Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why such long faces? Response to Collard and O'Higgins

In a recent issue of Evolution & Development , Collard and O'Higgins (2001) presented an analysis of the development of the faces of Old World monkeys belonging to the Tribe Papionini. We can applaud this study for at least two general reasons. First, the authors bypass the jaded " morphology versus molecules " debate by using a well-supported molecular phylogeny as a template to analyze morphological evolution. Second, they have investigated a key process—the on-togeny of cranial morphology—that promises to yield fresh insights into parallel evolution within the papionins. Here, I discuss two aspects of the study. First, I discuss limitations in taxon sampling that, if overcome, could enhance the au-thor's analyses. Second, I examine the author's conclusions regarding the relationship between facial lengthening and papionin social systems, as well as concerning the roles that sexual selection and other evolutionary forces have played in papionin evolution. The author's first analysis examined the polarity of facial evolution within the papionin group. Such an analysis requires a sufficient sampling of ingroup and outgroup taxa that does not overlook the diverse facial morphologies of species within genera. However, there appears to be a limitation in the species sampling, which detracts from the article's general conclusions. For all but the genus Lophocebus , the authors analyzed a single species even though most papionin genera have two or more recognized species. Furthermore, some species show considerably different expressions of the crucial features ex-amined—facial length and shape. The problem exists for the ingroup taxa, Papio and Mandrillus , and for the outgroup taxon, Macaca. Admittedly, with respect to Papio and Mandrillus , little has been published describing shape differences among species or subspecies. For example, little is documented about differences between the crania and muzzles of mandrills and drills (Mandrillus). However, at least for Papio, researchers have long noted distinct morphologies among the crania and muzzles of the five subspecies (Hill 1967; Jolly 1967). Perhaps the most significant shortcoming involves overlooking facial diversity within Macaca. For this genus, the authors analyzed the single species M. mulatta (the rhesus macaque), which possesses a relatively short face. However, some macaque species are described (Groves 1980) as having " baboon-like " muzzles (although I should point out that genetic analyses indicate that macaques form a monophy-letic group; Deinard and Smith 2001; Tosi et al. 2000). For example, the Sulawesi Island group of macaques is known to have relatively long …
AM / FM Rate Estimation and Bias Correction for Time-Varying Sinusoidal Modeling October 13 , 2004

Due to its simplicity and accuracy, quadratic peak interpolation in a zero-padded Fast Fourier Transform has been widely used for sinusoidal parameter estimation in audio applications. In this paper, as its natural extension, we propose a method to estimate the first order amplitude and frequency modulation rates of time-varying sinusoidal components, as well as to correct biases in the amplitude, frequency and phase estimates. We first derive exact formulas to estimate the AM/FM rates for Gaussian windows. We then extend it to an approximate method for nonGaussian windows by introducing a simple window adaptation scheme. Experimental results show the average biases in the estimates of the AM and FM rates with a 30ms Hann window are below 1%, for typical AM/FM rates in a speech.
Scanning optical interferometry microscopy, using optical fiber probe

The aim of this report is to introduce a new method of scanning optical fiber microscopy, in which a single-mode optical fiber probe for studying the optical and topographical properties of a sample is used. It operates based on an interferometry technique that is named Fiber Probe Interferometric Microscopy (FPIM). The intensity of the light coupled into the fiber probe is modulated by the properties of the sample such as the local reflectivity, tilting and the distance between the radiating end of the fiber and the sample. The geometry of the envelopes of the interference intensity fringes caused by axially translating sample, at any location, is considered as a powerful measuring tool. FPIM system and technique for measuring the mentioned quantities are explained.
Rapid procedure for detection and isolation of large and small plasmids

Procedures are described for the detection and isolation of plasmids of various sizes (2.6 to 350 megadaltons) that are harbored in species of Agrobacterium, Rhizobium, Escherichia, Salmonella, Erwinia, Pseudomonas, and Xanthomonas. The method utilized the molecular characteristics of covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that is released from cells under conditions that denature chromosomal DNA by using alkaline sodium dodecyl sulfate (pH 12.6) at elevated temperatures. Proteins and cell debris were removed by extraction with phenol-chloroform. Under these conditions chromosomal DNA concentrations were reduced or eliminated. The clarified extract was used directly for electrophoretic analysis. These procedures also permitted the selective isolation of plasmid DNA that can be used directly in nick translation, restriction endonuclease analysis, transformation, and DNA cloning experiments.
Seroprevalence of bovine viral diarrhea virus in crossbred dairy cattle in Bangladesh

