Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of calcium and phase-feeding phosphorus on production traits and phosphorus retention in two strains of laying hens.

Three levels of dietary Ca (3.0, 3.5, or 4.0%) were fed throughout a 336-day experiment to two strains of Single Comb White Leghorn hens in a factorial arrangement with three P feeding programs: . 64% P fed continuously; . 56, . 49, and . 39% P; or . 64, . 54, and . 44% P fed when hens were 24 to 36, 36 to 52, and 52 to 72 weeks, respectively. In addition to production traits, measurements of P retention were made at 34, 42, 50, 62, and 72 weeks of age. No dietary effects were observed on production traits. Average P retention over the entire experiment was 104, 148, and 178 mg/day when hens were fed 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0% Ca, respectively. Most of the favorable effect of Ca on P retention occurred after 50 weeks of age. However, increasing dietary Ca had an adverse influence on P retention at 42 weeks, when ambient temperature was unusually hot and feed intake decreased markedly. Significant P effects were observed when hens were 42 and 72 weeks of age. At these times, hens fed . 64% P retained the most P while those phase fed . 56, . 49, and . 39% P retained at least. Retention of P tended to decline with increasing age of the hens. Overall, the hens were in a state of marginal to negative P balance at 42, 62, and 72 weeks of age even when P deposited in eggs was considered.
Prognostic value of pretreatment peripheral blood markers in paranasal sinus cancer: Neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte and platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio

Pretreatment hematological markers have emerged as prognostic factors for several cancers. The purpose of this study was to present our investigation of the value of neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in predicting recurrence and mortality for patients with primary sinonasal cancers (SNCs).
Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism in the Human Pelvis

Sexual dimorphism in the human pelvis has evolved in response to several jointly acting selection regimes that result from the pelvis’ multiple roles in locomotion and childbirth, among others. Because human males are, on average, taller than females, some aspects of sexual dimorphism in pelvis shape might result from allometry, the association between stature and pelvis shape across individuals. In this study, they aimed to disentangle and quantify the two components contributing to pelvic sex differences: the allometric component, which emerges as a consequence of dimorphism in stature, and the remaining non‐allometric sexual dimorphism component. A geometric morphometric analysis of a dense set of 3D landmarks, measured on 99 female and male adult individuals was conducted. While pelvis size was similar in both sexes, the average differences in pelvis shape reflected the well‐documented pattern of sexual dimorphism. There was almost no overlap between females and males in shape space. Their analysis showed that pelvis size and shape were similarly associated with stature in both sexes. It was found that dimorphism in the height‐to‐width ratio of the pelvis and in the orientation of the iliac blades was largely allometric, whereas dimorphism in the subpubic angle and the relative size and distance of the acetabula was largely non‐allometric. It was concluded that, in contrast to the overall pelvic proportions, sexual dimorphism in the birth‐relevant pelvic dimensions was mainly of non‐allometric origin and was presumably mediated via steroid hormone secretion during puberty. Anat Rec, 300:698–705, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Iron-induced deep-level acceptor center in GaN/AlGaN high electron mobility transistors: Energy level and cross section

Dynamic transconductance dispersion measurements coupled with device physics simulations were used to study the deep level acceptor center in iron-doped AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). From the extracted frequency dependent trap-conductance, an energy level 0.7 eV below the conduction band and a capture cross section of 10−13 cm2 were obtained. The approach presented in this work avoids the non-equilibrium electrical or optical techniques that have been used to date and extracts the device relevant trap characteristics in short channel AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Quantitative prediction of the trap induced transconductance dispersion in HEMTs is demonstrated.
Compressive Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio Networks

