Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The burgeoning field of statistical phylogeography

In the newly emerging field of statistical phylogeography, consideration of the stochastic nature of genetic processes and explicit reference to theoretical expectations under various models has dramatically transformed how historical processes are studied. Rather than being restricted to ad hoc explanations for observed patterns of genetic variation, assessments about the underlying evolutionary processes are now based on statistical tests of various hypotheses, as well as estimates of the parameters specified by the models. A wide range of demographical and biogeographical processes can be accommodated by these new analytical approaches, providing biologically more realistic models. Because of these advances, statistical phylogeography can provide unprecedented insights about a species’ history, including decisive information about the factors that shape patterns of genetic variation, species distributions, and speciation. However, to improve our understanding of such processes, a critical examination and appreciation of the inherent difficulties of historical inference and challenges specific to testing phylogeographical hypotheses are essential. As the field of statistical phylogeography continues to take shape many difficulties have been resolved. Nonetheless, careful attention to the complexities of testing historical hypotheses and further theoretical developments are essential to improving the accuracy of our conclusions about a species’ history.
Axonal plasticity elicits long‐term changes in oligodendroglia and myelinated fibers

Axons are linked to induction of myelination during development and to the maintenance of myelin and myelinated tracts in the adult CNS. Currently, it is unknown whether and how axonal plasticity in adult CNS impacts the myelinating cells and their precursors. In this article, we report that newly formed axonal sprouts are able to induce a protracted myelination response in adult CNS. We show that newly formed axonal sprouts, induced by lesion of the entorhino–hippocampal perforant pathway, have the ability to induce a myelination response in stratum radiatum and lucidum CA3. The lesion resulted in significant recruitment of newly formed myelinating cells, documented by incorporation of the proliferation marker bromodeoxyuridine into chondroitin sulphate NG2 expressing cells in stratum radiatum and lucidum CA3 early after lesion, and the occurrence of a 28% increase in the number of oligodendrocytes, of which some had incorporated bromodeoxyuridine, 9 weeks post‐lesion. Additionally, a marked increase (41%) in myelinated fibres was detected in silver stained sections. Interestingly, these apparently new fibres achieved the same axon diameter as unlesioned mice but myelin thickness remained thinner than normal, suggesting that the sprouting axons in stratum radiatum and lucidum CA3 were not fully myelinated 9 weeks after lesion. Our combined results show that sprouting axons provide a strong stimulus to oligodendrocyte lineage cells to engage actively in the myelination processes in the adult CNS. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The acute effects of a pulse-containing meal on glycaemic responses and measures of satiety and satiation within and at a later meal

Pulses are low glycaemic foods; however, their effect on satiation is unknown. The objective was to determine the effects of an ad libitum pulse meal on food intake (FI), appetite and blood glucose (BG) before and after a test meal (4 h later) and on FI at the test meal. Males (n 24, 22·8 kg/m2) received one of four treatments or control. The pulse treatments contained pasta and tomato sauce and 44 % of energy from: (1) chickpeas, (2) lentils, (3) navy beans or (4) yellow peas. The control was pasta and tomato sauce (pasta and sauce). FI (satiation) was measured at the treatment meal (0–20 min) and at an ad libitum pizza meal 4 h later. BG and appetite were measured from 0 to 340 min. At the treatment meal, lentils led to lower FI compared to chickpeas and pasta and sauce, whereas navy beans led to lower FI compared to chickpeas. Also, lentils led to lower cumulative FI compared to pasta and sauce. All pulses led to lower BG peak and cumulative area under the curve (AUC; 0–340 min); however, only chickpeas, lentils and navy beans reduced pre-pizza meal BG AUC (0–260 min) relative to pasta and sauce. Chickpeas led to lower post-pizza meal BG AUC (260–340 min) compared to navy beans and yellow peas. Consumption of pulses in a high-glycaemic meal contributes to earlier satiation, lower BG following the meal and after a later meal, but these effects are specific to pulse type and cannot be explained by their glycaemic properties alone.
Floral stem cell termination involves the direct regulation of AGAMOUS by PERIANTHIA

In Arabidopsis, the population of stem cells present in young flower buds is lost after the production of a fixed number of floral organs. The precisely timed repression of the stem cell identity gene WUSCHEL (WUS) by the floral homeotic protein AGAMOUS (AG) is a key part of this process. In this study, we report on the identification of a novel input into the process of floral stem cell regulation. We use genetics and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays to demonstrate that the bZIP transcription factor PERIANTHIA (PAN) plays a role in regulating stem cell fate by directly controlling AG expression and suggest that this activity is spatially restricted to the centermost region of the AG expression domain. These results suggest that the termination of floral stem cell fate is a multiply redundant process involving loci with unrelated floral patterning functions.
Ultrahigh-Speed OTDM-Transmission Technology

