Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Discrimination Factors for Quantifying Spectacled Eider Nutrient Allocation to Egg Production

Abstract. Nutrient-allocation models based on stable-isotope analysis are used to determine the nutrient sources birds invest in eggs. This approach is particularly useful for birds that migrate between habitats with distinct stable-isotope compositions. A crucial variable is the difference in stable-isotope values of egg tissues relative to diet, so appropriate adjustments can be used in models comparing nutrients from tissues to putative food sources. We established discrimination factors (&Dgr;&dgr;) between the diet and eggs of captive Spectacled Eiders (Somateria fischeri) fed a controlled diet. Relative to diet, values of &Dgr;&dgr;13C were higher for albumen (2.6‰), yolk protein (2.9‰), eggshell (13.0‰), and shell membrane (3.9‰), and lower for whole yolk (-1.6‰) and yolk lipid (-3.5‰). Values of &Dgr;&dgr;15N of egg components were higher relative to diet (albumen 3.7‰, yolk protein 4.4‰, shell membrane 4.7‰, and whole yolk 3.5‰). Except for egg proteins, these patterns are generally consistent with published values for other birds. We conclude that choice of discrimination factors could markedly affect estimates of source contributions to eggs and so recommend species-specific estimates. We also provide the first reported discrimination factors between the female's diet and embryonic down feathers (&Dgr;&dgr;13C = 2.1‰ and &Dgr;&dgr;15N = 5.2). Finally, we determined discrimination factors between lipid and protein in diet sources and eggs, thus enabling consideration of these nutrients separately. Our study enhances the framework for nutrient-allocation modeling in eiders and likely other sea ducks.
Anal human papillomavirus genotype diversity and co-infection in a community-based sample of homosexual men

Objectives: To determine the prevalence and risk factors for anal human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in community-based cohorts of homosexual men in Sydney, Australia. Methods: A cross-sectional study in consecutively presenting participants in the positive Health and Health in Men cohorts in 2005. HPV testing was performed on anal PreservCyt specimens collected from 316 homosexual men (193 HIV-negative, 123 HIV-positive) using the Digene Hybrid Capture 2 (HC-2) assay for detection of low-risk (LR) and high-risk (HR) genotypes. HPV genotype testing was also performed on a subset of 133 men (93 HIV-negative, 36 HIV-positive) using Roche Linear Array (LA) assay. Results: HC-2 detected HPV infection in 79% of men (LR 55%, HR 69%). HIV-positive men were more likely than HIV-negative men to have LR-HPV (OR 3.5, 95% CI 2.1 to 5.7) and HR-HPV (OR 5.5, 95% CI 3.0 to 10.2). LA detected HPV infection in 95% of men (LR 85%, HR 77%). HIV-positive men had a mean of 7.1 HPV types compared to 4.2 in HIV-negative men; the difference was significant for both LR-HPV (p<0.001) and HR-HPV (p<0.001). HPV-16 was detected in 36% of HIV-positive and 27% of HIV-negative men. There was no consistent trend in HPV prevalence with increasing age. HR-HPV detection was associated with anal bleeding for HIV-positive men and anal warts for HIV-negative men. Conclusions: Anal HPV infection was nearly universal in this community-based sample of homosexual men. A wide variety of HPV genotypes were detected, and co-infection with multiple genotypes was common. Anal HPV infection is more prevalent and more diverse in HIV-positive than HIV-negative homosexual men.
THE MUNICH FEATURE ENHANCEMENT APPROACH TO THE 2 ND CHIME CHALLENGE USING BLSTM RECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS

We present a highly efficient, data-based method for monaural feature enhancement targeted at automatic speech recognition (ASR) in reverberant environments with highly non-stationary noise. Our approach is based on bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory recurrent neural networks trained to map noise corrupted features to clean features. In extensive test runs, enhanced features are evaluated with gradually refined recognition back-ends, reaching from simple maximum likelihood (ML) trained recognisers to state-of-the-art ASR using discriminative training and model adaptation techniques. In the result, consistent improvements over the baseline ASR systems on both the small and medium vocabulary tasks of the 2nd CHiME Speech Separation and Recognition Challenge demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method, achieving up to 52 % relative reduction of word error rate with respect to the multi-condition ML training baselines.
Metacognition, strategy use, and instruction

