Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Co-infection, kin selection, and the rate of host exploitation by a parasitic nematode

Hypothesis: Under exploitative competition, unrelated parasites should reproduce at a faster rate than related parasites. Organisms: The parasitic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae and the insect host Galleria mellonella. Methods: We created ten replicate lines each of high-migration (unrelated) and low-migration (related) nematode populations, and allowed them to evolve for 20 host passages. Results: We found no difference between treatments in the number of juvenile nematodes produced. However, juvenile nematodes began to emerge significantly sooner in the lowmigration treatment, suggesting a faster rate of host exploitation. Host mortality rate was also higher in the low-migration lines. Conclusion: The results were contrary to predictions based on exploitative competition among the nematodes.
Path planning in GPS-denied environments via collective intelligence of distributed sensor networks

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a framework for reactive goal-directed navigation without global positioning facilities in unknown dynamic environments. A mobile sensor network is used for localising regions of interest for path planning of an autonomous mobile robot. The underlying theory is an extension of a generalised gossip algorithm that has been recently developed in a language-measure-theoretic setting. The algorithm has been used to propagate local decisions of target detection over a mobile sensor network and thus, it generates a belief map for the detected target over the network. In this setting, an autonomous mobile robot may communicate only with a few mobile sensing nodes in its own neighbourhood and localise itself relative to the communicating nodes with bounded uncertainties. The robot makes use of the knowledge based on the belief of the mobile sensors to generate a sequence of way-points, leading to a possible goal. The estimated way-points are used by a sampling-based motion planning algorithm to generate feasible trajectories for the robot. The proposed concept has been validated by numerical simulation on a mobile sensor network test-bed and a Dubin’s car-like robot.
How the Quality of Institutions Affects Technological Deepening in Developing Countries

This paper assesses the effect of institutional quality on research and development (R&D) expenditures in developing countries. The paper finds that the risk of expropriation and the rule of law are correlated with R&D expenditures. Since both institutional variables increase as institutional quality improves (i.e., as risk of expropriation decreases and rule of law improves), this suggests that stronger institutions encourage greater R&D expenditures. The result for the risk of expropriation is more highly significant and far more robust than the result for the'rule of law'. Although R&D is not the primary way that developing countries gain access to technology, this result is interesting for at least two reasons. First, R&D might encourage technological deepening better than other methods that developing countries use to gain access to technology (e.g., through foreign direct investment (FDI) or capital goods imports). Second, past work has shown that another important way that developing countries gain access to technology, through FDI, is also positively correlated with institutional quality (i.e., as institutional quality improves, FDI increases).
Predicting Program Properties from "Big Code"

We present a new approach for predicting program properties from massive codebases (aka "Big Code"). Our approach first learns a probabilistic model from existing data and then uses this model to predict properties of new, unseen programs. The key idea of our work is to transform the input program into a representation which allows us to phrase the problem of inferring program properties as structured prediction in machine learning. This formulation enables us to leverage powerful probabilistic graphical models such as conditional random fields (CRFs) in order to perform joint prediction of program properties. As an example of our approach, we built a scalable prediction engine called JSNice for solving two kinds of problems in the context of JavaScript: predicting (syntactic) names of identifiers and predicting (semantic) type annotations of variables. Experimentally, JSNice predicts correct names for 63% of name identifiers and its type annotation predictions are correct in 81% of the cases. In the first week since its release, JSNice was used by more than 30,000 developers and in only few months has become a popular tool in the JavaScript developer community. By formulating the problem of inferring program properties as structured prediction and showing how to perform both learning and inference in this context, our work opens up new possibilities for attacking a wide range of difficult problems in the context of "Big Code" including invariant generation, decompilation, synthesis and others.
A COMBINED RESOURCE ALLOCATION METHOD FOR FADE COUNTERMEASURE AND CALL ADMISSION CONTROL IN SATELLITE NETWORKS

ISTI-CNR (National Research Council), Area della Ricerca del C.N. R. , Via Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy nedo.celandroni@cnuce.cnr. it, erina.ferro@cnuce.cnr. it Department of Communications, Computer and Systems Science (DIST) University of Genova, Via Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genova, Italy franco@dist.unige. it CNIT (Italian National Consortium for Telecommunications) – University of Genova Research Unit Via Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genova, Italy alberto.gotta@cnit.it
Processing, microstructure and electromechanical properties of Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 fibers obtained by thermoplastic co-extrusion

Using a torque-rheometer, ceramic-polymer extrudable mixtures were prepared to produce lead zirconate titanate (PZT) fibers through a co-extrusion process. A 7.7 mm diameter PZT-polymer rod was coupled with a 24 mm diameter carbon black-polymer shaped cylinder. This so called preform composite was extruded through a 1 mm die. By this method, 300 µm PZT fiber structures were successfully achieved. The microstructure and the electromechanical properties of these co-extruded sintered fibers were investigated and compared to 300 µm diameter fibers produced by simple thermoplastic extrusion. Although the co-extruded fibers showed similar microstructure properties and only a slightly higher porosity than the extruded ones, the electromechanical performance was noticeably inferior.
Frequency of drug-resistant viruses and virus shedding in pediatric influenza patients treated with neuraminidase inhibitors.

