Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SYNCHRONY IN THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE (ANSER CAERULESCENS CAERULESCENS). II. THE ADAPTIVE VALUE OF REPRODUCTIVE SYNCHRONY

Social animals cluster with conspecifics. Such clustering can occur in space or in time. Insect swarms, fish schools, ungulate herds and the vast breeding colonies characteristic of social birds are conspicuous instances of spatial clustering. Synchrony, on the other hand, is an expression of the tendency of individuals to cluster in time (Gochfeld, 1980). Reproductive synchrony refers to the tendency of individuals to carry out some stage of the reproductive cycle (e.g., pair formation, territory establishment, copulation, etc.) simultaneously with neighboring conspecifics. Synchrony has been investigated in several bird species (Smith, 1943; Hailman, 1964; Patterson, 1965) as well as anurans (Arnold and Wassersug, 1978), ungulates (Wilson, 1975), rodents (Hoogland, 1981) and even tropical trees (Janzen, 197 1). These studies have focused on both the proximate determinants and the ultimate benefits of reproductive synchrony. Proximate synchronizing mechanisms include endogenous (Immelmann, 197 1), ecological (Perrins, 1970; Veen, 1977), meteorological (Hall, 1970; Sealy, 1975) or social (Darling, 1938, 1952; Hailman, 1964) factors. The ultimate benefits of synchronous breeding are usually assessed in terms of the selective advantage accrued to synchronous individuals. If, for example, synchronous individuals enjoy the greatest reproductive success, centripetal selection would maintain synchrony by eliminating asynchronous phenotypes. Because selection acts on genetic variation, any hypothesis concerning the evolution of synchrony presupposes that the phenomenon has a genetic component. Thus, before we can answer the question "Has synchrony evolved as an adaptive mechanism? ," we must demonstrate that (1) phenotypic variation in individual synchrony reflects underlying genotypic variability and (2) synchronous phenotypes enjoy the greatest reproductive success. This paper represents the second part of a study of breeding synchrony in the colonial-nesting Lesser Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens). In an earlier paper (Findlay and Cooke, 1982) we showed that females inherit the tendency to hatch their clutches at a particular time relative to the colony mean. In this paper we document the extent of synchronized breeding in the colony, and assess its adaptive value. The intent here is to determine the average effects of synchrony on reproductive success, pooled over several seasons of observations. Given the extreme temporal variability of the arctic environment, we might expect synchrony to be more important in some years than others. While obscuring annual differences, a pooling procedure provides a generalized model (based on large sample sizes) with which we can compare annual trends, and hence, assess temporal variability. For this reason, a pooling approach will be followed initially. Inter-year variation will be dealt with later in the report.
How voluntary movements affect cross-modal temporal perception

We investigated the effect of voluntary movements on cross-modal simultaneous perception using auditory-tactile Temporal Order Judgment (TOJ) task in which participants judged which stimuli had been presented first. In experiment 1, we examined which voluntary movement or proprioceptive information affected TOJ. In experiment 2, we examined the effects of the duration of the voluntary movement and the prediction of the timing of stimuli presentation. When the prediction was available, not the proprioceptive information but the voluntary movements enhanced the temporal resolution of TOJ. According to the increasing of the duration, the point of subjective simultaneity shifted from auditory-first presentation to tactile-first presentation. This result could be attributed to decreasing of attention to the tactile sensation by voluntary movement.
Evaluation of the efficiency of chemotherapy in in vivo orthotopic models of human glioma cells with and without 1p19q deletions and in C6 rat orthotopic allografts serving for the evaluation of surgery combined with chemotherapy

Malignant gliomas of the central nervous system remain associated with dismal prognoses because of their diffuse invasion of the brain parenchyma. Very few experimental models that mimic clinical reality are available today to test potentially new therapies. The authors set up experimental in vivo glioma models of anaplastic astrocytomas of human and rat origins and anaplastic oligodendroglioma of human origin. Standard hospital chemotherapies were employed to test the validity of these models.
Comparison of Posterolateral Lumbar Fusion and Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion for Patients Younger Than 60 Years With Isthmic Spondylolisthesis

