Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prediction of Breeding Values for Dairy Cattle Using Artificial Neural Networks and Neuro-Fuzzy Systems

Developing machine learning and soft computing techniques has provided many opportunities for researchers to establish new analytical methods in different areas of science. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential of two types of intelligent learning methods, artificial neural networks and neuro-fuzzy systems, in order to estimate breeding values (EBV) of Iranian dairy cattle. Initially, the breeding values of lactating Holstein cows for milk and fat yield were estimated using conventional best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) with an animal model. Once that was established, a multilayer perceptron was used to build ANN to predict breeding values from the performance data of selection candidates. Subsequently, fuzzy logic was used to form an NFS, a hybrid intelligent system that was implemented via a local linear model tree algorithm. For milk yield the correlations between EBV and EBV predicted by the ANN and NFS were 0.92 and 0.93, respectively. Corresponding correlations for fat yield were 0.93 and 0.93, respectively. Correlations between multitrait predictions of EBVs for milk and fat yield when predicted simultaneously by ANN were 0.93 and 0.93, respectively, whereas corresponding correlations with reference EBV for multitrait NFS were 0.94 and 0.95, respectively, for milk and fat production.
Combining surrogate models and local search for dealing with expensive multi-objective optimization problems

The development of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) assisted by surrogate models has significantly increased in the last few years. However, in realworld applications, the high modality and dimensionality that functions normally have, often causes problems to such models. Therefore, if the Pareto optimal set of a multi-objective optimization problem is located in a search space in which the surrogate model is not able to shape the corresponding region, the search could be misinformed and thus converge to wrong regions. This has motivated the idea of incorporating refinement mechanisms to such approaches, in order to improve the search. In this paper, we present a local search mechanism which improves the search of a MOEA assisted by surrogate models. Our preliminary results indicate that our proposed approach can produce good quality results when it is restricted to performing only between 1,000 and 5,000 fitness function evaluations. Our proposed approach is validated using a set of standard test problems and an airfoil design problem.
A prospective study of diet quality and mortality in women.

CONTEXT Most studies of diet and health care have focused on the role of single nutrients, foods, or food groups in disease prevention or promotion. Few studies have addressed the health effects of dietary patterns, which include complex mixtures of foods containing multiple nutrients and nonnutrients. OBJECTIVE To examine the association of mortality with a multifactorial diet quality index. DESIGN AND SETTING Data from phase 2 (1987-1989) of a prospective cohort study of breast cancer screening, the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project, with a median follow-up of 5.6 years. PARTICIPANTS A total of 42,254 women (mean age, 61.1 years) who completed the food frequency questionnaire portion of the survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE All-cause mortality by quartile of Recommended Food Score (RFS; the sum of the number of foods recommended by current dietary guidelines [fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean meats and poultry] that were reported on the questionnaire to be consumed at least once a week, for a maximum score of 23). RESULTS There were 2065 deaths due to all causes in the cohort. The RFS was inversely associated with all-cause mortality. Compared with those in the lowest quartile, subjects in the upper quartiles of the RFS had relative risks for all-cause mortality of 0.82 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-0.92) for quartile 2, 0.71 (95% CI, 0.62-0.81) for quartile 3, and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.61-0.78) for quartile 4 adjusted for education, ethnicity, age, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol use, level of physical activity, menopausal hormone use, and history of disease (chi2 for trend = 35.64, P<.001 for trend). CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that a dietary pattern characterized by consumption of foods recommended in current dietary guidelines is associated with decreased risk of mortality in women.
Toward A Unified Conception Of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contracts Theory

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? ” Alice asked the Cheshire Cat. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don't much care where. ” said Alice. “Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat. (Carroll, 1983: 72)
Thermal resistance of VCSELs bonded to integrated circuits

The thermal resistance of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) flip chip bonded to GaAs substrates and CMOS integrated circuits has been measured. The measurements on GaAs show that if the bonding is done properly, the bonding does not add significantly to the thermal resistance. However, the SiO/sub 2/ under the CMOS bonding pad can double the thermal resistance unless measures are taken to improve the thermal conductance of these layers. Finite element simulations indicate that the thermal resistance of bonded VCSELs increases rapidly as the solder bond size and the aperture size decrease below /spl sim/10 /spl mu/m.
You can feel it all over: Many signals potentially contribute to feelings of familiarity

