Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DIVERSIFYING COEVOLUTION BETWEEN CROSSBILLS AND BLACK SPRUCE ON NEWFOUNDLAND

Abstract Coevolution is increasingly recognized as an important process structuring geographic variation in the form of selection for many populations. Here we consider the importance of a geographic mosaic of coevolution to patterns of crossbill (Loxia) diversity in the northern boreal forests of North America. We examine the relationships between geographic variation in cone morphology, bill morphology, and feeding performance to test the hypothesis that, in the absence of red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), black spruce (Picea mariana) has lost seed defenses directed at Tamiasciurus and that red crossbills (L. curvirostra) and black spruce have coevolved in an evolutionary arms race. Comparisons of cone morphology and several indirect lines of evidence suggest that black spruce has evolved defenses in response to Tamiasciurus on mainland North America but has lost these defenses on Newfoundland. Cone traits that deter crossbills, including thicker scales that require larger forces to separate, are elevated in black spruce on Newfoundland, and larger billed crossbills have higher feeding performances than smaller billed crossbills on black spruce cones from Newfoundland. These results imply that the large bill of the Newfoundland crossbill (L. c. percna) evolved as an adaptation to the elevated cone defenses on Newfoundland and that crossbills and black spruce coevolved in an evolutionary arms race on Newfoundland during the last 9000 years since glaciers retreated. On the mainland where black spruce is not as well defended against crossbills, the small-billed white-winged crossbill (L. leucoptera leucoptera) is more efficient and specializes on seeds in the partially closed cones. Finally, reciprocal adaptations between crossbills and conifers are replicated in black spruce and Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia), with coevolution most pronounced in isolated populations where Tamiasciurus are absent as a competitor. This study further supports the role of Tamiasciurus in determining the selection mosaic for crossbills and suggests that a geographic mosaic of coevolution has been a prominent factor underlying the diversification of North American crossbills.
StORMeD: Stack Overflow Ready Made Data

Stack Overflow is the de facto Question and Answer (Q&A) website for developers, and it has been used in many approaches by software engineering researchers to mine useful data. However, the contents of a Stack Overflow discussion are inherently heterogeneous, mixing natural language, source code, stack traces and configuration files in XML or JSON format. We constructed a full island grammar capable of modeling the set of 700,000 Stack Overflow discussions talking about Java, building a heterogeneous abstract syntax tree (H-AST) of each post (question, answer or comment) in a discussion. The resulting dataset models every Stack Overflow discussion, providing a full H-AST for each type of structured fragment (i.e., JSON, XML, Java, Stack traces), and complementing this information with a set of basic meta-information like term frequency to enable natural language analyses. Our dataset allows the end-user to perform combined analyses of the Stack Overflow by visiting the H-AST of a discussion.
Welded seam 3D calculation and seam location for welding robot system

Using laser scanning techniques, scanning lens rotating around a laser diode and a circular laser trajectory was projected onto the surface of a weldment to detect it. Furthermore, one novel vision sensor based on the circular laser is developed. The three-dimensional (3D), circular laser based seam location sensor is investigated. On the basis of the light path system, 3D calculation algorithm is brought forward and used to locate the welded joint. After image denoise, filter, segmentation and thinning, characteristic points of the welded joint could be detected real time using a proposed vision sensor and confirmed by real experiments of butt welded joints with I groove and V groove, and lap, and fillet and ramp welded joints. The results show that circular laser based vision sensor can be used in seam locating and its calculation precision meets the requirement of seam tracking.
Expression of genes of the cardiac and renal renin–angiotensin systems in preterm piglets: is this system a suitable target for therapeutic intervention?

