Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The lizard celestial compass detects linearly polarized light in the blue

SUMMARY The present study first examined whether ruin lizards, Podarcis sicula, are able to orientate using plane-polarized light produced by an LCD screen. Ruin lizards were trained and tested indoors, inside a hexagonal Morris water maze positioned under an LCD screen producing white polarized light with a single E-vector, which provided an axial cue. White polarized light did not include wavelengths in the UV. Lizards orientated correctly either when tested with E-vector parallel to the training axis or after 90 deg rotation of the E-vector direction, thus validating the apparatus. Further experiments examined whether there is a preferential region of the light spectrum to perceive the E-vector direction of polarized light. For this purpose, lizards reaching learning criteria under white polarized light were subdivided into four experimental groups. Each group was tested for orientation under a different spectrum of plane-polarized light (red, green, cyan and blue) with equalized photon flux density. Lizards tested under blue polarized light orientated correctly, whereas lizards tested under red polarized light were completely disoriented. Green polarized light was barely discernible by lizards, and thus insufficient for a correct functioning of their compass. When exposed to cyan polarized light, lizard orientation performances were optimal, indistinguishable from lizards detecting blue polarized light. Overall, the present results demonstrate that perception of linear polarization in the blue is necessary – and sufficient – for a proper functioning of the sky polarization compass of ruin lizards. This may be adaptively important, as detection of polarized light in the blue improves functioning of the polarization compass under cloudy skies, i.e. when the alternative celestial compass based on detection of the sun disk is rendered useless because the sun is obscured by clouds.
Effect of Freezing and Thawing on the Histology and Ultrastructure of Buffalo Muscle

Histology and transmission electron microscopy studies were carried out on buffalo muscles that were subjected to repeated freeze-thaw cycles at -10 and -18°C. In the first freeze thaw cycle (-10°C) structures of muscle showed slight change and closely resembled to those of normal muscle. There were frequent gaps in the half way across the fibres and some cracks in individual fibre were also noticed in second freeze thaw cycle. In the muscle frozen at -18°C, more pronounced shrinkage with extensive damage of fibres with tearing was observed. The interfibrillar gaps were wider, shrinkage and tearing of the fibres were more distinct after second freeze-thaw cycle. After the second cycle, the interior portion showed large scale degradation of the ultrastructure. Our studies of buffalo muscle showed that under the proper condition, little structural damage takes place in the meat histology and ultrastructure under repeated freeze-thaw conditions. This study adds continued weight to the evidence that limited freeze-thaw cycles will not deteriorate the quality of meat. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2004. Vol 17, No. 9 : 1291-1295)
Does therapeutic hypothermia reduce acute kidney injury among term neonates with perinatal asphyxia? – a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate whether therapeutic hypothermia reduces the incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) among term neonates perinatal asphyxia. Methods: This randomized controlled trial conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital, south India included 120 term neonates with perinatal asphyxia who were randomized to receive either therapeutic hypothermia or standard supportive care. Renal parameters of neonates in both the groups were monitored and AKI was ascertained as per Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria. Results: The incidence of AKI was less in therapeutic hypothermia group compared to standard treatment group (32% versus 60%, p < 0.05). The incidence of Stages 1, 2, and 3 AKI was 22%, 5%, and 5% in therapeutic hypothermia group compared with 52%, 5%, and 3%, respectively, in the standard treatment group. The mortality was less in therapeutic hypothermia group compared with the standard treatment group (26% versus 50%, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Therapeutic hypothermia reduces the incidence and severity of AKI among term neonates with perinatal asphyxia.
Surgical management of lumbosacral nerve root hemangioblastomas in von Hippel-Lindau syndrome.

OBJECT Hemangioblastomas in the lumbosacral region are rare, and the authors of prior reports have not defined the surgical management, histopathological features, or outcome in a group of patients after resection of these tumors. To identify features that will help guide the operative and clinical management of these lesions, the authors reviewed data obtained in a series of patients with von Hippel-Lindau syndrome who underwent resection of lumbosacral nerve root hemangioblastomas. METHODS Six consecutive patients (three men and three women; mean age at surgery 39 years [range 31-48 years]) who underwent operations for resection of lumbosacral nerve root hemangioblastomas were included in this study. The mean follow-up period was 23 months (range 6-45 months). Data derived from examination, hospital charts, operative findings, histopathological analysis, and magnetic resonance imaging were used to analyze surgical management and clinical outcome. The resected tumors were located in the lumbar (five cases) or sacral (one case) regions; the mean tumor size was 2728 mm3 (range 80-15,022 mm3). Consistent with central nervous system (CNS) regional variation of space available to accommodate the neural compressive effect of the hemangioblastoma size, the mean tumor volume (2728 mm3) of these symptomatic lesions was much larger than that of symptomatic hemangioblastomas resected in the other regions of the CNS. Histopathological examination showed infiltration of the associated nerve root by the hemangioblastoma in each case. In five of the six patients complete resection was achieved, and in one patient intradural exploration of two hemangioblastomas was performed, but resection was not achieved because of motor root involvement. In all cases involving complete resections the patients experienced symptomatic improvement. CONCLUSIONS Lumbosacral nerve root hemangioblastomas can be safely removed in most patients with von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. Generally, hemangioblastomas of the lumbosacral nerve roots should be resected when they become symptomatic. Because these neoplasms appear to originate from the nerve root, it is necessary to sacrifice the nerve root from which the hemangioblastoma originates to achieve complete resection.
The structure and management of service level agreements in networks

