Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary trade-off between weapons and testes

It has long been recognized that male mating competition is responsible for the evolution of weaponry for mate acquisition. However, when females mate with more than one male, competition between males can continue after mating in the form of sperm competition. Theory predicts that males should increase their investment in sperm production as sperm competition is increased, but it assumes that males face a trade-off between sperm production and other life-history traits such as mate acquisition. Here, we use a genus of horned beetle, Onthophagus, to examine the trade-off between investment in testes required for fertilizations and investment in weapons used to obtain matings. In a within-species study, we prevented males from developing horns and found that these males grew larger and invested relatively more in testes growth than did males allowed to grow horns. Among species, there was no general relationship between the relative sizes of horns and testes. However, the allometric slope of horn size on body size was negatively associated with the allometric slope of testes size on body size. We suggest that this reflects meaningful evolutionary changes in the developmental mechanisms regulating trait growth, specifically in the degree of nutrition-dependent phenotypic plasticity versus canalization of traits. Finally, we show how this resource allocation trade-off has influenced the evolutionary diversification of weapons, revealing a rich interplay between developmental trade-offs and both pre- and postmating mechanisms of sexual competition.
L-PLC Channel Characteristics Prediction Based on SVM

Time series prediction can be a very useful tool in communication to predict the behavior of system. In this paper, support vector machine (SVM) is applied to predict the channel characteristics of low-voltage power line communication (L-PLC), which is a vast infrastructure of power distribution and offers an alternative and cost-effective Internet access technology. Firstly, the largest Lyapunov exponent and the saturated correlation dimension of time series measured from power line are calculated. According to the results, the L-PLC channel is manifested to be a chaotic system. Then, a prediction model of L-PLC channel characteristics is proposed based on phase space reconstruction theory and SVM algorithm. In this paper, the parameters of SVM algorithm are chosen by the minimum mean square error (MSE) principle and the selection principles of parameters are particularly discussed. The actual time series are used in experimental simulations. The simulation results indicate that the prediction model based on SVM can be used to predict L-PLC channel characteristics accurately. In addition, the relations among sampling interval, predicted step and prediction precision are discussed.
On Regional Association Rule Scoping

A special challenge for spatial data mining is that information is not distributed uniformly in spatial data sets. Consequently, the discovery of regional knowledge is of fundamental importance. Unfortunately, regional patterns frequently fail to be discovered due to insuf- ficient global confidence and/or support in traditional association rule mining. Regional association rules, by definition, only hold in a subspace but not in the global space. One novel challenge is how to evaluate the impact of regional association rules. This paper centers on regional association rule scoping. We intro- duce a reward-based region discovery framework that employs clustering to find places where regional asso- ciation rules are valid. We evaluate our approach in a real-world case study to discover arsenic risk zones in the Texas water supply. The experimental results are validated by domain experts and compared with pub- lished results on arsenic contamination.
Using information behaviors to evaluate the functionality and usability of electronic resources: From Ellis's model to evaluation

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Inhibition of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli adhesion to HEp-2 cells by secretory immunoglobulin A from human colostrum

Background. Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is an important agent of the persistent diarrhea among low socioeconomic level children in developing countries that may be associated with chronic undernourishment. Breast-feeding is effective in protecting infants against diarrhea and other infectious diseases. The aim of the study is to verify the ability of human colostrum to inhibit aggregative adhesion of EAEC to HEp-2 cells and the presence of antibodies reactive to antigenic fractions of EAEC in colostrum samples. Methods. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunoblotting and adhesion assays of EAEC to HEp-2 cells were done with pooled or individual colostrum samples (n = 35). Assays were performed with a well-known EAEC strain, O44:H18 E. coli (strain 042). Colostral IgA was isolated by affinity chromatography in Sepharose anti-human alpha chain column. Results. Total colostrum and isolated IgA inhibited EAEC adhesion, and this ability was associated with the presence of IgA antibodies against a 15-kDa band, compatible with the subunits of aggregative adherence fimbrial adhesin II, characteristic of the 042 strain, absent in its plasmid-cured isogenic strain, that was used as control. Individual colostrum samples also inhibited adhesion, showed variable antibody titles against EAEC antigens in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and recognized many antigenic fractions in immunoblotting assays, including the 15-kDa band. Conclusions. These results confirm that IgA from human colostrum inhibits adhesion of EAEC to HEp-2 cells and suggest that colostrum IgA antibodies reactive to EAEC antigens may play a role in protection of infants against diarrhea caused by these bacteria.
IL-22RA2 Associates with Multiple Sclerosis and Macrophage Effector Mechanisms in Experimental Neuroinflammation