Study Design. Prospective randomized study. Objective. To determine whether single-level posterolateral lumbar fusion (PLF) or posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) was associated with better outcomes for patients 60 years or younger with isthmic spondylolisthesis. Summary of Background Data. Although both PLF and PLIF are considered effective surgical treatments for isthmic spondylolisthesis, it is unknown which treatment leads to better outcomes. In addition, previous studies of the therapeutic efficacy of PLIF and PLF had several weaknesses, so they could not provide clear data on the therapeutic outcomes of each treatment. Methods. Of the 85 patients screened for this study, 4 did not meet the study criteria. Thus, 81 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned into group A (PLF, n = 39) or group B (PLIF, n = 42). The primary outcome measure was the fusion rate based on dynamic radiographs and computed tomographic scans at postoperative 1 and 2 years. The secondary outcome measures were (1) clinical outcomes as assessed with a visual analogue scale and the Oswestry Disability Index, (2) surgical outcomes, and (3) additional outcomes such as infection and metal failure. Results. No patients were lost to follow-up. The fusion rate was similar between groups: fusion occurred in 84.6% (33/39) in group A and 85.7% (36/42) in group B at 1 year after surgery (P = 0.86), and 89.7% (35/39) in group A and 90.4% (38/42) in group B at 2 years after surgery (P = 0.93). Postoperative pain levels and functional outcomes did not differ significantly between groups at any of the regular follow-up visits. The prevalence of complications also did not differ significantly between groups; the only serious complication (deep infection) occurred in 1 patient in the PLIF group. Conclusion. Both PLF and PLIF are viable surgical options for patients with isthmic spondylolisthesis 60 years or younger. Level of Evidence: 2
Validity of Personnel Decisions: A Conceptual Analysis of the Inferential and Evidential Bases

Issues common to both the process of building psychological theories and validating personnel decisions are examined. Inferences linking psychological constructs and operational measures of constructs are organized into a conceptual framework, and validation is characterized as the process of accumulating various forms ofjudgrnental and empirical evidence to support these inferences. The traditional concepts of construct-, content-, and criterion-related validity are unified within this framework. This unified view of validity is then contrasted with more conventional views (e.g., Uniform Guidelines, 1978), and misconceptions about the validation of employment tests are examined. Next, the process of validating predictor constructs is extended to delineate the critical inferences unique to validating performance criteria. Finally, an agenda for programmatic personnel selection research is described, emphasizing a shift in the behavioral scientist's role in the personnel selection process. Demonstrating the validity of decisions based on psychological assessment procedures is of fundamental importance to personnel and other applied psychologists. Furthermore, few would argue with the fact that generating and articulating validity evidence is a complex process. To fully appreciate this complexity, it is important to realize that conceptions of validity have evolved over the years through the melding of legal, technical, and practical concerns about the quality and utility of personnel decisions. Inevitably, differences of interpretation and opinion have arisen as each constituency has viewed these myriad concerns from uniquely important perspectives. Perhaps equally inevitable, however, is the confusion that has grown out of these differences. Because this confusion ultimately limits the effectiveness of practitioners and theorists alike, the need for greater clarity cannot be overestimated (Guion, 1987; Landy, 1986; Tenopyr, 1986). This article is based on the premise that all validity issues discussed in personnel contexts have some conceptual counterpart in the general process of theory development (Landy, 1986). Moreover, various departures from this "ideal" process have led to myopic, if not erroneous, conceptions of validity. To elucidate how these departures have distorted conceptions of validity, the article is divided into four major sections. In the section that immediately follows, we review how the general
Lower levels of cigarette consumption found in smoke-free workplaces in California.

OBJECTIVE We examined the relationship between workplace smoking policies and smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption. METHODS California residents were questioned by telephone with the 1990 California Tobacco Survey. All respondents (11,704) above age 18 years who were employed indoors were used. Respondents were asked about smoking status, workplace smoking policy, desire to quit, and smoking history. Logistic regression was used to determine the relationship of workplace smoking policy to smoking status, accounting for demographic variables. RESULTS Prevalence of regular smokers was significantly lower in smoke-free workplaces than in those with no restrictions (13.7% vs 20.6%, P < .001). Continuing regular smokers in smoke-free workplaces smoked fewer cigarettes than those in workplaces with no restrictions (296 vs 341 packs per year, P < .001). More comprehensive smoking policies were associated with smokers more likely to contemplate quitting (P = .014). CONCLUSIONS Employees in smoke-free workplaces have a lower smoking prevalence and, among continuing smokers, lower cigarette consumption than individuals working where smoking is permitted. We estimate cigarette consumption among employees indoors is 21% below that if there were no smoking restrictions in California workplaces. Furthermore, if all California workplaces were smoke-free, cigarette consumption among employees would be 41% below that if there were no workplace smoking restrictions, approximately a $406 million annual loss in sales to the tobacco industry. This study supports the hypothesis that smoke-free workplace policies are an effective public health measure for decreasing smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption among continuing smokers.
Functional Imaging of the Auditory System: The Use of Positron Emission Tomography

