Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dispersal of sibling coalitions promotes helping among immigrants in a cooperatively breeding bird

Kin selection is a major force in social evolution, but dispersal is often assumed to reduce its impact by diluting kinship. In most cooperatively breeding vertebrates, in which more than two individuals care for young, juveniles delay dispersal and become helpers in family groups. In long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus), however, offspring disperse to breed and helpers are failed breeders that preferentially aid kin. Helping also occurs among immigrants, but their origins are unknown and cooperation in these cases is poorly understood. Here, we combine long-term demographic and genetic data from our study population to investigate immigration and helping in this species. We first used a novel application of parentage analysis to discriminate between immigrants and unknown philopatric recruits. We then cross-checked sibship reconstruction with pairwise relatedness estimates to show that immigrants disperse in sibling coalitions and helping among them is kin biased. These results indicate that dispersal need not preclude sociality, and dispersal of kin coalitions may help maintain kin-selected cooperation in the absence of delayed dispersal.
Wideband circularly polarized antenna elements for GPS/GNSS applications developed at DRDC Ottawa

This paper presents several wideband circularly polarized antennas for GPS/GNSS applications that have been developed at Defense Research & Development Canada – Ottawa. Three radiating elements were designed using different technologies. All of them exhibit very good performance in terms of impedance matching, coverage, gain and axial ratio over the entire GNSS frequency band (1.15 GHz to 1.62 GHz). Their characteristics are presented and compared in terms of EM performance and size.
Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriacae: unexpected low prevalence of carriage in elderly French residents.

limited number of patients. Using these limited albuminuria and proteinuria data would have caused substantial selection bias. Second, not all creatinine values were measured by the same laboratory or by the same creatinine assay due to the design of the database, which collects data from practices throughout Flanders. However, all Belgian laboratories are subject to quality control measures (http://www.iph.fgov.be/ ClinBiol/bckb33/activities/external_quality/rapports/_down/ klinische_ chemie/2003/2_CHIMIE.pdf.2009), which diminished the analytical differences among the laboratories. In the period between 1994 and 2008, most laboratories in Belgium used a kinetic Jaffe method without IDMS standardisation. Finally, we used the four variable MDRD equations for the estimation of the GFR. This equation is currently the most used equation but is originally [3] constructed in a population with renal diseases aged younger than 70 years and the number of studies validating this formula in patients aged 70 and over remains limited until now [8]. To conclude the prevalence of CKD in general practice increases with ageing but the prevalence of stages 4 and 5 CKD is limited, even in the oldest of the old. In the subgroup of patients aged 90 years and older more than 40% of the patients had an eGFR ≥60 ml/min. So a large group of patients show no decline or no clinically relevant decline in eGFR with ageing.
Virtual Line-Based Data Dissemination for Mobile Sink Groups in Wireless Sensor Networks

Mobile sink groups such as rescue teams or platoons bring about a new challenging issue for handling mobility in wireless sensor networks. Recently, a flooding-based technique has been proposed to disseminate data to a mobile sinks group. However, since it simply use flooding of data within the sink group region, it leads to high energy consumption of sensor nodes and low data delivery ratio to sinks due to the broadcast storm problem. Thus, this letter proposes a protocol called Virtual Line-based Data Dissemination (VLDD) to achieve energy-efficient and reliable data dissemination. Instead of flooding, VLDD exploits a Virtual Line Structure (VLS) for data storage within the group region. While sources store their own data on the VLS, each sink retrieves data from the VLS at its location in a time of need. Analysis and simulation results show that VLDD achieves better performance than the existing protocol.
HLA Typing – A Comparison of Serology and DNA Techniques

Abstract DNA based HLA typing is fast replacing conventional Microlymphocytotoxicity based method, which has been regarded as the gold standard. Many laboratories in Mumbai have already switched over to molecular methods, as the results are far superior. This study was undertaken to compare the results of generic molecular typing by sequence specific primers (SSP) with that by serology in our laboratory. A pilot study was performed in which available data tissue typing results of 200 patients and their donors were analysed. DNA was extracted from whole blood or buffy coat using QIA amp@ DNA Mini kit from Qiagen (Germany). SSP based low resolution typing was performed for 50 individuals using commercial kits from Biotest (Germany) and Genovision (USA). Microlymphocytotoxicity based tissue typing was also done for twenty individuals using commercial sera, while the remaining were typed by SSP alone. Samples were run in two different time phases labeled in Table as first and second run. DNA quality and quantity was found to be sufficient by the method for tissue typing. Of the pilot study of 200 cases typed earlier by serology, all six HLA antigens were identified only in 40% individuals, with maximum number of blanks in DR typing. DNA typing results were best for class II typing and not very satisfactory for HLA B typing. The results of DR SSP typing were far superior and almost 90% of alleles were identified. The cost of molecular typing was approximately $ 82 – 124 per sample while for serology it was $ 64 – 69. The SSP based HLA typing is an economical, rapid, precise, technically simple and reproducible method. Further the non availability of specific HLA antisera from native populations, large number of blank alleles, and comparable cost of immunomagnetic isolation of B cells, it is suggested that DNA based methods must completely replace serology.
Gamma knife treatment for multiple metastatic brain tumors compared with whole-brain radiation therapy.

