Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Timing Requirements for Insulin/IGF-1 Signaling in C. elegans

The insulin/IGF-1 (where IGF-1 is insulin-like growth factor–1) signaling pathway influences longevity, reproduction, and diapause in many organisms. Because of the fundamental importance of this system in animal physiology, we asked when during the animal's life it is required to regulate these different processes. We find that in Caenorhabditis elegans, the pathway acts during adulthood, to relatively advanced ages, to influence aging. In contrast, it regulates diapause during development. In addition, the pathway controls longevity and reproduction independently of one another. Together our findings show that life-span regulation can be dissociated temporally from phenotypes that might seem to decrease the quality of life.
The Impact of National Curriculum Physical Education on the Teaching of Health‐Related Fitness: A Case Study in One English Town

The research reported in this paper was aimed at discovering the impact of the health‐related element within National Curriculum Physical Education (NCPE) on (a) the percentage of lesson time pupils were engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), (b) the percentage of lesson time allocated by teachers for pupils to engage in fitness activity or acquire health‐related fitness knowledge, and (c) the percentage of time teachers used behaviours likely to encourage pupils to participate in health‐promoting physical activity. Subjects were 20 physical education teachers employed in one town in southwest England. Two lessons of each teacher's choice in which they taught any activity to years 7, 8, or 9 were videotaped. Lessons were coded with SOFIT, an observational instrument designed to quantify factors thought to promote health‐related fitness in physical education. Data generated by SOFIT were entered into an SPSS programme to produce descriptive statistics. Results indicated that, with the ex.
The Big Five Personality Traits and Individual Satisfaction With the Team

Relationships between team composition in terms of team members' Big Five personality traits and individual satisfaction with the team after project completion were researched. Questionnaires were filled out by 310 undergraduate students (N= 68 teams) working on an engineering design assignment. Individual satisfaction with the team was regressed onto individual, dissimilarity, and interaction scores. A positive main effect was found for individual agreeableness and emotional stability and for dissimilarity in conscientiousness. A moderation of the main effect of dissimilarity was found for extraversion: Satisfaction with the team is negatively related to dissimilarity to the other team members only for members low in extraversion.
Grammar-like Functional Rules for Representing Query Optimization Alternatives

Extensible query optmuxahon reqmres that the “repertoue” of alternatIve strate@es for executmg quenes be represented as data, not embedded m the optumzer code Recogmzmg that query optmuzers are essentlaliy expert systems, several researchers have suggested usmg strategy rules to transform query execution plans into alternatlve or better plans Though extremely flexrble, these systems can be very mefflclent at any step m the processmg, many rules may be ehable for apphcatlon and comphcated cond&ons must be tested to detemune that ehgbtity dunng umfuzatlon We present a constructwe, “buddmg blocks” approach to defmmg alternative plans, m which the rules defmmg alternatives are an extension of the productlons of a grammar to resemble the defuution of a funcuon m mathematics The extensions pernut each token of the grammar to be parametnzed and each of its alternative deflmtlons to have a complex con&tlon The termmals of the grammar are base-level database operations on tables that are mterpreted at run-me The non-termmals are defined declaratively by productlon rules that combme those operauons mto meamngful plans for executton Each producuon produces a set of alternative plans, each havmg a vector of propeties, mcludmg the estunated cost of producmg that plan Producttons can reqmre certam propertles of theu mputs, such as tuple order and location, and we descnbe a “sue” mechamsm for augmentmg plans to a&eve the reqmred propertles We @ve detaded examples to dustrate the power and robustness of our rules and to contrast them Hnth related Ideas
Hematopoietic cytokines as tumor markers

Abstract Stem cell factor (SCF), interleukin 3 (IL-3), granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and macrophage-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) are members of a group of glycoproteins called hematopoietic cytokines (HCs). These cytokines regulate the growth and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor cells and functionally activate mature neutrophils or macrophages. The effect of HCs is not limited to bone marrow cells. Some studies have shown that HCs can also stimulate the proliferation of non-hematopoietic cells. The receptors for HCs have been detected in cancer cell lines, and stimulation of HCs receptors induced proliferation of tumor cells. Moreover, some investigations have shown HC mRNA expression in these cell lines and recent studies have demonstrated that HCs can stimulate tumor progression. Several cells of malignant tumors have been observed to secrete large amounts of HCs and increased concentrations of HCs have been found in the sera of cancer patients. There are a number of situations in which the measurement of HCs may provide clinically useful information, particularly regarding prognosis and response to treatment. In this paper we discuss the results of studies that have examined the potential use of HCs as tumor markers.
Rotation invariant local phase quantization for blur insensitive texture analysis

