Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Needs satisfaction, self-determined motivation and health-enhancing physical activity

Background: Previous studies have assessed physical activity participation from a self-determination theory perspective. However, no study has yet determined whether individuals who engage in sufficient physical activity to obtain substantial health benefits (i.e., health-enhancing physical activity or HEPA) differ from those who do not engage in such physical activity in terms of their motivational regulations and psychological needs satisfaction. Purpose: The primary purpose of the current study was to determine whether differences in motivation and psychological needs satisfaction exist between individuals who engage in HEPA and those who do not. Secondarily, we assessed whether each of the motivational regulations would mediate the relationships between needs satisfaction and HEPA. Method: The study employed a cross-sectional design, as 332 participants completed questionnaires assessing their psychological needs satisfaction, motivation to exercise, and self-reported physical activity. Results: As hypothesized, in comparison to the minimally active group, the HEPA group showed significantly greater levels of identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulations; lower levels of external regulation; and greater satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Simultaneous multiple mediator analyses revealed that external and integrated regulation mediated the autonomy – HEPA relationship, as well as the relatedness – HEPA relationship; the relationship between competence and HEPA was only mediated by external regulation. Conclusion: These results support self-determination theory by demonstrating that individuals who participate in HEPA have higher levels in the theory’s key variables. In addition, the process by which to increase the likelihood of participating in HEPA was also partially supported.
A Field Experiment to Assess the Rate of Infestation in Honey Bee Populations of Two Metarhizium anisopliae Isolates on Varroa destructor (Acari: Mesostigmata)

Background: The protective effect of two isolates of an entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae (DEMI 002 and Iran 437C) on the adult stage of Varroa destructor was evaluated in comparison with fluvalinate strips in the field. Methods: A total of 12 honey bee colonies were provided from an apiculture farm. The selected hives were divided into 4 groups (3 hives per group). The first group was the control, treated with distilled water. The other two groups were exposed to different fungi (M. anisopliae isolates DEMI 002 and Iran 437C) and the last group was treated with one strip of fluvalinate per colony. The number of fallen mites was counted using sticky traps during a 6-day period, six days before and after treatments. A fungal suspension at a concentration of 5× 106 conidia/mL was sprayed onto the frames and the number of fallen mites was counted. Results: Metarhizium anisopliae DEMI 002 and Iran 437C isolates were as effective (i.e., caused as much mite fall) as the fluvalinate strip in controlling bee colonies than no treatment. Conclusion: Both M. anisopliae isolates are promising candidates as agents in the control of Varroa mites under field conditions. Isolate DEMI 002 can be considered as a possible non-chemical biocontrol agent for controlling bee infestation with V. destructor in the field. In order to substantiate this hypothesis, tests are currently being performed using larger colonies and larger doses than tested in the present study in our beekeeping.
Variational Reasoning for Question Answering with Knowledge Graph

Knowledge graph (KG) is known to be helpful for the task of question answering (QA), since it provides well-structured relational information between entities, and allows one to further infer indirect facts. However, it is challenging to build QA systems which can learn to reason over knowledge graphs based on question-answer pairs alone. First, when people ask questions, their expressions are noisy (for example, typos in texts, or variations in pronunciations), which is non-trivial for the QA system to match those mentioned entities to the knowledge graph. Second, many questions require multi-hop logic reasoning over the knowledge graph to retrieve the answers. To address these challenges, we propose a novel and unified deep learning architecture, and an end-to-end variational learning algorithm which can handle noise in questions, and learn multi-hop reasoning simultaneously. Our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on a recent benchmark dataset in the literature. We also derive a series of new benchmark datasets, including questions for multi-hop reasoning, questions paraphrased by neural translation model, and questions in human voice. Our method yields very promising results on all these challenging datasets.
Sensitive Real-Time PCR Detection of Pathogenic Leptospira spp. and a Comparison of Nucleic Acid Amplification Methods for the Diagnosis of Leptospirosis

