Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A safe inexpensive method to isolate high quality plant and fungal DNA in an open laboratory environment

The most commonly used plant DNA isolation methods use toxic and hazardous chemicals (phenol, chloroform), which require special equipment to minimize exposure and may limit their use in certain environments. Commercial DNA extraction kits are convenient and usually safe, but their availability to certain developing countries and high cost can be limiting, especially when handing a large number of samples and considering experiments with limited financial resources. Current reports on nonphenol/ chloroform protocols have not thoroughly examined the quality and suitability of the DNA for studies that require high precision. A simple, economical and rapid method is presented to isolate high quality DNA from plant and fungal species. This method uses potassium acetate to remove proteins and polysaccharides in an SDS extraction buffer. Further DNA purification is achieved using a low salt CTAB treatment. This SDS/CTAB protocol was used to isolate high quality genomic DNA subject to restriction endonuclease digestion and AFLP analysis from both plant and fungi with minimum cost and health concerns.
Towards a Flexible and Privacy-Preserving Reputation System for Markets of Composed Services

One future goal of service-oriented computing is to realize global markets of composed services. On such markets, service providers offer services that can be flexibly combined with each other. However, most often, market participants are not able to individually estimate the quality of traded services in advance. As a consequence, even potentially profitable transactions between customers and providers might not take place. In the worst case, this can induce a market failure. To overcome this problem, we propose the incorporation of reputation information as an indicator for expected service quality. We address On-The-Fly Computing as a representative environment of markets of composed services. In this environment, customers provide feedback on transactions. We present a conceptual design of a reputation system which collects and processes user feedback, and provides it to participants in the market. Our contribution includes the identification of requirements for such a reputation system from a technical and an economic perspective. Based on these requirements, we propose a flexible solution that facilitates the incorporation of reputation information into markets of composed services while simultaneously preserving privacy of customers who provide feedback. The requirements we formulate in this paper have just been partially met in literature. An integrated approach, however, has not been addressed yet.
Study on Financial Market Risk Measurement Based on Asymmetric Laplace Distribution

In this paper, According to the returns distributions (of the financial assets returns series) with peak fat-tailed and asymmetric and the theory of Asymmetric Laplace distribution.AL-VaR (AL-CVaR) parametric method and Monte Carlo simulation are proposed which are based on Asymmetric Laplace distribution. We analyze the VaR (CVaR) measuring model of AL distribution and discuss its backtesting. And then we evaluate the pros and cons of each method combining with the characteristics of the stock market risk of three countries. (America、 China and Japan).
Comparison of Dissolved and Acid-Extractable Metal Concentrations in Groundwater, Eastern Arkansas

The objective of this project was to compare dissolved and acid-extractable metal concentrations in ground water in the alluvial and Sparta aquifers in eastern Arkansas, USA. Typically, water samples for metal analyses are filtered through a 0.45 μm pore-size membrane immediately after sample collection, yielding “dissolved” concentrations. In some situations, acid-extractable metal concentrations (unfiltered samples but acidified) may better represent potential metal “availability”, e.g., from cation exchange or from dissolution of Fe hydroxyoxides. For this project, 41 wells were sampled in the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial and Sparta aquifers. The paired student-T test was used to determine differences in the dissolved and acid-extractable concentrations for Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ca, Mg, Na and K. The test indicated that there are significant differences between dissolved and acid-extractable concentrations for Fe, Mn, Pb and Ca at the 95% confidence level. The test indicated no differences for Mg, K, Na, Cu, and Zn (confidence level < 95%). In most cases the difference ratios for dissolved and acid-extractable concentrations were less than 25% but in about one third of samples the difference ratios were greater than 90%. Highly turbid samples had the highest difference ratios. The results indicate that acid-extractable concentrations can be important in determining metal availability for Mn, Pb, Ca and especially Fe. The Fe concentrations show spatial variation that is related to variations in lithology, ground water flow and/or geochemical processes.
Economic Growth, Patent Race, and the Distribution of R&D Firms

The paper constructs a general equilibrium model model where the rate of technical progress and the distribution of R&D expenditure by heterogeneous research firms are simultaneously determined. Using the model, we explore the effects of the following policy measures on those two endogenous variables: (i) subsidies to flow variable R&D costs, (ii) subsidies to flow fixed R&D costs, (iii) an increase in entrant firms into a series of patent races, and (iv) an increase in the supply of human capital as inputs to R&D. Contrasting results are demonstrated. For example, subsidies to flow variable R&D costs promote technical progress and induce the exit of R&D firms with low R&D productivity. That is, the policy accelerates technological progress through R&D by "elite" firms. On the other hand, the opposite result holds if subsidies are applied to flow fixed R&D costs.
Common Causes and Mitigations of Service Quality Issues in Big Data Computing

