Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decline and poleward shift in Indian summer monsoon synoptic activity in a warming climate

Significance Propagating atmospheric vortices contribute more than half of the total rainfall received by the fertile and highly populated Gangetic plains of India. How the activity of these storms will change in a warming climate is not yet understood, due to both the inadequate representation of these disturbances in global climate models and a lack of theory for their fundamental dynamics. Here we show that both a high-resolution atmospheric model and a statistical model predict that the activity of these storms weakens and shifts poleward from ocean to land in a warmer environment. The associated changes in seasonal mean rainfall and precipitation extremes are expected to have serious implications for the hydrological cycle of South Asia. Cyclonic atmospheric vortices of varying intensity, collectively known as low-pressure systems (LPS), travel northwest across central India and produce more than half of the precipitation received by that fertile region and its ∼600 million inhabitants. Yet, future changes in LPS activity are poorly understood, due in part to inadequate representation of these storms in current climate models. Using a high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model that realistically simulates the genesis distribution of LPS, here we show that Indian monsoon LPS activity declines about 45% by the late 21st century in simulations of a business-as-usual emission scenario. The distribution of LPS genesis shifts poleward as it weakens, with oceanic genesis decreasing by ∼60% and continental genesis increasing by ∼10%; over land the increase in storm counts is accompanied by a shift toward lower storm wind speeds. The weakening and poleward shift of the genesis distribution in a warmer climate are confirmed and attributed, via a statistical model, to the reduction and poleward shift of low-level absolute vorticity over the monsoon region, which in turn are robust features of most coupled model projections. The poleward shift in LPS activity results in an increased frequency of extreme precipitation events over northern India.
On control parameters tuning for active queue management mechanisms using multivariate analysis

In recent years, AQM (Active Queue Management) mechanisms, which support the end-to-end congestion control mechanism of TCP by performing congestion control at a router have been actively studied by many researchers. AQM mechanisms usually have several control parameters, and their effectiveness depend on a setting of those control parameters. Therefore, issues on parameter tuning of several AQM mechanisms have been extensively studied using simulation experiments. However in most of those studies, only a small number of simulation experiments are performed for investigating the effect of control parameters on the performance of AQM mechanisms. In this paper, we therefore statistically analyze a large number of simulation experiments using multivariate analysis, and quantitatively show how the performance of AQM mechanisms is affected by a setting of control parameters. In particular we analyze the performance of three AQM mechanisms: GRED (Gentle RED), DRED (Dynamic-RED), and SRED (Stabilized RED), all of which are variants of RED (Random Early Detection). Through several numerical examples, we clarify how control parameters of GRED, DRED, and SRED have impact on their steady state performance measures such as the average queue length and the packet loss probability. We present a few guidelines for configuring control parameters of those AQM mechanisms.
Disordered Eating, Compulsive Exercise, and Sport Participation in a UK Adolescent Sample.

The sport literature has produced equivocal results as to whether sport participation is a protective or risk factor for disordered eating. One mechanism by which it could be a risk factor is the increased drive or compulsion to exercise. This study compared the levels of disordered eating and compulsive exercise between adolescent sport and non-sport participants. A sample of 417 male and female adolescents, aged 14-16 years old, was recruited from UK secondary schools. Participants completed questionnaire packs that included: the Eating Disorder Inventory; a measure of exercise behaviour; and the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET). Non-sport participants reported significantly greater body dissatisfaction than sport participants, and this was true for boys and girls. Significant group differences were also reported for many of the CET scales, with sport participants generally reporting greater levels of compulsive exercise than non-sport participants. Implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
The Effect of Acupressure at Spleen 6 Acupuncture Point on the Anxiety Level and Sedative and Analgesics Consumption of Women during Labor: A Randomized, Single-blind Clinical Trial

Background: Labor pain is the most severe pain women would experience, which could lead to loss of emotional control that plays a key role in creating a traumatic delivery experience and psychological disorders. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of acupressure on anxiety level and sedative and analgesics consumption in women during labor. Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized, single-blind clinical trial performed at Maryam Hospital in Tehran, Iran. One hundred and thirty-one pregnant women in Labor Ward were selected by convenience sampling. Subjects were randomly allocated to three groups, namely experimental group (pressure group), control group 1(touh group) and, control group 2 (routine care group). The study data were gathered using demographic information form, and assessed with Faces Anxiety Scale (FAS). For participants belonging to the experimental group, pressure was applied to the Spleen 6 acupoint for 30 min, and for those with only light touch was applied to the Spleen 6 acupoint for 30 min. The collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 16 and descriptive statistics. Results: There was a significant difference between the three groups in terms of the mean of anxiety after 30 min of starting the intervention and 30 min after termination of the intervention; the anxiety of the experimental group was significantly decreased (p = 0.03). Sedative and analgesics consumption was significantly lower in the experimental group compared to the other groups (p = 0.006). Conclusions: This study showed that compression of the Spleen 6 acupoint was an effective complementary method to decrease maternal anxiety and analgesic consumption, especially pethidine.
Dissecting the molecular structure of the Orion B cloud: Insight from Principal Component Analysis

