Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flight performance in the altricial zebra finch: Developmental effects and reproductive consequences

Abstract The environmental conditions animals experience during development can have sustained effects on morphology, physiology, and behavior. Exposure to elevated levels of stress hormones (glucocorticoids, GCs) during development is one such condition that can have long‐term effects on animal phenotype. Many of the phenotypic effects of GC exposure during development (developmental stress) appear negative. However, there is increasing evidence that developmental stress can induce adaptive phenotypic changes. This hypothesis can be tested by examining the effect of developmental stress on fitness‐related traits. In birds, flight performance is an ideal metric to assess the fitness consequences of developmental stress. As fledglings, mastering takeoff is crucial to avoid bodily damage and escape predation. As adults, takeoff can contribute to mating and foraging success as well as escape and, thus, can affect both reproductive success and survival. We examined the effects of developmental stress on flight performance across life‐history stages in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Specifically, we examined the effects of oral administration of corticosterone (CORT, the dominant avian glucocorticoid) during development on ground‐reaction forces and velocity during takeoff. Additionally, we tested for associations between flight performance and reproductive success in adult male zebra finches. Developmental stress had no effect on flight performance at all ages. In contrast, brood size (an unmanipulated variable) had sustained, negative effects on takeoff performance across life‐history stages with birds from small broods performing better than birds from large broods. Flight performance at 100 days posthatching predicted future reproductive success in males; the best fliers had significantly higher reproductive success. Our results demonstrate that some environmental factors experienced during development (e.g. clutch size) have stronger, more sustained effects than others (e.g. GC exposure). Additionally, our data provide the first link between flight performance and a direct measure of reproductive success.
Assessment of WiFi RSS using design of experiment for mobile robot wireless positioning system

Wireless infrastructure such as WiFi is a practical option for mobile robot indoor positioning system since many recent building incorporated WiFi solutions in their building. The mobile robot development cost could be greatly reduced especially in the case of multiple robots. The measurement of the WiFi RSS is an essential key point for positioning on fingerprinting approach. Two parameters are concerned which are the WiFi AP antenna heights and the separation distance between the WiFi AP and the receiver. Therefore, it is desirable to see the impact of both parameters in WiFi RSS measurements. In this paper, a series of experiment has been carried accordingly to the design of experiment order. Later, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed in order to investigate the most significant parameter for mobile robot positioning system. The result shows that Tx-Rx separation plays the most significant role with zero P-value while the insignificant antenna height parameter is larger than the confident level, α. This observation is later validated by actual mobile robot positioning via fingerprinting technique using the weighted K- nearest neighbor (WKNN) positioning algorithm.
Author ' s personal copy Inverted faces are ( eventually ) processed holistically

Face inversion effects are used as evidence that faces are processed differently from objects. Nevertheless, there is debate about whether processing differences between upright and inverted faces are qualitative or quantitative. We present two experiments comparing holistic processing of upright and inverted faces within the composite task, which requires participants to match one half of a test face while ignoring irrelevant variation in the other half of the test face. Inversion reduced overall performance but led to the same qualitative pattern of results as observed for upright faces (Experiment 1). However, longer presentation times were required to observe holistic effects for inverted compared to upright faces (Experiment 2). These results suggest that both upright and inverted faces are processed holistically, but inversion reduces overall processing efficiency. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Soul Pain

This study extends prior research on vicarious traumatization and emotion management by exploring a deeper, more life-altering effect of working with traumatized clients—namely, “soul pain. ” Analyses of in-depth interviews with 29 advocates working with survivors of physical and sexual violence reveal that, as a direct consequence of hearing countless stories of human brutality, some staff members experience a profound wounding of their spirit. This finding expands our understanding of the occupational hazards of the helping professions by revealing another dimension of advocates’ lives—that of the soul or spirit—that may be affected by their work with trauma survivors.
Habitual Alcohol Consumption and Metabolic Syndrome in Patients with Sleep Disordered Breathing

