Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of family factors, illness-specific youth quality of life and pediatric parenting stress for youth with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes

By MELISSA K. COUSINO Objective: The purpose of the study was to test interactive models that examined the moderating effects of diabetes-specific family conflict on the relationship between parental involvement in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) care and illness-specific psychosocial outcomes for youth in poor metabolic control and their parents. Methods: Youth (N=72) ages 10-18 years with poorly controlled diabetes (A1c >8.5%) and one parent/caregiver completed measures assessing parental involvement in T1DM care, family conflict, youth diabetes-specific quality of life, and pediatric parenting stress. Results: Low shared treatment responsibility between parent and youth for T1DM treatment tasks and high levels of diabetes-specific family conflict interacted to predict poorer youth and parent psychosocial outcomes. Conclusions: Interventions targeting both family sharing of treatment responsibility and family conflict about diabetes-related issues may foster improvements in youth diabetes-specific QOL and pediatric parenting stress.
The relationship between nerve fiber layer and perimetry measurements.

PURPOSE Losses of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in glaucoma are the cause of visual field defects and thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), but methods of correlating these events have not been developed. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between standard automated perimetry (SAP) measures of RGCs and optical coherence tomography (OCT) measures of the ganglion cell axons entering the optic nerve from corresponding visual field locations. METHODS SAP and OCT data from normal monkeys were used to develop methods for estimating neuron counts and mapping SAP visual field locations onto the optic nerve head (ONH). The procedures developed for normal eyes were applied to monkeys with experimental glaucoma. RESULTS The number of neurons derived from SAP and OCT data for normal eyes were in close agreement. The estimates of the number of RGCs in retinal areas of the Humphrey Field Analyzer 24-2 (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA) visual field and the axons entering the ONH were both approximately 1.5 million. The neural losses derived from subjective and objective measurements in monkeys with early experimental glaucoma correlated highly, with a mean +/- SD difference of 0.6% +/- 22% between the two estimates in control eyes and 3% +/- 24% in laser-treated eyes. CONCLUSIONS SAP measures of visual field defects and OCT measures of RNFL defects are correlated measures of glaucomatous neuropathy. The normal intersubject variability and the dynamic ranges of the measurements suggest that RNFL thickness may be a more sensitive measurement for early stages and perimetry a better measure for moderate to advanced stages of glaucoma.
Robust battery fuel gauge algorithm development, part 3: State of charge tracking

In this paper, we present a novel SOC tracking algorithm for Li-ion batteries. The proposed approach employs a voltage drop model that avoid the need for modeling the hysteresis effect in the battery. Our proposed model results in a novel reduced order (single state) filtering for SOC tracking where no additional variables need to be tracked regardless of the level of complexity of the battery equivalent model. We identify the presence of correlated noise that has been so far ignored in the literature and use this for improved SOC tracking. The proposed approach performs within 1% or better SOC tracking accuracy based on both simulated as well as HIL evaluations.
An Optimized Biological Taser: Electric Eels Remotely Induce or Arrest Movement in Nearby Prey

Despite centuries of interest in electric eels, few studies have investigated the mechanism of the eel's attack. Here, I review and extend recent findings that show eel electric high-voltage discharges activate prey motor neuron efferents. This mechanism allows electric eels to remotely control their targets using two different strategies. When nearby prey have been detected, eels emit a high-voltage volley that causes whole-body tetanus in the target, freezing all voluntary movement and allowing the eel to capture the prey with a suction feeding strike. When hunting for cryptic prey, eels emit doublets and triplets, inducing whole-body twitch in prey, which in turn elicits an immediate eel attack with a full volley and suction feeding strike. Thus, by using their modified muscles (electrocytes) as amplifiers of their own motor efferents, eel's motor neurons remotely activate prey motor neurons to cause movement (twitch and escape) or immobilization (tetanus) facilitating prey detection and capture, respectively. These results explain reports that human movement is ‘frozen' by eel discharges and shows the mechanism to resemble a law-enforcement Taser.
A new ladybird spider from Hungary (Araneae, Eresidae)

