Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastrointestinal and renal responses to variable water intake in whitebellied sunbirds and New Holland honeyeaters

SUMMARY Nectarivores face a constant challenge in terms of water balance, experiencing water loading or dehydration when switching between food plants or between feeding and fasting. To understand how whitebellied sunbirds and New Holland honeyeaters meet the challenges of varying preformed water load, we used the elimination of intramuscular-injected [14C]-l-glucose and 3H2O to quantify intestinal and renal water handling on diets varying in sugar concentration. Both sunbirds and honeyeaters showed significant modulation of intestinal water absorption, allowing excess water to be shunted through the intestine when on dilute diets. Despite reducing their fractional water absorption, both species showed linear increases in water flux and fractional body water turnover as water intake increased (both afternoon and morning), suggesting that the modulation of fractional water absorption was not sufficient to completely offset dietary water loads. In both species, glomerular filtration rate was independent of water gain (but was higher for the afternoon), as was renal fractional water reabsorption (measured in the afternoon). During the natural overnight fast, both sunbirds and honeyeaters arrested whole kidney function. Evaporative water loss in sunbirds was variable but correlated with water gain. Both sunbirds and honeyeaters appear to modulate intestinal water absorption as an important component of water regulation to help deal with massive preformed water loads. Shutting down glomerular filtration rate during the overnight fast is another way of saving energy for osmoregulatory function. Birds maintain osmotic balance on diets varying markedly in preformed water load by varying both intestinal water absorption and excretion through the intestine and kidneys.
Manipulation action representations via tracking object-wise spatial relations

In this paper, we introduce an abstract representation for manipulation actions that is based on the evolution of the spatial relations between involved objects. Object tracking in RGBD streams enables straightforward and intuitive ways to model spatial relations in 3D space. Reasoning in 3D overcomes many of the limitations of similar previous approaches, while providing significant flexibility in the desired level of abstraction. At each frame of a manipulation video, we evaluate a number of spatial predicates for all object pairs and treat the resulting set of sequences (Predicate Vector Sequences, PVS) as an action descriptor. As part of our representation, we introduce a symmetric, time-normalized pairwise distance measure that relies on finding an optimal object correspondence between two actions. We experimentally evaluate the method on the classification of various manipulation actions in video, performed at different speeds and timings and involving different objects. The results demonstrate that the proposed representation is remarkably descriptive of the high-level manipulation semantics.
Towards Performance Related Decision Support for Model Driven Engineering of Enterprise SOA Applications

Model driven performance engineering (MDPE) enables early performance feedback in a MDE process, in order to avoid late identification of performance problems which could cause significant additional development costs. In our past work we argued that a synchronization mechanism between development and performance analysis models is required to adequately integrate analysis results into the development process enabling performance related decision support. In this paper we present a solution for this requirement. We present a new multi-view based approach and its implementation enabling systematic performance related decision support. We currently apply our research on the model driven engineering of process orchestrations on top of SAP's enterprise service oriented architecture (Enterprise SOA).
First-Letter Mnemonics and Serial Retention

The efficacy of mnemonic devices in the retention of serial lists has been amply demonstrated by Senter and Hauser (1968) for the hook or peg system, Bower and Clark (1969) for the narrative chaining method, and Delin (1969) for imagery instructions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the most popular serial mnemonic, the first-letter device. Twenty undergraduates were each assigned to a simple-repetition control or a firstletter mnemonic condition. The verbal material consisted of the following 15 English nouns: abdomen, archery, blizzard, cobalt, dagger, dresser, eternity, garlic, iceberg, oboe, petticoat, rafter, shack, topaz, and ulcer. Initially, both groups saw the words haphazardly arranged and were given 5 min. to complete the following assignment: the control group became familiar with the words and then copied them in an identical arrangement, whereas the first-letter group developed a mnemonic device to help them learn the words in any order which they had selected, and their order was written in a column. Next, the control group was given 3 min. to learn a random order of the words by using rehearsal only, whereas the first-letter group was given 3 min. to learn their chosen order, using their particular first-letter technique. The mean number of words correctly recalled during a 2-min. test at the immediate, 1-wk. , and 8-wk. retention intervals, respectively, was 12.95, 3.35, and 2.25 for the control group; and 13.45, 4.55, and 2.45 for the first-letter group. The only significant difference was across retention intervals (F2,~ = 357.4, p < .O5), and both groups showed a significant loss only after the immediate test. Extensive analyses of the serial position data indicated no significant effects. These findings are in marked contrast to the significant advantages found for the peg system, narrative chaining, and imagery. Even though the first-letter device was the favorire serial mnemonic reported by college students (Blick, Buonassissi, & Boltwood, 1772), its effectiveness was not demonstrated in the present project.
Contextual experience sampling of mobile application micro-usage