A cognitive radio system has the ability to observe and learn from the environment, adapt to the environmental conditions, and use the radio spectrum more efficiently. It allows secondary users (SUs) to use the primary users (PUs) channels when they are not being utilized. Cognitive radio involves three main processes: spectrum sensing, deciding, and acting. In the spectrum sensing process, the channel occupancy is measured with spectrum sensing techniques in order to detect unused channels. In the deciding process, sensing results are analyzed and decisions are made based on these results. In the acting process, actions are made by adjusting the transmission parameters to enhance the cognitive radio performance. One of the main challenges of cognitive radio is the wideband spectrum sensing. Existing spectrum sensing techniques are based on a set of observations sampled by an ADC at the Nyquist rate. However, those techniques can sense only one channel at a time because of the hardware limitations on the sampling rate. In addition, in order to sense a wideband spectrum, the wideband is divided into narrow bands or multiple frequency bands. SUs have to sense each band using multiple RF frontends simultaneously, which can result in a very high processing time, hardware cost, and computational complexity. In order to overcome this problem, the signal sampling should be as fast as possible even with high dimensional signals. Compressive sensing has been proposed as a low-cost solution to reduce the processing time and accelerate the scanning process. It allows reducing the number of samples required for high dimensional signal acquisition while keeping the essential information.
Relationship of hen age and egg sequence position with fertility, hatchability, viability, and preincubation embryonic development in broiler breeders.

Indian River broiler breeder hens (n = 29) were caged individually to investigate whether hen age and egg sequence position were related significantly to the dependent variables fertility, hatchability, viability (hatch of fertile eggs), and preincubation embryonic development. Hens were artificially inseminated once per week. All eggs laid during the period of 31 to 54 wk of age were stored at 16 to 17 C for . 5 to 7 days. Time of oviposition records were used to assign eggs to sequence position ("first" or "subsequent"). Eggs laid on odd-numbered weeks were broken open, fertility determined, and embryonic development staged. Eggs laid on even-numbered weeks were sent to a commercial hatchery to assess hatchability. Unhatched eggs were opened to determine fertility and embryonic mortality. In addition, hen weight, number of days since insemination, time of oviposition, and egg weight were recorded to determine their relationship to the dependent variables. Fertility (n = 3,240 eggs) and hatchability (n = 1,653 eggs) were not significantly related to egg sequence position, but were related to hen age (P = .0001 and P = .0002, respectively). Older hens demonstrated lower fertility and hatchability. In contrast, embryo viability (n = 1,487 eggs) and preincubation embryonic development (n = 1,200 eggs) were not significantly related to hen age, but were related to egg sequence position (P = .0026 and P = .0001, respectively). First-of-sequence eggs had lower viability, and embryos of these eggs were more developed than embryos of subsequent eggs. These data indicate that the reduction in chick production observed as the hen ages may be due to the increased incidence of first-of-sequence eggs.
A Comparison of Trap Types for Assessing Diversity of Scarabaeoidea on South Carolina Golf Courses

ABSTRACT A 2-yr survey was conducted on golf courses in South Carolina to 1) document the species richness and seasonal activity of Scarabaeoidea; 2) assess any species compositional differences among three trap types (ultraviolet light, unbaited flight-intercept, and unbaited pitfall); and 3) identify any dominant taxa in each trap type. A total of 74,326 scarabaeoid beetles were captured, of which 77.4% were Aphodiinae (not identified to species). The remaining specimens belong to 104 species in 47 genera and 6 families. The most abundant species were Cyclocephala lurida Bland, Dyscinetus morator (F.), Euetheola humilis (Burmeister), Hybosorus illigeri Reiche, and Maladera castanea (Arrow). In all trap types, >90% of all specimens and taxa were collected between April and August. Ultraviolet light traps collected ∼94% of total specimens consisting of 83 taxa (of which 51 were unique to this trap type), whereas flight-intercept traps captured ∼2% of all specimens representing 53 taxa (18 of which were unique), and pitfall traps captured ∼4% of all specimens representing 15 taxa (no unique species; all species also captured by ultraviolet light traps). Indicator species analysis identified 2–3 and 10–13 taxa that were most frequently collected by flight-intercept and ultraviolet light traps, respectively. Flight-intercept traps complemented ultraviolet light traps by capturing more species of dung and carrion beetles and diurnal phytophagous scarab beetles. Results suggested that a similar survey for domestic or exotic scarabaeoid beetles in turfgrass systems should be conducted between April and August using ultraviolet light and flight-intercept traps at 13–58 sites.
Sigmar1 regulates endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced C/EBP-homologous protein expression in cardiomyocytes

