Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical Estimation of Surface Heat Control and Exchange in Endotherms

In this paper, we combine polynomial functions, Generalized Estimating Equations, and bootstrap-based model selection to test for signatures of linear or nonlinear relationships between body surface temperature and ambient temperature in endotherms. Linearity or nonlinearity is associated with the absence or presence of cutaneous vasodilation and vasoconstriction, respectively. We obtained experimental data on body surface temperature variation from a mammalian model organism as a function of ambient temperature using infrared thermal imaging. The statistical framework of model estimation and selection successfully detected linear and nonlinear relationships between body surface temperature and ambient temperature for different body regions of the model organism. These results demonstrate that our statistical approach is instrumental to assess the complexity of thermoregulation in endotherms.
Histocytological analysis of callogenesis and somatic embryogenesis from cell suspensions of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The date palm is a dioecious perennial species of the Arecaceae for which in vitro micropropagation is essential to ensure the renewal of palm plantations. This study presents a histocytological analysis of the traditional Mauritanian Amsekhsi cultivar beginning from the initial callogenesis and continuing up to the establishment of the cellular embryogenic cell suspensions. The formation of somatic embryos and their development into rooted plants are also described. METHODS Foliar segments of seedlings cultured in the presence of 2,4-D produced primary calli that were chopped to produce fine friable granular calli that subsequently produced cellular suspensions when transferred to liquid medium. The somatic proembryos that developed after removal of the 2,4-D were plated on agar medium where they developed into rooted plants. Thin sections of tissue fragments taken at each stage of the process were stained using Periodic Acid Schiff and Naphthol Blue-Black. KEY RESULTS The first cellular divisions were localized close to the vascular vessels of the leaf. The primary calli were obtained within 2 months. Fine friable granular calli grew quickly after the primary calli were chopped. Individual embryogenic cells were identified that rapidly started to divide and developed into globular proembryos. In addition, in the microcalli, breaking zones appeared in the thick pectocellulosic walls which delimited the pluricellular proembryos. The anatomy of somatic embryos is similar to that of zygotic embryos despite a deficit in the accumulation of intracellular proteins. When rooted with NAA, the vitroplants developed a strong orthotropic taproot. CONCLUSIONS This study contributes to understanding the whole process of somatic embryogenesis, but two specific questions remain to be answered: what factors are involved in the reactivation of the somatic cells at the beginning of the initial callogenesis, and why do the somatic embryos not accumulate proteins in their tissues during maturation?
Design of a fuzzy PI controller for peak-to-average reduction in output current of LED drivers

This paper presents an optimal gain-scheduling fuzzy PI controller applied to an AC-DC discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) flyback converter to achieve a high performance electrolytic capacitor-less LED driver with high efficiency and high power factor. The proposed system consists of seven PI controllers for seven different load currents which are designed based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. By using the obtained data, a fuzzy system is trained to give suitable PI gains for any load condition. Employing the proposed controller significantly improves the peak-to-average ratio of the output current to 1.05 while the LED driver reaches to a high power factor of 90.8% and its input current THD is equal to 11.88% meeting the IEC 61000-3-2 class C standard.
DHA May Prevent Age-Related Dementia 1 – 3