The paper proposes a structure for quality-of-service (QoS)-centered service level agreements (SLA), and a framework for their real-time management in multiservice packet networks. The SLA is structured to be fair to both parties, the service provider and their customer. The SLA considered here are for QoS assured delivery of aggregate bandwidth from ingress to egress nodes; however, the control and signaling is for the more granular flows or calls. A SLA monitoring scheme is presented in which revenue is generated by the admission of flows into the network, and penalty incurred when flows are lost in periods when the service provider is not SLA compliant. In the SLA management scheme proposed, the results of a prior off-line design are used, in conjunction with measurements taken locally at ingress nodes, to classify the loading status of routes. The routing and resource management are based on virtual partitioning and its supporting mechanism of bandwidth protection. The effectiveness of SLA management is measured by the robustness in performance in the presence of substantial diversity in actual traffic conditions. A simulation testbed called D'ARTAGNAN has been built from which we report numerical results for a case study. The results show that the SLA management scheme is robust, fair and efficient over a broad range of traffic conditions.
Time-restricted feeding attenuates age-related cardiac decline in Drosophila

Midnight snacks are bad for the heart Circadian clocks help animals coordinate their active and rest periods with the daily cycles of light and darkness. As anyone who has suffered jet lag or worked night shifts knows, losing this coordination can have deleterious effects. Gill et al. compared fruit flies that were allowed to eat at any time with flies that were only allowed to eat during the day (when they are active). The flies with restricted feeding times slept better and had a slower decline in heart function as they aged. They also showed less weight gain, even though both groups of flies consumed about the same amount. Science, this issue p. 1265 Restricting feeding to daytime has health benefits for fruitflies. Circadian clocks orchestrate periods of rest or activity and feeding or fasting over the course of a 24-hour day and maintain homeostasis. To assess whether a consolidated 24-hour cycle of feeding and fasting can sustain health, we explored the effect of time-restricted feeding (TRF; food access limited to daytime 12 hours every day) on neural, peripheral, and cardiovascular physiology in Drosophila melanogaster. We detected improved sleep, prevention of body weight gain, and deceleration of cardiac aging under TRF, even when caloric intake and activity were unchanged. We used temporal gene expression profiling and validation through classical genetics to identify the TCP-1 ring complex (TRiC) chaperonin, the mitochondrial electron transport chain complexes, and the circadian clock as pathways mediating the benefits of TRF.
How reduction of theta rhythm by medial septum inactivation may covary with disruption of entorhinal grid cell responses due to reduced cholinergic transmission

Oscillations in the coordinated firing of brain neurons have been proposed to play important roles in perception, cognition, attention, learning, navigation, and sensory-motor control. The network theta rhythm has been associated with properties of spatial navigation, as has the firing of entorhinal grid cells and hippocampal place cells. Two recent studies reduced the theta rhythm by inactivating the medial septum (MS) and demonstrated a correlated reduction in the characteristic hexagonal spatial firing patterns of grid cells. These results, along with properties of intrinsic membrane potential oscillations (MPOs) in slice preparations of medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), have been interpreted to support oscillatory interference models of grid cell firing. The current article shows that an alternative self-organizing map (SOM) model of grid cells can explain these data about intrinsic and network oscillations without invoking oscillatory interference. In particular, the adverse effects of MS inactivation on grid cells can be understood in terms of how the concomitant reduction in cholinergic inputs may increase the conductances of leak potassium (K+) and slow and medium after-hyperpolarization (sAHP and mAHP) channels. This alternative model can also explain data that are problematic for oscillatory interference models, including how knockout of the HCN1 gene in mice, which flattens the dorsoventral gradient in MPO frequency and resonance frequency, does not affect the development of the grid cell dorsoventral gradient of spatial scales, and how hexagonal grid firing fields in bats can occur even in the absence of theta band modulation. These results demonstrate how models of grid cell self-organization can provide new insights into the relationship between brain learning and oscillatory dynamics.
Multiflow optical transponder for efficient multilayer optical networking

