Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protozoan Grazing, Bacterial Activity, and Mineralization in Two-Stage Continuous Cultures

In two-stage continuous cultures, at bacterial concentrations, biovolumes, and growth rates similar to values found in Lake Vechten, ingestion rates of heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNAN) increased from 2.3 bacteria HNAN−1 · h−1 at a growth rate of 0.15 day−1 to 9.2 bacteria · HNAN−1 · h−1 at a growth rate of 0.65 day−1. On a yeast extract medium with a C/N/P ratio of 100:15:1.2 (Redfield ratio), a mixed bacterial population showed a yield of 18% (C/C) and a specific carbon content of 211 fg of C · μm−3. The HNAN carbon content and yield were estimated at 127 fg of C · μm−3 and 47% (C/C). Although P was not growth limiting, HNAN accelerated the mineralization of PO4-P from dissolved organic matter by 600%. The major mechanism of P remineralization appeared to be direct consumption of bacteria by HNAN. N mineralization was performed mainly (70%) by bacteria but was increased 30% by HNAN. HNAN did not enhance the decomposition of the relatively mineral-rich dissolved organic matter. An accelerated decomposition of organic carbon by protozoa may be restricted to mineral-poor substrates and may be explained mainly by protozoan nutrient regeneration. Growth and grazing in the cultures were compared with methods for in situ estimates. Thymidine incorporation by actively growing bacteria yielded an empirical conversion factor of 1.1 × 1018 bacteria per mol of thymidine incorporated into DNA. However, nongrowing bacteria also showed considerable incorporation. Protozoan grazing was found to be accurately measured by uptake of fluorescently labeled bacteria, whereas artificial fluorescent microspheres were not ingested, and selective prokaryotic inhibitors blocked not only bacterial growth but also protozoan grazing.
3-D Target Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks Using RSS and AoA Measurements

This paper addresses target localization problems in both noncooperative and cooperative 3-D wireless sensor networks (WSNs), for both cases of known and unknown sensor transmit power, i.e., <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{T}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We employ a hybrid system that fuses distance and angle measurements, extracted from the received signal strength and angle-of-arrival information, respectively. Based on range and angle measurement models, we derive a novel nonconvex estimator based on the least squares criterion. The derived nonconvex estimator tightly approximates the maximum-likelihood estimator for small noise. We then show that the developed estimator can be transformed into a generalized trust region subproblem framework, by following the squared range approach, for noncooperative WSNs. For cooperative WSNs, we show that the estimator can be transformed into a convex problem by applying appropriate semidefinite programming relaxation techniques. Moreover, we show that the generalization of the proposed estimators for known <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{T}$</tex-math></inline-formula> is straightforward to the case where <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{T}$</tex-math></inline-formula> is not known. Our simulation results show that the new estimators have excellent performance and are robust to not knowing <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{T}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. The new estimators for noncooperative localization significantly outperform the existing estimators, and our estimators for cooperative localization show exceptional performance in all considered settings.
Rapid 3D Patterning of Poly(acrylic acid) Ionic Hydrogel for Miniature pH Sensors

Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), as a highly ionic conductive hydrogel, can reversibly swell/deswell according to the surrounding pH conditions. An optical maskless -stereolithography technology is presented to rapidly 3D pattern PAA for device fabrication. A highly sensitive miniature pH sensor is demonstrated by in situ printing of periodic PAA micropads on a tapered optical microfiber.
Household-level disparities in cancer risks from vehicular air pollution in Miami

Environmental justice (EJ) research has relied on ecological analyses of socio-demographic data from areal units to determine if particular populations are disproportionately burdened by toxic risks. This article advances quantitative EJ research by (a) examining whether statistical associations found for geographic units translate to relationships at the household level; (b) testing alternative explanations for distributional injustices never before investigated; and (c) applying a novel statistical technique appropriate for geographically-clustered data. Our study makes these advances by using generalized estimating equations to examine distributive environmental inequities in the Miami (Florida) metropolitan area, based on primary household-level survey data and census block-level cancer risk estimates of hazardous air pollutant (HAP) exposure from on-road mobile emission sources. In addition to modeling determinants of on-road HAP cancer risk among all survey participants, two subgroup models are estimated to examine whether determinants of risk differ based on disadvantaged minority (Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black) versus non-Hispanic white racial/ethnic status. Results reveal multiple determinants of risk exposure disparities. In the model including all survey participants, renter-occupancy, Hispanic and non-Hispanic black race/ethnicity, the desire to live close to work/urban services or public transportation, and higher risk perception are associated with greater on-road HAP cancer risk; the desire to live in an amenity-rich environment is associated with less risk. Divergent subgroup model results shed light on the previously unexamined role of racial/ethnic status in shaping determinants of risk exposures. While lower socioeconomic status and higher risk perception predict significantly greater on-road HAP cancer risk among disadvantaged minorities, the desire to live near work/urban services or public transport predict significantly greater risk among non-Hispanic whites. Findings have important implications for EJ research and practice in Miami and elsewhere.
How many researchers does it take to make impact?: mining software engineering publication data for collaboration insights

