Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterosis May Result in Selection Favouring the Products of Long-Distance Pollen Dispersal in Eucalyptus

Using native trees from near the northern and southern extremities of the relatively continuous eastern distribution of Eucalyptus globulus in Tasmania, we compared the progenies derived from natural open-pollination (OP) with those generated from within-region and long-distance outcrossing. Controlled outcrossing amongst eight parents - with four parents from each of the northern and southern regions - was undertaken using a diallel mating scheme. The progeny were planted in two field trials located within the species native range in southern Tasmania, and their survival and diameter growth were monitored over a 13-year-period. The survival and growth performances of all controlled cross types exceeded those of the OP progenies, consistent with inbreeding depression due to a combination of selfing and bi-parental inbreeding. The poorer survival of the northern regional (♀N♂N) outcrosses compared with the local southern regional outcrosses (♀S♂S) indicated differential selection against the former. Despite this mal-adaptation of the non-local ♀N♂N crosses at both southern sites, the survival of the inter-regional hybrids (♀N♂S and ♀S♂N) was never significantly different from that of the local ♀S♂S crosses. Significant site-dependent heterosis was detected for the growth of the surviving long-distance hybrids. This was expressed as mid-parent heterosis, particularly at the more northern planting site. Heterosis increased with age, while the difference between the regional ♀N♂N and ♀S♂S crosses remained insignificant at any age at either site. Nevertheless, the results for growth suggest that the fitness of individuals derived from long-distance crossing may be better at the more northern of the planting sites. Our results demonstrate the potential for early-age assessments of pollen dispersal to underestimate realised gene flow, with local inbreeding under natural open-pollination resulting in selection favouring the products of longer-distance pollinations. Indeed, heterosis derived from long-distance pollinations may be sufficient to counter local mal-adaptation, at least in the first generation.
Governing the Co-Existence of GM Crops: Ex-Ante Regulation and Ex-Post Liability Under Uncertainty and Irreversibility

The future institutional environment for the co-existence of genetically modified (GM) crops, conventional crops and organic crops in Europe combines measures of ex-ante regulation and ex-post liability rules. Against this background we ask the following two questions: How does ex-ante regulation and ex-post liability under irreversibility and uncertainty affect the adoption of GM crops? What are the implications for regional agglomeration of GM and non-GM crops? Ex-ante regulations and ex-post liabilities for using GM crops will induce additional costs. These costs are modelled in a classical way. The model is advanced by including irreversibility and uncertainty and taking into account transaction costs of negotiating possible solutions with neighbouring farmers which are assumed to be partially irreversible. The results show that the design of ex-ante regulation and ex-post liability increases the value of waiting and results in less immediate adoption of the GM technology. Additionally, the rules and regulations in the EU do provide incentives for the regional agglomeration of GM and non-GM crops that are mainly driven by the irreversibility effect of the ex-ante regulatory and ex-post liability costs.
Photosynthesis and Respiration of Three Blue-Green Algae.

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Has player development in men’s tennis really changed? An historical rankings perspective

Abstract Tennis federations are regularly faced with decisions regarding which athletes should be supported in financial terms, and for how long. The financial investments can be considerable, given the cost of competing on tour has been estimated at a minimum $121,000 per year and only the top 130 professionally ranked athletes earned enough prize money to cover this cost in 2012. This study investigates key points of progression in tennis players’ careers, to determine how these have changed over time and how that evolution may inform talent development. Approximately 400,000 weekly rankings for 273 male professional tennis players between 1985 and 2010 were compiled, and historical trends in the time taken to reach career milestones were investigated by least-squares regression. The time between earning a first professional ranking point and entry into the Top 100 significantly increased over time for all considered athletes. This was at the detriment of time spent within the Top 100 for some athletes. Career peak Top 50–100 athletes have shown an increase in longevity. These results assist tennis federations in assessing the progress of developing athletes and highlight the evolving nature of the competition for top players.
Robust tissue classification for reproducible wound assessment in telemedicine environments

In telemedicine environments, a standardized and reproducible assessment of wounds, using a simple free-handled digital camera, is an essential requirement. However, to ensure robust tissue classification, particular attention must be paid to the complete design of the color processing chain. We introduce the key steps including color correction, merging of expert labeling, and segmentation-driven classification based on support vector machines. The tool thus developed ensures stability under lighting condition, viewpoint, and camera changes, to achieve accurate and robust classification of skin tissues. Clinical tests demonstrate that such an advanced tool, which forms part of a complete 3-D and color wound assessment system, significantly improves the monitoring of the healing process. It achieves an overlap score of 79.3 against 69.1% for a single expert, after mapping on the medical reference developed from the image labeling by a college of experts.
A Retrospective