Borkowski, Foreword. Part I: Skilled Memory. Waters, Kunnmann, Metacognition and Strategy Discovery in Early Childhood. Ornstein, Grammer, Coffman, Teachers' "Mnemonic Style" and the Development of Skilled Memory. Schneider, Metacognition and Memory Development in Childhood and Adolescence. Part II: Math And Science. Siegler, Lin, Self-Explanations Promote Children's Learning. H. S. Waters, T. E. A. Waters, Bird Experts: A Study of Child and Adult Knowledge Utilization. Kuhn, Pease, The Dual Components of Developing Strategy Use: Production and Inhibition. Mayer, Fostering Scientific Reasoning with Multimedia Instruction. Carr, The Importance of Metacognition for Conceptual Change and Strategy Use in Mathematics. Part III: Reading, Writing, and Academic Performance. Afflerbach, Cho, Determining and Describing Reading Strategies: Internet and Traditional Forms of Reading. Harris, Santangelo, Graham, Metacognition and Strategies Instruction in Writing. C. Cornoldi, Metacognition, Intelligence, and Academic Performance. Part IV: Conclusion. Waters, Schneider, Common Themes and Future Challenges.
Development and Assessment of a Modified Pediatric Crohn Disease Activity Index

The Pediatric Crohn Disease Activity Index (PCDAI) is an established and validated measure of disease activity in children with Crohn disease. However, its use in the research setting can be limited because of ambiguity of the subjective and anthropometric components of the index. Here we propose and evaluate a modified PCDAI (Mod PCDAI) consisting of the laboratory measures of the PCDAI plus C-reactive protein. This Mod PCDAI can provide an indication of disease activity because it correlates with the PCDAI, physicians' global assessment, and fecal calprotectin, and therefore may provide a suitable alternative to the PCDAI when required.
Influence of trophic position and foraging range on mercury levels within a seabird community

Seabirds are often advocated as biomonitors for marine contaminants such as mercury (Hg). However, contaminant levels can vary widely depending on among-individual and among-species variation in foraging preferences and physiology, and on tissue types used for analyses. Using stable isotope analysis (SIA), we investigated the effects of trophic position, season, and tissue type on Hg burdens in a group of 10 closely related seabirds (Procellariiformes) from a single colony in the South Atlantic. Analysis of blood (reflecting breeding season diet) showed that among-species Hg concentrations varied as a function of trophic position (δ15N) and were also influenced to a lesser degree by foraging range (δ13C). This pattern did not hold for feathers, which reflect the non-breeding period. Mercury levels in feathers formed during the non-breeding season appear to be more strongly governed by species effects (such as moult schedule), demonstrating the need to carefully consider tissue type when formulating predictions regarding Hg burdens and dynamics. Assessment at a community rather than the species level, and across a number of tissue types, provided a more complete picture of the complex interactions between Hg and foraging ecology in seabirds.
Mdm 2 Affects Genome Stability Independent of p 53

Mdm2 is a critical negative regulator of the p53 tumor suppressor and is frequently overexpressed in human cancers. However, reports, including our own studies, suggest that Mdm2 has both p53-dependent and p53-independent functions that contribute to genomic instability and transformation when deregulated. We recently elucidated a p53independent role for Mdm2 in the regulation of the DNA double-strand break repair response, genomic stability, and transformation through interaction with Nbs1, a member of the Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 DNA double-strand break repair complex. In light of these findings, targeting Mdm2 in human malignancies may have effects other than activating p53. [Cancer Res 2009;69(5):1697–701]
Non-visual information display using tactons