This paper introduces a rotation invariant extension to the blur insensitive local phase quantization texture descriptor. The new method consists of two stages, the first of which estimates the local characteristic orientation, and the second one extracts a binary descriptor vector. Both steps of the algorithm apply the phase of the locally computed Fourier transform coefficients, which can be shown to be insensitive to centrally symmetric image blurring. The new descriptors are assessed in comparison with the well known texture descriptors, local binary patterns (LBP) and Gabor filtering. The results illustrate that the proposed method has superior performance in those cases where the image contains blur and is slightly better even with sharp images.
Genomic heterogeneity of historical gene flow between two species of newts inferred from transcriptome data

Abstract The role of gene flow in species formation is a major unresolved issue in speciation biology. Progress in this area requires information on the long‐term patterns of gene flow between diverging species. Here, we used thousands of single‐nucleotide polymorphisms derived from transcriptome resequencing and a method modeling the joint frequency spectrum of these polymorphisms to reconstruct patterns of historical gene flow between two Lissotriton newts: L. vulgaris (Lv) and L. montandoni (Lm). We tested several models of divergence including complete isolation and various scenarios of historical gene flow. The model of secondary contact received the highest support. According to this model, the species split from their common ancestor ca. 5.5 million years (MY) ago, evolved in isolation for ca. 2 MY, and have been exchanging genes for the last 3.5 MY Demographic changes have been inferred in both species, with the current effective population size of ca. 0.7 million in Lv and 0.2 million in Lm. The postdivergence gene flow resulted in two‐directional introgression which affected the genomes of both species, but was more pronounced from Lv to Lm. Interestingly, we found evidence for genomic heterogeneity of interspecific gene flow. This study demonstrates the complexity of long‐term gene flow between distinct but incompletely reproductively isolated taxa which divergence was initiated millions of years ago.
GENERALIZING OVER QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

The syntax of these constructions has received a lot of attention in recent years (den Dikken 1995, 1998, Español-Echevarría 1996, Hulk & Tellier 1999ab, Doetjes 1997). However, very little work has concentrated on the relation between both constructions. Milner (1978) had already observed that quantitative and qualitative constructions share the same syntactic structure (see also Ruwet 1982). However, the X’ framework of the late seventies did not allow a fully explicit implementation of this claim: the identical syntactic structure proposed could not account for various properties of quantitative and qualitative constructions. Interestingly, most research since the late seventies has focused either on quantitative or on qualitative constructions, without taking their common properties into consideration. We will argue that the parallelism between qualitative and quantitative constructions is even stronger than previously suspected.
The Genetic Component of the Forced Diving Bradycardia Response in Mammals

We contrasted the forced diving bradycardia between two genetically similar (inbred) rat strains (Fischer and Buffalo), compared to that of outbred rats (Wistar). The animals were habituated to forced diving for 4 weeks. Each animal was then tested during one 40 s dive on each of 3 days. The heart rate (fH) was measured before, during, and after each dive. Fischer and Buffalo exhibited marked difference in dive bradycardia (Fischer: 120.9 ± 14.0 beats min−1 vs. Buffalo: 92.8 ± 12.8 beats min−1, P < 0.05). Outbred rats showed an intermediate response (103.0 ± 30.9 beats min−1) but their between-animal variability in mean dive fH and pre-diving resting fH were higher than the inbred strains (P < 0.05), which showed no difference (P > 0.05). The decreased variability in fH in inbred rats as compared with the outbred group indicates that reduced genetic variability minimizes variability of the diving bradycardia between individuals. Heritability within strains was assessed by the repeatability (R) index and was 0.93 ± 0.05 for the outbred, 0.84 ± 0.16 for Buffalo, and 0.80 ± 0.12 for Fischer rats for fH during diving. Our results suggest that a portion of the mammalian diving bradycardia may be a heritable trait.
Tempering Hard Times: Integrating Well-Being Metrics Into Utility Analysis

Abstract This article highlights the virtue of integrating well-being metrics (e.g., psychological well-being, perceived meaning) into aspects of utility analysis for the purpose of enhancing human resource management strategies and worker performance. We present the reader with a review of conceptual and practical developments in this field and examples of utility analysis calculations, while we advocate for the necessity of including well-being metrics in utility analysis for the 21st century. The basic thrust of this effort is to encourage the greater employment by managers of quantitative models that allow decision makers to generate all the factors needed to estimate long-term financial gains and/or losses before any intervention strategy is implemented in the workplace. As indicated, the use of quantitative models to estimate the net financial gains of using particular intervention strategies, accompanied with the value estimation of certain types of employee states (e.g., psychological well-being) and worker behaviors (e.g., employee turnover), can ultimately save companies from making gross tactical errors and, more positively, can assist management in promoting the organization's long-term economic goals in conjunction with the enhanced well-being of employees.
Blind signal separation: statistical principles