This paper reviews ultrahigh-speed data transmission in optical fibers based on optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) transmission technology. Optical signal processing in the transmitter and receiver as well as the requirements on ultrahigh-speed data transmission over a fiber link are discussed. Finally, results of several OTDM-transmission experiments, including 160-Gb/s transmission over 4320 km, 1.28-Tb/s transmission over 240 km, and 2.56-Tb/s transmission over 160-km fiber link, are described
Reconceptualising out-of-field teaching: experiences of rural teachers in Western Australia

Background: Out-of-field teaching (generally defined as a situation where teachers are appointed to areas or phases of learning for which they have no formal qualifications) is an international phenomenon that can impact on the educational experiences of students. Teachers in rural and difficult to staff schools are frequently appointed out-of-field due to teacher shortages. Their lack of qualifications and experience relevant to their appointment can present significant challenges to their induction within the profession. Purpose: From a broader study of the experiences of teachers appointed to rural and remote government schools in their first years of appointment, out-of-field teaching emerged as a significant issue. This paper examines the experiences of out-of-field teachers in rural Western Australia. Sample: The participants were 29 teachers commencing employment at 17 rural/remote Department of Education schools in Western Australia: six multiple case locations and 11 single case sites were included. Four categories of teachers (young novice, mature aged novice, interstate educated and overseas-educated teachers) were identified as groups frequently recruited to fill vacancies in rural/remote schools. Design and methods: The collective case study was conducted in the qualitative, interpretivist paradigm, seeking to understand the lived experiences of participants. Data were collected through: an initial questionnaire; a series of telephone interviews; site visits; and email contact for up to 15 months. Data were initially analysed using inductive processes generating codes and categories; later, more emergent, grounded theory approaches were used. Findings: Six categories were formulated to describe the fit between participants’ qualifications and experiences and their appointment: role-congruence; role-displacement; phase-displacement; role-stretched and phase-stretched. In this small study, nearly half the participants were assigned to roles and/or phases of learning that were categorised as ‘incongruent’. Mis-assigned teachers were more likely to leave their appointments than role- and phase-congruent participants and more likely to express dissatisfaction with quality of worklife. Conclusions: Out-of-field teaching emerged as an important issue that can impact on teachers’ sense of efficacy and teacher attrition. When teachers are mis-assigned, it is suggested that systems and schools should provide support structures to assist teachers to develop their competence and to reduce the potential negative impact on teachers and learners. The proposed framework for categorising out-of-field teaching is presented as a tool for further exploration within future research in this area.
Stochastic Asymptotic Stabilizers for Deterministic Input-Affine Systems Based on Stochastic Control Lyapunov Functions

In this paper, a stochastic asymptotic stabilization method is proposed for deterministic input-affine control systems, which are randomized by including Gaussian white noises in control inputs. The sufficient condition is derived for the diffucion coefficients so that there exist stochastic control Lyapunov functions for the systems. To illustrate the usefulness of the sufficient condition, the authors propose the stochastic continuous feedback law, which makes the origin of the Brockett integrator become globally asymptotically stable in probability.
Imprisoned in Jamaica

Research on inmate experiences and responses to prison life are mostly conducted in developed countries. It has been widely documented that prisons in developing countries are inhumane and substandard and that inmates in these countries are mistreated and neglected. Yet, not much is known about the social world and experiences of inmates in these prison systems. Using a sample of 30 inmates housed in three prisons in Jamaica, this exploratory study examines inmate responses, coping, and adaptation strategies in deprived and culturally distinct prison environments. The findings reveal diverse ways in which inmates respond and interpret their prison experiences. Despite the harsh and substandard conditions of Jamaican prisons, variations in inmate experiences were related to pre-prison experiences, personal convictions, as well as prison-specific factors.
Enhanced conductance near zero voltage bias in mesoscopic superconductor-semiconductor junctions.

We have studied the conductance enhancement near zero voltage bias of double-barrier Nb-p++Si-E junctions, where we chose for the counterelectrode E either Nb, Al, or W. The experiments show a large correction, ΔG ≈ 0.1GN, on the classical superconductor–insulator–normal-metal (SIN) conductance. We present measurements of the temperature, magnetic-field, and voltage dependence, and we interpret the observed results within the available theoretical models for coherent Andreev reflection, as provided by several authors.
Parameterizing and Assembling IR-Based Solutions for SE Tasks Using Genetic Algorithms

