Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurovascular Coupling Remains Intact During Incremental Ascent to High Altitude (4240 m) in Acclimatized Healthy Volunteers

Neurovascular coupling (NVC) is the temporal link between neuronal metabolic activity and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF), supporting adequate delivery of nutrients. Exposure to high altitude (HA) imposes several stressors, including hypoxia and hypocapnia, which modulate cerebrovascular tone in an antagonistic fashion. Whether these contrasting stressors and subsequent adaptations affect NVC during incremental ascent to HA is unclear. The aim of this study was to assess whether incremental ascent to HA influences the NVC response. Given that CBF is sensitive to changes in arterial blood gasses, in particular PaCO2, we hypothesized that the vasoconstrictive effect of hypocapnia during ascent would decrease the NVC response. 10 healthy study participants (21.7 ± 1.3 years, 23.57 ± 2.00 kg/m2, mean ± SD) were recruited as part of a research expedition to HA in the Nepal Himalaya. Resting posterior cerebral artery velocity (PCAv), arterial blood gasses (PaO2, SaO2, PaCO2, [HCO3-], base excess and arterial blood pH) and NVC response of the PCA were measured at four pre-determined locations: Calgary/Kathmandu (1045/1400 m, control), Namche (3440 m), Deboche (3820 m) and Pheriche (4240 m). PCAv was measured using transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Arterial blood draws were taken from the radial artery and analyzed using a portable blood gas/electrolyte analyzer. NVC was determined in response to visual stimulation (VS; Strobe light; 6 Hz; 30 s on/off × 3 trials). The NVC response was averaged across three VS trials at each location. PaO2, SaO2, and PaCO2 were each significantly decreased at 3440, 3820, and 4240 m. No significant differences were found for pH at HA (P > 0.05) due to significant reductions in [HCO3-] (P < 0.043). As expected, incremental ascent to HA induced a state of hypoxic hypocapnia, whereas normal arterial pH was maintained due to renal compensation. NVC was quantified as the delta (Δ) PCAv from baseline for mean PCAv, peak PCAv and total area under the curve (ΔPCAv tAUC) during VS. No significant differences were found for Δmean, Δpeak or ΔPCAv tAUC between locations (P > 0.05). NVC remains remarkably intact during incremental ascent to HA in healthy acclimatized individuals. Despite the array of superimposed stressors associated with ascent to HA, CBF and NVC regulation may be preserved coincident with arterial pH maintenance during acclimatization.
Contribution of the Five Factors of Personality and Peers on Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Cross-National Study

Abstract Personality characteristics such as extraversion, low agreeableness and low conscientiousness are relevant for alcohol use during adolescence. In addition, having friends who use alcohol is one of the strongest predictors of adolescent alcohol consumption and its negative outcomes. The selection model posits that friends display similar alcohol consumption when their friendships are formed on the basis of common characteristics as, among others, personality. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine the mediation role of peers in the association between the five-factor model of personality and adolescent alcohol use in two cultures. One hundred and twenty Scottish and 221 Spanish respondents, all aged 12-15 years, answered the Alcohol Intake Scale (AIS). Adolescents were asked about the alcohol used at the weekend and also about the alcohol consumed by their friends. Scottish adolescents’ personality was measured by the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEO–PI–3). The Junior Spanish version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (JS NEO) was used to assess personality in the Spanish sample. Low agreeableness and low conscientiousness correlated with own alcohol quantity in both countries. We performed an independent structural equation modeling for each country. Extraversion (β = .205, p < .05) and low agreeableness (β = –.196, p < .01) for Scottish adolescents, and low conscientiousness (β = –.175, p < .05) for Spanish youths, predicted alcohol use through peer alcohol consumption at weekends. These findings support the relevance of personality traits and peer affiliation in relation to alcohol consumption in adolescence.
Automated flowgraph analysis using Matlab and Maple

