Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Body Stalk Anomaly in One of the Dichorionic Diamniotic Twins Following In vitro Fertilization and Embryo

Body stalk anomaly/Limb body wall complex (BSA/LBWC) is a sporadic, rare and severe congenital anomaly with a poor prognosis. Association of this lethal malformation in multiple gestations following assisted reproduction techniques is even more uncommon and had been reported in case reports only. In-vitro fertilization embryo transfer (IVFET) is an effective treatment for various types of infertility and there is increased incidence of congenital anomalies when compared to natural pregnancy. We report a case of body stalk anomaly in one of the dichorionic diamniotic twins conceived after IVF-ET.
Implicit-Explicit Integral Deferred Correction Methods for Stiff Problems

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the order reduction phenomenon that appears in the integral deferred correction (InDC) methods based on implicit-explicit (IMEX) Runge--Kutta (R-K) schemes when applied to a class of stiff problems characterized by a small positive parameter $\varepsilon$, called singular perturbation problems (SPPs). In particular, an error analysis is presented for these InDC-IMEX methods when applied to SPPs. In our error estimate, we expand the global error in powers of $\varepsilon$ and show that its coefficients are global errors of the corresponding method applied to a sequence of differential algebraic systems. A study of these errors in the expansion yields error bounds and it reveals the phenomenon of order reduction. In our analysis we assume uniform quadrature nodes for the InDC method and the globally stiffly accurate property for the IMEX R-K scheme. Numerical results for the Van der Pol equation and PDE applications are presented to illustrate our theoretical fi.
Molecular Phylogeny of the Marine Planktonic Dinoflagellate Oxytoxum and Corythodinium (Peridiniales, Dinophyceae)

The dinoflagellate genera Oxytoxum and Corythodinium that account for more than fifty species are widespread in warm oceans. These genera have been considered synonyms and thecal plate designations varied among authors. Several planktonic and sand-dwelling genera have been placed within the Oxytoxaceae. We obtained the first molecular data based on small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequences of Oxytoxum and Corythodinium, including the type species (O. scolopax and C. tessellatum) and C. frenguellii and C. cristatum. The three species of Corythodinium branched together a strong support [bootstrap (BP) of 98%]. This formed a sister clade with moderate support (BP 75%) with O. scolopax that supported the generic split. Oxytoxaceae should exclusively remain for Oxytoxum and Corythodinium, as an independent group, unrelated to any other known dinoflagellate. Oxytoxum was characterized by spindle-shaped cells with an anterior narrow epitheca, an apical spine and little cingular displacement. Corythodinium exhibits relatively broad cell shapes, with wider epitheca and greater cingular displacement, and an obovate or pentangular anterior sulcal plate that noticeably indented the epitheca. This suggested the need of new combinations for species that were described as Oxytoxum and possessed the characteristics of Corythodinium.
Correlation of ABCA 4 polymorphisms with age-related macular degeneration

Aims: This research aimed to explore the correlation of ATP-binding cassette, sub-family A, member 4 (ABCA4) gene polymorphisms (rs560426 and 6389T>A) with the occurrence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to detect the genotypes of rs560426 and 6389T>A polymorphisms in 110 AMD patients and 125 healthy controls. Cases and controls were matched with each other by age and gender. Genotypic frequencies between cases and controls were compared by chi-square test. Relative risk of AMD was expressed by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Variant homozygote and variant allele of rs560426 were frequently detected in cases. But the difference had no statistical significance (P > 0.05), indicating no significant association existed between rs560426 polymorphism and AMD risk. Similar results were observed in TA and AA genotypes of 6389T>A polymorphism (P > 0.05). However, significant correlation existed between 6389A allele and AMD susceptibility (P = 0.016, OR = 1.677, 95% CI = 1.098-2.564). Conclusion: ABCA4 gene rs560426 polymorphism had no obvious association with the occurrence of AMD, 6389A allele might associate with the onset of AMD.
Managerial Risk-Taking and CEO Excess Compensation