This paper describes a novel form of display using tactile output. Tactons, or tactile icons, are structured tactile messages that can be used to communicate message to users non visually. A range of different parameters can be used to construct Tactons, e.g.: frequency, amplitude, waveform and duration of a tactile pulse, plus body location. Tactons have the potential to improve interaction in a range of different areas, particularly where the visual display is overloaded, limited in size or not available, such as interfaces for blind people or on mobile and wearable devices.
Introducing Self-Permission: Theoretical Framework and Proposed Assessment

The term self-permission refers to a belief about the self that a person can hold, to a stronger or weaker extent. Self-permission, in short, is the answer an individual gives oneself when asking about their perceived allowance to reach overarching long-term objectives, such as having a fulfilling career or enjoying a lasting and gratifying relationship. At a broader level, the question is whether a person allows him or herself to lead a happy and rewarding life. This paper describes the concept of self-permission, explores its nomological network and possible antecedents and consequences, proposes a corresponding self-permission scale (SPS), and suggests a study for assessing 1) the psychometric properties of that scale, 2) its relationship with conjectured adjacent constructs, and 3) its relationship with psychological functioning. Considering how important it seems to be to most individuals to make the best out of their lives and to live up to a deeply felt sense of purpose, a better understanding of self-permission could significantly benefit the psychological wellbeing of many people who do not allow themselves to thrive.
Effect of mechanical actions on cotton fiber quality and foreign-matter particle attachment to cotton fibers

The effects of various machine-fiber interactions during harvesting and ginning on fiber quality and attachment between foreign-matter particles and fibers were studied to develop new and less damaging methods for removing foreign-matter particles from cotton fiber. In total, the study involved 75 samples collected from five locations in a field near College Station, Texas, including three replications and five different harvesting and processing treatments: (1) hand-picked and hand-ginned, (2) machine-picked and hand-ginned, (3) machine-picked, seedcotton-cleaned, and hand-ginned, (4) machine-picked, seed-cotton-cleaned, and machine-ginned, and (5) machinepicked, seed-cotton-cleaned, machine-ginned, and one-stage lint-cleaned. A microscope was used to identify foreign-matter particles in each sample. Physical characteristics of the particles and their attachment to fibers were investigated and classified. All samples were analyzed with HVI and AFIS. Data of the particle classification, HVI, and AFIS were statistically processed with SAS. Results indicated that each machine-fiber interaction during the harvesting and ginning process had the net effect of decreasing the size of foreign-matter particles. The particles had no obvious difference in shape across the processing stages. The tightness of particle-fiber attachment, the number of neps, and the short fiber content differed significantly as a function of mechanical actions; they all tended to increase as the number of mechanical actions increased. As expected, the gin stand was a major contributor to the increase in short fiber content. The majority of the foreign-matter particles were leaves, but proportions of the particle categories changed with stages of processing. The proportion of leaf particles decreased, while the proportion of seed-coat fragments and stems increased, with an increasing number of mechanical actions.
IRBIS: a systematic search for conserved complementarity

IRBIS is a computational pipeline for detecting conserved complementary regions in unaligned orthologous sequences. Unlike other methods, it follows the “first-fold-then-align” principle in which all possible combinations of complementary k-mers are searched for simultaneous conservation. The novel trimming procedure reduces the size of the search space and improves the performance to the point where large-scale analyses of intra- and intermolecular RNA–RNA interactions become possible. In this article, I provide a rigorous description of the method, benchmarking on simulated and real data, and a set of stringent predictions of intramolecular RNA structure in placental mammals, drosophilids, and nematodes. I discuss two particular cases of long-range RNA structures that are likely to have a causal effect on single- and multiple-exon skipping, one in the mammalian gene Dystonin and the other in the insect gene Ca-α1D. In Dystonin, one of the two complementary boxes contains a binding site of Rbfox protein similar to one recently described in Enah gene. I also report that snoRNAs and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have a high capacity of base-pairing to introns of protein-coding genes, suggesting possible involvement of these transcripts in splicing regulation. I also find that conserved sequences that occur equally likely on both strands of DNA (e.g., transcription factor binding sites) contribute strongly to the false-discovery rate and, therefore, would confound every such analysis. IRBIS is an open-source software that is available at http://genome.crg. es/~dmitri/irbis/.
Two Replicable Suppressor Situations in Personality Research