The risk for dementia, amajor contributor to incapacitation and institutionalization, rises rapidly asweage, doubling every 5 y after age65. Tensofmillionsof newAlzheimer’s disease (AD) andother dementia cases are projected as elderly populations increase around the world, creating a projected dementia epidemic for whichmost nations are not prepared. Thus, there is an urgent need for prevention approaches that are safe, effective, and affordable. This reviewaddresses the potential of one promising candidate, the (n-3) fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which appears to slow pathogenesis of AD and possibly vascular dementia. DHA is pleiotropic, acting at multiple steps to reduce the production of the b-amyloid peptide, widely believed to initiate AD. DHAmoderates some of the kinases that hyperphosphorylate the t-protein, a component of the neurofibrillary tangle. DHA may help suppress insulin/neurotrophic factor signaling deficits, neuroinflammation, and oxidative damage that contribute to synaptic loss and neuronal dysfunction in dementia. Finally, DHA increases brain levels of neuroprotective brain-derived neurotrophic factor and reduces the (n-6) fatty acid arachidonate and its prostaglandin metabolites that havebeen implicated in promotingAD.Clinical trials suggest thatDHAor fishoil alonecan slowearly stages of progression, but these effects may be apolipoprotein E genotype specific, and larger trials with very early stages are required to prove efficacy.Weadvocate early intervention in a prodromal periodwith nutrigenomically defined subjectswith an appropriately designed nutritional supplement, including DHA and antioxidants. J. Nutr. 140: 869–874, 2010.
Benign breast lesions in an African population: A 25-year histopathological review of 1864 cases

Objective: The objective of this study was to delineate the prevalence and characterize the histologic pattern of benign breast diseases (BBDs) in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A 25-year-old (1985-2009) retrospective study of all patients presenting with BBD. Results: During the 25-year-old study period, 1864 cases of BBD constituting 72.4% of all breast lesions were seen. The female to male ratio was 28.6:1. An increasing incidence of BBDs was observed. The overall mean age for BBD was 27.5 years, SD±11.3 with an age range of 9-84 years and a peak age occurrence in the third decade. The single most common lesion was fibroadenoma accounting for 43.1% of cases, followed by fibrocystic change (23.8%) with mean ages of 22.3 years and 30.2 years, respectively. Both lesions had a peak occurrence in the third decade. Other major lesions encountered were sclerosing adenosis (7.3%), atypical ductal hyperplasia (3.6%), and blunt duct adenosis (2.3%). Gynecomastia (2.1%) was the predominant lesion in males. Inflammatory lesions constituted 8.1% of cases while stromal and skin lesions accounted for 1.1% and 0.9% of cases respectively. Conclusion: BBDs constituted 70% of breast lumps and were mostly fibroadenoma and fibrocystic change. BBDs occurred predominantly in young females with a peak in the third decade. Though premalignant lesions of atypical hyperplasia were less common, biopsy of all BBDs should be done to exclude these lesions and routine mammographic screening of at risk individuals instituted to increase their detection.
Sensitivity Analysis of an Attack-Pattern Discovery Based Trusted Routing Scheme for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks in Industrial IoT

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are pervasive autonomous networks that will play a vital role in future Industrial Internet-of-Things communication, where smart devices will be connected in a completely distributed manner. However, due to lack of infrastructure and absence of centralized administration, MANETs are shrouded with various security threats. Some internal mobile nodes in these resource constrained networks may compromise the routing mechanism in order to launch denial-of-service attacks to carry out distinct kinds of packet forwarding misbehaviors. In order to address this issue, in our previous paper, we devised a trusted routing scheme with pattern discovery (TRS-PD), which identifies packet dropping adversaries in advance by monitoring and analyzing their behavior during route discovery phase. In this paper, we perform sensitivity analysis of TRS-PD which is carried out by varying values of different parameters in distinct network scenarios in the existence of three distinct packet dropping attacks. In addition, this work summarizes the attack-pattern discovery mechanism, trust model, and routing mechanism adopted by TRS-PD in order to counter the adversaries which follow certain attack patterns along with other adversaries. Experiments conducted with network simulator-2 indicate the correct choices of parameter values for distinct network scenarios.
Centrally Banked Cryptocurrencies

Current cryptocurrencies, starting with Bitcoin, build a decentralized blockchain-based transaction ledger, main- tained through proofs-of-work that also serve to generate a monetary supply. Such decentralization has benefits, such as independence from national political control, but also significant limitations in terms of computational costs and scalability. We introduce RSCoin, a cryptocurrency framework in which central banks maintain complete control over the monetary supply, but rely on a distributed set of authorities, or mintettes, to prevent double-spending. While monetary policy is centralized, RSCoin still provides strong transparency and auditability guarantees. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally, the benefits of a modest degree of centralization, such as the elimination of wasteful hashing and a scalable system for avoiding double- spending attacks.
The performance of corroded lap splices in reinforced concrete beams