OBJECT The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the effectiveness of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) for multiple cerebral metastases with that of whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT). METHODS Ninety-six consecutive patients with cerebral metastases from nonsmall cell lung cancer were treated between 1990 and 1999. The entry criteria were the presence of between one and 10 multiple brain lesions at initial diagnosis, no surgically inaccessible tumors with more than a 30-mm diameter, no carcinomatous meningitis, and more than 2 months of life expectancy. The patients were divided into two groups: the GKS group (62 patients) and the WBRT group (34 patients). In the GKS group, large lesions (> 30 mm) were removed surgically and all other small lesions (< or = 30 mm) were treated by GKS. New distant lesions were treated by repeated GKS without prophylactic WBRT. In the WBRT group, the patients were treated by the traditional combined therapy of WBRT and surgery. In both groups, chemotherapy was administered according to the primary physician's protocol. The two groups did not differ in terms of age, sex, initial Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score, type, lesion number, and size of lesion, systemic control, and chemotherapy. Neurological survival and qualitative survival of the GKS group were longer than those of the WBRT group. In multivariate analysis, significant poor prognostic factors were systemically uncontrolled patients, WBRT group, and poor initial KPS score. CONCLUSIONS Gamma knife radiosurgery without prophylactic WBRT could be a primary choice of treatment for patients with as many as 10 cerebral metastases from nonsmall cell cancer.
Variabilité climatique interannuelle quantifiée à partir de la densité et des isotopes stables de la cellulose du bois

La validation du signal climatique enregistre dans les cernes d'arbres, dans une optique predictive, constitue pour l'IMEP un objectif principal. Depuis peu, le spectre des donnees utilisees a ete etendu aux densites et aux isotopes stables du bois. Cette etude s'inscrit dans ce projet et porte essentiellement sur les aspects methodologiques et la mise en œuvre de ces approches. Le but final consistait a preciser le determinisme de la croissance radiale des arbres qui est largement domine par le climat. Pour cela, quatre objectifs ont ete definis : 1) adapter l'outil statistique des reseaux de neurones a la dendroclimatologie. 2)realiser une calibration des relations cernes/climat a resolution annuelle basee sur l'analyse du delta13C. 3)obtenir, grace a l'analyse densitometrique, une connaissance plus fine de l'impact du climat sur la croissance radiale des arbres que celle fournie par l'analyse de l'epaisseur. 4)estimer l'impact sur la croissance radiale des arbres des changements climatiques globaux consecutifs a l'augmentation de l'effet de serre.
Bandwidth effect on distance error modeling for indoor geolocation

In this paper we introduce a model for the distance error measured from the estimated time of arrival (TOA) of the direct path (DP) between the transmitter and the receiver in a typical multipath indoor environment. We use the results of a calibrated Ray tracing software in a sample office environment. First we divide the whole floor plan into LOS and Obstructed LOS (OLOS), and then we model the distance error in each environment considering the variation of bandwidth of the system. We show that the behavior of the distance error in LOS environment can be modeled as Gaussian, while behavior of the OLOS is a mixture of Gaussian and exponential distribution. We also related the statistics of the distributions to the bandwidth of the system.
Cell transfer printing from patterned poly(ethylene glycol)‐oleyl surfaces to biological hydrogels for rapid and efficient cell micropatterning

Cell transfer printing from patterned poly(ethylene glycol)‐oleyl surfaces onto biological hydrogel sheets is investigated herein, as a new cell stamping method for both cell microarray and tissue engineering. By overlaying a hydrogel sheet on the cells immobilized on the poly(ethylene glycol)‐oleyl surface and successively peeling it off, the immobilized cells were transferred onto a hydrogel sheet because the adhesive interaction between the cells and the hydrogel was stronger than that between the cells and the poly(ethylene glycol)‐oleyl surface. Four types of human cell could be efficiently transferred onto a rigid collagen sheet. The transfer printing ratios, for all cells, were above 80% and achieved within 90 min. A cell microarray was successfully prepared on a collagen gel sheet using the present stamping method. We have also demonstrated that the transferred pattern of endothelial cells is transformed to the patterned tube‐like structure on the reconstituted basement membrane matrix. Finally, the patterns of two types of endothelial cell are shown to be easily prepared on the matrix, and the desired tube‐like structures, including the orderly pattern of the two different cells, were formed spontaneously. Thus, the present poly(ethylene glycol)‐oleyl coated substrates are useful for rapid and efficient cell stamping, in the preparation of multi‐cellular pattern on extracellular matrices. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012;109: 244–251. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Partial rescheduling for permutation flow-shop scheduling subject to a machine breakdown