Big data computing platform has evolved to be a multi-tenant service. The service quality matters because system failure or performance slowdown could adversely affect business and user experience. There is few study in literature on service quality issues in production big data computing platform. In this paper, we present an empirical study on the service quality issues in Cosmos, which is a company-wide multi-tenant big data computing platform in Microsoft, serving thousands of customers from hundreds of teams. Cosmos has a well-defined escalation process (i.e., incident management process), which help customers report and mitigate service quality issues 24/7. This paper explores the common causes and mitigations of service quality issues in big data computing. We conduct an empirical study on randomly sampled 200+ live site service quality issues in Cosmos. Our major findings include (1) 21.0% of escalations are caused by hardware faults; (2) 36.2% are caused by system side defects, including 21.0% code defects, 9.5% design limitations and 5.7% operation faults; (3) 37.1% are due to customer side faults, including 11.4% misuses, 11.0% convention violations, 10.0% operation faults, and 4.8% code defects. We also studied the general diagnosis process and the common adopted mitigation solutions; the findings suggest that it is possible to design an end-to-end tool to automate the diagnosis by analyzing the collected telemetry data.
Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Internet Addicts

The purpose of this study was to examine functional disconnectivity in Internet addicts using resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs fMRI). Internet addicts and demographically similar non-addicts were scanned using rs fMRI. For the connectivity analysis, Regions Of Interests (ROIs) were defined based on previous studies of addictions. The functional connectivity assessment for each subject was obtained by correlating time-series across the ROIs, resulting in 8x8 matrix for each subject. Within-group functional connectivity patterns were observed by entering the z maps of the ROIs of each subject into second-level one sample t test. Two sample t test was also performed to examine differences between two groups. A significant increase was observed in positive functional connectivity between the Orbito Frontal Cortex (OFC) and several brain regions in the nonaddicted group. However, no significant correlations in these structural connectivities were found in the Internet addiction group. The Internet addiction group presented significant negative connectivity between the OFC and insula. Our findings provide the evidence that Internet addicts have aberrant functional connectivity in the corticostriatal circuit at resting state. Particularly, we suggest that the OFC, which is associated with processing negative affect and behavioral inhibition, may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of the Internet addiction. Keywords-Resting-state fMRI; Internet addicts; Functional connectivity; Orbitofrontal cortex
Sugar transporters involved in flowering and grain development of rice

Developing seeds offer a fine experimental system for study on sugar transport mechanism(s) in sink tissue. The sugar transporters identified as being specific to the seed development may play a crucial role for flowering and grain development. The rice sucrose transporter OsSUTI and the monosaccharide transporters OsMST1-3 have been previously characterized. To investigate sugar transport processes during flowering and in developing grains of rice, we newly isolated two genomic clones OsSUT2 (Oryza sativa sucrose transporter 2) and OsMST5 (Oryza sativa monosaccharide transporter 5) and their corresponding cDNAs. OsSUT2 and OsMST5 are encoded by open reading frames of 1485 and 1557bp encoding 495 and 519 amino acids, respectively. The putative amino acid sequence of OsSUT2 showed 63.0 and 62.4 % identity to that of OsSUTI and barley transporter HvSUT1, respectively. Northern blot analysis revealed that OsSUT2 and OsMST5 mRNA accumulates in panicles before pollination. In situ hybridization analysis showed that OsSUT2 transcript is specific to the developing pollen. These data presented suggest that both OsSUT2 and OsMST5 play a role during the development at the early stage of the seed development. On the other hand OsSUTI was expressed at the early stage of the grain development, suggesting a different physiological role compared to OsSUT2.
Role of Estrogen Receptors in Male Reproductive Physiology

Canonical estrogen receptors (ER α/β) have a genomic mechanism of action, functioning as nuclear transcription factors for estrogen-dependent genes. Estrogen receptors are well established within the male reproductive tract with estrogen playing an essential role for male fertility. The recent characterization of novel G-protein coupled estrogen receptor GPR30 (alternatively known as GPER1), depending on non-genomic intracellular signaling pathways to transduce estrogenic signals, requires a re-examination of the roles of estrogen receptors in male reproduction. Further, the affinity of environmental estrogens (xenoestrogens) for estrogen receptor subtypes may provide additional understanding of the reproductive effects of these chemicals on male fertility. Here we review the structure and functions of each estrogen receptor within the context of male reproduction, with special consideration of the reproductive implications of xenoestrogen exposure.
PRODUCTION OF MURINE POLYCLONAL ANTI FtsZ P.aeruginosa ANTIBODIES

