Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary computation in zoology and ecology

Abstract Evolutionary computational methods have adopted attributes of natural selection and evolution to solve problems in computer science, engineering, and other fields. The method is growing in use in zoology and ecology. Evolutionary principles may be merged with an agent-based modeling perspective to have individual animals or other agents compete. Four main categories are discussed: genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, genetic programming, and evolutionary strategies. In evolutionary computation, a population is represented in a way that allows for an objective function to be assessed that is relevant to the problem of interest. The poorest performing members are removed from the population, and remaining members reproduce and may be mutated. The fitness of the members is again assessed, and the cycle continues until a stopping condition is met. Case studies include optimizing: egg shape given different clutch sizes, mate selection, migration of wildebeest, birds, and elk, vulture foraging behavior, algal bloom prediction, and species richness given energy constraints. Other case studies simulate the evolution of species and a means to project shifts in species ranges in response to a changing climate that includes competition and phenotypic plasticity. This introduction concludes by citing other uses of evolutionary computation and a review of the flexibility of the methods. For example, representing species’ niche spaces subject to selective pressure allows studies on cladistics, the taxon cycle, neutral versus niche paradigms, fundamental versus realized niches, community structure and order of colonization, invasiveness, and responses to a changing climate.
Functional Mitochondria Are Important for the Effect of Resveratrol

Resveratrol (Resv) is a polyphenol reported to modulate mitochondrial activity. The aim was to use HeLa and 143B cells to characterize the action of Resv on mitochondrial activity, cell size and proliferation using wild type (WT) and Rho 0 cells deficient in mitochondrial DNA. In both HeLa WT and Rho 0 cells, the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) was increased at 20 µM Resv after 24 h, whereas only a non-significant increase of OCR was observed in 143B WT cells. Resv decreased cell number concentration-dependently in both WT and Rho 0 cell types. An increased cell diameter was observed in HeLa WT, but not in Rho 0 when treated with Resv. Overall, the findings presented indicate that functional mitochondria are a prerequisite for cell enlargement by Resv.
Development of broad neutralization activity in simian/human immunodeficiency virus-infected rhesus macaques after long-term infection

Objective: Nonhuman primates (NHPs) are the only animal model that can be used to evaluate protection efficacy of HIV-1 envelope vaccines. However, whether broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) can be elicited in NHPs infected with simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) has not been fully understood. The objective of this study is to investigate whether broad neutralization activities were developed in SHIV-infected macaques after long-term infection as in humans. Design: Neutralization breadth and specificities in plasmas from SHIV-infected macaques were determined by analyzing a panel of tier 2 viruses and their mutants. Methods: Forty-four Chinese macaques infected with SHIV1157ipd3N4, SHIVSF162P3 or SHIVCHN19P4 were followed for 54–321 weeks. Archived plasmas from 19 macaques were used to determine neutralization breadth and specificities against 17 tier 2 envelope-pseudoviruses. Results: Longitudinal plasma from three SHIVSF162P3-infected macaques and three SHIV1157ipd3N4-infected macaques rarely neutralized viruses (<25%) within 1 year of infection. The neutralization breadth in two SHIV1157ipd3N4-infected macaques significantly increased (≥65%) by year 6. Four of six SHIV1157ipd3N4-infected macaques could neutralize 50–75% viruses, whereas none of macaques infected with SHIVSF162P3 or SHIVCHN19P4 could neutralize more than 25% of viruses after 6 years of infection (P = 0.035). Neutralization specificity analysis showed mutations resistant to bnAbs in V2, V3 or CD4bs regions could abrogate neutralization by year-6 plasma from three SHIV1157ipd3N4-infected macaques. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that bnAbs targeting common HIV-1 epitopes can be elicited in SHIV1157ipd3N4-infected macaques as in humans after 4–6 years of infection, and SHIV/NHP can serve as an ideal model to study bnAb maturation.
Turbulent Modulation in Particulate Flow: A Review of Critical Variables

A review of the main mechanisms influencing turbulent modulation in the presence of spherical and non-spherical particles is presented. The review demonstrates the need for more numerical and experimental work with higher accuracy than obtained so far and the need to resolve the flow near the surface of particles with the aim to re-evaluate the quantitative effect of different parameters on turbulent modulation. The review reveals that non-spherical particles have more adverse effect on turbulence as compared to spherical ones, for the same ambient conditions.
Association between body energy content in the dry period and post-calving production disease status in dairy cattle