This paper examines risk taking and CEO excess compensation problems in U.S firms to determine their impact on shareholders wealth. Literature suggests a positive effect of CEO incentive risk and strong corporate governance on CEO risk taking. Furthermore, the strong governance mitigates excess compensation problem. Controlling for governance quality and incentive risk, we provide empirical evidence of a significant association between risk taking and CEO excess compensation. When we also control for pay-performance sensitivity (delta) and feedback effects of incentive compensation on CEO risk taking, we find that higher use of incentive pay encourages risk taking, and due to a high exposure to risk CEOs draws excess compensation. Furthermore, we find that the excess compensation problem is more serious with CEOs taking high risk than with those taking low risk. Finally, we find that CEO risk taking also has structural impacts on CEO compensation.
Relationships between metal bioaccumulation and metallothionein levels in larvae of Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed to contaminated estuarine sediment elutriate

The bioavailability of Cd, Cu and Zn from a metal-contaminated sediment was studied using Mytilus galloprovincialis embryos and larvae exposed to sediment elutriates. The elutriate con- centrations tested were always lower than the threshold at which abnormal larval development appears. The Cd, Cu and Zn contents of the sediment, of the elutriate and of the larvae, as well as the larval growth, the condition index (CI), and the induction of metallothionein (MT) in the larvae were measured. The CI was only affected after 96 h of exposure, principally at the highest elutriate con- centration (25%, corresponding to 0.1435 µg Cd l -1 and 14 µg Zn l -1 ). Cd, Cu and Zn bioaccumulation was observed (48 and 96 h), in whole larvae as well as in the cytosolic fraction of their tissues. For the individual treatments (controls or different degrees of exposure), the lowest metal concentrations were observed in larvae after 96 h exposure, indicating biological dilution. Metallothionein induction in larvae was observed after 96 h exposure at the lowest elutriate concentrations tested, and was always strongly correlated with increasing metal contents in the cytosolic fraction. These relation- ships were significant for all 3 metals studied either individually or combined. The results indicate that these 3 metals are bioavailable to M. galloprovincialis larvae and that MT induction constitutes a more sensitive indicator of heavy metal pollution than embryotoxicity or larval growth experiments.
One machine, one minute, three billion tetrahedra

This paper presents a new scalable parallelization scheme to generate the 3D Delaunay triangulation of a given set of points. Our first contribution is an efficient serial implementation of the incremental Delaunay insertion algorithm. A simple dedicated data structure, an efficient sorting of the points, and the optimization of the insertion algorithm have permitted to accelerate reference implementations by a factor three. Our second contribution is a multithreaded version of the Delaunay kernel that is able to concurrently insert vertices. Moore curve coordinates are used to partition the point set, avoiding heavy synchronization overheads. Conflicts are managed by modifying the partitions with a simple rescaling of the space‐filling curve. The performances of our implementation have been measured on three different processors: an Intel core‐i7, an Intel Xeon Phi, and an AMD EPYC, on which we have been able to compute three billion tetrahedra in 53 seconds. This corresponds to a generation rate of over 55 million tetrahedra per second. We finally show how this very efficient parallel Delaunay triangulation can be integrated in a Delaunay refinement mesh generator, which takes as input the triangulated surface boundary of the volume to mesh.
Synthesis and Characterization of biodegradable Poly (Vinyl caprolactam) grafted on to sodium alginate and its microgels for controlled release studies of an anticancer drug