Information Retrieval (IR) approaches are nowadays used to support various software engineering tasks, such as feature location, traceability link recovery, clone detection, or refactoring. However, previous studies showed that inadequate instantiation of an IR technique and underlying process could significantly affect the performance of such approaches in terms of precision and recall. This paper proposes the use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) to automatically configure and assemble an IR process for software engineering tasks. The approach (named GA-IR) determines the (near) optimal solution to be used for each stage of the IR process, i.e., term extraction, stop word removal, stemming, indexing and an IR algebraic method calibration. We applied GA-IR on two different software engineering tasks, namely traceability link recovery and identification of duplicate bug reports. The results of the study indicate that GA-IR outperforms approaches previously published in the literature, and that it does not significantly differ from an ideal upper bound that could be achieved by a supervised and combinatorial approach.
A 60-GHz Circularly-Polarized Array Antenna-in-Package in LTCC Technology

This communication presents a 60-GHz circularly-polarized antenna-in-package in a low-temperature co-fired ceramic technology. It integrates 4 ×4 aperture-coupled corner-truncated microstrip patch antenna elements and their stripline feeding network as well as signal and ground traces for interconnection with the chip and board. The fabricated sample has a dimension of 13 ×13 ×0.9 mm 3. Simulated and measured results confirm its sufficient gain and matching bandwidth for broadband 60-GHz applications (57-66 GHz).
Novel wideband antipodal slot antenna with improved cross-polarization performance

A novel half-folded antipodal printed slot antenna fed by microstrip line with a tuning patch for wideband applications is proposed. Half-folded antipodal structure is employed to improve the radiation characteristics of the antenna. The antenna has been investigated numerically and experimentally and compared with conventional rectangular wide slot antenna. As is reported, the operation bandwidth of the antenna is from 0.79 GHz to 4.0 GHz, which is about 5:1. Stable omnidirectional radiation pattern with good polarization purity and flat gain performances can be achieved. It may be useful for wideband polarization diversity applications.
Spatial Semantics and Classifier Cascades: The ANU 2011 Multimedia Event Detection System

In this paper, we describe the system developed by the Australian National University (ANU), National ICT Australia (NICTA) for multimedia event detection applied to the TRECVID-2011 video retrieval benchmark. Our system uses five audio and visual features, leverages training events with cascaded classifier training, and sees performance improvements with spatial semantic features. A summary of our submitted runs can be found below:
Motion constraint design for a multi-functional virtual manipulation system

Simulation systems nowadays are applied for various tasks, and thus demands a versatile manipulative system for the user to interact with the corresponding simulated environments. To make a single manipulative device applicable for different tasks, the concept of virtual mechanism has been previously proposed, in which virtual motion constraints are constructed via the software to constrain the manipulative device to move within a limited workspace that corresponds to task requirements. Motivated by the idea, in this paper, we propose a systematic approach to design and implement the virtual motion constraints for a multi-functional virtual manipulation system. The motion constraints are generated from sets of virtual walls, built of different shapes and physical properties, to deal with the compliance task, which involves both position and force management. An algorithm on how to properly assemble the walls and a graphics-based method for smooth force rendering between them are proposed for given compliance tasks. For demonstration, in experiments, we implement a virtual omni-directional wrench based on using a 2-DOF force-reflection joystick.
Cardiac surgery antibiotic prophylaxis and calculated empiric antibiotic therapy

Background Ongoing debate exists concerning the optimal choice and duration of antibiotic prophylaxis as well as the reasonable calculated empiric antibiotic therapy for hospital-acquired infections in critically ill cardiac surgery patients. Methods A nationwide questionnaire was distributed to all German heart surgery centers concerning antibiotic prophylaxis and the calculated empiric antibiotic therapy. Results The response to the questionnaire was 87.3%. All clinics that responded use antibiotic prophylaxis, 79% perform it not longer than 24 h (single-shot: 23%; 2 doses: 29%; 3 doses: 27%; 4 doses: 13%; and >5 doses: 8%). Cephalosporin was used in 89% of clinics (46% second-generation, 43% first-generation cephalosporin). If sepsis is suspected, the following diagnostics are performed routinely: wound inspection 100%; white blood cell count 100%; radiography 99%; C-reactive protein 97%; microbiological testing of urine 91%, blood 81%, and bronchial secretion 81%; procalcitonin 74%; and echocardiography 75%. The calculated empiric antibiotic therapy (depending on the suspected focus) consists of a multidrug combination with broad-spectrum agents. Conclusion This survey shows that existing national guidelines and recommendations concerning perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis and calculated empiric antibiotic therapy are well applied in almost all German heart centers.
Power supply noise aware workload assignment for multi-core systems

As the industry moves from single- to multicore processors, the challenges of how to reliably design and analyze power delivery for such systems also arise. We study various workload assignments to cores and their impact on the global power grid noise. We develop metrics to estimate the amount of noise propagated from core to core and propose a power supply noise aware workload assignment method. In our experiments, we show that performance loss can be significant if workload assignment is not properly made.
An Evaluation of a Family Strengthening Program for Substance Abuse Offenders

