Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new species of crocodile newt Tylototriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from northern Myanmar (Burma)

ABSTRACT A new species of crocodile newt from populations on opposite sides of the Ayeyarwady Basin, Myanmar, previously referred to as Tylototriton cf. verrucosus, is described on the basis of colour pattern, morphology and phylogenetic data from the mitochondrial gene ND2. Tylototriton panwaensis sp. nov. is most closely related to T. verrucosus + T. shanjing but bears a unique suite of colour pattern and morphological characters separating it from T. verrucosus and T. shanjing as well as the other geographically proximate species T. ngarsuensis and T. shanorum. Molecular and morphological data presented herein (that have been used elsewhere) continue to fuel the issue of separate specific allocation (or not) to T. verrucosus and T. shanjing but go no further to resolve the controversy. The description of this new species adds to a rapidly growing database of newly described species of amphibians and reptiles from the upland, mountainous regions of eastern Myanmar. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:BE851CE6-81BD-488C-A616-39A948A2B9C6
Laughter as Responses to Different Actions in L2 Oral Proficiency Interview

Laughter, as an important interactional resource, has been recognized as not simply a response to humor in many researches. It is much related to an action formation from the perspective of Conversation Analysis. In this oral proficiency interviews for admission into a certain English college between native interviewer and Chinese candidates, there appear quite a number of cases in which laughter serves as the major constituent of the responding turn to the first pair part (FPP) (except for questions) in terms of adjacency pair. This study, therefore, identifies those responding actions that laughter performs, or concurrently constructs, from the perspective of Conversation Analysis, and explores the reasons why laughter is employed and the roles that laughter has achieved. Hence it contributes to the understanding of laughter as a resource of alignment or affiliation in oral proficiency interview, and consequently a vital paralinguistic constituent of L2 interactional competence.
Why are accreting T Tauri stars observed to be less luminous in X‐rays than non‐accretors?

Accreting T Tauri stars are observed to be less luminous in X-rays than non-accretors, an effect that has been detected in various star-forming regions. To explain this we have combined, for the first time, a radiative transfer code with an accretion model that considers magnetic fields extrapolated from surface magnetograms obtained from Zeeman–Doppler imaging. Such fields consist of compact magnetic regions close to the stellar surface, with extended field lines interacting with the disc. We study the propagation of coronal X-rays through the magnetosphere and demonstrate that they are strongly absorbed by the dense gas in accretion columns. The reduction in the observed X-ray emission depends on the field geometry, which may explain why accreting T Tauri stars show a larger scatter in their observed X-ray luminosity compared with non-accreting stars.
Above-cloud aerosol radiative effects based on ORACLES 2016 and ORACLES 2017 aircraft experiments

Abstract. Determining the direct aerosol radiative effect (DARE) of absorbing aerosols above clouds from satellite observations alone is a challenging task, in part because the radiative signal of the aerosol layer is not easily untangled from that of the clouds below. In this study, we use aircraft measurements from the NASA ObseRvations of CLouds above Aerosols and their intEractionS (ORACLES) project in the southeastern Atlantic to derive it with as few assumptions as possible. This is accomplished by using spectral irradiance measurements (Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer, SSFR) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals (Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research, 4STAR) during vertical profiles (spirals) that minimize the albedo variability of the underlying cloud field – thus isolating aerosol radiative effects from those of the cloud field below. For two representative cases, we retrieve spectral aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) and the asymmetry parameter (g) from these profile measurements and calculate DARE given the albedo range measured by SSFR on horizontal legs above clouds. For mid-visible wavelengths, we find SSA values from 0.80 to 0.85 and a significant spectral dependence of g. As the cloud albedo increases, the aerosol increasingly warms the column. The transition from a cooling to a warming top-of-aerosol radiative effect occurs at an albedo value (critical albedo) just above 0.2 in the mid-visible wavelength range. In a companion paper, we use the techniques introduced here to generalize our findings to all 2016 and 2017 measurements and parameterize aerosol radiative effects.
An NP-Cluster Based Approach to Coreference Resolution

Traditionally, coreference resolution is done by mining the reference relationships between NP pairs. However, an individual NP usually lacks adequate description information of its referred entity. In this paper, we propose a supervised learning-based approach which does coreference resolution by exploring the relationships between NPs and coreferential clusters. Compared with individual NPs, coreferential clusters could provide richer information of the entities for better rules learning and reference determination. The evaluation done on MEDLINE data set shows that our approach outperforms the baseline NP-NP based approach in both recall and precision.
Erythrocyte 3‐O‐methyl‐D‐glucose uptake assay for diagnosis of glucose‐transporter‐protein syndrome