In order to overcome the crisis of antibiotic resistance, there is an urgent need for alternative antibacterial agents that have novel mechanisms of action. FtsZ is an attractive target for antibacterial drug discovery because of its widespread conservation in the bacterial kingdom, its absence in the mitochondria of higher eukaryotes and its known biochemical activity and molecular structure. FtsZ plays an essential role in prokaryotic cell division machinery in which undergoes GTP-dependent polymerization midcell and assembles into the dynamic Z-ring at the site of division. The Z-ring acts to initiate Z-ring contraction to form bacterial daughter cells. Although FtsZ shares structural and functional similarity with eukaryotic tubulin, most of the tubulin/microtubule targeting agents do not affect the dynamic assembly of FtsZ, indicating that FtsZ can be a selective antibacterial target. In this study, we evaluated the immunogenicity in mice of FtsZ protein from Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterium, which is a well-known opporthunistic human pathogen. We were interested in the degree of affinity and titer dynamics of polyclonal antibodies synthesized against Pseudomonas aeruginosa FtsZ by mice reimmunization and also, in antiFtsZ antibodies reactivity with their specific protein, FtsZ Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Trade linkages and growth in Latin America: A time-varying SVAR approach

This paper examines how shocks originated in large economies around the globe have transmitted to the growth rates of Latin American countries. For this purpose, a highly parsimonious structural VAR model – identified through bilateral trade linkages – is proposed, tested, estimated and simulated. Since trade weights evolve through time, the effect of shocks are time-varying. Thus, we are able to quantify how growth in the region has been affected by tighter trading linkages with fast-growing emerging economies, and how it has responded to a new world trade structure, featuring China as a major player. It is found that about half of the vigourous growth reported in Latin American countries by the end of the 2000s can be attributed to (direct and especially indirect) multiplier effects induced by the spectacular growth of the Chinese economy over the same period.
Cost Estimation of the Homogeneous Websites Using Hyper-links Analysis

—Websites hide thousands of links and sub-links. Websites‘ links contain a huge amount of information and knowledge. This research concentrates mainly on the difficulty of early prediction of web structure size at the beginning of Website Development Life Cycle (WDLC), especially during planning and gathering requirements. There is a lack of finding an appropriate mechanism to assist developers in these steps. The objective of this research is to measure the logical size of a website in order to predict the development time and cost earlier before the development process based on based on the website contents and its internal structure. This objective includes three sub-objectives. First, analysis of seven classes of websites to collect real data sets. Second, extracting a set of relations from the gathered data and use these relations to establish a proposed model. Third, apply the gathered data in the proposed model to predict the development time and cost of a website. This research provides strong and important results that would help developers before the development process to predict total development time and cost which in turn used directly to specify development tools, draw project plan, formulate contract conditions and determine project duration and final price.
Addressing Security and Privacy Issues in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a new development of grid, parallel, and distributed computing with visualization techniques. It is changing the IT industry in a prominent way. Cloud computing has grown due to its advantages like storage capacity, resources pooling and multi-tenancy. On the other hand, the cloud is an open environment and since all the services are offered over the Internet, there is a great deal of uncertainty about security and privacy at various levels. This paper aims to address security and privacy issues threatening the cloud computing adoption by end users. Cloud providers are mindful of cloud security and privacy issues and are working hardly to address them. Few of these threats have been addressed, but many more threats still unsolved. This paper focused on cloud computing security and privacy threats, challenges, and issues. Furthermore, some of the countermeasures to these threats will be discussed and synthesized. Finally, possible solutions for each type of threats will be introduced before we end with conclusions and future work.
Electrospinning of Guar Gum/Corn Starch Blends

In this study, electrospun nanofibers were prepared for the first time, from aqueous blends of guar gum (GG) and corn starch with amylose contents of 27.8% (CS28) and 50% (CS50). The fiber morphology and fiber diameter sizes (FDS) were correlated with solution rheology. The spinning solutions were prepared with 3 wt% total concentration and mass ratios ranging from 4:1 to 1:4 GG/CS. The GG alone (3 wt%) was highly viscous and predominantly elastic (G’>G’’) over the range of tested frequencies. Both CS were effective rheological modifiers that facilitated the electrospinning process. Partial substitution of GG by CS decreased solution viscosity and moved the elastic plateau (G’=G’’) to higher frequencies resulting in improved fiber morphology and defectfree nanofibers with uniform FDS at an optimal GG/CS ratio of 2:1 for CS28 and of 1:1 for CS50. The sonication of CS50 prior to blending with GG was important to eliminate nanofiber defects. GG and CS are costattractive options to produce 100% food-grade electrospun nanofibers with potential to encapsulate active food ingredients and be used to develop functional foods and other active food systems.
Multivariable control of a paper coloring process: a case study

