Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low-dimensional models of subcritical transition to turbulence

In the past five years, working largely independently, five groups of researchers have proposed low-dimensional models of the behavior of parallel shear flows at high Reynolds numbers. These models are compared, and it is found that they are more similar than their authors have recognized. Among other similarities, most of them exhibit a threshold amplitude e=O(Rα) as R→∞ for some α<−1, where R is the Reynolds number, for perturbations of the laminar state that may excite transition to turbulence. The reason for this behavior in each case is an interaction of non-normal linear effects with quadratic nonlinearities.
Compact super-wide bandpass substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) filters

It is known that the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) features high-pass characteristics of the conventional waveguide, and a periodic structure (PS) generally presents bandstop characteristics. Therefore, a super-wide-band bandpass characteristic should be realized by combining some sort of PS into the SIW. In this paper, three types of compact SIW-PS wide-band bandpass filters are proposed and investigated with simulation and experiment. Performances of a super-wide bandpass, for instance, 8.5-16.5 GHz in this case study, with low insertion loss and sharp out-of-band characteristics are observed from both simulated and measured results.
Thermal activation of escape swimming in post-hatching Xenopus laevis frog larvae

SUMMARY Survival requires the selection of appropriate behavioural responses in the face of danger. With respect to the threat of predation, both the decision to escape and the underlying neuronal mechanisms have been extensively studied, but processes that trigger evasion of abiotic stressors, which are potentially hazardous to survival, are less well understood. Here, we document the interplay between rhythmic locomotory and `C-start' escape swimming in Xenopus frog larvae when exposed to hyperthermic conditions. As temperature rises, swim cycle frequency increases while swim bout duration decreases, until swimming can no longer be initiated by sensory stimuli. Above a critical higher temperature, more intense sequences of spontaneous high amplitude C-start escape activity occur. Each C-start is followed by a few cycles of fast rhythmic swimming in which activity alternates between the two sides. The initial, high amplitude ventral root burst of an escape sequence propagates rostrocaudally approximately threefold faster than subsequent cycles. The high conduction velocity of this initial burst is consistent with the activation of a Mauthner neuron, one of a pair of giant reticulospinal neurons in fish and amphibians. In support of the involvement of a Mauthner neuron, unilateral lesions of the caudal hindbrain eliminated escape activity on the operated side, but activity remained on the un-operated side. Behaviourally, tadpoles responded to temperature ramps with a sequence of C-start responses in which the body arced through ∼130° in 22 ms, followed by high frequency swimming. These results suggest that high temperature activates the Mauthner neurons to trigger C-start escape behaviour.
Canine parvovirus (CPV-2) variants circulating in Nigerian dogs

Canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) is a highly contagious viral disease with three variants (CPV-2a, CPV-2b and CPV-2c) currently circulating in dogs worldwide. The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalent CPV-2 variant in faecal samples from 53 dogs presenting with acute gastroenteritis suspected to be and consistent with CPV-2 to Nigerian Veterinary Clinics in 2013–2014. Seventy-five per cent of these dogs tested positive for CPV-2 in a commercial antigen test and/or by PCR. Partial sequencing of the VP2 gene of six of these demonstrated them to be CPV-2a. Most of the dogs (60 per cent) were vaccinated, with 74 per cent of them puppies less than six months old.
Pancreatic hyperenzymemia: clinical significance and diagnostic approach.