The transition from gestation to lactation is marked by significant physiological changes for the individual cow such that disease incidence is highest in early lactation. Around the time of calving, cows rely on mobilisation of body energy reserves to fill the energy deficit created by an increase in nutrient demands at a time of restricted feed intake. It is well established that monitoring of body energy reserves in lactation is an important component of herd health management. However, despite their influence on future health and productivity, monitoring of body energy reserves in the dry period is often sparse. Further, there is increasing concern that current dry off management is inappropriate for modern cattle and may influence future disease risk. This study aimed to identify candidate indicators of early lactation production disease from body energy data collected in the dry period and production data recorded at the time of dry off. Retrospective analysis was performed on 482 cow-lactations collected from a long-term Holstein-Friesian genetic and management systems project, the Langhill herd in Scotland. Cow-lactations were assigned to one of four health groups based on health status in the first 30 days of lactation. These four groups were as follows: healthy, reproductive tract disorders (retained placenta and metritis), subclinical mastitis and metabolic disorders (ketosis, hypocalcaemia, hypomagnesaemia and left displaced abomasum). ANOVA, employing a GLM was used to determine effects for the candidate indicator traits. Cows which were diagnosed with a reproductive tract disorder in the first 30 days of lactation experienced a significantly greater loss in body energy content, body condition score and weight in the preceding dry period than healthy cows. The rate of change in body energy content during the first 15 days of the dry period was −18.26 MJ/day for cows which developed reproductive tract disorder compared with +0.63 MJ/day for healthy cows. Cows diagnosed with subclinical mastitis in the first 30 days of lactation had significantly greater milk yield at dry off in the previous lactation than cows that developed a reproductive tract disorder or metabolic disease in addition to a significantly higher yield to body energy content ratio at dry off than healthy cows. Physiological and production traits recorded in the lactation and dry period preceding a disease event differed between cows which developed different diseases post-calving. Differences in these traits allow the development of new disease indicators for use in models for the prediction of disease risk in the transition period.
On the multiday haze in the Asian continental outflow : the important role of synoptic conditions combined with regional and local sources

The air quality of the megacities in populated and industrialized regions like East Asia is affected by both local and regional emission sources. The combined effect of regional transport and local emissions on multiday haze was investigated through a synthetic analysis of PM2.5 sampled at both an urban site in Seoul, South Korea and an upwind background site on Deokjeok Island over the Yellow Sea during a severe multiday haze episode in late February 2014. Inorganic components and carbonaceous species of daily PM2.5 samples were measured, and gaseous pollutants, local meteorological factors, and synoptic meteorological conditions were also determined. A dominance of fine-mode particles (PM2.5 /PM10 ∼ 0.8), a large secondary inorganic fraction (76 %), high OC /EC (> 7), and highly oxidized aerosols (oxygen-to-carbon ratio of∼ 0.6 and organic-mass-to-carbon ratio of ∼ 1.9) under relatively warm, humid, and stagnant conditions characterize the multiday haze episode in Seoul; however, the early and late stages of the episode show different chemical compositions of PM2.5. High concentrations of sulfate in both Seoul and the upwind background in the early stage suggest a significant regional influence on the onset of the multiday haze. At the same time, high concentrations of nitrate and organic compounds in Seoul, which are local and highly correlated with meteorological factors, suggest the contribution of local emissions and secondary formation under stagnant meteorological conditions to the haze. A slow eastward-moving high-pressure system from southern China to the East China Sea induces the regional transport of aerosols and potential gaseous precursors for secondary aerosols from the North China Plain in the early stage but provides stagnant conditions conducive to the accumulation and the local formation of aerosols in the late stage. A blocking ridge over Alaska that developed during the episode hinders the zonal propagation of synoptic-scale systems and extends the haze period to several days. This study provides chemical insights into haze development sequentially by regional transport and local sources, and shows that the synoptic condition plays an important role in the dynamical evolution of long-lasting haze in the Asian continental outflow region.
White Matter Hyperintensities Are Under Strong Genetic Influence

Background and Purpose— The genetic basis of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is still unknown. This study examines the heritability of WMH in both sexes and in different brain regions, and the influence of age. Methods— Participants from the Older Australian Twins Study were recruited (n=320; 92 monozygotic and 68 dizygotic pairs) who volunteered for magnetic resonance imaging scans and medical assessments. Heritability, that is, the ratio of the additive genetic variance to the total phenotypic variance, was estimated using the twin design. Results— Heritability was high for total WMH volume (0.76), and for periventricular WMH (0.64) and deep WMH (0.77), and varied from 0.18 for the cerebellum to 0.76 for the occipital lobe. The genetic correlation between deep and periventricular WMH regions was 0.85, with one additive genetics factor accounting for most of the shared variance. Heritability was consistently higher in women in the cerebral regions. Heritability in deep but not periventricular WMH declined with age, in particular after the age of 75. Conclusions— WMH have a strong genetic influence but this is not uniform through the brain, being higher for deep than periventricular WMH and in the cerebral regions. The genetic influence is higher in women, and there is an age-related decline, most markedly for deep WMH. The data suggest some heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of WMH for different brain regions and for men and women.
A Compact Quad-Ridge Orthogonal Mode Transducer With Wide Operational Bandwidth

