to unleash the full potential of this promising technique.
Supplementation with Oligonol, Prevents Weight Gain and Improves Lipid Profile in Overweight and Obese Saudi Females

Background: Obesity is a global health problem, increasing susceptibility to Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). Varieties of products have been proposed for treatment with varying degrees of success. Recent studies, suggested Oligonol; an optimized phenolic product mixture from Lychee Fruit Polyphenols (LFP); as such treatment in Japanese population. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the effect of oligonol on weight, insulin resistance by (HOMA-IR), lipids profile, leptin, Adiponectin, and resistin in healthy overweight and obese Saudi females. Subjects and Methods: 60 Saudi healthy overweight and obese females were enrolled in a double blind case/control study to take either Oligonol or placebo for 12 weeks without dietary or lifestyle re-strictions. Weight, height, Waist Circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and blood pressure were measured, and fasting blood samples of participants were taken before, and at the end of study. Total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, leptin, adiponectin, and resistin were meas-ured. LDL- cholesterol, HOMA-IR were calculated by equation. Results: 47 subjects completed the study, 25 in placebo group, and 22 in Oligonol group. No ill effects were noted in any participant. Oligonol reduced means of serum triglycerides (P=0.008), and resistin (P=0.045) significantly. In addition, no weight gain was noted in oligonol group, unlike placebo group which exhibited significant increase in mean weight (P= 0.036), WC (P=0.027), HC (P= 0.047), and leptin (P <0.001). Conclusion: Oligonol could be suggested as future hypolipidemic and weight controlling agent for overweight and obese Saudi females.
Cholinergic modulation of striatal microcircuits

The purpose of this review is to bridge the gap between earlier literature on striatal cholinergic interneurons and mechanisms of microcircuit interaction demonstrated with the use of newly available tools. It is well known that the main source of the high level of acetylcholine in the striatum, compared to other brain regions, is the cholinergic interneurons. These interneurons provide an extensive local innervation that suggests they may be a key modulator of striatal microcircuits. Supporting this idea requires the consideration of functional properties of these interneurons, their influence on medium spiny neurons, other interneurons, and interactions with other synaptic regulators. Here, we underline the effects of intrastriatal and extrastriatal afferents onto cholinergic interneurons and discuss the activation of pre‐ and postsynaptic muscarinic and nicotinic receptors that participate in the modulation of intrastriatal neuronal interactions. We further address recent findings about corelease of other transmitters in cholinergic interneurons and actions of these interneurons in striosome and matrix compartments. In addition, we summarize recent evidence on acetylcholine‐mediated striatal synaptic plasticity and propose roles for cholinergic interneurons in normal striatal physiology. A short examination of their role in neurological disorders such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Tourette's pathologies and dystonia is also included.
The cellular localization and redistribution of multiple aquaporin paralogs in the spermatic duct epithelium of a maturing marine teleost

Aquaporin‐mediated fluid transport in the mammalian efferent duct and epididymis is believed to play a role in sperm maturation and concentration. In fish, such as the marine teleost gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), the control of fluid homeostasis in the spermatic duct seems also to be crucial for male fertility, but no information exists on the expression and distribution of aquaporins. In this study, reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction and immunoblotting analyses, employing available and newly raised paralog‐specific antibodies for seabream aquaporins, indicate that up to nine functional aquaporins, Aqp0a, ‐1aa, ‐1ab, ‐3a, ‐4a, ‐7, ‐8bb, ‐9b and ‐10b, are expressed in the spermatic duct. Immunolocalization of the channels in the resting spermatic duct reveals that Aqp0a, ‐1aa, ‐4a, ‐7 and ‐10b are expressed in the monolayered luminal epithelium, Aqp8b and ‐9b in smooth muscle fibers, and Aqp1ab and ‐3a in different interstitial lamina cells. In the epithelial cells, Aqp0a and ‐1aa are localized in the short apical microvilli, and Aqp4a and ‐10b show apical and basolateral staining, whereas Aqp7 is solely detected in vesicular compartments. Upon spermiation, an elongation of the epithelial cells sterocilia, as well as the folding of the epithelium, is observed. At this stage, single‐ and double‐immunostaining, using two aquaporin paralogs or the Na+/K+‐ATPase membrane marker, indicate that Aqp1ab, ‐3a, ‐7, ‐8bb and ‐9b staining remains unchanged, whereas in epithelial cells Aqp1aa translation is supressed, Aqp4a internalizes, and Aqp0a and ‐10b accumulate in the apical, lateral and basal plasma membrane. These findings uncover a cell type‐ and region‐specific distribution of multiple aquaporins in the piscine spermatic duct, which shares conserved features of the mammalian system. The data therefore suggest that aquaporins may play different roles in the regulation of fluid homeostasis and sperm maturation in the male reproductive tract of fish.
Computational thinking through modeling in language lessons

