Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Bacillus thuringiensis strains on survival, reproduction and foraging behaviour in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).

BACKGROUND Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and its protein crystals are used worldwide, either as a spray or when expressed in transgenic crops, for the control of pest insects. However, owing to their intensive use, there exists a debate regarding the involvement of this microbial insecticide in bee colony losses. In this study, in a tiered approach using laboratory microcolonies, an evaluation was made of the potential lethal and sublethal hazards on colony reproduction and foraging behaviour of workers of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris (L.) of two commercial Bt strains: kurstaki (Dipel) and aizawai (Xentari). Bumblebees, like honey bees, are intensively used in modern agriculture for pollination and fulfil a crucial role in the natural ecosystem. RESULTS Exposure of bumblebees dermally or via treated pollen to either of the two Bt formulations at their field recommended rates (0.1%) caused no reduction in survival. However, when applied in the feeding sugar water, aizawai killed all workers at a concentration of 0.1%, but this lethal effect was lost at 0.01%. With respect to reproductive effects, kurstaki was harmless, while aizawai at 0.1% delivered in the feeding sugar water and pollen reduced reproduction by 100 and 31% respectively. Lower doses of 0.01% aizawai in the sugar water showed no more effect. In addition, kurstaki at 0.1% and aizawai at 0.01% in the feeding sugar water did not impair the foraging behaviour, resulting in normal nest colony performance. CONCLUSION The results with kurstaki and aizawai demonstrated that, in general, the Bt strains are safe to B. terrestris bumblebees, although in some cases there were detrimental effects that depended on strain and route of exposure. In addition, the authors believe that to draw firm conclusions regarding the hazards of Bt to bumblebees would require more information on relevant concentrations of Bt products in the environment. Hence, routine testing for lethal and sublethal effects is recommended to ascertain combined use of Bt products and bumblebees in modern agriculture.
Skeletal Involvement in Female Acromegalic Subjects: The Effects of Growth Hormone Excess in Amenorrheal and Menstruating Patients

Bone involvement is a common clinical feature in acromegalic patients, though previous studies gave divergent results possibly because of the different gonadal status of the patients studied. To study the influence of estrogen milieu in these patients, we evaluated 23 acromegalic patients with active disease, subdivided into two groups: menstruating and amenorrheal patients, comparable for duration and activity of disease. Forty‐two matched women served as controls. Skeletal involvement was studied by measuring: (a) the main biomarkers of bone turnover: serum alkaline phosphatase total activity (AP), bone GLA protein (BGP), serum carboxy‐terminal propeptide of type I collagen (PICP), serum type I cross‐linked N‐telopeptide (ICTP), and urinary pyridinoline and deoxypyridinoline corrected for creatinine (Pyr/Cr, D‐Pyr/Cr) and urinary calcium/creatinine ratio (Ca/Cr); (b) bone mineral density (BMD), as measured by quantitative computed tomography both at lumbar spine and distal radius, and by dual X‐ray absorptiometry both at lumbar spine and at three femoral sites (Ward's triangle, femoral neck, and great trochanter). AP, BGP, ICTP, Pyr/Cr, D‐Pyr/Cr were significantly higher in patients than in controls, independent of the menstrual pattern. Higher PICP levels were found in the whole group and in menstruating acromegalics when compared with control women; no difference was found in amenorrheal patients, who in turn showed higher urinary Ca/Cr values. When patients were considered all together, BMD at spine, femoral neck, and trochanter was higher than in controls. In contrast, when the gonadal status was taking into account and, menstruating and amenorrheal subjects were considered separately, BMD at spine, but not in other sites, was significantly higher in menstruating patients than in controls. In contrast, no difference of BMD values at any site was observed between amenorrheal patients and controls. The mean BMD Z scores allowed us to detect an unequal involvement of different skeletal sites. Our results show that bone turnover is increased in acromegalic women and suggest that GH anabolic effect on bone is more evident in the presence of estrogens and that different skeletal sites may be affected differently by hormone excess.
TCP westwood: Bandwidth estimation for enhanced transport over wireless links