In the three and half decades since the inception of organized research publication in software engineering, the discipline has gained a significant maturity. This journey to maturity has been guided by the synergy of ideas, individuals and interactions. In this journey software engineering has evolved into an increasingly empirical discipline. Empirical sciences involve significant collaboration, leading to large teams working on research problems. In this paper we analyze a corpus of 19,000+ papers, written by 21,000+ authors from 16 publication venues between 1975 to 2010, to understand what is the ideal team size that has produced maximum impact in software engineering research, and whether researchers in software engineering have maintained the same co-authorship relations over long periods of time as a means of achieving research impact.
Functional Screening Assays with Neurons Generated from Pluripotent Stem Cell–Derived Neural Stem Cells

Rapid and effective drug discovery for neurodegenerative disease is currently impeded by an inability to source primary neural cells for high-throughput and phenotypic screens. This limitation can be addressed through the use of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which can be derived from patient-specific samples and differentiated to neural cells for use in identifying novel compounds for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. We have developed an efficient protocol to culture pure populations of neurons, as confirmed by gene expression analysis, in the 96-well format necessary for screens. These differentiated neurons were subjected to viability assays to illustrate their potential in future high-throughput screens. We have also shown that organelles such as nuclei and mitochondria could be live-labeled and visualized through fluorescence, suggesting that we should be able to monitor subcellular phenotypic changes. Neurons derived from a green fluorescent protein–expressing reporter line of PSCs were live-imaged to assess markers of neuronal maturation such as neurite length and co-cultured with astrocytes to demonstrate further maturation. These studies confirm that PSC-derived neurons can be used effectively in viability and functional assays and pave the way for high-throughput screens on neurons derived from patients with neurodegenerative disorders.
Location deployment of depots and resource relocation for connected car-sharing systems through mobile edge computing

Mobile edge computing supports the connected cars to ensure real-time, interactive, secured, and distributed services for customers. Connected car-sharing systems, as the promising appliance of connected cars, provide a convenient transportation mode for citizens’ intra-urban commutes. Determining the locations of depots is the primary job in connected car-sharing systems. Existing methods mainly use qualitative method and do not consider spatial–temporal dynamic travel demands. This article proposes a mobile edge computing–based connected car framework which uses normal taxis as connected cars to describe their Global Positioning System trajectory and perform the computing tasks in each mobile edge computing server independently. A spatial–temporal demand coverage approach is developed to optimize the location of depots. This article proposes a deep learning method to predict car-sharing demand constructed by a stacked auto-encoder model and a logistic regression layer. The stacked auto-encoder model is employed for learning the latent spatial and temporal correlation features of demand. A graph-based resource relocation model is proposed to minimize the cost of relocation considering spatio-temporal variation of car-sharing demand. Experiments performed on the large-scale real-world data sets illustrate that our proposed model has superior performance than existing methods.
Effect of leukocyte telomere length on total and regional brain volumes in a large population-based cohort.