Biodegradable sodium alginate-g-poly (vinyl caprolactam) synthesized by graft copolymerization of N-vinyl caprolactam (VCL) on to sodium alginate (NaAlg) via free radical initiation mechanism using a redox initiation system. Grafting (%), efficiency (%), and conversion (%) were all found to depend on the content of potassium persulfate (KPS), VCL reaction temperature and time. The maximum % of grafting was ascertained to be 251 at the optimum conditions of 65 o C reaction temperature, 180 min of reaction time, 1.1098X10 -3 mol of KPS and 7.1844X10 -3 mol of VCL. Evidence of graft copolymerization was obtained by fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Further, graft copolymer was used for preparation of microgels (MGs) using Ca +2 as a crosslinking agent. SEM results showed that the MGs are spherical in structure with smooth surface. The effects of pH and temp erature on the swelling behaviour of MGs were studied and ascertained that they were sensitive to both pH and temperature. 5-FU drug was successfully loaded in to these MGs and encapsulation efficiency was found 84%. The release of 5-FU was systematically investigated as a function of temperature, pH, amount of crosslinker and % of drug loading concentration. The results indicate that the responsive MGs have the potential to be used as an effective pH and temperature controlled delivery of 5-FU for more than 12 h.
The Science of Team Science: A Review of the Empirical Evidence and Research Gaps on Collaboration in Science

Collaborations among researchers and across disciplinary, organizational, and cultural boundaries are vital to address increasingly complex challenges and opportunities in science and society. In addition, unprecedented technological advances create new opportunities to capitalize on a broader range of expertise and information in scientific collaborations. Yet rapid increases in the demand for scientific collaborations have outpaced changes in the factors needed to support teams in science, such as institutional structures and policies, scientific culture, and funding opportunities. The Science of Team Science (SciTS) field arose with the goal of empirically addressing questions from funding agencies, administrators, and scientists regarding the value of team science (TS) and strategies for successfully leading, engaging in, facilitating, and supporting science teams. Closely related fields have rich histories studying teams, groups, organizations, and management and have built a body of evidence for effective teaming in contexts such as industry and the military. Yet few studies had focused on science teams. Unique contextual factors within the scientific enterprise create an imperative to study these teams in context, and provide opportunities to advance understanding of other complex forms of collaboration. This review summarizes the empirical findings from the SciTS literature, which center around five key themes: the value of TS, team composition and its influence on TS performance, formation of science teams, team processes central to effective team functioning, and institutional influences on TS. Cross-cutting issues are discussed in the context of new research opportunities to further advance SciTS evidence and better inform policies and practices for effective TS.
Non-Motor Symptoms as Predictors of Quality of Life in Egyptian Patients With Parkinson’s Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study Using a Culturally Adapted 39-Item Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire

Objective The prevalence of non-motor symptoms (NMSs) and their impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been reported inconsistently among different populations. In this study, we aimed to investigate the NMSs and HRQoL profiles and their correlation in Egyptian PD patients, using a culturally adapted Arabic version of the 39-item Parkinson’s disease questionnaire (PDQ-39). Methods Ninety-seven PD patients were rated using the unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS), the non-motor symptoms scales (NMSS), Beck depression inventory (BDI), and the Arabic version of PDQ-39. We used the Spearman’s rank correlation and multiple linear regression analyses to evaluate the relationship between NMSs domains and HRQoL dimensions. Results Fatigue/sleep (91.3%) and mood/cognitive disturbances (87%) were the most frequently and severely affected NMSS domains. Other common NMSs included urinary (75.9%), memory/attention (72.4%), gastrointestinal (67.8%), and cardiovascular problems (64.8%). The total NMSS scores were positively correlated with UPDRS I, II, and III scores. Depression was prevalent in 76.7% of PD patients. Moreover, all enrolled PD patients reported impairment in different HRQoL dimensions, especially mobility (98.9%), activities of daily living (97.8%), and emotional well-being (95.5%). The summary index of PDQ-39 was correlated to the total NMSS, UPDRS-I, UPDRS-II Off, UPDRS-III (Off and On states), and BDI scores. Conclusion This study showed the high prevalence of NMSs and the value of NMSS and BDI scores as predictors of HRQoL in Egyptian PD patients. Therefore, characterizing the NMSs profile is essential for tailoring management strategies for PD patients.
The probiotic properties of propionibacteria