Objectives: The newborn circulating, cardiac and renal renin–angiotensin systems (RASs) are essential for blood pressure control, and for cardiac and renal development. If cardiac and renal RASs are immature this may contribute to cardiovascular compromise in preterm infants. This study measured mRNA expression of cardiac and renal RAS components in preterm, glucocorticoid (GC) exposed preterm, and term piglets. Methods: Renal and cardiac RAS mRNA levels were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Genes studied were: (pro)renin receptor, renin, angiotensinogen, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), ACE2, angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R) and angiotensin type 2 receptor (AT2R). Results: All the genes studied were expressed in the kidney; neither renin nor AT2R mRNA were detected in the heart. There were no gestational changes in (pro)renin receptor, renin, ACE or AT1R mRNA levels. Right ventricular angiotensinogen mRNA levels in females were lower in preterm animals than at term, and GC exposure increased levels in male piglets. Renal angiotensinogen mRNA levels in female term piglets were lower than females from both preterm groups, and lower than male term piglets. Left ventricular ACE2 mRNA expression was lower in GC treated preterm piglets. Renal AT2R mRNA abundance was highest in GC treated preterm piglets, and the AT1R/AT2R ratio was increased at term. Conclusions: Preterm cardiac and renal RAS mRNA levels were similar to term piglets, suggesting that immaturity of these RASs does not contribute to preterm cardiovascular compromise. Since preterm expression of both renal and cardiac angiotensin II-AT1R is similar to term animals, cardiovascular dysfunction in the sick preterm human neonate might be effectively treated by agents acting on their RASs.
Phase transformations and equilibria of titanium platinum alloys in the composition range 30-50 atomic percent platinum

The Ti-Pt phase binary phase diagram and the corresponding phase transformations in the composition range 30-50 at. % Pt have been investigated using a variety of characterization methods (DTA, SEM and TEM). This study was inspired by ongoing work on some experimental Ti-NiPt and Ti-Pt-Ni-Hf high temperature shape memory alloys that were found to contain unexpected phases not reported previously in such alloys. Furthermore, close analysis of the peritectoid invariant proposed by Biggs et al. revealed a range of confusing and somewhat contradictory results and, as a result, it was decided to attempt to determine the true nature of the diagram in this composition range and to understand the complicating effects of interstitial contamination on the observed microstructures and phase equilibria. The microstructure of as-cast and heat treated alloys contains more than two phases after equilibration treatments suggesting interstitial contamination. In addition, the microstructures revealed that the peritectoid transformation (Ti3Pt+β-TiPt Ti4Pt3) proposed in the literature exists but, because of sluggish transformation kinetics, the actual peritectoid reaction is limited and does not account for the observed DTA peaks that Biggs et al. used to estimate the invariant temperature. Rather, it will be shown that the peaks are due to the transformation of β-TiPt to a lamellar β-TiPt+Ti4Pt3 structure at approximately 1230 ◦C. In addition, a modification to the phase diagram is proposed based on other experimental evidence. Characterization of the various phases observed in the microstructures (using SADP and CBED in the TEM) confirmed the presence of the known phases Ti3Pt and α-TiPt. In addition, a new phase with stoichiometry Ti5Pt3 was observed in both as-cast and heat treated samples. This phase is shown to be stabilized by oxygen and to have a hexagonal structure with lattice parameters a ∼ 8.0 nm and c ∼ 5.0 nm (space group P63/mcm). The Ti4Pt3 phase appears to be a true binary phase that tends to be highly faulted and be structurally related to the Ti5Pt3 phase with a pseudohexagonal structure with a ∼ 7.96 nm and c ∼ 23.6 nm. Detailed electron diffraction evidence
Cannabis consumption and risk of developing schizophrenia: myth or reality?

Cannabis is one of the most popular recreational drugs. The rates of use and dosage, based on the levels of active compounds present in street drugs, is thought to be climbing in the UK and Europe; 40% of 15 years olds in the UK are thought to have tried the drug. There is no dispute that cannabis intoxication can cause brief psychotic episodes or short-term relapse of pre-existing psychotic symptoms (Negrete et al., 1986; Thornicroft,1990; Mathers & Ghodse, 1992). More worryingly, during the past few years a number of studies have indicated that exposure to cannabis is associated with cognitive impairment and the risk (about two fold) of developing psychosis (Ashton, 2002; Iversen, 2003; Arseneault et al., 2004). It is quite surprising that it has taken more than fifteen years to produce public health interest in the association between one of the most widely used psychotropic drugs and one of the most devastating of mental illnesses. In 1987 Andreasson described an association between cannabis use and onset of psychosis (Andreasson et a/., 1987). This landmark cohort-study of 45,000 Swedish male conscripts (representing 97 percent of men age 1820 in the population at that time) and a 15-year follow up, found that heavy use of marijuana at age 18 increased the risk of schizophrenia later in life by six times. There was a dose-response relationship between cannabis use at age eighteen and schizophrenia diagnosis 15 years later.
High-Throughput Semi-Honest Secure Three-Party Computation with an Honest Majority