Abstract Voss, Lucas, and Paller provide a thought-provoking summary of their recent research showing that neural effects which are often attributed to (explicit) feelings of familiarity can instead be attributed to the (implicit) effects of conceptual priming. Here, we discuss research that shows effects of priming on (putative) behavioral and neural measures of familiarity, and consider a slightly different interpretation: That multiple neurocognitive processes can serve as signals to prior experience with a test item (i.e., can influence judgments of familiarity), and the set of signals that will be interpreted as familiarity depends on the experimental context.
Molecular Systems Biology Peer Review Process File Dissecting Specific and Global Transcriptional Regulation of Bacterial Gene Expression Transaction Report

(Note: With the exception of the correction of typographical or spelling errors that could be a source of ambiguity, letters and reports are not edited. The original formatting of letters and referee reports may not be reflected in this compilation.) Thank you again for submitting your work to Molecular Systems Biology. We have now heard back from the three referees who accepted to evaluate the study. As you will see, the referees find the topic of your study of potential interest and are supportive. They raise however a series of concerns and make suggestions for modifications, which we would ask you to carefully address in a revision of the present work. The recommendations provided by the reviewers are very clear in this regard. In this manuscript, Gerosa et al studied the interplay and the relative contribution of global transcription regulation and the specific regulated transcription. They chose to focus on the arginine biosynthesis genes in E. coli as a model system since these genes are regulated by a single repressor, argR, for which the regulatory regions on the different promoters are well characterized. The authors elegantly measured first the global transcription regulation by using genes that are under a global regulation only as well as the global regulation of the arginine biosynthesis genes in a delta argR strain. These experiments provided the contribution of the global transcriptional regulation. Using the extracted parameters (Vmax and Km) they then studied the specific argR transcriptional regulation. The study revealed two main intriguing principles: (1) Regulated transcription, namely the repression, dominates most of the time, except for the transient states during a shift from external uptake to biosynthesis. (2) Global transcriptional regulation sets the maximal point to which
Marginality and Problem-Solving Effectiveness in Broadcast Search

We examine who the winners are in science problem-solving contests characterized by open broadcast of problem information, self-selection of external solvers to discrete problems from the laboratories of large research and development intensive companies, and blind review of solution submissions. Analyzing a unique data set of 166 science challenges involving over 12,000 scientists revealed that technical and social marginality, being a source of different perspectives and heuristics, plays an important role in explaining individual success in problem solving. The provision of a winning solution was positively related to increasing distance between the solver's field of technical expertise and the focal field of the problem. Female solvers---known to be in the “outer circle” of the scientific establishment---performed significantly better than men in developing successful solutions. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on open and distributed innovation by demonstrating the value of openness, at least narrowly defined by disclosing problems, in removing barriers to entry to nonobvious individuals. We also contribute to the knowledge-based theory of the firm by showing the effectiveness of a market mechanism to draw out knowledge from diverse external sources to solve internal problems.
Sodium nitroprusside modulates the fibrinolytic system in the rabbit

1 We have investigated the effect of sodium nitroprusside (NP) and glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) on fibrinolysis in anaesthetized rabbits ex vivo and in vitro by measurement of euglobulin clot lysis time (ECLT), plasma levels of tissue plasminogen activator (t‐PA) activity, plasma t‐PA antigen levels and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI‐1) activity. 2 In vivo, NP (30 μg kg−1), GTN (30 μg kg−1) and prostacyclin (3 μg kg−1) caused similar transient decreases in left ventricular systolic pressure. However, while prostacyclin induced near‐maximal inhibition of ex vivo platelet aggregation, NP or GTN had no effect. 3 Ex vivo, NP caused a significant decrease in ECLT and an increase in plasma t‐PA activity. 4 Intravenous co‐administration of t‐PA (30 μg kg−1) with NP caused substantial prolongation of plasma t‐PA activity, without affecting t‐PA antigen levels. 5 In whole blood in vitro, NP (30 μg kg−1) prevented the time‐dependent increase in PAI‐1 activity and inhibited inactivation of added t‐PA (10 ng ml−1). 6 We propose that NP exhibited fibrinolytic activity through increased t‐PA activity as a result of inhibition of PAI‐1 release from platelets. These results could have important therapeutic consequences when t‐PA and nitrate treatments are combined.
O produtivismo na era do "publique, apareça ou pereça": um equilíbrio difícil e necessário

