Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of selenium bioaccumulation in the clams Corbicula fluminea and Potamocorbula amurensis: A bioenergetic modeling approach

Selenium uptake from food (assimilation efficiency) and dissolved phase (influx rate) as well as loss kinetics (efflux rate) were compared between two bivalves, Corbicula fluminea and Potamocorbula amurensis. The effects of salinity and temperature on these kinetic parameters for both clam species also were evaluated. The Asiatic clam, C. fluminea, more efficiently assimilated Se associated with algae (66–87%) than Se associated with oxic sediments (20–37%). However, no consistent difference was found between Se assimilation efficiencies from both food types (19–60%) for P. amurensis. The temperature and salinity had a minor influence on the Se assimilation from ingested food. However, the effects of temperature and salinity were more evident in the uptake from dissolved sources. The influx rate of Se(IV) increased by threefold with the increase of temperature from 5 to 21°C for C. fluminea. The increase of salinity from 4 to 20 psu decreased the uptake rate constant (ku) of Se in P. amurensis from 0.011 to 0.005 L/g/h, whereas salinity change (0–8 psu) had a negligible effect on the Se influx rate of C. fluminea. The Se influx rate of P. amurensis decreased by half with the 3.5‐fold increase in tissue dry weight. The rate constant of loss was greater for P. amurensis (0.029/d at 8 psu) than for C. fluminea (0.014/d at 0 psu and 0.01/d at 8 psu). A bioenergetic model suggests that dietary uptake is the dominant pathway for Se bioaccumulation in the two clams in San Francisco Bay and that interspecies differences in Se bioaccumulation can be explained by differences in food ingestion rates.
TokTrack: A Complete Token Provenance and Change Tracking Dataset for the English Wikipedia

We present a dataset that contains every instance of all tokens (words) ever written in undeleted, non-redirect English Wikipedia articles until October 2016, in total 13,545,349,78 instances. Each token is annotated with (i) the article revision it was originally created in, and (ii) lists with all the revisions in which the token was ever deleted and (potentially) re-added and re-deleted from its article, enabling a complete and straightforward tracking of its history. This data would be exceedingly hard to create by an average potential user as it is (i) very expensive to compute and as (ii) accurately tracking the history of each token in revisioned documents is a non-trivial task. Adapting a state-of-the-art algorithm, we have produced a dataset that allows for a range of analyses and metrics, already popular in research and going beyond, to be generated on complete-Wikipedia scale; ensuring quality and allowing researchers to forego expensive text-comparison computation, which so far has hindered scalable usage. We show how this data enables, on token-level, computation of provenance, measuring survival of content over time, very detailed conflict metrics, and fine-grained interactions of editors like partial reverts, re-additions and other metrics, in the process gaining several novel insights.
Epitope-Specific Antibody Levels Demonstrate Recognition of New Epitopes and Changes in Titer but Not Affinity during Treatment of Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Antibody levels rise during treatment of tuberculosis. This study examined when this rise occurred, whether there was recognition of new antigen binding sites (epitopes) on the same or different antigens, and how long specific antibody persisted. Forty patients with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis provided serum before and during treatment. Antibody levels were measured using a monoclonal antibody competition assay to epitopes restricted to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for lipoarabinomannan. Significant increases in antibody levels were apparent after 7 days of treatment. Five samples (12.5%) had positive titers to all epitopes at the start of treatment, and this increased to 23 (58%) during treatment. Antibody to epitopes with the poorest sensitivity (the TB23 epitope of the 19-kDa antigen and the TB78 epitope of hsp65) showed the greatest increases after treatment. Antibody to these two epitopes was also absent in some patients with relapsed tuberculosis until after treatment. Antibody titers showed a biphasic response, with a fall at 2 to 3 months of treatment. Sera from two patients showed changes in the affinity of epitope-specific antibody during treatment, whereas the majority did not. Those infected with isoniazid-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis showed a late rise in antibody. Antibody to the TB68 epitope of the 16-kDa α-crystallin homolog was short-lived, but it recurred with bacteriological relapse during treatment. Positive antibody titers persisted for at least 3 to 18 months after treatment. Diagnostic tests for tuberculosis should be evaluated using only pretreatment sera. Delayed antigenic recognition could be due to active suppression and/or failure to engage internal antigens of M. tuberculosis.
On generalized induced linguistic aggregation operators

