Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mapping QTLs Linked to Physio-Morphological and Plant Production Traits under Drought Stress in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) in the Target Environment

Drought stress is a major constraint for rice (Oryza sativa L.) production and yield stability in rainfed ecosystems. Identifying genomic regions (QTLs) contributing in drought resistance will help to develop rice cultivars suitable for water-limiting environments through marker-assisted breeding. QTLs linked to physio-morphological and plant production traits under drought stress in the field were mapped by evaluating 177 F6 recombinant inbred (RI) lines of Bala × Azucena under rainfed conditions in the target environment (TE). The rice lines were subjected to severe drought stress during reproductive phase due to a natural rainfall failure event. The RI lines showed significant variation in physio-morphological and plant production traits under stress. A total of 24 QTLs were identified for various traits under stress, which individually explained 4.6 to 22.3% phenotypic variation. Composite interval mapping detected three markers viz., RM3894, RG409 and G1073 on chromosomes 3 and 8 linked to grain yield under drought stress in TE, respectively explaining 22.3, 17.1 and 10.9% of phenotypic variation. QTLs for leaf drying, days to 50% flowering and number of productive tillers under drought stress co-located at certain of these regions. Further, QTLs for several root traits overlapped with QTLs for grain yield under stress in these RI lines, indicating the pleiotropic effects of root trait QTLs on rice performance under stress. Correlation coefficients between potential root traits determined in another study and plant production under stress in this study were not significant in these RI lines. Consistent QTLs for drought resistance traits and yield under drought stress in TE were detected and might be useful for rainfed rice improvement.
Effective Thermoelectric Power Generation in an Insulated Compartment

The Seebeck coefficient S is a temperature- and material-dependent property, which linearly and causally relates the temperature difference △T between the “hot” and “cold” junctions of a thermoelectric power generator (TEC-PG) to the voltage difference △V. This phenomenon is the Seebeck effect (SE), and can be used to convert waste heat into usable energy. This work investigates the trends of the effective voltage output △V(t) and effective Seebeck coefficient S'(t) versus several hours of activity of a solid state TEC-PG device. The effective Seebeck coefficient S'(t) here is related to a device, not just to a material’s performance. The observations are pursued in an insulated compartment in various geometrical and environmental configurations. The results indicate that the SE does not substantially depend on the geometrical and environmental configurations. However, the effective Seebeck coefficient S'(t) and the produced effective △V(t) are affected by the environmental configuration, once the temperature is fixed. Heat transfer calculations do not completely explain this finding. Alternative explanations are hypothesized.
Effect of low water temperature on metabolism and growth of a subtropical strain of Caulerpa taxifolia (Chlorophyta)

The cold tolerance capacity of samples of the marine green alga Caulerpa taxifolia, ob- tained from Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Australia, was investigated by exposing samples to seawater tem- peratures of 9 to 15°C, for periods of 4 to 10 wk, after maintenance at 22°C. Residual effects of cold wa- ter exposure were evaluated by re-acclimating samples to 22°C. Phenotypic expression and survivorship were monitored throughout both cold treatment and re-acclimation phases. Measurements of photo- synthesis and respiration were made toward the end of the cold treatments and after re-acclimation. Samples exposed to 9 and 11°C water exhibited retraction or loss of chloroplasts (or chlorophyll) from the mid-rib regions of the pseudo-fronds. After 4 wk of exposure to 9°C the only green coloured regions of the fronds were the extremities of the pinnules; 1 to 2 wk later these samples began to decompose. Sam- ples kept at 11°C retained the bulk of their photosynthetic pigments and survived throughout experi- ments. The stolons of samples tended to grow upward toward the seawater surface rather than parallel to the substratum. Samples at all treatment temperatures tended to become progressively detached from the substratum through stolon extension without intermittent rhizoid attachment. Several samples be- came fragmented and covered with mucilaginous epiphytes during re-acclimation, such that those lack- ing rhizoid anchorages, rose to the seawater surface, buoyed by metabolic gases trapped in the mu- cilage. During cold treatment, the maximal rates of gross and net photosynthesis (Pm g and Pm n ), normalised to dry weight or tissue protein content, and the ratio of Pm g to dark respiration (-R) varied directly with temperature. The irradiance required for compensation (Ic) varied inversely with temperature. The rate of dark respiration increased with cold exposure. Calculation of whole day net production indicated that rates of photosynthesis among samples incubated at 13°C or below were insufficient to maintain exist- ing tissue biomass. There were no residual effects of cold exposure after re-acclimation, except that 11°C samples failed to increase in relative protein content as a function of ambient irradiance, perhaps due to nitrogen limitation. Results indicate a cold-tolerance threshold of 9 to 11°C, thus genetic modification does not need to be invoked to explain the occurrence of C. taxifolia in the northwest Mediterranean.
Support Platform for Decision-Making in Research and Technological Development in Public Health Plataforma de Apoyo para la Toma de Decisiones en Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico para la Salud Pública