Background Bacteria of the genus Leptospira, the causative agents of leptospirosis, are categorized into pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. However, the benefit of using a clinical diagnostic that is specific for pathogenic species remains unclear. In this study, we present the development of a real-time PCR (rtPCR) for the detection of pathogenic Leptospira (the pathogenic rtPCR), and we perform a comparison of the pathogenic rtPCR with a published assay that detects all Leptospira species [the undifferentiated febrile illness (UFI) assay] and a reference 16S Leptospira rtPCR, which was originally designed to detect pathogenic species. Methodology/Principal Findings For the pathogenic rtPCR, a new hydrolysis probe was designed for use with primers from the UFI assay, which targets the 16S gene. The pathogenic rtPCR detected Leptospira DNA in 37/37 cultured isolates from 5 pathogenic and one intermediate species. Two strains of the non-pathogenic L. biflexa produced no signal. Clinical samples from 65 patients with suspected leptospirosis were then tested using the pathogenic rtPCR and a reference Leptospira 16S rtPCR. All 65 samples had tested positive for Leptospira using the UFI assay; 62 (95.4%) samples tested positive using the pathogenic rtPCR (p = 0.24). Only 24 (36.9%) samples tested positive in the reference 16S rtPCR (p<0.0001 for comparison with the pathogenic rtPCR and UFI assays). Amplicon sequencing confirmed the detection of pathogenic Leptospira species in 49/50 cases, including 3 cases that were only detected using the UFI assay. Conclusions/Significance The pathogenic rtPCR displayed similar sensitivity to the UFI assay when testing clinical specimens with no difference in specificity. Both assays proved significantly more sensitive than a real-time molecular test used for comparison. Future studies are needed to investigate the clinical and epidemiologic significance of more sensitive Leptospira detection using these tests.
The Relation between Identification and Discrimination along Speech and Non-Speech Continua

In order to investigate the perception of simple unidimensional non-speech stimuli and synthetic speech stimuli in a manner permitting direct comparisons, identification and discrimination functions were obtained by the method of ABX for three series of duration stimuli, one series of reflectance stimuli, and a series of speech sounds, the stop consonants /b, d, g/. These results were also compared with those from earlier studies investigating synthetic vowels (/i, e, ε, æ/) and consonants (/d, t/). Identification of the consonants was marked by abrupt transitions between phonemic categories and small context effects, while discrimination functions demonstrated greater discriminability between rather than within categories. Moreover, discrimination functions predicted from identification responses were close approximations of the obtained discrimination. Thus, perception of the consonants was essentially categorical. Vowel perception, however, was continuous: the identification functions showed less steep boundaries, discriminability was quite acute for all stimuli, and, unlike the stops, considerably better than identification. in addition, identification of the vowels was found to be greatly influenced by context. Perception of non-speech stimuli was much like that of the vowels, though category boundaries were more abrupt and context effects were less. The data were in accord with a motor theory of speech perception whereby the perceptual event is cued directly by neural representations of feedback stimulation arising from articulatory movements. This is in contrast to perception of non-speech stimuli which is cued directly by the external stimulation.
In Vitro Fermentation of Sugar Beet Arabino-Oligosaccharides by Fecal Microbiota Obtained from Patients with Ulcerative Colitis To Selectively Stimulate the Growth of Bifidobacterium spp. and Lactobacillus spp

ABSTRACT The potential prebiotic properties of arabino-oligosaccharides (AOS) derived from sugar beet pulp was studied using mixed cultures of human fecal bacteria from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), in remission or with active disease, and in healthy controls. These results were compared to those for fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), which are known to have a prebiotic effect. Fermentation studies were carried out using a small-scale static batch system, and changes in the fecal microbial communities and metabolites were monitored after 24 h by quantitative real-time PCR and short-chain fatty acid analysis. With a few minor exceptions, AOS affected the communities similarly to what was seen for FOS. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that Bifidobacterium spp. and Lactobacillus spp. were selectively increased after fermentation of AOS or FOS by fecal microbiota derived from UC patients. The stimulation of growth of Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp. was accompanied by a high production of acetate and hence a decrease of pH. The fermentation of AOS may help improve the inflammatory conditions in UC patients through stimulation of bacteria eliciting anti-inflammatory responses and through production of acetate. AOS may therefore represent a new prebiotic candidate for reduction of the risk of flare-ups in UC patients. However, human trials are needed to confirm a health-promoting effect.
Managing Electric Vehicles in the Smart Grid Using Artificial Intelligence: A Survey