BACKGROUND Although influenza virus resistance to the neuraminidase inhibitor zanamivir is reported less frequently than is resistance to the neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir in clinical settings, it is unknown whether this difference is due to the limited use of zanamivir or to an inherent property of the drug. We therefore compared the prevalence of drug-resistant viruses and virus shedding in seasonal influenza virus-infected children treated with either oseltamivir or zanamivir. METHODS Clinical specimens (throat or nasal swab) were collected from a total of 144 pediatric influenza patients during the 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 influenza seasons. Neuraminidase inhibitor-resistant mutants were detected among the isolated viruses by sequencing the viral hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes. Sensitivity of the viruses to neuraminidase inhibitors was tested by neuraminidase inhibition assay. RESULTS In oseltamivir- or zanamivir-treated influenza patients who were statistically comparable in their age distribution, vaccination history, and type or subtype of virus isolates, the virus-shedding period in zanamivir-treated patients was significantly shorter than that in oseltamivir-treated patients. Furthermore, the frequency of zanamivir-resistant viruses was significantly lower than that of oseltamivir-resistant viruses. CONCLUSION In comparison with treatment with oseltamivir, treatment of pediatric patients with zanamivir resulted in the emergence of fewer drug-resistant influenza viruses and a shorter virus-shedding period. We conclude that zanamivir shows promise as a better therapy for pediatric influenza patients.
V, R, I and Hα photometry of circumnuclear star-forming regions in four galaxies with different levels of nuclear activity

We present photometry, in the V, R and I continuum bands and in the Hα+[N ii] emission lines, for a sample of circumnuclear star-forming regions (CNSFR), located in four galaxies with different kinds of activity in their nuclei: NGC 7469 (Seyfert 1), NGC 1068 (Seyfert 2), NGC 7177 (LINER) and NGC 3310 (starburst). Hα luminosities for the CNSFR range from 0.02 to 7×1040 erg s−1 (uncorrected for internal extinction), comparable to those observed in other galaxies, with NGC 7177 showing the lowest luminosity in average. No systematic differences in the broad-band colours are found for the CNSFR in the different galaxies, except for those in NGC 3310 which are considerably bluer. This is found to be partially because of a younger stellar population. The colours have been analysed in the light of theoretical evolutionary synthesis models. In some cases they can be reproduced by single populations with ages ranging between 7 and 300 Myr and modest values of extinction (0.5–1.5 mag). However, in many cases, this population is unable to provide the observed equivalent widths of Hα, which require the presence of a younger population. In the cases of NGC 1068, 7177 and 7469, acceptable fits are found for a two-burst population model at solar metallicity: the younger burst, with an age between 2 and 8 Myr, provides the bulk of the ionization and the older one (8–20 Myr) is responsible for the continuum light at wavelengths longer than Hβ. The age difference between both populations is around 5–7 Myr and the younger burst involves from 3 to 61 per cent of the total mass of the cluster. This would be consistent with the younger burst being originated by the supernova activity from the previous one. Models of this kind also reproduce the regions in NGC 3310, but for younger ionizing population ages (between 1 and 3 Myr) and a metallicity 0.25 times solar. In most cases an excess in the observed (R−I) colour over the model predicted one is found, which is not consistent with a normal reddening law. If this excess is attributed to the red supergiants present in the older population, this seems to imply that this population is not properly taken into account by the models. In this two-population scenario there seems to be a trend for the circumnuclear star-forming regions of NGC 3310 (starburst), NGC 1068 (Seyfert 2) and NGC 7469 and NGC 7177 (Seyfert 1 and LINER respectively) to be progressively older. Whether this implies a relation between the evolutionary state of the regions and the nuclear type of the parent galaxy remains to be explored.
The heterotic prepotential from eleven dimensions

We compactify M-theory in the Horava-Witten formulation on S1/Z2 × K3 × T2. Focusing on the moduli-space of vector multiplets of the resulting four-dimensional N = 2 theory, we determine the prepotential as an expansion in two dimensionless parameters which both scale as κ2/3. We determine the prepotential completely to relative order κ4/3 and compare the expression with the results obtained for the perturbative string theories. We find complete agreement to relative order κ4/3 between the strong and weak coupling regimes. The sources of higher order perturbative and non-perturbative corrections to the prepotential are also briefly discussed from the M-theory perspective.
Association of TCTP with Centrosome and Microtubules