Abstract According to the most recent taxonomic literature, three species of the genus Eresus are known in Central Europe, Eresus kollari, Eresus sandaliatus and Eresus moravicus. We recognized a fourth distinctive species from Hungary, which is described as Eresus hermani sp. n. Eresus hermani has an early spring copulation period, females have a light grey (grizzled) cephalothorax due to a heavy cover of lightly colored setae, and an epigyne with large flat areas posterior to the epigynal pit, while males are distinguished by a broad and blunt terminal tooth of the conductor. An updated and modified comparative table of Řezáč et al. (2008) to include all four Central European Eresus species, and a simple key to the species group’s species are given. Habitus, epigyne, vulva and conductor of Eresus kollari, Eresus moravicus and Eresus sandaliatus are also illustrated. An annotated list of papers illustrating Eresus hermani due to misidentifications is presented.
Limits to adaptation along environmental gradients

Significance Why do species’ ranges often end when no obvious change in the environment suggests they should? Our theory explains that there is an inherent limit to adaptation arising in any (finite) natural population and identifies the key parameters that determine this limit to a species’ range. Two observable parameters describe the threshold when adaptation fails: (i) the loss of fitness due to dispersal to a different environment, and (ii) the efficacy of selection relative to stochastic effects in finite populations. Why do species not adapt to ever-wider ranges of conditions, gradually expanding their ecological niche and geographic range? Gene flow across environments has two conflicting effects: although it increases genetic variation, which is a prerequisite for adaptation, gene flow may swamp adaptation to local conditions. In 1956, Haldane proposed that, when the environment varies across space, “swamping” by gene flow creates a positive feedback between low population size and maladaptation, leading to a sharp range margin. However, current deterministic theory shows that, when variance can evolve, there is no such limit. Using simple analytical tools and simulations, we show that genetic drift can generate a sharp margin to a species’ range, by reducing genetic variance below the level needed for adaptation to spatially variable conditions. Aided by separation of ecological and evolutionary timescales, the identified effective dimensionless parameters reveal a simple threshold that predicts when adaptation at the range margin fails. Two observable parameters determine the threshold: (i) the effective environmental gradient, which can be measured by the loss of fitness due to dispersal to a different environment; and (ii) the efficacy of selection relative to genetic drift. The theory predicts sharp range margins even in the absence of abrupt changes in the environment. Furthermore, it implies that gradual worsening of conditions across a species’ habitat may lead to a sudden range fragmentation, when adaptation to a wide span of conditions within a single species becomes impossible.
Aluminum Enhances Growth and Sugar Concentration, Alters Macronutrient Status and Regulates the Expression of NAC Transcription Factors in Rice

Aluminum (Al) is a beneficial element for some plant species, especially when used at low concentrations. Though some transcription factors are induced by exposure to this element, no data indicate that Al regulates the expression of NAC genes in rice. In this study we tested the effect of applying 200 μM Al on growth, chlorophyll, amino acids, sugars, macronutrient concentration and regulation of NAC transcription factors gene expression in 24-day-old plants of four rice (Oryza sativa ssp. indica) cultivars: Cotaxtla, Tres Ríos, Huimanguillo and Temporalero, grown hydroponically under greenhouse conditions. Twenty days after treatment, we observed that Al enhanced growth in the four cultivars studied. On average, plants grown in the presence of Al produced 140% more root dry biomass and were 30% taller than control plants. Cotaxtla and Temporalero showed double the root length, while Huimanguillo and Cotaxtla had three times more root fresh biomass and 2.5 times more root dry biomass. Huimanguillo plants showed 1.5 times more shoot height, while Cotaxtla had almost double the root dry biomass. With the exception of Tres Ríos, the rest of the cultivars had almost double the chlorophyll concentration when treated with Al, whereas amino acid and proline concentrations were not affected by Al. Sugar concentration was also increased in plants treated with Al, almost 11-fold in comparison to the control. Furthermore, we observed a synergic response of Al application on P and K concentration in roots, and on Mg concentration in shoots. Twenty-four hours after Al treatment, NAC transcription factors gene expression was measured in roots by quantitative RT-PCR. Of the 57 NAC transcription factors genes primer-pairs tested, we could distinguish that 44% (25 genes) showed different expression patterns among rice cultivars, with most of the genes induced in Cotaxtla and Temporalero plants. Of the 25 transcription factors up-regulated, those showing differential expression mostly belonged to the NAM subfamily (56%). We conclude that Al improves growth, increases sugar concentration, P and K concentrations in roots, and Mg concentration in shoots, and report, for the first time, that Al differentially regulates the expression of NAC transcription factors in rice.
Extended N=1 super Yang-Mills theories

