Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Expert Opinion: Seasonal Sheep Preference and Plant Response to Grazing

Abstract Expert opinion was sought on 2 issues relating to herbivory: seasonal sheep preferences for plant species and seasonal plant response to grazing. Expert opinion is commonly used to parameterize models: it is therefore important to assess its quality. Understanding the limitations of expert knowledge can allow prioritization of future research. Nine experts in plant or grazing ecology from Scotland/Northern England were individually interviewed. The experts ranked sheep preferences for species in 4 rangeland vegetation types and provided categorical information on plant response to grazing. For both issues, seasonal information was collected. Uncertainty (unanswered questions) on plant responses was much higher than uncertainty on sheep preferences. Uncertainty on sheep preference was significantly negatively correlated with plant species commonness, but not with quantity of scientific literature. Uncertainty on plant responses was significantly negatively correlated with both plant commonness and literature. There was agreement among experts on sheep preferences; standardized seasonal information for selected plant species is presented. In general, experts considered graminoids to be preferred over dwarf shrubs, with forbs and other species groups intermediate. Seasonal variation in sheep preference was greater for heath and mire than for grasslands. There was limited agreement among experts on seasonal plant responses. Some experts considered grazing in summer to affect growth more than grazing in winter, whereas others thought season had little effect. Sufficient agreement was found at the species level to present results on plant responses. Experts considered graminoids more resilient to grazing than dwarf shrubs. Experts agreed on sheep preference at different times of year, and on the overall resilience of plant species to grazing. However, the experts held 2 paradigms on the impact of seasonal grazing. Further research is required to explore this, because seasonal grazing regimes are currently promoted as conservation management tools.
Ultracompact Intrinsic Micro Air-Cavity Fiber Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

A compact intrinsic fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated by incorporating a micro air-cavity ablated by femtosecond laser irradiation. A short cavity of length ~ 10 mum along the single-mode fiber core provided two optical paths: one propagating through the air and the other guided along the ring-shaped silica cladding. A spectral analysis confirmed MZI in a good agreement with experimental results. Temperature-dependent spectral shifts were measured and analyzed.
Coordinated Destruction of Cellular Messages in Translation Complexes by the Gammaherpesvirus Host Shutoff Factor and the Mammalian Exonuclease Xrn1

Several viruses encode factors that promote host mRNA degradation to silence gene expression. It is unclear, however, whether cellular mRNA turnover pathways are engaged to assist in this process. In Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus this phenotype is enacted by the host shutoff factor SOX. Here we show that SOX-induced mRNA turnover is a two-step process, in which mRNAs are first cleaved internally by SOX itself then degraded by the cellular exonuclease Xrn1. SOX therefore bypasses the regulatory steps of deadenylation and decapping normally required for Xrn1 activation. SOX is likely recruited to translating mRNAs, as it cosediments with translation initiation complexes and depletes polysomes. Cleaved mRNA intermediates accumulate in the 40S fraction, indicating that recognition occurs at an early stage of translation. This is the first example of a viral protein commandeering cellular mRNA turnover pathways to destroy host mRNAs, and suggests that Xrn1 is poised to deplete messages undergoing translation in mammalian cells.
Cervical intraspinal microstimulation evokes robust forelimb movements before and after injury

Objective. Intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS) is a promising method for reanimating paralyzed limbs following neurological injury. ISMS within the cervical and lumbar spinal cord is capable of evoking a variety of highly-functional movements prior to injury, but the ability of ISMS to evoke forelimb movements after cervical spinal cord injury is unknown. Here we examine the forelimb movements and muscles activated by cervical ISMS both before and after contusion injury. Approach. We documented the forelimb muscles activated and movements evoked via systematic stimulation of the rodent cervical spinal cord both before injury and three, six and nine weeks following a moderate C4/C5 lateralized contusion injury. Animals were anesthetized with isoflurane to permit construction of somatotopic maps of evoked movements and quantify evoked muscle synergies between cervical segments C3 and T1. Main results. When ISMS was delivered to the cervical spinal cord, a variety of responses were observed at 68% of locations tested, with a spatial distribution that generally corresponded to the location of motor neuron pools. Stimulus currents required to achieve movement and the number of sites where movements could be evoked were unchanged by spinal cord injury. A transient shift toward extension-dominated movements and restricted muscle synergies were observed at three and six weeks following injury, respectively. By nine weeks after injury, however, ISMS-evoked patterns were similar to spinally-intact animals. Significance. The results demonstrate the potential for cervical ISMS to reanimate hand and arm function following spinal cord injury. Robust forelimb movements can be evoked both before and during the chronic stages of recovery from a clinically relevant and sustained cervical contusion injury.
Using Real‐time Tissue Elastography for Breast Lesion Evaluation