This paper discusses a permutation flow-shop scheduling problem with efficiency and stability as bi-criterion, where an unforeseen breakdown may happen in a machine during the execution of a long initial schedule. We only concern the situation that the breakdown happens at an earlier time of the execution and a large number of jobs are to be processed after repairing the machine. Instead of traditional full rescheduling and right-shift rescheduling, a partial rescheduling procedure is developed for the permutation flow-shop scheduling problem in this paper, where how to identify a partial rescheduling window and model a local rescheduling sub-problem are important and critical steps. A local objective function for the rescheduling sub-problem, which is the combination of the efficiency for the sub-problem and the total delay of unfinished jobs due to breakdown, is established. An extensive experiment was conducted to compare the partial rescheduling procedure and the right-shift rescheduling procedure. Computational results show that the partial rescheduling can provide a reasonable trade-off between solution quality and computational efforts and greatly improve stability of schedules with little sacrifice in efficiency.
Depression and C-reactive protein in US adults: data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

BACKGROUND The biological mechanisms by which depression might increase risk of cardiovascular disease are not clear. Inflammation may be a key element in the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Our objective was to determine the association between major depression and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level in a nationally representative cohort. METHODS We estimated the odds of elevated CRP level (>0.21 mg/mL) associated with depression in 6914 noninstitutionalized men and women (age, 18-39 years) from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). RESULTS The prevalence of lifetime major depression was 5.7% for men and 11.7% for women. The prevalence of elevated CRP level was 13.7% for men and 27.3% for women. A history of major depression was associated with elevated CRP level (odds ratio [OR], 1.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-2.24). The association between depression and CRP was much stronger among men than among women. Results were adjusted for age, African American race, body mass index, total cholesterol, log triglycerides, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, smoking status, alcohol use, estrogen use in women, aspirin use, ibuprofen use, and self-reported health status. Compared with men without a history of depression, CRP levels were higher among men who had a more recent (within 1 year) episode of depression (adjusted OR, 3.00; 95% CI, 1.39-6.48) and who had recurrent (>or=2 episodes) depression (adjusted OR, 3.55; 95% CI, 1.55-8.14). CONCLUSION Major depression is strongly associated with increased levels of CRP among men and could help explain the increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with depression in men.
Octapeptide repeat insertions increase the rate of protease‐resistant prion protein formation

A central feature of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE or prion diseases) involves the conversion of a normal, protease‐sensitive glycoprotein termed prion protein (PrP‐sen) into a pro‐tease‐resistant form, termed PrP‐res. The N terminus of PrP‐sen has five copies of a repeating eight amino acid sequence (octapeptide repeat). The presence of one to nine extra copies of this motif is associated with a heritable form of Creutzfeld‐Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. An increasing number of octapeptide repeats correlates with earlier CJD onset, suggesting that the rate at which PrP‐sen misfolds into PrP‐res may be influenced by these mutations. In order to determine if octapeptide repeat insertions influence the rate at which PrP‐res is formed, we used a hamster PrP amyloid‐forming peptide (residues 23–144) into which two to 10 extra octapeptide repeats were inserted. The spontaneous formation of protease‐resistant PrP amyloid from these peptides was more rapid in response to an increased number of octapeptide repeats. Furthermore, experiments using full‐length glycosylated hamster PrP‐sen demonstrated that PrP‐res formation also occurred more rapidly from PrP‐sen molecules expressing 10 extra copies of the octapeptide repeat. The rate increase for PrP‐res formation did not appear to be due to any influence of the octapeptide repeat region on PrP structure, but rather to more rapid binding between PrP molecules. Our data from both models support the hypothesis that extra octapeptide repeats in PrP increase the rate at which protease resistant PrP is formed which in turn may affect the rate of disease onset in familial forms of CJD.
Migration of the Relational Data Base (RDB) to the Object Relational Data Base (ORDB)

: This paper proposes an approach for translating an existing relational database (RDB) schema into ORDB. The transition is done with methods that can extract various functions from a RDB which is based on aggregations, associations between the various tables, and the reflexive relationships. These methods can extract even the inheritance knowing that no process of reverse engineering can know that it is an Inheritance, therefore our approach exceeded all of the previous studies made for the transition from RDB to ORDB. In summation, the creation of the New Data Model (NDM) that stocks the RDB in a form of a structured table
Sustainable Organic Waste Management Framework: A Case Study in Minhang District, Shanghai, China