An increase in the serum concentration of pancreatic enzymes (amylase and lipase) is commonly an expression of inflammatory or neoplastic pancreatic disease. However, an elevation of pancreatic enzymes, generally mild, may be a non-specific phenomenon without any clinical implication. The large spreading of the serum pancreatic enzymes dosage in clinical practice, particularly in emergency rooms, results in a large number of patients with elevated amylase and/or lipase serum levels without clinical evidence of pancreatic disease [1, 2]. This generally involves a ever-increasing number of instrumental and biochemical investigations to exclude pancreatic disorders, with a waste of resources from a costeffective point of view. This review emphasizes the biological mechanisms behind these serological alterations, the possible causes, the clinical implications and the diagnostic approach.
Threats to Validity in the edTPA Video Component

ABSTRACT The edTPA, a performance assessment designed to generate reliable and valid measures of teaching practice, increasingly is used as a gatekeeping mechanism for beginning teacher licensure in various states, including New York, Washington State, Wisconsin, and Georgia. One of the edTPA’s key components is the demonstration of instructional practice by video recording. This article explores threats to validity associated with using video segments as part of the edTPA. Based on interviews with 24 teaching candidates from New York and Washington State, results show that candidates had difficulty fully addressing the competencies assessed by the edTPA, thoroughly representing their teaching practices, and learning from the process of analyzing their videos, affecting content validity, ecological validity, and consequential validity, respectively. One implication is that the utility of the video records may be limited to corroborating and triangulating claims made in the written commentaries, rather than serving as authoritative approximations of teaching practice.
Learning to Share

Using data from 310 executive MBA students in 66 teams on a business simulation project, we explored (a) how shared leadership and team learning behaviors influence each other over time in self-managed teams, and (b) how the stability of the leadership network structure (i.e., network churn) is associated with team learning behaviors. We found that shared leadership stimulated team learning behaviors in a manner consistent with previous research at the early stages of teams’ work together, but not at the middle and later stages of the task. We also found that teams that engaged in more learning behaviors early in the task were more likely to keep their leadership network structure stable. This stability was positively associated with team learning behaviors at the midpoint and end of the task. We use these findings to elaborate theory on how leadership and learning in self-managed teams develop, change, and influence each other over time.
The Efficiency of a Visual Skills Training Program on Visual Search Performance

Abstract In this study, we conducted an experiment in which we analyzed the possibilities to develop visual skills by specifically targeted training of visual search. The aim of our study was to investigate whether, for how long and to what extent a training program for visual functions could improve visual search. The study involved 24 healthy students from the Szczecin University who were divided into two groups: experimental (12) and control (12). In addition to regular sports and recreational activities of the curriculum, the subjects of the experimental group also participated in 8-week long training with visual functions, 3 times a week for 45 min. The Signal Test of the Vienna Test System was performed four times: before entering the study, after first 4 weeks of the experiment, immediately after its completion and 4 weeks after the study terminated. The results of this experiment proved that an 8-week long perceptual training program significantly differentiated the plot of visual detecting time. For the visual detecting time changes, the first factor, Group, was significant as a main effect (F(1,22)=6.49, p<0.05) as well as the second factor, Training (F(3,66)=5.06, p<0.01). The interaction between the two factors (Group vs. Training) of perceptual training was F(3,66)=6.82 (p<0.001). Similarly, for the number of correct reactions, there was a main effect of a Group factor (F(1,22)=23.40, p<0.001), a main effect of a Training factor (F(3,66)=11.60, p<0.001) and a significant interaction between factors (Group vs. Training) (F(3,66)=10.33, p<0.001). Our study suggests that 8-week training of visual functions can improve visual search performance.
On the Nature and Scope of the Firm: An Adjustment-Cost Theory

The author compares the alternative game forms for situations where a buyer needs a sequence of human asset services. The hierarchy is defined as a game form in which the parties engage in once-and-for-all wage negotiation, the boss describes desired services sequentially, and either party may terminate the relationship at will. If many diverse and frequent adjustments are needed, this involves lower adjustment costs than any alternative game form. The price list game form is better when the list of possible adjustments is small and the negotiation-as-needed game form is better when adjustments are needed infrequently. An empirical test supports the theory. Copyright 1997 by University of Chicago Press.
Phylogenetic Trees and Networks Reduce to Phylogenies on Binary States: Does It Furnish an Explanation to the Robustness of Phylogenetic Trees against Lateral Transfers