IMPORTANCE Telomere length has been associated with dementia and psychological stress, but its relationship with human brain size is unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine if peripheral blood telomere length is associated with brain volume. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length and brain volumes were measured for 1960 individuals in the Dallas Heart Study, a population-based, probability sample of Dallas County, Texas, residents, with a median (25th-75th percentile) age of 50 (42-58) years. Global and 48 regional brain volumes were assessed from the automated analysis of magnetic resonance imaging. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Telomere length and global and regional brain volumes. RESULTS Leukocyte telomere length was associated with total cerebral volume (β [SE], 0.06 [0.01], P <.001) including white and cortical gray matter volume (β [SE], 0.04 [0.01], P = .002; β [SE], 0.07 [0.02], P <.001, respectively), independent of age, sex, ethnicity, and total intracranial volume. While age was associated with the size of most subsegmental regions of the cerebral cortex, telomere length was associated with certain subsegmental regions. Compared with age, telomere length (TL) explained a sizeable proportion of the variance in volume of the hippocampus, amygdala, and inferior temporal region (hippocampus: βTL [SE], 0.08 [0.02], R2, 0.91% vs βage [SE], -0.16 [0.02], R2, 3.80%; amygdala: βTL [SE], 0.08 [0.02], R2, 0.78% vs βage [SE],-0.19 [0.02], R2,4.63%; inferior temporal: βTL [SE], 0.07 [0.02], R2, 0.92% vs βage [SE], -0.14 [0.02], R2, 3.98%) (P <.001 for all). The association of telomere length and the size of the inferior and superior parietal, hippocampus, and fusiform regions was stronger in individuals older than 50 years than younger individuals (inferior parietal: β>50 [SE], 0.13 [0.03], P <.001 vs β≤50 [SE], 0.02 [0.02], P = .51, P for interaction = .001; superior parietal: β>50 [SE], 0.11 [0.03], P <.001 vs β≤50 [SE], 0.01 [0.02], P = .71, P for interaction = .004; hippocampus: β>50 [SE], 0.10 [0.03], P = .004 vs β≤50 [SE], 0.05 [0.02], P = .07, P for interaction = .04; fusiform: β>50 [SE], 0.09 [0.03], P = .002, β≤50 [SE], 0.03 [0.02], P = .31, P for interaction = .03). The volume of the hippocampus, amygdala, superior and inferior temporal, precuneus, lateral orbitofrontal, posterior cingulate, thalamus and ventral diencephalon were independently associated with telomere length after adjustment for all covariates (age, gender, ethnicity, total intracranial volume, body mass index, blood pressure, diabetes, smoking status, and APOE genotype). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to date to evaluate telomere length as an independent predictor of global and regional brain size. Future studies are needed to determine how telomere length and anatomic structural changes are related to cognitive function, dementia, and psychological disease.
New in silico and conventional in vitro approaches to advance HIV drug discovery and design

Introduction: Recently, the new concept of the long-range intermolecular interactions in biological systems has been proposed. Combined use of molecular modeling techniques and the screening techniques based on the long-range interaction concept could significantly improve and accelerate discovery of new HIV drugs. However, any hit identified in silico needs to be characterized with respect to its biological target by enzymatic studies. Combined use of the in silico screening and the enzymatic studies allows an efficient selection of new anti-HIV drugs. Areas covered: The focus of this article is on the in silico screening of molecular libraries for candidate new HIV drugs, which is based on the molecular descriptors determining the long-range interaction between the drugs and their therapeutic target. This article also reviews the techniques for enzyme kinetic studies which are required for optimization of in silico selected candidate anti-HIV drugs. Expert opinion: The novel approach of combining in silico screening techniques with enzymatic studies enables the accurate measurement of the quantitative descriptors of ligand–enzyme interactions. This novel method is a powerful tool for new anti-HIV drug discovery which can also reduce the drug development costs.
Better patient knowledge and worse treatment outcome after written patient information in inpatient cognitive behaviour therapy as compared to non-informed patients

Abstract Patient information and education is an important task in medicine in general and psychotherapy in particular. This can be done verbally but also by written materials (bibliotherapy). Cognitive behaviour therapists from an inpatient department of behavioural medicine were provided with specially developed brochures on phobia, general anxiety, hypochondriasis, cognition and emotion, coping, and chronic illness, which they could use to their discretion in the treatment of their patients, who had been randomized either to a bibliotherapy group (n = 196) or a control group (n = 181). At the end of the treatment, patients in the bibliotherapy group showed significantly better health knowledge than control group patients. Patients with less education showed the biggest increase. Indicators of the treatment process showed for the bibliotherapy group less understanding of the illness and treatment process, less mutual understanding, less well-being during the session, and sympathy. At the end of the treatment patients and therapists alike rated the outcome in the bibliotherapy group less favourable than in the control group. The conclusion is that patient information can have side effects, which should get proper attention in research and clinical practice.
Video based Swimming Analysis for Fast Feedback

This paper proposes a digital camera based swimming analysis system for athletic use with a low budget. The recreational usage is possible during the analysis phase, and no alterations of the pool environment are needed. The system is of minimum complexity, has a real-time feedback mode, uses only underwater cameras, is flexible and can be installed in many types of public swimming pools. Possibly inaccurate camera placement poses no problem. Both commercially available and tailor made software were utilized for video signal collection and computational analysis and for providing a fast visual feedback for swimmers to improve the athletic performance. The small number of cameras with a narrow overlapping view makes the conventional stereo calibration inaccurate and a direct planar calibration method is proposed in this paper instead. The calibration method is presented and its accuracy is evaluated. The quick feedback is a key issue in improving the athletic performance. We have developed two indicators, which are easy to visualize. The first one is the swimming speed measured from the video signal by tracking a marker band at the waist of the swimmer, another one is the rudimentary swimming cycle analysis focusing to the regularity of the cycle.
A new PCR‐based approach to a fast search of a wide spectrum of cry genes from Bacillus thuringiensis strains