Decision-making concerning Research and Development projects in health is an important activity in Brazil, since the amount of proposed projects is incompatible with the financial resources. For this, an application was developed in the programming language C++ that supports managers in decision-making processes, executing the evaluation of the proposed project based on some modeling variables.
Specifying the Relationship betweem Arrestee Drug Test Results and Recidivism

Over the last fifteen years, research has confirmed what many criminal justice practitioners have long suspected: among criminal populations, drug use is a predictor of future criminal activity. Improved drug testing technology has significantly enhanced the ability to obtain information about an arrestee's recent drug use. However, the use of this information is a source of considerable debate. Some propose evidence of an arrestee's recent drug use should play a part in decisions about pretrial detention, including what requirements should be imposed as a condition of release. Opponents contend the results "predict" future criminality, but only because the drug test information duplicates other risk factors, such as the accused's prior criminal history. The opponents argue that widespread drug testing of arrestees is unnecessary because information on these other risk factors is readily available, cheaper and less intrusive. In this paper, we examine two empirical issues in this debate. First, are the results of drug tests at the time of arrest related to recidivism after the effects of other risk factors have been taken into account? Second, does the ability of drug test results to predict recidivism vary depending on an individual's other risk factors?
Fast Assessment of Small-Signal Oscillatory Stability in Large Interconnected Power Systems

This paper deals with suitable approaches for fast assessment of oscillatory stability of large interconnected power systems within power system operation. Beside voltage stability and transient stability, oscillatory stability has to be assessed, too. It can be shown, that parallel eigenvalue computation using a parallel variant of Arnoldi method can reduce the time necessary for eigenvalue computation of large power systems. Balkan Power Conference BPC 2002, June 2002, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
A higher order adaptive approach to tackle the swinging problem

In numerous practical applications precise control of a subsystem passively connected to a precisely controllable subsystem by elastic connection is needed. As typical example is a crane carrying its payload swinging on an elastic string can be mentioned. From the point of view of control technology this task is interesting since the connected degree of freedom has little damping and it is apt to keep swinging accordingly. The traditional approaches apply the input shaping technology to assist the human operator responsible for the manipulation task. In the present paper a novel adaptive approach applying fixed point transformations based iterations having local basin of attraction is proposed for simultaneously tackle the problems originating from the imprecisions of the available dynamic model of the system to be controlled and the swinging phenomenon. In the simulation investigations presented a simple model consisting of two connected masspoints is considered: one of them can directly by controlled by control forces, the other one (in the role of the payload) is dragged by the controlled point via an elastic spring. The control considers the 4 time-derivative of the trajectory of the dragged system.
Cytotoxic and inflammatory responses in IL-1 deficient cells exposed to carbon nanotubes