This article presents an innovative approach to phylogenies based on the reduction of multistate characters to binary-state characters. We show that the reduction to binary characters’ approach can be applied to both character- and distance-based phylogenies and provides a unifying framework to explain simply and intuitively the similarities and differences between distance- and character-based phylogenies. Building on these results, this article gives a possible explanation on why phylogenetic trees obtained from a distance matrix or a set of characters are often quite reasonable despite lateral transfers of genetic material between taxa. In the presence of lateral transfers, outer planar networks furnish a better description of evolution than phylogenetic trees. We present a polynomial-time reconstruction algorithm for perfect outer planar networks with a fixed number of states, characters, and lateral transfers.
Breast Cancer Xenografts in Nude Rats Exposed to Light at Night Stimulates Growth of Human Melatonin-Depleted Blood from Premenopausal Women

The increased breast cancer risk in female night shift workers has been postulated to result from the suppression of pineal melatonin production by exposure to light at night. Exposure of rats bearing rat hepatomas or human breast cancer xenografts to increasing intensities of white fluorescent light during each 12-hour dark phase (0-345 MW/cm) resulted in a dose-dependent suppression of nocturnal melatonin blood levels and a stimulation of tumor growth and linoleic acid uptake/metabolism to the mitogenic molecule 13-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid. Venous blood samples were collected from healthy, premenopausal female volunteers during either the daytime, nighttime, or nighttime following 90 minutes of ocular bright, white fluorescent light exposure at 580 MW/cm (i.e., 2,800 lx). Compared with tumors perfused with daytimecollected melatonin-deficient blood, human breast cancer xenografts and rat hepatomas perfused in situ , with nocturnal, physiologically melatonin-rich blood collected during the night, exhibited markedly suppressed proliferative activity and linoleic acid uptake/metabolism. Tumors perfused with melatonin-deficient blood collected following ocular exposure to light at night exhibited the daytime pattern of high tumor proliferative activity. These results are the first to show that the tumor growth response to exposure to light during darkness is intensity dependent and that the human nocturnal, circadian melatonin signal not only inhibits human breast cancer growth but that this effect is extinguished by short-term ocular exposure to bright, white light at night. These mechanistic studies are the first to provide a rational biological explanation for the increased breast cancer risk in female night shift workers. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(23): 11174-84)
Towards Augmented Reality user interfaces in 3D media production

The idea of using Augmented Reality (AR) user interfaces (UIs) to create 3D media content, such as 3D models for movies and games has been repeatedly suggested over the last decade. Even though the concept is intuitively compelling and recent technological advances have made such an application increasingly feasible, very little progress has been made towards an actual real-world application of AR in professional media production. To this day, no immersive 3D UI has been commonly used by professionals for 3D computer graphics (CG) content creation. In this paper, we are first to publish a requirements analysis for our target application in the professional domain. Based on a survey that we conducted with media professionals, the analysis of professional 3D CG software, and professional training tutorials, we identify these requirements and put them into the context of AR UIs. From these findings, we derive several interaction design principles that aim to address the challenges of real-world application of AR to the production pipeline. We implemented these in our own prototype system while receiving feedback from media professionals. The insights gained in the survey, requirements analysis, and user interface design are relevant for research and development aimed at creating production methods for 3D media production.
Effectiveness of rivaroxaban for thromboprophylaxis of prosthetic heart valves in a porcine heterotopic valve model.