A pair of highly degenerated primers was adapted to carry out a single‐step PCR‐detection of any known and probably unknown cry genes of classes cry1, cry4 and cry9 encoding for 130 kDa protein δ‐endotoxins in the natural Bacillus thuringiensis i(BT) strains. The Southern hybridization of the product has demonstrated that essentially remote cry‐genes like cry1Aa and cry9A (cryIG) could be represented in the single amplificate if they are simultaneously present in the genome of the analyzed strain.
Blind Regression : Understanding Collaborative Filtering from Matrix Completion to Tensor Completion

Neighborhood-based Collaborative filtering (CF) methods have proven to be successful in practice and are widely applied in commercial recommendation systems. Yet theoretical understanding of their performance is lacking. In this work, we introduce a new framework of Blind Regression which assumes that there are latent features associated with input variables, and we observe outputs of some Lipschitz continuous function over those unobserved features. We apply our framework to the problem of matrix completion and give a nonparametric method which, similar to CF, combines the local estimates according to the distance between the neighbors. We use the sample variance of the difference in ratings between neighbors as the proximity of the distance. Through error analysis, we show that the minimum sample variance is a good proxy of the prediction error in the estimates. Experiments on real-world datasets suggests that our matrix completion algorithm outperforms classic user-user and item-item CF approaches. Finally, our framework easily extends to the setting of higher-order tensors and we present our algorithm for tensor completion. The result from real-world application of image inpainting demonstrates that our method is competitive with the state-of-the-art tensor factorization approaches in terms of predictive performance. Thesis Supervisor: Devavrat Shah Title: Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The impact of stroke: are people with aphasia different to those without?

Purpose. Stroke rehabilitation programmes aim to improve functional outcomes and quality of life. This study explored long-term outcomes in a cohort of people admitted to two acute stroke units with stroke. Comparisons were drawn between people with aphasia (PWA) and people without aphasia. Methods. People admitted to hospital with a first stroke were assessed at 2-weeks, 3-months and 6-months post-stroke. Measures included: the Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living (ADL), the Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test, the General Health Questionnaire-12 for emotional well-being and the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39g. Extended ADL and social support were also measured at 3 and 6 months, with the Frenchay Activities Index and the Social Support Survey, respectively. Results. Of 126 eligible participants, 96(76%) took part and 87(69%) were able to self-report. Self-report data are reported here. Although outcomes improved significantly across time, at 6 months people continued to experience substantial functional limitations (16% aphasic; 32% dependent on basic ADL); participation limitations (79% ≤30 on the FAI); high psychological distress (45%) and compromised quality of life (54% ≤4 on the SAQOL-39g). Levels of social support remained relatively stable. Though at 3-months post-stroke PWA were significantly more likely to experience high psychological distress (93% versus 50% for those without), across time, there were no significant differences between PWA and those without on psychological distress and also ADL and social support. There were, however, significant differences on extended ADL (F(1,68) = 7.80, p < 0.01) and quality of life (F(1,69) = 6.30, p < 0.05). Conclusion. PWA participated in fewer activities and reported worse quality of life after stroke than people without aphasia, even when their physical abilities, well-being and social support were comparable. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.
Anti‐hypercholesterolemic Effect of Melatonin in Rats

The effects on plasma lipids of daily intraperitoneal injections of 4mg of melatonin (N‐acetyl‐5‐methoxytrypt‐amine) for 10 27 day periods were examined biochemically and morphologically in rats fed regular and high‐cholesterol (1% cholesterol, 0.5% cholic acid) diets. Melatonin administration had no significant effect on plasma lipids and lipoproteins in the rats on a normal diet but blunted the effects of a high‐cholesterol diet on these parameters. No effects of melatonin on lipase activity were noted. Melatonin also diminished the fatty infiltration in the liver of animals on the high‐cholesterol diet. The high‐cholesterol diet produced major increases in VLDL and LDL cholesterol and protein content, and decreases in HDL cholesterol and protein. Melatonin decreased the extent of this plasma lipoprotein increase, although it did not completely prevent the phenomenon. Therefore, the effect is thought to be quantitative and not quantitative in nature. Acta Pathol Jpn 39: 613‐618, 1989.
The Impact of Title IX on Athletics Development in the United States

Nothing has had as much of an impact in the history of public education as Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972. The increase in the popularity of collegiate sports, especially the revenue sports (football, basketball), has made Title IX and Athletics a hot topic. However, many members of the Title IX generations do not have a clear picture or fully understand the true meaning behind Title IX. This paper tries to close this gap by explaining the relationship between Title IX and Athletics in a timeline format: the birth of Title IX in 1972; Title IX and Athletics in the 1970s; Policy Interpretation and the threepart compliance test applied by H.E. W. to intercollegiate athletic in 1979; three important court cases in the 1990s; and the current progress of Title IX in Athletics.