Translationally Controlled Tumour Protein (TCTP) associates with microtubules (MT), however, the details of this association are unknown. Here we analyze the relationship of TCTP with MTs and centrosomes in Xenopus laevis and mammalian cells using immunofluorescence, tagged TCTP expression and immunoelectron microscopy. We show that TCTP associates both with MTs and centrosomes at spindle poles when detected by species-specific antibodies and by Myc-XlTCTP expression in Xenopus and mammalian cells. However, when the antibodies against XlTCTP were used in mammalian cells, TCTP was detected exclusively in the centrosomes. These results suggest that a distinct pool of TCTP may be specific for, and associate with, the centrosomes. Double labelling for TCTP and γ-tubulin with immuno-gold electron microscopy in Xenopus laevis oogonia shows localization of TCTP at the periphery of the γ-tubulin-containing pericentriolar material (PCM) enveloping the centriole. TCTP localizes in the close vicinity of, but not directly on the MTs in Xenopus ovary suggesting that this association requires unidentified linker proteins. Thus, we show for the first time: (1) the association of TCTP with centrosomes, (2) peripheral localization of TCTP in relation to the centriole and the γ-tubulin-containing PCM within the centrosome, and (3) the indirect association of TCTP with MTs.
Mediating Experiential Learning in Interactive Immersive Environments

Simulation and immersive environments are gaining popularity in various contexts. Arguably, such interactive systems have the potential to benefit many users in a variety of education and training scenarios. However, some of these systems especially with the lack of skilled instructors are still faced by challenges of operational complexity, the incorporation of different technologies and features, and the limited availability of performance measures and feedback. Therefore, the design of these systems would benefit from integrating experiential aspects and essential educational aids. For example, users of such learning systems, especially the novice ones, can be better supported by a smoother learning curve, detailed guidance features, the availability of feedback and performance reporting, and the integration of engaging & reflective capabilities. In essence, we recognize a need to re-explore learning aids and how they impact design, usage, and overall learning experience in interactive immersive environments. The goal of this dissertation is to mediate experiential learning in interactive immersive environments. This includes exploring existing and novel learning aids that would facilitate learning with improved engagement and immersion, enrich learners with insightful reflections, better support novice users’ learning and training needs, and ultimately enhance the overall experience. To achieve this goal, we utilized existing learning models and simulation-based training approaches and proposed a framework of learning aids to mediate learning in interactive immersive environments. Working closely with domain expert collaborators, we designed, implemented and evaluated four new interactive immersive prototypes in an attempt to validate the practicality of our aids. The first prototype, NeuroSimVR, is a stereoscopic visualization augmented with educational aids to support how medical users learn about a common back surgery procedure. The second prototype, ReflectiveSpineVR, is an immersive virtual reality surgical simulation with innovative interaction history capabilities that aim to empower users’ memories and enable deliberate repetitive practice as needed. The third prototype, JackVR, is an interactive immersive training
VLEGO: a simple two-handed modeling environment based on toy blocks

This paper describes a case study of building a prototype of an immersive three dimensional (3-D) modeler which supports simple two-handed operations. Designing 3-D objects in a virtual environment has a number of advantages for 3-D geometry creation over designing with traditional computer aided design (CAD) tools. In order to enhance the human-computer interaction in a virtual workspace, two-handed spatial input has been incorporated into a few 3-D designing applications. However, existing 3-D designing tools do not utilize two handed interaction for enhancing the interface sufficiently. Our prototype immersive modeler, VLEGO, employs some features of toy blocks to give flexible two-handed interaction for 3-D design. Features of VLEGO can be summarized as follows: Firstly, VLEGO supports various two-handed operations and hence it makes design environment intuitive and efficient. Secondly, possible location and orientation of primitives are discretely limited so that the user can arrange objects accurately with ease. Finally, the system automatically avoids collisions among primitives and adjusts their positions. As a result, precise design of 3-D objects can be achieved easily by using a set of two-handed operations in intuitive way. This paper describes the design and implementation of VLEGO as well as an experiment for examining the effectiveness of two-handed interaction.
Cellular signals of cisplatin ototoxicity

