Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local population density and group composition influence the signal‐preference relationship in Enchenopa treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)

Many animals exhibit social plasticity – changes in phenotype or behaviour in response to experience with conspecifics that change how evolutionary processes like sexual selection play out. Here, we asked whether social plasticity arising from variation in local population density in male advertisement signals and female mate preferences influences the form of sexual selection. We manipulated local density and determined whether this changed how the distribution of male signals overlapped with female preferences – the signal preference relationship. We specifically look at the shape of female mate preference functions, which, when compared to signal distributions, provide hypotheses about the form of sexual selection. We used Enchenopa binotata treehoppers, a group of plant‐feeding insects that exhibit natural variation in local densities across individual host plants, populations, species and years. We measured male signal frequency and female preference functions across the density treatments. We found that male signals varied across local social groups, but not according to local density. By contrast, female preferences varied with local density – favouring higher signal frequencies in denser environments. Thus, local density changes the signal–preference relationship and, consequently, the expected form of sexual selection. We found no influence of sex ratio on the signal–preference relationship. Our findings suggest that plasticity arising from variation in local group density and composition can alter the form of sexual selection with potentially important consequences both for the maintenance of variation and for speciation.
Containment Policies for Transmissible Diseases

1. ABSTRACT Till date, there have been several cases of H5N1 inuenza virus outbreak in avian populations. It is speculated that the mutations in highly unstable inuenza virus represents a serious transmissible pandemic threat. Therefore, it is essential to be prepared for such a sudden and fatal transmissible disease outbreak. In this paper, we propose several strategies to curb such transmissible diseases from spreading. Our policies identies individuals and locations which play a vital role in spreading the disease. Our analysis is based on simulation data generated by Episims system. We model this data as People-People Contact Network and PeopleLocations Activity Graph. We also evaluate our proposed strategies under two practical constraints viz. limited number of anti-viral drugs and the delay in implementation of containment policies.
Dynamicvoltage and frequency scaling scheduling algorithm for mixed task set

Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is one of the popular energy conservation techniques for battery operated real-time and embedded systems. This paper presents EEDVFS, an energy efficient DVFS scheduling algorithm for mixed task set. EEDVFS is a variant of Earliest Deadline First (EDF) based Deferrable Server (DS). Experimental results show that EEDVFS reduces energy consumption without compromising on periodic task deadlines and aperiodic task responsiveness. The results of EEDVFS are compared with non-DVFS EDF version of DS upon various performance metrics such as energy consumption, average response time, latency, preemption count and number of decision points. EEDVFS offers 54% energy saving in comparison with the non-DVFS EDF based DS algorithm.
Antecedents to boundary‐spanner perceived organizational support

Owing to their growing numbers and importance, both managers and researchers are increasingly concerned with the work experiences of boundary‐spanning employees. Employee perceptions of organizational support (POS) may be particularly relevant to this crucial employee group. Thus reports a study of the relations between two individual‐level and two organizational‐level antecedents to boundary‐spanner POS. The results indicate that employee gender, amount of formal organizational recognition received, and the quality of task‐related training are associated with POS. However, type of employee pay plan is not. Concludes with a discussion of these findings and their implications for effectively managing boundary‐spanning employee POS.
Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation Based Model Selection Criteria for Weighted LS-SVMs

While the model parameters of many kernel learning methods are given by the solution of a convex optimisation problem, the selection of good values for the kernel and regularisation parameters, i.e. model selection, is much less straight-forward. This paper describes a simple and efficient approach to model selection for weighted least-squares support vector machines, and compares a variety of model selection criteria based on leave-one-out cross-validation. An external cross-validation procedure is used for performance estimation, with model selection performed independently in each fold to avoid selection bias. The best entry based on these methods was ranked in joint first place in the WCCI-2006 performance prediction challenge, demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach.
From DBpedia to Wikipedia: Filling the Gap by Discovering Wikipedia Conventions

Many relations existing in DBpedia are missing in Wikipedia yielding up an information gap between the semantic web and the social web. Inserting these missing relations requires to automatically discover Wikipedia conventions. From pairs linked by a property p in DBpedia, we find path queries that link the same pairs in Wikipedia. We make the hypothesis that the shortest path query with maximal containment captures the Wikipedia convention for p. We computed missing links and conventions for different DBpedia queries. Next, we inserted some missing links according to computed conventions in Wikipedia and evaluated Wikipedians feedback. Nearly all contributions has been accepted. In this paper, we detail the path indexing algorithms, the results of evaluations and give some details about social feedback.
Molecular cloning of Sia alpha 2,3Gal beta 1,4GlcNAc alpha 2,8-sialyltransferase from mouse brain.