We solve a generalization of ordinary = 1 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group U(N) and an adjoint chiral multiplet X for which we turn on both an arbitrary tree-level superpotential term ∫d 2θTr W(X) and an arbitrary field-dependent gauge kinetic term ∫ d 2θTr V(X)W αW α. When W = 0, the model reduces to the extended Seiberg-Witten theory recently studied by Marshakov and Nekrasov. We use two different points of view: a ''macroscopic'' approach, using generalized anomaly equations, the Dijkgraaf-Vafa matrix model and the glueball superpotential; and the recently proposed ''microscopic'' approach, using Nekrasov's sum over colored partitions and the quantum microscopic superpotential. The two formalisms are based on completely different sets of variables and statistical ensembles. Yet it is shown that they yield precisely the same gauge theory correlators. This beautiful mathematical equivalence is a facet of the open/closed string duality. A full microscopic derivation of the non-perturbative = 1 gauge dynamics follows. © SISSA 2007.
Autoinducer 2 Affects Biofilm Formation by Bacillus cereus

ABSTRACT Cell-free supernatants from growing Bacillus cereus strain ATCC 10987 induced luminescence in a Photorhabdus luminescens ΔluxS mutant, indicating the production of functional autoinducer 2 (AI-2). The exogenous addition of in vitro synthesized AI-2 had an inhibitory effect on biofilm formation by B. cereus and promoted release of the cells from a preformed biofilm.
Aspect mining through the formal concept analysis of execution traces

The presence of crosscutting concerns, i.e., functionalities that are not assigned to a single modular unit in the implementation, is one of the major problems in software understanding and evolution. In fact, they are hard to locate (scattering) and may give rise to multiple ripple effects (tangling). Aspect oriented programming offers mechanisms to factor them out into a modular unit, called an aspect. Aspect identification in existing code is supported by means of dynamic code analysis. Execution traces are generated for the use cases that exercise the main functionalities of the given application. The relationship between execution traces and executed computational units (class methods) is subjected to concept analysis. In the resulting lattice, potential aspects are detected by determining the use-case specific concepts and examining their specific computational units. When these come from multiple modules (classes) which contribute to multiple use-cases, a candidate aspect is recognized.
A Robust Interpolation Algorithm for Spectral Estimation

We propose a robust interpolation algorithm for model-based spectral estimation. The interpolation data represent information about the half spectrum function associated with a given signal and are computed from an input-to-state filter. Our algorithm allows a large number of noisy interpolation data to be used to optimally fit a half spectrum function of a fixed order. The algorithm involves solving a set of linear matrix inequalities and is thus numerically efficient
Neurobiology of Disease Coupling between Beta and High-Frequency Activity in the Human Subthalamic Nucleus May Be a Pathophysiological Mechanism in Parkinson ’ s Disease

Jon López-Azcárate,1 Mikel Tainta,1 María C. Rodríguez-Oroz,1,2,3 Miguel Valencia,1 Rafael González,2,3 Jorge Guridi,1,2,3 Jorge Iriarte,1,2 José A. Obeso,1,2,3 Julio Artieda,1,2 and Manuel Alegre1,2 1Neuroscience Area, Centro de Investigación Médica Aplicada, Universidad de Navarra, 2Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, and 3Centro Investigación Biomédica en Red para Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, 31008 Pamplona, Spain
Content-aware local variability vector for speaker verification with short utterance