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory neurodegenerative disease of the CNS. Recent advances in whole-genome screening tools have enabled discovery of several MS risk genes, the majority of which have known immune-related functions. However, disease heterogeneity and low tissue accessibility hinder functional studies of established MS risk genes. For this reason, the MS model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is often used to study neuroinflammatory disease mechanisms. In this study, we performed high-resolution linkage analysis in a rat advanced intercross line to identify an EAE-regulating quantitative trait locus, Eae29, on rat chromosome 1. Eae29 alleles from the resistant strain both conferred milder EAE and lower production of proinflammatory molecules in macrophages, as demonstrated by the congenic line, DA.PVG-Eae29 (Dc1P). The soluble IL-22R α2 gene (Il-22ra2) lies within the Eae29 locus, and its expression was reduced in Dc1P, both in activated macrophages and splenocytes from immunized rats. Moreover, a single nucleotide polymorphism located at the end of IL-22RA2 associated with MS risk in a combined Swedish and Norwegian cohort comprising 5019 subjects, displaying an odds ratio of 1.26 (p = 8.0 × 10−4). IL-22 and its receptors have been implicated in chronic inflammation, suggesting that IL-22RA2 regulates a central immune pathway. Through a combined approach including genetic and immunological investigation in an animal model and large-scale association studies of MS patients, we establish IL-22RA2 as an MS risk gene.
Evaluation of Methods for Quantitating Left Ventricular Segmental Wall Motion in Man Using Myocardial Markers as a Standard

Radiopaque markers were implanted in the left ventricular myocardial midwall in 58 patients and studied in the 30° right anterior oblique projection by computer-aided fluoroscopy. Marker motion was used as a standard of segmental wall motion against which the accuracy of five methods for measuring left ventricular wall motion was assessed: two methods using hemiaxial measurements in rectangular coordinates, two using radial measurements in polar coordinates (all with frame-by-frame axial reindexing) and one using radial measuremehts in fixed external polar coordinates. The latter method showed significantly les error (25.9%, p < 10–6) in measuring midwall marker motion than the other four methods (range 42.5–47.5%) in the group as a whole and in subgroups that had abnormalities of posterior, apical and anterior wall motion. This method also had the best correlation of marker motion and motion of adjacent endocardial border (of the overall left ventricle and the posterior, apical, and anterior walls separately) as visualized by ventriculography in 29 patients. The bulk of the reduction in error using this method was due to the use of a fixed external reference system, with a small additional increment of error removed by proper selection of the polar origin at a point 69% of the distance from the anterolateral edge of the aortic valve to the ventricular apex at endsystole.
Does Valsalva Maneuver Affect Corneal Morphology in Eyes With Keratoconus?