Aim: The study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and hematological features in crossbred dairy cattle in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: The antibody against BVDV in crossbred dairy cattle serum was detected by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The association of different categorical variables in the prevalence of BVDV has been studied. Blood samples were collected and analyzed to know the hematological variations in the study population. Results: The overall seroprevalence of BVDV in the study area was 51.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 40.5-61.5). Among different physiological stages of animals, the highest 57.1% (95% CI, 42.2-71.2) prevalence was in case of non-pregnant animals. Aborted cows were found to be significantly (p<0.05) more seropositive 77.8% (95% CI, 52.4-93.6) than the non-aborted cows (77.8%, 95% CI, 52.4-93.6, compared to 44.7%, 95% CI, 33.3-56.6, respectively). Cows having the history of retained placenta were found more positive than without the history of retained placenta (63.2%, 95% CI, 38.4-83.7, compared to 54.7%, 95% CI, 40.4-68.4, respectively). Among the animals of different age groups, BVDV seroprevalence was higher 61.3% (95% CI, 42.2-78.2) in animals of more than 3 years up to 5 years, whereas 32% was in case of 0-1-year-old. Significant variation found in different geographical areas of the study area. Hematological analyses have shown variation between the BVDV positive and negative animals. Conclusion: Seroprevalence of BVDV found to be high in the study area is also economically important and cause significant damage to the production industry. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct effective control measures to reduce the burden of BVDV.
Effects on Blood Pressure of co 3 Fats in Subjects at Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

This study was conducted to compare the effects of o>3 fatty acids, taken as fish or fish-oil supplements in the setting of a highor low-fat dietary background, on blood pressure and heart rate in men with moderate cardiovascular risks. One hundred twenty men were randomly allocated to five high-fat (40% of daily energy) and two low-fat (30% of energy) groups to undertake a 12-week dietary intervention period involving fish, fish oil, or a combination of these. Sodium intake was restricted to less than 90 mmol/d. The five high-fat groups were assigned to take either 6 or 12 fish-oil capsules daily, fish or a combination of fish oil and fish, or placebo capsules. The two low-fat groups took either fish or placebo capsules. Fish meals were devised to provide 1.3 g of eicosapentaenoic acid daily, equivalent to that contained in 6 fish-oil capsules. Subjects were instructed to eat a selection of fish that provided an average of 3.65 g/d (range, 3.2 to 4.1 g/d) of total <o3 fatty acids. Subjects were seen at regular intervals during the baseline and dietary intervention periods for measurement of weight, blood pressure, heart rate, dietary compliance, urinary electrolyte excretion, platelet phospholipid fatty acids, blood glucose, and insulin concentration. There was a greater fall in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures in subjects allocated fish or fish oil, particularly in the low-fat groups, compared with control subjects. However, there was no significant group effect. For all groups combined, there were highly significant relations, independent of changes in weight and urinary sodium and potassium excretions, between the fall in blood pressure and the increase in &J3 and decrease in <o6 fatty acids in platelet phospholipids. The fall in heart rate observed in the fish and fish-oil-supplemented groups was significantly related to the changes in platelet <a3 and tu6 fatty acids. It is proposed that, in addition to previously reported alterations in platelet eicosanoid production, similar changes in fatty acid composition at the vascular and myocardial cellular levels result in the cardiovascular responses observed. (Hypertension. 1993;22:371-379.)
Convolutional Networks on Graphs for Learning Molecular Fingerprints

We introduce a convolutional neural network that operates directly on graphs. These networks allow end-to-end learning of prediction pipelines whose inputs are graphs of arbitrary size and shape. The architecture we present generalizes standard molecular feature extraction methods based on circular fingerprints. We show that these data-driven features are more interpretable, and have better predictive performance on a variety of tasks.
Tuberculosis in children

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major, but often unrecognised, cause of disease and death in young children from countries with high TB incidence rates among adults. It is also relevant to paediatricians in low‐incidence countries, such as Australia, because of increased international travel, immigration and refugee resettlement. This manuscript provides a brief overview of the global TB disease burden, the natural history of disease in children, and offers guidance on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB in children.
Impact of Spam Game on Upper Layers: Admissions Procedures, Routing and Pricing. 9.1 Connection Admission Procedures