Na sociedade da cultura digital, um novo imperativo categorico impoe-se: ser significa ser midiatica e eletronicamente percebido. Em conformidade com a logica dessa nova ontologia, tambem o produtivismo academico metamorfoseia-se numa especie de produtivismo midiatico e performatico, na medida em que os artigos e seus respectivos autores se transformam em logotipos de sucesso quando sao mais visualizados no ambiente virtual do que outros. Dado esse cenario e tendo como mediacoes pesquisas anteriores e revisao bibliografica, objetiva-se, neste artigo, investigar o modo como a expressao "publique ou pereca" se converte em "publique, apareca ou pereca". Conclui-se que se faz cada vez mais necessario engendrar novas politicas de producao academica, de tal maneira que seus autores reflitam criticamente sobre os conceitos de produtivismo, plagio, autoplagio e redundância no contexto da cultura digital.
The spatial dynamics of crop and ground active predatory arthropods and their aphid prey in winter wheat

Abstract The distribution of aphid predators within arable fields has been previously examined using pitfall traps. With this technique predominantly larger invertebrate species are captured, especially Carabidae, but the technique provides no estimate of density unless mark–recapture is used. However, many other numerically important aphid predators occur in arable fields and relatively little is known about their distribution patterns nor whether they exhibit a density-dependent response to patches of cereal aphids. Identification of the most effective predators can allow management practices to be developed accordingly. In this study, the distribution of cereal aphids and their predators was examined by suction sampling within a field of winter wheat in Devon, UK, along with visual estimates of weed patchiness. Sampling was conducted on four occasions in 1999 across a grid of 128 sample locations. The distribution of 11 predatory taxa from the Carabidae, Staphylinidae and Linyphiidae was examined. Additionally, the total number of aphid predators and a predation index were used in these analyses. Carabid adults and larvae, along with staphylinid larvae showed the strongest aggregation into patches and the most temporal stability in their distribution. Other taxa had more ephemeral distributions as did the cereal aphids. The distribution of carabid larvae was disassociated from the distribution of cereal aphids for the first two sampling occasions indicating biocontrol was occurring. Other predatory groups showed both association and disassociation. Carabid larvae, Bathyphantes and total numbers of Linyphiidae showed a strong correlation with weed cover for two of the sample dates. Cereal aphids were disassociated from weed cover on three sampling occasions.
Working with Violence, the Emotions and the Psycho‐social Dynamics of Child Protection: Reflections on the Victoria Climbié Case

In recent years, attention to the psychological and emotional aspects of doing child protection has been largely ignored in the literature and squeezed out of understandings of welfare practices. This paper argues for the establishment of a coherent psycho‐social perspective at the core of social work education and practice and in inter‐professional child protection work more generally. Central to this must be recognition of the complexities of service users, especially the challenges of working with resistant and often hostile ‘involuntary clients’ and the impact of violence and other health, safety and contamination fears on the capacities of workers and professional networks to protect children. These issues are grounded in a critical analysis of the Victoria Climbié case and the Laming report into her horrific death which, despite its strengths, presents rational and naïve solutions to what must be understood as often irrational and inherently complex psycho‐social processes. A psycho‐social reading of the case permits us to explain the unexplainable in how Victoria's abuse was missed. The general implications of these arguments are drawn out for education, training and practice.
Feedback stabilization of a coupled string-beam system

We consider a stabilization problem for a coupled string-beam system. We prove some decay results of the energy of the system. The method used is based on the methodology introduced in Ammari and Tucsnak [2] where the exponential and weak stability for the closed loop problem is reduced to a boundedness property of the transfer function of the associated open loop system. Morever, we prove, for the same model but with two control functions, independently of the length of the beam that the energy decay with a polynomial rate for all regular initial data. The method used, in this case, is based on a frequency domain method and combine a contradiction argument with the multiplier technique to carry out a special analysis for the resolvent.
Selecting Copulas for Risk Management

