Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the generalizability of resting-state fMRI machine learning classifiers

Machine learning classifiers have become increasingly popular tools to generate single-subject inferences from fMRI data. With this transition from the traditional group level difference investigations to single-subject inference, the application of machine learning methods can be seen as a considerable step forward. Existing studies, however, have given scarce or no information on the generalizability to other subject samples, limiting the use of such published classifiers in other research projects. We conducted a simulation study using publicly available resting-state fMRI data from the 1000 Functional Connectomes and COBRE projects to examine the generalizability of classifiers based on regional homogeneity of resting-state time series. While classification accuracies of up to 0.8 (using sex as the target variable) could be achieved on test datasets drawn from the same study as the training dataset, the generalizability of classifiers to different study samples proved to be limited albeit above chance. This shows that on the one hand a certain amount of generalizability can robustly be expected, but on the other hand this generalizability should not be overestimated. Indeed, this study substantiates the need to include data from several sites in a study investigating machine learning classifiers with the aim of generalizability.
Ultrasonography in follow-up of soft tissue augmentation of the face with synthetic materials: a pilot study

Purpose: To assess ultrasonography in the evaluation of reactions after soft tissue augmentation of the face with synthetic materials. Material and Methods: Six female patients (mean age 39±8 years) treated for facial tissue augmentation noticed unpleasant or painful effects in the intervention site after a mean of 24 months were evaluated with ultrasonography. Two patients had been treated with injections of microparticles, two with Gore-Tex implants, and two had been injected with liquid silicone. Fifteen female patients (age 27-55 years, mean 41±14 years) who had received the same treatment 14-48 months before without any complications were also evaluated and used as controls. Biopsy was performed in all patients, while four underwent re-intervention. Results: In all patients with Gore-Tex implants, a thick, homogeneous hypoechoic halo was seen surrounding the implants. Small hypoechoic nodules were noticed in the patients who had been treated with microparticles and with liquid silicone. In two cases treated with liquid silicone the subcutaneous tissue was invaded by an irregular area of marked inhomogeneity. Conclusion: Sonography must be considered the method of choice for producing instrumental evidence of foreign body reactions after soft tissue augmentation of the face with synthetic materials.
Burnout among elite soccer coaches

Burnout was investigated in a population of men coaching either men or women at the elite club level in Sweden. Out of 53 presently active top-level soccer coaches, 47 volunteered to participate. Results indicate that 71% of the coaches in the Premier league for women, compared to 23% of the coaches in the Premier league for men, experienced moderate to high levels of Emotional Exhaustion as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. One possible explanation for this difference is that only 10% of the coaches responsible for teams in the Premier league for women had full time appointments, as compared to all coaches responsible for teams in the Premier league for men. The latter group also had more support staff, on average six people, whereas those coaching women only had four people available. In addition, leadership demands seem to vary between female and male teams, which together with less support and time-constraints place coaches in the Premier league for women at a relatively higher risk for burnout than coaches in the Premier league for men.
Ecological Segregation in Space, Time and Trophic Niche of Sympatric Planktivorous Petrels

The principle of competitive exclusion postulates that ecologically-similar species are expected to partition their use of resources, leading to niche divergence. The most likely mechanisms allowing such coexistence are considered to be segregation in a horizontal, vertical or temporal dimension, or, where these overlap, a difference in trophic niche. Here, by combining information obtained from tracking devices (geolocator-immersion and time depth recorders), stable isotope analyses of blood, and conventional morphometry, we provide a detailed investigation of the ecological mechanisms that explain the coexistence of four species of abundant, zooplanktivorous seabirds in Southern Ocean ecosystems (blue petrel Halobaena caerulea, Antarctic prion Pachyptila desolata, common diving petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix and South Georgian diving petrel P. georgicus). The results revealed a combination of horizontal, vertical and temporal foraging segregation during the breeding season. The stable isotope and morphological analyses reinforced this conclusion, indicating that each species occupied a distinct trophic space, and that this appears to reflect adaptations in terms of flight performance. In conclusion, the present study indicated that although there was a degree of overlap in some measures of foraging behaviour, overall the four taxa operated in very different ecological space despite breeding in close proximity. We therefore provide important insight into the mechanisms allowing these very large populations of ecologically-similar predators to coexist.
Dolphins Adjust Species-Specific Frequency Parameters to Compensate for Increasing Background Noise