We present the design and the measured performance of a compact quad-ridge orthomode transducer (OMT) operating in <italic>C</italic>-band with more than 100% fractional bandwidth. The OMT comprises two sets of identical orthogonal ridges mounted in a circular waveguide. The profile of these ridges was optimized to reduce significantly the transition length, while retaining the wide operational bandwidth of the quad-ridge OMT. In this letter, we show that the optimized compact OMT has better than <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> </inline-formula>15 dB return loss with the cross polarization well below <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula>40 dB in the designated 4.0–8.5 GHz band.
Impact of Correlated Fading Channels on Cognitive Relay Networks With Generalized Relay Selection

In this paper, we investigate the secrecy performance of dual-hop decode-and-forward cognitive relay networks taking into account the channel correlation between the main and wiretapping channels. For the enhancement of the secrecy performance, a generalized relay selection scheme is utilized, where the $k$ th strongest relay node is selected based on the main channel. In order to analyze the impact of key parameters on the secrecy performance, we first derive the exact closed-form expression for secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the considered networks. Moreover, to extract deep insights, the asymptotic approximation for SOP in high main-to-eavesdropper ratio (MER) regime is also provided. Our theoretical results as well as simulations demonstrate that: 1) the channel correlation does not affect the achievable secrecy diversity order, but has a positive impact on the secrecy coding gain in high MER regime; 2) the secrecy diversity order is decided by the generalized selection coefficient and the number of relays that can successfully decode the information transmitted from the secondary transmitter; and 3) the total amount of relays cannot influence the secrecy diversity order directly, but has a significant impact on the secrecy coding gain.
Segmentation of Written Words in French

Syllabification of spoken words has been largely used to define syllabic properties of written words, such as the number of syllables or syllabic boundaries. By contrast, some authors proposed that the functional structure of written words stems from visuo-orthographic features rather than from the transposition of phonological structure into the written modality. Thus, the first aim of the study was to assess whether the explicit segmentation of written words in French was consistent with syllabification patterns for spoken words previously reported. Second, given that spelling does not map perfectly with phonology, we examined how readers segmented printed words with grapheme/phoneme misalignments. The examination of the whole patterns of written segmentation produced by participants showed that, though written segmentation followed spoken segmentation for words matched for phonological/orthographic forms, discrepancies were found in cases of mismatch, therefore suggesting that readers rely on orthographic cues to parse printed strings of letters. This conclusion was confirmed with an on-line letter detection task.
Admission Hyperglycemia and Clinical Outcome in Cerebral Venous Thrombosis

Background and Purpose— Admission hyperglycemia is associated with poor clinical outcome in ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Admission hyperglycemia has not been investigated in patients with cerebral venous thrombosis. Methods— Consecutive adult patients with cerebral venous thrombosis were included at the Academic Medical Center, The Netherlands (2000–2014) and the Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland (1998–2014). We excluded patients with known diabetes mellitus and patients without known admission blood glucose. We defined admission hyperglycemia as blood glucose ≥7.8 mmol/L (141 mg/dL) and severe hyperglycemia as blood glucose ≥11.1 mmol/L (200 mg/dL). We used logistic regression analysis to determine if admission hyperglycemia was associated with modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 3 to 6 or mortality at last follow-up. We adjusted for: age, sex, coma, malignancy, infection, intracerebral hemorrhage, deep cerebral venous thrombosis, and location of recruitment. Results— Of 380 patients with cerebral venous thrombosis, 308 were eligible. Of these, 66 (21.4%) had admission hyperglycemia with 8 (2.6%) having severe admission hyperglycemia. Coma (31.3% versus 5.0%, P<0.001) and intracerebral hemorrhage (53.0% versus 32.6%, P=0.002) at presentation were more common among patients with admission hyperglycemia than normoglycemic patients. Patients with admission hyperglycemia had a higher risk of mRS score of 3 to 6 (adjusted odds ratio, 3.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.35–7.12) and mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 4.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.41–12.09). Severe hyperglycemia was even more strongly associated with mRS score of 3 to 6 (adjusted odds ratio, 11.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.74–77.30) and mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 33.36; 95% confidence interval, 3.87–287.28) compared with normoglycemic patients. Conclusions— Admission hyperglycemia is a strong predictor of poor clinical outcome in patients with cerebral venous thrombosis.
Development of Self-Bonded Fiberboards from Fiber of Leaf Plantain: Effect of Water and Organic Extractives Removal