A cDNA encoding a new alpha 2,8-sialyltransferase (ST8Sia III), which exhibits activity toward the Sia alpha 2,3Gal beta 1, 4GlcNAc sequences of N-linked oligosaccharides, was cloned from mouse brain by means of the polymerase chain reaction-based approach. The predicted amino acid sequence of ST8Sia III showed 27.6 and 34.4% identity with those of so far cloned mouse alpha 2,8-sialyltransferases, i.e. GD3 synthase (ST8Sia I) and STX (ST8Sia II), respectively. Transfection of the protein A-fused ST8Sia III gene into COS-7 cells led to alpha 2,8-sialyltransferase activity toward sialylated glycoproteins and alpha 2,3-sialylated glycosphingolipids, such as alpha 2,3-sialylparagloboside and GM3. However, the kinetic properties of ST8Sia III revealed that it is much more specific to N-linked oligosaccharides of glycoproteins than glycosphingolipids. The expression pattern of the ST8Sia III gene was clearly different from those of other alpha 2,8-sialyltransferase genes. The expression of the ST8Sia III gene was tissue and stage specific. The ST8Sia III gene was expressed only in brain and testis, and it appeared first in 20 postcoitum embryonal brain and then decreased. Therefore, the new alpha 2,8-sialyltransferase is closely involved in brain development.
12 Angry Men:

This article describes the use of selected vignettes from the updated version of the film 12 Angry Men in a facilitated discussion to teach the principles of dialogue. Dialogue is a process for transforming traditional conversation—characterized by defensive routines, agendas, and ineffective listening practices—into a communication strategy that can help individuals and organizations. The exercise may be tailored for use with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as practicing managers and executives, to illustrate barriers to effective communication and decision making and to identify strategies to overcome those barriers.
Genetic and environmental influence on thyroid gland volume and thickness of thyroid isthmus: a twin study.

OBJECTIVES Decreased thyroid volume has been related to increased prevalence of thyroid cancer. SUBJECTS AND METHODS One hundred and fourteen Hungarian adult twin pairs (69 monozygotic, 45 dizygotic) with or without known thyroid disorders underwent thyroid ultrasound. Thickness of the thyroid isthmus was measured at the thickest portion of the gland in the midline using electronic calipers at the time of scanning. Volume of the thyroid lobe was computed according to the following formula: thyroid height*width*depth*correction factor (0.63). RESULTS Age-, sex-, body mass index- and smoking-adjusted heritability of the thickness of thyroid isthmus was 50% (95% confidence interval [CI], 35 to 66%). Neither left nor right thyroid volume showed additive genetic effects, but shared environments were 68% (95% CI, 48 to 80%) and 79% (95% CI, 72 to 87%), respectively. Magnitudes of monozygotic and dizygotic co-twin correlations were not substantially impacted by the correction of covariates of body mass index and smoking. Unshared environmental effects showed a moderate influence on dependent parameters (24-50%). CONCLUSIONS Our analysis support that familial factors are important for thyroid measures in a general twin population. A larger sample size is needed to show whether this is because of common environmental (e.g. intrauterine effects, regional nutrition habits, iodine supply) or genetic effects.
Effects of an adaptation training programme for patients with end-stage renal disease.

AIMS This paper reports a study investigating the effectiveness of an adaptation training programme (ATP) to help patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to cope with illness-related stresses and, thus, to alleviate depression and improve quality of life. BACKGROUND Patients with ESRD who receive dialysis must confront the burdens of long-term illness and numerous treatment-associated stressors. The ability of these patients to cope with and adapt to these stresses, whether related to their medical regimen or to the demands of daily life, has an important influence on physical and psychological well-being. METHODS The study was a randomized controlled trial using a convenience sample of 57 eligible, fully informed and consenting patients with ESRD who were assigned to experimental (ATP plus usual care) or control (usual care) groups. Participants in the ATP took part in weekly small group sessions over an 8-week period and monthly follow-up to help them to cope with stressors. A clinical nurse specialist and an experienced psychotherapist led them in three small groups (8-10 per group). Participants in the usual care group received routine care. Instruments comprised the Haemodialysis Stressor Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and Medical Outcomes Study SF-36. Data were collected at baseline and at three months following the intervention. RESULTS The major stressors for these patients were limitations on time and place related to employment, limitations on fluid intake, transport difficulties, loss of bodily function, length of dialysis treatment, and limitation of physical activities. The ATP had a beneficial effect on perceived stress (P = 0.005), depression (P = 0.001) and quality of life (P = 0.02) 3 months after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the effectiveness of an ATP to decrease stress and depression levels, and to improve the quality of life of ATP patients receiving haemodialysis.
Distancing oneself from a poor season: Divestment of athletic identity