Modern brain imaging methods now afford unprecedented opportunities for the in vivo study of central auditory system function. Positron emission tomography (PET) has been used as a functional imaging technique for more than 15 years to study the distribution of cerebral haemodynamic changes associated with auditory stimulation, in subjects with normal and abnormal auditory function. Many of these studies concern processes related to, but not identical with, audition, such as speech perception, melodic processing and directed attention. Additionally, PET has been used to explore auditory perception in clinical populations such as cochlear implantees, neurosurgical candidates and people with tinnitus and auditory hallucinations. The spatial resolution of PET does not appear sufficient to address questions of a fine anatomical grain, e.g. exploring functional specialization within the primary and secondary auditory cortex. Nevertheless, PET has considerable potential as a tool in basic research on, and clinical assessment of, many auditory phenomena. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging can now be used for many studies for which formerly only PET was suitable, PET still possesses unique advantages. For example, it permits acquisition of data from inferior frontal and anterior temporal areas, can be used with subjects with cochlear and other implants (such as pacemakers) and can be used to map neurochemical pathways and receptors.
Stakeholder prioritization of zoonoses in Japan with analytic hierarchy process method

SUMMARY There exists an urgent need to develop iterative risk assessment strategies of zoonotic diseases. The aim of this study is to develop a method of prioritizing 98 zoonoses derived from animal pathogens in Japan and to involve four major groups of stakeholders: researchers, physicians, public health officials, and citizens. We used a combination of risk profiling and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Profiling risk was accomplished with semi-quantitative analysis of existing public health data. AHP data collection was performed by administering questionnaires to the four stakeholder groups. Results showed that researchers and public health officials focused on case fatality as the chief important factor, while physicians and citizens placed more weight on diagnosis and prevention, respectively. Most of the six top-ranked diseases were similar among all stakeholders. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Ebola fever were ranked first, second, and third, respectively.
Recent life events in schizophrenia and depression

SYSNOPSIS Depressives and matched first admission schizophrenics were compared with respect to life events experienced in the six months before the onset of illness. Depressives reported more events than schizophrenics, but this excess involved only certain types of events. Depressives reported more exits from the social field, and a variety of undesirable events, particularly those involving interpersonal arguments. They reported no more events in some other classes. These findings support previous work involving life events, particularly exits and undesirable events in the genesis of depression, and indicate that qualitative implications of events influence their effects.
Learning K-way D-dimensional Discrete Codes for Compact Embedding Representations

Conventional embedding methods directly associate each symbol with a continuous embedding vector, which is equivalent to applying a linear transformation based on a"one-hot"encoding of the discrete symbols. Despite its simplicity, such approach yields the number of parameters that grows linearly with the vocabulary size and can lead to overfitting. In this work, we propose a much more compact K-way D-dimensional discrete encoding scheme to replace the"one-hot"encoding. In the proposed"KD encoding", each symbol is represented by a $D$-dimensional code with a cardinality of $K$, and the final symbol embedding vector is generated by composing the code embedding vectors. To end-to-end learn semantically meaningful codes, we derive a relaxed discrete optimization approach based on stochastic gradient descent, which can be generally applied to any differentiable computational graph with an embedding layer. In our experiments with various applications from natural language processing to graph convolutional networks, the total size of the embedding layer can be reduced up to 98\% while achieving similar or better performance.
Parenteral nutrition in preterm neonates with and without carnitine supplementation

The effects of carnitine supplementation on fat and glucose metabolism and carnitine balance were studied in 12 preterm neonates receiving full or partial parenteral nutrition (PN) for 5 to 21 days. The gestational age ranged from 27 to 32 weeks and the birth weight from 790 to 2090 g. The neonates were assigned at random to receive either L‐carnitine 10 mg/kg (n=6) or saline (n=6). In the carnitine group, increased concentrations in plasma of total and free carnitine were observed. Less than 50% of the given dose was recovered in urine. In the placebo group no changes in the total plasma carnitine concentration were seen. In all neonates plasma triglycerides, free fatty acids, glycerol, alanine, 3‐hydroxybutyrate (BOB), glucose and lactate were measured at predetermined intervals. The only significant difference between the groups was higher BOB‐concentrations in the carnitine group 2 days after the start of parenteral nutrition. Elevated BOB concentrations are an indicator of improved fatty acid oxidation in the carnitine group. In this study, only a temporary effect of the carnitine supplementation was found.
Radiating Slot in the Coaxial Cable Shield: Measurement Based Characterization

The paper presents the comprehensive experimental study of radiation characteristics of a single slot in a coaxial cable shield. The slot was realized in four different embodiments, which varied by slot orientation and length. Three orthogonal polarizations of radiated electric field were analyzed along the axis perpendicular to cable, broadside to the slot, in a broadband frequency range (80-1000 MHz). The analysis was based on thorough measurements of the coupling loss, which is the common parameter for the leaky cable characterization. The obtained results showed that the electric field component longitudinal to the cable axis considerably dominates over other two orthogonal components, for all four slot types. Doubling the length of the slot caused a ca. 20 dB increase of the radiated field. Different slot orientations, having the same length in the cross-section projection, yielded approximately equal field strengths. The results of this experimental study clearly and visibly demonstrate the radiating slot field dependence on polarization and slot geometry in a wide frequency range. Thus they are useful for planning of wireless communication systems based on radiating cables, as well as for understanding polarization related issues in such systems.
Production of extracellular alpha-glucosidase by a thermophilic Bacillus species