The beneficial properties of lactic acid bacteria have been extensively studied and there is scientific evidence that support their use as food microbial supplements. Sorne potential probiotic properties have been clearly demonstrated for lactobacilli and other genera but not for propionibac- teria (PAB). This article reports the effect of feeding propionibacteria on the composition and the metabolic activity of the intestinal microflora related to faecal enzymes involved in the release of car- cinogenic compounds. The studies were carried out with four strains of Propionibacterium. The effect of feeding with PAB was evaluated in Balb/c mice receiving conventional solid food or food supplemented with meat over varying time periods. The results indicate that this feeding influences the composition of the intestinal microf1ora, specially modifying the number of anaerobes and col- iforms in the caecal content. The metabolic activity of the resident microf1ora was also modified by feeding with propionibacteria. The greatest effect was observed on ~-glucuronidase activity. How- ever, some differences were also observed on azoreductase and nitroreductase activities. The data sug- gest that PAB may have a role in the prevention of colon cancer. © InralElsevier, Paris.
The event-driven paradigm for control, communication and optimization

The event-driven paradigm offers an alternative to the time-driven paradigm for modelling, sampling, estimation, control and optimization. This has come about largely as a consequence of systems being increasingly networked, wireless and consisting of distributed communicating components. The key idea is that control actions need not be dictated by time steps taken by a “clock”; rather, an action should be triggered by an “event” which may be a well-defined condition on the system state, including the possibility of a simple time step, or a random state transition. We provide an overview of recent developments in event-driven approaches and focus on two areas to illustrate their value. First, in distributed systems, we describe how event-driven, rather than synchronous, communication can guarantee convergence in cooperative distributed optimization while provably maintaining optimality. Second, in hybrid systems where events naturally decompose state trajectories into different discrete states (modes), we.
First record of Caulerpa cylindracea (Caulerpaceae, Chlorophyta) in Andalusia (Southern Spain)

Altamirano, M. , Andreakis, N. , Souza-Egipsy, V. , Zanolla, M. & De la Rosa, J. 2014. First record of Caulerpa cylindracea (Caulerpaceae, Chlorophyta) in Andalusia (Southern Spain). Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 71(2): e007 Three different species of Caulerpa (Caulerpaceae, Chlorophyta) cooccur in the Mediterranean Sea: two of them are found at the centraleastern basin and are typically considered non aggressive components of the Lessepsian flora [(C. chemnitzia (Esper) J.V. Lamouroux and C. racemosa var. lamourouxii (Turner) Weber-van Bosse f. requienii (Montagne) Weber van Bosse)]; a third taxon, C. cylindracea Sonder has aggressively expanded its range since its first observation in 1990, and it is nowadays reported from nearly all the Mediterranean countries. We report a population of C. cylindracea from Almeria (Andalusia, Southern Iberian Peninsula) at −30 m depth as to be the westernmost record of the invasive variety on the Mediterranean European coast. Therefore, we made use of morphological description and molecular phylogenetics to provide a complete identification of this invasive seaweed in Southern Spain. Our findings are discussed in light of the composition of the receptor communities, such as maerl bed, edges of Posidonia oceanica (Linnaeus) Delile, and their ecology. Our results confirmed the suggested directionality of the invasive pathway to be westward to the Strait of Gibraltar, mainly supported by sea currents and vectors of anthropogenic origin.
Nonparametric Density Estimation under Adversarial Losses

We study minimax convergence rates of nonparametric density estimation under a large class of loss functions called "adversarial losses", which, besides classical $\mathcal{L}^p$ losses, includes maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), Wasserstein distance, and total variation distance. These losses are closely related to the losses encoded by discriminator networks in generative adversarial networks (GANs). In a general framework, we study how the choice of loss and the assumed smoothness of the underlying density together determine the minimax rate. We also discuss implications for training GANs based on deep ReLU networks, and more general connections to learning implicit generative models in a minimax statistical sense.
Searching and Content Creation in a Location-Based Treasure Hunt Game