In this paper, we define various generalized induced linguistic aggregation operators, including generalized induced linguistic ordered weighted averaging (GILOWA) operator, generalized induced linguistic ordered weighted geometric (GILOWG) operator, generalized induced uncertain linguistic ordered weighted averaging (GIULOWA) operator, generalized induced uncertain linguistic ordered weighted geometric (GIULOWG) operator, etc. Each object processed by these operators consists of three components, where the first component represents the importance degree or character of the second component, and the second component is used to induce an ordering, through the first component, over the third components which are linguistic variables (or uncertain linguistic variables) and then aggregated. It is shown that the induced linguistic ordered weighted averaging (ILOWA) operator and linguistic ordered weighted averaging (LOWA) operator are the special cases of the GILOWA operator, induced linguistic ordered weighted geometric (ILOWG) operator and linguistic ordered weighted geometric (LOWG) operator are the special cases of the GILOWG operator, the induced uncertain linguistic ordered weighted averaging (IULOWA) operator and uncertain linguistic ordered weighted averaging (ULOWA) operator are the special cases of the GIULOWA operator, and that the induced uncertain linguistic ordered weighted geometric (IULOWG) operator and uncertain LOWG operator are the special cases of the GILOWG operator.
Inhibitory effects of Zataria multiflora essential oil and its main components on nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide production in lipopolysaccharide‐stimulated macrophages

Objectives Zataria multiflora is an aromatic plant that is used in flavouring and preserving foods and also used as an antispasmodic, anaesthetic and antinociceptive agent. In this study, the effects of Z. multiflora essential oil on nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐stimulated macrophages was investigated.
Macronutrient Composition Influence on Breast Cancer Risk in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Women: The 4-Corners Breast Cancer Study

The association of dietary macronutrient composition with risk of breast cancer is not well understood. We investigated the macronutrient composition of diet in the 4-Corners Breast Cancer Study. Logistic regression models were used for case-control comparisons adjusted for age, center, education, smoking, total activity, calories, dietary fiber, dietary calcium, height, parity, recent hormone exposure, reference year body mass index (BMI), and the interaction of BMI and recent hormone exposure. Breast cancer risk declined with increasing dietary fat and increased with carbohydrates similarly across ethnicity and menopausal status. Associations of carbohydrate (direct) and fat (inverse), particularly saturated and monounsaturated fat, with breast cancer were present among normal and overweight postmenopausal women and absent among obese postmenopausal women. No substantive differences were noted in the association of macronutrients with risk of breast cancer between non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women. Associations of the macronutrients carbohydrate and fat with breast cancer risk were attenuated among postmenopausal obese women.
Simulation and performance of thermal energy storage system at Engineering Complex, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor

This paper presents on the simulation of the performance of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system at Engineering Complex, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam Selangor. The criteria for thermal energy storage systems and coefficient of performance (COP) are discussed. The data obtained were observed and analyzed to measure the COP of Engineering Complex. A simulation programming by using visual basic to get the value of COP and observe the performance of TES is illustrated in the paper.
Minimally Invasive Evaluation and Treatment of Colorectal Liver Metastases

Minimally invasive techniques used in the evaluation and treatment of colorectal liver metastases (CRLMs) include ultrasonography (US), computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, percutaneous and operative ablation therapy, standard laparoscopic techniques, robotic techniques, and experimental techniques of natural orifice endoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic techniques range from simple staging laparoscopy with or without laparoscopic intraoperative US, through intermediate techniques including simple liver resections (LRs), to advanced techniques such as major hepatectomies. Hereins, we review minimally invasive evaluation and treatment of CRLM, focusing on a comparison of open LR (OLR) and minimally invasive LR (MILR). Although there are no randomized trials comparing OLR and MILR, nonrandomized data suggest that MILR compares favorably with OLR regarding morbidity, mortality, LOS, and cost, although significant selection bias exists. The future of MILR will likely include expanding criteria for resectability of CRLM and should include both a patient registry and a formalized process for surgeon training and credentialing.
Design and Implementation of a Direct AC–DC Boost Converter for Low-Voltage Energy Harvesting

In this paper, a direct ac-dc power electronic converter topology is proposed for efficient and optimum energy harvesting from low-voltage microgenerators. The converter utilizes the bidirectional current-conduction capability of MOSFETs to avoid the use of a front-end bridge rectifier. It is operated in discontinuous conduction mode and offers a resistive load to the microgenerator. Detailed analysis and modeling of the converter is presented. In such low-power applications, the power consumption of gate drive and control circuits should be minimal. In this paper, they are specifically designed to consume very low power. A suitable startup circuit and auxiliary dc supply circuit is proposed for the implementation of the converter. A low-voltage microgenerator is used to verify the performance and operation of the converter and the gate drive circuits.
Haplotyping as Perfect Phylogeny: A Direct Approach