In this paper, we describe a new information-theoretic protocol (and a computationally-secure variant) for secure three-party computation with an honest majority. The protocol has very minimal computation and communication; for Boolean circuits, each party sends only a single bit for every AND gate (and nothing is sent for XOR gates). Our protocol is (simulation-based) secure in the presence of semi-honest adversaries, and achieves privacy in the client/server model in the presence of malicious adversaries. On a cluster of three 20-core servers with a 10Gbps connection, the implementation of our protocol carries out over 1.3 million AES computations per second, which involves processing over 7 billion gates per second. In addition, we developed a Kerberos extension that replaces the ticket-granting-ticket encryption on the Key Distribution Center (KDC) in MIT-Kerberos with our protocol, using keys/ passwords that are shared between the servers. This enables the use of Kerberos while protecting passwords. Our implementation is able to support a login storm of over 35,000 logins per second, which suffices even for very large organizations. Our work demonstrates that high-throughput secure computation is possible on standard hardware.
Inconsistencies in Semantic Social Web Applications

The semantic social web or web 3.0 is the movement of integrating popular social web (web 2.0) applications with ideas from the semantic web. Techniques like semantic wiki systems, social tagging of weblogs and other web 2.0 applications as well as FOAF (Friend of a Friend) specifications are some of the results of this movement. Since metainformation acquired by such systems depends mostly on the social system interacting with them it is almost certain that inconsistencies will emerge. We analyze the case of a semantic wiki system (TaOPis) dealing mostly with knowledge management and show how this inconsistencies can yield problems for eventual agents searching the dynamic knowledge base. In the end we give some guidelines and possible solutions for avoiding such unwanted behavior.
Preparation and Application of the Amino Silicone Oil / Acrylic Emulsion

To solve the problem of pigment printing’s hard handle and poor fastness, we have synthesized an amino silicone oil / acrylic emulsion blending adhesive to improve the printing handle and fastness in the paper. We studied the synthetic monomers and influencing factors to explore the best synthesis process of the acrylic emulsion polymerization. The synthetic acrylic emulsion and amino silicone were blended to explore the best printing process. We find that the printed fabrics have a good handle and significantly better rubbing fastness.
Nonnegative Rank vs. Binary Rank

Motivated by (and using tools from) communication complexity, we investigate the relationship between the following two ranks of a $0$-$1$ matrix: its nonnegative rank and its binary rank (the $\log$ of the latter being the unambiguous nondeterministic communication complexity). We prove that for partial $0$-$1$ matrices, there can be an exponential separation. For total $0$-$1$ matrices, we show that if the nonnegative rank is at most $3$ then the two ranks are equal, and we show a separation by exhibiting a matrix with nonnegative rank $4$ and binary rank $5$, as well as a family of matrices for which the binary rank is $4/3$ times the nonnegative rank.
Efficient transient rescue of hematopoietic mutant phenotypes in zebrafish using Tol2‐mediated transgenesis