Nanotechnology is an emerging industry manufacturing engineered nanomaterials used in industry, general consumer products and medicine. Nanomaterials are made of nanoparticles which have at least one dimension less than 100 nm. The toxicological properties of nanoparticles are under increasing concern because of their nano size and unique physico-chemical properties. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are a group of nanomaterials that are under extensive toxicological investigations due to their fiber-like structure and structural similarity with asbestos. Inhalation of fiber-like compounds such as asbestos has been shown to lead to several adverse health effects including fibrosis and cancer. Similar to asbestos, CNTs, in particular multi-walled CNTs (MWCNT), have been shown to induce biological responses such as oxidative stress, inflammation, DNA damage and cell death. However the effects have been observed to differ between different CNTs. It is also hypothesized that genetic factors may modulate the cellular responses following exposure to CNTs, especially genes involved in inflammation. IL-1 is such a gene, encoding an important pro-inflammatory cytokine. To investigate the effect of Il1 on the cellular responses following exposure to CNTs, an Il1 model system including a wild-type Il1 cell line and an Il1a/b (-/-) knock-out cell line were used. Two MWCNTs, one produced in Norway (MWCNT-NO) and one produced in Japan (MWCNT-JP) were investigated for cytotoxicity (WST-8 assay), apoptotic cell death (Hoechst/PI) and alterations in gene expression (qRT-PCR). The effects were then compared with cells exposed to Crocidolite asbestos and hydrogen peroxide. The results showed a dose and time dependent increase in toxicity for both MWCNT-NO and MWCNT-JP. MWCNT-JP was shown to be the most toxic at low doses and also induced a higher level of gene expression. MWCNT-NO, however, showed similar patterns to Crocidolite asbestos both concerning toxicity and gene expression after 24 hours in the Il1a/b KO cell line. A common property of MWCNT-NO and MWCNT-JP was the ability to induce expression of the Ptgs2 (COX-2) gene, an effect which was not seen for Crocidolite or H2O2. Il1 seemed to influence the biological response following MWCNT exposure, with increased toxicity in the knock-out cell line following MWCNT-JP exposure, and differential gene expression of Tnfa and Il6 between cell lines following MWCNT-NO exposure. Neither of the MWCNTs induced apoptotic cell death in the cell lines used. The reasons for the differences between particles in toxicity and inflammatory potential may be due to the higher length of the MWCNT-JP or different production method used, but several other factors may also be involved including differences in contaminations, surface charge and aggregation /agglomeration state. In summary, our results show that MWCNTs from two different producers affect cellular responses differentially. The changes in toxicity and gene expression following exposure varied between the tested MWCNTs, as well as between cell lines with different genetic background.
Liquid State Machine Based Fingerprint Identification

This paper deals with automatic fingerprint identification; this is performed by a supervised classification since it operates on a set of preset classes. The suggested approach is original since it is based on liquid state machine which gives a better simulation of biological neurons as spiking neu rons than sigmoidal ones. Promising Results of first experiences using radial basis function neural network and support vector machine pushed us to continue the exploitation of this new version of neural networks and to develop codification and recognition algorithms which are specifically associated to this system. Tests were released on well known fingerprint databases such as: FVC2004 databases & Finger Cell database. Performance Evaluating has proved that liquid state machine achieved a good recognition rate closer to rates achieved by other methods but in a very short time and this make it more useful in online applications.
CHARACTERIZATION OF VirB4 PROTEIN OF LOCAL ISOLATE Brucella abortus WITH WESTERN BLOTTING TECHNIQUE

This research aimed to characterize VirB4 protein of local isolate Brucella abortus with Western blotting method. The result showed that there were four protein bands with molecular weights of 64.61, 59.25, 21.63, and 16.70 kDa by triggering a reaction between the whole Brucella abortus and anti-Brucella abortus serum. The results also revealed that there was only one protein band with a molecular weight of 59.25 kDa triggering a reaction between the whole Brucella abortus and anti-VirB Brucella abortus serum. Finally, it can be concluded that VirB4 protein can affect the virulence factor of Brucella abortus, successfully characterized with the appearance of one band with a molecular weight of 59.25 kDa by using Western blotting method.
NAIRU, Unemployment and Post Keynesian Economics