Context. The combination of wideband receivers and spectrometers currently available in (sub-)millimeter observatories deliver wide-field hyperspectral imaging of the interstellar medium. Tens of spectral lines can be observed over degree wide fields in about 50 h. This wealth of data calls for restating the physical questions about the interstellar medium in statistical terms. Aims. We aim to gain information on the physical structure of the interstellar medium from a statistical analysis of many lines from different species over a large field of view, without requiring detailed radiative transfer or astrochemical modeling. Methods. We coupled a non-linear rescaling of the data with one of the simplest multivariate analysis methods, namely the principal component analysis, to decompose the observed signal into components that we interpret first qualitatively and then quantitatively based on our deep knowledge of the observed region and of the astrochemistry at play. Results. We identify three principal components, linear compositions of line brightness temperatures, that are correlated at various levels with the column density, the volume density and the UV radiation field. Conclusions. When sampling a sufficiently diverse mixture of physical parameters, it is possible to decompose the molecular emission in order to gain physical insight on the observed interstellar medium. This opens a new avenue for future studies of the interstellar medium.
High dietary intake of saturated fat is associated with reduced semen quality among 701 young Danish men from the general population.

BACKGROUND Saturated fat intake has been associated with both cardiovascular disease and cancer risk, and a newly published study found an association between saturated fat intake and a lower sperm concentration in infertile men. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine the association between dietary fat intake and semen quality among 701 young Danish men from the general population. DESIGN In this cross-sectional study, men were recruited when they were examined to determine their fitness for military service from 2008 to 2010. They delivered a semen sample, underwent a physical examination, and answered a questionnaire comprising a quantitative food-frequency questionnaire to assess food and nutrient intakes. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed with semen variables as outcomes and dietary fat intakes as exposure variables, adjusted for confounders. RESULTS A lower sperm concentration and total sperm count in men with a high intake of saturated fat was found. A significant dose-response association was found, and men in the highest quartile of saturated fat intake had a 38% (95% CI: 0.1%, 61%) lower sperm concentration and a 41% (95% CI: 4%, 64%) lower total sperm count than did men in the lowest quartile. No association between semen quality and intake of other types of fat was found. CONCLUSIONS Our findings are of potentially great public interest, because changes in diet over the past decades may be part of the explanation for the recently reported high frequency of subnormal human sperm counts. A reduction in saturated fat intake may be beneficial for both general and reproductive health.
The Value of Combining Serum Alanine Aminotransferase Levels and Body Mass Index to Predict Mortality and Medical Costs: a 10-year Follow-up Study of National Health Insurance in Shiga, Japan

BACKGROUND Evidence suggests that the predictive value of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels for prognosis, measured by indices such as all-cause mortality and medical costs, may be modified by body mass index (BMI). However, the relationship between serum ALT and BMI has not been satisfactorily elucidated. METHODS Four thousand, five hundred and twenty-four community dwelling Japanese National Health Insurance beneficiaries, 40-69 years old, were classified into five categories according to their serum ALT levels (IU/L) (ALT<20, 20≤ALT<30, 30≤ALT<40, 40≤ALT<50 and 50≤ALT) and followed for 10 years. Hazard ratios for all-cause mortality, with reference to the lowest serum ALT category, and medical costs per person were evaluated for each serum ALT category after analyzing interactions between serum ALT levels and BMI for all-cause mortality and for medical costs. RESULTS A significant interaction between serum ALT levels and BMI was observed. In participants below the median BMI, positive, graded relationships were identified between serum ALT levels and all-cause mortality as well as between serum ALT levels and personal medical costs. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio in the “50≤ALT” category showed an approximately 8-fold increase. However, in the participants at or above the median BMI, no significant relationships between serum ALT levels and all-cause mortality or personal medical costs were identified. CONCLUSIONS In these Japanese participants, the predictive value of serum ALT levels for prognosis was more evident if BMI was taken into account. A combination of high serum ALT levels and below median BMI was associated with excess mortality and medical costs.
On Higher Order Inverse Kinematics Methods in Time-Optimal Trajectory Planning for Kinematically Redundant Manipulators