Phenotypic rescue experiments have been commonly used in zebrafish since it is convenient to study the causality of mutant phenotypes just by injecting mRNA into embryos. However, this strategy is only effective for phenotypes at early embryonic stages due to mRNA instability. For later developmental stages, DNA constructs are used to express exogenous genes, while it is usually ineffective owing to the problem of mosaicism. This study attempted to solve the problem by using Tol2‐mediated transgenesis. As a model case, we used vlad tepes (vlt), a zebrafish gata1 mutant, whose phenotypes have never been able to be rescued at later stages by transient rescue experiments. Blood cell‐specific transgenic expression of gata1 was driven by its own promoter/enhancer elements. The co‐injection of a Tol2‐donor plasmid containing gata1 cDNA and transposase mRNA efficiently rescued the bloodless phenotypes of vlt even in day 12 larvae when definitive erythropoiesis took place with primitive erythropoiesis. This Tol2‐mediated rescue is therefore considered to be a quick and easy method for analyzing the mutant phenotypes in zebrafish.
Efficient and Scalable Parallel Algorithm for Sorting Multisets on Multi-core Systems

By distributing adaptively the data blocks to the processing cores to balance their computation loads and applying the strategy of “the extremum of the extremums” to select the data with the same keys, a cache-efficient and thread-level parallel algorithm for sorting Multisets on the multi-core computers is proposed. For the sorting Multisets problem, an aperiodic multi-round data distribution model is presented, which the first round scheduling assigns data blocks into the slave multi-core nodes according to the given distribution order and the other rounds scheduling will distribute data blocks into the slave multi-core nodes by first request first distribution strategy. The scheduling technique can ensure that each slave node can receive the next required data block before it finishes sorting the current data block in its own main memory. A hybrid thread-level and process-level parallel algorithm for sorting Multisets is presented on the heterogeneous cluster with multi-core nodes which have different amount of processing cores, different computation and communication capabilities and distinct size of main memory. The experimental results on the single multi-core computer and the heterogeneous cluster with multi-core computers show that the presented parallel sorting Multisets algorithms are efficient and they obtain good speedup and scalability.
Generation and propagation of epileptiform discharges in a combined entorhinal cortex/hippocampal slice.

1. The development of epileptiform discharges in response to tetanic stimulation of the Schaeffer collaterals was studied by using extracellular field potential recordings in CA1, CA3, dentate gyrus, and entorhinal cortex and intracellular recordings in CA1 neurons in rat hippocampal-parahippocampal slices, which were cut so as to maintain reciprocal connections between entorhinal cortex and hippocampus in vitro. 2. The first type of epileptiform discharge to develop was an immediate afterdischarge, which grew in duration and amplitude with repeated stimulation trains at 10-min intervals, until it plateaued after five to nine trains at 40-s duration, on average. This afterdischarge, when fully developed, consisted of an early, high frequency tonic component, followed by a later, lower frequency clonic component. Fully developed primary afterdischarges were all-or-none, in that they had a definite threshold, and varied little in amplitude or duration when activated by threshold or suprathreshold stimulation. The primary discharge could be recorded simultaneously throughout the hippocampal-parahippocampal slice, providing evidence for the intact reciprocal connections between hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Intracellular recordings in CA1 neurons revealed that during the tonic phase of the afterdischarge, neurons were depolarized by 15-30 mV and gradually repolarized during the clonic component. 3. After full development of the primary afterdischarge, a delayed secondary epileptiform discharge began to appear after five to nine stimulation trains. This late discharge began 2-5 min after the stimulation train and progressed in amplitude and duration with repeated stimulation, in some cases to 2-3 h long self-sustained epileptiform discharges. Like the primary afterdischarge, the secondary discharge could be recorded simultaneously throughout the hippocampal-parahippocampal slice, and individual bursts comprising the secondary discharge occurred at earliest latency in the dentate gyrus, followed by activation in CA3, CA1, and finally in the entorhinal cortex. Intracellular recordings in CA1 neurons established that the secondary discharge occurred without an accompanying depolarization. Rather, it appeared as synaptic bursts developing in an escalating frequency barrage, initiated 2-5 min after the primary afterdischarge. 4. Lesioning studies were conducted to begin determining the site of origin of the secondary epileptiform discharge. After appearance of the secondary discharge, the mossy fibers were cut. This lesion abolished the secondary discharge but did not block the primary afterdischarge. Moving the stimulating electrodes from the Schaeffer collaterals to the mossy fibers proximal to the cut reestablished a truncated secondary discharge. In a second lesioning experiment, a cut was made through the subicular region of the hippocampal-parahippocampal slice before the onset of stimulation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Deployment and Performance Evaluation of a SNAP-based Resource Broker on the White Rose Grid