To investigate the associations between amount of habitual alcohol consumption (HAC) and prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), sleep, and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). We enrolled 683 untreated SDB male patients (age: 54.4 ± 7.80 y, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI): 29.0 ± 21.53/h). HAC was assessed as the average number of drinks consumed per week during the past 12 months. Anthropometric and biochemical markers were used to diagnose MetS. Clinical data and MetS components were compared according to the reported amounts of HAC (no drinking, light drinking <13, heavy drinking ≥13 drinks/week). As reported, 78.9% of the participants (n = 539) were regular drinkers; 33.7% (n = 230) were habitually heavy drinkers (mean: 30.7 drinks/week), and 45.2% (n = 309) were light drinkers (5.1 drinks/week). The overall prevalence of MetS was 36.9% (n = 252) and was most common in heavy drinkers (40.5%). Compared to non-drinkers and light drinkers, heavy drinkers had the greatest body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Central obesity, hypertension, and hyperglycemia were most prevalent in heavy drinkers. Sleep quality and severity of SDB were the worst in heavy drinkers. After adjusting for age, AHI, and BMI, heavy drinkers had a 1.71 times greater risk of MetS when compared with non-drinkers, and light and heavy drinkers had a 2.06 and 2.11 times higher risk of severe SDB than non-drinkers. HAC may increase the prevalence of MetS and deteriorate sleep in relation to amount of alcohol intake. Even light drinkers had more than twice higher risk of severe SDB than non-drinkers.
Does adverse selection matter

Asymmetric information is a large potential problem for insurance markets, especially for markets insuring health risk. Despite a large theoretical attention over the last 30 years, the empirical evidence of the extent of the problem is still limited. In part this is due to methodological problems. The fundamental problem being that the private information, on which agents' act, is generally not observable to the researcher. This thesis provides empirical evidence on selection and moral hazard, using a private dental insurance natural experiment that solves many of the methodological problems. The initial decision to select into the insurance is analyzed in the first paper. Interestingly, results indicate both adverse selection and its opposite, advantageous selection, in different parts of the sample. These results are captured in a theoretical model where agents differ in their degree of risk aversion. In the second paper the decision to opt out of insurance is related to new information on risk. Results indicate that updating is asymmetric. Agents do not take the insurer's information fully into account, even though it is public. Finally, the moral hazard effect of dental coverage is analyzed in the last paper. The treatment effect of insurance coverage is separated from self-selection, using propensity score matching, IV and difference-in-differences. The results give strong empirical evidence of moral hazard.
Evidence Report

UCLA Bevra H. Hahn, MD (Rheum) Jennifer M. Grossman, MD (Rheum) Maureen McMahon, MD (Rheum) W Dean Wallace, MD (Path) Karandeep Singh, MD (Nephrology) Soo-In Choi, MD (Rheum) Justin Peng, MD (Rheum) Mazdak Khalighi, MD (Path) Maneesh Gogia, MD (Rheum) John FitzGerald, MD (Rheum) Alan Wilkinson, MD (Renal) Suzanne Kafaja, MD (Rheum) William J Martin, MD (Rheum) Christine Lau, MD (Nephrology) Sefali Parikh, MD (Nephrology) Mohammad Kamgar, MD (Nephrology) Anjay Rastogi, MD (Nephrology) Weiling Chen, MA (Rheum) Cheryl C Lee, BA (Rheum) Rikke Ogawa (Librarian)
Meta-analysis: the Relationship between Software Size and Software Quality

A meta-analysis assessing the relationship between software size and software quality across 10 diverse software project studies spanning over 20 years suggests that the relationship between software size and quality is strong and significant. However, the analysis of several moderating variables indicates that technology, process and resource factors also help explain the variance in software quality.
Static Detection of Security Vulnerabilities in Scripting Languages