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the Valsalva maneuver on corneal morphology and anterior chamber parameters in patients with keratoconus. Methods: A total of 39 eyes from 39 patients with keratoconus and 41 eyes from 41 age-matched and gender-matched healthy individuals were included in this cross-sectional study. Measurements of corneal front keratometry values (K-flat, K-steep, and K-max), central corneal thickness, corneal apex thickness, thinnest corneal thickness, corneal volume, anterior chamber volume (ACV), anterior chamber depth (ACD), and iridocorneal angle (ICA) were performed with a Pentacam Scheimpflug camera (Oculus, Germany) before and during the Valsalva maneuver. Changes in the anterior segment parameters from baseline and during the Valsalva maneuver and the differences in parameters between the keratoconus group and the control group were analyzed. A P value less than 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: In the patients with keratoconus, the Valsalva maneuver did not have any significant influence on the corneal parameters (P>0.05). However, ACV, ACD, and ICA decreased markedly during the Valsalva maneuver (P=0.006, P=0.048, and P=0.025, respectively). Changes caused by the Valsalva maneuver were similar for all parameters when compared with those in healthy individuals (P>0.05). Conclusions: During corneal topography imaging, the Valsalva maneuver observed in patients with keratoconus does not typically cause any significant change in corneal morphology.
SemanticTraj: A New Approach to Interacting with Massive Taxi Trajectories

Massive taxi trajectory data is exploited for knowledge discovery in transportation and urban planning. Existing tools typically require users to select and brush geospatial regions on a map when retrieving and exploring taxi trajectories and passenger trips. To answer seemingly simple questions such as “What were the taxi trips starting from Main Street and ending at Wall Street in the morning? ” or “Where are the taxis arriving at the Art Museum at noon typically coming from? ”, tedious and time consuming interactions are usually needed since the numeric GPS points of trajectories are not directly linked to the keywords such as “Main Street”, “Wall Street”, and “Art Museum”. In this paper, we present SemanticTraj, a new method for managing and visualizing taxi trajectory data in an intuitive, semantic rich, and efficient means. With SemanticTraj, domain and public users can find answers to the aforementioned questions easily through direct queries based on the terms. They can also interactively explore the retrieved data in visualizations enhanced by semantic information of the trajectories and trips. In particular, taxi trajectories are converted into taxi documents through a textualization transformation process. This process maps GPS points into a series of street/POI names and pick-up/drop-off locations. It also converts vehicle speeds into user-defined descriptive terms. Then, a corpus of taxi documents is formed and indexed to enable flexible semantic queries over a text search engine. Semantic labels and meta-summaries of the results are integrated with a set of visualizations in a SemanticTraj prototype, which helps users study taxi trajectories quickly and easily. A set of usage scenarios are presented to show the usability of the system. We also collected feedback from domain experts and conducted a preliminary user study to evaluate the visual system.
Regulation of the CYP1A1 Gene by 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin but Not by β-Naphthoflavone or 3-Methylcholanthrene Is Altered in Hepatitis C Virus Replicon-Expressing Cells

Exposure to hepatitis C virus (HCV) can lead to the development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. To examine the effects of long-term HCV infection on hepatic cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) expression and function, we used a human hepatoma cell line expressing the HCV subgenomic replicon (Huh.8) to evaluate CYP1A1 induction by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) ligand, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). In this study, we demonstrate that the induction of CYP1A1 expression in Huh.8 cells by TCDD but not by β-naphthoflavone or 3-methylcholanthrene was significantly diminished. TCDD exposure of Huh.8 cells resulted in greater than 55% suppression of CYP1A1 transcription compared with the parent cell line Huh7, whereas protein levels and enzyme activities were further diminished. Suppression of CYP1A1 mRNA expression in TCDD-treated Huh.8 cells was partially reversed after pretreatment with the antioxidants N-acetylcysteine and nordihydroguaiaretic acid, suggesting a role for oxidative stress. Induced CYP1A1 message, protein, and enzyme activity were partially restored in an Huh7 cell line expressing the HCV replicon containing a deletion in the nonstructural protein NS5A. Furthermore, adenoviral expression of NS5A in Huh7 partially suppressed TCDD-induced CYP1A1 protein and enzyme activity, implicating this protein in the mechanism of suppression. These findings demonstrate that TCDD-mediated AhR signaling is impaired in hepatocytes in which HCV is present and that NS5A alone or in the presence of other nonstructural proteins of the subgenomic replicon is in part responsible.
P-Sensitive K-Anonymity for Social Networks

