Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insect biodiversity of the Algodones Dunes of California

Abstract Over a nine year period beginning in 2007 we surveyed the insects of the Algodones Dunes, Imperial Count, California, as part of a study undertaken for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. In a series of 22 collecting trips ranging in duration from 2 to 8 days we thus far have accumulated records of 1,840 species, 21 orders and 244 families from the dunes. Hymenoptera constituted the most diverse order, comprising about 45% of all the species recovered. Insect diversity and abundance peaked during the hottest part of the year between the months of May and September. Life history traits of the insects sampled included herbivores (29.6%), parasitoids (28.7%), predators (18.1%), pollen/nectar feeders (10.9%), detritivores (6.2%) and scavengers (2.4%). Seventy-nine or 4% of the insect species collected in the dunes have been solely recorded from there, and 3% of the species almost certainly derive from adjacent aquatic habitats or agricultural ecosystems, as their life histories could not be completed in Algodones Dunes habitat. The insect fauna of the Algodones Dunes is unexpectedly rich and diverse.
Floating Elementary Osmotic Pump Tablet (FEOPT) for Controlled Delivery of Diethylcarbamazine Citrate: a Water-Soluble Drug

The present work investigates the feasibility of the design of a novel floating elementary osmotic pump tablet (FEOPT) to prolong the gastric residence of a highly water-soluble drug. Diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) was chosen as a model drug. The FEOPT consisted of an osmotic core (DEC, mannitol, and hydrophilic polymers) coated with a semipermeable layer (cellulose acetate) and a gas-generating gelling layer (sodium bicarbonate, hydrophilic polymers) followed by a polymeric film (Eudragit RL 30D). The effect of formulation variables such as concentration of polymers, types of diluent, and coat thickness of semipermeable membrane was evaluated in terms of physical parameters, floating lag time, duration of floatation, and in vitro drug release. The Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction analysis were carried out to study the physicochemical changes in the drug excipients powder blend. The integrity of the orifice and polymeric film layer was confirmed from scanning electron microscopy image. All the developed FEOPT showed floating lag time of less than 8 min and floating duration of 24 h. A zero-order drug release could be attained for DEC. The formulations were found to be stable up to 3 months of stability testing at 40°C/75% relative humidity.
Application of gated field emitter arrays in microwave amplifier tubes

This paper describes the progress made on the recently completed Phase II of the ARPA/NRL Vacuum Microelectronics Initiative. This program was a team effort between several manufacturers and laboratories, and represents the first major effort to incorporate field emitting cathode arrays into a specifically-designed microwave tube by a manufacturer. Using gated field emitter arrays as the source of a prebunched linear electron beam, the program goal was the delivery of a 50 W 10 GHz amplifier having at least 10 dB of gain. An efficiency of at least fifty percent was expected. Along with the elimination of the heater power supply, compactness and light weight are other attributes of the approach proposed.
Chromatic Dispersion Estimation for Single-Carrier Coherent Optical Communications

We propose and demonstrate a blind chromatic dispersion (CD) estimation technique for single-carrier coherent optical communication systems. We show that the peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) of a signal is a good indicator of the amount of CD the signal experiences and the minimum PAPR typically corresponds to zero accumulated CD. By scanning CD values of a CD compensator in a coherent receiver and monitoring the PAPR after the CD compensator, CD can be estimated accurately. We experimentally demonstrate this technique in a non-dispersion-managed optical transmission system with mixed 130-Gb/s polarization-division-multiplexed quadrature-phase-shift-keying (PDM-QPSK) and 260-Gb/s PDM 16-ary quadrature-amplitude-modulation (PDM-16QAM) channels and show that the technique works well for both PDM-QPSK and PDM-16QAM even with Nyquist pulse shaping.
Sex-dependent role of vesicular glutamate transporter 3 in stress-regulation and related anxiety phenotype during the early postnatal period

