Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Body Size and Extinction Risk in Terrestrial Mammals Above the Species Level

Mammalian body mass strongly correlates with life history and population properties at the scale of mouse to elephant. Large body size is thus often associated with elevated extinction risk. I examined the North American fossil record (28–1 million years ago) of 276 terrestrial genera to uncover the relationship between body size and extinction probability above the species level. Phylogenetic comparative analysis revealed no correlation between sampling-adjusted durations and body masses ranging 7 orders of magnitude, an observation that was corroborated by survival analysis. Most of the ecological and temporal groups within the data set showed the same lack of relationship. Size-biased generic extinctions do not constitute a general feature of the Holarctic mammalian faunas in the Neogene. Rather, accelerated loss of large mammals occurred during intervals that experienced combinations of regional aridification and increased biomic heterogeneity within continents. The latter phenomenon is consistent with the macroecological prediction that large geographic ranges are critical to the survival of large mammals in evolutionary time. The frequent lack of size selectivity in generic extinctions can be reconciled with size-biased species loss if extinctions of large and small mammals at the species level are often driven by ecological perturbations of different spatial and temporal scales, while those at the genus level are more synchronized in time as a result of fundamental, multiscale environmental shifts.
Characterization of stem phoenix fibres as potential reinforcement of self compacting mortar

Abstract In this work, we investigate the effect of different treatment process on stem Phoenix fibres. Underwent different surface modification methods such as alkali treatment with concentration of 10%, epoxy treatment, and combine both of procedures preceded. The treated fibres reinforcement was used in self compacting mortar (SCM) with a length of 20 ± 2 mm and different proportions (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3%) by mortar volume. Flowability of fresh modified self compacting mortar is carried out using two main techniques, including flow table experiments and mini V-funnel flow test. Mechanical performance is derived from bending and compression testing at different curing times. Results show a positive effect of fibre treatment on the rheological and mechanical performances of self compacting mortars. Results show also that optimal formulations need to use fibres treated with (10% NaOH + epoxy resin) by an amount of 3%. These formulations reveal superior mechanical performance compared to all tested mixes after 28 curing days, by 20% in compressive strength and 40% of tensile strength.
Multiactuator Haptic Feedback on the Wrist for Needle Steering Guidance in Brachytherapy

Brachytherapy is a cancer treatment procedure where long needles are inserted toward an inner body target in order to deliver radioactive seeds that treat the cancer cells. Controlling the trajectory of the needle is very challenging as it deviates from a straight path during insertion. In this letter, we present the pilot study of usefulness of a wristband with haptic feedback designed to help surgeons guide the needle toward a desired destination. The wristband embeds eight miniature actuators distributed around the wrist. The actuators are controlled to generate different haptic stimuli, each of which informs the user about a necessary needle steering manoeuvre. We describe the design of the wristband and its evaluation in two distinct user studies. In the first study, we evaluate how accurately users can identify the vibration patterns. In the second study, we focus on how the user responds to these patterns while performing needle insertion into tissue in an environment with high cognitive visual load. The reported average success rate in identifying the haptic pattern and the success rate in performing the correct action during needle insertion are 86% and 72%, respectively. These results suggest that the device could work in tandem with a needle steering algorithm to help surgeons achieve high quality implants and develop needle steering skills.
Why You Shouldn't Use PLS: Four Reasons to Be Uneasy about Using PLS in Analyzing Path Models

When it was originally introduced, Partial Least Squares (PLS) was designed primarily for exploratory studies focusing on prediction (rather than hypothesis testing). Over time, however, PLS has become a very popular statistical analysis technique for testing hypothesized relationships (confirmatory studies) within MIS research. In this paper we note some challenges that have been raised relative to PLS, and then focus on four assertions concerning its use that we believe are problematic. We show that these frequently stated assertions of PLS strength actually suggest important weaknesses. In particular, we show evidence that PLS seems to capitalize on chance correlations among indicators at sample sizes typically used in MIS research. Our belief is that many PLS users are unaware of the trade-offs involved in PLS use, and we recommend a much reduced (or possibly non-existent) role for PLS in confirmatory work.
Sex‐dependent modulation of age‐related cognitive decline by the L‐type calcium channel gene Cacna1c (Cav1.2)

