Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of Polymorphisms in the CRHR1 Gene on the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Functioning in Postpartum Depression

Abstract Objective: This study was aimed at assessing the association of the TAT haplotype of the corticotropinreleasing hormone receptor type 1 (CRHR1) with the function of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis in depressive and euthymic women in the remote postpartum period. Methods: The sample (mean age = 27.9 ± 5.3 years) consisted of 37 depressed postpartum women, of which 26 had one or two copies of the TAT haplotype (D-TAT1/2) and 11 had no TAT haplotype (D-TAT0), and 41 euthymic postpartum women, being 21 with one or two copies of the TAT haplotype (E-TAT1/2) and 20 without the TAT haplotype (E-TAT0). Salivary cortisol samples were collected immediately upon awakening and 30 minutes, 3 hours and 12 hours later, approximately in the sixth month after delivery (mean = 169.6 ± 60.3 days). DNA for genotyping was extracted between 22 and 25 weeks of pregnancy. Results: D-TAT1/2 women presented lower cortisol awakening response (CAR) compared with E-TAT1/2 and E-TAT0 women. Independently of the diagnosis of depression, only women with at least one copy of the TAT haplotype presented a negative correlation between CAR and scores of perceived stress during pregnancy and depressive symptoms in the postpartum. Conclusion: The association between CRHR1 polymorphisms and postpartum depression may be mediated by variability in individual responses to stress as assessed through HPA axis responsiveness.
Panel on Dietetic Products , Nutrition and Allergies ( NDA ) ; Scientific Opinion on bovine lactoferrin

Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) was asked to carry out the additional assessment of „lactoferrin‟ as a food ingredient in the context of Regulation (EC) No 258/97 taking into account the comments and objections of a scientific nature raised by Member States. Bovine lactoferrin (bLF) is a protein that occurs naturally in cow‟s milk. The applicant intends to market bLF as an ingredient for food supplements, infant and follow-on formulae, dietetic food for special medical purposes and sports nutrition, and for a variety of foods. For infants with an age of 0 6 months, the applicant has estimated an intake of approximately 200 mg per kg bodyweight and 1.2 g bLF per day at the proposed use level. For adults, the mean and 95 th percentile daily intakes were calculated to be about 1.4 g and 3.4 g for an adult person. The toxicological information provided by the applicant included information from an in vitro genotoxicity study, a single dose study, a four week and a thirteen week oral repeated dose study in rats. The Panel notes that the estimated intake of "lactoferrin" for infants up to the age of one year of approximately 210 mg/kg bw per day would be around ten times lower than the highest dose (2,000 mg/kg bw per day) tested in the subchronic thirteen week rat study, which did not show adverse effects related to bLF. For adults above 19 years of age the proposed intake is approximately 100 times lower. This level of anticipated intake is considered a high intake scenario as opposed to a worst-case situation. The data provided suggest the absence of adverse effects of lactoferrin at the proposed levels of consumption. The Panel concludes that the novel food ingredient bLF is safe under the proposed uses and use levels. © European Food Safety Authority, 2012
Phylogeny of the Anomura (Decapoda, Crustacea): Spermatozoa and spermatophore morphological evidence

A phylogenetic analysis of selected anomuran, thalassinidean, and other decapod crustacean taxa, based on spermatozoal ultrastructural characters and spermatophore morphological characters, was performed and the following relationships of the taxa are elucidated from the trees produced. The Anomura are not a monophyletic assemblage, with the lomoid Lomis being exclusive of the remainder of the anomuran taxa, and the thalassinid Thalassina included in the anomuran clade. The synapomorphy joining the majority of the conventional anomuran taxa ( Lomis excluded) is the cytoplasmic origin of the microtubular arms. When the palinurid and thalassinoid representatives are separately designated as outgroups, the Astacidea and Brachyura jointly formed a sister group to the Anomura. The superfamilies Thalassinoidea, Paguroidea, and Galatheoidea are not monophyletic groups. In all analyses the anomuran families Coenobitidae and Porcellanidae each form a monophyletic group. The paguroid family Diogenidae is paraphyletic, with the genera Clibanarius and Cancellus separate from a single clade containing the remaining diogenid genera. The families Paguridae and Parapaguridae form a monophyletic clade with the exception of Porcellanopagurus. The two representatives of the family Chirostylidae ( Eumunida Uroptychus) and fail to associate with the other species in the Galatheoidea. The taxa in the family Galatheidae are not a monophyletic assemblage. The only investigated hippoid Hippa is portrayed as the sister group to the remainder of the anomuran taxa (with the exception of Lomis).
Simple Recurrent Units for Highly Parallelizable Recurrence