Since in " ad-hoc " networks no centralized controllers are present, an interesting topic concerns the development of distributed Connection Admission Procedures balancing the QoS requirements and overall network throughput. In fact Connection Admission Procedures (CAPs) allow the users to set up connection in an uncoordinated fashion so to reduce the signalling for handshake procedures as in centralized connection admission procedures or in cooperative approaches for ad-hoc networks. In this Chapter two decentralized connection admission procedures for " ad-hoc' networks relying on the above described SPAM Game are proposed. The first one (referred to as Hard Connection Admission Procedure (HCAP)) attempts to satisfy the users requiring higher QoS classes, while the goal of the second one (e.g., the Soft Connection Admission Procedure (SCAP)) is to maximize the number of allowed connections. Both HCAP and SCAP are developed to be employed jointly to the SPAM Game presented in Chapter 7. The proposed approaches are compared with the conventional TDMA is an example of orthogonal and (in 287
A Model for the Coupling between Cerebral Blood Flow and Oxygen Metabolism during Neural Stimulation

A general mathematical model for the delivery of O2 to the brain is presented, based on the assumptions that all of the brain capillaries are perfused at rest and that all of the oxygen extracted from the capillaries is metabolized. The model predicts that disproportionately large changes in blood flow are required in order to support small changes in the O2 metabolic rate. Interpreted in terms of this model, previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies of the human brain during neural stimulation demonstrating that cerebral blood flow (CBF) increases much more than the oxygen metabolic rate are consistent with tight coupling of flow and oxidative metabolism. The model provides a basis for the quantitative interpretation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in terms of changes in local CBF.
A survey of laboratory practice in the clinical authorization and reporting of results

Background: The aim of this survey was to determine the practice of authorization and reporting of results in clinical biochemistry laboratories in the UK. Method: Questionnaires were distributed to the heads of clinical biochemistry departments through the National Audit Committee of the Association of Clinical Biochemists. The standards surveyed were based on guidelines for the reporting of results produced by the Royal College of Pathologists and the relevant Clinical Pathology Accreditation standards. Results: Completed questionnaires were received from 137 laboratories. Workload ranged from 15 000 to 750 000 requests per annum (median 276 883). Most laboratories (98%) release results electronically to at least some wards in real-time. Areas where difficulties were identified included identifying requests that had posed specific questions and access to clinical information at the authorization stage, recording clinical advice given, and ensuring comments remained attached to printed reports or were on the same screen on computer reports. All but six laboratories had consultant advice available, including out of hours, but only 17% had an arrangement for clinical authorization to occur out of hours. Conclusion: Only 45 laboratories (33%) were able to achieve 100% compliance with the standards that currently exist, but many others showed evidence of good practice. The practical obstacles still to be overcome include limitations in the capabilities of laboratory computer systems, the lack of accessible electronic clinical records, the difficulties of covering work out of hours and insufficient appropriately trained staff.
A novel alkaloid from Portulaca oleracea L.

Abstract A novel alkaloid named oleraciamide C (1), with six known compounds, hydroxydihydrobovolide (2), uracil (3), catechol (4), 4-aminophenol (5), vanillic acid (6) as well as 3-hydroxypyridine (7), were isolated from Portulaca oleracea L. Additionally, hydroxydihydrobovolide (2), 4-aminophenol (5), 3-hydroxypyridine (7) were obtained from the plant for the first time. Structure of the new compound was determined using spectroscopic methods including HR-ESI-TOF-MS, 1D and 2D NMR. Others were elucidated through 1H NMR, 13C NMR spectra and comparison with literature data. Notably, Compound 1 possessed an unusual bis-substituted eight-membered ring linked with the β-glucopyranose moiety. The cytotoxicity of compound 1 was evaluated against human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) by CCK-8 method.
Density-Based Skewness and Kurtosis Functions

New, functional, concepts of skewness and kurtosis are introduced for large classes of continuous univariate distributions. They are the first skewness and kurtosis measures to be defined directly in terms of the probability density function and its derivative, and are directly interpretable in terms of them. Unimodality of the density is a basic prerequisite. The mode defines the centre of such densities, separating their left and right parts. Skewness is then simply defined by suitably invariant comparison of the distances to the right and left of the mode at which the density is the same, positive function values arising when the former distance is larger. Our skewness functions are, thus, directly interpretable right-left comparisons which characterise asymmetry, vanishing only in the symmetric case. Kurtosis is conceived separately for the left and right parts of a unimodal density, these concepts coinciding in the symmetric case. By reflection in the mode, it suffices to consider right kurtosis. This, in turn, is directly and straightforwardly defined as skewness of an appropriate unimodal function of the right density derivative, two alternative functions being of particular interest. Dividing the right density into its peak and tail parts at the mode of such a function, (right) kurtosis is seen as a corresponding tail-peak comparison. A number of properties and illustrations of both skewness and kurtosis functions are presented and a concept of relative kurtosis addressed. Estimation of skewness and kurtosis functions, via kernel density estimation, is briefly considered and illustrated. Scalar summary skewness and kurtosis measures based on suitable averages of their functional counterparts are also considered and a link made to a popular existing scalar skewness measure. Further developments are briefly
Agile Requirements Definition: A View from Requirements Engineering

