Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inbreeding–stress interactions: evolutionary and conservation consequences

The effect of environmental stress on the magnitude of inbreeding depression has a long history of intensive study. Inbreeding–stress interactions are of great importance to the viability of populations of conservation concern and have numerous evolutionary ramifications. However, such interactions are controversial. Several meta‐analyses over the last decade, combined with omic studies, have provided considerable insight into the generality of inbreeding–stress interactions, its physiological basis, and have provided the foundation for future studies. In this review, we examine the genetic and physiological mechanisms proposed to explain why inbreeding–stress interactions occur. We specifically examine whether the increase in inbreeding depression with increasing stress could be due to a concomitant increase in phenotypic variation, using a larger data set than any previous study. Phenotypic variation does usually increase with stress, and this increase can explain some of the inbreeding–stress interaction, but it cannot explain all of it. Overall, research suggests that inbreeding–stress interactions can occur via multiple independent channels, though the relative contribution of each of the mechanisms is unknown. To better understand the causes and consequences of inbreeding–stress interactions in natural populations, future research should focus on elucidating the genetic architecture of such interactions and quantifying naturally occurring levels of stress in the wild.
Noise-Parameter Uncertainties: A Monte Carlo Simulation

This paper reports the formulation and results of a Monte Carlo study of uncertainties in noise-parameter measurements. The simulator permits the computation of the dependence of the uncertainty in the noise parameters on uncertainties in the underlying quantities. Results are obtained for the effect due to uncertainties in the reflection coefficients of the input terminations, the noise temperature of the hot noise source, connector variability, the ambient temperature, and the measurement of the output noise. Representative results are presented for both uncorrelated and correlated uncertainties in the underlying quantities. The simulation program is also used to evaluate two possible enhancements of noise-parameter measurements: the use of a cold noise source as one of the input terminations and the inclusion of a measurement of the “reverse configuration,” in which the noise from the amplifier input is measured directly.
Hostility & Ambulatory Blood Pressure

Objective: The current study sought to determine the role of hostility in moderating the effects of positive social interactions on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP). Design: Participants (341 adults) completed the Cook Medley Hostility Scale and underwent ABP monitoring, assessed every 45 minutes during waking hours across 6 days. An electronic diary measuring mood and social interactions was completed at each ABP assessment. Main Outcome Measures: The dependent variables from the ABP monitor included systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate. Results: Different patterns of ambulatory diastolic blood pressure (ADBP) responding to social interactions perceived as intimate or supportive among high vs. low hostile individuals were observed. Higher intimacy ratings were linked to reductions in ADBP among low hostile but not high hostile individuals. Conversely, high hostile, but not low hostile, individuals showed increases in ADBP to situations rated high in social support. Although findings for ambulatory systolic blood pressure were non-significant, the pattern of results was similar to ADBP. Conclusion: Hostile individuals may find offers of support stressful and may fail to benefit from intimacy during daily life. The pathogenic effects of hostility may be mediated in part by responses to social interactions, both positive and negative.
How to dictate a discharge summary

palpable within the caecum, and adjacent lymph nodes were enlarged. A caecotomy showed a brown, indurated lesion 4x 3 cm in the caecal wall. A limited right hemicolectomy was performed. Histological examination showed large submucosal abscesses in the caecal wall with focal areas of mucosal necrosis. The inflammatory process extended through the muscle wall into the thickened serosa. On direct questioning he admitted that over the previous week he had on two occasions eaten half cooked pork. rhe history and histological findings were typical of enteritis necroticans or "pig-bel. " This has been reported from Europe only intermittently' and is now uncommon except in Papua New Guinea, where over the past 25 years it has become the third most common cause of death. ' The condition is defined as an acute, patchy, necrotising, and inflammatory disease, mainly of the small bowel, which occurs in highland Melanesians.4 Nearly all cases are aetiologically related to pig feastingS and are thought to be caused by food poisoning due to Clostridium perfringens type C.
In Vitro Drug Combination Studies of Letermovir (AIC246, MK-8228) with Approved Anti-Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and Anti-HIV Compounds in Inhibition of HCMV and HIV Replication

ABSTRACT Despite modern prevention and treatment strategies, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) remains a common opportunistic pathogen associated with serious morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals, such as transplant recipients and AIDS patients. All drugs currently licensed for the treatment of HCMV infection target the viral DNA polymerase and are associated with severe toxicity issues and the emergence of drug resistance. Letermovir (AIC246, MK-8228) is a new anti-HCMV agent in clinical development that acts via a novel mode of action and has demonstrated anti-HCMV activity in vitro and in vivo. For the future, drug combination therapies, including letermovir, might be indicated under special medical conditions, such as the emergence of multidrug-resistant virus strains in transplant recipients or in HCMV-HIV-coinfected patients. Accordingly, knowledge of the compatibility of letermovir with other HCMV or HIV antivirals is of medical importance. Here, we evaluated the inhibition of HCMV replication by letermovir in combination with all currently approved HCMV antivirals using cell culture checkerboard assays. In addition, the effects of letermovir on the antiviral activities of selected HIV drugs, and vice versa, were analyzed. Using two different mathematical techniques to analyze the experimental data, (i) additive effects were observed for the combination of letermovir with anti-HCMV drugs and (ii) no interaction was found between letermovir and anti-HIV drugs. Since none of the tested drug combinations significantly antagonized letermovir efficacy (or vice versa), our findings suggest that letermovir may offer the potential for combination therapy with the tested HCMV and HIV drugs.
Within- and between-modality correlation detection.