The purpose of this paper is to present the disadvantages from the use of NAIRU as the key instrument of monetary-policy making to restrain the upward tendency of unemployment. It argues that the development of NAIRU, the most widely known and used model in macroeconomic analysis, although has changed the whole structure of macroeconomic theory and policy significantly, its adoption is consistent with unemployment, instead of economic activity expansion. By setting at the center of analysis the persistently high levels of unemployment and questioning the NAIRU concept itself, this paper aims at signifying the incorrectness of the assumptions upon which NAIRU rests and determines employment policies, though are regarded as a priori given.
TGF-β1 and IL-10 expression in epithelial ovarian cancer cell line A2780

Purpose: Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of death among gynaecological malignancies. Transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF β1) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) are cytokines in the tumour microenvironment and may play critical roles in immune suppression. This study highlights these roles and immunosuppressive functions in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methods: TGF-β1 and IL-10 expression was compared in malignant, benign, and borderline cancerous tissues and tumour-free tissue by immunohistochemistry. Relationships among the levels of these cytokines, correlation of expression level with EOC prognosis, and cytokine involvement in immunosuppression were investigated. Results: Immunohistochemical analysis of TGF-β1 and IL-10 in epithelial cells showed the presence of epithelial, borderline, and benign ovarian tumour growth, and normal ovarian growth. TGF-β1 (P = 0.121), residual tumour after surgery (P = 0.231) and standard chemotherapy (P = 0.121) were prognostic factors for EOC. There were no significant differences in clinicopathologic factors between specimens expressing TGF-β1 at low and high levels, indicating that TGF-β1 is an independent factor in EOC diagnosis. Higher concentrations of TGF-β1 (1754.690 ± 3416.487 pg/ml) and IL 10 (2731.7101 ± 6.1613 pg/ml) were observed in A2780-conditioned than in control medium. Conclusion: TGF-β1 and IL-10 play pivotal roles in EOC and can lead to immune evasion. Targeting these cytokines for tumour treatment, specifically at early stages, may prevent tumour progression. Keywords: Epithelial ovarian cancer, TGF-β1, IL-10, histopathology
Factors Associated With Infant and Under-five Mortalities in Myanmar

The survival rate of under-five children can determine how healthy the health care system is. Myanmar is a country which consistently endeavoring to attain its health objectives Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. The study on socioeconomic and individual level with the focus of national level was not available enough. However, recommendations from the previous studies encouraged more studies on determinants of under-five mortalities and regional disparities within the country. It is the reason why this study is conducted, and it will address determinants on general, emphasizing on socioeconomic factors at individual level and regional disparities associated with infant and under-five mortality in Myanmar. The results showed that mothers did not use contraceptive methods and preceding birth interval are significant determinants of infant, child and under-five mortalities. On the other hand, children who are breastfed have lower risk of death by 11.6 percent in infancy period and 12.4 percent in below underfive aged in comparison with children who are not. The twin child, short birth interval, father who worked in manual workers and mothers with no using contraceptives, birth order, size of baby after delivery, skilled birth attendant, caesarean born child, mothers who did not work outside were found to be significant predictors of infant mortality. Children from hilly, dry and delta ecological zone had a higher risk of under-five mortality in Myanmar. Keyworks: Infant, Child, Under-five mortalities, Myanmar. 1 No.208, New Sang Thong Court, Bangrak, Bangkok
QUANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF NICOTINE ON NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Nicotine (NIC) is known for its adverse effects on health. It affects directly to Central Nervous System (CNS). NIC modifies the concentration of neurotransmitter (NT) and their specific function. The main goal of this work is to determine by Semi-empirical Parametrical Method 3 (SE-PM3) quantic analysis, the interaction between NIC and the main NT and their possible effects on the human’s CNS. Hyperchem is a molecular modeling computational program. Researchers use Hyperchem to analyze the Electron Transfer Coefficient (ETC) of the compounds and to identify the possible interaction between compounds. We found that NIC directly affects to NT. The effects of NIC on NT depend on of the functions of the human body. As a result, we found that the NIC interacts with all NTs, both as an oxidizing or reducing agent. The work team concluded that NIC has a direct effect on the interaction with the most common NT highlighting adrenalin, dopamine, aspartic acid, glycine, Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and serotonin. The information we got as part of this study is congruent with data reported in the literature.
Circulating Tumor Cells: A Window to Understand Cancer Metastasis, Monitor and Fight Against Cancers