OBJECTIVES Warfarin is used to reduce the risk of stroke and thromboembolic complications in patients with mechanical heart valves. Yet, despite frequent blood testing, its poor pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles often result in variable therapeutic levels. Rivaroxaban is a direct competitive factor Xa inhibitor that is taken orally. It inhibits the active site of factor Xa without the need for the cofactor antithrombin, and thus, its mechanism of action is differentiated from that of the fractionated heparins and indirect factor Xa inhibitors. No in vivo data exist regarding the effectiveness of rivaroxaban in preventing thromboembolic complications of mechanical heart valves. We tested the hypothesis that rivaroxaban is as effective as enoxaparin for thromboprophylaxis of mechanical valves that use a previously described heterotopic aortic valve porcine model. METHODS A modified bileaflet mechanical valved conduit that bypassed the native, ligated descending thoracic aorta was implanted into 30 swine. Postoperatively, the animals were randomly assigned to groups receiving no anticoagulation (n = 10), enoxaparin at 2 mg/kg subcutaneously twice daily (n = 10) or rivaroxaban at 2 mg/kg orally twice daily (n = 10). The amount of valve thrombus was measured on post-implantation day 30 as the primary end point. Quantitative evaluation of radiolabelled platelet deposition on the valve prostheses was done and embolic and haemorrhagic events were measured as secondary end points. RESULTS Animals with no anticoagulation had a thrombus mean of 759.9 mg compared with 716.8 mg with enoxaparin treatment and 209.6 mg with rivaroxaban treatment (P = 0.05 for enoxaparin vs rivaroxaban). Similarly, the mean number of platelets deposited on the valve prosthesis was lower in the rivaroxaban group (6.13 × 10(9)) than in the enoxaparin group (3.03 × 10(10)) (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS In this study, rivaroxaban was more effective than enoxaparin for short-term thromboprophylaxis of mechanical valve prosthetics in the heterotopic aortic position. It reduced valve thrombus and platelet deposition on day 30 following implantation without increased adverse events. Future studies would provide additional support for clinical trials evaluating rivaroxaban as an alternative to warfarin for appropriately selected patients with prosthetic aortic valves.
To Link or Not To Link? Netting and Exposures Between Central Counterparties

This paper provides a framework to compare linked and unlinked CCP configurations in terms of total netting achieved by market participants and the total system default exposures that exist between participants and CCPs. A total system perspective, taking both market participant and CCP exposures into account, is required to answer an important policy question faced by some smaller jurisdictions: whether or not to consider linking a domestic CCP with one or more offshore CCPs. Generally, a single global CCP results in the lowest total system exposure as it allows for multilateral netting across all participants while avoiding the creation of inter-CCP exposures via links. However, global clearing may not be appropriate for all markets. Using a two country model, with a global CCP serving both markets and a local CCP clearing only domestic country participants’ transactions, we show that establishing links between two CCPs leads to higher exposures for the domestic CCP and can result in a decrease in overall netting efficiency and higher total system exposures when the number of participants at the local CCP is small relative to the number of participants at the global CCP. As the relative weight applied by decision makers to CCP exposures as compared to market participants’ exposures increases, so does the number of domestic participants required to make the linked case preferred from a total system perspective. Our results imply that the establishment of a link between a small domestic CCP and a larger global CCP is unlikely to be desirable from a total system perspective in the majority of cases.
Donation of the body for scientific purposes in Italy: ethical and medico-legal considerations

Abstract In recent years in Italy (and in the other European Countries) a new debated topic involves anatomists and the scientific world: donation of the body after death for scientific purposes. The aim of our analysis is to analyze the issue of voluntary body donation in Italy focusing first of all, on key principles of the disciplines of donation. Considering the rise of exhibitions and events in which death is spectacularized, the debate is focus on will, on respect and overall on the purpose for which the body is donated. Anatomical dissection is considered necessary in the direct learning of the human body, of surgical practices and new scientific techniques but the scarcity of programmes and regulations regarding the donation of bodies for study and research make it an uncommon practice. After discussing what are the constitutional principles underlying the issue we want to emphasize the need of a more effective and updated regulation to set limits and methods of a practice still essential for scientific progress.
Child Maltreatment in Vietnam: Prevalence and Cross-Cultural Comparison

