Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resilience of Alternative States in Spatially Extended Ecosystems

Alternative stable states in ecology have been well studied in isolated, well-mixed systems. However, in reality, most ecosystems exist on spatially extended landscapes. Applying existing theory from dynamic systems, we explore how such a spatial setting should be expected to affect ecological resilience. We focus on the effect of local disturbances, defining resilience as the size of the area of a strong local disturbance needed to trigger a shift. We show that in contrast to well-mixed systems, resilience in a homogeneous spatial setting does not decrease gradually as a bifurcation point is approached. Instead, as an environmental driver changes, the present dominant state remains virtually ‘indestructible’, until at a critical point (the Maxwell point) its resilience drops sharply in the sense that even a very local disturbance can cause a domino effect leading eventually to a landscape-wide shift to the alternative state. Close to this Maxwell point the travelling wave moves very slow. Under these conditions both states have a comparable resilience, allowing long transient co-occurrence of alternative states side-by-side, and also permanent co-existence if there are mild spatial barriers. Overall however, hysteresis may mostly disappear in a spatial context as one of both alternative states will always tend to be dominant. Our results imply that local restoration efforts on a homogeneous landscape will typically either fail or trigger a landscape-wide transition. For extensive biomes with alternative stable states, such as tundra, steppe and forest, our results imply that, as climatic change reduces the stability, the effect might be difficult to detect until a point where local disturbances inevitably induce a spatial cascade to the alternative state.
Modelling the Organization and Processing of Bangla Polymorphemic Words in the Mental Lexicon: A Computational Approach

In this paper we try to present psycholinguistically motivated computational model for the access and representation of Bangla polymorphemic words in the Mental Lexicon. We first conduct a series of masked priming experiment on a set of Bangla polymorphemic words. Our analysis indicates a significant number of words shows morphological decomposition during the processing stage. We further developed a computational model for the processing of Bangla polymorphemic words. The novelty of the new model over the existing ones are, the proposed model not only considers the frequency of the derived word but also considers the role of its constituent stem, suffix and the degree of affixation between the stem and the suffix. We have evaluated the new model with the results obtained from the priming experiment and then compare it with the state of the art. The proposed model has been found to perform better than the existing models.
The vasa efferentia in the rat and mouse.

According to Wakeley (1943-44), the majority of epididymal cysts in man arise in the vasa efferentia, the bridge of tissue between the testis and epididymis. The ability of two sterilant chemicals to produce specific lesions of this nature in the rat (\g=a\-chlorhydrin\p=m-\Ericsson,1970; ethylenedimethanesulphonate\p=m-\Cooper& Jackson, 1970) points to the need for further information on the vasa efferentia in relation to their susceptibility to damage in this manner. As there appears to be inadequate information on the course of these tubules, the present study was undertaken. At post mortem, the testes resting in the scrotum of the rat present anterior and posterior surfaces and medial and lateral rounded borders. Serial longitudinal sections were made in both rat and mouse of the entire testis-epididymis-
Discriminación percibida y autoestima en jóvenes de grupos minoritarios y mayoritarios en Costa Rica

Structural Equation Modeling was used to test a model predicting the effect of perceived ethnic discrimination, interethnic contact, ethnic identification and interethnic attitudes on self-esteem among Costa Rican adolescents from different ethnic groups. Participants were 407 Afro-Costa Ricans ( M = 16.27 years, SD= 1.58; 58% women) and 768 majority adolescents (M = 15.93 years, SD = 1.48; 60% women) from two cities with different ethnic composition. Results are highly consistent with the proposed model showing that self-esteem is directly influenced by ethnic identification and interethnic attitudes across ethnic groups. Ethnic identification and interethnic contact are in turn influenced by both perceived ethnic discrimination and interethnic contact. Differences and similarities across ethnic groups are analyzed and discussed.
Location of potential energy sources and the export of dense water from the Atlantic Ocean