Suppressor situations occur when the simultaneous inclusion of two predictors improves one or both validities. A common allegation is that suppressor effects rarely replicate and have little substantive import. We present substantive examples from two established research domains to counter this skepticism. In the first domain, we show how measures of guilt and shame act consistently as mutual suppressors: Adding shame into a regression equation increases the negative association between guilt and aggression, whereas adding guilt increases the positive association between shame and aggression. In the second domain, we show how the effects of self-esteem and narcissism operate consistently as mutual suppressors: That is, adding narcissism into a regression equation increases the negative association between self-esteem and antisocial behavior, whereas adding self-esteem increases the positive association between narcissism and antisocial behavior. Discussion addresses the different implications for suppressors in theoretical and variable selection applications.
Advance Care Planning in Glioblastoma Patients

Despite multimodal treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, glioblastoma is an incurable disease with a poor prognosis. During the disease course, glioblastoma patients may experience progressive neurological deficits, symptoms of increased intracranial pressure such as drowsiness and headache, incontinence, seizures and progressive cognitive dysfunction. These patients not only have cancer, but also a progressive brain disease. This may seriously interfere with their ability to make their own decisions regarding treatment. It is therefore warranted to involve glioblastoma patients early in the disease trajectory in treatment decision-making on their future care, including the end of life (EOL) care, which can be achieved with Advance Care Planning (ACP). Although ACP, by definition, aims at timely involvement of patients and proxies in decision-making on future care, the optimal moment to initiate ACP discussions in the disease trajectory of glioblastoma patients remains controversial. Moreover, the disease-specific content of these ACP discussions needs to be established. In this article, we will first describe the history of patient participation in treatment decision-making, including the shift towards ACP. Secondly, we will describe the possible role of ACP for glioblastoma patients, with the specific aim of treatment of disease-specific symptoms such as somnolence and dysphagia, epileptic seizures, headache, and personality changes, agitation and delirium in the EOL phase, and the importance of timing of ACP discussions in this patient population.
Exposure and Toxicity Assessment of Ultrafine Particles from Nearby Traffic in Urban Air in Seoul, Korea

Objectives We investigated the particle mass size distribution and chemical properties of air pollution particulate matter (PM) in the urban area and its capacity to induce cytotoxicity in human bronchial epithelial (BEAS-2B) cells. Methods To characterize the mass size distributions and chemical concentrations associated with urban PM, PM samples were collected by a 10-stage Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor close to nearby traffic in an urban area from December 2007 to December 2009. PM samples for in vitro cytotoxicity testing were collected by a mini-volume air sampler with PM10 and PM2.5 inlets. Results The PM size distributions were bi-modal, peaking at 0.18 to 0.32 and 1.8 to 3.2 µm. The mass concentrations of the metals in fine particles (0.1 to 1.8 µm) accounted for 45.6 to 80.4% of the mass concentrations of metals in PM10. The mass proportions of fine particles of the pollutants related to traffic emission, lead (80.4%), cadmium (69.0%), and chromium (63.8%) were higher than those of other metals. Iron was the dominant transition metal in the particles, accounting for 64.3% of the PM10 mass in all the samples. We observed PM concentration-dependent cytotoxic effects on BEAS-2B cells. Conclusions We found that exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 from a nearby traffic area induced significant increases in protein expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-8). The cell death rate and release of cytokines in response to the PM2.5 treatment were higher than those with PM10. The combined results support the hypothesis that ultrafine particles from vehicular sources can induce inflammatory responses related to environmental respiratory injury.
A Performance Evaluation of Alternative Mapping Schemes for Storing XML Data in a Relational Database