Abstract This article presents the results of an extensive experimental program containing 22 beams with tension lap splices in the central region. The beams were preconditioned under simulated corrosion up to specific levels of bar section steel loss and cover cracking in the lap region. They were subsequently tested under four-point loading so as to place the corroded lap splice zones in tension. To prevent corrosion outside the study region, the beams were wrapped with fiber-reinforced polymers outside the laps – this also served to protect them from premature shear failure as the objective was to study failure in the lap zone. The objective of the experiment was to assess the residual anchorage capacity of such zones. The parameters of the experimental study were the extent of corrosion and the available length of lap splicing of longitudinal tension reinforcement. Corroded bond strength was determined from the short-length lap splices, where it may be assumed that stresses are uniformly distributed over the lapped zone; longer specimens were considered in order to examine how the redundancy provided by the longer contact length may improve the resilience and deformation capacity of the corrosion-damaged component prior to bond failure.
Knowledge Sharing in Online Communities: Learning to Cross Geographic and Hierarchical Boundaries

Many organizations have launched online knowledge-exchanging communities to promote knowledge sharing among their employees. We empirically examine the dynamics of knowledge sharing in an organization-hosted knowledge forum. Although previous researchers have suggested that geographic and social boundaries disappear online, we hypothesize that they remain because participants prefer to share knowledge with others who share similar attributes, as a result of the challenges involved in knowledge sharing in an online community. Further, we propose that as participants acquire experience in exchanging knowledge, they learn to rely more on expertise similarity and less on categorical similarities, such as location or hierarchical status. As a result, boundaries based on categorical attributes are expected to weaken, and boundaries based on expertise are expected to strengthen, as participants gain experience in the online community. Empirical support for this argument is obtained from analyzing a longitudinal data set of an internal online knowledge community at a large multinational information technology consulting firm.
Predicting Outcome in Postanoxic Coma: Are Ten EEG Electrodes Enough?

Introduction: Increasing evidence supports that early EEG recordings reliably contribute to outcome prediction in comatose patients with postanoxic encephalopathy. As postanoxic encephalopathy typically results in generalized EEG abnormalities, spatial resolution of a small number of electrodes is likely sufficient, which will reduce set-up time. Here, the authors compare a reduced and a 21-channel EEG for outcome prediction. Methods: EEG recordings from 142 prospectively collected patients with postanoxic encephalopathy were reassessed by two independent reviewers using a reduced (10 electrodes) bipolar montage. Classification and prognostic accuracy were compared with the full (21 electrodes) montage. The full montage consensus was considered Gold Standard. Results: Sixty-seven patients (47%) had good outcome. The agreement between the individual reviewers using the reduced montage and the Gold Standard score was good (&kgr; = 0.75–0.79). The interobserver agreement was not affected by reducing the number of electrodes (&kgr; = 0.78 for the reduced montage vs. 0.71 for the full montage). An isoelectric, low-voltage, or burst-suppression with identical bursts pattern at 24 hours invariably predicted poor outcome in both montages, with similar prognostic accuracy. A diffusely slowed or normal EEG pattern at 12 hours was associated with good outcome in both montages. Conclusions: Reducing the number of electrodes from 21 to 10 does not affect EEG classification or prognostic accuracy in patients with postanoxic coma.
Effect of Electromagnetic Wave on Bone Healing in Fixed and Unfixed Conditions