The export of dense water from the Atlantic and into the Indo‐Pacific oceans, and heat transport in the opposite direction, is traditionally attributed to the fact that dense water forms in the Atlantic but not the Pacific. Evidence from two models, presented here, suggests this is an incomplete explanation. It is found that dense water export from the Atlantic depends on a potential energy (PE) sink, associated with dense water downwelling in the Atlantic, that is not balanced by a PE source within the Atlantic. Therefore, increasing the Atlantic PE source reduces dense Atlantic water export. Tide models suggest that the Atlantic PE source may have been much greater at the last glacial maximum. This could have significantly reduced dense water export from the Atlantic Ocean, even if Atlantic overturning was stronger than it is today.
Getting Out of Flatland: Into the Third Dimension of Microarrays

This AJT issue reports a seminal study on microarray analysis of gene expression in renal transplant biopsies by Thomas Mueller, Gunilla Einecke and others from the Alberta Transplant Applied Genomics Centre led by Philip Halloran (1). While not the first on this topic, it is arguably the most comprehensive, rigorous and provocative study to date, of interest not only to basic investigators, but to clinicians and pathologists who wish to improve their ability to decipher the hidden messages of the renal transplant biopsy.
Local trajectory based speech enhancement for robust speech recognition with deep neural network

Deep neural network(DNN) has achieved a great success in automatic speech recognition(ASR), and it can be regarded as a joint model combining the nonlinear feature transformation and the log-linear classifier. Recently DNN is adopted as a regression model to enhance the distorted feature in noisy condition and the enhanced feature is utilized to improve the performance of DNN based ASR. Previous work only predicts a single frame (log-spectrum) using the enhanced DNN and the final improvement of ASR is not big. In this paper, local trajectory, represented using multiple frames with dynamic features, is predicted instead to make the feature enhancement more stable. In addition, FBank features and long context window are used to better integrating the enhanced DNN into ASR DNN. Experiments on the Aurora4 corpus showed that, compared to the standard DNN baseline, the proposed approach can achieve 9.6% relative WER reduction and also significantly outperform the previously proposed DNN ASR system using the log-spectrum feature based enhancement.
Expression of smooth muscle myosin heavy chains and unloaded shortening in single smooth muscle cells

Meer, Daniel P., and Thomas J. Eddinger. Expression of smooth muscle myosin heavy chains and unloaded shortening in single smooth muscle cells. Am. J. Physiol. 273 (Cell Physiol. 42): C1259–C1266, 1997. —The functional significance of the variable expression of the smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SM-MHC) tail isoforms, SM1 and SM2, was examined at the mRNA level (which correlates with the protein level) in individual permeabilized rabbit arterial smooth muscle cells (SMCs). The length of untethered single permeabilized SMCs was monitored during unloaded shortening in response to increased Ca21 (pCa 6.0), histamine (1 μM), and phenylephrine (1 μM). Subsequent to contraction, the relative expression of SM1 and SM2 mRNAs from the same individual SMCs was determined by reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction amplification and densitometric analysis. Correlational analyses between the SM2-to-SM1 ratio and unloaded shortening in saponinand a-toxinpermeabilized SMCs (n 5 28) reveal no significant relationship between the SM-MHC tail isoform ratio and unloaded shortening velocity. The best correlations between SM2/SM1 and the contraction characteristics of untethered vascular SMCs were with the minimum length attained following contraction (n 5 20 and r 5 0.72 for a-toxin, n 5 8 and r 5 0.78 for saponin). These results suggest that the primary effect of variable expression of the SM1 and SM2 SM-MHC tail isoforms is on the cell final length and not on shortening velocity.
Growth in Body Mass Index From Childhood Into Adolescence