Time-optimal motion control will only find industrial applications if the optimal motions can actually be performed by standard industrial robots. This is not ensured by any optimal motion planning scheme proposed up to now. The limiting aspect rendering all these schemes impractical is the insufficient continuity of the motion trajectories. In this paper, a time-optimal path following along a predefined end-effector path is addressed for kinematically redundant robots, where nonredundant robots are included as special cases. As prerequisite explicit expressions for the higher order inverse kinematics are presented. Kinematic redundancy is resolved and exploited within the trajectory planning using the joint space decomposition and a novel pseudoinverse-based solution of the higher order inverse kinematics. The approaches are demonstrated for two examples of kinematically redundant manipulators performing time-optimal motions along prescribed end-effector paths in compliance with technological constraints. The optimization results are experimentally validated.
The Role of Crush Cytology in the Diagnosis of Large-Intestine Lesions with Correlation on Histopathology

Objective: To study the efficacy of colonoscopic crush cytology as a convenient and near-accurate method to evaluate colonic neoplasms. Study Design: Retrospective and cross-sectional. The original cytologic diagnoses were correlated with a histology report on 100 cases sent to the cytology laboratory over 2 years. Results: Of the 100 cases, 25 were nonmalignant. Of the 75 malignant lesions, 72 could be identified as positive for malignancy on cytology. The false-positives consisted of 6 adenomas and 1 case of ulcerative colitis. Thus, sensitivity and specificity of cytology are 96 and 63.2%, respectively. Of the 6 adenomas diagnosed as malignant, 4 showed high-grade dysplasia, and the other 2 showed superficial ulceration with low-grade dysplasia on histopathology. The ulcerative colitis case showed widespread ulcers and regenerative/reparative features on biopsy. The 3 adenocarcinomas diagnosed s benign on cytology showed an occasional malignant cell with thickened nuclear borders and prominent central nucleoli. Conclusions: With careful attention to the cytomorphology, coupled with good clinical and endoscopic correlation, crush cytology of the large intestine is a reliable diagnostic tool. It categorizes lesions as malignant and benign with a high sensitivity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Adenomas and reparative/regenerative changes seen in inflammatory bowel disease are major pitfalls in the cytology diagnosis of malignancy that may be averted by informing the endoscopic findings and clinical history. Cytology diagnosis saves time and gives proper feedback to the gastroenterologist.
Young Academic Urologists' benign prostatic obstruction nomogram predicts clinical outcome in patients treated with transurethral resection of prostate: an Italian cohort study.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to test the Young Academic Urologist nomogram for the prediction of transurethral resection of prostate outcome in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms and benign prostatic enlargement. METHODS Between April 2014 and March 2016, a consecutive series of patients with lower urinary tract symptoms undergoing trans-urethral resection of prostate in one center were enrolled. At baseline patients were assessed with international prostate symptom score, prostate specific antigen, prostate volume, transitional zone volume, maximal urinary flow rate and post void residual urine. At 3 months after trans-urethral resection of prostate patients were evaluated with uroflowmetry and international prostate symptom score questionnaire. Maximum urinary flow and transitional zone volume were plotted on the Young Academic Urologist nomogram to predict trans-urethral resection of prostate outcome. Receiver-operator characteristics curve analysis was used to evaluate predictive properties of the nomogram for the outcome of transurethral resection of the prostate. RESULTS A total of 232 patients were consecutively enrolled. Out of them, 149 patients (65%) presented a positive outcome. The novel Young Academic Urologist nomogram presented an area under the curve of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.70-0.83) for trans-urethral resection of prostate outcome prediction. At the best cut-off value of 75% (nomogram probability) the sensitivity was 62% and specificity was 73%, the positive predictive value was 81% and the negative predictive value was 52%. CONCLUSIONS The Young Academic Urologist nomogram was, in our experience, an excellent tool to predict a positive outcome after transurethral resection of prostate, although further studies are needed to confirm our results.
Assessing developer contribution with repository mining-based metrics

Productivity as a result of individual developers' contributions is an important aspect for software companies to maintain their competitiveness in the market. However, there is no consensus in the literature on how to measure productivity or developer contribution. While some repository mining-based metrics have been proposed, they lack validation in terms of their applicability and usefulness from the individuals who will use them to assess developer contribution: team and project leaders. In this paper, we propose the design of a suite of metrics for the assessment of developer contribution, based on empirical evidence obtained from project and team leaders. In a preliminary evaluation with four software development teams, we found that code contribution and code complexity metrics received the most positive feedback, while participants pointed out several threats of using bug-related metrics for contribution assessment. None of the metrics can be used in isolation, and project leaders and developers need to be aware of the benefits, limitations, and threats of each one. These findings present a first step towards the design of a larger suite of metrics as well as an investigation into the impact of using metrics to assess contribution.
Metabolic Effects of Intermittent Fasting.