Along with the development of smart grids, the wide adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is seen as a catalyst to the reduction of CO2 emissions and more intelligent transportation systems. In particular, EVs augment the grid with the ability to store energy at some points in the network and give it back at others and, therefore, help optimize the use of energy from intermittent renewable energy sources and let users refill their cars in a variety of locations. However, a number of challenges need to be addressed if such benefits are to be achieved. On the one hand, given their limited range and costs involved in charging EV batteries, it is important to design algorithms that will minimize costs and, at the same time, avoid users being stranded. On the other hand, collectives of EVs need to be organized in such a way as to avoid peaks on the grid that may result in high electricity prices and overload local distribution grids. In order to meet such challenges, a number of technological solutions have been proposed. In this paper, we focus on those that utilize artificial intelligence techniques to render EVs and the systems that manage collectives of EVs smarter. In particular, we provide a survey of the literature and identify the commonalities and key differences in the approaches. This allows us to develop a classification of key techniques and benchmarks that can be used to advance the state of the art in this space.
Platelet Function Under Aspirin, Clopidogrel, and Both After Ischemic Stroke: A Case-Crossover Study

Background and Purpose— Combined antiplatelet agents may offer additive protection over single drugs after stroke. We investigated whether platelet activation is reduced under combined aspirin and clopidogrel compared with each drug alone. Methods— In a case-crossover study, 31 patients with previous atherothrombotic or lacunar stroke who were treated with aspirin (100 to 300 mg/d) received clopidogrel (75 mg/d) and both aspirin and clopidogrel for 4 weeks. Platelet function in whole blood was studied after each treatment period and in healthy control subjects to assess activation-dependent antigens CD62p and CD63 by flow cytometry and collagen/epinephrine (CEPI-CT) and collagen/ADP (CADP-CT) closure times with the platelet function analyzer PFA-100, which investigates platelet-related function under shear stress. Results— CD62p expression and CD63 expression were not different under the 3 treatment regimens. CD63 but not CD62p expression was lower in control subjects than in stroke patients regardless of the antiplatelet treatment (P <0.05). CEPI-CT was prolonged under aspirin and aspirin plus clopidogrel compared with clopidogrel monotherapy (P <0.0001). CADP-CT was longer under combination therapy than under aspirin (P =0.0009) or clopidogrel (P =0.0074) or in control subjects (P =0.0010), mainly because of strong prolongation in a patient subgroup (28%). Conclusions— CD63 expression reflecting the release of platelet lysosomes is consistently increased after stroke and incompletely suppressed by treatment with aspirin, clopidogrel, or both. The strong prolongation of CADP-CT under combined aspirin and clopidogrel in a patient subgroup may indicate a lower risk of thrombosis but also a higher risk of hemorrhage. The predictive value of platelet activation parameters requires investigation in prospective studies.
Antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic potential of Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench. in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Objectives: The present investigation was aimed to study the antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic potential of Abelmoschus esculentus peel and seed powder (AEPP and AESP) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Acute toxicity of AEPP and AESP was studied in rats at 2000 mg/kg dose and diabetes was induced in rats by administration of STZ (60 mg/kg, i.p.). After 14 days of blood glucose stabilization, diabetic rats received AEPP, AESP, and glibenclamide up to 28 days. The blood samples were collected on day 28 to estimate the hemoglobin (Hb), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), serum glutamate-pyruvate transferase (SGPT), total protein (TP), and lipid profile levels. Results: In acute toxicity study, AESP and AESP did not show any toxicity or death up to a dose of 2000 mg/kg. Therefore, to assess the antidiabetic action, one by fifth and one by tenth dose of both powders were selected. Administration of AEPP and AESP at 100 and 200 mg/kg dose in diabetic rats showed significant (P < 0.001) reduction in blood glucose level and increase in body weight than diabetic control rats. A significant (P < 0.001) increased level of Hb, TP, and decreased level of HbA1c, SGPT were observed after the treatment of both doses of AEPP and AESP. Also, elevated lipid profile levels returned to near normal in diabetic rats after the administration of AEPP and AESP, 100 and 200 mg/kg dose, compared to diabetic control rats. Conclusion: The present study results, first time, support the antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic potential of A. esculentus peel and seed powder in diabetic rats.
Control of Somatosensory Cortical Processing by Thalamic Posterior Medial Nucleus: A New Role of Thalamus in Cortical Function