An increase in ocean noise levels could interfere with acoustic communication of marine mammals. In this study we explored the effects of anthropogenic and natural noise on the acoustic properties of a dolphin communication signal, the whistle. A towed array with four elements was used to record environmental background noise and whistles of short-beaked common-, Atlantic spotted- and striped-dolphins in the Canaries archipelago. Four frequency parameters were measured from each whistle, while Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) of the background noise were measured at the central frequencies of seven one-third octave bands, from 5 to 20 kHz. Results show that dolphins increase the whistles’ frequency parameters with lower variability in the presence of anthropogenic noise, and increase the end frequency of their whistles when confronted with increasing natural noise. This study provides the first evidence that the synergy among SPLs has a role in shaping the whistles' structure of these three species, with respect to both natural and anthropogenic noise.
A New Method for Estimating the Maximum Allowable Delay in Networked Control of bounded nonlinear systems

In Networked Control Systems (NCSs) the information is exchanged through a real-time communication network among control system components. So the network induced time delay and data dropouts are unavoidable in NCSs. The time delay may degrade the performance of control systems and even destabilize the systems if the systems are designed without considering the effects of the time delays properly. Once the structure of a NCS is confirmed, it is essential to identify what the maximum time delay is allowed for maintaining the system stability which, in turn, is also associated with the process of controller design. This paper proposes a new method for estimating the maximum allowable time delay in networked control system with norm bounded nonlinearity. Some studies have been reported in estimation of the maximum time-delay allowed for retaining the system stability. However, most of the reported methods are normally over complicated for practical applications. A new stability method based on using the finite difference approximation for the delay term is proposed in this paper for estimating the maximum time-delay tolerance in networked control system with bounded nonlinearity, which has a simple structure and is easy to apply.
STRING 8—a global view on proteins and their functional interactions in 630 organisms

Functional partnerships between proteins are at the core of complex cellular phenotypes, and the networks formed by interacting proteins provide researchers with crucial scaffolds for modeling, data reduction and annotation. STRING is a database and web resource dedicated to protein–protein interactions, including both physical and functional interactions. It weights and integrates information from numerous sources, including experimental repositories, computational prediction methods and public text collections, thus acting as a meta-database that maps all interaction evidence onto a common set of genomes and proteins. The most important new developments in STRING 8 over previous releases include a URL-based programming interface, which can be used to query STRING from other resources, improved interaction prediction via genomic neighborhood in prokaryotes, and the inclusion of protein structures. Version 8.0 of STRING covers about 2.5 million proteins from 630 organisms, providing the most comprehensive view on protein–protein interactions currently available. STRING can be reached at http://string-db.org/.
Nutritional Facts and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Turnip (Brassica rapa) From Pakistan

2 Abstract: It has been noticed that increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables is a practical strategy for consumers to optimize their health and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Turnip (Brassica rapa) is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables that has been used for human consumption since prehistoric times. It is a rich source of vitamin C and anti-oxidants which possess the ability to protect the body from damage caused by free radical induced oxidative stress. In the present study the nutritional facts and the antioxidant capacity were evaluated. From this study it was found that white turnip had low calories (29.61 Kcal/100g) but high fiber (3.14± 0.92 g/100g), while the yellow turnip had (26.48 Kcal/100g) and fiber 2.90 ± 0.76. The 80 % methanol extract of yellow turnip showed highest radical scavenging activity (23.2-72.1%) than white turnip (18.3-65.2%) at 0.5-2.5 mg/ml and same trends were found in reducing power activity assay. The data obtained in the in vitro models clearly establish the antioxidant potency of Brassica rapa (turnip) extracts.
Expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors in lean and obese Zucker rats.

OBJECTIVE Examination of the pattern of expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) isoforms alpha and gamma in a model of obesity. DESIGN Examination of adipose tissue and primary adipocyte cultures from lean and obese Zucker rats at different ages (28 days and 12 weeks). METHODS mRNA levels were measured by RNase protection assay. RESULTS The highest levels of PPARalpha and gamma mRNA were present in brown adipose tissue (BAT), followed by liver and white adipose tissue (WAT) for the alpha and gamma subtypes, respectively, at both ages examined. PPARalpha was expressed 100-fold higher in BAT compared with WAT, and PPARgamma mRNA levels were 2-fold higher in the WAT of obese compared with lean rats. PPARalpha and gamma expression was minimal in m. soleus, although higher levels of PPARgamma were found in the diaphragm. In marked contrast to the findings in vivo, virtually no PPARalpha mRNA could be detected in BAT cultures differentiated in vitro. CONCLUSION PPARalpha and gamma are most highly expressed in BAT in vivo. However, PPARalpha is undetectable in brown adipose cells in vitro, suggesting that the expression of this receptor is induced by some external stimuli. In addition, the expression of PPARgamma was increased in WAT from young obese animals, compatible with an early adaptive phenomenon. Finally, the presence of PPARgamma mRNA is detectable only in particular muscles, such as the diaphragm, suggesting the possibility of an influence of fiber type on its expression, although exercise did not influence the expression of PPARgamma in other skeletal muscles.
Marked aneuploidy and loss of multiple chromosomes are common in autosomal mutants isolated from normal mouse kidney epithelium