This study examined longitudinal relations between sleep and body mass index (BMI) from late childhood ( X ¯ age = 9.44 at T1) to early adolescence ( X ¯ age = 11.36 at T3) with a relatively large (n = 273 at T1) and diverse (35% African Americans) sample. Sleep was assessed with actigraphy-based sleep minutes and self-reported sleep problems. Latent growth modeling revealed associations between sleep and BMI that varied based on the sleep parameter and sex of the child. In particular, although boys reported more sleep problems and had higher BMI than girls across time, self-reported sleep problems at age 9 predicted higher BMI at age 11 among girls (but not boys). Furthermore, more minutes of actigraph-assessed sleep at age 9 only predicted less growth in BMI among the girls. Possible mechanisms and intervention implications are discussed.
SELF-HELP AS AN EXPLANATION FOR VIOLENCE AMONG FEMALE INMATES: A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT

Data were gathered from 52 female inmates residing in two women’s prisons located in Missouri, USA, through semi-structured interviews in order to document the existence of violence among female inmates and to evaluate causes of such violence. Donald Black’s self help theory was used as a paradigm for evaluating causes of violence among female inmates. The results of this study suggest that violence among female inmates is more common than typically assumed. The results also suggest that Black’s theory may account for the large amount of violence associated with homosexual relationships but is unable to explain the existence of predatory violence aimed at forcibly acquiring property or accomplishing sexual assault. Prison policies including those prohibiting homosexual conduct and the apparent de facto policy of punishing everyone involved in a fight may be unwittingly contributing to the problem of violence among female inmates. Possible reforms that might be helpful are discussed and analyzed.
The transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent-shunt procedure for refractory ascites.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that the transjugular placement of an intrahepatic stent to establish a portosystemic shunt is an effective treatment of uncomplicated ascites accompanying variceal bleeding. We studied the stent shunt for use in patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites refractory to medical treatment. METHODS Fifty of 62 consecutive patients with cirrhosis and refractory ascites (18 with Child-Pugh class B liver disease and 32 with class C) were treated with the stent shunt--an expandable stent of metallic mesh placed between a major branch of the portal vein and one of the hepatic veins. Patients were followed for a mean (+/- SD) of 426 +/- 333 days. Those with advanced cancer, severe heart failure, or severe liver failure were excluded. RESULTS The stent shunt was successfully placed in all patients and reduced the pressure gradient between the portal vein and the inferior vena cava by an average of 63 percent. Thirty-seven patients (74 percent) had complete responses (total remission of ascites within three months), and nine patients (18 percent) had partial responses (ascites detected by ultrasound but with no need for paracentesis). Four patients did not respond, including two who died within two weeks of shunt placement. After the procedure, 25 patients had hepatic encephalopathy, as compared with 20 patients before the procedure; although encephalopathy improved in 3 patients, new encephalopathy developed in 8 patients. In the 28 of the 33 patients followed for more than six months who were evaluated, the mean serum creatinine concentration was 1.5 +/- 0.09 mg per deciliter (133 +/- 8 mumol per liter) before placement of the stent shunt, 1.5 +/- 1.6 mg per deciliter (133 +/- 141 mumol per liter) one week after the procedure, and 0.9 +/- 0.3 mg per deciliter (80 +/- 27 mumol per liter) after six months (P = 0.008 for the comparison of concentrations before and six months after the procedure). Renal function did not improve in the six patients with organic kidney disease. Procedure-related complications developed in 16 patients, including intraabdominal bleeding requiring blood transfusions in 2 patients. Thrombotic occlusion of the stent shunt occurred within two weeks in 5 patients, and later insufficiency of the shunt occurred in 16 patients, including 12 with recurrence of ascites after complete remission. During followup, an additional 29 patients died--10 of progressive liver disease and 19 of other causes. Survival for at least one year was associated with a patient's being under 60 years of age, having a serum bilirubin level before placement of the stent shunt of less than 1.3 mg per deciliter (22 mumol per liter), and having a complete response. CONCLUSIONS Our findings in an uncontrolled prospective study suggest that the transjugular intrahepatic porto-systemic stent-shunt procedure was an effective treatment for many patients with liver cirrhosis and refractory ascites, but mortality from underlying diseases was substantial.
Validity of the Distinction Between “Substance‐Induced” and “Independent” Depression and Anxiety Disorders