Abstract Stress and related disorders are in the focus of interest and glutamate is one of the most important neurotransmitters that can affect these processes. Glutamatergic neurons are characterized by vesicular glutamate transporters (VGluT1-3) among which vGluT3 is unique contributing to the non-canonical, neuromodulatory effect of glutamate. We aimed to study the role of vGluT3 in stress axis regulation and related anxiety during the early postnatal period using knockout (KO) mice with special focus on sex differences. Anxiety was explored on postnatal day (PND) 7-8 by maternal separation-induced ultrasonic vocalization (USV). Stress-hormone levels were detected 60 min after intraperitoneal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection 7 days later. Both genotypes gained weight, but on PND 14-15 KO mice pups had smaller body weight compared to wild type (WT). vGluT3 KO mice reacted to an immune stressor with enhanced adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and corticosterone secretion compared to WT. Although there was a tendency for enhanced anxiety measured by more emitted USV, this did not reach the level of significance. The only sex-related effect was the enhanced corticosterone reactivity in male pups. For the HPA axis regulation in neonates vGluT3 expression seems to be dispensable under basal conditions, but is required for optimal response to immune stressors, most probably through an interaction with other neurotransmitters. Disturbance of the fine balance between these systems may result in a borderline enhanced anxiety-like behavior in vGluT3 KO pups.
Cytokine secretion profiles of cloned T cells from human aortic atherosclerotic plaques

T cells take part in the chronic inflammatory reaction in atherosclerotic plaques, but their specific role in atherosclerosis has not yet been fully elucidated. Nevertheless, one may anticipate that activated T cells may secrete cytokines capable of modulating the morphology and hence the stability of plaques by regulating cell proliferation, lipid metabolism, and extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis and/or degradation. This study has been designed to investigate the functional properties of T cells in atherosclerotic lesions. For this purpose, T‐cell clones were generated from atherosclerotic plaques isolated from human aortas obtained at autopsy from six subjects. Cloned cells were activated with PMA and OKT‐3 to initiate cytokine production and cytokine profiles of CD4‐positive clones were measured by ELISA. The majority of the T‐cell clones (125/155, 81 per cent) produced both interferon (IFN)‐γ and interleukin (IL)‐4 (type 0 cytokine profile). Moreover, the production of IFN‐γ was dominant in the majority of these clones. A type 1 cytokine profile (high levels of IFN‐γ and low levels of IL‐4) was found in 17 per cent of the clones (27/155). Only three clones (2 per cent) showed a type 2 cytokine secretion pattern (high levels of IL‐4 and low levels of IFN‐γ). No cytolytic activity could be established in plaque‐derived T cells. Our results show that the T‐cell population in atherosclerotic lesions is heterogeneous, but the most dominant T cell by far is the one with a type 0 cytokine profile. The dominant secretion of IFN‐γ by T‐cell clones suggest an important role for plaque T cells in modulating the growth and differentiation of other cells, such as macrophages and smooth muscle cells in atherosclerotic plaques. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Perceptions of How Teacher Evaluations and Feedback Impact Teacher Professional Growth in a Large Suburban School District in Virginia

Teacher evaluation systems were developed and implemented to increase accountability but also to increase teacher effectiveness. A review of the research and findings of previous teacher evaluation studies demonstrated the need to further examine the feedback in evaluation systems and their role in teacher professional growth. The purpose of the study was to identify the perceptions of teachers and administrators regarding the feedback teachers receive from the teacher evaluation process, how they perceive the impact of feedback on teacher growth, and what professional development has been offered because of the feedback. This descriptive study used qualitative data and quantitative data derived from a modified version of the Teacher Evaluation Profile (TEP) survey. The findings from this study indicated that teachers perceive the quality of feedback they received to be lower than administrators perceived the quality of the feedback they gave, specifically in regards to the frequency of the feedback and quality of the information contained in the feedback. In addition, there was a significant difference in the perceptions of the quality of feedback between elementary teachers and administrators and secondary teachers and administrators. Though teachers and administrators both perceived the working relationships as positive, few teachers reported making adjustments to their teaching practices in response to the feedback received. Teachers did not perceive teacher professional growth from adjustments made in their teaching practice in response to the feedback. Teachers also noted few opportunities for professional development suggested in feedback. As suggested by the findings, professional development needs to be specific in regards to providing effective feedback. Finally, teachers, with the help of administrators, need to focus on creating goals and growth plans with specific professional opportunities to help teachers grow professionally and positively impact student outcomes.
A Distance Metric Learning Based Health Indicator for Health Prognostics of Bearings