Glucose transport into the brain is mediated by a facilitative glucose‐transporter protein, GLUT‐1. A GLUT‐1 defect results in the Glucose‐Transporter‐Protein Syndrome (GTPS), characterized by infantile epilepsy, developmental delay, and acquired microcephaly. The diagnosis is currently based on clinical features, low to normal lactate levels and low glucose levels (hypoglycorrhachia) in the cerebrospinal fluid, and the demonstration of impaired GLUT‐1 function in erythrocytes as described here. Blood samples were collected in sodium‐heparin or citrate‐phosphate‐dextrose solution and uptake of 14C‐labeled 3‐O‐Methyl‐D‐glucose (3OMG) into erythrocytes (0.5 mmol/L 3OMG; 1μCi/mL) was measured at 4C and pH 7.4. Three‐OMG influx was terminated at 5‐second intervals, washed cells were lysed, and uptake was quantitated by liquid scintillation counting. Patients' uptake (n = 22) was 44± 8% of controls (100± 22%, n = 70). Statistical analyses showed an uptake cut‐off point at 60% uptake, a sensitivity of 86% (95%‐confidence interval 78 to 94%), and a specificity of 97% (95%‐confidence interval 93 to 100%). Gender, age, and ketosis did not influence 3OMG uptake. This assay provides a reproducible and accurate laboratory test for diagnosing the GTPS. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 13:116–121, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Impact of Aspirin and Clopidogrel Interruption on Platelet Function in Patients Undergoing Major Vascular Surgery

Aims To investigate functional platelet recovery after preoperative withdrawal of aspirin and clopidogrel and platelet function 5 days after treatment resumption. Methods/Results We conducted an observational study, which prospectively included consecutive patients taking aspirin, taking clopidogrel, and untreated controls (15 patients in each group). The antiplatelet drugs were withdrawn five days before surgery (baseline) and were reintroduced two days after surgery. Platelet function was evaluated by optical aggregation in the presence of collagen, arachidonic acid (aspirin) and ADP (clopidogrel) and by VASP assay (clopidogrel). Platelet-leukocyte complex (PLC) level was quantified at each time-point. At baseline, platelet function was efficiently inhibited by aspirin and had recovered fully in most patients 5 days after drug withdrawal. PLC levels five days after aspirin reintroduction were similar to baseline (+4±10%; p = 0.16), in line with an effective platelet inhibition. Chronic clopidogrel treatment was associated with variable platelet inhibition and its withdrawal led to variable functional recovery. PLC levels were significantly increased five days after clopidogrel reintroduction (+10±15%; p = 0.02), compared to baseline. Conclusions Aspirin withdrawal 5 days before high-bleeding-risk procedures was associated with functional platelet recovery, and its reintroduction two days after surgery restored antiplaletet efficacy five days later. This was not the case of clopidogrel, and further work is therefore needed to define its optimal perioperative management.
SADA: A General Framework to Support Robust Causation Discovery

Causality discovery without manipulation is considered a crucial problem to a variety of applications, such as genetic therapy. The state-of-the-art solutions, e.g. LiNGAM, return accurate results when the number of labeled samples is larger than the number of variables. These approaches are thus applicable only when large numbers of samples are available or the problem domain is sufficiently small. Motivated by the observations of the local sparsity properties on causal structures, we propose a general Split-and-Merge strategy, named SADA, to enhance the scalability of a wide class of causality discovery algorithms. SADA is able to accurately identify the causal variables, even when the sample size is significantly smaller than the number of variables. In SADA, the variables are partitioned into subsets, by finding cuts on the sparse probabilistic graphical model over the variables. By running mainstream causation discovery algorithms, e.g. LiNGAM, on the subproblems, complete causality can be reconstructed by combining all the partial results. SADA benefits from the recursive division technique, since each small subproblem generates more accurate result under the same number of samples. We theoretically prove that SADA always reduces the scale of problems without significant sacrifice on result accuracy, depending only on the local sparsity condition over the variables. Experiments on real-world datasets verify the improvements on scalability and accuracy by applying SADA on top of existing causation algorithms.
Cognitive radio for flexible mobile multimedia communications

