Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatially Explicit Modeling Reveals Cephalopod Distributions Match Contrasting Trophic Pathways in the Western Mediterranean Sea

Populations of the same species can experience different responses to the environment throughout their distributional range as a result of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in habitat conditions. This highlights the importance of understanding the processes governing species distribution at local scales. However, research on species distribution often averages environmental covariates across large geographic areas, missing variability in population-environment interactions within geographically distinct regions. We used spatially explicit models to identify interactions between species and environmental, including chlorophyll a (Chla) and sea surface temperature (SST), and trophic (prey density) conditions, along with processes governing the distribution of two cephalopods with contrasting life-histories (octopus and squid) across the western Mediterranean Sea. This approach is relevant for cephalopods, since their population dynamics are especially sensitive to variations in habitat conditions and rarely stable in abundance and location. The regional distributions of the two cephalopod species matched two different trophic pathways present in the western Mediterranean Sea, associated with the Gulf of Lion upwelling and the Ebro river discharges respectively. The effects of the studied environmental and trophic conditions were spatially variant in both species, with usually stronger effects along their distributional boundaries. We identify areas where prey availability limited the abundance of cephalopod populations as well as contrasting effects of temperature in the warmest regions. Despite distributional patterns matching productive areas, a general negative effect of Chla on cephalopod densities suggests that competition pressure is common in the study area. Additionally, results highlight the importance of trophic interactions, beyond other common environmental factors, in shaping the distribution of cephalopod populations. Our study presents a valuable approach for understanding the spatially variant ecology of cephalopod populations, which is important for fisheries and ecosystem management.
Rethinking Resilience for Children and Youth in Conflict Zones: The Case of Palestine

Approximately one in four children lives in conflict-affected areas around the world and this results in many consequences for their physical and mental health. This paper first provides a brief history of the specific contexts of violence and resistance that children and youth engage with, and in, on a daily basis in Palestine. It then outlines the efforts of one functioning program in the West Bank, the United Nations Community Mental Health Project, which was designed not only to respond to, but mitigate, child and youth mental health problems in the midst of decades of such political violence.
Improving secondary pick up of insect fungal pathogen conidia by manipulating host behaviour

Summary It is often assumed that efficient application of a mycoinsecticide involves hitting the target pest insect directly with a lethal dose of conidia. However, secondary pick-up of conidia from surrounding vegetation may be a more important source of inoculum. We have investigated ways of increasing conidia acquisition by enhancing host movement. The aphid alarm pheromone, E-β-farnesene, significantly increased mortality among peach potato aphids. Myzus persicae Sulzer, that were exposed for 24 h to discs of green pepper leaf sprayed with conidia of Verticillium lecanii (Zimmerman) Viegas then transferred to fresh untreated discs to allow disease development. A more practical approach to increasing conidia pick-up appears to be the use of sub-lethal doses of the chloronicotinyl insecticide imidacloprid. One percent of the recommended dose, applied systemically, dramatically increased aphid movement; quantified by image analysis of videotaped aphid behaviour. This resulted in greater mortality from mycosis in experiments where aphids were exposed to insecticide-treated leaf discs that had been sprayed with fungal conidia. A comparison with results from an experiment where conidia were sprayed directly onto aphids which were feeding on insecticide-infused pepper discs established that synergy was due to an indirect effect of the insecticide, i.e. through increased movement, rather than a direct effect viz. predisposition of insecticide-weakened insects to disease.
Combined treatment with dabrafenib and trametinib with immune-stimulating antibodies for BRAF mutant melanoma

The combination of targeted therapy with BRAF and MEK inhibitors has become the standard of care in patients with BRAFV600E mutant melanoma, but responses are not durable. In addition, the impressive clinical benefits with anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies (Ab) in patients with heavily pretreated metastatic melanoma and the synergistic effect of dabrafenib, trametinib and anti-PD-1 compared with single therapy alone groups support the idea that combining dabrafenib, trametinib and immunotherapy based on PD-1 blockade could be an interesting approach in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. With our mouse model of syngeneic BRAFV600E driven melanoma (SM1), we tested whether the addition of an immunostimulatory Ab targeting CD137 (4-1BB) and/or CD134 (OX40) would enhance the antitumor effect of dabrafenib, trametinib and anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 therapy. In vitro studies showed that the combination group of dabrafenib, trametinib and anti-PD-1 increases CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), as well as CD4+ T cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). An upregulation of PD-L1 was observed in the combination of dabrafenib, trametinib and anti-PD-1 therapy. Combination of dabrafenib, trametinib and anti-PD-1, with either anti-CD137 or anti-CD134, showed a superior antitumor effect, but the five-agent combination was not superior to the four-agent combinations. In conclusion, the combination of dabrafenib, trametinib, anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 therapy results in robust antitumor activity, which is further improved by adding the immune-stimulating Ab anti-CD137 or anti-CD134. Our findings support the testing of these combinations in patients with BRAFV600E mutant metastatic melanoma.
Childhood body mass index and adult pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic risk factors: data from the New Delhi birth cohort.