Abstract Family strengthening programs have been shown to be effective in preventing many types of problems with children. This study expands on prior research by evaluating the effectiveness of a family strengthening program for substance abuse offenders. Results indicate that the program is associated with significant changes on the four main variables of concern to program staff and funders: family resilience, opportunities for pro-social involvement of the children, rewards for pro-social involvement by children, and family bonding. Because of the weak pretest/posttest design, we also include and provide a rationale for the use of measures of effect size. Effect sizes in this research are very large on the four main variables and provide a better measure of program impact than significance testing.
Bone Mineral Density and Fatty Degeneration of Thigh Muscles Measured by Computed Tomography in Hip Fracture Patients

Background Recently, as an independent fracture factor from Bone mineral density (BMD), muscle weakness due to the fatty degeneration of thigh muscles have been attracting attentions as causes of hip fracture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between the body composition and BMD and fatty degeneration of thigh muscles of the female patients over 65 years old with osteoporotic hip fracture. Methods This study was conducted with 178 female osteoporotic hip fracture patients. Total hip BMD was measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Cross-sectional area (CSA), cross-sectional muscle area (CSmA), muscle attenuation coefficient (MAC), and intramuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) of gluteus maximus, hip abductors, quadriceps and hamstring muscle were measured with computed tomography. Normalized IMAT (nIMAT) was calculated by dividing the fat area in the muscle into the size of each muscle. The correlation between each measurement is examined then the differences between the intertrochanteric fracture group and the femoral neck fracture group were analyzed. Results CSmA and MAC of quadriceps were the largest and nIMAT was the lowest. CSA and CSmA of the four muscles showed a statistically significant positive correlation with weight, height, body mass index (BMI), and BMD. MAC of 2 gluteal muscles was positively correlated with weight, BMI and BMD. nIMAT of all four muscles was positively correlation with weight and BMI but nIMAT of 2 mid-thigh muscles was positively correlation with BMD. Conclusions Muscle size and fatty degeneration in the thigh muscles were most positively correlated with the body weight. BMD was positively correlation with CSA and CSmA of all thigh muscles, and MAC of 2 gluteal muscles and fatty degeneration of 2 mid-thigh muscles. There was no statistically significant difference in the size of the femoral muscle and the degree of fatty degeneration between the two fracture groups.
Design and implementation of a distributed IoT system for the monitoring of water quality in aquaculture

In this work we present the prototype and proof of concept of a distributed monitoring system of the most important variables in aquaculture water quality. This is of great importance because aquaculture is a lagging area of technology compared to other areas such as agriculture. So it is important to solve the problems that are in this area with the support of technology. Among the problems is the slow response time in the care of water quality, the waste of resources and losses. The system proposed in this work monitors the water quality based on wireless sensor networks and on the Internet of Things (IoT). This information is important for the development of this area, since it allows sharing the different conditions in the breeding of aquatic organisms between different breeders and organizations. This information is useful to know the conditions in which there is a better development of a product, worse development, what conditions can mean a possible disaster in the environment and how to optimize resources for the care of the pond.
Analysis of Allogenicity of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Engraftment and Wound Healing in Mice

Studies have shown that allogeneic (allo-) bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) may enhance tissue repair/regeneration. However, recent studies suggest that immune rejection may occur to allo-MSCs leading to reduced engraftment. In this study, we compared allo-BM-MSCs with syngeneic BM-MSCs or allo-fibroblasts in engraftment and effect in wound healing. Equal numbers of GFP-expressing allo-BM-MSCs, syngeneic BM-MSCs or allo-fibroblasts were implanted into excisional wounds in GFP-negative mice. Quantification of GFP-expressing cells in wounds at 7, 14 and 28 days indicated similar amounts of allogeneic or syngeneic BM-MSCs but significantly reduced amounts of allo-fibroblasts. With healing progression, decreasing amounts of allogeneic and syngeneic BM-MSCs were found in the wound; however, the reduction was more evident (2 fold) in allo-fibroblasts. Similar effects in enhancing wound closure were found in allogeneic and syngeneic BM-MSCs but not in allo-fibroblasts. Histological analysis showed that allo-fibroblasts were largely confined to the injection sites while allo-BM-MSCs had migrated into the entire wound. Quantification of inflammatory cells in wounds showed that allo-fibroblast- but not allo-BM-MSC-treated wounds had significantly increased CD45+ leukocytes, CD3+ lymphocytes and CD8+ T cells. Our study suggests that allogeneic BM-MSCs exhibit ignorable immunogenicity and are equally efficient as syngeneic BM-MSCs in engraftment and in enhancing wound healing.