C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP) is a ubiquitously expressed stress-inducible transcription factor robustly induced by maladaptive endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stresses in a wide variety of cells. Here, we examined a novel function of Sigma 1 receptor (Sigmar1) in regulating CHOP expression under ER stress in cardiomyocytes. We also defined Sigmar1-dependent activation of the adaptive ER-stress pathway in regulating CHOP expression. We used adenovirus-mediated Sigmar1 overexpression as well as Sigmar1 knockdown by siRNA in neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes (NRCs); to induce ER stress, cardiomyocytes were treated with tunicamycin. Sigmar1-siRNA knockdown significantly increased the expression of CHOP and significantly induced cellular toxicity by sustained activation of ER stress in cardiomyocytes. Sigmar1 overexpression decreased the expression of CHOP and significantly decreased cellular toxicity in cells. Using biochemical and immunocytochemical experiments, we also defined the specific ER-stress pathway associated with Sigmar1-dependent regulation of CHOP expression and cellular toxicity. We found that Sigmar1 overexpression significantly increased inositol requiring kinase 1α (IRE1α) phosphorylation and increased spliced X-box-binding proteins (XBP1s) expression as well as nuclear localization. In contrast, Sigmar1 knockdown significantly decreased IRE1α phosphorylation and decreased XBP1s expression as well as nuclear transport. Taken together, these results indicate that Sigmar1-dependent activation of IRE1α-XBP1s ER-stress response pathways are associated with inhibition of CHOP expression and suppression of cellular toxicity. Hence, Sigmar1 is an essential component of the adaptive ER-stress response pathways eliciting cellular protection in cardiomyocytes.
Joint Training for Neural Machine Translation Models with Monolingual Data

Monolingual data have been demonstrated to be helpful in improving translation quality of both statistical machine translation (SMT) systems and neural machine translation (NMT) systems, especially in resource-poor or domain adaptation tasks where parallel data are not rich enough. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to better leveraging monolingual data for neural machine translation by jointly learning source-to-target and target-to-source NMT models for a language pair with a joint EM optimization method. The training process starts with two initial NMT models pre-trained on parallel data for each direction, and these two models are iteratively updated by incrementally decreasing translation losses on training data.In each iteration step, both NMT models are first used to translate monolingual data from one language to the other, forming pseudo-training data of the other NMT model. Then two new NMT models are learnt from parallel data together with the pseudo training data. Both NMT models are expected to be improved and better pseudo-training data can be generated in next step. Experiment results on Chinese-English and English-German translation tasks show that our approach can simultaneously improve translation quality of source-to-target and target-to-source models, significantly outperforming strong baseline systems which are enhanced with monolingual data for model training including back-translation.
Visuomotor Resolution in Telerobotic Grasping with Transmission Delays