Increased calcium influx through L‐type voltage‐gated calcium channels has been implicated in the neuronal dysfunction underlying age‐related memory declines. The present study aimed to test the specific role of Cacna1c (which encodes Cav1.2) in modulating age‐related memory dysfunction. Short‐term, spatial and contextual/emotional memory was evaluated in young and aged, wild‐type as well as mice with one functional copy of Cacna1c (haploinsufficient), using the novel object recognition, Y‐maze and passive avoidance tasks, respectively. Hippocampal expression of Cacna1c mRNA was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Ageing was associated with object recognition and contextual/emotional memory deficits, and a significant increase in hippocampal Cacna1c mRNA expression. Cacna1c haploinsufficiency was associated with decreased Cacna1c mRNA expression in both young and old animals. However, haploinsufficient mice did not manifest an age‐related increase in expression of this gene. Behaviourally, Cacna1c haploinsufficiency prevented object recognition deficits during ageing in both male and female mice. A significant correlation between higher Cacna1c levels and decreased object recognition performance was observed in both sexes. Also, a sex‐dependent protective role of decreased Cacna1c levels in contextual/emotional memory loss has been observed, specifically in male mice. These data provide evidence for an association between increased hippocampal Cacna1c expression and age‐related cognitive decline. Additionally, they indicate an interaction between the Cacna1c gene and sex in the modulation of age‐related contextual memory declines.
Functional imaging in the zebrafish retinotectal system using RGECO

Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) allow repeated, non-invasive measurements of neural activity in defined populations of neurons, but until recently GECIs based on single fluorescent proteins have been limited to the green region of the color spectrum. Recent efforts in protein engineering have expanded the color palette of GECIs. One of these new GECIs, the red RGECO, is spectrally separate from the traditional GFP-based sensors such as GCaMP, and therefore opens the way for simultaneous, multicolor imaging of neural activity. While RGECO has been shown to report spontaneous calcium fluctuations in neurons, the precise relationship of RGECO signal to evoked-neural activity is not known. Measurements of neural activity using RGECO in vivo have also not been reported. Using dissociated hippocampal neurons we performed a systematic analysis of two forms of RGECO- a cytosolic form and a presynaptically localized form generated by fusion of RGECO to the presynaptic protein, synaptophysin (SyRGECO). We find that RGECO and GCaMP3 are comparable in terms of dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratios and kinetics but that RGECO is a more reliable reporter of single action potentials. In terms of performance SyGCaMP3 and SyRGECO are comparable, and both are more sensitive reporters of activity than the cytosolic form of each probe. Using the zebrafish retinotectal system we show that SyRGECO and RGECO are can report neural activity in vivo and that RGECO expression permits detailed structural analysis of neuronal arbors. We have exploited these attributes to provide a morphological and functional description of tectal cells selective for motion along the vertical axis. These results open up the possibility of using zebrafish to functionally image genetically defined pre- and postsynaptic circuit components, separable by color, which will be a powerful approach to studying neural interactions in the brain.
Prevalence and Diversity of Salmonella Serotypes in Ecuadorian Broilers at Slaughter Age

