Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cult and ritual in Early Bronze Age I Southern Levant: fragmented or connected landscape?

The existence of marked regionalism in the material culture of the southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age I is a long-established fact; however, the nature of the relationships between the different sub-regions is still a matter of debate. The paper analyses the EBI regionalism in the southern Levant from the perspective of cult and ritual in order to investigate the nature of the connections – or the lack thereof – between the various subregions also in comparison to the main Late Chalcolithic sanctuaries to have an overall look at the fourth millennium cultic habits. Architectural aspects of the main southern Levantine sanctuaries from this period will be taken into account, as well as the material culture and ritual practices. New data from excavations at Jebel al-Mutawwaq, Jordan, will be included in the analysis. Through the examination of the archaeological data, the paper seeks to recognize differences due to isolation of the different sub-regions from one another and/or similarities which may suggest that there were contacts and connections between the different areas of the Southern Levant in the Early Bronze Age I.
Kurgans and Their Builders. The Great Hungarian Plain At The Dawn Of The Bronze Age

Despite the fact that the enigmatic Yamnaya culture whose communities raised kurgans over their dead (known also as the people of the Pit-grave kurgans) has provided the lowest number of finds in the archaeology of the Carpathian Basin to date, it is nevertheless regarded as one of the most important archaeological cultures which profoundly shaped the history of Europe after 3000 BC in the light of the new advances in, and fresh findings of archaeogenetic and isotope studies during the past decade. The core distribution of the Yamnaya culture was the vast grass steppe extending from Kazakhstan to the northern and western Pontic, while the westernmost mass presence of these prehistoric pastoralist communities can be found on the Great Hungarian Plain.
Soil shrinkage curves and micromorphology in contrasting managements

espanolEl proceso de compactacion en general es descripto usando metodos que no distinguen tipos y tamanos de poros que son afectados. El ajuste de las curvas de contraccion (CC) usando el modelo XP permite diferenciar los manejos de suelos con relacion a la porosidad. Este metodo esta en consonancia con las determinaciones micromorfologicas y micromorfometricas de cortes delgados. El objetivo de este trabajo fue examinar el potencial del analisis de las CC de los suelos para describir la degradacion fisica de los mismos bajo distintos manejos de la region pampeana de la Argentina: agricultura continua (AC), rotacion agricola-ganadera (AG), respecto de una situacion cuasi-pristina (CP), en dos suelos: Hapludol Tipico y Argiudol Tipico. Desde dos aproximaciones de analisis de CC y analisis micromorfologico en suelos limosos de baja capacidad de expansion/contraccion. EnglishCompaction processes are generally described using methods that do not distinguish volume changes of different types and pore sizes. The adjustment of shrinkage curves ShCusing the XP model allows elucidation of the effects of soil management on changes in pore volume.
Determinantes e/ou obstáculos à adopção e difusão do transístor de papel na indústria portuguesa

iii Indice de conteudos iv Indice de Tabelas vi Indice de Figuras vii Introducao 1 Capitulo 1. Contextualizacao dos transistores de papel no âmbito dos modelos de inovacao 3 1.1. Consideracoes iniciais 3 1.2. Modelos de inovacao 3 1.2.1. Os modelos lineares de inovacao: science-push vs demand-pull 3 1.2.2. Modelo Interactivo 7 1.3. Determinantes da adopcao da inovacao por parte das empresas: uma revisao da literatura 9 Capitulo 2. Modelos de inovacao e determinantes da adopcao de uma inovacao. Consideracoes conceptuais e metodologicas 18 2.1. Consideracoes iniciais 18 2.2. Modelo de inovacao subjacente ao transistor de papel 18 2.3. Analise dos determinantes da adopcao do transistor em papel 19 Capitulo 3. Modelos de inovacao e determinantes da adopcao de uma inovacao. Evidencia empirica 23 3.1. Consideracoes iniciais 23 3.2. Modelo de inovacao no caso dos transistores de papel 23 3.3. Determinantes da adopcao do transistor de papel 28 Conclusoes 35
Telescope: Characterization of the retrotranscriptome by accurate estimation of transposable element expression