Research suggests smartphone users face 'application overload', but literature lacks an in-depth investigation of how users manage their time on smartphones. In a 3-week study we collected smartphone application usage patterns from 21 participants to study how they manage their time interacting with the device. We identified events we term application micro-usage: brief bursts of interaction with applications. While this practice has been reported before, it has not been investigated in terms of the context in which it occurs (e.g., location, time, trigger and social context). In a 2-week follow-up study with 15 participants, we captured participants? context while micro-using, with a mobile experience sampling method (ESM) and weekly interviews. Our results show that about approximately 40% of application launches last less than 15 seconds and happen most frequently when the user is at home and alone. We further discuss the context, taxonomy and implications of application micro-usage in our field. We conclude with a brief reflection on the relevance of short-term interaction observations for other domains beyond mobile phones.
Gestão educacional democrática: ferramenta necessária para tornar indivíduos cidadãos

Atualmente realizar uma gestao educacional democratica voltada para a cidadania e um grande desafio para os gestores. Este artigo discute se a gestao educacional democratica cumpre com seu papel na formacao dos individuos para o exercicio da cidadania. Esse estudo foi realizado em uma escola municipal de ensino fundamental de Caxias do Sul, no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, atraves da analise dos planos de metas, no periodo de janeiro de 2009 a dezembro de 2011. Foram tambem realizadas entrevistas com professores, funcionarios e alunos para coletar dados a respeito das impressoes destes em relacao a gestao educacional adotada. Sao apresentadas, neste artigo, discussoes sobre o conceito de cidadania, humanizacao e a dimensao da gestao educacional democratica. Desta forma, percebeu-se que os projetos pedagogicos que a escola realizou foi uma das acoes mais assertivas para o sucesso na gestao e ficou evidente que uma das falhas foi a comunicao interna.
Potentials of Social Networks for Knowledge Management with Regard to the Development of Stable Competences and Dynamic Capabilities--Conceptualization and Case Study Results

In order to balance the tensions of the concepts of organizational core competencies and dynamic capability we introduce social knowledge networks as a strategic means from a knowledge management perspective. A facilitator for the development of the respective framework is the precise distinction between explicit and non-explicit knowledge. Social knowledge networks are informal with regard to their very character but offer the opportunity to enhance the advantages of stability and reliability of organizational core competences as well as flexibility and dynamics of dynamic capabilities. The results of a case study in the automotive and machine building industry confirm the viability of the new framework by looking at social network ties in the IT department on the basis of information sharing and problem-oriented advice. Overall point of reference is IT governance, especially the ITIL standard
The Irish Case of Dependency: An Exception to the Exceptions?

The dependency approach has recently been criticized by authors who quote the "exceptional" East Asian cases The Irish case is used to refute these new modernizationist arguments on two counts. (1) Countries such as Ireland, not the East Asian countries, have regimes with characteristics that tend to set dependency relations in motion. These characteristics include radical free trade, free enterprise, andforeign industrial domination. (2) Because of these characteristics, Ireland has endured economic stagnation and tendencies toward higher inequality. Irish economic growth under foreign-dominated industrialization was slowed by decapitalization and by the absence of linkages between foreign and domestic industry. Time-series models show that foreign penetration and free trade are related to slower economic growth, because of slower investment-growth and other reasons. Inequality increased primarily because of rising unemployment. Although social welfare programs reduced the effects of direct-income inequality, their effects have been reduced by regressive taxation and austerity programs.
A Failure Detector for k-Set Agreement in Dynamic Systems

The k-set agreement problem is a generalization of the consensus problem where processes can decide up to k different values. Very few papers have tackled this problem in dynamic networks, and to the best of our knowledge, every algorithm proposed so far for k-set agreement in dynamic networks assumed synchronous communications or made strong failure pattern assumptions. Exploiting the formalism of the Time-Varying Graph model, this paper proposes a new quorum-based failure detector for solving k-set agreement in dynamic networks with asynchronous communications. We present two algorithms that implement this new failure detector using graph connectivity and message pattern assumptions. We also provide an algorithm for solving k-set agreement using our new failure detector.
Regulatory effects of anandamide on intracellular Ca2+ concentration increase in trigeminal ganglion neurons