Salmonella is frequently found in poultry and represent an important source for human gastrointestinal infections worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence, genotypes and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella serotypes in broilers from Ecuador. Caeca content from 388 at random selected broiler batches were collected in 6 slaughterhouses during 1 year and analyzed by the ISO 6579/Amd1 protocol for the isolation for Salmonella. Isolates were serotyped and genotypic variation was acceded by pulsed field gel electrophoresis. MIC values for sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, tetracycline, streptomycin, trimethropim, chloramphenicol, colistin, florfenicol, kanamycin and nalidixic acid were obtained. Presence of blaCTX-M, blaTEM, blaSHV and blaCMY; and mcr-1 plasmid genes was investigated in resistant strains to cefotaxime and colistin respectively. Prevalence at batch level was 16.0%. The most common serotype was S. Infantis (83.9%) followed by S. Enteritidis (14.5%) and S. Corvallis (1.6%). The pulsed field gel electrophoresis analysis showed that S. Corvallis, S. Enteritidis and S. Infantis isolates belonged to 1, 2 and 12 genotypes respectively. S. Infantis isolates showed high resistance rates to 12 antibiotics ranging from 57.7% (kanamycin) up to 98.1% (nalidixic acid and sulfamethoxazole). All S. Enteritidis isolates showed resistance to colistin. High multiresistant patterns were found for all the serotypes. The blaCTX-M gene was present in 33 S. Infantis isolates while mcr-1 was negative in 10 colistin resistant isolates. This study provides the first set of scientific data on prevalence and multidrug-resistant Salmonella coming from commercial poultry in Ecuador.
Thermoelectric Transport in Nanocomposites

Thermoelectric materials which can convert energies directly between heat and electricity are used for solid state cooling and power generation. There is a big challenge to improve the efficiency of energy conversion which can be characterized by the figure of merit (ZT). In the past two decades, the introduction of nanostructures into bulk materials was believed to possibly enhance ZT. Nanocomposites is one kind of nanostructured material system which includes nanoconstituents in a matrix material or is a mixture of different nanoconstituents. Recently, nanocomposites have been theoretically proposed and experimentally synthesized to be high efficiency thermoelectric materials by reducing the lattice thermal conductivity due to phonon-interface scattering and enhancing the electronic performance due to manipulation of electron scattering and band structures. In this review, we summarize the latest progress in both theoretical and experimental works in the field of nanocomposite thermoelectric materials. In particular, we present various models of both phonon transport and electron transport in various nanocomposites established in the last few years. The phonon-interface scattering, low-energy electrical carrier filtering effect, and miniband formation, etc., in nanocomposites are discussed.
Preferences Under Risk: Content-Dependent Behavior and Psychological Processing

A common view in economics and psychology is that decision agents achieve their choices and express their respective preferences by computing probabilistic properties (probabilities and money) from a decision-making context (e.g., von Neumann and Morgenstern, 1947; Tversky and Kahneman, 1992; Starmer, 2000). In this computational processing, the main psychological mechanism requires that decision agents are able to integrate economic (contextual) attributes such as money and probabilities into subjective values; in other words people are able to construct and employ psycho-economic scales. Subsequently, when making a choice, decision agents are supposed to perform tradeoffs between the computed outputs (psycho-economic variables such as expected values) and certain monetary alternatives (see Kahneman and Tversky, 1979; Tversky and Kahneman, 1992; Starmer, 2000). Despite the dominance of descriptive approach to the decision-making (e.g., Kahneman and Tversky, 1979; Tversky and Kahneman, 1992), theorists (Hertwig et al., 2004; Stewart et al., 2006) have recently argued for somewhat different psychological processing in decision-making, without computations (integration of attributes) and tradeoffs. In particular, a non-utilitarian structure of preferences for risk is proposed. In this approach, decision-making is accounted for by experience with sequential events, simple binary comparisons (based on context and memory), and a threshold mechanism (Hertwig et al., 2004; Stewart et al., 2006). However, recent research (Kusev et al., 2009, 2011; Jones and Oaksford, 2011), in an effort to map the nature of human preferences, explored the role of decision-making content (the influence of memory in precautionary decision-making – Kusev et al., 2009, and transactional content on temporal and probabilistic discounting of costs – Jones and Oaksford, 2011). Specifically, we distinguish the influence of decision-making content from that of decision-making context (the description of risk); we see the content of decision-making as experiential (accumulative) cognitive storage system which represents (but not necessarily accurately) experienced events and their associate frequencies as these events occur over time. Accordingly, in this article we elaborate further on the interplay of decision-making context and content, as well as potential “decision” biases as a result of sequential experience in decision-making.
Concurrent infectious mononucleosis and acute leukemia.