Objective. The purpose of this study was to prospectively assess the performance of real‐time tissue elastography (RTE) in the evaluation of breast masses and correlate RTE and American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI‐RADS) assessments with pathologic findings. Methods. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for this Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant, Institutional Review Board–approved study. Patients with sonographically visible breast lesions for which a biopsy was recommended were considered potential study participants. Between October 2006 and February 2008, 186 consecutive women with 200 lesions were enrolled. Twelve lesions in 11 patients were excluded, resulting in a study population of 188 lesions in 175 women. After routine B‐mode sonographic examination, RTE was performed using a manual free‐hand compression technique. Study lesions were assigned elasticity scores (ES) based on the system proposed by Itoh et al (Radiology 2006; 239:341–350), where 1 is normal and 5 represents abnormal strain. The lesion size on RTE and B‐mode imaging was compared. Results were correlated with BI‐RADS assessment and pathologic findings. Results. Pathologic examination revealed 61 of 188 malignancies (32.4%) and 127 of 188 benign lesions (67.6%). Of the malignant lesions, 84% had ES of 5 and 4, whereas 76% of benign lesions had ES of 1 and 2. The sensitivity of RTE was 92.7%, and specificity was 85.8%, with 4 false‐negative and 16 false‐positive results. Of the biopsy‐proven benign BI‐RADS 4A lesions, 63 of 76 (82.9%) had ES of 1 and 2, consistent with normal tissue. Conclusions. Real‐time tissue elastography may provide additional characterization of breast lesions, improving specificity, particularly for low‐suspicion lesions.
Recent insights into the role of the autonomic nervous system in the creation of substrate for atrial fibrillation: implications for therapies targeting the atrial autonomic nervous system.

In this review, we discuss recent developments in our understanding of the role of the autonomic nervous system in creating atrial fibrillation (AF) substrate and on how these findings relate to rapidly evolving therapeutic strategies (eg, ablation, surgery) to disrupt autonomic signaling in AF. AF is the most common sustained arrhythmia disturbance and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The morbidity and mortality associated with AF are especially increased in the setting of congestive heart failure (HF), with up to half of all patients with HF having concomitant AF.1 Several mechanisms contribute to the electrophysiological and structural substrate of AF, including fibrosis, stretch, oxidative stress, and altered Ca2+-handling characteristics.2 In addition, neurohumoral factors have been invoked for their possible contribution to the creation of AF substrate. An important neurohumoral factor that has been studied fairly extensively for its involvement in AF is the autonomic nervous system.3 Both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems have been shown to play a role in the genesis of AF.4,5 During the past few years, the pulmonary veins (PVs) and the posterior left atrium (PLA) have been shown to play a significant role in the genesis of AF. These regions have been shown to possess unique structural, molecular, and electrophysiologi­cal characteristics, all of which appear to contribute to AF substrate. The autonomic characteristics of this region of the atrium have also been explored.6–8 Since the development of new ablative and surgical techniques during the past few years to treat AF, several investigators have also attempted to target the neural innervation of the atria and PVs at the time of ablation or surgery. These attempts include generalized denervation of the atria, as well as more targeted atrial denervation by using atrial electrograms—specifically, complex …
Testing equivalence between distributions using conditional samples ∗ ( Extended Abstract )

We study a recently introduced framework [7, 8] for property testing of probability distributions, by considering distribution testing algorithms that have access to a conditional sampling oracle. This is an oracle that takes as input a subset S ⊆ [N ] of the domain [N ] of the unknown probability distribution D and returns a draw from the conditional probability distribution D restricted to S. This model allows considerable flexibility in the design of distribution testing algorithms; in particular, testing algorithms in this model can be adaptive. In this paper we focus on algorithms for two fundamental distribution testing problems: testing whether D = D∗ for an explicitly provided D∗, and testing whether two unknown distributions D1 and D2 are equivalent. We give two efficient algorithms for each of these two problems. At a high level our main finding is that the new “conditional sampling” framework we consider is a powerful one: while both these problems above have Ω( √ N) sample complexity in the standard model we give poly(logN, 1/ )-query algorithms (and in some cases poly(1/ )-query algorithms independent of N ) for both of them in our conditional sampling setting. ∗This paper contains selected results from [7]. †ccanonne@cs.columbia. edu, Columbia University. ‡danaron@tau.ac. il, Tel Aviv University. Supported by ISF grant number 246/08. §rocco@cs.columbia. edu, Columbia University. Supported by NSF grants CCF-0915929 and CCF-1115703.
Audience drives male songbird response to partner ’ s voice