Characterization of Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV) expression within the transcriptomic landscape using RNA-seq is complicated by uncertainty in fragment assignment because of sequence similarity. We present Telescope, a computational software tool that provides accurate estimation of transposable element expression (retrotranscriptome) resolved to specific genomic locations. Telescope directly addresses uncertainty in fragment assignment by reassigning ambiguously mapped fragments to the most probable source transcript as determined within a Bayesian statistical model. We demonstrate the utility of our approach through single locus analysis of HERV expression in 13 ENCODE cell types. When examined at this resolution, we find that the magnitude and breadth of the retrotranscriptome can be vastly different among cell types. Furthermore, our approach is robust to differences in sequencing technology, and demonstrates that the retrotranscriptome has potential to be used for cell type identification. Telescope performs highly accurate quantification of the retrotranscriptomic landscape in RNA-seq experiments, revealing a differential complexity in the transposable element biology of complex systems not previously observed. Telescope is available at github.com/mlbendall/telescope. Author Summary Almost half of the human genome is composed of Transposable elements (TEs), but their contribution to the transcriptome, their cell-type specific expression patterns, and their role in disease remains poorly understood. Recent studies have found many elements to be actively expressed and involved in key cellular processes. For example, human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are reported to be involved in human embryonic stem cell differentiation. Discovering which exact HERVs are differentially expressed in RNA-seq data would be a major advance in understanding such processes. However, because HERVs have a high level of sequence similarity it is hard to identify which exact HERV is differentially expressed. To solve this problem, we developed a computer program which addressed uncertainty in fragment assignment by reassigning ambiguously mapped fragments to the most probable source transcript as determined within a Bayesian statistical model. We call this program, “Telescope”. We then used Telescope to identify HERV expression in 13 well-studied cell types from the ENCODE consortium and found that different cell types could be characterized by enrichment for different HERV families, and for locus specific expression. We also showed that Telescope performed better than other methods currently used to determine TE expression. The use of this computational tool to examine new and existing RNA-seq data sets may lead to new understanding of the roles of TEs in health and disease.
Babesia bigemina en bovinos del municipio Los Palmitos (Sucre, Colombia)

La babesiosis bovina es una enfermedad que suele causar pérdidas en el sector pecuario, por lo que es necesario el diagnóstico temprano del hemoparásito que la causa en los bovinos. El objetivo de esta investigación fue la detección mediante pcr dúplex de especies de Babesia que estén presentes en bovinos en el municipio Los Palmitos en el departamento de Sucre, Colombia. Para esto, se estudió una muestra de 218 individuos distribuidos en 12 predios, en edades comprendidas entre tres meses y nueve años, a los que se les tomaron muestras de sangre y se analizaron mediante identificación microscópica en frotis sanguíneo con coloración de Giemsa y por la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (pcr) con cebadores específicos para las especies Babesia bovis y B. bigemina. Se obtuvieron tres muestras positivas para B. bigemina por frotis sanguíneo, correspondientes al 1,4 % del total de las muestras; por pcr se identificaron cinco bovinos infectados correspondientes al 2,33 % del total, cuyo hemoparásito detectado fue B. bigemina, que obedece a las muestras identificadas por microscopia óptica. Los bovinos positivos para B. bigemina son asintomáticos; cuatro de ellos machos menores a dos años de edad y solo un individuo hembra de tres años de edad. En Los Palmitos, B. bigemina está siendo portada de manera activa por los bovinos, que se mantienen como portadores asintomáticos de la infección.
Formulation et morphologies de mélanges de polymères thermoplastiques à base d'amidon