Growing concerns regarding the scalability of current optical networks as well as IP-based networks are driving two important trends. One trend is a shift from the current rigid optical networks to spectrally efficient elastic optical networks with a flexible bandwidth and adaptive channel spacing. The other trend is IP traffic offloading to a lower layer yielding benefits that are potentially cost-effective and power-efficient. This article presents a novel multiflow optical transponder (OTP) that enables more efficient IP optical networking. A multiflow OTP allows client data flows that arrive from a single client interface to be mapped to multiple optical flows. In cooperation with the emerging spectrally efficient elastic optical path networking technology, multiflow OTPs can provide multiple optical connections from a single OTP to multiple OTPs. IP traffic offloading to an elastic optical path layer architecture and the effect of introducing multiflow OTPs (i.e., the potential reduction in the number of router interfaces and considerable potential for cost savings) are discussed. These benefits are brought about by increasing the number of directly connected router pairs while keeping router-to-optical-node interconnections simple. A novel optical virtual private line service based on multiflow OTPs that supports multiple optical connections from a single customer site to multiple customer sites with capacity adjustment is also discussed.
Flexible constrained de Finetti reductions and applications

De Finetti theorems show how sufficiently exchangeable states are well-approximated by convex combinations of i.i. d. states. Recently, it was shown that in many quantum information applications a more relaxed de Finetti reduction (i.e. only a matrix inequality between the symmetric state and one of de Finetti form) is enough, and that it leads to more concise and elegant arguments. Here we show several uses and general flexible applicability of a constrained de Finetti reduction in quantum information theory, which was recently discovered by Duan, Severini and Winter. In particular we show that the technique can accommodate other symmetries commuting with the permutation action, and permutation-invariant linear constraints. We then demonstrate that, in some cases, it is also fruitful with convex constraints, in particular separability in a bipartite setting. This is a constraint particularly interesting in the context of the complexity class $\mathrm{QMA}(2)$ of interactive quantum Merlin-Arthur games with unentangled provers, and our results relate to the soundness gap amplification of $\mathrm{QMA}(2)$ protocols by parallel repetition. It is also relevant for the regularization of certain entropic channel parameters. Finally, we explore an extension to infinite-dimensional systems, which usually pose inherent problems to de Finetti techniques in the quantum case.
Variation of molecular alignment as a means of resolving orientational ambiguities in protein structures from dipolar couplings.

Residual dipolar couplings for pairs of proximate magnetic nuclei in macromolecules can easily be measured using high-resolution NMR methods when the molecules are dissolved in dilute liquid crystalline media. The resulting couplings can in principle be used to constrain the relative orientation of molecular fragments in macromolecular systems to build a complete structure. However, determination of relative fragment orientations based on a single set of residual dipolar couplings is inherently hindered by the multi-valued nature of the angular dependence of the dipolar interaction. Even with unlimited dipolar data, this gives rise to a fourfold degeneracy in fragment orientations. In this Communication, we demonstrate a procedure based on an order tensor analysis that completely removes this degeneracy by combining residual dipolar coupling measurements from two alignment media. Application is demonstrated on (15)N-(1)H residual dipolar coupling data acquired on the protein zinc rubredoxin from Clostridium pasteurianum dissolved in two different bicelle media.
What Is Cultural Capital? : Comments on Lennart Rosenlund’s Social Structures and Change

Lennart Rosenlund’s DPhil thesis, Social Structures and Change: Applying Pierre Bourdieu’s Approach and Analytic Framework, is a major achievement. A pioneering work in many respects, and by far the most rigorous, thorough and comprehensive attempt in Scandinavia to apply the methods developed by Pierre Bourdieu for the study of the social space and the space of lifestyles. It is a significant contri bution to the examination and development of sociological methods. The detailed presentation of the correspondence analysis techniques and the demonstration of potential uses of those techniques will no doubt have an impact on sociological research in Scandinavian countries, where French statistical traditions are still rather marginal. Furthermore, in addition to the eminent treatment of French research traditions, the thesis constitutes a vital empirical work in its own right. There have
ISI-free pulses with reduced sensitivity to timing errors

We consider the linear combination of two ISI free pulses, the raised cosine (RC) and the recently proposed better than raised cosine (BTRC). We determine their optimum combination using the distribution of timing error. The obtained pulses perform better than RC and BTRC for fixed as well as randomly distributed timing errors.
EEG, Measures of Complexity, and Preference for Nonrepresentational Works of Art