Weber’s law is among the basic psychophysical laws of human perception. It determines that human sensitivity to change along a physical dimension, the just noticeable difference (JND), is linearly related to stimulus intensity. Conversely, in direct (natural), visually-guided grasping, Weber’s law is violated, and the JND does not depend on stimulus intensity. The current work examines adherence to Weber’s law in telerobotic grasping. In direct grasping, perception and action are integrated for task performance. Conversely, in telerobotic control, there is an inherent spatial and temporal separation between perception and action. The understanding of perception-action association in such conditions may facilitate development of objective measures of telerobotic systems and contribute to improved interface design. Moreover, telerobotic systems offer a unique platform for examining underlying causes for the violation of Weber’s law during direct grasping. We examined whether, like direct grasping, telerobotic grasping with transmission delays violates Weber’s law. To this end, we examined perceptual assessment, grasp control, and grasp demonstration, using a telerobotic system with time delays in two spatial orientations: alongside and facing the robot. The examination framework was adapted to telerobotics from the framework used for examining Weber’s law in direct grasping. The variability of final grip apertures in perceptual assessment increased with object size in adherence with Weber’s law. Similarly, the variability of maximal grip apertures in grasp demonstration approached significance in adherence with Weber’s law. In grasp control, the variability of maximal grip apertures did not increase with object size, which seems to violate Weber’s law. However, unlike in direct grasping, motion trajectories were prolonged and fragmented, and included an atypical waiting period prior to finger closure. Therefore, in this condition, maximal grip aperture was an inappropriate indicator of JND. Instead, we calculated the aperture at the end of the opening phase, the initial grip aperture, and the final grip aperture at the beginning of the waiting period, as more appropriate JND indicators. The initial grip apertures adhered to Weber’s law. The final grip apertures approached significance in the same direction. This suggests that perception-action association during telerobotic grasping with transmission delays significantly diverge from direct grasping.
Effect of Thyroxin Treatment on Carotid Intima–Media Thickness (CIMT) Reduction in Patients with Subclinical Hypothyroidism (SCH): a Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials

Aim: Research shows that subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is related to an increased carotid intima –media thickness (CIMT), a surrogate marker of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is controversial whether or not SCH should be treated to reduce CVD morbidity and mortality. This meta-analysis aimed to determine whether SCH is associated with an increase in CIMT as compared to Euthyroidism (EU) and whether thyroxin (T4) treatment in SCH can reverse the change in CIMT. Methods: Two independent reviewers conducted an extensive database research up to December 2016. A total of 12 clinical trials discussed the effect of Thyroxin on CIMT values at pre- and post-treatment in subjects with SCH. Results: CIMT was significantly higher among SCH (n = 280) as compared to EU controls (n = 263) at baseline; the pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) of CIMT was 0.44 mm [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14, 0.74], p = 0.004; I2 = 65%. After treatment with thyroxin in subjects with SCH (n = 314), there was a statistically significant decrease in CIMT from pre- to post-treatment; the pooled WMD of CIMT decrease was [WMD −0.32; 95% CI (−0.47, −0.16), p = < 0.0001; I2 = 2%], and it was no longer different from EU controls [WMD 0.13 mm; 95% CI (−0.04, 0.30); p = 0.14; I2 = 27%]. The total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were higher in SCH as compared to EU controls and decreased significantly after treatment with thyroxin. Conclusion: This meta-analysis shows that thyroxin therapy in subjects with SCH significantly decreases CIMT and improves lipid profile, modifiable CVD risk factors. Thyroid hormone replacement in subjects with SCH may play a role in slowing down or preventing the progression of atherosclerosis.
Controlling the decision to fight or flee: the roles of biogenic amines and nitric oxide in the cricket†

Abstract Aggression is a common behavioral strategy employed by animals to secure limited resources, but must be applied with restraint to limit potential costs including injury. How animals make the adaptive decision to fight or flee is barely known. Here, we review our work on crickets that reveals the roles of biogenic amines, primarily octopamine (the insect analog of noradrenaline) and nitric oxide (NO). Using aminergic drugs, we found that amines are not essential for actually initiating aggression. However, octopamine is necessary for mediating the aggression-promoting effects of potentially rewarding experiences including stimulation with a male antenna, physical exertion, winning, and resource possession. Hence, octopamine can be considered as the motivational component of aggression. Imposed handicaps that impede aggressive signaling revealed that the agonistic actions of an opponent perceived during fighting act to reduce aggression, and that crickets make the decision to flee the moment the accumulated sum of such aversive experiences exceeds some critical level. Treatment with nitridergic drugs revealed that the impact of the opponent’s aggressive actions is mediated by NO. NO acts to suppress aggression by promoting the tendency to flee and is primarily responsible for the depressed aggressiveness of subordinates after social defeat. Octopamine and dopamine can each restore aggression in subordinates, but only dopamine is necessary for normal recovery. The role of serotonin remains unclear, and is discussed. We conclude that octopamine and NO control the decision to fight or flee by mediating the effects of potentially rewarding and aversive experiences, respectively.
Unsupervised Joint Salient Region Detection and Object Segmentation