You are given two information finite‐state sources. Your task is to determine the correlation between the sources by sensory processing alone. Should you present the sources to the ears, to the eyes, or to the skin, or should you present one source to one modality and the other to another modality? Answer: within‐modality comparisons can be accomplished at high presentation rates where the display can be appreciated in terms of overall properties (“perceptualization”); by contrast, between‐modality comparisons can be accomplished only at slow presentation rates where individual events must be processed.
Translation-Based Model Checking for PLC Programs

In this paper, we focus on modeling and verification of PLC systems, which are widespread in industry and manufacture. Our approach is based on a translation procedure from PLC programs to timed automata. The resulting model consists of several kinds of modules. Besides the main module which depicts the behaviors of the PLC programs, a dedicated module is constructed to simulate the cyclical running mode of PLC systems, and another module is involved for specifying the environment behaviors. After all modules are constructed, the model checker Uppaal is adapted to perform the model checking. Experimental results show promising performance of our approach. Compared with existing approaches, our method supports extensive instructions, including not only the time-related instructions, such as timer and counter, but also the subroutine and interruption instructions. In addition, the structure of whole model is more compact, and the translation procedure is more efficient, which results in a reduced verification model.
Clinically significant changes in pain along the visual analog scale.

STUDY OBJECTIVE We sought to test the hypothesis that the change in visual analog scale (VAS) associated with a clinically significant change in pain is related to the initial VAS score. METHODS A convenience sample of adults with isolated extremity trauma was enrolled. A VAS score was obtained on entry into the study. Descriptions of change in pain ("lot less," "little less," "about the same," "little more," or "lot more") and VAS scores were then obtained every 30 minutes until the patient was free of pain or discharged or a total of 2 hours had passed. Patients were divided into 3 cohorts on the basis of the initial VAS score: VAS score of less than 34, VAS score of 34 to 66, and VAS score of 67 or greater. The absolute values of VAS changes associated with pain descriptions of a "little less" or "little more" (defined as clinically significant), "about the same" (defined as clinically insignificant), and "lot less" or "lot more" were calculated. RESULTS The change in VAS associated with clinically significant changes in pain in the cohort with VAS scores of less than 34 was 13+/-14 (mean+/-SD), which was significantly lower than that of the cohort with VAS scores of 67 or greater (28+/-21). There was no statistically significant difference in clinically significant changes in pain between the middle cohort and either the upper or lower cohorts (P =.07 and P =.29, respectively). There was no significant change in VAS for clinically insignificant changes in pain among the 3 cohorts (3+/-4, 6+/-6, and 8+/-16, respectively). CONCLUSION Patients with greater pain require a greater change in VAS score to achieve clinically significant pain relief.
Belief propagation, bethe approximation and polynomials

Factor graphs are important models for representing probability distributions in machine learning, coding theory, and statistical physics. Several computational problems, such as computing marginals and computing partition functions, arise when working with factor graphs. Bethe approximation is an optimization-based framework for computing partition functions and is known to be related to belief propagation, as the stationary points of the Bethe approximation coincide with the fixed points of belief propagation. However, the relation between the Bethe approximation and the true partition function is not well understood and has been recently a topic of study. It has been observed that for a few classes of factor graphs, Bethe approximation gives a lower bound on the partition function. This observation has been rigorously proved for permanents and for attractive models. Here we show that if the local constraints satisfy a certain geometric property, then Bethe approximation is a lower bound to the partition function. We arrive at our result by viewing factor graphs through the lens of polynomials. We reformulate the Bethe approximation as a polynomial optimization problem and state a sufficient condition for the lower bound to hold inspired by recent developments in the theory of real stable polynomials. We believe that this new way of viewing factor graphs might lead to a better understanding of the belief propagation algorithm and factor graphs in general.
Estimation of walking direction for pedestrian path prediction from moving vehicle