L’objectif de cette these est le developpement de materiaux polymeres injectables innovants issus de ressources renouvelables et repondant aux exigences techniques automobiles. Pour cela nous nous sommes interesses a des melanges de polymeres modeles : le polyamide 12 et l’amidon plastifie. Nos travaux ont donc porte sur l’optimisation des proprietes de ces melanges, via le controle de la morphologie. Ainsi deux strategies ont ete envisagees : la compatibilisation du melange grâce a deux agents reactifs et la modification des parametres de mise en œuvre. Ces deux strategies se sont revelees etre efficace pour l’amelioration des proprietes des melanges. Enfin a partir de cette etude sur les polymeres modeles, des materiaux issus de ressources renouvelables ont ete formules. De meme une etape de compatibilisation a partir d’une resine epoxy a ete envisagee permettant au final d’obtenir des materiaux ayant des proprietes optimisees.
Ocular and Systemic Results of Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection in Retinopathy of Prematurity Treatment

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of an intravitreal bevacizumab injection (IVB) in the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Methods: The medical records of patients who had received IVB treatment for ROP between January 2014 and October 2018. Anatomical and functional outcomes were evaluated. The Denver II Developmental Screening Test was administered and fluorescein angiography (FA) was performed in some cases. Results: Thirty-eight eyes of 19 infants were included in the study. An IVB injection was administered to 9 infants with aggressive posterior ROP (APROP) disease (Group 1), 6 infants with any stage ROP with plus disease in zone I (Group 2), and 4 infants with stage 2-3 ROP with plus disease in zone II (Group 3). Complete retinal vascularization was observed in 24 eyes of 12 infants who received a single dose of bevacizumab without any additional treatment. Recurrence of the disease was observed in 12 eyes of 6 infants diagnosed with APROP and laser photocoagulation was performed. FA was performed to 5 IVB patients whose parents approved the procedure. The Denver II Developmental Screening Test was administered to all of the participants, and the test outcomes were consistent with the corrected age of the children, though 2 infants demonstrated a developmental delay in gross motor development tasks. Overall, good anatomical and functional results were obtained. Conclusion: IVB is an effective and relatively safe treatment modality for infants with ROP; however, prospective studies are required to provide more detailed information about systemic side effects.
Salt tolerance research in sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.): past, present and future perspectives.

The sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) is one of the underdogs in the food crop planting industries for its potential which is extremely vast but the community appreciating it is scarce. Its capabilities to thrive well in undesirable environmental conditions, salt tolerance and high starch yield are one of the many advantages it possesses over other food crops like wheat, corn and rice. One important factor to look into for crop plantation is none other than its salt tolerance. The salt tolerance researches on this unique palm have commenced since 1977 and the pace of research was unbelievably slow in progression. Nevertheless, it was not until recently that this palm was being placed in the limelight once more. In this review, we are focusing on salt tolerance research and further detailed on the past, present and future of this research line. It is anticipated that consolidation of talents and resources can come in time and in tandem for the utilization of this cash palm to end world hunger.
A mindful ACT : developing a brief ACT-based intervention for people receiving osteopathy treatment and living with persistent pain