This paper presents a novel unsupervised algorithm to detect salient regions and to segment out foreground objects from background. In contrast to previous unidirectional saliency-based object segmentation methods, in which only the detected saliency map is used to guide the object segmentation, our algorithm mutually exploits detection/segmentation cues from each other. To achieve this goal, an initial saliency map is generated by the proposed segmentation driven low-rank matrix recovery model. Such a saliency map is exploited to initialize object segmentation model, which is formulated as energy minimization of Markov random field. Mutually, the quality of saliency map is further improved by the segmentation result, and serves as a new guidance for the object segmentation. The optimal saliency map and the final segmentation are achieved by jointly optimizing the defined objective functions. Extensive evaluations on MSRA-B and PASCAL-1500 datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves the state-of-the-art performance for both the salient region detection and the object segmentation.
Conduction Delay Learning Model for Unsupervised and Supervised Classification of Spatio-Temporal Spike Patterns

Precise spike timing is considered to play a fundamental role in communications and signal processing in biological neural networks. Understanding the mechanism of spike timing adjustment would deepen our understanding of biological systems and enable advanced engineering applications such as efficient computational architectures. However, the biological mechanisms that adjust and maintain spike timing remain unclear. Existing algorithms adopt a supervised approach, which adjusts the axonal conduction delay and synaptic efficacy until the spike timings approximate the desired timings. This study proposes a spike timing-dependent learning model that adjusts the axonal conduction delay and synaptic efficacy in both unsupervised and supervised manners. The proposed learning algorithm approximates the Expectation-Maximization algorithm, and classifies the input data encoded into spatio-temporal spike patterns. Even in the supervised classification, the algorithm requires no external spikes indicating the desired spike timings unlike existing algorithms. Furthermore, because the algorithm is consistent with biological models and hypotheses found in existing biological studies, it could capture the mechanism underlying biological delay learning.
Risk‐reducing salpingectomy: Let us be opportunistic

Because there is no screening test for ovarian cancer, effective prevention strategies may be the best way to reduce the mortality of this most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Increasing evidence supports the hypothesis that the fallopian tube is the site of origin for the vast majority of high‐grade serous carcinomas. Our growing understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease offers a rare opportunity to explore new preventive measures, such as bilateral salpingectomy, which may provide great benefit without compromising ovarian function. If the tubal paradigm is accurate, then the impact of bilateral salpingectomy could extend to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, high‐risk noncarriers, and average‐risk women. The authors present a review of the literature on the role of risk‐reducing salpingectomy in all women and in high‐risk groups, with a focus on morbidity, ovarian function, potential clinical applicability, and epidemiological considerations. Cancer 2017;123:1714–1720. © 2017 American Cancer Society.
Astrocytes release prostaglandin E2 to modify respiratory network activity

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) released during hypercapnic challenge increases Ca2+ oscillation frequency in the chemosensitive parafacial respiratory group (pFRG/RTN). Here, we demonstrate that pFRG/RTN astrocytes are the PGE2 source. Two distinct astrocyte subtypes were found using transgenic mice expressing GFP and MrgA1 receptors in astrocytes. Although most astrocytes appeared dormant during time-lapse calcium imaging, a subgroup displayed persistent, rhythmic oscillating calcium activity. These active astrocytes formed a subnetwork within the respiratory network distinct from the neuronal network. Activation of exogenous MrgA1 receptors expressed in astrocytes tripled their calcium oscillation frequency activity in both the preBötzinger complex and pFRG/RTN. However, neurons in the preBötC were unaffected, whereas neuronal calcium oscillatory frequency in pFRG/RTN doubled. Notably, astrocyte activation in pFRG/RTN triggered local PGE2 release and blunted the hypercapnic response. Thus, astrocytes play an active role in respiratory rhythm modulation, modifying respiratory-related behaviorthrough PGE2 release in the pFRG/RTN.