Resource brokering is an essential component in building effective Grid systems. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of a SNAP (Service Negotiation and Acquisition Protocol) based resource broker on a large distributed Grid infrastructure, the White Rose Grid. The broker uses a three-phase commit protocol to reserve resources on demand, as the traditional advance reservation facilities cannot cater for such needs due to the prior time that it requires to schedule reservations. Experiments are designed and carried out on the White Rose Grid. The experimental results show that the inclusion of the three-phase commit protocol provides a performance enhancement on a large distributed Grid Infrastructure, in terms of the time taken from submission of user requirements until a job begins execution. The results support those previously obtained through the use of mathematical modelling and simulation. The broker is a viable contender for use in future Grid resource brokering implementations.
PAQR3 controls autophagy by integrating AMPK signaling to enhance ATG14L‐associated PI3K activity

The Beclin1–VPS34 complex is recognized as a central node in regulating autophagy via interacting with diverse molecules such as ATG14L for autophagy initiation and UVRAG for autophagosome maturation. However, the underlying molecular mechanism that coordinates the timely activation of VPS34 complex is poorly understood. Here, we identify that PAQR3 governs the preferential formation and activation of ATG14L‐linked VPS34 complex for autophagy initiation via two levels of regulation. Firstly, PAQR3 functions as a scaffold protein that facilitates the formation of ATG14L‐ but not UVRAG‐linked VPS34 complex, leading to elevated capacity of PI(3)P generation ahead of starvation signals. Secondly, AMPK phosphorylates PAQR3 at threonine 32 and switches on PI(3)P production to initiate autophagosome formation swiftly after glucose starvation. Deletion of PAQR3 leads to reduction of exercise‐induced autophagy in mice, accompanied by a certain degree of disaggregation of ATG14L‐associated VPS34 complex. Together, this study uncovers that PAQR3 can not only enhance the capacity of pro‐autophagy class III PI3K due to its scaffold function, but also integrate AMPK signal to activation of ATG14L‐linked VPS34 complex upon glucose starvation.
Numerical Investigation of the Gas Flow Temperature on the Thermoforming and Blow-Molding Processes

In this article, we consider a finite element approach for analysis of the effect of the air flow temperature on the forming of a thin, isotropic, and incompressible thermoplastic membrane. Also, to take into account the enclosed gas volume, responsible for inflation of the thermoplastic membrane, we considered a thermodynamic approach to express external work in terms of a closed volume. The dynamic pressure load is thus deduced from the van der Waals equation of state. The viscoelastic behavior of the K-BKZ model is considered. Numerical validation is performed by comparing the obtained results with the theoretical results for the HDPE grade. Moreover, the effect of the temperature of the gas on the thickness and stress distribution is presented.
The effect of evolution on host-parasitoid systems.

It is well known that a simple first-order difference equation can exhibit complex population dynamics, such as sustained oscillations and chaos. An interesting problem is whether such oscillatory dynamics are expected to occur in real populations. This paper assumes that the resident system is composed of 1-host and 1-parasitoid and that only the host is allowed to evolve, but not the parasitoid. Based on the invasibility of a host to host-parasitoid systems, we investigate the dynamics of the host-parasitoid system favored by natural selection. We consider two cases. In the first case, the host's evolution involving both the intrinsic growth rate and the sensitivity to density is considered. In the second case, the host's evolution involving both the intrinsic growth rate and the vulnerability to the parasitoid is considered. In both cases, we see that the dynamics with a stable equilibrium will not be favored by natural selection without the trade-off between the host's traits which are allowed to evolve. The host-parasitoid system with a stable equilibrium will be eventually invaded by a host type that develops an unstable equilibrium with the parasitoid. If there is a trade-off between the host's traits which are allowed to evolve, a host-parasitoid system with a stable equilibrium can be favored by natural selection.