Despite speculation that infectious mononucleosis could be an abortive form of acute lymphatic leukemia, four children under our observation developed both diseases concurrently. Infectious mononucleosis preceded acute leukemia by three months in one case and occurred at various times during hematologic remission in the others. A review of these and five similar cases, reported previously, suggests that infectious mononucleosis is an intercurrent illness which is etiologically unrelated to acute leukemia.
Theoretical Kinetic and Mechanistic Studies on the Reactions of CF3CBrCH2 (2-BTP) with OH and H Radicals

CF3CBrCH2 (2-bromo-3,3,3-trifluoropropene, 2-BTP) is a potential replacement for CF3Br; however, it shows conflicted inhibition and enhancement behaviors under different combustion conditions. To better understand the combustion chemistry of 2-BTP, a theoretical study has been performed on its reactions with OH and H radicals. Potential energy surfaces were exhaustively explored by using B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ for geometry optimizations and CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ for high level single point energy refinements. Detailed kinetics of the major pathways were predicted by using RRKM/master-equation methodology. The present predictions imply that the –C(Br)=CH2 moiety of 2-BTP is most likely to be responsible for its fuel-like property. For 2-BTP + OH, the addition to the initial adduct (CF3CBrCH2OH) is the dominant channel at low temperatures, while the substitution reaction (CF3COHCH2 + Br) and H abstraction reaction (CF3CBrCH + H2O) dominates at high temperatures and elevated pressures. For 2-BTP + H, the addition to the initial adduct (CF3CBrCH3) also dominates the overall kinetics at low temperatures, while Br abstraction reaction (CF3CCH2 + HBr) and β-scission of the adduct forming CF3CHCH2 + Br dominates at high temperatures and elevated pressures. Compared to 2-BTP + OH, the 2-BTP + H reaction tends to have a larger effect on flame suppression, given the fact that it produces more inhibition species.
Worlds apart? The reception of genetically modified foods in Europe and the U.S.

Recent controversies about genetically modified foods in the United Kingdom and several other European countries highlight the apparent differences that exist in public opinion on this subject across the Atlantic. Why are people in the United States seemingly untroubled by a technology that causes Europeans so many difficulties? The results of survey research on public perceptions of biotechnology in Europe and the United States during 1996-1997, together with an analysis of press coverage and policy formation from 1984 to 1996, can help to answer this question.
Mind-wandering While Reading: Attentional Decoupling, Mindless Reading and the Cascade Model of Inattention

When the mind wanders to unrelated thoughts and feelings while reading, the eyes often continue to scan the words without due attention to their meaning. This mindless reading, similar to states such as daydreaming or absentminded lapses, is a state of decoupled processing in which attention to ongoing perceptual information is reduced often in favor of the active consideration of internally generated thoughts and feelings. Normal reading involves a complex interaction between bottom-up representations of the text that is being read and top-down representations of the more general context that help to keep the readers mind on what they are doing. Since states of decoupling involve a reduced processing of sensory information, the coupling between the reader and the text breaks down during mindless reading. This reduced external coupling is one reason why mind-wandering during reading has significant implications for reading comprehension. Following the presentation of a model of the decoupled state and a specific consideration of mind-wandering during reading, five key unresolved issues for future research in mindless reading are identified.
Asthma risk factors

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood, with a current prevalence of 6% to 9%, but a prevalence that is increasing at an alarming rate. Asthma is a complex genetic disorder with strong environmental influence. It imposes a growing burden on our society in terms of morbidity, quality of life, and healthcare costs. Despite large‐scale efforts, only a few asthma genes have been confirmed, suggesting that the genetic underpinning of asthma is highly complex.
Are the unenhanced and excretory CT phases necessary for the evaluation of acute pyelonephritis?