Common recurrent neural architectures scale poorly due to the intrinsic difficulty in parallelizing their state computations. In this work, we propose the Simple Recurrent Unit (SRU), a light recurrent unit that balances model capacity and scalability. SRU is designed to provide expressive recurrence, enable highly parallelized implementation, and comes with careful initialization to facilitate training of deep models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of SRU on multiple NLP tasks. SRU achieves 5—9x speed-up over cuDNN-optimized LSTM on classification and question answering datasets, and delivers stronger results than LSTM and convolutional models. We also obtain an average of 0.7 BLEU improvement over the Transformer model (Vaswani et al., 2017) on translation by incorporating SRU into the architecture.
Dividend Dynamics, Learning, and Expected Stock Index Returns

We present a latent variable model of dividends that predicts, out‐of‐sample, 39.5% to 41.3% of the variation in annual dividend growth rates between 1975 and 2016. Further, when learning about dividend dynamics is incorporated into a long‐run risks model, the model predicts, out‐of‐sample, 25.3% to 27.1% of the variation in annual stock index returns over the same time horizon, with learning contributing approximately half of the predictability in returns. These findings support the view that investors' aversion to long‐run risks and their learning about these risks are important in determining stock index prices and expected returns.
Patterns of Aggression and Operational Sex Ratio Within Alternative Male Phenotypes in Atlantic Salmon

The intensity of male–male aggression during mating is predicted to increase with the operational sex ratio (OSR) (the ratio of sexually active males to females). We observed aggressive behaviour in relation to OSR within alternative phenotypes (large anadromous males and small ‘sneaker’ mature male parr) of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, as they competed for access to anadromous females in large outdoor arenas immediately prior to spawning events as well as throughout the spawning season. Anadromous males were primarily aggressive outside of spawning events, and their aggression increased with OSR over a narrow range of 0.08–4. By contrast, mature male parr were aggressive just prior to spawning, with a decrease in aggression over a broad range of OSRs from 1 to 7.4. Similarly, literature data for three other salmonid species indicated a decrease in aggression with increasing OSRs over a range of 1–6.33. These observations suggest that there is considerable variability in competitive behaviour, even within alternative phenotypes. Because our data are derived from repeated observations on the same individuals of different genetic origin, further confirmation of these findings is desirable. Nevertheless, our study underscores the importance of measuring competitive behaviour and OSR at ecologically relevant spatial and temporal scales, both of which may differ between alternative maturation phenotypes.
The PN.S elliptical galaxy survey: A standard ΛCDM halo around NGC 4374?

As part of our current programme to test ACDM predictions for dark matter (DM) haloes using extended kinematical observations of early-type galaxies, we present a dynamical analysis of the bright elliptical galaxy NGC 4374 (M84) based on ∼450 planetary nebulae (PNe) velocities from the PN.Spectrograph, along with extended long-slit stellar kinematics. This is the first such analysis of a galaxy from our survey with a radially constant velocity dispersion profile. We find that the spatial and kinematical distributions of the PNe agree with the field stars in the region of overlap. The velocity kurtosis is consistent with zero at almost all radii. We construct a series of Jeans models, fitting both velocity dispersion and kurtosis to help break the mass-anisotropy degeneracy. Our mass models include DM haloes either with shallow cores or with central cusps as predicted by cosmological simulations – along with the novel introduction in this context of adiabatic halo contraction from baryon infall. Both classes of models confirm a very massive dark halo around NGC 4374, demon­ strating that PN kinematics data are well able to detect such haloes when present. Con­ sidering the default cosmological mass model, we confirm earlier suggestions that bright galaxies tend to have halo concentrations higher than ACDM predictions, but this is found to be solved if either a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) or an adiabatic contraction with a Kroupa IMF is assumed. Thus for the first time a case is found where the PN dy­ namics may well be consistent with a standard dark matter halo. A cored halo can also fit the data, and prefers a stellar mass consistent with a Salpeter IMF. The less dramatic dark matter content found in lower-luminosity ‘ordinary’ ellipticals suggests a bimodality in the halo properties which may be produced by divergent baryonic effects during their assembly histories.
Electron transport in Si/SiGe modulation-doped heterostructures using Monte Carlo simulation