I-vector has shown to be very effective in speaker verification with long-duration speech utterances. But when test utterances are of short duration, content mismatch between the enrollment and test utterances limit the performance of i-vector system. This paper proposes to extract local session variability vectors on different phonetic classes from the utterances instead of estimating the session variability across the whole utterance as i-vector does. Using the posteriors given by a deep neural network (DNN) trained for phone state classification, the local vectors represent the session variability contained in specific phonetic content. Our experiments show that the content-aware local vectors are better at coping with the content mismatch between training and test utterances of short durations for text-independent, text-constrained and text-dependent tasks.
Adaptive power control algorithm in cognitive radio based on game theory

Cognitive radio (CR) has achieved increasing attention to improve the spectrum utilisation by allowing the coexistence of primary users (PUs) and cognitive users (CUs) in the same frequency band. As the spectrum of interest is licenced to primary network, power control must be carried out within the CR system so that no excessive interference is caused to PUs. In this study, the problem of power control is investigated in CR systems based on game theory subject to interference power constraint at PU and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraint of each CU. The objective is to reduce the power consumption caused by some CUs’ SINR over the target value. First, a non-cooperation power control game is formulated, and then an adaptive power control algorithm based on feedback function is proposed. Moreover, the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium are proved. Simulation results show that, compared with other distributed algorithms, the proposed algorithm can reduce the power consumption and overcome the near-far effect.
Diet, Behavior Modification, and Exercise: A Review of Obesity Treatments from a Long‐Term Perspective

Reviewed herein are the long-term weight loss outcomes of three fairly recent major modifications of standard dietary therapy for obesity. Appraised separately and in combination, these therapeutic approaches are very low calorie diets (VLCD), behavior modification, and exercise. The weight loss results from VLCD are impressive for only the first 6 to 10 months. Adding behavioral procedures to VLCD increases the weight loss for the first year or two, but not in 3 to 5 years. Adding exercise further increases the weight loss at 1 to 2 years, and those who continue regular exercise achieve the best weight loss results 1 to 6 years later.
Low levels of Sry transcripts cannot be the sole cause of B6‐YTIR sex reversal

Summary: Sry, a single‐copy gene on the Y‐chromosome, triggers the fetal gonad to begin testis differentiation in mammals. On the other hand, mutation or absence of Sry results in ovary differentiation and the female phenotype. However, cases of XY sex reversal in the presence of wild‐type Sry exist in mice and man. One such example is the B6‐YTIR mouse, whose autosomes and X‐chromosome are from the C57BL/6J mouse (an inbred strain of Mus musculus molossinus), whereas the Y‐chromosome is from a Mus musculus domesticus mouse originating in Tirano, Italy. The B6‐YTIR mouse never develops normal testes and instead develops ovaries or ovotestes in fetal life. It has been suggested that low levels of Sry transcription may account for the aberrant testis differentiation in the B6‐YTIR mouse. In this study, however, we observed relatively low levels of Sry transcripts not only in B6‐YTIR but also in B6 mice, which develop normal testes. We conclude that low dosage of Sry transcripts cannot be the sole cause of sex reversal in the B6‐YTIR gonad. genesis 30:7–11, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Specification and Estimation of the Real Options Markup : The Case of Tanker Markets ∗

We propose structural models of investment for the econometric estimation of the real option markup. Count data models offer flexible specifications for bringing real option investment models to aggregate market data. The empirical results for oil tanker investment data are supportive for the proposed structural models, as well as the real option hypothesis. We find that the sensitivity of investment to the real option rule is much higher than expected. Finally, this framework may be applied for any industry and provides a “trading volume” model for investment activity. JEL Codes: C21, C31, C51 and C52, D21, D53
Members of the Salivary Bacteriome Pathogens without Impacting Other Colonization by Potentially Opportunistic Immunosuppression Promotes Oral Transplantation-Associated Long-Term