IB knowledge development is assessed via a survey of 1686 articles published from 1992 to 2002 in six influential IB serials. Specifically, this survey identifies (1) prolific authors and their institutions, (2) author demographics and collaborations, (3) major research streams and recent discipline evolution, and (4) research designs and statistical methods used. Such inquiry can reveal the current state of IB research, and suggest editorial mandates and future research directions.
Quantifying the effects of chemical and physical properties of skim milk and yogurts using standard methods and a novel rapid detection method

This research sets out to determine how varying factors such as electromagnetic fluid conditioning (EFC) and varying protein and sugar contents can influence yogurt and skim milks overall quality. EFC uses magnets to alter the chemical and physical properties of skim milk in these studies. EFC has many different treatment parameters to optimize before this new processing technology can be industrialized. Treatment parameters include voltage, exposure time, flow rate, and magnetic field direction, as studied in this research. Voltage was altered 10 and 30 V for 2 and 10 minutes. This study showed that at 2 minutes that skim milk was not altered, but at both voltages at 10 minutes some changes occurred to surface tension and color properties (L* and a* values) of skim milk. For both voltages at 10 minutes, it was always the negative direction that experienced the most changes. A separate EFC experiment was done that set out to determine if pretreating skim milk with EFC, would have an effect on yogurt’s quality post fermentation throughout storage. Results indicated that EFC does alter the yogurt’s properties, but not in a desirable manner. Results were undesirable changes to the product’s firmness and syneresis when compared to the control sample. Dielectric spectroscopy is a rapid method to determine if varying protein and sugar contents has compromised yogurt’s quality. In the dielectric spectroscopy study, this research wanted to determine if varying protein and sugar contents influenced dielectric properties enough to where a model could be developed to predict yogurt’s firmness. Both of these methods, EFC and dielectric spectroscopy, are novel technologies to the dairy industry where, both have been very minimally tested on yogurt. This research proved to be a stepping stone to open further doors to research in these areas due to results indicating changes but not pin-pointing exactly what is going on due to these technologies.
A Comparative Analytical Performance of F2DTC and PIDTC of Induction Motor Using DSPACE-1104

This paper presents fuzzy-2 direct torque control (F2DTC) and proportional-integral direct torque control (PIDTC) of an induction motor drive (IMD) using bus-clamped space vector modulation (BCSVM). The PIDTC gives considerable flux and torque ripples with the poor dynamic performance of the IMD. To improve the dynamic performance of IMD, F2DTC is proposed. In F2DTC, proportional-integral controllers are replaced by fuzzy-2 controllers (F2Cs), where the BCSVM duty ratios are independent of the sampling period. The firing strength of the inverter with F2DTC is improved than the PIDTC. In addition, the F2C effectively deals with the huge ambiguous data using Mamdani and Centroid methods with simple IF and THEN rules. A prototype controller is developed in the laboratory, and the control signals for both PIDTC and F2DTC are generated by the DSPACE DS-1104 controller. The F2DTC provides fewer ripples in flux and torque and less current total harmonic distortion than the PIDTC. Moreover, F2DTC has fast dynamic performance of the IMD as compared with PIDTC.
Depth-aware object instance segmentation

We consider the problem of object instance segmentation. The goal is to label each pixel in an image according to its object class as well as its object instance. The proposed approach consists of three steps including object instance detection, category-specific instance segmentation and depth-aware ordering. The novelty of the proposed approach is that it uses the depth information to resolve the ambiguity of pixel labels when two object instances are overlapping. Experimental results on the PASCAL VOC 2012 benchmark demonstrate the competitive performance of the proposed approach compared with other state-of-the-art methods.
Intracranial Electroencephalography Signatures of the Induction of General Anesthesia with Propofol by