The accuracy of bearing health prognostics highly depends on the constructed health indicator. This paper presents a health indicator construction method based on distance metric learning (DML). First, multiple features are extracted from the raw monitoring vibration signals, including a designed feature named as average energy of fault frequency band (AEFFB). Then, the optimal features are selected from the extracted features according to monotonicity and correlation metrics, where the correlation metric is calculated by the determination coefficient in random forest regression. Finally, a distance metric is learned utilizing DML, which is then used to construct a health indicator with the help of self-organizing map. The effectiveness of the proposed health indicator is validated by accelerated degradation data of bearings.
Effect of Chronic Quinapril Administration on Heart Rate Variability in Patients With Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy

OBJECTIVE Heart rate variability (HRV) time and frequency domain indexes are strong predictors of malignant arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Patients with diabetic autonomic neuropathy (DAN) have an increased cardiovascular mortality rate compared with diabetic patients without DAN. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The present double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled study analyzed the effect of quinapril, an ACE inhibitor, on HRV time and frequency domain variables in patients with DAN. Forty patients (17 men and 23 women) of a mean age of 51 (range 19–68) years, free of coronary artery disease and arterial hypertension, were randomized into a quinapril or placebo group. HRV was recorded at months 0, 3, and 6. The parameters measured were 1) time domain indexes: SD of all 24-h R-R intervals (intervals between consecutive electrocardiogram R waves), or SDNN/24-h; mean of SD of R-R intervals of all 5-min segements (SDNN/5-min); root-mean-square of the differences of successive R-R intervals (RMSSD); and percentage of the R-R intervals differing more than 50 ms (pNN50); and 2) frequency domain indexes: total power (TP), high-frequency power (HFP), low-frequency power (LFP), and very-low-frequency power (VLFP). HRV level of the 40 patients were compared with one of 20 matched diabetic patients, of analogous glycemic control without DAN, and 20 healthy control subjects. RESULTS Quinapril, compared with placebo, increased total HRV: SDNN/24-h (P < 0.05), TP (P < 0.05), and HRV parameters related to parasympathetic activity: pNN50 (P < 0.01). RMSSD (P < 0.05), and HFP in absolute and normalized units (P < 0.01). LFP/HFP ratio was decreased (P < 0.01). Despite the beneficial effect of quinapril on parasympathetic variables of HRV these remained < those of diabetic patients without DAN and healthy control subjects. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that quinapril significantly increases parasympathetic activity in patients with DAN 3 months after treatment initiation and sustains this effect until the 6th month. This might contribute to the reduction of the risk for malignant ventricular arrhythmias in these patients.
Correlative fluorescence and electron microscopy in tissues: immunocytochemistry

Correlative microscopy is a collection of procedures that rely upon two or more imaging modalities to examine the same specimen. The imaging modalities employed should each provide unique information and the combined correlative data should be more information rich than that obtained by any of the imaging methods alone. Currently the most common form of correlative microscopy combines fluorescence and electron microscopy. While much of the correlative microscopy in the literature is derived from studies of model cell culture systems we have focused, primarily, on correlative microscopy in tissue samples. The use of tissue, particularly human tissue, may add constraints not encountered in cell culture systems. Ultrathin cryosections, typically used for immunoelectron microscopy, have served as the substrate for correlative fluorescence and electron microscopic immunolocalization in our studies. In this work, we have employed the bifunctional reporter FluoroNanogold. This labeling reagent contains both a fluorochrome and a gold‐cluster compound and can be imaged by sequential fluorescence and electron microscopy. This approach permits the examination of exactly the same sub‐cellular structures in both fluorescence and electron microscopy with a high level of spatial resolution.
Framework for the classification of service standardisation