AbstractMobile phones have come into daily life and are now one of the most frequently used devices for communication. The aim of this study was to evaluate possible effect of electromagnetic wave (EMW) with and without fixation material on bone healing.Forty male rats were exposed to fracture on tibia bone and were randomly divided into 4 groups as E(+)K(+), E(+)K(−), E(−)K(+), and E(−)K(−) where E(+) means EMW exposure and K(+) means Kirschner wire fixation. At the end of study tibia samples were taken from all the groups for the quantitative evaluation of regeneration.Significant difference was found between Group E(+)K(+) and E(−)K(+) in terms of both new bone and capillary volume.Electromagnetic wave may be harmful for bone healing with fixation whereas it has no same effect on bone regeneration without fixation.
A High-Content Screen Identifies Inhibitors of Nuclear Export of Forkhead Transcription Factors

Class O forkhead box (FOXO) transcription factors are downstream targets of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which is upregulated in many tumors. AKT phosphorylates and inactivates FOXO1 by relocating it to the cytoplasm. Because FOXO1 functions as a tumor suppressor by negatively regulating cell cycle progression and cell survival, compounds that promote FOXO1 localization to the nucleus might have therapeutic value in oncology. Here the authors describe the identification of such compounds by using an image-based, high-content screen. Compounds that were active in retaining FOXO1 in the nucleus were tested to determine their pathway specificity and isoform specificity by using high-content assays for Rev and FOXO3, respectively.
PEORL: Integrating Symbolic Planning and Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Robust Decision-Making

Reinforcement learning and symbolic planning have both been used to build intelligent autonomous agents. Reinforcement learning relies on learning from interactions with real world, which often requires an unfeasibly large amount of experience. Symbolic planning relies on manually crafted symbolic knowledge, which may not be robust to domain uncertainties and changes. In this paper we present a unified framework PEORL that integrates symbolic planning with hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) to cope with decision-making in dynamic environment with uncertainties. Symbolic plans are used to guide the agent's task execution and learning, and the learned experience is fed back to symbolic knowledge to improve planning. This method leads to rapid policy search and robust symbolic plans in complex domains. The framework is tested on benchmark domains of HRL.
THE EFFECT OF AN OFFSET POLAR CAP DIPOLAR MAGNETIC FIELD ON THE MODELING OF THE VELA PULSAR’S γ-RAY LIGHT CURVES

We performed geometric pulsar light curve modeling using static, retarded vacuum, and offset polar cap (PC) dipole B-fields (the latter is characterized by a parameter ϵ), in conjunction with standard two-pole caustic (TPC) and outer gap (OG) emission geometries. The offset-PC dipole B-field mimics deviations from the static dipole (which corresponds to ). In addition to constant-emissivity geometric models, we also considered a slot gap (SG) E-field associated with the offset-PC dipole B-field and found that its inclusion leads to qualitatively different light curves. Solving the particle transport equation shows that the particle energy only becomes large enough to yield significant curvature radiation at large altitudes above the stellar surface, given this relatively low E-field. Therefore, particles do not always attain the radiation-reaction limit. Our overall optimal light curve fit is for the retarded vacuum dipole field and OG model, at an inclination angle and observer angle . For this B-field, the TPC model is statistically disfavored compared to the OG model. For the static dipole field, neither model is significantly preferred. We found that smaller values of ϵ are favored for the offset-PC dipole field when assuming constant emissivity, and larger ϵ values favored for variable emissivity, but not significantly so. When multiplying the SG E-field by a factor of 100, we found improved light curve fits, with α and ζ being closer to best fits from independent studies, as well as curvature radiation reaction at lower altitudes.
Breast MRI radiogenomics: Current status and research implications

Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiogenomics is an emerging area of research that has the potential to directly influence clinical practice. Clinical MRI scanners today are capable of providing excellent temporal and spatial resolution, which allows extraction of numerous imaging features via human extraction approaches or complex computer vision algorithms. Meanwhile, advances in breast cancer genetics research has resulted in the identification of promising genes associated with cancer outcomes. In addition, validated genomic signatures have been developed that allow categorization of breast cancers into distinct molecular subtypes as well as predict the risk of cancer recurrence and response to therapy. Current radiogenomics research has been directed towards exploratory analysis of individual genes, understanding tumor biology, and developing imaging surrogates to genetic analysis with the long‐term goal of developing a meaningful tool for clinical care. The background of breast MRI radiogenomics research, image feature extraction techniques, approaches to radiogenomics research, and promising areas of investigation are reviewed. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;43:1269–1278.
Differentiation of the zebrafish enteric nervous system and intestinal smooth muscle