General anesthesia is a drug-induced, reversible behavioral state characterized by hypnosis (loss of consciousness), amnesia (loss of memory), analgesia (loss of pain perception), akinesia (loss of movement), and hemodynamic stability (stability and control of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and autonomic nervous systems). Each year, more than 25 million patients receive general anesthesia in the United States. Anesthesia-related morbidity is a significant medical problem, including nausea, vomiting, respiratory distress, post-operative cognitive dysfunction, and post-operative recall. To eliminate anesthesia-related morbidity, the brain systems involved in producing general anesthesia must be identified and characterized, and methods must be devised to monitor those brain systems and guide drug administration. A priority for anesthesia research is to identify the brain networks responsible for the characteristic electroencephalography (EEG) signals of anesthesia in relation to sensory, cognitive, memory, and pain systems. In this thesis, we recorded simultaneous intracranial and surface EEG, and single unit data in patients with intractable epilepsy who had been previously implanted with clinical and/or research electrodes. The aims of this research were to characterize the neural signals of anesthesia in a regionally and temporally precise way that is relevant to clinical anesthesia, and to identify dynamic neuronal networks that underlie these signals. We demonstrated region-specific, frequency-band-specific changes in neural recordings at loss of consciousness. We related these findings to theories of how anesthetic drugs may impart their behavioral effects. Thesis supervisors: Patrick L. Purdon, Ph.D. Instructor of Anaesthesia Harvard Medical School Emery N. Brown, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology
A Strichartz Inequality for the Schrödinger Equation on Nontrapping Asymptotically Conic Manifolds

Abstract We obtain the Strichartz inequality for any smooth three-dimensional Riemannian manifold (M, g) which is asymptotically conic at infinity and nontrapping, where u is a solution to the Schrödinger equation iu t + (1/2)Δ M u = 0. The exponent H 1/4(M) is sharp, by scaling considerations. In particular our result covers asymptotically flat nontrapping manifolds. Our argument is based on the interaction Morawetz inequality introduced by Colliander et al., interpreted here as a positive commutator inequality for the tensor product U(t, z′, z′′): = u(t, z′)u(t, z′′) of the solution with itself. We also use smoothing estimates for Schrödinger solutions including one (proved here) with weight r −1 at infinity and with the gradient term involving only one angular derivative.
Modeling QoE in Dependable Tele-Immersive Applications: A Case Study of World Opera

With the advent of recent technological advances, more demanding tele-immersive applications have started to emerge. In the World Opera application, artists from different opera houses across the globe can participate in a single united performance, and interact almost as if they were co-located. One of the main design challenges in this application domain is to assess to what extent the inevitable failures of some of the numerous and complex hardware, software, and network components affect the quality of experience for the user. This challenge cannot be addressed by traditional system-centric methods for dependability evaluation, which do not take personalized user perspective into account when considering meaningful and acceptable degradation of services. In this paper, we propose a novel method to assess the quality of experience in presence of failures, based on a new metric called perceived reliability. The method takes the human perspective into account and allows considering factors such as human perception of video and audio, characteristics of the audience, as well as performance elements and artistic content. This method can help system designers and engineers compare architectural variants and determine the dependability budget. We show the feasibility of our method by applying it to a World Opera performance. To this end, we construct a SAN-based model and run simulations in the Möbius framework. The obtained results provide useful guidelines for system engineers towards improving the quality of experience of World Opera performances despite the presence of failures.
Masters of War: Rivals' Product Innovation and New Advertising in Mature Product Markets

We investigate the impact of rivals' product innovation and new advertising on a firm's financial market value in mature product markets. Our test bed is the carbonated soft drink market between 1999 and 2003, a period characterized by a near duopoly between Coca-Cola and Pespi. Empirically, we focus on new product announcements as a proxy of product innovation and on filed trademarks as a measure of new advertising. We find that rival product announcements decrease a firm's financial market value, and that rival filed trademarks increase it. Finally, we find that the effect of new advertising is channeled through market size dynamics, while that of product innovation operates through market share dynamics. Results are robust across different estimation techniques (event study, Tobin's q) and model specifications.
Monoclonal antibodies to the peplomer glycoprotein of coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus identify two subunits and detect a conformational change in the subunit released under mild alkaline conditions

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed against the E2 glycoprotein of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) have been classified according to their ability to bind to either of the two purified 90,000-molecular-weight subunits (90K subunits) of the 180K peplomeric glycoprotein E2. Correlation with previously reported information about these MAbs suggest that both of the subunits of E2 are important for viral infectivity and cell fusion. Incubation of trypsin-treated virions at pH 8.0 and 37 degrees C released only the E2N subunit from virions. The pattern of MAb reactions suggested that a conformational change occurred in the E2N subunit in association with its release from virions under mildly alkaline conditions at 37 degrees C, the same conditions which are optimal for coronavirus-induced cell fusion.
Morbidity and Mortality of Peripartum Hysterectomy