Production of extracellular alpha-glucosidase was studied with strain KP 1006 of a new species of thermophilic Bacillus, which was isolated from soil samples by enrichment at 65 C. alpha-Glucosidase production was maximum at 60 C and at an initial pH of 6.5. The final enzyme yield was increased by starch, maltose, glycerol, peptone, and yeast extract but reduced by acetate and gluconate, alpha-Glucosidase was formed in the cytoplasm and accumulated as a large pool during the logarithmic growth phase. At a midpoint of this period, the enzyme appeared in the culture broth, and its level increased until the end of the stationary phase.
Comprehensive geriatric assessment predicts tolerance to chemotherapy and survival in elderly patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma: a GINECO study.

BACKGROUND Data from prospective clinical trials are needed to better define standards of care in elderly patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma and to demonstrate the interest of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) in this fragile and heterogeneous population. PATIENTS AND METHODS From July 1998 to October 2000, 83 advanced ovarian carcinoma patients >70 years old received carboplatin AUC 5 and cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m2, on day 1 of six 28-day cycles. The clinical and biological geriatric covariates prospectively studied were: comorbidities, comedications, cognitive functions (Mini-Mental test), nutritional status and autonomy. RESULTS Patient characteristics were: median age 76 years, serous histology (73%), FIGO stage III (75%), optimal initial surgery (21%) and performance status (PS) > or =2 (44%). Sixty patients (72%) received six chemotherapy cycles without severe toxicity (STox) or tumor progression. Multivariate analysis retained three factors as independent predictors of STox: symptoms of depression at baseline (P = 0.006), dependence (P = 0.048) and PS > or =2 (P = 0.026). Independent prognostic factors identified for overall survival (Cox model) were depression (P = 0.003), FIGO stage IV (P = 0.007) and more than six different comedications per day (P = 0.043). CONCLUSION CGA could predict STox and overall survival of elderly advanced ovarian carcinoma patients.
Anorectal Melanoma: A Case Report and an Update of a Rare Malignancy

Anal melanoma is an aggressive but rare malignancy. Patients commonly present with very advanced or even metastatic disease. Risk factors for anal melanoma are family history and an activating mutation of C-KIT. Surgical excision remains the mainstay of therapy. The presence of activating mutations of C-KIT has prompted use of C-KIT inhibitors such as imatinib and sunitini. Early diagnosis and treatment remain crucial. Abdominal perineal resection (APR) offers a higher rate of local control whereas wide local excision (WLE) can yield superior long-term survival.
Hepatocytes Are the Principal Source of Circulating RBP4 in Mice

RBP4 is produced mainly by hepatocytes. In type 2 diabetes and obesity, circulating RBP4 is increased and may act systemically to cause insulin resistance and glucose intolerance. Observations that adipocyte RBP4 mRNA increases in parallel with circulating RBP4 in these conditions, whereas liver RBP4 mRNA does not, led to a widely held hypothesis that elevated circulating RBP4 is a direct result of increased production by adipocytes. To test this, we generated mice with hepatocyte-specific deletion of RBP4 (liver RBP4 knockout or LRKO mice). Adipose tissue RBP4 expression and secretion remained intact in LRKO mice and increased as expected in the setting of diet-induced insulin resistance. However, circulating RBP4 was undetectable in LRKO mice. We conclude that adipocyte RBP4 is not a significant source of circulating RBP4, even in the setting of insulin resistance. Adipocyte RBP4, therefore, may have a more important autocrine or paracrine function that is confined within the adipose tissue compartment.
The effects of study task on prestimulus subsequent memory effects in the hippocampus

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to examine the effects of a study task manipulation on pre‐stimulus activity in the hippocampus predictive of later successful recollection. Eighteen young participants were scanned while making either animacy or syllable judgments on visually presented study words. Cues presented before each word denoted which judgment should be made. Following the study phase, a surprise recognition memory test was administered in which each test item had to be endorsed as “Remembered,” “Known,” or “New. ” As expected, “deep” animacy judgments led to better memory for study items than did “shallow” syllable judgments. In both study tasks, pre‐stimulus subsequent recollection effects were evident in the interval between the cue and the study item in bilateral anterior hippocampus. However, the direction of the effects differed according to the study task: whereas pre‐stimulus hippocampal activity on animacy trials was greater for later recollected items than items judged old on the basis of familiarity (replicating prior findings), these effects reversed for syllable trials. We propose that the direction of pre‐stimulus hippocampal subsequent memory effects depends on whether an optimal pre‐stimulus task set facilitates study processing that is conducive or unconducive to the formation of contextually rich episodic memories. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.