Development of the enteric nervous system is critical for normal functioning of the digestive system. In vertebrates, enteric precursors originate from the neural crest and migrate into the digestive system. Enteric neurons enable the digestive system to sense and respond to local conditions without the need for central nervous system input. Here we describe major steps in differentiation of the zebrafish enteric nervous system. During migration and neural differentiation of enteric precursors, we identify regions of the enteric nervous system in different phases of differentiation. Early in migration, a small group of anterior enteric neurons are first to form. This is followed by an anterior to posterior wave of enteric neural differentiation later in the migratory phase. Enteric precursors continue proliferating and differentiating into the third day of embryogenesis. nNOS neurons form early while serotonin neurons form late toward the end of enteric neural differentiation. Numbers of enteric neurons increase gradually except during periods of circular and longitudinal intestinal smooth muscle differentiation. genesis 46:484–498, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Physical effects of habitat-forming species override latitudinal trends in temperature.

Latitudinal and elevational temperature gradients (LTG and ETG) play central roles in biogeographical theory, underpinning predictions of large-scale patterns in organismal thermal stress, species' ranges and distributional responses to climate change. Yet an enormous fraction of Earth's taxa live exclusively in habitats where foundation species modify temperatures. We examine little-explored implications of this widespread trend using a classic model system for understanding heat stresses - rocky intertidal shores. Through integrated field measurements and laboratory trials, we demonstrate that thermal buffering by centimetre-thick mussel and seaweed beds eliminates differences in stress-inducing high temperatures and associated mortality risk that would otherwise arise over 14° of latitude and ~ 1 m of shore elevation. These results reveal the extent to which physical effects of habitat-formers can overwhelm broad-scale thermal trends, suggesting a need to re-evaluate climate change predictions for many species. Notably, inhabitant populations may exhibit deceptive resilience to warming until refuge-forming taxa become imperiled.
Rapid [gamma]-Aminobutyric Acid Synthesis and the Inhibition of the Growth and Development of Oblique-Banded Leaf-Roller Larvae

The hypothesis that rapid [gamma]-aminobutyrate (GABA) accumulation is a plant defense against phytophagous insects was investigated. Increasing GABA levels in a synthetic diet from 1.6 to 2.6 [mu]mol g-1 fresh weight reduced the growth rates, developmental rates, and survival rates of cultured Choristoneura rosaceana cv Harris larvae. Simulation of the mechanical damage resulting from phytophagous activity increased soybean (Glycine max L.) leaf GABA 10- to 25-fold within 1 to 4 min. Pulverizing leaf tissue resulted in a value of 2.15 ([plus or minus]0.11 SE) [mu]mol GABA g-1 fresh weight.
Nasal polyps.

SIR,-Your leading article 21 July, p. 121) rightly makes a plea for sex education which emphasizes personal as well as physical relationships. In some areas excellent programnes have been prepared with this in mind (e.g., "Education for Personal Relationships," Wiltshire County Council Education Committee) but it is my impression that such schemes are exceptional. In January this year I wrote to every Education Department in the U.K. to suggest that mention should be made of the population crisis during the course of sexeducation in schools. Only about a quarter replied and, while many showed interest in the idea or already included the topic, it was clear that there were many local authority areas in which any form of sex education was still -regarded as too controversi-al. The difficulty of getting the message across to oertain sectors of the community is often increased because outside lecturers tend to be invited to talk to Sixth forms, which are usually well informed and already convinced of the need for contraception. In my small experience they also seem to be convinced that the world population situation should be one of the factors to be considered by any couple engaged in planning a family. -I am, etc.,