TCP Westwood (TCPW) is a sender-side modification of the TCP congestion window algorithm that improves upon the performance of TCP Reno in wired as well as wireless networks. The improvement is most significant in wireless networks with lossy links, since TCP Westwood relies on end-to-end bandwidth estimation to discriminate the cause of packet loss (congestion or wireless channel effect) which is a major problem in TCP Reno. An important distinguishing feature of TCP Westwood with respect to previous wireless TCP “extensions” is that it does not require inspection and/or interception of TCP packets at intermediate (proxy) nodes. Rather, it fully complies with the end-to-end TCP design principle. The key innovative idea is to continuously measure at the TCP source the rate of the connection by monitoring the rate of returning ACKs. The estimate is then used to compute congestion window and slow start threshold after a congestion episode, that is, after three duplicate acknowledgments or after a timeout. The rationale of this strategy is simple: in contrast with TCP Reno, which “blindly” halves the congestion window after three duplicate ACKs, TCP Westwood attempts to select a slow start threshold and a congestion window which are consistent with the effective bandwidth used at the time congestion is experienced. We call this mechanism faster recovery. The proposed mechanism is particularly effective over wireless links where sporadic losses due to radio channel problems are often misinterpreted as a symptom of congestion by current TCP schemes and thus lead to an unnecessary window reduction. Experimental studies reveal improvements in throughput performance, as well as in fairness. In addition, friendliness with TCP Reno was observed in a set of experiments showing that TCP Reno connections are not starved by TCPW connections. Most importantly, TCPW is extremely effective in mixed wired and wireless networks where throughput improvements of up to 550% are observed. Finally, TCPW performs almost as well as localized link layer approaches such as the popular Snoop scheme, without incurring the O/H of a specialized link layer protocol.
Memory-Guided Sensory Comparisons in the Prefrontal Cortex: Contribution of Putative Pyramidal Cells and Interneurons

Comparing two stimuli that occur at different times demands the coordination of bottom-up and top-down processes. It has been hypothesized that the dorsolateral prefrontal (PFC) cortex, the likely source of top-down cortical influences, plays a key role in such tasks, contributing to both maintenance and sensory comparisons. We examined this hypothesis by recording from the PFC of monkeys comparing directions of two moving stimuli, S1 and S2, separated by a memory delay. We determined the contribution of the two principal cell types to these processes by classifying neurons into broad-spiking (BS) putative pyramidal cells and narrow-spiking (NS) putative local interneurons. During the delay, BS cells were more likely to exhibit anticipatory modulation and represent the remembered direction. While this representation was transient, appearing at different times in different neurons, it weakened when direction was not task relevant, suggesting its utility. During S2, both putative cell types showed comparison-related activity modulations. These modulations were of two types, each carried by different neurons, which either preferred trials with stimuli moving in the same direction or trials with stimuli of different directions. These comparison effects were strongly correlated with choice, suggesting their role in circuitry underlying decision making. These results provide the first demonstration of distinct contributions made by principal cell types to memory-guided perceptual decisions. During sensory stimulation both cell types represent behaviorally relevant stimulus features contributing to comparison and decision-related activity. However in the absence of sensory stimulation, putative pyramidal cells dominated, carrying information about the elapsed time and the preceding direction.
Neurotrophin receptor genes are expressed in distinct patterns in developing dorsal root ganglia

All members of the neurotrophin family of neuronal growth factors promote survival and neurite outgrowth of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in vitro. The trk family of protooncogenes encodes receptors that are now thought to mediate the biological effects of neurotrophins. In order to learn more about the dependence of DRG neurons on neurotrophins in vivo, we have studied mRNA expression of members of the trk family in developing DRGs in embryonic and postnatal rats. We show here that neurotrophin receptors are expressed in thoracic and lumbar DRGs by embryonic day 13 (E13), which is only 24–48 hr after neurogenesis begins in these ganglia. Distinct patterns of expression of trkA, trkB, and trkC are readily apparent by E15. At this age, 40% of thoracic DRG neurons express trkA. In contrast, trkB and trkC are expressed by only 6% and 8%, respectively, of thoracic DRG neurons. These percentages change little between E15 and postnatal day 1. Although absolute numbers of DRG neurons expressing neurotrophin receptors are greater in lumbar than in thoracic ganglia, the ratios of DRG neurons expressing different members of the trk family are similar in the two regions. The different trks are expressed by distinct populations of DRG neurons from E15 onward. trkA is expressed predominantly by small neurons with darkly staining cytoplasm. trkB and trkC are expressed by large, lightly staining neurons. Size-frequency histograms show that trkA is expressed by neurons of variable sizes, but particularly by neurons at the smallest end of the spectrum. In contrast, trkC is expressed predominantly by large DRG neurons, including those with the largest soma areas. trkB is expressed by DRG neurons of intermediate size. Our results show that a majority of DRG neurons express mRNA for at least one member of the trk protooncogene family. Furthermore, trk expression occurs in a time frame consistent with the idea that trks mediate responses of DRG neurons to neurotrophins that are synthesized in both the periphery and spinal cord at early developmental stages. Finally, different populations of DRG neurons express different trks. We hypothesize that DRG neurons subserving different functions express different trks, and that trk expression of a particular class of DRG neurons determines its neurotrophin dependence during development.
Mechanomyographic Parameter Extraction Methods: An Appraisal for Clinical Applications