The electron transport in two-dimensional gas formed in tensile-strained Si1−xGex/Si/Si1−xGex heterostructures is investigated using Monte Carlo simulation. First the electron mobility is studied in ungated modulation-doped structures. Calculation matches the experimental results very well over a wide range of electron densities. The mobility typically varies between 1100 cm2/V s in highly-doped structures and 2800 cm2/V s at low electron density. The mobility is shown to be significantly influenced by the thickness of the spacer layer separating the strained Si channel from the pulse-doped supply layers. Then the electron transport is investigated in a gated modulation-doped structure in which the contribution of parasitic paths is negligible. The mobility is shown to be higher than in comparable ungated structures and dependent on the gate voltage as a result of the electron density dependence of remote impurity screening.
Effect of vegetation cover on thermal and visual comfort of pedestrians in urban spaces in hot and dry climate

The effect of climate on the use of outdoor spaces in urban environments is particularly important for activities that occur in these areas. The consideration of the thermal and visual outdoor conditions in cities is increasingly important for the well-being of man and the use of public spaces. Vegetation zones play a significant role in the city through their visual appeal and their regulation of microclimates. Considering the microclimatic modification produced by vegetation, the objective of this research is to compare the performance of areas shaded by five different types of tree coverage, including an open area without vegetation, located in a hot and dry climate. The methodology is based on a combination of in situ measurements and thermal and visual comfort surveys. Measurements of air temperature, air humidity, wind speed, solar global radiation, luminance and the sky view factor combined with comfort surveys were performed during summer in five different areas of a square in the city center of Constantine in Algeria (a hot and dry climate). The results indicate that the percentage of tree coverage of a space is a highly important metric to assess outdoor comfort in a hot dry climate and that it influences mainly the use of outdoor recreational areas. Dense vegetation cover optimises the microclimatic environment for pedestrians' thermal and visual comfort in urban spaces, under these climatic conditions.
What Makes a Safe Haven? Equity and Currency Returns for Six OECD Countries during the Financial Crisis

We estimate dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) between equity and currency returns during the financial crisis using Engle's (2002) model. DCCs and their volatilities increased for all countries, increasing investors' risk aversion and leading to the "i¬‚ight-to-quality". The US, Japan, and Switzerland have negative DCCs, making them "safe havens" that experienced capital in-i¬‚ows, whereas the UK, Australia, and Canada have positive DCCs. Stock and foreign exchange volatility indexes increase DCCs for countries without safe assets; however, they decrease DCCs for countries with safe assets. Higher country-specific risk, as measured by its TED spread, and CDS spread, means higher DCCs.
Biochar stability in soil: meta‐analysis of decomposition and priming effects