A full haplotype map of the human genome will prove extremely valuable as it will be used in large-scale screens of populations to associate specific haplotypes with specific complex genetic-influenced diseases. A haplotype map project has been announced by NIH. The biological key to that project is the surprising fact that some human genomic DNA can be partitioned into long blocks where genetic recombination has been rare, leading to strikingly fewer distinct haplotypes in the population than previously expected (Helmuth, 2001; Daly et al., 2001; Stephens et al., 2001; Friss et al., 2001). In this paper we explore the algorithmic implications of the no-recombination in long blocks observation, for the problem of inferring haplotypes in populations. This assumption, together with the standard population-genetic assumption of infinite sites, motivates a model of haplotype evolution where the haplotypes in a population are assumed to evolve along a coalescent, which as a rooted tree is a perfect phylogeny. We consider the following algorithmic problem, called the perfect phylogeny haplotyping problem (PPH), which was introduced by Gusfield (2002) - given n genotypes of length m each, does there exist a set of at most 2n haplotypes such that each genotype is generated by a pair of haplotypes from this set, and such that this set can be derived on a perfect phylogeny? The approach taken by Gusfield (2002) to solve this problem reduces it to established, deep results and algorithms from matroid and graph theory. Although that reduction is quite simple and the resulting algorithm nearly optimal in speed, taken as a whole that approach is quite involved, and in particular, challenging to program. Moreover, anyone wishing to fully establish, by reading existing literature, the correctness of the entire algorithm would need to read several deep and difficult papers in graph and matroid theory. However, as stated by Gusfield (2002), many simplifications are possible and the list of "future work" in Gusfield (2002) began with the task of developing a simpler, more direct, yet still efficient algorithm. This paper accomplishes that goal, for both the rooted and unrooted PPH problems. It establishes a simple, easy-to-program, O(nm(2))-time algorithm that determines whether there is a PPH solution for input genotypes and produces a linear-space data structure to represent all of the solutions. The approach allows complete, self-contained proofs. In addition to algorithmic simplicity, the approach here makes the representation of all solutions more intuitive than in Gusfield (2002), and solves another goal from that paper, namely, to prove a nontrivial upper bound on the number of PPH solutions, showing that that number is vastly smaller than the number of haplotype solutions (each solution being a set of n pairs of haplotypes that can generate the genotypes) when the perfect phylogeny requirement is not imposed.
Energy Harvesting Aware Minimum Spanning Tree for Survivable WSN with Minimum Relay Node Addition

Survivable wireless sensor networks that take advantage of green energy resources from the environment is considered in this paper. The particular problem of constrained relay nodes (RNs) placement to ensure communication coverage in the single-tiered topology while taking advantage of the energy harvesting potentials of sensor nodes (SNs) is dealt with. The contribution is to consider a realistic energy harvesting model where harvesting potentials may vary from one node to another. Without loss of generality, the energy model used in this paper is appropriate to wireless charging, but the proposed solution can be extended to the use of any energy harvesting technology. Based on this model, we propose a heuristic based on spanning tree calculation in an edge weighted graph model where the traffic routed at every node is proportional to its effective energy. RNs are added to help non-leaf nodes in the tree that cannot meet the defined survivability condition. A lower-bound of the proposed model is derived using integer linear programming. The proposed solution is compared by simulation to the single solution from the literature that treats the problem of RNs placement while considering energy harvesting capacity of SNs. A simplified model is used in the simulation to allow comparison. The performance results show that the proposed solution ensures survivability by adding a lower number of RNs.
Exchanging intensional XML data

XML is becoming the universal format for data exchange between applications. Recently, the emergence of Web services as standard means of publishing and accessing data on the Web introduced a new class of XML documents, which we call intensional documents. These are XML documents where some of the data is given explicitly while other parts are defined only intensionally by means of embedded calls to Web services.When such documents are exchanged between applications, one has the choice of whether or not to materialize the intensional data (i.e., to invoke the embedded calls) before the document is sent. This choice may be influenced by various parameters, such as performance and security considerations. This article addresses the problem of guiding this materialization process.We argue that---like for regular XML data---schemas (à la DTD and XML Schema) can be used to control the exchange of intensional data and, in particular, to determine which data should be materialized before sending a document, and which should not. We formalize the problem and provide algorithms to solve it. We also present an implementation that complies with real-life standards for XML data, schemas, and Web services, and is used in the Active XML system. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach through a real-life application for peer-to-peer news exchange.
Medial Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Intertemporal Choice