ABSTRACT Literature on services refers to standardised services without describing what a standardised service is. This becomes problematic when attempting to apply a practice suited to standardised services to services that may not be standardised. A framework is developed to assess if a service is standardised or not. The methodology used is to use literature and apply examples to each dimension of the framework to give guidelines in assessing the level of standardisation of the individual dimensions and thus the overall service. The outcome is a qualitative framework with guidelines related to each dimension in improving the assessment of a service’s level of standardisation. This framework is applied to a case study to illustrate the application of the dimensions. The dimensions used as the basis of the framework are shown to be relevant as dimensions that describe the level of service standardisation.
Spontaneous Splenorenal Shunt in Liver Transplantation: Results of Left Renal Vein Ligation Versus Renoportal Anastomosis

Background Management of portal inflow to the graft in patients with spontaneous splenorenal shunts (SRS) is a matter of concern especially in case of large varices (more than 1 cm). In case of portal vein (PV) thrombosis (PVT), renoportal anastomosis (RPA) directly diverts the splanchnic and renal venous blood assuring a good portal inflow to the graft. Disconnection of the portacaval shunt by left renal vein ligation (LRVL) is another option but requires a patent PV. The indication of primary RPA rather than LRVL in patients with small native PV, especially in case of large graft, should be questioned in these complex cases of liver transplantation. Methods From 1998 to 2012, 17 patients with RPA and 15 patients with LRVL were transplanted in our center. We compared these 2 techniques for short- and long-term results. Results The rate of preliver transplantation PVT (76% vs 27%) and graft weight (1538 ± 383 g vs 1293 ± 216 g) was significantly higher in the RPA group. Renoportal anastomosis was performed in 4 cases of small but patent PV. Three-month mortality, morbidity, and massive ascitis were similar. No patient was retransplanted. One year after transplantation, PV diameter was still larger in RPA group. Three-year survival was similar (RPA: 79% vs LRVL: 53%, P = 0.1). Conclusions In cirrhotic patients transplanted with large splenorenal shunts, RPA and LRVL reach similar survivals. In case of complete PVT and failure of thrombectomy, the RPA offers satisfactory long-term results.
Public debt sustainability and economic growth in Malaysia: Threshold and causality analysis

The 2008 financial crisis has led to an unprecedented increase in public debt across the world, raising serious concerns about its economic impact. This paper investigates the impact of public debt on long-run GDP growth in Malaysia from the year 1970 to 2013. We employ novel methods and diagnostics from the time-series literature, such as threshold regression approach suggested by Hansen (2000), causality test and cointegration test. The empirical results suggest an inverse relationship between debt and GDP growth, controlling for other determinants of growth. Further, our results suggest that there is strong evidence of causality from growth to public debt. In addition, threshold effect and nonlinearity between debt-growth is examined. We found a non-linear impact of public debt on GDP growth with a turning point? beyond which the public debt-to-GDP ratio has a deleterious impact on long-term growth? at about 50-60% of GDP.
Patterns of sedentary behaviour and physical activity in people following curative intent treatment for non-small cell lung cancer