ABSTRACT This Vietnam prevalence study on child maltreatment (VPM-2014) was designed to examine the prevalence of child maltreatment in Vietnam and to compare it with the child maltreatment prevalence in the Netherlands using the same measures and procedure. Questionnaires were filled out by 1,851 students aged 12 to 17 years (47.3% were boys). Results indicated that half of the students (49.9%) reported at least 1 event of child maltreatment in the past year. Emotional abuse was most frequently reported (31.8%), followed by physical abuse, neglect, and witnessing parental conflict. Sexual abuse was the least prevalent (2.6%). Compared with the Netherlands, the prevalence rates of most types of child maltreatment were higher in Vietnam: The largest difference was with emotional abuse, followed by neglect, physical abuse, and witnessing parental conflict. Only the past-year sexual abuse prevalence in Vietnam was lower. These findings highlight the alarming problem of child maltreatment in Vietnam.
Children with Deep Space Neck Infections

Objective To identify clinical features associated with unsuccessful medical therapy in children with deep space neck infections (DSNIs). Study Design Consecutive case series with chart review. Setting Tertiary-care, academic children’s hospital. Subjects and Methods One hundred seventy-eight pediatric patients treated for retropharyngeal or parapharyngeal infections between July 1, 2007, and May 23, 2012. Results Median age was 34.5 months (2.9 years; range, 2-142 months); two-thirds were male. Increased surgical drainage was found in children age ≤15 months (P = .002) and for abscesses >2.2 cm (P = .0001). Risk factors associated with increased likelihood of medical therapy failure included age ≤51 months, intensive care unit admission, and computed tomography findings consistent with abscess size >2.2 cm. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections were found more often in younger children, with the highest incidence in those ≤15 months of age (P = .001). All children had resolution of infection. Conclusion Deep space neck infections in children can often be successfully managed with medical therapy alone, but life-threatening complications may occur. We recommend that young patients be managed cautiously.
A Highly Conserved Enhancer in the Dlx5/Dlx6Intergenic Region is the Site of Cross-Regulatory Interactions betweenDlx Genes in the Embryonic Forebrain

Four Dlx homeobox genes, Dlx1,Dlx2, Dlx5, and Dlx6 are expressed in the same primordia of the mouse forebrain with temporally overlapping patterns. The four genes are organized as two tail-to-tail pairs, Dlx1/Dlx2 and Dlx5/Dlx6, a genomic arrangement conserved in distantly related vertebrates like zebrafish. The Dlx5/Dlx6 intergenic region contains two sequences of a few hundred base pairs, remarkably well conserved between mouse and zebrafish. Reporter transgenes containing these two sequences are expressed in the forebrain of transgenic mice and zebrafish with patterns highly similar to endogenous Dlx5 andDlx6 expression. The activity of the transgene is drastically reduced in mouse mutants lacking both Dlx1and Dlx2, consistent with the decrease in endogenousDlx5 and Dlx6 expression. These results suggest that cross-regulation by Dlx proteins, mediated by the intergenic sequences, is essential for Dlx5 andDlx6 expression in the forebrain. This hypothesis is supported by cotransfection and DNA-protein binding experiments. We propose that the Dlx genes are part of a highly conserved developmental pathway that regulates forebrain development.
Endocannabinoid Modulation of Dopaminergic Motor Circuits

There is substantial evidence supporting a role for the endocannabinoid system as a modulator of the dopaminergic activity in the basal ganglia, a forebrain system that integrates cortical information to coordinate motor activity regulating signals. In fact, the administration of plant-derived, synthetic or endogenous cannabinoids produces several effects on motor function. These effects are mediated primarily through the CB1 receptors that are densely located in the dopamine-enriched basal ganglia networks, suggesting that the motor effects of endocannabinoids are due, at least in part, to modulation of dopaminergic transmission. On the other hand, there are profound changes in CB1 receptor cannabinoid signaling in the basal ganglia circuits after dopamine depletion (as happens in Parkinson’s disease) and following l-DOPA replacement therapy. Therefore, it has been suggested that endocannabinoid system modulation may constitute an important component in new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of motor disturbances. In this article we will review studies supporting the endocannabinoid modulation of dopaminergic motor circuits.