An automated flowgraph analysis tool is presented. It is based on using an equivalent circuit model where the signal flows are modelled as transconductors, summing node as grounded resistors and signals as voltage sources. This model is very easy to describe as an admittance matrix that is further solved symbolically using Maple to obtain the symbolic transfer function. Some examples showing the usefulness of the flowgraph analysis are presented.
Canine ovulation timing: A survey on methodology and an assessment on reliability of vaginal cytology

Ovulation timing in bitches is a routine procedure in small animal practice around the world. It is most frequently used for supporting breeding management, high-risk pregnancy monitoring and determination of the time of parturition. To learn more about how and for what reasons veterinarians interested in small animal reproduction perform canine ovulation timing, an online survey was conducted in 2017. The link to the survey was distributed via the mailing list cafereprod-l@list.cornell. edu and the website, the Twitter account and the Facebook page of EVSSAR. All respondents recommended using quantitative progesterone measurement for ovulation timing alone or in combination with other diagnostic tests. Vaginal cytology was also a commonly used technique. The 63 respondents followed different protocols for sampling and staining vaginal epithelial cells. Interestingly, 50 respondents used vaginal cytology routinely, but only two consider it as a very reliable and another nine as a somewhat reliable test if used alone. In a second project, delegates attending the EVSSAR congress held in Vienna, Austria, in June 2017 had the opportunity to examine seven stained vaginal smear slides under optical microscopy in a blinded approach. The results showed a marked heterogeneity in the identification of vaginal cells and assessment of the time in relation to ovulation. This heterogeneity supports the opinion of survey participants that vaginal cytology alone is not a valid tool for determining the day of ovulation. Results of both projects suggest that there is no standard procedure for the examination of vaginal smears in dogs. It is not recommended to determine the optimal time for mating based on the examination of a single vaginal smear only. According to some comments of survey participants, it is more useful to assess vaginal samples repeatedly and to use the findings to determine when to start progesterone measurement.
The Incidence of Muscle Abnormalities in Broiler Breast Meat – A Review

Abstract The dramatic improvements in the growth rate and breast muscle size and yield in broilers through the intensive genetic selection, and the improvement in nutrition and management over the past 50 years have introduced serious abnormalities that influenced the quality of breast meat. The abnormalities include pale-soft-exudative (PSE) conditions, deep pectoral muscle (DPM) myopathy, spaghetti meat (SM), white striping (WS), and woody breast (WB) that have serious negative implications to the broiler meat industry. The incidences of PSE and DPM have been known for several decades, and their prevalence, etiology and economic impact have been well discussed. However, other abnormalities such as SM, WS and WB conditions have been reported just for few years although these conditions have been known for some time. The newly emerging quality issues in broilers are mainly associated with the Pectoralis major muscles, and the incidences have been increased dramatically in some regions of the world in recent years. As high as 90% of the broilers are affected by the abnormalities, which are expected to cause from $200 million to $1 billion economic losses to the U.S. poultry industry per year. So, this review mainly discusses the histopathological characteristics and biochemical changes in the breast muscles with the emphasis on the newly emerging abnormalities (SM, WS, and WB) although other abnormalities are also discussed. The impacts of the anomalies on the nutritional, functional, mechanical and sensory quality of the meat and their implications to the poultry industry are discussed.
Fair Division with a Secretive Agent

We study classic fair-division problems in a partial information setting. This paper respectively addresses fair division of rent, cake, and indivisible goods among agents with cardinal preferences. We will show that, for all of these settings and under appropriate valuations, a fair (or an approximately fair) division among n agents can be efficiently computed using only the valuations of n − 1 agents. The nth (secretive) agent can make an arbitrary selection after the division has been proposed and, irrespective of her choice, the computed division will admit an overall fair allocation.For the rent-division setting we prove that well-behaved utilities of n − 1 agents suffice to find a rent division among n rooms such that, for every possible room selection of the secretive agent, there exists an allocation (of the remaining n − 1 rooms among the n − 1 agents) which ensures overall envy freeness (fairness). We complement this existential result by developing a polynomial-time algorithm for the case of quasilinear utilities. In this partial information setting, we also develop efficient algorithms to compute allocations that are envy-free up to one good (EF1) and ε-approximate envy free. These two notions of fairness are applicable in the context of indivisible goods and divisible goods (cake cutting), respectively.One of the main technical contributions of this paper is the development of novel connections between different fairdivision paradigms, e.g., we use our existential results for envy-free rent-division to develop an efficient EF1 algorithm.
An improved scheduling algorithm for weighted round-robin cell multiplexing in an ATM switch