Blind signal separation (BSS) and independent component analysis (ICA) are emerging techniques of array processing and data analysis that aim to recover unobserved signals or "sources" from observed mixtures (typically, the output of an array of sensors), exploiting only the assumption of mutual independence between the signals. The weakness of the assumptions makes it a powerful approach, but it requires us to venture beyond familiar second order statistics, The objectives of this paper are to review some of the approaches that have been developed to address this problem, to illustrate how they stem from basic principles, and to show how they relate to each other.
Characterization of Cortical Networks and Corticocortical Functional Connectivity Mediating Arbitrary Visuomotor Mapping

Adaptive behaviors are built on the arbitrary linkage of sensory inputs to actions and goals. Although the sensorimotor and associative frontostriatal circuits are known to mediate arbitrary visuomotor mappings, the underlying corticocortico dynamics remain elusive. Here, we take a novel approach exploiting gamma-band neural activity to study the human cortical networks and corticocortical functional connectivity mediating arbitrary visuomotor mapping. Single-trial gamma-power time courses were estimated for all Brodmann areas by combing magnetoencephalographic and MRI data with spectral analysis and beam-forming techniques. Linear correlation and Granger causality analyses were performed to investigate functional connectivity between cortical regions. The performance of visuomotor associations was characterized by an increase in gamma-power and functional connectivity over the sensorimotor and frontoparietal network, in addition to medial prefrontal areas. The superior parietal area played a driving role in the network, exerting Granger causality on the dorsal premotor area. Premotor areas acted as relay from parietal to medial prefrontal cortices, which played a receiving role in the network. Link community analysis further revealed that visuomotor mappings reflect the coordination of multiple subnetworks with strong overlap over motor and frontoparietal areas. We put forward an associative account of the underlying cognitive processes and corticocortical functional connectivity. Overall, our approach and results provide novel perspectives toward a better understanding of how distributed brain activity coordinates adaptive behaviors. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In everyday life, most of our behaviors are based on the arbitrary linkage of sensory information to actions and goals, such as stopping at a red traffic light. Despite their automaticity, such behaviors rely on the activity of a large brain network and elusive interareal functional connectivity. We take a novel approach exploiting noninvasive recordings of human brain activity to reveal the cortical networks and corticocortical functional connectivity mediating visuomotor mappings. Parietal areas were found to play a driving role in the network, whereas premotor areas acted as relays from parietal to medial prefrontal cortices, which played a receiving role. Overall, our approach and results provide novel perspectives toward a better understanding of how distributed brain activity coordinates adaptive behaviors.
Finding Homeless Youth

A census of homeless youth was conducted in locations across Los Angeles County, California. Building on previous research that has focused on homeless youth in cruise areas, the authors examined demographic and behavioral differences between homeless youth in cruise and noncruise areas. Youth in cruise areas were more likely than youth in noncruise areas to be older, to have been away from home longer, to have recently visited community-based agencies, and were likely to have resided in shelters and less likely to attend school. These data suggest possible selection bias in earlier studies that relied primarily on homeless youth from cruise areas.
Voting Machines, Race, and Equal Protection

61 IMAGINE taking a test for which there are five different graders, and your score depends on which grader corrects your exam. You may feel the test capricious and unfair, especially if you received a poor grade. That is the situation with voting in the United States today. The United States employs five different types of voting technology: handcounted paper ballots, punch cards, optically scanned paper ballots, lever machines, and electronic voting machines (also known as direct recording electronic machines, or DREs for short). The incidence of unmarked, uncounted, and spoiled ballots—called residual votes—depends on which equipment a locality uses. The presidential election contest in Florida in 2000 exposed an important weakness with some of these technologies, especially with punch card ballots. Subsequent study has shown that over the last four presidential elections punch cards and electronic voting machines have produced higher rates of unmarked and unrecorded ballots than hand-counted paper ballots, optically scanned paper ballots, and lever machines.1 It is unclear whether the equal protection standard in Bush v. Gore requires uniform technologies.2 The first legal challenges to the nonuniform system of voting equipment are underway. One of these complaints, Common Cause v. Jones,3 invokes Bush v. Gore to test the equal protection claim generally and makes a specific claim for equal protection of racial groups. The general equal protection claim holds that different technologies count votes differently. Specifically, punch cards may have higher rates of uncounted votes and spoiled ballots. Voters residing in counties using punch card technologies are less likely to have their votes counted. A number of studies have addressed this matter, for example the Caltech/MIT Report, and this claim appears correct. In this paper, I consider the second argument—equal protection of racial groups. This argument rests on two premises. First, punch cards are an inferior technology for casting and counting votes. Second, counties with higher densities of minority voters disproportionately use inferior technologies, especially punch cards. A more subtle version of the racial argument holds that some technologies might be particularly problematic in areas with high densities of minorities. Some technologies may have disproportionately high rates of uncounted, unmarked, and spoiled ballots in counties with high numbers of nonwhite voters, owing to the particular difficulty implementing the equipment in those counties. These race-based claims may be relevant not only for the equal protection argument, but also for challenges under the Voting Rights Act. Is there statistical evidence to support the race-based equality argument? This paper examines the statistical evidence for the argument that race and voting equipment together affect the casting and counting of votes in ways disadvantageous to minority voters. I focus on
Characterization of Electrophysiological Propagation by Multichannel Sensors