This paper presents a method for estimating of walking direction for pedestrian path prediction. Pedestrian intending to laterally cross the street is observed by images which captured from a monocular camera mounted on the vehicle. The positional information of object is obtained by projecting the centroid of bounding box in the ground plane. Then, dependency between the real worlds, global coordinates and the position of object in the image is explained. The way to find the estimated distance of a pedestrian is introduced by using its position on the image. Walking direction of pedestrian is determined by concatenating consecutive frames. For pedestrian path prediction, Kalman filter (KF), interacting multiple models (IMM) and probabilistic hierarchical trajectory matching are evaluated. In experiments, publicly dataset is used. Distance of object (pedestrian), walking direction and accuracy of path prediction are evaluated. The largest distance error is 1.35 meters from the vehicle, walking direction accuracy is 97.50% and path prediction error is 0.08 meters.
Transport of endocannabinoids across the plasma membrane and within the cell

Endocannabinoids are readily accumulated from the extracellular space by cells. Although their uptake properties have the appearance of a process of facilitated diffusion, it is by no means clear as to whether there is a plasma membrane transporter dedicated to this task. Intracellular carrier proteins that shuttle the endocannabinoid anandamide from the plasma membrane to its intracellular targets such as the metabolic enzyme, fatty acid amide hydrolase, have been identified. These include proteins with other primary functions, such as fatty‐acid‐binding proteins and heat shock protein 70, and possibly a fatty acid amide hydrolase‐like anandamide transporter protein. Thus, anandamide uptake can be adequately described as a diffusion process across the plasma membrane followed by intracellular carrier‐mediated transport to effector molecules, catabolic enzymes and sequestration sites, although it is recognized that different cells are likely to utilize different mechanisms of endocannabinoid transport depending upon the utility of the endocannabinoid for the cell in question.
The Dynamics of Embolism Refilling in Abscisic Acid (ABA)-Deficient Tomato Plants

Plants are in danger of embolism formation in xylem vessels when the balance between water transport capacity and transpirational demand is compromised. To maintain this delicate balance, plants must regulate the rate of transpiration and, if necessary, restore water transport in embolized vessels. Abscisic acid (ABA) is the dominant long-distance signal responsible for plant response to stress, and it is possible that it plays a role in the embolism/refilling cycle. To test this idea, a temporal analysis of embolism and refilling dynamics, transpiration rate and starch content was performed on ABA-deficient mutant tomato plants. ABA-deficient mutants were more vulnerable to embolism formation than wild-type plants, and application of exogenous ABA had no effect on vulnerability. However, mutant plants treated with exogenous ABA had lower stomatal conductance and reduced starch content in the xylem parenchyma cells. The lower starch content could have an indirect effect on the plant’s refilling activity. The results confirm that plants with high starch content (moderately stressed mutant plants) were more likely to recover from loss of water transport capacity than plants with low starch content (mutant plants with application of exogenous ABA) or plants experiencing severe water stress. This study demonstrates that ABA most likely does not play any direct role in embolism refilling, but through the modulation of carbohydrate content, it could influence the plant’s capacity for refilling.
Nonlinear adaptive estimation of the state of charge for Lithium-ion batteries

This paper considers State of Charge (SoC) estimation of Lithium-ion battery. Different from various prior art, where estimation is performed based on local linearization of a nonlinear battery model, a nonlinear adaptive observer is proposed to estimate the SoC and the parameters of a simplified but nonlinear battery model. A major advantage of the proposed approach is the possibility to establish the exponential stability of the resultant error dynamics of state and parameter estimation. Simulation validates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Effects of aqueous extracts from five species of the family Papaveraceae on selected aquatic organisms

The effects of aqueous root extracts from five species of the family Papaveraceae on the growth of cyanobacteria, algae, and other non‐target aquatic organisms were investigated to evaluate their potential use as algicides or cyanocides in the aquatic environment. Dicranostigma lactucoides and Sanguinaria canadensis featured the highest toxicity while Macleaya microcarpa was found to be the least toxic to all aquatic organisms tested. The Chelidonium majus extract had the best properties as a potential algicide or cyanocide because of its significant toxicity to phytoplankton and lower toxicity to non‐target aquatic organisms as compared with the other Papaveraceae family members. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 22: 480–486, 2007.
Design tools for 3D mixed mode placement

We present a set of design tools for three dimensional (3D) mixed mode placement (MMP). The hierarchical 3D MMP design tool is composed of a hierarchical clustering package, a new 3D floorplanning tool, route planning tool, and 2D global/detailed placement tools. We have analyzed the performance of 3D circuit using these tools. It is shown that total wirelength could be reduced by 25% to 43% compared with traditional 2D design using two to four stacked dies. By incorporating thermal management and analysis, we also investigate the thermal scalability of 3D integration
Antagonistic Regulation of Actin Dynamics and Cell Motility by TRPC5 and TRPC6 Channels