Background The most widely accepted computed tomography (CT) protocol for diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis (APN) includes at least a pre- and post-contrast scan, which may expose patients to higher doses of ionizing radiation. Purpose To establish the accuracy, reproducibility, and degree of confidence in CT diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis (APN) and urolithiasis using only images obtained during the nephrographic phase. Material and Methods A retrospective study of 100 consecutive patients (88 women; age range, 19–70 years) with clinical and laboratory suspicion of APN and who underwent triphasic abdominal CT scans (non-contrast, nephrographic, and excretory phases) was performed. Two readers first evaluated independently only the nephrographic phase of scans, and, in a second session, the entire study. The diagnostic reference standard was settled by a third experienced radiologist who reviewed all triphasic scans and clinical data. Results The accuracy of only nephrographic phase for diagnosis of APN and urolithiasis was in the range of 90.3–91.78% and 96.27–99.25%, respectively. There was no significant difference in comparison with the triphasic reading (z: −0.4 – 0.2; P = 0.34–0.83). The average degree of confidence for APN also showed no significant variation for both readers (P = 0.4 and 0.08). Almost perfect inter-observer agreements for the diagnosis of APN (k = 0.86, P < 0.001) and for urolithiasis (k = 0.84, P < 0.001) were observed when considering only the nephrographic phase. Conclusion CT assessment of APN and urolithiasis can be accurately performed using only the late nephrographic phase, with consequent dose reduction.
A Comparison of the Motivations for and the Information Content of Different Types of Equity Offerings

We examine the choice of equity offering type and the accompanying information content using a sample of 4,708 equity offerings announced between 1980 and 1998. We find evidence that announcements of regular equity offerings involving primary shares convey unfavorable information about future operating performance, while announcements of regular offerings of secondary shares and shelf registrations, if anything, convey favorable information. Further analysis suggests that firms sell equity in regular offerings to take advantage of temporarily high equity values, while firms sell equity in rights offerings or file shelf registrations when their market value is low and their financial situation tight.
Emotional responses during repeated sprint intervals performed on level, downhill and uphill surfaces

Abstract The purpose of this study was to test emotional responses during sprint intervals performed on a level, down and up surface. Fifty trained participants performed a maximal effort during a 60-m sprint and 10 repetitions of 60 m running sprints on a level, down and up surface on a 5.9% slope. Running speeds, emotional responses and heart rate were measured. Self-selected speeds were correlated with the rating of perceived exertion, the affective balance, the desire to stop and the resources needed for the task in all conditions whereas the pleasure, the desire to continue and the capacity to realise the task were correlated with speeds only during level and uphill running. Mean values of emotional parameters were significantly different (P < 0.05) during running on a flat surface, downhill and uphill. When the gradient of running surface is changed, the pattern of emotional responses was just translated, i.e. most of the slope between the evolution of emotional parameters and the repetitions were not significantly different whereas Y-intercepts were different. Consented effort is highly correlated with the resources needed for the task (P < 0.001, r2 = 0.72). We propose that the difference in the resources needed for the task between level, downhill and uphill running (F 2, 1499 = 166.5, P < 0.001, Eta2 = 0.18) is the most important key that explains our results.
Painful leg and moving toes syndrome

Painful leg and moving toes (PLMT) syndrome is a distinct clinical entity and in majority of the patients there are some underlying causes related to spinal cord, cauda equina, or peripheral neuropathy. However, some cases are cryptogenic with no identifiable underlying cause. Response to treatment is disappointing in most of the cases. We report a 60-year-old lady who presented with very severe type of painful legs and moving toes (PLMT) with no underlying cause.