We were interested in designing a location-based game (LBG) to promote physical activity amongst players. We also wanted to design the game such that it could be played over an extended period of time and grow in participation. Studies of Geocaching have suggested that this might be possible by allowing actual game players to create and maintain game content. Our game, See It, explores this idea to understand its feasibility in the context of new LBGs. In See It, players use images or video clips of a location to find a hidden container; they can also hide similar content for others to find. Our study revealed that it can be difficult to create a LBG that supports a variety of player-generated content while also being focused on a specific game goal (e.g., physical activity). This suggests that using playergenerated content must be done cautiously and only once the game has established a level of maturity. Author
Numerical comparison of multivariate models to forecasting risk measures

We evaluated the performance of multivariate models for forecasting Value at Risk (VaR), Expected Shortfall (ES), and Expectile Value at Risk (EvaR). We used Historical Simulation (HS), Dynamic Conditional Correlation-Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (DCC-GARCH) and copula methods: Regular copulas, Vine copulas, and Nested Archimedean copulas (NAC). We assessed the performance of the models using Monte Carlo simulations, considering different scenarios, regarding the marginal distributions, correlation, and number of portfolio assets. Numerical results evidenced the accuracy forecasting risk measures are associated with marginal distributions. For a data-generating process where the marginal distribution is Gaussian, Regular and Vine copulas demonstrated better performance. For data generated with Student’s t distribution, we verified better performance by NAC. In addition, we identified the superiority of copula methods over HS and DCC-GARCH, which reduces the model risk.
Effects of Different Dietary Levels of Propolis on Performance , Carcass Characteristics and Immunity Response of Broiler Chickens

Six hundred one-day-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to six groups. Each group was five replicates with 20 birds per replicate. The dietary groups consisted of the supplementation of the basal diet with 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 g/kg diet of propolis. At 42 d. , 10 chickens per each group were selected and slaughtered to determine the carcass characteristics. On d. 21 and 42 two chicks of each replicate were randomly selected and their blood samples were collected. The separated serums by centrifugation were used for antibody titration against Newcastle viruses. The results indicated that birds diet supplementation with propolis increased body weight and feed intake (P<0.05) and also improved feed efficiency (P<0.05) during the experiment. Mortality was significantly greater in the control group than in the experimental groups. The carcass yield values showed significant effects of dietary propolis on the eviscerated carcass percentage. There is significant difference (P<0.05) between antibody content of the serum against Newcastle disease (ND).
ITS1 metabarcoding highlights low specificity of lichen mycobiomes at a local scale

As self‐supporting and long‐living symbiotic structures, lichens provide a habitat for many other organisms beside the traditionally considered lichen symbionts—the myco‐ and the photobionts. The lichen‐inhabiting fungi either develop diagnostic phenotypes or occur asymptomatically. Because the degree of specificity towards the lichen host is poorly known, we studied the diversity of these fungi among neighbouring lichens on rocks in an alpine habitat. Using a sequencing metabarcoding approach, we show that lichen mycobiomes clearly reflect the overlap of multiple ecological sets of taxa, which differ in their trophic association with lichen thalli. The lack of specificity to the lichen mycobiome is further supported by the lack of community structure observed using clustering and ordination methods. The communities encountered across samples largely result from the subsampling of a shared species pool, in which we identify three major ecological components: (i) a generalist environmental pool, (ii) a lichenicolous/endolichenic pool and (iii) a pool of transient species. These taxa majorly belong to the fungal classes Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes and Tremellomycetes with close relatives in adjacent ecological niches. We found no significant evidence that the phenotypically recognized lichenicolous fungi influence the occurrence of the other asymptomatic fungi in the host thalli. We claim that lichens work as suboptimal habitats or as a complex spore and mycelium bank, which modulate and allow the regeneration of local fungal communities. By performing an approach that minimizes ambiguities in the taxonomic assignments of fungi, we present how lichen mycobiomes are also suitable targets for improving bioinformatic analyses of fungal metabarcoding.