Mars, many features of these planets would be different from those of the Earth. Further studies are necessary to address these and other issues (elasticity and anelasticity, electrical conductivity, radiative conductivity, energetics of stacking faults, effects of impurities on stability and properties of post-perovskite). Finally, we note that the results of a recent, independent, experimental study 26 of the post-perovskite phase transition are consistent with our theoretical and experimental findings. waveforms computed from dynamic models. Dynamics of a phase change at the base of the mantle consistent with seismological observations. Thermoelastic properties and crystal structure of MgSiO 3 perovskite at lower mantle pressure and temperature conditions. Phase transition of Ca-perovskite and stability of Al-bearing Mg-perovskite in the lower mantle.pressure phases in the Al2SiO5 system and the problem of Al-phase in Earth's lower mantle: ab initio pseudopotential calculations. pressure elastic anisotropy of MgSiO3 perovskite and geophysical implications. A simple method for inverting the azimuthal anisotropy of surface waves. Efficiency of ab initio total-energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set.
Once-daily luliconazole cream 1% for the treatment of interdigital tinea pedis

Luliconazole is an imidazole antifungal agent with a unique chemical structure. In this article, we summarize the in vitro data, animal studies and clinical trial data relating to the use of topical luliconazole cream 1% in the treatment of tinea pedis. Preclinical studies have demonstrated potent activity against dermatophytes. Luliconazole has strong fungicidal activity against Trichophyton spp. , similar to that seen with terbinafine. Evidence from clinical trials in tinea pedis have shown once-daily application of luliconazole cream 1% for 14 days to be effective and well tolerated.
Nutrient Fluxes From Profundal Sediment of Ultra‐Oligotrophic Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada: Implications for Water Quality and Management in a Changing Climate

A warming climate is expected to lead to stronger thermal stratification, less frequent deep mixing, and greater potential for bottom water anoxia in deep, temperate oligotrophic lakes. As a result, there is growing interest in understanding nutrient cycling at the profundal sediment‐water interface of these rare ecosystems. This paper assessed nutrient content and nutrient flux rates from profundal sediment at Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada, USA. Sediment is a large reservoir of nutrients, with the upper 5 cm containing reduced nitrogen (∼6,300 metric tons) and redox‐sensitive phosphorus (∼710 metric tons) equivalent to ∼15 times the annual external load. Experimental results indicate that if deep water in Lake Tahoe goes anoxic, profundal sediment will release appreciable amounts of phosphate (0.13–0.29 mg P/m2·d), ammonia (0.49 mg N/m2·d), and iron to overlaying water. Assuming a 10 year duration of bottom water anoxia followed by a deep‐water mixing event, water column phosphate, and ammonia concentrations would increase by an estimated 1.6 µg P/L and 2.9 µg N/L, nearly doubling ambient concentrations. Based on historic nutrient enrichment assays this could lead to a ∼40% increase in algal growth. Iron release could have the dual effect of alleviating nitrate limitation on algal growth while promoting the formation of fine iron oxyhydroxide particles that degrade water clarity. If the depth and frequency of lake mixing decrease in the future as hydrodynamic models suggest, large‐scale in‐lake management strategies that impede internal nutrient loading in Lake Tahoe, such as bottom water oxygen addition or aluminum salt addition, may need to be considered.
Absolute monocyte/lymphocyte count prognostic score is independent of immunohistochemically determined cell of origin in predicting survival in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Abstract The absolute monocyte/lymphocyte count prognostic score (AMC/ALC score) has not been directly compared with the cell of origin (COO) to predict overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Thus, we retrospectively examined a new cohort of 99 patients with DLBCL treated from 2008 to 2010, (1) to validate whether AMC/ALC score affects survival, (2) to investigate whether AMC/ALC score is independent of COO to predict survival and (3) to assess whether AMC/ALC score can further stratify clinical outcomes by COO. By univariate analysis, the AMC/ALC score was a predictor for OS and PFS. On multivariate analysis performed including the COO and the International Prognostic Index, AMC/ALC score remained an independent predictor for OS and PFS. The AMC/ALC score was able to further stratify DLBCL clinical outcomes by COO. The AMC/ALC score was independent of COO and added to its ability to identify patients with high-risk disease.
Topology Design of Hierarchical Hybrid Fiber-VDSL Access Networks with ACO

As one of the most efficient access solutions, VDSL technology is becoming a highlight in the next generation network. This paper addresses the topology design of hierarchical hybrid fiber-VDSL access networks as NP-hard problem. A complete strategy is proposed to find a cost-effective and high-reliable network with heuristic algorithms in a short time. The ant colony optimization (ACO) has been implemented for a clustering problem. An ant-based algorithm is proposed to solve nondeterministic positioning problems. In terms of numerical results, the performance of ACO is compared with some previous approaches and discussed.
Quality Aware Network for Set to Set Recognition