Agile methods are an attractive alternative for those pressured to produce code fast. Many programmers like the hands-on strategy of these approaches which also help them avoid some of the less exciting tasks, such as specification. On the other hand, some people appear to welcome agile methods as an excuse to throw overboard everything that requirements engineering has been teaching. This position paper looks at numerous aspects of requirements engineering and argues about their suitability for agile approaches. The aim is to elicit lessons from requirements engineering that agile methods might consider, if quality is a major concern.
Microsatellite instability, MLH1 promoter methylation, and BRAF mutation analysis in sporadic colorectal cancers of different ethnic groups in Israel

The molecular mechanisms that underlie colorectal cancer (CRC) include microsatellite instability (MSI), chromosomal instability, and the CpG island methylator phenotype. There is evidence to suggest that CRC incidence varies among different ethnic populations worldwide. The authors of this report hypothesized that environmental factors and lifestyle differences among various ethnic groups may differentially influence the epigenetic regulation of tumor suppressor genes in CRC.
Prevalence and severity of menopause symptoms and associated factors across menopause status in Korean women

Objective:The present study investigated the prevalence and severity of menopause symptoms experienced by Korean women aged 44 to 56 years and their associated factors. Methods:A cross-sectional study was performed on 2,201 women aged 44 to 56 years in health checkup centers between November 2012 and March 2013. The 29-item Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire was used to assess vasomotor, psychosocial, physical, and sexual symptoms related to menopause. The guidelines for the classification of reproductive aging stages proposed at the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop were used. Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with severity of menopause symptoms. Results:Among participants, 42.6% were premenopausal, 36.7% were perimenopausal, and 20.7% were postmenopausal. Although physical symptoms were the most severe menopause symptoms experienced by premenopausal and perimenopausal women, postmenopausal women reported sexual symptoms as the most bothersome. The mean scores for each domain increased from the premenopausal period through the postmenopausal period (P for trend < 0.001). The regression model revealed that age (for vasomotor and sexual symptoms) and obesity (for vasomotor and physical symptoms) were significantly associated with severity of menopause symptoms (P < 0.05). Physically active women had fewer severe physical symptoms related to menopause than inactive women. Conclusions:Postmenopausal women experience the most severe symptoms. Obesity and physical activity are the main modifiable factors associated with symptom severity. Further studies are needed to examine the effects of physical activity promotion and weight control interventions on preventing menopause symptoms in Korean women.
Increased variance in temperature and lag effects alter phenological responses to rapid warming in a subarctic plant community

Summer temperature on the Cape Churchill Peninsula (Manitoba, Canada) has increased rapidly over the past 75 years, and flowering phenology of the plant community is advanced in years with warmer temperatures (higher cumulative growing degree days). Despite this, there has been no overall shift in flowering phenology over this period. However, climate change has also resulted in increased interannual variation in temperature; if relationships between phenology and temperature are not linear, an increase in temperature variance may interact with an increase in the mean to alter how community phenology changes over time. In our system, the relationship between phenology and temperature was log‐linear, resulting in a steeper slope at the cold end of the temperature spectrum than at the warm end. Because below‐average temperatures had a greater impact on phenology than above‐average temperatures, the long‐term advance in phenology was reduced. In addition, flowering phenology in a given year was delayed if summer temperatures were high the previous year or 2 years earlier (lag effects), further reducing the expected advance over time. Phenology of early‐flowering plants was negatively affected only by temperatures in the previous year, and that of late‐flowering plants primarily by temperatures 2 years earlier. Subarctic plants develop leaf primordia one or more years prior to flowering (preformation); these results suggest that temperature affects the development of flower primordia during this preformation period. Together, increased variance in temperature and lag effects interacted with a changing mean to reduce the expected phenological advance by 94%, a magnitude large enough to account for our inability to detect a significant advance over time. We conclude that changes in temperature variability and lag effects can alter trends in plant responses to a warming climate and that predictions for changes in plant phenology under future warming scenarios should incorporate such effects.