Abstract Athletes can experience loss in the form of chronic competitive failure, deselection, injury, and sport career termination. Reactions to these losses may affect and be affected by athletes' self-identity. Although the self has generally been conceptualized as stable in sport-related research, there are compelling theoretical and empirical reasons to expect that aspects of the self may vary across sport situations. In this investigation, two studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that sport participants would reduce their self-identification with the athlete role in response to the personal loss resulting from a poor competitive season. Male intercollegiate athletes completed preseason and late season assessments of athletic identity in both Study 1 and Study 2. As predicted, participants who were not satisfied with their performances during the season tended to decrease their athletic identity to a greater extent than participants who were satisfied with their performances during the seaso.
Prehospital Lactate Measurement by Emergency Medical Services in Patients Meeting Sepsis Criteria

Introduction We aimed to pilot test the delivery of sepsis education to emergency medical services (EMS) providers and the feasibility of equipping them with temporal artery thermometers (TATs) and handheld lactate meters to aid in the prehospital recognition of sepsis. Methods This study used a convenience sample of prehospital patients meeting established criteria for sepsis. Paramedics received education on systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria, were trained in the use of TATs and hand-held lactate meters, and enrolled patients who had a recent history of infection, met ≥ 2 SIRS criteria, and were being transported to a participating hospital. Blood lactate was measured by paramedics in the prehospital setting and again in the emergency department (ED) via usual care. Paramedics entered data using an online database accessible at the point of care. Results Prehospital lactate values obtained by paramedics ranged from 0.8 to 9.8 mmol/L, and an elevated lactate (i.e. ≥ 4.0) was documented in 13 of 112 enrolled patients (12%). The unadjusted correlation of prehospital and ED lactate values was 0.57 (p< 0.001). The median interval between paramedic assessment of blood lactate and the electronic posting of the ED-measured lactate value in the hospital record was 111 minutes. Overall, 91 patients (81%) were hospitalized after ED evaluation, 27 (24%) were ultimately diagnosed with sepsis, and 3 (3%) died during hospitalization. Subjects with elevated prehospital lactate were somewhat more likely to have been admitted to the intensive care unit (23% vs 15%) and to have been diagnosed with sepsis (38% vs 22%) than those with normal lactate levels, but these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion In this pilot, EMS use of a combination of objective SIRS criteria, subjective assessment of infection, and blood lactate measurements did not achieve a level of diagnostic accuracy for sepsis that would warrant hospital prenotification and committed resources at a receiving hospital based on EMS assessment alone. Nevertheless, this work provides an early model for increasing EMS awareness and the implementation of novel devices that may enhance the prehospital assessment for sepsis. Additional translational research studies with larger numbers of patients and more robust methods are needed.
Noise robust speech parameterization based on joint wavelet packet decomposition and autoregressive modeling

In this paper a noise robust feature extraction algorithm using joint wavelet packet decomposition (WPD) and an autoregressive (AR) modeling of the speech signal is presented. In opposition to the short time Fourier transform (STFT) based time-frequency signal representation, a computationally efficient WPD can lead to better representation of non-stationary parts of the speech signal (consonants). The vowels are well described with an AR model like in LPC analysis. The separately extracted WPD and AR based features are combined together with the usage of modified principal component analysis (PCA) and voiced/unvoiced decision to produce final output feature vector. The noise robustness is improved with the application of the proposed wavelet based denoising algorithm with the modified soft thresholding procedure and the voice activity detection. Speech recognition results on Aurora 3 databases show performance improvement of 47.6 % relative to the standard MFCC front-end.
Full Optimizer for Designing Photonic Crystal Waveguides: IMoMIR Framework

This letter proposes a full optimizer framework (IMoMIR framework) for designing photonic crystal waveguide (PCW). In this framework, three main issues of PCWs operation [group index, bandwidth, and group velocity dispersion (GVD)] are considered and optimized simultaneously. In other words, multi-objective optimization is performed to maximize the group index and bandwidth, while minimizing the |GVD|. Since these three objectives are in conflict, the proposed framework finds the specific designs with considering all objectives, the so-called Pareto-optimal solutions. In addition, the band-mixing phenomenon is avoided during the optimization process. The merits of the proposed framework is demonstrated by designing an oval-shaped-hole PCW. The results show that the IMoMIR framework is able to determine a diverse range of PCWs that completely outperform the current PCW structure in the literature.
Efficient Contention Resolution in Highly Dense LTE Networks for Machine Type Communications