— The proliferation of social networks, where individuals share private information, has caused, in the last few years, a growth in the volume of sensitive data being stored in these networks. As users subscribe to more services and connect more with their friends, families, and colleagues, the desire to both protect the privacy of the network users and the temptation to extract, analyze, and use this information from the networks have increased. Previous research has looked at anonymizing social network graphs to ensure their k-anonymity in order to protect their nodes against identity disclosure. In this paper we introduce an extension to this k-anonymity model that adds the ability to protect against attribute disclosure. This new model has similar privacy features with the existing p-sensitive k-anonymity model for microdata. We also present a new algorithm for enforcing p-sensitive k-anonymity on social network data based on a greedy clustering approach. To our knowledge, no previous research has been done to deal with preventing against disclosing attribute information that is associated to social networks nodes.
The Effect Of Process Map Design Quality On Process Management Success

Process maps are intensively used by organizations to provide a holistic view of all processes and the relationships between them. They assist in easier navigation through the processes and enable an understanding of the company’s operations without necessarily going into process depth. Regardless of their apparent significance, hardly any research has been done in conceptualizing process map design. In this paper, we bring awareness to this topic, by assessing the compliance of 15 process maps to the nine principles for cognitively effective design of visual notations introduced by Moody (2009). In addition, we employ the cognitive fit theory to verify if the process maps are designed in accordance to the goals companies planned to achieve through BPM. By this means, we were able to reach conclusions, such that a process map that does not comply with the criteria stated by the principles is difficult to interpret, and thereby yields unwanted, unanticipated or no beneficial effects.
In vitro and In vivo Antioxidant, Anti-hyperlipidemic Properties and Chemical Characterization of Centella asiatica (L.) Extract

The study aimed to identify the phenolic compounds present in Centella asiatica (L.) (C. asiatica) extract and evaluate the respective antioxidant potential as well as its cholesterol-lowering effects in the experimental animal model. Herein, the antioxidant potential of extracts was assessed by its free radical scavenging activity such as 2, 2-diphenyl -1- picrylhydrazyl as well as reducing capability. The anti-hyperlipidemic effects of C. asiatica extract (CAE) were evaluated in high cholesterol-fed (HCF) rats for 4 weeks, where different concentrations of extracts (0.25, 0.5, and 1 g/kg/day) were orally administrated daily. Lipid and antioxidant profiles, including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), together with the indices of hepatic functions were also examined. C. asiatica revealed excellent free radical scavenging activity as revealed by 2-2- diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay, with the IC50 values (9.62 ± 0.88 μg/mL). Furthermore, C. asiatica extracts and fenofibrate remarkably lowered the level of TC, TG, LDL-C, and showed elevated levels of HDL-C, SOD. The histopathological observations further demonstrated clear differentiation and structural changes in liver of HCF and CAE treated group. Furthermore, gulonic acid, ferulic acid, kaempferol, chlorogenic acid, and asiatic acid were identified to be the major components which might be responsible for the antioxidant activity of the C. asiatica extract as evidenced from an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometer. Taken together, these results signifies the excellent antioxidant and anti-hyperlipidemic properties of C. asiatica leaf extracts, which might be useful for the treatment of oxidative-stress related diseases such as hyperlipidemia.
Dumoulin Complex and Visual Field Coverage in the Human MT + Visual Field Maps , Population Receptive Field Sizes

[PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , September 29, 2014; . Cereb. Cortex Hiroshi Horiguchi, Brian A. Wandell and Jonathan Winawer A Predominantly Visual Subdivision of The Right Temporo-Parietal Junction (vTPJ) [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , October 27, 2014; . Brain Diego Kaski, Jonathan M. Schott, Jason D. Warren and Sebastian J. Crutch Nicholas, Gerard R. Ridgway, Hannah L. Golden, Elizabeth K. Warrington, Amelia M. Carton, Keir X. X. Yong, Timothy J. Shakespeare, Dave Cash, Susie M. D. Henley, Jennifer M. population Prominent effects and neural correlates of visual crowding in a neurodegenerative disease [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , November , 2014; 24 (11): 2848-2858. Cereb. Cortex Michele Furlan, John P. Wann and Andrew T. Smith A Representation of Changing Heading Direction in Human Cortical Areas pVIP and CSv [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , November 28, 2014; . Brain Sara Ajina, Christopher Kennard, Geraint Rees and Holly Bridge cortex Motion area V5/MT+ response to global motion in the absence of V1 resembles early visual [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , December , 2014; 137 (12): 3284-3299. Brain Diego Kaski, Jonathan M. Schott, Jason D. Warren and Sebastian J. Crutch Nicholas, Gerard R. Ridgway, Hannah L. Golden, Elizabeth K. Warrington, Amelia M. Carton, Keir X. X. Yong, Timothy J. Shakespeare, Dave Cash, Susie M. D. Henley, Jennifer M. population Prominent effects and neural correlates of visual crowding in a neurodegenerative disease
A Bayesian approach using covariance of single nucleotide polymorphism data to detect differences in linkage disequilibrium patterns between groups of individuals

MOTIVATION Quantifying differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) between sub-groups can highlight genetic regions or sites under selection and/or associated with disease, and may have utility in trans-ethnic mapping studies. RESULTS We present a novel pseudo Bayes factor (PBF) approach that assess differences in covariance of genotype frequencies from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from a genome-wide study. The magnitude of the PBF reflects the strength of evidence for a difference, while accounting for the sample size and number of SNPs, without the requirement for permutation testing to establish statistical significance. Application of the PBF to HapMap and Gambian malaria SNP data reveals regional LD differences, some known to be under selection. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The PBF approach has been implemented in the BALD (Bayesian analysis of LD differences) C++ software, and is available from http://homepages.lshtm. ac.uk/tgclark/downloads.
Modeling 3D Facial Shape from DNA

Human facial diversity is substantial, complex, and largely scientifically unexplained. We used spatially dense quasi-landmarks to measure face shape in population samples with mixed West African and European ancestry from three locations (United States, Brazil, and Cape Verde). Using bootstrapped response-based imputation modeling (BRIM), we uncover the relationships between facial variation and the effects of sex, genomic ancestry, and a subset of craniofacial candidate genes. The facial effects of these variables are summarized as response-based imputed predictor (RIP) variables, which are validated using self-reported sex, genomic ancestry, and observer-based facial ratings (femininity and proportional ancestry) and judgments (sex and population group). By jointly modeling sex, genomic ancestry, and genotype, the independent effects of particular alleles on facial features can be uncovered. Results on a set of 20 genes showing significant effects on facial features provide support for this approach as a novel means to identify genes affecting normal-range facial features and for approximating the appearance of a face from genetic markers.
Applying pLSA to region-based image categorization with soft vector quantization

In the last few years, bag of local features has become a popular approach for image categorization and achieved impressive performances. This approach assigns each local feature to a visual word from the visual vocabulary and represent image as a histogram of visual words. And some extensions can further improve bag of local feature approach. For example, probabilistic topic models can be adopted to capture co-occurrences between visual words in the image collection; soft vector quantization can be applied to reduce the information loss in quantization. In despite of its good performance, bag of local features approach does not correspond to human visual perception process, and studies on human perception suggest a region based approach. In this paper, we investigate applying pLSA, a probabilistic topic model, to region-based image classification, and propose two soft vector quantization methods to tackle the small sample problem in visual vocabulary construction. Our experiment indicates that applying pLSA to region-based image categorization with soft vector quantization is an effective approach.