OBJECTIVE Weight gain and growth in early life may influence adult pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS Follow-up of a birth cohort in New Delhi, India, whose weight and height were measured every 6 months until age 21 years. Body mass index (BMI) at birth, during infancy (2 years), childhood (11 years) and adulthood (26-32 years) and BMI gain between these ages were analysed in 886 men and 640 women with respect to adult fibrinogen, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) concentrations. RESULTS All the pro-inflammatory/pro-thrombotic risk factors were higher in participants with higher adiposity. In women, BMI at birth and age 2 years was inversely related to fibrinogen (P = 0.002 and 0.05) and, after adjusting for adult adiposity, to hsCRP (P = 0.02 and 0.009). After adjusting for adult adiposity, BMI at 2 years was inversely related to hsCRP and PAI-1 concentrations (P < 0.001 and 0.02) in men. BMI gain between 2 and 11 years and/or 11 years to adulthood was positively associated with fibrinogen and hsCRP in women and with hsCRP and PAI-1 in men. CONCLUSIONS Thinness at birth or during infancy, and accelerated BMI gain during childhood/adolescence are associated with a pro-inflammatory/pro-thrombotic state in adult life. An altered inflammatory state could be one link between small newborn/infant size and adult cardiovascular disease. Associations between pro-inflammatory markers and childhood/adolescent BMI gain are probably mediated through adult adiposity.
Antibodies against C1q Are a Valuable Serological Marker for Identification of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients with Active Lupus Nephritis

Objective. An early diagnosis of lupus nephritis (LN) has an important clinical implication in guiding treatments of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in clinical settings. In this study, the diagnostic values of circulating autoantibodies to C1q alone or in combination with other markers for accessing active SLE and LN were evaluated. Methods. The diagnostic value of anti-C1q autoantibodies for identification of patients with active SLE disease and LN was evaluated by analyzing the level of anti-C1q antibodies in sera from 95 SLE patients, 40 non-SLE patients, and 34 healthy cohorts. Results. The prevalence of anti-C1q antibodies was significantly higher in patients with SLE (50/95, 52.6%), active SLE (40/51, 78.4%), and LN (30/35, 85.7%) in comparison with non-SLE patient controls, patients with inactive SLE, and non-LN, respectively. A combination of anti-C1q with anti-dsDNA and/or levels of complements C3 and C4 exhibited an increased specificity but a decreased sensitivity for identification of patients with active SLE and LN diseases relative to each of these markers alone. Conclusion. Anti-C1q antibodies were strongly associated with disease activity and LN in SLE patients, suggesting that it may be a reliable serological marker for identification of SLE patients with active LN and active SLE disease.
Epileptogenesis: left or right hemisphere dominance? Preliminary findings in a hospital-based population

The aim of this study was to determine if there is cerebral cortical hemispheral asymmetry in human epileptogenesis. We studied 75 epilepsy patients using electroencephalograms, neuroimaging, ictal semiology and physical examination to determine if epilepsy originates more frequently from the left or the right hemisphere. We considered epilepsy to be definitely-lateralized if one or more of these was abnormal unilaterally and there were no contradictory findings. Twenty-seven of the patients had lateralized epilepsy: 20 from the left hemisphere and seven from the right hemisphere (P< 0.05). These findings from our hospital-based ambulatory patient population suggest that the left hemisphere is more epileptogenic than the right. Further study of lateralization of epileptogenesis in a community population-based sample of incident new-onset cases seems warranted.
Observations of hyperluminous infrared galaxies with the Infrared Space Observatory: implications for the origin of their extreme luminosities

We present 7-180µm photometry of a sample of hyperluminous infrared galaxies (HyLIGs) obtained with the photometer and camera mounted on the Infrared Space Observatory. We have used radiative transfer models of obscured starbursts and dusty torii to model their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). We find that IRAS F00235+1024, IRAS F14218+3845 and IRAS F15307+3252 require a combination of starburst and AGN components to explain their mid to far-infrared emission, while for TXS0052+471 a dust torus AGN model alone is sufficient. For IRAS F00235+1024and IRAS F14218+3845 the starburst component is the predominant contributor whereas for IRAS F15307+3252 the dust torus component dominates. The implied star formation rates (SFR) for these three sources estimated from their infrared luminosities are u M∗,all > 3000M⊙yr −1 h −2 50 and are amongst the highest SFRs estimated to date. We also demonstrate that the well-known radio-FIR correlation extends into both higher radio and infrared power than previously investigated. The relation for HyLIGs has a mean q value of � 1.94. The results of this study imply that better sampling of the IR spectral energy distributions of HyLIGs may reveal that both AGN and starburst components are required to explain all the emission from the NIR to the sub-millimetre.
A Further Study on Safety of Series and Parallel Systems