We present a static analysis algorithm for detecting security vulnerabilities in PHP, a popular server-side scripting language for building web applications. Our analysis employs a novel three-tier architecture to capture information at decreasing levels of granularity at the intrablock, intraprocedural, and interprocedural level. This architecture enables us to handle dynamic features of scripting languages that have not been adequately addressed by previous techniques. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on six popular open source PHP code bases, finding 105 previously unknown security vulnerabilities, most of which we believe are remotely exploitable.
Inference with Linear Equality and Inequality Constraints Using R: The Package ic.infer

In linear models and multivariate normal situations, prior information in linear inequality form may be encountered, or linear inequality hypotheses may be subjected to statistical tests. R package ic.infer has been developed to support inequality-constrained estimation and testing for such situations. This article gives an overview of the principles underlying inequality-constrained inference that are far less well-known than methods for unconstrained or equality-constrained models, and describes their implementation in the package.
On the wave operators for the critical nonlinear Schrodinger equation

We prove that for the mass critical nonlinear Schrodinger equations, the wave operators and their inverse are related explicitly in terms of the Fourier transform. We discuss some consequences of this property. In the one-dimensional case, we show a precise similarity between the mass critical nonlinear Schrodinger equation and a nonlinear Schrodinger equation of derivative type.
Mapping as a tool for predicting the risk of anthrax outbreaks in Northern Region of Ghana

Introduction Anthrax is a febrile soil-born infectious disease that can affect all warm-blooded animals including man. Outbreaks of anthrax have been reported in northern region of Ghana but no concerted effort has been made to implement risk-based surveillance systems to document outbreaks so as to implement policies to address the disease. We generated predictive maps using soil pH, temperature and rainfall as predictor variables to identify hotspot areas for the outbreaks. Methods A 10-year secondary data records on soil pH, temperature and rainfall were used to create climate-based risk maps using ArcGIS 10.2. The monthly mean values of rainfall and temperature for ten years were calculated and anthrax related evidence based constant raster values were created as weights for the three factors. All maps were generated using the Kriging interpolation method. Results There were 43 confirmed outbreaks. The deaths involved were 131 cattle, 44 sheep, 15 goats, 562 pigs with 6 human deaths and 22 developed cutaneous anthrax. We found three strata of well delineated distribution pattern indicating levels of risk due to suitability of area for anthrax spore survival. The likelihood of outbreaks occurrence and reoccurrence was higher in Strata I, Strata II and strata III respectively in descending order, due to the suitability of soil pH, temperature and rainfall for the survival and dispersal of B. anthracis spore. Conclusion The eastern corridor of Northern region is a Hots spot area. Policy makers can develop risk based surveillance system and focus on this area to mitigate anthrax outbreaks and reoccurrence.
The burden of HIV: insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Objectives:To evaluate the global and country-level burden of HIV/AIDS relative to 291 other causes of disease burden from 1980 to 2010 using the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) as the vehicle for exploration. Methods:HIV/AIDS burden estimates were derived elsewhere as a part of GBD 2010, a comprehensive assessment of the magnitude of 291 diseases and injuries from 1990 to 2010 for 187 countries. In GBD 2010, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are used as the measurement of disease burden. DALY estimates for HIV/AIDS come from UNAIDS’ 2012 prevalence and mortality estimates, GBD 2010 disability weights and mortality estimates derived from quality vital registration data. Results:Despite recent declines in global HIV/AIDS mortality, HIV/AIDS was still the fifth leading cause of global DALYs in 2010. The distribution of HIV/AIDS burden is not equal across demographics and regions. In 2010, HIV/AIDS was ranked as the leading DALY cause for ages 30–44 years in both sexes and for 21 countries that fall into four distinctive blocks: Eastern and Southern Africa, Central Africa, the Caribbean and Thailand. Although a majority of the DALYs caused by HIV/AIDS are in high-burden countries, 20% of the global HIV/AIDS burden in 2010 was in countries where HIV/AIDS did not make the top 10 leading causes of burden. Conclusion:In the midst of a global economic recession, tracking the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its importance relative to other diseases and injuries is critical to effectively allocating limited resources and maintaining funding for effective HIV/AIDS interventions and treatments.
Systematic identification of edited microRNAs in the human brain

Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing modifies RNA transcripts from their genomic blueprint. A prerequisite for this process is a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) structure. Such dsRNAs are formed as part of the microRNA (miRNA) maturation process, and it is therefore expected that miRNAs are affected by A-to-I editing. Editing of miRNAs has the potential to add another layer of complexity to gene regulation pathways, especially if editing occurs within the miRNA–mRNA recognition site. Thus, it is of interest to study the extent of this phenomenon. Current reports in the literature disagree on its extent; while some reports claim that it may be widespread, others deem the reported events as rare. Utilizing a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach supplemented by an extensive bioinformatic analysis, we were able to systematically identify A-to-I editing events in mature miRNAs derived from human brain tissues. Our algorithm successfully identified many of the known editing sites in mature miRNAs and revealed 17 novel human sites, 12 of which are in the recognition sites of the miRNAs. We confirmed most of the editing events using in vitro ADAR overexpression assays. The editing efficiency of most sites identified is very low. Similar results are obtained for publicly available data sets of mouse brain-regions tissues. Thus, we find that A-to-I editing does alter several miRNAs, but it is not widespread.
Sexual Objectification in Music Videos and Acceptance of Potentially Offensive Sexual Behaviors

Little is known about how adolescent and college-aged women interpret music media or how their perceptions of music media are related to their acceptance of physical or nonphysical forms of sexual behavior by male peers. Adolescent and emerging adult women (n = 259) viewed and responded to randomly selected music videos. Results from MANCOVA indicate that viewers’ perceptions of women in music videos differed by age/social context and, after accounting for their perceptions of the videos’ entertainment value and realism, differed within the music video sets. College women were more likely than high-school-aged women to perceive women in music videos as attractive and powerful. Viewers were more likely to perceive women in music videos to be attractive when they also perceived them to be sexual objects but not when they perceived the women in music videos to be powerful. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that participants who accepted sexual objectification and who were entertained by the music videos were less likely to be offended by nonphysical potentially offensive sexual behaviors (POSB) such as dirty jokes or cat calls. Women who accepted sexual objectification of women and perceived the music videos to be realistic were less likely to be offended by physical POSB (e.g., being touched or grabbed, unwanted sexual advances). Results suggest that personal attitudes and finding music videos to be entertaining or realistic may together inform attitudes that normalize the acceptance of POSB.
Heterogeneity of colorectal cancer risk by tumour characteristics: Large prospective study of UK women

Associations between behavioural and other personal factors and colorectal cancer risk have been reported to vary by tumour characteristics, but evidence is inconsistent. In a large UK‐based prospective study we examined associations of 14 postulated risk factors with colorectal cancer risk overall, and across three anatomical sites and four morphological subtypes. Among 1.3 million women, 18,518 incident colorectal cancers were identified during 13.8 (SD 3.4) years follow‐up via record linkage to national cancer registry data. Cox regression yielded adjusted relative risks. Statistical significance was assessed using correction for multiple testing. Overall, colorectal cancer risk was significantly associated with height, body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, parity and menopausal hormone therapy use. For smoking there was substantial heterogeneity across morphological types; relative risks around two or greater were seen in current smokers both for signet ring cell and for neuroendocrine tumours. Obese women were also at higher risk for signet ring cell tumours. For adenocarcinomas, the large majority of colorectal cancers in the cohort, all risk factor associations were weak. There was little or no heterogeneity in risk between tumours of the right colon, left colon and rectum for any of the 14 factors examined. These epidemiological findings complement an emerging picture from molecular studies of possible different developmental pathways for different tumour types.
Refibrillation during out-of-hospital arrest: A frequent event with clinical consequences