In contrast to the field of computer-supported or computer-assisted language learning (CALL), which has been investigated intensively for the last decades since the beginning of e-learning and technology-enhanced learning, computational thinking and computer science concepts are not quite common in the context of language lessons. Computational thinking is a problem solving process that, at first sight, has not much to do with language learning. However, as demanded by Jeannette Wing in 2006, it should be taught to everyone like reading, writing and mathematics. By introducing computational thinking in language lessons e.g. through modeling we could "kill two birds with one stone": On the one hand, we can teach computational thinking and basics of computer science at all school levels even if there is no related subject, e.g. in primary schools. On the other hand, computational thinking tools like modeling can support language learning in different ways and help to train text comprehension, to acquire and elaborate vocabulary or to visualize grammar rules etc. This paper describes some creative possibilities of introducing computational thinking through modeling in language lessons in primary and secondary education. Besides best practices, it further presents some experiences and results gained from teacher observation, interviews and informal feedback from students and teachers.
Clines in traits compared over two decades in a plant hybrid zone

Background and Aims Clines in traits across hybrid zones reflect a balance between natural selection and gene flow. Changes over time in average values for traits, and especially the shapes of their clines, are rarely investigated in plants, but could result from evolution in an unstable hybrid zone. Differences in clines between floral and vegetative traits could indicate different strengths of divergent selection. Methods Five floral and two vegetative traits were measured in 12 populations along an elevational gradient spanning a natural hybrid zone between Ipomopsis aggregata and Ipomopsis tenuituba. We compared clines in the floral traits with those measured 25 years ago. Observed changes in mean trait values were compared with predictions based on prior estimates of natural selection. We also compared the steepness and position of clines between the floral and vegetative traits. Key Results Corolla length has increased over five generations to an extent that matches predictions from measurements of phenotypic selection and heritability. The shape of its cline, and that of other traits, has not changed detectably. Clines varied across traits, but not all floral traits showed steeper clines than did vegetative traits. Both suites of morphological traits had steeper clines than did neutral molecular markers. Conclusions The increase in corolla length provides a rare example of a match between predicted and observed evolution of a plant trait in natural populations. The clinal properties are consistent with the hypothesis that habitat-mediated divergent selection on vegetative traits and pollinator-mediated selection on floral traits both maintain species differences across the hybrid zone.
Vintage-Specific Driving Restrictions

Local air pollution has led authorities in many cities around the world to impose limits on car use by means of driving restrictions or license-plate bans. By placing uniform restrictions on all cars, many of these programs have created incentives for drivers to buy additional, more polluting cars. We study vintage-specific restrictions, which place heavy limits on older, polluting vehicles and no limits on newer, cleaner ones. We use a novel model of the car market and results from Santiago’s 1992 program, the earliest program to use vintage-specific restrictions, to show that such restrictions should be designed to work exclusively through the extensive margin (type of car driven), never through the intensive margin (number of miles driven). If so, vintage restrictions can yield important welfare gains by moving the fleet composition toward cleaner cars, comparing well to alternative instruments such as scrappage subsidies and pollution-based registration fees.
Nonlinear Focal Modulation Microscopy.

We demonstrate nonlinear focal modulation microscopy (NFOMM) to achieve superresolution imaging. Traditional approaches to superresolution that utilize point scanning often rely on spatially reducing the size of the emission pattern by directly narrowing (e.g., through minimizing the detection pinhole in Airyscan, Zeiss) or indirectly peeling its outer profiles [e.g., through depleting the outer emission region in stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy]. We show that an alternative conceptualization that focuses on maximizing the optical system's frequency shifting ability offers advantages in further improving resolution while reducing system complexity. In NFOMM, a spatial light modulator and a suitably intense laser illumination are used to implement nonlinear focal-field modulation to achieve a transverse spatial resolution of ∼60 nm (∼λ/10). We show that NFOMM is comparable with STED microscopy and suitable for fundamental biology studies, as evidenced in imaging nuclear pore complexes, tubulin and vimentin in Vero cells. Since NFOMM is readily implemented as an add-on module to a laser-scanning microscope, we anticipate wide utility of this new imaging technique.
Connected-Slot Array With Artificial Dielectrics: A 6 to 15 GHz Dual-Pol Wide-Scan Prototype

In this communication, we report on the design, manufacturing, and testing of a dual-polarized array of connected slots radiating in the presence of an artificial dielectric superstrate. The prototype array consists of 512 elements, i.e., <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16\times 16$ </tex-math></inline-formula> connected slots for each of the two polarizations. The antenna array is realized with a single multilayer printed circuit board (PCB), which represents an advantage in terms of cost and complexity with respect to the typical configuration based on multiple vertically arranged PCBs. The performance is investigated in terms of simulated and measured matching characteristics and radiation patterns. The proposed structure achieves active voltage standing wave ratio lower than 3.1 over about an octave bandwidth (6–15 GHz), within a wide scan range (±60° in the H-plane and ±80° in the E-plane).
FEUP at SemEval-2018 Task 5: An Experimental Study of a Question Answering System

We present the approach developed at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto to participate in SemEval-2018 Task 5: Counting Events and Participants within Highly Ambiguous Data covering a very long tail.The work described here presents the experimental system developed to extract entities from news articles for the sake of Question Answering. We propose a supervised learning approach to enable the recognition of two different types of entities: Locations and Participants. We also discuss the use of distance-based algorithms (using Levenshtein distance and Q-grams) for the detection of documents’ closeness based on the entities extracted. For the experiments, we also used a multi-agent system that improved the performance.