Activation of cannabinoid receptor type 1 on presynaptic neurons is postulated to suppress neurotransmission by decreasing Ca2+ influx through high voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. However, recent studies suggest that cannabinoids which activate cannabinoid receptor type 1 can increase neurotransmitter release by enhancing Ca2+ influx in vitro. The aim of the present study was to investigate the modulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration by the cannabinoid receptor type 1 agonist anandamide, and its underlying mechanisms. Using whole cell voltage-clamp and calcium imaging in cultured trigeminal ganglion neurons, we found that anandamide directly caused Ca2+ influx in a dose-dependent manner, which then triggered an increase of intracellular Ca2+ concentration. The cyclic adenosine and guanosine monophosphate-dependent protein kinase systems, but not the protein kinase C system, were involved in the increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration by anandamide. This result showed that anandamide increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration and inhibited high voltage-gated Ca2+ channels through different signal transduction pathways.
Percutaneous mitral valve repair with the MitraClip: early results from the MitraClip Asia-Pacific Registry (MARS).

AIMS Percutaneous MitraClip therapy has been shown to be safe and efficacious in mitral regurgitation (MR). Our aim was to describe early outcomes in patients from the Asia- Pacific region. METHODS AND RESULTS The MitraClip Asia-Pacific Registry (MARS) includes data from eight different centres in five countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The primary efficacy outcome was reduction in MR to ≤2+ at 30 days. The safety outcome was 30-day freedom from major adverse events (MAE), defined as the composite of death, myocardial infarction, non-elective cardiac surgery, renal failure, transfusion of ≥2 units of blood, ventilation for >48 hours, septicaemia, and new onset atrial fibrillation. A total of 142 patients underwent the MitraClip procedure from February 2011 to October 2013. Fifty-three point five percent (76) of patients had functional MR, 45.8% (65) had degenerative MR and 0.7% (1) had mixed MR. The acute procedural success rate was 93.7% (133). Thirty-one point seven percent of the patients were in NYHA Class I-II at baseline, compared to 82.1% at 30 days (p<0.001). Zero percent (0) of the patients had ≤2+ MR at baseline compared to 76.8% (109) at 30 days (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Results from the Asia-Pacific region show that the MitraClip procedure is effective in reducing mitral regurgitation and has favourable short-term safety outcomes.
When plant virology met Agrobacterium: the rise of the deconstructed clones

Summary In the early days of molecular farming, Agrobacterium‐mediated stable genetic transformation and the use of plant virus‐based vectors were considered separate and competing technologies with complementary strengths and weaknesses. The demonstration that ‘agroinfection’ was the most efficient way of delivering virus‐based vectors to their target plants blurred the distinction between the two technologies and permitted the development of ‘deconstructed’ vectors based on a number of plant viruses. The tobamoviruses, potexviruses, tobraviruses, geminiviruses and comoviruses have all been shown to be particularly well suited to the development of such vectors in dicotyledonous plants, while the development of equivalent vectors for use in monocotyledonous plants has lagged behind. Deconstructed viral vectors have proved extremely effective at the rapid, high‐level production of a number of pharmaceutical proteins, some of which are currently undergoing clinical evaluation.
Thiamethoxam: Assessing flight activity of honeybees foraging on treated oilseed rape using radio frequency identification technology

The present study was designed to assess homing behavior of bees foraging on winter oilseed rape grown from seed treated with thiamethoxam (as Cruiser OSR), with 1 field drilled with thiamethoxam‐treated seed and 2 control fields drilled with fungicide‐only–treated seed. Twelve honeybee colonies were used per treatment group, 4 each located at the field edge (on‐field site), at approximately 500 m and 1000 m from the field. A total of nearly 300 newly emerged bees per colony were fitted (tagged) with Mic3 radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders and introduced into each of the 36 study hives. The RFID readers fitted to the entrances of the test colonies were used to monitor the activity of the tagged bees for the duration of the 5‐wk flowering period of the crop. These activity data were analyzed to assess any impact on flight activity of bees foraging on the treated compared with untreated crops. Honeybees were seen to be actively foraging within all 3 treatment groups during the exposure period. The data for the more than 3000 RFID‐tagged bees and more than 90 000 foraging flights monitored throughout the exposure phase for the study follow the same trends across the treatment and controls and at each of the 3 apiary distances, indicating that there were no effects from foraging on the treated crop. Under the experimental conditions, there was no effect of foraging on thiamethoxam‐treated oilseed rape on honeybee flight activity or on their ability to return to the hive. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:385–393. © 2015 SETAC
Trade-off Service Portfolio Planning - A Case Study on Mining the Android App Market