Current knowledge of thalamocortical interaction comes mainly from studying lemniscal thalamic systems. Less is known about paralemniscal thalamic nuclei function. In the vibrissae system, the posterior medial nucleus (POm) is the corresponding paralemniscal nucleus. POm neurons project to L1 and L5A of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the rat brain. It is known that L1 modifies sensory-evoked responses through control of intracortical excitability suggesting that L1 exerts an influence on whisker responses. Therefore, thalamocortical pathways targeting L1 could modulate cortical firing. Here, using a combination of electrophysiology and pharmacology in vivo, we have sought to determine how POm influences cortical processing. In our experiments, single unit recordings performed in urethane-anesthetized rats showed that POm imposes precise control on the magnitude and duration of supra- and infragranular barrel cortex whisker responses. Our findings demonstrated that L1 inputs from POm imposed a time and intensity dependent regulation on cortical sensory processing. Moreover, we found that blocking L1 GABAergic inhibition or blocking P/Q-type Ca2+ channels in L1 prevents POm adjustment of whisker responses in the barrel cortex. Additionally, we found that POm was also controlling the sensory processing in S2 and this regulation was modulated by corticofugal activity from L5 in S1. Taken together, our data demonstrate the determinant role exerted by the POm in the adjustment of somatosensory cortical processing and in the regulation of cortical processing between S1 and S2. We propose that this adjustment could be a thalamocortical gain regulation mechanism also present in the processing of information between cortical areas.
Expert Opinion on Laparoscopic Surgery for Colorectal Cancer Parallels Evidence from a Cumulative Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background This study sought to synthesize survival outcomes from trials of laparoscopic and open colorectal cancer surgery, and to determine whether expert acceptance of this technology in the literature has parallel cumulative survival evidence. Study Design A systematic review of randomized trials was conducted. The primary outcome was survival, and meta-analysis of time-to-event data was conducted. Expert opinion in the literature (published reviews, guidelines, and textbook chapters) on the acceptability of laparoscopic colorectal cancer was graded using a 7-point scale. Pooled survival data were correlated in time with accumulating expert opinion scores. Results A total of 5,800 citations were screened. Of these, 39 publications pertaining to 23 individual trials were retained. As well, 414 reviews were included (28 guidelines, 30 textbook chapters, 20 systematic reviews, 336 narrative reviews). In total, 5,782 patients were randomized to laparoscopic (n = 3,031) and open (n = 2,751) colorectal surgery. Survival data were presented in 16 publications. Laparoscopic surgery was not inferior to open surgery in terms of overall survival (HR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.80, 1.09). Expert opinion in the literature pertaining to the oncologic acceptability of laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer correlated most closely with the publication of large RCTs in 2002–2004. Although increasingly accepted since 2006, laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer remained controversial. Conclusions Laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer is non-inferior to open surgery in terms of overall survival, and has been so since 2004. The majority expert opinion in the literature has considered these two techniques to be equivalent since 2002–2004. Laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer has been increasingly accepted since 2006, but remains controversial. Knowledge translation efforts in this field appear to have paralleled the accumulation of clinical trial evidence.
The equity of mediated divorce agreements