XML is emerging as one of the dominant data formats for data processing on the Internet. To query XML data, query languages like XQL, Lorel, XML-QL, or XML-GL have been proposed. In this paper, we study how XML data can be stored and queried using a standard relational database system. For this purpose, we present alternative mapping schemes to store XML data in a relational database and discuss how XML-QL queries can be translated into SQL queries for every mapping scheme. We present the results of comprehen- sive performance experiments that analyze the tradeoffs of the alternative mapping schemes in terms of database size, query performance and update performance. % The results show clearly that a variant of a binary mapping scheme % shows the overall best performance While our discussion is focussed on XML and XML-QL, the results of this paper are relevant for most semi-struct- ured data models and most query languages for semi-structured data.
Evaluación de la impulsividad funcional y disfuncional en adictos a sustancias mediante el Inventario de Dickman

Assessment of functional and dysfunctional impulsivity in substance-addicted patients by means of Dickman's Inventory. Impulsivity is a dispositional trait consistently linked to addiction. Nevertheless, Dickman proposed two different types of impulsivity, a functional variant and another, dysfunctional one. Almost all studies in addiction have exclusively explored the dysfunctional facet of impulsivity. The main purpose of this study was to check the applicability of the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory to explore both types of impulsivity in addicted individuals. We applied a Spanish version of the inventory and studied its psychometric properties. We found adequate internal consistency, construct validity and convergence of measures with related instruments, both in non-clinical (N= 398) and in treated substance-addicted (diacetylmorphine, cocaine, alcohol and cannabis; N= 140) samples. Addicted individuals did not differ from the non-clinical population in their functional impulsivity, but we found a great effect size (η2p= 0.35) in the differences when exploring the dysfunctional type, with higher scores in addicts. Dysfunctional impulsivity was related to dysexecutive symptoms (r2= 0.39), and personality traits such as Novelty Seeking (r2= 0.57), but not with the Exploratory Excitability subdimension (r2= 0.01), this latter being more closely related to functional impulsivity (r2= 0.16). Data support the usefulness of this inventory to estimate types of impulsivity related to the prevention and treatment of addictive behaviors.
Association of low‐risk MSH3 and MSH2 variant alleles with Lynch syndrome: Probability of synergistic effects

Mutations in the MLH1 and MSH2 genes account for a majority of cases of families with Lynch Syndrome. Germ‐line mutations in MSH6, PMS2 and MLH3 are responsible for disease in a minority of cases, usually associated with milder and variable phenotypes. No germ‐line mutations in MSH3 have so far been associated with Lynch Syndrome, although it is known that impaired MSH3 activity leads to a partial defect in mismatch repair (MMR), with low levels of microsatellite instability at the loci with dinucleotide repeats in colorectal cancer (CRC), thus suggesting a role for MSH3 in carcinogenesis. To determine a possible role of MSH3 as predisposing to CRC in Lynch syndrome, we screened MSH3 for germ‐line mutations in 79 unrelated Lynch patients who were negative for pathogenetic mutations in MLH1, MSH2 and MSH6. We found 13 mutant alleles, including silent, missense and intronic variants. These variants were identified through denaturing high performance liquid chromatography and subsequent DNA sequencing. In one Lynch family, the index case with early‐onset colon cancer was a carrier of a polymorphism in the MSH2 gene and two variants in the MSH3 gene. These variants were associated with the disease in the family, thus suggesting the involvement of MSH3 in colon tumour progression. We hypothesise a model in which variants of the MSH3 gene behave as low‐risk alleles that contribute to the risk of colon cancer in Lynch families, mostly with other low‐risk alleles of MMR genes.
Hepatic cirrhosis: A clinico-pathological review of 520 cases

A clinico-pathological review of 520 patients with hepatic cirrhosis coming to necropsy at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow over the period 1900-69 is reported. There has been an overall increase in incidence of cirrhosis since the 1940s, and this has been largely due to a rise in female incidence. A similar trend in the period 1940-71 has been confirmed at a national level in data abstracted from the Annual Reports of the Registrar General for Scotland. The mean age at death has risen for both sexes. Aetiologically, the cirrhosis was alcoholic in 18·5%, posticteric in 10·4%, cryptogenic in 61·9%, and haemochromatosis was diagnosed in 7·5%. Primary malignant tumours of liver supervened in 12·3%. The causes of death and the morphological patterns of the cirrhosis are reviewed.