The research conducted in the last three decades has collectively demonstrated that the skeletal muscle performance can be alternatively assessed by mechanomyographic signal (MMG) parameters. Indices of muscle performance, not limited to force, power, work, endurance and the related physiological processes underlying muscle activities during contraction have been evaluated in the light of the signal features. As a non-stationary signal that reflects several distinctive patterns of muscle actions, the illustrations obtained from the literature support the reliability of MMG in the analysis of muscles under voluntary and stimulus evoked contractions. An appraisal of the standard practice including the measurement theories of the methods used to extract parameters of the signal is vital to the application of the signal during experimental and clinical practices, especially in areas where electromyograms are contraindicated or have limited application. As we highlight the underpinning technical guidelines and domains where each method is well-suited, the limitations of the methods are also presented to position the state of the art in MMG parameters extraction, thus providing the theoretical framework for improvement on the current practices to widen the opportunity for new insights and discoveries. Since the signal modality has not been widely deployed due partly to the limited information extractable from the signals when compared with other classical techniques used to assess muscle performance, this survey is particularly relevant to the projected future of MMG applications in the realm of musculoskeletal assessments and in the real time detection of muscle activity.
Gender role heuristics used by adolescent boys when negotiating sexual practices of a heterosexual nature.

The aim of this study was to ascertain whether or not South African adolescent boys between the ages of 16 and 18 make use of heuristics when thinking about heterosexual relationships. Currently, some of the greatest challenges facing South Africa are that of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the high rates of violence, especially against women and children. These issues are closely linked with cognitions about masculinity and the male and female gender roles in men and boys. The methodology was qualitative and focus groups were utilized as the method of data collection. The results of this study indicate that adolescent boys do make use of a variety of heuristics and also engage in the process of splitting when thinking about heterosexual relationships.
Scalable hashing for shared memory supercomputers

Hashing is a fundamental technique in computer science to allow O(l) insert and lookups of items in an associative array. Here we present several thread coordination and hashing strategies and compare and contrast their performance on large, shared memory symmetric multiprocessor machines, each possessing between a half to a full terabyte of memory. We show how our approach can be used as a key kernel for fundamental paradigms such as dynamic programming and MapReduce. We further show that a set of approaches yields close to linear speedup for both uniform random and more difficult power law distributions. This scalable performance is in spite of the fact that our set of approaches is not completely lock-free. Our experimental results utilize and compare an SGI Altix UV with 4 Xeon processors (32 cores) and a Cray XMT with 128 processors. On the scale of data we addressed, on the order of 5 billion integers, we show that the Altix UV far exceeds the performance of the Cray XMT for power law distributions. However, the Cray XMT exhibits greater scalability.
Modeling web quality using a probabilistic approach: An empirical validation

Web-based applications are software systems that continuously evolve to meet users' needs and to adapt to new technologies. Assuring their quality is then a difficult, but essential task. In fact, a large number of factors can affect their quality. Considering these factors and their interaction involves managing uncertainty and subjectivity inherent to this kind of applications. In this article, we present a probabilistic approach for building Web quality models and the associated assessment method. The proposed approach is based on Bayesian Networks. A model is built following a four-step process consisting in collecting quality characteristics, refining them, building a model structure, and deriving the model parameters. The feasibility of the approach is illustrated on the important quality characteristic of Navigability design. To validate the produced model, we conducted an experimental study with 20 subjects and 40 web pages. The results obtained show that the scores given by the used model are strongly correlated with navigability as perceived and experienced by the users.
Cross-behavior associations and multiple health behavior change: A longitudinal study on physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake

This study aimed to examine the interrelation of physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake. The influence of stage congruence between physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake on multiple behavior change was also investigated. Health behaviors, social-cognitions, and stages of change were assessed in 2693 adults at two points in time. Physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake were assessed 4 weeks after the baseline. Social-cognitions, stages as well as stage transitions across behavior domains were positively interrelated. Stage congruence was not related to changes in physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake. Physical activity and nutrition appear to facilitate rather than hinder each other. Having intentions to change both behaviors simultaneously does not seem to overburden individuals.
Towards explanatory pluralism in cognitive science