Adhesive-free fiberboards can be self-bonded through high temperature thermo-compression processes. To achieve it, treatments such as steam explosion/injection, as well as chemical and enzymatic oxidation have been implemented. However, the role of extractive components in the structure and cohesiveness of fiberboards has not been fully understood. In this work fibers of leaf plantain were treated with organic solvents and with hot water to remove the extractives, and were then employed to produce self-bonded fiberboards. Treated fibers were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, electronic paramagnetic resonance, and antioxidant capacity. The mechanical strength of the fiberboards evaluated by three point flexural tests, decreased when fibers were extracted with aqueous solvents, and increased after treatment with organic ones. This can be explained by the effect of water extractives in reducing the initial degradation temperature, and in retaining free stable radicals generated during thermo-compression. In the case of the organic extractive fraction, this inactivates the fibers, which impairs close contact between polar groups and thus decreases the mechanical properties of the fiberboards. According to the results, it is possible to increase the mechanical properties of self-bonded fiberboards by changing the concentration of polar and low molecular weight phenolic compounds.
The effects of a lipid‐based nutrient supplement and antiretroviral therapy in a randomized controlled trial on iron, copper, and zinc in milk from HIV‐infected Malawian mothers and associations with maternal and infant biomarkers

Abstract We evaluated effects of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and lipid‐based nutrient supplements (LNSs) on iron, copper, and zinc in milk of exclusively breastfeeding HIV‐infected Malawian mothers and their correlations with maternal and infant biomarkers. Human milk and blood at 2, 6, and 24 weeks post‐partum and blood during pregnancy (≤30 weeks gestation) were collected from 535 mothers/infant‐pairs in the Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals, and Nutrition study. The participants received ARV, LNS, ARV and LNS, or no intervention from 0 to 28 weeks post‐partum. ARVs negatively affected copper and zinc milk concentrations, but only at 2 weeks, whereas LNS had no effect. Among all treatment groups, approximately 80–90% of copper and zinc and <50% of iron concentrations met the current adequate intake for infants at 2 weeks and only 1–19% at 24 weeks. Pregnancy haemoglobin was negatively correlated with milk iron at 2 and 6 weeks (r = −.18, p < .02 for both). The associations of the milk minerals with each other were the strongest correlations observed (r = .11–.47, p < .05 for all); none were found with infant biomarkers. At 2 weeks, moderately anaemic women produced milk higher in iron when ferritin was higher or TfR lower. At 6 weeks, higher maternal α‐1‐acid glycoprotein and C‐reactive protein were associated with higher milk minerals in mildly anaemic women. Infant TfR was lower when milk mineral concentrations were higher at 6 weeks and when mothers were moderately anaemic during pregnancy. ARV affects copper and zinc milk concentrations in early lactation, and maternal haemoglobin during pregnancy and lactation could influence the association between milk minerals and maternal and infant iron status and biomarkers of inflammation.
Biophysical and Phenomenological Models of Multiple Spike Interactions in Spike-timing Dependent Plasticity

Spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) is a form of associative synaptic modification which depends on the respective timing of pre- and post-synaptic spikes. The biophysical mechanisms underlying this form of plasticity are currently not known. We present here a biophysical model which captures the characteristics of STDP, such as its frequency dependency, and the effects of spike pair or spike triplet interactions. We also make links with other well-known plasticity rules. A simplified phenomenological model is also derived, which should be useful for fast numerical simulation and analytical investigation of the impact of STDP at the network level.
Peer Support Needs Among Adults With Burns

Research and anecdotal evidence has shown that burn survivors benefit from peer support participation, but also that relatively few attend such groups. This study investigated Dutch adult burn survivors’ views on the reasons that promote or prevent participation in peer support activities. In this study, a distinction was made between those with and without an overt need for peer support and between those who do and those who do not already experience peer contact. Questionnaires were sent online and/or per post to adult Dutch burn survivors. Data were analyzed using descriptive analyses, t-tests and &khgr;2 tests. The results indicate that the main perceived benefits of participation are related to receiving and giving support rather than to personal developmental reasons. The main perceived barriers to participation are related to positive emotional states. Overall, the perceived benefits and barriers do not differ substantially between those who do and those who do not report a need for peer support or those who have and have not participated in peer support. The results of the present research may be indicative of an existing misconception among burn survivors that peer support is meant for people in great need and distress. Promoting the possibly unknown personal developmental function of peer contact, but also the importance of its reciprocal benefits might help in having more patients profit from peer support.