Diagnosis of comorbidpsychiatric disorders in substance abuse patients is complicated by the fact that many abused substances induce transient symptoms that mimic independent disorders. The authors applied criteria designed to distinguish “independent” comorbid disorders from those that may have been “substance-induced, “ to determine the impact on rates of diagnosis and on concurrent and predictive validity. Of those with symptoms sufficient to meet criteria for comorbid depression (12%) or anxiety diagnoses (26%), fewer than one-fourth were considered to have independent disorders, and these patients did not constitute a category of greater severity. Current guidelines for defining independent diagnoses were not supported. Further work is required to identify criteria that will provide a clinically meaningful distinction.
Relaxation and watching televised sports among older adults

Abstract This study shows a hierarchical regression model that investigates the relationship between watching televised sports and relaxation. Older adults (N = 305) completed a self-report questionnaire to assess relaxation and media functions (entertainment, surveillance, correlation, and cultural transmission) when they watched televised sports. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the proportion of observed variance in relaxation explained by control and independent variables. The results indicated that the entertainment function and the correlation function were statistically significant predictors after controlling for gender and the number of days of watching televised sports. Entertainment function was the strongest predictor on experiencing relaxation for older adults when watching televised sports. The findings of this study add to the growing collection of research that suggests a positive relationship between casual leisure activities and relaxation among older adults.
The ordered Hamming metric and ordered symmetric channels

The ordered Hamming metric is a generalization of the usual Hamming distance derived from a partial order on the set of coordinates. So far, coding theory in ordered spaces has primarily focused on combinatorial aspects. The main object of this paper is to develop the relation of the ordered Hamming space to the context of information transmission. Using the models in previous works of Rosenbloom and Tsfasman (1997) and Tavildar and Viswanath (2006) as a starting point, we define the ordered symmetric channel and the ordered erasure channel which are counterparts of the q-ary symmetric channel and the q-ary erasure channel, respectively. We establish a set of basic results for these channels as well as their relation to linear ordered codes.
Social media for professional development and networking opportunities in academia

The research reported on in this article explores the use of social media for work-related or professional purposes. In particular, it focuses on the perceptions and use of social media by academics in the UK. The purpose of the research was to explore the potential social media has to facilitate the changing landscape of higher education and support the individual academic in their role. Of particular interest is how specific social media tools are being used to enhance networking opportunities and contribute to career progression. The use of social media was explored in detail through interviews and a survey. Typical activities that are currently being undertaken were identified and user group profiles developed that articulate different levels of engagement with these tools and the motivations that each group of users have for using social media. The study found that, with increasing levels of activity, the number of motivations for using social media increase, as does the perceived number of successful outcomes, including contributions towards career progression. The main barriers to using social media were identified as a lack of time and skills to undertake these activities, as well as a negative perception of social media. Recommendations for increasing participation are to provide practical training, including the sharing of good practice, and to initiate dialogues within institutions regarding the potential career progression opportunities that social media may afford.
Empirical Analysis of TCP Losses and Its Detection / Recovery Mechanisms �

While it is well-known that TCP performance degrades significantly on experiencing packet losses, not much is known about the way in which TCP losses occur in the real-world. In this paper, we address the questions: to what extent, and in what manner, do real-world TCP connections experience packet losses? And how effectively do TCP loss detection and recovery mechanisms deal with the packet losses? We answer these questions by conducting an extensive passive analysis of TCP packet traces. Our analysis attempts to (i) characterize the TCP loss process, (ii) evaluate the accuracy and timeliness of loss detection in TCP, and (iii) evaluate the timeliness and efficacy in avoiding further losses of the loss recovery mechanisms in TCP. To facilitate this analysis, we first implement detailed sender-side state machines for several prominent TCP stacks (Windows, Linux, BSD, and Solaris) and augment these with extra logic to correctly track TCP sender state as well as actual packet losses. Using these state machines we analyze traces of more than TCP connections, collected from different locations around the world. Our analysis sheds several insights on TCP loss detection and recovery. of TCP loss detection is triggered due to timeouts. 90% of detection using duplicate acks take place within 2 RTTs. TCP experiences no more than consecutive losses of the time; however, 20-30% of lossrecovery periods last more than RTTs. Our results, thus, confirm the efficiency of some TCP mechanisms and highlight the deficiency of others. This research was supported in part by NSF CAREER grant CNS0347814, a UNC Junior Faculty Development Award, and NSF RI grant EIA-0303590.
Using Integer Programming to Solve the Train-Platforming Problem