Background: Persistent pain represents a significant burden for individuals and society, exerting a profound effect on quality of life and posing a significant strain on healthcare resources. Novel interventions are needed to reduce the impact of psychological comorbidities on people who live with pain but also to improve pain self-management, enhance people’s quality of life, and help them live a fulfilling life in the presence of pain. Aims: The aim of this research was to develop a novel psychosocial intervention to accompany osteopathic treatment for people from Southwest Wales who live with persistent pain and psychological comorbidities. The MRC framework for developing complex health interventions (Craig et al. 2000, 2008) guided the development of this intervention. Methods: A pragmatic approach that included a mixture of methods and procedures was chosen. The first phase consisted of conducting two qualitative studies to determine the needs and experiences of people living with persistent pain as well as the perspectives of osteopaths who treat them. A systematic review was conducted alongside to investigate the effects of osteopathic treatment on psychosocial factors in people living with persistent pain. The second phase consisted of utilizing the data from the first phase to inform the development of the novel intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles. Focus groups and one-to-one interviews were the preferred data collection methods while data analysis was carried out using Thematic Analysis (TA) and Framework Analysis (FA). Findings: The intervention appeared to be feasible with the support of the osteopaths. The intervention was found acceptable and no barriers to participation were reported. Program attendance was 82.5% and the participants engaged well with the exercises and with the ACT model in general. At one-month follow up, the participants reported that they continued to practice mindfulness, and continued to apply their knowledge of ACT to their personal circumstances. Conclusion: Delivering a brief ACT-based intervention for people living with persistent pain was feasible and acceptable. All of the nine participants reported positive experiences. The collaboration between osteopaths and psychologists in supporting people who live with persistent pain demonstrates both innovation and potential and should be further explored in the future. D E C L A R AT I O N
Calcium-dependent protein kinase 5 links calcium-signaling with SARD1-dependent immune memory in systemic acquired resistance

- Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) prepares infected plants for faster and stronger defense activation upon subsequent attacks. SAR requires an information relay from primary infection to distal tissue and the initiation and maintenance of a self-maintaining phytohormone salicylic acid (SA)-defense loop. - In spatial and temporal resolution we show that calcium-dependent protein kinase CPK5 contributes to immunity and SAR. In local basal resistance CPK5 functions upstream of SA-synthesis, -perception, and -signaling. In systemic tissue, enhanced CPK5 signaling leads to an accumulation of SAR marker genes including transcription factor Systemic Acquired Resistance Deficient 1 (SARD1). - Plants of enhanced CPK5-, but not CPK6-, signaling display a ‘super-priming’ phenotype of enhanced resistance toward a secondary bacterial infection. In sard1 background, CPK5-mediated basal resistance is still mounted but systemic ‘super-priming’ is lost. - The biochemical analysis determines CPK5 half maximal kinase activity for calcium K50 [Ca2+] to ∼100 nM close to the cytoplasmic resting level. This low activation threshold uniquely qualifies CPK5 to decode subtle changes in calcium prerequisite to immune signal relay and to onset and maintenance of priming at later time points in distal tissue. Our data explain why CPK5 functions as a hub in basal and systemic plant immunity.
Investigating Evolutionary Innovation in Yeast Heat Shock Protein 90

The Heat Shock Protein 90 (Hsp90) is an essential and highly conserved chaperone that facilitates the maturation of a wide array of client proteins, including many kinases. These clients in turn regulate a wide array of cellular processes, such as signal transduction, and transcriptional reprogramming. As a result, the activity of Hsp90 has the potential to influence physiology, which in turn may influence the ability to adapt to new environments. Previous studies using a deep mutational scanning approach, (EMPIRIC) identified multiple substitutions within a 9 amino acid substrate-binding loop of yeast Hsp90 that provides a growth advantage for yeast under elevated salinity conditions and costs of adaptation under alternate environments. These results demonstrate that genetic alterations to a small region of Hsp90 can contribute to evolutionary change and promote adaptation to specific environments. However, because Hsp90 is a large, highly dynamic and multi-functional protein the adaptive potential and evolutionary constraints of Hsp90 across diverse environments requires further investigation. In this dissertation I used a modified version of EMPIRIC to examine the impact of environmental stress on the adaptive potential, costs and evolutionary constraints for a 118 amino acid functional region of the middle domain of yeast Hsp90 under endogenous expression levels and the entire Hsp90 protein sequence under low expression levels. Endogenous Hsp90 expression levels were used to observe how environment may affect Hsp90 mutant fitness effects in nature, while low expression levels were used as a sensitive readout of Hsp90 function and fitness. In
Reflective Switchable Polarization Rotator Based on Metasurface With PIN Diodes