This thesis seeks to shed light on the intricate relationships holding between the various explanatory frameworks currently used within cognitive science. The driving question of this philosophical investigation concerns the nature and structure of cognitive explanation. More specifically, I attempt to clarify whether the sort of scientific explanations proposed for various cognitive phenomena at different levels of analysis or abstraction differ in significant ways from the explanations offered in other areas of scientific inquiry, such as biology, chemistry, or even physics. Thus, what I will call the problem of cognitive explanation, asks whether there is a distinctive feature that characterises cognitive explanations and distinguishes them from the explanatory schemas utilised in other scientific domains. I argue that the explanatory pluralism encountered within the daily practice of cognitive scientists has an essential normative dimension. The task of this thesis is to demonstrate that pluralism is an appropriate standard for the general explanatory project associated with cognitive science, which further implies defending and promoting the development of multiple explanatory schemas in the empirical study of cognitive phenomena.
Differences in Attachment of Salmonella enterica Serovars and Escherichia coli O157:H7 to Alfalfa Sprouts

ABSTRACT Numerous Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreaks have been associated with contaminated sprouts. We examined how S. enterica serovars, E. coli serotypes, and nonpathogenic bacteria isolated from alfalfa sprouts grow on and adhere to alfalfa sprouts. Growth on and adherence to sprouts were not significantly different among different serovars of S. enterica, but all S. enterica serovars grew on and adhered to alfalfa sprouts significantly better than E. coli O157:H7. E. coli O157:H7 was essentially rinsed from alfalfa sprouts with repeated washing steps, while 1 to 2 log CFU of S. enterica remained attached per sprout. S. enterica Newport adhered to 3-day-old sprouts as well as Pantoea agglomerans and 10-fold more than Pseudomonas putida and Rahnella aquatilis, whereas the growth rates of all four strains throughout seed sprouting were similar. S. enterica Newport and plant-associated bacteria adhered 10- to 1,000-fold more than E. coli O157:H7; however, three of four other E. coli serotypes, isolated from cabbage roots exposed to sewage water following a spill, adhered to sprouts better than E. coli O157:H7 and as well as the Pseudomonas and Rahnella strains. Therefore, attachment to alfalfa sprouts among E. coli serotypes is variable, and nonpathogenic strains of E. coli to be used as surrogates for the study of pathogenic E. coli may be difficult to identify and should be selected carefully, with knowledge of the biology being examined.
ON SELECTED ISSUES RE : THE PROPOSED MERGERS OF ANTHEM AND CIGNA AND AETNA AND HUMANA SUBMITTED TO THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE 1

I. Qualifications I am Professor of Economics, College of Letters and Science, and Professor of Technology Management, College of Engineering, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I am past director of the M.A. and Ph.D. programs and past Chairman of the Economics Department. I am an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. I have been a visiting professor at Harvard, the University of Chicago and at Curtin University in Australia. I have also been an adjunct professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and at Sciences Politiques de Paris. I hold a B.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Missouri, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Calculation of next-to-leading QCD corrections to b ---> sg

In this paper a detailed standard model (SM) calculation of the $O({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s})$ virtual corrections to the decay width $\ensuremath{\Gamma}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{b}sg)$ is presented $(g$ denotes a gluon). Also the complete expressions for the corresponding $O({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s})$ bremsstrahlung corrections to $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{b}\mathrm{sg}$ are given. The combined result is free of infrared and collinear singularities, in accordance with the KLN theorem. Taking into account the existing next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) result for the Wilson coefficient ${C}_{8}^{\mathrm{eff}},$ a complete NLL result for the branching ratio ${\mathcal{B}}^{\mathrm{NLL}}(\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{b}sg)$ is derived. Numerically, we obtain ${\mathcal{B}}^{\mathrm{NLL}}=(5.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.0)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3},$ which is more than a factor of two larger than the leading logarithmic result ${\mathcal{B}}^{\mathrm{LL}}=(2.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.8)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}. $ The NLL correction is large in spite of the naive suppression factor ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}{(m}_{b})/\ensuremath{\pi}$ due to an extra factor of ${C}_{2}{(m}_{b}{)/C}_{8}{(m}_{b})\ensuremath{\sim}7. $ The impact of these corrections on the inclusive charmless hadronic branching ratio ${\overline{\mathcal{B}}}_{c/}$ of B mesons, which can be used to extract $|{V}_{\mathrm{ub}}{/V}_{\mathrm{cb}}|$ in the context of the SM, is shown to be of similar importance as NLL corrections to b-quark decay modes with three quarks in the final state. Finally, the impact of the NLL corrections to $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{b}\mathrm{sg}$ on ${\overline{\mathcal{B}}}_{c/}$ is investigated in scenarios, where the Wilson coefficient ${C}_{8}$ is enhanced by new physics.