In this paper, we propose a solution to efficiently handle the initial access contention for highly dense LTE networks, which still represents a challenge in terms of the high number of devices associated to Machine Type Communications. The analysis is based on the fact that, as the radius of a LTE cell is larger, the number of available preambles generated from a single root sequence is reduced. The current access mechanism, based on frame-slotted ALOHA, does not operate efficiently under these conditions, negatively affecting the access delay and collision probability. We show how the access procedure can be improved by implementing tree-splitting algorithms in order to cope with high number of simultaneous arrivals in large cells, above 5 km in radius. The implementation achieves as much as 85% reduction on the access delay and 54% reduction on energy consumption for cells with radius larger than 39 km.
Induction by lysophosphatidylcholine, a major phospholipid component of atherogenic lipoproteins, of human coronary artery smooth muscle cell migration.

BACKGROUND The objectives of the present study were (1) to determine whether lysophosphatidylcholine (lyso-PC), a prominent component of oxidatively modified LDL, induces migration of human coronary artery smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and, if so, to clarify the mechanism, and (2) to investigate the possible interactions of lyso-PC and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB, endothelin- (ET-1), adrenomedullin (AM), or vitamin E on SMC migration by the Boyden's chamber method. METHODS AND RESULTS Lyso-PC induced SMC migration in a concentration-dependent manner between 10(-6) and 5 x 10(-5) mol/L. By contrast, phosphatidylcholine was without significant activity, and lysophosphatidylinositol and lysophosphatidylserine were much less effective than lyso-PC. Lyso-PC increased basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) production in a concentration-dependent manner between 10(-6) and 5 x 10(-5) mol/L in these cells. Furthermore, lyso-PC-induced SMC migration was inhibited by neutralizing antibody to bFGF but not by neutralizing antibody to transforming growth factor-beta1. Lyso-PC-induced migration was significantly enhanced by PDGF-BB or ET-1 but was clearly inhibited by human AM and vitamin E. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that (1) lyso-PC induces human coronary artery SMC migration at least in part through release of endogenous bFGF and (2) this lyso-PC-induced migration can be further induced by PDGF-BB and ET-1 and can be inhibited by human AM and vitamin E. Lyso-PC may recruit medial SMCs during the process of coronary atherosclerosis in part by releasing bFGF in concert with PDGF-BB or ET-1 in vascular tissues. This lyso-PC-induced SMC migration may be suppressed by AM and vitamin E under certain pathological conditions.
Fostering Meaning, Purpose, and Enduring Commitments to Community Service in College: A Multidimensional Conceptual Model

Using longitudinal data collected as part of the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, this study employed structural equation modeling to examine how multiple dimensions of college students' service participation shape life goals oriented toward meaning, purpose, and citizenship and subsequent service engagement. The findings suggest that life goals and subsequent service participation are a function of students' citizenship predispositions, the intensity and context of service involvement, and, importantly, the benefits that students derive from their service participation. Becoming a more compassionate and socially aware person as a result of service work is positively linked to committing oneself to a meaningful life marked by helping others, civic engagement, and service.
Large Linguistically-Processed Web Corpora for Multiple Languages

The Web contains vast amounts of linguistic data. One key issue for linguists and language technologists is how to access it. Commercial search engines give highly compromised access. An alternative is to crawl the Web ourselves, which also allows us to remove duplicates and near-duplicates, navigational material, and a range of other kinds of non-linguistic matter. We can also tokenize, lemmatise and part-of-speech tag the corpus, and load the data into a corpus query tool which supports sophisticated linguistic queries. We have now done this for German and Italian, with corpus sizes of over 1 billion words in each case. We provide Web access to the corpora in our query tool, the Sketch Engine.
On-wafer measurements of S-MMIC amplifiers from 400–500 GHz

In this paper, we describe the design, simulation, and on-wafer measurements of Submillimeter-wave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (S-MMIC) amplifiers having gain in the 400–500 GHz range. A single-stage amplifier and two three-stage amplifiers with similar topology are presented, and have been fabricated in Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NGC) 35-nm InP high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process. The circuits were fabricated using different indium channel compositions on different wafers, and comparison of the results based on the indium content will be presented. We have performed on-wafer S-parameter calibration and measurements using newly developed WR2.2 waveguide wafer probes from 325–508 GHz. We measured approximately 5 dB of gain for the single stage amplifier at 437 GHz, and approximately 10 dB of gain at 474 GHz for a three-stage amplifier, with over 9 dB of gain at 490 GHz.