We consider the problem of assigning trains to the available tracks at a railway station, given the daily timetable and the structural and operational constraints. This trainplatforming problem is a key problem in railway station operations, and for a large station, many working days are required for an expert planner to construct the train-platforming. This problem was studied in De Luca Cardillo and Mione (1998), where it is formulated as a graph-coloring problem. These authors propose to solve it by an efficient heuristic algorithm combined with reduction techniques. In this paper, we show that integer programming is a very interesting tool to exactly solve the train-platforming problem as formulated in De Luca Cardillo and Mione (1998) by a graph-coloring problem. The fact of being able to solve it in an exact way by using an integer-programming solver obviously has many advantages. Some computational results are reported.
THE HOT-JUPITER KEPLER-17b: DISCOVERY, OBLIQUITY FROM STROBOSCOPIC STARSPOTS, AND ATMOSPHERIC CHARACTERIZATION

This paper reports the discovery and characterization of the transiting hot giant exoplanet Kepler-17b. The planet has an orbital period of 1.486 days, and radial velocity measurements from the Hobby–Eberly Telescope show a Doppler signal of 419.5+13.3−15.6 m s−1. From a transit-based estimate of the host star's mean density, combined with an estimate of the stellar effective temperature Teff = 5630 ± 100 from high-resolution spectra, we infer a stellar host mass of 1.06 ± 0.07 M☉ and a stellar radius of 1.02 ± 0.03 R☉. We estimate the planet mass and radius to be MP = 2.45 ± 0.11 MJ and RP = 1.31 ± 0.02 RJ. The host star is active, with dark spots that are frequently occulted by the planet. The continuous monitoring of the star reveals a stellar rotation period of 11.89 days, eight times the planet's orbital period; this period ratio produces stroboscopic effects on the occulted starspots. The temporal pattern of these spot-crossing events shows that the planet's orbit is prograde and the star's obliquity is smaller than 15°. We detected planetary occultations of Kepler-17b with both the Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes. We use these observations to constrain the eccentricity, e, and find that it is consistent with a circular orbit (e < 0.011). The brightness temperatures of the planet's infrared bandpasses are = 1880 ± 100 K and = 1770 ± 150 K. We measure the optical geometric albedo Ag in the Kepler bandpass and find Ag = 0.10 ± 0.02. The observations are best described by atmospheric models for which most of the incident energy is re-radiated away from the day side.
The timing of an experiment in the laboratory program is crucial for the student laboratory experience: acylation of ferrocene as a case study

An assessment of the acylation of ferrocene laboratory exercise across three successive years resulted in a significant fluctuation in student perception of the experiment. This perception was measured by collecting student responses to an instrument immediately after the experiment, which includes Likert and open-ended responses from the student. Students in all three years identified technical benefits from the experiment. In Years 1 and 3, students also recognised the benefits of improving their conceptual understanding of organic chemistry. However, in Year 2, where background knowledge became a critical and limiting factor, all perception of conceptual understanding as an experiment objective was lost, and only recognition of technical development remained. Analysis of these data also indicated that students who have enough time to complete the experiment also perceive a measure of responsibility for their own learning, whereas time-poor students have an over-reliance on the laboratory notes and demonstrators. Addressing concepts such as these may be the triggers required for time-poor experiments to garner a positive student experience and maximise both the conceptual and technical benefits of the experiment.