In safety-critical systems, there are both dangerous and safe failure states. This paper presents different models of safety-critical systems including series and parallel systems whose lifetime distributions are general forms. Also the reliability aspects are derived such as the probabilities that the system is in working state, fail-safe state and fail-dangerous state, the mean times for the system working, fail-safe and fail-dangerous. Finally some numerical examples are presented to illustrate the results obtained in this paper. These indexes have practical and theoretical meanings for the systems. The derived formulas are new results and can be used regardless of the forms of component lifetime distributions and have significant meaning for evaluating the system safety performance and can also be used to improve the safety design of systems.
Asymptotic expansion and quadrature of composite highly oscillatory integrals

We consider in this paper asymptotic and numerical aspects of highly oscillatory integrals of the form ∫ b a f(x)g(sin[ωθ(x)])dx, where w >> 1. Such integrals occur in the simulation of electronic circuits, but they are also of independent mathematical interest. The integral is expanded in asymptotic series in inverse powers of ω. This expansion clarifies the behaviour for large w and also provides a powerful means to design effective computational algorithms. In particular, we introduce and analyse Filon-type methods for this integral.
A miniature 25 grams running and jumping robot

In this paper, we present the design and development of a miniature robot that is able to run and jump. This robot can use wheeled locomotion to travel on the flat ground. When it encounters a large obstacle compared to its size, it can stand up and leap over the obstacle. The robot has a mass of 25 grams and a maximum size of 9 centimeters. Experimental results show that with a take-off angle 80°, the robot can jump up to 1.44 meter in height and 0.59 meter in distance. Moreover, it has on-board energy, control, and communication abilities, which enables tetherless or autonomous operation. With the multi-modal locomotion abilities, the robot is expected to have many applications ranging from environmental monitoring, search and rescue, to military surveillance.
Measuring Predictability: Theory and Macroeconomic Applications

We propose a measure of predictability based on the ratio of the expected loss of a short-run forecast to the expected loss of a long-run forecast. This predictability measure can be tailored to the forecast horizons of interest, and it allows for general loss functions, univariate or multivariate information sets, and stationary or nonstationary data. We propose a simple estimator, and we suggest resampling methods for inference. We then provide several macroeconomic applications. First, based on fitted parametric models, we assess the predictability of a variety of macroeconomic series. Second, we analyze the internal propagation mechanism of a standard dynamic macroeconomic model by comparing predictability of model inputs and model outputs. Third, we use predictability as a metric for assessing the similarity of data simulated from the model and actual data. Finally, we sketch several promising directions for future research.
Convincing through conversation: Unraveling the role of interpersonal health communication in health campaign effectiveness

There is still a lot to gain in the field of health communication. Mass mediated health campaigns often do not have a direct effect on health behavior, but conversations about health issues in an informal setting, such as with partner, family and friends appear to play a significant role here. However, we do not know much about factors that influence the occurrence and the effects of such interpersonal health communication. Therefore, four empirical studies are discussed in this dissertation. First, the factors that influence whether, when, with whom and how people talk about health issues were investigated qualitatively. The results show that interpersonal health communication is not one general type of behavior, but instead consists of several subtypes of behavior, each of which differs in its influencing factors. Subsequently, two health message types were investigated in their ability to trigger conversations: the complex message and the narrative message. The complex message, at least when personally relevant, appeared to be unsuitable for achieving this goal. The narrative message, aimed at college students and regarding the health theme safe sex, appeared to be a promising strategy to trigger conversations. In the fourth study, actual conversations about safe sex in response to this message were therefore analyzed. The conversations positively influenced college students’ safe sex-related intentions. In the conversations, safe sex was mainly discussed positively and casually, for instance by exchanging anecdotes. Moreover, the conversations exposed behavioral patterns, providing valuable information on, for instance, attitudes and social norms regarding safe sex.
Energy efficient organization of mobile sensor networks

One of main design issues for a sensor network is conservation of energy available at each sensor node. To increase lifetime of a sensor network, we can organize the sensors into disjoint sets so that only one set is active at a time. The lifetime of the network increases proportionally to the number of disjoint sets. In general, sensors are randomly scattered in the monitored area, thus the number of disjoint sets is significantly smaller than in the ideal case. In this paper, we propose a way to increase the number of disjoint set using mobile sensors. We organize sensors into disjoint sets using the heuristic proposed by Sljjepcevic et al.[8]. Then, we rearrange mobile sensors that are not included in any set. The rearrangement process consists of two phases. In the first phases, we identify the fields that are not covered by any of the remaining sensors. Then we identify the locations from which mobile sensors could cover the fields. In the second phase, our proposed heuristic selects sensors to be rearranged and locations where they will move to. This selection is made by considering the coverage before and after a mobile sensor is moved. Our experiments show that we can effectively increase the number of disjoint set with a small number of mobile sensors rearranged.
Positive Association between GCKR rs780093 Polymorphism and Coronary Heart Disease in the Aged Han Chinese