Three separate theories of inhibiting cisplatin-induced apoptosis were investigated utilizing different cellular mechanisms. Specifically, the copper transport cycle, TRPV1, and the JNK pathway were inhibited and immunohistochemistry was performed to determine levels of apoptosis. All three resulted in statistically significant effects; increasing CuSO4 levels resulted in increased apoptosis, and inhibiting TRPV1 and JNK resulted in decreased apoptosis. copyright by: Lindsey M. Yarnell 2011
When genomes collide: aberrant seed development following maize interploidy crosses.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The results of wide- or interploidy crosses in angiosperms are unpredictable and often lead to seed abortion. The consequences of reciprocal interploidy crosses have been explored in maize in detail, focusing on alterations to tissue domains in the maize endosperm, and changes in endosperm-specific gene expression. METHODS Following reciprocal interploidy crosses between diploid and tetraploid maize lines, development of endosperm domains was studied using GUS reporter lines, and gene expression in resulting kernels was investigated using semi-quantitative RT-PCR on endosperms isolated at different stages of development. KEY RESULTS Reciprocal interploidy crosses result in very small, largely infertile seeds with defective endosperms. Seeds with maternal genomic excess are smaller than those with paternal genomic excess, their endosperms cellularize earlier and they accumulate significant quantities of starch. Endosperms from the reciprocal cross undergo an extended period of cell proliferation, and accumulate little starch. Analysis of reporter lines and gene expression studies confirm that functional domains of the endosperm are severely disrupted, and are modified differently according to the direction of the interploidy cross. CONCLUSIONS Interploidy crosses affect factors which regulate the balance between cell proliferation and cell differentiation within the endosperm. In particular, unbalanced crosses in maize affect transfer cell differentiation, and lead to the temporal deregulation of the ontogenic programme of endosperm development.
Does hypokalaemia cause nephropathy? An observational study of renal function in patients with Bartter or Gitelman syndrome.

BACKGROUND Hypokalaemic nephropathy has been described in patients with chronic potassium depletion; it is a condition in which proximal tubular vacuolization and interstitial fibrosis occur, resulting in a decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and, in some cases, renal failure. It has been described in patients with chronic diarrhoea, eating disorders, laxative abuse and primary hyperaldosteronism; also occasionally in Bartter syndrome (BS), in which severe hypokalaemia accompanies significant renal sodium and water losses, though rarely in Gitelman syndrome (GS), in which there is equally severe hypokalaemia, but only modest sodium losses. AIM We hypothesized that hypokalaemic nephropathy may not be due to potassium depletion per se, but persistently elevated circulating levels of aldosterone, possibly with superimposed episodes of renal hypoperfusion. DESIGN AND METHODS We searched UK and European data sets to retrospectively compare serum and urinary parameters in patients with GS and BS. RESULTS The patients with GS often had lower serum potassium concentrations than patients with BS, but the BS patients had significantly higher serum creatinine concentrations and lower estimated GFRs (eGFR). BS patients had significantly higher fractional excretions of sodium compared with GS patients, as well as higher plasma renin activities and serum aldosterone levels. CONCLUSION These findings show that in genetically confirmed cases of BS and GS, the degree of hypokalaemia (as an index of chronic potassium depletion) does not correlate with GFR, and that on-going sodium and water losses, and consequent secondary hyperaldosteronism, may play a more important role in the aetiology of hypokalaemic nephropathy.
A Microfluidic Love-Wave Biosensing Device for PSA Detection Based on an Aptamer Beacon Probe

A label-free and selective aptamer beacon-based Love-wave biosensing device was developed for prostate specific antigen (PSA) detection. The device consists of the following parts: LiTaO3 substrate with SiO2 film as wave guide layer, two set of inter-digital transducers (IDT), gold film for immobilization of the biorecongniton layer and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channels. DNA aptamer, or “artificial antibody”, was used as the specific biorecognition probe for PSA capture. Some nucleotides were added to the 3'-end of the aptamer to form a duplex with the 3'-end, turning the aptamer into an aptamer-beacon. Taking advantage of the selective target-induced assembly changes arising from the “aptamer beacon”, highly selective and specific detection of PSA was achieved. Furthermore, PDMS microfluidic channels were designed and fabricated to realize automated quantitative sample injection. After optimization of the experimental conditions, the established device showed good performance for PSA detection between 10 ng/mL to 1 μg/mL, with a detection limit of 10 ng/mL. The proposed sensor might be a promising alternative for point of care diagnostics.
The Effect of Diabetes Self-Management Education on Body Weight, Glycemic Control, and Other Metabolic Markers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Aims. To comprehensively evaluate the effect of a short-term diabetes self-management education (DSME) on metabolic markers and atherosclerotic parameters in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods. 76 patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited in this study. They were divided into the intervention group (n = 36) and control group (n = 40). The patients in the intervention group received a 3-month intervention, including an 8-week education on self-management of diabetes mellitus and subsequent 4 weeks of practice of the self-management guidelines. The patients in the control group received standard advice on medical nutrition therapy. Metabolic markers, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and carotid arterial stiffness (CAS) of the patients in both groups were assessed before and after the 3-month intervention. Results. There was a significant reduction in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c, −0.2 ± 0.56% versus 0.08 ± 0.741%; P < 0.05) and body weight (−1.19 ± 1.39 kg versus −0.61 ± 2.04 kg; P < 0.05) in the intervention group as compared to the control group. However, no significant improvements were found in other metabolic markers, CIMT and CAS (P > 0.05). Conclusions. DSME can improve HbA1c and body weight in patients with type 2 diabetes.