A planar metasurface that rotates the polarization of reflected signals by 90° is presented in this article. The surface also permits the relative phase of the rotated, reflected signal to be controlled. The metasurface rotator uses a square printed patch element mounted above a conducting ground plane. The addition of PIN diode controlled vertical interconnect access (VIA) at the corners of each square patch provides the ability to modify the scattering properties of the surface. In particular, the surface can be programed to shift the phase of the rotated waveform by ±90°. The polarization rotator was manufactured, measured, and compared against numerical simulations, and the maximum measured bandwidth was 25% (4.8–6.2 GHz) for co-polarized attenuation of 10 dB. The proposed surface can be adopted for practical applications, such as circularly polarized antennas.
Energy-Spectral Efficiency Optimization in Vehicular Communications: Joint Clustering and Pricing-Based Robust Power Control Approach

Smart, and green cities impose stringent requirements on spectral efficiency (SE), and energy efficiency (EE) of vehicular networks. For the current vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), vehicle's mobility leads to rapid topology changes, and high channel uncertainty. However, clustering schemes for establishing stable clusters, and robust power control (RPC) combating with channel fluctuation are investigated independently. In this paper, joint clustering, and RPC schemes are proposed to optimize the SE, and EE of the involved VANETs. Via the same fixed-length slot, the synchronized interference constraints of cluster heads (CHs) are formed, and offer conditions for RPC. Due to the random channel fluctuations, all CHs’ synchronized interference constraints are formulated as probability constraints. Besides, a pricing-based utility which avoids the separate optimization between SE, and EE is introduced, and the price's impact on the tradeoff between them is involved. Since the probability constraints are intractable, and the unified utility is nonconvex, the Bernstein approximation, and successive convex approximation (SCA) are used to transform the problem into a tractable convex one. Through dual decomposition, two RPC algorithms are proposed to determine the optimal solutions for the fixed price $C$, and the optimal price $C^*$, respectively. Numerical simulations are used to evaluate the algorithmic performances in high-dynamic system, and the results show that the proposed algorithms are effective. The validity of the clustering method, and the proposed RPC scheme is further verified by comparisons.
Attention samples objects held in working memory at a theta rhythm

Attention samples spatial positions, visual objects or auditory streams rhythmically. This has been reported for tasks where the attended information was perceptually present. Here we tested whether attentional sampling also applies to internal representations held in working memory. Participants memorized four spatial positions that formed the endpoints of two objects, one of which was cued for a delayed match-non-match test. When uncued positions were probed, participants responded faster to those located on the same object as the cued position than to those located on the other object, revealing object-based attention in working memory. Manipulating the interval between cue and probe revealed that object-based attention oscillated at 6 Hz. Moreover, oscillations showed an antiphase relationship between objects, suggesting that attention sampled them in alternation. The striking similarity between rhythmic sampling of mental representations and perceptual information suggests that attentional sampling is a general mechanism of information processing in human cognition.
A Survey on Bidirectional DC/DC Power Converter Topologies for the Future Hybrid and All Electric Aircrafts

DC-DC isolated converters allowing a bidirectional flow of energy between High-Voltage DC and Low-Voltage DC networks have been proposed to be integrated in future on board power distribution systems. These converters must meet the specially stringent efficiency and power density requirements that are typical of the aeronautic industry. This makes it specially challenging to determine which converter topology is best suited for each particular application. This work presents a thorough review of several topologies of bidirectional DC-DC power converters that are considered good candidates to meet certain important aeronautic requirements, as those related with high efficiency and high power density. We perform simulations on virtual prototypes, constructed by using detailed component models, and optimized following design criteria that are in accordance with those typically imposed by aeronautic requirements. This comparative analysis is aimed to clearly identify the advantages and drawbacks of each topology, and to relate them with the required voltage and power levels. As an outcome, we point out the topologies that, for the required power level at the chosen switching frequencies, yield higher efficiency in the whole range of required operation points and that are expected to allow more important weight reductions.