This paper targets on the problem of set to set recognition, which learns the metric between two image sets. Images in each set belong to the same identity. Since images in a set can be complementary, they hopefully lead to higher accuracy in practical applications. However, the quality of each sample cannot be guaranteed, and samples with poor quality will hurt the metric. In this paper, the quality aware network (QAN) is proposed to confront this problem, where the quality of each sample can be automatically learned although such information is not explicitly provided in the training stage. The network has two branches, where the first branch extracts appearance feature embedding for each sample and the other branch predicts quality score for each sample. Features and quality scores of all samples in a set are then aggregated to generate the final feature embedding. We show that the two branches can be trained in an end-to-end manner given only the set-level identity annotation. Analysis on gradient spread of this mechanism indicates that the quality learned by the network is beneficial to set-to-set recognition and simplifies the distribution that the network needs to fit. Experiments on both face verification and person re-identification show advantages of the proposed QAN. The source code and network structure can be downloaded at GitHub.
The Effects of Spatial Attention on Motion Processing in Deaf Signers, Hearing Signers, and Hearing Nonsigners

Visual abilities in deaf individuals may be altered as a result of auditory deprivation and/or because the deaf rely heavily on a sign language (American Sign Language, or ASL). In this study, we asked whether attentional abilities of deaf subjects are altered. Using a direction of motion discrimination task in the periphery, we investigated three aspects of spatial attention: orienting of attention, divided attention, and selective attention. To separate influences of auditory deprivation and sign language experience, we compared three subject groups: deaf and hearing native signers of ASL and hearing nonsigners. To investigate the ability to orient attention, we compared motion thresholds obtained with and without a valid spatial precue, with the notion that subjects orient to the stimulus prior to its appearance when a precue is presented. Results suggest a slight advantage for deaf subjects in the ability to orient spatial attention. To investigate divided attention, we compared motion thresholds obtained when a single motion target was presented to thresholds obtained when the motion target was presented among confusable distractors. The effect of adding distractors was found to be identical across subject groups, suggesting that attentional capacity is not altered in deaf subjects. Finally, to investigate selective attention, we compared performance for a single, cued motion target with that of a cued motion target presented among distractors. Here, deaf, but not hearing, subjects performed better when the motion target was presented among distractors than when it was presented alone, suggesting that deaf subjects are more affected by the presence of distractors. In sum, our results suggest that attentional orienting and selective attention are altered in the deaf and that these effects are most likely due to auditory deprivation as opposed to sign language experience.
Cross sectional study to assess the prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus among the elderly and their health seeking behaviour in an urban slum of Pune

Introduction: The epidemiology of diabetes in elderly is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to estimate the incidence of diabetes mellitus among the elderly people and their health seeking behaviour. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out amongst 200 elderly (63 males and 137 females) during the period of Oct. 2009 to Aug. 2010. Urine analysis using Benedict’s solution was used to detect diabetes among the elderly. The objective data was assessed by calculating BMI and recording BP of the elderly and a questionnaire was used to assess the health seeking behaviour. Results: The proportion of diabetes mellitus was detected in 59 (29.5%, with CI; 23.3-36.9) subjects out of 200. The male: female ratio in respect of diabetes mellitus was found to be 1:3.5. The overall prevalence rate found in this study was 295/1000 elderly population. There was a significant association found between obesity and diabetes (p<0.01) proving it to be the most significant risk factor for diabetes. Conclusion: Prevalence of life style diseases & high morbidity among elderly needs strengthening of geriatric health care services in accordance with the common existing problems in the community.
Confirmation of the reference impedance ratios used for assessment of breast cancer-related lymphedema by bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer-related lymphedema in the arm is commonly detected by bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy as an increased inter-arm impedance ratio due to the presence of excess lymph in the at-risk arm relative to that of the unaffected arm. The presence of lymphedema is determined by a value of this ratio greater than the mean ratio, plus three standard deviations observed in a comparable healthy population. This threshold value has not been established using the measurement protocols in current practice. The aim of the present study was to determine the reference range of the inter-arm impedance ratio to allow a cut-off value to be established as a criterion for the detection of breast cancer-related lymphedema. METHODS The mean and variation (3 SD) of the inter-arm impedance ratio for the arms of 172 healthy female control participants were determined from an accumulated database of impedance data obtained using present generation impedance instrumentation and methodology. This reference range and threshold value was compared to the original threshold ratio determined a decade ago but still in current use. RESULTS The presence of lymphedema is indicated when the impedance ratio exceeded 1.106 when the nondominant limb is at risk, and 1.134 when the dominant limb is at risk compared with the currently used values of 1.066 and 1.139, respectively. Although the difference in these values was statistically significant, this difference was determined to be of minor importance to clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS The impedance ratio thresholds for early detection of lymphedema remain suitable for clinical use with present day bioimpedance spectroscopy analyzers and measurement protocols.