Objective. Previous studies have confirmed that GCKR rs780093 polymorphism is associated with triglyceride (TG), a known risk factor of coronary heart disease (CHD). The goal of our study is to explore the association of GCKR rs780093 polymorphism with CHD in Han Chinese population. Methods and Results. A total of 568 CHD cases and 494 non-CHD controls were enrolled in the current case-control study. Genotyping was done using melting temperature shift (Tm-shift) approach. Our results also showed that GCKR rs780093 polymorphism was significantly associated with TG level (P = 0.0016). Although there was no significant association between cases and controls (P > 0.05), a breakdown analysis by age yielded a significant association of GCKR rs780093 polymorphism with CHD in individuals aged 65 and older (genotype: χ2 = 6.86; df = 2; P = 0.03; allele: χ2 = 4.11; df = 1; P = 0.04). Conclusion. Our findings confirmed the contribution of GCKR rs780093 polymorphism to TG metabolism and demonstrated GCKR rs780093 as a risk factor of CHD in individuals aged 65 and older.
Lean Software Management: BBC Worldwide Case Study

This case study examines how the lean ideas behind the Toyota production system can be applied to software project management. It is a detailed investigation of the performance of a nine-person software development team employed by BBC Worldwide based in London. The data collected in 2009 involved direct observations of the development team, the kanban boards, the daily stand-up meetings, semistructured interviews with a wide variety of staff, and statistical analysis. The evidence shows that over the 12-month period, lead time to deliver software improved by 37%, consistency of delivery rose by 47%, and defects reported by customers fell 24%. The significance of this work is showing that the use of lean methods including visual management, team-based problem solving, smaller batch sizes, and statistical process control can improve software development. It also summarizes key differences between agile and lean approaches to software development. The conclusion is that the performance of the software development team was improved by adopting a lean approach. The faster delivery with a focus on creating the highest value to the customer also reduced both technical and market risks. The drawbacks are that it may not fit well with existing corporate standards.
Volume catcher

It is difficult to obtain a specific region within unsegmented volume data (region of interest, ROI). The user must first segment the volume, a task which itself involves significant user intervention, and then chooses a desired target within the 3D space. This paper proposes a simple and intuitive user interface for the task: the user traces the contour of the target region using a 2D free form stroke on the screen, and the system instantly returns a plausible 3D region inside the stroke by applying a segmentation algorithm. The main contribution is that the system infers the depth information of the ROI automatically by analyzing the data, whereas existing systems require the user to provide the depth information explicitly. Our system first computes the 3D location of the user-specified 2D stroke based on the assumption that the user traced the silhouette of the ROI, that is, the curve where the gradient is perpendicular to the viewing direction. The system then places constraint points around the 3D stroke to guide the following segmentation. Foreground constraints are placed inside the stroke and background constraints are placed outside the stroke. We currently use the statistical region-merging algorithm of Nock et al. [Nock and Nielsen 2004a] to perform the segmentation. We tested our system with real-world examples to verify the effectiveness of our approach.
Aging does not affect soluble guanylate cyclase redox state in mouse aortas

Aging is associated with endothelial dysfunction, defined as a reduction in nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. Although the redox state of the NO acceptor soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) is another determinant factor for its bioavailability and is disturbed by reactive oxygen species (ROS) known to be increased with age, it is unclear whether aging actually has an impact on vascular sGC redox equilibrium. Therefore, this study investigated this issue using two different types of compounds, the sGC stimulator BAY 41‐2272 and the sGC activator BAY 60‐2770. Plasma thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances (TBARS) levels were markedly higher in aged (19–20 months old) mice than in young (2–3 months old) mice, whereas superoxide levels in endothelium‐denuded aortas were not different between the groups. The relaxant response of endothelium‐denuded aortas to either BAY 41‐2272 or BAY 60‐2770 was identical in aged and young mice. In addition, the vascular cGMP production stimulated with BAY 41‐2272 or BAY 60‐2770 in aged mice was the same level as that in young mice. These findings suggest that aging accompanied by an increase in systemic oxidative stress does not affect vascular smooth muscle ROS generation and sGC redox equilibrium. Unless ROS are increased in vascular smooth muscle, the sGC redox equilibrium might remain unchanged.