Priority as well as constant delay are both important performance criteria in an isochronous scheduler design such as the one in ATM switches. Weighted round-robin (WRR) multiplexing has been proven to be an effective and simple method to implement for priority traffic. The authors present an improved scheduling algorithm based on WRR cell multiplexing to ease the delay jitter problems. The impact of smoothness of the proposed scheduler design is thoroughly presented. The mean response time and its standard deviation are analyzed. The solutions show better performance results than previous work, especially when requested bandwidths are uniformly allocated. <<ETX>>
Old Habits Die Hard: An Uphill Struggle against Rules without Reason in Mathematics Teacher Education.

Mathematics teacher educators in the University of Limerick became aware of a lack of conceptual understanding of key mathematics concepts of prospective secondary mathematics teachers through observation on teaching placement and in pedagogy lectures. A pilot study to enhance the conceptual understanding of prospective teachers was carried out with one undergraduate class in 2009/10 and a longer more in‐depth programme was offered to all prospective mathematics teachers in the academic year 2011/12. The intervention was designed to get prospective mathematics teachers ‘thinking’ about mathematics topics they have so far taken for granted and hence better prepare them for classroom practice. This retrospective study divulges a number of observations which emerged, the main one being how rote learning and an emphasis on procedural skills at the expense of conceptual understanding results in a cycle of ineffective teaching which is difficult to break.
Locating Relict Sinter Terrace Sites at Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand, With Ferdinand von Hochstetter's Legacy Cartography, Historic Maps, and LIDAR

Te Otukapuarangi (the Pink Terrace), Te Tarata (the White Terrace) and Te Ngāwhā a Te Tuhi (the Black Terrace) were massive siliceous sinter formations at Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand, that were ostensibly lost in the catastrophic 1886 Tarawera eruption. Previous work using an unpublished watercolour map and notes by Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829-1884) have recently supported claims that the former Pink and White Terraces survived the 1886 eruption, and that they may be located under tephra adjacent to the modern lake margin. Divergent perspectives about the fate of Lake Rotomahana’s former sinter terraces suggest the reconstruction of New Zealand’s largest historic volcanic eruption is incomplete. We harnessed a wider amount of unique historic data recorded during Hochstetter’s 1859 survey than previously reported to hone the locations of the former Rotomahana sinter terraces. Volcanic landforms, the physical geography of the countryside, and former settlements are tied together via common sightings between sequential survey datums. Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data supported the reconstruction of Hochstetter’s former survey and datum locations. Of significance, shared landmarks between the survey stations increased the confidence for resecting the 1859 datum position on the southern margin of former Lake Rotomahana. Hochstetter’s survey watercolour maps are part of a series drafted prior to a final version being professionally printed, and they do not portray a spatially accurate depiction of how sinter terraces and geothermal features around former Lake Rotomahana were arranged. As such, assertions of their superior cartographic nature are not well-founded, and application of them to provide former Terrace locations is compromised. The published pre-eruption map of Lake Rotomahana validates well against Hochstetter’s field diary measurements. When Hochstetter’s published map is orientated using reconstructed positions for survey datums at Lake Rotomahana, the former locations of the White and Pink Terraces lie entirely within the modern boundaries of the lake and not on land. The Black Terrace may have been destroyed and/or converted to an eruption crater, but may still exist on land (intact or in-part) west of Lake Rotomahana’s modern shoreline. This study demonstrates the value of historic cartography to improve understanding of volcanic processes.
Cannabis, risk and normalisation: evidence from a Canadian study of socially integrated, adult cannabis users