Coupling TRPC5 and TRPC6 calcium channels to different Rho GTPases allows calcium to both promote and inhibit cell migration. Signaling Stop and Go Calcium-dependent remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton through members of the Rho family of small guanosine triphosphatases (Rho GTPases) is crucial for cell migration. Tian et al. investigated the upstream regulation of this process in kidney podocytes, a class of cells associated with glomerular capillaries whose contractile function is crucial to maintenance of the kidney filtration barrier. They found that, although angiotensin II elicited calcium influx through both TRPC5 and TRPC6 (transient receptor potential canonical type 5 and 6) channels, TRPC5 signaled through Rac1 to promote cell motility, whereas TRPC6 signaled through RhoA to inhibit it. Mechanistic analyses indicated that differential activation of the two GTPases depended on their location relative to the two channels: TRPC5 was present in a complex with Rac1 and TRPC6 was associated with RhoA, enabling their antagonistic regulation of the cytoskeleton and thereby their opposing effects on cell migration. The Rho family of small guanosine triphosphatases (Rho GTPases: RhoA, Cdc42, and Rac1) regulates many aspects of cell behavior, including actin dynamics and cell migration. The generation of calcium ion (Ca2+) microdomains is critical in promoting cell migration because they control the localized activity of Rho GTPases. We identified receptor-activated TRPC5 and TRPC6 (transient receptor potential canonical type 5 and 6) channels as antagonistic regulators of actin remodeling and cell motility in fibroblasts and kidney podocytes. We show that TRPC5 is in a molecular complex with Rac1, whereas TRPC6 is in a molecular complex with RhoA. TRPC5-mediated Ca2+ influx induces Rac1 activation, thereby promoting cell migration, whereas TRPC6-mediated Ca2+ influx increases RhoA activity, thereby inhibiting cell migration. Our data unveil antagonistic Ca2+ influx pathways as a conserved signaling mechanism for the integrated regulation of cell migration.
Stream-based Randomised Language Models for SMT

Randomised techniques allow very big language models to be represented succinctly. However, being batch-based they are unsuitable for modelling an unbounded stream of language whilst maintaining a constant error rate. We present a novel randomised language model which uses an online perfect hash function to efficiently deal with unbounded text streams. Translation experiments over a text stream show that our online randomised model matches the performance of batch-based LMs without incurring the computational overhead associated with full retraining. This opens up the possibility of randomised language models which continuously adapt to the massive volumes of texts published on the Web each day.
Extrahepatic Portal Vein Obstruction and Portal Vein Thrombosis in Special Situations: Need for a New Classification

Extrahepatic portal vein obstruction is a vascular disorder of liver, which results in obstruction and cavernomatous transformation of portal vein with or without the involvement of intrahepatic portal vein, splenic vein, or superior mesenteric vein. Portal vein obstruction due to chronic liver disease, neoplasm, or postsurgery is a separate entity and is not the same as extrahepatic portal vein obstruction. Patients with extrahepatic portal vein obstruction are generally young and belong mostly to Asian countries. It is therefore very important to define portal vein thrombosis as acute or chronic from management point of view. Portal vein thrombosis in certain situations such as liver transplant and postsurgical/liver transplant period is an evolving area and needs extensive research. There is a need for a new classification, which includes all areas of the entity. In the current review, the most recent literature of extrahepatic portal vein obstruction is reviewed and summarized.
Optimization of flow record handling by applying a decentralized cooperative semantic caching approach

Analyzing IP traffic is an important task on which many network management applications are based. Cisco's Net-Flow system is one of the most widely used approaches for accomplishing a measurement and collection of flow records, needed to analyze traffic. Working with NetFlow means to involve very large amounts of data, while the collection, storing, and enabling of analyzers demands the access to this data in the fastest possible manner. Thus, this paper addresses this challenging task and presents a newly developed cooperative caching approach (CoopSC) that can be used to improve access time and data transfers between the centralized flow-based storage solution and those analyzers in operation. Such an improvement can positively influence the performance of flow-based solutions. Therefore, this approach NMCoopSC (Network Management CoopSC) has been validated, and experiments show that NMCoopSC improves the performance of NetFlow-based range queries.
Linking Granger Causality and the Pearl Causal Model with Settable Systems

The causal notions embodied in the concept of Granger causality have been argued to belong to a different category than those of Judea Pearl's Causal Model, and so far their relation has remained obscure. Here, we demonstrate that these concepts are in fact closely linked by showing how each relates to straightforward notions of direct causality embodied in settable systems, an extension and refinement of the Pearl Causal Model designed to accommodate optimization, equilibrium, and learning. We then provide straightforward practical methods to test for direct causality using tests for Granger causality.
Price spreads in electricity markets: What are fundamental drivers?

In this paper, we identify and analyze fundamental drivers on the base-peak spread of wholesale electricity prices. We set up scenarios for a model based analysis to test the influence of these drivers. An agent-based simulation approach is used to carry out this analysis. Results show that the gas-to-coal price difference is an essential factor for the development of the base-peak electricity price spread.