Multivariable control of an industrial paper coloring process is studied with the aim of assessing the robustness of the resulting closed loop system, as well as the practicality of control implementation. With regard to this objective, two approaches were investigated: H/sub /spl infin// robust control, and PI control with decoupling. The closed-loop properties of the resulting systems are compared by simulations. Both approaches have comparable robustness with respect to uncertainty in process parameters. However H/sub /spl infin// control shows better properties with respect to the unmeasured disturbances in the form of added recycled paper. This paper provides an improved controller design over the previously proposed gain scheduling approach. Our single H/sub /spl infin// controller provides good performance over a wide range of operating points without the necessity of renewed process identification at each setpoint.
The Employment Interview as a Recruitment Device

Excerpt] More directly to the point of this paper, differences in the relative importance of recruitment versus selection are hypothesized to influence the conduct, and outcomes, of the employment interview. This can occur in several ways. For example, interviewers can change either their nonverbal (e.g., body language) or verbal behaviors (e.g., time spent talking), as well as the content of what is discussed (e.g., applicant qualifications versus vacancy characteristics).
Evaluating Alignment Between Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction

The authors (a) discuss the importance of alignment for facilitating proper assessment and instruction, (b) describe the three most common methods for evaluating the alignment between state content standards and assessments, (c) discuss the relative strengths and limitations of these methods, and (d) discuss examples of applications of each method. They conclude that choice of alignment method depends on the specific goals of a state or district and that alignment research is critical for ensuring the standards-assessment-instruction cycle facilitates student learning. Additional potential benefits of alignment research include valuable professional development for teachers and better understanding of the results from standardized assessments.
Origin of collapsed pits and branched valleys surrounding the Ius chasma on Mars

Chasma is a deep, elongated and steep sided depression on planetary surfaces. Several hypothesis have been proposed regarding the origin of chasma. In this study, we analysed morphological features in north and south of Ius chasma. Collapsed pits and branched valleys alongwith craters are prominent morphological features surrounding Ius Chasma, which forms the western part of the well known Valles Marineris chasma system on Martian surface. Analysis of images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) in ESA’s Mars Express (MEX) with a spatial resolution of 10 m shows linear arrangement of pits north of the Ius chasma. These pits were initially developed along existing narrow linear valleys parallel to Valles Merineris and are conical in shape unlike flat floored impact craters found adjacent to them. The width of conical pits ranges 1–10 km and depth ranges 1–2 km. With more subsidence, size of individual pits increased gradually and finally coalesced together to create a large depression forming a prominent linear valley. Arrangement of pits in this particular fashion can be attributed to collapse of the surface due to l arge hollows created in the subsurface because of the withdrawal of either magma or dry ice. Branched valleys which are prominent morphologic features south of the Ius chasma could have been formed due to groundwater sapping mechanism as proposed by previous researchers. Episodic release of groundwater in large quantity to the surface could have resulted in surface runoff creating V-shaped valleys, which were later modified into U-shaped valleys due to mass wasting and lack of continued surface runoff.
Design guidelines for slanting silicon nanowire arrays for solar cell application

The reflectance and absorption characteristics of slanting silicon nanowires (SiNWs) structure have been simulated using finite element method to provide a design guideline for its application in solar cell. The slanting angle for the nanowire structure is set at 40° on Si (111) wafer. The impact of the structural periodicity (P) and wire diameter/periodicity (D/P) ratio on the optical characteristics of the slanting SiNW has been systematically analyzed. It has been found that due to the much suppressed light reflection and stronger light trapping ability, the light absorption is significantly enhanced for the slanting SiNW structure compared with vertical SiNW structure. The optimal absorption condition is achieved when P = 800 nm and D/P = 0.7, yielding the highest ultimate efficiency of 33.45%. The result is better than the 28.36% that can be achieved for optimum vertical SiNWs. A comparison of the absorption characteristics of optimum slanting and vertical SiNWs structures is presented and analyzed i.
A hybrid time calibration method for EAS ground-based timing arrays

In a ground-based Cherenkov EAS timing array, the reconstruction of the shower direction is based on the measured photon arrival times at the sensor stations. Relative time offset calibration down to sub-nsec precision is needed for optimal pointing precision. For large arrays, a direct time calibration by artificial light sources introduces a large effort. We discuss a new, hybrid method, that combines information obtained from extended air-showers and a few, dedicated individual station calibrations. We discuss the effect of using exclusively EAS information. The proposed method is particularly useful for large, several squared-km arrays.