The high rate of population growth along with economic and industrial development especially in city areas have led to significant increase in the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in China. It has been a challenging task for government and municipalities to develop a sustainable solid waste management, especially in the developing countries. Organic waste predominates MSW composition across countries with different level of income. Due to the absence of waste segregation at source, China has 55.86 % of food waste (FW) from MSW with high moisture content. Composting is a viable technology to manage organic waste sustainably by transforming FW into organic fertiliser. This study focuses on the sustainable development of organic waste management model via large-scale FW composting based on a case study in Minhang District, Shanghai, China. The study evaluates the upstream, bio-waste management, and downstream level involved in the organic waste management along with the strategies implemented that will impact the sustainability of the framework, such as waste collection, availability of policy and incentive, the role of authority as well as compost quality and its market. The assessment of the sustainable model of organic waste management can be very beneficial for improving the compost application towards sustainable composting in the developing countries.
Discontinuation of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Pregnancy for Female Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

More than 10 years has passed since the first BCR-ABL Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (TKI), imatinib, introduced into clinical practice in treatment for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). Addition to the development and clinical usage of more potent second generation TKIs, majority of patients with CP-CML can excellently control their disease and enjoy good quality of life. Recent prospective and retrospective discontinuation trials for imatinib suggested that roughly 40% of patients achieved Complete Molecular Response (CMR) for more than 2 years (or 24 months) would continue their CMR without relapse. Three female patients achieved long-term deep molecular response received planned pregnant management involving careful molecular monitoring with or without interefone-α (IFN-α) during her pregnancy after stopping imatinib in our institute. Fortunately all patients delivered healthy babies, however, a patient with Sokal high risk at initially diagnosed lost her molecular, cytogenetic and hematologic response in spite of receiving IFN-α. It would seem reasonable to recommend female patients who wish to become pregnant to wait until they have achieved CMR and sustained this for at least 2 years. Currently the proportion of patients obtaining prolonged and deep MR by treatment with imatinib is less than 10%, however, the use of second generation TKIs as first-line therapy will increase this percentage in near future. And continuing effort should be made to find optimal management for pregnant female patients with CP-CML.
Diseases of calves admitted to a large animal clinic in Saskatchewan.

A retrospective study was conducted on the hospital records of all calves less than two months old admitted to the Large Animal Clinic of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine from January 1, 1969 to May 30, 1972 a period of 41 months. A total of 1,126 calves, on which 1,650 separate clinical and pathological diagnoses were made, was included in the study. The diagnoses were classified into 11 body systems and comprised 174 diagnostic terms. The diagnostic terms which were used are given for all calves under two months of age and then divided into two age groups (1) birth to two weeks, and (2) two weeks to two months.
A Common-Mode Choke Using Toroid-EQ Mixed Structure

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters are main solutions to suppress the conducted emissions from static power converters. For some years, integration techniques for EMI filters have been widely investigated to realize more compact systems. In this letter, a common-mode (CM) choke with toroid-EQ mixed structure is presented. This structure is constituted of a toroidal CM choke embedded into an EQ core. The proposed toroid-EQ CM choke presents threefold advantages. First, it effectively increases the leakage inductance of the toroidal CM choke and hence increases the differential-mode inductance. Second, it reduces the parasitic coupling between the choke and the filter capacitors. Finally, the component can be easily fabricated with low cost. Experimental verifications have been carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed toroid-EQ CM choke.
Kinetics of biodegradation of binary and ternary mixtures of PAHs

The kinetics of biodegradation of mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by Sphingomonas paucimobilis strain EPA505 were investigated. The investigation focused on three‐ and four‐ring PAHs, specifically 2‐methylphenanthrene, fluoranthene, and pyrene. Uptake rates in aerobic batch suspended cultivations were measured for the individual PAHs and their binary and ternary mixtures. It was observed that kinetics were influenced by the mixture composition and the kinetic properties of the components. A material balance equation containing the Monod model was numerically fitted to uptake data to determine extant kinetic parameters for the individual PAHs. Similarly, equations containing kinetic interaction models derived from enzyme kinetics were fitted to the uptake data obtained from experiments with binary and ternary mixtures. The investigation considered the following interaction types: no‐interaction (Monod), pure competitive interaction, noncompetitive or mixed‐type interaction, uncompetitive inhibition, and nonspecific interaction based on pure competition (SKIP). Model fit was evaluated based on probabilistic and statistical criteria and inferences were reached about underlying interaction mechanisms based on model fit. Mixture kinetics were most adequately simulated by the pure competitive interaction model with mutual substrate exclusivity. This model is fully predictive, relying only on parameters determined in the sole‐PAH experiments. It was shown that for low percent inhibition values and with limited data, pure competitive interaction kinetics may not be evident, resembling no‐interaction kinetics. This study is a reasonable starting point for understanding and modeling biodegradation of complex PAH mixtures in engineered and natural systems. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;97: 788–800. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.