OBJECTIVE: To perform a population-based analysis to examine the morbidity and mortality of peripartum hysterectomy in comparison with nonobstetric hysterectomy. METHODS: Data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample were used to compare peripartum and nonobstetric hysterectomy in women younger than 50 years of age. Intraoperative, perioperative, and postoperative medical complications were examined. The outcomes of peripartum and nonobstetric hysterectomy were compared using chi square. Odds ratios were calculated using multivariable logistic regression models for each individual complication. RESULTS: A total of 4,967 women who underwent peripartum hysterectomy and 578,179 patients who had a nonobstetric hysterectomy were identified. Bladder (9% compared with 1%) and ureteral (0.7% compared with 0.1%) injuries were more common for peripartum hysterectomy (P<.001). There were no differences in the rates of intestinal or vascular injuries between peripartum and nonobstetric hysterectomy. Rates of reoperation (4% compared with 0.5%), postoperative hemorrhage (5% compared with 2%), wound complications (10% compared with 3%), and venous thromboembolism (1% compared with 0.7%) were all higher in women who underwent peripartum hysterectomy. In multivariable analysis, the odds ratio for death for peripartum compared to nonobstetric hysterectomy was 14.4 (95% confidence interval 9.84–20.98). CONCLUSION: Peripartum hysterectomy is accompanied by substantial morbidity and mortality. Compared with nonobstetric hysterectomy, the procedure is associated with increased rates of both intraoperative and postoperative complications. The mortality of peripartum hysterectomy is more than 25 times that of hysterectomy performed outside of pregnancy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Influence of speed on gait parameters and on symmetry in transtibial amputees

Normal gait is characterised by a high level of inter-leg symmetry of gait parameters. Therefore, efforts in rehabilitation of amputees are directed at the construction of a prosthesis which provides normal leg function and allows a more symmetrical gait. Analysis of the gait of trans-tibial amputees was performed when they were ambulating at their own freely selected speed and at a faster speed. The effect of speed on selected gait parameters in each leg was evaluated and the influence on symmetry established by comparing the inter-leg changes for each of the selected parameters. The faster gait trail affected significantly all temporal and distance parameters in both legs but not the level of symmetry between legs. At the faster speed, the hip angles at heel-strike and during swing and the knee angle during load response, in the normal leg, and the knee angle during swing in the amputated leg, all increased significantly. Speed of gait significantly affected symmetry between knee angles as reflected by the increased differences measured during load response (from 2.62 ±5.2 to 7.06 ±4.2 degrees) and during toe-off (from 1.80 ±7.4 to 9.50 ±9.1 degrees). Timing and sequence of selected gait events, as related to stride time, were not significantly affected by speed of gait. These results might contribute to a better understanding of gait characteristics in trans-tibial amputees and provide design guidance for prosthetic components.
Comparison of pulsed versus continuous oxygen delivery using realistic adult nasal airway replicas

Background Portable oxygen concentrators (POCs) typically include pulse flow (PF) modes to conserve oxygen. The primary aims of this study were to develop a predictive in vitro model for inhaled oxygen delivery using a set of realistic airway replicas, and to compare PF for a commercial POC with steady flow (SF) from a compressed oxygen cylinder. Methods Experiments were carried out using a stationary compressed oxygen cylinder, a POC, and 15 adult nasal airway replicas based on airway geometries derived from medical images. Oxygen delivery via nasal cannula was tested at PF settings of 2.0 and 6.0, and SF rates of 2.0 and 6.0 L/min. A test lung simulated three breathing patterns representative of a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient at rest, during exercise, and while asleep. Volume-averaged fraction of inhaled oxygen (FiO2) was calculated by analyzing oxygen concentrations sampled at the exit of each replica and inhalation flow rates over time. POC pulse volumes were also measured using a commercial O2 conserver test system to attempt to predict FiO2 for PF. Results Relative volume-averaged FiO2 using PF ranged from 68% to 94% of SF values, increasing with breathing frequency and tidal volume. Three of 15 replicas failed to trigger the POC when used with the sleep breathing pattern at the 2.0 setting, and four of 15 replicas failed to trigger at the 6.0 setting. FiO2 values estimated from POC pulse characteristics followed similar trends but were lower than those derived from airway replica experiments. Conclusion For the POC tested, PF delivered similar, though consistently lower, volume-averaged FiO2 than SF rates equivalent to nominal PF settings. Assessment of PF oxygen delivery using POC pulse characteristics alone may be insufficient; testing using airway replicas is useful in identifying possible cases of failure and may provide a better assessment of FiO2.