Howard Parker’s ‘normalisation thesis’ has made a significant contribution to youth drug studies in many countries. Parker’s thesis has been less investigated, however, for its application across the life course, and few scholars have considered its utility for assessments of the meaning and experience of drug-related health risks. This article adds to discussions of drugs, normalisation and risk by analysing qualitative data collected from 165 long-term cannabis users aged 20–49 years in four Canadian provinces between 2008 and 2010. We focus on participants’ assessments of the risks and harms associated with persistent cannabis use and the strategies they employed to mitigate these risks. Our findings indicate important distinctions between culturally mediated conceptions of cannabis-related risks and the more narrowly grounded perception of cannabis harms based on personal or peer experience. These distinctions correspond with participants’ reports of a significant shift in cannabis’ risk profile in Canada. Participants attributed this shift to three factors: the growing prevalence of cannabis use; the rise of ‘medical marijuana’ and renewed attention to the drug’s therapeutic benefits and what they perceived to be the low incidence of cannabis-related harms in Canada. We conclude that understanding how health risks are assessed and managed by cannabis users should help to clarify how and why more tolerant attitudes about cannabis have emerged in Canada and how this change may impact on non-users’ expectations about any future initiation of use. We close by reflecting on the implications of our findings for cannabis-related public health, education and harm reduction initiatives.
Hospitalisation of adults with Down syndrome: lesson from a 10‐year experience from a community hospital

BACKGROUND Life expectancy of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) has improved significantly over the past decades. However, there are sparse data documenting the co-morbidities and hospitalisation of adult patients with DS in the literature. The aim of this study was to characterise the co-morbidities and pattern of hospitalisation in adult patients with DS during a 10-year period at the community hospital as well as to compare hospitalisation parameters with the general adult population during the same years. METHOD We reviewed the medical records of 81 hospitalisations from 37 patients with DS aged 21 to 68 years at Metrowest Medical Center during a 10-year period and compared with those of the general adult population during the same time. Co-morbidities were also described. RESULTS Adults with DS had a mean age at admission of 48.6 ± 8.8 years with the median length of stay of 3 days (interquartile range 4 days). Male patients were hospitalised longer than female patients (mean 5.0 vs. 2.8 days; P < 0.05), and patients who lived at home were admitted at earlier ages than those who came from residential healthcare facility (mean 41.5 vs. 52.2 years; P < 0.001). The most common cause of hospitalisation was pneumonia/aspiration syndrome (29.6%), and the most common co-morbidity was gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)/dysphagia (70.3%). Presence of GERD/dysphagia or seizure disorder was significantly associated with multiple admission and readmission within 1 month (P < 0.05). The mortality rate was 4.9%, and the rate of intensive care unit admission was 8.6%. CONCLUSIONS Our cohort did not show statistically significant different hospitalisation parameters such as inpatient mortality and average length of stay when compared with general adult population hospitalised at the same years. The care of adult patients with DS presents challenges in internal medicine due to its unique co-morbid profile and signifies the importance of multidisciplinary approach. In order to improve the care of this patient population, their co-morbidities, particularly GERD/dysphagia and seizure disorder, should be optimally managed and comprehensively addressed when patients are hospitalised.
Comparative Study of Topology and Feature Variants for Non-Task-Oriented Chatbot using Sequence to Sequence Learning