Objective: The propagation of electrophysiological activity measured by multichannel devices could have significant clinical implications. Gastric slow waves normally propagate along longitudinal paths that are evident in recordings of serosal potentials and transcutaneous magnetic fields. We employed a realistic model of gastric slow wave activity to simulate the transabdominal magnetogastrogram (MGG) recorded in a multichannel biomagnetometer and to determine characteristics of electrophysiological propagation from MGG measurements. Methods: Using MGG simulations of slow wave sources in a realistic abdomen (both superficial and deep sources) and in a horizontally-layered volume conductor, we compared two analytic methods (second-order blind identification, SOBI and surface current density, SCD) that allow quantitative characterization of slow wave propagation. We also evaluated the performance of the methods with simulated experimental noise. The methods were also validated in an experimental animal model. Results: Mean square errors in position estimates were within 2 cm of the correct position, and average propagation velocities within 2 mm/s of the actual velocities. SOBI propagation analysis outperformed the SCD method for dipoles in the superficial and horizontal layer models with and without additive noise. The SCD method gave better estimates for deep sources, but did not handle additive noise as well as SOBI. Conclusion: SOBI-MGG and SCD-MGG were used to quantify slow wave propagation in a realistic abdomen model of gastric electrical activity. Significance: These methods could be generalized to any propagating electrophysiological activity detected by multichannel sensor arrays.
Survey on Network Virtualization Hypervisors for Software Defined Networking

Software defined networking (SDN) has emerged as a promising paradigm for making the control of communication networks flexible. SDN separates the data packet forwarding plane, i.e., the data plane, from the control plane and employs a central controller. Network virtualization allows the flexible sharing of physical networking resources by multiple users (tenants). Each tenant runs its own applications over its virtual network, i.e., its slice of the actual physical network. The virtualization of SDN networks promises to allow networks to leverage the combined benefits of SDN networking and network virtualization and has therefore attracted significant research attention in recent years. A critical component for virtualizing SDN networks is an SDN hypervisor that abstracts the underlying physical SDN network into multiple logically isolated virtual SDN networks (vSDNs), each with its own controller. We comprehensively survey hypervisors for SDN networks in this paper. We categorize the SDN hypervisors according to their architecture into centralized and distributed hypervisors. We furthermore sub-classify the hypervisors according to their execution platform into hypervisors running exclusively on general-purpose compute platforms, or on a combination of general-purpose compute platforms with general- or special-purpose network elements. We exhaustively compare the network attribute abstraction and isolation features of the existing SDN hypervisors. As part of the future research agenda, we outline the development of a performance evaluation framework for SDN hypervisors.
Legion Theory

William James and many other early pioneers of psychology and psychiatry endorsed the notion of parallel rational conscious streams in the human mind and suggested that an understanding of multiple personalities, in what is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), was the key to developing an appropriate model of the mind. A new meta-theory of psychology, Legion Theory, developed from an inductive study of the specific characteristics of DID, is presented. Legion Theory proposes the mind to encompass two major sets of mechanisms. The first is a set of parallel conscious streams which form the self. The second is a set of internal mental models representing the physical and other worlds. The interaction of these two sets of processes is shown to provide a model for many psychological phenomena, including abstract logical thinking and intelligence, dreams, implicit and explicit memory, state-dependent memory, psychogenic fugues, and body dysmorphia.
Many-particle interference in a two-component bosonic Josephson junction: an all-optical simulation

We conceive an all-optical representation of the dynamics of two distinct types of interacting bosons in a double well by an array of evanescently coupled photonic waveguides. Many-particle interference effects are probed for various interaction strengths by changing the relative abundance of the particle species and can be readily identified by monitoring the propagation of the light intensity across the waveguide array. In particular, we show that finite inter-particle interaction strengths reduce the many-particle interference contrast by dephasing. A general description of the many-particle dynamics for arbitrary initial states is given in terms of two coupled spins by generalising the Schwinger representation to two particle species.