The objective of this review is to provide an overview of intermittent fasting regimens, summarize the evidence on the health benefits of intermittent fasting, and discuss physiological mechanisms by which intermittent fasting might lead to improved health outcomes. A MEDLINE search was performed using PubMed and the terms "intermittent fasting," "fasting," "time-restricted feeding," and "food timing. " Modified fasting regimens appear to promote weight loss and may improve metabolic health. Several lines of evidence also support the hypothesis that eating patterns that reduce or eliminate nighttime eating and prolong nightly fasting intervals may result in sustained improvements in human health. Intermittent fasting regimens are hypothesized to influence metabolic regulation via effects on (a) circadian biology, (b) the gut microbiome, and (c) modifiable lifestyle behaviors, such as sleep. If proven to be efficacious, these eating regimens offer promising nonpharmacological approaches to improving health at the population level, with multiple public health benefits.
Energy-Efficient Device-to-Device Communications for Green Smart Cities

To afford effective service of real-time monitoring and responses for smart cities, it is desired to provide ubiquitous network connections and high data rate services. However, the huge demands for ubiquitous high data rate wireless communications have caused a sharp increase in energy consumption and green house gas emission. In order to realize a sustainable smart city, it is critical to incorporate green communication technique into smart city developments. Device-to-device (D2D) communication has been recognized as one of the key technologies to improve data rate and reduce power consumption, which allows two physically nearby located user equipments to communicate directly with each other. In this paper, with the target of achieving green communications through D2D, we investigate the joint optimization of uplink subcarrier assignment (SA) and power allocation (PA) in D2D underlying cellular networks. Specifically, the problem formulation is to minimize the energy cost of all users in the system while guaranteeing the required data rate of both the D2D user equipments (DUEs) and cellular user equipments. Such an optimization problem is in general a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem that is NP-hard. To make this problem tractable, we decompose it into the SA and PA subproblems. In particular, we design a heuristic algorithm to assign subcarrier by assuming that the transmit power is evenly allocated over all subcarriers. After that, we solve the PA subproblem by exploiting the difference between the concave function (D.C.) structure of the constraints and transform it into a convex optimization problem. Simulation results demonstrate the remarkable improvement in terms of power consumption by using our algorithms.
A comparison of multi-tenant data storage solutions for Software-as-a-Service

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is now a hot issue in both academia and business. Multi-tenant data storage as a fundamental component of a SaaS system draws much attention. The need of scalability and multi-tenant support in SaaS makes traditional RDBMS unappealing and calls for a better data storage solution. In this paper, we categorize some proposed solutions and evaluate the performance of a Native XML Database (NXD) solution implemented on Berkeley DB XML. Experimental results show that the opportunity of applying NXD in SaaS has not yet arrived.
Relationship Between the Estimated Breeding Values for Litter Traits at Birth and Ovarian and Embryonic Traits and Their Additive Genetic Variance in Gilts at 35 Days of Pregnancy

We investigated (1) the relationship between the estimated breeding values (EBVs) for litter traits at birth and ovulation rate (OR), average corpora luteal weight, uterine length and embryonic survival and development traits in gilts at 35 days of pregnancy by linear regression, (2) the genetic variance of OR, average corpora lutea (CL) weight, uterine length and embryonic survival and development traits at 35 days of pregnancy, and (3) the genetic correlations between these traits. Landrace (n = 86) and Yorkshire × Landrace (n = 304) gilts were inseminated and slaughtered at 35 days of pregnancy. OR was assessed by dissection of the CL on both ovaries. Individual CL was weighed and the average CL weight calculated. The number of embryos (total and vital) were counted and the vital embryos were individually weighed for calculation of within litter average and standard deviation (SD) of the embryo weight. Length of the uterine implantation site of the vital embryos was measured and the average per gilt calculated. Results suggests that increasing the EBV for total number of piglets born would proportionally increase OR and number of embryos, while decreasing the average CL weight. On the contrary, increasing the EBV for average piglet birth weight and for within litter birth weight standard deviation would increase the average CL weight. There was no relationship between the EBVs for BW and for BWSD and vital embryonic weight at 35 days of pregnancy. OR, average CL weight, number of embryos, average weight and implantation length of the vital embryos had all moderate to high heritabilities, ranging from 0.36 (±0.18) to 0.70 (±0.17). Thus, results indicate that there is ample genetic variation in OR, average CL weight and embryonic development traits. This knowledge could be used to optimize the balance between selection for litter size, average piglets birth weight and within litter birth weight uniformity.