On language generation system such as chatbot and machine translation, there is a recent approach called sequence to sequence learning. This approach takes advantages of two recurrent neural networks (encoder and decoder) as an end-to-end mapping tool to generatively build the output from a certain input. In this paper, we try to find a combination of topology and feature which produces the highest result according to automatic evaluation metrics BLEU for non-task-oriented chatbot as the case study. The topologies used in the experiment are RNN, GRU, and LSTM along with their modifications, which are bidirectional encoder and attention-based decoder. The features used in the experiment are word-based feature and character-based feature. The experiment is conducted using Papaya English dialogue dataset. From the dataset, ten thousand pairs of conversation are picked for training data and a thousand pairs of conversation are picked for testing data. The result shows that bidirectional LSTM encoder with attention-based decoder and word based feature produced the highest cumulative BLEU-4 score amongst other topologies, which is 0.31.
Introduction to Programming Using Java: An Object-Oriented Approach, Java 2 Update, JavaPlace Edition

From the Publisher: Features: Uses object-oriented concepts from the very beginning--classes, objects, and messages are all introduced in Chapter 1--and develops them throughout. Applies a consistent class design procedure, usable by beginners. Contains graphic user interface (GUI) supplements in each chapter . Provides an early introduction to testing, covering test drivers, debugging, and test case selection. Includes a chapter with three robust applications--a LOGO turtle, a Web surveyor, and Mancala (a strategy game)--which use the text's class design procedure and allow the students to tie the material together.
Expression patterns and colocalization of two sensory neurone membrane proteins in Ectropis obliqua Prout, a geometrid moth pest that uses Type‐II sex pheromones

Sensory neurone membrane proteins (SNMPs) function as essential cofactors for insect sex pheromone detection. In this study, we report two SNMPs in Ectropis obliqua Prout, a serious geometrid pest that produces typical Type‐II sex pheromones. Sequence alignments and phylogenetic analyses showed that EoblSNMP1 and EoblSNMP2 belong to two distinct SNMP subfamilies. Quantitative real‐time PCR suggested that EoblSNMP1 was male antennae‐biased, whereas EoblSNMP2 was highly expressed on male antennae but was also expressed on female antennae and other chemosensory tissues. Additionally, EoblSNMP1 and EoblSNMP2 differed in their developmental expression profiles. In situ hybridization revealed that EoblSNMP1 was sensilla trichodea I specific, whereas EoblSNMP2 was expressed in sensilla trichodea I and the sensilla basiconica; furthermore, EoblSNMP1 and EoblSNMP2 were co‐expressed in sensilla trichodea I but in different cells. This study suggests that EoblSNMP1 is functionally distinct from EoblSNMP2 in E. obliqua; EoblSNMP1 may specifically contribute to the recognition of sex pheromones, whereas EoblSNMP2 exhibits multiple olfactory roles. Our findings comprehensively reveal the expression patterns of SNMPs in a lepidopteran species that uses Type‐II sex pheromones, providing new insights into the functional evolution of SNMPs from lepidopteran moths with Type‐I sex pheromones to those with Type‐II sex pheromones.
Bioinformatics Analysis of Weighted Genes in Diabetic Retinopathy.

Purpose Intricate signaling networks and transcriptional regulators translate pathogen recognition into defense responses. The aim of this study was to identify the weighted genes involved in diabetic retinopathy (DR) in different rodent models of diabetes. Methods We performed a gene coexpression analysis of publicly available microarray data, namely, the GSE19122 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. We conducted gene coexpression analysis on the microarray data to identify modules of functionally related coexpressed genes that are differentially expressed in different rodent models. We leveraged a richly curated expression dataset and used weighted gene coexpression network analysis to construct an undirected network. We screened 30 genes in the most closely related module. A protein-protein interaction network was constructed for the genes in the most related module using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis were performed for the 30 genes. Results Five visual perception-related genes (Pde6g, Guca1a, Rho, Sag, and Prph2) were significantly upregulated. Based on the competing endogenous RNA hypothesis, a link between the long noncoding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) and visual perception-related mRNAs was constructed using bioinformatics tools. Six potential microRNAs (miR-155-5p, miR-1a-3p, miR-122-5p, miR-223-3p, miR-125b-5p, and miR-124-3p) were also screened. Conclusions MALAT1 might play important roles in DR by regulating Sag and Guca1a through miR-124-3p and regulating Pde6g through miR-125b-5p.