People often make shortsighted decisions to receive small benefits in the present rather than large benefits in the future, that is, to favor their current selves over their future selves. In two studies using fMRI, we demonstrated that people make such decisions in part because they fail to engage in the same degree of self-referential processing when thinking about their future selves. When participants predicted how much they would enjoy an event in the future, they showed less activity in brain regions associated with introspective self-reference—such as the ventromedial pFC (vMPFC)—than when they predicted how much they would enjoy events in the present. Moreover, the magnitude of vMPFC reduction predicted the extent to which participants made shortsighted monetary decisions several weeks later. In light of recent findings that the vMPFC contributes to the ability to simulate future events from a first-person perspective, these data suggest that shortsighted decisions result in part from a failure to fully imagine the subjective experience of one's future self.
Testing an integral conceptual model of frailty.

AIM This paper is a report of a study conducted to test three hypotheses derived from an integral conceptual model of frailty. BACKGROUND The integral model of frailty describes the pathway from life-course determinants to frailty to adverse outcomes. The model assumes that life-course determinants and the three domains of frailty (physical, psychological, social) affect adverse outcomes, the effect of disease(s) on adverse outcomes is mediated by frailty, and the effect of frailty on adverse outcomes depends on the life-course determinants. METHODS In June 2008 a questionnaire was sent to a sample of community-dwelling people, aged 75 years and older (n = 213). Life-course determinants and frailty were assessed using the Tilburg frailty indicator. Adverse outcomes were measured using the Groningen activity restriction scale, the WHOQOL-BREF and questions regarding healthcare utilization. The effect of seven self-reported chronic diseases was examined. RESULTS Life-course determinants, chronic disease(s), and frailty together explain a moderate to large part of the variance of the seven continuous adverse outcomes (26-57%). All these predictors together explained a significant part of each of the five dichotomous adverse outcomes. The effect of chronic disease(s) on all 12 adverse outcomes was mediated at least partly by frailty. The effect of frailty domains on adverse outcomes did not depend on life-course determinants. CONCLUSION Our finding that the adverse outcomes are differently and uniquely affected by the three domains of frailty (physical, psychological, social), and life-course determinants and disease(s), emphasizes the importance of an integral conceptual model of frailty.
Pilot contamination problem in multi-cell TDD systems

This paper considers a multi-cell multiple antenna system with precoding at the base stations for downlink transmission. To enable precoding, channel state information (CSI) is obtained via uplink training. This paper mathematically characterizes the impact that uplink training has on the performance of multi-cell multiple antenna systems. When non-orthogonal training sequences are used for uplink training, it is shown that the precoding matrix used by the base station in one cell becomes corrupted by the channel between that base station and the users in other cells. This problem of pilot contamination is analyzed in this paper. A multi-cell MMSE-based precoding is proposed that, when combined with frequency/time/pilot reuse techniques, mitigate this problem.
Effect of acute stressor on reproductive behavior differs between urban and rural birds

Abstract The life‐history trade‐off between self‐maintenance and reproduction posits that investment in one function decreases investment in the other. Manipulating the costs and benefits of functions involved in a trade‐off may alter this interaction. Here we ask whether investment in self‐maintenance during a stress response alters territorial behavior in wild Dark‐eyed Juncos and whether rural and urban birds, which are known to differ in the magnitude of the stress response (greater in rural), also differ in the degree to which stress reduces territorial behavior. In rural and urban habitats, we measured territorial behavior using song playback, followed by either an acute stressor (capture and collection of a blood sample) or a nonstressful control situation. The following day, we again measured territorial behavior, predicting greater reduction in territorial behavior in individuals exposed to the stressor but a lesser reduction in territorial behavior in the urban as compared to the rural environment. We further assessed individual and population differences in response to stressors by measuring flight initiation distance, breath rate, and corticosterone levels in the blood. The rural population had a higher physiological and behavioral stress response than the urban population, and acute capture stress had a lasting (24 h) negative effect on territorial behavior, but only in the rural habitat. However, individual‐level differences in measures of the stress response did not explain variation in the impact of stress on territorial behavior. Our findings show that stressors can have a negative effect on territorial behavior, but that this effect may differ between populations that vary in their stress ecology.