Marked aneuploidy and loss of multiple chromosomes are hallmarks of cancer, but whether these events are only present in malignant cells is not known. In prior work, we showed that approximately half of spontaneous autosomal mutants isolated directly from normal kidney epithelium arose from loss of a marker chromosome 8 containing the wild type Aprt gene. Chromosome loss was detected by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) for all chromosome 8 polymorphic loci examined. To determine whether loss of chromosome 8 reflected a larger mitotic event, LOH was examined for polymorphic loci on 11 nonselected chromosomes in Aprt mutants that lost the selected chromosome 8 homologue. LOH events were detected for one or more nonselected chromosomes in 38% of these mutants. The additional LOH events also reflected apparent chromosome loss based on the molecular analysis. Metaphase spreads from mutants that lost chromosome 8 were markedly aneuploid, and chromosome painting revealed reduced levels for any chromosome shown to be lost with the LOH analysis. In contrast, LOH on nonselected chromosomes was infrequent in Aprt mutants exhibiting intragenic events or mitotic recombination for chromosome 8, and marked aneuploidy was absent. These observations suggest that the mechanism leading to chromosome loss in somatic mammalian cells is often not a simple nondisjunction event and instead could result from a single catastrophic event. They also suggest that cells with characteristics of malignancy are present in normal appearing tissue. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Interspike Interval Correlations, Memory, Adaptation, and Refractoriness in a Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Model with Threshold Fatigue

Neuronal adaptation as well as interdischarge interval correlations have been shown to be functionally important properties of physiological neurons. We explore the dynamics of a modified leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron, referred to as the LIF with threshold fatigue, and show that it reproduces these properties. In this model, the postdischarge threshold reset depends on the preceding sequence of discharge times. We show that in response to various classes of stimuli, namely, constant currents, step currents, white gaussian noise, and sinusoidal currents, the model exhibits new behavior compared with the standard LIF neuron. More precisely, (1) step currents lead to adaptation, that is, a progressive decrease of the discharge rate following the stimulus onset, while in the standard LIF, no such patterns are possible; (2) a saturation in the firing rate occurs in certain regimes, a behavior not seen in the LIF neuron; (3) interspike intervals of the noise-driven modified LIF under constant current are correlated in a way reminiscent of experimental observations, while those of the standard LIF are independent of one another; (4) the magnitude of the correlation coefficients decreases as a function of noise intensity; and (5) the dynamics of the sinusoidally forced modified LIF are described by iterates of an annulus map, an extension to the circle map dynamics displayed by the LIF model. Under certain conditions, this map can give rise to sensitivity to initial conditions and thus chaotic behavior.
Enabling Semantic Web for Precision Agriculture: a showcase of agriOpenLink Project

This paper describes the agriOpenLink approach towards triplification of the production data generated by heterogeneous agricultural equipment, for their easy integration and querying within a common information context of various decision support applications. The presented approach has been developed within the running project agriOpenLink, which aims at improving agricultural production processes. Triplification is performed by equipment-specific model adapters (plugins), which translate the equipment data into RDF triples. The plugins are realized by means of semantic REST services, and triplification is a result of a workflow orchestrated "on-demand" by chaining services of appropriate data sources. In the project, we have also conceptualized, and are currently implementing a platform and tools that facilitate easy plugin development and deployment. Dealing with the problem of creating a common information context, the project designed a domain ontology taking into account existing work, experimented with triplification of existing domain knowledge, and proposed an approach for the ontology maintenance. The agriOpenLink platform is being tested and demonstrated in the precision irrigation use case and the precision dairy farming use case.
Bernoulli Rank-1 Bandits for Click Feedback