Service portfolio planning is the process of designing collections of services and deciding on their provision. The problem is highly information intensive, and most of the information required is hard to gather. In this paper, we present a solution approach based on the paradigm of Analytical Open Innovation (AOI). Open innovation is a cheap and low risk problem solving approach which relies on knowledge exchange with outside of company as a competitive advantage. Different forms of open innovation; crowd source, open source and outsource; facilitate the provider and consumer interactions and brings higher customer value. In our proposed AOI approach, open innovation is utilized for elicitation of services from web data, crowdsourcing the service value from potential customers and for the estimation of service implementation effort. For service evaluation, we apply the Kano theory of product development and customer satisfaction. Based on that and as the result from an optimization process, resource-optimized service portfolios are created that constitute trade-offs in balancing between gained value and effort needed. As a proof of concept, the proposed approach is illustrated via a case study project for the composition of Over the Top TV (OTT) services. The atomic services from 241 qualified apps were analyzed from the android app market. We demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to generate optimized trade-off solutions, composing better apps at each capacity level and achieving better customer satisfaction . The level of improvement in customer satisfaction varies between 16.5% and 95.3%.
Memory-Based Data Storing Technologies on Hadoop Distribution File System

A single storage medium of mass data storage lead to low throughput and long data access time delay. To solve these problems, Memory-based Data Storing Technologies on Hadoop Distribution File System is related. First, the calculation of memory available on each storage node, this part of the memory mapped to disk, and realize the HDFS to this part of the effective management of memory resources. And to establish a reasonable memory data exchange model, when the data is stored in the memory load growth to a certain extent, the memory file heat low displacement to disk, disk file in high heat move back into memory. Comparing with the HDFS based on disk storage, in this paper, the HDFS based on the memory data storage system can effectively shorten data access delay, improve the system of data throughput, with significant performance advantages.
Enhancement of Survival and Electricity Production in an Engineered Bacterium by Light-Driven Proton Pumping

ABSTRACT Microorganisms can use complex photosystems or light-dependent proton pumps to generate membrane potential and/or reduce electron carriers to support growth. The discovery that proteorhodopsin is a light-dependent proton pump that can be expressed readily in recombinant bacteria enables development of new strategies to probe microbial physiology and to engineer microbes with new light-driven properties. Here, we describe functional expression of proteorhodopsin and light-induced changes in membrane potential in the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1. We report that there were significant increases in electrical current generation during illumination of electrochemical chambers containing S. oneidensis expressing proteorhodopsin. We present evidence that an engineered strain is able to consume lactate at an increased rate when it is illuminated, which is consistent with the hypothesis that proteorhodopsin activity enhances lactate uptake by increasing the proton motive force. Our results demonstrate that there is coupling of a light-driven process to electricity generation in a nonphotosynthetic engineered bacterium. Expression of proteorhodopsin also preserved the viability of the bacterium under nutrient-limited conditions, providing evidence that fulfillment of basic energy needs of organisms may explain the widespread distribution of proteorhodopsin in marine environments.
Cost-Effectiveness of a Telephone-Delivered Intervention for Physical Activity and Diet

Background Given escalating rates of chronic disease, broad-reach and cost-effective interventions to increase physical activity and improve dietary intake are needed. The cost-effectiveness of a Telephone Counselling intervention to improve physical activity and diet, targeting adults with established chronic diseases in a low socio-economic area of a major Australian city was examined. Methodology/Principal Findings A cost-effectiveness modelling study using data collected between February 2005 and November 2007 from a cluster-randomised trial that compared Telephone Counselling with a “Usual Care” (brief intervention) alternative. Economic outcomes were assessed using a state-transition Markov model, which predicted the progress of participants through five health states relating to physical activity and dietary improvement, for ten years after recruitment. The costs and health benefits of Telephone Counselling, Usual Care and an existing practice (Real Control) group were compared. Telephone Counselling compared to Usual Care was not cost-effective ($78,489 per quality adjusted life year gained). However, the Usual Care group did not represent existing practice and is not a useful comparator for decision making. Comparing Telephone Counselling outcomes to existing practice (Real Control), the intervention was found to be cost-effective ($29,375 per quality adjusted life year gained). Usual Care (brief intervention) compared to existing practice (Real Control) was also cost-effective ($12,153 per quality adjusted life year gained). Conclusions/Significance This modelling study shows that a decision to adopt a Telephone Counselling program over existing practice (Real Control) is likely to be cost-effective. Choosing the ‘Usual Care’ brief intervention over existing practice (Real Control) shows a lower cost per quality adjusted life year, but the lack of supporting evidence for efficacy or sustainability is an important consideration for decision makers. The economics of behavioural approaches to improving health must be made explicit if decision makers are to be convinced that allocating resources toward such programs is worthwhile. Trial Registration This paper uses data collected in a previous clinical trial registered at the Australian Clinical Trials Registry, Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: Anzcrt.org. au ACTRN012607000195459