Wireless multimedia applications require significant bandwidth, some of which will be provided by third-generation (3G) services. Even with substantial investment in 3G infrastructure, the radio spectrum allocated to 3G will be limited. Cognitive radio offers a mechanism for the flexible pooling of radio spectrum using a new class of protocols called formal radio etiquettes. This approach could expand the bandwidth available for conventional uses (e.g. police, fire and rescue) and extend the spatial coverage of 3G in a novel way. Cognitive radio is a particular extension of software radio that employs model-based reasoning about users, multimedia content, and communications context. This paper characterizes the potential contributions of cognitive radio to spectrum pooling and outlines an initial framework for formal radio-etiquette protocols.
Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Self-Determination in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States

unit of the University of Arizona. Founded in 2001 by the university and the Morris K. Udall Foundation, NNI provides research, policy analysis, and executive education services to Native nations and other indigenous organizations in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Much of NNI' s work builds on and continues research originally carried out by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University. The two organizations share some staff and work closely together in a variety of research and educational activities.sity. Through applied research and service, the Harvard Project aims to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved among American Indian nations. The Harvard Project' s core activities include research, advisory services, executive education and the administration of a tribal governance awards program. In all of its activities, the Harvard Project collaborates with the Native Nations Insti
Tuning Clinical Recruitment around Cultural Taboos in a Human Microbiome Study

ABSTRACT Human microbial communities are bodies of microorganisms that reside in or on different body parts. Importantly, they have been found to affect human health. However, scientific research on human microbial communities has created new challenges for human subject recruitment. First, individuals are asked to collect samples of bodily substances that can be seen as repulsive (e.g. feces and urine). Second, because scientists want to understand how human microbial communities evolve over time, individuals are asked to commit to a regular sample collection for extended periods of time. A longitudinal qualitative study of the work of scientists, physicians, research staff, and study coordinators involved in a human microbiome research project has found that these actors can bypass some aspects of these recruitment and retention challenges through ‘tuning work’. Tuning work is a collaborative process where professionals agree to adjust their practices towards shared goals. Such professionals reconfigure their work practices, personal routines, and the study protocol in an effort to obviate cultural taboos against handling bodily substances. The burden of long-term participation provides fewer opportunities for tuning work for these professionals, however. As such, long-term commitment by human subjects remains a recruitment and retention obstacle.
Using design patterns to reveal the competence of object-oriented methods in system-level design

This paper shows how Design Patterns may be used to reveal important properties of object-oriented development methods. The responsibility-driven and event-driven design methods are contrasted with a direct encoding of analysis models to show how these methods properly transform and layer systems. Each method elevates a different modularizing principle: contract minimization and existence dependency. Different design patterns, such as Mediator, Chain of Responsibility, Template Method, Command and Composite emerge for each method, illustrating the particular bias and the different design decisions each makes about subsystems and modular structure.
Does regular listening to preferred music have a beneficial effect on symptoms of depression and anxiety amongst older people in residential care? The qualitative findings of a mixed methods study.

This article presents the qualitative findings of a mixed-methods evaluation of the effects of listening to preferred music on depression and anxiety in older people in residential care. One hundred and seventeen participants were recruited from nine care homes, all but one in Greater London . The homes varied in size and management style, and participants came from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. In addition to their usual routine, each participant listened to a daily 30-minute programme of their preferred music for three weeks. Both quantitative and qualitative data relating to anxiety and depression were collected during once-weekly semi-structured interviews. Findings from the qualitative data showed that listening to preferred music resulted in relaxation, positive reminiscence, less depression and less boredom. Physical reactions, such as ‘chills’ or tears, demonstrated emotional arousal; others, such as foot-tapping were beneficial to the most disabled participants. The use of preferred and favourite music was the principal facilitator of its effectiveness, whilst declines in memory, confidence and energy were barriers to the research procedure. It was concluded that listening to preferred music can bring some relief to depression and anxiety amongst older care home residents but that not all will benefit to the same degree.
Cosmological Inconstant, Supernovae 1a and Decelerating Expansion