Empirical studies come to contradictory conclusions about the dispute resolution forum women can expect to be most equitable in arrangements associated with separation and divorce. Structured telephone interviews were conducted with 302 divorced individuals who not only mediated their separation and divorce issues but also used other methods such as lawyer negotiation, judicial assistance, and autonomous negotiation. Mediation took place in both public and private arenas. Although mediation does not exacerbate the financial woes of women after divorce any more than any of the other dispute resolution techniques, it may not protect women either.
Interplay of I‐TASSER and QUARK for template‐based and ab initio protein structure prediction in CASP10

We develop and test a new pipeline in CASP10 to predict protein structures based on an interplay of I‐TASSER and QUARK for both free‐modeling (FM) and template‐based modeling (TBM) targets. The most noteworthy observation is that sorting through the threading template pool using the QUARK‐based ab initio models as probes allows the detection of distant‐homology templates which might be ignored by the traditional sequence profile‐based threading alignment algorithms. Further template assembly refinement by I‐TASSER resulted in successful folding of two medium‐sized FM targets with >150 residues. For TBM, the multiple threading alignments from LOMETS are, for the first time, incorporated into the ab initio QUARK simulations, which were further refined by I‐TASSER assembly refinement. Compared with the traditional threading assembly refinement procedures, the inclusion of the threading‐constrained ab initio folding models can consistently improve the quality of the full‐length models as assessed by the GDT‐HA and hydrogen‐bonding scores. Despite the success, significant challenges still exist in domain boundary prediction and consistent folding of medium‐size proteins (especially beta‐proteins) for nonhomologous targets. Further developments of sensitive fold‐recognition and ab initio folding methods are critical for solving these problems. Proteins 2014; 82(Suppl 2):175–187. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Overcharging a black hole and cosmic censorship

We show that, contrary to a widespread belief, one can overcharge a near extremal Reissner-Nordstrom black hole by throwing in a charged particle, as long as the backreaction effects may be considered negligible. Furthermore, we find that we can make the particle's classical radius, mass, and charge, as well as the relative size of the backreaction terms arbitrarily small, by adjusting the parameters corresponding to the particle appropriately. This suggests that the question of cosmic censorship is still not wholly resolved even in this simple scenario. We contrast this with attempting to overcharge a black hole with a charged imploding shell, where we find that cosmic censorship is upheld. We also briefly comment on a number of possible extensions.
Effects of sex on commitment and conflict resolution.

Supervisors rated 106 subordinates' use of 5 conflict resolution strategies identified by R. R. Blake and J. S. Mouton (1964). The relationship between the commitment measures and conflict resolution strategies depended on the sexual composition of the supervisor-subordinate dyad. For example, males reporting to females used smoothing, compromise, and confrontation when they were committed to the position.
Bounding scalar operator dimensions in 4D CFT

In an arbitrary unitary 4D CFT we consider a scalar operator phi, and the operator phi(2) defined as the lowest dimension scalar which appears in the OPE phi x phi with a nonzero coefficient. Using general considerations of OPE, conformal block decomposition, and crossing symmetry, we derive a theory-independent inequality [phi(2)] 1 we have f(d) = 2 + O(root d - 1), which shows that the free theory limit is approached continuously. We perform some checks of our bound. We find that the bound is satisfied by all weakly coupled 4D conformal fixed points that we are able to construct. The Wilson-Fischer fixed points violate the bound by a constant O( 1) factor, which must be due to the subtleties of extrapolating to 4 - epsilon dimensions. We use our method to derive an analogous bound in 2D, and check that the Minimal Models satisfy the bound, with the Ising model nearly-saturating it. Derivation of an analogous bound in 3D is currently not feasible because the explicit conformal blocks are not known in odd dimensions. We also discuss the main phenomenological motivation for studying this set of questions: constructing models of dynamical ElectroWeak Symmetry Breaking without flavor problems.