The stability and decomposition of biochar are fundamental to understand its persistence in soil, its contribution to carbon (C) sequestration, and thus its role in the global C cycle. Our current knowledge about the degradability of biochar, however, is limited. Using 128 observations of biochar‐derived CO2 from 24 studies with stable (13C) and radioactive (14C) carbon isotopes, we meta‐analyzed the biochar decomposition in soil and estimated its mean residence time (MRT). The decomposed amount of biochar increased logarithmically with experimental duration, and the decomposition rate decreased with time. The biochar decomposition rate varied significantly with experimental duration, feedstock, pyrolysis temperature, and soil clay content. The MRTs of labile and recalcitrant biochar C pools were estimated to be about 108 days and 556 years with pool sizes of 3% and 97%, respectively. These results show that only a small part of biochar is bioavailable and that the remaining 97% contribute directly to long‐term C sequestration in soil. The second database (116 observations from 21 studies) was used to evaluate the priming effects after biochar addition. Biochar slightly retarded the mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM; overall mean: −3.8%, 95% CI = −8.1–0.8%) compared to the soil without biochar addition. Significant negative priming was common for studies with a duration shorter than half a year (−8.6%), crop‐derived biochar (−20.3%), fast pyrolysis (−18.9%), the lowest pyrolysis temperature (−18.5%), and small application amounts (−11.9%). In contrast, biochar addition to sandy soils strongly stimulated SOM mineralization by 20.8%. This indicates that biochar stimulates microbial activities especially in soils with low fertility. Furthermore, abiotic and biotic processes, as well as the characteristics of biochar and soils, affecting biochar decomposition are discussed. We conclude that biochar can persist in soils on a centennial scale and that it has a positive effect on SOM dynamics and thus on C sequestration.
Salvage transplantation for post-resection recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma associated with hepatitis C virus etiology: a feasible strategy?

36 Address for correspondence: Dr. Bhavin Bhupendra Vasavada, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, HPB Surgery and Liver Transplant, Apollo Hospital, Ahmedabad 380006, Gujarat, India. E-mail: bhavu279@gmail.com Received: 24-09-2014, Accepted: 23-01-2015 ABSTRACT Aim: The aim was to analyze the feasibility of salvage liver transplant after liver resection in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with hepatitis C virus (HCV) etiology. Methods: All the patients diagnosed with HCC with HCV etiology who underwent living donor liver transplant from July 2002 to November 2012 were studied. Their recurrence rate, mortality, and prognostic factors were analyzed and compared between primary transplant and salvage transplant for up to 5 years post-transplant. Results: One hundred and nine patients underwent a liver transplant for HCC associated with HCV etiology within the University of California, San Francisco criteria. Eighteen were post-hepatectomy salvage transplants and 91 were primary transplants. Median follow-up time was 31 months. One, 3 and 5 years overall survival rates were 76%, 76% and 65% in the salvage group, and 92%, 85% and 85% in primary transplant group respectively. The difference in overall survival rates was statistically signifi cant (P = 0.031). However, recurrence-free survivals for 1, 3 and 5 years were 72%, 72% and 46% for salvage group, and 91%, 73% and 46% for primary transplant group; which were not statistically signifi cant (P = 0.328). Conclusion: Salvage transplantation for post-hepatectomy recurrence for patients with HCC associated with HCV-related chronic liver disease seems to offer inferior overall survival rates than primary transplantation.
An Analytical Comparison of Locally-Connected Reconfigurable Neural Network Architectures Using a C. elegans Locomotive Model

The scale of modern neural networks is growing rapidly, with direct hardware implementations providing significant speed and energy improvements over their software counterparts. However, these hardware implementations frequently assume global connectivity between neurons and thus suffer from communication bottlenecks. Such issues are not found in biological neural networks. It should therefore be possible to develop new architectures to reduce the dependence on global communications by considering the connectivity of biological networks. This paper introduces two reconfigurable locally-connected architectures for implementing biologically inspired neural networks in real time. Both proposed architectures are validated using the segmented locomotive model of the C. elegans, performing a demonstration of forwards, backwards serpentine motion and coiling behaviours. Local connectivity is discovered to offer up to a 17.5× speed improvement over hybrid systems that use combinations of local and global infrastructure. Furthermore, the concept of locality of connections is considered in more detail, highlighting the importance of dimensionality when designing neuromorphic architectures. Convolutional Neural Networks are shown to map poorly to locally connected architectures despite their apparent local structure, and both the locality and dimensionality of new neural processing systems is demonstrated as a critical component for matching the function and efficiency seen in biological networks.
Subchronic Toxicity of the Beverage Made from Cassia Occidentalis Seeds in Mice