In 1998, two groups of astronomers set out to determine the deceleration of the universe by measuring the recession speeds of type la supernovae (SN1a), came to an unexpected conclusion: its expansion rate has been speeding up. To justify this acceleration, they suggested that the universe does have a mysterious dark energy and they have proposed a positive cosmological constant consistent with the image of an inflationary universe. To explain the observed dimming of high-redshift SN1a they have bet on their distance revised upwards. We consider that an accelerated expansion leads right to a «dark energy catastrophe» and we suppose rather that the universe knows a slowdown expansion under the positive pressure of a dark energy, otherwise called a variable cosmological constant. The dark luminosity of the latter would be that of a «tired light» which has lost energy with distance. As for the low brilliance of SN1a, it is explained by two physical processes: The first relates to their intrinsic brightness – supposedly do not vary over time – which would depend on the chemical conditions which change with the temporal evolution; The second would concern their apparent luminosity. Besides the serious arguments already known, we strongly propose that their luminosity continually fades by interactions with cosmic magnetic fields, like the earthly PVLAS experiment which loses much more laser photons than expected by crossing a magnetic field. It goes in the sense of a «tired light» which has lost energy with distance and, therefore, a decelerated expansion of the universe.
Dehn twists on nonorientable surfaces

Let t_a be the Dehn twist about a circle a on an orientable surface. It is well known that for each circle b and an integer n, I(t_a^n(b),b)=|n|I(a,b)^2, where I(,) is the geometric intersection number. We prove a similar formula for circles on nonorientable surfaces. As a corollary we prove some algebraic properties of twists on nonorientable surfaces. We also prove that if M(N) is the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface N, then up to a finite number of exceptions, the centraliser of the subgroup of M(N) generated by the twists is equal to the centre of M(N) and is generated by twists about circles isotopic to boundary components of N.
ProactiveDRAM: A DRAM-initiated retention management scheme

DRAM cells are leaky and need periodic refresh, which hurts system performance and consumes additional energy. With DRAM scaling towards sub-20nm process technology, we expect a significant portion of DRAM cells become weak cells and require a higher refresh rate, resulting in even higher refresh overhead. A possible solution is to selectively refresh those weak cells using a higher frequency but still refresh the majority at the nominal rate. However, how to provide a multi-rate DRAM refresh scheme is not straightforward. Previous work on this topic was built on an obsolete refresh framework and was incompatible to modern DRAM standards, making it challenging to be adopted in practice. In this work, we propose ProactiveDRAM, a novel scheme that allows DRAM proactively guides the timing of weak cell refresh management and reuses memory controllers' capability in command scheduling. ProactiveDRAM offers a smart retention-aware refresh on the DRAM row granularity, and more importantly, it can be built atop any modern DRAM architecture. Our simulation results show that ProactiveDRAM can handle 1% (or even 10%) weak row population with negligible performance and energy overhead1.
Strength loss after eccentric contractions is unaffected by creatine supplementation.

This study's objective was to determine whether 14 days of dietary creatine supplementation preceding an injurious bout of eccentric contractions affect the in vivo strength loss of mouse anterior crural muscles. Three groups of nine mice each were fed a meal diet for 14 days, one group at each of three levels of creatine supplementation (i.e., 0, 0.5, and 1% creatine). Electrically stimulated concentric, isometric, and eccentric contraction torques produced about the ankle were measured both before and after a bout of 150 eccentric contractions. Tibialis anterior muscle creatine concentration was significantly increased by the supplementation, being 12% higher in the mice fed the 1% creatine diet compared with control mice. After the bout of eccentric contractions, the reductions in torque (i.e., 46-58%) were similar for the isometric contraction, all eccentric contractions, and the slow (i.e., </=200 (o)/s) concentric contractions; above 200 (o)/s, the percent reduction in concentric torque increased progressively to 85-88% at 1,000-1,200 (o)/s. However, there was no effect of creatine supplementation on the isometric torque loss or on the torque loss at any eccentric or concentric angular velocity (P >/= 0.62). In conclusion, a moderate increase in muscle creatine concentration induced by dietary supplementation in mice does not affect the strength loss after eccentric contractions.
Genetic Markers of the Host in Persons Living with HTLV-1, HIV and HCV Infections

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are prevalent worldwide, and share similar means of transmission. These infections may influence each other in evolution and outcome, including cancer or immunodeficiency. Many studies have reported the influence of genetic markers on the host immune response against different persistent viral infections, such as HTLV-1 infection, pointing to the importance of the individual genetic background on their outcomes. However, despite recent advances on the knowledge of the pathogenesis of HTLV-1 infection, gaps in the understanding of the role of the individual genetic background on the progress to disease clinically manifested still remain. In this scenario, much less is known regarding the influence of genetic factors in the context of dual or triple infections or their influence on the underlying mechanisms that lead to outcomes that differ from those observed in monoinfection. This review describes the main factors involved in the virus–host balance, especially for some particular human leukocyte antigen (HLA) haplotypes, and other important genetic markers in the development of HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and other persistent viruses, such as HIV and HCV.