The refibrillation was a frequent event in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The number of recurrences of ventricular fibrillation (VF) is in inverse relationship with survival. In this article we discuss about causes and mechanism of refibrillation. The amiodarone and new technical solution (defibrillators that may allow continuous monitoring of the heart rhythm, while chest compressions continue and recommend defibrillation when refibrillation occurs) are promising new strategy to improve outcome of OHCA and recurrent VF.
Temperature / rarefaction effects in hypersonic boundary-layer flow with an oblique roughness element

Three-dimensional laminar hypersonic boundary-layer flows are investigated applying the compressible bi-global linear stability theory (B-LST) in flow crossplanes. The flat-plate flow is altered by an obliquely placed discrete fence-like roughness element that is about half the boundary-layer thickness high. Roughness setup and flow conditions resemble the STS-119 flight experiment. A cold-flow case and hot-flow cases are considered. The influence of non-perfect gas properties such as variable chemical composition, or thermal energy relaxation are included. The steady base flows are extracted from Navier-Stokes simulations. The underlying gas modell for reacting and non-reacting air accounts for thermal as well as chemical nonequilibrium. Rarefaction effects are considered in terms of a slip condition for velocity and temperature at the wall. Stability properties of the roughness wake under cold, hot, and hot rarefied flow conditions are compared in terms of local and integral growth.
Cardiac Progenitor Cells and Biotinylated Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Nanofibers Improve Endogenous and Exogenous Myocardial Regeneration After Infarction

Background— Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) possess the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)-IGF-1 receptor system, and IGF-1 can be tethered to self-assembling peptide nanofibers (NF-IGF-1), leading to prolonged release of this growth factor to the myocardium. Therefore, we tested whether local injection of clonogenic CPCs and NF-IGF-1 potentiates the activation and differentiation of delivered and resident CPCs enhancing cardiac repair after infarction. Methods and Results— Myocardial infarction was induced in rats, and untreated infarcts and infarcts treated with CPCs or NF-IGF-1 only and CPCs and NF-IGF-1 together were analyzed. With respect to infarcts exposed to CPCs or NF-IGF-1 alone, combination therapy resulted in a greater increase in the ratio of left ventricular mass to chamber volume and a better preservation of +dP/dt, −dP/dt, ejection fraction, and diastolic wall stress. Myocardial regeneration was detected in all treated infarcts, but the number of newly formed myocytes with combination therapy was 32% and 230% higher than with CPCs and NF-IGF-1, respectively. Corresponding differences in the volume of regenerated myocytes were 48% and 115%. Similarly, the length density of newly formed coronary arterioles with both CPCs and NF-IGF-1 was 73% and 83% greater than with CPCs and NF-IGF-1 alone, respectively. Importantly, activation of resident CPCs by paracrine effects contributed to cardiomyogenesis and vasculogenesis. Collectively, CPCs and NF-IGF-1 therapy reduced infarct size more than CPCs and NF-IGF-1 alone. Conclusions— The addition of nanofiber-mediated IGF-1 delivery to CPC therapy improved in part the recovery of myocardial structure and function after infarction.
Quality control mechanisms for crowdsourcing: peer review, arbitration, & expertise at familysearch indexing

The FamilySearch Indexing project has enabled hundreds of thousands of volunteers to transcribe billions of records, making it one of the largest crowdsourcing initiatives in the world. Assuring high quality transcriptions (i.e., indexes) with a reasonable amount of volunteer effort is essential to keep pace with the mounds of newly digitized documents. Using historical data, we show the relationship between prior experience and native language on transcriber agreement. We then present a field experiment comparing the effectiveness (accuracy) and efficiency (time) of two quality control mechanisms: (1) Arbitration -- the existing mechanism wherein two volunteers independently transcribe records and disagreements go to an arbitrator, and (2) Peer Review -- a mechanism wherein one volunteer's work is reviewed by another volunteer. Peer Review is significantly more efficient, though not as effective for certain fields as Arbitration. Design suggestions for FamilySearch Indexing and related crowdsourcing initiatives are provided.