Metastases are the major culprits behind most cancer-related death and the central challenge to the eradication of a malignancy. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have the potential to help us understand how metastases form, to be utilized for cancer diagnosis and treatment selection and even to be targeted for cancer treatment. Many advances have been made regarding the isolation of these rare cells. However, several challenges and limitations in CTC analysis still exist. Multiple color immunofluorescence, genetic analysis (e.g. Fluorescence in situ Hybridization, microarray and next generation sequencing) and CTC culture will be effective tools to study CTCs and provide information on metastatic mechanism and clinical implication. In this review, we discuss the importance of CTC study in understanding cancer metastasis and their potential clinical application as biomarkers to predict cancer progression and treatment response, as well as the current situation for CTC isolation and analysis.
Policy and Prediction: The Case of Institutional Diversity in Romanian Higher Education

Presenting key elements of post-1990 historical developments in the Romanian higher education system, the emphasis is put on recent (2011) policies of increasing higher education institutional differentiation. The view is that, in policy design, due attention should be paid to both historical roots and predicted developments. Building on an institutional analysis approach, we put forward a theoretical model that aims to explore the predictive implications of some recently promoted higher education policies. These policies are expected to increase institutional differentiation at the systemic level and enhance quality in teaching and research at university level. The predictive capacity of a model of reference is tested against a concurrent model. The key assumption of the latter is that of considering higher education institutions (HEIs) as “cooperative systems” that are unable to generate those outputs and outcomes that, by aggregation, would contribute to the construction of an institutionally diverse and heterogeneous higher education landscape.
Regional data assimilation of multi-spectral MOPITT observations of CO over North America

Abstract. Chemical transport models (CTMs) driven with high-resolution meteorological fields can better resolve small-scale processes, such as frontal lifting or deep convection, and thus improve the simulation and emission estimates of tropospheric trace gases. In this work, we explore the use of the GEOS-Chem four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation system with the nested high-resolution version of the model (0.5° × 0.67°) to quantify North American CO emissions during the period of June 2004–May 2005. With optimized lateral boundary conditions, regional inversion analyses can reduce the sensitivity of the CO source estimates to errors in long-range transport and in the distributions of the hydroxyl radical (OH), the main sink for CO. To further limit the potential impact of discrepancies in chemical aging of air in the free troposphere, associated with errors in OH, we use surface-level multispectral MOPITT (Measurement of Pollution in The Troposphere) CO retrievals, which have greater sensitivity to CO near the surface and reduced sensitivity in the free troposphere, compared to previous versions of the retrievals. We estimate that the annual total anthropogenic CO emission from the contiguous US 48 states was 97 Tg CO, a 14 % increase from the 85 Tg CO in the a priori. This increase is mainly due to enhanced emissions around the Great Lakes region and along the west coast, relative to the a priori. Sensitivity analyses using different OH fields and lateral boundary conditions suggest a possible error, associated with local North American OH distribution, in these emission estimates of 20 % during summer 2004, when the CO lifetime is short. This 20 % OH-related error is 50 % smaller than the OH-related error previously estimated for North American CO emissions using a global inversion analysis. We believe that reducing this OH-related error further will require integrating additional observations to provide a strong constraint on the CO distribution across the domain. Despite these limitations, our results show the potential advantages of combining high-resolution regional inversion analyses with global analyses to better quantify regional CO source estimates.