The probability that a user will click a search result depends both on its relevance and its position on the results page. The position based model explains this behavior by ascribing to every item an attraction probability, and to every position an examination probability. To be clicked, a result must be both attractive and examined. The probabilities of an item-position pair being clicked thus form the entries of a rank-$1$ matrix. We propose the learning problem of a Bernoulli rank-$1$ bandit where at each step, the learning agent chooses a pair of row and column arms, and receives the product of their Bernoulli-distributed values as a reward. This is a special case of the stochastic rank-$1$ bandit problem considered in recent work that proposed an elimination based algorithm Rank1Elim, and showed that Rank1Elim's regret scales linearly with the number of rows and columns on "benign" instances. These are the instances where the minimum of the average row and column rewards $\mu$ is bounded away from zero. The issue with Rank1Elim is that it fails to be competitive with straightforward bandit strategies as $\mu \rightarrow 0$. In this paper we propose Rank1ElimKL which simply replaces the (crude) confidence intervals of Rank1Elim with confidence intervals based on Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergences, and with the help of a novel result concerning the scaling of KL divergences we prove that with this change, our algorithm will be competitive no matter the value of $\mu$. Experiments with synthetic data confirm that on benign instances the performance of Rank1ElimKL is significantly better than that of even Rank1Elim, while experiments with models derived from real data confirm that the improvements are significant across the board, regardless of whether the data is benign or not.
Determining Causes and Severity of End-User Frustration

Although computers are beneficial to individuals and society, frequently users encounter frustrating experiences when using computers. This study represents an attempt to measure, in 111 participants, the frequency, the cause, and the level of severity of frustrating experiences. The data show that frustrating experiences happen on a frequent basis. The applications in which the frustrating experiences happened most frequently were Web browsing, e-mail, and word processing. The most-cited causes of frustrating experiences were error messages, dropped network connections, long download times, and hard-to-find features. The time lost due to frustrating experiences ranged from 47% to 53% of time spent on a computer, depending on the location and study method. After extreme cases were discarded, the time lost was still above 38%. These disturbing results should be a basis for future study.
An Economic Assessment of Biological Control for Miconia calvescens in Hawaii

Biocontrol, the introduction of organisms to control an unwanted species, has been cited as a powerful method to manage the invasive species Miconia calvescens in Hawaii. In addition to ecological advantages, biocontrol is often regarded as less costly than traditional methods despite the large initial investment. Currently, miconia in Hawaii is treated through aerial and manual operations, which cost over $1 million annually. Biocontrol for miconia in Hawaii began in 1997 and the search for more agents continues today. Although biocontrol for miconia has already begun, prior to this study no assessment of its economic justifiability had been done. This research evaluates the present value of net benefits of miconia biocontrol in Hawaii. Cost data were gathered from scientists in charge of biocontrol programs. Benefits were defined as the cost-savings of current control methods. Two different biocontrol programs were modeled: control achieved by a single agent, and control achieved by a suite of agents. In addition, different dispersal rates and efficacies of biocontrol and two release dates were modeled. Because most costs of biocontrol are incurred before the release of a successful agent and the benefits are only realized post-release, each scenario was evaluated over a 50-year time horizon. The results indicate a positive present value of net benefits in all scenarios, ranging from $12.8 million to $36.1 million. Thus, biocontrol for miconia in Hawaii appears to be economically justifiable. This research should enable scientists, economists and policy makers to make informed decisions about the optimal management of Miconia calvescens in Hawaii.
Wear properties of nano-Al2O3/UHMWPE composites irradiated by gamma ray against a CoCrMo alloy

Nano-Al2O3/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composites were prepared by hot pressing and then radiated by a gamma ray in doses of 120 kGy, 250 kGy and 500 kGy. The hardness of the composites was tested. The friction and wear properties against a CoCrMo alloy were also tested on a knee simulator under physiological saline solution lubrication. The morphologies of worn surfaces were examined under an optical microscope. The structure of the sample was analyzed by IR and XRD tests. The results showed that the wear rate of UHMWPE decreased when filled with a proper amount of nano-Al2O3, and with an increment of the radiation dose of gamma rays. It was found that filling nano-Al2O3 into UHMWPE can inhibit the effect of oxidation during the radiation procedure.
Review: Gonadotropins and Development of Ovarian Cancer

An epidemiological correlation between infertility therapy and ovarian cancer development has been reported in 1992; consequently, the possible role of gonadotropins in ovarian carcinogenesis has received much attention. Here, we review the effect of gonadotropins on epithelial ovarian carcinoma and ovarian surface epithelium (OSE), which is the histogenetic origin of carcinomas. Recent studies have demonstrated that gonadotropin receptors are expressed in OSE and in approximately half of the ovarian carcinomas. Gonadotropins have also been reported to stimulate cell proliferation and to inhibit apoptosis in OSE and ovarian cancer cells. These data suggest that gonadotropins play an important role in the development, progression, and/or chemoresistance of ovarian carcinomas. Hormonal therapy against gonadotropins may be applicable for patients with ovarian carcinoma.