This study aimed to compare patterns of sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity (PA) in people following curative intent treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with healthy controls. Participants 6–10 weeks following lobectomy for NSCLC and healthy controls wore two activity monitors for 7 days. Waking hours were divided into time spent in SB (<1.5 metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs)), light intensity PA (LIPA ≥ 1.5 to <3.0METs) and moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (≥3.0METs). Daily steps were also recorded. Data were available in 20 participants with NSCLC (13 females; 68 ± 10 years) and 20 healthy controls (13 females; 69 ± 5 years). The NSCLC group accumulated a greater percentage of time in SB in uninterrupted bouts ≥30 minutes (49% vs. 42%; p = 0.048). Further, the NSCLC group spent a lower percentage of waking hours in LIPA (21 ± 9% vs. 26 ± 8%; p = 0.04) and accumulated a lower percentage of time in this domain in uninterrupted bouts ≥10 minutes (13% vs. 19%; p = 0.025). The NSCLC group also had a lower daily step count (8863 ± 3737 vs. 11,856 ± 3024 steps/day; p = 0.009). Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA was similar in both groups (p = 0.92). People following curative intent treatment for NSCLC spend more time in prolonged bouts of SB at the expense of LIPA.
Intraoperative laryngeal nerve monitoring during thyroidectomy.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether nerve integrity monitor testing during thyroidectomy predicts recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) function after surgery. DESIGN Prospective cohort outcomes study PATIENTS The study included 210 consecutive patients with thyroid abnormalities who underwent thyroidectomy. METHODS All patients were intraoperatively monitored with a nerve integrity monitoring system (Xomed NIM II; Medtronic Inc, Fridley, Minnesota), and their vocal cord function was assessed with fiberoptic laryngoscopy before and after surgery. Normal and impaired vocal cord function were compared using an independent t test with respect to postoperative vocal cord mobility, length of the RLN dissection, and the minimum stimulus needed to generate a response at the completion of surgery. RESULTS There was a statistically significant difference between the stimulus in milliamperes required to stimulate normal vs abnormal functioning nerves at the completion of the procedure at the cricoarytenoid joint (P = .02) and at the distal end of the RLN dissection (P < .01). A greater length of dissected nerve was associated with normal vocal cord function; however, it was not statistically significant (P = .07). CONCLUSION These data suggest that an RLN that responds at lower-intensity stimulation (</=0.5 mA) at the end of thyroid surgery is associated with normal vocal cord mobility.
Risk Parity in the Brazilian Market

Using sectorial indices of the Brazilian market, we compare the portfolio optimization approach known as risk parity with minimum variance and equally weighted approaches. We apply various estimators for the covariance matrix to each portfolio strategy, since portfolio variance is considered as risk measure. Empirical results demonstrate that the risk parity approach provides more diversified portfolios and stable weights in the out-of-sample than the other two approaches, thereby avoiding the dangers of excessive concentration and reducing transaction costs. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that different estimators of the covariance matrix had little influence on the results obtained through the risk parity approac
Stigma of Depression Is More Severe in Chinese Americans than Caucasian Americans

Stigma of mental illness is a major obstacle to its diagnosis and treatment and may be worse among Asians than Caucasians. This study compared the stigma of depression in 50 Chinese Americans (CA) and 50 Caucasian Americans (WA). Subjects were asked to read 5 case vignettes in the following order: diabetes mellitus (DB), major depressive disorder (MDD), somatoform depression (SD), psychotic depression (PD), and fever of unknown origin (HA). Diagnosis of each case was not revealed. Subjects then rated their response to each case, on a Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” to 25 statements that contained 6 stigma factors: fear, shame, cognitive distortion, social consensus, discrimination, and sanction. Composite scores constructed from ratings of each factor were used to calculate the severity of stigma. Stigma of all 5 cases was worse in CA than WA. Both groups ranked DB and HA to be least and PD to be most stigmatizing. CA rated SD to be less stigmatizing than MDD but not WA. We concluded that stigma formation and severity were determined by fear, shame, cognitive distortion, social communication, consensus, and sanction. Mental symptoms, particularly psychotic symptoms, were more stigmatizing than physical symptoms, especially for CA. Belief that depression was like a physical illness did not diminish its stigma.