Cassia occidentalis seeds are commonly used in West of Africa to prepare a beverage which serves as a substitute for coffee, however these seeds are known to be toxic. A 20-day subchronic oral toxicity of C. occidentalis seeds and beverage was evaluated in male and female albino mice. Raw or roasted seeds of C. occidentalis were administered in the diet of one group of mice at dose levels of 0 and 100g/kg/day for 20 days, while 1ml of water or of beverage prepared from raw or roasted seeds was administered two-time daily to another group. The addition of raw seeds to the diet had significant (p ≤ 0.05) effects with clinical signs attributable to the test compound including weight body loss, increase of liver enzymes (GOT and GPT) activity and serum ammonia level, decrease of serum protein level and increase of Hepato-somatic-index. Addition of roasted seeds in the diet or administration of beverages prepared from the seeds had no clinical signs attributable to the test compound. These findings indicate that roasting and extraction, the two key operations in the process of C. occidentalis beverage, eliminate the toxicity of the seeds. It is suggested that roasting destroys the toxin and water which is used as solvent during the infusion is inefficient to extract the toxin from the grounded seeds.
Shareholders ’ Expected Recovery Rate and Underleverage Puzzle

I address underleverage puzzle by relaxing Absolute Priority Rule. Shareholders’ strategic default action, whose severity is determined by shareholders’ expected recovery rate, acts as a “negative” commitment device. Thus, firms’ optimal leverage decreases over shareholders’ expected recovery rate. This channel helps to match empirically observed leverage and default probability. Structural estimation yields 19.8% of expected bankruptcy cost and 7% of shareholders’ expected recovery rate, both of which are in line with the previous literature’ finding. Time-series subsample analysis reveals that shareholders’ expected recovery rate increased and bankruptcy cost decreased after shareholder-friendly Bankruptcy Reform Act was passed in 1978. Furthermore, consistent with the empirical literature, my subsample and firm-level estimation results show that firm size is a good positive proxy for shareholders’ expected recovery rate and can potentially explain why underleverage puzzle seems to be pronounced among large firms. ∗The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. I am deeply indebted to my dissertation committee: Joao Gomes, Christian Opp, Nikolai Roussanov, Luke Taylor and Amir Yaron for their insightful comments, guidance and support. I would like to thank Lorenzo Garlappi, Wei Wang, David Skeel, Lin Shen, Jinyuan Zhang, participants at Trans-Atlantic Doctoral Conference 2018 and Wharton PhD Finance seminar for their valuable comments. I would also like to thank the Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research and Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for financial support on this project
Seasonal movements of short‐beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in the north‐western Bay of Plenty, New Zealand: Influence of sea surface temperature and El Niño/La Niña

Abstract Movement patterns of small cetaceans are influenced by a great number of variables including prey availability, sea floor profile, thermocline, oxygen minimum layer, and sea surface temperature (SST). Presented here are data on short‐beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis L.) in New Zealand, showing a seasonal offshore‐shift in their distribution, which appears to be correlated with SST. D. delphis moved from a mean distance of 9.2 km (SD = 4.42) from shore in spring and summer to a mean distance of 20.2 km (SD = 3.86) from shore in autumn. During warmer La Nina conditions their mean distance from shore was further reduced to only 6.2 km (SD = 2.56), and offshore movement was delayed by a month. Worldwide, D. delphis can be found throughout a wide range of sea temperatures, and it is therefore unlikely that SST is the primary factor influencing their distribution. It is hypothesised, that SST influences the distribution of D. delphis prey, which in turn affects their seasonal movements.
Mechanical transformations of living cavitary bodies

All living organisms and many of their parts are organised in an essentially similar manner: they are closed cavitary bodies consisting of 1) the inner mass and 2) a relatively thin sheath enclosing it. This organisation allows living bodies to change shape by employing hydrostatic forces. These forces are generally recognised to govern changes of shape in walled cells. To explain transformations of other organisms, other factors are usually sought. In this paper, the hydrostatic mechanism is represented as a universal mode of shape formation. It acts in all kinds of organisms, determining the course of diverse processes such as development of cell outgrowths, limb buds, gut derivatives and sense organs; endocytosis; cell division; branching of capillaries; gastrulation; cell locomotion; muscle contraction etc.