Copulas offer financial risk managers a powerful tool to model the dependence between the different elements of a portfolio and are preferable to the traditional, correlation-based approach. In this paper we show the importance of selecting an accurate copula for risk management. We extend standard goodness-of-fit tests to copulas. Contrary to existing, indirect tests, these tests can be applied to any copula of any dimension and are based on a direct comparison of a given copula with observed data. For a portfolio consisting of stocks, bonds and real estate, these tests provide clear evidence in favour of the Student’s t copula, and reject both the correlation-based Gaussian copula and the extreme value-based Gumbel copula. In comparison with the Student’s t copula, we find that the Gaussian copula underestimates the probability of joint extreme downward movements, while the Gumbel copula overestimates this risk. Similarly we establish that the Gaussian copula is too optimistic on diversification benefits, while the Gumbel copula is too pessimistic. Moreover, these differences are significant.
Distribution of Mycobacterium leprae Strains among Cases in a Rural and Urban Population of Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT The elimination of leprosy continues to be a challenge, with the disease remaining endemic in several countries. India accounts for the highest number of cases, and the identification of child cases indicates recent transmission. Genetic markers, like variable-number tandem repeats (VNTRs) and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), have been identified to track transmission of the pathogen Mycobacterium leprae. They were used to describe M. leprae strains detected in 48 skin biopsy specimens from leprosy patients in the state of Maharashtra in western India in rural and urban areas near Mumbai. Ninety-three percent of strains across both settings belonged to the SNP type 1D, with three of SNP type 1B being identified in patients living within 3 km of each other. The VNTR profiles of the Maharashtra strains clustered with those from Southern India reported previously and a few other Asian strains, indicating that the Indian strains are genotypically conserved at the level of many VNTR loci. Taken together, SNP and VNTR markers are sufficiently reliable and suitable for both localized and broad geographical genotype associations. VNTR profiles of additional cases may aid in distinguishing the SNP type 1B and 1D strains.
Paper on Stereo Vision Based Depth Estimation

Stereo vision is a challenging problem and it is a wide research topic in computer vision. It has got a lot of attraction because it is a cost efficient way in place of using costly sensors. Stereo vision has found a great importance in many fields and applications in today’s world. Some of the applications include robotics, 3-D scanning, 3-D reconstruction, driver assistance systems, forensics, 3-D tracking etc. The main challenge of stereo vision is to generate accurate disparity map. Stereo vision algorithms usually perform four steps: first, matching cost computation; second, cost aggregation; third, disparity computation or optimization; and fourth, disparity refinement. Stereo matching problems are also discussed. A large number of algorithms have been developed for stereo vision. But characterization of their performance has achieved less attraction. This paper gives a brief overview of the existing stereo vision algorithms. After evaluating the papers we can say that focus has been on cost aggregation and multi-step refinement process. Segment-based methods have also attracted attention due to their good performance. Also, using improved filter for cost aggregation in stereo matching achieves better results.
Cell wall integrity and high osmolarity glycerol pathways are required for adaptation of Alternaria brassicicola to cell wall stress caused by brassicaceous indolic phytoalexins

Camalexin, the characteristic phytoalexin of Arabidopsis thaliana, inhibits growth of the fungal necrotroph Alternaria brassicicola. This plant metabolite probably exerts its antifungal toxicity by causing cell membrane damage. Here we observed that activation of a cellular response to this damage requires cell wall integrity (CWI) and the high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) pathways. Camalexin was found to activate both AbHog1 and AbSlt2 MAP kinases, and activation of the latter was abrogated in a AbHog1 deficient strain. Mutant strains lacking functional MAP kinases showed hypersensitivity to camalexin and brassinin, a structurally related phytoalexin produced by several cultivated Brassica species. Enhanced susceptibility to the membrane permeabilization activity of camalexin was observed for MAP kinase deficient mutants. These results suggest that the two signalling pathways have a pivotal role in regulating a cellular compensatory response to preserve cell integrity during exposure to camalexin. AbHog1 and AbSlt2 deficient mutants had reduced virulence on host plants that may, at least for the latter mutants, partially result from their inability to cope with defence metabolites such as indolic phytoalexins. This constitutes the first evidence that a phytoalexin activates fungal MAP kinases and that outputs of activated cascades contribute to protecting the fungus against antimicrobial plant metabolites.
Dialogic reading in reading aloud activities: insights from implementation and effects on reading abilities and attitudes

Literacy practices at school that do not balance the importance given to the two domains of reading (i.e., cognitive and affective) have been thought to be the causes of the phenomenon of aliteracy in Colombia. Therefore, reading instruction in the school needs to build reading abilities and promote positive attitudes towards reading. In order to explore ideas about how reading instruction in the school that focuses on both the cognitive and the affective domain of reading can be developed, the current study claimed at the creation of a reading intervention that aimed at boosting positive attitudes towards reading and at enhancing reading abilities in 4th graders. The reading intervention included the improvement of some aspects of the reading environment, and the development of a reading instruction in which scaffolding was provided by means of dialogic reading before, during and after of reading aloud activities. The implementation of the reading intervention conceived for the current qualitative research was explored by means of different data collection methods taking into account the research questions: What are the benefits of the application of the reading intervention in the development of attitudes towards reading in Spanish and reading abilities in young learners? , What insights can be drawn from the design and implementation of the reading intervention? , and What are the students’ responses towards the different activities included in the reading intervention?