With a heterogeneous sample of human subjects, alpha abundance, an inverse function of cortical arousal, was found to increase with greater complexity of a series of 18 nonrepresentational works of art. This finding is contrary to those of previous EEG studies with artificially generated stimuli, which showed increased arousal with increasing complexity; but is consistent with those which reveal an inverted-U-shaped relation between arousal and complexity when the range of complexity sample is broad. That is, at higher levels of complexity, subjects may be less able to process the information content of paintings. Ratings of interestingness and pleasingness increased with complexity; it may be that they are dependent to some extent on social learning factors.
Microphone array post-filtering using supervised machine learning for speech enhancement

High level of noise reduces the perceptual quality and intelligibility of speech. Therefore, enhancing the captured speech signal is important in everyday applications such as telephony and teleconferencing. Microphone arrays are typically placed at a distance from a speaker and require processing to enhance the captured signal. Beamforming provides directional gai nt owards the source of interest and attenuation of interference. It is often followed by a single channel post-filter to further enhance the signal. Non-linear spatial post-filters are capable of providing high noise suppression but can produce unwanted musical noise that lowers the perceptual quality of the output. This work proposes an artificial neural network (ANN) to learn the structure of naturally occurring post-filters to enhance speech from interfering noise. The ANN uses phase-based features obtained from a multichannel array as an input. Simulations are used to train the ANN in a supervised manner. The performance is measured with objective scores from speech recorded in an office environment. The post-filters predicted by the ANN are found to improve the perceptual quality over delay-and-sum beamforming while maintaining high suppression of noise characteristic to spatial post-filters. Index Terms:Speech enhancement, Microphone arrays, Array signal processing, Artificial neural networks, Psychoacoustics.
Articulate: A Semi-automated Model for Translating Natural Language Queries into Meaningful Visualizations

While many visualization tools exist that offer sophisticated functions for charting complex data, they still expect users to possess a high degree of expertise in wielding the tools to create an effective visualization. This paper presents Articulate, an attempt at a semi-automated visual analytic model that is guided by a conversational user interface to allow users to verbally describe and then manipulate what they want to see. We use natural language processing and machine learning methods to translate the imprecise sentences into explicit expressions, and then apply a heuristic graph generation algorithm to create a suitable visualization. The goal is to relieve the user of the burden of having to learn a complex user-interface in order to craft a visualization.
Endohyphal Bacterium Enhances Production of Indole-3-Acetic Acid by a Foliar Fungal Endophyte

Numerous plant pathogens, rhizosphere symbionts, and endophytic bacteria and yeasts produce the important phytohormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), often with profound effects on host plants. However, to date IAA production has not been documented among foliar endophytes -- the diverse guild of primarily filamentous Ascomycota that live within healthy, above-ground tissues of all plant species studied thus far. Recently bacteria that live within hyphae of endophytes (endohyphal bacteria) have been detected, but their effects have not been studied previously. Here we show not only that IAA is produced in vitro by a foliar endophyte (here identified as Pestalotiopsis aff. neglecta, Xylariales), but that IAA production is enhanced significantly when the endophyte hosts an endohyphal bacterium (here identified as Luteibacter sp., Xanthomonadales). Both the endophyte and the endophyte/bacterium complex appear to rely on an L-tryptophan dependent pathway for IAA synthesis. The bacterium can be isolated from the fungus when the symbiotic complex is cultivated at 36°C. In pure culture the bacterium does not produce IAA. Culture filtrate from the endophyte-bacterium complex significantly enhances growth of tomato in vitro relative to controls and to filtrate from the endophyte alone. Together these results speak to a facultative symbiosis between an endophyte and endohyphal bacterium that strongly influences IAA production, providing a new framework in which to explore endophyte-plant interactions.
MULTIPLE STABLE STEADY STATES OF A REACTION-DIFFUSION MODEL ON ZEBRAFISH DORSAL-VENTRAL PATTERNING

The reaction-diffusion system modeling the dorsal-ventral patterning during the zebrafish embryo development, developed in [Y. -T. Zhang, A.D. Lander, Q. Nie, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 248 (2007), 579--589] has multiple steady state solutions. In this paper, we describe the computation of seven steady state solutions found by discretizing the boundary value problem using a finite difference scheme and solving the resulting polynomial system using algorithms from numerical algebraic geometry. The stability of each of these steady state solutions is studied by mathematical analysis and numerical simulations via a time marching approach. The results of this paper show that three of the seven steady state solutions are stable and the location of the organizer of a zebrafish embryo determines which stable steady state pattern the multi-stability system converges to. Numerical simulations also show that the system is robust with respect to the change of the organizer size.