Published Ahead of Print 24 April 2013. 10.1128/CVI.00734-12. 2013, 20(6):920. DOI: Clin. Vaccine Immunol. Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou Evimaria Terzi, Effie Ioannidou, Linda D. Strausbaugh and Amanda K. Dupuy, Mark Angeloni, Loreto Abusleme, Patricia I. Diaz, Bo-Young Hong, Jorge Frias-Lopez, Members of the Salivary Bacteriome Pathogens without Impacting Other Colonization by Potentially Opportunistic Immunosuppression Promotes Oral Transplantation-Associated Long-Term
Intravenous thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke after POLKARD: one center analysis of program impact on clinical practice.

PURPOSE Intravenous thrombolysis in the acute ischemic stroke was initiated in Poland within the National Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Treatment Program POLKARD in the years 2003-2008. Since 2009 the procedure has been reimbursed by the National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia - NFZ). The purpose of the presented study was to assess whether the change of financing institution was associated with the change in proportion of patients treated and with any of the clinical parameters or stroke outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS We reviewed the data of the 90 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis within 3-hours from symptoms onset. The differences between the POLKARD period and the year 2009, regarding clinical parameters, time delays, death rates and functional outcomes on day 90 after the stroke were analyzed. The association of outcome measures with baseline characteristics of the patients was analyzed with binary logistic regression. RESULTS In 2009 there was a significant increase in the proportion of patients treated (7.6%, 95%CI 5.3-10.7%, vs. 4.3%, 95%CI 3.3-5.5% respectively, p=0.013). There were no differences in age, baseline neurological presentation, prevalence of stoke risk factors, treatment time delays or hemorrhagic complications. Higher, but not significantly, 90-day mortality was observed (32.1%, 95%CI 13.3-54.1% vs. 16.1%, 95%CI 6.4-29.7% respectively, p=0.101). Baseline neurological deficits and in-hospital treatment time delays were significant predictors of disability and death. CONCLUSIONS After the Polish Ministry of Health program POLKARD termination and elimination of the reimbursement limits, higher proportion of ischemic stroke patients could be treated with the intravenous thrombolysis.
Precursor B Cell Receptor–Dependent B Cell Proliferation and Differentiation Does Not Require the Bone Marrow or Fetal Liver Environment

The capacity of precursor B (pre-B) I cells from fetal liver and bone marrow to proliferate and differentiate into surface immunoglobulin–positive immature B cells in vitro was analyzed. Both fetal liver– and bone marrow–derived progenitors do so in a pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR)–dependent manner in tissue culture medium alone, without addition of other cells or cytokines. Approximately 20% of the initial pre-B I cells enter more than one division. Analyses at the single-cell level show that ∼15% divide two to five times. Coculture of pre-B I cells with stromal cells did not enhance proliferation or differentiation, whereas the presence of interleukin 7, especially in combination with stromal cells, resulted mainly in the expansion of pre-B I cells and prevented their further differentiation. Thus, the environment of fetal liver or bone marrow is not required for the pre-BCR to exert its function, which is to select and expand cells that have undergone an inframe VH-DHJH rearrangement that produces a pre-BCR–compatible μH chain. It appears unlikely that a ligand for the pre-BCR drives this pre-B cell proliferation.
A strong direct product theorem for disjointness

A strong direct product theorem states that if we want to compute k independent instances of a function, using less than k times the resources needed for one instance, then the overall success probability will be exponentially small in k. We establish such a theorem for the randomized communication complexity of the Disjointness problem, i.e., with communication const• kn the success probability of solving k instances of size n can only be exponentially small in k. This solves an open problem of [KSW07, LSS08]. We also show that this bound even holds for $AM$-communication protocols with limited ambiguity. The main result implies a new lower bound for Disjointness in a restricted 3-player NOF protocol, and optimal communication-space tradeoffs for Boolean matrix product. Our main result follows from a solution to the dual of a linear programming problem, whose feasibility comes from a so-called Intersection Sampling Lemma that generalizes a result by Razborov [Raz92].